Boulder Weekly 4.21.2022

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Miki Rasula explores trans self-love, p. 14

28

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Kundalini yoga lightens the spiritual load, p. 28

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news:

How intense citizen oversight reshaped Oakland police

by Nigel Duara, CalMatters

adventure:

Crank Farm solves a frustrating problem for the cycling community

by Will Brendza

overtones:

Miki Ratsula explores trans love and selfworth on debut album

by Angela K. Evans

nibbles:

After 36 years of huevos, pie and kindness, Dana D passes the torch at the Walnut Cafe

by John Lehndorff

13 14 22 30

weed between the lines: Attack of the lobbyists: SAM

by Will Brendza

THANK YOU BOULDER

WINNER OF 6 BEST OF BOULDER AWARDS

departments 5 6 7 16 17 20 21 25 27 28 29

The Unrepentant Tenant: The bigger picture of rent control City Beat: Little fires everywhere, outdoor dining here to stay Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views Arts & Culture: The unfamiliar familiar by Seicento Events: What to do when there’s nothing to do Astrology: By Rob Brezsny Film: ‘The Northman’ blends hypnotic visuals with a bland story Drink: First Sip boozes up a Boulder spring Cuisine: Ferncliff Food & Fuel, plus Bubu at Grange Hall and summer food events Altered States: Kundalini yoga lightens spiritual load Savage Love: Love and leashes

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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 April 21, 2022 Volume XXIX, Number 33

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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The bigger picture of rent control

by Mark Fearer

A

recent letter to the editor about my column (see The unrepentant tenant, “Rent control: Why or why not?” March 24, 2022) raised some points I want to address, along with some examples of real-life rent control (RC).

There are different kinds of rent stabilization laws and proposals throughout the country, and thus far, I have intentionally avoided detailing them or advocating for one kind or another. I wanted to first lay the ground work in terms of the history and context of RC in Colorado (see The unrepentant tenant, ‘Boiling Frogs,’ March 10, 2022), and then address a few of the standard arguments thrown against all RC in my March 24 column. I fully intend to delve into the intricacies and myriad forms of RC in future columns, since there are many iterations to discuss.

It is important to again emphasize that in urban areas, the housing market is inelastic—prices don’t respond to supply and demand. There is so much demand for affordable housing that we can never build our way out of this

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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crisis. Boulder, Longmont and Denver, along with other Front Range cities, have been adding housing supply at a fast clip, but rental prices have never gone down—they only continue to rise.

And now, some landlords are using the Marshall fire as a despicable excuse to raise rents even more. This is not because their costs are rising in any significant way, but because they choose to exploit the situation and charge “what the market will bear”—a well-worn justification for increasing profits while tenants suffer. A number of rent gouging cases have been reported to the Colorado Attorney’s Office. RC would specifically disallow large and often unjustified rent increases.

By the way, you’ll see that I use the terms rent stabilization and rent control interchangeably. While rent stabilization is more of an umbrella term that includes rent control, there are some differences between them. But for the purposes of this column, I’ll continually use them interchangeably, unless otherwise noted.

To review and expand: There are no federal laws nor policy concerning rent control—it is controlled by states.

Thanks to a concerted effort by powerful landlord/realtor/

see THE UNREPENTANT TENANT Page 6

APRIL 21, 2022

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Little fires everywhere, outdoor dining here to stay

by Shay Castle

T

ourists, residents and workers loved Boulder’s pandemic-prompted proliferation of al fresco dining. That’s according to a survey of 836 people from earlier this year in which 95% of visitors said outdoor dining improved downtown, along with 90% of workers and residents.

Businesses were less sure, though—78% of them still said downtown was better with outdoor dining. That’s perhaps why Council enthusiastically endorsed continuing the practice, albeit with more uniform rules around structures (no more enclosed spaces, roofs or tents, and everything has to be ADA accessible).

Outdoor dining’s more controversial cousin—closing West Pearl to car traffic and parking—is less popular.

In a separate, West End-specific survey, 72% of restaurants and 65% of retailers said the closure had positive impacts, but just half of retail establishments and 41% of eateries surveyed wanted to keep the street closed to traffic year-round.

West End eateries have recovered more slowly than restaurants elsewhere in the city. In 2021, their revenue was 59% of pre-pandemic levels, compared to 88% citywide and 84% for downtown restaurants, according to city sales tax data.

Other factors may have contributed to that, like the fact that the West End has more restaurants than the East End (which has recovered and then some, posting 42% more revenue last year than in 2019). The West End also has some vacancies dragging down sales tax.

Restaurants in general lag other retail in recovery; CU-Boulder economists noted it may take until 2024 to see full revenue return. Fast-casual eateries downtown are suffering more than sit-down places, which benefit more from additional seats.

Some Council members wanted more details on the performance of West End eateries before deciding whether or not to reopen the street to cars. City staff initially refrained from making a recommendation, but when pressed, offered that they would allow 6

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cars on West Pearl while exploring a “holistic, broad and intentional vision for downtown Boulder.”

“Our inclination is certainly to be more conservative,” said Cris Jones, interim director of Community Vitality.

Others on Council felt West Pearl should remain closed to cars while longer-term solutions were researched.

“I suspect if we reopen, it will never close again,” said councilmember Bob Yates, noting the “huge, raging debate” over the initial creation of the Pearl Street Mall. “Let’s seize what we have.”

Current conditions will continue through at least August.

DISAGREEMENT ON THE LIBRARY DISTRICT City and county elected officials can’t agree on how much money a to-be-formed library district can ask from voters, paving the way for a petition to place the question before voters this fall.

Mayor Aaron Brockett gave a quick update on casual negotiations with County Commissioners. They wanted the library to remain majority funded by the city of Boulder, where two-thirds of users live.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going to work out this year with the Commissioners,” Brockett said. Both bodies—Council and Commissioners—were needed to form a district by resolution.

A district can still be formed by petition; library advocates need only 100 signatures to put something on the ballot.

The measure will likely be two-fold, asking voters if they want to form a district and if they’re willing to pay for it.

CU SOUTH: STILL HAPPENING Work to save 2,300 South Boulderites from flooding is chugging along. Staff laid out a schedule for the next four years to Council members.

Permitting and design is happening now and should be finalized by late 2024, with construction lasting another two years.

A few big hurdles still remain.

This fall, voters will have the chance to undo annexation of CU South, see CITY BEAT Page 7

THE UNREPENTANT TENANT from Page 5

homebuilder lobbies, the majority of states ban RC from being enacted, although within those states there are some efforts to overturn those bans (Colorado is one of them, along with New Mexico and Illinois). A few states take no position on RC, and a handful of states allow cities to enact RC under certain conditions. There is no one type of rent control—specific policies vary quite a bit city by city, even within a state.

Where RC does exists, it generally does not reduce or freeze rents, but caps the amount of rent increases, so that tenants can know (and plan) for the maximum amount of rent raises.

That rent cap varies from city to city.

When possible, RC is coupled with eviction controls, so landlords aren’t incentivized to evict or not renew leases merely so they can raise rents.

In most cases, repairs, maintenance and improvement costs—along with tax increases—can be incorporated in rent increases. So landlords have no excuse to blame RC for poorly maintained housing stock.

Reasonable returns are allowed within the rent increases.

So what does this look like in real life? Let’s look at some examples.

A particularly strong renters movement (New Jersey Tenant Organization, NJTO) resulted in New Jersey having the largest number of rent controlled cities of any state— about 100 as of this year, and growing.

Since 1971, New Jersey has allowed cities to enact their own form of rent stabilization, resulting in between 750,000-1,000,000 tenants having APRIL 21, 2022

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their rent increases limited to about 2-5%, according to Mitch Kahn, vice-president of NJTO. California has a basic state law that says no landlord can increase rent by more than 5% plus inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index, or 10%—whichever is lower. Rents can’t be raised more than twice per year, and there are a number of exemptions (i.e., single family homes, condos, etc.).

That’s a rather low floor, but fortunately cities are free to enact stricter regulations, and a number have passed tougher laws with lower rent caps. About 24 municipalities enacted RC for tenants—in addition to many cities restricting rent increases in mobile home parks (see The unrepentant tenant, “The downward mobility of owning a mobile home,” April 7, 2022).

In a major victory for tenants everywhere, St. Paul, Minnesota, voters passed the strictest rent control measure in the country last year. They limit rent increases to 3% on all rental units, with no exemptions for new construction, scheduled to go into effect next month. Minneapolis may well be next. There’s a lot to say about their three-year battle to stabilize rents, and I’ll be writing more about that in a future column.

Hopefully what’s emerging is a picture of a very doable public policy that needs to be part of the affordable housing discussion.

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

Send letters to the editor to letters@boulderweekly.com BOULDER COUNTY’S

WRONG WAY Encouraging use of E-85 is a wrong way to go. Even changing E-10 to E-15 is a poor idea. E-85 is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. Our gasoline is currently E-10 containing 10% ethanol.

President Biden’s proposal to push E-85 in Colorado takes place just as the EPA points to our smog problems getting worse. E-85 may be a political solution to Biden’s popularity problems in corn growing states like Iowa, but it does nothing to clear the smog or slow climate chaos. And it does nothing for asthmatic kids and old folks with breathing problems.

Using more ethanol in fuel drives up corn prices because making it competes for animal feed. Running E-85 in older model engines without specialized tuning and replacing some components will degrade the engine in shorter time.

If cars are not precisely adjusted for its use, E-85 may cause pre-ignition that damages engines. E-85 damages fuel system components, e.g. magnesium, aluminum, rubber hoses, gaskets and fuel filters. Because it absorbs water from the air, it may corrode fuel tanks.

Buyers operate under the illusion that they are getting a bargain, but along with the lower cost, they get lower miles per gallon and more fuel system repairs.

Folks who own cars that might use E-85 are generally less able to retune their older vehicles to take even slight advantage of its doubtful

benefits. What might be done?

1) Urge Biden to negotiate a settlement in Ukraine so the “war machine” isn’t using hydrocarbon fuels at its current astronomical rate.

2) Back out of the Biden Bribe to corn producers.

3) Push public transportation.

4) Push electric vehicles.

5) Help renters and home owners to get better insulation and more efficient heating systems, at the same time reminding folks to put on sweaters and caps as a part of keeping warm.

Tom Moore/Boulder SEEKING WISER MINDS FOR CU SOUTH With the selection of Todd Saliman as the next President, it will be business as usual at CU-Boulder.

