Boulder Weekly 3.3.2022

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Altered consciousness in the hills

Out in nature, seeing things that aren’t there is more common than you might imagine

by Doug Emory

■ Guess who’s back?

Back again...wolves are back p. 12

■ Introducing City Beat... so you don’t have to listen to council p. 8

■ Longmont's Gonzo renaissance man p. 16

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city beat:

Read the first installment of this new, bimonthly column about ‘all things municipal’

by Shay Castle

analysis:

How potentially unconstitutional antihomeless policies and a weak social safety net perpetuate cycles of homelessness

by Sam Becker

news:

Wolves aren’t just back in Colorado, they’re recently back on the endangered species list— what does that mean for the state?

by Will Brendza

10 12

buzz:

16

altered states:

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Talk shows, erotica, visual art and music make Andy Eppler Longmont’s Gonzo renaissance man

by Matt Maenpaa

Out in nature, seeing things that aren’t there is more common than you might imagine

by Doug Emory

departments 7

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The Anderson Files: Is Putin still the leader of the white Christian world?

Overtones: 50 years in, Los Lobos isn’t going anywhere Events: What to do when there’s nothing to do . . .

Film: Return of the Boulder International Film Festival Astrology: by Rob Brezsny Savage Love: Paradise found Nibbles: New Julia Child documentary recalls her strong Colorado connection and that unforgettable voice Beer: Part II: In which Michael finds the end Food & Drink: Croque Madame with raspberry jam and frites at Le French Café, plus Shepard’s Pie Weed Between the Lines: New report gives Colorado a C+ on access to medical cannabis

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Publisher, Fran Zankowski Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief, Caitlin Rockett Senior Editor, Emma Athena News Editor, Will Brendza Food Editor, John Lehndorff Contributing Writers: Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, 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 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 March 3, 2022 Volume XXIX, Number 26 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.

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Is Putin still the leader of the white Christian world?

by Dave Anderson

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rogressives have been focused on pushing domestic reforms such as voting rights, environmental sustainability, labor struggles, reproductive rights and Build Back Better. We are fighting for a more democratic government which promotes prosperity for all. Meanwhile, an increasingly authoritarian rightwing promotes a phony populism which offers racial scapegoats.

Now a foreign policy crisis is dominating the headlines. Putin’s attack on Ukraine demands our attention.

It’s going to be tough, but we need to fight for democracy at home and abroad. The two struggles are connected.

Putin and his gang know that. Last summer, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talked about the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. He told reporters that the Kremlin is “following with interest” the “persecution” of those “accused of the riots on Jan. 6.”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Then, at an economic forum in St. Petersburg, Putin said the people who stormed the Capitol were rightly upset about the election results. “They came with political demands,” he said, adding that the criminal suspects received “very harsh charges.... Why is that?”

Then, after his Geneva summit with President Biden, he was asked about his silencing of political opponents. He talked about the Capitol rioters’ “political demands” and that one of them was shot by the police even though none of the insurrectionists were armed.

Putin was repeating lies from the Trumpist rightwing.

Julia Davis of The Daily Beast reports that on the anniversary of the insurrection, Russian state TV reporter Denis Davydov approached Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD)—a see THE ANDERSON FILES Page 8

MARCH 3, 2022

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THE ANDERSON FILES from Page 7

member of the House select commit- the “moral clarity” of the Russian tee investigating the Jan. 6 riot—and leader in an essay entitled “Is Puasked him: “It is believed that Jan. 6 tin One of Us?” It sounded a little was a planned attack by the FBI and strange. Buchanan said Putin offered radical Democrats. Are you investia traditionalist alternative to “Amerigating this?” ca’s embrace of abortion on demand, Raskin responded, “Give my rehomosexual marriage, pornography, gards to Vladimir Putin.” It must have promiscuity, and the whole panoply been somewhat surreal for Raskin, a of Hollywood values.” He said too progressive who has been critical of many Americans were “still caught up American imperial adventures. His in a Cold War paradigm.” Instead, he father, Marcus Raskin, founded the suggested, “the 21st century struggle leftwing think tank The Institute for may be horizontal, with conservatives Policy Studies (IPS). Jamie isn’t a and traditionalists in every country fan of fascists arrayed against the and their coup militant seculard’etats. He ism of a multiculjoined IPS to tural and transnahonor the memtional elite.” ory of Orlando According Letelier and to the New York is dominating the headRonni Moffitt Times and the who worked for Washington Post, lines. Putin’s attack on IPS. On Sept.

Putin’s rightwing 16, 1976, they fanboys were Ukraine demands our were assassinatdefending Putin attention. It’s going to ed by car bomb but have become by agents of the nervous after the be tough but we need Chile’s fascist invasion. Italian Pinochet regime far right leader to fight for democracy at on Washington, Matteo Salvini home and abroad.

D.C.’s Embassy wore shirts with Row. Letelier Putin’s face on in was the former Moscow’s Red Chilean ambasSquare and in the sador for Salvador Allende’s demoEuropean Parliament. Today, Salcratically elected socialist government vini condemns violence on both sides overthrown by a CIA- assisted miland leaves flowers at Rome’s Ukrainian itary coup. Moffitt was his assistant embassy. In France, Marine LePen, presiand a U.S. citizen. dential candidate of the far right National In earlier years, the IPS had been Rally party—which received a loan from burglarized and spied on by the FBI. a Russian bank—denounced the invasion.

There’s been a lot of speculation about The other French far right presidential how much segments of the U.S. govcandidate, Eric Zemmour, did the same. ernment knew about the assassination Brazil’s far right president, Jair Bolplot beforehand. But FBI invessonaro, was the last world leader to meet tigators worked hard catching the Putin before the invasion. He said he was killers. However, the CIA (then led in “solidarity” with Russia. In 2020, Putin

by George H.W. Bush) wasn’t very told Bolsonaro,“You express the best helpful and seemed to deliberately masculine qualities.” Bolsonaro admires spread misinformation.

Brazil’s former military dictatorship That was the Cold War. We are though he said it should have tortured now in quite different times. We and killed more dissidents. had the Post Cold War period. Now Bolsonaro scolded his vice president we are plunging into a new era. But for denouncing the invasion, saying only Putin may think he is returning to a the president should speak out on the glorious Czarist past. In his rantings matter. But Bolsonaro doesn’t speak out. on Ukraine, he is particularly angry Is Putin no longer the leader of the about Lenin and the Bolsheviks. white Christian world?

Today, rightwingers around the This opinion column does not world came to consider Putin to be necessarily reflect the views of Boulder leader of the white Christian world.

Weekly.

Back in 2013, Pat Buchanan praised

NOW A FOREIGN POLICY CRISIS

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Crime is (maybe, kinda, sorta) up, the new fire station is a go, and affordable housing is on the way

by Shay Castle

Editor’s note: Welcome to the first installment of City Beat, where reporter Shay Castle covers all things municipal.

Don’t have six hours to spare on Tuesday nights to watch council meetings? City Beat has you covered. Check in every other week.

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oulder city council kicked things off with a crime update this Tuesday, March 2. (Actually, they heard from Boulder municipal judge Linda Cooke first, about a federally-funded program to keep the unhoused from paying fines or going to jail for “crimes” like smoking or sleeping. It’s going incredibly well, unlike the city’s other effort to police the homeless into self-deporting to another town.)

The bottom line from Police Chief Maris Herold is that crime is going up, though Boulder still has far lower rates of violent crime than the U.S. and Colorado.

Slide after slide showed varying degrees of change in things like car thefts (there were typically 10-20 per month in early 2017 and 30-40 per month in 2020 and 2021) to burglary, l

which was somewhere in the 20 per-month range pre-pandemic and increased to a solid 30-per-month average for businesses once COVID hit.

Residential burglaries seemed to jump to double digits each month starting in 2019, from 0-10 before that. (Property crime is higher in Boulder than either the nation or state.)

Increases weren’t consistent; jagged graphs jumped all over the place, lacked comparisons to other places and didn’t track every crime—something critics on council were quick to note.

“The variability in those graphs are really large, and the trends we are seeing are much smaller,” Dr. Nicole Speer said. “I’m not questioning the data. But descriptive statistics don’t tell us what is a ‘statistically significant’ increase in crime and what is ‘naturally variable.’”

“All the slides we’re showing are crime rates that are going up,” Rachel Friend said. “I think we could be frightening people or inflaming if we’re only highlighting upward trends.” see CITY BEAT Page 9

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

CITY BEAT from Page 8

“Our intention is not to frighten the community,” Chief Herold responded. “My intention is to be transparent about crime and how it’s impacting the community. We are seeing significant harm because of crime.”

The “majority of crimes” are increasing, Herold insisted. Only sexual assault and “some of the disorderly, quality-of-life crimes” remained stable. Bike thefts—which were presented—decreased after the bust of a bike shop burgling ring.

“Given the same data, I’m not sure I’d come up with the same trend lines,” council member Lauren Folkerts countered.

She requested that crime data be presented alongside information on how quickly cops are responding to calls, where they patrol and what they do with the majority of their time.

Councilman Matt Benjamin asked that crime reports be accompanied with “societal factors” and numbers from other cities so that Boulder’s stats could be put in context.

Dr. Daniel Reinhard, BPD’s new data analyst, promised a more complex analysis in the future.

for a total of $27 million. Original estimated cost: $12.5 million.

Council gave quick-and-dirty approvals to two affordable housing projects: • 114 affordable apartments at 3300 Penrose Place, currently home to the Geological Society of America. An existing three-story building will be retrofitted into homes and four more buildings will be added to the site.

• A TBD amount and type of

affordable housing at 2691 30th Street, which for two years housed homeless services and emergency sheltering. For that privilege, the city paid the building’s previous owners $2.2 million, which will be credited toward the full, final $4.75 million purchase price.

See you next Tuesday

Council will receive an update on its progress toward eliminating serious car crashes, and make nom-

inations for new board and commission members. There will be a public hearing for that one, so visit bouldercolorado.gov/services/participate-city-council-meetings if you want to speak .

Shay Castle is the founder and editor of Boulder Beat. Her work can be found at boulderbeat.news, and more comprehensive reports from city council meetings are on her Twitter @ shayshinecastle

Council’s post-COVID comeback

In-person meetings could resume as soon as April 5 (if Boulder County commissioners agree to deliberate on a library district at the Penfield Tate II Municipal Building; a joint public hearing is scheduled for that date.)

Members of the public will have to wait an extra month to give the city time to work out any kinks. Options for online viewing and participation will continue, and study sessions will stay on Zoom for now.

IRL meetings are made possible

by Boulder County’s low COVID transmission (as classified by the CDC). New cases dropped below 200 per 100,000 people in the past week, and fewer than 4.5% of tests were positive.

