Boulder Weekly 06.01.2023

10 NEWS: Who really stands to gain from prison agriculture?

BY KAYLEE HARTER

14

BY TONI

TRESCA

15 BOOKS: CU professor and author traces her family tree to tell a distinctly American ghost story BY CAITLIN

ROCKETT

29 GOOD TASTE: Ruthie’s Boardwalk Social keeps it comfy BY COLIN

WRENN

COMMENTARY

JUNE 1, 2023

Volume 30, Number 41

PUBLISHER: Fran Zankowski

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, Desi Cortez, Angela K. Evans, Kaylee Harter, Dan Savage, Toni Tresca, Colin Wrenn, Shay Castle

SALES AND MARKETING

MARKET DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: Kellie Robinson

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PRODUCTION

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BUSINESS OFFICE

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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.

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OPINION

Be careful, Coach Prime — don’t get pimped by MAGA

BY DESI CORTEZ

Around the clock, commercial radio station KOA 850 AM pumps out what can only be considered racist, sexist, elitist and xenophobic white male supremacist propaganda that directly and indirectly targets African Americans and other Americans of color, as well as progressive women from all walks of life. Nonetheless, commentary on the University of Colorado Buffaloes Football team, along with the NFL’s Denver Broncos, draws in a major slice of the listening audience on Saturdays and Sundays.

KOA is exploiting CU Boulder football coach Deion Sander’s Black Buffs: Black men unknowingly doing the heavy lifting, getting their hands

dirty, and in the long run enriching filthy-rich white male aristocrats, who, along with the KKK, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, support Trump’s efforts to return America to being a separate and unequal nation.

Black men naively helping “conservative,” if not 1861 “Confederateminded,” white men rake in millions of dollars.

Tragically, pimping is easy.

Sanders most likely isn’t hip to some of the white supremacist shenanigans that are going on around him, but someone ought to tell him how his gridiron program is being exploited by Rocky Mountain good ol’ boys who publicly hold gutter-low opinions of Black folks and other racial

minorities as well as independentminded white women.

iHeartMedia’s flagship operation, KOA, along with sister station 630 KHOW, is home to an assortment of hosts and callers who belittle Black and brown people. We are the infinite source for all of white America’s societal ills and woes. However, there are virtually no liberal, progressive-minded people of color in their lineup who counter this narrative. No one to defend nor offer a different perspective, and that’s a crime against freedom and democracy, my friends.

Understand this: I’m one of the last to sit behind a KOA mic and articulate the popular opinions of Black and tan folks, and that was more than 20

LETTERS OPINION

RE: RAYBACK AND THE WELL

The “Yes, homosexuality is a sin” statement was first published on The Well’s website shortly after it was recorded in Casey Middle School’s auditorium on Nov. 6, 2016 as part of a “Gospel Sexuality Panel.” The recording was available on the church’s website at the time the Daily Camera published the April 5, 2023 op-ed about The Well and the Rayback connection, but disappeared shortly after all the recent negative publicity started up.

through eight of their published sermon “City of God,” recorded Jan. 9, 2022 at the Rayback Collective. Davis is constantly railing against transgenderism, because it interferes with his notions derived from Genesis.

In a sermon, ironically titled “Peace with God,” recorded in Casey Middle School’s auditorium on May 20, 2018, Matt Patrick compared the vast majority of all Boulder folks who don’t subscribe to his religious beliefs as “terrorist cells in the kingdom of God.”

years ago. This silence is not by happenstance, coincidence or pure chance. No, this quarter-long century void is strategic, deliberate and politically tactical. The tragedy is apparent to everyone, all you have to do is listen and you’ll discover KOA sounds like a 1962 White Citizens Council meeting.

Black men can toss a pass, run a power sweep and catch a deep bomb, yet we can’t comment on women’s rights, the economy, global issues or national politics: We are to be “seen but not heard.”

Just shut up and run, boy!

CU, the athletic program, the president’s office, the college newspaper and the Board of Regents are, willingly and knowingly, facilitating this highly exploitative relationship, allowing KOA to utilize Black athletes to further the anti-Black agenda of the Make America Great/White Again (MAGA) movement, which dominates the AM airwaves. Call it “Hate Radio” — I do and so do millions more, but local mainstream media outlets won’t.

Go figure?

Forgive me, but I can’t sit quietly and let that play out without stating the obvious: The voices coming out of iHeartMedia’s KOA and its affiliates are as insulting and belittling of Black and brown people as Trump’s cult can be. And on the flip-side, ownership — and more importantly their sponsorship base — won’t allow any contradicting and challenging voices on the AM airwaves.

This isn’t complicated at all. The only occasion in which Black men can perform on KOA is to run with a ball.

Where’s The Denver Post, Westword and all the rest? If this isn’t an instance of exploiting people, then what is? How insulting and belittling can it get? Is this a case of “if you don’t say anything, neither will I?”

It’s so very quiet, you can hear a rat piss on cotton.

Why should young Black men, who the MAGA right brands as public enemy No. 1, thugs who’re always up to no good, underwrite their efforts?

Now, if Deion isn’t instantly competitive, and isn’t automatically successful, despite the gridiron program being mired in mediocrity, Coach Prime will be a target for a public “lynching.” No different from the Bronco’s Russell Wilson was this year. The fanatical fans — who when not rooting for their favorite boys will be rooting for Lord Trump and Ron DeSantis — will want to remove the “uppity” Black males who don’t know their assigned inferior place.

Talk about a conflict of interest.

I’ve fired off a letter to the CU Athletic Director, Rick George. Let’s see what he does.

Desi Cortez is a resident of Aurora and longtime columnist.

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

Although The Well church has reorganized their website and re-posted many of their older sermon recordings (albeit conveniently without retaining the old links), they have not re-posted that sermon. When they do, it will be possible to show another link between certain Rayback founders and the church. So don’t hold your breath.

Numerous other Well sermons speak more generally about “sexual immorality” as a code phrase for LGBTQ relationships, or sex outside of marriage.

And yes, they are extremely antitrans. Their pastor/elder Chase Davis recently said, “It is a fatal mistake to love your neighbor.” The context of this statement was what to do as a confused Christian when your neighbor is trans. Listen at minutes six

It’s not all metaphorical or theological fun and games. These pastors regularly mislead their audiences by claiming that everything they say is “reality.” If they kept it all to themselves and their flock, it wouldn’t matter so much. But unlike most other churches in Boulder, these guys publish their sermons for anyone in the world to listen to or watch on the internet, also known as the public square.

God help a gay or trans kid in a family brought up under this ugly, hateful and ignorant church’s tutelage. These pastors’ language is immoral because it leads to youth suicides. That the language is religiously motivated isn’t an excuse.

An online comment from Boulder

Weekly reader under the username brainchild.

BOULDER BEEF

BY SHAY CASTLE, BOULDER BEAT

Boulderites have been griping about the local government since time immemorial. But official complaints — submitted with a signed affidavit and required, by law, to be investigated by in-house attorneys or independent counsel — have been relatively rare in recent years.

City Council went years with only the odd complaint, weathering numerous political storms. Even an ill-advised reference to the Holocaust by an elected official drew no formal censure; remonstrances were limited to speeches and op-eds.

That changed last year, when grievances started rolling in. Since mid-January, the city has fielded 10 official complaints — and they haven’t stopped yet.

The tsunami has led City Council members to suggest the complaint process needs tweaking. Community members, including those who have filed recent complaints, say the uptick reflects the city’s wanton disregard for its own rules, and Council’s political naivety.

As Boulder’s leaders contemplate change, they will have to achieve a delicate balance, crafting a complaint process that works as an open, accessible avenue for accountability but can’t be abused by disgruntled residents to dispatch decisions they disagree with.

FIVE DOWN, THREE TO GO

Half the complaints filed this year were related to the (by now) well-detailed appointment of Lisa Sweeney-Miran to Boulder’s Police Oversight Panel (POP). Two were dismissed as meritless; two were upheld, resulting in the removal of Sweeney-Miran from the group, which then ceased review of new cases in protest.

The only outstanding complaint involves uniformed Boulder police officers attending a City Council discussion

about Sweeney-Miran, a possible violation of BPD policy. That is being investigated by the Police Standards Unit.

Max Weller, a formerly unhoused man who resides in a residential care facility, on May 19 notified the city of his intent to file a complaint against members of the Police Oversight Panel for their partial work stoppage, he said. The complaint has not been formally accepted, according to Weller, as it must be certified in person.

Non-POP complaints were miscellaneous. Councilmember Nicole Speer drew two, both tossed out, for testifying

pre-date the POP drama — proof, some say, that the system is working as intended.

‘THE NEW M.O.’

The first concerns a planned modular home factory, a multi-year project pursued by the city and Flatirons Habitat for Humanity. The facility will assemble modular houses to replace aging and energy inefficient mobile homes in the Ponderosa Community.

Resident opposition began almost as soon as Boulder announced the site last fall: a Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) property on 63rd and Arapahoe, home to the district’s food production facility, Technical Education Center and Arapahoe Ridge High School. A lawsuit was filed in February, and in late April, an official complaint followed.

The complaint names three city staff, accusing them of improperly representing BVSD and the city at a hearing (senior planner Jay Sugnet) and mis-

A complaint against councilman Bob Yates will also receive an independent look, though no one has been contracted yet.

The complaint revolves around Yates’ newsletter, Boulder Bulletin — sent from his official city email — alleging Yates violates the city’s privacy policy by automatically subscribing people who email City Council.