As Governor of California, Ronald Reagan ended the state’s policy of granting free college education to its citizens, his thought being that “liberal” professors were leading the hoi polloi into social protest and that universities should be run as businesses dedicated to maintaining an economic status quo. The concept of the Liberal Arts as “education of the whole person” was plainly too liberal.

Universities have long had a cultural elitist stature, but increasingly this now entails having more than moderate wealth to enroll. The trend also has been that colleges and universities have become white collar trade

schools—the largest, mega-corporate institutions whose business plan demands constant expansion.

With Colorado and the entire West facing a millennial drought and other uncertainties of continuing climate change, how CU persists in its expansion on its “South Campus” defies educated logic. Water will be in short supply and the burning of fossil carbon must be curtailed. Wiser minds need to step forward and stop the South Campus project.

Robert Porath/Boulder A SIMPLE SOLUTION TO AIRPLANE NOISE Thanks to Boulder Weekly for running a much-needed piece on small-airplane noise (see News, “Noise from above,” April 7, 2022).

It’s a shame that some pilots are persecuting those who dare complain.

It’s also a shame that the FAA seems to be blocking progress here.

The good news is, there is a simple and practical solution to this problem. In Europe, they are called “hush kits,” retro-fitted mufflers for small prop-driven planes and helicopters, and the European Union has made them law. Can you imagine people arguing that muffling automobiles and trucks is a totalitarian violation of their God-given rights? Of course not. So it is with small planes and helicopters.

It’s true that muffling an engine

cuts some of its power—say, about 10%. But that doesn’t affect auto safety, and it doesn’t affect small-plane or helicopter safety. In the EU, small planes are not falling out of the sky, helicopters are not crashing due to a lack of power.

And if you can afford to own a small plane or helicopter, you can afford to buy a muffler for it. What we need is national legislation insisting that small planes and helicopters be muffled. It’s the sensible and civilized thing to do, a reasonable solution that all fair-minded parties should be open to.

Anonymous via email LEFT BOULDER BECAUSE OF AIRPLANE NOISE I lived in Gunbarrel for 20 years and once RMMA (Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport) started sending all their planes up to the “northern training zone” the noise became unbearable! After meeting with every state representative, congressmen and the airport, it was clear that our only option was to move out of Boulder.

It was my home of 40 years and I did not want to leave but there were no other options. So now, two years later, we are living peacefully in Evergreen, and once a week when we hear an airplane we remember how bad it was.

Dottie Ricketson/Boulder Send letters to the editor to letters@boulderweekly.com

CITY BEAT from Page 6

where the dam, detention area and floodwall will go. The university is giving Boulder the land in exchange for access to water and sewer services so it can build a southern campus.

And then there’s disposal, scheduled for 2023-2024: Open Space and Mountain Parks will need to give up a few acres so the city can build a floodwall. The formal process will require votes of the Open Space Board of Trustees and City Council.

Disposal can also be subject to a vote of the people, if one is forced by petition—a likely outcome given the longstanding and organized opposition to development of CU South. Opponents have already forced two ballot questions related to the annexation.

LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE Next week, Boulder City Council will talk about resilience in the face of wildfires, of which there have been many recently.

Since the Marshall fire, the Boulder County area has seen a half-dozen wildfires, including four on Tuesday.

The biggest, near Gunbarrel, forced brief evacuations but did not destroy any homes.

An unnamed woman will face charges in that blaze, officials told the Daily Camera.

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

Send letters to the editor to letters@boulderweekly.com

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Outdoor dining survey results Outdoor dining made “significant improvement” to downtown 76% of visitors 66% of workers 64% of residents 55% of restaurants 52% of other biz

Its impact on biz was very positive 63% restaurants 38% other biz

“Some improvement” 26% other biz 26% residents 24% workers 23% restaurants 19% visitors

Negative 12% restaurants 11% other biz

“Negative” 9% restaurants 4% other biz 3% downtown workers 2% downtown residents 1% visitors

APRIL 21, 2022

Somewhat positive 17% other biz 13% restaurants

West End-specific survey Positive impacts Restaurant: 72% (61% very, 11% somewhat) Retail: 65% (41% very, 24% somewhat) Other: 47% (39% very, 8% somewhat)

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Negative Restaurant: 23% (6% very, 17% somewhat) Retail: 18% (somewhat) Other: 31% (8% very, 23% somewhat) Keep West Pearl closed to traffic 41% restaurant 50% retail 58% other Open West Pearl to traffic and curbside parking 35% restaurant 14% retail 33% other Open West Pearl to seasonal outdoor dining 24% restaurant 29% retail

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

From scandal to scrutiny

How intense citizen oversight reshaped Oakland police

by Nigel Duara, CalMatters

T

he man was screaming, but the beating didn’t stop.

It was June 27, 2000, and a group of rogue cops was at work in West Oakland. The Oakland police officers operated in one of the most dangerous beats in one of the most violent parts of the city. They called themselves the Riders.

One officer beat Delphine Allen on the soles of his feet with batons, according to trial testimony. Riders members pepper-sprayed him and drove him under a freeway overpass, where the beating continued, a rookie officer who witnessed the beating would later testify.

Allen called out for his mother, who lived nearby. “I thought they were going to kill me,” he said in court.

What happened over the next 22 years would reshape the Oakland Police Department and transform it into a progressive model for law enforcement agencies across California.

The rookie police officer who witnessed the assault on Allen filed a complaint in July 2000. The resulting scandal upended the department and touched off a massive overhaul in how the department judges its own officers’ conduct.

Today, Oakland has arguably become the state’s most watched police department with both a federal monitor and strong civilian oversight.

In this city of 435,000 across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco, civilians have the power to overrule the police department.

“The direction that Oakland is taking is the inevitable path for a modern-day progressive police department,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “And so I believe that we’re on the front lines, we’re the vanguard of police reform.”

Statewide data help tell that story.

The Oakland Police Department sustains complaints against its officers at a higher rate than any other major

law enforcement entity, except the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, according to a CalMatters analysis of Department of Justice data.

Complaints originate with citizens, or from the department’s internal affairs unit. A sustained complaint

legitimate and professional processes so we can build trust.”

The California Department of Justice has collected the number of complaints and those sustained since 2016, the result of a bill that ordered agencies to establish a procedure to investigate complaints by the public against officers and publish the results.

The Oakland police complaint process is now handled by both the department’s internal affairs division and a civilian panel that oversees the department.

the actions of officers.”

The website Oaklandside reported that, in a sample of 30 exit interviews with Oakland police officers, half were leaving because of dissatisfaction with leadership at the police department or city, and seven cited “heavy discipline.” Others cited family reasons, low morale, better jobs or the federal government monitoring team.

“I’ve been doing some exit interviews with officers that are choosing to go to other departments, and what I tell them is the Oakland way is going to be the American way any minute now,” Schaaf told CalMatters.

The Oakland Riders’ legacy

means the department believed the person who complained, and could discipline those officers involved.

Statewide, law enforcement agencies sustained 7.6% of complaints against their officers from 2016 to 2020. In those years, the Oakland Police Department sustained complaints at an average rate of 11.3%, the data show.

In 2018 and 2020, the department sustained more than 15.2% of complaints, double the state average.

“I think we’re doing a much more thorough evaluation,” said Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. “I also think when you have a community with very low trust in law enforcement, it means that law enforcement has to make sure that they have

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Among the rank-and-file, there has been fallout.

Today, officers are leaving the department in higher numbers, from an average of about four per month late last year to 10 or 15 a month since then, according to Armstrong.

“We haven’t seen these type of numbers since I’ve been at the department, and that’s been over two decades,” Armstrong said. “When you work in a big city that’s under the microscope like Oakland, I’m sure that can be challenging to some officers.

“I’ve been pushing the same message to officers, that you can’t escape the calls for reform,” he said. “No matter where you go, you’re going to see more community involvement, the community paying more attention to APRIL 21, 2022

Before the Oakland rookie police officer blew the whistle on the Riders scandal, he was told that beating, kidnapping and planting drugs on people were simply how police work was done, he testified in court.

At trial in 2004, the former rookie, Keith Batts, testified that he didn’t immediately report what he saw. He was new to the department and feared repercussions for reporting excessive use of force.

Three members of the Riders would be fired, but juries would later acquit them of some criminal charges and deadlock on many others. A fourth member, Riders leader Frank Vazquez, fled the city in November 2000 and prosecutors have said they believe he’s in hiding in Mexico.

More than 100 people sued the police department in federal court.

The cases were combined into a negotiated settlement agreement, in which the police department consented to reforms and accepted a federal monitoring team. The team would oversee dozens of proposed reforms at the department, especially concerning its use-of-force policy and the process by which complaints are treated.

The original monitoring team and its successor, appointed in 2010, have both praised and condemned the Oakland police for their conduct since 2003. But in the ensuing two decades, one fundamental change has made the biggest difference: Oakland residents have garnered a lot more see CITIZEN OVERSIGHT Page 10 9

CITIZEN OVERSIGHT from Page 9

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power over their police department.

First, in a 2016 ballot measure, the city’s voters put the whole department under civilian oversight. Then, in 2020, the civilian police commission fired the city’s police chief.

In December, the city hired its first inspector general for the police department, a civilian position overseen by the civilian board.

Rocky Lucia, an attorney for the Oakland Police Officers’ Association and several other Bay Area police department unions, said the level of oversight in Oakland exceeds what he’s seen anywhere else.

“They pay a lot more attention to police conduct in Oakland,” Lucia said. “There’s more eyes on people.

There’s policies, software programs, there’s resources committed. It’s more than I’ve ever seen anywhere else in the state.”

While he said he’s not certain that Oakland should be spending the amount of money it does on oversight, given rising crime rates that began during the pandemic and the city’s always-muddy financial situation, only 18 months removed from a $62 million budget shortfall. But Lucia acknowledges that the department is identifying potentially problematic officers.

“They’re catching these things early,” Lucia said.

A tale of two scandals

Two years before the beating of Delphine Allen, a different and more infamous gang task force controversy erupted 350 miles south: the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart scandal.

The Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums—or CRASH—unit was to Los Angeles what the Riders were to Oakland: an elite group of cops on a special detail that made big busts in the LAPD’s Rampart Division.

CRASH unit officers were also accused of robbing a bank, stealing cocaine from the evidence room and replacing it with Bisquick, and beating a suspect until he vomited blood.

As a result, in 1998 the LAPD instituted a new policy: All complaints against an officer would trigger an investigation.

Complaints against officers piled up, major crimes arrests dropped and officers started to complain that the

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system treated them unfairly.

