The Reader Oct. 13, 2013

TECHNICAL SERVICE MANAGER. Monitor performance of breeding herds and growing pigs at customer sites.

Develop and deliver training programs and technical materials.

Employer: PIC USA, Inc. Location: The duties of this position may be performed at various unanticipated locations within the Omaha region, nationally and internationally. Mail CV to Karla Floyd, 100 Bluegrass Commons Blvd., Ste. 2200, Hendersonville, TN 37075.

HY-VEE. Many open positions. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

MANUFACTURING COMPANY located in Missouri Valley, IA, is seeking to hire a Plant Manager. We are looking for someone with hands-on manufacturing supervision and management experience.

Candidates must meet the following requirements: - 4 year degree-Management, business or related field - 5 year front line supervision experience in manufacturing environment - 2 year department/plant leadership experience (production manager, superintendent, plant manager) - Knowledge and experience in continuous improvement methodologies (Lean, TPS, Six Sigma) - Assembly experience - Welding experience a plus - Proficient email and MS Office user Position is salary plus bonus with paid vacation and 401K. Send resume to manufacturing11@gmail.com.

VON MAUR. Full time Cosmetic Associate. Apply online at www. vonmaurcareers.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

MARIANNA INDUSTRIES. Production jobs 1st,2nd,3rd shifts. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

KINGHORN GARDENS. Gardener. Contact dan@ kinghorngardens.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

MUSICPAGE.COM. Artist Relations Representative. Contact dcodr@ musicpage.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for information.

USA PARKING SYSTEM. Valet Parking Attendants.

Contact jmeyer@usaparkingsystem.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

HELP WANTED!!

Make up to $1000 a week mailing brochures from home! Helping home workers since 2001! Genuine opportunity! No experience required. Start immediately! www.process-brochures.com (AAN CAN) SUN TAN CITY. Manager. Contact bill.mcarthur@suntancity.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

DOUGLAS COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Guest and Administrative Coordinator. Contact director@douglascohistory.com.

Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

SAVING GRACE FOOD RESCUE. Route Driver/Food Handler.

Contact work@savinggracefoodrescue.org. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

ANDERSON INDUSTRIAL ENGINES CO., INC. Service Technician. Contact Emily.andres@ai-engines. com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

ASAP EXPRESS. Customer Service Representative. Contact beckys@ shipitasap.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

NATIONAL SERVICE COOPERATIVE. Customer Service Coordinator. Contact sharis@nationalservicecoop.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

BENCH CRAFT COMPANY. Sales. Motivated People.

Contact gbarnhart@benchcraftcompany.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for more information.

AMERICAN FENCE COMPANY. Contact k.nicolini@americanfence.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for information.

SNELLING STAFFING SERVICES. Shipping Coordinator. Contact office@snelling-staffing.com. Go to OmahaJobs. com for more information.

NEBRASKA FAMILIES COLLABORATIVE. Family Permanency Specialist. Contact megan.foust@ nebraskafc.org. Go to OmahaJobs.com for information.

CONVERGYS. Sales & Service Rep. Apply at careers.convergys.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for info.

SNELLING STAFFING SERVICES. Many, many great positions.

Contact office@snellingstaffing.com. Go to OmahaJobs.com for information.

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| THE READER |

omaha jobs

for more information on these hiring companies:

OCTOBER 9 JOB FAIR PARTICIPANTS

ALEGENT CREIGHTON CLINIC. seeks Hospitalist for Omaha location. Fax resume to 402-715-4836 ATTN: Pam Hitchens, quote job #HSP205.

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Genuine Opportunity! No experience required. Start Immediately! www.mailingcountry.com (VOID IN SD) (MCN) HELP WANTED! Make extra money in our free ever popular homemailer program, includes valuable guidebook! Start immediately! Genuine! 1-888-2921120 www.easywork-fromhome.com (AAN CAN)

AIRLINE CAREERS begin here – Get trained as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Housing and Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 877492-3059 (AAN CAN) EARN $500 A DAY. Airbrush & Media Makeup Artists For: Ads - TV - Film – Fashion Train & Build Portfolio in 1 week. www.

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Are you attracting the right candidates from your recruitment advertising? will help ensure your recruitment advertising efforts attract the hard to reach candidates you seek.

HERE’S HOW . . .

ABM JANITORIAL SERVICES Posting jobs to niche sites like Omahajobs.com exposes them to AIM INSTITUTE ALLERGY RELIEFinstead CENTER highly qualified niche professionals of the unqualified masses.

AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE - MATT NECHODO l Upgrading your jobAMERICAN listings to TITLE ensureINC. they appear high on search AMERISTAR CASINOS results drives significantly more views, clicks and applies.

APPLIED UNDERWRITERS l Supplementing job postings with banner ads can help build your ARROW STAGELINES brand as a desirable employer BCBS and attract the best candidates.

BURGER KING CARMAX CUSTOM DIESEL DRIVERS TRAINING CORESLAB STRUCTURES CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY - EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY CENTER DATA SUPPORT SYSTEMS DEX ONE FEDEX FIRST DATA GALLUP GOODWILL INDUSTRIES HAYNEEDLE HY-VEE INC. INTEGRATED LIFE CHOICES ITT TECHNICAL INSTITUTE JACKSON HEWITT JIMMY JOHNS MARY KAY INC. LORI M. LANGAN METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE NAPA AUTO PARTS NEBRASKA WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT CENTER NEI GLOBAL RELOCATION NELNET OLD MILL TOYOTA OMAHA STEAKS OPPD PHYSICIANS MUTUAL PRESTIGE CRUISE HOLDINGS PRUDENTIAL SHEPPARD’S BUSINESS INTERIORS STRATEGICHEALTHSOLUTIONS LLC SUN TAN CITY TIP TOP TUX VATTEROTT COLLEGE VERIZON WIRELESS VISION WORKS VONMAUR WAL-MART WEST CORPORATION WRIGHT CAREER COLLEGE l

YOU WANT MORE THAN A JOB. WE OFFER A PURPOSE.

NOW HIRING IN BLAIR, NEBRASKA

Procurement Buyer

We’re looking for qualified men and women interested in joining the Cargill Corn Milling team as a Procurement Buyer. You will follow established procedures in order to select suppliers for procurement of non-contracted materials/goods, and services and/or supplies; process documents to ensure accuracy of data relating to purchases; update records related to items purchased/costs/ delivery/quality/inventory; track shipments, verify receipt of items, manage supplier-on-timedelivery, and analyze data; as well as troubleshoot issues and train others.

Requirements: Bachelor’s Degree in Business or Accounting and/or 5+ years of Procurement Experience. We would also expect excellent written and verbal communication skills, as well as strong negotiation, organization, communication and presentation skills. Expected proficiency in Windows, Excel, and Word. Comprehensive knowledge of advanced principles, concepts and practices in inventory management, procurement, and computer based inventory systems as well as manufacturing operations.

Learn more and apply: For full details and requirements, view Job #185059 at Neworks.Nebraska.gov.

To apply, send a cover letter and resume to Traci Hipnar via email (Traci_Hipnar@Cargill.com) or fax (402-533-4383) by no later than Thursday, October 24, 2013.

Cargill is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer.

Special 10th anniverSary edition

Cumbre News Friday, Nov. 8 – Saturday, Nov. 9, 2013

unomaha.edu/ cumbre

FREE

OLLAS: 10 YEARS AND COUNTING Cumbre (summit) celebrates decade of research, academic innovation and community partnerships pioneered by UNO’s Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS) OLLAS We’re making plans now to mark a special occasion for the University of Nebraska

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at Omaha (UNO). It is the 10th year anniversary of the creation of the Office of Latino/Latin American Studies at UNO. We are celebrating with a special edition of our nationally and internationally recognized Cumbres (summits), focusing on YEARS issues that are of crucial importance to Latinos, migrants and the region. The 5th Cumbre of the Great Plains will include nationally-renowned keynoters, expert-communitystudent panels and a sampling of Latino/Latin American music.

Among the topics for discussion are: ➤ ➤ ➤ ➤

The state of Latinos and the City Latin America transformed and why it matters to us all Latino political engagement and migration in the next decade The old and new Latino second generations: lessons to be learned and unlearned

SAVE THE DATE! Partially sponsored by: College of Arts & Sciences Senior Vice Chancellor Community Partners

Friday, November 8, 2013: Opening reception Saturday, November 9, 2013: Panels, keynotes and music University of Nebraska at Omaha | 6001 Dodge Street, Omaha

The University of Nebraska at Omaha is an equal opportunity educator and employer with a comprehensive plan for diversity.

omaha jobs

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OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

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heartlandhealing N E W A G E H E A LT H A N D W E L L N E S S B Y M I C H A E L B R AU N S T E I N

For the Atheist in All of Us

F

ervent or faithless, there is a large or small part of our mind that wants to be sure. “Convince me,” it says. Well, here you are. Just briefly suspend your disbelief and get your science on.

Today’s Course in Miracles lesson reads, “Remember that I am One with God.” Oh, gosh. It sounds so comforting and it’s easy to imagine that aside from the body, on the plane of never-notice, we might truly be One with God. But normally that notion considers it’s either metaphor or mystical. We are not really actually One with God, are we? I mean, look, here’s my body and where’s God? And if we — each of us — is really One with God, then we must be One with each other, yes? And if we are that, then a plethora of platitudes come into play: “Love one another.” “Do unto others…”

There is neither loss nor fear if we realize that we are One, that there is no separation, no separateness. Well, science can tell you about that if you let it.

Let science lead you to spirit. Let fact lead to faith. So, let’s get down to it. First fact: As Yoda said, you’re not solid matter, at all. We humans, including our bodies, are entirely made of energy. Indisputable. Science: We are made of atoms. Atoms are made of energy, not matter. Bodies appear to the physical eye to be “solid” but we’re not. Stop, think: every atom has a nucleus with electrons flying around it. Set to scale, tiny electrons orbit the nucleus at a vast distance. One comparison is that if a nucleus were the size of a grapefruit and an electron the size of a grape, the grape would be orbiting over 300 yards away. That’s a lot of space in between. Then what is in that space? What keeps the grape from crashing into the grapefruit or conversely, running off on its own? Energy! We can already demonstrate that everything we know of an atom is energy. The nucleus itself isn’t solid. It is home to other energy spheres. Over the decades we’ve been breaking down these subatomic particles one by one: gluons, leptons, quarks, mesons, bosons and on-and-ons. Where is the solid matter?

Right. Energy, energy, energy.

Measured energy. So, done. Our human bodies are made of energy. In fact, all things in the universe are made of energy, not matter. Eventually our science will break it all down and we’ll no longer have a narrow window to believe otherwise. Now comes the fun part about being One.

We’ve been measuring energy since the first caveman stuck out his hand and felt warmth from a flame — or the sun. Our ears measure continuously variable air pressure gradients and convert that energy into sound. Slowly, our ability to measure and identify frequencies and characteristics of energy improved over the millennia. Scientific instruments took the upper hand. Still, two hundred years ago we couldn’t measure electricity. A hundred years ago we had no idea what X-rays were. Cosmic rays? Gamma radiation? Microwaves, the heartbeat of our smartphones? All are powerful forms of energy we had no idea existed until we advanced enough to quantize them. Then there are thought waves. We have just begun to measure them accurately, but they exist.

Lesson: just because we haven’t measured something yet doesn’t mean it isn’t in existence. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

What vacuum? Another fact is that space isn’t empty. If it were, we couldn’t see in space. We rely on light energy to see. Every nook and cranny of existence flows with energy. It is everywhere and in everything. Starting to get the picture? Like the God of religion, energy is everywhere, in all things. Religion. Science. What’s in a Name? Call it “God” or call it the “Unified Field” — we made up either term. Pick one.

One more leap and a revelation. This energy we call humans has consciousness, right?

Well, it isn’t a leap to consider that maybe that Unified Field energy has consciousness, a God consciousness.

Only we see separation. God (the Universe) doesn’t see separation. The Universe is One to Itself.

Anything other than Oneness is outside God’s nature. But being free thinkers, we have a thought: We are separate. And that belief is the energy that causes the appearance of separation. Science: As kids, we all played with magnets. Turn the horseshoes one way and the magnets connect, become one. The energy field causes oneness. Turn again, reverse the energy and they are impossible to bring together. We humans have created a thought (energy wave) that is the reverse of the Universe. We think things apart rather than together. We see separation because of our belief in it. To be One with God or the Universe and hence with all things takes but reversing the polarity of our belief from separateness to Oneness. “I am One with God” is not an esoteric exercise in abstraction. It’s science.

Be well. ,

HEARTLAND HEALING is a New Age polemic describing alternatives to conventional methods of healing the body, mind and planet. It is provided as information and entertainment, certainly not medical advice. It is not an endorsement of any particular therapy, either by the writer or The Reader. Visit HeartlandHealing.com for more information.

