C 2013 12 19 by News & Review

Under the Stars

POP POP

FUZZ FUZZ See MUSIC, page 33

GUNS N’

JESUS See SECOND & FLUME, page 5

STATION

A Christmas tale of brotherly love

BLACKOUT See NEWSLINES, page 8

CHUBBY CHILDREN

BY ZU VINCENT PAGE

See HEALTHLINES, page 20

ARTS DEVO’S

TOP PICS See ARTS DEVO, page 34

Chico’s News & Entertainment Weekly

Volume 37, Issue 17

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OPINION

Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Guest Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Second & Flume . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Streetalk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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HEALTHLINES The Pulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Weekly Dose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

COVER STORY

ARTS & CULTURE

REAL ESTATE

CLASSIFIEDS

ON THE COVER: ILLUSTRATION BY JASON CROSBY

Associate Editor Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia Arts Editor Jason Cassidy News Editor Tom Gascoyne Asst. News Editor/Projects Editor Howard Hardee Staff Writer Ken Smith Calendar Assistant Mallory Russell Contributors Catherine Beeghly, Craig Blamer, Alastair Bland, Henri Bourride, Rachel Bush, Vic Cantu, Matthew Craggs, Kyle Delmar, Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff, Meredith J. Graham, Miles Jordan, Karen Laslo, Leslie Layton, Mark Lore, Melanie MacTavish, Jesse Mills, Mazi Noble, Jerry Olenyn, Anthony Peyton Porter, Shannon Rooney, Claire Hutkins Seda, Juan-Carlos Selznick, Matt Siracusa, Robert Speer, Daniel Taylor, Evan Tuchinsky Intern Katherine Green Managing Art Director Tina Flynn Editorial Designer Sandra Peters Creative Director Priscilla Garcia Design Mary Key, Vivian Liu, Serene Lusano, Marianne Mancina, Skyler Smith Advertising Manager Jamie DeGarmo Advertising Services Coordinator Ruth Alderson Advertising Consultants Brian Corbit, Laura Golino, Matthew Keller Senior Classified Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay

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Arts Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 This Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Fine Arts listings . . . . . . . . . . 29 Chow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Arts DEVO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Reel World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Nightlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 In The Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

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Homeless aid must continue Chico is home to many excellent organizations offering services

to the destitute, but there are certain people within the homeless population who, for various reasons, cannot access the Torres Community Shelter. These people include folks who have pets, those with addiction issues, and others with mental illness, for example. That’s a real problem this time of year, when the weather turns bonechillingly cold. As reported by Associate Editor Christine G.K. LaPadoBreglia last week (see “Out of the cold,” Newslines, Dec. 12), three people in Santa Clara County succumbed to hypothermia-related causes recently. People in Chico, too, are at real risk of falling ill or dying due to the elements during these repeated nights of freezing temperatures. Those who live outdoors are an extremely marginalized part of our community, and they need help. Fortunately, the newly formed Chico Homeless Action Team and the Chico Peace and Justice Center have come to the rescue by opening the center’s doors so that these members of the community have a warm, safe place to spend these frigid nights. More than 20 individuals at a time have sought shelter at the small downtown center during this cold snap, and it’s very likely more will head there as word about the open-door policy spreads. The good folks behind the effort should be commended for being a stopgap, but the fact that they have to do so shows that our community has a long way to go in helping people attain the services they need to get off the streets. And that’s something to ponder during this season of giving. Ω

A destructive ‘solution’ TBay Delta Conservation Plan. Building high-capacity tunnels to remove large amounts of fresh water from the

he Butte Environmental Council opposes the

Delta will destroy the Central Valley ecosystem as well as fisheries, recreational opportunities and the agricultural economy of California. Citizens of the North State—where less than 2 percent of Californians live, and 86 percent of the freshwater in the Delta originates—must join together in opposition to the twin-tunnels project. Rerouting a major river around its natural confluence with the ocean is an outdated solution stemming from the old by mentality of ‘the bigger, and more Nani Teves expensive, the better.’ What damage this mentality has had on the environment The author is the and the economy! water-outreach Much has changed since this project coordinator for the was proposed more than 50 years ago, Butte Environmental and later defeated by voters in the early Council. 1980s. We have seen how effective waterconservation and regional self-sufficiency efforts can be, and applaud Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Slowly, we are realizing that true water security does not involve reliance on sources hundreds of miles away, but on the development of solutions closer to home. We must not be fooled into a hugely expensive, environmentally detrimental 4 CN&R December 19, 2013

project built under warnings of a water crisis while we’re still growing cotton in arid environments, mixing excessively large amounts of clean water with chemicals for fracking, and flushing drinking water down the toilet. Upon the recent release of the EIR/EIS and twin-tunnel project plan, we must remind the governor that water is connected and finite. No matter how big Jerry Brown plans to build these tunnels, there is no new water! To fill these tunnels, water will be taken from somewhere else: the Sacramento River watershed. The governor is counting on water-rights holders in the north to capitalize on a loophole and policy of double-dipping. A minority of people with rights to surface water will sell to the highest bidder to fill the tunnels—whether it be for agriculture, development, water banking or fracking—replacing their own water needs with free and unregulated groundwater. A game of get-it-while-you-can—known as the “tragedy of the commons”—leads to overpumping aquifers. It has happened in the San Joaquin Valley and other places where water supplies are poorly managed. As the groundwater table drops, wells and creeks run dry, trees die, and the Sacramento River becomes a losing river—placing California’s water supply at risk. Ω

One year after Sandy Hook A year ago last Saturday (Dec. 14), a madman walked into an

elementary school in Newtown, Conn., and opened fire, murdering 20 children and six adults before turning a gun on himself. It all took 11 minutes. Americans were horrified and outraged that Adam Lanza, the 20-yearold mentally ill shooter, had access to his mother’s arsenal. He’d killed her before going on his rampage. Shortly after the killings, a Gallup poll indicated that a majority of Americans favored stricter gun regulations. So, what has changed in the past year when it comes to gun laws? Federal lawmakers failed to expand background checks on purchasers, although some states, including California, tightened certain regulations. However, the majority of states that passed gun laws actually loosened them. According to analysis in The New York Times, of the 109 laws that states have passed, 70 eased restrictions and expanded the rights of gun owners. Meanwhile, a follow-up survey from Gallup this October indicates that support for stricter control is waning, down to 49 percent. Gun-advocate propaganda claims that arming teachers is a viable solution to school shootings. But that’s preposterous given the firepower that Lanza and Columbine High School shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris (who killed 13 and wounded many others in 1999) were carrying during two of the worst school shootings in American history. The bigger picture in the year following the tragedy in Newtown is that close to 200 American children younger than 12 have died from gunshots. Advocates for stricter gun laws vow to continue their battle in 2014, but they are up against a very powerful lobby in the form of the National Rifle Association and other deep-pocketed pro-gun groups. It will be an uphill battle. Newtown, Conn., is roughly the population of Paradise. It’s a tight-knit community that was hit hard by the Sandy Hook tragedy, and the fact is, as it stands, similar school shootings are bound to happen. It’s just a matter of time. If our lawmakers don’t act, we can only hope it doesn’t happen in our backyard. Ω

Send email to chicoletters @ newsreview.com

SECOND & FLUME by Melissa Daugherty melissad@newsreview.com

Guns and Jesus Sometimes my job is a bummer. That’s especially true when I’m researching something for a somber editorial, such as this week’s look at the oneyear anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. I’m glad the mainstream media ran the photos of the 20 little kids who were gunned down last year. Some of them are etched into my memory. Not much could be more powerful than seeing their sweet faces or the grief-stricken faces of their loved ones upon hearing the tragic news. I have mixed feelings about gun ownership. On the one hand, I believe people have a right to protect themselves and their family from harm (and to hunt). On the other, I believe certain people shouldn’t be allowed to own guns and that some guns should be banned from the public altogether. It’s one thing to own a shotgun and an entirely different thing to own a weapon that’s made specifically for killing lots of people very quickly. And while the National Rifle Association would very much like to see every teacher in America armed (with “everything from a sidearm, to a shotgun, to an AR-15,” as one Republican congressman from Arkansas was quoted as saying after Sandy Hook), I cannot imagine sending my kid to a school where his teacher has a 12-gauge handy enough to attempt to protect him from someone with an assault rifle yet safely locked away from a classroom of curious kids. Speaking of serious subjects, the so-called civil-sidewalks ordinance—the sit/lie law—is officially on the books in Chico as of today (Dec. 19). That law may keep many in the homeless community out of sight, but that doesn’t mean they’re off the streets. Is it just me who sees the irony of this law going in effect just days before Christmas? I mean, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ—aka the homeless guy who went around advocating for the needy, ill and forsaken. And I quote: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” Notice how Jesus didn’t say, “Feed the poor, just don’t do it at City Plaza, because that would look ugly to downtown shoppers.” On a related topic, several readers in our letters section take contributor Michele French to task over her guest commentary the previous week in which she gives her take on the homeless crisis through one of a number of encounters she’s had with Chico’s street dwellers. French goes around canning—that is, looking for recyclables to supplement her meager Social Security income—to make ends meet. So, she’s out and about in the community on a daily basis, coming into contact with a variety of people, many of them homeless. She has every right to voice her perspective, even if it’s counter to much of what you’ll read in the CN&R’s pages. To be fair, there are some real jerks in that population, just as there are also jerks sitting inside of local homes and businesses and city hall.

Militia musings Re “Cottonwood constitutionalists” (Cover feature, by Ken Smith, Dec. 12): It’s said that a picture is worth a thousand words. The cover shot of the “militia man” on the Dec. 13 issue of CN&R, along with the picture of “community watch” leader Jim Haagenson proudly sporting the NRA patch, pretty much describes what the “Cottonwood militia” is all about. Based on this alone, Cottonwood is certainly not on the list of towns I would want to live in or even stop in for lunch. FLOYD STEARNS Magalia

Ranting and vigilantism Re “A homeless encounter” (Guest comment, by Michele French, Dec. 12) and “Cottonwood constitutionalists” (Cover feature, by Ken Smith, Dec. 12): Your Dec. 12 issue was interesting. In the guest commentary, we get a rant against all homeless folks based on one event. Her solution is to basically put them on a forced march to somewhere (just not in her neighborhood) as though there is a “security fix” to being poor. Then we get the militia story (I don’t know why downtown property owners don’t hire them, they seem so nice) that ends noting that communities around the nation are turning to vigilantism (my word) as public services diminish. Again, the “security fix” to social ills. My bet is the political allies (if not champions) of both Ms. French and militia types are those in state government and Washington, D.C., who have no use for public services at all and have cut them deep into the bone in their celebration of the private sector and so-called “limited government.” Ain’t fascism great? BEAU GROSSCUP Cohasset

More rebuttals to commentary Re “A homeless encounter” (Guest comment, by Michele French, Dec. 12): Michele French’s guest commentary is so contrary to the excellent piece she anonymously wrote about supplementing her Social Security income by collecting recyclables (see “Canning Way of Life,” Cover feature, June 13). Her understandably emotional tirade based on specific unpleasant encounters with homeless citizens only feeds the stereotypes and hate that all of us bums endure. Would she be in favor of enforcement of laws prohibiting her canning way of life? Further, the Chico Peace and Justice Center’s grab at the homeless limelight through its formation of Chico Homeless Action LETTERS continued on page 6

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Team (see “Out of the cold,” Newslines, Dec. 12) is entirely premature. CPJC’s opening its doors to some homeless on belowfreezing nights is noble, if not illadvised on many levels. For months, I was involved in dialogue with the CPJC on homeless issues, agreeing to participate formally only if its efforts were not largely duplicative (they are) and if its primary goal was to empower homeless individuals (it isn’t). Fortunately, CPJC Director Chris Moore-Backman (who was unaware of CHAT’s alienating many of us bums) demonstrates qualities consistent with an organization whose name contains the word “peace” and “justice” as opposed to the condescension from many of those who want to chat about homelessness. DON REGIS-BILAR Chico

It was cruelly prophetic to read the guest commentary that was so against the homeless citizens (yes, they are citizens) and the death of Nelson Mandela in the same week. Mandela was a man who was able to forgive and embrace the individuals who had virtually taken his life away, yet the author [of the guest commentary] could only condemn the homeless who said a few words to her. Maybe it’s because I’m old, but the homeless never have been unkind or impolite to me. Has she ever wondered why they are homeless and on the street? Could there be mental problems, drug problems, or other choices? I have often wondered how many of these homeless people were foster children who have no family support. Perhaps help, not criticism, would go further. SANDY BOYD Chico

Michele French has a point. Sometimes homeless people are a pain in the ass. Very often, people in general are a pain in the ass. Sartre said it best: “Hell is other people.” OK, now what? We can have a tantrum and bellow stuff like this: “The homeless don’t want to behave. They don’t get along with others; they don’t want to.” Or, we can recognize how easily “homeless” becomes a label, like gypsy or faggot or nigger or ... well, one of those people. It always makes a good story, that one about how that homeless punk said this or that. Our lives aren’t that exciting, and who doesn’t appreciate a little drama? But, having recognized that “hell is other people,” life is still better if

we try to love them. Just don’t expect to succeed; that only leads to frustration. PATRICK NEWMAN Chico

If Michele French were in fact “delicately threading her way through” the homeless and their gear, she might well have gone around the homeless person’s dogfood bowl or at least civilly excused herself when she stepped over it. It is strange that you chose to publish her diatribe against the homeless in this season dedicated by most Americans to love and forgiveness. She is obviously full of hate, evidenced by her description of the homeless: “I meet stringy [whatever that means], weather-beaten men of indeterminate age with matted hair and beards, and women who look like troglodytes.” It is this type of class hatred that initiated the Holocaust and the encounter between Mark Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin who was killed by George Zimmerman. Her hyperbole should be forgiven in the spirit of the season. She apparently knows not what she says. VICTOR M. CORBETT Chico

Stop the one-sided blame Re “Protesters target Target” (Newslines, by Ken Smith, Dec. 12): If a group of Chico citizens takes the time to stand in a retail store’s parking lot and protest a company, which should they pick? Clothing and popular electronics produced in brutal sweatshop conditions? Conflict gems? Polluters? Instead, the Chico Palestine Action Group has chosen to protest SodaStream, a company that employs 900 Arabs from the West Bank and Jerusalem. They protest a company known for offering fair wages, benefits and advancement opportunities, run by a CEO recognized for speaking out on behalf of the peace process and the dignity of all his workers. They protest a super “green” company that produces appliances for consumers to make their own soda water and drinks. The logic that makes them choose SodaStream among all the world’s companies also motivates them to make Israel the focus of weekly vigils, while ignoring the gassing of civilians in Syria or the killing of protesters in Egypt. Instead of engaging in one-sided blame, let’s work for dignity and self-determination for Palestinians,

along with security and peace for the people of Israel, by supporting the peace negotiations led by our secretary of state and by promoting groups that foster Mideast dialogue and reconciliation. RABBI JULIE HILTON DANAN Chico

Fox’s Xmas gaffe It was enlightening that I learned that Fox News had put to rest the issue of Santa Claus’ ethnicity— that he is, without a doubt, Caucasian (Megyn Kelly’s comments on Fox News last week). This is an important issue that had plagued the world for years, although the images posted on billboards, advertisements and television, or from department-store Santas, should have convinced us of this fact. Yet, there were still those misguided few who continued to question whether anyone other than those of Scandinavian descent had actually made it to the North Pole. Given their history of providing “fair and balanced” commentary, I would hope Fox will continue with its revelations of the ethnicity of imaginary figures and settle the issues of the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and especially the Easter Bunny, who is known by most as a white rabbit. Following that, they can begin on the characters in Grimm’s fairy tales (what was the real color of the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood?). This is a service no other news agency has dared to address and I laud them for it. Happily, I find there is one issue that Fox News has unequivocally settled, and that is that Fox newscasters are idiots! W. DEAN CARRIER Paradise

What’s in the sky? Re “Mystery overhead” (Greenways, by Evan Tuchinsky, Dec. 5): Finally some media coverage. I have been witnessing this chemical aerosol spraying since I became aware of it in April 2013. Check out www.flightradar24.com when you see a jet plane blasting a big trail, and you’ll be surprised. If it is a commercial plane, flight radar will give you the details of what airline, destination, where it came from. It is great. Most of the really big trails are coming from European airlines (British Airways, Swissair, KLM, etc). JAMES ANTHONY Oroville More letters online:

We’ve got too many letters for this space. Please go to www.newsreview.com/chico for additional readers’ comments on past CN&R articles.

