Boulder Weekly 11.3.2022

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, Colin Wrenn

SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson

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. 3, 2022 Volume XXX, number 12

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 newspaper.

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O verall, Colorado doesn’t have a lot of tenant protections — it regularly ranks near the bottom when it comes to evictions, right to repairs and unjustified rent increases. My last two columns looked at how tenants can at least get some help with evictions, but the processes to get a tenant out of their home can still be pretty fast, relative to many states.

e one area tenants are protected is getting their de posit back. Which is ironic, because withholding deposits is the number one complaint tenants make to advocacy organizations.

Because there were so many complaints of tenants

unjusti ably losing their deposits, the Colorado Security Deposit Act (Colorado Revised Statutes 38-12-103) was passed in 1971. Renters could now sue their landlords in small claims court (without an attorney) for up to three times the amount of the deposit illegally withheld, along with attorney’s fees and court costs. is doesn’t mean you’ll automatically get that amount, but if the landlord acted in bad faith, you may have a decent shot. But so few renters know they have this right, and landlords certainly don’t tell them.

By the way, any amount collected up front (other than

nonrefundable fees) — whether it’s called a deposit, rst or last month’s rent — is considered to be covered by this law.

Landlords have 30 days to return part or all your deposit, unless your lease says longer (60 days is the maximum). If they withhold any part of it, they must send/give you a written, itemized list within that time period — so make sure you give them a mailing address they can send it to. ey have the right to with hold legitimate costs, including unpaid rent and/ or utilities, dam age you caused, unpaid late fees listed in lease, etc.

TO PROTECT YOURSELF, ONE OF THE BEST THINGS YOU CAN DO is take photos and/or video of your new home before you move in any of your belongings. This can be invaluable evidence should you need it later.

But the most common deduc tions are general cleaning, carpet cleaning and painting. As suming you did a good job of cleaning your former home (which you absolutely should), these charges are considered “normal wear and tear.” at is de ned by CRS 38-12-102 as “deterioration that occurs, based upon the use for which a rental unit or mobile home space, as de ned in section 38-12201.5 (7), is intended, without neg ligence, carelessness, accident, or abuse of the premises or equipment or chattels by the tenant or home owner or members of the tenant’s or home owner’s household, or their invitees or guests.” (Emphasis is mine.)

If you want to challenge any deductions, you need to send a letter allowing the landlord seven days to remedy the situation, before you le with the court.

To protect yourself, one of the

best things you can do is take photos and/or video of your new home before you move in any of your be longings. Especially focus on existing problems (i.e., holes in the wall, dirty carpets, stains anywhere, appliances that don’t work). A checklist and witnesses are good ideas too. is can be invaluable evidence should you need it later. Do the same after you move out and clean the unit.

anks to a 1985 ballot initiative passed by voters, renters in the city of Boulder are also entitled to re ceive interest on their deposits, to be paid within the same period as stated above. While it has been very little during the era of microscopic interest rates, it’s now starting to increase. e city determines the new rate every year, and can be found on this pdf, down loadable at bit.ly/3FARK58, with instructions on how to calculate your interest. e rate for 2022 is pathet ic: 0.06%, the lowest it’s ever been.

But ongoing Federal Reserve Bank increases to tame in ation should increase that rate for 2023.

Of course, I am not an attorney, and none of this column is legal advice.

See my Aug. 25 column ( e Unrepentant Tenant, “Resources for Boulder renters”) for resources (including above mentioned forms) for getting help if you have problems, questions or need some advice.

is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.

MORE MURALS, PLEASE ank you for the walking tour of Boulder street art, outlined in the Boulder Insider issue (Aug. 18, 2022) by Caitlin Rockett.

We enjoyed seeing the murals, and particularly enjoyed the background Caitlin provided on each artist. If there are 100 such street art pieces in Boulder, can you do more tours?

MP Donahue/South Boulder

RE-ELECT THE PEOPLE’S LAWYER

As a woman, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is — to this day — a gut-punch. Phil Weiser, Colo rado’s current Attorney General run ning for re-election this November, understands that even though abor tion remains legal in Colorado, Dobbs undermines women’s equality and personal freedoms. By denying wom en the right to control their repro duction, physical and mental health, and in some cases, literally life-saving medical care, Dobbs denies women equality and personal freedom. Phil Weiser is committed to protecting the rights of pregnant women who come to Colorado for reproductive health

care — and, just as importantly, the rights of their doctors.

With Phil we get a keen legal mind, committed to defending our democracy, and the rights of the people, in the face of unprecedented challenges.

Phil is the candidate with the proven track record of protecting democratic principles — the impor tance of which cannot be understated these days. When an elector voted for the presidential candidate of his choice (John Kasich), not the winner of the popular vote (Hillary Clinton), Phil defended the right of the Secre tary of State to remove that elector. Phil argued Colorado Department of State v. Baca in the U.S. Supreme Court and won. Now, we know that presidential electors must cast their Electoral College Votes in accordance with State law, not a candidate they choose.

Cynthia Co man, Phil’s predeces sor, used her time in o ce to bene t women and children. Although she is a Republican, Phil earned her endorsement because of his ability to work across the aisle and his contin uation of domestic violence, sexual assault, substance abuse treatment,

Keep Our Libraries

We love our libraries. We want to keep them owned and operated by the City of Boulder and an elected council who appoints the library commission.

The current City of Boulder Library System is a recognized nationaland state-award winning library system. Why x something that is not broken?

The proposed tax increase of $18.78 M/year is an overreach and too extreme.

Currently, a majority of the library’s operating funding is paid through sales taxes, nearly half paid by visitors to Boulder. Anyone who now lives in Boulder County can have a free City of Boulder library card.

The proposed tax increase will be $200+/year for the average Boulder home, and $800+/year for an equivalent-valued small business property.

Vote NO on 6C

www.keepourlibraries.com

childhood sexual abuse recovery, and school safety initiatives. Please join me in proudly voting for Phil Weiser.

Cathern Smith/Louisville

CU SOUTH SHOULD BE A COUNTY ISSUE

It is a misfortune that 2F, the referendum to repeal the CU South annexation, is not a countywide issue.

ere are many people other than Boulder residents who have found respite in visiting the site of the CU expansion and the City’s ood miti gation e ort. Also, the impact of the projects, during and after construc tion, on already congested morning and evening tra c on highways 35, 93, 119, and South Boulder Road are county concerns, especially the proposed new intersection connect ing the “South Campus” to 93. e current “as is” access open to everyone will disappear entirely. It is time the Commissioners act on addressing their absence of concern for their constituents.

Robert Porath/Boulder

AN INSULT

So the library foundation, a 501(c)(3), has given $75,000 dollars to library district supporters in a political contest against those who want to keep Boulder’s libraries as a function of local government. It may be legal — that’s for the IRS to sort out, but it insults some past foun dation supporters and funders. e foundation’s contribution is certainly outsized compared to the funding of most local ballot measures.

is is a good example of the problem with an unelected group of trustees making nancial decisions that suit their particular preference. It is exactly the problem with an au tonomous, unelected board of trustees of a library district… only instead of endowment income, it will be your property tax. Vote “no” on 6C.

Susan M. Osborne/Boulder

CU SOUTH AGREEMENT IS FLAWED

I’m voting “yes” on 2F to repeal the annexation agreement with CU because the agreement is too awed to be accepted as is. What aws?

1. Increased tra c congestion — e City (as well as all of us who live in the area) knows that the intersec tions near CU South are already “at capacity” during rush hours. ere is

no space to accommodate thousands more vehicles.

2. A huge development at the Gateway to Boulder — is is not just about 1,100 housing units for CU employees and students. In addition, City Council has agreed to provide water and sewer for 750,000 square feet of o ces/classes/meeting rooms (that’s the equivalent of over 12 buildings the size of McGuckin’s), a 3,000-seat stadium, plus other ser vices and facilities.

3. Noise, light and air pollution — Residents on the Hill and for a mile or more surrounding the Bu ’s stadium, Chautauqua or Fairview High know what it’s like to live with the ampli ed sound, intense lights and crowds of thousands — these are the additional impacts that will be created by the proposed CU South development. ese impacts will also impact the solitude of the adjacent South Boulder Creek State Natural Area plus the imperiled pollinators and wildlife trying to survive there.

4. Inadequate ood control — All ood waters from the Viele drain age and South Boulder Creek ood waters in excess of 100-year ows will drain into Frazier neighborhoods and ood them. With climate change generated extremes, such ooding is certain to happen.

5. We will have to pay for it — Instead of this development “paying its own way” (as we require of other developments), we will all have to pay large increases in our utility bills, plus pay the costs to make this new CU campus safe from 500-year oods and to acquire the “open space” lands that were part of the gravel mine and need to be restored. Also, rather than the required 25% units of a ordable housing, only 10% a ordable units will be required.

It’s a bad deal. Join me in voting “yes” on 2F to repeal the very unnec essary CU South annexation agree ment. We need a fair deal. We can do better. We do need more housing for CU faculty, sta and students, and a wise ood control plan — but we do not need to accept all these aws and an entirely new campus where adequate transportation access is not possible.

