The Durango Telegraph publishes every Thursday, come hell, high water, tacky singletrack or mon-
Rural businesses get kickstart at West Slope Startup Week by Sarah Mulholland / Colorado Public Radio On the cover A pika peaks out from its hidey hole to see if it’s safe to come out after tourist season./ Photo by Andy High
STAR-STUDDED CAST: Addyson Santese, Stephen Sellers, Jeffrey Mannix, Rob Brezsny, Lainie Maxson, Jesse Anderson & Clint Reid
MAIL ADDRESS: P.O. Box 332, Durango, CO 81302
VIRTUAL ADDRESS: www.durangotelegraph.com
ster powder days. We are wholly independently owned and operated by the Durango Telegraph LLC and dis-
Ear to the ground:
“What is a ‘Brat Summer?’” – When grandmas and the internet collide
Hip, hippie hooray
Durango’s homegrown co-op is turning half a century old. And to celebrate the occasion, Durango Natural Foods is hosting a 50th anniversary Harvest Festival from 3-8 p.m. this Sat., Sept. 7, at Rotary Park.
Like any good Durango festival, the revelry will include live music from Desiderata and Dana Ariel, prizes, vendors, and delicious food and drink from the DNF Deli, including vegetarian and gluten-free options, kid’s plates and desserts. There will also be non-alcoholic beverages, a beer garden and ciders from Esoterra.
"This 50th anniversary is a testament to the incredible support and dedication of our community," DNF General Manager Joe Zwiebach said. "The Harvest Festival is our way of saying thank you to everyone who has been part of our journey and helped us promote healthy, sustainable living in Durango."
Durango Natural Foods at its current 8th & College location circa 1999, judging by the Subaru in the background (although given all the old Subys in town, it very well could have been last week.)
REAL WORLD ADDRESS: 679 E. 2nd Ave., Unit 8 Durango, CO 81301
tributed in the finest and most discerning locations throughout the greater Durango area.
Founded in 1974 as a food-buying club, Durango Natural Foods had its humble beginnings in a 10-by-30-foot rented room in the 700 block of Main Avenue. A red tackle box served as the cash register and the entire operation was run by volunteers. In 1975, it was legally registered with the State of Colorado as Durango Natural Foods, Inc. and moved into a slightly larger rented space in the alley of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street. Finally, in January 1999, it moved into its current location at College and 8th, where it offers everything from grab-and-go burritos to flowers and bulk granola (it is a co-op after all).
With a mission to provide high-quality, natural and organic products while supporting local farmers, producers and sustainable practices, the bustling community-owned store – which welcomes all shoppers – now has more than 2,000 members.
For more on DNF or becoming a member (just $20 a year), go to durangonatural foods.coop.
LaVidaLocal
A realistic timeline for bangs
Days 1 - 270: Before undergoing a seismic lifestyle change like getting bangs, a holding period is required for rumination (and chickening out). During this time, you MUST ask every single person you encounter, hey, should I get bangs? You are also heavily encouraged to experiment by bobby pinning the ends of your hair to your forehead, shelling out $3.99 for an app that will cobble together a pale facsimile of you but with chunky, AIgenerated bangs, and saving an unreasonable number of styling tutorials that will give you a false sense of security.
Note: You may revisit this section of the timetable as many times as needed until you actually commit to getting bangs. Be aware, repetition of this stage will come at the cost of the sustained annoyance of your loved ones and may lead to relationship deterioration.
Additional Note: It is possible to skip the holding period and go straight for the dull kitchen scissors if you qualify for any of the following scenarios. 1.) You just went through a breakup. 2.) The drunk girl in the bathroom said you would look like Dakota Johnson if you got bangs. 3.) You want to piss off your mom, your grandma or a frenemy (who may also happen to be your mom).
tion and absolute mourning. Do your best to hold back the tears and nod enthusiastically when the hairdresser asks if you love it. Bring sunglasses so you can cry in the car on the way home.
Days 279 - 282: Over the next few days, avoid looking in the mirror as much as possible. Curse everyone who ever said you would look good with bangs. They are all liars. Especially that girl from the bathroom. Google “how long until bangs grow out” every hour on the hour. Consider faking your own death (but find a suggested memorial photo of yourself pre-bangs to share in the obituary).
Day 271: You did it. You finally booked The Appointment. From now until the moment you sit down in the stylist’s chair, expect to experience undulating waves of pure elation and unspeakable agony.
Day 275: Consider canceling The Appointment no fewer than seven times. Frantically text everyone in your contacts list to ask if they think you are making a huge mistake. Take comfort in their words of wisdom: it’s just hair; it’ll grow back.
Day 277: Tomorrow is The Appointment. You will lose sleep obsessively worrying that your new hairdo will make you utterly indistinguishable from Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber. Remind yourself: it’s just hair; it’ll grow back.
Day 278: Oh, dear GOD what have you done?! Your hair is so short, it will NEVER grow back! Someone get you a Speedo and a silk robe because you might as well be one of The Iron Claw’s long-lost Von Erich brothers! Even Courteney Cox had better bangs in Scream 3! You are going to be hideous FOREVER!!!
Note: This phase in the process is inevitable and necessitates shock, devasta-
Thumbin’It
Durango’s local food co-op, Durango Natural Foods, is turning 50. Thank you, DNF, for being there for us when we want something yummy and can’t possibly bear the idea of going to City Market.
Hold onto your peepers. Forestry experts are predicting a spectacular fall color season, thanks to abundant moisture and healthy trees. Leaves are expected to start turning Sept. 9 with peak foliage the last week of the month.
Colorado’s “cash for guzzlers” program is a hit, with a higher than expected 1,300 people turning in their guzzlers for rebates on new or used EVs. The state has announced it will keep the program rolling, with another $9 million infusion.
Day 283: After multiple days of avoiding your reflection like a vampire and donning more hats than you have ever worn in your entire lifetime, you may once again consult a mirror and discover OK, alright, it’s not as bad as you thought. You can work with this. At this point, you will be resurrected from your cosmetological crucifixion, officially a Bangs Girlie.
