Boulder Weekly 3.31.2022

F r e e E v e r y T h u r s d a y F o r 2 8 Ye a r s / w w w. b o u l d e r w e e k l y. c o m / M a r c h 3 1 - A p r i l 6 , 2 0 2 2

Cultivating solutions One Boulder fungi farm thinks

mushrooms could save the world

by Will Brendza

■ Climate change is bad for pregnant people, p. 15

■ Pierre Bensusan and his 50-year-old guitar, p. 23

■ The power of cheese, p. 30

SPRING SANDAL SALE

Way to Go out Green, Your Grace!

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South African anti-apartheid activist winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, chose earth-friendly water cremation (alkaline hydrolysis) for his body at death.

All Men’s & Women’s Sandals Included Even New Arrivals!

Archbishop Tutu died December 26, 2021.

He cared deeply about our planet.

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The Natural Funeral, Colorado’s holistic funeral home, was the first in the state to offer Water cremation (also known as aquamation) and Body Composting (Natural Reduction).

We also offer Green Burial and Reverent Body Care™ (ceremonial washing and anointing of the body at death with essential oils) and Flame Cremation.

Contact Karen van Vuuren or any of our staff to find out how to minimize your final footprint.

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720-515-2344 info@thenaturalfuneral.com TheNaturalFuneral.com Live and Die Your Values

In store • Online • Curbside

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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feature:

Boulder Mushroom uses fungi as a tool for healing people and saving soil, and that shouldn’t sound so radical

by Will Brendza

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analysis:

The latest climate report includes a new focus on pregnant people. One of its authors explains why.

by Jessica Kutz, The 19th

buzz:

Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce on punk rock, lullabies and whether this is the British outfit’s final album

by Adam Perry

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nibbles:

MECO Coffee Collective crafts new community with caffeine, crackers and chai whoopie pies

by John Lehndorff

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drink:

Ship off to a rum-drinker’s paradise

by Matt Maenpaa

departments 6 7 23 24 28 29 35 36 39

The Anderson Files: U.S. Left’s confusion and division over Ukraine Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views Overtones: Pierre Bensusan picks up where he left off Events: What to do when there’s ‘nothing’ to do . . .

Astrology: By Rob Brezsny Film: ‘Jaws’ to screen at CWA’s Ebert Interruptus Cuisine: Where to eat Mexican pastries, how to cook tuna in banana sauce and deets on the Brewers Guild’s Collaboration Festival Savage Love: Idealized dick ‘katharsis’ Weed Between the Lines: Local attorney Lenny Frieling talks about being a drug crime defense attorney in 2022

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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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, Shay Castle, Angela K. Evans, Mark Fearer, Jodi Hausen, Karlie Huckels, Dave Kirby, Matt Maenpaa, Sara McCrea, Rico Moore, Adam Perry, Katie Rhodes, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Tom Winter 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 Sue Butcher, Ken Rott, Chris Bauer BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer March 31, 2022 Volume XXIX, Number 30

As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism, and thought-provoking opinion writing.

Free every Thursday since 1993, the Weekly also offers the county's most comprehensive arts and entertainment coverage. Read the print version, or visit boulderweekly.com. Boulder Weekly does not accept unsolicited editorial submissions. If you're interested in writing for the paper, please send queries to: editorial@boulderweekly.com. Any materials sent to Boulder Weekly become the property of the newspaper.

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

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U.S. left’s confusion and division over Ukraine

by Dave Anderson

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hen Russia invaded Ukraine, a spontaneous non-violent, anti-war rebellion broke out in the Eastern country. Putin is now crushing any dissent with North Korean-like repression. It is striking that so many of the Russians who protested told foreign reporters how deeply ashamed they were of their country. A popular anti-war Russian rapper said he was inspired by the protests of Americans against their country’s war on Vietnam in the 1960s.

Noam Chomsky has argued that the first responsibility of U.S. citizens is to criticize our own government’s dirty deeds. In this spirit, we carried signs saying “Not in Our Name” at protests against U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia, Iraq, Chile and Central America.

When Biden calls Putin a “war criminal,” we point out that George W. Bush should also have been sent to the Hague.

This goes against a certain messianic nationalism. It’s MARCH 31, 2022

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common for most politicians to say that America has a unique mission to transform the world. This exceptionalism can breed a dangerous arrogance.

It can also breed an inverted exceptionalism by a part of the left that assumes that the U.S. is always a bad actor on the world stage.

As the invasion of Ukraine began, Taras Bilous penned “A Letter to the Western Left from Kyiv” for openDemocracy, a U.K.-based media organization. He is a Ukrainian historian and democratic socialist activist.

He criticized leftists who curiously blamed NATO for the Russian invasion. He said, “I am not a fan of NATO...

I know that NATO’s eastward expansion undermined efforts directed at nuclear disarmament and forming a system of joint security. NATO tried to marginalize the role of the UN and the Organization for Security and Coopersee THE ANDERSON FILES Page 7 BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

WHEN THE SOVIET BLOC COLLAPSED AND THE WARSAW PACT DISSOLVED, many U.S. foreign policy establishment bigshots across the political spectrum opposed NATO expansion because they felt it would alienate the Russians.

THE ANDERSON FILES from Page 6

ation in Europe, and to discredit them as ‘inefficient organizations’...”

Bilous said we don’t have to support the division of the world into “spheres of influence” between imperialist states. He said the left should “struggle for a democratization of the international security order.” He supports “an overall reinforcement of the UN’s role in the resolution of armed conflicts.”

But is the threat of NATO expansion just a convenient excuse for Putin? Ukraine wasn’t going to join NATO anytime soon. In July 2021, Putin rolled out a somewhat ominous 5,000-word ethno-nationalist essay about how Ukraine is a made-up country that doesn’t have a right to exist. A number of analysts said it was a declaration of war. Since spring 2014, Russia and Ukraine had been engaged in an armed conflict that had cost over 14,000 Ukrainian lives and left millions displaced. The Kremlin occupied Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and much of the industrial Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. Now Putin wants to swallow up all of the country.

When the Soviet bloc collapsed and the Warsaw Pact dissolved, many U.S. foreign policy establishment bigshots across the political spectrum opposed NATO expansion because they felt it would alienate the Russians. Nevertheless, the Eastern European countries voluntarily joined NATO. They had historically valid reasons for fearing the Russians. Now, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden may join NATO. Putin’s apologists on the left and the far-right blather on about NATO, but don’t mention the Budapest

Memorandum. After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Ukraine declared independence with huge popular support. One third of the Soviet nuclear arsenal was on Ukraine territory.

In 1994, Ukraine gave up all its nukes and signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

What did they get in return? In exchange, the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia then signed the Budapest Memorandum pledging to “respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignty in the existing borders and refrain from the threat or the use of force against Ukraine.”

The NPT is a legally binding document. With regard to the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine first sought legally binding guarantees from the U.S. that it would intervene should Ukraine’s sovereignty be breached.

The U.S. would only agree to weaker politically binding security guarantees.

China and France also later extended similar assurances to Ukraine, but didn’t sign the memo.

Russia first broke its commitments under the memorandum in 2014, with its annexation of Crimea and aggression in eastern Ukraine.

Of course, the memo is a sick joke now as Russia pulverizes Ukraine and actually threatens nuclear war.

The left’s confusion and division over Ukraine is profoundly sad. We need something like the anti-fascist popular front of the 1940s to stop Putin’s war and help the Russian people end Putin’s regime.

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

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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NCAR FIRE PROBABLY BENEFICIAL As long as no human structures are impacted and nobody gets injured, a fire like the NCAR fire is probably quite beneficial for the ecosystem. The grasses and wildflowers have deep roots that are not impacted unless the fire gets really hot, and they will be right back after a couple of rains. The area will most likely green up with amazing rapidity after we get some spring moisture, and by June or July you’d never guess the area burned. The ponderosa pines are adapted to fire, and are quite fire resistant unless the temperatures get really hot; mostly I expect they were singed a bit, a little toasty around the bottom but most will recover quickly. Even if some of the trees were killed, they will become wildlife trees—condos for all sorts of forest creatures like bats, woodpeckers, insects and nuthatches. The fire may also have cleaned out some of the encroaching Douglas firs that are moving into the pines, and will clean up dead wood and pine needle litter that could contribute to a truly destructive fire under worse conditions. I hope I can lead some fire ecology nature hikes for the public into that area to be able to show the two sides of wildfire, and how it creates healthy forests and grasslands.

David Sutherland, Community Naturalist/Boulder, DaveSutherland.co MARCH 31, 2022

WE CAN DO BETTER THAN REDTAIL There’s no reason to fear the Conoco-Phillips General Development Plan (GDP). But there is reason to fear its amendment through the Redtail Ridge Master Plan (Redtail). Right now, the property is zoned commercial. Redtail permanently changes the zoning from commercial to commercial-industrial.

Redtail is too big and too industrial. Picture a development 30 times the size of our rec center and its parking lot. Picture light industry-generating noise, smoke, vibration, fumes, and various “other environmental factors.” Perhaps, there’s a five-story office tower or medical facilities interspersed among the manufacturing facilities. Or, perhaps, there are laundry cleaning plants, dry cleaners, car washes and other commercial businesses among the office towers and medical buildings. And, if the land is zoned industrial, Avista—not the developer—will need to negotiate covenants to bar incompatible uses, such as collision repair services, on adjoining property.

We’ve given too much away and need to drive a harder bargain. The GDP identifies 13 potential uses.

Redtail authorizes 33 potential uses, pretty much a code-based laundry list. This kitchen sink approach is a great, profit-generating tactic, see LETTERS Page 8 l

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LETTERS from Page 7

allowing a quick flip. The developer can get a quick buck just by selling the property with its new industrial zoning and 20 newly authorized uses.

The perimeter of the property is bordered by roads incapable of handling today’s traffic—much less 20,000 daily additional trips. To manage traffic, we will need more traffic lights, and, they will have long wait times. The interchange with US 36 will need to be upgraded to handle the additional traffic. Because our City Council rejected the staff ’s recommendation, the developer is not on the hook for the full cost of these roadway improvements.

Louisville is already absorbing the Marshall Fire’s unbudgeted and unexpected financial burden. We have homes and critical infrastructure to repair and rebuild. This is not the time to use public money for private gain.

There is no reason to fear losing the sustainability measures added to Redtail. LEED Silver is not the only way to get sustainable development or wildlife corridors. There will be opportunities for further negotiation when the land is sub-divided and subdivision improvement agreements negotiated.

We stand at a climatic and environmental tipping point. Louisville can and must do better.

Learn more about Redtail at preservelouisville.org/home. Vote no. We can and must do better.

Cathern Smith/Louisville RESPONSIBLE USE OF PESTICIDES IN CITY OF BOULDER AND BOULDER COUNTY Environmental protection and personal health are both key values in the Boulder way of life. Boulder has the greatest concentration of organic and natural food companies in the country. Residents of Boulder County invest time and money in their food to stay away from pesticides. But food is not the only way to get exposed to pesticides as our bodies can also absorbe these chemicals from the environment, for example during a hike in an area treated with pesticides.

Are our Boulder County and City of Boulder Open Spaces, where so many of us go to exercise, as healthy as we expect them to be?

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Unfortunately there is currently no system in place to confirm that the Boulder County Open Space areas we plan to visit have not been treated with pesticides. Boulder County Open Space has not made the effort to inform the public in order to protect our communities and our ecosystems from pesticides.

Boulder County Parks and Open Space is spraying toxic chemicals including Glyphosate (the active ingredient of Roundup) and Indaziflam (the active ingredient of Esplanade and Rejuvra) to control cheatgrass on Open Space natural lands. Glyphosate is associated with a wide range of illnesses, including Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, genetic damage, liver and kidney damage, and endocrine disruption. Indaziflam is a neurotoxin for mammals, an endocrine disruptor, and it affects the kidneys, liver, thyroid, stomach, seminal vesicles and ovaries.

