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contents NEWS:

From the boredom of Denver, to the sheer terror of Syria

by Nicole McNulty

11

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BOULDERGANIC:

In the wake of COP21, ski industry leaders struggle to protect skiing before it’s too late

by Grant Stringer

18

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ADVENTURE:

It’s the way you ride the trail that counts

by Betsy Welch

23

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BUZZLEAD:

Author Molly Brown tells a different kind of love story in her debut book

by Caitlin Rockett

27

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departments 5 T HE HIGHROAD: Explaining Congressional morality 6 COMMENTARY: Trump brings humiliation TV to politics 6 GUEST COLUMN: Sanctuary for refugees: André Trocmé and Le Chambon-sur-Lignon 9 LETTERS: TPP will weaken food safety; Crisis Center move; Register Dem for Bernie 39 BOULDER COUNTY EVENTS: What to do and where to go 44 BW’S NEW YEAR’S GUIDE: What to do and where to go again 46 POETRY: by J. Allyn Rosser 47 FILM: Even with puppets, ‘Anomalisa’ reflects humanity 49 CUISINE REVIEW: This is the best restaurant in Boulder County and its second is not even close 55 DRINK: Big love for big Champagne 61 ASTROLOGY: by Rob Brezsny 63 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Keep treading water, Santa; Hoverboards, Mike Tyson and the Catholic Church 65 WEED BETWEEN THE LINES: Not your grandma’s cookbook 67 S AVAGE LOVE: The hard truth; Submit to domination Boulder Weekly

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commentary

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December 31, 2015 Volume XXIII, Number 22 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 www.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.

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Boulder Weekly

the

Highroad Explaining Congressional morality

by Jim Hightower

I

t’s always interesting to see Congress in action, though “interesting” can also be appalling. For example, what a sight it is to watch Republican leaders as they gleefully try to repeal Obamacare, the law extending health care coverage to all Americans. As they vote one-by-one to kill it, their mantra is, “No to big-government health care!”

What you can’t see, however, is them

later slipping down the hallways of the Capitol to a little-known, exclusive medical office that gives them free health care, paid for by the same “big government” they were just ranting about. You might think that such raw hypocrisy would cause them to feel at least a twinge of moral discomfort, but apparently they’ve been immunized to prevent such outbreaks of morality.

A good illustration of the congressional mindset is presently making the rounds on the Internet. Called “The Haircut,” it tells the story of a barber who cut the hair of a florist, but refused to take payment from the flower peddler. “I’m doing community service this week,” he explained.

The next morning when the barber went to his shop, he found a thank-you note and a dozen roses at his door.

His next customer was a police officer needing a trim. Again, the barber declined any payment. The next morning, he found a thank-you note and a

For more information on Jim Hightower’s work — and to subscribe to his award-winning monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown — visit www.jimhightower.com.

dozen donuts waiting for him, a gift from the grateful cop.

Then, lo and behold, a congressman came in for a haircut. When he tried to pay, the barber once more waved off the money, repeating his commitment to community service. The lawmaker was delighted by this generous gesture. And, sure enough, when the barber went to his shop the next morning, he was greeted by another surprise: a dozen Congress critters lined up waiting for a free haircut.

See, it’s just a matter of one’s moral make-up. Assuming, of course, that you have a moral make-up.

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

December 31, 2015 5

commentary Trump brings humiliation TV to politics

by Dave Anderson

M

any Americans don’t pay study which shows that Trump’s supattention to politics. But port just after the second Republican they do watch TV. Most debate was almost twice as high among likely, more people know people who watched the show than who Donald Trump is those who didn’t. than they know who their congressional On The Apprentice, 16 young and representative is. The Donald is a inexperienced men and women comsuperstar of pop culture. He is a twopeted for a $250,000 job doing such time Emmy Award-nominated “person- tasks as renting a Trump penthouse or ality.” For 14 years, Trump was the star constructing an ad campaign for a priof The Apprentice and The Celebrity vate jet company. Trump played the Apprentice on prime-time TV. abusive boss who fires a contestant on He is like a Rorschach inkblot test each episode, yelling that the person is — he either represents the fulfillment “stupid” or “a loser” or “absolutely terriof the American ble.” To promote Dream or a symthe show, billboards bol of capitalist featured Trump looking grim and excess and greed. saying, “You’re He says he strugFired!” gled to get started THAT IT IS BAD NEWS Trump’s Iowa in the business campaign co-chair world with only a FOR THE LEFT AND Tana Goertz is a “small loan” of a THE DEMOCRATS 48-year-old million dollars WHEN WE HAVE A Apprentice finalist from his tycoon who finds caucus dad. For years, he TELEVISION CULTURE goers via was celebrated in THAT TEACHES US Apprentice-style mass media as a THAT “EMPATHY HAS thrilling upstart. game-show events.

Then in 1979, the She is a self-made NO PLACE IN OUR Village Voice pubwoman who spent LIVES.” lished an investi10 years going gative piece saying door to door sellhe was a bully and ing Mary Kay cosfraud whose success was due metics. She was once the spokeswommainly to family connections and an for the BeDazzler, a home-crafts favors from politicians. tool that affixes rhinestones.

He later became “world champion Konigsberg says she has “sculpted feacomedy bait” in the words of People tures, an aerobicized physique and a magazine. He’s been the butt of many vocal delivery that sounds as if it were comedians’ jokes. He has made created in a laboratory specifically for appearances as a cartoon version of infomercials.” She says, “I do motivahimself a number of times on TV and tional speaking, life coaching, product in films. So when he announced that endorsements. The best part of my he was running for president, many career? I’ve never had a boss. I learned commentators wondered if he was that from Trump.” really serious.

What does this all mean? Recently, Trump is a wild and crazy guy I re-read an old essay by Nicolaus Mills, whose political speeches resemble the a professor of American Studies at stream-of-consciousness banter of an Sarah Lawrence College, called insult comedian. On a split screen, Jeb “Television and the Politics of Bush harrumphs that Trump’s ideas are Humiliation.” It was published in the impractical while you see Trump is summer 2004 issue of Dissent magazine. mocking him with funny faces.

Mills wondered about the political Bloomberg reporter Eric Konigsberg implications behind the television proargues that viewers of The Apprentice gramming which claims to be realitygave Trump “a giant base of committed, non-ideological enthusiasts.” He cites a see COMMENTARY Page 8

MILLS CONCLUDED

6 December 31, 2015

guest column Sanctuary for refugees: André Trocmé and Le Chambon-sur-Lignon

by Rivera Sun

R

ecent comments by U.S. pol- under false names, and met them at the iticians have left many troutrain station as if welcoming family bled, worried about a replay members into their homes. When the of Nazi-era Germany here anti-Jew Vichy government caught on, in the United States. The they sent gendarmes to search the vilspecter of the Jewish Holocaust recast lage. When asked to produce a list of upon Muslim and Jews, Trocmé refugee bodies replied, “We do haunts many. In not know what a times such as these, Jew is. We only HITLERS the stories of couknow men.” It is rageous, organized estimated that AND NAZIS — FROM resistance to the between 1940ISIS TO TRUMP — Nazis bear repeat1945, the village REQUIRES OPENING ing. Of these, the saved the lives of efforts of a French 3,500-5,000 Jewish OUR HEARTS TO priest can serve as refugees.

THOSE BEING PERSEexample to us all.

Flash-forward CUTED BY THE POLIAndré Trocmé to Septemberwas trouble for November 2015: TICS OF HATRED. those who favored Syrian refugees are war and violence. fleeing violence, He was sent to a civil war, airstrikes, remote parish in the mountains of terrorist groups and extreme repression.

France for his pacifist views, but as the They flood the shores of Europe. In Nazis invaded and occupied France, Hungary, Sweden and Greece, the govAndre discovered he was in a unique ernments ban the refugees. But citizens position to join the international netrise up, nonviolently, flock to the train work of people resisting the Nazis and stations, defy their officials and welthe persecution of the Jews. He and his come the refugees into their countries. wife, Magda, and his deputy worked Then, in November, terrorists attack with the villagers and parishioners of and kill 130 in Paris. The Syrian refuLe Chambon-sur-Lignon to create a gees are scapegoated. Thirty-one series of safe houses for fleeing Jews.

The local schools enrolled children see GUEST COLUMN Page 8

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commentary COMMENTARY from Page 6

based. The Apprentice was the best example. There’s American Idol, Survivor and Fear Factor. He called it “humiliation TV” and said its “overriding lesson” is that “people will do anything for money, and that we are living in an America in which the only way to get ahead is to behave as ruthlessly as possible. Forget cooperation. Forget fairness. Think zerosum society.”

Mills concluded that it is bad news for the left and the Democrats when we

have a television culture that teaches us that “empathy has no place in our lives.”

That was 2004. Now Donald Trump is the Republican frontrunner for president. Journalist Adele Stan points out that he is breaking new ground by “making the articulation of the basest bigotry acceptable in mainstream outlets, amplifying the many oppressive tropes and stereotypes of race and gender that already exist in more than adequate abundance.”

Self-identified white supremacists, fascists and neo-Nazis have been pleasantly surprised by Trump’s ability to get unlimited free air time. Hate crimes against Trump’s favorite punching bags, Muslims and Latinos, are on the rise.

People are debating whether Trump is a fascist or the opening act for the real thing.

Like fascist demagogues of the 1930s, Trump mixes some economic populism into his shtick. For example,

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he boasts that he will really soak the rich but actually his tax plan is just as regressive as the other Republicans.

Fortunately, both Clinton and Sanders beat him in the polls. How many people go to his rallies just to be entertained?

He likely won’t be president but he’s succeeded in making American politics more toxic.

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

guest column GUEST COLUMN from Page 6

United States governors overstretch their authority and issue statements saying they will not accept Syrian refugees in their states.

What are we going to do? The moral obligation of compassion is clear.

Our governors, like the officials in Europe, like the Vichy government and the Nazis, and all the cruel oppressors throughout history, must be resisted nonviolently. Like André Trocmé and Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, we must make our communities havens for those fleeing violence and death. We must open our hearts and homes to provide sanctuary to our fellow human beings, even going to great risks to assure that our common humanity is not destroyed by the bigotry and hatred of the times. Refugees are seeking refuge... and all philosophies, faiths, and spiritualties call upon us to offer such sanctuary in the midst of the storms of violence and war.

Resisting modern-day Hitlers and Nazis — from ISIS to Trump — requires opening our hearts to those being persecuted by the politics of hatred. In our times, this means Muslims, refugees, immigrants, homeless, the poor and a great many more.

Like Trocmé and the villagers, we find ourselves in times of crisis, being required to do extraordinary acts in the midst of our ordinary human lives. Like Trocmé, we each have this capacity within us, a seed of compassion just waiting to unfurl.

“Look hard for ways to make little moves against destructiveness.” — André Trocmé Author/Activist Rivera Sun, syndicated

by PeaceVoice, is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, and other books, She is a trainer and social media coordinator for Campaign Nonviolence.

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

Boulder Weekly

letters

Correction: In our recent article, “In the name of freedom,” Dec. 24, Cana Projects was named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the Checkerboard Roundup.

Cana Projects is not a party to this lawsuit.

The article also inferred that Cana Projects was involved with the rescue of the horses featured in the article. It was not. Cana Projects was only involved with the publication of the book, Galloping to Freedom. Our apologies for any inconvenience.

TPP will weaken food safety

Many of us are rightly concerned about the safety of food that arrives from foreign countries. Inspection of imported food is already weak. The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) would weaken food inspection even more, putting our health at risk.

The TPP contains new language that would allow challenges to U.S. border inspection procedures. Do we want foreign companies reviewing and challenging the U.S. regulatory process?

Risk assessment would also be weaker under TPP, favoring trade over food safety.

And even worse, the TPP would encourage the use of private certification of food safety, either third-party certification or possibly self-certification, rather than independent government oversight. Private certification provides financial incentive to certify the food as safe. Several U.S. food safety outbreaks have occurred at facilities that received private certifications. The companies behind the 2009 peanut butter salmonella outbreak, the 2010 egg salmonella outbreak, and the 2011 cantaloupe listeria outbreak all received outstanding ratings from their thirdparty certifier.

Who do YOU want certifying the safety of your food?

The TPP can only be voted up or down; no changes are allowed. Please contact Rep. Jared Polis (303-4849596) and Sen. Michael Bennet (303455-7600), urging them to vote no on the TPP. Nancy Sullo/Boulder

Crisis Center move

I want to thank Boulder Weekly for letting our community know about the proposed move of the Crisis Center by Mental Health Center Partners to Airport and Valmont Road. I don’t think the community is aware of the impact that this will have on a very fragile and vulnerable population.

Located for many years along the Broadway corridor with excellent bus service, it is easily accessible from the Homeless Shelter, Bridge House, Warner House and the downtown bus center. I was not convinced by Ann Boulder Weekly

Noonan’s arguments that the integrated services will make up for the scarcity and difficulty of public transportation — for if you cannot access the services, how can they benefit you? I find it very disheartening that it will triple the distance for clients from the downtown bus station.

It seems to me they are making this move before they have adequately addressed this critical issue.

Ellen Stark, former Emergency Psychiatric Service worker/Boulder

Register Dem for Bernie

To help Bernie Sanders win the Democratic Party nomination, Colorado residents must be registered Democrat by January 1. Colorado has a closed caucus system — not a primary election. You must be registered Democrat by January 1 to participate in your local caucus on March 1.

You can register or change your registration details such as party affiliation and address atgovotecolorado.com.

If you have a Colorado driver’s license, you can do this online in about a minute. If you do NOT have a Colorado ID, you can download a form to fill out and submit to your County Clerk.

Additionally, by January 28, the address on your voter registration must be in the precinct of your local caucus.

If you support Bernie, but dislike the Democratic Party, you can change your registration again on March 2.

Feel the Bern!

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news

Courtesy of Jordan MacTaggart

BORN DEAD Denver resident Jordan MacTaggart (far right) poses with members of his Tabor (unit) in Syria. MacTaggart is a volunteer fighting with Kurdish forces (YPG) in Syria against ISIS.

FROM THE BOREDOM OF DENVER, TO THE SHEER TERROR OF SYRIA

BY NICOLE MCNULTY

A

lone and bleeding, Jordan MacTaggart could do little but listen to the bullets whizzing over his head or bouncing off the small pile of rocks that made up his inadequate hiding place. He tightened the tourniquet around his bloody, right upper thigh and waited, maybe for help, maybe for the end. He didn’t know how badly he was injured. He only knew that the Islamic State fighters in front of him weren’t likely to stop shooting.

As the minutes passed, MacTaggart tried to move his leg but was overwhelmed with pain. Then he saw them; two trucks, two motorcycles and an armored personnel carrier (APC) making rounds to extract his fellow YPG fighters. But to his dismay, they pulled back without him, forcing him to spend the rest of the day and a maddening night alone in the middle of the battlefield.

“I waited there because I was waiting for something to happen,” MacTaggart says. “I was waiting for them to pick me up or die, I guess.”

As darkness blanketed the Syrian desert, his mind began to race. The young man from Denver contemplated the worst-case scenarios, like being blown to bits by an airstrike or being taken hostage and beheaded. He knew if he tried to crawl back to his lines he would most likely be killed by his own fighters, mistaking him for an ISIS infiltrator. Matter of fact, if either side saw his silhouette slinking across the ground, they would assume he was the enemy and open fire. And so he lay there, still as he could, certain that death was imminent, Boulder Weekly

so much so that he made what he now calls his “death recording.” Believing he would never see the morning, MacTaggart pulled his phone from his pant’s pocket, shoved it in the dirt in front of his face and hit record.

“If I’m about to die, I just want to say… I don’t know,” the recording begins. “If this is it, I don’t regret it. I did what I had to do. I believe in this… Don’t let it be in vain… It’s probably past 8 o’clock… One moment at a time. Don’t let the revolution die.”

The desperation is palpable in the 21-year-old’s voice as he expresses his love for his family, especially his mother, and his fellow fighters in the four-minute-long video of words in blackness. MacTaggart says he felt he had to say everything because he was sure that his time had come. He was wrong.

As night gave way to dawn, he decided to end his waiting game. He began crawling backwards feet first, not wanting to turn his attention away from the Islamic State group’s position. As he inched along, dragging his rifle, a water tower came into view, which put the wounded man on high alert. Being the tallest structures in Syria, water towers are a sniper’s dream and a terrifying prospect when you’re flat on your stomach in the middle of an active fire zone. His mind told him to stand up and run but when he tried he collapsed. But grabbing on to the determination that only appears when death shows itself, he managed to regain his feet and put together a disjointed hop and skip motion until his fellow YPG fighters finally saw him. At that point, they ran out, grabbed him by his arms and pulled him back to the relative safety of his own front lines.

They told him that when they first realized he was missing (the day before), they just assumed he had been evacuated to the hospital. They were astonished when he emerged from the desert, bloody and haggard.

One of the first people MacTaggart saw upon his return was the female commander who laid down fire for him as he ran the previous day. He was shocked, believing she had been killed in the earlier fighting.

Overwhelmed, he hugged her, which under normal circumstances is forbidden. MacTaggart’s initial elation of having survived, faded somewhere along the painfully bumpy, three-hour route to a civilian hospital friendly to the YPG. They were just the latest three hours of what had been a long and bumpy journey spanning years.

A Colorado native, MacTaggart was born in Alamosa and went to high school in Castle Rock. The youngest of two children, he describes his parents as typical open-minded Americans. His father is more Republican and his mother a Democrat, but they raised him apolitically. Growing up, MacTaggart says he was “pretty radical left,” but never felt the urge to come home and tell his parents that the system needed to be overthrown. An atheist, he and his parents, whom are both Christian, don’t discuss religion. This more or less average upbringing begs the question: how does a person born in the middle of the United States, with no ethnic or geographical relation to Syria, the Kurds or the YPG, end up fighting against the Islamic State some 7,000 miles from home? It’s a good question, but one even MacTaggart seems hard-pressed to answer.

It’s not as if he’s always been intrigued with war.

“When I was a little kid, I thought I wanted to hold large snakes, that’s all I thought,” MacTaggart says.

“And then when I got older… I was like, ‘I just want to be so far Left.’”

As a teenager, MacTaggart had a 14-inch mohawk and wore combat boots and a bandana tied around his neck almost daily. Though it was known by his friends who also attended Daniel C. Oakes High School — an See BORN DEAD Page 12

December 31, 2015 11

news BORN DEAD from Page 11 Nicole McNulty

alternative school in Castle Rock — that MacTaggart had leftist tendencies, no one thought he would ever enter the military or anything close to it.

After dropping out of school, receiving his GED and working construction jobs, MacTaggart felt unfulfilled in his life.

“Every other day I woke up and I had to go to work, but it wasn’t a purpose. I woke up and didn’t want to get out of bed,” MacTaggart says. “[In Syria] I woke up and was like, ‘I can’t wait to be bored and suffer because at least I’m doing something.’ Even though it was as bad as it was, it felt right. I liked it. I love being out there. It’s such a break from all this.”

War, to MacTaggart, is preferable to the “hum drum life” he lives when home in Colorado, a life that he says, “drags on and hurts so much.” There are permanent reminders on his body of his displeasure with the mundanity of civilian life, the first being the scars on his hands.

Two white ‘X’s dominate the space on the backs of his hands and are related to the straight edge subculture within the punk movement. Typically, a person tattoos large black ‘X’s on the back of his or her hands to tell others he or she doesn’t do drugs, because straight edge people perceive mind-altering substances as destructive.

In high school, MacTaggart cut the uninked Xs into his hands instead, a

MacTaggart in Denver with a few of his war-time souvenirs that made his return through U.S. Customs understandably more difficult.

choice stemming from his prior drug use, a period which he describes as “insanity.” But drugs don’t explain his decision to fight in Syria. He says he was clean when he decided to fight along side the YPG against the Islamic State.

Self-harm scars also ascend each of MacTaggart’s arms. Making his hands even more notable, he has a letter tattooed on each of his knuckles, which together spell, “Born Dead,” his chosen mantra.

“When it comes down to it, even if you believe you have purpose and meaning in your life, when I really think about it, everyone here is just born to die,” MacTaggart says. “You can say what the purpose of life is but we’re just another living organism and the point of living organisms is to live, survive, reproduce and die. So, your purpose is you were born to die, or, like I say, ‘Born Dead.’”

