Boulder Weekly 05.04.2023

PRAIRIEWOLF’S COSMIC HOWL ACROSS THE FOOTHILLS P. 13

25 YEARS OF DUSHANBE TEAHOUSE P. 26

COLORADO’S NEW GUN LAWS P. 11

SLOW BURN

Learning to live with wildfire P. 8

17 SCREEN: Annual TV blowout returns to the Front Range

26 NIBBLES: 25 years of Dushanbe Teahouse BY

JOHN LEHNDORFF

Credit: Amber Boutwell

COMMENTARY

MAY 4, 2023

Volume XXX, Number 37

PUBLISHER: Fran Zankowski

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Caitlin Rockett

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER:

Will Matuska

FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Toni Tresca, Gregory Wakeman, Colin Wrenn

SALES AND MARKETING

MARKET DEVELOPMENT MANAGER:

Kellie Robinson

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Matthew Fischer

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Carter Ferryman

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PRODUCTION

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erik Wogen

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Mark Goodman

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Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE

BOOKKEEPER: Emily Weinberg

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OPINION

City Council vote is a referendum on police oversight

BY NAACP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND EL CENTRO AMISTAD

On March 1, 2019, Boulder police surrounded Black Naropa University student

Zayd Atkinson, threatening his life and safety, for the crime of doing his job. The incident went viral, drawing attention to facts on the ground — Boulder is no different than any other city in America. People of color are twice as likely to be stopped by police in Boulder, police officers are unskilled in deescalation tactics and quick to use compliance as justification for

excessive force. NAACP Boulder County called for citizen police oversight in response, demanding not only an oversight entity, but a community-led process. NAACP Boulder County, a local unit of the national organization, has learned from 114 years of experience what would happen if community voices were left out of the decision-making process. Indeed, four years later, City Council wishes to overturn Police Oversight Panel (POP) members and their community decision-

making and put it firmly in the hands of Council members aligned with a particular political agenda. The newly formed POP was to be a community-led decision-making body, even if their decisions were limited by the inordinate powers of the police chief. Despite the relatively quick response of City Council to calm an outraged community in 2019, it is becoming clear the city was insincere in its efforts to create effective community police oversight.

OPINION

The nascent panel was given the overwhelming task of creating their own by-laws. The city appointed police monitor Joey Lipari and obscured the mission in favor of the police union, as evidenced by Lipari’s unnecessary statements in support of the police, which immediately undermined his credibility as a neutral actor.

POP panelist training included an intense regimen of police involvement — inclusion in police ride-alongs and use-offorce trainings, working in police offices with armed officers, and little privacy. There was zero city infrastructure in place for a POP panel, inadequate and intimidating legal advice given, omission of what rights panelists did have, with panelists essentially under a gag order with the public.

How any attorney working with police oversight models could leave out an appeal process in an oversight ordinance is worrisome. Equity Officer Aimee Kane was apparently unable to assist either the panelists or the monitor in meaningful community engagement, which still has not occurred, despite the ordinance requiring it. The POP became such a disappointment, deviating from its original intent, subverted and obfuscated in its mission, that the NAACP considered calling for the resignation of all original POP panelists.

SELECTING MEMBERS

In 2022, in accordance with the current ordinance, one representative each from NAACP Boulder County and El Centro Amistad, along with two currently serving panelists, made up the POP Selection Committee, entrusted to choose six new panelists. The POP Selection Committee interviewed prospective panelists using the same guidelines as the previous Selection Committee, with the same interview questions, and

were overseen and guided throughout the process by Equity Officer Kane and contracted administrator and original Police Task Force member Shawn Rae Passalacqua.

Considering the city’s willingness to take on a Boulder citizen’s baseless complaint regarding the

community. The POP Selection Committee unanimously confirmed and reaffirmed the slate, twice, presented to City Council. Certain Council members and the police union exhibited hysterical reactive bias toward one particular candidate on the slate. NAACP’s goals for the POP were to identify candidates who possess the ability to assess complaints, offer remedies through proposed sanctions, policy and training recommendations, and identify areas of concern to the community. If community concerns were addressed proactively, incidents such as Zayd Atkinson experienced in 2019 could be avoided.

DEFINING BIAS

To be outspoken about the possibility of more equitable policing strategies is not a disqualification for citizen police oversight under the current ordinance. Attempts to skew the intent of the word “bias” to justify efforts by some City Council members in overriding community decision-making regarding POP selection is patently absurd and borders on the Orwellian. The same Council approved the entire slate of recommended POP members and is now considering substituting the opinion of one attorney who failed to get facts right in his report to Council.

Yates and Winer telegraphed their intent to revise the ordinance — apparently pushing to have community groups no longer hold any sway in choosing who would serve and represent diverse community interests.

Instead, these Council members would make the POP just like every other city commission, with participants chosen through the “superior judgment” and political savvy of City Council members, ensuring a POP panel less apt to threaten the status quo. Such actions would result in a loss of legitimacy and would, in fact, render police oversight completely toothless and ineffectual, which appears to be what many on Council and the police union want.

City Council can vote to not act on the Special Counsel’s ruling on May 4. And they should. It is the only choice with any semblance of integrity.

Empty words stating council members’ support of police oversight coupled with actions that absolutely undermine POP’s abilities to be a voice for community members says something loud and clear to all: The city does not want effective police oversight.

POP Selection Committee process and an alleged failure to assess the bias of potential POP nominees, it is unfortunate that Council shows no faith in the city’s own staff and hires.

Bias, in all its nuances, was considered throughout the POP selection process — cultural sensitivities, diverse experiences and disproportionate policing statistics must be included in any discussion of police interactions with the

Council members have irresponsibly wasted taxpayers’ money hiring a special counsel/ investigator in a misguided attempt to undo the results of their own vote. Lawyers have already called the Special Counsel’s work “shoddy” and vulnerable to legal attack for his ruling’s lack of investigative credibility. City Council initially failed to vote on the POP slate, but ultimately, the slate passed six votes to three. In obvious frustration, council members

Community of Boulder, please be better than this. Police, if sincere about accountability, have nothing to fear from communitydriven oversight. Council members, if sincere about representing more than just a powerful minority, whose complaints show they do not even believe police oversight is necessary, have nothing to fear acting with integrity and according to the law. Community members, we have everything to fear if this rare and limited opportunity for community decision-making is quashed. Effective police oversight needs freedom from City Council politics.

This opinion does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

Attempts to skew the intent of the word ‘bias’ to justify efforts by some City Council members in overriding community decision-making regarding POP selection is patently absurd and borders on the Orwellian.”

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SLOW BURN

BY WILL MATUSKA

Angie Busby woke up surrounded by a haze. Smoke from the East Troublesome Fire, the second largest wildfire in Colorado’s history, was covering Busby’s home north of Jamestown. She couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.

Just a few hours later, sustained wind gusts up to 80 mph helped start the nearby Cal-Wood Fire. While her home was not at risk, Busby, a trained wilderness firefighter and EMT, was on the scene “pretty much after the first smoke report till the end.”

“You disconnect from the fact that this is your home territory, and you just do what you need to do to make sure everybody is safe,” she says.

The Cal-Wood fire burned through more than 10,000 acres and 26 structures, including half of the Cal-Wood Education Center’s 1,200-acre property, where Busby is the natural resources manager.

Prior to the fire, most of Busby’s fire mitigation measures included things like thinning trees, opening up tree canopies, taking out diseased trees and cre-

ating openings for meadows in an effort to emulate historical forest compositions and reduce fuel loads.

Three years later, she sees where those efforts worked and where they didn’t — and it’s changing how she approaches managing her land.

“In the last couple of years, there’s been a switch from just fuels reduction in the forest to home-hardening,” she says. Now, half of her time post-fire is spent increasing structure resilience.

Busby’s shifting views on land management are part of a larger discussion among scientists and land managers about what historical forest structures actually looked like. One new study published last month in the scientific journal Fire questions the science that informed today’s best practices in wildfire mitigation.

ONGOING DISCUSSION

After more than a century of fire suppression and a two-decade megadrought, Colorado is experiencing more large fires than ever before. Ten of Colorado’s 20 largest fires by acreage

have occurred since 2018. The 2021 Marshall Fire is the state’s most destructive fire by structure loss.

Tony Cheng, director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute, says Colorado has always had big fires, but “the key is those fires may be becoming more frequent over a longer period of the year and those fires are also intersecting with a variety of human values (like protecting structures) that are on today’s landscape that weren’t there 250 years ago.”

On Boulder County public lands, forest management and fire mitigation strategies center around land stewardship to improve forest health and structure, which includes forest-thinning and patch-cutting.

“Research for us on the Colorado Front Range tells us that the overgrown dense structure that we have is the issue,” says Stefan Reinold, resource management division manager at Boulder County Parks and Open Space.

