Boulder Weekly 08.10.2023

and tikka burgers in globe-spanning flavor mashup

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

Credit: Will Matuska

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AUGUST 10, 2023

Volume 30, Number 51

COVER: Photo by Christi Turner

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, Dave Marston, Dan Savage, Bart Schaneman, Toni Tresca, Colin Wrenn

SALES AND MARKETING

MARKET DEVELOPMENT MANAGER:

Kellie Robinson

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE:

Matthew Fischer

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Chris Allred

SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: Carter Ferryman

MRS. BOULDER WEEKLY: Mari Nevar

PRODUCTION

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erik Wogen

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Mark Goodman

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn

CIRCULATION TEAM:

Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE

BOOKKEEPER: Emily Weinberg

FOUNDER/CEO: Stewart Sallo

As Boulder County’s only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holdsbarred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county’s most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly. com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you’re interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper.

690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO 80305 Phone: 303.494.5511, FAX: 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com

Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2023 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.

Boulder Weekly welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@boulderweekly. com). Preference will be given to short letters (under 300 words) that deal with recent stories or local issues, and letters may be edited for style, length and libel. Letters should include your name, address and telephone number for verification. We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms. Letters become the property of Boulder Weekly and will be published on our website.

WRITERS ON THE RANGE

A DOGGED REPORTER COVERS OUR ROILING WORLD

Denver-based Allen Best looks for the ways global warming changes Colorado’s economy

BY DAVE MARSTON

Usually seen with a camera slung around his neck, Allen Best edits a one-man online journalism shop he calls Big Pivots. Its beat is the changes made necessary by our rapidly warming climate, and he calls it the most important story he’s ever covered.

Best is based in the Denver area, and his twice-a-month e-journal looks for radical transitions in Colorado’s energy, water and other urgent

aspects of the state’s economy. These changes, he thinks, overwhelm the arrival of the telephone, rural electrification and even the internal combustion engine in terms of their impact.

Global warming, he declares, is “the biggest pivot of all.”

Whether you “believe” in climate change — and Best points out that at least one Colorado state legislator does not — there’s no denying that

our entire planet is undergoing dramatic changes, including melting polar ice, ever-intensifying storms, and massive wildlife extinctions.

A major story that Best, 71, has relentlessly chronicled concerns TriState, a wholesale power supplier serving Colorado and three other states. Late to welcome renewable energy, it’s been weighed down with aging coal-fired power plants. Best closely followed how many of its 42

Boulder Social Streets

Come meet on the street all summer long...

13th Street (between Canyon and Arapahoe)

This summer as part of the City of Boulder’s “Social Streets” initiative, the Downtown Boulder Partnership is hosting a series of FREE fun events / activities along 13th Street between Arapahoe Avenue and Canyon Boulevard. (There is no cost to attend the events and all members of the community and visitors near and far are invited to attend to participate or just enjoy as spectators!) So grab your family/neighbors/friends and come meet on the street to celebrate community and enjoy our vibrant downtown district!

Please visit the website for specific event times and additional details!

JULY 21

DANCING IN THE STREET

WRITERS ON THE RANGE

customers — rural electric cooperatives — have fought to withdraw from, or at least renegotiate, contracts that hampered their ability to buy cheaper power and use local renewable sources.

Best’s first newspaper job was at the Middle Park Times in Kremmling, a mountain town along the Colorado River. He wrote about logging, molybdenum mining and the many prospectors who came from eastern Europe. His prose wasn’t pretty, he says, but he got to hone his skills.

JULY 30

PICNIC ON THE PAVEMENT

AUGUST 4

YAPPY HOUR

AUGUST 13

BOULDER STREET SOCCER CLASSIC

AUGUST 25

MELANIN FUNK FEST

Because of his rural roots, Best is most comfortable hanging out in farm towns and backwaters, places where he can listen to stories and try to get a feel for what Best calls the “rest of Colorado.” Pueblo, population 110,000 in southern Colorado, is a gritty town he likes a lot.

Pueblo has been forced to pivot away from a creaky, coal-fired power plant that created well-paying jobs. Now, the local steel mill relies on solar power instead, and the town also hosts a factory that makes wind turbine towers. He’s written stories about these radical changes as well as the possibility that Russian oligarchs are involved in the city’s steel mill.

Best also vacuums up stories from towns like Craig in northwestern Colorado, home to a soon-tobe-closed coal plant. He says he finds Farmington, New Mexico, fascinating because it has electric transmission lines idling from shuttered coal power plants.

SEPTEMBER 8

CU ATHLETICS MEET & GREET

SEPTEMBER 24

COMMUNITY ART DAY

completely unknown despite the quality of his work.”

Among utility insiders, and outsiders like myself, however, Best is a must-read.

His biggest donor has been Sam R. Walton’s Catena Foundation — a $29,000 grant. Typically, supporters of his nonprofit give Big Pivots $25 or $50.

Living in Denver allows Best to be close to the state’s shot callers, but often, his most compelling stories come from the rural fringe. One such place is the little-known Republican River, whose headwaters emerge somewhere on Colorado’s Eastern Plains. That’s also where Best’s grandfather was born in an earthen “soddie.”

Best grew up in eastern Colorado and knows the treeless area well. He’s written half a dozen stories about the wrung-out Republican River, which delivers water to neighboring Kansas. He also sees the Eastern Plains as a great story about the energy transition. With huge transmission lines under construction by the utility giant Xcel Energy, the project will feed renewable power from wind and solar to the cities of Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins.

Best admits he’s sometimes discouraged by his small readership — it can feel like he’s speaking to an empty auditorium, he says. He adds, though, that while “I may be a tiny player in Colorado journalism, I’m still a player.”

Part of the City of Boulder’s “Social Streets” initiative.

BoulderSocialStreets.com

Big Pivots has less than 1,100 subscribers, but story tips and encouragement come from readers who hold jobs with clout. Best’s feature “There Will Be Fire: Colorado arrives at the dawn of megafires” brought comments from climate scientist Michael Mann and Amory Lovins, legendary co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

“After a lifetime in journalism, his writing has become more lyrical as he’s become more passionate,” says Auden Schendler, vice president of sustainability for the Aspen Skiing Company. “Yet he’s also

He’s also modest. With every trip down Colorado’s back roads to dig up stories, Best says he’s humbled by what he doesn’t know: “Just when I think I understand something, I get slapped up the side of the head.”

Dave Marston is the publisher of Writers on the Range, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He lives in Durango, Colorado.

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

‘OPPENHEIMER’ AND WITCH HUNTS

Upon leaving the theater after experiencing the movie Oppenheimer, I thought of two “standout” individuals from World War II who shortened the war: Alan Turing, who invented the first computer while deciphering the Nazi code, and Robert Oppenheimer, who coordinated the “Manhattan Project.”

They were both heroes who, after the war, had their lives destroyed by uptight conservative blowback. It became a national sickness of obsession, with the illusion that there was a communist under everyone’s bed.

For being gay, Turing eventually committed suicide after the British government chemically castrated him.

For having the wrong friends before and during World War II (including communists and other “undesirables”), Oppenheimer lost his federal government security clearance, after the fact That serious demotion came during the McCarthy era witch hunt lunacy of the early 1950s. It was a time of unbounded madness, in which Oppenheimer was even grilled over his support of anti-fascists fighting in Spain (the Lincoln Brigade).

If similar McCarthy-like witch hunts had occurred during the Vietnam era, at least half of us who served in the military would have been jailed or worse for what we believed, and who we associated with (“dirty hippies,” etc.). The truth

LETTERS

was, our military couldn’t have done that or they would have found it impossible to have enough soldiers and sailors to conduct an insane war.

The parallels between the witch hunts 70-plus years ago and today’s witch hunts in Congress, conducted by “Gym” Jordan and others, is striking and frightening.

It makes the Oppenheimer movie a must-see.

— Pete Simon / Arvada

THE MATH OF GLOBAL BURNING

We are victims of a conspiracy between the government, corporate media and the oil and gas industry. Actually, they are all the same single entity. Oil and gas buys the government, government tells the media what to say and do, and the media advertises the oil and gas, and does PR for the government.

Fifty years ago, after the first Earth Day Celebration, gas in the U.S. cost $.39 a gallon. In Europe, gas was sold by the liter, and it came to about $4 a gallon. In America the policy was to keep the price low and the consumption high. In Europe, the policy was to keep the price high and the consumption low.

During those 50 years, the global population doubled. And now a gallon of gas costs $4 in the USA.

That’s the simple math of global burning.

— Seemanta / Boulder

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A MIXED RULING

Colorado Court of Appeals reverses civil conspiracy claims, affirms others in anti-SLAPP lawsuit from 2021 City Council elections

BY WILL MATUSKA

It started with leaked screenshots and a fake Twitter account.

What followed was a defamation lawsuit filed by former City Council candidate Steve Rosenblum against five political organizers and Boulder Progressives, a local nonprofit that endorses candidates and ballot measures, in September 2021.

Nearly two years later, on Aug. 3, the Colorado Court of Appeals reversed an order by the Boulder District Court in the lawsuit’s claim of civil conspiracy for all defendants (Eric Budd, Katie Farnan, Ryan Welsh, Mark Van Akkeren, Sarah Dawn Haynes and Boulder Progressives), but affirmed claims against organizer Budd.

In addition to the dismissed civil conspiracy charge, the lawsuit accused Budd of misappropriation and defamation prior to the 2021 council elections, which Rosenblum lost by less than one percentage point.

Rosenblum argues the opposing political activists attacked his personal reputation, which impacted the outcome of the vote.

Lisa Sweeney-Miran, a member of Boulder Progressives, calls the appellate court ruling “precedent-setting” because it upholds Colorado’s anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) law, passed in 2019, which is designed to protect engagement in government processes in issues of public concern.

“We’re very glad to see affirmation of free speech and the importance of open and informed elections,” she told Boulder Weekly. “And we believe very strongly in the importance of

making sure that everyone knows who they are voting for and what the values and beliefs of candidates in every election are. We’re looking forward to this upcoming election cycle and we’re pleased that the court has affirmed the importance and need of folks engaging in these elections in a meaningful way.”

It’s an important win for Boulder Progressives as the organization leans into the 2023 election cycle that features an open seat for the mayor and four on the Boulder City Council.

The main concern in the lawsuit

district court found he had no connection to the Reddit account and did not make the statements attributed to him.

While the majority of the claims in this case have been dismissed, Budd alone still faces the possibility of prosecution for creating a Twitter account under Rosenblum’s name, which included links to Safer Leaks, prior to the 2021 election.

Judge Fox calls Rosenblum’s assertion of misappropriation against Budd a “legally sufficient claim” because Budd used Rosenblum’s name, image and likeness through the Twitter account, which could benefit Budd by undermining the efforts of a political candidate he opposed.

