Boulder Weekly 11.10.2022

Blue Agave

Blue Agave History.

Northern Colorado’s most highly recommended dining attraction.

Blue Agave is familyowned and operated, bringing collectively over five decades of experience in the restaurant business, offering recipes that go back generations

ST. VRAIN HABITAT RESTORE

Life in moments that matter – it’s more than just a lamp; it’s illuminating the pages of your favorite novel. It’s more than just a dining table; it’s a place to share meals with loved ones. It’s more than just a hammer; it’s creating hope for your family. When you shop at ReStore, you are not just buying products; you are building a better future.

St. Vrain Habitat ReStore sells low-cost home improvement goods to the public – appliances, building sup plies, furniture, home goods and décor, plumbing, tools, and hardware, and much more! Proceeds support affordable hom eownership opportunities in our local community for hard working families. Shop Tuesdays for our special discount days for seniors, veterans and active military, teachers, and first responders. Great items. Great prices. Great cause. ReStore – life in moments that matter.

cantina lunada

It was a dream, people laughed, they said oh no that’s not enough money even to get a rough blueprint. In 2013 we proved them wrong and opened our restaurant. Since the beginning we are committed to cooking with fresh ingredients, from our house made tortillas to our slow braised pork.

Making salsas, beans, rice, soups and stews is an every day event. We are committed to using local ingredients and as sustainable as possible.

Fresh lime juice Margaritas, and specialty tacos are what sets us apart. We love to support the community and the people in it.

We hope to be a big part of the Longmont community as

that derive specifically from Jalisco, Mexico, and the Pacific coast.

Check out our Happy Hour, MonFriday 10a-5pm.

2030 Ken Pratt Blvd. Longmont 303-776-1747

www.blueagaverestaurant.net

St. Vrain Habitat ReStore

1351 Sherman Drive, Longmont 303-776-3334

www.stvrainhabitat.org/restore

we grow and evolve. Happy Hour 4-6 Monday thru Friday.

1225 Ken Pratt Blvd, Longmont 720-612-7315 www.lunadaeatery.com

Publisher, Fran Zankowski

Circulation Manager, Cal Winn

EDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief, Caitlin Rockett

Arts & Culture Editor, Jezy J. Gray

General Assignment Reporter, Will Matuska Food Editor, John Lehndorff

Intern, Chad Robert Peterson

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

SALES AND MARKETING

Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson

Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Carter Ferryman, Chris Allred

Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar

PRODUCTION

Art Director, Susan France

Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman

CIRCULATION TEAM

Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE

Bookkeeper, Emily Weinberg

Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo

Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer

Nov. 10, 2022

Volume XXX, number 13

As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminat ing 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 que ries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper.

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Bernie and Biden vs. Trumpists in Brazil

by Dave Anderson

Iam writing this a few days before the election and feel ing anxious. is may sound strange, but a look at the recent election in Brazil may be illuminating.

Boulder Weekly

welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@boul derweekly.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 verifcation. 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.

On Oct. 30, leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (known as Lula) became president of Brazil in a close election with far right President Jair Bolsonaro. e U.S. Trump team immediately cried foul. Steve Bannon insisted that the vote was rigged and that Bolson aro “cannot concede.”

Ali Alexander, who helped to organize the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, used the #Stop eSteal hashtag while tweeting, “In Brazil, the MILITARY has the right to insert itself into an election where there is suspected

FRAUD. We must have an AUDIT NOW!”

What’s going on? A four-month investigation by Agência Pública, an independent Brazilian journalism agency, found that dozens of Trump allies have established relationships with the Bolsonaro family, and supporters of both Trump and Bolsonaro use the same narratives, tactics and platforms to spread disinformation and lies.

Bolsonaro supported Trump’s lies of widespread election fraud in 2020 and refused to criticize the Jan. 6 insurrection. Trump enthusiastically backed Bolsonaro’s re-election bid. Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s third son and a member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, has formed close ties to U.S. rightwingers. Bannon has

proclaimed Eduardo to be the Latin American leader of his worldwide network of far right parties and groups. Agência Pública has counted 77 visits and meetings between Edu ardo and key Trump supporters in the past ve years. He traveled to the U.S. frequently, and in uential American rightwingers traveled to Brazil.

Eduardo Bolsonaro was in Wash ington at the time of the insurrection and there are mysteries surrounding his “surprise visit,” as Brazilian paper O Globo described it. Neither the Brazilian embassy in the U.S. nor the foreign ministry were aware of the visit.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), a member of the House commit tee investigating Jan. 6, told Agência Pública that the commit tee is “investi gating the ties between the Trump regime and the Trump movement with [Vladimir] Putin and [Hungarian president Viktor] Orban and Bolsonaro.” ey are interested in Eduardo’s presence in Washington on the day.

Now, regarding Putin. Shortly be fore Russia invaded Ukraine, Bolson aro traveled to Moscow for the rst time. He thanked his “dear friend” Putin for supporting him in his de struction of the Amazon while other world leaders were criticizing him.

Bolsanaro mimicked Trump in many ways. For years, he made wild conspiratorial accusations against Brazil’s electoral system.

In a quiet diplomatic surge, Joe Biden deployed top administration o cials from the White House, Defense Department, State Depart ment, and even the CIA to warn the Bolsonaro administration against subverting the election.

In July 2021, Biden’s pick for CIA director, William Burns, traveled to Brazil and confronted Bolsonaro faceto-face, along with his top sta , and told them to quit bullshitting. Reuters reported: “Burns was making it clear

that elections were not an issue that they should mess with.” is is more than ironic.

Burns is the rst CIA director who was a career diplomat. He had decades of experience in the State Department. It should be noted that the State Department has for years considered Brazil’s electronic voting system “a model for the (Western) hemisphere countries and the world.”

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, is a big admirer of Brazil’s brutal mili tary dictatorship (1964-1985), though he has said the regime should have tortured and killed more people.

e U.S. backed the 1964 coup that installed the dictatorship and helped keep it in power.

In Septem ber, Sen. Bernie Sanders pushed a resolution urging the Biden administration to “review and reconsider the relationship be tween the United States and any government that comes to power in Brazil through undemocratic means, including a military coup,” and to cut o U.S. military aid to the country in the case of such an outcome. It was co-sponsored by several key Demo cratic senators. ere was a compan ion resolution in the House.

It passed, but there were no Re publicans supporting it.

Lula has been immensely popular because his social welfare programs lifted millions out of poverty during his presidency from 2003 to 2010. He drastically reduced deforestation in the Amazon. He now promises “zero defor estation.” Under Bolsonaro, deforesta tion rose to a 12-year high. Bolsonaro denied this and red the head of the agency that issued the report.

Lula has an impressive progressive agenda but is facing big obstacles such as a legislature dominated by the rightwing. is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.

Correction: In Best of Boulder East County (Oct. 27, 2022), we incorrectly labeled Native Roots as the winner of the CBD category in the body of the write-up. e winner was Star Buds.

Editor’s note: Several readers have called in to ask why Boulder Weekly hasn’t been running John Lehndor ’s Nibbles column. John has been o the food beat for the last few weeks as he re covers from major back surgery. But fear not, Nibbles fans: John plans to return to his column when he’s fully recovered. John, rest easy and get well — we miss you!

IN MEMORY OF ANDY CLARK

“Music is life!” Andy proclaimed as we were still riding the high of singing along to Trace Bundy’s rendition of “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” I’d handed my guitar to Trace a few minutes before and sat back in awe of the evening I’d seemingly stumbled into. Andy invited me to stay for a jam after pizza night. It was the rst but not the last time I’d see Andy cry tears of joy.

We met a month or so earlier when he dared to support a small business a partner and I had started in Boulder. I’d joked that it would only take 1,000 Moxies and we would have a business. Andy laughed, wished me luck, and told me how it had taken his whole life to build just one. I didn’t understand it at that moment,

but Moxie is special.

It didn’t take long to understand why. On any given day when I’d visit [Moxie Bread Co.], I’d be introduced to a chocolate maker, a musician, a farmer. What they lacked in shared trade they shared in character. Moxie was a place for makers, doers, and most importantly community. When Moxie would come up in conversation with potential landlords, out on a date, or with new friends, the reac tion was always the same: ‘You know Andy?!’ It was a stamp of approval that opened doors and made settling into Boulder a pleasure.

After an afternoon of loading equipment for a farm dinner, I pulled a couple beers out of the fridge. Andy and I talked about life, where it had started, where it was going. We talked about Colorado Grain Chain, pizza nights at the Merc, the logistics of opening up a nonpro t grain mill. I asked which of these Andy was most proud of and without skipping a beat his answer was, “None of them; this winter I skied the waterfalls of Wolf Creek with my son.”

I can’t think of a more Andy mo ment. He was an inspiration as an art ist, as a friend and a father. He cared about craft, community and music.

e man lived for music, but most of all he lived for others. His love was abundant, boundless and I will carry it with me for the rest of my life.

Alex Osborne/Boulder

Coercing the clouds

vember 1922 Colorado River Com pact signing — a de ning moment in Colorado River Management.

e agreement allocated 7.5 million acre feet of the river to both of the newly established Up per (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming) and Lower (California, Arizona, Nevada) basins.