This is not the first time residents have questioned Yates’ practices. While his colleagues debated the content of his newsletter in July 2022, residents at the time told Boulder Beat they had started receiving Boulder Bulletin after emailing City Council.

City attorneys at the time declined to comment on the matter, though former City Attorney Tom Carr told Boulder Beat it was “perfectly legal” to populate a mailing list with the email addresses of residents who contact the city, because communications to Council are public record.

Yet an open record request by residents for the same email addresses were denied under the city’s privacy policies, according to the complaint. Open records also revealed a request from an election campaign group, Keep Our Libraries, for Yates to share his mailing list.

Yates, who has twice declined to be interviewed on this subject, has denied that he shared his contact list with the Keep Our Libraries campaign. He characterized the complaint as a political tactic, lumping it in with all the others.

at the statehouse in support of safe drug-use sites. Her colleague Matt Benjamin was accused of harassing and intimidating a woman who attempted to publish a photo of his house to social media site NextDoor. (The home turned out to be a neighbor’s.) That was thrown out, as his accuser does not reside in Boulder. (Complainants must live in the city.)

Two complaints are still outstanding, their substance related to matters that

representing facts about an environmental review (Shelly Conley and Kristin Hyser, both in the city’s housing department at the time; Hyser has since been named executive director of Broomfield Housing Authority).

Given the involvement of city staff, an outside attorney was appointed to investigate. David Vogel will charge the city $250 per hour, up to $10,000, to review the complaint, according to a city spokesperson.

“Code of conduct complaints seems to be the new M.O. for people who don’t like what a council member says or does, or how they vote, regardless of the law or ethics,” Yates wrote in response to a request for comment. “That’s a bit concerning, regardless of who the complaints are filed against.”

‘CLEARLY BROKEN’

The day after Boulder Beat contacted Yates about the complaint against him, he sent a Hotline post (the public email service used by city officials) lamenting the “rash of complaints” and calling for reform to prevent complaints intended “to stifle or intimidate” city leaders and employees.

“In addition to the intimidation and

Rash of official complaints has City Council considering making it harder to file grievances

embarrassment imposed on the subject of a complaint,” Yates wrote, “a complaint takes significant resources away from the city attorney’s office as they deal with each complaint that is filed.”

Boulder spent $20,000 investigating four of the five police oversightrelated complaints. And while staff time is not being tracked, the city attorney’s office estimates it has spent “about 60 hours of time for attorneys and their team, in addition to time by the city clerk and her office,” city spokesperson Sarah Huntley wrote in response to emailed questions.

Members of the POP also noted the very public criticism faced by Sweeney-Miran, as well as fears that they might draw complaints.

“Do I want to voice my opinion, and then City Council puts me on the spot like Lisa was?” Maria-Soledad Diaz said at POP’s May 10 meeting. “As a woman of color, I don’t want to be there.”

“Let them file more complaints,” Sam Zhang said. “The complaint process is clearly broken. There will be complaints no matter what. That is the city’s problem.”

‘MUCK IN THE GEARS’

Several members share Yates’ concern about the money and time being expended on complaints.

Mayor Aaron Brockett, Rachel Friend, Tara Winer, Lauren Folkerts and Matt Benjamin responded to requests from Boulder Beat to discuss possible changes; all said they’d like more vetting before an investigation is required.

Drawing those lines will be tricky, and will need heavy involvement from city attorneys. Unless there is “low-hanging fruit” like language changes, it’s unlikely Council will tackle it this year, Benjamin said in an interview. Beyond Yates’ email, Council has not yet asked staff to explore the issue further; that would require an informal nod-of-five vote.

One possibility is an external ethics board or commission, which other cities employ. But Boulder is already struggling to recruit civilians to serve on its many resident groups, and

said earlier this year it might eliminate some.

“There’s a danger” of being too reactionary to what might be “a temporary fad,” Benjamin said. Although open to pursuing changes, he’s still unsure if the surge in complaints represent legitimate issues with the process or people trying “to throw muck in the gears” of a relatively new, majority-progressive council.

The fact that so few complaints have been upheld might discourage further filings, he said. “Once people realize the futility, it might fade back into the ether.”

Complainants, of course, think their grievances deserve to be judged on their own merit.

“I don’t think you truly give them validation by lumping them and saying, ‘We’ve got complainers,’” said Dana Hessel, who filed the complaint against city staffers over the modular home factory.

“There’s reasons people make complaints,” Hessel said. “You can’t make the complaint process harder. You need to make the adherence to rules, regulations and policies more responsive.”

Kate Lacroix thinks the system is working just fine, despite having her complaint against Benjamin dismissed.

“I think anyone should be free to complain about anything they want,” Lacroix wrote in response to emailed questions. “The city has checks and balances in place to vet claims that don’t meet the standard for further consideration, and I respect this.”

Lacroix attributes the volume of complaints to the City Council’s “green bench” of relative political newcomers. If anything, she’d like to see the process made easier for residents to understand, suggesting an FAQ section or instructional video.

“Any language or attitude that promotes making complaining more arduous puts a crimp in a necessary democratic process.”

Shay Castle is the founder of Boulder Beat, an online news site dedicated to deep-dive journalism on local issues.

HELP WANTED

Cook in Boulder, w/ 24 mo exp as Cook, to: prep, season & cook ethnic Indian, Mediterranean & American dishes; monitor food, refrigerators & freezers; label, date & properly store food; & maintain clean, safe, & sanitary kitchen. To apply, mail resumes to: Shri Siddhivinayak INC DBA Gaia Masala and Burger, 1116 13th St, Boulder, CO 80302.

NEWS PRISON SYSTEM LOGIC

Who really stands to gain from prison agriculture programs?

BY KAYLEE HARTER

When James Moore was incarcerated at Four Mile Correctional Facility in Cañon City, Colorado, he spent his weekdays riding on the back of a truck, tossing hay to horses or walking from stable to stable to water them.

Moore was a part of the Wild Horse Inmate Program, a Colorado Correctional Industries (CCI) project in which incarcerated individuals care for, tame and saddle-train mustangs that have never had human contact. Sometimes people were injured getting bucked from a horse or falling from a truck, but still, it was one of the better prison work programs, Moore says. It allowed him to get out, and being around the animals was nice.

It was also one of the highest-paying jobs in the facility. Moore estimates he made about $315 per month — more than the average, but still barely enough to get by. In some years, incarcerated people have generated more than $6 million for CCI through agribusiness programs milking cows, water buffalo and goats, harvesting thousands of tons of crops and training horses. Workers in “non-industry” prison jobs, according to the Prison Policy Institute, make as little as 14 cents a day. Some states — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and Texas — pay nothing.

Proponents of prison agriculture programs claim they encourage rehabilitation, reduce recidivism, promote mental health and provide job training.

Former inmates like Moore have a more nuanced take.

“When you in that situation, it’s kind of a mind manipulation,” he says. “Like, ‘Oh, we’re offering you to go outside. We’re offering you to be around horses. We’re offering you to get out of [prison] for a little bit.’”

Researchers at Colorado State University’s Prison Agriculture Lab are taking a deeper look into different

types of prison agriculture programs nationwide to build a clearer picture of who these programs actually benefit and how they reinforce the prison system and negative stereotypes about incarcerated people.

“When you start to ask more questions and pull back the layers, it really shines a much harsher light on what’s going on,” says Joshua Sbicca, one of the lab’s co-directors. “It should force us to question not just prison agriculture, but the logic of the prison system itself.”

In a first-of-its-kind dataset published in the journal Agriculture and Human Values, CSU’s Prison Agriculture Lab found that more than 660 adult state prisons across the country had agricultural programs — nearly 60% of all state prisons. The team spent two

‘BY DESIGN’

Labor in prisons with little to no pay is nothing new. When the 13th Amendment banned slavery and involuntary servitude in 1865, it included an exemption for those held in confinement due to criminal conviction. Because of this, the American Civil Liberties Union says incarcerated people are under “complete control” of their employers, “lose the right to refuse to work” and lack protections against labor exploitation.

Sbicca says nearly every prison in the country requires inmates to work, and while only 2% of the nation’s prison population works in agricultural programs, they’re “fundamental to the development of the American prison system.”

While it’s illegal to sell most prisonmade goods across state lines, federal law has exempted agriculture since the 1930s. An investigation by foodfocused outlet The Counter in 2021 found that more than $40 million in transactions occurred between private food companies and prison agriculture programs since 2017, including major corporations like Cargill and the Dairy Farmers of America.

vegetation in the heat of summer to help with fire prevention, or standing in water up to his knees for hours as part of an irrigation project.

“There’s no refusing. Even if you get sick, you get a write-up. You get a misconduct report if you don’t show up,” he says. He estimates he was paid between 10 cents and $1 an hour.

“None of this is broken. It’s by design,” Allen says. “[Cheap] labor is incentive for mass incarceration.”

Dominique Vodicka was first incarcerated in Colorado in 2001 and was in and out of prison for the next 15 years. She participated in a variety of work programs while incarcerated, including K9 and cosmetology programs.

According to Vodicka, there’s no sure bet you’ll get a job after release, no matter the type of training you’ve had.

“Some [employers] don’t even go against your convictions, they go against charges,” she says. “I went to Petco [because] I’m a master dog trainer. I’ve trained service dogs — totally experienced — and they say they’re a second-chance employer. They told me because of my background they would not hire me.”