The public is not aware that Boulder County implements such methods to control weeds and to manage our public lands, using ground crews, tractors and helicopters. The map of the areas sprayed with pesticides has never been shared with the public. This issue is going to get worse as the County is now getting ready for extensive aerial spraying using helicopters, once again without informing the public.

Because of Boulder County Open Space’s lack of transparency, kids are biking, hiking, running and playing on Boulder County Open Space while their parents confidently assume these lands are chemical free!

You can sign and share this petition (sign.moveon.org/p/stopthespray) to demand full public transparency on the use of chemicals on Boulder County Open Space natural lands.

So far, unlike Boulder County Open Space, City of Boulder has made major efforts to protect our communities from the impact of pesticides on human health and our ecosystems. Their website is an excellent ressource to get educated on the subject of pesticides. Almost all pesticides are banned on city property, including Neonicotinoids and Glyphosate. City staff are required to notify the public of any pesticide applications on city property. Before taking a walk on city property you can check the maps that Boulder

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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FRON T RAN G E

B ROA DWAY

REMIND POLIS THAT CLIMATE LEADERSHIP IS NONNEGOTIABLE When Jared Polis first ran for governor of Colorado, he claimed to be willing to tackle climate change.

I hoped that was true and I voted for him. If we were talking about something other than the fate of the planet, his actions the past few years would have been disappointing.

Inaction on climate change can only be devastating.

He has continued to ramp up oil and gas drilling in our state. Over 4,600 oil and gas (methane) wells have been approved since Polis was elected governor. Other governors have directed their regulatory bodies to deny drilling permits because of climate change. Polis could make that same choice, but hasn’t. To date, only one oil and gas development plan has ever been denied and that was a hard fought battle that ended with regulators inviting industry to try again. Not only have over 4,000 wells been approved under the Polis administration, but the oil and methane industry is still sitting on 3,000 unused permits. We could deny all drilling permits starting today and still get drilled for years.

Besides oil and gas drilling, Polis went against his own party and threatened a veto of SB21-200.

It would have been our strongest climate legislation ever but his veto threat destroyed it. There is nothing close to that dead bill even being considered this legislative session.

So far, there are no indications that his record will improve. His administration continues to ignore the fact that the majority of the oil and gas extracted from Colorado is exported. If we were honest

with ourselves and talked about the emissions from all the oil and gas that comes from Colorado, we would have to double the numbers we use when calculating how many emissions we need to cut. However, those emissions are not included in any of the data about our state’s climate impact. With that magic math, Polis’s Roadmap for Reducing Greenhouse Gases includes increasing oil and gas production until 2030. By then it will be too late.

I wish I was being hyperbolic, but I’m not. The UN’s recent IPCC report confirms how little time we have to change course. A consortium of the world’s top scientists just told us, again, that if we don’t make some monumental changes very quickly the consequences will be even more catastrophic than they are today.

Changing light bulbs, eating less meat, riding bikes more and driving less are all good things, but it won’t have the meaningful impact we need. It is too late for that. The conversation can no longer be about reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

We need to eliminate them. To do that we need deep, systemic change.

The status quo is comfortable for the powerful and wealthy. It will take all of us raising our voices together to get us off the course of extracting and burning as many fossil fuels as possible and onto the path that reduces our impact on the climate. The time is now.

We must call on Governor Polis to support the transformative change that will save our community and the world from the worst of climate chaos. Rather than increasing oil and gas production over the next eight years, we need a managed phase out from oil and gas production that supports the workers. We need a just transition plan and we needed it yesterday.

Email Polis, call Polis 303-8662471, sign this petition that has been brought forward by a coalition of over 60 groups United for Colorado’s Climate, talk to him about it when you run into him at Whole Foods or at a fundraising event. Tell him climate leadership is imperative, is non-negotiable, and essential for him to keep his job as governor.

Kate Christensen/Colorado

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City provides to find the location of any pesticide treatments, along with the reason for and timing of pesticide application. Signs are placed at each application site at least 24 hours prior to the application. Boulder City cultivates healthy Open Space for the well-being of residents and visitors alike, along the longterm health of our ecosystems.

I hope this information will help you stand up for your values and make informed choices.

Christel Markevich/Boulder

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ach Hedstrom unzips the door of a climate-controlled grow tent—one of several lined up inside Boulder Mushroom, a fungi farm in north Boulder. Within the tent, shelf over shelf of fruiting blue oyster mushrooms are exploding out of substrate blocks like bouquets.

Pale fluorescent light reflects off the saucer-shaped gray-blue caps.

Hedstrom picks one of the blocks up and tilts it, showing off the fungi’s mesmerizing gills.

“We’ve got different ways of growing these,” he explains.

“Some of the chefs like the big wide caps, some of them like a little more stem. It just depends on what they’re doing with them.”

Hedstrom is Boulder’s mycological mad scientist. He forages locally, collecting fungi in nature, cataloging and cloning their wild genes in his laboratory and selectively breeding some of the highest quality culinary and medicinal mushrooms commercially available on the Front Range.

His business, Boulder Mushroom, produces golden oyster mushrooms, blue oysters, phoenix oysters, Italian oysters, pink oysters, lion’s mane and royal trumpet mushrooms among other strains. He works with chefs like Chris Claus of Leaf Vegetarian, who uses anywhere from 20 to 50 pounds of his mushrooms a week. Boulder Mushroom also sells medicinal mushroom tinctures, mushroom home-grow kits and mushroom spawn via its website.

But that’s all just the top layer of Hedstrom’s master plan for Boulder Mushroom—the duff of his deep vision for this business, if you will.

While the fruits of Boulder Mushroom’s labor come most obviously in the form of mushrooms sold to local chefs and restaurants, the real power behind this myco-farm lies in fungi’s powerful role as a remediator (or fixer) in nature. Not only do these fungi taste fantastic, but they recycle carbon and foster healthy, living soils; they help plants exchange nutrients, can prevent soil erosion in forests, and even mitigate wildfires.

“I created this business partially as a culinary mushroom business, and partly as a soil remediation business from the start,” Hedstrom says. “It’s [also] restoration for people, because a lot of mushrooms are medicinal. And we all know organic, locally sourced food is healing for people. Then we kind of take that one step further and look at how [fungi] can heal the environment.”

In another room at Boulder Mushroom, Hedstrom opens a small fridge filled with agar petri dishes, each one labeled and neatly stacked. This is one part of his mushroom tissue collection, an archive of nearly every wild mushroom he’s found while foraging, cataloging their genes in a myological library for Boulder County. He selects an agar dish and holds it up to the light.

“This strain right here, this is an oyster mushroom [I labeled] ‘Longmont XL,’” Hedstrom says. He’d collected the sample (of Pleurotus pulmonarius) from Longmont’s Ollin Farms in 2021 as part of a Boulder County Sustainable Agriculture grant-funded project—“Fungal inoculation of on-farm biomass for carbon-negative farming best practices”—which started last May. Mark Guttridge, owner of Ollin Farms, was the perfect partner for this trial; he was a recipient of the 2020 Boulder County Sustainable Agriculture Fund and had already been experimenting on his regenerative farm with inoculating compost using Boulder Mushroom’s spent substrate blocks (the leftover material after a mushroom flush)

Cultivating solutions

Boulder Mushroom uses fungi as a tool for healing people and saving soil —and that shouldn’t sound so radical, they say

by Will Brendza PHOTOS COURTESY BOULDER MUSHROOM

ABOVE: Zach Hedstrom shows off bags of substrate growing oyster mushrooms at his myco-farm in north Boulder.

RIGHT: Lions mane mushrooms

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

and mixing it into his soil.

“We’re using the [fungal compost] for a lot of plum trees, chokecherries, gooseberries, currants and elderberries,” Guttridge says. “These perennial ecosystems actually really benefit from having a fungal dominated compost.”

For the experiment: Four beds of wood-chips were built on Ollin Farms and three were inoculated with different local strains of edible wood-decay mushrooms; the fourth bed was left uninoculated as a control group. Boulder Mushroom monitored the compost for 12 months before collecting samples and sending them to a lab to be analyzed for nutrient availability and biological makeup. The goal was two-pronged: first, to demonstrate how fast fungi can turn 100% carbon waste (i.e., wood chips) into viable compost; and, second, to reveal exactly which strains work best as remediators in Boulder County.

One day, shortly before Boulder Mushroom and Ollin Farms began the experiment, Hedstrom answered a call from Guttridge. He’d found a troop of wild Colorado oyster mushrooms growing naturally on his farm—and Hedstrom leapt into action. The mushroom archivist sped up to Longmont and started harvesting. “[Mark] got all the mushrooms he wanted to eat, and I just took the stems and we cloned them.

I got that strain isolated, grew it out, and it ended up being really vigorous [so] we used that in the trial,” Hedstrom says. The other piles in the experiment were inoculated with other locally sourced native strains Hedstrom had collected around the Front Range. But the Ollin Farms strain, eventually named Longmont XL, swept them all away.

“That [wild] strain ended up having the highest fungal content of all of the [wood chip] beds,” Hedstrom says. “It made a perfect full circle.”

The trial, perhaps predictably, was an outstanding success. All of the wood-chip beds that had been inoculated showed visible signs of decay: they were moist and clumping up, dark in color and could be broken between one’s fingers. Full of healthy mycelium, they smelled like earth and were generally well on their way to becoming soil. The control pile, by contrast, looked almost completely unchanged.

“It’s all about carbon cycling and the way that ecosystems work and the fact that fungi are a substantially important part of building soil. ...

We can take the concepts of nature and speed that [decomposition] process up a lot by purposefully putting material onto the ground and inoculating it with native microorganisms,” Hedstrom says.

“Here we are in 2022, and we’re talking about [how] one of the biggest threats to humanity is agricultural soil going fallow.”

Fungi can and should be used as an agricultural tool, Hedstrom argues—a tool devised by nature, perfected by one billion years of evolution, popping up to play an essential role in the natural cycle of life, death, decomposition, rebirth—a tool that’s BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

been largely forgotten, or at least left behind, by modern industrial agriculture.

Using fungi, “wood, eggplant stalks, sunflower stalks, and [other woody waste]” turn back into soil within a year, Guttridge says. “Whereas in traditional composting, just leaving it [piled up] by the creek or something, it would take years to really break it down. By utilizing fungi we can really turn that waste stream back into soil most quickly.”

Besides fungal compost boosting the soil’s health at Ollin Farms, Guttridge says fungi are being employed elsewhere, too: He’s incorporated mushrooms into areas on the farm with wind-

breaks and along the edges of fields where it’s harder to irrigate, because, as he explains, mycelium will literally hold the soil together by locking in moisture and enmeshing it in its stringy rootlike network of mycelium.

Which brings Hedstrom to his second environmental goal for Boulder Mushroom (and a particularly pertinent topic for Boulder County at the moment): Fire remediation and prevention.

“There’s actually already data out there that has verified that inoculated wood chips hold double the amount of moisture [as non-inoculated wood chips],” Hedstrom says. “It’s like a sponge.

So you can think about it that way: You’re creating a sponge on the forest floor that’s also helping to remediate the watershed.”

He describes two different types of water flow in nature: channel-flow and sheet-flow. Channel flow is the kind of water flow that creates erosion as water carves out gullies and ravines. By contrast, sheet flow is when the soil is cohesively held together by roots, moisture, microorganisms and, of course, mycelium. In sheet flow, water moves

ABOVE: Golden oyster mushrooms are prolific growers which can be used in a wide variety of culinary applications, like stir-fries.