“In [creating an impersonation account on Twitter], Budd prevented Rosenblum from using the account name for his own campaign purposes and, arguably, created the appearance that Rosenblum’s campaign endorsed the contents of the Safer Leaks blog,” Fox wrote in the Aug. 3 ruling.

NOW YOU KNOW

This week’s news in Boulder County and beyond

BY WILL MATUSKA

BICYCLIST DIES ON DIAGONAL

Our community grieves the tragic loss of Magnus White, a 17 year old on the U.S. national cycling team, who was struck by a driver on the Diagonal Highway (CO 119) while riding his bike.

The rising star in off-road cycling won the 2021 USA Cycling National Championship and represented the U.S. in the Cyclo-cross World Championship last year in Arkansas.

The cities of Longmont and Boulder, Boulder County and the Colorado Department of Transportation are working on plans to pave a separated bikeway on the Diagonal to connect Boulder and Longmont. The project is in its final design phase, with constructruction scheduled for 2024.

was an anonymous blog called Safer Leaks that used screenshots to call attention to comments made in a Slack group chat by members of Safer Boulder, a grassroots citizens’ group focused on crime and safety, of which Rosenblum is a member. The comments made disparaging and violent remarks about people experiencing homelessness.

Some comments proposed allowing wild animals to attack encampments and using fire hoses or rubber bullets to disperse residents.

The Safer Leaks blog also included a link to an anonymous Reddit account containing other alarming remarks about homeless people. While Rosenblum admitted to writing in the Safer Boulder group chat, the

To justify the defamation claim, a plaintiff has to provide evidence the defendant acted with “actual malice,” knowledge that what they were doing was false or blatant “disregard” for the truth. The court of appeals found that Rosenblum has a “reasonable likelihood of success” at trial in regards to the defamation claim because the Twitter account and link were published together, which Fox says created a false endorsement. Budd may have acted with “actual knowledge” that it was false.

Budd says the Court of Appeals’ decision was “overall positive.”

“I think it’s important that the Court of Appeals affirmed the right to engage in local elections and free speech, and that I really tried to make sure that all of my actions are always in that vein,” Budd says. “And so that’s my priority in working through these as they go forward.”

Rosenblum is free to move forward with the additional claims against Budd in court.

MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE FOR BOULDER COUNTY

Unincorporated Boulder County will see an increase in minimum wage starting Jan. 1, 2024. The move by Boulder County Commissioners will raise the minimum wage to $15.70 per hour in Allenspark, Niwot, Eldora, Coal Creek Canyon, Eldorado Springs, Gold Hill, Gunbarrel and Hygiene. Colorado’s 2023 statewide minimum wage is $13.35 per hour.

Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette and Boulder are partnering to coordinate minimum wage increases starting Jan. 1, 2025.

A VOTE ON OCCUPANCY

Boulder City Council will vote on updating the occupancy limit ordinance on Aug. 17.

At its June 15 meeting, the Council showed support for increasing the occupancy to five unrelated people throughout the city (News, “Now you should know,” June 22, 2023). The current ordinance allows three unrelated people to live together in low-density zoning districts and four in high-density zones.

Raising the limit has been on the table since a ballot initiative failed in 2021. Council will hear public comment prior to vote.

PASSING OF A GIANT

Louisville removes a beloved tree in declining health

BY WILL MATUSKA

South 88th Street in Louisville is no different than the other roads veining through Boulder County. There’s a fenced-in prairie stretching to the east. To the west, you can seeBoulder’s Green Mountain and jagged Flatirons between trees planted in the road’s median.

The thoroughfare forms a T with Dillon Road as you round the final curve.

But what looms behind the traffic light ahead is a somewhat unexpected character: a lone cottonwood.

Camped in the turn lane on 88th, it’s easy to anthropomorphize the solemn tree: straggly branches and leaves become an untamed coiffure and the changing red and green lights turn into eyes.

Planted alongside a busy intersection and near a walking path, residents of Louisville have passed it countless times on their morning commute, or after picking up their kids at the nearby Monarch K-8 school.

Some in the area have a strong affinity for the tree.

“It feels like an old friend with the kind of craggy branches and grumpy old-man face,” says Louisville resident Adrienne Gotye. “It just feels like a bit of an icon to Louisville.”

After living at the intersection for 60 to 70 years, the City of Louisville removed the cottonwood on Aug. 9 after foresters noticed declining health and rising safety concerns following damage from the Marshall Fire.

The City’s Facebook announcement that the tree was slated to be cut got the attention of residents — garnering 20 sympathetic comments just days after the posting.

“It’s a beacon of light in every season,” one person wrote in the post’s comments.

“This brings tears to my eyes,” said another.

Sherry Sommer is one resident who says she will miss the tree.

“It’s just been the most special tree in Louisville because it’s iconic,” Sommer says. “It’s so majestic. To me, it’s a landmark. It gives us a sense of place in town, just to look at it and think ‘Wow, that’s something enduring.’”

The tree survived the Marshall Fire, though not without scars, to become a symbol of community resilience. Gotye says the health of the tree was one of the first things she thought of after the fire tore through the area.

Cottonwoods like this one are hotspots for wildlife. Rabbits and deer feed on the tree’s shoots and stems,

and it hosts a variety of insects that attract birds and other predators to its branches.

A honey bee colony made a home in this particular cottonwood, and was relocated prior to the removal process.

The City, aware of the community’s strong connection with the tree, wrote a heartfelt note to residents notifying them of its pending removal.

“We understand this may come as a sudden announcement, and we share the sadness many of you may feel at its departure,” the statement read.

According to the City, multiple independent experts assessed the tree’s condition and found factors like fire damage, high summer temperatures, moisture loss, cracking in the trunk base and canopy death have “rendered the tree beyond repair.”

Recent rapid decline was also attributed to a burst of growth from the wet spring that the cottonwood couldn’t sustain during the summer heat due to its age and health. As school traffic returns in the next few weeks, City staff were concerned the tree was a safety hazard for cars and pedestrians, especially the children who pass on their way to school.

While many comments from Louisville residents about the tree’s removal were somber, others brought thoughtful ideas of reusing the tree’s wood. Throughout the removal process the City was “on the lookout” for pieces of the tree to be saved and repurposed.

The city will honor the tree’s memory by planting two Bur Oaks in the area.

Workers prepare to remove the dying cottonwood in its final hours. Photo by Will Matuska.

THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEART, WE WANT TO THANK OUR COMMUNITY FOR SUPPORTING LOCAL BUSINESSES!

THE BLACK SHEEP BEEKEEPER

Local apiarists say chemical-free beekeeping is a pipe dream, but one self-described ‘bee guardian’ begs to differ

BY CAITLIN ROCKETT

We’re only 10 minutes late, but we feel years behind. A woman is talking about queen supersedure as my friend and I take seats in the converted barn at Philanthropiece in Longmont. My friend raises an eyebrow at me.

A baker’s dozen or so of us have gathered over the Easter weekend to hear Corwin Bell teach a two-day intensive on chemical-free, top-bar beekeeping. It’s supposed to be a beginner’s class, but many of our classmates have kept bees for years, some professionally.

A fellow student admits this is the third time he’s taken Bell’s class: “I had a hive die this winter, so I obviously still have more to learn,” he says.

Bell exclusively uses top-bar designs — single-story, frameless, horizontal nests where bees build comb that hangs freely from removable bars — instead of the more commonplace Langstroth hives, which stack a colony

vertically in multiple boxes using frames with hexagonal-patterned foundations on top of which bees draw out comb. Practitioners like Bell, mostly backyard hobbyists, believe top bar is a more sustainable method of beekeeping because it more closely resembles a colony’s habit in the wild, like a hole in a tree or a hollowed out log.

Of course not all apiarists agree with this theory, nor do they agree with Bell’s adherence to chemical-free practices. That’s because nearly 50% of honey bee colonies in the U.S. died last year. This devastation stems from a combination of problems that entomologist Samuel Ramsey calls the three P’s: parasites, pesticides and poor nutrition.

“The threshold for honey bee losses each year, the economic injury threshold for a commercial beekeeper, is about 8%,” says Ramsey, an associate professor at CU Boulder. “We have been losing between 33% and 52% of

our bees every year for more than a decade now.”

Monoculture farming and large-scale agricultural pesticide use make bee colonies extra vulnerable to their most dastardly foe: the varroa mite. It’s in the management of this reddish-brown parasite where Bell diverges most from his fellow beekeepers.

“When I decided to get into beekeeping, I went online and everything was about chemicals, and [the bees] wouldn’t survive unless you [use] chemicals [to treat for mites],” Bell says. “And I was like, ‘Well, there’s no chemicals applied to [wild bees,] and they’re there year after year.’”

That’s when Bell decided to become a “bee guardian.”

During the first day of class in April he makes his goal clear: “I’m not here to teach you how to harvest a lot of honey. I’m here to teach you how to take care of bees.”

BELL’S METHODS

Corwin Bell grew up in Eldorado Canyon. He still keeps bees at his childhood home today, about 10 top-bar hives of varying sizes humming under the heavy shade of a grove of poplars.

“I started in the forest down here; there were always wild bees,” Bell tells

me as he cracks open a Cathedral Hive, a larger-sized top-bar design of his creation. “And so as a little kid, I would go up and climb the trees and watch them.” In addition to the hives before us, Bell also keeps hives in Crestone and for other individuals and organizations around the area.

He got interested in top-bar hives through a pamphlet from Colorado beekeeper Marty Hardison, who was a proponent of the less-conventional method. Bell sees the top-bar as a more “natural” option for beekeeping, both in form and function, and he and other practitioners typically claim it offers “unlimited” brood nesting (space for egg laying), easier accessibility for the beekeeper and no plastic or wax foundations that can hold on to pesticides. He ultimately views the top-bar design as a better mimic of what bees would use in a natural setting.

During our class in April, Bell openly discussed being the black sheep of the Boulder County beekeepers for eschewing chemical miticide treatments. Instead, Bell cuts out miteinfected drone brood comb, identifiable

Corwin Bell tests prototypes for a new design of Cathedral top-bar hive in Eldorado Canyon. Photo by Caitlin Rockett.

by domed caps. Varroa have a proclivity to reproduce in these male-bee cells, and the cap confines them. Cutting the brood before drones hatch removes mites as well. Bell has to check and cut brood comb often.

His goal is to breed hives that develop genetic resistance to varroa, which is a goal shared by commercial queenrearers, though those operations still use chemical management. All of Bell’s hives are colonized by feral swarms he’s captured.

“[Other beekeepers] tell me, ‘Your hives will die if you don’t treat them.’ Well, you can see they’re not dying,” Bell says, motioning across his collection of working hives, some of which he says have survived over a handful of years. “What I’m having the biggest trouble with is dropping temperatures” in the winter.