Boulder, briefly

The city’s fancy new fire station cleared its final (public) regulatory hurdle, clearing the way for construction. Estimated cost: $18 million, on top of the $9 million Boulder paid for the land at 2751 and 2875 30th Street,

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MARCH 3, 2022

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“Get out of Boulder” How potentially unconstitutional anti-homeless policies and a weak social safety net perpetuate cycles of homelessness

by Sam Becker

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hile the dawn stars twinkled on Christmas Eve 2021, Boulder police officer Kevin Granberg beamed his vehicle’s flood lights into Jeni Shurley’s “Gypsy Wagon,” a bike-drawn tiny home on wheels that Shurley built and uses as her residence. Shurley was camping in Boulder’s Scott Carpenter Park, an activity that is illegal under the city’s prohibition on sleeping or other “activities of daily living” in public places.

The officer wrote Shurley a camping ticket, her second in 25 hours. Around 7:30 the morning before, the same officer also ticketed her for camping in Scott Carpenter Park.

Shurley’s tickets were two of the 615 that Boulder police officers issued to homeless residents who violated the city’s camping and tent bans in 2021—a sixyear high, according to 2015-2021 data obtained from Boulder Municipal Court. Due in part to enforcement of these bans, Boulder’s homeless residents were on average 53 times more likely to be ticketed for non-violent offenses than Boulder’s housed residents from 2018 through 2021.

During both encounters with Officer Granberg, Shurley says he told her to “get out of Boulder” and go to surrounding cities, including Louisville and Superior.

Footage of the incidents was requested. City officials said no body camera recording was made of the Dec. 24 interaction; video from Dec. 23 was promised but has yet to be released by Boulder Police Department.

“This is my home,” Shurley says of Boulder, where she first moved in 1996. It’s where two of her three daughters, her son, and most of her community lives.

For at least 600 years, cities have penalized homeless residents by evicting them from public space and encouraging them to move to other cities. While the focus of penalties has shifted from vagrancy and loitering to camping and sleeping, the substance of official efforts to control and expel the homeless remains the same.

“When I’m told by the police officers and by policies, ‘You can go anywhere but here,’ that’s what everyone is saying,” Shurley says. “That’s what every city says.”

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Cycles of homelessness

In 2009, Shurley moved to Kathmandu, Nepal. But in 2015, her house and guest house––her residence and primary source of income––were destroyed by an earthquake. With little savings and no insurance to help her start anew, she moved back to the U.S. in 2018 after engaging in relief efforts for three years.

“I had no job, I had no connections,” she says.

“My whole life had been out of the country for so long.”

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, a Switzerland-based organization, estimates that 14 million people around the world are thrust into homelessness COURTESY SAM BECKER from natural disasters each year—a number that is projected to balloon as climate change increases the frequency and severity of certain natural disasters.

Local residents saw what this looks like on New Year’s Eve. Six days after Shurley was ticketed for camping in Scott Carpenter Park, more than 1,000 homes were lost to the Marshall Fire, and thousands of people plunged into crisis.

The majority of those experiencing homelessness in the aftermath of a natural disaster, however, are likely to have been homeless prior to the disaster. They are survivors of more private, slower-moving disasters, including domestic violence, medical debt and serious mental illness.

Shurley is a survivor of both. She first experienced homelessness in Boulder in the mid-’90s after leaving an abusive relationship with her son’s father. A custody battle ensued, which Shurley fought while sleeping on city streets. Financially and psychologically drained, she lost custody of her son.

According to a national survey, 57% of homeless women say domestic violence is the direct cause of losing their permanent home. The violence doesn’t necessarily stop when the abuser is left behind: Homeless women report they are far more vulnerable to physical and sexual assault when they move to hidden and less populated areas to avoid being ticketed by police.

No good place to go

After returning to the U.S. from Nepal, Shurley spent time in Boulder, New Orleans and Los Angeles. In each city, police gave her an ultimaBOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

tum: accept shelter or be ticketed and told to leave.

She opted for shelter. Each time, staff had the same advice: Follow our rules and you’ll get housing. After months of waiting for housing, it had yet to materialize.

Feeling frustrated about the lack of housing and anxious from the lack of privacy and theft she experienced at these shelters, she moved on.

Though 90% of Boulder’s homeless residents say they want housing, few get it. In 2021, only 12% of all homeless residents who completed a screening process received housing. Even those lucky few can wait years for a voucher or unit to become available in housing-strapped communities like Boulder.

Experts and advocates recommend that people experiencing homelessness be placed into transitional or permanent housing as quickly as possible; Built for Zero, a national movement that works to measurably and equitably end homelessness, recommends that homelessness last no more than 30 days. Beyond that, life expectancy may plummet, and criminal justice and emergency health service expenditures may skyrocket.

Solutions that add more privacy and autonomy also correlate with better outcomes. Cities that switched their focus from congregate settings to interventions like hotel rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic reported that clients had fewer interactions with police, improved physical and mental health, and quicker exits into housing.

The criminalization that pushes unhoused residents into shelters, Shurley says, “is not to the benefit of the homeless people, it’s to the benefit of the residents in houses who don’t want to see our tents. You’re just shoveling the homeless people into a warehouse and wondering why they don’t want to be there.”

When Shurley most recently returned to Boulder in April 2021, the city’s low-barrier winter shelter had closed. With four dogs, one of which is a service animal, the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless wasn’t an option for her; non-service animals must be kept at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley.

“There is no way that I would pull myself out of this hole and abandon them after everything we’ve been through,” she says. Her only option was to sleep outside, on the streets she’d lived on 15 years ago.

During the summer and fall of 2021, she wasn’t bothered by police. In early December 2021, that changed.

Shurley says Boulder police officers began approaching her regularly: ticketing her for camping, telling her to leave town and threatening to confiscate her belongings.

Despite the lack of evidence that criminalizing the homeless reduces homelessness, Boulder City Council last year reaffirmed its commitment to removing people living in public spaces. A six-member majority passed a tent and propane ban and allocated an additional $2.7 million over 18 months to increase enforcement of these bans––enough money to house 90 of the estimated 100-150 nightly campers in Boulder for one year.

Boulder is not alone in its efforts to ban unsheltered BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

living. According to a 2019 National Homeless Law Center report, municipal laws prohibiting camping on public property have increased by 92 percent since 2006.

That’s the cruel irony of being told to go somewhere else by police officers, Shurley says: “There isn’t any good place to go in this country.”

Evolving legal landscape

Cities’ ability to criminalize and expel homeless people was somewhat limited by a landmark court case in 2018: Martin v. City of Boise. A group of homeless residents successfully sued the City of Boise, Idaho, for violating their constitutional rights by ticketing them when shelter was not available.

COURTESY SAM BECKER

The ruling, tacitly upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, found that doing so violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. That means Boise police cannot ticket homeless residents when shelters are full or inaccessible to those because of sex, sexual orientation, parental status, or physical or mental needs, among other reasons.

“The lack of humanity of looking at someone and saying, ‘If you can’t sleep in a shelter then you should just leave,’ it hurts,” Shurley says.

The ACLU of Colorado has ramped up its assertion that Boulder’s camping ban is unconstitutional, particularly in light of increasing turnaways at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless due to capacity constraints. Annie Kurtz, an attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow at the ACLU of Colorado, has sent one letter to the city and testified at one city council meeting.

“The government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on

see CAMPING BANS Page 13 l

MARCH 3, 2022

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Re-endangering gray wolves

Wolves aren’t just back in Colorado, they’re recently back on the endangered species list—what does that mean for the state?

by Will Brendza

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he Trump administration revoked gray wolves’ endangered species status in October of 2020 and, predictably, the decision drew impassioned and mixed responses. Environmental and wildlife advocates were appalled that the administration would remove Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for an animal that’s still largely extirpated throughout most of its natural range. Others praised the move, celebrating that wolf management had been so successful in some places, that the species could officially be considered “recovered” and their management could be turned over to state and tribal governments.

“After more than 45 years as a listed species, the gray wolf has exceeded all conservation goals for recovery,” Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said at the 2020 press conference announcing the delisting. “Today’s announcement simply reflects the determination that this species is neither a threatened nor endangered species based on the specific factors Congress has laid out in the law.”

Following the delisting, a coalition of Western wildlife advocacy groups, including WildEarth Guardians, filed a lawsuit with a federal court against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They challenged the decision, saying that it was motivated by politics instead of the best available science, arguing that gray wolves were nowhere near being restored to their full historic range. Their opponents’ arguments were the mirror opposite, claiming that the push to relist wolves was motivated by politics, and that the science said wolf populations had been adequately restored.

On Feb. 10, 2021, the verdict was announced. The federal court had sided with the wolves, and was restoring Environmental Protection Agency protections to the species in almost every state.

That has big implications for how Colorado will manage its own wolf populations. Both as the creatures return naturally, and as the state 12

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pursues the gray wolf reintroduction that voters approved in November 2021. In light of several recent wolf conflicts in northern Colorado, the apex predator’s protected status has some ranchers and rural residents feeling helpless.

At the same time, the coalition of wildlife advocates is celebrating the relisting as a monumental victory.

“This is a really big win for us, generally speaking, but also for restoring wolves to Colorado,” Kelly Nokes, the staff attorney with WildEarth Guardians says. “Wolves remain functionally extinct from 85% of their historic range ... it’s a really rough path to recovery, which is why having federal protections in place is so important.”

WildEarth Guardians contends that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to consider the historical range of gray wolves—which once covered more than two-thirds of North America—when they pulled the endangered species status in 2020.

Instead, the Service based its decision on recovery data from just two core populations in the Great Lakes and Northern Rockies regions, ignoring population data from the vast majority of the species’ natural range.

“It doesn’t make sense to define recovery as having some wolves that MARCH 3, 2022

are in a limited core population, and we can wipe our hands clean of the recovery mandates from the endangered species act elsewhere where wolves have yet to be restored,” Nokes says. “The job of recovering the species is not quite finished.”

Lindsay Larris is the wildlife program director at WildEarth Guardians. She explains that federal protection is crucial for a species like gray wolves that travel so much and cover such vast distances, often crossing political boundaries that could mean the difference between life and death.

“That’s really important when you’re dealing with states that are often hostile to restoring essential predators to the landscape,” Larris says.

“Having something that is in place that really covers the entire country is really important for the recovery.”

Larris notes that the decision to restore ESA protections to gray wolves doesn’t affect the animals’ status in the Northern Rockies regions—in parts of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. In those areas wolves were delisted by federal legislation under the Obama administration in 2009, and remain delisted despite this recent court decision.

Meaning just outside of Yellowstone (where wolves are protected l

within National Park boundaries), hunters in Montana and Idaho are allowed to lure the wolves out of the park using bait, strangle them with snares, and shoot them at night on private land. WildEarth Guardians says that in recent months it’s resulted in the death of more than 23 Yellowstone wolves—over 20% of the park’s population.

“Parks like Yellowstone are one of these artificial boundaries,” Larris says. “[Within them, wolves] are protected, as national parks don’t allow hunting. But as soon as they leave that park, they’re subject to being taken by all these horrible methods.”

