Boulder Weekly 11.24.2022

Welcome to nature

of Joseph Allen Negri aka Joseph A. Negri aka Joseph Negri, Deceased

Publisher, Fran Zankowski

Circulation Manager, Cal Winn

EDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief, Caitlin Rockett

Arts & Culture Editor, Jezy J. Gray

General Assignment Reporter, Will Matuska Food Editor, John Lehndorff Intern, Chad Robert Peterson

Contributing Writers: Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Angela K. Evans, Mark Fearer, Kaylee Harter, Nick Hutchinson, Dave Kirby, Ari LeVaux, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Bart Schaneman, Alan Sculley, Toni Tresca, Gregory Wakeman, Colin Wrenn

SALES AND MARKETING

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Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Carter Ferryman, Chris Allred Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar

PRODUCTION

Art Director, Susan France

Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman

CIRCULATION TEAM

Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE

Bookkeeper, Emily Weinberg

Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo

Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer

Nov. 24, 2022

Volume XXX, number 15

Cover image, “Summer Cyprus,” acrylic Ink and paint on canvas, 2022, Kristopher Wright

As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism, and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper.

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Progressives outperform and democracy gets a reprieve

by Dave Anderson

The apocalypse has been averted in the midterms. ere was a fragile, informal, anti-fascist united front from Noam Chomsky to Liz Cheney. Joe Biden is unpopular, but he and his alliance of center and left Democrats did good things. When you do good things, a lot of voters notice.

Boulder Weekly

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

e GOP is clueless about how much rage the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision provoked. Abortion rights won in several state ballot proposals across the country. e misery they are causing will make abortion a ticking time bomb.

It was a relief that the Democrats won the Senate, but it is probable that the Republicans will use their control of the House to just make life miserable for Biden and the Democrats. Many voters were supportive of progressive change. A report by the Economic Policy Institute notes:

“In this year’s midterm elections, voters showed a strong level of support for progressive ballot measures across the country. ese victories were tempered by the defeat of worthwhile ballot measures in some states and the uncertainty of progress under a divided Congress. Nonetheless, voters across the country approved minimum wage increases, protected access to abortion, supported cannabis legalization, and approved measures to increase housing a ordability and promote good union jobs. ough much work remains to be done to enact a progressive economic agenda, this midterm election showed clear signs of support for a policy agenda that prioritizes economic, racial, and gender justice for working families.”

Shailly Gupta Barnes, policy director of the Poor People’s Campaign, points out that more and more low-income people are voting for these measures across the political spectrum in both Democratic and Republican dominated states. Her group organizes them in a non-partisan manner.

“If you need more than a minimum wage, go vote,” she says. “If you need to decide between paying for rent or medica-

tions, go vote. If you still don’t have decent health care or potable water, go vote.”

John Fetterman ran an aggressively progressive campaign for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. Joe Biden won the state in 2020 by one point. Fetterman is the former mayor of a small town and the lieutenant governor. A Bernie Sanders supporter, he is a big guy in a hoodie and cargo shorts. He tried to campaign in every county.

Fetterman outperformed in Trump friendly areas. e Washington Post’s Greg Sargent notes that the American Communities Project found that Fetterman “signi cantly reduced his opponent’s margins of victory — relative to Biden’s 2020 performance against Trump — in three types of counties where Trump has done well.” ose three county types are known as the “Middle Suburbs” (whiter and more working class than other inner-ring suburbs), “Working Class Country” (even whiter and tend to be rural and sparsely populated), and “Rural Middle America” (also rural, but also tend to include a lot of small towns and smaller metro areas).

Jacobin’s Branko Marcetic reports that the left had impressive victories in the midterms. He points to “the addition of several new insurgent candidates who, like ‘the Squad’ of 2018, were backed by progressive outside groups — notably the Working Families Party and Justice Demo-

crats — with little or no support from established party networks. e total of such members now rises to 12, after four such insurgent candidates sailed to victory in safe blue seats for which they won primaries earlier this year.

is year’s crop is Summer Lee (Pennsylvania-12), Greg Casar (Texas-35), Delia Ramirez (Illinois-03), and Maxwell Frost (Florida-10).”

Marcetic said Bernie Sanders gained two strong allies in the Senate, John Fetterman and Peter Welch, a Democrat of Vermont who had the state’s only House seat. He has been a Bernie ally since Sanders’ days as mayor of Burlington. Welch is a strong advocate for Medicare for All and lower prescription drug prices, and co-sponsored the Green New Deal.

Marcetic reports that the Democratic Socialists of America also had a good night. A number of “the Squad” are DSA members and, “ e group has consistently gotten more and more of its members elected at the local and state levels in every election since 2016.”

Varshini Prakash, leader of the youth climate group Sunrise Movement, has the most hopeful comments. “Young people saved this election,” she said. “Two elections in a row, young people proved that Gen Z is a vital voting bloc that can and will be the bedrock of the Democratic party.” is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.

No

‘marked as safe.’

us safe.

by Colorado Springs Independent editorial board

The Colorado Springs Police Department is taking a wait-and-see, “that’s part of the investigation” approach to whether Saturday’s horri c mass shooting at Club Q was a hate crime, and whether the suspect was also arrested last year for violent o enses. at’s their right; that is how their job works.

Our job is to tell the truth.

Hatred toward LGBTQ+ people still runs rampant in this county. Hateful rhetoric and false claims from politicians and lawmakers and school board members fan the ames of violence against LGBTQ+ people. None of us are safe while lawmakers favor unfettered access to weapons. Our leaders must unequivocally condemn gun violence — and act on it. Our leaders must unequivocally condemn hateful rhetoric against LGBTQ+ people — and end it.

We call on our politicians and lawmakers to stop dogwhistle politics, stop stoking division, stop making life dangerous for people who deserve peace and protection.

We call on our politicians and lawmakers to nd a spine and make gun reform happen. Step up on red ag laws. Stop being subservient to the NRA. Stop pretending you care about “freedom” when what you really care about is holding on to your seat.

Stop tolerating lies. Stop pretending the status quo is safe. Stop tapdancing around the harm you can see.

As citizens, we must turn our heartbreak, anger and love into action.

1) Donate to, or volunteer with, any organization that supports and protects LGBTQ+ people. Here’s a list: bit.ly/3EWfH6d

2) Call — and call out — your leaders in politics, in law enforcement, in school districts, in every position of power. Demand urgent, speci c, relentless action on LGBTQ+ protections; on gun reform; on diversity, equity and inclusion.

en keep calling those leaders until they act like people who never want to see this happen again.

‘Climate change is a health issue’

When Dr. Jay Lemery gives presentations on climate and health, one of his slides has two pictures with an arrow between them: one with a polar bear and an iceberg, and another with a kid and an inhaler.

“ is is the transition we’re talking about,” he says.

Lemery, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and co-founder of the university’s Climate & Health Program, sees the growing trend of climate change impacting human health.

Lemery was part of a group from the University of Colorado Climate & Health Program that brought this narrative to the global climate negotiations at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt from Nov. 6-18.

“Our role [at COP27] was essentially to build connectivity and awareness of the health implications of climate change,” says Lemery, who has attended COP once before. e group was not part of the o cial negotiations, but held side events throughout the conference to “inform the negotiations.”

Climate and health has received increased attention at the global climate summit. Last year, COP26 was the rst time the Word Health Organization (WHO) hosted a WHO Pavilion for daily health and climate programming.