Tim Brod, owner of Highland Honey in Longmont and a commercial queenrearer who treats for varroa, doesn’t buy it.

“You can go and scratch open some drone brood and get an indication [of your infestation],” he says, “but it’s a little bit like looking at a satellite of one area of I-25 and saying, ‘Oh, there’s no traffic in Denver.’ You only looked at Thornton.”

Brod keeps bees at a much larger scale than Bell, managing an estimated 400 hives. He’s got no problem with backyard hobbyists keeping top-bar hives as long as they treat for mites. But he’s unapologetic in his dismissal

of any notion that the topbar design is a more natural form of beekeeping.

“People are unaware of the amount of time and attention it takes to keep bees alive,” Brod says. “Whether it’s a top-bar hive, Langstroth, hexagonal, Soviet-bloc era chunk of ice or a Navy sea locker, the shape of the hive is just a distraction from the amount of time and energy that it takes. If we have different hives, it might take a little bit more attention with hive X, it might be more challenging to work hive X, but that’s OK. You just have to know that it takes a little more time to work that hive. But if you make up a story that a hive is way more natural, you’re really screwing the pooch. You’re making a fantasy that I think is really a disservice to yourself, your neighbors, to the bees, as an environmentalist.”

Ramsey says that non-treatment beekeepers are “almost always smallscale.” It’s just not feasible in the commercial arena.

“You would lose 80-something percent of your stock [of bees] and all of your money,” he says.

Honey bees contribute approximately $18 billion per year to the U.S. econo-

my, according to Ramsey, through pollination of major crops like apples, melons, pumpkins and, the biggest of them all, almonds. Large-scale beekeepers ship their bees thousands of miles in some cases to pollinate crops, across multiple states through various seasons. It’s how most professional beekeepers make their money, and at least part of the reason why non-treatment is such a non-starter in the commercial beekeeping space: Without bees, our food system looks totally different.

‘THE RED-HEADED STEPCHILD’

Beth Conrey is the owner of Bee Squared Apiaries in Berthoud, where she oversees around 150 hives. Like Brod and Bell, Conrey teaches classes. Like Brod, she disagrees with nonchemical methods of mitigating varroa.

“I will use a certified organic miticide, because that’s a better balance for me,” she says as we overlook her property butted up against the Little Thompson River. “[No chemical treatment] is great

Caitlin Rockett and Christi Turner inspect their newly installed top-bar hive. Photo by Ross Palmer.

Corwin Bell shows a swarm catcher. Photo by Caitlin Rockett.

as long as you have nonstop funds to continue to buy bees, because they’re dying, not just from [varroa] but from a whole host of other things. We are not going to genetically breed mite-resistant bees in the field in the time needed to do it. I admire people who try to do that, but I think they’re fools as well.”

She sees organic pesticides as a “transition” and actually agrees with Bell that the true answer, “the longterm strategy, is breeding.”

“It’s actually fixing all the disasters we’ve created that have made this thing so very violent,” she says.

Conrey calls beekeeping “the redheaded stepchild of agriculture,” a small but necessary block of 120,000 apiarists at the mercy of industrialized crop farmers who are allowed, by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to spray their fields with neonicotinoids, which are known to kill colonies. (The late Boulder-based beekeeper Tom Theobold’s Niwot Honey Farm was part of the lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency that led to neonics being taken off the market for non-commercial gardeners.)

“There are these [chemicals] that are known contributors [to bee death], and why are we exempting agriculture from this discussion on it?” Conrey asks. There’s no federal mandate for industrialized farmers to warn nearby

beekeepers when they are spraying; there are only voluntary lists, like FieldWatch. She, Brod and Bell have all lost colonies to drifting neonicotinoid pesticide spray.

Ramsey, who worked for the USDA’s Bee Research Lab in Beltsville, Maryland, doesn’t deny there’s an issue with neonics, but he says the real problem is monoculture, which is much larger, deeper and harder to fix.

“Any perturbation can destroy the entirety of the system; a new insect that has simply evolved a new way of attacking a crop can kill all the crops. It’s happened to us multiple times. It’s happening now with bananas,” he says. “Because we have this system of monoculture crops, we are incredibly reliant on pesticides and if we banned neonics, we’d be back to another [harmful chemical], when what we need to do is reform the system itself and develop a better way of [farming] so that we are not just on this constant treadmill and never getting anywhere.”

Beekeepers have to take a tip from corporate America, Ramsey says: band together and lobby Congress for change.

“We have a tendency in the U.S. to talk about how we have such an amazing system that is free of corruption, but what we created was a

Caitlin Rockett looks through the window of her top-bar hive. Photo by Christi Turner.

system where corruption is legal. So you have people paying politicians to do specific things that in other countries would be considered a bribe or problematic. And for us, we call it lobbying. The more money you have, the more your policy concerns are more heavily weighted in that system. If beekeepers are not joining together as a lobbying force, oftentimes their concerns don’t make it into policy. And that is something that we have to figure out how to manage. Are we going to come together as a bloc and start moving things forward, or are we going to reform the system and take money out of politics?”

‘CURIOUS ECONOMICS’

The problem is, there’s no money in beekeeping, Brod says.

“We have curious economics in the United States where the only way large beekeepers can stay alive is by being in bed with Big Ag to do the almond pollination.”

Brod estimates he stopped running his colonies out to California 15 years ago. The return on investment is meager if you don’t own everything you

need, like tractor trailers, and the possibility of disease increases. Conrey’s smaller operation has never transported bees for large pollination events, but she would like to work with local orchards.

“Urban beekeeping is a doubleedged sword,” Conrey says.

“Because it’s a really steep learning curve to get to be a good beekeeper. Most people survive two to three years out of it. It’s expensive. It’s timeconsuming. It’s incredibly ungratifying to kill bees, even if it’s not really your fault, and it’s really hard to stomach that all the time.”

Every beekeeper, differing methods aside, has a reverence for this collection of insects that work as a single entity. The honey bee is endearing to people, perhaps, because it does what we cannot: It acts for the greater good each and every time.

“If we can collectively act like our colonies, our life would be much better, but we don’t,” Conrey says. “And we’re not going to start anytime soon. What’s that saying? If you’re not invited to dinner, you’re what’s for dinner. That’s where bees are. They are what Big Ag is eating for dinner.”

An employee at Bee Squared Apiaries displays a Langstorth frame. Photo by Caitlin Rockett

MUSIC

YOUR EARS ARE GONNA HURT’

Experimental heavy music showcase turns up the volume

BY JEZY J. GRAY

If our quiet corner of the Front Range has seemed louder in recent years, that’s partly by design. Fueled by its beating black heart in Denver, the region’s extreme music scene has grown wings over the past decade — serving as a launching pad for some of the most renowned acts across the heavy spectrum, while attracting top-level touring bands making unholy noise around the country.

“When I was coming up and trying to bring bands to Denver for shows, I was emailing and begging them to come out here to the middle of nowhere,” says Ethan McCarthy, a longtime DIY music linchpin best known as frontman of the somber and suffocating doom-metal trio Primitive Man. “Now it seems like

everybody comes here, and we don’t miss out on a lot of shit.”

McCarthy joins a deep and diverse bench of heavy-music purveyors who will soon descend on South Broadway for the inaugural Ghost Canyon Fest, three days of ear-splitting ruckus happening Aug.

11–13 at Hi-Dive, Skylark Lounge and Mutiny. He’ll be performing with his dark ambient drone project Many Blessings, alongside acts like fellow Colorado bruisers Church Fire, Austin post-punk outfit Pleasure Venom, Canadian noise rockers BIG|BRAVE and dozens more.

“I think Denver and the Front Range in general has gotten more open over the years to experimental music that’s sort of outside the bubble,” says festival co-organizer Jeremy Brashaw of local psych-rock act New Standards Men, who moved here from Chicago in the early 2000s. “One of the biggest things I’ve seen is an openness to a wide swath of heavy music, from doom and sludge metal to all these different variations. Seeing that [inspired us] to say, ‘These things can all work together.’”

This realization dawned on Brashaw and fellow musicians Cory Hager, Sean Dove and Brian Dooley during an inspired round of drinks at Denver’s TrashHawk Tavern in late 2019. After the suc-

cess of a similar local showcase spearheaded by Brashaw and Dooley earlier that year, the friends hatched a plan to put together a larger-scale festival that scrambles the boundaries of esoteric subgenres while honoring a core commitment to extremity and experimentation.

“Music can sometimes be put into these boxes and commodified, and this is just the opposite of that. It breaks through all those rules you’re supposed to follow,” says Jennifer Koshatka Seman of Loveland artrock trio Shiny Around the Edges, who kick off the festival with their Aug. 11 set at Skylark Lounge. “These are people doing the thing they want to do — sometimes it’s really harsh, or it’s just a completely different approach to music. … You might be shocked. Your ears are gonna hurt. But this is the kind of music that moves you.”

That last sentiment might sound like a metaphor, but the multi-instrumentalist and Metropolitan State University of Denver lecturer is speaking literally. While each artist brings something singular to the diverse three-day bill, Seman says many of these disparate acts are connected by a shared physicality that registers deep within the body.

“You feel almost like your molecules shift because of the volume or the intensity of the playing. That kind of visceral performance is something I think almost all these bands have in common,” she says. “So if you want something different, and to really feel different, this is the place to be.”

ON THE BILL: Ghost Canyon Fest. Fri.–Sun., Aug. 11–13, multiple venues, $15-$22. Weekend passes: $50

WOMEN TO THE FRONT

Three can’t-miss Ghost Canyon acts fronted by people who aren’t dudes

Consider the stereotype of a heavy-music artist — from harsh noise to post-punk and points in between — and your mind’s eye likely conjures a burly guy with a beard. But as the inaugural Ghost Canyon Festival lineup attests, that limited vision of the scene and who it belongs to is in desperate need of a refresh.

“I’ve often been the only woman in the room at shows like this … but there are so many women in these bands,” says Jennifer Koshatka Seman of Shiny Around the Edges, who co-founded the Colorado-viaTexas outfit with husband and guitarist Michael Seman more than two decades ago. “You wouldn’t think that would still be a conversation in 2023, but it kind of is.”