Deb Grojean/Boulder

Email: letters@boulderweekly.com

FEDERAL OFFICES

UNITED STATES SENATOR Michael Bennet

REP — DISTRICT 2 Joe Neguse

STATE OFFICES

SECRETARY OF STATE Jena Griswold

STATE TREASURER Dave Young

ATTORNEY GENERAL Phil Weiser

BOARD OF EDUCATION — AT LARGE Kathy Plomer

SENATOR — DISTRICT 15 Janice Marchman

REP — DISTRICT 10 Junie Joseph

REP — DISTRICT 11 Karen McCormick

REP — DISTRICT 12 Tracey Bernett

REP — DISTRICT 19 Jennifer Lea Parenti

REP — DISTRICT 49 Judy Amabile

RTD DIRECTOR — DISTRICT 1 Erik Davidson

RTD DIRECTOR — DISTRICT 10 Lynn Guissinger

COUNTY OFFICES

COMMISSIONER — DISTRICT 2 Ashley Stolzmann

CLERK AND RECORDER Molly Fitzpatrick

TREASURER Paul Weissmann ASSESSOR Cynthia Braddock

SHERIFF Curtis Johnson SURVEYOR Lee Stradele

CORONER Emma R. Hall

LOCAL OFFICES

LONGMONT CITY COUN CILMEMBER AT-LARGE Mitzi Nicoletti

STATE BALLOT MEASURES

AMENDMENT D: DESIGNATE JUDGES TO 23RD JUDICIAL DISTRICT Yes/For

AMENDMENT E: HOME STEAD EXEMPTION TO SURVIVING SPOUSES OF U.S. ARMED FORCES MEMBERS AND VETERANS Yes/For

AMENDMENT F: CHARITABLE GAMING Yes/For

PROPOSITION FF: REDUCE INCOME TAX DEDUCTION AMOUNTS TO FUND SCHOOL MEALS Yes/For

PROPOSITION GG: TABLE OF CHANGES TO INCOME TAX OWED No/Against

PROPOSITION 121: STATE INCOME TAX RATE REDUCTION No/Against

PROPOSITION 122: FUNGI INITIATIVE Yes/For

PROPOSITION 123: HOUSING PROJECTS INITIATIVE Yes/For

PROPOSITION 124: ALLOWABLE LIQUOR STORE LOCATIONS No/Against

PROPOSITION 125: WINE AT GROCERY AND CONVENIENCE STORES No/Against

PROPOSITION 126: THIRD-PARTY DELIVERY OF ALCOHOL BEVERAGES Yes/For

COUNTY BALLOT MEASURES

COUNTY ISSUE 1A: WILD FIRE Yes/For

COUNTY ISSUE 1B: EMERGENCY SERVICES Yes/For

COUNTY ISSUE 1C: TRANSPORTATION Yes/For

LOCAL BALLOT MEASURES

BOULDER BALLOT ISSUE 2A: CLIMATE TAX Yes/For

BOULDER BALLOT ISSUE 2B: BONDS TO BE PAID FROM CLIMATE TAX Yes/For

BOULDER BALLOT QUESTION 2C: REPEAL OF LIBRARY COMMISSION AND TAX IF LIBRARY DISTRICT CREATED Yes/For

BOULDER BALLOT QUES TION 2D: CLARIFICATION OF CANDIDATE ISSUES Yes/For

BOULDER BALLOT QUESTION 2E: EVEN-YEAR MUNICIPAL ELECTION Yes/For

BOULDER BALLOT QUESTION 2F: REPEAL THE ANNEXATION OF CU SOUTH No/Against

LONGMONT BALLOT QUESTION 3A: MODERN IZATION OF CONDUCT OF CITY BUSINESS Yes/For

LONGMONT BALLOT QUESTION 3B: CHARTER AMENDMENT TO PROSPECTIVELY VACATE OFFICE No/Against

LONGMONT BALLOT QUESTION 3C: BONDS TO FUND RESILIENT ST. VRAIN PROJECT IMPROVEMENTS Yes/For

BOULDER VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT RE-2 BALLOT ISSUE 5A Yes/For

COUNTY ELECTORS PETITION ISSUE 6C: PRO POSED BOULDER PUBLIC LIBRARY DISTRICT Yes/For

A ght over nances

by Will Matuska

Every year, hundreds of delegates, activists, scientists and industry representatives spend two weeks discussing how to mitigate climate change at the Conference of the Parties (COP).

is year, COP27, is in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt from Nov. 6-18. CU Boulder is sending six people to the con ference each week. A number of people a liated with the school are also going to the conference, but got their credentials from other organizations.

Marilyn Averill is a senior fellow with the Getches-Wilkin son Center for Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment at the University of Colorado Law School. Averill, who has attended 17 COPs since 2000 but will not attend this year, believes in the incremental process of the COP. She expects this year’s conference to be focused on nancing.

“Countries that have contributed least to climate change often are the ones that are most impacted by it,” she says. “And they really want some kind of com

pensation assistance from the Global North.”

Countries held responsible for contributing most to climate change are often industrialized countries in the Global North, like the U.S. and countries in Europe. Averill says most people, especially from the Global South, would like to get a broad fund set up for loss and damage. But, she is not optimistic that a fund will be set up, beyond one for a more narrow purpose.

“ ere’s going to be a real ght over [ nances],” she says. “ e U.S. and other industrial countries are not likely to be supportive of something like that.” is year marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is organized to prevent “dangerous” human in terference in the climate system. UNFCCC’s decision making body is the COP.

While there have been some grand achievements, like establishing the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, COP has been criticized by environmen tal advocates for not ful lling promises or creating enough tangible outcomes as the e ects of climate change become more apparent.

is is not the rst time there has been talk about creating a system for compensation.

In Copenhagen in 2009, rich nations in the

Global North made a promise to channel $100 bil lion a year to less wealthy nations by 2020 to help them adapt to climate change and increase mitiga tion and adaptation e orts.

at didn’t happen. It’s the crux of the nance problem: e Global North agrees that the south needs help, but is not willing to set up a compre hensive fund to address their needs.

One reason for the foot-shu ing is how di cult it is to monetize the climate crisis and disasters, and to quantify and assign responsibility. To Averill, who has a background in law, it’s a question of liability.

“[ e U.S. delegates] are not willing to say the United States is responsible for compensating people for injuries relating to climate change,” she says.

e UNFCCC delegation system also works by consensus, so if countries are not supportive of a proposition, it won’t pass. Averill says the idea of setting up a new commitment is going to be di cult, and it is likely to get “a lot of opposition” from industrialized countries.

Because of these challenges, Averill doesn’t expect big accomplishments from the conference in Egypt.

“Trying to set up a new commitment is going to be di cult. I think it’s gonna get a lot of opposi tion, certainly from this country, but also from the EU and from other industrialized countries.”

Boulder County has three extra pairs of eyes helping detect re. e eyes, cameras built by Pano AI, use geo satellite data and eld sensors to con rm res and tip o responders, helping them verify 911 calls and react faster to emergencies.

On Oct. 20, the 20-acre Lakeridge Trail Fire was detected by the technology — the rst re it located since the partnership began in mid-Sep tember. Pano AI’s technology is meant to help communities mitigate and adapt to climate change, especially in re-prone landscapes like Boulder County.

Seth McKinney, re management o cer for the Boulder County Sheri ’s O ce, says they want to update historical tactics with modern technology.

“ is is one of the rst times we’re really trying to make an attempt to add more technology to wildland re ghting e orts,” he says.

ere are three sites scattered across the county where the cameras are installed on existing radio towers with high vantage points.

e cameras that caught the Lakeridge Trail Fire were located on Lee Hill and Mount orodin. Once detected, they pinpointed the re’s location

within 600 feet. McKinney guessed the cameras were about 6 and 12 miles away from the re’s location.

e third location is above Eldora Ski Area.

e Lakeridge Trail Fire was a unique scenario, because it was started by someone working for a landscaping company who quickly called in the re to authorities. But, Mckinney says the technology detected the smoke only a few minutes after the initial call.

e technology uses learning AI and computer vision to continuously observe the landscape within a 15-mile radius. Each station has two cameras that stitch together high-quality pictures to create a large panoramic photo that updates every minute. Once it detects and veri es a re, it sends out alerts and mobile noti cations to responders.

McKinney says the technology is particularly valuable detecting smoke in remote areas of the county and wilderness areas, because it can notify authorities well before someone could reach cell service. In more populated areas, it helps lter the many re-related 911 calls that are false alarms, along with detection.

“Detection isn’t always our challenge,” says McKinney. “It’s that actual intelligence.”

e City of Boulder, Boulder County and Xcel Energy each footed the bill for the cameras — running at $25,000 per site.

e County’s trial run for the system is up at the end of February. McKinney says the County has “roughly” talked about expanding the number of cameras, including one at the Gunbarrel radio site in Niwot.

“Ideally, I can see another three, maybe even four cameras going up in the county.”

CU sends faculty to COP27 in Egypt

Eyes on the mitigation prize AI and the future of wildfire detection in Boulder County

by Will Matuska

UP IN SMOKE: AI technology helped detect the Lakeridge Trail Fire on Oct. 20.

PANO AI

The work of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at CU Boulder is as varied and interconnected as the earth systems they study.

On any given day, one scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center might be doing research on the geopolitical impacts of Arctic change while another is educating policy makers, while data specialists and software developers work to handle datasets that are used by the likes of NASA, NOAA and scientists across the world.

“Whatever is going on with the cryosphere, you can be assured that NSIDC is part of it,” says NSIDC Director Mark Serreze. at’s saying a lot considering that the cryosphere consists of all the frozen regions of the planet including snow, ice, glaciers, sea ice, ice sheets, ice shelves, frozen ground and permafrost.

In one recent study co-authored by NSIDC Se nior Researcher Twila Moon, scientists discovered a genetically distinct, previously unknown subpopula tion of polar bears in Southeast Greenland that has adapted to use glacial ice to hunt in the absence of sea ice — which has big implications for manage ment and conservation of the species.

In another study led by Serreze, researchers are working alongside Indigenous communities to bet ter understand the impacts of rain-on-snow events in the Arctic.

And while the world of polar bears and sea ice may seem a world away from Boulder, there is per haps no place better connected to the frozen parts of our planet than the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

e center has been around for more than 40 years, but in recent years, it has increasingly prioritized collaboration across disciplines and communities. NSIDC is both a data management center and a research center, and the collaboration be tween the two is part of what makes NSIDC tick.

“We’re involved very much in the science using the data,” Serreze says. “We produce some of the data ourselves. We have this synergy between the data management side and the science side of us, and that is really what has made us so successful.”

Not only does the cryosphere span from the Arctic to the Antarctic and many regions in be tween, it’s also a rapidly changing part of the earth system that has far reaching impacts. For example, melt from ice sheets in the Arctic can in uence ocean currents and cause sea level rise in the lower and mid–latitudes, which in turn impacts coast al infrastructure. awing permafrost, or frozen ground, can release large amounts of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

“One of the fundamental parts of understanding and dealing with climate change is starting to view our world as an interconnected system,” says Moon, much of whose research centers on the Greenland

Ice Sheet. “ ere’s all of these elements, and they feed back and relate to each other.”

ese systems don’t understand borders and are fundamental to the air, water and food systems we rely on, Moon says.

