Boulder Weekly 3.18.21

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Boulder passed its first racial equity plan. Will it work?

by Angela K. Evans

Recognizing the year’s worst in government transparencies

by Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock News

After a year of digital gatherings, Writer’s Block celebrates with a zine

by Caitlin Rockett

Lawmakers consider extending carry-out alcohol sales from restaurants

by Matt Cortina

You’ll see celeriac at local farm stands in early spring. Here’s how to eat it.

by Ari LeVaux

New research shows CBD may be dog’s best friend in the fight against epilepsy

by Will Brendza

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The Anderson Files: How the Green New Deal wins Guest Column: It’s not my proclivity for avocado toast Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views Events: Art, theater, music and more to do when there’s ‘nothing’ to do...

Words: Excerpt from Postscript #29 by Matthew Clifford Astrology: by Rob Brezsny Savage Love: The phone job Film: Criterion releases newly restored ‘Smooth Talk’ Food/Drink: Twice-baked chocolate almond croissant @ Moxie Bread Co.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MARCH 18, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Publisher, Fran Zankowski Editor, Matt Cortina Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Senior Editor, Angela K. Evans Arts and Culture Editor, Caitlin Rockett Contributing Writers, Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Sarah Haas, Jim Hightower, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Katie Rhodes, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Ryan Syrek, Christi Turner, Betsy Welch, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Sami Wainscott Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman CIRCULATION TEAM Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer Cover, Caitlyn Crites March 18, 2021 Volume XXVIII, Number 31 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.

690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2021 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.

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

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

How the Green New Deal wins

by Dave Anderson

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his month, the U.S. House passed the most comprehensive pro-labor legislation since the 1930s.

The PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act would significantly punish employers who violate workers’ rights. It has fines for managers who retaliate against workers who organize and requirements for employers to bargain their workers’ first union contracts in good faith.

Interestingly, many climate activists were lobbying for the bill. This is consistent with the Green New Deal (GND) proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts).

The non-binding resolution supported union jobs that pay prevailing wages and committed to “wage and benefit parity for workers” affected by the energy transition. The GND also called for “strengthening and protecting” the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain, and for “enacting and enforcing trade rules, procurement stanI

dards, and border adjustments” with strong labor protections.

The fight for the GND will be tough because it challenges the status quo. We need a climate-labor coalition to win. Many labor unions are supportive and a 2019 Data for Progress poll shows that the GND has overwhelming support from rank and file union members.

A recent study by University of Massachusetts economist Robert Pollin concludes that if the U.S. decided to reduce carbon pollution 90% by 2050, it could create 5 million jobs in the first year and increase to 7.5 million in later years.

Nevertheless, there are powerful forces in the labor movement that are skeptical or even opposed to the GND. Joe Uehlein, founding president of the Labor Network for Sustainability (an alliance of labor environsee THE ANDERSON FILES Page 8

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mental activists) and former secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Department, has expressed concern. He says: “The Green New Deal movement needs broader support from the labor movement to be successful.

As long as labor isn’t a central player in this movement, they have the power to block pretty much anything on Capitol Hill. They contribute in electoral campaigns.

They’re a very powerful force.”

There are understandable reasons for union skepticism about a clean energy transition. There’s the constant anti-big government messaging in our politics and the ridiculous scare stories about the GND in the right-wing media. Some climate activists talk about the need for sacrifice in an — Joe excessively affluent society to people suffering from deteriorating living standards.

But there’s something more concrete. Green jobs are mostly nonunion, pay less and have fewer benefits than fossil fuel industry jobs.

According to the 2020 U.S. Energy and Employment Report from the National Association of State Energy Officials and the Energy Futures Initiative, solar and wind jobs in the energy generation sector are only 4% -6% union. By contrast, coal and natural gas jobs are twice that (10% and 11%).

If you work at a polluting plant, refinery or mine that is the biggest employer in an area, you have a dilemma if the place is closed down.

You lose your job, which might be the best paying job in the area. In a state like Wyoming or Texas, dirty energy provides tax revenue for schools and local government. So a shuttered plant affects everybody.

That’s why the GND and the PRO Act are needed.

Federal funds for green infrastructure would help big companies like Tesla and Uber, which are

intensely anti-union and lobby to avoid labor laws, which would improve conditions for gig workers.

Elon Musk, who runs Tesla, is particularly notorious. African American employees reported racist threats, humiliation and barriers to promotion at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California. In 2019, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the company violated the law by threatening employees who tried to organize a union. Tesla was forced to rehire a worker with back pay who was fired for organizing.

The back pay was deductible on the company’s taxes as a legitimate cost of doing business.

There was no monetary penalty for the company.

If the PRO Act became law, the company and managers would be forced to pay Uehlein for their antiunion behavior.

Last spring there was a COVID-19 outbreak in California and Musk reopened his Fremont factory despite a stay-at-home order by county public health authorities. He claimed the order was “fascist,” that Tesla was more capable of protecting its workers than local officials and that state and local governments should “FREE AMERICA NOW.” However, he told his employees that they had to come to work or they might lose their unemployment benefits, according to emails seen by the Guardian.

Four hundred and forty Tesla workers tested positive for the coronavirus between May and December of last year, according to public health data released this month by PlainSite, a transparency website.

What is freedom? A “libertarian” tycoon like Musk doing whatever he wants? Or do we want a freedom for the rest of us coming from the redistributive reforms in the GND and the PRO Act? This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

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“As long as labor isn’t a central player in [the Green New Deal], they will have the power to block pretty much anything on Capitol Hill.”

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It’s not my proclivity for avocado toast

by Silen Wellington

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’m 25 years old, and while I do enjoy avocado toast and a latte every now and again, that isn’t what’s standing between me and the American Dream. There’s a misconception in popular media that people my age are fiscally irresponsible — that we were too spoiled by participation trophies to develop the grit necessary to achieve our dreams. In my experience of millennials, though, these tropes couldn’t be further from the truth.

My parents both came from working-class backgrounds and made it through college with Pell Grants and modest student loans. While my dad was studying, he could work hard in the summer and save up enough money to cover rent for the rest of the year. Thirty years later, I watched my friends who, even though they had loans, needed to work 30-hours-aweek minimum wage jobs to make it through their degrees. Post-graduation, some of those friends spend 50% of their meager teaching salaries on rent and another 25% on student loan payments. For those that had to take out private student loans when federal loans wouldn’t cover the entire bill, these payments are even higher, with fewer supports or protections.

Navigating the finances of higher education is an entirely different game for millennials. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 1978 I

to 2017, tuition increased 1,375%, four times more than the rate of inflation, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Often, private loans are the only way to finance such a high cost of attendance.

While President Biden’s pause on federal student debt repayments can offer temporary relief, this pause only affects those with federal student loans, and one-third of borrowers are indebted to private lenders. Unlike federal loans, mortgage lenders and credit card companies, private lenders don’t have any catchall reporting requirements.

This sends many borrowers (many of whom are navigating this at 17-yearsold without help) into high interest rates and inflexible repayment plans designed to get them to default. These predatory loan practices disproportionately affect Black borrowers and firstgeneration students.

Young people do not need lectures on the price of Starbucks — what we need is more accessible higher education and protections for private student loan borrowers. In Colorado, we can secure these necessary protections: Write your state representatives now asking them to support SB21-057, the Colorado Student Loan Equity Act. Silen Wellington (they/them) grew up in Colorado, graduated from CU Boulder and is a composer, musician, writer and advocate currently living in Fort Collins.

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

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Better composting facilities are essential Ken Robinson wrote a persuasive Guest Opinion (Re: “Why the industrial compost facility in East Boulder County should not be built,” March 4) against building a composting facility in Boulder County. Indeed, the old Rainbow Nursery location in east Boulder Open Space is very problematic for a centralized compost facility.

However, the article does not acknowledge the benefits and necessity of building a well-designed County composting system, somewhere closer than the Keenesburg plant, 50 miles away.

The main question now is not whether we should build compost facilities, but how and where.

First, there is little motivation to consider building compost facilities, unless we recognize their purpose and benefits. For example, the facilities would: around our county. A third of our landfill waste could be composted. buried decomposing organic matter in landfills. They cause 11% of our nation’s methane emissions, being about 36 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. valuable compost to improve fertility and water retention for our depleted top soil. For example, increasing the organic matter content from 1% to 2% can increase the water retention to 3 quarts per cubic foot of soil. As Colorado’s drought worsens with climate change, soil water retention is critical.

Furthermore, the improved soil fertility helps green our planet, with more plants converting CO2 to oxygen. This is essential to combat “runaway” climate change.

Hence, instead of halting plans for compost facilities, we need to redouble our County efforts to include all valuable local expertise to design a much better composting system. Some challenges are: uted smaller composting facilities that both reduce extra transportation but also specialize to better handle different types of compostables. For example, one facility can handle high quality compost that can produce certified BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

organic compost. Another facility could compost the biosolids, being mainly municipal waste treatment plant sludge, and be intended for certain acceptable non-agricultural applications. Small compost facilities could serve nearby organic farms. house gas emissions of CO2, methane, ammonia and nitrous oxide from composting facilities.

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odors and diminish other adverse effects on neighboring communities. in the collected compostables, such as pesticides.

Make no mistake by delaying. We must begin expanding our County’s system of composting facilities as soon as possible, but only after the designs have been sufficiently improved, with all of our concerns addressed.

John Bollinger/Lafayette

shoes

Inevitable evolution The Colorado meat industry’s alarm over the global observance of MeatOut on March 20 offers a splendid opportunity to discuss the merits of eating animals.

Consumption of animal products is associated with elevated risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Major viral epidemics, including COVID-19, originated with animals raised for food. Meat and dairy products are laden with saturated fats, cholesterol, hormones, pathogens and antibiotics. They lack complex carbohydrates and fiber and many essential vitamins and minerals.

Animal agriculture is a chief culprit in global warming, responsible for weather extremes plaguing our nation.

And, never mind life after death. On today’s factory farms, animals have no life before death.

Fortunately, the shift toward healthy, eco-friendly, cruelty-free plant-based foods is everywhere. Every supermarket offers a rich selection of plant-based meats, milks, cheeses and ice creams, as well as the traditional vegetables, legumes, grains and fruits.

Even fast-food chains offer plantbased meal options.

Rather than cursing the inevitable evolution from animal to plant eating, the Colorado meat industry and state officials should focus on helping farmers and ranchers adapt to the food system of the future.

Shemirah Brachah/Westminster I

We Recycle We accept blister packs, top foils and even used contact lenses for recycling through Bausch and Lomb’s One by One Recycling Program.

Dr. Terri Oneby 303-443-4545

For more information, visit BauschRecycles.com or stop by our office.

bouldervisioncenter.com MARCH 18, 2021

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Boulder passed its first racial equity plan.

Will it work?

by Angela K. Evans

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he City of Boulder’s racial equity plan is no panacea, according to its critics and supporters alike.

