WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE—
THE NOUVEAU WEST COMES TO SORREL RIVER RANCH
This ain’t the same old range.
Everything seems to change.
Where are the pals I used to ride with?
Gone...to a land so strange.
The Sons of the Pioneers
If there is a doubt in anyone’s mind about the rapidly changing physical and cultural landscape in the once remote and lonesome Rural West, look no farther than the latest controversy to grip Grand County and Moab, Utah. It just doesn’t get any weirder than this.
Several weeks ago, Robbie Levin, owner of Sorrel River Ranch, a luxury lodge on the Colorado River, north of Moab, applied for a cabaret license with the State of Utah. As part of the process, Levin requested a letter of support from the Grand County Council. But the Council refused its support when one of its members, Councilman Al McLeod accused Levin of operating a sexually oriented business.
In 2003, thirteen episodes of an HBO-produced cable television series called "Hotel Erotica" were shot on Levin’s property along the Colorado River, north of Moab. An HBO web site says the series contains: "adult content, nudity, strong sexual content, and adult language."
Councilman McLeod said it amounts to "soft core" pornography and added, "That skates pretty close to state liquor laws," which ban cabaret licenses to sexually oriented businesses. The Council voted on Levin’s request and, on a 3-3 tie vote, denied Levin its support. In a telephone interview with reporter Lisa Church of the Moab Times-Independent, Levin conceded that rooms had been rented to the production company for the filming of "Hotel Erotica" but that it was a one-time occurrence.
Levin, clearly furious with McLeod’s accusations, told reporter Church, "How do you respond to something so stupid and ignorant? We are completely family-oriented here...Our property has nothing to do with sex or a sexually-oriented business. It’s silly to be labeled that. Al (McLeod) should get his facts straight."
Rumors that Levin plans to sue the Council and its members continue to circulate in the community; his friends and employees fired off angry letters to the Times-Independent in defense of Levin. Sorrel River Ranch Assistant Manager Sara Snider criticized McLeod and Councilperson Joette Langianese when she wrote, "The recklessly unfounded remarks made by this uninformed duo are personally offensive and morally appalling...Whether compelled by malice, ignorance or other motives, you have intentionally caused harm with your unsubstantiated and viciously inaccurate statements."
Local developer Tom Shellenberger observed, "Never have we seen any hint of impropriety at the ranch. The filming that took place at the ranch was conducted in private..." And he added, "Robbie and Hope Levin have created a four diamond resort in our community, the level of which has never been seen before in Grand County.
Meanwhile stories of these alleged soft-porn shenanigans have fueled our town’s love of gossip and innuendo. Already, some Moab citizens are even referring to Levin’s plush lodge as "Oral River Ranch."
Personally, I don’t really care what goes on behind closed doors, by consenting adults, whether it’s across the street or 20 miles up the Colorado River. And I don’t care whether those activities are for fun or for profit. Or both. Applying for a liquor license, a simple procedure practically anywhere else in America, can be an ordeal here and I can understand Levin’s frustration at times.
On the other hand, I long ago accepted the reality of my situation. Utah is perhaps the most conservative state in America, a state where even buying a mixed drink is a challenge. It is a state that is heavily influenced by the dominance of the Mormon Church, whose doctrines also frown upon the consumption of coffee and Coca-Cola.
But I chose to live here. No one held a gun to my head. I loved the red rocks and I moved to Utah and I have no one to blame but myself. My values may be a bit different from the Utah mainstream, but I have no desire to impose them on 70% of Utah’s population. So no one can fault McLeod, as an elected official representing the best interests of all Grand County residents, for raising these issues. In fact, I find it curious that the most conservative-leaning members of the Council, Carmichael, McNeely and Rex Tanner, were the councilpersons who voted in favor of Levin’s cabaret license.
But I have a real problem with Levin’s assertion that he merely rented rooms to the "Hotel Erotica" production company and that he runs his lodge as a "completely family-oriented" business.
If Levin had said, "Yeah...they shot a soft porn tv series here, and it made us a lot of money, and brought a lot of revenue to Grand County, and this is the future of Grand County and if you don’t like it, you better step aside, because the future is here and it’s not wearing clothes," I could respect his candor.
