Boulder Weekly 09.05.2024

Care less

FOOD

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CELEBRATING 42 years in business!

Medical Marijuana Dispensary

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Selection at a dispensary

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New Arrivals

Explore our latest parkas and jackets for fall/winter

Drop by our store at 1130 Pearl Street for a coffee and learn about our latest premium outdoor products.

Welcome to nature

20 MUSIC Despite music director’s cancer diagnosis, Boulder Philharmonic will open its 2024-2025 season as scheduled BY

KELLY DEAN HANSEN

25 STAGE What does the closure of Boulder’s only LGBTQ+ bar and venue mean for the queer performing arts scene? BY TONI

TRESCA

26 FILM Dispatch from the 51st Telluride Film Festival: a forward-thinking fest in love with the past BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

Volume 32, Number 3

COVER: Andy Colwell

PUBLISHER: Francis J. Zankowski

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Shay Castle

ARTS EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray

REPORTERS: Kaylee Harter, Tyler Hickman

FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:

Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Kelly Dean Hansen, Courtney Johnson

Dan Savage, Auden Schendler, Andrea Steffes-Tuttle, Toni Tresca, Gabby Vermeire, Quentin Young

SALES AND MARKETING

MARKET DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: Kellie Robinson

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Matthew Fischer

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Chris Allred, Tony Camarda

SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: Carter Ferryman

MRS. BOULDER WEEKLY: Mari Nevar

PRODUCTION

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erik Wogen

GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Chris Sawyer

CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn

CIRCULATION TEAM:

Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE

BOOKKEEPER/ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Austen Lopp

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-holds-barred 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. 1495 Canyon Boulevard, Suite CO 1, Boulder, CO 80302

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POISON IN OUR DRINKING WATER?

The other morning I found myself praying for our planet, but primarily for our precious, life sustaining water. In the spring, the City of Boulder and the Northern Colorado Conservancy District plan to put the herbicide triclopyr in the Boulder Reservoir in order to combat the infestation of the Eurasian Watermilfoil.

As noted in the Daily Camera, the Northern Colorado Conservancy District is already applying this herbicide upstream of the reservoir It will continue to be used in the reservoir “on an as-needed basis,” according to the city.

As usual, we are given many reassurances that it will be a very minimal amount and it will be harmless to humans. “Triclopyr was reviewed and approved for targeted EWM control in

the Boulder Reservoir by the city’s Integrated Pest Management Program,” the city writes on its project webpage.

[Editor’s note: Triclopyr acid was found to be slightly toxic when ingested or absorbed through the skin, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which classifies the pesticide in use since 1979 — as having Category 3 toxicity. It is also a Category D chemical, meaning there is no evidence it causes cancer in humans.]

Poison in our drinking and recreational waters seems like a very bad idea to me. Surely there must be alternatives to helping control these weeds.

The past few years, the staff at the reservoir has been attempting to control the weeds by pulling them by hand, but their employees are very limited.

What if several hundred concerned citizens showed up to pull these weeds?

This would not only increase awareness about the difficulties we face with global warming, but provide us with concrete ways we could help.

Instead of feeling helpless, we could build community and participation.

What about those weeds too deep for hands to pull? We could call on organizations that teach and certify scuba divers to tackle these areas. We need to involve the University of Colorado, with its resources and scientific brain power, to investigate these issues.

We need new ways of thinking as to how we as humans will work with global warming and its manifestations. The old ways won’t work and in fact are part of the problem.

— Ellen Stark, Boulder

LETTERS

WAGE HIKE WON’T HELP

I read both Ms. Speer’s article (“Wisdom for the wages”) and “It’s time to demand a living wage” (Aug. 22) with interest, as someone who grew up in Boulder and deeply mourns the loss of affordability, and also as a small-business owner who squeaks by in the city.

The point that is unaddressed by both articles is that the proposed minimum wage increases will increase prices for consumers throughout the city — further stymieing affordability. Ms. Speer advocates passing along wage increases to consumers, but neglects the fact that should the city mandate significant wage increases, those consumers will be all of us, at every business we frequent. She also cites an example of a highly specialized organization, one whose products and services are not quickly supplanted by cheap, online alternatives. (Hello, Amazon, whose wages for workers will not increase.)

overly simplistic solution to a complex problem that fails to address its root cause.

As a reader and voter who is invested in affordability, I would appreciate further discussion from the Boulder Weekly about this issue as the election approaches, especially from the perspective of inflation and cost of living.

— Elizabeth Chitty Sandoval, Boulder

A BETTER WAY TO PICK A PRESIDENT

The electoral college is pretty unpopular — a 2023 Pew Research Center poll says that two-thirds of Americans want to get rid of it so that the winner of the popular vote becomes president. In 2000 and 2016, the GOP candidate who won in the electoral college lost the popular vote.

I recently bought a bagel with cream cheese for double what it cost 2-3 years ago. I shudder to think what my bagels (and groceries and other necessities) will cost if the minimum wage is doubled across the board.

Assuming the moderately democratic nature of the U.S. survives the next year, we need to do something about this undemocratic system. It is undemocratic to create even a small degree of equality between the big states and the small states. California should have more voting power than Wyoming does, because it has more people

Even if undoing that wasn’t part of the ultimate fix, addressing the problem with the electoral college would move the U.S. political system closer to the small-d democratic end of the spectrum.

If the true villains here are, as the second article suggests, landlords and sky-high rents (which my business currently pays), I have to think that a minimum wage increase will do nothing to affect affordability in Boulder. As wage increases are passed on to consumers, prices will rise and the circle will go around again. Unfortunately, no amount of minimum wage increase will help a minimum wage worker afford payments on a million dollar home (currently the basement price in Boulder) or rents that eat up half a paycheck.

I somewhat support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which would require participating states’ electoral college voters to support whoever won the popular vote. As of April 2024, 18 states with a collective 209 electoral college votes, 38.8%, have signed the compact: 270 are needed for it to take affect.

To me, it seems that the true key to affordability in Boulder starts and ends with affordable housing and business rents. Until these are tackled, doubling the minimum wage will only exacerbate the problem (and require further minimum wage hikes).

Nearly doubling the minimum wage by 2030 seems like a drastic and

A permanent solution might be elusive. But I would like to see the electoral college reformed so that the votes are based solely on the number of congressional districts. Until we get there, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is a good idea. It’s flawed, but a lot better than the status quo.

— Tom Shelley, Gunbarrel

BETTER THAN ZERO

We need the Prius of buildings, not the Tesla

BY AUDEN SCHENDLER WRITERS ON THE RANGE

The company I work for recently built a new ticket office at the base of Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen. Environmentally, we killed it: argon-gas-filled windows, super-thick insulation and comprehensive air sealing, 100% electrification using heat pumps instead of gas boilers. All within budget.

Yet one of the first comments we received was from a famous energy guru: “Nice building. But why do you have a heating system at all?” Or more simply put: “Why didn’t you build a perfect building, instead of just a really good one?”

Solving climate change could depend on how we answer that question. My answer: Society needs the Prius of buildings, not the Tesla X.

The green building movement didn’t originate only from a desire to protect the environment. It often had elements of the bizarre ego gratification that trumped practicality.

Early practitioners such as Steiner, Buckminster Fuller and Bill McDonough, among others, were often building monuments, whose ultimate goal became the concept of “net zero.” Net zero was a building that released no carbon dioxide emissions at all.

Designers achieved that goal by constructing well-sealed, heavily insulated, properly oriented and controlled buildings — but then they did something wasteful. They added solar panels to make up for carbon dioxide emissions from heating with natural gas. The approach zeroed out emissions, but at extraordinary cost that came in the form of added labor and expense.

While net zero wasn’t a good idea even when most buildings were heated with natural gas, the rapid decarboniza-

tion of utility grids — happening almost everywhere — and advances in electrification make the idea downright pointless.

Instead, all you need to build an eventual net zero building is to go all-electric. It won’t be net zero today, but it will be net zero when the grid reaches 100% carbon-free power. So, all that really matters is that building codes require 100% electrification.

Yet many communities remain focused on that sexy goal of net zero, and therefore

include requirements for solar panels, or “solar ready” wiring. Even apart from the issue of cost, many utilities don’t need rooftop solar because they increasingly have access to huge solar arrays, giving them more electricity than they need in peak times.

What utilities really need is energy storage and smart management. My company’s Buttermilk building passes the only test that matters: “If everyone built this kind of structure, would it solve the built environment’s

portion of the climate problem?” The answer for our building is “yes.”

Still, aspirational monuments matter. But if we’re going to solve climate change in buildings, which is about a third of the total problem, new structures will have to reconceive what we consider efficient and beautiful. And it doesn’t have to break the bank.

Auden Schendler is senior vice president of sustainability at Aspen One.

PRIVATE EQUITY VS. PUBLIC GOOD

Advocates sound the alarm about increasing investment in child care

BY ANDREA STEFFES-TUTTLE PHOTOS BY ANDY COLWELL

PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE COLORADO SUN.

Eva Pietri was at work when she got a troubling notification from Pathways Learning Academy in Boulder. The infant care program where her 6-month-old son had been enrolled for a little more than a week would be shut down for two weeks.

“We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, what are we going to do?’” said Pietri, who had spent months looking for child care and was now scrambling to find help, booking babysitters from online ads and waiting to hear from the school about when it would reopen. “It’s so stressful.”

The daycare and preschool operates out of Grace Commons Church in Boulder, just a few miles from their home in East Boulder. The message, sent through Pathways’ parent portal, said the facility’s infant room would close temporarily. Then the closure was extended by a month.

Administrators never contacted Pietri, who eventually enrolled her now 13-month-old at a new daycare.

That was September 2022. Pathways — owned by one of the largest private equity-backed child care groups in the country — has had five complaints filed against them since that time (as of July 2024) to the Colorado Department of Early Childhood. It has been placed on probation by the state twice since January 2023, according to Colorado Shines, the state’s quality rating and improvement system. Complaints include

inadequate staff training, failure to background check employees and having too few workers for the number of children in their care.

Understaffing, lower quality of care and general disinvestment are common under private equity ownership in all kinds of service industries. Now private equity is moving into child care, and industry watchdogs and early childhood education advocates are sounding the alarm.

Earlier this summer, National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) and Open Markets Institute, a nonprofit that lobbies against corporate monopolies, published a report on the risks of private equity investment in the child care sector and held a conference discussing the issue. Among their concerns are potential impacts on child safety and the stability of care.

“The question is whether an investorbacked business model — and in the case of private equity, a heavily financialized model focused on short-term profit — is the appropriate model for something that is a public good,” said Melissa Boteach, co-author of the report and vice president of child care and early learning at NWLC.

‘PEOPLE NEED IT’

The Bell Policy Center puts Colorado’s total licensed capacity for child care at 156,691 kids. There are 231,993 children under 6 whose parents are in the workforce, according to Bell Policy’s research. As Pietri’s experience and the prevalence of facility waitlists demonstrate, that gap in availability leaves access to reliable care tough to find.

The high demand for child care can be part of the appeal for investors, said Stephen Billings, a researcher at CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business.

“Private equity loves buying things with inelastic demand,” Billings said. “People need to have it, they’re willing to pay a lot for it. Child care is something people must have, or they’re not going to work.”

About 7.5% of Colorado’s total licensed child care capacity is owned by private equity, according to an analysis by Elliot Haspel, a nationally recognized child and family policy expert and the author of Crawling Behind: America’s Child Care Crisis and How to Fix It

“We are not seeing a flood into Colorado yet,” Haspel said. “It’s grown about 1% of market share since 2019.”