Today, scientists recommend water managers plan for the river to provide just 9 million acre feet annually — half of the assumed 18 million acre feet the Colorado Compact allocated.

Colorado is turning to cloud seeding to beef up snowpack and meet growing water needs, including a new pilot project here in Boulder County.

e project, spearheaded by the St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conservancy District, will launch this winter west of Longmont along the St. Vrain Creek, pending state approval of a permit.

Cloud seeding sprays tiny crystals of silver iodide into a storm cloud, increasing the cloud’s ability to produce precipitation by introducing more particles that provide a base for snow akes to form.

“Weather modi cation isn’t like a silver bul let that’s going to solve everything,” says Andrew Rickert, a weather modi cation program man ager at the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB). “But we strongly believe it’s one of the tools in a toolbox that we can use to help our state.”

e state’s weather modi cation program began operation in 1972, when Vail Resorts received the rst cloud-seeding permit. Each permitted program since has been west of the Continental Divide. If approved, the permit for the Boulder County cloud-seeding project will be the rst conducted east of the Continental Divide in the state.

e Water District pursued the permit to ad dress community concerns over water supply.

“We really felt like the timing, the cost and the opportunities were really well aligned,” says Sean Cronin, executive director at the District. “[We] decided that it would be good to demonstrate some leadership and be a pilot for weather modi cation on this side of the hill.”

Of the eight cloud-seeding projects in Colora do, seven use ground-based generators to oat silver iodide into clouds, while one project uses planes to seed clouds aerially. e Boulder County project’s two generators will be ground-based.

e expansion of these programs into the Front Range comes on the 100-year anniversary of the No

Mitigating the spiraling reduction of ow in the Colo rado River is one reason cloud seeding programs exist. Rickert says cloud seeding can result in 8-12% of snow water equivalent, a measurement that shows exactly how much water is actually in the snowpack.

“So if a storm is going to come through and drop 10 inches and we seed that storm, we can get an extra inch (of precipitation) out of the storm,” he says.

But, those numbers are not a given — they de pend on the amount of “seedible” storms that pass over a seeding generator, which can vary.

Cloud seeding generators need a few speci c characteristics for optimal success, including storms between 5 and 23 degrees Fahrenheit and wind above 5 knots (depending on how far the gener ator is from the target area). Stations also rely on directional wind getting pushed up the side of a mountain, known as an orographic lift, to thrust the silver iodide into the cloud base.

Rickert says the most important factor is al ready in the clouds.

“ e main thing you need in a storm is su percooled liquid water,” he says, so the ice-crys tal-mimicking silver iodide has something to “bind” with. Silver iodide can also produce snow akes at warmer temperatures, meaning more portions of storm clouds can produce snow.

Rickert guesses CWCB will see somewhere between 24 and 35 suitable storms throughout the season, which lasts from Nov. 1 to April 15.

Once CWCB spots a suitable storm coming toward a generator, a propane ame ignites and vaporizes the silver iodide solution, sending it up into the clouds.

“We are just kind of nudging that cloud to actually make some of that precipitation fall out as snowpack,” Rickert says.

e St. Vrain and Left Hand Water Conser vancy District’s pilot program will have two remote generators located at the base of the foothills to

UP IN THE SKY: Cloud-seed ing remote generators, one used by North American Weather Consultants (top) and one by the Desert Re search Institute in the San Juan Mountains Program (bottom)

target upslope conditions from storms from the east. e remote generators will be controlled by North American Weather Consul tants, a weather forecast service in Salt Lake City.

Scott Griebling, water resource engineer at the Water District, says the program costs roughly $140,000. e CWCB is funding equipment costs (about $90,000), and the District is covering opera tional costs (about $50,000).

e District’s project started with public sup port. In 2020, the District asked voters to support a tax increase to implement the plan. Cronin says voters approved at nearly 70%.

“ ere’s agreement that more water can do good for the valley,” he says.

Despite widespread support, some community members were concerned if cloud seeding in their area would take water from other places down wind.

Rickert says the “robbing Peter to pay Paul argument” is one of the most common concerns he hears across the state, but it’s a misconception.

“ ere have been so many studies conduct ed that have shown not only is that false, but if anything, cloud seeding can increase precipitation downwind,” he says.

Rickert also says the technique doesn’t have adverse environmental consequences. Silver iodide is found naturally in the environment, and is not known to be harmful to humans or wildlife.

e District will use its permit as a test phase to see if it is worth additional investments.

“We’re just excited about this possibility and really looking forward to getting a season’s worth of operations completed so we can evaluate how to move forward,” says Griebling.

Sources interviewed for this story are con dent the project permit will be approved in the coming weeks. Once the District has the permit from the state, it plans on installing generators by the end of November.

“Once the equipment’s installed,” says Cronin, “we begin the snow dance and root for the storms we can successfully seed.”

As drought worsens and snowpack dwindles, cloud seeding expands east of the Continental Divide for the first time in Colorado by Will Matuska

COURTESY NAWC

ADAM RICKERT

“I

dream about bread,” Andy Clark, owner of Moxie Bread Co., told Boulder Weekly food editor John Lehndor in 2016 when the bakery was just a year old.

Clark’s dreams grew as the bakery expanded from its original Louisville location into North Boulder and then Lyons. His European-style treats netted him two James Beard Award nominations and a spot on foodan dwine.com’s list of the best bread in Colorado.

But this week, friends, family and the culinary community mourn Clark’s death on Nov. 8. He was 46.

“He was always smiling, always bringing people together — always,” says Lehndor , who bonded with Clark as a fellow “bakery enthusiast” and lover of bluegrass music.

“From the very start, he was somebody who was intent on doing it the right way — real serious sourdough. And that grew to include sourcing grain from local farmers and then expanded to resurrecting heir loom grain varieties. He knew every farmer in town.”

Moxie was a founding member of the Colorado Grain Chain, a collection of businesses and organi zations that promote, produce and support the use of heritage, ancient and locally adapted grain products.

In a blog on Moxie’s webpage, Clark spoke with reverence about tradi tional methods of farming, and its ability to transform our planet, bod ies and minds. He found like minded community at the Colorado Grain School, writing, “ e friendships that I have made there over the years have forged some of the strongest bonds I’ve made in recent times with folks from near and far who have a common interest in healing the planet, nurturing the soil, baking for biodiversity and avor and nutrition and a whole lot more.”

Elizabeth Ryterski, who lives next to Clark, his wife and three children in Louisville, says “community” is the word to describe Clark.

“He was just such a leader in the Louisville community and through COVID,” Ryterski says. “He was feed ing teachers through the pandemic. He just does everything.”

From bake sales for racial justice to hosting relief events for families a ected by the Marshall Fire and volunteering at clothing giveaways for those in need, Clark really seemed to do everything, to know everyone.

Alex Osborne, a local adventurer and entrepreneur, often hung with Clark at Moxie’s infamous Friday night pizza party jam sessions, where musicians — including Clark on guitar — would play folk and bluegrass into the wee hours of the night.

“On any given day when I’d visit [Moxie], I’d be introduced to a chocolate maker, a musician, a farmer,” Osborne wrote in an email. “Moxie was a place for makers, doers, and most importantly community. When Moxie would come up in conversation with potential landlords, out on a date, or with new friends, the reaction was always the same: ‘You know Andy?!’ It was a stamp of approval that opened doors and made settling into Boulder a pleasure.”

Clark felt the love radiate back from the community, expressing his appreciation in his very rst Moxie blog post from Jan. 1, 2021:

“Our customers have shown up once again to support us like a barn raising. I can feel every hand that holds these walls of Moxie, pushing them up and raising us up. I am deeply and profoundly appreciative. We will con tinue to serve up good food with great customer service for the community through high seas and choppy waters until we glide out from under this storm.” —Caitlin Rockett

SUSAN FRANCE

The air is thin at the 13,000-foot base of the Dunn-Westbay Direct route, a 5.14b grade climb on Longs Peak, Colorado’s northern most 14,000-foot peak. e weather moves at a sprint. Former Boulder and current Pa onia resident Madaleine Sorkin starts the day early on Aug. 10, 2022, cruising up the heinous hike to Chasm Lake to continue her project on the crown jewel of Colorado alpine climbing.

Each summer, the east face of Longs Peak, referred to as e Diamond, invites eager climbers from around the country to test themselves on the sheer vertical face which dominates the Estes Park skyline. is past summer, Sorkin became the fth person and rst woman to free climb the Dunn-Westbay Direct.

It’s only the most recent achievement in Sorkin’s storied climbing career — full of rst or early free ascents on remote rock walls — which she’ll discuss at the Chautauqua Explorer’s Series on Nov. 15.

“I don’t just climb and travel in my van all the time anymore — it’s just not as ful lling,” she explains. “I think as I’ve gotten older, choosing a bigger goal that I could really sink my teeth into has gotten more appealing.”

Her success on Longs Peak is especially notable due to the many factors that make the Dunn-West bay unique: Its four pitches are a rope-stretching 80 meters each, and its position at 13,000 feet atop e Diamond makes it the most challenging high-altitude free climb in the world.

e Diamond has been a proving ground for climbers like Sorkin since 1960. From ground breaking rst ascents from climbers Layton Kor and Billy Westbay to modern-day free climbers such as Tommy Caldwell, e Diamond invites those who are eager for the challenge. Sorkin is no stranger to the challenges presented by Rocky Mountain National Park as she worked in the park at Colorado Mountain School as a climbing guide, taking clients to various areas including the Petit Grepon and the Cables Route on Longs Peak.