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heartland healing

topnews

Finding Balance

Economist doesn’t want

it was misguided. Liberals argued that this was a problem that developed in the late 80s and 90s with deregulation. you bullied He also touched on why Obamacare has become such an intensely debated issue. Galbraith

BY TRESSA ECKERMANN believes insurance companies support of Obamhen it comes to the economy today, Dr. acare, but the problem doesn’t have anything to James K. Galbraith acts as a sort of im- do with them or the uninsured, but those who are partial judge on issues that often divide already insured and their fear. They may be afraid citizens. Galbraith, an economist, spoke as part that young people who are able to afford their of the annual Holland Lecture Series on Oct. 9. own health care without the employer may not For almost two hours Dr. Galbraith was clever, af- have any loyalty to their company.

Throughout his lecture Galbraith was very fable, and deeply knowledgeable about the issues facing our economy today. At times he was down- good at relating to the audience and making issues understandable. By the end of the lecture he had right diplomatic. warned the audience that the best thing A lecturer for the past 25 years we could do was be responsible and and currently teaching at the LBJ “defend the things that are imSchool of Public Affairs in the portant to you at all cost.”

Department of Government Considering the many at the University of Texasdifficulties are country is Austin, Galbraith spoke with facing, Galbraith sees these ease and often brutal honlectures as important beesty about the last 5 years, cause they help people find beginning with the financial the truth and the keys to a meltdown in 2009. “There successful society. was an element of paternity DR. JAMES K. GALBRAITH “My view is that a successful involved,” he said when discusssociety has a decent barrier against ing what led him to the field of ecodestitution and real hardship and povnomics. “I grew up in a family where erty,” he said. “It’s easy to provide people with these issues were naturally the most interesting the means to have food, clothing, and shelter, and important things going on in the world.”

After college and through graduate school good public education and retirement. We know he found work on Capitol Hill where he did two how to do this. We should not allow demagogues things, worked with banking matters in the mid- to say we can’t afford this. What they are basically 70s into the early 80s and for four years after that saying is that they don’t want the larger populahe was the staff director of the Joint Economic tion to have these things. They want to maintain a Committee. After that he moved to Texas and has comfortable existence for themselves. I’m in favor been “reflecting, writing and occasionally doing of an inclusive and stable society.”

With each lecture Dr. Galbraith hopes to research.”

After an introduction by Dick Holland, there teach people what’s really important to hold onto was much focus given to the timeliness of this during an economic crises. “The most important particular lecture. Galbraith initially spoke at the thing is that people not be bullied, not allow Holland Lecture Series in 2009 as Lehman Broth- themselves to be bullied, into giving up or cutting ers, Fanny Mae and others collapsed and the hotly back on the most important common insurance debated Temporary Asset Relief Program began. stabilizing program that the American middle He asked the important question, why has our class has left,” he said. “A lot of things have been economy not progressed in the last five years? For hurt in this crisis. They lost a lot of value in their one thing Dr. Galbraith points out that the crisis homes. They lost a lot of savings, they have gotten was seen as a onetime thing, “a shock.” He says deeply in debt.” He points out that programs like that many in power took the approach of “stuff Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and deposit inhappens,” and that “things go up so they must surance have held our society together.

“All of these things are potentially in danger. come down.”

Throughout his lecture Galbraith was critical Some of them are directly in danger by the budof both conservatives and liberals. At the onset of get crisis and they may be in danger by the comthe collapse, Galbraith pointed out that the con- promises done to get out of this crisis. And they servatives felt there was too much government in- shouldn’t be. People shouldn’t accept that. That’s tervention and that while it was well intentioned, the message I would like people to take away.” ,

W

VISIONS FROM FIVE MINUTES INTO THE FUTURE •October January 17, 19, 2012 2013• Thanks to the andwill shows In the next fiveInternet years, we see alike "Who Do increase You ThinkinYou Are," there will dramatic a particular type be a newcrime: fad in High genealogical research, of street tech criminals will called "Storyfinding." ofdevices simply use remote peripheralInstead hacking trying to track down the names and to instantaneously capture all the data important dates in a family tree, from whatever portable device their hobbyists will also try to find stories victimsthese happen to be carrying, such as about long-dead family members,

scouring onlineand newspapers and just smartphones tablet devices, requesting of oldAs diaries, by walkingscans past them. thesephotos, and letters, allcontains of whichinfo will such have as been devices now digitized and made searchable.

People bank accounts, home addresses, and will spend years finding narratives from schedules, and will soon be able to their family's history, or from their city's remotely open doors and garages, this history, or even from the lives of is a very troubling development. strangers that interest them.

Oct. 19 / 10 a.m. / $35 Beginning Ukulele with Mark Gutierrez

Oct. 26 / 10 a.m. / $35 Origami with Ying Zhu

Nov. 2 / 10 a.m. / $35 Watercolor with Madalyn Bruning

For Information and Registration OmahaCreativeInstitute.org Rebecca@OmahaCreativeInstitute.org 785-218-3061

news

| THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

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I

n 1920, Prohibition turned American farmers into outlaws, and numerous farms throughout the nation began distilling, storing and selling alcohol for the bootlegging industry.

Templeton, Iowa, was one of those places, where a number of talented people began selling a popular whiskey known as Templeton Rye. Prized for its smooth finish, it quickly became Al Capone’s favorite whiskey, and the product became popular in hundreds of underground speakeasies throughout the Midwest.

After 85 years, the staunch laws of Prohibition are long gone, but the popularity of Templeton Rye is not. After years, and many illegal bottles, the first legal batch was produced in 2006. Currently, 4800 bottles are produced a day, equal to 800 cases, each hand-labeled by volunteers. “This town only has a population of 350 people, so when we first opened, we put an ad for volunteers in the church bulletin,” said Cheryl Kerkhoff, daughter-in-law of the original recipe holder and master distiller, Meryl Kerkhoff. “Now we have volunteers of all ages, our oldest is 82. He says being active and on his feet with us keeps him young.”

Templeton, Iowa is located on a stretch of open countryside two hours from Omaha. Peaceful and bucolic, it is difficult to picture the high adrenaline presence of bootlegging that permeated every corner. “The drop off site for whiskey money was in the Sacred Heart graveyard outside of town,” said Andrew Tomes, Iowa Brand Ambassador. The headstone of Reverend Bernard Al Shulte, who passed in 1913, provided a place for money exchange, with a loose cover that popped off to reveal a hiding place below. A grave of a Reverend was a perfect spot.

“The police never suspected that a Reverend’s grave would be a pickup site,” said Tomes.

Meryl Kerkhoff learned from his father Alphonse how to both distill the rye and keep quiet.

“Alphonse was really involved in the success of Templeton Rye during Prohibition,” said Cheryl.

Earning his outlaw stripes, he was arrested three times for distilling and selling.

In 2001, Scott Bush was eager to re-establish Templeton as a legal business, and asked a lot of questions before being directed to the Kerkhoff ’s, who held the original recipe. “Meryl didn’t make it easy,” said Cheryl. “In fact, when Scott first called, Meryl hung up on him.” Luckily, Scott remained persistent. After much debate, and the recipe scrawled on a piece of paper, Meryl appointed his son Kevin to represent him. Today co-founders Kevin and Scott have kept the recipe as close to authentic as possible, and have even begun growing their own Templeton rye crop to use in future batches.

The distillery welcomes guests with a massive display of whiskey barrels in the driveway, and complimentary beers were available to prepare our pallets for The Good Stuff. Inside, the Tasting Room is an inviting space with awards, information and countless newspaper articles on the success of the whiskey. The back bar, which still stands, was built in six years after the town of Templeton was founded, in 1888.

After a Manhattan (or two) we began our tour in the bottling room, one of the liveliest places in the distillery. New bottles go through three stages in this room: an air rinser, a filler and a machine that places labels on the front and back. The most fasci-

nating part of the process is at the end of the line, where one volunteer corks each bottle by hand. After securing the top, the bottles are passed through more volunteers who place each of the remaining five labels by hand.

After the bottling room we visited barrel storage, where new batches of Templeton Rye were maturing in their snug homes. It’s a long process. The rye sits for four years, absorbing the char and oxygen in the 53 gallon barrels. “Each year, about 2% of the whiskey evaporates from the barrel,” said Cheryl.

“It’s called the angel’s share.” A small price to pay for the final product.

A lot goes into making a bottle of Templeton Rye. Each batch spends time in the reverse osmosis machine, as well as in the lab to ensure each drop is of top quality. The original four spout bottle filler is still in the lab that was used when the brand first began production in 2006. “In a year’s time, we estimate over 30,000 bottles of Templeton Rye were filled with this machine,” said Cheryl.

As a last stop, we entered a room where the original still for the Prohibition era Templeton was used, along with a number of other devices, bright with copper, stood in front of fuzzy photos on the walls of Al Capone, and barrels swollen with Templeton.

The history of not only the product, but of an entire community, was evident on every wall in the room. Back in the tasting room, we had a few more whiskey gingers, and enjoyed a taste of American history with The Good Stuff. ,

n Nebraska at the Market presents the first inaugural All Nebraska Brew, Vine and Arts Festival on Leavenworth Street between 12th and 13th streets from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sat., Oct. 19. With food, arts and live music playing throughout the day, a portion of the proceeds will benefit the Nebraska Humane Society. Participating breweries include Blue Blood, Schilling Bridge, Nebraska Brewing Co. and Storz Brewery. There will be over a dozen wineries from the area including Soaring Wings and James Arthur

Vineyards. Nebraska Humane Society will have their Paws van on hand between noon and 2 p.m. Tickets for the event are five for $15 for wine and five for $5 for beer. For more information on Nebraska at the Market, visit www.nebraskaatthemarket.com. nOn Sat., Oct. 26, Isa Chandra Moskowitz will be at the Bookworm, 8702 Pacific St. at 1 p.m. to join in a live chat and book signing for her new book ISA DOES IT: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week [Little, Brown and Company].

Moskowitz is the bestselling author and blogger who was raised in Brooklyn but now lives in Omaha. Her

website Post Punk Kitchen is a local favorite as well as a hit with millions outside of the Omaha area. She has also been repeatedly voted as the favorite cookbook author in the VegNews. Her new book features more than 150 new recipes with a mission to get home cooks into the kitchen cooking satisfying meat-free meals using the freshest ingredients. Don’t miss your chance to talk with Moskowitz and learn how Isa Does It. n This year’s Omaha Restaurant Association Hall of Fame dinner is being held Sunday., Oct. 20, at the Institute of Culinary Arts at the Metropolitan Community College Fort Campus. This year’s inductees are

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dish

Templeton Rye Distillery is located at 209 E. 3rd St., Templeton , Iowa, 51463. 712.669.8793. www. templetonrye.com Yano R. Caniglia, owner of Royal Boy and Mister C’s, Paul J. Dougherty founder of Dougherty Brokerage Co., Nicole M. Jesse, general manager and co-owner of LaCasa Pizzaria, Robert P. Mancuso, founder and President of Mid-America Expositions Inc., Anthony O. Messineo Jr., owner of Valentino’s Pizza and managing partner for the Amazing Pizza Machine and Chef Jeff Snow, executive chef and owner of Catering Creations. Congratulations to all inductees.

— Krista O’Malley Crumbs is about indulging in food and celebrating its many forms. Send information about area food and drink businesses to crumbs@thereader.com.

| THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

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O

n a sweltering Sunday afternoon in early July Omaha music guru Nils Anders Erickson takes me for a ride in his PT Cruiser to opine about his magnificent obsession with old things.

The singer-songwriter-musician owns Rainbow Music, a combined recording studio and music store at 2322 South 64th Ave. that features vintage sound equipment and instruments he’s passionate about.

He’s also into Golden Oldie songs, historic buildings, classic cars, and early roadways, especially the old Lincoln Highway. His Cruiser’s adorned with a chrome hood ornament from a 1951 Chevrolet he saved to repurpose in just this way.

The self-styled preservationist opposed CVS building a pharmacy at 49th and Dodge that took out old structures he deemed historic for lining the Lincoln Highway during its Jazz Age heyday.

The highway was not just a practical conveyance when there were few reliable roads but an expression of America’s new liberation, ambition, optimism and restlessness. He advocates saving whatever remnants stand from its active years (1913 to 1929), whether it’s grain elevators, feed mills, silos, barns, office buildings, churches, homes, signs.

He owns what may be the oldest surviving structure still in use on the highway, John Sutter’s Mill, a circa 1847 Mormon-built structure where Saddle Creek Road and Dodge Street meet at 46th. “I just knew it was kind of a magical building and I didn’t know why,” he says. “My building is the last of the Nelson B. Updike empire.” Updike was a feed, grain, lumber and coal magnet and publisher of the Omaha Bee. “Mormons used to refer to it in diaries as ‘the mill west of Omaha.’ It was painted bright orange a century ago to attract the attention of cross-country travelers.”

He says the site began as a water wheel grist mill before being turned into a planing mill and an outfitters store. He admires its construction. “When I realized that behind all the crappy two-by-fours and dry wall were 10-by-10 solid chunks of cedar 50 feet long I had a new found respect for the building.” He hopes it one day becomes a Lincoln Highway museum or antique shop or coffeehouse.

