Free Every Thursday For 29 Years / www.boulderweekly.com / September 8 - 14, 2022 IT UP Feminist punk gets the memoir treatment in localnewauthor’sbook SMASH
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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 5 departments Acover:newcoming-of-age memoir by Denver author GoGo Germaine explores punk rock and gender politics on the Front Range by Nick Hutchinson 23 news: State-level e orts to close ghost gun loopholes continue to fall short by Anjeanette Damon, ProPublica 1612adventure: Clare Gallagher continues to build her love of running on her passion for the environment by Chad Peterson 8 The Unrepentant Tenant: Do tenants have a right to a habitable home? 9 Opinion: The resilience of Hispanic entrepreneurs 10 Letters: Your views, signed, sealed, delivered 11 Film: Dispatch from the Telluride Film Festival 19 Buzz: Marina Kassianidou’s ‘geometric frustrations’ 24 Events: What to do when there’s nothing to do 28 Words: ‘Arrival and departure,’ by CM Brown 29 Astrology: by Rob Brezsny 33 Drink: The return of Bramble & Hare 35 Cuisine: Cold noodles and hot dumplings at Flower Pepper Restaurant 37 Savage Love: Schooled me once 38 Weed Between the Lines: A Black and white difference 21overtones: e War on Drugs make their Red Rocks debut by Angela K. Evans nibbles: Plant-based Boulder supplies an impressive international variety of fresh links for the grill by John Lehndor 30 THANK YOU BOULDER WINNER OF 6 BEST OF BOULDER AWARDS Safe, full capacity dining, and outdoor patio. Bar open. • Best Food Delivery • Best Kid Friendly Restaurant • Best Restaurant Dessert • Best Restaurant Service • Best CocktailsAPPETIZERSBEST/TAPAS2YEARSINAROW! Open Everyday 5:00 - 9:00pm Happy Hour 5 :00 - 6:30pm 3970 N. Broadway • Boulder • DAGABICUCINA.COM303.786.9004
Vote online in the annual Best of Boulder TM East County survey August 27 through September 24 800 S. Hover Rd. Suite 30, Longmont, CO 80504 • 303-827-3349 www.thelocoltheatre.com Best LiveGroupTheater and Dance Studio PLEASE VOTE FOR US!FORVOTEUS! • Microbrewery • Beer Selection • Bar • Burger • Place to OutdoorsEat • Food (BurgerTruckNomad) Please VOTE FOR US BEST PHYSICAL THERAPY FOOD NiwotNewMexicanLyonsKid-FriendlyJapaneseItalianIndian/NepaliIceGluten-FreeFoodFineDonutsChineseCateringBusinessBurgerBreakfast/BrunchBBQBakeryBagelAsianAppetizers/TapasFusionLunchRestaurantDiningRestaurantTruckMenuCream/FrozenYogurtRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurantRestaurant Overall PlacePlacePizzaPancake/WaffleRestauranttoeatoutdoorstogoonafirstdateRestaurantDessertRestaurantServiceSandwichSeafoodSushiRestaurantTake-outThaiRestaurantVeggieBurgerWings DRINKS BeerBar selection CoffeeCoffeeCocktailsCideryHouseRoaster Craft TeahouseMargaritaLatte/MochaHappyDistilleryBreweryHour Wine Selection CANNABIS Bargains at a dispensary MedicalFlowerEdiblesCBDBudtenderProductsMarijuana Dispensary Recreational Marijuana Dispensary Selection at a dispensary Wax HOME & GARDEN Heating,FurnitureFloristElectricianCarpet/FlooringStoreVenting, and Air Conditioning Home Builder/Contractor Home Finishing Home PestPainterNursery/GardenMattressLandscaperKitchenHydroponicImprovementStoreSupplyStoreStoreCenterControl VOTE FOR DICKENS 300 PRIME Best Restaurant , Best Patio & Best dickens300prime.comVenue 728 Main Street • Louisville • www.SingingCookStore.com720.484.6825PLEASEVOTEFORUS AUTHENTIC JAPANESE CUISINE][ lease Vote for Bestus Sushi VOTE FOR LEFT HAND LASER 1446 Hover St, Ste. 207, Longmont, CO 303.551.4701 • lefthandlaserstudio.com 6 I SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 I BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
Vote now atAllEastThereboulderweekly.comisonlyoneBestofBoulder™County-OnlyinBoulderWeekly.ballotsmustbesubmittedonline. LongmontFORVOTEUS! • WestminsterBoulder Tattoos / Piercing / www.tribalrites.comJewelry ForVoteUs Best PiercingTattoo/Studio 565 E. South Boulder Rd. Louisville, CO 720-985-4259 • www.inksmithcolorado.com BEOVOTETBB RoofingPlumberContractor ENTERTAINMENT & CULTURE Art Bank/FinancialGallery Institution SportsPublicPublicPrivatePlacePlacePlaceOpenNon-ProfitMusicMuseumLiveFestival/EventJazzVenueVenueMictoDancetoPlayPooltoWi-FiSchoolSchool(K-8)School(9-12)Bar FITNESS & HEALTH Acupuncture Clinic Barber Climbing/ParkourChiropractorShop Gym Dance Studio Day DentalSpaCare Golf Gym/FitnessCourse Center Hair LasikHospitalSalonServicesMartialArtsMassageMedical Doctor NailYogaOrthodontistSalonPhysicalTherapistPilatesStudioTanningSalonUrgentCareCenterVeterinaryCareStudio RETAIL Auto Dealer - New Auto Dealer - Used Auto ClothingClothingCarBookstoreBicycleService/RepairShopWashStore-Children’sStore-Men’s Clothing Store - Used Clothing Store - Women’s Business Owned/Led by Female CEO Computer Repair Dry ToyTobacco/PipeTireTattoo/PiercingStorageStereo/ElectronicsShoppingShoeRealPetOpticalNewNaturalMusicLiquorJewelryIndependentHotelHardwareGroceryGiftFarmCleanerStoreStoreStoreBusinessStoreStoreStoreFoodsStoreBusinessStoreStoreEstateGroupStoreCenterFacilityParlorShopShopStore 225 Ken Pratt Blvd #140 Longmont, CO www.sumocolorado.com VOTE FOR SUMO SUSHI BEST SUSHI & BESTRESTAURANTJAPANESE 2770 Arapahoe Rd #112, Lafayette, CO 720-630-8053 • www.eatreelfish.com Vote us B t Seafoo d In Boulder E t County *List of categories subject to change. TRADITIONAL VIETNAMESE PHO HOUSE 2855 28th St, Boulder, CO • Boulderphoco.com 2321 Clover Basin Dr, Longmont, CO • Boulderpholongmont.com VOTE BOULDERFORPHO BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE I SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 I 7
see UNREPENTANT TENANT Page 9
SEPTEMBER 8, 2022
Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer
Editor-in-Chief,EDITORIAL
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Probably the second biggest problem is getting repairs. What rights you have in getting repairs is very de pendent on where you live. I realize Boulder Weekly readers can live any where, but tenants living in the city of Boulder have a much better chance of getting repairs because of the Boulder housing code, although few know that. More on that at the end.
BUSINESS Bookkeeper,OFFICERegina Campanella
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The most common problem for tenants by far is not getting their deposit back—but that subject will have to wait for another column.
ArtPRODUCTIONDirector,Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman
Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo
Sept. 8, 2022 Volume XXX, number 4
CIRCULATION TEAM Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer
Regardless of where they live in Colorado, tenants moving from other states may understandably think they have the right to withhold part or all of their rent if repairs aren’t made because of a legal doctrine called the implied warranty of habitability. Hold o on that course of action.
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
Boulder Weekly welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@boul derweekly.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 verifcation. 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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Contributing Writers: Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Angela K. Evans, Mark Fearer, Dave Kirby, Matt Maenpaa, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Bart Schaneman, Alan Sculley, Tom Winter
I have previously mentioned that the Boulder Tenants Union—and other pro-tenant organizations and state legislators—tried to pass war ranty of habitability (WOH) legisla tion in Colorado in the 1980s. At that time, 42 other states had a WOH, 8 l
As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminat ing 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 que ries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the 690newspaper.SouthLashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f www.boulderweekly.comeditorial@boulderweekly.com303.494.2585
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. tenants have a right to a habitable home? Yes, but… by Mark Fearer
Do
Lower costs mean small businesses can focus on doing what they do best—creating jobs, developing talent, innovating, and opening doors of growth and opportunity across all our communities—including selling more American-made goods and services to the world’s largest buyer: the U.S. government.
SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 9
It should be noted that while the WOH gives tenants the right to withhold rent—or, in severe cases of uninhabitability, move out (known as constructive eviction)— it ain’t easy. ere are certain steps—written notice, speci c timelines that need to be followed—and failure to do all those in just the right way could end up signi cantly costing the tenant. So, if you have a repair or mainte nance issue, what should you do? e type and extent of repair may well determine what can be done. Also, check your lease to see who’s respon sible for repairs, but beware of illegal clauses. For instance, you can’t waive your rights under the WOH, regard less of what the lease says. Common sense dictates the rst step: Talk to the manager/owner of your unit to get repairs. It’s best to give them a dated, der,thebeexpecthowaspecirequestwrittenwithcs,keepcopyandasklongtheyrepairstomade.Ifyou’reincityofBoulconsultthe HandbookLandlord-Tenant . It has an stepsresponsibleissectionextensiveonwhatcovered,whoisandtotake.e L-T Handbook was created by the Community Me diation and Resolution Center, which I discussed in my Aug. 25 column (Unrepentant Tenant, “Resources for Boulder renters”). ey are also a good resource to get information and resolve the Asproblem.Ihinted earlier, few people (es pecially tenants) know that the city of Boulder has the oldest and strongest housing code in Colorado, called the property maintenance code. ere’s a lot to it, so I’ll be writing more about that in the next column. But it is separate from a tenant’s right under the Warranty of Habitability, and also referenced in e L-T Handbook. is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly Email: letters@boulderweekly.com
UNREPENTANT TENANT from Page 8
see OPINION Page 10
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l which usually gave tenants the right to withhold rent if landlords refused to make repairs in a timely manner, or at all.at basic right was consistently opposed by the landlord’s lobby (Col orado Apartment Association, CAA, which fought virtually any proposed tenant protection for decades) and languished. After much e ort, a weak version of the WOH nally passed in 2009. Colorado Revised Statute 38-12-503 states, “In every rental agreement, the landlord is deemed to warrant that the residential premises is t for human habitation.” But the ability of tenants to use that right was complicated, rarely used and not widely known. E orts made to strengthen it over the years were always opposed by the workedonstatewideingCoalitiondouse.becametheobjections2019tooklyversionsuspects.usualAnamendednalpassedandeectin(overtheofCAA),andeasiertoeColoraHomesforAll(worktorepealthebanrentcontrol)withtheColorado Poverty Law Center (CPLC) lobbying for those WOH improvements. While it’s still not ready for prime time, the warranty of habitability is still the best protection tenants have right now, especially for those tenants with weak or non-existent housing codes. Spencer Bailey, housing advo cate attorney with the CPLC, says Colorado was one of the last states to pass a WOH, and it still needs work. He agrees it continues to be risky and complicated to withhold rent without talking to an attorney (or other tenant service). “Post 2019, a tenant has a very limited mechanism to withhold rent, and tenants often don’t know how to follow the steps,” Bailey says.
Finally, the In ation Reduction Act of 2022 makes urgent invest ments that will bring down costs, level the playing eld and open historic opportunities for Ameri ca’s 33 million small businesses and innovative startups—especially those businesses owned by minorities, women and veterans. is law not only tackles in ation and powers America’s transition to safer, cleaner energy, it also shrinks the budget de cit and—most importantly—drives down health care and energy costs for small businesses and their employees.
National Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the resilience of Hispanic entrepreneurs by Aikta Marcoulier, Small Business Administration region 8 administrator
“POST 2019, A TENANT has a very limited mechanism to without rent, and tenants often don’t know how to follow the steps.” — Spencer Bailey, housing advocacy attorney with the Colorado Poverty Law Center Each year, from Sept. 15 – Oct. 15, Americans celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month as a time to recognize the many contributions, diverse cultures, and extensive histories of the American Latino community. More Hispanics than ever before are seizing the opportunity to create new businesses which improve their cities and neighborhoods. Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, and own and operate more than 350,000 businesses nation wide employing over 3 million people andBothcounting.President Biden, and Small Business Administration Adminis trator Isabella Castilla Guzman— the highest-ranking Latina in the President’s Cabinet—have made strengthening our Hispanic-owned small businesses a priority over the last 18 months. e COVID-19 pan demic is the leading cause of business failure over the last two years. is is especially true for those business es owned by communities of color, women and veterans. On his rst day in o ce, the president took decisive action, in partnership with Congress, to implement programs and policies that bolstered millions of struggling small businesses, giving them a ghting chance to survive and thrive post-pandemic.epresident signed the Amer ican Rescue Plan (ARP), which helped millions of Main Street small businesses with continued nancial aid, targeting smaller minority-owned rms in underserved communities. Hispanic-owned businesses were some of the most severely hurt by the various lockdowns of communities at the height of the pandemic. e ARP directly invested in our hardest-hit small businesses to ensure they could safely reopen—and remain open. e ARP also bolstered the Paycheck Pro tection Program with an additional $7.25 billion in funding to support small businesses and nonpro ts that were previously excluded, such as businesses owned by women, vet erans and minorities. is plan also launched the Restaurant Revitaliza tion Fund, which targeted restaurants and other hard-hit food establish ments, and the Shuttered Venue Operator Grant program. In November 2021, the biparti san Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was signed into law, which created enormous opportunities for minority businesses to gain access to over $1.2 trillion in federal, state and local government contracts on a variety of projects nationwide. A large percentage of Hispanic-owned businesses are in the construction and service industries which will directly bene t from this comprehensive bill. is bill will fortify entrepreneur ship, innovation and domestic supply chains, and in the process strengthen our democracy by creating equitable pathways to the American dream.
Aikta Marcoulier is the SBA’s Re gion 8 administrator based in Denver. She oversees the agency’s programs and services in Colorado, Montana, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.isopinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly Email: letters@boulderweekly.com at
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303-665-0538 @yahoo.comorMATT15pmNoonEldoradoDenverforAnmailMTCWANTEDDRIVERLOGISTICScontractorhoursworthofwork$67.34postofficetorun+runhour/run1-801-641-4109emaildingoboy6342 “Deluxe infrared sauna sessions combined with salt therapy for the lungs and skin.” By appointment only, at MandalaInfraredsalttherapy.comIntegrativeMedicine Clinic 825 S. Broadway Suite #50 • Lower Level we want to hear from you! If you have letters please submit them letters@bouldertoweekly.com
10 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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Just as I found myself thinking “We need Courtesy-is-Contagious signs” on our multi-use paths, I almost got run o my bicycle by another. When I heard the words “Passing on the...”, I instinctively moved right to make way. I then made physical contact with a dude who was screaming, “On the right, on the right, dammit!” As we both wobbled our way down the concrete, I said, “Passing on the left is standard in this town and across the entire United States.” His reply was an obsceni ty-laced rant about how I should learn how to ride a bike. I’d like to remind him and the 7,000 potential brand new cyclists in our city that courtesy is contagious and the rules of riding are standardized. You don’t sneak up on someone and then pass on the right. I imagine that this rider is the same driver who darts in and out of tra c on Broadway. Maybe I’m wrong! Is passing on the right a new trend that only reveals my geezerosity?
Robert Porath /Boulder
Evan Cantor/Boulder
VOTE YES TO REPEAL CU SOUTH e manipulative wording placed on the Repeal CU South Annexation ballot initiative echoes the misleading tra c counts conducted when CU students are out of town. Both reveal the pro-growth agenda within the city’s governing body. Whether from the City Council or the university, dollar bills consistently trump quality of life issues for Boulder residents. is has to stop. Vote Yes to Repeal.
OPINION from Page 9 e president’s policies, over the last 18 months, have had a positive e ect on Hispanic-owned small businesses. National Hispanic Heri tage Month is a time to applaud the accomplishments and fortitude of our Hispanic communities and celebrate the American dream of small business ownership. For more information on SBA’s programs and services, please visit www.sba.gov and follow us on Twitter @SBArockymtn.
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Email: letters@boulderweekly.com
How about Adam Curtis’ outstanding Russia: 1985–1999? Curtis culls through hun dreds of hours of archival BBC footage to craft a four-hour documentary about the fall of communism—and democracy—in the Soviet Union. There are no talking heads, and context is kept to a minimum. We learn by watching: A bread line. A car manufacturing plant under the control of the mob. The rise of the oligarchs. Technicians searching for a missing nuclear core wearing nothing more than glorifed plastic bags and masking tape. These are not the dreams of one but many. This is what history must look like to an extraterrestrial.Ican’trecommend
You may overlook the anachronisms at frst, but a few things ought to tip you off that Women Talking, the latest from writer-director Sarah Polley, does not take place when you think it does. A slow-moving traffc sign here, a manufactured cigarette there. References to cow tranquilizers. Acknowledgments of police custody and the cost of bail. In what century do these women live? They are Mennonites on a remote compound and are kept from virtually any form of schooling or education. That is by design. So, too, are the abuses. Women Talking is a magnifcent piece of work. The movie delivers what the title promises, as these women (a stellar ensemble led by Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley) debate leaving their compound—the only home they’ve ever known— or remaining under the thumb of their abusers. This adaptation of Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel features rhetoric at its most real, based on actual accounts of systemic physical and sexual abuse on a Mennonite compound in Bolivia.“We put frames around ideas and events,” the narrator of Women Talking says. “But sometimes the story spills over.” So it did all weekend long inside Tellu ride’s box canyon, deep in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. Over 50 movies screened this past Labor Day weekend at the 49th Telluride Film Festival, many of which could not be confned by the frame. BARDO (or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths)—the latest from Alejandro G. Iñárritu—is so expansive, the movie’s messiness might be its greatest quality. There’s nothing messy about Tár, but writer-director Todd Field packs in so much that you’ll spend days pulling on threads while wondering if Cate Blanchett’s performance of Lydia Tár is her best yet.
IT
Russia: 1985–1999 enough. Ditto for Women Talking—both made me wonder if I’m paying attention enough. Take a key moment in the latter flm: The women, after having talked themselves to the point of confict, decide to take a break. In this moment of rest and solace, The Monkees’ “Daydream Believer” shatters the quiet of the Mennonite farm and stamps a shocking date on the proceedings. We know the past was horrible for many, and we like to think we are more enlightened now. But we are never as far from the past as we would think. Whose dreams are these? They are ours.
Daydream believer Dispatch from the 49th Telluride Film Festival by Michael J. Casey
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 11 Women Talking (pictured above) and Russia: 1985–1999 were among this year’s standouts at the Telluride Film Festival.
StressedMassage!ThinkOut? Call 720.253.4710AllcreditcardsacceptedNotextmessages Go Out Local and Green TheNaturalFuneral.cominfo@thenaturalfuneral.comdavid@thenaturalfuneral.com720-515-2344 In The Natural Funeral’s Green Section of the beautiful Lyons Cemetery. Green burial means: • No Vaults (grave coverings, usually cement or plastic) • Only biodegradable caskets or shrouds • Ritual of hand-lowering • Natural care of the body Contact our Advance Planning Consultant, David Heckel for tea and a chat in our parlor to pre-plan to minimize your nal footprint. Other green options include body composting (natural reduction) and water cremation (alkaline hydrolysis). We also offer flame cremation.
Spoiler: It is. A line from Brian Selznick’s novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, sums up movie going with the greatest of ease: “It had been like seeing his dreams in the middle of the day.” But to whom do these dreams belong? In BARDO, you could say they are Iñárri tu’s. But you could also say they are the dreams of Iñárritu’s idols. What about Women Talking? Are these Polley’s dreams or Toews’? The collective who inspired the story?
“You can say you can’t possess an unserialized gun, but you need to be able to go up the supply chain if you want to stop this problem,” said David Pucino, deputy chief counsel for Giffords Law Center, who helped draft the Nevada legislation.
As Nevada lawmakers heard public comment last year on a bill to ban ghost guns and the parts used to make them, a resident of the rural town of Dayton called into the hearing to offer his opinion. The privately made frearms are virtually untraceable because they lack a serial number and can be easily purchased online and assembled by people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to legally buy a gun.
12 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
“I do not care if this bill passes or not,” said the man, who identifed himself only as Loran Kelley. “I am just informing you that we, as Americans, just will not comply with it no matter what you do.”
This story was originally published by ProPublica. Co-published with The Baltimore Banner and Reno Gazette Journal
What he didn’t mention to the committee is that he owns a company called Polymer80, one of the country’s most prolifc manufacturers of ghost gun kits and parts. His vow to defy such regulations is as much about principle as proft, even as thousands of untraceable guns bearing the P80 stamp have turned up at crime scenes from Los Angeles to Baltimore.
According to court documents, the vast majority of ghost guns recovered by law enforcement nationwide are built from Polymer80 parts. That’s why Nevada lawmakers were debating the bill: Anti-gun violence advocates saw a unique opportunity to shut down the fow of ghost gun parts to the rest of the country by going after the source.
by AnjeanetteProPublicaDamon,
Unregistered,
Why outlawing ghost guns didn’t stop largest maker of ghost gun parts unserialized weapons pro duced with Polymer80 parts have turned up at crime scenes across the country, but state-level efforts to close ghost gun loopholes continue to fall short.
America’s
“THE STATE LEVEL LAWS ARE REALLY IMPORTANT, BUT CAN ONLY GO SO FAR. REALLY WE NEED A FEDERAL SOLUTION.”—DAVID PUCINO, DEPUTY CHIEF COUNSEL FOR GIFFORDS LAW CENTER
Polymer80’s victory in the Nevada court does not obviate the legal threat it faces else where, including lawsuits from big-city mayors trying to stem gun violence on their streets and a pair of deputies ambushed in their patrol car by an assailant wielding a Polymer80 ghost gun. It’s a position that Kelley both relishes and resents. If it were up to him, he said, he’d focus on building his business and looking after his 50 or so employees. But he doesn’t shy away from a fght over his principles. “Polymer80 is on the front lines of protecting the Second Amendment rights of all Americans right now,” Kelley told ProPublica. “That’s not a brag. It’s just the reality because we’ve become the whipping boy for emotionally driven govern ment policy.”
