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(Un)civil discourse

This year’s election tactics divided an already polarized Boulder. Can civility be brought back into local politics —and should it? Van life: not what you think, p.15

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news:

This year’s election tactics divided an already polarized Boulder by Shay Castle

This year’s election tactics divided an already polarized Boulder. Can civility be brought back into local politics —and should it? Van life: not what you think, p.15

Ted Bruner is happy to be here, p.16

West Side Story, p.27

8 15

adventure:

Van life could offer a partial solution to Colorado’s mountain town housing crisis by Will Brendza

Buzz:

Ned-based songwriter Ted Bruner on loss, L.A. and Katy Perry by Caitlin Rockett

overtones:

El Ten Eleven’s Kristian Dunn can’t wait to be back on tour by Angela K. Evans

25 37

altered states:

Finding peace in a sensory deprivation tank by Brendan J. Kelley

departments

4 Anderson Files: World far right hijacks anti-vaccine movement 6 Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views 7 News briefs: GMO’s and LGBTQ+ scholarship at CU 19 Events: What to do when there’s ‘nothing’ to do . . . 27 Film: Steven Speilberg and company take on ‘West Side Story’ 28 Astrology: by Rob Brezsny 29 Savage Love: ShareAbortionPill.Info 33 Beer: Hot beers and lager nights along the front range 35 Food and Drink: How I turned my serious tart sourdough starter into fantastic holiday crackers 38 Weed: Property values soar in legal states

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

DECEMBER 9, 2021

Publisher, Fran Zankowski Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief, Brendan Joel Kelley Managing Editor, Caitlin Rockett News Editor, Will Brendza Food Editor, John Lehndorff Contributing Writers: Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, Emma Athena, Rob Brezsny, Michael J. Casey, Angela K. Evans, Jim Hightower, Jodi Hausen, Karlie Huckels, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Sara McCrea, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Katie Rhodes, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Carter Ferryman Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman CIRCULATION TEAM Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer

December 9, 2021 Volume XXIX, Number 18 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. 690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2021 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.

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

World far right hijacks antivaccine movement by Dave Anderson

othing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” – Martin Luther King, Jr. Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) says the new omicron coronavirus variant is a hoax created by the Democrats. He is the former White House physician who claimed that Trump was so healthy he might live to be 200 years old. Jackson tweeted: “Here comes the MEV—the Midterm Election Variant! They NEED a reason to push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots.” “Democrats will do anything to CHEAT during an election—but we’re not going to let them!” he added. This conspiracy theory was proposed by Fox and Friends Weekend hosts. Just another day at a major “news” network. But there is some diversity. Their top host, Tucker Carlson, promotes the Nazi “Great DECEMBER 9, 2021

Replacement” theory while another host, Lara Logan, compares Dr. Fauci to Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele. This propaganda has deadly consequences. A new analysis by National Public Radio (NPR) has revealed that people living in counties that voted heavily for Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for Biden. NPR reporters Daniel Wood and Geoff Brumfell note: “NPR looked at deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which vaccinations widely became available. People living in counties that went 60 percent or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.7 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates . . . The data also reveal a major contributing factor to the death rate difference: The higher the vote share for Trump, the lower the vaccination rate.” A recent analysis of polling data by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that Republicans are now BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

the biggest group of unvaccinated individuals in the country. They are by far the largest demographic group which is vaccine hesitant. Wood and Brumfell say that it wasn’t always this way: “Earlier in the pandemic . . . African Americans, younger Americans and rural Americans all had significant portions of their demographic that resisted vaccination. But over time, the vaccination rates in those demographics have risen, while the rate of Republican vaccination against COVID-19 has flatlined at just 59 percent . . . By comparison, 91 percent of Democrats are vaccinated.” Over five million have died worldwide. Some 787,000 Americans have died. The pandemic will continue so long as the virus circulates and mutates. That could mean a long period of sickness and death as well as a wrecked economy. Vaccines are the solution. Unfortunately, governments and pharmaceutical companies of the rich nations are a bit too slow to share the vaccines with the global South. As a result, the omicron variant has emerged in Africa. Meanwhile, John Feffer of the Institute for Policy Studies reports that “the far right has jumped on the anti-vaccination bandwagon, seized control of the wheel, and is driving the vehicle, al-Qaeda-style, straight into oncoming traffic.” They spread disinformation by social media, by loud and sometimes violent demonstrations and with the help of prominent politicians and political parties. Feffer says they aren’t like traditional conservatives who support the police, the Army and the state. The far right prefers vigilante justice. Feffer notes, “Effectively, the far right embraces the old Hobbesian concept of a ‘war of all against all,’ which was the status quo before the emergence of the state. To achieve this ‘golden age’ of general mayhem, the far right pursues any means necessary. It supports home schooling to destroy public education, privatization of state assets to weaken the government, and deregulation to tilt the playing field in favor of corporations.” In the United States, vaccine

skepticism used to be mostly a vaguely leftie New Age thing. This was before Trump, the alt-right and QAnon came along. Brittney McNamara, writing for ‘Teen Vogue’ profiled the new phenomenon of “conspirituality” which is a term which emerged in 2011, when researchers published an article in the Journal of Contemporary Religion examining the overlap of New Age beliefs and conspiracy theory. Proponents argue that anything

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

“natural” is good and science-driven medicine is bad. Psychologist Lisa Fazio told McNamara that it is understandable that these ideas increased during the pandemic. She said, “One of the issues with being in a pandemic early on is a lack of certain scientific answers. That’s just the situation that it’s really easy for misinformation to take hold. When science isn’t giving you really easy answers, someone who’s peddling falsehoods

definitely can — and they don’t have to be confined to the truth.” The far right mimicks progressive themes. They denounce Big Pharma and the medical establishment. Instead of advocating for Medicare for All, they claim that the pandemic is a hoax or nothing much. Here’s some bleach or horse de-wormer. This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.

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SHAME ON US Thanks, always, for a great read. Here is my beef: On page five of the November 4 issue there is a “Guest Opinion” article titled “The Highland City Club Has A Racism Problem.” Bravo for giving your space to a legitimate beef, furthering the concept that humans should be judged not based on the way they look or the color of their skin, but the content of their character. Yet on the very next page, you run a “hilarious” cartoon showing two white men with enormous stomachs, standing in front of a donut shop called “Big Butt Donuts,” with the caption showing one of them saying “Guns should be banned from movie sets.” Does the author believe he can publish such a cartoon and no one will protest? He is wrong. He is as wrong as if he had published a cartoon showing Jews being cheap, Irish being drunks, or gays with limp wrists. I wish to ask the author—do you, sir, personally know any humans who are overweight or obese, or superobese? Is it your personal job to mock them, that the world might be free of humans that don’t look right to you? Are you so blind to the social landscape of today that you think it’s ok to publish this cartoon? What year is this? That the cartoon obviously passed through several eyes at your paper and made it through shows that anti-fat discrimination is alive and well, too, in media. But the biggest insult is that it isn’t funny. “Haw haw, this week I’m putting together a cartoon showing l

two fat guys, haw haw haw! Surely, no one will stick up for them or be angry.” And why do I care? I spent two months in an Eating Disorder rehab last year in Denver. As a chubby kid, I was beaten and tortured for my lousy 20 extra pounds and finally sent to fat camp, after which I became bulimic. Haw, haw, haw. Shame on you, Boulder Weekly. Yea, obesity is a serious issue. But creating a public atmosphere where it’s ok to mock other humans for their size isn’t cool, and that’s what your cartoon did. I’ll still keep reading you, though. Josh Max, Longmont AXE THE OBSTACLE COURSE! I think these new methods of trying to make streets safer by slowing cars down in these obstacle courses (the new plastic poles with reflector lights) is in itself dangerous. When I first encountered one (I think the 2700 block of Glenwood) I almost hit a bicyclist crossing because I was concentrating on not hitting the markers. The worst one is at the 1800 block on Quince where the obstacle course directs cars to driving on the left side of the street then curving around again to the right side. It’s confusing to say the least! On a positive note—the newer speed bumps (that aren’t so high and bumpy) are great. They make me slow down without being so hard on the suspension. And they are really great (smooth) for biking! I’m urging anyone else concerned with this to please write to the City of Boulder through the website “Inquire Boulder” and select the “Transportation” tab. Laurie Dameron, Boulder

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF GMO’s are back in Boulder County

n Tuesday December 7, the Boulder County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved an amended version of the cropland policy, re-allowing the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) on county-owned farmland—specifically, sugar beets and genetically engineered corn. It’s a policy that was first adopted in January of 2012, but which was amended in 2017 to ban the use of GMO’s on county-owned farmland, over widespread concerns and controversy surrounding the engineered organics. In the years since, Boulder County has spent over $1 million looking for alternatives to replace the two GMO’s with, once they finally started phasing them out. They couldn’t find any. They pushed the phase-out date back. And then, between October 1 and November 22 of this year, the Board of Commissioners heard over six hours of testimony and received over 200 comments from local farmers on this issue. The result is an updated cropland policy that looks a lot like the original from 2012—with a few additions. GMO sugar beets and corn will be allowed to return to county-owned land (as long as farmers follow certain practices), but neonicotinoid pesticide use will be restricted (with just a few exceptions), and the county will also establish a principal’s based soil health program. “Staff believe this approach will help mitigate against climate change and support a more resilient community.” the cropland policy update reads.

CU creates scholarship for athletes to support LGBTQ+ community

he University of Colorado has created what may be the first-ever full-tuition scholarship for athletes looking to use their platform to create positive change for the LGBTQ community. The first recipients of the Colorado Athletics Visibility Award (CAVA) are volleyball player Alexia Kuehl and basketball player Evan Battey. Trail runner and political science major Nicholas Turco founded the scholarship after spending a year researching the climate and culture for LGBTQ+ members of CU’s athletic department. In partnership with his advisor, Dr. Nancy Billica, Turco’s research found that student-athletes may have a harder time being authentic in the context of male-identified, revenue-generating sport communities. Additionally, transgender student-athletes may face a particularly frigid environment in the context of coming out and being comfortable in their sport. On the positive side of his research, Turco says, “one of the most fascinating and potentially inspiring findings is that respondents share[d] that their experiences at CU as LGBT+ athletes have allowed them to find greater confidence and visibility within their own LGBT+ identity, while also strongly identifying as being top-caliber Pac 12 Division I collegiate athletes. “Just as stigma in areas of athletics can cause LGBT+ athletes to feel like they do not belong in that identity,” Turco explains, “these responses suggest that inclusive sports environments for LGBT+ athletes can act as an accelerator for LGBT+ people.” Scholarship recipients will lead projects to advance LGBTQ+ inclusion, rights representation, and safety in sport. Kuehl, who counts herself among the LGBTQ community, plans with LGBTQ+ role models to create an anti-bullying and inclusion video to be shared with area schools. Battey, an ally, hopes to launch a CAVA-themed men’s basketball game to raise awareness and funds for future scholarship recipients to use for their projects.