The two-story 4,000 square foot building most recently housed National Cash Register, whose machines he would gawk at as a kid. “When I was little I’d walk by it and be fascinated with the weird stuff in the windows – those mechanical things and different colored cash registers. So I was always drawn to the building.”

Erickson’s mounted an enormous billboard on site to commemorate his beloved highway’s legacy and Omaha being mid-point on the coast-to-coast route. The billboard replicates the L logo design and red, white and blue motif of the highway’s signage.

An arrow pointing east informs eastbound travelers they have 1.353 miles to go to New York City. An arrow pointing west alerts westbound travelers they are 1,786 miles from San Francisco. Generations ago a large Welcome sign with Lincoln Highway above it greeted travelers at 18th and Farnam.

He’s also erected a Lincoln Highway marker that replicates the official markers that once dotted the side of the road every mile along its entire 3,400 mile path.

He feels Omaha could do more to celebrate its highway heritage. “Before I put a sign up outside my

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NILS ANDERS ERICKSON

building there was no Lincoln Highway sign in the whole city designating its history.”

Metropolitan Community College’s Elkhorn campus has a photo display of the highway under construction. The Boys Town archives traces the highway’s connection to the home. There are highway displays at the Great Platte River Road Archway in Kearney. “They’ve done a wonderful job with the exhibits,” Erickson says of the attraction. The Lincoln Highway National Museum & Archives is in Ohio.

If Erickson had his way every building the highway ran by would sport a sign or plaque about it.

“There’s car nuts, there’s building nuts, there’s highway nuts, and I find it aggravating that I’m all three and no one else is,” says Erickson, who could have added music nut to the list.

Given his musical bent it’s not surprising he wrote a theme song for the Lincoln Highway Association’s recent centennial celebration in Kearney and took photos of landmarks along the Omaha route to accompany the music. His countryesque ditty set to images is on YouTube.

“I’m goin’ down the Lincoln Highway, I’m goin’ down the Lincoln Highway, Ga ga golly, I’m going down the Lincoln Highway.”

| THE READER |

cover story

“My song and video are trying to raise awareness of the Lincoln Highway all over the United States.”

He’s also created a website about the highway and his mill.

When it comes to motor vehicles and roads he prefers some age-worn history and character to them.

Memories attach themselves to places and things and the Lincoln Highway carried the hopes, dreams and experiences of people. Road trips are part of the American DNA. Beat writer Jack Kerouac captured this spirit in his existential On the Road: “In no time at all we were back on the main highway and that night I saw the entire state of Nebraska unroll before my eyes. A hundred and ten miles an hour straight through, an arrow road, sleeping towns, no traffic, and the Union Pacific streamliner falling behind us in the moonlight. I wasn’t frightened at all that night; it was perfectly legitimate to go 110 and talk and have all the Nebraska towns - Ogallala, Gothenburg, Kearney, Grand Island, Columbus - unreel with dreamlike rapidity as we roared ahead and talked.”

Built entirely by private interests to be the nation’s first coast-to-coast thoroughfare, the highway opened at a time when most roads, including many sections of the highway itself, were unpaved. As more

folks sought the freedom a motor vehicle promised it was obvious the country’s roads needed improving.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower cited the arduous cross-country convoy he took on the highway as a young military officer with motivating him to authorize the creation of the U.S. interstate system.

As the first of its kind the highway owns a romantic mystique among history buffs and nostalgia fans.

Much fanfare attended its October 31, 1913 dedication. Burgs across America celebrated with torchlight parades, bonfires, speeches, auto races, fireworks and cannon volleys. Some credit Omaha with the biggest celebration of all. A crowd estimated at more than 10,000 gathered outside city hall for a giant bonfire fueled by three train carloads of railroad ties from Union Pacific Railroad. Smaller bonfires lit up the sky in towns along the Platte River.

Long before the fabled Route 66 and decades before heavily traveled Interstate 80 was even imagined, Lincoln became known as America’s main street because it connected so many cities and towns all the way from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. The highway spurred much development along its route.

“I think it’s basically a national hidden treasure,” says Erickson. “You can actually drive the Lincoln Highway and there’s parts of it where the original brick surface is still intact and you can reexperience what your great-grandfather did. It’s America the way it used to be without the bad parts.

“My dad would be out selling grain elevators all over the country and he’d throw two or three of us in the back seat of the car and half the time we were on the Lincoln Highway in our family’s Pontiac. No air conditioning. When you finally got to a little cafe it was heaven. You’d eat at these special places on America’s hIghway.”

The pull of those times is still great 60 years later.

“I don’t know, it’s in my blood.”

His fixation has something to do with his first love, music. He likes that big bands on the Midwest circuit traversed the highway “in those torpedoshaped trailers” to get from gig to gig. Decades later he did the same, only in trucks, to run sound and lights for national acts. “So it ties back to Omaha and to my recording studio and my background in music.”

For our Lincoln Highway sampler we make a circuitous 18-mile trek from the Omaha riverfront’s Lewis & Clark Landing to Elkhorn, where a three-mile stretch of brick survives. With nearly each landmark we pass, Erickson offers historical tidbits and traces his fascination with the highway that long ago was rerouted and renamed US 30.

“In Omaha most of the Lincoln Highway is still there. It’s just under two or three layers of asphalt. We have a few things in Omaha that are one of a kind and the only ones left.”

The route starts on Douglas, snakes to Farnam around midtown, cuts over to Dodge, then jumps to Cass before resuming on West Dodge.

When it comes to highway landmarks, Erickson’s prefers old ones but appreciates new ones as well. “To me the Holland Center is a new landmark on the Lincoln Highway,” he says of the performing arts venue at 12th and Douglas. continued on page 10 y

Show your concert ticket stub for entry.

Return to the disco era with “Stayin’ Alive,”“How Deep is Your Love,”“Night Fever,” and more!

Saturday, October 26 8 pm Holland Center | THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

9

y continued from page 8 “One of the most famous (old) landmarks is the Brandeis Building,” he says of the flagship for the J.L. Brandeis & Sons department store empire that reigned at 16th and Douglas for most of the 20th century.

He considers St. Mary Magdalene Church at 19th and Dodge a distinctive site for having “a door to nowhere” after downtown was lowered by dozens of feet.

A beautiful ballroom is among the distinguishing features of the Scottish Rite Masonic Center at 20th and Douglas.

He admires the “beautifully restored” former Riviera and Paramount theater, later known as the Astro and now The Rose at 20th and Farnam.

He likes that the Fraternal Order of Eagles building at 24th and Douglas hosts swing nights. “It’s kind of fun being in a historic building with the jitterbug,” he says.

Two of Omaha’s most impressive edifices, Central High School and Joslyn Art Museum, are only a block north of the highway.

He feels one of the most significant highway buildings is the former Hupmobile dealership at 2523 Farnam. The Hupp Auto Company built the popular car before being squeezed by the industry’s major players. He says the vacant building’s original showroom floor is intact as is the freight elevator for moving cars from floor to floor.

“I hope someone that cares will do something with that building. It would make a great auto museum,” he suggests.

The dealership was part of Omaha’s original Auto Row. The All Makes Office Equipment and Barnhart Press buildings on the north side of Farnam are handsome structures housing multi-generation family businesses but what really makes Erickson excited is “a wonderful one-block stretch of brick north of them that enables you to actually experience what it felt like,” he says.

Kountze Memorial Lutheran Church at 2650 Farnam is one of Omaha’s oldest worship places.

He says hungry, weary highway travelers found eateries (Virginia Cafe, Tiner’s Drive-in) and hotels (the Fontenelle, the Blackstone) up and down its eastern Omaha route, Motorists would have gawked at Gold Coast mansions such as the Storz mansion at 3708 Farnam.

The Tudor-style building housing McFoster’s Natural Kind Cafe was once a White Rose gas station. Erickson recalls, “We’d be coming back from church and I’d always want Mom to get gas at that ‘castle’ across the street from the Storz mansion with gargoyles and trolls leaning out of the windows. These buildings were right out of children’s books I read. White Rose built odd buildings and this was one of their prettiest. I think it’s one of the few of its type left in the country.”

The Admiral Theater sat at 40th and Farnam until it was razed. Erickson says. “My slogan in Omaha is, ‘…and then the bastards tore it down.’” Jutting over to Dodge, he notes the Joslyn Castle is worth a stop a block north on Davenport. Continuing west on Dodge we arrive at his building. Since acquiring the former mill he’s used it as a staging space to assemble sound and lighting equipment for installs.

“That business has sort of fallen off, so I need to do something with the building now,” says Erickson.

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OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

As we reach 49th and Dodge he says, “Up until two years ago all four corners were intact from the Lincoln Highway. The Hilltop House duplicated a Bavarian restaurant. It was all pine inside. Reniers Piano was the Dundee Hotel and the Sunset Tearoom. The three buildings CVS tore down were all historic because they were on the Lincoln Highway. The 49er was a bakery.

The coffeehouse was a pharmacy. The third was one of the first self-service grocery stores in Omaha.”

He anoints historic status to the Dundee Theatre.

The same to the Saddle Creek underpass and the pedestrian tunnel at 51st and Dodge.

He says long ago “there was a camp grounds at Elmwood Park” where motorists could spend the night before resuming their journeys. The park also contained a lagoon with a structure for monkeys. “The city fathers didn’t know monkeys can swim, so Mon-

The 1938 movie Boys Town includes scenes shot on the highway, including Pee-Wee being hit by a car.

Finally, we reach the ribbon of bricks in Elkhorn, where Erickson says, “You actually get a feel for driving on the road. This vista right here could be any day, any time. This is kind of what I remember driving in our old Pontiac with Dad. We’d hit a stretch of brick and, vroom, he’d put on the gas more. I don’t know why. I suppose he liked it, too. The highway was a lot nicer then because it was flat and smooth. Today it’s used as an access road.

That’s part of the problem. The trucks are getting bigger and heavier and the road gets wavier.”

He says the brick remains because people knew well enough to leave it alone.

“I mean, the reason it’s still here is that nobody needed to make it all pretty and nice and concrete. If they had, that concrete would be destroyed by now.

key Island eventually became Monkeys in Dundee because after a week of getting free food they got bored and went all over Dundee.”

The renowned Omaha Community Playhouse is a block north of the highway’s route.

We go another mile west and he says, “So here we are on 78th and Dodge. We’re taking a hard right because that’s the way the Lincoln Highway went.

The New Tower Inn was at 78th. Before that it was the Tower Motor Court and before that it was a camp ground called Towers Tours Village.” We arrive on Cass Street and the site of what used to be Peony Park and the extensive peony fields of Carl Rosenfield. Both were right on the highway’s path.

Erickson’s found brochures and postcards illustrating how attractions on the highway, such as Peony Park and Boys Town, marketed themselves as waystops for travelers.

Following Cass west we merge onto West Dodge Road, where almost everything post-dates the highway. A major exception is Boys Town. Founder Father Edward Flanagan relocated his residence for homeless boys from downtown Omaha to the Overlook Farm right on the highway in 1921. Boys Town historians say Flanagan publicly touted the highway as a great avenue to see America and he invited motorists to follow it right up to Boys Town’s front door. Many did just that. Boys walked or hitchhiked their way on the highway to the home. So many made their way to Boys Town via the highway that in the ‘30s Flanagan had some of the youths build a covered travel stop, of which there were few and far between then, as a comfort station.

The bricks are still here. Bricks will last forever, Concrete lasts maybe 20 years.

“If it had been in Omaha we would have paved it a long time ago.”

The Douglas County Board passed a resolution to preserve the brick segment for future generations.

Milepost 1437 to 1438 was entered in the National Register of Historic Places. The historic mile was rededicated July 17, 1988. State historical markers offer background.

It’s all music to Erickson’s ears, whose eclectic music pedigree is the root of his love of history and nostalgia for bygone eras. He grew up listening to Johnny Mathis, James Brown, Motown. Then came the British Invasion bands. He was steeped too in traditional tunes from his family’s Swedish heritage. It’s why his repertoire today ranges from the Swedish folk song “Can You Whistle Johanna?” to the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” and pretty much everything in between.

“The best compliment I ever got was that my music is a cross between Frank Zappa and Bob Marley.”

His older siblings played in bands and he tagged along with them.

“They played at Mickey’s A-Go-Go and the Peppermint Cave and they dragged me around when I was like 6. I thought I was a roadie and they thought they were babysitting. So I was exposed to this wonderful monster music. I wrote my first song when I was about 4. I’ve written about 4,000 songs. Some of them are good and some of them are appreciated by people. ‘Shit Head, the Love Song’ was the most requested song the Fish Heads did, and it’s one of my mine.”

| THE READER |

cover story

Erickson’s fronted several bands. He says his Wee Willie and the Rockin Angels broke attendance records at Peony Park. Today he gigs with his own Paddy O Furniture jam band. He’s sat in with many other groups. He’s been a fixture on the Omaha music scene not only for his music but for his work as a sound and lighting engineer. He’s made custom speaker cabinets and sound systems for decades.

