Boulder Weekly 1.19.2023

Hard Rain

Indigenous reindeer herders and CU researchers offer lessons from a changing Arctic

cover: Indigenous reindeer herders and CU researchers offer lessons from a changing Arctic by Kaylee Harter

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adventure: The Dairy to screen documentary about one athlete’s journey to the South Pole in spite of a spinal cord injury by Chad Robert Peterson

buzz: New memoir by Boulder’s ‘Mr. Rogers of adventure’ maps his 4,000-mile cycling journey from Honduras to the Front Range by Jezy J. Gray

good taste: Marigold brings experience from some of the best in Colorado dining to Lyons by Colin Wrenn

5 Anderson Files: Fake history of Civil War fuels MAGA

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Let this newspaper ad serve as notification that the personal property owned by Donald Oberbeck; being held by All Pro Restoration (lien holder) will hereby be considered abandoned if not claimed by end of business on 01/26/2023. Certified letter notification was sent in December and refused for signature, twice. Property can be scheduled for reclamation by calling 720-729-0002 at which point the address will be provided of where the property can be claimed. If not claimed by 01/26/2023, property will be immediately disposed of on 01/27/2023 at a local dump facility. All associated costs with storing and cleaning said items will still be owed, regardless of reclamation or not. All Pro Restoration will release interest in said property but not interest in amounts owed. Please contact us at 720-729-0002.

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EDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief, Caitlin Rockett

Arts & Culture Editor, Jezy J. Gray General Assignment Reporter, Will Matuska Food Editor, John Lehndorff

Contributing Writers: Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Angela K. Evans, Mark Fearer, Kaylee Harter, Nick Hutchinson, Dave Kirby, Ari LeVaux, Adam Perry, Dan Savage, Bart Schaneman, Alan Sculley, Samuel Shaw, Toni Tresca, Gregory Wakeman, Colin Wrenn

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Jan. 19, 2023

Volume XXX, number 22

Cover: Courtesy Roza Laptander

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Fake history of Civil War fuels MAGA

by Dave Anderson

At the end of the 1950s, the organizers of the planned four-year-long official centennial celebration of the Civil War decided to avoid mentioning slavery or emancipation as much as possible. Historians Maurice Isserman and Michael Kazin tell the story in America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s.

The war inspired “the beginning of a new America,” according to Carl S. Betts of the federal Civil War Centennial Commission. He said:

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They note that the commission presented the war as “a kind of colorful and good-natured regional athletic rivalry between two groups of freedom-loving white Americans.”

The commission’s brochure, called “Facts About the Civil War,” described the military forces of the Union and the Confederacy as “the Starting Line-Ups.” The pamphlet didn’t include the words “negro” or “slavery.”

“The story of the devotion and loyalty of Southern Negroes is one of the outstanding things about the Civil War. A lot of fine Negro people loved life as it was in the old South. There’s a wonderful story there — a story of great devotion that is inspiring to all people, white, black or yellow.”

Things started going haywire. The first scheduled observance was to be the commemoration of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The commission called a national assembly from participating state civil war centennial commissions in Charleston.

A Black delegate from New Jersey was denied a room at the headquarter’s hotel due to the state’s segregationist laws. In response, four Northern states announced they would boycott the meeting.

Newly inaugurated President Kennedy suggested that the business meetings be shifted to the non-segregated federal Charleston Naval Yard. Then the South Carolina commission seceded from the federal commission. Ultimately, there were two separate observances.

President Eisenhower created the commission. It was led by Major General Ulysses S. Grant III, a grandson of the Union’s predominant commander, and his deputy Karl S. Betts, a public relations expert and former highschool friend of the president. Historian Robert J. Cook says, “Both men were hard-line anti-communists, conservative Northern Republicans who conceived the centennial as a compelling national pageant that would genuinely excite Americans, young and old.”

Cook writes that in Montgomery, Alabama — the first capital of the Confederacy — the centenary of Jefferson Davis’s inauguration as Confederate president was celebrated with beard-growing contests in period costume, a Confederate belle beauty contest and a spectacular fireworks display.

Meanwhile, the state’s governor, George Wallace, would become a national figure challenging the federal government and the Civil Rights movement. White supremacists would go on a bloody terrorist rampage throughout the South.

Under Kennedy, Grant and Betts would be replaced by professional historians, Allan Nevins and James I. (‘Bud’) Robertson. In 1962, the re-organized commission hosted an event at the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the issuing

of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation.

In 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and told an aide that the white South would now become Republican for a generation. That was an understatement.

Mainstream historians accepted the Confederate view of the war for many decades.

Deeply racist books and movies like Birth of A Nation and Gone With The Wind influenced the public.

The progressive social movements of the 1960s and 1970s shook things up, and this was reflected in new historical scholarship and popular culture. The post-war Reconstruction Era had been portrayed as a dark time when savage former slaves and corrupt Northern whites ruined the South. The new historians portrayed the period as a grand experiment which granted equal citizenship to Blacks and established public school systems. They were inspired by a 1935 pioneering work on the era by Black historian W.E.B. DuBois.

Blacks became judges and state legislators. There were 20 Black federal congressmen and two Black senators.

The Southern white elite would fight back with terrorism through the Ku Klux Klan. They were shocked at how many poor whites were joining the Republicans. Meanwhile, the Northern economic elite became alarmed at the militant unrest of immigrant workers in their region. They became sympathetic to their class brothers in the South and there was a national reconciliation in 1876.

Today, the party of Lincoln favors a new white nationalist order. Or maybe they just want to turn the clock back to the 1950s? Or maybe the 1850s?

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

In November 2020, the City of Boulder established a Police Oversight Panel after a series of incidents in which Boulder police officers used excessive force and unjustly targeted community members. However, in the years since the panel was formed, the committee has not been empowered to address issues of discipline, foster public discussion, nor drive systemic change for policing in Boulder.

After a panel member recently resigned in protest, the efficacy of the panel’s charter has been called into question and disagreements between the panel and the chief of police have become public. Following these incidents, members of the Boulder Police Foundation, the pro-police group Safer Boulder, and Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold have added new layers to the tension by challenging the selection of the new appointees to the oversight panel.

Boulder’s push to create a police oversight panel began in 2019 after public outcry about the treatment of Zayd Atkinson, a Black student at Naropa, who was confronted by Boul-

der police and surrounded by officers while picking up trash outside of his apartment. The incident drew national criticism, sparked a large protest in Boulder, prompted Boulder City Council to host a community meeting, and led to the implementation of the Police Oversight Panel.

As outlined in Boulder Ordinance 8430, the Police Oversight Panel reviews complaint investigations and case files, and makes recommendations to the Boulder Police Department’s Professional Standards Unit, which conducts investigations. Boulder Police Department’s (BPD) chief of police receives recommendations and makes a final determination on the conduct and any associated discipline.

The challenges to effective police oversight became apparent in the past year. The second annual report on police oversight highlighted a particular incident where the oversight panel disagreed with the assessment of the police chief regarding use of force.

“Panel members were given body camera footage from the June 2021 arrest and said they saw an officer place his

TODAY, THE PARTY OF LINCOLN favors a new white nationalist order. Or maybe they just want to turn the clock back to the 1950s. Or maybe the 1850s?

Boulder’s police shouldn’t pick their own oversight by Eric Budd

knee on the child’s neck,” according to Boulder Reporting Lab. A panel member described that use of force against a child as unnecessary, but “The police chief disagreed with the panel’s disciplinary recommendations and exonerated the officer.”

A second, widely reported incident saw BPD give minor discipline to detectives “who failed to investigate a ‘large number’ of cases” in violation of department rules, according to Boulder Beat. While the oversight panel recommended termination for all personnel involved, the ultimate penalties given by the Boulder police chief were a suspension of less than a week, with one officer receiving a one-year “letter of reprimand.” One officer resigned. Over the course of the investigation, oversight panel member Martha Wilson “resigned as a direct response to the panel’s lack of authority, and ability to discuss specifics for a recent case,” as reported in the Daily Camera

The challenges of Boulder’s Police Oversight Panel are well known to Boulder City Council. City Attorney Teresa Tate is working right now on immediate changes, as reported in Boulder Reporting Lab. Now, Council is set to appoint five new members for

the panel, but they have a new obstacle: a coordinated effort from members of the Boulder Police Foundation and citizen’s group Safer Boulder to block some of the appointees. On Dec. 15, Council removed the appointments from their consent agenda and asked the oversight panel selection committee to reaffirm its appointees.

An open records request relating to this delay found a number of emails sent to Council and City staff from individuals connected to Safer Boulder, a group which organizes in favor of more policing, often to increase patrols and sweeps of unhoused people in Boulder (Read “Who is Safer Boulder?” in Boulder Weekly, Sept. 30, 2021). The emails were a coordinated campaign to block a specific appointee for her observations and commentary on police actions in Boulder. This candidate is “highly qualified… a unanimous choice… she clearly has integrity,” per Jude Landsman, the NAACP representative on the selection committee, as reported in the Daily Camera.

The open records request found an email the morning of the council meeting from Safer Boulder’s Les-

lie Chandler, urging Boulder Police Foundation members to lobby City Council to “prevent this appointment from happening at this evenings’ City Council meeting.” The letter went on to say “Also, reaching out to Chief Herold directly would be worthwhile.”

The Boulder Police Foundation is a local non-profit that includes six community members, and Stephen Redfearn, deputy chief of BPD. Russ Chandler, Leslie’s husband and a member of Boulder Police Foundation, replied to other BPF members: “I’d like you all to be aware of something that could seriously undermine our police force, including possible resignation of Chief Herold.” There were several replies from Boulder Police Foundation members on this email chain, and Chief Herold was ultimately copied on the emails.