But he didn’t. He raged that he’d been slandered and he threatened retribution in the form of law suits and I’m sick of that kind of attempted intimidation from someone who can act threateningly, simply because he has more money than the rest of us combined
And besides, a five minute Google search pokes holes in his rhetoric. Levin claims that he served only as an innkeeper and that the relationship was purely business. That notion is a bit shaken by the fact that his wife, former Playmate of the Month Hope Levin, is listed as one of the "stars" of the series.
At this web site:
www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/CastGuide/showid_18041/Hotel_Erotica/
a page called the "Hotel Erotica–Cast Guide" lists the "stars" as: "Hope Levin, Lauren Hays, and Tina Leiu," in that order. And on an accompanying "episode guide," the same web site lists Hope Levin as playing maid supervisor "Agnes" in an episode called "Maid Service" and in the role of "Queen Theodosius" in another episode entitled "Bewitched and Bewildered."
I have no idea what kind of part Ms. Levin plays in either episode—she may be cast as the only virtuous visitor to Hotel Erotica, for all I know. And if she performs in a more "tradiitional" role, I’m sure Hope looks fantastic. But clearly the Levins had a greater commitment to the film than just renting rooms. To rant otherwise smacks of hypocrisy.
And not to belabor the point, but on yet another web site, www.tinaleiu.com/pages/1/index.htm, Hope Levin’s fellow star, Tina Leiu, offers special salutations from her home page to Hope and Robbie. "Thanks...for making me feel at home on the RANCH. I miss YOU with lots of LOVE!" she said.
I stayed at a Motel 6 in Salt Lake recently and I never received so much as a complimentary tube of body oil.
Finally, I found some images from the "Hotel Erotica" cable tv series on a web site called "nitrovideo.com." For a few bucks, I could have downloaded the streaming video of some pretty steamy-looking lesbian love scenes on the banks of the Colorado River in the middle of the day, in broad daylight and in clear view of anyone who happened to be paddling downstream from the Hittle Bottom put-in. I’m unaware of any efforts by Sorrel River Ranch or the production company to stop river traffic during the shooting of these..revealing images (I’d like to meet the girl on the left).
In any case, referring to the "bottomland" along the Colorado River has an entirely new meaning in 2004.
I can still recall my first journey down the old river road, decades ago, when it was dirt and gravel and when the most exciting part of the 40 mile drive was the hazardous crossing of the old one-lane Dewey Bridge. Most of the bottomland then was owned by real ranchers, who grew alfalfa and raised cattle and later came to be targets of the environmental community. As the "amenities economy," the economic solution supported by most urban environmentalists, continues to generate a demand for rural property, the Old Westerners will be unable to resist the staggering sums offered for that land. The wide-open lonesome West isn’t nearly as lonesome as it used to be. The New West is here in all its naked glory.
As for "Hotel Erotica" and Sorrel River Ranch, Hollywood had discovered this land, long before Hope Levin’s stunning performance in "Bewitched & Bewildered." Going as far back as the 1940s, directors like John Ford were producing classic films like "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon"—all shot on location, right here in God’ country. Perhaps some day we’ll see something of a re-make. I can almost see the title on the DVD...
"She ONLY Wore a Yellow Ribbon."
John Ford would not be amused.
ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL...SO WAKE UP!!!
Several years ago, I wrote a story about apathy in Moab and Grand County. I think I called it: "Moab—deadfromtheneckup." It seemed to me at the time that Moab’s citizens had lost their zeal, their commitment to activism, their enthusiasm for participation in the political system. And, just as I predicted, no one complained about my scathing editorial because the citizens I was referring to were too apathetic to reply. You guessed it...too DEADFROMTHENECKUP.
I freely admit that I have lost much of my own enthusiasm, although recent antics by some members of the Grand County Council have re-invigorated me. And it was heartening to see another council member, Al McLeod, show some real courage and stand up to the rubber stamp mentality of the controlling council majority. Clearly, the current Council Majority caters to the few, ignores the many, and tries to squash dissent any time it can get away with it.