For wolves residing outside of those Northern Rockies regions, though, the ESA now provides federal oversight for wolf management and protection. It puts an immediate end to wolf hunting, trapping and even “hazing” (techniques used by ranchers to frighten or annoy gray wolves from preying on livestock).

All of which has environmentalists and wildlife advocates ecstatic, while ranchers and residents of many rural communities across Colorado watch with trepidation. One Jackson County rancher recently lost two heifers to the new wolf pack that’s taken up residence in northern Colorado. Another rancher lost his dog in a similar attack. And now, without the option to haze these predators with guard animals, propane cannons, vehicles, range riders, or noisemakers, some feel as though their hands are tied.

Terry Fankhauser, the former executive vice president of the Colorado Cattleman’s Association, calls the court decision “bad endangered species policy” and “bad wildlife management policy.”

“In my opinion, the court made a bad decision. They made a decision based on interpretive policy related to population segments of the gray wolf as opposed to [considering] if the gray wolf had been recovered adequately in the United States,’” Fankhauser says, echoing the same logic that WildEarth Guardians use to argue in favor of relisting. “You can’t oversimplify management and

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

just make arbitrary statements.”

He points out that both the Obama administration and the Trump administration independently determined that gray wolves had been adequately recovered in the lower 48.

According to Fankhauser, relisting gray wolves as endagred not only makes the issue of dealing with Colorado’s immigrant wolf population more challenging, but further complicates the process of wolf reintroduction that the state voted for in 2021. That reintroduction effort is slated to start in 2023, but now the state management plan is going to be subject to a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review that could drag the process out, Fankhauser says.

“Will Colorado’s administration responsibly put forward a legitimate management plan that involves the required elements to maintain and manage a wolf population, as well as other wildlife and other extraneous issues like livestock production?”

Fankhauser asks. “Don’t play po-

litical games and just try to get wolves introduced how a select few may want to see them reintroduced. This needs to be a sustainable, meaningful proposal.”

Nokes, with WildEarth Guardians, says that Colorado will have more resources at its disposal to reintroduce gray wolves, with help from the Fish and Wildlife Service, which, she contends, has already proven it can do this successfully.

“Colorado now has the benefit of working cooperatively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in carrying out this reintroduction,” Nokes says. “That’s the same agency that was responsible for the successful reintroduction [of gray wolves] up in Yellowstone National Park.”

Both sides of this debate seem to agree on at least one point, though: whatever happens with wolves,

the decisions need to be guided by science—not politics. (They just don’t see eye-to-eye on what the science says.)

“This is not the first time that the government has tried to remove that [endangered species] protection from [wolves] at all,” Larris says. “And the reason that they keep getting overturned, and [courts] keep ruling in favor of maintaining these protections

is because they’re not based on the best science.”

“I disagree 100%,” Fankhauser says. “We have many recovered species that don’t exist on all of their historic range for a variety of reasons. But their populations are stable, they’re secure, they’re recovered—not everywhere— but within the broader sense of the United States and Mexico, they’re recovered. And the gray wolf is one of those.”

At least on paper, the gray wolf was one of those from October 2020 to February 2022. But now, thanks to this federal court ruling, wolves are officially re-endangered outside of the Northern Rockies. How that will play out for our ranchers and rural communities, remains to be seen. But it’s safe to say that after more than 70 years, wolves are once again going to be a part of life in the Centennial State— and Coloradans will adapt.

CAMPING BANS from Page 11

the false premise they had a choice in the matter,” Kurtz wrote in a Dec. 23 letter to city council. Doing so “is cruel, dangerous and unconstitutional.”

Boulder City Attorney Teresa Tate responded to Kurtz’ Dec. 23 letter via email, writing, “Boulder’s camping law has been found to be constitutional by both the Boulder municipal court and Boulder district courts on each occasion it has been challenged. ... Boulder’s laws have been upheld because we are in no way focused on the status of being unhoused.”

Tate is referring to People v. Madison, a 2010 case in which the Colorado Supreme Court upheld Boulder County District Court’s ruling that the city did not violate the constitutional rights of a homeless man who was ticketed for using a sleeping bag on city land when shelters were full.

A lot has changed since 2010, Kurtz says: “Our sense of what amounts to cruel and unusual punishment is something that evolved.”

Tate, who would be in charge of defending the constitutionality of the city’s camping ban in court, declined to comment for this story.

While Tate is right that Boulder’s camping ban language does not intentionally single out those who are homeless, Boulder’s homeless residents were 2,818 times more likely to be ticketed for violating the camping and tent bans than housed residents in 2021, according to Boulder Municipal Court data. Boise’s camping ban language prior to Martin didn’t discriminate based on housing status, either.

“Boulder’s laws punishing homelessness violate the constitution whether or not their purpose is to single BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

out that group,” Kurtz says. “What matters, ultimately, is whether the effect of the law is to punish homeless residents who have no meaningful choice but to sleep outside in Boulder’s public spaces.”

“There are a zillion reasons why people sleep outside,’’ says Howard Belodoff, associate director of Idaho Legal Aid, who represented the residents in Martin. Of Boulder’s camping ban, he says, “Somebody has gotta challenge it.

“They don’t have to reinvent the wheel; just get it in front of a judge.”

Kurtz would not comment on whether the ACLU of Colorado intends to sue the City of Boulder.

‘I don’t want this for anyone else’

Experts on homelessness concur that laws that criminalize homelessness make life more challenging, more stressful and less safe for homeless residents.

Surveys conducted by the outreach organization Denver Homeless Out Loud Colorado revealed that criminalization of homlessness has successfully moved homeless Denver residents out of central, well-lit areas frequented by shoppers and tourists, but failed to reduce the number of residents experiencing homelessness. Instead, criminalization prolongs homelessness, erodes trust in services and reduces interaction with services in times of need.

Past attempts to expand low-barrier sheltering options have been rejected by a majority of Boulder’s City Council, acting on recommendations l

MARCH 3, 2022

from city staff who argue that any additional funds for homeless services should go toward permanent housing and policing.

The current city council has aligned around the idea of a day shelter, making it a priority for the 2022-2023 work plan. Initial costs will be funded by some of the $20 million Boulder is set to receive through the American Rescue Plan Act. In the absence of city support, nonprofit organizations have heightened their advocacy for centralized services, safe parking and legal camping. Their advocacy has not included decriminalization, which experts on homelessness say is key for ending cycles of homelessness.

Shurley helped Homeless Cares, a Boulder-based non-profit that provides basic needs to homeless residents, develop its proposal for a sanctioned campground that would be co-governed by the nonprofit and residents living there. She also wants to see the city construct tiny home villages and create safe parking spaces.

“I really worry that if we don’t do something now, there are going to be so many people that live my life,” she says. “I don’t want this for anyone else.”

Sam Becker is an organizer, writer, and researcher living in Boulder. He volunteers time researching the efficacy of low-barrier services and decriminalization for Wake Up Boulder and a local coalition of nonprofit leaders and citizens, both of which advocate for low-barrier services and decriminalization of homelessness. He also volunteers time distributing survival gear to homeless residents.

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MATT MAENPAA

Archiving Andy

Talk shows, erotica, visual art and music make Andy Eppler Longmont’s Gonzo renaissance man

story and photos by Matt Maenpaa

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n a recent trip to Texas, Andy Eppler found himself stoned and tripping on a small dose of acid at 3 a.m. in Denver International Airport. With an empty airport at his disposal and hours to kill before his flight, Eppler started filming at strange angles with an eye on sacred geometry.

Branching beyond the life of a working musician, as many around the county have known him, these days Eppler is embracing a holistic approach to art. While he still plays music, Eppler has delved into filmmaking, painting and hosting homespun talk shows to understand himself and offer his own brand of strange love to the world around him.

Eppler didn’t plan on making a movie, he was just flying back to Austin. But the pot, the acid and eerie solitude of DIA spoke to him. So, he got out his phone and started filming, capturing the moments when the airport started coming back to life in the early morning.

“There are beautiful little things lining up.

That whole airport was built by the Masons, so everything is super geometric,” Eppler says over coffee at a cafe in Longmont, flurries swirling in the frigid air. “It’s super easy to set up these

MARCH 3, 2022

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shots.”

Eppler’s art films are shot entirely on his phone and amount to more than a half-dozen shorts since 2018. The films are just another artistic exploration for him—raw, unapologetic a little surreal. The inspiration of an acid tablet and an empty airport is par for the course for a man who made more than 400 episodes of The Hippie Report, a stream-of-conscious one-man show often filmed naked in his bathtub with a joint on his lips.

The films—along with The Hippie Report and Boulder County Tonight, Eppler’s election-season late-night show—are an opportunity to put his whole self on display. For Eppler, there is no character to play, no persona, just one man continuously putting himself out in the world for all to see. That includes starring in several films with Denver film company Spark Erotic, as well as making the music for them.

“They wrote a film for me to be in, so I starred in an erotic film. I played myself—one of my only stipulations was no fake name. I’m not embarrassed of what I’m doing,” Eppler explains.

“And I wanted to do the music. I’m not going to do a sex movie without also doing the music for

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

it. I want to make sex music.”

While he says it’s certainly fun to make an erotic film, it’s also incredibly challenging for him.

After just over a decade playing music in Colorado, first as part of roots-Americana duo The Prairie Scholars and then as a solo act, Eppler’s spent the past few years exploring his other artistic interests. Paintings, film, photography and erotica are all just stones on the path that leads to “Ando the Artist”—it all comes from a place of vulnerability and a desire to put his whole self out there. But Eppler’s salacious and substance-infused ambling toward a strange future can’t happen without a sojourn to the past.

The flight back to Texas was MATT MAENPAA more than just an opportunity for making a new film, but a homecoming for Eppler. His alma mater, Texas Tech University, is adding his music and art to their archives.

“Soon I’ll be the only person on Earth who has their art in the archives of Texas Tech University and their film purchased by the London Sperm Bank,” Eppler says with a laugh.

Eppler has been pouring through album art, handwritten lyrics and more, quite literally indexing his past for the archives.

“I don’t believe the universe is sentient, but if it were, the message I would assume it’s sending me is to expand and explore more,” Eppler opins. “It’s literally putting my music career in a museum.”

Eppler finds poignancy in the message, recalling feeling isolated and unappreciated in his hometown, musing that perhaps his absence has made hearts grow fonder. Eppler’s taking it as an opportunity for closure of a chapter of his life.

Eppler also acknowledges the honor of having his work added to the archives alongside esteemed alumni artists like Waylon Jennings and Buddy Holly. He’s not emotionally connected to the archive or his alma mater, Eppler says, but he’s proud to have his work there.

And Eppler isn’t giving up music. From writing soundtracks for his own films, as well as more work with Spark Erotic, Longmont’s renaissance man keeps writing and recording songs. His new project is more of an EP than Eppler’s 2020 Brokedown Deluxe, a 30-track project that took three years to come together.