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MUSHROOMS from Page 11

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Gills of oyster mushrooms; the wood chips used as substrate to grow mushrooms; pink oyster mushrooms

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through the ground in a plane (like a sheet) through the earth, dispersing across a much wider area and creating a much healthier soil ecosystem.

“That’s what you want in a watershed—[sheet flow] holds more surface moisture. It’s capturing rainwater with nature,” Hedstrom says. “With channel flow, basically when water hits the ground, it can’t infiltrate, there’s nowhere for it to go, and then it just goes away.

When that happens those ecosystems dry up.”

And then, he adds, they become vulnerable to massive, uncontrollable wildfires.

Something with which Boulder County is becoming all too familiar.

“The concept with [modern] wildfire mitigation is to go into the forest and thin trees,” he says.

It’s supposed to mimic small, naturally occurring burns that clear out dense areas of growth, making room for new growth and returning nutrients from burned debris back into the soil.

However, instead of cycling the carbon back into the soil, forest crews thinning an area out remove the underbrush, overgrowth and excess timber from the system entirely.

“What do they do with that [woody waste]?

They kind of don’t know what to do with it,” Hedstrom says. “They’ll chip it up and they’ll haul it down to the landfill, or they’ll haul it down and do a community mulch pick-up or something.”

More commonly, however, he says foresters will stack the wood into “slash piles” and leave it to cure for two to three years before eventually burning it.

“Then, that carbon is going up into the atmosphere instead of going into the soil,” Hedstrom MARCH 31, 2022

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points out—it’s moving in the wrong direction.

Instead, he proposes chipping the thinned timber and brush, spreading it across the forest floor from which it was cleared and inoculating it with fungi (just like at Ollin Farms), creating a layer of healthy duff (partially decayed organic matter on the forest floor) above the topsoil. That fungi will then propagate deeper into the ground, cultivating a healthy micro-biological ecosystem, absorbing and retaining more water, thus promoting sheet-flow and mitigating the risk of future wildfires.

Hedstrom is putting this process to work in Boulder County via a partnership with Eco-Cycle and Boulder Watershed Project. Up near Gold Hill, where the Lefthand Canyon fire scorched 460 acres in 2021, a small part of the burn-area will be dedicated to testing this myco-remediation and mitigation plan.

“The Boulder Watershed Project is pretty forward-thinking, and they’re already doing fire mitigation,” Hedstrom says. “So they are going to work with us and we are basically taking those wood chips [made from burn debris] and instead of hauling them away, we’re putting them down on the ground and inoculating them with the fungi.”

Boulder Mushroom is specifically brewing tanks of liquid fungi inoculant for these kinds of large-scale inoculation projects. In this case, Hedstrom says he’ll load a 300-pound tank of inoculant into his truck and drive it up to the area. But thinking about scaling-up the work, he says, you could spray the inoculant from a helicopter, essentially spore-dusting a large area very easily and very quickly.

Hedstrom says he’s already been talking with Boulder County about doing some soil remediation work within the Marshall Fire burn area as well.

Taken as a whole, Boulder Mushroom is more than your average mushroom farm. This is a mycological tech company as well as an artisanal, culinary and medicinal mushroom cultivator, helmed by a fungi virtuoso. Hedstrom is linking human health and environmental remediation through organic food. His mushrooms are being served all across Boulder County: sauteed on toast, smoked with spices, or as the centerpiece of Leaf Vegetarian’s risotto entree—marinated, grilled and drizzled with a reduced mushroom consummate stock, “kind of like a mushroom demi gloss,” Chef Claus describes.

To wrap all of these things into a single business might sound like enough—but Boulder Mushroom is really just getting started turning our waste and wastelands back into valuable materials and healthy ecoscapes.

“We’re taking [organic waste] that would otherwise go to the trash, [we’re] growing a high-quality medicinal food off of it. And then when it’s done, 100% of that material, which is now dominated by fungi, goes to local regenerative farms to build soil,” Hedstrom says. “We can take the concepts of nature and mimic them. ... This shouldn’t be as novel or as radical as it sounds.”

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

This story was originally published by The 19th. ast June, over a period of three days, a heat wave baked the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures soared to 117 degrees in a region where many homes don’t have air conditioners.

While final estimates of heat wave-related fatalities are still being determined, Kristie Ebi, a professor with the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington, said approximately a thousand people are believed to have died from the extreme temperatures. “If anything else happened that in a few days killed 1,000 people, we’d call it a mass casualty event,” Ebi said. But the United States, like other countries, has been slow to mitigate the dangers of extreme heat, and the problem is only going to get worse.

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on

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identify risks posed by climate change for pregnant patients and would establish a Consortium on Birth and Climate Change Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Ebi, who was a lead author for the human health chapter of the most recent IPCC report, spoke to The 19th about the growing dangers of extreme heat, the need for more funding to research its implications and how to prevent health impacts in the future.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The 19th: As one of the lead authors of the latest IPCC report, can you paint a picture of what rising temperatures will look like here in the United States?

Kristie Ebi: As the climate continues to change, we’re going to see not only increases in the average temperatures but along with that, the summers will be longer, start sooner and go further into the fall. So we’ll see these changes in the averages, but we also know that there will be significant changes in the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves.

The report that covers that for the IPCC came out last August and shows this significant increase in extreme events. We’ll see more events like the heat dome in the Pacific Northwest.

The 19th: In the latest IPCC report, it says that women and those who are pregnant are more likely to suffer disproportionately in extreme weather events, like heat waves. Why is that?

KE: Specifically, why women are at higher risk is a very good question. What we know from the epidemiological research is that there are associations between these higher temperatures and low birth weight, stillbirths and other adverse pregnancy outcomes.

There is research now that’s trying to understand the timing of heat exposure during pregnancy. For example, are there particular trimesters when babies are most at risk when exposed to higher temperatures? Exactly how these mechanisms work are under research. And I’m sure by the next IPCC report [which will come out in the next six to seven years], there’ll be a whole lot more understood about that.

Then you can also think about other kinds of extreme events like flooding that can reduce access to prenatal care. Depending on where you are in the U.S., you can have deliveries outside of the health care

The latest climate report includes a new focus on pregnant people. One of its authors explains why.

Heat, air pollution and natural disasters all have been shown to impact maternal and fetal health. Climate and health expert Kristie Ebi says we can take more measures to protect those affected.

by Jessica Kutz, The 19th Climate Change report, a summary of the most recent climate science, released Monday, reiterated that we can expect these heat waves to become more frequent and intense, exposing more of the population to danger.

The recently released second installment of the report, focused on climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities, included a new section detailing the risks pregnant people face in a changing climate. A growing body of scientific research cited in the report details the ways in which climate-caused events like heat waves and other natural disasters affect maternal and fetal health. In the United States these risks are amplified by socioeconomic and racial disparities, with Black women already experiencing elevated risks of complications during a pregnancy.

It’s why Illinois Rep. Lauren Underwood, who co-sponsored legislation known as the Momnibus Act, included a bill called the Protecting Moms and Babies Against Climate Change Act. The legislation would fund training for medical professionals to BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MARCH 31, 2022

system and have impacts to babies and children because of lack of access to care.

The 19th: This was the first time there was a section linking maternal health to climate change in the IPCC report. Why is that?

KE: Each assessment report is mandated to be comprehensive, and the number of publications on temperature and adverse pregnancy outcomes has increased significantly in the past few years. The fact that this report highlights this issue is a reflection of where the literature stands.

It’s much more a reflection of the fact that historically, including today, there is really appallingly low amounts of funding for research in this area. Funding in the NIH for climate change and health has been running at about 0.02% to 0.04% of their budget.

President Joe Biden put $110 million for climate change and health into his [proposed] budget, which on the one hand, is a huge increase and on the other hand, is still 0.2% of the NIH budget. When you look at the size of the institute’s within NIH, $100 million is nothing. There’s only so much a community can do when you don’t have resources, and that’s human and financial resources.

The 19th: How can we mitigate the threats posed by extreme heat? What can cities do to help those most vulnerable?

KE: One of the major ways to prevent adverse health impacts of heat waves is heat wave early warning systems. There’s been increasing skill in forecasting heat waves — for the heat dome here, we knew days in advance that we were going to have really high temperatures. But you need to have more than just the forecast. You need to have a whole early warning and response system. There’s several very good ones in the United States and around the world. They are not necessarily difficult, but they require a lot of coordination.

I think there’s real opportunities with thinking about setting multiple thresholds.

For example, if you know that Saturday is going to be really hot but by Thursday the temperatures are going to be higher than normal, we have groups like babies, pregnant women and adults over the age of 65 who would already be at higher risk with those temperatures. So it’s about thinking about setting up tiered systems based on what we understand about who is vulnerable at different thresholds.

Then with the thresholds, what is it that you do? Who do you need to have at the table? How do you reach out to these different vulnerable groups? You need somebody from EMT, from the fire department, from the police department, who reaches out to the elder care facilities. You can think about reaching out much more broadly to those who are most vulnerable.

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COURTESY PRESS HERE

Space oddity

Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce on punk rock, lullabies and whether this is the British outfit’s final album

by Adam Perry

ON THE BILL:

Spiritualized.

7 p.m. Monday, April 4, Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver. Tickets: $45-$79

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erhaps the signature sentiment of Jason Pierce’s career as the frontman and sole permanent member of the band Spiritualized can be found on 1997’s Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space: “All I want in life’s a little bit of love to take the pain away”—repeated while a lush, anthemic monolith builds around Pierce’s vocals.

The album became the Abbey Road for lovers of indie rock. However, on the phone with Pierce (aka J Spaceman) recently from his native England, he shared that discovering a certain Motor City madman at a young age had more of an effect on his trajectory than other classic-rock icons one might assume informed the grand psychedelia of Spiritualized.

“They used to sell LP records in the chemist, in the center of town,” says Pierce, born in Rugby, Warwickshire. “One day, I was flipping through and saw the Stooges’ Raw Power and just fell in love. It made sense in my life. Maybe I saw somebody like an ally: If they can do that, I can do anything. It really did change my world. It felt like I’d discovered this secret. Nobody else knew this record; nobody else knew what it was about.”

Spiritualized—and Pierce’s legendary ’80s project Spacemen 3 before it—doesn’t play straightahead punk rock, but Pierce explains that the influence of Iggy Pop, memorialized in the new ballad “Let It Bleed (For Iggy),” is more about playing music that is direct, energetic and easy to understand.

“Somebody in America once said that Spiritualized was like the Stooges for airports,” Pierce says. “I thought that was a nice line. I liked the simplicity of Raw Power. I like that about rock ’n’ roll: ‘Be my baby, be my baby’ is not the most complicated coupling of words, but there’s something deeply magical in it. It allows repetitive play of the same thing over and over, which not many art forms do. You read a novel once; you watch a movie once or twice; but you can put on the same record every day of your life and it’s always part of this beautiful feeling of what it is, and what it holds, almost like a religious icon.”

A quick listen to the Stooges’ “Penetration” or “Gimme Danger” certainly shines a light on what

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

translated for Pierce as a teenager and made its way into Spiritualized’s operatic rock, but a song like “Crazy,” from the group’s new record Everything Was Beautiful, reveals Pierce’s wider love for simple and earnest Americana.

“There is some kind of soul in rock ’n’ roll music that’s dumbed-down, but it’s not dumb,” Pierce says. “It’s not this kind of art form at everybody’s grasp. You’d think that if you’re academic or learned or you have a great vocabulary you could write great songs, but it doesn’t come from that. You try different words, you try different ways of coupling words together and you can take something that’s really local and personal and make it universal. It’s no longer about the author—it’s about the way you feel, and there’s something endlessly fascinating about that.”

