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Struggle of the Sacred Tribe Charged and arrested for felony possession, Denver’s mushroom rabbi’s case could change precedents for religious practice in Colorado

by WiLL BRENDza

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feature:

Charged and arrested for felony possession, Denver’s mushroom rabbi could change precedents for religious practice in Colorado by Will Brendza

11 15

news:

Students from Front Range Community College have a hairy new device that could change the way we clean up oil spills by Laurenz Busch

buzz:

Boulder’s bluegrass babes are headed to Telluride by Caitlin Rockett

art and culture:

Motus Theater commemorates the 10th anniversary of DACA with art and activism by Ben Berman

19 27

drink:

More than a decade of Deerhammer by Matt Maenpaa

departments

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City Beat: Big wins for gun control, but business as usual for unhoused policy The Anderson Files: Fear, despair and gun profiteering

20 Events: What to do when there’s nothing to do 22 Film: David Cronenberg is at it again in ‘Crimes of the Future’ 23 Astrology: By Rob Brezsny 24 Nibbles: Boulder’s Tundra spoon-feeds restaurant and home cooks with the exact food tools of the trade 29 Cuisine: Taste of the Week: A slice of seeded perfection 30 Weed Between the Lines: Cannabis edible companies are mixing up their recipes with rosin infusions 31 Savage Love: Judgment day

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

JUNE 9, 2022

Big wins for gun control, but business as usual for unhoused policy by Shay Castle BOULDER’S $3M PLAN TO REMOVE HOMELESS CAMP (STILL) NOT WORKING ne year after approving $2.86 million in new spending for cops, park rangers and a dedicated “cleanup” team, the number of camps and tents on public land continues to grow. More than 389 camps have been “addressed,” staff wrote to Boulder City Council this week—the update was tucked into page 566 of a 613-page packet delivered during a week in which elected officials also considered controversial gun control measures—without making an overall dent in the number of people living unsheltered. “After a brief decline in early 2022, April and May reports of camping have risen significantly beyond 2021 levels,” staff wrote. “The number of structures (i.e., tents, tarps) in camps inspected by the cleanup team has also increased in recent months.” This has long been an issue for cities attempting to police away people living on the streets, who simply relocate to other locations. In Boulder, camps are concentrated near Boulder and Goose creeks. It’s unclear how many unique individuals were represented in the 389 camps removed by the city; that information was not provided. The approach is part of an 18-month pilot meant to test the efficacy of aggressive enforcement and the need for continued funding. City council approved the spending and plans in July 2021. Only two of six police officers have been hired to the dedicated “encampment cleanup team” as the department struggles with more than two dozen vacancies. Rangers meant to patrol urban parks began their work this month. There have been some successes, staff insisted. The internal cleanup team dedicates five days a week to beautifying creek corridors, which has freed up the city’s short-staff maintenance team for other maintenance. But costs for that team have overrun its budget by $53,695. Most of the money allocated to removals remains unspent: more than $1 million, primarily for to-be-hired cops. The city is also facing a lawsuit from Colorado’s ACLU, two nonprofit providers of homeless services and three unhoused individuals who cannot access shelter and have been ticketed under Boulder’s ban on tents and sleeping in public.

DON’T TAKE YOUR GUNS TO THESE TOWNS Boulder and Louisville passed a historic suite of gun control measures Tuesday night, with Lafayette, Superior, Longmont and Boulder County set to follow. The package of laws being considered are similar but not identical across the six municipalities. In Boulder, elected officials unanimously passed: • A ban on assault weapons, magazines holding 10 or more rounds, 6

JUNE 9, 2022

and devices intended to increase the rate of fire; • Raising the age limit for purchasing firearms from 18 to 21; • A ban on 3D printed guns without serial numbers; • A prohibition on the open display of weapons in public (all guns must be in a locked, opaque case); • Restrictions on concealed carry in city facilities, polling locations, and protests, and a ban on concealed carry without permission of the property owner in places licensed to serve alcohol, hospitals, facilities providing mental health or substance abuse services, places of worship, sporting venues, courthouses, financial institutions, day care centers and preschools, and grocery stores; • A 10-day waiting period to purchase a gun, following a background check Many members of the public testified about the importance of a waiting period in preventing suicides, which are typically impulsive acts. State Rep. Judy Amabile shared that her son, during a mental health crisis, attempted to purchase a gun. She was able to persuade the gun store not to sell to him, but noted that there was no legal mechanism to prevent them from doing so. “Even if we saved one kid,” she said, “I think it would be worth it.” BOULDER, BRIEFLY The city landed a $4 million loan from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, to help build a housing factory. The facility will manufacture prefabricated homes for the residents of Ponderosa Mobile Home Park in north Boulder, replacing old and outdated trailers. The loan will be repaid over 10 years using Community Development Block Grants. SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY Next week, council will have yet another discussion about how and when to move local elections to even years, a proposal that received majority but not unanimous support last month. There will also be a public hearing on landmarking an entire city block surrounding downtown’s historic Glen Huntington Bandshell. June 14 and 21 will be the last two Tuesday meetings of Boulder City Council—ever. Meetings are moving to Thursdays starting July 14. This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly. Email comments and questions to editorial@boulderweekly.com. l

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Publisher, Fran Zankowski Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief, Caitlin Rockett News Editor, Will Brendza Food Editor, John Lehndorff Contributing Writers: Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Shay Castle, Angela K. Evans, Mark Fearer, Jodi Hausen, Karlie Huckels, Dave Kirby, Matt Maenpaa, Sara McCrea, Rico Moore, Adam Perry, Katie Rhodes, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Tom Winter SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Carter Ferryman Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman CIRCULATION TEAM Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer June 9, 2022 Volume XXIX, Number 39 Cover, Sephora Puma’ Cobra As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism, and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper. 690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2022 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.

Boulder Weekly welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@ boulderweekly.com) or the comments section of our website at www.boulderweekly.com. Preference will be given to short letters (under 300 words) that deal with recent stories or local issues, and letters may be edited for style, length and libel. Letters should include your name, address and telephone number for verification. We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms. Letters become the property of Boulder Weekly and will be published on our website.

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Fear, despair and gun profiteering by Dave Anderson

he week before the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school massacre, Daniel Defense posted a photograph on Facebook and Twitter, showing a little boy sitting cross-legged, an assault rifle balanced across his lap. “Train up a child in the way he should go,” the caption reads, echoing a biblical proverb. “When he is old, he will not depart from it.” The 18-year-old Uvalde killer bought his AR-15 from Daniel Defense. That rapid-firing semi-automatic is a civilian version of a military weapon. About 500 companies build them. All are basically the same gun. The competition is fierce. The temptation is to be the most edgy and macho outrageous. There’s an AR15 called the “Urban Super Sniper” and a QAR-15, alluding to the conspiracy theory Q-Anon. l

Ryan Bosse is a former senior executive in the firearms industry who has become a whistleblower. He recently told Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent that gun violence will continue to be a serious social problem. He said that 20 years ago the gun market was oversaturated and mostly confined to older white guys. There were market-planning discussions about getting your gun featured in video games and action movies. Unlike many consumer items which fall apart quickly or are consumed in one use, guns are durable goods. You can buy a gun that will last a lifetime. We are the only country in the world which has more civilian guns than people. There are far more gunsee ANDERSON FILES Page 8

JUNE 9, 2022

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related deaths here than in any other developed country. A majority of gun owners have an average of three guns and nearly half owning just one or two. Half of America’s total gun stock is owned by only 3% of adults. The average collection of these owners is 17 guns each. Increasingly, the AR-15 has become a status symbol for right-wingers who want to give a middle finger to the libs. It is an organizing symbol for the far right, who spread fear of apocalyptic demographic doom via the “great replacement theory” and chatter about Antifa and Black Lives Matter terrorists. Fox News Channel personality

In their 2020 book Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism, Case and Deaton note that around the year 2000, average life expectancy was declining for white Americans between 45 and 54. This wasn’t happening anywhere else on the planet. It was mostly happening to white Americans without a four-year college degree. This was due to higher rates of suicide, opioid overdoses and alcohol-related illnesses. Black mortality rates have been and continue to be higher than white ones. But they are falling faster because Blacks aren’t suffering from the epidemic of “deaths of despair.”

