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BW talks with CU-Anschutz bioethicist Matthew Wynia

by Angela K. Evans

Colorado activists head to Minnesota to protest the Line 3 pipeline, while one Boulder resident sits on the board that can stop it

by Angela K. Evans

Environmental organizations are more interested in diversity training, even if diverse representation is still lacking

by Katie Rhodes

Many Mountains go eclectic for their latest record

by Caitlin Rockett

Locally made classic cocktails to enjoy at home

by Matt Cortina

What local farmers do during the winter, and what you can expect when markets reopen

by Matt Cortina

departments 5 6 7 18 19 20 21 22 23 25 30

The Anderson Files: Ignored warnings of a premature DHS anti-fascist Guest Column: A call for immigration reform Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views Events: A virtual evening with Dr. Robert George and Dr. Cornel West, picnic at Growing Gardens, and more Theater: Virtual theater from around the region Books: Local authors’ talks and poetry readings Savage Love: Case disclosed Astrology: by Rob Brezsny Film: ‘Rolling Thunder Revue’ set crackles with electricity Food/Drink: Thai Salad @ Roadhouse Boulder Depot Weed Between the Lines: Long-term cannabis use, unlike opioids, doesn’t effect patients’ pain tolerance, new research suggests

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Publisher, Fran Zankowski Editor, Matt Cortina Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Senior Editor, Angela K. Evans Arts and Culture Editor, Caitlin Rockett Contributing Writers, Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Sarah Haas, Jim Hightower, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Katie Rhodes, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Ryan Syrek, Christi Turner, Betsy Welch, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Sami Wainscott Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman CIRCULATION TEAM Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer

January 21, 2020 Volume XXVIII, Number 23 As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism and thought-provoking opinion writing. Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@ boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper.

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

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Ignored warnings of a premature DHS anti-fascist

by Dave Anderson

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n 1936, a fascist general named Francisco Franco staged an uprising against a democratically elected progressive government in Spain. Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany aided Franco. This was the opening battle of World War II. Leftists from around the world volunteered to fight for the republic. The American volunteers formed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

When members of the brigade returned home, they were viewed with suspicion and blacklisted. They lost their passports and were under surveillance. The U.S. government labeled them as “premature anti-fascists.”

In a sense, Daryl Johnson could be considered a “premature anti-fascist.” Hired in the George W. Bush administration, he was a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) intelligence analyst in the 2000s. He’s a conservative Mormon. In April 2009, he led a team that authored an internal report warning about increasing danI

gers of violent right-wing extremism in the United States.

The report said the election of the first AfricanAmerican president, combined with Great Recession economic anxieties, could fuel a rise in far-right violence. It went on to say, “right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.”

Johnson based his conclusion on 15 years of experience studying domestic terrorist groups — crucially white supremacists and neo-Nazis. “Leading up to this report ... we received numerous accolades from law enforcement, intelligence officials, talking about the great work we were doing in the fight against domestic terrorism,” he told Democracy Now in 2012.

The report provoked an uproar from Republican lawmakers, veterans’ groups, right-wing radio hosts and Fox News commentators. At the time of its release, House Minority Leader John Boehner said the report focused on “about two-thirds of Americans who might go to church, who may have served in the military, who may be involved in community activities... I just don’t understand how our government can look at the American people and say, ‘You’re all potential terrorist threats.’” see ANDERSON FILES Page 6

JANUARY 21, 2021

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A call for immigration reform

by Jeff Haanen

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crolling through my Facebook feed, last week I noticed a rare delight: Edith Franco was beaming. Recently graduated with a master’s degree, she posed in black cap and gown in front of the Texas State University sign smiling ear to ear.

Almost a decade ago I was her youth pastor at a small church in Brighton. Optimistic, kind and bright, Edith was the first to volunteer, the last to complain, and she ran circles around her AP classes in high school. As I wondered where the time had went, I also worried for her: What will an undocumented immigrant do with all that potential?

On Jan. 19, I was one of 180 entities and individuals representing business, law enforcement and faith communities to urge the new Biden administration to reform our nation’s outdated and broken immigration system.

I come to this debate not as a business leader, clamoring for an updated immigration system that meets employment needs of our modern economy, nor as a police officer, wanting to bring security to communities that live in lawless limbo because of unenforceable immigration laws that haven’t been substantially changed since 1965.

Instead, I support immigration reform primarily as a person of faith.

From 2011-2013, I pastored “Dreamers,” youth who were brought illegally to the U.S. by their parents as children, often infants. High school students like Edith, so eager to contribute to the only country they had ever known, lived under a constant cloud. The fear of deportation

and separation from their family — not to mention minimal job prospects in a shadow economy — gave me an introduction to the ways outdated laws could oppress rather than “establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, and promote the general Welfare,” as our constitution states.

My experience as a pastor of a Hispanic congregation led me to investigate what the Bible said on the topic. I was surprised to learn that the Hebrew word for foreigner or stranger, ger, occurs 92 times in the Old Testament. And some of the most well-known figures of my faith were immigrants.

Abram was called “out or Ur” to leave his homeland and move to Canaan. Joseph was an immigrant in Egypt, as were Moses and the Israelites (Exodus 2:22). Reminding them of this fact, God commanded his people to not mistreat the foreigner, but instead to “love them as yourself,” because they too were once immigrants in a foreign land (Leviticus 19:33-34).

Jesus himself was a refugee as a child, fleeing persecution with his parents as an infant (Matthew 2:1315). Later in life, Jesus made foreigners the heroes of his parables (Luke 10:25-37) and even claimed that welcoming the stranger is the same as welcoming him (Matthew 25:44-45).

Friends in my own theologically conservative circles are quick to point out the importance of the rule of law, citing Romans 13: “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.”

Because laws must be obeyed, when they cease

to serve the common good, they

need reformation.

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see GUEST COLUMN Page 7

JANUARY 21, 2021

ANDERSON from Page 5

Johnson responded on Democracy Now, “That’s a gross misrepresentation of what was said in the report.”

He said the critics took things out of context and that right-wingers were engaging in a deliberate “political manuever” to attack the Obama administration.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologized to veterans’ groups for the line in the report saying that far-right groups may try to attract veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Johnson’s small team of domestic terrorism analysts who had produced the report was disbanded, and they were reassigned to study Muslim extremism. By the next year, Johnson was pushed out of the DHS altogether.

In 2019, he told The Guardian that if the report’s warnings had been heeded, “There would be fewer extremists, and fewer attacks, because by now, 10 years removed from the warning, we would have mature programs.”

However, he said, “the political fiasco surrounding the report created a chilling effect in the law enforcement and intelligence community. It indicated that this topic is radioactive and you better stay away from it. If you pursue it, there’s going to be hell to pay: That was the message. People did lose their jobs. Good analysts were harassed and retaliated against.

People saw what happened to me and my team. They knew that if it happened to Daryl, the Eagle Scout Mormon goody-two-shoes, it could I

happen to them.”

Now we are dealing with the aftermath of the far-right insurrection attacking the U.S. Capitol and attempting to reverse the outcome of a free and fair election.

Johnson was recently interviewed

by Sahil Kapur of NBC News.

Kapur noted that Johnson’s 2009 report cited themes of the far right that are associated with Trump’s platform such as “stoking fear of immigrants, warning that guns will be taken away, talking about a new world order in which U.S. sovereignty is trampled.”

Johnson replied that Trump has “been the major contributor to stoking the fears and spreading lies and disinformation and promoting conspiracy theories. So he’s definitely poured a lot of fuel on this fire. This fire was already raging when he came into the office, and he just took it to a whole new level.”

Johnson disagreed with those who say that the insurrection is a final chapter for a dying movement.

He said, “This is ushering in a new phase of violence and hostility...

According to (the far right), they want a civil war. So that would be a final chapter. Having a bunch of massive terrorist attacks and chaos in the streets and political leaders being assassinated. That’s kind of the phase we’re moving into right now.”

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

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Reproductive justice in 2021 Colorado voters decisively shot down a proposed abortion ban (Prop.

115) in the 2020 election, demonstrating continued support for legal access to essential health care. Messaging in favor of the ban spread harmful myths about abortion later in pregnancy, denying autonomy to pregnant people.

In the face of continued attacks on reproductive health care, as well as Colorado’s position as a safe haven for

abortion, we need to recenter the conversation around abortion in 2021 to one of destigmatization and action towards reproductive justice.

Abortion later in pregnancy occurs after 21 weeks of pregnancy and makes up about 1% of abortions in the United States. Despite the frequent demonization of people seeking this type of abortion, these abortions are predominantly sought in emergencies. For example, by a person who wants to carry out a pregnancy, but has received a devastating lethal fetal diagnosis, or by someone whose health is at risk.

Colorado is one of few states to protect abortion later in pregnancy and Boulder is one of few cities with a clinic that provides this vital health care.

Especially in light of President Trump appointing Supreme Court Justices with an eye on challenging Roe v. Wade and restricting abortion, as seen in the recently upheld limitation on abortion pill access during the pandemic, state and local reproductive justice efforts are more important than ever. We need to transition our public discourse about abortion from mythfilled debates over whether pregnant

people deserve autonomy, to open conversations about reproductive health care and the preservation of Colorado as a haven for abortion.

One in four women will seek an abortion in their lifetimes, and it’s time to move past rhetoric that seeks to stigmatize abortion and push reproductive health care into the shadows. I invite all Coloradans to join me in starting conversations with people in our lives about what reproductive justice means to us and to show support for people in accessing essential health care.

Sydney Welter/Boulder

GUEST COLUMN from Page 6

To this I wholeheartedly agree.

Because laws must be obeyed, when they cease to serve the common good, they need reformation.

Indeed, all 180 signatories believe in the need to make changes to our immigration law which strengthens communities, addresses border security, grows our economy, expands visas for high tech and agricultural work, and regularizes the status of the estimated 10-12 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., including more than 800,000 Dreamers like Edith.

In my work at Denver Institute for Faith & Work, we teach that all people are made in God’s image and created to work (Genesis 1:28, 2:15).

We believe all work has value, must be fairly compensated (Deut. 24:15), and both workers and employers should obey the rule of law. And all should have the opportunity to reachtheir God-given potential.