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CN&R 7

ROADRUNNERS TAKE STATE

The Butte College football team capped an undefeated (12-0) season with the state title when the Roadrunners beat the Fullerton College Hornets last Saturday (Dec. 14). The Roadrunners seized the California Community College Athletic Association title with a 28-13 victory in front of a capacity crowd at Cowan Stadium in Oroville, winning their 16th straight game. Butte College led the state in scoring this year, and the team’s defense is ranked second in the state. This is Butte College’s second CCCAA victory. The Roadrunners won the title of state champs in 2008. Butte quarterback Tommy Stuart was named the game’s Most Valuable Player, passing for 203 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

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TRASH TALK

After a somewhat lengthy discussion during its regular meeting Tuesday evening (Dec. 17), the Chico City Council voted in a split decision to authorize supplemental funding of up to $99,000 for a consultant to work on a number of tasks as part of an evaluation of the city entering into a waste-hauling franchise agreement. A franchise agreement is being explored by the city as a means of generating muchneeded revenue. However, as members of the public pointed out, the fees paid to the city by a potential franchisee—or franchisees—will be passed along to the public in the form of rate increases. “It is a fee that will be imposed upon every single person in the city who has trash collection,” said Steve Depa, president of the North Valley Property Owners Association. Councilmen Mark Sorensen and Sean Morgan, whose objections largely stemmed from the cost of the consultant, joined Councilwoman Ann Schwab in casting the dissenting votes.

PARLIAMENTARIAN PASSES

Brahama D. Sharma, a retired chemistry professor, one-time Chico City Council candidate, parliamentarian and frequent writer of letters to this paper, the Chico Enterprise-Record and The New York Times, died Dec. 5 at the age of 82. Sharma, who was born in Sampla, Punjab, India, lived his later life in both Chico and Pismo Beach after a career of teaching chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; USC; and Oregon State. Back in January, the politically active Sharma (pictured) put his name in to serve on the city’s Airport Commission. When he was described by this paper as an “Indian,” Sharma wrote a letter to the editor, speaking in the third person as he often did, to explain: “Brahama D. Sharma is Jewish by birth and a naturalized U.S. citizen and is a member of the Congregation Beth Israel of Chico in very good standing all the time he has been in Chico.” 8 CN&R December 19, 2013

Television blackout Contract impasse between two national corporations affects local TV viewers

Owent dead, at least as carried by the broadcast carrier DISH Network. Coincidentally, one

n Dec. 8, two local television stations

of those stations was the local FOX affiliate that was slated to carry on that same day a football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the by Tom Seattle Seahawks, arguably the Gascoyne biggest contest of the season for each team. tomg@ newsreview.com The dead air had local football fans, at least those who subscribe to DISH, scrambling to local bars and restaurants such as The Graduate, where they could catch the game. That was two weeks ago and the stations are still not getting aired on DISH because of an ongoing contract dispute between the Colorado-based company and New York City-based Bonten Media Group, which owns ABC affiliates KRCR News Channel 7 of Chico and Redding, as well as Chico’s KCVU FOX 20. Though both sides say, on the one hand, that they are negotiating in good faith to come up with a new contract, each is also accusing the other of outright greed that is costing the TV viewer. For the past week, DISH has run a full-page advertisement in the local daily that reads: “ABC 7 AND FOX 20

WANT YOU TO PAY 3X MORE FOR THE SAME SHOWS.” The ad goes on to urge DISH customers to call the stations’ manager, Andrew Stewart, to voice their concerns. Stewart said in a phone interview that the three-year contract between DISH and Bonten expired in November and that, as a result, DISH dropped the airing of the stations. KRCR posted this message on its website: “Dish Network has chosen not to provide the KRCR and FOX 20 signals and there has been misleading information sent to you about why they have made this choice. It is important to provide you with the facts about Bonten Media’s negotiations with DISH.” Stewart said that while contract negotiations continue, DISH is calling the shots. “We have no control here,” he said. “They’re pressing the buttons in Colorado. And I can’t speak for their timing of turning it off on the day of a Niners football game against Seattle.” Stewart said the stations get reimbursed by other signal carriers. “We are asking for three cents per day per subscriber, which is a fair price, and it’s commensurate with what we’re charging other satellite and cable companies we do business with. It’s not anything that is outlandish.” He said the landscape has changed over the years and now local stations must compensate the networks for the

programs. “In addition to what we have to pay our networks, we also pay millions of dollars for the syndicated programming that we run on our stations—shows like Modern Family, which runs Monday through Friday. These are former network programs that are resold and we purchase them and then air them on our stations.” Nationwide, DISH has blacked out 16 of Bonten and its business partner Esteem’s stations at this point. Bad relations between stations and their signal carriers have increased in recent years. In August, the website Variety.com reported that DISH customers in 36 markets had lost access to 53 stations owned by Raycom Media after the companies failed to reach a contract agreement. A contract was established after about two weeks, but the details were not released. DISH, Stewart said, is a $14 billion organization and “a difficult company to deal with.” Any chance of a breakthrough? “It’s not just our company that has gone through this with DISH,” Stewart said. “They’ve done this all over the country, and these negotiations can happen with every satellite and cable provider because they are obligated to reimburse us in small part for the distribution of our signal. They resell our signal. In fact, the highest percentage of

satellite and cable viewing is still network television.”

Back to black

The CN&R’s calls to DISH were

City Council OKs deficit-repayment plan

answered by sales reps looking to provide a contract. Their efforts to connect us to a media-relations person simply routed us back to another salesperson. An email inquiry to the company brought the following response from John Hall of DISH’s corporate communications office, who said he could not comment beyond the prepared statement, which said in part: “We are available around the clock to negotiate a deal to restore the channels; however, Bonten and Esteem continue to demand a 300 percent rate increase. This service disruption comes despite DISH’s offer of a short-term contract extension that would keep the channels up, as the two parties continue to negotiate. Furthermore, Bonten and Esteem rejected DISH’s offer to match the rates they receive from DISH’s primary competition, and additionally declined to accept the same rates that DISH pays to other broadcasters in the area.” Lynda Bos, the office manager of the local company B&T Satellite, an authorized DISH retailer, weighed in on the situation. She said she is not sure what is going on between Bonten and DISH, but defended DISH as a company. “This all depends on which side you believe,” she said. “DISH is saying Bonten wants a 300 percent increase. Bonten wants you to think they are a simple mom-and-pop company, but they have an office in the Empire State Building. It’s like my divorce attorney said: There is your side, your husband’s side—and the truth.” She said her company is advising customers to switch for the time being to Charter Communications cable service, whose month-to-month service won’t lock them into a contract if and when DISH and Bonten come to an agreement. Charles Ergen, DISH Network’s owner, “is a straight shooter,” Bos said. “He’s providing quality programming at the least possible price. It’s not his goal to own an island or anything like that. I’m more inclined to believe DISH. But you’re not going to know unless you sit through the meetings with their legal representatives.” Ergen, according to Forbes Magazine, is worth $10.6 billion and is known for contributing heavily to Democratic office-seekers. He was investigated a few years ago for allegedly putting pressure on some of his underlings to also make political contributions to Democratic candidates. In January of last year, DISH introduced a service that allows its customers to skip television commercials. In response, CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX filed lawsuits arguing that if DISH is allowed to offer the ad-skipper, it will put the networks out of business. Ω

Administrative Services Director Chris Constantin’s “fund deficit mitigation plan” was set up to pay back more than $15 million to city funds that have run in the red. FILE PHOTO BY TOM GASCOYNE

hico City Councilwoman Mary Goloff Cagainst took the admittedly unusual step of voting her own motion during the panel’s

regular meeting Tuesday evening, Dec. 17. That motion was to extend the meeting to 11 p.m., as the council members made their way through a jam-packed agenda—the final one of 2013—that had already tackled a plan to address a more than $15 million deficit as well as several other items, including a controversial plan related to waste hauling within the city (see Downstroke, page 8). Goloff’s motion came just before 10 p.m.—about 3 1/2 hours into this last meeting of the year—and Councilman Sean Morgan followed Goloff’s lead in voting nay, as did Councilwoman Tami Ritter and veteran Councilwoman Ann Schwab, who noted that clear-minded decisions don’t come that late. Those four votes meant that several items on the night’s agenda, including the consideration of a so-called social-host ordinance, would have to come back to the council in the New Year. The chief discussion Tuesday centered on a plan to address the $15.2 million in deficits in six city funds, primarily the privatedevelopment and capital-projects funds, which account for $9.3 million and $3 million of that total, respectively, as Administrative Services Director Chris Constantin explained. Constantin presented to the council a plan that includes repayment of $1.52 million each year, starting in fiscal year 2014-15 and ending in fiscal year 2021-22, and an additional $700,000 during the final year, 2022-23. He pointed out that, over the past eight months, city officials had implemented more than $5.6 million in cuts to address operational deficits. At a certain point, however, there was concern that the city would have to borrow from a $5 million line of credit by the end of the year to pay its bills.

That hasn’t happened. Constantin noted that the deficit-mitigation plan may require that the city dip into its emergency reserves for the next few years, but that in the years that follow, with revenue growth, the city should be able to cover the annual repayments with new revenues. “Once we achieve that, any incremental revenue above and beyond that becomes available to the city for expenditures— salaries, benefits, people, services—things of that nature,” he said. “But we have to get to that point to have a steady stream of new revenue that can be tied to our deficits.” Morgan was the sole council member to take issue with the plan. First, he questioned whether additional cuts to public safety would be necessary to come up with the $1.52 million. Second, he asked about alternatives to protecting the city’s cash flow, such as selling assets, in order to buoy operational costs that could be used to

SIFT|ER A preference for print Members of Generation Y—those born in the 1980s and 1990s—may have been reared on the Internet, but they still show an affinity for print media, or at least print-like media. So points out an article at TheAtlantic.com, referring to a recent Pew Research Center report finding that “[y]oung mobile readers don’t want apps and mobile browsers that look like the future. They want apps that look like the past: 58 percent of those under 50, and 60 percent of Millennials [another name for Gen Y folks], prefer a ‘print-like experience’ over tech features like audio, video, and complex graphics.”

pay for additional public-safety personnel or administrative staff. Constantin jokingly mentioned a certain “750 acres”—aka Bidwell Ranch—but then immediately followed that up with a word of caution: “We should not fall into the trap where I have an asset that I can sell, I get a one-time windfall … if that asset is worth two and three times tomorrow what it is today.” Noting that previous city management had for many years kicked the can down the road when it came to addressing certain deficits, Morgan asked what would happen if there isn’t enough new revenue or emergency reserves to pay for the plan. Constantin responded that the issue would then be taken up at the council level. “You are in control of this plan,” he assured the members. Councilman Mark Sorensen asked him to describe the consequences should the council not move forward on the deficit-mitigation plan. According to Constantin, if the general fund showed a negative fund balance, the city would have a hard time securing bonds for projects without paying an astronomical interest rate. Five members of the public spoke on the issue. Most of them voiced their support for bolstering funding to police services. There was some confusion on Morgan’s part regarding the plan, which essentially makes the repayment the city’s No. 1 budget priority and codifies that in the budget policy. Toward the end of discussion on the item, he conveyed concerns that there would not be enough new revenue or reserves to pay the yearly balance and that the city would then dip into police and fire services (which account for the bulk of the general fund). He posited the idea of using half of the new revenue for repayment and half for funding police services. As Mayor Scott Gruendl pointed out, somewhat subtly, the city is in negotiations with a number of bargaining units that could make concessions that would prevent the city from making further sweeping cuts to services. “I appreciate all the people who came up … around restoring our police staffing, but if we fail to achieve what Mr. Constantin is asking us to do, we will have no choice but to reduce what we already have. So we will do the exact opposite of what everyone is asking us to do,” Gruendl said. In the end, the council voted 6-1 (with Morgan dissenting) to approve the plan. The panel is scheduled to reconvene on Jan. 6 for a budget-related goal-setting workshop. —MELISSA DAUGHERTY melissad@newsreview.com

NEWSLINES continued on page 10 December 19, 2013

CN&R 9

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meat, dairy, beer and wine, to residents of the Chapmantown area. On Dec. 31, after 35 years, the store at 1345 Laurel St. will close its doors for the last time because owner Lola Wong is retiring. “I feel lucky to have done this for 35 years,” she said. “I’m happy to have been successful.” Wong, who said the building is about 120 years old, bought it in 1978 with her husband Hoi, who died two years later of cancer. For the last 33 years, she has run the store by herself, working seven days a week, 12 hours a day. For the first 20 years, she didn’t take Christmas or Thanksgiving off. “It’s crazy and a lot of work, but I don’t do this just to make money,” she said. “I also do it for people who don’t have cars, including seniors who don’t have any transportation.” Wong said she looks forward to spending time with her granddaughters and that she may turn the store into apartments or sell it. Her plan is to run the store through Friday, Dec. 20, take a vacation, and then come back to work for the final two days of December. Asked why she needed to come back for those final two days of 2013, she explained: “I don’t want to do things halfway. Lola is really stubborn. It’s the American way to finish up what we start.” Wong grew up in Hong Kong,

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then moved to the United States with her parents and grandparents. She said she came across the store by coincidence. Living in Yuba City, she commuted to Chico State, where she graduated with a degree in accounting in 1974. “My first year at college was the first year they called it a university,” she said. “Before then, it was called ‘Chico State College.’” She had two brothers who owned grocery stores; after her graduation, she and her husband moved to Chico intent on opening Laurel Market owner Lola Wong is closing the store after 35 years in Chapmantown. PHOTO BY VIC CANTU

a store of their own. Upon arrival, she recalled, they ate lunch at Jack’s Family Restaurant on Main Street and then went for a walk. They asked a random man if he knew of a store for sale. The man happened to be a real-estate agent; he told them that Laurel Market was up for sale. The Wongs not only bought the store, but also purchased a home from the same agent as well. “People call it Laurel Street Grocery, Laurel Street Market or Laurel Market, but they all come to the same place,” Wong said, laughing. She said that over the years she’s seen her customer base change. “I’ve been here a long 35 years and watched a lot of people grow up,” Wong explained. “Now I watch their kids grow up.” But not all the changes have been good. “Thirty-five years ago life was a lot easier; now life is tougher,” she said. “The economy makes people change.”

During a recent visit to the store, one customer of seven years expressed his gratitude that Wong had been so consistent. “For her to keep doing this so long is way impossible,” he said. “My best wishes go out to her.” When she told another customer that he was buying her last 12-pack of Sierra Nevada beer, he said, “I really appreciate you.” She responded by smiling and saying, “I appreciate you.” Wong said customers don’t want to see her close because her store is so convenient. The only other market in Chapmantown north of 20th Street was Chinca’s, which closed several years ago. “One customer said I should not retire until I am 80,” she said, “but I said I’m not going to wait that long. Time to go back to a normal life. No more grocery store for me.” Another customer said she is happy for Wong and her decision to close. “It’s a good store with almost anything you need, but at least she’s retiring to spend more time with her family,” the woman said. Overall, Wong said she feels a great sense of liberation in retiring. “Do I feel a big relief?” she asked rhetorically. “You may say it again.” —VIC CANTU

N E W

Case overload DA DA pushes pushes for for new new court court tied tied to to state state prisoner prisoner realignment realignment

Y E A R’S

E V E

Celebration

report released this spring by Chico State political science professors indicated the prisoner realignment under Assembly Bill 109 has been a success, both locally and statewide, in terms of reducing rates of recidivism. At that time, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey, who has been critical of the bill in the past, said he was pleased with the report and that it “shows that the process is working for AB 109 here.” However, Ramsey appeared to take the opposite stance during the Butte County Board of Supervisors meeting on Dec. 10, when he argued that the county needs to increase its capacity to process felony cases. Signed into law in April 2011, AB 109 was a response to a federal mandate to address overcrowding in California’s prisons. By keeping newly convicted low-level felons in county jail to serve their sentences, the state has prevented tens of thousands of new admissions. But during the recent supervisors’ meeting, Ramsey maintained that AB 109 has further strained the county’s overloaded criminaljustice system. “We have better figures now, two years into this grand experiment,” he said, proceeding to fire off statistics on criminal activity in Butte County. Between October 2011 and October 2013, felony filings are up 21 percent, he said, while vehicle thefts are up 100 percent and drug cases are “up dramatically.” Additionally, many cases of repeat drug offenders—which Ramsey dubbed “rubber band” offenders because their multiple charges eventually get grouped together in court—are a direct result of realignment, he said. “AB 109 causes overcrowding at our jail, and the people most often released are drug offenders, who have a tendency to go right back to their drug dealing and drug using,” he explained during a recent phone interview. “What we see is that they commit a number

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Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey says the county needs a fourth felony court to process backed-up cases. CN&R FILE PHOTO

of drug crimes before we even get them into court.” The CN&R pressed Ramsey on the apparent discrepancy between his earlier statement on AB 109’s positive effect on recidivism rates and his report of an increase in repeat drug offenders. “That depends on your definition of recidivism,” he said, pointing out that rubber-band cases aren’t included in recidivism statistics. “The figures on people who have actually received a conviction, serve their sentence and have some recovery time are pretty good. The folks who haven’t been convicted yet aren’t considered recidivists.”