A lot of the thinning in the county occurs in the lower montane forests

where species like the ponderosa pine dominate the landscape. Patch cuts (clearing an entire area of trees) are done in the upper montane forests to species like the lodgepole pine to build age diversity and fire breaks. Those are typically less than 15 acres, according to Reinold.

“How a fire would burn with a more open structure is really what we’re after, [so we’re] changing the structure to one that can receive fire, rather than one that when it does receive fire, it is devastating,” says Reinold, adding that forest structure has historically been more open than it is today.

But the April 3 study in Fire, an international and peer-reviewed journal, found tree density and fire severity in pre-industrial dry forests were more variable than previously thought.

The study challenges the “low-severity” model, which argues these forests were low in tree density and had lowand moderate-severity fires. Instead, it highlights evidence indicating a “mixedseverity” model with both low and high tree densities and a mixture of fire

A shift in forest management strategy offers a new way to think about how we live with wildfire

NOW YOU KNOW

This week’s news in Boulder County and beyond

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

STATE PASSES GUN LAWS

Colorado is taking steps to address gun violence in the state.

Gov. Jared Polis on April 28 signed four bills into law establishing a threeday minimum waiting period to receive a purchased firearm (HB23-1219) and increasing the minimum age to possess a firearm to 21 (SB23-169), among other things.

Grassroots group Colorado Ceasefire has long advocated for gun-law reform in the state.

“While none of the measures [are] a fix-all, addressing the problem in various steps means we can begin to address the gun fatalities affecting our state,” the organization wrote in a statement to Boulder Weekly. “The enactment of these measures indicates that gun violence prevention is on the move in Colorado.”

According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, 2021 had the highest rate of gun deaths per 100,000 people (18.2) in the last four decades.

Senate Bill 23-168 opens the civil court system to lawsuits against gun manufacturers and their products if its product was used in an act of violence.

In addition to family members and law enforcement, SB23-170 expands who can petition for an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) — often called

red flag laws — to medical care providers, educators and district attorneys. ERPOs temporarily restrict access to or could lead to the confiscation of a firearm or concealed carry permit of someone who “poses a significant risk to self or others by having a firearm.”

“We are taking some important steps to help make Colorado one of the 10 safest states, and building upon the ongoing work to make Colorado communities safer,” Gov. Polis said in a press release.

This comes just over a month after a student opened fire at East High School in Denver and injured two school administrators, five months after the shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs that killed five and wounded 17 people, and two years after the King Soopers shooting in Boulder that killed 10 people.

Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, based in Loveland, filed two lawsuits against the state over the two bills that establish a minimum wait period and increase the age to possess a firearm.

— Will Matuska

COWS BUILD FIRE RESILIENCE

Thirty-five heads of cattle are helping the city of Louisville Open Space mitigate wildfire risk.

The city is implementing regenerative grazing practices in three designated

areas of Davidson Mesa Open Space through May 14 as part of the recovery process following the Marshall Fire.

“The collaboration with local ranchers to reduce invasive weeds and mitigate potential wildfire fuel sources while improving soil quality and community education is one that we are happy to bring to Louisville and to our valued open spaces,” Adam Blackmore, director of recreation and open space for the city of Louisville told Boulder Weekly via email.

More regenerative grazing projects will occur on select properties, like goats on North Open Space, into the fall.

— Will Matuska

XYLAZINE FOUND IN DRUG MARKET

The Boulder County Drug Task Force and Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) found xylazine in the county’s illicit drug market.

Xylazine is a drug used for sedation and muscle relaxation in animals like horses and cattle, but it’s linked to human overdose deaths across the country. Also known as “tranq,” it isn’t approved for human consumption.

BCPH urges residents to take caution xylazine could be mixed with heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and other narcotics. BCPH wrote in an email to BW that it is working to obtain xylazine test kits for people participating in its harm-reduction program and for those experiencing homelessness.

The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has reported xylazine is a threat across the country — finding 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA in 2022 contained xylazine.

BCPH says to administer Naloxone if an overdose is suspected and someone is unresponsive.

— Will Matuska

POP SAGA CONTINUES

With Boulder City Council set to vote on May 4 on whether to remove Lisa Sweeney-Miran as a member of the Police Oversight Panel (POP), her lawyer maintains that City Council does not have the authority to do so.

In a May 1 letter to the city attorney, Teresa Tate, and deputy city attorneys, Erin Poe and Sandra Llanes, Dan

Williams of Hutchinson, Black and Cook disagrees with Poe’s April 20 assessment that City Council has the power to remove Sweeney-Miran from the POP under a general city ordinance governing management of boards and commissions.

“[The Boulder Municipal Code] doesn’t reference [the POP] as a board or commission,” Williams tells Boulder Weekly. [The POP] actually has provisions that would be inconsistent with the idea that this is a board or commission. It doesn’t function like a board or commission.” According to Williams, boards and commissions must be composed of Boulder residents and make recommendations to City Council, whereas the POP can include nonresidents (those employed in Boulder or with children in Boulder schools) and makes recommendations on police oversight to the Boulder Police Department.

Williams also maintains that special counsel Clay Douglas’ recommendation to remove Sweeney-Miran falls outside his task to investigate a number of code of conduct complaints, two of which claim that Sweeney-Miran has been publicly critical of police and is unable to make impartial decisions on the panel. However, neither of the two code of conduct complaints directly accuse Sweeney-Miran of misconduct. One complaint accuses members of the POP selection committee of misconduct by selecting Sweeney-Miran. The second complaint accuses six members of Boulder City Council of misconduct by voting to approve Sweeney-Miran’s seat on the panel.

“Given Mr. Douglas was not tasked with making recommendations outside of what is specified in the code of conduct,” Williams wrote in his letter, “Mr. Douglas’s gratuitous suggestion [to remove Sweeney-Miran from the POP] should be treated for what it is — public input from a non-city resident that does not require any further action by City Council.”

At its regular meeting on May 4, Council has the option to accept the findings of Douglas’ report and remove Sweeney-Miran, reject the findings in the report and confirm Sweeney-Miran’s panel position, or “take other action as Council decides in its discretion.”

— Caitlin Rockett

Credit: Patricia Smith

BARK AT THE MOON

Debut album from BoCo instrumental psychonauts Prairiewolf is a cosmic howl across the foothills

BY JEZY J. GRAY

It was a full moon when the Boulder County trio known as Prairiewolf rolled tape on the first recording session for their self-titled debut last October. There in the Nederland basement studio of keyboardist and synth player Jeremy Erwin, the collective began whittling down their sprawling and spiritual jams into a cohesive collection of song-shaped instrumentals that would be the outfit’s maiden shot across the stars.

The result is 10 otherworldly offerings that shimmer across clusters of ambient Americana, cosmic country and psychedelic jazz-fusion. From the lonesome lap steel of “Lunar Deluxe” to the celestial bossa nova of closing track “Technicolor Dream Hearse,” the selftitled LP out May 5 on Nashville’s Centripetal Force Records is a vibe-forward feast of texture and rhythm taking listeners on a laid-back journey to the far reaches of the universe.

“A lot of us have played in slightly more straightforward bands in the past, and the idea was to have this be more open-ended kind of stuff,” bassist and Longmont resident Tyler Wilcox says. “I don’t think we’re a jam band necessarily, in the sense that people in Colorado might think of a jam band — but we’re a jam band.”

To that point, guitarist Stefan Beck offers an important clarification: “We’re a band that jams.” With this subtle but essential distinction in mind, Prairiewolf tweaks the formula driving much of the region’s improv-heavy guitar music — swapping barn-burner solos and tricked-out trap kits for splashy pools of ambience and the chirping thump of vintage drum machines — to carve space for something more patient, subtle and uniquely thrilling. It’s no wonder the first song the band played together was a cover of Alice Coltrane’s spiritual jazz mas-

terpiece “Journey in Satchidananda,” rather than a standard by traditional legacy jammers like The Grateful Dead.

“We definitely have a shared vocabulary. We have a lot of the same interests, music-wise — there’s a ton of overlap. It all features improvisation pretty heavily,” Erwin says. “I think that gives us a level ground. We understand how to inject that into the music. And I think when you’re starting and you’re just kind of jamming a lot — which, we jam a lot — speaking that common language is super important.”

AMBIENT AMERICANA BEATS TO RELAX/STUDY TO

For many bands, the road to a debut as fully realized as Prairiewolf is a tumultuous and painstaking path. But when the Boulder County trio recounts the smoothness of their early days and speedy snapping-together of their first LP, the story is studded with serendipity and an easygoing providence matching the new record’s effortlessly chill aesthetic.