Days 284 - 325: As stated by Voltaire (or Spiderman’s uncle – take your pick), with great power comes great responsibility. And bangs are both a great power and a great responsibility. You will spend this time acquiring six new hot tools (three of which will be utterly useless on your hair type), learning to style your bangs to get that effortlessly chic aesthetic. Do not be fooled. The process involves much effort. Budget anywhere from 20 minutes to six hours to do your hair now.
Day 326: You finally achieve bangs-styling perfection. Determine you are the most attractive individual that has ever lived.
Day 327: Your hair has grown past the limits of your styling abilities. Determine you are the ugliest individual that has ever lived. (Now is a good time to revisit that idea about faking your own death.)
Day 328: Your friends and family are at the end of their emotional rope. You have third-degree burns from your curling iron. You wake up every morning looking like Rod Stewart. Maybe it’s time to let the bangs grow out…
Day 329: See a selfie from that one day when your bangs were cooperating and you looked super duper cute. Book a trim with your hairdresser.
Day 330: In the distance, a chant echoes, one of us, one of us, one of us. You restart the timetable from Day 271, knowing you are destined to continue the cycle in perpetuity. You will never escape. You are a Bangs Girlie.
– Addyson Santese
SignoftheDownfall:
It looks like it’s a real uh, bear of a bear season this year. Compared to 2023, wildlife officers have received 40% more bear reports, and a mother bear was accidentally killed by a hazing beanbag in Silverton. C’mon people, time to do your part and secure that trash.
“Gender apartheid” in Afghanistan, with the Taliban banning women from education, employment, access to public spaces, unaccompanied long-distance travel, appearing in public not covered head to toe, and now, talking outside the home.
A new wrinkle in climate change, with events like extreme heat and flooding causing bridges to “fall apart like Tinkertoys” according to experts.
Good Will Humping
Melissa Todd, of Hertfordshire, England, had an IQ of 172 when she was 12, which beats Einstein’s estimated 160. She went to Oxford, dropped out to become a stripper and now at 48, she’s a famous OnlyFans dominatrix worth millions. She went super-triple-double (STD) viral last week, but that’s just because nobody knows how IQ tests work. “I.Q.” stands for “intelligence quotient,” and the formula is one’s mental age divided by one’s physical age times 100. A 172 score at 12 means her mental age was 20.64, but Einstein was 26 per his 160, making his mental age 41.6. That puts Einstein on top, which probably makes Melissa very, very angry (cracking whip noise).
WritersontheRange
Fire on the mountain
When fire danger is high, hikers turn into smoke-battling vigilantes
by Zeke Lloyd
More frequent wildfires in the West can turn hiking through beautiful, high-elevation country into a dangerous game for hikers. In July, seven friends of mine from Idaho, Colorado, Washington and Montana took off for a week of backpacking in southwestern Montana. Everything went off without a hitch their first night. A rainstorm passed through, but it wasn’t a big deal.
When they woke up the next morning, they saw a plume of smoke rising into the sky. One of the hikers, Darren Wilson, had anticipated something like this, even before their trip began.
“It was in the back of my mind – ‘I hope we don’t hike into somewhere and get trapped by a fire,’” recalled Wilson, a Hamilton, Mont., resident.
They were hiking through the Anaconda Pintler Wilderness and knew it was under strict restrictions: No campfires, no exceptions. The summer had been dry and hot, and wildfires had been erupting throughout Montana.
But as the group continued hiking that day, they realized the trail of smoke ahead might be the early stage of a wildfire.
The hikers weren’t trapped, but 200 yards from their destination of Hidden Lake, they came upon scorched earth surrounding a tree split down the middle, most likely from a lightning strike. Its bark was blackened and glowing, and beneath the tree the charred ground smoldered. The smoke they’d seen was seeping from hot charcoal and dry wood.
“You could tell the tree torched and burned while it was standing and then cracked and fell on the ground,” Darren’s wife, Chelsie, an x-ray technologist with previous experience in wildland firefighting, said.
“I think everyone had different feelings,” she said. “Those who had never seen forest fires before were panicking.”
The group put Chelsie in charge, and she laid out a two-step process: Some people would run to Hidden Lake to fill every water bottle and hydration pack. Everyone else would use the water to turn the smoldering dirt into mud.
Chelsie and Brittney Erickson, another fellow hiker, poured water on dirt, using the wet earth to put out the fire bit by bit. Chelsie kicked a burning stump into the ground. The team smothered it. She instructed and delegated jobs, describing the team as willing, com-
Earlier this summer, a group of hikers in Montana put out a smoldering fire caused by a probable lightning strike by filling Camelbaks and water bottles with water from a nearby lake.
municative and diligent.
“It was really scary at first,” Chelsie said, “and then it became fun.” After two hours, she gave her team the all-clear. They had transformed the patch of smoldering char into a wet pile of dirt and debris.
On a hike later the same day, the group climbed West Pintler Peak only to spot another fire, this one on the horizon some 10 miles away. They called in the sighting from a ridge with cell service and heard a plane fly low overhead the next day. Weeks later, they said they think that was the first alert to the Johnson Fire, a 270-acre blaze southwest of West Pintler Peak.
If there was a theme to the hikers’ trip it was definitely fire, because while camping near the bank of Oreamnos Lake, they spotted wispy smoke billowing from the opposite shoreline.
“We start yelling across the lake, top of our lungs,” Darren Wilson said. “‘Is there anybody there? Do you have a fire?’” Hearing no response, they initiated a then-familiar course of action. Gathering every con-
tainer of water they possessed, the group rushed toward the smoke’s source.
“Like children of the corn, we come out of the trees,” Wilson said, only to find three men huddled around a prohibited campfire. The hikers explained that they’d put out a smoldering wildfire, spotted another and were worried about a third – the campfire they were now looking at.
