Boulder Weekly 01.16.2025

In the dog house

Can people and prairie dogs coexist? P. 12 LONGMONT COUNCIL LOSES CONTROL P. 4 GAMERS, GAYS AND THEYS P. 16 BOOZY BOULDER GOES DRY P. 27

Re se rv e

FR EE !

yo ur tic ke ts at th ed ai ry .o rg

Still We Rise 3rd Annual Dr. King Jr.

Performance with Motus & The ReMINDers

Monday, January 20th. 3 - 5 PM - Dairy Arts Center, Boulder

Motus Theater’s 3rd annual arts-based event inspiring action in alignment with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Featured Musical Guests:

The nationally acclaimed and regionally loved singers, The ReMINDers

Performances From: Motus JustUs monologist Cynthia Randall, TRANSformative Stories monologist Alison Reba,

& MORE!

ASL interpretation provided upon request.

Please email info@motustheater.org.

More information: motustheater.org/events

CONTENTS 01.16.2025

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08 NEWS

Can Colorado’s protections for abortion, LGBTQ+ rights withstand Trump? BY JACK ARMSTRONG

16 BOOKS

How prairie dogs became a symbol of urban encroachment

BY TYLER HICKMAN

THE WORLD’S MOST COMFORTABLE BRANDS OF SHOES

Tara Tai’s rom-com novel is “a love letter to gaming” set in Boulder

BY PARKER YAMASAKI

27 NIBBLES

12 COVER

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Boulder Weekly Market

Bars and brewers adjust as boozy Boulder embraces Dry January BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

DEPARTMENTS 04 OPINION

15 MUSIC

24 ASTROLOGY

07 GOV’T

18 FILM

25 SAVAGE LOVE

19 FILM

30 ON DRUGS

Longmont loses control; L.A. is a wakeup call

WATCH

Louisville’s top city manager picks

10 ANALYSIS The press is hot on capitalism

11 BOCO,

BRIEFLY

Compost facility could land in Longmont BOULDER WEEKLY

Alan Sparhawk learns the language of grief

Ben Chaplin bears witness

The Room Next Door toys with the audience

20 EVENTS Marc Maron and queer meditation

Harness your rage

Two men enter, one man cleaves

Cool is dead at Shrek Rave

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COMMENTARY JANUARY 16, 2025 Volume 32, Number 22 PUBLISHER: Stewart Sallo

EDITORIAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Shay Castle ARTS EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray REPORTERS: Kaylee Harter, Tyler Hickman FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Jack Armstrong, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Gary Hodges, H. Sami Karaca, Dave Marston, Dan Savage, Parker Yamasaki, Jay L. Zagorsky

SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING: Kellie Robinson SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Matthew Fischer ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Chris Allred, Tony Camarda, Austen Lopp SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: Carter Ferryman MRS. BOULDER WEEKLY: Mari Nevar

PRODUCTION CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erik Wogen GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Chris Sawyer

CIRCULATION CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn CIRCULATION TEAM: Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE BOOKKEEPER: Austen Lopp FOUNDER / CEO: Stewart Sallo

OPINION

LONGMONT O LOST CONTROL OF THE PROCESS Ex-councilwoman Marcia Martin took advantage of peers’ empathy

BY GARY HODGES 4

JANUARY 16, 2025

n Jan. 28, and for only the seventh time since Longmont’s charter was adopted in 1961, a new member will be appointed to city council by elected officials rather than by voters. We arrived here because former councilwoman Marcia Martin set her resignation at the end of 2024, forcing the city to appoint rather than holding a widely preferred special election to fill her seat.

The saga began May 14, 2024, when council, via a unanimous vote, approved allowing Martin to remotely attend meetings to care for her daughter in New York.

After nearly three months out of state, council revisited this allowance and voted 5-0 (Yarbrough absent, Martin abstained)

to cancel her ability to virtually attend meetings as of Dec. 2.

That date was important, as the city charter requires a special election be held when there is a year or more left on a vacated seat. Throughout the process, several members asserted their preference for a special election to protect the credibility of the city council.

Over the 29 weeks of Martin’s remote allowance, there were 21 council meetings. According to my review of those meetings, Martin virtually attended 19 and was in-person for two. Along with regular meetings, members also sit on advisory boards, interact with the public at events such as Coffee with Council, and attend joint meetings with other governing bod-

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BOULDER WEEKLY

OPINION 2025 proposed $469.67 million ies. Of these additional expectations, budget — a small price to pay to during her extended absence, it appears ensure public confidence. she participated in one Coffee with Martin believes she is protectCouncil session and four advisory board ing the city with her strategic exit meetings. using reasons that collapse It was anticipated Martin would resign under cursory scrutiny. or be removed during the Dec. 3 council What have the residents of the meeting. She was unexpectedly present city been saying about this prothat evening, where she declared her cess? During the public-invited intention to serve through the end of the portion of the Dec. 10 council year, thus precluding the desired special election and instead forcing her seat to be meeting, the sole topic was the appointment, with every speaker filled by direct appointment. stating a clear preference for an What began as professional courtesy, borne of empathy for a fellow colleague in election.

Recently, a caller to the a difficult time, ended with Martin taking Longmont Times-Call comment advantage of the situation and unilaterally line said, “The Ward 2 council deciding how she wanted her vacated position needs someone who seat filled. Longmont City Council lost Courtesy: City of Longmont represents the citizens’ desires.” control of the process. solid majority. Such a person is unlikely to At a July 16 meeting, Martin offered two It’s clear an appointment is not what the public wants, and residents are right to be change the outcome of any votes, but reasons to defend her preference for an crucially, will be viewed as a credible pick. concerned it won’t reflect the will of the appointment. First, it would quickly return The Ward 2 residents I have heard people. Those members voicing concern council to full staffing, thus mitigating from — on various email lists, speaking back in July about a credibility hit were potential tie votes. Second, appointing at council meetings and in personal conjustified in their worry. saves the city around $100,000 for the versations — have a strong preference There is a path forward expected cost of a special for a person who represents the desires that preserves city council’s election. Neither are particuof current residents, and not the perreputation in a process ripe larly compelling. ceived wishes of people who may move for accusations of favoritism, Even casual observers of backroom dealing and major- to Longmont in the future. They want the council activities recognize new council member to be an agent of ity packing. Let’s challenge there is general ideological the neighborhoods and not global the council by encouraging alignment among a majority desires; an individual who cares about each member to support a of members, so tie votes are the city and the people who live here, candidate with an alternative not likely. As for the cost of a and not seeking the position to serve mix of views who won’t special election, $100,000 is larger agendas. merely bolster the already about 0.02% of Longmont’s Courtesy: City of Longmont

There are candidates who check these boxes and would easily fend off accusations of ideological favoritism if selected. We can hope our elected city council has the collective strength to set aside personal biases and see the wisdom of such an appointment. Longmont will be well-served if they do.

Gary Hodges has lived 28 years in Longmont’s Ward 3. He is a senior associate scientist with CU Boulder working at NOAA. He ran for city council in the 2022 special election and the 2023 regular election, and also served seven years on the Transportation Advisory Board.

OPINION

WAKEUP CALL L.A. fires are a warning for the West — especially Durango

BY DAVE MARSTON BOULDER WEEKLY

A

fter fierce winds whipped fire out of brush-covered hills on Jan. 7, entire Los Angeles neighborhoods burned down. Within a few days, over 12,000 homes and businesses had been destroyed as flames ringed the city. And it’s not over yet.

The photos of smoldering neighborhoods and distraught residents are horrific and shocking. Could they also presage the kind of wildfire that might overtake Durango, a town of about 20,000 in southwestern Colorado?

It’s a question worth asking. Local fire experts say Los Angeles and Durango are similar in topography.

Durango doesn’t experience the hurricane-force Santa Ana winds that pushed the LA fires, but it does often have sustained winds of 30 miles per hour and gusts over 40 mph, which can vault burning embers great distances.

Perhaps more importantly, the big city and the town share the same pattern of development.

Angelenos have long coveted proximity to wooded canyons for their homes. Durango residents crave the same access to nature, pushing housing into canyons. In both places, million-dollar homes have been built among flammable trees.

JANUARY 16, 2025

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OPINION Other similarities include lax regulations that fail to dissuade wildland builders. Then there’s the question of storing enough water and having sufficient water pressure to fight blazes.

Los Angeles ran out of water fast because attacks on simultaneous fires quickly drew down supplies.

Durango uses around four million gallons daily and has two weeks of storage in its Terminal Reservoir. But if the city ran a dozen or more highflow hydrants, water pressure would plummet in days.

Here’s a suggestion: Prioritize building the $11.3-million-dollar, 36-inch proposed water line from Lake Nighthorse, a nearby reservoir, to the city system, boosting raw water storage to four months.

Durango has a history of large wildfires. In 2002, the 73,000-acre Missionary Ridge Fire torched 46 structures. The town suffered another blow in 2018 when wildfire ringed the town, burning 54,130 acres.

Randy Black, Durango Fire Protection District Fire Chief, is quick to point out that not one structure was lost in 2018, thanks to a coordinated effort by local and state crews.

“We got lucky,” he said. “If the June 2018 fire happened later in the season, resources wouldn’t have been available.” Also key were carefully forged relationships among regional firefighting resources, Black said, along with extensive planning.

One hundred eighty employees and volunteers staff the Durango Fire District, which covers both the city and a 325-square-mile swath of the county. Black said they focus on what he calls the most important aspect of firefighting — mitigation meant to keep wildland fires from starting in the first place.

That means working to create fire breaks between wildlands and urban areas and removing fuels within the urban core. The town participates by thinning wooded areas on its perimeter, and federal agencies manage both thinning and controlled burns.

“If you don’t do the fire mitigation, you run the risk of whole neighborhoods catching on fire,” Black said.

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JANUARY 16, 2025

Another similarity between Los Angeles and Durango is that both share difficulty in getting fire insurance. Some insurers have pulled out of California entirely, and when the Durango Fire District built its new intown firehouse last year, Black said, no one would insure the structure at first. Colorado insurance companies had just weathered 10 years of property losses to wildland fire, and they were loath to take chances.

Colorado’s new, state-backed Fair Plan offers a last resort for home insurance, but it’s bare-bones coverage of homes worth up to $750,000.

With building costs in Durango now estimated to be $500 to $700 per square foot, losing a 2,000-squarefoot home to wildfire means rebuilding a much smaller house.

I’ve talked to many wildland fire experts about how towns can fight these multiple, destructive blazes.

Their suggestions boil down to three basics: First, make building requirements stringent for any home proposed in wildlands.

Second, get residents involved.

The Durango Fire District offers homeowners free assessments of fire risk, and it also advises the creation of three zones around a house: Remove anything flammable within five feet, include a turnaround big enough for fire vehicles, and allow only widely spaced trees and mown grass out to 100 feet.

A third step is “hardening” existing structures with fireproof building materials. Black, who built his own house, said he chose cement siding and a metal roof.

If homeowners take these steps, say insurers, they stand a better chance of keeping their insurance policies. Twenty-four people have lost their lives in the Los Angeles fires as of January 12. Their deaths are a wakeup call to everyone living in the West — especially Durango.

Dave Marston is the publisher of Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to lively discussion about the West. He lives in Durango.

BOULDER WEEKLY

NEWS

GOV’T WATCH What your local officials are up to this week

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF BOULDER CITY COUNCIL

Council’s meetings will be virtual until at least mid-February after council voted 7-2 on Jan. 9 in favor of moving meetings online amid public commenters and protests during meetings demanding a Gaza ceasefire resolution in ways council members have called disruptive.