“It’s kind of shocking,” Beck says. “We have this long email thread with Mike [Mannix] from Centripetal Force [Records], and every time he’s like, ‘Oh, I got the test pressing,’ or ‘Hey, I’m sending the records,’ he keeps saying: ‘Things don’t normally happen this easily or this quickly.’ So there is some kind of kismet going on.”

To hear the band tell it, a big part of their quick rise to the current moment has a lot to do with the individual talents of the players involved.

In addition to sharing a common musical vocabulary, each member brings their own cadence to the conversation. Beck’s scintillating and atmospheric guitar work, calling back to his solo project Golden Brown, gels with Wilcox’s elucidatory basslines and the warmth of Erwin’s Fender Rhodes for a sound that pushes the boundaries of what listeners might expect from a homegrown outfit in the Centennial State.

“I don’t know what Colorado music is, really. I mean, I guess I have a good idea of the cliché of it being a jam-grass kind of scene. We don’t fit into that so much,” Wilcox says. “Jeremy recently was talking about, ‘Why isn’t there more of this sort of cosmic space music out here?’ Because the vibe with the mountains and nature and all this stuff seems like that would fit well. It exists to some extent, but it’s never been something I’ve really been able to lock into.”

But as the metaphorical curtain rises on Prairiewolf ahead of their upcoming album release show in Lafayette this Saturday, during a full moon like the one illuminating the album’s first recording session last fall, the trio is hopeful their jam-adjacent brand of celestial psychedelia will find a rightful home with audiences here on the Front Range — and leave a trail of stardust for others to follow.

“What we do isn’t common here, but people dig it when they hear it,” Erwin says. “So if we’re helping plant the seed for more of this type of music out here, let’s do it.”

ON THE BILL: Prairiewolf album release show. 6 p.m. Saturday, May 6, Cellar West Artisan Ales, 778-B W. Baseline Road, Lafayette. Free

Left to right: Stefan Beck (guitar), Jeremy Erwin (keys) and Tyler Wilcox (bass) of Prairiewolf. Photo courtesy the artist.

The self-titled debut from Prairiewolf is out May 5 via Centripetal Force Records.

MUSIC

CUE THE STRINGS

Front Range folk fixture DeVotchKa teams up with Boulder Philharmonic for Macky Auditorium performance

BY ADAM PERRY

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JEZY J. GRAY

With a career-long embrace of unlikely instruments like the theremin, sousaphone and bouzouki, Colorado folk outfit DeVotchKa has never been the sort of rock band that fits neatly into a single box. Boulder Philharmonic Executive Director Sara Parkinson says that’s part of what makes their upcoming musical collaboration such an exciting partnership.

“We’re trying to get new people into the hall and appeal to a broader audience,” says Parkinson, who will conduct the orchestra during the upcoming May 6 concert and has performed with members of DeVotchKa in various chamber settings. “We like to amplify local voices and local talent, and putting [DeVotchKa] on the stage for the first time at Macky Auditorium is another special part of this collaboration. It’s about time, right?”

While pop crossovers are nothing new for the Boulder Phil or other classical institutions, the orchestra’s partnership with DeVotchKa promises a wild ride for concertgoers as one of the Front Range’s most celebrated and genre-defying bands performs live with some of the area’s leading classical musicians.

The collaboration with the Boulder Phil is a natural fit, according to DeVotchKa frontman and founder Nick Urata, because of the group’s deep Boulder connections — starting with multi-instrumentalist Tom Hagerman’s classical experience.

“Tom was an alternate for the Phil [when DeVotchKa formed in 1994] and so we befriended all these players, and we always recruited them to play on our records,” Urata says. “And then we just started getting more ambitious with our arrangements, and finally it was kind of a perfect storm

when the Colorado Symphony started to reach out to pop acts … we were ready to go, and we recorded a live album and got to do, like, five Red Rocks shows with them. It’s been kind of a dream come true for us.”

Thanks to the talent and training of Boulder Phil musicians, rehearsals for collaborations with pop groups is minimal. Urata says he’s used to it by now.

“You really kind of have to have your shit wired up front,” he says. “Because the symphony’s on such a clock, you have pretty much, like, five minutes of rehearsal before the day of the show. If something’s wrong, everything’s going to fall apart. So there is basically no rehearsal. That part’s pretty scary.”

Urata’s joke about “five minutes” of rehearsal time isn’t far off the mark — but for an ensemble like the Boulder Phil and a conductor like Parkinson, a few quick runs through the material are all they need to craft a next-level performance.

“I’ve met with the band once already, and I’ll meet with them on loading day … but when you have professional orchestra musicians, they’ve had the music for a couple of weeks,” Parkinson says. “We all come together on the day of the performance earlier in the day and spend a

Boulder Philharmonic Executive Director Sara Parkinson. Photo courtesy Boulder Philharmonic.

few hours together, going through the charts — and then it’s showtime.”

And when the lights dim ahead of the evening’s first note, rather than playing with a click track to ensure near-perfect time, DeVotchKa will rely on drummer Shawn King’s internal rhythm to surf the orchestra’s giant sound. “The feeling of having a symphony behind you is like catching a giant wave,” Urata says.

‘NIWOT’S CURSE’

DeVotchKa has come a long way from the band’s early days of performing at parties and bars, having since forged its own lane in the music world by marrying the energy of indie-rock with the romance of TV Westerns and old-world charm of Urata’s upbringing of “childhood backyard parties with old Italian dudes playing accordion.”

Urata now splits his time between Los Angeles and Colorado as a composer for TV shows and films — from A Series of Unfortunate Events to Little Miss Sunshine — while also working as an international touring rock musician.

“A lot of times I do get hired for a film score and I’ll have to just sort of leave hints and a trail of breadcrumbs that I actually have a band I’ve been working on for 20 years, and we have some good stuff,” Urata jokes. “And a lot of people just don’t care. They don’t care about your background.”

The New York City native says he was drawn to Colorado because “it

MUSIC

seemed like a fantasy land,” especially because his first time in Boulder included a now-legendary Jane’s Addiction show on the Nothing’s Shocking tour in the late ’80s — something he says changed his life.

“I had never seen a band like that, and their performance that night was absolutely unforgettable,” he says. “It was the same [weekend as] the Mall Crawl … I met all these super cool people and I thought, ‘Wow, Boulder is the coolest.’ I got that curse that night — Niwot’s Curse.”

Here Urata is referencing the local legend surrounding Southern Arapaho Chief Niwot, who allegedly spoke of “the Curse of Boulder Valley,” which has come to describe the breathtaking region’s knack for turning tourists into long-term residents. DeVotchKa’s music is now entwined with this stretch of the Front Range like Ennio Morricone’s scores are connected with the landscapes in classic films like Once Upon a Time in the West, and the collaboration with the Boulder Phil will bring that relationship to life right here where Urata got the curse.

ON THE BILL: DeVotchKa with the Boulder Philharmonic. 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. $25-$104

DeVotchKa performs with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in 2016. Photo courtesy Boulder Philharmonic.

BARD BUSTER

BY TONI TRESCA

Local playwright Katherine Dubois has long regarded Shakespeare’s early comedy Love’s Labour’s Lost as the ideal candidate for a sequel. The shocking twist ending of the play left plenty of room for further development, which began to take shape during a discussion of the Bard’s work at an Upstart Crow Theatre Company board meeting.

“Joseph Illingworth [board president and actor] turned to me and said: ‘You should write the sequel,’” she remembers. “And we all just laughed, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.”

The conversation inspired Dubois to reread Love’s Labour’s Lost. “My husband and I had seen the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production in the 1980s with Kenneth Branagh, and I had read the play before,” she says. “It’s not one of his more popular plays — and, admittedly, it’s a little uneven — but there is a lot of really funny stuff in the show.”

In Love’s Labour’s Lost, the King of Navarre and three of his friends make a three-year commitment to forego women in order to focus on their studies and fasting. Their plans are jeopardized, however, when they fall in love with the Princess of France and three

of her ladies, who arrive at the court shortly after the men take their oath. Don Adriano de Armado, a Spaniard visiting the court, and his page, Moth, deliver a message to the King, asking him to intervene in his relationship issues with Jaquenetta, whom he suspects is seeing Costard. Two scholars named Holofernes and Sir Nathaniel also appear in the original, though Dubois says “they have no plot,” something she was determined to address in her sequel.

“After reading the play, I wanted to pare down the cast, but I didn’t want to cut out a pair of lovers,” Dubois says. “And how could I cut the shenanigans of Armado and Moth? Ultimately, I decided to cut Jaquenetta, Costard, Boyet [a servant], and a few other small characters so I could focus on expanding the story that was left hanging at the end of Love’s Labour’s Lost.”

