Former Boulder rock critic on how Rounder Records revolutionized American music P.12
Ramble On CAMP GUIDE INSIDE RENT CONTROL P. 11
COLORADO RIVER P. 17
CONTENTS 02.01.2024
12 Irma Thomas. Credit: Rick Olivier
11 NEWS Colorado abandons push for rent control BY SHAY CASTLE
12
COVER Former Boulder rock critic on the folk record label that revolutionized American music BY JOHN LEHNDORFF
17 BOOKS Photographer explores the dismal state of the Colorado River BY BART SCHANEMAN
22 MUSIC Longmont’s Absolute Vinyl celebrates 15 years in BoCo BY ADAM PERRY
DEPARTMENTS 05 OPINION
Colorado considers universal health care
06 LETTERS
On primaries, political parties and polling
09 NEWS
What your local gov’t is up to
13 FOUND SOUNDS
January’s bestselling new vinyl releases
BOULDER WEEKLY
15 STAGE
Local Theater Company continues mainstage season with acts of faith
24
ASTROLOGY
Prepare for your own immaculate conception
18 EVENTS
25 SAVAGE LOVE
23 FILM
27 NIBBLES
Where to go and what to do
Dispatch from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival
Pegging, platonic love and choke play
An ode to okonomiyaki
30 WEED
Mapping magic mushrooms
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COMMENTARY FEBRUARY 1, 2024
Volume 31, Number 24 COVER: Billy Strings. Credit: Willa Stein PUBLISHER: Francis Zankowski
E DIT ORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Shay Castle ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray REPORTERS: Kaylee Harter, Will Matuska FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff INTERN: Lauren Hill CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Dave Anderson, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Bart Schaneman, Toni Tresca
S A LE S AND MARKET I NG 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
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B US I NESS OFFICE
OPINION
BOOKKEEPER: Emily Weinberg FOUNDER / CEO: Stewart Sallo As Boulder County’s only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holdsbarred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county’s most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly. com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you’re interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper. 690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO 80305 Phone: 303.494.5511, FAX: 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. ©2024 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved. Boulder Weekly welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@boulderweekly. com). Preference will be given to short letters (under 300 words) that deal with recent stories or local issues, and letters may be edited for style, length and libel. Letters should include your name, address and telephone number for verification. We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms. Letters become the property of Boulder Weekly and will be published on our website.
BOULDER WEEKLY
HEALTH CARE HELP ON THE HORIZON? Colorado considers single-payer overhaul of broken healthcare system BY DAVE ANDERSON
S
ix in 10 Coloradans want “big, fundamental changes to the healthcare system,” according to a 2022 poll from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Nearly half of them put off recommended medical care because they couldn’t afford it, their insurance denied it, or they couldn’t access the care where they lived. A 2023 survey found that 69% of Coloradans considered the cost of physical and mental health care to
be extreme or very serious concerns. On the first day of Colorado legislative session, Rep. Karen McCormick, a Longmont veterinarian, introduced HB24-1075 entitled Analysis of Universal Health-Care Payment System. A similar bill, HB23-1209, was introduced last year but was killed in the Senate on the last day. The goal this time is to have the updated bill passed by March 25, ahead of the “long bill”
(annual general appropriation act, authorizing the spending of public money). That bill tends to delay remaining legislative work. The other sponsors of HB24-1075, all Democrats, are Rep. Andrew Boesenecker, a Fort Collins musician and former Lutheran pastor, Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, a Longmont pharmacist, and Sen. Janice Marchman, a teacher in Loveland. The bill asks the Colorado School FEBRUARY 1, 2024
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OPINION of Public Health to study the impacts of a universal health care system in Colorado to individual and community health and to the health care workforce. A task force would be formed to create model legislation based upon 10 essential criteria: • “It shall provide comprehensive benefits for medically necessary care, including dental, hearing, vision, and mental health.” • “It shall provide home care and long-term care at least at the level of coverage currently available to Medicaid-eligible persons in Colorado.” • “Health care decisions shall be made by patients and their health care providers.” • “Patients shall have free choice among qualified providers.” • “It shall cover all Colorado residents.” • “The system and the cost of care shall be funded by premiums based on ability to pay.” • “There shall be no deductibles or copays.” • “The agency shall ensure fair drug and hospital prices as well as fair payment to providers.” • “It shall be a publicly administered nonprofit enterprise and the sole agency paying for Colorado’s health care costs.” • “To avoid profiteering, there will be no middlemen with the incentives and power to limit benefits or impose other barriers to care.” This is a version of single-payer, a publicly financed and privately delivered system. It is an attempt to create such a system on a state level. There are similar efforts in many other states. At the same time, a growing number of legislators in the U.S. Congress are supporting a bill for a nationwide system called Improved and Expanded Medicare for All. HB24-1075 is an outgrowth of a 91-page study in 2021 by the Colorado School of Public Health 6
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
LETTERS led by a bipartisan task force. They compared two different approaches to universal healthcare. The first model was a “multi-payer” plan “in which all residents are covered with a mandated set of benefits that is publicly and privately funded and also paid for by employer and employee contributions.” A public insurance plan would be provided for those without insurance. The second model was a single public insurance plan that covers everybody. (In both models, people over 65 would be covered by Medicare). The experts’ report concluded: “Healthcare reform in Colorado introducing universal health coverage that is either a multi-payer or single-payer system has the potential to increase access to care, improve health outcomes, and possibly provide sector-specific employment benefits. Our cost estimates suggest that a multi-payer universal health care system will likely lead to small increases in the total cost of Colorado’s health care system. Introduction of a full publicly financed and privately delivered health care system could yield significant healthcare savings, particularly if pricing regulations are put in place to control cost growth in the future.” The study offered the following estimates of total annual costs under the three models studied: • Current system: $38.3 billion • Universal coverage, mixed insurance system: $38.6 billion to $39.34 billion • Universal coverage, public insurance system: $34.62 billion to $37.78 billion Let’s make Colorado the first state to enact single-payer. Contact your legislators and ask them to pass HB24-1075. You can be sure the medical industrial complex lobbyists will try to kill it. This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.
DOWNPLAYING DANGER
As a fellow human also “seeking a peaceful world,” I just wanted to say a couple things regarding Charlie Danaher’s expressions about “Destroying Democracy” (Jan. 18, 2024). I noticed that he said he supports “rational conversation” yet uses emotionally loaded words like “madness, ridiculous, get real, good grief, how pathetic, damn, insanity and witch hunt.” Let’s calmly consider that what is really destroying democracy are not the occasional biased judges on many supreme courts, but the influence of money on politics and the selling out of the courage and honor to stand up for principles, truth and humanity. I also want to point out that, if we’re going to “get real,” on Jan. 6, 2021, a large group of individuals did arm themselves (resulting in murder and permanent injury) and forced their way into the Capitol building with the intention of preventing the execution of law (in this case the peaceful transfer of power to the newly democratically elected President of the U.S.), which absolutely fits Mr. Danaher’s dictionary definition of insurrection. Yet he just wants to call it “outrageous and unacceptable.” Whether this insurrection was directly a result of the one speech earlier in the day is uncertain. But “have we lost any ability” to remember all the speeches made in the six years previous to Jan. 6 by the candidate and then president? Hopefully, the cumulative effect (on a democracy) of all those speeches, plus the ones in the years since Jan. 6, is becoming more clear. — R. Lawrence, Boulder
PRIMARIES, PLURALITY AND PIZZA
Primaries are a private race. Parties use primary ballots to advertise their respective parties. Elections operations are paid for with public money. Even non-voters are paying for these private contests. Uncontested incumbents appear on primary ballots. Is this information or campaigning? Whatever it is, it is a waste of space, time and public money. Running elections is labor heavy and not cheap. Bloated ballots increase costs. In the past decade, voters have experienced Approval and Ranked Choice voting methods, which greatly differ from the method we have not enjoyed for 240 years. By using any voting method that permits
more than one choice of preferred candidates for a single office, we can ditch primaries altogether. We could move up the date of the general election to closer to the current primary date, electing new officers months before the present terms expire. The media can focus on other real and present dangers, other than the theatrics of the political domain. Big media thrives on a never-ending election cycle for easy studio reporting and talking-head spin. Odds makers occupy all of the space, betting on small margins in featured contests. This would drastically change if the plurality method was replaced with a multiple choice method. Multiple choice ballots have a distinct effect on squelching negative messaging. When voters have more choices, more candidates appear interested. This may diminish party influence. Approval voting lets you vote for more than one candidate, and the clerk simply counts all of the votes. Seven friends are ordering two pizzas; toppings are naturally approval voting with a show of hands. I have the liberty to get anchovies separately. — Paul Tiger, Longmont
BETTER ELECTION DATA NEEDED
We hear a lot of polling and now primary data that reports the percentage of votes a candidate receives or the percentage of people who would vote for a candidate. What seems to be missing is some proportional context. Many voters here in Colorado are unaffiliated. Where is their representation in these polls? During primaries, when a candidate receives a certain number of their own party’s votes, what percent of the region’s registered voters does this represent? Even though unaffiliated voters are able to participate in a primary of their choosing, how many actually do? Some nice graphs showing the total number of votes cast along with the percentage the candidate received within their own party, compared to this total voter number, would give a more realistic picture of how many voters it takes to bring a candidate to the final polls. Maybe even more eligible voters would participate if the conversation included a more balanced representation of all voters. See you at the polls! — Annette Treufeldt-Franck, Nederland BOULDER WEEKLY
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NEWS
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the closest the City has gotten to implementing a project, there are still major details that need to Local news at a glance be worked out, such as how it would be funded. “There is not adequate BY WILL MATUSKA available funding for the implementation of an alternative sheltering program HOMELESSNESS at this time,” City staff wrote in DISCUSSION the Jan. 18 agenda item. OneBoulder City Council could distime funding might be available cuss the logistics of an alternafor the first year, but money for tive sheltering program on Feb. ongoing years would require 8 after punting on a decision to cutting existing programs or pursue one (or not) at its Jan. finding a new funding source 18 meeting. outside the City, according to The Council is considering a the agenda item. variety of program iterations, The Feb. 8 meeting will proincluding different shelter vide an overview of the City’s approaches, service levels and homelessness strategies, which site selections. According to a could include more direction on presentation to council on Jan. the alternative sheltering pro18 by City staff, the estimated gram from the council, accordone-year cost for the program ing to City Manager Nuria ranges from $277,000 to $3 Rivera-Vandermyde. There is million. no deadline for an affirmative Alternative sheltering prodecision. grams, also known as Safe Outdoor Spaces (SOS), are intended to increase shelter WOLF LOCATIONS capacity for people who don’t REVEALED use traditional congregate shelWolves were recorded in watertering and often have fundamen- sheds overlapping parts of tal services like sanitation faciliJackson, Grand, Routt, Rio ties, waste management, water Blanco, Garfield, Eagle and access, community spaces and Summit counties, according to food. Boulder staff also recomthe new Collared Gray Wolf mend overnight staffing and Activity Map. access to supportive services The map, published by like case management to help Colorado Parks and Wildlife on folks reach permanent housing. Jan. 24, uses GPS collars from While recent discussions are 12 wolves — 10 came from the
state’s reintroduction initiative and two were previously roaming around North Park — to display watersheds they have been in over the last month. It’s the first time the canine’s general whereabouts have been made public. Collars record wolf positions every four hours. “Packet” locations are then transmitted to CPW every 16 hours. For a watershed to indicate wolf activity, one GPS position from a wolf’s collar needs to be recorded within its boundaries. Specific GPS data will not be shared. The map will be updated on the fourth Wednesday of every month and display data from the previous month.
