Boulder Weekly 01.11.2024

Human After All AI enters Boulderʼs political fray P. 4

BOULDER PREPS FOR SUB -ZERO TEMPS P.10

DR. KING’S ‘RADICAL ROOTS’ P.17

CONTENTS 01.11. 2024

17 Credit: NJKPhotography

04 COVER Robo Wallach, meet Human Wallach

BY SHAY CASTLE, MARK WALLACH, BRIAN KEEGAN AND CHATGPT

17

STAGE Spoken word event honors MLK’s “radical roots” at Dairy Arts Center BY TONI TRESCA

19 FILM CU professor and filmmaker Kelly Sears returns

to Sundance BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

27 NIBBLES Colorado’s first beer sommelier is BoCo’s own Patrick Combs BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

DEPARTMENTS 07 LETTERS

12 NEWS

07 EDITOR’S

13 NEWS

Trump, addiction and Israel

NOTE

It cost $13K to produce this paper

08 NEWS

What your local gov’t is up to

Why are gas prices higher in Boulder?

15 NEWS

What’s new in AI

CU’s noxious upgrade draws protest

10 NEWS

16 MUSIC

Boulder’s plans (so far) for extreme cold

11 NEWS

Lawsuits galore

BOULDER WEEKLY

Guitar legend John Jorgenson breaks out the mandolin

18 BOOKS

Disneyland on the Mountain and the magic that wasn’t

20 EVENTS Where to go and what to do

24

ASTROLOGY Taurus: Maestro of the Magic of Germination and Growth

25 SAVAGE LOVE A load-bearing question

31 WEED

Should smokers be allowed to pack heat?

A Boulder Institution.

“I’ve been going to Twig for almost 5 years now and can confidently say I never have to look for another salon. Beautiful space right on Pearl, friendly staff, the most comfortable sinks I’ve ever laid my head in and the quality of cut and color is fantastic.”

Monday-Friday 8a-8p Saturday 8a-6p Sunday Closed

1831 Pearl St Boulder, CO 303-447-0880

www.twighairsalon.com JANUARY 11, 2024

3

COMMENTARY JANUARY 11, 2024

Volume 31, Number 21 PUBLISHER: Francis Zankowski

ED ITOR IAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Shay Castle ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTERS: Kaylee Harter, Will Matuska FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Brian Keegan, Dan Savage, Bart Schaneman, Toni Tresca, Mark Wallach

SAL ES AN D M AR KETIN G MARKET DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: Kellie Robinson SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Matthew Fischer ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Chris Allred, Holden Hauke SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: Carter Ferryman MRS. BOULDER WEEKLY: Mari Nevar

PR OD U C TION CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erik Wogen SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Mark Goodman

C IR C U L ATION CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn CIRCULATION TEAM: Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BU SIN ESS OFFIC E BOOKKEEPER: Emily Weinberg FOUNDER / CEO: Stewart Sallo

FAKE NEWS An AI interview with Mark Wallach (and Robot Mark Wallach)

BY SHAY CASTLE, MARK WALLACH, BRIAN KEEGAN AND CHAT GPT

A

Boulderite, a politician and a robot walk into the bar. Such is the origin story for what follows. OK, not really. But it’s pretty close.

In early November, Boulder Progressives board member Brian Keegan sent me a fake “interview” with Boulder City Council member Mark Wallach that he “conducted” by feeding writing samples to an artificial intelligence chatbot and then asking it to answer questions about the recent elections — in “Wallach’s” voice.

Keegan feels that ChatGPT “definitely nails a lot about the tone and positions” and “distinctive communica-

4

JANUARY 11, 2024

tion style” of Wallach, whom Keegan called “Boulder’s most loquacious elected official” in an email to Boulder Weekly. But, ultimately, Keegan says, the experiment was a failure.

“I struggle with what this substantively demonstrates or contributes,” he writes. “Predictable anti-progressive grievances? Inflated self-importance?

Technology replacing politicians?”

How does the real Mark Wallach feel about his impersonator? “Very concerned,” he wrote in response to the A.I. interview.

“It is more than a bit disconcerting to hear answers that I might have made without actually having made

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR A FUTURIST’S TAKE ON AI AND MORE IN OUR JAN. 25 ISSUE them,” Wallach says. “The implications for using this technology in the distribution of political disinformation are obvious. It does not depend on which side of the issues you want to take: The possibility that a machine could authoritatively appear to be me in responding to these questions — when I have not done so — should be frightening to anyone.

“Today it is me; tomorrow it could be someone who wishes you ill and dis-

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BOULDER WEEKLY

COMMENTARY tributes a fake interview you purportedly responded to in high school, just before that critical job interview. Or, as here, it could be a set of bogus answers to an interview you never gave while actually running for office. The possibilities are endless.

“The good news,” Wallach continues, “is that ChatGPT does not have it down quite yet. ChatGPT can spit out words, but does not grasp who I am and how I would respond.”

One notable shortcoming (which Wallach and Keegan agree on) is that AI is just not funny enough to pass as the man it is purportedly emulating.

“I often use sarcasm and humor to show the ludicrous outcomes of some policy suggestions,” Wallach writes.

“This program would not recognize humor if it were cracked over the head with it. Its answers to the questions are invariably lugubrious and stodgy; it is as if the questions were being answered by a Soviet Commissar in the 1950s.”

What follows is the generated interview, created by Keegan using GPT4 and GPT3.5 Turbo models and “finetuned using a corpus of City Council’s Hotline emails and guest opinions in the Daily Camera” written by the fleshand-blood Wallach. Questions were written by Keegan. Robot Wallach and Human Wallach’s responses (to the AI’s

BOULDER WEEKLY

answers and Keegan’s original questions) are both included and clearly marked to avoid confusion or misattribution.

We hope this is an instructive and illuminating example of the potential — good and bad — and limitations of this emerging technology. The final word we give to Real Wallach: “The program is really not there yet.

But who knows what it will be like in a year? Two years? Five years? Some of the responses that are almost laughable today may soon become far more credible — even convincing. That may be a good result for an automated service center, but it is a very bad one when we are talking about our political institutions and political communications.

“A number of years ago, during the Arab Spring, it was inspiring to see how activists armed only with phones using the internet could actually bring down a corrupt government. All these years later, we have an internet that is a cesspool of commercialism, hatred, misinformation and worse. Things have not worked out quite as planned. And here comes yet another new technology, filled with promise.

“Will that promise be realized, or will we be going down another path to uncertain ends and untold damage to our institutions and political processes?”

— Shay Castle

What do you think about the most recent election where voters elected another 6-3 progressive majority to City Council?

ChatGPT: While progressives might claim to champion the cause of equity, inclusivity and progress, they often lack a comprehensive understanding of the intricate dynamics that govern a city’s growth and development. The election is a lamentable outcome demonstrating a collective amnesia or, worse, a willful ignorance of the essential principles that have long underpinned Boulder’s unique character and success. Experience, expertise, and a balanced perspective are crucial for effective governance, something that these socalled progressives need to learn and appreciate.

Wallach: I would never call the election results “a lamentable outcome demonstrating a collective amnesia or worse, a willful ignorance of the essential principles that have long underpinned Boulder’s unique character…” That sentence left me asking: Who the hell is that guy? I have been involved in politics for 50 years, winning a few and losing more than that. Blaming the voters for their decisions is idiotic and something I would never do.

What kind of mandate can be claimed from an election where voters passed the “Safe Zones 4 Kids” measure but also kept a progressive majority on City Council?

ChatGPT: The paradoxical mandate from the electorate is a clear indication that the voters are not entirely aligned with the progressive agenda, despite their majority presence in the council.

The support for “Safe Zones” indicates a desire for targeted, practical solutions to specific issues rather than a wholesale endorsement of progressive policies. This mandate, therefore, should be seen as a call for balanced governance, where progressive ideals are tempered with pragmatic considerations.

Wallach: [This] is probably the closest in substance to my actual views. But if I ever responded to a question like that in such a boring manner, I should be arrested for the crime of creating gross tedium. When did I become such a stuffed shirt? It just ain’t me.

Given your opposition to ranked choice voting (RCV), what do you think about the outcome of the mayoral election using ranked choice voting for the first time?

JANUARY 11, 2024

5

COMMENTARY sions, often in the face of opposition, for the long-term benefit of the community.

Wallach: I can only state that I am extremely jealous, and I am sure that she cheated her way to the top. This is an insult to our democratic process and to me personally! Uh, no. If I were asked that question in real life, I would have to pick myself off the floor from laughing.

The fact that ChatGPT actually attempted to formulate a serious response to that question is an indication of its weakness.

How do you plan to govern as a member of the minority in the coming term?

ChatGPT: The mayoral election is a prime example of how ostensibly progressive ideas can lead to convoluted and problematic outcomes. RCV is an unnecessary complication that serves only to muddle the electoral process rather than enhancing democratic choice. While claiming to better reflect the will of the voters, RCV often confuses them and can lead to results that do not accurately represent the majority’s preference. It’s essential to scrutinize whether the results truly reflect the electorate’s will or if they are merely a byproduct of a convoluted voting mechanism.

Wallach: The program attempts to replicate what it appears to be my undying opposition to Ranked Choice Voting. Not so fast, AI. This city voted to institute RCV for our mayoral contest; the vote was decisive. That is the end of it for me. I do not spend any time worrying about the decisions of the community — that is above my pay grade. It worked well this election and that’s about all that matters. The program is extrapolating an answer to the question that, 6

JANUARY 11, 2024

because of the community’s decision and the fact that it worked smoothly, is simply no longer true.

You endorsed six candidates for City Council and Mayor but only two won their races. What does this say about popular support for your agenda?

ChatGPT: The fact that four of my endorsed candidates did not secure seats does not necessarily constitute a wholesale repudiation of the principles I stand for. This is a momentary snapshot of the electorate’s mood, not an immutable verdict on my agenda. It is essential to recognize that voter decisions are often swayed by a complex interplay of factors, including campaign strategies, candidate quality, voter turnout dynamics, and the limitations of the electoral system itself. It is a leap to interpret this as a comprehensive endorsement of their entire platform or a categorical rejection of mine.

Wallach: Well, the top two vote-getters were endorsed by me, and a third lost by less than 50 votes. There is as little significance to that as to the fact

that my endorsement lacked effectiveness. We have a new Council, and I will deal with it as I find it. I do not regard members of the Council as my enemies. We disagree at times and, when possible, we will agree. The real answer to the question is: “Just fine, thanks.” Again, AI fails to grasp my actual personality, as opposed to its theoretical construct of that personality.

How do you feel about Tara Winer overtaking you as the candidate who received the most votes for City Council in recent memory?

ChatGPT: While an interesting statistical footnote, this does not diminish my accomplishments on council. In politics, as in any sphere of public endeavor, records are set and subsequently broken; this is the nature of any dynamic system. It’s important to understand that the number of votes a candidate receives is not always a direct reflection of their capability, experience, or the substantive quality of their agenda.

Effective governance is not a popularity contest; it is about making tough deci-

ChatGPT: Firstly, my role in the minority will be to scrutinize the policies and initiatives proposed by the majority, ensuring that they are subject to rigorous debate and analysis. Secondly, I will utilize my platform to articulate a clear, rational counterpoint to the progressive agenda, ensuring that the public is aware of the potential pitfalls and long-term consequences of their policies. Finally, it is imperative to ground policymaking in timeless principles of measured growth and preservation so that Boulder’s unique characteristics are not undermined by the progressive majority’s imprudent enthusiasm for radical change and irreversible development.

