Boulder Weekly 12.1.2022

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buzz: Local lmmaker scrambles the senses with sci- Western ‘Quantum Cowboys’ by Gregory Wakeman

overtones: Sophie Allison ‘gets weird’ on bleak and breezy new Soccer Mommy album by Jezy J. Gray

art and culture: Kate Manning explores inequality, labor and love in ‘Gilded Mountain’ by

drink: Female-owned and operated Damn Right Cocktails launches on the Front Range by Nick Hutchinson

departments

7 Writers on the Range: When no home is affordable, where do you live?

8 Opinion: Why hydropower can’t produce green hydrogen 11 Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views 20 Events: What to do when there’s nothing to do 25 Found Sounds: What’s in Boulder’s headphones? 26 Astrology: by Rob Brezsny 27 Savage Love: Quickies 29 Film: ‘The Inspection’ and ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ 31 Flash in the Pan: Don’t hide in fake bacon and nut cheese 37 Critter Classifieds: A found four-legged friend 38 Weed: Colorado voted to legalize the medical use of some psychedelic plants and fungi — what’s next?

Emma Athena

by Will Matuska

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, Gregory Wakeman, 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

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CIRCULATION TEAM

Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer

BUSINESS OFFICE

Bookkeeper, Emily Weinberg

Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo

Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer

Dec. 1, 2022

Volume XXX, number 16

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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by Dave Marston

It’s a common story: Candace McNatt of Durango, in southern Colorado, kept losing bidding wars to buy a house. She nally settled on a tiny home of just 350 square feet.

McNatt works as an operating room nurse and is a single mother of two teenagers, one about to go to college. ough she landed on the homeownership ladder at one of its lower rungs, she’s relieved. “But this is not how I saw myself approaching the age of 40,” she muses.

A two-year-old study by Root Policy, a Denver consulting rm, showed that single- and two-parent households have begun leaving Durango and southwestern Colorado in droves. Replacing them are retirees and wealthy non-working people. at means businesses struggle to nd workers as 80% of people moving into La Plata County don’t work in the region.

Adding to the housing crisis is the boom in short-term rentals, compounded by second-home owners snatching up houses once rented to students at the local Fort Lewis College. Fort Lewis has been scrambling for housing. Starting in 2019, demand for on-campus living skyrocketed, and this August, the college of 3,856 students placed 93 kids in hotel rooms. irty more were quadruple-bunked in o -o -campus apartments.

Boulder Weekly

welcomes your correspondence via email (letters@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.

e rent on her home lot is $650; her mortgage just $604. Combined, that’s about half of what she had been paying to rent an apartment in Durango.

ese days, real estate prices in Durango, as in so many Western towns, have outrun most workers’ ability to buy or even rent modest digs. McNatt, for example, makes $85,000 annually, which places her at over 90% of the area median income in Durango.

e town thrums with stories of students living in cars and scouting for “safe parking,” meaning places where police won’t roust them out. Others camp out on public lands.

e city of Durango, population 19,400, has tried to help by limiting short-term rentals within city limits, and

When no home is a ordable, where do you live?

Why hydropower can’t produce green hydrogen

by Gary Wockner

Over the last two years, I’ve watched “green hydrogen” make a splash as the Next Big ing in the energy eld. It was promoted at the U.N.’s COP27, and is currently promoted by NGOs and some of the biggest energy corporations in the world.

First, I’ll give a quick summary of what Green Hydrogen is. Second, I’ll describe why hydropower can never produce it.

WHAT IS GREEN HYDROGEN?

Hydrogen is one of the most plentiful elements on Earth and in our atmosphere, and it burns easily and hot. at hydrogen is one of two key elements in all water on the planet (H2O), it has great appeal as an abundant energy source. Further, when hydrogen is burned, it only produces water, and doesn’t produce any greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

As such, although hydrogen has been an energy source for well over 100 years, it has recently gained more attention as a major “low carbon” fuel of the future. Further, because hydrogen burns hot, it is considered a replacement for burning fossil fuels in high-heat industrial and transportation processes that cannot be easily replaced by other forms of renewable energy.

Several methods exist to produce hydrogen including one of the simplest, electrolysis, which extracts hydrogen from water, a process that requires electricity. When that electricity is created using renewable energy, and then used to extract and produce hydrogen, that hydrogen is said to be “green hydrogen.”

So-called renewable electricity sources including solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower are often the main types of electricity discussed that can power electrolysis to produce green hydrogen. When renewable energy sources are used to generate the electricity that extracts hydrogen, the overall GHG footprint of producing and burning hydrogen can decrease dramatically to become a very low-carbon form of energy.

WHY CAN’T HYDROPOWER PRODUCE GREEN HYDROGEN?

Although all energy sources have an environmentally negative footprint and create some amount of GHGs, I always argue that hydropower has one of the biggest environmentally negative footprints of all energy sources, including fossil fuels.

Almost all forms of hydropower are created by building a dam to block a river and store water in a reservoir that is later run through turbines to create electricity. ere are many types of hydropower (brie y discussed later), but every form of hydropower has very negative environmental impacts with dam/reservoir systems being the worst.

First and foremost:

• Dams block rivers including sh migration, sediment movement, debris ow, nutrient ows, and water,

• Dams slow rivers which changes the ecology, water temperature, sediment, and habitat of rivers,

• Dams almost always make water quality worse by hugely changing the hydrological cycle of a river,

• Dams can cause the extinction of sh and aquatic life,

• Dams can make ooding in rivers worse,

• Dams exacerbate coastal ooding, beach erosion, and sea level rise by blocking sediment/debris ow and changing the hydrological cycle of rivers,

• Dams can increase disease in humans due to unnaturally ooded landscapes,

• Dams are hugely expensive and create ‘sunk costs’ scenarios that preclude constructing other less environmentally damaging forms of energy production.

Second, almost all hydropower systems that use dams and reservoirs create greenhouse gas emissions that make climate change worse. Hydropower dams create GHGs in three principal ways:

WRITERS ON THE RANGE

create workforce housing.

from Page 7

At a Durango council meeting last month, Henson said that only 169 housing units are under construction, while a thousand more are planned. Finished units for the rst nine months of 2022 totaled 59. Meanwhile, a ballyhooed accessory dwelling unit (ADU) regulation, which would allow homeowners to add “granny ats,” zzled. Just two were completed this year, and potential builders complain that restrictions remain tight.

According to the Root Policy study, Southwestern Colorado’s overall housing de cit is 2,500 housing units. “Every town is short on housing,” agrees Nicole Killian, a community development director for the Durango bedroom community of Bay eld. Killian says developers plan to build 800 homes over the next decade, a 75% increase in housing units.

What everyone can agree on is that the area’s housing shortage began in Durango, the biggest and most attractive town, then radiated out to every other town within 50 miles.

“Durango has had a sales tax that funded parks and recreation,” says Mayor Barbara Noseworthy. “Now we need to redirect some of that money toward housing.” But the council is divided, with some members favoring a free market approach.

So far, the free market wants only million-dollar homes. McNatt tells the story of two clinical experts at the hospital, each making $160,000, who “have looked for a house forever. And

he’s like, I refuse to pay $1 million for a house.” In the end, “they paid over $1 million and are now house-poor.”

One result of the housing crunch, says Mayor Noseworthy, is nding people for essential jobs: “We have di culty getting math teachers. If you can’t get a high school math teacher, who’s going to live here?”

Meanwhile, one housing solution in Durango has been Chris Hall’s Hermosa Orchards Village of 22 tiny owner-occupied homes, a gem of collegiality. Many of its residents commute to Purgatory Ski Area or Silverton seasonally, and given their small inside spaces, tend to congregate outside on their stoops.

But help is on the way. On Nov. 8, Colorado voters supported Proposition 123, which will provide grants and loans to local nonpro ts to build workforce housing, and provide mortgage assistance to people like McNatt.

At the end of my interview with McNatt, she took me to meet a friend who lives in a storage unit. e boxlike space was narrow, his sleeping bag on a foam pad just tting between a snow blower and a leaf blower. He said he was glad he’d found it.

Dave Marston is the publisher of Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonpro t dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He lives in Durango.

is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.

OPINION from Page 8

• Deforestation — across the planet, billions of acres of land have been deforested to make way for dams and reservoirs, including over 6 million acres in one country, Canada, alone. ese forests are often cut and burned in huge waste piles (which emits CO2), and these forests no longer sequester carbon.

• Surface Emissions — when organic material that exists in a reservoir, or ows into a reservoir, decomposes under water, it produces methane. Surface emissions are the biggest source of GHGs in dam/reservoir systems.

• Downstream Dewatering — when wetlands, mangroves, and riparian areas downstream of a dam are dewatered, they dry up and emit CO2 and methane.