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ANDERSON FILES from Page 7

JUNE 9, 2022

—Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan secretary of state Tucker Carlson claims Democrats want to disarm the people because they are afraid of a popular uprising against them because “they know they rule illegitimately.” Speaking about influencers like Carlson, Donald Trump Jr. and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Busse said: “The idea of civil war/race war with heavily-armed citizen-patriots as your warriors is hardly under the surface anymore. “I won’t go so far as to say they actually want people to die in a race war. It’s a political tool for them. They think they can use it to motivate— and make people angry and fearful and hateful.” Actually, you don’t have to make ordinary people fearful or angry. When everyday life becomes harsher, when economic stagnation is everywhere and when the social safety net is disappearing, it is normal to be fearful and angry. But we live in the gangster capitalist land of “you’re on your own, suckers” rugged individualism. So it is even more normal to blame yourself. That can lead to what Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton called “deaths of despair.” l

Though their earnings are lower than white working people, life is better than previous generations due to anti-discrimination measures. Case and Deaton debunk cultural and individual explanations for the “deaths of despair.” Instead, they propose systematic reforms such as universal health care and a stronger social safety net. Now criminologists Jillian Peterson and James Densley are arguing that mass shootings are “deaths of despair.” This conclusion is based upon their extensive research at ‘The Violence Project,’ which focuses on collecting and analyzing data surrounding mass shootings. As I write, there is talk of Congress possibly passing a tiny bit of gun control. The November elections loom. Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan secretary of state, says: “The only thing that can stop a bad politician with a vote is a good citizen with a vote.” This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly. Email comments and questions to editorial@boulderweekly.com.

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PUC SHOULD PROTECT THE PUBLIC—NOT XCEL’S SHAREHOLDERS I have lived in Colorado long enough to remember when electric customers had to pay off the failed Fort St. Vrain nuclear plant. Now Xcel wants its customers to pay off its coal plant mistakes, including the big new, troubled Unit 3 coal plant in Pueblo—which is still offline. All told, customers could be responsible for over $1 billion in stranded coal assets with Xcel earning its full level of profits on several of the coal plants—even after they are retired! As is so often the case, these costs will fall disproportionately on low-income families, further exacerbating the serious energy inequities in our system. I sure wish to see our public servants take seriously their duty to protect the public—and not Xcel’s shareholders! The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will decide on Friday June 10, 2022 at 1 p.m. whether Xcel gets to make its customers pay for all of its coal mistakes. You can hear the PUC deliberate by listening to the webcasts for Hearing Room A on the Colorado PUC website. Let’s hope that this time our Public Utilities Commission stands up for the public and not for Xcel’s monopoly profits! Crystal Gray, former Boulder City Council member / Boulder Send letters to letters@boulderweekly.com

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JUNE 9, 2022

COURTESY OF SEPHORA PUMA’ COBRA

Struggle of the Sacred Tribe Charged and arrested for felony possession, Denver’s mushroom rabbi’s case could change precedents for religious practice in Colorado

by Will Brendza

t was a clear January day when the fire inspector arrived at the Sacred Tribe’s cultivation facility in Denver. The inspection had been scheduled mutually between the city and the building’s occupant to ensure everything was up to city safety codes: to check exits and signage, inspect the emergency lighting—the usual routine. However, the inspector was almost immediately confronted with a scene that shocked them. Within the building was a state-of-the-art psychedelic mushroom grow operation and extract laboratory, growing more than 31 different strains of the Schedule I fungi and in large enough quantities to supply several hundred people. Perhaps naturally, the fire inspector thought they’d stumbled into an illegal drug operation—albeit a very clean, safe and casual one. The inspector called the police, and within hours officers in tactical gear, wielding assault rifles and a search warrant, were busting through the front door. They arrested the chemist who was on site and issued an arrest warrant for Rabbi Ben Gorelick, the founder and leader of the Sacred Tribe synagogue in Denver. Gorelick turned himself in just a few weeks later and was charged with first-degree felony possession with intent to manufacture or distribute a controlled substance. “One of the biggest stones that somebody will inevitably throw [at this story] is, ‘Why didn’t you just wait until November to do all of these things?’” Gorelick muses, referencing a possible upcoming ballot initiative that would legalize possession of almost all naturally occurring Schedule I controlled psychedelics. “And the answer to that question is, I didn’t need to [wait] ... [psychedelics] have been part of religious practices for millennia. And in this country we have already decided that Schedule I controlled substances—psychedelics, mushrooms, etcetera—absolutely deserve protection as part of a religious and ceremonial practice,” Gorelick says. “We’ve had laws on the books [for decades] exempting [religious] psychedelic controlled substance use.” The Sacred Tribe is not like other synagogues you’ll find in Denver. For one, its members are not all Jewish and in fact come from a variety of denominations, backgrounds and spiritual beliefs. Second, its school of spiritual thought is deeply rooted in kabbalah, an esoteric discipline in Jewish mysticism, so old it’s traditionally understood to extend back to Eden, before written history. Gorelick describes kabbalah as an exploration of feeling states in which the goal is to “feel the largest possible human emotional spectrum without guilt or shame or repression,” he says. If you feel angry, bitter, sad, dazed or confused, don’t turn your back on those feelings, kabbalah teaches. Feel those emotional sensations as deeply as you can; then, Gorelick says, it’s easier to transform them into something “positive”— and if you’re feeling happy, excited, hopeful or gay, explore and expand that feeling as much as you can. It’s an interrogation of your values, your feeling states and of your character. “It’s a very somatic and a very heartfelt experience of spirituality,” Gorelick says. An experience that the nearly 300 members of the Sacred Tribe enhance with breathwork practices, dance and, of course, psychedelic mushrooms. When the tribe gathers for its sacrament ceremonies (which have been temporarily paused since the raid and Gorelick’s arrest), it’s a full weekend-

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long experience. All members have to apply and go through a preliminary medical screening first. Then, Gorelick explains, they’ll have dinner on Friday, to get to know each other, get comfortable with each other, breaking bread over conversation. The following Saturday evening they’ll gather and imbibe the mushroom sacrament together, “dropping in.” “The goal isn’t to blast people off to the moon,” Gorelick says. People choose how much they want to take, but it’s usually less than one to two grams. “The goal is [to achieve] that blurring of the line between self and community and God.” In a past life, Gorelick was a chemical engineering student, and while it wasn’t a career path he chose to pursue, he’s applied that knowledge and mindset to his work with mushrooms. He casually talks about the 15 different alkaloids mushrooms contain and how some cross the blood-brain barrier and others don’t; how he surveys the Tribe’s members on their somatic experiences with each of the 31 different strains they utilize. They extract those mushroom alkaloids in their lab with a proprietary process and then, prior to each sacrament ceremony, members set an intention and based on that, Gorelick and the member will select a strain (or combination) to help achieve that intention most effectively. “Every strain is so radically different with its intention,” he says. Some strains are great for heart opening and offer euphoric feelings akin to MDMA, while other strains are better for dropping into a deeply spiritual space, and still others are best used for cleaning the slate and emptying oneself entirely. While it might seem radical and new-agey for a contemporary synagogue with a hip-rabbi to so earnestly and openly use psychedelics to connect on a deeper level with God, community and self, it isn’t. Gorelick explains that there’s at least a 2,300-year history of Jewish sacramental use of psychedelics. “Psychedelics are something that is deeply rooted in Judaism,” he says, adding that, more generally, psychedelics have been used by different religions around the world for millennia. Islam has hashish. Hinduism had soma. The Greek mystery religions had kykeon. The Native and Meso-Americans had mescaline cactuses, salvia, and psilocybin mushrooms. And the Jews? “Mushrooms are kind of the Jewish psychedelic,” Gorelick says. Though, “we obviously have access to many more strains now than Judaism had access to once upon a time.” This connection between religion and psychedelics is a big reason why the U.S. has certain protections for religious groups that use controlled see MUSHROOM RABBI Page 12 JUNE 9, 2022

