Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, December 5, 2020

THE CONVERSATIONS.. Talking About The Things That Are On Our Mind

14

 Mountain Views News Saturday, December 5, 2020 

PORTRAIT OF OUR NEIGHBORS By Stuart Tolchin

GUY MICHAEL D’AURIA

 
Guy D’Auria is a 28 year old man who has lived in Sierra Madre for all of his life. He works 
at a nearby Starbucks as a barista just to pay bills. This is just the outside of his life but as 
you can see from the accompanying picture he has dreams and aspirations to be ROCK 
STAR. Answering my first question of “What would you like the world to know about you” 
his answer is “I want to be known as someone who creates and produces his own music 
and I want that music to convey to people the extraordinary feeling that my music gives 
me. My dreams are so big that sometimes they even scare the hell out of me.”

 Unfortunately, I am 50 years older than Guy for whom I used to babysit when he 
was 5 or 6, and I really don’t know what he is talking about. I asked him to do the best 
he could to explain his music to me. I learned that house music is created electronically 
and is one of the many genres of electronic dance music played in clubs by a DJ who sits 
above the crowd performing. Below the crowd dances energetically and happily as they 
are pulled away from their own problems and into a better world. The music is hypnotic 
and soothing. For the people in the clubs it is not about sex or drugs but simply “chilling, 
grooving, and dancing” his exact words. The major excitement for him as I understood it 
was the opportunity to create and produce the music which is 100 percent his own and to 
reach the audience with that music.

 I asked him how things are during the virus restrictions and learned that he is now 
limited to just doing live streams from his home. He said he can barely wait for the clubs 
to reopen so he “can wrap his fingers around the knobs again.” Enough about the music, 
this portrait is about Guy, our Sierra Madre neighbor, along with his music. Guy is a very 
charming, fit, athletic looking young man. I asked him about future plans for relationships 
and a family of his own but the question was spurned with a wave of his hand. Right now 
his energy is centered about the creation of his music for which he is known as D’Auria. 
He does have a girlfriend who is supportive and understands.

 How did house music become so important? I remembered him as a young man 
focusing mainly on sports. His father was a professional baseball player and a coach for 
over twenty years at a Pasadena College and I thought Guy too would become a professional 
athlete. The story of Guy D’Auria and his present life begins here. While playing baseball 
most of his life in high school he became heavily involved in drinking and drug use. At the 
age of 18 while playing soccer as a part of baseball practice Guy broke 5 toes. He struggled 
with his addiction for some time. He voluntarily entered a 12 step Narcotics Anonymous 
program at the age of 20 but even after leaving the program was still “self-medicating” with 
drugs and sex. He passionately wanted to recapture the feeling that he had while being 
addicted to drugs and realized he still suffers from the disease of addiction. 

 Somewhere along the line he entered a music club and discovered what he calls 
a new addiction. Miraculously he soon transferred his pursuit of his lost feeling to an 
appreciation of and the creation of music. He has now been completely sober for almost 
6 years and speaks in terms of integrity and spirituality. He is serious and passionate and 
convincing. He believes in himself and guarantees he will pursue his goals and dreams 
and I am rooting for him. 

Talking to him was an inspiration! Guy’s music is available on line at https://linktr.ee/
dauriamusic.

CHRISTOPHER Nyerges

CHRISTOPHER NYERGES’ “FORAGING ARIZONA”

JUST RELEASED 

[Nyerges can be reached at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.]

 

Christopher Nyerges’ seventh 
book for Falcon Guides, “Foraging 
Arizona,” has just been released. 
This botanical guide was 
written by Christopher Nyerges, 
the author 22 books, who has been leading wild 
food and self-reliance classes since 1974.

“Foraging Arizona” is a fully-illustrated guide to 
the edible and medicinal plants of Arizo-na, with 
lots of historical recipes and useful information 
about the flora of Arizona. 

California residents, and residents of surrounding 
states, will find many familiar plants in this book 
because many of the common plants of Arizona 
grow over a wide territory in the Southwest. The 
very stereotypical desert plants are found in this 
books, such as the various cacti: the prickly pears, 
the barrel cactus, the apple cactus, the saguaro. 
Nyerges has also found many recipes for how to 
use the fruits and pads. However, he points out 
that it’s a myth that you can get water by shoving 
a spigot into a barrel cactus. The book includes 
some 70 year old recipes for cactus dishes from 
the Cactus and Succulent Socie-ty. A photo series 
shows how to clean and eat the prickly pear pads.

Some of the common wild food seeds of Arizona include chia, mesquite, palo verde pods, 
catclaw acacia, walnuts, and acorns. Some of the native green leafy plants include ama-
ranth, wild rhubarb, and miner’s lettuce. Botany students will find many of the introduced 
European “weeds” – so common over the entire U.S. – also included in this book. These 
include common introduced plants such as dandelion, sow thistle, mallow, purslane, and 
mustards, all of which are found throughout Arizona.

Strawberries, blackberries, rose hips, and coffeeberries are all found in Arizona, and “Foraging 
Arizona” provides clear photos and descriptions of when and where to find these.

 

There is a nutritional chart in the front of the book showing the nutrient value of many 
of the common wild foods. Included in 
the book is a chart showing that acorns 
are indeed a quality food, and that prickly 
pear – with all its essential and non-
essential amino acids – can be called a 
superfood.

Though “Foraging California” is primarily 
a book about edible plants, there are 
some oth-er uses mentioned, such as medicinal 
uses, and plants used for soap or 
rope. The willow plant is included in the 
book, which is not a food, but a source of 
medicine (salicin) and a source of wood 
that has long been used for craft materials. 
The Creosote plant is also in-cluded 
in the book, which is one of the most 
important medicines from the native 
Ameri-can traditions. Again, since many 
of the plants listed are fairly widespread, 
people from other states have told us that 
they find the book useful there also.

 “Foraging Arizona” includes many non-
native plants, because these so-called 
weeds are routinely killed off by gardeners 
and farmers using weedwhackers, 
plows and poisons, and yet so many of 
the common weeds are good food and 
medicine. Some of the “inva-sive” plants turn out to be some of the most nutritious plants 
in the world, such as lamb’s quarter (poor man’s quinoa, and a rich source of minerals), 
purslane (highest plant source of Omega 3 fatty acids), and dandelion and its many relatives. 
These are all de-scribed in “Foraging California.”

The book is dedicated to Nyerges’ chief botanical mentor, Dr. Leonid Enari, who had de-
grees in botany and chemistry. Nyerges studied with Dr. Enari at the L.A.County Arbore-
tum, and privately, and Dr. Enari assisted Nyerges with his first book, “Guide to Wild 
Foods.”

“Foraging Arizona” is available from bookstores, from Amazon, and from the School of 
Self-Reliance


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com