WHO predicts that between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause 250,000 additional deaths per year from malnutrition, malaria and heat stress. e organization states that health shocks and stresses from climate change already push around 100 million people into poverty each year.

“Climate change is a health issue, rst and foremost,” says Dr. Bhargavi Chekuri, a physician who works at the University of Colorado as an assistant professor of family medicine and attended the conference.

Health and climate change intersect in a variety of ways: increasingly frequent extreme weather events, disruption of food systems, spread of diseases and mental health issues leading

to illness and death. Climate change also interrupts social determinants of health, like housing, livelihoods and access to health care. ese impacts are disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.

Locally, Lemery points toward a projected increase in extreme weather events, like wild re and ooding, in Boulder County that will destroy homes, degrade air quality and impact health.

“If nothing else, it just goes to show that we’re all part of this world and there’s really ‘no safe place,’” he says.

When Chekuri started her residency in New Hampshire in 2013, she saw the impacts of climate change in the exam room — patients with air quality-related issues or drought-related illnesses. Despite this, she felt like the impacts of climate change on health were never talked about in her medical training.

“It just felt like we weren’t talking about the elephant in the room, which is a changing climate,” she says.

With COVID highlighting aws in the public health system, Chekuri was further motivated to think about how to improve the system’s capacity to respond to ongoing climate stressors.

“We just don’t want to feel like we

did during COVID. Again, completely unprepared, right? We want to feel like we are equipped and ready to handle what’s coming our way with a changing climate, in terms of dealing with the health outcome.”

Chekuri and Lemery are pushing for health to be recognized as an integral part of how we think about climate change so it is included in all mitigation, adaptation and resilience strategies.

Both spoke of feeling momentum building behind climate’s impact on health at the global stage.

Lemery noticed health becoming more embedded into narratives at COP, with more activism and attention in many di erent sectors devoted to health and health outcomes.

Chekuri says she sees successful mobilization from the health community to act on climate change, but she still needs to draw the connection between climate change and health for some people.

“It’s not just related, it’s the only reason any of us should care about [climate change],” she says. “Nothing matters if you’re not improving the health and well-being of people, preventing deaths and preventing disease and harm to human beings.”

Lemery says it is also easier to

TO SURVIVE:

convince constituents to act when the issue is framed around people, rather than if they talk about more abstract impacts like parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

“ ey can taste the air pollution now where they used to not be able to,” says Chekuri.

Air pollution and heat are also of growing concerns for Collin Tomb, a climate and health strategist at Boulder County.

“Air pollution was the leading cause of death for our most vulnerable communities, including our historically and currently excluded communities,” she says. “We are very concerned about air pollution basically killing people, and climate change making it worse.”

e American Lung Association gave Boulder County ‘F’ grades for ozone and particulate pollution stating, “If you live in Boulder County, the air you breathe may put your health at risk.”

e County is developing a vulnerability mapping tool that overlays climate projections with demographic vulnerability factors to serve health and climate needs in the area. Along with a public-facing component, Tomb hopes the tool will be used to inform policy decisions both at the county and state levels. Tomb says the tool should be nished by the end of the year.

Even though COP27 is an important venue to network with the health community, Lemery is still focused on how the conference impacts his work at home. He hopes the Climate & Health Program at CU can lead the movement addressing climate change and its e ects on health.

“I think [healthcare professionals] have a very unique position to lead and in uence from health care,” he says. “We are trusted messengers, and if we’re not leaning in and e ecting change, then I think we are missing a huge opportunity.”

BHARGAVI CHEKURI

Medical professionals reflect on COP27 and how a changing climate is damaging health by Will Matuska

1.5

Delegates from CU’s School of Medicine protest at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

BHARGAVI CHEKURI

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Kristopher Wright melds painting and printmaking for a series of nostalgiaincluding works at BMoCA by Caitlin Rockett

Learning homesteading skills has become a part of Kristopher Wright’s artistic practice.

“It really lights my brain up from a creativity standpoint to be building a small family farm,” the multimedia artist says over a Zoom call from his cabin in the San Luis Valley. “It kind of goes hand in hand with my practice.”

ON VIEW: Kristopher Wright: Just As I Am. Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th St. Through Feb. 19, 2023.

The Denver native and his wife, fellow artist Corianne Wells, moved from the Mile High City to southern Colorado during the pandemic to live more sustainably, but the move also gave the couple a chance to refocus on their individual artistic practices after a half dozen years running creative arts incubator Odessa.

Wright says he and Wells loved showcasing local art and facilitating networking opportunities through Odessa’s Santa Fe Street gallery space, but juggling day jobs plus the gallery left little time for their own creativity.

“2020 created an opportunity where we were like, this is wonderful, but there just needs to be more balance,” Wright says. “We just weren’t in the studio. So that’s what brought us here.”

In the slower pace of “the SLV,” Wright says he was able to focus on finishing what became the 16 works that now hang in the East Gallery of Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art through Feb. 19, 2023. Just As I Am weaves together the disciplines of painting and printmaking to create narratives that evoke a sort of deja vu, like a memory you can’t quite bring into focus but the feelings are as clear as day.

Full of family gatherings like birthday parties, church revivals and backyard barbecues, it’s tempting to see the collection of work in Just As I Am as snapshots from Wright’s own life, but the truth is more nuanced.

“All of these scenes and compositions that I’m fleshing out in the work are things that have

A place where everybody’s welcome

happened to me, whether it’s a memory or an experience, but the people in the works themselves are not always what they seem, or they might not always be who you think they are,” Wright explains. “I’m really playing with these figures as a way to communicate a larger story. I want that kind of ambiguity to create an opportunity for a viewer to imagine themselves in the scene or read into it in a way that maybe I didn’t intend.”

Exhibition curator Pamela Meadows says it’s this ambiguity that drew her to Wright’s work.

“Even though I didn’t know who the figures were, I didn’t really know what the work was about per se, I just felt like he captured a feeling,” Meadows says. “And I kept commenting to him how I felt like I knew the space or I knew the people, and I kept chasing this feeling of comfort or peace looking at his work.”

But Wright keeps the viewer from sinking into pure nostalgia by printing machine diagrams over the subjects of his work, alluding to the internal work each of us undertakes to grow and thrive.

Future vision

New BMoCA curator Jane Burke takes the wheel at a pivotal time in the museum’s 50-year history

by Jezy J. Gray

It was a winding road that brought Jane Burke back to Boulder as curator of the city’s flagship contemporary art institution. But during the first week behind her new desk at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA), fresh off an eight-year stint in the Textile Art and Fashion Department at the Denver Art Museum (DAM), the University of Colorado alum says it feels like a homecoming in more ways than one.

ABOVE: ‘Don’t Move the Mountain,’ acrylic ink and paint on canvas, 2022

BELOW: ‘Dark Was the Night,’ acrylic ink and paint on canvas, 2022

In the piece “Fire in my Bones,” an adult woman sits at a kitchen table with a girl, the child leaning over to blow the candles out on a Nickelodeon-orange cake. Both subjects are ensconced in mechanical diagrams of a combustion engine — the adult more so than the child.

“The reference to the engine is kind of a metaphor for the heart,” Wright says. “Both of those forms, the heart and the engine, have to do with timing, with rhythm, with maintenance or repair. I’m thinking about that all the time: How do we repair ourselves throughout time? How do we put the pieces back together?”