MUSHROOM RABBI from Page 11 COURTESY OF ANDY CROSS

substances in ceremony. When President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, it made it illegal for Native Americans to practice ancestral religions that involved peyote consumption. That resulted in a slew of regulatory, statutory and judicial exemptions over the next several decades that paved the way (in some circumstances) for members of the Native American Church to consume peyote without breaking the law—or, more accurately, to break the law with the DEA’s permission. In 1993, Congress almost unanimously passed the Religious Freedoms Restoration Act (RFRA) that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. That federal bill is a complicated one, but at its core, it’s meant to ensure “that interests in religious freedom are protected.” While intended to apply at the federal, state and local levels, in 1997 the Supreme Court case City of Borne vs. Flores ruled that the RFRA only applies at the federal level, and not to states or jurisdictions within them. Subsequently, 21 states have passed their own RFRAs—and, notably, Colorado isn’t one of them. While Gorelick says this state has historically been supportive of religious exemptions for drug use, it isn’t specifically protected by a state RFRA here. Which leaves Gorelick and the Sacred Tribe drifting in a legal gray area. Especially considering that in Denver—where Gorelick has been charged with possession with intent to distribute—psychedelic mushrooms have been decriminalized since 2019. Yes, Gorelick was in possession of mushrooms (lots of them), but he never had any intention of selling those, he says. The Sacred Tribe operates on a donations-only basis and no one leaves with samples. “Most of our members don’t pay a nickel,” he says. “We don’t sell, we don’t allow people to take [mushrooms] back home. It is a sacrament. It is a religious ceremony.” To muddy these strange waters even more, several Colorado groups are pushing different ballot initiatives that would decriminalize or legalize mushrooms and other psychedelics throughout the state (Weed Between the Lines, “Choosing how to heal,” March 17, 2022). One of them, Ballot Initiative 58, “Access to natural medicine,” would allow adults over 21 to possess, cultivate, gift, and deliver psilocybin, psilocyn, ibogaine, mescaline, and dimenthyltryptamine (DMT) legally, anywhere in Colorado. Should Initiative 58 get enough petition signatures to end up on the ballot, and should it then pass, Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) will be charged with developing rules for therapeutic psychedelics programs for adults to receive treatment from a trained facilitator at a licensed facility. And Gorelick’s case will only gain more strength—even though, he says, the Sacred Tribe doesn’t really fall under the categories of use Initiative 58 aims to protect. “I think most people think of mushrooms in like one or two spaces,” Gorelick says. “They just think of mushrooms in the recreational space—which is a space that is like 40 or 50 years old, and they’re great in that space—and we’re getting to this place now where we are going through a cultural awakening around the 12

JUNE 9, 2022

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medical, therapeutic opportunities that exist in psychedelics as well.” But, he says, his church isn’t either of those things. He isn’t just trying to offer people a good time at a Dead & Company concert, nor is he trying to heal their traumas or mend deep psychic wounds (though that might happen as a side-effect). “Sacred Tribe is not a medical therapeutic healing center. It is a place where people come to explore the edges of what’s possible,” he says. “We’re doing God’s work ... some would call it healing work, some would call it growth work.” Whatever you want to call it, the Sacred Tribe’s work falls outside of the recreational space and outside of the medicinal space, Gorelick says. It’s within its own tier of psychedelic use— spiritual use—and it seems to frustrate him that he’s staring down serious felony charges for facilitating that. He calls it “nonsensical.” Daniel McQueen founded the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness, a psychedelic therapy clinic in Boulder. Speaking from the perspective of a therapist working in the psychedelic realm, he completely agrees with Gorelick on that point. McQueen says of the four types of psychedelic use—psychological (for mental health), celebratory (for recreation), scientific inquiry (for problem solving), and spirituality—spiritual use is by far the oldest and most established form. “Trying to strip religious or spiritual use is not viable,” Mcqueen says. “[These] incongruities in the laws are not helpful and need to be challenged.” “The structure that Colorado is setting up right now needs to include a space for this religious framework, this religious structure [for psychedelics],” Gorelick says. “This is where the real juice is ... this is the heart of what psychedelics mean ... are we willing to open our hearts, bodies, minds, eyes, and legal systems and structures to that infinitude of possibilities, rather than this very, very narrow box?” (He adds that everyone should go vote yes on Initiative 58 should it end up on the ballot this fall. He just wants the state and the psychedelic advocates and activists helping to craft its legislation to consider this third leg of the psychedelic platform as they carve a path for decriminalization and/or legalization.) Despite the serious criminal charges Gorelick is facing, he seems genuinely confident that the state isn’t going to try and make an example out of him. In fact, he’s giving his persecutors the benefit of the doubt. “I think [the state] is trying to figure out how to be supportive of the work that we’re doing, while also not creating a slippery slope,” he says. There’s a fine (if definitive) line between a Jewish mushroom church and a “flying spaghetti monster church that does heroin,” he quips. Nevertheless, his case is an important one that’s carrying a weight even Gorelick in all his confidence can’t ignore. Whatever happens to him will set a precedent for any and every church or religious group that imbibes psychedelics as sacrament in Colorado—from ayahuasca centers to Native American Churches and the International Church of Cannabis. “If we decriminalize psychedelics at a personal [and medicinal] level but felonize them at a spiritual level, what does that mean for spiritual leaders?” he asks. “Of all the things that could be felonized in this country,” he says, this isn’t one of them. “Religious use of psychedelics should be utterly celebrated.” We need to start talking about psychedelics in the religious contexts alongside these other ones, Gorelick says. “Even if religion isn’t your bag, this is a beautiful opportunity,” he says. “We don’t need to push that underground.” If you’re interested in helping Rabbi Ben Gorelick’s cause (or contributing to his legal fees) you can find both his change.org petition and his gofundme online. Contact the author at wbrendza@boulderweekly.com

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“SACRED TRIBE IS NOT A MEDICAL THERAPEUTIC HEALING CENTER.

It is a place where people come to explore the edges of what’s possible.” —Ben Gorelick

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A whale of a solution Students from Front Range Community College are heading to D.C. with a hairy new device that could change the way we clean up oil spills

by Laurenz Busch

fter racking their brains to come up with a project for their engineering class, Cristian Madrazo showed his group a video of the nonprofit organization Matter of Trust cleaning up an oil spill using booms with human hair attached to one end. “That sounds awesome,” classmate Xavier Cotton told Madrazo at the time. “And it just snowballed from there.” After months of preparation, the Front Range Community College (FRCC) students’ project— the Orca Oil-Separating and Bio-Filtration Vessel—was recently selected as one of 12 finalists in the nationwide Community College Innovation Challenge. Along with their mentor, FRCC computer science faculty Diane Rhodes, Madrazo and Cotton are heading to the D.C. area in June to pitch their oil-vacuuming and bio-filtration drone. Since the late-April morning when they received the letter notifying them of being finalists, the team has kicked its proposal into hyperdrive, spending time outside of class innovating and refining the original idea into a potential reality— one that can be used to clean up real-time oil spill emergencies. The project is now in its fifth iteration, and has seen substantial changes. “When they first apply, it’s typically conceptual,” says Dr. Martha Parham of the American Association of Community Colleges. “Once they get invited to join, then the team works together with their faculty advisor to really develop and hone in the [project].” The Orca, as the team has named its creation, could be deployed via air or sea to oil spill locations. The device extends a large boom from its body to surround and contain the surface oil. A motor then “pulls in the boom, bringing the oil closer,” Cotton explains, and a vacuum-tube slowly sucks the contaminated water into the drone, where it passes through skimmers that blot the oil from the surface. Finally, before the water is released, it makes its way through a curious component: bunches of hair wrapped in cheesecloth—referred to more scientifically as bio-pellets.