MASMA DREAM WORLD (Brooklyn, NY)

“New Standards Men played with Masma Dream World when we were on tour in March, and seeing them was one of those life-altering shows. Once we started really talking about getting this fest going it was like, ‘Well, Masma Dream World has to play. It has to happen. This must be a thing.’” – Jeremy Brashaw, festival co-organizer

FLOODING (Lawrence, KS)

“The unrelentingly somber self-titled debut from Flooding — singer-guitarist Rose Brown, bassist Cole Billings and drummer Zach Cunningham — is catnip for fans of slowcore legends Codeine or Texan stone-gazers True Widow.” –Charlie Zaillian, Bandcamp Daily

SHINY AROUND THE EDGES (Loveland,

CO)

“I don’t think we fit neatly into a box, but when I listen to early Sonic Youth — like, Confusion Is Sex era — I feel like I’m channeling that balance of aggressive explosion and then restraint and intensity. … I feel like our music has space in it. There’s sometimes a lot of noise, and it’s always pretty loud. But there’s room for something to happen.” – Jennifer Koshatka Seman, multi-instrumentalist

and singer

Loveland art-rock trio Shiny Around the Edges kicks off the inaugural Ghost Canyon Festival at Skylark Lounge in Denver on Aug. 11. Photo by Michael Briggs.

‘INFLECTION POINT’

New leadership team at Butterfly Effect Theatre invites audiences to ‘dwell in possibility’ with the company’s 18th season

BY TONI TRESCA

Change was in the air during the Colorado Theatre Guild’s annual award ceremony last month. The 17th Annual Henry Awards, presented by the organization since 2006 to recognize local achievements on stage, also served as a moving farewell to Rebecca Remaly and Stephen Weitz, co-founders of the Boulderbased Butterfly Effect Theatre of Colorado (BETC).

The husband-and-wife team, who earlier this year handed the reins to Jessica Robblee and Mark Ragan after running the theater for nearly two decades, left on a high note. Last fall’s BETC production of The Royale — based on the true story of Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight world champion — took home a recordbreaking nine Henry Awards, a stark reminder of the big shoes left to fill

“Stephen said to us, ‘Good luck, it’s your baby now,’ and I was like, gulp,” says Robblee, BETC’s new producing artistic director, who admits she feels pressure to carry on Remaly and Weitz’s legacy. “It is an honor and a privilege to continue [BETC], and I am thrilled that Stephen and Rebecca were honored at the Henry Awards.”

But BETC supporters had even more reason to celebrate at this year’s ceremony. Robblee won the 2023 Henry Award for Lead Actress in a Play for her performance in The Belle of Amherst by William Luce, which aims to shed new light on the poet Emily Dickinson. The play was produced by Clover & Bee Productions, a theater company founded by Robblee and Ragan that has been folded into BETC.

As a part of the company’s upcoming 2023–2024 season — themed around the Dickinson quote, “I dwell in possibility” —

The Belle of Amherst will be re-staged in a five-show run at the Dairy Arts Center from Nov. 22 through 26.

“Since it’s a transition year for us, we kind of wanted to use a few shortcuts to help us learn the ropes this year,” Robblee says. “Bringing a short stint of The Belle of Amherst to the Dairy Thanksgiving weekend made logistical sense and allowed us to fulfill this promise we made while performing at Buntport Theater to take the show to Boulder.”

BETC will also be touring the production at Millibo Art Theatre in Colorado Springs from Nov. 2 through 12 as part of its efforts to expand the company’s reach. “Mark and I are excited about fostering connections across Colorado,” Robblee says. “We have numerous

opportunities for cross-pollination across the state’s artistic community throughout our season.”

In addition to expanding its reach geographically, BETC will also present a diverse set of offerings during its upcoming 18th season. Productions will include mainstage shows at venues like the Dairy and the Savoy Denver, along with a play-reading series (Cafe Au Play) hosted by BETC veteran Dr. Heather Beasley and two new improv comedy shows (King Penny Golden Radio Hour and MAD LIBrarians).

“I think we’ve really hit an inflection point,” says Ragan, BETC’s new managing director. “Ticket sales are surprisingly booming right now, so I am looking forward to seeing if our first season takes off. We have a good lineup of shows, and our subscription sales are currently ahead of last season.”

RAISING THE CURTAIN

BETC’s upcoming season kicks off Oct. 26 with the Colorado premiere of Coal Country, a gripping story built from interviews with the survivors of a mine explosion in West Virginia, written by Erik Jensen and Jessica Blank and woven with the music of Steve Earle.

“It’s the first time it’s being done outside New York City, and we have an amazing cast,” Ragan says. “No one play completely defines us, but Coal Country will define our taste.”

In keeping with the company’s emphasis on new work, BETC will present the world premiere of Holly, Alaska! for its holiday show in December. The play by Matt Zambrano follows a humble and hilarious group of locals who band together to ensure that the town holiday pageant continues.

“We wanted to bring something sunny and festive to the holiday season that the whole family could enjoy,” Robblee says. “Expect an all-ages play with a somewhat Pixar sensibility. Holly, Alaska! is sharp enough for adults to enjoy themselves while remaining playful and enjoyable for kids.”

The final mainstage play in BETC’s 18th season, What the Constitution Means to Me, is a comedic look at how the founding document of the United States has influenced the lives of four generations of women in the family of playwright Heidi Schreck.

“I was fortunate enough to do What the Constitution Means to Me in Jackson, Wyoming, for just two weekends this spring,” Robblee says of the show running early next year at the Savoy Denver and later that spring at the Dairy in Boulder. “It’s such an exciting and important play that is incredibly smart and funny. Mark and I wanted this play to have a longer life and bring it to our area. … Because it’s such a notable script, we think both Denver and Boulder will be interested in the show.”

With this slate of performances, the new BETC leadership team hopes to continue Remaly and Weitz’s mission of producing “powerful, engaging, topquality performances” that reverberate both on and off the stage.

“BETC has created strong production and such a supportive community,” Robblee says. “We’re honored to continue working to do the very same.”

ON STAGE: BETC 2023-2024 Season. Oct. 26, 2023-May 19, 2024. Season tickets: $140

Chris Kendall performs in Coal Country, kicking off the BETC 2023-24 season Oct. 26 through Nov. 19.

Photo by Michael Ensminger Photography.

Mark Ragan and Jessica Robblee took over for BETC co-founders Rebecca Remaly and Stephen Weitz earlier this year. Photo courtesy BETC.

RANGE LIFE

The latest from Colorado novelist Peter Heller dances with the wolves of Yellowstone National Park

BY BART SCHANEMAN

Peter Heller is nothing if not consistent. In interviews going back more than a decade to the publication of his first best-selling novel, The Dog Stars, the Denverbased author has described his writing process the same way. He says he starts with a line that captures his attention, then “lets it rip.”

For his latest novel The Last Ranger, published July 25 via Knopf, Heller begins with this sentence: “The night of the buffalo it rained.” And it rips from there.

“As I wrote, it became apparent that I was in Yellowstone, in the Lamar Valley,” says Heller, who got his start as an adventure journalist with outlets like National Geographic, Men’s Journal and Outside. He went on to discover that his protagonist was an

enforcement ranger in the park who was dealing with an accident. This method of writing his way into a story, rather than plotting it out beforehand, allows Heller to “bump into” what’s in his heart — and what’s concerning him at the moment.

What was concerning the novelist as he wrote The Last Ranger was the “American Serengeti” of the Lamar Valley, the wolves in Yellowstone, and what they represent to the characters of the novel. He also explores what the wolves mean to the broader ecosystem of the American West and the conflicts they symbolize.

Heller developed his passion for the region while on assignment with Condé Nast Traveler a few years ago to report on the Yellowstone wolves. He went out in late September, which

he calls “a heartbreakingly beautiful time of year to be there.”

He recalls seeing the Lamar Valley’s river and meadows, its trees and rimrock, its elk and deer, its foxes and bison. “Then we got to where we could set up spotting scopes, and I saw wolves at the edge of the trees, watching the herds,” Heller says. “It just did something to me. I felt that wildness along my skin. It was really a visceral feeling.”

‘CAMPFIRE STORYTELLER’

For the next five days, he went back to watch the wolves in their rendezvous spot, where the pups play, and where the pack returns with food in the morning after a night of hunting. “I was completely smitten,” Heller says. He’s gone back in the fall several more times, where he hikes and fishes for cutthroat trout in those creeks, sometimes downstream from a grizzly bear. It’s a nice way to do research, and those details are richly layered into The Last Ranger

As for plot, the book is mainly about ranger Ren

Hopper trying to figure out who’s trying to kill his friend, a wolf researcher. (He has an idea, but let’s not spoil the fun here.) It’s also about Hopper breaking up fights at campsites, stopping moron tourists from getting trampled to death by moose, and the other usual duties of someone working in the heart of one of America’s most controversially managed national parks.

But the novel is a lot more than a thriller, and Heller rightly chafes at the characterization, because he’s not writing genre fiction.

“I’m an old campfire storyteller,” he says. “I’m really more interested in the music of the language than anything else. Yet as a campfire storyteller, you want people on the edge of their seats. It’s fun. Stuff is bound to happen. My education as a storyteller demands that things will happen, and they always do.”

When it comes to the characters populating his beautifully written works, Heller says he is fascinated by people who achieve a flow state by attaining mastery of their craft — whether it’s a painter or a fisherman or a ranger.

“The activity carries them, and they’re performing at the highest level in a relaxed way, which I think is always stunning,” he says. “So I guess it’s no coincidence that I write about people who are very passionate about whatever their job is.”

That brings us back to Heller’s own process, which shares similarities with many of his characters.

“Everything I pursue is about finding flow,” he says. “Getting into flow on a regular basis is how we attain mastery. I find that when I get up early and work and write, that ends up being the best part of my day, because that’s the place where I’m guaranteed to disappear. I forget my name. I forget that I’m a human being. I forget everything. I’m transported.”

ON THE PAGE: The Last Ranger reading and signing with Peter Heller. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder.

$5

The Last Ranger by Peter Heller was released July 25, 2023, via Penguin Random House.

Colorado author Peter Heller comes to Boulder Book Store for a reading on Thursday, Aug. 17. Photo courtesy the author.

EVERY WEDNSDAY BOULDER BLUEGRASS JAM

FRI. 8/11 - 8:00PM

PETER KARP BAND

SAT. 8/12 - 7:00PM

PINE TOP PERKINS BENEFIT WITH BOB MARGOLIN

MON. 8/14 - 8:00PM

MY SON THE HURRICANE

TUE. 8/15 - 8:00PM WILL EVANS (OF BAREFOOT TRUTH)

SAT. 8/19 - 9:00PM

SQUEAKY FEET

SUN. 8/20 - 7:00PM

GARRETT LEBEAU, JAY STILES AKA CRYSTAL FINGER: SOUTH AUSTIN BLUES REVUE

THU. 8/24 - 7:00PM

CLAY ROSE SINGER SONGWRITER

FRI. 8/25 - 8:00PM

TERESA STORCH BAND WITH MACKENZIE RAE

SAT. 8/26 - 7:00PM

COLLAPSING STARTS AND DECHEN HAWK

THU. 9/7 - 7:00PM

TROUBANDOURS WITH RAMAYA SOSKIN FEATURING BETH PRESTON & HUNTER STONE

SAT. 9/9 - 7:30PM

SETH GLIER

MON. 9/11 - 7:00PM

AMY LEVERE & WILL SEXTON

THU. 9/14 - 8:00PM

ANTONIO LOPEZ BAND & LAURIE DAMERON

SAT. 9/16 - 6:00PM

K9’S, COWBOYS & COCKTAILS FUNDRAISER

TUE. 9/19 - 6:30PM

MOJOMAMMA LIVE BROADCAST ON 88.5 KGNU

Tickets at RMPtix.com

4747 Pearl Suite V3A

DJ OPEN DECK COMPETITION

7-11 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, DV8 Distillery, 2480 49th St., Boulder. Free

Looking to mix it up on the 1s and 2s?