Wallach: The answer is simple: as I have done for the past two years. I will make my voice heard, attempt to work with my colleagues to reach reasonable compromises and hopefully achieve some good results for Boulder. Is it easy? No, but that is why they pay us the big bucks. That is how you govern in a democracy, even as a minority. The answer furnished by the program is nothing more than politician-speak, and I always try my best not to do that.

BOULDER WEEKLY

LETTERS FAULTY JUDGMENT

The Colorado Supreme Court Justices usurped Congress’ authority when they made their ruling barring Trump from the primary ballot.

All attention has been on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, but Section 5 is not being addressed.

Note that Section 5 of the 14th Amendment gives Congress the sole authority to enforce the 14th Amendment.

Section 5: “The CONGRESS SHALL HAVE THE POWER TO ENFORCE, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

Nothing is in there about states, courts or judges having any power to enforce any portion of the 14th Amendment. That power is reserved exclusively to Congress.

— Jim Peel, Longmont

REAL ADDICTION

A response to a letter about “pot addiction” (“Stick to Summaries,” Dec. 21, 2023): First, I will point out I was a heroin addict for two years (ages 19-21) and ONLY was able to quit after landing in jail for a time (drug-related charges).

Once released, I never looked back, stayed away from former “associates” and moved on. To this day, in my 70s, I am still drug free — including prescriptions and tobacco, which was very difficult to put down.

Meanwhile, I happily smoked pot every day for about 10 years, got spaced out, did stupid stuff and managed to support myself doing craft shows. One day, I just said ‘I’m done’ and stopped. I was tired of the lethargy and wanted to wake up out of the fog.

As a former REAL drug addict, I can attest there was no physical problem putting pot down at all.

None. And when I had my knee replaced, I used edibles to relieve the pain for a while (to stop using prescription pain pills). I quit that in favor of CBD instead.

No, I’m not a doctor. I’m just saying: I know a little about addiction.

— Andy K., Longmont (last name withheld to protect anonymity while in recovery. Andy’s identity was verified by Boulder Weekly.)

BOULDER WEEKLY

WHAT ABOUT ISRAEL?

Here’s a story that belongs in BW’s annual under-reported news stories. It involves Donald Trump and Israel in a shocking and highly illegal scandal.

Trump, of course, was investigated in the Mueller Report for trading favors to Russia for dirt on Hillary Clinton, but the charges were never fully proven. Here we have a similar scenario, only it involves Israel, and there is hard proof.

The FBI’s own Mueller Report details the Trump-Israel collusion.

It contains convincing evidence that was never publicly revealed — not until journalist James Bamford of The Nation magazine reported on the heavily redacted FBI documents obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request (“The Candidate and the Spy,” March 24, 2023).

Essentially, in 2016, Trump the candidate met with an Israeli “secret agent” (name redacted in documents) at his penthouse in New York. The Israelis, who have — as Bamford put it in an interview with Democracy Now — a “very, very sophisticated eavesdropping organization” offered Trump the dirt he sought on Hillary in return for two things: U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclearweapons deal (something Trump had already embraced) and recognition of Jerusalem as the new Israeli capital. After his election, Trump delivered on both.

Bamford concludes, “The Israelis got what they wanted, and Trump got what he wanted, and the American public was screwed in the meantime.”

Strangely, the mainstream media, including papers like the New York Times, have been ignoring this story. That’s particularly galling since Bamford says the crimes involved in the 2016 Trump-Israeli collusion are likely being repeated as we speak. In the U.S.-Israeli partnership, once again the tail seems to be wagging the dog.

— Paul Dougan, Boulder

EDITOR’S NOTE

ANATOMY OF AN ISSUE How much does it cost to produce one Boulder Weekly?

BY SHAY CASTLE

W

YOU NEED THE NEWS. AND THE NEWS NEEDS YOU. Support Boulder

e’re happy to proWeekly with a one-time vide the news for or recurring contribution. free. It keeps the paper accessible, which helps If you’re reading this, chances are keep us more accountable (More that you value Boulder Weekly. readers = more feedback.)

Maybe it’s our unparalleled coverage Local journalism helps keep electof the local arts, culture and food ed officials accountable, too. Did you scenes. Perhaps you appreciate our know that government spending is comprehensive events calendars. Or higher in cities without local news? it could be that you have a nose for Information is power. So we’d like news and have come to rely on our to give you some. voter guides, weekly roundups or inAccording to our estimates, it cost depth explorations of the issues that more than $13,000 to produce this matter. issue of Boulder Weekly, the one Whatever the reason you read the you’re reading right now.

Weekly, we’re glad you’re here. As That’s not the total amount (it doesn’t include our publisher’s salary, we move into this brave new world of local news, consider paying for the for instance, or other business expenses). As an editorial staff, we’re paper you know and love.

Money from readers not privy to all the goes directly into the financial informanewsroom — it pays tion. This is our the people writing, best guess, editing and producing based on what the paper. It gives us we do know. access to services that About half the make for a prettier and cost is paying easier-to-read product. your friendly If you have a busineighborhood ness, consider this: journalists (fullYou can reach the time staff and 110,000 highly freelancers). engaged residents of Boulder Weekly Boulder County who pick up our is primarily funded by advertisepapers each week (according to a ments. We love the local businesses 2020 analysis) and/or the ~15,000 who advertise with us: They are literwho read our newsletter. ally our lifeblood.

If times are tight for you, no sweat.

But particularly since the COVIDWe’re journalists: We get what it 19 pandemic, it’s become more chalmeans to pinch pennies. You can lenging to sustain ourselves on help support the Weekly in other advertising alone. It’s a tale you’re ways, like letting us know what’s probably familiar with by now: adverimportant to you through letters to tising dollars drying up and, along the editor or juicy news tips. with them, local journalism as traffic The most important thing you can turns to less-lucrative online platdo is to keep picking up the paper forms where tech companies, not each week. As always, thanks for newspapers, profit. reading.

That’s where you come in.

JANUARY 11, 2024

7

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Dr. King Jr.

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2ND ANNUAL

& the Radical Roots at the Heart of Justice Monday, January 15th. 2:30 - 4:30 PM DAIRY ARTS CENTER

a dream. . .”

Motus Theater’s 2nd annual arts-based event inspiring action in alignment with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Featuring musical guests The ReMINDers, the Director of the Center for African and African American Studies Dr. Reiland Rabaka, Poet and Social Justice Leader Norma Johnson, and performances by Motus monologists Candice Bailey and Jahmil Roberts.

Tickets

ASL interpretation provided upon request.

Please email info@motustheater.org.

More information: motustheater.org/events

NEWS

AI EVERYWHERE 3 researchers on the future of artificial intelligence This article is republished from The Conversation.

Read the full article: bit.ly/AI-conversation

CASEY FIESLER, ASSOCIATE

PROFESSOR OF INFORMATION SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO BOULDER

2023 was the year of AI hype.

Regardless of whether the narrative was that AI was going to save the world or Courtesy: destroy it, it often CU Boulder felt as if visions of what AI might be someday overwhelmed the current reality. And though I think that anticipating future harms is a critical component of overcoming ethical debt in tech, getting too swept up in the hype risks creating a vision of AI that seems more like magic than a technology that can still be shaped by explicit choices. But taking control requires a better understanding of that technology.

One of the major AI debates of 2023 was around the role of ChatGPT and similar chatbots in education. This time last year, most relevant headlines focused on how students might use it to cheat and how educators were scrambling to keep them from doing so – in ways that often do more harm than good.

However, as the year went on, there was a recognition that a failure to teach students about AI might put them at a disadvantage, and many schools rescinded their bans. I don’t think we should be revamping education to put AI at the center of everything, but if students don’t learn about how AI works, they won’t understand its limitations – and therefore how it is useful and appropriate to use and how it’s not.

This isn’t just true for students. The more people understand how AI works, the more empowered they are to use it and to critique it.

So my prediction, or perhaps my BOULDER WEEKLY

hope, for 2024 is that there will be a huge push to learn.

In 1966, Joseph Weizenbaum, the creator of the ELIZA chatbot, wrote that machines are “often sufficient to dazzle even the most experienced observer,” but that once their “inner workings are explained in language sufficiently plain to induce understanding, its magic crumbles away.” The challenge with generative artificial intelligence is that, in contrast to ELIZA’s very basic pattern matching and substitution methodology, it is much more difficult to find language “sufficiently plain” to make the AI magic crumble away.

I hope that universities that are rushing to hire more technical AI experts put just as much effort into hiring AI ethicists. I hope that media outlets help cut through the hype. I hope that everyone reflects on their own uses of this technology and its consequences. And I hope that tech companies listen to informed critiques in considering what choices continue to shape the future.

KENTARO TOYAMA, PROFESSOR OF COMMUNITY INFORMATION, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

The big technical question is how soon and how thoroughly AI engineers can address the current Achilles’ heel Courtesy: University of deep learning – of Michigan what might be called generalized hard reasoning, things like deductive logic. Will quick tweaks to existing neural-net algorithms be sufficient, or will it require a fundamentally different approach, as neuroscientist Gary Marcus suggests?

Armies of AI scientists are working on this problem, so I expect some headway in 2024.

Meanwhile, new AI applications are likely to result in new problems, too.

You might soon start hearing about AI chatbots and assistants talking to each other, having entire conversations on your behalf but behind your back.

Some of it will go haywire – comically, tragically or both. Deepfakes, AI-generated images and videos that are difficult to detect are likely to run rampant despite nascent regulation, causing more sleazy harm to individuals and democracies everywhere. And there are likely to be new classes of AI calamities that wouldn’t have been possible even five years ago.

Speaking of problems, the very people sounding the loudest alarms about AI — like Elon Musk and Sam Altman — can’t seem to stop themselves from building ever more powerful AI. I expect them to keep doing more of the same.

They’re like arsonists calling in the blaze they stoked themselves, begging the authorities to restrain them. And along those lines, what I most hope for 2024 — though it seems slow in coming — is stronger AI regulation, at national and international levels.

ANJANA SUSARLA,

PROFESSOR OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

In the year since the unveiling of ChatGPT, the development of generative AI models is continuing at a dizzyCourtesy: Michigan ing pace. In conState University trast to ChatGPT a year back, which took in textual prompts as inputs and produced textu-

al output, the new class of generative AI models are trained to be multi-modal, meaning the data used to train them comes not only from textual sources such as Wikipedia and Reddit, but also from videos on YouTube, songs on Spotify, and other audio and visual information. With the new generation of multi-modal large language models (LLMs) powering these applications, you can use text inputs to generate not only images and text but also audio and video.

These advanced AI capabilities offer immense transformative power in applications ranging from business to precision medicine. My chief concern is that such advanced capabilities will pose new challenges for distinguishing between human-generated content and AI-generated content, as well as pose new types of algorithmic harms.

The deluge of synthetic content produced by generative AI could unleash a world where malicious people and institutions can manufacture synthetic identities and orchestrate large-scale misinformation. A flood of AI-generated content primed to exploit algorithmic filters and recommendation engines could soon overpower critical functions such as information verification, information literacy and serendipity provided by search engines, social media platforms and digital services.

