Boulder Weekly 06.29.2023

9 NEWS: Boulder County considers ending a 40-year-old conservation easement to meet housing needs BY WILL MATUSKA

14 COVER: Psychedelic ’60s light-show trailblazers keep a trippy tradition alive BY ADAM PERRY

17 MUSIC: Tim Heidecker talks ‘Live in Boulder,’ the joy of bad stand-up, and what makes his Very Good Band so very good

BY JEZY J. GRAY

34 SCREEN: CU grad behind ‘Elemental’ on how to succeed in entertainment without disappointing your parents (too much)

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

33 FILM: Criterion’s new set, Pasolini 101, presents the work of a gutter poet with a gaze toward heaven

34 NIBBLES: A Boulder chef pays homage to the humble hot dog

37 FLASH IN THE PAN: Cool as a cucumber

38 WEED: Scientists rush to develop therapeutic psychedelics without trippy side-effects

Photo by Will Matuska.

Credit: Michael Ensminger

COMMENTARY

JUNE 29, 2023

Volume 30, Number 45

COVER: Wand at The Chapel SF in 2021. Photo by emi ito

PUBLISHER: Fran Zankowski

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Caitlin Rockett

ARTS & CULTURE

EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER: Will Matuska

FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Kelly Dean Hansen, Richard Knight, Ari LeVaux, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Toni Tresca

SALES AND MARKETING

MARKET DEVELOPMENT MANAGER: Kellie Robinson

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Matthew Fischer

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE: Chris Allred

SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: Carter Ferryman

MRS. BOULDER WEEKLY: Mari Nevar

PRODUCTION

CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erik Wogen

SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Mark Goodman

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn

CIRCULATION TEAM: Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE

BOOKKEEPER: Emily Weinberg

FOUNDER/CEO: Stewart Sallo

WRITERS ON THE RANGE

RESTORING THE LAND CAN FEEL A LOT LIKE FUN

BY RICHARD KNIGHT

Driving back to Colorado State University with a van full of students after a day of working to heal some beat-up land north of Fort Collins, I wondered: Could ecological restoration be a new form of outdoor recreation?

We’d spent the day building a sawbuck fence around a spring. From the spring, gravity would carry the water through a pipe to a stock tank in the middle of the pasture.

On this land protected by a conservation easement, cows would no

longer drink, pee and poop while trampling the spring’s vegetation. The spring could recover while the cattle drank clean water elsewhere.

My students had spent the day outdoors in the company of their classmates doing challenging physical work. At the moment, though, the young people were trying not to fall asleep as we neared town.

Yet all day I’d seen the light in their eyes, and I could tell they felt pride in learning and exercising new skills. They also clearly liked the idea of

giving something back to land that would never be developed.

This kind of volunteer work — The Nature Conservancy got us involved — addresses many problems today that we’ve come to call crises: species extinction, climate change, soil loss and the decline of both water quantity and quality. Fortunately, many nonprofit groups, along with some owners of private lands that are protected by conservation easements, offer people an opportunity to improve damaged lands.

As Boulder County’s only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holdsbarred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county’s most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you’re interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper.

690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO 80305 Phone: 303.494.5511, FAX: 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com

Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2023 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.

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

In my home watershed of northern Colorado, we often work with the nonprofit Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, a statewide grassroots group established in 1999. To date, it has completed more than 1,000 projects on public lands assisted by some 40,000 volunteers, who have contributed over $10 million in time and expertise.

Wildlands Restoration Volunteers includes people from both cities and rural areas who agree with what Wendell Berry wrote: “The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.”

At the end of the 20th century, scientists from around the world got together to measure our planet’s health. Shockingly, they reported that three out of every four acres of the Earth’s surface were in a degraded state.

The urgent global need to restore our damaged lands and waters has also caused the United Nations to name this the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. It’s clear we have yet to locate the sweet spot of a sustainable relationship with our world. For humans to have a future on Earth, we need to reverse the erosion of soils, pollution of air and water, and weakening of the natural ecosystems that support us. Ecological restoration can attack those problems while also playing a critical role in the drawdown of atmo-

DEAR BVSD BOARD OF EDUCATION: A LOSS OF PRIVILEGE IS NOT THE SAME AS RACISM

BY LATINO PARENT ADVISORY COUNCIL

spheric carbon dioxide, sending it back into the plants and soils where it belongs.

Although restoration and recreation have much in common, there is a major difference between the two. While outdoor recreation fulfills oneself, ecological restoration gives back to the land. Not that benefiting oneself is bad; one of the reasons we recreate is for the regenerative powers of spending time in nature.

But adding restoration into the domain of outdoor recreation could go a long way to enhance our time outdoors. I’ve found that when a group acts to restore the health of soil, land, plants and animals, the people involved always feel better about themselves.

As botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer put it in her book Braiding Sweetgrass: “As we care for the land, it can once again care for us.” By restoring damaged lands and waters, we still find joy in the outdoors, but we also give back to the planet that sustains us.

Let’s seek out that work, turning it into something we do outdoors together, restoring lands and water while at the same re-creating ourselves.

Rick Knight is a contributor to Writers on the Range. He is professor emeritus of wildlife conservation at Colorado State University.

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

On behalf of the Latino Parent Advisory Council (CAPL), we are writing to express our profound disagreement with the district’s decision to pay the Leahy family a $32,500 settlement for their lawsuit alleging that the district’s equitable discipline policies constitute discrimination against white students. BVSD’s disciplinary policies have been historically inequitable and discriminatory in practice toward students of color, specifically toward Latino/Hispanic and Black/African-American students. Data from the district demonstrates that the opposite is true: When white students commit offenses, they are often under-disciplined by teachers, school administration and/or school leaders. The data also illustrates that students of color are over-disciplined, often for perceived resistance to systems of white supremacy (i.e., subjective violations such as insubordination and disrespect.

Discrimination and inequitable discipline have been among the greatest concerns for parents of students of color in BVSD. CAPL has attempted to get the district to rectify the abuses that students of color have been forced to endure under racist teachers and the inequitable disciplinary system. Recent acknowledgment of the disproportionality of the disciplinary system and attempts to create greater transparency have now resulted in white backlash against equity in discipline as evidenced by the Leahy family lawsuit, which states that the “disciplinary equity initiative is actually a system of discrimination against white students.” A loss of privilege is not the same as racism.

Any payment to the Leahy family is a complete disregard for students with diverse identities and experiences and undermines the racism and discrimination that students and fami-

lies of color endure at school without any financial compensation or punitive consequences for the aggressors. For this reason, CAPL requests the district refrain from any payment to the Leahy family as it will set a terrible precedent allowing any white family of means to use the legal system to undermine equitable discipline policies and hold BVSD hostage for financial settlements. An equitable disciplinary system requires that the district investigate and create a restorative justice process for resolving cases of discrimination without families having to sue the school district. Not doing so will continue to create a hostile environment and feed the perception among students and the community that only those with the financial resources to obtain legal representation will be the ones who will benefit from such lawsuits.

If financial settlements are now a resolution for the discriminatory discipline of students in BVSD, then the district should create a price and a process by which families of color, those with students with disabilities and LGBTQ families can solicit compensation for the unjust consequences and experiences their students have suffered as a result of racism, homophobia and inequity in BVSD.

The entire process of this lawsuit has been shrouded in secrecy, in contrast to the stated goals of increasing transparency around disciplinary practices in BVSD. For this reason, we request that BVSD share a public communication about the case, the school board voting process and the settlement itself as an act of transparency. Families have a right to be informed on how BVSD will respond and resolve future situations when a student with marginalized identities has been oppressed through acts of racism and discrimination at any

A team with Wildlands Restoration Volunteers restores burned forest in the Cal-Wood property.

Photo by Whit Goodrich

HELP WANTED

Workday, Inc. is accepting resumes for the following positions at various levels in Boulder, CO: Quality Assurance/Automation Engineer (20637.2140) - Debugs software products through the use of systemic tests to develop, apply, and maintain quality standards for company products. Exp Incl: QA methodology; Automation script; Test automation framework; and Querying languages such as SQL. Salary: $115,918 - $165,100 per year, 40 hours per week.

Workday pay ranges vary based on work location and recruiters can share more during the hiring process. As a part of the total compensation package, this role may be eligible for the Workday Bonus Plan or a role-specific commission/bonus, as well as annual refresh stock grants. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, skills, future potential and internal pay parity. For more information regarding Workday’s comprehensive benefits, please go to workday.com/en-us/ company/careers/life-at-workday.

html

Interested applicants submit resumes by mail to: J. Thurston at Workday, Inc., Attn: Human Resources/Immigration, 6110 Stoneridge Mall Road, Pleasanton, CA 94588. Must reference job title and job code.

BVSD school. Creating a commitment to equity across all of its forms does not signal the district to give financial settlements when they are based on wealth and power. Every student has the right to feel safe, protected and celebrated at their school of choice,

LETTERS

RE: ‘BOULDER’S MICHELIN MOMENT,’ BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

[Brasserie] 1010 has always been my favorite.

— Gretchen Schaefer, Facebook

[The] price of the menu goes up also due to ego inflation.

— Joshua J. Horton, Facebook

RE: ‘SWIPING BOULDER,’ BY GABBY VERMEIRE

It’s just as bad down here in Denver too, friends.

— Colfaxthings, Instagram

and this settlement undoes this commitment and sends a clear message to students of color and other marginalized identities that they do not matter.

We hope the district reconsiders its actions and its genuine commitment to equity.

THE SINK OF YORE

I am feeling a bit miffed at The Sink now being a respectable restaurant replete with outdoor seating and red umbrellas. In the ‘60s, with Boulder technically “dry” (there were islands in the County for liquor stores and a few restaurants within the city limits), The Sink gained notoriety and even notice in the New York Times as a local cultural phenomenon with a unique atmosphere, flowing beer, a decent hamburger and a great jukebox. Friday

Afternoon Club’s were noisy, wet and rowdy student gatherings with pitchers and paper cups of 3.2 ABV beer. Ten minutes before the midnight closing time (and girl’s dorm

Sincerely, Latino Parent Advisory Council (CAPL)

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

curfew), a burly employee would screw the light bulbs back into the ceiling fixtures to signal the party was over. The positive side of 3.2 beer then was that you could get drunk, throw up and have a hangover, but it wouldn’t kill you. I stopped in one afternoon just as Boulder’s first undercover drug bust for selling acid was winding down. Times are different here now, faster, more “sophisticated” and affluent, but that was The Sink and sense of new found freedom I would commemorate. My parents were students in the early 30s and remembered it as an ice cream parlor.

— Robert Porath/Boulder

NOT IN MY BACKYARD

Boulder County considers ending a 40-year-old conservation easement to meet housing needs

BY WILL MATUSKA

When Vic Pizzo moved into a southwest Longmont neighborhood five years ago, it quickly became home.

He calls Clover Creek a “nice place to live” — the local kids who play on the streets remind him of his childhood neighborhood. The nearby path running along a swath of prairie is a great place to walk his dog and look at the distant mountains.