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The use of hair to filter oil isn’t new, but it is an emerging technology most notably flaunted by the San Francisco-based nonprofit Matter of Trust. “Hair picks up between two and nine times its weight in oil,” explains Lisa Gautier, president of Matter of Trust, which, among other endeavors, uses donated hair and fur to make mats and booms for oil spills or to protect storm drains. “It’s really wonderful stuff—it’s a renewable resource growing in front of our eyes. We’re very excited about it.” There have been an average of five oil spills a year over the past decade, according to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, which provides oil-spill response for a variety of vessels. That figure represents a significant improvement from the 78-a-year average of the 1970s, despite an increase in shipping. Spills can be catastrophic to the environment. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill—the largest in U.S. history—spilled nearly 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 people. Typically, responders use skimmers to gather surface oil, employ chemical dispersants to aid the breakdown process, or simply ignite the oil to burn it off. None of these are perfect solutions. All three require sunlight for visibility, none of them are possible in rough seas, and only skimmers can be used in close proximity to the shoreline. Moreover, only 10% to 15% of oil is recovered with those techniques and most of it is generally unusable. “Conventionally, spill waste is either

incinerated or landfilled,” Gautier, of Matter of Trust, says. “We have tried composting it, [but] the keratin and hydrocarbons take a long time to break down.” Nonetheless, Gautier says Matter of Trust was able to compost the waste after 18 months with a lot of “toil and trouble.” The result was a freewaygrade landscape compost, a major achievement that could be applied to contaminated hair that the Orca drones will produce. l

JUNE 9, 2022

CRISTIAN MADRAZO

Along with help from three industry professionals, including engineer Yash Garje, the FRCC team was able to fine tune its original boat-sized oil filtration prototype and reduce its size to the much smaller drone the Orca is today. “When we met with [Garje], one of his concerns was that if you have this large boat with a filtration system on it and there’s a spill that’s going to require 10 or 15 of these devices” it’s going to be difficult to transport all of them at once, Madrazo explains. “He didn’t tell us specifically [to] turn this into the drone, but we developed that idea after meeting with him.” The trio will first attend an Innovation Challenge Boot Camp in Arlington, Virginia, from June 13-16 as part of the larger Community College Innovation Challenge. There, “they’ll learn about the entrepreneurial side [of things], how to pitch projects, and they’ll connect with business leaders, legislators, and people in the field in which their idea stems from,” Parham says. The challenge culminates at the Library of Congress, where each group will pitch an idea before an audience. Past attendees have included Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, and it’s likely that a legislator from Colorado or a member of their staff will make an appearance this year. Madrazo and Cotton are headed for CUBoulder and the Colorado School of Mines, respectively, in the fall—but not before they and their Orca make a stop in our nation’s capital for the Community College Innovation Challenge. “I’ve read some of the other proposals and it’s just amazing what they’ve come up with, so it’s a little daunting,” Madrazo says. Searching for the right answer, he eventually settles on, “I’m confident we can at least try our best, and, hopefully, that’s enough.” Email us at editorial@boulderweekly.com 15

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Big Richard energy

Boulder’s bluegrass babes are headed for Telluride

onnie Sims, Emma Rose and Eve Panning

Zoom screen. Joy Adams will join soon, because the band needs to work in a rehearsal before they hit the road tonight for the Ogden Music Festival in Utah. It’s been an astronomical year for the four string

in late May 2021 to play a private bluegrass festival in Castle Rock. The women had admired one another for years, each a staple in the Colorado bluegrass scene: Sims, who plays mandolin in Big Richard, has a platinum record under her belt with her Columbia Records-signed Everybody Loves An Outlaw project (with husband Taylor); upright bass player Rose adds her string skills to multiple projects, including beloved local troubadour Daniel Rodriguez’s band; Panning’s Adams has performed with everyone who’s anyone— Bruce Hornsby, Chick Corea, Nathaniel Rateliff, Sam Bush, Billy Strings and on and on—and recorded on soundtracks for Emmy and Grammy award-winning shows like The Queen’s Gambit and Godless. With wry senses of humor to match their boundless talent, the women banded together under the tongue-in-cheek moniker Big Richard, peppering social media posts with eggplant emojis just in case there was any question as to what the name implies. “I remember we were laughing until we cried remember being like, ‘Wow, these are some of the most powerful women bluegrass players—most powerful women, period. You could feel A fan-recorded May 30 performance at MainStage Brewing Company in Lyons (posted on the band’s Facebook page) captures the group’s ineffable charisma: Sims’ rich alto working up to a soul-rending growl, supported melodically by Adams and Rose. Sims’ glasses slide to the tip of her nose as she plays; she works her spectacles back in place as she tosses her head back in joy while her bandmates take turns on blistering solos. Off stage, the camaraderie between the women is equally undeniable, their charm inescapable: clustered on the couch, Sims, Rose and Panning cut their eyes at each other to laugh at inside jokes, clutch each other’s arms as they talk about their a detail or to encourage someone else to tell a story. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

While Adams is absent until the end of the interview, she’s made her feelings clear on Instagram: in a May 24 post. “It doesn’t feel like just a year, because for me, actually it was years of waking up at 4:30 a.m. to practice cello for seven hours a day, decades of sifting through symphonies, string quartets, opera pits, universities, teaching jobs, jazz bands, sideman gigs, recording sessions, three degrees, searching for my home in music. I found it. It’s this band with these girls. I just didn’t expect

by Caitlin Rockett ON THE BILL: international, playing the Big Richard Strings and Sol festival plays around in Puerto Morelos Colorado throughout in Mexico. the summer. Check For those unfamiliar bigrichardband.com with the band, whet your whistle for a live performance by searching out Big Richard’s recorded

bluegrass standards like “The Dreadful Wind and a capella or

three, and thank you for the endless motivation to With three singles available on Spotify, the band They’ve bonded over music, of course, but also over being women in a male-dominated genre. “I’ve had a few versions of the same kind of

there’s no plan to slow down. “As a woman playing in this genre, there are these expectations, sometimes, of how you’re supposed to

usually just a pretty face on stage, but you can actually play.’ Or, the more recent version: ‘You’re, like, really good. Really, really good. I’m not just saying that because you’re a pretty girl. You’re

the dress code is super harsh. I can’t say certain things at the gig. I mean, because this genre of music

Sims tells a story of a volunteer at a festival touching the treble clef she has tattooed on her left wrist as he put on her wristband. “And he (said), ‘Treble clef girl,’ and like, stroked

and beautiful to just be who I am in a band. I say crass shit sometimes, and I just said shit, and sometimes I like to cuss. And I don’t want to wear a bra. And that’s just who I am as a person. And I happen to inhabit a female body. But it’s cool to be

and I could share that with (my bandmates) 10 minutes later and kind of vent about it in a way that made me feel better, whereas other people might be

Contact the author at crockett@boulderweekly.com

But what the group has mostly experienced is unyielding support, from fans and peers, like bluegrass legend Sam Bush, who invited Big Richard to open a show in Fort Collins in February. The women have found themselves on practically every bluegrass festival lineup this side of the Mississippi, culminating, unsurprisingly, with a Saturday slot at Telluride on June 18. In December they’ll take the Big Richard energy l

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Daring to dream Motus Theater commemorates the 10th anniversary of DACA through art and activism in Boulder and beyond

by Ben Berman

he legacy of DACA looms large in Armando Peniche’s life each day. Originally hailing from Mexico, Peniche, a Boulder resident and activist, has been able to spend the vast majority of his life in the United States, thanks in part to receiving Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status before eventual citizenship. However, his relationship with the immigration policy, enacted by then-President Barack Obama, has been fraught with grief as well. “I have cousins in Mexico, and I’ve only been a part of (their lives) through pictures,” Peniche says, remarking on the growing pains of being raised in the United States with little to no support system besides his single father, who, last year, succumbed to colon cancer. “It could have been prevented,” Peniche asserts, “but, he was never able to get medical insurance because he didn’t have the right documentation. So he went through years of symptoms without getting the right diagnosis and treatment. “DACA was only meant to be a bandaid for a big, broken immigration system,” Peniche says. “There’s still so much work to be done.” Indeed, there’s no better time than now to reckon with the United States’ messy, contentious history with immigrant rights, as June 15 marks the 10-year anniversary of the immigration policy. In the decade since—the middle part of which was punctuated by Donald Trump’s attempts to fully repeal the policy through a polarizing, anti-immigrant platform—DACA has gone through expiration and re-installation. Certainly, its preservation is a breath of fresh air for those who are relying on old DACA statuses in 2022, but the stagnant treatment of the policy than ever to expand its reach to those who never That push toward a larger conversation is the focus this month for Motus Theater, says Executive Director institution has honed in on the struggles and triumphs of immigration through its UndocuAmerica project, an ongoing series of performances, monologues and podcasts that give a platform for undocumented individuals to share their stories. Peniche, now the project manager for Motus Theater, began his involvement with the organization in 2017 on the recommendation of his sister, who believed using a platform to share their upbringing would provide some catharsis. Peniche’s 17 weeks spent in workshops, crafting a monologue with the help of Wilson, proved grueling. frustration and grief he reconciled with through the writing and meditation process. Despite the pain, Peniche doesn’t look back on the creative process as something mired in negativity, pity or anger. “It was healing to have that space. Because it’s not easy to talk about things that have happened in the past, surrounding immigration and the effects that it’s had on people like us,” Peniche says, asserting that he found himself “ending in a place of power.” For Wilson and Motus Theater, that’s the desired take away from the UndocuAmerica project. “We strive to have them as good medicine,” she says,

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explaining that the theater’s artistic

ON THE BILL: UndocuAmerica Monologues: 10 Years of DACA in Story and Song with musical guests. Saturday, June 11. Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. 3 p.m. showing in Spanish. 6 p.m. showing in English. Admission is free.