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DECEMBER 9, 2021

(Un)civil discourse

This year’s election tactics divided an already polarized Boulder. Can civility be brought back into local politics—and should it?

by Shay Castle

COURTESY MATTHEW JONAS, DAILY CAMERA

NEW CITY council members (and incumbent Mark Wallach) are sworn in on November 16

This article is presented in partnership with Boulder Beat his year’s election brought forth ugly tactics uncommon to Boulder,” read the prompt in the Daily Camera, inviting three members of its editorial advisory board to weigh in. Two compared campaign rhetoric and strategies to the dystopian world of Mad Max and the fantastical destruction of Tolkien’s Middle Earth by non-humans. The third opined that politics are always full of mud-slinging; the only thing you can do, she argued, was get a better shovel. Those opinions seemed to reflect the way many Boulderites felt about the 2021 election, at least those who were paying attention. This year’s contests produced plenty to turn folks off, from campaign complaints to defaced voter guides and a defamation lawsuit. Depending on who you ask, this year either represented a new low for Boulder politics or a turning point in who we as a society hold accountable—and for what.

Leaked messages, dark money

Alleged incivility was not limited to one candidate, campaign, or issue—all three citizen ballot measures were a hot mess of fear-mongering, Next Door arguing and material tampering—but the majority of debate over decorum stemmed primarily from one place: Safer Boulder and member/city council candidate Steven Rosenblum. Messages from the group’s Slack workspace were leaked by an anonymous group in September 2020—more than a year before the election. The leaks were later reported by Boulder Weekly, in collaboration with Boulder Beat. (“Who is Safer DECEMBER 9, 2021

Boulder?” 9/30/21) Shortly after Rosenblum announced his candidacy, Boulder Progressives drew attention to them with a (since-deleted) blog post and email to followers that circulated among a (very insular, very small) group of politically involved residents on Twitter. The post included several screenshots of leaked messages and characterized their contents as “dehumanizing language . . . transphobic, racist and violent rhetoric against members of the homeless population,” calling on readers “to both support and volunteer for progressive candidates who approach all issues with care and empathy.” Boulder Progressives backed four candidates running against Rosenblum, three of whom were elected to Boulder city council. Rosenblum finished eighth of 10 candidates, earning 13,309 votes. Rosenblum was among the first to call for civility on the campaign trail. During an August 25 candidate forum hosted by the Boulder Chamber, he denounced unspecified “smear attacks, false allegations and hit-and-run defamations” against him. He would later file a lawsuit over these posts (more on that later), sharing his planned ceaseand-desist directly with the Daily Camera and Boulder Weekly a week before submitting them to the court. The allegations were also aired on social media, including the full text of the (eventual) legal filing. Commenters raged about the Progressives’ actions. Like many, former city councilwoman Jan Burton felt that the Progressives were “crossing the line” by honing in on Rosenblum’s behavior. Though she acknowledges they didn’t write anything untrue—Rosenblum has admitted to authoring some of the leaked posts, and his lawsuit similarly does not deny their veracity—Burton feels that discourse should focus on pumping up their candidates, not tearing others down. “I’ve always preferred to focus on the qualities of your own candidates and the issues they believe in, rather than going against other candidates,” she says. “Maybe it’s because I got picked on so badly in 2017.” That was another particularly contentious election, with two growth-focused issues on the ballot. Burton in particular was targeted by ads (falsely) claiming she supported building skyscrapers in Boulder’s neighborhoods and accusing her—and other candidates and groups—of using “dark money” to fund her campaign. Neither of those tactics are uncommon to Boulder. Groups opposed to various developments continue to circulate images of sky-high structures blocking out views of the Flatirons. And, despite a 2018 overhaul to the city’s campaign finance rules, the dark money claim was once again trotted out this year: this time by Forward Boulder, a group BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

COURTESY MATTHEW JONAS, DAILY CAMERA

backing Rosenblum and three other candidates. “There is no dark money,” Burton says. They were resorting to fear, which had been done in the 2017 election. That is totally unnecessary.”

time. There’s examples of Ben Franklin writing a fake news publication in order to draw the French into the Revolutionary War.” What’s changed, Hopp says, is the tools used to get those messages out. “Most people who communicate online aren’t uncivil on social and digital media. One person can make a single uncivil post, and the scalability of that one single message is different than it was before. “There’s an argument that the scalability of media and social networks can result in historically aberrant negative outcomes.”

Power move or political piracy?

Claims of dark money may be old, this year’s election saw something new—at least to Boulder: Political actors sitting on websites and social media accounts with the names of their opponents. In his lawsuit, Rosenblum alleged that steverosenblumforboulder.com and @steveforboulder on Twitter were set up by Eric Budd, a member of The Coalition, which backed four of Rosenblum’s opponents. The website redirected to a blog containing the Safer Boulder leaks; the Twitter account included a link to the leaks as well. Budd, along with other defendants, declined to comment. Other campaigns were impacted as well. Forward Boulder also reported a fake Facebook account, and No on Bedroom$—which opposed a ballot measure to loosen city rules on unrelated adults living together—was forced to change its name after a domain with their first choice, People For Real Housing Affordability, was registered by someone else. The Daily Camera’s opinion editor bemoaned the “vengeful electioneering tactics” as the “trickling down” of “toxic politics at the national level” into Boulder. Domain hijacking, as it’s sometimes called, is increasingly common on the national level— enough that outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post have written about the practice. Depending on the day (and the target), it’s either venerated as a savvy political strategy—the Post called it a “prescient purchase”—or a lowdown, dirty trick. The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse, as their name might suggest, believes that “bad-faith” registrations and redirects contribute to misinformation and confusion among voters. (CADNA did not respond to a request for comment.) The Electronic Frontier Foundation defends the practice as a form of political activism, protected under the First Amendment. “The registration of domain names and the choice of where to direct them is speech protected by the First Amendment,” a spokesperson wrote in response to emailed questions.

Same game, new tools

As dates on the above articles (2010 and 2016, respectively) show, domain hijacking is not exactly a new tactic. But it may be new in Boulder, which BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

History of weaponization

One of the most central questions when studying incivility is also the hardest to answer. What is it? Is it name-calling? Criticizing a candidate’s words or actions? Tampering with voting guides? Suing to stop the spread of information? Writing an op-ed about someone—or a group of someones—without first getting their side of the story? Refusing to meet with someone whose actions you dislike? Everybody, it seems, has their own definition— one that largely depends on who’s in the driver’s seat and who is on the receiving end. According to the research, Kopp says, “We’re more forgiving of normally unacceptable behavior when they come from members of our in-group relative to when they come from members of our outgroup. “That’s why this topic is fraught with issues, on the research level. We’re 25 years in, but we’re still arguing over the definition of this particular social construct, because it does seem so conditional and contextual.” The other problem with civility is who it’s historically been used against. Time and again, says Dawn Walton, we see calls for civility deployed against marginalized groups fighting for their rights or full place in society Martin Luther King Jr., “the most accepted civil rights leader” in U.S. history, was called uncivil, as were the peaceful protestors who sat at lunch counters or in the front seats of buses. Today, they are lauded as heroes. Going back even further, abolitionists were blamed for dividing the country over the issue of slavery. Author Alex Zamalin, in his book Against Civility: The Hidden Racism in Our Obsession with Civility, argues that calls for civility and unity have been used ever since to combat social change. Walton, a Niwot resident, educator, and consultant on the issues of justice, equity, diversion, and inclusion, recommends Zamalin’s book as a prerequisite for anyone engaging in issues of civility. “There’s nothing inherently harmful about

perhaps helps contribute to the perception that things are getting worse. There’s not really evidence to support that— indeed, some past elections make today’s political arena seem tame by comparison. WARNING: The following paragraphs contain racist and homophic comments that some readers may find disturbing. Penfield Tate II, Boulder’s first and only Black mayor, had it particularly bad when he proposed an anti-discrimination clause that would protect LGBTQ residents. Tate was subject to racist attacks and death threats, including many calls to his home. “There is no reason in the world why Boulder ought to have a [Black] mayor,” Tate recounted in a 1974 interview (the main source for this excellent history of Tate by The Bold CU). “We’re gonna get him. I don’t like him and besides that he sucks cocks.” Councilman Tim Fuller—who along with Tate was subject to a recall election but, unlike Tate, was unseated—recalled finding bullet holes in his VW bus and numerous occasions where boxes of animal feces were left by his front door. He was shouted at, spat on, and had “paper wads” thrown at him when entering council chambers. Rhetoric around the anti-discrimination law itself was similarly inflamed. Opponents—regular residents of Boulder—lined up by the hundreds to decry how it would open the doors to child molesters, “porno pushers,” and “sex peverts,” turning the city into “a sex deviant mecca.” “Boulder would be renamed ‘Lesbian Homoville,’” twice-failed council candidate Hilma Skinner was quoted as saying in a 1974 Daily Camera article. “Political campaigning has always used deception, emotion, it’s always sought to inflame certain types of supporters as a way of stimulating involvement,” says Toby Hopp, a professor at CU-Boulder who researches incivility. “The use of lies or hyperbole or other forms of manipulation have been around for a very long l

DECEMBER 9, 2021

see NEWS Page 10 l

NEWS from Page 9

COURTESY MATTHEW JONAS, DAILY CAMERA

being civil,” Walton says. But “if you truly want to be educated about this and why people don’t trust it—even though the dictionary version of the word is neutral—you have to be able to have some historical context. “If you don’t want the historical context, I cannot trust that you actually want to be civil.”