MORE NEWS
• One of the National Science Foundation’s first Regional Innovation Engines, the Colorado-Wyoming Climate Resilience Engine, will be headquartered in Colorado. The designation could bring $160 million to the region over the next decade for placebased research and development. • A grassroots group is launching a petition to decommission the Boulder Municipal Airport and convert the site to a mixed use neighborhood. View it at bit.ly/airport_petition. • The Colorado Forward Party is the state’s newest minor political party, as of Jan. 25.
GOV’T WATCH What your local elected officials are up to BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF BOULDER CITY COUNCIL
At the Feb. 1 meeting, Council will: • Review a plan to redevelop a 448,668-square-foot site at 2952 Baseline Road, currently home to the Dark Horse. The new development would consist of four- to five- story buildings including commercial, hotel, restaurant and residential uses with 610 residential units. • Hear an update from the City Manager on “all things downtown” including projects like revamping the bus station, refreshing the Pearl Street Mall ahead of its 50th anniversary and expanding the historic landmark from Glen Huntington Bandshell to the adjacent park. At the Feb. 8 study session, Council will: • Meet for 3.5 hours for a staff presentation and discussion on homelessness strategy.
BOULDER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
• First-round interviews for Boulder County Coroner begin Feb. 6, following the January resignation of Emma Hall, who first took office in 2011. Hall resigned following an internal investigation that confirmed staff complaints of a negative work environment that included favoritism, antagonism and micromanagement. The new coroner will hold the office for the remainder of Hall’s term, which concludes in January 2027. • Commissioners will also hold an in-person town hall (Feb. 8 at 5:30 p.m., location TBD) to discuss issues of concern for the community.
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NEWS
OUT OF CONTROL Lawmakers tried once to limit rent hikes, but they don’t plan to try again BY SHAY CASTLE
J
ohn Russell was happy to move into his apartment at 18th and Canyon, his first time living alone. The rent was reasonable, his landlords were local, and he could walk to his job as manager of a Boulder food hall. “I’ve never driven to work once,” Russell says. “It’s about a 10-minute walk to work for me.” That may change next year. That’s because Russell’s rent is going up — way up. After the duplex he lives in changed hands, rent for the 100-yearold, two-bedroom unit will rise from $1,220 to $2,095, a 72% increase. “We can’t absorb that cost, nor would we,” Russell says. “Even if we do understand the economics of it, we’re still kinda looking at the ethics of it. It seemed like an egregious, pretty huge jump.” Russell is exactly the type of Coloradan who would benefit from efforts to limit how much rents can be raised each year. Historically associated with New York City, modern-day rent stabilization policies have been enacted in hundreds of local cities; Oregon and California passed statewide limits on rent increases in 2019. Rent control is still illegal in Colorado and 30 other states. State lawmakers tried to change that last year, but the bill went nowhere. There are no plans to resuscitate it this session.
THE MARKET IS KING
Rent control was long considered a non-starter for economists and certain people serious about addressing the nation’s affordable housing crisis. Opponents argued that it would suppress building, exacerbating an already acute shortage and delivering benefits only to existing residents, as some studies have found. But as the affordability crisis worsens and new forms of rent control evolve, some opponents have changed their minds. BOULDER WEEKLY
“Over the last few years,” a group of economists wrote to the Federal Housing Finance Agency in August, asking the agency to “pursue” rent regulations, “we have seen the devastating impact of a poorly regulated housing market on people’s livelihoods, as already unaffordable rental prices outpace wage growth.” In 2021, the U.S. passed a grim milestone: Not one state has two-bedroom apartments affordable to a person working a full-time minimum wage job, according to a report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The typical American renter now spends more than 30% of their income on housing costs, a situation referred to as being rent burdened. In Boulder County, 60% of tenants are rent-burdened. The average Boulder renter spent $4,383 more on yearly rent in 2023 than in 2017, according to data provided by Apartment List. The average two-bedroom apartment now costs more than $2,000 per month. Figures reported to rental marketplaces like Apartment List and Zillow can be slightly inflated by newer, more expensive units and larger complexes; a homeowner renting out an extra room is unlikely to report rental data, for example. But more expensive units do contribute to driving up market rents. When Russell pushed back on his impending 72% rent hike, property managers sent over a list of “comparable” two-bedroom units renting for $2,115 to $2,900, noting which ones — like Russell’s — have no dishwasher or on-site laundry. “We need to get the unit up to the current market value,” they wrote, adding that the new rent was a conservative estimate.
HOUSING GAINS AND HESITATION
Housing has been a big focus for the state’s elected officials. Lawmakers have recently tackled application and late fees and tightened rules around security deposits and income requirements. A 2022 bill added a housing division to the Colorado Attorney General’s office. Legislation that failed last session was recently reintroduced; it would allow evictions only for cause such as non-payment of rent or other lease violations. But as of now, there are no plans to revive rent control. “I’ve been told by the advocates and the past sponsors that the rent control bill is not getting introduced this year,” wrote Senate President Steve Fenberg, in response to requests for comment. “There has been talk of a renter’s tax credit, but I’m not sure where that’s at in the policy formation at the moment.” Gov. Jared Polis’ own approach has been primarily to expand housing supply. He has opposed growth and occupancy limits and attempted to force cities to allow more dense housing. When it comes to rent control, the governor has expressed skepticism and threatened vetoes. In response to questions from Boulder Weekly about the governor’s explicit plans for the affordable rental crisis, press secretary Eric Maruyama
noted that Polis included $30 million for rental assistance in his proposed budget. The governor “is focused on saving Coloradans money on housing whether they experience that cost as rent or mortgage,” Maruyama wrote via email.
