Sensi Magazine - Denver/Boulder (December 2019) by Sensi Magazine

I DENVER/BOULDER D EC 2019

SLOPES & SOUNDS

Don’t miss these ski resorts and concert venues

HAUTE HIGHS

Luxury markets embrace cannabis

’90s trends come roaring back just in time for the ’20s

21+ Recreational only.

All Offers Valid 11/19/15 - 11/25/15

DENVER / BOULDER SENSI MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019

sensimediagroup @sensimagazine @sensimag

F E AT U R E S

Party Like It’s 1999 Again

Everyoneʼs calling the impending decade “The Roaring Twenties,” but thatʼs a little premature considering weʼre still fixated on the ʼ90s.

38 Woke, Not Wasted They say theyʼre not alcoholics, and theyʼre certainly not anonymous. What is the sober curious movement, and can sobriety really be fluid?

SPECIAL REPORT

Haute Highs

Move over, sommeliers. Luxury has gone to pot.

54 The Sleep Solution Trouble sleeping? Youʼre not alone. Hereʼs how to reclaim your well-deserved rest.

Making It

ON THE COVER This Is How We Do It PHOTO BY HALAY ALEX

Pueblo is finding its place in the post-industrial world by returning to the creative industries it was known for.

DECEM BER 2019

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EXECUTIVE

PUBLISHING

Ron Kolb Founder + CEO ron@sensimag.com

Tyler Tarr Founding Publisher

Tae Darnell Co-Founder + Vice President, Business Development Alex Martinez Co-Chief Operations Officer Mike Mansbridge Co-Chief Operations Officer Laurie Zink Chief Marketing Director B R A N D D E V E LO P M E N T Ashley Couch Vice President, Legal and Business Affairs Rob Dial Vice President, Digital Marketing Kristan Toth Head of People Andre Velez Marketing Director Jade Willis Recruiting Director Jodie Villanueava Recruiting Manager Graham Gerritsen Legal Ruel Hatcher Accounting Kisty Stephens Accounting Bookkeeper Jessica Martinez Executive Assistant A DV E R T I S I N G J. Brad Britton Corporate Development Director Derek LaCrone Director of Sales, Sensi East Brian Gilchrist Director of Sales, Sensi West Nancy Reid Director of Team Building, Sensi East Joel Bergeson Director of Team Building, Sensi West

CORP ORATE ADVISORY BOARD Dave Tran Business Development Douglas McKinnon Finance Charles Gillespie Technology Chuck Arnold Investor Relations MEDI A PARTNERS

DENVER/BOULDER Liana Cameris Publisher Ilee Desoto Associate Publisher Amanda Patrizi Associate Publisher Steve McMorrow Associate Publisher SOUTHERN COLORADO Liana Cameris Publisher LOS ANGELES Mark Basser Publisher SAN DIEGO Rob Ball Associate Publisher Angelique Kiss Associate Publisher LAS VEGAS Abi Wright Publisher BOSTON Leon Drucker Publisher Richard Guerra Associate Publisher EMERALD TRIANGLE, CA Lelehnia DuBois Publisher Daniel Bridge Associate Publisher Shannon Golightly Associate Publisher Tad Sarvinski Associate Publisher COACHELLA VALLEY, CA Greg Jelden, Co-Publisher Jason Zahler, Co-Publisher Sat Panesar Associate Publisher Quentin Dusastre Associate Publisher DETROIT Jamie Cooper Publisher Eric Bulls Associate Publisher Kile Miller Associate Publisher Leah Stephens Associate Publisher Constance Taylor Associate Publisher PITTSBURGH Gina Vensel Publisher Wendy Lubell Associate Publisher Matt Raymond Associate Publisher NORTH BAY, CA Nancy Birnbaum Publisher Sam Delapaz Associate Publisher

Marijuana Business Daily Minority Cannabis Business Association National Cannabis Industry Association Students for Sensible Drug Policy

FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES

in Denver/Boulder, please contact Liana Cameris: liana.cameris@sensimag.com

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C ont inued D E PA R T M E N T S

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19 EDITOR’S NOTE 20 THE BUZZ

News, tips, and tidbits to keep you in the loop PIN IT 2020 as predicted by Pinterest KYLO KEN Star Wars Barbie dolls are hitting the scene. NIKE NURSE New shoes designed for health care pros SENSIBILITIES Our editor in chief’s hottest hits of the month

70 THE LIFE

Contributing to your health and happiness THE FESTIVE 5 is not inevitable. Pay heed to these top tips on how to stay fit during the feast. HOROSCOPE What the stars hold for the final month of the 2010s HIGH PROFILE Kimberly Dillon, former CMO of Papa & Barkley, talks success and market trends. SAVING DAYLIGHT The complex history of laws about time KUSH QUEEN Olivia Alexander describes her royal skincare brand.

96 THE SCENE

Hot happenings and hip hangouts around town SNOW SOUNDS Where to shred by day and rock by night TASTE BUDS Find fresh, locally sourced chocolate that

melts in your mouth, not on your conscience. SIPS AT THE STATION Take a holiday shopping pit stop at The Cooper Lounge. RECIPES Indulge in two infused holiday side dishes. HIGH SOCIETY Recapping Denver Startup Week’s events, programs, and snuggly puppies CALENDAR Cap off the decade with ice skating, comedy, jazz, and pet pics with Santa.

146 THE END

The 2010s are toast. Let’s go over the highlights, shall we?

DECEM BER 2019

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MAGA ZINE ADVI SORY BOARD

The Pursuit of Legendary Cannabis

1906 New Highs Chocolate Agricor Laboratories Testing Lab Altus Pills and Tablets

FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA FACE BO O K Like Sensi Media Group for the parties, topics, and happenings we’re obsessed with right now.

Aspen Cannabis Insurance Insurance Services

Coming Soon to

Dispensary

Monte Fiore Farms Recreational Cultivation

Cannopoly Mobile Commerce

Mountain High Suckers CBD Edibles

Canyon Cultivation Microdosing

Mustache Dabs Rosin Press

Cartology Corporation Cartridge Filling Equipment & Hardware

Next Frontier Biosciences Biosciences

Colorado Cannabis Company THC Coffee Concentrate Supply Co. Recreational Concentrates Emerald Construction Construction

Evolve Formulas Transdermal General Cannabis Consulting Genesee Sports Nutrition

Greenhouse Payment Solutions Payment Processing GreenLink Financial Banking Higher Grade Boutique Cannabis

Incredibles Wellness Jupiter Research Inhalation Hardware LʼEagle Services Sustainability

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LUXX Retreat Lodging

Buscher Law, LLC Cannabis Law

Hybrid Payroll Staffing and HR Benefits

@alixiherb

Lowspark Incorporated Distribution

marQaha Sublinguals and Beverages

GoFire Dose Control

I NSTAG RAM @sensimagazine is home to exclusive photos and content.

Llamaste Yoga

Bee-Nails Vaporizers

Evolutionz Consulting The Clear™

TWITTER Follow @sensimag to stay up-to-date on the latest news from Sensi cities.

Lab Society Extraction Expert and Lab Supplies

Northern Standard History of Cannabis ONIT Sciences Cannabis Investments PotGuide Travel/Tourism Pyramid Distillates RiNo Supply Company Cannabis Culture Sharp Solutions Transportation Smokineer Outdoor Smoking Gear Source Colorado Wholesale Consulting Steveʼs Goods CBG Products Terrapin Care Station Recreational Dispensary Toast Mindful Consumption TruSolis Technologies Commercial Lighting ULEVA Hemp Products Wana Brands Edibles Witlon Inc. Payroll Processing You Deserve a Massage Vibroacoustic Sound Lounge

EDITOR’S NOTE

Stephanie Wilson Co-Founder & Editor in Chief stephanie.wilson@sensimag.com Doug Schnitzspahn Executive Editor doug.schnitzspahn@sensimag.com

Robyn Griggs Lawrence Editor at Large Leland Rucker Senior Editor

John Lehndorff Dining Editor

Caitlin DeMarco, Caitlin Moakley, Leandra Romero, Rachel Svoboda, Lori Tobias, Mona Van Joseph Contributing Writers Helen Olsson Copy Chief

M A N AG I N G E D I TO R S Dawn Garcia Southern California Debbie Hall Las Vegas

Nora Mounce Emerald Triangle, California Darralynn Hutson Detroit

Patty Malesh North Bay, California Aaron Bible Pittsburgh DESIGN

Jamie Ezra Mark Creative Director jamie@emagency.com Rheya Tanner Art Director Wendy Mak Designer Josh Clark Designer Kiara Lopez Designer Jason Jones Designer VIDEO Jeremy Pape Head of Production John Gray Production Videographer PRODUCTION Amber Orvik Administrative Director amber.orvik@sensimag.com Neil Willis Production Manager Hector Irizarry Head of Distribution

From the start, Sensi’s been all about

progression. Growth is one of the two founding pillars of our company culture; humility is the other. I will be the first to admit the redesigned magazine you’re reading right now is long overdue. This is the first major overhaul of the magazine since we published the first-ever Sensi magazine covering the Denver/ Boulder market in April 2016. Today, we’re making local lifestyle magazines fueled largely by cannabis industry advertisers in 12 cities coast-to-coast. The redesigned magazine and new branding you see here were about a year in the making. I jotted down my first notes on the subject last November while perusing old issues of Esquire magazine—the best of the best when under the editorial leadership of David Granger. He wrote about his title’s redesign in one of his editor’s notes: “The magazine is not an inevitability. It requires eternal vigilance. It needs to … make an argument for itself.” Elsewhere in my notebooks, I wrote down this Granger wisdom: “[a magazine] is at its best when it starts over, when it is reimagined by the people who make it in order to better address the lives of its readers.” So, that’s what we’re trying to do here. We glanced back to propel ourselves forward. We move onward, the only direction. And as author Jim Collins said (and I wrote down on a different page of that notebook): “[we] keep a clear distinction between what we stand for (which should never change) and how we do things (which should never stop evolving).” We stripped Sensi down to its core components and built it back up again with the reader experience in mind. With you in mind. I hope you like how it turned out.

That’s what we’re trying to do with this redesign. We glanced back to propel ourselves forward. We move onward, the only direction.

Stephanie Wilson @stephwilll DECEM BER 2019

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CONTRIBUTORS

Patty Malesh, Caitlin Moakley, Doug Schnitzspahn, Stephanie Wilson

THE

Stick a Pin In It More than 300 million people around the globe use Pinterest every month, according to the brand’s Seasonal Report, released in October: “People come to Pinterest to plan for all of the important moments in their life.” In the weeks leading up to the ball drop, there’s a spike in searches for all things related to New Year’s, as people plan outfits, nails, and resolutions. There are 183 million “New Year’s” pins saved every year. Around the 20 D EN V ER / BOU LDE R

holidays, “winter outfits” rises to the top of the phrase search. “’Tis the season for holiday parties! Every year, people turn to Pinterest to plan for all those upcoming celebrations with family and friends.” In November, searches for rhinestone eye makeup were up 550 percent year over year. The holiday season was already in full swing in October, when pinners searching for outfits, hairstyles, and gifts starting back in June,

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Roar into the 2020s with these turn-of-the-decade trends. according to a report from the social media brand. What were people searching for? Long satin dresses, up 331 percent from last year. That’s got nothing on the black silk skirt, up 458 percent. Animal print, puffy sleeves, glitter dip nails: this is your season to sparkle. For dudes, leopard pants men’s outfit was up 250 percent, as was corduroy men’s shirts. Holiday party outfits are the best way to slip into fashion.

BLACKOUT POWER-UP

The SunJack portable generator is hailed as the world’s most powerful, weather-resistant 25W USB solar charger and comes with two power banks that charge smartphones and tablets at wall-outlet speeds. sunjack.com Use promo code sensimag for 10 percent off.

PHOTO: H&M WOMENSWEAR HOLIDAY 2019 COLLECTION. HM.COM

COOL MINIMALISM may be your go-to look, but get festive with a decadent dose of glamour.

BY THE NUMBERS

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FEET is the height of Mile High Tree, the Christmas-themed digital installation at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Climb into the free immersive experience now through Jan. 31.

Smokeless Fire Everybody loves a campfire—but it’s not always easy to have one. Fires take work to maintain, they can be tough on the natural surroundings, and they can be dangerous—not to mention how you always seem to be sitting directly in the line of that column of smoke. Forget about those problems: BioLite’s FirePit Climate Neutral Edition, which holds four logs or charcoal, is portable and smokeless. That means you can haul it out to any spot where you want to park your camper van or just set it up on the back porch on a chilly night. It converts into a grill as well, ideal for those skewer meals. You can adjust the flames by hand… but why? It’s far easier to do it via Bluetooth. The good vibes don’t end there either. BioLite is not only a carbon-neutral company, spending cash to offset any carbon it creates, its founder helped spearhead the nonprofit climateneutral.org, which helps other brands offset their carbon use. Ten percent of sales on this portable campfire go to that worthy cause.

$29 EARLY-BIRD PRICE

for a one-way ticket aboard the Winter Park Express train, which starts running from Denver Union Station to the base of the resort on Jan. 10

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

ON THE PULSE How many steps do you get during your work day? If youʼre a nurse at OHSU Doernbecher Childrenʼs Hospital in Portland, Oregon, youʼre getting 10,000 strides in one 12-hour shift, sitting for less than an hour in a typical workday. Nike is launching a new collection of shoes designed to care for the tired toes of caregivers like the nurses at OHSU, where product testing and medical-worker insights led to the design of the new Air Zoom Pulse, made with the challenges of medical workers in mind. Itʼs easy to get on and off, simple to clean, and has plenty of traction and cushioning. On December 7, six new versions of the shoe will drop on nike.com, each one designed by a pint-size patient, with all profits going back to the hospital. The ones shown here were designed by Desiree Castillo, who also lent her talents to one of the six shoes in the 2019 Doernbecher Freestyle Collection. The shoes are an annual tradition since 2004 that has raised $24 million for the hospital.

150 TOTAL ROUTES

at G1 Climbing + Fitness, a new climbing gym in Broomfield opening later this month.

BioLite FirePit / $199 / bioliteenergy.com

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THE BUZZ

VOX POPULI

Question: What did you discover this year that everyone must know about?

MELANA BACA

DORIAN SMITH

MARIO MASITTI

SPENCER BRADLEY

HEIDI KEYES

___________________

Making People Look Good Santa Fe District, Denver

Fairytale Brownies, brownies.com [boxes of gourmet goods in sweet packaging with free delivery that make perfect gifts]. And Brené Brown.

Funemployed Riverfront Park, Denver

Farmacy Honey Butter Beeswax Lip Balm. [Editor’s note: If your lips are dry…Scratch that. It’s December in Colorado. Your lips are dry. This $10 tube will change your life. Get it at Sephora.]

Living, Laughing, Loving Jefferson Park, Denver

I discovered estate sales this year! I have found amazing, eclectic home decor pieces and relics that I never knew existed.

Mayor of Turntable Studios Jefferson Park, Denver

Change is inevitable. Time changes everything; the world keeps spinning. You can choose to change with the world or you can abstain and allow the world to change you. Either way, change is coming. Be prepared.

HIGH-ly Talented Artist Harvey Park, Denver

I discovered a podcast called 10% Happier, which interviews people on their meditation practices and general techniques for becoming, well, 10% happier. It’s been life changing for me to open my mind to different methods of becoming more human.

