Boulder Weekly 08.17.2023

Dream State Dream State

09 NEWS: Children in Colorado are falling victim to a struggling child welfare and behavioral health system BY WILL MATUSKA

14 MUSIC: Elephant Revival’s second life BY JEZY J. GRAY

15 THEATER: Phamaly Theatre Company makes an inclusive return to the DCPA BY TONI TRESCA

29 GOOD TASTE: Bounce Empire is a lot of things, including a good restaurant BY COLIN

WRENN

Maggie Whittum as Titania in Phamaly Theatre’s ongoing production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Photo by Rachel McCombs-Graham.

AUGUST 17, 2023

Volume 30, Number 52

COVER: Elephant Revival; photo by Daniel Wander

PUBLISHER: Fran Zankowski

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Caitlin Rockett

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTERS: Kaylee Harter, Will Matuska

FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Dave Anderson, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Dan Savage, 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.

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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 We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms.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.

THE ANDERSON FILES

U.S. AID TO SUPPRESS PALESTINIANS AND DEMOCRACY

BY DAVE ANDERSON

Something unprecedented is happening in U.S.-Israeli relations.

There has been a mainstream cliché that Israel is “the only democracy in the Middle East.” It hasn’t mattered much that most Palestinians — including Palestinian Israelis — don’t agree.

But Israel has elected its most farright government to-date, which now is pushing the country toward an autocracy like Hungary. Hundreds of thousands of politically diverse Israelis have protested for many months in intense and gigantic street protests.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has stepped up repression of Palestinians. The minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said

Gaza should be “ours” and that “the Palestinians can go to … Saudi Arabia or other places, like Iraq or Iran.”

This has provoked rumblings in the American political establishment. The U.S. shovels millions to Israel every year. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wants to “rethink American aid” to Israel because “aid to another rich country squanders scarce resources and creates an unhealthy relationship damaging to both sides.”

He notes: “Today, Israel has legitimate security concerns but is not in peril of being invaded by the armies of its neighbors, and it is richer per capita than Japan and some European countries. One sign of changed times: Almost

a quarter of Israel’s arms exports last year went to Arab states.”

Kristof quotes three former U.S. officials, including two former ambassadors to Israel — Martin Indyk and Daniel Kurtzer — who said the U.S. should at least discuss ending military aid.

Aid to Israel is almost entirely military assistance, which can be used only to buy American weapons. Israel also has its own little military industrial complex, which is undercut. Reuters reported in June:

“Israel exported a record $12.556 billion in defense products last year, with new Arab partners under the U.S.sponsored 2020 Abraham Accords accounting for almost a quarter of the

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

THE ANDERSON FILES

business, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. It said the 2022 figures marked a 50% increase over the previous three years and a doubling in volume over the previous decade. Drones accounted for 25% of the 2022 exports and missiles, rockets or air defense systems for 19%, it said.”

the Israeli coalition in power is “pushing repressive, anti-democratic policies and escalating violence towards the Palestinian population.”

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

AUGUST 4 YAPPY HOUR

JULY 30 PICNIC ON THE PAVEMENT

Progressive Democrats in Congress have pushed the issue into the mainstream. Since 2017, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) has introduced legislation every year that would ban Israel’s army from using U.S. aid to detain and abuse Palestinian children. This year’s bill has 28 Democratic co-sponsors.

In April, a group of 14 progressive Democrats led by Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) released a letter to Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken saying U.S. aid shouldn’t be used to fund abuses of Palestinian rights.

“At this inflection point,” they write, “we ask your administration to undertake a shift in U.S. policy in recognition of the worsening violence, further annexation of land, and denial of Palestinian rights.”

AUGUST 13

BOULDER STREET SOCCER CLASSIC

AUGUST 25

MELANIN FUNK FEST

The lawmakers call on the Biden administration to “ensure U.S. taxpayer funds do not support projects in illegal settlements” and to “determine whether U.S.origin defense articles have been used in violation of existing U.S. laws.”

The letter criticizes the new Israeli government’s “alarming actions” and its cabinet of “far-right, anti-Palestinian individuals and parties,” asserting that

SEPTEMBER 8

CU ATHLETICS MEET & GREET

SEPTEMBER 24

COMMUNITY ART DAY

BoulderSocialStreets.com

The letter explicitly mention two laws — the Arms Export Control Act and the Foreign Assistance Act — which stipulate that U.S. weapons can only be used for purposes of self-defense and can’t be used to commit human rights abuses such as torture, extrajudicial killings, and any other “flagrant denial” of “the right to life.”

The letter demands that the administration respond to the lawmakers with a “detailed plan” on how the U.S. will make sure Israel does not illegally misuse future aid.

It is important to be explicit in your demands. The Biden administration has emphasized a number of times that Israelis and Palestinians deserve “equal measures of freedom” and that Israel should refrain from actions that undermine peace, such as the building of settlements on Palestinian land. That’s nice. Those are pretty words. But you have to back them up with action.

The courageous Israeli demonstrations for democracy inspire hope. But protesters need to realize that the main motivation for the attack on the judiciary was to crush the Palestinians. The farright government is willing to destroy Israel’s unequal democracy to do that.

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

LETTERS

LET’S NOT RECALL MAXINE MOST

Louisville is lucky to have a reproductive rights champion on City Council, Maxine Most. She’s not attempting to make medical decisions or play doctor. Instead, Maxine is applying two bedrock principles — equity and inclusiveness — to medical care. Simply put, Maxine believes that equity and inclusiveness demand that pregnant persons have access to all evidence-based medical care.

Recent articles in the Daily Camera and other newspapers share horrifying stories about women who need abortions to save their lives being sent home to become sicker and their lives more endangered. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists unequivocally states that “induced abortion is an essential component of women’s health care” because “pregnancy complications, including placental abruption, bleeding from placenta previa, preeclampsia or eclampsia, and cardiac or renal conditions, may be so severe that abortion is the only measure to preserve a woman’s health or save her life.”

And yet not all hospitals, including AdventHealth Avista in Louisville, provide abortions when necessary to preserve the health or life of a pregnant person. Avista describes its care as “Rooted in Faith.” AdventHealth, to which Avista belongs, is a major player in the health care marketplace; it is “one of the largest health care providers in the United States, with thousands of compassionate professionals working to extend the healing ministry of Christ around the country.”

Even though Avista is a nonprofit hospital — and as such does not contribute any tax revenue to the City — and in spite of its failure to provide evidence-based medicine, Maxine has done nothing to drive Avista from Louisville. Insinuations to the contrary are misleading. She is right to provide our community with accurate information, enabling pregnant persons and their families to choose whether to drive into Boulder.

To keep Maxine, vote no on the Ward 2 Recall.

— Cathern Smith/Louisville

COLORADO CAN SET AN EXAMPLE

Trump has traumatized the nation. Despite his flagrant and illegal attempts to overturn the 2020 election, he is of course running for president again and is currently the leading Republican. Could Trump win? Could he be elected in jail and then pardon himself? According to new research done by two conservative legal scholars published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, these questions should be moot points. After studying the matter for over a year, they concluded that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars Trump from running because of his encouragement of insurrection in 2020. MSN reports, “The legal experts also said that Section 3 is selfexecuting, operating as an immediate disqualification from office, without the need for additional action by Congress.” In other words, those responsible for deciding who is eligible to run for office can simply bar Trump from running as simply as they could bar a 20-year-old who isn’t old enough to run for president, and the only way this prohibition can be overturned is by a two-thirds majority in the national House and Senate. Although the authors argue convincingly that Trump has indeed engaged in “insurrection,” apparently, this needs substantiating by a federal judge somewhere. Then, we in Colorado need to insist that our secretary of state, Democrat Jena Griswold, enforce this law, this part of the Constitution. If we do this, we can set an example for the rest of the nation and stop the Trump nightmare in its tracks.

— Paul Dougan/Boulder

See a mistake? Have something to say? We encourage readers to contact us: letters@boulderweekly.com

THE ONES WE LEAVE BEHIND

Children in Colorado are falling victim to a struggling child welfare and behavioral health system

BY WILL MATUSKA

Afather and his son pull into the parking lot at UCHealth Longs Peak Hospital in Longmont in mid-June.

They don’t have an appointment scheduled. In fact, they don’t see a doctor. The father’s goal is to leave the boy at the hospital.

The child, who has autism, is reportedly still living there. He turned 14 a few weeks ago at the medical center.

The adolescent is in a precarious situation. His mother is dead. The majority of his relatives live in Florida. He has shuffled between a few foster homes over the years. The boy’s father isn’t willing to take care of him. His grandfather told CBS News no one else in the family will take the teenager, including him because of his own health concerns.