COLORADO IN FLUX

In 2018, Colorado’s Amendment A removed verbiage in the state Constitution that permitted slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime, which Sbicca, with CSU, says is changing the landscape of prison agriculture in Colorado.

“We’re in this really interesting flux period where it’s hard to say what work behind bars looks like going forward, but it’s definitely had an impact on a lot of agricultural operations,” he says.

years researching government data, annual reports, and interviews with the Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC), prison wardens and administrators. The lab defines agricultural programs broadly, including field crop farming, food processing, animal agriculture, landscaping, beekeeping and equine programs.

Justin Allen, who now works as a community organizer at an Albuquerque-based nonprofit, was incarcerated in New Mexico for 17 years and worked on a now-closed farm at Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in 2013.

Allen’s work on the farm usually involved cutting down trees and other

There have been at least two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of prison work requirements since the passage of the amendment in 2022. A new law, SB22-50, promised minimum wage to inmates participating in Colorado Correctional Industries’ Take TWO program (Transitional Work Opportunity), a day-release program that allows inmates to work offsite with various employers. At the time of the bill’s passage only about 100 of Colorado’s roughly 16,000 inmates participated in the program, but CCI’s website currently says the program is on pause. The law also removed the

Wild Horse Inmate Program. Photo courtesy Colorado Correctional Industries

requirement for CCI to be profitable.

CCI is a for-profit prison work program run by the state’s Department of Corrections. Its programs offer incarcerated people pay and “technical advancement similar to that found in private employment,” according to the CCI website. Inmates eligible for CCI programs can work in a number of capacities including image processing (for toll roads), metal working, leather goods, metal manufacturing, K9 training and coffee roasting. Many of DOC’s agricultural programs have historically been run by CCI.

At the time of CSU’s data collection in 2019 and 2020, every state prison in Colorado had some type of agriculture program. However, DOC and CCI have transitioned away from many of the agricultural programs “in an effort to continue seeking out and providing marketable job skills that translate to real-world local economies, while also allowing for financial sustainability within each individual program,” according to an emailed response from Annie Skinner, a spokesperson for Colorado DOC.

CCI’s agricultural programs faced scrutiny in 2015 when consumers protested at Whole Foods across the country in response to the grocer sourcing goat cheese and tilapia from CCI. The uproar led to a pledge from Whole Foods to stop sourcing foods produced by prison labor.

CCI later ended its cow, goat and water buffalo dairy programs in 2021, 2019, 2022, respectively, but there’s still a hay-farming program at Four Mile Correctional Center in Cañon City.

Skinner says the shift away from agricultural business was part of an effort to increase wages in prison and increase access to higher-paying jobs after incarceration.

“The majority of incarcerated individuals releasing back into our communities are going back to urban areas where agricultural opportunities are not as prevalent,” Skinner writes. “Our goal is to provide training and opportunities that allow inmates the best chance of success upon release because we know having a job lowers the chances an individual will commit a new crime.”

Skinner did not respond to questions about how the hay farm would better prepare inmates for their release than the agriculture programs that have ceased operations.

According to Skinner, CCI’s daily average wage has increased from $5.58 per day to $10.98 per day over the course of the past year and a half.

‘REHABILITATIVE TO WHAT?’

Moore, who worked in the horsing training program, now owns his own business and works as a peer mentor at The Reentry Initiative, a Longmontbased nonprofit that offers wraparound support to formerly incarcerated people as they reenter the community. He says there are some benefits to the horse program and prison work programs in general.

“I feel like it’s good for just building character for people who obviously haven’t been in a work environment in a while,” he says. “It’s getting them the opportunity to wake up, get dressed,

get yourself together and actually go get ready to go to work — and I think that’s a good thing, definitely. Just being out at a facility and seeing the horses and getting to do something different than being in prison are also pluses.”

At the same time, Moore says, “they’re also a business. I don’t think [work programs are] just there to rehabilitate people. They’re there to keep people incarcerated to do the sentence.”

Allen, the former New Mexican inmate, says fair wages and access to education are the key to reducing recidivism.

“By devaluing our work, it reinforces the same behavior that put us there in the first place,” he says. “If people have a work ethic and they can know the value of their work, then they come out with some sort of stability — especially if you’re able to save up before you get out,” he says.

While it might be tempting to think of some prison work programs as exploitive and others as rehabilitative, the CSU researchers want to rethink that binary.

“Rehabilitative to what?” asks Carrie Chennault, co-director of the Prison Agriculture Lab. “[Agriculture is] a sector where employment labor has not received the same types of protections and benefits as other sectors in the economy,” she says, noting low pay and precarious working conditions.

“Why is this the type of work that society deems people who are incarcerated deserve?”

Allen worked at a plant nursery after his release and can attest to this.

“It was minimum wage. It was no

benefits. It was a seasonal job, so you weren’t really getting 40 hours a week except for in the hot summer months when they really need you,” he says.

Chennault and Sbicca also note the way class and racial inequities play into the prison system and the work programs they offer — as well as how these programs reinforce those inequities.

“When you think of who makes up prisons and jails — disproportionately people of color, disproportionately poor people — the underlying message there is that these people who are already marginalized, they’re fit for this kind of work, they deserve this kind of work,” Sbicca says.

ACCOUNTABLE WITHOUT A CAGE

Sbicca and Chenault say the lab is working to collect even more data and to expand education on prison agriculture. They also want to work to center the voices of people who are incarcerated and put the benefits of these programs — being outside, working with your hands and watching something grow — into a larger context by asking new questions, like whether a prison is the right place for these types of programs or if other spaces should be created to take on those tasks.

Sbicca says that incarceration is “ultimately untenable.” Addressing that fact, he says, is a more imaginative project.

The goal, he says, is “building alternative modes of safety and care that are non-punitive and show our communities can take care of each other and hold each other accountable without having to cage each other.”

PIECE BY PIECE

constitution. In Chile, a guanaco is a llama-like animal known for spitting. But it’s also the term for large police vehicles equipped to shoot water at protestors and disperse large demonstrations.

Local indie trio Kiltro puts it all together on ‘Underbelly’

BY ANGELA K. EVANS

Place is a point of tension for Chris Bowers Castillo. The creative force behind Denver experimental indie trio Kiltro was born and raised in Colorado, but his mother’s home country of Chile has loomed large throughout his emerging career as a singer-songwriter. However, despite his own years there — which informed his band’s 2019 debut Creatures of Habit — the local Chilean-American artist has lately felt disconnected from his second home in South America.

So it may come as no surprise that his Front Range outfit’s latest LP, Underbelly, isn’t so much rooted in a sense of place. Instead, it’s about a state of mind. Much of the album was written in what Castillo calls the “former life of the pandemic,” exploring the Lynchian underworld made visible as he was sitting alone in quarantine within the confines of his Denver home.

“It feels like a strange chapter in life,” Castillo says. “The quiet of it and the discomfort of that quiet. But within it, there’s always buzzing happening subconsciously. And then the news you received from the world on your phone felt remarkably noisy for how quiet everything was.”

Exploring such disparate elements is nothing new for the homegrown musician. Earlier in his career, he billed himself as a folk artist, per-

forming at open mics and taking the audience to an emotional, intimate place. Then he started experimenting with more ambient tones and looping effects, whetting his appetite for experimental sounds and heavily produced field recordings.

Eventually, Castillo combined the two with Kiltro (slang for stray street dogs in Chile), tapping into the rhythm of Chilean folk while also bringing in bassist Will Parkhill and drummer Michael Devincenzi, who helped hone the percussive and rhythmic quality of the band’s unique brand of self-described “zapatosgaze” music.

“I like experimenting with different kinds of emotional states and rhythm is such an interesting way to experiment with energy and it just sort of opened things up a lot,” Castillo says. “It makes a lot of sense to me — the way pieces fit together rather than sitting down with one instrument, playing through a chord progression.”

‘THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RIVER’

While Kiltro’s latest album is less concerned with physical place than its predecessor, there is one notable exception in the track “Guanaco,” written by Castillo in 2019 in response to the mass austerity protests in Chile that resulted in a new

Castillo was not in Chile for the protests that inspired “Guanaco,” but he did spend some time around the Colorado Capitol as social unrest exploded after the murder of George Floyd. The resulting weeks-long racial justice protests informed the finished product, years after he wrote the original.

“When I was first writing it, I didn’t even have the context of an experience that would come later and inform it. It was almost like I happened to capture [the Chilean protests] in a way that felt resonant to me afterwards,” he says. “It’s so interesting how that could happen to a song; where you can write it in one context and then it changes over time and the meaning of it evolves. But the core is always there.”

After spending years with the songs of Underbelly, the album’s release means Castillo can begin to close a strange chapter of his life. The band is preparing to support the record on an upcoming U.S. tour, launching with a June 1 performance at the Mercury Cafe in Denver. With the release, these songs and the moments that birthed them can begin to fade into the past.

“They’ve been a big part of my life for quite a while now. And it feels good to get to a place where we can now just get them out there and then move on to whatever’s next,” Castillo says. “It’s hard to get that writing itch when you’re ferrying something else to the other side of the river.”

ON THE BILL: Kiltro album release show. 7 p.m. Thursday, June 1, Mercury Cafe - Ballroom, 2199 California St., Denver. Free

Photo by Julian Brier

GROWING SOMETHING GOOD

Catamounts’ latest immersive outdoor performance explores the life of a Colorado legend on his own farm

BY TONI TRESCA

Until she toured the 152 acres of open space in Westminster bearing his name a few years ago, Amanda Berg Wilson had never heard of former Colorado Attorney General John Metzger.