‘I NEED TO BE STRATEGIC’
Rent control is not a panacea for Colorado’s multi-faceted housing crisis. As even proponents have noted, the policy will help only a small number of existing residents if it’s not paired with an increase in the supply of housing. In that case, rent control could paradoxically increase costs. But it also has the potential to reduce displacement — especially the kind Russell is experiencing: a drastic increase forcing a move from a home he would otherwise like to remain in. He and his partner hope to find a new home within walking distance or close to buses. “Worst case” would be moving out of Boulder, although Russell is wary of the costs of owning and maintaining a vehicle. Until and unless something changes at the state level, Russell knows his life decisions will be dictated, in part, by the whims of property owners. “I can’t invent a better system on the fly, so I need to be strategic and work within what exists,” he says. “Keeping our finances in order, that’s going to be a larger priority.” FEBRUARY 1, 2024
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COVER
RAMBLE ON Former Boulder rock critic chronicles how Rounder Records revolutionized American music BY JOHN LEHNDORFF
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ome things sound like they really don’t belong together. For instance, whose playlist would include bar rocker George Thorogood, cosmic avant-garde master Sun Ra, banjo savant Béla Fleck, singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff, jazz-folk siren Madeleine Peyroux and prog-rock stars Rush? It could only be on Rounder Records, the visionary Boston music collective that helped change the way American music was recorded and distributed. Before there were “Americana” or “roots” charts, fans found bluegrass, blues, Western swing, jazz, protest songs, gospel, world music, Cajun and Celtic sounds on Rounder discs starting in 1970. The label’s big-tent credo and diehard passion for preserving obscure music sparked veteran rock critic David Menconi to dive into the countercultural roots of Rounder Records. The result is Oh, Didn’t They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music. Published last year via University of North Carolina Press, the book offers a critical dive into 50 years of American cultural and musical history.
‘THEY DO ALL THAT FOLK MUSIC STUFF, DON’T THEY?’
If Menconi’s name sounds familiar to Boulder County readers, that’s because he worked as the rock music critic for the Daily Camera from 1985 to 1991. Now based in North Carolina, the veteran journalist has written four other books, including 2020’s Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk. Far from being a folkie, Menconi readily admits he was aware of Rounder Records but didn’t pay much 12
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
“Rounder and Colorado have felt a musical affinity for decades, almost as long as Rounder, Telluride and Rockygrass [bluegrass festivals] have existed,” Rounder co-founder Marian Levy wrote in an email to Menconi. “Going back to the earlier years of KBCO and college radio, you could hear Rounder acts on Colorado stations much more than in major metropolitan media markets.” If you check out the lineups for the early decades of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, you’ll see a lot of familiar names.
attention until he heard an album by the cow-punk Texas rock band True Believers featuring Alejandro Escovedo. “I remember being kind of puzzled,” he says. “Rounder — they do all that folk music and stuff, don’t they?” As he interviewed Rounder’s three founders — Ken Irwin, Marian Leighton Levy and Bill Nowlin — Menconi discovered the source of the label’s eclectic orientation. In the resulting book, he weaves a remarkable story involving these college friends against a tumultuous backdrop of social change and protest movements. “Rounder is a passion project that just unexpectedly lasted for 50 years,” he says. “Three people who met fairly randomly meshed and gelled in a wonderful way. They put out albums of music they liked, and it organically grew into a record label.” While focused on folk Legendary Cajun fiddler Dewey Balfa helped Rounder music, the label encountered Records spotlight Louisiana music. Credit: Philip Gould unexpected hits along the way that helped keep the bootstrap operation alive. George Thorogood’s “It’s hard to imagine Telluride without Move it on Over album climbed the Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush and Del rock charts in 1978, for example, folMcCoury,” Menconi says. He points to lowed decades later by the teaming of other Telluride-Rockygrass Rounder Alison Krauss and Led Zeppelin singer regulars such as Peter Rowan, John Robert Plant, who penned a short forHartford, Ricky Skaggs and Norman ward to the book. Blake. One of the first acts signed to Rounder was an outfit called Country THE ROUNDER-BOULDER Cooking, featuring banjoist Pete CONNECTION Wernick who went on to bluegrass Serendipity favors the dedicated, and the 1986 film The Big Easy unexpected- fame in Boulder’s Hot Rize. Other local traditional bluegrass bands on the label ly boosted Rounder’s sales due to the include Open Road and the Dry Branch label’s strong focus on Louisiana music. But the Deep South wasn’t the only part Fire Squad. According to Menconi, creative conof the country that caught the attention trol was a major reason so many artists of this seminal roots-music operation.
chose to work with Rounder instead of a better-paying major label. “They told [legendary banjoist] J.D. Crowe: ‘We’ll let you record what you want to record,’” Menconi says. “It’s a very smart way to run a label if you have confidence in your vision and your ears.” The resulting 1976 Rounder album, J.D. Crowe and the New South, is widely regarded as one of the most influential bluegrass records ever made. According to Menconi, Alison Krauss keeps a framed copy of that best-selling album on her wall for inspiration. “That album is the starting point for a lot of people,” he says. “The way that modern bluegrass is played, including how the guitar is used, came out of that band. It launched the careers of Tony Rice, Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas.” In later years, Rounder expanded into alternative rock, releasing albums by Cowboy Junkies, Marky Ramone and They Might Be Giants. Despite initial reservations from the band, Rush released a series of best-selling concert videos through Rounder. While the label’s co-founders have gone on to form a new enterprise called Down The Road Records to release new albums, there’s no denying the music business has changed. “Rounder had averaged more than a record a week for 50 years,” Menconi says. “Last year, they put out eight albums.” But more than a half century since its launch, the once-prolific label — now owned by Concord Music Group — is revered for its Smithsonian-like back catalog and newer music from young acoustic stars like Molly Tuttle, Billy Strings, Sierra Hull and Sierra Ferrell. Despite the challenges of an ever-shifting shifting industry, it’s clear that Rounder isn’t done making history just yet.
ON THE SHELF: Oh,
Didn’t They Ramble: Rounder Records and the Transformation of American Roots Music is available now via University of North Carolina Press.
BOULDER WEEKLY
TOP 5
FOUND SOUNDS: JANUARY 2024 What’s in Boulder’s headphones? BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF
N
ew year, new music. Welcome back to our monthly roundup of the bestselling new releases at Paradise Found Records and Music (1646 Pearl St.) Below, you’ll find the definitive ranking of the top albums in January, based on sales data from the city’s last store dedicated exclusively to the sale of new and used vinyl.
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1. THE SMILE Wall of Eyes 2. GREEN DAY Saviors 3. KALI UCHIS Orquídeas 4. FIONA APPLE When the Pawn... (reissue) 5. FIONA APPLE Tidal (reissue)
— Lauren Hill, intern
STAFF PICK
On their third LP, Indigo de Souza is bolder, breezier and more introspective than ever. All of This Will End is the apogee of contemporary indie-rock, and album closer “Younger & Dumber” proves it — reckoning with the aftermath of a predatory relationship, the song’s anthemic melody unravels alongside robust instrumentation into a sound that is best experienced at maximum volume on your bedroom floor.
Editor’s note: Don’t miss our forthcoming interview with Indigo de Souza ahead of the artist’s April 2 concert at the Gothic Theatre in Denver. In the meantime, read a preview of the show at bit.ly/2024ConcertsBW.
For the complete Top 10, visit bit.ly/FoundSoundsBW BOULDER WEEKLY
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
13
STAGE
GOTTA HAVE FAITH Local Theater Company continues mainstage season with a shot of hope BY TONI TRESCA
A
s the world whirls in turmoil and cynicism, it can be easy to lose faith in the institutions and people around us. Boulder-based Local Theater Company’s latest production, acts of faith, offers a beacon of hope. This solo play, embodied by Colorado Theatre Guild president and Local’s coartistic director Betty Hart, is a timely exploration of the role of faith in our modern world. “There’s a passage in the play where [my character] Faith says, ‘The thing about faith is it all depends on who you’ve got it in,’” Hart says. “I think if you look at the past year in our country, there are so many opportunities to both question your faith and deepen your faith.” With wit, humor and moving storytelling through the eyes of its protagonist, Faith, a young woman from the African Copperbelt who is misinterpreted as a prophet and taken advantage of by her community, the play dares to ask what it means to believe when the ground beneath us seems to shift.
“We see horrific things happening in the United States and around the world, but people continue to show up as they always do: with kindness, generosity, compassion and concern for others beyond themselves,” Hart says. “If you want to go down the path of negativity, there’s ample opportunity to do that. But if you keep looking, you will also find that there are miracles taking place every day.”
‘I DIDN’T GET ENOUGH TIME WITH FAITH’
During the pandemic, David Yee, a playwright born and raised in Toronto, wrote acts of faith as a hybrid, live-streamed play starring Natasha Mumba. Although the project was never intended to be performed in front of an audience, Helen Murray, the Aurora Fox Art Center’s former executive producer, saw potential for a stirring stage production. So Murray contacted Yee and requested the rights to present the play’s U.S. premiere at the Aurora Fox in early 2023. Hart was supposed to star and Murray would direct.