“[Keeping the boy in the hospital is] cruel and highly inefficient and it’s going to have a long-term impact on this young person,” says Rep. Judy Amabile, who received information about the boy’s circumstances from an anonymous hospital employee. “It’s just massive trauma; your parent drops you off and never comes back, then nobody else helps you.”

Details about the situation are sparse because of staunch privacy rights that protect the boy’s identity, and laws that keep hospital and county officials from sharing information about people receiving care. But incidents like the one at Longs Peak Hospital are becoming more common in Colorado’s overburdened and under-resourced child welfare and behavioral health system. Hospitals and other stopgap measures can’t provide the acute behavioral treatment from specialized clinicians and staff that many of these children require.

“In our 41 years, we have never seen a crisis like the one we’re in right now,” says Dr. Becky Miller Updike, executive director of the Colorado Association of

Family and Children’s Agencies (CAFCA), who oversees a collection of more than 40 agencies that take care of juveniles with mental and behavioral health issues across the state.

The 14-year-old boy is being held at Longs Peak Hospital because there’s nowhere else for him to go. There isn’t enough capacity in residential treatment centers for him and a rising number of other youth with complex medical and behavioral needs who require focused treatment outside of a home setting, including those with intellectual and developmental disorders (IDD).

That means dozens of adolescents find themselves boarding in hospitals, county human services offices and detention centers across the state each

These consequences can’t be traced back to one crack in the system, rather myriad fissures including an increase in minors with high-acuity needs postpandemic, limited beds in residential treatment facilities and chronic underfunding to child welfare.

“There’s concern that Colorado is failing these kids and these families,” Amabile says.

HIGHER NEED

Donovan Holligan is a social worker at Boulder County. He’s been reaching out to more families recently to find ways to support them.

“These are kids and they need help,” he says. “They don’t understand that they need help. And I think we’re doing them a disservice by making them wait six months to a year sometimes just to see a counselor.”

One of those families is Jennifer Beidler and her son Conor Gruber, who turned 15 this year. Beidler calls her son “a great kid” who is funny and finds joy in life.

After years of failing to get a psychological profile, Gruber was recently diag-

hospital because I had given up,” Beidler says. “Conor would have some months where he would do really good and we’d have some months that were just terrible. It was scary having him at home.”

On Nov. 13 last year, as Gruber’s behavior started to escalate to destroying property at home, Beidler dropped her son off at Longmont United. He stayed there for the next six months. Holligan, the family’s caseworker, told Beidler not to pick up her son, as they were working to find a permanent place for him.

“There aren’t places out there for kids,” Holligan says, adding that half of the hospitals and adolescent treatment centers Gruber went to either closed or wouldn’t take the teen because of aggressive behavior.

Kids with needs like Gruber’s are also held in county offices when they don’t have anywhere else to go.

When Hollie Warren, director of Family & Children Services at Boulder County, was a caseworker 10 years ago, stopgaps weren’t in the conversation. She says she was shocked when she took over as director and her team was discussing purchasing cots for the office.

At the time, Warren didn’t think the organization needed temporary beds because “kids shouldn’t sleep in offices,” and should instead be in systems meant to support them, like a foster care setting, residential treatment or at home with intensive care. But reality changed Warren’s perception.

“[Youth staying in our office] has become an inevitability today,” she says.

month. Some are sent to out-of-state facilities to get the support they need.

The Children’s Hospital Colorado frequently holds young people in its inpatient units.

“This type of story is all too common in Colorado,” said Megan Cook, director of clinical social work at Children’s Hospital Colorado, in an email to Boulder Weekly.

According to the Colorado Human Services Directors Association (CHSDA), there were at least 69 children or youth held without a future placement in county offices, hospitals or detention centers in June in Colorado.

nosed with ADHD, disruptive mood disorder and is on the autism spectrum.

Beidler says her son is very smart, but was challenging to manage growing up. He has physically hurt family members, including his three little sisters and Beidler, and caused thousands of dollars of property damage at his school.

All the while, Beidler was trying to find a residential treatment center that could provide care for her son’s needs per the recommendation of hospitals. But because she couldn’t find one to take her son, even after pursuing out-of-state options, Gruber was forced in and out of hospitals that only held him temporarily.

“For a while we stopped going to the

Generally, the minors who need care from human services have had a tough go at life. Many have experienced some form of trauma stemming from neglect, abuse, or adult substance abuse, resulting in aggression, depression and other behavioral health issues.

Experts call this “high-acuity needs.” Kids with autism, who can have complex care requirements because of dual mental health struggles and IDD, are a niche within this demographic and are often placed in separate programs.

“It’s really the kids who we know can’t safely be in the community or in a family’s home for now, because they need more intensive treatment,” Warren says.

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COOPED UP

The most common stopgap facilities for children with high-acuity needs in Boulder County are at county offices and in hospitals.

Five youths spent 16 total nights in the Boulder County Family & Human Services office so far this year, according to officials. Three kids spent 15 nights in the office in 2022. While stays are typically a few days, the longest stretched to 10 days. The youngest child was eight years old.

About the same amount of children are boarded in hospitals, Warren says. These hospital stays are longer, usually a minimum of 6 to 8 weeks, because these kids typically have the highest acuity needs, making them the hardest to find placement for.

Hospital stays are problematic, but Warren says it’s better than a child staying in county offices without trained medical staff or security.

“Being in a hospital is actually safer than sleeping in a conference room in our building,” she says. “Because of this crisis, those are the types of decisions we’re being forced to make.”

It’s easy to imagine how a hospital stay can be damaging to any child.

Holligan, the social worker, says children who wait for placement in a hospital are treated like any other patient and are typically held in a quiet section of the facility to avoid impacting anyone else’s care.

Conor Gruber stayed in an emergency room bed at Longmont United.

“Sometimes [staff] would take him on a walk outside,” Beidler says. “They brought him games and things like that, but he was stagnant. He wasn’t receiving any treatment therapy. So he just sat there in limbo while we tried finding him somewhere else to go.”

Beidler was optimistic a hospital in Florida would take her son, but was disheartened after it stopped returning her calls and emails.

“He was my first kid. He’s my boy. I love him very much,” she says. “I fought very hard for him to have a future, between calling hospitals and driving all over the state, and just fighting for him. And it’s been hard because there’s a lot of places that just don’t care.”

Boulder County partners with hospitals to make sure these kids have

online school. But the children spend most of their time watching TV or talking to nursing staff.

Hospital staff try their best to accommodate — one even made a basketball court for a kid — but these medical centers aren’t built to serve the needs of these youngsters.

“While boarding keeps vulnerable patients physically safe from injury, waiting in an emergency department does not provide the specialized mental health treatment kids need to help them recover,” says Cook at Children’s Hospital. “In addition to delaying treatment and recovery, prolonged boarding in emergency departments can also mean extended absences from school, and puts stress on both kids and their caregivers.”

It also impacts the hospitals. In a statement, UCHealth says the children’s presence can take away medical staff and hospital beds from other patients who need care.

Updike at CAFCA says it’s the “worst-case scenario” when high-acuity needs youth lack therapy or stimulation.

“That kid’s not going to be better when the door opens for them,” she says.

A PERFECT STORM

While it’s the county’s goal to find permanent placements for these youth, it can be more challenging when they have higher needs.

It’s common for treatment providers to deny adolescents with high acuity because the child may negatively impact development in their peers or may not meet specific admission requirements, or the treatment facility may not have necessary resources, like multiple clinicians and specialists. These days, Updike says it’s common for these types of children to move to 15 or more facilities before landing in a permanent setting.

Simultaneously, as need is at its highest, there are fewer facilities equipped to support this demographic.

Since 2007, nearly 50 residential treatment programs in Colorado have closed — amounting to about 2,000 less beds, according to CAFCA.

Centers that care for kids with autism are also closing around the state after a 2021 Joint Budget Committee deci-

If you could see Colorado’s air, you would want to improve it.

sion lowered the amount of money distributed to centers starting July 1 of this year. Nearly 10 agencies serving children with autism have closed since 2021, according to The Colorado Sun.

Part of the reason for the closures is a shift in the philosophy of how to provide care for children with highacuity needs. The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 was championed as “the most significant reform to federal child welfare policy in decades” by the Children’s Defense Fund. It aims to keep children with their relatives and emphasizes the importance of growing up in family-like settings, which is proven to provide positive outcomes for young people.

Miller says the paradigm has shifted over the last decade to communityfocused care that often doesn’t offer the expertise, preparation or tools to manage these kids safely.

“Providers are pretty offended at how, for years, there’s been this urgency to close residential [facilities]” she says. “And then, suddenly, there’s this crisis. [Maybe] we shouldn’t have been shutting down so aggressively the past decade, but here we are.”

There’s also a workforce issue. Updike says it’s hard to attract healthcare workers and staff to a job that doesn’t pay very well (starting around $20 an hour) and can be subject to abuse from the person they are supporting.