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sors’ meeting, Ramsey illustrated how his office has become bogged down by felony filings to justify his request for a general-fund allocation of $338,108 to staff a fourth felony court. Currently, a typical felony case takes about six months to be resolved, Ramsey said, while murder cases can take up to two years. “When I look back [to] many years ago, it was not unusual to have a murder case wrapped up in six months.” The supervisors approved the budget adjustment and, with the recent addition of four prosecuting attorneys, the new court will be up and running by the beginning of January. (In this context, the term “court” refers to a scheduled time to process felony cases, not a building.) Ramsey did concede that AB 109 is not exclusively to blame for his office’s increased workload. He said that, over the years, criminal law in general has become increasingly complex, meaning “much more work for each case.” —HOWARD HARDEE howardh@newsreview.com

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CN&R 11

Shop Local

Gift Guide

Hot Holiday Accessories

Happy Holidays To you Chico! We are proud to be a part of this beautiful community and offer the best of the best for all of your dressing needs. We not only sell hand picked vintage and locally made Jewelry, we carry many of the name brands you love to wear such as True Religion, J crew, Banana Republic, Free People, Moth, BCBG, Joes, Valentino, Elevenses, and MANY MANY more! Stop by for a little treat for yourself, or to find that special gift for your darling loved ones.

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Garton Tin Lizzy Pedal Car Take him back to his childhood. He probably won’t fit into this rare “Garton” Tin Lizzy Pedal Car but it will be fun watching him try! It’s all original! You’ll also find war memorabilia, clothing, Playboy art, trains, boats, jewelry, and much, much more. Chico Antique Center has over 9,000 sq. ft. of space that local vendors showcase their timeless treasures.You’re sure to find something from yesteryear that family, friends, and coworkers will love when they open their holiday gift from you. Take your time, there’s lots to see.

Anika Burke Eclectic Boutique enjoys providing Chico with the essence of California’s casual lifestyle. This ever popular shop is chock-full of modern and classy womens clothing and accessories. Dress with ease and rock every piece you wear! This weeks special offer: Mix & match scarves are 5 for $30 or $12.95 each.

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Comfort and Joy Pamper yourself and a loved one this holiday season with the huge selection of candles, oils, incense, healing stones and more that you can find at Chico’s very own downtown Chinatown. Get rid of unwanted stress and enjoy your holiday season!

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CN&R’s Gift Guide — A speCiAl AdveRtisiNG seCtioN 12 CN&R December 19, 2013

You Won’t Go Wrong giving her a gift certificate from Cathy’s Sew & Vac/Honey Run Quilters. It’s hard to choose that just right sewing machine or vacuum, but with a gift certificate she can choose from a huge selection of name brand machines. Plus, you’ll be surprised at what else Cathy’s carries. Soy candles, green cleaning products, fabric, thread, patterns, BBQ’s and BBQ sauces, Dirt Devils, heaters, floor cleanGift CertifiCate ers and sanitizers. The list goes on and on. You’ve probably driven by Cathy’s many times and not stopped. This time STOP, and be impressed.

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CN&R’s Gift Guide — A speCiAl AdveRtisiNG seCtioN December 19, 2013

CN&R 13

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Gift Guide

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5th Street SteAKhouSe

345 W. Fifth St. • (530) 891–6328 5thstreetsteakhouse.com

Tasty Gift Ideas Voted Chico’s Best Asian Cuisine, Best Take-Out and Oroville’s Best Restaurant, Tong Fong Low offers a delicious dining experience. Stuff your loved ones holiday stockings with Gift Certificates for this popular, locally owned and operated restaurant. Purchase $100 and receive an extra $10 FREE. Offer valid during the holidays only. Tong Fong Low wishes everyone good health and happy dining! Catering available.

toNG foNG Low

2075 East 20th St, Suite 100 • Chico (530) 898–1388 2051 Robinson Ave • Oroville (530) 533–1488

Christian & Johnson Floral and Gifts is celebrating over a century of gorgeous Holidays! Stop by and browse through their winter wonderland of unique gifts, lovely seasonal décor, fresh flowers and plants. Don’t forget the complimentary gift wrapping. Friendly and experienced designers will be happy to help make your gift-giving beautiful, and your Season memorable! Since 1907, C&J has been making the Holidays bright in Chico!

ChriStiAN & JohNSoN

250 Vallombrosa • Chico (530) 891–1881 christianandjohnson.com

Give the gift of fun! Donkey Otey, a miniature donkey, or Cisco, a miniature horse, will attend your birthday party, wedding or other celebration. Cart rides for you and your friends add to the fun. Use us in your holiday photos! This non-profit organization is supported by donations for its educational programs and projects. Children become motivated when a mini-donkey is part of their lesson. Gift Certificates available.

LittLe NeiGhS, LittLe BrAyS

(530)828-0171 • (530) 345–7825 www.littleneighslittlebrays.com • friesjnt@aol.com

CN&R’s Gift Guide — A speCiAl AdveRtisiNG seCtioN 14 CN&R December 19, 2013

Personalized Porcelain Christmas Ornaments Bring your special photo to print on a personalized Christmas ornament, available in 2 different shapes. All work done inhouse. This gift is only $14.95 each, and includes a velvet presentation bag. Order now for Christmas. Andy’s Embroidery offers a huge selection of personalized gifts, from coffee mugs to woven sofa throws. They are family–owned, celebrating 25 years in business. Stop by to see their variety of personalized gift items.

Andy’s EmbroidEry

Give the perfect gift from 2013 Best Of Chico’s Day Spa Sweetwater Gift Cards - Beautifully Boxed and Wrapped. Or Sweetwater’s Customer Favorite: The Holiday Spa Package for only $129! Includes Signature spa facial - Relaxation massage Spa pedicure. Purchase now through December 31.

swEEtwAtEr dAy spA

1031 Village Lane • Chico (530) 894–7722 www.sweetwaterchico.com

820 Wall St. • Chico (530) 893–3316 • www.andysembroidery.com

Chico’s Own Locally Grown Wines. The Perfect Holiday Gift. Bertagna Son Kissed Vineyards grows only the highest-quality, organic grapes. Meticulous farming in the field and attention to detail in the winery produce a superior quality product. Find our wines at Chico Natural Foods, S&S Produce, Chico Costco, Raley’s Safeway, BevMo, Maisie Jane’s, J&J Cellars, The Olive Pitt, Wagon Wheel Market, Tops Market and SaveMart, to list a few. Please see our website for a complete listing. Our tasting room is open seasonally the first weekend of the month from April – October.

bErtAGnA son kissEd vinEyArds

3363 Hegan Lane • Chico • (530) 343–8014 www.BertagnaWine.com

Bacio Gift Cards! Give the gift of a lunch or dinner from Chico’s Best Take- Out! Perfect for hot soup on a cold day, “Date Night” at home or a special birthday lunch. Their reloadable gift cards are a welcome gift for all of your smart foodie friends, new parents, busy families and anyone you know who loves real food. EAT RIGHT NOW!

bACio CAtErinG & CArry-oUt

1903 Park Ave • Chico (530) 345–7787 www.baciocatering.com

Enjoy a True Chico Tradition Gift cards and Our New Clubhouse! Our gift cards make a perfect stocking stuffer, plus they can even be used in the new Round Table Clubhouse on Pillsbury, where there is something for everyone! Of course, there’s our world-famous pizza and salad bar, more beers on tap including a wide selection of craft beers, our expanded menu with burgers, shakes & blended cocktails, new appetizers, a bigger game room for the kids with ticket redemption for prizes and big-screen HDTVs to watch your favorite team!

Shubert’s Homemade Ice Cream & Candy has been a Chico tradition for over 75 years! Homemade boxed chocolates, peanut brittle, English toffee and Divinity are just a few treats our families have come to look forward to during the holidays. Pre-order ice-cream pies now! The perfect holiday dessert! Don’t forget your Shubert’s Mints this season – no holiday celebration would be complete without them!

shUbErt’s iCE CrEAm & CAndy

178 E. Seventh St Chico (530) 342–7163 www.shuberts.com

roUnd tAblE pizzA

www.RoundTablePizza.com Chico • Gridley • Orland • Oroville Paradise • Red Bluff • Willows

CN&R’s Gift Guide — A speCiAl AdveRtisiNG seCtioN December 19, 2013

CN&R 15

Shop Local

Gift Guide

Help Your Loved Ones Perform Their Best

California Sunshine in a Bottle Share the rich, golden elegance of the AWARD WINNING Butte View olive oils. Pure, light and delicate – experience the wonderful aromas and distinctive accents that make each hand-crafted oil truly unique and excellent. 250ml/500ml. Available in Chico at Maisie Jane’s, Made in Chico, S&S Produce; in Oroville at Collins & Denny Market & Wagon Wheel Market; and in Paradise at Noble Orchard.

butte View oliVe company

2950 Louis Ave. • Oroville, CA (530) 534–8320 • www.butteview.com

The business name alone is a testament to Built for Bodywork’s philosophy about massage. Simply put, the human body was designed to be massaged regularly, not just when there is pain or for pampering. Whether sports massage, deep tissue massage, or relaxing Swedish massage, the therapists at Built for Bodywork are specifically trained to perform this essential work. Consider giving your loved ones a gift card this sports m holiday season to help them assage / deep tiss perform their best! ue

BUILT FO BODYW R ORK

built for bodywork

1166 Esplanade #2 • Chico • (530) 924–0298 facebook.com/chicobodywork

Boutique shopping in Chico Mall has never been like this! Come to Katie’s Corner II for fine ladies clothing, fashion accessories and gifts. Also, browse our decorative accents for the home and our one-of-a-kind vintage and antique pieces for entertaining and hosting afternoon tea. Katie’s clothing selections are unique and appeal to fashion conscious women with discriminating tastes. Interwoven among the clothing are beautiful displays of unusual home accents, and vintage and antique pieces collected from around the world!

katie’S corner ii

Inside Chico Mall, next to Sears Chico • (530) 892–2228

Local Deliciousness Llano Seco Rancho is a historic California Rancho in its sixth generation of responsible land and animal stewardship. Our organic pork and beef and heirloom bean products are for sale at Chico Natural Foods Co-op, S&S Produce, and the Chico Certified Farmers’ Market (Sat mornings). Also enjoy them at Grana, Bacio Catering, Red Tavern, The Kitchen Table, Winchester Goose, Sierra Nevada Restaurant, and Green Paradise Cafe.

llano Seco

www.llanoseco.com

Brew Your Own Right At Home The Chico Home Brew Shop is the place to go for all of your brewing and winemaking needs. We carry beer and wine makers equipment, ingredients, books, soda extract, cheese making ingredients, bottles, caps, corks, spouts, growlers and much more. We are happy to answer any questions you may have too! Come by today! Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm. Friday until 6pm.

the chico home brew Shop 1570 Nord Ave, Chico (530) 342–3768 homebrushop@yahoo.com

Creative Cuisine Located in the Hotel Diamond, Johnnie’s Restaurant is known for creating the most popular and creative cuisine in Northern California. Serving breakfast daily from 7 to 11am. Serving brunch every Saturday & Sunday from 10am to 2pm. Serving lounge menu 11am to 9pm Sunday through Wednesday. Lunch and dinner available seven days week in the lounge. Dining room is open from 5pm to close Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Johnnie’s lounge features popular local live music and only the finest wines, spirits and small–plate cuisine. Johnnie’s is the Re st au ra nt & Lo un ge perfect place to unwind after a hard day’s work, or just relax with friends. Happy hour daily 2 to 6pm.

Johnnie’S

220 W. Fourth St. • Chico (530) 895–1515

CN&R’s Gift Guide — A speCiAl AdveRtisiNG seCtioN 16 CN&R December 19, 2013

gift card

EARTH WATCH CHERNOBYL ENTOMBMENT UNDERWAY

Nearly 30 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (at the time, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic), the accident site still has not been securely contained. After the catastrophic event, almost a quarter of a million construction workers were employed to build a massive, specially designed metal-and-concrete structure—the “sarcophagus”—to cover over the damaged reactor, as reported at Gizmodo.com. However, the structure is decaying and efforts are now underway to build an even bigger protective structure over the current one, a $2 billion project that uses a protective metal shield called the New Safe Confinement, or NSC. “One of the biggest engineering projects in history, it has been likened to a gigantic metal igloo, built to seal off hundreds of tons of nuclear fuel and dust buried inside,” said BBC News about the NSC.

GREENWAYS

What’s in your water?

Research finds a number of unregulated chemicals in U.S. drinking-water samples

BURIED TOXINS ON TREASURE ISLAND

Two dozen families living on San Francisco’s Treasure Island, which served for decades as a U.S. Navy base, have been asked to leave their homes so that the Navy can clean up toxic substances buried underneath those homes. In late November, residents of the homes in question received a letter from the Navy informing them that they will be moved out in stages, beginning in April and ending in July, according to SFGate.com. “This work is part of the Navy’s ongoing cleanup of buried and currently inaccessible low-level chemicals that were identified in prior assessments,” reads part of the letter. However, according to a recent NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit news story, “people never should have been allowed to live” in the area in which the homes are located, due to its radiological contamination. A radiation reading taken by Navy-contracted radiation expert Don Wadsworth at one of the homes showed levels one million times that recommended for an occupied residence by both the U.S. Environmental Agency and the California Department of Public Health.

YELLOWSTONE CHANGES CONCERNING

Rapidly increasing pressures from human beings and climate change are transforming Yellowstone National Park in a worrying way. A biennial report released Dec. 10 by the Yellowstone Center for Resources noted that the nearly 150-year-old national park is in a drought condition due to decreased precipitation and snowpack, and that 18 fires—six caused by humans—burned more than 5,600 acres of the park last year, according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. With the number of Yellowstone visitors anticipated to increase, more humancaused fires—as well as a decreasing number of amphibians, which are sensitive to dry conditions—are among the changes predicted. Send your eco-related news tips to Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia at christinel@newsreview.com.

Brian Bienkowski

races of 18 unregulated

chemicals were found in drinking water from more than one-third of U.S. water utilities in a nationwide sampling, according to new, unpublished research by federal scientists. Included are 11 perfluorinated compounds, an herbicide, two solvents, caffeine, an antibacterial compound, a metal and an antidepressant. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency analyzed single samples of untreated and treated water from 25 U.S. utilities that voluntarily participated in the project. Twenty-one contaminants were detected—mostly in low concentrations of parts per trillion—in treated drinking water from at least nine of the utilities. Eighteen of the chemicals are not regulated under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, so utilities do not have to meet any limit or even monitor for them. “The good news is the concentrations are generally pretty low,” said Dana Kolpin, a research hydrologist with the USGS who participated in the study. “But,” he added, “there’s still the unknown. Are there long-term consequences of low-level exposure to these chemicals?” For many of the contaminants, little is known about any potential human health

effects of low doses. But one of the perfluorinated compounds, known as PFOA, has been linked to a variety of health problems, including cancer, among people in communities where water is contaminated by a chemical plant in West Virginia. Of 251 chemicals, bacteria, viruses and microbes the scientists measured, 117 were not detected in any of the treated drinking water. Twenty-one were found in water from more than one-third of the 25 utilities (nine or more) and 113 were found in less than one-third (eight or fewer). EPA research chemist Susan Glassmeyer, who led the project, said the utilities, which remain anonymous, represented a mix of large and small, and used different water-treatment technologies. Preliminary findings of the study, which is expected to be published next year, were presented by the scientists at a toxicology conference in Nashville last month. While studies increasingly report newly emerging contaminants in wastewater, there has been little data on which ones are in drinking water. Four of the chemicals found in the samples—the metal strontium, the herbi-

Drinking-water safety issues:

Go to www.water.epa.gov/lawsregs/ rulesregs/sdwa to learn more about the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

cide metolachlor, PFOS and PFOA—are on the EPA’s list of chemicals under consideration for drinking-water standards. The EPA plans to make decisions regarding at least five of the contaminants on its list next year. “We’re hoping through this work the EPA will do a much more intensive contaminant candidate list and develop new methods and requirements for drinking water plants,” said Edward Furlong, a scientist with the USGS who participated in the study. Perfluorinated chemicals, which

were found most frequently, are widely used in a variety of industrial processes, including manufacture of some nonstick and stain-resistant food packaging, fabrics and cookware. The two most common perfluorinated compounds, PFOS and PFOA, in the utilities’ water have been detected in the blood of nearly all people in the United States. A panel of scientists has concluded that there is a “probable link” between PFOA in drinking water and high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, testicular cancer, kidney cancer and pregnancyinduced hypertension. The findings were based on people in Mid-Ohio Valley communities whose water was polluted with PFOA from a DuPont plant. PFOS, used in Scotchgard until 3M phased it out in 2002, has been linked to attention disorders in children and thyroid disease in men. GREENWAYS continued on page 19 December 19, 2013

CN&R 17

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18 CN&R December 19, 2013

ECO EVENT GPS MAPPING FOR TEENS! As part of its Teen Camp series, the Chico Creek Nature Center (1968 E. Eighth St.) is hosting a mapmaking workshop for teenagers on Friday, Dec. 20, from 1 to 4 p.m. Participants will learn to use GPS devices to create a digital, online map of the trees growing on the grounds of the nature center (in addition to getting to hang out among beautiful trees). Cost: $20. Call 891-4671 or go to www.bidwellpark.org for more information.