The records request also revealed an email from Chief Herold to a Council member that afternoon responding to a request to meet, saying “I would really like the opportunity to discuss the panel and obstacles we perceive.” Thus at the same time that the Boulder Police Foundation and Safer Boulder were working to block appointees to the police oversight panel, the chief of police

was communicating with members of City Council about the panel. This raises the obvious question of whether the panel is being given the independence the community demanded.

Since these events, the selection committee has reaffirmed that the appointees fully comply with the criteria in the city code, and the committee has asked Council to approve this slate. Undaunted, the BPF and Safer Boulder are pushing back again on multiple nominees and on the selection committee itself, seeking to prevent an effective oversight panel that will provide a high level of scrutiny. It appears that these groups fear the effective police oversight that our city desperately needs.

A strong and ethical police department should welcome the opportunity to prove their effectiveness, not run from it. I urge our council to move swiftly to ensure the strong, effective, and independent oversight that was intended at the police oversight panel’s creation

Eric Budd lives in Boulder.

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

RETHINK CITY LEADERSHIP

For the current majority on the City Council, addressing “quality of life” issues appears to apply not to residents and neighborhoods, but to developers and commercial interests. Celebrating Google’s presence in the city and supporting the university’s constant expansion are cases in point. This bias is the root cause of our growing traffic congestion and pollution. Jobs are here, affordable housing is not. The developers’ answer for this has been, with the blessing of the Planning Department, the construction of block after block of multiple rental properties, presumably upscale enough to not be considered “Upstairs/Downstairs”/ company town worker living accommodations. The Housing Authority’s brainchild is a libertarian, free-range loosening of regulations and restrictions on Accessory Dwelling Units. This gift to the City’s landlords will heavily impact neighborhoods whose community integrity, including K-12 school enrollment, is already stressed by the spread of “cash cow” student rentals. Apparently the Danish Plan and other “quality of life” initiatives

are now interpreted as relating mainly to property values and commercial endeavors. Perhaps they always were. Protecting the people of Boulder needs a major rethink in the City’s leadership.

Robert Porath/Boulder

RE: ‘DIVE TO SURVIVE’

Kudos to the organizations and individuals that work to help us avoid food waste and hunger (“Dive to survive,” by Will Matuska, Boulder Weekly, Jan. 12, 2023). Imagine so much hunger, food insecurity on the rise, and yet 35% of food wasted. Will Matuska’s article does a good job explaining the problem in the Boulder area — multiply that by all the areas across the country. Time to send this article to our members of Congress and ask for action. Sen. Bennet’s efforts to pass and renew the expanded Child Tax Credit are to be applauded and encouraged, a good step forward to deal with hunger. A renter’s tax credit would help millions of families no longer have to choose between food and rent. Our voices matter: Congress listens to those who elect them. If we join together we can

guide our government to equity and enough for all.

Willie Dickerson/Snohomish, Washington

THE REALITY OF COLORADO OIL AND GAS

As a 15-year-old activist, I am often met with doubt about the practicality of our society’s transition to renewable energy. Adults warn me about the extreme importance of oil and gas to our economy, and advise me to think about the financial side of this transition. Of course we must consider the economic effects of phasing out oil and gas, but a new report from Colorado Fiscal Institute (Jan. 12, 2023) proves that oil and gas are not as significant to our economy as we think.

Like many, I have heard countless times that oil and gas are essential to Colorado’s workforce. However, this report found that oil and gas contribute only 3.3% of our state’s GDP and only 0.7% of jobs. I was shocked by this information. Transitioning away from oil and gas will certainly still be a challenge for our state, as it will be for any, but with this knowledge, we can confront the transition with

confidence and perseverance.

The larger problem behind what this report uncovers is the propaganda from the fossil fuel industry. For decades, oil and gas companies have provided the public with false and misleading information, spending billions of dollars on slowing down the inevitable failure of their industry. Between 2015 and 2018, the five largest public oil and gas companies spent $1 billion on misleading climate-related branding and lobbying. Misinformation, especially from an industry as powerful as fossil fuels, is dangerous because it crowds the climate change narrative with their own point of view. To address the climate crisis, we need to look at this critical issue from the honest perspectives of both victims and perpetrators.

As we so often hear, time to address climate change is running out. Oil and gas are running out too, both predicted to be used up by 2060. It is only logical to begin this transition now, because the longer we wait, the harder and more painful it will be. As this report reveals, not only is it necessary, but it is possible.

Emma Weber/Boulder

Hard rain

Rain began to fall on the already snow-covered Yamal Peninsula, an Arctic region of northwest Siberia, in November 2013. Rain fell for the next 24 hours.

As rain saturated the snow, the temperature dropped below freezing, turning the precipitation into a thick, icy crust.

The region is home to the Nenets, Indigenous Siberians who are traditionally nomadic reindeer herders. During the winter, reindeer usually subsist on lichens beneath the snow, but in 2013, the hard layer of ice made the surface impenetrable. Unable to access food for the next several months, more than 60,000 reindeer died of starvation and, as a result, many Nenets families lost their livelihoods.

Indigenous

ARCTIC TUNDRA:

The Yamal Peninsula went through a rain-on-snow event in 2013 that killed more than 60,000 reindeer, wiping out income for the Nenets people of the region.

“For reindeer herders, it’s really a disaster,” Roza Laptander says.

Laptander is a Nenets social anthropologist and researcher born in the tundra of West Siberia. She works with scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at CU Boulder as part of an interdisciplinary, international research team working to better understand how rain-on-snow events affect Arctic communities.

Though she lives in the Netherlands now, Laptander retains strong ties to Nenets reindeer herding communities. One family she interviewed after the 2013 rain-on-snow event told her they hadn’t realized the sheer number of reindeer they had lost until the snow and ice began to melt in the spring, revealing the carcasses of reindeer.

“What we’re increasingly realizing is that this can have a very big impact on the environment and on people and on the animals and on social systems,” says Mark Serreze, NSIDC director and project lead of the Arctic Rain On Snow Study.

The study covers multiple regions, including Arctic regions of Alaska, Finland and Canada.

It began in 2020 and is funded by the National Science Foundation through 2024 as part of a larger effort to understand how the Arctic is changing and how communities will respond and adapt.

The Arctic is the front line of climate change, warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2022 Arctic Report Card. The last seven years were the warmest years on record and precipitation has increased significantly since the 1950s, according to the Arctic Report Card. The past year was the Arctic’s wettest year of the past 72.

“The Arctic is right here in Boulder in many ways, because what happens in the Arctic is not going to stay in the Arctic,” Serreze says. “The Arctic is raising the red flag of climate change and it’s going to affect us all.”

Understanding impacts

It can take years for herding communities to recover from rain-on-snow events as severe as the one in 2013 in Siberia. For herding communities, reindeer are everything. They provide transportation, food, clothing and an income, as many herders sell the meat.

“If you’re traveling by draft animals that haul the sledges, you need to not just raise new animals for meat and clothing, but you also need to train — it’s like training a dog team to pull the sledge, but not every puppy is a good sled dog. So you’re talking about a multi-year process to rebuild the herd,” says Bruce Forbes, a researcher from University of Lapland and a key partner in the NSIDC study who has worked with Arctic communities for years.

It’s difficult to put the animals’ importance into words, Laptander says — their value goes beyond the material.

“It’s an important symbol of culture and identity,” she says. “And of course, also, it’s important for this feeling of well being.” Families are deeply connected to their history of being herders, and oral traditions and folklore are tied to the reindeer as well. Losing reindeer in die-off events is devastating.

The effects of rain-on-snow events go beyond those on reindeer and herding communities and vary by region. Other animals, such as musk oxen and caribou, also suffer, and large die-off events can trigger cascading impacts in the ecosystem. Rain-on-snow events can also trigger slush avalanches, create transportation issues, and cause permafrost to thaw, releasing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

reindeer herders and CU researchers offer lessons from a changing Arctic by Kaylee Harter

COURTESY ROZA LAPTANDER

“No one community is alike in that they have very unique topography that they travel across, certain places that they go, and that can all play out differently in terms of how conditions change,” says Matthew Druckenmiller, an NSIDC researcher on the team who works in coastal Alaska.

Bridging knowledge

Detection and prediction of rain-on-snow events is imperfect, and studying them requires bridging scientific research methods with Indigenous knowledge.

Satellite imagery and remote sensing each have limitations, but on-the-ground observations from the past and present can fill in gaps. Some of the technology only dates back to around 1979, according to Forbes, but stories of these events have been passed down in communities through oral tradition dating back more than 100 years. “It’s a much richer palette than we would have just fiddling with our various remote sensing tools,” Forbes says.

Time and access are important factors in building trust between researchers and local communities to create knowledge exchange, but global events have posed significant barriers. At the outset of the project, the pandemic stalled travel to many regions of the study. Then, Russian invasion of Ukraine put a pause on the portion of the study in the Yamal Peninsula for the foreseeable future.

“The pandemic was an opportunity for a lot of us to pause and reflect on how we are approaching our research,” says Druckenmiller. “Now, we’re trying to regain some of that initial momentum, initial connections,” he says.

In May, herders and hunters from different regions will come together in Anchorage, Alaska, as part of the project to “interact directly without the filter of a science-based discussion,” Forbes says. It marks an important milestone in the project as the first cross-border workshop.

“We’re going to be in a new type of Arctic, so the more ways of knowing that can be shared and the ways of thinking, ‘What can you do?’ — scientists shouldn’t be sharing those experiences among ourselves,” Forbes says. “We need to let the conversations happen on their own, by the actual practitioners.”

