WP Query conflict on tag.php and category.php template

Just in case anyone happens to run into this same problem, my round-about solution for taxonomy template query conflict:

1. clone the main query
2. NULL the query
3. define new WP_Query
4. re-instate cloned query

Tested and working in header.php

<?php       
global $wp_query; 
$temp_query = clone $wp_query;
global $post; 
$temp_post = clone $post;
$wp_query = NULL; 

$wp_query = new WP_Query( $args ); 
// THE LOOP

wp_reset_postdata(); 
$wp_query = clone $temp_query; 
$post = clone $temp_post;
?>