The pledge

That context is being considered more in recent years, with the rising awareness about racism and inequality generally. NPR examined the concept on an episode of its podcast, Code Switch, which focuses on how society is impacted by race. At the same time—perhaps unsurprisingly, in the eyes of Walton and Zamalin—there has been a parallel national hand-wringing over division and the degradation of public discourse. Yet it’s hard to argue against the need for some agreed-upon norms when members of congress compare their Muslim peers to suicide bombers and the man who just spent four years in the Oval Office had a history of openly mocking and insulting people with disabilities, Mexican-Americans, women, and pretty much anyone who disagreed with or criticized him. Locally, elected officials have rewritten rules for speaking at public meetings, hoping to tamp down on the personal attacks and harsh language that impassioned residents of Boulder have long deployed on controversial issues. There’s only so much they can do to curb citizen speech, which is protected by the First Amendment. But setting the expectations—and modeling polite disagreement with each other—is important, says councilman Mark Wallach. “We should be setting that example,” he says. “If we’re going to be leaders, one of the things we ought to be leading on is how we deal with each other on the issues.” In 2019, he and councilman Bob Yates co-sponsored a simple civility pledge and circulated it among the candidates. It had but three conditions: • I will not say, write, or imply disparaging or untrue things about my fellow city council candidates. • I will discourage those who support me from doing so. 10

• If I see such things in the community, I will notify the affected candidate. There wasn’t a formal signing-on, but everyone running for office that year agreed. It was a peaceful political cycle, at least compared to the ones before and after it. A study by Hopp and fellow CU professor Chris Vargo, using the 2012 presidential race as a case study, found that campaign language affected how private citizens interacted with one another online. The more negative the rhetoric from official channels, in other words, the nastier regular folks are to each other. “When certain types of people”— politicians, members of the press, celebrities; people with influence, in other words—“normalize certain types of language, we see it enter into the everyday conversations of normal people,” Hopp says.

Score one for civility pledges

There are limits to their power, however. As Wallach noted, candidates in this year’s election were perfectly pleasant to one another. That didn’t stop the public from sniping away at each other on social media or plastering neighborhoods with misinformation. “I was inappropriately optimistic that we could avoid some of what’s going on in the rest of the country,” Wallach lamented. “We may do it on a narrower spectrum of liberal to progressive, but it doesn’t make it any less toxic.”

‘The height of hypocrisy’

This year, a proposed pledge itself became a source of alleged incivility, DECEMBER 9, 2021

from all sides. The “civil discourse campaign pledge” differed from its predecessor in a couple ways. It wasn’t designed by the candidates themselves, but by a cross-aisle group of Better Boulder and PLAN-Boulder County leaders. It also attempted to go further in defining the limits of acceptable debate. • We will make ideas and feelings known without disrespecting the opinions of others. • We will stay focused on debate over the issues. • We will refrain from attacks on individuals or organizations that impugn their character or motivation. Beyond the language of the pledge itself, the timing was different. It was released to candidates around the same time the Boulder Progressives sent their missive about Rosenblum and Safer Boulder. While Burton, one of the authors, says that was coincidental, some candidates didn’t see it that way. The language and the timing felt like a directive to not discuss Safer Boulder, Rosenblum or the leaked messages, said Dan Williams, the only one of four Boulder Progressive-endorsed candidates that did not earn a seat on city council. “We had one candidate that was part of a group that literally joked about running homeless people down with their cars, or having mountain lions eat them, or beating them with baseball bats by the creek. That’s disgusting,” Williams says. “To say that it’s fine for one of the 10 candidates for city council to participate with Safer Boulder, who said the most unbelievably cruel things about l

unhoused people, and that none of us could criticize that,” as he felt the pledge required, “that was the height of hypocrisy. I couldn’t get behind that.” Williams and others flagged their concerns to the group pushing the pledge, highlighting the historically racist nature of such agreements. Williams went further, proposing his own version that, in his eyes, retained requirements about honesty but gave greater room to comment on current local events. Instead, the pledge was pulled without further discussion. Soon after, Wallach was lamenting candidates’ refusal to sign the pledge on the pages of the Daily Camera. The paper’s opinion editor weighed in, too, writing that there was “no excuse” not to sign. That is uncivil, Williams says. Although it was technically true that some candidates didn’t want to sign the first pledge, it is an incomplete truth. Wallach also declined Williams’ request to meet and discuss the issue. Wallach did meet with Nicole Speer, another objector, after she was elected alongside him. Despite the discussion, Wallach still did not see a strong case against civility pledges. “I don’t see the argument against it,” he says. “I thought it was a fairly simple and innocuous thing to do. I don’t think it has any impact on robust and even heated conversation. “The intent is not to hamstring people’s ability to communicate, or to be strong and vociferous in the manner in which they do so. How does reserving the right to express yourself in abusive terms forward your objective of convincing the community of the correctness of your views?”

‘Sword and shield’

That’s the other tricky thing about incivility: Anyone can claim it or claim to be victims of it. “Claims of incivility can actually be a sword and a shield,” Kopp says. “They protect you from being criticized and allow you, being an uncivil actor, to perpetuate and implement some sort of program of dehumanization.” What, then, do we do with civility as a concept? Abandon it altogether in favor of equity and accountability? Continue to apply it selectively, to our see NEWS Page 12

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Better Boulder members compelled to testify in Rosenblum defamation case Defendants have until Dec. 23 to respond

Come Unite in an Environmental Ministry

Let’s Pray and Play in a new way in this life Celebration of Mother Earth near Solstice Day “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” “Our Mother which art upon earth, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done in us, as it is in thee. As thou sendest every day thy angels, send them to us also. Forgive us our sins, as we atone all our sins against thee. And lead us not into sickness, but deliver us from all evil, for thine is the earth, the body, and the health. Amen” “And they all prayed together with Jesus to the Heavenly Father and to the Earthly Mother. And afterwards Jesus spoke this to them: “Even as your bodies have been reborn through the Earthly Mother’s angels, may your spirit, likewise, be reborn through the angels of the Heavenly Father. From today live at peace with your Heavenly Father, and with your Earthly Mother, and with your Brothers, the Sons of Men. I give the peace of your Earthly Mother to your body, and the peace of your Heavenly Father to your spirit.”

“PEACE BE WITH YOU.” The Discovery of the “Essene Gospel of Peace” Translated by Edmond Bordeax Szekely published in 1928, Secret Archives of the Vatican

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n unsuccessful city council candidate, seeking support for his claims of a conspiracy against him, is forcing members of a Boulder political group to give testimony in order to avoid having the case dismissed on the grounds that it violates First Amendment rights of free speech. Steven Rosenblum filed suit in September against a group of political opponents, alleging defamation and a conspiracy to stop him from receiving endorsements in his run for city council. Rosenblum did not ultimately earn a seat, finishing eighth of 10 candidates. “Defendants’ actions . . . severely damaged my reputation in the Boulder community in the crucial months leading up to the November 2, 2021 election,” his suit alleges. “Defendants accomplished their goal—that is, spread defamatory information about Rosenblum to prevent Rosenblum’s endorsements and election to city council.” The claims stem from the amplification of Safer Leaks, a blog created in September 2020 that features messages from the Slack workspace of Safer Boulder, of which Rosenblum is a member. The anonymous leaker is also being sued as John Doe. see SIDEBAR Page 13

NEWS from Page 10

preferred parties? How do we sort through what is uncivil and what is merely uncomfortable? It’s important to keep in mind what civility is and isn’t, Kopp says. It’s not a blank check to say anything you want. “Certain types of claims or people ought to be met with incivility. If we’re going to have a public sphere, that doesn’t police itself. We have to interrogate what is acceptable, what is unacceptable and why. “People who do research tend to think about it in two ways,” Kopp continues. “Impoliteness and behaviors or communication practices that undermine democratic norms of inclusion and shut down discussion between good- faith partners. “I think the primary ingredient in civility is a true desire to solve a social problem in a way that is as beneficial as possible to all parties involved.” Walton thinks it’s important to keep front-and-center the real issue at the heart of debate—for much of this election, that was the treatment of Boulder’s unhoused community. The reckoning with that speech never really happened, as the conversation moved quickly onto the ethics of the leaks. (To be fair, Rosenblum did publicly condemn unspecified hateful comments during campaign interviews, as did Brooke Harrison and Leslie Chandler in a Boulder Weekly op-ed [“The Real Safer Boulder,” 10/21/21]. “Some of the statements l

were abhorrent,” the pair wrote.) That’s because we as a society “have normalized excluding” people experiencing homelessness from civil debate, Walton says. “We don’t care about alienating homeless people because they don’t have power.” “They are not seen as legit actors in a public, democratic space,” Kopp concurred. “By stripping away those folks’ autonomy and not recognizing them as part of our community, we’re entering this rabbit hole of incivility where it becomes very difficult to make sense of things.” It’s also important to keep in mind that more than one thing can be true at the same time, Walton says. You can support civility and still condemn speech that is dehumanizing or disempowering. If Kopp’s rule of incivility is to be followed, language that seeks to exclude certain people or groups must be condemned. “You can say it’s good to be civil, and you can also say there’s a Slack message here joking about running people over with their cars,” Walton says. “Both of those things can be true at the same time. There’s no real inherent conflicts about those things.” —Shay Castle is the owner and publisher of BoulderBeat.news, where this article was concurrently published. She has been a Boulder-area journalist for nine years, and her work has appeared in Colorado Newsline, Daily Camera, Colorado Sun, and the New York Times, among others.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