A new bipartisan bill introduced in Congress aims to codify algorithmic literacy as a key part of digital literacy.

With AI increasingly intertwined with everything people do, it is clear that the time has come to focus not on algorithms as pieces of technology but to consider the contexts the algorithms operate in: people, processes and society.

JANUARY 11, 2024

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NEWS

EXPOSED TO THE ELEMENTS With extreme cold in the forecast this weekend, concerns for unhoused community rise

BY KAYLEE HARTER

A

n arctic blast coming this weekend could bring subzero temperatures, raising concerns for unhoused community members.

“I’d like to know that if the weather forecasts do end up aligning on an extreme arctic blast this weekend, we are prepared to do significantly more preparation and outreach to our unhoused community before and during this potentially life-threatening cold,” council member Matt Benjamin wrote in a Jan. 8 email to City staff, council and the community. “I’d love to see us proactively patrol the community for unsheltered folks and actively bring them to the shelter, overflows, and warming center(s).”

As of Jan. 10, the National Weather Service forecast for the weekend showed lows of 5 degrees below zero Saturday night and 6 degrees below zero Sunday night.

Benjamin noted various support systems available during cold weather events, including warming centers and additional beds at the shelter, but voiced concerns that the extreme cold could stress the City’s typical network.

“Enhanced preparations are likely needed,” he wrote. As of Wednesday afternoon, no emergency preparations

were in place. Council did add a discussion of cold weather preparedness to its Jan. 11 meeting agenda.

There are an estimated 450 people in Boulder experiencing homelessness, though “there’s no consistently accurate way to be sure,” according to the City’s website. Boulder Shelter for the Homeless typically has 160 beds available, and 17 additional hotel beds are available from November to March through support from the City, according to Andy Schultheiss, Boulder Shelter for the Homeless’ chief development and communications officer.

The shelter saw a spike in the number of nights and people it had to turn away in the fall, turning away as many as 30 people on Oct. 30, according to the shelter’s capacity dashboard. The dashboard doesn’t yet show data for December and January, but the shelter has had to turn people away on two nights in January and one or two nights in December, according to Schultheiss.

During critical weather events, an additional 20 beds are available at the shelter, and it remains open during the day as opposed to its regular 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. Additional sheltering is also available through Haven Ridge,

SPAN, TGTHR and EFAA’s emergency housing.

Critical weather events are defined as when the forecast is predicted to be 10 degrees or below in the evening, 20 degrees or below during the day and/or six inches or more of snowfall is expected. As of Jan. 10, the thresholds had been met for Thursday through Monday nights. The shelter will remain open during the day Saturday to Monday, according to Schultheiss, subject to changing conditions.

When temperatures reached recordbreaking lows during a snowstorm in December 2022, BSH remained open during the day, and a warming center was opened in East Boulder.

Activating a warming center would be coordinated at the City and County level. As of Wednesday afternoon, the City had not made a decision to open warming centers, housing and human services spokesperson Lyndsy MorseCasillas said.

“While the current conditions do not indicate the need for a response beyond those included in Critical Weather conditions, staff and partners are monitoring the weather forecasts,” Director of Housing and Human Services Kurt Firnhaber wrote Tuesday in an email response to Benjamin.

“Should conditions escalate to an emergency response, staff will work with the countywide Office of Disaster Management.”

By comparison, Denver opens emergency shelters when temperatures drop below 20 degrees. The city’s council is considering raising that threshold to 32 degrees. Denver opened warming shel-

Chart courtesy City of Boulder

10

JANUARY 11, 2024

ters Jan. 8. They will remain open through Jan. 15.

Via Mobility Services, a nonprofit that operates the free HOP bus to and from the homeless shelter, may also be called upon to help with additional transportation for the unhoused community, the organization’s operations director Lisa Bitzer says.

Typically, the bus makes one trip from the shelter to downtown Boulder at 8 a.m. and one trip from downtown to the shelter at 5 p.m. The bus holds about 45 people and their belongings, and once the bus reaches capacity, people are left behind to walk or pay the fare for the SKIP bus.

Tony Inmin, an unhoused community member who was taking the Via HOP bus to the shelter in the first week of the year, said he hasn’t seen anyone get left behind in recent weeks, but “we’ve been getting pretty packed in there.”

Schultheiss says that Via services to the shelter remain the same during critical weather conditions — one bus in the morning and one in the evening.

However, Bitzer says the City may contact Via to help with transportation to warming centers.

“We’ll see if we’re called upon to possibly move some additional people to shelters that may be open, but that remains to be seen if that’ll be activated or not, so we’ll just be on standby just in case we’re needed,” Bitzer says.

Cold weather can prove fatal for the unhoused. According to the 2022 Boulder County coroner’s report, 4% of unhoused deaths were due to exposure to the elements. That’s one of 25 people who died recorded in the coroner’s report, though the coroner’s report likely doesn’t account for all unhoused deaths that occur in the county.

“It sucks to be outside in 10 degree weather, it just really does,” Schultheiss says. “I just hope the community understands that there are people who have been in Boulder for a very long time who are out there on those nights.”

In his email, Benjamin made a plea to the community and City staff.

“Let’s make sure that we do what we can to get through this potential arctic blast without losing a single unhoused community member to the elements,” Benjamin wrote.

BOULDER WEEKLY

NEWS

BOCO, BRIEFLY

TRUMP ON THE BALLOT

Local news at a glance

BY KAYLEE HARTER LISA SWEENEY-MIRAN SUES CITY OF BOULDER CLAIMING FREE SPEECH VIOLATIONS

Former Police Oversight Panel member Lisa Sweeney-Miran claimed in a lawsuit filed Jan. 9 that the City of Boulder violated her First Amendment rights when it removed her from the Police Oversight Panel in a 5-2 vote in May 2023 following a months-long dispute over her criticisms of policing and police violence.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Colorado, also claims that pressure from the City to withdraw from a lawsuit relating to the City’s camping ban before joining the Police Oversight Panel violated SweeneyMiran’s right to petition the government and that the City violated her 14th Amendment right to due process when City Council removed her from the panel “without providing her even the most basic opportunity to participate and to present evidence and testimony.”

Sweeney-Miran has faced reputational harm and suffers emotionally as a result of the City’s actions and circumstances surrounding her removal, the suit claims.

The Police Oversight Panel was formed in 2019 after a police officer held a Black college student at gunpoint outside his apartment.

“I am bringing this lawsuit because Boulder not only can be, but must be, a leader in police reform and accountability. Our city guaranteed that things would be different after the terrible events of 2019,” Sweeney-Miran said in a Jan. 9 press release. “Yet we are not a month out from the most recent police killing with no real information publicly available, no accountability on the part of the police department, and no sense of safety or trust between the people of Boulder and the police department.”

BOULDER WEEKLY

In addition to statements declaring that the City’s actions violated her First and 14th Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge. Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Amendment rights, Sweeney-Miran is also seeking National Environmental Protection Act monetary compensation. The suit did and put public health at risk, a federal not name a specific dollar amount. lawsuit seeking to halt the trail filed Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court claims.

“Our concern is that people using GOODBYE MILLENNIUM the proposed Greenway will be HARVEST HOUSE HOTEL, exposed to dangerous levels of pluHELLO BUFFS HOUSING tonium and other toxic substances,” The Millenium Harvest House Hotel said Deborah Segaloff in a Jan. 8 will be torn down in early 2024, makrelease. Segaloff is a board member ing way for more than 930 beds to of Physicians for Social increase Boulder’s stock of student Responsibility Colorado, a plaintiff in housing, a Landmark Properties the case. “Public access could also press release announced Jan. 3. transport contaminants off site.”

Landmark Properties officially Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge Area acquired the site this month, but diswas formerly the site of a plant that cussions between the City and the manufactured plutonium triggers for developer have been in the works nuclear weapons. It was raided by since 2021. the FBI and EPA in 1989 over enviThe four-story, 303-unit apartment ronmental concerns. building on the 15-acre property at This isn’t the first time the Refuge 1345 28th St. is set to be completed has faced opposition since it opened in 2027, according to the press to visitors in 2018. The Town of release.

Superior filed a federal lawsuit to The development received some delay its opening over safety conpushback from organizations like cerns, and at least seven DenverHistoric Boulder, which vouched for area school districts have banned the historic, social and architectural field trips to the Refuge. Officials value of the hotel, and the Boulder maintain its safe to visit, according to Convention and Visitors Bureau, citprevious Boulder Weekly reporting. ing the loss of hotel and convention Plaintiffs in the suit also include space in a Daily Camera article.

Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice The development will not include Center, Environmental Information any affordable housing, meaning Network, Rocky Flats Downwinders, Landmark Properties will instead pay Candelas Glows/Rocky Flats Glows an estimated $18.9 million to the and Rocky Flats Public Health City’s Affordable Housing Fund, Advocates.

Boulder Reporting Lab reported in Spokespeople for the U.S. Fish August 2023. and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Transportation and ROCKY FLATS LAWSUIT the Federal Highway Administration, When federal agencies approved an all of which are defendants in the 8-mile trail through the Rocky Flats suit, said the agencies do not comWildlife Refuge Area, they failed to ment on ongoing litigation. consider other options, violated the

Donald Trump will appear on Colorado’s primary ballot after all, following Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s certification of the ballot Jan. 5.

“Colorado’s 2024 Presidential primary ballot is certified. The United States Supreme Court has accepted the case, and Donald Trump will appear on the ballot as a result,” Griswold said in a Jan. 5 press release.

The Colorado Supreme Court decided 4-3 to bar Trump from the ballot on Dec. 19, citing the Constitution’s insurrection clause.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Jan. 5 to hear Trump’s appeal.

The presidential primary election will be March 5. Voters affiliated with the Democratic or Republican party will receive a ballot for that party. Unaffiliated voters will receive a ballot for each party and can only vote on one of those ballots. Voters affiliated with a minor party will not receive a primary ballot. You can check your party affiliation at bit.ly/VoterRegBW.

IN OTHER NEWS…

• Boulder County residents requested stricter monitoring and greater transparency from the CEMEX plant at a Jan. 5 hearing hosted by the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission, the Daily Camera reported. The hearing, requested by the Good Neighbors of Lyons, was to determine if the plant — which has faced decades of criticism for its pollution — would have its permit renewed. Officials at the meeting did not give a timeline for next steps on the permit.

• Boulder residents can weigh in on the City’s snow and ice removal as part of an analysis focused on clearing streets, bus stops, multiuse paths, the bike network and shoveled areas maintained by the city’s Transportation and Mobility Department. The survey is open through Feb. 8. View the on-demand open house and fill out the questionnaire at bit.ly/SnowSurveyBW. JANUARY 11, 2024

11

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BOULDER CITY COUNCIL

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Council’s Jan. 11 meeting will include:

The Board of County Commissioners Planning Commission holds its regular meeting Jan. 17 at 1:30 p.m.

The agenda includes public testimony and discussion surrounding the permitting of a reception hall on the south side of Flagstaff Road, followed by a hearing on potential zoning map amendments to the Boulder County Floodplain and Floodway.

The Malcolm-Peck Reception Hall at 5498 and 5331 Flagstaff Road would host “up to 170 events per calendar year, including 10 events with a maximum of 200 guests, 10 events with a maximum of 100 guests, and 150 events with a maximum of 15 guests,” according to the agenda.