In 2021, Sorkin trudged up to e Dia mond three times to work on the historically di cult line.

Sorkin decided that the Dunn-Westbay line would be a realistic goal for 2022 — she wanted to “have a love a air” with the project, as she explains

it — and used the pre ced ing year as prepara tion.

Sorkin’s lofty goals have led to a string of successes across the Western Rockies on some of the most formidable terrain around.

Over the past year, Sorkin enjoyed a spell of exceptional form, having repeated e Free Hallucinogen Wall in a day, graded 5.13 in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, while also free climbing Yellow Wolf, a 1,000-foot 5.13d in Northwest Wyoming. Over the summer of 2016, Sorkin completed e Honeymoon is Over, a 5.13c also on e Diamond, making her the fth individual and rst woman to free-climb the line Tommy Caldwell rst free-climbed in 2001. e winter before repeating e Free Hallucinogen Wall, Sorkin spent time replacing anchor bolts on the historic line.

JAMES LUCAS

“If I look comparative ly, I don’t think I’m the climb er having the most fun out there,” she admits. “I think I can take myself way too seriously, but I do think [fun is] way more available to me than it used to be.”

OFF THE WALL:

Madeleine Sorkin will speak at the Chautau qua Explorer Series at Chautauqua Communi ty House, 301 Morning Glory Drive, Boulder, on Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available to purchase online at chautauqua.com.

Despite consistent di culties with weather, Sorkin says her process going into the Dunn-West bay was signi cantly more enjoyable than when she freed e Honeymoon is Over in 2016.

“I felt like I could have done better in terms of being healthy and really appreciating the time up there (on e Honeymoon is Over) versus being too anxious and hyper-focused on doing the route.”

In a 2015 interview on the Enormacast podcast with Chris Kalous, Sorkin said she wanted to move toward nding more enjoyment in climbing.

“At some point I want to be the climber having the most fun out there and it’s still something I grasp for,” she explained to Kalous.

Over the past six years, Sorkin has noticed a change in her mentality and has started to take more enjoyment from the process of projecting enormous objectives.

While Sorkin has found an avenue for more fun in climbing, she still understands the weight that can be carried in day to day adventures. In 2018, with the loss of several high-pro le gures in the climbing community, Sorkin and the American Alpine Club teamed up to form the Climbers Grief Fund to help connect individuals to mental health professionals and push forward conversations around grief and trauma in climbing, alpinism and ski mountaineering.

“ is was motivated by a metamorphosis I was going through as a climber, and not knowing what to do with the weight of a lot of loss in my community,” she explains. “I’ve seen a lot of other climbers who had been carrying around weight and loss, and there not being nearly enough resources or shared space for grief.”

Sorkin now lives in Paonia with her wife, lmmaker Henna Taylor. As far as her next goal in climbing, Sorkin talks with reservation about potential objectives in areas such as Yosemite or Red Rocks (Nevada), but two and a half months after Dunn-Westbay she’s focusing on life outside of climbing.

“ ere are these times in my life where I think it’s important to kind of sit back and be a little more re ective on our nothingness after having a very ful lling e ort.”

A long way up

After becoming the first woman to free climb the Dunn-Westbay Direct, Madaleine Sorkin is focused on having more fun and taking time to reflect

by Chad Robert Peterson

Death is for the birds

Boulder cartoonist Will Betke-Brunswick tells a devastating, heartfelt tale of grief (with penguins) in new graphic memoir

by Bart Schaneman

When people talk about losing a loved one, some like to say the grief doesn’t get smaller over time, you just grow bigger around it.

For cartoonist Will Betke-Brunswick, who lost their mother to cancer 13 years ago, that sentiment doesn’t quite ring true.

“It’s never happened for me,” the Boulder-based artist says. “I still feel like my grief is big and I’m small.”

Betke-Brunswick transformed that big grief into a moving and poignant graphic memoir titled A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings, due to be published by Tin House on Nov. 15.

The story follows the main character, a penguin named Dooger — the author’s real-life nickname — as they grapple with their mother’s terminal cancer diagnosis and the last 10 months of her life.

In scene after scene, Dooger and their mom (a fellow penguin called Mumin) share moments both hilarious and heart breaking. The story is told with a delicate touch that’s as much a tribute to a child’s love for their mother as a primer on how families cope with tragedy.

For instance, take this devastating line of dialogue from Dooger: “She doesn’t want to talk about death, and my dad thinks talking about it will help us ‘prepare’ and Marci thinks my mom is taking care of all of us as she’s dying.”

who received their Master of Fine Arts from California College of Arts, says the decision to explore such painful themes through cartoonish bird characters arose out of a need to separate themself from the

subject material. It helped them access those diffcult emotions in a creative, cathartic way.

“It was just too emotionally diffcult to draw my mom dead,” Betke-Brunswick says. “I was like, ‘I can draw a horizontal pen guin.’ Once I had drawn her as a penguin, I got attached to all of us as penguin characters.”

Healing through cartooning

But death isn’t the only big subject broached by this feath ered family. Dooger also comes out as genderqueer in the book. They explain to their dad by reading from Wikipedia, but his response falls short of validation.

“I had patients who regretted their sex change operations,” Dooger’s father responds.

Dooger reacts indignantly: “Were you even listening?”

Betke-Brunswick can laugh about that ex change now, but his father’s response was painful at the time. “That was not OK to say,” they explain. “That is not an appropriate response when coming out as genderqueer.”

This intimate exploration of gender identity is another area where drawing the characters as birds helped free up Betke-Brunswick creatively.

“Drawing myself as a penguin — people don’t see a penguin and immediately think boy or girl,” they say. “And you don’t have to spend time and energy fguring that out. I can just exist as a character.”

In order to tap into this self-styled character, Bet ke-Brunswick, who works at the Boulder Public Library as a library coordinator, didn’t draw from diary entries of the time depicted in the book. They didn’t need to write down what happened as it happened — the pain of loss stayed fresh in their

“I wasn’t journaling,” they say. “This was all from memory. It’s

In the end, creating this book has been an important step for the author in processing their grief, even if the sense of loss has

“[It has been] healing in the sense of both getting to create something out of my emotions, and that I got to spend time with her, because it was 13 years ago,” they say. “It felt good to sink into the two of us being in the same room, the two of us having a conversation again. That is something that I missed incredibly ... it’s not something I get to do anymore.”

ON THE SHELF: Will Betke-Brunswick: A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings, reading and signing. 6:30 p.m. Tues day, Nov. 15, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. Tickets: $5: boulderbookstore.net

FURTHER READING

Five graphic memoirs that inspired Will Betke-Brunswick during the writing of A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings

From Truth With Truth: A Graphic Memoir by Lawrence Lindell. Lindell explores so many types of comic forms in their memoir, mixing panels, full-page illustrations, silent pages, and over lapping words and images. He also includes photos and other documents. I am always inspired to exper iment more when I read their work.

One! Hundred! Demons! by Lynda Barry. Lynda Barry is one of my absolute favorite cartoon ists. I love her monsters and demons, her big capital letters and how absolutely hilarious her comics are.

Everything is Beautiful and I’m Not Afraid by Yao Xiao. This book made me feel so many feelings! I was inspired by the intense feelings and quiet narration.

The Loneliness of a Long Distance Cartoonist by Adrian Tomine. I love holding this book in my hands. It is so beautiful and deliberate. I like that it is a graphic memoir about being a cartoonist, not about some other life event.

Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition by Julia Kaye. I read this entire book in the Boulder library, while standing still in the middle of the graphic novel section. I usually favor four-panel comics, but this book made me appreciate the three-panel format

Feel the feeling

Denver emo revivalists A Place for Owls turn up the sincerity on debut LP

by Jezy J. Gray

The term “emo” has lived many lives since its origins in the evolving D.C. hardcore scene of the late 1980s. Three decades later, the once-maligned moniker — more a general vibe than a discrete set of musical practices — is used to describe a broad swath of heart-on-the-sleeve artists, from goth-adjacent arena rockers like My Chemical Romance to alt-radio hitmakers Jimmy Eat World and the late Long Island mumble rapper Lil Peep.

Denver quintet A Place For Owls pulls their sound from a strain of emo born in the American midwest near the turn of the century: think twinkling guitars with anthemic crescendos, marked by a wistful sense of ennui and a measured dose of DIY punk basement-show energy. This so-called “second wave” of the misunderstood genre has enjoyed something of a comeback over the last decade, and the Front Range outft led by vocalist and guitarist Ben Sooy is among the latest to dive back into the pool.

“There’s a lot of gatekeeping in terms of what is emo and what isn’t. But any music that asks deep questions and makes you feel big feelings, that’s emo to me,” Sooy says. “We’re less concerned about the ‘waves’ and who we’re trying to sound like. It feels a little bit more natural to just kind of create a synthesis within the broad category of guitar music.”