Passed unanimously by City Council on Feb. 16, it’s meant to guide the City in eliminating institutional and systemic racism in its policies and practices. And it generally comes with widespread community support, with speakers at the public hearing urging Council to adopt the plan, but not without the caveat that the City needs to do more. The City admits the formal plan is just the first step in a long, and perhaps arduous, process, while critics say it’s insufficient — created with good intentions but lacking the power to actually change the way society functions.

For some, the skepticism comes not from what’s in the plan, but from what it leaves out. The NAACP of Boulder County was involved in developing the plan, and president Annett James does believe the organization’s concerns were considered and even included to some extent. Still, she remains wary of what will actually come of it.

“This is just a good general plan,” James says. “It’s general and the NAACP works more on specifics and tangibles.”

But passing a racial equity plan is just the start, says Robert Montoya, west regional manager for Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), a national network of which Boulder is a member. It’s an attempt to respond to the gravity of the situation, but within the context of government bureaucracy, which is often difficult to navigate and slow to change.

It’s “the planting of the seed of racial justice,” he says.

“Now we have to water it. Now we have to weed it. Now we have to shade it, and so many times, many folks just want that bloom.”

equity and inclusion initiatives for years, the racial equity plan is a result of a 2019 resolution (no. 1275) adopted

by City Council and committing the City “to promote racial equity in City relationships, programs, services, and policies.”

As a member of GARE, the City, along with a racial equity engagement working group and community feedback partners, built its plan on the organization’s four guiding principles, the first three of which are: normalize conversations about race and racial justice, organize people who are doing that work, and operationalize the work “like what we’re seeing in Boulder,” Montoya says.

In comparison, he says, some jurisdictions still won’t even acknowledge race, let alone racial inequity. No plan is going to be perfect, he adds, but that’s not necessarily the point.

“Racial Equity Plans are both a process and a product,” according to the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley, which, together with the nonprofit Race Forward, launched GARE in 2016. “The goal we seek is not a plan. The goal is institutional and structural change.”

In creating a template racial equity plan, GARE surveyed equity initiatives from across the country, drawing on their success to guide other jurisdictions in implementing their own changes.

“We definitely looked at other plans across the country and everybody does them differently based on their individual community,” says Aimee Kane, Boulder’s equity program manager. “There are elements of the Portland plan that were really successful. There are elements of Seattle, very successful. There are elements of Minneapolis. And we also know what happened in Minneapolis and Portland and Seattle.”

Minneapolis has been officially engaged in equity work since 2017, when the City established a steering

THE FRAMEWORK Boulder is by no means the first city to adopt a racial equity plan. Although the City has been working on 10

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see RACIAL EQUITY page 12

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RACIAL EQUITY from page 10

committee and community advisory committee, adopting a racial equity action plan in 2019. In January 2020, the City adopted what many consider an “ambitious” plan to address inequity, overhauling its land use policies and eliminating single family zoning — the first U.S. city to do so. But less than six months later, the city was overcome by racial justice protests as the death of George Floyd in police custody drew international attention. At the time, NPR reported the Twin Cities area “has some of the most abysmal numbers on racial inequality in the nation.”

That’s not all that surprising to Montoya, however.

“That’s the nature of institutional white supremacy, right? That it is so embedded in the systems that it shows up even in the jurisdictions that are doing the work to dismantle it. That doesn’t mean we should give up though,” he says. “This work is full of tension and it’s rife with contradictions.

We need as many people working on it as possible and our solutions and our analysis need to be as complex as the topic itself.”

Making a public commitment through a racial equity plan is only the first step, Montoya says. What comes next is key in showing the efficacy of the work, as jurisdictions often go through an endless process of trial and error as they implement changes.

“There’s great value in learning from what didn’t work sometimes,” he says. For example, a jurisdiction in Washington state he works with didn’t include “the right people early on,” relying on interest to form its racial equity core teams, which excluded essential departments like human resources and legal.

But there is also plenty of evidence demonstrating that a concentrated racial equity effort can produce effective results.

In San Antonio, Montoya says, the City has applied an equity lens to its entire budgeting process. Other cities in GARE’s network, like Denver and Albuquerque, have “re-imagined police response” by sending social workers to emergency calls instead of police in certain instances.

In Asheville, North Carolina, an equity action plan using the GARE model and assessment process has been used in the City’s affordable housing policy and noise ordinance revisions. It 12

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also led the City to adopt a new business inclusion policy, that “moves the City from race- and gender-neutral orientation to a race- and gender-conscious one when making contracting and procurement decisions, which means being intentional about the use of BIPOC businesses,” according to the City’s website.

Asheville, Montoya adds, is the first city in the nation to pass reparations legislation, acknowledging systemic racism and paving the way for the City to boost the generational wealth, economic mobility and opportunity for the black community. But how that plays out is yet to be seen.

“There’s never a finish line with this work. It is a constant cycle where we have to be willing to put ourselves out there and learn and grow and make mistakes, celebrate mistakes, and then learn from that and do it better the next time,” says Ana Silvia AvendañoCuriel, grants specialist for the City of Boulder and cofacilitator of a group of community connectors. Adopting a racial equity plan isn’t just about checking a box, she adds. “If we really think about racial equity that way, we’re never going to be successful.”

REVISITING HISTORY A key component of racial equity plans in the GARE model is a thorough history section that acknowledges past policies and how those have contributed to inequality within a jurisdiction.

“We got to this place of injustice in very measured, calculating ways. This didn’t happen by accident. And that’s why those history sections are so MARCH 18, 2021

important,” Montoya says. “If we are going to undo the policies and practices and procedures that have gotten us to this place, we have to be as intentional in undoing them. And it’s hard to do that if you don’t understand [the] history of how these things were done in the first place.”

While that’s the goal, racial equity plans can often lack nuance in revisiting an area’s past, Montoya adds, and many “could be more forthright.”

The history section of Boulder’s racial equity plan covers a lot of ground.

It acknowledges the city sits on indigenous land, settled by “white occupiers” who participated in the Sand Creek Massacre. It documents the rise of the KKK in the 1920s, which terrorized minority communities, especially targeting “Latino individuals.” It also chronicles the work of the first, and only, black mayor of the city, Penfield Tate II, who advocated for LGBTQ rights in the 1970s. But overall, James says, it minimizes the presence of the black community, and its interactions with the City, since the early 20th century.

“I really thought that the plan missed the mark on giving the community the opportunity to know that black folks didn’t just arrive two weeks ago,” she says.

There’s nothing in the plan that mentions Goss Grove, a historically black neighborhood running from 19th to 23rd streets west to east and Goss Street to what is now Canyon Boulevard north to south. “The Little Rectangle” was an area where black residents congregated when it was difficult to find housing elsewhere in the city, although there were no official regula-

tions as to where they could or couldn’t live, according to historian Carol Taylor.

Most of the buildings from Boulder’s early black community, including the AME church, have been demolished, and Goss Grove is not recognized as an historic district by the City, although two homes, owned by prominent black residents, have been landmarked.

There’s also no mention in the racial equity plan of the Second Baptist Church, founded in 1908 in Goss Grove and a centerpiece of Boulder’s black community ever since, adds Tim Thomas, a long-time Boulder resident and outspoken critic of the City’s racial equity work. He also questions why some of the stronger language around land use policies was taken out of the plan between the draft, introduced to Council in December, and the final document adopted in February.

Certain land use policies, like construction height limits, the open space program, which limits outward expansion, and predominately single-family zoning throughout the city, are mentioned in the history section as “indirectly” causing high housing costs, however, the first draft listed these policies as examples of how “the City government has strengthened and increased racial inequity.” And that difference is problematic for Thomas.

“So the first draft says that the City is responsible. The second draft says, ‘Oh, this is what happens and it happens in other places.’ So yeah, I had an issue with that because the first draft I thought was stronger,” Thomas says. “I want to see acknowledgement of things that have been done in the past.”

Liz Marasco, an activist with Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), adds, “I think that there is a lack of accountability. One of the things with white supremacy culture is that it’s always someone else’s fault.”

There’s also no mention in the history section of communities of color interacting with police, a huge oversight in James’ opinion. “I think not including law enforcement is a big gap, because those inequities are a matter of life and death,” she says. (More on this later.)

Kane says the plan does accept responsibility for a history of creating inequity within the community, at least some of it. She admits, “there’s probably a lot of history that we haven’t uncovered.” And just because something isn’t

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explicitly mentioned in the plan, doesn’t mean it won’t be addressed through the City’s racial equity work, Kane says, despite the fact that the final plan concludes with the highlighted statement, “To be clear, this plan does not advocate for reversing past policy decisions.”

“I think that we will be looking at policies retroactively. It’s just not been identified as to which ones,” Kane explains. “When it comes to land use policy specifically, there’s a lot of people in our community who aren’t ready to have that conversation. ... This is like teeing it up, greasing the wheels.”

Thomas would argue that the City’s focus on the environment over the decades has come at the expense of equity. As he wrote in an email to Council before they voted to approve the plan: “Environmentalism alone or as the primary driver of local public policy is not the answer to making this city either just or sustainable.”

adjusting the tax credit program to create “more housing choices and opportunities throughout the city,” according to WBEZ Chicago, including in gentrifying neighborhoods that are becoming increasingly unaffordable.

James remains skeptical of Boulder’s racial equity instrument, however, as the City admits it doesn’t have accurate baseline data to measure progress against. For now, she’s waiting to see what comes from using the measure-

ment tool and how the information that comes from it measures up to anecdotal community feedback, which the NAACP hears a lot of.

“I believe that the proof is going to be in how the data shakes out,” she says.

“And we definitely plan to hold them accountable, not because we want to agitate; we want to collaborate, but it is our mission to do everything we can to create equality.”

Kane, too, is focused on the data —

both quantitative and qualitative — that will come as the City applies the racial equity instrument in more and more of its departments and procedures.

And she’s reticent to be too prescriptive about how she thinks the plan will play out because that would minimize community input and feedback in guiding the implementation.

That’s where the City’s community see RACIAL EQUITY page 14

THE QUESTION OF ACCOUNTABILITY The fourth principle, under the GARE model, is “to visualize a more just, multiracial democracy,” Montoya says.

“That’s where the accountability piece comes in though,” he adds. “It’s not only one thing to have a plan, it’s how do we hold ourselves accountable to this plan.”

Boulder’s plan acknowledges that while the plan on paper is a good start, accountability and evaluation of its implementation will measure its success.

And it’s this piece that critics of the plan will look to in the coming months and years to assess its effectiveness.

Using the assessment model (called a racial equity instrument) in the plan, the City hopes to provide measurable outcomes over the next three years “to identify and begin to remove bias and any unintended resulting inequities.” It will be used in staff trainings, department reviews and the budgeting process as policies and programs are evaluated and implemented.