SIDEBAR from Page 12

Several of the leaked chats include disparaging remarks about people experiencing homelessness and substance abuse issues. Boulder Weekly, in partnership with Boulder Beat, later reported on the leaks and the group’s organizing efforts and membership. Defendants include leading members of Boulder Progressives (Mark Van Ackeren, Katie Farnan, Ryan Welsh), Better Boulder (Eric Budd), and the local Sierra Club chapter (SarahDawn Haynes). All three organizations endorsed other candidates for city council. The BPO defendants, as they are referred to in filings, asked the judge to throw out the case under Colorado’s Anti-SLAPP law, arguing that Rosenblum used the lawsuit “to chill free speech by citizens who oppose” his candidacy. Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation are lawsuits that seek to punish people speaking out about an issue of public interest. Often brought by government entities, elected officials or businesses, they force defendants to go through costly litigation, in effect silencing them. “Rosenblum filed this lawsuit against the BPO Defendants because they had the audacity to circulate Rosenblum’s own, private and ugly, statements about Boulder’s unhoused community,” the motion to dismiss reads, noting that Rosenblum has admitted to authoring some of the leaked posts. The only false information he names in the lawsuit is a link to a Reddit account, which Boulder Progressives wrote to readers that they did not believe belonged to Rosenblum. The link was removed before Rosenblum filed suit. “This litigation’s true objective,” the motion to dismiss states, is “to harass and silence persons who challenge his fitness for office based on his own statements and those of his political allies.” Charges of improper campaign spending were also leveled against Rosenblum with the city of Boulder for failing to claim the cost of the lawsuit as a campaign expense. Rosenblum’s attorney, former Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett, told the Daily Camera that the lawsuit was to protect Rosenblum’s “personal and professional reputation.” Rosenblum did not respond to a request for comment. The filings themselves focus heavily on whether and how political opponents used the leaked Slack messages to discourage groups from endorsing Rosenblum as a candidate. Rosenblum’s legal team sought to depose three Better Boulder board members hoping to prove that allegation, even though a dozen-plus were in the meeting when the organization decided which candidates to back. Garnett did not say why those three were chosen, and said that he may not even interview all who were named. “We just wanted to have the opportunity to take a couple depositions,” he says, because it’s necessary to provide a base level of evidence to support the civil conspiracy claims and successfully defeat the defendants’ motion to dismiss. Liz Hanson, Adrian Soper, and Bill Holicky were named as the three Better Boulder board members Rosenblum’s team would like to depose. Hanson did not respond to requests for comment; Holicky declined to comment. Sopher, who donated to Rosenblum’s campaign, wrote in response to emailed questions that he “decided to not endorse anyone, as I felt all the candidates supported the issues I cared about; particularly relative to providing housing in this community.” Sue Prant, who was at the meeting where endorsements were decided, said the decision had nothing to do with Safer Boulder, the leaks, or Rosenblum’s affiliation with them. They were mentioned by Budd, she said, but Budd didn’t aggressively argue for any particular position. “Definitely [Rosenblum] came up and we discussed him,” Prant said. “We did consider endorsing him. We also discussed Mark Wallach as that fifth person” in addition to the four candidates The Coalition ultimately decided to endorse. “We ultimately decided a fifth person would hurt the Coalition. That was really the deciding thing.” As for Safer Boulder and the leaks, “there was a feeling that we all say things in private that we wouldn’t want made public,” Prant said. “Because we didn’t have definitive facts and because it was a private channel, that didn’t enter into our decision.” Tom Kelley, who is representing the BPO defendants, says his clients agreed to allow the depositions—a legal process known as discovery—because it would be quicker and easier than fighting the request from Garnett. “It’s not really important in resolving any issues we raised, but we were going to have a long fight about deposing three individuals,” Kelley says. “I’m anxious to move this case along as expeditiously as possible.” Garnett and his team have until December 10 to collect testimony. A brief is due to the court a week later. Defendants have until December 23 to reply. The status of the campaign finance complaint is unknown. Representatives from the city clerk’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment. —Shay Castle BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Out of a housing crisis, into vans

Van life could offer a partial solution to Colorado’s mountain housing crisis— these two entrepreneurs are making sure it does

by Will Brendza

ONE OF DAVE AND MATT’S VANS out in its natural habitat: on the road and in the wild.

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n mountain communities throughout Colorado, people are adopting “van life” as a means of recreation, but also quite often it’s out of necessity. For many of the people working in mountain towns (and especially in ski towns) owning a home is unattainable and renting one can be unaffordable. It’s a challenge that’s making the van lifestyle more popular by the year. Van life alone won’t solve the mountain housing crisis, according to Matt Felser, cofounder of Dave and Matt Vans out of Gypsum, Colorado. In fact, he admits that it’s unfortunate that living in a vehicle is even being discussed as a necessary alternative to owning or renting property at all. But it can absolutely be part of the solution, he says—and his team is doing everything they can to make van life accessible to everyone.

lifers either have to break the rules and squat illegally or drive miles out of town onto public land every night to settle down. Some places have established “safe lots” that allow people experiencing homelessness or who’ve chosen to live in a van to have a safe place to stay for the night (see “Gaining Traction,” November 19, 2020). In Summit County, the Good Bridge Community has established a pilot program where Summit County interfaith church parking lots are available for overnight camping from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. And here in Boulder County, Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement (HOPE) is operating similar programs that turn local church parking lots into overnight campgrounds where approved campers can stay the night. Boulder’s “safe lots” are staffed and monitored all night long. Dave and Matt Vans is hoping to start a similar pilot project up in the Vail Valley, to support all of the residents who are currently living out of their vans, trucks, or DAVE AND MATT’S VANS cars there. They’ve approached every town in the Vail Valley—Vail, Minturn, Avon, Edwards, Eagle, Gypsum— about establishing a program that would allow local businesses who opt in to turn their own parking lots into safe lots after-hours. “Our original idea was a little bit more ambitious. We wanted to partner with public utilities like the public gym or the public parks,” Felser says. But they quickly

Dave and Matt Vans is a custom lifestyle van building company started in 2019 by two college friends: Dave and Matt. Since then, they’ve grown their startup from just six employees to 28, and now they’re cranking out extremely affordable, quality-constructed vans. At their shop, Matt says they’re typically working on between four and eight vans at one time, and can complete a build in just two to three weeks. Both Dave and Matt have lived the van life full time, and 10 of their employees currently live either part time or full time in vans. “The reality is this is going to continue to grow,” Felser says. “The trend is here. We’ve run the numbers. More and more people are going to do this, whether it’s a part-time or full-time solution.” The problem is, for anyone who’s chosen the van lifestyle, there aren’t many places to legally stay. Most neighborhoods, city streets, and business parking lots forbid people from sleeping in their vehicles overnight. That means van l

legislative changes to make that a possibility. They’re still pursuing that route, Felser explains, just as “phase II” of this pilot. “We settled on this private-public partnership instead,” he says. “All we’re looking for is special permitting that would allow a business to get a permit that allows overnight parking in their own lot.” That way, if an employee or a local is in need of a safe place to park their vehicular residence, they’ll have options that are right in town. But, Felser continues, Dave and Matt Vans won’t be stopping there. They’re also reaching out to local businesses that want to offer employee housing but can’t afford it, and offering their vans as cost-effective alternatives. Felser points out the average rent in Vail is $1,500 a month (about the same as Boulder). Their lars down—a much more realistic employee “housing” option for local businesses that could then be parked in permitted safe parking lots. “The employee doesn’t need to go purchase the vehicle ness could do, and then just offer it to the employees.” He reiterates, though, that this represents just a possible piece of the housing crisis solution. It isn’t perfect, Felser says, but at least it offers people a chance to live a little more frugally without spending such a large portion of their salaries on rent, and possibly to save up enough money to actually become a homeowner themselves. “We want to be able to spread this around the country, starting with our small valley here in Eagle County,” Felser says. “But ideally, we get this pilot program to go here, and then offer it to other places . . . we see it as something that is way easier to get off the ground than the other larger scale proposals.”

DECEMBER 9, 2021

SUSAN FRANCE

Spinnin’ on a rock in space

But on this day in Bruner’s studio, “So Called Life” is still unreleased. “I’m not really a hard rock guy,” Bruner says as he queues up the track. “I’m more of an ’80s guy, but I think we found some common ground.” The track is heavy, both sonically and lyrically, lead singer Matt Walsh yearning for “something to take my mind off this so-called life.” But the cloud’s break ers that connote Bruner’s penchant for pop. For the past year over Zoom, Bruner helped the four-

Ned-based songwriter Ted Bruner on loss, L.A. and Katy Perry

by Caitlin Rockett

t’s early November, and high winds are whipping up tiny whirlwinds in the parking lot of a quadplex in Nederland where Ted Bruner lives with his partner, Tess Whitehurtst. At the door, offering reprieve from the gale, Bruner is all mid-Western politeness and boyish charm, his chinis equally unassuming and warm, decked in bohemian tapestries and throw pillows, a cat dozing in a patch of sunshine. But along a wall leading upstairs are indicators of mountain town, accolades from Bruner’s career as a songwriter: platinum and gold records from his work with Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus, Bowling for Soup, and My Darkest Days. Bruner’s leading the way to his home studio to preview a song he co-wrote with Canadian rock band Three Days Grace for their upcoming album, Explosions (May 6, RCA). When the track is released a few weeks later, it quickly becomes the fastest climbing single on Billboard’s rock radio airplay chart, gaining its heaviest airplay in the Denver and Colorado Springs markets.

appear on the new record. “Ted’s like. . . well, he’s kind of like a therapist,” Walsh says over a phone interview from his home outside of Toronto. “He’ll ask you personal questions because he wants to write about what’s real, what’s going on in your life. Whenever you can take what you’ve gone through and make it apply to other people’s experience, that’s the key to really engaging people in the music—if they can see themselves then it. I feel like Ted is super good at getting into that.” • • • • Bruner grew up “super sheltered” in suburban St. Louis Missouri, a “nerd” who liked experimenting with BBS software in the days before the internet. But everything changed one winter day when he was 15. “A highway patrolman called and asked if anyone

DECEMBER 9, 2021

else was home and I said no,” Bruner recalls over a latte at Salto Coffee. “And he said, ‘Your mom’s been involved in a fatal car crash—can you go somewhere?’ It just He walked to a friend’s house, past the swing sets and trampolines that suddenly made no sense, shock blurring his vision, desaturating the world’s color. In the days following his mother’s death, Bruner searched through his older sister’s record collection and found a Styx cassette tape that became his armor against the world. He’d board the bus each morning for school, headphones on, Denis DeYoung’s voice blocking out everything else. “You see the world through your cynical eyes,” DeYoung sang on the 1977 track “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man).” “You’re a troubled young man I can tell / You’ve got it all in the palm of your hand / But your hand’s wet with sweat and your head needs a rest.” The boy never asked, but Bruner’s dad bought him a keyboard, then an electric guitar, then a four-track mixer over the next couple of years. Music became young Ted’s therapy, leading him through high school and into college, where his alternative-rock band Colony began to turn of the century, just before the industry took a hard left and the label crashed. Bruner conjures lyrics from the band’s breakout song, “Breathe”: Meet me at the ocean / Find me in the water / You better tell me before you sink to the bottom / Beneath BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

hadn’t been in L.A.” Paired with Disney stars like Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus, Bruner got to witness these artists navigate adolescence in the crucible of fame. For an artist like Gomez, whose single mother achieving stardom was a way out. “I asked her how she managed going through breakups and stuff in public,” Bruner says. “And she was like, ‘Look, this is all put together for Disney. I grew up in a really rough area in Texas’ And so it was nothing for her to just get in front of for someone like me, I’d always been so sheltered and self-conscious.” While Gomez couldn’t be reached for comment, in a 2011 E! special, she admitted that her mother had struggled: “I remember my mom would run out of gas all of the time and we’d sit there and have to go through the car and get quarters and help her get gas.” Bruner helped Gomez craft some of her Kiss & Tell. Around the same time, Bruner got paired with a another wide-eyed pop songwriter, one who’d had recently been dropped from a label, a young woman from a deeply religious background with “Jesus” tattooed on the inside of her right wrist: Katy Perry.