Wright and his wife have found repair in the constant vigilance of life on a ranch.

“I’ve got six chickens, two goats, two puppies, and one dog who thinks he’s a puppy,” Wright says with a laugh. “Between that and doing soil regeneration, planting trees, planting grass, I stay pretty busy. We want to create a place where everybody’s welcome to share this space, to be able to be together and break bread and pick fruits and vegetables from the garden and watch the sunset.”

Meadows argues that Wright creates a similar sense of welcoming in his art.

“I felt really emotionally invested in his work without really knowing a lot about it; I think that’s something that not every artist can do, and he activates that seemingly so easily,” Meadows says. “He has this really quiet way of telling a vibrant story that I hope others get from this exhibition.”

“It felt like a good time to go back to my first love, which is contemporary art,” Burke says. “It’s a full circle moment to be able to work with living artists again.”

But whatever the time period, Burke’s curatorial vision is one that peers through a sociological lens. Her previous work in textiles grew out of a master’s thesis exploring identity through Chinese costuming at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, and her work at DAM included a number of multi-media exhibitions co-organized with fashion historian and curator Florence Müller. She sees her upcoming BMoCA tenure as a way to continue advancing conversations that go beyond the walls of the gallery.

“BMoCA is a great incubator for artists because they can be very responsive in a concentric mindset,” Burke says. “You can really work with a local community, but also be in conversation with global politics and what’s happening in the social-cultural climate.”

COURTESY BMOCA

With these overlaps in mind, Burke is stepping into the curator role during a pivotal moment in BMoCA history. The 50-year-old organization, which already boasts more than a half-dozen galleries throughout the region, announced earlier this year it will be expanding with a new flagship museum and “creative campus” in North Boulder as early as 2026.

“As we look to be in a new part of the community, we want someone in the curation role who values community and can tie pieces together,” says BMoCA Deputy Director Gwen Burak. “Jane’s experience will help us envision how we can really be both a vessel for the conversation about contemporary art in the country and the world, while also serving our community in that regard. And I think she has a really lovely set of skills and the nature to make that happen with us.”

As that broader vision for the future of BMoCA begins to come into view over the coming years, Burke sees potential in the museum and its mission to build connection by amplifying the voices of artists here at home and beyond.

“BMoCA is charged to be very community minded. There’s just so many attributes in terms of the size and location,” she says. “The program is so robust, and there’s so many opportunities to impact the Front Range at large. That’s really appealing to me.”

Heart of gold

Jeremy Mohney is stuck in the past. Not his past, and not in a bad way. The 31-year-old Boulder native just loves jazz, and pretty much always has.

“My grandfather, at an early age, got me into swing music, which in my mind wasn’t jazz,” he says. “According to jazz history, I would end up being wrong, and I would learn to, as many of us do, accept a lot of things that expanded our horizons.”

Mohney says this education began at just two weeks old, during what would become a tradition of aimless, music-filled car rides with his grandfather.

“That was his sort of thing. We always had a close relationship, especially when I was young,” he says. “If something was going on, or even if it wasn’t, we would drive around and just listen to all these old swing tapes he had.”

While his classmates at Boulder High may have idolized Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake, Mohney was becoming an encyclopedia of jazz, with Django Reinhart, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller and other greats as his pillars.

Mohney — who plays both saxophone and clarinet — cut his proverbial teeth at Boulder’s now-defunct No Name Bar, where for many years he would hold court on a weekly basis with hours-long jazz jams and booze-fueled conversations on everything from his Norm McDonald obsession to conspiracy theories.

“A lot of jazz musicians might flat their fifths, but others might drink ’em,” Mohney jokes.

Mohney’s swinging new album Gold Hill Serenade might sound like the old-time jazz standards he grew up on, but it’s really a collection of transporting vintage-style originals. The album is inspired by one of the musician’s most beloved Colorado locales: the 200-population, 150-year-old town of Gold Hill, just a few miles above Boulder.

“Gold Hill is beautiful,” he muses. “There’s something about the place. I’ve talked to people who live there, and it’s — certainly these days — almost an unimaginable escape from reality. This guy I know up there, George, says it’s like stepping back to the 1800s. You feel like you could walk down somewhere and put in a job at a mine and start digging.”

The supporting players rounding out Gold Hill Serenade are a who’s who of local talent. Matt Cantor — who has played bass with Boulder-area groups like Gasoline Lollipops and the Widow’s Bane — plays guitar on the album, and has performed with Mohney for a decade. Kevin Johnson appears on rhythm guitar, with Conner Hollingsworth on upright “doghouse” bass and Rafael

ON THE BILL: Jeremy Mohney with Clay Rose. 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 25, Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St. Tickets: $10 cover

Castillo-Halvorssen, another Boulder native, on trumpet.

Mohney is proud his band was able to nail the album’s eight tracks with no technological bells or whistles.

“No instrument was plugged into any sort of amplifier; we just put a mic in front of you and that’s what you get,” he says. “We just pressed ‘record.’ That’s just the way we sound in the room.”

In addition to his prowess on the sax and clarinet, Mohney writes endearing, old-timey lyrics — he sings them sweetly on Gold Hill Serenade, particularly the wistful “Maxwell Pond” and “With You.” Asked what inspires his lyrics, Mohney points to spontaneity.

“You get a melody and then you get a word fitting in there and a story coming out,” Mohney explains. “I don’t know how I do it, but I sit there with rhyme dictionaries and see how it fits, and a story develops. Sometimes the melodies are more important than the lyrics.”

Despite his lyrical chops, Mohney hopes the music on Gold Hill Serenade will speak for itself. “The focus is really how the music sounds and how it makes you feel,” he says. “You can get lost when I stop singing and start playing the saxophone. I want it to be that you’re not focused on anything. I’m actively not trying to make a statement. The only statement I’m trying to make is ‘enjoy the music.’”

Mohney’s whole vision of music is about letting go, and slipping into a dream of New Orleans before Louis Armstrong left for Chicago, or New York City in the age of the Savoy and the Cotton Club.

The record-release party for Gold Hill Serenade will be held on Friday, Nov. 25 at the Gold Hill Inn, a place where time stops and — especially because there’s no cell service — live music becomes a thrill ride.

Jeremy Mohney channels the old masters of jazz and swing on ‘Gold Hill Serenade’ by Adam Perry

Friday, Dec. 9 7:30 pm

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The dead won’t die

The Upstart Crow’s anachronistic adaptation of ‘Bury the Dead’ updates Irwi Shaw’s classic anti-war play for 2022 by Toni Tresca

American playwright Irwin Shaw’s 1936 anti-war play Bury the Dead was a prescient foreshadowing of World War II. It pointed out the absurdity of war through the lens of six soldiers who have been killed in battle but rise from the ground to resist the grave that has been dug for them.

While the premise might sound bleak, Jim Heun, director of The Upstart Crow’s modernized version of Shaw’s play, promises the production is both moving and satirical.

“I have at times referred to it as a zombie apocalypse meets Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, because the dead come back to express how beautiful life is,” says Heun. “The corpses are defending what they love about the earth and explaining to the generals, who very much want the soldiers to give up and die, why they have a right to life.”

When Shaw first premiered the play, the losses from the first war were still fresh in the minds of Americans, and there was hesitancy to get involved in the conflicts in Europe. Although the United States ultimately chose to intervene in 1941, Shaw's play

serves as a reminder to viewers of the human cost of war.