These types of instruments are used by a variety of jurisdictions in their equity work. In Chicago recently, a similar assessment revealed that a tax credit program to build affordable housing has perpetuated segregation in the city, as the revenues from the program have been predominately used to build in majority black areas disproportionate to wealthier, white areas. Now the City is BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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RACIAL EQUITY from page 13

CITY OF BOULDER/ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUNDATION

connectors program comes in.

Although the Community and Engagement office has been using community connectors to strengthen the relationship between City government and certain neighborhoods, circles or groups since 2018, the role became essential in the City’s pandemic response.

The Recovery Community Connectors program was launched in June as an effort to ensure the communities historically excluded from City decision-making and disproportionately impacted by the pandemic were given a voice in addressing the public health crisis and recovery. Although that program lapsed in December, the City launched its Community Connectors in-residence in January, using the same model to further its racial equity work.

Last year, connectors helped shape City policy when it comes to pandemic relief, says Avendaño-Curiel, who cofacilitates the group. For example, she shares a story of the Boulder Public Library wanting to create City-run learning pods for students struggling with home learning, modeled off of private learning pods being developed by wealthy, mainly white, parents. But when the equity connectors discussed the idea, it became apparent that the program would actually be more burdensome on the families and parents it was trying to help. So, AvendañoCuriel says, the Library scrapped the idea and, using the feedback from the group, created other programing.

As the City continues its pandemic recovery and expands the program to address equity across City government, the community connectors will be key in ensuring accountability, AvendañoCuriel says.

“The equity plan could be in place, but that won’t work if there’s no accountability and that can look very different,” she says. “Accountability for white people looks very different than what it means for brown people and sometimes it’s not necessarily how do we combine both [but] how do we actually hear from people of color, their way of holding a government and a 14

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whole system accountable.”

There are currently nine community connectors representing a variety of groups, including Latinx, Nepali, black and LGBTQ communities, as well as those representing people with disabilities, manufactured homeowners and both youth and older adults. Paid $320 a month for their work (like any other consultant to the City would be, Avendaño-Curiel says) they meet with City staff once a week, and also spend time talking within their communities to get feedback on City initiatives.

And the group has already recommended the City start its racial equity work with looking at how it staffs public boards and commissions, its police oversight model and its housing strategy, including addressing homelessness, Kane says.

“So there’s work that’s going to be implemented based on their feedback,” she says.

But for Thomas, Marasco and others, the true test of the City’s racial equity work is in how it does or doesn’t change the City’s policies and budget.

“The racial equity plan is almost completely performative,” Marasco says.

“There’s really nothing in it that gives it any kind of teeth to actually have some kind of application in the community.

What SURJ sees as an actual way to achieve racial equity is reallocating some of the City’s resources into our communities of color directly.”

For example, she adds, the City’s MARCH 18, 2021

SO WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE? In helping cities develop racial equity plans, GARE doesn’t offer set

measurements of success across the board. It could and probably will look different for each community; there’s not a prescriptive one-size-fits-all solution, Montoya says.

“Success is in the perpetuality of doing this work,” Montoya says. “We want to undo those areas of marginalization that continue to show up. And we want to see it in every area, from wealth to health, to education, to home ownership, to affordable housing, environmental justice. In all of these areas, we want there to be a reduction in harm to folks in very measurable, specific ways [but] how each jurisdiction gets there, that’s the differentiation that is very important.”

James hopes the City’s racial equity work results in more visibility for people of color in Boulder. But it’s not just about being seen, as that often leads to awkward interactions and even microaggressions where people feel the need to comment in some way about the black person’s presence, she adds.

Success would mean “there is a greater appreciation to the history of blacks in Boulder,” she says. “That more people of color are in decision-making positions, that the visibility translates into power.”

It’s what Thomas calls procedural equity: “That’s how you change everything else — who makes the rules.”

With a three-year timeline, Kane says the racial equity plan is adaptable, giving the City the ability to pivot easily and rework it. But there are some major benchmarks she’s looking for to determine success: demographic changes in recruitment and retention of City staff and using the racial equity assessment in program, policy and budget decisions.

Ultimately, for Kane, success “is really when we hear from community members of color, that they do feel safe, welcome and included within the City of Boulder.”

“We have a long way to go and I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the plan is the plan,” she adds. “Now the real work begins.”

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

police annual budget is $36.8 million compared to Housing and Human Services at $20 million. And while the City did just appoint a Police Oversight Taskforce and is currently undergoing a police master planning process, some still question how different groups are or aren’t being represented in those discussions. When it comes to the police master plan in particular, the NAACP is not yet officially involved, although James says she’s met with City officials to discuss the possibility.

There already is a Latinx Leadership Team involved. Currently, however, Kane says the City has only been in conversation with several organizations and hopes to put together a leadership team representing the black/ African American community in the next couple of weeks.

“It is what it looks like — an afterthought — and it’s a very unfair one because the data says that we should have been first to the table,” James says, citing a 2016 Hillard Heintze report commissioned by the City that showed a disproportionate number of African Americans are stopped by police in Boulder. “We really believe that there needs to be a complete change in structure. We have a lot of ideas that we would like to bring to the table. But I’m still waiting for an invitation to the table.”

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The Foilies 2021 The Foilies 2021

Recognizing the year’s worst in government transparency

by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and MuckRock News, illustrations by Caitlyn Crites

T

he day after the 2021 inauguration, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut took to Twitter to declare: “Biden is making transparency cool again.”

This was a head-scratcher for many journalists and transparency advocates. Freedom of Information — the concept that government documents belong to and must be accessible to the people — has never not been cool. Using federal and local public records laws, a single individual can uncover everything from war crimes to health code violations at the local taqueria. How awesome is that? If you need more proof: there was an Australian comic book series called “Southern Squadron: Freedom of Information Act”; the classic anime Evangelion has a Freedom of Information Act cameo; and the Leeds-based postpunk Mush received 7.4 stars from Pitchfork for its latest album “Lines Redacted.”

OK, now that we’ve put that down in writing we realize that the line between “cool” and “nerdy” might be a little blurry. But you know what definitely is not cool? Denying the public’s right to know. In fact, it suuucks.

Since 2015, The Foilies have served as an annual opportunity to name-and-shame the uncoolest government agencies and officials who have stood in the way of public access. We collect the most outrageous and ridiculous stories from around the country from journalists, activists, academics and everyday folk who have filed public records and experienced retaliation, overredactions, exorbitant fees and other transparency malpractice. We publish this rogues gallery as a faux awards program during Sunshine Week (March 14-20, 2021), the annual celebration of open government organized by the News 16

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Leaders Association.

This year, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is publishing The Foilies in partnership with MuckRock News, a nonprofit dedicated to building a community of cool kids that file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and local public records requests. Read the full list of winners at boulderweekly.com. And without further ado...

THE MOST SECRETIVE DOG’S BOLLOCKS — CONAN THE BELGIAN MALINOIS Back in 2019, what should’ve been a fluff story (or scruff story) about Conan, the Delta Force K9 that was injured while assisting in the raid that took out an Islamic State leader, became yet another instance of the Trump administration tripping over itself with the facts.

Was Conan a very good boy or a very good girl?

Various White House and federal officials contradicted themselves, and the mystery remained.

Transparency advocate and journalist Freddy Martinez wouldn’t let the sleeping dog lie; he filed a FOIA request with the U.S. Special Operations Command, a.k.a. SOCOM. But rather than release the records, officials claimed they could “neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records,” the much dreaded “Glomar response” usually reserved for sensitive national security secrets (the USNS Hughes Glomar Explorer was a secret CIA ship that the agency didn’t want to acknowledge existed). Never one to roll over, Martinez filed a lawsuit against SOCOM and the Defense Department in June 2020.

Just in time for Sunshine Week, Martinez got his records — a single page of a veterinary examination, almost completely redacted except for the MARCH 18, 2021

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dog’s name and the single letter “M” for gender.

Conan’s breed and color were even blacked out, despite the fact that photos of the dog had already been tweeted by Trump.

THE DOXXER PRIZE — FORENSIC EXAMINER COLIN FAGAN In July 2020, surveillance researcher and Princeton Ph.D. student Shreyas Gandlur sued the Chicago Police Department to get copies of an electronic guide on police technology regularly received via email by law enforcement officers around the country. The author of the guide, Colin Fagan, a retired cop from Oregon, did not agree that the public has a right to know how cops are being trained, and he decided to make it personal.

In a final message to his subscribers announcing he was discontinuing the “Law Enforcement Technology Investigations Resource Guide,” Fagan ranted about Gandlur for “attacking the best efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement to use effective legal processes to save innocent victims of horrible crimes and hold their perpetrators accountable.”

Fagan included a photo of Gandlur, his email addresses, and urged his readers to recruit crime victims to contact him “and let him know how he could better apply his talents” — one of the most blatant cases of retaliation we’ve seen in the history of the Foilies. Fagan has since rebounded, turning his email newsletter into a “law enforcement restricted site.”

THE MOST EXPENSIVE COVER-UP AWARD — SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION In the early weeks of the pandemic, the Small Business Administration (SBA) awarded millions of dollars to small businesses through new COVID-related relief programs — but didn’t make the names of recipients public. When major news organizations including ProPublica, the Washington Post and the New York Times filed public records requests to learn exactly where that money had gone, the SBA dragged its feet, and then — after the news organizations sued — tried to withhold BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Join us for a weekend of giveaways, free massage, and a tour of the space! the information under FOIA Exemptions 4 and 6, for confidential and private information. A court rejected both claims, and also forced the government to cough up more than $120,000 in fees to the news organizations’ lawyers.

THE IT’S SO SECRET, EVEN THE BULLET POINTS ARE CLASSIFIED AWARD — MINNESOTA FUSION CENTER Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are always overzealous in claims that disclosing information will harm national security. But officials with the Minnesota Fusion Center took this paranoia to new heights when they claimed a state law protecting “security information” required them to redact everything — including bullet points — in documents they provided to journalist Ken Klippenstein. And we quite literally mean the bullets themselves.

Fusion centers are part of a controversial program coordinated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to facilitate the flow of homeland security intelligence among agencies. Each fusion center is maintained by a state or regional agency; in this case, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Klippenstein tweeted that the agency wouldn’t provide document titles or any other information, all the while adding the dreaded black redaction bars to bulleted lists throughout the records. But if officials redacted the bullet points in earnest, we wonder: what is the security risk if the public learns whether Minnesota homeland security officials use the default bullet points or some more exotic style or font? Will the terrorists win if we know they used Wingdings?

THE PHARAOH PRIZE FOR DEADLINE EXTENSIONS — CHICAGO MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT With COVID-19 affecting all levels of government operations, many transparency advocates and journalists were willing to accept some delays in responding to public records requests. However, some government officials were quick to use the pandemic as an excuse to ignore transparency laws altogether. Taking the prize this year is Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, who invoked the Old Testament in an effort to lobby the Illinois Attorney General to suspend FOIA deadlines altogether.