In a city that’s grown by nearly 20,000 residents since 2010, this area on the edge of Longmont is quiet, less developed. But that could change soon.

On July 6, the Boulder County Commissioners will vote to end a 40-year-old conservation easement over the Kanemoto Estates prairie, located less than 1,000 feet south of Pizzo’s neighborhood. If the easement ends, the city of Longmont will move one step closer to transforming the 38-acre plot into a “100% attainable” housing development named Somerset Village.

The review process was initiated by the landowner and developer Lefthand Ranch LLC, requesting to terminate the easement, annex the land into Longmont and develop a residential neighborhood.

Some say the parcel is an ideal place for Longmont to expand as it attempts to meet increasing demand from a growing population and fewer residential development sites.

David Emerson, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, hopes to build homes for the organization on the property if the opportunity arises. He says the area needs more affordable housing.

“We’re just trying to bring in the voice of those who are working in our community who can’t afford to buy a home,” he says.

But other Longmont residents, like Pizzo, have a different perspective.

Keep Airport Road Environmental & Safe (KARES) is a coalition of 70 community members staunchly opposed to ending the easement. While members live across the county, many of them live in the Clover Creek subdivision adjacent to Kanemoto Estates. They’ve raised more than $14,000 to support hiring a legal team.

“It will absolutely destroy the peace of the neighborhood,” says Pizzo, bringing more traffic and congestion. If the development continues, Pizzo says he’ll move out.

In a county with more than 100,000 acres of open space, a booming population and a dearth of affordable housing, the argument around developing the Kanemoto Estates easement is the latest installment in an ongoing debate around development versus conservation, with all the trappings of a good Boulder County landuse argument: confusion, NIMBYism and minute detail.

PRESERVING LAND?

The nearly 40-acre Kanemoto Estates property is located on the east side of Airport Road, half a mile north from the intersection of Airport Road and Diagonal Highway (8702 N. 87th St.) in unincorporated Boulder County.

The conservation easement was established in 1982 between the Kanemoto family, who owned the land at the time, and Boulder County Parks and Open Space because the Kanemotos wanted to build another

home on the property. Boulder County land-use policy required 75% of the property be set aside to preserve agricultural land through a conservation easement.

This created three parcels on the Kanemoto Estates subdivision — two tracts with residential homes totalling just under 10 acres, and an approximately 29-acre lot with a non-urban planned unit development (NUPUD) conservation easement.

A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a qualified holder, such as a land trust or government agency, to restrict use on the property to protect natural features, agricultural potential or historical significance. Boulder County’s conservation easements protect more than 40,000 acres and nearly 850 private properties. On its website, the county says it “holds hundreds of conservation easements that are designed to remain in effect for perpetuity.”

But the Kanemoto Estates easement is one of 133 across the county that include language allowing the easement to end in favor of development — which will be decided by the Boulder County Planning Commission and the County Commissioners.

Randall Weiner, a lawyer with

Weiner & Cording representing KARES, says a common misconception is that conservation easements will be protected in perpetuity.

Members of the KARES group claim residents near Kanemoto Estates were wrongly informed, either by city or county staff or realtors, that the conservation easement would last forever.

Joe and Cheryl Stasiak bought their Clover Creek home 15 years ago with that understanding. When they found out the easement could be developed, they were “surprised and dismayed.”

“This was wrong to start with, to put the word conservation on something that wasn’t, according to the city and county, intended to be conserved at all,” says Joe, who is a member of KARES.

If commissioners vote in favor of termination, it wouldn’t be the first time. The county told Boulder Weekly about four other properties near Longmont where conservation easements were ended in favor of development, amounting to nearly 200 acres of additional subdivisions.

Dale Case, director of Boulder County Community Planning and Permitting, says there have been “several” other easements terminated over the years as Longmont annexed

The Kanemoto Estates parcel, where the county holds a 40-year-old conservation easement, and the Clover Creek subdivision. Photo by Will Matuska.

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land, without the county’s involvement.

If the county commissioners decide to end the easement on Kanemoto Estates, the developer will pay the county $2.3 million. The county has been paid once before to end an easement: nearly $2 million to develop the area northeast of North 79th Street and Plateau Road in Longmont known as Lane Farms. Community backlash was similar, with residents forming an opposition group that argued high-density urban housing development on the Lane Farms property wouldn’t be compatible with the neighborhood’s rural character.

The county says payment from the developer would be used to acquire more open space.

‘A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW’

Kanemoto Estates is attractive for development because it’s already within Longmont’s planning area and could keep development clustered to eliminate sprawl. The county maintains that terminating the easement aligns with the Boulder County Comprehensive Plan (BCCP) and various intergovernmental agreements with Longmont, which has identified the property as a future development site since 1996.

But a letter to the county commissioners from Weiner & Cording, the

law firm representing the KARES group, argues the easement shouldn’t be terminated for multiple reasons. First, they say comments by county staff in support of the termination are “unsupported legally.” The legal team also argues ending the easement would be inconsistent with some of the goals and land-use regulations set out in the BCCP. Finally, they claim the easement predates now-expired intergovernmental agreements that establish development plans for the area.

“It is precisely when the development pressures are great that the county commissioners should fulfill their fiduciary obligations to maintain the conservation easements already in place,” the letter says.

While language in the easement contract suggests termination is possible in favor of development, the subdivision plat, signed by Jimmy and George Kanemoto on April 21, 1982, includes a dedication of improvements on the property “to the use of the public forever.”

Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann says these landuse discussions are “a really complicated topic.”

“Having a comprehensive view of where we want growth to occur and where we want preservation to occur

Some residents in the Clover Creek subdivision claim developing the easement will change the fabric of their neighborhood. Photo by Will Matuska.

is so important,” she says. “And that’s what our comprehensive plan strives to do — to really put growth and development in concentrated areas in the city, and then to leave unincorporated areas more rural.”

CONSERVATION OR DEVELOPMENT

Kanemoto Estates is currently owned by Lefthand Ranch LLC, the same company that proposed the development of Somerset Village. One of its goals for the property is to “ensure there are affordable and accessible housing options that meet the needs of residents of all ages, abilities and income levels” through a mixed residential community.

“This is a win-win for open space and for attainable housing,” says Jack Bestall, part of Lefthand Ranch’s ownership. “We need affordable and attainable housing for workers and people to build equity and ownership and have rental home capability.”

Emerson, with Habitat for Humanity, says community concern often surrounds development projects.

“If we backed down from all and any type of neighborhood concern, and didn’t advocate for those who are not able to live here but [who] work here, we would not be building

at all,” he says.

If the easement is terminated, the property must be annexed by Longmont. Final decisions surrounding annexation, zoning and development of the site will be made by the city.

Longmont City Councilmember Sean McCoy says council hasn’t talked about Kanemoto Estates, but that his constituency wants open space, including conservation easements.

“I would not [support annexation of the land], and I would really lobby my other council members to see it the same way,” he says. Hea shared additional concerns that it would be difficult to bring resources like public transit to the development area.

Weiner, who represents KARES, says there may be enough interest from residents to sway the commissioners.

“Open space is one of the crown jewels of Boulder and if there’s enough people knowing what’s happening, there will be a lot of opposition,” he says.

Commissioner Stolzmann says the biggest thing that will sway her vote at the July 6 hearing is public input.

“It’s just so critical that people weigh in with their views on this,” she says, “because this is a complicated one, it’s not cut and dry.”

NOW YOU KNOW

This week’s news in Boulder County and beyond

BY WILL MATUSKA

‘PRIORITIZED ENFORCEMENT ZONES’ ARE ON THE BALLOT

The Safe Zones 4 Kids initiative received enough signatures through the city of Boulder’s direct democracy program to appear on November’s ballot.

Proposed in April, the initiative establishes a “prioritized enforcement zone” 500 feet from school property lines and 50 feet from multi-use paths and sidewalks. Safe Zone 4 Kids gathered more than 5,000 paper signatures, although not all of them were verified by the city. At least 3,437 verified signatures are required for an initiative to get on the ballot.

“We’re just a group of parents really concerned about the safety around our public spaces with our children and going to and from school,” says Jennifer Rhodes, a member of the group.

The ballot initiative was proposed after several tent fires near Boulder High School. Of 297 confirmed fires in Boulder in 2022, nearly 100 were in locations the fire department typically engages with the unhoused community (News, “Ease the harm,” April 6, 2023).

In a press release, Safe Zone 4 Kids writes “the removal of tents, propane tanks and other prohibited items” will be given higher priority in these areas than others outside | prioritized zones.

“We can’t let our kids be exposed to dangerous and illegal adult behavior that is occurring in our public spaces,” Rhodes says. “And I would say we can do both — we can help those experiencing major mental health and addiction crises, and protect our children at the same time.”

Meanwhile, Boulder doesn’t provide adequate resources for the approximately 450 unhoused residents in the city, including not having enough shelter

space or mental health and addiction support services.

RIDE RTD FOR FREE

Boulder County is participating in RTD’s Zero Fare for Better Air summer initiative by expanding fare-free services on Ride Free Lafayette and the Lyons Flyer.

The free rides, starting July 5 and ending Aug. 31, aim to increase accessibility to public transportation, save costs, reduce traffic and improve air quality during the height of the summer when ozone levels in the Front Range are poor.

“[The program] is really important for us because transit is the key to achieving not only our air-quality goals, but also our equity goals in Boulder County,” says Angel Bond, program manager at Boulder County.

Ride Free Lafayette provides ondemand transit service within the city seven days per week, including holidays. The Lyons Flyer goes between the town of Lyons and Boulder during the week. Both are expanding ride services through August.

The Zero Fare for Better Air program also includes free rides across RTD’s system.

According to the county, 85% of greenhouse gas emissions from transportation are due to daily commuting.

COLORADO ANNOUNCES FIRST FULL-TIME CO RIVER COMMISSIONER

The Colorado Department of Natural Resources announced Rebecca Mitchell as the state’s first full-time commissioner to the Upper Colorado River Commission (UCRC) on June 22.

Mitchell served as the director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board for six years and as the governor-appointed Colorado River Commissioner since 2019.

The commissioner will help find solutions to challenges on the river with Tribal Nations, Upper and Lower Basin states and the federal government, and will be Colorado’s representative to the UCRC, which helps coordinate the four Upper Division States on Colorado River policy.

In an email to Boulder Weekly, Mitchell says her guiding principles for river management include defending against curtailment in the Upper Basin, giving both Upper and Lower Basins equal right to the river, preserving water rights for Tribal Nations and living within the means of what the river provides.

Mitchell’s appointment comes as experts across the Colorado River Basin discuss how to make more permanent cuts to the river while usage is projected to increase and flow to decrease. A deal was proposed at the end of May by the seven basin states to conserve at least 3 million acre feet by the end of 2026, but a much needed long-term solution remains elusive (News, “Flow state,” June 15, 2023).

