High Desert World: 2019

2019 REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE EXHIBITION

"In today’s era of heightened environmental awareness, artists are increasingly turning to junk stores, trash bins, and surplus outlets to satisfy their urge to create while still caring for the planet. The 2019 exhibition, themed “Think: Reconstruction,” is meant to make people rethink our throw-away society by sharing the local community’s innovation and often surprising use of reused and recycled materials."

A sample of the entries of art made of recycled things on display at the Natural History Museum.

Photos by High Desert World.

For Sale By Owner

My first high desert client work was designing a 8' x 4' billboard sign, creating a FSBO website FSBO Bramehome.com and a video for Youtube to help market the property.

Did you see this billboard on 29 Palms Highway?

The appealing features of the house are 1) it is a turn key property and newly remodeled and 2) sits on a commercial zone so one can have a live/work business set up and 3) it comes with a big lot to boot and finally 4) the property costs $240K when other commercial zoned properties are prohibitively costly even for economically limited areas like the high desert.

The billboard sign is up on 29 Palms Highway and on the property. The website is up and the video made. Now it's on the market available for purchase. It will be interesting to see the who/what/when unfold on this space. In the meantime, check out the house from where you are.

FSBO Bramehome.com

Build Your High Desert Dream Business here.

Video Tour of 56505 Antelope Trail, Yucca Valley, California

My First Grubstakes Rodeo

The 69th Annual Grubstakes Days Rodeo about to begin at Yucca Valley.

I had some LA friends visiting and we went to our first Grubstakes Rodeo over the Memorial Day weekend.

What is a grubstake? It is money an investor gives to a prospector in return for a promised share of the profits. The first Grubstakes Days were held in 1951 financed by the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce. The event attracted homesteaders and outsiders and helped funnel some money to the local businesses scrambling by in the high desert. Fast forward 2019. Financing has changed. The organizer was able to secure partial funding from the town government and GoFundMe donations from business donors based in the high desert and the extra would come from ticket and vendor sales.

Risky Bare Backed Bull Riding

"Rodeo careers can end without warning, as quick as the next try at an eight-second ride." John Branch

A rodeo is quite a spectacle to process for a newbie. There is excitement and fear. Watching the riders on bareback riding the bulls and young children (young as 3!) on "mutton busting" and mini bull riding is a white knuckle experience. There is a risk of some mishap befalling and some of them did limp away and some obviously injured. The announcer maintained an unwavering upbeat patriotic banter while the rider limped away contorted in some agony.

Having no experience on horseback riding, it was amazing to see the expert horseback riding. The American Cowgirls composed of professional equestrians did a half time drill that showed off their impressive horsemanship with big US flags waving. It was a big Saturday night event for the town as all the bleachers were filled up and the maximum capacity was capped at 1,500. So most likely a 70th Annual Grubstakes Rodeo will take place next year.

Roping of the Animals

Photos & videos by author / High Desert World

Art Queen at Joshua Tree

When I moved from the big city to the high desert last year, this area was an unfamiliar territory though I had made many treks to Joshua Tree National Park over the years. Being a transplant, one feels like an exile in an unfamiliar town. When I told a friend I was moving to Yucca Valley, she asked, "Where is that? Do people live there?"

I like to think the expansive desert landscape with its mysterious beauty leaves an imprint on personality. Most of my interactions with the locals have been friendly & courteous. After months of reclusiveness, I ventured out one evening to see a film screening of a CalArts graduate Christiane Cevaske's film at the Art Queen's Fever Dream Exhibit. There was live music on stage and a gracious presentation of food and drinks on the table free of charge, a group art show, and an outdoors screening of the stop motion animation film Seed In The Sand with Q&A afterwards.

The Art Queen at Joshua Tree was a welcome beacon. What a relief to discover a place willed with hi-desert maverick-flavored artistic joie de vie. I have taken my out of town friends since my first visit and unanimously it has been good, their spirits heartened by such unabashedly good-natured whimsy art par excellence.

I had to get the Jesus and His Kitties patch for my good hearted friend who takes care of a dozen rescue cats.

There are a cluster of businesses on the Art Queen complex. There is an off the wall The Crochet Museum with a collection of all things crocheted. Crochet takes me back to middle school years in East LA, El Sereno Junior High's Home Economics class. Back then the classrooms had actual kitchen set ups where the students were taught the basics of cooking. I also recall being taught how to sew and each student had a sewing machine. And one of the crowning achievement for a 13 year old me was learning to crochet with bright neon color yarns, materializing the poufy poodles using a full size toilet roll as its body frame and feeling proud at my creations: a pair of garishly bright crocheted poodles. Feeling confident, I embarked on a new project on my own crocheting a large black and white panda with big black button eyes. I had forgotten about all that until I saw the crocheted poodles at the Crochet Museum. Where are thou now, black and white panda bear?

Shari Elf's Crochet Museum. If you can imagine, you can crochet it.

Surely, sometimes one feels compelled to crochet cactuses, no? I recall seeing an Ocotillo plant crocheted with a little red color spot on top to represent its flame color bloom. Follow your bliss, right?

Cactus Corner at theCrochet Museum

The last time we visited in April, we saw a new set up that looked like a groovy spaceship. It was called Angel Queen and one used the ladder to walk up the observation lounge. It was sparkly space age decor in the inside and quite comfortable with observation windows all around. We visited in the daytime on a warm day so it got a little hot but at night with the wind howling and hot beverage in hand, what a spaceship to hang out! I would like one in my backyard!