Read more: bit.ly/CouncilGazaBW. At the Jan. 23 study session, council will discuss: • The Access Management and Parking Strategy (AMPS) and Transportation Demand Management (TDM). The project is projected to be completed this summer. AMPS was adopted by council in 2014 to “improve Boulder’s approach to multimodal access and parking management.” The discussion is slated to include parking minimums and maximums, on-street parking management, and a TDM ordinance to increase multimodal access and “stimulate travel behavior change.”

• The city’s role in behavioral health, which includes mental health and substance use disorders. The discussion will include an update on the Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE) program, which began in 2023 and includes behavioral health professionals who can respond to 911 calls that don’t require a police officer.

BOULDER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

Boulder County offices will be closed on Monday, Jan. 20 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Tuesday, Jan. 21, commissioners will: • Hold a virtual town hall to discuss homelessness solutions in the county.

There will be a presentation followed by a Q&A session. Attend: boco.org/ BOCCTownHall BOULDER WEEKLY

Thursday Jan. 23, commissioners will: • Hold a public hearing and discussion before adopting building code changes and amendments for unincorporated Boulder County. Among the changes are a number of new energy efficiency, sustainability, and ignition resistance construction requirements, including requirements for structures to be “solar ready” and “electric ready.” Sign up to speak virtually (boco.org/BOCC-Jan23AM) or in person (boco.org/InPerson-Jan23AM).

LONGMONT CITY COUNCIL

On Jan. 14, council: • Updated the city building codes and construction standards to allow for higher density housing in new developments. Among the changes are allowances for narrower streets and alleys, as well as the option to build electric-only developments to reduce utility corridors between structures.

LOUISVILLE

Top government officials from Aspen, Commerce City and Routt County are among the four finalists named in Louisville’s search for a new city manager.

Deputy City Manager Samma Fox has been serving in the role since July 2024 when former manager Jeff Durbin resigned amid investigation into an undisclosed matter.

Community members are invited to meet the finalists and provide feedback at a Jan. 22 meet-and-greet.

The event will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Louisville Recreation & Senior Center (900 West Via Appia Way). City council will discuss the finalists and make a selection on Monday, Jan. 27, according to a city press release. Read about the finalists: bit.ly/ LouisvilleCityManagerBW.

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On Jan. 14, council: • Discussed the 2025 work plan, which includes an update of the city’s Comprehensive Plan; adoption of a Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) Code; and an update of inclusionary housing rules.

All agenda items are subject to change.

JANUARY 16, 2025

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NEWS

‘SERIOUS CONCERNS’ How Boulder County officials and advocates are preparing for another Trump term

BY JACK ARMSTRONG This is Part 2 of a two-part series.

The first installment, published Jan. 9, explored immigration and tariffs: bit.ly/BoCoTrumpBW.

O

n Jan. 20, Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States, beginning his second term.

While Trump disconnected himself from Project 2025, policy-writers for the document include confidants and administrators from the first Trump administration. Much of the document proposes restrictions to access of life-saving abortions, prosecution of care-providers who administer abortions and restrictions of contraceptives.

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JANUARY 16, 2025

Coupled with the incoming administration’s stance on bodily autonomy is their discriminatory policies against transgender people. Trump has pledged to end “boys in girls’ sports” and revoke Title IX extensions to trans students. In the final days leading up to the election, ads vying for the now president-elect remarked, “Kamala is for they/them.

Trump is for you.”

Experts and political commentators have been suggesting that Trump’s second term will be more intentional in its targeting of vulnerable communities than his first.

Nonetheless, Boulder-area advocacy groups and elected officials are hopeful state and local protections will keep them safe.

LGBTQ RIGHTS AND HEALTHCARE

In early January, a federal judge stripped Title IX protections from transgender students. That in and of itself does not change Colorado’s laws prohibiting gender-based discrimination, said Anaya Robinson, senior policy strategist with the ACLU of Colorado.

“Whether it be K-12 or the university level, public schools are public accommodations, and they cannot thus discriminate on the basis of gender identity

Though not explicitly included in Trump’s policy proposals, the former president has threatened to cut federal funding for schools that teach “radical gender ideology.” That could impact schools in the Boulder Valley School District; the district has a privacy policy protecting a student’s gender-nonconforming status.

BVSD receives six funding streams coming from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), helping fund specialized education for at-risk students, training for teachers and expanded use of technology in the classroom.

“When you cut the program, the need is still there. You still have to spend the money,” said Dr. Rob Anderson, district superintendent.

“Some [proposed] cuts would be program specific, and others might impact other funding sources just because we have needs that we have to meet.”

Anderson said the district is planning to lean on outor gender expression withThe Trump admin’s rhetoside organizations such as in the state of Colorado,” ric about transgender indiImpact on Education, a Robinson said. “That’s viduals, including threats foundation supplementing subject to superseding fedto ban gender-affirming funding needs for K-12 eral law that may come care, has advocates schools in BVSD. down obviously, but the worried. Courtesy: Rocky ACLU of Colorado also removal of that interpretaMountain Equality intends to expand current tion in Title IX does not protections to match areas of vulnerabiliimmediately remove that protection ty with state-level inclusive policy, under Colorado state law.”

Robinson said. And Groups like BoulderRobinson said federal policy could based A Queer Endeavor are working to undo Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act fold LGBTQ histories into K-12 curriculums; they have working relationships with seven school districts in the state.

“In our state, school boards have a lot of local control,” said Sara Staley, A Queer Endeavor’s co-director and an associate professor at CU Boulder’s School of Education. “That’s where things get tricky, because parents show up to school board meetings, and it’s usually parents who are critical against any kind of DEI at the district or school — which bans public accommodations level.” like schools from discriminating against While protections exist in the classstudents based on identifiers like gender room, organizations like You Can Play identity, sexual orientation and race — are working to ensure LGBTQ students but protections will likely last through the are treated equally in the gymnasium by early portion of Trump’s term.

BOULDER WEEKLY

NEWS educating schools and sports leagues nationwide on how to include genderqueer identities in sports.

Trump claims that trans competition in sports is widespread. Kurt Weaver, You Can Play’s chief operations officer, says there is little data to suggest that cis high school athletes differ significantly from their trans competitors.

“There’s real problems in sports for gender equality and opportunity for women; one of them is not a trans athlete participating,” Weaver said. “At the collegiate level, 70% of colleges are out of compliance with Title IX.” In the wake of such policies and antitrans rhetoric from the Trump administration, Rocky Mountain Equality (RMEQ, formerly OUT Boulder County) is keeping a wary eye on federal funding and policy changes for healthcare, said Bruce Parker, chief operating officer of the Boulder-based nonprofit.

Colorado is among 16 states that have state legislation protecting a trans person’s access to healthcare. Parker said that while state and local protections do exist, federal control over policy can imminently disrupt current trans access to care.

“You don’t even have to undo state level stuff to make life awful for people,” he said. “All you have to do is pass a rule that says that anybody who doesn’t have a male or female gender marker on their identification can’t access federal benefits, and suddenly, thousands of

people in Colorado who’ve adopted the X marker can’t access their federal benefits” — namely Medicare or Medicaid coverage.

Parker said local groups will be largely dependent on donations to survive and continue their work.

“Usually in this context, when government funding goes down, our individual donations and foundation donations go up,” he said. “It’s like a balancing act there.”

Parker is still hopeful that government money will be available, noting how crucial it has been for programs like vaccine distribution and education.

“We’ve had a lot of success the last three years in getting state and federal money to provide the behavioral healthcare services that we provide,” said Parker. “I would take a million dollars from Elon Musk today, and I would use it to help LGBT people.

“I would not trade a single value or do a single thing differently because it was from him.”

REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM

This past election day came with the most recent, local victory for reproductive freedom: Amendment 79, which enshrined the right to abortion in the Colorado constitution.

Among groups leading the push for Amendment 79 was YWCA Boulder.

Debbie Pope, YWCA’s chief executive officer, said one of the main focuses con-

Organizations like You Can Play promote LGBTQ inclusion in sports. Courtesy: You Can Play

BOULDER WEEKLY

Coloradans enshrined the right to an abortion in the state constitution with the passage of Amendment 79. Courtesy: YWCA

sidering an incoming Trump administration is checking back in to make sure Amendment 79 is being upheld by the state law.

“In Boulder County, we mobilized thousands of individuals to not only vote for [Amendment 79], but also, in the early phases, getting signatures for that,” Pope said. “Our next step is working with larger coalitions across the state now to ensure that what the voters voted for will indeed be put into the constitution.”

Through Trump’s campaign trail, he made clear he doesn’t support utilizing the Comstock Act — which would make the shipment of medications and instruments assisting abortions across state lines illegal — and wants to leave abortion up to states. However, advocates like Pope have a reason to be wary, as Trump has floated the idea of banning abortion for pregnancies beyond 15 weeks. In addition to cam-

paign rhetoric about a national ban, the president-elect takes credit for “killing Roe v. Wade.”

Federal funding for pro-choice groups like YWCA may also be disrupted, Pope said. And there is still work to be done in Colorado on other gender-based issues, such as access to healthcare and childcare.

Despite the legal protections in place for abortion, anti-abortion groups are still present, spreading misinformation and complicating access to care.

“New Era did a large listening tour across Colorado in 2021, and from there, we learned that young people were being targeted by anti-abortion counseling centers,” said Natasha Berwick, political director at New Era Colorado.

Organizations like New Era, Berwick said, are acting on targeted areas of vulnerability that would lead to inequitable reproductive care.

“What we know is that not everybody has equal access to abortion or reproductive health care. … We have serious concerns about BIPOC folks who already have a hard time accessing abortion and reproductive health care, and this exacerbates that.”

JANUARY 16, 2025

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ANALYSIS

IS CAPITALISM FALLING OUT OF FAVOR? What news articles reveal about attitudes toward economic systems

BY JAY L. ZAGORSKY AND H. SAMI KARACA THE CONVERSATION

C

apitalism, communism and socialism are the world’s three major economic systems. While the phrase “economic system” may seem like a yawn, countless people have fought and died in major wars over which one should dominate.

Shifts from one system to another, like the 1989 fall of communism in much of Eastern Europe, changed the lives of millions. And while researchers know that a country’s economic system dramatically impacts people’s living standards, less is known about how attitudes toward these systems have changed over time.

THE MAIN ECONOMIC SYSTEMS EXPLAINED

Capitalism, communism and socialism are economic and political systems that differ in their principles and organization.

Capitalism emphasizes the private ownership of resources and the means of production, driven by profit and market competition, with minimal government intervention.

Communism, on the other hand, advocates for a classless society where all property is communally owned. In communism, wealth is distributed according to need and there is no private ownership, which aims to eliminate inequality and oppression.

Socialism falls between these extremes. It focuses on the collective or state ownership of key industries and 10

JANUARY 16, 2025

resources. This allows for some private enterprise, with the aim of reducing inequality through social welfare programs and obtaining a more equitable distribution of wealth.

Modern economies blend capitalism with socialism to address challenges like inequality, market failures and negative externalities, like when a business harms the environment. Governments intervene through regulations, welfare programs and public services to tackle issues like pollution and income inequality. This creates what economists call a “mixed economy.”

The amount of state involvement varies from country to country. At one end is market capitalism, where markets dominate with a limited government role. The U.S. is one such example.

At the other end is state capitalism, like in China, where the government directs economic activity while incorporating market elements. The goal is to combine market efficiency and innovation with measures to contain capitalism’s social and economic costs.

HOW TO MEASURE PEOPLE’S ATTITUDES TOWARD ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

Some surveys have asked people directly how they feel about these systems.

For example, the Pew Research organization’s most recent survey on the issue found the proportion of Americans with positive views of either capitalism or socialism has declined slightly since 2019, with capitalism remaining more popular overall. Nevertheless, Americans are split sharply along partisan lines.