“Truly, I knew nothing about him,” admits Wilson, co-founder and artistic director of The Catamounts, whose outdoor Pride of the Farm at Metzger Farm Open Space will be the Boulderbased experimental theater group’s fifth site-specific collaboration with the city of Westminster. “I learned a little bit about John from reading placards around the farm and was compelled by his story of being an orphan and a ward of the state who became a very progressive lawyer and politician.”

Wilson continued to research Metzger’s story after that first experience on the famed attorney’s “hobby farm,” the site of Catamounts’ immersive outdoor theater experience based on his life and running through June 25, which he purchased in 1943 to experiment with self-sustaining farm

ing practices. Representing everyday people in civil cases earned Metzger the moniker “people’s attorney.” He served as the attorney general for the state of Colorado for a single term at the turn of the following decade, during which he advocated for progressive causes like environmental justice, church-state separation and equal representation for communities typically underserved by the legal system.

“John Metzger was talking about issues that we’re still talking about today,” Wilson says. “However, we aren’t creating [Pride of the Farm] to lionize this one guy. It’s an immersive piece that invites people onto the farm in a way that amplifies ideas that are certainly authentic to who John was, but it was more important for us to engage the audience in a tactile way than to give them a history lesson.”

To help make this interactive openspace adventure a reality, Wilson approached playwright Jeffrey Neuman with the concept. After their initial collaboration on Land of Milk

and Honey in 2021, a site-specific performance developed in cooperation with the city of Westminster on the Shoenberg Farm, Neuman was eager to work with The Catamounts once more.

“Working on Land on Milk and Honey was a compelling and nourishing experience,” Neuman says. “So when Amanda approached me about Pride of the Farm, I had to say yes. Plus, I know whenever she comes to me with a project, that means I get to do research, which just tickles me because I love that process.”

‘FINDING YOUR VOICE AS A CITIZEN’

When it came to building a narrative around Metzger’s life, Neuman first turned to historical archive materials like newspaper articles and city planning documents. But the playwright says things really opened up once he visited the farm itself.

“The scenes I drafted before getting onto the farm were a good framework, but once I got onto the space for the first time, I realized they wouldn’t work,” Neuman says. “When I was actually walking around the farm, I was able to touch planks of wood, feel the crunch of the grass, and see bunnies dart from one space to another — being in the environment changed things, because I was no longer writing from my head. I was writing from a visceral place.”

The result of that onsite inspiration is a century-spanning exploration of environmental stewardship, stretching from the late 1920s to the Reagan administration. “It’s kind of like a time capsule of all these moments on the farm through John’s life and after it,” Neuman says.

These decades unfold much like a liveaction “choose your own adventure” book in Pride of the Farm Audience members are periodically invited to join actors in interactive

activities around the farm, such as daily chores, sustainable farming, beer-drinking (for the 21 and up) and music-making.

“The thing that’s so great about it is that, depending on your comfort level, you can participate as much or as little as you want,” says actor Maggie Tisdale. “We will take care of you. If you don’t want to be very involved, that’s fine; Jeff’s script includes paths for that.”

But as such immersive theater experiences become more popular on the Front Range and beyond, Pride of the Farm is emphasizing accessibility — an effort supported by funds from the $15,000 grant recently awarded to Catamounts by the National Endowment for the Arts.

“It is such a great honor to receive the grant,” Wilson says. “Since our playwright is deaf and Metzger was a strong advocate of people who couldn’t always speak up for themselves, we’re going to perform one show with ASL translation and ask audience members to let us know in advance if they need any help getting around the farm or with other needs — we are making sure that if you want to see the show, you can.”

Despite the logistical challenges posed by the setting, the team behind The Catamounts’ latest outdoor experience says it’s the perfect way to connect with the story of a Colorado legend and reflect on our relationship to each other and the place we call home.

“The show is about learning to be an empowered community member, so I think being put in a position where you have to work with other people to move through the space will be enriching,” Neuman says. “Pride of the Farm is so much about finding your voice as a citizen that I don’t think the story could effectively be told in any other way but immersively.”

ON STAGE: Pride of the Farm. Various times through June 25, Metzger Farm, 12080 Lowell Blvd., WestminsterBroomfield. $25

Pride of the Farm runs through June 25 at the Metzger Farm Open Space in Westminster. Photo courtesy The Catamounts.

BOOKS HELP WANTED

RAISING THE DEAD

CU professor and author traces her family tree to tell a distinctly American ghost story

BY CAITLIN ROCKETT

The librarian let Julie Carr look at the box, but she couldn’t look in it.

Carr, a professor in CU’s English department, knew her great-grandfather’s 11-volume autobiography was inside, but until an issue cleared with “Legal,” Carr couldn’t read the archives for herself.

She knew some of Omer Madison Kem’s story: Born in 1855, Kem became a radical populist homesteader and congressional representative of Nebraska, pushed toward politics by poverty and debt, critical of capitalist greed and income inequality.

The librarian at Creighton University in Omaha explained to Carr that another of Kem’s relatives had emailed inquiring about the archive. But the relative soon accused the librarian of withholding and mishandling the documents, going so far as to cc the dean of libraries and the president of the university in scathing emails. The librarian maintained he was just doing his job.

“It was an important setup for the book,” Carr says. “Because a lot of what the book is dealing with are these tensions and conflicts between elites and everybody else, which is at the root of populism.”

A year after her first attempt to read the archive, in 2017, Carr returned to Creighton with her father, Kem’s grandson. The issue with “Legal” had been resolved, and the two spent three days reading thousands of pages of memoir, “inviting,” as Carr says, “a haunting” that would drive her to write Mud, Blood and Ghosts: Populism, Eugenics and Spiritualism in the American West

“To invite the ghosts into the open,” Carr writes, “one must be ready to hear what they teach. No doubt I did not know then what ghosts I was about to reckon with.”

‘THIS ISN’T A DISTANT THING’

Omer Kem loomed large in Julie Carr’s family. Carr knew Kem had transcended “hand-to-mouth” poverty by traveling West through the Homestead Act of 1862, eventually becoming outspoken about income inequality as a member of the left-leaning Populist Party. A staunch atheist, his memoirs contained tirades against the hypocrisy of religion.

But at the library, Carr discovered a new facet to Kem: a letter from Kem’s adult son Huxley, describing how a girl wasn’t invited to his 7-year-old daughter’s birthday party. The girl’s mother was white, and indeed the little girl herself looked white, but her father was an ‘octoroon,” meaning one of his eight grandparents was Black, most likely a woman who’d been raped.

“Kem’s response,” Carr writes in the book, “is to articulate, as I would discover he had done many, many times in letters, speeches and editorials, the concept of race purity, which was expressed in those years with the formula ‘a single drop of blood spoils the whole.’”

Carr soon found this was a “mild act of bigotry” when compared to Kem’s 30-year obsession with eugenics, with sterilizing disabled people, the poor and those of color.

In 2017, with Trump in office and “populism” back in the American ver-

nacular, everyone was arguing over why: Had working-class, poor whites been so marginalized, so “left behind” by globalism and the liberal elite, or was this purely driven by racism? And how did Trump’s so-called populism stem from Kem’s?

So Carr used her family tree to trace the roots of American populism back to the Progressive Era. And while it’s Carr’s family, it’s an American story. Understanding how temporally close Americans are to slavery and genocide puts current societal debates — immigration, gentrification, policing — into context, forces us to see how racist lines of logic built our culture and continue to shape our society today.

As the author of numerous books of poetry, Carr uses rhythm, repetition and metaphor to weave history and autobiography into a rhapsodic snapshot of American populism as it emerges in the wake of the Gilded Age.

“If we’re semi-educated we know these histories, the broad strokes,” Carr says. “And we might have a sense of our own lineages and histories, but it really doesn’t hold a lot of power over us unless we study the details. When we do, a strange thing happens: You get a sense of history kaleidoscoping towards you and it suddenly isn’t this distant thing.”

ON THE SHELF: Julie Carr

— Mud, Blood and Ghosts: Populism, Eugenics and Spiritualism in the American West. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 8, Boulder Book Store, 1007 Pearl St. $5.

Chef in Boulder, w/ 24 mo exp as Chef to: cook & manage food prep of ethnic Indian, Mediterranean & American dishes; supv & allocate duties to cooks; ensure timely delivery of fresh ingredients; & maintain inventory. To apply, mail resumes to: Shri

Siddhivinayak INC DBA Gaia Masala and Burger, 1116 13th St, Boulder, CO 80302.

HELP WANTED

Workday, Inc. is accepting resumes for the following positions at various levels in Boulder, CO:

Manager, Quality Assurance Engineering (20637.1988) - Apply extensive technical and leadership skills to achieve high-quality standards in product, test methodologies and processes. Salary: $125,802 - $180,000 per year, 40 hours per week.

Sr Product Security Engineer (20637.647) - Deploy and administer enterprise-grade security tools. Salary: $162,240 – $216,000. 40 hours per week.

Quality Assurance / Automation Engineer (P3) (20637.2177)Debugs software products through the use of systemic tests to develop, apply, and maintain quality standards for company products. Salary: $84,677 - $165,100. 40 hours per week.

Workday pay ranges vary based on work location and recruiters can share more during the hiring process. As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a rolespecific commission/bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, skills, future potential and internal pay parity. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please go to workday.com/en-us/company/careers/ life-at-workday.html

Interested applicants submit resumes by mail to: J. Thurston at Workday, Inc., Attn: Human Resources/ Immigration, 6110 Stoneridge Mall Road, Pleasanton, CA 94588. Must reference job title and job code.