But steady growth in other states can be a portent of things to come, he said. “If places like New Mexico are any sort of forecast, as more state money becomes available, it will be more and more attractive for programs to want to come into Colorado.”

BAD FOR KIDS, BAD FOR COMMUNITIES

Three large private-equity-owned child care groups — KinderCare, Bright Horizons and Learning Care Group — operate in Colorado, according to Boteach. Together, they own approximately 70 daycare or education facilities. Industry watchdogs worry that further private equity investment will exacerbate an already untenable situation.

As NWLC and Open Markets noted in their report, “Families’ extreme need for child care, while in a shortage market, leaves them vulnerable to providers who maximize their prices.”

Based on a 2023 analysis featured in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Data Book report, Colorado is the fifth-most expensive state for child care, with an average annual cost of more than $1,300 per month. The average annual cost of center-based child care for a toddler is 14% of the median income for a married couple and 41% of the median income for a single mother in the state.

“We don’t have enough child care,” Haspel said. “It’s not widely available and affordable. That’s bad for kids, it’s bad for families, it’s bad for communities, it’s bad for ultimately the economy in the state.”

Haspel, along with data consultant Randy Rosso, analyzed facilities for the five largest private equity-backed providers of child care in the U.S. They found that centers were more likely to be located in census tracts where the median household income was $88,000, compared to the $71,000 median across the states studied.

As the study authors noted, the risk of consolidation under private equity could result in daycare deserts, putting child care even further out of reach in lowincome areas.

“Existing disparities in families’ ability to pay may incentivize companies who acquire smaller chains to shut down programs in lower-paying communities to

divert those programs’ capital assets toward expanding services in wealthier areas,” they wrote.

There are also concerns about private equity’s practice of saddling businesses with debt, leading to bankruptcy and closures. This famously happened with retailer Toys“R”Us, and it’s happening in child care, too.

In Australia, ABC Learning, the previous owner of The Learning Group, which owns 24 child care providers in Colorado, required a government bailout to keep its 570 child care centers operational after the company’s stock price declined and it was unable to pay off its debts.

“The problem,” NWLC’s Boteach says, “is that private equity firms have a traditional playbook, whereby the firms collect the profits and pass the risk and liabilities back to the companies they’ve taken over.”

Bright Horizons in Longmont announced that it would close its doors at the end of May 2024. The center provided care for 100 children.

In Boulder County, 11 licensed child care centers closed between July 2023 and June 2024. New programs have opened, according to Kaycee Headrick, CEO of the county’s early childhood council, but demand still outstrips supply particularly for the youngest children.

“We estimate in Boulder County that for every five infant/toddlers who need care,” Headrick wrote in response to emailed questions, “only one can access it.”

One of the most common reasons facilities give for closing is financial difficulty, Headrick wrote.

Private equity-backed groups may be better able to weather rising costs than private or family-owned facilities, CU’s Billings said. “Having deep pockets allows you to buy in bulk and get some savings.”

But, at least in other industries, those savings are rarely passed along to consumers.

program,” said Haspel. “This is a company saying, ‘I am going to buy you. I’m going to own you for three to seven years to get as much money as possible out of you, and then I’m going to sell you to somebody else.’”

WARNING CALL

A few states have started to put standards in place that restrict profit-making in preschools. In New Jersey, the state imposes significant budget requirements to limit profit-making in preschools that receive state funding. Work is being done in Massachusetts to limit the amount of state funding any large companies can receive.

Colorado state representatives like Lorena Garcia emphasize the need to, as the District 35 representative and CEO of the Colorado Statewide Parent Coalition said, “keep public dollars in public spaces.”

The company provided a written statement about the closure but did not address the reason behind it. Bright Horizons officials did not respond to a request for comment.

“If entire child care chains — or even just local franchisees — close due to bankruptcy,” the NWLC report states, “the families that depend on them for care get left in the lurch.”

CHILD CARE CRUNCH

Licensed

child care facilities in Colorado

A 2022 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that when anesthesia companies backed by private equity investors took over a hospital outpatient or surgery center, they raised prices by an average of 26% more than facilities served by independent anesthesia practices. A Washington Post investigation found that prices for services increased 30% after several anesthesiology practices were consolidated in Colorado.

2019: 5,034

2020: 4,924

2021: 4,805

2022: 4,723

2023: 4,679

2024: 4,687

Colorado lost 347 licensed child care centers between March 2019 and March 2024, the latest date for which data is available, with the number of facilities declining each year. That trend stopped in 20232024, when the state actually gained providers for the first time as the first group of children enrolled in Colorado’s universal preschool program. But that’s not the case in all communities.

*All counts from March of each year for consistency

Source: Colorado Department of Early Childhood

“If they find opportunities to raise prices,” Billings said, “of course they will.”

Private equity firms make their money in a few ways, but a primary method is by restructuring the companies — often by reducing staff — to maximize their profit margin. Studies show that there are higher mortality rates and a lower quality of care in private equity-owned nursing homes, according to a 2023 British Medical Journey review of 926 studies published since 2000.

“These are institutions with major profit motives who fully own and operate the

“What are guardrails we can put around child care providers that do accept private equity funds?” she asked. Some of those guardrails may include setting standards for care quality, limiting profit margins for state-funded programs and establishing protections against sudden closures. Garcia, whose district includes Westminster and Federal Heights, is not currently planning legislation specifically to address the private equity investment in child care centers.

The NWLC and Open Markets report serves as a “warning for the child care sector,” authors wrote, so legislators like Garcia can be prepared to act and establish protections — such as state standards for quality, limits on for-profit operations or protections against sudden facility closures — as government dollars flow into the industry.

A universal pre-K program, which funds 15 hours of preschool care per week to children in their year before kindergarten, and proposed early childhood special districts have the potential to provide more support to families — and more tax dollars to daycares.

“With the influx of possible public funding,” NWLC report author Boteach said, “external investors should have guardrails in place to protect the child care industry and the families they serve.”

Shay Castle contributed reporting.

BOCO, BRIEFLY

Local news at a glance

BY KAYLEE HARTER

BOULDER INTERVIEWS 3 FINALISTS FOR POLICE CHIEF

Interviews are complete for three finalists vying to become Boulder’s next police chief. The salary range for the position is $181,861 to $246,048.

The search began when Maris Herold, Boulder’s first woman police chief, resigned in January after accepting a position with the Department of Justice’s Law Enforcement Knowledge Lab. Three finalists were selected after a nationwide search that drew about 30 applicants, according to a city press release.

The finalists are:

• Stephen Redfearn, who has been Boulder’s interim police chief since Herold’s departure. He joined BPD in 2021 as deputy police chief after 22 years in Aurora’s police department. The NAACP of Boulder County has previously called for Redfearn’s resignation; the city’s response at the time said they had “complete confidence” in him. Redfearn was a captain on duty the night of 23-year-old Elijah McClain’s killing and served as a witness in the subsequent trial. McClain, who was Black, died after police restrained him using a now-banned chokehold and paramedics injected

him with a lethal dose of ketamine.

• Leonard Redhorse III, who is currently deputy chief of police for the Navajo Police Department, where he has served for 18 years. Redhorse has been a criminal investigator, senior police officer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain and commander over the course of his career.

• Josh Wallace, who currently serves as commander of the Criminal Network Group for the Bureau of Counterterrorism for the Chicago Police Department. He has served on the department since 1999. According to Civic Police Data Project, a journalism nonprofit based on the South Side of Chicago, Wallace has 47 allegations of misconduct, more than 97% of other officers, though only one has been sustained. The most recent complaint was in 2016, according to the database. He also has 10 use of force reports, more than 76% of other officers. However, he also has more honorable mentions, including awards for crime reduction and life saving, than 75% of other officers.

City websites and press releases did not specify when the position will be filled.

JASPER RESERVOIR PROTECTED BY DONATION, WATER-SHARING AGREEMENT

Indian Peak’s Jasper Reservoir, located north of Eldora, will be permanently protected after a water-sharing deal “facilitated by” Colorado Water Trust, a nonprofit whose mission is to restore water to the state’s rivers.

The reservoir, which has been privately owned since the ’80s, was anonymously donated to the nonprofit Aug. 29, Colorado Water Trust announced in a press release. According to Boulder County property records, the reservoir and its water belong to Indian Peaks Holdings LLC, reportedly owned by the Walton Family.

The holding company also owns Caribou Ranch, a property near Nederland that was once home to the famed recording studio that hosted the likes of Elton John and the Beach Boys, currently up for sale with an asking price of $48.5 million.

After the donation, the Colorado Water Trust then sold the reservoir to Doug Tiefel “with a set of restrictive covenants that permanently protects public access to Jasper Reservoir and optimizes the environmental benefits of Jasper Reservoir water in the Boulder Creek system,” according to the press release.

The Tiefel Family was described in the release as long-time residents of Colorado “known for their unwavering commitment to environmental preservation.” The family lives in Lafayette and has an agricultural property, Colorado Water Trust Executive Directior Kate Ryan said.

Beginning in the fall, the new owners will release water from the reservoir into the Boulder Creek system, during a time when the streamflow typically drops. The water will be protected for 37 miles in streams through Indian Peaks Wilderness, Eldora, Nederland

and all of Boulder Canyon, meaning it cannot be developed or diverted out of the streams for those 37 miles. The water can be reused for agricultural purposes downstream of the City of Boulder.

In recent years, the water has been leased by the City of Boulder and provided to local irrigators. Ryan said the Tiefel family could continue with a similar use or work with the City of Boulder again if they choose.

“In Colorado, a lot of water is taken out of agricultural production, and that threatens our communities and economies when it comes to growing food and using water for agriculture,” she said. “This helps that water stay in that use.”

E-BIKE VOUCHERS AVAILABLE

Lucky Boulder residents will receive $2,100 or more to put toward a new e-bike. Applications for the city’s e-bike voucher program will be open Sept. 13-30.

Applicants must be at or below 80% of area median income: $72,350 for a household of one or $82,700 for a household of two. Those who are randomly selected will be notified Sept. 30 and will have 96 hours to submit proof of income and city residency. E-bikes must be purchased within 45 days.

The program, which began in 2023, is aimed at advancing the city’s climate and transportation goals. Learn more or register: bit.ly/ebikeBW

IN OTHER NEWS…

• Major trail improvements began Wednesday in the Boulder Valley Ranch area. Work includes rerouting trails to reduce erosion and updating trails to make them more accessible to people with disabilities, according to a city press release.

• The Boulder County Sheriff has rescinded Stage 2 fire restrictions. The town of Superior remains on Stage 2 restrictions, which prohibit open fires, campfires and stove fires (including charcoal grills and barbecues) on both private and public lands.

Jasper Reservoir (left) and Jasper Creek. Courtesy: Colorado Water Trust

GOV’T WATCH

What your local officials are up to

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

BOULDER CITY COUNCIL

On Sept. 12, council will get its first look at the 2025 budget. Total proposed spending is $589.5 million, with a $399.3 million operating budget and $190.2 million in planned capital spending. The spending plan is “constrained but strategic,” city officials wrote in a public budget message, citing the rising costs of goods and services, a possible increase to minimum wage and expiring federal COVID relief money.