Some dam-and-reservoir hydropower facilities produce as much, or more, greenhouse gases as a coal- red power plant generating the same amount of electricity. Further, various federal agencies in the U.S. — including the EPA — have studied, and are continuing to study, the full extent of GHG emissions that are produced by dams and reservoirs.

Although there are various types of hydropower schemes — including dam/reservoir, run-of-the-river, pumped storage, and others — they all have negative environmental impacts. Further, although large dams are worse than small dams, a sequence of small dams on a river can

be just as environmentally harmful as one large dam. Finally, although so-called “closed loop pumped storage” hydropower projects often do have negligible impacts on rivers, they can have huge negative environmental impacts on landscapes, public/private property, and wildlife habitat.

In conclusion, it may make sense to use wind and solar to create electricity to drive electrolysis to produce “green hydrogen” as an alternative energy source. In fact, one presentation at COP27 was titled, “Pathways to a climate-friendly and fair green hydrogen economy,” and provided some promising ideas to achieve those goals. Further, the environmental organization Earthjustice produced an excellent report titled, “Reclaiming Hydrogen for a Renewable Future: Distinguishing Fossil Fuel Industry Spin from Zero-Emission Solutions,” that is worth a read.

However, rivers are “overlooked and undervalued allies in the age of climate crisis,” such that I never see an opportunity for hydropower to produce hydrogen that can ever be called “green.”

Gary Wockner, PhD, is a river protection activist based in Colorado. Contact: Gary@Save eColorado.org

is opinion column does not necessarily re ect the views of Boulder Weekly.

NICOLE SPEER FOR MAYOR PRO TEM

On Dec. 1, Boulder City Council will be appointing its Mayor Pro Tem. Every year a new council member ascends to the position, appointed by fellow council members. e selection process is vague, and in my opinion is based on allyship, at the time of the vote, and sometimes based on seniority. All the job requires is a commitment to be on the Council Agenda Committee for one full year and to help sta navigate our council priorities throughout that year, and to stand-in for the mayor when he or she is unavailable. Because there are no speci c criteria and requirements beyond the ones aforementioned, I believe the Mayor Pro Tem should be someone who embodies the values of our Boulder community of diversity and inclusion. Someone who strives to engage communities that are not often part of the process. Dr. Nicole Speer is the only Mayor Pro Tem candidate thus far who I have seen consistently go out into the unhoused, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ community to support their e orts.

We are at a unique time in our history, in which the leaders of the community are expected to lead with empathy and equity. Our community members have empowered us to be courageous and to create the community of our ideals. A community that is people centered—which includes Black, brown, working-class whites, and LGBTQ+ people. Additionally, beyond merely including them we must ensure that they are also re ected in leadership and are at the forefront of the work that we do. Dr. Nicole Speer doesn’t just support the cause of LGBTQ+ people, she is a member of that community. As a council, we have so often publicly claimed our desire to promote and protect the rights of marginalized communities, however, without giving them a seat at the leadership table, our claim is merely hypothetical and illusory, at best.

In re ecting, I will not claim that voting for one LGBTQ+ colleague for Mayor Pro Tem is in any way protecting or promoting the rights of the entire LGBTQ+ community, but in the wake of everything that has been happening in our community and around the state, we have a duty to stand with our LGBTQ+ friends in the community and to ensure they have a seat at the leadership table, especially when they are quali ed. To that end, I hope my fellow council

colleagues will join me and take this opportunity to showcase their values and stand with Dr. Speer.

Junie Joseph, current Boulder City Councilmember and Representative-elect for House District 10.

SUPPORT A FOSSIL-FREE CU

As an Environmental Engineering Masters student focusing on air quality research at CU Boulder, the e ects of the fossil fuel industry on the air

we breathe plays a major role in my personal connection to the Fossil Free CU movement. By investing millions in fossil fuels, CU is complicit in the disproportionate health impacts experienced by communities across the Front Range of Colorado as well as the climate impacts felt across the world. is goes against the diversity, equity and inclusion that the CU System supposedly prides itself in. How am I supposed to be inspired

as an environmental researcher if my University doesn’t hold itself to its own standards of boldness and innovation as a climate and sustainability leader? I will be supporting the Fossil Free CU campaign at the climate strike this Friday, Dec. 2 to call upon the CU System to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in a just climate future for students and generations to come!

Helena Pliszka/Boulder

Imagining a better world

by Will Matuska

What does a world without fossil fuels look like?

In Colorado, natural gas, gasoline and coal still lead the way in our total energy consumption — heating homes, running vehicles and powering production. But, the industry’s grip goes deeper than mines and fracking lines.

Brigid Mark, a Ph.D. student in CU Boulder’s sociology program, says the fossil fuel industry is rmly embedded in our culture, “so much so that it’s di cult to imagine a world without fossil fuels.” is week, Boulder is expecting an in ux of environmentalists, activists and scientists from around the world for the Right Here, Right Now global climate summit, co-hosted by the United Nations Human Rights and CU Boulder. But behind the scenes, there’s a quiet student-led movement calling on the university to put its money where its mouth is and divest from fossil fuels — and it’s building momentum.

The divestment landscape

Higher education institutions like Harvard and the University of California (UC) system have also ended their investments in fossil fuels because of environmental, ethical and nancial reasons.

Jagdeep Singh Bachher, UC’s chief investment o cer, and Richard Sherman, chair of the UC Board of Regents’ Investments Committee, wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times stating, “We believe hanging on to fossil fuel assets is a nancial risk.”

Harvard’s president, Lawrence Bacow, justi ed the Ivy League school’s divestment in a statement to the Harvard community: “Given the need to decarbonize the economy and our responsibility as duciaries to make long-term investment decisions that support our teaching and research mission, we do not believe such investments are prudent.”

e student-led club Fossil Free CU and the Boulder Faculty Assembly are helping spearhead the divestment campaign at CU, but the university has also taken steps toward climate action and more sustainable investments.

Earlier this fall, Fossil Free CU released a petition calling the University of Colorado system to divest from fossil fuels.

ABOVE: Students at Fossil Free CU’s teach-in event on Nov. 1, which had more than 100 attendees. The club is hosting a strike to promote divestment at noon on Friday, Dec. 2 outside the UMC Building.

Fossil fuel divestment is the intentional movement of money and investments out of the fossil fuel industry and into more sustainable and ethical sources.

Divestment campaigns are rooted in both climate science and social responsibility — taking action on the fact that burning fossil fuels caused climate change, which is experienced di erently depending on social status.

According to the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Commitments Database, 1,552 institutions have divested an approximate value of $40.5 trillion globally.

“ rough its investments,” the group wrote, “the university consents to the devastation in icted by the fossil fuel industry, and thus endangers the future of CU students, perpetuates systemic injustices against marginalized communities, harms the university’s reputation as a global climate leader, and threatens Coloradan communities.”

In a resolution written in April this year, the CU Boulder Faculty Assembly cited more than 10 reasons “to call on the University of Colorado to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in a just transition.”

CU administration has taken steps of its own, including CU Boulder Chancellor Philip DiStefano’s “Call to Climate Action” in 2021, and CU joining the Principles of Responsible Investing in the summer of 2022 (a pledge toward more climate friendly and socially responsible investing).

How a group of students are leading CU toward more sustainable investments

BRIGID MARK

“We are starting to see some change, which is a good thing,” says David Paradis, speaking as a faculty member at CU Boulder. He is also involved with the Boulder Faculty Assembly.

A report from PBS says there are at least 20 pending lawsuits led by cities and states across the U.S. claiming the fossil fuel industry misled the public about risks associated with climate change. One of the goals of CU divesting from fossil fuels, Paradis says, would be to protect the university from an industry known for uctuating value, expensive environmental disasters and array of social costs.

“At some point, they’re going to be held accountable for that,” Paradis says.

With students, faculty and administration all taking steps toward climate action and sustainable investments, what is keeping the University of Colorado from removing its investments in fossil fuels?

not a lightswitch’

e University of Colorado has three pools of money invested in fossil fuels: the treasury pool, endowment and retirement funds.

e endowment (estimated at $3 billion) is managed through the CU Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) organization that fundraises for the university. e treasury pool (estimated at $2 billion) is controlled by the treasurer and chief investment o cer, Tony Vu, and the investment advisory committee.

Of the $4.9 billion investments between the CU Foundation and treasury pool, $270.5 million (5.4%) is in the fossil fuel sector.

e retirement funds are managed externally by TIAA, which is the sole administrator of retirement funds available to CU Boulder faculty. ose funds are not in direct control of CU.

CU is one of the few universities in the country that has an elected Board of Regents, which is responsible for “the general supervision of the university and the exclusive control and direction of all funds of and appropriations to the university.”

ere are nine members who serve six-year terms.

Ken McConnellogue, acting vice president for communication at the O ce of the President, says there has been “a fair amount of discussion” about divestment at the administrative level.