“The guys were not very impressed with us, though,” Chelsie Wilson said, as the men reluctantly extinguished their fire. “They didn’t like our story at all.” Still, they’d agreed to douse the fire and the hikers withdrew, hoping this was the end of fires popping up on their trek.
“It’s a real possibility,” Darren Wilson said. “You could be caught behind the wrong side of a fire.”
Zeke Lloyd is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He lives in Helena, Mont., and writes for the Montana Free Press. ■
SoapBox
Building deep political soil
We tend to think of politics as something to be gotten through so we can get back to our life. But that’s how we arrived here, with wealthy autocrat wannabees hungry to take our rights and offering the pen, ready to sign the deal. Politics IS life, it’s core community health, and an engaged demographic is best at resisting autocratic control like in Russia, Hungary and China. If we exercise our spectator privilege and opt out once again, we will learn what Russian citizens know too well: life under an oppressive regime. This threat is very real, and we need to wake up and face it.
If, like me, you are hazy on the details of an American dictatorship, come to the Durango Public Library this Sat., Sept 7, at 11 a.m. Experts Rob Rogers and Melissa Hendrix will speak about Project 2025 and the rise of Christian Nationalism. If you can’t come, watch the event on my Facebook page at “Town Hall Fight Project 2025 Facebook Live.” Share that info too, please.
Given that the American political Right is full-speed toward dictatorship (and will not suddenly give up), the best strategy is old-school organizing – creating long-term purposeful relationships and alliances, as we did before the computer. Organizing fosters personal engagement – participatory democracy, what Michelle Obama was talking about at the DNC – because it’s based on genuine personal connections. It’s inherently useful and necessary to win elections, which we must do now. But it’s also a way to prepare each of us for a
different future and protect those of us not members of today’s supremacist autocracy cult, especially vulnerable groups already under attack.
Shifting our culture toward participatory democracy will require inspiring those already awake to the threat of autocracy to step up, learn about and actively promote the cure. Such people are hard to find in a culture that conditions us to focus only on personal lifestyle and comfort. I’m a prime example – I was not planning on doing this work in retirement! But I cannot UNsee the danger we face, the dire threat to my grandkids. I recognize the need to build America’s “political soil” and the huge benefits we can “harvest” for ourselves and our children by planting proactive engagement.
First, we weed our mental garden by challenging and rejecting the false narratives used to constrain our political voices. These include “my friends will reject me if I talk about what matters to me; politics is nasty, rude and divisive; politics is bad for my health; I can’t save the world, gotta look out for me,” etc. All of these are demonstrably false. Friends want to hear what we think and feel, especially our personal stories, meanings, and concerns. Making politics nasty is the agenda of those wanting to disempower us and destroy our civic space, but we can take back ownership of it by caring, listening and speaking gently from personal experience. Engaged politics is vital for the health of all of us because policy impacts every aspect of our lives. And we look out for ourselves best when we create a mutually caring, informed society.
Relational organizing is the basis for a healthy political culture in America. We introduce ourselves to our
personal power by using our ears, voice and heart. How we use our tiny, gentle megaphone is up to us, but every time we use it, we build America’s political soil, plant permissions for others to speak out and foster better harvests of informed, empowered communities. This Sunday at 5:30 p.m. join us for an informational zoom. Learn more on Facebook under my page “Friend-to-Friend Network Info Session.” Thank you!
–Kirby MacLaurin, Durango
Trump honors only himself
On Aug. 26, presidential candidate Donald Trump laid a memorial wreath in Arlington National Cemetery to honor soldiers killed by a suicide bomber in the chaotic evacuation of Kabul in 2021. He called them heroes who gave all to their country. But what did he say about them in private?
The next day, National Public Radio reported a confrontation between Trump’s staff and an Arlington staffer trying to enforce a ban on political photos or other political uses of images on hallowed ground. The illicit images have since been posted on social media according to NPR. Reminds me of Trump’s notorious photo op holding a bible in 2020.
But it’s more than that incident. On more than one occasion, Trump is reputed to have called fallen soldiers suckers and losers. Remember how he belittled the late Sen. John McCain’s time as a POW in Vietnam. NPR reports that Trump recently mocked McCain’s arm mobility limitations from his POW years. McCain was more of a man than Trump will
ever be. And unlike Trump, McCain gave his first loyalty to his country and the Constitution.
Recently Trump asserted that the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded at the president’s discretion, is more worthy than the Congressional Medal of Honor. Never mind that Trump totally cheapened the Presidential Medal of Freedom by giving it to cronies and a political mega donor.
Add all this to the very long list of reasons Trump should never be allowed back in the White House. – Carole McWilliams, Bayfield
Mushroom-soaked imagination
(Editor’s note: The following letter is in response to last week’s “Pole” item about a travel story in the Denver Post that highlighted Mancos as well as other off-the-beaten-path towns in Colorado.)
I live in the Mancos Valley, which might just as well be an official part of Arizona in the summer. We don’t have enough water, just like Phoenix, which is a good thing until we need more ourselves. That keeps us in the less-visited category and not the overbuilt. That was digression.
The real reason for this mail is to let you know that Platoro doesn’t exist, and you must never mention it again. I’m also in the market for a hacker who can sneak a retraction in the Denver Post website saying it was a figment of their writer’s mushroom-soaked imagination.
–Terry Moores, somewhere near Mancos
LocalNews
Start me up
West Slope Startup Week gives companies chance to compete for investment dollars
by Sarah Mulholland
Colorado Public Radio
About 150 people gathered at the Powerhouse Science Center in Durango on a recent Thursday to cheer on entrepreneurs in a pitch competition at the annual West Slope Startup Week. Hundreds of thousands of investment dollars from venture capitalists were on the line.
When people think of Colorado startups, they tend to think of the tech scene on the Front Range. But there’s more to the state’s startup culture, according to Margaret Hedderman, a spokesperson for Startup Colorado, the nonprofit that organized the pitch competition.