“I want to ask the average Chicagoan: Would you like them to do their job or would you like them to be pulled off to do FOIA requests?” Lightfoot said in April 2020, according to the Chicago Tribune, implying that epidemiologists and physicians are also the same people processing public records (they’re not).

She continued: “I think for those people who are scared to death about this virus, who are worried every single day that it’s going to come to their doorstep, and I’m mindful of the fact that we’re in the Pesach season, the angel of death that we all talk about is the Passover story, that angel of death is right here in our midst every single day.” see FOILES page 18

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MARCH 18, 2021

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FOILES from page 17

We’d just note that transparency is crucial to ensuring that the government’s response to COVID is both effective and equitable. And if ancient Egyptians had the power to FOIA the Pharaoh for communications with Moses and Aaron, perhaps they probably would have avoided all 10 plagues — blood, frogs and all.

THE JUKING THE FOIA STATS AWARD — CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL The Wire, the classic HBO police drama, laid bare how police departments across the country manipulate data to present trends about crime being down. As ex-detective Roland Pryzbylewski put it: “Juking the stats ... Making robberies into larcenies. Making rapes disappear. You juke the stats, and majors become colonels.”

The Centers for Disease Control seems to love to juke its FOIA stats. As the nonprofit advocacy organization American Oversight alleged in a lawsuit last year, the CDC has been systematically rejecting FOIA requests by claiming they are overly broad or burdensome, despite years of court decisions requiring agencies to work in good faith with requesters to try to help them find records or narrow their request. The CDC then categorizes those supposedly overbroad requests as “withdrawn” by the requester and closes the file without having to provide any records. So those FOIAs disappear, much like the violent crime reports in The Wire.

The CDC’s annual FOIA reports show that the agency’s two-step juke move is a favorite.

According to American Oversight, between 2016 and 2019, CDC closed between 21 to 31% of all FOIA requests it received as “withdrawn.” CDC’s closure rate during that period was roughly three times that of its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, which on average only closed 6 to 10% of its FOIAs as withdrawn.

After American Oversight sued, the CDC began releasing documents.

THE SAVE THE CHILDREN (IN A HIDDEN FOLDER) AWARD — LOUISVILLE METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT, KENTUCKY The Louisville Metropolitan Police Department’s Explorer Scouts program was supposed to give teenagers a chance to learn more about careers in law enforcement. For two LMPD officers, though, it became an opportunity for sexual abuse. When reporters asked for more information on the perpetrators, the City chose to respond 18

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with further absurdity — by destroying its records.

The case against the City and the Boy Scouts of America is scheduled to begin in April.

The Courier-Journal in Louisville first asked LMPD in mid-2019 for all records regarding the two officers’ sexual abuse of minors. Louisville claimed it didn’t have any; they had been turned over to the FBI. Then the Courier-Journal appealed, and the City eventually determined that — well, what do you know — they’d found a “hidden folder” still containing the responsive records — 738,000 of them, actually. Not for long, though.

Less than a month later, they’d all been deleted, despite the ongoing request, a casualty of the City’s automated backup and deletion system, according to Louisville.

At the end of 2020, the Courier-Journal was still fighting the City’s failure to comply with the Kentucky Open Records Act. “I have practiced open records law since the law was enacted 45 years ago, and I have never seen anything so brazen,” Courier-Journal attorney Jon Fleischaker told the paper. “I think it’s an outrage.”

THE ERIC CARTMAN RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH AWARD — HASKELL INDIAN NATIONS UNIVERSITY, KANSAS When Jared Nally, editor-in-chief of The Indian Leader, the student newspaper at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, started putting questions to his school’s administration and sending records requests to the local police department, he got a lot more than he expected: A directive from his school’s president demanding he cease his requests in the name of the student paper and henceforth treat officials with proper respect, lest he face disciplinary action.

“Your behavior has discredited you and this university,” Haskell Indian Nations University President Ronald Graham wrote. “You have compromised your credibility within the community and, more importantly, you have brought yourself, The Indian Leader, Haskell, and me unwarranted attention.”

Graham’s aggressive tactics against the college junior quickly rallied support for the student journalist, with the Native American Journalists Association, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and Student Press Law Center all calling for the formal directive to be rescinded. The school ultimately did back down, but the efforts left Nally shocked. “As a student journalist, I’d only been doing it for a year,” he told Poynter in an interview. “When somebody in authority says MARCH 18, 2021

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things like that about you, it really does take a hit. ... I’d say I’m recovering from the gaslighting effects, and feeling like what I’m doing really is every bit a part of journalism.”

THE HANDCUFFS AND PRIOR RESTRAINTS AWARD: CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT AND CITY OF CHICAGO In February 2019, a swarm of Chicago police officers raided the wrong apartment with their guns drawn. They handcuffed the resident, Anjanette Young, who was completely undressed, and they refused to let her put on clothes as she pleaded with them dozens of times that they had the wrong house. Young sued the City in federal court and filed a request for body camera footage of the officers who invaded her home. The local CBS affiliate also requested the body camera footage.

The Chicago Police Department denied both requests, despite a binding ruling just months earlier that CPD was required to turn over body camera footage to people like Young who were involved in the recorded events. Young ultimately got the footage as part of her lawsuit, and her attorney provided them to the media. The City’s lawyers then took the extraordinary step of asking the court to order CBS 2 not to air the video, a demand to censor speech before it occurs called a “prior restraint.” The judge denied the City’s request.

The City also sought sanctions against Young’s attorney, but the City withdrew its motion and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called the request “ill-advised” in a letter to the court. The judge decided not to sanction Young’s attorney.

THE CAT FACE FILTER AWARD — FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS Kids these days — overlaying cat faces on their videos and showing the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) how it should redact media sought by FOIA requesters. That was the message from an incredulous federal appeals court in March 2020 after the BOP claimed it lacked the ability to blur out or otherwise redact faces (such as those of prisoners and guards) from surveillance videos sought through FOIA by an inmate who was stabbed with a screwdriver in a prison dining hall.

The court wrote: “The same teenagers who regale each other with screenshots are commonly known to revise those missives by such techniques as inserting cat faces over the visages of humans.”

The judge made clear that although “we do not necessarily advocate that specific technique,” the BOP’s learned helplessness to redact video footage is completely (insert laughing cat emoji here.)

The Foilies were compiled by Electronic Frontier Foundation Director of Investigations Dave Maass, Senior Staff Attorney Aaron Mackey and Frank Stanton Fellow Naomi Gilens; and MuckRock News Cofounder Michael Morisy and Senior Reporter and Projects Editor Beryl Lipton, with further writing and editing by Shawn Musgrave.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Heavy Gold Vault Bricks loaded with valuable Jumbo State Bars layered in 24 Karat Gold are up for grabs as thousands stand to miss the deadline to claim the gold bars; now residents in 7 states can claim the Gold Vault Bricks for themselves and keep all the valuable bars found inside just by covering the minimum gold fee set for state residents within the next 48 hours “It’s like a modern day gold rush,” said Mary Ellen Withrow, emeritus 40th Treasurer of the United States of America.

That’s because actual Gold Vault Bricks™ still loaded with four 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold bearing the name of the First Bank of the United States of America™ and the state they were once destined for are up for grabs as thousands of U.S. residents stand to miss the deadline to claim the gold. Now any resident of those states can claim the Gold Vault Bricks for themselves and keep all the valuable gold found inside.

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(Continued on next page)

Listed below in bold are the states that get the gold. If you live in one of these states immediately call the State Distribution Hotline at:

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SPECIAL ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

(Continued from previous page) full 20 ounces locked away inside these gold vault bricks. That’s a real steal because residents living outside of the designated 7 states must pay $124 per ounce which totals $2,480 if any remain.

“As special counsel to Federated Mint I earn my pay delivering breaking news. And today’s announcement confirming the release of Gold Vault Bricks to the general public is as big as it gets.

Believe me, I know how valuable these Gold Vault Bricks are to resellers, collectors, dealers and anyone else who gets their hands on them,” Withrow said.

“So my advice is this, anyone who gets an opportunity to get their hands on one of these Gold Vault Bricks better jump at the chance before they’re all gone,” Withrow said.

“These Gold Vault Bricks loaded with massive 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold make the most impressive gifts for Christmas, birthdays, graduations, weddings, and any other occasion, especially for that hard-to-buy-for person,” Withrow said.

According to Ms. Withrow, since thousands of U.S. residents stand to miss the deadline to claim the gold, today and tomorrow are intended as a “special 48 hour release” for the benefit of persons living in; CO, AZ, KS, NE, NM, OK and WY. This gives residents of those states a fair chance to claim the Gold Vault Bricks and all the valuable gold loaded inside for themselves.

But, Ms. Withrow added, “The Gold Vault Bricks are only available as inventory permits during the special 48 hour release and once they’re gone, they’re gone.” The emeritus Treasurer added, “Remember this, these Gold Vault Bricks contain a full 20 ounces of high demand bullion copper layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold and we have no power to stop dealers, resellers, collectors and the like from buying up all the Gold Vault Bricks they can get their hands on and reselling them for a big profit,” Withrow said.

Anyone who fails to obtain them during this special 48 hour release may be forced to buy them later in the secondary market from a dealer, reseller or collector at a hefty premium. ”We already know the phones will be ringing off the hook. That’s why hundreds of agents are standing by to answer the phones beginning at 8:30am this morning. We’re going to do our best, but with just 48 hours to answer all the calls it won’t be easy. So make sure to tell everyone to keep calling if all lines are busy. We’ll do our best to answer them all,” Withrow said.

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The only thing readers of today’s newspaper publication need to do is make sure they live in one of the 7 states listed in today’s newspaper and call the State Distribution Hotlines before the special 48 hour release ends midnight tomorrow.

THESE FIRST BANK OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA JUMBO GOLD BARS ARE THE ONLY ONES KNOWN TO EXIST

THESE ARE THE FOUR 5-OUNCE JUMBO GOLD BARS SEALED AWAY IN EACH GOLD VAULT BRICK BEARING THE STATE DESTINATION

How much are the Gold Vault Bricks worth: The answer is, it’s impossible to say. But, it would be foolish for anyone to try and determine the value of these Gold Vault Bricks based on today’s price of gold. Here’s why. Gold, silver and all precious metal values always fluctuate and there are never any guarantees. But what we do know is that these are the only Gold Vault Bricks still loaded with four 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars known to exist. In fact, the value of the pure 24 Karat Gold layered content is just a bonus for anyone lucky enough to get one of these Gold Vault Bricks because there’s no telling how much the actual collector value could be worth. That makes the minimum gold fee set for state residents of just $ 49 per ounce which totals $ 980 for the full 20 ounces locked away inside these Gold Vault Bricks a real steal since residents living outside of the designated 7 states must pay $124 per ounce, which totals $ 2,480, if any remain.