“We provided sound for Sprite Night at Peony Park all those years. Those were the original raves – 3,000 kids outdoors dancing to ‘dashboard light’ with a sound system you could hear pretty clear about two blocks away. It’s just cool to have that volume switch.

You need it a little louder?”

He’s worked with musical artists of every genre: from REM to Willie Nelson. “When we were doing sound jobs for national acts all over the country sometimes I’d scoot on an old highway for awhile.”

When North O thrived as a jazz, R&B, funk and soul hub he did sound and lights for enough African American bands here – L.A. Carnivale, Crackin’ – to get inducted into the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame.

311, Boyz to Men and Jordan Sparks have all recorded at his funky Rainbow Music. But it’s the audio gear he buys, sells, trades and records on that really gets him amped up.

“We have all the new digital gear but to make the digital sound good you have to bring in some old tube gear. We basically made all of our own equipment because they hadn’t invented it yet. The old stuff still sounds better. We’re like the dinosaur on the block.

Today you’d need about 24 of the hip new boxes to equal the sound pressure four old ones produce. At Rainbow you can record through some of the best gear they had back in the ‘50s and ‘60s to give it that fat, warm sound.

“We started acquiring all this tube analog tape gear and every piece we came up with was tied to famous recording studios and artists. We’ve got half the PA system used for the Grateful Dead, all the tube mixers Motown would have had. We have equipment from Sun Studio in Memphis, Sound City in L.A. and from other legendary studios.”

He’s no Elvis or Dylan, but he carries his catchy Lincoln Highway tune with great aplomb.

“Got my baby sittin’ by my side, ‘40s chop top, I got the ultimate ride, Since 1913...100 years ago today, Everybody’s driven ’cross the USA, I’m goin’ on the Lincoln Highway, I’m hopin’ to see you…somewhere along the way.”

He’s happy if his music video homage to the highway spurs wider interest in the history behind it. “It’s been buried for so long, it’s almost like we destroy or shy away from history.”

He loves discovering and sharing that history, saying, “Give me a little kernel of information and I’ll go dig up some more stuff. That’s half the fun.”

He also believes fate led him to the mill and its highway lineage. “Magical things like that happen to me all the time. People call it coincidences. I call ‘em little tiny miracles.” , Visit his website at lincolnhighwaynebraska.com. Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at leoadambiga.wordpress.com.

| THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

11

8 DAYS

TOPTV “Reign”

Thursdays, 8 p.m.

(ABC)

In 16th century France, the virginal Mary, Queen of Scots (Adelaide Kane), is swept up in palace intrigue. Her fiancé (Toby Regbo) cares less for her than he does for France, nattering on about the political advantage of their union. An evil queen (Megan Follows) plots against her, while her ladiesin-waiting indulge in Elizabethan-style naughtiness.

All the French characters worry about English plots, even though, puzzlingly, they all speak with English accents. The new drama “Reign” is basically “Gossip Girl” in doublets and puffy sleeves – a soap opera about beautiful young people and their transgressive behavior. But it has an advantage over Gossip Girl, in that transgressive behavior was much more dangerous in the 16th century than it is in our own permissive times. Here, if Mary loses her head over some cute guy, she’s in danger of literally losing it. Three cheers for a setting that has a few social rules left to break. The series is watchable, thanks to all the lovely images of castles and carriages. The loveliest image of all is Mary herself. Even a hardened TV critic can’t help melting at the sight of Adelaide Kane’s dewy eyes, raven tresses and ruby lips. If I were Mary’s fiancé, France would be the last thing on my mind.

— Dean Robbins

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OCT. 17 - 23 , 2013

T H E R E A D E R ’ S E N T E RTA I N M E N T P I C K S O C T. 17 - 2 3 , 2 01 3

FRIDAY18 Oct. 18

BUILT TO SPILL W/ LEE RANALDO AND THE DUST & SLAM DUNK The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St 9 p.m., $22, waitingroomlounge.com

Boise Idaho’s indie rockers Built to Spill are bringing their Northwest sound to Omaha. BTS is currently on tour in support for 2009’s There is no Enemy and will be joined by new band members Steve Gere (drums) and Jason Albertini (bass) who replace departing drummer Scott Plouf and bassist Brett Nelson earlier this year. If heavy, catchy guitar hooks are BTS’s call sign, then Neil Young and Dinosaur Jr. would have to be the band’s mothership. You can hear the influences in the way lead singer Doug Martsch croons like Young and strums the six string like J Mascis. Now that the band has been together for over 20 years, Martsch has no qualms in saying that their sound is better than ever.

– James Derrick Schott Oct. 18

BAZINGA! NIGHT

Council Bluffs Community Hall 205 S. Main St., Council Bluffs 712.328.4992, www.bluffsart.org Bazinga! Night – named for the popular “Big Bang Theory” main character’s frequent exclamation — is a trivia event offered to the public as a friendly competitive evening. Bluffs Arts Council Board Member Bob Collins is excited to host the first annual Bazinga! Night. “We are inviting folks to organize a team and come out to have some fun,” Collins said. “You really don’t have to be a rocket scientist.” There will be several rounds of questions — of all types of subjects — and teams will compete for prizes. First prize is a gourmet dinner for 16 people catered by Bob and Elaine Fenner. Collins said the goal of the evening is strictly for fun and is not intended to be highly competitive. The donation amount is $120 for a team or $15 per individual who will be assigned to a team. Go online at www.bluffsarts.org to register your team – maximum of 8 people – or call the office with a credit card. Beer, wine, soda and snacks are included.

– ES

| THE READER |

picks

BUILT TO SPILL

SATURDAY19 Oct. 19

OMAHA ZOMBIE WALK & OMAHA ZOMBIE BALL

The Waiting Room, 6212 Maple St Makeup from 1:00 pm to 5:30 pm Zombie Walk begins at 6:00 pm.

Zombie Ball - 7 p.m., $7, waitingroomlounge.com Halloween themed events seem to dominate most of the October calendar these days and among the biggest of those events falls Saturday, October 19th. That’s the Omaha Zombie Walk and its nighttime counterpart, the Omaha Zombie Ball at the Waiting Room Lounge. The $7 ball is the afterparty for the walk and will feature bands and a zombikini contest, with the proceeds being donated to the Siena/Francis House.

– Chris Aponick Oct. 19

calypso flavored musical fable, Once On This Island. Originally inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid, the score transports the story to a Caribbean island where social prejudice has divided the land and a young girl on the island uses the power of love to bring together people of different social classes. Says musical director Rachel Hendrickson. “The show just erupts with this rich calypsostyle music. I love being able to work with talented directors and actors who truly make the story come to life.” Cast member Kenzi Alati agrees. “I love seeing old friends and meeting new ones, while getting to sing and dance,” she said. Tickets to Once on this Island, Jr. are not available online but, can be purchased at the door.

– James Derrick Schott

MUSIC MIXED WITH MEANING: ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, JR.

Rose Theater, 2001 Farnam St. Saturday, October 19 at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, October 20 at 4:30 p.m $6, 402.345.4849, rosetheater.org The latest Teens ‘N’ Theater program at The Rose Theater tells the familiar story of forbidden love between people from two different worlds in the

ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, JR., SIERRA SOMER, CAROLINE TODD, RILEY PEREZ & JACK MULLEN

LEGACY The Emily Fisher Landau Collection NOW TH R O U G H J A NU A RY 5, 2014

This exhibition is organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Open Tuesday through Sunday • FREE Admission Exhibition Sponsors: Presenting Sponsor: Omaha Steaks; Major Sponsors: Douglas County, Annette and Paul Smith; Contributing Sponsor: Eve and Fred Simon,; Supporting Sponsors: Joan Gibson and Don Wurster, Lincoln Financial Foundation, Inc.; Additional support provided by KPMG, LLP; Nebraska Arts Council and Nebraska Cultural Endowment James Rosenquist (b. 1933), House of Fire II, 1982, oil on canvas, 78 x 198in., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; promised gift of Emily Fisher Landau P.2010.241a-c. Art, ©James Rosenquist / Licensed by VAGA, New York, photograph by Tim Nighswander/Imaging4Art

2200 Dodge St. | Omaha, NE | (402) 342-3300 | www.joslyn.org

Special guest, Film and TV Legend, Actor

Tickets On Sale Now.

DAVID MCCALLUM

Doctor “Ducky” Mallard from NCIS

Saturday, November 9th, 7:00 p.m., Joslyn Art Museum Witherspoon Hall - on the stage-wide screen!

2200 Dodge St., Omaha, NE 68102 Tickets $22.00 on sale NOW at Omaha Hy-Vee grocery stores Doors Open at 6 p.m Limited tickets also available at the door A Benefit for the Nebraska Kidney Association For more information 402-932-7200

6915 CASS STREET | (402) 553-0800 | WWW.OMAHAPLAYHOUSE.ORG sponsors:

media sponsor:

| THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

13

n There are times that I forget the fact that we live in one of the most conservative states in the Union.

A state that has elected several Tea Party enthusiasts to public office, a State Supreme Court making national news for all the wrong reasons, and a Congressman too busy putting his foot in his mouth to get anything else done. There are times I forget that we live in this place. Seeing The Book of Mormon at the Orpheum this past weekend was one of those times. This show is one of the most vulgar, over the top, hilarious, and even uplifting shows I have ever seen with music and singing that will stick in your head long after you leave the theater. But the most memorable part of last Sunday’s performance was the sold out crowd of everyday, middle class, midwestern people standing on their feet at the end of the show, giving one of the loudest ovations I’ve ever heard. I’ve never seen a group of people more offended and loving every minute of it. n If you were foolishly waiting to buy tickets to the Omaha Community Playhouse’s stellar production of Les Miserables then you are out of luck. The Playhouse announced that it has sold out the remainder of the production’s run. You’re best bet is to get to the theater early and put your name on the standby list. n For those looking for some Halloween spooks, look no further than Shelterskelter XVIII, the annual production from the Shelterbelt Theatre featuring seven short plays from local playwrights. This year’s list of writers features voices both familiar and new. Theater-goers are no doubt accustomed to the works of Max Sparber (Minstrel Show), Ben Beck (Crash! Boom! Pow!) and Timothy Siragusa (10 Seconds into the Future) as well as Julia Hinson (Lone Tree Theatre Project) but you should be equally intrigued by the works of Jeremy Johnson, Rhea Dowhower and Adam Sempek. For ticket information, visit www.shelterbelt.org n Iowa Western premieres a new script by Moira Mangiameli this week entitled Shakespeare: The Game Show. The audience should be prepared to participate in a show Maniameli said should take you from Romeo & Juliet to Richard III while also taking you from “The Dating Game” to “Fear Factor.” For ticket information, call (712) 388-7140.

—Bill Grennan Cold Cream looks at theater in the metro area. Email information to mixedmedia@thereader.com

W

riter predilections take precedence at the October 18-19 (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest, an annual orgy of the written word organized by acclaimed resident author Timothy Schaffert (The Coffins of Little Hope).

Nine years running Schaffert’s partnered with the Omaha Public Library for the free event that calls the W. Dale Clark Library, 215 So. 15th St., home. As usual, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln assistant professor and Nebraska Writers Summer Conference director has gathered an eclectic roster of authors for quirky panel discussions.

This year’s theme is Literary Obsessions and Cult Followings. Helping him explore these musings are authors from near and far and on different publishing paths. Ohio author Alissa Nutting’s novel Tampa and its frank distillation of a sex deviant was published by Ecco/Harper Collins. Omaha author Thom Sibbitt self-published his Beat-inspired pseudo-memoir The Turnpike. Nebraska author Mary K. Stillwell’s dual biography-critical study of poet Ted Kooser was published by the University of Nebraska Press.

“I like inviting writers that I think are doing work that has a lot of edge and maybe not getting all the attention the other writers are getting and yet are worthy of that attention,” says Schaffert, who like any good host mixes and matches authors to enliven the conversation.

The intimate, idiosyncratic fest offers opportunities to talk-up authors, some of whom will be at Friday’s 6:30 to 9:30 opening night party and exhibition, Carnival of Souls. Creatives from the Nebraska chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, will display their takes on classic movie posters from cult cinema. Beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday a series of panels unfolds, including one billed Cinematic that considers movies as subject, inspiration and influence and another, Trigger Warnings, that promises a provocative spin on sex lit.

A 5:30 signing by Lit Fest authors concludes the festival.

As an academic and a former newspaper editor Schaffert tracks currents and poses questions. That’s how he arrived at the panel Obsessed and its topic of authors doggedly pursuing biographical subjects. Panelist Mary K. Stillwell’s book The Life and Poetry of Ted Kooser grew out of a dissertation she began years before. She says she discovered Kooser’s work when a poetry instructor “started bringing me in work by all the Nebraska poets and he kept saying, ‘You come from this fertile land of poetry, look what your people do.’ It really turned me on. Here were people from my own neighborhood talking about things I knew, so it was really a gift to me. We have this long history that goes all the way back to the Pawnee. It got me to thinking of the (Ogallala) Aquifer – there must be something poetic in that water.”