It’s a mentality that likely helps MacTaggart cope with conflict, violence and perhaps death. But even in Syria, it couldn’t help him escape his greatest nemesis: boredom. The Syrian version was just more tolerable, he says, because it was punctuated by terror.

“Eight times out of 10 [in Syria] you were just bored and filthy and disgusting and sick and then … just sheer terror,”

he explains. “And then the terror ends and you’re like, ‘Thank God,’ and then you’re bored again and you’re like, ‘Why can’t I be terrified? Someone shoot at me.’”

It’s a hard mentality to comprehend, but one that most soldiers who have been in combat unfortunately understand all too well.

When he first started thinking about the conflict last year, MacTaggart researched the YPG and found they shared many of his values and beliefs. As a result, he had no issue in joining their fight. He saw traveling to Syria to help them in their struggle against the Islamic State as something productive he could do with his life.

“I’ve always wanted to do something and this felt like something I could do for once. When I found out they were taking foreign volunteers,” MacTaggart says, “I looked into it and saved up the money and went on my way about it.”

He informed his parents of his plans the day before he left the country, a bad decision in hindsight, he says, because they didn’t have much time to process it.

At first they were skeptical, but eventually they came to support his decision.

“They know who I am and my parents believe in me and trust me with my

An abbreviated Syrian primer IT took a few thousand years to create the current political mess that is the Middle East and it would take a few thousand articles to explain it. That said, here’s a quick lay-of-theland primer.

YPG: The Kurdish People’s Protection Units • Includes a couple thousand fighters and is the armed force of Rojava.

• They, along with the YPJ, fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.

YPJ: The Women’s Defense Units • The female force of Rojava which plays an equally significant role in the conflict.

• Men and women often fight in a mixed Tabor.

Tabor: Pronounced Tab-oor, it’s the Kurdish word for unit.

Rojava: Pronounced Ro-jav-a • A region in northern Syria which was declared

12 December 31, 2015

autonomous by the Kurds during the Syrian uprising in November 2013.

• It consists of three cantons (states) that the Kurds want to unite to build a liberal society bringing Kurds, Arabs, Assyrians, Christians and Muslims into one democratic government.

Kurds/The Kurdish people: • One of the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world, numbering 25-30 million people.

• Most are Sunni Muslim but some practice Sufism, a mystical form of Islam.

• But, MacTaggart says he never saw a Kurd pray. Most Kurds who are involved with the YPG or PKK, because of the groups’ communist origins, are irreligious, Atheist or non-devout Muslims.

• In general, Kurdistan is a non-governmental region but two countries recognize parts of Kurdistan.

• Iran recognizes the province of Kordestan and Iraq recognizes an area in the north of the country called the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) or Iraqi Kurdistan.

• Iraqi Kurdistan is also recognized on the world stage, albeit still not a nation-state.

PKK: the Kurdish Worker’s Party • The group began as a communist rebellion and an attempt to increase cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey during the 1970s.

• Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life sentence in a Turkish prison, leads the group and coined the term ‘democratic confederalism,’ their ideology.

• They have adapted their politics to modern times and are no longer communist.

• But, they are still classified as a terrorist group by the U.S., the EU and Turkey.

• On the other hand, NATO, Egypt, India, Russia and Switzerland have not listed them as a terrorist group.

• This shows the complications of global politics, exasperated because the Kurds have always been allies of the U.S., but the U.S. also relies on Turkey, who denies Kurds the right to exist in their own state.

intentions, so they were supportive,” MacTaggart says, “but, worried, as any decent parents would be.”

MacTaggart, whose Syrian name is Cîwan Firat, first traveled to Syria in April of this year and returned to Colorado in October.

Flying to Iraq was his first venture out of the U.S., and he got his passport just prior to making the trip. His initial reaction upon landing in Iraq was one of culture shock.

But he had little time to worry about such matters as he was quickly whisked away by the YPG, who placed him in a safe house before moving him to a PKK mountain camp where he would remain for two weeks.

At that point, according to MacTaggart, the Kurds used the two weeks to evaluate and educate him and the other foreign volunteers because most of the newcomers arrived with no knowledge of the Kurd’s history, culture or goals. Most were even unaware that the Kurds are one of the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world.

After leaving the mountain camp, MacTaggert’s journey into Syria began.

First, he and the other volunteers used the cover of night to sneak into fields alongside the Tigris River where they waited for a small pontoon boat to take them across. “[The boat crossing] is probably the worst part [of the journey] because you can’t do anything. If you’re in a field you can run,” MacTaggart recalls. “Who See BORN DEAD Page 14

ment based not on religious lines but rather an allinclusive government comprised of all the different groups in a region.

Daesh: A term ISIS considers derogatory; used by Kurds and others.

• It’s the English acronym once the Islamic State group’s full Arabic name is transliterated.

• Arabic: al-Dawa al-Islamiya fi Iraq wa al Sham (translated: The Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham).

• The Arabic name results in DAIISH, spelled in English as ‘Daesh.’

• It sounds like the Arabic word ‘dashes,’ which The Guardian translates as, “one who sows discord.”

• The group hates this connotation and banned the word in the territory it controls.

• By calling them Daesh, Kurds refuse to validate claims that the group is a real government and denies its equation with all of Islam.

The Peshmerga: • The official military of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq.

• Includes 100,000 fighters, male and female, and is recognized on the world stage.

• They fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq.

Democratic confederalism: Implies a govern-

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knows if any of the stofighters decided to go ries are true but people ahead of the rest of their are always saying maybe group to investigate a the Peshmerga will burned-out vehicle on the shoot at you for crossing road directly in front of the the river because they village they had been don’t know who you are. ordered into. They had They just see some boat heard a rumor and believed crossing the river in that other YPG forces were pitch black.” already inside the village.

Once across the And a rumor it was. river, MacTaggart and “I just wanted to see the others hiked for five MacTaggart says his most terrifying time in Syria came when his Tabor what was in the burnedmore hours in the dark, was ambushed at this Islamic State group school. out car because I wanted to arriving at a small comgo see the dead guys, mand post on the Syrian which I thought were hang out in some lonely abandoned vilborder. It was at this point that the Daesh (a term used by YPG forces to lage with these guys and you cook your Coloradan first saw the small, waving food on some gas burner or an open fire,” refer to the Islamic State group; ISIS YPG flag that he would soon be fighting MacTaggart says. “They’re actually really, considers the term derogatory),” under and potentially dying for. A short really welcoming. It’s weird. I didn’t think MacTaggart says. “I’m not just like, time later, MacTaggert and the other ‘Yeah, let’s go fucking see dead people,’ I you would be able to communicate as volunteers were loaded in a van and thought they were Daesh. I’m not afraid well… [but] they want to talk to you.” taken to a place aptly referred to as to admit, I love seeing dead Daesh. It Despite the language barrier, “Purgatory” by the YPG volunteers. It is MacTaggart says he was still able to con- makes me feel good inside.” a windy hill seemingly in the middle of The car, which did not seem that far verse and even joke with the Kurdish nowhere where volunteers do little more fighters. One ongoing witticism from his off when they started walking, ended up than exist in limbo. being more than 1,000 meters away. time in Syria revolves around his earMacTaggart says he was thankful he MacTaggart and his friends, rifles on rings, more specifically his gauges. In was only in Purgatory for one day before their shoulders, strolled toward the car Kurdish culture, it’s not acceptable for being sent to the Academy in Rojava, men to have earrings, so Kurdish fighters down the middle of the paved road, which is where the YPG conducts its which had ditches on both sides. When call MacTaggart “Jin,” Kurdish for version of basic training. At the they got to the vehicle, he saw it was a “woman.” truck that had most likely been hit by a Academy, seasoned YPG fighters teach “Everyone knows me as that fucking new volunteers how to operate Russian American with the girl earrings,” he says. heavy machine gun, causing the cab to burn. Inside the cab he found the weapons systems while providing Despite the wide cultural gulf that Kurdish language courses and a basic ori- exists between Colorado and the Kurdish remains of two people burnt to a crisp, but miraculously, a mob of sheep in the entation to the region where they will regions of Syria, MacTaggart claims he back of the truck had survived the carlikely be fighting. wasn’t really surprised by anything he nage.

It was during his time at the encountered. He admits he generally After a few minutes exploring the Academy that MacTaggart first learned enters new situations with low expectamacabre, one of the men with how to operate fully automatic weapons tions. His biggest surprise was to find MacTaggart asked for his hatchet so he and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) that “the YPG [does] more of the asscould break the lock keeping the sheep launchers, skills hard to come by in the kicking than getting their asses kicked.” trapped in the charred vehicle. He raised suburbs of Denver. At the end of his This is largely due to the airstrikes, the hatchet, but before he could swing, training, MacTaggart was assigned to a MacTaggart says, without which the gunshots shattered the air, and the hatchTabor and issued two uniforms, a rifle, a YPG would be in quite a different posiet hit the ground. The first 10 shots or so chest rig and a pair of shoes... tennis tion. Partly because of the air support, shoes.

MacTaggart’s Tabor was more often than went directly into the car where they whizzed and bounced around against the “They have a room full of boxes of not on the offensive, their primary mistwisted metal while the men scrambled Adidas shoes. It’s literally the YPG sion being to connect the three cantons to crouch behind the engine block. shoe,” MacTaggart says. “It’s funny (states) of Rojava.

“We just keep hearing these shots hit because PKK also has a brand of shoe.

MacTaggart says that while he was in the truck and whip over our heads and You can tell who’s YPG and who’s PKK Syria, the Islamic State fighters were, for impact the asphalt of the street,” by their shoes.” the most part, just trying to hold their Once he was deployed, however, he lines in the region, unless the YPG fight- MacTaggart says. “My first thing was, ‘Let’s get down in that ditch and crawl didn’t wear his tennis shoes for long. A ers got careless. He says that every time the fuck out of here. Even if we get shot, Kurdish fighter gave him a pair of boots his Tabor was attacked, it was when they that’s the only place we have to go! Or he’d taken from the body of a dead were being nonchalant and let their we can sit here and wait for them to Islamic State fighter. It was a kind gesguard down. This was true the first day RPG this thing.’” ture that stuck with MacTaggart. He has he came under fire, a day he admits he MacTaggart and his friends crawled gone to great lengths to hang on to those disobeyed orders and did something into the ditch amid heavy fire, never boots even though they are slowly falling pretty stupid. bothering to shoot back. apart. For him, they are a reminder of his It was a typical day a couple months “Once I was running away, I didn’t time in Syria where he says he felt like he into his time in Syria — typical as in the was a part of the YPG, and never like an sky was cloudless and the air was perme- want to stick my head up above this berm and be like, ‘I’m over here! Come outsider, from the moment he arrived. ated by the stench of a country wherein “There’s no choice but to be a part of everything is breaking down and decayit because you’re just with them. You ing. MacTaggart and three other foreign See BORN DEAD Page 16 Boulder Weekly

BORN DEAD from Page 12

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Jordan MacTaggart

Do nate yo u r old vehicle to

Morning & Afternoon Sound Alternative

Old Grass Gnu Grass

Eclipse Blues Legacy

Reggae

Bloodlines

Terra Sonic

Call * F ree p i c kup *Tax receipt given (844)KGNU-CAR *Running or not (844)546-8227 or visit *Bennefits KGNU kgnu.org

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(On Broadway next to Proto’s Pizza)

303.539.9334 4660 N. Broadway

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knows if any of the stofighters decided to go ries are true but people ahead of the rest of their are always saying maybe group to investigate a the Peshmerga will burned-out vehicle on the shoot at you for crossing road directly in front of the the river because they village they had been don’t know who you are. ordered into. They had They just see some boat heard a rumor and believed crossing the river in that other YPG forces were pitch black.” already inside the village.

Once across the And a rumor it was. river, MacTaggart and “I just wanted to see the others hiked for five MacTaggart says his most terrifying time in Syria came when his Tabor what was in the burnedmore hours in the dark, was ambushed at this Islamic State group school. out car because I wanted to arriving at a small comgo see the dead guys, mand post on the Syrian which I thought were hang out in some lonely abandoned vilborder. It was at this point that the Daesh (a term used by YPG forces to lage with these guys and you cook your Coloradan first saw the small, waving food on some gas burner or an open fire,” refer to the Islamic State group; ISIS YPG flag that he would soon be fighting MacTaggart says. “They’re actually really, considers the term derogatory),” under and potentially dying for. A short really welcoming. It’s weird. I didn’t think MacTaggart says. “I’m not just like, time later, MacTaggert and the other ‘Yeah, let’s go fucking see dead people,’ I you would be able to communicate as volunteers were loaded in a van and thought they were Daesh. I’m not afraid well… [but] they want to talk to you.” taken to a place aptly referred to as to admit, I love seeing dead Daesh. It Despite the language barrier, “Purgatory” by the YPG volunteers. It is MacTaggart says he was still able to con- makes me feel good inside.” a windy hill seemingly in the middle of The car, which did not seem that far verse and even joke with the Kurdish nowhere where volunteers do little more fighters. One ongoing witticism from his off when they started walking, ended up than exist in limbo. being more than 1,000 meters away. time in Syria revolves around his earMacTaggart says he was thankful he MacTaggart and his friends, rifles on rings, more specifically his gauges. In was only in Purgatory for one day before their shoulders, strolled toward the car Kurdish culture, it’s not acceptable for being sent to the Academy in Rojava, men to have earrings, so Kurdish fighters down the middle of the paved road, which is where the YPG conducts its which had ditches on both sides. When call MacTaggart “Jin,” Kurdish for version of basic training. At the they got to the vehicle, he saw it was a “woman.” truck that had most likely been hit by a Academy, seasoned YPG fighters teach “Everyone knows me as that fucking new volunteers how to operate Russian American with the girl earrings,” he says. heavy machine gun, causing the cab to burn. Inside the cab he found the weapons systems while providing Despite the wide cultural gulf that Kurdish language courses and a basic ori- exists between Colorado and the Kurdish remains of two people burnt to a crisp, but miraculously, a mob of sheep in the entation to the region where they will regions of Syria, MacTaggart claims he back of the truck had survived the carlikely be fighting. wasn’t really surprised by anything he nage.

It was during his time at the encountered. He admits he generally After a few minutes exploring the Academy that MacTaggart first learned enters new situations with low expectamacabre, one of the men with how to operate fully automatic weapons tions. His biggest surprise was to find MacTaggart asked for his hatchet so he and rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) that “the YPG [does] more of the asscould break the lock keeping the sheep launchers, skills hard to come by in the kicking than getting their asses kicked.” trapped in the charred vehicle. He raised suburbs of Denver. At the end of his This is largely due to the airstrikes, the hatchet, but before he could swing, training, MacTaggart was assigned to a MacTaggart says, without which the gunshots shattered the air, and the hatchTabor and issued two uniforms, a rifle, a YPG would be in quite a different posiet hit the ground. The first 10 shots or so chest rig and a pair of shoes... tennis tion. Partly because of the air support, shoes.

MacTaggart’s Tabor was more often than went directly into the car where they whizzed and bounced around against the “They have a room full of boxes of not on the offensive, their primary mistwisted metal while the men scrambled Adidas shoes. It’s literally the YPG sion being to connect the three cantons to crouch behind the engine block. shoe,” MacTaggart says. “It’s funny (states) of Rojava.

“We just keep hearing these shots hit because PKK also has a brand of shoe.

MacTaggart says that while he was in the truck and whip over our heads and You can tell who’s YPG and who’s PKK Syria, the Islamic State fighters were, for impact the asphalt of the street,” by their shoes.” the most part, just trying to hold their Once he was deployed, however, he lines in the region, unless the YPG fight- MacTaggart says. “My first thing was, ‘Let’s get down in that ditch and crawl didn’t wear his tennis shoes for long. A ers got careless. He says that every time the fuck out of here. Even if we get shot, Kurdish fighter gave him a pair of boots his Tabor was attacked, it was when they that’s the only place we have to go! Or he’d taken from the body of a dead were being nonchalant and let their we can sit here and wait for them to Islamic State fighter. It was a kind gesguard down. This was true the first day RPG this thing.’” ture that stuck with MacTaggart. He has he came under fire, a day he admits he MacTaggart and his friends crawled gone to great lengths to hang on to those disobeyed orders and did something into the ditch amid heavy fire, never boots even though they are slowly falling pretty stupid. bothering to shoot back. apart. For him, they are a reminder of his It was a typical day a couple months “Once I was running away, I didn’t time in Syria where he says he felt like he into his time in Syria — typical as in the was a part of the YPG, and never like an sky was cloudless and the air was perme- want to stick my head up above this berm and be like, ‘I’m over here! Come outsider, from the moment he arrived. ated by the stench of a country wherein “There’s no choice but to be a part of everything is breaking down and decayit because you’re just with them. You ing. MacTaggart and three other foreign See BORN DEAD Page 16 Boulder Weekly

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MacTaggart (far right) plans on returning to the fighting in Syria within the next few weeks.

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shoot me,’” he recalls.

Eventually, the YPG sent an APC to pick them up. The Kurdish fighters were irate. MacTaggart says the other men made up excuses to defend themselves, but he wasn’t going to lie. He says he just apologized for making a dumb decision.

This was one of approximately seven shooting confrontations MacTaggart experienced between his Tabor and Islamic State fighters during his first sixmonth stint in Syria.

While the burned-out truck was the first time MacTaggart came under fire, it was not his most terrifying experience.

Nor was it the previously described day and night he spent alone and wounded hiding behind the pile of rocks in the middle of a battlefield. MacTaggart says that at least when he was wounded behind the rocks, he had a sense of what was happening.

For MacTaggart, his most difficult and frightening experience came when his Tabor was ambushed at an Islamic State school. At the time of the ambush, his Tabor was the only one in the region.

He had spent the night on the roof of a two-story building that had previously housed the school. Many of his fellow fighters were still asleep when the first sounds of bullets ripping through the calm morning air jolted everyone awake.

Suddenly, everyone was shouting and rushing around. It was utter confusion.

Once he got downstairs, his commanders split up the Tabor. His closest friends were sent to the front of the village while he was relegated to the back, having recently been wounded. They were trying to set a perimeter, he recalls, because they had no idea where the Islamic State fighters were.

Eventually, MacTaggart found himself standing under a cluster of trees, a few buildings behind the school. Leaves started falling from the branches above his head as the gunfire became more intense. Thankfully, he wasn’t alone. He had been placed with a Kurdish group leader, otherwise, he says, he “probably would have freaked out more.” He remembers his group leader shouting as

he unloaded his entire magazine while urging MacTaggart to do the same. But then things took a turn for the worse.

His group leader appeared exasperated, and suddenly sprinted away to deal with other members of the unit. MacTaggart could hear them shouting but because it was all in Kurdish he had no clue what was happening. He was alone and confused.

Little did he know, this was only the beginning of a 36-hour firefight, the longest exchange of gunfire MacTaggart has ever experienced. Isolated and detached, he took fire by himself for two hours that seemed like two days. He didn’t fire back because he knew his own men were somewhere in front of him, but wasn’t sure exactly where. This was the only time he says he ever felt completely overwhelmed.

“In that moment, I was actually almost ashamed of myself, how nervous and scared I was,” he says. “But, for whatever reason, I didn’t hyperventilate, I didn’t breakdown. My only option was to fight. That’s all I had to do.”

His group leader eventually returned and MacTaggart was able to calm back down. A short time later, another YPG Tabor of 20 people came to their assistance and he knew they had a chance of surviving, which they ultimately did.

But surviving doesn’t mean that the scars from having done so don’t run deep.

As horrible as it can sound, the dehumanizing of the enemy is a basic and even necessary mental survival skill for those who find themselves in a war zone where the unthinkable must be transformed into the ordinary in order to cope. MacTaggart admits he was mildly taken back when he saw his first corpse, but he says he still harbored no sympathy because he knew it was an Islamic State fighter. So he took pictures of the body, which was mangled and burned to the point it was hard to tell what it was, let alone who.

“After that, oh it’s a fucking treasure hunt. You’re looking for them,” MacTaggart says. “You’re just like [sniffing sound].”

The 21-year-old from Denver says he Boulder Weekly

doesn’t know if he personally killed any Islamic State fighters. He knows that some members of his Tabor certainly did, and many more were killed by allied airstrikes. He says that most of his exposure to the grotesque scenes of war came after nearby bombings when his Tabor would go in to investigate the carnage. He says the airstrikes resulted in incredibly gory scenes, many of which he documented with his phone’s camera.