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 13 see GHOST GUNS Page 14
Nevada’s effort came as big city mayors across the country were beginning to grapple with an increase in crimes committed with Polymer80 guns. A handful of states had passed legislation restricting ghost guns. Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles had sued Polymer80, claiming the company was selling a product that violated their local gun control laws. And an additional four cities had sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, seeking to compel the agency to require manu facturers like Polymer80 to put serial numbers on core ghost gun components. Advocates viewed the Nevada law as a po tentially more effective tactic than the patchwork of efforts brought to bear so far. And it almost worked. The Legislature passed Assembly Bill 286 on a party-line vote in May 2021. In seven months, when the new law took effect, Poly mer80 would be out of the ghost gun kit-making business. At least in Nevada. But thanks to a strategically chosen court venue in rural Nevada and with the help of the New York law frm Greenspoon Marder, Polymer80 won a decision vacating the section of law that would have halted its ghost gun business. While it is now illegal to assemble or possess a ghost gun in Nevada, it remains legal to possess and transport the components of a ghostAsgun.aresult, the parts that some use to evade gun-control laws and others use to pursue their hobby of homemade gunmaking continue to fow from Polymer80 to the rest of the country.Anti-gun violence advocates say their court defeat in Nevada underlines the weakness of a state-by-state approach to closing the ghost gun loophole. They also noted that the biparti san federal gun bill signed into law in June in response to a spate of mass shootings does nothing to address the problem of ghost guns. “The state level laws are really important, but can only go so far,” Pucino said. “Really we need a federal solution.” Kelley, who doesn’t trust the news media, rarely talks to reporters, despite his company’s increasingly high profle. But in an hourlong interview with ProPublica, Kelley described his remarks to lawmakers last year as “political grandstanding” and not a promise to break the ghost gun law. Still, it was a moment that portended Kelley’s victory in court. “I was pointing out a simple fact, ‘You can do whatever you want, but it’s not going to work,’” Kelley said. “And I was proven to be right.”But
• • • • Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is one of the city leaders who has sued Polymer80. The lawsuit is intended to hold the company accountable for the street violence perpetrated by people using Polymer80 kits to circum vent federal and state gun laws that require a back ground check to purchase a frearm and a license to own a handgun. Maryland law also prohibits the sale and manufacture of guns that aren’t included on the state’s handgun roster, which does not list those built with Polymer80 parts. Scott said he frst heard about ghost guns in 2018, when, as a City Council member, he was chair of the Public Safety Committee. That year, law enforcement confscated nine unserialized frearms. Within three years, police were confs cating hundreds of the illegal weapons annually. “Once they arrived, they became a huge problem for us,” Scott told ProPublica. “They’ve been used in shootings, robberies, carjackings, murder. We’re seeing them run the gamut.” Baltimore police recently busted a ghost gun-making operation, arresting a man who had dozens of Polymer80 kits, Scott said. The man was a childhood friend of Scott’s. But another incident made the issue even more personal for Scott. In January 2021, Dante Barksdale, an anti-violence activist beloved in Baltimore was shot nine times with a Polymer80 ghost gun. He died in the courtyard of an apart ment building where he had a few weeks earlier delivered winter coats to families who live there. “Dante was like a brother to me,” Scott said. “His death really impacts everything that I do in the realm of public safety. If he were here today—he’s probably in the room with me right now—he would say, ‘You gotta go after the gun companies, too.’” The rise of ghost gun crimes on Baltimore’s streets coincides with the growth of Polymer80’s business.Kelley founded Polymer80 in 2013 with his father, Loran Kelley Sr., and their business partner David Borges, who recently retired from the company. Kelley’s father died in January. Polymer80 got its start in Vacaville, California. But Nevada, with its low taxes and friendly regu latory environment, beckoned, and the company moved here a year later. In 2016, Polymer80 became a licensed frearm manufacturer, allowing it to produce traditional frearms that comply with the Federal Gun Control Act. But the larger part of its busi ness is the production of so-called unfnished frames, the lower part of a handgun, including the pistol grip and trigger guard, onto which the fring mechanism and related components are ftted. The company also makes unfnished receivers, the base component of a rife, such as anFederalAR-15.law requires completed frames and receivers to be stamped with serial numbers. To avoid that requirement, Polymer80 designed “unfnished” frames, which are about 80% com plete. The frame and remaining components can easily be assembled into a functioning frearm. In 2015, Polymer80 began sending samples of its unfnished frames to the ATF, which agreed the part did not require a serial number.“Our strategy always has been to be very open and candid with the ATF and the gov ernment,” Kelley said. “We’ve always been proactive with sending the ATF information on our products and we just operate above board.” Business took off. Between January 2019 and October 2020, for example, Polymer80 shipped nearly 52,000 items to customers across the country, according to court documents.But as Polymer80 grew, so did the number of privately assembled frearms police were re covering at crime scenes. Just as Baltimore ex perienced an increase in ghost gun recoveries starting in 2016, so too did Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. Nationally, according to ATF published numbers, the number of ghost guns recovered by law enforcement jumped to 19,344 in 2021 from 1,758 in 2016. The vast majority of those guns were assembled with Polymer80
A similar lawsuit fled in federal court in Reno the same month was quickly tossed by a judge who decided the law “is a valid exercise of the government’s police“Whatpower.”happened here, with the state court being more successful for them, indicates politics and ideology within the judiciary,” Pucino said.
Ghost guns haven’t been involved in the latest high profle mass shootings, such as in Uvalde, Texas; Highland Park, Illinois; or Buffalo, New York, which each involved legally obtained AR-15-style weapons. But mayors in the cities that have either sued Polymer80 or asked the ATF to close its ghost gun loophole— Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Los Ange les, New York—argue they’re increasingly common in street violence. Ghost guns have been used in school shootings by teenagers too young to legally buy fre arms in New Mexico, Arizona, Maryland and California. In 2020, two Los Angeles County deputies sitting in their patrol car were shot—one in the face, one in the arm—by a man with a ghost gun. Both survived but sustained grievous injuries. A lawsuit they fled against Polymer80 is pending in Los Angeles County Superior Court, as is the lawsuit fled by the city of Los Angeles on behalf of the people of California.Although the ATF gave Polymer80 the go-ahead to sell unfnished frames without serial numbers, the company started to market a kit—called Buy, Build, Shoot—that included both the unfnished frame and other parts needed to quickly assemble a complete frearm. The ATF never gave Polymer80 explicit approval to sell these complete kits without complying with serial number and background check requirements.Pucino,the deputy chief counsel for Giffords Law Center, said Polymer80 is exploiting loopholes to enable its custom ers to evade gun control laws, including age requirements for gun purchases. “Their whole business model, which makes them different from, say, Glock, is they evade restrictions,” he said. In late 2020, investigators with the ATF concluded that Polymer80’s kits likely violated the Federal Gun Control Act and launched a raid on the Dayton manufacturing plant in December 2020. According to the search warrant affdavit, investigators found evidence Polymer80 shipped gun parts to individuals whose criminal backgrounds prohibit them from owning frearms and to individuals in foreign countries. (Polymer80’s website previously said the company has “a strict policy against selling 80% lower receivers to persons known to us to be convicted felons or otherwise prohibited persons.” That language was recently removed.)
ATF spokesperson Ginger Colbrun said she couldn’t comment on the case because the investigation remains active. Kelley wouldn’t comment on the specifcs of the ATF investigation, but he pointed to the fact no one from his company has been arrested following the raid as an indication Polymer80 hasn’t broken the law. “We are still talking to them about that,” he said. “We have a positive set of conversations going on.” Kelley vehemently disagrees with the assertion his company tries to exploit loopholes, saying the company does nothing but comply with the law. He describes his customers as hobbyists and homemade-gun enthusiasts engaging in a centuries-old practice of building their own frearms.
To some, there’s an easy solution: Polymer80 could stamp serial numbers on the unfnished frames and receivers theyKelleysell. said putting a serial number on his products wouldn’t hurt his company. But using those numbers to require background checks is a “critical threat” to his business, which he said relies on a growing market of individuals who “value their Fourth Amendment rights” to privacy.
“Polymer80 has always been a law-abiding company and always will be,” he said, noting it hasn’t sold any ghost gun parts to Nevadans since the 2021 law—which still prohibits possessing a complete ghost gun. “What’s going on is people in power realizing people have always had a right to do this and they don’t like Polymer80it.” wants to succeed through legal means, Kelley said. That wouldn’t be possible if all his customers were criminals.“Itwould be a really, really stupid business model to cater specifcally to criminals, and I would fnd such a practice to be deplorable,” he said.
14 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER
GHOST GUNS from Page 13
“There’s a problem when people’s right to privacy is infringed and a gov ernment agency is looking at what you bought whenever they want,” he said.
The state has appealed Schlegel milch’s ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court.Schlegelmilch declined an interview request because the appeal is pending. Kelley declined to comment on the decision to fle the lawsuit on his home turf in Lyon County. Other courts have ruled differently.
Although the affdavit was made public, the federal court has resealed the case, meaning the results of the raid and any subsequent actions aren’t public.
• After the 2021 ghost gun law passed in Nevada, Polymer80 hired the New York City law frm Greenspoon Marder to fle the lawsuit in Yerington, an onion farming town that’s the seat of the county that’s home to Polymer80. One of the frm’s managing partners, James McGuire, trav eled to Yerington to argue before Judge John Schlegelmilch that the law was written so vaguely it would be impossible to enforce and would be ripe for abuse. McGuire said in an email he no longer represents Polymer80 and referred ques tions to another lawyer at the frm, who didn’t respond to requests for comment. In court, McGuire argued the law failed to defne key terms such as “receiver” and “frame,” and used “murky and undefned terms” to explain what an “unfnished receiver” is. He also argued the law doesn’t specify when in the manufacturing process an unfnished receiver actually becomes a receiver. During two hearings on the lawsuit, Schlegelmilch seemed to have little patience with the state’s argument that the law relies on industry-specifc terms that are well understood by Polymer80. Instead the judge agreed with McGuire that the law didn’t adequately defne an unfnished receiver. At one point he asked whether his 5-year-old’s rubber band gun could be considered an unfnished receiv er simply because it looks like a gun.
“What if I’m at home, and I’m machin ing a piece of wood. OK? And my 5-yearold wants a rubber band gun. OK? So, I take that piece of wood, I turn it, I make it into—you know, I take a band saw, and I cut out what looks like a frearm. And I put a couple of sticks on it so that you can put a rubber band on it when you push it up. You’ve seen a rubber band gun before, right? So, is that mostly completed?”
Schlegelmilch ruled in favor of Poly mer80 and enjoined the state from enforc ing the section of the law that prohibited the possession and sale of unfnished frames and receivers. Schlegelmilch let stand the rest of the law, which Poly mer80 didn’t challenge and prohibits the possession of a completed ghost gun.
It’s not hobbyists using Polymer80 guns on the streets of Baltimore, Scott said.“That is the most ludicrous thing and ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” Scott said. “Their business model explicitly targets purchasers seeking to evade law enforcement or who can’t obtain a gun from a licensed dealer.”•••
parts, according to court documents.
This month, a judge in Washington, D.C., found Polymer80 sold illegal fre arms in the district and ordered it to pay $4 million in penalties.
The ATF is also seeking to impose a new rule that would require unfnished receivers and frames to include a serial number—one of the federal strategies that Pucino said would be more effective than a state-by-state approach. The new rule, seen as a way to close the ghost gun loophole, is set to take effect on Aug. 24, but it faces at least three lawsuits from the ghost gun industry seeking to block its implementation.McGuire,the lawyer who represented Polymer80, authored a 27-page public comment submission on the new rule arguing, in part, that it’s impermissibly vague, the same argument that he used successfully to stop the Nevada law.
Email: letters@boulderweekly.com COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE ACCORDING TO THE SEARCH WARRANT AFFIDAVIT, INVESTIGATORS FOUND EVIDENCE POLYMER80 SHIPPED GUN PARTS TO INDIVIDUALS WHOSE CRIMINAL BACKGROUNDS PROHIBIT THEM FROM OWNING FIREARMS AND TO INDIVIDUALS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
“I mean, a rubber band gun’s not a frearm,” responded the state’s attorney, Greg Zunino. “I don’t think you would ever be prosecuted under that scenario because you still have to have an intent to turn something into a frearm.”
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After another attempt at winning Leadville, Boulder’s Clare Gallagher continues to build her love of running and her passion for the environment by Chad Peterson
‘Earthraging’
Before dawn on Aug. 20, a custom-made dou ble-barrel shotgun red into the air at the starting line of the Leadville 100, sending more than 700 competitors into the dark. e race, aptly referred to as the Run Across the Sky, is a 100-mile-out-and-back ultramarathon with elevation ranging from 9,200 to 12,600 feet, with a total elevation gain of 15,744 feet. is year, Leadville was lled with familiar faces, including many past winners. Joining the other 700 at the starting line was Boulder resident Clare Gallagher, who had her eyes set on the next 100 miles up and over Hope Pass to Win eld and back to Leadville. At the start of the Leadville 100 six years second-fastestwithLeadvilleand100-milepletedlater,known.relativelyGallagherprior,wasun19:00:27shecomherrstracewonthe2016100thecourse’s femaleistime.win jump-started Gallagher’s running career, which now includes sponsorship deals from Patagonia, La Sportiva and Petzl. In the past six years, a slew of victories in world-class competi tions (2017 CCC 100K in France and the 2019 Western States 100 in California) has led some to place Gallagher among the GOATs of running.
On the Some Work All Play podcast, Gallagher revealed she threw up everything in her stomach at mile 75. She gave a lot of credit for her win to her pacer, Clint Anders, who kept the mood light and helped her replace those vital calories.
ON THE TRAIL: Clare Gallagher running the Leadville 100 on Aug. 20. The iconic ultramarathon pushes its participants to the limits with its high elevation and over 15,000 feet of total elevation gain.