Looking ahead

Better understanding of rain-on-snow events can lead to better prediction and the ability to mitigate some of the community impacts.

“Weather forecasting in the Arctic is hard,” Serreze says. “It’s a hard region to deal with. But if you can improve that forecasting, if you can tell someone five days out, ‘We’re probably going to have a big-rain-on snow event,’ that allows some time for preparation.”

Depending on the size of an event, prediction can allow time for herders to move animals or to bring in supplemental feeding or portable slaughterhouses.

“In an ideal world, if you had a prediction that there’s going to be an event, you can get the slaughterhouses moved up to the herds at risk and then they could be humanely slaughtered and not starve,” Forbes says. “The meat would be saved and the herders would not lose their livelihood and their herd, and they would still remain economically viable.”

Druckenmiller says that while this iteration of the project may not have the time to create and implement types of widespread, on-the-ground systems that are the “gold standard,” he believes it will set the foundation for future projects by building relationships and developing a model for education and knowledge exchange.

“I think what we can create is a community,” he says, “a practice of sharing what [Indigenous herders] need, what they see, and trying to develop clear communication about what a rainy Arctic means for Arctic peoples, and to do that in a way that sets the foundation for more equitably applied research in the future.”

BETTER PREDICTIONS:

Scientists studying rain-on-snow events hope to provide better predictions so that Indigenous Arctic reindeer herders can avoid large losses of animals.

ROMA SEROLETTO

SMALL BUT MIGHTY

Part of Amy Yarger’s work at the Butterfly Pavilion is to boost biodiversity — an increasingly daunting task.

“People often say, ‘Pollinators are cool — they’re cool looking, they like flowers, we like flowers,’” says Yarger, who is the horticulture director of the nonprofit invertebrate zoo located in Westminster. “But to actually say [pollinators have] an impact on human health — those people who aren’t interested in biodiversity for its own sake are going to say, ‘Human health is important, saving people’s lives is important.’”

Yarger is referring to a recent study that directly links human mortality with a decrease in pollinators. The study, published on Dec. 14 in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, found that 3% to 5% of fruit, vegetable and nut production is lost because of inadequate pollination, resulting in an estimated 427,000 additional human deaths annually from lack of healthy food consumption and associated disease.

On top of that, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) says human activity is causing an unprecedented decline of nature — the sixth mass extinction and the largest loss of life since the dinosaurs. The organization estimates one million plant and animal species are currently threatened with extinction.

Pollinators are the small, but mighty, solution.

It’s estimated that upwards of 80% of flowering plants require pollination and 35% of food crops depend on pollinators. Pollinators are part of Yarger’s focus at the Butterfly Pavilion.

“Pollinators are foundational to our food systems and to our ecosystems,” she says.

There are about 350,000 pollinator species in the world, including vertebrate species, like birds and bats, and invertebrates like bees, flies, beetles, spiders and

butterflies. Colorado’s varied terrain helps create habitat for an array of pollinators: more than 900 bee species, 250 butterfly species and more than 1,000 moth species.

But pollinators aren’t immune to the global loss of life — a U.N.-sponsored report in Nature found that 40% of invertebrate pollinators and 16.5% of vertebrate pollinators are threatened with extinction. This is due to factors including habitat destruction, chemical pollution, parasites and pathogens.

Matthew Smith is the lead author of the study linking human mortality to inadequate pollination. He says it is one of the only studies that quantifies the relationship between pollinators and human health in this way.

“This [study] is saying, if you had a lot of pollinators, and they were diverse, how much more food could you produce? And, what health implications would that have?” Smith says.

According to the study, plants that rely on animal pollination are important for human health and, when eaten, can be protective against noncommunicable diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes. It finds less pollinated plants drive loss of economic value, widening of inequality in diet and health outcomes, and “excess mortality globally.”

Smith’s team published their research in the middle of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in December, where representatives from 188 governments adopted four goals and 23 targets for 2030 in a “landmark U.N. Biodiversity agreement.”

Part of that agreement includes measures to mitigate nature loss, including protecting 30% of the planet’s lands, oceans, coastal areas and inland waters. It also includes enhancing ecosystem functions and nature-based solutions like pollination.

Patrick Tennyson, president and CEO of the Butterfly Pavilion, wasn’t at the conference but was

tuned into its outcome.

“It’s great to hear the drumbeat that conservation organizations have been beating for years resonating with communities and nations, it’s starting to become important,” he says.

Tennyson says he wants the pavilion to be a leader in invertebrate research and conservation globally, while maintaining its local presence.

“These animals are everywhere, and they need protection and conservation everywhere,” he says. “And so our work had to grow and had to be more international in focus.”

Some of that growing work comes in the shape of its local pollinator habitat initiatives and pollinator districts, which restore habitat in urban and suburban green spaces around the state.

The Butterfly Pavilion’s Baseline project, the first pollinator district located in Broomfield, is seeing twice as many pollinator species since the project began in 2019, according to Yarger.

Yarger says she wants to emulate this success globally, with ongoing projects in places like the Turks and Caicos Islands, Mongolia and Kenya.

“It’s a very local concern, like, we can make habitat better here [in Colorado],” Yarger says. “But it’s really about getting connected with the whole world and pulling together and making the habitat better.”

Yarger is driven by sharing her passion with people and inspiring curiosity — from the 60,000 students that visit the Butterfly Pavilion annually to working with community members on garden projects.

That connection, she says, is possible for everyone.

“Everyone’s going to benefit from a pollinator in some way,” Yarger says. “And the good news is, everyone, no matter who you are, can benefit a pollinator.”

A study connects pollinator diversity and human health, making the Butterfly Pavilion’s work more important than ever by Will Matuska

PHOTOS BY AMY YARGER

Searching for discomfort

The Dairy to screen documentary about one athlete’s push to the South Pole in spite of his spinal cord injury by Chad Robert Peterson

Most people prefer the easy route — Grant Korgan is not one of those people.

In 2012, the adventurer, nanoscientist and professional athlete became the first person with a spinal cord injury to push himself by ski sled to the South Pole.

With help from Geoff Callan, an avid athlete and film producer, Korgan made a documentary about his experience, The Push, which will screen at the Dairy Arts Center on Jan. 27.

Less than two years prior to reaching the South Pole, Korgan suffered a burst fracture to his L-1 vertebrae in a snowmobile accident, leaving him without feeling beneath his belly button. Even before suffering a major spinal cord injury, Korgan was never one for the path of least resistance.

“I seek out the uncomfortable,” Korgan says. “When something’s comfortable, it’s like, ‘I’m not learning enough from this.’”

Korgan grew up in Lake Tahoe where he constantly spent time outside. In his sophomore year of college at Western State Colorado University, while recovering from a massive ski injury, Korgan lost his best friend in an avalanche. The loss changed the trajectory of his life.

“Life became about what’s the maximum,” Korgan explains. “What’s the most challenging path I can take to learn the most, and experience the most, and feel the most?”

After the death of his friend, true to his word about seeking challenges, Korgan transferred to the University of Nevada Reno to study mechanical engineering. He admittedly struggled with engineering courses, needing five tutors, he says, to get through the entry-level math courses. Despite his early struggles, Korgan took the challenge head-on and finished his degree.

But his biggest challenge was yet to come.

After his debilitating snowmobile accident in March of 2010, with is wife Shawna by his side, Korgan vowed to recover “120%,” and less than a year after his accident, he was asked to join adventurer Doug Stoup in becoming the first spinal cord-injured athlete to visit the South Pole. Korgan knew he had to do it.

Over the next year, Korgan trained his body and mind for the massive task of pushing himself 100 miles on skis.

“If I say to you, ‘Man, we’re out here, we’re in the South Pole,’ and I say, ‘I’m cold,’ if there’s nothing you can do about it, to help fix that cold, there’s no point in bringing it up, thinking about it or breathing any energy into it,” Korgan explains.

Fellow expedition guide Tal Fletcher joined Korgan and Stoup as they began training. Before arriving in Antarctica, Korgan estimated that with each push of his poles, he would be able to glide around 10 feet on the Antarctic snow. If he were to glide 10 feet per push, Korgan estimated he would have to use one-quarter of a million strokes to make it. The reality proved to be much more grim as each push gave Korgan almost no glide.

“I grunted as I pushed myself forward, maybe a foot,” Korgan says.“I called the snow velcro on styrofoam — there was zero glide, it just crushed. And it was seriously like pulling yourself across shag carpet in a laundry basket.”

Slowly but surely, Korgan pushed himself 100 miles to the South Pole. Awaiting him there was the greatest surprise of all, his biggest supporter, his wife Shawna.

“If I could be that uncomfortable and still give joy,” Korgan says, “well, where else in the world could I do that?”

Since his Antarctic adventure, Korgan has become one of the faces of spinal cord recovery, preaching his lessons of positivity through adversity. Korgan has achieved a long-time dream of getting his pilot’s license. He uses his license to take those who have been affected by spinal cord injuries for flights.

“I hand them the thing that they lost when they had their spinal cord injury, their amputation or their TBI or whatever the element is, which is control,” Korgan explains. “They get to, for that time, feel the freedom of what it’s like to have agency over their own life, to say, ‘I want to go left, I want to go right, I’m gonna go down, I want to go up.’ And when you’ve been locked into a body where that’s not possible for years, it’s insane.”