“The next few years are going to be incredibly intense as we shift the way that the seven basin states

cooperate and operate Lakes Powell and Mead,” Mitchell said in a press release. “This expanded role will allow me to fully focus on Colorado’s needs at such a critical time and actually work towards long-term sustainable solutions to managing the Colorado River.”

FOREST SERVICE FUNDS WOOD-ENERGY MARKETS

Colorado is receiving more than $2 million from the Forest Service to “expand the use of wood products and strengthen wood-energy markets” and support forest management practices from the 2023 Wood Innovations Grant.

“Healthy forests depend on a healthy forest products economy, and these investments within the Rocky Mountain Region support local economies,” said Frank Beum, a regional forester, in a press release. “In addition, they will help improve forest health while lowering wildfire risks to communities.”

Recent studies and films challenge the notion that forest management practices will lower wildfire risks to communities (News, “Living with fire,” June 8, 2023). If protecting communities is the goal, more and more experts argue to focus on home hardening and creating defensible space rather than working in the forest.

Courtesy RTD

LIQUID GOLD

Psychedelic ’60s light-show trailblazers keep a trippy tradition alive

BY ADAM PERRY

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JEZY J. GRAY

As rock ’n’ roll got restless during the countercultural turn of the 1960s, the music began to cry out for a visual counterpart to its increasingly psychedelic style. Enter Bob Fine, a Texas-born Air Force veteran who came of age in the era’s hippy headquarters of San Francisco.

That’s where the trailblazing artist and current Boulder resident got into liquid-light projection, an abstract form of illuminated visual art made by layering and manipulating col ored mineral oils and dyes over a projector lens, with creative partner Bill Ham. The pair soon began putting on mind-bending light shows in their garage with local musicians.

interconnected thing — not just accompa nying some rock band,” Fine says.

“[We] painted with light, with projectors, doing these spontaneous improvised compositions … the sound guy related to the visual thing, and we related to the sound.”

Most of Fine’s classic work was done in the Bay Area, where he and Ham started Light Sound Dimension, an audio-visual multimedia outfit that launched its own theater for weekly performances in 1968. The team collaborated with musicians who electrified audiences while Fine and Ham improvised in real-time from a rear projection screen. The co-founders also worked backstage, and ran an art gallery in the

front of the theater where they hosted performances.

In that context, it’s not hard to see how the dawning of psych-rock and drug culture in San Francisco — a marriage soundtracked by acts like The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and

collaborating with soonto-be-legendary rock bands

Ballroom and the Carousel Ballroom, and live music was never quite the same.

“If you think about rock concerts … like the old Beatles blackand-white [footage], there was no light show,” says Dave Kennedy, founder and executive director of the Roots Music Project, which will honor Fine — alongside contemporary liquid-light artist Lance Gordon of Mad Alchemy — during the venue’s Dead and Company after-party series on July 1 and 2. “And then the Bay Area scene came along: liquidlight shows, acid tests, The Grateful Dead and the warehouses. All of a sudden, the whole rock light-show scene exploded.”

But before the art form spearheaded by Fine and Ham captured the attention of the world, the vibe at

Light Sound Dimension was decidedly local. “Just the neighborhood people would come, and friends, and people from the Zen Center, and the monks,” Fine says.

Before too long, though, the pair found themselves working with 20 by 100-feet screens as they continued pushing boundaries through their trailblazing liquid-light shows. But as things grew, so did the complications of working with artists. Fine says frequent collaborations with groups like The Grateful Dead were fun, but ended in disappointment and conflicts surrounding payment.

“Egos got in the way, and we stopped doing it,” Fine says. “Right when we were taking off, it fell apart.”

TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

Following in the footsteps of what Fine says “fell apart,” Lance Gordon of Mad Alchemy — who grew up in the East Bay, across from Light Sound Dimension’s San Francisco headquarters — started his own psychedelic light show operation in high

school after seeing his first show at the famed Fillmore West in 1969.

“I was just transfixed. I mean, the experience of walking into the original Fillmore, you know, honestly, there’s really nothing quite like it,” says Gordon, who will light up the weekend of Dead and Company festivities hosted by Roots Music Project, following the band’s first two of three “final” performances at Boulder’s Folsom Field on the first weekend of July. “That really inspired me to do what I call a 21st-century liquid light show, to create an immersive environment, because that’s the way it felt.”

During that first Fillmore show in San Francisco, Gordon somehow found his way onto the scaffolding where the light show was being conducted. He saw the liquids in action and was “hooked,” fascinated by the chemical combinations that felt like a secret world. He quickly got the basic chemistry down and it was fullsteam ahead.

But labels moved on from lightshow collaborations by the mid-70’s, and Gordon ended up working with

Lance Gordon of Mad Alchemy will light up Dead and Company after-party events at Roots Music Project in Boulder on July 1 and 2. Photo by Dave Vann

Credit: emi ito

exciting but fringe artists like Roky Erikson. Despite the medium’s waning presence over the decades, acts like The Allman Brothers, and eventually the emerging rave scene of the late ’80s and early ’90s, helped keep the liquid-light dream alive.

“I ended up doing live shows for almost every band imaginable,” Gordon says of the art form’s nostalgiaspurred comeback. “And the one thing I realized is the venues hated analog equipment, but the audiences loved … to see someone doing it live.”

That resurgence led Mad Alchemy to yet another iconic

CULTURE

stage: Colorado’s own Red Rocks Amphitheatre, now a regular venue for Gordon, who “figured out a way

[that] an analog show could live in a modern stage environment.” Carrying on the tradition started by Fine and

Ham, his company has since worked with everyone from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard to The Brian Jonestown Massacre and Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead.

Now Gordon heads to Boulder, alongside the innovator Fine who helped change rock shows forever, where the pair will be presented with the Legends of the Liquid Light Show Award for their respective contributions to the medium, ahead of a performance by Joslyn and The Sweet Compression on July 1. According to Matt Cottle, director of operations at the Roots Music Project, the reason for the honor is simple: “They’re keeping an art form alive.”

ON THE BILL: Dead and Company after-party series featuring Joslyn and The Sweet Compression and Dave McMurray. 11:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, July 1 and 2, Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl Suite V3A, Boulder. $20-$200

Credit: emi ito

NO JOKE

Tim Heidecker talks ‘Live in Boulder,’ the joy of bad stand-up, and what makes his Very Good Band so very good

BY JEZY J. GRAY

If you’re a millennial of a certain age and persuasion, the unhinged anti-comedy of Tim Heidecker has likely shaped your cerebral cortex into knots that will never untwist. Alongside collaborator Eric Wareheim, the duo’s Adult Swim breakout Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! was the backdrop to many stoned dorm-room late nights for a generation of weirdos during its original run in the late2000s. Beaming to earth a surrealist swirl of sweaty celebrity cameos and characters through the gauze of a ’90s public-access infomercial fever dream, the groundbreaking sketch show was once described fondly by its creators as “the nightmare version of television.”

It also helped create what once seemed an unlikely celebrity out of Heidecker. In the years since Tim and Eric broke the brains of America’s undergrads, the 47-year-old performer has appeared as an actor on the big screen in contemporary classics of comedy (Bridesmaids), arthouse horror (Us) and big-budget superhero fare (Ant-Man and the Wasp), with recurring turns on beloved streamers like Netflix’s I Think You Should

Leave with Tim Robinson and the 18th century send-up Our Flag Means Death

But Heidecker’s creative drive doesn’t end in front of the camera, or behind the podcast mic of his longrunning call-in show Office Hours and cult-favorite On Cinema. The Pennsylvania native is also an accomplished recording artist, with half a dozen studio albums to his name. His latest, High School, is a straight-faced and tender-hearted collage of adolescent memories, from camping-trip heartbreak (“Chillin’ in Alaska”) to troubled friends who never made it to the other side (“Buddy”). Heidecker’s new record finds him settling in as an emotionally affecting songwriter with razor-sharp powers of observation and melody — a far cry from the bleeding-edge experimental comedy of his early sketch days, but not so far removed as to dampen the singular sense of humor that brightens the corners of his airtight poprock arrangements.

Now comes Live in Boulder , Heidecker’s first live album, recorded during an August 2022 performance at the city’s iconic Boulder

Theater — a retrospective full-length of original songs, backed by a fourpiece ensemble billed as The Very Good Band. While last year’s performance opened with a stand-up set in character as the boarish hack comedian from his debut 2020 special An Evening with Tim Heidecker , the recording sticks to the music with 12 high-energy renditions of barn-burning earworms and breezy piano ballads that might not feel out of place in the discographies of rock’s great smirkers like Warren Zevon and Randy Newman. And that’s no joke.

Boulder Weekly spoke with Heidecker ahead of the album’s vinyl release on June 24 via Spacebomb Records. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

I had a blast at your Boulder show last year, and I’m guessing you did too. Why did you decide to release it as your first live record?

It’s kind of a process of elimination, where you record a bunch of shows. In some of them, the mix wasn’t great. Some of them, the performanc-

es weren’t as great. And so it kind of came down to a few, and I really wanted the record to feel like it was one night — not just kind of a compilation of shows. And the Boulder show was, I think, maybe the secondto-last of the tour. So by that time, I don’t know if you felt it, but everything was clicking and it sounded good. It just checked all the boxes, and it was just a particularly good night.

I understand you arrived in Boulder after a long night on the road. What was the experience like when you rolled into town?

We had been on the road for almost a month: living in the bus and having a great time, but feeling a little ready to go home. The drive the night before was from Kansas City, so it was a big haul, an overnight drive. … I got up and got off the bus [in Boulder] and it was this crisp, beautiful sunny day. And my first thought was, “Oh man, I think the bus crashed somewhere in the Rockies and we’re dead. I’m in heaven.” It was a real second of that feeling: like, “Oh my god, this place is beautiful.”

Tim Heidecker is an actor, comedian and musician known for his absurdist humor and breezy brand of pop-rock. Photo by Andrew Levy.

MUSIC

And once you’re on stage that night, you say the band is feeling especially dialed-in. How does the venue itself play into that?

The room sounds different every night. The monitors up on stage become a big part of the show for us, because if you can’t hear yourself or somebody else in the band, you get a little lost — so it’s just a combination of things having to kind of all work together, and it almost never goes off perfectly in my mind. But on that night, there was an issue with the lights, which were blasting the balcony in a very annoying way. I don’t know if you remember that …

I was up there getting blasted in the balcony!

I’m a concertgoer. I love a good experience at a show, and so my mind goes to, “Oh my god. What’s it like for you people out there? That must suck.” We don’t travel with a light person, so you’re always relying on the house lighting people. And we go through stuff with them, but for some reason there was something crazy going on there. But that’s part of the fun. It’s not boring. We’re not just kind of going through the paces. You’re kind of always reacting to the environment — and to the audience, and to the band.