“Simply put, constraints require choices,” City Manager Nuria RiveraVandermyde said. “I am, nonetheless, proud of our recommendations, which balance support for promising programs that address some of our community’s greatest challenges with prudent, and in some cases, overdue, capital spending necessary for us to continue to deliver core services.”

The city’s operating budget is 6.7% larger than last year’s, with 24 new fulltime employees. New hires include a community wildfire resilience coordinator, permanent urban park rangers and an attorney. The city will have a total of 1,539.1 employees.

Capital spending will increase by more than 34% as Boulder looks to maintain, renovate and replace its vehicle fleet and “several city buildings” including the North Boulder Recreation Center, Atrium, police headquarters and East Boulder Community Center.

Explore the city’s 2025 proposed budget at bit.ly/BoulderBudgetBW.

LOUISVILLE PLANNING COMMISSION

On Sept. 12, the commission will vote on:

• Redevelopment of the former gas station at 947 Pine St. into The Birdie Bar, “a modern neighborhood tavern with outdoor miniature golf and indoor virtual state-of-the-art golf simulators,” according to notes shared with commission members.

• A mixed-use development at the intersection of South Boulder Road and Highway 42. The proposal includes 13,534 square feet of commercial space and 188 residential units, including 32 “micro-townhomes” ranging in size from 300 to 450 square feet.

LOUISVILLE CITY COUNCIL

On Sept. 17, the council will:

• Take a second vote on a proposed sugary drinks tax.

• Discuss several city contracts for custodial services, food and beverage, and mowing and landscape maintenance and other city services.

SUPERIOR BOARD OF TRUSTEES

On Aug. 26, the board unanimously approved regulations on short-term rentals, which include requiring annual licenses and prohibiting open fires including in a fire pit or outdoor fireplace. The ordinance also prohibits multiple short-term rentals on the same property.

All agenda items are subject to change. Mark Cathcart contributed reporting.

NOTE FOR READERS:

There will not be a Gov’t Watch in next week’s issue (Sept. 12) which will be entirely devoted to arts and culture.

East Boulder Community Center is set for a $53 million refresh. Courtesy: City of Boulder

THE BIRDS AND THE BEES

Help scientists track critters of all kinds in Boulder County and beyond

BY COURTNEY JOHNSON

Iremember grabbing rocks from a quarry as a kid (they had fewer safety precautions back then) and banging them open on my driveway looking for a hidden fossil or geode inside. I did not become a geologist, but it did fuel my interest in science and the world around me well into adulthood.

Citizen science (also known as community science) is a great way to help protect fragile ecosystems and endangered or vulnerable animal populations without being a scientist yourself. Some citizen science projects are seasonal, including the Audubon Christmas Bird Count and Great Backyard Bird Count in February. Some may require training or be age-restricted.

Here are some ideas for scientists of all ages in Boulder County.

BOULDER COUNTY NATURE ASSOCIATION

The Boulder County Nature Association offers opportunities for research and monitoring of some of the most vulnerable populations in the county: birds. One of the biggest programs is the Winter Raptor Survey to locate concentrations of raptor nests and to monitor the poisoning efforts of prairie dogs in areas known for raptor rooting and hunting. Tracking burrowing owls’ dens in prairie dog territory helps to protect young offspring; older citizens can help with bird banding. The Indian Peaks Bird Count helps document the presence of species.

Volunteer opportunities include helping with golden eagle nest closures and more. Go to bcna.org/volunteer to learn more.

BOULDER COUNTY WILDLIFE PROJECT

The Boulder County Wildlife Project, also known as “Wild Boulder,” is based on tracking wildlife observations. Home to a diverse population of animals including mammals, amphibians and insects,

Boulder County citizens can help by recording their sightings using the iNaturalist app with observation locations, times and dates along with photos.

This is one of the few projects that runs year-round to help the Boulder County Wildlife Organization understand local animal behavior patterns.

COLORADO BUTTERFLY MONITORING NETWORK

Led by the Butterfly Pavilion, the Colorado Butterfly Monitoring Network (CBMN) was established in 2013 to record and observe butterfly populations several times a year at designated locations. With butterflies playing an important role in the ecosystems of Colorado, ensuring a healthy population is necessary for conservation.

The Monarch Joint Adventure is a species-specific national monitoring program during seasonal migration through Colorado and other states mid-June through September. Visit monarchjoint venture.org to learn more.

COLORADO PIKA PROJECT

The dual-purpose Colorado Pika Project aims to protect the cute little guys that greet you with song on the top of the mountain and the fragile alpine ecosystem where they live. While enjoying the outdoors, you can also help monitor the effects of climate change including warmer temperatures, droughts and habitat

loss — some of the biggest environmental factors affecting Colorado today. There are two ways to get involved: long-term data collection (visit pika partners.org) and on-the-go collection through the Pika Patrol app.

DENVER ECOFLORA PROJECT

Launched in 2020, the Denver EcoFlora Project has two main goals citizens can help with: collecting data to help make informed decisions on conservation and land management, and observing and protecting native plant species from Boulder to Denver using the iNauralist app. Monthly EcoQuests target specific plant species using iNaturalist to collect the data. Go to botanicgardens.org and inaturalist.org to get started.

FIREFLY LIFECYCLE PROJECT

To reestablish healthy wild firefly populations in Colorado, the Firefly Lifecycle Project through the Butterfly Pavilion rears offspring each year and helps raise them to adulthood. Citizens can help by tracking firefly sightings via butterflies. org/colorado-firefly-watch and protecting

wetland area firefly habitats. Reducing light pollution also lends a hand.

LIGHT POLLUTION

An international outreach program, the premise behind Globe at Night is to reduce light pollution worldwide.

According to the Natural History Museum in the U.K., the night sky gets 10% brighter worldwide every year as it becomes more light polluted, impacting wildlife and representing “wasted energy.” Simply use a smartphone or computer to measure the pollution in your town and take action to reduce light pollution. The City of Boulder has a dark sky ordinance to promote energy conservation, safety and reduction of light pollution. Some of the best practices from Dark Sky Colorado include using lights only when necessary, aiming them toward the ground and picking warmer colored bulbs. Find out more from Dark Sky by heading to darkskycolorado.org.

NATIVE BEE WATCH

From your Colorado backyard to your favorite field of wildflowers, collecting information on native bees can help keep the population growing by monitoring twice a month.

With over 1,000 native bee species monitoring ensures pollinators can continue to help grow nuts, vegetables and fruits — more than one-third of the human diet. This program is available statewide through Colorado State University Extension. Visit arapahoe.extension.colo state.edu/nbw to find more information. If you want to extend your impact, the Bumble Bee Watch is a national program. Visit bumblebeewatch.org.

Credit: Mike Molloy

Credit: Tony Phan, Unsplash

MUSIC

PHIL MOVES FORWARD

Orchestra will open season Sunday afternoon as scheduled, despite music director’s cancer diagnosis

BY KELLY DEAN HANSEN

The Boulder Philharmonic announced last week that longtime music director Michael Butterman would not be conducting this Sunday’s season opening concert. In a video directed to patrons of all his orchestras, the 58-year-old says he was diagnosed with lymphoma in late August and is not able to travel away from his Shreveport, Louisiana, home due to a prescribed course of chemotherapy.

“I feel very good. My doctors are feeling very positive and optimistic about the situation. They tell me they have very effective treatment, that this is curable and we’re getting right after it — and I’m right there with them in that plan, believe me,” Butterman said in the video. “But it means in the short term that I’m going to have to watch my energy. I’m going to have to stay away from crowds, and I’m going to need to stay put.”

The orchestra announced that Sunday’s afternoon concert at Macky Auditorium will proceed as planned with a program featuring young violinist Amaryn Olmeda. Boulder native

Francesco Lecce-Chong will appear as guest conductor.

Butterman says that when he spoke with Lecce-Chong, the local musician shared how much the Boulder Phil inspired him growing up. “Francesco told me that it had always been his dream to conduct the orchestra,” Butterman wrote in an email to Boulder Weekly after the diagnosis.

BACK TO THE RENAISSANCE

Speaking several days before his diagnosis, Butterman outlined the 2024-25 season, which will be one of the orchestra’s most ambitious. The lineup includes two world premieres, three guest soloists and a closing performance of Beethoven’s gigantic “magnum opus” Missa solemnis with the Boulder Concert Chorale.

16-year-old Olmeda, who at age 13 won the Sphinx Competition for young Black and Latinx string players, was suggested to Butterman by former CU Boulder College of Music Dean Daniel Sher. Butterman says Sher “gushed about her charisma and stage presence.” She

offered the great Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto from 1878.

“Surprisingly, it has not been done by the Phil since I arrived here 18 years ago,” Butterman says.

Looking for a symphony whose orchestration matched the Tchaikovsky work, Butterman landed on Felix Mendelssohn’s last, No. 5 from 1830, the so-called “Reformation,” which is not performed as often as the composer’s third or fourth symphonies, the “Scottish” and “Italian.”

“The Mendelssohn symphony was written to celebrate the anniversary of a Renaissance event, the Augsburg Confession,” Butterman says. “So I thought of including a Renaissance composition.”

The Lachrimae antiquae by English composer John Dowland was written for lute with a consort of viols in 1604, and will be played in an arrangement for string orchestra. In addition, the orchestra invited the audience to vote for a fourth piece that would open the concert. The winner was the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1910), which is based on music by a Renaissance composer.

MOONS AND PLANETS

A Nov. 10 concert celebrates the 150th anniversary of Gustav Holst’s birth with the English composer’s 1916 masterpiece The Planets. It is paired with a world premiere by Broomfield native CU Boulder grad John Heins called Moons of the Giants

Butterman says he came in contact with Heins through the Phil’s late concertmaster Charles Wetherbee, who shared works composed by Heins for his string quartet. “It’s contemporary, but compelling, tuneful stuff you can appreciate on first hearing,” he says.

The new orchestral work was not a commission. Heins, who was in contact with Butterman, wrote it with the hope that the orchestra would program it.

“He chose a selection of the most prominent moons of the outer planets whose names have mythological connections, and wrote a movement for each,” Butterman says. They are Proteus (Neptune), Ariel (Uranus), Enceladus (Saturn), Titan (Saturn), Europa (Jupiter) and Io (Jupiter).

Butterman says that a program with The Planets provided an opportunity for a thematic connection to include the

BOULDER PHIL CONCERTS IN 2025

Violinist Tessa Lark, who has a special connection with folk music, joins for an Americana-themed program Jan. 12. She plays the bluegrass-inspired Sky Concerto, written for her by Michael Torke. The anchor work is Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, the America-inspired From the New World Opening the concert is a commissioned piece by Stephen Lias, who partners with the National Park Service as composer-in-residence. Wind, Water, Sand pays tribute to Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park

On March 30, pianist Alessio Bax will play Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, another piece Butterman says the Phil has not had opportunity to perform in his time. “I was blown away by Alessio, and he is one of my favorite collaborators ever,” Butterman says.

Another Russian piece, Igor Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, anchors the program, and that score’s carnival theme is also reflected in the opener, Anna Clyne’s Pivot, inspired by the contemporary English composer’s experience at the Edinburgh International Music Festival

The season concludes with Beethoven’s Missa solemnis on May 4. All concerts are Sundays at 4 p.m.

25-minute Heins composition set to a video by the Fiske Planetarium.

The music director is not certain he will be able to conduct in November following his recent health scare, but he has confidence in the musicians and patrons.

“It’s been a whirlwind of activity and emotions,” he says. “But they have responded quickly and supportively, for which I’m very grateful.”