“I have a deep love for it; I love the simplicity of rock ’n’ roll, that it’s loud and wrong and it hits it again and again and again. Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, it’s inherent in that simple form and there’s something really kind of maddening about it.”

“Always Together With You,” which opens Everything Was Beautiful, is maddening in Pierce’s trademark romantic way, with his English-gentleman voice listing sentimental promises like a lullaby as a Beatles-esque slow burn envelops the words. Pierce laughs when asked whether he’s used “Always Together With You” or his other songs as lullabies for his children.

“I think all my songs are lullabies,” he says. “They all sound like nursery rhymes.

They’re all sort of that simple. ‘Goodnight Goodnight’ (from 2008’s Songs in A&E) was a song I sang to my children. Now I have two children who may be a bit old to be singing lullabies to, but who doesn’t like a lullaby at any age?”

For an artist who packaged his most famous album as a giant pill and routinely references drugs in his songs, becoming a darkly mysterious ’90s cult rock star as Oasis and Blur found pop prominence, it might be surprising to hear about Pierce singing lullabies. He says the dark cloud around his reputation was mostly smoke and mirrors, however.

“I think I made a decision when I first got into this not to make music that was hip or music that was fashionable. It seems like the easiest thing in the world to make music like the music next to you that sells the most, like it’s driven by commerce. But maybe it’s kind of by accident or design that we’ve always sat slightly outside of that, and also maybe people give too much away, or maybe people just talk too much. There is this thing now where you’ve got to engage with people every BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

second of the day and tell them what you’re eating or what you’re wearing, what you’re feeling or what you’re thinking. There’s no design in creating some kind of mystery, but...

My interest was really in music, so I think it’s more accident than design.”

Speaking of accidents, Pierce says that rumors that Spiritualized’s previous record, 2018’s And Nothing Hurt, was its last were true, and Everything Was Beautiful was recorded at the same time—his label just didn’t think a double album was palatable in modern times. In the end, because Spiritualized records are generally such sweeping opuses of love, releasing one in a time of pandemic and war seems apt.

“There’s never a bad time for a Spiritualized album,” Pierce says, “but in a weird way this one felt timely. The world’s gone a bit crazy, hasn’t it?”

Touring again is another story.

“I still have trepidation, but it feels like what I do. It feels like what we’ve always done. It was amazing meeting up with my band after three years—we just played music and there’s an unmistakable sound that is our sound, you know? The new songs are a joy to play. They’re all one or two chords that feel like we’re inside a John Lee Hooker song or a Stooges song or something, and we’re just exploring this simple structure.

There’s something really beautiful about playing songs of that nature.”

Unlike some previous tours, Pierce does not plan to recreate opulent Spiritualized albums with a giant band in giant venues.

“We’ve had a few rehearsals and these songs are just too simple to play,” he says. “There’s something beautiful about playing one- or two-chord songs.

You just kind of stand inside of them and they start to work.”

As the hypnotic rocker “The A Song” from Spiritualized’s new album says, “Heaven is easy and living is tough.” Pierce says he’s not interested in just playing his classic songs on tour and recreating his studio albums for live audiences.

“I kind of wanted to raise the bar with the last two records. If I’m going to make records at my age, they have to be more than just records that allow me to get back on the road to play old material, like they don’t really matter and are just a means to an end. So the last time we went out we only played the new l

album. This time I’m not sure we’re gonna do that. It sounds more rock ’n’ roll immediately; we’re not a 30-piece band and we’re not in those huge spaces that the record suggests.

“We’re not trying to just present the album as it exists,” Pierce explains. “It exists already, so it’s kind of pointless just coming out and COURTESY PRESS HERE

playing that every night, in that form.”

Speaking just a few weeks before Pierce and his band left for Spiritualized’s tour, which kicks off March 31 in Dallas before making its way to the Ogden in Denver on April 4, he spoke about his love affair with the United States.

“Everywhere in America has this kind of romance to it,” he muses. “In England a lot of places are just kind of names on street signs, and you travel to America and you recognize all these names from music and literature. And I’ve got a lot of friends there. I remember being breathless in Colorado because it’s too high up for me, so it’s always this breathless experience in that part of the world, but those beautiful little art-deco theaters.

I’m looking forward to it. It feels like a long time. The world stopped for a while.

I’m kind of very quietly looking forward to visiting a lot of places again.”

Whether Pierce is finished making records is yet another Spiritualized mystery.

“I’m still kind of considering that,” he says.

“Who knows? I don’t even know anymore.”

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

COURTESY PIERRE BENSUSAN

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A life across six strings

he story goes that when the late Michael Hedges was killing time in Key West—well before he’d achieve fame as a groundbreaking acoustic fingerstyle guitar player and one of the rising stars of Windham Hill records back in the 1980s—he’d spend afternoons listening to Pierre Bensusan on cassette, and from those afternoons penned his own tune “Bensusan,” one of the standout tracks from his debut album Aerial Boundaries (1984). (The two guitarists eventually met some years later and played a handful of shows together.)

That Bensusan’s music, a fiendishly genre-defying alchemy of English folk, Celtic, jazz and resonances of his French-Algerian early childhood, should find its way into the DNA of the contemporary oeuvre of acoustic players is both fitting and slightly awkward. Hedges’ reference to him by name undoubtedly brought some recognition beyond the acoustic guitar cognoscenti, but Bensusan’s music in some ways has always revealed and celebrated a richer musical heritage, a palette of harmonies that drift across his compositions, murmuring and teasing, before dissolving and giving way to fresh musical gestures.

As so many contemporary fingerstyle players reference Hedges as an influence—primary, or secondary—we asked Bensusan, who is on a lengthy, pandemic-delayed tour of the U.S., whether he hears himself in any of the young players on the scene today.

His answer surprised us.

“To be honest, I am not familiar with what they do.

I don’t listen to guitar music much. If I want to listen to guitar music, I pick up my guitar and play.

“But on a different level, my take is this: an instrument is an access to music... Music is a form that, if it is music, can be played on any instrument. If any music needs a specific instrument, I start to be suspicious.”

Bensusan strikes a poised and deeply philosophical view toward his own compositions. His latest album, Azwan, was completed in early 2020, and he promptly took it out on the road before COVID shut down venues and the live music world came to a halt. Two years later, he’s picking up live performance where he left off. We asked whether the tunes—like “Balkangeles,” with its jazzy chordal motifs giving way to an intricately harmonized melody, or the bass-note supported fretboard panorama of “Wee Dander”—evolved and changed while Bensusan was off the road.

“The music is always in evolution. I am always in evolution so I can see how the music evolves, and even without me, the music evolves. So, I just have to be

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Pierre Bensusan picks up where he left off

by Dave Kirby

ready for the evolution and do my homework so I can accommodate that evolution.”

While Bensusan approaches his highly technical multi-voiced playing with élan and disarming ease, even he admits that the pieces can be a challenge, and as any guitarist who makes their living from performing would honestly concede, music that challenges the player offers the greatest rewards, but demands preparation, rehearsal and confidence.

Even well into a 40-year career, Bensusan still confronts these demands.

“Two years ago, my new album was under-rehearsed. (It’s more rehearsed now.) But as professional musicians, we make a record and go out on the road sometimes before the music is ready. Those are the considerations we have to make, but they can be totally alien to the music itself. That’s the reality of what we do, so we also have to deal with that.”

But he draws a distinction between confidence and ego, the latter of which can represent a subversive trap for the musician rising up to meet his material honestly.

“I... don’t mind sharing insights with [the audience], but not so much where I become ‘in the way.’ ... When the player starts attracting attention to him, it’s taking away from the music.”

The difference between a dialogue and a monologue?

“It’s not a monologue. From the moment that someone is listening, they are making what he hears his own. When I play alone, as a solo performer, I am not at all solo. I’m with the music. Two of us. The music is independent of me, and I am independent of the music.

We communicate together, and we decide we are going to go for a ride... together.”

And as Bensusan and his beguiling compositions l

MARCH 31, 2022

Pierre Bensusan.

7 p.m., Wednesday, March 31, Stargazers Theatre, 10 S. Parkside Drive, Colorado Springs, stargazerstheatre.com; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 1 (concert + guitar workshop), University of Colorado Recital Hall, King Center Recital Hall, 855 Lawrence Way, Denver, ahec.universitytickets.com; 8 p.m. Friday, April 2, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder, thedairy.org; 10 a.m. Saturday, April 3 (guitar clinic), The Olde Town Pickin’ Parlor, 7515 Grandview Ave., Arvada, picknparlor.com; 6 p.m. Saturday, April 3, Jensen Guitar Company & The Willow River Music Emporium, 360 Main St., Longmont, jensenguitars.com

take their ride, leaving room for listeners and admirers and the begraced, his vehicle is what is affectionately known as “the Old Lady,” his 1978 Lowden guitar. His constant companion, practice instrument, compositional instrument, performing instrument.

We’ve heard too many horror stories of beloved instruments damaged or purloined in the travels of touring musicians not to ask: Isn’t Bensusan a little... nervous about bringing his cherished Lowden across continents?

“No. Why would I worry?”

Traveling? A lot of traveling?

“This is the instrument I bring the music with. This is my home, this is my life. When I play it, I feel the continuity of my life.

“I have another Lowden—a great guitar, but it’s a guitar.... This is my life. It’s almost 50 years old, still in great shape, I take very good care of it. But it has the wrinkles of life. You can tell this guitar has a story to tell.

“And for 25 years, it was the only guitar I had. People would say, ‘What happens if you break your guitar?’

And I’d say... ‘I go home.’” l

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E VENTS

EVENTS

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

■ Blue Dime Cabaret

8 p.m. Friday, April 1, The Tune Up, 2355 30th St., Boulder. Tickets: $10, dimepieces.wixsite.com/bluedime Blue Dime Cabaret is a pop-up cabaret troupe producing a lowbrow, avant-garde variety sideshow with ludicrous acts and bawdy characters. The troupe includes burlesque performers, actors, dancers, contortionists, comedians, clowns, singers, musicians, magicians, drag artists and jugglers. This April Fool’s Day, join in the foolish fun as Blue Dime Cabaret brings in the sexy and the silly for Boulder Arts Week. This show, while a variety show, includes several drag and burlesque acts, and is not appropriate for those under the age of 18. Admission includes one free drink at the bar.

■ Venus Victrola presents Faebies and Theybies: A Non-Binary Centered Dance Party

10 p.m. Saturday, April 2, Trident Booksellers & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. $10 via Eventbrite Join Venus Victrola and friends for drag pop-ups and dancing! Featuring cake, late night snacks and a curated drink menu.

MATT MAENPAA

■ Absurd April Fools Parade

5:47 p.m. Friday, April 1, Roosevelt Community Park, 700 Longs Peak Ave., Longmont. Free Dress up in your most absurd costume and join Left Hand Artists Group as they shamelessly parade down the streets of downtown Longmont. Meet at the Senior Center in Roosevelt Park at 5:47 p.m. Parade begins at 6:15. The parade will go south on Pratt Street, turn east on Sixth Avenue, march up Main Street to Longs Peak Avenue, and head west back to the park. Pets, kids and noise makers encouraged!

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■ Band of Toughs presents “Tularosa, And American Dreamtime”

6 p.m. Friday, April 1, Museum of Boulder, 2205 Broadway, Boulder. Free, bandoftoughs.org/boulderartsweek As part of Boulder Arts Week, Band of Toughs: a Theater Collaboratory will host a free open rehearsal for “Tularosa: An American Dreamtime,” a song cycle created by visiting Durham, North Carolina, artist Kamara Thomas. “Tularosa” is a storywork that explores the American psyche through the mythology of the American West. This open rehearsal will feature a short, informal performance followed by a collaborative conversation with the audience.