ON SCREEN: The Push. 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 27, Dairy Arts Center - Gordon Gamm Theater, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. $20 (general), $10 (students)

COURTESY GRANT KORGAN

ON THE ROAD:

The Long Way Home: 4,000 Miles from Honduras to Boulder is available now at prioritybicycles.com/duzerbook

Ride or die

New memoir by Boulder’s ‘Mr. Rogers of adventure’ maps his 4,000-mile cycling journey from Honduras to the Front Range by

Jezy J. Gray

If you spend much time cruising Boulder’s 300-plus miles of bikeway, you’ve probably crossed paths with Ryan Van Duzer. Even if you haven’t, you might recognize the cheery local cyclist’s chiseled movie-star mug from his YouTube channel DuzerTV, where he regularly posts twowheeled adventures from the Front Range and beyond to more than 168,000 subscribers. The notably upbeat outdoors enthusiast, known affectionately as “The Mr. Rogers of adventure,” has worn many hats in the decades since getting his start on Boulder public access TV: travel show host, do-gooder and motivational speaker, to name a few. Now, with last month’s publication of his debut memoir The Long Way Home, the 44-year-old filmmaker and storyteller is adding “author” to the list. His new book chronicles a formative 4,000-mile bike journey to Boulder from Honduras, where the 2003 University of Colorado grad served two years in the Peace Corps after graduation.

“It’s exactly what I wanted it to be,” Van Duzer says of the memoir whose Dec. 13 publication was celebrated with twin launch parties at Priority Bicycles in New York City and Boulder’s own Full Cycle. “It tells the story of the adventure, but also tells the story of my time in Honduras and why it meant so much to me working with those kids.”

After two years of serving as “the easygoing big brother of the neighborhood” in the mountain village of La Esperanza — where the then-25-year-old helped secure donated cameras for a youth TV show and worked on fundraising for a new school — Van Duzer formed a deep bond with the local children to whom his new book is dedicated.

“The kids were my heart and soul. They’re the reason why I was down there,” he says. “Looking at these videos [during research for the memoir] of us dancing around, and their cute little faces, just brought it all back to light. I got to essentially relive it again.”

But all that reliving shook loose some tough memories, too. Taking stock of what would arguably become the most monumental personal experience of his life, Van Duzer says the two-year writing process behind The Long Way Home — much like the limit-pushing physical feat at its heart — often traced the thin line between pain and gain.

“The day I left, all the kids were sobbing, and their mothers and fathers were crying. I was finally leaving, which was very hard for me,” Van Duzer says. “I guess that was kind of a low and a high point in the same moment. I was sad because I was leaving, but I was also equally as excited to be starting this crazy adventure.”

The 86-day thrill ride upon which he was embarking takes up much of the frame in Van Duzer’s new memoir — but like the author himself, its sense of adventure springs from somewhere distinctly human and vulnerable. To that end, readers of The Long Way Home can expect a wartsand-all account of the cross-country journey that set the Boulder native on a path to become one of the most successful adventure YouTubers in the Mountain West.

RYAN VAN DUZER

“Sometimes I got frustrated, and I kind of forgot about that, because this was the best adventure of my life,” Van Duzer says of the 4,000-mile journey at the center of his book. “I kind of pushed away the negatives. But there were struggles.”

Among those struggles were the physical demands of the undertaking, and the gnawing sense that he had bitten off more than he could chew. Riding 80-plus miles a day was grueling enough as the mountain landscape of La Esperanza gave way to the rolling beaches of Mexico’s Pacific coast, but it was the northern leg past the city of Chihuahua where relentless winds, rain and plunging temperatures really tested Van Duzer and his riding partner Jeff, who met him about 1,500 miles into the journey in the Oaxaca resort town of Zipolite.

“It's a tricky balance, because if you power too hard, then you're gonna get sweaty, and then the wind freezes you and it's just miserable,” Van Duzer says. “I remember hanging out in rest stop bathrooms when we were in the United States, warming up our hands and toes in the hand dryers — just freezing. That wasn't as fun. But it was all part of the adventure. As hard as it was, it made it all worth it. It adds up to something when you do hard things.”

Van Duzer was already an avid cyclist when he set out on what seemed to be an impossible journey from Central America to his home in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, so he knew something about doing hard things. But he says the trip taught him a more fundamental and illuminating lesson, which no everyday bike ride ever could.

“I learned that people are inherently good. People in these tiny villages would invite me into their homes, very economically poor people, and they were so generous,” he says. “It was heartwarming every single day to realize how kind strangers can be.”

The kindness of strangers might have sustained Van Duzer through the most challenging parts of the trip — recounted in The Long Way Home through accessible, page-turning prose that invites readers along for the ride — but it was the natural beauty of his Boulder home that drew his monumental accomplishment into its sharpest relief.

“I'll never forget seeing the Flatirons lit up in the morning sun. I had made it home,” he says. “There were so many times I thought, ‘This isn't gonna work. I'm gonna get injured or something's gonna happen, and it's gonna derail this adventure.’ But I really made it, and seeing those mountains made me realize I was home. I was here.”

ON THE BILL: Westerns & Whiskey

Concert: Lucero. 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21. Weekend passes range from $150-$400, stanleyhotel.com

Westerns, whiskey and ‘Little Silver Hearts’

Lucero makes its Stanley Hotel debut by Adam Perry

Similar to the rule that says you have to kiss under mistletoe, legend has long had it that if you go to a Lucero show and buy frontman Ben Nichols a shot, he has to do it.

“I’m sure I’ve declined shots at some point in the past,” Nichols jokes. “But not as many as I’ve taken.”

Lucero — a celebrated alt-country outfit with a rock edge — is entering its 25th year since forming as a rowdy bar band in Memphis, Tennessee, and Nichols has mellowed a little since the early days. He even showed up early for a 9 a.m. interview with Boulder Weekly, in which he opened up about his early songwriting, like “Little Silver Heart,” the first track from Lucero’s first album.

Nichols was in his 20s when he wrote the opener’s pivotal line: “There ain’t no strength left in this heart of mine.” But looking back at age 49, he sees a through line connecting that earlier, gloomier version of himself and the artist he is today.

“I might have been leaning in a little hard to that whole kind of melancholy view on life in the early stages of Lucero. What I am proud of is 98% of those songs I can still sing on stage and put my heart behind,” he says. “I can stand behind the lyrics I wrote 25 years ago — most of the time. There are a few things that bug me. I’m

happy with where we are and what the music does for me, and we’re lucky we get to make a small living out of what we do.”

One of the things Nichols and Co. get to do is play notable venues around the world, including the purportedly haunted Stanley Hotel in Estes Park on Saturday, Jan. 21. The band will take the stage during a weekend event called Westerns and Whiskey, a three-day blowout combining whiskey seminars, Western craft markets, movie screenings, live music and more.

Nichols has never been to the Stanley but says he’s a fan of The Shining, Stephen King’s novel inspired by the iconic hotel. He’s certainly enjoyed whiskey over the years, and Westerns too. Cormac McCarthy’s ultra-violent Western novel Blood Meridian was the inspiration for Nichols’ 2009 solo album, The Last Pale Light in the West.

“His phrasing and stuff, it’s like reading the Bible,” Nichols says of McCarthy. “It has a King James Bible ring to it, which I thought was perfect for the story he wanted to tell [in Blood Meridian ],” he says. “I went through the book and underlined all my favorite lines I thought would sound great in folk songs. I stole a bunch of good lines from it and wrote songs around those really great Cormac McCarthy lines. Sometimes we get one or two into a Lucero set, but usually I save those for the solo shows.”

Violence — death, really — is almost a character of its own in Blood Meridian, and Nichols’ songs breathe some humanity and grace into the killers portrayed in the book, which has been deemed by many to be too violent to get the silver-screen treatment. The songs even found

an unexpected place in Nichols’ personal life.

“When my daughter was born six years ago, I didn’t know any lullabies, so just carrying her around at night and trying to calm her down, I sang the Blood Meridian album a capella, kinda just fake lullabies, and changed the cadence a little bit,” he says. “‘Last Pale Light in the West,’ the title track, actually works pretty well as a lullaby. Sometimes I’ll do that at [Lucero] shows, to end the night on a quiet note.”

The new Lucero album, Should’ve Learned by Now, is decidedly not quiet. The first song from the new LP (due Feb. 24 via Liberty & Lament/Thirty Tigers) is a straight-ahead rocker titled “One Last F.U.”

“Singing a song with that kind of attitude, it’s definitely cathartic and it feels good,” Nichols says. “It’s nice to indulge in from time to time, and I think it’s a good rock ‘n’ roll song. …There’s nothing sacred on this record. There’s nothing precious. It’s kind of a goofy rock ‘n’ roll record in the best way, hopefully.”

With the band’s latest release on the horizon, Nichols looks back on 25 years of Lucero with the satisfaction of a proud, accepting parent.

“The idea of getting in a dirty rock ‘n’ roll van and being in a band, there was a romantic quality to it, and it was kind of like being in a gang. I wanted the gang kind of aspect to it,” he says. “We are what we are. You get what you get with us. We’ve been lucky that at least our hardcore fans have stuck with us for quite a while. I don’t know if Lucero is quite what I had in mind when I started, but it’s the band I got, and my voice is maybe not what I would’ve wanted to use as an instrument for the rest of my life, but it’s the one I’ve got. It worked out alright. I’m not complaining.”

BOB BAYNE

Two playwrights and a baby

Longmont couple brings parenting musical ‘In the Trenches’ from New York City to the Front Range for its regional premiere

by Toni Tresca

Graham and Kristina Fuller have a hard time sitting still. After producing and starring in a 2017 production of The Last Five Years, playwright Jason Robert Brown’s musical portraying the final half-decade of a doomed marriage, the real-life Longmont couple wasted little time before launching the search for their next project. But there was one problem.

“I wanted to do a show about parenting but as we looked through scripts, we realized that show didn’t exist,” Kristina says.

The pair decided to get to work and write their own. The result is In the Trenches: A Parenting Musical, an irreverent new work exploring the trials and tribulations of parenthood, making its regional premiere at Town Hall Arts Center in Littleton on Jan. 20.