“Complaints against officers soared,” wrote University of Chicago economics professor Canice Prendergast in a 2021 paper analyzing the scandal’s fallout. “These were sustained at high rates, resulting in suspensions, resignations and terminations at levels far higher than before.”

Any complaint tied up officers’ promotions and transfers. Prendergast found that the level of sustained complaints was even more damaging to police morale.

So the officers radically reduced their engagement with the public, according to Prendergast’s paper, which is named after the practice of non-engagement: “Drive and Wave.”

From 2016 to 2020, the last year for which statistics are available, the LAPD sustained complaints at a rate of 5.2%, below the statewide average for that period.

Arrests plummeted. The LAPD accepted a federal monitor from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2000 and nearly 90% of LAPD officers interviewed by the monitor in 2001 said a fear of discipline stopped them from “proactively” doing their jobs.

Then, the LAPD was handed a big win by, of all things, the federal monitor itself, which encouraged the department to clear up its backlog of complaints.

Prendergast found the police department’s solution in long-buried LAPD archives, a decision that was put out among the department’s employees but never publicized: The LAPD gave its commanding officers the power to dismiss complaints against their subordinates.

That meant complaints could be dismissed moments after they were filed, and an officer’s superior was the one to judge their actions.

The result was that, beginning in 2003, sustained complaints fell dramatically, and penalties for sustained complaints were much more rare, Prendergast found.

“Disciplinary measures across the board became less likely,” Pendergast wrote, “even when an investigation ruled against the officer.”

Some officers ‘just tired’

Under California law, there are four outcomes for a complaint against a police officer.

Complaints can be sustained,

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

which means the investigation proved the allegation to be true by a preponderance of evidence.

An officer can be exonerated, meaning the officer did what was described, but it didn’t violate department law or policy.

Complaints can be ruled “unsustained,” meaning the investigation failed to clearly prove or disprove the allegation. Or, complaints can be determined “unfounded,” which means the investigation clearly showed the allegation was untrue.

For much of the Oakland Police Department’s time under a federal monitor, most complaints were relegated to the “unfounded” bin, said John Burris, one of two lead plaintiff attorneys in the settlement agreement between the police department and the city following the Riders scandal.

With civilian oversight since 2016, he said far fewer complaints were dismissed as unfounded.

Burris said cases dismissed as “unfounded” were the ones that bothered him the most. “[Complainants are] not lying.

I may not be able to prove it, but something happened,” Burris said, and noted that unfounded complaints also disappear from officers’ personnel files.

Today, when a complaint is filed, the Oakland police and the Civilian Police Review Agency launch parallel investigations. Each makes its own conclusions.

When there’s a difference of opinion, the question goes to another set of civilians—the Civilian Police Commission, which holds final authority on questions of officer misconduct.

Tyfahra Milele, chair of the Civilian Police Commission, said she can empathize with officers who feel they are over-policed by their civilian overseers. She said that officers tell her they’re more afraid to engage residents because they’re worried about a complaint, which can tie up their promotions and damage their careers.

Since the police-related killings of Ahmaud Aubrey in Atlanta, Breonna Taylor in Louisville and George Floyd in Minneapolis, “there’s much more of a vigilance around police and accountability,” Milele said. “Some officers are like, ‘OK, I’m gonna go to work and ride this wave.’ Some [officers say], ‘This isn’t the role for me, all these other fac-

tors are making it difficult.’ “We have some officers that are just tired.”

Despite what Burris, the attorney, described as widespread opposition among the department’s rankand-file to civilian oversight, the results have been a higher level of scrutiny of officer behavior, according to lawyers on both sides of the city’s 2003 negotiated settlement agreement.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Attorneys representing Allen, who originally brought the lawsuit in Oakland, expect the settlement agreement with the police department to end in 2023 or 2024.

A hearing before U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick in San Francisco to determine the department’s progress is set for April 27.

“It’s taken a long time, but we’re finally getting traction,” said Burris.

“Our hope is we’ll fundamentally ingrain things in the culture.

“It’s my worst nightmare about the case, that it’s all for naught. That it goes back to the way it was.”

This story is part of the SoJo Exchange from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

T

he burglar smashed through the safety glass door of Driven Technology on Wilderness Place in Boulder sometime in the night. They knew exactly what they were looking for, located them and escaped with three bikes— two of which were high-tech, one-ofa-kind cycles, outfitted with prototype technology (the third was a personal bike of the startup company’s CEO, Jason Smith).

In total, the haul was worth more than $80,000.

It’s a story that’s become all too familiar in Boulder and one that Chris Caughman, CEO of Crank Farm, a new social auction platform for performance bikes, experienced for himself.

In his case, he owned a brand new, custom Lynskey titanium gravel bike for less than six hours. He had the bike locked to the roof of his car and was headed to hit the trails for its maiden ride–but he needed a spare tube. He’d stopped at a busy outdoor store for less than 10 minutes and when he returned to his car, the Lynskey was gone.

“One hundred cars in the parking lot, people everywhere. No one saw anything,” he says.

The day after the break-in at Driven Technology, Boulder police recovered the stolen prototypes.

The suspect walked into a local bike shop carrying one of the $12,000 never-before-seen bikes, with bolt cutters still sticking out of his backpack. An employee recognized the suspicious behavior, called the police, who made an arrest, and eventually recovered all three of Driven Technology’s bikes— Smith’s included.

Caughman was less fortunate.

“The officer that took my report basically said in a roundabout way, ‘You’ll probably never see this bike again, and I could encourage you to keep your eyes on the [marketplace] platforms.’”

That meant he’d have to check Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, NextDoor, Ebay and other sites across all 50 states, regularly, looking for his bike to pop up. For someone with a full-time job it simply wasn’t feasible and the officer was right: Caughman never saw the Lynskey again. Unlike the Boulder prototypes, his bike was likely moved across state lines or even out of the country and sold to some unsuspecting buyer, totally unaware they were purchasing stolen goods (see News, “Pipeline to Mexico,” Jan. 6, 2022).

As frustrating as that was for Caughman, the event was also the spark of inspiration. The gears inside his mind started cranking.

“The more I thought about [bike theft and

DETAILS, DETAILS: This heavily modified prototype, a Cervélo P5 triathlon bike with a concept drive train and high-end wheels, was among those stolen from Boulder’s Driven Technology.

Breaking the cycle

Users can then create an auction, upload photos of their bike, and a “preview” video; list the item’s details (make, model, year, degree of wear-and-tear, etc.), set a duration for the auction, and opt for a “reserved auction” or specify “local sale only.”

And buyers can browse Crank Farm’s feed of auctions, similar to autotrader. com.

At the end of an auction, the seller and buyer are connected via an automated email, and from there Crank Farm steps out of the way, Caughman explains. The two parties determine on their own whether to use cash or credit, where to meet or ship the bike to, and how.

“We want to connect people and then let them go off and do the transaction in the way that they want to do it,” Caughman says. Ten days after any transaction, both buyers and sellers can review each other, creating a feedback system that authenticates the users for future transactions.

“We are trying to have some platform accountability here,” Caughman says.

The people who use Crank Farm are by far the most important element of the site, Caughman says. Every auction has a feed where users can discuss the bike that’s up for sale, whether it’s a good deal or not, and, of course, throw up red flags if a bike being sold matches the description of a bike that’s recently been reported stolen.

“A really important component of this is the people,” Caughman says. “That’s where the community aspect of it comes into play ... the feed is really meant to be the social part of it.”

Crank Farm will be a more powerful platform if users are watching out for each other and calling out bad or suspicious behavior, he says—just like the Boulder bike store employee who tipped police off to the stolen prototypes. And Facebook groups like Denver Stolen Bikes and organizations like Bike Index have already proven that cyclists can create those kinds of vigilant online communities.

Caughman hopes to cultivate something similar at Crank Farm.

“If you really love bikes and you know a lot about bikes and you want to talk about them and help other people, join, be a part of this community and help people make good informed decisions about bikes that [are] for sale.”

Crank Farm is a new auction platform for used performance bikes, solving a frustrating problem for the cycling community

by Will Brendza

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

resale], the more it seemed like a negative cloud hanging over the cycling community,” Caughman says. “There [had] to be a way to build software—a process—to really help people that would prefer to sell rider-to-rider or peer-to-peer.”

So Caughman designed an online social auction platform, designed to filter out the grifters and provide a place for cyclists to confidently buy and sell performance bikes: Crank Farm.

“This is not meant to be a place [where] you get lost in the shuffle or you’re getting hammered with hidden fees,” Caughman says. “We want it to be a welcoming community both for people that have ridden forever [and for] people that are new to riding. It’s [for] people that really care about this sport and want to try to do the right thing.”

Caughhman’s loved bikes since the ’80s when he was a self-described “BMX kid.” In the decades since, he’s heard of or personally experienced all of the frustrating aspects of used-bike transactions: buyers bailing at the last second, or lowballing sellers when they come to pick up the bike; sellers who don’t follow through, or who suspiciously don’t know about any of the specific components of their performance bikes.

There’s always been a lot of “friction” in usedbike transactions, Caughman says. And he wants to change that with Crank Farm.

“We’re a facilitator and a connector,” Caughman says. “Crank Farm in-and-of itself is a community.”

Users sign up, create a profile and immediately enter a verified U.S. credit card. That step alone filters out a lot of unsavory sellers, Caughman says. l

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ASHLEY OSBORN

The shifting narrative of Gen Z

Miki Ratsula explores trans love and self-worth on debut album

by Angela K. Evans

A

t just 23, Finnish-American nonbinary artist Miki Ratsula is ready to take on transphobia in the music industry—and the culture as a whole—with their idyllic pop vocals and tender lyrics about life and love. The art of self-revelation takes center stage in their debut album, i owe it to myself, released March 25.

“I feel like I’ve been told too many times to tone my queerness down, to not be so open about it,” they say. “And with this album, I allowed myself to not listen to that and to just be as proud and open as I want to be.”

Set to lo-fi pop sounds both subdued and energetic, Ratsula creates an intimacy between singer and listener, an affection for honesty and authenticity that marks their own personal growth and the shifting narrative of Gen Z artists en masse. It is a candid reflection of Ratsula’s own life, from coming out to top surgery, from falling in love with their fiancé to finding self-love and acceptance on their

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mental health journey.

“I see this album as the first step, the first project that’s really showing the world and the industry who Miki Ratsula is,” they say.