“Everything is connected to everything,” Ser reze says, echoing Moon’s sentiment.

In the Arctic Rain On Snow Study being led by Serreze, researchers are studying the physical, ecological and societal impacts of rain-on-snow events, which are becoming increasingly common as the Arctic warms.

Rain on snow is a phenomenon in which rain freezes in thick ice sheets on top of snow, preventing reindeer and other animals from accessing the grasses and lichens they rely on for food, ultimately causing starvation. ese impacts can be devastating, as reindeer herding communities rely on the animals for everything from food to clothes to transportation, Serreze says.

e study is a collaboration between NSIDC researchers and the Indigenous communities who have been witnessing and are being impacted by these events. Dr. Shari Fox, a senior research scientist at NSIDC, is working to help facilitate knowledge exchange with Indigenous people, like hunters and reindeer herders.

Fox is based in the Arctic in Clyde River, Nun avut, an Inuit community on Ba n Island where she works for NSIDC remotely. She’s been working with Inuit for more than 25 years with a focus on community-led research, Indigenous self-determi nation and the “co-production of knowledge.”

“For too long, research in the Arctic has been driven by researchers from the south who have viewed the Arctic as a laboratory,” Fox wrote in an email. “It is a home, a homeland. Inuit and other Arctic Indigenous peoples are the original research ers of their own lands — they know it best.”

e work of cross-na tional research is no easy task. Building trust in communities takes time and geopolitical events can sometimes throw a wrench in the plans. e COVID-19 pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine, for example, signi cantly impacted where researchers in the Arctic Rain On Snow Study, which began in 2020, could and couldn’t travel. e work of NSIDC goes beyond working with an interconnected web of communities and scientists across the globe – it’s also about education and outreach for everyone from K-12 students to policy makers.

Moon views this education as equity work, and much of her work in this realm focuses on helping people understand our climate realities and feel connected to the cryosphere through storytelling and interactive learning.

It’s not so much about helping folks feel specif ically connected to the Arctic or to the Greenland Ice Sheet, Moon says, but rather helping folks feel connected to the changes we’re all experiencing.

“Exactly what you’re experiencing on one day can look di erent,” she says. “I might be dealing with wild re smoke while you’re dealing with a riv er ood. Someone else is dealing with trouble with growing their crops. But we’re having a very shared human experience of a system that has for so long seemed very familiar, suddenly doing things that are surprising and unexpected.”

It’s also about helping folks feel empowered. Moon says it’s reasonable to feel anger, grief and frustration over our changing climate, but she en courages individuals to nd opportunities for action within their own lives and communities.

“We still have a really wide range of future po tential paths,” she says. “We’re in a place where we do need system change, but systems are also made of individuals.”

‘Everything is connected to everything’

How the National Snow and Ice Data Center prioritizes collaboration to study climate change

by Kaylee Harter

Maintenance on the Clyde River Weather Station Network in 2022 with local technicians Esa Qillaq (left) and DJ Tigullaraq.

Shredding grass

It nally happened: the rst snow of the season in Boul der. ough little more than a dusting, the late-October snow heralded the beginning of ski season.

Helping to usher in the excitement for Colorado’s upcoming winter season is Daymaker, Warren Miller Entertainment’s 73rd annual ski and snowboard lm. With more than 200 tour dates nationally and independently, Daymaker will make its way across 31 states, four Cana dian provinces, and overseas to New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom and Iceland. Boulder eater hosts a handful of screenings Nov. 10-12.

Shot in Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Canada, Greece and Switzerland, Daymaker is a celebration of snow sports. From checking in with some of the rising stars in the skiing and snowboarding world, to examining advances in adaptive backcountry riding, following Black athletes in the National Brotherhood of Skiers and spending the day with a legend ary European mountain guide, Daymaker sets out to prove “there’s no better day than one out on the hill.”

ough online streaming has become the defacto release option for many lms — particularly niche subjects — Chris Patterson, director of Daymaker, believes in the power of a theatrical release.

“It’s a huge endeavor, and you’re really not doing it for the money,” he says. “You’re doing it purely just to stoke people out. I just feel like the in-theater experience is an entirely dif ferent movie than what you would see if you were just watching it on your television or your iPad.”

Patterson, who has worked with Warren Miller Entertainment for 30 years, says one of his favorite experi ences from Daymaker was traveling to Switzerland to lm big mountain skier Connery Lundin. Patterson says Lundin jumped at the opportunity, but Patterson had a caveat: Instead of cutting through the pristine powder of the Alps in winter, Lundin would be shredding on grass in the summer.

Invited as a method of o -season training for alpine skiers, grass skiing has become popular enough to nd traction as a sport in its own right, with world champi onships, world cup races and national competitions now held on grass skis.

“We went to Switzerland purely for this insane land scape,” Patterson explains. “He’s hauling ass down this

mountain and there are cows all over the place [and] he’s catching air and it’s stunning,” Patterson says. “It looks like a postcard.”

Despite the stoke, it was not as easy as clipping into ski bindings and shredding down a layer of fresh powder.

“It’s not like skiing at all — it’s more like riding a roller coaster,” Patterson explains. On the rst day of lming, Lundin went to make a turn on a steep slope and wiped out, breaking the grass skis in the process. Lundin explained the nerves the crew felt after the rst day.

“We were all scratching our heads thinking, ‘Man like we’re here for another 10 days. is might not work at all,’” he says. “I think we accomplished [what we wanted] in the end, but it de nitely didn’t start out good.”

Daymaker marks Lundin’s third appearance in a Warren Miller lm. e Bay-area native cut his teeth as a ski racer at the Ski Academy in Lake Tahoe until he graduated high school. Despite his plan to quit skiing and become a surf bum in Santa Barbara, Lundin decided at the last minute to attend the Leeds School of Business at CU Boulder.

“When I quit racing at 18 and moved to Boulder, skiing became fun,” Lundin says. “It was the rst time I’ve ever skied without compe tition dictating my every move.” rough school, Lundin would frequent Arapahoe Basin, where the spring skiing reminded him of his home in Tahoe.

While Daymaker touches on important topics in snow sports, it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s what Patterson thinks makes the lm stand out.

“We can show them rad snow skiing in Alaska all day long and I don’t think it’ll move the needle like the fun and goofy things,” he says. “People just can’t help but go, ‘What the heck? is is so funny.’”

ON SCREEN: Warren Miller’s Daymaker

Various times, Nov. 10-12, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tickets: $18-26, axs.com

The 73rd Warren Miller film takes a light-hearted approach to celebrating winter by Chad Robert Peterson

CONNERY LUNDIN

On the record

A year after relocating and rebranding, Paradise Found thrives as the last vinyl shop standing in Boulder story and photos

Boulder once had the highest concentration of record stores per capita in the United States, according to Paradise Found owner Will Paradise. In the 1970s, dozens of LP shops dotted the map in this idyllic foothills college town. But after this fall’s closure of the much-revered Albums on the Hill, Paradise’s bright and beautiful downtown space at 1646 Pearl St. is the last store dedicated exclusively to new and used vinyl sales.

IN THE CRATE: Vinyl buyer Patrick Selvage stocks the shelves at Paradise Found on Oct. 28 (above) and shows off some rare LPs with owner Will Paradise (right).

Paradise Found has lived many lives in many locations — frst as Bart’s Record Shop on West Pearl near Nick-N-Willy’s Pizza, and later by the Village Coffee Shop on Folsom Street. Paradise bought the store from then-owner Bart Stinchcomb in 2016, before moving the newly rebranded shop to its current East Pearl corner lot last spring. It’s exactly the kind of movement through time and space that music captures for the 62-year-old former Whole Foods executive.

“If we weren’t called Paradise Found, we would be called Time and Place, be cause that’s what music is for me,” Paradise says. “Listening to a song or album, I can tell you where I was working and who I was with. When I got married, when my kid was born — so many of my records point to some specifc time in my life.”

Now posting record-high sales numbers during a post-shutdown moment when many other local businesses are struggling, Paradise says the care with which he and his staff curate that experience for others is a big part of their success.

by Jezy J. Gray

“I’m always telling the staff to think of themselves as somme liers: Your job is to turn people on to great stuff they wouldn’t otherwise fnd,” he says. “Once they trust you, they just come in and they’re like, ‘I want to get three albums. What should I buy?’ That’s when it’s fun.”

TURN IT UP:

Best of ’22 Listening Party. 7:30-9:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 18, Paradise Found Records & Music, 1646 Pearl St., Boulder. Tickets: $10 at the door, or call 303-444-1760.

To help others along the jour ney of soundtracking their lives, Paradise Found is hosting a new-music listening party on Nov. 18, which the store’s vinyl buyer Patrick Selvage hopes to turn into a regular happening. The event will feature libations from local linchpins like Moxie Bread Co. and Avery Brewing, along with a thoughtfully curat ed selection of genre-hopping 2022 releases designed to spark conversation and help get listeners out of their comfort zones.

“Let’s say someone just listens to folk. Maybe we’ll play this hip-hop record that might have some folk infuence or something,” Selvage says. “You play it and they’re like, ‘Whoa, OK. Maybe I should listen to that.’”

But Selvage and Paradise say events like these, and the store’s broader mission at this particular time and place, go deeper than helping customers fnd their next favorite album. It’s about fostering a sense of community among people with a shared love of music.

“Right now there’s this craving for social connection for people. We really have a great community and we know our customers by name,” Paradise says. “We’ll send them texts: ‘This album came in, and I think you want it.’ For us, it’s really about that one-on-one experience. No one is doing that kind of stuff.”

And of course a big part of that one-on-one experience starts and ends with the rank-and-fle staff at Paradise Found. It’s another area where the store is defying expecta tions of the market, reporting zero turnover since relocating to the new space in March of 2021.

“At the barbershop where my son gets his haircut, it’s a different barber every three months,” Paradise says. “But at our place, [the staff] are all still here. No one has left. They’re as much a part of the environment here as anything.”