The County Commissioners will also make decisions following public hearings on Jan. 18 about allowing a larger-thannormal home at 48733 Peak to Peak Highway (9:30 a.m.) and expanding sewer services to accommodate future development in the Terry Lake neighborhood. (10:45 a.m.)

• A presentation and discussion of 2023 Community Survey Results. The last survey was in 2023 and most scores fell since 2018.

• A check-in on Boulder’s facilities master plan, which calls for consolidation of City buildings into two campuses and increased investment in infrastructure • An update on cold weather preparedness

At the Jan. 18 meeting, Council will:

• Hold a public hearing and vote on amending the Land Use Code to repeal the Residential Growth Management System which among other things, caps the city’s long-term growth at 1% per year. Local growth limits were outlawed by state legislation last year.

• Discuss Safe Outdoor Spaces for the unhoused, also known as “alternative sheltering.”

Council will direct the City Manager on how to proceed with the project. Council has been discussing Safe Outdoor Spaces since 2016. City staff recommended against creating a sanctioned encampment in 2021, but in October 2023, Council directed the Housing and Human Services department to explore a one-year pilot for up to 30 individuals.

Council meets on Thursdays at 6 p.m. Watch on YouTube or Channel 8 (TV).

Agendas are subject to change, and are posted online a day before the meeting. Attend virtually through Zoom or in person at the the third-floor Hearing Room of the Boulder County Courthouse (1325 Pearl St., Boulder). Visit the open meeting portal to search videos, agendas and live streams: bit.ly/meeting_portal.

BOULDER WEEKLY

WEEKLY WHY

WHY ARE GAS PRICES HIGHER IN BOULDER? Spoiler alert: It’s capitalism

BY SHAY CASTLE

W

elcome to Weekly Why: a new semi-regular recurring feature answering readers’ questions. Reporter Kaylee Harter softlaunched us in October by explaining why tax measures are in all caps on your ballot. (“WHY IS YOUR BALLOT YELLING AT YOU?” Oct. 19, 2023) We probably won’t be able to answer all your queries. Reporting why the sky is blue is easier than figuring out why you feel sad and empty inside (save that one for your therapist). But if there’s

something local you’ve always wondered about, send it to us.

We’re starting off with a common question, sent to us by reader Kim Moore (Thanks, Kim!): Why is gas more expensive in Boulder than in Erie, Denver or Longmont?

To answer this, we chatted with Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, a tech company that tracks gas station prices for consumers.

As of Monday morning, gas prices in Longmont, Lafayette and Superior were averaging $2.35, according to GasBuddy. At the three stations closest to Boulder Weekly’s South Boulder offices, gas was $2.99 (King Soopers), $3 (Shortstop/Sinclair) and $3.05 (PDQ Market + Fuel) per gallon — more than 25% higher.

There are many factors that influence prices at the pump. But variability between stations and cities ultimately comes down to one thing: good ol’ fashioned capitalism.

“Ultimately, this comes under a pretty big umbrella of competition,” De Haan says. “Some stations may need a higher profit margin. Some may want to sell for less because they want to attract people into their C stores.”

“C store” is industry speak for convenience stores attached to gas stations, where drivers buy slurpees, cold beer and chewing gum. Those are the real money-makers, according to De Haan.

“Owning a gas station is not necessarily a lucrative business,” he says.

“Inside the gas station — that’s where the profit is made.”

In setting prices, stations typically look at their competitors within a mile or two radius, De Haan says. That’s why prices might get incrementally cheaper the farther away you get from Boulder.

There’s also Boulder’s relative wealth.

Station owners here may keep prices up to pay for other costs of business (wages, regulatory fees, etc.) that are higher than in surrounding towns. They might also know that Boulderites are

willing to pay a couple extra dollars.

“Affluent customers aren’t as price sensitive,” De Haan says. Therefore “stations [here] aren’t as competitive.”

When the price of oil is falling (as in recent weeks), stations have more room to either lower prices (cutting profit per gallon but potentially bringing in more customers) or stay the course with higher prices.

“They also are mindful that during more difficult times, they generally can be selling at or below their cost,” De Haan says. “Stations aren’t generally in a huge hurry to lower their prices.”

Ultimately, according to De Haan, there’s not much consumers can do about the price of gas. Stations can be selling gas for 5 cents per gallon more than they paid for it, or 50 cents.

“That’s why it’s important for people to shop around,” he says. “Patronize stations that lower their prices more quickly, and you’ll give them an incentive to lower prices more quickly in the future.”

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NEWS

NOXIOUS PLAN CU Boulder climate org objects to plant upgrades

BY LINDSEY TOOMER, COLORADO NEWSLINE

W

ith CU Boulder planning a $43.1 million upgrade to heating and power equipment at its West District Energy Plant starting this month, a climate advocacy group is concerned the project isn’t doing enough to push the university toward carbon neutrality.

The updates CU Boulder intends to start this month will include installation of combustion turbines and nitrogen oxides — or NOx — reduction equipment and retirement of one of the plant’s boilers. According to a CU Boulder Today article announcing the Board of Regents’ approval, the project will reduce NOx emissions by over 50% compared to current operations so the plant will comply with new Colorado air permit requirements.

Fossil Free CU works to encourage the university to divest from fossil fuels. After the university initially announced the Board of Regents approved the WDEP project, the organization wrote to the university seeking corrections to the published announcement that more accurately reflected that the updates will help comply with new state emission standards, not move the university toward carbon neutrality.

The organization started an online petition urging university leaders to take bigger steps toward decarbonization and allow elected student and

West District Energy Plant.

BOULDER WEEKLY

staff representatives to have a voting role in sustainability decisions, among other requests. As of Jan. 5, the petition has over 300 signatures from students, staff, alumni and other community members.

“The decision to approve the $43 million plant upgrade did not follow norms of transparency and stakeholder engagement with the campus community,” the petition says.

“Indeed it took place outside the university’s own climate action planning process. This is indicative of the urgent need for reform in CU Boulder’s climate governance.”

The West District Energy Plant provides heating and cooling to most of the CU Boulder campus as well as backup power to other parts of the campus in the event of an electric grid outage. The plant burns natural gas, which contributes to climate change.

The university is working through an update of its Climate Action Plan that will outline how it intends to bring the campus to carbon neutrality by no later than 2050. The steering committee for the plan will hold forums and bring other opportunities for engagement with the campus community this semester to seek input on what needs to be included in the plan.

Braeden Miguel, an alumni member and political strategy lead for

Fossil Free CU, said the organization is concerned the planned West District Energy Plant changes will “lock-in fossil fuel emissions and air pollution on campus for decades.”

While the university has said the upgrades are necessary for compliance with new nitrogen oxides regulations, Fossil Free CU argues there are more practical alternatives to work toward electrification that the university hasn’t considered.

“Government NOx emissions limits will continue to get more stringent in the future,” says Chuck Kutscher, a fellow with CU’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute.

“Electrifying CU buildings today will avoid the high costs of boiler upgrades and replacements in the future.”

Miguel says Fossil Free CU has communicated its concerns to the Board of Regents and requested individual meetings to discuss postponing the project until further research, expert analysis and stakeholder engagement can be done.

“FFCU members would appreciate the chance to contribute to the planning process through direct consultations with the university,” Miguel wrote in an email. “We believe our involvement is necessary as stakeholders and to fulfill the ‘living laboratory’ idea, where students learn about climate solutions by directly pursuing them on campus.”

CU spokesperson Steve Hurlbert says that campus leadership recognizes there is “a lot of work remaining” for the university to reach its climate goals and shares the community’s desire for urgent climate action.

“As we pursue those goals, we need to maintain our ability to heat the campus and provide power to our residence halls, classrooms, and laboratories,” Hurlbert wrote in a statement.

“We are not deviating from our climate mission and goal of carbon neutrality and will work to meet state emissions requirements while supporting campus resilience in relation to CU Boulder’s larger energy transition.”

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence.

JANUARY 11, 2024

15

MUSIC

BLUEGRASS AND ALL THAT JAZZ A guitar legend breaks out the mandolin to explore the Left Coast of contemporary acoustic music

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

M

usic fans are forgiven if they thought there were multiple virtuosos over two generations named John Jorgenson.

After all, it’s a fairly common Nordic name.

There was the electric guitar-wielding John Jorgenson who had backed Roy Orbison and Little Richard, fronted a rockabilly band and toured with Elton John.

Then there was the harmonizing, twangy John Jorgenson of the Desert Rose Band which scored two country music No. 1 hits and earned him a Grammy for Best Country Instrumental with Brad Paisley.

Some fans regard John Jorgenson as the second coming of Romani jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. The bluegrass world knows Jorgenson as an exceptional singer, mandolinist and Tony Rice-inspired flatpicker who toured with Earl Scruggs.

If John Jorgenson — the one and only, now 68 — had stuck to one genre or even to one instrument, you could speculate that he would be regarded as one of America’s most gifted and influential musicians of the past half century.

“It has always been normal for me to play different styles and different instruments,” he says.

The California-raised Jorgenson was playing the piano at 4 years old and the clarinet at 8. Then came guitar a couple years later, followed by his first paid gig around age 13 in a church production of The Messiah.

“I immediately spent the money on a wah-wah pedal,” he remembers.

From that first taste of the spotlight through his many musical accomplishments to come, Jorgenson says the motivation behind his instrumental prowess has stayed much the same.

“I hear something, I fall in love with

16

JANUARY 11, 2024

it, and I want to figure out how to play it properly,” he explains. “For example, the intro riff of the Beatles’ ‘Day Tripper.’ OK, I want to make that sound on a guitar. I hear Jesse McReynolds cross-picking the mandolin. How do I play that?”

BECOMING A COLORADO DAWG

Jorgenson — whose John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band plays in Boulder at the Dairy Arts Center on Jan. 14 — has a connection to Colorado that runs back almost a half century. “I had a scholarship as a jazz bassist to the Aspen Music Festival in 1978, but I also got to play bassoon with a great orchestra. The problem was coming up with money for food,” Jorgenson says.

Answering an ad in an Aspen newspaper for a jazz bassist, Jorgenson signed on with a band playing so-called “dawg” music — a fusion of bluegrass, folk and jazz in the style of a recently launched California band, the David Grisman Quintet.

“It was acoustic string music, not jazz, but I loved it. I also fell in love with the mandolin,” he says. “I ran out and bought one in Aspen and got a full-time job with the band.”

BLUEGRASS WITH A LEFT COAST TWANG

Jorgenson admits he worked his way backward into bluegrass. “I started with the progressives like Grisman and Tony Rice and New Grass Revival and went back to the Osborne Brothers, Jim and Jesse McReynolds and Bill Monroe,” he says.

When he decided to form his own bluegrass band, Jorgenson turned to an old friend who also happened to

Guitar virtuoso John Jorgenson — whose bluegrass band plays the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder on Jan. 14 — has a connection to Colorado that runs back almost a half century. Courtesy: John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band

be a bona fide music legend.

“I was a huge fan of Herb Pedersen before ever meeting him,” Jorgenson says. He had heard Pedersen’s exquisite tenor harmonies on countryrock albums by Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. Pedersen was also a member of legendary California bluegrass band The Dillards. He wrote standards like “Wait a Minute” and “Old Train,” and even filled in on banjo for Earl Scruggs in the Flatt & Scruggs band.