“uplift the humanity” of its performers, or monologists. “Too often, the world tries to reduce them, policitize them,” Wilson says. Rather than follow the conventions of so much other American media that either treats immigrants like criminals, or, on the other end of the spectrum, sorrowful martyrs, Motus Theater takes a different approach, letting performers share their stories as they are: regular human beings who want to take the opportunity to teach, share and grow. To support this endeavor, Motus has enlisted the work of Edica Pacha, a paste-up murals throughout Denver and Boulder, all of which feature Motus monologists as the primary subjects, including one of Peniche outside the Bob Ragland Branch of the Denver Public Library. vivid landscapes of the American West, weaving the human expression seamlessly with the natural patterns of trees, “Instead of just focusing on the negative aspects, I really believe that the doorway into people is to inspire,” Pacha says about her choice to convey the heavy topic of immigrant rights through the beauty of the natural world. “When you activate people through inspiration, I think they have a tendency to feel more curious and have more interest in learning how to actually help. If you show people crazy images and how messed up the system is, people tend to close.” To help people learn more about the subjects of Pacha’s murals, Motus Theater has provided QR codes under each mural, all linking to the subject’s pre-recorded monologue with Motus. “A lot of these issues are bigger than me,” Pacha says about her effort to combine art with a teachable moment. “What I’m interested in is: how can I take what it is that I do, and merge it into a greater conversation? So if you’re standing in front of one of these murals and then open up their monologue, you can really feel them in the landscape.” Peniche admits having his face and story on display at RiNo Art Park in Denver “seems unrealistic.” “If someone would have asked me, ‘Hey, do you think someday you’ll be on a mural?’ I’d be like, ‘No, I don’t think so,’” he says. The hard work continues for Peniche at Motus, as he teaches and advocates for immigrant rights—raising awareness about the lack of healthcare access is a particular focus for him. But, for just a moment, he’s able to step back and see what’s been done so far. “I’m proud,” Peniche says. “It makes me feel proud of myself, but also for my dad. It instantly makes me think of him and how proud he would be of our poor family who migrated to this country. And now my dad’s son is going to be in a mural in the neighborhood where we lived. Not only that, but I’m gonna be sharing a story about myself. It feels so unreal.” Contact us at editorial@boulderweekly.com JUNE 9, 2022

E VENTS

EVENTS

If your organization is planning an event, please email the editor at crockett@boulderweekly.com

Unite to Fight VI 10, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Tickets: $25$55, z2ent.com Unite to Fight (formerly Founder Fights) is an annual, amateur charity boxing event in Boulder where entrepreneurs and community members train to step hearts, meanwhile, getting into the best shape of their lives. Watch community heroes step into the boxing ring, all to raise funds for their favorite charities.

Opening Reception: ‘Patient Practice’—Works by Rick Stoner

6-9 p.m. June 10 (exhibition runs through July 10), Firehouse Art Center, 667 In the summer of 2021, artist Rick Stoner was diagnosed with a bacterial infection in his spine that led to two back surgeries and a twomonth stay in a hospital and rehabilitation facility. This solo exhibit at Firehouse Art Center documents the traumatizing journey of Stoner’s experience from the point of vulnerability to recovery, while also sharing the work Stoner created during recovery.

June 23-26

Featuring comics from Late Night and Comedy Central along side local headliners. The festival highlights women and diversity in comedy. Shows are at Tilt, License No. 1, Finkle and Garf, Front Range Brewing, Dairy Arts and Tiki on Main. Tickets at BoulderComedyFestival.com 20

JUNE 9, 2022

Caribou Mountain Collective with Gift Horse

Caribou Mountain Collective is a quartet from Nederland, Colorado. The group’s extensive original repertoire channels the rich traditions of both Appalachia and Colorado bluegrass, and its original lyrics and instrumental compositions present unique facets into Americana.

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Della Mae/The Jacob Jolliff Band

7 p.m. June 10, eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. Tickets: $32, etown.org Della Mae is a Grammy-nominated all-woman string band founded by lead vocalist/

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Ludiker. Rounding out the lineup are guitarist Avril Smith, bassist Vickie Vaughn and mandolinist Maddie Witler. Opening for Della Mae is Jacob Jolliff, a Berklee College bluegrass group Yonder Mountain String Band.

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Longmont Pride Visibility March and Festival

March: 1:15 p.m.; Festival: 2 p.m. Saturday, June 11, Fourth and Main, Longmont Those wishing to participate in the march are asked to gather at Fourth and Main at 1:15 p.m. for the march kick-off at 1:30 p.m. All LGBTQ+ identities and allies are welcome. Festive, colorful dress is encouraged. Feel free to bring a banner or sign to represent your organization. This event is a sober and tobacco-free experience for the whole family. The festival will include jewelry from talented artists, photo booths, a dunk tank, and other fun activities spread throughout the day. If you have any questions, reach out to Anna Nehring (she/her) at anehring@outbouldder.org.

Gregg Eisenberg: ‘Even the Earth is Bipolar’

7 p.m. Saturday, June 11, Fiske Planetarium, 2414 Regent Drive, Boulder. Tickets: $15 for adults or $10 for students/seniors/military/veterans, Gregg Eisenberg is the author of Letting Go is All We have to Hold Onto: Mind-Altering Jokes and host of Think of Me When You’re Meditating, a live talk at the Museum of Boulder. After taking a few years off, Even the Earth is Bipolar is returning to Fiske with provocative, funny new material about the cosmos, Earth, and humanity’s place Colorado refugee community.

Boulder Jewish Festival

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, June 12, Pearl Street Mall, between 11th and 15th streets, Boulder The Boulder Jewish Festival features a full day of festivities, including bands and performances, a Jewish food festival, a curated marketplace

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and Judaica, along with family-friendly activities provided by our community organizations. The Boulder Jewish Festival is open to everyone.

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JUNE 9, 2022

Behold the new flesh

David Cronenberg is at it again in ‘Crimes of the Future’

by Michael J. Casey

P Reviewer Jill Murphy:

Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, & Boulder Book Store

lastics. They’re everywhere. They’re in our homes, our cars, our food and waste streams. They’ve formed islands in the middle of the Pacific and infiltrated every last habitat on Earth. If you’ve had a knee or hip replacement, you’ve got some plastic in you. Even if you haven’t, plastic may be part of you right now—insidious microscopic pieces bouncing around your lungs, polluting your bloodstream. Too bad we can’t eat the stuff; might solve some of our problems. Filmmaker David Cronenberg has a thing for plastics. He also likes watching people eating on screen. Probably because it involves gnashing, mashing and gooey fluids—all the stuff the king of body horror loves. And there’s a good amount of eating in his latest, Crimes of the Future, but none of the meals look pleasant, nor does the act of consuming them. Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) takes his breakfast in a chair that looks composed of old bones and seems to fight him while he sits in it. That’s one way to keep you from eating too fast or too much. Tenser is a performance artist. His art is the creation of tumors, which he incubates in his body and has extracted in dark and dingy rooms while spectators watch with collective rapture. Ever gone to an art show in a dilapidated building on the wrong side of town? It’s kind of like that—only everyone watching seems to get off on the whole thing. “Is surgery the next sex?” Timlin (Kristen Stewart) asks Tenser after one of his shows and feels that old familiar tingle down there. Too bad for Timlin, the world forgot to fornicate once they started seeing scalpels. For Cronenberg, “Body is reality,” with every penetration, ON THE BILL: every slash, every gaping gash meaning something. “We are Crimes of the creating order from anarchy,” Caprice (Léa Seydoux), Tenser’s Future is now artistic partner and love interest, explains. Just one of the many playing in theaters. platitudes dolled out with dull delivery by the characters in Crimes. Frankly, I’m not buying any of them. Take the model who goes to the plastic (there’s that word again) surgeon: She doesn’t want him to make her more beautiful; she wants him to scar her. So the good doctor cuts gills in her cheeks and forehead. Caprice is so overcome/turned on by this show of commitment that she has her forehead altered—it looks like the doc shoved elbow macaroni in there. Sure, it’s all very subversive and radical, but it rings hollow. Not that Crimes of the Future isn’t a compelling watch: The production design from Carol Spier gives the movie an unsettling pre/post-apocalyptic aesthetic, and a subplot involving a New Vice agent (Welket Bungué) trying to bust a ring of terrorists led by Lang (Scott Speedman) might be the most interesting aspect of the story. The charge levied against Lang is that he and his cohorts are desecrating the human body. From Lang’s point of view, they’re evolving humanity to cohabit with this techno-ecology we’ve created. There’s a lot in Crimes that’s on the nose. Take the interpretive dancer with human ears grafted all over his body, but has his eyes and mouth sutured shut. Why? Because, as the artist says, it’s time to stop speaking and seeing and start hearing. Gotcha. But Lang’s speech about surviving this brave new world is when Crimes starts to feel like it’s getting somewhere. If only everything around it didn’t feel so... plastic? Email questions or comments to editorial@boulderweekly.com

