Boulder Weekly 05.22.2025 by Boulder Weekly

ineighbors knead

FUNDING CUTS HIT LOCAL ARTS ORGS P.15

Where to get that home-baked bread in BoCo P.27

THE FUTURE OF FRONT RANGE RAIL P.11

CU STATUE SPARKS BACKLASH P.8

breaking barriers

MONTH

JUNE 2025

Boulder | Longmont | Loveland | Fort Collins

At Blessings, we provide an award-winning facial experience in our cozy spa. Our personalized treatments blend modern techniques with traditional practices, helping you feel radiant and relaxed.

ince opening in

Four Paws & Co.

beds, and cat

of Boulder

leashes &

It’s safe to say there is something for every pet in the store. There is also the Friends of Four

We pride ourselves on upholding a no up-charging principle. This means you recieve everything your skin needs as part of your facial service, without surprise fees or hidden costs. We ensure that you get the best care without any extra charges.

Paws Frequent Buyer Program. You receive a punch card and once that is filled, you will receive a $10 Four Paws gift card. Last, but certainly not least, Four Paws offers two special services. We can deliver the food you need to your door, and we have a pet sitting service. Stop in soon and see how Four Paws & Co. can help you care for your best friend.

FOUR PAWS & CO

THE

TSMOKE SHOP

he Public Smoke Shop, proudly serving the Longmont community for over six years!

www.fourpawsandco.com

ince opening in 2003, Four Paws & Co. has specialized in premium natural foods and treats, including frozen diets and raw bones. Along with the excellent choices in food for cats and dogs, we carry supplements, grooming supplies, leashes & collars, toys, beds, and cat condos. It’s safe to say there is something for every pet in the store. There is also the Friends of Four

t Blessings, we provide an award-winning facial experience in our cozy spa. Our personalized treatments blend modern techniques with traditional practices, helping you feel radiant and relaxed.

We provide quality blown glass, tapestries, accessories, hats and T-shirts. Products from Seedless, No Bad Ideas, Bio Zong, Roor-

Liquid, Water Pipes, Hookahs from Egypt (variety from around the world). Locally owned and operated, competitive pricing, friendly knowledgeable staff. Stop by, the music is playing and we are here to assist!

www.facebook.com/publicmon

THE PUBLIC SMOKE SHOP

The Public Smoke Shop, proudly serving the Longmont community for over six years!

We provide quality blown glass, tapestries, accessories, hats and T-shirts. Products from Seedless, No Bad Ideas, Bio Zong, Roor-

BLESSINGS DAY SPA

Tt Blessings, we provide an award-winning facial experience in our cozy spa. Our personalized treatments blend modern techniques with traditional practices, helping you feel radiant and relaxed.

he Public Smoke Shop, proudly serving the Longmont community for over six years!

Locally Owned and Operated, Voted Best Women Owned Business, Best Day Spa & Best Independent Business, Best of Boulder 2024.

We provide quality blown glass, tapestries, accessories, hats and T-shirts. Products from Seedless, No Bad Ideas, Bio Zong, Roor-

Water Pipes, Hookahs from Egypt (variety from around the world). Locally owned and operated, competitive pricing, friendly knowledgeable staff. Stop by, the music is playing and we are here to assist!

Courtesy: Boulder Creek Fest

Credit: V Haddad

COMMENTARY

WRONG MAN FOR THE JOB

BY EMMA TOPPING

As a recent graduate with a degree in molecular biology at CU Boulder, it is evident to me that RFK Jr. is an unscientific quack. He insists that doctors are poisoning their

patients with ADHD medication and vaccines, citing made-up statistics and baseless ideas about nutrition and immunology. So why do some Americans (including Colorado’s own Gov. Jared Polis) support him?

It is tempting to shore RFK Jr’s popularity up to a lack of education in America. After all, the fact that our population is glaringly undereducated compared to other first-world countries is a frequent critique of academics. Of course, a lack of familiarity with science and medicine makes it more difficult to fact-check scientific statements that are rife with jargon and statistics.

In writing this piece, I sought out the opinions of Colorado School of Public Health graduates, asking why they

thought people support RFK Jr. Dr. Franklyn Garry, a professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Colorado State University, said, “Most Americans under 60 years old have learned to take a lot of things for granted. So they become susceptible to messaging from social media. Add to that a growing mistrust of authorities in any field and the government in general … and then you will like hearing what RFK has to say.” However, there is much more at play. For many Americans, distrust of the healthcare system arises from their interactions with it. Mandated 15-minute visits and fragmented care have resulted in a slew of terrible medical experiences. Who can blame people for mistrusting doctors who’ve wronged them?

MAY 22, 2025

Volume 32, Number 40

PUBLISHER: Stewart Sallo

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Shay Castle

ARTS EDITOR: Jezy J. Gray

REPORTERS: Kaylee Harter, Tyler Hickman

FOOD EDITOR: John Lehndorff

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Dan Savage, Toni Tresca, Emma Topping, Chase Woodruff, Andrew Yocky

COVER: Kelly MacGregor

SALES AND MARKETING

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING: Kellie Robinson

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SPECIAL PROJECTS MANAGER: Carter Ferryman

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CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Erik Wogen

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CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Cal Winn

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BOOKKEEPER: Austen Lopp

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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-holds-barred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county’s most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you’re interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@ boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper.

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Medicine has been especially cruel to minority groups. Historical injustices, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, as well as documented modern bias, make it understandably difficult for many at-risk people to trust doctors.

Even today, doctors routinely dismiss women and invalidate their symptoms. Clinical studies have long excluded women, leading to greater health risks for women taking medications. Research into women’s health remains tenuous as the Trump administration has defunded and then subsequently refunded the Women’s Health Initiative program. Patients also report trusting women doctors less, even though they might offer improved patient outcomes compared to physicians who are men.

OPINION

Distrust of doctors isn’t a new phenomenon. Before the 19th century, the professions of doctor and surgeon were seen as low-class — barely better than butchers. In medieval Europe, surgery was not a distinct medical profession; instead, it was often performed by barbers, giving rise to the term “barber-surgeons.” These individuals were responsible for a range of tasks, from cutting hair to performing minor surgical procedures like bloodletting and tooth extractions. During the American Civil War, soldiers even referred to surgeons as “butchers” because they performed so many grisly amputations.

When doctors fail to listen empathetically or fail to deliver satisfactory care, they are more easily depicted as villains, a fact that RFK Jr. has taken advantage of. It’s understandable that many Americans harbor deep distrust toward the government and healthcare system. These people should not simply be written off as uneducated.

But RFK Jr. is not the right figure to rally behind. His approach to medicine is regressive, grounded in outdated and debunked theories that ignore decades of scientific progress.

Rather than promoting a medical system grounded in empathy, equity and evidence, RFK Jr. perpetuates a culture of fear and misinformation. He fails to offer constructive solutions that would make the healthcare system more accountable or humane. Most concerningly, his rhetoric and policy positions have a disproportionate potential to harm minority communities who already face systemic barriers in accessing quality care.

True reform must involve amplifying marginalized voices and advocating for a compassion-oriented system that acknowledges and addresses historical injustices, rather than returning to an era where superstition and prejudice are mistaken for truth.

Medical professionals are not evil stereotypes or bastions of infallible science. They are imperfect human beings who must be regulated and critiqued to protect the American people. (Just not by RFK Jr.)

Emma Topping is a recent graduate of CU Boulder with a degree in molecular biology. She is passionate about healthcare, infectious disease and equity.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaking with supporters at a Feb. 5, 2024, campaign rally at the Fox Tucson Theatre in Tucson, Arizona. Credit: Gage Skidmore

BOCO, BRIEFLY

Your local news at a glance

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

PLANNED CU BOULDER STATUE OF COACH MAC DRAWS PROTEST

A Boulder-based LGBTQ rights group is asking CU Boulder to scuttle plans for a bronze statue of Bill McCartney outside Folsom Field. McCartney, often referred to as “Coach Mac,” led the 1990 Buffs football team to a national championship and is still the most winning coach in the school’s history.

The university announced in April that it would install a statue of him on the east side of the stadium during the fall football season — only the second statue at the facility. A scholarship endowment in McCartney’s name was announced at the same time.

Last week, Rocky Mountain Equality (RME; formerly OUT Boulder County), made a public statement criticizing the decision given McCartney’s past anti-gay statements and advocacy, which include calling homosexuality “an abomination against the almighty God” and supporting an attempt to scrap workplace and housing anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals.

“Please, let’s not do this,” RME’s chief executive officer Mardi Moore said in a

May 14 interview. “Of course, we want a winning football team and to acknowledge the players who did so well, but not at the expense of another community.”

McCartney issued a public apology for his comment in 2010 while seeking to return as CU’s head coach. He died earlier this year at the age of 84.

Moore said the harm caused by McCartney’s views — expressed while wearing CU Boulder-branded gear — live on.

“The harm that was created in that period of time in the early ’90s, those people are still alive,” Moore said. “That statue brings forward the past, but it goes forward into the future. As a gay player, would I come to CU? Probably not.”

Moore said RME contacted the chancellor’s department before going public with their concerns but “didn’t get much information” about how the decision was made.