Now, The Upstart Crow is set to premiere their updated version of Shaw’s original script on Nov. 25 at the Dairy Art Center’s Carson Theater. Since 1980, The Crow, an ensemble community theater company, has been performing classic, accessible theater in the Boulder area.

ON STAGE: Bury the Dead. Various times, Nov. 25 - Dec. 4, Dairy Arts Center, Carsen Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: thedairy.org.

“We started the organization because we loved classical theater,” says Kathy Reed, one of The Crow’s original members and an actor in Bury the Dead. “It takes a lot of time and effort to put on a play, so when you do a classical play, it’s nice to know you have something that you can perform for two or three weeks and never get tired of because there is so much depth in the script.”

While Reed hasn’t been in every production, she’s been in over 70 plays with the organization over the past 40 years. The Crow's committed cast provides both onstage talent and backstage assistance. While a few members hold degrees in theater, the majority of the actors are Boulder residents who want to create art in a community setting.

Heun, a theater instructor for middle and high schools, first appeared in The Crow's production of Romeo and Juliet about 15 years ago and has since directed and performed in a number of the company's shows. His first exposure to Bury the Dead was in 1969, when he played Private Henry Levy in his high

PAUL CAMPBELL

school performance of the play.

“After doing Bury the Dead in high school, a couple of months later I was sent off to the Navy,” said Heun. “The play was incredibly meaningful back then to me. I loved this script and have wanted to direct it ever since.”

The producers at The Crow heard about Heun’s desire to stage the play and agreed to produce it. Heun aimed to maintain the playwright's original intention to depict a cross-section of Americans affected by war while also modernizing the play for contemporary audiences.

“We’ve embraced the idea of 2022 soldiers in the play,” says Heun. “The modern Army has women as privates, captains and generals. … In our production, one of the generals is a woman, the captain is a woman, the reporter is a woman and there is a lesbian couple.”

The first stage direction in the script reads that the play is set during “the second year of the war that is to begin tomorrow night.” Heun saw this as an opportunity to speak to current concerns by setting the play in the present.

But changing the dates in the script introduced several historical inconsistencies. Though they changed the dates to 2022, the script still refers to the Saturday Evening Post, uses a dial phone and references the War Department, which dated the piece.

“We sort of just embraced the anachronisms because the play is clearly future-looking,” says Heun. “Shaw's clearly saying war is always a problem. So we felt that having it slightly out of time would accurately portray Shaw's depiction of war."

Actor Mark Bradford, who has performed with The Crow for 10 years and portrays one of the soldiers in Bury the Dead, advises audiences to go in with as little background knowledge as possible.

“This is a show that kind of defies your expectations,” says Bradford. “You might expect something very specific if you just hear that it's an anti-war play, but it's not like polemics or anything like that. There are some very touching scenes, but there are also moments when there's a bunch of dark humor underlying it. You don't expect to be chuckling, but sometimes you are while still being impacted by the play’s underlying emotions.”

HELP WANTED

Amazon.com Services LLC seeks candidates for the following (multiple positions available) in Boulder, CO: Software Developers Software Development Engineer II (Job ID 2283150) Design, implement and deliver large-scale, multi-tiered, distributed or embedded software applications, tools, systems and services using Object Oriented programming languages like Java, C++, C#; AWS services, databases and related technologies in Linux, Unix. The pay range for this position in Colorado is $145,787-$194,400 per year; however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A sign-on bonus and restricted stock units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position offered. This information is provided per the Colorado Equal Pay Act. Base pay information is based on market location.

Apply at https://www.amazon.jobs/ en/ referencing Job ID 2283150

■ ‘The Nutcracker’

2 and 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 25 and Sunday, Nov. 27, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Tickets: $25-$89, boulderphil.org

Kick off the holiday season with Boulder Ballet and Boulder Phil’s performance of The Nutcracker. The uplifting choreography and festive melodies makes for a great family event at the University of Colorado’s Macky Auditorium.

■ Holiday Plaza Lighting

5:30-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 25, Library & Civic Center Plaza, 350 Kimbark St., Longmont

Join members of the Longmont community as the town lights up their festive trees in the Library and Civic Center Plaza. Enjoy games, prizes, light shows and arts and crafts at this holiday tradition.

ON STAGE: Still haven’t made it out to Theater of the Mind? Good news: The run for this immersive theatrical experience from former Talking Heads front man David Byrne has been extended through Jan. 22. Inspired by neuroscience research, your guide will take you on a 75-minute journey across an intricate, mesmerizing and surreal 15,000-foot warehouse installation at York Street Yards in Denver. See listing below for details.

Harvey Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Dec. 4. Tickets: $20-$25, thedairy.org

A 1940s Radio Christmas Carol. Longmont Theatre, 513 Main St. Through Dec. 4. Tickets: $35, longmonttheatre.org

Bury the Dead. Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Dec. 4. Tickets: $21-$25, thedairy.org

Little Red Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Randy Weeks Conservatory Theatre, 1101 13th St., Denver. Through Dec. 18. Tickets: $16-$30, denvercenter.org

A Christmas Carol. Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Wolf Theatre, Speer Blvd & Arapahoe St., Denver. Through Dec. 24. Tickets: $10-$77, denvercenter.org

Theater of the Mind. York Street Yards, 3887 Steele St., Denver. Extended through Jan. 22. Tickets: $65, theateroftheminddenver.com

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Through Jan. 28. Tickets: $70-$75

■ Drag Bingo

6-8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26, Left Hand Brewing Company, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free Assemble your crew and join drag queen Miss Jessica in the tasting room of Left Hand Brewing for an evening of bingo and beers with a sultry, sassy host. Suitable for adults only.

■

Cara’s Second Annual Leftover Turkey Trot

9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 26, Recht Field at Boulder High School, 1604 Arapahoe Ave. Tickets: $15 (students), $25 (adults)

Cara Calitre was a multi-sport student athlete who found happiness in the outdoors. Celebrate Calitre’s life while raising funds for athletic, academic and environmental scholarships at Cara’s Second Annual Leftover Turkey Trot 5K Fun Run or 2K Walk.

■ Ask the Question

11 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 29, University Memorial Center, 1669 Euclid Ave., Boulder

Suicide is never an easy topic of conversation, but simply reaching out can go far to help those in need. This mental health awareness event will help participants learn how to broach the subject with others and how to assist those who need support.

■ DIY Moss Poles

2-3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26, Terracotta, 2005 Pearl St., Boulder. Tickets: $45, topterracotta.com

Construct a basic wire and sphagnum moss pole to help stimulate the growth of your favorite house plant with Terracotta’s Jen Moss. The moss pole is 2 feet tall and 3 inches in diameter, which is great for polling multiple 4-inch plants. Participants are encouraged to bring a pair of gardening gloves.

■ Climate Justice Healing Circle

5-8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28, Student Recreation Center Ice Rink, 1835 Pleasant St., Boulder

Join the Climate Justice Team and Andrea Nawage Yoloteotl, executive director of Harvest of All First Nations, to learn about the intersection of community and personal healing for climate justice at the CU Rec Center. Food will be provided.

ON VIEW: What does life in Boulder look like for our unhoused neighbors? This is the central question animating Lived Experience, a new photography exhibition at the Boulder Public Library Main Branch. The show features analog images captured by 25 people experiencing homelessness. See listing below for details.