EVENTS

2

SILENT DISCO WORKOUT

5-6 p.m. Friday, June 2, St Julien Hotel & Spa, 900 Walnut St., Boulder. $20

Twenty bucks gets you a set of headphones and a killer workout this Friday, as MECHA Fitness partners with the St Julien Hotel & Spa for a silent disco workout. Get ready to dance (and sweat) at a staple of downtown Boulder during this high-energy exercise session.

3

GROWING GARDENS GOAT YOGA

10 a.m.-noon. Saturday, June 3, Growing Gardens Hawthorn Farm, 1630 Hawthorn Ave., Boulder. $35

This one-of-a-kind vinyasa yoga experience takes place in the orchard of Growing Gardens Hawthorn Farm at the base of the foothills, surrounded by adorable baby goats. Two sessions will be offered on Saturday, and all you need to bring is your own mat.

4

LYONS SUMMER ARTISAN MARKET

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, June 4, Bohn Park, 199 2nd Ave., Lyons. Free

The Lyons Summer Artisan Market is back for its third annual run by popular demand. Thirty-five artists from the area will have booths featuring pottery, clothing, jewelry and more. Plus barbecue samples, beer by Oskar Blues Brewery, root beer floats and live music by The Blue Canyon Boys.

2

COMMUNITY POTTING FRIDAY

11 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, June 2, Terracotta, 2005 Pearl St., Boulder. $15

Every Friday in June, Terracotta on Pearl Street invites you to bring your botanics to their shop for repotting. The experts at the local indoor plant boutique will also have plenty of advice on how to properly care for your plant, once it’s put into its new home.

3

LAUGH ART TOUR

10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, June 3, Old Town, Public Road and Simpson Street, Lafayette. Free

Want to experience eye-popping visual art in Lafayette on your own schedule? With the help of a Spring 2023 map from Lafayette Art UnderGound Hustle (LAUGH), you can walk, bike or even drive to studios and public-art installations around Old Town, with stops along the way for engagement with local creators.

4

BOULDER JEWISH FESTIVAL

11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday, June 4, Pearl Street, 1942 Broadway, Boulder. Free

For more than 25 summers, the Boulder Jewish Festival has been a local home for Jewish food, ceremonial art and a slew of family-friendly activities. Located smack dab in the center of Boulder, in front of the historic Boulder County courthouse, this day-long event will be capped off by a music performance from Gili Yalo.

4

B360/B180: CIRCLE BOULDER BY BICYCLE

10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday, June 4, Valmont Bike Park, 3160 Airport Road, Boulder. Free

Explore a fraction of Boulder’s 300 miles of bike infrastructure with a free group ride on the B360, an all-encompassing 24-mile loop around the city, beginning and ending at Valmont Bike Park. And if you’re only in the mood for half of that, the B180 is 12 miles. 4

COLORADO SKY: A PUPPET OPERA

1-2 p.m. and 3-4 p.m. Sunday, June 4, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $30

Ben Morris and Laura Fuentes’ new family-friendly opera, presented as a shadow puppet show, follows the local story of reintroducing wolves to Colorado through the eyes of a wolf cub named Sky. The 35-minute performance will be scored by a string quartet and a cast of three singers.

EVENTS

4

FOURTH ANNUAL BEE IN

Noon-6 p.m. Sunday, June 4, Let it BEE Honey and More Store, 4689 Ute Highway, Lyons. Free

Let it BEE Honey and More Store in Lyons hosts its fourth annual BEE IN festival in Longmont for a celebration of local pollinators. Herb walks, bee education and a plant sale are on the docket, as well as music by bands Copper Children, Hawkfather and more.

7

SUMMER MUSIC EVE: THE FRETLINERS

4-8 p.m. Wednesday, June 7, Sunflower Farm, 11150 Prospect Road, Longmont. $27

Head to Sunflower Farm in Longmont on the first Wednesday of the month for a regular evening of live music, food trucks and farm animals. Next week’s event features a performance by Colorado progressive bluegrass quartet, The Fretliners, along with fare from Passport Food Truck.

5 – 8

CREATIVE MOVEMENT ARTS CAMP

9 a.m.-noon. Tues-Thurs, June 5-8, Kinesis Dance, 635 S. Broadway, Unit D, Boulder. $250

This week-long camp hosted by Kinesis Dance encourages young dancers to let their creativity bloom. Three days of prop building, choreography and crafting all lead up to a show on Thursday, where the campers perform their own original routines.

8

‘THE HUMAN ELEMENT’ FILM SCREENING

5:30-6:45 p.m. Thursday, June 8, Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Free

As humans change the elements, will the elements change us? That’s the question at the heart of The Human Element, a 2018 documentary from director Matthew Testa. Head to Boulder Public Library next Thursday for a screening that “inspires us to reevaluate our relationship with the natural world.”

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

Estate of Janet Susan Bone, Deceased

Case No.: 2023PR10

All persons having claims against the above-named estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Broomfield County, Colorado on or before November 30, 2023, or said claims may be forever barred.

Jacob M Bone, Personal Representative 7547 S Quatar Way Aurora, Colorado 80016

HELP WANTED

Chief Research Scientist –Physics/Optics – Boulder, CO. Drive designs of new industry leading particle metrology instrumentation. Req incl. PhD in Optical Physics or related + 3 yrs exp in job offered or as research scientist in university or industrial setting. Exp. must incl. working knowledge of: Nanoparticle detection systems; Optical/electro-optical systems design related to beam delivery, imaging, optical coatings, optical scattering, fluorescence, phase & polarization-based measurements; Computational software (ZEMAX, CODE 5, COMSOL, & stray array analysis) to design & optimize optical systems. $103,043-$150,000/year + profit sharing bonus. Benefits incl: medical, dental, vision, 401(k), FSA, life/disability. Cov/ resume via email to Adrienne Selle at aselle@pmeasuring.com. Apps. must ref job #5272MM.

LIVE MUSIC

THURSDAY, JUNE 1

ANDREW VOGT SEXTET 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

BEN SOLLEE WITH ADEEM THE ARTIST. 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $30 Story at boulderweekly.com

THE WAILERS WITH ZIVANAI MASANGO. 7:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 198 Morning Glory Drive, Boulder. $30

KAREN FINCH 7 p.m. R Gallery + Wine Bar, 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Free

CAITLYN SMITH WITH ALEX HALL 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20

LORD HURON 7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $80

KILTRO ALBUM RELEASE SHOW 7 p.m. Thursday, June 1, Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St., Denver. Free Story on p. 13

BATTERHEAD. 5 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

FRIDAY, JUNE 2

MATTHEW HECHT. 6 p.m. Trident Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

RAVIN’WOLF. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

VALENTINO KHAN 9 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $25

BANJER DAN 6 p.m. Beyond the Mountain Brewing Company, 6035 Longbow Drive, Unit 109, Boulder. Free

JAZZ JAM WITH GABE

GRAVANGNO TRIO 6 p.m. Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St., Denver. $5

BELOVED INVADERS. 5:30 p.m. The Tune up Tavern & Espresso, 2355 30th St., Boulder. Free

FRIDAY MUSIC SERIES: A CARPENTER’S DAUGHTER 5:30 p.m. The Rock Garden, 338 West Main St., Lyons. Free

SATURDAY, JUNE 3

MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $75

WOOD BELLY WITH MEADOW MOUNTAIN. 7:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $18

BEAR HAT WITH ELLE MICHELLE’S GRATEFUL HOLLER 9 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 16th St., Boulder. $10

JAY ROEMER BAND 6 p.m. Wibby Brewing, 209 Emery St., Longmont. Free

PAPAMOA AND THE VIPER. 6 p.m. Beyond the Mountain Brewing Company, 6035 Longbow Drive, Unit 109, Boulder. Free

JUSTICE AND THE LIMITS 7 p.m. Bittersweet Cafe & Confections, 836 Main St., Louisville. Free

SUNDAY, JUNE 4

NICK FORSTER’S HIPPY BLUEGRASS CHURCH 10:30 a.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $10

BANJERDAN. 2 p.m. Junkyard Social Club, 2525 Frontier Ave., Unit A, Boulder. Free

YOUTH ACOUSTIC SHOWCASE

3 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Boulder. Free

FASTFLOYD WITH FOGGY

MOUNTAIN SPACESHIP 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl, Suite V3A, Boulder. $20

ADEEM THE ARTIST WITH YEPOK. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15

SUNDAY NIGHT JITTERBUG FEAT. WILLIAM AND THE ROMANTICS. 8 p.m. Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St., Denver. $12

REEDER JOHN GOLDMAN 5 p.m. Very Nice Brewing Company, 20 Lakeview Drive, Unit 112, Nederland. Free

BLUE CANYON BOYS. 1 p.m. Bohn Park, 199 Second Ave., Lyons. Free

GIN MILL HOLLOW 5 p.m. Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids & Solids 1555 Hover St., Longmont. Free

MONDAY, JUNE 5

YEAH YEAH YEAHS WITH PERFUME GENIUS 8 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $60 BW Pick of the Week

PARKER MILLSAP WITH CLAY ROSE 8 p.m. 4483 Logan St., Denver. $20

TUESDAY, JUNE 6

THE CBDS 7 p.m. The Local, 2731 Iris Ave., Boulder. Free

PARKER MILLSAP WITH CLAY ROSE. 8 p.m. 4483 Logan St., Denver. $20

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7

LIAM O’BEIRNE WITH VIC DILLAHAY. 7 p.m. Dry Land Distillers, 519 Main St., Longmont. Free

KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD 7 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $90

AB-SOUL 8 p.m. Cervantes Other Side, 2635 Welton St., Denver. $30

JELEEL! WITH SID SHYNE. 7 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $20

THE FRETLINERS 5 p.m. Sunflower Farm, 11150 Prospect Road, Longmont. Free

BLUEGRASS PICK. 5 p.m. Beyond the Mountain Brewing Company, 6035 Longbow Drive, Unit 109, Boulder. Free

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

ON THE BILL: Baroque art-pop standard bearer Michael Alden Hadreas, better known as Perfume Genius, comes to the Front Range in support of Y2K indie-rock legends Yeah Yeah Yeahs for a one-night performance at Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater on Monday, June 5. The show follows Hadreas’ latest studio album, Ugly Season, released last summer via Matador Records See listing for details.