I’m always striving for perfection, but not always expecting it. I’m expecting something to go wrong: some string to break, or a pedal not working, or a missed lyric that I’ve said 100 times. Even on this set, I think there are a couple of songs we played that aren’t on the record, where we decided, “Oh, we don’t need that,” or there was a mistake or something. So I would say Boulder wasn’t perfect. There’s no way to get perfection when you’re performing live, and I think if you start getting close to perfection, you’re starting to get into the boring territory.

Boulder Theater just got a new sound system this year, so you’ll have to come back and give it a spin.

I’d love to come back! Everything else about the night, aside from the lights, was great. The venue had a nice little backstage, and the food around town was great. There are some places you go and you’re like, “Oh, I wish we could have brought more people in.” But Boulder was one of those where it just sold really well. It was packed. People were psyched. They were enthusiastic and dancing and singing and stuff. So, it definitely feels like a good spot to come back to.

I’d be remiss if we didn’t talk a little about your bandmates on this recording. So I’ll just hit you with a broad question: What makes The Very Good Band so very good?

Wow. Well, they’re all super pro. Everyone comes from playing in bands and doing sessions. Ellie [Eliana Athayde], our bass player, is classically trained and comes from a jazz and classical background. What she’s doing [with my music], she could do with her eyes closed, because it’s fairly simple rock ’n’ roll and folk music. They’re all just super high level. We really get along and love playing together. And we make each other laugh — they’re all very funny in their own ways.

‘Tim Heidecker and The Very Good Band: Live in Boulder’ is out now via Spacebomb Records.

MUSIC

It’s very natural and comfortable playing together, which I didn’t know going into this tour. I had put this band together through some recommendations, and I knew them a little but not too well. So I think certainly by the time we got to Boulder, we were kind of gelled and connected as friends traveling together. We all have acknowledged in different ways, at different times, just how lucky we feel to have all found each other.

What’s fun is that we introduce the band during that second act at the top of the show — and early in the tour, there was kind of a polite applause as they came out; but then as the tour kept going, and I kept including them in my [social media] posts and showing little videos of them online and stuff, people were really excited to see them too. Their own personalities were coming through on stage.

Let’s talk about the comedy side of the show — which is not on the record, but was part of the tour. What’s it like to slip between those two modes as a performer on the same night?

The transition is actually really natural, I think. I spend maybe like a minute before I come out as a stand-up guy, just looking at my notes, warming up, stretching and kind of getting into the mindset. It doesn’t take very much. It’s really ignited by coming out there to the music and reacting to the crowd. And by the end of it, I’m relieved to get offstage — but it happens so fast that the transition is not something I’m super conscious of. I’m more just focused on getting into a different look, taking a breath, having some water and resetting. What has been nice, which I was hoping would happen on this tour, is that I don’t have to turn off the funny button in my head for the second half. There’s plenty of places [in the show] where I can be funny as myself, and not treat the music side like suddenly, “No more jokes!” We can play around, and I can play with the audience and play with Vic [Berger] and keep it

fairly light so it feels like a wellrounded evening of entertainment.

I’m not suddenly transitioning into another character as a mopey indie-rock band leader.

It seems like a tall order to pull off this imitation of a hacky stand-up act that’s legitimately funny. How do you know when you’ve gotten the material to a place that’s actually going to make people laugh, and isn’t just off-putting or obnoxious?

It’s trial and error. Living in L.A., there’s lots of little clubs and theaters where I can do 10 or 15 minutes. That’s a good place for me to try a few new ideas. So there are things I just learned work there. And like I said, the band is really funny, and they’re really into that part of the show too. I think they feel kind of invested in their own way. So I’ll run things by them. Sometimes they’ll suggest an idea, or throw out a prompt for me to think about.

I don’t want to be intentionally offensive just because I can get away with it under the mask of this character. There’s a way you could go out there and do that guy and he’s just completely awful and unpleasant. I’m always trying to make sure that the joke is on this guy, not making the audience feel uncomfortable. And I think most people coming to the show know the context, so they’re also playing a role. A lot of the laughs are, like, fake laughs — and that’s good, too. Some jokes are bad, but people kind of laugh because most jokes are sort of bad anyways.

Well, thanks for taking the time — and for the show. It was really a pleasure to chat with you.

I appreciate it. See you next time I’m in Boulder.

ON WAX: Tim Heidecker and The Very Good Band: Live in Boulder is available now via Spacebomb Records on limitededition purple vinyl, and digitally on major streaming platforms.

CLASSICALLY BOULDER

Colorado Music Festival opens six-week concert season at Chautauqua with violinist Joshua Bell as artist-in-residence

BY KELLY DEAN HANSEN

The Colorado Music Festival has never shied from daring programming or bold ventures. Now in its 45th year, the six-week summer concert series at Chautauqua Auditorium has seen Herculean feats like a full Beethoven symphony cycle in a week, or one pianist performing all five Rachmaninoff piano-orchestral works in two days.

Those were among the memorable highlights of former music director Michael Christie’s long and transformative tenure from 2001 to 2013. Now music director emeritus, Christie will return to conduct a concert midway through the festival’s 2023 season, which opens June 29. The festival begins and ends with world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell, who serves as artist-in-residence.

“I’ve known him since he was 14,” music director Peter Oundjian says of the festival’s virtuosic headliner. “We’ve always stayed in touch, and when I heard about a significant and highly original multi-composer commission, I talked to him about possibly doing a preview with us.”

Called The Elements, each of the five concerto-like movements (Fire, Ether, Water, Air and Earth) was written by a prominent contemporary composer: Jake Heggie, Jessie Montgomery, Edgar Meyer, Jennifer Higdon and Kevin Puts.

Oundjian scheduled The Elements for the two closing concerts on August 3 and 6, pairing the first three pieces with Claude Debussy’s La Mer and the last two with Gustav Mahler’s shortest symphony, the First. Bell plays Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 at the concert, repeated June 30, which closes with Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in Maurice Ravel’s brilliant orchestration.

Oundjian has also invited a composer-in-residence, devoting an entire concert program to works by the great John Corigliano. “As popular as John is, he has never had this happen,” Oundjian says. “When we did it for Joan Tower two years ago, she said [the same thing]. I love that we can do things that others wouldn’t.”

Three phases of Corigliano’s career will be represented July 13, starting with his 1974 Gazebo Dances. Written for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, One Sweet Morning features mezzosoprano Kelley O’Connor. Triathlon, a concerto for saxophone written in 2020, is played by Timothy McAllister. The composer will attend. “It’s important to treat established living composers as we would Beethoven and Brahms,” Oundjian says.

To that end, the festival includes a full evening of world premieres on July 16. Oundjian commissioned composer Adolphus Hailstork to write a work commemorating John F. Kennedy’s last speech on October 26, 1963, joining a book and documentary on the same theme. The concert also celebrates the 125th anniversary of the Colorado Chautauqua with new commissions by CU Boulder composition professor Carter Pann and his former student Jordan Holloway.

RACHMANINOFF IN AMERICA

Many organizations are highlighting Sergei Rachmaninoff’s 150th birthday in 2023. The CMF focuses on the Russian composer’s works written after his 1918 emigration to the United States. Two programs feature pianist Nicolai Lugansky, whose playing is described by Oundjian as “the closest thing to hearing Rachmaninoff himself play.”

“One thing that moves me about Rachmaninoff is that he became a

U.S. citizen four weeks before his death,” Oundjian says. An immigrant himself who was born in Canada and spent much of his career in the U.K., Oundjian felt pride and gratitude in becoming a U.S. citizen and imagines that Rachmaninoff felt the same thing.

Lugansky plays the legendary Third Piano Concerto on July 6 and 7, paired with the seldom-heard Third Symphony. On July 9, the pianist takes on the less-familiar Fourth Concerto and the ever-popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, considered the “fifth concerto.” Oundjian closes that program with the composer’s last work, the Symphonic Dances.

The festival’s fourth and fifth weeks are directed by four guest conductors, beginning with Christie’s program July 20 and 21. Anchored by Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s fate-driven Fourth Symphony, the concert includes pianist Michelle Cann playing Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major and the one-movement concerto by Florence Price.

Eun Sun Kim of South Korea, music director designate of the San Francisco Opera and one of today’s most prominent women conductors, appears July 27 and 28 with the expansive Second Symphony by Johannes Brahms. Performing with Kim is one of the few true superstar cellists, Johannes Moser, playing Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. Rhapsody of Steve Jobs by contemporary electro-acoustic composer Mason Bates opens the concert.

Conductor François López-Ferrer and violinist Grace Park present an all-Mozart program July 23. Oundjian describes Park’s Mozart as “stunning.” She plays the Third Violin Concerto, paired with the “Linz” Symphony (No. 36) and two shorter pieces. On July 30, conductor Hannu Lintu opens with a work by Finn Einojuhani Rautavaara, Cantus Arcticus, with Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto played by Tony Siqu Yun and the “Miracle” Symphony (No. 96) by Joseph Haydn.

The Robert Mann Chamber Music Series, named for one of Oundjian’s mentors, takes its traditional place on Tuesday nights, starting with two guest string quartets. The JACK Quartet, which specializes in 20th and 21st-century music, plays July 11, with the more traditional Brentano Quartet following July 18. Concerts with CMF musicians in various combinations are July 25 and August 1.

“We want to make it a special and carefully formulated series with a lot of variety,” he says. “The guest groups take pressure off our own musicians, and we still get to spotlight our great players in a range of exciting combinations.”

The Colorado Music Festival runs June 29 through Aug. 6 at the Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder. Photo by Michael Ensminger.

ON THE BILL: The Colorado Music Festival 2023 season opener with Joshua Bell. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 29 and 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 30, Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road. $18-$80.

IN THE WINGS

Local Theater Company announces plans for upcoming 13th season

BY TONI TRESCA

Creative risk-taking has been a pillar of Local Theater Company’s mission since its inception more than a decade ago. And in keeping with the experimental ethos of the Boulder-based nonprofit, Local’s Season 13 rollout will be announced in phases over the coming weeks, culminating in a kickoff party on July 23 at The Savoy in Denver.

Complete details of the upcoming season won’t come into full view until then — but in the meantime, co-artistic directors Nick Chase and Betty Hart offered Boulder Weekly a taste of what’s in store. That includes Topher Payne’s You Enjoy Myself, running at the Dairy Arts Center from Sept. 23 to Oct. 15, and the return of the new-play festival Local Lab from March 14 to 17, 2024.

This initial announcement follows news that Local received three Henry Award nominations from the Colorado Theatre Guild. Categories include Director of a Musical (Dee Covington), Lead Actress in a Musical Tier 2 (GerRee Hinshaw) and Best New Play or Musical for Hinshaw’s breakout hit Raised on Ronstadt. It also comes after one of the company’s most ambitious seasons to date, which also featured Nick Chase and Roslyn Hart’s Pop the Holidays, Hadley KammingaPeck, Anne Penner and Mare Trevathan’s UNDONE: The Lady M Project and the aforementioned Local Lab.

“It was our season of women — not a comprehensive look at all feminist perspectives, but three distinct

female experiences,” Chase says.