■ Lemon Sponge Cake Contemporary Ballet presents ‘WALD’

6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 31, Boulder JCC, 6007 Oreg Ave., Boulder. Free, lemonspongecake.org Internationally recognized choreographer Robert Sher-Machherndl debuts the new and uncompromising site-specific work WALD. A powerful response to global warming, environmental change, its impact on personal relationships, social interactions and the human condition. Sher-Machherndl reflects upon contemporary culture, responding via ground-breaking signature movement language, nuanced choreography and world-class performance.

■ Power Playback Theater: Pandora & Pandemics with special guest Dominique Christina

7 p.m. Saturday, April 2, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: $15-$25, motustheater.org Motus Theater invites you to join a special adventure in playback improvisational theater to support entertaining, edgy and awesome community storytelling. Motus calls these performances Power Playback Theater, because there is power within our stories and our truths. Come and share a short reflection or story inspired by the night’s theme, and then watch professional playback actors enact your story on the spot using movement, music, and dramatic spoken word. The stories may be funny or sad, memories from long ago or yesterday. Audience and performers co-create a theater event whose subject is the life experiences of the people attending the show. Dominique Christina is an award-winning poet, author, educator, and activist. She holds five national poetry slam titles, including the 2014 & 2012 Women of the World Slam Champion and 2011 National Poetry Slam Champion.

Her work is greatly influenced by her family’s legacy in the Civil Rights Movement; her aunt Carlotta was one of nine students to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas and is a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

■ CU’s Playback Theatre Ensemble presents ‘Don’t Boulder My Longmont! (Or Please Boulder My Longmont!)’

7 p.m. Thursday, March 31, Stewart Auditorium, 400 Quail Road, Longmont. Tickets: $12-$18, longmontcolorado.gov Playback Theatre is a non-scripted, interactive theater form in which audience members share true stories or experiences from their lives and see them “played back” by an ensemble of actors in ways that encourage insight across chasms of difference. Like a cross between a town hall meeting and an improvisational performance, one actor from the ensemble (“the conductor”) engages the audience in a collective conversation, asking questions that address the specific concerns of those who’ve gathered. The audience’s responses are played back on the spot in non-confrontational ways that build bridges, strengthen social bonds and lift civic spirit.

■ CU Conference on World Affairs

THAT’S WHY WE DRINK

April 6-9, 1344 Grandview Ave., 465 UCB, Boulder. Free, colorado.edu/cwa The University of Colorado Boulder Conference on World Affairs returns in-person with most sessions livestreamed online April 6-9. One hundred diverse speakers and performers will participate in 125 panel discussions, performances and keynote events on the CU Boulder campus. The event will feature dialogue on a variety of topics including this year’s conference themes: art as activism; stories from the real world; the Constitution; racism in the United States; regenerative agriculture; and the entrepreneurial journey. Notable events include keynote presentations by: • Victoria Garrick, mental health advocate, podcast host, and former Division I athlete • Steven Olikara, founder & president of Millennial Action Project and candidate for United States Senate in Wisconsin • Thomas Chatterton Williams, author, contributing writer at New York Times Magazine, and visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute • Akhil Amar, author and Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University All events are free and open to the public.

■ ‘And That’s Why We Drink’: Here for the Boos Tour

7 p.m. Saturday, April 2, Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder.

Tickets: $30-$60, z2ent.com/boulder-theater-venue And That’s Why We Drink is a twotime Webby award-winning, comedic true crime and paranormal focused podcast (Stitcher) hosted by Em Schulz and Christine Schiefer. Every Sunday, listeners are served deep dives into chilling ghost stories and the most provocative true crime cases. The world is a pretty scary place, and that’s why they drink (wine and milkshakes preferred)!

■ Author Talk: Lauren Rankin—‘Bodies on the Line’

6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 5, Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder. Tickets: $5, boulderboookstore.net Abortion has been legal for nearly 50 years in the United States, but with a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court and an emboldened opposition in the street, the threat to its existence has never been more pressing. Clinic escorts— everyday volunteers—are prepared to stand up and protect abortion access, as they have for decades, even in the face of terrorism and violence. They have lived, and sometimes died, to ensure that abortion remains not only accessible but also a basic human right. Clinic escorts have fought the “abortion wars” on the front lines, and it is clinic escorts who will win it, by replacing hostility with humanity. Collecting the stories of these brave volunteers from around the country—including the author’s own— interviews with clinic staff and patients, and research and input from abortion rights experts, Bodies on the Line makes a clear case for the right to an abortion as a fundamental part of human dignity, and the stakes facing us all if it ends. Bodies on the Line is a celebration of the crucial, often unsung heroes of abortion access and an inspiring call to defend this basic health care before it’s too late.

For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events see EVENTS Page 26

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MARCH 31, 2022

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25

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KAEGI, GANO B2B RPSM, TREJO B2B SPYDA & MORE FRI. APR 1

CONCERTS ATISH

DEAD FLOYD LEGATO

FRI. APR 1

88.5 KGNU PRESENTS

BANSHEE TREE

97.3 KBCO PRESENTS: 2022 ONE WORLD TOUR

SAT. APR 2

WED. APR 6

GRAHAM GOOD & THE PAINTERS, STURTZ BASSTROYD: NIGHT OF THE CHOPS

BASSTROYD, LIFE AND DEATH, ASHTROLOGY & MORE FRI. APR 8

THE WAILERS GREEN BUDDHA 88.5 KGNU PRESENTS

MARTY STUART AND HIS FABULOUS SUPERLATIVES THU. APR 7

TERRAPIN CARE STATION PRESENTS

KEEP OFF THE GRASS THE ROCKY COASTS, BUTCHCOP SAT. APR 9

MONSTER ENERGY UP & UP FESTIVAL PRESENTS

SAN HOLO

MERCI, GANO B2B RYNE, CHASYN FRI. APR 15 - SAT. APR 16

WESTEND

ROOSTER PRESENTS: THE DOIN SHOWS PLAYIN MUSIC TOUR

RYNE, GANO

OPIUO

WED. APR 13

SUN. APR 17

88.5 KGNU PRESENTS

STEVE GUNN AMERICAN CULTURE

BOB MOSES AMTRAC

Thursday, March 31

Anna Cutler. 5 p.m. BOCO Cider, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Unit 14, Boulder. Free.

FRI. APR 22

FRI. APR 15

97.3 KBCO & SKA BREWING PRESENT: GET A JOB TOUR 2022

ROOSTER, TERRAPIN CARE STATION & PARADISE FOUND PRESENT

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SAT. APR 23

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97.3 KBCO, PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS & TERRAPIN CARE STATION PRESENT

THE VELVETEERS 97.3 KBCO & PARADISE FOUND PRESENT

MIKE CAMPBELL & THE DIRTY KNOBS

JOEY DOSIK

BOOMBOX FEAT. BACKBEAT BRASS

ETHNO (JEFF FRANCA OF THIEVERY CORPORATION)

SAMMY BRUE

MON. APR 25

THU. APR 28

CHANNEL 93.3 & ROOSTER PRESENT: PUP RETURNS: THANK FUCKING GOD

GRATEFUL SHRED INDUSTRIES, RELIX, PHILM & TERRAPIN CARE STATION PRESENT: GO EAST III TOUR

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PUP

SHEER MAG, PINKSHIFT

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BURY MIA

THE LOSERS CLUB, DAYSHAPER, SLAP HAPPY THU. MAY 5

FEAT. ALANA ROCKLIN (STS9), KEVIN DONOHUE (SUNSQUABI), JEREMY SALKEN (BIG GIGANTIC) & MORE FRI. MAY 6 THE PURPLE TOUR

MR. MOTA’S GRADUATION PARTY KNUCKLE PUPS

PI’ERRE BOURNE SUN. MAY 8 GOOD TO SEE YOU 2022

FRI. MAY 6

HENRY ROLLINS

DELTA SPIRIT

MON. MAY 9

PALM PALM

WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE SUN. MAY 15

MON. MAY 9 INDIE 102.3 PRESENTS

THE CHURCH THU. MAY 12

Dry Mouth. 7 p.m. Trident Bookseller & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder The Talbott Brothers. 7 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. Tickets: $20 Dead Floyd with Legato. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder.

Tickets: $12.50-$15 Harve with Kaegi, Gano B2B RPSM, Trejo B2B Spyda, Sami G B2B Evelation, Mrgn Mrgn B2B Hankis. 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder.

Tickets: $20-$25

SUN. APR 30

EVERYONE ORCHESTRA

SAT. APR 30

DAVID BROMBERG QUINTET

Friday, April 1

Baroness. 7 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver. Tickets: $60 AMBIENT OCCLUSION. 7 p.m. Trident Bookseller & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder The Wailers with Green Buddha. 7 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Tickets: $25- $29.50 Jazmine Sullivan. 8 p.m. Fillmore Auditorium, 1510 N. Clarkson St., Denver.

Tickets: $10 Denzel Curry. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Tickets: $35.50-$59.50

TUE. MAY 17

FOX 30TH ANNIVERSARY

THE THUGS

FEAT. VERY SPECIAL GUEST SEAN KELLY FRI. MAY 13

BOUND FOR PEACHES: TRIBUTE TO THE ALLMAN BROTHERS & TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND

PERFORMING DISRAELI GEARS & CLAPTON CLASSICS

THE MUSIC OF CREAM FEAT. WILL JOHNS & KOFI BAKER

MAY 19 ...................................................................... BRUCE COCKBURN MAY 22 ............................................................................... TODD SNIDER MAY 23 ................................................................. THE PINEAPPLE THIEF MAY 28 ............................................................................. BUILT TO SPILL JUN 8 ....................................................................... TIGRAN HAMASYAN

FEAT. MEMBERS FROM EMINENCE ENSEMBLE, ENVY ALO, LEGATO & MORE

MAY 14 .................................................................. START MAKING SENSE MAY 17 ............................................................................. NILÜFER YANYA MAY 20 ......................................................................................... SON LUX MAY 21 ............................................................................... ELDER ISLAND MAY 28 ......................................................................................... JANTSEN

26

EVENTS

EVENTS from Page 25

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Atish. 9 p.m. Meow Wolf, 1338 First St., Denver. Tickets: $25 Banshee Tree with Graham Good & The Painters, Sturtz. 9 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $15-$18 New Something Fridays: Emerald Wells with Amplified Visuals. 10 p.m.

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MARCH 31, 2022

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Blue Dime Cabaret

BARONESS

Saturday, April 2

Lisa Bell. 6 p.m. Trident Bookseller & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder. Free Night Of The Chops feat. Basstroyd, Life and Death, Ashtrology, Novakn, BWRZ B2B Epsilon. 7 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $15

Friday, April 1: 8pm - 11pm $10 Admission with one FREE drink ticket!

Happy Hour drink specials 4-6PM Trivia Night Every Wednesday Win a $50 bar tab

Ars Nova Singers present Fauré’s ‘Requiem.’ 7:30 p.m.

First United Methodist Church, 1421 Spruce St., Boulder. Tickets: $25

2355 30th Street • Boulder, CO tuneupboulder.com

Dabin. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Tickets: $25-$69 Susto with Hotel Fiction. 8 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver.

Tickets: $22 AMÉMÉ. 9 p.m. Meow Wolf, 1338 First St., Denver. Tickets: $25

Contact us for Take Out orders!

Split Second Saturdays: Willbeaux & Bear Remington. 10 p.m.

Supermoon, 909 Walnut St., Boulder

Sunday, April 3

John McEuen and the Circle Band. 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder. Tickets: $35 Susto with Hotel Fiction. 7 p.m. Globe Hall, 4483 Logan St., Denver.

Tickets: $22 The Script. 7:30 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver.