The duo met when singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg asked Chris Hillman (of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers) to form a band to open for him as he toured his Colorado-themed High Country Snows album.

That temporary touring ensemble was the genesis of the Desert Rose Band. The country-rock outfit recorded six albums in the 1980s, toured the world and had a slew of radio hits.

“There are certain songs we do every show where I look to see if someone else has joined in because the two parts sound like three with Herb singing,” Jorgenson says. “He makes anyone he sings with sound better.”

This collaboration led to the formation of the John Jorgenson Bluegrass Band in the 21st century, which also

features veteran bassist and Grammy-winning producer Mark Fain and acoustic guitar whiz Patrick Sauber, who has accompanied everyone from Roseanne Cash to Bruce Hornsby and Peter Rowan.

Jorgenson says these gigs are not genteel acoustic listening shows. For every heartbreaking bluegrass ballad, the band blasts through an original instrumental, showing off the members’ collective fretboard prowess that defies genre.

When Jorgenson switches from mandolin to guitar, it’s easy to hear the influence of Django Reinhardt, the musician everyone from Les Paul to Willie Nelson regards as the greatest guitarist ever. “I just absolutely loved how Django’s guitar sounded,” he says. Besides his bluegrass ensemble, the guitarist’s John Jorgenson Quintet allows him to indulge his jones for Django.

“I always hear different things in my head,” he says. “And there’s bound to be spillover when I play.”

ON THE BILL: John

Jorgenson Bluegrass Band. 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $34

BOULDER WEEKLY

STAGE

DREAMING OUT LOUD ‘Dr. King Jr. & the Radical Roots at the Heart of Justice’ honors MLK’s enduring legacy with a call for action

BY TONI TRESCA

A

t the Dairy Arts Center, the stage is set not just for a performance but for a movement.

Bringing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of justice and equality into sharp focus against the backdrop of contemporary struggles, Motus Theater’s annual tribute to the Civil Rights icon explores his legacy by bringing together the voices of social justice advocates, scholars and artists.

“It allowed me to speak to people who do not realize they are also carrying on the work that has already been done,” says Aurora-based monologist and self-described “actionist” Candice Bailey. “We are seeing the rollback of all of these Civil Rights era victories, such as Roe v. Wade, women’s rights and all of these other protections, so I felt it was critical to stand up and encourage everyone to carry the torch forward.”

Although Motus Theater has presented arts-based programming for MLK Day since its inception in 2011, this is the organization’s second annual Dr.

King Jr. & the Radical Roots at the Heart of Justice event. The free program is designed to spark action based on Dr. King’s theories surrounding racism and poverty, with a focus on building a “beloved community” in the context of 21st-century civil and human rights challenges.

Presented in partnership with CU Boulder’s Center for African and African American Studies (CAAAS), this year’s iteration features Colorado hip-hop legends The ReMINDers, social justice activist and poet Norma Johnson, CAAAS director Dr. Reiland Rabaka and autobiographical monologists Bailey and Jahmil Roberts.

“Participating in an event honoring Dr. King’s legacy is important for me as a transgender rights organizer because I know that Martin Luther King Jr. did not work alone,” Roberts says. “There were queer people and so many others that supported King’s movement. It’s important to show up and let people know we can organize toward the life we want for ourselves.

Beyond the celebrity we are sold in school and through the media, Dr. King was correct that material change can occur when we ground ourselves in our place and do the necessary work.”

AN HONOR TO FIGHT

It’s been more than half a century since Dr. King was assassinated on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he had come to prepare for a march on behalf of striking sanitation workers. But the struggles he addressed — racial injustice, poverty and the fight for a more equitable society — remain as pertinent in the present moment as they were during his lifetime.

“Everything that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for still applies today,” says Big Samir of The ReMINDers.

“We still have a long way to go in realizing his dream, so we must keep working hard. It is always a pleasure and an honor to lend our voices to the ongoing fight for justice.”

The event’s artistic approach speaks to the transformative power of creative endeavors in social movements. It serves as a reminder that art can be a tool for education, empathy and activism.

“Maya Angelou talks about how it is the responsibility of each individual to tell their story so we can keep the momentum of liberation at the forefront,” says Bailey, who dedicated her

life to community activism after serving a three-year prison sentence in 1999.

“We connect to music and art because they allow us to speak about the core of the human experience. I did a lot of spoken word when I was in prison; the art was healing because you could say things that were trapped inside your body that you could never really configure.”

In a world still grappling with issues of race, gender and class, Motus Theater’s event seeks to harness the power of art in social discourse. It’s a reminder that Dr. King’s dream is not a static relic of the past but a living, evolving aspiration that demands our active participation.

“I’m looking at 2024 with this clean, open slate right now in so many ways, but I also think that history often tells us the story of what is to come,” Bailey says. “We’re watching a lot of the work that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. did unravel. Every year we honor MLK; he was given a day, but his life wasn’t about a singular day in January. It was about the things he did intentionally every single day. Not just a speech, not just a protest, not just a march — it was the way that he lived intentionally every day, and that is something that every individual can do.”

ON STAGE: Dr. King Jr. & the Radical Roots at the Heart of Justice. 2 p.m. Jan. 15, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Free

Aja Black from musical duo The ReMINDers (right) and monologist Jahmil Roberts will perform during the second annual Dr. King Jr. & the Radical Roots at the Heart of Justice, Jan. 15 at the Dairy Arts Center.

Credit: NJKPhotography

BOULDER WEEKLY

JANUARY 11, 2024

17

BOOKS

THE MAGIC THAT WASN’T Local authors delve into Walt Disney’s ill-fated ’60s quest to build a ski resort in the Sierra Nevada Mountains

BY BART SCHANEMAN

M

arrying into a family of fervent Disney fans might typically mean you end up riding Space Mountain more than you ever thought you would. But for local author Greg Glasgow, it meant co-authoring a nonfiction book about Walt Disney’s failed attempt to build a ski resort in California in the 1960s.

In Disneyland on the Mountain, Glasgow and his wife, Kathryn Mayer, a lifelong fan of the magic kingdom, tell the story of Disney’s failed Mineral King resort and the fight won by Sierra Club environmentalists to stop it from being built.

The area in question, Mineral King, is a valley at the southern edge of California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The valley’s steep mountainsides and relatively close proximity to coastal population centers attracted Disney to propose building a resort with parking lots, hotels and chair lifts for millions of visitors.

The book explains how the Sierra Club initially endorsed building the Mineral King resort in the 1940s because the group wanted to protect another area in California, the San Gorgonio Wilderness, from being developed into a ski resort and approved Mineral King as an alternative. A few years later, the Sierra Club even awarded Disney with a lifetime membership.

The way Glasgow and Mayer tell it, about two decades later, a new environmental movement had dawned, with more attention paid to issues such as pollution and overdevelopment.

To be fair to Disney, Glasgow also points out the idea for this project originated from the National Forest Service.

“It’s important to note that it wasn’t just Walt and the Disney company happening upon a beautiful area in the

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JANUARY 11, 2024

mountains and saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to build a ski resort here,’” Glasgow says. The Forest Service had land it thought would be good for a resort and reached out to people for proposals, Disney included.

Disney was just coming off the success of his Disneyland theme park. This would have been his second project, but he died a year into the planning.

“So there’s the tragedy of this great, unfulfilled dream that he had,” Glasgow says. “And these two forces working

against each other, both really for what they thought was good and right.”

In fact, the Sierra Club’s Legal Defense Fund, which morphed into a separate entity called Earthjustice, was born out of the Mineral King dispute.

The legal battle went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1972, where the Sierra Club’s Legal Defense Club filed a precedent-setting suit that confirmed the public’s right to protect the environment in court.

“It ushered in the modern era of environmental law and preserved Mineral King’s majesty for future generations,” according to the Earthjustice website. “Since setting a foundation for environmental law at Mineral King, Earthjustice has filed thousands of lawsuits on behalf of the environment and all the life that depends on it.”

It’s hard to imagine anyone trying to build a ski resort the size Disney proposed today — on one of Colorado’s Summit County behemoths, for example.

“Not a lot of American ski resorts have been built since the ’60s,” Glasgow says. “Because it’s so difficult now.”

And Mineral King will almost certainly never be developed. In 1978, a law was passed making the valley part of Sequoia National Park.

slowly dawned on us that this would actually make a really good book.”

Not only that, but it had a built-in audience. Other than the diehard Disney fans who mentioned the story on their blogs, Glasgow and Mayer couldn’t find much else written about the resort.

“We’re writing a book for Disney fans, which we know from being in that community ourselves,” says Glasgow, who has discussed the book with Mayer on a number of Disney-themed podcasts. “We know there’s a big, rabid fan base for that stuff.”

That’s not to say they necessarily took Disney’s side in the telling.

Glasgow is a Boulder native with a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Colorado, and he spent 10 years on the arts and entertainment beat at the Daily Camera.

Mayer is also a journalist by training.

“We really tried to emphasize both sides and tell the story objectively,” Glasgow says.

Despite spending untold hours writing a book about Disney, the couple’s fandom hasn’t ebbed.

When Boulder Weekly interviewed Courtesy: Greg Glasgow (left) and Kathryn Mayer (right) Glasgow, he was leaving for Disney World in a few days.

Glasgow says he ‘A BIG, RABID FAN BASE’ and Mayer visit the parks at least a The couple discovered the seed for couple of times a year, have taken Disneyland on the Mountain when several cruises and watch the movies they were visiting the Walt Disney pretty regularly.

Family Museum in San Francisco in The Disney community has been 2018. very receptive to the book so far, The museum displays a timeline of Glasgow adds: “People have said Disney’s life, briefly mentioning Mineral thank you so much for shedding more King and Disney’s partner on the projlight on this topic.” ect, Willy Schaeffler, the late ski coach at the University of Denver (DU).

Glasgow and Mayer had both been working at DU when they met. There ON THE PAGE: Disneyland were too many connections to their on the Mountain: Walt, the personal lives and interests to forget Environmentalists, and the the idea.

Ski Resort That Never Was “The more we looked into it, we realby Greg Glasgow and ized how many pieces there were to Kathryn Mayer is out now in it,” Glasgow says. “The two sides hardcover and paperback via between Disney and the environmenRowman & Littlefield. talists. It went to the Supreme Court. It BOULDER WEEKLY

FILM

SCRAPPY LITTLE SOMEBODY CU professor Kelly Sears is back in Sundance

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

I

f you’re an independent filmmaker, getting into the Sundance Film Festival is high on your wishlist.

“It’s such a big festival, and it’s such an industry festival,” Kelly Sears says.

“I’m ecstatic that my little, scrappy film is invited to play amongst the big, new film machine that Sundance is.”

The filmmaker and CU-Boulder Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts professor knows: The Lost Season is Sears’ fifth short in the big dance — her first was in 2008 — and every year, the festival keeps growing.

“I have to give them credit for programming the film that’s kind of a fiction, kind of a documentary, kind of an animation, kind of experimental — that exists across all of these genres — and making a home for it in their big 40th festival,” she says of The Lost Season.

“I’m very grateful for that.”

