Week of April 5, 2023

From the editor’s desk

Gerlach, the gateway to the Black Rock Desert and the annual Burning Man festival, sits atop a system of steaming hot springs. Some of the tiny town’s residents worry that a rush to develop those geothermal resources would kill Gerlach in order to supply power to cities hundreds of miles away. They want federal officials to take a deeper dive into the potential environmental effects of the proposed geothermal complex.

Kris Vagner’s Art of the State piece, meanwhile, profiles Reno artist and poet Pan Pantoja, who rose from rural roots to shake up the local arts scene and helm the Potentialist Workshop.

Bob Grimm says moviegoers don’t have to be fantasy-game fanatics to get a kick out of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which he says is “a modestly entertaining, decent-enough adventure story” accessible to folks with no experience in the role-playing game. Grimm also has high praise for Lucky Hank, a new series starring Bob Odenkirk as a professor at a middling college who loses his patience with his job and his students.

Mixologist Michael Moberly’s Liquid Conversations spotlights Dave Serna, a “bartender’s bartender” who has poured libations and pampered patrons at a variety of watering holes across the Truckee Meadows.

In this month’s Publisher’s Note, Jimmy Boegle sounds off against the cynical politicians who foment fear and hate by using drag queens—and LGBTQ+ people in general—as a wedge issue.  

Both state and federal officials need to step up efforts to help Nevada’s tourism industry recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, says guest opinion columnist Chuck Muth.

April Fools’ Day is behind us, but the memory of its silliness remains as photo chief Dave Robert asks folks about the best—or worst—April Fools’ prank they have ever experienced.

Astronomy writer Robert Victor gives star-crossed readers a heads-up about what to expect in the spring skies, as Mars fades and Venus burns bright at sunset.

These stories and more are featured in the RN&R’s April print issue, available now at newsstands across Northern Nevada.

I’ll see you in the funny papers.

Take care,

—Frank X. Mullen, Editor