Light the Night Bring battery power to the time-honored New Mexican tradition. Luminaria kits bring warmth to winter nights and welcome loved ones to home and hearth during the holidays. The traditional New Mexican sand-and-candle-filled paper bags used to line walkways are less than ideal in fire country, but this doesn’t mean you have to go without. Lumabase sells a variety of electric and batterypowered Luminaria kits to give that same inviting atmosphere without breaking the budget. Both fire-free versions are made of weather-resistant plastic and come in a variety of bag designs. Battery-powered versions are available in warm white light or color-changing lights, and come with a recurring daily timer—five hours on, 19 hours off. Set it and forget it. Batteries last 360 hours. Sensi readers get 20 percent off with code Sensi20 / lumabase.com

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THE BUZZ

SENSIBILITIES WHAT MATTERS THIS MONTH BY STEPHANIE WILSON

1 GOT ANY VACATION DAYS LEFT IN 2019? Use them! Last year, 55 percent of American workers did not use all their vacation days, leaving a record 768 million days on the table. That’s about $65.5 billion worth of forfeited benefits. Don’t be a sad statistic.

______ 2 NEW RULE: Catching up on your emails during the holiday break is forbidden.

Emails breed emails, so every reply or forward you click sends that task to someone else who is either a) trying to enjoy their holiday break, or b) trying to clean out their inbox as well. No more. If it’s in your inbox on December 22, it stays there until January 2. Deal? Deal.

______ 3 I REPEAT: No tossing your forgotten/low priority to-dos on other people’s

plates when they are on vacay.

______ 4 IF YOU’RE RESOLVING TO CLEAN UP ANY BAD HABITS IN 2020, go all in on them in December. Really indulge your vices: have that second drink, dab, dance, swim in the chaos, make bad decisions. You’ll not only get it out of your system, you’ll be so over it come January 1.

______ 5 IF YOUR VICE IS CONSIDERING THE BOUNDARIES OF YOUR MEANS IMAGINARY (thanks Oscar Wilde), disregard the above advice. You can lose the holiday weight if you stop overeating, but credit card debt doesn’t work like that. It grows, no matter how much you believe Santa will take care of it.

STAR WARS BARBIE COLLECTIBLES

The force gets fashionable.

You can still get your hands on one of the most

______ coveted holiday toys of 2019: The Star Wars x Barbie 6 SMILE. The magazine you’re holding right now was made with a whole lot of enthu- collaboration dolls. Inspired by original concept art

siasm by some talented magazine junkies who have been working on the details of this redesign for the last year. This debut is like our Oscars, and we hope you like it. I love it.

“CBD IS NOT A SCAM. IT HAS A POTENTIAL MEDICINAL VALUE, BUT WHEN WE ARE PUTTING IT INTO MASCARA AND PUTTING IT INTO TAMPONS, FOR GOD’S SAKE, TO ME, THAT’S A SCAM.” —Yasmin Hurd, director of the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai, in the New York Times

from Star Wars: A New Hope, the timeless collectibles designed by Mattel’s Rob Best put a high-fashion twist on iconic characters. Princess Leia dons a stunning white gown with dramatic, floor-length sleeves, highlighted with a corset belt, necklace, and cuffs. The Darth Vader doll captures the character’s Sith armor silhouette in a shiny head-to-toe ensemble complete with emblematic black cape. The release of the collection, which also features R2D2, precedes the franchise’s latest film, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which hits theaters December 20. $100 for each collectible, barbie.mattel.com

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THE BUZZ

Grow Some Green FUNGAL JOLT Thinking about investing in cannabis stocks? Here’s what you need to know. Though cannabis stocks have taken a hit while the industry has experienced growing pains in the last quarter, cannabisrelated stocks of all kinds have exploded across the map over the last few years. Cannabis companies, which make products containing THC and CBD as well as hard goods from hemp, operate in a few basic categories. Some produce goods for the medicinal market, others for the adult-use market, and still others make products for both. Ancillary companies such as Denver-based Akerna, which provides supply chain technology for cannabis companies, offer products and services that support these businesses. The cannabis industry overall is experiencing minimal profit growth, according to an October 2019 Investor’s Business Daily report. Because the industry is new, producers must take on debt to establish themselves and expand. Some companies are also experiencing raw materials shortages, licensing issues, and distribution problems. According to Investor’s Business Daily, cannabis industry stocks are still worth watching. Once companies become established, they are expected to take market share away from the pharmaceutical, alcohol, and tobacco industries and develop a larger, more stable customer base. Keep your eye on cannabis industry news at marijuanastocks.com.

Historically, cordyceps mushrooms were grown on the backs of rare caterpillars that live in Tibet’s high mountain ranges. The fungus lays claims to providing everything from long life to a boost in male sexual prowess. Coffee is that jolt you can’t live without. Combine coffee and cordyceps mushrooms in this mix, and you get a morning drink that really gets you, um, pumping. The mix of the shrooms and the caffeine means you get that energy boost without feeling jittery. Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee $15 for 10 packets / us.foursigmatic.com

“A good holiday party is without gimmick; it throbs with reliability without making a fetish out of tradition.” —slow, expensive journalist Tom Chiarella

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PARTY PLIKEAIT’SRTY 1999 AGAIN AGAIN Everyone’s calling the impending decade “The Roaring Twenties,” but that’s a little premature considering we’re still fixated on the ’90s. TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON

arning: By the time the ball drops at the end of this month and year and decade, there’s a good chance we’ll all be totally over the “Roaring Twen-

ties Part 2” narrative being pushed on pop culture from every angle. And 2020 is still two months away as I write this. Do a quick search for New Year’s Eve on Eventbrite, and you’ll

start to wonder if all Denver event planners are working with the same designer to make their invitations. Black, gold, art deco-inspired fonts and patterned backgrounds style every other

listing, as far as you’re willing to scroll. (We’re not judging: anything is better than a cliché clipart of clinking glasses of bubbly.) And just like it’s hard to differentiate between the graphics DECEM BER 2019

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on the invites, the event themes are indistinguishable: “Roaring ’20s NYE Bash” at The Curtis Denver. “Roaring into the ’20s, 1920s Style!” at the Sheraton Denver West. “The Great Gatsby New Year’s Eve Ball” at Lone Tree Golf Club. “Roaring Twenties NYE Party” at Bigsby’s Folly. And on and on it goes. It’s like we’re all very eager to move on and leave the last decade or two in the past. (Understandable, really.) We’re entering a decade called the twenties. But the 20th-century ’20s earned itself the best moniker of any time, period, and rightfully so. The Roaring Twenties was a vibrant era of prosperity. The economy was surging, and women were voting for the first time, working more than ever before, and spending their evenings drinking, smok-

ing, and dancing carefree. The Jazz Age was in full swing. For many, life in America was pretty grand. So, it’s understandable that people are hoping history repeats itself, and the upcoming decade is as prosperous as its namesake. I FEEL STUPID AND CONTAGIOUS1 Calling the 2020s the Roaring Twenties before they even start is like trying to name a generation before the first members have been born. (Gen X is an anomaly; Gen Z is already undergoing a rebranding, with iGeneration as a frontrunner.) We can’t label something as “roaring” and just hope it lives up to its nickname. You can’t just slip on a flapper dress or don a suit fit for Gatsby, head to a Prohibition-era speakeasy, dance the Charleston, and expect

to usher in an age of dramatic social and political change. As if. Besides, we’d rather do the Carlton. Or we’ll strike a pose, there’s nothing to it. Or Tootsee Roll, whatever. (We pretend we’re too cool to Macarena, but the truth comes out on wedding reception dance floors if the DJ is fire enough.) The point is: we’re obsessed with the ’90s. And if you’re thinking, “Of course you are. Fashion is cyclical. Styles repeat themselves every few decades,” you’re not wrong. You just may be bad at math. (No judgment, I’m worse.) What you’re referring to is a theory in fashion and pop culture known as the “nostalgia pendulum”—a rolling 30-year cycle of pop culture trends. “It’s not all that complicated, but it is a pattern that has profound

consequences for how art is created, how we conceptualize culture, and perhaps even what sort of political rhetoric comes into vogue,” writes Patrick Metzger of The Patterning, a website that’s all about identifying patterns in music, culture, and the universe. “There are a number of reasons why the nostalgia pendulum shows up, but the driving factor seems to be that it takes about 30 years for a critical mass of people who were consumers of culture when they were young to become the creators of culture in their adulthood,” Metzger continues. “It can be explained equally well from the consumer side. After about 30 years, you’ve got a real market of people with disposable income who are nostalgic for their childhoods.

“IT TAKES ABOUT

30 YEARS

FOR A CRITICAL MASS OF PEOPLE WHO WERE CONSUMERS OF CULTURE WHEN THEY WERE YOUNG TO BECOME

CREATORS

OF CULTURE IN THEIR ADULTHOOD.” —Patrick Metzger, The Patterning

GRUNGE GOES GIRLY The modern version of ʼ90s slacker style shows a softer side.

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THIS IS HOW WE DO IT2 So, really we’re just at the start of the ’90s nostalgia craze. The resurgence in popularity of Friends (younger millennials and elder Gen Zs just can’t get enough of the Central Perk gang) was just the beginning. And so are the sartorial powers that be—a.k.a. the “it” designers who create the looks that models strut down runways during Fashion Weeks around the globe. Nineties nostalgia as a wardrobe staple started popping up in various collections as early as 2013, when designer Hedi Slimane’s second collection for Saint Laurent celebrated baby doll dresses and grunge-era–inspired cardigans. By 2015, grunge wasn’t just back for a visit; it was here to stay. And it’s ready to make a statement: tutus and combat boots are for real a good look, and you

can totally pull it off. Where will you get a tutu? Like, basically anywhere. But you don’t need to look any farther than H&M, assuming you can get your hands on any pieces from the designer collaboration with Italian couturier Giambattista Valli. The line is divine: bold colors, feminine details, tons of tulle. Think: Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw at her most glamorous. The nostalgia-fueled fashion floodgates have opened, and ’90s styles have dominated the runways in recent seasons— including SS20. Whether you gravitate toward Matrix-inspired headto-toe black (pleather and trench coat optional) or a simple T-shirt dress paired with clunky throwback sneakers in white with bold accents or a Cher Horowitz–inspired plaid skirt ensem-

ble straight off the set of Clueless, you’re covered.

ago when it comes to fashion and pop culture, especially in today’s constantly IT’S SOMETHING connected world, where UNPREDICTABLE, BUT IN we can see trends emerge, THE END IT’S RIGHT3 proliferate, influence, The ’90s: The Last Great evolve, become old news Decade, a three-night do(a.k.a. cliché, trite, trying cuseries released in 2014 too hard), and disappear on The National Geoall in a matter of months, graphic Channel (NGC), weeks, maybe days. shines a spotlight on the Today, 25 years after enduring importance of Friends premiered its first the milestone moments episode in 1994, the show and events that have come is more popular than to define the 10 years beever, reportedly earning fore the world partied as $1 billion a year from Prince told us to: like it its syndication revenue. was 1999, duh. A media Authentic, somehow real alert from NGC teased and lacking pretense, the six-hour miniseries: Friends showcases a life “Sandwiched between the that people from three Cold War and the War generations—X, millennion terror, the ’90s were a al, and Z—have described decade that gave us grun- as “ideal.” It’s not forced, ge music, reality TV, the it’s not obvious, it’s not Internet, multiple national claiming to be something tragedies, a tumultuous it’s not. And nothing presidency, a booming about it is roaring. economy, and Viagra.” We’re going to keep That series came out loving that for decades five years ago—a lifetime to come.

GRUNGE IS READY TO MAKE A STATEMENT:

TUTUS AND COMBAT BOOTS

ARE FOR REAL A GOOD LOOK, AND YOU CAN TOTALLY PULL IT OFF.

Giambattista Valli x H&M fashion show in Rome, October 24, 2019 Yoon Young Bae (left), Liza Popova (center), and Vittoria Ceretti (right)

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana “This Is How We Do It”by Montell Jordan “Good Riddance” by Green Day

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WOKE, NOT WASTED They say they’re not alcoholics, and they’re certainly not anonymous. What is sober curious—and can sobriety really be fluid? TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

drink badly, and I have a lot of fun doing it (when I remember). That’s a lethal combination, and when you throw in my unfortunate discovery of White Claw—I can drink as many as I want and never feel full!—I flamed out with alcohol last winter. On February 1, just as everyone else was celebrating the end of Dry January and just ahead of the Summer of the Claw, I swore off the seltzer. I figured I’d give myself one month (note: the year’s shortest) to reset. It wasn’t an easy 28 days, but when March 1 rolled around, I felt better than I’d felt in years. The

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chronic inflammation I had attributed to everything from gluten sensitivity to genetics was clearing. I saw the light, and there was no going back. I thought sobriety would be lonely, that every Saturday night would be Netflix. I forgot the Brett Kavanaugh generation isn’t in charge of culture anymore (thank God). Millennials and Gen Xers aren’t interested in swilling beer until they black out like we did in the ’80s. Sober is sexy—or, as hipsobriety.com sees it, “sobriety is the new black.” On Instagram, there are influencers such as @stylishlysober, @thesoberglow, and the darker @fucking_sober

and hashtags like #soberliving, #soberAF, and #sobercurious. Millie Gooch, who posts as @sobergirlsociety, encourages her nearly 60,000 followers with inspirational messages like “Mocks not cocks” and “Sobriety: a surefire way to improve your wellbeing and your Uber rating.” Just like that, I’m a cool kid—with a huge range of new options on Saturday night (and beyond). I’m exploring elixirs made with raw cacao, maca, and horny goat weed at Tonic Herban Lounge just a few blocks from my home in downtown Boulder (I can walk home after imbibing, and it amuses me that I don’t need to). I can

do yoga and shake it before dawn at a Daybreaker dance party (daybreaker.com) in Denver, one of 27 cities where the alcohol-free early morning rave pops up and invites people to “sweat, dance, and connect with ourselves in community.” I’m surely not alone in this realization that life is better without booze. Worldwide, alcohol consumption fell by 1.6 percent last year. Led by young people, heavy-hitting countries like Russia, Canada, Japan, and the UK are seeing drinking rates as well as tolerance toward intoxication decline. An international survey found that about a third of people wanted

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cus, Presence, and Deep Connection” is February 14–16, 2020, at Massachusetts’ renowned wellness retreat center Kripalu). Her take is that a lot of Americans might not have a “problem” with alcohol but see it as getting in the way of their healthy lifestyles. “We eat well. We exercise. We meditate,” the press release for Sober Curious states. “So, why do we… still drink?” Warrington wants to to reduce their alcohol APPS FOR THAT know why the only peointake because of everyple who don’t drink are Loosid: Digital platform for sober dating, destinations, and meetups Sober Grid: “The worldʼs most popular mobile sober community” thing from sexual regret the ones who can’t and Twenty-Four Hours a Day: Inspiration through daily meditations and embarrassment to asks, “What if I am just…a little bit addicted?” physical health. A 2018 Call me old school, survey found that nearly but a little bit addicted 40 percent of global consounds a lot like a little sumers want to drink less pushing more women, mi- As Sean Paul Mahoney norities, and poor people writes on The Fix, a web- bit pregnant. I worry that for health reasons. to the bottle, according to site about addiction and In the US, CNBC repeople who shouldn’t ports, 52 percent of adults a study published in JAMA recovery, “I didn’t get so- will take the advice of ber to be cool. I just got John Costa, who writes are trying to lower their al- Psychiatry. The national on twentytwowords.com cohol intake, and underage Institute for Alcohol Abuse sober to stop dying.” and Alcoholism reports drinking has steadily dethat being sober curiclined in the last 10 years. that 17 million adults in A LITTLE BIT ADDICTED? ous is like being bi-curiBut only 21 percent of US the US are alcohol de“Sober curious” became ous—you don’t always adults in a CivicScience pendent, and the Centers a thing after Harperhook up with people of poll said they had any for Disease Control and Collins released Ruby the same sex, and you interest in drinking less Prevention says one in Warrington’s Sober Cudon’t have to cut out or not at all, and most of six binge drink—defined rious: The Blissful Sleep, drinking forever. “Be those were 21- to 34-year- as drinking four or more Greater Focus, Limitless sober half the time,” he old, vegan-leaning flexitar- drinks over two hours or Presence, and Deep Conwrites, “and sauced the ians who practice yoga and until blood alcohol reaches nection Awaiting Us All on other half.” He’s joking, consume cannabis daily. 0.08—nearly once a week. the Other Side of Alcohol but those are dangerous Women, especially those For this White Claw guzin 2018. Warrington also words for me. That’s the in their 30s and 40s, are zler, that definition is, well, has a podcast, runs Club life I was living: sober by drinking more than ever. sobering. I called that hap- Söda NYC (featuring day + tanked by night = Booze still rules for py hour. sober events like Kundbalance. most Americans, and Giving up alcohol isn’t alini Disco), and stages Like all disorders (and “increased stress and dea hashtag for a lot of peo- events (“Sober Curious: pretty much everything moralization” is actually ple. It’s not even a choice. Choosing Sobriety for Fo- in our culture), alcohol DECEM BER 2019

SOBERING STUDIES

Alcohol accounts for nearly 1 in 10 deaths of people aged 15 to 49 and is the leading risk factor for disease and premature death. Source: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Binge drinking rates in states where cannabis is legal fell to 9 percent below the national average and 11 percent below non-legal states in 2016. Source: Cowen & Co.