Screening in Park City, Utah, on Jan. 18-28 — with a limited online component for those not venturing to the snowy mountain town — the 40th Sundance Film Festival kicks off the moviegoing year with premieres big and small. For many, Sundance can

make a career based on a good screening and rhapsodic reviews that lead to a distribution deal. That places Sears and The Lost Season in a unique category.

“My films don’t have to become commodities,” the professor explains. “I’m really fortunate to have this rad teaching job that I love, and I get to make the weird films that I want without any of the pressure of, ‘This has to get distribution; this has to get picked up.’”

It’s a nice irony, considering Sears’ short is all about the financial exploitation of images — specifically, through on-demand streaming companies hiring videographers to capture at-risk ecosystems before they vanish and then monetizing them through their platforms.

The idea came to Sears on one of her many walks away from her animation station. “What if this was the last winter?” The answer seems obvious: Capture on camera what’s left before it’s gone.

But what would happen with that footage is the crux of Spears’ swiftmoving narrative that covers climate

profiteering, labor disputes, moral quandaries and radical manifestos.

“It covers a lot of ground in six minutes,” Sears says with a laugh.

TIME OUT OF MIND

With narration by fellow filmmaker and Cinema Studies professor Skinner Myers, The Lost Season is the next step in Sears’ “appropriation-based film practice” of going to secondhand book stores, thrift stores and library sales, “finding cast-off books and re-homing them and giving them new lives in films.” A low-to-the-ground practice not dependent on a lot of resources or people “besides some paper,” Sears explains.

But unlike her earlier shorts, The Lost Season is constructed from timelapse photography with Sears layering stop-motion, collage and other forms of animation.

“I felt like I was cheating,” Sears says of The Lost Season. “Doing these timelapses for part of the film felt a little hands-off. And then I realized: I have all of these images of snow. I can use the snow as a white screen. That became a way to open up and puncture the image, and all of these ideas of rupturing the frame — through glitching, through static, through noise — started to emerge.”

Since Sears shot The Lost Season on an aging 2009 Canon Rebel XS, the film retains the time-out-of-mind aesthetic Sears has honed since The Drift played the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.

“I actually like how out-of-date it looks, because it’s hard for me to place where it’s at,” Sears says. “Is it the past? Is it something else? I’m not sure.

The image is really ambiguous to me.”

As ambiguous as the image may appear, the intent of The Lost Season is not.

“The solution is not to record what’s left and then make an on-demand streaming company to remember when it’s gone,” Sears says. “There are so many other solutions before we get to that point.”

The Lost Season won’t be the last word from Sears on the matter. She’s working on a larger project that will expand her “speculative-docu-animation” narrative.

“I’m producing a constellation of these that are later going to be housed in a bigger film,” she says. “And that’s a really strange model, because my idea is that at least three if not four [of these shorts] will have lives at festivals, and then they’ll go back out into the world — but I don’t know where or how — in this larger thing that’s all packaged together.”

Sears estimates the finished movie will resemble a 70-minute collage with shorts like The Lost Season woven into and interrupting the narrative like “chapters in the film.”

But before we get there, Sears and The Lost Season are making a stop at Sundance. After that, the sky’s the limit.

ON SCREEN: The 40th

Sundance Film Festival screens in Park City, Utah, Jan. 18-28 and online Jan. 25-28. The Lost Season plays in the Short Film Program 2.

The Lost Season by CU professor Kelly Sears screens as part of the Short Film Program at the 40th Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 18-28. Courtesy: Kelly Sears

BOULDER WEEKLY

JANUARY 11, 2024

19

EVENTS FRI. 1/12 - 8:00PM

Jason BRandt Band w/ PaMela Machala Band and Racyne PaRkeR SAT. 1/13 - 7:30PM

alt Rock outeR Planet showcase w/ nine wide sky and MR. knoBs WED. 1/17 - 6:00PM

11

FRI. 1/19 - 8:00PM

5:30-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th St. $10-$15

BouldeR BluegRass JaM

aRi hest with sPecial guest SAT. 1/27 - 7:30PM

the delta sonics (Blues dance PaRty) TUE. 2/6 - 6:30PM

Blues w/ dFk and the laB Rats, live BRoadcast on 88.5 kgnu

HOMECOMING QUEENS

Head to BMoCA for an art-forward drag show featuring local queens exploring notions of home and identity expression. The performance is a response to the work of Ále Campos and Rory Scott in BMoCA’s current exhibition, MediaLive: Technology as Healing, on display through Jan. 14.

THU. 2/8 - 5:00PM

11

QUEER COMMUNITY MEDITATION AND CONVERSATION

6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, Boulder Shambhala Center, 1345 Spruce St., Boulder.

Free “Come as you are.” That’s the message behind this community-building event hosted by the Boulder Shambhala Center, designed for selfidentifying members of the LGBTQ community to gather and connect through mindfulness practices led by queer Buddhist teachers on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month.

12

COMEDY ALL-STARS

8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, The Louisville Underground, 640 Main St. $15-$80 Did you resolve to laugh more in 2024? Lucky for you, the Louisville Underground hosts its Comedy AllStars showcase with headliner Nic Dean along with a wrecking crew of local comics who will have you in stitches. So grab your crew and get ready to bust a gut during the funniest night in East County.

BouldeR FilM coMMission sync Music cReatoRs WED. 2/14 - 8:00PM

coMe Fly with Me a valentine’s day tRiBute to noRah Jones FRI. 2/16 - 8:00PM

dead alive SAT. 2/24 - 8:00PM

als highway 50, hownlin’ goatz, the alcaPones SAT 3/16 - 9:00PM

PhyPhR Purchase Tickets at

RMPtix.com RootsMusicProject.org 4747 Pearl Suite V3A 20

JANUARY 11, 2024

11

FLATIRONS PHOTO CLUB

7-9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, Frasier Retirement Community Movie Theater, 350 Ponca Place, Boulder. Free Calling all shutterbugs! Meeting on the second Thursday of each month (except July and August), the Flatirons Photo Club is a great way to grow your craft and connect with neighbors who share your passion.

This month’s meet-up includes a presentation on in-field shooting techniques with Littleton photographer Darren White, followed by a slideshow and conversation surrounding photos by club members.

12

LASER DAFT PUNK

10-11 p.m. Friday, Jan. 12, Fiske Planetarium, 2414 Regent Dr., Boulder. $14 One more time, we’re gonna celebrate. Head to the Fiske Planetarium for an out-of-this-world laser show set to the music of French robot electronic duo Daft Punk on a 360-degree wraparound screen. With a playlist featuring mega hits like “Around the World,” “Get Lucky” and “One More Time,” you’re guaranteed to leave feeling harder, better, faster, stronger.

13

STREET WISE ARTS MURAL WALKING TOUR

11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, Creature Comforts, 1647 Pearl St., Boulder. Donation: $5+ Downtown Boulder is bursting with eye-popping street art — and you’ll get a taste of it on the Street Wise Arts Mural Walking Tour. This docentled exploration brings you up close and personal with murals by local and national artists, lasting about two hours and covering roughly 1.5-2 miles.

BOULDER WEEKLY

EVENTS

day

Wednes

th

Jan 10

show timme 8:00p

13–14

LOOM WEAVING WORKSHOP

9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat.-Sun., Jan. 13-14, Schacht Spindle Company, 6101 Ben Place, Boulder. $225 Ring in the new year by picking up a new craft at the Schacht Spindle Company in Boulder. You’ll learn all about loom weaving with the expert guidance of instructor Jane Patrick during this two-day workshop. Price includes yarn, lunch and use of a loom

15

DR. KING JR. AND THE RADICAL ROOTS AT THE HEART OF JUSTICE

2:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, Dairy Arts Center Gordon Gamm Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Free (donations encouraged) Honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the second annual celebration presented by Motus Theater and the CU Boulder Center for African & African American Studies. The event will feature music from Colorado hiphop legends The ReMINDers, plus Dr. Reiland Rabaka, JustUs Monologist Candice Bailey and TRANSformative Stories Monologist Jahmil Roberts.

Story on p. 17.

AY

tHURSD

TH

Jan 11

15

2024 BOULDER COUNTY MLK JR. DAY AT SILVER CREEK HIGH SCHOOL 10 a.m. Monday, Jan. 15, Silver Creek High School, 4901 Nelson Road, Longmont. Free

Join NAACP Boulder County for the 19th annual celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Co-presented with Second Baptist Church and the Museum of Boulder — whose ongoing Proclaiming Colorado’s Black History exhibition runs through Feb. 2025 — this year’s event will feature music, dance and spoken word by local youth and area performers.

fRIDAY

n 12th

Ja show timme 8:00p

ay

Saturd

th

Jan 13

show timme 8:00p

Sunday

th

Jan 14

show timme 8:00p

day

Wednes

th

Jan 17

show timme 8:00p

ay

th

Jan 18

show timme 8:00p

Friday

n 19th

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Jan 2

TAKÁCS QUARTET

4-7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 14, CU Presents - Grusin Music Hall, 1020 18th St., Boulder. $38-$48 Boulder’s own Grammy-winning Takács Quartet returns to the Grusin Music Hall for a Sunday afternoon of classical music that will leave you walking on air. But don’t take our word for it: “You will not hear a better string quartet playing anywhere in the world today,” says BBC Music Magazine.

BOULDER WEEKLY

15

ANNUAL MLK MARCH FOR PEACE EVENT

10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 15, Angevine Middle School, 1150 W. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Free MLK celebrations continue with the City of Lafayette’s annual march and event organized by the Lafayette Youth Advisory Commission. Head to Angevine Middle School for a premarch celebration, followed by the March for Peace leaving from the north parking lot at 11:30 a.m.

show timme 8:00p

18

DROP-IN FIGURE DRAWING

Sunday

1st

Jan 2

show timme 8:00p

6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, NoBo Art Center, 4929 Broadway, Unit E, Boulder. $25

day

Wednes

Swing by the NoBo Art Center in Boulder for its weekly session of facilitated, uninstructed figure drawing with a nude fine arts model. All skill levels and mediums are welcome, with the center providing nine workhorses, five easels and eight clip boards to share on a first-come, firstserved basis.

In the Bar

kgnu PRESENTS PIXIE AND THE

show timme PARTYGRASS BOYS WITH 8:00p mAGOO

Thursd

14

Matt flaherty

4th

Jan 2

show timme 8:00p

ay

Thursd

5th

Jan 2

show timme 8:00p

$14 + $4

service charge

lIONEL YOUNG DUO In the Bar

Delta Sonics Duo In the Bar

Vitalwild and Zaje In the Bar

Katie Mintle In the Bar

Cris jacobs with earl nelson

$17 + $4

service charge

Chuck sitero and liz patton In the Bar

Many Mountains In the Bar

Katie Mintle In the Bar

Matt flaherty In the Bar

Arkansauce with brandywine and the might Fines

$15 + $4

service charge

JANUARY 11, 2024

21

LIVE MUSIC AUGUSTUS WITH RED LIGHT RITUAL, LOS TOMS AND SPITTING IMAGE. 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15

T HU R S D AY, J AN. 1 1 ERIC HUTCHINSON. 7 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $30

VITALWILD & ZAJE. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

PHUNXUE. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

HEIR TO NOTHING WITH TOXIC AUTHORITY AND BRAT HOUSE. 7 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $12

RANSOM NOTE WITH SUICIDE CAGES, SIN EATER AND IGNORANT BLISS. 7 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15 COLTER WALL (NIGHT 1). 8 p.m.

Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Resale: $68+ THE DELTA BOMBERS AND THE GODDAMN GALLOWS WITH VOLK. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theatre, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $23 PIXIE & THE PARTYGRASS BOYS WITH MAGOO. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $14

FR I D AY, J A N . 1 2 NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS WITH BAG MEN. 7 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $25 JACKSON MALONEY. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free MIND INCISION WITH THE BURIAL PLOT, CARNAL CONTEMPT, THRASH HARD CITY AND DEFECTED. 7 p.m. Bluebird Theatre, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $23 POISON TRIBE WITH UPON A FIELD’S WHISPER, CLARION VOID AND EMPIRE DEMOLITION. 8 p.m.

Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $12 JASON BRANDT BAND WITH PAMELA MACHALA BAND AND RACYNE PARKER. 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl, Suite V3A, Boulder. $15 COLTER WALL (NIGHT 2). 8 p.m.

Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Resale: $50+ 22

JANUARY 11, 2024

M ON DAY, J A N . 15

ON THE BILL Legendary Colorado hip-hop duo The ReMINDers return to the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder on Jan. 15 for a special MLK Day performance. Co-presented by Motus Theater and the CU Boulder Center for African & African American Studies, the second annual Dr. King Jr. & the Radical Roots at the Heart of Justice program explores the legacy of the Civil Rights icon by bringing together the voices of social justice advocates, scholars and artists. Scan the QR code for a BW feature on emcee Big Samir before you go, and read more about the upcoming event on p. 17. See listing for details.

INTERPRETIVE TYRANNY WITH VELVET DAYDREAM, MELON HUSK AND MORE. 7 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $14 LIONEL YOUNG DUO. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder.

Free

SATUR DAY, JAN . 13 THE RECORD COMPANY WITH JESSE AHERN. 7 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $25 COLORADO’S FINEST UNDERGROUND HIP HOP: JORDAN POLOVINA (WHISKEY BLANKET) WITH THE ILLSENTIALS (ILL SE7EN AND FRIENDS). 7:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $19 MOUNTAIN DUO. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free COLTER WALL (NIGHT 3). Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $150

WARD DAVIS WITH SARAH ADAMS AND PETER STONE. 7 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $22 BLUEBOOK WITH THE STILL TIDE AND UHL. 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15 ALT ROCK OUTER PLANET SHOWCASE WITH NINE WIDE SKY AND MR. KNOBS. 7:30 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl, Suite V3A, Boulder. $15 PINK FUZZ WITH RITMO CASCABEL AND HORSE BITCH. 9 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $20 DELTA SONICS DUO. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder.

Free

SUN D AY, JAN . 14 KOMPANY WITH IVORY, GORILLA T, LEO VON AND G3O. 8:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20 BACKSTREET JAZZ. 4 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

THE REMINDERS. 2:30 p.m.

Monday, Jan. 15, Dairy Arts Center - Gordon Gamm Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Free BW PICK OF THE WEEK

WE DN E S DAY, J A N . 17 KATIE MANTLE. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

TH URS DAY, J A N . 18 BOULDER B-SIDES. 5 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free WINTER FEST 2.0 (BOILER ROOM): BRUINS B2B SPENDO, CATCH COOK B2B PAREDES, NEL B2B GASPY, SOLEM. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $18 ROB BAIRD WITH PARKER CHAPIN. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $16 IN PLAIN AIR WITH CORSICANA, DETH RALI AND TARANTULA BILL. 8 p.m. Hi Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $12 CRIS JACOBS WITH EARL NELSON. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $17

Want more Boulder County events? Check out the complete listings online by scanning this QR code.

BOULDER WEEKLY

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ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

Help wanted

Help wanted

Senior Manager private networks. Zayo Group, llC. Boulder, CO. telecommuter opt. MS in elec eng or Comp Info Sys; 2 yrs exp. emplyr will accept any suitable combo of ed, trng or exp. Oversee & lead pvt ntwk enginrs to support delivery of dedicated ntwrks. $146k/yr. Resumes: (attn Z1) 1821 30th St, Boulder, CO 80203; rhonda. dudley@zayo.com

Site acquisition & Radio Frequency planning Specialist for wiBlue, Inc. in Boulder, CO: Meet with prospective landlords to arrange management & service contracts, determine priorities, & discuss the financial & operational status of properties. Requires: Bachelor’s + 6 mos. exp. $87,942/yr. Mail resume: 3002 Bluff St., Ste. 300, Boulder, CO 80301. Ref. Job Id aS

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Why do birds sing? They must be expressing their joy at being alive, right? And in some cases, they are trying to impress and attract potential mates. Ornithologists tell us that birds are also staking out their turf by chirping their melodies. Flaunting their vigor is a sign to other birds of how strong and commanding they are. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you Aries humans to sing more than ever before in 2024. Like birds, you have a mandate to boost your joie de vivre and wield more authority.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): Which zodiac sign is most likely to have a green thumb? Who would most astrologers regard as the best gardener?

Who would I call on if I wanted advice on when to harvest peaches, how to love and care for roses as they grow or how to discern which weeds might be helpful and useful? The answer, according to my survey, is Taurus. And I believe you bulls will be even more fecund than usual around plants in 2024. Even further, I expect you to be extra fertile and creative in every area of your life.

I hereby dub you Maestro of the Magic of Germination and Growth.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Research I’ve found suggests that 70% of us have experienced at least one traumatic event in our lives. I suspect the percentage is higher. For starters, everyone has experienced the dicey expulsion from the warm, nurturing womb. That’s usually not a low-stress event. The good news, Gemini, is that now and then there come phases when we have more power than usual to heal from our traumas. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, the coming months will be one of those curative times for you.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): At their best, Libras foster vibrant harmony that energizes social situations. At their best, Scorpios stimulate the talents and beauty of those they engage with. Generous Leos and Sagittarians inspire enthusiasm in others by expressing their innate radiance.

Many of us may get contact highs from visionary, deep-feeling Pisceans. In 2024, Cancerian, I believe you can call on all these modes as you brighten and nurture the people in your sphere — even if you have no Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Leo or Pisces influences in your astrological chart.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Here are my wishes for you in 2024. 1. I hope you will rigorously study historical patterns in your life story. I hope you will gather robust insights into the rhythms and themes of your amazing journey. 2. You will see clearly what parts of your past are worth keeping and which are better outgrown and left behind. 3. You will come to a new appreciation of the heroic quest you have been on.

You will feel excited about how much further your quest can go. 4. You will feel gratitude for the deep inner sources that have been guiding you all these years. 5. You will be pleased to realize how much you have grown and ripened.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): Virgo author Eduardo Galeano mourned how our institutions condition us to divorce our minds from our hearts and our bodies from our souls. Even sadder, many of us deal with these daunting schisms by becoming numb to them. The good news, Virgo, is that I expect 2024 to be one of the best times ever for you to foster reconciliation between the split-off parts of yourself.

Let’s call this the Year of Unification. May you be inspired to create both subtle and spectacular fusions of your fragmented parts.

Visualize your thoughts and feelings weaving together in elegant harmony. Imagine your material and spiritual needs finding common sources of nourishment.

24

JANUARY 11, 2024

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): According to ancient Greek myth, the half-divine hero Heracles consulted the Oracle of Delphi for guidance. He was assigned to perform 12 daunting feats, most of which modern people would regard as unethical, like killing and stealing. There was one labor that encouraged integrity, though. Heracles had to clean the stables where over a thousand divine cattle lived. The place hadn’t been scrubbed in 30 years! As I meditated on your hero’s journey in the coming months, Libra, I concluded that you’d be wise to begin with a less grandiose version of Heracles’ work in the stables. Have fun as you cheerfully tidy up everything in your life! By doing so, you will earn the power to experience many deep and colorful adventures in the coming months.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): I will name two taboos I think you should break in 2024. The first is the theory that you must hurt or suppress yourself to help others. The second is that you must hurt or suppress others to benefit yourself. Please scour away any delusion you might have that those two strategies could genuinely serve you. In their place, substitute these hypotheses: 1. Being good to yourself is the best way to prepare for helping others. 2. Being good to others is the best way to benefit yourself.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): “Doubt has killed more dreams than failure ever will,” says Sagittarian author Suzy Kassem. Many of us have had the experience of avoiding a quest for success because we are too afraid of being defeated or demoralized. “Loss aversion” is a well-known psychological concept that applies when we are so anxious about potential loss that we don’t pursue the possible gain. In my astrological estimation, you Centaurs should be especially on guard against this inhibiting factor in 2024. I am confident you can rise above it, but to do so, you must be alert for its temptation—and eager to summon new reserves of courage.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): In 2024, I predict you will be blessed with elegant and educational expansion — but also challenged by the possibility of excessive, messy expansion. Soulful magnificence could vie for your attention with exorbitant extravagance. Even as you are offered valuable novelties that enhance your sacred and practical quests, you may be tempted with lesser inducements you don’t really need. For optimal results, Capricorn, I urge you to avoid getting distracted by irrelevant goodies. Usher your fate away from pretty baubles and towards felicitous beauty.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Some people feel that “wealth” refers primarily to financial resources. If you’re wealthy, it means you have a lot of money, luxurious possessions and lavish opportunities to travel. But wealth can also be measured in other ways. Do you have an abundance of love in your life?

Have you enjoyed many soulful adventures?

Does your emotional intelligence provide rich support for your heady intelligence? I bring this up, Aquarius, because I believe 2024 will be a time when your wealth will increase. The question for you to ruminate on: How do you define wealth?

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): “No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life,” said philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Here’s my response to that bold declaration: It’s utterly WRONG! No one in the history of the world has ever built anything solely by their own efforts, let alone a bridge to cross the river of life. Even if you are holed up in your studio working on a novel, painting or invention, you are absolutely dependent on the efforts of many people to provide you with food, water, electricity, clothes, furniture and all the other goodies that keep you functioning. It’s also unlikely that anyone could create anything of value without having received a whole lot of love and support from other humans. Sorry for the rant, Pisces. It’s a preface for my very positive prediction: In 2024, you will have substantial help in building your bridge across the river of life.

BOULDER WEEKLY

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE My boyfriend recently broke up with me. He confessed that he has been battling an addiction to orgies and couldn’t show up for our relationship in the ways I needed him to. Basically, he uses drugs and logs onto Grindr or Sniffies to find sex parties.

He is into the kink of anonymous breeding. He bottoms and likes to take and “tally” as many loads as he can. Sometimes these “breeding sessions” last an entire day.

I am, of course, concerned about my ex and his drug use and I have offered him what help and emotional support I can. But learning about his kink threw me, and I want to understand it better.

— Seeking Enlightening Educational Download Before I answer your question, I wanna enter this into the record: Sexual interests and kinks are personal and subjective. One person’s ultimate fantasy is another person’s worst nightmare.

For gay men of my generation, the association between getting bred and suffering an early, protracted and punishing death remains a powerful boner killer. I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW: We have a daily pill now that protects HIV-negative men from infection and HIV treatments so effective the virus literally can’t be detected in the bloodstreams of HIV-positive men and undetectable equals untransmittable and there’s even a “morningafter pill” that helps prevent the spread of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. Taking anon loads may not be the death wish it was in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but for men who remember when it was, the vibes aren’t good.