ON THE BILL: Boulder

Philharmonic 2024-25 season opener with violinist Amaryn Olmeda. 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8. Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. $29-$95

Left: 16-year-old violin phenom Amaryn Olmeda joins the Boulder Philharmonic for the 2024-25 season opener at Macky Auditorium on Sept. 8. Courtesy: Boulder Philharmonic. Right: Longtime Boulder Philharmonic music director Michael Butterman says he’s feeling optimistic after a lymphoma diagnosis in late August. Credit: Jamie Kraus

MUSIC

FOUND SOUNDS STAFF PICK

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

School is back in Boulder, but we all know the best education happens on your turntable. There’s plenty to learn from the cheeky pop of Sabrina Carpenter or the snarling post-punk of Fontaines D.C. — both of whom make an appearance in the latest round-up of new vinyl bestsellers at Paradise Found Records and Music (1646 Pearl St.). These are the sounds welcoming the class of 2028. Sko Buffs!

Travis Scott shook up the rap world with his 2014 mixtape Days Before Rodeo, an instant cornerstone of the SoundCloud era that ushered in a new age of trap music. Scott’s breakthrough got the anniversary treatment in August — migrating to streaming services, with a vinyl release to pair — celebrating one of the genre’s most incendiary works 10 years on.

— Carter Ferryman, special projects manager What’s in Boulder’s headphones?

For the complete list of

local vinyl releases, visit bit.ly/FoundSoundsAug24

MUSIC

‘THERE USED TO BE A CITY HERE’

Midwife returns to Colorado after a fallout with the Front Range

BY JEZY J. GRAY

On a sunny Colorado summer day two decades ago, in the tiny mountain town of Granby a couple hours west of Boulder, longtime resident Marvin John Heemeyer drove an armored bulldozer into city hall.

The aggrieved muffler repair shop owner had been secretly building his monster for more than a year when he rampaged through the tight-knit community in a modified Komatsu entombed in concrete and steel. Fueled by grudges against town officials and the local press, the two-hour demolition spree carved a gruesome scar through the modest business district. Heemeyer, who shot himself inside the 85-ton contraption after it plunged through the floor of a hardware store, was the only fatality.

“Twenty years later, I am struck by the ways this all can feel so familiar,” says Madeline Johnston, singer-songwriter behind dreamy experimental pop act Midwife. “My song ‘Killdozer’ was inspired by this story … it is an ode to a city lost in the aftermath of gentrification. Having lived in Colorado for my entire adult life, I have seen the place I love disappear. I have seen my community struggle with attempting to have a voice in decisions. I can understand what would drive a person to take action.”

The first single from Midwife’s aching and serene fourth LP No Depression in Heaven may draw inspiration from that destructive day in Granby — but the song also casts a gaze toward Johnston’s former home of Denver, where she moved for college before rising costs pushed the self-described “heaven metal” musician back to her native Santa Fe four years ago. Sung with mournful reverence over the signature splash of her reverb-drenched guitar, she laments: “There used to be a city here.”

“The Denver I moved to in 2009 seemed to quickly change, even in the

first few years,” Johnston told Boulder Weekly in an email interview ahead of her album release show at Bluebird Theater on Sept. 8. “The rapid increase in the cost of living is simply unreasonable, not only for artists, but for everyday people, too.

“In my opinion, Denver’s lost a lot of its core identity,” she continues. “It’s constantly scrambling to invent a new one — a shiny replica of what it used to feel like here.”

‘CHAOS AND COMMUNITY’

After a few years recalibrating in New Mexico during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnston returned to the Centennial State last fall. She bought a home in the more affordable town of Trinidad, a community of about

ment, but Trinidad put me close enough to visit whenever I need a dose of it. I’ve been appreciating my space, solitude and quiet.”

Johnston’s time in the Mile High City was an essential step in finding her voice. She began writing her first songs as Midwife while living in a small, windowless room at Rhinoceropolis, Denver’s storied DIY venue that was shut down for code violations following Oakland’s Ghost Ship warehouse fire that killed 36 people in 2016. The nationally renowned creative community in the heart of the then-burgeoning RiNo District is where Johnston says she came into her own as an artist and a person.

chance to commune with the ghosts of her past.

“It really is a dream come true to play the Bluebird Theater and celebrate this album release with the community that raised me,” Johnston says.

Regardless of her complicated feelings about the place where she launched her landmark project, the upcoming gig is a full-circle moment for a rising artist who is taking a proverbial bulldozer to her past and starting anew.

8,000 anchoring the sleepy southern county of Las Animas. It’s a far cry from the grit and grind of Denver, and the selfdescribed “high-strung” multi-instrumentalist likes it that way.

“I have been enjoying my simple life in my magical small town,” Johnston says.

“After leaving the city, I discovered I really didn’t want to be back in that environ-

“I learned everything about freedom, passion, creativity, chaos and community,” she says. “I experienced such huge moments of love and loss, the big ones that shape you and change you forever. … I can’t really put into words just how special this time in my life was. Ever since I went to my first Rhino show in 2009, I had always wanted to live there. I can’t imagine how different my life would be if I hadn’t been a part of it.”

NO DEPRESSION

Now Johnston returns to the city she once called home to mark the release of her haunting new record. With a batch of seven pristine new songs out this month via gold-standard “dark music” label The Flenser, she says her homecoming is a

This clean-slate approach is right there in the title No Depression in Heaven, borrowing its name from a Carter Family tune popularized during the Great Depression. After Johnston’s own disappearing act, the creative hat-tip to her folk-music forebears takes on a new valence.

“I understand the song to be about the universal struggle of painful existence here on earth,” she says. “It promises a better life to come after death, but at the same time, it’s an honest look at our reality. ‘No Depression in Heaven’ has captivated people for nearly a century, and I think it speaks to the timeless feeling of not belonging here, and wanting to escape this world.”

ON THE BILL: Midwife

album release show with DBUK and Polly Urethane. 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8, Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave, Denver. $33

Madeline Johnston of “heaven metal” outfit Midwife bought a home in the small southern Colorado town of Trinidad after being priced out of Denver. Courtesy: Another Side PR

No Depression in Heaven, the fourth LP from Coloradobased experimental pop act Midwife, is slated for release Sept. 8. Courtesy: The Flenser

DEAR WHOLE FOODS DADDY

Your burning Boulder questions, asked and answered

BY GABBY VERMEIRE

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

What cryptic IG story will get her to move back to Colorado?

You know what they say: Any Boulder girl who got outta Boulder is just one confusing-Instagram-story-posted-by-her-ex away from moving back. It’s just hitting that perfect note of making her concerned for your wellbeing combined with enough WTF to make her need to know more. Maybe a “Big things coming ” text posted over some greasy white slop in a measuring cup. Is it hemp-infused tallow? Tallow-infused coconut oil? Leftover bacon grease? A hemp lube in the product-testing stage right before you’ll make so much money from it? Who knows! She’ll need to move back to find out.

ture of Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life with an overflowing recycling bin of cold boys accidentally in the background. Also, the camera lens in all the pictures is covered in a thin layer of grease.

How do I ask my on again/off again ex-bf if he is obsessed with me?

OK, maybe you were freaking out for two days because he didn’t “like” your Instagram thirst trap of your breasts tasteful new Dead shirt. But it’s fine, because you split up three weeks ago. He’ll still booty-call you when that farmer’s market girl with the cool tattoos he’s seeing is out of town, so he’s, like, definite ly obsessed with you right?

Oof, honey, from one delulu simp to another: If you have to ask, he is not. That being said, I don’t think there’s anything here that could be ruined by being direct and asking him what you asked me. I just think that stringing you along for an ego boost looks a lot like obsession through ovulation rose-tinted glasses.

have kept the town under their reign of terror since COVID. Those who’ve remained despite the rising rent cling to the small consistencies, like the size of Breadworks cinnamon rolls. That is to say, Boulder is sorta hanging in there, but it’s only by the thread of an artfully distressed Trident barista’s shirt, as they remain eternally 20 years old and cooler than you.

What’s the best pickup line for the dive bar zaddies?

“Hey there, guess who has two thumbs, a fake ID and no standards?”

When I’m having my ultra-convenient little treat from Lolita’s, I don’t want to know the conditions that made this impossibly cute and blessed experience possible ($15.56), or I wouldn’t have purposefully unfocused my eyes when the total came up on the screen. It’s just like how you don’t want to know the NIMBYsourced building height codes that went into making your sunset picture from Avanti’s rooftop worthy of the grid; if Boulder seems too good to be true sometimes, it’s because it is.

Got a burning Boulder question? DM @wholefoods_daddy on Instagram or email letters@boulderweekly with the subject line “Dear Whole Foods Daddy.”

Bonus ideas: “Making moves in silence” but it’s just a picture of your boy-dinner of sardines and Skratch powder; or, a pic-

What’s changed the most since 2008?

I can’t tell how you’re asking. Did you leave Boulder in 2008 and are wondering how we’re hanging in there? Or is this a classic r/Boulder question post that will only be responded to by the most annoying people you will ever (hopefully not) meet?

Let’s say you exited Boulder at the start of Obama’s presidency, when the future couldn’t have looked brighter. But as the collective values and norms of society crumbled around us in the decade-andchange since, so too did many of the safe and familiar things in Boulder: Nahko and the Shambhala Center turned out to be problematic to say the least, and speeding, helmet-less teenagers on e-bikes

“I really, really liked your rendition of Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me to Life.’ I’ve actually never heard that one at the Outback before!”

“Hey there, is this your Reebok? The floor of the Sundown Saloon is so sticky, haha! The price to have it back is one smooch.”

If none of that works, two days of no showering or deodorant to create enough biological pheromones to shock a baboon combined with a lewdly intoned “Hello” should do the trick for any zaddy with enough taste to be worth the pursuit.

What’s in the Kool-Aid in Boulder? Buddy, I have to say, that is one ingredient list I would not suggest perusing. The Boulder Kool-Aid is a collection of magical experiences that are made possible by costs, both financial and otherwise, that are better not to think about.

Was Obama’s visit to The Sink your last memory of Boulder? You’ve got some catching up to do. Courtesy: The Sink

“I really liked your rendition of Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me to Life’ — I’ve actually never heard that one at the Outback before!” and more pick-up lines to land a dive bar zaddy. Courtesy: Wind-up Records

What’s in the Kool-Aid in Boulder? Buddy, you don’t wanna know. Credit: Chris Favero

SOUND CHECK

Miners Alley’s ‘School of Rock’ is a feel-good, foot-tapping triumph

BY TONI TRESCA

With Miners Alley Performing Arts Center (MAP) turning up the volume in its staging of School of Rock: The Musical, the company offers a high-wattage primer on the power of music. The Golden-based theater troupe’s ongoing production delivers with pint-sized rockers, big laughs and lots of heart.

Directed by Warren Sherrill and featuring music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, this show is a full-volume romp that pays homage to the beloved 2003 Richard Linklater film starring Jack Black, while forging its own identity on stage. From the moment you walk into the theater, the unmistakable sounds of classic rock — think Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Metallica and other bands your dad probably loves — set the tone for what’s to come.

The plot revolves around Dewey Finn (John Hauser), a down-on-his-luck rock musician who, after being kicked out of his band, impersonates his roommate Ned Schneebly (Matthew Murry) to get a job as a substitute teacher at a prestigious prep school. Initially uninterested in teaching, Dewey quickly discovers his students’ musical talents and devises a plan to form a rock band to compete in a local Battle of the Bands competition. What follows is a heartwarming and hilarious journey, expertly paced by Sherrill, in which Dewey encourages the kids to step out of their comfort zones and embrace their inner rock stars.