Employee Elise Colley, who has worked at the store for six years, says that’s because the job provides an opportunity to help offer an essential balm against an uncertain world. In some ways, she says her part-time job behind the counter at Paradise Found isn’t a far cry from working in her private practice as an art therapist, where she helps people process trauma through creative outlets.

“The thing that got you through the worst times of your life — I get to share that with people, and help provide that experience every day,” she says. “When someone comes in and says, ‘I’m looking for this,’ you understand that it’s more of a spiritual need than a retail need.”

THE TOP 10 NEW BESTSELLERS THIS WEEK AT PARADISE FOUND

1. Taylor Swift Midnights (Moonstone Blue Edition)

2. Tropical Fuck Storm & King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Satanic Slumber Party

3. Trampled By Turtles Alpenglow

4. Foo Fighters The Essential Foo Fighters

5. Dinosaur Jr. — Beyond (reissue)

6. King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard Omnium Gatherum

7. Pink Floyd Animals (2018 Remix)

8. Queens Of The Stone Age It Lives (reissue)

9. Arctic Monkeys

The Car

10. Alex G God Save The Animals

H Staff Pick: Leash (2021) by Little Hag, selected by employee Elise Colley

In her landmark 1977 book On Photography, Susan Sontag calls photographs a testament to “time’s relentless melt.” For the infuential essayist and cultural critic, the captured image was a sort of memento mori — a reminder that each of us, one day, will be dead.

Sontag’s sentiment comes home to roost on This Is a Photograph, the seventh LP by celebrat ed singer-songwriter Kevin Morby. The latest from the prolifc, Kansas City-based indie rock musician begins with a rumination on a photo of his dad as a young man, shirtless on the front lawn under the West Texas sun, staring down the barrel of the camera with the defant stare of a prizefghter.

“Got a glimmer in his eye,” Morby sings over the effervescent guitar jam, blooming with groove-forward organ stabs and backing vocals from the Stax Music Academy student chorus. “Seems to say: ‘This is what I’ll miss about being alive / this is what I’ll miss after I die.’”

This particular image of Morby’s father took on a searing signifcance after he collapsed one night during family dinner. His dad was rushed to the hos pital, where he eventually recovered from the scare, as Morby and the rest of his family pored through old photos of the loved one they nearly lost.

“He would have been the same age I was looking at that photograph, and it also would have been the same year I was born, looking at the camera with this sort of overconfdent gaze on his face,” Morby says. “It just seemed like that photo was having this direct conversation with the inci dent that had taken place a couple hours before.”

This conversation between life and death drives the remaining 10 tracks on This Is a Photograph , which finds Morby contemplating mortality with his trademark disarming poeti cism. Heartbreakers like the banjo-forward Erin Rae duet “Bittersweet, TN,” mingle with winking pop-rock gems like “Rock Bottom” and moody mid-tempo bops like “Disappearing,” before re turning to the interior worlds of Morby’s parents in the bookend album closer — bringing it all

back home to “a family growing old, inside the boxing ring of time.”

Despite the heaviness of his subject, Morby manages to keep his buoyant new full-length from sinking beneath the weight of its themes through out the course of its 45-minute runtime. The grim specter of death never quite dissolves from the frame, but it never quite overcomes the album’s tender celebration of life either.

“One of the main goals was to look at the tragedy of death, which is the subject matter of the record, from a different angle,” Morby says. “To be alive at all is such a pleasure and a privilege. So let’s celebrate that, instead of mourning.”

Southern soul

But death isn’t the only spirit haunting This Is a Photograph. The historic southern city of Memphis, where Morby fnished writing and recording the album, looms large throughout. From late infuential singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley to slain civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr. and the soul-and-funk heritage of the city’s legendary Stax Records, dis parate fgures from the Home of the Blues left their mark on the 34-year-old artist as he completed his life-affrming new LP.

“A lot of these stories have this thing in com mon: They were dreamers who, in pursuit of their dream, got taken too early,” Morby says. “It didn’t feel like a coincidence that there was a through line to so many people there, and I just found it fascinating.”

To mine this place-specifc inspiration, Morby

holed up in a suite at the historic Peabody Hotel downtown while the world was still largely shuttered in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. He describes this time as a sort of creative oasis among the chaos of the moment, his only visitors being the hotel’s celebrity North American mallards who dutifully completed their red-carpet “Duck March” to the fountain in the main lobby each day.

ON THE BILL: Kevin Morby with Coco. 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. Tickets: $25, axs.com

“It was still a very scary time, though — it was pre-vaccine, and Trump was still in offce. It was insane,” Morby says. “But I spent a lot of time alone in the company of all these stories. It’s the most I’ve ever tried to get inside of my songs and do the research for them. And I do feel like it paid off in this big way.”

While the resulting This Is a Photograph takes listeners on a journey through the beating heart of southern soul, it never strays far from the animating force of its opening salvo: that haunting front-lawn image of Morby’s father — “a window to the past.” Memento mori.

“We open with that song every night, and watching people sing along really resonates with the sentiment: ‘This is what I’ll miss about being alive,’” Morby says. “I think a lot of people feel that way about seeing live music and being at a show. So it’s really doing what I hoped it would do. It’s bringing people together for this nice moment.”

Death in Memphis Prolific singer-songwriter Kevin Morby talks mortality, music and memory ahead of Nov. 5 performance at the Gothic Theatre

by Jezy J. Gray

Battle royale

by Toni Tresca

The worlds of sports and theater may feel distinctly separate, but Butterfy Effect Theatre of Colora do's upcoming production of The Royale invites audiences to consider the theatricality of sports. The 2015 piece by playwright Marco Ramirez brings the boxing ring inside the theater for an ac tion-packed drama about one boxer's refusal to be held back by systemic racism.

Written by the son of Cuban immigrants, the award-winning play set during the Jim Crow era is based on the true story of Jack Johnson, the frst African Amer ican heavyweight world champion. It follows fctional boxer Jay "The Sport" Jackson, who dreams of being the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. But it’s 1905 in the racially segregated world of boxing, and white fghters refuse to give him a crack at the title.

One day, a crooked boxing promoter proposes “the fght of the century,” presenting Jay with the opportunity to make history. “But before he can win the title, he must reckon with the responsibilities of representing his family and community as the frst Black fghter to enter the white boxing world.

“The Royale uses theatricality to explore and ponder timely social tensions,” says Stephen Weitz, Butterfy Ef fect Theatre Company (BETC) co-founder and producing artistic director. “It also gets to the profound issues of progress, and the cost of that progress to both self and family. Ultimately, this is not about boxing — it is about family and community."

After a pandemic-induced postponement during the 2020-2021 season, The Royale opened last weekend at the Dairy Arts Center's Carsen Theater in Boulder, with a scheduled run through Nov. 19. The production is direct ed by Jada Suzanne Dixon, artistic director of Curious Theatre Company and a frequent BETC collaborator. Weitz discovered the play a year before the

shutdown and immediately thought of Dixon as the director, so he sent it to her to read.

"I thought it was stunning," Dix on says, noting the play's rhythmic language and poignant themes about the brutality of the human experience. "I loved right away that the playwright used boxing as a metaphor for life."

In fighting shape

Dixon was the frst to join the production team and, according to Weitz, has been instrumental in guiding the show's evolution. Because of their organization's mission to foster an inclusive environment for artists, BETC sought to have as many people of color on the production team as possible. The company had already assembled the cast and crew when they learned that the production would have to be delayed due to COVID-19. This setback forced BETC to make adjustments to the crew, swap roles among cast members, and hold another round of auditions.

Lavour Addison was originally cast in a supporting role as a character named Fish, but was offered the central role of the history-making heavyweight after the departure of a cast member. He and Dixon had previ ously worked together at the Arvada Center on Lydia Dia mond’s 2006 comedy-drama Stick Fly. So, when Dixon asked him to audition early in the process, he agreed.

"Jada is a fantastic director who knows how to com municate with an actor without making them feel inferior," he says.

As a Black actor, Addison says he says he is constantly navigating thorny issues of representation onstage. He was ecstatic to be given the opportunity to play Jay, one of his dream roles, which he had unsuccess fully auditioned for in graduate school. His previous experience trying out for the role offered a stark reminder of the challenges facing actors of color.

"I was told I wasn't big enough and Black enough for the role," Addi son says.

But having landed the part in the new BETC pro

duction, the next step was getting in shape — so he began training like a boxer. His workout consisted of four-mile runs followed by punching-bag work. Addison also spent a lot of time watching boxing and footwork videos. He was particularly inspired by the style of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.

ON STAGE: Butterfy Effect Theatre Company presents The Royale. Various times through Nov. 19, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: betc.org

"If you watch his videos, he's electric in the ring," Addison says. "I would pay attention to the power and speed of his punches, and I wanted to emulate that so that the audience felt engaged not only in the theatrical performance but also in the competitive arena of sports."

Early in the rehearsal process, BETC sent the cast to Front Range Boxing Academy in Boulder to train with real instructors. Dixon emphasized the importance of the actor's physicality and asked them to consider "how the ensemble would collectively navigate the space." The small size of the theater made it ideal for a boxing ring. Audience members in the front row will have ringside seating, but this proximity also requires extraordinary focus and intentionality from the fve-person cast.

"I want people to talk about what they experienced after they leave the theater,” Dixon says. “It's about more than just entertainment; it's about the connection you feel in the room."

Similarly, Addison says he’s looking forward to fnally being able to share his work with audiences. "Sometimes as an actor, you feel like you're always waiting," he says. "I auditioned for this early in the pandemic, and I'm just excited to share this story with an audience."

Even though COVID continues to cause disruptions throughout the world, BETC is eager to welcome theater goers back with their production of The Royale

“It’s a critical time in the art world,” Weitz says. "And the arts organizations that you support, BETC or other organizations, need people to come back and support them now.”