Dubois’ continuation picks up a year after the events of Shakespeare’s play and uses contemporary language to depict the Princess, Lady Rosaline, Lady Maria and Lady Katharine’s return to Navarre. But when they get to court, things are different between them and the men they left behind. Armado and Moth are still at court, but Armado is heartbroken because Jaquenetta ran away.

“I love what I have come up with for Sir Nathaniel and Holofernes,” says Dubois. “Mirroring the play-within-aplay that happens at the end of Love’s Labour’s Lost, in the sequel, Sir Nathaniel and Holofernes find Sophocles’ lost tragedy, Amphitryon, which they perform at the end of the show. I tried to make it as silly as possible. I won’t claim it’s as funny as the Pyramus and Thisbe scene from the end of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but that was the goal.”

RAISING THE CURTAIN

Dubois hosted the first reading of Love’s Labor’s Won in her living room in October 2018 and the first public reading the following March. Dubois recalls rewriting Act 1 in response to hearing the play read aloud. “Most of the edits were cuts,” she says. “Sometimes you hear a reading and think it needs work, but it read well, so the revision process was tweaking more than big rewrites.”

Those readings continued through Zoom in the early days of the pandemic, when Melissa Castaldo — who had been assisting with social media and participating in shows with the group — took a particular liking to the script.

“I just thought it was a lot of fun,” Castaldo says. “At one point, I said, ‘We need a show for our season. Why don’t we do [Love’s Labor’s Won]?’ And Kathy asked me, ‘Are you volunteering to direct?’ And I said, ‘I guess I am!’”

More than a year after the Omicron variant delayed the play’s first attempted rollout in January 2022, the show has adapted to go on, and now Love’s Labor’s Won will make its world premiere on May 4 at the Dairy Center Arts Center.

“The last play I did with [The Upstart Crow] was Bury the Dead, and although it had some dark humor, it was about a very serious topic,” says Mark Bradford, who plays Don Armado. “This role was very enjoyable because I was asked to bring a lot of spunk to this over-the-top comedic character. It’s a homegrown production you have to see live, because you won’t find it on Netflix anytime soon — unless Kathy gets really lucky.”

“Hey, you never know, Kenneth Branagh might pick it up,” Castaldo jokes.

“That’s true, and he definitely should,” Bradford says. “But until then, you have to come to see it live.”

ON STAGE: Love’s Labor’s Won by Katherine Dubois. May 4-21, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. The Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $25

The Upstart Crow wraps its 42nd season with a Shakespearean send-up in ‘Love’s Labor’s Won’

Top: Myfanwy Morris and Christopher Bursin. Above: Myfanwy Morris, Daphne Moore, Acy Jackson and Noelle Norris. Photos courtesy The Upstart Crow Theatre Company.

SCREEN

TURN IT ON

BY GREGORY WAKEMAN

When Kaily Smith Westbrook and Randi Kleiner first set out to create a festival celebrating the art of independent television in January 2015, they knew they wanted it to be a destination event.

Even though Westbrook was based in Los Angeles and Kleiner lived in New York, the pair soon discovered that Denver was the perfect location for what would come to be called SeriesFest. It helped that Westbrook was born and raised in the Mile High City.

“I had never been to Denver before,” Kleiner says. “But I just fell in love with the city and the community. Everybody was willing to help us out. There was just this incredible energy around Denver and the arts. It just felt perfect. Plus it’s the birthplace of cable television. So everything just fell into place.”

SeriesFest has certainly provided a boost to the city, too. This is now the

award-winning international festival and nonprofit organization’s ninth season and Kleiner says they typically have between 12,000 and 14,000 attendees. SeriesFest 2023 will be no different during its upcoming five-day run beginning May 5. Especially since they have once again amassed such an impressive lineup of celebrity guests from the world of TV and beyond.

This year’s action kicks off with world-premiere screenings of CNN’s documentary The 2010s, the Netflix animated comedy Mulligan and Amazon Freevee’s Primo. These will be followed by Q&As with the people behind the shows, along with additional screenings and panels for RuPaul’s Drag Race, Grand Crew, Animal Control and A Small Light.

“The thing I love to say about SeriesFest is that there really is something for everyone, whether you’re in the industry or just love television,” says SeriesFest Director of Programming Claire Taylor.

Stand-up comedy fans will find plenty to love, too, with closingnight performances from headliner Chelsea Handler, Joel McHale, Jay Pharaoh and Adam Ray at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

But showcasing the best of new and upcoming TV is what SeriesFest has become known for, as the medium continues to become even more popular and powerful in the streaming age. “That’s the thing that everyone wants to discuss when they walk into a party or dinner,” Taylor says. “‘What are you watching?’ There’s so much out there.”

‘WE’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE’

For nearly a decade, SeriesFest has prided itself on showcasing the best TV has to offer, before most people have even heard of the shows. “We had the world premiere of Yellowstone The same with Mr. Robot and New Amsterdam, and then we had panels and Q&As with their creators,” Taylor says. “That’s what’s great about SeriesFest — you get to discover something completely new. We are doing our due diligence, year after year, to bring you the stuff that you should be watching [and] talking about.”

But while SeriesFest gives its attendees the chance to learn about TV’s top new titles, both Kleiner and Taylor also love that it gives people the opportunity to experience our stretch of the Front Range.

“A lot of people fly in for the festival. We love to show off Denver,” Kleiner says. “As the festival has grown, there’s just more places and more fun things to do and show in the city. We’ve also managed to increase our local attendance and the local impact that we have in the community. We continue to do that not only at the festival but year round.”

Playing an integral part in growing the arts scene here has always been a vital part of the SeriesFest mission. “We want to provide professional development opportunities for people looking to get into storytelling,” Taylor says.

To that end, the organization runs a year-round mentorship program with Shonda Rhimes’ production company

Shondaland, connecting emerging women directors with leaders in the field. “Our winner last year is slated to direct, which has happened to a couple of our winners,” Taylor says.

Other programs include the Storytellers Initiative, run in tandem with Janelle Monáe’s Wonderland Productions, which includes readings with professional actors to boost the exposure of a script. This year’s event is for a project called Soul City, which explores the mysterious disappearance of a young girl after a hurricane hits a small town.

“We believe that in order to really make change with diversity, inclusion and equality, we have to start from the beginning in the entertainment industry,” Kleiner says. “We have programs that run from fifth grade all the way through high school and college, and we have a couple of different education programs. Most of those are local to Denver.”

All of which proves that, even as SeriesFest continues to grow and become more international, its local ties will only get stronger. “Denver is our home,” Kleiner says.

On that note, Taylor adds extra emphasis: “We are not going anywhere.”

ON SCREEN: SeriesFest 2023. Various times, May 5-10, multiple locations including Sie FilmCenter, Hotel Clio, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver and Morrison. Event prices vary.

Annual TV blowout returns to the Front Range to help answer a pressing question: ‘What are you watching?’

SeriesFest co-founders Kaily Smith Westbrook (right) and Randi Kleiner. Photo courtesy SeriesFest.

Cast and crew from RuPaul’s Drag Race, Grand Crew and Animal Control will be among the celebrity guests at this year’s SeriesFest.

EVENTS

4

ATLAS EXPO 2023

4-6 p.m. Thursday, May 4, Roser ATLAS Center, 1125 18th St., 320 UCB, Boulder. Free

There’s a whole generation of inventors, artists and technologists at CU Boulder, just waiting to showcase their creations. Stop by the annual ATLAS Expo on campus for a hands-on community event featuring hundreds of projects showing true innovation with AR/VR, games, electronics and other immersive experiences.

5

ELEMENTAL: REIMAGINING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH WILDFIRE

7 p.m. Friday, May 5, Chautauqua Community House, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. $13

Boulder County is no stranger to the destructive power of wildfire. Elemental, a new movie by filmmaking trio Trip Jennings, Sara Quinn and Ralph Bloemers, aims to help communities “make sense of what is happening, and what we can do to prepare for more fire on the land.”

6

JAZZETRY

6-8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6, Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

This portmanteau rolls off the tongue — and when jazz and poetry marry at Trident Cafe on Saturday night, it’ll sound even smoother. Local band Von Disco will be the backbone for this finger-snapping occasion, featuring readings by local poets.

4

FULL THROTTLE YOGA

5:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, Collision Brewing, 1436 Skyway Drive, Longmont. Free

“Get on your mat and take a ride with us” — that’s one of the mantras at Full Throttle Yoga. This inclusive form of Yoga travels from brewery to brewery around Boulder County, and this time around, Collision Brewing is opening their facilities for you to grab a beer, take a deep breath and “live wide open.”

6

MASTER GLASS-CUTTING SESSION

10 a.m.-noon. Saturday, May 6, Colorado Glass Works, 1500 Pearl St., Boulder. $175

Colorado Glassworks’ Meggy Wilm is partnering with glass-cutting master Steve from Toyo Supercutters to show you the artform isn’t just for established experts. This two-hour class is a chance for you to try something new and exciting, or to elevate your glasscutting game.