About three-quarters of Republican voters have positive views of capitalism, compared with less than half of Democratic voters.

Unfortunately, there are no long-running surveys tracking people’s feelings toward the three systems. Because of this shortcoming, we used artificial intelligence to analyze references to the three systems in more than 400,000 newspaper articles published over a span of decades.

We identified every news story that discussed capitalism, communism or socialism using ProQuest’s TDM Studio.

ProQuest has digitized almost all the articles in major English-language newspapers — including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times — starting in the mid-1970s, with partial archives from earlier years.

The AI model was designed to assess the tone of each article across several dimensions, including anger, surprise and happiness. After the model scored each article on those qualities, we combined the emotions into three categories: positive, negative, and neutral or unknown.

For example, an article discussing capitalism might be rated as 60% positive, 20% negative and 20% neutral.

Using an AI large language model allowed us to track shifts in press attitudes over time — which, to be fair, might not match popular opinion.

HOW VIEWS HAVE CHANGED SINCE THE 1940S

When we looked at newspaper articles from the end of World War II to the present, we found something unexpected. In the 1940s, capitalism was not well regarded. The average article containing “capitalism” or “capitalist” got a 43% negative and 25% positive sentiment score. This is surprising, since we looked at newspapers published primarily in countries with capitalist systems.

However, just because capitalism didn’t get a high positive score doesn’t mean that newspaper writers loved communism or socialism. In the 1940s, articles with those words also got relatively high negative scores: 47% on average for articles containing “communism” or “communist,” and a 46% negative rating for “socialism” and “socialist.”

Since that time, however, positive sentiment toward capitalism has improved. In the 2020s, the average article with capitalism got a more balanced 37% negative and 34% positive sentiment score. While capitalism clearly isn’t loved in the press, it’s also not disparaged as much as it was just after World War II. The news media’s attitudes toward capitalism improved more than attitudes toward socialism or communism over time. In the 1960s, positive attitudes toward all three were roughly the same.

Today, however, positive sentiment toward capitalism is 4 or 5 percentage points higher than the other two. The climb wasn’t steady, since the number of favorable articles about capitalism fell during recession years.

Still, some contemporary commentators fret that capitalism is in crisis.

Not long ago, The New York Times — a newspaper located in the world’s financial center — ran an op-ed headlined “How Capitalism Went Off the Rails.” A recent book review in The Wall Street Journal, a newspaper that is a bastion of capitalism, starts, “Our universities teach that we are living the End of Times of ‘late capitalism.’”

But while capitalism clearly isn’t beloved by all, we didn’t find evidence that it’s being overtaken by socialism or communism. Instead, using AI to process the attitudes reflected in thousands of newspaper articles, we found that people — or at least the press — are slowly warming to it.

Jay L. Zagorsky is an associate professor of markets, public policy and law at Boston University. H. Sami Karaca is a professor of business analytics at Boston University.

The Conversation is a nonprofit, independent news organization featuring academic experts.

BOULDER WEEKLY

NEWS

BOCO, BRIEFLY Local news at a glance

BY SHAY CASTLE LONGMONT MULLS LAND SWAP, COMPOST FACILITY

Longmont City Council on Tuesday agreed to pursue a land swap that could eventually facilitate construction of a composting facility in partnership with Boulder County.

That facility could be located on the Distel property, which in 2019 was purchased with the Tull property, a collective 331 acres southeast of Longmont, for $3.78 million. Open space money was used to buy Distel, which is leased to a company for gravel mining, and a portion of Tull.

If the city wants to use the land for anything other than open space purchases, the properties must be formally “disposed,” requiring approval from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB).

The proposal is to transfer ownership of Tull to the city’s department of parks and natural resources — save for 66 acres that will be used for public works purposes “for several decades.” (That portion would eventually become open space as

BOULDER WEEKLY

well.) Ownership of Distel would be transBoulder and top officials over disciplinary ferred out of open space for potential use actions imposed after participating in proas a composting facility.

Palestine protests.

“Due to the extent of industrial disturIn a lawsuit filed Monday, Jan. 13 in bance on Distel,” staff wrote in notes to Boulder County District Court, Max Inman council ahead of Tuesday’s vote, “the and Mari Rosenfeld said they were probability of ecological restoration sucbanned from campus except to attend cess and the likelihood of achieving Open classes after participating in a “peaceful Space criteria and goals … is greater on Tull.”

A county feasibility study on a composting facility is expected in the second quarter of 2025, according to a press release Boulder County sent out touting Longmont’s consideration of the land swap. City and county officials together toured a California composting facility in December.

“We think this is a great partnership opportunity,” said Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann in the release.

“I look forward to collaborating CU Boulder students organize a May 1 on-campus demonstrawith Longmont and being a part tion against Israeli military action in Gaza. Credit: Will Matuska of the county’s own effort at making this significant move towards zero pro-Palestine protest” at an Oct. 3 camwaste.” pus job fair that included “military contracOn a unanimous vote, the matter was tors,” according to a press release from referred to Longmont’s PRAB. A hearing the Boulder law firm Hutchinson, Black & for that body has not yet been scheduled.

Cook.

Inman and Rosenfeld allege the campus ban, which lasted two months, was CU BOULDER SUED OVER instituted without a formal disciplinary PRO-PALESTINE PROTESTS hearing or procedure and violated their Two on-campus workers, one sophomore First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. and one recent grad, are suing CU

Chancellor Justin Schwartz is named in the suit, along with the dean and deputy dean of students.

The lawsuit also alleges that the group that held the protest, Students for Justice in Palestine, has been subject to “disparate treatment” such as “extreme monitoring by the administration and abundant security presence at its planned events.”

The university had not been served the lawsuit when Boulder Weekly reached out for comment on Monday, according to a spokesperson.

IN OTHER NEWS…

• Erie’s population surpassed 40,000

people in 2024, according to an estimate from town officials, growing by 9.1% — the town’s fastest rate of growth in the past three years.

• Boulder Fire-Rescue sent a fire engine and four firefighters to help with the California wildfires, the city announced Jan. 10. The team is part of a larger delegation from the Front Range that includes five engines. The crew will remain in California for up to two weeks, according to city officials.

• Fiber internet will be available in Superior after the town board on Dec. 9 approved contracts with Broomfieldbased Intrepid and Metronet, an Indiana internet service provider that was purchased by T-Mobile last year for $4.9 billion. Design plans are being drafted now, to be followed by installation.

JANUARY 16, 2025

11

WEEKLY WHY

‘THEY’RE SO MUCH LIKE US’

Prairie dogs — seen by some as a cute, playful slice of local wildlife, and by others as pests — have become martyrs in the ongoing battle between urbanizaHow prairie dogs became a symbol of tion and conservation. With so much other charismatic wildlife in Colorado, urban encroachment on natural spaces from bald eagles to wolves, and the ineviBY TYLER HICKMAN SEND YOUR BOCO tability of growth in QUERIES TO EDITORIAL@ Front Range cities, we BOULDERWEEKLY.COM set out in another sigh from prairie he collective stare of environmeninstallation of our tal activists penetrated the pulpit in dog lovers deflatWeekly Why column to ed the room. the Longmont City Council chamanswer: Why do Coloradans care so Days later, the city commenced pumpbers on Nov. 12, 2024. After a barrage of much about prairie dogs? ing carbon monoxide into the burrows of statements from the public calling for the prairie dogs at Dry Creek. city to put a halt on exterminating prairie Plans to develop this area into a comdogs at Dry Creek Park, located off NOT JUST CUTE munity park have been in the works since Diagonal Highway, it seemed for a Prairie dog habitat is found all across the city approved the master plan in 2008. eastern Colorado, right up to the foothills moment that their testimony had been Like many developments in Longmont heard. of the Rocky Mountains. In the wake of and throughout the Front Range, the praiLongmont Mayor Joan Peck motioned rapid urban development, the rodents rie dog colony was not consistent with for a vote to extend a 30-day moratorium have found themselves coexisting with these plans, so the city relocated hunon the planned extermination at the humans, often in parks, open space and dreds of rodents over the course of sever- undeveloped land adjacent to neighborrequest of the activists. But a strippedal months. Whatever animals remained down council presence of only four memhoods. For some residents, it’s a perk to are still being exterminated to make way bers led to a 2-2 vote — tied votes mean live so close to wildlife. for an unfunded park. a motion fails — and an exasperated “They’re so cute, they’re so social, you just can’t be sad looking at them,” said Longmont resident and local prairie dog advocate Jaime Fraina. “I think it’s just good for [our] mental health to get out and see those animals, being so close by to something so beautiful.”

But these playful high plains critters have a complicated history with their suburban neighbors, a relationship that is still evolving, according to urban wildlife ecologist Seth Magle.

“Human attitudes towards them have kind of shifted back and forth over the years several times,” he said. Magle, now

T

the director for the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Nebraska, said he has witnessed the pendulum of public perception of prairie dogs swing back and forth since he first began studying them in Colorado three decades ago.

“When I was living in Colorado, I thought it was kind of funny that we had this species that in Boulder a lot of people would really get excited about and try to protect them,” he said. “Meanwhile, in other parts of the state, people are recreationally shooting them … So they’re definitely very, very polarizing,” Naturally, the voices of conservationists get louder when a prairie dog colony is threatened, often by development projects. But unlike other urban wildlife, prairie dogs aren’t mobile, and their earthen homes are out in the open.

“Think about rats. Rats spread and they cause tons of damage,” Magle said. “The thing that’s different is the product of a house. We can identify it, and we know where they live. If you want to get rid of them, you know right where they are.”

This immobility puts prairie dogs in the direct line of fire for developers. In a way, Magle says, they’re our direct competitors.

“They’re so much like us. I mean, we see a plot of land, we want to modify it, make it somewhere we could live, change it. That’s what they’re doing.”

THE TROUBLE WITH COEXISTING

These little terraformers’ voracious appetites for their own expansion is where things get complicated with coexisting. As colonies grow, they eat down their food

Now-vacant prairie dog burrow at Dry Creek Community Park in Longmont on Jan. 3. Credit: Tyler Hickman

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JANUARY 16, 2025

BOULDER WEEKLY

NEWS into undesired areas. Prairie dog barriers can be effective, but the persistent animals can eventually find a way over, under or around them.

Otherwise, the colonies can outgrow their space in just a few years, “which means we have to come in every season with that carbon monoxide machine” and exterminate a portion of the population, Bell said.

Another option is to relocate the prairie dogs. In Longmont, anyone wishing to clear out prairie dogs from a piece of land larger than 1.5 acres must “first attempt in good faith to relocate the prairie dogs” according to the city’s prairie dog ordinance. (There are exemptions for existing urban development — which can include residential areas, their adjacent properties and city parks.)

At Dry Creek, the city successfully trapped and relocated 604 prairie dogs to the Pueblo Chemical Depot, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working to reestablish the A bald eagle surveys the land at Dry Creek Community endangered black-footed ferret, Park on Jan. 3. Credit: Tyler Hickman whose diet almost exclusively consists of prairie dogs. When the contract expired source, then move on to the next spot. with the relocator, Fraina and a group of Urbanization has confined prairie dogs volunteers stepped up with a GoFundMe into smaller and smaller areas limiting the to raise money for the relocation of an availability of open plains habitat for them additional 102. to move into.

Due to a breeding season “Once they utilize all that food resource, that runs from winter through they’re stuck, and then their goal is to spring, relocation is often limited move on to the next spot,” said David to a handful of months a year, Bell, Longmont’s director of Parks and and only one site was accepting Natural Resources. “That’s unfortunately prairie dogs from outside its going to be variants of synthetic turf. It’s respective county in 2024, going to be HOAs. It’s going to be out according to the Prairie Dog onto public roads.”