“[Divestment] seems rather simple, like turning o a light switch,” he says. “It’s a lot more complicated than that.”

According to the National Science Foundation, Colorado’s state support for higher education per

full-time equivalent student ranks second lowest in the country at $2,909 per student (the national average is $8,000). is makes the University more vulnerable to nancial issues.

“ e practical e ect of that is we have less money to work with, so we look to our investments to ll in some of those gaps,” McConnellogue says. “We need all the money we can get coming into this university.”

the country rely on student activism. When students have a nite amount of time at a university, it’s di cult for organizations like Fossil Free CU to maintain knowledge and resources, impeding the campaign’s progress.

Despite advocacy from Gantert and other students, the Board of Regents voted 7-2 against divestment in 2015, which was the last time the issue came before the Board.

“It’s very complicated,” Paradis says. “You can see why change happens slowly.”

Building momentum

Paradis says he is impressed with Fossil Free CU’s moral compass, leadership and e orts to work with the administration, rather than villainizing them.

McConnellogue says it’s in CU’s best interest to have a diverse portfolio of investments to support student scholarships, faculty programs and facilities, including fossil fuel investments.

Tony Vu, CU’s treasurer and chief investment o cer, was on administrative leave and unavailable for comment.

Brigid Mark, one of the leaders of the horizontally-led Fossil Free CU who had experience with fossil fuel divestment prior to becoming a student at CU Boulder, says the group feels support from students, but there is often confusion around how the di erent pools of money work and who manages them.

“ e fact that I can’t understand right away is indicative of how di cult it would be for anyone to understand,” she says. “For example, an undergrad who’s never done divestment before.”

P.D. Gantert, a CU Boulder alumnus who helped lead the fossil fuel divestment campaign from 2013-2016, says there was often confusion around how to direct advocacy e orts, partially because of a high turnover of students, and partially because of delayed responses from the administration.

“Give it a year or two and key leaders are graduating out from student activism,” Gantert explains. “Sometimes there are younger leaders who are able to pick up the torch and continue carrying it, but that’s not always the case.”

Many university divestment campaigns across

“ at takes a lot of maturity and poise,” he says. “It’s easy to get mad, and when you get mad at someone, they don’t work well with you. It makes more sense to do it the way [the students are] doing it.”

at strategy has helped form a positive relationship with Treasurer Tony Vu, who signed on to the Principles for Responsible Investing and has communicated transparently with both Paradis and students with Fossil Free CU.

“I’m feeling fairly hopeful,” Paradis says. “I feel like for the rst time that I know, we have a treasurer who’s making plans to move in the right direction, and I feel as though it’s achievable and doable, and that’s exciting.”

While divestment isn’t on any upcoming board agendas, Paradis is optimistic about the Board of Regents’ new 5-4 Democratic majority.

Lesley Smith, chair of the Board of Regents, declined to comment. However, she had an informal meeting with students and faculty involved with Fossil Free CU on Nov. 18.

Brigid Mark says Fossil Free CU’s petition now has 1,018 signatures, mostly from students.

“ e CU administration should align its nancial investments with its values,” Mark says. “Its goals are to prepare students for their futures, and right now, they’re going against that with their investments, because they’re endangering their futures.”

Fossil Free CU will host a strike to promote divestment at noon on Friday, Dec. 2 outside the UMC building.

‘It’s

BRIGID MARK

ON SCREEN: Quantum Cowboys screening with director Geoff Marslett. 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, Muenzinger Auditorium (CU Boulder), 1905 Colorado Ave. Tickets: $9, internationalfilmseries.com

Final frontier

Local filmmaker scrambles the senses with sci-fi western ‘Quantum Cowboys’

by Gregory Wakeman

Geoff Marslett found cinema through science. During the 1990s he worked as a physicist at the Naval Research Laboratory before turning his hand to filmmaking. Over the last 22 years, Marslett has made a number of short and feature films while also teaching, first at The University of Texas at Austin, and currently at the University of Colorado Boulder.

With Quantum Cowboys, Marslett’s latest film, he was able to combine both of these interests. A love letter to quantum physics, animation and music, the

Colorado-filmed feature is an old-fashioned Western about two hapless but charming drifters, Frank (Kiowa Gordon) and Bruno (John Way), who team up with Linde (Lily Gladstone), as they travel across southern Arizona in the 1870s.

That’s only one aspect of the film, though. Marslett uses a variety of different animation techniques to tell the story, while also combining Hugh Everett’s Many Worlds Theory, Erwin Schrödinger’s Paradox of Quantum Superposition and Richard Feynman’s Posterior and Anterior Time Wave Theory to suggest that human memory is only comprehensible through art.

“I wanted to make a film that found some way to try and illustrate how intoxicating knowledge that’s contrary to your senses can be,” Marslett says. “My hope is someone gets to the end of this film and realizes that two opposing ideas are true at the same time, depending on who’s looking at something. That’s the way science works and how we make breakthroughs. That’s the way arguments between people work, that’s the way history works. I hope people will rethink how they look at history, especially the West.”

degrees. For the first two and half weeks of shooting, it didn’t even break freezing once. Plus, we had no heat or cooling in the barn.”

Marslett regularly had to wake up before sunrise to sweep away snow that had fallen overnight. Luckily, Quantum Cowboys’ elite cast, which also includes David Arquette, Gary Farmer, Anna Karina, Alex Cox and Frank Mosley, were amenable to these conditions.

The editing process was similarly exhausting for Marslett. Extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was able to use CU’s equipment and support to complete the film, as he collaborated with his animation team of roughly 65 artists located across the globe. This meant he was working until 4:30 a.m. and then waking up to teach classes for two and a half years straight.

“The downside is there’s really not enough time in the day. The upside is that it makes you better in the classroom,” he says. “If you’re making things, you’re encountering the same challenges that the students hope to face. So you can bring real world experience.”

Turning his pages of handwritten notes and ideas into the script for Quantum Cowboys proved to be quite a challenge for Marslett. “What I really leaned on with the film was anchoring [my thoughts] on the three really charismatic leads,” he says. “The big ideas are there, but I wanted to focus on Frank and Bruno’s friendship and how Linde fit into the story.”

history in

Marslett, who moved to Boulder at the end of 2015 when he became the faculty director for CU Boulder’s narrative film production program, took great joy in shooting Quantum Cowboys in the city. Since he knew most of the film was going to be animated, he was able to film in a large barn using a giant green screen with the help of his students.

At the same time, Marslett quickly learned during Quantum Cowboys’ 18-day shoot why Colorado has failed to blossom into a destination for independent filmmakers.

“The weather’s not very cooperative,” he says. “We shot in October 2019, when the average temperature was supposed to be 62

Unsurprisingly, Marslett is already planning ahead to his next movie, which will be a sequel to Quantum Cowboys that focuses on Arquette’s Colfax. In fact, he actually sees the film as the first part of a trilogy, with the final installment telling Linde’s full story.

“We’ve had a really good response to the film so far. I’m hoping to get some decent distribution,” he says. “If we do that, my next project will be the sequels. I have written outlines for part two and part three, and that’s what I would really like to do next. They’d turn this story on its head as you see it from another perspective.”

Whatever happens, though, Marslett is delighted to have directed some of his cinematic heroes in Quantum Cowboys. Gary Farmer’s Powwow Highway and Dead Man, Alex Cox’s Straight to Hell, and Anna Karina’s Alphaville and Pierrot le Fou each inspired Marslett to become a director.

“We do this because we want to make something new and because we want to make something that’s really personal to us,” he says. “But getting to have my own cinematic heroes act in my film was just — I mean, who gets to do that? It was all a dream come true.”

Cleaner and meaner

by Jezy J.

If there’s one moment that captures the sonic leap of Nashville-based music artist Sophie Allison over the last half-decade, it comes right in the middle of Sometimes, Forever, her newest release under the stage name Soccer Mommy. Amid the down-tempo, trip-hop dirge of album centerpiece “Darkness Forever,” the 25-year-old guitarist and vocalist cuts through the commotion with a blood-chilling, glass-busting shriek — catapulting the song, and the delicate sound she’s built throughout three full-length albums, into a violent new register.

“I think the most shocked person [in the studio] was me,” she says with a laugh. “We were in a space that was fairly large, and it was just me in there standing probably 10 or 15 feet back from the mic. I’ve never yelled as loud as I can before, probably since I was a child. So I really had no idea what was going to come out.”

What came out represents a lifetime of growth for Allison since the release of her debut album in 2018. Clean, her first proper offering as Soccer Mommy, announced the arrival of a commanding (if quieter) new voice in indie rock: hushed and wistful, but propelled by a sharp pop sensibility, emotional clarity and a confidence beyond her years. Then came her synth-forward sophomore effort Color Theory, a moodier offering marked by swirling electronics and the creeping bruises of self-doubt. Now Sometimes, Forever finds Allison traversing darker and more experimental territory, while still retaining the signature sweetness that never quite dissolves in this bitter cocktail of love and loss.