“The musical is essentially the parent version of I Love You, You’re Perfect Now Change,” Graham says. “But it brings in more of [our] voices and sense of humor, which is deeply reminiscent of Avenue Q and The Book of Mormon.”

The show’s story unfolds through a song cycle following two bleary-eyed young parents as they discover new post-baby identities in the trial-by-fire of their first six years raising children. The musical explores the struggle between wanting to be a “cool,” relatable parent and the need to actually parent

The Fullers explored this tension during writing sessions carved out between raising two kids of their own. “Our days would start super early before the kids would get up,” Graham says. “We’d pull out our crappy keyboards and work before getting the kids up, then we’d live our lives during the day, put the kids to bed and then pull out crappy keyboards to write some more 'til around 10 or 11 before going to bed to do it all over again.”

As for how the couple split their artistic duties, Graham would write the lyrics and Kristina would turn those words into compositions. After writing four songs on their own, they invited over their friend and frequent collaborator, Dan Graeber, to listen to their work.

“It was this incredibly vulnerable experience where we asked Dan to come over to our house and listen to the musical theater songs we had written,” Kristina says. “Luckily, Dan loved the songs and agreed to work with us on arrangement and orchestration for the musical.”

The team worked for two years, with Graham and Kristina writing the musical’s book and songs and workshopping the music with Graeber, who would create the piano and vocal arrangements. By the time the team began workshopping the production in 2019, they had fleshed out the orchestrations to include vocal, piano, guitar, bass and percussion parts.

“It’s written in a modern voice but acts as this love letter to musical theater,” Kristina says. “There’s a tap dance number called ‘The Most Dangerous Thing in the Room’ about trying to keep the baby alive while they run to all sorts of dangerous things, a Gilbert and Sullivan-style song about traveling with children and an R&B love song called ‘Official Mom Uniform’ dedicated to yoga pants.”

The team has been hard at work honing the music and story of In the Trenches over the past five years. While writing the show between 2017 and 2019, they hosted eight readings in various locations around Longmont. These readings helped prepare them for two workshop performances hosted in January 2019 by CenterStage Theatre Company in Louisville and the following October by Denver’s Mizel Arts and Cultural Center.

These local shows were intended to tee up their performance at 54 Below in New York City in April 2020; however, COVID-19 had other plans. “After the show’s cancellation in April we rescheduled for September 2020, but Broadway was still shut down at that point,” Kristina says. “So, we had to table live performances for a little while, which gave us time to tweak the show and work on other things.”

After two years of delays, In the Trenches made its New York City debut at 54 Below last summer on July 13. “It was an incredibly surreal experience,” Graham says. “You only get a 90-minute sound check in the space to rehearse before you perform. That was a little nerve-wracking at the time, but the performance itself was life-giving. Everyone gave a fantastic performance and it was a really special experience.”

Now the team is working on securing enough investors to produce an off-Broadway run, followed by tours and licensed stage productions. “That is our pipe dream and it’s getting closer and closer to reality,” Graham says. “Our ultimate goal through developing our own show here would be to turn the Front Range into a desired location for Broadway and off-Broadway shows to workshop before moving to NYC.”

ON STAGE: In the Trenches by Graham and Kristina Fuller.

Various times Jan. 20-29, Town Hall Arts Center, 2450 W. Main St., Littleton. $30-40

The Fullers have other plays in the works — including a holiday spin-off called In the Holiday Trenches — but for now, they are focused on getting their parenting musical ready for its Front Range debut. The work marks the first original production Town Hall has ever produced. But for the Boulder County husband-and-wife team behind the work, the upcoming local run is ultimately an opportunity to help other new parents feel less alone.

“It represents our real experience as parents while still being very universal,” Kristina says. “It is such a fun show and I just feel it's the perfect night out for anyone who is a parent or has ever had a parent.”

RACHEL GRAHAM

n Terracotta x YogaPod

8:45-9:45 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, Terracotta, 2005 Pearl St., Boulder. $20

YogaPod is partnering with Terracotta every third Saturday of the month to offer an hour-long yoga session among Terracotta’s life-giving, leafy-green plants. Bring your own yoga mat.

n Super Duper Garage Sale

9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, Boulder County Fairgrounds, 9595 Nelson Road, Longmont. Free

For more than 25 years, the Super Duper Garage Sale has been pleasing bargain shoppers from across the Front Range with one-of-a-kind finds. Featuring 90+ vendors and 35,000 square feet of shopping, attendees are sure to find a unique gift or vintage treasure.

n Healing Sound Journeys

2-3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, Community United Church of Christ, 2650 Table Mesa Drive, Boulder. RSVP requested. Free

Creativity Alive hosts a “healing sounds” event that will guide you on a journey of relaxation and meditation. Organization founder Merlyn Holmes will lead the session with a special guest artist.

n Story Collective

7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21, Junkyard Social Club, 2525 Frontier Ave., Unit A, Boulder. $20–$25

The Story Collective is a series of events hosted by Junkyard Social Club designed to connect people through storytelling. The evening will feature monologues from people of all backgrounds, from professional writers to folks who have never stepped on stage. “New” is the theme of Saturday’s night of storytelling.

ON VIEW: Running through Feb. 5 at the Canyon Gallery inside the downtown Boulder Public Library, the ongoing exhibition To Have and to Hoard: The Collections of Joel Haertling offers a glimpse into the wild and unwieldy collection of objects that have become the life-guiding passion of Boulder’s garage sale king. The show running through Feb. 2 features Haertling’s local finds throughout the decades, from bizarre tchotchkes to discarded family portraits and points in between.

Kristopher Wright: Just As I Am BMoCA East Gallery, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Through Jan. 22. $2

Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver. Through Jan. 22. $21 (Colorado residents)

Vessel Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Bouder. Through Jan. 28. Free

Yvens Alex Saintil: Photographs. The New East Window Gallery, 4550 Broadway Suite C, Boulder. Through Jan. 29. Free

The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse Museum of Contemporary

Erin Hyunhee Kang: A Home In Between BMoCA: Union Works Gallery, 1750 13th St., Boulder. Through Feb. 19. $2

Natascha Seideneck: Outlandish Redux. Caruso Lounge, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Feb. 23.

Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection. Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver. Through May 13. $12-$19

Chautauqua: 125 Years at the Heart of Boulder. Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway. Through April 2. $10

Lasting Impressions. CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boulder. Through June 2023. Free

Onward and Upward: Shark’s Ink. CU Art Museum, 1085 18th St., Boulder. Through July 2023. Free

n Drums of the World

2:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22, Boettcher Concert Hall, 1000 14th St., Denver. $40 (adults), $10 (children)

The Colorado Symphony presents a dynamic performance of percussive excellence at Boettcher Concert Hall. From bongos, boo-bams and Burma gongs to water cans, crow calls and metal trash cans, this rhythm-forward concert is sure to be fun for the whole family.

COURTESY TERRACOTTA

COURTESY JUNKYARD SOCIAL CLUB

Show starts at 7pm NO COVER

2355 30th Street • Boulder, CO tuneupboulder.com

n Boulder Phil with Bruckner 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. $22-$94 (general), $10 (students)

Dedicated to Boulder Phil’s concertmaster Charles “Chas” Wetherbee, who died from cancer on Jan. 9 at 56 years old, this performance will feature virtuosic violinist Alex Gonzalez. In addition to Gonzalez’s rendition of a Mozart classic, the Boulder Phil will perform Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7.

ON STAGE: Curious Theatre Company contin ues its 25th season with the regional premiere of Alma exploring the idea of the “American dream” through the eyes of an immigrant family. Directed by Denise Yvette Serna jamin Benne chronicles the relationship between Alma, an undocumented immigrant facing deportation, and Angel, her first-generation daughter. See listing below for details.

The Clocktower: Follies Burlesque & Comedy. The Clocktower Cabaret, 1601 Arapahoe St., Lower Level, Denver. Thursdays in January. $35

Heathers: The Musical The Arts HUB, 420 Courtney Way, Lafayette. Through Jan 22. $18-$22

Little Women: The Broadway Musical. Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 S. Allison Parkway. Through Jan. 22. $20

Theater of the Mind. York Street Yards, 3887 Steele St., Denver. Extended through Jan. 22. $65

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder. Through Jan. 28. $70-$75

In the Trenches: A Parenting Musical. Town Hall Arts Center, 2450 W. Main St., Littleton. Jan. 20-29. $30-40

Alma. Curious Theatre Company, 1080 Acoma St., Denver. Through Feb. 18. $53

The Roommate. Vintage Theatre, 1468 Dayton St., Aurora. Through Feb. 19. $20-$34

Jerrie Hurd: Beyond the Male Gaze BMoCA at Macky, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Through May 26.

The LSO

Family Concert

Elliot Moore, Conductor Cameron A. Grant, Narrator

Engaging for all ages! Come and listen to the narrator and full orchestra bring “Carnival of the Animals” and “Behold the Umbrellaphant” to life!