A new production by Boulder’s Butterfly Effect Theatre explores systemic racism through the lens of boxing

by Michael J. Casey

Reel to reel

Return of the Boulder Jewish Film Festival and Denver Film Festival

GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT

Two flm festivals return this weekend, both celebrating mile stone anniversaries. Let’s start at the Dairy Arts Center, with the 10th annual Boulder Jewish Film Festival. Screening 18 international movies from Nov. 3–13, the BJFF opens Thursday with the Boulder premiere of Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song You know the song. You probably know John Cale’s version, maybe even Jeff Buckley’s. You’ve heard it in movies like Watchman and TV shows like Scrubs. We’re not talking just iconic, but ubiquitous. But you might not know the number of revisions Cohen went through while writing and performing the song and the reasons — personal, spiritual and commercial — that went into the song’s composition. Directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfne assemble an impressive collection of interviews, a slew of archival material and more renditions of “Hallelujah” than you ever knew you needed.

ON SCREEN: The Boulder Jewish Film Festival, Nov. 3–13, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., boulderjcc.org

And as long as we’re talking docs, make sure to carve out time for Speer Goes to Hollywood (Nov. 4), Israeli director Vanessa Lapa’s excoriation of Albert Speer. Speer was Adolph Hitler’s ally and chief architect, but unlike Hermann Göring and Alfred Jodi, he was not sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials. His excuse: He did not know about the crimes being committed — though he had no qualms claiming that upwards of 12 million toiled under him as slave labor.

In 1969, Speer wrote a bestselling memoir, Inside the Third Reich. Paramount tried to adapt the book into a feature flm, and Lapa uses the meetings between Speer and Hollywood screenwriter Andrew Birkin as the framing device to explore Speer’s life, his complicity and Hollywood’s fascination with trying to fnd men among monsters. It’s a powerful and troubling documentary that won’t leave you any time soon.

• • • •

Down south, the 45th Denver Film Festival (DFF) un spools across the Mile High City over the next two weekends. Sticking with the documentary theme, DFF offers quite a few worth your time, including Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter (Nov. 3 and 8).

ON SCREEN: The 45th Denver Film Festival, Nov. 3–13, multiple ven ues, denverflm.org

A driven perfectionist and a kitchen tyrant, Trotter was known for putting Chicago on the fne dining map in the 1990s and for never serving the same dish twice — and that’s over 25 years of service, 10 courses a night. Trotter was among the frst wave of celebrity chefs and gave vegetables their due on the dinner table. Both of which director Rebecca Halpern highlights in this fascinating and engaging doc that falters at the fnish line by papering over one of Trotter’s demons.

That’s not the issue in All That Breathes (Nov. 9 and 10), Shaunak Sen’s documen tary about two Muslim brothers rescuing and rehabilitating kite birds from New Delhi’s smog-choked skies, and Good Night Oppy (Nov. 3), Ryan White’s crowd-pleasing look at NASA’s Mars rover mission, Opportunity. All That Breathes is quiet and contempla tive — like a chamber piece. Good Night Oppy is bombastic and direct and loaded with pop-fueled needle drops. Both are family friendly, and depending on what feld of study your little ones are interested in, they’re sure they’ll fnd inspiration here.

Native noir

Dark magic gallops through ‘White Horse,’ a new novel by Denver author Erika T. Wurth exploring hard-boiled horror through an Indigenous lens

by Bart Schaneman

Indigenous art is fnally having its long-overdue moment in American culture. From TV shows Reservation Dogs and Dark Winds with predominantly Native American casts, to novels from Colorado writers like Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s Woman of Light and Stephen Graham Jones’ My Heart Is a Chainsaw, the range of Indigenous voices and perspectives has never been more prominently featured in mainstream art.

Now add another important work: Erika T. Wurth’s White Horse. Released Nov. 1 via Flatiron Books, it’s a horror novel about an Indigenous woman’s quest to discover the truth of her family’s past after coming upon an artifact haunted by her mother’s spirit.

As an urban Native writer of Apache, Chickasaw and Cherokee descent, Wurth says this cultural moment is a chance for Indigenous people and the rest of the country to experience the depth and diversity of their art on a larger scale.

“For Native readers and watchers, it’s an opportunity to fnally see ourselves on the screen and page,” she says. “For everyone else, it’s an opportunity to enjoy the genuinely good work that we do and were always capable of doing.”

A hard-boiled tour

Through the novel’s tough, noir-ish narration, we meet Kari James — a 35-year-old bartender from Denver who loves Stephen King, Megadeth and drinking at the White Horse Bar. The story kicks off when her cousin Debby gives her a bracelet that invokes visions of Kari’s mysteriously dis appeared mother and a Chickasaw boogeyman called the Lofa. Kari then embarks on a quest to discover what happened to her mom.

The quest leads her to several area landmarks, including Denver dive bars, the kitschy and run down Lakeside Amusement Park and the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, the original inspiration for Stephen King’s The Shining, where Wurth pays homage to the author’s infuence on her work.

Wurth, who lives in Denver, knows the landscape well, having spent time in these places at various ages in her life. She views this novel in part as a homage to old Denver, which she sees as dying.

“For example, the White Horse Bar has been bought and will certainly be bulldozed over,” Wurth says.

To research the Stanley Hotel section, the writer took her niece along and stayed in an allegedly haunted

MICHAEL TEAK

room that she describes in the book.

“Which supposedly has an angry white man who glares at you from the corners, and might scratch you,” she says. “We brought him a spirit plate, and every time we talked to him, thanking him for letting us stay in his room, the light fickered.”

Throughout the book it’s clear Wurth is pulling from an intimate knowl edge of the region and its people to shape the narrative, from the depth of the characterization to the Colorado landmarks.

Take, for instance, this pas sage:

“Walking through Lakeside was like moving into a bygone era. The faded yellow entrance with ‘Lakeside’ in cursive — yellow and orange sunbeams shooting out of the lettering — was peeling, and the building hadn’t been the bright white of the past for many, many years. But my past was still there, a past that belonged in a city that in ways no longer existed. In the dream I’d had with my mother, Lakeside had been young, bright, beautiful.”

‘Portal to another world’

The impetus for White Horse came from a mystery around the death of Wurth’s grandmother. The story had been that she died by suicide, but after a police offcer looked at the death certifcate, Wurth’s mother was told that the paperwork looked doctored, and it was possible her husband had murdered her.

“The disagreement around what happened in my family is a tension that’s obviously penetrated into my very psyche,” she says.

Wurth says she chose to write this story as a horror novel because she sees herself primarily as a paranormal writer.

“I love the idea of a portal to another world,” Wurth adds. “It allows me to express the darker parts of the gritty realism that I wrote in before, but it allows all of that dark magic that I adored as a child in as well.”

As evidenced by the work of flm director Jordan Peele and novelist Gabino Iglesias, horror as a genre can be a powerful lens into the Ameri can experience, and in particular, the experience of BIPOC Americans.

“The commonality is the exposure to historical genocide, colonization and slavery — parts of history that BIPOC people have in common that follow us to this day,” Wurth says. “Horror allows people to express, met aphorically, the big and small fears that they have on a very human level, and a very political level, in a way that’s productive and cathartic.”

Several factors have contributed to the appetite for amplifed voices from BIPOC creators in the cultural discourse. One example Wurth cites is the Twitter hashtag #PublishingPaidMe, which helped shed light on discrepancies in how much certain writers were paid versus others, often showing that people of color were getting short shrift.

Protest movements like Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock have also played a role, according to Wurth. But it’s not just readers who are hungry for more stories from BIPOC communities in the wake of these culture-shifting social uprisings.

“Publishers too are realizing that they’re not going to make the money that they’re complaining about not making unless they actually allow diverse voices in the country to read,” she says.

ALREADY MISSING HALLOWEEN?

Here are fve horror, dark fantasy, or dark crime novels Erika T. Wurth loves:

1. Mexican Gothic by Silvia More no Garcia. “It’s smart, it’s fun and it’s just wonderfully weird. (The bad guy is a mushroom). I love that the main char acter is a person of Indigenous descent who is saucy and smart, and that the novel takes place in Mexico in the ’50s.”

2. Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. “I think Roanhorse has sin gle-handedly changed Native American literature. This novel is imaginative and brilliantly executes multiple points of view, but it also gives you a ticket to a magical version of Maya territory that’s almost nostalgic.”

3. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix “Essentially, Hendrix could write a novel every three months and I would just read his work until I was dead or he was. So, glad he isn’t doing that. This book is visceral. A feminist tour de force, it addresses race in possibly the smartest and fairest way I’ve ever seen a non-BIPOC person do — and on top of [that], it’s one of those novels you tear through because you absolutely have to get to the end.”

4. Ring Shout by P Djèlí Clark “Clark is normally a fantasy writer, and he’s also a professor like me, but this novella is horror. And it’s the sharpest discussion, and the most organic and perversely fun one, when it comes to racism in the South during the civil rights era I’ve ever read. There are swords. Other worlds. African American gods and goddesses. It’s a killer.”

5. Winter Counts by David Heska Wanbli Weiden “Full disclosure, Weiden is my partner—but he’s also the wildly talented thriller author of a novel that follows Virgil, a vigilante on the Rosebud reservation. He’s been nominated for countless crime and literary awards, and there’s a reason. This is just a killer novel.”

Climate change is a daunting and complex problem, but sci ence can help us fnd solutions. To that end, astrophysicist Jeffrey Bennett will explain the science and consequences of global warming at the Fiske Planetarium during this fascinating twonight talk. Bennet will also envision a “post-global warming area” in which a future generation looks back on the climate change crisis as a once-daunting problem we found a way to solve.

H Expression Through Experience

7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, First Congregational Church, 1128 Pine St., Boulder. Tickets: $5-$25, eventbrite.com

Cantabile invites you to sing and create alongside visual artists in a participatory and immersive multimedia concert. Audience members will create art in response to the music of performers Betsy Cole and Melinda Driscoll, and even lend their voices to one of the performers’ pieces.

Transparency and the Tech Sector

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4, Wittemyer Courtroom, Wolf Law Building, 2450 Kittredge Loop Drive, Boulder. Tickets: $40 general admission, free for CU affliates

Silicon Flatirons is a group that serves students, entrepre neurs, policymakers and professionals to support Colorado Law at CU Boulder. Their day-long conference on Nov. 4 will bring together experts across multiple areas of law to discuss the role transparency can play in regulating the technological sector.