6

LONGMONT CINCO DE MAYO CELEBRATION

11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, May 6, Roosevelt Park, 700 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont. Free

Longmont’s annual Cinco de Mayo celebration is entering its 20th year — a testament to the city’s rich Latino heritage. Thousands will be in attendance for a day of festivities: food, shopping, live entertainment, a car show and even a break dance competition. Show up, show out and soak up the sun with family on Saturday in Roosevelt Park.

7

RISE AGAINST SUICIDE: EMERGE 5K

8 a.m.-noon. Sunday, May 7, Boulder Reservoir, 5565 North 51st St., Boulder. Free

The Emerge 5K is the biggest annual fundraiser for Rise Against Suicide, a local organization dedicated to eliminating the social and financial barriers between young people and mental health treatment. Each dollar donated will be matched up to $25,000, so throw on your running shoes and get moving.

7

HOPE CHEST FUNDRAISING EVENT

2:30-6 p.m. Sunday, May 7, Großen Bart Brewery, 1025 Delaware Ave., Longmont. Free

Left Hand Artist Group invites you to a night of live music by Good Music Medicine, food from El Herradera, quality brews and a silent auction for one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted boxes. All proceeds from the silent auction will benefit Hope Longmont, a local charity providing outreach to people experiencing homelessness. 7

UNITE TO FIGHT VII

6-8 p.m. Sunday, May 7, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $25-$55

SEICENTO BAROQUE ENSEMBLE

3 p.m. Sunday, May 7, Mountain View United Methodist Church, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder. $15

For this performance of music from legendary composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion, The Seicento Baroque Ensemble will be performing with the very instruments Bach heard when he composed this masterpiece in 1724 — a first in Colorado. Don’t miss their stop in Boulder, as they put on a once-in-alifetime show with musicians and instruments from all over the world.

8

GAME SHOW NIGHT

6-9 p.m. Monday, May 8, The Louisville Underground, 640 Main St. $30

Ever wanted to compete in your favorite game show? Head to the Louisville Underground for a night of fierce and fun gameplay in the mold of classics like Wheel of Fortune and Family Feud. It might not capture the full thrill of hearing Drew Carey invite you to “come on down,” but it’s pretty darn close. The best part? All proceeds from this 21+ event go to Coal Creek Meals on Wheels.

Want to watch a city councilmember and a local business owner beat the daylights out of each other for a good cause? Boy, do we have the event for you: Unite to Fight is hosting its seventh iteration of “Boulder’s one and only annual, amateur charity boxing event,” with each contestant fighting for a cause of their choice. Let’s get ready to rumble.

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

WEDNESDAY NIGHT SQUARE DANCE

6-8 p.m. Wednesday, May 10, Rosalee’s Pizzeria, 461 Main St., Longmont. Free

Square dancing and award-winning pizza: a perfect combo we didn’t know we needed. On Wednesday nights, Rosalee’s on Main Street in Longmont clears out the chairs to make way for a full-fledged hootenanny in the heart of town, featuring music by David Lawrence So grab your dancing dancing boots and come join in on the fun.

ON STAGE:

Within the walls of a picturesque Victorian home, electrical scientist Dr. Givings has developed a new device for treating “hysteria” in women — but the arrival of a new patient and her husband turn things upside down. See what all the buzz is about when In the Next Room: The Vibrator Play opens this weekend, courtesy the Theater Company of Lafayette See listing for details.

ON VIEW:

Want to see the natural world in a whole new light? Augmented Organics at Firehouse Art Center in Longmont explores “humanity’s extraordinary power to shape our environments,” with multi-media works by Eleanor Sabin, Cheryl Coon and Alexandra Christen-Muñoz — from sculpture to sound installations and points in between. See listing for details. (Artwork by Eleanor Sabin)

ON THE PAGE:

Author Marisa Ramel stops by Longmont Books to read from her latest work, The Goodbye Diaries: A Mother-Daughter Memoir The painful and poignant book explores the bonds of grief after a terminal diagnosis, told from alternating perspectives of a mother and daughter. See listing for details.

TO DIE BEAUTIFUL BY BUZZY JACKSON: SIGNING EVENT.

6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder. $5

THE COLOR PURPLE

The Marvin & Judi Wolf Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex, Speer Boulevard and Arapahoe Street. Through May 7. $25.

DAMN YANKEES. Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd. Through May 7. $45

A GREAT WILDERNESS Benchmark Theatre, 1560 Teller St., Lakewood. Through May 13. $30

BVSD HIGH SCHOOL AND FACULTY EXHIBITION Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St, Boulder. Through May 6. Free

HER BRUSH: JAPANESE WOMEN ARTISTS FROM THE FONGJOHNSTONE COLLECTION. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway. Through May 13. $15

JERRIE HURD: BEYOND THE MALE GAZE BMoCA at Macky, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Through May 26. $2

LASTING IMPRESSIONS CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boulder. Through June 2023. Free

IN THE NEXT ROOM:

THE VIBRATOR PLAY

Mary Miller Library Theater, 300 E. Simpson St., Lafayette. May 5-20. $25. BW PICK OF THE WEEK

ROPE Louisville Arts Center, 801 Grant St., May 5-20. $28

THE SOUND OF MUSIC BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Through Aug. 19. $75

AUGMENTED ORGANICS:

ELEANOR SABIN, CHERYL COON AND ALEXANDRA CHRISTENMUNOZ. Firehouse Art Center, 667 Fourth Ave., Longmont. Through June 4. Free.

BW PICK OF THE WEEK

EXPLORATIONS OF RESILIENCE AND RESISTANCE / OUR BACKS HOLD OUR STORIES. 4550 Broadway, Suite C-3B2, Boulder. Through June 28. Free (by appointment only)

ONWARD AND UPWARD: SHARK’S INK CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boulder. Through July 2023. Free

FRAME LITERARY SALON FEATURING JAY HALSEY, HILLARY LEFTWICH, CLAIRE CORINA STEVENS AND HEATHER GOODRICH. 7-9 p.m. Friday, May 5, East Window Gallery, 4550 Broadway, Suite C-3B2, Boulder. Free.

TEEN WRITER’S WORKSHOP WITH YA

AUTHOR JC PETERSON 5-6 p.m.

Saturday, May 6, The Wandering Jellyfish, 198 2nd Avenue, Suite 1A, Niwot, CO.

THE GOODBYE DIARIES: A MOTHER-DAUGHTER MEMOIR BY MARISA RAMEL: READING + Q&A.

4 p.m. Sunday, May 7, Longmont Books, 624 Main St., Longmont. Free.

BW PICK OF THE WEEK

BOOK LOVER’S BOOK CLUB 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Monday, May 8, Erie Community Library, 400 Powers St., Erie. Free

THE GOOD NEWS BY MICHAEL KNISLEY 6:30-7 p.m. Tuesday, May 9, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder. $5

COMMUNITY WRITING CIRCLE 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, May 10, Trident Booksellers and Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. $5 (Venmo: @teresaadele)

THURSDAY, MAY 4

GUSTED WITH KANDYSHOP, DONNY J AND PLANET BLOOP 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $25

JIMMY MITCHELL & JON SHERMAN. 6 p.m. Trident Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

WHITEWATER RAMBLE 6:30 p.m. Nissi’s, 1455 Coal Creek Drive, Unit T, Lafayette. $15

TROUBADOURS WITH RAMAYA SOSKIN, PAUL KIMBIRIS, HAWKFATHER AND THE SWISS ENIGMA 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl, Suite V3A, Boulder. $10

FRIDAY,

MAY 5

CHAPEL HART WITH ROSEVELT

8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $40

LOS MOCOCHETES 9 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $12

VUDU SUNSHINE 7 p.m. Diner Bar, 160 Main St., Lyons. Free

THE HIGH HAWKS WITH DRUNKEN HEARTS 7 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland. $25

SATURDAY, MAY 6

PRAIRIEWOLF (ALBUM RELEASE SHOW) 8 p.m. Saturday, May 6, Cellar West Artisan Ales, 778-B W Baseline Road, Lafayette. Free STORY ON P. 13

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

WATERPARKS WITH HUNNY AND DAISY GRENADE. 7 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $35

ON THE BILL: There’s nothing quite like the ruckus cooked up by Death Grips, a cornerstone of experimental music that aggressively scrambles the boundaries of hip-hop, noise, hardcore and industrial electronics to thrilling effect. When the enigmatic trio of MC Ride, Zach Hill and Andy Morin performs at the Mission Ballroom on May 9, there’s only one guarantee: The roof will come all the way off the building. See listing for details.