JUNE 2, 2022

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

LIBRA

by Rob Brezsny ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: “The whole point for me is to change as much as possible,” says Aries actor Keira Knightley. What?! Is she serious? Her number one aspiration is to keep transforming and transforming and transforming? I guess I believe her. It’s not an entirely unexpected manifesto coming from an Aries person. But I must say: Her extra bold approach to life requires maximum resilience and resourcefulness. If you think that such an attitude might be fun to try, the coming weeks will be one of the best times ever to experiment.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: Taurus poet May Sarton relished “the sacramentalization of the ordinary.” What a wonderfully Taurean attitude! There is no sign of the zodiac better able evoke divine joy from simple pleasures. I predict this specoming weeks. You will be even more skillful than usual in expressing it, and the people you encounter will derive

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Here’s a message I hope you will deliver to the Universe sometime soon: “Dear Life: I declare myself open and ready to receive miracles, uplifting news, fun breakthroughs, smart love, and unexpected blessings. I hope to be able to give my special gifts in new and imaginative ways. I am also eager for useful tips on how to express my dark side with beauty and grace. One more perk I hope you will provide, dear Life: Teach me how to be buoyantly creative and sensitively aggressive in asking for exactly what I need.”

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: Libran author Stig Dagerman said that when he was sad as a child, his mother kissed him until his mood lightened. When he was older and sad, his mama said, “Sit down at your desk and write a letter to yourself. A long and beautiful letter.” This would be a good task for you right now, Libra. Whatever mood you are in, I invite you to write a long and beautiful letter to yourself. I further recommend that you carry out the same ritual once every six weeks for the next nine months. This will be a phase of your life when it’s extra crucial that you express soulful tenderness toward your deep self on a regular basis. You may be amazed at how inspirational and transformative these communications will be. OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Sometimes, the arrival of a peculiar event in your life is a good sign. It may mean that Fate has sent an intervention to disrupt a boring phase of inertia or a habit-bound grind. An unexpected twist in the plot may signal a divine refreshment. It could be a favorable omen announcing a helpful prod that’s different from what you imagined you needed. I suspect that an experience or story. Be alert for them. Promise yourself you’ll be receptive to their unexpected directives.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Sagittarius author Edna O’Brien long ago shed the strict Catholic faith in which she was raised. But she still harbors spiritual feelings colored by her tradition. She says, “Ideally, I’d like to spend two evenings a week talking to [novelist] Marcel Proust and another conversing with the Holy Ghost.” I suspect a similar balance Sagittarius. My advice is to connect with an inspiration you drew sustenance from while growing up. Spend time equal time consorting with deep-feeling smart people who will stimulate you to rearrange the contents of your rational mind.

CAPRICORN

Jerry Knott bought a ticket for a lottery. He stuffed it in his wallet and lost track of it. Two months later, he found it again and checked to see its status. Surprise! It was a winner. His prize was $20 million. I propose we make him your role model for now, my fellow Crabs. Let’s all be alert for assets we may have forgotten and neglected. Let’s be on the lookout for potentially valuable resources that are ripe for our attention. More info on Knott: tinyurl.com/ RememberToCheck

deliver to your best allies. It will help you be clear about the nature of your energy exchanges. Say something like this: “I promise to act primarily out of love in my dealings with you, and I ask you to do the same with me. Please don’t help me or give me things unless they are offered with deep affection. Let’s phase out favors that are bestowed out of obligation or with the expectation of a favor in return. Let’s purge manipulativeness from our dynamic. Let’s agree to provide each other with unconditional support.”

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: Hundreds of years ago, people in parts of Old Europe felt anxiety about the Summer Solstice. The sun reached its highest point in the sky at that time, and from then on would descend, bringing shorter and shorter days with less and less light. Apprehensive souls staged an antidote: the festival of Midsummer. They awake till morning, partying and dancing and having sex. Author Jeanette Winterson expresses appreciation for this holiday. “Call it a wild perversity or a wild optimism,” she writes, “but our ancestors were right to celebrate what they feared.” Winterson fantasizes about creating a comparable ceremony for her fears: “a ritual burning of what is coward in me, what is lost in me. Let the light in before it is too late.” I invite you to do something like this yourself, Leo.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Virgo author Elizabeth McCracken says, “I don’t dream of someone who understands me immediately, who seems to have known me my entire life.” What’s more meaningful to her is an ally who is curious, who has “a willingness for research.” She continues, “I want someone keen to learn my own strange organization, amazed at what’s revealed; someone who asks, ‘and then what, and then what?’” I hope you will enjoy at least one connection like that in the coming months, Virgo. I expect and predict it. Make it your specialty!

All credit cards accepted No text messages

SCORPIO

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JUNE 21-JULY 22: In August 2021, a Canadian man named

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DEC. 22-JAN. 19: I’ve composed a message for you to

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: Author Lauren Collins tells us, “Bilinguals overwhelmingly report that they feel like different people in different languages. It is often assumed that the languages are reservoirs of emotion, second languages can be rivers undammed, freeing their speakers to ride different currents.” I bring these thoughts to your attention, Aquarius, because the next 12 months will be an excellent time for you to begin becoming bilingual or else to deepen to do that, I encourage you to enhance your language skills in other ways. Build your vocabulary, for instance. Practice speaking more precisely. Say what you mean and mean what you say 95 percent of the time. Life will bring you good fortune if you boost your respect for the way you use language.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: Piscean-born Robert Evans has been an amateur astronomer since he was 18. Though he has never been paid for his work and has mostly used modest telescopes, he holds the world record for discovering supernovas—42. These days, at age 85, he’s still scanning the skies with a 12-inch telescope on his back porch. Let’s make him your role model for the coming months. I have faith you can achieve meaningful success even if you are a layperson without massive funding. PS: Keep in mind that “amateur” comes from the Latin word for who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

JUNE 9, 2022

Speaking in tongs Boulder’s Tundra spoon-feeds restaurant and home cooks with the exact food tools of the trade

by John Lehndorff

JUNE 9, 2022

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Chocolate and Whiskey for Dad

Two notable local artisan food concerns have teamed up to create some unique gifts for dads on Father’s Day. Boulder’s Moksha Chocolate has produced a limited run of single origin bean-to-bar dark Belize chocolate made from nibs dry-aged in a charred whiskey barrel from Boulder’s Vapor Distillery. Bars are available at Moksha’s Boulder tasting room. On June 18, Vapor Distillery hosts a whiskey and chocolate pairing event. Attendees will sample four Moksha single-origin chocolates from across the globe along with four Boulder Spirits craft whiskeys. Tickets: mokshachocolate.com

Local Food News

Efrain’s Mexican Restaurant has closed its east Boulder location and reopened in the former Shine location at 2480 Canyon Boulevard. … Patio season is back in downtown Louisville, where Main Street between Front and South streets is closed for the summer. … Coming soon: Boulder Social, a restaurant, bar and brewery at 1600 38th St., Boulder, formerly Ska Brewstillery, FATE Brewing and Jose Muldoon’s. … We are assembling a comprehensive guide to farm stands in Boulder County and beyond to support local family agriculture. Help make the guide complete by emailing hours, offerings and detailed farm stand locations to: nibbles@boulderweekly.com

Words to Chew On

“A MEAL IS NEVER JUST A PLATE OF FOOD. It has the power to change the world. ... We are not Democrats or Republicans, Americans or immigrants, meat-eaters or vegans. We are people of the world, who cook and eat and drink together.” —Chef José Andrés

John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles Thursdays on KGNU. Listen to podcasts at news.kgnu.org. Email questions or comments to nibbles@boulderweekly.com.