I recently called Edith to catch up. Two years ago she married a Puerto Rican and is now a legal resident. She’s working in a law office, using her master’s degree to help other immigrants navigate a broken immigration maze that desperately needs reform.

“There are so many people who want to be here and want to contribute to this country,” Edith said.

“Shouldn’t they be able to?”

Jeff Haanen is the CEO and Founder of Denver Institute for Faith & Work, an educational nonprofit dedicated to forming men and women to serve God, neighbor and society through their daily work.

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

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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The test of a moral society BW talks with CU-Anschutz bioethicist Matthew Wynia

by Angela K. Evans

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n the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Matthew Wynia aided relief efforts on an off-coast hospital ship, where it quickly became clear there weren’t enough resources to help everyone who needed it. “There were hundreds of thousands of people who needed help of various forms,” he says. “And how do you decide who gets to come out to the ship?”

It’s a question that led Wynia into the field of bioethics, which considers the moral aspects of decision-making around human health and well-being.

It can be applied broadly — considering environmental justice or going beyond human biology — or minutely — discussing molecular biology on the level of lab practices around human genetics. Since the 1990s, the most common expression has been hospital ethical committees, which guide institutions in the event of ethical dilemmas, such as who receives an organ transplant first, or how a doctor responds when a patient or their family disagrees with their recommenda8

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tions. Bioethics also comes into play during disasters, events like the Haitian earthquake, which posed, “a bunch of really big ethical issues about who gets access to the limited resources available,” Wynia says.

It’s similar to what we’re seeing now, as the coronavirus pandemic marches on, overwhelming hospitals and health-care providers more than a year after the first case of COVID-19 was reported in the U.S. Since then, 400,000 Americans have succumbed to it. Bioethics has largely informed pandemic policy, everything from state guidelines for prioritizing care, to treatment and vaccine access, to public health measures like restricting individual liberty for the sake of the larger community.

As the director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado, we recently spoke with Wynia about his work, how we should be thinking about pandemic response and where we go from here.

The interview has been edited for JANUARY 21, 2021

length and clarity.

Boulder Weekly: I remember at the beginning of the pandemic, back in March, being just shocked reading how Italian doctors were prioritizing treating younger patients over the elderly due to lack of resources. Then similar questions faced New York hospitals in the spring and now we’re seeing the same issues play out in California as people sit in ambulances outside of hospitals waiting for a bed. How do institutions decide how to prioritize care?

Matthew Wynia: This is an extension of something that happens all the time in hospitals and emergency departments. If a bunch of people show up at the emergency department, some of them are going to have to wait and it’s up to the emergency department staff to make decisions about who needs to be seen first. And the general criteria are who needs to be seen most urgently and who can wait a little while, but the aim there is that everyone eventually gets optimal levels of care. In a disaster circumstance, the numbers of people needing specific services might so over-

whelm the availability of that resource that there might be people who never get access to it.

With crisis triage, you are acknowledging the fact that some people are going to die because they cannot get necessary services because we just don’t have enough. Although it’s a continuation of that same kind of decision, it feels quite different to say, you know what? We just don’t have enough ventilators. And we’re going to have to pick who gets to go onto the ventilator and those other people who don’t get to go on the ventilator.

Of course we’ll do our best to keep them alive, but we anticipate that they will die.

BW: What are the factors that go into making that decision?

MW: First, you want to direct resources to people who will survive if they get the resources and who are going to die otherwise. So, if you have someone who might be able to survive, even if they don’t get the resources, then that person can go lower on the list. And similarly, if you have

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

someone that you anticipate is going to die, no matter what you do, that person also should go lower on the list. So that’s what we call efficiency argument: You’re trying to use your resources to save the most lives.

And efficiency is very important when you’re doing triage, but it’s not the only thing that we take into account. We also take into account equity, making sure that there are resources available for the communities that are hardest hit by the virus. We also take into account long-term social cohesion and our ability to live with each other in the wake of the disaster.

You don’t want to make decisions during a disaster which will alienate some group [so much] that community cohesion is destroyed because of these difficult decisions that had to be made.

So, for example, you might put resources into palliative care and hospice care during a pandemic that you could have put into saving individual patient’s lives. If you were being a cold utilitarian, you would say, why put anything into hospice and palliative care, those people are going to die anyways. We don’t take that view, and the reason for that is because we think end-of-life care and being respectful of people and trying to provide them comfort in their dying moments is really important to our society, to our community.

Those are three big ones, but there are other things that come into play.

BW: Colorado is one of about a dozen states that has implemented crisis of care guidelines, but most states haven’t. You told Jordan Kisner in the Atlantic that around the country governors are reluctant to issue crisis of care because it “would mean admitting that we are not able to provide topquality medical care in the United States of America in 2020.” Can you talk a little bit about how accountability and responsibility comes into this discussion in terms of who’s making the decisions?

MW: There are definitely states that have crisis standards of care guidelines that have been in circumstances where they were completely swamped and overwhelmed, and the governor was never willing to sign off to say, OK, we’re swamped and overwhelmed, we need to implement these.

These are very painful, very difficult decisions and so they run downhill and end up in the lap of the last person who can’t not make a decision.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

And that may end up being the doctor at the bedside who has to make a final call. My sense, and I think broadly the sense of people who’ve thought a lot about this, is that that’s not optimal, that you should not have that doctor making those decisions. You should have a team that tries to make those decisions that can have better situational awareness, and that does not have the legal and ethical responsibility to be an individual patient advocate.

BW: You’ve also done a lot of work on vaccine rollout, helping Gov. Polis decide who to prioritize with your work on the medical advisory group. And some of these priorities have changed due to public discourse, especially when it comes to those held in prisons and jails, as well as teachers. You recently told the Washington Post that viewing the priorities in terms of who deserves to be inoculated “might end up prolonging the pandemic and killing more people.” How should we be thinking about vaccine prioritization?

MW: I will say I’m not entirely opposed to some of the changes that the governor has made. And I think they’re being made in relatively good faith. I think the problem comes when you start talking about, well, who deserves the vaccine separate from who’s most likely to get sick, who’s most likely to die, and who’s most likely to transmit this to a whole bunch of other people.

If you’re trying to save as many people as possible and prevent transmission and bring this pandemic to a close as quickly as possible, if you then say, yeah, but we don’t like people in prison, they’re bad people, they don’t deserve protection, well that’s going to prolong our pandemic because the majority of our big outbreaks in the state have started in prisons. In the city of Chicago, back in the summer, they estimated that 15% of all the cases in the entire city of Chicago could be traced back to the Cook County Jail.

So, if we think that we can further punish people by not treating them the same as we treat everyone else because they’re in prison, that is going to backfire on us because prisons are a very high-risk environment. And people come in and out of prisons and jails: more than 90% of people in prison and jail are going to be released.

Plus, the staff come in and out every day, so they’re particularly high risk for I

the rest of us.

BW: The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were developed in the U.S., so some ethicists have argued that we should take care of our own first. But should we share with those in the international community? Places like Brazil, which is second only to the U.S. in COVID deaths and is running out of supplemental oxygen as well?

MW: Honestly, I think we should.

And I say that in part because of the long-term implications of not sharing versus sharing. I just think that is very short-sighted not to share.

And it’s short-sighted because there will be other big players in the world who will choose a different strategy and will end up making a whole bunch of friends as a result. So, you are going to see China send vaccines to countries around Africa and around South America, because they value those long-term relationships.

And they want to be seen as a force for good in the world. And I think it would do us well to want to be seen as a force for good in the world also. We used to have that reputation, and I think we should be working hard to gather that reputation.

In addition to that, it’s the right thing to do. And sometimes, you do the right thing, even though it’s hard.

That’s the test of a moral society is that we continue and are able to do the right thing, even when it’s a little bit hard. And it would be hard, it would be politically hard, it’s hard to send resources overseas that you could use here. But we should do more of that.

BW: You were talking earlier about one of the decision points is asking how do these ethical decisions affect the greater community. I was just looking through your Twitter and you posted about new research that shows successful pandemic response is more about how we relate to one another and our government rather than economic power or scientific capacity. I’m trying to see if I actually have a question — it just made me think about that point, that we have to be considering more than just ourselves in this.

MW: I hadn’t really put that together myself until you just said it, but I think it does come back to those criteria that we have in our state crisis standards of care guidance, which is we want to save as many lives as possible with our limited resources and do so in a way that will preserve social cohesion and our ability to come together JANUARY 21, 2021

as a community and heal in the wake of this disaster. And I think that’s true for Colorado. It’s also true for the United States and it’s also true for the world.

My final point on that is that social cohesion is an important goal, but again, it’s not the only goal either.

Because, not to be too exaggerated about this, but the Nazis had very good social cohesion. Everyone was on board, but they had cohered around a noxious ideology that was fundamentally based on a lie. And so you can imagine a community that has excellent cohesion built around a lie and built around values that are not ones that you would want your children to grow up under. So, I think we do want social cohesion, but we also want social cohesion around shared values that are really worth sharing. So, it’s not just about cohesion. It’s about what does the world look like in the wake of this pandemic and how do we get there to that, to the world that we want to have? How do we create the world we want to live in, and the kind of world you want to pass onto your children?

BW: Do you think the field of bioethics was prepared for a global pandemic?

As with any good question, the answer is yes and no. It would be wrong to say that there have not been people in bioethics thinking about the ethics of pandemic response for a very long time.

In one sense, if you look in the literature of bioethics, the things that we’re dealing with now are things that were very predictable. No one that had given 20 minutes of thought to this was surprised when we started to see tremendous health disparities in the pandemic’s effects. That’s something we knew about.

On the other hand, I don’t think many people thought that we would do so poorly as a society in coming together around this pandemic and around a coherent response. … Our assumption, I think, was that the national leadership would come together around this, like in a war or after 9/11. What you anticipate when the whole country is essentially under attack is that the country comes together.