DEVOTCHKA WITH THE BOULDER PHILHARMONIC 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 6, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. $25-$104. STORY ON P. 14

SUNDAY, MAY 7

BABE RAINBOW 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $25

AMIYA & SHANE. 4 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

MONDAY, MAY 8

MIGHTY POPLAR WITH PUNCH BROTHERS, ANDREW MARLIN AND GREG HARRISON. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $27

SHANE SMITH & THE SAINTS WITH FULL BELLY 7:30 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $124

TUESDAY, MAY 9

BUILT TO SPILL WITH PRISM BITCH AND ITCHY KITTY 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $30

DEATH GRIPS 9 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $60. BW PICK OF THE WEEK

ONYX WITH R.A., RUGGED MAN, DJ LALA, STAY TUNED AND AFFLICTION

MUSIC 8 p.m. Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, 2637 Welton St., Denver. $22

WEDNESDAY, MAY 10

PIXIES WITH POND. 7:30 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $124

GREG PUCIATO 6:30 p.m. Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $32

MAHLERFEST XXXVI MAY 17–21, 2023

LOUD & LIVE

Hear 200 musicians on stage at Macky Auditorium in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with Wagner's Die Walküre, Act I

Go back in time with Liederabend, a re-created concert from 118 years ago ...and more!*

SNOOZE CRUISE

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

What’s your level of interest here? It’s been 25 years and 30-plus features — not to mention TV and streaming series — since Iron Man kicked open the doors to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), arguably the most significant, if not financially successful, franchise of our time. Granted, a large part of that success was fueled by The Infinity Saga, which wrapped up nicely in 2019. But the movies since, falling under the umbrella of The Multiverse Saga, just haven’t had the same zing.

An easy comparison: the title sequences of 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy and the newly released Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. In the former, intergalactic outlaw Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) shimmies and shakes to the soulful ’70s hit, “Come and Get Your Love” by Redbone. In the latter, bounty hunter Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) mopes his way around headquarters while listening to a protracted acoustic version of Radiohead’s “Creep.” When

you see table settings like this, you know what you’re in for.

This time around, Rocket is the center around which the Guardians — Quill, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillan) and a whole lot more orbit. Sidelined from the action due to a life-threatening injury, the majority of Rocket’s screen time flashes back to his origin story as a baby raccoon forcefully evolved, engineered and given sentience thanks to a mad scientist channeling some serious Dr. Moreau delusions, The Grand Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji).

Rocket is not alone in his forced evolution. There’s an otter with robotic hands, a walrus with wheels and a fluffy white bunny with spider legs (voiced by Linda Cardellini, Asim Chaudhry and Mikaela Hoover). They are grotesque in appearance and simplistic in character. Maybe to highlight the chasm between theirs and Rocket’s intelligence, or maybe because writer-director James Gunn

couldn’t think of anything more emotionally triggering than a horrific-looking character with the innocence of a child.

If you can’t tell already, Vol. 3 makes some odd choices. The Grand Evolutionary’s other creations look like they wandered out of The Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder,” or a Troma film — the reveal of one character’s true face is a wet, gooey, blood-red mass just begging to be squished. Meanwhile, back in the present, the Guardians zip across the galaxy trying to save Rocket, screaming at each other the entire way.

Like the previous two installments, Vol. 3 revolves around finding your family and where you fit in this whole big cosmic mess. It’s a sweet sentiment, but it’s so often rendered in violent outbursts and hurt feelings that it’s a wonder a couple of them don’t just take off for a weekend or two. (Well, without giving anything away, that’s exactly what Vol. 3 is about, with a lot of heavy underlining.)

But that’s the surface. Below, the

story stays the same. All three Guardians movies have a god fixation. In Vol. 1, it’s god the destroyer, Thanos (voiced by Josh Brolin), while in Vol. 2, it’s god the father, Ego (Kurt Russell). The High Evolutionary twisting the knife in Vol. 3 is Old Testament through-and-through, creating worlds and civilizations and destroying them just as easily. Even his ship doubles as an ark.

There are a lot of places to take a story like this, but Vol. 3 isn’t interested in anything beyond the familiar. If anything, the letdown isn’t all the scenes of torture, genetic mutation, incarceration and genocide; it’s that the movie is here for kicks and little else. Throw in a lot of bickering, some lackluster needle drops and a runtime of 140 minutes that feels flabby from minute one, and you’ll find plenty of evidence that the MCU is running on fumes.

ON SCREEN: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opens May 5.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ underwhelms on Vol. 3

Bounty hunter Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Photo courtesy Marvel.

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Before forming the band called The Beatles, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney performed under various other names: the Quarrymen, Japage 3, and Johnny and the Moondogs. I suspect you are currently at your own equivalent of the Johnny and the Moondogs phase. You’re building momentum. You’re gathering the tools and resources you need. But you have not yet found the exact title, descriptor, or definition for your enterprise. I suggest you be extra alert for its arrival in the coming weeks.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): I’ve selected a passage to serve as one of your prime themes during the rest of 2023. It comes from poet Jane Shore. She writes, “Now I feel I am learning how to grow into the space I was always meant to occupy, into a self I can know.” Dear Taurus, you will have the opportunity to grow ever-more assured and selfpossessed as you embody Shore’s description in the coming months. Congratulations in advance on the progress you will make to more fully activate your soul’s code.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Georges

Rouault (1871-1958) was a Gemini painter who bequeathed the world over 3,000 works of art. There might have been even more. But years before he died, he burned 315 of his unfinished paintings. He felt they were imperfect, and he would never have time or be motivated to finish them. I think the coming weeks would be a good time for you to enjoy a comparable purge, Gemini. Are there things in your world that don’t mean much to you anymore and are simply taking up space? Consider the possibility of freeing yourself from their stale energy.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): Britain occupied India for almost 200 years. It was a ruthless and undemocratic exploitation that steadily drained India’s wealth and resources. Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t the only leader who fought British oppression, but he was among the most effective. In 1930, he led a 24-day, 240-mile march to protest the empire’s tyrannical salt tax. This action was instrumental in energizing the Indian independence movement that ultimately culminated in India’s freedom. I vote to make Gandhi one of your inspirational role models in the coming months. Are you ready to launch a liberation project? Stage a constructive rebellion? Martial the collaborative energies of your people in a holy cause?

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): As crucial as it is to take responsibility, it is also essential to recognize where our responsibilities end and what should be left for others to do. For example, we usually shouldn’t do work for other people that they can just as easily do for themselves. We shouldn’t sacrifice doing the work that only we can do and get sidetracked doing work that many people can do. To be effective and to find fulfillment in life, it’s vital for us to discover what truly needs to be within our care and what should be outside of our care. I see the coming weeks as a favorable time for you to clarify the boundary between these two.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): Virgo-born Marie Laveau (1801–1881) was a powerful Voodoo priestess, herbalist, activist, and midwife in New Orleans. According to legend, she could walk on water, summon clairvoyant visions, safely suck the poison out of a snake’s jowls, and cast spells to help her clients achieve their heart’s desires. There is also a wealth of more tangible evidence that she was a community activist who healed the sick, volunteered as an advocate for prisoners, provided free teachings, and did rituals for needy people who couldn’t pay her. I hereby assign her to be your inspirational role model for the coming weeks. I suspect you will have extra power to help people in both mysterious and practical ways.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): What are the best methods to exorcize our personal demons, ghosts, and goblins? Or at least subdue them and neutralize their ill effects? We all have such phantoms at work in our psyches, corroding our confidence and undermining our intentions. One approach I don’t recommend is to get mad at yourself for having these interlopers. Never do that. The demons’ strategy, you see, is to manipulate you into being mean and cruel to yourself. To drive them away, I suggest you shower yourself with love and kindness. That seriously reduces their ability to trick you and hurt you — and may even put them into a deep sleep. Now is an excellent time to try this approach.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): As she matured, Scorpio poet Sylvia Plath wrote, “I am learning how to compromise the wild dream ideals and the necessary realities without such screaming pain.” I believe you’re ready to go even further than Plath was able to, dear Scorpio. In the coming weeks, you could not merely “compromise” the wild dream ideals and the necessary realities. You could synergize them and get them to collaborate in satisfying ways. Bonus: I bet you will accomplish this feat without screaming pain. In fact, you may generate surprising pleasures that delight you with their revelations.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): Some primates use herbal and clay medicines to selfmedicate. Great apes, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas ingest a variety of ingredients that fight against parasitic infection and help relieve various gastrointestinal disturbances. Our ancestors learned the same healing arts, though far more extensively. And many Indigenous people today still practice this kind of self-care. With these thoughts in mind, Sagittarius, I urge you to spend quality time in the coming weeks deepening your understanding of how to heal and nurture yourself. The kinds of “medicines” you might draw on could be herbs, and may also be music, stories, colors, scents, books, relationships, and adventures.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): The mythic traditions of all cultures are replete with tales of clashes and combats. If we draw on these tales to deduce what activity humans enjoy more than any other, we might conclude that it’s fighting with each other. But I hope you will avoid this normal habit as much as possible during the next three weeks, Capricorn. I am encouraging you to actively repress all inclinations to tangle. Just for now, I believe you will cast a wildly benevolent magic spell on your mental and physical health if you avoid arguments and skirmishes. Here’s a helpful tip: In each situation you’re involved in, focus on sustaining a vision of the most graceful, positive outcome.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Is there a person who could serve as your Über Mother for a while? This would be a wise and tender maternal ally who gives you the extra nurturing you need, along with steady doses of warm, crisp advice on how to weave your way through your labyrinthine decisions. Your temporary Über Mother could be any gender, really. They would love and accept you for exactly who you are, even as they stoke your confidence to pursue your sweet dreams about the future. Supportive and inspirational. Reassuring and invigorating. Championing you and consecrating you.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): Congratulations on acquiring the Big New Riddle! I trust it will inspire you to grow wiser and kinder and wilder over the coming months. I’ve compiled some clues to help you unravel and ultimately solve this challenging and fascinating mystery.