“I’m just going to do EPs from now on, I think. Just little bites,” Eppler says.

Like Eppler’s films, the new music is a brief exploration of mood and desires, born of a need to have his music grow alongside the rest of his artistic self. The five-track EP is titled Lonely Disco: Lust Letters to my Friends, a collection of songs about sex and relationships.

One track, “It Rolls Like Thunder,” is a bombastic piece of ’70s soul with a throbbing bass line and an almost

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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orchestral chorus. Eppler’s voice conjures a growling Tom Jones as he croons out an ode to worshiping a partner, rejoicing in the connection.

“You know I wish I could dream about you / Just about you / So I wake up every day just to touch you,” Eppler purrs through the opening of the track.

To celebrate the nexus of his past and present, Eppler wanted to throw a party. To ease the burden, Eppler brought in his friend AJ Foxx and her event planning business, Sobremesa Creative Solutions. Foxx, a professional model and event organizer, connected with Eppler a few years back, considering herself both a friend and a huge fan.

“I’ve been Andy’s friend for a long time. This kind of work has a high turnover in friends, but we stuck it out,” Foxx says. “It’s great he’s expanding beyond the idea of being just a musician.”

Both Foxx and Eppler agreed the ideal venue for the show would be Longmont’s Abbott & Wallace Distilling.

Eppler has graced the stage of the craft distillery on numerous occasions, often haunting it even when he isn’t playing.

The pair want to be sure that it won’t be just a gallery showing, but a proper experience. Eppler’s erotica may make an appearance, as well as a few colleagues and friends from Spark Erotic, but he assured the public (and the distillery owners) that no sexual activity would be on display.

True to his brand, the two-day art show offers up a sampler-pack of Eppler’s art, music and the debut of his latest efforts, Denver International Airport and Lonely Disco. Prints, vinyl, old Prairie Scholars merch and Andy’s new strange things will be offered up for sale before he sticks his Texas roots in the archive.

MARCH 3, 2022

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ON THE BILL: “Ando the Artist: A Multimedia Art Show Weekend” runs March 25 and 26, from 5-9 p.m. at Abbott & Wallace, 250 Terry St., Suite 120, Longmont, with The Wolf Authentic Mexican Food truck parked both nights.

Joining Eppler will be local musical acts Jackson Cloud on Friday, with Oopsie and the Daisies taking the stage Saturday.

17

PIERO F. GIUNTI

A melting pot of rock ‘n’ roll 50 years in, Los Lobos isn’t going anywhere

by Adam Perry

I

t could be argued that Los Lobos is American music’s Statue of Liberty—a genuine melting pot of rock ‘n’ roll, folk, traditional Mexican music and even punk rock; 50 years with its core original members intact; and a never-ending quest to create exceptional and relevant original music rather than rest on its beloved catalog.

According to co-founder Louie Pérez, the American tradition of democracy is a Los Lobos keystone as well.

“For the last 48 years,” Pérez says, “we respond to other band members’ requests for anything, even if it’s, ‘Hey, can we pull over for a second? I need to run in here.’ We don’t question it. If it’s worth it for you to ask, it means something. Maybe it’s a tribal way of operating—I dunno.”

The new Los Lobos album, Native Sons, is a collection of songs from classic Los Angeles artists Pérez and his bandmates cherish, from the Beach Boys and Buffalo Springfield to the Blasters, and democracy played a big part in the song selection.

“It is unusual,” Pérez muses. “Why didn’t we pick ‘Help Me, Rhonda’? Why did we pick ‘Sail On, Sailor’ of all the songs the Beach Boys did? Why didn’t we pick an iconic one?”

“Well, much like the way the Lobos universe operates, [bassist] Conrad [Lozano] said, ‘Let’s do “Sail On, Sailor.” It’s one of my favorite songs.’ And we said, ‘OK.’ And that was it. That’s how we’ve always operated. It’s a form of democracy, and respect for each 18

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other as friends. We started this band as friends; we were friends before we even had a band. We have roots.

This band didn’t come together through classified ads.”

In fact, Los Lobos had been a unit for a decade before releasing its first proper album, 1984’s How Will the Wolf Survive?, on proto-alternative label Slash Records.

The four core Lobos—Pérez; Lozano; and singer-guitarists David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas—met at Garfield High School in Los Angeles. After getting into music via rock ‘n’ roll, they made a living as Lobos Lobos in the 1970s playing traditional Mexican music at countless weddings and parties before being integrated into the legendary L.A. punk scene that included bands like Black Flag, X and the Blasters (from which Los Lobos lifted multi-instrumentalist Steve Berlin). Eventually Los Lobos was opening for groups like the Clash, U2 and the Grateful Dead on its way to becoming one of the most respected recording and performing acts in the world.

When Los Lobos became a household name in 1987 with its cover of “La Bamba,” Pérez was introduced to millions of MTV viewers as a drummer.

“That’s, like, punk rock all the way,” Pérez—who these days usually plays a jarana on stage—says when asked about phasing in and out of being Los Lobos’ full-time drummer.

“Punk rock bands back then, they literally would figure out what instrument they were gonna play on the way to the gig. We needed a drummer and I had always fooled around with it. In 1980, when we became an electric band full-time after having been together for about 10 years, we needed a drummer, so we made MARCH 3, 2022

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one. I became a drummer ON THE BILL: Los all through those first years Lobos with Tenth of the band’s touring, all the Mountain Diviway through ‘La Bamba.’ But sion. 7:30 p.m.

Boulder Theater, by the time we were record2032 14th St., ing, in the studio I didn’t play Boulder. Tickets: much drums. I left that to the $29.50-$39.50 pros.”

Los Lobos’ early records feature session legends like Elvis Presley drummer Ron Tutt and Jim Keltner, and when the band hit its composing and recording stride with 1992’s Grammy-nominated Kiko, longtime Elvis Costello drummer Pete Thomas became a go-to in the studio.

“Our songs got more complicated rhythmically,” Pérez explains, “and as a songwriter I wanted to hear those songs the way they should sound and give them the musicality that they needed. I showed up to rehearsal and strapped on a guitar and that was it. I just got back to playing guitar again.

I never felt weird about that, because it didn’t feel like I was being replaced. I replaced myself. I was the one that said, ‘This is the way we should go.’”

“I’ve had the strangest career,” Pérez muses, “starting off as a guitar player, then going from playing electric rock ‘n’ roll to playing traditional Mexican instruments to being a drummer, and going back to playing guitar again, and I think my guitar playing is, like, in arrested development. When I play guitar it’s like when I was playing in the early ’70s. It’s OK—it just makes for a strange musical career.”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

COURTESY WHITE HOUSE

That strange career has brought Pérez—whose mother, born in Mexico, actually lived in Greeley for a time before winding up in California—through Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins many times since Los Lobos finally hit the road in the early ’80s.

“We traveled through the U.S. and there were certain places that resonated,” he says. “Colorado did because of the natural beauty, the physical beauty of it, and the scene that was going on there. It was a cool place to be. We have such a history of playing Chautauqua—the barn—and some of the joints back in Denver and the mountain communities. Colorado has always been a mainstay for us, and one of my best friends grew up in Boulder. I remember Pearl Street before it was really a mecca for tourism. I remember the radio station above a camera store, and the Tibetan store of course. It does mean a lot.”

Pérez says he was kicked out of parochial school because “someone decided to stick 165 joints in a rubber band in my locker,” and that twist of fate—ending up at Garfield High School—resulted in Los Lobos forming and Pérez spending most of his life writing lyrics for former Garfield classmate David Hidalgo to put music to and sing. The Los Lobos classic “Saint Behind the Glass” is the only song Pérez is known for singing.

“I’m in a band with two of the greatest vocalists in rock ‘n’ roll, as far as I’m concerned,” he says. “I’d much rather have David sing these songs. He’s a great interpreter of songs; in the tradition of, like, Sinatra, he can take a lyric and just turn it into something. He takes a lyric and gets inspired in a way that when he sings it, it’s incredible.

Plus, we’ve been writing songs together for 50 years, so that helps out a little bit.” “‘Saint Behind the Glass’ happened because they chased me around the block a few times and found me hiding underneath a car and made me sing it,” Pérez adds. “I meant that one not for me. When I write songs, I can hear David singing, and so when I sit down and write I have to believe that David is going to sing it. I’ve got to believe, ‘David would say this in a conversation.’ That’s how I go about that. That’s how it works.”

Near the end of our conversation, I felt compelled to admit to Pérez that as a kid in Pittsburgh, seeing Los Lobos on MTV was my introduction to Latino culture, and that the lyrics he wrote for “Good Morning, Aztlan” inspired me to study Aztec history. It was a long way of asking Pérez something I’ve always been curious about: how Latin America perceives Los Lobos.

“That’s really great, and it was the byproduct of what we’ve done, the fact that we can demystify what the Mexican-American experience is and open the door to maybe looking at Mexico and all of those things,” Pérez says. “I’m not going to say that we were messiahs when it comes to that, but up to that point the only reference point anybody had to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans was some movie about street gangs or some old cowboy movie with banditos, so I’m kind of proud to say we were part of the solution, part of the demystifying.”

“At the same time, for the longest time, Mexico didn’t look too fondly at Mexican Americans. Like, ‘Where are you from? Are you Mexican or are you American?’ There was pushback for a long time. Young people in Mexico are now very fond of Chicano culture, and it took a few generations for that to happen. From the first shows we played in Mexico that weren’t very well-attended to going and having 5,000 people in a plaza there for us, things have changed considerably. It really means a lot to be able to change things here in the U.S. and it means a lot for us to be respected by Latina America in general.”

Despite that respect in the Americas as well as around the globe, Los Lobos has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, despite being nominated—and despite the induction of some bands that might have much higher record sales but not nearly the relevance, influence, longevity or critical acclaim.

“We operate as an American band with Mexican roots,” Pérez says. “I think we’re proud of both things. We’re 20 months away from our 50th anniversary. People are starting to say, ‘It doesn’t look like these guys are going anywhere.’”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MARCH 3, 2022

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

E VENTS

■ Samba Dance Workshops

EVENTS

1 p.m. March 5, 6 and 12, The Spark: A Performing Arts Community, 4847 Pearl St., Suite B4, Boulder. Price: $25-$30 As a Brazilian cultural ambassador, Luciana da Silva shares her love of dance, music and authentic Brazilian culture with an open heart.

Samba workshops are designed to celebrate femininity, rhythm, and culture while meeting the need for fun and connection. Workshops are open to all skill levels, ages, genders and abilities. Classes are taught in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

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

FINN O’SULLIVAN

■ BIFF Singer Songwriter 10th Anniversary Fan Favorites 6-9:30 p.m. March 3 and 5, The Spotted James, 1911 11th St., Boulder. Free The top 14 fan-favorite musical acts from the past 10 years of Boulder International Film Festival Singer Songwriter Showcases will perform this year at The Spotted James.