Why the vault fee is so low: Since thousands of U.S. residents stand to miss the deadline to claim the gold, Federated Mint has re-allocated Gold Vault Bricks to be sent out in the next 48 hours. That means the gold is up for grabs and now residents in 7 states can claim the Gold Vault Bricks for themselves and keep all the valuable bars found inside. These are the only Gold Vault Bricks known to exist and everyone wants them. That’s because they’re still loaded with four 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold bearing the name of The First Bank of the United States of America and the state they were once destined for. That’s four massive bars weighing a full 20 ounces of 24 Karat Gold and valuable bullion copper in all. And here’s the best part. If you live in one of the 7 states listed in today’s publication you cover only the minimum gold fee set for state residents of just $ 49 per ounce. That’s a real steal because residents living outside of the designated 7 states must pay $ 124 per ounce if any remain.

FIRST LOOK INSIDE THE GOLD VAULT BRICKS: Pictured above are the Gold Vault Bricks containing the only Jumbo State Gold Bars known to exist bearing the name of the First Bank of the United States of America and the state they were once destined for. State residents are rushing to get them because the Gold Vault Bricks are still loaded with four 5-ounce Jumbo State Bars layered in valuable 24 Karat Gold. To claim you Vault Brick, just call 1-800-749-6917 GB2158 before the deadline ends. Everyone lucky enough to get them better hold on to them R1007E because there’s no telling just how much they could be worth.

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PHOTOS COURTESY WRITER’S BLOCK

Making a thing while the world ends

After a year of digital gatherings, Writer’s Block celebrates surviving the pandemic the best way they know how — with a zine

by Caitlin Rockett

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s the pandemic stormed in and unceremoniously upended in-person events last March, it also cast members of Writer’s Block across the country.

With the university campus closed and businesses shuttered, many young members of the scrappy weekly poetry and writing group had to leave Boulder. It was tough, says Maribelle Holmes (they/them), who went back to their native Wisconsin last year, because Writer’s Block offered the kind of community that many of its members had been searching for — a family. Acceptance.

“If you missed a week, people would notice,” Holmes says. “They’ll check in on you, they won’t let you slip through the cracks.

“I think that building community like this is so rare these days,” they add. “So many people don’t have a safe place to go. And this place, no matter how new you were, was so safe — and still is. The fact that it’s managed to survive a global pandemic, when people have had to move home because of not working enough to be able stay in Boulder... if I didn’t have this poetry group while being in Milwaukee, I would have completely stopped writing, I think.”

But Holmes and a devoted core of members gave Writer’s Block a virtual second life, hosting

MARCH 18, 2021

groups on Zoom every ON THE BILL: Donate to Writer’s Block’s Virtual week instead of at Block Celebration Zine. $1 gets 1750 dance studio, where a digital copy of the zine; the group existed in its $10 for a print copy original life over the last (available in early April): indiegogo.com/projects/ four years. Now, exactly 52 writer-s-block-virtual-celweeks later, the online ebration-zine# gathering is drawing almost as many participants as the in-person gathering, and the members are looking to celebrate a weird year the best way they know how — with a zine filled with original writings and artwork. The book is tentatively slated to come out digitally later this month (around March 31, for a $1 donation), and a few hard copies will land at Boulder Book Store in April ($10 donation).

“I guess making the zine is a way to document this year,” says Changa Hernandez (he/his), the shaggy-haired, low-key founder of Writer’s Block (though Hernandez may cringe at the formality of a word like “founder”). He’s seated next to Lee Frankel-Goldwater (often known as Lee FG, he/his) during this Zoom call, flanked on either side by the rectangularly framed faces of Jonathan “Jonnom” Schmitt (they/theirs), long-time Boulder poet Ira Liss (he/his) and Holmes.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

“This is actually our sixth zine we’ve made,” Hernandez clarifies. “We used to make one every couple of months. When the whole ’rona thing happened, nobody was on the zine for a year. This is the first time Writer’s Block made a thing while the world ended.”

And even with the world figuratively ending around them, the dedicated crew of Writer’s Block never set out to document their virtual year, just to apply some glue that could hold the group together until they could meet in person again.

“Changa had not particularly wanted to have an online group because it was against the ethos of Writer’s Block,” admits Frankel-Goldwater, a regular with the Block for the past two years.

“I’m so sorry!” Hernandez chimes in.

“It just immediately became my home,” Frankel-Goldwater says of his first time at a Writer’s Block gathering at 1750. “I remember this feeling of walking in and wanting to take off my shoes, like I was home. It was so comfortable. I wanted to be in this space.”

Members would take turns guiding other members with writing prompts — imagine you’re a house and in need of renovations; where would you start? — then sharing their work, maybe breaking into smaller groups, and finally closing the night out with music and dancing in the studio space. Sometimes they would make brownies in the studio’s oven.

And then the pandemic came. Block 1750 closed.

“And our meeting space as a poetry community died,” Frankel-Goldwater says.

“The first week we would have missed a session, I got this strange feeling — like a calling, something from outside of me: make a Facebook event and put up a Zoom link and see what happens. And people started showing up. What’s really amazing was that nobody knew how long this was going to last. It went from a temporary moment to let’s do this for 52 weeks straight.”

The online gatherings haven’t been for everyone; the group says some regulars from the in-person group haven’t joined online. But others have filled in the gaps, many who feel more comfortable online.

And Zoom, for all its frustrations, has provided some playful moments (exploring the limitations of a rectangle during improv warm-ups), and life lessons (in how to listen more and talk less).

“It hasn’t been without its struggles and growing pains,” Frankel-Goldwater says. “I think we’ve done our best. I think those who are here are joyful.”

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Thank you for voting us for Best New Business & Best Independent Business

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events

If your organization is planning an event of any kind, please email Caitlin at crockett@boulderweekly.com.

‘BREAK IN THE CLOUDS,’ BRUCE CASCIA

LONGMONT PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS GARDENING SUCCESS! GROWING VEGGIES.

7 p.m. Thursday, March 18.

Registration: bit.ly/3bNznub In this virtual session, Boulder County Master Gardeners will share their knowledge about planning, preparing for and growing a successful vegetable garden along the Front Range. This program is good for all ages and gardening skill levels, and will be recorded and available on Longmont Public Library’s YouTube playlist and Watch Recent Programs page a few weeks after the program’s date. Registration is required and limited to 100 participants. Once registered, you’ll receive an email confirmation with information on how to join the Webex meeting.

JESTERS DINNER THEATRE PRESENTS ‘FOREVER PLAID.’

SMITHKLEIN GALLERY PRESENTS NEW WORKS BY BRUCE CASCIA.

March 19-April 30, SmithKlein Gallery, 1116 Pearl St., Boulder, smithklein.com Bruce Cascia’s recent focus has been on his Flatland series, which is a reflection on his central Illinois background. Atmosphere, lighting and scale all play important parts in these rural compositions.

BRUCE D. HAYNES: JUDAISM AND THE BLACK EXPERIENCE — 2021 SONDRA AND HOWARD BENDER VISITING SCHOLAR.

7 p.m. Thursday, March 18. Free, but registration is required: bit.ly/38LFwW6 Bruce D. Haynes is a professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis, and a senior fellow in the Urban Ethnography Project at Yale University. His most recent book, The Soul of Judaism: Jews of African Descent in America, offers an exploration of the diversity of Black Jews, including bi-racial Jews of both matrilineal and patrilineal descent; adoptees; black converts to Judaism; and Black Hebrews and Israelites, who trace their Jewish roots to Africa and challenge the dominant Western paradigm of Jews as white and of European descent.

March 19-May 16. Jesters Dinner Theatre, 224 Main St., Longmont, jesterstheatre.com When four young singers are killed in a car crash, they posthumously take the stage for one final gig in this goofy, 1950s nostalgia trip.

MASON JAR UNPACKED VOLUME #2 (HYBRID VIRTUAL EVENT SERIES).

7 p.m. Saturday, March 20. Tickets are $50-$99: bit.ly/3lsac3O With food from River and Woods, drinks from Sanitas Brewery, music by David Johnston (from Yonder Mountain String Band) and goodies from Terrapin Care Station (featuring SUM Microdose, 1906 Dadirri Extracts and Keef Brands), the Mason Jar Unpacked event lets you enjoy some of the best local products Boulder County has to offer while actually chatting with the folks who make them. Included in the ticket price for each registered guest is a link to the evening’s entertainment, a menu with information to help guests enjoy a Mason Jar event at home, a Spotify playlist from DJ BisscaB to enjoy after the live content and instructions on how to win prizes from participating sponsors.

Participants are able to pick up food and the goodie bag the day before the event.

AGENTS OF CHANGE: A CONVERSATION ON ART AND SOCIAL JUSTICE.

7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 18.

Livestreamed to Facebook, LongmontPublicMedia.org, and Local Comcast Channel 8/880.

Artists often play a major role in social movements. Through theater, dance, music and the visual arts, they challenge narratives, offer new perspectives and inspire in ways that traditional political methods rarely can. Join local creatives in a discussion of the power of art to make change.

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see EVENTS page 25

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

EVENTS from page 24

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DAVID BARSAMIAN AND MAEVE CONRAN PRESENT MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY.

BMOCA VIRTUAL STUDIO TOUR: KIM PUTNAM.

events

music

7 p.m. Wednesday, March 24. More information and tickets ($5–15) are available via h-co.org/lectures and the event page at h-co.org/media.

According to research conducted by the Knight Foundation, Americans see increasing political bias in the news media, and most Americans suspect inaccuracies in news are intentional. Yet eight in 10 Americans also believe the news media is very important to democracy, and a majority believes the media can heal U.S. political divisions. Amid historic levels of media consumption, David Barsamian and Maeve Conran present Media and Democracy, a live, virtual event presented by History Colorado’s speaker series, This Is What Democracy Looks Like.

‘BLUE THRONE’ (DETAIL), 2017, WOODEN CHAIR AND CERAMIC VASE, COURTESY OF KETTY G. DEVIEUX.

Noon. Thursday, March 25, via Instagram. Free, bmoca.org Join Kim Putnam on a 30-minute interactive virtual tour of her studio.

Putnam is a contemporary artist and adjunct professor at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design. She considers herself a “media inclusive artist,” meaning she works in a variety of media depending on the concept.

Through her art, Putnam explores current topics relating to identity and gender in our culture, including objectification, the male gaze, gender biases and voice as agency. To access the Virtual Studio Tours live, log into your Instagram account on the phone app or from a web browser, then navigate to BMoCA’s profile and click on the circular icon with BMoCA’s logo.

ARS NOVA SINGERS CELEBRATE ‘REBIRTH’ WITH VIRTUAL CONCERT.

music COURTESY MARTIN SEXTON

7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 20. While this performance is free to stream, listeners must RSVP to receive the link: arsnovasingers.org/rebirth.

Donations are welcome.

Ars Nova Singers, Boulder’s acclaimed a cappella ensemble, is premiering its first virtual performance of 2021: Rebirth. The livestreaming event will feature newly recorded performances by guest artists Nicholas Phan (tenor) and Ann Marie Morgan (viola da gamba) and a selection of previous Ars Nova concert recordings.