PART OF ME, PART OF

Thirty years on, ‘Thelma & Louise’ still hits

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

The women are on the run. One is a sheltered housewife married to a pig of a man. The other is a waitress hiding from her past. Both are wanted in connection with a murder outside an Arkansas honky-tonk, and neither is going back for nothing or nobody. “I wanted to write a movie about what the world looked like from the front seat,” Callie Khouri said of the script years later.

Written by Khouri and directed by Ridley Scott, Thelma & Louise is a touchstone of American cinema. Released in May 1991, Thelma & Louise became a commercial hit and a critical target, with many praising the movie out of one corner of their mouth while condemning it out the other. Misogyny was the case they gave Thelma & Louise, though watching the movie 30-plus years later, you can’t help but notice that that criticism says more about the early-1990s than the film itself.

Pulling on the threads of the road movie and the Western, two of America’s iconic genres, Thelma & Louise explores two women on similar paths separated by time and consequence. Louise (Susan Sarandon) is the elder of the two and acts maternal toward Thelma (Geena Davis). Louise has a past: Something happened when she lived in Texas, and she refuses to discuss it. It’s never spelled out, but when Harlan (Timothy Carhart) tries to rape Thelma in a parking lot, Louise pulls a gun and shoots Harlan where he stands. The

look in her eyes tells you she’s been here before and knows the way.

The shooting spurs Thelma and Louise and their aquamarine 1966 Ford Thunderbird toward Mexico, with lead investigator Hal (Harvey Keitel) trying to bring them in safely before the trigger-happy boys in blue find them. Along the way, Thelma and Louise cross paths with a repugnant truck driver (Marco St. John), an impossibly good-looking and charismatic thief (Brad Pitt) and a state trooper (Jason Beghe) who folds like a cheap table. With each interaction, Thelma and Louise find something inside them they always suspected existed but never had the conviction to pull out. “I know it’s crazy, but I believe I have a knack for this shit,” Thelma says. “I believe you do,” Louise replies.

Digitally restored and available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection, Thelma & Louise is a movie you must see again.

Thirty years on, it still feels fresh, relevant and triumphant — or at least as triumphant as a movie with this sort of ending can get. If they remade it today, it would probably do good business. Hopefully, they won’t: This one rings as true now as it did then.

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in Thelma & Louise.

DEAR WHOLE FOODS DADDY

Your burning Boulder questions, asked and answered

BY GABBY VERMEIRE, AKA WHOLE FOODS DADDY

We all have questions and need advice, but sometimes the pseudo therapy in the Instagram stories of astrology girls doesn’t cut it. Or maybe the gate-keeping culture of adventure bros has you fearing the judgment that comes with revealing yourself as a newbie at anything. This advice column exists to hold space for you and your Boulder queries — especially the uncool ones.

Why is it so dry here?

If you want a literal, meteorological answer to this question, you could always pose it to the geekiestlooking (but in a hot way) scientist at NCAR, and they might say something about air pressure, altitude blah blah yawwn. However, our semiarid climate actually serves a far more fundamental and cultural purpose.

At the end of the day, our mutual experiences of having permanently dried-out mucous membranes or the transcendent smell in the air after the first real afternoon thunderstorm of spring are the only things holding our socially and economically fractured community together. Why is it so dry here? Because no amount of therapy

can ever match the comfort of speaking to a Boulder dad in line at the grocery store about how much we needed that moisture.

I can’t keep working — what’s the best place to find a sugar momma?

Listen, we weren’t born to work until we die. For the young, broke and adorable, it’s totally ethical to use these qualities for some extra income. I say if a lonely older fella wants to buy me a glass of wine and then act super weird and avoid eye contact whenever he sees me in Whole Foods thereafter, that’s just a respectful transaction.

The literal answer is pretty obvious. Looking for a lady who has disposable wealth, doesn’t think too hard about how she spends it, and is easily manip-

ulated? A White Woman at Wonder has already been manipulated into spending as much money on an itty-bitty grain-free cookie as you do on lunch and dinner combined. It’s time for her to do her part for the wage slaves out there and start being manipulated by your cute, overworked booty. If you wear short-enough shorts, you can even ask mommy for some adaptogenic mushrooms in your latte.

(Bonus points if you convince sugar momma that you’re a professional astrologer and charge her for these services as well.)

Was Boulder always secretly conservative and I just didn’t notice, or has something changed?

How are people in their 20s meeting friends outside of dating apps?

● Acquire a seat near an outlet during peak-crowded time at the Trident and leverage your scarce and valuable resource to reel in a study pal

● Join a church

● Join a cult

● Join a cult-y church

● Join an ecstatic dance group that you find out later is also a cult

● Volunteer for a cause that you find meaningful and meet like-minded people (Hey, these answers don’t have to be sarcastic.)

It’s hard to conceive that the OG hipster Buddhists who scrambled the Flatirons on acid in the ’70s and ’80s turned into boomers making Nextdoor posts that could be mistaken for the most unhinged Fox News headlines. Similarly, for a county that went 64% to Bernie Sanders in 2016, Boulder has far too many Bumble guys identifying as “moderate” (though this might be a misguided attempt to gain broad appeal in the dating pool). Rising income inequality and the heated discussions around it have simply brought to light what always lurked in the #Resist neoliberal shadows. The excesses of the Reagan era may have ultimately seduced the baby boomers to sell out, but they were probably always a little racist to begin with.

Got a burning Boulder question or conundrum? Message @wholefoods_ daddy on Instagram, or email letters@ boulderweekly.com with the subject line “Dear Whole Foods Daddy.”

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): History tells us that Albert Einstein was a brilliant genius. After his death, the brain of the pioneer physicist was saved and studied for years in the hope of analyzing the secrets of why it produced so many great ideas. Science writer Stephen Jay Gould provided a different perspective. He said, “I am less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” I bring this to your attention, Aries, in the hope it will inspire you to pay closer attention to the unsung and under-appreciated elements of your own life — both in yourself and the people around you.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): Human life sometimes features sudden reversals of fortune that may seem almost miraculous. A twist in my own destiny is an example. As an adult, I was indigent for 18 years — the most starving artist of all the starving artists I have ever known. Then, in the course of a few months, all the years I had devoted to improving my craft as a writer paid off spectacularly. My horoscope column got widely syndicated, and I began to earn a decent wage. I predict a comparable turn of events for you in the coming months, Taurus — not necessarily in your finances, but in a pivotal area of your life.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): I am weary of gurus who tell us the ego is bad and must be shamed. In my view, we need a strong and healthy ego to fuel our quest for meaning. In that spirit and in accordance with astrological omens, I designate June as Celebrate Your Ego Month for you Geminis. You have a mandate to unabashedly embrace the beauty of your unique self. I hope you will celebrate and flaunt your special gifts. I hope you will honor your distinctive desires as the treasures they are. You are authorized to brag more than usual!