“The statue and endowment are a tribute to Coach Mac’s achievements as a coach and leader during his time as head football coach at CU,” university spokesperson Steve Hurlbert wrote in response to emailed questions. “Coach Mac recognized his past statements on LGBTQ rights were wrong and he subsequently apologized for them publicly.”

According to Hurlbert, the statue was initiated by two men who played football for McCartney, whom the university is not naming at this point “unless [the former players’] wishes change.”

“We had to go through a number of steps,” Hurlbert wrote, “including through a campus design committee to get it approved,” a process he said took two years.

The approximately $275,000 statue was exclusively paid for through private donations, “largely funded by former players of Coach McCartney,” Hurlbert said. Both the statue and endowment are almost entirely funded, but the CU athletic department is still accepting donations “to ensure the endowment continues in perpetuity.”

Moore of RME said the statue is a rare misstep in an otherwise “great relationship” with CU, but a concerning one.

“They’ve been a great partner to our organizations for probably close to a decade,” Moore said. “As universities are under the threats of DEI and losing funding, it just makes you wonder what they think they can get away with in not supporting the LGBTQ community.”

JUDGE DENIES COUNTY’S REQUEST TO DELAY UNION NEGOTIATIONS

Negotiations for the Boulder County Employees Union have begun after a judge denied a motion seeking to delay the process.

The county, Boulder County Public Health (BCPH) and Boulder County Housing Authority (BCHA) filed the motion last month asking to pause bargaining until a suit seeking to exclude BCPH and BCHA from the union is decided. The county has said that an earlier decision by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) to allow the two agencies to be included is based on a “misinterpretation of how the county is structured.”

The plaintiffs argued in the motion that beginning negotiations before a ruling on the suit would force BCPH and BCHA to choose between sitting out negotiations (and therefore losing their say in the terms of their staff’s employment) or expending resources to participate, which “could reach” $25,000 per agency.

The court found that the county, BCPH and BCHA failed to demonstrate that irreparable harm — the legal standard for a stay — would occur if negotiations proceeded. According to the denial, both the financial and non-financial harms of beginning the process were “speculative.”

The court also found that “the interests of Defendants and Boulder County employees who are members of the collective bargaining unit — or, at a minimum, all members other than BCPH and

BCHA employees — would be adversely affected by the stay requested by BCPH and BCHA.”

The collective bargaining process began May 19 and includes BCPH and BCHA.

“The court challenge by Boulder County, BCPH, and BCHA continues,” county spokesperson Gloria Handyside wrote in an email. “Boulder County is not contesting the existence of the union itself or the results of the election for Boulder County employees, but rather the discrete point where Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) interpreted Collective Bargaining by County Employees Act to include BCPH and BCHA employees in the bargaining unit.”

SURVEY: TRUMP ADMIN CHANGES HIT 62% OF BOCO NONPROFITS

In a recent survey conducted by Community Foundation Boulder County, 62% of area nonprofits said their work had been impacted or was expected to be impacted by federal executive orders or policy shifts. Organizations report having to end or modify services, programs and language — including some expansions in services and programs.

When asked if their organizations had “experienced funding disruptions due to federal changes,”

• 19% said they were “still experiencing disruption”

• 6% were impacted but had funding restored

• 48% worried their “funding was at risk”

Only 10% of Boulder County nonprofits feel prepared to meet financial challenges, according to a separate Community Foundation survey; 72% do not have enough reserves on hand to cover six months of operating expenses.

That in and of itself is “not unusual,” said Severin Lier, director of communications for Community Foundation. “That said, the fact that an overwhelming majority of nonprofits lack reserves is especially notable now, given the major funding streams that are disappearing. Those funds are difficult to replace and can be a big concern for organizations that not only lack reserves but, as we saw through our survey, are also seeing increased demand from the communities they serve.”

Folsom Field, CU Boulder

Community Foundation Boulder County is launching a Resilience Fund to help nonprofits with education, resilience and financial support, Lier said. Ninety-six organizations responded to the survey, just a fraction of the 300plus nonprofits located in Boulder County.

IN OTHER NEWS…

• The county and city of Boulder’s case against Exxon Mobil and Colorado

GOV’T WATCH

What your local officials are up to this week

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

LONGMONT CITY COUNCIL

On Tuesday, May 20 council:

• Unanimously passed an ordinance prohibiting registered sex offenders from living within 500 feet of schools, daycares and public and private parks. It also prevents more than three unrelated sex offenders from living in the same residence.

The ordinance comes from an ongoing battle between residents of the Prairie Village neighborhood and a state certified sober living home that has housed up to eight sex offenders at a time. Council acknowledged in previous meetings that such restrictions are “arbitrary” and go against state recommendations, but said they may be necessary to assuage fears in the community. Read the full story on the ordinance and its potential unintended consequences here: bit.ly/ LongmontSexOffendersBW

Ahead of the vote, some council members expressed concerns. Mayor Joan Peck and council member Matthew Popkin both said they wanted to look at the ordinance and its impacts again in six to 12 months.

“I find this ordinance to be problematic in many ways,” council member Aren Rodriguez said. “I don’t believe that it will increase the safety of anybody in this community. I believe it will

Suncor over “climate harms and misinformation” can move forward, the state supreme court ruled May 12. The oil companies had previously requested for the suit, which began in 2018, to be dismissed.

• TGTHR suspended youth homeless shelter services last week, blaming a drop in charitable giving as well as government funding cuts and uncertainty. Read the full story: bit.ly/ YouthShelterBW

make winners and losers of certain neighborhoods and will have a bunch of unintended consequences.”

• Voted 6-1 to move an ordinance forward making the final changes to city code to allow for onsite cannabis consumption at marijuana hospitality establishments, such as smoking lounges and spas. A second reading and public hearing for the ordinance is scheduled for June 3.

BOULDER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

On Tuesday, May 27 commissioners will:

• Hold a public hearing and get a general update from the Boulder County Housing Authority. The discussion is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m.

On Friday, May 30 commissioners will:

• Celebrate the designation of the Boulder County Courthouse as a National Historic Landmark during a plaque unveiling, alongside the Rainbows Over Boulder County flag raising ceremony for Pride Month.

The courthouse received the designation in December to recognize its historical significance as the site of the first intentional same-sex marriage in the United States in 1975, when former Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex issued the first same-sex marriage license in the country. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on the courthouse mall.

BOULDER CITY COUNCIL

There is no council meeting on May 29th due to the Memorial Day holiday.

WEDNESDAY• 05/21

THURSDAY• 05/22

PRIORITY

FRIDAY 05/23

SATURDAY • 05/24

SUNDAY • 05/25

COLORADO OFFICIALS PLAN

DENVER-FORT COLLINS RAIL SERVICE BY 2029

‘Starter service’ segment could follow on the heels of planned mountain rail service

BY CHASE WOODRUFF,

COLORADO NEWSLINE

About $40 million a year in state funding from new transportation fees could be the key to getting a short passenger rail line from Denver to Fort Collins up and running in the next four years, Colorado officials said last week.

The project, spearheaded by Gov. Jared Polis and some of his top advisers, envisions a “joint service” between the Front Range Passenger Rail District, which eventually plans to serve cities as far south as Pueblo, and the Denver-area Regional Transportation District, which has struggled to complete a commuter line from Denver to Boulder that voters first approved more than 20 years ago.

“What we have in Colorado is a population who very much supports transit and rail, and would like to see an expansion of transit and rail, but they really need to see to believe,” Lisa Kaufmann, a senior strategic adviser to Polis, told members of the state’s Transportation Commission last week. “I think that we have a history of overpromising and not delivering rail projects in Colorado that looms large in all these conversations.”

The service would initially run three times a day between Denver and Fort Collins, with potential stops in Westminster, Broomfield, Louisville, Boulder, Longmont and Loveland. The total price tag, including operating costs and debt payments for projected capital expenditures, is estimated at $83 million a year beginning in 2029, and about half that total would be covered by dedicated revenue from the state’s new fees on rental cars and oil and gas production. RTD sales tax revenue could cover the other half, state officials said.

An intergovernmental agreement between RTD, FRPR and the Colorado Department of Transportation is being drafted and will be presented to each agency’s governing board this summer, Kaufmann said. A joint committee will then start formal negotiations with BNSF, the railroad that owns the track the service will use, over an access agreement.

2011, setting the project’s timeline back by decades.

Capital costs for any passenger rail service in BNSF’s rail corridor account for station infrastructure and safety mechanisms, including a so-called positive train control system, that are not required for the freight traffic that currently uses the Denver-to-Fort Collins segment. The state’s initial financial estimates, prepared by engineering consultancy HNTB, include $198 million in expenditures on signaling and communications upgrades, $124 million for vehicles and $92 million for station infrastructure.

“They want to work with us to make this possible, but of course, they are a business that they are running, and they want to do it in a way that’s mutually beneficial,” Kaufmann told commissioners about BNSF.

“In our private conversations with them, they believe that there is more cost savings to be had, once we get into

The railroad giant’s price tag for the use of their tracks was a crucial factor that derailed RTD’s plans for its commuter rail line to Boulder, which voters approved as part of the FasTracks plan in 2004. Agency officials had estimated that a lease would cost $66 million, but BNSF — one half of a duopoly, with Union Pacific, that owns virtually all U.S. railroads west of the Mississippi — quoted an upfront cost of $535 million in

real negotiations with them, than even what we’ve priced out through our study,” she added.