ON STAGE: It’s the last weekend to catch Raised on Ronstadt, the world premiere one-woman show exploring music, memory and identity through family his tory. Starring GerRee Hinshaw, this intimate and moving Local Theater Company production at Boulder’s eTown Hall will have you tapping your toes with the hits of Linda Rond stadt and more. See listing below for details.

Raised on Ronstadt eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. Through Nov. 6. Tick ets: $12-$40, localtheaterco.org

The Royale Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Nov. 19. Tickets: $17$30, betc.org

Mary Poppins The Spark, 4847 Pearl St., Boulder. Through Nov. 20. Tickets: $18-$34, thesparkcreates.org

The Crown. Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Garner Galleria The atre,1101 13th St., Denver. Tickets: $42, denvercenter.org

Theater of the Mind. York Street Yards, 3887 Steele St., Denver. Through Dec. 18. Tickets: $65, theateroftheminddenver.com

H Follies, Falcons, Flakes & Formations

1-3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, Centennial Trailhead, 301 Sunshine Canyon Drive, Boulder. Tickets: $27, bouldervalley.augusoft.net

Explore Mount Sanitas with naturalist Suzanne Michot to learn about the geology and wildlife in the Sanitas area. Grab your hiking shoes and water, because Michot will take you up 500 feet over three miles to reach the best spots on the trail.

MICHAEL ENSMINGER

CITY OF BOULDER

H Origins: The Fertile Crescent

4-5:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5 and Sunday Nov. 6, First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce St., Boulder. Tickets: $5-$20, boulderchorale.org

The Boulder Chorale highlights music from Middle Eastern and Northern African countries in this international music showdown. Performances will feature songs by Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum and arrangements by Adam Waite with music from Israel, Afghani stan, Spain, Morocco and Syria.

ON THE BILL: indie-pop duo Sara bring their heart-melt ing melodies to the Gothic Theatre in Englewood on Tuesday, Nov. 9, with support from singer-songwriter Tomberlin The band returns to the Front Range on the heels of their latest LP, Crybaby, released last month via Mom + Pop. See listing for details.

n FRIDAY, NOV. 4

H Native American Documentary Film Series

3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, Stewart Auditorium, 400 Quail Road, Longmont. Free, reservations recommended

The Longmont Museum is recognizing Native American Heritage Month by presenting documentary flms focused on the Northern Arapaho of the Wind River Reservation, whose traditional territory includes what is now Longmont. The screening will conclude with an audience Q&A.

H Jennette McCurdy

7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Tickets: $2 students, $7 faculty and staff, $10 public, eventbrite.com

CU Boulder’s Distinguished Speakers Board (DSB) will host Jennette McCurdy, an American writer, director, podcaster and actress, to speak about her New York Times bestselling book I’m Glad My Mom Died, where she talks about her life, rise to fame, and struggles to retake control of her life. McCurdy writes for the Huffngton Post, Wall Street Journal, and hosts the podcast Empty Inside

Carsie Blanton with Edie Carey. 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. Tickets: $24, etown. org

Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros. 8 p.m. Mis sion Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Tickets: $75-$125, axs.com

Liver Down the River. 8:30 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Tickets: $15 cash cover

n SATURDAY, NOV. 5

Revell-Lewis Quintet. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $10 student, $20 adult

Derek Dames Ohl. 7 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Free

Cory Wong featuring Sierra Hull and Robbie Wulfsohn. 8:30 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tick ets: $37, axs.com

Kevin Morby. 9 p.m. Gothic Theater, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. Tickets: $25, axs.com

n SUNDAY, NOV. 6

FY5. 7 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Tickets: $15 cash cover

LAPOMPE featuring Jeremy Mohney. 8 p.m. Chautauqua Audi-

torium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. Tickets: $17-$20

Brasstracks. 8 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. Tickets: $25, axs.com

n TUESDAY, NOV. 8

Noah Kahan with special guest Adam Melchor — Night 1. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tick ets: $32, axs.com

Tegan and Sara with Tomberlin. 8 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. Tickets: $45, axs.com

n WEDNESDAY, NOV. 9

Noah Kahan with special guest Adam Melchor — Night 2. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tick ets: $32, axs.com

Madi Diaz with Caroline Spence. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 483 Logan St., Denver. Tickets: $20, etix.com

n THURSDAY, NOV. 10

Lucius with Shamir. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $35-$40, axs.com

David Wilcox. 8 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boul der. Tickets: $32-$35, chautauqua.com

The Brothers Comatose. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $22, axs.com

TREVOR BRADY

ON VIEW: Collabora tive printmaking takes center stage in On ward and Upward: Shark’s Ink, an exhibition exploring the “Sharkive” col lection from the Lyons-based print publisher and lithography studio directed by artist Bud Shark. Learn more about the CU Art Museum exhibition on display through July 2023 in the listing below.

Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer Denver Art Muse um, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver. Through Nov. 6. Tickets: $13, denverartmuseum.org

Marcella Marsella: Aqueous Bodies. BMoCA at Macky, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Through Nov. 13. Tickets: $2, bmoca.org

Water is Life Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Nov. 19. Free

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

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

Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver. Through Jan. 22. Tickets: $21 (Colo rado 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 Contempo rary Art Denver, 1485 Delgany St., Denver. Through Feb. 5. Tickets: $10, mcadenver.org

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

PATRICK CAMPBELL

H Sound Bath

7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, The Healing Studio, 18 Garden Center, Broomfeld. Tickets: thehealingstudio.as.me

Join Melissa DeRenzo in a session full of vibration and sound to calm your mind and body. DeRenzo is a yoga teacher, reiki master and has a certifcation through the Vibration Sound Association. In this session, you’ll enter a meditative state with the help of Himalayan singing bowls.

H Total Lunar Eclipse Hike

9:30-11:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, South Pool, 3300 Huron Peak Ave., Superior. Free

The Town of Superior is hosting a 2-mile guided night hike on the Coyote Ridge Open Space Trails to enjoy the lunar eclipse. After the hike, partici pants will view the eclipse during its peak of 10:59 p.m. Bring headlamps, water, snacks and hiking shoes for your evening adventure.

H Wild Turkeys!

10:30 a.m.-noon Wednesday, Nov. 9, near Boulder, location provided when registering. Free

Want to learn more about our feathered friends ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday? Boulder County Parks and Open Space will teach you all about turkeys during this Wildlife Wednesday event. This program is suitable for families and kids of all ages and includes hands-on crafts and play.

H 1st Series at the MUSE

5:30-8 p.m. Thursday Nov. 10, Museum of Boulder at Tebo Center, 2205 Broadway. Tickets: $15, museumofboulder.org

The Museum of Boulder at Tebo Center is providing a space to share the sounds of Latin jazz from musi cians like Victor Mestas, Martin Better and Joseph Lukasik. The event will kick off with an informal viewing of the museum’s ongoing Voices Vivas exhibit at 5:30 p.m., followed by music at 6 p.m.

H Warren Miller’s Daymaker

Various times, Nov. 10-12, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tickets: $20-$26, axs.com

Pow is on the mountains. Winter is coming. Get prepped for the ski sea son with Daymaker, Warren Miller Entertainment’s 73rd annual ski and snow board flm at Boulder Theater. You’ll see some of the most exciting skiers and snowboarders shred the most-wicked of slopes from all over the globe.

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: When you Aries people are at your best, you are driven by impeccable integrity as you translate high ideals into practical action. You push on with tireless force to get what you want, and what you want is often good for others, too. You have a strong sense of what it means to be vividly alive, and you stimulate a similar awareness in the people whose lives you touch. Are you always at your best? Of course not. No one is. But according to my analysis of upcoming astrological omens, you now have extra potential to live up to the elevated standards I described. I hope you will take full advantage.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: In my experience, you Tauruses often have more help available than you realize. You underestimate your power to call on support, and as a result, don’t call on it enough. It may even be the case that the possible help gets weary of waiting for you to summon it, and basically goes into hiding or fades away. But let’s say that you, the lucky person reading this horoscope, get inspired by my words. Maybe you will respond by becoming more forceful about recognizing and claiming your potential blessings. I hope so! In my astrolog ical opinion, now is a favorable time for you to go in quest of all the help you could possibly want. (PS: Where might the help come from? Sources you don’t expect, perhaps, but also familiar influences that expand beyond their previous dispensations.)

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Sometimes, life compels us to change. It brings us some shock that forces us to adjust. On other occasions, life doesn’t pressure us to make any shifts, but we nevertheless feel drawn to initiating a change. My guess is that you are now experiencing the latter. There’s no acute discomfort pushing you to revise your rhythm. You could probably continue with the status quo for a while. And yet, you may sense a growing curiosity about how your life could be dif ferent. The possibility of instigating a transformation intrigues you. I suggest you trust this intuition. If you do, the coming weeks will bring you greater clarity about how to proceed.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: “We suffer more often in imagination than in reality,” wrote ancient Roman philosopher Seneca. That’s certainly true about me. If all the terrible things I have worried about had actually come to pass, I would be unable to func tion. Luckily, most of my fears have remained mere fantasies. What about you, fellow Cancerian? The good news is that in the coming months, we Crabs will have unprecedented power to tamp down and dissipate the phantasms that rouse anxiety and alarm. I predict that as a result, we will suffer less from imaginary problems than we ever have before. How’s that for a spectacular prophecy?

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: Poet Matt Michael writes, “Sure, the way trees talk is poetry. The shape of the moon is poetry. But a hot dog is also poetry. LeBron James’ tomahawk dunk over Kevin Garnett in the 2008 NBA Playoffs is poetry. That pothole I always fail to miss on Parkman Road is poetry, too.” In accor dance with current astrological omens, Leo. I’d love for you to adopt Michael’s approach. The coming days will be a favorable time to expand your ideas about what’s lyrical, beautiful, holy, and meaningful. Be alert for a stream of omens that will offer you help and inspiration. The world has subtle miracles to show you.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Virgo author Michael Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka, but as a child moved to England and later to Canada. His novel Running in the Family describes his expe riences upon returning to his native Sri Lanka as an adult. Among the most delightful: the deluge of novel sensory sen sations. On some days, he would spend hours simply smelling things. In accordance with current astrological omens, I rec ommend you treat yourself to comparable experiences, Virgo. Maybe you could devote an hour today to mindfully inhaling various aromas. Tomorrow, meditate on the touch of lush

textures. On the next day, bathe yourself in sounds that fill you with rich and interesting feelings. By feeding your senses like this, you will give yourself an extra deep blessing that will literally boost your intelligence.