ON THE BILL:

A Place For Owls with Troubled Minds, Father Help Me and Strung Short. 7 p.m. Sat urday, Nov. 12, D3 Arts, 3612 Morrison Road, Denver. Tickets: $10, bandsintown.com

MIX IT UP

Each week, A Place For Owls puts together an emo-ish playlist of smaller bands called APFO Weekly. Here are fve highlights from the latest offering by vocalist and guitarist Ben Sooy.

“HYACINTH” BY CARACARA

Philadelphia’s Caracara put out our favorite record of 2022. They mix emo, post-rock, and ‘90s radio rock to make some of the most compelling and resonate music I’ve ever heard.

Those big feelings run all over the band’s self-titled A Place For Owls LP, released last month via Broom of Destruction Records. The polite and poignant 11-song offering fnds Sooy and his bandmates turning over questions of belonging, connection and mortality with an open-hearted sincerity that he says has opened up with age.

“I’m now in my mid-30s. It’s like, ‘Well, I’m practically 40. That means I’m practically 50. That means I’m practically dead,’” Sooy says. “I just want to be as earnest and pure as I was when I was 17 years old.”

This youthful earnestness extends beyond the uncertain questions posed by lead single “Do I Feel At Home Here,” the vulnerable slow burn of “Deliberate Practice” or the life-affrming gang vocals of the uptempo emo masterclass “Dissolver.” It’s baked into the band’s internal relationships, too.

“The running joke is that band practice tends to be about an hour or two of work and then another two to three hours of group therapy,” says drummer Jesse Cowan. “It really is a testament to the depth of the friendships that exist within our band. That makes the songwriting easier, and it makes the shows more fun.”

The band is open about their own struggles with mental health, and that openness feeds into the music and cathartic live performances. For keyboardist, guitarist and vocalist Nick Webber, it all adds up to a choice to cut a more diffcult but rewarding path through the tougher times in life — with the hope that the decision will be contagious.

“In those darker moments, cynicism is easy. It doesn’t actually take work to look at things and say, ‘Well, everything sucks,’” Webber says. “What’s a lot harder is actually fghting back and choosing gratitude, and trying to cling to the things that are actually life-giving, and encourage people and give them a sense of community.”

To that end, Sooy and his emo group-therapy bandmates hope A Place For Owls can carve a place for connection. “We’re trying to show people that this is a real thing you’re feeling. We’re feeling it too,” he says. “So let’s feel it together, and maybe it won’t suck quite so bad.”

“SIXTEEN” BY FLIGHT MODE

Oslo Norway’s Flight Mode writes melodic and lyric-forward songs that remind me a lot of beloved bands like the Weakerthans or early Death Cab For Cutie.

“NEW

QUEEN” BY EXPERT TIMING

New Queen by Orlando’s Expert Timing sounds a lot like peak No Doubt or Sixpence None The Richer — truly great guitar music.

“NIGHTLY

GARBAGE RUN” BY BIRTHDAY DAD

Birthday Dad writes songs about loneliness, struggles with substance abuse, and being addicted to your phone. And somehow he does it while making songs that sound fun.

“SHADOWLAND”

BY A BOY & HIS KITE

They say never meet your heroes, but Boulder County’s own A Boy & His Kite (aka Dave Wilton) has proved himself to be one of the kind est and most brilliant musicians I’ve ever met. We’re both stoked to see our favorite band Sunny Day Real Estate play Denver on Dec. 4!

• • • •

Listen to the full playlist at tinyurl.com/APFOweekly

Beyond the binary

‘Heterosexuality’

first

ON THE BILL: Lucius with Shamir. 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $35, axs.com

Adorned with horns and hooves, topless and draped in fabric from the waist down, mononymous artist Shamir dresses as the pagan deity Baphomet on the cover of his latest release Heterosexuality

But the character sometimes associated with demons is often misunderstood, intended instead to represent a combination of binaries — male and female, half-human and half-animal, good and evil — a way to balance oppo sites, a representation of equilibrium.

One of the most anticipated albums of 2022, the new LP from the Philadelphia-based songwriter is a sweeping challenge to the cisgender, heterosexual status-quo and the frst time the nonbinary artist has addressed his queerness head on.

“It’s not lost on me that my most queer record is eight albums in,” he says.

In the past, Shamir has made it a point not to be explicit about his sexuality in his music. There are a few exceptions, like 2017’s “Straight Boy,” which challenges the inability of cis-het men to be authentic, strangled by their concern over society’s perceptions of them, and how that turns into hate for anyone who bucks conven tion. But for the most part, he has taken the opportunity with each new project to explore himself as an artist beyond his gender and sexuality, intentionally defying expectations.

“I didn’t want to be categorized as just a queer artist and then have to feel pressure to only write about queer subjects,” he says. “I think a lot of other queer artists feel that same pressure.”

Some of this was a reaction to Shamir’s initial brush with fame. His 2014 dance-pop single “On the Regular” drew critical acclaim and media attention, all of which centered around his queerness while largely ignoring his artistry. It was traumatizing, Shamir admits. He eventually broke ties with his label. He considered leaving the music industry and never picking up a guitar again. But then he moved from his native Las Vegas to Philadelphia, drawn to the understated rock scene that allowed him the freedom to make the music he wanted.

Gender and genre

Shamir has released seven albums over the last seven years, each exploring the boundaries of genre,

from hip-hop to country, pop-punk and indie rock. Just as mainstream understanding surrounding the spectrum of gender and sexuality has expanded exponentially this century, he says, a widening of our understanding of genre can follow a similar path.

“A lot of people think I want genre to be eradicated, and I don’t think that at all,” he says. “I think catego rization is needed for organization, but for nothing more.”

There was a certain point in music history, Shamir explains, when music was just music, enjoyed for what it was in time and place without the genre descriptors we currently use. But then came the charts and the money and the rigidity of genre categori zations to connect the two.

“There’s now a wider conversation [happening] and we kind of see how they can be useful, but also how they can be restrictive and how we can allow leeway within those [categorizations],” Shamir says. “I really wish the music industry as a whole would tackle genre in a similar way as we have been able to tackle sexuality and gender.”

Instead of rewarding musicians for staying in line with genre norms, Shamir asks us to consider a more fuid artistic expression, similar to other art forms. Visual artists, he explains, are meant to change it up — they’re expected to create an entirely new body of work for each gallery show.

“I kind of see myself more as an artist following my views and don’t really care or think about what that means for me as a musician, even as a public fgure,” he says. “I think that’s why every record sounds different. That’s not on purpose. I think a lot of people think that’s a conscious creative choice, and it’s not. Every record just kind of sounds different from the last because that’s just naturally how it is.”

Heterosexuality is deeply rooted in Shamir’s frst love of indie rock, drawing on the industrial infuence of bands like Nine Inch Nails. There’s a certain hostility to the record, a response to society’s problems with him, not necessarily his problems with society, as he recently told NPR. The album explores a range of reactions — hostil ity, rage and hopelessness in equal measure — without relying entirely on pathos.

“It’s emotional. It’s just not motivated by emotions. I think it would not be helpful if it was just me spewing

about how sad I am because I’m so oppressed,” he says. “You don’t necessarily have to be nonbinary to identify with the pressures and strife that comes with gender roles.”

Shamir couldn’t have written this album any earlier in his career. At 27, he now has enough experience living life in his body to feel settled in his identity, and to create something with enough nuance to stand the test of time. This allowed the artist to make a record that isn’t simply about his own process, but rather one that seeks to be helpful — useful — on the collective level.

“I really made a point of not needing to make a record like this,” he says with a laugh. “And I think what was so liberating about it is that clearly I did.”

Shamir’s

is the artist’s

album to address his queerness head on by Angela K. Evans

Queering 'The Crucible'

Teens draw from personal experience in Centaurus Theater Company’s LGBTQ-affirming adaptation of Arthur Miller’s classic play

by Toni Tresca

Earlier this year, the administration at Cedar Grove High School in New Jersey attempted to cancel the school's produc tion of the queer musical The Prom due to "com munity concerns." After widespread criticism, the administration eventually changed course, but the incident served as a re minder that, despite some important advancements, gay actors and characters in high school theater are still sidelined.

Partly as a response to this dearth of representa tion, Jay Kinsel, the theater director at Centaurus High School in Lafayette, is working with his students to create an LGBTQ-affrming adaptation of Arthur Miller's landmark 1953 play The Crucible. The original work, set during the 17th century Salem witch trials, was a critique of Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s efforts to blacklist suspected communists — but Kinsel and his students are using the script's themes to address discrimination against queer communities.

Although Kinsel has always been a fan of The Cru cible in its traditional interpretation, he sees it as a living work that can address contemporary “witch hunts,” too. “People get too lost in the McCarthyism when doing the play,” Kinsel says. “The Crucible doesn’t need to be stuck in the time it was written; I’ve always thought the central allegory could be changed to be more relevant to modern issues.”

Kinsel’s inclusive reframing of Miller’s celebrated play is an extension of the teacher’s mission to create a welcoming environment for all Centaurs Theater Compa ny (CTC) students.

“High schools need spaces where students can receive unconditional support,” Kinsel says. "Students who are still fguring out how they identify need to be given a positive space where they will be surrounded by other students who have been on a similar journey and staff who respect them."