This is not just about the pandemic, it goes outside of bioethics and into social ethics, but this is something we’re going to be grappling with as a society for a long time.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MICHAEL DENSLOW

he week of Joe Biden’s inauguration began with the news that he planned to rescind approval for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office, as part of his commitment to address climate change. For more than a decade, environmentalists and indigenous groups have fought the project, intended to carry 830,000 barrels of oil a day from the tar sand oil fields of Alberta, Canada, through Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, making its way to Gulf Coast refineries.

A few states east, in Northern Minnesota, environmentalists, including some from Boulder County, are joining local indigenous groups committed to halting another tar sands pipeline: Enbridge’s Line 3. Calling themselves “water protectors” like the thousands that gathered in North Dakota in 2016 to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), at times as many as 150 protesters gather in opposition to the Line 3 project, which received final approval and began construction in December 2020.

“I think that every rational person knows what we have to do to deal with climate change, that we need to decarbonize, we need to stop burning fossil fuels,” says Michael Denslow from Boulder.

Denslow, along with a few others from Colorado, was in Minnesota over the weekend at protest camps along the pipeline route. He also recently signed an open letter to Enbridge Board Director Teresa Madden, asking the fellow Boulderite to “be a voice against Line 3 inside the Enbridge Corporation.”

In addition to the existential threat posed by climate change, those opposing Line 3 argue the project violates indigenous sovereignty and treaty rights and is causing wetland and ecological destruction, including wild rice beds used by local indigenous groups. They also raise public health concerns revolving around the coronavirus pandemic and the link between workman’s camps and missing and murdered indigenous women, as well as the probability of oil spills.

Enbridge bills the Line 3 pipeline as a replacement project of an older, corroding pipeline built in

A SECTION of pipeline is buried underground on the Fond Du Lac reservation in Northern Minnesota on Jan. 18.

and study of impact on tribal cultural assets.”

But Enbridge isn’t just replacing the existing pipe where it sits today. The new pipeline route moves through new territory, in large part, Fernandez says, because certain property owners didn’t want to renew easements where the original pipe is. In order to bypass the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe reservation, for example, the new pipeline route cuts west and south crossing under the Mississippi River near Palisade, Minnesota, where the majority of the protest has taken place.

Enbridge has an agreement with the Band to deactivate and remove the current Line 3 from Leech Lake land.

Other property owners have until July 2025 to decide whether the existing pipe is “deactivated in place or removed from their property, subject to permitting limitations.”

In addition to gaining approval from state and federal agencies for the project, Enbridge worked with the Fond du Lac of Lake Superior Chippewa to reconnect the pipeline in its original location, ending at the company’s terminal on the bank of Lake Superior. Fernandez asserts that restoring the historical operating capabilities of Line 3 is necessary to meet both Canadian and American energy demands as they stand today, even as both countries are committed to reducing emissions and lessening the impacts of climate change.

“They will tell you that they’re just replacing a pipeline that already exists, but that’s not quite true,” says Amy Gray with environmental nonprofit 350 Colorado. “They are putting in a new pipeline and lots more of it than was there previously, so it does add [the equivalent of ] an additional 50 coal plants to our greenhouse gas emissions.”

That’s according to an analysis by experts from 350 Minnesota and other environmental groups.

Said another way, it would be like adding 38 million vehicles to the road. Reporting from DeSmogBlog

The new front line for ‘water protectors’

Colorado activists head to Minnesota to protest the Line 3 pipeline, while one Boulder resident sits on the board that can stop it

by Angela K. Evans

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

the 1960s that “has been operating at reduced capacity to increase operational safety,” according to the company. The 1,097-mile pipeline from Edmonton, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin, is the “largest pipeline in Enbridge’s history,” with relatively short sections in North Dakota and Wisconsin already complete. In Minnesota, the $2.6 billion project will replace 282 miles of 34-inch pipeline with 337 miles of 36-inch pipe, as it changes its historic route. In some places the pipeline will be underground, including running beneath the Mississippi River.

When finished, the average annual capacity of Line 3 will be 760,000 barrels per day.

“The purpose for doing the pipeline is about making the pipeline that’s there safer and making sure that it doesn’t have a negative impact on the environment,” says Enbridge Senior VP and Chief Communications Officer Mike Fernandez, citing six years of science-based environmental reviews, 70 public hearings and “320 route modifications in response to concerns about where the pipe was near, what it was going through.”

“This really has been the most studied pipeline project in Minnesota history,” he says. “And of any project we’ve had, probably has produced the most voluminous amount of information from all facets, dealing with environmental impacts to the analysis I

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see LINE 3 Page 12

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LINE 3 from Page 11

MICHAEL DENSLOW

suggests the emissions from the whole of Line 3 is more than the greenhouse gas emissions from the whole state of Minnesota.

According to the Minnesota Environmental Impact Statement, transporting 760,000 barrels of oil a day through the pipeline could increase carbon emissions by 193 million tons annually, acknowledging that the project “would contribute incrementally to global climate change.”

“This isn’t just about a little place in Northern Minnesota, this is a worldwide catastrophe. We have to change our values in order to survive on this planet,” says Sara Hersh of Nederland, who also signed on to the letter addressed to Madden. “Living in Boulder, she’s part of our community, we just thought this would be good outreach and maybe she could rethink her position on Enbridge and Line 3.”

Madden did not respond to BW’s requests for comment. As a former Xcel Energy executive, she was appointed to the Enbridge board in February 2019, several years after the governing body sanctioned the Line 3 replacement in 2014.

“What she’s probably heard is discussions as we’ve gotten permits, and as there have been legal actions, those coming up to the board’s attention,” Fernandez says.

He says, from a corporate board perspective, it’s very rare for a board director to register a formal dissension over a project like Line 3.

“What’s not rare though, is for there to be robust debate and discussion, and to ask for additional information before decisions are made and wanting to make sure we’re taking every precaution,” he adds. “We do have board members who are very concerned about environmental issues, very concerned about safety issues, so our executives are appropriately grilled and questioned.”

He did not provide any more specifics about Madden’s position on Line 3, but did confirm no formal dissensions had been made.

Additionally, opponents point to Enbridge’s history of oil leaks as cause for concern over the pipeline project. In 2010, the company’s Line 6 burst, spilling more than a million gallons of diluted bitumen from the tar sands oil field into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River. It’s considered the second largest inland oil spill in U.S. history, eclipsed only by the 1991 Line 3 rupture, which released 1.7 million gallons of crude oil near Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

Since then, there’s been 13-15 lakes along the route that no longer grow wild rice, or manomin “the food that grows on the water,” says Tania Aubid from the East Lake Band of Ojibwe. She has been at the Palisade protest camp since Nov. 29.

“That’s what I want to prevent from happening to the rest of the wild rice beds that are here,” Aubid 12

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says. “That was something that god the creator directed us to come here and find the food that grows on the water so we can maintain our way of life.”

Aubid says that despite Enbridge’s claims of cultural sensitivity, cultural sites — like teaching lodges, or waaginoogan — along the pipeline’s route will be destroyed as construction continues.

Enbridge has also had several environmental and safety violations over the years, and just recently in December a worker died while working on Line 3.

Fernandez says Enbridge is a company that “clearly in its past had issues,” but there are now folks within the company, including himself, who are “working vigorously to improve our record.”

“What we’re trying to do is to greatly enhance safety and limit the chance of any spill by the upgrade of the pipe that we’re using. So, it’s actually better technology that’s going in place to change out what’s there,” he says.

He also argues that Enbridge is working closely with indigenous groups and organizations across the U.S. and Canada to combat sex-trafficking and sexual violence against indigenous women, as well as taking extra safety precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Fernandez adds the Line 3 project hasn’t been subject to “political gamesmanship” in the same way as Keystone XL, and the company doesn’t expect any action from the U.S. feds.

But those who oppose Line 3 are hopeful Biden’s climate policies will include stopping Line 3 as well.

“This is a historic administration,” Gray says. “The Democrats have control of the House, the Senate and the presidency, there is absolutely zero excuse for not enacting bold climate action. And if they yank the permits from KXL, they need to yank the permits for Line 3, for any of these fossil fuel infrastructure projects that are across indigenous territory and are endangering the water and the soil and JANUARY 21, 2021

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the air for millions of people.”

An analysis from S&P Global and reporting from Reuters suggest that Line 3, slated to come online in late 2021, reduces the need for Keystone XL. That said, there are legal challenges to Line 3. In late December, two Ojibwe bands from Minnesota as well as Sierra Club and the environmental group Honor the Earth asked for a preliminary injunction to suspend construction, arguing the Army Corps of Engineers didn’t adequately address the effects of possible oil spills or evaluate the pipeline’s impact on climate change when issuing a water quality permit.

The project runs close by the Red Lake Bank of Chippewa reservation and moves the pipeline closer to the White Earth Band of Ojibwe reservation.

“It’s so important for people to support the front lines and to support these communities, like Standing Rock and (those protesting) Line 3 in Minnesota,” Gray says, of 350 Colorado, “because without massive pressure, almost any decision maker will bend to the money and the political will of the oil and gas industry.”

The Coloradans who traveled to Northern Minnesota over the weekend describe resilient indigenous activists and others committed to camping out in the harsh Midwestern winter in hopes of stopping the Line 3 pipeline. They recount conversations with workers, caught between the need for work and discomfort over the intent of the project they are working on. They describe destructive construction sites as crews cleared paths of trees to lay the pipeline.

“You could just smell the freshly cut pine trees — it was really sad,” says Jesse Newman, an activist from Denver. “It was insanely depressing, and I felt immense grief. I wasn’t expecting to feel that. It was a shared experience that all of us from Colorado had.”

As of this writing, President Biden has not announced any plans to stop the Line 3 pipeline.

Construction on the project is proceeding, even as a lawsuit makes its way through the courts. In the last month or so, dozens of protestors have been arrested attempting to prevent construction, including two on Jan. 14 who chained themselves together inside a piece of pipe. Protestors from Colorado and around the country plan to continue traveling to Northern Minnesota to show their support, and new protest camps are popping up along the pipeline route.

“I don’t know if Teresa Madden will change her mind, or if Enbridge will change its mind and take all this money and invest it in a greener source of power,” Hersh says. “But wouldn’t it be grand if they did?