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: You evolved Libras understand what’s fair and just. That’s one of your potencies, and it provides a fine service for you and your allies. You use it to glean objective truths that are often more valuable than everyone’s subjective opinions. You can be a stirring mediator as you deploy your knack for impartiality and evenhandedness. I hope these tal ents of yours will be in vivid action during the coming weeks. We non-Libras need extra-strong doses of this stuff.

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Here are tips on how to get the most out of the next three weeks: 1. Be a master of simmering, ruminating, marinating, steeping, fermenting, and effervescing. 2. Summon intense streams of self-forgiveness for any past event that still haunts you. 3. Tap into your forbidden thoughts so they might heal you. Discover what you’re hiding from yourself so it can guide you. Ask yourself prying questions. 4. Make sure your zeal always synergizes your allies’ energy, and never steals it. 5. Regularly empty your metaphorical trash so you always have enough room inside you to gleefully breathe the sweet air and exult in the earth’s beauty.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: “I straddle reality and the imagination,” says Sagittarian singer-songwriter Tom Waits. “My reality needs imagination like a bulb needs a socket. My imagination needs reality like a blind man needs a cane.” I think that’s great counsel for you to emphasize in the coming weeks. Your reality needs a big influx of energy from your imagination, and your imagination needs to be extra well-grounded in reality. Call on both influences with maximum intensity!

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: Sometimes, Capricorn, you appear to be so calm, secure, and capable that people get a bit awed, even worshipful. They may even get caught up in trying to please you. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily—as long as you don’t exploit and manipulate those people. It might even be a good thing in the coming weeks, since you and your gang have a chance to accomplish big improvements in your shared resources and environment. It would take an extra push from everyone, though. I suspect you’re the leader who’s best able to incite and orchestrate the extra effort.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: If you have been posing as a normal person for too long, I hope you will create fresh outlets for your true weird self in the weeks ahead. What might that entail? I’ll throw out a couple of ideas. You could welcome back your imaginary friends and give them new names like Raw Goodness and Spiral Trickster. You might wear fake vam pire teeth during a committee meeting or pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster to send you paranormal adventures. What other ideas can you imagine about how to have way too much fun as you draw more intensely on your core eccentricities?

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: I suspect you will have metaphorical resem blances to a duck in the coming weeks: an amazingly adapt able creature equally at home on land, in the water, and in the air. You will feel comfortable anywhere you choose to wander. And I’m guessing you will want to wander farther and wider than you usually do. Here’s another quality that you and ducks will share: You’ll feel perfectly yourself, relaxed and confident, no matter what the weather is. Whether it’s cloudy or shiny, rainy or misty, mild or frigid, you will not only be unflappable, you will thrive on the variety. Like a duck, Pisces, you may not attract a lot of attention. But I bet you will enjoy the hell out of your life exactly as it is.

by Dan Savage

Dear “Savage Love” Readers: After Nov. 14, my website Savage.Love will become the exclusive online home for my column. My column will still appear in print in some publications, but you will no longer be able to read the column online anywhere other than Savage.Love. This move will allow me to continue bringing you new columns every week. I hope you will check out Savage.Love, where you can join the community of “Savage Love” readers and enjoy my latest columns, decades of archives, the “Savage Lovecast” podcast, and much more. —Dan

Dear Dan: I’m a woman in a hetero marriage. We’ve happily played with others a bit but not recently because we have a small child. We are both bi and in our 40s. We talked about getting the monkeypox vaccine, but I didn’t think it was urgent because we’re not currently having sex with anyone else. Here’s my question: What should I do after learning that my husband got the monkeypox vaccine without telling me? I noticed a red bump on his arm, and he said it was nothing. After I said it looked like the monkeypox vax reaction, he admit ted he got the vaccine but didn’t tell me. I was in favor of him getting the vaccine, so I’m totally panicking because he sneaked to get the shot. I think he’s cheating. It’s 2 a.m. where I am, and I just ordered two at-home HIV/AIDS tests and I’m getting a full STI panel at my OBGYN on Monday. What should I do? I’m a wreck.

—Seriously Panicking Over Unap proved Shot And Lies

Dear SPOUSAL: By the time you read this, SPOUSAL, those at-home HIV/AIDS tests will have arrived, and you will have your results. You’ll also have seen your OB GYN and most likely gotten the results of your STI tests. Assuming there were no un pleasant surprises — assuming you’re still negative for all the same things you were negative for the last time you tested — what does that mean?

While I don’t wanna cause you another sleepless night, SPOUSAL, your test re sults can all be negative and your husband could still be cheating on you. But in the absence of other evidence, I think your husband deserves the beneft of the doubt. Getting the monkeypox vaccine is the only fact in evidence here, SPOUSAL, and it’s a huge leap from, “My husband got the monkeypox vaccine without telling me,” and, “My husband has been cheating on me with other men during a public health crisis that has primarily impacted gay and bi men and wasn’t using condoms with those

other men and knowingly put me at risk of contracting monkeypox and HIV.” If your husband has a history of being reckless about his own sexual health and yours — if he tried to go bare without your consent when you played with other people, for example, and that incident and others like it fueled your freakout — I don’t understand why you’re still married to this man.

I can think of a few very good reasons why a married bi guy might decide to get the monkeypox vaccine even if his partner wanted him to wait. First, those shots haven’t been easy to get. If the vaccine became available where you live and/or his doctor offered it to him, it was a good idea for him to get his shots even if he’s not currently sleeping with anyone else. And why would his partner — why would you — want him to wait? If you didn’t want him to get those shots as some sort of insurance policy, e.g., if you wanted cheating to be needlessly and avoidably risky as some sort of deterrent, that seems pretty reckless.

I’m guessing your husband got his shots because he hopes you — the both of you — can start playing with others again in the near future and he wants to be ready. Guys have to wait a month after getting their frst shot before getting their second shot, and another two weeks after that before they’re fully immune. (Or as immune as they’re going to get.) If your husband has been looking forward to opening your relationship back up — by mutual consent — sometime in the near future, he most likely wanted to be ready to go when you decided, together, to resume playing with others. And he didn’t tell you he was getting the shots because, although he wanted to be ready to go when the time came, he knew you weren’t ready and didn’t want you to feel rushed or pressured.

My analysis of the situation presumes your husband isn’t a lying, cheating, incon siderate, reckless asshole and deserves the beneft of the doubt here. You know your husband better than I do, SPOUSAL, and it’s entirely possible that your husband has proven himself to be a liar and a cheat and an inconsiderate asshole and a reckless idiot again and again and again.

But if that’s the case — if he’s all of those horrible, no-good, disqualifying things and, therefore, not deserving of the beneft of the doubt here — I would ask you again (and again and again): Why are you still married to him then?

Email questions@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Find columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at savage.love.

Longmont Humane Society

9595 Nelson Road, Longmont, longmonthumane.org

Critter Classifeds 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.

Longmont Humane Society 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 at editorial@boulderweekly.com.

Special Edition: Rat-apalooza!

LONGMONT HUMANE SOCIETY is lucky enough to have several rats available for adoption. Meet Apple, Chestnuts, Fall and Harvest! Rats often get a bad reputa tion, but these lovely ladies would like you to know that rats are intelligent, affection ate and social animals. They make excellent pets for kids and adults alike and often form close bonds with their owners. Apple, Chestnuts, Fall and Harvest are a little shy right now so they would love a home where they can go slow and learn to get to know you. Because rats are such social animals, we ask that these girls go to a home with one or more of their cage-mates. Stop by for a visit with some of the coolest animals out there!

Note: The animals you see here may have been adopted since this article was written. Visit longmonthumane.org to view all available animals.

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 colorado gives.org/organization/Longmonthumanesociety.

A

modern Japan in

Adventures in green tomato cookery

When you hear “green tomatoes,” does the word “fried” come to mind automat ically? Aside from that Southern classic of breaded green tomato slices fried golden, few people have any idea of what else to do with hard, unripe tomatoes. Last week at a blustery farmer’s market, there were green tomatoes for sale. But nobody — vendors or customers alike — had the foggiest idea what else to do with them, beyond the obvious.

by Ari LeVaux

On that almost-last market of the year, I decided to add green tomatoes to a stew of the most colorful nuggets of produce I could fnd. Waxy golden potatoes, orange-feshed squash, fully ripened red Anaheim peppers, and dark green kale. I cooked this farm-grown bounty with wild rice, a deer bone, and locally foraged chanterelles and lobster mush rooms. The fungus gave all of its earthy favor to the broth. And the slices of green tomato from the pile on the counter did what a squeeze of lemon could otherwise have done — cut through the butter, oil and meat juices and sharpen the favor.

ON YOUR PLATE:

Hard, unripe tomatoes cook down in a stew and add a pleas ant sharpness that cuts through butter, oil and meat juices.

Most soups or stews could probably beneft from some pieces of in-season, non-fried green tomatoes, so don’t be afraid to chop and throw some in. They won’t bother you, and will probably just melt away, especially if you chop them small enough. And beyond the soup pot, any dish that could stand a squeeze of lemon could probably use a strategically placed green tomato along the way.

A few days later I discovered how to make a green tomato sauce by accident while cooking caulifower with bacon. As the bacon browned, I added some green tomato slices to see what would happen. They vanished into a simmering re duction. I added the caulifower and cooked it in the sauce until it was soft and irresistible.

I will leave you with my recipes for green tomato soup and green tomato sauce. Once you give them a try, hopefully that pile on the counter won’t look so daunting.

Green Tomato Stew

This soup must be rich and fatty in order for the green tomatoes to do their thing, so don’t skimp on the oil and butter. If you don’t have, or want, a meaty bone, use stock in place of water.