“She was just so, so sad when I wrote with her,” Bruner says. “She told me that she had one foot out the fucking door, that L.A. was driving her fucking crazy.” He encouraged her to channel her pain into her music, but Perry was hesitant to pen anything too dark, Bruner says, seeing the escapism of light-hearted pop as her only way forward. (Unsurprisingly, Perry could not be reached for comment.) But one evening in the studio at Universal, Bruner says Perry was ready to explore her pain, and the two co-wrote the song “Lost,” which appeared on Perry’s platinum selling major label debut, One of the Boys: Caught in the eye of a hurricane / Slowly waving goodbye like a pageant parade / So sick of this town pulling me down, oh / My mother says I should come the way is gone / So if I pray am I just sending words into outer space? Los Angeles eventually took its toll on Bruner as well. He found himself disillusioned, surrounded by “rich miserable people.” In 2014, he and Tess made their way to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, where they’ve been ever since, Tess writing books about her own journey through pitching out songs by the dozens to A&R guys until he gets a bite—like he did with Three Days Grace. “Now I get baked on Colorado weed and sit there until I get emotional, until I hit a depth, and then I just write whatever pours out of me that day,” he says. they did in Los Angeles, but he’s happy to trade it all for the ability to walk outside and see snow on the mountains in the summertime, to lock eyes with a deer as it walks past his condo. He reminds himself that he’s just “an overgrown amoeba, a sentient collection of cells,” and that helps keep it all in perspective. “That’s my saying: Spinning on a says. “It makes some people feel so small and I’m like, exactly. It just takes all the pressure off of you. Whatever is going on in your life doesn’t hold a candle to the

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the blue sky, you and I / While all along the earth is rolling through another day in space / In the weightless water, on my skin / I feel better than I ever did / Breathe “I wanted to be REM, but I felt like I wasn’t Michael Stipe,” Bruner admits. “I just didn’t have that same stage presence. I loved writing the songs, but once we got on stage, I didn’t take it that seriously.” But people had taken notice of his song craft. Colony had run its course, but Bruner was just beginning his journey as a songwriter with Rondor Music/Universal Publishing Group. • • • • A 29-year-old Bruner landed in Los Angeles in 2002, and quickly found himself in the studio with up-and-coming artists like pop punkers Plain White T’s and pop-country chanteuse Jessie James. It was exciting—and exhausting. “You’ll be in line for a coffee and somebody will go, ‘This guy works for such-and-such record company—you want to meet him?’” Bruner says. “It happens quick, and you have to take the good with the bad. You’re gonna get a lot of parking tickets. It’s gonna be hard to fucking survive sometimes, but a door will

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Back out in the gale, ready to head down the mountain, a bumper sticker on a well-worn black sedan catches my eye: “Spinning on a rock in space, orbiting a

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BOULDER WEEKLY GIVEAWAYS

E VENTS

EVENTS

Studio Project Teen Program presents ‘Stripping the System: The True Cost of Fast Fashion’

December 8-12, Boulder Museum Of Contemporary Art, 1750 13th Street, Boulder, museumofboulder.org The fall Studio Project artists present an exhibition focused on the environmental impact of fast fashion. Throughout the fall semester, teens from Boulder and

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

Students also learned relief printmaking under the mentorship of Boulder artist Theresa Haberkorn, who guided them as they created art for this show. The exhibition is a culmination of their collaborative work together.

Boulder Nablus Sister City Project Exclusive Film Screening of ‘The Tower’ 7 p.m. Monday, December 13, Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway. Tickets: $20. The Tower who learns about her family’s history through stories told by three previous generations of refugees.

Matrix for Murder: A Sci-fi Murder Mystery Dinner Theate

6 p.m. Saturday, December 11, Outworld Brewing, 1725 Vista View Drive, Longmont. Tickets are $40 via Eventbrite, bit.ly/3pH6RA6 group, Stages: A Practical Theatrical, to create an interactive dinner theater and vibe. The event will be engaging for all involved, with some guests being randomly chosen as suspects to participate during the production.

Author Talk: Thatcher Wine

6:30 p.m. Thursday, December 9, Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl Street, Boulder. Tickets: $5, boulderbookstore.net Thatcher Wine will speak about and sign his new book, The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time to Do Everything Better. Drawing on research in psychology, neuroscience, and mindfulness, The Twelve Monotasks breaks down 12 everyday activities to strengthen our “monotasking” muscle so that we can rebuild and expand our attention spans.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Longmont Lights (Bike) Parade

4 p.m. Saturday, December 11, Roosevelt Park, 700 Longs Peak Avenue, Longmont Deck your bike in lights, don some festive attire, and join the bike parade in Downtown Longmont. The parade begins at 5 p.m. starting at Longs Peak Avenue and Coffman Street. Line-up begins at 4 p.m. There’s an elf theme this year, but whatever you wear, make it festive. Prizes will be awarded.

Photography: A Lens Towards Healing CenterStage Theatre Company presents ‘In the Holiday Trenches’

December 10-12, CenterStage Black Box, 901 Front Street, Lower Level, Louisville, centerstagetheatrecompany.org Surprise house guests, unexpected hijinks, and a winter storm collide to make it one of the craziest holidays on record. Can one family get past the hurdles to achieve holiday glory?

6-8:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 14, Chautauqua Community House, 301 Morning Glory Drive, Boulder. Free. A small series of collaborative portraits made by Ross Taylor, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, will be displayed. Examples include a portrait of the cellist who played for several days at the memorial site of the shooting at King Soopers, the assistant manager of King Soopers, support staff from the Boulder Strong Resource Center, and a museum staff member who cleaned every object and item left on the site, etc. The community is invited to share their photos or short video clips of things they resonated with on the memorial site.

see EVENTS Page 22

For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events DECEMBER 9, 2021

EVENTS

CONCERTS SEBASTIAN MLYNARSKI AND KEVIN J. THOMSON

THURSDAY DECEMBER 2 SHIFT

LESPECIAL FRIDAY DECEMBER 3

THURSDAY DECEMBER 2

MURS

FRIDAY DECEMBER 10

FUNK YOU

ROBERT GLASPER & CORY HENRY

SATURDAY DECEMBER 11

THURSDAY DECEMBER 9

THURSDAY DECEMBER 16

DUAL VENUE! SHIFT

MASS RELAY SHIFT

MOONTRICKS, MOTIFV + MORE!

5 AM TRIO FEAT ZONE DRUMS AND TYGRIS

FRIDAY & SATURDAY DECEMBER 10-11

W/ PLUTO ERA, GADDY & WASABI JACKSON

THE TRAVELIN’ MCCOURYS

RUNAWAY GIN

THE GRATEFUL BALL

FRIDAY DECEMBER 17

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 15

TRIBUTE TO PHISH W/ BREADBOX (JGB TRIBUTE) FEAT MEMBERS OF CYCLES, THE JAUNTEE & MAMA MAGNOLIA

LOUIS COLE BIG BAND THURSDAY DECEMBER 16 SHIFT

SATURDAY DECEMBER 18

(REPOPULATE MARS)

NIKKI GLASPIE (THE NTH POWER), SPUT SEARIGHT (SNARKY PUPPY), XAVIER TAPLIN, KAT DYSON, MATT LAPHAM

KYLE WALKER W/ NASSER BAKER FRIDAY & SATURDAY DECEMBER 17-18

BOOGIE T

KAMANI

THURSDAY DECEMBER 21

THURSDAY DECEMBER 30 SHIFT

CUT CHEMIST FRIDAY DECEMBER 31

DE LA SOUL FRIDAY JANUARY 7

EMINENCE ENSEMBLE SATURDAY JANUARY 8

JANTSEN

THURSDAY JANUARY 13

LAWRENCE

THURSDAY JANUARY 20 DUAL VENUE

DIRTWIRE, COM TRUISE + MORE! SATURDAY JANUARY 22

DEFUNK W/ MEGAN HAMILTON FRIDAY & SATURDAY JANUARY 28-29:

HOPSIN

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 4

HORSESHOES & HANDGRENADES THURSDAY FEBRUARY 10

MARC E. BASSY FRIDAY FEBRUARY 11

BRYCE VINE

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 18

NATE SMITH + KINFOLK & MAKAYA MCCRAVEN

D-VIBES 30TH BIRTHDAY JAM THURSDAY DECEMBER 23 SHIFT

FUNKSTATIK & MZG FRIDAY DECEMBER 31

THE COPPER CHILDREN & BANSHEE TREE THURSDAY JANUARY 6

SHIFT G-SPACE FRIDAY & SATURDAY JANUARY 14-15 DUAL VENUE!

TUESDAY JANUARY 18

D SMOKE

SATURDAY JANUARY 22

JACOB JOLLIFF BAND FRIDAY JANUARY 28

THE INDIE JAM 500 II

EXTENDED VERSIONS OF YOUR FAVORITE INDIE ROCK SONGS FRIDAY FEBRUARY 4

PASSAFIRE

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 5

ZEPP IS FUNK

FEAT JASON HANN (SCI), JOEL CUMMINS (UMPHREY’S MCGEE) & DAVE WATTS (MOTET) THURSDAY FEBRUARY 10

AZIZI GIBSON

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 11

WAKE UP AND LIVE A BOB MARLEY TRIBUTE W/ STYLIE & SPECIAL GUESTS

(BACKED BY THE SWEET SOUNDS OF THE ASSEMBLY)

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 24

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 25

DIRTY DOZEN BRASS BAND SATURDAY FEBRUARY 26

THE CYCLES GAMESHOW FRIDAY MARCH 25

THE MAIN SQUEEZE FRIDAY & SATURDAY APRIL 15-16

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 19

CBDB

CRIS JACOBS BAND

Blunts & Blondes. 8:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $25-$27.

ABOVE: CHVRCHES stops by Boulder Theater on December 9; BELOW: Trace Bundy hosts his 13th Acoustic Annual Holiday at Boulder Theater on 11.

DECEMBER 10 Taylor Tomlinson. 6 and 9:30 p.m. Boulder TheTRACE BUNDY, COURTESY THE ARTIST ater, 2032 14th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $39.75$153.75. Prof with J.Plaza, Andrew Thomas, Willie Wonka. 7 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $22-$25. Thievery Corporation. 7:30 p.m. Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 N. Clarkson Street, Denver.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 25

MEMBA

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 26

SPORTS GET A GOOD LOOK WORLD TOUR TUESDAY MARCH 22

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SHAWN JAMES

MONDAY MAY 9

SATURDAY MARCH 26

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FRIDAY MAY 12

TUESDAY APRIL 12

RAV X KILL BILL

DAVE

The Dead South. 7 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Denver. Tickets: $35-$49.95.