“I think part of that is due to getting into a studio for the first time and really working with a producer,” Allison says of Soccer Mommy’s expanding sound. “Having all these opportunities and seeing all these things you can do put me in this position where I could explore a lot of stuff I wouldn’t have been able to explore when I was recording in my bedroom.”

Despite that steady growth from her early days, there’s an undeniable throughline connecting Allison’s new LP with its predecessors. The one-two punch of buoyant album opener “Bones” and romantic chaser “With U” are built on the tenderhearted pop-rock scaffolding that has earned Soccer Mommy a devoted legion of listeners over the past four years, and the haunting closer “Still” proves she doesn’t need to raise her voice to plunge a knife into their hearts.

But with the help of superstar producer Daniel Lopatin — the electronic musician known as Oneohtrix Point Never, whose production work includes The Weeknd’s Dawn FM

and meme-ready Super Bowl performance — Sometimes, Forever is the sound of a restless artist who continues to carve new creative quadrants in the map of her short but shimmering career.

“I could definitely hear places on Color Theory where I wanted to get maybe a little more electronic at certain parts, and get kind of weird with things. I did that a little bit, and then with Sometimes, Forever, I was ready to go full force,” she says. “I think having Dan [Lopatin] as the producer pushed me into this sphere I wanted to go into, but didn’t quite know how to get there on my own.”

For Allison, a big part of that journey involved pushing herself outside her comfort zone and beyond her original vision of the 11 songs making up her simultaneously bleak and breezy new LP. “I didn’t want to be stopped by the fact that it’s something I haven’t really done before. I didn’t want to catch myself shying away from going too far in one direction,” she says. “I really wanted to get crazy with it and see what happens.”

But Sometimes, Forever represents more than a bold new sonic horizon for Soccer Mommy. The all-in approach is also baked into Allison’s confessional lyrics, which often return to the twinned concepts of temporality and extremity through her trademark introspection. (“I don’t know how to feel things small,” she sings on the closing track. “It’s a tidal wave or nothing at all.”) Juiced by Lopatin’s otherworldly production, this dovetailed strategy draws the record’s themes into their sharpest relief.

“Whether it’s struggles you’re going through, or happiness, or anything, it can be constantly recurring throughout your entire life, but that doesn’t mean it’s always present. So I kind of wanted to touch on that,” Allison says. “Because a lot of the songs on the album go through this push and pull of feeling something, and feeling it all at once — like it’s the only thing in the world, and then it’s all gone the next minute.”

ON THE BILL: Soccer Mommy with TOPS.

7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, Washington’s, 132 Laporte Ave., Fort Collins. | 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Sophie Allison ‘gets weird’ on bleak and breezy new Soccer Mommy album

Gray

Stone cold and striking hot

Kate Manning’s ‘Gilded Mountain’ draws from Colorado history in a page-turning exploration of wealth inequality, organized labor and young love in the early 1900s by Emma Athena

There will always be stories that slip through the cracks. Whether a function of human capacity, or our proclivity for comfort over truth, the bowl of experiences passed from one generation to the next is often a strained soup of hero worship and celebratory tales, the unsavory chunks of hardship and violence sifted off for trash. “People do not want to hear sad stories,” as novelist Kate Manning writes. “They want cherry pie and bromide.”

Looking through historic photographs of Colorado’s mountain towns in the early 1900s, it was those peripheral scraps that caught Manning’s eye. “What I like to do is find stories of people who aren't in the textbooks,” she says. “I kept looking at these mining camps, [wondering], ‘Where are the women?’ And there, in the shadows, would be a skirt, or just the outline of a skirt, someone peering out of a doorway, one woman cooking in a boarding house.” Other photos had workers in sub-zero temperatures toiling for pennies; groups of small children standing neck-deep in snow; houses buried up to rafters in white. “And I’d think, ‘What? How? How did they persevere?’”

With her third novel, Gilded Mountain (published November 2022 by Simon & Schuster), Manning takes such border-bits and places them front-center, filling a gap in the Centennial State’s mining folklore with the story of 17-year-old Sylvie Pelletier, a spirited and perceptive observer whose Quebecois family arrives in 1907 alongside other immigrants to

the fictionalized town of Moonstone, Colorado.

A fledgling labor movement is brewing among the overworked and underpaid marble quarrymen, who contend daily with grueling, deadly work harvesting stone to be shipped eastward for national monuments. As Sylvie’s father stirs talk about strikes and unions, the family stuffs newspaper in their cabin’s cracked walls and huddles in the same bed at night to keep warm. Sylvie soon escapes the squalor, first by taking a secretarial job at the local manor house that the mining company owners occupy when visiting town, its walls adorned in elephant leather and staffed by formerly enslaved peoples; and then at the Moonstone Record, a newspaper helmed by a bold female publisher critical of the mining company. In both occupations, Sylvie receives a crash course on wealth inequality, resulting in mounting anger, “sharpening grief into metal" — all while she’s falling in love, teasing the temptations of luxury as much as the magnetism of revolution.

Many characters and settings in Gilded Mountain were drawn from true Colorado history, and lightly, too, from the author’s own life. The characters of Sylvie and Moonstone’s newspaper publisher, K.T. Redmond, were inspired by the editor Sylvia Smith, publisher of the Marble City Times. In 1912, Smith was run out of Marble, Colorado, for printing and speaking her mind; she suffered “very severe consequences for speaking out,” says Manning, who integrates newspaper articles throughout Gilded Mountain — several taken directly from columns penned by Smith in the early 1900s. The novel also references the Weld County town of Dearfield, along with the famous fiery organizer and orator, Mother Jones.

Set beneath the majestic (and real) Mount Sopris, Elkhorne, the manor where Sylvie works, is modeled after Redstone Castle, a still-standing mansion built in the early 20th century for John C. Osgood, founder of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. “It really has wallpaper made out of elephant leather,” Manning says; at least that’s what the tour guide told her during a research trip. Visiting from her home in New York, a baffled Manning reached out to touch the walls herself — exact-

ON THE PAGE: Gilded Mountain reading with Kate Manning. 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl St. Tickets: $5, eventbrite.com

ly something Sylvie would do. They both find details like that impossible to resist. Reality often assists fiction, and sometimes the inverse is also true: Fiction can provide more approachable venues for grappling with truths — for both readers and writers. It was a photograph of Manning’s own great-grandfather among marble dealers in Colorado that sparked her initial research. Upon discovering her ancestor was a strike breaker, she wanted to probe that past and reckon with it alongside her own experience as a union member.

As she portrays characters from all walks of life, the threads of reality bind them under a modern lens. She likens fiction to acting. “It’s a kind of radical empathy — you have to imagine your way into someone else's skin,” Manning says. “I was raised to always turn the tables [and consider] instead of only thinking one way, try to turn the mirror. See what they see.”

Throughout the novel, Sylvia’s morals form in real time: “A good girl. What was goodness? Obedience? Chastity? Listening to editors and countesses and books, I was grappling toward some other sort of goodness to claim for myself,” the protagonist reflects in the first months away from home. As her world expands from the small miner’s cabin to the greater Moonstone town, its colonial power dynamics and the national labor movement, the world chisels at her ideals — a process not unlike what the marble slabs undergo once hauled outside the Gilded Mountain quarry, whether transformed to religious statues, confederate monuments, or foundation blocks for university buildings.

Wealth disparity, immigration, human rights and freedom of expression are all forces at play in Gilded Mountain — each as familiar in the 2020s as they were in the 1910s. As they continue to intersect in today’s labor movement, Manning reminds us collective action during certain flashpoints of history have led to meaningful change in addressing this medley of injustices. Concepts like the weekend, overtime, pensions, healthcare, workplace safety and job security were all born from labor and union movements like those picked apart and put back together throughout Gilded Mountain. “Bravery is not just for the battlefields of war,” Manning writes. “Every day, ordinary people climb out of bed and carry on extraordinary, in a fight for their families, carrying sorrow, working for the betterment of us all.”

In this spirit, it’s Manning who shares her labor with us — 10 years of research and writing and editing — so we may all reap the benefits of more savory, spicy and satisfying dishes of national creation myth, including more empathy and invitations to practice turning the mirror ourselves, to see what others have seen.

