Steven Kent was 13 years old when he met Elvis Presley backstage after a show in Las Vegas. “The whole experience was a bit of a blur, but the buzz around Elvis was like nothing I’d ever seen before,” says the Healdsburg resident, who grew up in Mill Valley and Sausalito. “People were pushing cameras in his face, everyone wanted something from him, and I remember thinking, ‘This’ll make a person crazy eventually.’”

Years later, Kent and former–Spreckels Performing Arts Center Manager Gene Abravaya discussed creating a Country Western–themed benefit event for Spreckels during a chance meeting. Kent described an idea he’d kicked around of doing a concert-style show featuring the songs of Presley and Johnny Cash—who Kent also met.

“I told Gene I was thinking about calling the show ‘Cash & King,’ and that it would weave the greatest songs of Presley and Cash around stories of their lives, and a bit about what they’ve meant to me over the course of my life,” Kent says.

The resulting show was a huge success, packing Spreckels’ main theater. What Kent conceived as a one-time-only night of fun turned into a side-career when he fielded offers to take the show on the road.

“We’ve gone on to do it all over the Western states, in Oregon, Nevada, Arizona; but we haven’t done it again in Sonoma County for a while,” he says.

That changes at 7pm on Sunday, Nov. 3, when Spreckels Performing Arts Center brings Cash & King back to the stage where it all began.

“We’ve put together a great band, and we put on big show filled with some of the best songs ever written,” Kent says. “And we’re excited to be back at Spreckels.”

But back to the thing about meeting Cash.

“I lived a lot of places, and I had a band in L.A., once, and I hung out at The Palomino,” Kent says. “I met a guy named Earl Ball, a piano player, who worked in my band from time to time—when he wasn’t touring with Johnny Cash. He was Johnny Cash’s piano player!”

Over the years, Kent frequently told Ball how much he’d love to meet Cash—some day.

“After several years, I went to see Cash perform at Knott’s Berry Farm,” Kent says. “After the show, I saw Earl, and he grinned at me and said, ‘Turn around.’ And there was Johnny Cash, standing right behind me. My legs almost buckled. I’ve seen a lot of famous people in my life, but I’ve never been around anybody who had the charisma or gave off the excitement I felt from being around Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley.”

Speaking of Presley, Kent still remembers his chat with the King back when he was 13.

“I told him, ‘I’m a singer, and I want to be just like you,” says Kent. “Elvis stopped me and said, ‘No, no. Always be yourself.’ I’ve remembered that to this day.”

