No sillies, not baloney, or even bologna.  Rather I ask, if Reno is Bellona, the incomprehensible city in the 1975 Samuel Delaney novel “Dahlgren”.

Why do I ask this?  Well, a recent trip overseas for work found me at the airport bookstore in advance of my first leg searching for something to read during a long flight over an ocean.  I like me some sci-fi, so I stopped by the sci-fi section, and lo and behold, I found a book with an abstract sounding title and a vague, red cover, not attempting to suggest there’d be anything to do with spaceships or aliens from another planet in the book.

Dahlgren, read the cover, by Samuel R. Delany, Forward by William Gibson.  Now this is fascinating.

Dahlgren is a book about a city called Bellona, where something unspecified but horrible has happened, rendering the city little more than a war zone.  We follow a nameless character into the city, a place no outside press covers, a place full of deranged denizens and underneath it all, a layer of hidden beauty which is described through the text and open to your interpretation.

As I read further into the book, maybe about 150 or 200 pages in, I realized that I was reading the science fiction, post-hippie, City of Trembling Leaves.  This book is a tale not about science and technology but rather a dense yet vivid philosophical tome, an exploration of the human condition set in a place that could really be anywhere, but which is so specifically tied to its landscape and the conditions brought about by that landscape, that the two are inseparable.

The nameless character eventually takes on a name and guides us through this world and through his own development from an almost childlike outsider as he grows, matures, becomes a part of the place, and acquires an attitude and a clarity of purpose which is very real in context.

All through the book I could not help thinking to myself, “Bellona is so fuckin Reno from the 90s” – the Reno that existed (and still somewhat does) only for those who sought it out, and which was completely invisible to a true outsider.  As Gibson describes in the forward, a place where you come around a corner one day minding your own square business and suddenly you’re right in the middle of something you never saw coming and you will probably never leave.

Lots of adult themes, gratuitous sex and violence features throughout this book, and like TCOTL, if you can make it through the first 30 or 40 pages, chances are good you’ll lose a day or two of whatever else it was that you were going to do with your spare time spending every possible waking moment with it, until finally, at the other side of it, you’re a different person.  Read this book, Reno.  Oh, and if you haven’t read The City of Trembling Leaves, read that too.

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Empire Improv, the only men and women who can get you to fall in love with them even though they make up shit and laugh.

They are a local comedy troupe who does funny improv style.

They will be at the Studio on 4th (432 E. 4th St, 4th at Valley) the following dates:

Saturday, September 27th, 8pm

Saturday, October 4th, 8pm

Friday, October 10th, 8pm

They will be asking for $8, and the Studio on 4th has a nice selection of beverages as well.

For more information, head on over to Empire Improv’s Homepage!

- GR

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One of our favorite acts, Manacle, will be playing with Thrones, Silentist, and Violent Moon at the Red Rock Bar on Friday, September 26.  Donations are accepted, but I’m sure the bar will ask you to drink things that you purchase from them.  The show starts at 9pm.

The Red Rock Bar is at 241 S. Sierra, next to the wedding chapel…  Drive, park, enjoy.
- Gay Rodeo

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(photo courtesy “Amateur critic.”)

Reno often is a place of seasons, and all of them have their charms.

Winters are usually bleak, with the skys turning from blue to a sickly brown, the hillsides looking grayish and dusty, the trees turning to large, lifeless fingers scratching the smokey skies.  Usually if there’s a snow, it often is followed by sunshine, which means filthy snow packing on the sidewalks.  Much of the time is spent either the ski season, snow mobiling or just a simple evening trying not to rack up hospital bills on the downtown Reno ice skating rink.

We’re not there quite yet.  We’re enjoying a much nicer season, one that the estranged Gay Rodeo enjoys quite a bit.  That would be autumn, or in laymen’s terms, “fall.”

It isn’t so much about the trees turning color, nor is it simply enjoying the break from summer’s cruel baking ways.  It is the simple things that abandon Reno, and the opportunities that it creates:

- The party and special-events crowds go away.   Good, you bastards!  Go away!

- Windows roll up and we don’t have to enjoy people’s awful choice in music.