Sign up for one of three DJ competitions hosted by DV8 Distillery for a chance to win four paid gigs at “Boulder’s only queer bar and event space.” Throwdowns take place across the next three Thursdays in August. Sign up at bit.ly/OpenDeckBW 11

ART SHOW AND SALE SPECIAL EVENT

5-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11 and noon-4 p.m. Sat.-Sun., Aug. 12-13, First United Methodist Church of Lafayette, 1255 Centaur Village Drive. Free

From landscapes and still life to wildlife and portraiture, you’ll find it all during this annual art show and sale at First United Methodist Church of Lafayette. Come for the opening reception on Aug. 11 and explore works by local artists working primarily in oil paint during this three-day BoCo art extravaganza.

GIRLS’ NIGHT ON THE ROCK WALL

6-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, Apex Center, 13150 W. 72nd Ave., Arvada. $15

Head to the Apex Center in Arvada for a night of rock-wall climbing that’s just for the ladies. Ages 5-8 climb from 6-7 p.m.; ages 9-17 from 7-8 p.m.; and ages 18+ from 8-9 p.m. Registration is limited, so reserve your spot now at bit.ly/GirlsClimbBW 14

THE LUCAS SHOW - IMPROV COMEDY NIGHT

8-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 14, Pat’s Tap Craft Beer Hall, 1611 Coalton Road, Superior. Free

“Yes, and...” is the name of the game on Aug. 11, when the Superior Improv Co. hosts a night of on-the-cuff hilarity. Get ready for “an Armando-like improv comedy show inspired by the misadventures of a man called Lucas,” along with a great selection of brews at Pat’s Tap Craft Beer Hall.

10-13

COLORADO BRAZIL FEST

6:30 p.m. Thurs.-Fri., Aug. 10-13, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $20

Boulder Samba School invites you to the Dairy Arts Center for a celebration of Brazilian music, dance and food during Colorado Brazil Fest 2023. This cultural blowout features five shows by some of the country’s top performers — from samba to bossa nova, axé to choro, and points in between.

11-13

ROCKY MOUNTAIN FOLKS FESTIVAL

Fri.-Sun., Aug. 11-13, Planet Bluegrass, 500 W Main St., Lyons. $90 (single-day pass)

One of Boulder County’s most anticipated music events of the year returns with another lineup of performances from the leading folk-music artists of the moment at Planet Bluegrass. This year’s lineup features can’t-miss acts like Charley Crockett, Shovels & Rope, The Tallest Man on Earth and many more.

BIZARRE CAT BAZAAR

10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, 80 E. 2nd St., Nederland. Free

Looking for the purr-fect way to spend your Saturday? Head to downtown Nederland for the first Bizarre Cat Bazaar. Pay your respects to Ned’s historical Cat Mayor Fred for a fur-forward day of live music from local bands like Los Cheesies (in feline regalia, obviously) plus The Cattastic Cat Costume Contest, craft vendors and a 33-foot butterfly slide and pool.

12

DEMOLITION DERBY

4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 12, Boulder County Fairgrounds, 9595 Nelson Road, Longmont. $25

BoCo, start your engines! The Boulder County Fair Demolition Derby invites you to experience the high-octane action during this evening of “carcrashing, engine-revving, dirt-flying fun.” The multi-heat demo derby will feature fill-size stock cars, trucks, ’90s-and-newer models and more.

BOULDER

STREET SOCCER CLASSIC TOURNAMENT

10 a.m.-8 p.m. Sunday, August 13, Boulder Farmers Market, 13th St. Free

Are you ready for some fútbol? The Boulder Street Soccer Classic is a one-day tournament featuring youth and adult brackets, with teams competing five-on-five on small street courts for a chance at the glory of being crowned the first BSSC Champion. Registration is closed, but you can go cheer on the action during this community event in downtown Boulder. 13

COMMUNITY CUDDLES

3:30-7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13, Valmont Park, Valmont Road and Airport Road, Boulder. $25

Sometimes we all need a hug. That’s the idea behind Community Cuddles, promoting “a culture of authentic connection based on full honest consent” by “letting our common need for safe, non-sexual touch create connection.” Get in on the cuddle puddle at bit.ly/CuddleBW.

LITTLE CREATURES EXHIBITION OPENING

4-6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 14 Canyon Gallery at Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Free

Boulder Public Library welcomes you to the opening of the newest exhibition in the Canyon Gallery inside its mainbranch location downtown. Join worldrenowned entomologist Dr. Sammy Ramsey for an up-close look at the insect world — featuring photography, video and education on our interdependent relationship with these remarkable organisms.

COMMUNITY KIRTAN, MEDITATION AND SATSANG

6:15-8:15 p.m. Monday, Aug. 14, Eldorado Mountain Yoga Ashram, 2875 County Road 67, Boulder. $15

In the mood for a little Monday mindfulness? Make your way to Eldorado Mountain Yoga Ashram for an evening of kirtan, meditation and satsang (Q&A). Participants will practice silent meditation, sing various Sanskrit and Tibetan mantras and gain wisdom from upper-level teachers. All experience levels welcome.

Public Notice

The La Luna Community Coop will submit an application to the Colorado Division o Housing (DOH). The purpose of this application is to request $1,360,000 to develop 34 homes for purchase at 704 E. Cleveland Street. The request of funding from DOH is to benefit persons with low and moderate incomes b increasing the availability of affordable housing in Lafayette. It is not the intent to cause displacement from any existing housing; however, if persons are displace d from their existing residences reasonable housing alternatives shall be offered.

All interested persons are encouraged to contact the applicant for further information.

Written comments should be sent to 704 E. Cleveland Street 80403 or email president@lalunacommunitycoop.com and will be forwarded to DOH for consideration during the application process.

Members of the public may request a public meeting and should arrange a request with the Applicant. Applicant shall post notice of meeting (Date, Time, and Location) to ensure other members of the public are aware of meeting. If reasonable accommodations are needed for persons attending the public meeting, please contact the Applicant.

Legal Notice No.

First Publication: July 28 th , 2023

Last Publication: July 28 th , 2023

Publisher: The Daily Camera

LIVE MUSIC

THURSDAY,

AUG. 10

RIVER MANN WITH WYATT ESPALIN AND RAMAYA SOSKIN 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15

THE PHARCYDE WITH MASTA ACE, STAY TUNED AND DEF-I 8 p.m. Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, 2635 Welton St., Denver. $30

PARKER MCCOLLUM WITH WILLIAM BECKMANN AND RANDY ROGERS

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

MELON HUSK WITH FLOWER HEAD, THE HEMLOCK BAND AND PILL JOY 8 p.m. Lost Lake, 3602 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $14

THE MARSHALL TUCKER BAND

7 p.m. Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place, Denver. $30

FRIDAY,

AUG. 11

AIRSHOW WITH SOUTHBOUND STRING 9 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $13

CORDOVAS WITH JANE & MATTHEWS 7 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15

JON PARDI WITH LARRY FLEET, RANDALL KING AND DJ HIGHMAX

7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $70

BODEANS 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $25

WILDERMISS 5:30 p.m. Downtown Erie, 500 Briggs St., Erie. Free

BLACK JOE LEWIS 5:30 p.m. Steinbaugh Pavilion, 824 Front St., Louisville. Free

THE DRUMS WITH COLD HART Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $26

PLAINS ARCHAIC WITH LOWER TAR, K129, PRECIOUS BLOOD, MODERN DEVOTION AND CXCXCX 9 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $10

GRABBITZ WITH COVEX

8:30 p.m. Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, 2635 Welton St., Denver. $20

TALL TALL TREES WITH PIE LOMBARDI 8 p.m. Lost Lake, 3602 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $16

TOWER OF POWER 8 p.m. Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place, Denver. $50

SPACE WIZARD. 8 p.m. Summit, 1902 Blake St., Denver. $35

ON THE BILL

SATURDAY, AUG. 12

THE NATIONAL WITH THE BETHS. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $55

THE ALCAPONES WITH THE DENDRITES 9 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $17

SLIGHTLY STOOPID WITH SOJA, IYA TERRA AND DENM 6 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $90

THE POTATO PIRATES WITH AXESLASHER, PITCH INVASION AND EYES OF SALT 8 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. $25

PETER STOLTZMAN WITH GONZALO TEPPA AND CLARE CHURCH.

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

BOB MARGOLIN WITH AUSTIN YOUNG 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $15

GHOST CANYON FESTIVAL

6 p.m. Multiple venues, Denver. $50 (weekend pass) Story on p. 14

LOST ’80S LIVE (WANG CHUNG, MISSING PERSONS, GENERAL PUBLIC AND MORE). 6 p.m. Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, 6580 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Greenwood Village. $40

LOWDOWN BRASS BAND WITH WAKE UP AND LIVE AND FLOAT LIKE A BUFFALO 8 p.m. Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, 2635 Welton St., Denver. $18

THE MOUNTAIN GRASS UNIT WITH THE FRIENDLY REMINDERS

8 p.m. Aggie Theatre, 204 S. College Ave., Fort Collins. $15

Singer-songwriter Natalie Mering brings her singular Weyes Blood project to the Boulder Theater for an unforgettable performance at the city’s landmark downtown venue. On the heels of her critically lauded 2022 LP And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow, she’ll be joined by Californiabased pop artist Sarah Kinsley during this can’tmiss show on Aug. 16. See listing for details

MONDAY, AUG. 14

WILL EVANS 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $20

THE STROKES WITH WEYES BLOOD AND SUPERFAN. 7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Resale: $180+ BULLY 8 p.m. Marquis Theatre, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $20

TUESDAY, AUG. 15

WYATT FLORES WITH EVAN HONER 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15

GEL 8 p.m. Marquis Theatre, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $22

NOT A TOY WITH LOST TERRA

9 p.m. Lost Lake, 3602 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $16

NF WITH CORDAE. 8 p.m. Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver. $80

SUNDAY, AUG. 13

CHARLEY CROCKETT 7 p.m. Rocky Mountain Folks Festival at Planet Bluegrass, 500 W. Main St., Lyons. $90 (one-day pass)