“I look at these pictures, and as long as I know it’s Daesh, I’m so desensitized to it,” he says while thumbing through the photos on his phone that has a sticker on the back reading “Fuck ISIS.” “It’s like, I would even care more about animals. If I saw a picture of a cow blown up, [I would say], ‘Oh, Christ. What the fuck’s wrong with you?’ But I look at these and it’s like, ‘Just some dead guys.’”

For most of us, we only view airstrikes from the distant perspective of the plane or drone that fired the missile.

Such a sanitized view makes it easy to forget what targeted airstrikes actually do to human beings. MacTaggart’s pictures, most too graphic to publish, are a reminder of the horrors of war which are the instrument that inflicts the mental wounds on all who experience them to one degree or another.

The constant stress brought on by harsh conditions during war is another factor that takes its toll even when no one is shooting at you. At night, YPG fighters sleep under any conditions they can. If they’re lucky, they have a blanket and occasionally a pillow. Every now and then, they come across an abandoned house with mattress pads that can be dragged to the roof to sleep on.

At other times, recalls MacTaggart, they just slept in fields with nothing.

“It’s just dirt and rocks. It’s nothing, there’s nothing out there. I would call it a desert but it’s not sandy, just dirty. It just feels of nothing,” MacTaggart says. “The one thing that grows out there is weeds.

It’s all hell.”

He goes on to describe how vacant villages are overrun by wild dogs and cats. The dogs remain in their packs and are skittish for the most part, he says.

The feral cats are worse. They just run around peeing on everyone’s belongings and knocking things over.

Food can be similarly disappointing.

The fighters were generally fed only rice, beans and potatoes, the staples of Kurdish cuisine but nothing to write home about when it’s served up day after day after day.

It all takes its toll.

MacTaggart decided to return home to Colorado in October to deal with some personal issues. His entrance back into the States through Customs was understandably challenging. He was traveling with an Islamic State flag he had found, a headband bearing the same Boulder Weekly

insignia as the flag and a bayonet from a Kalashnikov with remnants of blood and guts on it. MacTaggart actually had the headband in his pocket when he was wounded so it was, of course, soaked in blood. The headband reads, “There is no god but Allah. Mohammad is the messenger of Allah.”

Though he’s working and living in Colorado for now, MacTaggart intends to return to Syria on Jan. 10, 2016 to rejoin the fight. He is slightly bitter about the fact that after he left Syria, his rifle, which he carved the words ‘hate’ and ‘abandon’ into, ended up in the hands of

the Peshmerga, though it’s not the Peshmerga’s fault. YPG forces most likely gave them the rifle.

On his return, he’ll be able to bypass all of the orientation steps he had to take the first time. He says he can’t wait to get there because the normalcy and repetitiveness of civilian life here at home still wears on him and he prefers war to commuting and working a traditional job.

“I could live like that (war) forever,” MacTaggart says. “If you provide me housing, food and water and all I have to do is not get shot and kill those guys, I’ll do that for the rest of my life. I’m totally

January

Our locations will close New Year’s Eve at 6pm.

We will be closed all day on New Year’s Day.

OK with this. It’s so much better. I’ll shit in a hole and throw up on myself.”

For most people, one night of laying behind a pile of rocks, wounded and taking gun fire in the middle of a field would have been enough, but for Jordan MacTaggart, the thought of a mundane life in Denver is more frightening than death.

“This time when I go back, I don’t know how long I’ll be there,” he says.

“Like, six months was nothing. I could be there for years. I don’t give a shit.”

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boulderganic

S

Colorado Department of Transportation

ki Country U.S.A.” is in a tight spot. While ski resorts across the country market themselves as “environmentally friendly,” many know that business will be hurt even if they achieve 100 percent carbon neutrality — knowledge that brings a big question: how can an industry heavily dependent on both fossil fuels and long, snow-heavy seasons combat the inevitable toll taken by a warming climate?

As an industry intimately connected with the ecological future of the Rockies, Colorado ski resorts know what they can expect with a warming climate: shorter seasons and mere memories of powder days decades down the road.

While lost snowpack has created disappointing ski seasons in recent years in the East and West, Colorado skiing remains largely untouched by anthropogenic climate change — for now.

“In the southern Rockies where we live here in Colorado, [decline in snowpack] is not as dramatic as it is other parts of the Western U.S.,” says Noah Molotch, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. “The primary reason for that is that we are at higher elevation with colder air temperatures… [and] a relative insensitivity to the climate in the amount of snow that we get.”

This isn’t to say that Colorado is immune to the ravages of a changing climate. Molotch notes that climate change is something Colorado has already been experiencing, pointing to studies like those by researchers at the University of Maryland that document a general decrease in Colorado snowpack over the last 50 years. The same study estimates snowpack decreases of at least 50 percent for Grand, Summit and Eagle counties, and a whopping 82 percent loss in snowpack for San Miguel County by 2085. These four counties include some of Colorado’s biggest ski destinations, including Winter Park, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Vail, Beaver Creek and Telluride.

Though the impacts of climate change won’t pose an existential threat to the ski industry in the next couple decades, Molotch says, the days of deep powder snow and seasons stretching from November to April or May could be numbered.

“In the near term, impacts to the ski industry in

The ski industry is both bound to and burdened by the fossil fuel industry.

Are the days of Colorado skiing numbered?

In the wake of COP21, ski industry leaders struggle to protect skiing before it’s too late

by Grant Stringer Colorado have to do with the quality of the snow instead of quantity,” he says. “So things like champagne powder (the smooth, dry snow that typifies Rocky Mountain skiing) may not exist by the middle of the century.”

As Molotch notes, these projections themselves are far from concrete, as well as the economic implications that these small developments will have for the Colorado ski industry — but many resorts, including Aspen-Snowmass, know what to expect.

“As it gets warmer, you’ll see a different business

model. You’ll see a shift to summer-type businesses, like mountain biking, and you might well see resorts that toggle open and closed,” says Auden Schendler, Aspen’s vice president of sustainability. “That’s already happening on the East Coast.”

Schendler, who is known as the ski industry’s “green guy,” has long pushed resorts, brands and skiers alike to think about the big picture. Schendler knows that practices like snowmaking, a water-heavy process used by resorts to keep the season long, won’t solve the problems faced ahead — but they do serve a vital

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letes and brands, Schendler and purpose for resorts in the interim.

Henceroth teamed up with scores of “You can’t snow-make your way out of other resorts to compose a letter of supclimate change, that is true,” Schendler port that was hand delivered to the says. “Snowmaking is not an insert, but it White House. is a short-term stop-gap.”

The letter was an opportunity for Along with snowmaking, many of the many resorts to show that they are ready tools used by resorts to keep business runto attack climate policy — not only ning, such as slope contouring and expanbecause they have a huge stake in presion into higher territory, have come venting warming in the Rockies, but also under criticism for doing more harm than because many feel that it is the right good. Resorts like Arapahoe Basin thing to do.

(A-Basin) have proposed the latter. The “In the picture of the whole world, resort’s “Beaver Expansion” would offer the ski industry’s kind of a small part of more than 400 new acres of skiing. it,” says Henceroth. “We’re in an area “We think [the expansion] provides high in the Colorado Rockies — we’re another great skiing experience and it is gonna be in good shape for a long time. high elevation, so that it would [accumu- Ski resorts, like A-basin, are looking to expand into higher elevations as the climate change takes its toll.

This issue is a lot bigger than A-Basin: late] snow even in a lean snow year,” says it’s an issue for all of us.”

Alan Henceroth, chief operating officer at For now, it appears skiers won’t be A-Basin. seeing major set-backs from a warming climate.

In addition to expanding territory and using tricity used by the resort.

Even in the decades to come, we likely won’t be seesnowmaking technologies, A-Basin is also focusing on For Schendler, however, these initiatives aren’t ing the kinds of winters dreaded by skiers and clidiversifying its business — a crucial component to enough for resorts to be called environmentally mate activists alike: where rocks stick out of the Henceroth, who is known simply as “Al” to A-Basin friendly. That label, for Schendler, would require snow all season and big powder dumps are relegated locals. resorts to not only solve sustainability problems at to memory alone.

“Skiing and snowboarding is still the heart and home, but also become agents of political change.

But Henceroth faces the future with a mixture of soul of what we do, but for a lot of “This is about using the power Wikimedia Commons reasons, one of which is climate of the industry, the voice, the politi- optimism and anxiety. “The challenges are gonna be if change, we’re trying to have our cal leverage, to push for the policies the effects of [climate change] keep warming, and strategy, not just pray for snow,” that will actually solve this probwhat will happen with precipitation — and only time Henceroth says. lem,” he says. Initiatives like the will tell on that,” he says. “I think [skiing]’s gonna New avenues include bolstering submission of an amicus brief in thrive, and I think those challenges will come.” a kid’s program and ski school with Mass. v. EPA, the court case that While it remains to be seen whether resorts will the construction of a new kid’s cenestablished the basis for climate accept the implications of a changing climate for skiter. To Henceroth, this is a smart policy in 2007, mark a history of ing — because the snow will become heavier before bet for a future with fewer powder activism for Schendler. there is simply less of it — it really is up to all of us to days because “first-time skiers don’t COP21 meetings in Paris this save Colorado skiing, according to Henceroth. wait for the big dump.”

December provided a unique “When we’re talking about climate, you can’t just Diversification also took a new opportunity for resorts to come preserve just one little snapshot out of that,” he says. meaning for Aspen-Snowmass in together under the banner of cli“We need to take care of this place — we need to take 2012 with its operation of a power mate protection. Working through care of the Basin, we need to take care of the chalProtect Our Winters (POW), an plant that runs off of captured lenges to come.”

Snowmaking is not a long-term solu- environmental organization commethane released from a nearby In the meantime, it’s business as usual for tion for ski resorts. prised of concerned resorts, athcoal plant and used to offset elecColorado skiing.

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EPA VIOLATES FEDERAL LAW WITH WOTUS SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

According to a ruling by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated publicity, propaganda and anti-lobbying provisions in federal law with a social media campaign for its Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule.

The EPA formally adopted the WOTUS regulation in June 2015, but has since halted implementation of the law due to a U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in October. Several states — including Colorado — and environmental groups have challenged the rule for either being an example of federal overreach or weakening the provisions of the original Clean Water Act of 1972.

But in 2014 and the first half of 2015, the EPA used social media, specifically Thunderclap, which sends out timed messages through Facebook and Twitter, to promote the WOTUS rule. Although in theory the use of social media by a federal agency doesn’t violate propaganda laws, “EPA engaged in covert propaganda when the agency did not identify EPA’s role as the creator of the Thunderclap message to the target audience,” GAO said in its summary of the decision.

Furthermore, the ruling states that the agency participated in “grass-roots lobbying” by linking certain blog posts petitioning people to call on Congress to support the rule.

“Both of the external webpages contained link buttons to contact Congress in support of the proposed rule while several bills were pending that would prevent implementation of the rule,” the ruling states. “In this context, we view the appeals as urging contact in opposition to pending legislation.”

The EPA disputes the GAO’s ruling. “We use social media tools just like all organizations to stay connected and inform people across the country about our activities,” Liz Purchia, an agency spokeswoman, said in a statement reported by the New York Times. “At no point did the EPA encourage the public to contact Congress or any state legislature.”

ARTIFICIAL LIGHT STOPS CORAL REPRODUCTION, STUDY FINDS

Research conducted on the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area recently found that exposure to artificial light may be detrimental to the reproduction cycles of coral. These organisms spawn once a year, during which changes in moonlight intensity trigger the mass release of eggs and sperm. A joint study Wikimedia Commons released by the University of Queensland and the University of Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, tracked corals exposed to natural moonlight, artificial light or complete darkness. The scientists found that the organisms exposed to no light or artificial light did not spawn at all. Furthermore, the study found that coral adjusts to the differences in light exposure at a much faster rate than previously believed.

According to the research, changes in nocturnal light can disrupt the organisms in as quickly as seven days.

“Our results on the effects of light on the timing of spawning are crucial because sexual reproduction is one of the most important processes for the persistence of reefs,” the study concludes.

Although there is minimal light pollution around the Great Barrier Reef, reefs already protected in the Gulf of Aqaba are subject to artificial light from the surrounding coastlines of Jordan and Israel.

20 December 31, 2015

Boulder Weekly

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ADVENTURE Yann Ropars

The wide tires on fat bikes run at a very low pressure allow riders to access squirelly terrain, including snow.

Are our trails as happy as we think?

It’s the way you ride the trail that counts

by Betsy Welch

I

t’s easy to be a nature detective on an early December morning at Brainard Lake. The coiled criss-crosses of Yaktrax and racket-shaped prints of snowshoes mingle with wide ribbons of knobby tread and the divot and drag of ski poles. The post-holes of lumbering elk skirt the trails, and snowshoe hares scamper through it all.

Underfoot, it’s a pretty picture of shared use. But if you ask the trail users if the relationship is as symbiotic as it looks, you might get a different story.

According to Reid Armstrong, community liason at the Boulder Ranger District, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) estimates total winter use (October to June) at the Brainard Lake Recreation Area to be approximately 44,000 visitors. Most of these visitors travel to the trails west of Ward for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and dog walking, although the new popularity of fat bikes has added another user group to the mix.

The gist of a fat bike can be found in its footprint: these bikes accommodate a 4-plus-inch-wide tire that can be run at a very low pressure to provide superior grip in squirrelly terrain. Colorado’s snow-packed trails are proving to be perfect ground for the wide bicycle wheels. As the tracks of myriad users would indicate, everyone is currently sharing the winter trails, just as hikers, bikers and equestrians do in the warmer months. The regulations governing the Boulder Weekly

Brainard Lake Recreation Area reflect the multipleuse philosophy of the USFS and therefore are minimally restrictive to any user group.

“Wilderness area trails do not allow motorized or mechanized use of any kind during any time of the year,” Armstrong says, “and some trails have seasonal closures. Specific to winter fat bike use, only Wilderness trails and two designated “ski-only” trails in the Brainard Lake Area are prohibited to fat biking on the Boulder Ranger District.”

If Ingvar Sodal was alive today, he might chuckle — or scoff — at the “ski only” signs marking the Little Raven and Colorado Mountain Club (CMC) Ski Trails. In the 1960s, when the Norweigan engineer started the Boulder group of the CMC’s crosscountry ski school at Brainard Lake, there were only skis.

Richard Jones of Boulder has been skiing at Brainard since the time when Sodal and fellow CMC members constructed the Waldrop Trail in 1971.

“He (Sodal) scouted and found the old telephone line into the camp at Brainard and used that and parts of the old South St. Vrain pack trail and connected them and that was the first ski trail,” Jones says.

Until about 15 years ago, he says, skiers were the only ones who used the trails built by the CMC. “Then small aluminum snowshoes came along and folks started snowshoeing. I first learned of the fat tire

bikers riding the Waldrop Trail last winter (2014).”

Although the first commercially available fat bike debuted in 2005 (the Surly Pugsley), and Longmontbased REEB Cycles introduced their first fat edition in 2011, there was something in the air last winter that caused heads to turn — or spin, in some cases — toward fat biking on Boulder County trails.

In January 2015, the Daily Camera printed a letter to the editor from a cross-country skier who was disappointed to have his pleasant ski day ruined by the trail conditions left in the wake of some “50-pound bikes mounted with aggressive riders barreling down on them.” Although he didn’t actually encounter the riders on the trail — only “the ski track gouged and rutted by wide-knobby tire traffic” the day after their ride — this writer was particularly miffed by the fact that the perpetrators struck at night.

“Very clever to conceal your activity and identities under cover of dark! Would you have the courage to do the same to the ski track at North Boulder Park?

How would you feel if a fleet of motocross bikes snuck in at night to tear up your beloved Valmont Bike Park?” he taunted.

Although the letter triggered an avalanche of 63 responses online — many of which were thoughtful, well-versed and tended to reflect the spirit of “can’t we see HAPPY TRAILS Page 24

December 31 , 2015 23

ADVENTURE HAPPY TRAILS from Page 23 Yann Ropar

all just get along?” — it may have also been a bellwether of conflict to come.

More recently, someone posted a photo to a Facebook group I belong to of a fat bike tube (picture a deflated version of what people use to tube down Boulder Creek) hanging from a snow-loaded tree on one of the trails near Brainard Lake.

The photo was taken by a Nordic skier and sent to his fat biker friend, who then posted it to our Facebook page. Although everyone in the group is unified by their love of all things mountain bike related, there was still a trace of tension palpable in the comments that followed. It was likely a case of accidental littering — and who knows who hung the sacrificial tube from the tree — fat bikers know they’re being watched, and this sense of scrutiny makes some people want to play nice, while it pisses other people off.

Fat bikers depend on packed trails after fresh snowfall to ride.

“We have fielded a variety of complaints from winter recreation users of all types: skiers, snowshoers and fat bikers,” says Armstrong of the USFS. “Last winter marked the most noticeable uptick in complaints surrounding fat bikes.

Complaints largely involve users feeling a negative impact from other user types on their preferred activity of choice.”

If you snowboard or mountain bike, this story may start to sound familiar: Dave Chase, owner of Lyons’ Redstone Cyclery, isn’t surprised that the presence of fat bikes on local trails has incited a bit of the same “us versus them-ism” that happened when people first started riding fat tires on dirt in the ’80s — because back then, “regular” mountain bike rubber was plenty oversized.

Fat bikes are the newest form of recreation to be found on winter trails.

“Regardless of whether you’re mountain biking or fat biking, bikes are the ing into the trunk with a Survival Pocket Chain Saw, newest “user group” and there are other established which looks just like it sounds. user groups that don’t want to share,” Chase says. “It’s This type of impromptu trail maintenance would exactly like the mountain biker/hiker conflict. It’s the appear to benefit all users, not just bikers. Richard same players. People that don’t wanna share. Is this Jones likens it to the type of work that Boulder conflict avoidable? Absolutely. Is it likely to continue?

CMCers have been doing since the early ’80s.

Yes.” “Every year in the early part of the ski season, • • • • high winds bring down trees across the trails,” he says.

Pinpricks of light and puffs of frozen breath punc- “If various skiers didn’t carry saws and clear the trails, tuate the frozen darkness of a Tuesday night in early the trees would just accumulate. I’ll take my hat off to December. Occasionally someone speaks, but mostly a biker or a snowshoer cutting a tree across the trail.” the sounds are of squeaky snow and heavy breathing.

Downed trees aren’t the only obstacles to easy Until the hooting and hollering begin. travel on winter trails. Unless they’ve got a penchant I’m riding with the group of folks who were likely for sweat and suffering, most trail users appreciate the the cause of the irate Daily Camera letter writer’s tracks of someone who’s gone before them. Riding a failed ski day, and I can’t quite peg them for the irrefat bike is actually quite miserable without a packed sponsible trail-destroyers he thought they were. In trail surface, and skiers recognize the irony in the cofact, just as we’re warming up, getting into the groove dependence this creates. of the ride, we stop abruptly. There’s a tree down, and “If we didn’t ski [and snowshoe] on those trails, a it’s blocking our southerly route on Sourdough Trail. bike couldn’t ride it,” Jones says. “Bikers depend on By the time I wander up to the front of the pack to the trail being packed down — having a solid base. A see what’s going on, two of the guys are already gnaw- biker can’t really move off the trail when meeting a 24 December 31, 2015

skier, or other biker.”

For some skiers, herein lies the conflict.

“As a skier, it is disheartening to spend energy breaking trail and creating a nice ski track only to have it wrecked on the return trip by a traveler on foot, snowshoe or bike,” says Brett Dolenc of Longmont, who’s been skiing the trails around Brainard Lake since he was a young boy.

While fat bikers are the first to admit that they rely on (and appreciate) the tracks of those who’ve gone before them, some are so jazzed to get out and ride that they have taken to packing in their own skis or snowshoes when they’re going to ride after a recent snowstorm.

“When there has been a recent dumping, I take a pack with my snowshoes in it. Trails may or may not be packed yet, so we need to be ready for these unfavorable conditions, and it just makes sense from a trail etiquette perspective,” says Lyons fat biker Doug Mers. “Often times hikers, snowshoers and skiers only get out for 1 to 2 miles.

Fatbiking, I can cover that packed portion of trail pretty quickly, so instead of turning around I’ll throw on my snowshoes and hike a bit further. I’m helping pack the trail and potentially enticing other trail users to go further.”