ROCKIN’ THE CLASSROOM

Jonathan Scott-McKean designed the dual-level stage, which is mostly bare except for one clever touch: It is painted like a giant chalkboard, erased except for the outline of a guitar. His minimalist approach, combined with a simple staircase and a platform housing the live sixperson band, focuses the attention

squarely on the performers. While ScottMcKean’s scenic design is effective, the decision to leave the stage bare of set pieces means that every time they transition to the classroom, the cast must manually hustle to orchestrate the transition, which is a little busy and lengthy.

Hauser, fresh off a Henry Award win for his sound design work on Misery at MAP, channels Jack Black’s manic energy as Dewey Finn without veering into impersonation. His playful personality contrasts well with his younger co-stars, and his exuberant charm creates real sparks with co-star Katie Jackson as the uptight headmistress Rosalie Mullins. Hauser and Jackson make a convincing and endearing duo that anchors the show’s more emotional scenes.

The young performers are phenomenal. It’s clear a lot of attention has been paid to their musical training, as they shred through the show’s setlist with aplomb. While all nine are perfectly cast, Liam Dodge on drums, Christopher Gawlikowski on guitar, Beckham Hall on keys and Peyton Moore on bass stand out for their ability to not only keep up with but sometimes outperform the adults.

There were some sound level issues with the young performers’ instruments on

opening night, especially during the first rendition of “You’re in the Band,” when the keyboard was practically inaudible. Fortunately, these problems were quickly resolved, and the rest of the show’s sound was as tight as the band itself.

ALL THE RIGHT NOTES

It’s not just the kids who shine in School of Rock — the adult ensemble offers plenty to love, too. These six actors have the thankless task of portraying all of the various grown-up characters, from parents to gym teachers. Corey Exline and Ethan Walker, in particular, sell key moments and heighten the musical’s energy.

Vance McKenzie’s lighting design is imaginative. McKenzie makes a meal of the music, with appropriately placed ’80s-style concert lighting in red and blue — contrasting with the blue and green tones used to make the school and other domestic settings feel less vibrant.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of School of Rock at MAP is how well it captures the spirit of the original movie while still feeling fresh. The musical moments are fun and creatively staged, with Sherrill showing a clear grasp of the show’s emotional beats.

This earnest approach contrasts with the flashier Veritas Productions at the PACE Center earlier this year, which marked the musical’s Colorado regional premiere. While Veritas went big, using elaborate sets that filled the large PACE stage, the production felt cluttered and struggled with sound design, making it difficult to hear key moments.

In contrast, MAP embraces the intimacy of its smaller space, allowing performances and emotional nuances to shine without being overshadowed by grandiose staging. While less flashy, the production is more focused and, ultimately, more resonant.

Though the musical does not reinvent the wheel, MAP knows how to put on a show that rocks. Whether you’re a fan of the film or new to the story, this School of Rock is a feel-good, foot-tapping triumph.

ON STAGE: School of Rock - The Musical

. Through Sept. 15, Miners Alley Performing Arts Center, 1100 Miners Alley, Golden, $30-$54

School of Rock: The Musical runs at Miners Alley Performing Arts Center in Golden through Sept. 15. Credit: Sarah Roshan Photography

SEPTEMBER 13 -15, 2024 ON THE

LIVE ENTERTAINMENT

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13

5:00 pm | Izcalli

7:00 pm | Chain Station

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14

10:00 am | Boulder Suzuki Strings

11:30 am | School of Rock

1:00 pm | Lucas Wolf

3:00 pm | Saritah

5:00 pm | Bear Hat

7:00 pm | The Reminders

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15

11:30 am | Jenn Cleary

1:00 pm | Jane + Matthews

3:00 pm | Foggy Mountain Spaceship

FREE CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES FOOD & BREWS

Every Saturday and Sunday, City of Boulder Parking Garages are FREE! Reminder, please leave your pets at home. This event is for humans only! Presented by: Sponsored by: Beer Garden & Children’s Activities sponsored by:

Produced by:

‘ISLAND OF MISFIT TOYS’

Boulder’s only LGBTQ+ bar and venue closes its doors. What does that mean for queer performing arts?

BY TONI TRESCA

Last month’s unexpected closure of DV8, Boulder’s only explicitly queer bar and performance space, has left a void in the local LGBTQ+ scene. Management has been tight-lipped about the future of the business and reasons behind the decision, but the impact is being felt by artists who relied on the venue as a creative sanctuary.

“My nickname for it was the Island of Misfit Toys, like from the old Rudolph cartoon, because it was such a beautiful place where everyone was welcome,” says Jenn Zuko, aka Valkyrie Rose of Blue Dime Cabaret. “It was heartbreaking to learn about DV8’s closure; it is as if your childhood home had been sold and converted into apartments.”

The East Boulder establishment near Valmont Bike Park was founded by Rawley Gunnels and Johnathan Tilley in 2016 as a distillery specializing in ricebased and gluten-free spirits. The owners, both members of LGBTQ+ community,

decided to address Boulder’s lack of gay bars by transforming into a dedicated safe space in June 2021. Since then, it has become a haven for queer people and their allies.

“DV8 was the only space in Boulder where performing really felt safe,” says the performer known onstage as Mona Mystic, whose drag shows and community dance class were hosted by the venue.

“I performed at other bars in Boulder, but they’re not catered to queer people, and I just didn’t feel as comfortable. I was misgendered a lot,” the nonbinary artist says. “I had a lot of uncomfortable instances with straight men at other bars, but I never ran into that at DV8.”

UNCERTAIN FUTURE

The first public signs of trouble emerged Aug. 1, when DV8 shared a cryptic Facebook post announcing that all events for the weekend were canceled. An update a few days later said the business

was “going through a transition” and would be closed indefinitely.

Since then, the venue’s social media channels and website have remained silent. Google lists the venue as “temporarily closed.” A message shared with Boulder Weekly by operating partner Adam Kroll on Aug. 29 offered little clarity: “We don’t have any information to share at the moment. We will communicate when we have more.”

“If people want [queer-owned] places to exist, you have to support them,” says DV8 head mixologist Philip Teibel. Courtesy: Philip Teibel

Performers who depended on DV8 as their primary venue are perplexed by the abrupt closure and find themselves tasked with securing alternative space on short notice.

“We had the rest of our year booked at DV8,” Zuko says. “We were plunged into a mad scramble to find a new venue for all of our upcoming shows.”

For Blue Dime’s Aug. 9 event, the troupe performed at Full Cycle Café & Bar in Boulder. Future shows will be at Liquor Pie, a speakeasy in the back of Odde’s Music Grill in Westminster.

“It’s great, but it isn’t Boulder,” Zuko says of Liquor Pie. “My co-producer, Brandy LeMae, lives in Boulder. I grew up in the city, so performing in Boulder at DV8 was very sentimental.”

While the Blue Dime team was contacted directly, Mona Mystic says they learned of the closure via social media.

“Management never informed me of what was going on,” they say. “This has been devastating, because I worked so hard to get those shows and classes up and running with a good audience.”

‘HARD TO RUN A BUSINESS’

While DV8 leadership has declined to comment on the impetus behind the closure, the news comes as other local businesses like Under the Sun have shuttered their doors, citing low sales, staffing issues and high operational costs.

“It’s so hard to run a business, especially in Boulder,” says head mixologist Philip Teibel. “Some of this is likely because DV8 was in a very unusual location in Boulder. Also, after COVID, every business is struggling, so DV8’s closure doesn’t surprise me.”

Despite the abrupt shuttering and uncertain future, Teibel remains grateful for their three-year tenure behind the bar at the city’s only dedicated LGBTQ+ space.

“I don’t have anything bad to say about my time at DV8 because of the people, the community, everything,” he says. “It was so nice to serve my community and help make people feel safe.”

CALL TO ACTION

Many locals fear the venue’s closure could represent the end of an era for the city’s queer community.

“There is not much of a burlesque and drag scene in Boulder; most of it is in Denver, so DV8 was the only place with a real scene,” Mona Mystic says. “I’m still in denial because it was so sudden. DV8 was basically like my second home, so it’s just been hard to wrap my brain around it.”

Teibel, like many others in the community, is disappointed with the closure, but sees it as an opportunity to boost public backing for queer spaces.

“I’ll miss the amazing performers and hope they can find work in other venues soon, because they deserve to perform in spaces that accept and support them,” Teibel says. “I hope DV8’s sudden closure encourages people to get out there and support queer-owned spaces. If people want these places to exist, you have to support them — because they don’t just appear out of the blue, and it takes a lot to keep them running.”

As the only dedicated LGBTQ+ bar and venue in Boulder, the recently-shuttered DV8 Distillery was a lifeline for the local drag and burlesque scene. Courtesy: Kat Danger

IN THE CUT

Dispatch from the 51st Telluride Film Festival

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

W“e’re coming up on the 200th birthday of motion pictures,” film editor Walter Murch told the audience at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.

“I said pictures, not photography,” he continued, pointing out that the first zoetropes and phenakistiscopes created crude movement out of tricks of light in the early 1830s. “And for the next 60 years, we amused ourselves with these little GIFs of someone walk-

ing or horses jumping over obstacles.”

Then science caught up to entertainment, and in 1888, flexible film made it possible for someone to photograph something in motion — specifically, traffic crossing a bridge in Leeds, England.

“But, cinema was not yet invented,” Murch said. “It took another 10 years before we understood that you could break down story into individual shots, shoot them in the most convenient order, and then repurpose them in a three-

dimensional display — two dimensions of space and one of time — and cinema was born with editing.”

Naturally, Murch, one of the greatest editors ever to wield a pair of snips, would single out editing as the genesis of cinematic storytelling, but he’s not wrong. Movies are the collision of one shot to the next and the emotional space traversed within a simple cut.

Sometimes, the cut is small: one shot of a character looking, another shot of what the character sees. That’s in every movie. But in The Outrun, one shot of a young girl (Saoirse Ronan) dancing drunk and disorderly in a club slams against a shot of her dancing, many sober days later, on a remote Scottish island, and you feel something. The physicality is the same, but the motivation has changed. The cut doesn’t just

crash the past into the present; it bridges the emotional distance between them. So it went all Labor Day weekend long at Telluride, where stories ranging from the political (The Apprentice, Conclave, Separated) to the personal (A Real Pain, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, Will & Harper) and all things in between. All are good. Some are great.

The Outrun, produced and starring Ronan, based on Amy Liptrot’s alcoholic memoir, belongs to the latter category.

The movie is largely a narrative affair with Ronan in practically every scene, but one quick shot of Liptrot in place of Ronan takes your breath away. It’s a cut Murch would have been proud of.

As would have the great Thelma Schoonmaker, one of the recipients of this year’s Silver Medallion — Ronan and French filmmaker Jacques Audiard rounded out the trio.

Schoonmaker and Murch, who introduced the former’s tribute, are the only editors to have been honored with the Silver Medallion. After receiving hers, Schoonmaker held a master class, breaking down three scenes from her films with director Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Killers of the Flower Moon), to show what editing is and how it works on the audience.

In the clip from Flower Moon, Schoonmaker illustrated a lesson she and Scorsese learned from her late husband, Michael Powell: how to convey information without telling them the audience what to think, just how to feel. It’s a lesson she knows well, one that Yunus Roy Imer, editor of The Outrun, no doubt also knows.