Cash & King plays Sunday, Nov. 3, at Spreckels Performing Arts Center, 5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park. 7pm. $30–$40. 707.588.3400.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Do you have any skills in fulfilling the wishes and answering the prayers of your allies? Have you developed a capacity to tune in to what people want, even when they themselves aren’t sure of what they want? Do you sometimes have a knack for offering just the right gesture at the right time to help people do what they haven’t been able to do under their own power? If you possess any of those aptitudes, now is an excellent time to put them in play. More than usual, you are needed as a catalyst, a transformer, an inspirational influence. Halloween costume suggestion: angel, fairy godmother, genie, benefactor.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author Amy Tan describes the magic moment when her muse appears and takes command: “I sense a subtle shift, a nudge to move over, and everything cracks open, the writing is freed, the language is full, resources are plentiful, ideas pour forth, and to be frank, some of these ideas surprise me. It seems as though the universe is my friend and is helping me write, its hand over mine.” Even if you’re not a creative artist, Taurus, I suspect you’ll be offered intense visitations from a muse in the coming days. If you make yourself alert for and receptive to these potential blessings, you’ll feel like you’re being guided and fueled by a higher power. Halloween costume suggestion: your muse.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): More than a century ago, author Anton Chekhov wrote, “If many remedies are prescribed for an illness, you may be certain that the illness has no cure.” Decades later, I wrote, “If you’re frantically trying to heal yourself with a random flurry of half-assed remedies, you’ll never cure what ails you. But if you sit still in a safe place and ask your inner genius to identify the one or two things you need to do to heal, you will find the cure.” Halloween costume suggestion: physician, nurse, shaman, healer.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian artist Marc Chagall (1887–1985) was a playful visionary and a pioneer of modernism. He appealed to sophisticates despite being described as a dreamy, eccentric outsider who invented his own visual language. In the 1950s, Picasso observed that Chagall was one of the only painters who “understood what color really is.” In 2017, one of Chagall’s paintings sold for $28.5 million. What was the secret to his success? “If I create from the heart, nearly everything works,” he testified. “If from the head, almost nothing.” Your current assignment, Cancerian, is to authorize your heart to rule everything you do. Halloween costume suggestion: a heart.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The Dead Sea, on the border of Jordan and Israel, is far saltier than the ocean. No fish or frogs live in it. But here and there on the lake’s bottom are springs that exude fresh water. They support large, diverse communities of microbes. It’s hard for divers to get down there and study the life forms, though. The water’s so saline, they tend to float. So they carry 90 pounds of ballast that enables them to sink to the sea floor. I urge you to get inspired by all this, Leo. What would be the metaphorical equivalent for you of descending into the lower depths so as to research unexplored sources of vitality and excitement? Halloween costume suggestions: diver, spelunker, archaeologist.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “We have stripped all things of their mystery and luminosity,” lamented psychologist Carl Jung. “Nothing is holy any longer.” In accordance with current astrological omens, Virgo, your assignment is to rebel against that mournful state of affairs. I hope you will devote some of your fine intelligence to restoring mystery and luminosity to the world in which you dwell. I hope you will find and create holiness that’s worthy of your reverence and awe. Halloween costume suggestion: mage, priestess, poet, enchantrix, witch, alchemist, sacramentalist.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “One language is never enough,” says a Pashto proverb. How could it be, right? Each language has a specific structure and a finite vocabulary that limit its power to describe and understand the world. I think the same is true for religion: one is never enough. Why confine yourself to a single set of theories about spiritual matters when more will enable you to enlarge and deepen your perspective? With this in mind, Libra, I invite you to regard November as “One Is Never Enough Month” for you. Assume you need more of everything. Halloween costume suggestion: a bilingual Jewish Santa Claus; a pagan Sufi Buddha who intones prayers in three different languages.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In his novel Zone One, Scorpio author Colson Whitehead writes, “A monster is a person who has stopped pretending.” He means it in the worst sense possible: the emergence of the ugly beast who had been hiding behind social niceties. But I’m going to twist his meme for my own purposes. I propose that when you stop pretending and shed fake politeness, you may indeed resemble an ugly monster—but only temporarily. After the suppressed stuff gets free rein to yammer, it will relax and recede—and you will feel so cleansed and relieved that you’ll naturally be able to express more of your monumental beauty. Halloween costume suggestion: your beautiful, fully exorcised monster.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice,” testified poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. “Had I abided by it, I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.” This is excellent advice for you. I suspect you’re in the midst of either committing or learning from a valuable mistake. It’s best if you don’t interrupt yourself! Halloween costume suggestion: the personification or embodiment of your valuable mistake.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Cleopatra was an ancient Egyptian queen who ruled for 21 years. She was probably a Capricorn. All you need to know about her modern reputation is that Kim Kardashian portrayed her as a sultry seductress in a photo spread in a fashion magazine. But the facts are that Cleopatra was a well-educated, multilingual political leader with strategic cunning. Among her many skills were poetry, philosophy and mathematics. I propose we make the REAL Cleopatra your role model. Now is an excellent time to correct people’s misunderstandings about you—and show people who you truly are. Halloween costume suggestion: your actual, authentic self.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Around the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the 11th sign of the zodiac, Aquarius, will be capable of strenuous feats; will have the power to achieve a success that surpasses past successes; will be authorized to attempt a brave act of transcendence that renders a long-standing limitation irrelevant. As for the 11 days and 11 hours before that magic hour, the 11th sign of the zodiac will be smart to engage in fierce meditation and thorough preparation for the magic hour. And as for the 11 days and 11 hours afterward, the 11th sign should expend all possible effort to capitalize on the semi-miraculous breakthrough. Halloween costume suggestion: 11.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Author Robert Musil made a surprising declaration: “A number of flawed individuals can often add up to a brilliant social unit.” I propose we make that one of your mottos for the coming months. I think you have the potential to be a flawed-but-inspiring individual who’ll serve as a dynamic force in assembling and nurturing a brilliant social unit. So let me ask you: what would be your dream-come-true of a brilliant social unit that is a fertile influence on you and everyone else in the unit? Halloween costume suggestion: ringleader, mastermind, orchestrator or general.