Celebrate The Season With Music Solstice

Friday, Dec. 9

7:30 pm

United Church of Christ 1500 9th Avenue Longmont, CO 80501

Sunday, Dec. 11

4:00 pm

Saint Paul Lutheran Church 1600 Grant Street Denver, CO 80203

Thursday, Dec. 15

7:30 pm

Mountain View United Methodist Church 355 Ponca Place Boulder, CO 80303

Friday, Dec. 16

7:30 pm

First United Methodist Church 1421 Spruce Street Boulder, CO 80302

LIVESTREAM

DECEMBER 11

4:00 pm

From

Saint Paul Lutheran Church 1600 Grant Street Denver, CO 80203

All Tickets $30

arsnovasingers.org

■ Our Communities and Climate Change

Noon-1 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, Byron White Club Level, Folsom Stadium, 2150, 372 Stadium Drive, Boulder

Learn how climate change is affecting Boulder County, from catastrophic wildfires to higher flood risks and diminishing air quality. Speakers from CU Boulder will discuss how we can reduce emissions while improving equity and quality of life for future generations during this community conversation.

ON VIEW: The lens of Haitian-born photographer Yvens Alex Saintil captures images designed “to spark meaningful conversations centered around police reform and accountability, veteran mental healthcare, gun violence, and activism” in the artist’s ongoing Photographs exhibition at The New East Window Gallery. More details below.

Juan Fuentes: Pride on Your Side. BMoCA at Aurora Central Library, 4949 E Alameda Parkway. Through Dec. 31. Free

Lived Experience. Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Ave. Through Jan. 14. Free

Karen Breunig: Woman in the Water. BMoCA at Frasier, 350 Ponca Place, Boulder. Through Jan. 15. Tickets: $2, bmoca.org

■ Parade of Lights

5:30-9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, Historic Downtown Louisville on Main Street

The Louisville Chamber is organizing their Parade of Lights event in downtown Louisville. The parade will be accompanied by fun festivities like musical entertainment from local schools and churches, a living nativity and talks with Santa. Bring your holiday spirit to this more-than-30-year-old Louisville tradition.

■ Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony

6-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2, George DiCiero City and County Building, 1 Descombes Drive, Broomfield

Bundle up and welcome Christmas to Broomfield with your neighbors (and Santa Claus himself) at Broomfield’s Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony. Before and after the lighting, enjoy free cookies, rides on the holiday wagon and music from Broomfield Children’s Choir.

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

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

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

The Dirty South: Contemporary Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse. Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, 1485 Delgany St., Denver. Through Feb. 5. Tickets: $10, mcadenver.org

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

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

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

■ CU Holiday Festival 2022

Various times, Dec. 2-4, Macky Auditorium, 1595 Pleasant St., Boulder. Tickets: $20-$70, cupresents.org

“Boulder’s beloved holiday tradition” is back to bring you the College of Music’s seasonal performance. This decades-old celebration of holiday favorites and new surprises is a collaboration of students, bands, orchestras, and the twinkling lights in Macky Auditorium.

COURTESY CU BOULDER

ON THE BILL: Lauded English alternative pop-rock outfit The 1975 comes to Denver’s Mission Ballroom on the heels of their latest album, Being Funny in a Foreign Language, released last October via Interscope. The high-energy show will feature support from Lovelytheband and Neon the Bishop. See listing below for more details.

★ FRIDAY, DEC. 2

Champagne Drip with SIPPY, BWRZ. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tickets: $20$30, z2ent.com

Winter Fest feat. AMICI, Bathroom Break, MRGN B2B Paredes, Nakos B2B Dagan. 7:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $18-$20, z2ent.com

Melt. 9 p.m. Velvet Elk Lounge, 2037 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $15-18, z2ent.com

Magic Beans. 8 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland. Tickets: $20, thecaribouroom. com

James and Black. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $20, museperformancespace.com

The Fretliners. 8:30 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Tickets: $15 cash cover charge

Andy Frasco and the U.N. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $25, axs.com

The Lil Smokies. 9 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $30, bluebirdtheater.net

★ SATURDAY, DEC. 3

Half Maxx. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road,

Lafayette. Tickets: $10-$20, museperformancespace.com

The Johnny Blueheart Trio. 7 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Free

Soccer Mommy with TOPS. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $30-$75, axs.com

The Lil Smokies. 9 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $30, bluebirdtheater.net

★ SUNDAY, DEC. 4

Muse Collegiate Series: CU Denver. 6 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $10, museperformancespace. com

Tom Waits Tribute. 7:30 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main St., Boulder. Tickets: $20 cash cover charge

Trusetto. 7 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $20, bluebirdtheater.net

★ MONDAY, DEC. 5

Ripe With Mobley, Graham Good & the Painters. 6:30 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tickets: $20-$25, z2ent.com

The Lemonheads. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $35-$40, bluebirdtheater.net

★ TUESDAY, DEC. 6

Avi Kaplan with Maddie Poppe. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boul-

der. Tickets: $20- $22, z2ent.com

The 1975 with Lovelytheband and Neon the Bishop. 7 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Tickets: $65, axs.com

★ WEDNESDAY, DEC. 7

Face Vocal Band Holiday Concert. 7:30 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St. Tickets: $25-$45, z2ent.com

Oh Snap. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: on sale Dec. 2, museperformancespace.com

DannyLux. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $25, bluebirdtheater.net

★

THURSDAY, DEC. 8

The Dick Nixons with On The Dot, Big Pinch. 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St. Boulder. Tickets: $15-$18, z2ent.com

Dirty Flamenco, Gary Meyers. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $20, museperformancespace.com

Rome & Duddy. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $37, axs.com

SF9. 7 p.m. Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 N. Clarkson St., Denver. Tickets: $99, fillmoreauditorium.org

Morgenshtern. 8 p.m. Gothic Theater, 3263 S. Broadway, Englewood. Tickets: $69-$125, gothictheatre.com

SAMUEL BRADLEY

■ Longmont Museum Holiday Show

3 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, Longmont Museum, 400 Quail Road. Tickets: $15-$20, longmontcolorado.gov

Back for its seventh year, the Longmont Museum is hosting well-known musicians and performers like Hazel Miller, the Boulder Klezmer Consort and The Mestas Abbot Quartet that will bring you songs of the season. And there’s a cash bar with a signature holiday drink.

■ Ugly Sweater 5k at Left Hand Brewing

10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Free

Burn off a few calories and wear your favorite ugly sweater during Left Hand Brewing’s Ugly Sweater 5K. After you crush that early morning run, enjoy a free local craft brew with your friends at the finish line.

■ Village at the Peaks Annual Tree Lighting

4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, Village at the Peaks, 1250 S. Hover Road, Longmont. Free

Join the Longmont community in celebrating the annual tree lighting at Village at the Peaks. The family-friendly event will feature holiday music from That 80s Band, along with a dueling ice carving show, hot cocoa, photo ops with Santa and a ho-ho-whole lot more.

COURTESY VISIT LONGMONT

COURTESY LEFT HAND BREWING

ON STAGE: It’s the last weekend to catch The Upstart Crow’s adaptation of Irwin Shaw’s classic 1936 anti-war play, Bury the Dead, running at the Dairy Arts Center through Dec. 4. The show underscores the absurdity of state conflict through the lens of six soldiers who have been killed in battle but rise from the ground to resist the grave that has been dug for them. See listing below for more details.

Harvey Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Dec. 4. Tickets: $20$25, thedairy.org

A 1940s Radio Christmas Carol Longmont Theatre, 513 Main St. Through Dec. 4. Tickets: $35, longmonttheatre.org

Bury the Dead Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Through Dec. 4. Tickets: $21-$25, thedairy.org

Little Red. Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Randy Weeks Conservatory Theatre, 1101 13th St.,

Denver. Through Dec. 18. Tickets: $16-$30, denvercenter.org

A Christmas Carol. Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Wolf Theatre, Speer Boulevard & Arapahoe Street, Denver. Through Dec. 24. Tickets: $10-$77, denvercenter.org

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

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

■ Lights of December Parade

6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, Downtown Boulder

The annual Lights of December Parade will have Christmas-themed floats and marching bands. Rumor has it, the big man himself (Santa Clause) might join the parade after his East County appointment earlier in the day. The parade will start at 15th and Walnut and take a roundabout way to finish at 15th and Spruce.

■ Lyons Holiday Parade of Lights

6:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, Downtown Lyons

The Lyons Parade of Lights will be filled with lit-up and colorful floats decorated in the theme of the parade — “Starry Starry Night.” The Parade starts along Main Street then to Second Avenue.

Estate of Joseph Allen Negri aka Joseph A. Negri aka Joseph Negri, Deceased

Case No.: 22PR30568

All persons having claims against the abovenamed estate are required to present them to the Personal Representative or to the District Court of Boulder County, Colorado on or before March 24, 2023, or said claims may be forever barred.

STEWART+GORDON, Personal Representative 3650 S YOSEMITE ST 214 DENVER, Colorado 80237

PAUL CAMPBELL

COURTESY CU BOULDER

■ ‘Quantum Cowboys’ with Geoff Marslett

7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, Muenzinger Auditorium, 1905 Colorado Ave., Boulder. Tickets: $9

Join local filmmaker Geoff Marslett and members of the CU community for a screening of Marslett’s film Quantum Cowboys as part of the university’s International Film Series. The film is a different look at the wild west and the frontier, explored through a dozen different animation techniques. Read today’s story on p. 15 for more details.