COURTESY CLINT ANDERS
Earlier this year, Gallagher competed in the Black Canyon 100, a golden ticket race for the Western States 100. Gallagher went into Black Canyon knowing that if she won, she would refuse the ticket to the Western States 100, wanting to return to compete again in Leadville instead.
“Leadville is just this emotionally, historically charged place for me personally,” Gallagher says, “but then also, of course, in the sport itself, because it’s one of the oldest 100 milers in the country. It revitalized this sleepy mining town. It’s Colorado, the Sawatch Range, such a beautiful part of the world.”Her coach, David Roche, calls the Western States 100 “the Super Bowl” of ultrarunning in the U.S. “And she stuck with [her decision not to race in the Western States 100],” Roche says. “People almost never stick with that decision, and it just shows that Clare has the type of character that she says what she means and she means what she says.”Gallagher went into this hadBracy,tookovertookstation,thebeforeaidfourswappingtheneckmainedvillerunner-upJulySpeedgoatoBracypartnerlong-timetooneLeadvilleyear’s100asofthefavoriteswin,alongwithtrainingAddieBracy.hadjustcomeawinatthe50KinandwastheatLeadin2018.etworeneckandthroughoutrst60miles,theleadtimesbetweenstations.JustreturningtoHopePassaidGallagherBracyandofromthere.unfortunately,todropoutatthe 70-mile marker after feeling the same symptoms of rhabdomyolysis (a potential ly fatal condition) at mile marker 60 that hospital ized her in February.
“You can’t really feel sorry for yourself,” Gal lagher says. “ ere’s no time for that, especially at mile 75. It’s a really pivotal time in the race. You still have a lot of miles to run. And so you have to stay focused … I had a really good pacer at that time, and he didn’t give in. He didn’t feel sorry for me. He just said, ‘Swish and spit,’ and gave me some water. And so it just takes focus and disci pline.”With just under a marathon of miles left, Gal lagher was able to nd the ght within herself and put it all together to nish with a time of 19:37:57,
16 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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Gallagher believes she is better o moving on from an advocacy role and wants to work to in uence policy more. “For now,” Gallagher says, “I feel that being in science and potentially more closely related to the policy side is where I am meant to be.”
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Gallagher said she plans on taking a few months to rest and get back into the swing of school, but she’s already thinking about the next year of races.
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e catch was having to leave for Alaska for multiple weeks and return only a few days before the Western States 100, causing a signi cant break in her training schedule. For Gallagher the decision was easy. She joined Caldwell and two other Patagonia athletes, Austin Siadak and Luke Nelson, in Alaska.
In January 2021, newly elected president Joe Biden issued an exec utive order halting all drilling in the Refuge, where the Gwich’in people live. In June of the same year, Biden suspended all oil drilling leases issued by the Trump administration.
Tree National Park, Gallagher received a phone call from fellow Patagonia athlete Tommy Caldwell inviting her to Fort Yu kon in Alaska to learn more about how climate change has a ected the Gwich’in people, a tribe who has lived in the region for 20,000 years, accord ing to some estimates.
the fth-fastest female time in Lead villeRochehistory.explains that he uses the term ‘Earthraging’ with Gallagher, who isn’t driven by ego. “When she is out in nature and is like, ‘I am here in this beautiful spot and through my body, I am celebrat ing this,’ that sort of internal justi ca tion is so much more sustainable than external validation that comes and goes,” he says. “And she wasn’t chas ing ego at all—she was just chasing love: love of nature, love of running, you know, love of the good shit, the bad shit.”irty-six hours after the race, Gallagher is back in Boulder in class at the University of Colorado where she is now pursuing her Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr. Cassandra Brooks in the Department of Environmental Studies. Gallagher studied ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton and graduated in 2014. During the break between gradu ating from Princeton and going back to school at Boulder, Gallagher stayed committed to environmental justice. “I think I have been an envi ronmentalist at my core and in my heart really since I was a little girl,” she says. “At (Cherry) Creek (High School) I was president of the recycling club and we sold bracelets that said ‘stop global warming.’ At Princeton, I was highly involved with a divestment campaign to divest the university’s endowment from fossilroughoutfuels.”her time as a Patago nia Global Sports Activist, Gallagher has used her spotlight to highlight several environmental issues, includ ing testifying in 2019 to the Bureau of Land Management against all oil leasing in the Deserttheningafteruge.WildlifeNationalArcticRefShortlyrunacrossMojaveinJoshua
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“Looking back, it is a very traumatic history that the island has lived through, and that trauma is still around,” she says. “Friends of my parents were refugees, so they remember being little and being thrown out of their homes and living through the war situation. It’s so heavy and so traumatic. Maybe I just didn’t feel that I could do justice to it in some way.” But there’s another interpretation of Kassianidou’s art. In a response to Geometric Frustrations, flmmaker Erin Espelie compares the artist’s work to the topography of the foot hills that surround Boulder, where deep-rock scars known as shear zones have formed over millennia of pressure, “where the Earth’s crust has sustained extreme internal stress.”
Geometric Frustrations brought me into this state of contemplation,” Espelie muses, “a recognition that I sit upon a shear zone, a scarred site that can ab sorb stresses, high strain, and move but not break in response to where two very different strata meet. We are in a place that allows for repeated change, vulnerability, resilience, and reformation. We may wish to dispose of our past failures quickly, yet to regard our stressful, collective collapses with careful intensity, as Kassianidou does, may offer insight for the future.”Perhaps there’s a mathematical pattern to the way humans fold as well.
ON THE BILL:
The paper—which one of Kassianidou’s art students at CU Boulder found in the trash— was printed by the U.S. Department of the Interior Geological Survey Water Resources Division, most likely to record water discharg ing in reverse. Its logarithmic scale, with lines that run close together, then further apart, then closer together, over and over, can be used to record data over tens or even hundreds of years.Kassianidou shifts the recording process from the external fuctuations of the earth to the internal struggle of the paper.
In Geometric Frustrations, now showing at east window (4949 Broadway) through Oct. 28, Kassianidou responds to the surface of crum pled log graph paper, lightly tracing lines along the creases that form, recording the structural changes to the paper.
Marina Kassianidou’s ‘geometric frustrations’ is an exploration of resilience and futility SHEAR ZONEbyCaitlin Rocke FrustrationsGeometric is showing at east Oct.Boulder,4949window,Broadway,through28.
W andering aimlessly about the internet in the early, lockdown days of the pandemic, Marina Kassian idou stumbled onto some research out of Harvard that proves there’s a mathematical pattern to the way paper crumples.“Every time you apply pressure, the paper tries to retain its material integrity on a molecular level,” she explains. “I was think ing of it as agency; the amount of agency that the [paper] has in terms of protecting advancedbeforeFulbrightatcomputerbothnativeandandwith“andwithathinkcomputers—“howandofthethingslikesitself.”Kassianidoutothinkaboutlikethis,aboutlogarithmicfoldscrinkledpaperthelanguageoftolikethemachinelittlebit,”shesaysaliltinglaugh,howthingsworkbitsandbytesmemoryregisterswhatnot.”TheCyprusstudiedstudioartandscienceStanfordonaScholarshipmovingontodegreesin fne art. “One of the things that I really enjoyed in computer science was when we were using a programming language that al lowed me to intervene directly in the very low-level electronics of the computer and interface directly in individual memory registers,” she says. “I think that translates in some ways into the kind of art I’m making, which also deals with the very basics of mark-making, and working with a surface and learning its language almost, and then responding to that.”
“But in the process, the paper turns into its own terrain,” she says. “The reason they’re displayed horizontally in the gallery is to have that relationship to the ground that you’re standing on, so they do become this quasi representation of the earth and how we attempt to make sense of the earth. And part of the way we try to do that is by collecting data and creating graphs and trying to make sense of what’s happening around us in the geology and topography. So I see them as this attempt to try and make sense of space and place—some times futile attempts.”
KASSIANIDOUMARINA BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 19
What shear zones offer in metaphor, Espe lie writes, “is their ability to negotiate stress by changing position, sometimes subtly and other times“Kassianidou’sradically.”
It would seem there’s nothing humans love more than futile attempts to make sense of the world, often shoving one another into proverbial boxes by drawing imaginary lines on maps to delineate who owns what and who belongs where. It would be easy to overlay Kassianidou’s native Cyprus on this concept, where British rule in the previous century sewed dissent among Greek and Turkish Cypriots that exists today, resulting in a country divided.But for a long time, Kassianidou refused to see the connection between her home and her art. When people, like a local journalist, for example, would ask if her art was a rep resentation of the so-called “Cyprus problem,” Kassianidou was almost offended.
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ON THE BILL: The War on Drugs, 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison. Tickets: $55.
Adam Granduciel is restless. Every day the 43-year-old lead guitarist and vocalist for The War on Drugs wakes up buzz ing with the urge to accomplish “a million things”—spend time with his kid, maybe play a couple hours of tennis or a round of golf, and then get into the studio to write a new“Restlessnesssong. is just part of living,” he says. “These themes that we write about, that we fnd comfort in, that we are compelled to express in music, are things that we can’t escape from. They’re a huge part of my life.” That restlessness can be pro ductive, as evidenced by The War on Drugs’ critically acclaimed fve-album discography. But it can also teeter into darker places. Granduciel says it’s all part of the fabric of life that becomes more intricate with“You’reage. never healed or cured from any sort of anx iety, depression, restlessness, whatever,” he says. “You just incorporate it into your life as you get older.” Having gotten their start in the early aughts, Granduciel and The War on Drugs have had decades to incorporate such familiar feelings into their lives and music. But there’s a frst time for everything, including an inaugural stop at Red Rocks on Sept. 19. Calling it “a right of passage,” Granduciel says performing at the storied Colorado amphitheater may even top selling out Madison Square Garden earlier this year. It’s a culmination of years of friendship and touring, with each member coming into their own to help the band build a reputation for arena-flling live shows many touring acts can only dream of. “The live thing especially is a direct result of who we have up there and what everyone’s become,” Granduciel says. “The band just keeps getting better. It’s been a really nice evolution of how the records get made and then how they get interpreted on a stage in front of a lot of people.”Theband’s current lineup consists of six members who came together for the band’s 2014’s breakthrough album, Lost in the Dream—David Hartley (bass), Robbie Bennett (keyboards), Charlie Hall (drums), Jon Natchez (saxophone, keyboards), Anthony LaMarca (guitar)—plus Eliza Hardy Jones, whom Granduciel knows from the tight-knit indie rock scene of Philadelphia.
“You experienced culture on a very micro level,” he says of those pre-social media days. “And it just felt innocent or something… I don’t know what it’s like to be doing that Granducielnow.”comes back to a sense of gratitude about those years he spent learning about music, writing and recording with neighborhood friends before selling out the larger-than-life arenas and stadiums where The War on Drugs would come to feel at home.While the live show has evolved in its own way, so has the process of recording. It’s not so much a matter of translating the stage performance into the studio, Granduciel says. Instead, it’s more about expressing the unique musicality and personality of each member of the band. But as the lyricist and main songwriter, Granduciel says pro ducing albums is still a “tortured process,” even after all this time. The group’s ffth record, last year’s I Don’t Live Here Anymore, took three and half years to complete.
BOULDER COUNTY’S
Never feeling satisfed is the momentum behind the craft.
In that moment, Granduciel knows he’ll eventually get back to the place of pride in what he’s created—a place of calm before the next day comes, and the pro cess starts all over again.
The
INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 21
“Fifteen years ago I would not have thought we’d be a seven-piece band with this many keyboards and everything,” Granduciel says. “It’s been able to evolve, and there’s a little mystery to it, and it can be whatever you want it to be.”
Fifteen years ago, Granduciel spent his days playing music with his friends in the Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia, creating what would become The War on Drugs with good friend turned solo-artist Kurt Vile. To gether they released the band’s frst album, Wagonwheel Blues, in 2008. The pair bonded over a love of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, two infuences woven throughout the War on Drugs cannon. Such foundational artists offer insight into the band’s generation-spanning appeal. Refecting on the band’s early history, Granduciel says it all seemed to happen in a vacuum. There were shows most nights, with bands forming just as frequent ly, populated by an array of musicians hanging out at parties, jamming and listening to music together.