When Kinsel mentioned doing a refresh of The Crucible to CTC's student board members and script analysis team, there was some hesitation. Ava Zackoof, CTC’s student publicity director who plays Abigail in the

understudy cast, says they "only wanted to do this show if it had some deeper meaning that provoked a conversa tion within the audience."

Sparking a dialogue

When searching for a new twist on a classic tale like The Crucible, CTC students saw the most potential in exploring its themes through a queer lens. "Miller's play is about people in power attempting to gain control of society's most marginalized people," says assistant director and CTC president Caleb Loewengart. “LGBTQ+ issues hit closer to home for students today than fears about the Red Scare.”

Because the subject was so important and deeply personal to many of the students involved, they set out to address it sensitively.

“I was personally a little intimidated by the idea because it’s something that affects me in my everyday life, and it felt really real,” says Ruby Loewengart, the production stage manager.

As part of this mission of sensitivity, the group want ed to make sure their depictions of gay characters didn’t rely on outdated and harmful stereotypes. During the development of the play, the students spoke with a CSU queer scholar about how to accurately portray queer characters in a historical context.

One way the production communicates to the audi ence which characters are gay is through subtle pops of lavender colors on characters' costumes — a nod to the history of clandestine communication among members of

ON STAGE: The Crucible. Various times, Nov. 9-12, Centaurus High School, 1033 South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $515, centaurustheatre company.com

the LGBTQ+ community.

"While the connection between subtle accesso ries or certain colors and queerness does not necessarily go back as far as the Salem Witch Trials, there is a deep-rooted history within the queer communi ty of using codes to communicate with each other when they couldn't be so open,” Caleb says.

Seeing students take such initiative and ownership over the production has been the most rewarding part of the experience for Kinsel, who sees himself as the custodian of their story.

"Giving them so much control encouraged them to think about and invest in their storytelling," he says.

Though there has been some opposition to the play from people outside the school, Kinsel was prepared for it and is grateful for the administration's support. "My administration team didn't blink," Kinsel says. "I'm not sure how many administration teams would have reacted this way."

After reviewing CTC's plan for a proposed LGBTQ-centered adaptation of The Crucible , the administration approved the play and got to work making sure the students could safely share their experiences.

"There were so many things that could have gone wrong with this idea," Loewengart says. “But, seeing where we are now and how far we’ve come, I’m excit ed to share the show with an audience because I feel like we are actually going to make an impact.”

To help make that impact a reality, CTC students have put in hours after school to finish their original adaptation of Miller’s classic play — which they hope will resonate with audiences long after the curtain closes.

“We just want to inspire a conversation,” Kinsel says. “If we can do that, we have done our job.”

TONI TRESCA

n Boulder Star Virtual Lighting Ceremony

6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, virtual (no gatherings on site), boulder chamber.com

The Boulder Chamber is organizing the 75th anniversary of the Boulder Star’s frst lighting in December of 1947. The ceremony is a tribute to active and former members of the armed services. To protect the open space around the star and avoid public safety hazards, the Cham ber asks folks to enjoy the view from afar or on their live stream. The 2022 Star Card design was created by local artist Anne Gifford.

n Broomfield Veterans Day Ceremony and Open House

11 a.m.-noon Friday, Nov. 11, Broomfeld Veterans Memorial Museum, 12 Garden Circle. Free

Join the Broomfeld Veterans Museum in honoring armed service members. Retired colonel of the U.S. Marine Corps Jeff Davis will speak at the event, along with a present arms, gun salute, taps and music by the Broomfeld Civic Chorus and Rocky Mountain Brassworks.

BIPOC Poetry Night: Crisosto Apache and Local Poets

7-9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, The New East Window Gallery, 4550 Broadway, Suite C-3B2, Boulder. Free Poets Crisosto Apache, Mariana Bastias, J. Benjamin Burney and T.M. Spring will gather at the New East Window Gallery to showcase their work on Friday, Nov. 11. Apache, the event’s headlining artist, will read from their debut collection GENESIS (2018), about memory and cultural identity.

n 47th Annual Longmont Turkey Trot

8:30 a.m.-noon Saturday, Nov. 12, Altona Middle School, 4600 Clover Basin Drive, Longmont. Tickets: $22-$26

Enjoy a morning run or walk at the Longmont Turkey Trot race. After the 10K or 2-mile race, celebrate your accomplishment by sampling some goodies at the Vendor Village with family and friends. Wheelchair division is available.

n Hike and Draw Beneath the Flatirons

1-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, Chautauqua Park, 900 Base line Road, Boulder. Tickets: $40-$50

The City of Longmont is offering an afternoon class to explore your artistic connection with nature under the Flatirons. Along with a 3-mile, 400-foot elevation gain hike led by naturalist Suzanne Michot, artist Amanda Maldonado will provide art instruction on the basic elements of art. Participants should bring their own supplies and something to sit on while drawing.

n Miracle on 4th — A Local Gift Market

11 a.m. - 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, 4th Avenue from Main Street East to Kimbark Street, Longmont. Free

Bricks Local Gift Shop is shutting down a section of 4th Avenue in Longmont in the name of bringing together Colorado arti sans and makers of hand-crafted items, food, gifts and other locally produced goods. More than 50 product-based artisans, crafters and food trucks will be at this oneday market in the heart of the city.

ON THE BILL:

Homegrown Americana duo Foxfeather bring their soulful Front Range sound to Chau tauqua Auditorium for an evening of songs with sup porting act Dechen Hawk The outft performs on the heels of their latest release The Nature of Things via Boulder’s Octave Records. See listing below for more detail.

H FRIDAY, NOV. 11

Parra For Cuva with il:lo. 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $20-$25

Clare Church, Justin Adams and Mark Simon. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $10-$20

The Hillbenders & Armchair Boogie. 8 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland. Tickets: $20-$24,

Zivanai Masango. 8 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. Tickets: $17-$20, chautau qua.com

Thom LaFond Band. 8:30 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Tickets: $15 cash cover

H SATURDAY, NOV. 12

Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra — Gran Duo: Higdon and Foley. 7 p.m. Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleas ant St., Boulder. Tickets: $10-$94,

Brazilian Choro with Ian Coury and Cesar Garabini. 7 p.m. Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boul der. Tickets: $15-$25

Foxfeather with Dechen Hawk. 8 p.m. Chautauqua Auditorium, 900 Baseline Road, Boulder. Tickets: $14-$17

Cary Morin. 8 p.m. Tuft Theatre, Swallow Hill Music, 71 East Yale Ave., Denver. Tickets: $18-$20

H SUNDAY, NOV. 13

Rich Chiaraluce and Friends. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $10-$20

Murray & Magill. 8 p.m. Tuft The atre, Swallow Hill Music, 71 East Yale Ave., Denver. Tickets: $18-$20

The Brook & The Bluff with Sam MacPherson. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $20

Langhorne Slim. 8 p.m. Gothic Theater, 3263 S. Broadway, Engle wood. Tickets: $25

H MONDAY, NOV. 14

CU Philharmonia Orchestra: Recollections of Country Life. 7:30 p.m. Grusin Music Hall (C112), Imig Music Building, 1020 18th St., Boulder. Free

Let’s Eat Grandma. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Den ver. Tickets: $22,

H WEDNESDAY, NOV. 16

Bluebird Supper Club feat. Josiah Johnson. 6 p.m. Rayback Collec tive, 2775 Valmont Road, Boulder. Tickets: $20+

DHRUV with FIG + BLUSH. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 483 Logan St., Denver. Tickets: $20

H THURSDAY, NOV. 17

Clay Rose with Sara Farmer. 7 p.m. Roots Music Project, 4747 Pearl St. Suite V3A, Boulder. Free

Barefoot in the Bathroom with The Dick Nixons and The Dirty Turkeys. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $15-$18

COURTESY FOXFEATHER

n Boulder Jewish Film Festival (Closing Night)

3:30-8:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: $16-$50

Join the Boulder Jewish Film Festival for a feature of two flms and the Wild West Wrap Party on their closing night. The event will start with the showing of Jews of the Wild West, then move to a reception from 5:30-6:30 p.m. before Adventures of a Mathematician. Chili, cornbread, pie and cider will be catered by Community Table Kitchen.

Coal Creek Community Chorus’ 2022 fall concert will feature over 100 singers from around East Boulder County. In addition to songs from a variety of genres and styles, they will premiere an original piece called “A Spark,” dedicated to victims of the Marshall Fire.

COURTESY ROOT MARKETING

n Birds of Prey Slide Program

6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, Ron Stewart Parks & Open Space Building, 15140 N. 55th St., Longmont. Free, registration required Boulder County Parks & Open Space is providing an opportunity to learn about the birds of prey soaring above our homes. Staff will share tips on how to identify and distinguish hawks, eagles, falcons and owls by observing feld marks, behavior, location and time of year.

n Madaleine Sorkin: Climbing 5.14 On The Diamond

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 15, Chautauqua Community House, 301 Morning Glory Drive, Boulder. Tickets: $13

Madaleine Sorkin is a climber drawn to free climbing long and diffcult routes both nationally and internationally. Within Boulder County, Sorkin climbed a 5.14 rated route above 13,000 feet on The Diamond of Longs Peak. Sorkin also founded the Climbing Grief Fund, which focuses on connecting individuals to access mental health resources after experiencing grief within the climbing community.

n Duck ID Workshop

6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, Front Range Birding Company, 5360 Arapahoe Ave., Suite E., Boulder. Reser vation required, 303-979-2475

Winter in Colorado is the best time to catch a glimpse of ducks. Front Range Birding Company’s Jamie Simo will walk you through the variety of species in the area. Reserve your spot by calling the number above.