However, it became apparent that the production needed a new director in July 2022 when Murray accepted a job offer to become the producing artistic director at the American Stage in St. Petersburg, Florida. Pesha Rudnick, who had known Hart for years and worked with her as co-artistic director at Local, agreed to direct the project after Murray approached her with the script. After a sold-out run, rave reviews and a nomination for Best New Play or Musical from the Colorado Theatre Guild for its January 2023 premiere at the Aurora Fox, the team realized they were not prepared to let the project end. “I didn’t get enough time with Faith,” Rudnick says. “Sometimes, when you work on a new piece of theater and begin the process of getting to know someone, you realize you don’t want to let go of them. That’s a very personal answer; it is not a very commercial answer for reproducing the play. But when this character started to emerge, it felt like they needed more time in Colorado.” Now director Rudnick and star Hart are reuniting to bring this gem to Boulder audiences, promising a new and expanded version of Yee’s powerful work. “We had people from Boulder who couldn’t get to our run in Aurora because it was sold out,” Hart says. “People heard about this play and asked us, ‘Are you going to bring it to Boulder?’ And at the time, we said, ‘I don’t know.’ It has been wonderful to give the people what they were requesting.”
TAKE TWO
Local Theater Company co-artistic director Betty Hart stars in acts of faith, running Feb. 1-18 at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder. Courtesy: Local Theater Company
BOULDER WEEKLY
Revisiting the play for its Boulder run with a mostly new production team has been a rare and exciting journey of discovery for Rudnick and Hart. “For all the things you learned the first time, the second time around, you notice all the things you missed,” Hart says. “There are places where I go, ‘Did I used to say that line? I don’t remember saying that,’ and Pesha says, ‘You said that line, but your brain is perceiving it differently.’ I would also add that when I was doing this piece in early 2023, I had never been to the continent of Africa.
“Then, in July 2023, I went to Ghana and Egypt,” Hart continues. “The world that I was creating in my mind through pictures and videos from all of the great dramaturgical work that Pesha and I did suddenly had a completely different resonance when I saw the kids walking to school in their school uniforms, seeing them on field trips, or going to visit the slave castles. A huge shift happened in me when Africa went from this place I’d read about and seen in films to something I had experienced for myself.” One other thing that was different this time: The group went to Santa Barbara to work with multidisciplinary artist and movement coordinator Christina McCarthy. Rudnick and McCarthy collaborated with Hart to ensure that each gesture in this one-woman show was intentional. “Every breath, every look and every tiny little gesture is seen,” McCarthy says. “That means there must be a reason for everything you see onstage.” In addition to the nuanced work happening in the play, Local’s Come Together Initiative — the company’s community outreach program, often featuring informal post-show talkbacks — is designed to transform acts of faith into an experience rather than just a performance. “We’re always looking for sincere and organic methods of meeting our audience and sharing elements beyond the play,” explains co-artistic director Nick Chase. To facilitate this, they are hosting “affinity nights” throughout the run, including College Night on Feb. 3 and an Out Night for the LGBTQ+ and Ally Community on Feb. 8, designed to foster a sense of belonging. “We are hoping everyone takes a leap of faith,” Hart says. “People who’ve never experienced the story and people who’ve seen it before, because if we’re getting new things out of it, we know our audience will as well.”
ON STAGE: acts of faith.
Feb. 1-18, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $15-$45
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
15
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BOOKS
DAMMED RIVER Colorado photographer’s new book shows the dismal state of an American West lifeline BY BART SCHANEMAN
T
he Colorado River has served as a centerpiece for so much of the mythology and literature written about the American West. From books like John Wesley Powell’s Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons to Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang, the 1,450-mile waterway has captured the attention of writers and photographers for more than a century. Add Colorado-born photographer and scribe Debbie Bentley to that long list. The Wiggins-based artist spent years following the path of the river for her new book of photography and writing, Dammed: Birth to Death of the Colorado River, published by Daylight Books. Featuring stunning images that are both gorgeously composed and depressing at the same time, she highlights the dire state of the essential waterway. With her photographs, infographics and historical research, Bentley shows how climate change, poor watermanagement practices, overuse and the effects of aridification have endangered the river that provides water for almost 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland from the Rocky Mountains to the Mexico border. “To deliver such large amounts of water, the Colorado River has become one of the most controlled rivers in the world with 15, soon to be 16, dams to impound and divert its waters on the main stem alone,” she writes. In the introduction, Bentley explains how “unbridled growth” in the West and Southwest, coupled with mandated water deliveries from a compact more than 100 years old, have “stretched the water supply to its limit.” BOULDER WEEKLY
‘THE GRANDMA MOSES OF PHOTOGRAPHY’
Born and raised in Colorado, where she spent a lot of time with her grandfather fishing the rivers and streams of the state as a child, Bentley says she always felt a connection to the water here. “We wandered around all over the place,” she says. “That’s really what piqued my interest.” Bentley came to love photography early in life when she was handed down her grandfather’s Kodak Pony Model C after his death. Despite her affinity for making pictures, she didn’t start getting serious about photography until later in life, about 15 years ago. She and her husband owned a highpurity piping business in California for about two decades. After closing it down due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
1905, Colorado River floodwater diverted through a poorly made irrigation system unintentionally created the saline lake known as the Salton Sea. The river was patched up two years later. At the turn of the century, the lake began drying up due to decreased inflow and evaporation, releasing toxic dust and causing devastating biological and ecological damage. After Bentley saw that, she set a goal to provide a visual reference of the sheer size and length of the main stem of the Colorado River and explain how the complicated dams work along the route.
Above: Dammed: Birth to Death of the Colorado River is out now via Daylight Books. Left: A trip to the Salton Sea put into motion author and photographer Debbie Bentley’s project to explore the Colorado River — its reservoirs, dams and the people in its path. Courtesy: Debbie Bentley
A MANAGEMENT PROBLEM
Bentley picked up the camera again. “I’ve referred to myself as the Grandma Moses of photography,” Bentley says. A trip to the Salton Sea put into motion the project to explore the river, its reservoirs, dams and the people in its path. In 2018, she traveled to Pilot Knob, near Winterhaven, California, where, in
When it comes to the story of the management of the Colorado River, including attempts at balancing fish populations and other control measures, Bentley’s book shows as much as it tells. With the photos of the bathtub rings at lakes Mead and Powell as just two examples, her photos illustrate how downstream the river is losing water volume. “At the end of the day, this isn’t a natural flow,” Bentley says. “There’s just fallout from managing a system like that.”
For decades, the river’s water delivery agreements have been based on politics rather than science, she argues. In fact, “there was science that was ignored,” Bentley says. According to Bentley, in the early days of the river’s management, interests across the American West, most prominently in California, saw the water running all the way to the sea and decided it would be better used for irrigation and residential water. “That snowballed at a governmental level,” she says. In her book, Bentley quotes from John Wesley Powell addressing a government body charged with overseeing irrigation, all the way back in 1893. “Gentlemen, it may be unpleasant to me to give you these facts,” Powell said. “You are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply these lands.” More than 130 years later, the Colorado River — which once reached the Gulf of California in Mexico — now peters out several miles before the sea. Bentley sees the Colorado Division of Water Resources as treating the river relatively better than their counterparts downstream. That may partly be due to it running through Rocky Mountain National Park, a crown jewel of preserved outdoor spaces in the state. “I think Colorado does attempt to pay more attention to ecosystems within the state,” she says. As an example, she points to PriceStubb diversion dam on the river near Palisade, which was decommissioned and is now a fish ladder that allows migrating fish to pass. “I feel like because the river is ours, there does seem to be greater care in Colorado,” she says. “Here, it’s still beautiful.”
ON THE PAGE: Dammed:
Birth to Death of the Colorado River book launch with Debbie Bentley. 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8. Colorado Photographic Arts Center, 1200 Lincoln St., Suite 111, Denver. Free.
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
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EVENTS
1
GLUTEN FREE COMEDY
6:30-9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. $15 Zoe Rogers of Boulder Comedy Festival hosts this evening of laughs and libations. Seating is limited at the frequently sold-out comedy night, so be sure to snap up your tickets early and get ready for a side-splitting night of stand-up and cider.
1
FEBRULLAGE COLLAGE EXTRAVAGANZA
6-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, Two Hands Paperie, 803 Pearl St., Boulder. Free Are you up for the “Februllage” challenge? Throughout the month of February, creatives of all backgrounds will be making a collage a day — and you can get a little inspiration with the help of fellow collage-makers during this free event at Two Hands Paperie.
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FEBRUARY 1, 2024
2
NATASHA MISTRY: SUPERCONSCIOUS
5-7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, The New Local - Annex, 713 Pearl St., Boulder. Free
2
STEP AFRIKA!
7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. $24-$94
British-born, Boulder-based artist Natasha Mistry kicks off her artist residency at The New Local with an opening reception for Superconscious, her latest exhibition of vibrant and abstract works running through March 10 at the downtown gallery’s annex space.
Come celebrate what The New York Times calls “movement as a communal celebration” during this globespanning dance showcase featuring a variety of styles born from the African diaspora, mixing contemporary to traditional forms with storytelling and music.
2
3
7-9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2 and Sunday, Feb. 4, The Spark Boulder, 4847 Pearl St. B4, Boulder. $12-$34
11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, 2425 Colorado Ave., Boulder. $175
RADIUM GIRLS
Labor rights and health physics take center stage in Radium Girls, “an unflinching tribute to the women racing against corporate greed and denial, and the strength of the human spirit in face of it.” Catch it this weekend at The Spark Boulder, with a final round of performances following Feb. 9 through Feb. 11.