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SPIRITS FOR NEXT-GEN PARTIERS The joke goes that nonalcoholic drinks are like listening to porn on the radio, but times have changed. Theyʼre the CBD of the alcohol world. Nonalcohol (NA) beverages are a bright spot in a declining alcohol market, and their sales are expected to grow 32 percent by 2022, according to a Bon Appetit report. Todayʼs creative, health-inducing craft beverages are a lot more than just alcohol-free.

BEER

Athletic IPA: Robust alcohol-free craft brew Heineken OO: The OGʼs first NA brew OʼDoulʼs: Anheuser-Buschʼs classic has new limited-edition meant-for-Instagram cans by local artists in New York, Chicago, and LA

WINE

Napa Hills: Blend of fruit-flavored water and VitaRes (antioxidant blend with resveratrol, red grape skin, and red wine extract) with as many antioxidants as red wine O.Vine: Grape-infused wine water with “the health benefits of the real thing”

use runs on a spectrum. I was at the end that spent hours upon hours researching whether drinking while on this antibiotic would really make me projectile vomit and scoffed at friends as they struggled through Dry January, Dry July, Sober September, and Sober October. I wasn’t interested in giving up drinking for any reason or any amount of time, until I had to give it up for life. Warrington, who sees reducing alcohol intake as another step in the wellness revolution, is at the other end of the spectrum—and she is aware of the difference between recovering from alcohol addiction and feeling better during yoga. I hope all of her fol-

lowers are, too, because the last thing most drinkers need is a loophole. I want to believe the trend Warrington is leading toward spirits-free activities and thoughtfulness about alcohol’s role in our culture—where every ritual, celebration, loss, entertainment, and even sporting event is cause for a drink—is not a trend but a movement. That we’ll look back at “mommyjuice” like we shake our heads at “mother’s little helper” pills from the ’60s and ’70s. The infrastructure to support sobriety is being built, and public opinion is turning. After centuries of going hard, America is getting woke, not wasted. Cheers to that.

SOBERING STUDIES

A British study of Dry January abstainers found that 82 percent felt a sense of achievement, 62 percent slept better, and 49 percent lost some weight.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robyn Griggs Lawrence is the author of the bestselling Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook and Pot in Pans: A History of Eating Cannabis.

SPIRITS

Curious Elixirs: Individually bottled alcohol-free craft cocktails High Rhode by Kin: “Euphorics” made from nootropics and adaptogens, including 5-HTP, rhodiola, and caffeine Ritual Whiskey: “As a veggie burger is to beef, or almond milk is to dairy, Ritual is an alternative to traditional whiskey” Seedlip Spice 94: Gin-like blend of Jamaican allspice berry, cardamom, and citrus peel Stryyk: “Zero-proof spirits,” including Not Vodka, Not Rum, and Not Gin Three Spirit: “Social elixir” made from yerba mate, lionʼs mane, damiana, and cacao

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When you were younger, did you dream of being broke?

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from your friends at

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HIGHS A

t the end of October, the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled “Cannabis Open Houses Are Putting the High in High-End Real Estate.” The trend piece by author Katherine Clarke revealed the emerging discovery being used by developers and real-estate agents to move luxe properties in communities where recreational cannabis is not just legal but widely accepted. It’s not unlike Los Angeles, where the rising industry is being hailed as an untapped source for buyers of high-priced homes. Throwing cannabis-related events—everything from elaborate seven-course pairing dinners with vapes in lieu of vino to live trimming classes—at multimillion-dollar properties on the market is garnering attention, building social buzz, and attracting buyers with money earned in, around, or on cannabis. Not everyone sees the genius behind the trend, however. Clarke spoke

SPECIAL REPORT

Luxury has gone to pot. TEXT LORI TOBIAS AND STEPHANIE WILSON

to one agent in New York, where recreational cannabis is still a pipe dream and old tropes live on about munchie-motivated stoners. “When I think about cannabis, I don’t think about buying an expensive house,” says Warburg Realty’s Jason Haber. “It’s not a call for action as much as a call for Doritos.” Someone should tell him friends don’t let friends make tired stoner jokes anymore. Especially ones implying cannabis consumers indulge their munchies with mindless consumption of unhealthy snacks when the reality is cannabis appeals to what The Economist dubs the “health-conscious inebriate,” citing a poll that 72 percent of American consumers thought cannabis was safer than alcohol. A 2018 The New Yorker headline declared cannabis to be a wellness industry in California where, in fact, a cannabinoid cousin of THC and CBD is starting to garner a whole lot of buzz.

Instead of stimulating appetites, THCV may suppress those hunger pangs. When 2021 is declared the year of THCV, you can say you heard it here first.

CONSUMPTION AND CONSUMERISM Cannabis has moved so far beyond the clichés of yore. Tie-dye tees, bell-bottom cords, dancing bear patches, plastic bongs, Ziploc baggies: these tired trends are so out of style, some have already circled back and left again. (Looking at you, tie-dye.) The stoner kids of yesterday are the cannabis entrepreneurs, enthusiasts, and connoisseurs of today. And as they’ve aged, their tastes in cannabis aged with them, like the fine wine they can now afford. Cannabis consumers have money to burn. And since we live in a capitalist society (an unjust one where people remain locked up for nonviolent drug charges in states that earn taxes off now-legal cannabis DECEM BER 2019

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF BARNEYS NEW YORK, INC.

The High End at Barneys New York in Beverly Hills

sales—that’s a whole layered story for a different day), money makes things happen. And what’s happening now is the emergence of a cannabis experience elevated to a higher level. If you were paying attention to the pop-culture cues over the decades, you would have seen the high-end highs coming. When cannabis prohibition began its slow-and-steady march to its forthcoming end, it emerged from the black market with an established following of consumers—loyal cannabis consumers with no brand loyalty, because cannabis brands didn’t exist. Dealers did, growers did, activists, advocates, and believers, too. But the concept of cannabis brands was all brand-new. With strict laws surrounding where the substance can be marketed,

sold, advertised, distributed, and more, establishing customer loyalty in this industry is more difficult than it would seem on the surface. What differentiates one edible brand from another, one vape pen from the next is complicated to discern for those who aren’t well versed in the modern verbiage or its meaning. (Full-spectrum distillate, live resin, 2:1 ratios, oh my!) This is where marketing and branding comes into play. And with marketing and branding comes the emergence of new market segments, including the ultra-luxury category. It is from within that category that future trends are likely to emerge. That’s how trends play out, as Miranda Priestly (played by Meryl Streep) explained to her new assistant in one iconic scene of The Devil Wears Prada. (If

“Expensive breeds expensive things. You wouldn’t have expensive cannabis if you didn’t have people who wanted to buy expensive cannabis.” —Karyn Wagner, Paradigm Cannabis Group

you haven’t seen it in a while, a quick refresher: “The color of the shirt you are wearing right now was determined years ago by high-end designers preparing their collections for fashion GOT MONEY TO BLOW? week runways.”) This Caleb Siemon Trickle-down trends Blown Art Glass are a hierarchical proWater Pipe will cess whereby individuals set you back with high status establish about $950. fashion trends, only to be imitated by lower-status individuals wearing cheaper versions of the same styles. “It’s always been a thing,” says Karyn Wagner, CEO of Paradigm Cannabis Group, a women-owned extraction company specializing in pre-rolls and extracts made from small-batch sun-grown flower. “There’s always been those products that are better than others. But now, with adult use, we have to be more brand-conscious. With DECEM BER 2019

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that, how do you distinguish yourself from someone else? Why is this better? What makes it better?”

PHOTOS (FROM TOP): KATHLEEN HARRISON, KIKOKO HIGH TEA / COURTESY OF BEBOE

SOME LIKE IT HAUTE With any luxury good, consumers want the assurance of quality and efficacy, Wagner says. But you can never underestimate the prestige that comes with a high price tag. “The moneyed class always loves expensive items,” she says. “This normalizes it in their world. It brings in folks who didn’t normally have the desire. It made it OK in their class. Expensive breeds expensive things. You wouldn’t have expensive cannabis if you didn’t have people who wanted to buy expensive cannabis.” Jenny Le Coq, president of Le Coq & Associates, a marketing and communications firm in San Francisco that represents Kikoko cannabis-infused botanical mints, points out that most people typically don’t seek out a cheap bottle of wine, but look for something fine, trustworthy, and familiar. They want to know the winery, its reputation, who recommends the vintage. “People are looking at wines today with a more discerning eye—how their grapes

With any luxury good, consumers want the assurance of quality and efficacy. Luxury doesn't always have to indicate price, but what it must indicate is quality.

are grown, for example,” Le Coq says. “People are looking at cannabis in the same way: with a discerning eye.” “Discerning” can add up to big money, for sure. Anecdotal stories abound in national media outlets, suggesting couples in Colorado will drop several bills on “cannagars” and other high-end party favors to celebrate weddings and anniversaries. At The High End, Barneys New York’s luxury cannabis lifestyle shop in Beverly Hills, shoppers can splurge on a $1,475 sterling silver bud grinder or a $950 water pipe. New York fashion brand Alice + Olivia partnered with luxury cannabis brand Kush Queen to debut a CBD wellness line earlier this year—bath bomb, body lotion, bubble bath with lavender. Alice + Olivia packaging features CEO Stacey Bendet’s signature “StaceFace” motif, with big sunglasses and a bold red lip. A timeless statement-making style that trendsetters of every era make their own while trendy types try to emulate the overall aesthetic. That’s just the way things work. To be fair, luxury doesn’t have to mean $$$$. What it must indicate, however, is quality. “Luxury is an assigned

label. It is typically assigned by marketers,” Le Coq says. “So, what do you want cannabis to be? As a consumer, how do you perceive luxury? The concept is really defined differently by every person. We want people to experience something that is luxurious. Not only the packaging is beautiful, the taste is beautiful, the place you are put into mentally is a nice, beautiful place.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lori Tobias is a lifelong journalist based on the Oregon Coast, where she lives with her husband, Chan, and two rescue pups, Luna and Monkey.

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THE SLEEP SOLUTION

Lack of sleep drove one woman to the edge of sanity. Until she found out she was not alone. This is how you can claim back your well-deserved rest. TEXT DARRALYNN HUTSON

I refuse to be contained. I gyrate my hips, Bluetooth speaker on y eyes flicker Rihanna’s “work, work, open, and a mo- work, work, work” and ment later I feel arms in sync, dancing a tiny tingle in my toes. around my bedroom, Excitement. Waking after wondering whether my a good, restful sleep is a 10-year-old will walk in. simple joy. I bounce out I don’t care. This is what of bed, looking forward to a woman looks like who the day. Then suddenly, finally had a good night’s I’m standing, motionless, sleep. But how? gazing out the window in wonder. I’m looking forDon’t sleep on sleep ward to my day! I’m look- Sleep is something some ing forward to my day? people take for granted. Detroit, What up Doe? Like oxygen. Or blood

running through our veins. Or the sunrise. But it’s not that way for everyone. When people tell me they’re tired, I resist the temptation to give them my life story. Or, at least, my night-time story of the past decade. It began when I was expecting Nya, my one and only child. “At-risk pregnancy,” my primary doctor told me repeatedly, “is common with a woman your age and your size.” The discomfort of added stress on expecting with no job, no home, and no baby’s father added pressure. I experienced anxiety, depression, and a feeling of unworthiness every day of my pregnancy. But at night, I would easily drop off to sleep, exhausted from my thoughts. But then suddenly and com-

pletely, I’d wake up assuming it was morning. It wasn’t. It was 12:30 a.m. I wasn’t uncomfortable. Didn’t need to pee. I was simply wide-awake and alert, my brain playing vivid images of my life in front of me as a mother. I had to produce more, be more, have more money, make life better for her. Ping! 3 a.m. 5:30 a.m. 6 a.m. It was a pattern that continued after Nya was born—and for 10 more years. Only now I was getting up through the night to investigate, watch, clean, and fuss over her; it was all part of the sleeplessness cocktail. There was no going back to sleep for several hours or, more often, the rest of the night. It was a vicious maddening cycle. DECEM BER 2019

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“With wellness, we always look at it from a dual point of view, nutrition and activity, but that’s wrong,” says Safwan Badr, MD, endowed professor of medicine and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine. “We need to look at wellness as a threelegged stool of nutrition, activity, and sleep.” Spending his days seeing patients, teaching, researching, and serving the community, Badr has much love for Detroit. In 2013, Badr was appointed the president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Back then he understood the importance of sleep, so he focused his work on the future of sleep medicine. “Poor sleep contributes to obesity, heart disease, airway disease, and depression and is a leading cause of car accidents and subsequent deaths,” he says. “We must start to prioritize sleep. Turn off the streaming videos, turn off the cell phone notifications, and sleep.” Statistics haven’t been collected specifically on sleep deprivation in Detroit, but medical scientists believe that if you find obesity, it’s likely that insufficient sleep will follow, according to Badr. Michigan has higher rates of obesity and more

inactive adults than the national average. It also has higher poverty rates, which have long been tied to poor health, according to a 2018 study by the United Health Foundation. “Most of the patients I see say they’re too busy to sleep,” says Badr. “The fact is that the clinical work that’s being done is suggesting that with high rates of obesity, it’s likely that sleep problems will occur. Chronic disease in Detroit is one of the nation’s highest so there are a lot of patients getting an insufficient amount of sleep.” That’s me. It was all starting to make sense. The heavier I was, the

“We must start to prioritize sleep. Turn off the streaming videos, turn off the cell phone notifications, and sleep.” —Safwan Badr, MD, American Academy of Sleep Medicine

less sleep I was getting. The more active my work and personal life, the more my mind raced, preventing me from sound sleep. The more accessible I was to my family, friends, and social circles, the more I was preventing myself from getting sleep. First things first. Prioritize sleep. “Women over 50 have a more difficult time getting their rest, which makes it even more important to prioritize sleep. Good sleep helps improve concentration, memory, immunity—all things that become more important with age,” says Erin Berman, brand

HOW NOT TO GET BETTER SLEEP Count sheep. For many people, this popular trick only highlights how long itʼs taking for you to fall asleep, which may increase stress levels. Drink alcohol. A night out drinking may make you feel sleepy, but alcohol reduces the overall quality of that sleep and causes you to wake more often. Do your cardio or strength training at night. Your body temperature reduces by a few degrees when you sleep. Exercises that heat you up are likely to make you feel less tired. Source: The National Sleep Foundation

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PHOTOGRAPHY: JAYLIN DORSEY-MITCHELL, PRODUCTION: SPENCER RICHARDSON-MOORE, MATTRESS: AWARA NATURAL MATTRESS

How to go back to bed It happens to everyone now and again—for some, it happens every night. Your eyes pop open. Itʼs the middle of the night, and youʼre not tired. The National Sleep Foundation suggests a few strategies to help you get back to those Zs: Avoid your phone. Technology was bad for you before sleep, and itʼs bad now. Not only can your lit screen make your brain think itʼs daytime, but the flurry of emails and to-do lists can make you feel too anxious to go back to sleep. Hide the time. Turn your alarm clock away from your bed. Watching the clock while youʼre awake causes you to focus on how much sleep youʼre missing, which in turn causes you to miss more sleep. Get up. Sometimes the best thing to do is get up, go into a different room, and do a relaxing activity such as meditation, reading, or journaling until you feel tired again.

strategist at Resident Mattress. “When women are within the years of menopause, they might be experiencing shifts in their normal sleeping habits due to physiological changes. However, as people reach middle age, aches and pains can make sleeping difficult, so creating the best sleep environment possible can make a big impact.” For me it started with the right mattress. “You want to look for a mattress that will support you. Not all mattresses are created equal,” says Berman. “The beauty of a hybrid mattress is that it combines the best latex and traditional coils. The coils help evenly distribute weight and reduce motion transfer for undisturbed rest, while the latex gives just a touch of bounce.”