An Evening with Alison Bechdel

7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, UMC Glenn Miller Ballroom, 1669 Euclid Ave., Boulder. Tickets: $2.50 students, $7.50 adults

Alison Bechdel is a prominent graphic novelist behind works like Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Dykes to Watch Out For, The Secret to Superhuman Strength and more. Bechdel will be at the UMC Glenn Miller Ballroom for this talk and book-signing event.

by Michael J. Casey

That’s a wrap

Three picks for the final weekend of the 45th Denver Film Festival

The 45th Denver Film Festival concludes this weekend with a full slate of features and shorts, documentaries and narratives, and even a party or two. You can fnd the full lineup at denverflm.org, but here are three offerings that oughta make your dance card.

• • • •

‘Gods of Mexico’ (2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12 - Sie FilmCenter: H1)

Free from narrative and dialogue, Gods of Mexico is more a sensory experience than a story. It is a silent observation of Mexico’s Indigenous men and women, identi fed only by title cards notating the region.

The documentary is divided into three sections. In the frst, two men dig a deep hole in the ground and then methodically fll it with rocks. Then the rocks are destroyed under the watchful eye of an old timer in aviator sunglasses and a straw hat. Why? The answer to that question intersects with another group of workers silently harvesting salt from nearby plots.

From here, director Helmut Dosantos breaks into a section of pure portraiture before picking up with a group of miners tunneling deep below the surface. At no point does Dosantos ground the viewer or pause to explain his intentions. Instead, he leaves audiences with stunning cinematography and a wonderful exercise in imagination.

‘Close’ (6:45 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12 - Sie FilmCenter: H2)

Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav De Waele) are close. And since they’re both 13 years old, they have no qualms when it comes to showing their affection for each other. But they won’t be 13 forever, and as their emotions begin to close off, social pressures and playground bullying quickly shift them to a familiar emotional place.

Writer-director Lukas Dhont used non-professional actors for Close and struck

gold in Dambrine. His ability to express everything while with holding just enough matches Dhont and cinematographer Frank van den Eeden’s camera — which stays close but can’t help but look away during tragic moments. It’s a powerful movie that would feel utterly crushing if not for the happy ending. Maybe it’ll feel contrived to you, but after this much sadness, contrivances might be all we got.

‘Wildcat’ (3:45 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13 - AMC: H2)

That leads us nicely into Wildcat, a documentary about a young British soldier struggling with PTSD in the Amazon rainforest. He is Harry Turner, an Afghanistan vet who travels to South America to help his girlfriend, Samantha Zwicker, rescue and relocate ocelots from Amazonian deforestation.

Directed by Trevor Beck Frost and Melissa Lesh, Wildcat is a sweet movie with all the depth of a car decal. You know the one — it’s in the shape of an animal’s paw and asks: “Who rescued who?” That might seem like a mean swipe at an otherwise genuine doc, but Wildcat raises as many questions about ethics in documentary production as it provides insight into Turner’s ongoing struggles with depression and PTSD.

ON SCREEN: The 45th Denver Film Festival, Nov. 10–13, multiple venues. Tickets: denverflm.org

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: Virginia Woolf wrote a passage that I suspect will apply to you in the coming weeks. She said, “There is no denying the wild horse in us. To gallop intemper ately; fall on the sand tired out; to feel the earth spin; to have — positively — a rush of friendship for stones and grasses — there is no getting over the fact that this desire seizes us.” Here’s my question for you, Aries: How will you harness your wild horse energy? I’m hoping that the self-possessed human in you will take command of the horse and direct it to serve you and yours with constructive actions. It’s fine to indulge in some intemperate galloping, too. But I’ll be rooting for a lot of temperate and disciplined galloping.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: “The failure of love might account for most of the suffering in the world,” writes poet Marie Howe. I agree with that statement. Many of us have had painful episodes revolving around people who no longer love us and people whose lack of love for us makes us feel hurt. That’s the bad news, Taurus. The good news is that you now have more power than usual to heal the failures of love you have endured in the past. You also have an expanded capacity to heal others who have suffered from the failures of love. I hope you will be generous in your ministrations!

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Many Geminis tell me they are often partly awake as they sleep. In their dreams, they might work overtime trying to solve waking-life problems. Or they may lie in bed in the dark contemplating intricate ideas that fasci nate them, or perhaps ruminating on the plot developments

CANCER

unfolding in a book they’ve been reading or a TV show they’ve been bingeing. If you are prone to such behavior, I will ask you to minimize it for a while. In my view, you need to relax your mind extra deeply and allow it to play luxuriously with non-utilitarian fantasies and dreams. You have a sacred duty to your self to explore mysterious and stirring feelings that bypass rational thought.

JUNE 21-JULY 22: Here are my two key messages for you. 1. Remember where you hide important stuff. 2. Remember that you have indeed hidden some important stuff. Got that? Please note that I am not questioning your urge to lock away a secret or two. I am not criticizing you for wanting to store a treasure that you are not yet ready to use or reveal. It’s completely understandable if you want to keep a part of your inner world off-limits to certain people for the time being. But as you engage in any or all of these actions, make sure you don’t lose touch with your valuables. And don’t forget why you are stashing them.

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: I know I don’t have to give you lessons in expressing your sensuality. Nor do you need prods and encour agement to do so. As a Leo, you most likely have abundant talent in the epicurean arts. But as you prepare to glide into the lush and lusty heart of the Sensuality Season, it can’t hurt to offer you a pep talk from a fellow Leo bon vivant, James Baldwin. He said: “To be sensual is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the breaking of bread.”

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Many Virgos are on a lifelong quest to cultivate a knack described by Sigmund Freud: “In the small matters, trust the mind. In the large ones, the heart.” And I suspect you are now at a pivotal point in your efforts to master that wisdom. Important decisions are looming in regards to both small and large matters. I believe you will do the right things as long as you empower your mind to do what it does

But the flm’s heart is in the right place and, at the very least, has one of the cutest stars of the whole festival: Keanu, a baby ocelot with a beautiful pumpkin-colored coat and black ink splotches.

best and your heart to do what it does best.

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: Social media like Facebook and Twitter feed on our outrage. Their algorithms are designed to stir up our disgust and indignation. I confess that I get semi-caught in their trap. I am sometimes seduced by the temptation to feel lots of umbrage and wrath, even though those feelings comprise a small minority of my total emotional range. As an antidote, I proactively seek experiences that rouse my wonder and sublimity and holiness. In the next two weeks, Libra, I invite you to cultivate a focus like mine. It’s high time for a phase of minimal anger and loathing — and maximum reverence and awe.

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Scorpio author Sylvia Plath had a disturbing, melodramatic relationship with romance. In one of her short stories, for example, she has a woman character say, “His love is the twenty-story leap, the rope at the throat, the knife at the heart.” I urge you to avoid contact with people who think and feel like that — as glamorous as they might seem. In my view, your romantic destiny in the coming months can and should be uplifting, exciting in healthy ways, and conducive to your well-being. There’s no need to link yourself with shadowy rene gades when there will be plenty of radiant helpers available.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: I like Sagittarian healer and author Caroline Myss because she’s both spiritual and practical, compassion ate and fierce. Here’s a passage from her work that I think will be helpful for you in the coming weeks: “Get bored with your past. It’s over! Forgive yourself for what you think you did or didn’t do, and focus on what you will do, starting now.” To ensure you make the most of her counsel, I’ll add a further insight from author Augusten Burroughs: “You cannot be a prisoner of your past against your will — because you can only live in the past inside your mind.”

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: How would you respond if you learned that

the $55 T-shirt you’re wearing was made by a Haitian kid who earned 10 cents for her work? Would you stop wearing the shirt? Donate it to a thrift store? Send money to the United Nations agency UNICEF, which works to protect Haitian child laborers? I recommend the latter option. I also suggest you use this as a prompt to engage in leisurely meditations on what you might do to reduce the world’s suffering. It’s an excellent time to stretch your imagination to understand how your personal life is interwoven with the lives of countless others, many of whom you don’t even know. And I hope you will think about how to offer extra healings and blessings not just to your allies, but also to strangers. What’s in it for you? Would this bring any selfish benefits your way? You may be amazed at how it leads you to interesting connections that expand your world.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: Aquarian philosopher Alfred North Whitehead wrote, “The silly question is the first intimation of some totally new development.” He also said, “Every really new idea looks crazy at first.” With these thoughts in mind, Aquarius, I will tell you that you are now in the Season of the Silly Question. I invite you to enjoy dreaming up such queries. And as you indulge in that fertile pleasure, include another: Celebrate the Season of Crazy Ideas.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: We all love to follow stories: the stories we live, the stories that unfold for people we know, and the stories told in movies, TV shows, and books. A disproportion ately high percentage of the entertainment industry’s stories are sad or tormented or horrendously painful. They influence us to think such stories are the norm. They tend to darken our view of life. While I would never try to coax you to avoid all those stories, Pisces, I will encourage you to question whether maybe it’s wise to limit how many you absorb. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to explore this possibility. Be willing to say, “These sad, tormented, painful stories are not ones I want to invite into my imagination.” Try this experiment: For the next three weeks, seek out mostly uplifting tales.