The EPA has classified metolachlor as a possible human carcinogen based on studies of highly exposed rats. Strontium can affect bone growth, according to some animal studies that used doses much higher than those found in drinking water. The perfluorinated compounds were at similar concentrations in the untreated and treated drinking water, suggesting that treatment techniques are largely unsuccessful. Only one plant was successful at removing them, and it used activated carbon treatment. Activated carbon, ozone and UV treatments are generally better at removal than traditional chlorine treatment, but such techniques are often prohibitively expensive, Glassmeyer said. “People resent having to pay anything for water,” she said. “There’s the thought that there’s a God-given right to have as much as we want but, if you want the cleanest water, these techniques take money.” Treatment also can sometimes transform compounds into new ones, said Laurel Schaider, a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health. “Chlorination and other treatment technologies will remove some contaminants, but will react with others,” Schaider said. “Some compounds may appear to be removed but may be transformed to a chemical we know even less about.” Ω This story was previously published by Environmental Health News; go to www.environmental healthnews.org to access the website of the independent, nonprofit news organization.

THE

reen HOUSE by Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia christinel@ newsreview.com

Hoste d by DEVO A & fea rts turing perfo Chiko rmances b ko & y more TBA

HOLIDAY THANK-YOUS Many thanks to everyone involved with Chico Com-

munity Ballet’s recent three-day run of Cinderella at Chico State’s Laxson Auditorium. My 12-year-old daughter Lydia and I joined the many other eager little girls and their parents and/or grandparents who went to Sunday’s matinee performance (Dec. 15) of the beloved fairy tale, featuring the beautiful music of late Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. The costumes were gorgeous, as was the scenery (thanks to set designer David Beasley), and the dancing (and wordless acting) by every single performer was topnotch and captivating. It was easily one of the best shows I have been to in quite some time, and the equivalent of PHOTO COURTESY OF CHICO PERFORMANCES ballets I have seen performed by ballet companies in much bigger cities. Many kudos! Along the thank-you lines, Butte Environmental Council board chairman Mark Stemen offers these words, in reference to BEC’s recently dropping its appeal to save the historic valley oak tree and other trees at the corner of West Eighth and Salem streets. The trees are slated for removal to make way for the building of Salvation Army transitional housing (as covered in this column and in a recent CN&R Downstroke news brief). “I want to thank the folks at the Salvation Army and the Blitz Build program at the university. They have worked with us at BEC, and they are fully committed to doing the right thing,” Stemen wrote in a recent email to me. “They have agreed to plant three times the number of trees they are required to plant by code. “The tree species will be of the valley oak mixed-riparian vegetation type, as identified in the [city of Chico’s draft of the] Urban Forest Management Plan, and they have agreed to put the fallen trees to a use that is ‘as beneficial to the City and planet as possible,’ also called for in the Urban Forest Plan.” Thanks, Mark!

LAST-MINUTE ECO-FRIENDLY GIFT-GIVING Local videographer and homeless advocate Bill Mash of Without a Roof let me know about a wonderful possibility for eco-friendly (and Christmas-spirited) gift-giving: Check out the Torres Community Shelter’s gift registries at Collier Hardware and/or The Galley kitchen-supply store and purchase some much-needed kitchen supplies (like cookware, cooking utensils, small appliances and so on) for the busy shelter’s nearly completed (and much-needed) new kitchen. Another possibility, as shelter director Brad Montgomery points out in the Torres Shelter newsletter, Porch Light, is “a gift card from merchants that carry kitchen items, such as Target, Walmart, Kmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, or Big Lots.” Go to www.chicoshelter.org for contact info for the Torres Shelter. For more conventional gift-giving, Greenways contributor-extraordinaire Claire Hutkins Seda offered me some great ideas if one is hardpressed for time and thus shopping online. “I think the most eco-friendly stuff is used,” she wrote, “so I buy stuff on half.com, ebay.com, etc.” Seda also likes popular handmade-gift site Etsy.com, as well as HyenaCart.com— “more focused on kids and mamas”—for its many listings of super-cute ecofriendly handmade items, such as Tailored Tushies Snorkelpotamus yoga pants and TimButt2oos Reindeer Games pj sets. There’s a huge variety of other items as well, including vanilla-pecan butter- A framed painting recently joined the painted rock crunch candy and a Nutcracker- in front of the CN&R. Thanks, artsy strangers! themed “mama pad” set. PHOTO BY CHRISTINE G.K. LAPADO-BREGLIA

Calling all performance artists, sword swallowers, musicians, mimes, thespians, magicians, competitive eaters, ballerinas, Olympic curlers, contortionists, one-man bands, mind readers, chainsaw jugglers, spelling-bee champs, interpretive dancers, slam poets, organ grinders, and everyone else with a talent for keeping Chico weird … the Chico News & Review wants to put you on the stage for the

Keep Chico Weird Talent Show! Friday, Jan. 31 El Rey Theatre To purchase tickets, visit cnrsweetdeals.newsreview.com Performers of every style are eligible to participate (visual artists, too, for the Weird Gallery in the lobby). Must be 18-over.

Email a description of your three-minute act (and if you’ve got ‘em, include photos, video and/or audio samples, and any pertinent Internet links), or a photo of your art, plus contact information, and the names and ages of everyone in your act to:

keepchicoweird@gmail.com or mail to: Chico News & Review (attn. Keep Chico Weird) 353 E. second St. | Chico, CA 95928 Deadline for submissions is Thursday, January 9. Selected entrants will be notified the following week.

EMAIL YOUR GREEN HOME, GARDEN AND COMMUNITY TIPS TO CHRISTINE AT CHRISTINEL@NEWSREVIEW.COM

December 19, 2013

CN&R 19

CARE ON DEATH ROW

The level of psychiatric care death-row inmates receive in California was recently deemed inadequate by a federal judge. In light of an investigation of prison-based mental-health-care facilities managed by the California Department of State Hospitals, a Dec. 10 ruling from U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton requires state officials to provide more intensive care to death-row inmates, according to California Healthline. In June, attorneys representing state inmates requested Karlton order the opening of a new psychiatric-treatment facility in Vacaville, a review of death-row inmates’ mental-health needs, and changes to current state policies on the use of batons, pepper spray and other weapons on mentally ill prisoners. State officials, now under federal oversight, will begin psychiatric evaluations of prisoners to determine how many death-row inmates will require mental-health services.

PHOTO BY DIGITAL VISION/THINKSTOCK

THE PULSE

HEALTHLINES

Kids’ health conundrum

MOVEMENT VERSUS MEDS

Physical activity may be just as effective as medication when it comes to treating serious illnesses, a study finds. Researchers from the London School of Economics and Political Science and Stanford University School of Medicine compiled data from 305 experiments relating to mortality among patients with one of four conditions: diabetes, heart disease, chronic heart failure or stroke, according to The New York Times. The results consistently indicated that drugs and exercise produced nearly identical results; for instance, heart-disease patients who exercised but did not use commonly prescribed medications such as statins and antiplatelet drugs had the same mortality rate as heartdisease patients who took medication. The exception was chronic heart failure, for which diuretic drugs were a more effective treatment than exercise. “We’re not suggesting that anyone stop taking their medications,” said Huseyin Naci, one of the study’s authors. “But maybe people could think long and hard about their lifestyles.”

EASING LIVESTOCK OFF DRUGS

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 11 introduced a three-year plan to curb the use of some antibiotics commonly fed to livestock. Currently, antibiotics are typically available to farmers and ranchers over the counter, and are used in the feed and water of cattle, pigs and poultry to help them gain weight quickly for market, a practice that has long raised concerns of antibiotic-resistant diseases spreading in humans, according to SFGate.com. The FDA’s Veterinary Feed Directive will allow the livestock industry to continue using antibiotics—as long as they’re not ones designed for humans. Additionally, pharmaceutical companies that sell antibiotics for livestock have been asked to voluntarily change drug labels over the next 90 days to say the products can be sold to treat sick animals only under a veterinarian’s supervision. Send your health-related news tips to Howard Hardee at howardh@newsreview.com.

20 CN&R December 19, 2013

Local experts offer tips for raising fit, active children by

Evan Tuchinsky

I lifestyles of many California children are less than ideal. In general, they log a lot t’s probably no surprise that the

of “screen time” on computers, video-game consoles, smartphones and televisions, and tend to favor the kinds of food they see on commercials: fast, sugary and fatty. Two recent reports support this observation. The California Department of Education determined that only about a third of all fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders passed all six parts of the state’s annual test of physical fitness last year. Meanwhile, UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research found that children ages 2 to 5 eat a lot of fast food—even as soda consumption trends downward—and youngsters’ diets have a marked lack of fruits and vegetables. These pieces of research fit into a larger tapestry: Nationally, 35 percent of children are overweight and 15 percent are obese. “Younger kids who aren’t exercising to prevent the bad cholesterol from getting deposited in their arteries, and are eating all that junk food and getting overweight, they’re just setting themselves up for high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes when they get older,” said Dr. Craig Corp, a pediatrician in Chico. “We have way more 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds than we did years ago coming in with Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, because basically they’re 40-year-old couch potatoes at age 12.” Our children’s health is a major concern for health professionals and society as a whole. As Corp explained, “health-care

costs in our country will go through the roof when these kids get older.” So, what can be done to get kids healthier? The CN&R posed the question to local experts in children’s health and development. Their recommendations ranged from small steps to broad policies. “Practical ways to make kids healthy are not new [concepts],” said Dr. Maria Alice Alino, a pediatrician at Oroville Hospital who conducts a health-education program called Fitness for Teens. “We just need more awareness.” Here are their suggestions:

Activity • Make movement a family habit. Professor Cindy Wolff, program director of Chico State University’s Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion, says that “a lot of parents are really sedentary, yet they expect their kids to be active. We’re not role-modeling appropriate activities.” Choose something physical for the whole family. Take bicycle rides together, or encourage children to bike alongside you as you jog or run. Even games like

foosball and Wii Fit get everyone moving. Do this regularly—perhaps each night after dinner, Wolff said, “because that’s when your blood glucose goes up, your blood lipids go up, and that’s the exact time that you don’t want to sit down and relax.” • Limit screen time to an hour or two per day. Corp says parents can get technological help for enforcing these limits by searching “parental time-control software” on the Internet and downloading an app. • Stand—don’t sit—when you’re talking on the phone. Even better, walk and talk. • Get your child a pedometer. Alino recommends taking 12,000 steps a day. Kids may be surprised at the number of steps they’re already taking, then push themselves for more.

Eating • Take the time to prepare meals using whole foods. “The reality is people are busy,” Corp conceded. “It’s a challenge, but … it’s definitely possible to do.” HEALTHLINES continued on page 23

APPOINTMENT WEEKEND KITTY CARE Chico Hospital for Cats (548 W. East Ave.), which has been offering feline-specific health care since 1998, recently expanded days of operation to include Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., due to the addition of a new staff doctor. Hours on weekdays are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; go to www.chicocats.com or call 892-2287 for more information.

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• Consider a low-glycemicindex—or diabetic—diet. Corp says the average child consumes 35 teaspoons of sugar a day. Cutting refined sugars and flours can make a big impact on weight, cravings and hormones. Limit sweets to occasional treats. • At the supermarket, read labels carefully. Processed foods, in particular, tend to have high levels of sweeteners and salt, but so can products you wouldn’t expect, such as canned vegetables and beans. • Replace sugar-filled drinks with naturally flavored water. Ellen Michaels, a health educator with the Butte County Public Health Department, says that while soda consumption has decreased, the consumption of sports drinks has increased. “Sugary drinks are a big caloric contributor,” she said. Unfortunately, Alino pointed out, many kids “don’t even know the concept” of water as a drink— “they think it’s for taking a shower and washing clothes.” So, try giving children chilled water with a natural flavor garnish: mint leaves, orange slices, lemon slices, strawberries, cucumbers, etc. “Kids taste it and like it,” Alino said. • Get your child his/her own water container for hydration on the go. • Bring healthy snacks in the car. When kids get hungry and see a fast-food sign, you can deflect their craving. • Make sure the healthiest foods you buy are highly visible. Put them in the front of the refrigerator, cabinets and pantry shelves. “What’s visible is what’s usually

Read the research:

Go to www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/pf/ pftresults.asp for the state assessment on physical fitness and www.tinyurl.com/fastfoodstudy for the UCLA study on eating habits.

taken,” Wolff said. • Talk about nutrition at home to encourage your children to make better choices away from home. Wolff compares healthy eating to tooth-brushing—if parents start early enough, they’ll instill habits that last.

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CN&R 23

What we want for Christmas A tale of brotherly love

FICTION BY ZU VINCENT ILLUSTRATIONS BY JASON CROSBY

he minute Nurse Dan decorated the giant plastic tree in the lobby, we knew what we wanted for Christmas. We wanted to go home. “First thing I’ll do,” Iraq says, “is meet some buddies at the bar.” “Girls,” the Kid says. “I need to see me some girls.” “Like you’d know what to do with them!” Iraq cries. He and the Kid share the big room with me at the end of the hall. Iraq always shouts and the Kid always slurs. I don’t say much and they don’t ask me. But I just want one night of real warmth from the woodstove, and maybe to see some stars.