SLIGHTLY STOOPID WITH ANDY FRASCO AND THE U.N. AND THE ELOVATERS. 5 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $90

TOM PEVEAR 4 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

JUSTICE WARNER CABARET 5 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Free

MIGUEL ESPINOSA. 6 p.m. The Double Rainbow Ranch, 6541 N. 63rd St., Longmont. $20

DUANE BETTS WITH PALMETTO MOTEL AND CORDOVAS 8 p.m. Aggie Theatre, 204 S. College Ave., Fort Collins. $18

MIKE MAINS AND THE BRANCHES 8 p.m. Marquis Theatre, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $15

THE GIVING MOON WITH SHADOW WORK, THE SUM BEACHES AND MAGOO. 6 p.m. Lost Lake, 3602 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $12

SOULJA BOY 7 p.m. Summit, 1902 Blake St., Denver. $35

VIAL WITH THE BLACK GLOVES AND TEAM NONEXISTENT 8 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $15

BECK WITH PHOENIX, JAPANESE BREAKFAST AND SIR CHLOE

5:45 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $50

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 16

WEYES BLOOD WITH SARAH KINSLEY 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $35. BW Pick of the Week

THURSDAY, AUG. 17

RUNAWAY GROOMS WITH THE BARLOW 9 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $13

MT. JOY WITH FLIPTURN 8 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Resale: $130+ Story at boulderweekly.com

GIRL ULTRA WITH SHAO AND 2MX2 8 p.m. Aggie Theatre, 204 S. College Ave., Fort Collins. $15

FLOGGING MOLLY WITH THE BRONX AND VANDOLIERS 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $40

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

ON STAGE

It’s your last weekend to catch the Colorado Shakespeare Festival production of the seminal tragedy King Lear, playing at the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre through Aug. 12 and anchored by a blistering performance from Broadway icon Ellen McLaughlin. Scan the QR code for a Boulder Weekly review of the show. See listing for details

REPTILE LOGIC: A CORPORATE DISMEMBERMENT BY THE WOUNDED COBRA THEATRE

Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora. Through Aug. 13. $30

SEUSSICAL THE MUSICAL

The Spark, 4847 Pearl St., Unit B4, Boulder. Through Aug. 13. $28

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING PRESENTED BY COLORADO SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL Mary

Rippon Outdoor Theatre, Broadway Street & College Ave., Boulder. Through Aug. 13. $25

KING LEAR PRESENTED BY COLORADO SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre, Broadway Street & College Ave., Boulder. Through Aug. 13. $25 BW Pick of the Week

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

MISS RHYTHM: THE LEGEND OF RUTH BROWN Denver Center for the Performing Arts (Garner Galleria Theatre), 1101 13th St. Through Oct. 15. $46

DARCIE SHIVELY: REPLY HAZY, TRY AGAIN The New Local Annex, 713 Pearl St., Boulder. 10 a.m.-noon Tuesdays and Thursdays through Aug. 27.

agriCULTURE: ART INSPIRED BY THE LAND BMoCA, 1750 13th St., Boulder; and The Longmont Museum, 400 Quail Road. Through Oct. 1 (BMoCA) and Jan. 7 (Longmont Museum). $2 / $8

ABSTRACT COLORS + FORM.

R Gallery + Wine Bar, 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Through September 10. Free

BLUEBIRD SEASONS BY MARY TAYLOR YOUNG

DESERT RIDER: DREAMING IN MOTION Denver Museum of Art, 100 W 14th Ave. Parkway. Through Sept. 24. $15

NO BOUNDARIES: WOMEN TRANSFORMING THE WORLD Jerry Crail Earth Science & Map Library, 2200 Colorado Ave., Boulder. Through May 2024. Free

The latest from Colorado author Mary Taylor Young, Bluebird Seasons: Witnessing Climate Change in My Piece of the Wild, documents the subtelties of the climate crisis in her own backyard. Scan the QR code for a Boulder Weekly feature on Young, who drops by Pearl Street for a reading and signing event at Boulder Book Store on Aug. 10. See listing for details

6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 10, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. $5 BW Pick of the Week

ANNE WALDMAN POETRY

READING. 6 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, Tattered Cover - Aspen Grove, 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton. Free

DOGS ENJOY AFTERNOON READING (D.E.A.R.) 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13, Longmont Public Library, 409 4th Ave. Free

BEYOND THE SHORES: A HISTORY OF AFRICAN AMERICANS ABROAD BY TAMARA J. WALKER.

5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 14, Tattered Cover - McGregor Square, 1991 Wazee St., Suite 100, Denver. Free

THE LAST RANGER BY PETER HELLER.

6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. $5

Transportation, identity and landscape of the American Southwest collide in Desert Rider: Dreaming in Motion. Presented by Phoenix Art Museum, this vibrant exhibition running at Denver Museum of Art through Sept. 24 includes works by Carlos Frésquez, Carlotta Boettcher, Margarita Cabrera and more. See listing for details

Artwork by Carlos Frésquez

THIS IS US

Boulder’s Mimesis Documentary Festival offers revelation with a dash of hope

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

What is the story of us?

That’s a question many movies try to answer, sometimes with the “us” meaning you and me, sometimes with the “us” meaning everyone. Few ever get there, but it’s still a question worth asking, whether the answer is comforting or conclusive. And for the movies playing the Mimesis Documentary Festival — Aug. 15 through 20 at the Dairy Arts Center and CU Boulder’s B2 Center — the answers certainly feel conclusive, even if they’re not always comforting.

For the fourth summer in a row, Mimesis returns to Boulder with screenings, workshops and visiting artists. It’s a festival you don’t want to miss, even if you’ve never ventured into the foray of nonfiction filmmaking. Here the palette is diverse, and the canvas is broad; stories are personal, and technique rises to the top.

Jessica Beshir, a Mexican Ethiopian filmmaker, is Mimesis’ 2023 artist-infocus. She will be in attendance for a conversation on Aug. 19 about her debut feature, Faya dayi, a hallucinatory black-and-white dream, playing a day earlier at the Boedecker Theater.

In addition to Beshir, the festival will feature an offsite “spatial performance lecture” by Saeed Taji Farouky, 13 documentary blocks grouped by a common theme, and discussions galore. Pick anything from the program, and you’ll be in for a treat.

But you’ve got to make time for the Thin Strips block (Aug. 19): five shorts looking at our built environment, how it erases our history and shapes our future through eminent domain of every kind. A town is burned to the ground to make way for a dam (The Fall of Cannonsville), another is razed for a planned community (Brutal Utopia), vast plains become a neverending street of commerce (13th Ave

Fargo Mine Cart), an experimental university is remembered (Growing Up Absurd), and a team of gravediggers helps a family move remains from a cemetery soon to be turned into a park (Section 59).

Of that bunch, Section 59 feels the most personal. It should; the remains dug up are that of director Yasaman Baghban’s father. Talk about first-person cinema. Brutal Utopia has more remove — it’s constructed primarily by archival footage and narration — but it tells a story of America so succinctly that your allegiances are bound to shift at least twice while watching it.

Then there’s The Fall of Cannonsville, a modern-day doc working in tandem with another: 1960’s Indian Summer (Aug. 17-20). The connective tissue between the two is Charles Cadkin, the director of the former and the restoration director of the latter. Sixty years separate the two, yet both feel prescient. If you think the government has overreach now, wait until you see these.

But documentary filmmaking needn’t always wallow in the misdeeds of the past. For those seeking hope and a beautiful future, make time for the Speaking in Tongues block (Aug. 19), specifically Emily Packer’s Holding Back the Tide, a treatise on how oysters might save us environmentally and socially. If you were one of the millions who saw Fantastic Fungi and learned to embrace the allmighty mushroom, then here is your chance to fall under the spell of another optimistic sustenance.

BLOCK PARTY

TUESDAY, AUG. 15

The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost screens at the Boedecker Cinema inside the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder during the Mimesis Documentary Festival on Aug. 16. Photo courtesy Moserfilm.

DON’T MISS THESE THEMED PROGRAMS DURING THE 2023 MIMESIS DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL

FRIDAY, AUG. 18

7 P.M. – Opening Night: Miracle Spheres

Visão do Paraíso (Vision of Paradise) “follows a voyage of the Brazilian Military in search of an imaginary island with the same name as their country,” while Rebel Objects takes a “journey through [Costa Rica’s] deleted Indigenous history.”

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 16

1 P.M. – Connective Tissue

“These documentaries look intently at illusions of health, disability, self-advocacy and knowing the pain of others.”

4 P.M. – Mobile Roost

“Alternative perspectives interweave to examine the extraction and distribution of information by ambivalent technologies.”

7:30 P.M. – For Sure. Maybe.

“Confronted with the perpetual rhythm of change and the profound impact of childhood, we’re haunted by the uncertainty of our early years.”

THURSDAY, AUG. 17

10 A.M. – Parkland of Decay and Fantasy

“Technology and spirituality are parallel paranormal forces in an abandoned Chinese amusement park.”

1 P.M. – Photographic Memory

“A program that interrogates its own image making, the elusive memories that images preserve and the traces of oppression.”

7:30 P.M. – Eye Level

“Walking a tightrope between intimacy and audacity, the portraits in this program balance aesthetic risk with deep care for the labor, passion and life experience of their protagonists.”

1 P.M. – A Place to Be

“Personal archives of the hardcore mundane meet blurred memories and sacred sites. If home existed, we would be there by now.”

4 P.M. – Double Shift

“Lyrically powerful and formally bold indictments of the insidious violence women encounter –and perpetrate – in the domestic realm.”

SATURDAY, AUG. 19

1 P.M. – Thin Strips

“The dyadic implications of infrastructural development are full of desires and fantasies – eminent domain for the fabrication of totalizing truths in the name of progress.”

4 P.M. – Speaking in Tongues

“Non-human queer heroes help us imagine different ways of living and experiencing the world, breaking the mold of humanity’s self-destructive tendencies.”

SUNDAY, AUG. 20

1 P.M. – Do Not Carry Silence

“Historical and contemporary documents of rising activist voices and emerging revolutions, united by unwavering political catalyzers painting a vibrant horizon of hope for the future.”

4 P.M. – Latencies

“

Framing the intersections of democracy, environmental justice and scientific advancement, this selection of works offers a way into late capitalism’s various crises.”

7:30 P.M. – Closing Night: Spawning Points

“Players venture through the shifting borderlands between the organic and the artificial, testing their mettle, securing valuable resources, replenishing mana, harvesting precious loot, upgrading inventory and unlocking new achievements.”