Homelands.

Creative Nations Sacred Space, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Nov. 26. Free

Quantity of Life: Nature/Supernature Canyon Gallery, Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. Through Nov. 27. Free

Juan Fuentes: Pride on Your Side. BMoCA at Aurora Central Library, 4949 E. Alameda Parkway. Through Dec. 31. Free

Lived Experience. Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. Through Jan. 14. Free

Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway. Through Jan. 22. Tickets: $21 (Colorado resident), denverartmuseum.org

Yvens Alex Saintil: Photographs. The New East Window Gallery, 4550 Broadway Suite C, Boulder. Through Jan. 29. Free

The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse. Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, 1485 Delgany St. Through Feb. 5. Tickets: $10, mcadenver.org

■ Niki Dewart and Elizabeth Marglin —

‘The Wild and Sacred Feminine Deck’

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. Tickets: $5, boulderbookstore.net

The Wild and Sacred Feminine Deck is “an invocation of the sacred feminine and a source of insight for clarity, confirmation and guidance.” Authors Niki Dewart and Elizabeth Marglin will speak and sign their work at the Boulder Book Store.

Karen Breunig: Woman in the Water BMoCA at Frasier, 350 Ponca Place, Boulder. Through Jan. 15. Tickets: $2, bmoca.org

Kristopher Wright: Just As I Am. BMoCA East Gallery, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Through Jan. 22. Tickets: $2, bmoca.org

Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway. Through May 13. Tickets: $12-$19

Lasting Impressions. CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boulder. Through June 2023. Free

Onward and Upward: Shark’s Ink CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boulder. Through July 2023. Free

■ SCARPA Presents Nirmal (Nims) Purja: ‘Nothing is Impossible’

7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30, Boulder Theater, 2023 14th St. Tickets: $20-$25, axs.com

Nims Purja is a famous mountaineer who climbed 14 of the world’s peaks above 8,000 meters in six months and six days — the first person to achieve this goal. Purja will talk about this endeavor and his Netflix film 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, along with his book Beyond Possible

■

Art & Sip: Winter Watercolor Cards

6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, Longmont Museum, 400 Quail Road. Tickets: $40, longmontmuseum.org

The Longmont Museum is hosting this card-creating event to help you personalize your holiday gifts. This class is focused on using watercolors to make your card pop. Beer, wine and concessions will be available from the Atrium Bar.

■ Mike Soucy — ‘Backcountry Skiing

Rocky Mountain National Park’

7-9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, Neptune Mountaineering, 633 S. Broadway, Boulder. Free, reservation required

Mike Soucy is a lifelong skier and climber who has hung out in Rocky Mountain National Park for 25 years. This week at Neptune, he’ll talk about all the sheltered powder runs and lesser-visited corners of the park revealed in his book. There will be a Q&A and book signing after the presentation.

ON THE BILL:

Critically lauded Wisconsin outfit DISQ brings their singular brand of indie rock to Larimer Lounge in Denver on Monday, Nov. 28. The band will perform in support of their sophomore LP, Desperately Imagining Someplace Quiet, released last month via Saddle Creek. See listing below for details.

★ FRIDAY, NOV. 25

Leftover Salmon featuring Sam Bush with Special guest

Lindsay Lou. 7 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tickets: $45$80, z2ent.com

Jeremy Mohney Band. 8 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. $10 cash cover charge

Phantoms. 9 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $20-$69, bluebirdtheater.net

★ SATURDAY, NOV. 26

Angie Stevens and the Beautiful Wreck. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $20, bluebirdtheater.net

Kai Wachi. 9 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $22-$79, axs.com

★ SUNDAY, NOV. 27

Kate Farmer and Friends. 7 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Free

Blitzkid. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $20, bluebirdtheater.net

Eric Welty’s Edict. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $20, museperformancespace.com

★ MONDAY, NOV. 28

DISQ with People Like Me and People in General. 7 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. Tickets: $13, etix.com

★ TUESDAY, NOV. 29

Yung Gravy & bbno$. 8 p.m. Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 N. Clarkson St., Denver. Tickets: $140-$252, fillmoreauditorium.org

Brakence and Jane Remover. 8 p.m. Gothic Theater, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. Tickets: $25-$30, gothictheatre.com

★ THURSDAY, DEC. 1

The CBDs. 7 p.m. R Gallery + Wine Bar, 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Free

The Frank White Experience: A Live Tribute to the Notorious B.I.G. with Lil Cease. 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Ticket: $20$25, z2ent.com

The Lil Smokies. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $30, bluebirdtheater.net

Shane Smith & The Saints. 9 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $28, axs.com

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: Journalist Hadley Freeman interviewed Aries actor William Shatner when he was 90. She was surprised to find that the man who played Star Trek’s Captain Kirk looked 30 years younger than his actual age. “How do you account for your robustness?” she asked him. “I ride a lot of horses, and I’m into the bewilderment of the world,” said Shatner. “I open my heart and head into the curiosity of how things work.” I suggest you adopt Shatner’s approach in the coming weeks, Aries. Be intoxicated with the emotional richness of mysteries and perplexities. Feel the joy of how unknowable and unpredictable everything is. Bask in the blessings of the beautiful and bountiful questions that life sends your way.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: Of all the objects on earth, which is most likely to be carelessly cast away and turned into litter? Cigarette butts, of course. That’s why an Indian entrepreneur named Naman Guota is such a revolutionary. Thus far, he has recycled and transformed over 300 million butts into mosquito repellant, toys, keyrings, and compost, which he and his company have sold for over a million dollars. I predict that in the coming weeks, you will have a comparable genius for converting debris and scraps into useful, valuable stuff. You will be skilled at recycling dross. Meditate on how you might accomplish this metaphorically and psychologically.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Tips on how to be the best Gemini you can be in the coming weeks: 1. Think laterally or in spirals rather than straight lines. 2. Gleefully solve problems in your daydreams. 3. Try not to hurt anyone accidentally. Maybe go overboard in being sensitive and kind. 4. Cultivate even more variety than usual in the influences you surround yourself with. 5. Speak the diplomatic truth to people who truly need to hear it. 6. Make creative use of your mostly hidden side. 7. Never let people figure you out completely.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: In my dream, I gathered with my five favorite astrologers to ruminate on your immediate future. After much discussion, we decided the following advice would be helpful for you in December. 1. Make the most useful and inspirational errors you’ve dared in a long time. 2. Try experiments that teach you interesting lessons even if they aren’t completely successful. 3. Identify and honor the blessings in every mess.

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: “All possible feelings do not yet exist,” writes Leo novelist Nicole Krauss in her book The History of Love. “There are still those that lie beyond our capacity and our imagination. From time to time, when a piece of music no one has ever written, or something else impossible to predict, fathom, or yet describe takes place, a new feeling enters the world. And then, for the millionth time in the history of feeling, the heart surges and absorbs the impact.” I suspect that some of these novel moods will soon be welling up in you, Leo. I’m confident your heart will absorb the influx with intelligence and fascination.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Virgo author Jeanette Winterson writes, “I have always tried to make a home for myself, but I have not felt at home in myself. I have worked hard at being the hero of my own life, but every time I checked the register of displaced persons, I was still on it. I didn’t know how to belong. Longing? Yes. Belonging? No.” Let’s unpack Winterson’s complex testimony as it relates to you right now. I think you are closer than ever before to feeling at home in yourself—maybe not perfectly so, but more than in the past. I also suspect you have a greater-than-usual capacity for belonging. That’s why I invite you to be clear about what or whom you want to belong to and what your belonging will feel like. One more thing: You now have extraordinary power to learn more about what it means to be the hero of your own life.