24 CN&R December 19, 2013

“You leave, you lose your spot,” says Nurse Dan, delivering this news as he flips the Kid over in bed. “There’re too many injured folks waiting to get in.” He lifts the Kid’s top sheet so it catches air. “It’s just one night!” the Kid whines as the sheet settles. “You act like the freakin’ Gestapo around here.” Nurse Dan shrugs. “Insurance regulations,” he says, tamping the sheet down. “I might vacate all the same,” Iraq yells. “Not like I’m improving, anyhow.” “Me neither!” the Kid agrees. “All I do is smell these nasty old-guy smells you got in here. How you expect me to improve, smelling nasty old-guy smells?” “That would be you,” Iraq calls to me. “No offense,” the Kid adds. Nurse Dan is not without sympathy. He says we can skip therapy Christmas Day. He’s signed us up for one sweet extra, if we aren’t diabetic, and requested new foot socks with the dog-paw

patterns from the supply closet down the hall. We’ll get music from two old warblers said to be real women under their gooed-up hair and winged-on eyebrows, and glittered Christmas cards from the Catholic school kids. But he can’t let us go home. If we want to keep our spot, we have to stay in rehab. The stucco building is long and low, sits by itself beyond a strip mall and a housing tract, surrounded by open field. As if life got up on its hind legs and reared back when it saw rehab. Our room at the end of the hall is the biggest. My bed is a cushion wrapped in crackly plastic that wheezes and sweats. The miniature television swings at you on a metal arm, and if

About the author:

Zu Vincent is a writer and educator who’s written many holiday fiction pieces for the CN&R. She is the author of the award-winning novel The Lucky Place , which is available locally at Lyon Books & Learning Center.

you’re not careful, the nurses will leave it stuck in your face. Every morning I go to therapy in a kindergarten room. Low tables, giant bouncy balls, and a play kitchen to relearn things like how to use a fork and spoon, fold a shirt, wash your plate. You’re not supposed to overdo it, though. Not too many reps on the leg lifts or too many arm stretches on the yellow band tied to your wheelchair. The therapist asks me questions like “Who’s the president of the United States?” but won’t let me get up and hold onto the parallel bars. “This is one instance where trying too hard can cause a setback,” Nurse Dan is always saying. “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Once, Nurse Dan wheeled me out and down the sidewalk to the strip mall—me jiggling in the chair over the uneven sidewalk like a kid in a wagon, with cars clipping by on the four-lane. I watched the tattoos crawl down from Nurse Dan’s rolled-up sleeves, and end blunt as cuff marks at his wrists. I got a haircut and a bowl of soup. Then my two hours were up. That’s the only time I’ve been out since I got here. Inside rehab, the four-way mirrors in the hall let you know if someone’s coming. Got to navigate like on a deer trail, since old Mrs. Chue can’t lift her head to look up and runs her wheelchair into mine every time. I can’t get out of her way, now that I’ve only got the right hand to push with, like a boat with one oar. The guy in 10A is hanging out on the portable john again. The lady in 2B we never see is screeching behind the door. My goal is to always be in the lobby when my brother, Rand, comes at lunchtime—a little matter of pride—but he finds me halfway there, snaking along. I was driving my John Deere when I had the stroke. One minute I’m scraping the old farm road, the next a tree is ramming me. “What’s that doing here?” I remember thinking. I felt like melted butter the tree was heading for. But I hardened up when it hit. A month later, I’m still in rehab. “Consider yourself lucky,” Nurse Dan says. “Some people don’t have the insurance coverage for a place like this.” Rand comes right on time, bandy-legged in a cowboy hat and boots, his one dress shirt checkered and with pearl snaps. I prefer white shirts when I dress up. And a tall white hat. Wear the hat in rehab and Nurse Dan calls me the rehab cowboy. “No more Cheetos, Cowboy,” Nurse Dan warns when Rand sneaks them in. “Garbage like that’s what put you here.” Nurse Dan is all about good and bad cholesterol, and lean cuts of meat. Shoot, never even heard of cholesterol when I was a kid, and now there’s two kinds? Nurse Dan says it’s the bad kind left my side paralyzed, and slurred my speech so I sound like the Kid. “At least,” Rand says, “you can’t boss me anymore.” I’m the older one. It was always my responsibility to take care of Rand. Now he thinks he’s got to take care of me. I want to tell him I’m sorry. Big guy like me falling off the tractor, hung up on that tree. Danged tree jumping out at me. I should have known better. Rand called me a fool for getting back up and turning the tractor off. Trying to get back on. That’s when I slipped and hit my head and like to broke my nose. Broke my nose plenty of times before. And hit my head, too. But those kinds of hurts are easier. This stroke I call a soft one. Nothing about it hurt, except banging my head after. A hard hurt is easier to take. A soft hurt, that’s unsettling, just taking you so gently by the hand and pulling the wool over your eyes, making trees move and you aren’t able to.

When he finds me in the hall, Rand wheels me the rest of the way to the lobby for a look at the Christmas tree. Sprayed-on cedar scent and globbed with fake white snow and silver dangles. It’s plunked between lobby couches and chairs with nice arms, and the big windows with parking-lot views. Outside, planted trees puff with wind, and beyond the lot, rain pelts the open field. The lobby has two sets of double doors. One set leads to a glassed-in entry, the other set leads out. Rand wheels me over to the first set, and the doors panic as he runs my wheelchair back and forth. He already wants out and he just got here. I smell rainy air and my hands shake, wistful. We are outdoor boys, me and Rand. We grew up on our ranch. Still run horses, still ranch. We got a couple of hands, nearly as old and decrepit as we are, and some nice horses. No reason to keep them wild except we like to. Used to run cattle through the mountains to pasture, winter and spring, too, but all that’s over now. Thinking thoughts like this makes me blubber. Nurse Dan says tears come with the territory when you have a stroke. Like your tear ducts are on overload. And your heart gets sentimental at the drop of a hat. I keep a handkerchief stuck up my sleeve and yank it out, jerk it at the wheezing doors. I’m thinking about my Christmas wish. “Let’s check me out of here,” I say. “This place is for the birds.” Rand twirls the chair around. “What about that pool therapy?” He looks down on me. He’s in cahoots with Nurse Dan, who’s cooked up this bright idea it will teach me to walk again if they dunk me in the swimming pool. Water therapy, shoot! I can’t even swim when I got two good legs. “I ain’t drowning in any pool. You want to get me wet, wheel me out in the rain!” “Act as stubborn as you please.” Rand settles his hat down low. “But I’ve set my mind on it.” “You best set your mind on something else! What are you doing coming around here every day, anyway? Take that trip to Hawaii you been wanting to take. Pete can watch the horses.” Rand has been threatening to go to Hawaii every Christmas for the last fifteen years. “You tired of seeing me then?” The way he says it is the closest we’ve come to a fight in a long time. I don’t

have much fight in me, though, which makes him madder than ever. “I’m just sayin’,” I manage, “don’t wait until it’s too late.” The next day, I make it all the way to the double doors and wait in front of the lobby tree, but Rand doesn’t show. An orderly finally wheels me to the dining room, alone. “That’s gonna be some Christmas, stuck in here,” the Kid croaks. He and Iraq are playing poker while Nurse Dan shoves food in the Kid’s mouth. The Kid can’t hold his own fork, much less his cards, so Iraq has a hand in each fist. One he shows to the Kid and one he looks over himself. Iraq doesn’t like to eat in front of anyone—traumatic brain injury—so the orderly parks me at the table next door. “You’re the one got yourself busted up for the holidays,” Iraq yells at the Kid. “It was Sam’s fault. He was on the other bike and turned in front of me.” “Your mama never tell you to watch out for the other guy?” Rand is never late. Maybe he really is mad at me. Or maybe he took my advice and hopped a plane to Hawaii. Wouldn’t blame him. This place can get depressing. We’re all in here together but nobody acts like it. Nobody associates, even in the dining room, except for Iraq and the Kid. ’Cause if you associate, then you’d know you were one of us. A group of ladies from the Red Hats comes into the cafeteria. They’re loaded down with audio books. Rehab-patient present for Christmas, since tomorrow is Christmas Eve. On their heels comes a gang from the Daughters of the Revolution with a pot of chrysanthemums for every room. “Flowers!” Iraq bellows. “Books on tape? What do you say,” Iraq points across the dining room at me, “let’s you and me bust out of here!” “I’m coming, too!” the Kid slurs. But before I can agree, Nurse Dan is here, wheeling back my chair. “Today’s pool day, Cowboy,” he says. “You ready?” The pool is indoors and heated, and the pool lights reflect wavery on the ceiling. Nurse Dan gives me over to a lady swallowed in a baggy track suit, bright orange stripes down the track-suit legs. She says her name is Mary Jo. Before I know it, Mary Jo has stripped down to a bathing suit and strapped me into a hydraulic chair. The chair swings out over the water like the bedside TV arm. “Test drive,” she calls it. “And maybe a little dip. But only if you’re comfortable.” Gears creak. I’m hoisted above the pool and left dangling. Water hits my toes and I feel dizzy. “Mary Jo,” I say. The chair contraption stops and I hang there, trussed up like a stuck pig. “I ain’t comfortable.” Mary Jo hesitates. She looks disappointed. But you got to have nerves of steel when you can’t move one side and can’t swim and somebody else is loading you into a pool. It seems like forever before she swings me back over solid ground. She’s about to unbuckle me when Rand’s voice bellows out, “Hold on a minute, ma’am!” Mary Jo’s hands pause on the buckles. She watches Rand bow-leg up. He tips his hat to her and I can tell she’s already impressed. “This is my brother.” I point at Rand with my good hand. “Who is supposed to be on his way to Hawaii!”

“No more Cheetos, Cowboy,” Nurse Dan warns when Rand sneaks them in. “Garbage like that’s what put you here.”

“CHRISTMAS” continued on page 26 December 19, 2013

CN&R 25

“CHRISTMAS” continued from page 25

“And miss pool therapy?” Rand grins. Mary Jo shakes her head. “I’m afraid he’s decided against it.” Rand settles his hat. “He’ll give it a try, don’t you worry.” “You like it so much, get in yourself!” I say. Rand grins wider. Mary Jo is looking between us. She looks amused. But she doesn’t know Rand’s grin. It’s the one that says he’s little brother and don’t tell him what to do. He kicks off one boot, then the other. He unsnaps his checkered dress shirt. “Uh, sir?” Mary Jo doesn’t look amused now. She looks nervous. “You can’t actually get in...” Rand is pulling down his jeans. “Regulations,” finishes Mary Jo. Rand is wearing a brand-new pair of yellow flowered swim trunks. I stare at them blooming above his bony knees. “Oh, geez,” says Mary Jo as Rand jumps in the pool. “Not a word about this. Our insurance will have a fit.” “You old fool,” I call when Rand comes up spluttering. “You forgot to take your hat off.”

year before. So now we had to make up our own minds. We tracked the bear until dark the first day. When the storm hit we camped under a rock ledge we knew of, built a fire to keep warm. It would have been okay except Rand cut his thumb opening a can of beans. It didn’t seem like much at first, but Rand didn’t feel so good the next morning. We had to wait out the snow, and by nightfall of the second night, Rand had blood poisoning. I thought maybe I should lance it. I saw a ranch hand do that once. But Rand said, “Don’t you come near me. I’ll kill you.” I guess he was out of his head by then. He kept telling me he heard the bear rooting. He wanted me to go on out and get the son of a gun! Lay quiet, will you? You’ll work up the infection. Get the lead out! He’s getting away! I was glad when Rand passed out. I put my hand on his forehead like our mother would do when we were sick. I was that scared, imagining how I’d have to take his body back to her if he died under that ledge. Rand slung over his horse like a sack, and all for a cinnamon bear rug. She’d blame me. I blamed myself. I lanced Rand’s hand while he was out, and stayed right by him. I kept the fire going but the wood was so damp it barely took the edge off. In my head I was out there, shooting that bear and skinning it, laying the cinnamon pelt warm over Rand’s shaking bones. I thought my brother would die on Christmas Eve. In the middle of the night, the snow stopped. It got so still and cold, I felt thin as ice, about to shatter. When I heard some branches crack, I crept from under the ledge to stare at the howling stars. And there he was. Straight across from me on another ridge, pretty as you please. His cinnamon hide darker than the night. His head raised, like he was finding grace in the stars himself. I thought about how much I’d wanted to shoot him earlier. Reasoned out the steps to reach the rifle and pick it up and aim. But in the end I thought against it. It wasn’t any big revelation. I just thought against it. Rand rallied on Christmas Day. I saddled us up and headed him home. Empty-handed! Rand complained the whole way. He was not going to forgive me for letting his bear get away. “You nincompoop!” he moaned. “Why didn’t you shoot him? That was Mom’s Christmas present you let run off.”

“Wake up, Cowboy,” I hear Iraq say. He’s actually whispering for him [Gonzales]. “We’re getting our wish. We’re busting out of here!”

Rand was a smart kid. I was the bigger one, the tougher one, but he had the skills. When we’d hunt together he’d spot things I never saw. He had a keen sense of how to read the land, how to keep his wits about him. Before Christmas one year he spotted a cinnamon bear up on the ridge. When it wasn’t cold enough to keep a bear in hibernation, you sometimes saw them. They tended to come out surly with sleep, so you had to be on your toes. But Rand wasn’t worried. He wanted that cinnamon bear to make our mother a nice Christmas rug. We were fond of our mother. We believed she worked too hard and loved us just enough. And we hated seeing her hands looking so suddenly old and knobby. Still, when Rand spotted the bear three days before Christmas, I wasn’t convinced. “Might be reckless,” I said. “There’s a storm coming.” That was our father’s word, reckless. “Don’t be reckless, boys,” he’d say. He’d died reckless himself, the

The truth is, I owe Rand at least a try at that pool. I tell Mary Jo to buckle me back in and the big chair slings me out over the water again. Mary Jo lowers me down and Rand is there, waiting. Mary Jo jumps in and they both slosh over beside me. Mary Jo unhooks things. “Relax,” Rand says. “You aren’t gonna drown with me here. Like my trunks?” The yellow flowers billow around his skinny legs. Mary Jo eases me from the chair. “Okay. Try a step or two,” she says. She holds one side of me and Rand the other. I look down at my feet and will them to move. 26 CN&R December 19, 2013

Finally, they do. “I did it. I’m walking.” I take another step, weightless. If only the world were made of water, I’d be home for Christmas! But the world isn’t made of water, so I’m still stuck in rehab. Christmas Eve night Rand leaves early. Me, Iraq and the Kid are alone in our big room down the hall. We don’t talk much about our wish to go home. We don’t talk much at all. Even Iraq is quiet. And I fall asleep before lights out. Then someone is shaking me awake. I open my eyes and Gonzales, the night orderly, looms over me. “Wake up, Cowboy,” I hear Iraq say. He’s actually whispering for him. “We’re getting our wish. We’re busting out of here!” “What?” I hear the bedrails lower. When I turn my head, a wheelchair is there, waiting. “What about Nurse Dan?” Iraq chuckles. “He’s in on it!” Gonzales urges me out of bed. He wraps me in blankets, settles me in the chair and sticks slippers on my rehabsocked feet. He sets my hat on my head. Iraq is already cocooned in another chair. He wheels himself ahead of us out of the room. “We’re busting out. We’re busting out.” Iraq sings as he wheels. “Hey,” the night orderly warns. “Keep it down.” I figure I’m still dreaming when we don’t head for the front lobby. Instead, we scoot through the back doors. Cold air hits my face and then we’re bumping across uneven dirt, right out into the empty field that surrounds rehab. The rain from the last two days has stopped. The clouds have pulled away to mist and behind the mist, soft stars. Gonzales leaves me to help Iraq bump off toward some shadowy figures in the distance. Then he’s back for me. I hear the Kid’s slurry speech when we approach. “Here he is!” And a match lights. Rand’s face shines beneath his cowboy hat. “Ready?” he says. “Ready!” Iraq bellows. Rand bends down and lights the kindling he’s laid for a fire. The fire shoots up and crackles. “It’s a bonfire!” The Kid’s slurry voice is thrilled. “Your brother’s idea,” Nurse Dan says. He’s standing among a row of other wheelchairs. I recognize old Mrs. Chue. She’s parked between the guy from 10A and what must be the woman from 2B, who is so wrapped up in wool blankets and headscarves all you see is a pair of dark, glittery eyes.