“It takes pretty special people to go do graduate school in social work, take out a bunch of loans and then get punched in the nose by a kid,” she says.

‘NOT FAST ENOUGH’

Warren is one of those people who has dedicated her life to helping people as a social worker. Nowadays, she says it can be “isolating” to support the needs of the community when “[people and families needing care] are fending for themselves,” and it feels like there aren’t solutions.

“At no point did I think anyone got into this field thinking their day-to-day work [would be] focused on getting kids out of a hospital, where they’ve been for months on end,” she says. “It’s just so far from what we believe

we’re meant to be doing that it can feel incredibly difficult.”

She’s not alone. After nearly two years of fruitless efforts, multiple organizations, including CAFCA, sent a letter to Gov. Jared Polis on July 18 outlining the desperate need to ensure high-quality and individualized residential care for high-acuity needs children.

Their cries come as momentum builds to find solutions via a child welfare system interim committee organized in the General Assembly, and a working group composed of government agencies, providers and hospitals seeking immediate and short-term fixes.

Residential treatment beds have been added in the last year around the state through bills like HB22-1303, but some say it hasn’t been enough.

“[The Legislature is] trying to help, so that’s cool,” Updike says. “But it’s not fast enough for the kids that are in hotel rooms and in county offices sleeping.”

While experts say solutions to the crisis are complex, it boils down to a need for more money and resources directed to increasing the capacity of specialized care facilities and staff.

“To do what we need to do is going to be very expensive,” Warren says.

Earlier this summer, thanks to the persistent help from Holligan, Gruber was accepted into Third Way Center, a residential treatment center for highrisk adolescents with complex mental health issues. Gruber lives in a small pod of boys with constant attention from staff and medical specialists. He attends school there and goes to a family session once a week with his mom.

While their relationship is “rocky,” Beidler says her son is doing a lot better at Third Way: He made A’s and B’s on his latest report card and is becoming more involved in his care.

But Beidler is concerned that her son could be removed from his new center if he becomes aggressive again.

“He’s kind of running out of time,” she says as her son comes closer to becoming an adult. “That’s the way I see it. I feel like he’s running out of time to be able to fix this and learn from it.”

HELP WANTED

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NOW YOU KNOW

This week’s news in Boulder County and beyond

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

E-SCOOTERS EXPAND

Boulder will soon triple the number of Lime scooters and expand access citywide, bringing its fleet to 900 by the end of the month, according to an Aug. 7 press release.

The expansion comes after a pilot program in parts of east Boulder, Gunbarrel and CU Boulder’s East Campus “showed that shared e-scooters help to reduce traffic congestion, reduce air pollution, increase mobility options and serve as first- and finalmile connections to transit,” a press release states. During the pilot, riders recorded more than 117,000 miles in total, saving an estimated 26,000 pounds of greenhouse gasses.

Community feedback during the pilot indicated concern about improperly parked scooters creating obstacles for those walking, biking or using wheelchairs. As part of the expansion, required parking zones called “Lime Groves” are being added throughout the city.

The expansion is part of the city’s Shared Micromobility Program, a partnership between CU Boulder, the County, the city Chamber of Commerce, Lime and BCycle.

“By providing shared e-scooters and e-bikes, our micromobility program aims to make it easier for our community to get around town, bringing the city closer to its transportation and climate goals to provide travel choices and support clean air,” said Natalie Stiffler, City of Boulder transportation and mobility director, in the release. “We’re excited to bring this convenient transportation option to the whole city.”

LAFAYETTE CAMPING BAN CHALLENGED

An unhoused man in Lafayette filed a suit in federal court July 31 after being ticketed for sleeping outside. The lawsuit is one of a number similar litigations in recent years questioning

whether municipalities in Colorado have the right to penalize people for camping when shelter isn’t available to them.

In the suit, James H. Holmes Sr. alleges that laws in Lafayette violate his right to privacy and freedom from self-incrimination. Holmes also claims the camping ban amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, the Colorado Sun reports.

In Boulder County, the most recent point-in-time count, which represents a glimpse into the number of people experiencing homelessness, recorded more than 800 total unhoused individuals on Jan. 30, 2023, with nearly 250 unsheltered. The previous year’s total count was just over 450.

The ACLU of Colorado filed a similar suit in 2022 alleging that Boulder’s camping ban “penalize[s] Boulder’s unhoused residents’ right to exist in any of the City’s public spaces at any time of day or night by targeting the unavoidable trappings of extreme poverty” and therefore violates the right to protections from cruel and unusual punishment and endangerment when there is no access to shelter available.

The Boulder Shelter for the Homeless has a maximum capacity of 160 beds, with 20 more available on critical weather nights. During extreme weather events, the City opens the East Boulder Community Center for additional capacity.

Another legal action challenging the constitutionality of Fort Collins’ camping ban was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this year.

In 2018, the Ninth District Court of Appeals ruled that people cannot be punished for sleeping outside on public property when there are no suitable alternatives. That ruling is binding in a number of Western states. The 10th District Court of Appeals, of which Colorado resides, has no such ruling.

LOCAL FESTIVAL OWNER SUED FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Former Planet Bluegrass employee alleges ‘persistent, outrageous, and violent sexual harassment’

BY KAYLEE HARTER

Aformer employee is suing Planet Bluegrass owner Craig Ferguson for sexual harassment, unwanted touching and wrongful termination.

The suit filed by a 34-year-old woman on Aug. 4 in Boulder County District Court alleges that Ferguson engaged in “persistent, outrageous, and violent sexual harassment,” which began in early 2023

The plaintiff also claims that Zach Tucker, HR manager for Planet Bluegrass, dismissed her concerns and did not take action after the harassment was reported. The woman was fired 11 days later, according to court filings. The plaintiff worked for Planet Bluegrass from May 2021 to April 2023.

Planet Bluegrass produces the state’s largest roots and bluegrass events including Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Rockygrass and Rocky Mountain Folks Fest. Telluride Bluegrass Festival and the Planet Bluegrass Farm are also listed as defendants in the suit.

At least one former Planet Bluegrass employee has already contacted the plaintiff’s attorney, Paul Maxon, to share “important information,” he said in a phone call with Boulder Weekly. He encourages anyone else with information about sexual harassment at Planet Bluegrass to reach out.

“That sort of information from other people who may have experienced the same thing can be extremely helpful in these cases,” Maxon says.

Karen Craven, a spokesperson for Planet Bluegrass, said in a statement prepared for Boulder Weekly

that many of the allegations are “flatly unsubstantiated” and do not “accurately reflect the true nature of various parties’ interactions or even the described events.”

“Our festival community is known across the country for its high standards and sense of integrity that values people most of all,” Craven said. “This complaint is unprecedented and in conflict with our history and our values.”

Craven did not respond to specific allegations within the lawsuit, which she said will be addressed in an answer to the complaint, and said she “simply can’t comment on things purported to be true.” She also said she could not comment on whether Planet Bluegrass is taking any internal action. “We look forward to addressing this matter in court where the facts will prevail,” she said.

The suit comes after Ferguson was arrested in June for violating a civil protection order granted to the woman by a Boulder County judge in May.

The plaintiff lived temporarily at Ferguson’s home as a caretaker but neither Ferguson nor members of his family lived in the home at the time, Craven confirmed. The plaintiff’s role as caretaker of the home was independent of her employment at Planet Bluegrass, Craven said.

The former employee is seeking “compensation for the extreme emotional distress.” Maxon says there is not yet a set amount of compensation the plaintiff is seeking.

Ferguson’s arraignment for violating the civil protection order is scheduled for Aug. 25.

‘GO BACK THE WAY YOU CAME’

Elephant Revival’s second life

BY JEZY J. GRAY

On the night before her band’s hotly anticipated reunion show last summer at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, Elephant Revival co-founder Bonnie Paine dreamed about a staircase in the clouds. At the top was a huge transparent door: a threshold from one world to another — not unlike the one she was about to cross with fellow members of the longrunning Americana institution, fresh off a four-year hiatus that felt something like a lifetime.

“Basically it was a revelation: There are many ways to go back the way you came and make something beautiful happen. And you don’t have to jump off into the abyss of the clouds, which is the other option,” Paine says. “I was guided in the dream by a friend who had passed — I know it sounds like a stereotypical movie scene, but it felt very real, and I just woke up feeling reassured. Like, ‘Yes, let’s do this.’” Elephant Revival indeed came back the way they left, stepping onstage to a reverent roar from fans, friends and family as they ripped through a set of roots-inspired mountain music, indieadjacent jams and tender folk confessionals that have made the act a household name in the world of alternative Americana over the past two

decades. Joined by aerial dancers and Lakota drum collective Lee Plentywolf & The Plentywolf Singers, the sold-out evening marked a new chapter for Paine and her bandmates as they greeted the arrival of their second life. Now the celebrated Front Range outfit comes back to Planet Bluegrass on Aug. 19, nearly one year to the day after first returning to the iconic venue. With singer and multi-instrumentalist Paine handling everything from cello to djembe and washboard, the group’s current formation is rounded out by fellow linchpins Bridget Law (fiddle), Dango Rose (upright bass and mandolin), Charlie Rose (banjo and pedal steel), Darren Garvey (percussion) and newcomer Daniel Sproul of Boulder rock legends Rose Hill Drive on guitar.