It’s in the topic of exploring mental health through music that I find myself, for the second time in our conversation, reflecting on my own adolescence and early-adulthood. I came of age in the grunge and emo era, when angst, personal struggle and disillusionment were expressed through melancholy. There were hints of vulnerability—an attempt to begin unpacking mental health and frustration and alternative lifestyles—but it didn’t come from a place of ownership, self-care or affirmation. It was largely depressing, to be honest, and some of my favorite artists eventually died by suicide or overdose.

“Mental health has become a lot less of a taboo subject,” Ratsula says when I share this.

“I think people, my generation and younger, are really aware of mental health and are working to destigmatize taking care of your mental health and getting help. … And I think that’s definitely influenced a lot of young writers to be able to finally write and sing about mental health in a way that other people can understand.”

Songs like “Serotonin” by Girl in Red and “Now I’m in it” by Haim, along with works by artists like Demi Lavoto and Ratsula, speak about the realities of inner dialogues and the importance of self-care.

“It’s like, this sucks, but it’s like, this sucks and BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

ASHLEY OSBORN

it’s OK,” Ratsula says. “And you can get help for it and you’re not alone.”

Growing up in Orange County, California, Ratsula began questioning their queerness in high school, but found it challenging in that culture—some folks may have been “accepting,” but, for the most part, Ratsula was surrounded by “white, Christian, Republican families.” They didn’t have any close friends or anyone else they knew of who were queer or even thought about queerness.

It was an incredibly lonely thing to navigate, and they felt very “side-lined in that environment.”

“And it definitely took me a lot longer to accept it and to realize it because of that environment,” they say.

I also grew up in Orange County. Even though it’s been almost 20 years, it sounds familiar. Several good friends from high school only later came out as queer. I personally never witnessed any overt or menacing homophobia, but in the generation of My So-Called Life and Rent, having queer friends didn’t necessarily seem possible in our manicured (manufactured?) community. Neither did the level of vulnerability Ratsula shares.

“It’s also interesting because, you know, Orange County is still in California. And so compared to a lot of other places in the country it’s still relatively safe,” they say. “I think the hard part was, it was a lot of covert queerphobia. It felt very surface level and felt secretive, almost. So like, I didn’t know who to trust, who actually was cool and who wasn’t.”

It wasn’t until Ratsula met their first girlfriend—now-fiancé— halfway through the last year of high school that they came out, surprised at how “chill” most everyone was.

Coming out as nonbinary, however, “was definitely a lot harder,” they say.

Within their own family, they knew they would be accepted. Ratsula is currently planning their wedding in Finland next summer, where their father and most of their family lives.

While their parents immigrated to California about a decade before they were born, Ratsula grew up in a very Finnish household, learning Finnish and English simultaneously and traveling to the Nordic country every summer, finding safety and peace at the lake on their grandmother’s property.

“Being Finnish and being raised Finnish and visiting BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Finland all the time gave me such a respect for nature and such a tie [to] nature,” they say. “As I get busier, I kind of seek that type of environment.”

Motifs like greenery, water and open fields find a place in Ratsula’s music, inspiring their visuals, storytelling and overall texture.

There’s also an appreciation for the humanity of people they say comes from Finland’s robust sauna culture, a practice of sitting together, naked, connecting and appreciating each other.

“At the core of it, [we’re] just human beings on planet Earth,” they say. “There’s something so peaceful being in the sauna with someone and just, like, talking about anything and everything, and just being open in such an authentic and pure way.”

They were also heavily influenced by pop music, introduced to acts like The ON THE BILL: Miki Beatles and Stevie Wonder Ratsula opening for by their father, and later obLaura Sanderson. 7 p.m. Saturday, April 30. sessing, in their own words, Marquis Theater, 2009 over Adele.

Ratsula released a cover Larimer St., Denver. of “Rolling in the Deep” on Tickets $18 YouTube in middle school and began exploring their own songwriting soon after. At the same time, they started posting rewrites of popular songs, written especially for the U.S. woman’s soccer team (the first time they saw queer women publicly). All in all, Ratsula says they posted about 40 unique songs to their YouTube channel, creating quite a following with that certain sector of fandom through social media.

“I kind of say it’s like my Disney channel phase,” they say with a laugh. “And I kind of just kept following that while figuring myself out and growing up.”

With the release of i owe it to myself and a national tour that brings them to Denver on April 30, Ratsula has finally come into their own.

“I am finally what Miki Ratsula has been trying to be and has been trying to grow into,” they say. “It’s just really refreshing to finally be here.”

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The unfamiliar familiar

by Seicento

Baroque Ensemble celebrates its 10th anniversary with lesser known work by Bach

by Peter Alexander

B

oulder’s Seicento Baroque Ensemble celebrates its 10th anniversary this weekend (April 15–17) by performing a piece that is both familiar—and not.

The piece is Magnificat by J.S. Bach, which as Magnificat in D is one of the most celebrated works of the Baroque master. But they will not perform that Magnificat, but a lesser known, earlier version in E-flat that has much of the same music, with interesting twists.

Completing the program, titled Magnificent Magnificats, are two other settings of the same sacred Christian text, known as the Canticle of Mary. One is anonymous, although previously attributed to the German composer Dietrich Buxtehude, and the other is by the 17th-century French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. Performances will be Friday through Sunday in Longmont, Arvada and Boulder.

In addition to the amateur singers of the Seicento choir, there will be six professional guest soloists, as well as an historical instrument orchestra featuring Baroque strings, oboes, recorders and trumpets. Seicento artistic director Amanda Balestrieri will conduct the Bach and Charpentier, and sing one aria in the Bach setting herself. Assistant conductor Wesley Leffingwell will conduct five of the guest singers from the keyboard for the anonymous Magnificat.

Balestrieri says there are two reasons she selected this program. “I wanted to have an uplifting effect (for the anniversary), which is why I chose the Magnificats,” she says.

“Second, I really wanted to do the Bach. It’s a very important piece, because it’s the earlier version and it’s almost never done. But you have to find, apart from other things, three Baroque trumpet players!”

A bigger obstacle turned out to be the orchestral parts for this version. Balestrieri discovered that no one in the U.S. had parts that Seicento could borrow. Eventually she was able to purchase the parts directly from a German publisher, who provided “the old style creamywhite paper, big notes, lots of space—it’s beautiful!”

Balestrieri says. “And we own them now!”

If you are familiar with the Magnificat in D, you will notice some differences. For one, the orchestral sound is less brilliant, because of changes in instrumentation. And in the D major version, the open strings of the stringed instruments resonate with the primary pitches of the music, which doesn’t happen when the players are reading music written in E-flat.

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That is true even though the actual pitch is about the same as a modern performance in D, because the tuning system of the early 18th-century used by Seicento is a half-step lower than what is used today; the parts are written in E-flat, and that affects the sound.

MAGNIFICENT Stewart Auditorium Church, Boulder But “the MAGNIFICATS presented 7 p.m. Saturday, April 6 p.m. Friday, May 6, interest is not the by Seicento Baroque 23, Arvada Methodist streamed virtual key,” BalestriEnsemble.

Church, Arvada performance eri says. “The interest is the fact 7 p.m. Friday, April 3 p.m. Sunday, April Tickets available at: that it’s a different 22, Longmont Museum 24, First United Methodist seicentobaroque.org piece. There’s places where it actually has consonants are softer, and ending consonants are sung different music, but added to the next word. The opening words “Magnificat either different harmony or different rhythms. Those who anima,” become “man-yee-fee-cah—tah-nee-mah,” while know the other piece well will enjoy it very much.” in German you often end up with “consonant clusters.” And Another difference is the inclusion of short hymns, each language has its own unique vowel sounds. called “laudes” (praises), that Bach himself used in one The program will progress from an intimate beginning of his performances of the E-flat version. Performed at to fuller and fuller sounds, starting with the anonymous Easter or Christmas, they were never sung with the later Magnificat. “I decided it would be really nice for (the D-major version. They will be inserted between movesoloists) to do it one on a part, which is possibly how it ments of the Magnificat text. was originally done,” Balestrieri says. “That is going to be Another performance detail you may notice is the quite lovely. Then the Charpentier is a lot of small solos, pronunciation of the Latin text. In Bach’s time Latin was with the French color and elegance. It’s a very beautiful pronounced differently in different parts of Europe. Since piece. And then the Bach!” no one today heard performances in the 18th century, Balestrieri says the singers have been working very pronunciation of Latin today is what Balestrieri calls a hard, with the difficult music and complex language “construct,” based on accounts from the time. Seicento issues. “It’s been challenging, because everybody has will aim for German pronunciation for the Bach and whatever the pandemic brought them in terms of stress,” the anonymous piece, and French pronunciation for she says. But as rehearsal progressed, “suddenly everyCharpentier.

“It’s very complicated,” Balestrieri says. “Because we body was enjoying it.

“It’s just going to be lovely,” she says . are trying to go for performance practice that’s informed, this is another piece of information that we have.”

Send comments to letters@boulderweekly.com She gives some simple examples. In French, some APRIL 21, 2022

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

E VENTS

■ CU Boulder Department of Theatre & Dance presents ‘They Promised Her the Moon’

EVENTS

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

■ Resource Central Earth Day Celebration

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday, April 22, Resource Central, 6400 Arapahoe Road, Boulder. Free, resourcecentral.org After a year of improvements, Resource Central is excited to reveal the finished production of renovations Tour the Reuse facility, get inspired for your summer DIY projects, and take advantage of some great deals during our Earth Day Sale. Irish rock group Big Paddy will perform from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., followed by amazing bands from the School of Rock. Go Green Gourmet’s food truck will be onsite and there will be free family activities.

April 22-24, University Theatre, Buiding 261, University of Colorado, Boulder, cupresents.org Many people know the history of the space race and the Mercury Seven. But few have ever heard the ill-fated story of Jerrie Cobb and the Mercury 13: a group of women who underwent the same rigorous psychological and physical astronaut training as their male counterparts but were ultimately denied entry into the space program based on their sex. They Promised Her the Moon is a highly theatrical, stunning look at the forces that keep women grounded, for better or worse.

■ Boulder Children’s Chorale Fundraiser: An Afternoon on Broadway

2:30-4 p.m. Saturday, April 23, Atonement Lutheran Church, 685 Inca Parkway, Boulder. Donations welcome.

Boulder Children’s Chorale Dessert Show and Fundraiser Solo showcases songs from the Broadway stage. This concert will feature small groups and individual singers. This event is free, and desserts will be offered for sale.

■ Local Lab New Play Festival

April 22-24, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: $30-$159, thedairy.org/local-lab Engage with some of the most exciting theater being created today with Local Theater Company’s Local Lab, Boulder’s premier three-day festival of new American plays. Step inside the room with the theater-makers for staged readings of four new works.