- You can sport that jacket you got on half-off during the summer.

- The trash and troublemakers go back to their own dimension, making being about nicer.

- Fishing in the Truckee River is about perfect.

- People in swimsuits by the river that ought not to wear them so small cover themselves.

- People in swimsuits by the river that I can’t stop staring at can stop getting me in trouble.

- Cruising in downtown Reno is cut by two-thirds.

- Oh yeah, and its cooler and well yes, the leaves turn pretty.  Sure.

Summer isn’t a bad season, it is just a tense one.  Everyone, everywhere is trying to do something.  The traffic sucks, the events make it suck, the heat makes it suck, and you end up just wanting to get the fuck out of town.  It is great for growing a vegetable garden, walking  your dog, volleyball, evening barbecue, travel… Really.

What summer really does it get people involved with the town.  People are motivated to do shows, have markets, walk places, yes, even go to some debatably fun events.  Hey, whatever flips your open sign on.  Who cares.

What I dislike is the summer time being the only time that you see a majority of people’s creative efforts.  Music shows are on the decline, and while I like to think the reason is ambitious young lads and lassies are busy doing schoolwork and the like, sadly this isn’t always the truth.  The cold makes people lethargic, and smoking marijuana and bringing home cheap alochol does not make for a motivated person most of the time.  Suddenly playing a show turns to “Playstation 3,” and our already in-need creative scene, needing more art exhibitors, functions, music shows goes on hiatus for about five to six months.

I’ve noticed this especially at the close of August, where our request for putting up shows and even being able to find them has gotten harder and harder.  Us, your favorite God Hates Reno “Reno fun aficianacos,” is having to scrape together interesting things for you all to do.

Nothing to fret and sweat, however, if you see the “We Reccommendeth,” trailing behind, it isn’t because anyone is slacking (which they usually are), it is because we either need to know, or there genuinely isn’t anything going on.  If this isn’t your first flirt with the way Reno works, then you’ll fully understand that what I say is the truth.

We’ll probably be doing some interesting pieces on more restaurants, since going out to eat is a great cooling and cold-weather pasttime here in Reno.  We’ll also be doing more bits on the new West Street Market that has popped up, since I hear that it may be an all-seasons event.  There will be some seasonal fun to be had, perhaps we’ll even try out a few of the campy haunted venues that will be popping up in the next few weeks.

Fall makes me want to bring out the spiced candles, wonder if there is really such a thing as a comfortable cold-weather shoe that doesn’t suck, and figure out how to rig the front porch to deter the candy beggars… this year:  remote-senored sprinklers!  That’ll teach you little bastards…

…in all reality, it is a GREAT time to enjoy Reno.  It is prime-time walking and biking weather.  If you haven’t explored some of Reno’s cooler neighborhoods, bike paths and parks, now is the time to do it.  You’ll be amazed at what a great place you live in when you have the town to yourself.  No really, I swear.  Get out there.

When the rest of the town has decided it is too ugly and depressing to be out-and-about in the town, that my lovelies, is the time for you.

Look forward to more interesting posts from the GHR crew.

I do apologize for my absence as of lately, I haven’t forgotten about any of you.

-GR

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Peacenik punk rockers “Surrender,” will be waving the white flag along with “Da Capo,” at the Eyeball (Ryland one block west of Holcomb).  Leave your guns and nuclear weapons at home, but just this once.  September 19th, 8pm, donations accepted.  I heard Wasteland Witch may be there, but since it ain’t on the flyer, don’t quote me on that.

- Gay Rodeo

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Shows are drying up now that summer is over.  That doesn’t mean you have to suffer.

It just means you have to think outside the box.

And that cliche goes to the least cliche band in Reno that I’m aware of, Schizopolitans.

They will be playing at the Studio on 4th (at Valley and 4th, east of downtown) on October 11th, 2008.  I’m pretty sure the show will be cheap, but bring about $5-$10.  They do amazing sets with things you hardly hear at all, let alone in Reno.  Show starts at 8pm.

Here’s what you can expect:

You can’t miss this.

Go, my pretties, go!

- Gay Rodeo

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