“The biggest goal for the pitch competition in terms of investors is really raising the awareness of the businesses that are launching in rural Colorado and to try to break down that stereotype that it’s only on the Front Range, it’s only in urban areas that you’re going to find a business to invest in,” said Hedderman.
Startup Colorado aims to build out the network of investors, mentors and founders in the state’s 53 rural counties, which account for a vast majority of Colorado’s land mass. Even though rural counties dwarf urban areas when it comes to square miles, places like Denver and Boulder suck up most of the venture capital money.
The event in Durango was the first in a series of pitch competitions Startup Colorado is supporting across the state aimed at rural founders. The nonprofit casts a wide net to reach all kinds of businesses at different stages of development.
“I’m using the word entrepreneur broadly. It’s everybody that’s starting a business,” Hedderman said. “It’s creatives, it’s small businesses, main street makers, as well as tech and outdoor recreation.”
More than 70 businesses applied to take part in the pitch competition in Durango. That was whittled down to the six finalists that took the stage.
Those businesses are a cross section of the kinds of companies in Colorado’s rural communities. It’s an eclectic group. There’s a Buena Vista software company for dentists, an online party planning service from Basalt and a children’s out-
by Olivia Reed Photo
door clothing designer in Steamboat, among others.
The companies’ leaders took the stage to share how their businesses came to be – and to convince investors they’re a good bet going forward.
Grace Edwards, of Gunnison, is the CEO of Gnara, a company that produces pants with a zipper made for women in the outdoors.
“At Gnara, we are on a mission to help everyone answer nature’s call, quite literally,” Edwards explained to the judges.
Gnara has an interesting origin story from Edwards’ time as a glacier guide in Alaska.
“I was spending eight to 12 hours a day up on the ice, usually as the only
woman,” Edwards said. “And in comparison to the men who could turn around, unzip, go whenever, wherever I found myself having to trek across the glacier carefully avoiding crevasses, completely remove three to four layers in freezing temperatures.”
Mike Blecha is from Fort Morgan. He ran a concert production company for 15 years. Revenues dried up when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and he needed a new idea. He came up with AnywhereCam, which installs surveillance cameras for people in remote areas.
“A lot of people were asking for surveillance cameras, not so much the Ring doorbell, you can put that in yourself,” Blecha said during his presentation. “It
was farmers and ranchers saying ‘We need to keep an eye on our cattle in the middle of a pasture, a fuel tank in the middle of nowhere.’”
At the end of the competition, the Greater Colorado Venture Fund split $240,000 between two companies, including Gnara. Another venture capital firm,14 Founders, awarded $140,000 to an intellectual property company based in Telluride.
Pitching venture capital investors isn’t the only skillset Startup Colorado teaches. Some small businesses get too caught up in the idea that they need to get a big slug of outside cash to be successful, Hedderman said.
“I think a lot of that comes from just
Startup Colorado hosted West Slope Startup Week in Durango on Aug. 19-23. More than 70 founders from across rural Colorado submitted applications to pitch thier startups to investors. After a rigorous selection process, six were chosen to give their pitch Aug. 21 at the Powerhouse Science Center for a chance to win over $280K in investments. / Photo
the storytelling around startups,” she said. “There’s so much noise made about so-and-so received a multimillion dollar seed round, and so people just have it in their minds and it’s like, ‘wow, I could just become a huge success overnight.’’’
The truth is that taking on investors isn’t right for every business owner, according to Hedderman. Entrepreneurs cede a lot of control to outsiders when investors come on board, which can be a difficult adjustment.
Moreover, venture capitalists are looking for exponential growth to get a return on their investments. But that’s not always the best way to run a business. Sometimes, it makes more sense to focus on what a business is already doing well, Hedderman said, rather than trying to get bigger at any cost.
Business owners have other options, like small business loans, that might be a better fit, Hedderman says.
“They don’t fully understand all of the different funding mechanisms that are available to them and really how they work,” Hedderman said. “Something that we’re trying to do through Startup Colorado with a lot of the content that we produce, is really just demystifying what’s available.”
For more from Colorado Public Radio, go to www.cpr.org.
And the winners are …
• Virginia Frischkorn, Partytrick, Basalt - Partytrick secured a $140,000 investment from the Greater Colorado Venture Fund for Frischkorn’s innovative business-to-business subscription-based platform that simplifies event planning with its “click, pick, host” process
• Mark Leonard, ScaleIP, Telluride - ScaleIP secured a $140,000 investment from 14 Founders by Kickstart Fund for his business-to-business platform that helps universities, labs, hospitals and companies connect with high-intent buyers to license, sell or acquire patents.
• Georgia Grace Edwards, Gnara Apparel, Gunnison - Gnara earned a $100,000 investment from GCVF for its patented GoFly® zipper, which allows women to discreetly relieve themselves without removing safety gear or exposing skin. This innovation has been recognized by outlets like Outside and CNN.
• Robin Hall, Town Hall Outdoor Co., Steamboat SpringsTown Hall Outdoor Co., which produces sustainable outdoor gear for children, was awarded two prizes: $10,000 cash from Startup Colorado and a $2,500 branding-support package from Trace Brand Building. Hall’s company focuses on the need for purpose-built, durable options in children’s outdoor clothing.
• Matt Allen, DifferentKind, Buena Vista - DifferentKind was awarded a $25,000 coding program from Skill Distillery for its innovative work focusing on feedback from patients and dental teams that drive better outcomes.
• Mike Blecha, AnywhereCam, Fort Morgan – AnywhereCam, a startup specializing in surveillance cameras for remote locations without power or WiFi, received $2,500 in legal services from Peach Legal.
Winners of the Startup Colorado Pitch Competition, from left: Jay Lambert, Town Hall Outdoor Co.; Dan Lane, AnywhereCam; Mike Blecha, AnywhereCam; Matt Allen, DifferentKind; Robin Hall, Town Hall Outdoor Co.; Georgia Grace Edwards, Gnara; and Mark Leonard, ScaleIP.