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The fire leaps and glows hot... It’s a good feeling, the wet cold air and the hot fire and Rand telling the story of the Christmas we didn’t get the cinnamon bear. design. I tacked it to the wall and my kids pinned ornaments on.” “That’s some weird stuff.” The Kid ponders it. “What about you?” He turns to the guy in 10A. It turns out 10A used to hitch up a hay wagon and take everybody caroling. After that we’re all going around the circle, telling everybody else how we celebrate Christmas. The fire warms our cheeks and voices and the little ring we make against the night. When it gets to me, Iraq says, “What about you, Cowboy? What’s your story?” I look down. I’ve got one slippered foot resting on a stump near the flames. My slipper is steaming. Rand sees and lifts my foot off and sets it gently on the ground. I guess Rand knows I’m feeling sentimental again because he says, “I’ll tell it.” The fire leaps and glows hot, until one side of me is toasty, the other side damp where the cold lingers at my back. It’s a good feeling, the wet cold air and the hot fire and Rand telling the story of the Christmas we didn’t get the cinnamon bear. Inside the story I’m walking perfectly fine, like I’m still floating in the pool. Like maybe I won’t disappoint my brother, and will really walk again. Later, after the fire burns down, Rand and Nurse Dan and Gonzales help us back to our rooms. Nurse Dan takes old Mrs. Chue, 10A and 2B down the hall. Rand and Gonzales get me into bed and pull the blankets up. Once the Kid and Iraq are settled, Rand says, “Good night, see you tomorrow.” I hear his boots retreat down the hall. The lights go out. Me, Iraq and the Kid are all sentimental now. We got what we wanted. We went home for Christmas. And all our hearts are glad. Ω

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Rand has brought nice, dry wood. We’re all silent as the fire grows, admiring how the blue-yellow flames race skyward. After a while, old Mrs. Chue says, “We ought to share something” to no one in particular. No one answers at first because her voice surprises us. We’ve never heard her talk before. “Like what?” the Kid asks. “What about our Christmas traditions?” “If I was out of here, I’d be sitting in a bar with some buddies,” Iraq busts in. “No, I mean when you’re home,” Mrs. Chue says. “How does your family celebrate?” Iraq squints at her over the flames. “The usual, I guess.” “My mom loves Christmas,” the Kid pipes up. “Every year she puts up a tree in every room in the house and throws a big party for the whole neighborhood.” “I never put up a tree.” Mrs. Chue’s head wobbles. “I’m an environmentalist. I put up a quilt instead. It had a beautiful tree

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CN&R 27

Arts & Culture Pat Macias, president of monca’s board of directors, hopes that a regional art museum in the Chico Veterans Memorial Hall will bring new life to the Chico landmark. PHOTO BY ROBERT SPEER

Moving forward

THIS WEEK

Art museum launches fundraising campaign to renovate veterans’ hall

Fhow much money is needed to renovate a large part of the Chico Veterans Memorial Hall, that iconic ive hundred thousand dollars. That’s

building at 900 Esplanade, and make a home for the Museum of Northern California Art, otherwise known as monca. by Granted, half a million bucks is Robert Speer a lot of money. But compared to the $10 million cost of the Gateway Science Museum, just a few blocks Art at the hall: down the road, it’s peanuts. And the Today (Thursday, payoff is huge: a beautiful art museDec. 19), from 4-6 p.m., monca is um for Chico and the region, celebrating its first restoration of one of the city’s great public art project historic buildings, and vast expanat the Chico sion of community members’ Veterans Memorial engagement in regional art. Hall, an installation I toured the vets’ hall recently piece by Bay Area artist Kari Marboe with Pat Macias, the president of that will be monca’s board of directors, whose unveiled at the members have been working tirehall’s entrance. lessly for more than three years to Hot cider and make Northern California resicookies will be served, and the dents aware of the museum and its artist will be potential. present to speak I was struck by the sheer size of and answer the building—more than 17,000 questions. To take square feet altogether, including the a video tour of the hall, go to cavernous auditorium. And as I www.monca.org walked through the rooms, I could and click on almost feel the presence of the “Vets Hall.” thousands of people—veterans and others—who visited it during the 86 Chico Veterans Memorial Hall years since its construction in 1927. I was also struck by the realiza(future home of monca) tion that, if monca doesn’t suc900 Esplanade ceed, the hall is probably doomed. www.monca.org That’s probably why veterans’ groups and the county Board of Supervisors have been so supportive of the museum. They want to save the building and know that this is the best—and likely last—chance to do so. Structurally, the building is sound,

Macias said. It looks worn inside, but aesthetically it needs only minor remodeling and cosmetic improve28 CN&R December 19, 2013

ments: refinishing the wood floors; removing the drop ceilings to reveal the original plaster and crown molding; repairing and modernizing the bathrooms; patching and painting the outside stairs. Also, there are too many big windows that use up exhibition space and let in too much sunlight for a museum, and they need to be resized. The biggest expenses, Macias said, will be for a new HVAC system and making the facility compliant with ADA regulations. She led me down the elegant stairway to the lower level. It houses, in addition to the large room that once was the eating area and kitchen, the huge boiler that provided heat—a relic that clearly has to go. Initial plans call for renovating the upstairs rooms in the front part of the building that faces The Esplanade—4,000 square feet altogether. Phase Two, which monca would like to begin in about six years, would renovate the auditorium, and Phase Three would fix up the front rooms downstairs. It’s a grand vision: plentiful exhibition space, a performance space, a museum store, storage rooms, a café, rooms for educational and interactive art programs, and much more. Macias and her board members see the museum eventually becoming an allpurpose cultural center. It’s off to a good start, even though actual construction has yet to begin (a Chico firm, Griffith Architects, has been hired to draw up plans). The museum already has a substantial collection of Northern California art, thanks to Chico collector Reed Applegate’s magnanimous donation of his entire collection—nearly 400 works by regional artists. Museum volunteers have worked hard to make monca visible. In the last two years, they have organized more than 50 on-site visits in their “mobile museum” to school classrooms, senior housing facilities, adult-education art classes, the Boys & Girls Club and the Torres Community Shelter. They have also sponsored two “pop-up museums” downtown, and put on exhibitions in Redding at the Old City Hall Arts Center and Shasta College, and locally at the Gateway Science Museum. In 2013, they reached 8,116 individuals directly. Now they need the rest of us to step up. Ω

THURS

Special Events GO DIGITAL OR GO DARK: An art show and fundraiser benefiting the Pageant Theatre, with a silent auction for the custom movie posters created by local artists like Kyle Forrest Burns, Josh Olivera, Aye Jay, Dylan Tellesen, and dozens more. Th, 12/19, 5pm. The Winchester Goose, 800 Broadway, (530) 7150099, www.thewinchestergoose.com.

BUTTE COUNTY COALITION OF REASON: A potluck meeting with guest speaker Judy Saint, president of Sacramento’s Freedom From Religion Foundation. Th, 12/19, 7pm. Free. Chico Library, 1108 Sherman Ave., (530) 891-2762.

Art Receptions MONCA INSTALLATION: The first public art project at the future home of the Museum of Northern California Art opens with Bay area artist Kari Marboe’s installation, “monca/ vmh.” The installation is open to the public with a reception to follow. Th, 12/19, 4-6pm. Chico Veterans Memorial Hall, 900 Esplanade.

Theater A CHRISTMAS STORY: Follow Ralphie on his quest to get a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas in

this classic holiday comedy. Th-Sa, 7:30pm; Su, 2pm through 12/22. $12-$20. Chico Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 894-3282, www.chicotheatercompany.com.

HOLIDAY BURLESQUE AND VAUDEVILLE COMEDY SHOW: The folks from the Chico Cabaret are back with the former theater’s popular holiday variety show playing at Rogue Theatre’s playhouse. Email for more info: chicocab

aret@sbcglobal.net. 12/19-12/21, 7pm. $15. South Side Playhouse, 2145 Park Ave., Ste. 13.

FRI

Special Events KZFR HOLIDAY BASH: A community holiday party with prizes, plus live music from local rock/blues band, Bahapki. F, 12/20, 7pm. Free. Chico Women’s Club, 592 E Third St., (530) 8941978, www.kzfr.org.

TEEN CAMP: SCIENCE WORKSHOP: Each team will be given a GPS device to create an online tree map of the nature center’s grounds. Connect with nature and gain environmental consciousness. F, 12/20, 1-4pm. $20. Chico Creek Nature Center, 1968 E. Eighth St., (530) 8914671, www.bidwellpark.org.

Music THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE TELETHON: BOGG presents a Christmas miracle with live music by Lisa Valentine, Aubrey Debauchery, Loki Miller and more. Plus, performances by the Blue Room Young Company, Off The Cuff (sketch comedy), The Winter Wonders and Everybody in Outer Space dance troupe. F, 12/20, 8pm. $15. 1078 Gallery, 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078gallery.org.

XMAS XSTRAVAGANZA: Mark Wilpolt and his friends on ukuleles, fiddles, mandolins, accordions, guitars and more play two nights of music to benefit the Torres Shelter and Jesus

KZFR HOLIDAY BASH Friday, Dec. 20 Chico Women’s Club

SEE FRIDAY, SPECIAL EVENTS

HOLIDAY-SEASON CALENDAR Due to scheduling changes that may occur around the holidays, please confirm listed events, dates and times with venue.

favorite Radiohead songs to benefit the 6th Street Center for Youth. Sa, 12/21, 7:30pm. $5$10. Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave., (530) 566-9476, www.cafecoda.com.

SCHOOL OF ROCK CHRISTMAS PARTY: Celebrate the holidays with a potluck and open-mic night with performances by some of the school’s talented students. Sa, 12/21, 3-7pm. Free. Chico School of Rock, 932-A E. Eighth Ave., (530) 894-2526, www.chicoschoolof rock.com.

XMAS XSTRAVAGANZA: See Friday. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.weebly.com.

Theater BELIEVE: See Friday. Center for the Arts, 1475 East Ave., (530) 899-2692.

A CHRISTMAS STORY: See Thursday. Chico

Center. 12/20-12/21, 7-10pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.we ebly.com.

Theater

GO DIGITAL OR GO DARK ART SHOW Thursday, Dec. 19 The Winchester Goose

SEE THURSDAY, SPECIAL EVENTS

BELIEVE: A holiday musical/dance production

2145 Park Ave., Ste. 13.

TWILIGHT ZONE: Craig Blamer brings Late Nite back to the Blue Room with two holiday episodes: “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” and “The Night of the Meek.” 12/20-12/22, 7:30pm. $8. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St., (530) 895-3749, www.blueroomtheatre.com.

SAT

Special Events

2145 Park Ave., Ste. 13.

TWILIGHT ZONE: See Friday. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St., (530) 895-3749, www.blueroom theatre.com.

SUN

Music BAD SANTA XMAS PARTY: A benefit for the

A CHRISTMAS STORY: See Thursday. Chico

HOLIDAY BURLESQUE AND VAUDEVILLE COMEDY SHOW: See Thursday. South Side Playhouse,

based on the story of The Polar Express, created by local brother-sister team Jeff Schneeweis (of bands Number One Gun and The Make) and Sarah Blakely (HYPE Dance Studio). F, Sa, 7pm; Su, 2pm through 12/22. Center for the Arts, 1475 East Ave., (530) 899-2692.

Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 894-3282, www.chicotheatercompany.com.

Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 8943282, www.chicotheatercompany.com.

SUPPER WITH SANTA: Join Haley’s Martial Arts Center at this benefit for Toys for Tots of Butte County. Enjoy a holiday meal, dessert, a picture with Santa and real snow. Sa, 12/21, 58:30pm. $5-$10. Manzanita Place, 1705 Manzanita Ave., (530) 343-5617, www.hmac.biz.

Pageant Theatre with a potluck dinner and live performances by The LoLos, Low Flying Birds, Eastwind Bellydance Troupe and more. Su, 12/22, 4pm-1am. The DownLo, 319 Main St., (530) 892-2473.

Theater BELIEVE: See Friday. Center for the Arts, 1475 East Ave., (530) 899-2692.

Music THE LIVING KARAOKE BAND: A rotating cast of local vocalists sing the songs of Carole King and Queen with The Living Karaoke Band. Sa, 12/21, 8pm. The DownLo, 319 Main St., (530) 892-2473.

A CHRISTMAS STORY: See Thursday. Chico

100TH MONKEY CAFÉ & BOOKS: A Few of my

Favorite Things, bold, colorful mixed-media works by local artist, Sally Hedley. Through 12/31. 642 W. Fifth St.

1078 GALLERY: Stories Two, a group exhibition featuring five local artists showcasing media such as ceramic, painting, photographs and prints. Through 1/4, 2014. 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078 gallery.org.

ARTISANS GALLERIA: Artisan Displays, showcasing sculptures, paintings, ceramics, jewelry, stone art and more by Larry Lefner, Matt Tupper, Don Bravo and other local artists. 25 Lost Dutchman Dr.

AVENUE 9 GALLERY: New California Abstracts, new abstract landscape paintings by Lenn Goldmann. Through 1/11, 2014. 180 E. Ninth Ave., (530) 879-1821, www.avenue9 gallery.com.

BUTTE COLLEGE ART GALLERY: The Portal

Series: Opportunity Knocks, brightly painted works on doors by Caitlin Schwerin. Through 12/31. 3536 Butte Campus Dr. in Oroville, (530) 895-2208.

STORIES TWO 1078 Gallery

SEE FINE ARTS

CHICO ART CENTER: Winter Salon d’Art, oneof-a-kind gifts created by local fine artists, including original paintings, sculptures, jewelry, prints, mosaics and ceramic works. Through 12/31. 450 Orange St., (530) 8958726, www.chicoartcenter.com.

CHICO PAPER CO.: Mariam Pakbaz, drawings and paintings by the recent Chico State graduate showcase reflections of her inner world. Through 12/31. 345 Broadway, (530) 891-0900, www.chicopapercompany.com.

JAMES SNIDLE FINE ARTS: A Walk With the

Animals, watercolors of animals and their environment by the late Lois Cohen. Through 12/31. 254 E. Fourth St., (530) 343-2930.

NAKED LOUNGE TEA & COFFEEHOUSE: Psyano, an experimental look into the world of photographic cyanotypes by Saucy Cat & The Kid. Through 12/31. 118 W. Second St., (530) 895-0676.

Call for Artists EVERYTHING BLUE: How will you portray this pervasive hue? All mediums accepted, must be wall-hanging. Call for more info. Through

1/18, 2014, 12-5pm. $5. Manas Artspace & Gallery, 1441-C Park Ave., (530) 588-5183.

Museums CHICO CREEK NATURE CENTER: Banding by Day and Night, a close look at birds in hand with incredible detail. Ongoing. 1968 E. Eighth St., (530) 891-4671, www.bidwellpark.org.

CHICO MUSEUM: Chico in Black and White, an exhibit featuring historical photos from the John Nopel collection. Ongoing. 141 Salem St., (530) 891-4336.

GATEWAY SCIENCE MUSEUM: Keys to the

Kingdom: Fungi, learn the varieties and importance of mushrooms and fungi via interactive displays. Through 1/5, 2014. $6. Also: Snowflakes and Other Geometric Wonders of Weather. Find out how snowflakes are formed and explore the geometry behind winter weather. Sa, 12/21, 1-3pm. 625 Esplanade, www.csuchico.edu/ gateway.

HOLIDAY BURLESQUE AND VAUDEVILLE COMEDY SHOW: See Thursday. South Side Playhouse, 2145 Park Ave., suite 13.

RADIOHEAD COVER NIGHT: A lineup of local musicians including The Shimmies, CITIES, BOGG, Muddy Sours and more, all performing their

TWILIGHT ZONE: See Friday. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St., (530) 895-3749, www.blueroom theatre.com.

prizes before the big night. Sa, 12/21, 9am-1pm. Eagles Hall, 1940 Mulberry St.

TWILIGHT ZONE

Friday-Sunday, Dec. 20-22 Blue Room Theatre SEE FRIDAY-SUNDAY, THEATER

Post your event for free online at www.newsreview.com/calendar. Once posted, your CN&R calendar listing will also be considered for print. Print listings are also free, but subject to space limitations. Deadline for print listings is one week prior to the issue in which you wish the listing to appear.

Art

Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 8943282, www.chicotheatercompany.com.

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA: Join Santa for food and

FREE LISTINGS!

FINE ARTS

for more Music, see NIGHTLIFE on page 36

Supping with Santa Sure, there are plenty of opportunities to meet Santa Claus during the holiday season, but they’re all so sterile, involving waiting in lines to meet him in his majestic throne while he sits there like Don Corleone, or the King of the North Pole or something. Saturday, Dec. 21, offers two separate chances to encounter Santa in a less formal atmosphere and break bread with the Man in Red. In the morning, Mr. Claus will be attending BreakEDITOR’S PICK fast with Santa at the Eagles Hall, an event that also offers prizes. And Supper with Santa happens at Manzanita Place that evening. It’s a Toys for Tots fundraiser hosted by Haley’s Martial Arts Center where you can get your picture taken with the guest of honor in real snow. We’re not sure what’s on the menu at both affairs, but we’re guessing milk and cookies.

December 19, 2013

CN&R 29

30 CN&R December 19, 2013

CHOW reserve nOw fOr Christmas

Red grapes, white wines

6 Year Anniversary

White pinot noirs— a growing niche White fruit hiding inside a red grape.

A maker Adam Lee’s favorite Oregon vineyards turned dark, plump and sweet each fall, there was, he s the pinot noir grapes in one of wine-

noticed over the years, a particular corner where the fruit almost never fully ripened. by The fruit here consistently refused Alastair to reach optimal sugar levels. A Bland white-wine grape, like riesling or gewürztraminer—less needy of intense sun—probably would have done better. “We often said, ‘I wish they’d just planted whitewine grapes here,’” Lee said. “Then it dawned on us: We could just make it into white wine.” A white pinot noir, that is. Lee, a pinot noir buff who owns Novy Family Wines as well as Siduri Wines, both in Santa Rosa, didn’t invent the idea, but at the time there were only a handful of other American winemakers making red-wine grapes into chardonnay-colored wine—a trick which involves fermenting the grapes without the tannin-rich skins. Six years later, Lee is still making his Arbre Vert Vineyard white pinot noir. While denying one of the most cherished varieties of red wines in the world the burgundy hue that helps make it such a star might seem like bad winemaking—or at least bad business—the white pinot trend is catching on. In Oregon, white pinot noir is a growing niche category, and scattered wineries around California are making nearly colorless renditions of other traditionally red-wine grape varieties—like cabernet sauvignon, sangiovese, syrah and merlot. These wines, generally known for their carpet-staining colors, are also being used increasingly in rosé wines.