Tim Moore of REEB Cycles in Longmont says he feels that as fat biking has become more popular, the opportunities to inspire a more educated user base have increased. When he sends someone out the door with a new fat bike, he also tries to set them up for success, which includes having fun and riding responsibly.

“With new riders, we try to make sure they’re going with a group of people who know what they’re doing,” Moore says. “If you go out and your tires aren’t set up right, it’s not as fun. Since fat biking is so fun, it’s easy to say, ‘I should do this no matter what.’ But it’s a condition-specific sport. If you drive up to Brainard and there’s 10 inches of fresh snow, it’s not a good time to ride.”

Although their role isn’t necessarily to tell people when they should or shouldn’t ride bikes, for the past two years, members of the Bryan Mountain Nordic Ski Patrol have been stationed at the Brainard Lake Recreation Area during the winter months to help people make safe and smart decisions about trail use.

Like any ski patroller, the volunteers from Bryan Mountain have an Emergency Medical TechnicianBasic certificate and are available to provide first aid to the public. Fortunately, most of their responses are to people new to the area who aren’t familiar with the trails or their regulations.

“Usually, people want to know where they can take dogs or where they can take bikes. There are lots of Boulder Weekly

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Good trail etiquette and safe riding are universal principals in recreation, and fat biking is no exception.

snowshoers — and when I’m up there it’s evenly divided between skiers, snowshoers, with a few bikers,” says Alan Apt, a patroller with Bryan Mountain and author of Snowshoe Routes, Colorado’s Front Range (CMC Press).

Apt hasn’t witnessed any direct conflicts between trail users at Brainard Lake and says he feels that, as the newest user group, fat bikers are doing a fine job of sharing the trails.

“I think that there are some cross country skiers who are not happy about the fat tire bikers but I think that the bikers, to their credit, are generally 98 percent very courteous, nice people. Just like mountain bikers in general, I think they’ve really made an effort to reduce conflict,” Apt says.

This observation corroborates with the current USFS stance on fat bikes sharing the winter trails at Brainard Lake. While the Boulder Ranger District monitors for areas where safety may be an issue, Armstrong says, there isn’t currently any data that would lead them to make management changes.

“We are encouraging winter mountain bikers to practice good trail etiquette and safe riding. Yielding on snow-covered trails requires additional time, much like driving in winter conditions. Winter recreation users are encouraged to maintain adequate speed and control along stretches of trail with limited visibility and steep grades,” she says.

Good trail etiquette and safe riding are universal principles in recreation.

Success, CMC’s Jones says, depends on the willingness of people to treat one another respectfully.

“I suspect that most skiers are upset by bikers,” he says. “Maybe I would be, too, depending on the encounter. But just as hikers/bikers/horse riders need to learn how to meet and pass, so do skiers, snowshoes and bikers. People need social skills; the behavior of some bikers in town and some drivers, too, show how lacking many are of these skills.”

The banner of logos at the bottom of the winter recreation map at Brainard Lake is a reminder that trail users have more than one special interest group to thank for the maintenance and upkeep of the trails. In addition to the safe-keeping efforts of Bryan Mountain Nordic Ski Patrol and the tireless trail stewardship of the Colorado Mountain Club, folks from the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, the Indian Peaks Wilderness Alliance, the National Forest Foundation and the Wilderness Restoration Volunteers have also contributed toward making the area a safe and beautiful playground for anyone.

While each user group has its own gripes about who does what to the trail, the more important issue — and the one that most agree on — is how we act when we encounter one another in the woods. After all, the only fights that should be occurring out in the winter wonderland are ones waged with snowballs.

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buzz All photos courtesy of Molly Brown

At left: While in Karnataka, Molly Brown poses with a woman from the Indian state of Orissa (the woman’s husband insisted Brown would be more attractive if she looked “more Indian,” thus the bindi). At right: Brown poses with K.Z. Gaikwad at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai.

Gaikwad serves as a nursing assistant, janitor and food service worker combined.

Learning to walk in India Author Molly Brown

tells a different kind of love story in her debut book

by Caitlin Rockett

S

tanding in a bus station in Mumbai, Molly Brown lit a fresh cigarette off the smoldering stub of another — it’s not that the American nurse didn’t know better, it’s just that she didn’t give a damn anymore. Extreme pain will do that.

It was December 2006, around New Year’s Eve. Brown, a Boulder resident, already stood out in India’s largest city as a tall white woman, despite the teal, paisley salwar kameez she’d had tailored just a few weeks earlier specifically not to stand out so much as she traveled through the country. Now, here she was in this bus station — knees swollen to the size and color of ruby red grapefruits, barely able to walk, sweaty from the heat and pain, drained from dealing with dysentery, red-eyed from tears and a steadily clearing infection in both eyes — chain-smoking.

The outfit was no disguise. Brown definitely stood out.

And she had no idea what was happening to her knees.

These are not my sexy 32-year-old knees, Brown thought to herself. But there they were, hot and pulsing, looking completely foreign on her athletic frame.

Just that morning, Brown was sure the stiffness in her knees was from being cramped on a long train ride the day before. The train ride marked the end of see LEARNING TO WALK Page 28

Boulder Weekly

December 31, 2015 27

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Locally Owned & Operated Since 2004 Molly Brown begins the painful process of physical therapy after being stricken with reactive arthritis while embarking on a solo journey through India. She was hospitalized in Mumbai for nearly two weeks.

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Brown’s honeymoon with her husband Dan, and the beginning of a long-dreamedof solo journey through India for Brown.

She kept telling herself that everything would be OK if she could just make it north to Igatpuri where she was planning to take a 10-day Vipassana meditation course — because this was the dream, to travel India alone, meditating, volunteering and experiencing the wonders of the ancient, bustling subcontinent. And now here she was. Alone. In excruciating pain.

Instead of making her way to Igatpuri, Brown stayed in Mumbai and made her way to Breach Candy Hospital where she would stay for the next two weeks, putting four years of Vipassana practice to use as she searched for any comfort or hope beyond the blinding pain, beyond the inability to do much more than move herself to a bedside commode.

Of the many journeys Brown had taken in her life, this one was unique — the nurse became the patient. The healer became the ailing. The journey was more internal, and more solitary, than any before. She was thousands of miles from her family, and it would be days before she could make contact with someone from home, and days more before Dan could fly back to be by her side.

“I knew when I was laying in that hospital bed in India... I absolutely knew I would write a book,” Brown says. “It was so clear to me. I’d always been a writer — traditionally a poet, but I’d never formally written. But I knew I was going to write a book.”

It took Brown nearly eight years, but she finally wrote that book. Learning to Walk in India: A Love Story, published in September 2015, details how Brown negotiates new emotional, physical and cultural terrain after a life-altering illness renders her dependant on those around her, thousands of miles from home.

It took nearly a week, but Brown’s medical team at Breach Candy Hospital finally told her she had Reiter’s Syndrome (more often called reactive arthritis to avoid evoking the name of Hans Conrad Julius Reiter, a German physician convicted of war crimes for his medical experiments at Buchenwald concentration camp). The disease is kicked off by an infection — in Brown’s case, likely food tainted with bacteria, which caused dysentery — and within one to three weeks, causes swelling, heat and pain in large joints, such as the knees or hips.

“There’s sort of a triad of things that happen with the syndrome I developed.

The eye infection was part of it,” Brown says. “But I was set up with that illness.”

Indeed, Brown discovered she has a gene known as HLA-B27 — 94 percent of people who develop reactive arthritis have this gene. Most people are able to recover from the initial flare of symptoms within two to four months, but because of her genetic disposition, Brown was told she might see a recurrence of symptoms or chronic arthritis.

“I got lucky — I got better,” Brown says. “I still deal with the [effects] from this, so it’s not entirely over for me — I still see a rheumatologist — but I have an Boulder Weekly

buzz amazing quality of life.”

But Brown had to work hard to revive that quality of life — part of which involved writing a book about her vulnerable experience in India.

Writing the book was a journey in itself for Brown. When she returned to Colorado in January 2007, she was unable to walk for long distances or periods of time and still taking regular physical therapy. Going back to work as a cardiac nurse at Boulder Community Hospital wasn’t an immediate option, so she began to write, crafting the earliest manuscript of the book between 2007 and 2009.

Brown decided in 2009 that she wanted to get serious about publishing the book, so she traveled to a literary conference in Manhattan, set on finding an agent.

“At that point I thought you have to have a literary agent,” she says. “But I came back from there so deflated, the wind out of my sails.”

In particular it was a “first page” workshop that robbed Brown of her confidence. Participants were asked to stand up and read the first page of their book in front of literary agents. Brown says one agent told her the excerpt was “overwritten,” while another agent quipped, “It’s Courtesy of Molly Brown not another rehab book is it?”

“I was younger, and I still gave a shit what other people thought,” Brown admits. “I hadn’t learned that there are other opinions out there and not to take people’s comments to heart. I just hadn’t gotten there yet.”

ON THE BILL: Molly But the universe wasn’t Brown. 6:30 p.m. going to let Brown give up so Wednesday, Feb. 10, Lyons Regional Library, easily — an ongoing theme in free. 6 p.m. Thursday, her life. A coworker began Feb. 11 at, Old begging to read the manuFirehouse Books, Fort Collin, free. Books can script, as her husband was a be purchased at widely published author.

Boulder Bookstore or Brown acquiesced and waited.

Amazon. Info on future tour dates on www.

“Her response to my mollykatebrown.com book was, ‘You have to publish this,’” Brown says. “She lit that flame again for me. I Molly Brown wears a salwar kameez, got inspired.” which is traditional Indian women’s So Brown began working on the clothing. book again, but life called her on another journey, and she paused writing for two years to get her master’s degree and become a nurse practitioner.

“When I got through my first year of practice, space and time opened up and the creativity was there,” she says.

Brown says the passage of time improved her writing process — and her vision of herself. When she began the manuscript, she simply wasn’t capable of writing the raw story that eventually shows up in the published work.

“The story in India and what is in the book never changed, the actual events, but there was stuff in there that I wouldn’t have been in able to put in… it isn’t until we can look back that we can get that perspective,” she says. “What I realize now is that I had to grow a lot before I could write this book. I had to get to the point where I wasn’t afraid of what other people thought. I wasn’t afraid to stand there and be fully seen. And you really can’t care what people think when you do that.”

Brown says her fear was rooted in needing “permission” to show the part of her that’s “wise, powerful, in touch and connected.”

“What I realize now looking back is the earlier version of myself was OK with letting people see the parts of me that were inspired and happy, but I wasn’t OK with letting the world see the part of me that was grieving and terrified and there was this air of, ‘It all has to look good,’” she says. “It’s not until you get into yourself and realize what we are — really what we are — that we can learn to love all of ourselves.”

And that’s why her book is a “love story” — because her illness, the time in India, the setbacks with publishing, the months of depression and physical therapy were all just part of the process she needed to truly love herself.

“The journey to bring the book out took almost eight years, but I think that what I’m left with is just keep following the inspiration. Keep following the drive,” Brown says. “That’s the inner compass. That’s the North Star as far as I’m concerned.”

Boulder Weekly

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TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2015 A look back on a year of music

by Adam Perry

I

t’s been eight years since I began writing an annual year-end feature on 10 great new albums for Boulder Weekly, and the notion of what’s “best” is still far from my mind. As always, this is about sharing, tuning in and turning on, not rating.

As each winter approaches, I simply spend two months seeking out interesting, enjoyable records by rifling through the thousands of emails I receive from labels and publicity agencies all year, reading music blogs and magazines, and querying music-geek friends for their recent favorites. The result of all that listening is a list of about 100 new albums that strike me as worth your attention; that list, whittled down to 10, hopefully includes even one track that feels like a holiday gift to someone who’s yet to hear it.

So if you have time, stop whatever you’re doing, and drop a needle on some of the following.

10

10. It’s kind of been Christmas all year for Nathaniel Rateliff, the Denver indie musician who hit a career jackpot over the summer with his gamble on a wondrous soul niche. After Rateliff and his large band slayed the foot-stomping “Son of a Bitch” on The Tonight Show in early August, the near-flawless LP Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats was released to wholly deserved, worldwide acclaim. The gruff-voiced, bighearted Rateliff is suddenly booking Red Rocks rather than little clubs.

If you somehow haven’t heard the earnest, down-home soul and R&B of the album that has made him a star, go out and get a copy ASAP.

9

9. At 80 years old, Leonard Cohen’s darkly soothing voice is in surprisingly good shape — certainly better than Bob Dylan’s was at 60.

Cohen is also staying far more creative with song selections at recent concerts than Dylan, who’s kept roughly the same setlist for years.

Between that and Cohen’s vibrant, fruitful ongoing collaborations with songwriting partners, this year’s live collection Can’t Forget: A Souvenir of the Grand Tour — with its mixture of covers, newbies and vastly underrated oldies — is a remarkably vital, interesting release from a legend who could make a million dollars every night just playing a “Leonard Cohen’s Greatest” set. Hearing the old master sing the lines “There were loved ones / but I turned them all away / now I’m living and dying / with the choices I made” on the George Jones tune “Choices” makes Can’t Forget a must-listen alone.

8

8. Titus Andronicus has been playing literate punk rock — sort of a more aggressive, New Jersey version of the Pogues — for the last 10 years, but The Most Lamentable Tragedy is by far the sextet’s most ambitious, and acclaimed, release. Dubbed a rock opera in Who fashion, 30 December 31, 2015

Boulder Weekly

overtones Tragedy is 29 diverse tracks that meander and muse as widely as the Clash’s London Calling while following a storyline that could take listeners years to digest. The sharp, emotional growl and gall of singer/multi-instrumentalist Patrick Stickles dominates Tragedy, which will move anyone who digs the sweet spot between Minor Threat and James Joyce.

7

7. In an interview this October, the brilliant young Boise indie-pop singer-songwriter Trevor Powers told me, “I could never do the same thing twice; I could never just regurgitate shit just to do it. If I’m gonna sit down and write an album, I’m gonna make sure it’s something worth saying.” On Savage Hills Ballroom, his third as Youth Lagoon, Powers reinvented himself again, juxtaposing Berlin-era Bowie with sensitive, deftly orchestrated pop commentary on the distancing effects of our technology-ridden age. The only thing more exciting than Savage Hills, and Powers’ recent performance at the Bluebird Theater in Denver, is wondering what he’ll do next.

6

6. Not yet 30 years old but already possessing a catalog of six acclaimed releases, the Oklahoma alt-folkie Samantha Crain is what Colorado’s own Sera Cahoone might sound like with dreamier instrumentation and a fixation on magically quotidian storytelling rather than broken romance. July’s Under Branch & Thorn & Tree clocks in at less than 40 minutes but traverses tastefully dense production and tales of mystery and proletariat modern times. The album’s sometimes giant engineering and soaring arrangements are as ambitious as that of Boulder’s own Gregory Alan Isakov, but with a dusty, working-class connection to traditional American music — and her Choctaw heritage — that brings Crain and her music beautifully down to earth.

5

5. Kurt Vile’s twisted, head-bopping “Pretty Pimpin” was arguably indie-rock’s trademark song of 2015, but b’lieve i’m goin down... also achieved near-universal acclaim because of the prolific 35-year-old’s gentle acoustic-guitar ballads and ethereal instrumental jams. Since leaving the War On Drugs for a solo career, Vile has quickly established himself as America’s mad genius of garage rock, but there is an element of sweetness to songs like “Stand Inside,” and an intricate depth to his acoustic guitar work, that should establish him as a genius of rock, period.

4

4. Today’s Grammy-winning greats of pop music — for instance, Arcade Fire — are expected to release a new album approximately every three years. It only took 14 months (spanning parts of 1965 and 1966) for a young Bob Dylan to record Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde, three albums that could easily be placed in the 10 most important in rock history. That era of Dylan’s career — the superhuman rock ’n’ roll poetry between his previous acoustic folk and subsequent hermetic country — represents a museblessed period that was not only Dylan’s greatest creative streak but perhaps ties the Beatles’ Rubber Soul-to-Let It Be period as the greatest creative streak of anyone in the history of pop music. The Cutting Edge, available in sets ranging from two discs to 16 discs, strips naked for the first time Dylan’s studio sessions for those three iconic, game-changing albums. The collection features “Like A Rolling Stone” as a waltz; “Desolation Row” as a piano ballad; “Visions of Johanna” as an up-tempo hard-rock song, and the lyrics to timeless classics such as “Just Like a Woman” in embryonic form. For some, this is like seeing drafts of Shakespeare’s plays that ended up in the trash. see TOP ALBUMS Page 32

Boulder Weekly

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overtones TOP ALBUMS from Page 31

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3

3. The music heard on “country” radio these days is about as country as Poison was a metal band or Donald Trump is a humanitarian. Wholehearted, intelligent and humble songwriting like that of Alabama-native Jason Isbell might be the rightful destination that country music took from the Carter Family and Johnny Cash through Emmylou Harris, past the cheesy sheen of Garth Brooks and the absolute embarrassment of auto-tuned, xenophobic bro country back to something deep, and deeply Southern. Something More Than Free, Isbell’s fifth album, finds the 36-year-old grandson of a Pentecostal preacher peaking as a narrator, not unlike Elvis Costello circa Imperial Bedroom, crafting nearly every song as carefully as the most well-written TV drama. Isbell, formerly of Drive-By Truckers, is also finally peaking commercially too: Something More Than Free debuted no. 1 across genres on Billboard’s rock, folk and country charts.

2

2. When I spoke with Dr. Dog singerbassist Toby Leaman at the beginning of this year, he was amped up for two shows at the Ogden Theatre in Denver that traversed the quirky rockers’ heralded 15-year career of juxtaposing the Band, the Beatles and the Beach Boys through unique Philadelphia shades. Leaman told me that the group’s debut live album, Live At a Flamingo Hotel, was about “purging ourselves of some of these tunes [that have] been in heavy rotation for, like, eight years… some of the songs we were beating into the ground.” That purging is one of the great live albums in recent memory, showcasing one of America’s top rock ’n’ roll performers, not to mention songwriters, at a career crossroads, somehow breathing fire into overplayed heavyweights like “The Beach” and “The Rabbit, the Bat and the Reindeer” while dusting off sadly underplayed obscurities such as “Say Ahhh” and “County Line.” When Dr. Dog plays the Boulder Theater on February 13, we’ll see what the Flamingo Hotel catharsis manifested.

1

1. Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Pops Staples, who passed away in 2000, was the patriarch of the Staples Singers. The figure he cut in American music history was so deep that he played blues with Robert Johnson, quarterbacked a no. 1 hit with “I’ll Take You There,” jammed with the Band during its The Last Waltz concert, and even appeared in the Talking Heads’ film True Stories singing “Papa Legba.” Don’t Lose This, completed by daughter Mavis Staples and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy from tracks Pops recorded in 1998, is as relevant and soulful as any music I heard in 2015. “Somebody Was Watching” is a funky, positive spin on mortality; “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” takes Pops back to the birth of the blues; and his cover of Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody” is exquisite New Orleans funk. But the highlight of Don’t Lose This is Pops posthumously dueting with his amazing daughter. Unforgettable, indeed.

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A Night in Vienna

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34 December 31, 2015

Boulder Weekly

arts & culture COME AND SEE

Endless brilliance in another year of cinematic storytelling

by Michael J. Casey

T

wo Decembers ago, New Yorker critic Richard Brody wrote, “The year 2013 has been an amazing one for movies, though maybe every year is an amazing year for movies if one is ready to be amazed by movies.” True in 2013, and true in 2015 as cinema continues an upward trend towards more magic, wonder, intellect and indelible imagery.

In 2015, moviegoing proved to be one of the best in diversity. The cineplexes were chock-full of bombastic thrill rides while independent theaters specialized in cinema on the margins.

Mad Max: Fury Road Repertory houses boasted notable rescues from yesteryear while video-on-demand and streaming services brought whole worlds to those who didn’t want to — or couldn’t — make it out of the house.

And while this cinematic diversity covered a great deal of ground, certain commonalities and connections between the individual works became clear. A quick glance Phoenix at the 2015 box office grosses proves that not only is there a life in the franchise, but that the franchise is Hollywood’s lifeblood. Eight of the top 10 grossing movies of 2015 were franchise installments with only Inside Out as a true original — The Martian is based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir.