BLUEGRASS GENERALS

FEAT ANDY HALL, CHRIS PANDOLFI, PAUL HOFFMAN, MICHAEL TRAVIS & ANDREW ALTMAN

SATURDAY FEBURARY 19

ERIC KRASNO + SON LITTLE

DECEMBER 9 CHVRCHES with special guest Donna Missal. 7 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $41.

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Wood Belly. 8:30 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main Street Gold Hill, Boulder. Tickets: $20. Nora En Pure. 9 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax, Denver. Tickets: $29.5035.

For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events

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DECEMBER 9, 2021

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

NORA EN PURE, COURTESY THE ARTIST

Boulder’s Local Music Shop Since 1971 DECEMBER 11 Dan Hochman. 7 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main Street Gold Hill, Boulder. No cover. Turkuaz & Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. 7 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Denver. Tickets: $29.50-$35. Dafna with Mellowpunk. 8 p.m. Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer Street, Denver. Tickets: $9.99-$15. Trace Bundy’s 13th Annual Acoustic Holiday. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $25-$35.

Shop online at hbwoodsongs.com for no contact pickup or freelocal delivery (on purchases over $20). Open to customers or for pick-up with these new hours of operations: Mon.-Fri. 11:30am - 5:30pm, Sat. 11am - 5pm, Sun. 12-4 pm

3101 28th St, Tebo Plaza, Boulder

303.449.0516

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El Ten Eleven. 9 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Avenue, Denver. Tickets: $20. DECEMBER 12 Hazel Miller. 3 p.m. December 12, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut Street, Boulder. Tickets:$15-$25. Moors & McCumber. 7:30 p.m. Gold Hill Inn, 401 Main Street Gold Hill, Boulder. Tickets: $30 (advanced purchase recommended). DECEMBER 14 Jake Shimabukuro. 7 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street, Boulder. Tickets: $35-$45. DECEMBER 15 Chris Isaak. 7:30 p.m. Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place, Denver. DECEMBER 16 Nathanial Rateliff & The Night Sweats. 7 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop Street, Denver. Tickets: $56.50-$99.50. Bonnie and Taylor Simms. 7 p.m. Jamestown Mercantile, 108 Main Street, Jamestown.

For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

DECEMBER 9, 2021

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SHERVIN LAINEZ

You know how artists are

ON THE BILL: EL TEN ELEVEN. 7

could afford one as sometimes

p.m. Saturday,

Bluebird Theater,

El Ten Eleven’s Kristian Dunn can’t wait to be back on tour

Ave., Denver.

by Angela K. Evans

“I do look back at some of it

if I should have released that one, or that one maybe should have been an EP because there were three or four [good tracks] on there, but the rest were kind of meh,” Dunn says. Regardless, the duo has built a devoted following over time, buoyed in large part by the novelty of their live performance. Their sound is often described as post-rock,

hen Kristian Dunn, one half of the instrumental indie-rock duo El Ten Banker’s Hill, he found himself wanting to make shorter statements more often, releasing a few EPs a year, rather than one LP every few years. But

live and so here we go, we get to do what we love.” With hundreds of songs to choose from, coming up

the catalogue of tracks that would become Tautology I, II, and III

the double-neck guitar and bass and Fogarty on drums, supported by substantial looping. “To be honest, the novelty factor really worried me at

Tautology alone, not to mention the dozen or so releases El Ten Eleven. Released with little fanfare, the record became a cult favorite as the band grew a loyal fanbase by touring end-

day. All of which was a bit surprising for Dunn, given that at once, especially in the day and age of streaming services. “Nobody listens to full-length records anymore,

input, there have been albums throughout the years that per-

show to our shows to see that, I wanted them to be moved by music,” Dunn says. “It was always about the music for us and the way we did it was because it was necessity:

New Year’s Eve with the titular single released December “You know how artists are—artists always think their latest work is their best, but,” Dunn says, the new album

something else.” But as he began collecting compositions, Dunn, along with drummer Tom Fogarty, searched for a cohehis teenage years. Some were atmospheric and ethereal, his grandmother-in-law. (The song “Frances” is named after her—“a phenomenal person.”) And other tracks fell somewhere in between, leaving Dunn with a triple

Like Tautology and Banker’s Hill before it, New Year’s Eve is a collaboration with Los Angeles-based produc-

something,” he says. While El Ten Eleven may have some of those

worked with bands like Portugal. The Man, Lord Huron, Trent Reznor, and The New Puritans. For El Ten Eleven, DiPerri has made all the difference, Dunn says, calling the producer-turned-good-friend his “dude muse.” “I wish him or somebody like him upon every band

To this day, Dunn says people still approach him after the show, surprised that only two people create their instrumental sound. Throughout their career, most fans have found El Ten Eleven on streaming playlists, unaware of their atypical arrangements or masterful use of looping to compose. ple; I want to move them,” he says. “So if we do impress

mid-life through end-of-life. with a clear vision for the eponymous record about performances since the coronavirus pandemic canceled Tautology.

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ollywood loves a remake. Sometimes it’s a successful foreign celebrities. Sometimes it’s a

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ese’s 1991 remake of Cape Fear comes version of Cat People

Psycho -

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West Side Story -

comes and takes out Doc’s drug

no studio would’ve allowed someone

Cover artist

Steven Spielberg and company take on ‘West Side Story’

by Michael J. Casey

Side Story

West

ON THE BILL: West Side Story Side Story will screen

Sant’s Psycho stayed away—an unlikely fate West Side Story

of entertainment disseminated on a mass West Side Story 60 years later says an awful

directed by Robert Wise and -

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

DECEMBER 9, 2021

West Side Story 27

BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES

LIBRA

1986) was experimental and innovative and influential. His imagery was often dreamlike, and his themes were metaphysical. He felt that the most crucial aspect of his creative process was his faith. If he could genuinely believe in the work he was doing, he was sure he’d succeed at even the most improbable projects. But that was a challenge for him. “There is nothing more difficult to achieve than a passionate, sincere, quiet faith,” he said. In accordance with your astrological omens during the next 12 months, Aries, I suggest you draw inspiration from his approach. Cultivating a passionate, sincere, quiet faith will be more attainable than it has ever been.

series *South Park*, its two creators produced an episode called “Make Love, Not Warcraft.” The story lovingly mocked nerds and the culture of online gaming. Soon after sending his handiwork to executive producers, Libran co-creator Trey Parker decided it was a terrible show that would wreck his career. He begged for it to be withheld from broadcast. But the producers ignored his pleas. That turned out to be a lucky break. The episode ultimately won an Emmy Award and became popular with fans. I foresee the possibility of comparable events in your life, Libra. Don’t be too sure you know which of your efforts will work best.

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: Aries filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–

TAURUS

SCORPIO

which the traveler is unaware,” said philosopher Martin Buber. How true! I would add that the traveler is wise to prepare for the challenges and opportunities of those secret destinations . . . and be alert for them if they appear . . . and treat them with welcome and respect, not resistance and avoidance. When travelers follow those protocols, they are far more likely to be delightfully surprised than disappointingly surprised. Everything I just said will apply to you in the coming weeks, Taurus.

Gide (1869–1951) had an unusual relationship with his wife Madeline Rondeaux. Although married for 43 years, they never had sex. As long as she was alive, he never mentioned her in his extensive writings. But after she died, he wrote a book about their complex relationship. Here’s the best thing he ever said about her: “I believe it was through her that I drew the need for truthfulness and sincerity.” I’d love for you to be lit up by an influence like Madeline Rondeaux, Scorpio. I’d be excited for you to cultivate a bond with a person who will inspire your longing to be disarmingly candid and refreshingly genuine. If there are no such characters in your life, go looking for them. If there are, deepen your connection.

APRIL 20-MAY 20: “All journeys have secret destinations of

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Gemini sleight-of-hand artist Apollo

Robinson may be the best and most famous pickpocket in the world. Fortunately, he uses his skill for entertainment purposes only. He doesn’t steal strangers’ money and valuables from their pockets and purses and jackets. On one occasion, while in the company of former US President Jimmy Carter, he pilfered multiple items from a secret service agent assigned to protect Carter. He gave the items back, of course. It was an amusing and humbling lesson that inspired many law-enforcement officials to seek him out as a consultant. I suspect that in the coming weeks, you may have comparable abilities to trick, fool, beguile, and enchant. I hope you will use your superpowers exclusively to carry out good deeds and attract inviting possibilities.

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: A fashion company called Tibi sells a silver

mini dress that features thousands of sequins. It’s also available in gold. I wonder if the designers were inspired by poet Mark Doty’s line: “No such thing, the queen said, as too many sequins.” In my astrological estimation, the coming weeks will be a fun time to make this one of your mottoes. You will have a poetic license to be flashy, shiny, bold, swanky, glittery, splashy, sparkling, and extravagant. If expressing such themes in the way you dress isn’t appealing, embody more metaphorical versions.

as the greatest basketball player ever. He was the Most Valuable Player five times and had a higher scoring average than anyone else who has ever played. And yet he confesses, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life.” He says the keys to his success are his familiarity with bungles and his determination to keep going despite his bungles. I invite you to meditate on Jordan’s example in the coming days.

erly,” writes Nigerian poet Ijeoma Umebinyuo. Isn’t that true for each of us? Don’t we all carry around painful memories as if they were still fresh and current? With a little work, we could depotentize at least some of them and consign them to a final resting place where they wouldn’t nag and sting us anymore. The good news, Capricorn, is that the coming weeks will be an excellent time to do just that: bury any pasts that you have not properly buried before now.

Aldous Huxley speaks to a stand of poplar trees. He asks them if they are an “agony of undefined desires.” Now I will pose the same question to you, Leo. Are you an agony of undefined desires? Or are you a treasury of well-defined desires? I hope it’s the latter. But if it’s not, the coming weeks will be an excellent time to fix the problem. Learning to be precise about the nature of your longings is your growing edge, your frontier. Find out more about what you want, please.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Black is your lucky color for the foreseeable future. I invite you to delve further than ever before into its mysteries and meanings and powers. I encourage you to celebrate blackness and honor blackness and nurture blackness in every way you can imagine. For inspiration, meditate on how, in art, black is the presence of all colors. In printing, black is a color needed to produce other colors. In mythology, blackness is the primal source of all life and possibility. In psychology, blackness symbolizes the rich unconscious core from which all vitality emerges.