Angel Queen by Randy Palumbo.

There is a bookstore called Space Cowboy. I didn't get a chance to browse leisurely but I will surely revisit to purchase some books at a local bookstore!

The Local Bookstore at Joshua Tree

And check out this ancient Greece inspired adorned trailer shelter perhaps for visiting artists? Now doesn't this bring a big smile to your face?

There's so much more but I had to rush off to Joshua Tree National Park as some of our friends had never ever beheld the place. But I will revisit another time. Long live the Art Queen!

All pictures by the author / High Desert World.

Theater In The High Desert

So thrilled to discover the high desert area has a thriving theater scene. I caught the closing performance of the Working, A Musical presented by the Hi-Desert Playhouse in Joshua Tree last month and this past weekend Oklahoma! at the 29 Theater in Twentynine Palms. And the ticket prices are affordable!

WORKING, A Musical

The musical created by Stephen Schwartz and Nina Faso is based on a bestselling book by Studs Terkel titled Working: People Talk about What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do (1974) which featured interviews with people from all over America and from all walks of occupations. The book led to a musical first staged in Chicago in December 1977. Then made it to Broadway in 1978 where it ran for 24 performances. And since then, it has been staged in many theaters with revisions and new songs along the way.

The hi-desert playhouse production directed by Howard Shangraw with live band music accompaniment directed by Nelms McKelvain was fantastic! At the Blak Box theater in Joshua Tree, the musical featured an ensemble cast of 16 local actors and featured 18 songs. Because it is a small sized theater, every seat was good and close to the drama unfolding.

The cast did an admirable job and the songs touched all the emotional facets of the working life: the pride of achievement, the quiet tragedies, the doubts, the monotony, the hard work... Every piece was creatively presented. I especially enjoyed the sassy waitress song presentation “It’s An Art” and the millworker song "Millwork" about the broken hopes and daily reality of numbing repetitive work. The good performances kept coming. The housewife lamenting her travails in “Just A Housewife”. Some were humorously presented such as the parking lot attendant song. One saw the world changing through the soon retiring school teacher's eyes. And her bright student after high school begins work as a cashier at the local supermarket and the immigrant grocery clerk who can only dream of a better life for his mother & family toiling all their lives in poverty doing farm work, the UPS delivery guy, the stone mason, the newspaper delivery boy, the cleaning ladies who dream of better futures for their offspring, the office clerical staff, long haul truck drivers and more.

The play showed the person behind a job and proved what the director says, “that the everyday lives of common men and women should be so compelling and moving will surprise and inspire anyone who has ever punched a time clock.” The musical was indeed compelling and moving. The beauty, power and magic of live theater performance were all present!

OKLAHOMA!

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Rodgers & Hammerstein’s first musical project together. It was a smash hit on Broadway with over 2000 performances and is considered "the great American musical". We caught the Theater 29’s presentation of it this past weekend. This theater was founded in 1999 bringing theater arts to the hi desert for twenty years!

Directed by Charles Harvey, the ensemble is a mix of professional and budding actors. Per the director, it is more than a revisionist feel good story. “It is the timeless story of the birth of a nation, there is beauty and there is blemish. It is the audacity of hope, carving out a life that is central to toil and tears, but also indescribable beauty.”

The charm factor outweighs the imperfect singing and dance performances. The presentation was adorable by the diverse cast with different stage experience levels. The racially diverse cast stood out too. It being an old-time specific play when Oklahoma was an Indian Territory before statehood, the old country dialect can be sometimes difficult to decipher but one can see that as an opportunity to enjoy a bygone language of a time and place. And the actors lacked individual microphone so soft singing sometimes were hard to hear. Still one got the idea. And it being a small theater, all the seats were good, especially on the risers.

It was a delight to be acquainted with this famous musical featuring the love story of farm girl Laurey Williams and cowboy Curly McClane. And sad for the brooding angry Jud Fry who wagered all his hard-earned savings for a chance at a more fulfilling life. To see the new world emerging as Will Parker describes his visit to a new city in “Kansas City”. The dream sequence ballet was well done and particularly enjoyable. From the Ado Annie performance of “I Can’t Say No”, the peddler’s song with the menfolk singing “It’s A Scandal, It’s An Outrage” and more were all charmingly presented. Ali Hakim, the persian peddler was especially funny.

Oklahoma! is playing through March (last weekend!) so treat your family and go see this gem of a community theater at its finest!

Theater 29

London Rocket (Sisymbrium Irio)

I met a new plant. The leaves design first caught my eyes, all jagged and deep lobed in a rosetta shape. I thought they were dandelions.

But the yellow wispy yellow flowers that emerged later suggested otherwise.

It is not wild arugula either. It is Sisymbrium Irio, known as London rocket. The confusion is wild arugula (diplotaxis tenuifolia) is referred to as rocket by some folks and Sisymbrium irio, also of the mustard family, is referred to as London rocket. While they come from the same brassicaceae family and share lots of similarities, they diverge in the appearance of the tiny yellow flowers. One is considered ‘wild arugula’ while the the other is considered an ‘edible weed’.

Apparently they grow all over Arizona and desert areas in California. Each plant harbors several thousand seeds and are considered invasive weeds. They are hardy, having withstood the blistering cold wind, frost and snow. But it is said that hot weather will bring their demise...until the winter season returns.

They are taking over the yard. I’m not sure whether they should all be pulled or let them be. I see the bees buzzing about the flowers so I think they belong here till summer comes around.