Many of these movies were immensely fun — Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Furious 7, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation — but none were as impressive as Mad Max: Fury Road and Creed, both of which make powerful cases that the true art of cinematic story telling lies in the power of the image. Directors of both films, George Miller and Ryan Coogler, working with directors of photography (DoP) John Seale and Maryse Alberti respectively, combine the inherent mythology of these franchises with virtuosic imagery, using their budgets not to merely craft products, but truly political works.

This is also true of Taxi, the latest from Iran’s Jafar Panahi, a director who was placed under house arrest by the Iranian government in 2010 and forbidden from directing films for 20 years.

Taxi (or Taxi Tehran or Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, as it is also known) is Panahi’s third movie since his ban, and with it he has grown more audacious and more defiant in his approach. Casting himself as a nameless taxicab driver in Tehran, Panahi picks up passengers that may or may not be acting in his movie, may or may not be in on the joke and may or may not know the meaning their words carry. In a phenomenal intersection of documentary, self-reflexive portraiture and narrative film-

making, Panahi crafts a deceptively warm and comforting experience, one that completely reconfigures itself in the final scene.

Taxi was not the only movie in 2015 to send viewers back into the world with a haunting finale. It is impossible to discuss 2015’s films without praising Phoenix, German director Christian Petzold’s remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Using a married couple to explore Germany’s ruin during the aftermath of the Holocaust, Petzold and DoP Hans Fromm deliver an ending so incredible it manages to suck all the air out of the room. As Petzold and Fromm show, when the past is this murky, the future is completely unclear.

This is not the case in The Wonders — winner of the 2014 Cannes Grand Prix — an Italian drama that captures a disappearing world right as it fades out.

Here, director Alice Rohrwacher depicts a countryside commune of beekeepers specializing in organic honey.

Rohrwacher works with DoP Hélène Louvart to beautifully capture the tender relationship between a father and his daughter, the frustrations of family and a way of life that is not long for this world.

In many ways, this is also true of director Todd Haynes’ latest elegy Carol, a story about two women engaging in a forbidden love affair in 1950s New York. Much like the necessary social restraint of the two protagonists — Therese (Rooney Mara) and Carol (Cate Blanchett) — Haynes and DoP Edward Lachman magnificently utilize 16mm film stock to imprison these women inside beautiful, crafted images that can never fully express their buried emotions.

Constantly bisected by reflections — rain-soaked windows and mirrors that reveal the sensual tempest beneath — Haynes and Lachman draw on Douglas Sirk melodramas and François Truffaut’s self-conscious camera to give Carol a symphony of design and see COME AND SEE Page 36

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Boulder Weekly

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arts & culture COME AND SEE from Page 35

composition.

With less overt homosexual overtones, but far from lacking, Mississippi Grind is as shaggy as it is wonderful. Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) and Curtis (Ryan Reynolds) are full of stories and life, but they are also hopeless gambling addicts. Only one knows it and the other doesn’t Carol — yet. There is no greater loser than a degenerate gambler, but maybe that is the way they like it. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck follow their two Dostoevskyian protagonists as they reach out and defy the universe. Sometimes the universe raps their knuckles and puts them back in their place.

Sometimes the gambler gets a delicious steak and lobster dinner on the house, and DoP Andrij Parekh is there for both.

Mississippi Grind Moving west, Tangerine melds imagery, technology and story in a perfect manner.

Directed and shot by Sean Baker using tricked out iPhones, Tangerine follows a sex worker as she makes her way through the mean streets of Los Angeles looking for the pimp who done her wrong. Tangerine is a positively electric story and Baker Tangerine — working with co-DoP Radium Cheung — captures this lightning in a bottle and produces a movie that is so solidly in the present that it feels like it is still unfolding.

The list of movies and images goes on: a happy family of cattle herders lounging in the desert dunes while an impotent Jihadists corp scurries about the sand in Timbuktu (dir.

Inside Out Abderrahmane Sissako, DoP. Sofian El Fani); The Hateful Eight, an ode to 1950s 70mm roadshow releases with the sweep and grandeur of the Rocky Mountains alongside close-ups of Samuel L. Jackson and Demián Bichir filling the screen with command and power (dir. Quentin Tarantino, DoP. Robert Richardson); the swooping camera that captures N.W.A’s defiant “Fuck tha Police” in Straight Outta Compton (dir. F. Gary Gray, DoP. Matthew Libatique); the constant dread of an empty frame in It Follows (dir. David Robert Mitchell, DoP. Mike Gioulakis); Adonis Creed’s morning jog through the streets of Philadelphia flanked by a group of 12-o’clock boys in Creed; the final image of Fury Road; a very intimate carwash in Tangerine; and Bing-Bong waving goodbye in Inside Out (dir. Pete Docter).

These images came to viewers via 16mm, 35mm, 70mm, IMAX, digital cinema package, 2-D, 3-D, hand-drawing and computer generation. They were dispersed in festivals, theaters, television and streaming services on laptops and tablets. In 2015, the options were endless and the magic unavoidable. There was no shortage of discoveries and surprises. It is doubtful that 2016 will be any different.

Boulder Weekly

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SCHUMAN BERNSTEIN COPLAND COPLAND Boulder Weekly

New England Triptych Symphonic Dances from West Side Story Prairie Night, Waltz and Celebration Dance from Billy the Kid Rodeo (complete ballet)

East Coast meets West Coast in this celebration of Americana. First, William Schuman channels colonial-era themes in the haunting New England Triptych, and Leonard Bernstein embraces the cultural melting pot of New York City in his Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. After intermission, we hear Aaron Copland’s take on the legendary outlaw Billy the Kid, and we see his evocation of life in the rural West as Boulder Ballet brings us original choreography for his iconic ballet, Rodeo.

December 31, 2015 37

THURS, MARCH 13 with • 8CASEY PM COLLINS, ERIK DEUTSCH, L

The Onion Presents

Free with valid CU ID

A TRIBUTE TO BJORK with CASEY COLLINS, ERIK DEUTSCH, LIZA, SONYA VALLET, NICK URATA and more www.BoulderTheater.com

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FRI. JAN 22 8:00 PM

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CHASING THE LIGHT: THE ROCK & ROLL PHOTOGRAPHY OF JAY BLAKESBERG THE DRUNKEN HEARTS **FREE SHOW**

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38 December 31, 2015

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FEB 17 ........................................................................................ REEL BIG FISH FEB 19 .............................................................................. THE MAIN SQUEEZE FEB 27 ............................................................................................. MIKE STUD MAR 1 ........................................................................................ YELLOW CLAW MAR 3 ................................................................................... THE REVIVALISTS MAR 10 ..................................................................................... ZACH DEPUTY

APR 8 ................................................................................... ANDERS OSBORNE APR 14-APR 16 ......................................................... DARK STAR ORCHESTRA APR 18 ...................................................................................... JOHNNY CLEGG APR 29 ....................... RICHARD CHEESE & LOUNGE AGAINST THE MACHINE MAY 9 ............................................................................................... THE WAIFS MAY 20 ..................... DESERT DWELLERS, KALYA SCINTILLA & EVE OLUTION

TUES. FEB 16 7:30 PM

Boulder Weekly

Courtesy of Wash Park

WASH PARK. 8 P.M. SATURDAY, JAN. 2, DICKENS OPERA HOUSE, 300 MAIN ST., LONGMONT, 720-297-6397.

SEE FULL EVENT LISTINGS ONLINE. To have an event considered for the calendar, send information to calendar@ boulderweekly.com.

Please be sure to include address, date, time and phone number associated with each event. The deadline for consideration is Thursday at noon the week prior to publication.

Boulder Weekly does not guarantee the publication of any event.

Thursday, December 31 Music The Alcapones. 8 p.m. Conor O’Neill’s, 1922 13th St., Boulder, 303-449-1922.

Barrel of Blues. 9 p.m. Front Range Brewing, 400 W. South Boulder Road, Suite 1650, Lafayette, 303-339-0767.

Boulder Swing Collective. 9 p.m.

Waterloo, 809 Main St., Louisville, 303993-2094.

The Corporation. 6:30 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Ramaya & The Troubadours 8 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 3, The Laughing Goat Coffeehouse, 1709 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-4628.

Ramaya Soskin is a veteran of the Boulder music scene, having hit local stages since 2000.

He’s performed in various bands playing music from folk to reggae to indie alt-rock, frequently sharing the stage with fellow Boulder musician Gregory Alan Isakov.

Soskin has toured the U.S. and Canada, with a couple stops in Europe, and recently won first place at the Aspen Songwriter’s Competition. Check him out on Jan. 3 as he stops by The Laughing Goat with The Troubadours.

Listen

Courtesy of Ramaya Soskin

Boulder Weekly

Nissi’s, 2675 Northpark Drive, Lafayette, 303-665-2757.

Hazel Miller. 9 p.m. St Julien Hotel & Spa, 900 Walnut St., Boulder, 720-406-9696.

Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band. 9 p.m.

Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder, 303443-6461.

Jazz Ram. 7 p.m. Gravity Brewing, 1150 Pine Street, Unit B, Louisville, 303-5440746.

Defunkt Railroad. 6 p.m. Grossen Bart Brewery, 1025 Delaware Ave., Longmont, 214-770-9847.

KC Groves and The Honky Tonk Band.

9 p.m. Oskar Blues Brewery, 303 Main St., Lyons, 303-823-6685.

The Delta Sonics. 9 p.m. Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids and Solids, 1555 S. Hover Road, Longmont, 303-485-9400.

The Magic Beans. 8 p.m. Stage Stop, 60

Eat

see EVENTS Page 40

Watch

New Year’s Day Chili Cook Off

Dark Side of the Rainbow

Friday, Jan. 1 West End Tavern, 926 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-444-3535.

8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 1, The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

Nothing starts a new year off better than chili. So if 2016 is the year that you’ve made that resolution to eat more chili, well then the West End Tavern has got you covered with its annual New Year’s Day Chili Cook Off. Participate in the heated competition between West End Tavern chefs Greg, Julio and Hector, watch some football, drink a beer (or two), and feed your soul and your face. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate a brand new set of 366 days (yay, Leap Year!).

There is a long-standing rumor that when Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is played over the Wizard of Oz, the two magically syncopate.

But if you’re still skeptical, find out for yourself. As part of its Friday Night Weird, The Dairy is presenting a Dark Side of the Rainbow for those watching and listening for the first time or the fiftieth. It’s a unique opportunity for fans of both the music and the movie to come together for one event — and everyone’s gotta try it at least once. Don’t miss the show as Pink Floyd goes down the yellow brick road.

December 31, 2015 39

events EVENTS from Page 39

arts

Main St., Rollinsville, 303-258-0649.

Native Station. 10:30 p.m. Skeye Brewing, 900 S. Hover St., Unit D, Longmont, 303-774-7698.

New Year’s Eve 2016: Party at the Plaza. 8 p.m. Best Western Plaza Hotel, 1900 Ken Pratt Blvd., Longmont.

NYE with The Prairie Scholars. 9 p.m. Oskar Blues CyclHOPS, 600 S. Airport Road, Longmont, 303-776-BIKE.

WE OFFER Large Menu Selection & Daily Specials Daily Drink Specials 28 Taps & Large Selection of Craft Beers 16 Large Screen TVs 8 Billiard Tables Dart Boards Video Games KARAOKE Thurs. DEC. 31

New Year’s Eve Bash

DJ Baby Boy (from KS 107.5)

The Subdudes. 9 p.m. The Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder, 720-645-2467.

Tyler T. Duo. 8 p.m. Samples World Bistro, 370 Main St., Longmont, 303-327-9318.

Yonder Mountain String Band with Sam Bush. 9 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder, 303-786-7030.

Events Boulder Landscape Oil Paintings. All day.

Rembrandt Yard Art Gallery & Event Center, 1301 Spruce St., Boulder, 303-301-2972.

Green Holiday Bazaar. 10:30 a.m. Bricolage Gallery, at Art Parts Creative Reuse Center, 2870 Bluff St., Boulder, 720-379-5328.

The Messenger. 6:30 p.m. The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

New Year’s Eve at BMoCA’s Mad Tea Party.

9:30 p.m. Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th St., Boulder, 303-443-2122.

New Year’s Eve Masquerade Gala. 7:30 p.m.

Hotel Boulderado, 2115 13th St., Boulder, 303442-4344.

New Year’s Eve Party. 10 p.m. Pioneer Inn, 15 E. First St., Nederland, 303-258-7733.

Free Champagne

Winter Seniors Nature Hike. 10 a.m. Rabbit Mountain Open Space Park, 14950 N. 55th St., Longmont.

at Midnight

The Wonders. 4 p.m. The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

Fri. JAN. 1

WOW! New Year’s Eve Party. 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. WOW! Children’s Museum, 110 N Harrison Ave., Lafayette, 303-604-2424.

Soul School DJ ON SATURDAY NIGHTS JAN. 2

DJ Ktone 9pm-1:30am

Friday, January 1

longmontrestaurants.co 40 December 31, 2015

Gunther Gerzso: A Mexican Master. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver, 720-865-5000. Through Jan. 3.

Oil Paintings by Theresa Beckemeyer. Community Art Program Gallery, NCAR, 1850 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, 303-497-1174.

Through Jan. 30.

Catch the last weekend of Susan Wick’s exhibit at BMoCA and find out why wild women never get the blues.

Photography by Glenn Randall.

Super Indian: Fritz Scholder, 1967-1980.

Community Art Program Gallery, NCAR, 1850 Table Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Mesa Drive, Boulder, 303-497-1174. Through Denver, 720-865-5000. Through Jan. 17.

Jan. 30.

Susan Wick: Wild Women Never Get the Pretty/Dirty. Museum of Contemporary Art, Blues. Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, 1485 Delgany St., Denver, 303-298-7554.

1750 13th St., Boulder, 303-443-2122. Through Through Jan. 31.

Jan. 3.

Revolt 1680/2180: Virgil Ortiz. Denver Art Wyeth: Andrew and Jamie in the Studio.

Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver, 720Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, 865-5000. Through May 1.

Denver, 720-865-5000. Through Feb. 7.

Showing Off. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver, 720-865-5000. Through Jan. 3.

Boulder, 303-786-7030.

1346 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-3355.

Events

HenScratch. 6 p.m. Grossen Bart Brewery, 1025 Delaware Ave., Longmont, 214-770-9847.

Dark Side of the Rainbow. 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

The Messenger. 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

The Wonders. 4 p.m. The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

Saturday, January 2

Casey Russell And Friends. 10 p.m. The Lazy Dog, 1346 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-3355.

Music

Dan Lance. 8:30 p.m. The Roost, 526 Main St., Longmont, 303-827-3380.

Andy Eppler & Sean Flynn. 7 p.m. Skeye Brewing, 900 S. Hover St., Unit D, Longmont, 303-774-7698.

Danny Shafer. 5 p.m. Pearl Street Pub, 1108 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-777-6768.

The Aristocats. 7:30 p.m. Cannon Mine Coffee, 210 S. Public Road, Lafayette, 303-665-0625.

Dueling Ukes. 4:30 p.m. Oskar Blues Tasty Weasel Tap Room, 1800 Pike Road, Unit B, Longmont, 303-776-1914.

Arthur Lee Land. 8:30 p.m. Oskar Blues Brewery, 303 Main St., Lyons, 303-823-6685.

Hindsight. 7 p.m. Dickens Opera House, 300 Main St., Longmont, 720-297-6397.

Longmont, CO 303-772-3839

Susan Wick

Good Penmanship — Elizabeth Morrisette. Firehouse Art Center, 667, Fourth Ave., Longmont, 303651-2787. Through Jan. 3.

Music

Eric Gonzales. 7:30 p.m. Oskar Blues CyclHOPS, 600 S. Airport Road, Longmont, 303-776-BIKE.

380 Main St.

A Place in the Sun. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver, 720-865-5000.

Through April 24.

Many Mountains. 10 p.m. Conor O’Neill’s, 1922 13th St., Boulder, 303-449-1922.

Paul Sullivan. 7 p.m. Cannon Mine Coffee, 210 S. Public Road, Lafayette, 303-665-0625.

Robin David Duo. 7:30 p.m. Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids and Solids, 1555 S. Hover Road, Longmont, 303-485-9400.

Yonder Mountain String Band feat. Jerry Douglas. 9 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St.,

Beatspeak. 10 p.m. Conor O’Neill’s, 1922 13th St., Boulder, 303-449-1922.

Blues on the Lamb. 6:30 p.m. Front Range Brewing Company, 400 W. South Boulder Road, Lafayette, 303-339-0767.

Craig Cornett & The Phast and Reckless. 8 p.m. Liquid Mechanics Brewing Company, 297 U.S. 287, Lafayette, 720-550-7813.

DeadSet. 8 p.m. Jamestown Mercantile Cafe, 108 Main St., Jamestown, 303-442-5847.

Felonius Smith & Steve Sheldon. 7 p.m. Longs Peak Pub & Taphopuse, 600 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont, 303-651-7886.

Global Soul Experience. 10 p.m. The Lazy Dog,

Jackson Cloud. 8:30 p.m. Samples World Bistro, 370 Main St., Longmont, 303-327-9318.

Lindsey Saunders. 8:30 p.m. The Roost, 526 Main St., Longmont, 303-827-3380.

Mojo Mama. 4:30 p.m. Oskar Blues Tasty Weasel Tap Room, 1800 Pike Road, Unit B, Longmont, 303-776-1914.

Mountain Meadow String Band. 6:30 p.m.

St Julien Hotel & Spa, 900 Walnut St., Boulder, 720-406-9696.

One On One. 7:30 p.m. Nissi’s, 2675 Northpark Drive, Lafayette, 303-665-2757.

Outlaw Nation. 7 p.m. Owsley’s Golden Road, 1301 Broadway St., Boulder, 720-849-8458.

RADIATE Unified Dance Party. 8:30 p.m. Shine Restaurant & Gathering Place, 2027 13th St., Boulder, 303-449-0120.

Roy Davis, Jeffrey Dallet Band. 8 p.m. The Laughing Goat Coffeehouse, 1709 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-4628.

Smooth Money Gesture. 9 p.m. Stage Stop, 60 Main St., Rollinsville, 303-258-0649.

Strange Byrds. 7:30 p.m. Oskar Blues CyclHOPS, 600 S. Airport Road, Longmont, 303-776-BIKE. Wash Park. 8 p.m. Dickens Opera House, 300 Main St., Longmont, 720-297-6397.

The Who Doos. 8:30 p.m. Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids and Solids, 1555 S. Hover Road, Longmont, 303-485-9400. see EVENTS Page 42

Boulder Weekly

speakers lectures events Reimagining Death & Dying: Changing the Way We Care A Contemplative Conference

Friday, January 8, 7:30 p.m.

Keynote with Vassar Byrd, nationally recognized expert in end of life care. $20 advance, $25 at the door

Saturday, January 9, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

Contemplative Conference $110 Saturday only $120 Friday and Saturday

Nalanda Events Center 6287 Arapahoe Avenue Boulder, CO

For more information and tickets visit Naropa.edu/events

Coming February 2016: The Boulder College of Massage Therapy continuing education courses at Naropa.

Naropa.edu/BCMT

Boulder Weekly

December 31, 2015 41

events

EVENTS from Page 40

A gathering place for great food, drinks & entertainment Buy Tickets: www.nissis.com

OUR EXTENSIVE RENOVATIONS ARE COMPLETE AND WE’RE READY TO CELEBRATE. Give the Gift of a Great Night Out!

Nissi’s Gift Cards available @ nissis.com

Upcoming Events & Entertainment Thursday December 31

Boulder Weekly presents

NEW YEAR’S EVE Featuring

THE CORPORATION First Seating: 6:30-9:30pm Dinner & Show Second Seating: 10:00pm-12:30am Ring in The New Year Show

Saturday January 2

ONE ON ONE “Motown/R&B”

Wednesday January 6

WEDNESDAY NIGHT BLUES Featuring

ROOTS & RHYTHM BAND Thursday January 7

THE CUSTOM SHOP “Rock”

Friday January 8

REBECCA FOLSOM BAND Saturday January 9

VAN WHOLEN “A Tribute to Van Halen & The Who” With Special Guests

THE SEERS Wednesday January 13

WEDNESDAY NIGHT BLUES Featuring

JACK HADLEY BAND Thursday January 14

LADIES NIGHT WITH

ROMERO UNPLUGGED Friday January 15

DEJA BLU “Variety Dance”

Saturday January 16

THUMPIN’

“Dance-Dance-Dance”

Sunday January 17

BOTH SIDES NOW: THE SONGS OF JONI MITCHELL BOOK YOUR NEXT PRIVATE EVENT AT NISSI’S Have your next business meeting, celebration, Benefit, or wedding at Nissis. Award winning Cuisine & service and world class sound in a beautiful and artistic setting

www.nissis.com/events

WIT Organ Trio. 5 p.m. Left Hand Brewing Company, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont, 303-7720258.