Coalition’s website. The Pueblo Prairie dogs are a notorious enemy of Chemical Depot only receives HOAs. They can dig up lawns, uproot relocations on a season-by-seatrees and damage sidewalks when they son basis, so Longmont decided burrow beneath them. The Harvest to remove the Dry Creek prairie Junction HOA in Longmont south of East dogs last year, despite the next Ken Pratt Boulevard is weighing prairie phase of construction being dog mitigation options, including extermiunfunded until at least 2030, the nation and relocation (a cost that falls on city explained in an email to HOA members), for a colony adjacent to Boulder Weekly. the neighborhood, though there have The “trap-shy” stragglers the been no reports of the rodents digging in volunteers and contractors were residents’ yards.

Fraina has started a petition to urge the unable to capture were extermiboard to look for coexistence strategies at nated. The city estimates they were unable to capture 50 praiits next meeting on Jan. 20. rie dogs, and the extermination There are a number of tactics used to efforts are still ongoing. try and prevent colonies from expanding BOULDER WEEKLY

WHAT’S NEXT FOR LONGMONT PRAIRIE DOGS

Black-tailed prairie dogs aren’t on the endangered or threatened species lists.

But they are considered a keystone species and vital to the habitation of protected species like bald eagles, black-footed ferrets and burrowing owls. By ecologist Magle’s own estimates, there is a 40% chance the species could be eliminated in Denver by 2067.

“There’s not a lot of cities left where they exist. And they’re a species you can go see anytime you want,” Magle said.

“Those of us who live in cities have more of a need to be around some semblance of nature and wildlife than people who have easy access to that every day.”

Still, there’s been progress in conservation for the species. Along with Longmont, several other cities in Boulder County have adopted regulations that prioritize non-lethal mitigation, including Boulder and Lafayette.

“We removed over 600 prairie dogs, which 10 years ago never would’ve happened,” Bell said. “And that is because of the push we had to do relocation [in] the first place from this group.”

Fraina and Longmont’s prairie dog lovers aren’t satisfied. They still see loopholes in the city’s ordinance, and plan to suggest amendments at an upcoming city

council meeting. (This was originally planned for the Jan. 21 meeting, but it has been rescheduled to accommodate interviews for Longmont’s Ward 2 representative. A new date has not yet been set.)

Suggestions include changing how developers draw colony boundaries to make habitat sizes more accurate, extending the relocation requirements to all habitats larger than 1.5 acres including existing urban developments — forcing entities like the Harvest Junction HOA to explore this route before extermination, and upping the fees for permits and exterminations to pad the city budget for habitat restoration.

Fraina hopes this will “help build up the funds and really just make it easier for residents that want to preserve to have the means to do so.”

For now, advocates will continue their conservation efforts, developers will continue developing and — where they’re allowed to exist — prairie dogs will keep digging.

“I understand that we’re humans, and we need spaces for all the stuff that we do, and in some spaces, prairie dogs are going to have to move,” Magle said. “But I do think we spend too much time thinking about the costs of living next to prairie dogs, and not enough time thinking about the benefits.”

JANUARY 16, 2025

13

January 23 - May 4, 2025 Over 50 Years of Exhibitions and Art Education in Boulder and Beyond. ht31 0571

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Boulder, CO 80302

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MUSIC

VOICE OF GOD Alan Sparhawk learns the language of grief

BY JEZY J. GRAY

I

t’s a bitter 11-degree morning in Duluth, Minnesota, when Alan Sparhawk picks up the phone.

Nothing unusual for January in the upper midwest, but it’s a lack of snowfall that has the 56-year-old indie rock legend feeling unsettled.

“These last two years have been very weird,” he says of his home state’s uncommonly dry conditions. “The ground is probably 90% bare at this point.”

This eerie harbinger of climate change isn’t the only thing that has knocked Sparhawk off orbit lately. On the morning he speaks with Boulder Weekly about his disarming debut solo album — White Roses, My God, released last September via Sub Pop — it’s been 26 months and two days since the death of Mimi Parker, his partner in life and art for more than four decades.

The married couple started out as high school sweethearts before launching the paradigm-shifting alt rock band Low in 1993. Pioneers of a subgenre known as slowcore, marked by down-tempo beats and sparse instrumentation, the duo of Parker on drums and Sparhawk on guitar — with the two sharing vocal duties — charted a singular and winding course across 13 full-length albums.

From their pristine and poignant debut I Could Live in Hope to the howling electronic noise of their critically lauded swan song HEY WHAT, the art-rock outfit carved an inimitable place in music history over a nearly 30-year career. But after Parker died from ovarian cancer in November 2022, Sparhawk didn’t know how or if he could carry on with a creative life in the shadow of her absence.

“I found myself a little bit in the weeds — a little bit in the dark, in the clouds, trying to figure out what it felt like to do things by myself. Trying to figure out what my future was,” he says. “I mean, I’d played with other people, but losing

BOULDER WEEKLY

the personal presence of a lifelong partner kind of shakes your foundation.”

Leaping into the deep end of strange waters, Sparhawk learned to swim. The veteran musician gave himself over to the process of making creative decisions in a digital environment, a far cry from his usual regimen of noodling on the guitar in his basement until songs began to take shape.

“There’s kind of a naivete that happens when you’re twisting a knob and wondering, ‘Well, what does this do?

What happens when I push this?’ It’s very innocent,” he says. “I’ve improvised before, but this was really surrendering myself to what is coming out of me right now, and trusting that if you feel something’s right, it probably is.”

ing electronic voice ripples toward the middle of the record’s 35-minute runtime.

“I wanna be there with the people I love.”

“There’s some ecstatic parts of it — ‘IF YOU FEEL SOMETHING but at the same time, there were songs I IS RIGHT, IT PROBABLY IS’ found were very much about grief,” he After returning to the stage at the sugsays. “I didn’t know that until later, as I’m gestion of avant-garde Nashville songputting them together: I’ll remember writer Kurt Wagner, “an empathic soul” some moment that was pretty real, and who saw a fellow artist in need of somenow I see its connection. I wasn’t running thing to look forward to, Sparhawk found away from anything, but I wasn’t neceshimself drawn to the siren song of the sarily going, like, ‘OK, I’m gonna try to unknown: a drum machine and vocal express what I’m feeling now.’” processor originally purchased for his This process was a sharp reminder for 20-something kids, Cyrus and Hollis.

Sparhawk about art’s unique ability to Operating a new set of tools, show us new contours of ourselves, to Sparhawk began to experiment with a turn our messy human experiences over different vocabulary to feel his way out of in the light and see what we may the creative wilderness. have missed the first time around.

Before long, what began “Usually it teaches you best as a stray exercise — when it’s kind of kicking your ass bending his buttery voice and putting you in an uncomfortinto alien pitches over able place,” he says. “[This prothudding womps of eleccess] taught me to trust what tronic bass — began to comes out and what feels right. feel like something worth You know more than you think capturing. you know. Music isn’t this other “You’re always striving foreign thing we need to figure for that moment,” he says. out. It’s already in us.”

“I was really surprised to Now Sparhawk is preparing to find there were things take these lessons on the road, flowing out of me, so I with his son Cyrus on bass — he kept at it. I’d sit down and plays on the record, alongside his improvise some music big sister Hollis — for a sevenand words, then I go back month world tour, stopping by and mark the stuff that felt Denver’s Bluebird Theater on good: the moments where Originally one-half of the celebrated art-rock duo Low, Alan Sparhawk is Jan. 25 before skipping off to the hair stood up on the navigating a new world following the death of his wife and creative partner Australia, Switzerland and points back of my neck.”

Mimi Parker (left) in 2022. Credit: Nathan Keay beyond.

“To be honest, there was a long time AGONY AND ECSTASY where the idea of making something creSparhawk’s push beyond his comfort ative to deal with what I was feeling zone did more than offer a new pathway seemed impossible and felt kind of pointfor making art — it brought him to bold less. It felt like there’s no music to new sonic territory. White Roses, My address this,” he says. “I was trying to God contains a germ of Low’s restless exist from moment to moment, and drive to remap their shapeshifting aessomething started coming out of me — thetic, but the 11-track offering is galaxI recognized it, so I tried to honor it, ies apart from the music he made with because I knew I’d seen it before.”

Parker across the zigs and zags of their three-decade career together.

Recalling the emotive warble of Kanye West’s 808s and Heartbreak or the subON THE BILL: Alan lime digital trill of Cher’s “Believe,” White Sparhawk with Circuit Roses doesn’t conform to what we’re In a social media post explaining the title White des Yeux. 9 p.m. Saturday, conditioned to think grief is supposed to Roses, My God — his first recorded music since Jan. 25, Bluebird Theater, sound like. Until a stray bullet fires the death of his wife, Mimi Parker — Alan Spar3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. across the bow: “Heaven, it’s a lonely hawk says: “Mim loved roses, and sometimes I $38 place if you’re alone,” Sparhawk’s quiverthink she is God.” Credit: Sophia Photo Co. JANUARY 16, 2025

15

BOOKS

OPEN WORLD Tara Tai writes ‘a love letter to gaming’ set in Boulder

BY PARKER YAMASAKI

T

ara Tai’s world is full of unlikely bedfellows. The Harvard Business School graduate works a desk job for Google by day and moonlights as a rom-com writer. In their fiction, Tai’s two worlds collide — the starchy straight-andwhite world of tech bros, and the other, their queer and creative inner world.

OK, it’s not that straightforward. But one of the things Tai says about the romance genre is that things can be a little unrealistic; characters can be uncomplicated.

Tara Tai is a gamer, and a writer, and a writer who wrote about gamers. Credit: Nicole Loeb

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JANUARY 16, 2025

“It’s like broad strokes,” Tai, the 36-year-old Boston writer tells Boulder Weekly. “It’s a big painting and it’s bold colors. That’s the great thing about romance.”

Tai really is a Harvard Business School graduate, and they do work for Google. They also recently published their debut novel with Penguin Random House, a zippy rom-com called Single Player set at a fictional game developer in Boulder.

The reality of bringing the novel into the world was a little more complicated.

After graduating, Tai spent time in China researching a historical novel based on dinnertime stories they’d grown up hearing — stories about how their grandmother “walked however many kilometers to escape Communist rule and hitched a ride to Taiwan and left behind siblings Single Player by Tara Tai was released Jan. 7. Courtesy: that took the political fall for her Penguin Random House defection,” Tai says. “It probably wasn’t as dramatic as all that. But we things like lust and romantic love” out of grew up hearing these stories. So I was their game. You can probably guess what interested in going back to meet these happens next. great aunts and great uncles.”

At least, you can if you’re a romance Tai used the material to write a novel reader. The genre operates by a certain about food and cultural authenticity, and set of agreed-upon conventions: characquickly followed that up with another ter tropes, plot patterns and the absolutely about a tech worker moving to China. obligatory happily-ever-after.

Neither was picked up by a publisher, so That’s not unlike the realm of video they shelved book writing for a while. games. The rules may be a little looser Then, in 2022, after spending much of when it comes to storylines and plot the pandemic playing adventure games development, but players are still limited like The Last of Us and God of War, tactito a world someone else created — a cal RPGs like Fire Emblem and “choicesworld with its own bylaws, characters and matter” narrative RPGs like Dragon Age, finite decisions. the idea for Single Player started to While strict boundaries can create a emerge. fun, choose-your-own-adventure experiTai was intrigued by the immersive ence in both video games and book writquality of games and wanted to write a ing, they can also have dark side-effects character who uses the same laddered applied outside of their fictional containstructures to navigate their own life. If you ers. Both realms have spent the past click A, B happens; if you click C, D hapdecade-plus in their own, respectively pens. sticky conversations about identity and inclusion.