Dear Readers: I’m away this week, so we’re re-running a popular Q&A from a few years back. I’ll be back next week with a brand-new column. —Dan

Dear Dan: I am a 24-year-old straight guy who recently broke up with my girlfriend of more than four years. One of the reasons we broke up was a general lack of sexually compatibility. She had a particular aversion to oral sex — both giving and receiving. I didn’t get a blowjob the whole time we were together. Which brings me to why I am writing: One of my closest friends, “Sam,” is a gay guy. Shortly after breaking up with my girlfriend, I was discussing my lack of oral sex with Sam, and he said he’d be willing to “help me out.” I agreed, and Sam gave me an earth-shattering blowjob. I was glad to get some and had no hang-ups about a guy sucking me. Since then, Sam has blown me three more times. My problem is I am starting to feel guilty and worry I am using Sam. He’s a very good buddy, and I’m concerned this lopsided sexual arrangement might be bad for our friendship. Sam knows I am not into guys and I’m never going to reciprocate, and I feel like this is probably not really fair to him. But these are literally the only blow jobs I’ve received since I was a teenager. What should I do?

—Totally Have Reservations Over Advantage Taking

Dear THROAT: Only one person knows how Sam feels about this “lopsided sexual arrangement,” THROAT, and it isn’t me.

And that’s why I wrote you back, THROAT, and asked you for Sam’s con tact information. Since you were clearly too afraid to ask Sam yourself (most likely for fear the blowjobs would stop), I offered to ask Sam on your behalf. I wasn’t serious — it was my way of saying, “You should ask Sam.” But you sent me Sam’s contact info, and a few minutes later I was chatting with Sam.

“Yes, I have been sucking my straight friend’s cock,” Sam said to me. “And I am fattered he told you I was good at it. That’s an ego booster!”

Sam, like THROAT, is 24 years old. He grew up on the East Coast and met THROAT early in his frst year at college. Sam came out at the end of his freshman year, to THROAT and his other friends, and he now lives in a big city where he works in marketing when he isn’t sucking off THROAT.

My frst question for Sam: Are you

one of those gay guys who gets off on “servicing” straight guys?

“I’ve never done anything with a straight guy before this,” said Sam.

So, why offer to blow THROAT?

“I didn’t know until after he broke up with his girlfriend that he hadn’t gotten a blowjob the whole time they were togeth er — four years!” Sam said. “When I told him I’d be happy to help him out, I was joking. I swear I wasn’t making a pass at my straight friend! But there was this long pause, and then he got serious and said he’d be into it. I wondered for a minute if it would be weird for me to blow my friend, and there was defnitely a bit of convinc ing each other that we were serious. When he started taking his clothes off, I thought, ‘So this is going to happen.’ It was not awkward after. We even started joking about it right away. I have sucked him off four more times since then.”

For those of you keeping score at home: Either THROAT lost count of the number of times Sam has blown him — THROAT said Sam has blown him three more times after that frst blowjob — or THROAT got a ffth blowjob in the time that elapsed between sending me his letter and putting me in touch with Sam.

So, does this lopsided sexual arrangement — blowing a straight boy who’s never going to blow him back— bother Sam?

“I suppose it is a ‘lopsided sexual ar rangement,’” said Sam. “But I don’t mind. I really like sucking dick and I’m really enjoying sucking his dick. And from my perspective, we’re both having fun. And, yes, I’ve jacked off thinking about it after each time I sucked him.”

Sam assumes that at some point, memories are all he’ll have.

“He will eventually get into a rela tionship with a woman again, and our arrangement will end,” said Sam. “I only hope nothing is weird between us in the future because of what has happened in the past few weeks.”

I had one last question: Sam is really good at sucking cock, but is THROAT any good at getting his cock sucked?

“I have to say, he is very good at it,” Sam said. “He really gets into it, he moans, he talks about how good it feels, and he lasts a long time. That’s part of what makes sucking his cock so much fun.”

Email questions@savagelove.net

Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. Find columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at savage.love.

The Shake Shack of Costa Rican chicken

Byron Gomez opens Pollo Tico in Avanti

by Colin Wrenn

Chef Byron Gomez has cooked alongside a lot of big deal chefs.

He cut his teeth in Daniel Boulud’s kitchens, a fne-dining empire which currently spans New York, Boston, Miami, London, Singapore and Dubai, to name a few. Though this was back when the French chef was mostly conquering the Big Apple, and Gomez was helping launch Cafe Boulud and heating up at DBGB Kitchen and Bar.

He also worked the line at Daniel Humm’s famed Eleven Madison Park in 2017, right as it was being recognized as The World’s Best Restaurant by The World’s 50 Best. Most recently Gomez ran the kitchen at 7908 in Aspen, where he served what was undoubtedly some of the most forward-thinking cuisine available at that altitude.

So it stands to reason that it’s kind of a big deal that the Top Chef season 18 alum decided to debut his frst truly independent project, Pollo Tico, at Avanti Boulder.

“I never thought my frst restaurant was going to be fast-casu al, to be honest,” says Gomez. But at the end of October, the chef opened Pollo Tico in the stall that formerly housed Quiero Arepas in the popular Pearl Street food hall. “Pollo Tico, for me, is two things. The majority is as an educational establish ment,” Gomez says. “The second is the chicken. Chicken is very friendly. Everyone knows chicken,” he smiles. Os tensibly a rotisserie chicken joint, Pollo Tico is a tribute to the dishes that shaped Gomez’s youth growing up in Costa Rica. “We’re serving things that people here might only know through a Mexican restaurant.”

It wasn’t until Gomez was given the platform provid

ed by Top Chef that he decided to tell the world — and many of his previous employers — that he had risen the ranks from one of the King’s fry cooks all the way to the highest echelons of fne dining while undocumented. Ini tially furnishing fake papers, the chef was granted DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) status in 2014. Along with the trouble of having to frequently renew his status, he still can’t leave the country.

It’s safe to say that the food at Pollo Tico is person al. The menu centers around half or quarter rotisserie chicken served with homemade sauces and sides. “We do have the Michelin-style standards in the kitchen,” says Gomez, noting that though the menu may appear simple, this is still the kind of cuisine beftting the celeb rity chef’s pedigree. There’s the chicken patacon, which lays shredded chicken, sofrito, red cabbage, escabeche vegetables and salsa de chile amarillo atop twice-fried green plantains for a kind of open-faced sandwich. The house-made sauces are foundational and fundamental, with the creamy salsa verde, a tamarindo sauce, the sofrito de tomate, the habanero chicha de pina hot sauce and the chimichurri all being sold in bottles. These are the kind of sauces no home kitchen is complete without.

While Gomez designed much of the menu, the dayto-day operations are set to be left largely in the hands of executive chef Jorge Saldana. Saldana grew up in

ON THE MENU: Fried plantains (above) are featured heavily on the menu at Pollo Tico. This banana cultivar gets twice fried for the chicken patacon (below), a type of open-faced sandwich.

San Diego and moved to New York with the intent of working in some of the world’s great kitchens. He and Gomez met while they were on the line at DBGB in 2012, and their culinary journey continued to intersect in the following decade. While still in New York, Saldana bounced around Boulud’s restaurant group, developing his skills at Boulud Sous, Bar Boulud and Daniel. In 2016, he moved to Denver to join the line at Half Eaten Cookie Hospitality’s now-shuttered Acorn, before a stint at chef Jennifer Jaskinski’s fabulous Union Station Spanish tapas joint Ultreia. He returned to New York to work at the one Michelin-starred classic French eatery Le Coucou before returning to Colorado in May 2020. He’s since worked a variety of gigs with Gomez in Aspen and across the Front Range.

There’s a lot of talent between Gomez and Sal dana. The duo also share more than a fair bit of kitchen chemistry, which is evident across the menu. “It was stuff Byron grew up eating, but we came together to make it happen,” says Saldana. While Pollo Tico is getting its sea legs, the two plan to introduce a ceviche program in December with weekly specials primarily handled by Saldana.

When Gomez presented Costa Rican dishes at this year’s opening luncheon for the Aspen Food and Wine Classic, proudly sporting an “I AM AN IMMIGRANT” shirt, he wasn’t sure where his culinary journey was going to take him next. He did know it was time for him to do his own thing. The chef now says this is just the beginning.

“Why can’t we be the next Shake Shack for Costa Rican chicken?” he says with a grin.

“The wine must have done its job, because I am relaxed and fnally at ease. Yes, it’s defnitely the wine. Otherwise I wouldn’t have started singing out of the blue in a million years.” —Hilaria Alexander

When it comes time to relax over a drink, a little musical accompaniment often helps set the mood. Yet our favorite spins can eventually grow stale — ditto our usual beverages. Yesterday’s ale and well-worn tracks might call for a rethink, but fnding the proper pairing of liquid and sound can present a dilemma, which is where a bit of research and technology help to keep things fresh.