Once I was equipped with my hybrid mattress, I set out for a good night’s sleep, which meant that, gasp, I had to shut down my devices. All of them, even the notification cameras that alert me when there’s motion at my front and back doors. It was easy to cut off my phone but hard to shut off the lights 3 STEPS TO that glowed in my smart SOUNDER SLEEP Keep a regular sleep/ house. Yet I prioritized wake schedule. Many this thing that eluded me apps track your sleep aunight after night. I took a tomatically and show you hot soapy bath and then exactly when and how ofwrapped myself in a soft ten you woke up. Go to bed at the same comforter in a nest of time each night—even warm pillows. on weekends. This helps I lay down to sleep. Not readjust your circadian to save the world. Not to rhythm so you begin to feel tired at the right time. win another award. Not Donʼt think youʼll fix to start another business. your sleep schedule in But to sleep with as much one night. Try going to bed 15 minutes earlier passion and vigor as I each night until you reach could muster. your desired time. And to my surprise, Source: National Sleep Foundation and the American Psychological Association sleep came.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Darralynn Hutson is the managing editor for Sensi Detroit.

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PUEBLO MAKES

Find and support networks of local makers, artists, and crafters. pueblomakes.com

Making It Pueblo is finding its place in the post-industrial world by returning to the cottage industries that once thrived in southern Colorado.

ueblo, Colorado, has been a crossroads for commerce since early settlers built El Pueblo Fort at the convergence of the Arkansas River and Fountain Creek in 1842. This geologically significant spot offers a bounty of natural resources, from sand to shale, that enterprising makers took full advantage of as the area developed. Colorado Fuel and Iron Company opened the first integrated steel mill west of the Mississippi on Pueblo’s south side in 1881 and dominated the town’s economy until the steel crash in the early 1980s caused a brutal economic depression and unemployment approaching 20 percent.

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Pueblo has struggled in the post-industrial world, but times are changing. Creatives and makers throughout southern Colorado are making their mark, forming collectives, providing education and mentoring, and nurturing the region’s traditional maker spirit. Pueblo is returning to the cottage industry economy that thrived here before it became a company town, and the maker community is leading the way. “Pueblo makes steel, but we also roast coffee, we design and make jewelry, we customize hot rods, and we paint murals,” Jane Fraser, a retired Colorado State University (CSU) engineering professor who founded the Pueblo

Makes community collective to support local makers, writes in Watertower Place magazine. “We have great manufacturing companies that make carbon disk brakes for aircraft, towers for wind turbines, rail products, traction chains, custom kitchen cabinets, fruit-handling equipment, highend GPS devices, bath and body products, and more. I sew.” Fraser grew up in a paper mill town in New Jersey and immediately felt at home when she moved to Pueblo 20 years ago. Now she tries never to go north of milepost 110 on I-25, and she’s one of Pueblo’s biggest cheerleaders. “So many people use the word real about Pueblo,” she says. She was also the

PHOTO BY JEAN GRASTON PHOTOGRAPHY

TEXT ROBYN GRIGGS LAWRENCE

ENLIGHTENED COMMERCE: Katie Velarde sells chakra stone bracelets at glitterzen.etsy.com.

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“So many people use the word

‘ real ’

when talking about Pueblo.”

—Jane Fraser, Pueblo Makes founder

PHOTOS BY JEANETTE BAYSINGER

CHANGE OF SCENE: Sculptor Frank Nemick looks forward to moving into Watertower Place this winter.

driving force behind Pueblo winning a $40,000 Etsy Maker Cities grant to support creative entrepreneurship and local development while helping traditionally underrepresented groups participate in the creative economy. In partnership with Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth, Etsy is also pro-

viding Maker Cities with training and ongoing cohort support from Recast City, a technical assistance firm focused on business development for the maker economy. Spearheaded by Southern Colorado Economic Development District (SCEDD) Executive Director Shelly Dunham, the Pueblo Makers

City Project is a consortium of local organizations and makers who provide training, technical assistance, and mentoring for local makers, particularly those with diverse abilities and limited economic means (many from the East Side). Fostering collaboration and community among Pueblo’s creatives, the Pueblo Makers Project includes a business accelerator for creatives, a community creative project that will culminate in a gallery show, and a web page connecting creatives to resources, opportunities, and one another. “This is going to make a huge difference,” says Pueblo native Katie Velarde, who has sold nearly 3,500 chakra stones and handmade bracelets through her Etsy store, Glitter Zen (glitterzen.etsy.com). “I’ve already helped about five people launch Etsy shops, and I can personally think of 15 to 20 more people who want to. There’s a huge group of artists and crafters in Pueblo who could earn extra income if they learned more about Etsy and how to launch a shop. Their hobby could become their business.” DECEM BER 2019

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@shift.cannabis

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#shiftisforsharing

Impactful Employer As part of the grant, Etsy gave members of the Pueblo Makers Project access to data that Southern Colorado Innovation Link manager and Pueblo native Mark Madic found fascinating. “There are 657 artists in the area that sell primarily on Etsy,” Madic says. “That’s an impactful number. Most of those artists have full-time employment from e-commerce as makers or creatives—so it’s one of the biggest employers in the area.” Southern Colorado makers are producing everything from handmade paper products to small-batch botanicals, with plenty of support from the community. The Pueblo Arts Alliance provides affordable studio, retail, and small-batch manufacturing space at 107 S. Grand. And the Creative Corridor focused around Pueblo’s historic city centers—Downtown Main Street, Union Avenue Historic District, and Mesa Junction— offers maker spaces in historic buildings where festivals and events such as First Fridays take place. At the Shoe Factory, Pueblo’s first member-supported, community-based art studio and gallery space, artists-in-residence provide education through local schools and organizations and invite the public to attend open studios and art walks. Steel City Art Works reps more than 40 regional artists. “As an overall trend, not just in Pueblo but in southern Colorado and across Custer, Huerfano, Fremont, and Pueblo counties, a lot of meaningful collaboration has happened,” Madic says.

DIGITAL GLOW: Glitter Zen has sold more than 3,500 stones and bracelets on Etsy.

“There’s a huge group of artists and crafters in Pueblo who could earn

extra income

if they learned more about Etsy and how to launch a shop. Their hobby could become their business.” —Katie Velarde, Glitter Zen

Perhaps the region’s most ambitious project to date is Watertower Place, a 250,000-squarefoot re-urbanist mixed-use development in the abandoned Alpha Beta meat-packing plant at 303 S. Santa Fe, offering residential, coworking, social gathering, and commercial space as well as fabrication, manufacturing, and makerspace entities. CSU opened a downtown satellite campus there, and plans call GREAT LENGTHS for three restaurants, a coffee In 1978, art students creatroaster, and a brewer. Developer ed the worldʼs longest mural, covering a three-mileand Pueblo native Ryan McWillong stretch of the levee liams is aiming for an urban waterway through downtown Pueblo. Over the paradise, with a cheesemaker, years, up to 1,000 artists a butcher, and gardens teeming contributed to the canwith bees from local hives on the vas, which was destroyed rooftop. Watertower Place hosts during a levee reconstruction project in 2014. an annual festival, artist-resiThe Pueblo Conservancy dency programs, art commisDistrict has put out a call sions, and pop-up installations for artists to paint a new and performances. levee mural. Sculptor and Pueblo native pueblolevee.org Frank Nemick plans to move into Watertower Place by the end of the year. “I’m really looking forward to getting in there with all the different artists and studios and living arrangements and businesses,” he says. “It’s going to be a nice community.” For Fraser, Watertower Place—where McWilliams’ team removed 1.5 million pounds of trash left by a homeless community before construction could begin—is a physical manifestation of the tremendous change taking place throughout Pueblo. “For so many years, it was sitting there as an eyesore,” she says. “Now to know it’s coming alive and great things are happening—just that physical change is fantastic.” DECEM BER 2019

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Avoid the Festive Five

Texas at Austin have found that exercising regularly is linked to better eating habits. In a study published earlier this year in the International Journal of Obesity, scientists found that sedentary participants who took Despite all the eggnog and holiday cookies, it is possible to up exercise showed an get through the holidays without unwanted weight gain. increased preference for lean meats and vegetables TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON and a decreased interest in fried foods, sodas, and other unhealthy options. your fitness schedule for “The process of beThis holiday season, help to Exercise,” a special the month, working it in coming physically active yourself. No, not to extra health report from the around all the fun. medical school. “To be can influence dietary beservings of whatever And then change that successful, [exercise] havior,” says Molly Bray, catches your eye as you corresponding author of flit about from festive fete should be something you mindset, because you do as routinely as eating, should have fun with the paper and chair of to holiday happening to it. If you’ve been stuck sleeping, and taking the Nutritional Sciencnuanced New Year’s Eve in a fitness rut and the your morning shower,” es department at UT celebrations. Help yourthought of tapping it the report begins. Austin and a pediatrics self stay healthy. Which faculty member at Dell It can be more difficult back on a bike one more isn’t always the easiest time makes you want to Medical School. “One of to stick to a routine thing to do, no matter during the frenzy of the reach for the eggnog, mix the reasons that we need how disciplined you are holidays, when schedules it up. Try a ropes class. to promote exercise is the other 11 months of Learn how to snowshoe. for the healthy habits are jam-packed. Office the year. We dug into Hit a climbing gym. it can create in other some research and spoke parties, gift exchange areas. That combination to some experts to round brunches, industry con- Whatever works, just as ferences in Las Vegas in long as you do. is very powerful.” up some tips to help you By making exercise the middle of December: shine brighter than that your habit now, you’ll be this can throw even the Drink More Water twinkling star at the top setting yourself up for a most well-intentioned Staying hydrated helps of the tree. strong start to 2020 on plan off track. It’s far your mind stay alert, Make a Plan + Stick to It too easy to blow off your multiple levels. Research- keeps cravings at bay, ers at the University of cycling class in favor of and helps ward off headExercise shouldn’t be attending your sweetie’s aches that inevitably something you do only festive work function. greet you the morning when you want to drop after a night of over-inthose 10 extra pounds or Which is totally fine, as long as you don’t blow dulgence. It is also key to prepare for the charity a year of effort with a keeping healthy in such 10K, the editors of one-month complete a busy holiday season— Harvard Health especially when you’re Publishing re- hedonistic free-for-all. flying the friendly skies. mind us in Stay strong. And plan “Startahead. Get out your calThe Aerospace Medical endar now, and map out Association suggests ing DECEM BER 2019

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Work Health Into Your Holiday Fill up before heading out. Eat a healthy meal at home before parties or events where passed appetizers and dessert trays tempt at every turn. If youʼre worried about mindless grazing, keep a container of nuts or a granola bar in your bag and refuel as necessary. Multitask to burn more calories. Take extra laps at the mall before you start shopping. Do squats in the elevator or while putting up holiday decor around the house. Do yoga while your dinner is in the oven. Drop into a plank while your food is heating up in the microwave. Keep moving. Work out first thing in the morning. That way, you canʼt skip it later when youʼre tired or when a tempting last-minute invite pops up. Take advantage of seasonal offers at your gym of choice. Black Friday might have come and gone, but that doesnʼt mean youʼve missed the chance to save big. A lot of places offer discounted gift cards (a $100 card for $80, for example), and some gift the gifter for the purchase. One year, we got two free classes with our discounted gift card purchase. We told them to keep the card and just credit our account—a whopping $75 or so in savings.

tion and downing one sugary piña colada after another—is as detrimental to your health as chronic overeating for months at a time. The conclusion: your body can adapt to short periods of overindulgence, so if spiked hot cocoa is your thing, yield to your desire and pour another glass. Just don’t do it every day until the ball drops. Think Wilde (Oscar Wilde, that is): “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” If you’re tempted Reward Yourself to down that second “Meeting your exercise flute of bubbly or slide goals, even short-term another slice of pumpones, is cause for celekin pie onto your plate, bration,” that Harvard you should know that, special report reminds on average, it takes six us. “Whether your reward is small or large, months to lose your holmake sure it’s something iday weight, according to a 2016 report in the that’s meaningful and enjoyable. Avoid rewards New England Journal of Medicine, which tracked you might regret soon 1,781 Americans over after, such as eating an the course of the year. ice cream cone if your Sure, the pie may taste ultimate goal is losing good now, sending a weight.” Consider instead upgrading to Spo- surge of dopamine into your blood stream, but tify Premium so you’ll that surge isn’t strong have limitless tunes to motivate your workouts. enough to carry you through to May—when If you are overinmost people finally stop dulging on the sweets, carrying around the don’t be too hard on annual December gains, yourself. Researchers from Deakin University returning to baseline in Australia looked into weights. That’s a long haul. Some pies are whether a short-term worth it. The choice is binge on carbs—like up to you. when you’re on vacadrinking eight ounces of water for every hour you’re in the air to prevent dehydration. “Staying hydrated helps ward off infections, especially when traveling by air,” explains cleaning and organizing expert Donna Smallin Kuper. “Low humidity inside the cabin creates the perfect storm for cold and flu-like viruses. … Staying hydrated helps counteract the effects of jet lag, so you’ll feel better when you arrive at your destination.”

DECEM BER 2019

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THE LIFE HOROSCOPE

SAGITTARIUS, RECENT KUDOS FOR YOUR EFFORTS ARE ABOUT TO CREATE THE KIND OF PATH THAT ALLOWS YOU TO MOVE FORWARD.