“There’s more space for tenderness in a different way,” Paine says of the current lineup. “Daniel Sproul is an insanely talented rock ’n’ roll guitarist, and [initially] I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know how that’s gonna fit.’ But it turns out he’s very sensitive to the beauty of space. He can just make these incredible textures come out of the songs … I’ve been very encouraged by the rest of the band. We’ve got so much material. It’s fun to get it out there.”

Elephant Revival comes back to Planet Bluegrass Aug. 19, a year after returning to the iconic stage on the heels of a four-year hiatus. Photo by Glenn Ross

FOLLOW THE SOUND

The return of Elephant Revival to Boulder County’s most revered stage came after another pivotal headlining show at Red Rocks in 2018 with Blind Pilot and Hiss Golden Messenger, which would turn out to be their last for nearly half a decade. But according to fellow co-founder Dango Rose, it took a while to really appreciate the gravity of what that night meant for the time-honored collective.

“There was no way to really understand what the future was gonna bring,” says the Colorado music mainstay crucial to the group’s relocation here from Paine’s home in the the timbered foothills of northeastern Oklahoma almost 20 years ago. “I think what was going through my head, [like] many of the bigger shows, is: ‘How do I slow down the moment?’ … The biggest shock was two or three months later. It was like, ‘OK, this is the longest break we’ve had in 13 years. There’s nothing on the books, and we don’t know if there will ever be anything on the books again.’”

That period of uncertainty would give way to a deeper malaise lurking just around the corner, as the 2020 pandemic hit the brakes on the prospect of live music writ large. Paine spent that time sharpening the fine edges of her craft, meditating on the cycle of life and death while playing cello to the sheep who routinely clotted around the front porch of her rural Boulder County home.

“I don’t mind moving slowly to feel things out and figure out where we want to go,” she says. “It’s been an exploration process … and a very transformative time, like for a lot of people: loss and rebirth, and all kinds of stuff. It’s part of the gift and the challenge of these last few years.”

For Rose, the time apart offered space to reflect on the winding path that first brought Elephant Revival together at a Southern Plains bluegrass festival in 2003. With so much road in the rearview and more yet to travel, he says it was ultimately the connection between the outfit’s core players that helped pull them back from the brink and live to sing another day.

“Looking at the longevity, you realize what a gift it is that we are able to do this,” he says. “I really admire every single one of my bandmates … it wasn’t always easy, but we stayed with it. And I think that really comes from the underlying respect and appreciation we have for each other.” Rose says you’ll see that mutual respect on stage, wherever they might perform, as each player gives and takes with a sort of reverence. But to hear Paine tell it, there will be something special in the ether when they step under the spotlight once again at Planet Bluegrass.

“It’s such a sacred place to get to play music … you really feel the land around you,” she says. “Getting to address everybody in that openness with music is such an honor, and such an amazing feeling. The response [last time] was deafeningly loud — I was really surprised. Like, ‘All right, we’re here.’”

ON STAGE: Elephant Revival with Fruit Bats (solo). 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, Planet Bluegrass Ranch, 500 W. Main, Lyons. $65

Editor’s note: This article is being published amid allegations of sexual harassment against Planet Bluegrass owner Craig Ferguson, brought forward by a former employee through a lawsuit filed earlier this month in Boulder County District Court. For more on the developing story, see p. 13.

‘DISABLED JOY, FRONT AND CENTER’

BY TONI

Maggie Whittum thought she would never act again after a severe brain stem stroke at age 33. The life-changing medical event was brought on by a cavernous angioma, also known as an arteriovenous malformation, while pursuing her MFA in acting at the Shakespeare Theater Company and working as a freelance performer, director and producer.

“I dropped out of school. My whole life fell apart,” Whittum says. “I moved back to Colorado and really didn’t think I’d ever be on stage again. Honestly, I was quite afraid of [the idea] because of all the changes that had happened to me physically and psychologically.”

Her life was forever changed again when she met Regan Linton, the former artistic director of Phamaly Theatre Company, who extended an invitation for Whittum to join Denver’s disability-affirming troupe, which exclusively casts disabled actors.

“The thing that sets Phamaly apart from other companies is that there’s always a check-in at the beginning of the day, where people can be open about what they’re facing physically and mentally,” Whittum says. “We are all disabled people, so we can’t just show up to rehearsal and be on point 100% of the time and never have any problems.”

Five disabled students from the Boettcher School in Denver who were dissatisfied with the dearth of theatrical opportunities for people with disabilities founded the group originally styled as PHAMALy (Physically Handicapped Amateur Musical Actors League) in 1989. Mark Dissette, who has been

with the group for 34 years since its first show, 1990’s Guy and Dolls, says the company has come a long way since.

“We’ve got a lot of new people coming in, and that’s exciting to me because a lot of us are aging out of the whole thing. And we need that to happen because Phamaly wasn’t here when we created it, and it needs to stay here,” Dissette says. “People with disabilities still do not get anywhere near the equal opportunity that an abled body performer gets, and this gives them a chance to perform on a professional stage … we create serious, thoughtful work that allows disabled people to work in a professional environment, and be seen as professionals.”

ects — particularly those that historically have prevented actors with disabilities from performing them, like its upcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream — in a way that highlights the individuality of each actor.

“Because Shakespeare is considered the crème de la crème, it has been offlimits to the disabled community,” Rannan says. “Even though there were four productions of this play last year, I was comfortable doing this adaptation because ours will be nothing like theirs. Midsummer has always been Shakespeare’s most accessible work; it’s the play with no rules. It begins as a straightforward romance, but then Shakespeare adds magic. While staying true to the text, we are excited to put disabled joy front and center in this adaptation.”

SHAKING UP SHAKESPEARE

Although the organization’s name has been changed to Phamaly Theatre Company (PTC), its commitment to exclusively featuring actors with disabilities, including physical, cognitive, intellectual, and emotional, remains. Ben Rannan, the company’s current artistic director, has focused on producing proj-

As part of its 34th season and return to Denver Center, Phamaly’s first Shakespearean play, directed by University of Northern Colorado professor Shelly Gaza, stars a 17-person cast and tells the story of four young lovers who flee their controlling parents and seek refuge in a magical forest full of quarreling fairies.

“One of the most fun things about Shakespeare is that you can set it wherever you want, but I wanted to make sure we chose a setting that would further the company’s mission,” Gaza says. “We landed on this idea of the 1920s. Midsummer needs to be able to go from indoors to outdoors and have

the formality of the court and then the magic of the woods. I had this image of these art deco and art nouveau period greenhouses, which are these beautiful, stately buildings that have wilderness just outside their windows.”

Additionally, the Flapper-era costume silhouette allowed for more flexibility than the typical Elizabethan era, which was essential because Gaza wanted the actors to be able to move around the stage without restriction. Phamaly encourages viewers to join the fun by donning their best 1920s attire.

“Prior to this, we had been rehearsing in a very large conference room, so stepping into the Kilstrom Theatre and seeing the lights, set and other technical elements is just extraordinary,” says Whittum, who plays both Titania, the fairy queen, and Hippolyta, the Amazon queen. “I know Shakespeare’s not everyone’s thing, but I love it and was studying his work in my graduate program. Having to drop out because of this illness was devastating for me, so to be in this big old Shakespeare production that’s a full-on thing at the Denver Center is just very meaningful to me and not something I thought I’d ever get to experience.”

ON STAGE: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Phamaly Theatre Company. Various times, Aug. 17-Sept. 2, Kilstrom Theatre, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 1101 13th St. $40

With its first fully produced Shakespearean play, Phamaly Theatre Company makes an inclusive return to the DCPA

TRESCA

Assistant director Rachel McCombs-Graham with B. Ryan Glick (left) and Maggie Whittum (right).

Photo by Toni Tresca.

Maggie Whittum rehearses as Titania in Phamaly Theatre’s ongoing production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ Photo by Rachel McCombs-Graham.