They are the kind of company that has the power and resources to switch gears. We have to do that now. It’s really going to be too late if we don’t act soon.”

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No excuses

Green 2.0 Transparency Report shows environmental organizations more interested in diversity training, even if diverse representation is still lacking

by Katie Rhodes

S

croll through the leadership team on most national environmental organizations’ websites and a certain trend emerges: the majority of staff members are white. Racial discrimination and environmental challenges are inexorably connected, yet seem to be isolated when it comes to organizations employing a diverse workforce in the environmental sector.

People of color (POC) hold very few leadership positions at top environmental advocacy organizations, and yet are far more likely to be directly affected by the environmental and climate crises in their communities.

Green 2.0, a national group that tracks the diversity of influential organizations and foundations involved in the environmental movement in the hopes of facilitating more equality and inclusion, recently released its 2020 Transparency Report Card. It is a statistical analysis of data collected from the 40 largest NGO’s and 40 foundations in the United States, reporting the number of POC and women being recruited and hired on as staff members, board members or executive members, and the rate at which this is happening.

“We have more work that needs to be done in terms of diversifying representation on boards and in executive positions,” says Dr. Stefanie Johnson, associate professor at CU Boulder’s Leeds School of Business, who provided the statistical analysis for this year’s report and executive summary. “That’s where having a voice matters, where you can have influence and make sure communities of color are considered in big environmental decisions.”

The lack of diversity we’re facing within the environmental movement affects everyone, as Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, asserted during the report presentation on Jan. 13. “When it comes to our collective survival and the issues of conservation, climate change and long-term sustainability, we are dependent on the participation and leadership that POC, the young population and Urban America provide to successfully approach these subjects. It is vital to the health and life of every living thing on this earth.”

The 2020 Green 2.0 report shows a generally positive trend of diversification, as many organizations have hired more POC, but large-scale changBOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

es are still lacking. POC and women are still more likely to hold lower-paying jobs at these organizations rather than leadership positions. They are also more likely to leave their jobs and the environmental movement as a whole. As organizations continue to spend time, effort and money recruiting POC, Johnson urges that they need to be mindful; when these people are quickly leaving, it points to the need for a larger internal culture shift.

In congruence with 2020’s profound racial and social justice movement, Green 2.0 has seen many of these big environmental organizations reaching out with an increased interest in implementing diversity training.

“The interest is there,” says Green 2.0’s communications director, Daniel Herrera. “Now it’s really about the follow-through.”

One concern raised by Johnson is that diversity training will take the place of facilitating real, tangible change, ultimately serving as the proverbial band-aid for a bullet wound.

“The training is good,” Johnson says, “but if it’s going to take the place of action, it’s not good. If organizations are doing trainings but aren’t changing things, then it becomes detrimental.

Companies often conduct the training and then feel like, ‘OK, we checked the box, we’re good, we can go back to normal now.’ They must commit to making other structural changes that actually matter.”

It’s action, after all, that really makes a difference, and not words and pledges. Best practices for companies succeeding in diversity inclusion include implementing unconscious bias and inclusion I

JANUARY 21, 2021

training. When not done well, however, studies have shown that trainings can increase bias between marginalized groups or cause backlash; trainings can reinforce stereotypes, or in some cases anger some people who may ultimately double down on their resentment.

“It’s frustrating when you have organizations doing trainings and studying equity gaps without taking action on diversity,” says Mark Magaña, founder and CEO of GreenLatinos, a national non-profit confronting environmental issues within the Latino community. “It’s one of the easiest things we can do when it comes to inclusion and equity. If we can’t achieve diversity, which is a basic metric, how do we hope to even begin to make an inclusive environmental sector we need in order to see the environmental wins we need in Colorado?”

Ean Tafoya, a Colorado field advocate with GreenLatinos, also expresses concern that diversity training, ironically, isn’t as inclusive for POC. “These organizations need more advanced and individualized trainings, because the training itself is not a one-size-fits-all situation,” he says. “If you see POC attending equity training, the subject matter can potentially be re-traumatizing or triggering for many of them. We (POC) aren’t provided the opportunity for advanced diversity work.

We often are engaged in planning, but that’s it.

We need opportunities to grow as well, and by continually moving through introductory work we are forced to relive trauma, aggression and denial by our colleagues in working through introductory concepts.”

While diversity training can be an important tool, and is a step in the right direction when conducted properly, diverse representation within environmental organizations is still sorely lacking.

Green 2.0’s Transparency Report shows that much more work still needs to be done, and that it’s direct and powerful action that is needed to fill the equity gap.

“This is not about altruism,” Magaña says.

“The bottom line is that we will not succeed until we include everyone at the decision-making table.

The time for bold action is now, and there are no excuses.”

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A ‘ma and pop rock ‘n’ roll album’ K.T. LANGLEY PHOTOGRAPHY

D

ustin Moran and KR Nelson were on a set break during a gig last March in Austin, Texas, when they heard that South by Southwest was canceled.

The duo, who craft poetic alternative-folk rock together as Many Mountains, were on their first tour outside of Colorado. The Louisville-based couple has been making music together and playing venues up and down the I-25 corridor since 2013, but this tour felt like “a new chapter,” Nelson says over the phone.

Then, just like that, it felt as though the book was slammed shut. To be continued.

“It was this, like, Twilight Zone experience of being on the road and coming back from tour and entering this new world where we find ourselves,” Nelson says. “But it was very triumphant. We had finally booked this tour, booked it all ourselves, and got the car all ready and went out and did it, and it was great…”

“And then the carpet got pulled out from under us,” Moran offers.

Driving home through the Texas landscape, cell service was spotty, but intermittent text messages from fellow musicians were apoplectic: “This is the end of live music.”

Live music was certainly on hold for a while, that much was clear. But Moran and Nelson had new music they were ready to share. Quarantine, they reckoned, would give them a chance to make a different record, a more robust expression of their progressive brand of folk.

The next chapter would just look a little different than expected.

Their story continues with Endless Time, the pair’s

special in that way, our little baby.”

A pandemic baby.

“Exactly,” Moran says, “Our kind of farm-to-table, ma and pop rock ‘n’ roll album.”

Endless Time, with its evenhanded back and forth between Moran’s ’70s-inspired rock cuts and Nelson’s Neko Caseinfluenced alt-country tracks, offers a portrait of a duo that truly know each other — and they do. The pair met in 2008 at a bookstore in Salt Lake City, where they worked (perhaps an insight into Many Mountains’ literary flair with lyrics).

Nelson was born and raised in Utah, while Moran had lived a more “nomadic” experience, as he describes it, moving between divorced parents. They bonded over music, with Moran encouraging Nelson to dust off the music lessons she’d taken as a child and string some chords together on a guitar. Before long the two were making music together.

“I had played a little piano and knew some chords on the guitar, but it was Dustin that had the patience to sit down and teach me,” Nelson says. “He bought me my first little Yamaha guitar.”

They moved out to Colorado in 2010, cut their first record — under their names and titled Many Mountains — in 2013, played with some bands that didn’t work out, and eventually settled into a groove as a duo.

For both Moran and Nelson, the album’s title evokes the elastic and relative nature of time. Written mostly in 2019, the songs have taken on new perspectives in the harsh light of the pandemic.

For Nelson, the preciousness of the mundane — the glory of doing nothing — became crystal clear over the past 10 months.

Many Mountains go eclectic for their latest record by Caitlin Rockett

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fourth album as Many Mountains. The nine-track record takes the traditional singer-songwriter sound Moran and Nelson have fine-tuned on past albums and outfits it with subtle embellishments of prog and classic rock.

Combining honky-tonk singalongs like “What Used To Be” with open-road ballads like “I-80 Tune” with moody, spaced out journeys like “No One Knows the Secret,” Endless Time is the best representation yet of the duo’s eclectic capabilities and refined sense of style. Armed with little more than a keyboard, electric and acoustic guitars, and Logic Pro, Moran and Nelson created a rich backdrop against which to set their delicately nuanced lyrics.

“We wanted [this record] to be something different than what we’ve released before,” Nelson says. “We were full-time musicians before the shutdowns, so we’d have time to record bits and pieces here and there between booking shows and practicing for shows and trying to write stuff — just all of the minutiae of all that stuff. [The pandemic] kind of gave us time … And so I think for us it stands out in our catalog as something JANUARY 21, 2021

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see MANY MOUNTAINS Page 17

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

PUT YOUR

WHERE

Photo: Susan France

heavy rotation A few records that got Many Mountains’ Dustin Moran and KR Nelson through 2020.

‘FETCH THE BOLT CUTTERS,’ FIONA APPLE

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“It’s experimental but it’s also familiar,” Duran says of Apple’s fifth studio album, recorded and produced in entirety at Apple’s home — her living room, mostly — in Venice Beach. “It seemed like a home birth; it brings [the music] into the living room.

Katie and myself, we make our music in our living room and in our kitchen and in the bed. ... That record (Fetch the Bolt Cutters), it could have been perfect and spotless, but I think what makes it beautiful is how authentic and real it is.”

‘ROUGH AND ROWDY WAYS,’ BOB DYLAN

“When ‘Murder Most Foul’ came out, we had just played in Dallas,” Nelson says of the first single from Dylan’s 2020 record that contextualizes the assassination of John F. Kennedy against the wider landscape of American culture. “We went to JFK’s memorial, where he was shot. So when that song dropped, it had this other kind of level connection for us.”

‘DIXIE BLUR,’ JONATHAN WILSON

“I really enjoy his writing and his musicianship and his production,” Moran says of the guitarist’s fourth studio album, released in March 2020. “I would say that he was a big inspiration on my production on this [new Many Mountains] album to kind of get back to the rock ‘n’ roll ’70s soundscapes stuff. Hearing him do it in the modern day inspired me and gave me a kick in the butt to do it as well.”

MANY MOUNTAINS from Page 16

“Our modern culture suggests we’re supposed to take up every second of the day with something,” she says. “There’s no moment to sit and ponder, or at least we’re told that if we do sit and ponder then it’s a waste of time.”