1. Refrain from calling on any strength that’s stingy or pinched. Ally yourself solely with generous power. 2. Avoid putting your faith in trivial and irrelevant “benefits.” Hold out for the most soulful assistance. 3. The answer to key questions may often be, “Make new connections and enhance existing connections.”

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

DEAR DAN: Shortly after our wedding my wife informed me that she would be handling our finances and making all financial decisions for us as a couple going forward. Additionally, she had already arranged for my paycheck to be automatically deposited into an account that only she had control over. I would henceforth get a meager weekly allowance for personal expenses. During that same conversation my wife informed me I would get sex only when I had earned it. I love her, and I reluctantly agreed to this. We have been married for 10 years. I do all of the housework, and I rarely get sex. My wife tells me I have no one to blame but myself, since I agreed to all her terms from the beginning, which caused her to lose all respect for me as a man. I did not realize how difficult this would be. Is it normal for a wife in this kind of marriage to enjoy giving her husband pain? She is almost sadistic. She spanks my ass with a spatula and tells me I am a sissy. Is this normal?

— Sorry I Somehow Said Yes

DEAR SISSY: Sure, it’s perfectly normal in the sense that it’s perfectly normal for a certain kind of deeply frustrated kinky straight guy to write me a fake letter about the kind of sexual relationship he’s always fantasized about having but has never actually had before tacking on a fake question at the end in the hopes that I’ll respond and he’ll be able to beat off to the whole thing.

There’s a lot in SISSY’s letter that screams fake: A normal person would’ve instantly filed for divorce; there’s no way she could’ve “arranged” to have his paycheck automatically deposited into an account she alone controlled unless she somehow managed to bring his employer in on this conspiracy; that the best question he could come up with was the most banal question asked of sex-advice columnists (“Is this normal?”). But what screams

fake the loudest, the absolute deadest giveaway, is that this was sprung on him after his wedding.

Now, female-led relationships (FLR) are definitely a thing, and there are certainly some men out there in female-led relationships, and some FLR have elements of TPE (total power exchange), FD (financial domination), DD (domestic discipline), and mild FF/S (forced feminization/ sissification) tossed in. But those men had to ask for those things.. Because creating a FLR is almost never the wife or the girlfriend’s idea. It’s something a man fantasizes about and sometimes succeeds in talking his wife or girlfriend into experimenting with, but it’s not something anyone’s brand-new wife has ever sprung on him at the reception.

“From my research, and from the emails and DMs I get about how to set up an FLR, the askers are overwhelmingly male,” said Key Barrett, sex researcher and author of Surrender, Submit, Serve Her, a book on FLR. “And I have never heard of an FLR that was started unilaterally, or out of trickery, that managed to be successful.”

Like a lot of people with fantasies rooted in power exchange, it’s hotter for SISSY to think about it being imposed on him. Because then he’s the victim, not the pervert, because then his submission is pure and unadulterated. But why send a fake question to a sex-advice column? Because getting his fantasy published makes it feel real. Or, hell, maybe in some alternate everything/ everywhere kind of universe, it actually becomes real.

THE TEAS THAT BIND

Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse celebrates 25 years of brewing community

STORY BY JOHN LEHNDORFF, PHOTOS COURTESY SARA MARTINELLI

The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse is an otherworldly icon. Its ornate carved plaster panels, colorful ceramic tile mosaics and fragrant rose garden are a breath of fresh air amid downtown Boulder’s prevailing brick motif.

After 25 years on 13th Street, North America’s only authentic Persian teahouse is a dining landmark that is always on tourists’ must-visit list. Its timelessness suggests that proper Earl Grey has been served there forever.

Thirty years ago, that location near Central Park was an empty lot. The Teahouse — handcrafted by 40 artisans in Tajikistan — was sitting in 200 shipping crates at a Boulder water treatment plant.

It would take a decade of fundraising and the usual municipal hurdles before the crates were opened and the Teahouse was erected in 1998.

Like most Boulderites, Lenny Martinelli was only dimly aware that Boulder even had a teahouse.

“I was biking down 13th Street and I saw a sign on an empty lot for the future Teahouse that included a small vignette of the Teahouse. We had opened the Naropa Cafe at the time. I’m like, ‘Wow, that’d be an awesome restaurant.’ I called the number and said I was interested,” says Martinelli, chef and co-owner of the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse since it opened. Martinelli and his wife Sara also operate Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant, Chautauqua Dining Hall, and Three Leaf Farm.

The couple eventually received an invitation to bid on running the restaurant, according to Sara.

“They sent out about 100 invitations to restaurateurs around town. I had just graduated from art school so we made a really pretty proposal,” she says. “Back then, Boulder restaura-

teurs didn’t know if they wanted to get involved with the city ... We were young. I want to say ‘ignorant,’ but I’ll use the word ‘innocent.’”

Looking back 25 years, Sara admits the couple had no idea what they were taking on. “Nobody had an accurate idea what the Teahouse would look like,” she says. “We thought it was going to be like a little Japanese tea house. We were quite overwhelmed when we saw how big it was.”

‘I JUST DOVE INTO TEA’

Sara faced an interesting challenge in 1998. While her husband devised an appropriate international food menu, she worked on the tea menu. “I was an herbalist but I didn’t know much about tea. The internet was almost non-existent,” she says, noting there was no way to Google: “How to run a teahouse.”

“I just dove into tea, the Camellia sinensis plant, and found people to teach me and mentor me,” she says. The Teahouse now serves more than 100 different teas and blends Sara has chosen, from organic Long Jing Xi Hu tea to Palace Needle green tea. Several generations of servers have been educated in the world of tea and how to serve each variety properly. When Sara is at the restaurant, she serves as the tea sommelier.

“Tea folklore and ethnobotany, that’s my favorite stuff, how tea has become so important to so many cultures,” she says.

CRAFTING A TAJIK MENU FOR BOULDER

“One of our goals has always been the cultural impact of the Teahouse, the idea of two cultures coming together on a grassroots level, and a

huge part of cultural exchange is food,” Sara says.

As chef, Lenny’s current trans-global Teahouse menu ranges from Persian khoresht kadu, Korean panfried noodles and Ethiopian tibs to Peruvian parihuela and Tajik plov.

Tea and food pairing has become part of the Teahouse experience beyond the traditional British-style afternoon teas. Sara says her favorite dish is still Indonesian peanut noodles, an item on the menu since the early days. “With the richness of the sauce on the noodles and the complex flavors, I wouldn’t pair it with a heavy black tea. I would choose a tea like a Japanese sencha that is lighter, crisper, and has an earthy, crisp, grassy flavor as a counterbalance,” she says.

IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE ROSES

In summer, the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse attracts as many visitors for the 25-yearold rose garden as it does for the art, tea and food. “I love all the roses, but that’s not us,” Sara says. “The Boulder Rose Society maintains more than 80 varieties of roses. They won’t let me touch them.”

Over time, the gift from the people of Boulder’s sister city, Dushanbe, Tajikistan, has been recognized as a cultural landmark. “We now know more about Dushanbe and the history of Central Asia. This art very much predated the Soviet years when it was created. Now they’ve reclaimed a lot of their traditional art in Tajikistan,” Sara says.

Several Boulder events will celebrate the Teahouse’s 25th anniversary.

The

25 Years of Global Friendship: The Story of the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse exhibit is on display at the

Above: Lenny and Sara Martinelli signing the lease for the teahouse (1998)

Left: Mirpulat Mirahmatov and Jamshed Drakhti work on the ceiling (1998)

Museum of Boulder through June 18, detailing the history of the Teahouse through photos and artifacts.