Saturday, January 21 | 4:00pm

Vance Brand Civic Auditorium

Additional Upcoming Events:

January 27th: PJ’s Wine & Spirits Tasting Event

February 15th: House Concert, Judith Ingolfsson

February 18th: Sibelius - A Portrait @ 7:30pm

RACHEL GRAHAM

6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. $5

science-based research and ideas from bold thinkers, The Joy of Cannabis “is a roadmap to a higher and happier you.” The book includes a list of 75 activities, tested and approved by authors Melanie Abrams and Larry Smith, that will take your high to the stratosphere. Both authors

read from and sign their new book at the event. n

Boozy Bingo

7-8:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 23, Avani Boulder, 1401 Pearl St. $3

Test your

at Avanti’s weekly bingo, with prizes for winners and Tito’s cocktail specials. All proceeds from this boozy bingo blowout go to Culinary Hospitality Outreach and Wellness, so you can feel good about indulging during game night.

n Learn Salsa and Bachata with Jewels Zucker

6:30-9 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 24, R Gallery + Wine Bar, 2027 Broadway, Boulder. $15

Shake off those extra holiday pounds with dance lessons from Jewels Zucker. Along with dancing, you’ll enjoy artwork from local artists alongside wine and beer available for purchase. The lesson is from 6:30-7:30 p.m., with social dancing from 7:30-9 p.m.

n Warren M. Hern: ‘Homo Ecophagus’

6:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, St Julien Hotel & Spa, 900 Walnut St., Boulder. $10

Warren M. Hern’s Homo Ecophagus: A Deep Diagnosis to Save the Earth is about the major problems human activity is causing for all species on earth, offering “a diagnosis and prognosis of the current environmental impasse.” The author will sign copies of his book during this reading event at St Julien.

HFRIDAY, JAN 20

Americana Roots with Derek Dames Ohl. 6 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free

Colter Wall. 7 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $40-$80

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

Samantha Fish with Eric Johanson. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. $33-$38

Drunken Hearts with Buffalo Commons. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15-$18

HSATURDAY, JAN. 21

Deborah Stafford & The Night Stalkers with special guest Jack Brown. 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl Suite V3A, Boulder. $20

Smooth Money Gesture 20 Year Anniversary Show. 8 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland. $15

The Velveteers with Shady Oaks, The Nova Kicks. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $23-$25

Dirt Monkey. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. $30-$100

HSUNDAY, JAN. 22

Red Mountain Boys. 9 p.m. Swallow Hill Music, 71 E. Yale Ave., Denver. $20

HTHURSDAY, JAN. 26

Handmade Moments and Rainbow Girls. 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. $19

Marvel Years with Phyphr, Eliptek. 8:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. $15-$18

ON THE BILL: Homegrown rock trio The Velveteers bring their fuzzed-out Front Range sound to the Fox Theatre on the heels of their debut LP, Nightmare Daydream. The evening features support from Shady Oaks and The Nova Kicks. See listing below for more details, and read our recent feature on the band at boulderweekly.com.

COURTESY

by Michael J. Casey

Mommy issues

Amother is on trial for murdering her child. We know how, but not why. Nor does the mother. She does not deny the act but denies that she is the guilty party. The trial, she hopes, will explain things.

Ditto for Rama (Kayije Kagame) sitting in the courtroom. She is a writer of some success and attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda) for her next work. Rama is also four months pregnant and worried. Not that she will turn out like Laurence Coly, but like her own mother. Laurence Coly’s mother (Salimata Kamate) is also at the trial. A theme emerges.

Directed by Alice Diop, Saint Omer — named after the French city where the trial takes place — is a courtroom drama that becomes more and more theatrical as the narrative proceeds. Diop methodically paces the proceedings, revealing bits here and there, often casually and through what is unsaid as opposed to what is spoken. It’s a luring effect that floats

quietly along until the word “Medea” is said roughly halfway through, a reference to the Greek tragedy where a mother murders her two children to get back at her philandering husband.

This utterance shifts the drama of Saint Omer from the specific into something existential, but Diop resists the mythology of Medea by focusing on the relationship between mother and child. And when the defense attorney (Aurélia Petit) delivers the closing remarks, she does so directly to the camera. There are clear answers in Saint Omer, but answers are rarely assuring.

There’s also a death in 1934’s Imitation of Life — the answers are a lot clearer this time, but not any less complicated. The film, newly restored and available on Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection, opens with two single mothers: Beatrice (Claudette Colbert) and Delilah (Louise Beavers). Beatrice, white, is recently widowed and trying to keep her husband’s maple syrup company going. Delilah, Black, is a housekeeper in need of work. By accident, their paths cross, and Delilah offers her services for free room and board for her and her daughter, Peola, a light-skinned girl who passes for white. Beatrice accepts, and after learning of Delilah’s secret pancake recipe, the two go into business and make a fortune flipping flapjacks and hocking syrup.

Time passes, and business is good to Beatrice and Delilah, who now share a fabulous new house. The daughters grow, and though no real friction between Beatrice and her daughter Jessie (Rochelle Hudson) develops, Peola (Fredi Washington) grows to resent her mother and her racial heritage. Peola continues passing as white — even denouncing her mother publicly when push comes to shove.

Adapted from the novel by Fannie Hurst, Imitation of Life is a multi-layered melodrama that feels staid in some places and fresh as a daisy in others. Beatrice climbs to the top of the pancake industry without compromising her integrity or product and eventually falls in love with a

dashing ichthyologist — savor that phrase for a second. It’s the kind of B-story designed to distract you from what’s really going on between Delilah and Peola and how Beatrice capitalizes on Delilah’s visage and family recipe. Director John M. Stahl takes great care not to bury these threads, yanking on them in the movie’s stunning funeral sequence for maximum emotional effect.

ON SCREEN: Saint Omer, now playing

‘Saint Omer’ in the theaters and ‘Imitation of Life’ on disc

Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary

3470 County Road 7, Erie, luvinarms.org

Critter Classifieds is a column where you can meet furry, feathered and four-legged friends who need your love and support.

Boulder Weekly is currently working with two animal welfare agencies — Longmont Humane

Tito: Sanctuary superstar

Anyone who has ever visited Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary knows Tito the rescued cow. His bubbly, affectionate personality touches everyone who meets him.

When baby Tito arrived at Luvin Arms in 2017, he was extremely weak and malnourished. Tito came from the dairy industry where he was deprived of his mother’s lifesaving milk.

The Luvin Arms’ team doted on Tito. From bottle feeding to spending nights with him in the barn, the team cared for Tito around the clock. While Tito was in quarantine during this early phase at the sanctuary, he was never alone.

Each day, he grew stronger and stronger, both emotionally and physically.

Society and Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary — to feature critters who need your support. We hope to bring other organizations on board in the future.

Erie-based Luvin Arms is a nonprofit animal sanctuary for abused or neglected farm animals. Rescued resident animals include cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens, horses, goats, donkeys, sheep and ducks. Luvin Arms provides lifelong

social, emotional and cognitive care to rescued animals. Visit luvinarms.org to learn more about how you can provide support through donations, sponsorship, volunteering and more.

If your nonprofit organization has volunteer needs and is interested in a similar column, reach out to us: editorial@boulderweekly.com

Tito needed a cow mentor. That’s where Leroy Brown came in! Tito learned how to be a cow from Leroy and the entire cow herd. And in turn, Tito taught his new cow family how to trust humans.

Tragically, Leroy Brown passed away suddenly in early 2021. Sanctuary staff were all heartbroken, but none more than Tito. Their connection was so profound. Tito didn’t leave the barn for months after Leroy’s death. It took Tito time to heal from the loss of his friend.

At the end of 2021, a young rescued cow entered all of our lives. The first time he saw Lucky upclose, Tito literally broke the fence trying to get to him. These kindred spirits connected immediately, and are now forever friends. Tito’s need for deep connection and belonging was once again answered by another beautiful sentient being.

As Tito got healthier and more curious about his new home, his trust in humans grew along with his naturally playful personality. Because he was so young when he came to Luvin Arms, Tito imprinted on humans. Although sanctuary staff loved this, they knew he would eventually need to integrate into the existing cow herd in order to have whole social and emotional health.

Today, Tito still loves hanging out with his human family just as much as his cow family. He is a Superstar Animal Ambassador for his species, participating in anctuary tours, sharing his story about surviving the dairy industry, giving the best cow hugs in town, and gladly accepting butt scratches in return.

If you’re interested in sponsoring Tito, email Missy@LuvinArms.org or visit luvinarms.org/residents/rescued-cows/tito. And don’t forget to schedule a tour to meet him in person!

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: Noah Webster (1758–1843) worked for years to create the first definitive American dictionary. It became a cornucopia of revelation for poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). She said that for many years it was her “only companion.” One biographer wrote, “The dictionary was no mere reference book to her; she read it as a priest his breviary — over and over, page by page, with utter absorption.” Now would be a favorable time for you to get intimate with a comparable mother lode, Aries. I would love to see you find or identify a resource that will continually inspire you for the rest of 2023.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: “The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity.” So declared Taurus philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his book Philosophical Investigations. Luckily for you Tauruses, you have a natural knack for making sure that important things don’t get buried or neglected, no matter how simple and familiar they are. And you’ll be exceptionally skilled at this superpower during the next four weeks. I hope you will be gracious as you wield it to enhance the lives of everyone you care about. All of us non-Bulls will benefit from the nudges you offer as we make our course corrections.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Poet Carolyn Kizer said the main subject of her work was this: “You cannot meet someone for a moment, or even cast eyes on someone in the street, without changing.” I agree with her. The people we encounter and the influences they exert make it hard to stay fixed in our attitudes and behavior. And the people we know well have even more profound transformative effects. I encourage you to celebrate this truth in the coming weeks. Thrive on it. Be extra hungry for and appreciative of all the prods you get to transcend who you used to be and become who you need to be.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: If you have any interest in temporarily impersonating a Scorpio, the coming weeks will be a favorable time to play around. Encounters with good, spooky magic will be available. More easily than usual, you could enjoy altered states that tickle your soul with provocative insights. Are you curious about the mysteries of intense, almost obsessive passion? Have you wondered if there might be ways to deal creatively and constructively with your personal darkness? All these perks could be yours — and more. Here’s another exotic pleasure you may want to explore: that half-forbidden zone where dazzling heights overlap with the churning depths. You are hereby invited to tap into the erotic pleasures of spiritual experiments and the spiritual pleasures of erotic experiments.