EVERY WEDNESDAY BOULDER BLUEGRASS JAM

SAT. 8/19 - 9:00PM

SQUEAKY FEET

SUN. 8/20 - 7:00PM

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

MON. 8/21 - 6:30PM

OPEN MIC WITH STEVE KOPPE 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

TUE. 8/29 - 6:30PM

PAUL SODERMAN AND THE OGS WITH DFK AND THE LAB RATS

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

Purchase Tickets at RMPtix.com RootsMusicProject.org

4747 Pearl Suite V3A

THE BLIND CAFE: MUSIC IN THE DARK

6:30-10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18., Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $85

Are you afraid of the dark? There’s nothing to fear during this pitch-black pop-up dinner featuring music by Rosh & The Blind Cafe Orchestra and the Richie Flores Project. Legally Blind Ambassadors will be on hand during this community event “held in 100% pure, certified organic darkness.”

BACK TO SCHOOL: A DRAG SHOW

7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, DV8 Distillery, 2480 49th St. $15

It’s back-to-school time in BoCo, so come get nerdy and dirty with the fiercest performers on the Front Range during this DV8 drag show. Students get a 20% discount at the event led by Chancellor Mo Whoremoans and Dean Ms. Phoria. 18

MUSIC AT MCINTOSH LAKE

7:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, Flanders Park, 2115 North Shore Drive, Longmont. Free

Enjoy your lakeside views with a dash of culture? Head to Flanders Park at McIntosh Lake for an evening of classical music in Longmont. Spearheaded by local musicians Kellan Toohey and Brittany Bonner, this live-music series offers all the beauty and thrills of a night at the symphony without the dress code.

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LONGMONT HAUNTED HISTORY TOUR

7-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, Downtown Longmont, Main Street - 3rd to 6th Avenue. $30

Spooky season is around the corner, so get in the spirit with Kindred Spirit Society International during the Longmont Haunted History Tour. Explore the haunted history of this East County hub for “a chance to meet local legendary history makers — some gone but not forgotten; others forgotten, but maybe not gone.”

WRITERS WORKSHOP

7-9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 18, Firehouse Art Center, 667 4th Ave., Longmont. Free

Looking for the right words? You’ll find them on the third Friday of each month during the ongoing Writers Workshop at Firehouse Art Center in Longmont. All experience levels are welcome during this free in-person event featuring readings, prompts, workshops and more. Masks encouraged.

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LAFAYETTE PEACH FESTIVAL

9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, Old Town Lafayette on Public Road. Free

Celebrate Colorado’s favorite fruit during the 24th Annual Lafayette Peach Festival. The juicy event kicks off bright and early on Saturday in Old Town, with food vendors, crafters, antique dealers — and more than 30,000 pounds of certified organic peaches from Palisade Organic Peach Ranch, Morton’s Orchard’s and Tate Orchards in the peach capital of Palisade.

To submit a letter for publication to Boulder Weekly, please email letters@boulderweekly.com

Letters should include the author’s full name, address, and telephone number, and may be edited for length and clarity. If a submission is over 500 words, it will be considered as a guest opinion piece separate from Boulder Weekly’s letters section.

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CHALK AND CHUG

6-8:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway. $35

Head to the Saloon Bar at Museum of Boulder for an art demo and hands-on fun with Bryce Widom and Victoria Guidi. No art skills are necessary for this creative workshop featuring craft libations and light refreshments, presented in conjunction with the ongoing exhibition Beer HERE!: Brewing the New West

19-20

ROCKY MOUNTAIN RECORD SHOW

Sat.-Sun., Aug. 19-20, The Brighton, 3403 Brighton Blvd. Saturday: $12, Sunday: free

Calling all cratediggers! The Rocky Mountain Record Show is back and bigger than ever with an estimated 100,000+ vinyl LPs, posters and other music-related memorabilia. If that weren’t enough, the show will feature local DJs spinning vinyl, plus food trucks, a full bar and more.

22

ARTIST TALK: ASHTON LACY JONES

7-9 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, R Gallery + Wine Bar 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Free

Get up close and personal with the artist behind the ongoing Waxed Poetic exhibition, running through Aug. 27 at R Gallery + Wine Bar, during this free artist talk in North Boulder. Ashton Lacy Jones will share insight into her process during this art-forward event complete with fine wine and craft beer.

19

TRANSPERFECT VICTORY LAP 5K

9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 19, Boulder Reservoir, 5565 51st St. $35

Whether your running style skews casual or competitive, sign up to get moving for a good cause during this year’s Victory Lap 5K. In addition to benefiting the V Foundation for Cancer Research, the $35 entry fee includes race registration and a T-shirt, plus two free beers and a breakfast burrito during the afterparty at Beyond the Mountain Brewing Company.

22

SMARTY PARTY TRIVIA

7:30-9 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, Avanti Food & Beverage, 1401 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

Assemble your brainiest crew and flex your esoteric knowledge in the lounge at Avanti on Pearl Street for Smarty Party Trivia with host Greg Studley. This free event will include “some fantastic prizes, some mediocre prizes and some prizes that don’t feel like prizes at all.”

22

TUESDAY COMMUNITY BIKE RIDE

5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22, Sanitas Brewing Co. 3550 Frontier Ave., Unit A, Boulder. Free

Life is better on two wheels, so gather your best bike buddies and head to Sanitas Brewing Co. in Boulder for a weeknight ride. Participation is free during this weekly community event, featuring a BOGO round at the brewery after the ride.

LIVE MUSIC

THURSDAY, AUG. 17

TY COOPER WITH THE BRAD GOODE QUARTET. 7 p.m. Muse

Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

MT. JOY WITH FLIPTURN. 8 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Resale: $125

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

THE DAVE MATTHEWS TRIBUTE

BAND WITH ANTONIO LOPEZ BAND. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $18

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

DJ C RAD WITH MIKO AND RICO

ARAMIS. 7 p.m. Bounce Empire, 1380 S. Public Road, Lafayette. $24

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

COCO JONES WITH EBONY RILEY.

8 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. $30

FRIDAY, AUG. 18

LEO KOTTKE WITH JULIAN LAGE

7:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. $40

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

MT. JOY WITH FLIPTURN

8 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. Resale: $125 Story at boulderweekly.com

BLANKE WITH NIKADEMIS, RIDDANCE AND HATVD. 9 p.m. Aggie Theatre, 204 S. College Ave., Fort Collins. $25

SWAMP MOLLY. 5 p.m. Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

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

JOHNNY O BAND. 7 p.m. Courtyard Summer Concert Series, 836 Main St., Louisville. $7

ON THE BILL

SQUIRE HOUSE HAND WITH NIGHT FISHING, NATIVITY IN BLACK AND DJ NIGEL 9 p.m. Hi Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15

SATURDAY,

AUG.

19

SQUEAKY FEET. 9 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $15

BLANKE WITH NIKADEMIS 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $25

FREE RANGE MARMOT 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

UNAUTHORIZED ABSENCE 5 p.m. Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

CRYSTAL SWING BAND 8 p.m. Avalon Ballroom, 6185 Arapahoe Road, Boulder. $20

ELEPHANT REVIVAL WITH FRUIT BATS (SOLO). 7 p.m. Planet Bluegrass, 500 W. Main, Lyons. $65 Story on page 14

TALIA WITH JJ SHARPE AND WILD MOUNTAIN HONEY 5 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $14

REGGAE ON THE ROCKS 1 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $135

SUNDAY,

AUG. 20

GARRETT LEBEAU WITH JAY STILES

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

TAARKA 6 p.m. Willow Farm Contemplative Center, 11898 N. 75th St., Longmont. $20

JACK HADLEY 4 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

VITALWILD WITH ZAJE 9 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

LOSER’S CLUB WITH FUN MACHINE, GARTENER AND INSOMNIAC DRIVES 7:30 p.m. Hi Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15

SOUTHALL WITH WIGHT LIGHTERS

7:30 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. $20

MONDAY, AUG. 21

THE WALLFLOWERS WITH DANIEL RODRIGUEZ 7:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. $55

CIGARETTES AFTER SEX 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $35

TUESDAY, AUG. 22

DAVE HONIG’S NEW STANDARDS PROJECT. 5 p.m. Roadhouse Boulder Depot, 2366 Junction Place, Boulder. Free

BONGZILLA WITH KADABRA AND GREEN DRUID. 8 p.m. Hi Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $22

JAMES IVY WITH GEORELL MAGNO 8 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $17

CIGARETTES AFTER SEX 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $35

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 23

PICTORIA VARK WITH ALLISON LORENZEN AND SHADOW WORK 8 p.m. Hi Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15. BW Pick of the Week

KINGS KALEIDOSCOPE WITH TYSON MOTSENBOCKER AND PAUL WHITACRE. 8 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. $30

THURSDAY, AUG. 24

SULLIVAN KING WITH KLIPTIC 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $32

CLAY ROSE WITH PAULA GAYATRI DEVILLIER 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. Free

DR. JIM’S ONE MAN BAND 5 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

BONNIE LOWDERMILK 7 p.m. R Gallery + Wine Bar, 2027 Broadway, Boulder. Free

MIZMOR WITH UNREQVITED, GHOSTS OF GLACIERS AND VEXING. 8 p.m. Hi Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $20

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

Rising indie-rock artist Pictoria Vark brings her breezy and bruising sound to the Hi-Dive with locals Allison Lorenzen and Shadow Work for a diverse three-band bill you don’t want to miss. The Iowa-based songwriter comes to town in support of her debut LP, The Parts I Dread, out now via Get Better Records See listing for details

YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

As you read this, members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild of America (SAG) are currently pounding the pavement in New York and Los Angeles, raising signs and rhyming chants to anyone who will listen. Most movie and television production has ceased, as have promotional campaigns. The work stoppage doesn’t appear to be ending soon, and studios have started rolling over their 2023 releases to 2024 — time to prepare yourself for an odd fall and winter at the movies and on TV.