ARISE PRESENTS YAIMA, STREAMING FROM COLORADO SOUND STUDIOS.

AN EVENING WITH MARTIN SEXTON (LATE SHOW).

9 p.m. Friday, March 19, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder, bouldertheater.com. Tickets are $67.50.

Syracuse, New York-native Martin Sexton got his start singing in the streets and subways of Boston in the early ’90s. Still fiercely independent and headlining venues like Carnegie Hall, his incendiary live show, honest lyrics and vocal prowess keep fans coming back for more.

8 p.m. Thursday, March 25. Viewers are strongly encouraged to donate $10$20, or an amount that feels comfortable.

ARISE continues to deliver the festival vibe with its high-quality online streaming experiences, this time with electronic music duo Yaima streaming live from Colorado Sound Studios. Taking the stage with Yaima is dancer Ventana Green. A portion of the proceeds will benefit One Tree Planted. By donating, you’ll also be entered to win official merchandise, future concert tickets and more.

AN EVENING WITH HEAD FOR THE HILLS.

PAUL CAUTHEN.

2 p.m. Sunday, March 21, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder, bouldertheater.com. Tickets are $40-$100.

Paul Cauthen first earned his reputation with the acclaimed roots rock band Sons of Fathers. But his 2016 solo debut, My Gospel, had Texas Monthly raving that Cauthen’s “got Willie’s phrasing, Johnny’s haggard quiver, Kristofferson’s knack for storytelling, and Waylon’s baritone.”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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7 p.m. Saturday, March 20, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder, bouldertheater.com. Tickets are $50.

Head for the Hills has turned dorm room jam sessions into a decade-plus career — from humble coffee shops to theaters, festivals, roadhouses and clubs across the country. With its blend of bluegrass and hip-hop, the band has made numerous festival appearances including Telluride, South by Southwest and more. see MUSIC page 26

MARCH 18, 2021

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MUSIC from page 25

music

COURTESY TOM YARON

music

CU Boulder alum develops business aimed at helping musicians better navigate the industry

by Caitlin Rockett

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f you’ve never been on the business end of organizing a performance, you may not understand how taxing the process can be: booking the right talent, finding an appropriate venue, organizing services like insurance and merchandise sales. There can be weeks — or months — of back-and-forth emails and calls to settle on rates, times, places and general logistics.

But CU Boulder alumnus and violinist Tom Yaron and his business partner Trevor Bumgardner are out to change that with their organization Concertize, which uses a growing database of musicians, venues, arrangers, audio professionals and logistics providers from around the world to make booking your next gig a breeze.

“When musicians reach out to us, often it’s like, ‘I don’t know where I’m going to play,’ or ‘I don’t know what I’m going to record,’” Bumgardner, a composer who first met Yaron at Juilliard, says. “They don’t want to go through that process. So they just don’t go through it. And then what are they not doing? Performing.”

Yaron encountered this problem while he was playing on cruise ships for Holland America. He and members of his piano quintet would try to book shows at secondary venues (churches, schools) in port cities where the cruise stopped, but found communication slow and often lacking in critical information, like whether they had a tuned piano on site.

“It’s not that [these secondary venues are] not

words

JIA GOTTLIEB — ‘AAH ... THE PLEASURE BOOK.’

WENDY GARLING — ‘THE WOMAN WHO RAISED THE BUDDHA,’ IN CONVERSATION WITH AMELIA HALL.

5 p.m. Thursday, March 18.

Tickets are $5 via Eventbrite, boulderbookstore.net Discover the seven immutable laws of pleasure, and master the art of truly enjoying life. Drawing on penetrating insights from history, cutting-edge neuroscience and spiritual wisdom, Jia Gottlieb dispels 2,000 years of shared shame, guilt and ignorance to reclaim the wisdom of pleasure as the ultimate guide to a beautiful and fulfilling life.

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used to having performances,” Yaron says, it’s just that they don’t have consistent gigs. “But wait a minute: if someone just saves the data of [what this venue has to offer], like seating capacity, available equipment, then any group that wants to come and use the space should be able to use it with just clicking a button.”

Which is what Concertize aims to do. It’s just the beginning for Yaron and Bumgardener’s project, but with years of performance experience behind them and a network of music professionals at their fingertips, the two are building a global database of information that could make booking your next gig the easiest thing you’ve ever done.

Learn more about Concertize — and the events it hosts — at concertize.co.

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5 p.m Tuesday, March 23. Tickets are $5 via Eventbrite, boulderbookstore.net The Buddha’s birth mother, Maya, died shortly after childbirth, and her sister Mahaprajapati took the infant to her breast, nurturing and raising him into adulthood. In this first full biography of Mahaprajapati, The Woman Who Raised the Buddha presents her life story, with attention to her early years as sister, queen, matriarch and mother, as well as her later years as a nun. Drawing from story fragments and canonical records, Wendy Garling reveals just how exceptional Mahaprajapati’s role was as leader of the first generation of Buddhist women, helping the Buddha establish an equal community of lay and monastic women and men.

MARCH 18, 2021

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boulderweekly.com

Excerpt from Postscript #29

by Matthew Clifford

There have been more baby ghosts lately with few fit for heaven. The air in the room is toxic. The government feels threatened thinks everything smells like graffiti and can’t get the statues cleaned fast enough to keep up with the surge of new cases developed by those kissing the rings on them. The man down the hall keeps showing up without a mask on. He wants to go viral. Nobody can fire him and nobody wants him.

He is an escape agent who would be as chaotic dead. They aren’t sure if he will ever die or if he is even real. There is no such thing as retirement anymore. They tell us it was an accident that didn’t exist and I believe them. I quit with commitment. Man cannot live on letters alone. I approach paper as a body of instinct. I devour you.

Beyond where I can go is the only place to be with you I have written myself into better oblivion. This wish is driven by the desire to dissolve these manufactured disconnections. Singularly undeniable, with my shoes on, I walk into the river, a letter in each pocket, one for you and one for the ghosts explaining origins I am not afraid of. I approach water as a spirit of memory. I deliver myself to you.

This is an excerpt from Matthew Clifford’s most recent book Postscript published by the 8th Street Publishing Guild. You can find him at mattclifford.org.

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BOULDER WEEKLY

blessings they bestowed on you. Give thanks for their influences, for the gifts they gave that have helped you become your beautiful self.

BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: Poet Ocean Vuong speaks of the

Hawaiian word kipuka. It refers to a patch of earth that doesn’t get covered with lava when an active volcano exudes its molten material. “Before the lava descended,” Vuong writes, “that piece of land was insignificant, just another scrap in an endless mass of green.” But now that piece of land is special, having endured. I encourage you to identify your metaphorical equivalent of kipuka, Aries. It’s an excellent time to celebrate the power and luck and resilience that have enabled you to persevere.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: “Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look,” writes Taurus author Jodi Picoult. Luckily for you, Taurus, in the near future you’ll be prone to look in exactly those places — where no one else has thought to look.

That means you’ll be extra likely to find useful, interesting, even extraordinary things that have mostly been hidden and unused. You may also discover some boring and worthless things, but the trade-off will be worth your effort. Congratulations in advance on summoning such brave curiosity.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: “When we ask for advice, we are usu-

ally looking for an accomplice,” said Gemini author Saul Bellow. So if you have come here today to read my horoscopes, it’s possible that you’re seeking an accomplice to approve of you making a decision or a move that you have already decided to do. OK. I’ll be your accomplice. But as your accomplice, the first thing I’ll do is try to influence you to make sure your upcoming actions serve not only your own selfish interests (although there’s nothing wrong with that), but also serve the interests of people you care for.

The weeks ahead will be a favorable time to blend self-interest and noble idealism.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: A character in Barbara Kingsolver’s

novel The Lacuna is told to “go rub his soul against life.” Now I’ll advise you to do the same. Why? While it’s true that you have a beautiful soul, you sometimes get in the habit of hiding it away or keeping it secret. You feed it a wealth of dreams and emotions and longings, but may not go far enough in providing it with raw experience out in the messy, chaotic world. In my judgment, now is one of those times when you would benefit from rubbing your soul against life. Please note: I DON’T mean you should go in search of rough, tough downers. Not at all. In fact, there are plenty of pleasurable, safe, educational ways to rub your soul against life.

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: If you love the work of author Paulo

Coelho, you might be inclined to adopt his motto as your own: “Being vulnerable is the best way to allow my heart to feel true pleasure.” But maybe you wouldn’t want to adopt his motto. After all, what he’s suggesting requires a great deal of courage and daring. Who among us finds it easy and natural to be soft and receptive and inviting? And yet according to my analysis of the astrological omens, this is exactly what your assignment should be for the next two weeks. To help motivate yourself, remember the payoff described by Coelho: the possibility that your heart will feel true pleasure.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Virgo author Michael Ondaatje cel-

ebrates “the hidden presence of others in us — even those we have known briefly. We contain them for the rest of our lives, at every border we cross.” As you approach your own upcoming border-crossing, dear Virgo, I encourage you to tune into memories about seven specific people who over the course of your life have provided you with the most joy and the most interesting lessons. Close your eyes for 20 minutes and imagine they are all gathered together with you in your favorite sanctuary. Remember in detail the

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LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: “A balance that does not tremble

cannot weigh. A person who does not oscillate cannot live.” So wrote biochemist Erwin Chargaff, who did crucial research leading to the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure. Since you’re the zodiac’s expert on balance and oscillation, and because these themes will be especially meaningful for you in the coming days, I’ll ask you to meditate on them with extra focus. Here’s my advice: To be healthy and resilient, you need to be aware of other possibilities besides those that seem obvious and simple and absolutely true. You need to consider the likelihood that the most correct answers are almost certainly those that are paradoxical and complicated and full of nuance.

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: In her poem “Sandra,” Scorpio poet

Ariana Reines testifies that she has too many feelings — and that’s not a problem. On the contrary.

They are her wealth, she says, her “invisible splendor.” I invite you to regard your own “too many feelings” in the same way, especially in the coming weeks. You will have opportunities to harness your flood of feelings on behalf of transformative insights and holistic decision-making. Your motto: Feelings are healing.

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SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Historian and author Thomas Berry

described “wildness” as the source of our “authentic spontaneities.” He said it’s “the wellspring of creativity” at the root of our lust for life. That’s a different definition from the idea that wildness is about being unruly, rough and primitive. And Berry’s definition happens to be the one that should be central to your work and play in the coming weeks. Your assignment is to be wild: that is, to cultivate your authentic spontaneities; to home in on and nourish the creative wellspring of your lust for life.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: Some of the great discoveries in the history of physics have been made while the trailblazing physicists are lolling in bed or in the bathtub. They have done the research and carried out the rigorous thinking, and are rewarded with breakthroughs while relaxing. I think that will be your best formula for success in the coming weeks. Important discoveries are looming. Interesting innovations are about to hatch. You’re most likely to gather them in if you work intensely on preparing the way for them, then go off and do something fun and rejuvenating.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: My typical horoscope is an average of

108 words long. In that limited space, I can’t possibly tell you all the themes and threads that will be active for you during the upcoming phase of your cycle.