There will be a host of performers, including favorites such as Otis Taylor, Rebecca Folsom and Tom Wassinger and Magic Music.

■ Author Talk: Dolly Parton and James Patterson—‘Run, Rose, Run’ Book Launch (virtual)

5:30 p.m. Sunday, March 6. Tickets: $30-$40. Virtual Event URL: boulderbookstore.net. The YouTube link will be emailed to you prior to the event.

From America’s most beloved superstar and its greatest storyteller comes a thriller about a young singer-songwriter on the rise and on the run, and determined to do whatever it takes to survive.

■ YWCA Boulder County 2022 Annual Gala ‘100 Years: From Then to Now’ (in-person and virtual)

■ 2022 Backcountry Film Festival

5 p.m. Saturday, March 5, Wild Bear Nature Center, 20 Lakeview Drive, Nederland. Tickets: $15-$20, bit.ly/3C7zqfU Enjoy 90 minutes of films: adventure, environment and climate, youth outdoors, ski culture. You’ll find it all in this award-winning lineup. All proceeds will benefit Wild Bear Nature Center.

EMILY MCLLROY

5:30-9 p.m. Saturday, March 5, Embassy Suites, 2601 Canyon Blvd., Boulder. Tickets for the event can be purchased by visiting: ywcaboulder.org/gala2022 At this gala, YWCA Boulder County will be looking back on its century of advocacy and progress and renewing support for its mission to eliminate racism and empower women for another 100 years. The awards ceremony will honor Mark Bouzek and Deb Parks, who will be receiving the Janet Beardsley Award of Excellence. The awards ceremony will also honor Alicia Graves, who will be receiving the YWCA Community Impact Maker Award.

■ BDT Stage presents ‘The Noteworthy Life of Howard Barnes’

March 3-April 23. BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, bdtstage.com Howard Barnes is a perfectly average man in his early 30s, until the day he wakes up to discover that his life has become a musical. Desperate to escape from the show, Howard embarks on a fantastical quest through the realm of musical theater.

■ The Catamounts present ‘One Way-Back Day’

Through March 19, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder.

Tickets: $22.60, thecatamounts.org One Way-Back Day brings African, Black, Gullah, and GeeChee American fairy tales and folklore to life. After more than a year in development, One WayBack Day makes its world-premiere at the Dairy through March 19. Sit a spell and listen to Lettice, a 101-year-old Black matriarch, recount her family’s struggle with the mythical entity called Boo Hag and weave fantastical tales conjured from her century of living. You’ll encounter sea dragons, a talking redfish, anthropomorphic eggs, and a perfect daughter (who just happens to be a yam). You’ll revisit the past, jump forward generations, explore historic waters, and ultimately reconcile a fraught familial relationship.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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■ Opening Reception: ‘Presentiment’ featuring work by Emily McIlroy, Paula Gasparini-Santos, Sarah Darlene Palmeri, and Alli Lemon

5-8 p.m. March 4, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, thedairy.org Presentiment showcases the work of four artists all separately and collectively using their practice as a means to process the internal turmoil that teems within the human experience. A balance of intuition, connection to personal emotional terrain, and the desire to traverse an unknown landscape permeates the work on view throughout the exhibition. From large-scale explorations of grief that manifest in gorgeous Wildernesses to small-scale interactions between pattern and material, all artists on view tap into their inner selves as a way to create a connection to the outer.

see EVENTS Page 22

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

MARCH 3, 2022

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BORIS BREJCHA

Antonio Lopez. 7 p.m.

Stewart Auditorium, 400 Quail Road, Longmont. Free TobyMac. 7 p.m. Ball Arena, 1000 Chopper Circle, Denver.

Tickets: $10 Cordae. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $32.50-$69.95 Boris Brejcha. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver.

Tickets: $38-$90 Killswitch Engage & August Burns Red. 8 p.m. Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 N. Clarkson St., Denver. Starting at $69 G. Love & The Juice. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Tickets: $36.95

★ March 4

Two Friends. 7 p.m. Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 N. Clarkson St., Denver.

Starting at $57 Toubab Krewe. 7 p.m. The Caribou Room, 55 Indian Peaks Drive, Nederland.

Tickets: $15-$20 Phillip Lamar & Paizley Park. 7 p.m. The Louisville Underground, 640 Main St., Louisville. Tickets: $15-$100 Il Trovatore: Preview concert and lecture. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space 200 E. Soutb Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $20 Boris Brejcha. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver.

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Hiss Golden Messenger. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $23.50 The Magic Beans & Big Something. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $20-$25

★ March 5

Underoath. 7:30 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Tickets: $38.50

FRI. APR 15 - SAT. APR 16

FRI. APR 1

22

EVENTS from Page 21

FRI. APR 1

SAT. MAR 26

APR 13 APR 15 APR 16 APR 23 APR 28

CONCERTS

Hiss Golden Messenger. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Tickets: $23.50 Ten Years Gone. 8 p.m. Dickens Opera House, 300 Main St., Longmont.

Tickets: $10 Yungblud with Palaye Royale, poutyface. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Tickets: $22.99-$85

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

LIVE MUSIC RETURNS

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G. Love & The Juice. 8:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder.

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★ March 6

Judas Priest with Queensrÿche. 7 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Tickets: $75-$129.95 Papa Roach, Hollywood Undead, Bad Wolves. 7 p.m. Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 N. Clarkson St., Denver. Starting at $82 George Porter Jr. & Dumpstaphunk perform The Meters. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $40-$45 Blitzkid. 8 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $20

LEIF VOLLEBEKK

★ March 7

Los Lobos with Tenth Mountain Division. 7:30 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Tickets: $29.50-$39.50

★ March 8

Meshuggah. 6 p.m. Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 N. Clarkson St., Denver Leif Vollebekk. 7:30 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Tickets: $22.50

FROM THE DIVIDE TO YOUR DOOR!

★ March 9

Joywave. 6 and 9 p.m. Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $25

Offering Glass Bottle Options

Futurebirds. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder.

Tickets: $22-$25 Epik High. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Tickets: $45.95-$79.95

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

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ot even the pandemic could upset the Boulder International Film Festival. Back in 2020, BIFF was one of the last times local moviegoers had a chance to get together before locking down one week later. In 2021, festival directors Kathy and Robin Beeck pushed the fest to June, took advantage of warmer weather and incorporated some outdoor screenings. But this year, back in its normal weekend, March 3-6, BIFF will once again take over the usual venues (Boulder Theater,

Unmasked and fancy-free

Return of the Boulder International Film Festival

by Michael J. Casey ON THE BILL: The 18th Boulder International Film Festival, March 3-6. Multiple venues. Information and tickets at biff1.com.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Baldwin’s list. Everyone loves to tell you what movies you should watch, but recommendations are different when someone who has devoted their life to the craft suggests a title or two.

Then there are the celebrities of the local kind, and if you’ve spent enough time in Boulder, there’s a good chance you’ve either met Dr. Oakleigh Thorne II—Oak to his friends—or partook in his good work.

Years ago, I had the pleasure of serving as the Conference on World Affairs’ Film Committee chair.

That’s where I met Oak, who co-chairs the Science & Nature Committee. Oak SCENES FROM ‘MIGHTY OAK’ is wonderful company, soft-spoken and good-humored, but unlike most, he isn’t in a hurry to tell you everything he’s accomplished in his life. Not that he’s embarrassed or shy, it’s more humility than anything else. I guess that’s why he never told me he used to make educational films about nature, hundreds of them: Silent film loops sent to schools everywhere. That was back in the 1960s and ’70s and was probably the first time those kids got a close look at an animal in the wild.

But if Oak were to sit me down and list his many accomplishments, it would take days. Thankfully, directors Christine Anderson and Pamela Hoge did just that, distilling it into the documentary Mighty Oak, the story of a kid from Long Island who grew up, discovered the beauty of nature and conservation, went to Yale—he’s a Whiffenpoof, for crying out loud— moved to Boulder in the early 1950s Boulder High School auditorium, eTown Hall, Century and became one of the area’s leading activists for Boulder and Grace Commons Church) to present nature preservation.

55 movies from 18 countries. And, as you may have Oak is a delight. To spend any amount of time in noticed, Boulder County has lifted the indoor mask the presence of someone this accomplished and afmandates. We’ve said this before, but it feels a bit fable is time well spent, and though Mighty Oak might different this time. Might this be normality? not have the production value of some of the other BIFF will certainly look familiar. If you’ve been to movies playing BIFF, I don’t think you’ll mind. You’ll BIFFs past, then you’ll find many of your favorites this probably just want to hang out with Oak a little longer. year as well: CineCHEF, the Adventure Film Pavilion, A few more to seek: After Love, a wondernightly parties, live music, lots of good movies and ful and slightly sad British drama following celebrities. At the top of that list is the 2022 Academy Mary Hussain (Joanna Scanlan, excellent), Award nominee for Best Actor, Javier Bardem, who a 60-year-old widow who starts digging into will be honored with BIFF’s “Outstanding Performer of her late husband’s life and learns a lot more the Year” award for his portrayal of Cuban bandleader than she bargained for. The documentary The turned entertainment mogul Desi Arnaz in Being the Automat from Lisa Hurwitz (in person) is a Ricardos. loving look at Horn & Hardart’s Automats—a Bardem won’t be the only celebrity on hand this 20th-century institution that you’ll wish never weekend as BIFF welcomes Alec Baldwin as the feswent out of style. And then there’s Exposing tival’s Special Guest Programmer—a first for the fest. Muybridge from documentarian Marc Shaffer Baldwin’s picks include the 1964 Cold War satire, Dr. (also in person), an investigation of Eadweard Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Muybridge, the 19th-century photographer Love the Bomb (a movie that has never gone out of whose studies of animal and human locomofashion but grows more prescient by the minute), the tion laid the foundation for motion pictures.

2009 Peabody award-winning documentary The Most That part you may know, but there is much of Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Muybridge to discover. Including the possiPentagon Papers and 2021’s loving look at Ameribility that photography, even from its earliest ca’s most famous chef, Julia. Excellent choices, all days, has been susceptible to fakery. We’re three, but the real treat will be to hear why they made not so removed from the past now, are we?

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BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: Aries author Isak Dinesen defined “true

piety” as “loving one’s destiny unconditionally.” That’s a worthy goal for you to aspire to in the coming weeks. I hope you will summon your deepest reserves of ingenuity and imagination as you cultivate a state of mind in which you adore your life just as it is. You won’t compare it negatively to anyone else’s fate, and you won’t wish it were different from what it actually is. Instead, you will be pleased and at peace with the truth of exactly who you are right now.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: As author Mary Ruefle points out, “In the beginning, William Shakespeare was a baby, and knew absolutely nothing. He couldn’t even speak.” And yet eventually, he became a literary superstar—among history’s greatest authors. What happened in between? I’m not exaggerating when I attribute part of the transformation to magic. Vast amounts of hard work and help and luck were involved, too. But to change from a wordless, uncoordinated sprout to a potent, influential maestro, Taurus-born Shakespeare had to be the beneficiary of mysterious powers. I bring this up, Taurus, because I think you will have access to comparable mojo during the next four weeks.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: As talented and financially successful as

Kanye West is, the Gemini singer-songwriter experiences a lot of emotional suffering. But no one lives an ideal life, right? And we can learn from everyone. In any case, I’ve chosen quotes by Kanye that are in rapt alignment with your astrological omens. Here they are: 1. “I’m in pursuit of awesomeness; excellence is the bare minimum.” 2.