MOUNTAIN RAIL

State officials hope the launch of the northern Front Range route will follow on the heels of a separate “mountain rail” service planned to begin daily round trips from Denver to Granby by the end of 2026. They announced earlier this month

that they had negotiated an access agreement with Union Pacific in exchange for the railroad’s continued use of the state-owned Moffat Tunnel, which crosses under the Continental Divide and serves as the only link between the eastern and western halves of the state’s rail network.

The year-round mountain rail route, which could eventually extend as far as Steamboat Springs, Hayden and Craig, will aim to build on the success of the Winter Park Express, a seasonal route that takes passengers from Denver to the Winter Park ski resort and back. Operated by Amtrak, the route was revived in 2017 and reached a new high in ridership during the 2025 ski season, state officials announced Friday. Trains averaged 89% full throughout the line’s three and a half months of operation, serving a total of 43,919 riders.

“We believe that increased ridership at this level is helping to take cars off congested roadways and make everyone safer,” Sally Chafee, CDOT’s acting director, said in a press release. “It also means much lower emissions per passenger mile, so there’s a huge environmental benefit here.”

Meanwhile, officials at the Front Range Passenger Rail District are moving forward with long-term plans for service between Pueblo and Fort Collins, with a vote on a district-wide sales tax hike to fund the project coming as soon as 2026. While the Denver-to-Fort Collins “starter service” could begin by 2029, a “full build” may still be decades away.

The district last week launched a virtual open house to invite Coloradans to give feedback on its service development plan, which it will complete by the end of this year. Out of five different alternatives studied by CDOT and FRPR staff, the district is recommending a plan that envisions a “full build” of 10 daily round trips along the proposed line by 2045. Members of the public are invited to share their thoughts on the alternatives analysis before June 15.

“This is an opportunity to better understand the recommended alternative and ask questions about the Service Development Plan,” said Chrissy Breit, FRPR’s interim general manager.

“Community input is vital to shaping a transportation solution that reflects the region’s needs and priorities.”

An RTD train departs the Westminster light-rail station as Gov. Jared Polis and state energy and transportation officials speak on Feb. 26, 2024. Credit: Chase Woodruff / Colorado Newsline

FLOWER POWER

Emily Sprague of Florist, here on Earth

BY JEZY J. GRAY

When a Chicago-sized chunk broke away from the melting George VI Ice Shelf in Antarctica earlier this year, it revealed an untouched world teeming with life. Sealed beneath the frozen surface for centuries, the underwater ecosystem was discovered as home to a dazzling menagerie of icefish, octopi and sea spiders — but its most notable resident was a rare, mysterious and massive deepsea jellyfish: Stygiomedusa gigantea, the “giant phantom jelly.”

This nexus of natural wonder and planetary peril is where Emily Sprague spends much of her creative energy. As the driving force behind the critically lauded New York indie-folk outfit Florist, she’s built a career unpacking thorny existential quandaries with a hushed reverence for the miracle of the world around us. On Jellywish, the band’s pristine fifth studio LP released last month via Double Double Whammy, she found inspiration in the deep.

“We wanted the recordings to embody this sense of being of the Earth, but being strange in subtle ways — very flowing and simple, but slightly more complicated, with something underneath the surface,” Sprague, 30, says. “So the jellyfish became this sort of icon for us to talk about how we wanted the songs to ultimately sound. It encouraged us to try and step outside of the boundaries a little bit while also still being this very earthly, tangible thing that can go translucent and slip into these more philosophical or ethereal, metaphysical kind of realms.”

That might sound a bit heady, but the 10 tracks comprising Florist’s tight and tidy new collection bear little resemblance to a brain-scrambling

philosophy lecture. In true fashion, the songs murmur like a gentle stream across blooms of acoustic guitar, shimmering piano and soothing ripples of ambient noise. All the while, Sprague’s quietly trippy lyrics and sugar-sweet melodies spin small wonders into big questions: “Some things just don’t make any sense, like the jellyfish,” she sings early on. “Remember when all of this was just a dream?”

“It’s about our own interpretation of what our consciousness is and where our moral and personal guides end and begin,” Sprague explains. “It’s not dogmatic, but it is calling out the ways we

live our life that maybe don’t serve us, and trying to put a spotlight on things I feel could help us make a better place for life on Earth.”

MEMENTO MORI

Sprague’s wide-eyed awe for our earthly realm first began to germinate during her early years daydreaming in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. As an only child, she spent much of her time alone among the timbered hills and rolling creeks of the Appalachian subrange — absorbing its sounds, and keeping them near her heart.

“It was my closest and most important relationship when I was growing into a human with a brain. It’s a huge part of my life,” she says. “I live near the same place now, and I still feel its presence really strongly. And I feel for our destruction of it.”

On the band’s prior 2022 self-titled double album, this connection to our fragile environment bled through in field recordings from their live studio sessions while living together in a remote house near Sprague’s childhood home. But on Jellywish, while the tracking process was much the same, the result is less improvisational and more urgently tinged with anxiety. “Will there still be winter in a year?” Sprague wonders in one closing verse, before answering: “Nothing is guaranteed but death.”

“Death is a huge part of my life and my mind. It is sort of a character on this record that exists almost benevolently,” she says. “I don’t ever feel like there’s the fear of death in these songs. It’s more of an embrace.”

‘YOUR LIFE IS IMPORTANT’

Part of Sprague’s measured response to forces beyond her control grows from an expansive view of what we might call the soul. Stitched together by the idea of a collective consciousness, Jellywish asks us to consider ourselves in relation to the vibrant signs of life blooming in the darkened corners of the everyday. If we can manage that, she hopes, then maybe we can secure a future for the only planet we’ve got.

“I’m kind of an animist. I believe it’s all alive. Everything is real. And we have such a disrespect for that,” she says. “Writing songs feels like the most actionable way I can have my own drop in the bucket — not telling anyone what to do, but just to plant the thoughts. I guess that’s my attempt at trying to make a tiny little difference. I’m not optimistic, but in the grand scheme of things, I’m an active nihilist. I still believe we can and should try.”

Whether or not our collective efforts can save a biosphere on the brink, Sprague’s stubborn insistence on the quiet marvel of being alive offers a radical path for our lives together on the membrane between this world and whatever comes next.

“I’m trying to find this sense of music that makes you feel as if your life is important — your feelings are important, the people you know are important,” she says. “But at the same time, it’s so wonderful that we all die. We have this relationship to the universe that is so natural and chaotic at the same time. We are very avoidant of that within this Western capitalist way of living. It feels like it’s something else completely. But it’s strange, because we’re so clearly here on planet Earth.”

ON THE BILL: Florist with Allegra Krieger. 7 p.m. Friday, May 23, Meow Wolf, 1338 1st St., Denver. $27

With their music appearing in Beyoncé’s Homecoming and the A24 pop-horror film I Saw the TV Glow, indie-folk outfit Florist’s cultural impact is louder than the hushed tones of their gentle songs.

Pictured: Emily Sprague (center), Rick Spataro, Jonnie Baker and Felix Walworth. Credit: V Haddad

“This is a record that believes in the realms beyond this, whatever that means to you,” Emily Sprague says of Florist’s fifth studio album, Jellywish, released April 4. Courtesy: Double Double Whammy

ARTS & CULTURE

ERASING THE ARTS

Trump’s NEA freeze disrupts Boulder’s cultural ecosystem and sparks a deeper reckoning

BY TONI TRESCA

When the email came on the evening of May 2, the subject line alone was enough to stop hearts in the offices of arts organizations across the country: “NEA Withdraws FY 2025 Grant.” For Boulder’s Motus Theater, the rescinded $35,000 wasn’t just a lost line item — it derailed a statewide tour of Youth Behind & Beyond Bars, a monologue series written by formerly incarcerated youth.

Without it, Motus must raise $70,000, the grant and match, to keep the tour alive.

“It’s disgusting,” says Motus Producing Executive Director Rita Valente-Quinn. “We have known since the inauguration that something like this could happen, but the lack of due process is appalling.”

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), founded in 1965 and funded at just 0.003% of the federal budget, has long been the nation’s most consistent public arts supporter. But in a wave of political maneuvering, it has once again become a cultural flashpoint.

President Trump’s proposed 2026 discretionary budget includes plans to eliminate the NEA, alongside other so-called “small agencies” like the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. According to the budget language, remaining funds would be used “for costs of orderly shutdowns.”

Hundreds of arts organizations — including at least eight in Colorado, according to CPR — have already seen their FY25 NEA grants rescinded. In Boulder County, both Motus Theater and Turning the Wheel Productions Inc. lost their federal funding. For both, the impact is more than just financial.

“Americans say that arts and culture are important to their community’s quality of life and livability. You’re cutting something essential to our humanity.”

APPEALS UNANSWERED

Both Boulder-based organizations filed appeals with the NEA, arguing their work aligned with the agency’s newly stated priorities, particularly the directive to “Make America Healthy Again.” But with no clear process and only seven days to respond, neither Motus nor Turning the Wheel has received a reply beyond an automated acknowledgment.