But who can we ultimately blame except ourselves? Last week I went to the County Clerk’s office and asked for some election data. Fran Townsend and her staff were able to retrieve election results for me, going all the way back to 1988. The numbers were dramatic and revealing and, for me, predictable. It showed that since 1992 voter participation has dwindled from an all-time high to below 50% for the first time any old timer can recall.
In 1988, when Grand County voters decided whether or not to accept a proposed toxic waste incinerator, 73% of all registered voters participated in that election...we stopped the incinerator and voted out the incumbent commissioners who had proposed it. Two years later, in a non-presidential election year, 64.5% of the registered voters still turned out to cast ballots in a hotly contested and extremely entertaining commission election between Republican candidates David Knutson and Manuel Torres and Democrats Dave Bierscheid and Craig Bigler—the Republicans won handily. But in 1992, an angry and energized Grand County electorate turned out in record numbers to change our entire form of government. Public sentiment toward Knutson and Torres had changed dramatically and a record 76% of all registered voters helped make history in Moab.
But it was all downhill after that. Look at the numbers—1994/56.3%, 1996/65%, 1998/48.8%, 2000/56.4%, 2002/49.7%. Even in presidential election years 1996 and 2000 (indicated by bold type), the number of Grand County voters fell by 10% to 20% compared to 1992. And in both 1998 and 2002, we dropped below 50%.
What’s happening in Moab isn’t dramatic when compared to the national average, but Moab citizens have always been great advocates of participatory democracy. What’s going on here? I believe, in part, the apathy can be traced to the fact that we are an unabashed tourist town now, a population center whose government caters more to the people who visit than to the people who live here. The town’s residents have fragmented more into small cliques...we were always cliquish but were somehow held together in times of crisis by a thin but resilient thread of common concern. I don’t see that any more.
And of course, there is also the perception that the intelligence of the American voter, in this "Fear Factor/The Apprentice/Survivor" culture is simply declining...we’re becoming stupid.
But something else happened in 1992 that is worth considering and, in fact, is about to be given to the voters’ scrutiny in November. When Grand County changed its form of government, we tossed out the old partisan three person commission and replaced it with a seven person, non-partisan council. Only two of the new council seats were elected at-large, by the entire county; the other five were elected by district. The notion at the time was that the district council seats would be like having a neighborhood representative. We all envisioned one-on-one representation, perhaps regular neighborhood meetings, and an opportunity to really feel personally connected to local government.
It didn’t work out that way. District council members, elected by a relative handful of voters, often ignored their constituents and have made decisions with profound effects on the future of ALL Grand County citizens. Many residents don’t even know who their local representative is. In 1990, almost all of us could name our three commissioners; in 2004, I doubt if one in ten could identify all seven. Consequently, I think it has created an arrogance among many members of the governing body who no longer feel accountable to anyone except their own self-serving interests and/or to the more powerful special interests that some members of the council are so eager to accommodate.
There is no room for this kind of arrogance at any level of government. But while we may feel helpless to change much of anything in Washington, we can still make ourselves heard in small towns and counties. And especially this year...
Two ballot initiatives will appear in November that give us the opportunity to modify the structure of our local government once again. As proposed, the council would be reduced to five seats from seven and all council members would be elected by a vote of all county residents. I strongly support this initiative and think it will give us a governing body that more accurately reflects the will of the people.
One thing is certain—local elections are the last place left where I think a vote has much influence. Don’t waste your last chance to kick someone in the butt.
CORRECTIONS AND GOOFS
There were a couple of mistakes in the last issue that need to be mentioned here. First, due to a printing error, the bottom half inch of four pages were cut off. As a result, the last four lines of Erica Walz’s story, "Profiles in Cabbage," about Randy Ramsley’s Mesa Market in Caineville, were lost. The story in its entirety can still be found on our web site. If you go to the home page, look for the ‘archives’ link, and then find the August/September 2004 issue, you should be able to finally read those missing words.
And...I’m an idiot. I must have had Delores del Rio on my mind or something. Instead of laying out a new ad called "Dolores Contemporary" in Dolores, Colorado, I wrote, "Delores." My apologies to Jim and Liza. I think I got it right this time.