“You’re not perfect, but you’re not your mistakes.” 3. “I’m not comfortable with comfort. I’m only comfortable when I’m in a place where I’m constantly learning and growing.”

4. “Everything I’m not makes me everything I am.”

CANCER

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transmartialarts.com MARCH 3, 2022

JUNE 21-JULY 22: “Any real ecstasy is a sign you are moving in the right direction,” wrote philosopher Saint Teresa of Avila, who was renowned for her euphoric spiritual experiences. So is there any such thing as “fake ecstasy,” as she implies? Maybe fake ecstasy would be perverse bliss at the misfortune of an enemy, or the trivial joy that comes from realizing your house keys aren’t missing. Real ecstasy, on the other hand, might arise from a visceral sense of the presence of God, or the rapture that emerges as you make love with a person you care for, or the elation you feel when you commune with your favorite animal. Anyway, Cancerian, I predict that in the coming days, you will have an extra rich potential for the real kinds of rhapsodic delight and enchantment.

LEO

goes on to say that he will offer generosity and gentleness and no-shame and forgiveness.

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: A blogger named MysteryOfWhat expressed appreciation for her errors and wrong turns. “I love all my mistakes!” she exclaimed. “I had fun!” She has a theory that she would not have been able to completely fulfill her interesting destiny without her blunders and her brilliant adjustments to those blunders. I won’t encourage you to be quite so boisterously unconditional in celebrating your fumbles and miscues, Libra. My inclination is to urge you to honor them and feel grateful for them, but I’m not sure I should advise you to shout out, “I love all my mistakes! I had fun!” But what do you think?

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Scorpio poet Norman MacCaig wrote, “Ask me, go on, ask me to do something impossible, something freakishly useless, something unimaginable and inimitable like making a finger break into blossom or walking for half an hour in twenty minutes or remembering tomorrow.”

I hope people say things like that to you soon, Scorpio.

I hope allies playfully nudge you to stretch your limits, expand your consciousness, and experiment on the frontier. To encourage such a development, you could do the same for your beloved allies: nudge them to stretch their limits, expand their consciousness and experiment on the frontier.

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: “Look at your body not as a source of physical attraction but as a shrine,” wrote teacher Sobonfu Somé. Personally, I have no problem if you regard your body as a source of physical attraction—as a gorgeous, radiant expression of your life energy, worthy of inspiring the appreciation of others. But I agree with Somé that you should also treat your body as a sacred sanctuary deserving of your reverence—especially now. Please boost your intention to provide your beloved organism with all the tender care it needs and warrants.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: “It’s surprising how much memory is

built around things unnoticed at the time,” writes author Barbara Kingsolver. Yes! I agree. And by providing you with this heads-up from her, I’m hoping that the subtly potent events unfolding for you in the coming weeks will not go unnoticed. I’m hoping you will be alert for seemingly small but in fact crucial developments—and thereby give them all the focus and intelligence they deserve. Later, you’ll remember this delicately pivotal time with amazed gratitude.

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18:: What’s more important: to learn or to

JULY 23-AUG. 22: Leo actor Jennifer Lawrence portrayed

a rugged, fierce, resourceful champion in The Hunger Games film trilogy. In real life, however, she has few resemblances to that stalwart hero. “I have the street smarts and survival skills of a poodle,” she has confessed.

But I’ve got potentially good news for her and all the rest of you Leos. The coming months will be a favorable time for you to cultivate the qualities of a rugged, fierce, resourceful champion. And right now would be an excellent time to launch your efforts.

VIRGO

unlearn? The answer, of course, is they are equally important. But sometimes, the most crucial preparation for a new learning phase is to initiate a surge of unlearning.

That’s what I’m recommending for you right now. I foresee you embarking on a series of extravagant educational experiences in a couple of weeks. And the best way to ensure you take maximum advantage of the available lessons is by dumping useless knowledge and irrelevant information and numbing habits.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: Singer-songwriter Jill Scott has earned

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Each of us periodically has to deal

with conflict. There come times when we must face the fact that a specific situation in our lives isn’t working well and needs to be adjusted, fixed or transformed. We might prefer to pretend the problem doesn’t exist. We may be inclined to endure the stressful discomfort rather than engage with its causes. But such an approach won’t be right for you in the coming days, dear Virgo. For the sake of your mental and spiritual health, you have a sacred duty to bravely risk a struggle to improve things. I’ll provide you with advice from novelist John Fowles. He said, “I must fight with my weapons. Not his. Not selfishness and brutality and shame and resentment.” Fowles

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one platinum and two gold records. She approaches her craft with diligence and intensity. On one occasion, she was frying a burger at her boyfriend’s house when she sensed a new song forming in her imagination.

Abandoning the stove, she ran into the next room to grab pen and paper. Soon she had transcribed the beginning of a melody and lyrics. In the meantime, though, the kitchen caught on fire. Luckily, she doused it. Later Jill testified, “His cabinets were charred, and he was furious. But it was worth it for a song.” I don’t think you’ll have to make as big a sacrifice as hers in the coming days, Pisces. But you should respond robustly whenever inspiration arrives.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: I’m a 36-year-old cis gay man who came out a decade ago and found widespread acceptance from friends and family, but I fear my unique situation now might change that. Last summer, my husband died unexpectedly, leaving me widowed and trying to pick up the pieces. I couldn’t sleep much for a while and went online to chat. I wound up meeting this great guy who lives across the country. He’s a sexy leather daddy, and I’ve traveled to stay with him on two occasions and had some of the hottest sex I’ve ever had. Plus, I really like him! He’s funny, smart, deep. Here’s my dilemma: He’s married to another man, and I also have feelings for the husband.

I plan to move there soon to see where this goes and start the next chapter of my life. (I will be getting my own apartment, at least at first.) It’s still early, but I feel like I could fall in love with both these men. How do I pursue this and start over somewhere new while making this all understandable to the straights in my life?

Is there a way to explain this to my mom and the rest of my family without freaking them out? I know it shouldn’t matter, and I’ll follow my heart either way, but I’d hate to lose this close connection with my family if they get weirded out by my dating life.

—No More Mr. Heteronormative Dear NMMH: I’m so sorry for your loss, NMMH, and I’m so glad you were able to find the support you needed online—and it’s nice to be reminded that people don’t just go online to share conspiracy theories and post revenge porn.

People find connection online, they find support, and sometimes they find new love in the form of a sexy leather daddy.

As for what to tell your family about your relationship…

For now, NMMH, nothing. Just like you’re getting your own apartment after you move because you want to wait and see where this relationship goes before moving in with these guys, you’re going to want to see where this relationship goes before you tell your family about these guys. This isn’t about hiding things from your family, NHHM, but about waiting to roll out your new relationship if and/ or when it gets serious. You most likely didn’t introduce mom to your late husband after your second date; similarly, there’s no need to introduce mom to these guys after seeing them on only two occasions.

And in my experience—in my own highly personal and highly relevant experience—it’s often easier for the families of gay men to accept that we’re

open or poly than it is for the families of straight people.

Our families have some practice letting go of expectations and prejudices. And while it’s possible your family’s made it clear their acceptance was conditioned upon you marrying and settling down and behaving “heteronormatively,” it’s also possible you’re projecting. You want them to think you’re “one of the good ones,” i.e., one of the monogamous ones, while they couldn’t care less. But even if they do care and would prefer to see you monogamously married again, they will embrace your new relationship if you make it clear you will accept nothing less from them.

Dear Dan: My husband used to go strip clubs with friends before we were married, and I’ve heard stories about how strippers would be all over him—especially if there weren’t any women in his small group. I want to go to one with him.

But I have exactly zero interest in being touched by strangers, strippers or not. I also don’t want anyone touching my husband. I just want to watch. Is there some way to signal that? Do they only come over to you if they see you tip? I’m going to tip, btw, but on the way out so no one thinks I want extra attention.

—Curious About These Clubs Husband Visited Dear CATCHV: Please don’t go to a strip club.

Strippers make money selling private dances—in many strip clubs, strippers pay the club to dance. And when strippers aren’t up on the stage, they’re walking the aisles, and approaching men who might be interested in buying a private dance.

Very few strippers are gonna plop themselves down on someone’s lap (that’s what they’re selling; they’re not giving that shit away for free), but it’s not uncommon for strippers to place a hand on someone’s shoulder or lower back, lean in, and chat up a potential customer. I wouldn’t describe that sort of incidental contract as being “all over” someone, but it definitely counts as “touching.”

So, CATCHV, if seeing your husband touched by a stripper would upset you, or if being touched by a stripper would upset you, going to a strip club with or without your husband is a very bad idea. Go to a burlesque show instead.

For the Record: Fuck Greg Abbot for what he’s doing to trans kids and their families in Texas, fuck every last Republican in Florida for what they’re doing to LGBT kids in schools, and fuck Vladimir Putin for what he’s doing to innocent men, women, and children in Ukraine.

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Hangin’ out with Julia

The new Julia Child documentary recalls her strong Colorado connection and that unforgettable voice

by John Lehndorff

JULIA CHILD’S first TV show, The French Chef, left a lasting impression on a generation of chefs. Her story comes to life on screen in Julia, showing at Boulder International Film Festival on March 5.

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can’t say I knew Julia Child well but I can do a fairly good “Jooooleeeee-ahhh.” I grew up with her as a presence on the family’s black-and-white Zenith hosting this funny French cooking show on educational TV. I knew Dan Ackroyd’s bloody Saturday Night Live impersonation of Julia Child by heart—a sketch she apparently absolutely loved. She was already a legend when I met her at a press lunch in Denver as a Boulder food editor. It was like having an audience with the Pope.

BLIND AMBITION, a documentary about Zimbabwean refuIn person, “The French Chef” gees vying to become South looked and sounded exactly like her Africa’s top sommeliers, shows TV persona ... only much taller and March 3 at Rembrandt Yard. funnier. She seemed very foreign for someone so thoroughly American.

Maybe it was her first job as an intelligence operative. Gazing in her eyes while I asked stupid questions, I had the distinct impression that Julia was flirting with me. Then again, I think she exuded that charm on just about everyone.

Aspen’s Food & Wine Classic is now an always-sold-out, hyper-expensive culinary who’s who gathering. When the event started, Aspen was not on any culinary map and Colorado was a place to fly over, not dine in. Julia Child and Jacques Pepin helped change all that as Aspen brought more attention to the state and to Colorado’s considerable and growing food assets.