“There’s no cure for wanting to keep uncovering new songs,” he says. “Nothing can sway you from making yourLately,art.”
Granduciel has been tinkering around with some new ideas, but at this point, he’s unsure of what it will turn into. Each record, perhaps even each song, is a mixture of exacting precision and some scrappy improv, as Granduciel is known to fnish lyrics in the studio at the last Sometimes,minute. he says, a song just reveals itself, but most of the time he sits in the uncertainty of where a song will end up. It’s all part of the cycle, “the art of making a record,” he says. It starts on top of the world, with excitement building around a new concept, before inevitably crashing into insecurity and doubt. That’s usually followed by a lull in which Granduciel questions everything he’s created so far. But the upswing always comes.
Sitting in the uncertainty
“I think that at the end of the day, when I sit down and listen back to something I’ve been working on and it hits a nerve with me, it’s usually because there’s some thing in there that I know to be true,” he says. “And that feels like something I want to be singing about.”
PHOTO BY SHAWN BRACKBILL
The upswing always comes War on Drugs make their Red Rocks debut Angela K. Evans
by
22 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
party’ByNickHutchinson your way
As for its title, Glory Guitars is lifted from a passage in the text that refects the author’s take on the freedom of her youth and the music that moved her. “It came from my view of a romanticized adolescence awash in glory guitars,” she says. “I’m forced to reckon with the dark and light things that have happened in my life, and the book is about embracing both.” Glory Guitars: Memoir of a ’90s Teenage Punk Rock Grrrl (University of Hell Press) is available for pre-order ahead of its Oct. 11 release date at universityofhellpress. com. Email: letters@boulderweekly.com
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 23
“[Glory Guitars] is a chronicle of misadventure,” she says. “It’s that feeling of stealing a cigarette from your dad and going into a feld with your friends to share it.” But despite its universal themes, the highly specifc world of the ‘90s Fort Collins punk scene looms large in Barnes’ new memoir. The self-de scribed “elder millennial” says the accessible, angst-driven genre gave her and her friends a voice in a world dominated by men. “The best thing about it is that you just kind of punch your way into the party,” Barnes says. “I think punk is essential to female liberation. In the current day, I think we need more of that.”That punk sensibility is clear from the cover of Glory Guitars, which features photos from Barnes’ youth collaged into an approximation of a concert fyer by designer Joel Amat Guell. Taking the concept a step further, the book comes in a variety of bright dayglo colors from Portland, Oregon-based publisher University of Hell. But despite the slapdash style resembling the DIY aesthetics of the music at its heart, Barnes’ memoir represents the culmination of plenty of hard work. She hopes the fnal result will offer hope to others who feel out of place. “I wrote the frst draft in about a week and then I spent a year refning it,” she says. “There’s a lot of hopelessness in the world these days and I wanted the book to be a kick in the face, full of energy and rebellion and fun.”
Within the pages of Glory Guitars, many readers will recognize that longing for independence and individualism, whether or not they share Barnes’ particular punk-rock life experiences.
ROSSGLENNBYPHOTO
uthor Erin K. Barnes, who writes under the pen name GoGo Germaine, calls herself a “pretty typical Coloradan.” But the ad olescent at the center of her new book Glory Guitars: Memoir of a ’90s Teenage Punk Rock Grrrl is anything but run-of-the-mill. Barnes, whose sophomore literary release arrives via University of Hell Press on Oct. 11, says she didn’t ft the good-girl mold that was expected of young women in the suburban Fort Collins neigh borhood of her youth. That’s when she discovered the Riot Grrrl scene, a feminist subgenre of punk marked by ferocious guitars, breakneck drums, and a healthy dose of gender politics.
A new coming-of-age memoir by Denverauthor GoGo Germaine explores punk rock andgender politics on the Front Range into the
A
‘Punch
“I became bewitched by this simple memory,” she says. “I wanted to capture the feeling of rebellion, and that memory from my past sort of gave rise to the book.”
“From a young age I was considered a weirdo for liking punk music and not being into the usual girl stuff. I liked to read Lester Bangs and play the drums,” Barnes says. “In polite Fort Collins suburbia, people look at you if you’re wearing black and chains like you’re trou bled.” That sense of not ftting in courses throughout Barnes’ feedback-drenched memoir. The 39-year-old author calls it “a story of punk rebellion,” drawing from her own coming-of-age experience on the northern Front Range with a squad of “pre cocious teen punk girls who did whatever we wanted to do.” Of course, it didn’t take long for Barnes to fnd her way from Fort Collins to Boulder and its well-worn history of counter culture. She followed her sister, who moved to town to attend CU Boulder—“I basically lived with her and partied while she went to college,” Barnes remembers—before pursuing her own degree in writing at Metro State University in Denver. “I loved being in the city and riding the bus around Capitol Hill and reading Jack Kerouac and all that good stuff,” she remembers of those early days in the metro south of her childhood home. But the change of scenery offered Barnes more than a chance to catch up on her favorite beat writers. With some space to refect on her own punk rock youth, Barnes arrived at a lesson for navigating conformi ty that animates her new memoir. “Someone who looks ‘troubled’ to you doesn’t need to be diagnosed or psychoanalyzed,” she says. “Maybe there’s something wrong with society, which we know there is.” ‘The feeling of rebellion.’ When it comes to the origins of her discontent, Barnes points to a formative memory of ditching school in junior high. The simple act of cutting class and running with abandon through a nearby feld proved to be a defning experience for the emerging author.
2-6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, Morrell Printing Solutions Parking Lot, 990 S. Public Road, Lafayette. Entrance is free, beer/cider/wine for sale. Enjoy a cold one and some local food while listening to live music at the Lafayette Brew Fest. All featured breweries—Avery, Liquid Mechanics and a dozen more—are located within 75 miles of Lafayette.
5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, Old Main, 1600 Pleasant St., Boulder Join New York Times Magazine writer and CUNY journalism professor Linda Villarosa as she gives a presentation on her new book Under the Skin at Old Main on the CU Boulder campus. Under the Skin illustrates the policies that force Black people in America to “live sicker and die sicker” compared to their white counterparts.
5-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, between Emma and Cannon streets, Lafayette Celebrate the end of the summer in Lafayette with an art market, food trucks and beer and wine tents. The Colorado-based Cass Clayton Band will start playing rock, funk, soul and blues at 6:30 p.m. n ‘I Know
ComedyPersonally’:SchneidkrautAndrewAFundraiser
n Rosenberg’s Block Party featuring SunSquabi with DJ Airwolf 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St. Boulder. Free Enjoy an afternoon on the Hill with a free live show and events featuring SunSquabi with DJ Airwolf. The party starts at 4 p.m. with games, food and drink, and music at 6:30 p.m. Close out the evening with an after-party at the Fox Theatre starting at 10:30 p.m.
n ‘Onward and Upward’: Shark’s Ink Open House
n ‘Under the Skin’: A Discussion with Author Linda Villarosa
EVENTSEVENTSIf your organization is planning an event, please email the arts & culture editor at jgray@boulderweekly.com For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events
24 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
7:30-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 9, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: $25, thedairy.org Andrew Schneidkraut, owner of the recently closed Albums on the Hill, has supplied the com munity with CDs, cassettes and vinyl for decades. Health complications have left him in need of sup port. The Dairy Arts Center is hosting this comedy fundraiser, featuring comedians Nancy Norton and John Novosad, to aid Schneidkraut’s recovery.
10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boulder Over the past 46 years, Shark’s Ink has foregrounded collaborative printmaking, working with more than 100 artists across the United States and Europe. The CU Art Museum celebrates the “Sharkive” collection from Shark’s Ink, directed by Bud Shark, with its Onward and Upward: Shark’s Ink exhibition. Over 50 prints and production mate rials will be showcased.
n Lafayette Brew Fest
n Community Roots Art Festival 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, VisionQuest Brew ery, 2510 47th St., Suite A2, Boulder. Free, or a suggested donation of $10-$20, communityrootsartfestival.com The Community Roots Art Festival seeks to support local Black, Indigenous, and brown artists by celebrating their work. Artists, performers and vendors from across the Front Range will be high lighted in this all-day event.
n Arts Night Out
Frenchman Marquis de Lafayette fought in both the American Revolution and French Revolution. He sparred with Napoleon, conspired to overthrow King Louis XVIII and helped overthrow the Bourbon Dynasty in the French Revolution of 1830. These events, and more, lead Lafayette to be known as an “international symbol of liberty.” Mike Duncan, author of Hero of Two Worlds, will talk about and sign this New York Times bestseller at Boulder Bookstore.
For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events
Enjoy a late summer night underneath the full moon and learn about the lifestyles of nocturnal animals on a hike with Wild Bear Nature Education Director and Naturalist Michelle Witte.
n Kind Hearted Strangers with Bob Barrick of Kingdom Jasmine 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $15, z2ent.com
COURTESY KIND HEARTED STRANGERS
see EVENTS
n Author Talk: Mike Duncan–‘Hero of Two Worlds’ 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder. Tickets: boulderbookstore.net$5,
n Full Moon Hike 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, Mud Lake, 88 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland. Tickets: $15, wildbear.org
Enjoy an intimate show just off Pearl Street when Kind Hearted Strangers play at the Velvet Elk Lounge. Kind Hearted Strangers released their debut album East // West in 2021, which refects on the bands roots and bridges the gap between rock ‘n’ roll and a harmony-driven acoustic sound.
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 25
Page 26 EVENTSEVENTS
n The First All-Black Everest Expedition 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, Neptune Mountaineering, 633 S. Broadway, Boulder. Free, register at neptunemountaineering.com Join Neptune Mountaineering for an offcial presentation from the frst all-Black team to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Expedition leader Phil Henderson and team member Eddie Taylor will headline the event and talk about their experiences on and off the mountain.
EVENTS
The Children is about twofacetheyarrives,anbles.themaroundasinentistsnuclearretiredscilivingisolationtheworldcrumWhenoldfriendmustthe
EVENTS from Page 25
EVENTS COURTESY FULL CIRCLE EVEREST TEAM Delivering meals to Boulder area residents who need our services, regardless of age and income. (720) 780-3380 All proceeds beneft Meal on Wheels of Boulder mowboulder.org
n Butterfly Effect Theater of Colorado (BETC) presents ‘The Children’ 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: $25, thedairy.org
n
26 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
Talking About Race Series: Empathy 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 14, Longmont Library, 409 Fourth Ave., Longmont. No registration required. This is the frst of a threepart community conversation series hosted by Annie Caplan of Living Room Conversations. The goal of these sessions is to “foster meaningful dialogue around diffcult or divisive issues.” Themed conversations about status and privilege and race and ethnicity will follow this conversation on empathy.
question: “What do we owe to future generations?” The New York Times calls The Children “completely successful as an eco-thriller, bristling with chills and suspense.” Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado presents this three-character play at the Dairy Arts Center through Oct. 8.