“We incorporated new staff members, including Kate Gipson [executive director] and Levi Franklin [associate producer], and Betty, Pesha and I were operating under a new shared leadership model. In our 12th season, we expanded internally and externally, and are eager to continue growing in our 13th season.”

A PEEK BEHIND THE CURTAIN

The first fully produced show in Local’s new season — You Enjoy Myself, directed by Hart — is a jam band-centered production that feels tailor-made for Boulder audiences. The relationship between Judith and Eileen, and their shared love of the band Phish, are at the heart of this multigenerational comedy written by the Atlanta-based Payne. After more than 30 years apart, they are reunited thanks to a stranger’s Instagram post, and while staying at a remote Vermont farmhouse, they explore what devotion is all about.

“Shortly after we presented the developmental workshop of the play in our 2022 Local Lab, we concluded as a team that we wanted to pursue a full production of that work,” Chase says. “We all agree that we wanted

to support it, but we had just scheduled our 12th season, and it had a lovely theme that this play didn’t fit into, so we decided that it would be our Season 13 opener.”

The production is a continuation of the work Hart, Payne and the Local team put into the play during last year’s initial workshop. “I am thrilled to be directing an all-local cast of incredible people to help tell Topher’s beautifully written story,” Hart says. “This is my first opportunity to direct mainstage for Local, which is a huge honor. … You Enjoy Myself is such a beautiful exploration of love [and] life.”

When it comes to the return of Local Lab, next spring’s iteration of the new-work festival will see four creative teams, chosen by anonymous review, gather in Boulder for a week of workshops that will culminate in public readings. Local will accept submissions of previously unproduced work until August 31 of this year, and announce the four shows in January 2024.

“It is important for us to include Local Lab as a part of our season because new work requires time and resources to move to its next iteration,” Hart says. “So, as a the-

ater company that values and treasures new work, we want to help support exciting original work by giving playwrights a week to get together with a cast, dramaturg, director, stage management and production team to find the next new voice in that play’s development.”

Subscriptions for the new season will go on sale following the complete announcement on July 23. While many details have yet to be announced, the Local team says audiences can expect to encounter works that encourage a true expression of who we are — alone, and together.

“One of the themes that emerged last season that we did not really promote but was internally significant for us was about what it looks like to live authentically,” Hart says. “That is still something we are interested in, so expect more projects in Season 13 that help artists and the community find their voices.”

ON STAGE: Local Theater Company Season Kickoff Party. 5:45 p.m. Sunday, July 23, The Savoy, 2700 Arapahoe St., Denver. $45 (on sale June 30)

Local Theater Company’s new-play festival, Local Lab, returns to the Dairy Arts Center from March 14 to 17, 2024. Photo by Graeme Schulz.

‘THE DEADHEAD CYCLIST’ READING WITH STEWART SALLO

6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 29, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder. $5

Join Boulder Weekly owner Stewart Sallo for a reading of his book, The Deadhead Cyclist: Life Lessons on Two Wheels to the Tunes of the Grateful Dead — a memoir blending personal experiences with 50 years of iconic songs — tonight at Boulder Book Store.

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18TH ANNUAL BOULDER

JUGGLING FESTIVAL 2023

5-10 p.m. Friday, June 30, and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sat-Sun, July 1-2, Boulder Circus Center, 4747 26th St., Boulder. $12

Learning how to juggle is hard. But this high-flying activity is as addictive as it is impressive, and no one does it quite like the folks at Boulder Circus Center. This weekend, they’re hosting the 18th annual celebration of all things juggling — a weekend for skill sharing, inspiration, workshops and a show to cap it all off.

LAFAYETTE CARS & COFFEE

7-10 a.m. Saturday, July 1, Flatirons Church, 355 W. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Free

Classic and show cars are built to shine in the summer months, so there’s no better time to start a hot Saturday at Adams Polishes’ once-monthly hot-rod gathering than the middle of the season. Coffee and food will be available from on-site vendors

LONGMONT PRIDE FESTIVAL

4-8 p.m. Friday, June 30, Roosevelt Park, 700 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont. Free

Out Boulder is closing out pride month with a bang — on the last day of June, they’re bringing the festivities to Longmont’s Roosevelt Park for the first time. Pride goodies, handmade jewelry and interactive games spell out fun for the family at this afternoon-long party.

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21ST ANNUAL BOULDER MARKET

9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat-Sun, July 1-2, Great Lawn of Boulder High School, 1604 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Free

Boulder’s open-air market is back again, coinciding with this weekend’s “final” Dead & Company shows at Folsom Field. Check out rows of vendors to find handmade items, unique treasures, visual art, and conversations with the artists behind the work on sale, all to the tune of live music.

INDEPENDENCE DAY FUN & FIREWORKS - WANEKA LAKE

4-10 p.m. Saturday, July 1, Waneka Lake Park, 1600 Caria Drive, Lafayette. Free

Rain or shine, Waneka Lake will mirror a sky of colorful explosions on Saturday at their Independence Day event. Expect music, food from local favorites Abo’s Pizza, Ruby Ry’s Stem Ciders and more — and, of course, loads of fireworks.

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

PRETTY IN PUNK

8 p.m.-midnight. Saturday, July 1, Junkyard Social Club, 2525 Frontier Ave., Suite A, Boulder.

$15

Stop by Junkyard Social Club for a marriage of burlesque, drag and punk with fierce performances by Paisley Peach, Cosmic Allure, Luna Lazarus and more. Don’t forget to bring some cash to tip the artists! 2

RC MONSTER TRUCK RALLY

1-6 p.m. Sunday, July 2, Left Hand Brewing, 1264 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

Start your engines (or controllers) — Left Hand Brewing transforms their garden into an RC track for a day of racing, featuring open and sport competitions, freestyle events and a head-spinning pro-mod race.

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BULLS, SKULLS AND BREWSKIS

3-5 p.m. Sunday, July 2, Sanitas Brewing Company, 3550 Frontier Ave., Suite A, Boulder.

$50

Texture brings a painting to life, and on Sunday, Sanitas Brewing Company hosts artist Sophi of Phia Vee for a class on how to use texture tools to create your own unique work. “It’s like wine and paint parties, but better,” the iconic local brewery says. “Because it’s good beer and plaster.” 4

FOURTH OF JULY PARADE & PANCAKE FESTIVAL

7 a.m.-noon. Tuesday, July 4, Superior Chamber of Commerce, 122 E William St., Superior. Free

The Fourth of July’s quintessential meal is burgers, dogs, potato salad, baked beans and a cold beer. But what about pancakes?

The town of Superior hosts this festival dedicated to America’s favorite buttermilk breakfast — plus kickball, live music, food trucks and a parade.

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BOULDER SYMPHONY’S JULY

4TH CONCERT CELEBRATION

7-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 4, Boulder Bandshell, 1212 Canyon Blvd., Boulder. $15

Boulder Symphony pulls out all the stops at their Independence Day Concert. They’ll perform works by Copland, Bernstein and Tchaikovsky, along with cinematic classics like John Williams’ Star Wars and Indiana Jones compositions, all in the heart of Boulder.

THU. 6/29 - 7:00PM

REED FOEHL AND KATE FARMER

Starts at $30.00

FRI. 6/30 - 8:00PM

DAVID LAWRENCE AND THE SPOONFUL W/ THE CODY SISTERS

Starts at $15.00

SAT. 7/1 - 11:30PM

Dead and Company After Party

JOSLYN AND THE SWEET COMPRESSION

Starts at $20.00

SUN. 7/2 - 11:30PM

Dead and Company After Party

DAVE McMURRAY

Starts at $20.00

SAT. 7/8 - 7:30PM

A.J. FULLERTON with full band

Starts at $15.00

WED. 7/12 - 7:30PM

DEER FELLOW with STURTZ AND ROBIN LEWIS

Starts at $15.00

FRI. 7/14 - 8:00PM

JOHNNY & THE MONGRELS

Starts at $15.00

TUE. 7/18 - 7:00PM

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RYE IN JULY

6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 5, West End Tavern, 926 Pearl St., Boulder. $75

West End Tavern welcomes whiskey fans for a night of rye tasting, featuring pours by Sagamore Spirit Distillery, Laws Whiskey House and Minor Case. Pair five different rye whiskeys with food from Chef Ronnie, West End Tavern’s barbecue wizard, all taking place on the restaurant’s rooftop.

LIZ BARNEZ LIVE BROADCAST ON 88.5 KGNU

FRI. 7/21 - 8:00PM

DAVE TAMKIN & CO AND ANTONIO LOPEZ W/ SPECIAL GUEST CHRISTOPHER MORSE

Starts at $15.00

Purchase Tickets at RMPtix.com

RootsMusicProject.org

4747 Pearl Suite V3A

LIVE MUSIC

ON THE BILL

Dead and who? If you’re priced out of Folsom Field this weekend, drop by Paradise Found Records and Music in Boulder for a free show with BoCo instrumental psychonauts Prairiewolf. The homegrown trio bring an otherworldly blend of cosmic country and ambient Americana to Pearl Street on the heels of their self-titled debut LP, released May 5 via Nashville’s Centripetal Force Records. Read a BW feature on the band by scanning the QR code. See listing for details.

FRIDAY, JUNE 30

JOSHUA BELL WITH MUSSORGSKY’S PICTURES. 7:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Rd., Boulder. $18. Story on p. 23

DIRTY HEADS WITH LETTUCE AND TROPIDELIC. 7 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $75

SAMVEGA. 6 p.m. Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont .Free

MARYLYNN GILLASPIE’S BAND DU JOUR. Muse Performance Space, 200 E South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

MELVIN SEALS WITH JGB (NIGHT 1). 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $32

THURSDAY, JUNE 29

MONONEON. 7:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $25

CHEST FEVER WITH BOOT GUN AND MIDNIGHT STRANGE. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15

JOSHUA BELL WITH MUSSORGSKY’S PICTURES.

7:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Rd., Boulder. $18. Story on p. 23

THE HEAD AND THE HEART WITH RAYLAND BAXTER AND SERA CAHOONE. 7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $80

SQWERV WITH LUNAR TICKS Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $10 RICHMAN. 5 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

DAVE ABEAR & FRIENDS. 6 p.m. Wibby Brewing, 209 Emery St., Longmont. $10

WOLF LOESCHER. 6 p.m. Summit Tacos, 237 Collyer St., Longmont. Free

REED FOEHL WITH KATE FARMER. 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $30. Story at boulderweekly.com

DAVID LAWRENCE AND THE SPOONFUL WITH THE CODY SISTERS. 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $15

MONONEON WITH THE FUNKY KNUCKLES AND CONNOR TERRONES. 8 p.m. Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, 2635 Welton St., Denver. $26

REMEMBER SPORTS WITH GOON AND DRY ICE. 9 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S Broadway, Denver. $20

SATURDAY, JULY 1

DEAD & COMPANY (NIGHT 1).