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): One study reveals that British people own a significant amount of clothing they never wear. Other research suggests that the average American woman has over a hundred items of clothing but considers just 10% of them to be “wearable.” If your relationship to your wardrobe is similar, Cancerian, it’s a favorable time to cull unused, unliked, and unsuitable stuff. You would also benefit from a comparable approach to other areas of your life. Get rid of possessions, influences, and ideas that take up space but serve no important purpose and are no longer aligned with who you really are.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): In July 1969, Leo astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the moon. But he almost missed his chance. Years earlier, his original application to become part of NASA’s space exploration team arrived a week past the deadline. But Armstrong’s buddy, Dick Day, who worked at NASA, sneaked it into the pile of applications that had come in time. I foresee the possibility of you receiving comparable assistance, Leo. Tell your friends and allies to be alert for ways they might be able to help you with either straightforward or surreptitious moves.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): Great shearwaters are birds that travel a lot, covering 13,000 miles every year. From January to March, they breed in the South Atlantic ocean, about halfway between Africa and South America. Around May, they fly west for a while and then head north, many of them as far as Canada and Greenland. When August comes, they head east to Europe, and later they migrate south along the coast of Africa to return to their breeding grounds. I am tempted to make this globetrotting bird your spirit creature for the next 12 months. You may be more inclined than ever before to go on journeys, and I expect you will be well rewarded for your journeys. At the very least, I hope you will enjoy mind-opening voyages in your imagination.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): One of the central myths of Western culture is the Holy Grail. For over 800 years, storytellers have spun legends about the search for a precious chalice with magical qualities, including the power to heal and offer eternal youth. Sober scholars are more likely to say that the Holy Grail isn’t an actual physical object hidden away in a cave or catacomb, but a symbol of a spiritual awakening or an enlightening epiphany. For the purposes of your horoscope, I’m going to focus on the latter interpretation. I suspect you are gearing up for an encounter with a Holy Grail. Be alert! The revelations and insights and breakthroughs could come when you least expect them.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): June is Dare to Diminish Your Pain Month for you Scorpios. I hope you will aggressively pursue measures to alleviate discomfort and suffering. To address the physical variety, how about acupuncture or massage? Or supplements like boswellia, turmeric, devil’s claw root, white willow bark, and omega-3 fatty acids? Other ideas: sunshine, heating pad, warm baths with Epsom salts, restorative sleep, and exercise that simulates natural endorphins. Please be equally dynamic in treating your emotional and spiritual pain, dear Scorpio. Spend as much money as you can afford on skillful healers. Solicit the help of empathetic friends. Pray and meditate. Seek out in activities that make you laugh.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): A hungry humpback whale can hold more than 15,000 gallons of water in its mouth at once — enough to fill 400 bathtubs. In a funny way, their ability reminds me of you right now. You, too, have a huge capacity for whatever you feel like absorbing and engaging with. But I suggest you choose carefully what you want to absorb and engage with. Be open and receptive to only the most high-quality stuff that will enrich your life and provide a lot of fun. Don’t get filled up with trivia and nonsense and dross.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): Funny story: A renowned Hollywood movie mogul was overheard at a dinner party regaling an aspiring actor with a long monologue about his achievements. The actor couldn’t get in a word edgewise. Finally, the mogul paused and said, “Well, enough about me. What do you think of me?” If I had been in the actor’s place, I might have said, “You, sir, are an insufferable, grandiose, and boring narcissist who pathologically overestimates your own importance and has zero emotional intelligence.” The only downside to speaking my mind like that would be that the mogul might ruin my hopes of having a career in the movie business. In the coming weeks, Capricorn, I hope you will consistently find a middle ground between telling the brazen truth to those who need to hear it and protecting your precious goals and well-being.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): When faced with important decisions, most of us benefit from calling on all forms of intelligence. Simply consulting our analytical mind is not sufficient. Nor is checking in with only our deep feelings. Even drawing from our spunky intuition alone is not adequate. We are most likely to get practical clarity if we access the guidance of our analytical mind, gut feelings, and sparkly intuition. This is always true, but it’s extra relevant now. You need to get the full blessing of the synergistic blend. PS: Ask your body to give you a few hints, too!

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): Has your intuition been nudging you to revise and refine your sense of home? Have you been reorganizing the domestic vibes and bolstering your stability?

I hope so. That’s what the cosmic rhythms are inviting you to do. If you have indeed responded to the call, congratulations. Buy yourself a nice homecoming present. But if you have resisted the flow of life’s guidance, please take corrective measures. Maybe start by reorganizing the décor and furniture. Clean up festering messes. Say sweet things to your housemates and family members. Manage issues that may be restricting your love of home.

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

DEAR DAN: I started seeing a massage guy about a year ago after connecting with him on Scruff. First couple times I got incredible deep and thorough massages; paid him for the time; and added a tip, all good. Then — and with no words exchanged — the massages started getting sexual. Now I get a brief massage and then his fingers start tickling my butt and we end up fucking. We don’t have any interaction outside the sessions, aside from texts setting up the next time. No complaints about the sex at all, but I miss the massages! Somehow this relationship went from a massage deal to sex work. (HTH?!?)

I’ve never hired a sex worker before. How much does a person tip a sex worker? And any ideas how I can steer the relationship back to more pounding of muscles without giving up the pounding of butt?

— Loving His Dick, Missing His Hands

DEAR LHDMHH: How did this arrangement go from a massage deal to sex work? How’d that happen? Your “massage guy” did it.

Your massage guy is a sex worker but a choosy one. He looks for prospective clients on hookup apps, offers “massage-only” meetups at first, and once he has a good feeling about someone — someone who respects his initial “massage-only” boundary, shows up freshly showered, and tips well (20-25%), e.g., someone like you your massage guy “upgrades” his new-ish client from massage (not what most guys are seeking on Scruff) to dick (what all guys are seeking on Scruff). If you miss massages, LHDMHH, book an extra hour and use your words. (“Love your excellent dick, miss your amazing massages!”) Then you can have it all.

DEAR DAN: I’ve been with my boyfriend since COVID. We were sexually incompatible from the start (both bottoms), but made it work due to the pandemic. Then I blinked and three years passed. We live together and I

love him. But it just feels like a comfortable, nice life as opposed to being “in love.” And we never had that hot passionate start to fall back on or feel nostalgic about. I wonder if the end of the pandemic means it’s time to move on. I’m 41 years old and feel life can offer more. Am I being short-sighted in wanting more?

— Somewhat Unfulfilled Bottom

DEAR SUB: Two bottoms can have hot and passionate sex. I mean, are there no double-ended dildos in Gilead? Are there no tops in your vicinity, single and coupled, willing to guest star? Are oral sex and/or mutual masturbation not a good time?

Finding someone you love and enjoy living with isn’t easy, SUB, so you owe it to yourself to give this relationship a chance. I get it: You’ve been together for three years, you’ve already given this relationship a chance. But it doesn’t sound like you’ve given radical honesty a chance. (“We have to fix this or it’s over.”) You don’t wanna wake up five years from now in a no-longer-new relationship with someone you don’t love. Even if you had a lot of hot sex with that person at the start, SUB, nostalgia for great sex with someone you don’t love (as much or at all) is unlikely to sustain you through the decades between the NRE wearing off and death. Whereas making space in the loving relationship you’re already in — space for passionate sexual experiences together and/or with others (on your own or both) — could be all the sustenance you need.

It’s fine to want more, SUB, but before seeking more from someone else, ask for more from the someone you’ve already got.

Whether the sun is shining or snow is falling, our little corner of Pearl Street is the perfect place to soak up winter in beautiful Boulder! Feast alongside the jellyfish, sink into a lounge or take a seat at one of our lively bars.

Prefer the great outdoors? Our fireside patios are the coziest place to savor those mild winter days.

When your own couch is calling, all of your favorites are available for curbside pickup too.

No matter how you choose to dine don’t miss our ever-evolving specials, delicious seasonal cocktails, and latest rare whiskey!

FERMENTING JOY

Boulder shop helps DIY geeks uncover secrets of crafting ale, kombucha, kimchi, kefir and wine

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

As far as Daren Cook is concerned, humans never would have made it without fermentation.

It’s hard to imagine a tolerable modern life without beer, wine, cider and mead — not to mention coffee, tea and chocolate, but Cook means it quite literally.

“Fermentation made food digestible,” he says. “It preserved food to last the winter. I don’t think the species would have survived if it hadn’t accidentally discovered what happens when food goes bad.”

Cook, a sometime farmer, brewer and food preservation expert, is at home among the ingredient-stacked shelves at Boulder Fermentation Supply (2510 47th St).

Boulder’s home brewing legion has made a beeline to the shop since it opened in 2013.

The name says it all: Boulder Fermentation Supply is a one-stop destination for equipment, ingredients and knowledge for fermenting almost anything: milk (cheese, yogurt), fruit (cider, wine, kombucha), vegetables (pickles, kimchi, hot sauce), and, yes, grains (tempeh, beer).

Perhaps the most important thing the shop features is advice from folks who have actually made the foods and beverages.

“When it comes to fermenting vegetables, making pickles, we’re talking about lacto-fermentation,” Cook says.

“The easiest one to start with is sauerkraut. Rough chop some cabbage and put it in a 2.5% brine — that’s just salt and water. Come back in about four weeks and you have sauerkraut.”

Make sure the veggies are completely submerged in the spiced brine at room temperature with a loose cap on the container. Most vegetables — except onions and garlic — have natural bacteria on them that thrive in brine. Never pour any brine down the drain since you can add more vegetables, drink it in bloody marys or reduce it into an umamirich sauce.

According to Cook, the easiest fermented alcoholic beverage to make at home is fruit cider, typically made with apple juice.

“You mash the fruit, extract the juice, and add yeasts,” Cook says.

“You can make a low-alcohol apple cider that is not very sweet.”

“You’ll need an airlock on the bottle that allows gas to escape but keeps out competing microbes. Don’t blow your top,” he says, adding that accounts of exploding jars of fermented foods and vegetables are common.

The funky shop offers walls packed with bottles, fruit presses, kettles, copper coils, siphons and mushroom-growing logs. Coolers full of hop varieties and beer, ale, cider and wine yeasts are near an array of flavorings like wormwood, licorice, heather and giant cans of fruit puree. Stacks of kits are available for making everything from red zinfandel to hefeweizen. An extensive book section features volumes on brewing, fermenting, pickling and other forms of food preservation.

One room at Boulder Fermentation Supply is jammed with diverse malts and grains that can be milled fresh onsite in small qualities for brewers.

Cook notes that the many of the yeasts the shop stocks for brewing can also be used to craft distinctivetasting loaves of breads.

About the only fermented food that is not featured at the Boulder shop is salumi — fermented meats, like chorizo. The potential food safety risks are much higher with fermented meats, he says.

As we come into the season of fresh local vegetables, herbs, fruits and grains, Cook wants locals to learn how to use them. While the health pluses of fermented foods are many, fermentation rewards you almost immediately with amazing tangy flavors and textures, he says.