Serves 8

12 cups water

1 or 2 soup bones (or replace the water with chicken, beef or veggie stock)

1 cup wild rice

1 pound squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes

1 pound of potatoes, cubed

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 pound mushrooms; wild, domestic, or a mix

4 tablespoons butter

What to do with those hard, unripe fruits cluttering your counter story and photos

4 sprigs fresh thyme

3 large green tomatoes, cut into wedges

Several leaves of kale, pulled off the rib and chopped

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons salt (if using stock instead of water, just add salt to taste)

Optional: roasted chile peppers as a garnish

Add the 12 cups of water or stock to a large pot, along with a soup bone if using. Heat on medium. Add the wild rice and simmer for an hour. Add the potatoes and sim mer for another 30 minutes, until the rice is soft and turns inside out.

While the rice cooks, preheat the oven to 375. Clean the squash and cut it into cubes. Toss them in two tablespoons of olive oil on a baking pan and roast until soft and starting to brown, about 40 minutes. Turn off the oven but leave them to cool slowly until needed. At this point they are like candy and hard not to keep eating. Beware. Enjoy.

While the squash cooks, saute the onions and mushrooms in the butter and remaining oil. Add the thyme, and cook on medium heat, stirring as necessary, until the mushrooms are limp and the onions are translucent.

Add the mushrooms and onions to the soup pot, along with soy sauce, kale, garlic, roasted squash chunks and green tomatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes and adjust the seasonings with salt and pepper. Garnish with roasted sweet or spicy peppers.

Green Tomato Sauce

Full of savory zing, this all-purpose sauce is great on meat and vegeta bles. You will need a heavy-bottomed pan with a tight-ftting lid.

1 green tomato, cored and sliced into about 12 wedges

2 tablespoons olive oil (or two slices of chopped bacon)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cubic inch of ginger, peeled and sliced

12-ounces caulifower forets or another vegetable, or pieces of meat

1 cup of water

1 tablespoon fsh sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce salt and pepper

Fry the green tomatoes in the oil on medium heat. After fve minutes add the ginger and garlic. Cook for another fve minutes, stirring often. Before anything burns, add the caulifower and the water and put the lid on. Steam should build up under the lid and melt those green tomatoes into a sauce, which will coat the caulifower, meat, or whatever you have cooking in it.

Season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Back in the frst half of the ’80s, I took my frst sip of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Upon fnishing what tasted like a magical elixir, I immediately wanted another. I had enjoyed a malted alcoholic beverage prior to it, but Sierra Nevada, a “micro brewery,” seemed to elevate the taste of beer to a new level. It was early days for what would become known as craft brewing, but the new stuff was pleasingly

should be facing beer saturation. Yet this does not appear to be the case.

“It’s nuts out there,” observes Paul Myhill, a longtime beer enthusiast, entre preneur and home brewer who recently earned the title of “Colorado Brewery Master” after visiting every currently operating brewery and taproom in the Centennial State. “We’re very spoiled now. American brewers have gone a little whacky, but it’s a beautiful chaos.”

Myhill, who regularly posts funny beer-related memes on his Colorado Beer Guy Facebook page and enjoys poking fun at the vacillations in the brewing world, says he favors classic styles of beer, but he’s also quick to note that he’s not a beer snob.

we’re in the early maturity stage. Craft beer will always be around, because a lot of consumers don’t want to drink the same beer twice. It’s part of that Untappd (the social media platform for beer afcio nados) phenomenon, where people want to see how many different beers they can drink. I don’t think we’ll ever get away from this segment; but the core craft beer style is now your daddy’s beer, or even your granddaddy’s beer, and the younger drinkers appreciate new twists.”

In terms of the latest whims within the ever-shifting world of craft beer, Myhill is particularly excited about a return to some of the earlier taste profles from the Left Coast.

bold, with hints of citrus and pine. There would be other “Aha!” tastings along my craft beer journey (Red Tail Ale, Fat Tire, Pliny the Elder), yet it was the beginning of a hop-induced revelation, as well as a burgeoning beer revolution.

Fast forward a few decades and my Sierra-impressed self would be gob smacked by what’s currently available on the shelves at Hazel’s Beverage World (1955 28th St.) in Boulder. Pine apple Vanilla Chantilly Milkshake IPAs stand proudly next to variously fruited ales and sour beers, esoteric stouts and retro-leaning “crispies” (lagers with a crisp finish). Present-day beer drinkers face an embarrassment of barley-based riches. There are so many creatively brewed beers now that by all rights we

“I think there’s a place for it all,” he says. “You have to offer a Bacon Maple Syrup Blueberry Pancake Milkshake IPA, or the fruit slushy beer, to appeal to the younger generation who might other wise be drinking a hard seltzer or some kind of malt-favored beverage that’s not really beer. If you’re capturing them with something that beer purists would laugh at, and it’s a gateway to getting them to possibly enjoy other styles, then great.”

Myhill, who remembers when Boulder Beer was an early player in the craft beer movement and Liquor Mart was his go-to spot for beverage variety, considers himself to have lived through and been an active part of the craft-brewing revolution. He says he does not envision a future without specialized beer, and he sees younger drinkers as the key.

“The industry is no longer in its hyper-growth phase,” he muses. “I’d say

“I’m excited about the resurgence of the West Coast IPA,” he enthuses. “You’re seeing people giving up some of their barrel edge from New England style to West Coast again.”

West Coast style IPAs are defned by their bitter hop favors and foral accents, whereas New England “hazies” lean toward fruity, often tropical favors and have a signature unfltered and cloudy appearance. Both of these styles are now considered a core style of beer in the craft world, but it wasn’t always so.

“Brewers never thought they would be brewing hazies, but you can’t predict what people will want,” Myhill says. “It used to be that if you had a beer that was over-hopped, you thought the brewer was trying to hide impurities. If a beer didn’t brew to style, you could hop it up to hide your mistakes. Then people liked it. It also used to be that if your beer wasn’t clear you were considered off-style. You didn’t get medals for it.”

“Colorado

on

story and photos by Nick Hutchinson

Decade of dank

This November marks 10 years since Colorado voted to legalize cannabis. And it’s been a wild ride.

The Schedule I narcotic went from a prohib ited and highly stigmatized drug to becoming a permanent piece of Colorado’s economy and culture.

Colorado has not only created a legal framework for the cannabis industry, it’s also served as a model for state legalization across the country.

Our votes directly helped create this industry, which today employs more than 35,000 people a year and has pulled in over $353 million in sales and excise taxes just in 2022. It’s a prime exampl so fare of change that started at the ballot box — and it’s been an opportunity for Colorado to break trail in uncharted territory.

“I think a lot of [states] have con sidered what Colorado has done and sort of tried to take from the best and leave some of the stuff they didn’t like behind,” says Rachel Gillette, of Holland & Hart law frm.

Still, even here, where we’ve had a decade to ham mer out the details of this industry’s framework, the rules are still continually changing, she says — particularly concerning ownership.

“Every six months, there are some new rules and new requirements, new compliance,” Gillette says. “And now we’re on the precipice of potential federal legalization ...

So we’re about to see even bigger changes potentially if we see some movement on the federal level.”

Gillette has been involved with cannabis law since 2010. She started her own practice exclusively catering to cannabis businesses, helping them navigate the strange and complicated space. Today she’s an adjunct professor of marijuana law at CU Boulder, and the head of Holland & Hart’s cannabis group.

She’s seen the cannabis industry change indescrib ably in the years since she got involved. But, in the last several years, there have been three big “game changer” policies that have helped open up ownership opportuni ties and moved Colorado’s cannabis industry forward.

The frst was the removal of Colorado’s residency requirement.

“That was very restrictive. It meant that businesses couldn’t have inves tors or owners that weren’t Colorado residents,” she says. That severely limited who could partici pate in the industry and what kinds of resources were available to them.

It changed from a two-year residen cy requirement to a one-year residency requirement in 2018, she says. Then, in 2020, HB 1080 passed and removed residency requirements altogether, dramatically opening up the cannabis market in Colorado.

“The second game changer with regard to owner ship was allowing certain public companies [and private capital funds] to have ownership interest in marijuana businesses,” Gillette says.

HB 1090 passed in 2019 and with it, Colorado cannabis companies went public, making it possible to

trade their securities on the NYSE, Nasdaq, OTCQX or OTCQB. That generated massive investment income for these companies, exponentially expanding growth potential for businesses across the state.

The third recent game changer Gillette identifes is the implementation of social equity. It’s something she believes should have been happening since the begin ning of cannabis legalization.

In 2021, Gov. Polis signed SB 111, the Program to Support Marijuana Entrepreneurs. That created a social equity fund for Colorado’s cannabis industry to uplift and support entrepreneurs who had been disproportionate ly impacted by the war on drugs by “[seeding] capital and ongoing business expenses,” as well as granting “support to innovation and job creation,” according to the legislation’s summary.

There have also been federal steps toward decriminalization since Colorado voted to legalize cannabis 10 years ago. Gillette points to the Cole Memorandum, from Deputy Attorney General James Cole, which gave a legal “yellow light” to other states considering legalization. She also mentions the FinCEN (or Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) guidance for financial institutions seeking to provide services to marijuana businesses.

“For a while ... there were just no banks that really were willing to take marijuana bank accounts,” Gillette says. But the FinCEN’s clarifcation of the Bank Securi ty’s Act in 2014 allowed some banks to accept cannabis customers.

Though, she says, the industry still remains largely unbanked.

There’s still a lot of room for improvement in Colora do, which is why, 10 years in, our rules and regulations surrounding cannabis continue to evolve at such a furious rate.

“I think we continue to see [Colorado] taking a look at some of these rules and regulations, determining whether they make sense and trying to improve upon them,” Gillette says. “I think that’s a constant process that Colorado endures.”

It hasn’t been easy, but it’s a process that is having a national impact — and one that started 10 years ago with Coloradans going to the ballot boxes to make their voices heard.

Ten years in, Colorado’s still a leader in cannabis policy and business ownership — but there’s room for improvement

by Will Brendza