BLUEGRASS JAM CAMP
Join instructor Keith Murdock to learn the ins and outs of pickin’ and grinnin’ at Bluegrass Jam Camp. If you play guitar, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, bass or dobro, you can join in on the fun — as long as you can tune your instrument and transition through some basic chords. Register at bit.ly/ BluegrassJamBW. BOULDER WEEKLY
EVENTS
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Noon. Saturday, Feb. 3, the Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $10-$15
3-6 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 4, BookCliff Vineyards Boulder Tasting Room, 1501 Lee Hill Road, Boulder. Free
7-8 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 6, Broomfield Public Library, 3 Community Park Road, Broomfield. Free
WICHAHPI FUNDRAISER
Support Native arts during the Wichahpi Fundraiser hosted by Creative Nations and the Dairy Arts Center. Festivities will include a lunch of Indigenous cuisine along with dance performances and a raffle to win a handcrafted star quilt.
GALENTINE’S DAY
Assemble your squad and head to the BookCliff Vineyards tasting room in Boulder for a Galentine’s Day event featuring local jewelry and skincare vendors. Wines will be open and ready to sample, with a 20% discount on full pours.
WHAT’S UP WITH UFOS?
The truth is out there — and you might just find it during this out-of-thisworld presentation at Broomfield Public Library. Join reps from Standley Lake Stargazing as they explore recent claims about UFO sightings during this free event.
Friday
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CREOLE AND CAJUN ACCORDION AND FIDDLE WORKSHOP
11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, KGNU Community Radio, 4700 Walnut St., Boulder. Free Joe Hall and Luke Huval share their journey with Creole and Cajun music during this free, hands-on workshop at KGNU Boulder Studios. Whether you’re more into pressing the keys or sawing the strings, drop by with your own instrument and get ready to expand your skills.
BOULDER WEEKLY
th
Feb 10
show timme 8:00p
4
DRAG BINGO
5-7 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 4, Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free Feeling lucky? Try your hand at Left Hand Brewing’s drag-themed bingo for a night of “fierce” competition hosted by the one and only Miss Jessica L’Whor. This adults-only night of entertainment at Left Hand Brewing is sure to put a little sparkle in your step.
7
BEECHICAS VALENTINES & BEESWAX CRAYONS
4-5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 7, Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Free Got a love for bees? Join BeeChicas at Boulder Public Library for a special advocacy event where you can make your own beeswax crayons and craft a “valentine” to a farmer or senator to help save pollinators.
Sunday
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Bill Mckay In the Bar
Handmade Moments with andy babb and lara elle
$17 + $4
service charge
Lionel young duo In the Bar
The Good Kind
$15 + $4
service charge
Aaron mitchell In the Bar
Meg and the old man In the Bar
Dave Watts and Friends
Kings of Prussia a Tribute to Phish
High Lonesome
with David Lawrence
$18 + $4
service charge
$12 + $4
service charge
$16 + $4
service charge
Matt Flaherty In the Bar
Stephen Brooks Duo In the Bar
Many Mountains In the Bar
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
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LIVE MUSIC just announced mar 23 .............................................................. HISS GOLDEN mESSENGEr SOLO apr 12 ................................................................................................................. EGGY apr 24 ............................... THE pSYCHEDELIC HOEDOWN FEaT. DaVID SaTOrI
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THE rOCKY COaSTS BIG pINCH, CO-STaNZa
just announced mar 9 .......................................................................... marCH BOXING maDNESS SEp 27 ................................................................................................... NOVO amOr
THu. FEB 1
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FrI. FEB 2
SaT. FEB 3 GOODBYE YELLEr BrICK rOaD, THE FINaL TOur
GImmE GImmE DISCO SaT. FEB 3 rOOSTEr prESENTS
STEELY DEaD
FrEE BEFOrE 9pm FOr 21+ WED. FEB 7 WESTWOrD prESENTS: pENDuLum TOur 2024
TWIN TrIBES
urBaN HEaT, VaNDaL mOON FrI. FEB 9 SpONSOrED BY KGNu | prESENTED BY WESTWOrD & rOOSTEr
rJD2
SaSSFaCTOrY, DEEJaY GrEEN THumBZ THu. FEB 15
THE HIGH LINES + BEGGarS uNION ON THE DOT
FrI. FEB 16
LEWIS BLaCK THu. FEB 8
COLOraDO BraZIL FEST & KGNu prESENT
NaNDO rEIS SEBaSTIÃO rEIS
THu. FEB 15 WESTWOrD prESENTS: aN EVENING WITH
HaKEN
THE BaLLrOOm THIEVES SuN. FEB 18 KGNu & GraTEFuL WEB prESENT
marCHFOurTH mON. FEB 19 - WED. FEB 21 raB aND BaNFF & LaKE LOuISE TOurISm prESENT
WWW.FOXTHEATRE.COM
WWW.BOULDERTHEATER.COM
1135 13TH STREET BOULDER 720.645.2467
2032 14TH STREET BOULDER 303.786.7030
FIRST FRIDAY Black Futures in Art: Ever Evolving John Toms Collen Nyanhongo Opening Reception February 2 5:30 pm - 9:00 pm A group show curated by Adderly Grant-Lord
The Gallery @ The Bus Stop Apartments
John Toms
20
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
CHAIN STATION WITH WOOD BELLY. 7 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland. $23
THE ROCKY COASTS WITH BIG PINCH AND CO-STANZA. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15
ADAM BODINE TRIO. 6:30 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20
HANDMADE MOMENTS WITH ANDY BABB & LARA ELLE. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $17
pOLarOID LOVErS TOur
SaraH JarOSZ
mINNESOTa
aBELaTION, DON JamaL, pINK LEmONaDE
RACHEL & VILRAY WITH MEGAN BURTT. 7:30 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 114th St. $30
SaT. FEB 17
BaNFF CENTrE mOuNTaIN FILm FESTIVaL WOrLD TOur
rOOSTEr & parTY Guru prESENT: OuT OF THE VOID pT. 2
S ATURDAY, F E B. 3
THE COLO SOuND & WESTWOrD prESENT
prOGram COuNCIL prESENTS
muSIC OF aBBa, DONNa SummEr, CHEr & mOrE
TH U RSD AY, FEB. 1
4895 N. Braodway, Boulder Fri 4-7 pm, Sat 1-5pm, Sun 1-4pm, First Friday 6-9pm
FRIDAY, FEB. 2 STEP AFRIKA! 7:30 p.m. Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. $25-$95 CLARE CHURCH WITH ANDY WEYL AND MARK DIAMOND. 6:30 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20 GIMME GIMME DISCO. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15
STEELY DEAD. 7 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15 LYDIA LOVELESS WITH JASON HAWK HARRIS AND COUSIN CURTISS. 7 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $25 MIPSO WITH KADE HOFFMAN. 9 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $23 LEFT TO ROT WITH CRONOS COMPULSION AND INSIPIDUS. 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15 CHRISTIAN PORTER. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free
SHIP WREK WITH HAMI, ZIMMY AND ESO. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $22
THE GOOD KIND. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $15
LIONEL YOUNG DUO. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free
S UN DAY, F E B. 4
HONEY BLAZER WITH THE BLUE RIDER, RYAN WONG BAND AND SOULFAX DJS. 9 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15 BERLIOZ. 7 p.m. Marquis Theatre, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $48 DANIEL RODRIGUEZ WITH HANDMADE MOMENTS AND SOUND OF HONEY. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $22 BW PICK OF THE WEEK ZENARI. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free
STEVE POLTZ WITH SHANNA IN A DRESS. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $30 SPARE CHANGE FEAT. BIG DADDY TY. 4 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free AARON MITCHELL. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free
M ON DAY, F E B. 5 OPEN MIC WITH STEVE KOPPE. 6:30 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. Free MEET ME @ THE ALTAR. 6 p.m. Marquis Theatre, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $40
BOULDER WEEKLY
LIVE MUSIC
ON THE BILL 1 2 3
Jazz Supper Club Series The Nice Work Jazz Ensemble
4 Don’t miss Emma Rose of BoCo bluegrass favorites Big Richard as she performs with her solo project Sound of Honey in support of Handmade Moments and Daniel Rodriguez at the Bluebird Theater on Feb. 2. Hit the QR code to read a Boulder Weekly profile on Rose ahead of the gig. See listing for details.
2355 30th Street Boulder (303) 440-1002
6 details & tickets!
T U E SD AY, F E B . 6 DFK AND THE LAB RATS: LIVE KGNU BROADCAST. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. Free
MARLEY HALE WITH MAC CORNISH AND ERIKA RYANN. 7 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15
NANDO REIS WITH SEBASTIÃO REIS. 7 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 114th St. $45
TWIN TRIBES WITH URBAN HEAT AND VANDAL MOON. 7:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20 RISING APPALACHIA. 7 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $45
BOULDER WEEKLY
So I signed up for the Grand Traverse...now what?? with Nikki LaRochelle & Dynafit
Trivia Night!