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): In Stephen King’s novel It, a character named Beverly is in love with a man who projects a sense of authority but also listens well. He is strong-minded but receptive; confident but willing to be changed; self-possessed but open to influence. That’s an apt description of the allies I wish for you to attract into your life in the coming months. Whether they are lovers or partners, companions or collaborators, friends or colleagues, you need and deserve the high-quality, emotionally intelligent exchanges they offer.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): Seventyyear-old Taurus-born Eric Bogosian is a prolific playwright and author renowned for his hard-edged satire. The title of one of his books is Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead. But one critic speculates he may be softening as he ages, noting that he “seems more amused than disgusted by the decaying world around him, as if his anger has been tempered by a touch of hope.” The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to cultivate a comparable reshaping, dear Taurus. Can you tenderize what has been tough? Is it possible to find redemption or entertainment in situations that have been challenging? Are you willing to add more levity and geniality to your perspective?

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Decca is a UK-based record label that has produced the work of many major musicians, including Billie Holliday, the Rolling Stones, and Tori Amos. They made a huge mistake in 1962, though. A fledgling group named the Beatles tried to get signed to Decca. An executive at the company declined, saying, “We don’t like their sound. Groups of guitars are on their way out.” Oops. The Beatles eventually became the bestselling and most influential band of all time. I don’t think you’re at risk of making such a monumental misstep, Gemini. But please be alert to the possibility of a key opportunity coming into view. Don’t underestimate it, even if it’s different from what you imagine you want.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): I’m a Cancerian who used to be overly reactive to people’s carelessness. If someone was in a bad mood and flung a rash insult at me, I might take offense too easily. If a friend misunderstood me, even with no malice intended, I may have sulked. Thankfully, over time, I have learned to be more like a honey badger, whose thick skin protects it well against stings and pricks. I bring this up because the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to practice my approach. First step: Understand how people sometimes direct their frustration about life toward undeserving recipients. Second step: Vow to take things less personally. Third step: Give yourself regular compliments. Actually say them aloud.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Now and then, there comes a time when I acquire an uncanny knack for seeing the totality of who you really are. I tune in to everything you do that few others know about or appreciate. I behold the big picture of your best possible future. One of those magic moments has now arrived. And it’s no accident that your energy matches mine. In other words, my power to consecrate you reflects your ability to bless yourself. So give yourself the ultimate gift, please.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): In the 17th century, Virgo musician Johann Pachelbel composed a piece of music he called the Canon in D. It soon went out of style and disappeared into obscurity. But over 250 years later, a French chamber orchestra rediscovered it, and by the 1980s, it was everywhere. Ever since, Pachelbel’s Canon has been used in many pop songs and is a common anthem at weddings and funerals. I’m predicting a comparable revival for you, Virgo. An influence, creation, or person that has been gone for a while will re-emerge as a presence in your life. Be decisive in adopting it for your benefit.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): Author Iain S. Thomas tells us, “There is magic even in gridlock, in loneliness, in too much work, in late nights gone on too long, in shopping carts with broken wheels, in boredom, in tax returns.” He says it’s the same magic that prompted Joan of Arc to believe that God spoke to her and empowered her to lead an army. I wouldn’t agree that it’s the same magic. But I do advise us all to be alert for enchantment and interesting mysteries even in the most mundane affairs. I am a champion of the quest for holiness, delight, and marvels in seemingly unlikely locations. In the coming weeks, Libra, you will have a special talent for finding these revelatory joys.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): Poet Rainer Maria Rilke said, “Self-transformation is precisely what life is.” If that’s true, you are in luck. Of all the zodiac signs, you are the most skillful self-transformer. Moreover, you are entering a prolonged phase when your instinct and talent for self-transformation will be even more potent than usual. I plan to observe you closely in the hope of learning your tricks for changing into an ever-better version of yourself. Show us all how it’s done, dear Scorpio!

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): Born under the sign of Sagittarius, Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was one of history’s most influential composers of classical music. His elegant, lyrical works are still widely played today. He was also a revolutionary innovator who expanded the scope of many musical genres. One composition, Piano Sonata No. 32, prefigures elements of ragtime, jazz, and boogiewoogie—70 years before those styles emerged. In this spirit, I invite you to plant a seed for the future. You will soon get glimpses of creative shifts that will someday be possible. And you will have an enhanced ability to instigate the inventive momentum that generates those shifts.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): Let’s be honest. Most of us—maybe all of us!—fail to grasp the world objectively. Our perceptions get filtered through our opinions and beliefs and habit minds. The events we think we see are shaped by our expectations about them. Our projections often overrule the possibility of unbiased impartiality. We are serial misinterpreters. But there’s no need to be ashamed! It’s a universal human tendency. Having said all that, however, I believe you will have a special knack, in the coming weeks, for observing reality with more clarity and open-mindedness than usual. You will have an unprecedented opportunity to see accurately and gather fresh, raw truths.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Is this a phase of your cycle when you’ll be prone to saying things like “Why do you take me for granted?” and “I’m feeling cranky” and “It’s not what you said, it’s the way you said it”? Or are you in a time when the following expressions are more likely to emerge from your mouth: “I have come to understand you in a totally new and interesting way” and “Life has blessed me by removing one of my unnecessary obstacles” and “I would love to learn more about the arts of cooperation and collaboration”? Here’s what I think, Aquarius: Which way you go will depend on how clearly you set your intentions. Life will respond in kind to the moods you cultivate and the specific requests you make.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): Our bodies are imperfect. They are often less than 100 percent completely healthy. They don’t always do what we wish they would. Yet even when we feel less than our best, our body continually carries out millions of biochemical marvels, mostly below the level of our conscious awareness. As the creation of an evolutionary process that has unfolded for eons, our precious organism is an amazing work of art that we have every right to regard as miraculous. According to my astrological reckoning, the coming weeks are the best time this year to honor and celebrate your body. What does it need to flourish? Ask your intuition to show you.

DEAR DAN: I’m a 35-year-old cishet woman who just moved back to a big southern city. While I do want a committed partner eventually, all I want right now is something casual. I want some good PIV sex and to experiment with ass play, light bondage, and maybe attend a few sex parties. When I moved, I skipped the apps and met the first four men that I’ve slept with through friends. All four cishet men were in their mid-tolate 30s and each either had issues with keeping it up or came prematurely. I feel frustrated, disappointed, unsatisfied, and kind of guilty for feeling this way. If I’m going to keep sleeping with dudes in their mid-30s to mid-40s, are unreliable boners something I should expect? Is there any way to screen for this or is sleeping with someone the only way to find out? If they do have issues lasting as long as I’d like, how do I let them know that I’m moving on without it being obvious that it’s because I want someone who can keep it up and last at least 10 minutes? Is it ok that I’d rather move on to the next guy than try and have these potentially sensitive conversations when I only want something casual? Do you think I’d have better luck finding what I’m looking for on the apps?

— Hardly Aroused Recent Dicks

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

DEAR HARD: You don’t owe someone an explanation if you don’t wanna fuck them again. Ghosting on people is unnecessary and unkind, HARD, and casual sex partners are people, too. You can thank someone for their service without telling them why you aren’t interested in being serviced again. If a guy demands an explanation and you wanna give it to him, HARD, you can let him have it. And who knows? Maybe he’ll tell you that he was nervous or that he only has erection or endurance issues with new partners or that he immediately ran out and got himself some Viagra after that night. If you wanna give him a second chance, you can. If he disappoints you again, you don’t have to give him a third chance.

As for asking a guy in advance whether he can get or stay hard, HARD, that could induce the kind of performance anxiety that makes it harder for a guy can’t get or stay hard. So, fucking around until you find the guy or guys who can come through for you may be the better strategy. Also, you don’t have to wait to find a regular male partner before attending a sex party. Most sex parties don’t allow single men, but they welcome single women. The people you meet at a sex party will have expectations similar to your own — no one goes to sex parties looking for a serious commitment — and since you’ll be able to watch guys servicing other women, you’ll be able to see which guys get hard, stay hard, and last a while.

BARBECUE MEETS BASMATI

DJ’s Watering Hole pleases with paneer-stuffed po’boys and tikka burgers in globe-spanning flavor mashups

STORY AND PHOTOS

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

DJ’s Watering Hole has flown under the radar since opening in November, its location at 988 Dillon Road near U.S. 36 almost invisible from McCaslin Boulevard.

If you can find the restaurant, you’re greeted by wafts of meatyspicy-wood aroma. The renovated former Outback Steakhouse, with its big bar and large screens, makes DJ’s Watering Hole feel like a classic beer-focused sports bar that serves barbecue.

But as they dig into the large menu, diners learn there’s more to this establishment than meets the eye. Awardwinning Southern barbecue and sides are served alongside well-crafted tandoori-oven cooked Indian classics. Both cuisines are prepared traditionally, but the real magic happens in dishes that bring them together.

On the masala combo plate, deeply smoked brisket and pulled pork rise to new heights topped with a complexly spiced Indian sauce and served over fluffy, floral basmati rice. Hot from the tandoor, naan is perfect for grabbing bites of collard greens and baked beans.

We’ve encountered plenty of good (and bad) attempts at fusion food. This barbecue-meets-basmati mashup may seem worlds apart, but one taste and you realize these flavors are absolutely made for each other.

SCRATCH-MADE EVERYTHING

DJ’s Watering Hole resulted from a longstanding friendship between two local families. The name represents the first initials of the three owners: Darryl Johnson and cousins Jatin and Shivang Patel.

Jatin Patel opened Boulder’s Tiffins India Cafe in 2011, specializing in dosas and other South Indian dishes. He sold the restaurant in 2018.

“I wanted to have another restaurant, but not the same menu as before,” Patel says. “Darryl wanted to serve his family’s barbecue. We both love playing with flavors and spices so we brought barbecue and Indian together,” which works, he says, because the cooking methods — charcoal in the tandoor and hardwood in a smoker — yield similar flavors.

Indian cuisine wasn’t “a huge thing” in the African American community Johnson grew up in. Johnson and his son, Hank, co-own Longmont-based Rat’s WoodShack BBQ, serving awardwinning meats as a catering business and food truck.

You’ll see WoodShack barbecue sauces on the tables at DJ’s.

“My family is oldschool,” Johnson says, “but I wanted to do something new. People have never tasted barbecue flavors with Indian flavors.”

As a result, the menu at DJ’s Watering Hole offers fried chicken and pani puri chicken kabobs as well as chicken wings smothered in spicy barbecue sauce or mango chutney. Among the bestsellers are tandoori lamb kabobs with peppers, served with fiery vindaloo sauce and cool yogurt raita. The kitchen focuses on scratchmade everything, from masala to cornbread to Mama Nina Johnson’s pies, Patel says.

As co-proprietor of a place that dishes big platters of tender barbecue spare ribs, Patel says he’s especially focused on offering vegetarian and

vegan options, including fried cauliflower wings, a paneer cheese-stuffed po’boy and a paneer tikka burger.