Her fascination resulted in the anthology Being(s) in Place(s): Poetry in and of Nebraska. She cultivated an association with Kooser, the 20042005 U.S. Poet Laureate. Then she decided to make him the subject of a book. Researching it meant visiting his childhood home of Ames, Iowa, interviewing his friends there and elsewhere, corresponding with Kooser and immersing herself in his poems “Going back to his poems you can see the depth of his literary knowledge, you can see the influence of (John) Keats or Thomas Transformer or even (Robert) Frost. Some of his images just seem to be in brotherhood with Frost. So each time you go back you get another layer. It’s sort of an archaeological expedition when you study a Kooser poem over time.”

Research comes in many forms. New York state-based author Owen King informed his new novel Double Feature about a famous B-movie director by watching unholy hours of old flicks.

“Taking a survey of the B-movies of the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s was essential to the book,” says King, the son of authors Stephen and Tabitha King and the husband of fellow Lit Fest guest author Kelly Braffet. “I had seen quite a few before I started but I gained a newfound respect for them in the process of watching and rewatching so many in a relatively short period. There’s an earnestness at work in most of the films that I didn’t fully grasp beforehand. Which is why, although I have some fun with B-movies in Double Feature, I also hope aficionados feel like I did them justice.”

Portland, Oregon author Monica Drake partially drew on her own experiences as a clown for her novel Clown Girl. Her observations working at a zoo and her adventures in parenting helped inspire her novel The Stud Book.

Timothy Schaffert became a virtual 19th century explorer researching his new novel The Swan Gondola set at the 1898 TransMississippi Exposition in Omaha. He enjoyed the immersion in all things Victorian for his novel due out in February. “it was completely pleasurable. It was valuable to learn about the history of the world’s fair and also the general development of the city of Omaha. When I embarked on that research I knew nothing about how people lived day by day in the 1890s and so reading newspapers and books published at the time I did feel myself drawing closer and closer to that age,” “It got to the point,” he says, “I would get up in the morning and read from the Library of Congress website that day’s news of 1898.

You get sort of hypnotized by it so that you’re even imagining yourself living in that period, driving some place in a horse and buggy.

“The 1890s were kind of a terrible time for anyone who wasn’t a wealthy white man. Despite all the racism and ugliness I began to feel more comfortable there than in the 21st century.”

Schaffert’s among a handful of Lit Fest authors with novels at some stage of development for the screen. Local crime and suspense fiction writer Sean Doolittle has The Cleanup in development with director Alex Turner (Dead Birds). Unlike Schaffert and author Monica Drake, whose Clown Girl was optioned by Kristin Wiig, Doolittle’s taken an active hand in the process.

In an era of shrinking attention spans and publications that values technology over literature, Lit Fest celebrates the enduring power of the written word.

Omaha Public Library marketing manager Emily Getzchman says the event aligns well with OPL’s mission. “This event inspires people to think critically and look beyond the words on the page. It provides a rare opportunity to combine authors, art and their works with the community who consumes it. Our hope is that the ideas and perspectives that emerge will inspire people to continue conversations about life and culture.” , For event details visit omahalitfest.com. NOTE: Leo Adam Biga is the author of Alexander Payne: His Journey in Film. Read more of his work at leoadambiga.wordpress.com. continued on page 16 y

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OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

| THE READER |

culture

Where Healthcare Is Headed

T

he new Affordable Health Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, went into effect on October 1.

The law basically stipulates that those who do not have health insurance will have to obtain it by the end of the year or pay a penalty.

The purpose of Obamacare is to ensure all Americans have access to affordable, quality health care while also reducing health care spending.

NO MORE DENIED COVERAGE

With Obamacare, no one can be denied health insurance coverage due to a pre-existing condition. Additionally, children can remain on their parents’ health insurance plan until the age of 26.

Here are some of the other less well-known benefits: ■ There are no out-of-pocket costs for new preventative services.

■ Better care of, and protection for, seniors is provided.

■ You cannot be charged more based on your gender or health status.

■ There are no annual or lifetime limits on healthcare.

Whitehouse.gov says in addition to all the above-mentioned benefits, you may also be entitled to a cash rebate if insurance companies spend too much money on overhead as opposed to actual medical care.

STRICTER GUIDELINES FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES

With Obamacare, health insurance companies are facing stricter guidelines and must inform the public if they are thinking of raising their rates by 10 percent or more. The new law gives states permission to say “no” to extreme increases in insurance premiums.

Let’s say you already have health insurance through your current employer; what does Obamacare mean for you? You

have two options. You can do nothing and keep the insurance you have already. Or you can drop your current plan, check out the plans on the health insurance marketplace and enroll yourself for 2014.

The good news is that if you find a plan you like but need a bit of help affording it, you may qualify for a government subsidy if your employer’s insurance does not meet minimum federal standards.

That means that your monthly premiums cannot exceed 9.5 percent of your income.

BENEFITS TO EMPLOYERS

Both small and large business will see some benefits from Obamacare as well because the new law lowers their costs.

Whitehouse.gov says: “The independent Congres-sional Budget Office confirmed that the bill would lower health insurance premiums for the same insurance plan by up to 4 percent for small businesses and 3 percent for large businesses. Estimates indicate that reform could save businesses $2,000 per person in health costs.”

WHERE TO START

One of the best places to start if you are looking for a health insurance plan that will work for you is to head online to healthcare.gov.

In the state of Nebraska, Community Action of Nebraska has received federal funding to train individuals to help assist families, individuals and businesses in finding the health care plan that is best for them. These “navigators,” as they are being called, will help people throughout the process, step-bystep. Their website is www.canhelp.org.

The open enrollment period for Obamacare runs through December 15 of this year for coverage beginning January 1, 2014.

In America we’re known for the “Fee-for-Service” system model of health care.

Under this system, “healthcare providers are paid for each service (like an office visit, test or procedure)” they provide, according to Medicaid.

Unfortunately, there are some problems with this system. A recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine indicates the fee-for-service system actually increases healthcare costs in the country.

Researchers explain there are four reasons for this: ■ It contains incentives for increasing the volume and cost of services (whether appropriate or not).

■ It encourages duplication.

■ It discourages care coordination.

■ It promotes inefficiency in the delivery of medical services.

An article in The Atlantic suggests with the Fee-for-Service system, the result is an environment where unnecessary tests aren’t discouraged. In fact, this environment coupled with the fear of lawsuits prompts some physicians to order every test possible.

So if the Fee-for-Service system isn’t working so well, what is the alternative?

Experts suggest a focus on value of care versus volume of care is what’s needed.

And that brings us to the idea of Population Health.

WHAT IS POPULATION HEALTH? Population health is a system that focuses on groups of individuals as opposed to focusing on one individual at a time when planning healthcare policies and programs.

Cohorts of any type may be considered from the population health perspective.

These could be groups of individuals from a specific geographic area or, as one article from the American Journal of Public Health points out, “these could be ethnic groups, disabled persons or prisoners.”

Debbie Chang, Vice President of Policy and Prevention at Nemours, an integrated child health system, explains the role of integrators in the population health system.

An integrator works in a particular geographic area with a certain population.

Chang says integrators have three primary responsibilities within their specific populations. Integrators are tasked with: ■ Promoting prevention ■ Improving health and well-being ■ Improving quality and reducing health care costs Integrators do not work in a vacuum though, rather they have assistance through partnerships with partners in, “health care, public health and the community,” says Chang.

Here’s a quick look at the major differences between Fee-for-Service and a more population-focused healthcare system from the American Medical Group Association: Ultimately, research suggests healthcare is beginning to make a shift away from the Fee-for-Service system, which focuses solely on delivering health care services.

Healthcare itself is not all that can keep a person healthy. The Institute of Medicine indicates healthcare is moving toward a more integrated approach, one that includes partnerships between health professionals and “community-based organizations, schools, businesses and others to help identify and solve the problems that contribute to poor health.”

— Cheril Lee

It’s time to get what you need…

The lowest-cost, tax credit-eligible health insurance in the Omaha area.* Get SelectBlue Plus !

Call 877-643-2583 or visit lowestcost.nebraskablue.com for more info.

TM

*Monthly costs according to Nebraska Department of Insurance tax-credit eligible rate samples, 2014. These plans are available to Nebraska residents residing in Burt, Cass, Dodge, Douglas, Otoe, Sarpy, Saunders or Washington County.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

| THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

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| THE READER |

overtheedge

COLUMN BY TIM MCMAHAN

BENSON’S ALMOST MUSIC SERVES VINYL, ALONG WITH COFFEE AND CONVERSATION

T

he story of Almost Music, the vintage record store that just opened at 6569 Maple St. in Benson, is the story of a guy who escaped a life caged in a cubicle to pursue a dream he’s held for 20 years.

Brad Smith got into the record business way back in 1993 at age 20 when he joined the staff of the legendary Antiquarium Record Store in the Old Market. Tucked away in the basement of a massive bookstore on Harney Street, The Antiquarium was the touchstone of the Omaha music scene throughout its heyday in the mid-‘90s.

Smith joined a staff that included Chris Deden, singer/songwriter Simon Joyner and The Antiquarium’s legendary frontman, Dave Sink.

“Dave was the mouthpiece, the spokesperson,” Smith said. “That’s what he liked to do -- drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and BS with people. Chris and I actually worked really hard because we had to make up for the fact that Dave didn’t.”

While Smith, Deden and Joyner broke their backs keeping the shelves stocked, Sink stood behind the counter and shared what he knew about the music business (and baseball) with young bands, young record labels and, yes, young music journalists. Sink and the store played a central role in creating a scene that spawned Saddle Creek Records and bands such as Bright Eyes and Cursive.

Technology eventually drove Smith out of The Antiquarium in 2000. He and Deden had set up a website called Starsailor Records and began selling rare albums on a new online marketplace called eBay. Smith said Sink viewed the Internet as a passing fad.

“Dave’s quote was, ‘This is the new CB radio. It’s hot right now, but you’re wasting your time.’ The whole idea of cyberspace was a hard concept for someone Dave’s age to grasp.”

As you might guess, a career selling records isn’t exactly lucrative. Smith said his years at the Antiquarium brought in just enough to pay the rent. “I was single and so were Chris and Dave,” he said. “It was enough to make a meager living for a single person. I would have made a better living if I hadn’t spent so much on my own record collection.”

Needless to say, things changed when Smith had his first daughter, Matilda, in 2001. Now with a child to support, he felt he needed a more substantial career, one that actually supplied health insurance. Smith had earned a degree in Business Administration from UNO while working at The Antiquarium, which helped him land an insurance job and eventually a credit analyst position at Hewlett-Packard in 2007. By then he’d met his current girlfriend, Sarah Gleason, who had two kids of her own, Nora and Jack. Together, the couple had Dorothy, who just turned 3 and a half.

Even with a “regular job,” Smith said there was no real security at H-P. Shortly after he joined the company, the bottom fell out of the economy and the layoffs began. “We went from four floors of employees to two,” Smith said.

“We had waves of layoffs every nine months. I survived four of them.”

His number finally came up in April of this year. By then, he already had the idea of opening Almost Music. “I knew a record store could be successful if I did it right,” Smith said.

“Even before I got laid off, Sarah said, ‘You have to do it.’ She knew I hated sitting in a cubical all day. Once I got laid off, there was no excuse not to.”

Smith already had begun accumulating inventory when the storefront became available. Located a few blocks west of the heart of Benson, Almost Music shares the space with Solid Jackson Books, a satellite location of Jackson Street Booksellers. The bookstore’s name is an homage to ‘90s rock band Solid Jackson, which released a record on a label run by Deden and Joyner.

“I really wanted to do something like The Antiquarium, where it’s not just a retail shop, it’s a place to hang out and have discussions and have a cup of coffee,” Smith said. “That wasn’t feasible without the bookstore.”

Open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6, Almost Music sells an eclectic mix of vinyl -- everything from high-end collectables (a Sun Ra album from 1968 is priced at $350) to clean, cheap copies of albums by bands like The Go Go’s and Fleetwood Mac. “I try to make it a well-curated selection,” Smith said. “The Antiquarium did the same thing. We had our cheap section and kept the good stuff separate.

Ninety-eight percent of our albums is really clean and in nice shape. You don’t have to check the condition.”

over the edge

On a trip to Almost Music last weekend I picked up a rare copy of a Smiths 12-inch single (“Barbarism Begins at Home” b/w “Shakespeare’s Sister”) and Richard Thompson’s Hand of Kindness LP, while Teresa snagged Claudine Longet’s debut album and Queen’s The Game, both for $2.

It’s only been open three weeks but the shop is already doing well. Smith said the store isn’t the couple’s only source of income. Sarah also has a parttime job, and they both intend to take advantage of insurance available through the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare).

Still, was opening the store scary?

“Oh yeah,” Smith said. “I kept looking for a job I couldn’t say ‘no’ to. It never happened because my heart was never in it. My heart was in this.”

Almost Music and Solid Jackson Bookstore celebrate their official Grand Opening this Saturday, Oct. 19. Festivities include live performances by Simon Joyner and Noah Sterba of The Yuppies. Come on down, have a cup of coffee and listen to some good music. , Over The Edge is a weekly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, the media and the arts. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.

| THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23 , 2013

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| THE READER |

Celebrate the last Omaha Farmers Market of the year and learn to EAT REAL!