The writers and actors are striking for many reasons, but their primary concern is the medium’s future. They want to ensure that the movies and

shows you watch and fall in love with are envisioned by human minds and feature human faces. They want the form to remain an artistic expression, not just as another generative mint machine for a select few.

What can you do to help? Not much, really. I don’t think a battery of calls to Bob Iger or Ted Sarandos will speed up a contract negotiation. But if you have the means, donating to the Entertainment Community Fund will go a long way in helping out the below-the-line craftspeople caught in the middle.

In the meantime, the best thing you can do is help to preserve what we already have. The history of cinema

MICHAEL J. CASEY’S 2023 NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY NOMINATION BALLOT

To keep things tight, I submit 10 titles because it’s a less overwhelming number. And since the only real rule the NFR enforces is that a movie must be at least 10 years old for eligibility, I dedicate one entry to that year. And for my 2013 slot: Inside Llewyn Davis, my favorite film from Joel and Ethan Coen and one of the best movies about how the cycles

of artistic progress will always leave some in the back alley. And for no other reason than that’s just how the world works.

We’ll see which of these, if any, make the NFR cut in December. But even if they don’t, the hours spent watching them are far from a waste. Hell, watch them tonight, and you might find them on your own ballot next summer.

is as fragile as anything else and in constant danger of disappearance through neglect or conscious erasure. And in an era where licenses change hands with every merger — with several falling into copyright limbo — and shifting cultural mores threaten our collective history, the best way to ensure that the American movies you hold dear remain seen and discussed for future generations is for those movies to be included on a list of titles that reflect “who we are as a people and as a nation.” I give you the National Film Registry (NFR).

Established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, the NFR is one of the many programs run by the Library of Congress. Every year, the National Film Preservation Board reviews thousands of nominations of American movies deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and selects 25 to add to the Registry.

MERRILY WE GO TO HELL

(Dorothy Arzner, 1932)

THE WRONG MAN (Alfred Hitchcock, 1957)

THE NAKED KISS (Samuel Fuller, 1964)

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (Orson Welles, 1965)

PAT GARRETT & BILLY

THE KID (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)

Scan the titles, and you’ll find undisputed classics (Citizen Kane, Casablanca), populist favorites (Star Wars, Iron Man) and lesser-known gems that deserve a large audience (Cooley High, Outrage).

But, as with any list, people tend to gravitate toward what’s not on it rather than what is. That’s where you come in: Anyone can nominate a movie for the Registry, up to 50 titles per year per ballot.

Nominations can be submitted all year round, with the inductees announced in December. Calls for the class of 2023 have closed, but that just gives you extra time to start thinking about your 2024 ballot. And the best place to start is by watching these movies. There’s nothing quite like spending a couple of hours revisiting a work of art that moves you, or discovering something that moves someone else.

BORN IN FLAMES

(Lizzie Borden, 1983)

LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF (Thom Andersen, 2003)

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Michel Gondry, 2004)

THE TREE OF LIFE

(Terrence Malick, 2011)

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

(Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)

As industry workers fight for cinema’s future, let’s preserve its past

Inside Llewyn Davis

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): The Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1 is a hollow globe of aluminum launched into Earth orbit in 1965. Fifty-eight years later, it continues to circle the planet — and is still doing the job it was designed to do. It enables ground-based radar devices to perform necessary calibrations. I propose we celebrate and honor the faithfulness of this magic sphere. May it serve as an inspiring symbol for you in the coming months. More than ever before, you have the potential to do what you were made to do — and with exceptional steadiness and potency. I hope you will be a pillar of inspiring stability for those you care about.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): “Live as though you’re living a second time and as though the first time you lived, you did it wrong, and now you’re trying to do things right.” Holocaust survivor and author Viktor Frankl offered this advice. I wouldn’t want to adhere to such a demanding practice every day of my life. But I think it can be an especially worthwhile exercise for you in the coming weeks. You will have a substantial capacity to learn from your past; to prevent mediocre histories from repeating themselves; to escape the ruts of your habit mind and instigate fresh trends.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Gemini

author Jamie Zafron wrote an article titled “To Anyone Who Thinks They’re Falling Behind in Life.” She says, “Sometimes you need two more years of life experience before you can make your masterpiece into something that will feel real and true and raw. Sometimes you’re not falling in love because whatever you need to know about yourself is only knowable through solitude. Sometimes you haven’t met your next collaborator. Sometimes your sadness encircles you because, one day, it will be the opus upon which you build your life.” This is excellent advice for you in the coming months, dear Gemini. You’ll be in a phase of incubation, preparing the way for your Next Big Thing. Honor the gritty, unspectacular work you have ahead! It will pay off.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): You’re entering a phase when you will generate maximum luck if you favor what’s short and sweet instead of what’s long and complicated. You will attract the resources you need if you identify what they are with crisp precision and do not indulge in fuzzy indecision. The world will conspire in your favor to the degree that you avoid equivocating. So please say precisely what you mean! Be a beacon of clear, relaxed focus!

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Unless you are French, chances are you have never heard of Saint-John Perse (1887–1975). He was a renowned diplomat for the French government and a poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now he’s virtually unknown outside of his home country. Can we draw useful lessons for your use, Leo? Well, I suspect that in the coming months, you may very well come into greater prominence and wield more clout. But it’s crucial for the long-term health of your soul that during this building time, you are in service to nurturing your soul as much as your ego. The worldly power and pride you achieve will ultimately fade like Perse’s. But the spiritual growth you accomplish will endure forever.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): “Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique, and not too much imagination.” Virgo author Christopher Isherwood said that. I’m offering his thought because I believe life will be spectacularly not bad for you in the coming weeks — whether or not you have a good physique. In fact, I’m guessing life will be downright enjoyable, creative, and fruitful. In part, that’s because you will be the beneficiary of a stream of luck. And in part, your gentle triumphs and graceful productiveness will unfold because you will be exceptionally imaginative.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): “You know how crazy love can make you,” write Mary D. Esselman and Elizabeth Ash Vélez in their book Love Poems for Real Life “On any given day, you’re insanely happy, mani-

acally miserable, kooky with contentment, or bonkers with boredom — and that’s in a good relationship.” They add, “You have to be a little nuts to commit yourself, body and soul, to one other person — one wonderful, goofy, fallible person — in the hope that happily-ever-after really does exist.” The authors make good points, but their view of togetherness will be less than fully applicable to you in the coming months. I suspect life will bring you boons as you focus your intelligence on creating wellgrounded, nourishing, non-melodramatic bonds with trustworthy allies.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): “I don’t adopt anyone’s ideas — I have my own.” So proclaimed Scorpio author Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883). Really, Ivan? Were you never influenced by someone else’s concepts, principles, art, or opinions? The fact is that all of us live in a world created and shaped by the ideas of others. We should celebrate that wondrous privilege! We should be pleased we don’t have to produce everything from scratch under our own power. As for you Scorpios reading this oracle, I urge you to be the anti-Turgenev in the coming weeks. Rejoice at how interconnected you are — and take full advantage of it. Treasure the teachings that have made you who you are. Sing your gratitude for those who have forged the world you love to live in. You now have the power to be an extraordinary networker.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): The Tibetan term lenchak is often translated as “karmic debt.” It refers to the unconscious conditioning and bad old habits that attract us to people we would be better off not engaging. I will be bold and declare that sometime soon, you will have fully paid off a lenchak that has caused you relationship problems. Congrats! You are almost free of a long-running delusion. You don’t actually need the influence you thought you needed.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): If you’re like many of us, you have a set bathing routine. In the shower or bath, you start your cleansing process with one particular action, like washing your face, and go on to other tasks in the same sequence every time. Some people live most of their lives this way: following well-established patterns in all they do. I’m not criticizing that approach, though it doesn’t work for me. I need more unpredictability and variety. Anyway, Capricorn, I suspect that in the coming weeks, you will benefit from trying my practice. Have fun creating variations on your standard patterns. Enjoy being a novelty freak with the daily details.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): In July 1812, composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a 10-page love letter to a woman he called “My Angel” and “Immortal Beloved.” He never sent it, and scholars are still unsure of the addressee’s identity. The message included lines like “you — my everything, my happiness ... my solace — my everything” and “forever thine, forever mine, forever us.” I hope you will soon have sound reasons for composing your own version of an “Immortal Beloved” letter. According to my astrological analysis, it’s time for your tender passion to fully bloom. If there’s not a specific person who warrants such a message, write it to an imaginary lover.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): At age 32, artist Peter Milton realized the colors he thought he used in his paintings were different from what his viewers saw. He got his eyes tested and discovered he had color blindness. For example, what he regarded as gray with a hint of yellow, others perceived as green. Shocked, he launched an unexpected adjustment. For the next 40 years, all his paintings were black and white only. They made him famous and have been exhibited in major museums. I love how he capitalized on an apparent disability and made it his strength. I invite you to consider a comparable move in the coming months.