“The grant was already issued, so it’s just not appropriate to claw back money that’s already been given, especially to small organizations,” says Suzanne Palmer, national coordinator for Turning the Wheel, which operates in six cities across the country, including Boulder. “We’re in the $250,000 a year range, which is not a large annual budget, so that $10,000 grant really makes an impact.”

Fortunately, the organization’s canceled grant was rescued by emergency support from the New York City-based Warhol and Frankenthaler Foundations, which covered 80 rescinded NEA awards. But the loss still stung. “That money was meant to grow our work,” Palmer said. “Now, we’ll have to reallocate just to survive.”

Motus Theater wasn’t so lucky.

Although private foundations and the City of Boulder helped fund the upcoming premiere of Youth Behind & Beyond Bars at the Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Theater on May 31, the full regional tour, originally slated for other stops across Boulder County, Colorado Springs and Denver, remains in jeopardy.

When the news of the NEA termination broke, Motus had just finished a new application for the next NEA funding cycle in April. They don’t expect to receive funding.

“He tried to kill the NEA the day he rescinded our grant,” Motus Artistic Executive Director Kirsten Wilson says. “There’s a naive hope that we’ll get it, but

it doesn’t matter. We have integrity, so if we don’t, we’ll continue to support our country and community through our work.”

‘A REAL ATTEMPT TO CONTROL THE NARRATIVE’

The deeper harm of NEA cuts, according to many in Boulder’s arts ecosystem, goes beyond budgets. It indicates a deeper political threat.

“The NEA is small — just $207 million annually,” says Charlotte LaSasso, executive director of the Boulder County Arts Alliance. “This is hateful and unnecessary. It’s a horrible situation, and I feel betrayed by our leaders.”

While BCAA isn’t in a position to replace lost federal funding, LaSasso said the organization is working to support local artists through convenings and training opportunities. “We just had a workshop about budgeting in an unstable environment,” she said. “What gives me hope is that this will pass, but I’m concerned about how much damage will be done in the meantime.”

The Community Foundation Boulder County echoed the concern in a recent survey of local nonprofits. Of 96 respondents, more than 70% reported having six months or less of reserves. Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, immigration policy, gender health and climate were the top four areas organizations feared would be affected.

Even those who received their NEA funding felt rattled. “The first thing I did when I heard about the cuts was transfer the money out of my account,” says

Longmont poet Amber Adams, who was awarded a $25,000 creative writing fellowship. “I was afraid they’d take it back.”

Adams is using the grant to complete a poetry collection about her brother’s death in an avalanche while skiing in Japan. Though she did receive funding this cycle, she is concerned about what comes next.

“If you try to tell people what they should be making art about, you’re trying to create homogeneous art, which is antithetical to art,” she says. “If the NEA sticks around, I wonder about the next cohort. How will they decide who gets funding and who doesn’t?”

Several major agencies, including the office of Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado Creative Industries (the state’s designated arts agency), Create Boulder and the NEA itself, did not respond to requests for comment. The Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, which provides yearover-year general operating support to cultural organizations in seven Colorado counties, said in a written statement that funding will continue “during these uncertain times.”

Some emergency relief has emerged. On May 13, the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation launched a $400,000 Arts & Culture Rapid Response Grant for organizations facing revenue loss due to federal policy changes. Though Boulder is outside the foundation’s usual service area, Motus plans to apply.

For now, groups are doing what they can to adapt. But Wilson warns that without confronting the motivations behind these cuts, the losses will extend far beyond the stage.

“This is not some sidekick to the arts; it’s a real attempt to control the narrative, because without that, he can’t control power,” she says. “He is a man elected on the story he told, and when the story you tell is not based on truth at its foundation, then you must exert strict control of the narrative to maintain your power. … I believe in the power of the arts. I believe in the power of narrative. And right now, that power is under threat.”

Front Range hip-hop legends The ReMINDers will perform at Boulder Public Library’s Canyon Theater on May 31 as part of Motus Theater’s Youth Behind & Beyond Bars series. Credit: Camille / HuthPhoto

CULTURE

WISH YOU WERE HERE

Women+Film Festival returns to the Sie FilmCenter

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

Some topics never go out of fashion. We really wish they would, but we never seem to be that lucky.

On June 1, the Women+Film Festival will host a community conversation: The Makings of a Moral Panic (10 a.m.), exploring how certain populations suddenly find themselves the target of ridicule and legislative obliteration. Joining the panel will be Garfield County Public Library District Executive Director James LaRue, journalist Owen Swallow, writer and community activist Dylah Ray and film producer Janique Robillard.

Robillard’s documentary, The Librarians, which exposes the political maneuvering behind the seemingly grassroots proliferation of book bans at schools and public libraries, will screen later that day at 4:30 p.m. Moral panics, we have them.

Thankfully, Women+Film is here to talk you through it. Back for a 16th year, the annual spring festival takes over the

Sie FilmCenter in Denver for three days (May 30 to June 1) of movies and conversation. The Librarians, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, plays closing night, while the documentary Sally, about astronaut Sally Ride, screens opening night at 7 p.m. In between are more docs, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (7 p.m. May 31), international narratives, My Favourite Cake (4:30 p.m. May 31), even a restoration of a little-seen Tilda Swinton movie from 1996: Female Perversion (12 p.m. May 31).

But the big draw of this year’s fest is the recipient of the Barbara Bridges Inspiration Award, Julia Stiles, and a screening of her feature-length directorial debut, Wish You Were Here (12 p.m. May 30) Most probably know Stiles for her time in front of the camera in 10 Things I Hate About You, Save the Last Dance and the Bourne movies. With Wish You Were Here, Stiles takes her career in a new direction — a transition that’s bound to be the focus of the prescreening conversation, which will take place at the UMB Bank Amphitheater Denver Botanic Gardens.

ON SCREEN: 16th Annual

Women+Film Festival. May 30 through June 1. Multiple venues. Schedule, information and tickets at denverfilm. org/women-plus-film-festival.

FILM

RUNNING JESUS

‘Final Reckoning’ closes 30 years of impossible missions

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

For the past 30 years, Ethan Hunt has had a choice. “Your mission, if you choose to accept.” And he accepts; he always does. But what if Hunt never had a choice to start with?

I guess the choice: “Yes or the world dies” limits options. But what if all those disparate missions weren’t a series of repetitive double crosses , disavowals and world-saving heroics but the convergence of every victory and villain in a Mission: Impossible movie since the first installment in 1996? That would be something, wouldn’t it?

That’s why director Christopher McQuarrie and producer Tom Cruise (who also acts) spend the first act of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning convincing the audience of this ridiculous contrivance with flashbacks to the previous seven M:I flicks. And when that doesn’t work, they shrug, thoss in some action and paper over the holes with the Bible.

Don’t believe me? Here’s the premise: an all-knowing AI system, the Entity — whose center is nowhere and circumference is everywhere — floods the world with misinformation, decides humanity is expendable, and plots nuclear Armageddon. But only after it gains access to a bunker — an ark, if you will — in the jungles of South Africa. Here, all of history is recorded and stored. If there’s a backup, that means this ark has two of everything.

To stop the Entity, Hunt (Cruise), Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Paris (Pom

Klementieff) globetrot with a special crucifix-shaped key in search of the Entity’s source. Hot on their heels is Gabriel (Esai Morales), the Entity’s former spokesman, who has since fallen from grace.

That places Hunt in the savior position — par for the M:I movie course. But in Reckoning, it’s a little much. Ditto for the crosscutting McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton employ to connect conversations across time and space. It’s exposition, no matter how you slice it.

But then Hunt goes on a scuba mission to the bottom of the Bering Sea, steals aboard a biplane in South Africa, and Reckoning achieves the cinematic exhilaration you hope for in a Tom Cruise movie.

I guess Hunt trying to save the world from a biblical apocalypse seems like a logical conclusion after he’s saved it from politicians, rogue states and opportunists. But trying to retcon this movie to the others does Reckoning no favors.

Then that plane does a 360-degree barrel roll with Cruise hanging on for dear life, and my quibbles fly out the window. I know there are wires securing Cruise to the plane, but I can’t see them. All I see is a man tossed around while a plane hurtles through the sky. All I can say is, “Wow.”

ON SCREEN: Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning opens in theaters everywhere May 22.

Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Courtesy: Paramount Pictures

Isabelle Fuhrman and Mena Massoud star in the romantic drama Wish You Were Here directed by Julia Stiles. The movie and director will be honored at this year’s Women+Film Festival. Courtesy: Lionsgate.

DOUBLE VISION

A Criterion dual release highlights a brief but brilliant actor-director collaboration

BY MICHAEL J. CASEY

Everybody has a friend like Withnail. And everybody’s worked for a Dennis. That’s easy to see. It gets harder when, one day, you stare into the mirror and see either of them looking back. When that day comes, it’s time for a change.

Coincidentally, both characters are played by the same actor, Richard E. Grant, in the two movies of significance from writer-director Bruce Robinson. Conveniently, both have been restored and will be available on home video from The Criterion Collection this May. Let the connections begin.