In May 2024, the Romance Writers of STICKY CONVERSATIONS America, once the premier romance assoThe chapters of Single Player alternate ciation, filed for bankruptcy. Membership between two main characters, Cat and has plummeted to about 2,000 members Andi. Cat is the bright-eyed new hire at from around 10,000 at its peak, despite a Heartrender Studios, a chronic gamer proliferation of romance-focused bookwith a soft spot for romantic subplots. Cat shops and a growing fanbase. is assigned to assist Andi, a nonbinary The association has been ravaged by game writer with a chip on their shoulder, scandals of exclusion since 2005, when a determined to keep, as Andi puts it, “frilly BOULDER WEEKLY

TITLE small faction pushed to define romance as strictly between “one man and one woman,” according to reporting by the New York Times. The association has since apologized for the incident, but continued to fumble through the subsequent decades.

In 2019, the association banned a Chinese American author for calling out ugly stereotypes in a popular novel; in 2021 they presented an award to a Western romance whose protagonist finds love after slaughtering a band of Lakota. The 2024 bankruptcy filing cited “disputes concerning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) issues” among the reasons for the drop in membership.

I’m not trying to write a love letter to romances.

I’m trying to write a love letter to gaming.”

‘A LOVE LETTER TO GAMING’

Then there’s the gaming world. It would be hard to talk about the industry’s deep-seated misogyny without mentioning Gamergate.

In short, Gamergate sprung from the success of an arty, non-traditional game called Depression Quest written by an independent designer named Zoë Quinn. In 2014, Quinn’s ex-boyfriend wrote a series of slanderous blog posts claiming that Quinn cheated on him with several men in the gaming industry, kicking off a nauseating torrent of backlash — including, but not limited to, death threats, doxxing and nude photo leaks of Quinn. It was neither the first nor last incident of blatant misogyny in gaming culture, but it was the first time this very vocal, very online slice of a farright culture made it into mainstream media.

“I was certainly thinking about Gamergate when I wrote Single Player, but a lot of the controversies I obliquely reference happened more recently,” Tai says. They rattle off heated criticisms of the 2020 game The Last of Us Part II, a trans character’s storyline in the October 2024 release Dragon Age: The Veilguard and the presence of a nonbinary voice actor in the forthcoming Ghost of Yotei.

In Tai’s version, Andi appears on stage at a gaming conference in Las Vegas to give a talk about a gritty game BOULDER WEEKLY

— TARA TAI called Aftermath. The crowd is shocked when Andi, with their gender-neutral name and generally low profile, walks onto the stage and announces their pronouns: she/they. The Reddit boards light up and the rumors swirl; Andi is doxxed, threatened and forced to move to Boulder In real life, Tai fell in love with the town while visiting friends a couple years ago, and liked the idea of setting the book in a place with an emerging gaming scene where the characters are “able to escape to the mountains on a weekend,” Tai says, nodding to a scene that made it into the book.

Of course, Tai isn’t tackling these issues head-on in Single Player, but they’re not not tackling them either. In industries with sometimes violent exclusions, the simple act of inclusion can be illuminating.

Though the novel has been generally well-received by readers, Tai’s first love is the gaming community.

“I am more of a gamer than a romcom reader, so I was much more concerned with how a gamer would react to the words I was putting on the page than how a romance reader would react,” Tai says. “That was probably a bad move because it’s romance readers that are more likely to pick up my book.

But I’m not trying to write a love letter to romances. I’m trying to write a love letter to gaming.”

ON THE PAGE: Single Player: A Reading with Tara Tai. 7-8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21, Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 940 Pearl St. Free JANUARY 16, 2025

17

FILM

BEARING WITNESS Ben Chaplin on journalism and tragedy in historical thriller ‘September 5’

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

B

en Chaplin wants to surprise you.

It’s a simple charge, but it’s what the stage and screen actor of more than 30 years has in mind when he takes a new role.

“That’s always my goal: to do something that surprises them, that makes them feel,” the 55-year-old British performer says of the audience. “It’s really about making it so real, so heartfelt, that they’re surprised by the level of that [feeling].”

I spoke with Chaplin while he was in town last November to receive the Excellence in Acting Award at the 47th Denver Film Festival — “Get this,” he told me, “I get to pick up an ensemble award, alone!” — for his portrayal of Marvin Bader in the new drama based on real events, September 5.

“I was surprised by how relevant it felt,” Chaplin recounts when he first read the

script by Moritz Binder, Alex David and Tim Fehlbaum — who also directs. That was in 2022.

“But the first time I watched it [in 2024], I sat there for about five minutes and thought: ‘This is really relevant,’” he continues. “It doesn’t answer any questions because they may be unanswerable. But they’re certainly worth considering.”

science of the film,” and it’s easy to see why. Bader was a legend in sports broadcasting — “credited with inventing the accreditation system, globally, for sports broadcasters, had friends all over the world — friends, but also, ins everywhere,” Chaplin explains.

“Obviously, a stickler for detail.”

‘THE MORAL CONSCIENCE OF THE FILM’

As September 5 shows, Bader was also placed in an unenviable situation.

The Germans running the Olympics were skittish that anything happening to Jewish athletes on German soil would dredge up old memories, while Roone and Geoffrey hang on to the hostage story a beat too long in hopes of seeing the job through. All the while, human lives are at stake, and everyone is desperate for information and a speedy resolution.

“What the film is really about is journalism,” Chaplin says. “I think at the root of the film is what responsibility we have in covering these things.”

Specifically, rolling news coverage of tragic events.

“Like they were in that moment, we are in this moment,” Chaplin says. “Tech is way ahead of our knowledge and our ability to deal with the unintended consequences.”

Running on pure adrenaline and anchored by an outstanding ensemble that includes Leonie Benesch, Benjamin Walker and Zinedine Soualem, September 5 is a gripping piece of work that, like Chaplin says, offers many questions but few answers. For some audiences, it will make for a very uncomfortable experience. And that’s partly Chaplin’s hope.

“Some people argue that you don’t want to make them uncomfortable,” he says of the audience. “I don’t mind making them uncomfortable. That’s my job, I feel. I don’t want to make them feel awful.

But: ‘That’s not comfortable to watch’ is fine with me. As long as it’s about feeling and empathy, you know?”

Set on the most notorious date of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, September 5 recounts the Israeli athletes taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group Black September from the perspective of the ABC Sports control room broadcasting the crisis live. The three in charge: Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), Geoffrey Mason (John Magaro) and Bader (Chaplin).

Ben Chaplin, recipient of the 2024 Denver Film Festival’s “They’re doing the only thing they Excellence in Acting Award. Credit: Jason DeWitt know how to do,” Chaplin says of the cal alliances in the name of journalistic TV crew thrown into international affairs objectivity. In doing so, a series of choices without warning. “And that’s what I find create lasting effects. slightly moving about the film is that “He was the troubleshooter,” Chaplin human beings do the best they can. ... says of Bader. “His job was to troubleMaking it work with groundbreaking techshoot, see all problems, every possible nology.” problem under the sun. ... How to plan for, Confined almost exclusively to the ABC how to mitigate it.”

Sports broadcast room and unfolding in Chaplin says that because of this, what feels like real-time, the players of many have called Bader “the moral conSeptember 5 eschew personal and politi-

MAKING AUDIENCES UNCOMFORTABLE

ON SCREEN: September 5 opens in wide release Jan. 17.

Ben Chaplin (center) confronts a difficult decision with John Magaro (right) and Peter Sarsgaard (left) in September 5. Courtesy: Paramount Pictures

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JANUARY 16, 2025

BOULDER WEEKLY

FILM

A LIKELY STORY ‘The Room Next Door’ toys with the audience

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

A

woman is dying and asks her friend for a favor. “What is it?” the friend asks. “I’m going to kill myself,” the woman says. “And I want you to be in the room next door when I do.”

That might make The Room Next Door, the latest from legendary Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, sound like a tantalizing premise, and it is, but not in the way you’d expect.

One of the great makers of melodramas, Almodóvar knows how to take something simple and suffuse it with enough heightened emotions and moral uncertainty that you can’t help but get swept up. He’s a modern-day Alfred

Hitchcock: someone who can take beautiful and wealthy people living beautiful and wealthy lives and make them feel so common that when the conflict appears, you wonder what you would do in their shoes.

But here’s the trick of The Room Next Door, and it’s a hurdle you might have to get past: It’s all so hokey.

I’ll explain. In the first 30 minutes, the terminal woman, Martha (Tilda Swinton), shares her plight — ovarian cancer — and the backstory of a one-time lover to her friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore). But she narrates with such detachment that you can’t believe Swinton is capable of giving a performance this bland. Ditto for Moore, whose line readings have all the subtlety of community theater.

But the owls are not what they seem.

When Martha tells the story of her onetime lover’s demise, we see in flashback the man (Alex Høgh Andersen), a Vietnam vet suffering from severe PTSD, driving by a burning farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. He stops the vehicle and races inside to save the voices crying

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore consider the middle distance in The Room Next Door.

Courtesy: Sony Pictures Classics

for help. But there are no voices, and no one is inside.

The grass growing up to the front steps of the burning house isn’t even matted down in a way that indicates someone or something has ever been there. Curiouser and curiouser.

Almodóvar knows what he’s doing.

The Room Next Door is a sneaky little treatise on death and dying, right to die, climate change, futility, optimism, moral complicity and more things than I have space to go into here. It’s the kind of

story that would come off as flat and boring and probably pretentious if the storyteller didn’t tell it well. But Almodóvar does. And it works.

ON SCREEN: The Room Next Door opens in theaters Jan. 10.

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JANUARY 16, 2025

19

EVENTS

y Thursda

y 16

Januar

show time 8:00pm

Friday

y 17 Januar

show time 8:00pm

Saturday

y 18

Januar

show time 8:00pm

Friday

y 24

Januar

show time 8:00pm

Saturday

y 25

Januar

show time 8:00pm

y Thursda

y 30

Januar

show time 8:00pm

Friday

y 31

Januar

show time 8:00pm

ay Wednesd

ry 5

Februa

show time 6:00pm

Friday

ry 7

Februa

show time 8:00pm

Saturday

ry 8

Februa

show time 8:00pm

ay Wednesd

ry 12

Februa

show time 8:00pm

Friday

ry 14

Februa

show time 8:00pm

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The Wildwoods with bob barrick

$24

Greg koch ft. the koch marshall trio with jason greenlaw

all fee

Tumbledown Shack with elle michelle & brandywine

all fee

The Desert Furs Dig Deep and duncan coker band

Hot like mars with fruta brutal

Toubab Krewe Velvet Vinyl presents “Girls put your records on” ladies night

Thom lafond band

Shady oaks

ded

s inclu

all fee

$24

ded

s inclu

$19

ed

s includ

17

$16

ded

s inclu

all fee

$20

ded

s inclu

all fee

$19

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all fee

$26

JANUARY 16, 2025

Whose Line meets Saturday Night Live for an evening of improv at The Louisville Underground. Audience suggestions steer the action as these skilled performers spin your scenarios into live comedy gold during this 21+ event.

7-8:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $15-$30 T2 Dance Company returns for its seventh year of the Versatility Dance Festival — a curated exhibition featuring contemporary dance companies and filmmakers from around the world.

Whether you’re a dance aficionado or a curious newcomer, this one-night event is for you.

18

ART 4 ART TRADING CARDS

12:30-2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18., Lyons Community Library, 451 4th Ave. Free Head to the Effie Banta Meeting Room at the Lyons Community Library on the third Saturday of the month to create, swap and collect artist trading cards.