I have to make choices about what to include and what not to include. This time I’ll focus on the fact that you now have an opportunity to deepen your relationship with your sense of smell — and to purposefully nourish your sense of smell. Your homework: Decide on at least five scents with which you will cultivate an intimate, playful, delightful connection in the coming days. (P.S.: You may be surprised at how this practice will deepen your emotional connection with the world.)

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: No one had ever proven that there

was such a thing as electromagnetic waves until Piscean physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894) did so in 1886. He was the innovator who first transmitted and received controlled radio waves. Alas, he didn’t think his breakthrough was useful. In 1890, he confessed, “I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application.” But other scientists were soon capitalizing on his work to communicate long distances. Radio broadcasts were born. I will encourage you not to make a Hertziantype mistake in the coming months. Always follow through on your initial labors. Have faith that the novelties you dream up will eventually have practical value.

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MARCH 18, 2021

BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: A male friend — not my about it afterwards — and hears about it best friend but a close one — told me his from those other men — that condition has wife was really attracted to me, another to be met for the sex she’s having with male, and asked if I was attracted to her. other men to be consensual. And while the His wife is an incredibly hot woman and I calls afterwards aren’t a turn-on for his thought it was a trick question. I read your wife, DACUCK, if those calls make it possicolumn and listen to the Savage Lovecast, ble for her to sleep with other men and she Dan, so I know there are guys out there enjoys doing that, well then, the calls actuwho want other men to sleep with their ally are doing something for her too. You’re wives, of course, but I didn’t want to risk not obligated to have these conversations offending this friend by saying “FUCK with your friend if they make you uncomYEAH” too quickly. After he convinced me fortable — because of course you’re not — it wasn’t a trick, I told him that of course I but if you were to refuse, DACUCK, then wanted to have sex with his ROMAN ROBINSON your friend might withdraw wife. She’s incredibly beautihis consent for you to fuck ful and a really great perhis wife. Your friend and his son. I told him that I am not wife might be willing to the least bit bisexual and revise these conditions just not into MMF threesomes for you, DACUCKS, so it and he told me he wouldn’t couldn’t hurt to ask. But if he even be there. He just wantsays no you don’t get to fuck ed to hear all the details his wife anymore. Or if he later — and hear them from says no and his wife keeps me, not her. fucking you, well then, she’s I’ve slept with his wife cheating on him for real and four times since and the sex not “cheating” on him for we’ve been having is phefun. nomenal for both of us. But the talks I have Zooming out for a second: you knew afterwards with my friend make me uncom- this was a turn-on for your friend before fortable. We’ve gotten on the phone later in you fucked his wife. You knew he was a the day or the next day and I give him the cuckold, which means you knew he would details and insult him a little, which he likes, be getting off on you fucking his wife, and honestly none of that is the problem.

DACUCK, which means you knew he’d be What makes me uncomfortable is that I out there somewhere beating off about you can hear him beating off during these and your dick. Even if he didn’t want to phone calls. Which makes me feel like I’m hear from you directly afterwards, even if having phone sex with a guy. I’m not comhe was pumping the wife for the details, fortable with this and I feel like our friendyour friendship was sexualized pretty much ship has become sexualized in a way that from the moment he asked you to fuck his just feels unnatural for me. The one time wife and you agreed. we met in person to talk after I fucked his So the problem isn’t the sexualization wife he was visibly aroused throughout our of this friendship or the awareness that this entire conversation. I would like to keep dude is out there beating off about you. fucking my friend’s wife and she wants to The problem is having to listen to him beat keep fucking me but I don’t want to talk off when you get on the phone — or having with my friend about it afterwards. to see him become visibly aroused when Shouldn’t it be enough for him to just know you meet up in person — and there’s a I’m fucking her? pretty easy workaround for that. (I love a —Distressed Aussie Chafes Under solvable problem!) Instead of giving him a Cringe Kink call after you’ve fucked his wife, use the P.S. This is his thing, not hers. She voice memo app on your phone to record a loves having sex with me but the calls to long, detailed, insult-strewn message after her husband don’t do anything for her. you’ve fucked his wife and send it to him.

You’ll still get to fuck his wife, he’ll still get Dear DACUCK: It’s obviously not to hear about it from you, and you won’t enough for him to know you’re fucking his have to listen to him doing what you damn wife. If that was enough for him, DACUCK, well knew he’d be doing after you fucked he wouldn’t want to get on the phone with his wife, i.e., furiously beating off about you afterwards. you.

This is a consent question. If your Send questions to mail@savagelove. friend consents to his wife having sex with net, follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage other men on the condition that he hears and visit savagelovecast.com I

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

It’s all over now, baby blue

Call 720.253.4710

Criterion releases newly restored ‘Smooth Talk’ on home video

All credit cards accepted No text messages

by Michael J. Casey

T

all, skinny, blond and lonely, Connie wants to meet someone and go somewhere. Where really doesn’t matter, and who she doesn’t know yet — maybe someone who looks like James Dean and sings like James Taylor. She’s only 15, so there’s a lot Connie hasn’t worked out yet. Including pickup lines, which she rehearses in the bathroom mirror. But the mirror never talks back, never throws her a curve. The real world isn’t nearly as kind.

Released in 1985, Smooth Talk — restored and released on Blu-ray and DVD from The Criterion Collection — is all about navigating those curves. When Connie (Laura Dern) spends the day at the mall with her two friends, she either flirts with every boy she passes or teases her friends about them. She’s the most outgoing of the three, dressing to impress and going weak at the knees when the right guy smiles back. But when the wrong guy suddenly intervenes, things go from sweet to sour with the snap of director Joyce Chopra’s fingers.

Poet Honor Moore calls Smooth Talk “a harbinger of the #MeToo movement, an early chalTHE CRITERION COLLECTION lenge to a cultural silence now broken wide open.”

Moore’s essay, included in Criterion’s set, connects the dots with Smooth Talks’ source material: Joyce Carol Oates’ short story “Where Are You ON THE BILL: Find Going? Where Have You Been?” and the 1966 Life article Criterion’s restorathat inspired Oates, “The Pied Piper of Tucson,” about serial tion of ‘Smooth Talk’ seducer/killer Charles Schmidt. wherever Blu-rays and DVDs are sold.

Though there are moments that give you a sickening sensation in your stomach, there’s nothing in Smooth Talk as rough as those two prose pieces. Chopra and screenwriter Tom Cole leave out the murder and focus on Connie’s home life, particularly the relationship with her mother, Katherine (Mary Kay Place).

Like some mother/daughter relationships, they used to be close, but now they are constantly at odds. At this point in her life, Connie’s only wish is to not turn out like her mom. If only she knew how alike they are.

These scenes set you up for the loss of what’s to come once Arnold Friend (Treat Williams) arrives. You know his name’s Arnold Friend because it’s painted on his gold Pontiac LeMans. “Arnold Friend,” he tells the tongue-tied Connie when he shows up on her driveway. “That’s my real name, and that’s what I want to be to you: A. Friend.”

Connie laughs nervously: “Do I know you?”

She does: They first crossed paths outside Frank’s roadside hamburger stand.

With his sleeves-rolled-up, his shirt unbuttoned down to his diaphragm, his hair coiffed, Friend looks like the sort of guy Connie hopes will come and whisk her away from this sleepy suburban town. But a subtle brass sting under the music as Friend first spies Connie says otherwise. The man is up to no good.

Though Smooth Talk won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and garnered positive reviews upon release, the movie died at the box office. But good work never truly vanishes, and 30-plus years later, Smooth Talk finds its receptive era.

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Craving your Japango faves? We’re here for you! Order for curbside pick up on our website or delivery from Uber Eats, Grub Hub or Door Dash. Or come dine with us indoors or on one of our four heated patios by making a reservation online or by giving us a call. We look forward to seeing you soon!

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Daily 11am-10pm | 303 938 1136 | BoulderJapango.com JapangoRestaurant

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Hours: Mon & Tues 8 am-3 pm, Wed-Sun 8 am-8 pm

JapangoBoulder

MORNINGGLORYCAFE | 1377 FOREST PARK CIRCLE, LAFAYETTE | 303.604.6351

MARCH 18, 2021

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BOULDER WEEKLY

BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

Try this week:

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Twice-baked Chocolate Almond Croissant @ Moxie Bread Co. THERE’S NOTHING WRONG with indulging every once in a while. It’s easy to do so at Moxie Bread Co. While the renowned Louisville bakery has plenty of breakfast and lunch offerings like sandwiches, salads and avocado toast, its pastry menu is hard to beat. This twice-baked croissant has a crisp outer layer, with a deliciously flaky philo dough center, filled with a mixture of both almond paste and dark chocolate. The sliced almonds on top are nice and crunchy, with a fine dusting of confectioners’ sugar. It’s surprisingly not too sweet, and the perfect treat to enjoy with an afternoon coffee in the sunshine.

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1 Corrida has yurts

Colorado Pint Day

YOU CAN DINE out during the pandemic in style and comfort. Restaurants have popped up bubbles, cordoned off patios and erected yurts — drive down East Pearl and you’ll see Frasca’s fancy dining pods.

Corrida’s joined the yurt action, installing them on its rooftop patio. And through May 1, you can experience the Corrida dining experience in yurts designed in coordination with AETHER Apparel, an outerwear brand, which makes for a cozy, outdoor-themed experience. The details: Five classic yurts are available for booking, with capacity limited to four people; you get a five-course tasting menu and wine pairings (optional) for $165 per person. There’s also the Yurt 47 experience, with a slightly larger capacity and bottle service included. And then there’s the AETHER lounge yurts, which are for walk-ups only and include food/drink options from Corrida’s menu and the opportunity to get discounts on the aforementioned retailer’s products. Go to corridaboulder.com for more details.

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More than 150 breweries are participating in Colorado Pint Day (April 7), wherein $1 of every special-edition pint glass sold at participating spots will be donated to the Colorado Brewers Guild (CBG), which supports the local craft beer scene.

Each brewery comes up with its own celebrations — many choose to giveaway or offer for purchase the unique Colorado Pint Day glass, which sports a different design every year. (Brooks Engel of Nowhere Land Supply designed this year’s graphic.) “Community and camaraderie are in the fabric of Colorado craft breweries. In a year when gathering in person has been very limited, Colorado Pint Day allows us to come together as a community and support the ‘State of Craft Beer,’” said CBG Executive Director Shawnee Adelson in a press release. Plenty of Boulder County breweries are participating; visit coloradobeer.org/colorado-pint-day to find a local place to support craft beer and get your limited-edition glass.