I doubt Robinson, an actor turned filmmaker, pitched Withnail and I (1987) and How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) as a true double feature, but watch them in tandem and you’ll find Robinson and Grant riding the same wave all the way to the end. Oh, and here’s one more connection: Both films are set at the close of a decade — 1960s for Withnail and 1980s for Advertising — with little nostalgia looking back and less optimism peering forward.

I’m starting to make these movies sound like a couple of downers. They are, in a way, but they’re so suffused with life that they are undeniably hilarious and cling to the ribs long after the lights come up.

Of the two, Withnail and I has achieved cult status. Here, Grant plays an out-ofwork actor and a professional alcoholic. He’s an angry young man railing against everyone and everything but nothing in particular. He comes from money, which fuels his habit, as

does his drinking partner, flatmate and fellow aspiring thespian, I (Paul McGann).

The “I” is important. Withnail is Robinson’s memoir of the period in his life when he couldn’t get a job and spent his days at the bottom of a bottle with a chain-smoking boozehound who really did drink lighter fluid in a fit of desperation. Not that you need that nugget of biography to believe the movie. Every frame of Withnail excretes authenticity. It’s what makes the movie so damn enjoyable, even if it does verge perilously close to homophobia and derelict chic.

I love Withnail and I for all the wrong reasons and some of the right ones. Grant is so good in it, so believable, that you would be excused for thinking the movie captures an exorcism and not a performance. But Grant is a teetotaler allergic to alcohol, which makes his Withnail one of the greatest pieces of acting in all of cinema.

As to why How to Get Ahead in Advertising’s legacy hasn’t received the burnish Withnail has, the answer might again be Grant. It’s as if he and Robinson conspired to make Withnail so

detestable the audience couldn’t help but find him endearing. For Advertising, they went for the jugular with Grant playing Dennis, a cynical ad executive who can sell anything but can’t, for the life of him, come up with a compelling pimple cream campaign. So Dennis pulls a 180, decides to quit the field and tell the world how men like him have corrupted every aspect of existence in the name of consumerism. But then a boil appears on Dennis’ clavicle, one that eventually grows a mouth and starts talking to him. Dennis tries everything he can to rid himself of the demonic boil, but it grows until it’s the size of Dennis’ head, complete with a thin-lip mustache. To add insult to injury, Dennis’ initial head is reduced to a small boil on his shoulder, forced to play witness to evil Dennis’ conquest.

Advertising is a Jekyll and Hyde riff, and it’s as subtle as a kick to the groin. Dennis (both evil Dennis and less-evil Dennis) gives a lot of speeches about commerce, and Grant delivers them with conviction — particularly his hysterical climax in an English field that closes Advertising — but they sunk the movie upon release. I enjoy them for their unapologetic didacticism, but I also know a lot of people really detest being preached to when they go to the movies. Sadly, those speeches haven’t aged one iota in the past 35 years.

How to Get Ahead in Advertising would mark the last time Grant and Robinson worked together, a remarkable collaboration that began just two years prior with Withnail and I. A pity. They should have made dozens. At least we have these.

ON SCREEN: Withnail and I and How to Get Ahead in Advertising will be released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection on May 20.

Withnail (Richard E. Grant) will do anything to get a drink in Withnail and I Courtesy: The Criterion Collection

Dennis (Richard E. Grant) comes face to face with his greatest enemy in How to Get Ahead in Advertising Courtesy: The Criterion Collection

23 –

25 SUGARLOAF GARAGE SALE

24 CLOTHING SWAP AT NOBO

2-4 p.m. Saturday, May 24, NoBo Corner Library, 4600 Broadway, Boulder. Free

6:30-10 p.m. Thursday, May 22, Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder.

Our friends at KGNU are throwing a party to celebrate 47 years of community-powered radio. Your favorite DJs from the station will be playing the tunes to get you grooving, and staff and volunteers will be on hand if you want to learn how to get involved “whether it’s on the mic, behind the scenes, or in the community.”

ASTRONOMY: A VISIBLE ASTEROID

7:45-10:15 p.m. Friday, May 23, Ron Stewart Preserve at Rabbit Mountain, 15140 N. 55th St., Longmont. Free

Vesta, discovered in 1807, is the second-largest asteroid orbiting our solar system. Come see it with the help of Longmont Astronomical Society (and their telescopes). Bring a chair, a light jacket and a red-light flashlight. Registration required: bit.ly/AsteroidBW

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fri. May 23-Sun. May 25, Sugarloaf Fire Department Station 2, 1360 Sugarloaf Road, Boulder. Free

Skip the tariffs and shop your neighbors’ goodies instead with this weekend-long garage sale. Make a day of it and spend some time in Ned after perusing donated furniture, outdoor gear and more at “the biggest little garage sale in Colorado.” Bonus: Proceeds benefit the mountain firefighters who keep us all safe.

24 COLORADO COMMUNITY CARE

4-10 p.m. Saturday, May 24, Colorado Capitol, 200 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Free

Work out your frustrations with the world by helping your fellow man. Connect with local groups doing good work with a full evening of mutual aid, including a canned food drive and clothing/item swap. Food will be provided to all participants.

Refresh your wardrobe without buying, buying, buying at this free clothing swap at the NoBo Corner Library. Bring clean, gently used clothes of any size, shape or color to donate (but leave the bathing suits, undergarments and accessories at home) and walk out with “new-to-you” wearables. All leftover items will be donated or saved for future swaps.

24 BRASS & BREWS

7 p.m. Saturday, May 24, Backdoor Theatre, 750 CO-72, Nederland. $25

There’s nothing like a frothy pint paired with the crisp, vibrant bellows of brass instruments. That’s what the Boulder Philharmonic and Busey Brews say, anyways. Head up to Nederland for an evening of craft beer curated to match the resonant sound of the Boulder Phil’s Brass Quintet playing everything from Duke Ellington to Queen and between.

24 SPRING FEST

1-6 p.m. Saturday, May 24, Cal-Wood Education Center, 1194 County Road 87, Jamestown. $25-$100

Celebrate creativity and nature in support of The Redirect during this activity packed afternoon. Practice your archery, take a meditative walk through the woods or express yourself through movement while you enjoy locally sourced BBQ meats and a mocktail mixer. Tickets are available on a sliding scale: bit.ly/SpringFestBW

24 – 26

BOULDER CREEK FESTIVAL

10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 25, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, May 26, along Boulder Creek from 9th Street to 14th Street. Free

Creek Fest needs no introduction. Three full days of music, beer, food, art and endless vibes. Creek Fest isn’t just in Boulder, it is Boulder. Pull up a chair and relax or get weird, run rampant and baptize yourself in the cold waters that give this iconic summer festival its namesake. Visit the Boulder Creek Festival website for a full schedule of events: bouldercreekfest.com/events.

28 SUNSET YOGA AT ACREAGE BY STEM CIDERS

7-8 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, Acreage by Stem Ciders, 1380 Horizon Ave., Unit A, Lafayette. $12-$14

Down dog at sundown with Boulder County’s best view of the Rockies. In this collaboration with the City of Lafayette, listen along to the music and instructor through SoundOff noise-cancelling headphones as outside distractions melt away. Once you find your center, hit the bar to keep unwinding. Drinks must be purchased separately. Reservations: bit.ly/SunsetYogaBW

28 FARMFEST MUSIC EVENINGS

4:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, Sunflower Farm, 11150 Prospect Road, Longmont. $27

Herd the family over to Longmont for the first evening of local music, food and family fun at Sunflower Farm’s weekly fest. Cluck along with free range chickens and strutting peacocks to the sounds of local bluegrass outfit Chain Station and grab a bite from Passport Food Truck.

28 LEFT HAND JAMS: OPEN BLUEGRASS PICK

6-8 p.m. Wednesday, May 28, The Garden at Left Hand, 1245 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

The Colorado spring air feels a whole lot better with a beer in your hand and banjo in your ears. Grab your six-string, fiddle, mandolin or whatever else you play and head to the Left Hand beer garden for this weekly community jam session.

29 GARDENING BASICS AT THE ERIE COMMUNITY LIBRARY

2-3:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29, Erie Community Library, 400 Powers Street. Free

Have you dreamed of garden bounties only to watch your would-be harvest wither away? Or have you yet to make it to the planting stage? Nurture your green thumb with help from the best at this gardening basics session with a Weld County Master Gardener. Get ready to learn and sow the seeds of a successful garden.

LIVE MUSIC

THURSDAY, MAY 22

HIGHWAY ROBBERY. 6 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free

GRABLE HOWIE DUO. 6 p.m. 300 Suns Brewing, 335 1st Ave., Unit C, Longmont. Free

TONY CRANK 6 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. Free

BRENNEN SCHEDLER TRIO.

7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

NUXX WITH JEFF IN LEATHER, MODERN DEVOTION AND KILL YOU CLUB 7 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $19

LONGMONT ALL-STARS JAZZ BAND (BILL WILKINSON TRIBUTE).

7 p.m. Nissi’s, 1455 Coal Creek Drive, Unit T, Lafayette. $20

THE GLOBAL ROOTS ENSEMBLE.