For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events
Rosenberg’s Block Party featuring SunSquabi with DJ Airwolf. 4 p.m. Fox Theater, 1134 13th St., Boulder Ron Legault Jazz. 6 p.m. St Julien Hotel, 900 Walnut St., Boulder Jeff Jenkins Trio. 7 p.m. Muse Perfor mance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Rd., Lafayette Crick Wooder Band. 8 p.m. The Speakeasy, 301 Main St., Longmont Rocket Parade w/ Dreem Machine. 8 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Dr., Nederland Weary Bones Album Release Party. 8 p.m. Louisville Underground, 640 Main St., Louisville OG Garage A Trois: Charlie Hunter Skerik & Stanton Moore. 10 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1134 13th St., Boulder H Sunday, Sept. 11
H Friday, Sept. 9
PHOTO ISAAC UP IN SMOKE: Mild High Club bring their brand of psychedelic indie pop to the Fox Theatre on Thursday, Sept. 15, with support from Shy Boys. For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 27 CONCERTSEVENTS
BY
An Afternoon of Chamber Music. 2:30 p.m. Stewart Auditorium, 400 Quail Rd., Longmont Grown Ass Man Band. 6 p.m. St. Julien Hotel, 900 Walnut St., Boulder Weary Bones Album Release Party. 8 p.m. Louisville Underground, 640 Main St., Louisville Martin Gilmore Band. 8:30 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder H Saturday, Sept. 10
STERLING
JUST ANNOUNCED OCT 30 ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW DEC 10 TRACE BUNDY’S ACOUSTIC HOLIDAY DEC 11 SWITCHFOOT DEC 30 & 31 LOTUS NYETHU. SEP 8 ROOSTER ROSENBERG’SROSENBERG’S,MINDCHATTERPRESENTSHARVE,SOMELIERSAT.SEP10Z2&97.3KBCOPRESENTBLOCKPARTYFT.SUNSQUABIFREEOUTDOORSTAGESAT.SEP1088.5KGNUPRESENTS:ROSENBERG’SAFTERPARTY!OGGARAGEATROIS:CHARLIEHUNTER,SKERIK&STANTONMOORETUE.SEP13OHHEDEADTRUSETTOTHU.SEP15MILDHIGHCLUBSHYBOYSFRI.SEP16MELVINSWEARETHEASTEROID JUST ANNOUNCED OCT 21 ALPENGLOW 1135WWW.FOXTHEATRE.COM13THSTREETBOULDER720.645.2467 WWW.BOULDERTHEATER.COM203214THSTREETBOULDER303.786.7030 SAT. SEP 17 ROOSTER & PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS PRESENT WAX TERRAPINTUE.BRKLYN,MOTIFGANOSEP20CARESTATIONPRESENTSCLERKSIII: THE CONVENIENCE TOUR WED. SEP 21 AEG PRESENTS: GWINGLE GWONGLE TOUR REMI COMEDYTHU.JELANIWOLFARYEHSEP22WORKSPRESENTS MARC MARON: THIS MAY BE THE LAST TIME SAT. SEP 24 ROOSTER PRESENTS: FALL TOUR 2022 TWO SUN.BROTHELFEETSEP25WESTWORDPRESENTS THE FRONT BOTTOMS SPECIAL GUESTS MOTHERFOLK & MOBLEY
Greg Schochet Trio. 5 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder H Monday, Sept. 12 The National with Lucy Dacus. 7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy, Morrison. H Tuesday, Sept. 13 Oh He Dead with Trusetto. 9 p.m. Fox Theater, 1134 13th St., Boulder H Wednesday, Sept. 14 Atom Jazz Collective. 6 p.m. St Julien Hotel, 900 Walnut St., Boulder Kikagaku Moyo. 8 p.m. Fox Theater, 1134 13th St., Boulder Rabblefsh. 8 p.m. The Laughing Goat, 1709 Pearl St., Boulder H Thursday, Sept. 15 Mezzo Mestizo. 6 p.m. St Julien Hotel, 900 Walnut St., Boulder Béla Fleck: My Bluegrass Heart. 7:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Rd., Boulder Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band. 7:30 p.m. Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder Mild High Club with Shy Boys. 8 p.m. Fox Theater, 1134 13th St., Boulder
Arrival and departure by CM Brown CM Brown is a poet, integral yoga teacher, and counselor who lives in Louisville. He is also the author of two books of essays on the philosophy of yoga.
You are not going. You are the one driving up to the passenger drop-off ramp. The person sitting beside you is someone you love. When she was born your eyes were the frst eyes she saw. You carried her in your arms and she fell asleep as you walked along the beach. When you read her a story she was a tender child who fell asleep with a tender child’s soft breath. You have said goodbye to her many times before, when she went backpacking in Europe when you helped her carry her books and her suitcases into the dorm room. You walked her down the aisle and you listened to her tears when the divorce was fnalized. And now you open the trunk of the car and remove another suitcase and set it down on the concrete in front of another terminal door. You pull the handle of the suitcase up for her and you give her a hug and she turns to wave goodbye as she walks into the airport. Your hands rest on the steering wheel and as the policeman tells you to move on, love and sadness sink into each other like a river that fows to the bay.
28 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
dogtopia.com/lafayette Meet our Dog of the Week! DUALLY Call today to sign up for a Wellness Plan!720-263-4583 300 W South Boulder Rd. Lafayette, CO 80026 800 S. Hover Rd. Suite 30, Longmont, CO 80504 • 303-827-3349 www.thelocoltheatre.com A Theatre company focused on local talent. An educational theatre to train and encourage kids in the gifts of acting and dance. A place for families to enjoy the family friendly productions. Scan Here to View Our Video Walk Through of the Theatre!
22: “Poetry is a life-cherishing force,” said Pulitzer Prize-winner Mary Oliver, who published 33 volumes of poetry and read hundreds of other poets. Her statement isn’t true for everyone, of course. To reach the point where reading poetry provides our souls with nourishment, we may have to work hard to learn how to appreciate it. Some of us don’t have the leisure or temperament to do so. In any case, Cancerian, what are your life-cherishing forces? What influences inspire you to know and feel all that’s most precious about your time on earth? Now would be an excellent time to ruminate on those treasures—and take steps to nurture them with tender ingenuity.
DEC.CAPRICORN22-JAN.19:
MARCHARIES21-APRIL
“Oh, I loved, loved, reading this novel. It’s wild and anarchic. a book for the fainthearted, of the Devil is violent, grisly and gruesome but also wonderfully charismatic and utterly compelling.”
SEPT.LIBRA23-OCT.
NOV.SAGITTARIUS22-DEC.21:
by Rob Brezsny
Not
JAN.AQUARIUS20-FEB.18:
Tips to get the most out of the next six weeks: 1. Be the cautiously optimistic voice of reason. Be the methodical motivator who prods and inspires. Organize as you uplift. Encourage others as you build efficiency. 2. Don’t take other people’s apparent stupidity or rudeness as personal affronts. Try to understand how the suffering they have endured may have led to their behavior. 3. Be your own father. Guide yourself as a wise and benevolent male elder would. 4. Seek new ways to experience euphoria and enchantment, with an emphasis on what pleasures will also make you healthier.
FEB.PISCES19-MARCH
JUNECANCER21-JULY
Top Ten Novel of 2021 by The Bookbag United Kingdom Reviewer Jill Murphy:
21: Now and then, you slip into phases when you’re poised on the brink of either self-damage or self-discov ery. You wobble and lurch on the borderline where self-undoing vies with self-creation. Whenever this situation arises, here are key questions to ask yourself: Is there a strategy you can implement to ensure that you glide into self-discovery and self-creation? Is there a homing thought that will lure you away from the perverse temptations of self-damage and self-un doing? The answers to these queries are always yes—if you regard love as your top priority and if you serve the cause of love over every other consideration.
“Sometimes serendipity is just intention unmasked,” said Sagittarian author Elizabeth Berg. I suspect her theory will be true for you in the coming weeks. You have done an adroit job of formulating your intentions and collecting the information you need to carry out your intentions. What may be best now is to relax your focus as you make room for life to respond to your diligent preparations. “I’m a great believer in luck,” said my Uncle Ned. “I’ve found that the hard er I work, the more luck I have.” He was correct, but it’s also true that luck sometimes surges your way when you’ve taken a break from your hard work.
APRILTAURUS20-MAY 20: I will remind you about a potential superpow er that is your birthright to develop: You can help people to act in service to the deepest truths and strongest love. You can even teach them how to do it. Have you been ripening this tal ent in 2022? Have you been bringing it more to the forefront of your relationships? I hope so. The coming months will stir you to go further than ever before in expressing this gift. For best results, take a vow to nurture the deepest truths and strongest love in all your thoughts and dealings with others.
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 29
22: According to Libran poet T. S. Eliot, “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.” Those are your guiding thoughts for the coming days, Libra. You’re almost ready to start fresh; you’re on the verge of being able to start planning your launch date or grand open ing. Now all you have to do is create a big crisp emptiness where the next phase will have plenty of room to germinate. The best way to do that is to finish the old process as com pletely as possible.
AUG.VIRGO23-SEPT.
19: My reader Monica Ballard has this advice for you Aries folks: “If you don’t vividly ask for and eagerly welcome the gifts the Universe has in store for you, you may have to settle for trinkets and baubles. So never settle.” That’s always useful counsel for you Rams. And in the coming weeks, you will be wise to heed it with extra intensity. Here’s a good metaphor to spur you on: Don’t fill up on junk snacks or glitzy hors d’oeuvres. Instead, hold out for gourmet feasts featuring healthy, delectable entrées.
JULYLEO23-AUG.
Crosshairs
MAYGEMINI21-JUNE 20: Your mind is sometimes a lush and beautiful maze that you get lost in. Is that a problem? Now and then it is, yes. But just as often, it’s an entertaining blessing. As you wander around amidst the lavish finery, not quite sure of where you are or where you’re going, you often make discoveries that rouse your half-dormant potentials. You luckily stumble into unforeseen insights you didn’t realize you needed to know. I believe the description I just articulated fits your current ram ble through the amazing maze. My advice: Don’t be in a mad rush to escape. Allow this dizzying but dazzling expedition to offer you all its rich teachings.
22: Please promise me you will respect and revere your glorious star power in the coming weeks. I feel it’s important, both to you and those whose lives you touch, that you exalt and exult in your access to your magnificence. For everyone’s benefit, you should play freely with the art of being majestic and regal and sovereign. To do this right, you must refrain from indulging in trivial wishes, passing fancies and minor attractions. You must give yourself to what’s stellar. You must serve your holiest longings, your riveting dreams and your thrilling hopes.
20: “I am lonely, yet not everybody will do,” observed Piscean author Anaïs Nin. “Some people fill the gaps, and others emphasize my loneliness,” she concluded. According to my reading of the astrological omens, Pisces, it’s your task right now to identify which people intensify your loneliness and which really do fill the gaps. And then devote yourself with extra care to cultivating your connections with the gap-fillers. Loneliness is sometimes a good thing—a state that helps you renew and deepen your communion with your deep self. But I don’t believe that’s your assignment these days. Instead, you’ll be wise to experience intimacy that enriches your sense of feeling at home in the world. You’ll thrive by consorting with allies who sweeten your love of life.
22: It’s impossible to be perfect. It’s neither healthy nor productive to obsess on perfectionism. You know these things. You understand you can’t afford to get bogged down in overthinking and overreaching and overpolishing. And when you are at your best, you sublimate such manic urges. You transform them into the elegant intention to clarify and refine and refresh. With grace and care, you express useful beauty instead of aiming for hyper-immaculate precision. I believe that in the coming weeks, dear Virgo, you will be a master of these services—skilled at performing them for your self and others.
• Gifts for any cook • Fun and colorful kitchenware • Specialty foods, local and imported • Gadgets, cookware, and kitchen essentials • Louisville’s one-of-a-kind kitchen shop 728 Main Street • Louisville • www.SingingCookStore.com720.484.6825
Available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, & Boulder Book Store live entertainment, special events, great foo d and drinks UPCOMING CONCERTS and EVENTS at Nissi’s Entertainment Venue & Event Center N T N 1455 Coal Creek Drive Unit T • Lafayette Get your tickets @ www.nissis.com T U T 1 U N N “HAVE FUN BE LOUD AND PARTY” UN T 11 T T N T “SWING JAZZ DANCE PARTH” TT NT BN N U T T 10 T N UN UN T T 1 B U U U U T T UB U N UN N T B N N U UN T 1 B.U.S. PRESENTS T BUT T B T UNN
OCT.SCORPIO23-NOV.
Aquarian author Richard Ford has advice for writers: “Find what causes a commotion in your heart. Find a way to write about that.” I will amend his counsel to apply to all of you non-writers, as well. By my reckoning, the coming weeks will be prime time to be gleefully honest as you identify what causes commotions in your heart. Why should you do that? Because it will lead you to the good decisions you need to make in the coming months. As you attend to this holy homework, I suggest you direct the following invitation to the universe: “Beguile me, mystify me, delight me, fascinate me, and rouse me to feel deep, delicious feelings.”
Local supermarkets all make sausage and sell popular locally made brands like Boulder Sausage—a descendant to the legendary Don’s Sausage—along side longtime Denver faves like Canino’s and Polidori.