Tickets: $39.95-$75

Monday, April 4

EPIK HIGH. 8 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver.

Tickets: $45.95-$79.95

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VOTED BOULDER’S BEST THAI

LUNCH: Mon-Fri Noon-4pm DINNER: Mon-Sat 4-9pm Sun 5-9pm

1600 Broadway, Boulder 303-447-0273 • khow-thai.com

YEARS IN A ROW!

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Spiritualized. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Tickets: $45-$79

Tuesday, April 5

Hiatus Kaiyote. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Tickets: $35.50 -$65.95

Wednesday, April 6

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives. 8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Tickets: $29.50-$30 Charli XCX. 7:30 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Tickets: $33.50

WANNA PLAY? WE'RE OPEN W LIVE STREAMING VIDEOGRAPHY REHEARSALS

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

doghousemusic.com • 303.664.1600 • Lafayette, CO BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Boulder’s Local Music Shop Since 1971 Shop online at hbwoodsongs.com for no contact pickup or free local delivery (on purchases over $20).

BY ROB BREZSNY

Open to customers or for pick-up with these new hours of operations:

ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: To provide the right horoscope, I must

Mon.-Fri. 11:30am - 5:30pm, Sat. 11am - 5pm, Sun. 12-4 pm

3101 28th St, Tebo Plaza, Boulder

303.449.0516

hbwoodsongs.com

introduce you to three new words. The first is “orphic,” defined as “having an importance or meaning not apparent to the senses nor comprehensible to the intellect; beyond ordinary understanding.” Here’s the second word: “ludic,” which means “playful; full of fun and high spirits.” The third word is “kalon,” which refers to “profound, thorough beauty.”

Now I will coordinate those terms to create a prophecy in accordance with your astrological aspects. Ready? I predict you will generate useful inspirations and energizing transformations for yourself by adopting a ludic attitude as you seek kalon in orphic experiments and adventures.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: I love your steadfastness, intense effort, and stubborn insistence on doing what’s right. Your ability to stick to the plan even when chaos creeps in is admirable. But during the coming weeks, I suggest you add a nuance to your approach. Heed the advice of martial artist Bruce Lee: “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.”

SAGITTARIUS

CANCER

CAPRICORN

JUNE 21-JULY 22: In Britain, 70 percent of the land is owned by

one percent of the population. Globally, one percent of the population owns 43 percent of the wealth. I hope there’s a much better distribution of resources within your own life. I hope that the poorer, less robust parts of your psyche aren’t being starved at the expense of the privileged and highly functioning aspects. I hope that the allies and animals you tend to take for granted are receiving as much of your love and care as the people you’re trying to impress or win over.

If any adjustments are necessary, now is a favorable time to make them.

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: I’m glad you have been exploring your past and reconfiguring your remembrances of the old days and old ways. I’m happy you’ve been transforming the story of your life. I love how you’ve given yourself a healing gift by reimagining your history. It’s fine with me if you keep doing this fun stuff for a while longer. But please also make sure you don’t get so immersed in bygone events that you’re weighed down by them. The whole point of the good work you’ve been doing is to open up your future possibilities. For inspiration, read this advice from author Milan Kundera: “We must never allow the future to collapse under the burden of memory.”

LEO

AQUARIUS

only way things will change is when we’re all wilder, louder, riskier, sillier, and unexpectedly overflowing with surprise.”

Soloway’s Emmy Award-winning work on Transparent, one of the world’s first transgender-positive shows, suggests that their formula has been effective for them. I’m recommending this same approach to you in the coming weeks, Leo. It will help you summon the extra courage and imagination you will need to catalyze the necessary corrections and adjustments.

counsel that I think all Aquarians should keep at the heart of their philosophy during the coming weeks. She wrote, “The time when you need to do something is when no one else is willing to do it, when people are saying it can’t be done.” I hope you trust yourself enough to make that your battle cry. I hope you will keep summoning all the courage you will regularly need to implement its mandate.

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: Aquarian historian Mary Frances Berry offered

JULY 23-AUG. 22: TV show creator Joey Soloway says, “The

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: What’s the leading cause of deforestation

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and

the joy will burn out the pain,” wrote mythologist Joseph Campbell. I don’t think his cure is foolproof. The lingering effects of some old traumas aren’t so simple and easy to dissolve. But I suspect Campbell’s strategy will work well for you in the coming weeks. You’re in a phase of your astrological cycle when extra healing powers are available. Some are obvious, and some are still partially hidden. It will be your sacred duty to track down every possible method that could help you banish at least some of your suffering and restore at least some of your joie de vivre.

LIBRA

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: You know who Jimi Hendrix was, right? He was a brilliant and influential rock guitarist. As for Miles Davis, he was a Hall of Fame-level trumpeter and composer.

You may be less familiar with Tony Williams. A prominent

MARCH 31, 2022

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: Poet Anne Carson claims that “a page with a poem on it is less attractive than a page with a poem on it and some tea stains.” I agree. If there are tea stains, it probably means that the poem has been studied and enjoyed.

Someone has lingered over it, allowing it to thoroughly permeate their consciousness. I propose we make the teastained poem your power metaphor for the coming weeks, Scorpio. In other words, shun the pristine, the spotless, the untouched. Commune with messy, even chaotic things that have been loved and used.

won Olympic medals, college championships, and presidential awards. She had a simple strategy: “Here’s how I’m going to beat you. I’m going to outwork you. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.” I recommend that you apply her approach to everything you do for the rest of 2022. According to my analysis, you’re on course for a series of satisfying victories.

All you have to do is nurture your stamina as you work with unwavering focus and resilient intelligence.

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Gemini-born basketball coach Pat Summitt

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SCORPIO

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Sagittarian author Martha Beck articulated the precise message you need to hear right now. She wrote, “Here is the crux of the matter, the distilled essence, the only thing you need to remember: When considering whether to say yes or no, you must choose the response that feels like freedom. Period.” I hope you adopt her law in the coming weeks, Sagittarius. You should avoid responses and influences that don’t feel liberating. I realize that’s an extreme position to take, but I think it’s the right one for now. Where does your greatest freedom lie? How can you claim it? What shifts might you need to initiate?

GEMINI

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rock critic once called him “the best drummer in the world.” In 1968, those three superstars gathered in the hope of recording an album. But they wanted to include a fourth musician, Paul McCartney, to play bass for them. They sent a telegram to the ex-Beatle, but it never reached him. And so the supergroup never happened. I mention this in the hope that it will render you extra alert for invitations and opportunities that arrive in the coming weeks—perhaps out of nowhere. Don’t miss out! Expect the unexpected. Read between the lines.

Investigate the cracks.

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in Latin America? Logging for wood products? Agricultural expansion? New housing developments? Nope. It’s raising cattle so people everywhere can eat beef and cheese and milk. This industry also plays a major role in the rest of the world’s ongoing deforestation tragedy. Soaring greenhouse gas emissions aren’t entirely caused by our craving for burgers and milk and cheese, of course, but our climate emergency would be significantly less dramatic if we cut back our consumption. That’s the kind of action I invite you to take in the coming months, Pisces. My analysis of astrological omens suggests that you now have even more power than usual to serve the collective good of humanity in whatever specific ways you can. (PS: Livestock generates 14.5 percent of our greenhouse gases, equal to the emissions from all cars, trucks, airplanes, and ships combined.)

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

The shark swims on

‘Jaws’ to screen at CWA’s Ebert Interruptus

by Michael J. Casey

I

n 1975, a movie about a killer shark terrorizing the waters surrounding a New England island hit theaters. That may not sound like much, but it was a massive success.

Massive isn’t even the word for it: The movie broke box office records, had people queuing up around the block to see ON THE BILL: it, even hooked ’em so deep they had no choice but to Jaws at CWA’s Ebert see it again and again. It was among the first movies to be Interruptus, with host mass-marketed through toys and T-shirts and plastic cups Josh Larsen. 3-5 and you name it. It changed how studios made movies. p.m. April 6-9 inside It changed how people went to the movies and what they Macky Auditorium, expected from them. It even invented a new type of movie: 1595 Pleasant St., The blockbuster. After June 20, 1975, the movies would Boulder. Free never be the same.

But you probably know all that. You might even know how a 27-year-old Steven Spielberg, with only one feature under his belt, staked his whole career on a movie about a killer shark where the audience didn’t see the shark for the first hour of the film; or, how the shark was nicknamed “Bruce”—supposedly after Spielberg’s lawyer—and how it sank to the bottom of the Atlantic every time they needed it to “act.” You probably also know that Robert Shaw largely rewrote Quint’s speech about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and that Rob Schneider ad-libbed the line, “You’re going to need a bigger boat.”

None of this feels like trivia. Hell, it doesn’t even feel like movie lore. When we’re talking about Jaws, it feels like we’re discussing the very fabric of American culture.

Lines from the movie are so ubiquitous that I suspect some don’t even know they’re quoting a movie. Ditto for John William’s score: two unrelenting notes that can still raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Kids who haven’t even seen the movie can imitate that music because they’ve heard echoes of it in some of the most benign cartoons you can imagine. I would wager that today, the average person knows more about the shark in Jaws than they do the Easter bunny.

So, with all that in mind, what is there left to say about Jaws? Plenty. Few movies are this fun to rewatch, this interesting to discuss. I remember when my father showed it to me. It scared me so much I still treat open water with trepidation. Someday, when my nephew is old enough, and my sister isn’t looking, I’ll show her son Jaws. It’ll probably scare the pants off him, but it might begin a long and wonderful love affair with the movie. Maybe even with the movies. It’s that good.

Jaws is a movie people love to share, and not just for the trivia, the lore, the scares, but because the characters are so richly drawn, the setting so authentic, and the expertise with which the filmmakers guide the proceedings so convincing. “For Spielberg, the movie was a launching pad for the most extraordinary directorial career in modern movie history,” Roger Ebert wrote. It almost makes you wonder: Why didn’t Jaws, indeed any Spielberg film, receive Ebert’s patented “Interruptus” treatment in the program’s 47-year history?

Well, that ends now. From April 6-9, the Conference on World Affairs returns to in-person participation, Ebert Interruptus returns to Macky Auditorium, and film critic and author Josh Larsen returns as host. Yes, the movie is Jaws, and it’s going to be a blast. Yours truly will be manning the Blu-ray player, and fellow critic Walter Chaw will be joining us on April 7 for additional insights into a movie near and dear to his heart.

Sessions start daily at 3 p.m. and are free and open to the public.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Stressed Out? Think Massage!

Call 720.253.4710 All credit cards accepted No text messages

MARCH 31, 2022

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JOHN LEHNDORFF

(LEFT) MECO Coffee Collective offers Cheez-It inspired, locally made Cheesy Bits—taking a delicious snack to a whole new level.

(BELOW) Isaac Olson and Shane Stinn, owners of Longmont’s MECO Coffee Collective

The power of Cheesy Bits

MECO Coffee Collective crafts new community with caffeine, crackers and chai whoopie pies

by John Lehndorff

N

ecessity can be a mother, and it helped birth crackers so outrageously tasty you can immerse yourself in them at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station in Denver.

“We had started an Italian food truck in 2017 and wanted everything to be made from scratch,” says Isaac Olson, co-owner of Longmont’s MECO Coffee Collective with his life and business partner Shane Stinn.

“We needed something to sell with our panini sandwiches. I had started making these cheese crackers in 2012 at a Boulder restaurant that everyone loved. Once we started selling them, we couldn’t keep them in stock.”

MECO COFFEE COLLECTIVE When the pandemic eventually forced the duo to close down the food truck in July 2020, they took the popular Cheesy Bits and formed a company they named MECO for their two points of origin—Maine and Colorado.

