Lifestyle

STATELINE, LAKE TAHOE — If you find the man's got you down, no worries. You can handle it. You always do.

But if the man's got your brother's wife's sister's cousin down, well, you're a special case. You're definitely in need of a few beers and some whack-a-doodle pearls.

Here are more photos of Saturday's Boys and Girls Club of Western Nevada's annual summer barbecue and auction fundraiser.

The 17th annual Kids Auction and World's Greatest Barbecue could be said to be Carson's City's end-of-summer picnic. It certainly had all the fixins': Ribs, chicken, tri-tip, slaw, cornbread, potato salad, and lots of ice cream to go around.

Here are more photos from today's Latino Cultural Festival Parade held in Carson City. Festivities continue through 9 today and on Sunday from noon to 7 p.m. at Gold Dust West, 2171 Highway 50.

Formerly known as Salsa Y Salsas, the second Latino Cultural Fest began this morning with a parade down Carson Street and Highway 50 and continued on to Gold Dust West in Carson City. Click here to see more photos. Dozens of horses and cars were featured in the parade, as well as a traveling mariachi band, local politicians and lots of waving.

Bike Carson'sJeff Moser and friends take an awesome journey on some of the most desirable off-road routes that connect Carson City to Virginia City. Click here to read about it. Moser's perspective into the two-wheel world around Carson City, Northern Nevada and the Sierra is bookmark-worthy +10.

Dayton Valley Days on September 18 and 19 will be more than a fun family event. The annual street fair will also benefit several local nonprofits that add to the quality of life in the Dayton Valley.

One of those nonprofits is Central Lyon Youth Connections (CLYC), an organization that offers a number of free programs to enhance positive youth development. Director Michele Watkins explained that CLYC includes Project Success, Volunteer Connections, Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws and service learning projects.

Improving School Success:

Playgrounds are a pure joy to watch. Children experiment and dream with unbridled optimism. One elementary school in Carson City, by itself, houses over 600 future teachers, healers and leaders. It is a parent’s best dream to envision a bright, healthy, productive future for our children. Sometimes fear overtakes us, as we live with the daily reminders of our world’s very-real threats to those futures. Many of those fears are born of the very-real adult perspectives we have on environmental risks - like crime, drug use and violence.

If you have a book explaining nutrition relating to vitamin and mineral needs, read the chapter regarding what is proper nutrition for kids as well as for adults.

Children don’t consider the amount of vitamins and minerals in food, only the desire to cure hunger. During growing years is the time that they need good nutritional habits. And as we age, eating habits change and many factors, medication, special diets, illness and loneliness get in the way of proper nutrition.

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev. — At about 9:45 Saturday night, the crowd was all expectation as fireworks began blazing around the base of the Burning Man figure, 40 feet tall, looming against the black sky over the Black Rock Playa and Black Rock City eight miles from Gerlach, Nev.

Labor Day weekend and fireworks at South Shore Lake Tahoe are a tradition, with plans tonight, Sunday, for a truly awesome pyrotechnic display. So if you're sitting down here in Carson City, drive on up Spooner or Kingsbury Grade early to catch some amazing eye candy.

BLACK ROCK CITY, Nev. — Forget all those rumors about this year's Burning Man event being a police state.

It's the same gathering of free-wheeling Burners that have populated the Black Rock Desert near Gerlach for more than 10 years, with the Bureau of Land Management, Pershing and Washoe counties' sheriffs deputies helping keep the 48,195 Burners reasonably in line. Final attendance is expected to hit 50,000.

If you're looking for a family type night of entertainment, you could head for the Eldorado in Reno, where acrobats are flying through the air with if not the greatest of ease, then certainly with skills that border on the awesome. “Le Grand Cirque” is populated with a cast of --- don't know, seems like hundreds but is probably about 20 --- artists who make flying through the air, lifting one another with a single hand, and swooping about on nothing more than twisted tablecloths.

Thelonious Monk has long been a master of the jazz idiom and the 88 keyes as well as writing some jazz standards that have outlived his death and been recorded and played by hundreds of jazz musicians.