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High country whiskey from Colorado’s Wild West

DETAILS, DETAILS: Deerhammer Distillery, 321 E. Main St., Buena Vista. Found in liquor stores around the state.

More than a decade of Deerhammer

by Matt Maenpaa

olorado whiskey flows like water, spilling down the mountains and rushing like rivers in high country valleys. Finding interesting and quality whiskey is less like finding needles in haystacks and more like driving a few towns over to check out a new spot. Sometimes you travel a little further—almost a couple hundred miles—to check out a new spot. Having sampled Deerhammer’s whiskey and gin before, I couldn’t pass by without something to take home. Resting between the Arkansas River and nearby Collegiate Peaks in Buena Vista, Deerhammer’s tasting room makes for a good excuse to stop for the day. While I was there, I sat down for a sip and a chat with Deerhammer co-founder Lenny Eckstein. The high country distillery has been putting away barrels and bottles for just over a decade, though exactly when Deerhammer was actually founded is a matter of discussion. “We were too lazy to do a 10-year thing anyways,” Eckstein says with a laugh. “It’s always a weird thing, figuring out how old a distillery is,” he adds. “Is it when we were legally up and running, when we got our license?” Regardless of where you start counting, Eckstein and his small staff have learned a lot in the past decade, particularly about what it means for them to call themselves a craft distillery. When Stranahan’s first started in 2004, it changed the whiskey world. As more distilleries opened their doors to compete with Stranahan’s, LAWS and Leopold Brothers in the years that followed, craft distilling was a spirited scene, if you’ll excuse the pun. “It was the Wild West, so people were OK with year-old whiskey for a little bit. They were OK with unaged whiskey for a little bit,” he says. For Eckstein, those early days of craft distilling meant doing whatever the bigger players weren’t.

Locally owned & operated since 2020

Cold-smoking oats with hickory to add in their bourbon mash was an early example, he explains, which was relatively uncommon in bourbons. Since then, the bourbon mash has moved away from the smoke and a little closer to center. “Fast forward four or five years, nobody really wants a smoked bourbon. They want it to taste a certain way,” Eckstein says. “There’s enough latitude but not too much latitude.” Deerhammer primarily bottles single malt whiskey, with bourbon, rye, rum, brandy and gin filling out the portfolio. There’s even a hickory-smoked whiskey at the tasting room that reminded me of my favorite camping trips. After 10 years, Deerhammer’s distillers aren’t afraid to keep things interesting and crafty. Collaborating with other Colorado makers and producers, Deerhammer’s Progeny series is a prime example. The first iteration involved Denver’s Cultura Craft Chocolate and a cacao-nib barrel finish for the whiskey. Crooked Stave was involved in the second iteration, and now the third is hitting shelves around the state. Called Honeycomber, the single malt whiskey was made in collaboration with Boulder’s own Redstone Meadery. Deerhammer gifted empty whiskey barrels to age Redstone’s mead, which then came back to the distillery to finish more whiskey. The youngest whiskey in the Honeycomber blend is four years, according to Eckstein. “Mostly it was two (years) in the new barrels, two in the mead barrels, but some went up to five-and-ahalf years,” he says. Deerhammer’s single malt is already a smooth and approachable barley sipper, but the addition of honey and floral qualities from the ex-mead barrels deliver a remarkable flavor. The recursive loop of barrel aging mellows the oak, softened with a honey sweetness on the nose that never comes off as cloying on the

MATT MAENPAA

tongue, smoothing out the 102-proof strength of the spirit. Deerhammer released 2,000 bottles of Honeycomber to start and put the rest back in the barrels to release later. In the interlude, Eckstein says the distillery has Progeny collaborations lined up for many years to come. Other unique offerings include a distillery-only release variant of the single-malt where more than 80% of the proceeds from bottle sales go to building trails around Buena Vista and Chaffee County. Finding new adventures and projects helps keep things interesting over a decade of distilling, Eckstein says, but that’s not his favorite new thing. “I think the newest thing is that it’s getting better, because (the distillery) is getting older and we got better,” he says. The Arkansas River Valley is one of the more beautiful areas in an already tremendous state, but Deerhammer is as good a reason as any to visit the area. Maybe it’s just me, but good whiskey tastes better at almost 8,000 feet. Email the author at mattmaenpaa@gmail.com

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PUFF THE MAGIC PASTRY: Savory puff pastry with leeks, brie and oyster mushrooms with pea shoots and

by John Lehndorff Taste of the Week: A slice of seeded perfection

o loaf of bread is ever absolutely perfect, but I sampled a loaf from Boulder’s Dry Storage recently that came pretty close. There’s a lot to love about Dry Storage’s sesame seed country loaf, from an exceptional sourdough taste to its buttery toastability that brings out the sesame joy. Bakers slow-ferment house-milled

middle treat. The Dry Storage cafe is serious about toast, which can be ordered with housecultured butter or house-made jam and chocolate hazelnut spread. Other loaves (and slices) include a seeded rye loaf and a baguette. Other breakfast items include onigiri, breakfast egg and sausage sandwiches on fresh brioche buns, quiche, and pastries including chocolate croissants. I also enjoyed a scratch-made savory puff pastry with leeks, brie and oyster LOAFIN’ AROUND: Sesame seed country loaf

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Boulder Recipe Flashback: A serious salad

varieties that include White Sonora, Rouge de Bordeaux and Abruzzi Rye to use at home making breads and pastries.

BJ’s Pizza Grill and Brewery was open for many years at 1125 Pearl St., former location of Pearl’s Restaurant and West Flanders Brewing Co. This year it will become the home of Dickens 300 Prime Steakhouse. BJ’s Pizza Grill was eventually replaced in Boulder by the larger BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse at 29th Street. In the late 1990s, the eatery shared a favorite salad recipe requested by a reader. The Santa Fe Salad is still on the menu, although the recipe has been tweaked somewhat over the years. This is the original.

JOHN LEHNDORFF

Another Roadfood Attraction: Where the dips are

COURTESY OF DAMASCUS GRILL

f you are traversing the I-25 corridor this summer and need a reviving pit stop, I’d suggest an oldie but goodie: the family-owned Damascus Grill at 1399 W. Littleton Blvd. in Littleton. The menu is the greatest hits of Middle Eastern cuisine, ranging from gyros with spiced, thinsliced meat to felafel, lamb shank

BJ’s Pizza Grill & Brewery Santa Fe Salad 1 each red, blue and yellow corn tortillas, cut in ¼-inch strips Vegetable oil (for frying tortilla strips) 6 ounces Romaine lettuce, ½-inch pieces 4 ounces Santa Fe Dressing (recipe follows) 1 teaspoon Cajun blackening spice mixture (recipe follows) 2 ounces red onion slices, cut in quarters ½ avocado, sliced 3 ounces diced tomato 2 ounces roasted red pepper, diced 2 ounces fresh mozzarella, diced 3 tablespoons roasted corn kernels 1 chicken breast or 6 ounces peeled shrimp Cut tortillas in ¼-inches strips, fry in vegetable oil and drain on paper towel. Gently toss Romaine, onion, avocado and tomato with dressing and ½ teaspoon Cajun spice mixture. Place on a large plate and surround with corn tortilla strips. Sprinkle corn and cheese on salad. To blacken chicken breast or shrimp, heat a cast iron skillet and

kafta kabobs. Lately, I skip all that and go in on dips served with warm pita bread. I start with the tahini-rich hummus and move on to the smoky baba ganoush with its slick of olive oil. Next up is labneh (tart, savory strained yogurt) and muhammara, a tasty paste of walnuts, red bell peppers and pomegranate molasses. After that deliciousness, I opt for a chunk of honey-soaked baklava and hit the road.

carefully in a skillet. When done, place on top of the salad. Serve with extra dressing on the side. To make Santa Fe dressing: Combine 1 cup of high-quality ranch dressing with 2¼ teaspoons chili powder and ¼ teaspoon cumin powder. Taste and adjust seasoning. Optional: ¼ teaspoon cayenne powder. To make Cajun blackening spice mixture: Combine 1 tablespoon paprika, ½ tablespoon kosher salt, 2 teaspoons onion powder, 2 teaspoons sugar, ½ teaspoon cayenne powder, two teaspoons each: black and white pepper, 1 teaspoon thyme and 1 teaspoon oregano.