“We had been through a lot, and Shane had always wanted a community-focused cafe,” Olson says. “When this space opened up on Main Street, we decided to launch the MECO Coffee Collective in August 2021.”

Cheesy Bits were inspired by a favorite childhood snack, Cheez-It, which brings in more than $1 billion annually for Kellogg’s. The secret to Olson’s crackers’ huge flavor and true irresistibility is the fact that they are mainly cheese—real sharp Wisconsin Cheddar, plus flour, salt and spices. That’s it. MECO’s Bacon Cheesy Bits also include smoky bacon. The jalapeño version is truly hot, but even the plain and bacon varieties have some background heat.

That intensity of flavor and the product’s local story landed it on the shelf in the cafe at Meow Wolf’s immersive Convergence Station in Denver. MECO Cheesy Bits can also be found at Cheese Importer’s Warehouse and Simply Bulk in Longmont.

The MECO Coffee Collective is a comfy space packed with art and crafts from local artists and a curated selection of other locally produced items including Westminster-made Quantum Cream dairy-free, freeze-dried ice cream; Beyond Microgreens organic teas including

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MARCH 31, 2022

Broccoli Booster; and Moose Meals snacks.

If the pastries you sample in many local coffee stops seem alike, it’s because the baked goods are largely supplied by a handful of local bakeries. “We wanted to serve treats you couldn’t get elsewhere that drew on my culinary background. If we produced them ourself, we could hire more people from the neighborhood,” Olson says.

A large counter offers coffee drinks made using beans from Longmont’s Nimbus Coffee Roasters. A glass case holds house-baked goodies ranging from Maine wild blueberry muffins and raspberry scones to banana chocolate chip bread and cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting.

In the don’t-miss category are the decadent double chocolate raspberry cream cheese swirl brownies and the genuinely spicy Sherpa Chai Maine whoopie pie. With Boulder-made chai concentrate in the two big cake halves and in the creamy filling, you get bright hits of cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cayenne and chocolate throughout. The effect can be doubled by pairing it with a mug of Boulder-made Sherpa Chai.

“We always wanted to be on Main Street in Longmont—it still has that small town vibe,” Olson says.

Ask a Dining Critic: Late Night Eats

Question: “Is there a late-night food truck scene in Boulder County or close by? During the pandemic I drove Lyft and came across some amazing late night food trucks on Alameda, Colfax and Wadsworth in Denver. I don’t see that many here.”

Answer: It’s complicated because of local restrictions on where food trucks can stop or gather. That’s why you see them at brewery and distillery tastings rooms and in fixed locations in parking lots, and usually not near restaurants.

The pandemic’s supply, labor and safety issues also limited the hours that food establishments were serving including late night, but that is changing.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

MECO COFFEE COLLECTIVE

Hello Boulder!

We can’t wait to welcome you through every season ahead. Opt for a cozy indoor dining experience with enhanced cleaning protocols and our air filtration system or enjoy all of your Japango favorites on one of our four heated patios. Prefer to indulge in the comfort of your home? We can do that too with curbside pick up.

Hope to see you soon!

What are your favorite late-night weekend food trucks and eateries in Boulder County? Are any of them open all night? Send location details (and other questions) to: nibbles@boulderweekly.com.

Sandwiching the Denver Omelet

ON THE MENU: Double chocolate raspberry cream cheese swirl brownies are made in-house at MECO Coffee Collective.

Gunbarrel’s Raglin Market recently started serving breakfast, and the a.m. menu features an entrée with a long history that has little to do with Colorado. However, its name may be spot on.

Raglin Market’s Foo Young breakfast sandwich includes ham, roasted bell pepper, pickled red onion, scrambled egg and melted sharp Cheddar on toast.

Sounds tasty and a lot like a Denver omelet, doesn’t it?

There are two competing origin stories for the Denver omelet, formerly known as the Western. One legend insists that the easy-to-make scramble was concocted by long-haul wagon train cooks. The other says that it is a variation on egg foo young made in woks and served on bread to Chinese migrant workers on the transcontinental railroad.

References to the so-called Western lunch sandwich started appearing in newspapers in the early 1900s. Some experts suggest that as the railroad expanded, the Western was renamed the Denver because it was the biggest and best-known city in the region at the time.

By the way, traditional egg foo young is on the menu at Hao Way Chinese Cafe, Golden Sun and other Boulder County Chinese eateries.

Daily 11am-10pm | 303 938 0330 | BoulderJapango.com JapangoRestaurant

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Local Food News

Explore Escoffier Today!

In a month, when the 2022 Best of Boulder issue is published, don’t cry to me about who won the various food and beverage categories. Now is the time to support all those cool eateries that you’ve discovered. You have until Saturday to vote at boulderweekly.com. ...

After a recent ownership change, Cured, 1825 Pearl St., is now Dedalus Wine Shop and Market. ... Opening soon: The Local, 2731 Iris Ave., Boulder.

Words to Chew On

“You can’t just eat good food. You’ve got to talk about it too.” —Kurt Vonnegut John Lehndorff hosts Radio Nibbles Thursdays on KGNU (88.5 FM, kgnu.org).

admissionsboulder@escoffier.edu | (303) 494-7988

www.escoffier.edu BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Boulder Weekly Market A market for discounts on local dining Up to 25% off purchases

New merchants and specials added regularly Check it out so you can start saving!

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Ship off to a rum-drinker’s paradise

by Matt Maenpaa

S

waylo’s Tiki is, first and foremost, an experience, an homage to a different era and a temple to all things tiki. It will take your eyes a moment to adjust to the dim lobby after the bright Colorado sun, making it easy to feel like you’ve shipped off for a Hollywood version of a Pacific Island vacation and not a few parking lots away from Buffalo Wild Wings.

Walking through the front doors, you’re instantly transported. The windows are covered and the interior is lit by faux gas lamps and buoy lights. Wooden walls are lined with nautical memorabilia, tchotchkes and other tiki-themed kitsch, while the walls themselves are designed to look like the interior of an old seafaring vessel.

The fourth restaurant from The Roost owners Sean and Rebecca Gafner has been a lengthy labor of love, according to Beverage Director Matt Grimes.

Swaylo’s Tiki has been in the works since 2018, joining The Roost, Jefe’s Tacos & Tequila and the fast-casual lunch spot Smokin’ Bowls in Longmont.

“It’s a dream come true to be able to see this in front of us right now,” Grimes says. “The whole idea is escapism. There aren’t any TVs. We want you to completely be engulfed when you walk in. It’s its whole own world.”

But while setting the stage with decor and tiki trappings is one thing, a big part of American tiki culture’s draw is complex and flavorful rum drinks. Grimes estimates at least 115 different bottles of rum and variants from around 10 different countries, including local bottles from Dryland Distillers and Abbott & Wallace in Longmont.

The labor of love isn’t just for the seafood-focused menu or decor, it extends through the cocktail menu.

From hurricanes and zombies to frozen pina coladas,

the classics are MATT MAENPAA well-represented on Swaylo’s menu.

Grimes said his favorite on the menu is the mai tai, which went through more than a few iterations to reach its current recipe.

“For me, it’s how complex and deep they go. It’s really easy to think that tropical drinks are just pineapple juice and rum. The drinks are layered, complex and detailed,” Grimes says. “Our bartenders work really hard to make great, consistent cocktails with flavors you won’t find on other menus, like passionfruit and pimento dram.”

The cocktails are playful and bright, appealing to the eyes, served in funky ceramic tiki mugs. The unique qualities of the spirits, fruits and spices that go into each have been strongly considered. Cocktails like the Lilikoi whiskey sour play with expectations, blending in tropical flavors with Colorado whiskey to elevate an otherwise standard menu item.

The mindfulness and care that goes into developing the recipes also shows up in less obvious ways, like in the Saturn. Local gin from Spring 44 mixes with citrus and passion fruit, but the whole cocktail is lifted by the use of orgeat, a syrup of almonds and orange blossom.

Rather than sourcing orgeat from a vendor or producer, Grimes and his staff produce the syrup in house a dozen gallons at a time. While practical from an expense standpoint, it also lends consistency to an ingredient present in several cocktails.

Frozen concoctions like blue Hawai’ians, lava flows

and pina coladas also take the hassle out of ordering.

Like the frozen margaritas at Swaylo’s sister restaurant Jefe’s, slushie machines turn with vibrant colors on the wall behind the bar.

Forgoing the blender saves on mess and time for the bartenders, while sparing everyone else from the disruptive whirring of ice being pulverized. As an added bonus, the frozen mixtures are all non-alcoholic. Spirits are added on ordering, so adults who choose not to consume alcohol still have some fun options (and kids don’t feel left out).

It is worth mentioning that Swaylo’s offers two shareable cocktails—a citrus chai punch and Swaylo’s volcano. Served in bowls with long straws, the menu recommends splitting one of these between four-to-six people. Well worth the price as your server lights an alcoholic volcano on fire right at the table.

It is worth noting that the strength of the cocktails are not for the faint of heart or an empty stomach. Fortunately, the food menu at Swaylo’s is up to the challenge, but that’s a column for another writer.

LONGMONT’S NEWEST STEAKHOUSE featuring NoCo’s Best Beef and Freshest Seafood in town

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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300 Main St. Longmont, CO • (303) 834-9384 • dickens300prime.com MARCH 31, 2022

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OPEN FOR DINNER! 4 - 8ish Wednesday - Saturday

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BRUNCH

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

JOHN LEHNDORFF

by JOHN LEHNDORFF

Panadería Sabor a México

O

n a recent Sunday morning, I was gawking at a wall of pastries, cookies and buns when a customer walked in and quickly scanned the glass cases. She looked concerned. “Where are the churros?” she asked. “I need them for my coffee!” The cinnamon-sugar-dusted cake doughnut sticks were located elsewhere on a tray; thankfully Boulder’s Panadería Sabor a México (translation: Taste of Mexico Bakery) is the kind of place where everyone can satisfy their need for sweets.

There are sugar cookies that look like watermelon slices, crisp horns full of pastry cream and Hostess-like cupcakes. My favorites are the fruit empanadas. I try not to pay attention to the gorgeous, frosted tres leches cake.

Besides being a Mexican-sweet lover’s dream, the Boulder shop’s walls are lined with the cheeses, crema and other essential ingredients for Central American dishes.

The Panadería is located in an international oasis, a strip mall also boasting the new location of La Mariposa Restaurant and Margarita House Mexican restaurant, Boulder Pho, India’s Grocery, Jin Chan Zhang Restaurant, and the Asian Food Market. Within a block or so are Gabee Coffee, Curry & Kebob, Ali Baba Grill, the Mediterranean Market & Deli, Chez Thuy Vietnamese Restaurant and El Valle Market.

By Michael Casey

W

hen was the last time you had a beer brewed with ramen noodles? Or an IPA loaded with Szechuan chiles? Well, on Saturday, April 2 you can at Collaboration Festival, the Colorado Brewers Guild’s annual celebration of the craft brewing spirit. Over 100 breweries will be pouring one-of-akind ales, and the Guild will be selling merch. A handful of beer writers, including yours truly, will be autographing their books. Have you snagged a copy of Boulder County Beer, the story of how a band of ragtag ruffians turned Boulder County into the cradle of the craft beer movement? Come on down and I’d be thrilled to sign a copy for you.

The Collaboration Festival is 2 p.m. Saturday at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver. collaborationbeerfest.com

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

K

aren’s in the Country was a popular brunch and dinner destination at 1900 Plaza Drive in Louisville that originally opened downtown as Karen’s Country Kitchen, current site of The Huckleberry. This recipe was shared by the eatery in the late 1990s.