AKSA

R B E N V I LLAG E

O M A H A O C TO B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 3

Aksarben Village 67th & Center 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

FREE

Food Day is a nationwide campaign to encourage Americans to “eat real” and support healthy, affordable food grown in a sustainable, humane manner.

foodday.org | THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

19

livemusiccalendar

SEND CALENDAR INFORMATION — including addresses, dates, times, costs and phone numbers — to The Reader’s calendar editor. Mail to or drop off information at P.O. Box 7360 Omaha, NE 68107; email to listings@thereader.com; fax to (402) 341.6967. Deadline is 5 p.m. the Thursday prior to issue date.

THURSDAY 17

READER RECOMMENDS TOO SLIM AND THE TAILDRAGGERS, (Blues) 5:30 pm,

21st Saloon, $10.

SCHOOL OF ROCK, (Rock) 6:30 pm, Arena Bar & Grill, Free.

FINISH TICKET, 9 pm, Arena Bar & Grill, Free.

DURTY THURSDAY - E BROWN, 9 pm, Bar 415, Free.

CAPGUN COUP W/ SEAN PRATT & THE SWEATS AND FLETCH,

10 pm, Barley Street Tavern, $5.

READER RECOMMENDS

LINCOLN CALLING: DESERT NOISES W/ THE KICKBACK &

ROCK PAPER DYNAMITE, 9 pm, Bourbon Theater, $8.

NEW MOON SONGWRITERS NIGHT, (Folk/Singer-Song writer) 7 pm, Crescent Moon Coffee, FREE. LINCOLN CALLING! FEAT. OQUOA, THE WHIPKEY THREE, TIE

THESE HANDS, MASSES, 8 pm, Duffy’s Tavern, NO

COVER w/ FESTIVAL PASS. TIM JAVORSKY’S MANY INSTUMENTS, 7 pm, Jazz, A

Louisiana Kitchen, Free.

GARROTED W/ SLUTGUTTER, SKUMMER, 9 pm,

Knickerbockers, Contact Knickerbockers

for cover charge.

SHANIA TWIN FEATURING DONNA HUBER, 8 pm, OzoNE

Lounge at Anthony’s Steakhouse, $10.

ROOTS MUSIC CIRCUS SHOW W/ VIRGINA GALLNER,

7:30 pm, Pizza Shoppe Collective, $5.

APPOSING THE APPARITION W/ BEYOND THE BORDER &

WICKY BID, 6 pm, Red9, $5.

BO BURNHAM, 7 pm, Slowdown, $27.50

READER RECOMMENDS

MARIA THE MEXICAN, 9 pm, The Sydney, Contact the

Sydney for cover charge.

ACOUSTIC MUSIC THURSDAYS!, 8 pm, Two Fine Irishmen,

Contact Two Fine Irishmen for cover charge.

RIG 1 W/ NUIT, 9 pm, Waiting Room, $7.

FRIDAY 18

LEMON FRESH DAY, (Cover Band) 9 pm, Arena Bar &

Grill, FREE. A FEROCIOUS JUNGLE CAT W/ ARIEL & THE ARGA KNOTS AND

THE WIND UP, 9 pm, Barley Street Tavern, $5.

LINCOLN CALLING: HOT BUTTERED RUM W/ ALLIE KRAL (OF

CORNMEAL) & DEAD WINTER CARPENTERS, 8 pm,

Bourbon Theater, $15 ADV | $18 DOS. LINCOLN CALLING! FEAT. WHITE MYSTERY, COWBOY WINTER,

PLEASURE ADAPTER, HALFWIT, 8 pm, Duffy’s Tavern,

NO COVER w/ FESTIVAL PASS. KARAOKE THEATRE, 8:30 pm, House Of Loom, Free.

READER RECOMMENDS THE SWEATY BUTTER BALL, (DJ/ELECTRONIC) 9 pm, House

Of Loom, $5 BEFORE 10PM / $7 AFTER. A LIVE PERFORMANCE BY STREET RAILWAY COMPANY,

7 pm, Jazz, A Louisiana Kitchen, Free.

ALL AGES: A SUMMER BETTER THAN YOURS W/ NO TIDE,

6 pm, Knickerbockers, Contact Knickerbockers

for cover charge.

LIVE FROM THE POINTE: MARK IRVIN, (Folk/Singer-Song writer) 7 pm, Lewis and Clark Landing, $25.

JAZZ AFTER 5: LELAND MICKLES, (Jazz) 5 pm, Love’s Jazz

& Art Center, Members: $5 NonMembers: $8.

THE MIGHTY SAPPHIRE KINGS, (Blues) 9 pm, McKenna’s

Booze, Blues & BBQ, Free.

PHANTOM SCOUT W/ GENDERS & LET ALONE, 9:30 pm,

O’Leaver’s Pub, $5.

AVARICIOUS, (Cover Band) 8 pm, OzoNE Lounge at

Anthony’s Steakhouse, Free.

20

OCT. 17 - 23 , 2013

| THE READER |

music listings

PORKBELLY W/ TWO SHAKES, SHERRY DRIVE, & TBA, 9 pm,

Shamrock’s Pub & Grill, Contact Shamrock’s for

cover charge.

ALMOST KISS W/ BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, SURREAL THE MC,

(Cover Band) 8 pm, Slowdown, $10 ADV /

$12 DOS. TIM KOEHN, 7 pm, Soaring Wings Vineyard, $5.

JOHN DOE, 9 pm, Two Fine Irishmen, Free.

READER RECOMMENDS BUILT TO SPILL W/ LEE RANALDO AND THE DUST & SLAM DUNK, 9 pm, Waiting Room, $22.

READER RECOMMENDS JOSH HOYER AND THE SHADOWBOXERS, (Blues) 5 pm, Zoo

Bar, $6.

SATURDAY 19

PLAN9 W/ DANNY APARO, 9 pm, Bar 415, Contact Bar

415 for cover charges.

TRAVELLING MERCIES W/ GENERAL B AND THE WIZ

(ST. PAUL, MN), THE BIG DEEP AND TEN O’CLOCK SCHOLARS, 9 pm, Barley Street Tavern, Free.

LINCOLN CALLING: SPANKALICIOUS W/ BASS COMA & SHARKWREKINBAWL, 10:30 pm, Bourbon Theater,

Contact the Bourbon Theater for cover charges.

READER RECOMMENDS LINCOLN CALLING: THE 4ONTHEFLOOR W/ MEZCAL

BROTHERS & SNAKE ISLAND!, (Rock) 7 pm, Bourbon

Theater, $8.

PRO-MAGNUM W/ THE BUGS, (Rock) 10 pm, Brothers

Lounge, $5.

DUSTIN EVANS, (Country) 8 pm, Coyote Willy’s, $5.

LINCOLN CALLING! FEAT. UNIVERSE CONTEST, WIPING OUT

THOUSANDS, GENDERS, TOUCH PEOPLE, 8 pm, Duffy’s

Tavern, NO COVER w/ FESTIVAL PASS.

READER RECOMMENDS ZOMBIE DISCO | UNOFFICIAL ZOMBIE WALK POST-PARTY +

DJ MILTY EVANS (CHICAGO), (DJ/Electronic) 8 pm,

House Of Loom, Free.

THE NIGHT SHAKERS TRIO PERFORMS, 7 pm, Jazz, A

Louisiana Kitchen, Free.

READER RECOMMENDS FADED BLACK W/ EVICTED & WE BE LIONS, (Rock) 9 pm,

Knickerbockers, Contact Knickerbockers for

cover charge.

ALL AGES: FADED BLACK, FURIOSITY, LEIGHTON, 6 pm,

Knickerbockers, Contact Knickerbockers for

cover charge.

JOSH STEPHENS W/ DUDES GONE RUDE, THE AMAZING F**K,

9 pm, Knickerbockers, Contact Knickerbockers

for cover charge.

DA TRUTH BAND, 7:30 pm, Love’s Jazz & Art Center,

$10 Members $15 NonMembers Reserved

Cocktail Seats: $20 (4 seats per table).

OQUOA W/ WATER LIARS, 9:30 pm, O’Leaver’s Pub, $5.

THE PERSONICS, 8 pm, OzoNE Lounge at Anthony’s

Steakhouse, Free.

FINO W/ MATT COX, & EARLYTOWN, 9 pm, Shamrock’s

Pub & Grill, Contact Shamrock’s for cover charge.

SKYPIPER W/ THE KICKBACK, CANBY, 8 pm, Slowdown, $7.

OTONANA TRIO, 9 pm, Sweatshop Gallery, Contact The

Sweat Shop for cover charges.

SOUL NIGHT, 9 pm, The Sydney, Contact the Sydney for

cover charge.

READER RECOMMENDS OMAHA ZOMBIE BALL A BENEFIT FOR THE SIENNA/FRANCIS HOUSE, 7 pm, Waiting Room, $7.

CITRUS CLUB, 9 pm, Arena Bar & Grill, Free.

SUNDAY 20

A FLOWER IS A LOVESOME THING, 3 pm, Arts Center At

Iowa Western College, $26 - $30.

TURTLE ISLAND QUARTER WITH NELLIE MCKAY, (Jazz)

3 pm, Arts Center At Iowa Western College, $30;

Seniors: $26.

WATER LIARS W/ EVAN BARTELS & THE STONEY LONESOMES,

7 pm, Bourbon Theater, $5: 21 and up | $7: 18

and up.

SUNDAY DANCING WITH MESA ROAD, (Country) 7 pm,

Coyote Willy’s, $5.

SALSA SUNDAY @ LATIN MADNESS, 7 pm, House Of

Loom, $5.

O’LEAVER’S OPEN MIC NIGHT, 9 pm, O’Leaver’s Pub, Free.

DANIEL CHRISTIAN, 2 pm, Soaring Wings Vineyard, Free.

SUNDAY ROADHOUSE PRESENTS: WILL SEXTON W/ AMY LAVERE, 5 pm, Waiting Room, $15 ADV / $20 DOE.

MONDAY 21

OPEN MIC & SONGWRITER SHOWCASE, (FOLK/SINGER SONGWRITER) 9 pm, Barley Street Tavern, FREE.

READER RECOMMENDS EYE EMPIRE W/ TRUE BECOMING & SECTION EIGHT, 7 pm,

Bourbon Theater, Contact the Bourbon Theater for

cover charges.

FIRST CUT INDUSTRY NIGHT W/DJ KNOWTORIOUS, (DJ/ ELECTRONIC) 9 pm, House Of Loom, Contact House

of Loom for cover charge.

BIG BAND MONDAY FEATURING MIKE GURCUILLO AND HIS

LAS VEGAS LAB BAND, (Jazz) 6:30 pm, OzoNE

Lounge at Anthony’s Steakhouse, FREE. WAITING ROOM MUSIC QUIZ, 8 pm, Waiting Room, FREE.

READER RECOMMENDS FUZZ W/ CCR HEADCLEANER, 9 pm, Waiting Room,

$8 ADV / $10 DOS. PIANO HOUR W/ EMILY BASS, 5 pm, Zoo Bar, contact the

Zoo Bar for cover charge.

TUESDAY 22

SAVOY W/ JACEO, 8 pm, Bourbon Theater, $14.

ABSENCE OF DESIGN W/ BEYOUND OUR BORDERS & BLOOD RAIL, 9 pm, Knickerbockers, Contact Knicker

bockers for cover charge.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION, 8 pm, OzoNE Lounge at

Anthony’s Steakhouse, Free.

READER RECOMMENDS DESAPARECIDOS W/ THE SO SO GLOS, (Folk/Singer-Song writer) 9 pm, Waiting Room, $25.

COCO MONTOYA, 6 pm, Zoo Bar, $12 ADV / $15 DOS. TROUBADOUR W/ DAVID VIDAL, JAMIE BROWN, CHANCE

PRESTON, MIKE HOLLON AND ANNA CHRISTIANSEN,

9 pm, Zoo Bar, $4.

WEDNESDAY 16

CRASH & BURN BLUES JAM, (Blues) 6 pm, Barley Street

Tavern, Free.

READER RECOMMENDS GREENSKY BLUEGRASS W/ THE CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS,

6:30 pm, Bourbon Theater, $15 ADV | $18 DOS. DICEY RILEYS, 7 pm, Brazen Head Irish Pub, Free.

SHAWN FREDIEU, (Rock) 8 pm, Firewater Grille, Contact

the Firewater Grill for cover charge.

READER RECOMMENDS CRATE & CRAFT CLUB | JAZZ VINYL W/ANDREW MONSON,

(Jazz) 8 pm, House Of Loom, Free.

WARPED WAX W/TURNTABLIST CMB, (DJ/Electronic) 8 pm,

House Of Loom, Free.

BOZAK & MORRISSEY, 8 pm, OzoNE Lounge at Anthony’s

Steakhouse, Free.

FOX STREET W/ SPECIAL GUESTS LYMPHNODE MANIACS,

(Rock) 9 pm, Venue 51, $5.