Send information about Boulder County and Colorado food and drink events, classes, festivals, farm dinners, farm stands and tastings to: nibbles@boulderweekly.com. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

JUNE 9, 2022

Gimme that rosin

Cannabis edible companies are mixing up their recipes with rosin infusions, and the industry may never go back

by Will Brendza

n the Cheeba Chew laboratory in Denver, Cheeba’s resident infuser is sprinkling high-quality THC isolate over a tray of chocolate taffy, stirring it in by hand with a silicone spatula. Ryan Kilpatrick explains that every single batch of Cheeba Chews is hand mixed like this. “We tried automating it at one point,” Kilpatrick says, “but the homogeneity just wasn’t there.” Local cannabis users will remember Cheeba Chew as one of the original commercial edibles to hit cannabis shelves in Colorado. The company started in 2009 making its infamous double-, quad- and deca-dose taffys—back in the days when aspiring entrepreneurs could make commercial edibles in their own home kitchens. It’s been almost 14 years since those early days and humble origins, and now Cheeba Chew is operating out of a highly advanced laboratory reminiscent of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Custom machines dollop taffy into pre-portioned cartons, sealing and packaging the product on an assembly line, while dedicated employees facilitate production and quality control, turning out enough Cheeba Chews to supply the entire state. For over a decade Cheeba Chew has used the same type of solvent-free distillate to infuse their chews. Until recently, Kilpatrick explains. In December 2021, the company decided to mix things up with a new line of candies infused with solventless ice-water extracted rosin. Instead of using the much cheaper, much easier to obtain solvent-free distillate, Cheeba’s new live rosin products provide a cleaner, more potent high that new rosin trend, but it’s making damn sure it isn’t the last aboard. Because, as Kilpatrick explains, rosin is where the edible industry is headed. It’s that much better. “When we started playing with rosin about a year and a half ago, we started testing it and we saw the

the standard distillate, and we jumped into the deep end,” Kilpatrick says. “We’re like, ‘We need to put this in everything.’” Rosin, for the uninitiated, is a very different cannabis product from resin. Resin (with an E) is “solvent free,” and requires the application of a chemical solvent like butane, ethanol, propane or carbon dioxide. Solvents use heat and pressure to essentially dissolve the plant matter of bud, leaving behind the sticky distillate that’s been the standard in edibles for decades. Rosin (with an O) is solventless, meaning it never comes into contact with a chemical solvent and is made via an ice-water extraction. It’s a time and effort intensive technique that uses cold water to make the trichomes brittle and break off of the plant, sinking to the bottom them. The residue scraped off of those be pressed into rosin. Many attribute Mila Jansen (known colloquially as “The Hash Queen”) with the breakthrough in cannabis extract technology sometime in the late 1990s. But it remained a relatively exotic form of extract for many years, since it requires and effort than solvent-free extractions. Since legalization, though, ice water extractions have exploded in popularity. Not only are they far safer to make (less actual explosions when organic and free of all the residual chemicals that days, any dispensary worth its salt will carry some form of bubble-hash or solventless rosin. But it wasn’t until 2020 when someone had the idea to use the stuff in commercial edibles. do that. Jason Manegold had an idea to source excess plant material (i.e., trim, shake, bud) from producers who

JUNE 9, 2022

would otherwise throw it away. He then makes his own rosin from that to infuse Dialed In’s gummies, sharing the Manegold says he feels like he changed everything about edibles in Colorado. And if the actions of some of the biggest edible companies in the country are any gauge, he might be right. Wana launched its own fastacting live rosin gummy in 2022, and of course Cheeba Chew launched its at the very tail end of 2021. Manegold says. “The rosin edible is our thing ... the rest of the industry is just kind of copying us, essentially.” You can almost hear the spirit of competition in the end of the day, as edible companies like these start infusing their products with higher-end cannabis extracts. Unlike Dialed In, Cheeba doesn’t make its own rosin, but sources it from rosin makers who have excess product. Cheeba includes went into the rosin on its rosin candy labels, so consumers can shop more accurately based on preference (Weed Between the Lines, “The wrong labels,” May 26, 2022). Cheeba is also experimenting with other additives to infuse confections with, like CBN, CBD, and melatonin for its “Sleepy Time” gummies; or THCV and caffeine for its “Charged Energy” chews. Or try Cheeba’s brand new MELTS line of pate de fruit chew confectioneries. It’s all part of the new wave of edibles, Kilpatrick says. Rosin infusions are changing how edible companies approach their recipes, and it’s changing consumer preferences too. Kilpatrick himself admits that the live rosin taffy have become his new favorite Cheeba Chew product. “I eat all of our products, but the rosin ones are just so much better,” Kilpatrick says. “Gimme anything with rosin in it.” Contact the author at wbrendza@boulderweekly.com

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Dear INLOVE: If your boyfriend can forgive you and you need to make changes. And the single most important change you can make—the thing you can do differently as you head back

BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: I’m trying to date again after back-to-back negative relationship experiences. Experiences that have made me question my own judgment and ability to set good boundaries. My friends and therapist all pointed out the red

therapist!

the same room doesn’t count. What do you think? — Mansplain Arithmetic To Homos Dear MATH: you were naked at a warehouse sex party and your friend

you’re not blind—but that you looked away and/or attempted to explain them away. (I’m not blind to the fact that using “blind”

you were fucking one guy at one end of that warehouse and your friend was fucking some other guy at the other end of

listen to your friends and your

promise not to use it like this again.) with each other. But if you were fucking some dude’s ass while your friend fucked that same dude’s throat—in a warehouse

The One.” But it seems like I’ve been “rounding up” some

always gonna wanna fuck other men. And unless your boyfriend

energy back into your relationship and into each other. But if you wind up cheating again… There are two ways to look at the cheating you’ve already

in my life tells me that the person I’m with is shitty or that we’re love being in a relationship and I want to be in one again. What things should I be mindful of as I venture back into that world? What’s a good way to be deliberate without moving at a glacial pace? What should I be asking myself as I begin to form new the recent past? — Understandably Nervous Since Upsetting Relationships Expired Dear UNSURE: had two shitty relationships in a row. While that was no doubt

to substitute the judgment of your friends and therapist for your unless you wanna empower your friends and your therapist substitute their judgment for your own. Dear Dan: generally have sex once or twice a week and mostly for my

often horny. Problem is my husband has a medical condition that makes morning sex uncomfortable for him. I occasionally person is often the common denominator in a string of shitty

sex with each other. (While I don’t like to police the language people use when they talk about sex—I support abolishing the language police—I’ve never liked the expression “Body Count.”

relational—and your boyfriend doesn’t want to be in an open Two people who aren’t on the same page where monogamy is

and the sex is good. But sometimes I feel this hunger inside of me. I desire other men. I look around at work or at the gym

Do you have any suggestions for how I can teach myself to be

Dear Dan: on. I cheated on my boyfriend once when we were on holiday my boyfriend saw me. I felt bad about it and apologized. I want

There are also shitty patterns. If you keep picking the same basic kind of shitty person and/or making the same basic kinds

was failing me. When I stopped making monogamous began to thrive. If being in a closed relationship leaves

the news every day makes me want to keep “Body Counts” out of my sex column.) Dear Dan: I’m a gay man in his late 20s living with my boyfriend. We are monogamous but I have a hard time being

Dear STZ: Disco nap—get some sleep early in the being involved.

monogamous commitments. It took me a while to realize that

wank in the AM after he gets up and leaves. Dear Dan: Over the years I have participated in a few threesomes with a friend. We’re not really attracted to each

for the last 16 months and it’s starting to hurt. Thank you in advance. — Fuck Joe Biden Dear FJB:

a good team. Please give me some advice on how to control going to cheat again and wind up losing the man I love over nothing. — Is Needing Love Over Variety Endurable?

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Articles inside

Cuisine: Taste of the Week: A slice of seeded perfection

Events: What to do when there’s nothing to do

City Beat: Big wins for gun control, but business as usual for unhoused policy

Astrology: By Rob Brezsny