Events Boulder Psychic Fair. 11 a.m. Walnut 11 Building, 1911 11th, Suite 104, Boulder, 303-4433510.

Ecstatic Dance. 10 a.m. Free Motion Dance Studio, 2126 Pearl St., Boulder, 720-379-8299.

The Messenger. 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

Tinker Time. 10 a.m. Tinker Art Studio, 1300 Yellow Pine Ave., Suite B, Boulder, 303-503-1902.

Visit the Agricultural Heritage Center. 10 a.m.

Agricultural Heritage Center, 8348 Ute Highway 66, Longmont, 303-776-8688.

The Wonders. 4 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-4407826.

Sunday, January 3 Music Dr. Phil Good and Friends. 9 p.m. Stage Stop, 60 Main St., Rollinsville, 303-258-0649.

John Paul Hodge. 6 p.m. Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids and Solids, 1555 S. Hover Road, Longmont, 303-485-9400.

Masontown. 10 p.m. Mountain Sun Pub, 1535 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-546-0886.

The Prairie Scholars: Brews & Tunes. 4:30 p.m. Left Hand Brewing Company, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont, 303-772-0258.

Ramaya & The Troubadours. 8 p.m. The Laughing Goat Coffeehouse, 1709 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-4628.

Wylie Crazy Horse. 3 p.m. Oskar Blues Tasty Weasel Tap Room, 1800 Pike Road, Unit B, Longmont, 303-776-1914.

Events Go Club for Kids & Teens. 2 p.m. Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-4413100.

Hawaiian Hula Classes. 5 p.m. The Dairy Center for the Arts, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-4479772.

Viscera, Afternoon of a Faun, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Carmen: Royal Ballet. 1 p.m.

The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

Ring in the New Year with the mysteriously spooky Addams Family, now playing at BDT Stage.

The Addams Family. BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-449-6000. Through Feb. 27.

Murder for Two. Denver Performing Arts Complex, 1345 Champa St., Denver, 720-865-4239, Through Feb. 21.

Babies and Board Books. 10:15 a.m. George Reynolds Branch Library, 3595 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, 303-441-3120.

Citizenship Classes. 6 p.m. Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-441-3100.

Intercambio English as a Second Language Class Level 6/7. 9:15 a.m. Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-441-3100.

Younger Toddler Time. 9:15 a.m. Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-4413100.

Tuesday, January 5 Music Gasoline Lollipops. 8:30 p.m. Waterloo, 809 Main St., Louisville, 303-993-2094.

Miles Wide. 6 p.m. Upslope Brewing Company (Flatiron Park), 1898 S. Flatiron Court, Boulder, 508-873-9185.

Open Jam. 8 p.m. The Lazy Dog, 1346 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-3355.

Open Mic. 7 p.m. Front Range Brewing Company, 400 W. South Boulder Road, Lafayette, 303-3390767.

Open Mic Night with The Prairie Scholars.

6 p.m. Skeye Brewing, 900 S. Hover St., Unit D, Longmont, 303-774-7698.

Third Circle. 8 p.m. The Laughing Goat Coffeehouse, 1709 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-4628.

Monday, January 4

Events

Music

Boulder World Affairs Discussion Group. 10 a.m. Meadows Branch Library, 4800 Baseline Road, Boulder, 303-441-4390.

Cold River City. 9:30 p.m. Southern Sun Pub & Brewery, 627 S. Broadway, Boulder, 303-5430886.

Heartstring Hunters. 9 p.m. Pearl Street Pub, 1108 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-777-6768.

Open Mic. 8 p.m. Johnny’s Cigar Bar, 1801 13th St., Boulder, 303-449-0884.

Open Mic Hosted by Silent Bear. 7 p.m.

Sancho’s Boulder Arrow, 1325 Broadway, Boulder, 720-849-8458.

Events

2675 NORTH PARK DRIVE LAFAYETTE, CO 303.665.2757

Arabic Literature. 6 p.m. Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-441-3100.

42 December 31, 2015

Glenn Ross Photography.

Yonder Mountain String Band. 9 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder, 303-786-7030.

Adult Ballet at Reverence Academy of Dance.

11:30 a.m. Reverence Academy of Dance, 1370 Miners Dr., Suite 111, Lafayette, 303-661-0719.

(SE Corner of 95th & Arapahoe)

theater

Lap Babies. 9:15 a.m. Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-441-3100.

Lap Babies. 10:15 a.m. Meadows Branch Library, 4800 Baseline Road, Boulder, 303-441-4390.

Life Drawing. 6:30 p.m. Tinker Art Studio, 1300 Yellow Pine Ave., Suite B, Boulder, 303-503-1902.

Wednesday, January 6 Music The Heartstring Hunters. 6:30 p.m. Still Cellars, 1115 Colorado Ave., Longmont, 720-204-6064.

Moonlight Breakdown. 6:30 p.m. St Julien Hotel & Spa, 900 Walnut St., Boulder, 720-406-9696.

8 p.m. Longs Peak Pub, 600 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont, 303-651-7886.

Open Mic. 6:30 p.m. Cannon Mine Coffee, 210 S. Public Road, Lafayette, 303-665-0625.

Purple Squirrel. 8 p.m. The Laughing Goat Coffeehouse, 1709 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-4628.

Randall Dubois. 7 p.m. Rosalee’s Pizzeria, 461 Main St., Longmont, 303-485-5020.

Roots and Rhythm. 8 p.m. Nissi’s, 2675 Northpark Drive, Lafayette, 303-665-2757.

Events Acrylic Painting. 5 p.m. Tinker Art Studio, 1300 Yellow Pine Ave., Suite B, Boulder, 303-503-1902.

Barista. 7 p.m. The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

Breakfast Club. 9 a.m. Meadows Branch Library, 4800 Baseline Road, Boulder, 303-441-4390.

Cruisers & Crawlers. 9:15 a.m. Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-441-3100.

Intercambio English as a Second Language Class Level 6/7. 9:15 a.m. Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-441-3100.

Intro to Acrylics. 6:30 p.m. Tinker Art Studio, 1300 Yellow Pine Ave., Suite B, Boulder, 303-5031902.

Lego Story Club. 4 p.m. George Reynolds Branch Library, 3595 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, 303441-3120.

Life. 4:30 p.m. The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

Pages & Paws. 3:45 p.m. Meadows Branch Library, 4800 Baseline Road, Boulder, 303-4414390.

Socrates Cafe. 2 p.m. Boulder Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-441-3100.

Toddler Lego Story Club. 10:15 a.m. George Reynolds Branch Library, 3595 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder, 303-441-3120.

Video Camera Basics. 6 p.m. Boulder Digital Arts, 1600 Range Street, Suite 100, Boulder, 303800-4647.

Viscera, Afternoon of a Faun, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, Carmen: Royal Ballet. 1 p.m.

The Boedecker Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, 303-440-7826.

Open Bluegrass Pick hosted by Eric Wiggs.

Boulder Weekly

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December 31, 2015 43

STRING INSTRUMENT REPAIR CENTER

NEW • USED VINTAGE SELECTION IN STOCK!

BEN DAVIS VIOLINS NOW OPEN

508 5th Ave., Longmont CO 80501 • 720-340-4169 • www.larrysguitars.com

Southwest Acupuncture College

PROSPECTIVE STUDENT OPEN HOUSE AND CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

Interested in a rewarding career in Acupuncture and Herbal medicine? Come learn what SWAC has to offer!

Monday, February 8th • 10:30 a.m.

Tour • Observe Class • Clinic Treatment • Meet Faculty, Staff, and Students Chinese New Year Celebration • Talent Show • Food • Fun!! (R.S.V.P. Required) Please R.S.V.P. To Rhonda at 303-581-9955 or Rhonda@acupuncturecollege.edu Southwest Acupuncture College • 6630 Gunpark Drive, Boulder, CO Oriental Medicine has been used effectively by billions of people for thousands of years.

VOTED BEST OF BOULDER 2013

BOULDER: Dance The Night Away: An Evening with Hazel Miller — To ring in 2016, St Julien will offer guests and locals an evening of bubbly, balloon drops, food and the stunning vocals of Hazel Miller. Dress to impress in black, gold and silver. 9 p.m. St Julien Hotel and Spa, 900 Walnut St., Boulder, www.stjulien.com. $150.

The Jerseys — A special one-night tribute to Franki Valli and the Four Seasons. Admission includes a bottle of champagne for two and dancing on stage to ring in the New Year after the show. 6:30 p.m. Boulder’s Dinner Theatre, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, 303-449-6000.

New Year’s Eve — Hit Bohemian Biergarten at 4 p.m. to celebrate the Central European New Year, then again at midnight for the Colorado New Year, with DJ Gangsterish. Free champagne for both. 4 p.m. and midnight.

Bohemian Biergarten, 2017 13th St., Boulder, 720-328-8328.

New Year’s Eve with Caribou Mountain Collective and Steepland String Band. 10 p.m.

The Lazy Dog Sports Bar & Grill, 1346 Pearl St., Boulder, 303-440-3355. Free.

• Artisan pieces, unique jewelry and gift ideas for every budget.

• Lotions, handbags, boutique and metaphysical items in stock!.

• Jewelry and watch repair, repurposing and design services.

198 2nd Avenue • Niwot, CO • 303.678.9907 www.hmkjewelers.com Hours: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm Later on Friday and Saturday!

King’s Broth Food Cart located in Whole Foods Market on Pearl Street from 8:30am-4:30pm

Always organic, vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO and highly nutritious • THAI COCONUT • CURRY VEGETABLE • ITALIANO • SOUTHWEST • MUSHROOM MEDLEY

Drink the Garden www.kingsbroth.com 44 December 31, 2015

New Year’s Eve Dance Party — Greet the New Year with a night filled with fun. Head to the Avalon Ballroom for a dance party, with American Vernacular Dance, featuring swing, sala, bachata, kizomba and ballroom. 7 p.m.

The Avalon Ballroom, 6185 Arapahoe Road, 303-440-8303. $35 advanced, $45 at the door.

New Year’s Eve at the Mad Tea Party — Get ready for a fall down the Rabbit Hole to celebrate New Year’s Eve at BMoCA’s Alice in Wonderland NYE party and benefit. The party features a magician, tarot card readings, psyhicis, a photobooth, turntables and some Wonderland favorites. 9:30 p.m. BMoCA, 1750 13th St., Boulder, 303-443-2122. $75-95.

New Year’s Eve Masquerade Gala — Dance to two live bands at the Hotel Boulderado’s New Year’s Eve Masquerade Gala. Dressed in Black will return this year to play everything from Sinatra to Gaga, and local variety band Milestone will wow gusts with their versatile sounds. A limited number of guests will enjoy a decadent buffet dinner with reserved seating on the mezzanine. 8 p.m. Hotel Boulderado, 2115 13th St., Boulder, 303-442-4344. $80-175.

New Year’s Eve Meditation — Ring in the New Year with prayer and meditation. 11:15 p.m. Unity of Boulder Spiritual Center, 2855 Folsom St., Boulder, 303-442-1411.

New Year’s Eve with The Alcapones — Homegrown ska and reggae tunes inspired by mountain living, The Alcapones mix vocal and instrumental music that brings a new school feel to what was made popular in Jamaica during the 1960s. 10 p.m. Conor O’Neills, 1922 13th St., Boulder, 303-449-1922. $1 Cover.

New Year’s Eve with The Subdudes and Pro Leisure — Led by singer/guitarist Tommy

Malone and accordionist, John Magnie, The Subdudes draw most of their inspiration from the sounds of their native New Orleans, blending blues, gospel, funk and R&B with their own harmony vocals. 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1128 13th St., Boulder, 720-645-2467. $45 general admission.

ShinePotions and LuvGroove Productions Present Awaken 2016 — A night with Dundragon, LuvGroove, Kanyon Walk, and DJ Jahsonic. 8 p.m. Shine Restaurant and Gathering Place, 2027 13th St., Boulder, 303-4490120. $15 advance, $20 at the door.

Yonder Mountain String Band — With their traditional lineup of instruments, the band may look like a traditional bluegrass band at first glance but they’ve created their own music that transcends any genre. 9 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder, 303-786-7030. $66.

EAST COUNTY: Delta Sonics. 9 p.m. Oskar Blues Home Made Liquids and Solids, 1555 S. Hover Road, Longmont, 303-485-9400.

Hamilton Loomis — National artist Hamilton Loomis rings in the New Year at the Dickens Opera House with his blend of blues, funk, soul and rock. Tickets include a champagne toast and party favors. 9 p.m. Dickens Opera House, 300 Main St., Longmont, 303-8349384. $21.

The Johnny O Band. 9 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 6778 N. 79th St., Niwot, 303-652-4186. $10.

New Year’s Eve Blowout @ Oskar Blues Lyons — Two party options for those who want to party all night or those who only want to party some of the night. Choose the dinner option or the party option to suit your needs.

Celebrate the end of 2015 with a toast and tunes KC Groves & The Hometown Honky Tonk Heroes. 4 p.m. or 7 p.m. Oskar Blues Grill & Brew, 303 Main St., Lyons, 303-823-6685.

New Year’s Eve Party — WOW! Children’s Museum’s annual New Year’s Eve party is back with two parties this year. Ring in 2016 a few hours early with noise maker crafts, face painting, family photo station, music and countdown to the New Year. 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. WOW! Children’s Museum, 110 N. Harrison Ave., Lafayette, 303-604-2424. $5-10, infants under 1 get in free.

New Year’s Eve Featuring The Corporation — Two shows, two seatings. First show includes three-course dinner and show from 6:30-9:30 p.m. for $65 per person. Second show rings in the New Year for $30 admission and $20 per person food and drink minimum.

10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Nissi’s, 2675 Northpark Drive, Lafayette, 303-665-2757.

New Year’s Eve with Ian Edwards. 6 p.m., Comedy Works, 1226 15th St., Denver, 303595-3637. $25-55.

Boulder Weekly

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New Year’s Eve with The Magic Beans and The Pine Dwellers. 8 p.m. Stage Stop, 60 Main St., Rollinsville, 303-2580649.

New Year’s Eve Fireworks — Ring in the new year with fireworks that light up the 16th Street Mall. 9 p.m. and midnight, 16th Street Mall, Denver. Free.

Noon Year’s Eve Party — Kids can’t stay up until midnight? Come join us for a Noon Year’s Eve party to remember. Family fun for all ages.

They’ll have balloon creations from Bongo and a magic show by Rosey Rosebud, plus a sparkling cider toast and a balloon drop at noon.

10:30 a.m. The Family Garden, 600 S. Airport Road, Suite B, Longmont, 303-678-1144. $5 per family pre registration and $10 at the door.

New Year’s Party! 9 p.m. Tennyson’s Tap, 4335 W. 38th Ave., Denver, 303-455-4269.

MOUNTAIN TOWNS: New Year’s Eve Dance Party — Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band with Erica Brown, along with special guests Banshee Tree.

Tickets include a dinner buffet and beads.

Tickets available in person or over the phone. 7 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Gold Hill, 303-443-6461. Admission is $32. Cash bar.

New Year’s Eve Party with Rogue. 10 p.m. Pioneer Inn, 15 E. First St. Nederland, 303-258-7733.

BROOMFIELD/WESTMINSTER/ARVADA: Hip Pocket. 9 p.m. Hoffbrau, 9110 Wadsworth Parkway, Westminister, 303-4227755. $20-25.

New Year’s Eve Party — with DJ Drumm and Party O’Clock. Plus, enjoy a special beer brew ready for a midnight cheers. 6 p.m. Odyssey Beerwerks, 5535 W. 56th Ave., Suite 107, Arvada, 303-421-0772. Free.

Psycho X and Karaoke. 7 p.m. Jake’s Roadhouse, 5980 Lamar St., Arvada, 303424-7266. Free.

The String Cheese Incident — Born in 1993 in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, String Cheese Incident has since released several studio and live recordings from their relentless tour schedule. Their history is packed full of surreal experiences, epic moments, groundbreaking involvement and huge accomplishments.

8 p.m. 1stBank Center, 11450 Broomfield Lane, Broomfield, 303-410-0700. $82.50-85.

DENVER: New Year’s Bash — Featuring Slamabama, a free midnight breakfast buffet, balloon drop and a toast of champane. 8 p.m. Grizzly Rose, 5450 N. Valley Highway, Denver, 303295-1330. $15.

New Year’s Eve Countdown Party — The new New Year’s Eve tradition downtown includes three parties on three floors. Sip on drink specials and watch two Colorado DJs battle with the best jams. 8 p.m. Union Station Great Hall and Terminal Hall, 1701 Wynkoop St., Denver, 303-592-6712.

Boulder Weekly

Noon Year’s Eve — Ring in 2016 in classic Noon Year’s Eve style with ball drops and coutdowns every hour, plus there will be rainbow confetti, bubble wrap fireworks, art projects, music, performances and stories. 9 a.m.

Children Museum of Denver, 2121 Children’s Museum Drive, Denver, 303-433-7444.

Paper Bird and The Congress. 9 p.m. The Oriental Theater, 4335 W. 44th Ave., Denver, 720420-0030. $25.

Resolution New Year’s Eve — Multiple parties under one roof by the Collective 360 with DJs, games, decorations and more.

8 p.m. The Curtis Hotel, 1405 Curtis St., Denver, 303-571-0300. $119-$129.

Ring in The New Year Central Style — Central is offering a four-course meal with choices to fit any palate. Make sure to add on a wine paring for $25. 4:30 p.m. Central Bistro & Bar, 1691 Central St., Denver, 303-477-4582. $75 White Rose Gala — A 1920s-themed celebration where attendees can enjoy Vegas-style mash-up music, swing, big band and more across multiple levels and balconies. Listen to the tunes from several DJs, and Barron’s Big Band will perform live. 9 p.m. Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 1101 13th St., Denver, 303-893-4100. $35109.

Zoo Year’s Eve — A celebration for the entire family. Enjoy the annual Zoo Lights installation and a countdown to the New Year at 9 p.m., so your kiddos can get in the spirit but also get to bed early. 5:30 p.m. Denver Zoo, 2300 Steele St., Denver, 303-3371400. Included with Zoo Lights admission.

GOLDEN: Austin Young Band and My Blue Sky — Colorado native Austin Lee Young has been playing guitar since 12 years old and hasn’t stopped rocking since. He’ll be joined by fellow Colorado players My Blue Sky, which plays a mixture of rock, jazz and blues.

Joining them on stage will be award-winning Gunslinger. 8 p.m. Buffalo Rose, 1119 Washington Ave., Golden, 303-278-6800. $15-25.

New Year’s Eve — To ring in a delicious new year, Bridgewater Grill is offering a three-course dinner or dinner and wine paring. Enjoy music from Clear Creek Jazz Quintet along with your meal. 6 p.m. Bridgewater Grill, 800 11th St., Golden, 303-279-2010. $49-60.

New Year’s Eve Celebration — Head to In the Zone for live music and a country line band. 9 p.m. In the Zone, 15600 W. 44th Ave., Golden, 303-279-3888.

Open at 10am New Year’s Day

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WHAT

ARE YOU

DOING TONIGHT?

American Life in Poetry: Column 559

by J. Allyn Rosser

Several years ago, I co-edited an anthology of poems about birds, and I wish I’d had the opportunity to include this one, a delight. J. Allyn Rosser lives in Ohio. Her most recent book is Mimi’s Trapeze (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014). — Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate

Pelicans in December One can’t help admiring their rickety grace and old-world feathers like seasoned boardwalk planks.

They pass in silent pairs, as if a long time ago they had wearied of calling out.

The wind tips them, their ungainly, light-brown weight, into a prehistoric wobble, wings’-end fingers stretching from fingerless gloves, necks slightly tucked and stiff, peering forward and down, like old couples arm in arm on icy sidewalks, careful, careful, mildly surprised by how difficult it has become Pictured: Leftover Salmon Photo by Susan France

to stay dignified and keep moving even after the yelping gulls have gone; even after the scattered sand, and the quietly lodged complaints.