The gentle ballad “Dark Nights, Dark Mornings,” she points out, is about taking those moments to ponder without guilt or anxiety: Why all these bad thoughts? / Is it my bad luck / Or just my reputation? / Whether it’s my time or there’s no time / I don’t see how it makes a difference to me ... Trying to figure it out / When there’s no room for doubt / Blanket information / Trying to figure out time / And what’s coming down the line / And interpreting what’s right in front of me / I keep pacing in the halls of what lies beyond self-discovery.

For Moran, the pandemic offered him the space to appreciate his path in life.

“Talking about what you’re ‘supposed to do in life,’ it’s always ‘go to college, get your knowledge,’ all that stuff,” he says. “There are these set notions of what you’re supposed to do. And I’ve rubbed up against some of those constructs, and I’ve spent a lot of time questioning whether following my bliss, which is the pursuit of music, is the right thing to do. I’ve done it for a decade and there might’ve been a lot of times where I was questioning my way of life. But with what we’ve seen in the last year, it’s really just validated my choice. Time is endless in that it goes on without you, so you’ve gotta do what you can do while you’re here. And I’m glad that we’re still pursuing this. It’s cool that we’re pushing the sound and pushing the writing.”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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JANUARY 21, 2021

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events

events

If your organization is planning an event of any kind, please email Caitlin at crockett@boulderweekly.com.

VIRTUAL MOBILITY FOR ALL — RTD LIVE AND MOBILE TICKETING WORKSHOP.

5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, via Facebook Live, bit.ly/3o6Lnv1. This event is free.

During this virtual workshop, you’ll learn how to sign up for RTD LiVE and how to download and use the RTD Mobile Ticketing app. The LiVE Program lets qualified riders get a 40% discount off regular fares. To qualify, you need to be between the ages 20 and 64, live within the RTD service area and have a gross household income at or below 185% of the federal poverty level. This app lessens contact between individuals through contactless payment while boarding RTD buses.

Download the RTD Mobile Ticketing and Transit apps on your smartphone or tablet prior to this workshop to follow along with the presentation. Interested participants will need an internet connection, a computer and a smartphone. Once registered, participants will receive instruction on how to join the class. Participants will receive free RTD passes upon completion of the workshop and a survey.

‘IS CIVIL DISCOURSE DEAD?’ — AN EVENING WITH DR. ROBERT GEORGE AND DR. CORNEL WEST.

Tuesday, Jan. 27.

To apply, visit: apply.denverfoundation.org

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10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 22, via Zoom, longmontcolorado.gov/ senior-services. Free, but please register in advance, either online or by calling the Longmont Senior Center at 303-651-8411.

We may be in the heart of winter, but it will be spring before you know it, making now a great time to learn how to identify seeds. Sharon Bokan, CSU Extension small acreage coordinator, will introduce participants to some of the plant family seed features. This class will cover garden plant seeds along with some native plant seeds, but also how seeds are produced, cleaned, tested and made available for sale.

PICNIC ON THE FARM.

Friday, Jan. 22 (and additional dates each month through the year), Growing Gardens, 1630 Hawthorn Ave., Boulder, growinggardens.org.

Price: $65-$100.

Enjoy the beauty of each Colorado season with Growing Gardens’ monthly Farm Picnic Series. Each picnic features a unique menu curated by Growing Gardens Farm Chef, Carly Silberman. Enjoy all the fixin’s for a cozy picnic made from fresh, local ingredients. Bring your blanket and find a spot on the farm, or pick-up to enjoy in the comfort of your home or backyard. Meals are fully cooked and ready to eat upon pick-up.

EVENT OF NOTE WITH PIANIST SIMONE DINNERSTEIN.

7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, via Zoom, colorado.edu. This event is free, but registration is required.

In this free virtual panel discussion, Dr. Cornel West and Dr. Robert George, the “ideological odd couple,” discuss the importance of civil discourse in this era of polarization.

Leftist West and conservative George are friends who teach together and travel the country to demonstrate their commitment to free speech. They explore their opposing views on several policy areas, respectfully disagreeing as well as finding common ground.

APPLICATIONS DUE FOR COVID-19 ARTS & CULTURE RELIEF FUND.

VIRTUAL PRESENTATION: SEED CHARACTERISTICS AND IDENTIFICATION.

ANDRÉ KARWATH VIA WIKICOMMONS

LISAMARIEMAZZUCCO

5 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27, via Zoom, boulderphil.org. Tickets: $30 (Delivered hors d’oeuvres are $20).

Tune-in to the Boulder Philharmonic’s virtual venue for a captivating evening of music and conversation with pianist Simone Dinnerstein, an international performer with 10 albums that have topped the Billboard classical charts. Guests will hear more about Dinnerstein’s commitment to broad musical interests and giving concerts in non-traditional venues. Make it a party by ordering hors d’oeuvres and a cocktail mixer from Three Leaf Concepts.

Delivery is available for Boulder, Louisville and Lafayette residents; others may pick up at Zucca, 808 Main St., Louisville.

Applications for The Denver Foundation’s COVID-19 Arts & Culture Relief Fund are due

by Jan. 27. The fund aims to provide emergency support to struggling arts organizations across Metro Denver to help ensure organizations are able to maintain staff, artist engagement and minimal operations while planning for future sustainability. Arts organizations with a 501(c)(3) status are eligible for funds between $5,000-$50,000. Priority will be given to organizations that offer free/discounted admissions/ticketing, scholarships and engagement to communities that are traditionally under-resourced, and those with limited access to other relief funds or endowments.

JANUARY 21, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

‘CONVICTION: AMERICAN PANIC’

The roots of the “Satanic panic” that overtook America in the 1980s stemmed from a Canadian memoir, Michelle Remembers, in which a woman claims to have “recovered” — with help from a psychotherapist — memories of satanic rituals she was forced to take part in as a child. Despite any evidence to support the claims, hundreds of people were erroneously accused of abusing their children in satanic cult rituals over the course of the decade. The second season of the Gimlet series Conviction traces this dark and bizarre chapter of American history, sussing out the rea-

‘BUNDYVILLE, THE REMNANT’

After the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, most of us are asking, “How did we get here?”

For decades, the antigovernment movement in the U.S. has been growing. In the West, it’s long been a battle over public lands, led in recent years by the Bundy family and symbolized by their standoffs with the federal government both in Nevada and at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. Building off a successful first season exploring the history and inner workings of the Bundy family specifi-

‘SLOW BURN: DAVID DUKE’

He was once the Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan. More recently, we saw him at the Charlottesville “Unite the Right Rally” in 2017. He may be one of America’s most infamous white supremecists, but in the late 20th century, David Duke was an elected politician in the Louisiana House of Representatives who eventually mounted very public campaigns for the BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

THEATER

PODCASTS

PODCASTS

THEATER

Virtual theater from around the region

sons a whole nation could succumb to a madness comparable to the Salem witch trials or McCarthyism. “[Police] would just go in[to schools] and ask to question the kids, and then they would take them away,” said one parent.

“So you would never know if your kid’s gonna come home from school.” When the nation finally came to its senses in the mid-’90s, victims of this moral crusade were left to pick up the pieces of their lives: parents subjected to trials and jail time, families torn apart, children indoctrinated with bunk psychotherapy. Conviction offers a reminder of the slippery slope of moral superiority.

— Caitlin Rockett cally, the second season of Bundyville, The Remnant dives deeper into the armed uprisings and violence the Bundys have inspired. At one point, a Trump supporter who tried to blow up a government building says, “People are wanting retaliation, revenge, payback for a lot of things. They want retribution.”

Recorded in 2019, host Leah Sottille takes the listener on a long-winding journey of discovery, ending with prescient questions and observations for the moment in which we currently find ourselves.

— Angela K. Evans U.S. Senate in 1990 and governor in 1991. Season 4 of Slate’s popular podcast Slow Burn covers the rise and fall of David Duke in Louisiana politics, hosted by Josh Levine, a native Jewish Louisianian who was in elementary school at the time. This binge-worthy podcast explores the misinformation circulating around Duke, how voters came to embrace his message, and ultimately what it took to stop him.

— Angela K. Evans I

THE CATAMOUNTS PRESENT ‘THE WHISKEY TASTING.’

Feb. 4-March 7, thewhiskeytasting. com. Tickets are on sale now.

The Whiskey Tasting is an online, immersive theater experience, presented by The Catamounts. You and one member of your household will join two other households for a whiskey tasting, exploring the history and nuanced varieties of this spirit from the comfort of your own home. You may find that as your virtual bartender begins to divulge details about their own life, you’ll be inspired to toast to the moments that brought you to where you are today. Tickets are on sale now for shows running Feb. 4-March 7, with multiple shows daily.

CU BOULDER COLLEGE OF MUSIC PRESENTS ‘#LIFE: A MUSICAL REVUE.’

7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 22-Monday, March 4, cupresents.org. This is a pay-what-you-can performance.

In this musical revue of compositions by Steve Marzullo and Michael Gruber, College of Music performers ask themselves and the audience about life’s frustrations. What is our outlook toward the future? How do we keep smiles on our faces? How do we maintain hope? As in the real world, #Life explores the ways we survive and thrive in the face of obstacles.

THEATER 29 AND THE LULUBIRD PROJECT PRESENT ‘LOOK.’

Streaming through Jan. 31, theater29denver.com. Free.

LOOK is a collection of Colorado-made video plays designed for uncertain times. Starting in November 2020, a group of local playwrights and theater artists began working on short video-plays on the theme of “There’s something I want to show you” using following parameters: Each play had to be recorded by an actor-as-character using a hand-held device like a phone or tablet; and each piece must contain an implicit or explicit reason for the recording using a hand-held device. The theme and parameters of LOOK were devised to reflect and incorporate pandemic-prescribed means of communication. Viewers will be able to access the LOOK video collection for free on the Theater 29 website and be invited to support the local theater arts community by donating to the Denver Actors Fund.