■ ‘To Which We Belong’

6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 7. Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: $23, thedairy.org

Learn about the future of farming and the agricultural methods that have been left behind with this documentary at the Dairy. Filmmaker Pamela Tanner Boll will speak before the film about how sustainability in agriculture has changed, and will change in the future.

■ Trevor Wallace — ‘Are You That Guy?’

7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Tickets: $32-$42, axs.com

Trevor Wallace’s fame was built on social media, where the stand-up comic, writer and actor has reached 2.5 billion views across his various channels. Head to the Boulder Theater to see Wallace on stage when his national tour comes to the Front Range.

GEOFF MARSLETT

by Rob Brezsny

ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: Aries filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky wrote, “To be free, you simply have to be so, without asking permission. You must have your own hypothesis about what you are called to do, and follow it, not giving in to circumstances or complying with them. But that sort of freedom demands powerful inner resources, a high degree of self-awareness, and a consciousness of your responsibility to yourself and therefore to other people.” That last element is where some freedom-seekers falter. They neglect their obligation to care for and serve their fellow humans. I want to make sure you don’t do that, Aries, as you launch a new phase of your liberation process. Authentic freedom is conscientious.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: The term “neurodiversity” refers to the fact that the human brain functions in a wide variety of ways. There are not just a few versions of mental health and learning styles that are better than all the others. Taurus musician David Byrne believes he is neurodiverse because he is on the autism spectrum. That’s an advantage, he feels, giving him the power to focus with extra intensity on his creative pursuits. I consider myself neurodiverse because my life in the imaginal realm is just as important to me as my life in the material world. I suspect that most of us are neurodiverse in some sense — deviating from “normal” mental functioning. What about you, Taurus? The coming months will be an excellent time to explore and celebrate your own neurodiversity.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Poet Jane Hirshfield says that Zen Buddhism is built on three principles: 1. Everything changes. 2. Everything is connected. 3. Pay attention. Even if you are not a Zen practitioner, Gemini, I hope you will focus on the last two precepts in the coming weeks. If I had to summarize the formula that will bring you the most interesting experiences and feelings, it would be, “Pay attention to how everything is connected.” I hope you will intensify your intention to see how all the apparent fragments are interwoven. Here’s my secret agenda: I think it will help you register the truth that your life has a higher purpose than you’re usually aware of—and that the whole world is conspiring to help you fulfill that purpose.

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: Author Flannery O’Connor wrote, “You have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it.” I will add a further thought: “You have to cherish the world at the same time that you struggle to endure it and strive to transform it into a better place.” Let’s make this one of your inspirational meditations in the coming months, Cancerian. I suspect you will have more power than usual to transform the world into a better place. Get started! (PS: Doing so will enhance your ability to endure and cherish.)

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: Many sports journalists will tell you that while they may root for their favorite teams, they also “root for the story.” They want a compelling tale to tell. They yearn for dramatic plot twists that reveal entertaining details about interesting characters performing unique feats. That’s how I’m going to be in the coming months Leo, at least in relation to you. I hope to see you engaged in epic sagas, creating yourself with verve as you weave your way through fun challenges and intriguing adventures. I predict my hope will be realized.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Venus is too hot and dry for humans to live on. But if travelers from Earth could figure out a way to feel comfortable there, they would enjoy a marvelous perk. The planet rotates very slowly. One complete day and night lasts for 243 Earth days and nights. That means you and a special friend could take a romantic stroll toward the sunset for as long as you wanted, and never see the sun go down. I invite you to dream up equally lyrical adventures in togetherness

here on Earth during the coming months, Virgo. Your intimate alliances will thrive as you get imaginative and creative about nurturing togetherness.

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: As far as I’m concerned, Libran Buddhist monk and author Thích Nhat Hanh was one of the finest humans who ever lived. “Where do you seek the spiritual?” he asked. His answer: “You seek the spiritual in every ordinary thing that you do every day. Sweeping the floor, watering the vegetables, and washing the dishes become sacred if mindfulness is there.” In the coming weeks, Libra, you will have exceptional power to live like this: to regard every event, however mundane or routine, as an opportunity to express your soulful love and gratitude for the privilege of being alive. Act as if the whole world is your precious sanctuary.

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: A reader named Elisa Jean tells me, “We Scorpio allies admire how Scorpios can be so solicitous and welcoming: the best party hosts. They know how to foster social situations that bring out the best in everyone and provide convivial entertainment. Yet Scorpios also know everyone’s secrets. They are connoisseurs of the skeletons in the closets. So they have the power to spawn discordant commotions and wreak havoc on people’s reputations. But they rarely do. Instead, they keep the secrets. They use their covert knowledge to weave deep connections.” Everything Ella Jean described will be your specialties in the coming weeks, Scorpio.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Of all the signs in the zodiac, you Sagittarians are least likely to stay in one location for extended periods. Many of you enjoy the need to move around from place to place. Doing so may be crucial in satisfying your quest for ever-fresh knowledge and stimulation. You understand that it’s risky to get too fixed in your habits and too dogmatic in your beliefs. So you feel an imperative to keep disrupting routines before they become deadening. When you are successful in this endeavor, it’s often due to a special talent you have: your capacity for creating an inner sense of home that enables you to feel stable and grounded as you ramble free. I believe this superpower will be extra strong during the coming months.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: Capricorn author Edgar Allan Poe made this mysterious statement: “We can, at any time, double the true beauty of an actual landscape by half closing our eyes as we look at it.” What did he mean? He was referring to how crucial it is to see life “through the veil of the soul.” Merely using our physical vision gives us only half the story. To be receptive to the full glory of the world, our deepest self must also participate in the vision. Of course, this is always true. But it’s even more extra especially true than usual for you right now.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: Aquarian theologian Henri Nouwen wrote, “I have discovered that the gifts of life are often hidden in the places that hurt most.” Yikes! Really? I don’t like that idea. But I will say this: If Nouwen’s theory has a grain of truth, you will capitalize on that fact in the coming weeks. Amazingly enough, a wound or pain you experienced in the past could reveal a redemptive possibility that inspires and heals you.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: Piscean novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen says it’s wise to talk to yourself. No other conversational partner is more fascinating. No one else listens as well. I offer you his advice in the hope of encouraging you to upgrade the intensity and frequency of your dialogs with yourself. It’s an excellent astrological time to go deeper with the questions you pose and to be braver in formulating your responses. Make the coming weeks be the time when you find out much more about what you truly think and feel.

by Dan Savage

Q: I’m a 29-year-old cis straight male. What are the ethics of having a minor cum/breeding kink? Thanks, Dan!

A: No one chooses their kinks, so having a kink doesn’t raise ethical issues. Acting on our kinks — making choices that impact others — that’s where ethical concerns kick in. So, if it turns you on to “breed” someone, as the gay boys (very problematically!) like to say, and you never act on it, if you just sit in your apartment wanking about it, there are no ethical issues. But if you act on this kink with another person — if you want to have unprotected sex with a woman — you need to make sure she’s aware of the risks going in and that birth control is her responsibility. And you should be fully aware — going in and out and in and out — that child support could be your responsibility. (Also, you should read Ejaculate Responsibly by Gabrielle Blair.)

Q: I have misophonia. Blowjob noises make me sick. Is it possible to give a quiet blowjob?

A: Misophonia is a sensory disorder that makes certain sounds extremely unpleasant; eating sounds—mouth noises— can be particularly triggering for sufferers. Noise-canceling headphones seem like an obvious solution, but they won’t work, as noises made in your own mouth have a very different path to your eardrums. So, what you need are noise-generating headphones, i.e., regular ol’ headphones blasting music cranked up so loud you literally can’t hear anything else—not even those plunger-being-used-in-desperationas-the-water-rises-to-the-top-of-the-toiletbowl sounds someone giving a blowjob makes when their work is almost done.

Q: Beginning to think I’m bad at sex. I try to be GGG. Any tips?

A: Sex isn’t just about giving pleasure; it’s not just about being GGG for your partner. It’s also about taking pleasure and giving your partner the opportunity to be GGG for you. So, figure out what it is you like and what you want — sex acts or scenarios or dirty talk or materials that turn you on — and find someone who wants to give you those things, and take them.

Q: I’m a mid bi woman in her mid-30s a few years into an open/poly marriage to a man. I’ve fallen pretty hard for my

girlfriend of six months. I’ve had relationships with women before getting married, but this one has me questioning if I’d be happier as a fully-fledged lesbian. How do I work out if this is just NRE (new relationship energy), a specific connection with her, or actually a waning interest in men altogether?