7 p.m. Folsom Field, 2400 Colorado Ave., Boulder. $150

MELVIN SEALS WITH JGB (NIGHT

2). 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $32

JOSLYN AND THE SWEET COMPRESSION. 11:30 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $20. Story on p. 14

BROTHERS OSBORNE WITH NIKO MOON, KAMERON MARLOWE, HAILEY WHITTERS, RANDALL KING AND DOUBLE WIDE. 4 p.m. Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, 6350 Greenwood Plaza Blvd., Englewood. $30

311 WITH J BOOG, MATISYAHU AND ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT.

6:30 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $67

PRAIRIEWOLF. 2 p.m. Paradise

Found Records, 1646 Pearl St., Boulder. Free. BW Pick of the week

3HD. 8 p.m. Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $20

KHIVA WITH JOE NICE, MANTRA SOUNDS AND ATEK. 8:30 p.m.

Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, 2635 Welton St., Denver. $23

SUMMER DEAN WITH JEN KORTE AND THE LOSS AND CHELLA AND THE CHARM. 9 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S Broadway, Denver. $18

BABYBABY WITH STANDING

START. 8:30 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15

SUNDAY, JULY 2

DEAD & COMPANY (NIGHT 2).

7 p.m. Folsom Field, 2400 Colorado Ave., Boulder. $120

SPAFFORD. 10:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $25

THE MOTET. 10:30 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $30

RED, WHITE & BLUES MUSIC FESTIVAL. 2 p.m. Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $25

DAVE MCMURRAY. 11:30 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $20

ZEDS DEAD WITH CHASE & STATUS, SMOAKLAND, NOSTALGIX, BLVK JVCK AND MYTHM (NIGHT 1). 4 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $100

VEXING WITH HEATHEN BURIAL, VOID AND WORRY. 7:30 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S Broadway, Denver. $15

MONDAY, JULY 3

DEAD & COMPANY (NIGHT 3).

7 p.m. Folsom Field, 2400 Colorado Ave., Boulder. $120

LP GIOBBI. 10:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $25

YONDER MOUNTAIN STRING BAND.

10:30 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $30

ZEDS DEAD WITH A HUNDRED DRUMS, COKI, HAMDI, TAPE B AND ROHAAN (NIGHT 2). 5 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $100

BLINK-182. 7:30 p.m. Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Cir., Denver. $90

AX AND THE HATCHETMEN WITH FONTEYN. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $15

TUESDAY, JULY 4

ZEDS DEAD WITH INTEGRATE.

9:30 p.m. 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $55

BOULDER SYMPHONY’S JULY 4TH CELEBRATION. 7 p.m. Boulder Bandshell, 1212 Canyon Blvd., Boulder. $15

BOULDER CONCERT BAND JULY 4 CELEBRATION. 7:15 p.m. Coal Creek Golf Course, 585 W Dillon Road, Louisville. Free

BLUES TRAVELER WITH RAILROAD EARTH AND NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS. 6 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $50

WEDNESDAY, JULY 5

INDIGO GIRLS. 7:30 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Rd., Boulder. $60

BANDS ON THE BRICKS. 5:30 p.m. 1300 Block of the Pearl Street Mall, 1325 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

VIC DILLAHAY. 7 p.m. Dry Land Distillers, 519 Main St., Longmont. Free

THE MUSIC OF JOHN WILLIAMS WITH COLORADO SYMPHONY. 7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $50

THE ROCKET SUMMER WITH THE JULIANA THEORY. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E Colfax Ave., Denver. $23

JOSEPHINE FOSTER WITH ADVANCE BASE (CASIOTONE FOR THE PAINFULLY ALONE). 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S Broadway, Denver. $20

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

FROM

THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEART, WE WANT TO THANK OUR COMMUNITY FOR SUPPORTING LOCAL BUSINESSES!

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Visionary author Peter McWilliams wrote, “One of the most enjoyable aspects of solitude is doing what you want when you want to do it, with the absolute freedom to change what you’re doing at will. Solitude removes all the ‘negotiating’ we need to do when we’re with others.” I’ll add a caveat: Some of us have more to learn about enjoying solitude. We may experience it as a loss or deprivation. But here’s the good news, Aries: In the coming weeks, you will be extra inspired to cultivate the benefits that come from being alone.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): The 18th-century French engineer Étienne Bottineau invented nauscopy, the art of detecting sailing ships at a great distance, well beyond the horizon. This was before the invention of radar. Bottineau said his skill was not rooted in sorcery or luck, but from his careful study of changes in the atmosphere, wind, and sea. Did you guess that Bottineau was a Taurus? Your tribe has a special capacity for arriving at seemingly magical understandings by harnessing your sensitivity to natural signals. Your intuition thrives as you closely observe the practical details of how the world works. This superpower will be at a peak in the coming weeks.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): According to a Welsh proverb, “Three fears weaken the heart: fear of the truth; fear of the devil; fear of poverty.” I suspect the first of those three is most likely to worm its way into your awareness during the coming weeks. So let’s see what we can do to diminish its power over you. Here’s one possibility: Believe me when I tell you that even if the truth’s arrival is initially disturbing or disruptive, it will ultimately be healing and liberating. It should be welcomed, not feared.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): Hexes nullified! Jinxes abolished! Demons banished! Adversaries outwitted! Liabilities diminished! Bad habits replaced with good habits! These are some of the glorious developments possible for you in the coming months, Cancerian. Am I exaggerating? Maybe a little. But if so, not much. In my vision of your future, you will be the embodiment of a lucky charm and a repository of blessed mojo. You are embarking on a phase when it will make logical sense to be an optimist. Can you sweep all the dross and mess out of your sphere? No, but I bet you can do at least 80%.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): In the book

Curious Facts in the History of Insects, Frank Cowan tells a perhaps legendary story about how mayors were selected in the medieval Swedish town of Hurdenburg. The candidates would set their chins on a table with their long beards spread out in front of them. A louse, a tiny parasitic insect, would be put in the middle of the table. Whichever beard the creature crawled to and chose as its new landing spot would reveal the man who would become the town’s new leader. I beg you not to do anything like this, Leo. The decisions you and your allies make should be grounded in good evidence and sound reason, not blind chance. And please avoid parasitical influences completely.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): I rebel against the gurus and teachers who tell us our stories are delusional indulgences that interfere with our enlightenment. I reject their insistence that our personal tales are distractions from our spiritual work. Virgo author A. S. Byatt speaks for me: “Narration is as much a part of human nature as breath and the circulation of the blood.” I love and honor the stories of my own destiny, and I encourage you to love and honor yours. Having said that, I will let you know that now is an excellent time to jettison the stories that feel demoralizing and draining—even as you celebrate the stories that embody your genuine beauty. For extra credit: Tell the soulful stories of your life to anyone who is receptive.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): In the Mayan calendar, each of the 20 day names is associated with a natural phenomenon. The day called Kawak is paired

with rainstorms. Ik’ is connected with wind and breath. Kab’an is earth, Manik’ is deer, and Chikchan is the snake. Now would be a great time for you to engage in an imaginative exercise inspired by the Mayans. Why? Because this is an ideal phase of your cycle to break up your routine, to reinvent the regular rhythm, to introduce innovations in how you experience the flow of the time. Just for fun, why not give each of the next 14 days a playful nickname or descriptor? This Friday could be Crescent Moon, for example. Saturday might be Wonderment, Sunday can be Dazzle Sweet, and Monday Good Darkness.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): From 998 till 1030, Scorpio-born leader Mahmud Ghaznavi ruled the vast Ghaznavid empire, which stretched from current-day Iran to central Asia and northwestern India. Like so many of history’s strong men, he was obsessed with military conquest. Unlike many others, though, he treasured culture and learning. You’ve heard of poet laureates? He had 400 of them. According to some tales, he rewarded one wordsmith with a mouthful of pearls. In accordance with astrological omens, I encourage you to be more like the Mahmud who loved beauty and art and less like the Mahmud who enjoyed fighting. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to fill your world with grace and elegance and magnificence.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21):

About 1,740 years ago, before she became a Catholic saint, Margaret of Antioch got swallowed whole by Satan, who was disguised as a dragon. Or so the old story goes. But Margaret was undaunted. There in the beast’s innards, Margaret calmly made the sign of the cross over and over with her right hand. Meanwhile, the wooden cross in her left hand magically swelled to an enormous size that ruptured the beast, enabling her to escape. After that, because of her triumph, expectant mothers and women in labor regarded Margaret as their patron saint. Your upcoming test won’t be anywhere near as demanding as hers, Sagittarius, but I bet you will ace it — and ultimately garner sweet rewards.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19):

Capricorn-born Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) was an astronomer and mathematician who was an instrumental innovator in the Scientific Revolution. Among his many breakthrough accomplishments were his insights about the laws of planetary motion. Books he wrote were crucial forerunners of Isaac Newton’s theories about gravitation. But here’s an unexpected twist: Kepler was also a practicing astrologer who interpreted the charts of many people, including three emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. In the spirit of Kepler’s ability to bridge seemingly opposing perspectives, Capricorn, I invite you to be a paragon of mediation and conciliation in the coming weeks. Always be looking for ways to heal splits and forge connections. Assume you have an extraordinary power to blend elements that no one can else can.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Dear Restless Runaway: During the next 10 months, life will offer you these invitations:

1. Identify the land that excites you and stabilizes you. 2. Spend lots of relaxing time on that land. 3. Define the exact nature of the niche or situation where your talents and desires will be most gracefully expressed. 4. Take steps to create or gather the family you want. 5. Take steps to create or gather the community you want.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): I’d love you to be a deep-feeling, free-thinker in the coming weeks. I will cheer you on if you nurture your emotional intelligence as you liberate yourself from outmoded beliefs and opinions. Celebrate your precious sensitivity, dear Pisces, even as you use your fine mind to reevaluate your vision of what the future holds. It’s a perfect time to glory in rich sentiments and exult in creative ideas.

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

DEAR DAN: Fourteen years ago, I fell for a woman who was into watching guy-on-guy oral sex. I indulged her fetish on multiple occasions at play parties and during prearranged hotel encounters with bisexual guys. While I only did this to please her, I enjoyed these MMF encounters because I got off on her getting off. At the time I thought maybe I was bisexual and had been in denial. But after we broke up, and after becoming more thoroughly educated on D/s dynamics, I’ve come to believe I am in fact not bi and instead straight. I can just be really subby for the right woman. Most people to whom I disclose my history insist that I’m not straight because of what I did for that one woman. I even encounter this in the kink community, where the D/s perspective should be better understood. My argument that I am straight and not bi is that I’ve never been romantically attracted to a man. I’ve never gone down on a man without a woman telling me to and it’s not as if there aren’t any opportunities for me to do so, as I live on the north side of Chicago. (You might be familiar with this neighborhood?) All that being said, do you think I’m straight?

— Sucker For Dom Women

DEAR SFDW: Sure.

DEAR DAN: How do furries happen? The kink just seems so random. And why are there so many furries now but no furries in ancient history?