Karen’s In the Country Amond-crusted Tuna with Banana Sauce 1 6-ounce tuna steak (or other firm-fleshed fish) 1/2 cup whole almonds 2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper 4 to 5 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon minced fresh shallot 1/2 fresh banana, sliced (slightly underripe)

Drink of the Week: Collaboration Festival

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2 ounces (approx.) Puerto Rican rum 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice (approx.)

Salt, to taste 3 tablespoons butter, softened

Boulder Recipe Flashback: Karen’s in the Country

Chop almonds in food processor—medium crumb, not fine. Place almonds in bowl and combine with cracked black pepper. Press mixture evenly over entire tuna steak. Heat about two tablespoons of olive oil in flat pan over medium heat. Saute tuna on both sides until it just starts to sear. Remove from pan and set aside. Add two more tablespoons of olive oil, shallots and banana slices, and cook for two to three minutes.

Reduce heat, add rum, lime juice and salt, and reduce volume by half. Turn off heat. When sauce has cooled slightly, add butter and mix, taste and adjust seasoning, if needed. Spoon sauce onto plate, place tuna on top and serve with steamed jasmine or basmati rice with toasted coconut.

Culinary Calendar: In the Garden

B

oulder’s Benevolence Orchard & Gardens hosts a community Fruit Tree Grafting Workshop April 9, benevolenceorchard.com ... Slow Food Boulder hosts a free seed exchange April 13 at the Mountain Fountain in Hygiene. Local farms and home gardeners bring, trade or donate seeds. ... Claudia Bouvier of Boulder’s award-winning Pastificio teaches a class in handmade pasta April 14 at Growing Gardens, growinggardens.org ...The Blind Cafe Experience April 15-17 at The Dairy is a dinner held in 100 percent darkness featuring music by Dango Rose, Richie Flores and others, thedairy.org

MARCH 31, 2022

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Tantric Sacred Sexuality Exploration & Education Now Offering: • Virtual Classes • Virtual and In Person Private Coaching For more information: 720-333-7978

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transmartia arts.com MARCH 31, 2022

BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: I’m a 28-year-old queer woman. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a relationship, as it was impossible for me to make a physical or emotional connection with anyone after I was raped four years ago. I finally found a very, very, very nice fella. He’s 36 years old, and pretty basic. He’s a cis white man who isn’t into anal, which is good, not too good at oral, which is bad, with a medium-to-low sex drive and an average-to-good cock. Here’s the problem: I like the warm feelings of love and lust I’m finally experiencing after a long time, but I am nevertheless unsatisfied with him. There are so many things that I feel he is lacking.

We don’t share fantasies, he doesn’t take the initiative, there’s no sense of seductiveness, and the cunnilingus is underwhelming. I’ve talked to him about it and he listens, he says he hears me, but he does not implement any of my suggestions. Instead, he tells me to focus on the things that are wonderful about our relationship rather than what’s lacking. Maybe I’m being too critical and should try to focus on the positive. Or should I leave him and go find an idealized sex God who may or may not be out there?

—Idealized Dick Katharsis P.S. My question requires a thoughtful response, not a savage answer. So, maybe I should talk to my psychologist and not to you?

Dear IDK: First and most importantly, I’m so sorry you were raped. I’m glad you sought professional help, IDK, and I’m happy to hear you feel ready to start making connections again after taking four years off to heal. And I’m gonna go out on a limb here to say you don’t have to choose between talking with me about this and talking to your psychologist. You can talk to both of us.

Zooming out for a second, I’ve always thought of this column as a conversation I’m having with friends about our love and/or sex lives after we’d had a few drinks. (Or, these days, shared an edible.) Friends are there to listen, to challenge us and to call us on our bullshit. And friends are there to be heard, to be challenged, and to be called on their bullshit.

But friends aren’t pros. When it comes to the kind of trauma experienced, ideally, we would seek help from a pro and—when we were ready for it—advice from our friends.

And as your supportive friend, IDK, as your thoughtful friend, I would advise you to stop thinking forever and instead concentrate on now.

Basically, IDK, you’re looking at this guy and asking yourself, “Is he the right guy forever?” And the answer to that question is obviously no. If you were with this guy forever—if you married a guy who wasn’t that great in bed and refused to listen to feedback and make changes—you would be unhappy in the long run. You’d never get to act on those fanl

tasies, you’d never get seduced the way you want, you’ll never get ate the way you want.

But if instead of asking yourself, “Is he the right guy forever?”, you were to ask yourself, “Is he the right guy for now?”, the answer might be different.

You had a traumatic experience four years ago and haven’t dated anyone since. Easing back into sex, dating, and relationships with a nice fella who isn’t great but isn’t awful... yeah, that might be just what you need. Not forever, IDK, for now.

So, don’t move in with this guy, don’t make any promises, and don’t stay in this relationship one minute longer than you want to. When you’re ready to end it—when you’re ready to go searching for an idealized sex God—then you can and should end it. You’re not going to have a successful long-term relationship with this guy, IDK, but you could have a successful short-term relationship with him.

Welcome back to sex and dating, take care of yourself, and feel free to write me anytime.

Dear Dan: I enjoy your column and I think your advice is usually spot-on; however, your advice to TITE last week—the man who wanted to end things with his FWB—was not good. You encouraged TITE to lie to their fuck buddy by saying that their partner wants to close things up. That’s terrible advice. Not the lying, Dan, but the blaming it on the partner.

First of all, that lie makes the partner the villain even though they had no part in this, so TITE is lying to one person and lying about another!

Second, it’s just setting everyone up to get bitten in the ass—and not in the good way.

Suppose TITE is out some time with someone other than his partner and his former fuck buddy happens to see him? I get wanting to spare someone’s feelings, but at some point we have to take responsibility for our relationship, including the ending of them. Using, “Oh, my partner wants to close things up,” is the ENM version of a woman saying, “I have a boyfriend,” to get some guy to stop harassing her (except that in that case it is sometimes necessary for safety). Now, if TITE wants to get their partner’s permission to use them as an excuse, at least then they’re not lying to two people. But really, isn’t a better solution to have clear and honest communication and treat everyone as an adult?

—Communicate Honestly And Tactfully Dear CHAT: They can’t all be winners. So, to you and everyone else who wrote to tell me my advice for TITE was off the mark, CHAT, I wanna say: you guys were right, I was wrong.

Thanks for calling me on my bullshit, friends.

Email questions@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage! Columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at savage.love

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

All ballots must be submitted online.

VOTE NOW at boulderweekly.com.

Ballot closes at midnight on April 2.

There is only one Best of Boulder™ Only in the Weekly.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Ask a pot lawyer

Local attorney Lenny Frieling talks about being a drug crime defense attorney in 2022

T

he fact that cannabis is legal in Colorado hasn’t done anything to change the fact that it’s still a Schedule I drug in America—categorized within the most sinister class of narcotic, reserved for substances or chemicals that have “no medicinal benefits” and “high potential for abuse.” And even in states where it has been legalized in some form or another, it’s still considered a substance of influence.

Which is to say: the fuzz will still come down on you for pot—even in this marvelous age of legalization, and even in post-prohibition states like Colorado.

And that’s why lawyers like Leonard (“call me Lenny”) Freiling are still out there defending people who’ve run into trouble with the law—defending drug cases of all shapes, sizes, schedules and colors. Lenny was a Lafayette judge at one point in his career, but resigned in protest in 2009 when Lafyette’s chief judge tried to increase the fine for possession for an ounce of pot from $100 (which was the state penalty) to $1,000 and a year in jail.

“I cannot in good conscience sit on the bench while being unwilling to enforce the municipal ordinances,” Frieling said in his resignation letter. “I find that I am morally and ethically unable to sit as a judge for the city.”

Lafayette never ended up following through with that policy change. Coincidence? Lenny doesn’t think so.

That’s all to say: Lenny’s got strong feelings about cannabis. So, after he stood from the bench in Lafayette and walked out, Lenny got involved with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). He’s been defending people accused of “pot crimes’’ ever since.

We caught up with this green defender to learn more about the kinds of cases he sees in a legal marijuana state, like Colorado.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Boulder Weekly: Lenny, we’ve seen your ads on the NORML website: “Over 45 years—Drug defense.”

We thought you might be a good source to talk about marijuana law.

Lenny Freiling: Well, as you would imagine, hearing that my name is still popping up is quite satisfying. My thinking overall is: If I continue to do the work, the phone will keep ringing—as opposed to focusing on how to make the phone ring.

BW: What kinds of cases are coming across your desk these days?

LF: First is DUID, or Driving Under the Influence of something. I prefer the word “impacted” instead of “impaired.” We know that alcohol impairs, and we know that there is a fairly good correlation between level of impairment and blood alcohol. That correlation works. But that model simply does not work with Delta-9 THC for a number of reasons—one being the problem of blood showing levels of active THC even long after it’s been smoked. And with DUIDs, the ramifications are severe. So, that’s a real problem, and it comes down to ignorance: people being willing to drive too soon after imbibing, or traveling with it in their front seat, smoking or not.

Another area that popped up a while back was concentrate extraction with [an “inherently hazardous substance”].

People at home were doing various types of extractions, with ice water or pressure or highly volatile things like butane, etc. Some of those people using the high volatility extraction methods were blowing themselves and their friends and neighbors up. We still have extraction [cases].

We also have some people getting stuck in a sting because they don’t know how to run their own dispensary, or underage possession. Or, the other side of that, which is HB 1317—which is a disaster (see Weed Between the Lines, “Front of the medical middle,” March 3, 2022, for details on how the legislation would have required the Colorado School of Public Health to review research related to the possible physical and mental health effects of high-potency THC). Not only was HB 1317 scientifically unsound, it was really bad for the [demographic] they were really trying to target: 18 to 21 year olds with true medical needs. Give me a break. [The state is] taking medicine away from patients.

BW: Gov. Jared Polis has started programs to slowly start expunging past non-violent cannabis criminal convictions. Any thoughts on how the state is approaching that?

LF: My lawyer’s “duck and cover” answer: What I think I’m seeing is a bunch of political press. ‘Let us help you’ kind of stuff. Ask me in a year when I’ve had a chance for people to call me up and say, “Here’s what I tried to do to get my record expunged, and they told me to get lost.” I would like to believe that it’s well on its way to being a solved problem. But let’s wait and see.

BW: What is one of the biggest legislative hurdles you see standing in the way of legal markets?

LF: Colorado’s 1818-406 (“Offenses related to marijuana and marijuana concentrate”). Here’s the summary: 2018, the Federal Farm Bill legalizes hemp, plus isomers and derivatives, and they made it really broad, including CBD, etc. Well, an Israeli doctor [Raphael Mechoulam] discovered that they could take legal CBD into the lab and with some very, very basic chemistry techniques, like isomerization—nothing too extreme— they could cook up other cannabinoids, including Delta-8, not previously addressed in [U.S.] law. Which is a problem, because Delta-9 was previously addressed in the law, and you can’t make Delta-9 unless you jump through all the paper hoops, and even then it’s a problem. So, [with 1818-406] they basically said any synthetic cannabinoid is now a controlled substance. What they’re trying to do is ban anyone from taking legal CBD and making it into any one of the 113-plus cannabinoids in cannabis [at home]. I find that greatly troubling.

BW: What’s the best, most comprehensive advice you can give someone who’s run into trouble with cannabis?

LF: I think the single biggest challenge that has come into my office consistently for years has been a person coming in saying, “I want to do this legally. How do we do that?” That extends out to people that are cultivating, to people who want to start a business, or people who want to use the cannabis they bought but don’t know where, or who don’t know how many plants they can grow at home—people asking, “Is this legal? Illegal? Or somewhere in between?” That can be a very complex question, in my opinion.

If you have questions of your own (or need legal defense for drug crime) Lenny can be reached through his website: druglawyercolorado.com

MARCH 31, 2022

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