T HUR SDAY, FEB. 8 AYYBO WITH HAMMERHYPE, EVELATION, SHAWTY QUARANTINE. 8:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20
W E D N E S D AY, F E B . 7
7
Backcountry Happy Hour
MEG AND THE OLD MAN. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free
POOLSIDE WITH THE UNDERCOVER DREAM LOVERS. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $35
MAYER HAWTHORNE WITH CHULITA VINYL CLUB. 8 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. $30
5
SARAH MINTO-SPARKS. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free DAVE WATTS AND FRIENDS. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $18
Want more Boulder County events? Check out the complete listings online by scanning this QR code.
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
21
MUSIC
ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS Longmont record shop celebrates 15 years
‘NO ONE REALLY RETURNS RECORDS’
BY ADAM PERRY
N
orth Carolina native Doug Gaddy opened Absolute Vinyl Records & Stereo in a tiny, spartan space in then-quiet North Boulder in 2009 with the help of his wife, Annie. The shop made fast fans, finding its niche by cleaning and grading every record it sells and boasting shelves full of vintage but near-mint, turntables, speakers and receivers. Doug and Annie weren’t in that location for long. “The fire department came by to inspect that building every four or five months, because it should have been condemned. I couldn’t wait to get out of there,” Gaddy says. “It was part of a remnant of an entire world that existed in North Boulder when it was a home for the disaffected, disadvantaged and disgruntled. I was there in the last days of that.” Absolute Vinyl — currently celebrating its 15th year in business — was only in that original location for a little under two years before moving to a larger storefront on Arapahoe Avenue near 55th Street. Gaddy would stay in that location, attracting vinyl and stereo
terms of the customer base,” he says. “It’s folks out exploring because they’re excited to be in Longmont. They find it an interesting place to live.”
enthusiasts and creating a tight-knit community that included several young employees attached to a short-lived but vital local label called First Base Tapes, until about a year before the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s when he took a leap of faith and moved to 319 Main Street in Longmont. The rent is cheaper, the foot-traffic is better in downtown Longmont, and a lot of people are moving there from more expensive areas of Boulder County. Gaddy won’t say whether he sees the new Absolute Vinyl as a big improvement; he’ll just say it’s “different.” “Everything is different than everything else, but Longmont’s really happy I’m there, and I’m happy to be in Longmont,” he says. “Boulder is totally different than when I left. I mean, there’s no way to compare anything, given the last five years of existence on earth; it’s apples and moon rocks. Everything’s been touched by the tumult of that period.” One thing’s for sure, according to Gaddy: He hears “I just moved to Longmont” all the time. “A lot of new blood is in the shop, so to speak, in
Like the old days of Albums on the Hill when owner Andy Schneidkraut was holding court on 13th Street, a large part of Absolute Vinyl’s attraction is the chance to talk records and audio equipment with Gaddy. He has been selling albums in some form or another — initially focusing on record shows — since the late 1980s. As the story goes, Gaddy had the geekdom necessary to curate, and his wife had an impressive ability to make all the other geeks comfortable socially. Since Absolute Vinyl cleans and grades every single used record his shop puts on sale, the result is never wondering the exact condition an LP might be in when you put it on your turntable at home. Gaddy says he knows “the ache of heartbreak” from discovering after you’ve bought a used record that it’s not in as good condition as you thought, so he wanted to avoid his customers suffering the same surprise. He remembers selling records on eBay in the late 1990s and early 2000s and needing them to be in pristine condition to avoid bad reviews from “fussy” European and Asian buyers. He says that contributed to his
obsession with cleaning and grading. “I don’t want to sound like I’m tooting my own horn, but I get people who come to the shop and say, ‘I only come to your shop,’ because as record shoppers the condition of the record is really important,” he says. “I want people to know what they’re getting, and I want what they believe they’re getting in the shop to hold true once they get home. As a result, no one really returns records.” Other shops offer a big selection of music-related products, from band T-shirts to bobbleheads and lunchboxes, but Gaddy focuses on records and stereo equipment. Although he’s changed locations a few times, it hasn’t been for lack of business. “I proved my model [at Absolute Vinyl’s original location],” he says. “It was popular. I was in the black from the first month, and I stepped into much bigger rent [on Arapahoe], swallowed hard, got a much shinier, brighter place. By then, things were sort of turning around for the economy, and that was a great spot for eight-and-a-half years.” Now more than a decade since opening his first location, he and Annie have found a happy home for Absolute Vinyl. Just don’t ask Gaddy to say he’s satisfied. “What the hell, I might as well get existential: I don’t know if I’ve ever felt at home anywhere,” he says. “I’m always looking for what I can do next. I think I’m restless like that.”
Left: Since launching Absolute Vinyl in its original North Boulder location 15 years ago, Doug Gaddy has made a new home for his beloved record shop in downtown Longmont. Center: Co-owners Annie and Doug Gaddy at Absolute Vinyl in Longmont. Right: Giselle Collazo (left) and Brenda Gurung clean used LPs at Absolute Vinyl. Images courtesy: Doug Gaddy
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FEBRUARY 1, 2024
BOULDER WEEKLY
FILM
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT Dispatch from the 2024 Sundance Film Festival BY MICHAEL J. CASEY
O
— felt somewhat light, even incomplete. Or maybe it was sheer coincidence in my picks. It can be hard to tell which titles in a 140-plus slate of features and shorts will be talked about for years to come and which will vanish into the cinematic Dreya Castillo, Luciana Elisa Quinonez and René Pérez Joglar in In the Summers. Courtesy: Sundance ether. Still, there were those gems in comparison to the loud and eyeResidente — In the Summers follows one comes to Sundance to find. Top catching headlines documentaries like two daughters, Violeta and Eva, and among them, In the Summers, which Love Machina and Eternal You are their relationship with their somewhat won the U.S. Grand Jury Prize in the bound to invoke. Both are about artifiestranged father, Vincente (Joglar), Dramatic Competition. cial intelligence, and both discuss the who lives miles away in Las Cruces, Written and directed by Alessandra possibility of using generative A.I. to New Mexico. Lacorazza and anchored by an excelovercome mortality. Your body may die, Lacorazza sets her narrative over lent performance by René Pérez Joglar but your mind will live on forever. four summers spanning 15 years, — also known as the musician Sounds lofty, sure, but Love Machina which necessitates three different pairs (directed by Peter Sillen) and Eternal of actors to play the siblings (each pairYou (directed by Hans Block and Moritz ing as good as the previous) but works Riesewieck) are convinced that this sciwonders against Joglar, who plays the ence fiction will soon be science fact — father in all four sections. As Violeta if it isn’t already. That raises a whole and Eva grow and become completely mess of questions, each one poked at different people, Vincente remains with glee by the directors of their more or less the same, just with more gray hairs in his beard and lines around respective docs. Unfortunately, that’s also where they his eyes. The weight of missed opporstop. Eternal You shares more of the tunities is evident. darker aspects of where A.I. might lead, There’s a strong whiff of autobiography to In the Summers, which gives the but Block and Riesewieck are as light on answers as Sillen is in Love otherwise quiet movie a profundity that Machina. would be hard to manufacture otherAnd that seemed to be the overarchwise. The same is true for India ing theme of Sundance 2024: provocaDonaldson’s Good One, which follows Daniel Grao, Guido Grao and Melina Matthews in The Masterpiece. Courtesy: Sundance tion without resolution. You can feel it in 17-year-old Sam (Lily Collias) on a Eternal You and you can feel it in Good backpacking trip through Upstate New One. You can feel it in Power (Yance York with her father (James Le Gros) Ford’s documentary about policing in and his friend (Danny McCarthy). the U.S.), Between the Temples The two middle-aged men bring (Nathan Silver’s dramedy about a humor to Good One’s script, in addition young cantor and his much older bat to regret and a shroud of tension that mitzvah student) and you can really feel Sam navigates deftly — though not it in Àlex Lora Cercós’ The without lingering questions. Masterpiece, which won the Short Film Sundance is known for launching the careers of independent filmmakers, and Grand Jury Prize. Then again, that might be where we there is little doubt that once In the are these days. We know we have a Summers and Good One hit theaters problem, and we know what that proband streaming services, Lacorazza and lem is. Solving it, well, that’s still beyond Donaldson will get the attention they our grasp. deserve — even if that attention pales Lily Collias in Good One. Courtesy: Sundance f all the film fests hit hard these past four years, none took it on the chin quite like the Sundance Film Festival. First, there was the planned switch from in-person to virtual in 2021. Then, an eleventh-hour scuttle yielded the same for 2022. The 2023 festival looked like the new normal — a hybrid of in-person and virtual screenings — but then came dual strikes from the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America, hampering the 2024 movies in development and production. That might begin to explain why so many of the entries I saw at the 40th Sundance Film Festival — which wrapped on Jan. 28 in Park City, Utah
BOULDER WEEKLY
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
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Boulder Weekly Market
ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): “Happiness” is an amorphous term with a different meaning for everyone. What makes me feel happy may be unlike what works for you. Besides that, any kind of perfect happiness is impossible to achieve. However we define it, we are always a mix of being happy and unhappy. Nevertheless, I invite you to ruminate about the subject in the coming days. I believe you are primed to arrive at a realistic new understanding of your personal version of happiness — and raise your happiness levels by at least 15%. Maybe more! Here are helpful clues from philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: “Precisely the least thing, the gentlest, lightest thing, the rustling of a lizard, a breath, a whisk, a twinkling of the eye — what’s little makes up the quality of the best happiness. Soft!”