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: “I have pasts inside me I did not bury prop-

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: In February 1967, the Beatles recorded

JULY 23-AUG. 22: In his poem “Song of Poplars,” Leo author

DECEMBER 9, 2021

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

LEO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Nobel Prize-winning Scorpio author André

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: Many sportswriters regard Michael Jordan

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: In the first season of the animated TV

their album *Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band* in London. A man claiming to be Jesus Christ convinced Paul McCartney to let him weasel his way into the studio. McCartney later said that he was pretty sure it wasn’t the real Jesus. But if by some remote chance it was, he said, he didn’t want to make a big mistake. I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I suspect that comparable events may be brewing in your vicinity. My advice: Don’t assume you already know who your teachers and helpers are. Here’s the relevant verse from the Bible: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: According to Professor of Classics

Anne Carson, ancient Greek author Homer “suggested we stand in time with our backs to the future, face to the past.” And why would we do that? To “search for the meaning of the present—scanning history and myth for a precedent.” I bring this to your attention, Pisces, because I think you should avoid such an approach in the coming months. In my view, the next chapter of your life story will be so new, so unpredicted, that it will have no antecedents, no precursory roots that might illuminate its plot and meaning. Your future is unprecedented.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: I’m a fan from Italy, so please excuse my English. I’ve been in a hetero relationship with my boyfriend for seven years, we’re both around 30, and we love each other and blah blah blah. Sex is very good but quite standard since we have no particular kinks or fetishes. I always reach orgasm before penetration, but only with fingering. It turns me on when he goes down on me, but it doesn’t “do the trick.” After I come, I feel something is missing if we don’t have penetrative sex that ends with him coming inside me. But because that part isn’t a lot of fun for me—being penetrated doesn’t make me come, and I’m being penetrated after I come—I usually urge him to come quickly, which is a bit frustrating for him. Is it weird that I need this kind of “closure” to sex? Is it weird that I want him coming inside me under these conditions? Where does this need come from? I’m sure you’ll have a great answer! —Weird Orgasmic Needs Defy Easy Rationales Dear WONDER: You’re in a better position to judge where this need of yours comes from—and you’re most likely in the missionary position (not that there’s anything wrong with that!)—but if I were to hazard a guess… Sex meets our physical need for touch, for pleasure, and for release, WONDER, but it also meets emotional needs. And sometimes what a sex act and/or an eroticized act symbolizes is just as or more important than how it feels. It means something to you—something important—when your boyfriend comes inside you during PIV intercourse. And since your boyfriend comes inside you after you’ve already come—usually after you’ve asked him to hurry things along—it’s not about your pleasure in that moment. It’s not about how it feels, WONDER, it’s about what it means. Your physical needs have already been satisfied; your boyfriend got you off with his fingers. But sex doesn’t feel real and complete for you until your boyfriend comes inside you. In the moment—in those moments—it’s more about what’s going on between your ears, i.e., more of what sex means than how it feels.

Seeing as you read my column, WONDER, you must know (I hope you know) that two or more people can have a satisfying and meaningful sexual encounter that leaves them feeling connected and satisfied without anyone being penetrated during PIV or PIT or PIB and without anyone coming inside anyone else. Indeed, a person can have a meaningful sexual encounter that leaves them feeling satisfied without coming at all. But if you want to shake things up with the boyfriend—if you occasionally wanna give your boyfriend a chance to enjoy fucking you without being hurried along—you could always wait to come until after he does. Now, you’re a grown-ass, sexually active, thirty-year-old-orthereabouts citizen of the European Union, WONDER, and I’m guessing this may have already occurred to you. But I’m going to toss it out there just in case: Let your boyfriend go down on you until you’re completely turned on, then let him take his time fucking you until he comes, and then—and only then—let him finger you until you come. Hey, Everybody: Fuck Alito and fuck Thomas and fuck Roberts and fuck Kavanaugh and fuck Gorsuch and fuck Barrett. Fuck anyone who would force a woman to give birth against her will. But while SCOTUS may be able to reverse Roe v. Wade and allow Republican-controlled state legislatures to ban abortion in most of the United States, we don’t have to return to the days when women who needed abortions—and trans and non-binary folks who needed abortions—couldn’t get them safely. Abortion pills (Mifepristone and Misoprostol) are safe and effective, they can be safely self-administered, and they can be purchased online for around $100. For more information, go to www. shareabortionpill.info. Stock up so you have them on hand if you or your friends or your family members or your coworkers or your neighbors ever need them.

Call 720.253.4710 All credit cards accepted No text messages

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questions@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @ FakeDanSavage. Dan’s columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at www.savage. love.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Call or email to chat more about Body Composting

720-515-2344 info@thenaturalfuneral.com TheNaturalFuneral.com DECEMBER 9, 2021

COURTESY DANA RODRIGUEZ

Brunch, Casa Bonita and a homebrew

How a pastry whiz, a chef, and a brewing expert are finding ways to expand our culinary horizons

By John Lehndorff

DANA RODRIGUEZ (above) is the new chef at the “new” Casa Bonita; Jennifer Mesinger (below) is Boulder’s best-known baker and pastry chef

ometimes it only takes one bite to know that someone strong is behind the scenes obsessing about quality and attention to detail. Take the quintessential brunch dish, Eggs Benedict, served at the freshly renovated and rebranded Lucky’s Bakehouse Cafe. Each forkful features griddled, high-quality smoked ham, perfectly poached egg, and lemony scratch-made Hollandaise The hash browns at the Cafe are crispy, the coffee dark and with cocoa and cinnamon is sweetly satisfying. It was everything you want in a morning meal with attentive service in a comfortable sunny environment. Frankly, none of it was a surprise because I knew that Jennifer (Bush) Mesinger was in charge. Boulder’s best-known baker and pastry chef grew up in Jamestown, where her mother made desserts for the Flagstaff House Restaurant, and went on to culinary school and suffered the typical indignities experienced by a female pastry chef in male-dominated kitchens. I became aware of Mesinger when she returned to Boulder and made a name baking pastries for the Big Red F Restaurants. She opened Lucky’s Bakehouse in North Boulder in 2013 and became revered by families scones, cupcakes, and everything else yummy from the oven. However, the savory side of Mesinger’s culinary passions went mostly unattended in her Lucky’s Bakehouse

DECEMBER 9, 2021

role until she approached Lucky’s Market (across the parking lot) about taking over the management of the nearby Lucky’s Café. She’s now the chef at the longtime breakfast and lunch destination while continuing operations at the bakery. You can see the change in the scratch-made menu at the reborn Lucky’s Bakehouse Cafe with dishes like housemade biscuits in chorizo gravy, the inside-out grilled COURTESY JENNIFER MESINGER cheese sandwich with tomato soup, shrimp tostada with pinto beans, avocado, cotija cheese, and pumpkin seed cilantro pesto, and a genuine avgolemono soup. In the world of food and drink, extreme challenges and unpredictability of the profession. Chefs and others whose careers extend over decades manage to navigate the career depths, heights, and terrors to continue creating and contributing in new ways. Jennifer Mesinger is one such local culinary survivor along with award-winning Denver chef Dana Rodriguez and brewing

expert Julia Herz. A REAL ‘CHEF’ AT CASA BONITA The last time I ate at Casa Bonita in 2001 I found the ladas—except for the sopapillas. I’ve spent decades making fun of the fare there along with everybody else, but I won’t be able to do that when Casa Bonita reopens under the ownership of the guys behind South Park. Dana Rodriguez has been named the executive chef at the “new” Casa Bonita. months chronicling the opening of Jennifer Jasinski’s

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

JOHN LEHNDORFF

Rioja restaurant in Larimer Square. The Juarez-born sous chef told me that the hardest -

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Drinking together

Hot beers and lager nights along the Front Range

by Michael J. Casey

emember beer events? Weren’t they fun? Back in the before-times, it seemed like there was one every day, sometimes four on the same evening. Granted, we’ve had a few to enjoy these past many months since the Colorado Brewers Guild pulled the plug on Collaboration Fest back in March 2020, but for the most part, beer events have been coming in dribs and drabs. Well, things are starting to look like they are back on the upswing. But before we get there, let’s hit bottom. Louis Pasteur, Saccharomyces pastorianus is the bottom-fermenting yeast strain that gives lagers their National Lager Day, the good folks at Seedstock Brewing off lagers: Czech Pilsner, Munich Helles, Special Hell, and their new collaboration with Jade Mountain Brewery, Jaded Pilsner. There’s no shortage of damn good lagers brewed in Colorado, but Seedstock continues to move the needle for tasty and historically interesting brews. It’s worth the trip. Check out seedstockbrewery.com for more. Speaking of lager, did you know that Longmont’s Wibby Brewing has a weekly winter market on Wednesdays? It’s true. Modeled after Europe’s Christkindl markets, Wibby’s Winter Market features new vendors with activities and plenty of drinks each week. Good news for you, you have two more chances to partake: wibbybrewing.com/events And Wibby isn’t the only brewery in Longmont sporting a holiday marketplace this year. Located in the Prospect New Town Neighborhood, Primitive Beer is teaming up with Cohesion Brewing and WeldWerks Brewing for the inaugural Hot Bierfest & Holiday Marketday of the year, but the history of beer is the story of locality and seasonality. And when things get cold outside,

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people want to drink something to warm their insides. Alcohol helps, but so does a nice hot beverage. There’s no end to discovering what has been and can be possible with beer, and few breweries embody those two prongs quite like Primitive and WeldWerks. And with newcomer Cohesion working the horizontal taps, all three are sure to take you someplace different. But I’m sure there will be plenty of chilled and cellar temperature beer should the weather not cooperate or your courage fail you. Now let’s turn our attention to 2022 with hope and antic-

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of any year—Breckenridge’s Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines—will not be held in-person with its traditional educational seminars and commercial tasting. It’ll be the second year in a row the beer calendar has felt empty, but, this time around, Big Beers celebrates with a “Craft Your Own” festival. “It’s about keeping the energy and spirit alive, supporting each other, and continuing to spread the word about the unusual and amazing big (seven percent alcohol by volume), Belgian (in style), and experimental beers these artisans continue to create,” Laura Lodge, Big Beers Educational Foundation Executive Director, committed to CYO Big Beers 22 and will be offering special promotions during the first weekend of January (the traditional Big Beers weekend). Information is still developing, but the brass behind Big Beers is working with the Digital Pour app to coordinate. Check bigbeersfestival.com/craft-your-own-tasting/ later this month for more.