The plays: ‘Morning Cafecito,’ by Iliana Lucero Barron and Adelina Gonzales ‘Signing Off,’ by James Brunt and Molly Bibeau ‘Claire’s Live Feed: Randonaughting,’ by Tami Canaday ‘Just In Time,’ by Collin I. Hood ‘Following Fiona,’ by Melissa Lucero McCarl ‘First Vlog,’ by Pamela Nocerino ‘Made Up,’ by Matthew Schultz

JANUARY 21, 2021

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books

EVENTS from Page 19

Open Range Competition Teams Summer Day Camps Classes & Private Lessons

Target & Hunting Full Service Retail Pro Shop & Service Recurve & Compound

High Altitude Archery 455 Weaver Park Rd #500 Longmont, CO 80501 720-491-3309

words

SCOTT SKINNER-THOMPSON — ‘PRIVACY AT THE MARGINS,’ WITH KRISTEN CARPENTER.

5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, boulderbookstore.net.

Tickets are $5.

In Privacy at the Margins, Scott Skinner-Thompson highlights why privacy is of acute importance for marginalized groups. He explains how privacy can serve as a form of expressive resistance to government and corporate surveillance regimes — furthering equality goals — and demonstrates why efforts undertaken by vulnerable groups (queer folks, women and racial and religious minorities) to protect their privacy should be entitled to constitutional protection under the First Amendment and related equality provisions.

LOCALWRITES SPOKEN WORD PRESENTATION.

6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, via Zoom, localtheaterco.org. Membership starts at $49.

In this virtual event, students from Boulder’s Casey Middle School will present original material they created while participating in LocalWRITES, a playwriting and literacy program developed and hosted by Local Theater Company. With the guidance of educators Ilasiea Gray and Val Wheeler, the eighth-grade participants created personal narratives in the form of short spoken word pieces. Local Theater Company season 10 members have access to the spoken word presentation (live and archived, for later viewing), as well as Living Room Local events (featuring working creatives talking about their craft), new play readings, and discounts on writing for stage and screen classes.

DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY — ‘WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE A BIRD,’ IN CONVERSATION WITH TED FLOYD.

5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, via Zoom, boulderbookstore.net.

Tickets are $5.

Can birds smell? Is this the same cardinal that was at my feeder last year?

Do robins hear worms? In What It’s Like to Be a Bird, David Sibley answers the most frequently asked questions about the birds we see most often. While its focus is on familiar backyard birds, Sibley’s book also examines certain species that can be fairly easily observed, such as the seashore-dwelling Atlantic puffin.

KHADIJAH QUEEN READS FROM ‘ANODYNE.’

7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, via Zoom.

Donations appreciated. Register at bit. ly/2KrGTjD. In this Innisfree Workshop Series event, hear CU Boulder professor Khadijah Queen read from Anodyne, her most recent collection of poetry.

Donations for the event will help Innisfree Poetry Bookstore pay debts and continue to bring poetry to the people.

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JANUARY 21, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

STAY CONNECTED

BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: I’m a submissive straight ance (when she comes back to you). guy who finally — FINALLY — met a And how do you know your dick is bigwoman who is open to my main kinks: ger than his? Because your girlfriend bondage and cuckolding. I’m into hand- told you it was. You might want to ask cuffs and leg irons, so the bondage her if she lied about his dick being part was easy (she didn’t have to learn smaller than yours, BETTER, because to do shibari), but the cuckolding part is that’s definitely the kind of lie women a lot trickier to realize during a pantell new boyfriends about their exes and demic. She ended a longstanding FWB old FWBs. Given a chance to walk that arrangement with a coworker when we back, BETTER, your girlfriend very well began to get serious a year ago. Her might — and it might even be true. former FWB is a safe choice, emotionally speaking, since there was no Dear Dan: While we are discussing romantic interest on either side, and the social ramifications, etymologies, he’s safe where COVIDsynonyms, etc., of ejacuROMAN ROBINSON 19 is concerned, since late (noun and verb) and they are in a “pod” at orgasm, can I throw in a work. (And they’ll both be request to alter the course vaccinated soon!) She of popularity for another keeps saying he’s the word as well? It’s this: perfect bull but he’s not “girl.” I cannot stand to see right for me — which is a that word used to describe weird thing for me to say, a woman. “I’m seeing this since I’m not the one girl...” Oh, you’re seeing a who’ll be sleeping with “girl”? Is she 12? If an indihim. I don’t want to sound vidual is seeing a “girl” conceited, but I’m much and that individual is 30, better looking than he is that is pedophilia. Now, if and I’m also better hung. My cuckold an individual is seeing a woman, and fantasies revolve around my girlfriend she happens to be approximately the fucking a guy who’s hotter than me and same age (or older or younger within better hung than I am. I worked with a legal parameters) and there is mutual therapist for a long time — not to “cure” consent, that’s fine. But if an individual me of my kinks, but to better underis seeing a “girl,” that isn’t right. stand them. And what I came to is this: —Woman Over Regular It’s both deeply threatening (in an erotic Degradation way) for my girlfriend to fuck someone who’s “better” than me and deeply Dear WORD: If an individual is seereassuring (in an emotional way) when ing a pre-pubescent minor, that’s pedoshe chooses to be with me when she philia and child rape. If an individual is could be with a “better” man. seeing a pubescent minor, that’s hebe—Better Example Than This Erotic Rival philia and either child rape or statutory rape. If a person is seeing an adult and Dear BETTER: Something about casually refers to that adult person as a this guy works for your girlfriend — girl, that’s not pedophilia or hebephilia or there’s a reason she keeps bringing him child rape or statutory rape. I mean, up — and if you want to have a future come on. There’s a huge difference with this woman and you want cuckoldbetween someone affectionately referring ing to be a part of that future, BETTER, to a new partner as a girl/girlfriend — or then going with someone she’s comfort- a boy/boyfriend — and someone, say, able with the first time/few times she dismissively and intentionally infantilizing cucks you is a really good idea. And adult female coworkers or political leadwhile he may not be better looking than ers. Just as I wouldn’t hear “girl’s night you or have a bigger dick, BETTER, out” and assume that meant underage he’s gotta be “better” than you are in drinking, I wouldn’t assume someone some other objective sense — better who said they were seeing a girl — or educated, makes better money, better dating a boy — was sleeping with a at eating pussy, etc. Surely there’s 12-year-old child. But that’s just me. something about him your girlfriend can throw in your face that tweaks your Send questions to mail@savagelove.net, insecurities (when she heads off to fuck follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage and him) and meets your need for reassurvisit ITMFA.org and savagelovecast.com.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Check us out on Facebook and Twitter for events, local news, and ticket giveaways. facebook.com/theboulderweekly twitter.com/boulderweekly instagram.com/boulderweekly

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work, but it’s crucial that you don’t get overly fussy and fastidious as you refine and perhaps even finish your project.

BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES

Call 720.253.4710 All credit cards accepted No text messages

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: On May 4, 2019, my Aries friend Leah

woke up in a state of amazement. During the night, she felt she had miraculously become completely enlightened. Over the next 16 hours, she understood her life perfectly. Everything made sense to her. She was in love with every person and animal she knew.

But by the next morning, the exalted serenity had faded, and she realized that her enlightenment had been temporary. She wasn’t mad or sad, however.

The experience shook her up so delightfully that she vowed to forevermore seek to recreate the condition she had enjoyed. Recently she told me that on virtually every day since May 4, 2019, she has spent at least a few minutes, and sometimes much longer, exulting in the same ecstatic peace that visited her back then. That’s the Aries way: turning a surprise, spontaneous blessing into a permanent breakthrough. I trust you will do that soon.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: One morning, famous French army

general Hubert Lyautey (1854–1934) instructed his gardener to spend the next day planting a row of saplings on his property. The gardener agreed, but advised Lyautey that this particular species of tree required 100 years to fully mature. “In that case,” Lyautey said, “plant them now.” I recommend that you, too, expedite your long-term plans, Taurus.

Astrologically speaking, the time is ripe for you to take crisp action to fulfill your big dreams.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Someone asked poet E. E. Cummings

what home was for him. He responded poetically, talking about his lover. Home was “the stars on the tip of your tongue, the flowers sprouting from your mouth, the roots entwined in the gaps between your fingers, the ocean echoing inside your ribcage.”

What about you, Gemini? If you were asked to give a description of what makes you feel glad to be alive and helps give you the strength to be yourself, what would you say? Now would be a good time to identify and honor the influences that inspire you to create your inner sense of home.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: “Be sweet to me, world,” pleads

Cancerian poet Stephen Dunn in one of his poems.

In the coming weeks, I invite you to address the world in a similar way. And since I expect the world will be unusually receptive and responsive to your requests, I’ll encourage you to add even more entreaties. For example, you could say, “Be revelatory and educational with me, world,” or “Help me deepen my sense that life is meaningful, world,” or “Feed my soul with experiences that will make me smarter and wilder and kinder, world.” Can you think of other appeals and supplications you’d like to express to the world?

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: Throughout his many rough travels

in the deserts of the Middle East, the Leo diplomat and army officer known as Lawrence of Arabia (1888–1935) didn’t give up his love of reading. While riding on the backs of camels, he managed to study numerous tomes, including the works of ancient Greek writers Aeschylus and Aristophanes. I’d love to see you perform comparable balancing acts in the coming weeks, Leo. The astrological omens suggest you’ll be skilled at coordinating seemingly uncoordinatable projects and tasks — and that you’ll thrive by doing so. (P.S.: Your efforts may be more metaphorical and less literal than Lawrence’s.)

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Sculptor Stefan Saal testifies that one

of his central questions as a creator of art is to know when a piece is done. “When making a thing I need to decide when is it thoroughly made, when is it darewe-say ‘perfected.’” He has tried to become a master of knowing where and when to stop. I recommend this practice to you in the next two weeks, Virgo. You’ve been doing good work, and will continue to do good

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LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: You’re entering the poten-

tially most playful and frisky and whimsical phase of your astrological cycle. To honor and encourage a full invocation of gleeful fun, I offer you the following thoughts from Tumblr blogger Sparkledog. “I am so tired of being told that I am too old for the things I like. No cartoons. No toys. No fantasy animals. No bright colors. Are adults supposed to live monotonous, bleak lives? I can be an adult and still love childish things. I can be intelligent and educated and informed and I can love stuffed animals and unicorns. Please stop making me feel bad for loving the things that make me happy.”