Some people are going to hate Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit like they haven’t hated anything since Life is Beautiful, and understandably some will argue Nazis are never funny under any circumstances; no matter what ridiculous figures they cut with their rites, their idiot prejudices and their too-cool, Hugo Boss uniforms. Mel Brooks, whom Nazis shot at at the Battle of the Bulge, was always certain they were comedy gold. Even in these nervous times, can’t we accept Brooks’ judgement?

Jojo Rabbit is the diary of a Nazi wimpy-kid trying to fit in with the usual social absurdities; it’s just that the Reich heightened the absurdities. In a small village in 1944, young Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) tries to be a good little Hitler Youth member. But he’s a thorough reject, drawing a portion of the scorn doled out by the Jugend’s scoutmaster, an invalided-out Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell). Jojo tents out at Jugend camp with his equally beta-male pal (Archie Yates), laying awake telling scary stories about Jews: “I hear they smell like brussel sprouts.” Recreations include a campfire of burning books—Jojo shows a little hint of reluctance before he tosses in a volume and joins in the fun.

Then comes a test of manhood: to kill a bunny rabbit with his bare hands in front of his fellow Jugenders. He fails. Dejected, he’s visited by his imaginary pal Der Fuhrer (Waititi in contact lenses and shaky mustache) whose advice to Jojo is to BE the rabbit—faster than anyone. He races forth to be the vanguard in a race, snatches a potato-masher hand grenade from a bigger boy and tosses it. It bounces off a tree and blows up in his face.

Now with his face stitched up with scars, he’s an even bigger reject to everyone but his mom Rosie, a very relaxed and appealing Scarlett Johansson, with a buttery Marlene Dietrich accent. The convalescing Jojo learns there’s another woman on the premise. Mom is secretly Anne-Franking young Elsa, a friend of the family, in the attic. Elsa corners simple Jojo and schools him on the Jews: do they hang upside like bats when they sleep? Can they read each others’ minds? As Elsa, Thomasin McKenzie (Leave No Trace) is consistently unsentimental and un-self-pitying.

Both Elsa and Rosie’s amused solicitude with this backward, fatherless kid is charming.

Moreover, they set up a border between the realm of the preposterously macho Nazis and the far more mysterious and interesting world of women. As in John Boorman’s Hope and Glory, all the comfort and intelligence is on one side and all the pain and stupidity is on the other. To add some yang to this yin, there is a female Nazi, Frauline Rahmi; Rebel Wilson plays this platinum-blonde Brunhilda working with Klenzendorf. She birthed more than a dozen babies for the Reich and Wilson suggests, with her posture, that she can’t sit comfortably after all that parturition.

This uproariously satirical version of a quite-serious novel might be modeled on Carol Reed’s The Fallen Idol (1948) in the looming staircases and the expressionism of the boy’s world collapsing around him. Like Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, it’s certainly something you could take a smart, older child to see. Aspects are reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut, both Slaughterhouse-Five and Mother Night. Jojo Rabbit’s elegant, if sometimes episodic, comedy is as Blaise Pascal described life; the last act is bloody, no matter how pleasant the play has been. There’s no comfortable way out of this tale—the rocky last 15 minutes will give Jojo Rabbit’s haters ammo. Still, maybe nothing was as funny about the Nazis as their scurrying, ignominious end.

‘Jojo Rabbit’ is playing in limited release.