— Fathoming Unusual Roles

DEAR FUR: Cartoons. Disney. Mascots.

While not everyone who gets off on dressing up in fursuits and/or animal mascot costumes has the same origin story, FUR, many furries trace their kink to the anthropomorphized animal characters they were exposed to in childhood. Now, most kids who watch Disney movies don’t

grow up to be furries, just as most kids who take a swim class don’t grow up to have rubber swim cap fetishes. But a tiny percentage do develop these fetishes. Since we can’t predict which random environmental stimuli a kid might fixate on — and therefore can’t predict whose childhood fixations will become adult sexual obsessions — there’s no controlling for kinks. No one’s kinks are consciously chosen and if they seem random, it’s because they kindasorta are random.

Anthropomorphized animal characters didn’t come to dominate childhood (mass media, imaginations) until the 20th century Disney was founded in 1923, Looney Tunes was founded in 1930 — but there were adults running around out there with marionette fetishes acquired at puppet shows before Mickey and Bugs took over. (There are still marionette fetishists out there.) As for the actual ancients, the Roman emperor Nero (37-68 AD) used to dress up in animal skins and pretend to be a wild boar at orgies — according to historians who may have been biased against him — and there are lots of examples of ancient people dressing up as animals for religious festivals and holidays; some festivals included sacred sexual rites, but some of them were just fuck fests because people are — and have always been — kinky freaks.

EARTH, WIND AND FIRE

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

Most movies, on some level, are about reconciling the space between parents and their children. It’s the theme that runs right through the heart of Elemental, so it makes sense that’s where Paul Kubala’s head was at when discussing his work on Disney-Pixar’s latest animated release.

“Coming into school, I had no idea what I wanted to do,” Kubala says. “It was actually my dad that pushed me. He was like, ‘Hey, there’s this film studies class where you get to make movies all the time. You should take this.’ And I took it, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I can get a film degree?’”

Kubala, who grew up in Morrison, followed in his parents’ footsteps when he selected the University of Colorado Boulder for college. Luckily, Kubala also took his father’s advice and enrolled in the film studies program. But Kubala wanted something to fall back on if the whole movie thing didn’t work out.

“Something that honors the math

and science part of me,” Kubala says, which is how he ended up with a double degree in film and computer studies. “I decided to do both, and I can’t tell if that was for my own reasons or to appease my parents.”

It’s a fitting sentiment considering the movie Kubala is discussing, Elemental, is all about treading the fine line between following the path your parents blazed and pursuing your own. They say art reflects reality, but, really, it’s all the same.

LET’S GET TECHNICAL

Elemental is Kubala’s third project since joining Pixar — he previously worked on Turning Red and Cars on the Road. His title is “rendering technical director” in the visual effects department, and when you ask him what that is, he laughs: “I’ve been trying to explain that to a lot of people. I hear it’s easier just to tell everybody you’re an animator.”

As Kubala explains, his position is a 50-50 split of art and tech. He couldn’t have planned his time at CU any better.

“Basically, when a computer makes that really pretty image, the main thing — or one of the main things — that pulls everything together and gets the beautification of the actual image is when you add lighting to the actual rendered image,” he says.

To do that, Kubala gives the computer a series of coordinates to tell it how things look from different viewpoints.

“Once you start having lights that you add in, you need to describe how lights interact with certain objects,” Kubala says. “How does light interact when it goes through a glass full of water? ... How does light react when it goes through skin?”

These problems come up at the end of the animation pipeline — long after the story has been set, the characters developed, the shots edited. Yet, the significance these decisions have on the final product, both in the clarity of the image and the emotional arc of the narrative, is massive. Take a visual from the climax of Elemental: fire refracted through water, creating the reflection of a rainbow on a wall. It’s an emotionally charged and beautifully poignant moment, the perfect intersection of artistry and tech that has come to define Kubala’s career.

IN HIS ELEMENT

Kubala’s love for movies goes back to when he was 12 and bought his first video camera. “I just thought it was the coolest thing ever,” he says. Kubala loved making movies, so naturally, Dad pushed for that when he told Kubala to enroll in film studies.

“It was kind of funny, actually,”

Kubala says of choosing computer science as a backup. “I actually did the opposite. I leaned on computer science at first and then went into film, so it all worked out.”

Coming out of college, Kubala moved to Portland, Oregon, to work for the stop-motion animation studio LAIKA before deciding his ultimate goal was Pixar. But it takes, on average, six years of applying to work at Pixar before you get through the door, so Kubala decided to “just apply and see if I can get it or start the six-year journey right away.”

As luck would have it, he found a job that fit his skill set perfectly, applied and saw the six-year application process evaporate with one email and two phone calls. He was in.

Kubala never planned on leaving Colorado, figuring adventure documentaries might be his future. But his talent, tenacity and good timing opened doors for him all along the way — even if those doors weren’t close to home.

“It all worked out,” Kubala says, though his career path did cause him to catch a lot of flack from his family.

“I really look up to my parents — always have, always will,” he says. “One of the hardest things, I didn’t realize, is that these people you really look up to, you’re going to have to disappoint them, sometimes, to chase your dreams.”

Which just so happens to be the very crux of Elemental. How perfect is that?

CU grad behind Disney-Pixar’s ‘Elemental’ on how to succeed in entertainment without disappointing your parents (too much)

Elemental is screening now in wide release. Photo courtesy Disney-Pixar.

Raised in Morrison, CU Boulder grad Paul Kubala is a technical director with Pixar Animation Studios. Photo courtesy Pixar.

ON SCREEN: Elemental is in theaters everywhere.

OF THE SACRED

There once was a time when some of the brightest thinkers wondered if movies were the answer. Could this new visual language topple tyrants? Fix social problems? Rewrite the political landscape? There were many questions, and the answer kept coming back: cinema.

Among these post-war, mid-century philosophers, the Italian Pier Paolo Pasolini has secured a special place in the history books. A novelist and poet, the controversial filmmaker turned to the camera to get his message to a mass audience. It worked. Of the 13 features he directed in his short life, all garnered attention for being incendiary, subversive, radical — even downright despicable. Before his death at the age of 53, Pasolini captured the grit of everyday life and beatified the lowest among us.

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

That makes Criterion’s newest Bluray set, Pasolini 101, a perfect entry for cineastes. Here are nine movies — Accattone, Mamma Roma, Love Meetings, The Gospel According to Matthew, The Hawks and the Sparrows, Oedipus Rex, Teorema, Porcile and Medea — all gorgeously restored for a new generation to discover.

Pasolini was a gay Marxist atheist, and it shows in everything he touched. Take Accattone: the narrative centers on a two-bit pimp, Vittorio (Franco Citti), trying to make something more of himself, only to fall back on his base qualities when he meets the innocent Stella (Franca Pasu), falls for her and then puts her on the streets. That she accepts this turn of events without hesitation tells you everything you need to know about survival in a post-war state.

And yet, despicable as he may be, Pasolini frames Vittorio, as he does so many of his characters: with close-ups that speak toward the sacred. Pasolini may have been a gutter poet, but his gaze was always toward heaven. That makes for quite the reversal in The Gospel According to Matthew, a telling of the Christ story stripped so bare of religiosity that it feels like you’ve been transported to Galilee. Nonactor Enrique Irazoqui plays Jesus not as a force of muscular righteousness but as a somewhat underfed man trying to carry out a mission greater than himself. And to capture it, Pasolini and cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli — who lensed seven of the nine films in this set — treat The Gospel According to Matthew like a documentary shot on the streets. It’s a period film in the most present of tenses.

And if an atheist’s take on the gospel seems odd to you, consider Teorema, with Terence Stamp playing house guest to a chaste bourgeois family in Milan. Everyone in the house is suffering, including the housekeeper, who tries to kill herself. Stamp’s unnamed guest saves her, then begins a sexual relationship with the son, then the mother, then the daughter. He connects with the father and leaves. Is he an angel? A devil? Pasolini never says — though only one in the home is truly touched by the Holy Spirit. Who that is speaks

volumes about Pasolini’s politics. On it goes. In the documentary Love Meetings, Pasolini talks to Italians on the street about sex, orientation, gender roles and a bevy of hot topics. The Hawks and the Sparrows is a comedy starring Italy’s answer to Charlie Chaplin: Totò. In Oedipus Rex and Porcile, Pasolini blends eras to point out modern-day depravity — the latter featuring cannibalism and bestiality. For Medea, Pasolini again turns to the Greeks, but this one stars opera singer Maria Callas in her only film role. And then there’s Mamma Roma, arguably one of the best movies ever made.

Fourteen years after Pasolini debuted with Accattone, he made the infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, a movie so incendiary and repulsive many believe it was the reason for his murder. Pasolini died in 1975 under mysterious circumstances, so much so that the conspiracies surrounding his killing — and who might have been behind it — have become almost as famous as the movies he made. But that’s a story for another day. Today, it’s about Pasolini, the filmmaker, artist and thinker: one of the best the 20th century saw, and one whose work should never be forgotten.

ON SCREEN: Pasolini 101 is available now on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection.

Franco Citti as Vittorio “Accattone” Cataldi in Accattone Photo courtesy The Criterion Collection.

HAUTE DOG DAYS

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

Paolo Neville has been there and done that, cooking serious cuisine at fine-dining restaurants in California’s wine country and locally at The Med, Brasserie Ten Ten, and, most recently, Lafayette’s 95a Bistro.

At a recent wine dinner, Neville, adorned in his white chef’s jacket, served subtly spiced seared duck breast on a bed of tender red lentils with miso-glazed carrots and a scallion-black garlic cream with sesame.

“What I’ve done with food for 35 years is to try and tell a story, to elicit those emotions and feelings in started thinking about a new approach to telling stories with food and, in the process, adopted a new persona.

Flashing tattoos and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with cheeky puns, the sometime skateboarder started releasing “Fuckin’ Hot Dog Friday” videos on social media and rapidly developed a following.

Each installment takes a brief dive into global variations of the hot dog.

“Every city around the world has

some kind of sausage, an urban street food everybody loves,” Neville says.

To showcase the versatility of the humble sausage sandwich, Neville’s new Urban Hot Dog Collective truck is serving at events and tastings around Boulder County.

“There are things I’ve cooked in my food career that were just unapproachable, but people understand a hot dog,” he says.

As with most of us, Neville’s hot dog memories started early in life.

“For my grandmother, hot dogs were a quick, easy summer lunch she could throw on the table for the kids,” he says. “My first memories of going out for hot dogs was growing up in Boulder and going into Mustard’s Last Stand. Even as a kid I liked the Chicago dog. I didn’t mind the sport peppers.”

ELEVATING THE COMMON

Lamenting the bland manner in which many folks

backyard July Fourth gatherings, Neville has strong opinions about the component ingredients and techniques that deliver a

First, use high-quality meat, he says.

“I use Vienna All Beef Dogs because they have that great beefy flavor, and just the right amount of salt, chew and juice,” he says.