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

DEAR DAN: My husband has neurological memory problems. Not Alzheimer’s, but similar in some ways, and it does require me to do a fair amount for him. I have to remind him of every little thing, fix tons of “problems,” accompany him everywhere (because otherwise he gets lost), etc., etc., etc. The end result is, I feel more like his parent or his nurse or live-in tech support than his spouse. We love each other, but it’s not the same as it was, and never can be again. This is very frustrating for him to go through, but it’s also very frustrating for me. He’s the one with a memory problem, but I can’t even remember the last time we did anything more than hug or share a goodbye kiss. Probably not in at least 10 years or more. I’ve basically had to give up a huge part of myself, and I don’t know how to get that back. I feel starved. I feel dead inside. How can I bring myself back to life?

— Frustrated And Resentful

DEAR FAR: You’re his caretaker now, not his romantic partner, FAR, and you demonstrate your loyalty to your husband by staying, by being at his side whenever he leaves the house, by reminding him to take his meds, etc., etc., etc. As a caretaker, you’re under a tremendous amount of pressure and, if you’re an American, you live in a country that provides zero support for people taking care of chronically ill or disabled loved ones. So, you need to take care of yourself, FAR, and if discreetly meeting up with a lover or hiring a sex worker makes it possible for you to stay married and stay sane — if it makes it possible for you to be the partner your husband needs now — do what you need to do.

DEAR DAN: I have a sexting partner and we’re about to go from just texts to actually meeting up in real life. But in our text exchanges, we don’t discuss things like condoms, protection, personal hygiene, etc., as everything is strictly fantasy. How do I start incorporating real life concerns and questions into these fantasies?

— Fantasies Erotic And Realities Serious

DEAR FEARS: Instead of attempting to do the impossible — and incorporating condoms, protection, personal hygiene, etc., into fantasy text exchange is impossible — you should send your sexting partner a standalone, not-trying-to-be-sexy “concerns and logistics” message after your next sexting session. Let them know there are some practical matters you would like to discuss in advance of your first face-to-face meeting. Then you can bring up condoms, other protections, your expectations around personal hygiene, and anything else you want to discuss before that first meeting. Additionally, FEARS, if you’ve expressed interest in something during your sext exchanges that you don’t want to experience in real life not now, not ever — or if you’ve played along with something your sexting partner was fantasizing about that you’re not interested in doing with or for them, now’s the time to walk that shit back.

THE TOMATO SPEAKS

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

Frankly, you haven’t experienced summer until tomato juice is dripping down your chin, according to local fresh-tomato cultists. First, find a totally ripe, field-grown tomato, not some crunchy little, toosweet grape variety. Sink your teeth into that Beefsteak and slurp. For the second bite, sprinkle the tomato with good flaky salt. Inhale the aroma. Wipe off your chin.

Once upon a time the French called the tomato pomme d’amour, or “love apple,” believing it to be an aphrodisiac. Whether they work romantically, once you taste a truly great summer fruit, you’ll experience tomato lust.

Steve Redzikowski thought he knew what tomatoes taste like when he arrived in Colorado about 15 years ago.

“I had eaten a lot of tomatoes in New York. I got here and tasted some heirloom tomatoes from Red Wagon Farm. It was a whole different level of tomato and took me by surprise,” says Redzikowski, chef-owner of Boulder’s OAK at Fourteenth and Brider in Denver.

The cook’s passion for tomatoes grew to the point that he started presenting a tomato dinner at OAK every August featuring local field varieties in every course, paired with wines.

The menu for this year’s tomato dinner on Aug. 22 includes tomato watermelon gazpacho, stuffed pasta in tomato broth and halibut with tomato tamales. Dessert is a tomato ricotta cheese tart with peach ice cream. Each course — cooked by a different OAK chef — showcases heirloom tomato varieties grown nearby at Speedwell Farms and Red Wagon Farm.

“We try to let the tomato speak for itself,” Redzikowski says. “Some are sweet, some savory, in different shapes and colors. Some are better for making sauces.”

Red Wagon Farm grows the Steverino, a red hybrid tomato, named to honor Redzikowski.

The chef recommends biting into a great tomato sprinkled with furikake, a Japanese seasoning combining sesame seeds, dried fish flakes, nori seaweed and sometimes salt, sugar and chile flakes.

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR TOMATOES?

It turns out there are as many favorite ways to enjoy fresh local tomatoes as there are tomato lovers.

Several friends we queried said: “Keep it simple.” They were raised walking into the garden, salt shaker in hand, until a choice fruit was found.

Denver-based writer Gil Asakawa grew up in Hokkaido, Japan, where the local tradition was to treat tomatoes as a fruit. “My mom’s way of serving fresh tomatoes was to slice them and sprinkle with sugar,” Asakawa says. “Now, I like slices with a dip of Kewpie Mayonnaise and shoyu soy sauce.”

Other fans insist on thick tomato slices enhanced with various combinations of extra virgin olive oil, balsamic reduction, kosher salt, ground pepper or fresh chopped basil.

Add slices of mozzarella and you have another classic: Caprese salad. Chef Dan Asher of Boulder’s River and Woods recommends upgrading the Caprese with home-stretched mozzarella. “It tastes so much fresher and it’s really not hard to make,” he says.

THE SANDWICH DEBATE

Many folks we queried voted for a tomato sandwich, using “good” bread, thick slices, mayo, salt and pepper. There seems to be a sharp debate whether Best Foods, Kewpie, Blue Plate or Duke’s mayo is the ideal spread. Purists suggest only scratchmade mayo will do. Grey Poupon, Miracle Whip and horseradish sauce were also suggested.

The tomato sandwich bread of choice may be sourdough or whole grain. Toasting or grilling gets the nod for flavor and texture while keeping the sandwich from getting soggy. Naturally, the quintessential cold tomato sandwich variation is the BLT, with or without avocado (that’s a BLAT). Some like it

hot, as in a grilled or pressed cheese sandwich middled by a thick slice of tomato.

FROM PANZANELLA TO PIE

A number of the other easy ways to eat tomatoes involve many of the same ingredients.

Tuscan Panzanella is basically a tomato sandwich salad. To make it, toss tomato chunks, basil, salt, lightly toasted bread cubes and a simple vinaigrette.

Bruschetta is an open-face toast and a great vehicle for tomatoes. It’s best buttered and grilled and crowned with tomato slices and chopped herbs.

Tomato pie comes in two models. Southern tomato pie layers slices in a deep-dish crust topped with cheese and other ingredients. Tomato slices can also cover fresh pizza dough instead of sauce, along with olive oil, garlic, shredded cheese and herbs.

TOMATO DAYS ARE WANING

As the season winds down too fast, buy all the tomatoes you can from local farmers. Excess or overripe tomatoes can easily be blended into a beautiful cool gazpacho soup. They also can be roasted (or smoked) and turned into salsa, sauce or pico de gallo. You can even freeze whole Romas, Green Zebras and San Marzanos to use in sauces this fall.

What to do with this summer’s bounty of ruby, ripe, juicy field-grown ‘love apples’

Credit: John Lehndorff

Steve Redzikowski. Courtesy of OAK at Fourteenth.

NIBBLES

For sheer pleasure, try cornbread-battered fried red tomato slices (especially in a sandwich) or tomato upside down cornbread.

Sometimes the best ideas are the simplest, like this suggestion from a reader:

“Whole ripe tomato. Cut stem off flat. Lots of Parm cheese and black pepper

on top. Microwave until it’s mush. Eat with a spoon.”

For chef Hosea Rosenberg of Boulder’s Blackbelly Market, tomato season includes a cherished daily ritual. “My favorite way to enjoy tomatoes is to go out in the garden with my daughter, Sophie, and watch her pick and eat cherry tomatoes,” he says.