At LaRocca Vineyards, in Forest Ranch,

owner Phil LaRocca makes a rosé cabernet sauvignon. While he makes it in the style of making a white wine—that is, without the skins—the wine still finishes with a rosy hue. LaRocca, in fact, said it is difficult—almost impossible—to make a truly white wine from a red-wine grape variety. That’s because the grapes, even before fermentation, may absorb the pigmentation of the skins. “By nature of their DNA, you can’t make them white,” LaRocca explained.

But Lee said this isn’t always true. Yes, some pinot noir grapes, and other red varieties, are too red in the skins for the juice to make it to the wine bottle without at least some pigmentation. But, he said, by carefully selecting the fruit and handling it just so, one can manage to leave almost all coloring properties in the grape skins. T.J. Evans, winemaker at Domaine Carneros, near Napa, agrees. “You put my white pinot next to a glass of chardonnay, and you can’t tell the difference,” he said. Evans has made a locally grown white pinot noir since 2008. Since the bleeding of tannins into the juice poses the chance of getting a pink wine, Evans harvests the grapes at night, when cold temperatures reduce the solubility of the tannins. The grapes are pressed lightly, too. “And as soon as we see any pink color coming out, we stop,” Evans said. This means a much lower yield of juice—95 gallons to the ton, rather than the average 150 gallons. With the remaining juice, Evans makes a rosé. Scot Covington, winemaker with Trione Vineyards & Winery in Sonoma County, makes a pinot noir rosé. He said a blush-colored pinot is not a stretch from traditional norms. Pinot noir, Covington points out, already renders a light-colored red wine. Going a step further toward pink is an easy progression. Several red-grape white wines have come out of the Lodi area, too, including a white barbera, a white cabernet sauvignon and a white syrah from d’Art Wines, and a creamy, almond-and-peach flavored rosé from Sorelle Winery, made with sangiovese and barbera grapes. American winemakers have not invented a category; white pinot noir is made in parts of Europe, and Champagne is made largely with pinot noir grapes, fermented without their skins. But the notion of eliminating the color from one of America’s most-loved red wines still raises eyebrows. Lee says that his white pinot noir has sold exceptionally well in Japan. His wineries have a loyal following of pinot devotees. Yet he conceded the white pinot noir—acidic, tart and citrusy—is less a customer draw than a curiosity of winemaking. “Nobody is knocking down our door to get this,” he said. Ω

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December 19, 2013

CN&R 31

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Touch indie, bit heavy Local bands Surrogate and Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy rock house

L stayed with me. It left me with tunes stuck in my head as well as the feeling of having been repeatedly ast Saturday’s show at The Maltese has

slammed by an extremely slow-moving wrecking ball. The satisfying bill was split between two local groups: Surrogate, by perhaps Chico’s most well-estabHoward lished and well-liked rock band; and Hardee Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy, a relatively howardh@ new supergroup of local musicians, newsreview.com including Kirk Williams, frontman for local metal heavyweights Armed for Apocalypse. It was easy to hear REVIEW: Williams’ influence manifest itself in Surrogate and Touch Fuzzy’s sound. If Armed for Touch Fuzzy Apocalypse is a brutal trudge Get Dizzy, at through a never-ending swamp, The Maltese Bar & Touch Fuzzy adds the experience of Tap Room, screaming across the muddy waters Saturday, Dec. 14. in an air boat. That is to say, sludge metal is the common sound, but Touch Fuzzy is more inclined to break up the swamp-stomp with equally aggressive up-tempo riffage and even a few melodic interludes. Williams and fellow guitarist Matt Shilts (of Into the Open Earth) shared lead-vocal duties, with bassist Adrian Hammons (Cold Blue Mountain) backing them up in key sections. Drummer Jack Gingerich of The Shimmies rounds out the quartet. Williams, who for his metal purposes can sound like a particularly agitated blood-thirsty demon, also has the ability to sing beautifully (as he’s demonstrated via his singer-songwriter persona, Lish Bills). And while he mostly favored the former delivery this evening, there were several instances in which he sang clean, which, along with Shilts’ more traditional rock vocals, provided an interesting contrast during the set. I thoroughly enjoyed Touch Fuzzy’s extensive, super-rockin’ instrumental sections (à la Mastodon), which were made all the more powerful by their headbanging enthusiasm. The group had also clearly put some thought into transitions between songs, which made for about 45 minutes of uninterrupted noise.

Though I’d heard Surrogate’s music prior to Saturday night, I had never seen Chico’s preeminent indierock band play live. After the release of their most recent album, Post-Heroic, this past spring, I became somewhat obsessed with a pair of their recorded songs—the title track and “Lovers”—both catchier than most pop-rock that makes its way to mainstream radio. And judging by how many in attendance were drunkenly singing along, plenty of Chicoans are clued in as well. Best of all, Surrogate’s particular brand of indie rock has balls. They were just as loud as Touch Fuzzy, vibrating the bar-top while commendably sacrificing nothing in the way of sound clarity. “Blank Page” and the aforementioned “Post-Heroic” were particularly satisfying, likely because they both involved walls of fuzzy guitar noises. And though the more mellow numbers were plenty somber and sweet, frontman Chris Keene’s reedy vocals—similar to those of Death Cab for Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard, minus the emo affectation—were best served with some muscular rock ’n’ roll accompaniment. After the show, the band handed out copies of

The Bookmark, a new local music zine edited by Keene and Shilts. Keene’s introductory column explains that the 12-page booklet is intended to “highlight the best [music] this city has to offer.” Inside, there’s an interesting piece on what it means for a band to get signed to a record label these days (through the lens of local metal group Cold Blue Mountain), as well as a look at Armed for Apocalypse’s success following the release of their latest album, The Road Will End, and their subsequent tour of the UK. Another note: The Maltese is currently in the middle of transforming into an even more music-friendly bar, and so far, the changes—especially the new stage lights and beefed-up sound system—are good. And while I briefly lamented the loss of the shuffleboard table that used to run along one of the bar’s walls, the swank booths that replaced it go a long way toward a more comfortable show-going experience. Ω December 19, 2013

CN&R 33

OPENS FRIDAY FRIDAY 12/20 – monDAY 12/23 AnchormAn 2: The Legend conTinues (Digital) (PG-13) 11:10AM 12:35PM 2:00PM 3:25PM 4:50PM 6:15PM 7:40PM 9:05PM 10:30PM

WALking WiTh dinosAurs (3D) (NR) 10:00AM 2:30PM 7:00PM

hobbiT: The desoLATion of smAug, The (3D) (PG-13) 10:00AM 11:45AM 1:35PM 2:30PM 3:25PM 5:15PM 7:05PM 8:55PM 9:50PM

TyLer Perry’s A mAdeA chrisTmAs (Digital) (PG-13) 12:20PM 2:45PM 5:10PM 7:35PM 10:00PM

hobbiT: The desoLATion of smAug, The (Digital) (PG-13) 10:50AM 12:40PM 4:20PM 6:10PM 8:00PM AmericAn husTLe (Digital) (R) 10:05AM 1:10PM 4:15PM 7:20PM 10:25PM

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ouT of The furnAce (Digital) (R) 11:10AM 4:40PM 10:20PM frozen (2013) (Digital) (PG) 10:10AM 11:30AM 12:50PM 2:10PM 3:30PM 4:50PM 6:10PM 7:30PM 8:50PM 10:05PM deLivery mAn (Digital) (PG-13) 1:55PM 7:45PM

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34 CN&R December 19, 2013

by Jason Cassidy • jasonc@newsreview.com

FIRST THIS … All right, this was supposed to be my traditional end-of-the-year Happy Holy-days! column, wherein I quickly say, “Hey,” and then stop talking and jump right into showing my favorite CN&R arts/music photos from the previous year. But then Aye Jay Morano, local artist, rapper and friend to many hip artists, comedians and rappers, had to go and text me that this is happening: Kool A.D., as in Kool A.D. from Das Racist—arguably the best rap crew in the world before they busted up last year—is coming to Chico! To perform at Duffy’s Tavern!! The day after Christmas!!! Next week!!!! The occasion is Aye Jay’s annual Chico Legends showcase, and this year he’s made an exception and let the out-of-town MC (for whom he recently designed a T-shirt) join the locals—Aye Jay’s crew the Dr. Becky Sagers, PhD, plus Fay Dog and DJ Ted Shred— for the night. Not to be missed! Now, on to my fave arts photos, almost all of which this year are by the wonderful Keilana Decker, bike racin’. Melanie MacTavish—except firebreathing Claude, which is by dragonslayer Ken Smith:

“Elucidator,” by Norma Lyons, at Manas Artspace.

Honky-tonk rambler, Rancho Mars.

YOU’RE WELCOME, NATURE.

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RECYCLE THIS PAPER.

sAving mr. bAnks (Digital) (PG-13) 10:45AM 1:35PM 4:25PM 7:15PM 10:10PM

WALking WiTh dinosAurs Digital) (NR) 12:15PM 4:45PM 9:15PM

Step back in time to 1929

Blake Brandt and Marcus Payne representing at Lids.

Nicki Bluhm at the Big Room. Gabe Zanotto of Gridley with his dragon Claude.

Enter the dragon There’s plenty to enjoy in part two of The Hobbit trilogy

I director Peter Jackson’s current approach to narrative: the stretching of a single story arc have to cop that I’m not a big fan of

over the course of three winters. Especially since the lean narrative of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The by Craig Hobbit could have comfortBlamer ably fit into a three-hour movie. But that’s neither here, there, nor back again. I’m not the target demographic. But I used to be, way back when. Regardless, gauging from the whoops and cheers from the kids during the showing I attended, Jackson nails it satisfactorily in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second part of his three-part film adaptation of the book. And it’s not as though I

setting off to the evil woods of Mirkwood and a confrontation with the foul dragon Smaug (deliciously voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch) in the hall of the former mountain king. But first they have to confront giant spiders, rampaging orcs and cranky elves before barrelriding on down into the degraded village of Laketown. As the second entry in the sprawling narrative, it’s mostly setting up the characters who will serve their function in the conclusion next year, but at least Jackson finds a moderately satisfying point at which to leave us cliffhanging. Jackson (along with his usual coscreenwriters, including special guest Guillermo del Toro) keeps a lot of plates spinning here, padding the source material with additional storylines from Tolkien’s dusty side notes, and he does a competent job. Some of it doesn’t feel entirely necessary, like the expansion of the role of Bard the Bowman’s family

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Starring Ian McKellen and Martin Freeman. Directed by Peter Jackson. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

1 2

Fair

Good

Very Good

Excellent

Opening this week American Hustle

Using the 1970s-’80s ABSCAM corruption sting operation as a backdrop, director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter) and co-writer Eric Warren Singer have created a crime drama about con man (Christian Bale) and his partner (Amy Adams) who are forced into working for the FBI on a case involving New Jersey powerbrokers and the mafia. Also starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Jeremy Renner, Louis C.K. and Robert De Niro. Cinemark 14. Rated R.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Still classy a decade later, Ron Burgundy (Will Farrell) and the rest of the news team (Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner) rise from the ashes of their failed careers and join the ranks of a new 24-hour news network. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

See review this issue. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13 —C.B.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

As a bridge, Catching Fire is in itself entertaining, but suffers in that it gets us only to the midway point of a story that ends in 2015. We rejoin Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Gale (Liam Hemsworth) as they spend some quality time hunting in the woods while the second narrative arc kicks in. It seems that President Snow (Donald Sutherland) isn’t too happy with Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) escaping his deadly machinations and sowing the seeds of revolution, so he brings in the ultimate game-designer (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to whip up something to clear the slate of all the past winners of the Hunger Games. So it’s back into the arena, and this time the emphasis is more on the game versus the competi-

Anchorman 2

Nebraska

The latest from director Alexander Payne (The Descendents, Sideways) already has a slew of nominations under its belt (Cannes, Golden Globes), and the story—about a fatherson road trip (with Bruce Dern and Will Forte in the starring roles) from Montana to claim a sweepstakes prize in Nebraska—will likely get multiple nods from the Academy as well. Pageant Theatre. Rated R.

Saving Mr. Banks

A comedy/drama directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and loosely based on the negotiations between Australian author P.L. Travers (played by Emma Thompson) and Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) over screen rights to her Mary Poppins novels. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

Walking with Dinosaurs He can smell you, Bilbo.

Poor

Reviewers: Craig Blamer and Juan-Carlos Selznick.

didn’t enjoy it myself—the vistas were perfectly lovely to look at in a way that evoked the fantasy paintings of old Brothers Hildebrandt book covers; the action is properly fast, furious and heroic. Plus the icky romantic stuff (which I don’t recall from 40 years ago, when I last read the book) doesn’t take up too much of the 161 minutes of running time. Admittedly, the nearly three hours of movie doesn’t seem that long. The action picks up from where we left off with Gandolf (Ian McKellen), Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and the dwarf posse

life, and the banal Laketown demagogue (Stephen Fry) and his cartoonish minion seem to have stepped directly off the set of the BBC sitcom Blackadder. And, if you want to be nitpicky, there’s a kind of rushed quality to the practical makeup effects, with sporadic slipping wigs and peeling prosthetics, but it’s not all that distracting during the course of all the bouncing around that the characters are doing. When Bilbo and crew arrive to confront Smaug, the film settles down into a fine-tuned hum. Obviously, as an epic, it’s not as subtextually satisfying as the The Lord of the Rings trilogy, because it wasn’t intended to be an epic. But one feels that when this trilogy is completed, it’ll serve nicely as the run-up to Jackson’s true masterwork. All told, it’ll be, what, damn near 20 hours of movie when run together? Ω

Realistic-looking CGI-animated dinosaurs are set against a live-action backdrop in this tale of a young, awkward pachyrhinosaurus who grows up to lead his herd on an epic adventure. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG.

Now playing The Book Thief

Against the backdrop of Nazi Germany during WWII, a young girl risks all to seek out books and share them with others, including a Jewish refuge hiding in her foster parents’ basement. Cinemark 14 and Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG-13.

Delivery Man

Canadian writer/director Ken Scott remakes his own movie, Starbuck (2012), with Vince Vaughn now starring as an American version of his original character, a sperm-bank donor who finds out 20 years later that his seed has sprouted 533 children, and who now must decide whether or not to come forward as the biological dad of the 142 of them who have filed a lawsuit to figure out his identity. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.

Frozen

The new Disney computer-animated feature is an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale, The Snow Queen. In the film, a young princess embarks on an epic journey to find her sister—the Snow Queen—whose magical powers have buried the kingdom in a never-ending winter. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG.

tors, than the competitors going after each other. We are never given anything but a rudimentary introduction to most of them, so as the casualties pile up, any connection with the characters existing as anything other than clay pigeons rings hollow. However, the film does move along cracklingly enough for a 2 1/2hour entertainment. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13 —C.B.

A Madea Christmas

Tyler Perry is back in drag as the sassy, pistol-packing granny this time on a Christmas adventure in the country. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.

Out of the Furnace

The new film from Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) mixes violent action with some sensitively written (and very well-acted) character drama. Brutal violence pretty much gets the first and last word in this case, but the character of Russell Baze and Christian Bale’s very fine performance in the role are likely to be the things that stay with you after the bloodletting has stopped. The story revolves around Bale’s character, a steel-mill worker in a decaying Rust Belt town, and his wayward younger brother, Rodney (Casey Affleck), an Iraq war vet (four stints) trying to fast-start his bankroll via gambling and bare-knuckle boxing matches. A sad-sack bar-owner/gambler/promoter (Willem Dafoe) gets Rodney a high-stakes match in the domain of a terrifying backwoods crime boss (Woody Harrelson) ruling over an “inbred” clan of hillbilly psychopaths, and when Dafoe and Affleck’s characters fail to return from their venture among the “inbreds,” Russell and his steadfast uncle (Sam Shepard) take action. Cinemark 14. Rated R —J.C.S.