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: “Nature cannot be ordered about,

except by obeying her,” wrote philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626). That paradoxical observation could prove to be highly useful for you in the coming weeks. Here are some other variants on the theme: Surrendering will lead to power. Expressing vulnerability will generate strength. A willingness to transform yourself will transform the world around you. The more you’re willing to acknowledge that you have a lot to learn, the smarter you’ll be.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: In his book The Lover’s Dictionary,

David Levithan advises lovers and would-be lovers to tell each other their very best stories. “Not the day’s petty injustices,” he writes. “Not the glimmer of a seven-eighths-forgotten moment from your past.

Not something that somebody said to somebody, who then told it to you.” No, to foster the vibrant health of a love relationship — or any close alliance for that matter — you should consistently exchange your deepest, richest tales. This is always true, of course, but it’s especially true for you right now.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: On October 18, 1867, the United States

government completed its purchase of Alaska from Russia. How much did this 586,000-acre kingdom cost? Two cents per acre, which in today’s money would be about 37 cents. It was a tremendous bargain!

I propose that we regard this transaction as a metaphor for what’s possible for you in 2021: the addition of a valuable resource at a reasonable price. (P.S.: American public opinion about the Alaskan purchase was mostly favorable back then, but a few influential newspapers described it as foolish. Don’t let naysayers like them dissuade you from your smart action.)

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: “My business is circumference,” wrote

poet Emily Dickinson in a letter to her mentor. What did she mean by that? “Circumference” was an important word for her. It appeared in 17 of her poems. Critic Rochelle Cecil writes that for Dickinson, circumference referred to a sense of boundlessness radiating out from a center — a place where “one feels completely free, where one can express anything and everything.”

According to critic Donna M. Campbell, circumference was Dickinson’s metaphor for ecstasy. When she said, “My business is circumference,” she meant that her calling was to be eternally in quest of awe and sublimity. I propose that you make good use of Dickinson’s circumference in the coming weeks, Aquarius. It’s time to get your mind and heart and soul thoroughly expanded and elevated.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: Should I quote the wisdom of people

who have engaged in behavior I consider unethical or immoral? Should I draw inspiration from teachers who at some times in their lives treated others badly? For instance, Pisces-born Ted Geisel, better known as beloved author Dr. Seuss, cheated on his wife while she was sick, ultimately leading to her suicide. Should I therefore banish him from my memory and never mention the good he did in the world?

Or should I forgive him of his sins and continue to appreciate him? I don’t have a fixed set of rules about how to decide questions like these. How about you? The coming weeks will be a good time to redefine your relationship with complicated people.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

WE ARE BOULDER COUNTY!

America at a crossroads and Bob Dylan on tour

INDEPENDENT & LOCALLY OWNED SINCE 1993

‘Rolling Thunder Revue’ set crackles with electricity

by Michael J. Casey

I

n 1975, the U.S. was at a crossroads. The Vietnam War ON THE BILL: Available on Blu-ray/ was over, and Americans were more disillusioned than DVD from The ever. Big cities out east, like New York and Washington Criterion Collection, D.C., prepped for the Bicentennial, but Small Town, U.S.A., The new ‘Rolling Thunder Revue’ set seemed not to notice. Or care. “It’s like America lost its includes plenty of conviction for anything,” Bob Dylan says in Rolling Thunder extras.

Revue, directed by Martin Scorsese and now available from The Criterion Collection.

So Dylan hit the road, playing small venues and intimate halls with an all-star supporting cast: Joan Baez, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Bob Neuwirth, Mick Ronson, T Bone Burnett, Scarlet Rivera and dozens more join the Rolling Thunder Revue concert tour.

Joni Mitchell shows up, as does Ronnie Hawkins. Poet Allen Ginsberg tags along. It’s a scene, man, and documentarian David Myers captures it on 16mm while Rolling Stone scribe Larry “Ratso” Sloman jots the whole thing down.

Ginsberg also files poetry from the road for Stone, while Anne Waldman works on her own as the tour’s “poet-in-residence witness.”

Playwright Sam Shepard also bears witness with pen in hand while he and Dylan work on the screenplay for Renaldo and Clara between gigs.

Criterion collects these writings, and a new essay from Dana Spiotta, for its set. It fills in the gaps between the Rolling Thunder Revue tour then and the Rolling Thunder Revue concert docufiction now.

The bulk of Rolling Thunder comes from Myers’ concert footage, shot in 1975-76, and film from Renaldo and Clara. While constructing Rolling Thunder 40-plus years later, Scorsese and company discovered that Myers’ original negative was lost for good. That meant restoring the heavily damaged 16mm workprint, “To get the images back to what they could have looked like,” Scorsese says in a supplemental interview on the disc. The results are stunning and attractive. They have a dreamy, Edenic quality to them; fitting, considering the story as a whole.

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, Dylan took on a mystique even before he recorded his 1962 self-titled debut album. Rumors circled about his stage name, his origin and the source of his talent. Then he went electric, disappeared, came back with white paint smeared on his face, was born again, and so on. Dylan’s a man busy being born.

That line: “He who is not busy being born is busy dying,” comes from “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” from Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. The song was a favorite of President Jimmy Carter, who appears in archival footage in Rolling Thunder, along with Rep. Jack Tanner of Michigan. Except that Tanner isn’t a real person: He’s a character from Robert Altman’s satirical miniseries, Tanner ’88. Michael Murphy reprises his role for Rolling Thunder, and Scorsese gives no hint that chicanery is afoot. Ditto for Sharon Stone, who recounts a fabricated tale of being dragged to a Dylan show by her mother. The filmmakers even embed Stone into an archival photograph so convincingly, nothing about it tickles the bullshit antennae. Same for Murphy: Unless you’ve seen Tanner ’88, you wouldn’t suspect a thing.

It’s those slights of hand that transform Rolling Thunder Revue from a simple document into something revelatory. Both Dylan and Scorsese love a good story, and both share a suspicion that deception and misdirection might be the best way to get to the truth. “Life isn’t about finding yourself,” Dylan says in the movie, “It’s about creating yourself.”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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“The Boulder Mountainbike Alliance ran ads recently in the Boulder Weekly to promote our annual Membership Party and Colorado Gives Day. The campaign was a huge success and BMA raised $34,320 - all going towards improving Boulder County’s trail system! The Boulder Weekly ads led to additional awareness of BMA and played an important part in this extraordinary fundraising campaign. Thanks Boulder Weekly!”

Wendy Sweet President, Board of Directors Boulder Mountainbike Alliance

JANUARY 21, 2021

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BOULDER WEEKLY

BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF

Thai Salad @ Roadhouse Boulder Depot

ROADHOUSE BOULDER DEPOT. 2366 Junction Place, Boulder, 303-443-2167, roadhouseboulderdepot.com

The Roadhouse Boulder Depot is a good place.

Located in a 100-plus-yearold train station, the spacious dining room and patio make it suitable for spaced-out dining, and its menu of elevated pub grub — pizza, tacos, wings, bowls, burgers, salads and sandwiches — likely has something for everyone. Dishes have been well-executed every time we’ve stopped in or ordered out, and portions are ample.

Such was the case with the Depot’s Thai Salad. Mixed greens are loaded with avocado, mango, peanuts, cabbage, bell pepper, mandarin oranges and wonton strips. Double the peanut flavor with peanut sauce (on the side) and douse with a vibrant wasabi vinaigrette for a satisfying salad. If you want more protein, you can add chicken, steak, seared Ahi tuna, shrimp or tofu.

2

1 Super Bowl Sunday meals from Big Red F IT’S THE MOST wonderful time of the year for football fans... and, for others, that one time you can’t avoid hearing about football.

Whether you care about who wins or not, maybe we all can agree it’s a good day for eating. You may not be hosting or attending a big Super Bowl party on Feb. 7, but you can load up for an at-home party with Big Red F this year. Centro Mexican Kitchen and Local Gringo are offering nachos (chips, ranch beans, queso, pico de gallo, pickled onions, cotija cheese and crema) for at-home assembly. You can also pick up enchilada trays and at-home taco bars. Order at toasttab.com/centro-boulder/ v3. Meanwhile, West End Tavern’s got barbecue meals with brisket, ribs, pulled pork, chicken, hot links and sides, as well as chicken wing buckets or a half-rack of ribs offering. Order at toasttab.com/west-end-tavern/v3.

BOULDER WEEKLY

Try this week:

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Flatirons Food Film Fest adds to schedule THE NOW-VIRTUAL, eight-day Flatirons Food Film Festival returns Jan. 28 to Feb. 5, with 10 foodcentric films, three shortfilm programs, opportunities for discussions and, of course, eating. Recently, organizers added some new speakers, including: Noma co-founder Claus Meyer; pasta aficionado Evan Funke and Joe Beef’s Fred Morin. There’s also free and pay-whatyou-can events like “puppet-making for everyone,” trivia and a discussion on local restaurants and the pandemic. Boulder County Farmers Markets has also curated a Festival snack box ($29.99) that includes Monroe Organic Farm popcorn, On Tap Kitchen’s honey mustard pretzels and more goodies from local producers. Find all the info at flatironsfoodfilmfest.org.

JANUARY 21, 2021

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JANUARY 21, 2021

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Locally made classic cocktails to enjoy at home

by Matt Cortina

T

here’s nothing like a well-made cocktail constructed by a capable, creative mixologist. Over the last year, we’ve had limited access to these local, behind-the-bar craftspeople, but it won’t be long before we’ve all got vaccines, we’re sipping drinks outdoors, and we’re perusing cocktail menus littered with Trump and COVID puns.

Until then, you might want to dip your toes into the cocktail world with some local offerings: one made on-site and available for takeaway, one canned and available at liquor stores, and one you can make at home with the help of a local producer.

syrup provides the perfect level of the cocktail’s characteristic sweetness. It’s gluten-reduced, and at 10% ABV, you’ll be feeling alright after the two servings that come in each can.