And we’ll conclude by looking even further into the future—hopefully, a future with eased restrictions, diminishing mandates, a healthy populace, and a robust Collaboration Fest 2022, returning April 2 to the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver. If you’ve never been to CollabFest, this should be the year you remedy that. Where else can you drink beer lautered through a tree, walk two tables over to drink beer brewed with breakfast cereal, and in between: a beer brewed with space yeast? “The sheer number of collaboration beers tapped in one single day is phenomenal,” Shawnee Adelson, Colorado Brewers Guild Executive Director, says in a press release. “Beer lovers will get to sample everything from tried-and-true styles to some off-thewall creations. There will be something for everyone at Collaboration Fest.” And with any luck, there’ll be something for everyone in 2022. Maybe not immediately, but hope is omnipresent.

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How I turned my seriously tart sourdough starter into fantastic holiday crackers by John Lehndorff

named it KimChee after the friend who shared the sourdough starter which now lurks in a Mason jar in the refrigerator. KimChee has been useful as I’ve crafted

like an annoying adolescent, my sourdough starter insists on being fed and keeps on growing. When it outgrows hate throwing away anything edible. The latest and greatest use I’ve found for my starter (besides making cornbread) is crackers. I’ve made a world of baked goods over the years, but somehow had never attempted crackers. They always seemed, uh, complicated. It turns out that making crackers is absurdly easy and very impressive when you serve them. They’re also easy to tweak with a variety of additions and toppings, including herbs, grated cheese, seeds, and nuts to suit any taste. The following recipe is a tweaked and re-tweaked dozens of crackers depending on the size and shape. The reality is that each sourdough starter is unique— some are thicker, and others more liquid. You will need to adjust the recipe. You can always bake a small test batch and see how they taste.

Sourdough Starter Crackers 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup (approx.) sourdough starter 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (or plant-based

substitute), room temperature minced dried herbs (rosemary, thyme, sage, etc.) and/or grated Parmesan Oil (olive, sesame or canola) Dry toppings: Salt (kosher or sea), dried garlic, sesame pepitas sourdough starter, butter, and herbs until you have a smooth dough. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a slab or roll. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour until the dough rolling pin, surface, and dough to keep it from sticking, or roll it out in a plastic bag. Roll the dough out very thinly and place on a nonstick baking sheet. Brush both sides very lightly with oil and sprinkle on salt or toppings. Then cut the dough into squares of the desired size. Prick each cracker with the tines of a fork. Bake for about 30 minutes, rotating the pan once to get even baking. If you like extra crisp crackers, leave the pan in the oven longer but check it often to avoid burning. Remove from oven, cool and serve. Crackers freeze well for future use.

Culinary calendar

fter being postponed because of the pan-

heartwarming event features a traditional hot oatmeal breakfast with tons of toppings at The Gatehouse, 1055 S. 112th Street, and a Virtual lafayettecolorado.com

JOHN LEHNDORFF

If you need to keep it convenient, the following list includes most of the commercial pimento cheese available in refrigerated plastic deli containers at area supermarkets. Some are spicier, some sweeter, some use more mayo or bigger cheese shreds. Naturally, the ones made with the best sharp cheddar cheeses and other ingredients taste the best and cost the most. Think of the two “avoid” spreads on the end of the list as Cheez Whiz imitations of what pimento cheese spread should taste like. In order of preference: 1. Disco Jim’s Pimento Cheese Spread (Marczyk Fine Foods) 2. Trader Joe’s Pimento Cheese Dip (Trader Joe’s) 3. Kroger Private Selection Pimento Cheese (King Soopers) 4. Palmetto Cheese Spread (King Soopers) 5. Avoid: Price’s Pimento Cheese Spread (Wal-Mart) 6. Avoid: Kraft Pimento Cheese Spread (everywhere)

Another roadfood attraction

his is what can happen when you tumble down the pimento cheese spread rabbit hole on the internet. It can get messy. I only discovered this culinary subculture existed when I was assigned to write about pimento cheese sandwiches at the Master’s for a golf magazine. The result was an epic taste test of half a dozen pimento cheese spreads. Who knew there were so many varieties and variations of the Southern specialty available in the Denver-Boulder area? I had believed they would all taste the same—I was wrong. It also turns out that this combo of shredded cheddar, mayo, pimento peppers and cream cheese can be totally crave-worthy. You can whip up your own pimento cheese spread in a few minutes and save some dollars using one of the many online recipes.

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Into the darkness

Finding peace in a sensory deprivation tank

life,” he says. Worth a shot, I tell myself. The room with the tank is a large

by Brendan Joel Kelley

wo hours before I go into the tank, I’m wondering if it can help my more, ahem, acute concerns of the day—later this afternoon I’ll speak in front of an audience of business leaders (mad respect, but this group isn’t exactly composed of my peers); next er bout of chemotherapy . . . I’m not sure if the sensory anxieties or perhaps quiet my mind and allow me to witness the nuances of these feelings, similar to the way my meditation practice works. Or will I be so relaxed I’m practically asleep, held in a warm, moist, SUSAN FRANCE silent facsimile of the womb? In this new-ish column, Altered States, we explore (and sometimes experience) the different unorthodox ways we hack our bodies, our neurology, our psychology, our feelings—with medicine, and without. That’s why I’m going to undress completely and close myself in the tank later this morning.

the upcoming panel discussion, or my mom’s illness, or the endless deadlines that

you need a rinse afterward), and the tank, perhaps four (There are larger tanks for the claustrophobic, but that isn’t one of my issues.) meditation technique. I can hear my breath and my heartbeat—that’s all, the tank and some foam earplugs shut off all sound. Mostly my eyes are closed, but when they open there’s no difference (except a solid sting from a drop of salt water that made it in). The salt water

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entries—it’s as if I’m looking at

stayed in there much longer—though I’m not sure I would sessions, which I initially thought would be too long, but I get it now—and I did return for a longer session.) The experience was not dissimilar from meditation, nothing but what’s inside your mind (once you’re done feeling how far your butt is from the bottom of the tank). the silence, the closed metal door of the tank inside a room that’s empty except for you. and a fast-paced, hectic life. I manage to maintain a meditation practice by waking up at 5 a.m.

want to feel better, physically or mentally. We try exercise, religion, therapy,

the only conscious soul in my house—no requests, no inquiries, no responsibilities for those few minutes. At Isolate, those elements

months into a global pandemic that

the most compelling reason for dropping money on an isolation

ing businesses, and instigating political strife, we’re all Ben Gleason opened Isolate Floatation Center in

the distance between my butt and the bottom of the tank; the bottom consistently feels about six inches below me. ably shift two feet lengthwise in the tank; the side walls are wide enough that I rarely feel enclosed. After I explor

a lot healthier and a lot happier,” Gleason says. After he

tank session. In a way it’s beyond meditation, though—a semi-lucid waking dream state characterizes the last half-hour or so of my time in the tank, something I don’t get in my meditation practice or from a hot eucalyptus-scented bath (the water in the tank is not hot, it’s skin-temperature, so not really like a bath at all). Gleason concurs—he’d tried meditating before his

and ended up opening my center.”

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Homeowners’ green incentive

it’s been a couple of years and more areas have legalized marijuana,” Ortegren says, “to see if those trends were continuing and if we were continuing to see them through the craziness that was the last year-and-a-half in terms of housing value.” For the analysis, Clever Real Estate used publicly available data from Zillow, the U.S. Census, and other sources, to explore the relationships between home values, marijuana legalization, dispensaries, and tax revenue. They then used multiple regression analyses to model current trends and predict patterns in the future.

Property values soar in states that have legalized weed compared to those that haven’t—and in more ways than expected

by Will Brendza

egalizing cannabis should be a priority for every homeowner in this country, according to Francesca Ortegren’s recent analysis. Ortegren found that when a state ends prohibition and legalizes, property values go up across the board. “We were interested in what exactly is driving that relationship,” Ortegren, a former professor at the University of Southern Indiana and current data scientist for Clever Real Estate, says. That interest was born of a previous study that Clever Real Estate published in 2019; it looked at whether crime was rising in states that had legalized cannabis, and what effects that might be having on housing markets. It found evidence that seemed to indicate crime was actually going down in legal states and housing prices were going up. This recent meta-analysis that Ortegren authored was a follow-up to that previous study. Clever Real Estate wanted a closer look at the relationship between cannabis and real estate prices, with fresh data, to see how much the former affected the latter. “We wanted to take another look at the data now that

something similar in that the states that had legalized marijuana—recreational marijuana going to have higher, faster growing home values,” Ortegren says. However they didn’t really expect the observed relationship to be as strong as it

apparently is. According to their results, just between April 2017 and April 2021 property values in states where recreational marijuana is legal rose $17,113 compared to states upholding prohibition (in California, where property values rose the most since 2017, that number

over that time period in legal states, compared to states where cannabis remains illegal. They also found that, on average, home values rose $470 for every $1 million in marijuana tax revenue the

DECEMBER 9, 2021

state collects. In Colorado, $387,480,110 was collected in marijuana taxes and fees just in 2020. “Recreational marijuana seems to have a larger impact on home values,” Ortegren says. “We don’t see the same increase in home values in those areas [with just medicinal marijuana] compared to the handful of states that have recreational marijuana legal as well.” That’s largely because it opens up sales to more people, and results in much higher tax revenue that can then be pumped back into communities. In the states that have legalized recreational marijuana but have yet to begin actual sales, the analysis prohibition states, once sales begin. The analysis also concludes that “dispensaries are positively correlated with higher home values, suggesting legalization boosts jobs and economic growth.” Cities that had recreational dispensaries saw a $22,090 rise in property values, compared to cities that didn’t. For every recreational dispensary a city added, property values rose $519. “A lot of people have a stigma or a fear around legalizing marijuana. There’s a lot of negative press around legalizing marijuana or that are interested in legalizing marijuana, I think having this type of data is helpful for the argument that this is good for a community, that home values increase and economic activity increases.” There are a lot of anecdotal claims out there about are unsubstantiated by science (for now). People can debate those, Ortegren says, but this data represents use, or believe in its medicinal qualities, to gain from its legalization. All you have to do is own property, and the cannabis market will do the rest. “Regardless of your feelings about marijuana or whether you want to smoke it or you want your family members using it, I think at a community level, hopefully, eventually there will be a consensus that this is not necessarily bad,” she says. “Hopefully this shines a more positive light on recreational marijuana sales.”

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