The website Drinkify is an online way to fnd options for your grog-and-groove time. The straight-forward for mat tells you what to imbibe while listening to whatever given artist you key in. If you enter the Grateful Dead, for example, the site generates a photo of the Dead’s live 1981 double-album release Dead Set, along with a drink recipe that includes Sipsmith (an artisan brand of gin from England) and fresh lemon juice. Personally, I might opt for the San Francisco group’s all-acoustic release Reckoning (1981), along with a good IPA or a bit of Jim Beam; but punch in Sam Bush, and a Jack Daniels and Coke is the computer-generated result. That one is spot-on. For the banjo-driven music of Béla Fleck, the site suggests a refreshing blend of Jack and iced tea. I’ll drink to that, too. The website appears to have a recurrent hankering for hand-crafted gin from London, which also comes up (4 ounces of it, on the rocks) when

entering music by the indie rock band The War on Drugs.

The book Booze and Vinyl by brother-and-sister writing team André and Tenaya Dar lington, features a buzz-evok ing and artistically inviting layout of cocktail-, rock- and pop-related photos, along with some excellent ideas for what to pour in your glass. The book rec ommends Planter’s Punch (and sitting in lawn chairs) while enjoying Bob Marley & The Wailers; a tequila sunrise to accompany the Rolling Stones; a dirty martini for anything by Iggy Pop; a gin and tonic for the sounds of The Clash; a fshbowl (which blends rum, vodka and blue curaçao, among other things) for Wilco; a piña colada for the Beach Boys; Yorsh (a Russian-inspired blend of Vodka and beer) for Nirvana; a little absinthe for Amy Winehouse; a Manhattan for Sinatra; a Velvet Hamer (cognac, cream and liqueur) for Marvin Gaye; a shot of Jameson and a Harp (beer) for The Pogues; and lots of other intriguing combinations for when unwinding with a cup in hand.

Perhaps the easiest way to air a medley of pleas ing ditties when floating your booze-borne relaxation boat is to use a streaming platform such as Spotify or Pandora (it still exists!) and simply let the algorithms carry you away to a beverage-enhanced happy place. I recently spent my Friday night mixing white Negronis (replace Campari with Suze, a French aperitif with a delicately bitter gentian root flavor) to Spotify’s French Jazz Café stream, followed by a digitally driven jour

ney through the biggest hits of 1971. It was tough not to be pleasantly uplifted and amused by a Frankified cover of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking” (“Ces Bottes Sont Faites Pour Marcher”), by the chanteuse Emilie-Claire Barlow, as well other similarly entertaining and French-infused jazz cuts, and then welcomely chilled by a string of bygone chart-toppers from Bill Withers, Cat Stevens, Three Dog Night, Bread, Joan Baez and The Temptations, all while the Suze and gin worked their magic. Be it classical, hip-hop, Irish folk, reggaeton — whatever your jam — it’s all there for the streaming via smart phone and maybe a wireless speaker.

Longmont Humane Society

9595 Nelson Road, Longmont, longmonthumane.org

Critter Classifeds is a column where you can meet four-legged friends who need your love and support. Boulder Weekly is working with Longmont Humane Society to feature a few pets each week who are look ing for forever homes. We hope to bring other organizations in on the fun in the future.

Longmont Humane Society provides tem porary shelter to thousands of animals every year, including dogs, cats and small mammals who are lost, surrendered or abandoned. Visit the shelter to learn more about these featured pets and others up for adoption and fostering.

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

Note: The animals you see here may have been adopted since this article was written.

Your support makes a big difference to the Longmont Humane Society. Every donation made to LHS from Nov. 1 through Dec. 6 on ColoradoGives.org gets a boost from the $1.4 Million + Incentive Fund. Schedule your dona tion today at coloradogives.org/organization/ Longmonthumanesociety. Donate and view available animals at longmonthumane.org.

H Scooter

H Dove

Dove is a very sweet girl who could use some help learning to trust people, but once she warms up, she is a complete cuddle bug. Dove came to LHS a little overweight and after some work, she is down to 45 pounds. She would love a hiking buddy who can help her maintain an active lifestyle and keep the weight off. Though she is not a fan of cats, this 4-year-old gal is very mellow and happy to hang out with other dogs. She is very fearful of having her head touched so she needs a home where her boundaries are respected.

This 3-year-old has a smile that can light up a room. Scooter is very social with other dogs and was polite when introduced to a cat here at LHS. He would love a home with another furry sibling to hang out with. At 72 pounds, bouncy Scooter has the potential to acciden tally knock down small humans, so he may do bet ter in a home with older children who won’t mind his antics. Despite his rambunctious play style, he has a gentle soul and is ready to fnd his forever family to curl up on the couch with after a long walk.

Daisy is a petite gal with a big personality. At just under 1 year old, she is full of life and is very curious about the world. Daisy loves attention, treats, and toys, and would be great in a home with children of any age. She is extremely patient and smart and may even have fun learning new tricks.

Partaking in public

allow for Bring Your Own Cannabis (BYOC) consumption — which can also be done legally.

The framework for social consumption businesses has been set up — so where are they? Why aren’t cannabis consumption lounges as abundant as cannabis dispensa ries?

Navigating all of that usually requires extensive legal help, which is expensive on its own. Add to that the cost of fnding and acquiring the perfect location, the cost of applying for all these licenses and paying for the permits, the cost of installing adequate HVAC, all on top of the cost of actually building your business, renovating, marketing and advertising.

Colorado has a lot of cannabis dispensaries. As of 2018 there were just over 14 dispensaries for every 100,000 residents, according to Verilife. There are over 250 in the Denver metro area alone. If anyone wants to know where they can legally buy weed, directing them is as simple as pointing down the block or across the street. If, however, someone wants to know where they can smoke weed legally, that’s not so simple to answer. It’s still illegal to publicly consume cannabis almost anywhere in Colorado. It’s forbidden in public spaces, or on national or state property (like parks, monuments, conservatories). It’s prohibited in any ven ue that sells alcohol (like bars or concert venues) as well as any venue that allows children (like bowling alleys, arcades or theme parks).

So where are people supposed to legally smoke their cannabis?

At home, according to the state. Even though cannabis has been largely accept ed as a legal substance in Colorado, even though it generates more tax revenue than any other industry here, and even though, in reality, people are out there smoking weed all over the place, doing so legally requires privacy.

Obviously there’s still stigma stuck to this plant. But there’s more to Colorado’s lack of social consumption businesses than that, because cannabis consumption lounges are technically “legal.” In 2018 the state passed SB 211, the Marijuana Consumption Club License bill, which created licenses for businesses that wanted to legally sell cannabis and allow consumption on site. In 2020 the legislature also passed HB 1230, the Cannabis Hospitality bill, creating a legal pathway for cannabis hotels and bed and breakfasts. And some businesses, like The Joint Coffee Co. in Denver, even

Chris Chiari, the owner of the Patterson Inn in Denver, says licensing fees and regulatory re quirements are a huge barrier of entry for most entre preneurs. Chiari has been working to open Colorado’s frst cannabis lounge and hotel at the Patterson for years now. As he openly admits, just getting started requires a lot of resources and time, two things budding businesses don’t often have.

And even then, after you’ve jumped through all those hoops and signed all those checks, how lucrative is the business? How many customers will show up regularly to buy weed, hang out and smoke around strangers?

There’s a reason why cigar bars sell alcohol. The draw of social consumption on its own isn’t typically enough to cover the costs of operation.

Which is why Chiari isn’t just building a social consumption hotel at the Patterson Inn. The way he sees it, building a “cannabis castle” that’s only focused on weed does no one any good. Instead, he’s trying to establish the Patterson Inn as the frst cannabis lounge, hotel, restaurant and bar in the U.S.

“As a company, we have found a way to facilitate the coexistence and cohabitation of these conficting licenses through sound structure and through the strict separation of where they occur as far as consumption of cannabis and sale of alcohol,” he explains.

Essentially, the businesses are sepa rate, with separate licenses, operating on the same property. The alcohol is served by the adjacent 12 Spirits Tavern. And cannabis consumption will only be allowed in the cannabis lounge, which Chiari is currently in the process of building.

Applying for a cannabis consumption lounge license in Denver is a multi-step process that requires a zone use permit, a foorplan, and documented affrmation from the neighborhood you want to operate in, that they actu ally want your business there. The permit costs $1,000 a year. The location has to be 1,000 feet from any school, place of worship or public playground, and cannot advertise within 500 feet of any of those establishments. There’s also specifc requirements for HVAC capabilities in a business that allows smoking indoors.

“The normalization and the stigmatization of cannabis is my passion and life’s mission right now,” Chiari says. “I’m excited to be in this position and I’m looking forward to getting across that fnish line.”

It’s been a legal puzzle to work out. But he’s close, Chiari says. The licenses have all been acquired, the permits have all been paid for, and he owns the historic building at 420 11th St. in Denver. Now he just has to fnish renovations, meet a few more regulatory re quirements with the city and, he hopes, some time this January the Patterson Inn will open for business.

Why haven’t social consumption lounges taken off a decade into legalization?

by Will Brendza