THE BUSHWACKER AT MOE’S ORIGINAL BBQ

COCKTAIL SQUAD’S NITRO WHISKEY SOUR

Launched by a group of Boulderites, including Master Sommelier Brett Zimmerman (of the fantastic Boulder Wine Merchant wine, spirits and beer shop), Cocktail Squad makes an elevated canned cocktail. Not saccharine, and with no weird aftertaste (as you find in others), the Squad’s cocktails have gained national esteem, and you should grab a can of your favorite classic mixed drink if you haven’t yet.

Like the Nitro Whiskey Sour. It’s made with bourbon, pressed lemon and orange juice, and gomme syrup. What’s gomme syrup, you ask? It’s a natural alternative to simple syrup, made with gum arabic, a natural resin from the acacia tree.

The vanilla and chocolate notes of the whiskey, combined with the nitrogen, make for a smooth sip, but the powerful kick of citrus juices pique the palate, and the gomme

2021 Craft Malt Conference coming soon

If life’s got you down, a cocktail with rum, coffee liqueur, ice cream and chocolate syrup might lift your spirits.

Boulder’s outpost of Moe’s Original BBQ has just that drink, the Bushwacker, a Gulf Coast export that makes for a fine dessert after, say, polishing off a few of the barbecue chain’s ribs.

Served to-go, it’s easy to indulge the guiltiness of this pleasure at home. It’s like a milkshake with a kick.

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f you’re a professional brewer, home brewer or just a beer fan wanting to take your beer knowledge to the next level, check out the virtual 2021 Craft Malt Conference, Feb. 10-12.

This unique online gathering features workshops and seminars on topics relevant to the craft malting industry. There’s also opportunities to take virtual malt-house tours and attend the virtual trade show.

Keynote speaker Ken Grossman is the founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., which is a pretty good draw in and of itself.

For further details and registration information, visit craftmalting.com.

BARISTA SPIRITS’ IRISH COFFEE

If you want more coffee in your cocktail, grab a bottle of Denver’s Barista Spirit’s Americano Whiskey and make an elevated Irish Coffee at home. Make it on Jan. 25, why don’t you, National Irish Coffee Day. Start with a cup of dark brown sugar and a cup of water, and boil in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat until the brown sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Next, make some brown sugar whipped cream — whisk (in a mixer or by hand) a cup of whipping cream with 1/4 cup of the cooled brown sugar syrup until it forms stiff peaks. Then, combine 3 ounces of brewed coffee, 2 oz of Barista’s Americano Whiskey and a 1/2 ounce of the brown sugar syrup in a glass and top with the whipped cream.

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JANUARY 21, 2021

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BOULDER WEEKLY

What local farmers do during the winter, and what you can expect when markets reopen

by Matt Cortina

W

hile other segments of the local food industry suffered immensely from the pandemic in the last year, farmers, by and large, made out OK. That success wasn’t without hand-wringing though; farmers had to shift business models, create CSA programs out of the blue, construct pop-up farm stands and navigate rapidly changing consumer habits.

Perhaps no farm-related entity pivoted as much as the Boulder County Farmers Markets (BCFM), which launched curbside pickup, reduced in-person attendance capacity, curtailed some markets and launched a first-time winter program to keep the community engaged with local food producers.

Now that harvest is well over — though you can still get greenhouse greens, radishes, squashes and more from local producers via BCFM — farmers are taking a deep breath (quickly) and planning for a new season with a still-uncertain market.

Brian Coppom, BCFM executive director, says farmers are spending this month browsing seed catalogs, planning grow areas and thinking about any changes in consumer habits brought on by the pandemic.

It’d be a stretch to say farming is pandemicproof, but Coppom says things look mostly the same for farmers this January.

“I think for the farmers this winter looks a lot like it has in winters past,” he says. “They’re [asking] what are we going to plant this year, is there something that’ll give us a competitive advantage?

Is there something we want more of?”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Coppom says most farmers in the local agriculture scene diversify crops, which means, for instance, if they plant carrots on a parcel of land one year, they might plant beans in that spot the next year, which improves the soil.

Farmers are also diving into seed catalogs and working with suppliers to find reliable seeds for this climate — a success rate of about 95% is what farmers are looking for. Thus, they tend to rely on sources that have worked for them in the past, like MASA Seed Foundation, a Boulder-based nonprofit that develops seeds that do well in Colorado’s climate.

In addition to MASA, farmers in Boulder County reach for the Johnny’s Selected Seeds and High Mowing Organic Seeds catalogs. You, as a home gardener, can order from all these sources as well.

Coppom says there’s a growing movement toward seed sharing between local farms, but what makes it difficult is, first, ensuring the seeds are viable for a farmers’ plot of land, and second, it takes a lot of crop for a farm to be able to save seed for itself, let alone sell to others.

Competition may factor into it too — though local producers, by and large, support one another, farmers can be protective of certain crops if they pick the right variety and it’s a hit at the market.

“At the market it could be more difficult to differentiate yourself than at your farm stand or CSA because you’re going to be surrounded by other farmers with the same product,” Coppom says. “With that, there are varieties that some growers have that they hold pretty close to the I

vest. Sometimes growers see other varieties doing well and they start growing them.”

Planning for the upcoming market season is a bit like hitting a moving target. Coppom says BCFM plans to open on-time in April, but farmers have to consider consumer habits, restaurant capacity and a host of other factors when deciding how they’re going to sell their products this year.

“I imagine for most farmers right now, they’re still planning on having low restaurant sales at the beginning of the year. Most likely we won’t see restaurant business return until mid-2021,” he says. “I think a number of farms are expanding their CSAs, so they’re going to see if they can’t release CSA applications earlier. A number of them are still going on with farm stands. They’re going to think about, what do their distribution channels look like next year? How much do they put on their CSA? How much do they bring to their farm stands? How are they going to reengage with restaurants?”

Ultimately, Coppom is hopeful for 2021. BCFM is currently reviewing applicants for the markets, both growers and packaged food producers.

BCFM survived with reduced revenue this year, and Coppom is excited to reopen, under COVID restrictions, and reconnect the community to local food producers.

“We have a handful of new growers who have applied to the market, which is always exciting because we love to see the grower population increasing in Boulder County,” he says. “New bakeries and other businesses are applying. We’re excited for a new year.”

JANUARY 21, 2021

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29

Feeling your pain

pharmacists trying to prescribe painkillers to patients with ongoing, persistent pain.

“Interestingly, there’s also been studies where, before a surgery they’ll give half the subjects morphine and then the other half won’t get anything,” says St. Pierre. Following the surgery, doctors monitored how much pain medication the two groups were requesting — and the group who got morphine prior to the surgery, actually demanded more pain medication than the control group, St. Pierre says.

“So the researchers deduced that they had created this increased-sensitivity-to-pain state in the body in an acute time frame,” she says.

Long-term cannabis use, unlike opioids, doesn’t effect patients’ pain tolerance, new research suggests

by Will Brendza

M

ichelle St. Pierre had just had dental surgery, and she was curious how cannabis would work as an alternative to opioid painkillers.

As a Ph.D. candidate studying clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, St. Pierre was familiar with cannabis’ painalleviating qualities. After all, her area of focus is mental health and pain, and the lab she works in regularly experiments with cannabis, psychedelics and human behavior.

However, when St. Pierre used cannabis after her surgery, when she was experiencing acute pain in her gums, she felt like her pain actually intensified. She could feel the blood rushing through her body, and pulsating in her jaw, and couldn’t focus on anything except her mouth ache.

“I was wondering what’s going on? Is this just all in my head? Is there research on this?” St. Pierre recalls. So, like any good scientist she hit the books. “I went through the literature and sure enough I found that in experimental settings, in a laboratory when people got high, it shows that there’s this increase in pain sensitivity.”

St. Pierre had heard of a similar side effect of long-term opioid usage, known as hyperalgesia.

Between her own personal experience and the literature, she had a suspicion there might be a similar effect with long-term cannabis use.

So, she designed a laboratory test to see whether or not long-term cannabis use affected one’s sensitivity to pain. And St. Pierre did not find what she expected.

“Opioid-induced hyperalgesia is actually a really fascinating phenomenon,” she says. Some patients using opioids long-term to manage chronic pain actually increase their sensitivity to acute pain in the process.

This presents a challenging problem for doctors and

30

I

Which sounds paradoxical, but could explain the loss of opioid efficacy in some patients, according to a study published in Pain Physician.

But does this same phenomenon occur in long-term cannabis patients?

To answer that question, St. Pierre designed an experiment to test pain tolerance in long-term cannabis users and people who had never used cannabis at all. In order to ensure accuracy, the cannabis users involved in

JANUARY 21, 2021

I

the study had to use cannabis at least three times a week, but couldn’t be high at the time of the test.

Otherwise their high might skew the results, according to St. Pierre.

Then, both groups had to feel the pain.

“Inducing pain in the lab is actually really difficult because a lot of what makes pain so unbearable is that we can’t control it: it’s unexpected; it might even scare us a little bit,” St. Pierre explains. “And when we induce pain in the lab, we sort of eliminate that whole component. So, we do the best that we can to try and have stimuli that still activate the pain sensors inside the body in the same ways that would occur in nature.”

They achieved that with a “cold pressor bath” — what St. Pierre called a “glorified ice bucket.”

Subjects were asked to submerge their hand and forearm in the cold pressor for as long as they could manage and they were tested on three different aspects of pain: Sensitivity, measured by when subjects first experienced pain; tolerance, measured by how long they could withstand it; and intensity, measured by asking them afterwards how bad the pain was on a scale of 1-10.

St. Pierre expected to see what would have been called “cannabis-induced hyperalgesia.”

However, her results didn’t support that.

“We found that there was no difference in pain tolerance when we compared [regular, long-term cannabis users] to people who hadn’t used cannabis ever,” she says, clearly excited. “When you’re comparing negative side effects of opioids to those of cannabis, here cannabis is again coming out on top.”

That opens the doors for a lot of other research. It begs questions like, psychologically, what is the difference between chronic pain and acute pain?

Why do cannabis and opioids only seem to treat chronic pain? And what about THC makes it such a reliable and generally safe painkiller?

“From a scientific perspective this is really exciting,” St. Pierre says. “It really opens up a bunch of new questions in the pain research world and in the cannabis research world.”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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