There’s only one official rule: All cards must adhere to the standard 2.5 by 3.5 inches.

ded

Free Show

$22

ded

s inclu

all fee

$16 ded

s inclu

Tinsley Ellis Naked truth tour

8 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, The Louisville Underground, 640 Main St. Free

VERSATILITY DANCE FESTIVAL

s inclu

all fee

all fee

Galentine’s Day with Music by Foxfeather

IMPROVARAMA!

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18

NATURE JOURNALING

2-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, Lyons Community Library, 451 4th Ave. Free $19 s

all fee

d include

$29 ded

s inclu

all fee

Connect with the great outdoors and your inner creativity during this interactive nature walk in Lyons. The fun starts at the library with a quick video, followed by a nearby hike where you can sketch, write or simply observe the beauty around you. All experience levels welcome.

18

OPENING RECEPTION: BORROWED DUST + HUMAN NATURE

3:30-6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, Nick Ryan Gallery, 1221 Pennsylvania Ave., Suite 110, Boulder. Free Nick Ryan Gallery presents an opening reception to mark the unveiling of two new solo contemporary art exhibitions: Brenda Stumpf’s Borrowed Dust and Human Nature by Lanny DeVuono.

Works include mixed-media sculptures, graphite landscapes and more.

18

MARC MARON: ALL IN

7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $50-$70 Comedian, actor, podcasting pioneer and interviewer extraordinaire Marc Maron comes to Boulder for a night of stand-up at the city’s historic downtown theater. The legendary multi-hyphenate performs on the heels of his latest special, From Bleak to Dark, streaming now on Max. BOULDER WEEKLY

EVENTS JAZZ SUPPER CLUB LIVE JAZZ • TAPAS • CRAFT COCKTAILS • BEER & WINE

FRIDAY • 01/17

THE FARRELL LOWE GROUP SATURDAY • 01/18

CHARLES MINGUS TRIBUTE

19

LOCO UKULELE JAM

2-4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 19, Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. Free Joy is on tap during this weekly community jam sesh at Longmont’s Bootstrap Brewing. Whether you’re a seasoned ukulele enthusiast or you’re just looking for an excuse to enjoy a dose of music and togetherness, you don’t want to miss this beloved tradition hosted by Brian Rezac.

19

THE TIME IS ALWAYS RIGHT

2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 19, Dairy Arts Center - Gordon Gamm Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $15-$50 Music, dance and spoken word collide in this moving tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his fellow leaders in the Civil Rights Movement.

Directed by Kenya Mahogany, this multidisciplinary celebration of social change is the perfect way to honor MLK Day in Boulder.

BOULDER WEEKLY

21

23

6-8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 21, Firehouse Art Center, 667 4th Ave. Longmont. Free

5-8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, The Passenger, 300 Main St., Longmont. Free

SONGWRITERS MEETUP

Join a growing group of emerging and veteran songwriters across Boulder County during this monthly meetup at Firehouse Art Center in Longmont.

Share your original songs and build connections with instructor Angel Corsi and host Dwayne Wolff.

22

OPEN MIC NIGHT

6-9 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22, VisionQuest Brewery, 2510 47th St., Suite A2, Boulder. Free Looking to spread your creative wings in a supportive, low-pressure environment? Head to VisionQuest Brewery in Boulder for this weekly open mic night hosted by Jim Herlihy. Sign up for three-song sets starting half an hour before showtime.

KARAOKE NIGHT

Whether your go-to singalong is “Piano Man” or “Party Rock Anthem,” you don’t want to miss karaoke at The Passenger on Thursdays in Longmont. Fly solo or roll with the squad — either way, you’ll get a free domestic beer and a fun night on the town.

23

QUEER COMMUNITY MEDITATION

6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, Boulder Shambhala Center, 1345 Spruce St. Free Practice mindfulness techniques under the guidance of queer Buddhist teachers during this affirming session. The LGBTQ+ event includes conversation on “what it is to be queer in our personal and collective experience on the spiritual path and everyday life.”

JANUARY 16, 2025

21

1964 THE TRIBUTE

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 1, 2025 BOULDER THEATER Get tickets at bouldertheater.com

................................................................................................................................................ THE ARISTOCRAT

1964 The Tribute is not endorsed by or affiliated with Apple Corps, LTD.

vv

JUST ANNOUNCED MAR 21........................EVERYONE ORCHESTRA CONDUCTED BY MATT BUTLER APR 5........................................................................................................................ALO APR 10............................................................................................................ CYCLOPS APR 11................................................................................... AJ LEE & BLUE SUMMIT

JUST ANNOUNCED SEP 27 .............................................................................................MARK NORMAND

THU. JAN 16

FRI. JAN 17

YOUNG & DEAD + RIVER SPELL HUCK N’ PRAY

SAT. JAN 18

THE FRETLINERS

FEAT. SPECIAL GUEST ANDY THORN THU. JAN 23

HOWLIN’ GOATZ + WENDY WOO THE GHOST-TOWNERS FRI. JAN 24

WED. JAN 29

STEEP CANYON RANGERS FEAT. PETER ROWAN SAT. FEB 1

1964 THE TRIBUTE THE BEATLES TRIBUTE FRI. FEB 7

TRACTORBEAM

THU. JAN 30

BIG RICHARD

DAFT FLOYD

VAN ZEPPELIN, AFB, THE SECOND HAND FRI. JAN 31

NETHER HOUR AUGUSTUS

SAT. FEB 1

CLAY STREET UNIT MADELINE HAWTHORNE

SEE FULL LIST OF 1135 13TH STREET BOULDER 720.645.2467 SHOWS WWW.FOXTHEATRE.COM

JANUARY 16, 2025

TH URSDAY, JAN . 16

S ATURDAY, J A N . 18

JJ MURPHY WITH EXPERIMENTAL BRUNCH. 7 p.m.

Roots Music Project 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $18

THE FRETLINERS. 8 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 18, Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20+

EMMET COHEN TRIO. 8 p.m.

Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $40+

O’CONNOR BROTHERS BAND WITH HUNTER JAMES & THE TITANIC. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $21

THE WILDWOODS WITH BOB BARRICK. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge 2037 13th St., Boulder. $24 PINK LADY MONSTER WITH RAY DIESS, PART WEAPON AND BABYBABY. 7 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $12

FRID AY, JAN . 17 YOUNG & DEAD WITH RIVER SPELL AND HUCK N’ PRAY. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $20 HOUNDMOUTH WITH RAYLAND BAXTER. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $55 MAGIC BEANS. 7 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland. $20+

FEAT. PHILIP NORRIS, KYLE POOLE

PINK PONY CLUB:

CHAPPELL ROAN-INSPIRED DANCE PARTY

22

EMMET COHEN TRIO

LIVE MUSIC

FRI. FEB 14

SILAS HERMAN & THE TONE UNIT

GREG KOCH FEATURING THE KOCH MARSHALL TRIO WITH JASON GREENLAW. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $24 FAST EDDY WITH FLIGHT KAMIKAZE, HELL TUPET AND BATTLE SIGHTS. 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $10

SAT. FEB 15

UNCLE ACID AND THE DEADBEATS “NELL’ ORA BLU” JONATHAN HULTÉN THU. FEB 20

RAILROAD EARTH

WWW.BOULDERTHEATER.COM 2032 14TH STREET BOULDER 303.786.7030

HOUSE OF FIRE: GALAXY GLOW. 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $24 TANK AND THE BANGAS WITH AUSTIN BROWN AND BLVK CVSTLE. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $51

THE RADIO BAND. 7:30 p.m.

Nissi’s, 1455 Coal Creek Drive, Unit T, Lafayette. $20 / $15 advance ABANDONS WITH CHURCH FIRE AND OYARSA. 8 p.m. Hi Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $15 CYCLES WITH THE JAUNTEE. 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $21 GABRIEL & DRESDEN. 9 p.m.

Bluebird Theater 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $43 TUMBLEDOWN SHACK WITH ELLE MICHELLE AND BRANDYWINE. 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $19

S UN DAY, J A N . 19 HAMILTON LOOMIS. 7 p.m.

Nissi’s, 1455 Coal Creek Drive, Unit T, Lafayette. $25 BEN BARNES. 7 p.m. Summit Denver, 1902 Blake St. $48 GREG KOCH WITH THE KOCHMARSHALL TRIO. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $24

BOULDER WEEKLY

LIVE MUSIC

New York singer-songwriter Allegra Krieger comes to Denver’s Larimer Lounge with West Coast indie darling Christian Lee Hutson on Jan. 22. The artist brings her delicate arrangements and incisive lyrical economy to the Front Range in support of her second full-length album Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine, out now via Polyvinyl Records. Scan the QR code for a BW interview with headliner Hutson before the gig. See listing for details

MON D AY, J A N . 2 0 GOD IS WAR WITH LANA DEL RABIES, MPW, MALTREATMENT, ETHAN LEE MCCARTHY AND ASHEN GLAZE. 7 p.m. Hi Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $12

T U E S D AY, J A N . 2 1 REX PEOPLES WITH XFACTR. 6:30 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder.

Free

W E D N E S D AY, JAN. 2 2 BOURBON, BLUES & GROOVES: THE SAINTS. 6:30 p.m. Nissi’s, 1455 Coal Creek Drive, Unit T, Lafayette. Free BOULDER WEEKLY

CHRISTIAN LEE HUTSON WITH ALLEGRA KRIEGER. 7 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $20+ BW PICK OF THE WEEK

THUR SD AY, JAN . 23 HOWLIN’ GOATZ AND WENDY WOO WITH THE GHOSTTOWNERS. 7 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15+ THE BIG SPENDERS. 7:30 p.m.

Nissi’s, 1455 Coal Creek Drive, Unit T, Lafayette. Free

Handweavers Guild of Boulder COLORADO GRASSLANDS

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

JANUARY 5 - 26 Open Reception

Sunday, January 19th, 3-5

BUS STOP GALLERY

4895 N. Broadway, Boulder Thurs-Sat 12-7, Sun 12-5 JANUARY 16, 2025

23

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021. He has also been shortlisted for four other prestigious awards. I find it odd that his acclaimed novels have received mediocre scores on the prominent book-rating website, Goodreads, which has 150 million members.

Why is there such a marked difference between expert critics and average readers? I speculate that those in the latter category are less likely to appreciate bold, innovative work. They don’t have the breadth and depth to properly evaluate genius. All this is my way of encouraging you to be extra discerning about whose opinions you listen to in the coming weeks, Aries —especially in regard to your true value. Trust intelligent people who specialize in thoughtful integrity. You are in a phase when your ripening uniqueness needs to be nurtured and protected.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): “Every joke is a tiny revolution,” said author George Orwell. I agree, which is why I hope you will unleash an unruly abundance of humor and playfulness in the coming days. I hope you will also engage in benevolent mischief that jostles the status quo and gently shakes people out of their trances. Why? Because your world and everyone in it needs a sweet, raucous revolution. And the best way to accomplish that with minimum chaos and maximum healing is to: 1. do so with kindness and compassion; 2. be amusing and joyful and full of joie de vivre.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Research suggests that if you’re typical, you would have to howl with maximum fury for a month straight just to produce enough energy to toast a piece of bread. But you are not at all typical right now. Your wrath is high quality. It’s more likely than usual to generate constructive changes. And it’s more prone to energize you rather than deplete you. But don’t get overconfident in your ability to harness your rage for good causes. Be respectful of its holy potency, and don’t squander it on trivial matters. Use it only for crucial prods that would significantly change things for the better.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): I invite you to write a message to the person you will be in one year. Inform this Future You that you are taking a vow to achieve three specific goals by Jan. 15, 2026. Name these goals.

Say why they are so important to you. Describe what actions you will take to fulfill them.