DECEMBER HOROSCOPE What do the stars hold for you this month? TEXT MONA VAN JOSEPH

NOV. 22–DEC. 21

DEC. 22–JAN. 19

JAN. 20–FEB. 18

FEB. 19–MARCH 20

MARCH 21–APRIL 19

As much as you’d like to have your own thing (business, adventure, or item), it is not good timing right now. You’ve been a bit scattered lately. Recent kudos for your efforts are about to create the kind of path that allows you to move forward.

Admit it. You do your best stuff when you’re a little stressed. That energy has always allowed you to get into the moment and concentrate on a deep level. Instead of fighting the energy, decide to embrace it this month. It will be your gift of focus.

You’ve always been a bit of a risk-taker. These 31 days will be about doing what has not been done before, like making a casino a nonprofit entity with proceeds to benefit an organization near and dear to you.

As much as you may dread it, you will find more opportunities for joy, romance, and change when you participate in group activities. Accept all invitations. Give to charity and be in the public eye.

Reach deep within to see how creative you can be. Your inventive approach to holiday gatherings with friends will set the tone for 2020. Invent a new cocktail or start a unique holiday tradition.

SAGITTARIUS

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CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

ARIES

THE LIFE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mona Van Joseph has been an intuitive since 2002. She is an author, columnist, and host of Psychic View Radio. She created DiceWisdom.com, which also has a smartphone app. mona.vegas

HOROSCOPE

someone presents one im- “Ninety percent of success pression, and you find out is showing up” is going to If your work has become differently, do not hesitate work wonders for you. dull, it’s time to add an ex- to 86 them out of your life. citing element to your cur- You should cull away any SEPT. 23–OCT. 22 rent activities or maybe dishonesty or intrigue now. dump them entirely and Someone unexpected do something new. You are JULY 23–AUG. 22 has nudged you along an artist in your work and into what you really want excellent at what you do. This is an anti-procrasti- to do. Make a total comIt’s time to enjoy it again. nation month. Do not hes- mitment to this very supitate to take care of things portive energy and perMAY 21–JUNE 20 you promised yourself mit yourself to be what you’d do at the beginning you’ve always known you Be a giver this month— of the year. Purge the old are. What happened by even if it seems that crap that’s building up accident has now turned you’ve been doing a lot of in your living space, and into a direction. that lately. Do not be stin- make space for the new. gy. If it’s the difference of OCT. 23–NOV. 21 a few dollars, spend the AUG. 23–SEPT. 22 extra. If someone needs You made amends recenta little more of your time, There’s the right way, the ly with your actions and be there for them. wrong way, and your way. probably solved some old Love your way, and presnagging issues through JUNE 21–JULY 22 ent it to activities that may your dreams. You’ll start to be a bit out of your comsee things get a little easier If it seems as though fort zone. New environfor you this month. We are you’re not getting the enments will bring you unex- drawn to what rewards us, tire story, you are correct. If pected success. The quote so keep allowing this gift. APRIL 20–MAY 20

TAURUS

LIBRA

LEO

GEMINI

VIRGO

SCORPIO

CANCER

VIRGO, EMBRACE YOUR WAY OF DOING THINGS, AND PRESENT IT TO ACTIVITIES THAT MAY BE OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE. DECEM BER 2019

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THE LIFE HIGH PROFILE

Real Talk

with Kimberly Dillon The former CMO of Papa & Barkley and a prominent voice in the industry gets candid about her success and taking charge of health and wellness. TEXT LEANDRA ROMERO

When Kimberly Dillon walks into the room at the Females to the Front conference at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs, California, everyone notices. She’s wearing a vibrant cobalt blue dress with eyeliner to match,

but it’s also her essence. She emanates the kind of largerthan-life personality that any company would want spearheading marketing initiatives— and she has excelled in that role. Dillon was named one of the

top leaders to watch in tech by the Huffington Post. She’s worked for household names like Clorox and the NFL and raised millions of dollars for startups around the world as well as founding the beauty app House of Mikko.

After working with Justin Bieber on a tech startup, she decided to enter the cannabis industry, becoming the CMO of Papa & Barkley. The company quickly went from a small startup to a multimillion dollar success story,

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THE LIFE HIGH PROFILE

buy something that’s one solo ingredient in a bottle and there are 95 brands. That’s crazy. It creates a commodity. I’d argue that people don’t have a relationship with where they buy Can you catch our their vitamins. But they readers up on what often have a relationyou’ve been working on over the past few months? ship with what they put KD: I have a couple proj- on their skin and hair. So beauty builds more ects in the works. One brand loyalty. is a consulting practice called Plant and Prosper What can other (plantandprosper.co). I companies do to provide coaching and stand out when it product development services for people look- comes to marketing ing to enter the cannabis their brand? space. It’s been thrilling KD: I get a lot of people coming to me who say, and I’m drawing on ex“I want to reach women, pertise from my time at and I want to do wellPapa & Barkley. ness.” Well, I think all of I’m also fundraisit’s wellness. I think the ing for a company I’m starting called Frigg. It’s future is that cannabis about functional beauty, will be an ingredient, part of something so it leverages CBD and bigger. There are more other cannabinoids to than just the two canfocus on the balance of nabinoids, so what does beauty both inside and CBD really do? What out. However, CBD is just one of several amaz- does CBN really do? And then I don’t ing ingredients—in fact, it’s not the lead ingredi- think we’ve really nailed smell, taste, and texture. ent in the product. It’s There’s so much we can about building a brand do to sophisticate and at the intersection of wellness and beauty, but optimize the experience. Wave Two won’t just specifically focusing on stress, burnout, and anx- be that we put CBD or iety. It’s a different play. cannabis in it. It will be more elevated products where that will be just What ignited the one talking point. The change of roles? cannabis might be the KD: There’s a lot of similar stuff in CBD. You least interesting thing.

COURTESY KIMBERLY DILLON

leading Dillon to create her own consulting company for other cannabis pioneers. She took the time to talk to Sensi after speaking at Females to the Front.

“The future is that cannabis will be an ingredient… There will be more elevated products where that will be just one talking point. The cannabis might be the least interesting thing.” —Kimberly Dillon

How have you overcome the lack of mainstream healthcare? KD: Society is shifting. Doctors gave us opioids, and we know that didn’t work. So, I think we’ve outsourced our healthcare to a lot of individuals. What cannabis represents is a gateway to other plants—to true self care and self-healing. You know what your body needs. We’re not one-size-fits-all. Our healthcare system is broken in a lot of ways beyond the opioids crisis. Our families say things like, “I went to the doctor, and they didn’t know what was going on.” What do you do next? What’s next isn’t frustration. What’s next isn’t pills. What’s next is looking at an alternative so you can take matters into your own hands. What’s been the most challenging and rewarding part about working in the industry? KD: The challenging part was that there was no infrastructure. There is no bank. There is no hierarchy or HR. So you’re not doing just your job; you’re doing your job plus 18 other things. But it has been empowering for me because I’m seeing history. I’m seeing things unfold and minds change in real time. It’s so incredibly powerful to see the impact of my work. DECEM BER 2019

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THE LIFE S AV I N G D AY L I G H T

THE

GHOST OF TIME PAST Why our vote for Proposition 7 won’t change the way we experience time. TEXT PATTY MALESH

Time. Twice annually, we screw with it. Take an hour from one day; add one around four months later. Every autumn after we “fall back,” I scowl at a night sky that’s jumped the gun and made early

evening feel more like eternal night. I dream of revolution and revolt, of a march on Washington at dusk on the shortest day of the year. I want to see tens of thousands of Americans,

all shades, all genders and sexualities, the richest oligarchs marching arm-in-arm with subway buskers, documented and undocumented, millennials and boomers, Texans alongside Cali-

fornians flanked by Detroiters, all side-by-side in solidarity and unison chanting, “Hell, no! Hell, no! We won’t let our hour go!” and holding signs with slogans like “Keep Your Laws Off DECEM BER 2019

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THE LIFE S AV I N G D AY L I G H T

My Clocks.” Signs with photoshopped images of Johnny Cash giving us all the bird, only in this version, it’s Father Time underscored by the slogan “Time is Mine!” And I am not alone. Research has shown that time shifts in either direction—springing forward an hour and falling back—can trigger depression and bipolar disorders. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is associated specifically with losing an hour of afternoon light at the onset of winter, while increased rates of suicide, miscarriages, and heart attacks correlate with the start of Daylight Savings Time every spring. Time change also leads to negative, even dangerous, physiological and cognitive impairments, albeit short term, due to changes in our circadian rhythms. This burdensome practice is surrounded by lore. Did the idea stem from a misread of Ben Franklin’s 1784 satirical letter to the editor in the Journal de Paris, in which he suggested Parisians wake earlier to save money on candles? (I doubt it.) Was it to give farmers an extra hour of daylight during the grow season? (No. No it wasn’t.) Did the US begin the practice as a fuel-saving measure enacted during the World

Wars as it was in Britain and Germany? (Sure, but not for peacetime use.) Was the candy lobby really behind the 2007 postponement of our annual fall back to standard time from late October to early November? (Yes. Yes it was.) Time may change me… Time didn’t used to be malleable. Time change did not become law until April 12, 1966, when congress passed, and L.B. Johnson signed into law, the Universal Time Act mandating Daylight Saving Time (DST) observance from the last Sunday of April to the last Sunday of October. This means that your living friends and family members, anyone who

remembers 1970, also remembers a time when time didn’t change. Not every state hopped on board in 1966, and that was their right—at the time. Hawaii and Arizona keep the same time year-round. (They look at us and SMDH.) And strangely enough, though the practice is said to be linked to farmers, it is the farm lobby we have to thank for delaying the mandate in peacetime that FDR hoped to enact permanently after WWII. By 1966, however, congress could no longer tolerate the free-for-all that led to inconsistent time practices across

states and regions, voting to lock it all down under federal law. Specifically, time was now under the purview of the Department of Transportation staffers, overlords—er, I mean overseers—of time zones and the “universal observance of Daylight Savings Time.” It makes sense when you think about it. Our time lords are transit professionals because it’s not just time travel that matters, it’s time that matters to travelers (and goods and the sellers of goods). The Universal Time Act marks the end of chapter one in our story about changing time.

Your living friends and family, anyone who remembers 1970, also remembers a time when time didn’t change.

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THE LIFE S AV I N G D AY L I G H T

Then things get weird. In 1972, the law was amended for states that spanned two time zones, allowing them to opt out of the observance of Daylight Savings Time in part or all of their state. Enter Indiana. Pay close attention; this isn’t pretty. Taking full advantage of this legal tweak, most of the counties in Indiana decided to observe Eastern Standard Time year-round and opt out of Daylight Savings Time. A few rogue counties followed their inner Johnny Cash and decided to choose #TeamCentralTime and #TeamDST, thereby syncing them with Chicago, Illinois, year-round but with Indianapolis only during the national observance of DTS. This hot mess lasted until 2005 when, because of this legal loophole, Indiana was granted the gift of time. The state was allowed to refuse to observe DST like its Hawaiian and Arizonan kin. Then in 1986, Ronald Reagan signed into law yet another time f**k whereby DST began on the first Sunday in April, rather than the last, extending DST from approximately six months to approximately seven months in duration. Then again in 2005, George W. Bush, with much encouragement

from the candy lobby— and the golf lobby and big barbeque (what?)—saw opportunity in one more hour of daylight guaranteed through Halloween. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 changed the start of DST to the second Sunday in March and the end to the first Sunday in November. Our current approach to time, in California and 46 other US states, began after the passage of this act on March 11, 2007. …but you can’t trace time. When all is said and done, I’m not mad at it. The way I see it, we are now only four months shy of year-round late-day sun. I am holding out hope that we can just go Full Monty this time, all 12 months every year from now on, instead of eking in that direction by falling back later or springing forward sooner until time stands still enough to fuse together as one again. With any luck (and a bit of lobbying), this past November just may have been the last time California f**ks with time. In the 2018 California general election, ballot Proposition 7 passed with 7,167,315 “yes” votes, just shy of 60 percent of total votes and a fairly strong victory for proponents. Prop 7 called, in

I am holding out hope that we can just go Full Monty this time, all 12 months every year from now on, instead of eking in that direction by falling back later or springing forward sooner until time stands still enough to fuse together as one again.

its own cute and totally user-friendly-ballot-language kind of way, for the end of time change protocols and procedures in our great state. However, the ballot proposition was not a straight vote to make Daylight Savings Time permanent because…laws. Rather, it gave the state legislature the authority to “change Daylight Savings Time period by two-thirds vote, if changes are consistent with federal law.” And right now, federal law still prohibits doing so. Unsurprisingly, then, the one thing we can all agree on is changing time is never simple. In January 2020, Democratic Rep. Kansen Chu from San Jose, an original sponsor of Proposition 7, vowed to move California Assembly Bill 7 forward in the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications committee. In order for the bill to become law, it needs a two-thirds vote from both the Assembly and the Senate. Even if it does pass, however, we still need to deal with that pesky federal law. Currently, there are four bills in the US Congress designed to grant states the power to change the changing of time—but not in a timely manner. Congress has until December 2020 to act on these bills. Le sigh. DECEM BER 2019

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patty Malesh is the managing editor for Sensi North Bay.

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KUSH QUEEN

THE LIFE

Products are available in stores and online. kushqueen.shop @kushqueen

KUSH QUEEN

Fit for a Queen You don’t have to be royalty to enjoy the finest cannabis.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KUSH QUEEN

TEXT RACHEL SVOBODA

The sweet aroma of essential oils filled the air around me. It was a relaxing mix of lavender and sage that paired beautifully with the stylish and contemporary ambiance of the all-new 6,300-squarefoot Anaheim headquarters of Kush Queen.

Everything about this sophisticated office is polished, professional, and on-brand for a female-led business. Its 32-product line includes CBD- and THC-infused bath bombs, lotion, body wash, ingestibles, and topicals. All products are

infused with essential oils and align cannabis with the health and wellness industry. Founder Olivia Alexander and I got cozy on a pink suede couch, where she opened up about her entrepreneurial journey. Her childhood was spent

in a part of Louisiana between Baton Rouge and New Orleans known as “Cancer Alley.” These River Parishes contain numerous industrial plants, making the area notorious for clusters of cancer patients, as well as people battling mental DECEM BER 2019

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THE LIFE KUSH QUEEN

“I’m a true believer that cannabis is a legitimate tool for wellness, and I eventually learned that successful people can do drugs in the morning— because it’s a healthier choice.”