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: It’s tempting for you to entertain balanced views about every subject. You might prefer to never come to definitive conclusions about anything, because it’s so much fun basking in the pretty glow of prismatic ambiguity. You LOVE there being five sides to every story. I’m not here to scold you about this predilection. As a person with three Libran planets in my chart, I understand the appeal of considering all options. But I will advise you to take a brief break from this tendency. If you avoid making decisions in the coming weeks, they will be made for you by others. I don’t recommend that. Be proactive.

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Scorpio poet David Whyte makes the surprising statement that “anger is the deepest form of compassion.” What does he mean? As long as it doesn’t result in violence, he says, “anger is the purest form of care. The internal living flame of anger always illuminates what we belong to, what we wish to protect, and what we are willing to hazard ourselves for.” Invoking Whyte’s definition, I will urge you to savor your anger in the coming days. I will invite you to honor and celebrate your anger, and use it to guide your constructive efforts to fix some problem or ease some hurt. (Read more: tinyurl.com/AngerCompassion)

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Sagittarian comedian Margaret Cho dealt with floods of ignorant criticism while growing up. She testifies, “Being called ugly and fat and disgusting from the time I could barely understand what the words meant has scarred me so deep inside that I have learned to hunt, stalk, claim, own, and defend my own loveliness.” You may not have ever experienced such extreme forms of disapproval, Sagittarius, but—like all of us—you have on some occasions been berated or undervalued simply for being who you are. The good news is that the coming months will be a favorable time to do what Cho has done: hunt, stalk, claim, own, and defend your own loveliness. It’s time to intensify your efforts in this noble project.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: The bad news: In 1998, Shon Hopwood was sentenced to 12 years in prison for committing bank robberies. The good news: While incarcerated, he studied law and helped a number of his fellow prisoners win their legal cases—including one heard by the US Supreme Court. After his release, he became a full-fledged lawyer, and is now a professor of law at Georgetown University. Your current trouble isn’t anywhere as severe as Hopwood’s was, Capricorn, but I expect your current kerfuffle could motivate you to accomplish a very fine redemption.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: “I stopped going to therapy because I knew my therapist was right, and I wanted to keep being wrong,” writes poet Clementine von Radics. “I wanted to keep my bad habits like charms on a bracelet. I did not want to be brave.” Dear Aquarius, I hope you will do the opposite of her in the coming weeks. You are, I suspect, very near to a major healing. You’re on the verge of at least partially fixing a problem that has plagued you for a while. So please keep calling on whatever help you’ve been receiving. Maybe ask for even more support and inspiration from the influences that have been contributing to your slow, steady progress.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: As you have roused your personal power to defeat your fears in the past, what methods and approaches have worked best for you? Are there brave people who have inspired you? Are there stories and symbols that have taught you useful tricks? I urge you to survey all you have learned about the art of summoning extra courage. I don’t mean to imply that your challenges will be scarier or more daunting than usual. My point is that you will have unprecedented opportunities to create vigorous new trends in your life if you are as bold and audacious as you can be.

by Dan Savage

Dear Dan: I read your column a lot and there’s a pattern I’ve been noticing. A straight guy writes in and says he’s straight and likes pussy, but he’s recently discovered that he’s also attracted to trans women. And then they ask something like, “How should I describe my sexual orientation now?” To which you reply with something like, “You are straight. Trans women are women, they just happen to have dicks.” Great answer! I don’t disagree, but if I were responding I’d write, “You’re not gay, because trans women aren’t men. Trans women are women with dicks. Since you are attracted to women, you can keep on identifying as straight if that’s what feels right. Or you can identify as queer.” Queerness, as I understand it, is an expansive term that refers to anyone whose sexuality or gender expression falls outside of conventional expectations. To me it seems appropriate for these straight men to embrace the term “queer.”

—Mulling Over Labels

Dear MOL: While you might think it’s appropriate for straight men who sleep with trans women to identify as queer, MOL, lots of trans women disagree.

“It’s deeply problematic when people hear that a famous man is with a trans woman and they automatically think that he’s gay, because that is disavowing the womanhood of trans women,” Laverne Cox said during a conversation with Angelica Ross about the struggles of dating as a trans woman. “You can be into a trans woman and be completely straight.” (Cox and Ross spoke on an episode of Cox’s talk show If We’re Being Honest.)

So, any straight man who thought of himself as queer because he was into and/or fucking and/or with a trans woman would be guilty of disavowing the womanhood of his own partner. And any gay sex-advice columnist who urged straight men who were into/fucking/with trans women to think of themselves as queer would be pretty quickly terfed out of the advice racket. But it does seem to me that a straight man who openly dates trans women, while no less straight than any other straight man, is definitely something more than most straight men — more confident, more secure in his own sexuality, more likely to be a good partner to any woman he winds up with, cis or trans.

Now, some cis men who date trans women aren’t straight; some cis men are bisexual or pansexual or omnisexual, as Cox pointed out on her show. And there are trans women out there who are queer and straight. Which is where it really gets complicated. A straight cis guy dating a trans woman is definitely in a relationship with a queer person; he’s arguably in a queer relationship himself. But being in a queer relationship — being the cis straight boyfriend of a trans woman or the cis straight wife of a bi guy or the allosexual partner of an asexual — doesn’t make a cis straight person queer themselves.

But you know what? The fucking world is on fire and if a cis straight guy who’s with a trans woman wants to identify as queer — if he wants to round himself up to queer — and the woman he’s with is OK with him embracing the term “queer” for himself, he can call himself queer.

P.S. Not all trans women have dicks.

Bon appétit

Cannibals in love and on the run in ‘Bones and All’

by Michael J. Casey

It all starts so innocently: the invitation to a sleepover. The invited wants to go, but her father won’t let her. Not in a million years.

He’s the type who installed a barrel bolt on her bedroom door.

He should have thought more about the window.

The invited is Maren (Taylor Russell), an 18-year-old in desperate need of connection. She finds it, sort of, at the classmate’s sleepover. Quiet pop music plays; girls paint their nails. It’s all very woozy. Maren’s classmate invites her under the coffee table, and the two girls snuggle close, their voices dropping low and intimate. The classmate shows off her freshly painted fingernail to Maren. Maren’s eyes gloss over as she tenderly opens her mouth and draws the finger in. The image is soft and yellow and warm. It looks like love. Then Maren bites down. Hard.

Bones and All, the latest from Italian maestro Luca Guadagnino, spends its entire 130-minute runtime moving between tones with ease: Glowing nostalgia one second, grisly horror the next. Perfect for a coming-of-age story of cannibalistic lovers on the run.

Maren’s thirst for flesh is nothing new. Dad (André Holland) has kept the two of them on the move for years, in and out of rundown trailers and backwoods towns. But now Maren is legally an adult, and he’s out. He cuts her loose and leaves a cassette tape confession and a couple of bucks. Dad doesn’t know why Maren has peculiar feeding habits, but Mom might. So Maren hits the road and crosses paths with a couple more “eaters” (Mark Rylance and Michael Stuhlbarg), a poser (David Gordon Green) and Lee (Timothée

Chalamet), a floppy-haired eater with a lot of brotherly guilt and some deep-cut knowledge of KISS.