For instance, Blackbelly Market’s meat counter has served Wagyu beef hotdogs, British bangers, Filipino longganisa, chorizo verde, Toulouse sausage and Cajun Le Frigo, Boulder’s French deli, offers links from Goudy’s, a Denver maker specializing in mainly European varieties ranging from chipolatas (the French hot dog) and lamb-based merguez, to Toulouse bacon links, Basque and even African Boerewors sausage.
Louisville’s strong Italian heritage accounts for its long sausage-making history. Old Style Sausage has been crafting everything from standard hot bulk to cilantro and green chile links since 1972. Around town there are meat masters stuffng truly hard-to-fnd varieties besides the usual suspects.
Fall has always been a huge sausage season, what with tailgating and Oktoberfest celebrations. It’s the right time to gather family and friends around
Sausage city
30 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
Plant-based Boulder supplies an
C horizo. Andouille. Merguez. Kielbasa. Chipolata. Bangers. Boudin. They’re all made here, along with hot Italian, Polish, German and breakfast links
There are also a lot of companies making pre-cooked, heat-and-eat sau sages, such as Denver’s Charcutnuvo, but to my taste buds that’s a different and lesser experience. Fresh is always best.
Longmont is a hotbed of sausage creativity. Mexican carnicerias are making spicy chorizo, while My Butcher Frank flls its counter with a changing selection of Italian, German, and Polish sausage, buttermilk bratwurst and other varieties. Longmont’s SkyPilot Farm sustainably raises the animals that become artisan breakfast sausage, Cajun andouille, Thai lemongrass links and Most delicious of all is Mulay’s Sausage, a Longmont company focused on making sausage that meets the highest standards. They use humanely raised meat that is certifed free of nine food allergens, with no sugar, nitrates, preser vatives, grains, legumes, fllers or antibiotics.
internationalimpressivevarietyoffreshlinksforthegrill
My favorites are Mulay’s British bangers and Nana’s Italian sausage, which cook up ideally—crisp skin, juicy inside and bursting with favors. Mulay’s links are available fresh-frozen at Natural Grocers and other natural foods markets.
Cuji Foods, Boulder’s new South American food market, stocks rare, fresh-frozen varieties imported from Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Colombia.
For a city so closely identifed with tofu, Boulder is a bastion of great fresh sausages of all varieties. Once I started looking for fresh links, I found them all over town and throughout Boulder County.
My search led me to a source on the eastern edge of Lafayette, Arapa hoe Meat, which is known for stuffng casings with a taste-tingling rainbow of unusual and fun bratwurst variations. Have you ever tasted gyro, ancho chile, blueberry and white Cheddar, chicken bacon ranch or pumpkin spice brats? Don’t miss Arapahoe’s maple bacon blueberry breakfast links.
by John Lehndor
Words to Chew On
Source: National 2022 PopMenu survey
Henderson John Lehndorff is the grandson of a Sicilian sausage maker. He hosts Radio Nibbles Thursdays on KGNU (88.5 FM, streaming at KGNU.org). Comments: Nibbles@ BoulderWeekly.com. Follow him at: twitter.com/nibbleman
Give some of your Colorado Cash Back bucks to: Boulder Food Rescue, boul derfoodrescue.org; Community Food Share, communityfoodshare.org; Emergency Family Assistance Association, Boulder, efaa.org; OUR Center, Longmont, ourcenter. org; Harvest of Hope, Boulder, hopepantry.org; and Sister Carmen Community Center, Lafayette, sistercarmen.org
The Good Your $750 Can Do The check really is in the mail. The Colorado Department of Revenue is refunding $750 to each individual resident taxpayer and $1,500 to joint flers. Before that money disappears into bill-paying, consider investing some or all of it in something that pays big dividends. No, not Bitcoin NFTs, but feeding kids, seniors and neighbors who barely survived the pandemic fnancially and now face high food prices. Most of the many Boulder County food assistance organizations are helping many more families now and need your help.
Make your reservations ASAP for Boulder County’s First Bite, Sept. 30-Oct. 9. Participating eateries offering deals include 740 Front, Basta, Boulder Social, Brasserie Ten Ten, Frank’s Chophouse, Gemini, Marigold, and Süti & Co. (frstbiteboulder.com)
your grill to sample the local varieties at a backyard sausage-tasting party with appro priate condiments and sides. Great sausages deserve to be cooked properly. Mulay’s Sausage offers how-to tips that refect the instructions top meat counters share with their customers. If you’re cooking sausage on top of the stove, put half an inch of water and 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil in a small frying pan. Simmer, covered, over medium heat until the water is gone, then take off the top and cook sausage until browned.Togrill, place sausages on a hot grill, but not over direct fame. Don’t char the links or they will burst and you’ll lose all the juice and favor built up inside that casing. Turn sausages after about fve minutes, or until the side is browned, and cook until done. For additional favor, place links in your smoker frst and then grill. Inexpensive, ready-to-cook, versatile and pre-seasoned, sausages also make environmental sense because it allows the less-appealing (but still perfectly tasty) bits of animals to be turned into something we love to eat instead of being wasted.
Local Food News: Best Out East
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 31 JOHN LEHNDORFF VIETNAMESETRADITIONALPHO HOUSE BEST PHO 2855 28th Street, Boulder, CO 80301 • 303-449-0350 • Boulderphoco.com 2321 Clover Basin Dr, Longmont, CO • 303-834-9765 • Boulderpholongmont.com DINE IN - TAKE OUT AuthenticAfghanFood! Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-10pm • Sunday 10am-8:30pm • Closed Mondays 2607 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO 80302 303-443-1210 • silkroadgrillandmarket.com
… Make sure you vote by Sept. 24 for your favorite restaurants and food businesses in Louisville, Lafayette, Longmont and beyond in the 2022 Best of Boulder East County Survey. Survey at boulderweekly.com.
The Nibbles Index: Cost Confusion 29: The percentage of American consumers who think it is cheaper to order restau rant food instead of buying the ingredients to cook a meal. (About 71% of us strongly disagree.)
“If you’re going to bang an animal on the head, it’s only polite to eat it all.” —Fergus
32 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE 303.604.6351 | 1377 FOREST PARK CIRCLE, LAFAYETTE New Hours: Open 7 days a week: 7:30am - 3:00pm daily Voted County’sEastBESTGlutenFreeMenu Order Online at morningglorylafayette.com Summer is here and our three patios are the perfect place to immerse yourself in everything Pearl Street has to o er. Prefer the great indoors? Take a seat at one of our lively bars, feast alongside the jellyfish or sink into a comfy lounge. If a sushi picnic more your style, all of your favorites are available for curbside pickup too. No matter how you choose to dine don’t miss our ever-evolving specials, delicious seasonal cocktails, and latest rare whiskey! A taste of modern Japan in the heart of Boulder Sun-Thur 11am to 10pm | Fri-Sat 11am to 11pm BoulderJapango.com | 303.938.0330 | 1136 Pearl JapangoRestaurant JapangoBoulder
The nameless libation was a riff on a Bee’s Knees, a classic gin cocktail in the midst of a revival. Larkin added in a splash of yellow Chartreuse and the bar’s house made spiced honey, stepping up the botanical favors.
Bramble &
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 33 Putting
Bartender’s Special is almost always worth the price of admission for cocktail enthusiasts. A bartender will ask a number of questions and return something they think you’ll like—or you’ll wind up with a gin and tonic, which is still worth the price of admission.
DETAILS: Hare, 1970 13th St., combrambleandhare.Boulder,
“Bramble & Hare has always had a very iconic bar program, the kind of place I wanted to learn from,” Black is says. “So coming in with fresh eyes, in a new building with fresh faces, it helps to try and capture something new.”After reopening, Bramble & Hare offers an homage to its fallen sister restaurant, dishing the up scale cuisine you’d once fnd at Black Cat alongside the artisan cocktail menu Bramble & Hare is known for. To match that, Blackis and the bar staff keep the cocktail list changing to match the seasonal approach to the food. “We’re trying to keep it seasonal and bring in new things or try different things, longer-term infusions or styles that are more vegetal,” she explains. “I think vege tables are coming in really strong in cocktail culture right now and I love that.”
LONGMONT’S NEWEST STEAKHOUSE featuring NoCo’s Best Beef and Freshest Seafood in town NEW HOURS: Tuesday - Thursday 3pm - 9pm • Friday 3pm - 10pm • Saturday 9am - 10pm • Sunday 9am - 8pm • Closed Monday’s 300 Main St. Longmont, CO • (303) 834-9384 • dickens300prime.com Under New Management • New Menu HAPPY HOUR DAILY - 3pm-6pm Live Music on the Patio Friday and Saturday $3 Wells, $3 16oz drafts Bud and Coors Light. $4 House Wine, $4 pints of Modelo and Blue Moon, $5 House Margaritas. Dragon Berry Lemonade, Elevated Seltzers, Breckenridge Brewery. Half o select Appetizers Coming soon to Pearl Street in Boulder MATT MAENPAA
Astaple of downtown Boulder, farm-to-table bar Bramble & Hare has reopened on 13th Street after a long, COVID-related absence. Rekindling a love for the old bar, I dropped in for a cocktail and chat with the staff to see what’s new for a familiar haunt. Much can be said for the exquisite and thoughtful food that comes from the kitchens of Black Cat and Bramble & Hare, straight from the Skokan family farm in the foothills west of Longmont. Pre-COVID, the sister restaurants were mere doors apart, with Black Cat offering more traditional, upscale locavore fare, while Bramble & Hare embodied a more casual atmosphere and Allmenu.great things change in time, and the new Bramble & Hare offers something new inside familiar comforts, having settled into the original Black Cat space. The hardwood interior evokes pubs of old, the warm lighting just dim enough to give an air of privacy while still keeping menus readable. Atmosphere does wonders for a bar, something Bramble & Hare has in spades, but staff is truly the secretBaringredient.directorMelody Blackis stepped into her position with the reopening, a longtime, self-professed fan of the establishment.
If the conversations about cocktails and culture with staff like Blackis and Larkin weren’t enough, the menus are curious enough to bring this writer back in through those doors time and again.
Some of those bold moves include carrot and turmer ic infused simple syrups, paired with yellow Chartreuse and lemon, or a clarifed green tomato cocktail that was more popular than Blackis expected it to be. Having a rotating menu is liberating for her, giving her and the rest of the staff space to explore and innovate without the pressure of making a permanent fxture. Whether it involves clarifed vegetable juice or the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band—Black is’ cognac-and-chartreuse-soaked take on a vieux carre—Bramble & Hare’s cocktail menu encourages guest input, collaboration and participation. To make that point, one item never changes on the menu, though the end result is rarely the same any given time you orderTheit.
I asked Bramble & Hare bartender Mike Larkin for the Bartender’s Special, where we landed on something interesting and gin-based. The cocktail I received was as close to perfect as it gets, matching the end-of-summer mood of Labor Day weekend.
The result was bright and foral, leaning toward the dry side of a cocktail that often suffers from too much honey or lemon. The well-balanced drink almost remind ed me of a dry white wine, perfect for a warm evening.