7 p.m. eTown, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $27

JULIA ABRAMOVA 7 p.m. Atma Buti Sound & Vibrational School, 6395 Gunpark Drive, Suite T, Boulder. $40

STING. 8 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $87

ORION SUN WITH CHLOTHEGOD.

8 p.m. Ogden Theater, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $41

ALEIK MADDOX WITH CHRONOLOGUE AND JOSH BIERMAN BAND. 8 p.m. Lost Lake, 3602 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $19

ON THE BILL

LEON BRIDGES WITH LA LOM. 8 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $137

RED SHAHAN WITH ESTIN & THE 86’D. 8 p.m. Aggie Theatre, 204 S. College Ave., Fort Collins. $22

PIER PRESSURE! (YACHT ROCK NIGHT) 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. Free

MIDNIGHT SNACK WITH MAKADU AND POCKET SQUARES. 8 p.m. Lost Lake, 3602 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $19

GRANT LIVINGSTON AND FRIENDS. 9 p.m. Mountain Sun Pub, 1535 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

Boston trio Horse Jumper of Love bring their gauzy, emotive brand of folk-tinged slowcore to Denver’s Hi-Dive with support from Roseville and Precocious Neophyte on May 25. The band performs on the heels of their dreamy fifth studio album, Disaster Trick, out now via Run for Cover Records See listing for details

FRIDAY, MAY 23

BRIANA JANNYNE WITH LUCKIEE B AND THRIIVE 5:30 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $19

TEN (PEARL JAM TRIBUTE). 5:30 p.m. Wibby Brewing, 209 Emery St., Longmont. Freed

STEVE AND THE CRUISERS

6 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. Free

ARTHUR LEE LAND. 6 p.m. Spirit Hound Tasting Room, 4196 Ute Hwy., Lyons. Free

MIND MAPS 6 p.m. Trident Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

STEEL MONKEY. 6 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free

NICE WORK WITH HEIDI SCHMIDT AND PETE LEWIS

6:30 p.m. Full Cycle Cafe & Bar, 2355 30th St., Boulder. $23

FLORIST WITH ALLEGRA KRIEGER 7 p.m. Meow Wolf, 1338 1st St., Denver. $27 STORY ON P. 13

VERTIGO ROAD WITH NEIL JOHNSON. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

STILLHOUSE JUNKIES WITH FASTFLOYD. 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $20

THE FABBA SHOW (ABBA TRIBUTE). 7:30 p.m. Nissi’s, 1455 Coal Creek Dr. Unit T, Lafayette $20–$45

SATURDAY,

MAY 24

INGRID AVISON. Noon. Boulder Bandshell, 1212 Canyon Blvd., Boulder. Free

DOLLHOUSE THIEVES 5 p.m. Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

BROOKELYN ROSE WITH CHASE CAVANAUGH AND AREYMA 5 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $19

JOYTRIP. 6 p.m. Spirit Hound Tasting Room, 4196 Ute Hwy., Lyons. Free

UNAUTHORIZED ABSENCE. 6 p.m. Bootstrap Brewing Company, 142 Pratt St., Longmont. Free

NEW AESTHETIC WITH RELATE AND OVERTIME WINNER. 6 p.m. Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $22

TRACE & BAERD 6 p.m. Trident Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free

30+ FREE CONCERTS

0+ REEKSIDE

CREEKSIDE BEERFEST KIDS ACTIVITIES SHOPPING & FOOD

BOULDER CREEK BOULDER CREEK FESTIVAL FESTIVAL S

FRIDAY, MAY 23

4:30 - 10:00 PM

RIDAY, ATURDAY, UNDAY, NDAY,

MONDAY, MAY 26 :30 1 :00 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM 0:00 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

SATURDAY, MAY 24 SUNDAY, MAY 25

LIVE MUSIC

THE DISRUPTORS 6 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free

LINDA THEUS-LEE AND FRIENDS.

6:30 p.m. Full Cycle Cafe & Bar, 2355 30th St., Boulder. $25

MARIACHI LAS DAHLIAS 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. $20

BOULDER PHIL’S BRASS QUINTET 7 p.m. The Backdoor Theatre of Nederland, 750 CO-72.

$25

BRAD PAISLEY WITH WALKER HAYES AND AVERY ANNA 7:30

p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $136

BOULDER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (20TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION CONCERT) 7:30 p.m. Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. $30+

THE REVEREND SHAWN AMOS WITH NEW FAMILY DOG 8 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $21

PEAK2PEAK. 8 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. $19

SINCERA WITH BUCK, ON THE HOUSE AND HEART REAPER 8 p.m. Lost Lake, 3602 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. $19

HYPNOSIS MUSICAL (60S & 70S SOUNDS FROM LATIN AMERICA). 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. Free

RED STINGER WITH KING RAT 8:30 p.m. Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $21

JEREMY MOHNEY 9 p.m. License No. 1, 2115 13th St., Boulder. Free

EMO NITE 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $16

LOCO TECHNO FEATURING CRIX MADINE WITH DRUUBIIDOO 9:30 p.m. Bricks on Main, 471 Main St., Longmont. Free

SUNDAY, MAY 25

CHARLES BLENZIG TRIO. 1 p.m. Butterscotch Studios, 620 Kimbark St., Longmont. Free

SUNDAY SHANDY SHAKEDOWN FEATURING SCOTT VON WITH GROOVE HOLIDAY. 2 p.m. Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

THE CBDS (100TH GIG) 4 p.m. Very Nice Brewing Company, 20 Lakeview Drive, #112, Nederland. Free

BICYCLE DAY WITH AIRAVATA, NULL & VOID AND RIPCORDS 4 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $19

SANTA ANA RODEO WITH ROOFTOP SODEAS, KOHANNA AND WAMPUS CAT 5 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. $19

DOMI EDSON TRIO 6 p.m. Full Cycle Cafe & Bar, Full Cycle Cafe & Bar, 2355 30th St., Boulder. Free

DREAMER ISIOMA. 8 p.m. Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $28

HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE WITH ROSEVILLE AND PRECOCIOUS NEOPHYTE. 7 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. BW PICK OF THE WEEK

JUSTICE WITH FCUKERS 7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $174+

MONDAY, MAY 26

LEFTOVER SALMON WITH KITCHEN DWELLERS AND CLAY STREET UNIT 4:30 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheater, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $64

BLOOD CLUB WITH OBSKUROS AND DEVORATUS. 7 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. $19

TUESDAY, MAY 27

PHONEBOY WITH INOHA 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

THE BLACK KEYS WITH HERMANOS GUTIÉRREZ. 8 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $102

BREAKUP SHOES WITH CARDINAL BLOOM AND TINY TOMBOY 8:30 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver. $24

WEDNESDAY, MAY 28

OPEN BLUEGRASS PICK. 6 p.m. The Garden at Left Hand, 1245 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

TWO TIME RAMBLE 6 p.m. Rosalee’s Pizzeria, 461 Main St., Longmont. Free

MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD WITH NIKO MOON. 7 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. $75

LIVE MUSIC

LORD HURON WITH MOLLY LEWIS (NIGHT 1). 7:30 p.m. Red Rocks Amphitheatre, 18300 W. Alameda Pkwy., Morrison. $125

KICKBACK WITH DJ TINSEL JUNK AND BLAKE. 8 p.m. Hi-Dive, 7 S. Broadway, Denver. Free

THURSDAY, MAY 29

THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE FEAT. THE NATURALS. 7-9 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $28

TODD CAREY WITH ASTEROID PLEASE. 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St., Suite V3A, Boulder. $18

CIG POPE AND THE HOLY SMOKES p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Free

PICNIC ON THE PLAZA WITH JEFF & PAIGE. Noon-1 p.m. Festival Plaza, 311 S. Public Rd., Lafayette. Free

BIG SAD 1900. 7 p.m. Marquis Theater, 2009 Larimer St., Denver. $41

SHIFT FEAT. MYTHM, THELEM, LSTREE AND DRAEKA 8 p.m. Cervantes’ Other Side, 2637 Welton St., Denver

GOLDENGRASS BLUEGRASS WEEKEND (NIGHT 1) FEAT.