Telluride is a forward-thinking festival in love with the past, which is why an 84-year-old editor and a 30-year-old actor both received tributes and wowed audiences with their movies.

“I suspect that we’ll be here for the 100th anniversary of the Telluride Film Festival, because ever since the invention of language, people have been assembling in caves around a campfire and telling each other stories,” Murch continued at the Schoonmaker tribute.

“The difference now is that we assemble in these caves and we watch the campfire — the flames themselves are the images telling the story.”

Walter Murch presented legendary film editor Thelma Schoonmaker with the Silver Medallion at the 51st Telluride Film Festival. Credit: Michael J. Casey

WEIRDER THAN WEIRD

Move over, J.D. Vance — this month’s underground cinema showcase at the Dairy is truly strange

BY JEZY J. GRAY

There’s been a lot of talk about “weird” in the zeitgeist lately. But while some national newsmakers are earning the moniker through an offputting obsession with other people’s reproductive systems and bathroom habits, the film freaks behind the Dairy Arts Center’s Friday Night Weird series are wearing the mantle more honorably: by showing cool, fucked-up movies you won’t find on Netflix.

“This may be a little too broad, but there is an unofficial throughline of relationships in this month’s films,” says cocurator Shay Wescott. “Relationships that are parasocial and parasitic, relationships that exist beyond the boundaries of bodies and species, and weirdest of all, the institution of marriage.”

For our new monthly column, Boulder Weekly caught up with Wescott, the Dairy’s resident “queen of the weird,” for a look at the strangeness coming to the screen at the nonprofit arts center’s Boedecker Theater in September.

RED ROOMS

Friday, Sept. 6 | Saturday, Sept. 7 Pascal Plante, 2023, Canada, 1:58, NR

America is really into serial killers. For evidence, look to one of the year’s highestgrossing horror movies, Longlegs — “a direct Silence of the Lambs rip-off in many ways,” Wescott says — or one of the countless true-crime podcasts and TV shows that continue to captivate mainstream audiences.

“As someone who loves horror and is painfully aware the genre full of gore and monsters is not for everyone, this love of serial killers, blurring the line between justice and entertainment, confounds me a little bit,” she says. “And that’s exactly what Red Rooms director, Pascal Plante, seems to have on his mind.”

The film follows the trial of fictional seri-

al killer Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) and true-crime obsessive Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy), who walks a dark path between reality and fantasy to try and solve the case. Wescott says it’s more of a thriller than a horror film, so don’t expect things to skew too heavily toward violence and gore.

“There’s a fascinating duality between disgust and intrigue, or maybe it’s just that it is more palatable when it’s not actually happening to you,” Wescott says of our

Starring Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), the sophomore feature by German filmmaker Tilman Singer — about a family trip to the Alps that descends into a bizarre and horrifying conspiracy — has gotten mixed reviews from audiences and critics. But she says context plays a big role in how a movie like this is received.

“I believe part of that narrative comes from seeing it in the same venue as something like Longlegs or Trap and feeling very out of place,” Wescott says. “This is a really fun, unique and oftentimes genuinely sinister movie, but it’s also not really meant to be an easily digestible, memeable piece of pop culture. It’s not overly concerned with spoon feeding you the plot, but there is also enough there that it clearly wants you to exercise your interpretive skills and imagination — and for me, that’s exactly why a theater like the Boedecker exists.”

“very underrated anti-Christmas movie” White Reindeer and “goth nun family dramedy” Little Sister returns with a bodysnatcher romance about two separated alien lovers who navigate the otherworldly weirdness of contemporary America to find each other again.

“The Becomers is a lot of things and it has a lot of ideas, but the film is at its best when dealing in the specific weirdness that is love,” Wescott says. “Whether it be humans or aliens.”

SLEEP

Friday, Sept. 27 | Saturday, Sept. 28

Jason Yu, 2023, South Korea, 1:35, NR

The debut film from director Jason Yu hinges on a troubling question: “How well do you really know the person sleeping next to you?”

collective fascination with serial killers. “Red Rooms doesn’t hand out easy answers to the rabid fandom of the truecrime universe, but the 2023 Fantasia Festival Cheval Noir winner is a welcome and unpredictable entry to the genre.”

CUCKOO

Friday, Sept. 13

Tilman Singer, 2024, Germany, 1:42, R

Wescott calls Cuckoo “the kind of film this program was made for,” because it underscores the importance of curation.

THE BECOMERS

Friday, Sept. 20

Zach Clark, 2024, USA, 1:26, NR

When you think about the kind of films you can expect to encounter at the average Friday Night Weird screening, a cluster of related genres might spring to mind: horror, science fiction and oddball B-movies, to name a few. But what about romance?

Wescott says plenty of weird love stories feel right at home on the Boedecker screen, including filmmaker Zach Clark’s The Becomers. The director behind the

The first offering from the emerging 34-year-old filmmaker, who sharpened his skills under South Korean cinema king Bong Joon-ho, centers on newlyweds Hyun-su (Lee Sun-kyun) and Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi). Their new lives together take a “menacing turn” when Hyunsu’s sleeptalking gives way to increasingly strange behavior.

“What makes Sleep so incredibly clever is that the horror is not derived from anything that is phantastical or unimaginable,” Wescott says. “Instead, it comes from the vulnerability exposed in even our strongest relationships by something as benign as a sleep disorder.”

Wescott first came across Sleep at last year’s Telluride Horror Show, so now feels like a full-circle moment as the film sees its proper theatrical release. She says visitors to the Boedecker Theater can expect a topsy-turvy ride that’s sure to generate plenty of conversation on the drive home.

“Like Joon-ho, Yu is already a master at subverting genre expectations, effortlessly elevating this thriller to an absurd climax, while making you earnestly question whether it’s actually absurd at all,” she says. “It’s an impressive debut, but the real delight will be the debates after the credits roll, especially if you dare to attend as a couple.”

The Becomers by director Zach Clark screens Sept. 20 as part of the Dairy Arts Center’s Friday Night Weird series. Courtesy: Dark Star Pictures

ADVENTURE YOGA

6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, A-Lodge Boulder, 91 Fourmile Canyon Drive. $25

Go with the flow at the A-Lodge’s Adventure Yoga series. Instructor Rob Loud leads this all-levels vinyasa class featuring music by DJ Dan Dasana in the beauty of Fourmile Canyon. Stick around after for a free drink and bites from the Hurry4Curry food truck.

6

PAINTING WITH MIYA: REFLECTIONS

6-8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, Firehouse Art Center, 667 4th Ave., Longmont. $29

Unlock your creativity under the guidance of local artist Miya Orton with a hands-on painting workshop. Whether you’re looking to pick up a new skill or sharpen the ones you have, this alllevels class is an opportunity to “relax, socialize and unleash your inner artist.”

6

CARTOON RAVE

10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, Bounce Empire, 1380 South Public Road, Lafayette. $30

Relive your childhood during this animated dance party at Bounce Empire. Dress up as your favorite cartoon character for a night of high-energy EDM from a slate of live DJs performing on the facility’s 360° hydraulic stage. Students with a college ID get a free drink.

7

LYONS ARTISAN MARKET

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Bohn Park, 199 2nd Ave. Free

Jewelry and art from dozens of local makers is just the half the fun at this annual community market — complete with root beer floats, BBQ samplers, craft beer and live music. Bring cash and get ready to have a good time while supporting the Lyons Community Foundation.

7

HONEYBEE HARVEST FESTIVAL

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, 2nd Avenue and Cottonwood Square, Niwot. Free

Enjoy honey wine from Colorado’s many meaderies, plus other bee products as you listen to the plucky picking of Dr. Banjo. Over at the Left Hand Grange, learn about beekeeping, pollinatorfriendly plants and how to turn wasps from enemies to friends. Observational hives will be set up so you can see these essential insects at work.

7

PINTS IN THE PARK

3-6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Louisville Community Park, 955 Bella Vista Drive. $49 ($7 for designated drivers)

Put on your drinking boots and head down to Louisville’s “biggest brewfest bash.” Your ticket includes unlimited 3 oz. pours of local craft brews alongside live music, silent disco and stand-up comedy. If beer isn’t your thing, local distilleries, cideries and ’boocheries will be onsite too, along with tasty food truck bites.

7

SUPERIOR CHILI & BEER FEST

2-6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7, Superior Community Park, 1350 Coalton Road. Free

Turn up the heat and cool things down at Superior’s spiciest and sudsiest festival. Taste award-winning chili recipes and sample a bevy of local craft beers, ciders, wines and spirits with live music by Face Vocal Band and the 5280s Band — plus kids activities, local vendors and more.

7 COMMUNITY ROOTS ART FESTIVAL

4-9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8; VisionQuest Brewery, 2510 47th St., Boulder. Free; suggested donation $25 (Saturday) $20 (Sunday) or $50 for both

Founded in 2021 to highlight local Black, Indigenous and Brown artists, Community Roots Art Festival (CRAFt) features 60+ BIPOC dancers, DJs, drag performers and more. Admission is free, but the $50 suggested donation for both days comes with perks like raffle tickets, discounts to local vendors and a Fjällräven hip pack.

8

BUFFALO BICYCLE CLASSIC

All day. Sunday, Sept. 8, CU Boulder - Benson Lawn, 2200 Colorado Ave. Prices vary

Get your wheels turning and support CU scholars at the Buffalo Bicycle Classic, Colorado’s largest scholarship fundraising ride. With courses ranging from 10 miles (Little Buff) to 100 miles (Buff Epic), there’s a route for everybody. Register: bit.ly/BuffBikeBW

9

LOTERÍA AT THE LIBRARY

5-6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9, Lafayette Library, 775 Baseline Road. Free

Spanish for “lottery,” lotería is more like Mexican bingo. Bring the whole family to this bilingual, kid-friendly event, held every second Monday of the month at the library’s Kid Zone (upstairs). Boards feature pictures and their corresponding Spanish words: el corazon, la mano, la estrella — a perfect way to expand your vocabulario

11

QUEER AND NERDY GAME NIGHT

6-9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, Summit Tacos, 237 Collyer St., Longmont. $2

Don’t miss this bi-weekly LGBTQ+ board game night at Summit Tacos. From the simplicity of dice to semi-cooperative tabletop adventures like Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle, this is your opportunity to nerd out and enjoy some queer camaraderie.

11

SOUND BATH IN A SALT CAVE

Wednesday, Sept. 11, 6:30-8 p.m., 333 West South Boulder Road, Louisville. $45

Sit back, relax and let a “magic carpet ride of sounds” take you away at this restorative ceremonial experience led by multi-instrumentalist Peter Berv. Featuring bells, bowls and gongs galore, this event promises to leave you soothed and uplifted by the time you leave the Himalayan salt-lined room.

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

LIVE MUSIC

THURSDAY, SEPT. 5

RICHMAN ACOUSTIC 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

DENNY DRISCOLL 6 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. Free

BLADDERFISH. 6 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free

BOULDER OLD-TIME JAM 6 p.m.

Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

LIONEL YOUNG DUO. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

GASPY WITH HAMI, ESO, SOLEM, HAMMERHYPE, ELEVATION AND LOWERY 8:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15

A’BEAR AND FRIENDS. 9 p.m.