The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse celebrates its 25th anniversary with events May 19-21, including a fourcourse Tajik dinner, a Tajik-themed

afternoon tea, a tea market, tea tastings and workshops, and a contemporary Tajik art exhibit.

“The Teahouse is a treasure and I’m very grateful that we get to be part of it. I really think people in Boulder feel like this is their teahouse,” Sara says.

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: FRESH NEW BOULDER EATS

• Mangia Panino, has opened inside Boulder’s Avanti food hall, 1401 Pearl St.

• Modern Indian fare is featured at the new Chameleon eatery inside Rosetta Food Hall, 1109 Walnut St., Boulder.

• Crisp & Green, a salad and bowl eatery, is open at 1675 29th St., Suite 1272, Boulder.

• Erie’s Cristos Coffee has opened a second shop at 2052 Broadway.

• The Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder, opens for its 61st season May 5 for dining and music.

• It’s honeybee swarm season, according to Boulder’s Nilo Bees If you see a swarm, leave it alone and call the Boulder County Swarm Hotline: 1-844-779-2337

WORDS TO CHEW ON: EDIBLE INTIMACY

“Eating is so intimate. It’s very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you’re inviting a person into your life.” — Maya

Angelou

Boulder Weekly is preparing its annual guide to the roadside farm stands of Boulder County. Send farmstand information to: Nibbles@BoulderWeekly.com

OUR DAILY BREAD

Mangia Panino brings East Coast delights to Avanti

BY COLIN WRENN

Whenever dinner hit the table, it was always, ‘Mangia mangia, let’s eat guys,’” says Jeremiah Harvey, owner of the recently debuted Mangia Panino.

Harvey grew up hearing the phrase, which is Italian for “eat up!”, with nearly every meal. So when he began planning his first foray into restaurant ownership, the name came naturally. Last week, he and partner Trevor Schulze debuted Mangia in the stall that formerly held Rye Society in Avanti Food and Beverage. The concept offers a range of classic sandwiches including a caprese and a roast turkey, plates like the chicken parmesan, along with a few great pastas and sides.

Harvey was born in New Hampshire and began cooking with his dad when he was still a kid. When he was old enough, he sought out the “best Italian restaurant in town.” In Keene, where he spent his formative years, the spot was Nicola’s Trattoria. “I owe everything to that man,” says Harvey of

Nicola Bencinvega, a true boots-onthe-ground chef-owner who inspired Harvey to continue what has become a life-long culinary career.

After graduating from high school, Harvey attended The Culinary Institute of America (CIA). His externship brought him to Colorado Springs, where he and his now-wife worked together at the Garden of the Gods Resort and Club, a private community eatery where guests and residents could enjoy fine-dining American cuisine. He’s since worked across the Roaring Fork Valley, where he spent over four years working with the CP Restaurant Group, the folks behind The Monarch, The Wild Fig and Steakhouse No. 316 in Aspen.

When Steakhouse No. 316 introduced its Boulder location in late 2018, Harvey opened the spot as executive chef, where he remained until June 2021. “I wanted to get back to what I like doing, and that’s making bread,” he says.

Like many enthusiasts, Harvey had developed a love for bread during quarantine. “At one point our entire freezer was bread,” he says with a laugh. “I think my wife hated me for that.”

Knowing that he could further his education, he reached out to OAK’s Steve Redzikowski, who hired him on as the opening manager for New Yorkese, the upstairs pizza parlor that still operates at Avanti.

Harvey says he’s wanted to own and operate his own concept since his days at Nicola’s. “I first envisioned the Anthony Bourdain, hot head, open-kitchen kind of spot.” With Mangia, he’s instead opted to pay homage to one of his favorite New York sandwich spots, Rossi’s Deli, where he often used to dine while still a student at The CIA.

Each morning, the team prepares a fresh batch of focaccia. The thick, elegantly leavened bread provides a firm foundation for three of the five house sandwiches, along with a truly essential side of garlic bread. No sandwich has more than six ingredients, with each one favoring the fundamentals.

“Steve [Redzikowski] always says what makes a good sandwich is good provisions,” says Harvey. “What I’ve learned from fine dining is you’re at the

market at 4 a.m. getting the best stuff.”

Harvey was meticulous when designing the menu at Mangia. Pasta comes from Sfoglina, the Denverbased brainchild of Jesse Albertini that has been gaining a reputation for its exceptional hand-milled noodles. Tonali’s Meats in Denver provides a special blend for the meatballs, as Harvey has worked with the old-school family grocer since his time at Steakhouse No. 316. And since focaccia production is already bursting at the seems, City Bakery delivers fresh baguettes for the fried eggplant and Italian pork hoagies. And while the sandwiches sit center-stage, don’t miss the beef rigatoni that comes bathed in what has to be one of the city’s most heartwarming, nonna-approved ragus.

While the menu is currently set, Harvey says he’s got fun plans for the future. “The menu is printed. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do a reprint,” he says. Talks of a patty melt on housemade Texas toast will hopefully come to fruition sooner rather than later.

Harvey says he’s been extremely excited with the initial reception. “It’s fun to see all that decision-making turn into something tangible you can see. It’s a fun science experiment. Kind of like making bread.”

He also says his vision extends well past the stall. “The idea with Mangia is to take the name and do something else.” Plans to eventually open a Mangia Pasta and a Mangia Market, complete with pan pizzas and artisan goods, have already been floated. “We have to expand this. We can’t just do this and be done.”

Credit: Amber Boutwell

HIGH ROAD

CDOT received $750,000 from the state to develop a device to detect marijuana impairment in drivers

BY WILL BRENDZA

People drive high in Colorado all the time. You might know that from your own experience, having seen other drivers burning joints or people hopping into their cars after a sesh. Anecdotally, everyone knows it happens. But it’s also backed up by research.

One recent survey of Native Roots customers (Boulder Weekly, “Street legal”, April 20, 2023) found that a total of 41% of people may drive under the influence of cannabis. That broke down into 22% who said it would depend on how much they consumed, 11% who said they were “very likely” to drive high regardless of the amount consumed, and 8% who will “probably” drive no matter what.

Those numbers also reflect data collected by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in 2021. And according to the CDC, after alcohol, cannabis is the drug most often abused while driving.

The department also notes, on its Marijuana and Driving webpage, “It is difficult to connect the presence of marijuana or concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) ... to impairment in driving performance for an individual person.”

However, that might not be the case for long. Last year the Colorado Legislature passed HB22-1321, the Study of Devices Assessing Motorist Impairment bill. It granted the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) more than $750,000 to “investigate devices that are capable of assessing cognitive and physical impairment of motorists to detect the presence of drugs other than alcohol during roadside sobriety investigations.”

If a police officer pulls someone over and suspects them to be under the influence of alcohol, they can easily administer a breathalyzer test and see exactly how intoxicated they are. But no such device exists for cannabis impairment. Some companies have tried to develop them without much success (Boulder Weekly, “Windows of impairment and detection,” Sept. 16, 2021).

That lack of technology is contributing to a lot of high driving in Colorado, according to Sam Cole, traffic safety manager for CDOT.

“One thing that we hear over and over again from a lot of people,” Cole says, “is they don’t think it is dangerous [to drive high], and they don’t believe that law enforcement is equipped to tell

if they’re actually high if they’re pulled over.”

Cole says police officers are highly trained to detect if a driver is high or not. But if they suspect inebriation and the driver blows a zero into the breathalyzer, the officer will likely take that person into the station and blood test them for cannabis.

But even blood tests aren’t a fair indicator as to whether someone is currently under the influence of cannabis. THC stays in the bloodstream for between three hours and two days, depending on how frequent a person’s use is, while the effects of cannabis only last for between two and 10 hours. You could conceivably test positive for THC in your blood and be stone-cold sober at the time.

Which was why the state passed HB22-1321, commissioning CDOT to study and develop a new device that could effectively assess whether a motorist was high. The bill was signed

into law on June 6, 2022, and the funds allocated to CDOT came from the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund.

Aaccording to Cole, the device they’ve developed doesn’t measure THC.

“It’s not going to be for saliva or blood or breath,” Cole says. “It’s going to be some sort of a device that measures your cognitive ability. Because that is the thing that is most affected by cannabis.”

To test and study this device, CDOT parked a van in several locations around the Front Range. In late April they were on the Hill in Boulder asking for volunteers to take the test and provide field data for their research. The legislation stipulates that CDOT must conduct and complete a study and report its findings no later than June 1, 2023.

By next summer, Colorado police officers may be armed with a new cognitive test that can accurately assess whether or not someone is cognitively sharp enough to drive safely.