ORGONE W/ SATCHEL GRANDE, 9 pm, Waiting Room, $9.

READER RECOMMENDS KAT104 PRESENTS CANFEST: A CONCERT FOR HUNGER,

(Country) 8 pm, Whiskey Roadhouse (Horseshoe

Casino), Contact the Whiskey Roadhouse for ticket information.

LIL ED AND THE BLUES IMPERIALS, (Blues) 6 pm, Zoo Bar,

Contact the Zoo Bar for cover charge.

BY B.J. HUCHTEMANN

Roadhouse, Too Slim & Carolyn

S

unday Roadhouse presents a show Sunday, Oct. 20, 5 p.m. at the Waiting Room. Will Sexton and Amy LaVere perform. Will Sexton is a wellknown Austin musician who was playing gigs with his brother Charlie when they were kids. By the time he was 16, Will had a recording contract with MCA Records. He has built a career as a solo artist, songwriter and sideman.

See willsexton.com. Amy LaVere is an Americana singersongwriter-bassist whose most recent disc was produced

by Craig Silvey, who mixed Arcade Fire’s Grammywinning Suburbs. LaVere previously worked with iconic roots musician and producer Jim Dickinson. She portrayed Wanda Jackson in the movie Walk the Line.

See amylavere.com. Admission is $15 in advance, $20 day of show. See sundayroadhouse.com. Upcoming Sunday Roadhouse shows include Robbie Fulks Nov. 3 and Commander Cody founder Bill Kirchen Nov. 17.

21st Saloon & Zoo Bar: A favorite of Josh Hoyer’s, Los Angeles singer-songwriter David Vidal plays the Zoo with the house band Monday, Oct. 21, 7-9 p.m. Check davidvidal.net. Josh Hoyer & The Shadowboxers bring their funky blues to the Zoo stage Friday, Oct. 18, 5-7 p.m.

Carolyn Wonderland rocks Lincoln’s Zoo Bar

hoodoo

Saturday, Oct. 19, 6-9 p.m. The Zoo has a special show with guitarist-vocalist Coco Montoya Tuesday, Oct. 22, 6-9 p.m. Chicago’s straight-up blues band Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials hits the Zoo Bar next Wednesday, Oct. 23, 6-9 p.m.

The 21st Saloon hosts Pacific Northwest roots-blues trio Too Slim & The Taildraggers Thursday, Oct. 17, 6 p.m. Lil’ Ed & the boys are up at The 21st Saloon Thursday, Oct. 24, 6-9 p.m.

Lincoln Calling: Lincoln’s Zoo Bar joins Duffy’s, the Bourbon Theatre and seven other venues to host the 10th annual Lincoln Calling. The multi-band, multi-venue event showcases a variety of musical styles with over 100 local and regional bands and DJs scheduled to perform Oct. 1519. See lincolncalling.com for schedule & details.

Hot Notes: Denver’s Fox Street Allstars, Westword’s 2013 Best Traditional Rock band, bring their eclectic roots-rock sounds to Venue 51, 1951 St. Mary’s, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 9 p.m. Lymphnode Maniacs opens. See foxstreetband.com. Saturday, Oct. 19, is Benson Zombie Walk night, Travelling Mercies plays a free show at Barley Street Tavern, 9 p.m., with General B & the Wiz (St. Paul, MN), The Big Deep and Ten O’Clock Scholars. 40SINNERS plugs in at McKenna’s Saturday, Oct. 19, 9 p.m. The horn-driven sounds of Orgone play the Waiting Room Wednesday, Oct. 23, 9 p.m. with Satchel Grande. ,

HOODOO is a weekly column focusing on blues, roots, Americana and occasional other music styles with an emphasis on live music performances. Hoodoo columnist B.J. Huchtemann is a Reader senior contributing writer and veteran music journalist who has covered the local music scene for nearly 20 years. Follow her blog at hoodoorootsblues.blogspot.com.

hoodoo blues

| THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

21

Cutting Room provides breaking local and national movie news … complete with added sarcasm. Send any relevant information to film@ thereader.com. Check out Ryan on Movieha!, a weekly half-hour movie podcast (movieha.libsyn.com/rss), catch him on the radio on CD 105.9 (cd1059.com) on Fridays around 7:30 a.m. and on KVNO 90.7 (kvno.org) at 8:30 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Twitter (twitter. com/thereaderfilm).

22

OCT. 17 - 23 , 2013

I

have a friend who tells this one joke where it takes an eternity to get to the punch line. And that’s the real joke: that you donated so much of your time for such a small amount of pleasure. The psychology behind my friend’s “humor” has apparently become writer/director Robert Rodriguez’s mission statement. Machete was fairly amusing when it played in Grindhouse as a trailer for a film that didn’t actually exist. It was significantly less amusing when it became an actual, fulllength film. Now here we are, six years and more than 200 minutes of time invested in a joke that was passable when it took less than a minute. Before we go further, you should know I gave Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives a positive review, so I “get” grind-schlock. This isn’t that, this is someone doing a bad impression of that.

Danny Trejo is back in the role that made him ever-so-slightly more famous. This time, he gets recruited by the president (Charlie Sheen…although, the credits actually introduce him as “Carlos Estevez”) to stop a crazy plot that unites drug cartels, global nuclear war, space ships and a secret agent with at least three separate personalities. The decision to pretzel-twist the narrative was made solely to work as many WTF cameos in as humanly possible. These cameos include Sofia Vergara as a machine-gun-breasted madam; Lady Gaga, Walter Goggins, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Antonio Banderas all playing the same character (you read that right) and Vanessa Hudgens, Michelle Rodriguez, Amber Heard and Alexa Vega in various states of undress.

And then there are the villains, Voz (Mel Gibson) and Mendez (Demian Bichir). Gibson is paying his penance to America for his unspeakable douchebaggery by slumming in this low-budget raunch-fest, in which we cathartically get to root for him to be mutilated. But it’s actually Bichir who delivers the only interesting performance in this whole embarrassing kerfuffle. His buck-toothed megalomaniac with multiple personalities is played with the right kitsch-to-serious ratio, which requires an awareness everyone else (including the director) seems to lack.

Rodriguez doesn’t get how to manipulate gutter-trash content for maximum amusement. We don’t want to hear Vergara graphically describe feasting on the genitals of her sexually abusive father because no sane person would want to hear that. We do want to see nonsensical action and physics-defying cheap effects. Most of all, we don’t want to slog through an intentionally terrible movie that is often boring to get to the three or four “good” bad moments. If the return on investment were any poorer, we’d be offering Rodriguez TARP money.

Worst news: They end on a cliffhanger setting up a sequel that actually could be brilliant fun. It’s what they should have done this time, instead of trotting out the same, lame rehash of Trejo murdering with cutlery. Machete Kills was a lifeless impression. But if we do get Machete Kills Again… in Space, I don’t know that I can resist.

GRADE: D

REPORTCARD

n Oh my God…oh my God…Monster Squad! You can see Monster Squad, the greatest movie to ever discuss Wolf Man nards, on the big screen again! I realize you need context, but you don’t bury the lead. Film Streams just announced the latest “Forever Young” series to hit the Ruth Sokolof theater and it’s jam packed with family friendly movies that all loosely involve animals…if you consider the Wolf Man a part of nature. Partnering with the Lincoln Financial Foundation, the series includes Monster freakin Squad, Winged Migration, The Black Stallion (the good version, not the one where Tim McGraw attempts what he thinks is acting), Free Willy (the anti-Blackfish), The Freshman and It’s a Wonderful Life…because angels are animals? For showtimes and tickets head to filmstreams.org and don’t forget to call me when you go see Monster Squad. n I believe in the power of pop culture and art to change attitudes and shape perceptions. That’s why I love that director Lee Daniels (The Butler, Precious) wants to make an action movie featuring a gay interracial couple at the core, something he describes as a “gay Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”

Nevermind that Mr. and Mrs. Smith is like a fly strip for my eyes, in that I can’t skip over it when I see it on TV, I’m thrilled that Daniels is thinking about parlaying his industry swag in the wake of The Butler dominating the box office into making a truly original action film where the central characters just happen to crap on every cookie-cutter formulaic format that’s rolled out in that genre. Things don’t change when “Modern Family” rolls out two stereotypes and jokes about it; things change when tough, bad-ass dudes of different races blow stuff up. n Speaking of formula, here’s a funny story. Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity would be a little different if he listened to executives.

Instead of a movie set entirely in space, it would cut to the Houston control room.

Not a terrible idea, but uninspired. Oh, and there would be flashbacks. Again, not so bad but nothing original. There would be a love story with one of the folks in the control room and the main character. Blech.

And, of course, Sandra Bullock wouldn’t be the lead a dude would. Ugh, of course.

Props to Cuarón for having the chutzpah to stick to his guns and props to everyone for proving you can be smart and original and still make hella bank.

—Ryan Syrek

Blue Jasmine B+ A show-stopping performance for Cate Blanchett, who shows no signs of stopping.

Prisoners

B Icky, taut and thrilling, this is the feel-bad movie of the fall!

Rush

B+ A movie based on a true story about a sport we don’t care about that you’ll actually care about!

| THE READER |

film

READER RECOMMENDS

Gravity

A Thrilling and thoughtful: Two great tastes that taste great in space.

ON DVD

The Hangover Part III F One can’t physically be drunk enough to make this fun.

A Hijacking In real life, “talk like a pirate day” is terrifying.

A-

CURATED BY

SPONSORED BY

JACSKON STREET BOOKSELLERS

2013 LOCAL FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE

Showing daily October 17 - 24

Opening Night Premiere & Post-Party with Filmmakers: Thursday, Oct 17, 7:30pm Find more information, daily showtimes & buy tickets at filmstreams.org.

Film Streams at the Ruth Sokolof Theater 14th & Mike Fahey Streets More info & showtimes 402.933.0259 · filmstreams.org Facebook & Twitter: @filmstreams

Mother of George First-Run (R) Dir. Andrew Dosunmu.

Starts Friday, October 18

FEATURING: Decay Theory & The Last to Leave Directed by Pat Clark.

Emery Blagdon and His Healing Machine

By Kelly Rush, Jerry Johnston & Pat Aylward.

Femme ed Uomo Directed by Joseph Knapp.

L’Homme Au Piano (One More For the Road) Directed by Ryle Smith.

Standing Up to Poverty Directed by Sally Nellson-Barrett.

Enough Said First-Run (PG-13) Dir. Nicole Holofcener.

Through Thursday, October 24

“Suggests a new renaissance moment With Julia Louis-Dreyfus and for American black cinema.” the late James Gandolfini.

-- The Village Voice Lioness 2008 Short Term 12 First-Run (R) Dir. Meg McLagan and Dir. Dustin Cretton.

Daria Sommers.

Through Thursday, October 17 Thursday, October 24, 7pm Last chance!

Special Screening followed by Winner of Audience and Grand panel discussion presented with Jury Awards at SXSW 2013!

Nebraska Veteran Leader Corps!

Forever Young Alexander Family & Children’s Series Admission just $2.50 for Payne Presents kids 12 and under!

Winged Migration 2001

Dir. Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats & Jacques Perrin.

October 17

Walkabout 1971 (R) Dir. Nicholas Roeg.

October 16

L’Avventura 1960

Monster Squad 1987 Dir. Fred Dekker.

Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni.

October 18, 20 & 22

October 19, 20, 24, 26, 27, 31 “Wolfman’s got nards.”

| THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

23

newsoftheweird

T H E WO R L D G O N E F R E A K Y B Y C H U C K S H E P H E R D W I T H I L LU S T R AT I O N S B Y T O M B R I S C O E

Haute Couture

A

few still-primitive cultures inexplicably celebrate such female adornments as the stacking of metal neck rings and the inserting of saucersize disks into pierced earlobes. For “civilized” society, there is the annual Paris Fashion Week in September, when renowned designers outfit brave, otherwise-gorgeous models in grotesque clothing.

Among the ensembles witnessed by a New York Times critic this year: a hat resembling steroid-enhanced stalks of peas; a shoe appearing to sprout twigstuds; “a flexible cage covered in doughnuts of black satin”; and a pillow clutch with (for some reason) its own porthole.

Recurring Themes News of the Weird first reported successful “stool implants” among family members in 2007 (to cure infections such as C. difficile by introducing the donor’s “good” microbes to overcome an imbalance of “bad” bacteria in a relative’s intestine). In 2012, however, two University of California, Davis, neurosurgeons boldly extended the cutting-edge treatment for three patients with a highly malignant brain tumor unresponsive to treatment. The doctors tried infusing bowel bacteria directly into the tumor, but the patients died, nonetheless.

Although the patients had given fully informed consent, the school in August 2013 pressured Drs. J. Paul Muizelaar and Rudolph Schrot to resign for having violated internal and FDA procedures.