ARKANSAUCE. 6 p.m. New Terrain Brewing Company, 16401 Table Mountain Pkwy. Free

ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): I think you’re ready to establish new ways of nourishing and protecting what’s valuable to you. Your natural assertiveness will be useful in setting boundaries and securing resources. Your flourishing intuition will guide you to implement adjustments that safeguard your interests while remaining flexible enough to permit legitimate access. Be extra alert, Aries, for when you need to balance security with accessibility. Your best defenses will come from clever design, not brute force. Do what you need to feel secure without feeling trapped.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): In July 1971, 26-year-old Taurus poet Bernadette Mayer kept a scrupulous diary. Every day, she shot a roll of 35 mm film, wrote about the day’s events, and recorded herself reading her accounts. By Aug. 1, she had accumulated 1,100 photos and six hours of readings. One of her goals in doing the project was to learn more about how her memory worked. What was worth remembering, and what wasn’t? She also hoped to gain an objective perspective about her routine rhythm. Years later, she acknowledged that though this was a narcissistic experiment, she had no shame about it. Inspired by Mayer, and in accordance with astrological omens, you might find it worthwhile to lovingly and thoroughly study the details of your daily life for a while. It’s an excellent time to get to know yourself better.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): Gemini writer Raymond Carver (1938–1988) established a reputation as a master of terse minimalism. One critic noted that he practiced the “Theory of Omission”— an approach to writing fiction that mandates the elimination of superfluous narrative elements. But it turns out that Carver’s editor Gordon Lish had a major role in all this. He deleted half of Carver’s original words and changed the endings of half his stories. Years after his death, Carver’s widow, Tess Gallagher, published the original versions, with the omitted material reinstated. I believe the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to make comparable restorations, Gemini. In every way you can imagine, tell the full story, provide the complete rendition and offer elements that have been missing.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): Even if you don’t regard yourself as a psychic or prophet, I suspect you now have an uncanny knack for deciphering future trends. Your intuition is operating at peak levels, especially when you focus it on the big picture of your long-term destiny. As long as you’re not overconfident about this temporary bloom of expansive vision, you can trust your ability to see the deep patterns running through your life story. To make the most of this gift, take a loving inventory of where you have been and where you are going. Then devote relaxed meditations to adjusting your master plan.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): River deltas form where rivers meet the sea, creating fertile and complex ecosystems that nourish abundant life. Some of my favorites are the Rhône River Delta in France, the Po River Delta in Italy and the Shinano River Delta in Japan. In the coming weeks, Leo, I will visualize you as the metaphorical equivalent of a river delta. I’ll call you the Leo Delta, trusting you will be inspired to celebrate and cultivate the rich intersections that characterize your life — areas where an array of ideas, paths and relationships converge. Be open to synergizing different aspects of your world: integrating emotions and logic, connecting with diverse people, blending personal and professional goals.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): Your natural inclination is to solve problems through detailed planning and careful analysis. On occasion, that process dead-ends in overthinking, though it often works pretty well. In accordance with current astrological omens, however, I suggest an alternative approach for you in the coming weeks. Instead of trying to figure everything out, how about if you simply create a relaxed spaciousness for new things to emerge? Experiment with the hypothesis that progress will come not from doing more, but from allowing more.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): As they climb, mountaineers carefully assess every handhold and foothold. Unfailing concentration is key. I recommend adopting their attitude in the coming weeks, Libra. You are entering a phase when ascension and expansion will be among your main assignments. The best approach to your adventures is to make steady progress with precision and thoughtfulness. Rushing rashly ahead or taking needless risks could be counterproductive, so be scrupulous about planning and preparation. Trust that the most efficient path to the summit will be via small, deliberate steps. Your winning combination will be ambition leavened with caution.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): At age 42, Scorpio painter Georgia O’Keeffe left her busy New York art career and traveled to New Mexico for the first time. The landscape’s beauty overwhelmed her. She wandered around the desert for three months, creating no art at all. A few critics accused her of wasting time. She rejected their ignorant misunderstanding of her process, replying, “To see takes time. I had to learn the country first before it would let me paint it.” Her most iconic paintings emerged after this phase of pure observation. I’m recommending a similar period for you, dear Scorpio. While your instincts may tempt you toward a flurry of activity, I believe now is a time to wait and see; to pause and ponder; to muse and meditate.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): By the 20th century, the 483-mile-long Seine River in France was so polluted that most of its fish were gone. But clean-up efforts have been successful. Now there are 32 fish species, including the Atlantic salmon. The Seine is also very close to being completely safe for humans to swim. I would love it if you were inspired by this success story to undertake a comparable project in your own life, Sagittarius. What would you most like to see revived and restored? Now is a good time to begin the effort.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): Until she reached her 70s, Capricorn visual artist Louise Bourgeois was a peripheral figure in the art world, modestly respected but not acclaimed. Then New York’s Museum of Modern Art presented her work in a major show. In response, The New York Times reviewed her work, saying it was “charged with tenderness and violence, acceptance and defiance, ambivalence and conviction.” I bring this to your attention, Capricorn, because I suspect the coming months will also bring you recognition for labors of love you’ve been devoted to for a while — maybe not in the form of fame, but through an elevated appreciation by those whose opinion matters to you.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): The name of the old Talking Heads album is Stop Making Sense. One of its many implications is that we periodically derive benefit and relief from being free of the pressure to sound reasonable and be consistent. According to my detailed, logical, in-depth analysis of your astrological omens, now is a perfect time to honor this counsel. I hope you will give yourself a sabbatical from being sensible, serious and overly sane. Instead, please consider a sustained pursuit of pure pleasure, fun foolishness and amazing amusement.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): Be on high alert for fleeting intuitions that flow through your awareness. Really good ideas may rise up only briefly and only once, and you should be ready to catch them in the ripe moment before they fade away. Do you hear my urgency? Pay special attention to passing thoughts or sudden insights. They may contain more value than initially apparent. I will even speculate that seemingly ephemeral inspirations could become foundational elements in your future success. Document your hunches, even if they seem premature.

SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE

My partner’s wife treats him like shit. How can I support him without just saying “leave”?

Be the greener pasture.

P.S. You’re allowed to say, “leave,” of course, and that may be the message he needs to hear — but you may not be the best messenger. Also, have you seen your partner’s wife treat him like shit with your own eyes, or do you only have his word to go on?

I’m a cis woman in her 40s who fantasies about having a dick. Does that mean I’m trans?

There’s nothing stopping you, a cis woman, from having a dick whenever you want one. And the existence of so many trans men (who are men) who love their pussies indicates that transition, for many trans men, wasn’t motivated solely by fantasies about having male genitalia. And while trans men are relatively rare, cis women who fantasize about having a dick are fairly common.

So, unless there are other things about being a man feels right in a way that encompasses and transcends dick at the same time, odds are good you’re experiencing something that affirms your cisness, not something that points to transness.

Which is worse: bad sex with someone you love, or great sex with someone you can’t stand?

Bad sex with someone you love is worse… because if you love someone and the sex is bad that either means the relationship isn’t going anywhere (because you’re not gonna settle for bad sex) or it means you’re gonna be having bad sex for the rest of your life. If you had great sex with someone you can’t

stand, on the other hand, you can walk away without feeling regret… and circle back whenever you’re feeling weak.

How long do you wait at the end of a BJ before removing the D from your mouth?

If you’re giving a BJ, you’re free to remove the D from your mouth whenever you’re done — and you may finish before he does. But if someone is fucking your face (with your enthusiastic consent) then the person who’s fucking your face removes the D when they are done and not a moment before… unless something goes wrong and/or you’re not feeling it anymore, in which case you should withdraw your consent and the D should be immediately removed.

Should bathroom hookups become normalized outside of bar/club settings?

Part of the thrill of hooking up someplace you’re not supposed to is that you’re not supposed to be hooking up there. And while normalizing toilet hookups at bars and clubs and airports and locker rooms and hotel lobbies and university libraries might lead to a spike in people hooking up in the toilets of bars and clubs and airports, etc., normalizing toilet hookups would effectively eliminate a big part of what makes those hook ups a thrill in the first place, and people would quickly tire of them. If you wanna keep toilet hookups hot, you should fight against their normalization, not for their normalization.

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

A ta ste of Japan in the heart of Colorado

cock tails

HOME IS WHERE THE HEARTH IS

Boulder County bakers feed our need for sourdough loaves and treats straight from their own kitchens

BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

From Breadworks and Moxie Bread Co. to the Bavarian Bakery and Jeannot’s Patisserie, baked goods lovers can choose from an array of great bakeries here in Boulder County.

But those aren’t the only local source of freshly baked loaves, cakes, pies and pastries. Tucked away in ranch houses and condos in suburban neighborhoods is an under-the-radar contingent of dedicated home bakers selling their goodies to a legion of followers.

These are Boulder County’s “cottage foods” bakers.

In 2012, the Colorado legislature enacted the Colorado Cottage Foods Act, popularly called the “Bake Sale Law,” allowing home cooks to offer food products for sale without licensing or inspections.

Most local cottage foods businesses offer breads, muffins, fruit pies, cookies, empanadas, tortillas, honey, jams, candies and other foods that do not require refrigeration.

Ashley Overstreet is one of those neighbors, operating Daily Grains Bakery out of her Lafayette home since 2022.

“A lot of our customers have been word of mouth,” she says. “People give the gift of our bread, which is a cool thing I didn’t know about. Then, those neighbors become customers, too.”

Daily Grains has home pickup, and also sells weekly at Boulder’s Cure Organic Farm and at the new Lafayette Farmers Market. Cottage bakers primarily connect with their customers through social media.

“My biggest baking week last year was about 250 loaves,” Overstreet says. “You need lots and lots of rolling racks in your living room.”

A few miles away in Lafayette, Gregor MacGregor is proofing loaves between sessions of grading student papers for his Masters of the Environment classes at the University of Colorado.

“I love that baking is a completely different thing than my day job,” MacGregor says. “I work with my hands and I’ve gotten to know a lot more people in my neighborhood because of bread.”

“As a lawyer, not many people smile when you come in the room,” says the water attorney who opened his Vulcan Mine Bakery as a pandemic project in 2020. “But as a baker, lots of people smile at you.”

For cookie makers pondering taking the Cottage Foods plunge, MacGregor notes the challenges.