Compose collages or draw pictures that convey your excitement about them. When you’ve done all that, write the words, “I pledge to devote all my powers to accomplish these wonderful feats.”

Sign your name. Place your document in an envelope, write “MY VOWS” on the front, and tape the envelope in a prominent place in your home or workplace.

24

JANUARY 16, 2025

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): We are all accustomed to dealing with complications and complexities — so much so that we may be tempted to imagine there’s never a simple solution to any dilemma. Copious nuance and mystifying paradox surround us on all sides, tempting us to think that every important decision must inevitably be taxing and time-consuming.

As someone who specializes in trying to see all sides to every story, I am especially susceptible to these perspectives. (I have three planets in Libra.) But now here’s the unexpected news: In the coming weeks, you will enjoy the luxury of quickly settling on definitive, straightforward solutions. You will get a sweet respite from relentless fuzziness and ambiguity.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): When my daughter Zoe was 11 years old, she published her first collection of poems. The chapbook’s title was Secret Freedom. That’s a good theme for you to meditate on in the coming weeks. You are currently communing with a fertile mystery that could ultimately liberate you from some of your suffering and limitations.

However, it’s important to be private and covert about your playful work with this fertile mystery — at least for now. Eventually, when it ripens, there will come a time to fully unleash your beautiful thing and reveal it to the world. But until then, safeguard it with silence and discretion.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): From a distance, Brazil’s Rio Negro looks black.

The water of Rio Solimões, also in Brazil, is yellowish-brown. Near the city of Manaus, these two rivers converge, flowing eastward. But they don’t blend at first. For a few miles, they move side-by-side, as if still autonomous.

Eventually, they fuse into a single flow and become the mighty Amazon River. I suspect the behavior of Rio Negro and Rio Solimões could serve as a useful metaphor for you in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. Consider the possibility of allowing, even encouraging, two separate streams to merge. Or would you prefer them to remain discrete for a while longer? Make a conscious decision about this matter.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): During the next three weeks, doing the same old things and thinking the same old thoughts are strongly discouraged. For the sake of your spiritual and physical health, please do not automatically rely on methods and actions that have worked before. I beg you not to imitate your past self or indulge in worn-out traditions. Sorry to be so extreme, but I really must insist that being bored or boring will be forbidden. Stated more poetically: Shed all weak-heart conceptions and weak-soul intentions. Be of strong heart and robust soul.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): Congratulations on all the subtle and private work you’ve been doing to make yourself a better candidate for optimal togetherness. Admitting to your need for improvement was brave! Learning more about unselfish cooperation was hard work, and so was boosting your listening skills. (I speak from personal experience, having labored diligently to enhance my own relationship skills!)

Very soon now, I expect that you will begin harvesting the results of your artful efforts.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Wilderness campers have developed humorous terms to gently mock their fears and anxieties. The theory is that this alleviates some of the stress. So a “bear burrito” refers to a hammock. It addresses the worry that one might get an unwanted visit from a bear while sleeping.

A “bear fortune cookie” is another name for a tent.

“Danger noodle” is an apparent stick that turns out to be a snake. “Mountain money” is also known as toilet paper. I approve of this joking approach to dealing with agitation and unease. (And scientific research confirms it’s effective.) Now is an excellent time to be creative in finding ways to diminish your mostly needless angst.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): Construction on the Great Wall of China began in the 7th century BCE and lasted until 1878.

Let’s make this monumental accomplishment your symbol of power for the next 10 months, Virgo! May it inspire you to work tirelessly to forge your own monumental accomplishment.

Take pride in the gradual progress you’re making. Be ingeniously persistent in engaging the support of those who share your grand vision.

Your steady determination, skill at collaborating and ability to plan will be your superpowers as you create a labor of love that will have enduring power.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): If you were producing the movie of your life, what actor or actress would you want to portray you? Who would play your friends and loved ones? How about the role of God or Goddess? Who would you choose to perform the role of the Supreme Being? These will be fun meditations for you in the coming weeks. Why? Because it’s an excellent time to think big about your life story — to visualize the vast, sweeping panorama of your beautiful destiny. I would also love it if during your exploration of your history, you would arrive at interesting new interpretations of the meanings of your epic themes.

BOULDER WEEKLY

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE Q: Should I get on Grindr?

A: “Every gay man should know how to

use Grindr, but we all need to remember that it’s just like any social media app — useful, addictive, toxic — and it should never, ever replace real life interactions,” said queer author and filmmaker Leo Herrera. “Right now, gay men of all ages are walking away from the apps and embracing tradition: picking up strangers in bars and bathhouses and parks.

Learn the basics of analog cruising so you’re not dependent on Grindr.”

Q: How do you get over the proverbial one who got away?

A: You know what they say: “The fastest way to get over someone is to get under someone new.” And it turns out they were on to something. In a 2023 piece for The Atlantic defending rebound relationships, Faith Hill cited research done by Amy Hackney, a psychology professor at Georgia Southern University, which found that the sooner heartbroken people started dating, the faster they healed from their heartbreak.

Q: What’s the best way to describe DP? A: Two men enter, one man cleaves.

Q: When my girlfriend eats my pussy, there’s no problem! When my husband eats my pussy, I invariably get a yeast infection. Help!

A: Maybe a dermatologist could help and/or maybe your husband could go down on your girlfriend a few times in the hopes that her epidermal microbiome re-seeds his. But if your husband can’t go down on you without giving you a yeast infection, then he doesn’t get to go down on you.

Q: Me and my new partner — great sex begins at 49 (and after divorce!)

— do a lot of pretend breastfeeding.

The pretend breast feeding is intimate, erotic, matronly and so sexy for both of us. But the guilt after sucks. How do I not feel guilty about this?

A: As perversions go, your kink barely registers as a kink. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy sucking on their partner’s nipples? Most of us aren’t consciously invoking (or acting out) pretend breastBOULDER WEEKLY

feeding sessions, but on some level we’re latching onto distant sense/sensual memories.

And even if this is weird, which it isn’t, who cares? You enjoy it, she enjoys it, it gets you both off and you’re not forcing anyone to watch or participate who doesn’t want to watch or participate.

Q: What cautions should I take as a gay Dom to prevent consensual kink and pain play from being misconstrued later as abuse or assault?

A sub wants to be slapped, trampled and fat shamed. Do I need some sort of contract?

A: “Communication is the best caution we Doms can take,” said The Funny Dom, a kink educator, author and content creator who lives in Australia.

“Things can’t be misconstrued if they’ve been plainly and specifically discussed and planned — and safewords agreed to — before they’re carried out. But absolutely he could look at drawing up a ‘contract’ that they both read and sign, as a way of really formalizing consent, and making sure they’re literally on the same page.”

The Funny Dom and I both wanted to emphasize that slave contracts or play contracts aren’t legally binding, and your sub is free to withdraw his consent at any moment. If you keep going after he uses his safeword or tells you to stop, you will have crossed the line that separates kink play from abuse and assault.

Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love or record your question for the Savage Lovecast at savage.love/askdan. Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love

MORE FUN TRAILS • Volunteer to build/maintain trail • Meet up for a Group Ride • Come out for a Skills Clinic Connect with the Boulder mountain bike community Join (BMA membership) to support our programs Join BMA today and access social events and group rides--

bouldermountainbike.org

bouldermountainbike.org JANUARY 16, 2025

25

A taste of Japan in the heart of Colorado Where centuries of culinary excellence get a fresh touch. Sushi, modern Japanese, and hand-crafted cocktails.

B OULD E R

FORT C OLLINS

1136 Pearl Street Boulder, CO 80302 303-938-0330 JapangoBoulder

125 S. College Ave. Fort Collins, CO 80524 970-413-7436 JapangoFortCollins

JAPANG OSUSHI.C OM

NIBBLES

ZERO-PROOF REPUBLIC Bars and brewers adjust as boozy Boulder embraces Dry January

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

A

curious thing is happening to boozy Boulder, a city whose committed, long-term relationship with alcohol dates back to the end of Prohibition.

In the birthplace of the American craft brew movement, Boulder bars and restaurants are full of sober-curious folks celebrating Dry January at zero-proof game, trivia or comedy nights, and highly caffeinated open mics.

Even the famously beer-soaked CU Boulder is drying out. In 2003, CU was named America’s Top Party School by the Princeton Review, but in recent years the university has barely made the Top 25.

Boulder menus are now packed with nonalcoholic (N/A) beers, wines and mocktails. You’ll also find plenty of beverages with benefits, i.e., functional ingredients ranging from calming ashwagandha to energizing maca as well as kombucha (gut health), ceremonial cacao (bioflavonoids), kava (relaxation) and various mushroom varieties.

These are sobering times for Boulder County businesses that sell or produce alcoholic beverages. We asked representatives of five local establishments to reflect on the challenges and opportunities they face during this sea change in public attitudes toward alcohol.

BREWING SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE AT LEFT HAND

Young people aren’t drinking like their parents, and it shows. Total Colorado beer, wine and liquor sales were down 6% through the first six months of 2024 compared to 2023, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue.

“We’re finding that Gen Z and especially younger Millennials are drinking much less, whether that’s because of inflation BOULDER WEEKLY

Courtesy: Left Hand

and they’re spending their dollars on other things, or they want to be healthier, or they’re moving toward marijuana,” says Jill Preston, director of marketing at Left Hand Brewing Company.

“It’s just a different time,” she continues.

“As a brewery, we have had to pivot.”

The Longmont brewpub’s menu features a much wider variety of beverage choices than in the craft brew-focused past.

“We have our ales, but we also offer cocktails, cider [and] wine because people want options,” Preston says. “That includes lighter ales brewed with less than 5% alcohol.”

The brewpub also offers nonalcoholic beers from other breweries and a CBDinfused sparkling water called Present.

“A lot of the people in their twenties are gravitating toward these beverages with functional ingredients,” she says. “It’s big at our tasting room.”

Brewpubs are also emphasizing their community connections.

“What we’re focused on is giving people a reason to come to our brewery every single day,” she says. “Whether we have food, live music or yoga or trivia or an event.”

One dark cloud hangs over the future: “As these generations get older, will they circle back and rediscover beer?” Preston said. “That’s the big industry question right now.”

BOULDER SOCIAL: HAVING FUN WITH SOBRIETY

Dry January, a tradition of abstaining from alcohol for the first month of the year, started as a footnote in the U.K. and became a movement in the U.S. It grew over time to include Sober October.

“Now, there’s an upswing in people coming in seeking nonalcoholic options

throughout the year,” says Amy McCulley, bar manager at Boulder Social.

The zero-proof crowd of 2025 isn’t limited to Gen Z. “Many people are finding sobriety later in life, too,” she says.

Courtesy: Postino McCulley has a personal interest in the growing trend.

“I just celebrated a full year of sobriety,” she says. “I’m around alcohol all day every day at work, and I didn’t know how my not drinking would be received. I’m very fortunate that I have a great support group around me.”

The zero-proof choices have multiplied on the menu at Boulder Social, including a N/A rosé and sangria, along with a booze-free beer from Denver-bottled Grüvi.

“Some of the new beverages taste so real that we have to reassure guests that their drink is, in fact, zero-proof,” McCulley says. “Our mocktails use many of the same skills, ingredients and presentation as the cocktails.”

For many guests, drinking less has become routine. “Some switch to loweralcohol beverages,” she continues. “Or they will have a cocktail and then switch to a mocktail.”

The options mean guests who choose not to drink alcohol don’t feel spotlighted or stigmatized, according to McCulley.

“It’s nice when you can walk into a restaurant or bar and not feel like the odd person out, just sipping soda water,” she says. “I can still have fun and still have a drink in my hand and nobody necessarily knows that I’m not partaking.”