MARCH 18, 2021

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MARCH 18, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

R

estaurants across the country lost about $120 billion in the early months of the pandemic — March to May 2021. In turn, states and local governments loosened laws in attempts to help them recoup some of those losses and make ends meet as the pandemic wore on throughout the year.

Boulder County, of course, did

states had allowed some form of alcohol sales for carryout pre-pandemic, many, like Colorado, added on the ability to distribute singleserve cocktails in 2020.

It was a literal lifesaver for many restaurants. (Plus, it’s been kind of cool for us consumers.) Cocktails alone represented about 10% of restaurants’ to-go sales in the last year, according to Pew Charitable Trusts.

“It has been really important to restaurants during this crisis,” Mike Whatley, National Restaurant Association vice president of state and local affairs, told Pew. “Typically, alcohol, especially cocktails, is one of your highest margins.

When you’re relying more on takeout and delivery, if you’re missing cocktails to-go you’re missing that revenue stream.”

But as soon as the benefits became evident, concerns crept in about the long-term availability of this option. Only three states and the District of Columbia have permanently approved alcohol to-go sales from restaurants. Now, Colorado lawmakers are considering a bill that would extend the current allowances for five more years.

Alternatively, if lawmakers don’t pass House Bill 21-1027, to-go alcohol sales would end in July.

In lockstep with the expanded service options, restaurateurs innovated to provide unique offerings. Many restaurants over the last year have provided half-price or otherwise discounted wine bottles from their wine lists, others have thrown in free pints of beer with purchases of dinner. Some created unique cocktails and cocktail kits made for

Drinks to-go, for good?

Lawmakers consider extending carry-out alcohol sales from restaurants

by Matt Cortina its part — municipalities closed down main corridors and allowed restaurants to expand outdoor dining options into the street. They also, with supportive guidance from the state, allowed restaurants to sell alcohol to-go. Nationwide, similar guidelines varied. Although some

at-home enjoyment.

Big Red F, which operates several restaurants in Boulder County, categorized its pivots as “in-house liquor stores.” At West End Tavern, it launched West End Liqours, and at Lola Coastal Mexican, The Little Tequilla Shop.

The benefits to consumers, as Big Red F sees it, is that restaurants have forged connections with distributors to keep interesting options flowing to their operations. You can peruse the aisle of a liquor store, or, you can check out options at a local restaurant that are curated by a group of bartenders, bar managers and chefs that often source rarer finds than retail alcohol stores.

For instance, if you’re a bourbon fan, you might have to wait until distilleries release coveted batches and then, no kidding, track down the truck and stand in line at 8 a.m. to get your hands on something like George T. Stagg or Pappy Van Winkle. Because West End Tavern has bottles on its shelf, you can instead order from them, whenever (assuming they haven’t run out of it). Plus, you have the option to try spirits, wines and more at local restaurants before you commit to a bottle.

You’ll pay a premium for all this, and you always could’ve stopped in to a restaurant to try something before going to the liquor store to buy it, so there’s a fair amount of marketing involved. But the boost in convenience is substantial, and it helps restaurants survive.

“We’ll continue to sell to-go alcohol as long as we can from West End Liquors and The Little Tequila Shop,” says Big Red F COO Audrey Quistorff. “It’s an additional revenue stream for our restaurants that’s very important as we continue to rebound from the pandemic.”

ORDER ON-LINE FOR TAKE OUT

phocafelafayette.com

1085 S Public Rd. Lafayette (303) 665-0666 Hours: TTues-Sat: 11a-8:30p Sun: 11a-8:30p Closed Monday BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Best Asian Fusion

Thank You for Voting us Best Asian Fusion Restaurant for 7 years!

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MARCH 18, 2021

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TAKE-OUT AVA I L A B L E

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TUE-FRI 11AM-2PM MARCH 18, 2021

TUE-THUR 4:30PM-9PM

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Action-packed celeriac

t’s a farmers’ market cliché that celeriac is good in soup. I hear it when folks inquire as to how to use this fragrant root.

But I’ve never quite known what to do with that guidance.

Add celeriac to my Campbell’s tomato soup? To a batch of clam chowder? To my ramen? All I’ve ever done has been to substitute celeriac for celery, its close relative.

If you can get it trimmed and peeled, this knobby subterranean dwelling plant part is a worthy replacement for its watery, stringy above-ground counterpart, with more carbs and less fiber, and an almost tingly flavor on the tongue.

Most celeriac bulbs include a hairy matrix of gnarly roots that radiate from the central orb. Sometimes these snakelike appendages have already been trimmed by the time of purchase, otherwise cut them off yourself.

My friends Steve and Luci grow softball-sized celeriacs that are almost as smooth. They weigh about a pound and a half, and cost about nine bucks each at the local store, I realized to my shock at the cash register after loading up.

I called Luci and tried to get a little sassy about the price, and to her credit she was having zero of that. She knows I know her celeriacs are free of roots, hairs, knobs and dirt. I had to acknowledge they were the finest I’d ever seen.

“The best I’ve encountered were in the Netherlands,” Luci reflected. “I don’t know what those Dutch farmers do. Maybe they spit-shine their celeriacs, or grow them in velvet soil.”

I asked for some advice on what to do with her valuable roots, beyond randomly adding pieces to soup. She mentioned mashing it with potatoes, and grating it into salad. But their favorite way to use it is in none other than soup.

Not soup with celeriac, but celeriac soup, owning it like a jazz musician playing that funky note extra hard so we all know they meant to do it.

“Go trim and dice your gold-plated celeriac,” Luci began, her voice barely audible beneath the aggressive rapport of her knife on a cutting board.

She proceeded to bark her recipe while murdering something with her knife as she finished dispatching me with this delightful vegetarian soup. It’s a subtle and satisfying dish, something like vichyssoise, that beloved chilled potato leek soup, but with celeriac instead of potato joining the leeks.

The celeriac version is thinner and less starchy, with a smooth,

You’ll see this root at local farm stands in early spring. Here’s how to eat it.

by Ari LeVaux

strong celery flavor and a hint of parsley. On a whim, I made a batch with both potatoes and celeriac along with the leeks, and that was the best of all worlds: all the cream and thickness, with an extra layer of sweet earthiness. That version was my kids’ favorite.

At the winter farmers’ market a few days later, I found the ingredients for the soup. A beautiful bunch of leeks, some glorious potatoes and four Medusa-like celeriac — four bulbs at $2 each.

After I trimmed and peeled those shaggy bulbs, I had about the same-sized pile of lily-white cubes as from one of Luci’s orbs. Given the savings in labor, and working with the sheer majesty of Luci’s agricultural talent, hers is worth every penny. But when it isn’t available I’ve no problem trimming down some uglier versions. The soup is always beautiful.

Celeriac Vichyssoise

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messed around with what Luci gave me over the phone, and came up with my own version. My recipe includes potatoes, because if my kids like it that way chances are, you will too. I have also taken to adding some herbs to the soup as it cooks. And mine has less dairy than Luci’s, and mo’ mayo, as that’s my MO, but do as you must.

But it wouldn’t have been right to withhold Luci’s original version as a reference.

“Add about the same amount of celeriac and onions, including whatever greenery of onion you can muster, such as leeks, scal-

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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lions and green onions, and two quarts of chicken stock, and cook until everything is tender. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Use a submersible tool to puree it. Add butter, milk, cream, all that good stuff, and salt and lots of black pepper,” she says.

Ingredients 1 pound trimmed celeriac, cubed 1 pound leeks, chopped 1 pound potatoes, cubed 2 quarts chicken or veggie stock 1 tablespoon oregano Juice of a lemon 1 cup mayonnaise (I use Vegenaise, which

MARCH 18, 2021

is superior) or heavy cream Salt and pepper Dill or another fresh herb as a garnish Preparation On medium heat, cook the celeriac, leeks and potatoes in the stock with the oregano for about 20 minutes. Add the lemon juice and cream of choice and cook another five minutes. Allow to cool to a temperature that works with your blender situation. Blend. Season with salt and pepper. Blend again. Season and repeat.

Garnish and serve.

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pilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder affecting humans, and in recent years, CBD has become a popular treatment option for it. In 2020 the FDA even approved a CBD-based medication called Epidiolex for two rare forms

Cannabis for canines

New research shows CBD may be dog’s best friend in the fight against epilepsy

by Will Brendza of epilepsy. For those suffering from this disorder, CBD is showing a lot of promise and offering a lot of hope.

But could it also work for dogs? After all, epilepsy is the most common neurological disorder affecting our canine companions. And, according to Stephanie McGrath, an associate professor of neu-

rology at Colorado State University (CSU), about a quarter to a third of all dogs using pharmaceutical epilepsy medication continue to experience frequent seizures and negative side-effects.

That can often lead to their owners choosing euthanasia over a perceived poor-quality-of-life.

Having witnessed many such cases and having seen first-hand how inadequate current epilepsy medications are, McGrath designed a double-blind study to test if CBD could help dogs too.

That pilot CBD study started at CSU back in 2016. In it, McGrath assessed 16 client-owned epileptic dogs and how CBD treatment worked to reduce the frequency of their seizures. The dogs were randomly assigned a placebo or medicated regimen, which was administered twice daily for 12 weeks while the dogs’ owners recorded seizure activity and any adverse effects.

When the research was finally published in 2019, McGrath called the results “promising” and “exciting” for both dogs and their owners. The study found that around 89% of the dogs that received CBD had a significant reduction in the frequency of their seizures.

“More of the dogs receiving the CBD had a decline in seizure activity compared with the control group,” McGrath says. Which is undoubtedly encouraging. But, she adds, “since this was a small proof-of-concept study, that data has to be taken with a grain of salt.”

Researchers needed more data. So, they launched another, larger follow-up study assessing more than 60 dogs

instead of just a handful. This most recent trial will be unblinded and analyzed sometime this month, McGrath says. For the first time, she, her team and the patients will get to know which dogs were getting real CBD and which were receiving the placebo.

McGrath is excited to review these results. With a much broader sample size, the data that comes back will be even more telling than what came out of her original pilot study. And if the results are similarly promising it could open up myriad avenues for her to pursue research.

“I hope these studies lead to other larger studies in both these areas, as well as other diseases. I would love to continue to explore the [veterinary] medical potential of CBD in other ailments, including cancer, appetite, anxiety and neuropathic pain,” she says.

Limited scientific research on CBD, in combination with its federally ambiguous legal status and the stigma surrounding it, have made CBD’s adoption in vet clinics a serious challenge.

Nevertheless, this research needs to be done, according to McGrath. This could be a highly effective, natural, alternative treatment option that could ease the suffering of epileptic dogs. And it’s right there in front of us.

“These studies are vital to the veterinary industry,” McGrath says.

“Veterinarians and pet owners are looking for a drug with minimal side effects that can help a variety of canine ailments ... If CBD can help, we need to find out. We need the science to show whether this drug can work and CSU is allowing this long overdue research to happen.”

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MARCH 18, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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