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TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): I invite you to take an inventory of your taboos, inhibitions and restrictions. Meditate on why you originally adopted them. Evaluate how well they have served you and whether they are still meaningful. If you find any of them have become unnecessary or even injurious, jettison them. Be excited and happy about being free of them. If you decide that some taboos, inhibitions and restrictions are still wise for you to maintain, thank them for their service and honor the selfprotection they provide. GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Gemini novelist Gregory Maguire says there are a “thousand ways people shrink from life, as if chance and change are by their nature toxic and disfiguring.” Your assignment in the coming weeks is to contradict his theory. I’m hoping you will interpret all chance and change as potentially expansive, redemptive and interesting. You will never shrink from life, but will boldly meet challenges and embrace twists of fate as interesting opportunities. I have abundant faith in your ability to carry out this vigorous project! CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): You could be a masterful eliminator of toxins and wastes in the coming weeks. Do it both for yourself and for those you care about. Start by purging nonessentials that obstruct the flow of the good life. These might include defunct fantasies, mistaken understandings, apathetic attitudes and unloving approaches. Among the other dross or dreck you could root out is any clutter that’s making familiar environments feel oppressive. By the way, fellow Cancerian, this should be fun. If it’s not, you’re doing it wrong. LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): My goals right now are to inspire you in the following three ways: 1. to be full of love for your daily life; 2. to adore yourself exactly as you are; 3. to shed any numbness or boredom you feel and replace them with alert aliveness. To help you in this exalted effort, I offer the inspiration of three quotes. 1. “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson. 2. “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” — Eden Phillpotts. 3. “I have the mysterious feeling of seeing for the first time something I have always known.” — Bernardo Bertolucci. VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): In the coming weeks, I hope you avoid sucking up to egotistical manipulators. Please also refrain from being an unappreciated beast of burden and a half-willing pawn in boring games. If you are interested in paying off karmic debts, make sure they are yours, not anyone else’s. If you plan to work hard to lay the foundation for a future liberation, get a guarantee that YOU will be one of the liberated people. PS: I’m fine with you doing unselfish things as long as they will also have selfish benefits.
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LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): One of the great maladies affecting modern people is the atrophy of the soul. It’s related to another affliction: the apathy of the soul. A key contributor to these misfortunes is the entertainment industry. Its shallow and artificial stimuli are engineered to overfeed our egos, leaving our poor souls malnourished. Please note that I have no problem with our egos. They are an important part of our makeup and are essential for healthy functioning. But it’s a shame they hog all the glory and sustenance. Now here’s my climactic message for you, Libra: It’s high time to celebrate a holiday I call Nurture the Soul. Make it last at least three weeks. Homework: Identify three actions you will take to excite, cherish and enhance your soul. SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): In myth and legend, pregnancies don’t always begin with two humans having sexual communion. The wellknown story of the Virgin Mary tells us she was impregnated when the Holy Spirit, disguised as a dove, whispered in her ear. The Roman goddess Juno conceived her son Mars solely with the help of an enchanted lily flower. The Greek hero Attis germinated inside his virgin mother Nana after she placed a pomegranate in her lap. This might sound outlandish, but I foresee you having a metaphorically comparable experience. Do you believe in the possibility of being fertilized by miraculous magic or a divine spirit? Might you be dramatically awakened or inspired by a very subtle influence? I think it will happen even if you don’t believe. SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): Sagittarian computer scientist Grace Hopper (1906–1992) wrote, “The most damaging phrase in the language is: ‘It’s always been done that way.’” I will expand on that wisdom. The most obvious meaning is that we risk ignoring our individualized needs and suppressing our creative inspirations if we mindlessly conform to the habits of society. But it’s equally important not to mindlessly repeat our own longstanding ways of doing things. Maybe they were brilliant and appropriate in the past, but there’s no guarantee they will always be so. In conclusion, Sagittarius, I recommend you rebel against your own personal “it’s always been done that way” — as well as everyone else’s. CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): Being in love is as desirable for you Capricorns as it is for everyone else. You may be less open and dramatic than the rest of us in expressing your yearnings, but they are still a driving force. Here’s an important point: Even if you are not constantly chattering to others about your urges to give and receive intimate care, it’s crucial that you acknowledge them to yourself. To keep your soul healthy, you must be in close touch with this core fuel. You must love your need for love. Now is an excellent time to deepen your appreciation for these truths. AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): It’s the fifth annual Brag Therapy Holiday — for you Aquarians only. During this celebration, we expect you (indeed, we want you) to boast with panache. Tell us all in exquisite detail why you are such a marvelous creation. Explain how you have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to transform yourself into a masterpiece of intuitive intelligence. Regale us with stories of your winsome qualities, your heroic triumphs and your hilarious and poignant adventures on the edge of reality. Make sure we understand how educational and healing it can be to bask in your influence. Show us why we should regard you as a role model. PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): I invite you to resolve old business, draw unrewarding projects to a close and finish your lessons at the School of Tough Love. You don’t have to carry out my next proposal, but if you do, I will be glad: Politely and quietly scream, “Get out of my life” at anyone who doesn’t give you the respect and kindness you deserve. I also recommend that you do a Wrap-It-Up Ritual. Start by making an altar that pleases you with its beauty. Take scraps of paper and write on each one a description of an influence or experience you want to purge from your life. As you rip each scrap into bits, say this: “I’m grateful for what I have learned from you, but now I am leaving you behind.”
BOULDER WEEKLY
SAVAGE LOVE BY DAN SAVAGE 1. How do you tell the difference between when someone says they love you in a platonic way and when someone says they love you in a romantic way? Ask a direct question: “That’s nice — but do you mean that platonically or do you mean that passionately? Like, do you just wanna hang out, or do you wanna hang and fuck and hang out some more and fuck some more?” 2. What is the best bodysafe material for pegging toys that’s compatible with silicone-based lube? “Normally my top choice for pegging is 100% silicone toys, but we usually recommend only using them with water-based lube,” said Searah Deysach, the owner of Chicago’s sextoy shop Early to Bed. “But siliconelube-compatible toys like glass, hard plastic and steel are not ideal for pegging with a harness as they have no flexibility. So, you have two options if you’re wedded to the idea of silicone lube. You can roll an unlubricated condom over your silicone toy to protect it from the lube or you can do a small patch test of your preferred lube on your silicone toy to see if it affects the surface. But be warned: Some toy warranties are void if you use silicone lube on them!” 3. I have a would-be lover. We’ve talked. We’ve texted. But we haven’t acted on anything. It’s been so long that I’ve had a chance to do anything like this — I spent decades in a sexless marriage — that I’m afraid I don’t know how to do this anymore. And given that I’m in menopause, things don’t quite feel the same in that area. Any tips to get me back in the saddle? I think you would benefit from reading Dr. Jen Gunter’s invaluable book The Menopause Manifesto. Also, I would urge you to explore that area solo — your vulva, your clit, your vagi-
na — before acting on anything with your would-be lover. And by, “explore that area solo,” what I mean is, “masturbate like crazy using toys and lubes, and discover what feels good and works for you now so you can share that with your would-be lover when the time is right.” 4. What does it mean if you straight and you gay friend seduces you and you like it that means you gay too right Could mean you gay or could mean you bi or pan or flex but doesn’t mean you can’t still identify as straight if straight feels like it comes closest to reflecting your usual desires, erotic targets, romantic interests, etc. 5. I recently began dating a man who likes choking me as much as I like being choked. A few days after some rough choking, I developed a severe sore throat. Could this have been caused by the choking or is it a coincidence? Additionally, what are the risks if I let him choke until I pass out for a second? The risk for you: not waking up. The risk for him: going to prison. Look, choking is dangerous and choking “play” should only involve simulated or symbolic choking. The kind of throttling that leaves you with a sore throat days later — to say nothing of being choked out — is extremely dangerous. Please stop.