Email: letters@boulderweekly.com the craft Maenpaa
in cocktails The return of Bramble & Hare by Matt
34 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SIMPLE | LOCAL | FARM TO TABLE 578 Briggs Street Erie, CO 303.828.139280516www.24carrotbistro.com DINNER TUE 4:30PMTHUR9PM BRUNCH SAT & SUN 9 AM - 2 PM FRI & SAT 4:30PM 9:30PM 4:30PMSUNDAY9PM LUNCH TUE 11AMFRI2PM VOTED RESTAURANTAMERICANBEST Winner of Best Slice! Online ordering www.cosmospizza.comat Download our app for great deals on your favorite pizza! 3117 28th Street North Boulder • Free Delivery 303-442-FAST (3278) 659 30th Street Williams Village • Free Delivery 303-447-FAST (3278) 520 W South Boulder Rd Lafayette • Free Delivery 720-598-FAST (5123) WE DELIVER EVERYGUNBARREL/TOLOUISVILLENIGHT! • BEST PIZZA SLICE • BEST FOOD DELIVERY • BEST LATE NIGHT
Culinary Calendar: Fall Food Festivals Pungent roasted chile perfume flls the air as you sample green chile stew at the Pueblo Chile & Frijo les Festival, Sept. 23-25. Don’t miss the roasted green chile and cheese quesadillas and the Chihuahua Parade (pueblochilefestival.com). … Taste of The Middle East Festival, Sept. 17, Aurora (tasteofthemiddlee ast.com) … Colorado Mountain Wine Festival, Sept. 17, Palisade (colora dowinefest.com); and the Flatirons Food Film Festival, Oct. 21-22, Boulder (fatironsfoodflmfest.org). Send information about local food events, classes, tastings, pairings, farm stands and eatery openings to: Nibbles@BoulderWeek ly.com
Boulder Recipe Flashback:
Another Attraction:RoadfoodFoodFlight Nobody goes to the airport to eat, but there’s always a wait at The Perfect Landing for brunch. For a change of pace, I met an old friend at the restau rant overlook ing the runway at corporateerythingcanplace,liningtheEnglewood.AirportCentennialinThroughwindowstheyouwatchevfromjets and small prop planes to F-18 fghters on the weekend. That—and the perfect views of the mountains and sunsets—explains why most of The Perfect Landing reservations for all three meals they serve daily ask for window-side seats, especially families with kids (or grownup airplane geeks). We enjoyed oversized omelets, chicken-fried steak with house-baked biscuits and sausage gravy, and freshly baked blueberry muffns with big mugs of coffee. COUNTY’S
The Flower Pepper is mainly a takeout spot with limited seating. When you arrive, park in the old hospital parking garage located behind it.
Salmon with Zest Dolan’s Restaurant, 2319 Arapahoe Ave., was noted for its seafood-centric menu and dishes ranging from Dungeness crab cakes to swordfsh steak au poivre. In the late 1990s, Dolan’s executive chef Ryan Henkel shared this requested recipe. Dolan’s Horseradish-Crusted Salmon 2 cups panko (Japanese bread 1/2crumbs)cupprepared horseradish 1/3 cup fnely chopped Italian parsley 2 6-ounce pieces salmon flet Salt, freshly ground black pepper 5 tablespoons vegetable oil Lemon wedges In a bowl, mix bread crumbs, horseradish and parsley. The mixture should bind together when squeezed in your fngers. If not, add more horseradish. Season salmon all over with salt and pep per. Cover each flet completely with a 1/4-inch layer of the mixture. Press to adhere it to the fsh. Place salmon in a cold non-stick skillet with the oil, turn on medium heat and cook until the bottom is golden brown. Turn the flet over and place on a baking sheet in a pre heated 375-degree oven for about 10 minutes, or until fsh is cooked as desired. Remove from the oven and spritz with fresh lemon juice. Makes two servings.
Tour: The Wonder of Bread Making
BOULDER
Cold noodles & hot dumplings
Denver’s splendid artisan Rebel Bread hosts factory tours led by bread whiz Zach Martinucci, with insight into how bread and croissants are made, plus a home-baking Q&A, pastries to sample and sourdough starter to take home. Reservations: rebelbreadco.com Lunch hour at Boulder’s Flower Pepper Restaurant
INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 35
by John Lehndorff
I T’S EASY TO miss the Flower Pepper Restaurant as you drive up Broad way in Boulder, but, if you do, you’re depriving yourself of stellar traditional Chinese home cooking. When I stopped by during a sizzling lunch hour, I couldn’t decide between the cold Sichuan noodles and the chicken leek dumplings, so I got both. Earthy, spicy noodles are swathed in a tahini-rich spicy sauce with shredded carrots and slivered cukes in the generous portion of vegan tastiness. It was hard to narrow down the dumpling choice but I was glad I chose this steamed bundle of salty, savory, onion-y joy dipped in soy and chopsticked into my eager mouth.
SUSANFRANCE
TheAjoyaBud TheGreenGreenFreshExtractEuforaEclipseDabCompleteDepotReleafDispensaryCannabisCompanyLabsBakedDragonDreamGreenSoluton Green MedicineMarquisLivWellKindKaringIgadiHerbalHelpingTheMedicinalsTreeHealthCenterHandHerbalsWellnessKindCastleCannabisMan Natve Zengold’sVerdeTwinpeaksTweedLeafTheTheTerrapinStarbudsSpaceOptonsRootsMedicalCenterStatonCareStatonPeacefulChoiceRepublicDispensaryNaturalLyons Vote For Native Roots Today! SHOPLOCATIONLONGMONT There is only one Best of Boulder East County™ Only in the Weekly. NEW BOULDER LOCATION 5420 Arapahoe Ave. Unit www.denrec.comD VOTE FOR US DAILY FLOWERHIGHEST$120/OZSPECIALSSPECIALAWARDEDINCOLORADO Medical and Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries All ballots must be submitted online. VOTE NOW at boulderweekly.com. Ballot closes at midnight on September 24 36 I SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 I BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
—Teacher After Cunnilingus Only Dear TACO: Why would anyone want to be a teacher these days?
Outraged parents, shit pay, shittier governors, racist demagoguery, book bans, “don’t say laws…gay”and on top of all that, not being free to look for sex where every one else does these days— on the boardatgetappsforalsoparentspottedmightbecauseapps—yougetbyawhoislookingsexontheandthenattackedaschoolmeeting that makes the local news and goes viral and then have to endure a month of death threats after getting dragged on Libs of TikTok and Fox News. According to ABC News, fewer and fewer people these days do want to be teachers. There are 300,000 teacher and school staff vacancies in the United States right now, a situation the Wash ington Post describes as “catastrophic,” with red states and Trump counties experiencing the worst shortages. Which should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention, as red states and rural areas are overrun with precisely the kind of deranged Trump supporters and other assorted conspiracy theorists who keep attacking teachers and school
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l 37
books, merch
Luckily for you, TACO, there are straight and bi men out there who only want to eat pussy. I’ve heard from scores of them over the years. Some had severe erectile dysfunction and preferred succeed ing at cunnilingus to failing at vaginal intercourse; others were straight male submissives who wanted to orally service a woman without getting anything in re turn; and more than a few were men who loved eating pussy and somehow wound up married to women who hated oral sex and these men wanted to fnd women to go down on—and just go down on—out side their relationships, with their wives’ permission (in some cases) or without it (in most cases). But to fnd them you’re going to have to get on the apps, TACO, which may mean getting out of your small town. Email questions@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Find columns, podcasts, and more at savage.love. by Dan Savage
librarians
aaontobeonlyblueailyyouwhichtoo,sivemoreofareadministrators.andButthereshortagesteachersinprogresplacesTACO,meanscouldeasgetajobinbigcityinastate.Notwouldyoulesslikelybespottedtheappsbyparentwithkidinyour school in a blue state (because there a lot more people on the apps in big cities), you would also be far less likely to be attacked by a parent who did spot you on an app. (Less likely to get attacked, more likely to get licked.) And just as the governors of blue states think you should be able to teach about, oh, slavery and redlining and segregation and Jim Crow (and the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japa nese internment camps during WWII and the Trail of Tears and on and on), most blue state governors would be fne with you getting your pussy licked—on your own time, by other consenting adults—if that’s what you want. Hoping to get some tips from other teachers, I shared your email on Twitter.
BESTVOTEDBBQ 701 B Main St., Louisville, CO • 720-583-1789 www.lulus-bbq.com Best Margarita Best Place to Eat Outdoors Best Restaurant Service Best Take-Out Best Wings ROMAN ROBINSON
Dear Dan: I’m a 38-year-old cis het woman who is also a public high school teacher in a small town. After a string of unsatisfying relationships in my 20s, I realized that I’ve only experienced sexual pleasure without a partner. Despite being excited by the idea of partnered sex, once there’s a dick inside me, I hate it. Only one thing still seemed appealing: receiv ing oral sex. I’d love that with someone skilled. By age 33, I gave up dating since fnding a partner only interested in going down on me seemed both impossible and selfsh. I put all my energy into my career, my family, and my community. After years of fghting the fascism that is gaining hold in our public schools, I’m burnt out and my standard self-care routines aren’t cut ting it. I’m considering seeking compan ionship once again. Is there an easy way to fnd a partner interested in eating me out but not (or only rarely) anything else? I know the best options are the apps but there are parents as well as former stu dents on those. I already have a target on my back as a liberal teacher. I can’t afford to get caught seeking sex online and the time and energy to date before disclosing my sexual preference sounds exhausting. I don’t want another apple-themed gift. I want my pussy licked.
Suggestions ranged from getting on FetLife, which can be a problematic place, to checking out—and perhaps posting on—the r/RandomActsOfMuffDive subreddit on Reddit. And more than a few of my followers wondered whether you might prefer a woman to a man, seeing as you never really cared for dick. Being a gay dude, however, I know plenty of people who are attracted to men but don’t enjoy getting fucked. (Some guys are tops, some guys are sides.)
widening racial disparities by Will Brendza 38 l SEPTEMBER 8, 2022 l BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
than
“Of course, we actually saw an increase in the racial disparities [in prohibition states],” she says. “Which is mostOverconcerning.”thenearly two decades of data they analyzed, white Americans in states that had neither legalized or decriminalized continued to be arrested for possession of cannabis at a near-perfectly stable rate. While at the same time, over the same period in the same states, arrests of Black Americans increased notably—widening the racial disparity.
“The notion of accepting the status quo, particularly when the status quo policy was racially motivated, is just unacceptable,” Sheehan says. “We need to do better to reduce racial disparities, and that includes fxing current policies to promote equity.”
A black and white di erence States upholding prohibition are arresting Black Americans at increasingly higher
“This is the most concerning public health implica tion of the study, warrants attention, and in my opinion highlights the need for immediate policy change and implementation,” Sheehan says. Her team also found that there was a timing dif ferential between decriminalization and legalization states. When a state decriminalized, there was an immediate reduction in arrest rates for both Black and white Americans. However, when states legalized, the reduction in arrest rates started taking place before the policy was even offcially changed, suggesting social and cultur al changes had primed that shift. These fndings are extremely revealing, and should be important for policy makers and voters to consider, Sheehan says. They add to the argument that decriminalization and legalization advance social justice, and indicate that as public accep tance of a substance increases (be it alcohol, cannabis, psilocybin, etc.), prohibition becomes less tenable and a shift is needed to focus more on reducing harm, rather than criminalization and penalization.
Email: letters@boulderweekly.com rates whites,
In the U.S., Black and white Americans use cannabis at roughly the same rates, according to a 2013 Amer ican Civil Liberties Union Report—and yet, Black Americans are four times more likely to be arrested forThatpossession.racialdisparity says a lot about dou ble standards for drugs in this country. And it raised a question in Brynn Sheehan’s mind: Has legalization or decriminalization affected those numbers? Would states with a legalized marijuana market have more equalized arrest rates between Blacks and whites? In July 2021, Sheehan set out to fnd answers. “I think it’s always important to step back and examine the im plications of existing and changing policies,” she says. “While individual anecdotes are important, we also need to look at population-level impacts of policy change.”Sheehan is an assistant professor of psy chiatry and behavioral sciences at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Her work focuses mainly on social and cognitive factors asso ciated with substance use and aggression, the protective and risk factors of substance use and misuse and associated harms. She says she’s always been driv en “to reduce health disparities and better understand policy effects and their … implications.” This specifc topic fell squarely into her wheelhouse. For the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Health Forum, Sheehan and several of her colleagues looked at arrest data from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results coun ty-level population data from January 2000 through December 2019. They then compared arrest rates from 43 U.S. states, looking for differences between states with legal cannabis, decriminalized cannabis and illegal cannabis, examining outcomes for Black and white adults and youths per year and by “Westate.wanted to ensure enough data was included prior to states implementing any policy change to establish a baseline of racial arrest disparities, and through December 2019,” Sheehan says, explaining why they chose to look at data from such a long time period. While Sheehan had anticipated some of their results, others took her by total surprise. She had expected to see reductions in the racial disparity of arrest rates in legal and decriminalized states. And sure enough, their results showed that legalization “was associated with 561 and 195 fewer arrests and decriminalization with 448.6 and 117.1 fewer arrests for Black and white adults, respectively.”Butshe’d also somewhat expected arrest rates in prohibition states to remain stable. Without a change in cannabis policy, those numbers had no foreseeable reason to go up or down.
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