A: Wanting to be with your new girlfriend all the time — that’s NRE for you — doesn’t mean you’d be happier as a lesbian, fully-fledged or otherwise. But it doesn’t not mean that either. You won’t know how you’re going to feel until the NRE wears off, which it should soon.

Q: My boyfriend doesn’t want an open relationship and won’t have sex with me. But he looks at Grindr and watches a lot of porn. What do I do?

A: “I love you, honey, and I can do a sexless relationship — I mean, that’s what we’ve been doing for a while, so I can obviously do it — but I’m not going to lead a sexless existence. So, we’re either opening our relationship or we’re ending it. One or the other, your choice.” (My hunch is that your boyfriend has already opened things on his end, literally and figuratively. Guys don’t get on Grindr for the recipes. So, it’s ultimatum time.)

Q: Best advice for keeping sex hot in your late 40s, when you’re tired, you hurt, you’re crabby, and you’re bitter?

A: Realistic expectations, scheduled sex, pot edibles, E.D. meds, and erotic adventures planned months in advance (anticipation is a turn-on).

Q: How do I convince straight men that constantly pumping me full of vacuous, superficial compliments is not a substitution for a personality, a conversation, or flirting?

A: By refusing to fuck them, one vacuous, superficial, meaningless-compliment-spewing straight guy at a time. (That said, compliments > negging.)

Send questions to mailbox@savage. love. Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love

Life during wartime

From creation to destruction in ‘The Inspection’ and ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’

by Michael J. Casey

Ellis French (Jeremy Pope), a gay Black 20-something, trades the cold streets of New York City for the harsh regiment of Marine boot camp. Here, French and his fellow recruits undergo intense training designed to break them down, only to be built back up into “monsters,” as drill instructor Laws (Bokeem Woodbine) explains. It’s cruel, but it’s all in the interest of making indestructible believers in unit, corps, God and country.

But for French, that cruelty is exacerbated all the more by his sexual orientation, which does not remain a secret for long. The abuse and ridicule French endures are significant, though as he explains in the movie’s centerpiece, it’s still a better option than the one he left and the one waiting for him if he does not graduate.

Set in 2005 and filmed in a sometimes realistic, sometimes impressionistic style, The Inspection is a satisfying piece of performance, character and tone. Written and directed by Elegance Bratton, the movie is based on the filmmaker’s

experience in “don’t ask, don’t tell”-era boot camp. The majority of the narrative is confined to the 13week training, but Bratton sprinkles moments that extend into the world beyond.

ON SCREEN:

The Inspection, in theaters Dec. 1; All Quiet on the Western Front, streaming on Netflix.

Laws is a terrifying and imposing figure in the bunkhouse, but when in his cups, he reveals himself to be more bully than revolutionary. Rosales (Raúl Castillo), the source of French’s fantasies, is having troubles at home. And French’s mom, Inez (Gabrielle Union), says everything about French’s upbringing with her silence. Only when she addresses the elephant in the room does her character tip into caricature.

Still, The Inspection is an engaging movie with two central performances from Pope and Castillo that linger in the mind long after the screen goes dark.

The soldier is shot. One bullet to the head just as he was going over the top. We learn his name, Gerber, but little else. The year is 1917, three years into the War to End All Wars.

But Gerber is neither person nor individual. He is a soldier for the German army. He served his country, and now his time is up. So his tag is retrieved, his body stripped, his uniform washed, patched, folded and presented to another German excited to serve his country. He is Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), and he’s even younger than Gerber. By the movie’s end, Bäumer, too, will be replaced. This time by a soldier who doesn’t even look like he’s finished puberty.

Based on Erich Maria Remarque’s 1928 novel, All Quiet on the Western Front is the first time a German production has tackled the material. It’s fascinating, haunting and queasy, a powerful work that’ll turn off even the most ardent warmongers.

Director Edward Berger spares the soldiers no humiliation, no level of hunger or pain, and Volker Bertelmann’s score stings, turning even moments with a glimmer of life into a melancholy dirge. There is no light here, only death and misery. And when the horn blows on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, a little text and a simple shot prove it was all for naught.

COURTESY NETFLIX

Whyturnabean intoaburger ?

Iam confused by veggie burgers, vegan cheese, margarine and all substitutes for animal products that seek to imitate the very thing the eater wishes to avoid consuming. This time of year I’m triggered by the Tofurky, but it’s a year-round phenomenon.

Have you ever seen a meat eater attempt to reconfigure a T-bone steak to look like a pile of beans? I’m guessing no. So why must vegetarians turn beans into burgers? It reinforces the idea that meat eating is somehow more normal, and that vegetarians should try to hide their true selves and pretend to fit in.

Food culture on the Indian subcontinent is the opposite. There, it’s common to see restaurants proudly display their credentials with outdoor signage that announces “Veg and non-Veg” in large type. This delivers the message that veg is normal and non-veg is the alternative. Given that India will soon overtake China as the world’s most populous nation, this dietary preference is fortunate for the earth, and essential for India’s food security. Vegetables are much easier on the climate than meat, and a vegetable-based diet will feed more people from a given amount of land than a meaty cuisine.

Fortunately, Indian chefs have many tricks for making their food so satisfying. They do it with spices, sauces, and lots of chopping. Imitation animal products are not on the menu, yet Anthony Bourdain, as committed a flesh lover as anyone, once said that India is the only place where he could be a vegetarian.

Vegetables are beautiful, delicious and more interesting than

meat and most animal products. I love vegetables, despite being an ungulate-hunting omnivore, and I love vegetarians – except some of those who give me grief for hunting. A meat-free lifestyle is a beautiful thing, so don’t apologize, vegetarians!

Don’t try to play somebody else’s game with your dry, wannabe sausages. Be proud of your choices and flaunt your lifestyle. Veg is beautiful, and so are you.

A New Jersey-based vegetarian friend of mine named Matthew has been texting me some of his favorite unapologetic vegetable dishes that proudly celebrate the true identities of their ingredients.

He’s lucky enough to live near the West Windsor Community Farmers Market, pound-for-pound one of the nation’s best, which gives him access to a year-round diversity of produce and fungus.

Mushrooms, with their earthy diversity, deliver meaty satisfaction without trying to be meat. Matthew is fluent in what each variety brings to the table, and each week he brings home some combination of maitake, oyster, shitake, black pearl, trumpet, enoki, lion’s mane, chicken of the woods and others. They pack a decent amount of protein content alongside their dark, rich flavors, and he adds fungus to his meals the way I add bacon bits to mine.

Here are two of his favorites: First, a simple dish of broiled brussels sprouts with mushrooms. Next, an Indian-inspired meal of chickpeas with turmeric and lemon.

With so many benefits to the veg life, and a never-ending supply of flavors, why pose as a meat eater? Embrace your lifestyle, vegetarians, and give it a squeeze.

A meat-free lifestyle is nothing to hide in fake bacon and nut cheese by Ari LeVaux

Brussels sprouts with mushrooms

The recipe calls for maitake mushroom, which looks like a dense head of curly hair, but any mushroom will work. Since fancy fungus comes with a fancy price tag, one frugal trick is to use normal mushrooms like button, crimini or portabella to augment a smaller amount of exotic species. The cheaper ones will absorb the flavors of their pricey cousins, extending their impact. Either way, it’s going to be cheaper than meat.

1 lb mushrooms (fancy, pedestrian, or a mix), chopped

1 lb Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

4 Tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 cloves of garlic, minced

Combine all the ingredients in an oven-safe pan and broil for about 15 minutes, stirring often, until the outer leaves of the Brussels sprouts get crispy.

Lemon chickpeas

The raspy flavor of the turmeric, the piercing bite of the lemon, the herbal aroma of the cilantro and earthy, dare I say meaty flavor of the spinach combine for a dish that is both simple and complex.

While practicing this recipe I realized that it’s a mere stone’s throw away from the popular Indian dish channa masala, so I made a sub-batch with cumin, tomatoes and garam masala spice mix, just to see how it compared. To my surprise, the family preferred Matthew’s simpler version.

If you’re wondering why I added some baking soda, it’s to soften the chickpeas. This trick works on all beans, and can save you hours of simmering if you don’t like them crunchy.

Serves 2

1 medium sized onion, chopped 2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons turmeric 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 cubic inch ginger, grated

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon-ish red pepper powder or flakes

1 16-oz can of chickpeas

1/4 teaspoon baking soda (optional)

2 cups chopped spinach 1 bunch cilantro, chopped Chopped onion as a garnish

In a heavy-bottom pan, sauté the onions, garlic, and ginger in the oil. When the onions become translucent, add the salt, lemon juice, garlic powder, red pepper, and stir it together. After five minutes add the chickpeas, including the water in the can. Add the baking soda if you want softer beans. Adjust seasonings to taste as it simmers. When you are satisfied, and the liquid is gone, add the spinach and cook until the spinach has melted into the beans. Turn off the heat.