Chalamet is outstanding as Lee. His ability to remain silent and still, only to snap off lines like he stepped out of a screwball comedy, is half his charm. Sincerity is the other half — not bad, considering he kills and consumes to get by.

ON SCREEN: Bones and All opens in theaters Nov. 23.

The source of the eaters’ hunger is never explained. At some points, screenwriter David Kajganich — working from Camille DeAngelis’ 2015 YA novel — presents their appetite as a sexual metaphor with talk of first times, the intimacy of “drying off” and the phrase “bones and all,” i.e., the consumption of everything. But the presence of the poser suddenly shifts the cannibalism metaphor into something closer to addiction. Lee is called a “junkie,” and his wiry, grungy appearance isn’t helping his case.

None of the eaters in Bones and All look healthy — human flesh must be lacking in nutrients — but never mind, the movie isn’t remotely about that. It’s about love and family and urges you can’t quite suppress and the ones that make you feel alive. It’s sick and gross and oh-so-good. It’s also really, really dirty. Set in the mid1980s, Bones and All is not the slick and hip and kitschy ’80s people are trying to recapture these days. Here, the world looks worn down and decaying. Maybe it always has been.

Finding the real stu

Imet the wild ricer behind a ski lodge near Lake Tahoe. We were there for a writing workshop, reading each other our work.

He was, and is, a hunting guide in Northern Wisconsin named Nick Vander Puy. He read about a father and son team of Chippewa Indians from inner city Milwaukee and their trip to a lake to collect wild rice, using cedar “ricing sticks” to knock the seeds into their canoe.

rice — it’s way

Wild rice isn’t actually more interesting by Ari LeVaux

Wild rice isn’t actually rice, but the kernel of a large aquatic grass native to the lake country of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin, extending into Canada. Like the people of that northern landscape, it’s more rugged and earthy than its soft, domesticated counterpart. Wild rice has a nutty, tea-like flavor, and a texture that pushes back when you chew.

Soon after the workshop ended, Vander Puy got his story picked up by NPR’s All Things Considered. The piece I’d brought to the workshop, a passionate essay about Christmas tree farms, never went anywhere, but I hung onto the idea of real wild rice, and started cooking it.

Wild rice became a window into wild foods, an area I wanted to explore. I joined the rice hunters vicariously, in their expeditions, when I ate it. I thought about their efforts not only to collect but process the rice, as the wild ricer described in Vander Puy’s radio story: “The ricers get a fire going, under a propped-up galvanized wash tub. They pitch in several handfuls of rice, taking turns stirring the seed heads with a wooden paddle. The smell of burning plants fills the camp. This process, called parching, slightly roasts the rice, preserving it, and loosens the husk from the wild rice kernels.”

Modern wild rice

Hand-harvested wild rice is hard to find, and expensive when you do. Farmers have figured out how to cultivate wild rice in paddies, the same way real rice is grown. Today, almost all of the wild rice sold is paddy-grown and machine-harvested, mostly in California. To find the real wild stuff, you need to find a ricer who is willing to sell you some.

The wild rice community is divided over this domesticated wild rice. Vander Puy says the paddy-grown stuff isn’t comparable to hand-gathered wild rice in terms of flavor, texture and overall performance in the kitchen. As a seller of wild rice and a friend to many other sellers,

ON YOUR PLATE: Soaked or cooked, hand- or machine-harvested, wild rice has a nutty, tea-like flavor, and a texture that pushes back when you chew.

he laments the fact that paddy-grown rice has disrupted the market for the real stuff, which costs twice as much.

Most people cook wild rice until it’s soft enough to eat, but some prefer to soften it with an overnight soak. Hand-gathered wild rice tends to soften (and cook) more quickly than paddy-grown wild rice.

However long it takes to soften, soaking wild rice is worth a try. The flavor of soaked, uncooked wild rice is milder than that of cooked wild rice. You can wash down your chewy mouthfuls with sips of the earthy, fragrant soaking water, like swallowing a pristine lake in the middle of the forest. For extra vibrancy, add a handful of pomegranate seeds. The juice will burst out as you chew them with the hearty rice, adding tartness to every bite, like little sips of wine.

If the soaking method fails to soften the rice enough, you can always cook it. For years, my go-to preparation was to mix it, still hot, with smashed garlic, sesame oil and soy sauce, and garnish with chopped scallions. The heat of the rice cooks the garlic enough to remove the edge, for a flavor that’s exciting and comforting.

I also prepare a wild rice with mushroom dish I learned from a wild-mushroom picker while camping near Montana’s Blackfoot River. Eating wild foods in wild places is a special experience that’s hard to replicate anywhere else. But even cooked indoors, on a stove top, with domestic ingredients, this dish will channel the wild side of rice into your kitchen.

Morel Camp Wild Rice

1 cup wild rice

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, smashed

2 tablespoons pine nuts

2 cups chopped mushrooms (a mix of varieties is ideal)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup pomegranate seeds

Serves: 6

Prepare the rice the day before. Add a cup of wild rice and two cups of water (or stock) to a pot with a tight-fitting lid. Soak overnight.

Reserving some of the rice water, simmer rice on medium-low or bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Check progress. If the liquid is nearly gone and the rice remains hard, add more liquid. Keep checking, adding more liquid when necessary, until the grains split, curl and bloom like tiny brown and white flowers. Continue cooking until all moisture is gone, but don’t allow the rice to dry out.

Combine butter and olive oil in a large skillet or wok on medium heat. Add the pine nuts and mashed garlic. Cook just until they start to brown. Don’t overbrown. If the pan gets too dry at any point, deglaze with reserved water from the rice.

Add the mushrooms and stir. Season with the salt and pepper. When the fungus starts to brown and weep, add the cooked rice, stirring gently.

Transfer the rice onto a large plate. Garnish with pomegranate seeds, and keep more pomegranate seeds on hand to sprinkle on as a condiment.

ARI LEVAUX

“I

tell people that we’re rich in whiskey, but poor in cash,” jokes Boulder Spirits (311 Western Ave., #180, Boulder) owner and founder Alastair Brogan. Yet the native Scotsman, who moved to Boulder full-time about 10 years ago, isn’t kidding around when it comes to giving back to the community that helps support his craft hooch. Brogan’s growing whiskey company has donated to victims of the Marshall Fire as well as to charitable causes including The American Heart Foundation.

“So far our biggest effort has been for the victims of the fire,” Brogan says. “We got the fire chief in here with some of the firefighters and filled 500 bottles of whiskey with their assistance. We sold the bottles at an inflated price and were able to write a $40,000 check to the Boulder Community Foundation. We also did a thing with Von Miller where he signed a few bottles and we sold those off for charity; and we just raised money by auctioning off a full barrel of whiskey for the American Heart Foundation. The winning bid was $11,000. We love doing it, and people also get some whiskey for their money.”

Boulder Spirits’ award-winning water of life is clearly something that discerning drinkers appreciate. Among other liquors, Brogan and company, who are proud to include a 1,000-gallon (copper) Forsyths still in their production arsenal, produce high-malt bourbons and American Single Malt whiskeys, using a distiller’s mash of malted barley from Europe, aging their products in freshly charred American Oak barrels for a minimum of three years. Understandably, the native Glaswegian is proud of his independent Colorado operation.