A MATTER OF TIME

If you’re not paying attention, you might miss a series of small-but-lush garden spaces surrounding the restaurant’s sprawling outdoor dining area. “I grew up on a farm in India,” Patel says. “Everything we ate was grown or foraged, so I learned a lot.”

He happily takes diners on a tour, pointing out okra, purslane (little hogweed), coriander, mint, lamb’s quarters, peppers, nasturtium and mustard greens, plus herbs and flowers typically found in India. Patel is knowledgeable about the nutritional and Ayurvedic qualities of everything he grows.

“My dream is to eventually add a greenhouse to grow more food for the restaurant,” he says.

As his garden grows, Patel expects to use his crops in dishes of both fares on DJ’s menu. Okra, for instance, holds a special place in both Indian and African American kitchens.

Johnson has plans to introduce naan flatbreads stuffed with beef brisket, and combo platters to feed big parties. “We’re planning on offering Indian ribs and fried chicken spiced with cumin, coriander and chilies,” Patel adds.

Both owners agree it’s just a matter of time before their inspired mash-up goes viral.

(Left) Co-owners Jatin Patel and Darryl Johnson. (Right) Jatin Patel tends his garden outside DJ’s Watering Hole.

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: IMMERSIVE MINT

● The aromatic Mint Room is back! On Aug. 12, after a three-years hiatus, Boulder’s Celestial Seasonings tours will begin again with a stop at the tea shop, some sam pling sips and a nose-tingling visit to the mint storage room. Tickets to the formerly-free

● The only non-pink Voodoo Doughnuts in the Oregon-based chain is open at 3210 Arapahoe Road, Boulder.

● Masas & Agave is open and dishing up Oaxacan cuisine at 909 Walnut St., Boulder, former site of Supermoon and Arcana restaurants.

● New brewery news: Rocks & Hops Brewing is open at 2516 49th St., Boulder, and Bearded Brewer Artisan Ales is pouring at 1425 S. Airport Road in Longmont.

● Cheba Hut and SkinnyFats will fill the former Lazy Dog Bar & Grill location at 1346 Pearl St.

● Spirit Hound Distillers will add a Denver tasting room at 3622 Tejon St. Production of the award-winning spirits will remain in Lyons.

● Coming soon to Boulder: Boxcar Coffee Roasters at Table Mesa Shopping Center and L&L Hawaiian Barbecue at 2323 30th St.

CULINARY CALENDAR: ZOLO REDUX

● The Boulder Blind Cafe Experience, Aug.18-20 at the Dairy Arts Center, features a meal, discussions and performances in darkness (no blindfolds).

● Enjoy the famous chicken enchiladas and duck tacos from Boulder’s late, beloved Zolo Southwestern Grill one more time at a benefit event Aug. 18 at the Velvet Elk Lounge Tickets are $78: bit.ly/ZoloLove

WORDS TO CHEW ON: SUMMER DINING

“Newspapers draped over picnic tables; boiled crawfish, corn, and potatoes piled in the center. We are community eaters. We talk with our hands, we eat with our hands, we talk while we eat.”

Baylea Jones

Find farm-fresh local vegetables and fruits in Boulder Weekly’s 2023 guide to Boulder County roadside farm stands.

‘THE SECRET’S OUT’

The international history of Dagabi Tapas Bar

BY COLIN WRENN

Dagabi Tapas Bar is a family joint. It’s not uncommon to see tables filled with three generations of diners enjoying the restaurant’s blend of Mediterranean staples, and regulars are common at the Cheers-like back bar.

“Our slogan when I first bought it was, ‘Boulder’s best kept secret,’” says co-owner Noah Westby, who acquired the North Boulder eatery in October 2003. “The secret’s kinda out now.”

Laura and Jiroh Landeros opened Dagab in its current location in 1994. It had a brief stint as a Mexican restaurant before morphing into Dagabi Cucina, which served elegant and robust Italian fare.

“When I bought it,” Westby says, “it was pure Italian. Italian servers, Italian cooks, etcetera.”

But the restaurant’s lore runs deep, with a history that’s perhaps uknown to even its most devout patrons. Jiroh, who previously cooked in destinations including Vail, Dallas, Italy and Hawaii, first opened Dagabi with Laura in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, in the early ’90s. Many of the plates, some of which still act as menu cornerstones, were developed there, enjoying early test runs on sun-soaked beachgoers who felt like classing it up for supper.

So how did a beachside eatery from the Riviera Maya become one of Boulder’s most enduring and wellloved Mediterranean restaurants?

It started with a middle school trip.

Around 1993, Tanya Bonino-Westby, Noah’s wife and Dagabi co-owner, was in the seventh grade at Shining Mountain Waldorf. She and her classmates visited Playa del Carmen, where chance led them to a meal at Dagabi. One thing led to another, and the Landeros family decided to move to Boulder to send their kids to Waldorf.

“There was just a connection,” says Bonino-Westby, who, over the years, has worked at Dagabi as a hostess

and barback, along with acting as the Landeros’ nanny.

Both Westby and Bonino-Westby are Boulder locals. Westby previously co-owned Caffe Sole and its roasting company, as well as Pearl Street’s iconic Trident Booksellers.

“Dagabi was one of my coffee accounts,” says Westby, who used to service Dagabi’s coffee equipment long before he owned the restaurant.

So when the opportunity came to purchase the place, Westby felt the connections ran too deep to ignore. “I had never even thought about owning a restaurant,” he says.

In 2007, Westby and Bonino-Westby started to shift Dagabi’s menu to its current form. Under the direction of Antonio Rullo, who started as a server before rising to menu designer and kitchen manager, the team began replacing many of the heavier plates with a roster of tapas, paellas and rotating weekly specials.

The staff is extraordinarily tight knit. Bonino-Westby recently got back from a visit to Rullo’s family farm outside of Toledo, Spain, where she obtained a stockpile of saffron for the ever-popular paellas.

In July, Rullo left on sabbatical to fully invest in his recently debuted Gabi Food Adventures, a food and culture tour company with trips set for Sevilla, Cordoba, Granada, Jerez and Ronda in November 2023, and

Valencia and Mallorca in April 2024.

In his absence, Bonino-Westby, a Culinary School of the Rockies graduate who has frequently collaborated with Rullo, has assumed the back-ofhouse helm. She’s also been in charge of Dagabi’s fabulous wine list, a Spanish and California-heavy selection which includes a few appropriate offerings from Italy.

While the bulk of the menu will remain static, Bonino-Westby has been hard at work crafting weekly spe-

cials. “We want guests to feel at home. It’s kinda the taste of old Boulder, then, now and what it could be,” she says.

That Dagabi’s dining room is constantly populated by guests who fill it with warmth and familiarity should come as no surprise, especially considering the intricate web of kindness, romance and deep international connections that helped to forge it.

“Food and drink and family and friends is just what it is here,” says Bonino-Wesby.

Tapas are the main feature at Dagabi. Photos courtesy Noah Westby/Dagabi.

Noah Westby and Tanya Bonino-Westby. Photo courtesy Noah Westby/Dagabi.

THE MAGIC OF MUSHROOMS

Research from Denmark reveals new information about how psilocin and psilocybin work

BY WILL BRENDZA

When Gov. Jared Polis signed Colorado’s SB23290, the Natural Medicine Regulation and Legalization bill (Weed Between the Lines, “Laying down the law,” May 11, 2023), it decriminalized five natural psychedelic compounds: DMT, ibogaine, mescaline, psilocybin and psilocin.

This column has covered the former three — DMT (Weed Between the Lines, “Your brain on DMT,” March 23, 2023), ibogaine (Weed Between the Lines, “The addiction therapy drug,” April 6, 2023), and mescaline (Weed Between the Lines, “The psychedelic succulent,” April 27, 2023). While those are slightly more obscure psychedelic compounds, the other two, psilocybin and psilocin, are more widely used and known. These are the compounds that put the “magic” in magic mushrooms. But research from the University of Southern Denmark sheds new light on these well-known psychedelics. It appears that not only do these compounds bind with serotonin receptors in the brain, but they actually bind stronger than serotonin itself. The finding gives researchers hope for new developments in pharmaceutical drugs for

patients who have found little relief with current medications.

Psilocybin has become a household name in the last decade. It’s been decriminalized in two states — Colorado and Oregon — an in 11 U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C. Psilocybin has been all over mainstream news for its applications as a therapeutic drug that can help treat addiction, depression, anxiety and PTSD.

Psilocin, ironically, is the lesser-known compound. While both psilocybin and psilocin are equally psychotropic, it’s psilocin that is largely responsible for the high most magic-mushroom users are familiar with.

Any orally ingested psilocybin is broken down in the gut by the enzyme alkaline phosphatase and turned into its bioactive form, psilocin.

If you eat psilocybin mushrooms, you’re tripping on psilocin.

Albert Hoffman was one of the first chemists to isolate psilocybin and psilocin in 1959. His pharmaceutical employer then marketed and sold pure psilocybin to doctors and therapists across the country who used the medi-

cine to treat their patients. But as the war on drugs ramped up in the ’60s, and psychoactive substances were thrown wholesale under the banner of Schedule I prohibited substances, those treatments and medications were abandoned.

A research team from the University of Southern Denmark was interested in determining what happens when psilocybin enters the body, is converted into psilocin and then reaches the human brain.

“My interest was piqued when I heard a podcast about treating smoking addiction with psilocybin,” Himanshu Khandelia, one of the University’s

Biophysica Acta, they use molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations to describe how psilocin bonds to serotonin receptors.

Serotonin is commonly referred to as one of the “happy molecules.” It carries messages between nerve cells in the brain and throughout the body and plays a key role in modulating your mood, cognition, reward, learning, memory and other neurological processes. Serotonin receptors are the “receivers” built specifically to accept those nervous system messages.

According to these findings from the University of Southern Denmark, psilocin not only penetrates the cell membrane and binds to these very specific receptors, it binds stronger than serotonin does.

The scientists point out that this research may come in handy if you want to design a chemical analog for psilocin that could be turned into a pharmaceutical drug. Which is exactly what they’re hoping comes from this research.

researchers, said in a press release. “And since psilocybin mushrooms grow everywhere in Denmark — I picked some in Svanninge Bakker — it wasn’t difficult to start our research.”

Without the legal and bureaucratic hoops that U.S. scientists have to jump through to conduct psychedelic research, the Danish researchers gathered materials and got to work. In their paper, published in Biochimica et

“I would be very happy if society can use our research,” Khandelia said. “Maybe someone will take this further and create a molecule that can be used in medical treatment for conditions like depression.”

Along with team member Ali Asghar Hakami Zanjani, Khandelia is continuing this line of research. They are now investigating the mechanism behind the mushroom high, exploring how psychoactive responses are triggered when compounds bind to serotonin receptors.