Gather with your fellow audience members for creative workshops and a number of social gatherings, including the Saturday night dance party. Full lineup of events: localtheaterco.org/springlab

■ Eighth Annual Longmont Earth Day Celebration

■ East Boulder County Artists Spring Studio Tour

10 a.m.-5 p.m. April 23 and 24, Longmont. For a map of the artist’s studio locations, ebcacolorado.org Thirty artists in 16 locations in Longmont and Lafayette will open their studios up April 23-24. The studio tour gives the public the opportunity to see the working studios of the artists, while some artists present demonstrations.

■ Tulip Fairy & Elf Festival

1-5 p.m. Sunday, April 24, Pearl Street Mall, 1303 Pearl St., Boulder. Free.

10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, April 23, Longmont Museum, 400 Quail Road, Longmont. Free, longmontcolorado.gov On Saturday, April 23, Sustainable Resilient Longmont will host the eighth annual Longmont Earth Day Celebration at the Longmont Museum. This free, community event will feature an environmental education expo and programming for children and families throughout the day, including a concert with Boulder County legends Jeff & Paige, live birds of prey with the Raptor Education Foundation, a herd of baby goats, March for Mother Earth, Left Hand Creek clean up, and so much more! This family-friendly event will also have arts and crafts led by local educators, hands-on composting education, and seedling planting. FED Farm Eats Direct, The Magic Food Bus and Cyclhops food trucks will be on site for food and beverages.

Spring officially arrives in Downtown Boulder when the beautiful, colorful Tulip Fairy, along with pint-sized fairies and elves, parade around the Pearl Street Mall “waking up the tulips.” Featuring live performances, kids’ activities and more than 15,000 tulips. see EVENTS Page 18

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E VEN T S

EVENTS from Page 17

EVENTS

■ Pysanky for Peace: Help for Ukraine

1-4 p.m. Saturday, April 23, Eldorado Springs Art Center (ESAC), 8 Chesebro Way, Eldorado Springs. Tickets: $100, eldoradospringsartcenter.com This beginner Ukrainian/Pysanky Easter egg workshop teaches the art form of Ukrainian Pysanky easter eggs taught by artist/art conservator Maria Valentina Sheets. Your $100 donation to the International Rescue Committee to assist with Ukraine aid will get you a spot in the workshop.

■ The Spark presents Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda The Musical’

April 23-May 8, the Spark, 4847 Pearl St., Boulder. Tickets: $16-$22, thesparkcreates.org Matilda is an extraordinary girl who, armed with a sharp mind and a vivid imagination, dares to take a stand and change her destiny. Faced with ridiculously rotten circumstances, Matilda bravely decides to take action. With the help of her friends and her kind-hearted teacher, Miss Honey, this miraculous girl inspires a little revolution, proving that everyone has the power to change their story.

■ Hops and HOPE

Noon-5 p.m. Saturday, April 23, Left Hand Brewing, 1265 Boston Ave., Longmont. Suggested donation: $20 Join for a fantastic outdoor event to raise money and awareness for HOPE’s work with the homeless in the Longmont community. Your donation goes 100% toward HOPE’s programming. Enjoy live music, door prizes (four tickets to Leftapalooza), local food, a chance to win beer for a year at Left Hand Brewing, and local artists sharing their wares.

■ Erika Krouse—‘Tell Me Everything’

6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, Boulder Bookstore, 1107 Pearl St., Boulder.

Tickets: $5, boulderbookstore.net In fall 2002, Erika Krouse accepted a new contract job investigating lawsuits as a private investigator. A lawyer named Grayson assigns her to investigate a sexual assault, a college student who was attacked by football players and recruits at a party a year earlier. Krouse knows she should turn the assignment down. Her own history with sexual violence makes it all too personal. But she takes the job anyway, inspired

by Grayson’s conviction that he could help change things forever. Over the next five years, Krouse learns everything she can about P. I. technique, tracking down witnesses and investigating a culture of sexual assault and harassment ingrained in the university’s football program. But as the investigation grows into a national scandal and a historic civil rights case, Krouse finds herself increasingly consumed. When the case and her life both implode at the same time, Krouse must figure out how to help win the case without losing herself.

■ Boulder Ballet’s Annual Gala

5:30-9:30 p.m. Thursday, April 28, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: $125, boulderballet.org Celebrate Boulder Ballet with an evening featuring excerpts from the company’s upcoming season, cocktails from an open bar accompanied with heavy hors d’oeuvres, the annual auction, and opportunities to meet the dancers. A portion of each gala ticket is tax-deductible and proceeds from the gala will benefit Boulder Ballet’s artistic initiatives, including new works, collaborating with new and diverse choreographers, costumes, community outreach programs, and scholarships. Festive cocktail attire is encouraged.

For more event listings, go online at boulderweekly.com/events 18

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

EVENTS

CONCERTS

★ Friday, April 22

Tenia Nelson Trio. 6:30 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $10-$20 Acoustic Ambush. 7 p.m. Trident Bookseller & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder New Something Fridays: Nobide & FLYN. 10 p.m. Supermoon, 909 Walnut St., Boulder

WWW.BOULDERTHEATER.COM

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JUST ANNOUNCED

JUL 16 ................................................................................................... STEELY DEAD JUL 29 ............................................................................................................ WAVVES OCT 7 .................................................................................. VIAGRA BOYS + SHAME

JUN 16 .................................................................................... MELVIN SEALS & JGB AUG 13 ................................................................................. ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL NOV 8 ....................................................................... CHARLES LLOYD OCEAN TRIO

THU. APR 21

FRI. APR 22

BARSTOOL’S SLEEP WHEN YOU’RE DEAD TOUR

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

FEAT. BRIANNA CHICKENFRY SAT. APR 23

97.3 KBCO & PARADISE FOUND PRESENT

★ Saturday, April 23

Bluebird Music Festival featuring Margo Price, Waxahatchee, Langhorne Slim and more. 2 p.m. Macky Auditorium Concert Hall, University of Colorado Boulder, 1595 Pleasant St., 285 UCB, #104, Boulder. Tickets: $29-$49. Through April 24.

Big Richard with Megan Burtt. 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder.

Tickets: $24 Emily Barnes. 7 p.m. Trident Bookseller & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder HeR featuring Pink Lady Monster, DJ Gia, Dj Leentree, DJ Mahay. 10 p.m.

Trident Bookseller & Cafe, 940 Pearl St., Boulder

MIKE CAMPBELL & THE DIRTY KNOBS SAMMY BRUE

Madi Diaz with Patrick Dethlefs. 7 p.m. eTown Hall, 1535 Spruce St., Boulder.

Tickets: $20

PUP with Sheer Mag, Pinkshift. 7:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder.

Tickets: $28.50-$32.50

★ Wednesday, April 27

Lorde with Remi Wolf. 7:30 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver.

Tickets: $70-$130

St. Paul & The Broken Bones with Danielle Ponder. 7:30 p.m. Mission Ballroom, 4242 Wynkoop St., Denver. Tickets: $37.50-$75 Grateful Shred. 8 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $25-$29.50

FRIDAY CRAP: ADDICTED 222 MUSIC

SUN. APR 30

THU. APR 28 GRATEFUL SHRED INDUSTRIES, RELIX, PHILM & TERRAPIN CARE STATION PRESENT: GO EAST III TOUR

GRATEFUL SHRED YOLA

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

TERRAPIN CARE STATION PRESENTS

EVERYONE ORCHESTRA

FEAT. ALANA ROCKLIN (STS9), KEVIN DONOHUE (SUNSQUABI), JEREMY SALKEN (BIG GIGANTIC) & MORE! THE GREEN HOUSE BAND FRI. MAY 6

PI’ERRE BOURNE SUN. MAY 8

SAT. APR 30 ROOSTER PRESENTS

BURY MIA

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

MR. MOTA’S GRADUATION PARTY

KNUCKLE PUPS, HIGH STREET JOGGERS CLUB FRI. MAY 6

GOOD TO SEE YOU 2022

HENRY ROLLINS MON. MAY 9

WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE FRI. MAY 13 LAUGH LINES COMEDY PRESENTS

HARLAND WILLIAMS SUN. MAY 15

DAVID BROMBERG QUINTET TUE. MAY 17 PERFORMING DISRAELI GEARS & CLAPTON CLASSICS

MON. MAY 9 INDIE 102.3 PRESENTS

THE CHURCH 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 SAT. MAY 14 88.5 KGNU PRESENTS

THE MUSIC OF CREAM FEAT. WILL JOHNS & KOFI BAKER THU. MAY 19 105.5 THE COLORADO SOUND PRESENTS: 50TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

AN EVENING WITH BRUCE COCKBURN SUN. MAY 22

105.5 THE COLORADO SOUND PRESENTS: PICKIN’. GRINNIN’. TELLIN’ STORIES. TAKIN’ REQUESTS TOUR

TODD SNIDER THE CODY SISTERS

MON. MAY 23 VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH TOUR

THE PINEAPPLE THIEF FEAT. GAVIN HARRISON THE CYBERIAM

SAT. MAY 28

START MAKING SENSE

105.5 THE COLORADO SOUND & AVERY BREWING PRESENT

TUE. MAY 17

SUNBATHE, DISTANT FAMILY

NILÜFER YANYA FRI. MAY 20

Slacker Spring Fest with Habstrakt, Method, HARVE, Ryne. 9 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Tickets: $25-$35

MIKE, REDVEIL

ROOSTER PRESENTS THE PURPLE TOUR

TASHA, ADA LEA

Dead Pay Rent. 8 p.m. Supermoon, 909 Walnut St., Boulder

FRI. APR 29

FREDDIE GIBBS

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

★ Thursday, April 28

SLACKER SPRING FEST

WED. APR 27

THU. MAY 12

Friday Crap: Addicted 222 Music. 7:30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder. Tickets: $15-$20

ETHNO

THU. APR 28

THE SPACE RABBIT TOUR

PALM PALM

Rina Sawayama with HANA. 8 p.m. Ogden Theatre, 935 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

Tickets: $22-$27

BOOMBOX FEAT. BACKBEAT BRASS

SHEER MAG, PINKSHIFT

DELTA SPIRIT

★ Tuesday, April 26

97.3 KBCO, WESTWORD, PARTY GURU PRODUCTIONS & TERRAPIN CARE STATION PRESENT

HABSTRAKT, METHOD, HARVE, RYNE

PUP

ROOSTER PRESENTS

★ Monday, April 25

JOEY DOSIK

SAT. APR 23

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

AEG PRESENTS: STAND FOR MYSELF TOUR

Goldstein and Hwang-Williams: Piano and Violin. 7 p.m. Muse Performance Space, 200 E. South Boulder Road, Lafayette. Tickets: $10-$20

THE GREYBOY ALLSTARS

SLACKER UNIVERSITY PRESENTS

MON. APR 25

FRI. APR 29

★ Sunday, April 24

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LIBRA

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: I recommend you adopt a limitation that

will enable you to claim more freedom. For example, you could de-emphasize your involvement with a lukewarm dream so as to liberate time and energy for a passionate dream. Or you could minimize your fascination with a certain negative emotion to make more room for invigorating emotions. Any other ideas? You’re in a phase when increased discipline and discernment can be liberating.