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: The circle can and will be complete — if you’re willing to let it find its own way of completing itself. But I’m a bit worried that an outdated part of you may cling to the hope of a perfection that’s neither desirable nor possible. To that outdated part of you, I say this: Trust that the Future You will thrive on the seeming imperfections that arise. Trust that the imperfections will be like the lead that the Future You will alchemically transmute into gold. The completed circle can’t be and shouldn’t be immaculate and flawless.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Shakespeare’s work has been translated from his native English into many languages. But the books of Virgo detective novelist Agatha Christie have been translated far more than the Bard’s. (More info: tinyurl.com/ ChristieTranslations.) Let’s make Christie your inspirational role model for the next four weeks. In my astrological estimation, you will have an extraordinary capacity to communicate with a wide variety of people. Your ability to serve as a mediator and go-between and translator will be at a peak. Use your superpower wisely and with glee!

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: Libran musician Franz Liszt (1811–1886) was a prolific and influential genius who created and played

music with deep feeling. He was also physically attractive and charismatic. When he performed, some people in the audience swooned and sighed loudly as they threw their clothes and jewelry on stage. But there was another side of Liszt. He was a generous and attentive teacher for hundreds of piano students, and always offered his lessons free of charge. He also served as a mentor and benefactor for many renowned composers, including Wagner, Chopin, and Berlioz. I propose we make Liszt your inspirational role model for the next 11 months. May he rouse you to express yourself with flair and excellence, even as you shower your blessings on worthy recipients.

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: This may risk being controversial, but in the coming weeks, I’m giving you cosmic authorization to engage in what might appear to be cultural appropriation. Blame it on the planets! They are telling me that to expand your mind and heart in just the right ways, you should seek inspiration and teaching from an array of cultures and traditions. So I encourage you to listen to West African music and read Chinese poetry in translation and gaze at the art of Indigenous Australians. Sing Kabbalistic songs and say Lakota prayers and intone Buddhist chants. These are just suggestions. I will leave it to your imagination as you absorb a host of fascinating influences that amaze and delight and educate you.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: “All the world’s a stage,” Shakespeare wrote, “and all the men and women merely players.” That’s always true, but it will be even more intensely accurate for you in the coming weeks. High-level pretending and performing will be happening. The plot twists may revolve around clandestine machinations and secret agendas. It will be vital for you to listen for what people are NOT saying as well as the hidden and symbolic meanings behind what they are saying. But beyond all those cautionary reminders, I predict the stories you witness and are part of will often be interesting and fun.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: In this horoscope, I offer you wisdom from Capricorn storyteller Michael Meade. It’s a rousing meditation for you in the coming months. Here’s Meade: “The genius inside a person wants activity. It’s connected to the stars; it wants to burn and it wants to create and it has gifts to give. That is the nature of inner genius.” For your homework, Capricorn, write a page of ideas about what your genius consists of. Throughout 2023, I believe you will express your unique talents and blessings and gifts more than you ever have before.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) was nominated nine times for the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature, but never won. He almost broke through in the last year of his life, but French author Albert Camus beat him by one vote. Camus said Kazantzakis was “a hundred times more” deserving of the award than himself. I will make a wild prediction about you in the coming months, Aquarius. If there has been anything about your destiny that resembles Kazantzakis’s, chances are good that it will finally shift. Are you ready to embrace the gratification and responsibility of prime appreciation?

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: Piscean educator Parker Palmer has a crucial message for you to meditate on in the coming weeks. Read it tenderly, please. Make it your homing signal. He said, “Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one’s self. It is not about the absence of other people — it is about being fully present to ourselves, whether or not we are with others. Community does not necessarily mean living face-to-face with others; rather, it means never losing the awareness that we are connected to each other.”

Dear Dan: I’m a gay man and I’ve recently started seeing a guy in an open relationship. He’s intelligent, funny, and sexy. He told me early on that his partner is a Dom top, into kink (leather, latex, etc.), that his partner has caged boys, and so on. Moreover, with his partner he’s a “bratty sub,” meaning he engages in erotic disobedience and defiance. I was indifferent to this initially, but I have begun to become aware of his partner’s presence in a way I don’t like, even though I’ve never met the guy. I also find myself feeling resentful and jealous of the idea of him being told what to do, held back or controlled. (The sex we have is hot, intimate and intense, as well as completely vanilla.)

I know his relationship with his partner is none of my business, but if he truly is a bratty sub, and his partner is a “tamer,” am I just a pawn in their games? Is the intimacy we share in the service of his primary D/s relationship? I like this guy and wish I could be with him but that’s not possible because he and his partner are engaged. I’m OK with that. But I can’t stand the idea of our connection being incorporated into an erotic game he’s playing with his partner. I don’t want to be conscripted into their power exchange. I welcome your advice.

—Neither Brat Nor Tamer

Dear NBNT: Let’s call the guy you’re hooking up with “Brat” and call his fiancé “Dom.” Worst-case scenario, NBNT, Brat goes home and tells Dom everything you’ve been doing together, presumably in a very bratty way, and then Dom punishes Brat for being a slutty brat. If that’s what they’re doing — and we don’t know if that’s what they’re doing — then, yeah, I guess the vanilla sex you’re having with Brat is being “incorporated” into the erotic power-exchange games Brat and Dom play together. You could ask Brat not to tell Dom anything about the time he spends with you, NBNT, but you ultimately can’t control what Brat does or says when he’s alone with Dom… and

them telling each other everything might a condition of their open relationship… and you attempting to control what Brat says to Dom when they’re alone while at the same time objecting to the control Dom has over Brat is a little hypocritical.

Zooming out for a second: Anyone who doesn’t like the idea of someone they’re fucking talking to a primary partner about the fucking they’re doing shouldn’t fuck primarily partnered people and/or should only fuck primarily partnered people who have DADT arrangements with their primary partners. (Submissive English majors: I order you to diagram that sentence.)

Back to you, NBNT: I think the real issue here is that you’ve caught feelings for Brat. But since you can’t object to Dom’s existence, as Dom was a given at the start (and Dom’s willingness to open the relationship made your connection with Brat possible), you’ve subconsciously landed on the idea of objecting to the sex Brat has with Dom and the possibility that the sex Brat has with you — in addition to being great and hot for you — fuels his connection to Dom. So, it’s not that Brat plays a subordinate role in his relationship with Dom that bothers you, e.g., Brat being told what to do, Dom controlling Brat), but the subordinate role you play in Brat’s life. You want Brat the way Dom has Brat — not the sub part, NBNT, the partner part — and you’re going to come to terms with that if you decide to keep seeing Brat.

P.S. Just in case there any Tucker Carlson producers are digging through my column looking for things to get outraged about: “Caged boys” is a reference to submissive adult men, sometimes called “boys,” who enjoy wearing locking male chastity devices, sometimes called “cages.” Brat’s fiancé is holding the keys to cages with cocks in them, not the keys to cages with children in them.

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Marigold is located at 405 Main St., Unit B, Lyons.

COURTESY THEODOREADLEY/MARIGOLD

For more than a handful of prominent Colorado chefs, hearing the name Theodore Adley will immediately elicit grins and wistful recollections of joyous time spent somewhere on the line. Over the course of the past two decades, Adley has worked in some of the state’s most revered kitchens and has influenced and shared formative moments with many of the culinary stars who continue to shape what Colorado dining is about. Corrida’s Samuel McCandless and Bar Dough’s Russell Stippich come to mind, but the list goes on.

So when Adley opened Marigold in a 32-seat dining room in downtown Lyons last summer, there was immediate buzz, with many wondering how such an important industry vet wound up in this small mountain town.

Adley says he and his wife Jaclyn had discussed the idea for years. “‘Why can’t we just open a cute little restaurant somewhere?’ was an ongoing refrain that popped up throughout the snafus,” the chef says. “I’ve always wanted something in a smaller town. Something a little more rural, a little quieter.”

The restaurant is indeed cute. The cozy dining room was designed to elicit all the closeness and structured joviality of a well-orchestrated dinner party. Adley says customers, often regulars, will bounce between tables when service gets going. The menu is roughly 10 to12 items on any given day, with only a few consistent items that have stayed since day one. “We reprint the menu basically every day. That dynamism is an eternal part of the business model,” says Adley. “I also have the attention span of a hummingbird on LSD.”

Adley, who was born in Texas and raised in New Jersey, began his cooking career while still in high school. After moving to Boulder in 2004 to study history at the University of Colorado, he decided to continue his culinary path by attending the Culinary School of the Rockies. “I do music, writing, and visual arts. I like to consider myself a pretty creative person. Cooking was a way to monetize a craft,” he says.

So in 2006, Adley took a position working nights on the sauté station at Flagstaff House while doing production and making pasta at Frasca during the day. “It ignited my passion for Italian food,” he says, noting that the mercurial menu at Marigold is loosely inspired by the cuisines of Northern Italy, Southern France and the Alps, while still having no real geographic constriction. “I think we just do things earnestly.”

In late 2007, Adley left Boulder to take a job at Montagna, what was then the in-house restaurant at Aspen’s ultra-luxury institution The Little Nell. “The aesthetic was exactly what I was looking for. High quality, direct and big flavors,” he says, adding that he learned a tremendous amount about butchery, cheese-making, aging and canning during his time there.