Lots of gay men who came of age with PrEP and U=U are content to take a single, solitary load from someone whose first, last and middle names are known to them. And some

gay men aren’t into penetrative sex at all. These men, aka “sides,” wanna blow loads on and near hot guys, not in them.

With that said — I’m willing to say — I get it.

I’m a gay man, gay men love dick, some gay men binge dick. And the things people point to when condemning and/or pathologizing anonymous group sex — the objectification, the dehumanization, the mitigatable-but-interminable risks — are precisely what turns some people on about anonymous group sex.

(We are objects, being human is exhausting, danger is exciting.)

And it’s not just gay men who find orgies exciting. Gay men may have an easier time arranging orgies for all sorts of reasons (hookup apps, men are sluts, less cause to fear sexual violence), but it’s not like we invented orgies or hold the patent. A lot of women love dick, and some of those women fantasize about being the center square of a gangbang. (And some of those women — with the help of trusted partners — get to live out their cumdump fantasies.)

I want to quickly address the elephant in the room and/or the pipe in the mouth and/or the powder around the nostrils: your ex-boyfriend’s drug problem.

Someone who needs to obliterate their inhibitions with drugs or alcohol in order to enjoy something, SEED, is almost always doing that thing wrong and/or doing it for the wrong reasons.

I believe our bodies are our own.

They belong to us — or they should — which means they’re ours to use, ours to share and ours to use up. If this is how your ex-boyfriend wants to use his body (or have his body used), that’s his choice. But if he can’t be used like this without both abusing and blaming drugs, SEED, he’s not living his best life and enjoying crazy kinks. He’s destroying his life and engaging in acts of self-harm disguised as kinks.

Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love BOULDER WEEKLY

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NIBBLES

MASTER OF THE BEER MULTIVERSE Patrick Combs officially knows more about beer than you — and most hop heads on the planet

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

B

oulder County has been dubbed the “Silicon Valley of beer” for good reason. There may be more beer tasting knowledge per capita on the Front Range among brewers and sippers than almost anywhere else in the nation.

We think we know beer here, but one local beer nerd has risen above us all.

Patrick Combs, Colorado’s first Certified Master Cicerone, (pronounced “Sisserown.”)

Not only is he one of most beer-savvy experts in the state, Combs stands out as one of only 28 people on the planet who have passed the master level test since it was created in 2008.

Combs has the title of Director of Liquids and is in charge of everything drinkable at Stem Ciders’ three locations – Acreage by Stem Cider and Ghost Box Pizza, both in Lafayette, and a Denver tasting room.

JUST SUDS

You are forgiven if you’ve never heard the word “cicerone.”

It’s much more than the bar exam of beer — it’s like earning your way onto

Credit: Dustin Hall @brewtographyproject

BOULDER WEEKLY

the Supreme Court of Beer or becoming an ale Jedi. Master Cicerones must have an exceptional understanding of brewing combined with a great palate and an encyclopedic knowledge of every beer style in existence.

It may sound like Homer Simpson’s dream occupation, but becoming a Master Cicerone is more expensive and much less fun than you might think.

“In 2023 alone, I spent $4,500 on single bottles of beer,” Combs says. “I tasted two ounces of each, and the rest [went] down the drain. There’s way too much to actually drink.”

The international Cicerone Certification Program was sparked by a famed brewer Ray Daniels, who was frustrated at the low quality of the beer service and knowledge he encountered when he ordered an ale at a brewery or restaurant, according to Combs.

Wine was being treated reverentially by sommeliers. The same was true of spirits by bartenders and mixologists.

Beer was not being taken seriously. It was just suds.

“The certification program was designed for people that wanted to

understand beer better, have the ability to describe beer and figure out what kind of beer they should recommend to a customer,” Combs says. “That’s the level of service that I think most of us would expect and deserve, especially when we’re paying up to $10 for a locally brewed pint.”

CHEERIOS AND DEAD FLOWERS

Master Cicerone is the top honor of the Cicerone Certification Program, requiring applicants to pass an intensive twoday exam involving written and oral elements as well as tasting challenges.

“You are expected to write an entire dinner menu and pair beer with it and justify the pairings,” according to Combs. “You may be asked to write an essay on German Pilsners where you’re expected to know the entire history of that style.”

Credit: Stem Ciders

Much of the test material concerns important technical knowledge, i.e., keeping beer cold.

“You may be asked to write about setting up a beer festival and how you will assure the cooling requirements and draft beer line pressures,” he says In other words, you do not want to play Beer Trivial Pursuit against this guy. Combs’ long and winding path to brewing wisdom began when he was just a child.

“The first beer my parents let me taste was a Heineken when I was 7 years old,” he says, noting that his mom and dad were mainly into fine wine, not beer. “I remember very distinctly that to me it tasted like Cheerios

and dead flower buds – basically, grain and hops.”

Combs’ epiphany came when he was a marketing undergraduate at Oklahoma State University.

“I think I just hadn’t had fresh beer as a student since it wasn’t stored properly cold,” he says. “My real eureka moment — the lightning strike — was tasting a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I learned there’s such an incredible difference between something that is fresh and something that has been mishandled.”

That taste changed his life, Combs says. “I decided to try to find a career in the beverage industry, because I really liked everything about it.”

The only problem was that the beer industry was initially less than interested in him.

“Without experience, beer people wouldn’t give you the time of day, even for an interview,” he says. “I was applying to do whatever job would get my foot in the door. I was met with so much resistance that to make my dream a reality, I had to create my own path.”

Before he became the Director of Liquids at Stem, Combs also worked at WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley and Boulder’s Avery Brewing.

“It’s been a 10-year journey of studying to get to this moment, and it’s been very challenging,” he says, admitting that his obsession and study schedule negatively impacted some of his relationships. “I just wanted to prove to the world that I had achieved that level of knowledge, that I had that skill set.”

Combs works for an award-winning cidery that serves only a handful of local beers at its three locations. But much of the Master Cicerone knowledge also applies to cider, especially when it comes to service.

“Right now, we’re going through the same sort of renaissance in cider, but we’re 20 years or so behind beer,” he says. “We have a lot of people that come into Stem Ciders who say, ‘I’m not a cider person.’ We say: “OK, what do you normally drink?’ If they say IPAs, we offer a sample of our Apricot Haze cider with three types of hops.

“It’s evangelizing. It’s getting that liquid into people’s mouths so they can make that big discovery.”

JANUARY 11, 2024

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NIBBLES

Guy Fieri with chef Bradly Hartman at Boulder’s Bohemian Biergarten Credit: Food Network

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: CHUBURGER REVIVAL

The apple strudel at Boulder’s Bohemian Biergarten (2017 13th St.) was recently featured by Guy Fieri on the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Oskar Blues’ CHUBurger has reopened after four years as a permanent food truck at 3rd Shot Pickleball, 20 S. Bowen St. in Longmont.

Shin Yuu Izakaya has opened at 917 Front St. in Louisville, former site of Sushi Yoshi.

La Belle French Bakery is dishing pastries at a new location at 1170 US-287 in Broomfield.

The last remaining local T.G.I. Fridays has closed at 125 Ken Pratt Blvd. in Longmont.

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WORDS TO CHEW ON: EXQUISITE CARDBOARD

A customer at Poulette Bakeshop in Parker recently made the following comment on Instagram.

“I got an eclair here once, paid $10 or something for just one, it tasted like cardboard. Whole Foods has better eclair’s (sic),” the commenter wrote.

Poulette Bakeshop then responded: “Here at Poulette, we pride ourselves on using only the highest quality cardboard for our eclairs.

This commitment to excellence is characterized by our use of only the best ‘freshly corrugated’ cardboard available from our local cardboard manufacturers. … Thanks so much for taking the time to write.”

John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles Thursday mornings on KGNU-FM. Podcasts: kgnu.org/category/radio-nibbles

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TOKIN’ AND TOTIN’ Advocacy group pushes concealed carry permits for pot smokers

BY WILL BRENDZA

T

here are a lot of rules and restrictions around who can get a concealed carry permit in the U.S. You have to be over 21 years old.

In Colorado, you must be a legal resident of the state; you can’t have been convicted of perjury; you can’t be subject to a protection order and you can’t chronically and habitually use alcoholic beverages — or any controlled substance.

That last stipulation has created a legal issue for marijuana users who want to carry a concealed firearm in Colorado. Because cannabis is still a federally illegal substance, sheriffs are technically prohibited from granting a permit to anyone who habitually uses or is addicted to it.

To Edgar Antillon, co-founder of Guns for Everyone, that is a freedom issue given that weed and alcohol are both legal in Colorado. That’s why he and his organization are lobbying to pass a ballot measure that would create yet another divergence between state and federal law. It would change Colorado’s regulations around concealed carry permits to allow cannabis users to obtain and carry them legally.

“It’s one of those silly things that has

BOULDER WEEKLY

been going on for a while.

We’ve legalized marijuana, but we don’t give [users] the ability to defend themselves,” Antillon told Denver 7. “Alcohol users get to defend themselves.

Why not marijuana users?”

Guns for Everyone, based in Jefferson County, is a business that provides free concealed carry courses for anyone who wants the training. Guns for Everyone also offers two paid courses: a Tactics Class “for those who want to learn about the neuroscience during a fight” and a class focused on the legalities of self-defense and its aftermath.

This Second Amendment advocacy group has a history with the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office. In 2020, thenSheriff Justin Smith alerted the Colorado Bureau of Investigation that Guns for Everyone was conducting its concealed carry training courses solely online, in violation of a law passed in 2012 following the Aurora movie theater mass shooting. As a result, Smith started denying all Larimer County con-

cealed carry applicants who’d conducted their training with Guns for Everyone.

Guns for Everyone sued Smith. But in September 2021, then-District Court Judge Julie Kunce Field dismissed the lawsuit. She ruled that Smith had acted lawfully, and despite an appeal filed by Guns for Everyone, the ruling was upheld.

Now Antillon and his business are backing the new measure that Colorado’s Legislative Council Staff (LCS) heard on Tuesday, Dec. 19. It would remove the stipulation from state concealed carry requirements that prohibits applicants who are ineligible to possess firearms under federal law

from possessing them in Colorado. It would also add a new exception for cannabis use to the state law that prohibits unlawful users of controlled substances from getting a concealed carry permit.

During the hearing, the LCS attorneys and staff asked clarifying questions to make sure Guns for Everyone had worded its proposed ballot measure clearly and soundly. The potential ballot measure next heads to Colorado’s Secretary of State’s Office. If it is accepted, Guns for Everyone will have to collect 124,238 signatures in the next six months.

Then, and only then, will Colorado voters get to vote on the measure on the November 2024 ballot.

Even though just a handful of initiatives typically make it onto a ballot, Antillon and his team at Guns for Everyone are already preparing to start their signature collection efforts. And he’s optimistic that Colorado’s voters will want to have a say on this issue and that they’ll collect the required signatures without a problem.

“We want this to be treated equally as people who consume alcohol,” he told Denver7. “People who consume alcohol are able to buy guns and are able to get their permits. But at the same time, legally, they cannot be under the influence of alcohol while possessing a firearm. And pot users kind of want the same thing.”

JANUARY 11, 2024

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