TAURUS

APRIL 20-MAY 20: “Imagining anything is the first step toward creating it,” wrote author and activist Gloria Steinem. “Believing in a true self is what allows a true self to be born,” she added. Those are excellent meditations for you to focus on right now, Taurus.

The time is ripe for you to envision in detail a specific new situation or adventure you would like to manifest in the future. It’s also a perfect moment to picture a truer, deeper, more robust version of your beautiful self—an expanded version of your identity that you hope to give birth to in the coming months.

GEMINI

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Gemini author William Butler Yeats won a

UPCOMING CONCERTS and EVENTS at THUR. APRIL 21

SUN. APRIL 24

WED. APRIL 27

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METROPOLITAN JAZZ “CONTEMPORARY JAZZ” ORCHESTRA

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Nobel Prize for Literature, so I conclude he had considerable talent and wisdom. But he cultivated interests and ideas that were at variance with most other literary figures. For example, he believed fairies are real. He was a student of occult magic.

Two of his books were dictated by spirits during séances. In the coming weeks, I invite you to draw inspiration from his versatile repertoire. Welcome knowledge in whatever unusual ways it might materialize. Be eager to accept power and inspiration wherever they are offered. For inspiration, here’s a Yeats’ quote: “I have observed dreams and visions very carefully, and am certain that the imagination has some way of lighting on the truth that reason has not, and that its commandments, delivered when the body is still and the reason silent, are the most binding we can ever know.”

CANCER

JUNE 21-JULY 22: You know what’s always good for your well-being? Helping people who are less fortunate and less privileged than you. To enhance your health, you can also fight bigotry, campaign against the abuse of animals, and remedy damage to the natural world. If you carry out tasks like these in the coming weeks, you will boost your vigor and vitality even more than usual. You may be amazed at the power of your compassion to generate selfish benefits for yourself. Working in behalf of others will uplift and nurture you. To further motivate you, here are inspirational words from designer Santiago Bautista: “I am in love with all the gifts of the world, and especially those destined for others to enjoy.”

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: “There is a moment in each day that Satan

cannot find,” wrote author and artist William Blake. Here’s how I interpret his poetic words: On a regular basis, you become relatively immune from the debilitating effects of melancholy, apathy and fear. At those times, you are blessed with the freedom to be exactly who you want to be. You can satisfy your soul completely.

In the next six weeks, I suspect there will be more of these interludes for you than usual. How do you plan to use your exalted respite from Satan’s nagging?

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Poet Louis Little Coon Oliver (1904–1991) was a member of the indigenous Mvskoke people. He declared, “I do not waste what is wild.” That might mean something different for him than what it would mean for you, but it’s an excellent principle for you to work with in the coming weeks. You will have more access than usual to wildness, and you might be tempted to use it casually or recklessly. I hope that instead you harness all that raw mojo with precision and grace. Amazingly, being disciplined in your use of the wildness will ensure that it enriches you to the max and generates potent transformative energy.

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: I suspect you will have the skills of an acrobat in the coming weeks—at least metaphorically. You will be psychically nimble. Your soul will have an exceptional ability to carry out spry maneuvers that keep you sane and sound. Even more than usual, you will have the power to adjust on the fly and adapt to shifting circumstances. People you know may marvel at your lithe flexibility. They will compliment you for your classiness under pressure.

But I suspect the feats you accomplish may feel surprisingly easy and breezy!

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: A Tumblr blogger named Af-70 gives copi-

ous advice. From his wide selection of wise counsel, I have selected six tips that are right for your needs in the coming weeks. Please study the following counsel. 1. “Real feelings don’t change fast.” 2. “Connect deeply or not at all.” 3. “Build a relationship in which you and your ally can be active in each other’s growth.” 4. “Sometimes what you get is better than what you wanted.” 5. “Enjoy the space between where you are and where you are going.” 6. “Keep it real with me even if it makes us tremble and shimmer.”

SAGITTARIUS

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: Consider putting a sign on your door or a

message on your social media that says something like the following: “I’ve still got some healing to do. While I’m making progress, I’m only partway there. Am open to your suggestions, practical tips, and suggestions for cures I don’t know about.” Though the process is as yet incomplete, Sagittarius, I am proud of how diligent and resourceful you have been in seeking corrections and fixes. My only suggestions: 1. Be bold about seeking help and support. 2. Be aggressive about accessing your creativity.

Expand your imagination about what might be therapeutic.

CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: “To uncover what is hidden in my soul might

take me a week or two,” my friend Allie told me. I told her she would be lucky if her brave and challenging exploration required such a short time. In contrast, some people I know have spent years trying to find what is buried and lost in their souls: me, for instance. There was one period of my life when I sought for over a decade to find and identify the missing treasure. According to my astrological analysis, you will soon enjoy multiple discoveries and revelations that will be more like Allie’s timeline than mine: relatively rapid and complete. Get ready! Be alert!

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: A Thai cook named Nattapong Kaweenuntawong has a unique method for cooking the soup served in his Bangkok restaurant. At the end of each night, he saves the broth for use the next day. He has been doing that daily for 45 years. Theoretically, there may be molecules of noodles that were originally thrown in the pot back in 1977.

In accordance with current astrological omens, I urge you to dream up a new tradition that borrows from his approach. What experience could you begin soon that would benefit you for years to come?

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: Pisces-born Casimir Pulaski (1745–1779) was a Polish nobleman and military commander. As a young man, he fought unsuccessfully to free Poland from Russian domination. Driven into exile, he fled to America, arriving during the Revolutionary War with Britain in 1777. General George Washington was impressed with Pulaski’s skills, making the immigrant a brigadier general. He distinguished himself as a leader of American forces, exhibiting brilliance and bravery.

For that excellence, he has been honored. But now, over two centuries later, his identity is in flux. DNA analyses of Pulaski’s remains suggest he was an intersex person with both male and female qualities. (Read more: tinyurl.com/PulaskiSmithsonian.) I bring this to your attention, Pisces, because the coming months will be a favorable time to question and revise your understanding of your identity. May you be inspired by Pulaski’s evolving distinctiveness.

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APRIL 21, 2022

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Mad north-north-west

‘The Northman’ blends hypnotic visuals with a bland story

by Michael J. Casey

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Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. —Ancient Chinese proverb

T

here’s a lot about The Northman that is ancient and just as much that’s mythic. It’s Shakespearean in its bones, but touches of Confucius, Sophocles and Wolfram von Eschenbach are never far from reach. There’s even a surprising tribute to Disney’s The Lion King, which really shouldn’t be too surprising considering that both movies share similar source material.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the story: Viking King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke) has been mortally wounded and worries he will not live to ON THE BILL: see his young prince, Amleth (Oscar Novak), grow to be a The Northman man. Amleth must be initiated, Aurvandil tells Queen Gudrún opens in wide re(Nicole Kidman). He is but a boy, she protests. Nonsense, lease on April 21. the dying king retorts; my grandfather ruled when he was 13.

True, the fair queen responds, but he had to kill his uncle to do so. Even those unfamiliar with Shakespeare’s Danish play know director Robert Eggers is laying it on thick.

The Northman is familiar territory for Eggers, even if it is his first shoot outside the U.S. and with a mighty budget ($80 million reportedly). What’s familiar is the historical research and period detail—or what I assume to be historical research and period detail. As with The VVitch (2015) and The Lighthouse (2019), The Northman is a particular brand of madness stitched together by scholastic study.

Back to young Amleth—rhymes with Hamlet—who goes on the run after uncle Fjölnie the Brotherless (Claes Bang) murders Aurvandil in cold blood and takes Gudrún as his bride. Amleth vows to return to Iceland to murder his uncle, free his mother and reclaim his kingdom. Ah, the salad days of youth.

Years pass, and Amleth (Alexander Skarsgård) returns to Iceland with surfer’s abs, stooped shoulders and a one-track mind. He’s a warrior, and a pretty adept one at that, posing as a slave to get close to Fjölnie. I’m not so sure about the efficacy of Amleth’s plan, but it does get him close to Fjölnie. So close, Amleth could probably jump him and snap his neck. But Amleth waits. And waits. And waits a little more. For some, murder is murder. For Amleth, it’s delayed sexual gratification.

The Northman is teeming with ambition. The ninth century is not a tidy time to be alive, and Eggers and co-writer Sjón wallow in the muck and mire of existence, the viscera of battle. Some of it is spectacular—Amleth scales a fort using only his ax, and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke captures Skarsgård doing it in one unbroken take.

Blaschke’s cinematography is one of the highlights of The Northman. The images are dripping with violence, but they are also arresting and hallucinatory at the same time—ditto for Louise Ford’s editing, which puts viewers in a headspace somewhere between prophecy and madness.

Eggers and Sjón’s script is episodic, each section introduced by titles presented in runes. Accompanied by Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough’s ominous music, these section headings provide a dramatic touch but also give the proceedings the rote feeling of a paradigm. That’s disappointing, particularly in the third act, when a revelation threatens to undermine Amleth’s vengeance but fails to derail it. If Eggers intends to show how revenge—life-long revenge—corrupts and corrodes and consumes everything that is good and holds hope, then the ending of The Northman falls back on the old heroic same old same old. Some might find glory in it. For the rest, it’ll just feel empty and familiar.

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SUSAN FRANCE

Over easy

After 36 years of huevos, pie and kindness, Dana D passes the torch at the Walnut Cafe

by John Lehndorff

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T

he Walnut Cafe was cooler than your average breakfast joint from the moment Dana Derischweiler bought it in 1986. It was also highly unlikely to survive.

In fact, only a handful of Boulder eateries serving in 1986 remain open, including the Flagstaff House, Falafel King, Dot’s Diner, Sushi Zanmai, Lucile’s and The Sink.

The Walnut Cafe was one of Boulder’s first eateries to ban smoking, serve espresso drinks and specialize in traditional American pie. It was a place where everybody from old farmers to Naropa students were welcomed for eggs with a choice of two side dishes.