Another payoff awaits this fall when you pop open jars of preserved foods and bottles of bubbly drinks for family and friends.

Cook — who leads groups on fungi forays to the mountains — notes one other critical advantage that Boulder Fermentation Supply enjoys because it is part of the funky, next-door Vision Quest Brewery: “You can get a beer and sip it while you look through the shop,” he says.

Credit: John Lehndorff

Voted East County’s BEST Gluten

TASTE OF THE WEEK: BEYOND PUPUSAS

Over the decades, Boulder has grown fond of pupusas as a favorite handheld food. They are masa corn pancakes griddled with fillings from cheese to chicharrónes and greens. Boulder’s recently opened Pupusas Lover 2 (2525 Arapahoe Ave., Unit E1B) expands diners’ experience with Salvadoran and Central American cuisine.

The eatery’s mixto plate is a great best-of cruise. It starts with two pupusas served with spicy curtido slaw and salsa. Add a chicken enchilada, fried yuca, a banana-leaf wrapped tamale and fried plantains. The plantain pastelito, a flaky savory empanada, was especially memorable. Dessert was a sweet corn tamale paired with house-made aguas frescas and Salvadoran horchata de morro flavored with cinnamon and sesame seed.

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: A KIND BURGER

The Boulder Theater on June 14 will host the inaugural showing of The Sink’s 100th anniversary movie. Many local faces are featured in the documentary, including yours truly. Long ago I worked at The Sink for one night that felt like a year.

In honor of National Hamburger Month, PETA has named the best vegan burgers in the U.S. Boulder Meta Burger earns a spot for its Flatiron burger with steak sauce, gouda-style “cheese,” grilled Brussels sprouts and mushrooms. 99Bar Saloon and restaurant has opened at 449 Main St., Longmont (formerly the site of Smokin Bowls Restaurant).

Shopey’s Pizza is dishing pies at 577 E. South Boulder Road, Louisville. Coming soon: Juicy Seafood, 2341 Clover Basin Drive, Longmont. Menu will include lobster, clams and alligator.

NIBBLES INDEX: VEGETABLE TRUST ISSUES

Fully 46% of us do not trust anyone else to pick out our groceries, according to a new Kroger survey. I am one of those shoppers suffering pretty painful experiences ordering fresh produce online for delivery.

WORDS TO CHEW ON

“If the first bite is with the eye and the second with the nose, some people will never take that third, actual bite if the food in question smells too fishy, fermented or cheesy.”

— Yotam Ottolenghi

John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles on KGNU. Listen to podcasts at: bit.ly/RadioNibbles

Meta Burger. Credit: John Lehndorff

Pupusas Lover 2. Credit: John Lehndorff

THE MAIN THING

Ruthie’s Boardwalk Social keeps it comfy

BY COLIN WRENN

Peter Waters knows keeping it simple works. He’s the managing partner at T/aco, but also runs Ruthie’s Boardwalk Social, which serves just shy of 10 variations of grilled cheese sandwiches from a walk-up window on the corner of 14th and Pearl.

“People joke that quesadillas are the nexus of my universe,” Waters says.

During the winter, folks can also order tomato soup. In the summer, the team trades the soup pots out for a soft-serve machine. Twice-fried, Belgian-style fries are available, but not much else.

“We had success with T/aco focusing on one item with a variety of offerings,” Waters says. Ruthie’s sells The Classic, with American and white cheese and mayo, for just over $5. There’s The Mahalo, with smoked Gouda, white cheddar, ham and grilled pineapple, and an Italian Caprese with fresh mozzarella, sliced tomatoes and pesto. Everything comes smashed between a couple of thick slices from the Harvest Moon Baking Company.

But there’s more to Waters’ formula than just peddling plays on the classics. Ruthie’s is an ode to his maternal grandmother, who he spent summers with growing up at a beach house in Manasquan, New Jersey.

“My grandma would get up at god knows what hour to make breakfast,” often preparing fantastic spreads for as many as 25 people, Waters says.

“She possessed a hospitality unlike anything I understood.”

He’s since come to more than understand hospitality, with T/aco and Ruthie’s both acting as clear expressions of Waters’ boots-on-the ground approach. While he’s more visible at T/aco, Ruthie’s still builds on a philosophy that suggests food is about more than just the ingredients. “With

the ordering experience here, we have roughly 45 seconds to make an impression on our guests,” he says. He’s made sure that exchange is a good one.

Manning the expo window at Ruthie’s is often Dan Scott, a T/aco regular who has become part owner and operator. He’s as welcoming as they come and clearly not only understands but accelerates the place’s gracious ethos.

All the sandwiches are made on an Impinger convection conveyor belt.

says. Even with the uniformity, the meals are still clearly crafted with care.

Ruthie’s opened in 2018 as a collaboration between Waters and Josh Chesterson, who has since gone on to act as culinary director for Modern Restaurant Concepts, the folks behind Mod Market.

Waters says Ruthie’s was dreamed up in a year where turmoil and unpredictability reigned supreme.

“At the time we were looking in the realm of comfort food,” he says, the menu’s simplicity intended to be a calculated act of kindness: just enough choices, but not too many.

Last summer, Ruthie’s extended its reach, opening outposts at both the Boulder Reservoir and at the Scott Carpenter Pool concession stand. While the reservoir was only a oneyear deal, it will be returning to Scott Carpenter for the duration of this summer, serving a limited menu with an increased focus on prepackaged snacks.

“It’s an awesome way to get to know the middle and high school crowd,” says Waters. A few kids have gone on to work the stand.

“The first and last sandwich we make will be identical. It gives us a chance to hire people based on personality rather than kitchen skills,” Waters

Ruthie’s captures the simple pleasure and nostalgia a grilled cheese can bring, delivering a menu that pays tribute to the sandwich’s nearly universal appeal. For best results, wash it down with a house-made mango lemonade.

An Italian caprese grilled cheese sandwich. Photo courtesy Peter Waters.

NATIONAL MONEYBALL ASSOCIATION

BY WILL BRENDZA

Al Harrington ended his 16-season professional basketball career in 2015. The power forward had played for the Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Denver Nuggets and more. He played 981 games, scored 13,237 points, and earned more than $97 million.

But even that fortune would pale in comparison to what Harrington would make after he retired and started his own cannabis franchise, Viola Brands. The company, which now operates in Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon, Colorado, Washington and California, made more than $20 million in revenue in 2022 alone.

This coming season will be the first that cannabis isn’t on the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) list of banned substances. Early reports from the league’s collective bargaining agreement with the National Basketball Player’s Association (NBPA) suggested that players would be able to endorse and invest in cannabis brands. But the NBA recanted on that, clarifying in March that even though players

wouldn’t be tested for cannabis, they also wouldn’t be allowed to endorse cannabis businesses or start their own.

That amendment to the NBPA collective bargaining agreement has less to do with the legal status of cannabis in the U.S. and more to do with the association’s public image and control over a potentially massive stream of revenue.

The NBA’s announcement to stop randomly drug testing its athletes for cannabis made big news. But it was hardly the first pro sports league to do so. The National Hockey League has never punished its players for using cannabis. And in December 2019, Major League Baseball removed cannabis from its own list of banned substances. Then in March of the same

year, the National Football League amended its rules so that a positive THC test would no longer result in a player’s suspension.

Not long after that, in June 2020, the NBA stopped testing its players for cannabis. It was an impermanent change at first — a season-toseason decision that the league made for three consecutive seasons — until April of 2023, when the NBA officially announced it was permanently removing cannabis from its own list of banned substances.

“We decided that, given all the things that were happening in society, given all the pressures and stress that players were under, we didn’t need to act as Big Brother right now,” Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, said at the time.

The declaration was met with much fanfare. Naturally, NBA commentator, marijuana icon and chronic entrepreneur Snoop Dogg was openly in support of the association’s move.

“As long as it doesn’t enhance your skills to make you play better or to give you an advantage, you should be able to treat yourself and to heal yourself,” Snoop Dogg said on ESPN, regarding the NBA announcement.

Like Harrington, Snoop also has his own cannabis brand, Leafs by Snoop. So when the NBPA reported that its early tentative deal with the NBA would allow players to likewise participate in the business side of cannabis, players and fans alike were excited.

But the NBA has certain protocols

around substance endorsements. It’s why you don’t see players in White Claw, Budweiser or Captain Morgan commercials. While there is no official prohibition on players endorsing various alcohol brands, the prospective brand would have to get approval from the NBA to combine the player, their uniform, team name and logos for advertising purposes. And the NBA does not easily relinquish — except for Michelob Ultra, its official sponsor.

Similarly, the NBA has an official CBD sponsor already lined up. It’s a product that will be available at both Walmart and Amazon and one that current NBA athletes are welcome to publicly endorse and invest in — a product made and sold by none other than Al Harrington’s Viola.

And once THC is federally legalized, or decriminalized like CBD, it’s expected that the NBA will repeat this same tactic: hand-selecting a THC sponsor, and limiting player endorsements and investment to that product or brand alone. It allows them to maintain control over NBA-related cannabis revenue and the image associated with it.

Still, almost everyone agrees that this play by the NBA is progress in the right direction. With more states ending prohibition than those upholding it, and the American Medical Association coming out with studies showing cannabis is associated with “significant” and “sustained” health improvements, the fact that cannabis is now available to pro basketball players as a means of recovery, recreation or relaxation is a leap forward — for both the players and the NBA as a business.

The NBA removes cannabis from its list of pro hibited substances — but still won’t allow players to endorse or invest in the industry