Neville never boils them, preferring to sear dogs gradually on a flat griddle with a tiny bit of oil. He also wraps them with very thin, crispy bacon slices.

For gas or charcoal grilling, Neville recommends cutting the sausage with crosshatch marks: “They open up as

they grill and you get some nice charred edges.”

Other techniques include deep frying, beer steaming and smoking.

GRABBING THOSE PERFECT BUNS

Neville did deep R&D to find exactly the right bun, i.e., not those squishy, white side-cut buns.

“I’m a fan of New England split-top hot dog buns,” he says. “I have special buns baked that are big enough to hold all the fun toppings and condiments.”

The advantage of the New England split-top is that it has two flat sides that can be brushed with butter or oil and griddled until golden brown, he says.

“The longer 7-inch dogs I use stick out a little bit on either side,” Neville says. “That first bite on the end without bun or toppings lets you know it’s a really good hot dog.”

FRANK TALK ON CONDIMENTS

Urban Hot Dog Collective offers some artisan combinations of toppings.

“I can apply all of my executive chef stuff, my 30 years of cooking experience, into making this one little meal totally out of this world,” Neville says.

His Flaming Hot Dog is nestled in mac and cheese, sweet-spicy pickles, Flamin’ Hot Cheeto dust and cilantrolime aioli. The Seoul Dog is crowned with Korean barbecue pork belly, housemade kimchi, sriracha aioli and green onions.

Naturally, the Boulder Dog is a spicy vegan sausage with basil pesto, beet relish and mustard “mayo.”

Neville’s patrons can also customize with over-the-top garnishes like candied habanero bacon, Texas barbecue brisket, fried jalapeños, street corn and cotija cheese.

Despite those temptations, the chef’s bestseller is his Chicago-style dog nestled in a kitchen sink of condiments: pickles, tomato, onion, relish, sport peppers and celery salt.

“My philosophy is that people should enjoy them however they want them,” Neville says. “I’m not a hot dog snob. If customers want a plain dog with ketchup, it’s fine. It connects them to how they felt as a kid.”

Neville’s newfound wiener fame has not come without a little culinary backlash.

“I’ve been ridiculed online, often by other chefs who see my hot dog videos,” he says. “They say: ‘You’re not a chef.’ Really? Just for making a hot dog?”

On a personal level, after decades of work, Neville is also able to have fun.

“When you’re a chef working in a kitchen on a Friday night, you’re not getting that visceral reaction when somebody tastes your food,” he says.

“On the truck, I actually hand them something they can just bite into. It gets people to have fun with food. It’s diametrically opposed to your fine dining chef-y thing.”

A frank discussion with a Boulder chef who ditched fine dining to pay homage to the humble sausage sandwich

Credit: Russ Coop

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: COLORADO’S CONEY ISLAND

● The Casa Bonita of Colorado hot dog stands, South Park Coney Island, has reopened in Bailey (10 Old Stagecoach Road, Suite 973) under new ownership. The experience was always better than the hot dogs.

● Deun Deun Box is open at 1107 13th St. on the Hill in Boulder serving Korean lunch box-style cuisine.

● Louisville’s Punch Buggy Shave Ice has opened a second shop dishing cool sweetness at 400 W South Boulder Road next to Button Rock Bakery (deli and sushi bar).

● Best new name for a Boulder County food truck business: Felafayette, serving Middle Eastern fare. Find them: facebook. com/falafayette

WORDS TO CHEW ON: BUTTER-DIPPED

“Eating an artichoke is like getting to know someone really well.”

— Willi Hastings

Boulder Weekly is compiling its annual guide to Boulder County’s roadside farm stands. Send hours, offerings and detailed locations of your favorite stands to: Nibbles@BoulderWeekly.com

John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles and Kitchen Table Talk on KGNU. Comments: Nibbles@BoulderWeekly.com

The South Park Coney Island hot dog stand in Bailey. Photo courtesy South Park Coney Island

COOKED AS A CUCUMBER

The famously cool vegetable is in season

BY ARI LEVAUX

At an overpriced tapas joint, I once took a chance on charred cucumber salad. The dish sounded counterintuitive, to put it delicately, because everyone knows a cucumber should be served cool. Cooking a cucumber would be like giving Samson a haircut before the battle. A cool cucumber is a happy cucumber.

The best have tried, and failed, to find a delicious way to cook a cucumber. Even James Beard, with a recipe for poached cucumbers, couldn’t pull it off. The limp slices of cuke were only rendered edible with cream, mushrooms and a twist of black pepper. I was not converted.

That was before my trip to the tapas bar. Yet there I was, ordering a dish I was quite sure would not be good, on the long shot that the rules of culinary physics might temporarily bend around the charms of some cucumber-whispering chef. Perhaps there would be enough heat to induce a measure of charred fragrance, but without silencing the loudest crunch in the vegetable kingdom. But no, I got 16 bucks worth of sliced, blackened sogginess, stuck to

chunks of goat cheese. Another failed attempt to cook a cucumber. When will we learn?

Cucumbers are mostly water, so it’s no surprise they don’t respond well to fire. In Malaysian rendang curry, cooled cucumber slices often accompany the spicy gravy, at the ready to douse any flames. The synergy between cucumber and water is the driving force behind the cucumber water trend. By now you have surely noticed that cucumber water has replaced plain water in lobbies, waiting rooms, offices and dining rooms.

You don’t need a fancy fruit-infusing water cooler in order to make cucumber water. All you need are cucumbers, water and a vessel. To make cucumber water, wash a cucumber and slice it thinly, unpeeled. Discard the ends. Add the cucumber to the water, along with lemon slices. Wait. Drink. Feel cool.

The mild, refreshing flavor of a cucumber may be subtle, but it’s persistent. If given the chance it will quietly impregnate everything in its path, allowing a small amount of cucumber to flavor a lot of water and hydrate a lot of people.

That mild flavor is famously mixed with mint, garlic and yogurt in another dish even more popular than cucumber water. This combination is a culinary universal found in many parts of the world, from Indian raita to Greek tzatziki, and few dishes are better able to capture and harness the essence of cucumber. Mint enhances the cooling action, while garlic balances the sweetness with sharp pungency. For a real-life example of this cool combo, here is a recipe for a Lebanese kyar bi laban, or cucumber yogurt salad. The chunks of cucumber add watery crunch to a flavor that’s salty and refreshing, like a dunk in the ocean in the middle of summer.

KYAR BI LABAN

The combination of cucumber, yogurt, mint and garlic can straddle the line between a dressing and salad, depending on what you serve it with, and how finely you chop the cucumber. Today’s recipe is salad, so the chunks are large.

I am not typically a peeler of cucumbers, but I am for this recipe, so as to preserve the classic white look.

Makes 4 servings

3 cups peeled cucumber, diced into half-inch cubes, or smaller

1.5 cups yogurt (preferably strained, aka “Greek-style”)

12 large fresh mint leaves 1 teaspoon minced garlic (minced with the mint, see below)

1 tablespoon salt

Place the cucumber in a strainer, sprinkle with salt and set aside for 30 minutes so the salt can draw water from the cucumbers. Give it a gentle stir every 10 minutes to help coax out the water. Meanwhile, mince or crush the garlic and mint together, then stir this mixture into the yogurt. Give the cucumbers a gentle squeeze and combine them with yogurt, garlic and mint. Chill for 30 minutes. Serve cool.

WEED BETWEEN THE LINES

CRACKING THE CHEMICAL CODE

is a chemically engineered molecule similar to psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. According to a Psilera press release, PSIL-006 showed efficacy in treating addiction, depression and end-of-life anxiety similarly to psilocybin — but without hallucinogenic effects.

BY WILL BRENDZA

When a plant has a medicinal property, chemists rush to create derivatives and analogs of it. It’s a pattern in Western medicine: Opium poppies became morphine. Coca leaves became lidocaine. Willow bark became aspirin. And, eventually, branded versions of each of those pharmaceutically developed drugs hit the market — making fortunes for the companies behind them and helping countless people manage with ailments.

That process is accelerated when an illicit plant with known medicinal qualities becomes legal or decriminalized. We’re watching it happen in real

time with natural psychedelics as places like Colorado end prohibition of them. These substances have real potential to help people therapeutically and science is starting to back that up. Three out of five Americans believe psychedelics should be legalized for therapeutic purposes, according to a recent study from UC Berkeley’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP).

So, naturally, the race is on to crack the chemical codes of psychedelic molecules. Researchers across the country are already trying to develop analogs that can be branded, distributed and sold commercially. And most of them are trying to develop versions that aren’t psychedelic at all.

In May, the biopharmaceutical company Psilera announced the first drug in its extensive pipeline of chemical patents aimed at “reimagining” psychoactive natural products to create “effective and insurance-backed takehome therapies.” The drug, PSIL-006,

Similarly, researchers from UC Davis took a swing at creating their own analog of ibogaine. The psychedelic, derived from the African shrub Tabernanthe iboga , has shown incredible potential as an addiction treatment ( Weed Between the Lines, “ The addiction therapy drug,” April 6, 2023).

In December 2020, those scientists published a paper in Nature , describing how they determined exactly what parts of the brain ibogaine affected and how, and engineered their own version of it:

Tabernathalog . In rodent tests, the compound promoted neural plasticity in the brain, reduced alcohol- and heroin-seeking behavior, and produced antidepressant-like effects on mice. Similarly to Psilera’s PSIL-006, it did so without hallucinatory effects.

A March 2023 paper in Cell Reports detailed another group of hopeful scientists who had developed a non-hallucinatory version of LSD. They called it 2-Br-LSD, and claim it similarly increased neuroplasticity, produced active coping behavior, and even reversed “chronic stress deficits.”

Those researchers concluded that 2-Br-LSD “may have profound therapeutic value for mood disorders and other indications.”

There are many groups of researchers currently working to develop non-hallucinatory psychedelic compounds for pharmaceutical use. Some, like DLX-1, aren’t even an analog of a known hallucinatory compound, but a molecule chemically engineered to light up the same receptor in the human brain that psychedelics affect. During in vivo studies, DLX-1 produced a similarly robust, long-lasting antidepressant effect on mice after just a single dose.

David Olson helped develop DLX-1. He is the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Delix Therapeutics. And while he doesn’t shy away from the financial prospects of developing such a molecule, he points out that having non-hallucinatory analogs of psychedelic compounds could be the best way of getting these drugs into the hands of people who need them most.

In an interview with Technology Networks, Olson explains the cost of traditional psychedelic therapy might be out of reach for many people. There are also some with co-morbidities or family histories of psychotic illnesses who won’t be able to take them. And then there are those who simply don’t want to experience the hallucinatory effects of psychedelics but who could still benefit from using them.

“What we really need are scalable solutions,” Olson said. “New first-line treatments that people can take home and put in their medicine cabinets. The only way we can get there is with non-hallucinogenic compounds that lack abuse liability.”

Scientists work to develop analogs of psychedelics without the trippy side-effects