On Derischweiler’s final official Sunday morning before retirement at the original Walnut Cafe, she sat outside with her wife, Xanthe Thomassen, sipping coffee as well-wishers and memories swirled around them.

We talked about her unlikely and unexpected path from teen track star and would-be teacher to respected restaurateur, community leader and icon in Boulder’s LGBTQ community.

You just couldn’t be gay: “I was born in Dennison, Texas. That’s where I learned my manners. We moved to Pueblo when I was 11. I was an athlete and left to study phys-ed and coaching at Colorado State University. I was going to be a teacher but two things coincided. I got sober and I came out. I knew I couldn’t go into a profession where I couldn’t be myself. Back then you had to be hidden.

You just couldn’t be gay.”

An entrepreneur is born: “I started working at the Walnut Cafe in Denver and learned about the food business. I was offered a partnership in the Walnut Cafe in 1986. My parents loaned me $24,000 dollars to get started. The Walnut was losing money. We didn’t have any customers. In ’86, it was at the edge of town.”

APRIL 21, 2022

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DANA DERICHSWEILER

put heart, soul and a lot of love into Boulder’s Walnut Cafe. With her retirement, two longtime employees, Ashley Parzych and Ariel Cooke, are set to take over the eatery.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

The thing about pie: “Tuesday was always the slowest day of the week business-wise, so I decided to call Tuesday ‘Pie Day.’ I love pie because pie is accessible, not pretentious, but when I started, I didn’t know how to bake. I was such a little tomboy growing up. The family story is that the only thing I was allowed to cook was garlic bread and I always burned it. My great aunts in Texas sent me recipes and I told them I would name the pies after them. I learned. These women were great cooks” All kinds of diners: “We’ll have people coming in from church all dressed up and someone crossdressing sitting at the counter. We have Republicans, we have Democrats. There’s nothing gay about breakfast, pie or coffee.”

Leading with love: “I was my own boss so I could be who I was. That was the precedent we were going to SUSAN FRANCE follow for all people—staff, customers and purveyors. It wasn’t anything extraordinary, but there are so many stories.

I’d have a parent call me and say: ‘Thank you so much for being who you are. My son just came out to me this morning at the Walnut Cafe because he felt comfortable.’”

Serve by being yourself: “People used to think that all the employees at the Walnut Cafe were gay, but it was never true. We’ve always wanted people working here who love this job. We tell them we’re never going to make them wear a name tag or read a script.”

Where the athletes are: “I’ve always loved to cycle and hike and do triathlons.

The big money sports get a lot of recognition. I thought there was this need to honor endurance athletes. That’s why we have the Wall of Fame (at the original Walnut Cafe). There are runners, triathletes, cyclists, some world champions and Olympians and local heroes. They love the carbs at the Walnut.”

Kindness during a pandemic: “I had decided to retire but then COVID happened. It was the biggest challenge of my career. I just could not go out that way. We knew we had to step up. Xanthe and I put $25,000 in an account for our employees. We told everyone that if you want to donate, we are going to help anyone who needs it. So many people in the community sent money. I was so overwhelmed by the generosity.”

Passing the torch: “The new Walnut Cafe owners are Ashley Parzych and Ariel Cooke. They’ve both been here a long time and worked their way up from servers to general managers. When we finally got the restaurants back up and running, it was really time to move on. The girls realized there was an opportunity, but I didn’t want to push them. They’re like my daughters. They really know the core values and who we are in the community.”

Celebration and consolation: “The Walnut is the place where people come for graduations, birthdays, anniversaries and also when they are grieving. We needed to be there when there were fires, floods and terrible things in the news. That’s why it was so important to get the Southside Walnut open again after the shootings at King Soopers. People want to come where they are comfortable.”

Breakfast is a long-term relationship: “When you’re going to go to the same place over and over again, you want to have a relationship there. We have a gentleman in his 80s who has been coming into the Walnut almost every day since I started working here. He sits at the counter. Everybody knows him and what he wants. He walked in on my last day. I gave him a big hug and we both just cried for an uncomfortable amount of time. He says: ‘This has been my home.’ I’m sure he was in there again today.”

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!

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

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APRIL 21, 2022

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

First Sip boozes up a Boulder spring

by Matt Maenpaa

F

MATT MAENPAA

or 15 years, First Bite Boulder has been celebrating the county culinary scene with tasting menus and dining deals. Now, the organization is trying a different sort of celebration with Boulder County’s blossoming bar scene. With more than 30 participating bars, restaurants and distilleries, First Sip Boulder is challenging cocktail and wine enthusiasts to sample something new and different at the end of April.

Running from April 28 through May 1, First Sip participants are flexing their cocktail menus and wine lists to entice locals through the doors and onto patios just in time for warmer weather. The event is two years in the making, according to First Sip communications director Rachael Caraluzzi, and the shackles of pre-fixe menus have come off.

“Each restaurant really chose what was an authentic fit for them and their diners and what they wanted to showcase, so we have an array of things happening,” Caraluzzi says.

From Vapor Distillery and Cafe Aion’s FIRST SIP pairings of chocolate, cheese and whiskey, to BOULDER: A celcocktail classes hosted by Japango and OAK ebration of Boulder at Fourteenth, to international tasting tours of County libations from more than 30 wine from wine-education magazine Opening restaurants and A Bottle, First Sip offers some interactive bars, running from experiences for discerning drinkers.

April 28 through Those looking for a more self-guided experience can May 1. scope out the participant list at the website firstsipboulder. com, with more options than any one human should drink in a long weekend. Caraluzzi says establishments that haven’t participated in First Bite events in previous years have jumped on board, including Lafayette’s Acreage by Stem Ciders, Niwot’s Farow and Boulder’s Blofish.

Some spots, like Ash’Kara, are leaning into the social aspect of tasting events like First Sip. Ash’Kara’s tableside cocktail—a 64oz Cointreau-and-tequila concoction called “The Ritual”— is intended to be shared by at least six people. If the thought of a full gallon of cocktail is daunting, or you just don’t want to drink with that many people, Ash’Kara is also offering single servings.

Most participants are offering bolstered discounts and happy hour menus during the four-day event, showcasing some house favorites that include wine flights and snacks. For newer restaurants like Farow, located in the former Lucky Pie space in Niwot, it’s an opportunity to lure in new guests to sample their farm-totable kitchen and sustainably curated wine list.

Farow’s specialty cocktail for First Sip is called the Martin on Michigan, a striking cocktail that walks the line between martini and Manhattan. Blending gin, sweet vermouth and maraschino with the Scandinavian botanical spirit

aquavit, the Martin on Michigan is a remarkable libation. The bite of gin and slight bitterness of vermouth are quickly balanced out by the carraway notes from the aquavit, finishing with a sweetness from cherry and citrus that encourages a second sip, followed by a second round. It manages to be light and refreshing, while still intensely flavorful.

“For me, it’s the perfect cocktail for this in-between season we’re in,” says Farow co-owner Lisa Balcom. “We’ve got some talented folks behind the bar coming up with some really fun stuff like this.”

Farow chose the Martin on Michigan for its First Sip offering because it highlights the creativity and simplicity the restaurant offers throughout their menu, Balcom explains.

“Our food is creative but it doesn’t have 10,000 ingredients. We let each ingredient shine in its own right and they blend the way they’re supposed to when put together, but nothing overpowers or overshines,” Balcom says. “I think that’s representative in this cocktail. It lets everything play and shine in its own way.”

Farow is well worth a trip up the Diagonal, and First Sip is as good an excuse as any. As for the rest of the First Sip participants, there are no wrong choices. Support your favorites, find something new and start hydrating now to combat the inevitable hangover.

Contact the author with comments or questions at mattmaenpaa@gmail.com

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Acreage by Stem Ciders Ash’Kara Avanti F&B Basta Blofish Bohemian Biergarten Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse Cafe Aion Cocktail Caravan Corrida Dagabi Cucina Dedalus Dry Storage Farow Frank’s Chophouse & Tavern Fringe, A Well-Tapped Eatery Gemini

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Ghost Box Pizza The Greenbriar Inn Japango Ku Cha House of Tea Leaf License No. 1 Mojo Taqueria OAK at Fourteenth Precision Pours Coffee + Bakes R Gallery + Wine Bar Rayback Collective Sanitas Brewing Supermoon T/ACO Verde Zucca Italian Ristorante

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

JOHN LEHNDORFF

by JOHN LEHNDORFF

Ferncliff Food & Fuel

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he highway between Nederland and Estes Park is a scenic joy, but not without its culinary attractions. On a recent mountain excursion, we stopped at Ferncliff Food & Fuel, a combination gas station, grocery store, deli, bakery and mountain town gathering spot. The self-described “biggest little small town in the world” is a little less than an hour’s drive from Boulder. A sign touted the Ferncliff’s “famous” scratch-made jumbo cinnamon rolls. We sampled one of the giant pastries, unrolling spongy cinnamon-laced bites glazed with sweet cream cheese frosting. It was well worth stopping for.

Ferncliff also offers the next-door Cliffside Tacos. Nearby in Allenspark, the Meadow Mountain Cafe is open. Across from the town’s natural spring tap, the former Fawnbrook Inn is being reborn as a pizzeria.

Another Roadfood Attraction: Bubu at Grange Hall

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JOHN LEHNDORFF

he recently opened Grange Hall in Greenwood Village is an island of original flavor in a sea of same-old chain eateries along I-25. The food hall features the fourth location of Denver chef Troy Guard’s Bubu, a bowl-based eatery named after bubu arare, the tasty Japanese rice cracker snacks. It’s fast casual but I liked the fresh-is-best, scratch-made-everything approach when I stopped by for an aloha poke bowl. Spicy marinated tuna, haricots vert, hearts of palm, edamame, wakame seaweed and potent kimchi were layered over steamed rice and topped with soy onion dressing. You can build a bowl with salmon, grilled tiger shrimp, steak and chicken, then crown it with well-made toppings like charred broccolini and crispy shallots. Other composed bowls range from the OG Colorado (with roasted carrots, quinoa, green chilies) to the Thai bowl (with green papaya salad).

Grange Hall also features a number of other eateries: J. Dawgs, Eiskaffee, Tilford’s Pizza, Xatrucho, Uptown & Humboldt, and The Crack Shack. The food and beverage hall is near Pindustry, a new multi-story gaming and entertainment complex.