PHOTO BY DAVID MULLER

—Olivia Alexander, Founder, Kush Queen

illness, alcoholism, and other health problems. Alexander’s parents moved her and her brother to Santa Clarita, California, when she was 13, leaving extended family behind. With that experience behind them, Alexander’s parents were leery of alcohol consumption and allowed the usage of cannabis for health-related purposes. “I was the cool kid because my parents allowed us to ‘get high’ at the house,” Alexander says. This open approach normalized consumption and removed the negative social stigma.

with the company tagline, ‘Elevating you daily,’” Alexander says. “Now that I have a platform, I want to use my voice to talk about these things.” And she has done so with rousing success. Her four-year-old company is projected to reach $4 million in sales by the end of 2019. “I certainly never imagined that cannabis would take me here,” she says. “I wanted to be a small-town girl who made it and have always wanted to see my name in lights. I’m so honored that it’s with cannabis and on my own terms.” The secret lies within Maintaining a balance The journey for natural health and wellness with of ambition and modesty, Kush Queen is still a famKush Queen is through ily-run business that inendocannabinoids. Recludes Alexander’s fiancé, search shows that canmother, brother, cousin, nabis exerts its effects, and other extended famiin part, by mimicking the endocannabinoids al- ly, who all work in the dayto-day operations. “This ready present inside the is just the beginning,” human body. EndocanAlexander says. “I comnabinoid receptors are pare myself to the biggest present in our skin, immune cells, bone, fat tis- brands in the world, and sue, liver, pancreas, skel- I won’t feel accomplished etal muscle, heart, blood until I have a company vessels, kidney, and gas- with 100-plus people.” trointestinal tract. More than skin-deep The versatile line of In the wake of ProposiKush Queen products ranges from topicals to in- tion 64, which legalized gestibles, which allow for cannabis sales in Califorabsorption through differ- nia in 2018, CBD brands flooded the wellness ent endocannabinoid receptors in the body. “I use market, trying to capture the sizable opportunity Kush Queen products as presented by mostly fepart of my daily routine. male customers willing to That’s how we came up Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder early in life, Alexander is transparent about her journey with prescription antidepressants and antianxiety meds. “I was taught that I wouldn’t be functional or I’d be on the ‘crazy train’ [without medication],” she says. “However, I’m a true believer that cannabis is a legitimate tool for wellness, and I eventually learned that successful people can do drugs in the morning—because it’s a healthier choice.”

DECEM BER 2019

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THE LIFE

PHOTOS COURTESY OF KUSH QUEEN

KUSH QUEEN

spend money on self-care. By this time, Kush Queen already had a jump-start on the competition, and Alexander had a clear vision of how to expand into the beauty industry while staying true to the Kush Queen promise that all products will be “handmade with love, transparency, and you in mind.” Alexander trusts her gut and looks for synergy as partnerships develop with brands such as Alice + Olivia and retailers such as Macy’s, Urban Outfitters, Uncommon Goods, and Neiman Marcus. Last year, Kush Queen participated in New York Fashion Week. Alexander isn’t afraid of taking risks. “Earlier this year, we went to Beautycon, which was a ballsy move because CBD was allowed at the last moment and a majority of the 5,000 people in attendance were new to CBD.” The beauty industry is a significant next step. “People buy beauty products to feel

something (usually pretty), but they don’t make us actually feel anything. I want to push that boundary,” Alexander says. “Under our makeup, we’re covering inflammation and redness. The idea is that in wearing CBD or THC in a makeup primer or foundation, we’re putting powerful anti-inflammatory and endocannabinoids onto the skin, which are being absorbed into the bloodstream.” “The business is all-consuming, and this year I got a life coach to help find some balance,” Alexander shares. “As a start-up, working seven days per week in survival mode to the point of exhaustion is unsustainable.” Now is the time for Kush Queen to solidify its position in the health and wellness market and achieve sustainable growth through online sales, local dispensaries, and mainstream retailers. And they are. DECEM BER 2019

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SOUNDING THE DEEP Zach Pickett turns up the volume at Crested Butte.

You don’t have to wander far from the lifts to find incredible music venues at Colorado’s best resorts.

Colorado’s ski and snowboard resorts have a well-deserved reputation for rocking terrain and powder stashes for those in the know. But as mountain towns continue to evolve, they are bringing in the kind of musical happen96 D E N V ER / BOU LDE R

ings you wouldn’t expect of ski areas, where some dude strumming James Taylor during après has been the tired norm. In fact, these resorts have venues that may just bring fans up to the mountains for more than the snow D EC EMB ER 2019

this winter. Here’s the inside scoop on where to find the goods on the slopes and music in the evening at three of our favorite Colorado resorts.

ski town that has insisted on bucking the system and staying weird now that corporate leviathan Vail Resorts has purchased Crested Butte Mountain Resort. But one Crested Butte thing is for sure: the Shred: There’s a lot terrain here serves of uncertainty in the plenty of thrills—

with one hell of a view. The North Face T-Bar accesses chutes, drops, and stashes that have served as a proving ground for generations of extreme skiers. Up your personal game by threading your way through it. If you’re

seeking a healthy dose of steeps away from the Texan tourists and big-air wannabes, head to the far-off wonders of Teocalli 2 Bowl. These cliff bands and deep bowls require a short schuss to access, but prove well worth it for

PHOTO BY DAVE KOZLOWSKI/CBMR

TEXT DOUG SCHNITZSPAHN

PLAN YOUR TRIP

PHOTOS BY TAYLOR AHEARN, CBMR (TOP) / NATHAN BILOW, CRESTED BUTTE CENTER FOR THE ARTS (BOTTOM)

Crested Butte: skicb.com Crested Butte Center for the Arts: crestedbuttearts.org

a chance at some untracked bliss. No worries, it’s not all extreme here. The resort replaced its Teocalli Lift with a quad chair, doubling its uphill capacity and offering quick access to beginner and intermediate terrain. And if you’ve caught the AT bug, Crested Butte’s uphill policy allows you (and your leashed dog) to skin or fat bike up the mountain before the lifts start turning and after they stop. During operating hours, you can skin up on designated routes (but no bikes or dogs). You’ll need an Uphill Use Ticket and be aware of dangers and ski area operations. The Red Lady chair accesses blues and greens with sweeping views of the snow-covered Elk Range across the valley from the eponymous butte. Listen: Crested Butte’s brand-new Center for the Arts facility breaks the mold for what a little mountain town can offer, not just in music but also with visual arts, film, and hands-on

TAKE A DEEP BREATH—AND DROP Youʼll find sweeping panoramas and plenty of thrills on the way down at Crested Butte.

workshops ranging from stained glass to cooking. Much thought and clever engineering went into the LEED-certified venue. It was built to reflect sound, with canted walls and curved ceiling panels that will make both audiophiles and architects drool. No more than 400 tickets ever go on sale for each show, and the house configuration can morph from a rollicking dance floor to a more intimate space, depending on the vibe of the artist. The new music venue has already drawn big names— the types of bands

Behold the beauty of Crested Butteʼs brand new music venue.

you’d find playing at Red Rocks. This season’s lineup includes Matisyahu (December 6), Leftover Salmon (December 27–28), and The Motet (January 3). Vail & Beaver Creek Shred: To ski or ride a place as big as Vail (5,289 skiable acres), you need a

plan. Powder days can be chaos, so choose a route that gives you a few warm-up runs in places like Game Creek Bowl as you make your way to the back side of the mountain for lunch in Blue Sky Basin. Make a few laps in Blue Sky before working your way back to the front.

And don’t ignore the front side, especially when the Back Bowls are skied out and crudded up. The Northwoods chair offers terrain that will please all levels of skiers and riders without the mad dash of the Back Bowls. Try to grab a few extended screamers on Riva Ridge and Prima DECEM BER 2019

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PLAN YOUR TRIP

PHOTOS COURTESY VAIL MOUNTAIN (TOP LEFT) / COURTESY BEAVER CREEK RESORT (TOP RIGHT) / COURTESY VPAC (BOTTOM)

Vail: vail.com Beaver Creek: beavercreek.com Vilar Performing Arts Center: vilarpac.org

venue you’ve never heard of—and that’s a crime. Never mind that it’s centrally located just a short walk from the bottom of Beaver Creek’s Centennial Express lift (or a short Uber ride from Vail), the acoustics in this cozy 530-seat theater make ev-

DEEP THOUGHTS Seek powder stashes in Vailʼs trees (above) and escape the crowds at Beaver Creek (top right).

Cornice before they become a highway at the end of the day. Plus, the snow stays grippy on the shady north slopes when the mountain’s southern exposures get sloppy or, worse, frozen solid. Why does Beaver Creek stay so mellow when the crowds descend on Vail just down I-70? We have no idea— but it’s well worth hitting up Vail’s sister resort when you find the former’s

parking structures are jampacked. Plus, you’ll get treated to free platters of Beaver Creek’s signature freshly baked chocolate chip cookies at the base as well as sunblock in the lift line. Thanks to long, open, leg-burning runs and the legendary Birds of Prey World Cup course, Beaver Creek draws plenty of frontside racers but the off-piste goods here are just as tempting. If it’s

dumping, head to the black diamonds off the Grouse Mountain Express lift and the powder stashes in Royal Elk Glade. Meanwhile, beginners and intermediates will find plenty of terrain to keep them feeling confident in Bachelor Gulch and the Arrowhead Village section of the mountain. Listen: The Vilar Performing Arts Center (VPAC) is the best music

ery note ring clear and crisp without blowing your eardrums. This season at VPAC, enjoy classical-contemporary fusion with DSQ electric string quartet (January 9), classic rock with Three Dog Night (March 3), and festival-circuit fave Sam Bush (March 9). The lineup also includes spectacles like Cirque Mechanics 42FT (January 18) and showings of Warren Miller’s latest flick, Timeless (December 6–7).

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TUNE IN: The crisp acoustics in the intimate VPAC will keep you coming back.

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Conscious Chocolate Bean-to-bar goodness you won’t feel bad about eating. TEXTJOHN LEHNDORFF

Chocolate is not a practical gift. It’s indulgence with soul-satisfying creaminess, a warmly stimulating aroma, and some sugar for liftoff. Chocolate is a flavor of memory, and we willingly toss

aside our dietary rules for it, especially during this holiday season. Unfortunately, a cloud hangs over our sweet favorite for those of us who also care how our heirloom green beans are grown

and who demand transparency in the grassfed beef we serve our families. The world’s biggest chocolate brands freely admit they cannot trace most of the bars they sell back to the farm where the

cacao beans were grown. They can’t say for sure that child labor—and sometimes slavery—isn’t involved in the making of Hershey’s Kisses and most of the chocolate Americans consume.

The companies know surprisingly little about the growing techniques in West Africa, where two-thirds of the world’s cocoa supply comes from, according to US Labor Department statistics. The DECEM BER 2019

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” —Charles M. Schulz

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GIFTING GREAT: Conscious Chocolate Cultura Craft Chocolate Cultura offers 70% Haiti, 70% Guatemala, 75% Belize, and other single origin, bean-to-bar chocolates. MUST TASTE

• Chocolate bar with Deerhammer American Single Malt and cacao nibs. • Cafe de Olla: Great hot beverage with cacao, dark roasted coffee, cinnamon, and piloncillo sugar. • Chocolate Covered Honey Caramels: Made with Bee Ranch Co. honey, 75% Belize dark chocolate, and Maldon salt.

Available at specialty food stores and at Cultura Craft Chocolate in Denver. culturachocolate.com

Fortuna Chocolate Fortuna offers 80% and 70% dark chocolate bars, bars sprinkled with herbs, and an exquisitely creamy, not-too-sweet white chocolate. MUST TASTE

environmental-ethical impact of other key ingredients in chocolate bars, from sugar to vanilla, can also be troubling.

opened its Factoria + Cafe on the artsy mural-covered stretch of Morrison Road in Denver. It’s a perfect location for the Latin AmerCrafting Sweets ican–inspired chocfrom Bean to Bar olate maker, which There is a new gen- uses Day of the eration of chocolate Dead artwork on makers, including its bar wrappers. many from Fort That’s where you Collins to Coloracan find Cultura’s do Springs, who single-origin chocare shifting the olate bars, sourced cacao paradigm and from Guatemala, crafting ethically Belize, and Haiti, sourced chocolate. as well as hot cups These artisans of drinking chocohand-sort cacao late, a liquid elixir beans and roast, known as cocoa for temper, and turn grownups. them into blow“The main your-mind treats. reason I’m in this Cultura Craft business is that I Chocolate just love chocolate, and

I wanted to learn more about making it directly from the fruit,” says Cultura’s owner Damaris Ronkanen. “With a lot of chocolate, you really don’t know where it comes from. The craft end of chocolate is moving the attention back to the farmers who grow the beans and making sure they are treated fairly,” she says. Why Fresh Chocolate Matters Mexican-born chocolate maker Aldo Ramirez Carrasco owns Boulder’s Fortuna Chocolate with

• 55% Light Milk Chocolate with Mint. • Pistachio and Pepita White Chocolate.

Available at select stores and at Denver Botanic Gardens. fortuna-chocolate.com

Moksha Chocolate Moksha offers bean-to-bar criollo dark chocolate bars, vegan white chocolate bars, and chocolate infused with Colorado-grown full-spectrum hemp CBD oil. All are organic, vegan, nut-free, gluten-free and non-GMO. MUST TASTE

• Moksha CBD Chocolate: 72 percent single-varietal criollo. • Vegan White Chocolate with coconut cream and dried raspberries.

Available at mokshachocolate.com (continued on p. 105) DECEM BER 2019

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Radiantly Raw Chocolate This shop offers confections made from raw cacao, coconut oil, and 80% Salty Double Dark Hearts, made with Peruvian cocoa and Himalayan pink salt. MUST TASTE

• Rawlo: Cacao butter-maple syrup “caramel” filling. • Grinning Coconut: Like a Mounds bar, but better.

Available at Radiantly Raw locations in Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs. radiantlyrawkitchen.com

Dar Chocolate Dar offers single-origin bars made with organic cacao beans, sugar, and cacao butter, including 72% Peru. MUST TASTE

• 60% Caramel Coffee Milk Chocolate • Coconut Milk Chocolate • Dark Coffee 90%: Ecuadorian cacao with beans from Conscious Coffees

Available at Marczyk Fine Foods, Alfalfa’s Market, Lucky's Market, Argonaut Liquor. darchocolate.com

Nuance Chocolate This shop and cafe offers single-origin, small-batch bars, drinking chocolate, truffles, and house-made chocolate syrup. MUST TASTE

• 70% Dark with ground Colorado chilies • 55% Dark Goat Milk Chocolate • Bags of Roasted Ghana Cacao Nibs

Available at Nuance Chocolate Cafe in Fort Collins. nuancechocolate.com

his wife, Sienna Trapp-Bowie, and her brother Spencer Bowie. They roast, grind, temper, and prepare their chocolate in a 26-foot mobile chocolate factory truck. They work with Mazateco farmers in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Oaxaca to produce distinctively fruity Xoconusco cacao used in chocolate bars as well as in desserts at restaurants in Boulder and Denver like Blackbelly, Arcana, and Beckon. “Where we source our cacao,

it’s grown in shade, not sunlight, so it preserves the canopy of trees,” Carrasco says. “Growing cacao in direct sunlight creates harshness in the flavor. It’s also grown in biodiversity, which is healthier for the land.” The problems with the commodity chocolate found in most commercial bars and confections go beyond transparency. A Cadbury Milk Chocolate Bar is designed to taste the same every time, so processing removes any

nuances, subtleties, and extra flavors. “The bars may also be on the shelf a long time,” Carrasco says. “With great chocolate, freshness really does matter, and it loses its aroma and flavor over time.” Fortuna’s truffles and bars—including the popular (and darkest) 80 percent cacao bar— are made and sold within two weeks. Cacao bean harvests change from year to year, so batches of artisan chocolate will taste different over time. Carrasco compares it to yearly vintages of a specific wine. Doing Better than “44% Sustainable” When you shop, you’ll see a dozen chocolate-bar brands that claim to be natural or organic or fair trade. To find ethically sourced chocolate, the first question you need to ask is, Does this company make chocolate, or does it just flavor and repackage chocolate imported from Europe? “There are large global chocolate DECEM BER 2019

ALL-CHOCOLATE DINNER DESTINATION Take the chocoholic on your gift list for a total immersion at Denverʼs Chocolate Lab (chocolatelabdenver. com). This sweet shop has a small restaurant that adds cacao to every course. Bourbon chocolate barbecue sauce is served on pulled pork, and the quinoa salad has a chocolate balsamic vinaigrette. Bacon-wrapped dates are stuffed with andouille sausage and plated with dark chocolate with a whiskey-molasses chocolate sauce. You should see the dessert menu.