Southern Sun, 627 S. Broadway, Boulder. Free

FRIDAY, SEPT. 6

GRAHAM GOOD & THE PAINTERS

11 a.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $40

LAURIE D. 5 p.m. Kin Studio and Gallery, 4725 16th St., Unit 104, Boulder. Free

DAVE ABEAR. 5 p.m. Studio32 NoBo, 4949 N. Broadway, Unit 32, Boulder. Free

GOOD MUSIC MEDICINE 6 p.m.

BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

VIRGI DART 6 p.m. St Julien Hotel & Spa, 900 Walnut St., Boulder. Free

DIVING HORSES WITH ANDY EPPLER. 6 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free

MOUNTAIN REVERB 6 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. Free

MOJAZZ. 6 p.m. Abbott & Wallace Distilling, 350 Terry St., Suite 120, Longmont. Free

WOODYBELLY WITH HEAD FOR THE HILLS AND THE CODY SISTERS. 6 p.m. Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. $25

TIFFANY CHRISTOPHER 6:30 p.m. Healing Souls Ranch, 9647 N. 63rd St., Longmont. Free

BOBBY JO VALENTINE. 7 p.m. Mountain View United Methodist, 355 Ponca Place, Boulder. $10

MMB3 ORGAN TRIO 7 p.m. The Courtyard, 836 Main St., Louisville. Free

FOGGY MOUNTAIN SPACESHIP DUO 8 p.m. Longs Peak Pub, 600 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont. Free

SHAKEDOWN STREET 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Free

RIVER MANN. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $18

JEREMY MOHNEY BAND (NIGHT 1). 9 p.m. Mountain Sun, 1535 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

SATURDAY,

SEPT. 7

MR. SCARY. 9 a.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. $10

RAVIN’WOLF. 10 a.m. Boulder Farmer’s Market, 13th & Canyon Blvd. Free

ANTHONY SALVO 1:30 p.m. Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $20

MASON JENNINGS 6 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $30

MORPHEUS DREAMING 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

UNAUTHORIZED ABSENCE 6 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free

AUDIOMEDZ. 6 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free

VON DISCO. 6 p.m. Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

WEBSTER’S WHEEL. 7 p.m. The Wheel House, 101 2nd Ave., Suite B, Niwot. Free

SMOOTH MONEY GESTURE WITH RIVERSPELL AND BEAR HAT 7 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland. $20

JACK HADLEY BAND WITH THE MIKE MAURER BAND. 7:30 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $18

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

NATIONAL PARK RADIO WITH RIDGELINERS 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $22

LIVE MUSIC

ON THE BILL

Midwest emo torchbearers The Get Up Kids return to the Front Range with support from Chicago pop-punk pioneers The Smoking Popes at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood on Sept. 11. The tour marks the 25th anniversary of the Kansas-born quartet’s breakout classic, Something to Write Home About, re-released last month as a special deluxe edition from Polyvinyl Records. Before you go, hit the QR code for more than a normal person would ever need to know about the five waves of emo.

JOHNNY O. BAND 8 p.m. Louisville Underground, 640 Main St. $20

HERE COME THE MUMMIES WITH POST SEX NACHOS. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $25

A HUNDRED DRUMS 8:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15

JEREMY MOHNEY BAND (NIGHT 2) 9 p.m. Mountain Sun, 1535 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

DJ SHARES. 10 p.m. Rosetta Hall, 1109 Walnut St., Boulder. Free

SUNDAY, SEPT. 8

JOHN STATZ Noon. Jamestown Mercantile, 108 Main St., Jamestown. Free

BEYOND COMPREHENSION 4 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

DR. JIM’S ONE MAN BAND. 6 p.m. The Old Mine, 500 Briggs St., Erie. Free

ART LANDE WITH DRU HELLER AND GONZALO TEPPA 6:30 p.m. Boulder JCC, 6007 Oreg Ave., Boulder. $25

MIDWIFE WITH DBUK AND POLLY URETHANE

8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $34 STORY ON P. 18

MANY MOUNTAINS 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

KISHI BASHI WITH SWEET LORETTA 8 p.m. Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. $42

MONDAY, SEPT. 9

RUTHIE FOSTER 6 p.m. eTown hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $33

GREGORY ALAN ISAKOV WITH PASSENGER (NIGHT 2). 7 p.m. Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $123

TUESDAY, SEPT. 10

DAVE HONIG 6 p.m. Boulder Dept, 2366 Junction Place. Free

RON ARTIS II. 7 p.m. eTown hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $33

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 11

SHAWN CUNNANE. 6 p.m. Rosalee’s Pizzeria, 461 Main St., Longmont. Free

SUM 41 WITH THE INTERRUPTERS AND MANY EYES 7 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison. $80

KOBER & SITERO 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

THE GET UP KIDS WITH SMOKING POPES 8 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11, Gothic Theatre, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. $45.

BW PICK OF THE WEEK

SPAFFORD 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $25

RACE ST. RIDERS. 9 p.m. Southern Sun Pub, 627 S. Broadway, Boulder. Free

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): In 2015, a large earthquake struck Nepal, registering 7.8 on the Richter scale. It was so powerful, it shrunk Mt. Everest. I mention this, Aries, because I suspect you will generate good fortune in the coming months whenever you try to shrink metaphorical mountains. Luckily, you won’t need to resort to anything as forceful and ferocious as a massive earthquake. In fact, I think your best efforts will be persistent, incremental and gradual. If you haven’t gotten started yet, do so now.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): We don’t know the astrological sign of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, who ruled from 51 to 30 BCE. But might she have been a Taurus? What other tribe of the zodiac would indulge in the extravagance of bathing in donkey milk? Her staff kept a herd of 700 donkeys for this regimen. Before you dismiss the habit as weird, please understand that it wasn’t uncommon in ancient times. Why? Modern science has shown that donkey milk has anti-aging, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities. And as astrologers know, many of you Tauruses are drawn to luxurious and healing influences that also enhance beauty. I recommend you cultivate such influences with extra verve in the coming days.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): In two trillion galaxies stretched out across 93 billion light years, new stars are constantly being born. Their birth process happens in stellar nurseries, where dense clouds of gas coalesce into giant spheres of light and heat powered by the process of nuclear fusion. If you don’t mind me engaging in a bit of hyperbole, I believe that you Geminis are now immersed in a small-scale, metaphorical version of a stellar nursery. I have high hopes for the magnificence you will beget in the coming months.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): The planet Mars usually stays in your sign for less than two months every two years. But the pattern will be different in the coming months. Mars will abide in Cancer from Sept. 5 to Nov. 4 and then again from Jan. 27 till April 19 in 2025. The last time the red planet made such an extended visit was in 2007 and 2008, and before that in 1992 and 1993. So what does it mean? In the least desirable scenario, you will wander aimlessly, distracted by trivial battles and unable to decide which dreams to pursue. In the best scenario, you will be blessed with a sustained, fiery devotion to your best and most beautiful ambitions.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Famous rock musicians have on occasion spiced up their live shows by destroying their instruments on stage. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana smashed many guitars. So did Jimi Hendrix, who even set his guitars on fire. I can admire the symbolic statement of not being overly attached to objects one loves. But I don’t recommend that approach to you in the coming weeks. On the contrary, I believe this is a time for you to express extra care for the tools, machines and apparatus that give you so much. Polish them up, get repairs done, show them you love them. And if you need new gizmos and gear to enhance your self-expression, get them in the near future.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): In all of world history, which author has sold the most books? The answer is Agatha Christie, born under the sign of Virgo. Readers have bought over 2 billion copies of her 70-plus books. I present her as a worthy role model for you during the next nine months. In my astrological opinion, this will be your time to shine, to excel, to reach new heights of accomplishment. Along with Christie, I invite you to draw encouragement and inspiration from four other Virgo writers who have flourished: 1. Stephen King, 400 million in sales from 77 books. 2. Kyotaro Nishimura, 200 million in sales from over 400 books. 3. Leo Tolstoy, 413 million from 48 books. 4. Paul Coelho, 350 million from 28 books.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): Centuries before the story of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, there was a Greek myth with similar themes. It featured Persephone, a divine person who descended into the realm of the dead but ultimately returned in a transfigured form. The ancient Festival of Eleusis, observed every September, honored Persephone’s down-going and redemption — as well as the cyclical flow of decay and renewal in every human life. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to observe your own version of a Festival of Eleusis by taking an inventory: What is disintegrating and decomposing in your own world? What is ripe for regeneration and rejuvenation? What fun action can you do that resembles a resurrection?

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): The coming weeks will be an excellent time to take inventory of your community and your network of connections. Here are questions to ask yourself as you evaluate whether you already have exactly what you need or else may need to make adjustments. 1. Are you linked with an array of people who stimulate and support you? 2. Can you draw freely on influences that further your goals and help you feel at home in the world? 3. Do you bestow favors on those you would like to receive favors from? 4. Do you belong to groups or institutions that share your ideals and give you power you can’t access alone?

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): “Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.” Sagittarian humorist James Thurber said that, and now I’m conveying it to you. Why? Well, I am very happy about the progress you’ve been making recently — the blooming and expanding and learning you have been enjoying. But I’m guessing you would now benefit from a period of refining what you have gained. Rather than even more progress, I feel you need to consolidate and integrate the progress you have so robustly earned.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): The people of Northern Ireland have over 70 colorful slang terms for being drunk. These include splootered, stonkied, squiffy, cabbaged, stinkered, ballbagged, wingdinged, bluttered and wanked. I am begging you, Capricorn, to refrain from those states for at least two weeks. According to my reading of the omens, it’s important for you to avoid the thrills and ills of alcohol. I am completely in favor of you pursuing natural highs, however. I would love you to get your mind blown and your heart opened through epiphanies and raptures that take you to the frontiers of consciousness.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Beginning 11,000 years ago, humans began to breed the fig. It’s the world’s oldest cultivated food, preceding even wheat, barley and legumes. Many scholars think that the fig, not the apple, was the forbidden fruit that God warned Adam and Eve not to munch in the famous Biblical passage. These days, though, figs rarely make the list of the fruits people love most. Their taste is regarded by some as weird, even cloying. But for our purposes, I will favorably quote the serpent in the Garden of Eden: “When you eat the fig, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.” This is my elaborate way of telling you that now may be an excellent time to sample a forbidden fruit. Also: A serpent may have wise counsel for you.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): The coming weeks would be an excellent time to file lawsuits against everyone who has ever wronged you, hurt you, ignored you, misunderstood you, tried to change you into something you’re not and failed to give you what you deserve. I recommend you sue each of them for $10 million. The astrological omens suggest you now have the power to finally get compensated for the stupidity and malice you have had to endure. JUST KIDDING! I lied. The truth is, now is a great time to feel intense gratitude for everyone who has supported you, encouraged you and appreciated you for who you really are. I also suggest you communicate your thanks to as many of your personal helpers and heroes as you can.

I’m a stay-at-home mom with three children. I live in a semi-rural area with my husband and my mother-inlaw. My husband and I are great at coparenting, home, family and projects. But things aren’t great on the sex-andromance side. We’ve talked about it, and we’ve accepted that things probably aren’t going to change.

We were non-monogamous before we had children. I want to find a consistent lover who wants to date a little and fuck a couple of times a month. The dudes on the dating apps are cosplaying at non-monogamy/poly or they’re the same people I’ve been swiping left on for the past six years. I’d love to find a kinky feminist dad who is actually poly and up for a long-term thing.

Any other ideas on how to find this unicorn?