Boulder County’s Definitive Guide to Local Events BoulderCountyEvents.com 4,000+ monthly events

Comprehensive details Brought to you by 46 December 31, 2015

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Poem copyright ©2014 by J. Allyn Rosser, “Pelicans in November,” from Mimi’s Trapeze, (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014). Poem reprinted by permission of J. Allyn Rosser and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2015 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.

Send poetry submissions of 250 words or fewer to poetry@boulderweekly.com.

Boulder Weekly

film

Quirky director and screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, uses stop-animation for the first time in his film Anomalisa.

Ghost in the machine

Even with puppets ‘Anomalisa’ reflects humanity

by Michael J. Casey

O

n some level, every work of art is a reflection of the human condition.

Who we are and how we relate to others and the world around us is the concern of every artist, but for some, that concern is an obsession.

Charlie Kaufman is that obsession. Known initially as the writer of quirky and philosophically complex screenplays — Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) — Kaufman stepped out on to a larger stage as writer/director in 2008’s Synecdoche, New York, a movie that manages to encompass all things, particularly how the individual relates to the sum of all parts.

Seven years later, Kaufman follows that grandness with something much smaller — puppet-sized small. Anomalisa is Kaufman’s first stop-motion animation, and just like every other Kaufman movie, it is unlike anything you’ve ever seen or might expect.

Anomalisa centers on Michael (voiced by David Thewlis), an LA-based customer service expert who has developed a small celebrity following. But with advice like, “smile more,” Michael knows that he is a hack and that this gravy train will soon run out. His book tour has brought him to Cincinnati and here, Michael will have his mid-life crisis and his existential crisis all wrapped into one.

The people that Michael meets can sense that something is amiss and they calmly suggest that he see the zoo, or maybe try the chili, but Michael isn’t interested in the zoo or the chili. Michael’s world has gone quiet and gray, and it has driven him deep into his psyche. So deep that there is him and there is everyone else, and everyone that Michael meets — male or female, young or old — is voiced

by Tom Noonan.

Michael’s Fregoli Delusion — the belief that different people are a single person in disguise — is cracked open when he happens upon Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh), the only unique voice Michael can hear in a cacophony of blandness.

This anomaly gives Michael hope, but his crisis of personality is far from over.

Kaufman’s mark appears, and true to form, it is painfully awkward, embarrassing and downright terrifying. Like his previous films, Kaufman is not the type to find satisfaction in the obvious. Behind every corner and every good intention, there is a conspiracy lying in wait. The dreadful truth of it is: he is often right.

That alone would be enough to make Anomalisa a Charlie Kaufman film, but this goes one step further. To tell this story, Kaufmann enlisted the work of Duke Johnson — who shares directing credit — for a movie entirely comprised of stopmotion animation. The results are as magnificent as they are human.

But Anomalisa is not for everyone. When the movie played at this past November’s Denver Film Festival, a generous amount of nervous tittering crept through the crowd during Anomalisa’s central sex scene — twittering that continued into the lobby and well into the after party. Maybe the animation put them off, maybe they were caught off guard by the tenderness of it, or maybe they simply weren’t prepared to see their own neuroses, wants and desires laid naked quite like that. Sometimes looking in the mirror can be a startling revelation.

Boulder Weekly

SATURDAY JANUARY 2 9:00 PM

SOLAR SUPERSTORMS SATURDAY JANUARY 9 4:30 PM

SUPER VOLCANOES 9:00 PM

BLACK HOLES: THE OTHER SIDE OF INFINITY SUNDAY JANUARY 10 4:30 PM

SOLAR SUPERSTORMS

BOEDECKER THEATER Independent film & cultural performances in high definition.

THE WONDERS

Winner of Cannes Grand Prix Dec 31 - 4:00 | Jan 1 - 4:00 | Jan 2 - 4:00 & 8:30

THE MESSENGER

global plight of song birds Dec 31 - 6:30 | Jan 1 - 2:00 & 6:30 Jan 2 - 2:00 & 6:30

FRIDAY NIGHT WEIRD your weekly dose of the unusual

DARKSIDE OF THE RAINBOW in stunning 5.1 surround Jan 1 - 8:30 & 10:30

AFTERNOON OF A FAUN, VISCERA, TCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX, CARMEN:

ROYAL BALLET

Jan 3 - 1:00 | Jan 6 - 1:00 | $15

THURSDAY JANUARY 21 7:00 PM

VERA RUBIN: BRINGING THE DARK TO LIGHT SATURDAY JANUARY 23 2:00 PM & 7:00 PM

VERA RUBIN: BRINGING THE DARK TO LIGHT

Fiske Planetarium - Regent Drive

(Next to Coors Event Center, main campus CU Boulder)

www. fiske.colorado.edu 303-492-5002

LIFE

Jan 6 - 4:30 | Jan 7 - 2:00 & 7:00 Jan 8 - 3:15 & 8:00 | Jan 9 - 3:15 & 8:00

BARISTA

Annual international coffee competition is intense Jan 6 - 7:00 | Jan 7 - 4:30 | Jan 8 - 1:00 & 5:45 Jan 9 - 1:00 & 5:45

FRIDAY NIGHT WEIRD: FREAKS (1932) Jan 8 -10:30PM | Jan 9 - 11:00AM with cereal and juice bar

CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA/PAGLIACCI:

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE Jan 10 - 1:00 | Jan 13 - 1:00 | $15

TROUBLEMAKERS:

The Story of Land Art Jan 13 - 4:30 | Jan 14 - 2:30 & 7:00 Jan 15 - 4:00 & 8:30 | Jan 16 - 1:30 & 6:00

ENJOY HAZEL’S BAR AT THE BOE 26TH & WALNUT STREET - BOULDER

303.440.7826 x 110 WWW.THEDAIRY.ORG December 31, 2015 47

EAT BRUNCH 5.00 BLOODYS MIMOSAS & MARGS $

11am - 3pm Saturday & Sunday

Gluten Free Crab Mac and Cheese

Chow Down and Drink Plenty!

Ring in 2016!

Open for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

48 December 31, 2015

7:30am - 8:00pm Every Day

3070 28th St (Unit B), Boulder 720-470-4348 • verdeboulder.com

Boulder Weekly

cuisine review Susan France

T

he food at Frasca Food & Wine was so good that, at one moment, I cried. It had never happened to me before, nor should it have — the only times one should cry while eating is if they’ve been rescued by a cargo ship and offered a hot meal for the first time in Frasca Food & months or if they’re Wine 1738 Pearl St., eating while watching Boulder, a rerun of Extreme 303-442-6966 Makeover: Home Edition.

But neither of those scenarios were the case. My eyes welled up simply because I was eating something so good. It was a simple dish of broad noodles with a light veal ragu and sautéed broccolini. There was just the tiniest bit of sharp shaved cheese on top.

To me, the dish tasted like the earth, both in a gustatory and metaphorical way.

Sure all of the components of the dish balanced one another in taste and texture, but that’s what you expect at a multiple James Beard Award-winning restaurant.

What you don’t expect in a simple dish of pasta is the feeling that you are eating something grown, cultivated, shipped and prepared specifically for you at that specific time and place.

Much of Frasca’s food, and that dish of pappardelle in particular, so adeptly reminds the diner that a good chef is an artist and a curator. To pare down the endless combinations of foods to just the four or five ingredients on the plate is the same skill a writer, painter or musician hones in their crafts. When done well, it is awe-inspiring.

I didn’t even want to like Frasca. My personal prejudice against high-end, high-price Italian food comes from years of eating effortless and fantastic plates of Italian staples from saltimbocca to bucatini

Worth it

ball lineup. The plate preceding it was a 7X wagyu beef carpaccio with light oil and a few slivers of fresh, crunchy radicchio. I felt a primal, sexual energy eating the carpaccio, whose thin, raw slices melted immediately on the tongue but tasted like if Cleopatra was a cow and you sliced open her thigh while she was napping, fanned by servants on a bed of sage and peacock feathers, and licked the muscle. I wanted to have sex with the beef carpaccio is what I’m saying.

The complimentary opener of a salted cod on a polenta cracker was as joyful and carefree as living in the world of Finding Nemo, finding him and then eating him on a polenta cracker.

The folks at Frasca care, I know, but I wonder if Chef Lachlan MackinnonPatterson and Master Sommelier Bobby Stuckey (both owners) look at the few bad Yelp reviews of their restaurant and figure out whether to laugh or cry. “This was just okay; it didn’t have any flair to it (no seasoning),” one reviewer wrote of a venison tartare. Another wrote “rated best classy bar in Boulder, but has Home Depot lightbulbs hanging from an extension chord as a make shift chandelier.”

I wasn’t there on those nights, but these people were wrong, and they deserve to have their Internet subscriptions cancelled.

I mean, I don’t know. I could go on about the beautiful cannelloni stuffed with Maine lobster, or the frico caldo, which is like the best-ever latke. I could go on about the duck breast and hazelnut, or the pork loin and black truffle. I could go on about the exceptional staff knowledge and the entrance-to-exit hospitality.

But you should just experience it. If you can get one moment like I had in the pappardelle — one simultaneously crow-eating and life-affirming — the price of admission is worth it.

This is the best restaurant in Boulder County and its second is not even close

by Matt Cortina all’amatriciana at any number of modest pizzerias back in the Northeast. I didn’t want to pay $300 for food I’d gotten hundreds of times in a paper bag from a guy in a wifebeater named Vito.

I didn’t understand why there was such a focus on the food of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, a small region in way Northeast Italy, just west of Slovenia; a region I’d never heard of before coming to Boulder. And I was even skeptical of those dozen or so James Beard Award nominations and wins for outstanding wine program and service, as well as this year’s semifinal nod for outstanding restaurant.

But I was just being a hater. I couldn’t understand, and Frasca don’t care if I or anyone else did.

The pappardelle was a humbling dish for me, but the dishes before it set it up for glory like a good base-

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50 December 31, 2015

Boulder Weekly

nibbles From menudo to beet sugar rum My top 10 (or so) Colorado tastes of 2015

by John Lehndorff

B

one broth was big in 2015 in Boulder — so popular it is even available on tap in multiple flavors. Personally, I’ll take my bone broth — animal bones boiled in water — in the traditional form of Jewish chicken soup, Japanese ramen and Vietnamese pho. Other hot local trends locally last year ranged from hoof-to-snout butchery and farm-to-fork dining, to food waste prevention and vegan fast food.

Years from now I doubt I’ll remember what was hot and what was not in 2015 any more than I can recall when Balsamic vinegar first became cool in Colorado. (I know it was a long time ago because now

Boulder Weekly

“Balsamic” is a “flavor” of house-brand frozen chicken am enamored of Moxie’s super-crusty chew-worthy dinners.) And I’d be hard-pressed to describe in detail Algerian baguette which was made to be slathered with unsalted butter. Moxie Bread Co., 641 Main St., many of the 1,000-plus meals I ate in 2015, but there Louisville; 720-420-9616; moxiebreadco.com are a few sterling moments — flavors, aromas, tex2. Menudo and tures, aftertastes and John Lehndorff chile-pickled carespecially afterglows rots: It’s worth mak— that will stay ing your way to with me.

Longmont’s La As a writer for Panda for its classic various publications bar as well as soft and municipalities, corn tortillas with I’ve been lucky carnitas topped with enough to visit eatsalsas ranging in eries, bakeries and degrees of scorch even distilleries from mild to regretacross the state in the past year from table. I like the fresh Lafayette to carrot chunks pickLarkspur and out to led with onions and Dotsero. Here are a jalapenos with a few of my favorite bowl of weekendtastes — the ones only menudo with a I’d try again in a hot oil sheen and Crust lovers are discovering the dark loaves at Louisville’s Moxie heartbeat. bits of chewy tripe.

Bread Co. Remember: Always La Panda Mexican check ahead to Restaurant, 1118 make sure these small businesses are open and serving Main St., Longmont; 303-682-0649 the dish you are anticipating that day.

3. Fresh English muffins (and doughnuts, too): 1. Algerian baguette: Moxie Bread Co. is famous The Vail Valley richly deserves its reputation as an for its butter-drenched kouign amann (queen amahn) expensive place to grab a bite to eat, but there are pastries in assorted sweet and savory variations, which have flown off the shelf. As a confirmed breadophile I see NIBBLES Page 53

December 31, 2015 51

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nibbles NIBBLES from Page 51

Kim Long

some notable exceptions. Avon’s Northside Coffee & Kitchen fries up some notable maple bacon doughnuts, bakes breads and croissants and serves breakfast through dinnertime when it becomes a sit-down eatery with a wine list. I’d go back any time to enjoy a true rarity: big, house-baked English muffins toasted until crunchy with honey pooled in its nooks and in its crannies. Northside Coffee & Kitchen, 20 Nottingham Road, Avon; 970-949-1423, northsidecoffeekitchen.com (Bakery items also available at Northside Kitchen Grab & Go in Vail.)

4. Green chile ramen: Chef Frank Bonnano of Mizuna fame is behind this Smoked lamb shank is on the menu at Denver’s Roaming Buffalo Bar-B-Que. cubbyhole eatery but Bones is an independent down-to-earth experience. The John Lehndorff pork belly steamed buns and escargot potstickers are well-made, but the star dish is green chile ramen.

Long-boiled broth surrounds braised pork, noodles and chewy hominy garnished with a perfectly poached egg, crumbled queso fresco and slices of fresh jalapeno. The parts meld into a memorable bowl of warmth on a chilly day. Bones, 701 Grant St., Denver; 303-8602929; bonesdenver.com 5. Square-cut bacon and ricotta pizza: For East Coast emigres like me, Rosalee’s looks and smells like the pizzerias of the homeland. The eatery offers round Regular sized cake and yeast-raised doughnuts are pies too, but I chose the square Sicilian-style with a overshadowed by family-sized “birthday cake” doughyeasty, crunch crust amply graced with plum tomato nuts at Northside Coffee & Kitchen just off I-70 in Avon. sauce, bacon, ricotta, whole milk mozzarella and Pecorino Romano. The gluten-free “alternative” is 6. Cheese masala dosa: Tiffins is Boulder’s inconwonderful in its simplicity: Think house-made polenspicuous temple of great homemade South Indian fare ta crowned with tomato sauce, mozzarella and from iddlis (rice cakes) to vada (savory doughnuts).

Pecorino Romano. Rosalee’s Pizzeria, 461 Main, Topping the lineup is the masala dosa, a huge thin Longmont; 303-485-5020; rosaleespizzeria.com. crepe made from rice and lentil flours encircling

Boulder Weekly

spiced mashed potatoes with cheese and onions. Add some chutney and my taste buds offer a standing ovation. Tiffins India Cafe, 2416 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder; 303-442-2500; tiffinsrestaurant.com 7. Bialys: They are very pricey and only available on Saturday and Sunday but once you experience a fresh warm bialy at Rosenberg’s you understand why people stand in a long line to get them.

A bialy is an addictive Polish yeasted roll that is baked but not boiled first like bagels and has chopped onions in the middle instead of a hole. Another Rosenberg’s attraction is The Frenchie, a breakfast sandwich made with a Frenchtoasted cinnamon raisin bagel, eggs, sausage, cheddar and a maple syrup drizzle.

Rosenberg’s Bagels, 725 E. 26th Ave., Denver; 720-4409880; rosenbergsbagels.com 8. Colorado beet sugar rum: Finally there’s a reason to get off of I-70 at the Dotsero exit west of Vail.

The handbuilt Stoneyard Distillery and tasting room beckons with a handful of spirits made from Colorado beet sugar and water from the nearby Eagle River. At a slightly higher 84 proof that resists dilution, the rum is “polished” to a high level of smoothness with a flavor that suggests sugar cookies. Stoneyard also produces an aged rum. Stoneyard Distillery, 4600 Hwy 6, Dotsero; 970-471-0284; stoneyarddistillery.com.

9. Ropa vieja empanadas: Simple but hard-tofind pleasures are tucked away in an easy-to-miss Aurora shopping center. Cuba Bakery and Café is one of a handful of places where you can settle in with a real guava and cheese pastry and a cup of sweet, dark Cuban coffee. Besides the sweets lining the glass see NIBBLES Page 54

December 31, 2015 53

nibbles John Lehndorff

- FOR SNARF’S -

Steaming bowls of menudo with a squeeze of lime is the weekend-only magnet that draws regulars to La Panda Mexican Restaurant in Longmont.

NIBBLES from Page 53 Kim Long

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cases, savory island dishes are available including pressed Cuban sandwiches and tamales. Bliss is a couple of warm empanadas stuffed with ropa vieja, shredded braised beef.

Cuba Bakery and Café, 5028 E Mississippi Ave., Aurora; 303-7522822.

10. Smoked lamb shank: Roaming Buffalo, in Denver’s Harvard Gulch neighborhood, dishes excellent chef-made fare Cuban tamales are available at the Cuban Bakery and Café in Aurora. including pecan- and oak-smoked Colorado bison short ribs and WORDS TO CHEW ON the nearly mythical smoked lamb “Another peculiarity of this country shanks you’ll taste in your dreams. is the absence of napkins, even in the Must-taste sides include “redeye” cowhomes of the wealthy. Napkins, as a boy beans made with dark-roasted cofrule, are never used and one has to wipe fee and roasted corn and cheese. one’s mouth on the tablecloth, which in Roaming Buffalo Bar-B-Que, 2387 S. consequence suffers in appearance.”

Downing St., Denver; 303-722-2226; — American colonies tourist Baron roamingbuffalobbq.com Louis de Closen, 1780.

Honorable Mentions: I encourage you to also investigate the Turkish coffee at Kiwi International Delights (Avon), bacon jam at the Organic Sandwich Co. (Boulder), green papaya salad at Pattaya Thai Restaurant (Lakewood), and roasted lechon at the Sunrise Grill (Aurora).

John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles at 8:25 a.m. Thursdays on KGNU, 88.5 FM, 1390 FM, kgnu.org. Archived shows at news.kgnu.org/category/features/radio-nibbles. Send your comments, quibbles and details about special events for National Pie Day ( Jan. 23) to: Nibbles@boulderweekly.com.

Boulder Weekly

drink Big love for big Champagne

$10 Lunch Mon-Fri • 11am-2pm

by David White

W

ine writers love explaining why Champagne and other sparkling wines deserve a spot at the dinner table all year long.

Good sparklers are characterized by vibrant acidity and freshness, which help them cut through spicy meals, complement savory food and elevate even the simplest of dishes. Plus, they’re delicious every night of the week, regardless of whether there’s anything to celebrate.

But we inevitably write about this topic in late December. After all, Champagne houses and retailers alike spend millions each year to convince us that New Year’s Eve is best enjoyed with a glass of sparkling wine. And marketing matters.

The focus of these columns is just as predictable.

Writers who cater to the everyday consumer offer tips on how to find value, steering readers toward sparkling alternatives like Cremant de Bourgogne, Cava and Prosecco. After all, Champagne isn’t cheap.

Writers who cater to a more sophisticated audience laud “grower” Champagnes.

Made by the farmers who grow the grapes, these wines have exploded in popularity over the past few years and offer a refreshing alternative to big brands like Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot. Plus, just as food consumers feel better about purchasing fruit at the local farmers’ market, wine consumers feel better about supporting grower-producers.

Consequently, few writers champion the brands you can easily find at wine shops across the country.

This is unfortunate. While Champagne’s big brands aren’t trendy right now, the top producers deliver consistent, high quality wines year after year.

And their offerings have never been better.

Earlier this year, I hosted several friends for a blind tasting focused on these brands.

We focused entirely on non-vintage wines.

Champagne is France’s most northern wine region, so growing conditions can vary significantly and the grapes often struggle to ripen. Since Champagne houses strive to offer a consistent style every year, utilizing multiple vintages helps winemakers achieve uniformity.

Of course, if the growing season is strong, many producers will also produce a vintage bottling.

We also kept the tasting limited to blends. Most Champagne houses purchase grapes from growers across the region, utilizing varying amounts of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, and Chardonnay, again to achieve consistency. So for the blind tasting, we avoided Blanc de Noirs (comprised of Pinot Noir and/or Pinot Meunier) and Blanc de Blancs (comprised entirely of Chardonnay).

Finally, we limited ourselves to “Brut,” the most popular style of sweetness.

We threw in one of my favorite grower-producers, Chartogne-Taillet, and also included Costco’s Kirkland Signature Champagne.

The biggest surprise? Kirkland. With five first place votes, it won the tasting!