“The hardest part is being essentially a one-baker show,” he says. “You have to figure out your payment system, taxes, advertising, packaging, supplies, an ordering system — everything but the baking.”

But he says there is a wonderful upside.

“Your house smells good. You’ve got bread, coffee cakes and doughnuts cooling everywhere, including the dining room table.”

FINDING A NEIGHBORHOOD COTTAGE BAKERY

Here are some of the Boulder County cottage foods businesses focused on baking. If we missed a local baker, let us know: Nibbles@boulderweekly.com

LONGMONT

Sweet Pea Urban Homestead

Menu: Sourdough breads, scones, cinnamon rolls and cookies

How to order: Order online (home pickup); occasional popup sales

Baker: Desiree Fowler

Founded: 2024

Info: bit.ly/SweetPeaBW

Oven Spring Home Kitchen

Menu: Quick breads including Longmont-brewed beer cheese bread, roasted chile-banana bread and multi-colored braided challah

How to order: Order online (delivery only)

Baker: Mary Beth Chasen

Founded: 2014

Info: ovenspringkitchen.com

Little Spouse Bread House

Menu: Rustic sourdough loaves, pizza shells, cookies, scones

How to order: Order online (home pickup)

Baker: Whitedove Gannon

Founded: 2024

Info: bit.ly/LittleSpouseBW

Nancy’s Notable Nibbles

Menu: Gluten-free, allergyfriendly mixes, cookies, cinnamon rolls and other baked goods

How to order: Order online (home pickup); bakery popups at the Louisville and Erie farmers markets, and Longmont’s monthly Local Drive

Baker: Nancy Davis

Info: nancysnotablenibbles.com

Brandy’s Baked Bites

Menu: Rotating seasonal menus include banana bread, focaccia, limoncello cake and other baked goods

How to Order: Order online; monthly pop-up sales

Baker: Brandy Galloway

Founded: 2020

Info: bit.ly/BrandysBakedBitesBW

LAFAYETTE

Vulcan Mine Bakery

Menu: Doughnuts, sourdough loaves, focaccia, cookies, coffee cakes and other baked goods

How to order: Order online (home pickup); popups at Lafayette brewery tasting rooms

Baker: Gregor MacGregor

Founded: 2020

Info: vulcanminebakery.square.site

Daily Grains Bakery

Menu: Sourdough breads and cookies

How to order: Order online (home pickup); weekly sales at Cure Organic Farm and Lafayette Farmers Market.

Baker: Ashley Overstreet

Founded: 2022

Info: dailygrains.co

OTHER NEARBY COTTAGE BAKERIES:

The Bread Basket (Lafayette): facebook.com/lovethebreadbasket

The Baked Broad (Nederland): pdlnpastry@gmail.com

Bella’s Sourdough Bakery (Broomfield): bellassourdoughbakery.com

Bollinger Breads (Frederick): bit.ly/BollingerBreadsBW

Talitha Koum Sourdough (Firestone): bit.ly/TalithaKoumBW

Courtesy: Daily Grains Bakery

Courtesy: Vulcan Mine Bakery

NIBBLES

LOCAL FOOD NEWS: FRENCH BAKERY BOOM, BUST

Two new French cafés and bakeries have opened in BoCo: Maisonette (921 Walnut St., Boulder) and Bakewell (350 Main St., Longmont). Meanwhile, Lafayette’s Button Rock Bakery has been sold to Julien Renaut, owner of La Belle French Bakery. Kwosson, a fine little French bakery, has closed at 2250 Main St. in Superior.

In other news: Blackbelly Market now offers Rosenberg’s Bagels, unavailable in Boulder since the Denver-based deli shuttered its shop on the Hill.

Valor Peak Distillery tasting room opens May 24 at 110 Emery St., Longmont. PineMelon, the “local-first” online grocery delivery service, has closed its business in Colorado.

JULIA CHILD KUDOS FOR FRASCA’S STUCKEY

Bobby Stuckey was recently named the 2025 Julia Child Award recipient by the Julia Child Foundation. Stuckey is a Master Sommelier as well as the owner of Boulder’s Frasca Food and Wine and Pizzeria Alberico, among other Colorado restaurants. The foundation honored the hospitality advocate’s four-decade career.

CULINARY CALENDAR: GROWING ENERGY AND TOMATOES

The coolest only-in-BoCo farm experience this summer is a guided tour at Jack’s Solar Garden and the Colorado Agrivoltaic Learning Center. It’s a pioneering location growing crops in the shade provided by photovoltaic power panels. Sign up for Saturday public tours: coagrivoltaic.org.

Learn to love pollinators on May 31 when Boulder’s Growing Gardens hosts a family honeybee encounter featuring a look inside a working hive and fresh honey tasting. Register: growinggardens.org.

Sign up for Boulder Food Rescue’s backyard garden donation program and grow produce this summer to help increase local food access. Information: boulderfoodrescue.org

WORDS TO CHEW ON: A LITTLE ICEBERG LOVE

“There are many categories of salad snob — the ingredient minimalists, the chop evangelists, the dressing-goes-in-the-bowl-first brigade — but perhaps the most vocal, and the most misguided, are those dedicated to the denigration of iceberg lettuce.” - Helen Rosner, The New Yorker

John Lehndorff is the Exhibit Historian for Boulder Eats! opening Nov. 15 at the Museum of Boulder. Comments: Nibbles@BoulderWeekly.com

Bobby Stuckey. Courtesy: Frasca Food and Wine

ON DRUGS

THE RETURN OF WHIPPITS

Nitrous oxide recreational use is linked to brain damage and sudden death

BY ANDREW YOCKEY THE CONVERSATION

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning Americans about the everincreasing and potentially deadly recreational use of nitrous oxide products, particularly among young people.

Marketed with names like “Galaxy Gas” and “Miami Magic,” and often sold in steel cartridges known as “whippets,” these products are cheap and readily available at gas stations, convenience stores, smoke shops and major retail outlets, including Walmart. They’re also sold online.

As an assistant professor of public health who studies these products, I’m aware of how dangerous they can be.

Recreational and continued use of nitrous oxide can cause a wide range of serious health problems, and in some cases, death.

A LONG LIST OF POTENTIAL HARMS

The list of serious side effects from frequent use is long. It includes: cognitive impairment, memory problems, halluci-

nations, headaches, lightheadedness, mood disturbances, blood clots, limb weakness, trouble walking, peripheral neuropathy, impaired bowel or bladder function, spinal cord degeneration and irreversible brain damage. Vitamin B-12 deficiency is common and can lead to nerve and brain damage.

Deaths in the U.S. attributed to abuse of nitrous oxide jumped more than 100% between 2019 and 2023; over a five-year period, emergency department visits rose 32%.

LAUGHING GAS PARTIES

Because of legal loopholes in the Food and Drug Administration Act, nitrous oxide remains unregulated. What’s more, U.S. scientists have done relatively little research on its abuse, partly because the public still perceives the substance as benign, particularly when compared with alcohol

The few studies on the use of nitrous oxide are limited mainly to case reports – that is, a report on a single patient. Although limited in scope, they’re alarming.

More thorough studies are available in the United Kingdom and Europe, where there’s even more demand for the product. One example: Over a 20-year period, 56 people died in England and Wales after recreational use. Typically, deaths occur from hypoxia, which is the lack of oxygen to the brain, or accidents occurring while intoxicated by the gas, such as car wrecks or falls.

Americans have known about the

effects of nitrous oxide for centuries. Before becoming a medicinal aid, nitrous oxide was popular at “laughing gas” parties during the late 1700s.

Physicians began using it in the U.S. around the mid-19th century after Horace Wells, a dentist, attended a stage show –called “Laughing Gas Entertainment” –and saw the numbing effect that nitrous oxide had on audience volunteers. By coincidence, Wells was having a wisdom tooth removed the next day, so he tried

with severe psychiatric disorders, including treatment-resistant depression and bipolar depression. It may also help with anxiety and pain management.

BANS AND RESTRICTIONS

No federal age restrictions exist for purchasing nitrous oxide products, although a few states have passed age limits.

As of May 2025, four U.S. states –Louisiana, Michigan, Alabama and California – have banned the recreational use of nitrous oxide, and more than 30 states are working on legislation to ban or at least restrict sale of the products. In addition, numerous lawsuits filed against the manufacturers are in court.

the gas during his procedure. The nitrous oxide worked; Wells said he felt no pain. Thereafter, medicinal use of the gas was gradually accepted.

Today, nitrous oxide is often used in dentist offices. It’s safe under a doctor’s supervision as a mild sedative that serves as a pain reliever and numbing agent. Nitrous oxide also benefits some patients

Research shows school prevention programs help keep kids from using these products. So does early screening of patients by primary care and mental health physicians. The sooner they can intervene, the more likely that ongoing therapy will work. Through appropriate legislation, regulation, education and intervention, nitrous oxide abuse can be slowed or stopped. Otherwise, these products – with their sleek packaging and attractive social media campaigns that obscure their dangers – remain a growing threat to our children.

Andrew Yockey is an assistant professor of public health at the University of Mississippi. The Conversation is a nonprofit organization featuring academic experts.