Fill the serving plates with generous heaps of chopped cilantro. Scoop the chickpea mixture on top, and garnish with chopped onions.

Margaritas on the go

Female-owned

ON

THE ROCKS:

and

operated Damn Right Cocktails launches on the Front Range by Nick Hutchinson

At the age of 27, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, CEO and co-founder of Damn Right Cocktails, is one of the youngest female business owners in the spirits industry. Fitzpatrick’s company, which produces ready-to-drink margaritas in a can, uses 100% de agave tequila from Mexico, where her women-run business extends into production. Her canned cocktails are made in the Amatitán Valley of Jalisco and sourced from a family-owned, woman-headed distillery.

“I want to share my journey as one of the youngest female entrepreneurs in a male-dominated industry,” says Fitzpatrick, who recently launched her canned-cocktail business in Colorado at a house party in Denver. “We’re a small operation at the moment, but a huge group of my friends from college moved to Colorado. We threw a house party and did a little celebration for the launch. It was low-budget but it’s a good way to get people to try the product, let them know where they can purchase it and talk up the brand.”

Originally from Los Angeles, Fitzpatrick, who currently resides in New York City, travels frequently for her business, of which she is the sole proprietor.

“I run it by myself,” she explains. “We’re now reaching out to the Boulder area, because it’s a fun college town and I think it’s a great place for our product. We’ve got a unique brand identity that younger people can get behind, and we use all natural and organic ingredients.”

Making and distributing canned cocktails involves more than one might expect. Fitzpatrick dives deep into the details of what it takes to offer a product that includes tequila and fresh lime juice from Mexico.

“Tequila is kind of complicated, which I didn’t know until I got into the industry,” she says. “My product is 100% de agave tequila. It’s similar to champagne, in that champagne has to come from the Champagne region of France in order to be called champagne. One-hundred percent de agave tequila has to be produced in Mexico from the Tequila-producing region. Our tequila comes from a distillery that is owned by the oldest daughter of the Partida family, which is well known for tequila produc-

Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, CEO of Damn Right Cocktails, which recently launched in Colorado.

tion. Iliana Partida runs the operations at the distillery that produces the organic tequila (El Ultimo Agave Blanco) that we use.”

Fitzpatrick says her business operations include transporting the tequila to a plant in Mexico where the beverages are canned and mixed with their ingredients, then shipped to the U.S., where they are distributed to various states, including Colorado.

Damn Right currently offers two cocktails: a lime margarita, which is a twist on a skinny margarita, featuring the flavors of orange and lime; and a strawberry-basil margarita. The drinks, currently available around Denver and Thornton and headed for Boulder, are low-calorie, between 110-130 per can, and are sweetened with natural ingredients including organic agave nectar from the Jalisco region.

“Some people freak out about the basil,” Fitzpatrick, who worked as a bartender while in college, says. “But it’s really good. We spent eight months formulating it, and we got a lot of people of different ages and backgrounds to share their opinions. Our drinks are 5% alcohol by volume, which allows people to drink a few without getting drunk. Drinkers are aware these days. They buy for quality, variety, taste and flavor. We’re happy to deliver all of that. With a canned cocktail, you don’t have the hassle of having to mix it, and I wanted something with carbonation that tasted really good.”

When asked about the name of her company, Fitzpatrick gets straight to the point.

“I want to relate to urban women who are socially conscious,” she says. “The name affirms that women know what they want, and what they’re going to get.”

Longmont Humane Society

9595 Nelson Road, Longmont, longmonthumane.org

Boulder Weekly is working with Longmont Humane Society (LHS) to feature a few pets each week who are looking for forever homes. LHS provides temporary shelter to thousands of animals every year, including dogs, cats and small mammals who are lost, surrendered or abandoned.

Most weeks, Critter Classifieds showcases three pets — dogs, cats, even rats — who need your love and support, but this week we’re thrilled to share an adoption update.

On Oct. 20, we introduced Reyna, a 4-year-old female bulldog who loves to “waddle over to new friends and nudge her way into their hearts.” It didn’t take long before a patron at LHS met Reyna, fell in love and took her home.

“Our life wasn’t right without a bully,” her new owner wrote in a note to LHS. “Reyna (now Gertrude) is absolutely perfect for our family. She and Lucy (my 1-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier) just lay in a pile and chew on each other ALL DAY. Her resource guarding is pretty much zero already. Occasionally she gets jealous when someone else is getting love, but I remind her that I have two hands for this reason.”

You can visit longmonthumane.org to view available animals. We’ll be back next week with more adoptable pets.

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

Note: If you’ve adopted a pet that was featured in Critter Classifieds, we’d love to hear your story! Email us at editorial@boulderweekly.com.

by Will Brendza

In November 2022, Colorado took a progressive leap forward when the state passed Proposition 122 to legalize the use of natural psychedelic medicines. Now, Gov. Jared Polis is preparing to appoint a psychedelic advisory panel that will help the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) to create and implement the program.

“We are excited to work with all relevant stakeholders and the state government to implement Prop 122 in a safe, responsible and equitable manner that provides access to this much needed tool to address our state’s mental health crisis,” Josh Kappel, an attorney who helped draft the language for Proposition 122, told Colorado Newsline.

The victory comes amid a sweeping movement across the country to decriminalize and legalize psychedelics. In 2019, Denver and Oakland, California, decriminalized psilocybin. In 2020, Oregon passed a similar law to Prop 122, legalizing psilocybin therapy. D.C. also voted to decriminalize psilocybin drugs in 2020, along with Sommerville, Massachusetts. And in 2021, Detroit became the largest city in the country to “decriminalize nature,” as supporters have been calling it.

That’s just to name a few. Now, Colorado has become the second state behind Oregon to fully legalize (not just decriminalize) the therapeutic use of psilocybin. But what exactly does that mean? And how is it going to work?

First and foremost, the measure makes it legal for adults over the age of 21 to grow, possess, share and use mushrooms containing psilocybin and psilocin. It also decriminalizes three other natural psychedelic medicines: mescaline (the active ingredient in peyote), ibogaine (from the root of the iboga tree), and dimethyltryptamine

(aka DMT, the active ingredient in ayahuasca). There is no possession limit for any of these substances.

But don’t expect to start seeing mushroom dispensaries popping up as cannabis dispensaries did following Colorado’s recreational legalization of weed. It will still be illegal to sell these psychedelic substances outside of certified therapeutic facilities where these drugs will be administered in a controlled setting, under supervision.

ment a possibility for convicted individuals. Any Coloradan who has completed a sentence for an offense that would have been made legal under this act, can petition the court for record sealing. If the district attorney approves the petition, the court will automatically clear that person’s record.

The framework for all of this is undoubtedly going to take time to design. Cannabis was legalized in 2012 and the first legal dispensaries didn’t open up until 2014. Similarly, psilocybin therapy centers won’t be opening up around Colorado until 2024.

To help build that framework in the most effective and efficient way possible, Gov. Polis will soon be appointing a psychedelic advisory panel. The panel will comprise 15 members: at least seven of them will have experience in natural medicine therapy and/ or research, harm reduction and healthcare insurance and policy. The other eight members will have expertise in the religious and traditional uses of entheogenic plants and fungi, criminal justice reform specific to Colorado, disparities in access to healthcare, and issues that impact veterans in this state.

Initially, the seven members will hold twoyear appointments while the other eight will serve a four-year term on the panel — after that, all seats will be four-year term positions. All appointments to the board need to be made by January 31, 2023.

Because this is not recreational legalization, but medicinal. Proposition 122 was focused on the therapeutic uses of these substances from the get-go. It’s meant to benefit people suffering from severe depression and PTSD — which is something Colorado badly needs. Currently, our state has the seventh highest suicide rate in the nation according to the CDC, and it’s estimated between 3-4% of the state’s population suffers from PTSD.

Prop 122 sets a timeline for psilocybin therapy facilities (“healing centers”) to be operational by 2024. It also leaves the door open to expand mescaline, ibogaine and DMT therapy to those facilities by June 2026.

Importantly, Prop 122 also makes record expunge-

The combined expertise of the psychedelic advisory board will help inform the policy DORA builds around this new state industry. And, hopefully, it will clear a path for other states looking to legalize therapeutic use of these natural medicines, following the tip of the psychedelic spear, just as so many states have done in the years following Colorado’s legalization of cannabis.

“We hope to be able to work with everyone — the government stakeholders, even those who opposed us,” Kappel said in the interview with Colorado Newsline. “To help create a program that is both safe, but also provides the mental health treatment and options that Coloradans are expecting after passing Prop 122.”

Tip of the psychedelic spear

Colorado has voted to legalize the medicinal use of psilocybin, psilocin, ibogaine, mescaline and DMT — what is that going to look like?