POSTINO POPS THE ZERO-PROOF CORK

Even though “wine” is part of the name of this popular downtown Boulder restaurant, Postino WineCafe has thoroughly embraced zero-proof culture.

The Phoenix-based chain’s January menu includes an extensive selection of mocktails and N/A wine and beers for one simple reason.

“There’s a huge shift in society right now, and we’re just trying to stay in front of the change,” says Mollie Jacobs, director of Colorado’s Postino locations.

“If you’re a restaurant and you aren’t making these changes the public wants,” she continues, “it will fly right past you.”

According to NielsenIQ statistics, U.S. sales of nonalcoholic beer, wine and spirits increased by 27% to $818 million last year. Mentions on menus of mocktails have increased by 37.4% since 2019, according to food industry research group Technomic.

The impetus behind the trend is the pursuit of overall wellness, according to Jacobs.

Alcohol was already regarded as a health threat for various reasons when the U.S. Surgeon General called for cancer warnings on alcoholic beverages earliJANUARY 16, 2025

27

NIBBLES er this month, characterizing alcohol as a “leading preventable cause of cancer.”

“Given the current state of the world, people are trying to be better about personal health,” she says. “You can enjoy a mocktail and know you’re going to get home safe.”

It’s also a financial consideration, according to Jacobs.

“When you go out and drink a lot, you tend to spend a lot of money, maybe more than you want sometimes.”

Postino’s five new mocktails include The Mockingbird, made with pineapple, Italian orange, and toasted almond bitters, but one surprising customer favorite is a sparkling N/A rosé.

“We cannot keep it on our shelves,” Jacobs says. “A lot of the zero-proof wines don’t taste very good. Our beverage directors searched high and low to find a rosé that was light, refreshing and not super fruity.”

Greens, made from kale, cucumber, celery, ginger, apple, agave and lemon.

The current mocktail selections range from Blood Orange Punch to Butterfly Lemonade made with fresh pear juice and butterfly pea flower that changes colors when you serve it.

“It means that every customer can have an amazing brunch experience including beverages,” Jaffe says. “We believe this trend is here to stay, especially on the mocktail side. We’re already looking at new drinks including other adaptogens like functional mushrooms.”

John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles on KGNU. Podcasts: kgnu.org/category/ radio-nibbles

UPLIFTING THE BRUNCH BOOZE AT SNOOZE

From the moment its first location opened in Denver in 2006, the casual breakfast spot Snooze was built on making leisurely weekend brunches an everyday option.

“Having mimosas and Bloody Marys and really fun boozy brunch cocktails has always been critical to the Snooze experience,” says Andrew Jaffe, chief marketing officer of the restaurant chain that now has more than 70 locations.

However, Snooze’s original target clientele has matured along with a menu famous for its pancake flights.

“In 2006, Millennials were the prized generation for restaurants, including Snooze,” Jaffe says.

“Now, they are becoming young parents and their dining habits and needs have changed.”

Snooze has launched a major menu effort to bolster its nonalcoholic beverage offerings without offering zero-proof wine or beer, according to Jaffe.

Snooze already featured baristamade drinks like its vanilla almond matcha tea latte. The chain’s yearold fresh juice program added good-for-you choices like Super 28

JANUARY 16, 2025

Images courtesy: Snooze

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ON DRUGS

A SHREK-CELLENT ADVENTURE What is love? What is life?

STORY AND PHOTOS BY SHAY CASTLE

I

did not set out to start a Shrek cult.

(Does anyone ever intend to do such things?)

It was an early spring Saturday, and we were on mushrooms. Shrek may be straight edge, according to Shrek rave founder Ka5sh, but I am certainly not.

Now that my brain is fully formed and I’ve (mostly) worked through my trauma, good sense and a limited budget are my only governors.

2024 was a big psilocybin year for me; I partook so often that I suffered diminishing returns of what are officially deemed the “mystical experiences” associated with psychedelics (more on that in a future column).

I did shrooms twice with this particular group of friends. The first time was silly and fun, and so we were not content with the mere memory. It had to be recreated, re-lived.

The second sojourn was of special import. Our friend Chloe was moving to Alaska, taking a job that required a CDL and clean drug tests. This might be the last time we could get high and hang out — ever!

We chewed up the dry, earthy fungi and waited.

I don’t know who suggested we watch Shrek. I don’t remember how we decided to follow it with Shrek 2, or who manned the remote that, long past midnight, queued up the humorless Shrek The Third — truly the worst installment. We made a gazillion Shrek puns; we planned what Shrek tattoos we would eventually get to bind us all together in eternal friendship. (I want either the snake or frog balloons that Shrek and

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JANUARY 16, 2025

Fiona make for each other in the first film, but so far I’ve not been able to talk anyone into getting the other one.)

We finally called it quits around 2 a.m.

Chloe had to be up for skiing at 6. But the next morning, those of us still at the house settled in for Shrek Forever After, the franchise’s return to form.

It gave us another bit — “Nobody’s smart but me!” gleefully shouted by the cuntiest twink to ever grace an animated film — and, months later, a reason to attend our very first Shrek rave.

We were down two members of our

quartet. Chloe was in Alaska; Mike was stuck at work. My partner slathered green paint on his skin, slapped on a vest and called it good. I scoured thrift stores and my own closet to craft an homage to kink icon Pinocchio, down to the lacy red thong he sports in the sequel.

stopped, ravers mostly stood in small circles, talking amongst themselves or fiddling with their phones.

Having no friend group, I kept barging into others and aggressively complimenting people on their outfits. (MDMA quiets your brain’s fear center, so my ever-present fear of rejection was dulled.) I sense that a Shrek rave, like most silly endeavors, are best undertaken with a big group of people, and I was desperately trying to form one from the random bodies around me.

I expected a nonstop party. Though we didn’t come with a crowd, I imagined we’d end the night with one, drawn together by the collective energy.

How could something that was supposed to be objectively fun — dancing and taking drugs — be less enjoyable than a 12-hour marathon of children’s media in a dingy living room? I was high, my blissed-out boyfriend by my side. He is my favorite person in the world. Why wasn’t that enough?

But isn’t that the lesson of Shrek — you need love and friendship to survive this scary, shrinking world? Is not Donkey as integral a The author and her boyfriend before the Shrek Rave. part of the story as Fiona?

Maybe, as the weight of our existence mice were grouped on the small dance becomes heavier by the day, it takes floor. Images of Shrek were projected more people to keep the vibes up. on a screen behind the DJ: some silly, That would explain why the most some scary, some distinctly sexy. impactful part of this whole experience Aside from one woman in pastel paswas the arrival of a children’s book at ties and fishnets, everyone seemed to my doorstep some weeks later. Mike be there for one thing. When “All Star” bought us all copies of the William Stieg and other songs from the soundtrack story that inspired the films. It was a played, they moved as one: hands in rare, tender gesture from someone who the air, feet leaving the floor in rhythm. typically shrugs off my hugs and expresEven Rufus Wainwright’s version of sions of fondness. Like Shrek, he Hallelujah — not exactly a club banger opened himself to us that day, however — brought the energy up. slightly.

It was just as the rave’s creator said: Our cult hasn’t done shrooms again; “I don’t want to be some cool guy listenwe haven’t even been in the same room ing to cool music. I want to listen to since that night. We still don’t have those ‘Accidentally in Love.’” matching tattoos. But I know wherever The DJ apparently didn’t get that we are in the world when Shrek 5 debuts message. He kept spinning generic in summer 2026, we’ll make sure we are EDM with big drops that no one cared together to watch it. about. Whenever the Shrek music We chewed a pack of MDMA gummies — gifts from a man called Chunk I’d interviewed months earlier — and went in. The gummies tasted like shit, but the high was fine. Nice and mellow, providing bodily relaxation I could never achieve sober.

The sparse crowd was mostly millennials, all in costume. There were Shreks, a Donkey or two, many, many Lord Farquads and at least one ugly stepsister. At least two packs of blind

BOULDER WEEKLY

ON DRUGS

GOOD, DUMB FUN

was shot nine times during an armed robbery. Now, they are a global phenomenon and full-time job for Ka5sh, the one-time Shrek Rave founder talks drugs, aspiring rapper and self-proclaimed memelord. From Shrek dancing and the death of cool to Spongebob, themed raves are on regular

BY SHAY CASTLE rotation at smaller music venues.

“Broadway rave, he rave scene,” wrote Minecraft rave, Hello Kitty rave researchers in a June 2000 — everyone’s doing a thing,” issue of the Canadian Medical Ka5sh says. “There’s been a Association Journal, “is distinguished by Shrek rave in every continent. clandestine venues, hypnotic electronic We’ve hit the whole world.” music and the liberal use of drugs such The day Boulder Weekly as ecstasy, GHB and ketamine.” spoke with Ka5sh, he was onTwo decades later, a growing sober set filming a music video movement has transformed nightlife. (which one, he wouldn’t say).

Casual drug use is no longer a raving He made time to talk about his prerequisite. legacy, rave and fan cultures The pronouncement also predates the and why there’s no such thing first Shrek Rave by two decades. The as a guilty pleasure. popular, character-themed parties have covered the globe; there are two along the Front Range this month.

Q: Why Shrek? What There aren’t (yet) any academic artiabout the movies speaks cles linking the Shrek raves to a rise in to you? sober raving, but we think creator Ka5sh A: When I was a kid, if I went to deserves some credit for ushering in an Blockbuster, my mom would let me pick era where people are less focused on out one movie. I would try to watch it mind-altering substances. over and over because I didn’t know “Shrek Rave is a lot of people’s firstwhen I was going to see it again. ever rave,” says the L.A.-based artist. “A For four days straight, I watched lot of people don’t know how to get into it Shrek. I wanted to lock it into my brain. or where to go. Especially a lot of kids I moved to L.A. in 2016 to become a coming up during the pandemic, they rapper and then somehow ended up didn’t get nightlife. making memes and became a “We’re easing them into the real rave memelord. I wanted to make meme stuff stuff. It’s not as hard-hitting and scary.” real, tangible — and obviously make The first Shrek Rave was a sold-out money off it. I did the world’s first meme fundraiser for Ka5sh’s sister after she art show in 2017. From there, I realized

people don’t really want to buy art, but they want to go to a party.

I was doing meme-centered parties. I had the idea for Shrek Rave in 2019, but then the pandemic happened. It was huge in meme culture.

T

“

BOULDER WEEKLY

Q: Canonically, what drugs do different Shrek characters do?

A: Someone once made a meme about Donkey smoking weed more than Snoop Dogg. He would find weed somewhere and eat it.

Shrek is straight edge.

He would never do drugs.

You wouldn’t try to sell Shrek drugs.

Q: One of the Shrek Rave taglines is ‘Cool is dead.’ Who killed cool?

Then my sister was a victim of an armed robbery. They tried to kill her, they shot her nine times. She had hospital bills, medical bills. The shelf life for a GoFundMe is a couple days. Shrek Rave — that’s something I can do to get some money really fast.

Q: What Shrek character would you most want to party with at a rave?

A: Donkey, for sure. Donkey gets it.

Then the Gingerbread Man and then the Three Little Pigs.

A: Cool has actually been dead the whole time. It’s a plot twist. We’re all pretending it’s alive. We’ve been Weekend at Bernie’s-ing cool.

Shrek Rave is interesting because it made everybody realize, ‘Why are we carrying around this dead body?’

I want to be weird. I want to paint myself green and I want to hang out with a bunch of people who also love this thing.

They call stuff guilty pleasures. Why are you guilty about the thing you love?

Just love that thing.

IN THE SWAMP

9 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, Aggie Theatre 204 S. College Ave. Ft. Collins. $25 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 25, 10 Mile Music Hall, 710 Main St., Frisco. $30

JANUARY 16, 2025

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