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producers who brag that their chocolate is 44 percent sustainable. That means the other 56 percent of it is unsustainable,” says Michael Caines. He and his wife, Jennifer, launched the Shanao Cacao Cooperative in Boulder to support the community in Peru, where they had purchased a cacao farm. “We have a vertically integrated business. When you buy our chocolate, you can know from the start where it

comes from, who grew it, how much we paid for it, and how it came to market,” Caines says. “What we’re trying to do is set up a meaningful exchange between the consumers and the farmers who grow the cacao in the Alto Mayo Valley of Peru.” Shanao markets 72 percent dark, 65 percent dark, and white chocolate bars, some with tasty toppings like raspberries or sea salt, under the Moksha Chocolate label. Its most popular item is

Moksha’s 3.2 ounce chocolate bar that’s 72 percent Peruvian chocolate and organic cane sugar infused with 100 mg of full spectrum CBD isolate from hemp grown in Lyons. It takes five to ten days to make each batch of Moksha chocolate. “You look at every single cacao bean, roast them, and cool them down,” Caines explains. “You grind the beans with sugar for one to three days using heat and force to get the right texture and

Raw chocolates are made from raw, organic raw coconut oil and cacao powder with organic oil, honey, and vanilla extract. Owner Jacquie Mosher fills a growing demand for sweets that are free from gluten, dairy, refined sugar, soy, or GMOs. Bestsellers include the Elvis Style Cup, a raw chocolate shell filled with alPay the Price mond-cashew butfor Ethics, ter and bananas. Sustainability, The chocolate Flavor bars produced by Colorado is home these Colorado to several other companies—chocbean-to-bar proolate you can feel ducers. Gila and good about eatJoel Dar of Denver’s Dar Chocolate ing—is never going to be as inexpensive craft single-origin as supermarket bars available at specialty markets. chocolate bars, according to Moksha’s In Fort Collins, Michael Caines. Toby and Alix “We have to pay Gadd oversee Nuance Chocolate, the farmers enough a bean-to-bar arti- that it is worth it for them to stop san shop offering drinking chocolate slash-and-burn clearing of the junand truffles plus gle canopy,” Caines a chocolate taster flight of five differ- says. “It’s worth it to pay for ethically ent single-origin sourced chocodark chocolates. Finally, there’s a late because you Colorado Springs– know what you are getting and know based chocolatier where the money who takes healthy chocolate one more is going. Plus, it tastes better.” step. Radiantly flavor.” It’s then set in bricks that age for two or three weeks before packaging. Hopefully, wine-like nuances are coaxed out of the cacao. Shanao had been focused on Peru but will soon expand to source cacao in southern Belize in an arrangement with two tribes and 39 villages.

DECEM BER 2019

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John Lehndorff writes Nibbles for the Boulder Weekly and hosts Radio Nibbles on KGNU (streaming at kgnu.org).

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Raising the Bar PHOTOS BY REBECCA ANN PHOTOGRAPHY

Above Union Station’s Great Hall, an elegant haven beckons. TEXT CAITLIN DeMARCO

This month, there’s a lot of running around as you flit from an office party to your friend’s gift exchange then possibly to Las Vegas for MJBizCon, as many of the 50,000 or so Coloradans who

work in the cannabis industry are doing the second week of December. (Because the holidays aren’t hectic enough.) Doing it all can feel like a chore, or it can make you feel like a

glamorous superhuman who’s inspired by elegant traditions. If you fall under the latter category, may we suggest you add a new event to your holiday calendar by making a reservation at The CooDECEM BER 2019

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GO THERE

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The Cooper Lounge at Denver Union Station cooperlounge.com

S I P S AT T H E S TAT I O N

per Lounge—the toniest cocktail bar you’ll find at a train station anywhere. Don’t believe us; Bon Appétit made the claim. If you’ve been before, you get it. If you haven’t, that’s probably because you aren’t even aware it’s there. The Cooper Lounge is nestled in the mezzanine of Denver Union Station, where it offers views of the city through 28-foothigh cast-iron windows and of the grand architecture of the historic Great Hall and the happenings below. It’s reached via stairs tucked away off the main gallery, making it a destination reserved for those in the know. And for those who have reservations. Yes, reservations. At a cocktail bar. You can book a spot for parties of 20 and less

up to two weeks in advance, and you should make one now. Because, yes, it’s worth it—even the $25 gin and tonic is worth it, in no small part because of the excellent presentation. Which is standard practice at Cooper, where drinks are presented in impressive glasses on silver trays by polished servers. Consider it a safe space to recharge from the frenzy of the month. A charming location for a gift exchange. A jumping off point for a sophisticated date night. Or the ideal place to usher in the next roaring ’20s. The art deco–inspired decor is the ideal backdrop for any New Year’s Eve celebration, so keep an eye out for news about Union Station’s annual champagne toast and gala event. DECEM BER 2019

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Baked Plums Servings: 8 / THC per serving: 2.5 mg / CBD per serving: 2.5 mg

What’s Cookin’

INGREDIENTS

These infused starters and desserts are delicious celebrations of standout fall flavors. TEXT CAITLIN DeMARCO RECIPES STILLWATER BRANDS

Plain Jane accompaniments have no place at an indulgent elevated holiday dinner party—but that doesn’t mean the starters and sweets have to be empty-calorie-laden dishes that leave you feeling down instead of lifting you

up. Made with simple, healthy ingredients, these dishes will make you feel blissed out and satisfied, not stuffed. These recipes, courtesy of Denver-based Stillwater Brands, can be used with or without the company’s

8 plums, cut in half and pit removed Juice of 2 large oranges 4 teaspoons real maple syrup 4 whole star anise 4 packets Ripple Balanced 5 (5 mg THC, 5 mg CBD each)

INST RUCT IONS

• Heat the oven to until plums are soft. 360°F. • Serve 2 plum halves • Place halved plums in in a small bowl with a baking dish. a scoop of vanilla ice • Over low heat, warm cream for dessert, or the orange juice vanilla yogurt for a and maple syrup in sweet snack. a small saucepan, stirring to combine. • Pour the juice and syrup mixture over the plums and arrange the star anise between the plums. • Sprinkle Ripple packets over plums. • Bake for 30 minutes DECEM BER 2019

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MAKE IT

THE SCENE

Stillwater Brands Ripple Powdered Edible stillwaterbrands.life

RECIPES

signature edible, Ripple, single-serve powder packets of odorless, flavorless, calorie-free, dissolvable THC and CBD. The packaged powders eliminate the need to deal with the multistep, math-involved process of cooking with cannabutter, which can sometimes lead to higher levels of THC in the dishes—and higher dinner guests than intended. Ripple makes adding controlled cannabinoid doses to your dishes as simple as adding Splenda to your morning coffee.

HIGHER HINT For un-infused dishes, leave the Ripple out of the recipe and instead set the table with packets of the cannabinoid blends. Your guests can sprinkle on a little or pour on a lot, giving them complete control over their high.

Vegan Pumpkin Soup Servings: 4 / THC per serving: 5 mg

I N G R ED I EN TS

1 tablespoon olive oil 1 medium yellow onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 cans pumpkin puree 2 cups low-sodium vegetable stock 1 can light coconut milk 1 tablespoon maple syrup

IN STRUCT IONS

2 teaspoons • Heat olive oil in a large cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger pot over mediumsalt, and cayenne. ½ teaspoon high heat. Add in • Once the soup cinnamon the onion and garlic. reaches a boil, turn ¼ teaspoon ground Cook for 4 minutes or heat to low and nutmeg until onions become simmer for about 20 1 teaspoon sea salt translucent. minutes. Add Ripple. Pinch of cayenne • Slowly stir in the • Puree until very pepper pumpkin, vegetable smooth. Option to 2 packets Ripple Pure stock, and coconut dress with pepitas, 10 (10 mg THC each) milk. Then add cashew cream, and a maple syrup, ginger, dash of hot sauce. DECEM BER 2019

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E THE SCENE

HIGH SOCIETY

Everything Entrepreneurial Built by the community, for the community, Denver Startup Week is the largest free event of its kind. This past fall, the eighth annual event brought more than 20,000 people together for 350+ programs and events—from “Business is a Drag” to “Designing Fun” to “Women Starting Up After 40.” Back by popular demand, the stress-busting Puppy Panel happy hour was arguably the best in show. Mark your calendar now for next yearʼs round: September 14 to 18, 2020. denverstartupweek.org

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DENVER STARTUP WEEK WHERE: ALL AROUND DENVER WHEN: SEPT. 16–20, 2019 PHOTOS: KARI GEHA PHOTOGRAPHY & DENVER STARTUP WEEK

THE SCENE HIGH SOCIETY

The eighth annual event brought more than 20,000 people together for 350+ programs and events.

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On the Calendar

This month, you’ll find comedy sketches, holiday jazz, and a chance to get your fur baby’s pic snapped with Santa. TEXT SENSI STAFF

December in Colorado could mean days on the slopes (or in offices dreaming of powder days, if that’s your thing) and nights spent cozied up at home away from winter’s chill. But fortunately, Denver, Boulder, and the hotspots in between have a robust community of creatives that will get you out and about. Whether you’re craving art, food, music, community, or all of the above, we’ve got you covered with this hand-picked list of events that are well worth braving the elements to attend. 118 D E N V ER /BOU LDE R

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Holiday Jazz with the Denver Jazz Orchestra Dec. 5 Dazzle at Baurʼs, Denver dazzledenver.com

Queerbots HoliGay Show Dec. 5, 12, 14, 19 The Clocktower Cabaret, Denver clocktowercabaret.com

Kate Maller Jewelry Opening Celebration Dec. 5 Kate Maller, Denver katemaller.com

Stop by and give a warm welcome to local jeweler Kate Maller’s new edgyyet-refined brick and mortar store in the Highlands neighborhood. The shop carries

THE SCENE CA L E N DA R

LEFT: EVENT NAME TOP: DOWNTOWN DENVER RINK CENTER: SANTA PAWS BOTTOM: NEW YEARʼS EVE BASH

handmade goods from a number of artisans across the US who share Maller’s commitment to sustainability.

Smell This Show: Still: Elemental Dec. 6 Clyfford Still Museum, Denver clyffordstillmuseum.org

Encounter different scents and examine how scents can shift perspectives on what you see and feel about Clyfford Still’s vibrant works.

Santa Paws Dec. 7 Copper Kettle Brewing Company, Denver copperkettledenver.com

Get your pup’s picture taken with Santa! Bring your pooch, and your own camera or phone, and $10. Proceeds go to the medical needs of the Golden Retriever Freedom Rescue’s furry friends.

The Gentle Nutcracker Dec. 7 Vance Brand Civic Auditorium, Longmont longmontsymphony.org

The Longmont Symphony Orchestra and the Boulder Ballet present an abridged version of Tchaikovsky’s beloved Nutcracker Ballet for individuals with special needs and their families.

Holiday Bazaar, Frequent Flyers RiNo Arts district Aerial Dance Dec. 8, 15, 22 Presents Wonder

Jackalope Denver Winter Fair Dec. 14–15 Stanley Marketplace, Aurora jackalopeartfair.com

EXDO Event Center, Denver denverbazaar.com

Dec. 13–15 Dairy Arts Center, Boulder frequentflyers.org

Colorado Gives Day

Feast of the Firefly Handmade Seven Fishes Dec. 18–24 Holiday Market

Dec. 10 coloradogives.org

Watch What Crappens Podcast Live Dec. 12 The Oriental Theater, Denver holdmyticket.com

Dec. 14–15 Balch Fieldhouse at Folsom Field, Boulder fireflyhandmade.com

Coperta, Denver copertadenver.com

Solstice Full Moon Hike Dec. 22 Barr Lake State Park, Brighton $8 / cpw.state.co.us

Local Set: New Year’s Eve Bash Dec. 31 Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison redrocksonline.com

Downtown Denver Rink Through Feb. 16 Skyline Park, Denver bit.ly/2KJO6bI

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Be a Savvy CBD Shopper Try these six top tips for finding the product that’s just right for you.

safety and accuracy. Always ask the retailer or brand for testing results to ensure you’re getting the advertised CBD milligram content and no harmful residuals.

1. Review the test results Trustworthy companies test their CBD-infused products to ensure

2. Inquire where the hemp was grown Hemp is a hyper-accumulator (say what?), meaning it greatly absorbs pollutants like heavy metals and radioactive contaminants—you don’t

hether gift-giving or considering your 2020 health goals, here’s everything you need to know to ensure you’re getting the best bang for your buck when buying CBD products.

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want those toxins entering your body. Choose CBD products that use USA-grown hemp, preferably in states like Colorado, where the Department of Agriculture inspects for illegal pesticides and THC content. 3. Know the difference between CBD isolate and full-spectrum Full-spectrum refers to a whole plant extract, and scientists have

A DV I S O R Y B OA R D M E D I C A L LY C O R R E C T

found that the synergy of all-natural cannabinoids and compounds (called the “entourage effect”) create greater effectiveness than other formulas. However, if you’re undergoing drug testing or are concerned about any potential psychoactive effects, choose a product that uses CBD isolate. These are THC-free and won’t put your job in jeopardy. 4. Consider what you’re looking to achieve There are CBD products in gas stations and groceries, in everything from gummy bears to toothpaste. Consider your needs and each product’s perks. Fast-acting tinctures

suit various ailments, with shortterm, heightened effects; whereas long-lasting edibles promote all-day relief. Try a topical or bath soak for localized external issues. 5. Read the whole label You may be able to reduce your dose when using a CBD product that features other nutraceuticals, often made for specific effects. If you’re seeking insomnia relief, perhaps consider a CBD product infused with melatonin. Alternatively, be cautious not to waste money in purchasing a product infused with a nonsuitable nutraceutical like caffeine. Even with CBD, it won’t help you sleep.

6. Trust your gut Testimonies offer some validity, but don’t waste your time and money with brands that boast unfounded medical claims. If a product seems too good to be true, claiming to cure all your ailments and life’s problems, be aware they may be taking advantage of consumers’ vulnerability. There are dozens of other great brands that truly have your best interest in mind.

Category: Wellness Author: Abigail Nueve, Social Coordinator

The Sensi Advisory Board comprises select industry leaders in a variety of fields, from education to cultivation. They are invited to share specialized insight in this dedicated section. For a full list of board members, see page 18.