Mentorship valued at $4,500 from Startup Colorado was also awarded to Town Hall, ScaleIP, and Gnara, providing startups with guidance as they grow.
Startup Colorado is a nonprofit organization that supports rural entrepreneurs and businesses in rural counties across Colorado. For more info., go to www.startupcolorado.org.
BetweentheBeats
Summer swan song
Beginning of cooler night heats up of indoor shows
by Stephen Sellers
Greetings, dear readers! This month, summer reaches its musical crescendo as our regional festival season begins to wrap up, and we see a rise in yellow leaves and a somewhat precipitous drop in those nighttime temps. There are a few banger outdoor events coming up at Tico Time and smaller spots like Foxfire Farms, Union Social House and 11th St. Station, so be sure to check the venues’ calendars. And don’t start getting all mopey too soon – save those tears and existential dread for November. We still have plenty of time for biking, hiking, foraging, running 33-hour races and all that other fun stuff people in Durango do.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t alert you that the Animas City Theatre starts to hit high gear again this month. Alas, it is always bittersweet to say goodbye to those warmer days. Let’s hear it for the unsung summer hero of monsoons keeping us chock full of delicious chanterelles from the woods, eh?
Here are a few not-to-miss events with local and national acts alike. As always, I hope to see you on the dancefloor!
• Unison Fest, Tico Time, Sept. 5-8 - Get your palo santo ready! The Unison Fest at Tico Time promises to be even bigger and better this year, with more national artists, workshops and a heaping cuddle puddle of connection and healing through what we might lovingly call “transformational dance music.” Local heroes DJ Codestar (Cody Reinheimer) and Smile Coyote (Cody Edwards) work their asses off all year to make this event happen. Consider “leaning into your edge,” putting glitter on your cheeks and coming to have a dance! More info can be found at www.unisonfest.com.
• Lindsay Lou and special guest Emma Rose, Animas City Theatre, Tues., Sept. 10, 7 p.m. - Start your month with the soulful voice of Lindsay Lou at our beloved Animas City Theatre. Known for her rich blend of Americana, roots and folk, Lindsay Lou’s music is deeply emotional and resonates with stories of love, loss and hope. The Michiganborn artist has been gaining attention nationwide, and her performance in Durango promises to be an intimate affair filled with heartfelt lyrics and stunning melodies. An opening set from special guest Emma Rose, of Big Richard, is well worth the price of admission, personally. The doors open, at 7 and the tickets are coming in at just under $30.
• Thea the Band and the Bulldoggers, Indigo Room at iAM Music, Sat., Sept. 14, 8 p.m. - Durango’s live music scene is mildly buzzing with fresh energy, but every so often, a show comes along that promises to be something truly special and unique. This month, it’s Thea the Band and the Bulldoggers, set to light up the Indigo Room. Thea the Band, led by the enigmatic Thea Tochihara, brings a sound that is as expansive as it is intimate. Self-described as “cosmic American,” Thea’s music is a blend of soulful lyrics, emotive blues and toe-tapping rock. Her songs, rooted in her Denver upbringing and shaped by her journey to San Diego, delve into themes of love, spirituality and the struggles of life. Expect a performance that is both raw and refined, where every note and lyric feels like a personal conversation with the audience.
Bluegrass artist Lindsay Lou comes to the ACT on Sept. 10
• La La Bones, Foxfire Farms, Sat., Sept. 20, 6 p.m.Nestled in the scenic beauty of Foxfire Farms, our local beloved La La Bones will be gracing the grass stage with what will perhaps be your last chances for outdoor bluegrass music locally. Known for their rootsy bluegrass, La La Bones brings a fresh yet traditional approach to the genre, blending rich harmonies with foot-tapping rhythms and solid songwriting. Of special note is Jeff Hibshman joining the band full time on bass. Although no one could ever replace Jimmie Giles on bass and vocals, the band is in excellent hands with Hibshman, perhaps Durango’s finest and most experienced upright player. Foxfire is an absolute delight, providing the perfect backdrop for an evening of music under the stars.
• Mike Love & the Full Circle with Cas Haley and Sound Destroyer, Animas City Theatre, Thurs., Sept. 25, 7 p.m. – Expect the ACT to be turned into a temple of high vibes and spiritual cleansing with this one. Love, a Hawaiian-born artist with long, well-toured dreadlocks is known for his heady lyrics and an island-saturated sound, bringing a message of positivity and unity. With support from the soulful Cas Haley and the genre-blending Sound Destroyer, this show is a must for Durangotangs seeking more conscious music that uplifts and inspires.
• Elder Grown, Animas City Theatre, Sat., Sept. 28, 7 p.m. - You know them, you love them. Elder Grown rounds off the month with a victory lap at the ACT after having thrown an incredible installation of their Summer Camp at Tico Time in July. The new lineup, including shredder Guillaume Metz on his trusty Fender Strat, is starting to coalesce into a white-hot funk machine. Recently having relocated to Denver in search of that elusive “next step,” Elder Grown is carving a name for themselves with an improvisational style that blurs rock, funk, reggae and hip-hop. Their high-energy shows have a familial party vibe and are a testament to their incredible musicianship and chemistry, making them a favorite on the local music scene. Don’t miss it. ■
Unspoken clues
‘Wordhunter’ so impressive you may want to read it twice (in a row)
by Jeffrey Mannix
After plowing through a summer of lackluster new releases and falling back to my dusty stacks for long gone treasures, we’re now off to the races. I see that autumn and winter releases will bring what promises to be real excitement in our crime fiction genre and hard choices for me to feature only once a month in these pages. So here’s the clear leader in the fall lineup that impressed me so much I read it twice – and I have never read a book, turned back to page one and begun again just to repeat the thrill.