That Costco’s Champagne did so well makes sense. The wine is produced by Manuel Janisson, a well-known producer with a long history in the region. Of course, the Kirkland label lacks charm; it’s hard to see the bottle and not think of generic toilet paper or peanuts. And I’ve since learned that the wine lacks the consistency one would expect from Champagne, so be sure to try a bottle before stocking up.

Among more traditional labels, Moet & Chandon’s “Imperial” almost always delivers. Other favorites at around the same price include Pol Roger’s “White Foil” and Perrier Jouet’s “Grand Brut.” For about $15 more, Bollinger’s “Special Cuvée” is worth trying. Rich, toasty and firmly structured, it’s always impressive.

Although Veuve Clicquot’s “Yellow Label” has long been associated with luxury, the wine is typically uninspiring. Nicolas Feuillatte’s Brut Reserve is similar.

There’s never been a better time to explore Champagne. And while there’s nothing like popping a cork when the clock strikes midnight, make sure to save some for January and beyond.

David White is the founder and editor of Terroirist.com, which was named “Best Overall Wine Blog” at the 2013 Wine Blog Awards.

Boulder Weekly

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ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19:

John Koenig is an artist who invents new words. Here’s one that’s applicable to your journey in 2016: “keyframe.”

Koenig defines it as being a seemingly mundane phase of your life that is in fact a turning point. Major plot twists in your big story arrive half-hidden amidst a stream of innocuous events. They don’t come about through “a series of jolting epiphanies,” Koenig says, but rather “by tiny imperceptible differences between one ordinary day and the next.” In revealing this secret, I hope I’ve alerted you to the importance of acting with maximum integrity and excellence in your everyday routine.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20:

The coming months look like one of the best times ever for your love life. Old romantic wounds are finally ready to be healed. You’ll know what you have to do to shed tired traditions and bad habits that have limited your ability to get the spicy sweetness you deserve. Are you up for the fun challenge?

Be horny for deep feelings. Be exuberantly aggressive in honoring your primal yearnings. Use your imagination to dream up new approaches to getting what you want. The innovations in intimacy that you initiate in the coming months will keep bringing you gifts and teachings for years to come.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20:

In ancient times, observers of the sky knew the difference between stars and planets. The stars remained fixed in their places. The planets wandered around, always shifting positions in relationship to the stars.

But now and then, at irregular intervals, a very bright star would suddenly materialize out of nowhere, stay in the same place for a while, and then disappear. Chinese astronomers called these “guest stars.” We refer to them as supernovae. They are previously dim or invisible stars that explode, releasing tremendous energy for a short time. I suspect that in 2016, you may experience the metaphorical equivalent of a guest star. Learn all you can from it. It’ll provide teachings and blessings that could feed you for years.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22:

Be alert for an abundance of interesting lessons in 2016. You

astrology

will be offered teachings about a variety of practical subjects, including how to take care of yourself really well, how to live the life you want to live, and how to build the connections that serve your dreams. If you are even moderately responsive to the prompts and nudges that come your way, you will become smarter than you thought possible. So just imagine how savvy you’ll be if you ardently embrace your educational opportunities.

(Please note that some of these tially in disguise.)

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22:

In the 19th century, horses were a primary mode of personal transportation.

Some people rode them, and others sat in carriages and wagons that horses Go to RealAstrology.com to check out pulled. But as cities grew Rob Brezsny’s EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO larger, a problem emerged: HOROSCOPES and DAILY TEXT MESSAGE the mounting manure left HOROSCOPES. The audio horoscopes behind on the roads. It are also available by phone at 1-877became an ever-increasing 873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700. challenge to clear away the equine “pollution.” In 1894, a British newspaper predicted that the streets of London would be covered with 9 opportunities may be parfeet of the stuff by 1950. But then something unexpected happened: cars. Gradually, the threat of an excremental apocalypse waned. I present this story as an example of LEO what I expect for you in 2016: a pressing dilemma that will JULY 23-AUG. 22: gradually dissolve because of the arrival of a factor you can’t The silkworm grows fast. Once it hatches, it eats conimagine yet. stantly for three weeks. By the time it spins its cocoon, it’s 10,000 times heavier than it was in the beginning.

SCORPIO On the other hand, a mature, 60-foot-tall saguaro cactus OCT. 23-NOV. 21: may take 30 years to fully grow a new side arm. It’s in The longest river in the world flows through eastern Africa: no hurry. From what I can tell, Leo, 2015 was more like the Nile. It originates below the equator and empties into a silkworm year for you, whereas 2016 will more closely the Mediterranean Sea. Although its current flows north, its resemble a saguaro. Keep in mind that while the saguaro prevailing winds blow south. That’s why sailors have found phase is different from your silkworm time, it’s just as it easily navigable for thousands of years. They can either go important. with the flow of the water or use sails to harness the power of the breeze. I propose that we make the Nile your official VIRGO metaphor in 2016, Scorpio. You need versatile resources AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: that enable you to come and go as you please — that are “The sky calls me,” wrote Virgo teacher and poet Sri flexible in supporting your efforts to go where you want and Chinmoy. “The wind calls me. The moon and stars call when you want. me. The dense groves call me. The dance of the fountain calls me. Smiles call me, tears call me. A faint melody SAGITTARIUS calls me. The morn, noon and eve call me. Everyone is NOV. 22-DEC. 21: searching for a playmate. Everyone is calling me, ‘Come, In many cases, steel isn’t fully useful if it’s too hard. come!’” In 2016, Virgo, I suspect you will have a lot of Manufacturers often have to soften it a bit. This process, firsthand experience with feelings like these. Sometimes which is called tempering, makes the steel springier and life’s seductiveness may overwhelm you, activating conmore malleable. Car parts, for example, can’t be too rigid. If fused desires to go everywhere and do everything. On they were, they’d break too easily. I invite you to use “temother occasions, you will be enchanted by the lush pering” as one of your main metaphors in 2016, Sagittarius. invitations, and will know exactly how to respond and You’re going to be strong and vigorous, and those qualities reciprocate.

will serve you best if you keep them flexible. Do you know the word “ductile”? If not, look it up. It’ll be a word of power for you.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19:

In his essay , poet Gary Snyder says that wildness “is perennially within us, dormant as a hard-shelled seed, awaiting the fire or flood that awakes it again.” The fact that it’s a “hard-shelled” seed is a crucial detail. The vital stuff inside the stiff outer coating may not be able to break out and start growing without the help of a ruckus. A fire or flood? They might do the job.

But I propose, Capricorn, that in 2016 you find an equally vigorous but less disruptive prod to liberate your dormant wildness. Like what? You could embark on a brave pilgrimage or quest. You could dare yourself to escape your comfort zone. Are there any undomesticated fantasies you’ve been suppressing? Unsuppress them!

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18:

Frederick the Great was King of Prussia between 1740 and 1786. He was also an Aquarius who sometimes experimented with eccentric ideas. When he brewed his coffee, for example, he used champagne instead of water.

Once the hot elixir was ready to drink, he mixed in a dash of powdered mustard. In light of the astrological omens, I suspect that Frederick’s exotic blend might be an apt symbol for your life in 2016: a vigorous, rich, complex synthesis of champagne, coffee, and mustard.

(P.S. Frederick testified that “champagne carries happiness to the brain.”)

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20:

My Piscean acquaintance Arturo plays the piano as well as anyone I’ve heard. He tells me that he can produce 150 different sounds from any single key. Using the foot pedals accounts for some of the variation. How he touches a key is an even more important factor. It can be percussive, fluidic, staccato, relaxed, lively, and many other moods. I invite you to cultivate a similar approach to your unique skills in 2016. Expand and deepen your ability to draw out the best in them. Learn how to be even more expressive with the powers you already possess.

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(IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) An irreverent and not always accurate view of the world

HOVERBOARDS, MIKE TYSON AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Catholic Church can be accused of being behind the times for not embracing the future once again.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Pablo in Manila, Philippines, has ruled that hoverboards don’t belong in church by suspending a priest who rode around the aisles on the futuristic technology, while singing a Christmas song to the applause of the congregation, to close out Christmas Eve Mass. The use of the hoverboard was disrespectful to the Eucharist, the San Pablo diocese ruled, and “it is not a personal celebration where one can capriciously introduce something to get the attention of the people,” according to a statement on its Facebook page. The priest has apologized, promised it will not happen again and has been suspended to “reflect” on his actions.

The statement was released after a video of the priest rolling down the aisle went viral. It trails just behind a video of Mike Tyson laughing as he uses a hoverboard in his living room, before he loses his balance and falls comically for the world to see. The Diocese’s decision has elicited comments both supporting and shaming the suspension of the priest and several articles from major news outlets.

If only such immediate actions, public apologies and promises and media attention were given to Catholic priests accused of child molestation in the last several decades, the bank scandal of the 1980s, the corruption of priests in the Middle Ages or political antics of the Church throughout history. If only.

KEEP TREADING WATER, SANTA

Since he can’t swim, we have to assume that Yukon Cornelius is the latest victim of global warming. Scientists around the world are reporting that a freak storm has actually pushed the temperature at the North Pole above the freezing mark to approximately 35 degrees Fahrenheit. No kidding, the temp at the North Pole as of this week is warmer than most of the Midwestern United States and is more than 50 degrees warmer than it usually is this time of year.

And if that doesn’t scare the crap out of all you climate change deniers, then try explaining why more people Boulder Weekly

were killed by tornados at Christmas time this year than died by twister throughout the other 11 and a half months. By the way, when was the last time the Mississippi River flooded in January? Let us know when you find that one.

But don’t worry folks, there’s still hope for the planet. The TV commercials are still saying that the oil and gas industry has been fracking safely for more than 65 years and the industry employees featured in the commercials promise they’ve “looked into

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Earth.nullschool.net Wikimedia Commons

icumi

(IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) An irreverent and not always accurate view of the world

HOVERBOARDS, MIKE TYSON AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Catholic Church can be accused of being behind the times for not embracing the future once again.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Pablo in Manila, Philippines, has ruled that hoverboards don’t belong in church by suspending a priest who rode around the aisles on the futuristic technology, while singing a Christmas song to the applause of the congregation, to close out Christmas Eve Mass. The use of the hoverboard was disrespectful to the Eucharist, the San Pablo diocese ruled, and “it is not a personal celebration where one can capriciously introduce something to get the attention of the people,” according to a statement on its Facebook page. The priest has apologized, promised it will not happen again and has been suspended to “reflect” on his actions.

The statement was released after a video of the priest rolling down the aisle went viral. It trails just behind a video of Mike Tyson laughing as he uses a hoverboard in his living room, before he loses his balance and falls comically for the world to see. The Diocese’s decision has elicited comments both supporting and shaming the suspension of the priest and several articles from major news outlets.

If only such immediate actions, public apologies and promises and media attention were given to Catholic priests accused of child molestation in the last several decades, the bank scandal of the 1980s, the corruption of priests in the Middle Ages or political antics of the Church throughout history. If only.

KEEP TREADING WATER, SANTA

Since he can’t swim, we have to assume that Yukon Cornelius is the latest victim of global warming. Scientists around the world are reporting that a freak storm has actually pushed the temperature at the North Pole above the freezing mark to approximately 35 degrees Fahrenheit. No kidding, the temp at the North Pole as of this week is warmer than most of the Midwestern United States and is more than 50 degrees warmer than it usually is this time of year.

And if that doesn’t scare the crap out of all you climate change deniers, then try explaining why more people Boulder Weekly

were killed by tornados at Christmas time this year than died by twister throughout the other 11 and a half months. By the way, when was the last time the Mississippi River flooded in January? Let us know when you find that one.

But don’t worry folks, there’s still hope for the planet. The TV commercials are still saying that the oil and gas industry has been fracking safely for more than 65 years and the industry employees featured in the commercials promise they’ve “looked into

it and it’s safe.”

So forget about Santa Claus drowning. It doesn’t have anything to do with burning fossil fuels. They couldn’t say it on TV if it wasn’t true.

Could they?

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EEDBETWEENTHELINES

by Sarah Haas

Not your grandma’s cookbook

I

Povy Kendal Atchison

f you were to see Robyn Grigg the way garlic hits your nose when you walk into ple realize how privileged we are to Lawrence’s new cookbook lying Rao’s,” Lawrence writes in the introduction of her sit here and talk about this and out on your grandma’s kitchen book. “The genie was out of the bottle. Cannabis make money on it while other peotable, you probably wouldn’t revealed itself to me as food — to be simmered, sauples’ lives are ruined by the very think twice. The book’s glossy teed and savored rather than smoked.” same drug.” cover shows a plate of pesto pasta Just like wine, craft beer or fine cheese, cannabis Lawrence not only acknowledges garnished with lovely green leafs. presents as a sensory experience. In order to fine tune the disparity in the demographic of Pick up the book and thumb through and leverage those qualities, Lawrence enlisted a people leading the legalized cannabis it and you will see more of the same dozen chefs and a barkeep to help her explore and industry and those persecuted by the — tantalizing photographs and reciutilize the natural flavors of cannabis to bestow its flaillegal trade — she is driven by it. pes of gourmet dishes worthy of any vors and aromas to food.

Finding herself among the fortunate home cook’s attention.

But cannabis is a different sort of ingredient that few, she realized her role was to help The remarkable thing about this imbues more than just flavor. The psychoactive effects normalize the cannabis and its conunassuming cookbook is that it’s all of the plant contribute to the experience of a cannabis sumption by incorporating it into about weed. The Cannabis Kitchen infused meal. For Lawrence, this is not only medicihome kitchens across the country the Cookbook by Robyn Griggs Lawrence Infused Pine Forest Fizz from The way she brought it into her own. nal, but sacred. She says the plant brings us closer, but normalizes cannabis to the point that Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook, to what exactly she isn’t sure. For her at least, it brings Her culinary journey through garnished with marijuana leaves. it becomes a casual culinary tool, health and prosperity, but it offers a diversity of benecannabis began the first time she rather than a controversial, if legal fits to those who use it. stepped into a medical dispensary to substance.

“Cannabis is part of many Coloradoan’s fanatically fill her prescription. She expected Lawrence underwent her own process of normalhealthy lifestyles, a source of inspiration and pleasure there to be one kind of weed with one kind of smell. ization in her journey as a marijuana user. In 2009 her Instead she experienced multitudes of each. for a diverse group of professionals, carpenters, outdoctor prescribed her marijuana and in the aftermath door enthusiasts, yogis, and soccer moms,” Lawrence “When [the budtender] opened the jars, the she wrestled with her own fears about the drug as she writes. “It has brought tax and tourism dollars, worldessential oils from those nuggets filled my nostrils — struggled to explain it to her friends and peers and to wide attention, and a deep responsibility.” oaky eucalyptus, cheesy lemon, musky blueberry — incorporate it into her home That responsibility comes life as a mother and wife. with the removal of the legal The cookbook is just as barrier to marijuana, allowing much about that process of Pine Forest Fizz by Rabib Rafiq 1) Extract egg white from egg into shaker. users to release fears of persecuAdd lemon juice. Dry shake (shake without unraveling bias as it is about Serves One tion. In the wake of that fear, cooking or cannabis. She THC per serving: 1 milligram ice) for 1 minute or more, until solution is the state is left grappling with opens her book with a dedicaextremely frothy. society’s lingering fears about tion to all of those who have 1 egg white 2) Add gin, simple syrup, raspberry liqueur, the plant. Lawrence hopes, 3⁄4 ounce lemon juice and bitters. Shake hard with ice. (Alternatively, through cooking and conversadied, been imprisoned or per11⁄2 ounces St. George Terroir gin blend with a milk frother for 20–25 seconds tion, we can begin to explore secuted because of the plant.

3⁄4 ounce Cannabis Simple Syrup to build a nice foam.) the fear itself, one bite at a time.

“It hit me when I started to 1⁄2 ounce St. George raspberry liqueur 3) Place ice from Collins ice mold or ice Note: The recipe in this article go to the cannabis conven1 dash angostura bitters cubes in tall Collins glasses. Pour solution over is tasty, with or without the cantions,” Lawrence says. “I was sitice cubes ice. Refrigerate for about 2 minutes to somenabis. If you want to get the reciting in a room with all these soda water what solidify foam. pe for infused simple syrup, please people making money on shaker 4) Top with a slow, steady pour of soda water read The Cannabis Kitchen [marijuana] while people are Collins ice mold (optional) until foam rises 2–3 centimeters above rim of Cookbook to ensure you are safe going to jail. Whenever I do glass. and comfortable as you explore presentations I always try to cooking with cannabis. start with that — to help peo-

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Boulder Weekly

SAVAGE

by Dan Savage

Dear Dan: I am a 30-year-old straight man and I’ve been with a 28-year-old bisexual woman for a year. Early in our relationship, after much discussion, we established that it would be open. I would have the liberty to see other women and so would she. We just had to be safe and always keep each other informed. The key was that she agreed to see only other women. I was uncomfortable with the idea of her being with another man, and she went along with it. Fast-forward a few months, and she told me that she had drunkenly kissed a male coworker. Hearing her say that hurt me.

However, since then she has explained to me that the rule that she can be only with women is unfair because she’s bisexual and she’s attracted to both men and women. I can see whomever I might find attractive, but she has to limit herself. After much soulsearching, I came around to her point of view and she now has the option to see men too. My question: How do I deal with the jealousy and emotions that will come up when she does kiss another man? Or does even more with another man? We love each other, and I think it’s important to note that while we have both been on dates with other people, neither of us has had sex with someone else yet.

— Having Emotional Reaction Means Asking Nervously Dear HERMAN: “Hard Truth #1: Renegotiating is crucial to the survival of all long-term relationships — even more so in unconventional, customdesigned relationships where there’s no established template,” says Christopher Ryan, author of Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships. “And while I don’t see any unfairness in HERMAN’s girlfriend wanting to have the same freedom he has (to see whomever she wants), if he agreed to the open relationship on the condition that she ‘see only other women,’ then renegotiating is going to be difficult.”

Your description of that particular limitation — only other women — as “key” to opening up your relationship, HERMAN, left Ryan feeling less than optimistic.

“Hard Truth #2: It’s a time-wasting mistake to negotiate nonnegotiables,” Ryan says. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t be willing to learn and grow by trying new things. But our first task is to ‘know thyself ’ and take it from there.

For example, if you’re certain you want or don’t want kids, then that shouldn’t be open to negotiation just because you met someone you like (or love) whose dreams go the other way.”

Boulder Weekly

Love

Assuming you’re willing to renegotiate, HERMAN, where do you start?

“Perhaps the question of why he’s more bothered by her being with men than women,” said Ryan. “Maybe he could ask her to set up a three-way with a man they both like so he can face the dragon, so to speak. See if the flip side of his fear isn’t that he’s actually turned on by the thought of her with other men. Lots to explore, once he’s certain he wants to explore it. But, again, if this is a nonnegotiable — if this really isn’t something HERMAN wants, despite his desire to be fair — it might be better to end the relationship than to attempt to be someone he’s not or agree to something he’ll never be at peace with.”

Follow Christopher Ryan on Twitter @ChrisRyanPhD, and check out his podcast (Tangentially Speaking), videos, and swag at ChrisRyanPhD.com.

Dear Dan: What are your thoughts on two Doms sharing one sub? The scene I envision includes the domination of the other Dom. Do some Doms enjoy the submission to another Dom while also enjoying dominating the sub? It’s probably best to put it into the context of my fantasy. I tie my sub to a chair or tie her down and then send a Snapchat to her other Dom. I invite the other Dom to come over and have his way with her. I would then leave, but they must stop immediately when I return, no matter where they are. The other Dom must then leave, and I do what I want from that point. Is this something I should talk with the other Dom about beforehand or should I just do it and see what happens? I’ve talked to my sub, and she is really into that scene, but she doesn’t know how her other Dom would feel about it.

— Dominate Other Man Dear DOM: Sharing a sub could strike me as a great/hot idea, DOM, but my feelings are irrelevant — the scene isn’t going to work if the other Dom thinks the idea is terrible/lame. That said, I don’t see any harm in waiting until your sub is tied down to propose this scene — lay the details out in advance on Snapchat, not once he’s in the room, so he’ll be free to take a pass if the scene doesn’t appeal to him. But by waiting, you run the risk of discovering, after it’s all set up, after you’ve sent the Snapchat, that her other Dom loves the idea but is out of town/watching the GOP debate/ sitting shivah/whatever.

Send questions to mail@savagelove.net and follow @fakedansavage on Twitter.

December 31, 2015 67

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