— Touched-Out Underfucked Cis Hets

Stay on the apps (you never know who might move to town), expand your range a little (good dick is worth the drive), and remind yourself every morning (or every time you masturbate) that you’re playing a long game.

P.S. You should, of course, check in with your husband about your relationship and make sure your non-monogamous agreement is still in force.

My relationship of twenty-seven years ended a few years ago in divorce. I am still a little bitter about my 57-year-old husband dumping me for some 19-year-old kid.

While we were together, he was an amazing and loving doggy daddy, and absolutely doted on our two pups. In the five years we’ve been apart, he’s never once asked to visit them (even though doggo visitation was written into the divorce settlement), and the few times I’d asked him to check in on them if I had to travel, he declined.

One of the dogs is getting very close to crossing the rainbow bridge. Do I do the right thing and offer him one last moment with her? Or do I just send him the vet bill when it’s done?

— Following Intensely Dan’s Opinion

Do the right thing and tell your shit exhusband your dog is dying. If I were you, FIDO, I wouldn’t cede an inch of the

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

moral high ground: I would my let exhusband know “our” dog was dying, if only to deny my ex and his current partner the satisfaction of telling themselves I’m a shittier person than they are.

I’ve been in a painful push/pull “relationship” with a man since last fall. We met on Feeld with the intention of him joining me and my husband in an MFM threesome. This other man went from seeming super into it to backing out and stating he wanted me all for himself.

After a few weeks of private texting, I agreed to a one-on-one meetup, which I told my husband about. All we did was kiss. Every time we’ve made plans to get together, he goes MIA or comes up with some last-minute excuse about why we can’t meet. The steamy sexting has continued.

I am a beautiful, strong professional — I’m a therapist! — with so many resources and a happy marriage and yet all of my tools, insight and training can’t keep me away from this boy. Please help!

— Confusing Himbo Endangering My Sanity

This dude is never gonna fuck you. I don’t know why this dude is never gonna fuck you, CHEMS, but it was clear to me after reading your letter — and should certainly be clear to you by now — that you’re never gonna get what you want from him. It looks like he’s getting everything he wants from you: your time, your attention and your desperation. All he wanted from you at the start is to see how badly you want him. If you enjoy this particular kind of agony, you could keep sexting with this guy and meeting up once in a while for a hot make-out session. Here’s hoping those meet ups inspire you to go home and fuck the shit out of your husband.

BUTTER UP!

Late summer ecstasy is sweet local corn, cultured butter, flaky salt and fresh ground black pepper

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

If all the sun and fun of summer can be captured in one single mouthful, it must be fresh sweet corn on the cob slathered in butter. Shauna Lee Strecker smiles as she recalls summer vacation stops at farm stands near Marietta, Ohio.

“We’d pick up fresh corn and take it to my grandfather’s house,” she says. “It got boiled and served with butter, salt and pepper, and fresh tomatoes. It was a sweet meal.”

In August, Strecker opened Bella La Crema Butter Shoppe and Dairy Market at 931 Main St. in Longmont. This successor to her original Lyons location may be the only bar in Colorado where you can do a butter tasting.

The business is built around the real butter Strecker churns and cultures herself weekly using fresh-from-the-farm cream. Simply put, Strecker’s creations taste more buttery.

“It started when I wanted to eat healthy and I began making cultured butter from scratch,” she says. “The flavor was amazing, too. I had an aha moment: ‘This is what has happened to our food.’ I decided to make butter beautiful again.”

Strecker crafts a dozen or more highly

TASTE OF THE WEEK

inventive spice and herb compound butters every week. Her Ode to Neruda blends rich cultured butter with smoked paprika, garlic, onions and lime. On the sweet side, her spreadable Dreamlette balances juniper, lavender, lemon, vanilla, nutmeg and sugar.

Use them anywhere you’d put plain grocery store butter: spread on toast, to sauté meat and seafood, or melted on steaming corn.

Bella La Crema’s most entertaining product is the Butter Snob. Similar to solid deodorant dispensers, it discreetly provides artisan butter when you aren’t at home and have a cob to butter.

A PERFECT CORN ON THE COB MOMENT

The key to experiencing buttered corn ecstasy is to stop thinking of corn and butter as cheap commodity foods. Treat them like a rare seasonal gift — and one that sadly fades fast as September advances.

After consulting with local experts, here are some tips for making corn the center-

SUPERIOR BAKERY BLISS

The line forms early on the two days a week that Kwosson is open at 2250 Main St. in the new Downtown Superior. Once you taste the spot-on French breads and pastries owner/baker Mark Ramos is producing, you understand why the new shop sells out in a few hours.

The baguettes are moist in the middle and surrounded by a perfectly crunchy pliable crust. Cultured French butter imbues the croissants with deliciously caramelized flakes — crispy shards of flavor.

The tiny staff in a miniscule kitchen also produces a limited number of classic financiers, canelés, cardamom morning buns, fruit danishes and Portuguese orange olive oil cakes. Don’t miss Kwosson’s monkey bread, a pastry composed of recycled croissant dough pieces stuck glazed with butter, brown sugar, vanilla and yum.

piece of a memory-making summer feast.

Picking great ears: When buying fresh corn at a farm stand or supermarket, avoid ears and silk that look dried out. While giant ears are admittedly attractive, slightly smaller ears will tend to have more tender corn kernels.

Boiled, nuked or grilled: On a recent summer afternoon, the folks at Munson’s

Farm roadside stand in Boulder offered simple advice to the folks lined up to buy dozens of ears: “Just boil it, but not too long.”

To boil corn, bring an oversized pot of water with a large dose of salt to a boil and then drop in shucked ears. Turn off the heat when the water comes to a boil again. Cover and let them sit for five minutes or so before serving.

To grill corn on the cob, Strecker recommends pulling back the husk, removing the silk and rubbing the cob with butter and seasonings before pulling the husk back on. Cook on a hot gas, pellet or charcoal grill for about 12 minutes covered, rotating ears every few minutes.

A better butter: These last cobs of summer deserve the best butter you can afford. Good butter is no more expensive than decent cheese.

Among the better high-butterfat, unsalted supermarket brands are Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter, Beurre D’Isigny French Butter, Organic Valley Unsalted Cultured Butter and Plugrà European-style butter. Superior salt and pepper: It’s a mystery why, but corn tastes better slathered in unsalted butter and then sprinkled with salt, rather than using salted butter.

Don’t use common extra fine salt. Do use larger crystal or kosher salt. Better yet, try fleur de sel, a better-tasting, French-style flaked salt perfect for finishing foods like corn on the cob because it retains its mineral-y crunch.

How old is that black sawdust in your pepper shaker or grinder? Do yourself a flavor and pick up fresh peppercorns to grind and add depth of flavor and zing.

The aftermath: If you cut kernels from cobs, delay the composting. First, simmer corn cobs covered in water, broth or milk for 45 minutes and strain to enjoy a creamy corn stock for soups, sauces and stews.

Fresh Munson’s Farm Stand corn with Bella La Crema butter.

Credit: John Lehndorff

Mark Ramos, owner and baker at the new Kwosson bakery in Superior. Credit: John Lehndorff

NIBBLES

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: GUY’S FAVORITE CURRY

Regular Boulder visitor Guy Fieri dropped by again recently with his Triple-D Nation show to sample the massaman bison curry and river prawn pad Thai dished at Boulder’s Aloy Thai

Restaurants recommended in a recent Forbes feature on visiting Boulder include Snooze, The Kitchen, Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, Santo and Centro Mexican Kitchen

Thai Indian Bites recently opened at 436 Main St. in Lyons.

BLTs are on the menu Sept. 15 at a Slow Food Boulder event at Cure Organic Farm. The build-your-own BLT extravaganza features breads baked from locally grown grain, Boulder County bacon (with a vegan option), fresh lettuces and greens, field tomatoes and spreads. Tickets: slowfoodboulder.org/events

SAVE THE ZUKES, FEED YOUR NEIGHBORS

A great summer means our home gardens are pumping out more fresh veggies than we can manage. Pass those excess zucchini and green beans to Boulder County nonprofits dealing with rising local food insecurity. Donated produce is welcome at:

Emergency Family Assistance Association: efaa.org/donate/food-goods Boulder Food Rescue: boulderfoodrescue.org/backyard-garden-donation Community Food Share: communityfoodshare.org/donate-food

WORDS TO CHEW ON: FROM EAR TO EAR

“They call corn-on-the-cob, ‘corn-on-the-cob.’ but that’s how it comes out of the ground. They should just call it ‘corn,’ and every other type of corn, ‘corn-off-the-cob.’” — Mitch Hedberg, comedian

John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles and Kitchen Table Talk on KGNU. Listen to podcasts: kgnu.org/category/radio-nibbles

Courtesy: Aloy Thai

ON DRUGS

JUDGE TOSSES NEEDLE EXCHANGE BAN

Ruling allows Colorado cities to pursue harm reduction

BY QUENTIN YOUNG COLORADO NEWSLINE

Ajudge last week invalidated a Pueblo ordinance that prohibited syringe exchange programs, allowing two such programs in the city to continue operating.

The city enacted the ordinance earlier this year to prevent discarded needles in public, which were said to create a health hazard and lead to the congregation of drug users in public places.

But Pueblo District Court Judge Tayler Marie Thomas ruled that the ordinance conflicted with state law, which as of 2020 allows nonprofit organizations with relevant experience to operate clean syringe exchange programs.

“The language of the Ordinance is overbroad and is incongruent with (state law),” Thomas wrote in a ruling Thursday.

“The Ordinance’s language is an outright ban on the exchange of needles by Plaintiffs within Pueblo. The Ordinance and (state law) conflict in such a way that the two cannot coexist.”

The court said that though regulation of syringe exchange programs is a matter of both state and local concern, state law preempts local law when the two are

irreconcilable, as in this case.

The Pueblo City Council in May voted 5-2 to ban syringe exchange programs. The nonprofits Colorado Health Network and the Southern Colorado Harm Reduction Association, which were running such programs at the time, sued the city over the ordinance. Thomas granted a temporary restraining order against the ordinance — essentially blocking enforcement of the ban — while the case proceeded.

transmission and prevent overdose deaths.

At syringe exchange sites, people who use drugs can obtain sterile needles and get connected to resources and support services. The programs exemplify a “harm reduction” approach to public health, which has been shown to curb disease

Thomas’ order noted that testimony in the case indicated that syringe exchange programs save lives and do not increase substance abuse or crime. Testimony showed that “individuals who engage in and use syringe exchange programs and their services are five times more likely to enter drug treatment than those individuals (who) do no not engage with syringe

exchange programs,” Thomas wrote.

The city had argued that the ordinance narrowly prohibited one component — syringe distribution — of the nonprofits’ programs, and permitted other aspects of their work, such as education and counseling.

But Thomas found that “providing an injection drug user access to sterile injection equipment is a minimum requirement that all syringe exchange programs must have to operate pursuant to state statute,” meaning that allowing the ordinance to remain in effect “would materially impede or destroy the state’s clear interest” in allowing syringe programs to continue.

“The Mayor and City Council remain concerned and committed to making a safer and cleaner city. The risk to the public with discarded used needles is and will remain a high priority,” the city said in a statement provided to Newsline by Geoffrey Klingsporn, the city’s attorney in the case. “These programs hand out over a million needles a year and only collect a fraction in return. The city will continue to work with counsel to regulate and address this issue.”

Colorado Newsline is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, independent source of online news