“A true craft distillery makes their own product,” he imparts in his Scottish burr. “We’re not owned or financed

by a large organization and we don’t source our whiskey. We’re a grain-to-glass operation. We also make a really good gin, but we’re focusing on the whiskey at this point because I think that’s where the company’s future is. We’re focused on American single malt whiskey, which is becoming an official whiskey category in the next few months (as designated by the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau). It will be the first new category in 55 years. This helps with rules and regulations that protect producers so people can’t undercut them. ”

Boulder Spirits, which has been distilling since

ON THE ROCKS: Boulder Spirits owner and founder Alastair Brogan. Boulder Spirits is located at 311 Western Ave., #180, in Boulder.

2008, offers a few intriguing items for the holidays, including their popular “Whiskey Adventure Kits” (sample packs that include six 50-ml bottles of their brown liquors), and a new high-potency (133.8 proof) cask-strength bourbon that was aged for more than five years. “It’s great whiskey, but it’s like dynamite,” Brogan warns with a chuckle. “The American palate loves sweetness, because they were brought up on that, but Europeans like to taste the malted barley, which calms down that sweet a little bit and adds another flavor to the bourbon.”

The whiskey makers also offer a new line of bitters in partnership with their Boulder-based “sister company” Cocktail Punk, including an old fashioned syrup, ginger bitters and elderberry bitters.

With the holidays upon us, it’s a good time to hunker down and enjoy what our local artisans provide. Maybe make a bourbon pecan pie, or savor a single malt by the fire as the snow blankets the ground.

“I’ve just come back from Scotland, and they already had Christmas decorations out,” Brogan shares. “We start counting down early over there.”

Longmont Humane Society

9595 Nelson Road, Longmont, longmonthumane.org

Critter Classifieds is a column where you can meet four-legged friends who need your love and support. Boulder Weekly is working with Longmont Humane Society to feature a few pets each week who are looking for forever homes. We hope to bring other organizations in on the fun in the future.

LHS provides temporary shelter to thousands of animals every year, including dogs, cats and small mammals who are lost, surrendered or abandoned. Visit the shelter to learn more about these featured pets and others up for adoption and fostering.

If your organization has volunteer needs and is interested in a similar column, please reach out to us: editorial@boulderweekly.com

Note: The animals you see here may have been adopted since this article was written.

Your support makes a big difference to the Longmont Humane Society. Every donation made to LHS from Nov. 1 through Dec. 6 on ColoradoGives.org gets a boost from the $1.4 Million + Incentive Fund. Schedule your donation today at coloradogives.org/organization/ Longmonthumanesociety. Donate and view available animals at longmonthumane.org.

Squash

Meet Squash, a very gourd boy! This handsome man is 4 years old and looking for a place to rest his paws. Squash is an independent fella who prefers to do his own thing while still checking in on you now and then. He is a very busy guy and would do best in a home with older children who won’t try to interfere with his daily routine of napping, scratching his post, watching birds and napping again.

Giving

Giving wants to hear all about your day! Her jumbo-sized ears and heart are ready to find a forever home. Giving is a very sweet, silly 1-year-old gal. She would be great in a home with children of any age and wouldn’t mind sharing your attention with another cat or dog. Giving can be a little shy at first, but once she warms up to you, she loves to play with her squeaky toys and go for a nice zoom.

Carly

Coming all the way from New Mexico, 3-year-old Carly is looking for her forever home here in Colorado. Sometime before she arrived, Carly lost an eye but it hasn’t slowed her down! Carly loves adventure and is looking for a hiking buddy to help with keeping her weight down. She is very polite to both cats and dogs and would do well in a home with a furry friend to hang out with. Carly prefers gentle pets and is required to go to a home with older children who won’t try to roughhouse.

The cannabis chef

Beat Bobby Flay and Chopped 420 , and was featured on NBC News. Not only has his technique evolved, but he’s refined his canna-dining experience curations.

It was New Years Eve 2015. The ball hadn’t dropped yet in New York, but in Colorado it was going down at Chef Jarod “Roilty” Farina’s house. The chef and his wife were throwing a dinner party with friends and cannabis industry entrepreneurs to celebrate the holiday. It was a party that would change Farina’s life.

He’d been in the dining industry all his life, he says. All over it: in the front of the house, in the back of the house, running catering companies, learning how to make pasta in Italy, and taking cooking classes in Paris. Food was always something Farina had a natural curiosity for, and cooking had always been one of his sharpest artistic talents.

But he’d never thought to combine that with his other lifelong passion, until that New Year’s party seven years ago.

“That was the first time we tried infused savory dishes,” Farina says.

He made a cannabis encrusted prime rib, cannabutter mashed potatoes, and an infused green bean casserole. It was a New Year’s feast — and a highly potent one. According to Farina, “Literally everything was infused.”

That was the night it all clicked in Farina’s mind. A seed had been planted that would grow into a new career, his very own business: Dine with Roilty — a fine-dining event company offering multi-course infused (and non-infused) dinner experiences.

He’s learned a lot about cooking with cannabis in the years since. He won High Times ’ Top Cannabis Chef award. He’s competed on the Food Network’s

“That [New Year’s] meal might have gotten you totally blasted,” Farina admits. He was just starting out and learning how best to cook full meals infused with cannabis. Everyone at Farina’s party loved it, he says; but for the average Joe it might have been a heavy dose.

Chef Farina is sometimes just drizzling a couple of drops of cannabis-infused olive oil over the different courses on his menu, that’s the bare minimum of his canna-cuisine artistry. His favorite dish to make is his “cannaleaf pasta experience,” which is far more involved and draws upon his Italian pasta-making education and heritage.

“We put fresh cannabis leaves inside of [homemade pasta] and then laminate it so you can see the leaves inside the pasta dough,” Farina says. “We cut that into fettuccine and toss it in a beautiful herb sauce … garnished with grated cannabis over top.”

“It’s a full-on cannabis experience,” Farina says. “I don’t think you can get that anywhere else.”

Other dishes on his menu include pomodoro with fresh vegetables in a homemade tomato sauce, a honey-soy glazed salmon with garlic and lemon, roasted duck breast with rosemary and raspberry beurre blanc, or garlic herb crusted lamb chops. This list doesn’t even touch his extensive appetizer and dessert offerings.

“For the dinners that we offer now, we do tableside infusions,” Farina says. “We cater to each and every person, offering low doses, medium doses, anywhere you want to get, basically, on a per-person, per-course basis.”

Chef Farina and his team will come to your Airbnb, your home, or your event space and provide a threeto seven-course infused, fine-dining experience.

“I basically make an infused olive oil that I can drop or squirt, depending on the client,” he says. “That’s something people are really into.”

Don’t let that fool you, though. Because while

Dine with Roilty also offers cooking classes, for aspiring cannabis chefs who want to whip up their own culinary creations — infused or not. You can also visit the Dine with Roilty website and pursue his recipes page, where the chef shares some of his secrets and even has a video detailing how to make his butter and oil infusions.

Farina loves sharing his food. He loves cooking for parties of people that want to have a good time, and who appreciate both cannabis and good food just as much as he does. It’s one of the best parts of his job, he says.

“Food is my art form,” Farina says. “I can’t draw and I can’t paint, but I can create beautiful food on a plate and it’s something that I get to share with all these people that I get to meet. And it’s a really great, energized experience with cannabis and food. It’s something that I love each and every day.”