Stella Sands, who has written six well-received truecrime books, has written her first novel, “Wordhunter,” and then probably collapsed. It’s described on the back cover as an “utterly original and compulsively readable detective story about a woman who uses her uncanny ability to analyze word and speech patterns to help solve crimes.” That’s corporate-speak for a dazzling story of subtleties.
We’re all suckers for something, and it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that I have a jones for words. And worse, I used to be absorbed by diagraming sentences, credited to a mother who was an English teacher. She chained me to the kitchen table at a young age to train me to diagram – first in schoolbooks, then snippets of every textbook along the way. Next came novels and articles in magazines trending through our house and even the U.S. Constitution.
The cover of “Wordhunter” is furnished with diagrammatic lines slanted this way and that, even forming a sketch of a woman’s head. I was hooked just by the concept, then blown over by a wonderfully written and densely simple and nearly perfect story. If “Wordhunter” doesn’t win awards, it will simply be because HarperCollins issued it in paperback, and at 247 pages, it doesn’t conform to the doorstop 500-pagers that seem to be de rigueur.
So here’s what you need to know about “Wordhunter” to wet your whistle.
Maggie Moore, 19, is near graduating with an ad-
vanced degree from Rosedale University, a downstream college equally unpromising as it’s home in Hyacinth, Fla., “40 miles up CR 187 from the even more inconsequential boondocks of Cypress Havens, population, including Maggie Moore, of 3,598 and dwindled by yet another when Maggie graduates in keenly measured months.”
Maggie is what is not referred to in the story: a savant. She has been studying forensic linguistics. She’s been taught to catalog physical and emo tional details of everyone and zero in on word choices, syn tax, spelling and unconscious stylistic decisions between consonants in misspelled words. Authorship identifica tion is the goal, and Maggie excels at intuitive observation and is on track to gradu ate at the top of her class and the pride of Rosedale.
To quiet her reverberant mind and dissociative ways, Maggie diagrams sentences. Constantly. And not just sentences from textbooks or newspapers, but sentences from Proust, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Dostoevsky, song lyrics – everything. And she does it all the time when she’s not in school, school is boring or she needs to see the logic in rules, regulations and notes pinned to corpses demanding ransom.
ommended. This is just what Maggie chose to specialize in after graduation, and she is over the moon with excitement.
Maggie is paired with Detective Silas Jackson, who personally doesn’t believe in any of this hocus pocus but is dispatched to accompany Maggie by his chief. He has seen a show on the Unabomber and learned that word analysis helped zero in and apprehend him.
Maggie is such a standout that when the police department in nearby Olemeda calls to see if Rosedale might have someone they’d recommend to analyze notes left on victims of a serial killer, Maggie is rec-
Picture where this arrangement might go and double it. I’m not going to give away this magnificent story. It’s so without flaw and overflowing with intrigue, atmosphere and beautiful logic that I couldn’t do it justice other than a quick sketch of Maggie Moore.
Maggie rides a motorbike named Annabelle. Maggie’s tattooed and pierced. She drinks vodka in excess, pops the top on a beer first thing in the morning, smokes cigarettes and knows her drugs. She works in a diner, writes book proposals for her professors and doesn’t suffer fools lightly. In other words, she’s a problem child, but modest and always right. And Maggie is kind until she’s given reason to take revenge. She is simply a wonderful fictional character every novelist will envy. And this book is great, and under no circumstance should it be missed.
Ask Maria’s Bookshop for your 15 percent Murder Ink discount on this $19 book, or ask the library to hold or order a copy for you. And if all that fails, borrow my copy – you absolutely must read “Wordhunter.” ■
Thursday05
Ska-B-Q with Vinyl Lust, 5-7 p.m., Ska Brewing
Unison Festival, 5-10 p.m., Tico Time, Aztec
Live music by Andrew Schuhmann, 5:30 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
“Nuestra Historia,” presented by History Colorado, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Fort Lewis College
Live music by Darryl Kuntz, 6-10 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Live music by Matt Rupnow, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Live music by Darryl Kuntz, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Live music by Andrew Schuman, 6-9 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Sunday08
Live music by Alison Dance Duet, 12-2 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Irish Jam Session, 12:30-3 p.m., Durango Beer & Ice Co., 3000 Main Ave.
Music in the Mountains’ Spaghetti Lunch Fundraiser, 12:30 p.m., Perbacco Cucina Italiana, 505 Main Ave.
Board Game Sundays, 2 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Unison Festival, 3 p.m.-1 a.m., Tico Time, Aztec
Free concert by The Durango Brass, 6 p.m., corner of College Drive and Main Ave.
Live music by the Blue Moon Ramblers, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Live music by Ben Gibson, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Monday09
Meditation and Dharma Talk, 5:30 p.m., in person at The Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave,. Ste. 109 or online www.durangodharmacenter.org
Live music by Darryl Kuntz, 5:30-10 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Live music by Leah Orlikowski, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Singo with Devin Scott, 6 p.m., Grassburger South, 360 S. Camino Del Rio
Comedy Showcase, 7:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Tuesday10
Men In Heels race benefiting the Womens Resource Center, 5:30-7:30 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Author Event & Book Signing with Zach Hively “Call Me Zach Hively Because That is My Name,” 6-8 p.m., Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave.
Live music by Black Velvet, 6-8 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Live music by Darryl Kuntz, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
AskRachel Fake empathy, chasing cars and mob mentality
Interesting fact: I once nearly lost a friendship because my idiot friend refused to admit that it’s “cramp my style” and not “crimp my style,” unless your style is a pie crust.
Dear Rachel, I wish people wouldn’t ask questions they don’t want answers to. I just went through (and am still recovering from) a really emotional time. An acquaintance asked me what happened, and when I started to give a real answer he was all, “Woah, no stories please.” So, what’s the best way to handle fake empathy?