In her later years I’d see Julia—tall and stooped—shuffling through hotel lobbies on the way to cooking demonstrations. The awed crowd parted for this seemingly frail elderly woman.

After being helped onstage she straightened up and transformed into “Julia!” Whether wielding a knife or a chicken, she exuded oodles of infectious energy and an appetite for butter. And yes, every time she finished, she issued that iconic high-pitched “Bon appétit!” and left the stage to meet fans.

The more I find out about this fascinating woman, the more I realize how much I don’t know. That’s why I’m looking forward to seeing Julia, a new documentary produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. The film shows March 5 at Boulder High School as part of the 2022 Boulder International Film Festival (biff1.com).

The festival begins with March 3’s CineCHEF tasting at Rembrandt Yard, the first time Boulder chefs have been able to gather to compete and celebrate in a long time. Featured chefs are Daniel Asher (Ash’Kara), Patrick Balcom (Farow), Michael Bertozzi (The Kitchen), Rich Byers (Jill’s), Linda Hampsten Fox (The Bindery), Chris Royster (Flagstaff House), Bob Sargent (Savory Cuisine) and Mike Thom (Spruce Farm & Fish).

The event is followed by a Boulder showing of Blind Ambition, a documentary about Zimbabwean refugees vying to become South Africa’s top sommeliers.

Other films showing March 3-6 at BIFF include: • Nordic by Nature about a Michelin-starred eatery on the Faroe Islands between Scotland and Iceland. Preceded by: Tanagokoro: A Culinary Portrait, a short documentary about a Japanese chef in London.

• The Automat, a documentary featuring commentary by Mel Brooks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Colin Powell and Carl Reiner.

• Song for Cesar, about Cesar Chavez, and The Seeds of Vandana Shiva, both focus on global food justice. l

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

The last time I saw Julia Child before she retired, I did something I almost never do as a journalist. I asked for an autograph. She looked at me and asked who the signature was for.

“It’s for me, John,” I said, blushing profusely. I still cherish the reporter’s notebook with the inscription: “For John, Julia Child” on the cover.

Hello Boulder!

Local Food News

Many local liquor stores have removed Russian vodka from their shelves. Vodka fans are encouraged to replace THE AUTOMAT that imported stuff with first-class spirits distilled interviews well-known in your neighborhood, like JL Distilling’s Sno names about the Vodka (Boulder), DV8 Vodka (Boulder), Boulder phenomena of Horn Spirits Vodka (Boulder), Spirit Hound Vodka & Hardart, America’s (Lyons) and DEKI Vodka (Lafayette). ... The original restaurant chain 2022 Restaurant and Chef Awards semifinalists in NYC. Rembrandt for the revived James Beard Awards include EdYard. win Zoe of Boulder’s Zoe Ma Ma and Chimera Ramen (Best Restaurateur) and Casian Seafood in Lafayette (Best New Restaurant). Eric Skokan of Black Cat Farm Table Bistro is a semi-finalist for the Best Chef—Mountain States, along with Cody Cheetham (Tavernetta, Denver), Caroline Glover (Annette, Aurora), and Dana Rodriguez (Work & Class, Casa Bonita, Denver). ... Coming soon: Urban Field Pizza and Market,150 Main St., Longmont. Also coming to Longmont, a chicken-salad-focused restaurant called Chicken Salad Chick. ... Spring ahead! The Boulder Farmers Market and the Longmont Farmers Market open sun, rain or snow on April 2.

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The recently announced food Oscars, the Good Food Awards for 2022, honor thoughtfully produced, carefully sourced and incredibly yummy artisan foods produced in the United States. Boulder-made winners are Pastificio’s casarecce and fusilli pasta and Jai Mix’s Spicy Toasted Coconut & Ginger snack mix. Other local Good Food winners include: Lavender Vanilla Goat Milk Caramel from Longmont’s Table Mountain Farm; Honeycomb from Willoughby Specialty Foods in Rollinsville; Black Hawk’s Mountain Girl Pickled Okra; Pueblo Chile Peach Deliciousness (RedCamper, Denver); Honey Caramel (Anellabees, Laporte); and Fennel Pollen Honey (Bee Squared, Berthoud).

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Words to Chew On

“It’s so beautifully arranged on the plate, you know someone’s fingers have been all over it.” —Julia Child.

John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles at 8:20 a.m. Thursdays on KGNU (88.5 FM, streaming at kgnu.org).

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Goodbye to all of that Part II: In which Michael finds the end

by Michael J. Casey

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’ve been writing the end for so long, but I never seem to get any closer to it.

If you’ve been following this column for any amount of time, you’ve probably noticed I have a fixation. I’m not alone; a lot of beer writers out there have been licking their chops, ready to call the end to the explosion of the craft brewing industry for years now. Some started decades ago—a position that seems quaint from today’s vantage.

Others joined the chorus more recently when a couple of key players sold to larger companies. That’s happening more and more these days, and each time the refrain is the same: It’s over, it’s done. It was fun while it lasted but go home. It’s a shell of what it once was. You should have been there.

That narrative picked up a lot of steam over the past two years. In this regard, beer isn’t unique. But the pandemic didn’t shutter thousands of businesses and change consumption as we know it. Boulder County breweries weathered the everlasting storm pretty well. Some closed, but not a lot. The rest are still with us and will be for some time. To quote Joan Didion, “It’s easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends.”

I guess that’s the thing: We’re all looking for an end because the end signifies that the story is complete. The Walnut Brewery opened in May 1990 and closed on June 4, 2017. Its story lies between those two dates. But the story has no end.

It just keeps going, adding more here, subtracting some there.

I once interviewed a brewer—who will remain anonymous for reasons that will become momentarily apparent—who said that the beer industry has the most loyal

customers. Only two things MICHAEL J. CASEY steal them away: The grave and the program (you know the one).

But what’s true for the industry is not true for the individual breweries. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune they suffer are many. In the summer of 2019, I interviewed David Zuckerman—Boulder Beer’s brewmaster from 1990 to 2019—in Boulder Beer’s main conference room. Built in the early 1980s, the brewery on Wilderness Place reflected its age. Established in 1979, the brand felt it. Those conference room shelves sagged under the weight of 40 years worth of bottles and cans; each one displayed to commemorate the many beers were all the rage. Being that far out brews Boulder Beer produced. A four-dein front, you’d think Boulder Beer would cade story told in bottles and labels. be in an ideal place to capitalize. But no Zuckerman pointed them out to me in amount of recipe tweaking or rebranding chronology, called out each label like he could capture the zeitgeist. It’s hard to was flipping through pages of a yearbook reinvent yourself 40 years in. There’s too until he came to Cliffhanger Amber Ale much history, too many memories. So and Flatirons ESB, two early seasonals much time spent dwelling on the roads that dislodged something in his memory. taken and the one missed. What was next “For us, that was the beginning of the would not include them.

What’s-Next-Monster,” he said. “Which, to But maybe I’m no longer writing about this day, has not been tamed.” beer. Maybe I’m just writing about myself.

Zuckerman went on. Around 2004, So it goes. he and the rest of the Boulder Beer brass This Boulder Weekly column will mark realized that the What’s-Next-Monster my final as your friendly neighborhood was here to stay. At that time, Boulder beer writer. Next week, you’ll find a new Beer’s number one seller was Hazed & voice bringing you all the brewing (and Infused, a dry-hopped amber ale that distilling, and fermenting, etc.) news was a good 12 years ahead of its time. that’s fit to print. I hope you two have fun.

By the time the writing was on the wall Frankly, there’s so much fascinating stuff for Boulder Beer in the late 2010s, hazy going on these days I’m looking forward

to discovering it through someone else’s words.

As for me, it’s time to let the Walnut go and get out from under the What’sNext-Monster. I know they’re just metaphors at this point, but those metaphors have a way of getting their hooks in you.

You’ll still find my film reviews in the paper and on KGNU, and I’m sure I’ll pop up occasionally as some of Boulder County’s legacy brewers cross some major milestones in the next couple of years. Until then, it’s been a pleasure, and I hope to see you at the bar. Cheers.

Michael J. Casey is the author of Boulder County Beer, the story of how a group of young entrepreneurs from across the country turned Boulder County into ground zero for craft beer in the Centennial State. Available wherever books are sold.

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PHOTOS BY JOHN LEHNDORFF

Taste of the Week

Croque Madame with raspberry jam and frites @ Le French Café

by John Lehndorff

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settled in to wait for my Croque Madame with a huge, brightly colored mug of dark roasted coffee at a sunny window with the aroma of baked butter all around. Muted, rapid-fire French slang bounced from the open kitchen as the staff rushed fresh croissants from the oven to waiting regulars at Le French Café in Boulder.

My breakfast was simply two slices of good white bread spread with creamy béchamel sauce, layered with smoked ham and butter, oven-melted until a Gruyere blanket is browned, and crowned with an over-easy egg—this is what fast food breakfast sandwiches want to be when they grow up. Each sigh-worthy bite of yolk-soaked, cheesy ham goodness gets spread with a little bit of raspberry jam.

And vive la différence between “French fries” and real, crisp, skin-on, fresh frites made by a French chef and served with Le Ketchup.

Le French Café is set at Boulder’s foodiest crossroads, Folsom Street and Arapahoe Avenue. Next door are the Great Harvest Bakery, Vitality Bowls, Rincon Argentino, WoodGrain Bagel & Deli and Yellow Belly Chicken, and in the vicinity you can find Tibetan, Greek, Thai, Mexican and Japanese fare.

Agnes and Quentin Garrigou opened Le French Café in Boulder in 2017 and have navigated the challenges ever since. Their breakfast and lunch menu features savory and sweet crepes, croissants, pain au chocolat, raisin rolls,

Conor O’Neill’s Shepherd’s Pie Boulder Recipe Flashback: Conor O’Neill’s Irish Pub

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pened in 1999, Conor O’Neill’s Irish Pub at 1922 13th St., Boulder, was famous for not-ice-cold ales, live Celtic music and jams, and a comfort menu that included the classic Irish pub dishes. It was shuttered in 2017. The address is now home to Steakhouse No. 316, and formerly it was the site of the James Pub and Grill. When the following recipe was shared in the 1990s, it was noted that it was an O’Neill family favorite from County Cork, Ireland, and had been adapted for the American home kitchen. *Full disclosure: shepherd’s pie pictured is not from Conor O’Neill’s

2 pounds ground beef 2 pounds ground lamb 4 large cloves garlic, slivered 1 large carrot, peeled, 1/4 inch chunks 1 large leek, 1/4 inch slices (white part) 1 large onion, 1/4 inch dice 2 tablespoons salt, approx.

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, approx.