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NIBBLES
THE PANCAKE PATH Savory okonomiyaki are the supper saviors you never knew you’d love BY JOHN LEHNDORFF
D
uring my freshman year in a college dorm, the eating was easy, if not especially tasty. The first time I had to feed myself was a year later as a 19 year old living in my first multi-roommate apartment. I can’t recall anything I served when it was my turn to cook, but I distinctly remember the aroma of the vegetable pancakes a roommate dished one night. My butter- and syrup-drenched New England pancake upbringing was shaken. These savory cakes loaded with shredded cabbage and onions were a delight topped with sour cream and tamari sauce, with applesauce on the side. The pancake recipe came from a stained, dog-eared copy of The Tassajara Bread Book, the groundbreaking, Zen-inspired natural foods guide written by Edward Espe Brown. Only years later did I discover that the dish was inspired by okonomiyaki, the savory pancakes served in Japan. Okonomiyaki literally means “cook what you like.” When the pancake craving overcame me on a recent Friday, I headed for Osaka’s of Boulder. Opened six years ago by Koji Tamura and his wife, Maki, the restaurant is Colorado’s okonomiyaki temple. While I pondered the menu’s many pancake variations delivered on a sizzling iron skillet, Tamura stopped by to chat. I shared my college pancake story, a tale that Tamura says echoes his own. “I grew up in Osaka. Okonomiyaki is home food there, and street food,” he says. “When we would come home
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from school, we made them with chopped cabbage, flour and eggs. Like a pizza, we had toppings we like but always with soy sauce.” When he was an engineering student studying in Los Angeles, the 20-year-old Tamura had classmates who were Okonomyaki served at Osaka’s of Boulder. Credit: John Lehndorff studying Japanese culture. include noodles with a fried egg on top. “It was a Friday night Tamura’s brilliant okonomiyaki varialike this,” he recalls. “They asked me to tion is the Osaka Burger, available only make some Japanese food, and I only on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays. knew how to cook one thing: okonomiyaki. They loved them and asked me to These sliders are made with small okomake them again. I thought, ‘Some day nomiyaki “buns.” The inventive fillings range from fried cod, sukiyaki beef or I’m going to come back and open a teriyaki chicken to vegetarian and plantplace serving them.’” based options. It was only after a Osaka Burgers are so popular they successful decadeswere recently included in Yelp’s Top long global career at 100 Burgers in America. companies like Tamura has one more dream. “I Motorola that Tamura would like to open places — fast-casual finally got to realize his restaurants — that serve Osaka dream. In classic, Burgers,” he says. Then he rises and almost cinematic fashambles off to visit with every table in ion, he weaves a Boulder origin tale that the packed eatery. involves his daughter’s college choice, MAKING VEGGIE PANCAKES the study of Rolfing, AT HOME world class running Veggie pancakes are the one idea that and, naturally, kale. has stayed in my meal arsenal since Osaka’s main menu includes authen- college. Besides being incredibly delitic Japanese appetizers, soups, salad, cious, they adapt to all diets and to the sushi and ramen, but the star attraction ingredients you have on hand. They’re is okonomiyaki. The pancakes are easy and quick to make, and pretty offered traditionally with cabbage, and inexpensive. I recommend them to par— this being Boulder — Tamura creatents: If you want your kids to eat more ed a dairy- and gluten-free option. vegetables, hide carrots, cabbage and Toppings include a breakfast-y bestbroccoli in pancakes they’ll ask you to seller topped with strips of sizzled pork make again and again. belly, as well as beef, seafood and a Here’s a recipe inspired by The pizza-like pancake crowned with melted Tassajara Bread Book and the okomozzarella and cheddar. The nomiyaki served at Osaka’s. Tweak Hiroshima-style Modan Yaki pancakes and adjust it to your taste.
SAVORY PANCAKES
About ¼ of a Chinese cabbage, chopped very fine 1 small carrot, peeled and grated About ½ sweet onion, minced 2 stalks celery, minced 2 cups flour 1 egg, beaten 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1 teaspoon salt 12-oz. can of evaporated milk (or 12 oz. half and half) ½ cup of cooked meat, seafood or cheese Toppings and sauces Mix flour, egg, brown sugar, salt and milk. Thin with water if batter is too thick. Mix in vegetables. Make pancakes in a welloiled pan over medium heat for eight minutes or more to make sure vegetables cook. The bottom should be a very dark brown. You may need two spatulas to flip the pancake. Press down on the pancake to flatten, and cook for another eight to 10 minutes with a lid on the pan. Move to a plate, top and serve hot. This makes about six pancakes, depending on size. Top with bacon, kimchi, fried onions, pickled ginger, Thai chili sauce, cheese, chicken or seafood, plus sauces and soy sauce. Here’s a simple okonomiyaki sauce: Mix ½ cup mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon ketchup and a dash of hot sauce.
FEBRUARY 1, 2024
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NIBBLES
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Chef Daniel Asher of River and Woods and Ash’Kara in Denver and Anne Cure of Cure Farms were among those inducted recently into Les Disciples d’Escoffier, an international society of notable chefs and food producers. Other local members include chefs Antonio Laudisio, Erik Skokan and Kirk Bachmann. Boulder Swim Club restaurant and bar is open in the Broker Inn, 555 30th St. in Boulder, serving an Asian-fusion menu. Anne Cure. Credit: John Lehndorff Soup Smith is dishing New England clam chowder, tomato bisque, chicken enchilada and other soups on the Hill in the food hall at 1310 College Ave. in Boulder. Coming soon: Tiffins Momo Corner, 1911 Broadway in Boulder (former location of Saucy Cluckers and Boulder Baked). Local farmers: Do you have 2024 CSA shares available? Details to: nibbles@boulderweekly.com
WORDS TO CHEW ON: WHEN PANCAKES ERUPT
“The hot cakes rose like little hassocks, and small volcanoes formed and erupted on them until they were ready to be turned. A cheerful brown, they were, with tracings of darker brown. And the kitchen was full of the good sweet smell of them.” — From the novel East of Eden by John Steinbeck
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John Lehndorff graduated from McGill University in Montreal. He hosts Radio Nibbles and Kitchen Table Talk on KGNU.
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MAPPING MUSHROOMS Researchers track the evolution of psilocybe BY WILL BRENDZA
A
lex Bradshaw has been on a mission to map the genomic diversity of psilocybe for years. He’s been determined to find out when these peculiar mushrooms started producing psilocybin — and by extension, someday, maybe, to find out why. Recent research Bradshaw authored may have laid the groundwork to do that. The study, published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), represents the largest genomic diversity study for the genus psilocybe ever. Conducted through the University of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) the research provides a genetic representation for the genus, what Bradshaw calls a “backbone for future studies.” He’s already working to publish an even larger expanded data set from this project. “We will continue to fill those gaps,” he says. As a graduate student at the University of Utah, Bradshaw became fixated on collecting as many genetic representations of psilocybe as possible to map the genus’ evolutionary history. He was primarily interested in diversity-based studies at first, and something called “biosynthetic gene clusters” or clusters of genes required
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to produce something — like psilocybin. Bradshaw quickly realized how hard it is to acquire psilocybe mushrooms for research, in part because of their federally illegal status, but also because samples of obscure species of psilocybe are often extremely rare and hard to come by. And there are a lot of them. “Psilocybe is actually globally distributed, and it’s got roughly about 165 species. But something like 30 to 40 percent of them have actually only ever been found once,” he says. “They’re actually quite rare. Outside a couple of species, they’re actually not very commonly found and collected.” It was a hurdle in his goal of mapping the genus. But through his position as a graduate researcher at NHMU and something called voucher experiments, Bradshaw found he could access a global bank of museum samples that stretched back decades.
“We take museum collections, things that have been kind of stored for 20, 30, 40, even sometimes up to 150 years, and we’ve been putting forth a lot of different methods to extract DNA from them and build genomic DNA from those specimens,” Bradshaw says. He calls it a “treasure trove of biodiversity.” So Bradshaw started building a database. He logged what specimens were available and from what museums, how old they were and what he needed to do to get ahold of them. He even included things like where each specimen grew, whether they decayed wood or were found on dung, and so on. Once all of that data was in place and the backbone for their research was built, the lab got to work. “I kind of just got [other museums] to send me as much as they possibly could,” he says. “And then we started developing a method to actually get good quality genomic DNA from these specimens.” The researchers took what’s called a “phylogenomic approach,” using the whole genome sequence to look at evolutionary diversity. In total, his team analyzed 52 psilocybe specimens including 39 species that have never been sequenced before. Their findings shed a lot of light on this largely unresearched genus of fungi.
Bradshaw and his team found that psilocybe mushrooms first appeared on Earth some 65 million years ago, making them older than previously thought. They also identified up to five possible horizontal gene transfers to other mushrooms between 9 and 40 million years ago. His favorite finding, though, has to do with psilocybe mushrooms’ ability to produce the psychoactive and psychedelic compound psilocybin. This study revealed two separate gene clusters that produce psilocybin with two totally separate evolutionary histories. “That’s really interesting because it suggests that psilocybin production in magic mushrooms has actually found a way to make it into that genus at least twice, rather than just once,” Bradshaw says. Bradshaw believes this work will be useful for future research on the psilocybe genus. On one hand, the database on psilocybe he’s built is a tool to provide predictive power for future researchers. On the other, he believes both academia and society at large have a lot to gain from a better understanding of the genetic history of psilocybe. “Research into psilocybe has not really been taken seriously very much, both at a public level and even within a scientific and academic level,” he says. “I think that there’s a lot of legitimacy for this work, and I think that it has the ability to produce research that could be really helpful for things like the mental health crisis.”
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