– An Ask Murderer
Dear Social Crime Victim,
There may not be dumb questions, but there are dumb questioners. Your best course of action may be lying. People want to know you are fine, but more than that, they don’t want to know that you’re not fine. Being not fine makes them uncomfortable, which really cramps their style. However, that would cramp YOUR style. So I say, be honest. You’ll find out who your real people are: the ones you haven’t yet offed. – It was self-defense, Rachel
Dear Rachel,
I have seen a lot on the parking issue in Durango, so I counted the cars on 2nd and 3rd
Live music by Sean O’Brien, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Open Mic Night, 7 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main
Lindsay Lou performs, 8 p.m., Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Dr.
Wednesday11
Harvest Moon Ukulele Jam with Denise Leslie, 67:30 p.m., Smiiley Buildling, 1309 E. 3rd Ave., Ste. 114
Live music by Darryl Kuntz, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
New Month - New Deals!
Stop in today to check out September promos & ongoing daily deals.
avenues downtown at about 11 a.m. Total of 205 vehicles. I did not count south of College or the side streets but estimated another 180 there. Where the heck are the extra cars going to park when they widen the sidewalks? I have an idea. Let’s build a tram to shuttle people downtown. Then they can shop without walking three blocks. Your thoughts?
– Bean Counter
Dear Legume Tallier,
For being a self-professed, nom-de-plumed master of adding one number to another, I’m guessing you can figure out that when 2nd and 3rd are full of cars, they are likely to go to 4th, and 5th, and so on to infinity and beyond (or at least maybe 8th). I wanted to poo-poo your tram idea, but then I thought, if we have a shuttle, we can send all the tourists to Dalton Ranch, leaving the streets downtown free for you and me! (Or at least me!)
– Permit parking only, Rachel
Dear Rachel, I need advice on finding clients who aren’t paying their overdue invoices. Not enough goons around here, and not enough baseball bats. Plus, the invoices aren’t enough dough to warrant actual jail time. Can you help?
– Little Vinnie
Live music by Terry Rickard, 6-9 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
“The Survival of Diné textile traditions” presented by San Juan Basin Archaeological Society, 7 p.m., Lyceum Room, FLC Center of Southwest Studies
Open Mic, 7 p.m., EsoTerra Ciderworks, 558 Main Ave.
Summer Comedy Open Mic, 7-8 p.m., Fired Up Pizzeria, 735 Main Ave.
Scan here for more info & to order online.
Email Rachel at telegraph@durangotelegraph.com
Dear Collections Agency, I refer you to the first letter: don’t ask questions you don’t want answer to. “Where’s my money?” means you could get answers from “I just paid my kid’s tuition” to “I forgot where I buried the coffee can.” I recommend more direct, actionable questions, like, “Which finger do you like the least?” and “How far do you think you can swim with a cinder block?” Using these tactics, I’ve yet to have a single check from the Tele arrive late. Good luck!
– A walking overdue bill, Rachel
Ongoing
Sunday Strolls at SJMA’s Nature Center, Sundays thru Sept. 22, 9-11 a.m., 61 CR 310, Rivers End Road.
Member’s Exhibit, Tues-Sat thru Sept. 28, 5-7 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Upcoming
The Martin Sexton Abbey Road Show, Thurs., Sept. 12, 8 p.m., Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Dr.
Community BBQ and Apple Pressing, Sat., Sept. 14, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., Animas Valley Grange, 7271 CR 203
FreeWillAstrology
by Rob Brezsny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In 2015, a large earthquake struck Nepal, registering 7.8 on the Richter scale. It was so powerful, it shrunk Mount. Everest. I mention this, Aries, because I suspect you will generate good fortune in the coming months whenever you try to shrink metaphorical mountains. Luckily, you won’t need to resort to anything as forceful as a massive earthquake. In fact, I think your best efforts will be persistent, incremental and gradual. If you haven’t gotten started yet, do so now.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): We don’t know the astrological sign of Egyptian Queen Cleopatra, who ruled from 51-30 BCE. But might she have been a Taurus? What other tribe of the zodiac would indulge in the extravagance of bathing in donkey milk? Her staff kept a herd of 700 donkeys for this regimen. Before you dismiss the habit as weird, please understand that it wasn’t uncommon in ancient times. Modern science has shown that donkey milk has anti-aging, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory qualities. And as astrologers know, many of you Tauruses are drawn to luxurious and healing influences that enhance beauty. I recommend you cultivate such influences in coming days.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 2 trillion galaxies stretched out across 93 billion light years, new stars are constantly being born. Their birth process happens in stellar nurseries, where dense clouds of gas coalesce into giant spheres of light and heat powered by the process of nuclear fusion. If you don’t mind a bit of hyperbole, I believe that you Geminis are now immersed in a small-scale, metaphorical version of a stellar nursery. I have high hopes for the magnificence you will beget in coming months.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): The planet Mars usually stays in your sign for less than two months every two years. But the pattern will be different in the coming months. Mars will be in Cancer from Sept. 5 – Nov. 4 and then again from Jan. 27 - April 19. The last time the red planet made such an extended visit was in 2007 and 2008, and before that in 1992 and 1993. So what does it mean? In the least desirable scenario, you will wander aimlessly, distracted by trivial battles and unable to decide which dreams to pursue. In the best scenario, you will be blessed with a sustained, fiery devotion to your best and most beautiful ambitions.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Famous musicians have on occasion spiced up their live shows by destroying their instruments on stage. Kurt Cobain smashed many guitars. So did Jimi Hendrix. I can admire the symbolic statement of not being overly attached to objects one loves. But I don’t recommend that approach in coming weeks. I believe this is a time for you to express extra care for the tools, machines and apparatus that give you so much. Polish them up, get repairs done, show them you love them. And if you need new gizmos to enhance your self-expression, get them in the near future.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In all of world history, which author has sold the most books? Agatha Christie, born under the sign of Virgo. Readers have bought more than 2 billion copies of her 70-plus books. I present her as a worthy role model for you in the next nine months. This will be your time to shine, excel and reach new heights of accomplishment. I invite you to draw encouragement and inspiration from four other Virgo writers who have flourished: 1. Stephen King, 400 million in sales from 77 books. 2. Kyotaro Nishimura, 200 million in sales from over 400 books. 3. Leo Tolstoy, 413 million from 48 books. 4. Paul Coelho, 350 million from 28 books.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Centuries before the story of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, there was a Greek myth with similar themes. It featured Persephone, a divine person who descended into the realm of the dead but ultimately returned transfigured. The ancient Festival of Eleusis, observed every September, honored Persephone’s down-going and redemption –as well as the cyclical flow of decay and renewal in every human life. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to observe your own version of a Festival of Eleusis by taking an inventory: What is disintegrating and decomposing in your own world? What is ripe for regeneration and rejuvenation? What fun action can you do that resembles a resurrection?