2 teaspoons thyme (dried) 1 teaspoon sage (dried) 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups unsalted chicken broth 1 cup unsalted beef broth 1 12-ounce bottle Bass Ale 1 8-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice 1 6-ounce can tomato paste 1 and 1/2 cups frozen young peas 2 and 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley Homemade buttery mashed potatoes made with red-skinned potatoes Saute crumbled beef and lamb in a

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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saucepan and cook until browned. Add garlic, carrot, leek and onion and then thyme, sage, about 1 tablespoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about ten minutes over low heat until vegetables soften. Add flour gradually until incorporated and then stir in broths and ale. Mix in tomatoes and tomato paste and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently to avoid scorching. Add more broth as needed.

Turn off heat and stir in peas and parsley. Adjust salt and pepper seasoning.

Pour into a deep baking dish, top with warm creamy mashed potatoes and bake in a 450-degree oven for about ten minutes until browned. This can be one large dish, smaller pie pans or a large muffin tin for individual pies.

Note: The recipe did not specify the quantity of mashers nor how to make them. Ground pork or turkey can be substituted for the lamb. Line the pan with pie dough to add an extra degree of comfy to the pie.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Altered consciousness in the hills

Out in nature, seeing things that aren’t there is more common than you might imagine

by Doug Emory

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fter the clouds engulfed us, we fanned across Mazama Ridge, seeking the narrow route between cliffs to Reflection Lakes. I dropped farthest off the crest. The skiers nearest became colored splotches, their neon jackets floating through the whiteout.

The skier atop the ridge was reduced to a stick figure drifting in and out of sight.

Then disaster struck. The slope above broke loose, a blue seam opening where the slide began. Snow churned around my legs, forcing me down. “Avalanche!” I shouted heroically. “Save yourselves!”

But my teammates ignored my warning. Blurred though their faces were, they radiated skepticism. The snow hadn’t cascaded over me. I stood motionless on a stable crust, bellowing like a mad man. That threatening avalanche was all an illusion.

Across my years in the mountains, I’ve been afflicted by alpine visions. I’ve seen Dali-esque floating beasts and dodged UFOs whizzing past my skull. Once, a Dark Ages character constructed a hut from branches as I approached. Now, when I ask my friends if they’re seeing the marvelous apparitions I am, they just shake their heads and keep climbing.

My hallucinations, though flamboyant, aren’t unique.

Tales of mountain illusions abound—even within my dubious team. Skiing Quandary Peak through clouds, one friend repeatedly bailed from an uncontrolled descent to find he’d barely been moving. Below Longs Peak’s summit, another acquaintance held an intense argument with his aunt, who was sitting comfortably in her Nebraska apartment. Descending far past midnight after a tortured Rainier summit day, my son traversed an imaginary forest, serenaded by warbling birds.

Ask climbers and skiers about their surreal encounters in the hills, and your conversation will fill an evening.

And while this looniness makes lively reminiscing, experiencing a waking dream when clarity is required carries its downsides. At 19,000 feet in Nepal, an exhausted friend unclipped from the team’s rope because they neared a grove of trees. As the rope slithered away, a cogent realization struck him: Those sheltering trees were all in his head. He stood alone in the fog, perched on a rocky spur. If his partner hadn’t felt the drag leave his harness and turned around, this hallucination would now be a cautionary tale Why ordinary folks climb only to see and hear what isn’t there is a question with only partial answers.

Navigating mountain terrain is confusing. Turning our horizontal plane on end plays havoc with perception. Stir BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

interpreting them as fantastic beasts, such as dragons, goblins, or gremlins.” Psychological Medicine’s 2018 study of mountaineers again identified high altitude as being a causal factor in hallucinations, with these hallucinations being a double-edge sword, consisting of “voices or people encouraging them [climbers] towards survival behaviour” but also at times suggesting “potential misjudgments of dangerous scenarios.“ Weather also has a dramatic effect, and I’d be remiss overlooking my bugaboo, the whiteout. Whiteouts take different forms, but the Cambridge Dictionary summarizes the effect nicely: “a surface weather condition in a snow-covered area (such as a polar region) in which no object casts a shadow, the horizon cannot be seen, and only dark objects are discernible.” Earth, air and sky become a uniform color, and visibility is sharply limited, creating a form of sensory deprivation. Numerous 1960s studies linked sensory deprivation to hallucinations, a circumstance described by psychiatrist Paul Fletcher in Wired Magazine in 2009: “When confronted by a lack of sensory patterns in our environment, we have a natural tendency to impose our own patterns.” Applying this thought to my avalanche that wasn’t, my eyes took the little I could see, added my anxiety, and from those scraps my brain produced images of impending doom.

These accumulated studies, though, aren’t definitive.

Since people are similar physiologically, we’d expect more commonality than has been found in when we hallucinate. Personally, I appreciate this limitation to our understanding. Mountains are the domain of gods, so shouldn’t our visions there be prophecies, warnings or blessings, meaningful elements in the other-worldly landscape we heroes traverse on our journey?

Fortunately, a sub-category of mountaineering experience suggests our hallucinations do carry consequence. Imagine yourself, gasping insufficient air, navigating fog so thick your partners may as well not exist. From nowhere, a benevolent person appears, traveling, conversing, maybe even sharing a snack with you.

Visions of this nature are so common they’ve earned a name—Third Man Syndrome—and they have occurred to many climbers, including renowned Himalayan mountaineers Doug Scott and Reinhold Messner.

When the Third Man appears, your visions carry a weight far beyond simple tricks of the light. They are supporting you in the most significant task of all: calming your fears, organizing your thoughts, and guiding you safely home.

in sculpted ice, rock spires and blinding snowfields, and alpine terrain forms a witches’ brew of misidentification.

Some areas—let’s call them mountain vortexes—seem designed to cause misperception of the landscape. The Forest Service climbing guide to Mt. Hood, for example, notes that descending the fall line (as common sense tells you to) lands you far from home in Zigzag Canyon, not at your Timberline Lodge destination. The mountain’s very configuration baffles the senses.

Mountain hallucinations proper (what psychologists label “temporary psychosis”) occur when the brain incorrectly identifies the source of its experiences. We impose internal patterns on external scenes, overlaying an ambiguous landscape with structures developed in our minds.

Because engaging in mountain activities often pushes participants to their physical limits of dehydration, hunger, heat and cold, researchers have reasoned approaching those boundaries might generate bouts of psychosis. No connection between general physical disrepair and hallucinations has been discovered, but one common culprit has surfaced: very-high altitude (defined as elevations above 3500 meters). Recent studies of high-altitude ultra-marathoners and mountaineers all found high incidences of visual hallucinations among participants. Fourteen of 17 athletes in an Italian study experienced visual misinterpretations and “described the imaginative reworking of clouds, rocks, bushes, or trees, l

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Front of the medical middle New report gives Colorado a C+ on access to medical cannabis

by Will Brendza

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mid the ongoing frenzy since Colorado legalized recreational cannabis in 2012, it’s easy to forget that medical cannabis has been legal in this state for 22 years. Amendment 20 passed in November of 2000 with a 54% approval rate. And ever since, patients who use cannabis to treat their sleeplessness, chronic pain, anxiety, or other ailments can do so without risking their freedom and future.

In the last decade, though, the focus of the state’s marijuana energy has shifted. Since recreational use was legalized, Colorado’s medical marijuana industry has fallen by the wayside. And according to Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the nation’s largest advocacy group for medical cannabis patients, some of Colorado’s recent policies are now actively suppressing access to it.

That’s why, in ASA’s recent “State of the State” report, Colorado received a C+ on its medical cannabis access report card. According to Abbey Roudebush, the director of government affairs at ASA, the state that’s become synonymous with “recreational cannabis” is losing touch with its roots—which started with medical cannabis and the patients who rely on it for their day-to-day wellness.

“Colorado’s [grade], unlike a lot of other states that we see, really suffered in the patient rights and civil protection category,” Roudebush says.

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In that category, Colorado only received a 50% score. The reasons being threefold, she explains: First, because there are no DUI protections for medical cannabis patients. If a patient is pulled over and given a drug test, chances are they won’t pass because they regularly use cannabis and could be charged with a DUI. Second, there’s a lack of employment protection for medical cannabis patients in Colorado; they can still be fired from their jobs for using a state-legal plant medicine to treat their health problems. And third, Roudebush points to the lack of parental rights protections for medical cannabis patients.

“So that’s making sure that [if] a parent has a medical cannabis [license], their status as a medical cannabis patient can’t be used against them in a custody hearing,” Roudebush says.

“That’s a big thing, and Colorado doesn’t protect that.”

Colorado also lost points in the Dispensary Operations category for poor standard operating procedures and for not disclosing Certificate of Analysis product tests.

But perhaps the single biggest factor in Colorado’s C+ grade was a bill sponsored by two democrats that passed in 2021 with widespread bipartisan support: HB 1317—or the “Regulating Marijuana Concentrates” bill (See Weed Between the Lines, “Concentrated regulation,” July 1, 2021).

Sponsored by Representatives Alec Garnett (D) from Denver, and Yadira Caraveo (D) from Thornton, this bill was passed in an effort to prevent kids from getting their hands on cannabis concentrates. It requires that medical patients receive two separate physicians recommendations in order to get a medical cannabis license: One to diagnose their “debilitating or disabling medical

MARCH 3, 2022

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condition,” and a second to actually have the cannabis recommendation written. That recommendation must now also include authorized potency and recommended dosage for the patient.

Not only does that make it doubly expensive and time consuming to get a medical license, but it puts doctors into a sticky position. Because cannabis is still a Schedule I substance, doctors aren’t allowed to specifically prescribe it; they can only generally “recommend” it to their patients. However, forcing doctors to include such specific information as dosage and potency recommendations starts to look a lot like prescription.

On top of all that, HB 1317 also limits the amount of cannabis concentrates medical patients (and especially medical patients under 21) can legally purchase in a day.

ASA’s page on Colorado states, “ASA is disturbed by the direction Colorado policymakers have chosen to take in amending cannabis laws. ASA recommends an emergency session be called to issue an immediate repeal of HB 1317 before it devastates the state’s patient population and creates a crisis of access.”

Roudebush says that if it hadn’t been for that bill passing last year, Colorado likely would have gotten a B. However, as things stand, only Illinois and Maine achieved that (with a B- and a B respectively) with every other state scroing lower.

She also notes that part of the reason Colorado scored lower than in previous years has to do with a new grading system that ASA implemented this year. But that was just one contributing factor, and not the most significant by any means, she says.

“The new grading scale did overall make the scores lower,” Roudebush says. “But I can say that Colorado’s grade suffered more than other states because of the rollbacks that have happened this year.”

Even with those rollbacks, Colorado isn’t at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to accessing medicinal cannabis. The average grade among the 50 US states was a D—putting Colorado squarely at the front of the middle, concerning access to medical cannabis.

That’s not bad, according to Roudebush (as long as the trend doesn’t continue in coming years). It just means there’s room for improvement. The hard part will be walking back the policy changes that have already been made—because once regulation is tightened down, policymakers rarely loosen it up.

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