A little irreverent and a whole lot of earnest Marigold brings experience from some of the best in Colorado dining to Lyons by Colin Wrenn

COURTESY THEODORE ADLEY/MARIGOLD

After returning to the Front Range, Adley did a stint at Radda, North Boulder’s now-shuttered ode to Tuscan fare, before he opened his own spot on Pearl Street in 2010. The Pinyon, a new-American farm-to-table joint known for its fried chicken, lasted a couple of years in the space that now houses Leaf. From there, Adley acted as chef at The Squeaky Bean, did a bit of consulting, and then helped open the raw bar at Rino Yacht Club when it was still serving an astounding seafood and snack program off a few induction burners in the center of The Source. In 2017, Adley moved to The Populist.

“That was an important restaurant for me. Everything was done with really healthy intentions,” Adley says. “I basically got to cook the food I had been wanting to cook for a very long time,” he continues, noting that the menu of eclectic, low-key bites loosely inspired by Japanese and French food has continued to inform his menu development to this day. It might also be worth noting that before opening Marigold, Adley acted as chef at Dunton Hot Springs, the famed rustic Relais and Chateaux property outside of Telluride.

So it should come as no surprise that the food at Marigold is exquisite. But beyond the plate, Adley has made sure Marigold is an all-encompassing experience. “We’re adapting the levels of service you’d expect at a Michelin star but with absolutely no ego tableside,” says front-of-house manager Eric Bronson, another industry vet who Adley says came out of retirement to run the program. With experience at The Kitchen, Brasserie Ten Ten, Bacaro and Daniel in New York, Bronson’s hospitality direction lives up to the claim. It also doesn’t hurt that Adley says no one working the floor has been waiting tables for less than 16 years. Another key player is bar manager Amy Hobbs, whose London Fog Toddy, with gin, Earl Grey and a cream float, is reason enough to visit.

The menu is full of items that appear standard but wind up being anything but. The devils on horseback come with quince rather than dates, and the Marigold Caesar come stopped with a healthy helping of bonito flakes. The half chicken under a brick is another day-one that’s not likely to leave the menu. There’s a good reason it’s a favorite — the crispy bird comes atop a bed of spiced yogurt, carrots and bright salsa verde.

Adley is still in the restaurant every day it’s open, which is currently Wednesday through Sunday for dinner. “I’m a line cook. I cook at the sauté station. I love it — you have to,” he says. “My heart and soul beats in a restaurant. I can’t imagine doing anything else. Feeding people — it’s a tremendous honor to have.”

COURTESY THEODORE ADLEY/MARIGOLD

A taste of modern Japan in the heart of Boulder

Whether the sun is shining or snow is falling, our little corner of Pearl Street is the perfect place to soak up winter in beautiful Boulder! Feast alongside the jellyfish, sink into a lounge or take a seat at one of our lively bars.

Prefer the great outdoors? Our fireside patios are the coziest place to savor those mild winter days.

When your own couch is calling, all of your favorites are available for curbside pickup too.

No matter how you choose to dine don’t miss our ever-evolving specials, delicious seasonal cocktails, and latest rare whiskey!

Bourbon aficionado Fred Minnick recently placed Boulder Spirits’ 5-Year Straight Bourbon as the number 10-ranked whiskey released in the U.S. in 2022.

“The biggest surprise for me this year is how

assessed by color, nose, palate, finish, and uniqueness of a product in its category.

Boulder Spirits’ 5-Year Straight Bourbon was labeled C6 in Minnick’s blind tasting.

“C6 was one that was so spicy, I have to go…” Minnick says while opening his mouth and sticking out his tongue in a video documenting his tasting process. “[I have to] let my tongue air out. When you have one of those in a flight that kind of grabs a hold of your tongue, you want the palate to breathe and rest a little bit ... before you go on to the next one. A simple wash of water isn’t going to be enough for what C6 was. C6 really kind of curls up underneath the tongue and into the sides of my cheeks. It’s very powerful. In a blind tasting, C6 is something that has a chance.”

We checked in with Minnick via email to ask him what makes Boulder Spirits’ bourbon so special.

How long have you been compiling your Top 100 whiskeys?

I have been putting together lists and naming a whiskey of the year since 2010. But I started the Top 100 three years ago, because I found it incredibly difficult to leave something out that was too good to be left out of my annual awards.

How do you choose which whiskeys you’ll be assessing for your Top 100?

It’s a combination of past tastings and if the spirit truly represents its category, even exceeding the norm.

In addition to aroma, taste and finish, you ask yourself, “Does this product add something important to the American whiskey scene?” Broadly, what does that mean? And more specifically, what does Boulder Spirits’ Colorado 5-Year Straight Bourbon add to the American whiskey

This is the part where I look for true innovation and things that are exceptional but not easy. What I

mean by this is, flavored whiskey, while it makes a ton of money, is horrible for the category of American whiskey, because they add flavor packs to whiskey and that’s neither traditional nor follows the art of whiskey. Boulder Spirits reflects the exciting growth and trend of small distillers who toiled when they had no customers or critics interested in them. They put in the time, waited, got better and one day their whiskey is on the biggest stage competing.

Explain the five parameters you use to judge whiskey: color, nose, palate, finish, and uniqueness of a product in its category.

For color, it’s a representation of the whiskey’s time in the barrel. Every day it’s in there, it’s extracting all the color. So, if it’s light, I know it’s likely young and taste accordingly. The nose helps me understand how the whiskey was cut, if there are flaws, and an idea of how it will taste. On the palate, or the taste, I sort of close my eyes and try to focus on how it feels on my tongue, seeing what flavors pop and how many points on the palate it’s striking.

Can you explain the color, nose, palate, finish and uniqueness of Boulder Spirit’s Straight Bourbon 5 Year?

Well, I tasted this up against 99 others in this [tasting] and it just stood out. The more I went to it, the more I loved it. I think that bourbon in particular was made for the bourbon geek world — people who want to feel the whiskey all over the tongue, drip down the jawline and last long after it’s swallowed.

What are some trends folks can expect to see in American whiskey? You’ve mentioned in your writings that blended whiskeys are no longer the pariahs of the whiskey world — is that a trend we’ll see more of?

I do think blends of straights are more the future, because bottlers don’t have any other choice but to grab barrels from various distillers to blend. In a perfect world, we’d see more Boulder Spirits-type distilleries and the world can see these craft distillers are every bit as good as the Buffalo Traces of the world.

Speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast hosted by the National Action Network, President Joe Biden once again broached the subject of mass pardoning cannabis criminal offenders.

“No one — I’ll say it again — no one should be in federal prison for the mere possession of marijuana. No one,” the president said. “In addition to that, they should be released from prison and completely pardoned and their entire record expunged so that if they have to ask, ‘Have you ever been [convicted]?’ you can honestly say, ‘No.’”

That statement follows the mass pardon Biden issued in October for all Americans federally charged with cannabis possession offenses (Weed Between the Lines, “Tastes like crow,” Oct. 13, 2022). It’s an action he’s since touted as a fulfilled campaign promise.

In truth, however, the campaign promise Biden made was to “decriminalize cannabis use and automatically expunge prior convictions.” It was part of his “Plan for Black America,” which is likely why he brought it up again speaking about social justice on MLK Day. Black Americans are four times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white Americans, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. In some places, like Iowa and D.C., it’s more than double that rate.

That makes any promise to mass pardon and expunge cannabis possession charges a promise directly to Black America. It would affect hundreds of thousands of people at the state level. Of the more than 8 million total cannabis arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were for simple possession.

According to Reuters, the pardons Biden issued in October affected just 6,500 Americans. Because he only

pardoned individuals convicted of simple possession at the federal level, the act of clemency left out nearly 3,000 Americans currently serving time in federal prisons for higher level cannabis crimes. What’s more, while none of the 6,500 individuals Biden pardoned remain in prison, his pardons don’t expunge their records, as that power falls outside of his authority.

It was also beyond his authority to issue pardons for the 30,000 prisoners currently incarcerated in state prisons for cannabis crimes. However, Biden encouraged state governors to follow his lead and issue pardons at the state level as well.

Weeks later, Oregon Governor Kate Brown did.

“No one deserves to be saddled with the impacts of a simple possession of marijuana conviction — a crime that is no longer on the books in Oregon,” Brown tweeted on Nov. 21, 2022. “I am pardoning these prior Oregon offenses, an act that will impact an estimated 45,000 individuals.”

Other governors were, predictably, less cooperative with the request from POTUS. In a statement from his

press secretary, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said, “Texas is not in the habit of taking criminal justice advice from [the] leader of the defund-the-police party, and someone who has overseen a criminal justice system run amuck [sic] with cashless bail and a revolving door for violent criminals.”

There were other governors who landed somewhere in between. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order in November providing a “full, complete, and conditional pardon” for any Kentuckian with a possession charge on their record — if they have an out-of-state medical cannabis license.

It isn’t the outright decriminalization and mass expungement that Biden’s Plan for Black America promised. Nevertheless, the president’s actions have had an impact. His act of federal clemency opened the floodgates for cannabis possession pardons across the country.

And, more than that, it’s legitimately historic for a president to not only be talking about pardoning cannabis crimes, but actually taking steps to do so — even if they’re small. The effect that has on the national perspective on cannabis is profound.

Still, it would be disingenuous to let our commander in chief off the hook so easily. After all, we were promised decriminalization. In December, a bipartisan group of 29 members of Congress sent a letter to President Biden asking that he formally back full cannabis legalization.

“While we do not always agree on specific measures, we recognize across the aisle that continued federal prohibition and criminalization of marijuana does not reflect the will of the broader American electorate,” the letter read. “It is time that your administration’s agenda fully reflects this reality as well.”

Promises half delivered Joe Biden hasn’t followed through on his promise to decriminalize cannabis — but he has opened the door for mass pardons across the country by Will Brendza