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The coming weeks will be an excellent time to take inventory of your community. Here are questions to ask yourself as you evaluate what you need or may need to make adjustments. 1. Are you linked with people who stimulate and support you? 2. Can you draw freely on influences that further your goals and help you feel at home? 3. Do you bestow favors on those you would like to receive favors from? 4. Do you belong to groups or institutions that share your ideals and give you power you can’t access alone?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.” Sagittarian humorist James Thurber said that, and now I’m conveying it to you. I am very happy about the progress you’ve been making recently – the blooming and expanding and learning. But I’m guessing you would benefit from a period of refining what you have gained. Rather than even more progress, I feel you need to consolidate and integrate the progress you have so robustly earned.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The people of Northern Ireland have over 70 colorful slang terms for being drunk. These include splootered, stonkied, squiffy, cabbaged, stinkered, ballbagged, wingdinged, bluttered and wanked. I am begging you, Capricorn, to refrain from those states for at least two weeks. According to my reading of the omens, it’s important for you to avoid the thrills and ills of alcohol. I am completely in favor of you pursuing natural highs, however. I would love you to get your mind blown and your heart opened through epiphanies and raptures that take you to the frontiers of consciousness.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Beginning 11,000 years ago, humans began to breed the fig. It’s the world’s oldest cultivated food, preceding wheat, barley and legumes. Many scholars think the fig, not the apple, was the forbidden fruit that God warned Adam and Eve not to munch in the Bible. These days, though, figs rarely make the list of the fruits people love most. Their taste is regarded by some as weird, even cloying. But for our purposes, I will favorably quote the serpent in the Garden of Eden: “When you eat the fig, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.” Now may be an excellent time to sample a forbidden fruit. Also: A serpent may have wise counsel for you.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The coming weeks would be an excellent time to file lawsuits against everyone who has ever wronged you, hurt you, ignored you, misunderstood you, tried to change you into something you’re not and failed to give you what you deserve. I recommend you sue each of them for $10 million. The astrological omens suggest you now have the power to finally get compensated for the stupidity and malice you have endured. JUST KIDDING! Now is a great time to feel intense gratitude for everyone who has supported you, encouraged you and appreciated you for who you really are. I also suggest you thank as many of your personal helpers and heroes as you can.
Bacack to Schooool! l!
Lots of great new arrivals and summer clearance! Teachers: Mention this ad and get 10% off
Deadline for Telegraph classified ads is Tuesday at noon. Ads are a bargain at 10 cents a character with a $5 minimum. Even better, ads can now be placed online: durangotelegraph.com Prepayment is required via cash, credit card or check.
(Sorry, no refunds or substitutions.) Ads can be submitted via: n www.durangotelegraph.com
n classifieds@durango telegraph.com
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Announcements
Trump wouldn’t make a pimple on a buck private's back side. –Signed vet
Durango, I’ve had 6 Bankruptcies
Trust me with the economy and your $$$$. – Donald.
Classes/Workshops
Intro to Insight Meditation
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to our present-moment experience with openness, curiosity & kindness. It's a powerful tool for calming the mind & body, & cultivating wisdom, compassion & clarity. In this 6-week course, learn the basics of insight (vipassana) meditation in a warm & welcoming community. All are welcome. Durango dharmacenter.org
Wanted
Books Wanted at White Rabbit
Donate/trade/sell (970) 259-2213
Cash for Vehicles, Copper, Alum
Etc. at RJ Metal Recycle. Also free appliance and other metal drop off. 970259-3494.
ForSale
Reruns Home Furnishings
Lots of new furniture/cool furnishings for home, office or dorm. 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.-Sat. 385-7336.
Helping to build a strong family team. 970-403-3347.
Boiler Service - Water Heater
Serving Durango over 30 years. Brad, 970-759-2869. Master Plbg Lic #179917
Lowest Prices on Storage!
Inside/outside storage near Durango and Bayfield. 10-x-20, $130. Outside spots: $65, with discounts available. RJ Mini Storage. 970-259-3494.
BodyWork
Effective Natural Healing
Do you want to experience more joy and happiness? Improved health and well being? 20 years experience in effective holistic healthcare. For more info call/text Dr Erin @ 970-903-7164
Massage by Meg Bush LMT, 30, 60 & 90 min., 970-759-0199.
CommunityService
The Maker Lab in Bodo Park Collaborative workspace, tools, learn-
ing and equipment featuring metal and woodworking, laser cutting, 3D printing, electronics and sewing. Classes for all levels. www.themakerlab.org
Americorps is Hiring
Our partner organizations are concentrated in La Plata and Montezuma counties and span from September - May or August 2025. To learn more, visit unitedway-swco.org/americorps.
Volunteers Needed
Do you want to make a difference in the lives of others? Alternative Horizons in need of volunteers to staff our hotline. Training and support provided. For more info., visit alternativehorizons.org/
‘Love Lies Bleeding’
A pumped-up tale of lady love, revenge, bad dads and heinous haircuts – Lainie Maxson
Grief Counseling
The Grief Center of SW Colorado is offering free grief counseling services for children, teens and young adults with one of our graduate interns. Please contact us below if interested. griefcenter swco@gmail.com or 970-764-7142