I, for one, always thought of Monk as a dapper, slim esthetic kind of guy, but the DVD "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser" available from Netflix, shows a different kind of guy: big, hulking, lively, involved in his music and fellow players.

June Joplin has become a fixture in Carson City ever since she opened Comma Coffee 10 years ago. She often sends out e-mails about what’s going on at Coma Coffee, and we usually just pick up what’s coming up there. But this week she offered some personal thoughts that I thought we should share with all of you. So here’s her e-mail. Read and enjoy.

By June Joplin

Lake Tahoe’s annual Valhalla Arts, Music and Theatre Festival has some of the most unique entertainment choices around-the-lake with its solid line-up of performing arts and cultural events running through the month of September. For tickets call (530) 541-4975 or click here.

Here’s the upcoming line-up:

Tahoe Dance Band performs at the Grand Hall on Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m. The 17-piece band plays big band and swing with fox trots, waltzes, tangos, and polkas. Tickets are $15/$12/$5.

Retired Nevada State Archivist Guy Rocha talks about events commemorating state history:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij3AxR_jfBA

Physical Fitness - Quality of Life

Being physically fit gives you the ability to enjoy life. It's called "quality of life".

With so many new types of exercise available maybe it’s time to define quality of life and how you achieve it. When you work on physical fitness, you enhance the physiological capacity of your body. You increase the ability to stay with a task longer and increase the range and weight of the task. Your heart will beat slower with more blood behind each beat, and generate more oxygen to your muscles. Who cares? You should!

The Virginia & Truckee Railroad will extend its 2010 season to include new “Colors in the Canyon” train rides and will continue Saturday rides through Dec. 18.

The “Sisters in History Route” between Carson City and Virginia City was set to operate through Oct. 31, Nevada Day but due to popular demand as evidenced by many sold-out weekends, the season has been expanded for an additional six weeks, officials announced today.

Collectors from as far as Florida and New York are in Carson City this weekend to gawk and potentially buy priceless pieces of historic minted coins and printed paper money in what has become a must-attend event for serious numismatists.

Dogs and fleas normally don't make for good company. But a future park made for dogs and a flea market to raise money for a park designed for K9s to roam is something akin to a friendship of a different animal.

Jazz Carson City 2010 will wind up this weekend with a Friday night appetizer followed by a Saturday and Sunday blowout.

It’s all under the umbrella of the Mile High Jazz Band, which offers a five-singer tribute to Count Basie Saturday night from 8 to 10 p.m. at the 3rd Street site.

Tonight

David Bugli talks about the Jazz Carson City Festival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3k0ya231Ec

The September/October issue of VIA Magazine put out by AAA has a wonderful cover story on Trains in the West and features, among 11 iron horses, the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.

Cindy Sabatini discusses her role as Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" opening this weekend at the Carson City Community Center.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV35O2J_Nn4

LAKE TAHOE — Unbearable loneliness, crises of confidence, bereavement, loss of hope and struggles with faith are just some of the universal topics being talked about on the stage of the historic Boathouse Theatre at Tahoe’s annual Valhalla Arts, Music and Theatre Festival. "Talking With" is a unique collection of 10 monologues by 10 marvelous characters who are sure to make the audience laugh and think.

AUSTIN, Nev. — It’s not often you’ll find a classic historic mining town full of options for the more active traveler. Austin, Nevada is not only a living ghost town and a cultural heritage get-away but it has a multitude of adventurous options including hiking, mountain bike trails and more. Founded in 1862 during the silver rush, the town is located exactly in the center of the state along the Pony Express route on Highway 50 on the western slopes of the Toiyabe Range at elevation 6,605 feet.

Chris Bayer entertains with a song about Carson City, and talks about taking risks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE_InQLdCRg

Nine-year-old Sonia Byington, left, and her mother, Kendall, of Santa Cruz, Calif., stopped by the Carson Mall in Carson City on Saturday afternoon for the Friends of the Carson City Library Bargain Book Sale. The daughter-school teacher team were in Carson City this weekend visiting family member Cindy Byington, a Friends of the Library volunteer. The next Friends of the Library book sale will be in September.

The Northern Nevada Film Factory "Youth Film Making Workshop" starts Monday August 16.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnHF9fm7vsg