It is well known that hospitals charge for medical supplies far in excess of what the products would cost at drugstores, but an August New York Times investigation of “saline drips” vividly demonstrated the disconnect. Though Medicare reimburses $1.07 for a 1-liter plastic bag of saltwater (supplied by a subsidiary of Morton Salt), White Plains (N.Y.) Hospital charged patients’ insurance companies like Aetna $91 per bag. Other hospitals decline to charge per-bag, listing only “IV therapy” of, for example, $787 for hooking up the drip.

24

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

| THE READER |

weird news

From the world’s cosmetic-surgery capital (South Korea, where one woman in five has had at least one procedure) comes the “Smile Lipt” offered by Aone Plastic Surgery in the city of Yongin, designed to produce a permanent smile (associated with success). The Smile Lipt turns downward-drooping lip corners upward, to allow a persistent smile resembling that of Batman’s nemesis, The Joker.

Among the more repugnant paraphilias covered in News of the Weird is toilet-peeping -- men who set up underneath the seats in public outhouses (sometimes wearing a raincoat) and wait for a user to answer nature’s call.

In August, Kenneth Enlow, 52, pleaded guilty after a woman found him the month before in a privy in White Water Park in Tulsa County, Okla., “standing with his head and shoulders out of the hole ... covered in feces,” according to a deputy. Enlow’s initial explanation was that his girlfriend had knocked him unconscious with a tire iron and dumped him there.

Another Hard-Working Lawyer: The Dayton Daily News reported in September that an audit of Dayton lawyer Ben Swift (the highest-paid court-appointed public defender in Ohio, at $142,900 in a recent year) revealed several invoices demanding government payment for workdays of more than 20 hours, and in one case, 29. Swift’s attorney said his client was guilty only of bad record-keeping.

Patients with gargantuan tumors, but intimidated by the cost of treatment, create the possibility that by the time they can afford an operation, the tumor itself will be heavier than the post-surgery patient.

A 63-year-old man in Bakersfield, Calif., finally had surgery in August, after 14 years’ waiting during which his set of tumors grew to 200 pounds. Bakersfield surgeon Vip Dev noted that the sprawled tumors dragged the floor when the man sat and that the surgery was complicated by the patient’s shape, which could not be accommodated by the hospital’s MRI and CT scan machines.

In 2010, Chinese agencies stepped up “birth tourism” packages for rich pregnant women to book vacations in America timed to their due dates -- to exploit the

COPYRIGHT 2013 CHUCK SHEPHERD. Visit Chuck Shepherd daily at NewsoftheWeird. blogspot.com or NewsoftheWeird.com. Send Weird News to WeirdNewsTips@yahoo.com or P.O. Box 18737, Tampa, FL 33679. Illustrations by Tom Briscoe (smallworldcomics.com).

U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship to anyone born here and thus giving the Chinese children future competitive advantages against non-Americans who must apply for U.S. visas. A September USA Today report indicated that more Chinese mothers now prefer to land in the U.S. territory of Northern Mariana Islands (where birth also bestows citizenship), to the consternation of Islands officials, who would prefer traditional Chinese tourists instead of the “birthers.”

(Historians agree that the 14th Amendment birth right was aimed at assuring citizenship for freed slaves.)

Updates At Hong Kong’s traditional “Hungry Ghost” festival in August, in which people burn fake money on top of ancestors’ graves to support their afterlife styles, a weaker economy and inflation seem to have upped the ante for the gifts. An August Wall Street Journal dispatch noted that the denominations of burnable “currency” sold in stores have appreciated, including one “valued” at one trillion Hong Kong dollars (US$130 billion). (Some festival-goers asked, sensibly, about how the ancestor could expect change from such a bill if he needed to make a small afterlife purchase.)

The family of the great Native American Olympic athlete and Oklahoma native Jim Thorpe (1888-1953) was so disappointed that the then-governor of Oklahoma would not properly honor Thorpe on his death that one faction of his family moved the body to Pennsylvania, where he had no discernible ties but where municipal officials eagerly offered to name a town after him. Since then, Jim Thorpe, Pa. (current population, 4,800), has withstood legal challenges seeking to return the body to Oklahoma, including a recent federal court decision upholding the entire town as a Native American “museum.”

One grandson said that Thorpe spoke to him at a sweat lodge in Texas in 2010, telling him to leave the body in Jim Thorpe, with “no more pain created in my name.”

Anthony Alleyne appeared in News of the Weird in 2003 for turning his Hinckley, England, home into

a replica of the command center of Star Trek’s starship Enterprise (including transporter control, warp core drive, infinity mirror, etc.). When he later tried to sell it, he learned that, somehow, potential buyers failed to value the house as much as Alleyne imagined.

In September 2013, Alleyne was back in the news as Leicester Crown Court sentenced him to 34 months in prison for viewing child pornography -- a diversion that he blamed on years of depression following marital difficulties and of course the brutal real estate market.

The Raelian sect initially made News of the Weird in 1998 when “Bishop” Brigitte Boisselier ran a humancloning start-up planning to charge $200,000 to make identical twins. Raelian’s core belief is that humanity descended from extraterrestrials arriving on spaceships whose inhabitants explained to Raelian founder Claude Vorilhon that life’s purpose is to experience sexual pleasure. Recently, a Raelian “priestess,” Nadine Gary, has turned the sect’s attention to counseling victims of the anti-pleasure female genital mutilation, which, though horrifyingly painful, remains traditional among some African societies, and enlisted a prominent U.S. surgeon to undo the procedure, pro bono. Wrote London’s The Guardian, in an August dispatch from the surgeon’s San Francisco clinic, “(J)ust 12 minutes of delicate scalpel work (to restore the clitoris) removes a lifetime of discomfort.”

The story of Kopi Luwak coffee is by now a News of the Weird staple, begun in 1993 with the first reports that a super-premium market existed for coffee beans digested by certain Asian civet cats, collected, washed and brewed. In June, news broke that civets were being mistreated -- captured from the wild and caged solely for their bean-adulterating usefulness. In August the American Chemical Society reported that a “gas chromatography and mass spectrometry” test had finally been developed to assure buyers that their $227-a-pound Kopi Luwak beans had, indeed, been excreted by genuine Asian civets. (Thus, Kopi Luwak drinkers, at up to $80 a cup in California, can sip their brews without fear of being ripped off.) ,

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weird news

| THE READER |

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

25

planetpower W E E K L Y

H O R O S C O P E S

H

appy Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Aries, this Friday eve. It’s clear that the night of the year is here. Enjoy the weekend in your full autumn regalia, because by Moonday morning, it’s all going to (could?) fail ya. Mercury retrogrades while conjuncting Saturn in Scorpio, which it will do 3 times in total, once during the coming Scorpio transit; somehow affecting these 3 Saturnine/Mercurian conjunctions.

Watch and see how this relating karma manifests for you. What happened around October 8th relates astrologically to October 29th, and culminates around Thanksgiving week. We’ll study more when next we speak. ’Til then, be your own astrologer…

See ya at the Zombie Walk at midnight. —Da MO —MOJOPOPlanetPower.com

g LIBRA (9.22-10.21) Ahhh, the philosophy of love… Venus — our planet of love — because of its gaseous, liquid, mirror-like surface, puts off more energy than it receives from the Sun. How’s that for a definition of love? Meanwhile, back on the horizon, our Evening Star, Venus, is galloping through free-wheelin’, dealin’, nefarious, gregarious Sagittarius ’til right after the Scorpio New Moon Solar Eclipse, when the Moon conjuncts the retrograde Mercury, on November 3rd. Mix it up now, before the bill$ for your mo$t recent relation$hip re$pon$ibilitie$ $tart to accrue, a$ Venu$ move$ on into re$pon$ibility-prone Capricorn. Get the me$$age? You will. It’$ underneath the bill$$$$. h SCORPIO (10.22-11.20) You’re next. Martians: Mars is in Virgo ’til December, lighting up your 11th House. Work with your friends and/or study the occult, and maybe you’ll (eventually) grow up to be a Plutonian… Plutonians: I’ve been telling Capricorns your secrets, so for balance (Libra), I’ll share some of theirs. They’re insecure. That’s why they need so much money. They erect a financial foundation in order to be viewed as “the boss,” they love tradition — as long as it’s their tradition — and their rapacious sexual appetite (which they are always contemplating one way or da udder) is 2nd only to yours… i SAGITTARIUS (11.21-12.20) Last chance to fast. You know, you can run faster when/if you lighten your load.

Perhaps then the expansion (your ruler, Jupiter, exalted in Cancer) you’re feeling could vent/channel into other, more lucrative venues. Let’s see… Mercury’s retrograde in your 12th house, along with Saturn and the coming New Moon in Scorpio soon… Sounds like you’re tiring of having sex by yourself? We call it “celebating” — i.e., “a party for one.”

Time (Saturn) to get a better grip on both of your appetites… j CAPRICORN (12.21-1.18) Please read the autumn signs of Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius, above. Pick and choose the truths that you can use, along with all my love. Your ruler, Saturn, is exalted in our current solar transit through Libra. You’re cool.

But for your status quo to grow you’ll need to regenerate to participate around/after November 3rd/4th. Your friends and the occult (11th House) mysteries of life and death (Scorpio) are looking/booking/awaiting/anticipating your participating in this year’s masquerading. Happy Halloween(ing)! By then, we’ll/you’ll know what you/I mean…and wha’cha gonna be? k AQUARIUS (1.19-2.17) There’s a Scorpio, for sure, with a bucket of manure to toss on your allure. The retrograde Mercury (from October 21st ’til November 10th) conjunct Saturn will also be conjunct the coming Solar Eclipse New Moon soon (all in Scorpio on November 4th), in your 10th House of fame and fortune. They’re slinging some bad juju on you-you. Now, I/we know that “vou” means “you,” but where d’ya think “doo-doo” comes from, Honey Bun?

26

OCT. 17 - 23, 2013

| THE READER |

planet power

B Y

M O J O P O

l PISCES (2.18-3.19) You could read the beginning of Sagittarius, but in your case, all the Scorpio stuff works for you, as well. You’re preparing for some traveling, vacationing or educational experience that reiterates 2 days before Halloween, and then matriculates 2 days or so before and/or around Thanksgiving. Now, read the rest of Sagittarius. Happy “celebating”! a ARIES (3.20-4.18) I would suggest that you could drop out of hiding, but then we’d both be making mistakes. The Full Moon’s coming up in your sign… My God! It’s here already.

Ladies, you’ve got a chance, for you are the Moon, and know how to dance. Gentlemen, wipe off that silly grin. You’ve got 6 long months ’til…when? You’ll perhaps receive an unexpected reprieve around the 1st of February, I believe… You’ll begin to know/realize/understand around midDecember’s Full-Moon plan…(cont’d), ’til the Sun shines in your backdoor once more… b TAURUS (4.19-5.19) Read Libra, but don’t let the dollar $ign$ $care ya. They usually don’t, right? You remind me of the motorcyclist on the Geico commercial, just driving around with money flying off all around you. Botox, lyposuction, a 2-headed dildo that talks dirty to ya, and that forbidden piece of cheesecake that you figured nobody would ever know about — and no, I’m not just talkin’ ’bout dat cute widdle delivery boy a while back. How does the MOJO know? “How ’bout the groceries, Ma’am? Can I put ’em right here…?” c GEMINI (5.20-6.19) Here comes a whole season of “da blues” for youse. It’ll affect your 6th House of work and health. Keep your sense of humor and meditate on how to best handle the forthcoming mistakes. Realize that those so-called “mistakes” provide the vocabulary for (y)our creativity. Your ruler Mercury is retrograde ’til November 10th and you are cast as a cause of (the) confusion. Study the possibilities, realize and then redirect, and become a just cause by the 10th. Then, there will prove to be no mistakes, as everything happens as it’s meant. d CANCER (6.20-7.21) Happy Full Moon in Aries, celebrating the night of the year — your season — on Friday the 18th, at 6:38 in the evening, Omax time. All things of culture are born at night, and you are our bastion of culture.

Meals, family get-togethers, traditions, feasts, family security, babies — and of course, their source, mothers…

All of these show us how and why we grew out of the caves, through the forest trees and into the pastures of plenty, up to where we are today — for better or worse, a blessing or a curse… Thanks to all the moms in the universe. e LEO (7.22-8.21) Take a month off — starting now. Tell ’em your astrologer said so. Anyway, when I was 10, reading a book on Zen, it said, “A real man (or woman, for that matter… —MOJO) doesn’t have to explain him- (or her-) self.” Evidently, I’ve assimilated all the other axioms. This one still holds my attention. Please meditate on it during this coming month. Signed, your loving astrologer, MOJOPO. (Just in case they need it in writing.) f VIRGO (8.22-9.21) Here comes Mercury retrograde in your 3rd theoretical House — or whatever/wherever Scorpio is in your chart. Hey! When nothing else is happening, it’s often a great time to study your astro chart behind the scenes. Then, you could utilize any future astrological data more succinctly — your forté! Olé! And it could help you seek out mistakes and omissions to help correct an oft-erring world vision — your mission! I owe everything to astrology. #1) Get your chart done and then, #2) I’ll help translate it, that it may speak to you this week (for free). This be the truth, from Michael P. ,

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10/7/13 9:14 AM