FINDING LOCAL TOMATOES: FARMSTAND GUIDE

We’ve upgraded the recently published Boulder Weekly guide to Boulder County’s roadside farm stands with a digital map. The map makes it easy to plan your tomato finding route: bit.ly/2023FarmStands

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: NEW LOUISVILLE PANADERIA

● JP’s Cuisine is open at 1631 Pace St. in Longmont, former site of Nicolo’s Pizza

● Panaderia Tradicional Y Neveria is serving Mexican baked goods and sweets at 1312 Centaur Village Drive in Lafayette.

● Got trees full of apples you’re not going to harvest? Contact Community Fruit Rescue now to schedule a harvest by volunteers: fruitrescue.org/ treeowners.html

CULINARY CALENDAR: A WINE TIME AT ALTITUDE

The Nederland Jazz & Wine Festival, Aug. 26 in Chipeta Park, is a relaxed mountain event featuring live jazz, food trucks and unlimited tastings from 15 local wineries, five distilleries, two breweries and five non-alcohol beverage makers. Profits support Nederland Area Seniors. Tickets: NedToGo.com

WORDS TO CHEW ON: BEAUTY OF UGLY

“I love judging food by its smell and feel and taste. The healthiest tomato isn’t always the perfect one that’s been covered in pesticides.”

— Sheherazade Goldsmith

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

SORRY, GOTTA BOUNCE

Bounce Empire is a lot of things, including a good restaurant

BY COLIN WRENN

Last night, I strapped on a fullbody velcro suit and, after charging across a 15-foot inflatable ramp, hurled myself against a velcro wall where I hung suspended for about a minute. My colleague was balled up on the floor behind me, tears streaming down his cheeks from sustained laughter. The two of us then entered an enclosed ring where we launched a beach ball into a comically large caricature of a basketball hoop. There were stops along the way to kick soccer balls onto a 21-foot “darts” board, toss bean bags fit for Andre the Giant and fling down a three-story velociraptor-shaped slide.

Bounce Empire is a new indoor amusement park recently opened in Lafayette. Guests are greeted at the door by a 30-foot robot who looks like a Transformers character whose name no one can quite remember. Inside there are 55 more attractions, including human-sized billiards, a boxing arena and a 280-foot obstacle course that had my cohort and I foaming with competitive zeal. The conspicuously placed “No Diving” signs were the only thing that kept the race from getting entirely out of hand.

My colleague and I are both in our mid-30s. The grippy socks I received upon entry are still prominently displayed on my dash, scowling purple tornado-side up, reminding me of the blood, sweat and tears that went into claiming victory.

The whole complex, strewn across 50,000 square feet, includes a play area, a full-service bar upstairs and a sports theater. There’s also a terrace with outstanding views of the Rockies where guests can enjoy food from the Bison Bistro downstairs.

“We’re trying to take over the entertainment industry,” says resident chef Jorge Pedrianes. “I want to revolutionize how food is done in an entertainment facility.”

Pedrianes grew up in Miami where he spent his formative years fixing and selling houses with his father. During 2008’s economic downturn, he decided to flip the script, beginning his culinary career at the Miami Culinary Institute. He studied under the acclaimed godfather of Nuevo Latino cuisine, Douglas Rodriguez, and cut his teeth at Juan Chipoco’s CVI.CHE 105, along with the two Michelin-starred Italian hotspot Forte dei Marmi. Since moving to

Colorado in 2021, Pedrianes cooked in kitchens at The Hilton, Hideaway Steakhouse and Bao Brewhouse.

It’s unusual to see someone with Pedrianes’ pedigree running “concession food.”

But since Bounce Empire’s inception, owner James Hay-Arthur has made it clear that food would not be an afterthought. And with Pedrianes behind the wheel, Hay-Arthur’s culinary ambitions seem to be coming to fruition.

The single-page menu is broken down into all-day breakfast, specialties, sliders, sides and desserts. The kids menu sits center stage. “It’s simple food but it’s the best,” says Pedrianes, who likes to make dishes that don’t lose their sense of sophistication by being approachable.

So rather than offering kids chicken nuggets, Pedrianes serves maple-miso chicken bites with sturdy yuca fries. The mac and cheese comes with a sauce that Pedrianes believes will have even the most discerning youngsters claiming it’s the best noodle plate they’ve ever had.

Pedrianes has also taken care to provide regionally inspired cuisine built for grown folks who truly care about

food. The Flavor of the Rockies — a $30 platter of Colorado Bison Ribs dripping in guava barbecue sauce served alongside elk sausage with mint chimichurri, yuca sticks and a prickly pear cheesecake — is not only an immensely filling steal, but actually would be a fine fit on most of the new menus on Pearl Street or in RiNo. The ahi tuna bowl tops seared fish with lemon oil, wonton shavings and sesame seeds on a bed of yuzu avocado mousse. It tastes like South Beach, a surprising marriage of glitz and substance.

To eat dishes of this caliber on single-use containers while overlooking the madness below can feel a little jarring. But the juxtaposition isn’t bad. It’s more that there’s an overwhelming novelty to seeing two experiences — one fine and one funhouse — get along so nicely. It’s a little Black Mirror, but with enough bouncing, the urge to fuss over petty distinctions melts away.

There are already plans to open another Bounce Empire in Denver within 18 months. But the vision doesn’t stop there: Hay-Arthur intends to take the concept nation-wide, and already sees 30 more somewhere on the horizon.

(Left) Kraken with octopus. (Right) Ahi tuna bowl. Photos courtesy Prim + Co.

RUNNING HIGH

CU research shows cannabis can enhance the euphoric effects of a good jog

BY WILL BRENDZA

Long-distance runners often describe a sensation that happens around 40 minutes into a run. A deep sense of relaxation overcomes them, their focus zeroes in and their bodies move effortlessly without conscious thought. Pain fades into the background.

This so-called runner’s high is a state of euphoria that’s believed to be an evolutionary mechanism to improve human performance for long-distance running and hunting. According to some anthropologists, endorphins released within our brains help tune out discomfort and improve our concentration.

For years researchers have pointed to the endogenous opioid system of the human brain as the driver for this physiological mechanism. But a more recent analysis published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America suggests it has more to do with the brain’s cannabinoid system. A new study from the University of Colorado Boulder backs up that claim. A paper published in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research in July explores the relationship between the runner’s high and cannabis use. The

findings indicate that cannabis can actually increase the effects of runner’s high — even if it does seem to slightly decrease performance.

“We really wanted to collect some data to look at acute effects,” says Angela Bryan, the study’s lead author. “What are people feeling when they run while they’re using cannabis? And is that associated with some of the feelings of euphoria that people report as the runner’s high?”

Bryan is a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. Her broad area of research focuses on the intersection of health and risk behavior. She says that with the legalization of cannabis, she became acutely interested in how legalization was going to affect health habits like exercise.

“It’s just sort of ballooned out from there once we found out that people use cannabis with exercise, and cannabis users are more likely to exercise than non-users,” Bryan says.

She got interested in the topic after looking at survey data showing people used cannabis to enjoy exercise more.

“One of the things that we know about exercise, in general, is people

who have a more positive affective response to exercise are more likely to exercise, which isn’t rocket science: If it feels better to you, if it makes you feel good, you’re going to want to do it again,” Bryan says. “And so we were super interested in whether cannabis impacted the affective response, the extent to which you feel good or bad during exercise.”

So she and her fellow CU researcher Laurel Gibson recruited 49 study participants to get to the bottom of their questions. The participants were all cannabis users and runners between the ages of 21 and 49 years old. The researchers had them all download an

do the exact same thing both times. Before and after each run the participants filled out surveys gauging their perceived experiences.

They found that when the runners used cannabis they reported, on average, significant increases in enjoyment, tranquility and disassociation, and described less perceived exertion and other side effects.

But there was one notable caveat: The cannabis runs were an average of 31 seconds per mile slower than the non-cannabis runs.

“That’s super consistent with data other folks have collected that shows performance doesn’t get better,” Bryan says. “But that [the exercise] is more enjoyable.”

Bryan adds that those effects were consistent whether participants used edibles, flower or concentrates.

Bryan says her team has a laboratory study on the same topic that is currently under review. For that study, the researchers had more control over the setting, conditions, types and quantities of cannabis that participants used, and measured their blood along the way. In the future, she wants to do more research using participants who are less experienced with cannabis.

app that allowed them to track their runs, and instructed them to run the exact same route, once without cannabis, and once having used some kind of commercial cannabis product. The researchers put no restrictions on how far they ran, what kind of cannabis product they used, or what dosage. They only asked that the participants

Ultimately, Bryan hopes these findings might encourage people, especially those averse to exercise, to become more active and healthy.

“If cannabis might be a way to help people enjoy [exercise] more, to be more likely to do it, to experience less pain when they do it, I think there’s a lot of potential there,” she says.