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Fired Up The undeniable case for cannabis as a health and wellness tool.

nyone who trusts in and advocates for cannabis medicine may have had their faith shaken in recent months. Reports of a mysterious and extremely serious lung illness linked to THC and nicotine vaporization

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products have created great uncertainty among true believers of the plantâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; and enhanced the skepticism of those on the fence. But now is not the time to abandon the cause of plant-based medicine just as its promised benefits seem so close at hand. As medical

researchers work to identify the exact cause of the illness, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to take a step back and look at the facts. First and foremost, thus far no one investigating the illness is suggesting that cannabis, hemp, THC, CBD, cannabinoids, terpenes, or other components

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of the plant are responsible for this disease. That’s the (really) good news. It appears highly likely that the culprit will be found among additives used in various vape products, heavy metals from poorly made cartridges leaching into oil, degradation of the product, or some combination of these conditions. However, this hasn’t stopped opponents to cannabis and some policymakers from attempting to scapegoat THC and vaping in general in an effort to find a quick and easy villain. There have been numerous efforts across the country to prohibit vape products, most notably the four-month ban in Massachusetts announced in

late September by Gov. Charlie Baker. As numbers of those afflicted with the disease increased, so have efforts to enact some type of preventive measure at both the local and state levels. In addition, the federal government has threatened a vape ban nationally as well. But these actions can have serious consequences for those who depend on cannabis for medical relief. In Massachusetts, protests against the ban brought to light the folly of the decision. Healthcare advocates and patients argued that it only forces people to the black market, where product safety and security are tenuous, to say the least. The advocates fear that a temporary ban will become permanent, forcing people back to the uncertainty of scrambling to find the right product and delivery modality that provides relief. After years of struggle, patients had finally identified an alternative to opioids and other pharmaceuticals that helped ease their pain, anxiety, insomnia, PTSD, and other chronic conditions. Now they fear losing that solution. This is a prime example of how attempts at harm reduction become harm promotion in practice. Second, by now any reasonable, objective observer recognizes that cannabis medicine provides real benefits to real patients with real medical conKevin Ogar

ditions. While research into the plant’s Category: Wellness many properties and uses is still in its Author: Dr. Gail King, infancy, the data uncovered to date West Coast Medical/ is undeniable. And as compelling as Clinical Advisor of current data on outcomes and efficacy Keneh Ventures sounds, testimony and feedback from patients actually using the medicine provide the best evidence. In patient after patient, stories of lives renewed through medical cannabis are becoming more and more common. Patients with chronic pain, anxiety, PTSD, insomnia, and a wide range of other conditions are finding that controlled use of cannabis can relieve symptoms, reduce use of dangerous pharmaceuticals, and dramatically improve quality of life. A few inspiring examples include: Kevin Ogar is a competitive CrossFit athlete, a CrossFit affiliate gym owner “After years and head coach, and vice president of struggle, of the Reveille Project, a nonprofit patients he runs to help battle-worn veterans had finally with mood disorders and physical identified an disabilities. About five years ago, a alternative… freak lifting accident severed Ogar’s that helped spine leaving his legs paralyzed. A true champion, Ogar never let the acciease their dent slow him down. Even during his pain, anxiety, hospital recovery, he would sneak out insomnia, to the gym to train. But the laundry list PTSD, and of opioids doctors had prescribed kept other chronic him from doing the things he loved. He began using plant-based medicine conditions.” for pain relief and completely stopped —Dr. Gail King using his prescriptions. Today, he works with others who have survived traumatic injuries, and he shares his knowledge of cannabis medicines with anyone who will listen. Beverly Holley was once frightened and skeptical of cannabis medicine. She had heard the tales her entire life: It’s wicked. It leads to “hard drugs.” It’s to be avoided at all costs. Like many people in their 50s, Holley struggles with chronic pain due to degenerative DECEM BER 2019

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Beverly Holley

of her life. She says cannabis has given her relief she can rely on, and it provides her with a sense of control over her own life. But her experience identifying the right products to use in the right doses hasn’t been easy. As a result, she’s become an evangelist for disc disease in her lower back. Despite constant concern of opioid addiction plant-based medicine and now works numerous surgeries, she still relied on added fear and worry to her list of for a company called Gofire, which prescription medications to relieve her health concerns. is developing technology that allows Fisher turned to cannabis medicine patients to find, dose, track, and learn symptoms. But the meds left her sullen about plant-based medicines. To date, and unable to do the things she loves. when it became clear that her treatments were not going to allow her the Gofire has created a metered-dose inFinally, friends convinced her to try plant-based medicines, and she’s been quality of life she deserved. She imme- haler that allows patients to precisely diately began losing the weight she dose cannabis concentrates in 2.5 mg a convert ever since. She no longer uses prescription pain medications and had been carrying for years (eventually increments while tracking their usage is able to travel with her husband, take losing 100 pounds in a single year). and outcomes via a personal dosing Her pain symptoms became more phone app. long walks with her dogs, and cook Despite the current challenges elaborate meals for friends and family manageable, too, and within two years she was able to completely wean facing the cause of cannabis medicine, again—all activities she was unable herself from all the pharmaceutical to enjoy while using traditional pain the progress made toward mainsubstances she was using to manage relief options. streaming its use cannot be ignored. Finally, there’s Megan Dooley Fisher. her illness. As more companies like Gofire pursue Today, Fisher says she still struggles a science-based approach to its use Fisher struggles with Behcet’s disease, with chronic pain, but it’s not in control and more patients like Ogar, Holley, a rare, chronic, multisystem inflammatory illness. Her list of symptoms and Fisher prove its efficacy, there will includes suffering from chronic oral ulbe few reasons remaining for detraccers, insomnia, an inability to manage tors to attack it. her weight, and chronic pain caused by The future of medicine is here. It’s neuropathy and rheumatoid arthritis. up to us to make sure it stays. Fisher’s condition was so severe her treatments included rounds of chemotherapy as well as dozens of pain medThe Sensi Advisory Board comprises select ication prescriptions. But none of her industry leaders in a variety of fields, from treatments provided consistent relief education to cultivation. They are invited to and they kept her from pursuing her share specialized insight in this dedicated section. Megan Dooley Fisher For a full list of board members, see page 18. life on her own terms. What’s more, a DECEM BER 2019

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P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E G E N E R A L CA N N A B I S

Taking the Reins What it means to make a good company better.

eneral Cannabis rose from the ashes of another cannabis company, Advanced Cannabis Solutions, which got into some trouble after that cannabis stock took off in 2014. That movement caught the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which temporarily suspended trading of Advanced Cannabis Solutions in March 2014. Shortly thereafter, Michael Feinsod, who has a background in managing financial assets, stepped in, cleaned things up, and changed the name of the company. He is now the executive chairman of General Cannabis. “From my due diligence, I looked at the company

and liked what I saw there,” Feinsod says. The company offers operations consulting, product marketing consulting, security and cash transportation services, and capital investments and real estate services, with offices in Denver, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and New York. Feinsod’s job, beginning in June 2014, was to find entrepreneurs who were running good companies. “The idea was to bring them under the General Cannabis umbrella, where we could give these young people the knowledge that they would need to be successful entrepreneurs in a brandnew industry, with help on things like bookkeeping, human resources, and

accounting,” Feinsod says. “We could do that for them and let them go out and run their business.” General Cannabis is basically managing expectations and helping clients open their cannabusinesses successfully. “We are assisting them in the production of this plant, and the plant itself is fickle,” Feinsod says. “We try to help them open their business on a reasonably timely basis, and not shoot the lights out right “We could give these at the beginning. We watch what is going on and then tweak it based on young individual market conditions.” people the He says that the cultivation part of the business is the harder part (“retail knowledge they would is retail”), and any organization that manages a retail store creates the need to be best way to leverage the success of a successful cultivation operation. entrepreFeinsod believes that the knowledge neurs in a being gained in the Colorado market—in part due to a better seed-tobrand-new sale tracking process—will attract industry.” investors who will come into California and help squeeze out the black market. —Michael Feinsod, CEO, Executive “There are five million people in Colorado and almost 30 million in Cali- Chairman fornia, so Colorado is sort of the dress rehearsal of what regulated cannabis can look like,” he says. Feinsod is on the board of the Cannabis Trade Federation (CTF), involved in lobbying for help on the 280E issue, among other things. He hopes for more of a state approach for legalization. “One of our taglines is ‘we bring intelligence and technology across states lines; we don’t bring cannabis,’” he says. “We would be well-positioned for a state-by-state approach.”

General Cannabis Business Consulting generalcann.com DECEM BER 2019

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P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E MILE HIGH’S FINEST

Going Higher A classic mom-and-pop business cranks out unique CBD favorites.

mom-and-pop operation in Colorado is going with the flow of higher customer expectations, selling high-quality handcrafted CBD products from its simple beginnings, while exploring new product inventions. The company, Boulder-based Mile High’s Finest, was born out of coincidence linked with tragedy, when long-time cannabis industry cultivator and company cofounder Zach Langer was working for a grow company that hit a snag with legal trouble. One of Langer’s friends (and a company cofounder), Timothy Swanson had a freak accident playing basketball, fell onto a weight set,

Mile High’s Finest has four employees including Langer and his wife, Amelia. “We’re the epitome of a small family operation,” says Langer, who handles all the formulations for the 45-plus products. “What was unique about that elixir was that we used CBD and seven other different herb extracts, all these different things in tandem with CBD, to give it an all-natural medicinal benefit,” he says. The company made CBD shatters next, which is where Mile High’s Finest got popular and made a name for itself, Langer says. Every product it makes is THC-free and all CBD. “The only thing that has anything other than CBD is our elixir, which has different herb extracts.” Its new oil product is an all-natural safflower and hemp-seed oil blend. The company doesn’t grow its own product, but employees tour the farms and know the farmers personally, making sure they work with only the best. Langer says that the company plans to purchase a small farm to “close the grow and processing loop,” producing everything in-house.

and broke bones in his face. He was going through bouts of painful reconstructive surgery. “I was making CBD products for him, and then when the cultivation operation I was working for had its legal problems, I thought we should bring this product to the public and feed our families,” Langer says. That was the beginning of Mile High’s Finest in late 2017, when the company started off making an elixir called Dank Lean. Swanson quickly established a loyal customer base through personal meetings and “pounding the pavement,” resulting in Mile High’s Finest Mile High’s Finest winning five product CBD Products awards in its first year of operation. milehighsfinest.com DECEM BER 2019

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P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E S T R AW B E R R Y F I E L D S

Strawberry Fields Forever This dispensary started with six plants and has managed steady growth by focusing on customer feedback.

et me take you down to a dispensary where everything is real and there is nothing to get hung about. That’s Strawberry Fields, which began in 2009 as a medical dispensary in Colorado Springs and is still operating today, now with four recreational cannabis stores: two in Pueblo, one in Downieville, and one in Trinidad. The company began when two brothers and Colorado natives, Mike and Rich Kwesell, started with just six plants working on a caregiver program. That production over the last ten years has grown into a 100,000-squarefoot greenhouse cultivation facility. “The brothers went into it with a high level of compliance knowledge and compassion for the product and for

whole world would be walking through our retail facility. We would be able to provide more access to a greater level of patients and consumers.” The company sells a wide range of products—flower, gummies, baked goods, tinctures, vapes, topicals, pre-rolls, edibles, and more, including THCa crystals and inhalers. “Those two are pretty unique products.” The four locations range from 1,000 to 3,000 square feet of dispensary space, and a total of 65 employees in retail alone. The combined corporate and cultivation employee count is around 150. Strawberry Fields has a central cultivation and processing company in Colorado City, Heartland Industries, that supplies most of the flower for its stores. “We are vertically integrated in our cultivation process, but we still source out high-quality cannabis from a lot of talented growers in the state,” Shean says. “So, we have a mix of inhouse along with third party flower.”

the medical patients in the industry,” says Ethan Shean, district manager for Strawberry Fields. The patient information education part of the business is always there on-site at the original dispensary. “Back then, it was a very new industry,” Shean says. “So, we had a lot of people with a lot of questions, and one of our main goals was to always provide the most current knowledge and up-to-date information on the assortment of products and cannabinoids these patients were going to be experimenting with.” Strawberry Fields added recreation products and dispensaries beginning in 2015, first in Pueblo. “We figured having a recreational addition would cre- Strawberry Fields ate more access to both patients and Dispensary consumers,” Shean says. “Now, the strawberryfieldscannabis.com DECEM BER 2019

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P R O M O T I O N A L F E AT U R E H RVST L A BS

Race to the Bottom of Turnaround Time, Not Pricing One extraction lab refuses to contribute to the falling floor prices of concentrates.

RVST, an extraction lab outside of Denver, is churning out extractions of all kinds—budder, shatter, wax, distillates, live resin and more—looking to fill the growing void for fast quality processing and above-average customer service, according to owner Elias Egozi. Egozi began in the cannabusiness by way of policy reform and advocacy, ultimately serving in Florida as state director for United for Care, the political action committee responsible for the passage of Florida’s Amendment 2 in the 2016 general election. He

moved to Calaveras County, California, to found and operate one of the largest cultivation facilities in that state, choosing to get his hands dirty in the industry. Eventually, in a highly public and controversial decision, the Calaveras County ordinance for cultivation was suspended and ultimately revoked, putting an end to Egozi’s operation and almost 600 others in the same county. That led him to Colorado and into the doors of the facility in Idaho Springs that soon would become HRVST. “It needed a little TLC,” says Egozi, “but I was happy to give it.”

HRVST is staffed by a group of more than 20 people ranging from expert extractors with years of industry experience and accolades to executives coming from outside industries. Currently, the team specializes in white label processing—taking raw cannabis from dispensaries and cultivators and processing it into a finished concentrate, an attractive, compliant, packaged product ready for consumers’ enjoyment. “We’re not HRVST operates a modest facility out to take in Idaho Springs, 40 miles due west of Denver. The facility’s prize possesothers’ sion is the Precision PX1 Extraction business, Solution, a device that runs alongside but we two ETS 1300s, closed-loop hydrocertainly carbon extractors from Denver-based ExtractionTek Solutions inside a want to C1D1-rated explosion-proof room. The keep configuration allows for a logistical everyone on flow of operation that is key to the their toes “high quality, fast turnaround” model touted by HRVST CEO Drew Frank. with respect “We are a hybrid of industry expeto profesrience, quality control and corporate sionalism efficiency,” says Frank. “That helps us and quality.” position ourselves exactly where we need to be—available for our clients —Drew Frank, HRVST when they need us.” CEO When he’s not running Ironman races or hiking one of Colorado’s many 14ers, Frank is pushing the team to find new ways to improve in quality, efficiency, and enjoyment. “Our intention is to set the standard from quality turnaround time, professionalism and exciting packaging,” Frank says. “We’re not out to take other’s business, but we certainly want to keep everyone on their toes with respect to professionalism and quality.”

HRVST Extraction Lab info@hrvstlive.com DECEM BER 2019

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THE END

THE 2010s ARE TOAST Here’s to the end of this issue. And here’s to the end of the decade. TEXT STEPHANIE WILSON

Three cheers to the end of the decade. And what a decade it was. We don’t like to dwell on the past, but as the saying goes (although who said it first is up for debate): It’s ok to look back at your past, just don’t stare. And you should definitely glimpse at this list we’ve compiled of random things that happened in the last 10 years. 2010: Justin Bieber is discovered on YouTube. 2011: “I’m tired of pretending I’m not special. I’m tired of pretending I’m not a total bitchin’ rock star from Mars” is said by Charlie Sheen, who also decribes himself as a warlock with tiger blood, on the Today show. 2012: The world does not end, as the Mayan calendar predicted. 2013: “Selfie,” “FOMO,” and “twerk” added to the Oxford online dictionary. 2014: Beyoncé’s sister Solange starts swinging at Jay-Z in an elevator after the Met Gala, inspiring the “Flawless Remix” lyrics “Of course, sometimes shit go down when it’s a billion dollars on an elevator.” 2015: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is the hottest-selling ticket on Broadway. 2016: The US did not elect its first female president. 2017: #metoo enters the lexicon. 2018: Voter turnout in the midterm elections is the highest in a century. 2019: Two Fyre Festival documentaries drop the same week, and no one can get enough. Rumors of a series, a memoir, and more are still swirling. Now let’s get on with the 2020s already. The future so bright, we gotta wear shades.

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THIS WINTER WITH TERRAPIN

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