Philomena

Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity) directs this based-on-real-events story about a British journalist (Steve Coogan) who helps a woman (Judi Dench) find out what happened to the son she was forced to give up for adoption 50 years earlier. Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG.

December 19, 2013

CN&R 35

NIGHTLIFE

THURSDAY 12/19—WEDNESDAY 12/25 CHRIS GARDNER BAND: Local country

rockers take the stage. F, 12/20, 9pm. $5. Tackle Box Bar & Grill, 375 E. Park Ave., (530) 345-7499.

THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE TELETHON: F,

BAD SANTA XMAS PARTY

12/20, 8pm. $15. 1078 Gallery, 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078gallery.org.

Sunday, Dec. 22 The DownLo

FRIDAY MORNING JAZZ: A weekly morning jazz appointment with experimental local troupe Bogg. F, 11am. Free. Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave., (530) 5669476, www.cafecoda.com.

SEE SUNDAY

IRISH-MUSIC HAPPY HOUR: A Chico tradition: Friday-night happy hour with a traditional Irish music session by the Pub Scouts. F, 4pm. $1. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St., (530) 343-7718.

19THURSDAY AARON RICH & FRIENDS: Country music round-robin. Third and First Th of every month, 9pm. Free. Crazy Horse Saloon, 303 Main St., (530) 894-5408.

BLUES UNPLUGGED: Featuring musical

stylings of Mark Holder. Th, 12/19, 710pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.weebly.com.

CHICO JAZZ COLLECTIVE: Thursday jazz.

Th, 8-11pm. Free. The DownLo, 319 Main St., (530) 892-2473.

HAPPY HOUR: Loki and friends perform to get your weekend started. Th, 12/19, 5:30-7pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St.,

(530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.weebly.com.

JOHN SEID DUO: John Seid and Larry Peterson play an eclectic mix of The

Beatles, blues and standards. Th, 69pm. Opens 12/19. Grana, 198 E. Second

MONKEY MUSIC SHOWCASE: Spotlighting

A PROGGY CHRISTMAS: Eugene, Ore., avant-garde jazz act Bustin’ Jieber is joined by local prog-heads Clouds on Strings, plus Sofa King, and Avant Groove. Th, 12/19, 8pm. $5. Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave., (530) 566-9476, www.cafecoda.com.

St., (530) 809-2304.

OPEN MIC: Singers, poets and musicians welcome. Th, 7-10pm. Has Beans Internet Cafe & Galleria, 501 Main St., (530) 894-3033, www.hasbeans.com.

OPEN MIKEFULL: Open mic night to share your music, poetry, comedy or other

talents in a 10-minute slot. First and Third Th of every month, 7pm. $1.

Paradise Grange Hall, 5704 Chapel Dr. in Paradise, (530) 873-1370.

20FRIDAY BASSMINT: A (mostly) weekly electronic dance party with a rotating cast of local and regional DJs. Check with venue for details. F, 9:30pm. Peeking Chinese Restaurant, 243 W. Second St., (530) 895-3888.

local acoustic singer/songwriters and musicians. F, 7:30pm. 100th Monkey Café & Books, 642 W. Fifth St.

STRAIT COUNTRY: Buck Ford pays tribute to George Strait’s traditional western swing. F, 12/20, 9pm. $5. Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co., 3 Alverda Dr., in Oroville, (530) 533-3885, www.feather fallscasino.com/brewing-co.

XMAS XSTRAVAGANZA: Two nights of holi-

day shows with Mark Wilpolt and friends to benefit the Torres Shelter and Jesus Center. 12/20-12/21, 7-10pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.weebly.com.

GIVING IS EASY

’Tis the season to give, and an army of local entertainers are making it easier than ever to help the local homeless population with two fun-filled events this weekend. First, Mark Wilpolt and friends are hosting the two-night Xmas Xtravaganza show at Café Flo on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 20 and 21, which promises “ukuleles, accordions, fiddles, mandolins, guitars, reeds, horns, cookies and hot apple cider.” Proceeds from the event will benefit the Torres Community Shelter and the Jesus Center. And The Shimmies, CITIES, BOGG, Muddy Sours and other local acts are performing their favorite Radiohead songs on Saturday at Café Coda, with proceeds going to the 6th Street Center for Youth.

1/2 Off

SALE

Monday December 23rd

Thursday December 26th Furniture • Clothing Electronic Items and more!

Thrifty

Bargain

2432 Esplanade • Chico Store’s Hours: Mon. through Sat. 9 am to 8 pm Sunday 10 am to 6 pm

knick knacks • jewelry • radios • blankets • rugs • dolls• knick knacks • jewelry • radios • blankets • rugs • dolls

jewelry • radios • blankets • antiques

36 CN&R December 19, 2013

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT US.

the

Best Gift from the

Best Bar!

Duffy’s Hoodies NOW ON SALE! Limited Supply

WHO ARE YOU? TAKE OUR ONLINE SURVEY AND YOU COULD WIN! 6 lucky respondents will win either: * A $50 gift certificate to The Bookstore

337 MAIN ST (corner of 4th St. & Main)

* A free pass to the movies Take the survey online at www.research.net/s/013547 or scan the QR code with your smart phone.

NIGHTLIFE

THIS WEEK: FIND MORE ENTERTAINMENT AND SPECIAL EVENTS ON PAGE 28 the stage. Sa, 12/21, 9pm. $5. Tackle Box Bar & Grill, 375 E. Park Ave., (530) 345-7499.

RADIOHEAD COVER NIGHT: A lineup of local

A PROGGY CHRISTMAS Thursday, Dec. 19 Café Coda SEE THURSDAY

musicians including The Shimmies, CITIES, BOGG, Muddy Sours and more, all performing their favorite Radiohead songs to benefit the 6th Street Center for Youth. Sa, 12/21, 7:30pm. $5-$10. Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave., (530) 566-9476, www.cafecoda.com.

XMAS XSTRAVAGANZA: Two nights of holi-

day shows with Mark Wilpolt and friends to benefit the Torres Shelter and Jesus Center. 12/20-12/21, 7-10pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.weebly.com.

21SATURDAY

THE LIVING KARAOKE BAND: A rotating cast of local vocalists sing the songs of Carole King and Queen with The Living Karaoke Band. Sa, 12/21, 8pm. The DownLo, 319 Main St., (530) 892-2473.

CLASSIC-ROCK CHRISTMAS: December People is a quintet that performs holiday hits in a classic-rock style. Sa, 12/21, 9pm. $10 or 16 oz. canned-good donation. Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co., 3 Alverda Dr., (530) 533-3885, www.featherfallscasino.com/ brewing-co.

MUSIC SHOWCASE: An open mic hosted by local country musicians Rich and Kendall. Sa, 5-9pm. Free. Scotty’s Landing, 12609 River Rd., (530) 7102020.

22SUNDAY BAD SANTA XMAS PARTY: A benefit for the Pageant Theatre with local artists and merchandise, a potluck dinner and live performances by The LoLos, Low Flying Birds, Eastwind Bellydance Troupe and more. Su, 12/22, 4pm-1am. Donations. The DownLo, 319 Main St., (530) 892-2473.

23MONDAY JAZZ HAPPY HOUR: Live Jazz happy hour with Carey Robinson Trio. M, 5-7pm. Free. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.weebly.com.

MIRCACULOUS MAYHEM

The dudes in BOGG must be smoking some killer Christmas trees this season, as evidenced by the The Christmas Miracle Telethon they’ve put together for Friday, Dec. 20, at the 1078 Gallery. The event will feature music by the likes of Lisa Valentine and Loki Miller, as well as dancing, improv, sketch comedy and guest appearances by Santa Claus, Jesus and more. The premise driving this weird and wonderful mix of entertainment is “raising enough money to bribe Santa Claus into performing a real, true, legit Christmas miracle.”

24TUESDAY BAH-HUMBUG: A night of karaoke and

ugly Christmas sweaters. Tu, 12/24, 9pm. Maltese Bar & Tap Room, 1600 Park Ave., (530) 343-4915.

OPEN MIC: Open-mic night with Aaron

HOLIDAY-SEASON CALENDAR Due to scheduling changes that may occur around the holidays, please confirm listed events, dates and times with venue.

and Friends. Tu, 7-10pm. Opens 12/17. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.weebly.com.

SHIGEMI & FRIENDS: Live jazz with keyboardist Shigemi Minetaka and

rotating accompaniment. Tu, 6:308:30pm. Free. Farm Star Pizza, 2359 Esplanade, (530) 343-2056, www.farm starpizza.com.

NORTHERN TRADITIONZ: Local country/folk/bluegrass musicians rock

VAPOLUTION INC. THE ORIGINAL GLASS ON GLASS VAPORIZER ALL GLASS MEANS PURE VAPOR ORDER BY 12/24/13 & USE PROMO CODE “XMAS” TO RECEIVE

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December 19, 2013

CN&R 37

IN THE MIX Respect the Van The Brothers Comatose Self-released The vaguely R. Crumb-esque cover art of a van tooling down the highwayâ€”created by the bandâ€™s banjo player and vocalist Alex Morrisonâ€”is the first thing that catches oneâ€™s attention with Respect the Van, the second CD (released in May 2012) from five-piece string band The Brothers Comatose. The down-home vibe of that drawing foreshadows the sort of down-homey good time awaiting listeners. Album opener â€œModern Day Sinnersâ€? showcases the fine vocal harmonies of Alex and his brother, guitarist Ben Morrison, as well as the enviable fiddle playing of Philip Brezina. Brezina next launches the quintetâ€”rounded out by mandolinist Ryan Avellone and bassist Gio Benedettiâ€”into a rousing â€œPie for Breakfastâ€? (â€œIâ€™m having pie for breakfast/ The snowâ€™s coming down/ Starinâ€™ out the window in a cold and distant townâ€?), followed by â€œThe Scout,â€? another piece featuring sweet vocals and excellent fiddle work. Vocalist Nicki Bluhm lends her soulful voice on the pretty â€œMorning Time,â€? and â€œThe Van Songâ€? is a foot-stompinâ€™ good time. â€œSleep,â€? howeverâ€”a laid-back song anchored by hauntingly beautiful vocal harmoniesâ€”is the standout on this highly listenable, 11-song CD. Considering the groupâ€™s affinity for playing in the Chico area, it seems about time the Brothers graced its fans with a third album.

Celebrate l b HOLIDAZE O IN HICKSVILLE!

Hailed as â€œthe eternal hipster, purveyor of the drollest and most swinginâ€™ tunes the rock generation ever enjoyedâ€?, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks have hijacked the holidays and created an annual showcase of tunes from their 2010 release â€œCrazy For Christmasâ€?. Hicks and his entourage give fans a holiday swingfest they wonâ€™t soon forget!

VIP SUITES $150 PARTY PACKAGES AVAILABLE

Charge by phone (530) 533-3885, x510! Must be 21 or older.

Get your tickets: (530) 533-3885

3 Alverda Dr., Oroville, CA 95966 www.featherfallscasino.com

Rape Crisis Intervention & Prevention

Needs your help to get the word out about a new California law All victims of sexual assault will recieve a free forensic medical examination, regardless of whether or not they choose to participate in the criminal justice process. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS about sexual assault. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact Rape Crisis Intervention and Prevention.

This holiday season please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help provide assistance to victims. Your donation will provide items such as clothing, a safe place to stay, a hot meal and more.

WE ARE HERE TO LISTEN.

â€”Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia

THINK FREE.

6DWXUGD\ 'HF WK 'RRUV SP VKRZ SP 7LFNHWV MXVW

MUSIC

Excluded Julia Serano Seal Press Sometimes those who clamor the most for social justice can also enact injustices themselves. (As the saying goes: â€œThe road to hell is paved with good intentions.â€?) Julia Seranoâ€”a self-described â€œbisexual femmetomboy transsexual womanâ€?â€”explores how this phenomenon occurs in the context of feminist and queer activism with regard to those within the movement who are often â€œexcludedâ€? (e.g. transgender, bisexual, sex workers, etc.), and what can be done to rectify or at least minimize the problem. Serano discusses her participation in Camp Transâ€” the annual protest of the Michigan Womynâ€™s Music Festivalâ€™s â€œwomyn-born womynâ€? policy (which excludes trans women from attending)â€”and she explains how unfiltered accusations in queer and feminist communities often bite the hand that feeds. Serano has created an amazing and uplifting formula based on embracing holistic ideas about gender and sexuality, recognizing and challenging double standards, and the sociological theory of â€œmarkedâ€? versus â€œunmarkedâ€? people, with the aim of fostering more inclusive communities. She has a knack for explaining complex ideas in a simple-to-understand way, with an emphasis on finding specific resolutions to problems.

BOOK

â€”Charles H. Peckham V

Two with soul Johnny Rawls and Lou Pride Like soul music itself, which was born in the church, O.V. Wright began as a gospel singer before crossing over into secular music. Johnny Rawls worked with his mentor Wright in the 1970s, but had to be coaxed into making this powerhouse CD, Remembering O.V. But he wastes no time, getting into the groove on the first track, â€œInto Something (Canâ€™t Shake Loose),â€? an uptempo, horn-pumping description of being overcome by passion that Wright had recorded just three years before his death in 1980. Accompanied by another soul vet, Otis Clay, on this and two other songs, Rawls revives a batch of Wrightâ€™s classics that include â€œEight Men, Four Womenâ€? (the makeup of the jury that found him â€œguilty of loving youâ€?) and â€œBlind, Crippled and Crazyâ€? (rather than have his heart broken again). Soul music is a lotta heart and a lotta hurt, and Lou Prideâ€”another former gospel singer (who died a few months after finishing this CD)â€”really gets into the hurt with the title track of Ainâ€™t No More Love in This House, as well as on the heart-wrenching â€œDaddy, Donâ€™t You Walk So Fast,â€? a plea from his young daughter whoâ€™s running after him as heâ€™s walking away from their home. And on â€œI Didnâ€™t Take Your Womanâ€? (â€œyou gave her to meâ€?), he shows how another manâ€™s mistreatment of his woman resulted in loss. â€”Miles Jordan

MUSIC

NO. IT IS A COMPLETE SENTENCE. 530-342-RAPE

Serving Butte, Glenn & Tehama Counties since 1974 38 CN&R December 19, 2013

24-Hour Hotline

(Collect Calls Accepted)

www.rapecrisis.org

Find Us Online At:

www.chico.newsreview.com

BUTTE COUNTY LIVING

Love’s ReaL esTaTe Tiny Time

Open House Guide | Home Sales Listings | Featured Home of the Week

“T

iny House” has become part of the conversation for people looking for affordable real estate, people looking for a scaled-down lifestyle.

Free Real Estate Listings Find Us Online At:

www.chico.newsreview.com

A Tiny House is smaller than a shotgun house, a cabin, or a guest house. It’s smaller than your garage. A Tiny House is so small, as my old mentor KDV would say, you have to go outside to change your mind.

RECYCLE

A Tiny House is the size of a shed, typically 250 square feet or less. But it has everything. The kitchen is there, the bathroom, the bedroom, the living area. Tiny House owners tend to pour their hearts and souls and creative flair into their design, construction, and decor. You have your Cape Cod, your Victorian, and your California Craftsman styles. You have your high ceilings, your natural lighting, and your energy efficiency. You have your low, low, low utility costs.

THIS PAPER.

Tiny House owners tend to say things like,

YOU’RE WELCOME, NATURE.

“Living small emphasizes home life over home maintenance,” and, “We need to recognize what fills a home when the excess is cut away. Living small can free up your mind, your wallet and your spirit.” Logan and Tammy Strobel built a to-go version of the Tiny House, 128 square feet, built on an 8-by-16-foot trailer with wheels. It’s a tall, cedar-sided beauty, fully selfcontained, with an alcohol-burning stove, composting toilet, and walls insulated with natural wool. “We designed our home,” says Logan, “and it fits us like tailored clothes.” Good thing their Tiny House is a to-go version, because it went. The Logans towed it from a city lot in Portland, Ore., to country property near Mount Shasta. A garden hose and an electrical cord from their pump house did the trick for utilities. The simpler life, the less expensive life, and the smaller-impact lifestyle are all part of the Tiny House phenomenon. If you’re ready to give up the man cave and the lady lair, the maintenance and the bills, the entertainment theater, the bonus rooms and frills, you too can leave a smaller footprint. You could make it Tiny.

Doug Love is Sales Manager at Century 21 Jeffries Lydon email escrowgo@aol.com or call 530.680.0817

Open Houses & Listings are online at: www.century21JeffriesLydon.com Gated Communities

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