Culinary Calendar: Summer Food

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n April 22, 100% of the proceeds from the vegan Earth Day lunch at Jill’s Restaurant benefits Lyons-based Greenwood Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. … Sip craft brew April 22 and 23 at Lafayette’s Odd13 Brewing and take in the Deep Space Drive-In art projections on the nearby Mary Miller Theater. … Summer dinners at Lafayette’s Three Leaf Farm are scheduled for June 12, July 17, Aug. 14 and Sept. 11. threeleaffarm.com …

Summer dinners to benefit nonprofit organizations at The Farmette in Lyons include: Aug. 10: Forage Sisters/Slow Food; Aug. 17: Jax Fish House and Alberto Sabbadini/Mad Agriculture; Sept. 7: Blackbelly/Sophie’s Neighborhood. lyonsfarmette.com … This is the time of year when bees swarm. Don’t panic—be a pollination protector! Contact a beekeeper who will come collect the swarm at: coloradobeekeepers.org

Boulder Recipe: A summer salad Food Lab recently shared this raw Brussels sprouts salad that is perfect for summer gatherings paired with grilled foods.

Upcoming classes at the cooking school include Fresh Pasta (May 5) and Plantbased Sichuan (May 24).

FOOD LAB

Food Lab Brussels Sprouts Salad

1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed and sliced thin 1 cup peppadew peppers, sliced thin 5 pieces of thick cut bacon, cooked and coarsely chopped 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped 1/2 cup olive oil 1/4 cup champagne vinegar Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Pour oil and vinegar with salt and pepper into a large bowl. Add rest of ingredients, preserving some basil and bacon to top with. Mix well and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Send information about summer 2022 food events, classes, farm stands, tastings and festivals to: nibbles@boulderweekly.com BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Conscious cleansing

Kundalini yoga teacher Julia Dunbar lightens Boulder County’s spiritual load

by Emma Athena

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e’re seated on yoga mats in a softly lit room with a brightly colored wall: reds, oranges, yellows, greens, blues, purples and whites swirl around each other—all vibrant hues commonly associated with the chakras, the seven-part energy system first described in The Vedas, the oldest of Hinduism’s spiritual texts, compiled between 1500 and 1000 BCE after generations of oral tradition.

In a simplified sense, if you’re striving for inner peace and/or access to your “true self,” you want your chakras open—energy flowing freely and calmly between mind, body and spirit—and so, like any system with moving parts, a maintenance routine is in order. For centuries, cultures across Asia have relied on yogic practices for self and social care, engendering community harmony and balanced, spiritual lives.

Kundalini yoga, or the Yoga of Awareness, is a blend of breathwork, asanas (physical postures), mudras (hand gestures) and mantras (repetitive words and phrases) used to help cleanse or clear out energetic stores and tension held throughout the body—things that distract from or obstruct access to one’s true self.

Think of the relief your mind feels once your sinuses drain after a cold-induced head-fog. Now, imagine that sensational exhale releasing from the entirety of your physical and emotional spheres.

With an emphasis on repetition and closed eyes, the invigorating practice stimulates the mind and shakes up the body in a contained and controlled way—important, considering such motions and movements “can bring up a lot of emotions,” explains Julia Dunbar, a Boulder-based Kundalini teacher and energy worker with warm eyes and nearly a decade of experience. “We carry a lot as humans,” so the releasing can be powerful.

“The body is so intelligent, and when we can clear what’s stuck in the body, then we can be clear,” says Dunbar, a student of Guru Singh, a third-generation Sikh yogi and master of the Kundalini arts who ultra-endurance athlete Rich Roll describes as “my treasured friend and favorite sparring partner when it comes to matters of heart and soul.”

Dunbar is leading our seated group in the room with the chakra-colored wall; she opens the Kundalini class (held Thursdays and Sundays at Longmont’s Sol19 Yoga Studio) with a seated meditation and mantra chant: Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo, translation: “I bow to the 28

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Creative Wisdom, I bow to the Divine Teacher.”

We then begin to activate the body, specifically our chakra spaces, by swirling our chests in clockwise and counterclockwise circles; then we sit upright and intensely shrug our shoulders up, down, up, down, up, down, and so on for a few minutes before spending another series of minutes quickly rotating our shoulders side to side, side to side, side to side, like sprinkler heads. We do other exercises like bending over halfway, placing our hands on the ground, and bending our knees repeatedly to lift and lower, lift and lower, lift and lower our hips. We exhale sharply and quickly as we swing our fists one at a time from our navel up overJULIA DUNBAR head, arcing up and down, like “energetic windshield wipers” clearing gunk from our auras.

Prolonged for minutes at a time, the short, fast, repetitive movements, often paired with two- to four-syllable chanted phrases, create something of a trance, where the outer world falls away, leaving the inner world with undivided attention: each breath, each mantra, each Kundalini motion becomes an invitation to stay in or return to the present moment—a type of active meditation—a gift of relaxation for the nervous system, as past and future render themselves irrelevant.

While the benefits of yoga and meditation, and specifiINFO BOX: Kundalini cally of Kundalini, on the mind Yoga with Julia and body have been underDunbar. Noon stood and taught to students Thursdays; 12:45 p.m. for centuries (Sanskrit texts Sundays; Sol19 Yoga detailing Kundalini concepts Studio, 1350 Ken Pratt date back to the 15th century), Blvd., Longmont, 720-600- in many ways, western sci4868, sol19yoga.com ence and culture are just now Pricing: $24 for a drop- catching up. in class.

A 2013 study from UCLA shows that consistently engaging in the Kundalini practice of Kirtan Kriya (a 12-minute mantra meditation with a series of small, repetitive hand gestures) can increase levels of telomerase—an enzyme that protects our chromosome ends from shortening, thereby affecting how our cells age; higher levels of telomerase led to the study’s “meditation group” having lower levels of “stress-induced cellular aging” when compared to the control/“relaxation group.”

Scientists are particularly excited about how this may APRIL 21, 2022

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help Alzheimer’s patients.

The Kirtan Kriya meditators also showed “significantly lower levels of depressive symptoms and greater improvement in mental health and cognitive functioning”—65.2% of practitioners registered a 50% improvement on the Hamilton Depression Rating scale, and 52% showed a 50% improvement on the Mental Health Composite Summary score of the Short Form-36 scale.

(That’s compared with 31.2% and 19%, respectively, in the relaxation group.)

According to the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, other studies show practicing Kundalini improves blood flow to the brain, reverses memory loss, eases depression and decreases inflammatory genes while increasing healthy ones.

Dunbar herself stumbled upon Kundalini at one of the lowest points in her life. With a year-old child, she was processing a separation from the baby’s husband, facing life suddenly on her own. When she walked into a yoga studio in Atlanta, Georgia, where she lived at the time, she didn’t know what she was about to enter; let alone did she think Kundalini would change her life. “It was a therapy for me,” she says. “I felt like it brought me back home.”

Now more than ever, considering our digitally abstract world, we need ways to connect to ourselves, our inner homes. As Guru Singh told Rich Roll’s podcast, “If a person can learn a technique to go down inside themselves and evaluate themselves, they’ll find out that in fact they’re OK the way they are.” By quieting or disempowering the world’s distractions (never-ending material cravings, particular aesthetic desires, etc.), one creates an environment where real healing can take place: “A place where I can feel that I don’t have a hole: I am whole. I am complete,” Guru Singh said. It’s catharsis.

This inner work is contagious, in a good way, Dunbar and Singh argue. “When we take time for these practices, we’re doing it for the whole collective, you know?” Dunbar says. “Sometimes we want to do more, more, more for the global whole, but sometimes the best thing you can do is clear your own energy, so you can go around and look at everyone you meet with the light that they sometimes forget, because you access it frequently.”

The day Dunbar leads our session at Sol19, chinook winds are bellowing across the Front Range, flossing the trees, sweeping the streets, stirring the grasses. Lying in savasana pose after Dunbar leads us through the Kirtan Kriya, I feel the pressure of gravity differently; the new lightness is obvious, less intense, or like I’ve somehow shed a 50-pound weight from my chest; the winds have passed through me, too, dislodging and flushing what had built up in my joints and thoughts; I feel like, for once, I could be as simple, as proud, as content as a cloud, even, perhaps, the good sun herself.

Contact the author with comments or questions at eathena@boulderweekly.com BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Dear Dan: I’m seeing a woman after nearly a decade of being mostly single. Everything is wonderful; she’s Dear Dan: I’m a 59-year-old, cis, het, funny, intelligent, creative, ambitious and kinky Dominant woman. I’ve been in the challenges me constantly. The sex is pheD/s lifestyle for about 10 years. Last year a nomenal—I’m 50, but she makes me feel 20 younger man found me on Fetlife. We mesyears old. She’s also into a fair amount of saged and met for coffee. I was impressed kink, whereas my sex life up until now has with his maturity and self-awareness. We’ve been fairly vanilla. Aside from a couple of had a wonderful time meeting about every drunken threesomes in my bartending days, two weeks to play and explore. During that I’ve had a plain (but satisfying!) sex life. time we discovered that he really loves This new situation is very exciting, but also pegging. I’ve pegged him several times, somewhat daunting. We have talked about and he’s told me he’s slightly addicted to a number of things—role play, bondage, the incredible orgasm he receives when choking, among others—and I really want being pegged. One of our D/s rules is that to be as good a partner to her as I can be, he ALWAYS has to ask permission to come. but I really have no idea how to start. Two No matter what we’re doing, other complications: I’m not ROMAN ROBINSON he must ask. And he always by my nature an aggressive or has. However, the last time I dominant person and I abhor pegged him with my vibratviolence directed at women. I ing dildo, I realized he was recognize in my logical brain coming without permission. I the difference between viosaid, “Bad boy, you didn’t ask lence and consenting kink, but permission!” He was stunned my lizard brain echoes with and responded, “What? Am the voice of my grandmother I?”, and then shot an even and father. Any advice? bigger load. We were talking Books, podcasts, etc., where afterwards, and he swore an old dog can learn some he didn’t know he was comnew tricks? ing until I said something.

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Attack of the lobbyists: SAM

While both Representatives Caraveo and Garnett are Democrats, many of the organizations that helped fund and craft HB 1317 are deeply rooted in conservative values. Organizations like Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), the nation’s leading anti-marijuana nonprofit policy organization, had a big hand in HB 1317’s passage. SAM is working hard and investing a lot of money to fight legalization in every state and push for increasingly strict regulation—just like Colorado got with HB 1317.

“We’re really proud to have been behind that,” Luke Niforatos, SAM’s chief of staff and senior policy advisor, says. “We were really happy with the way the regulations turned out on the medical side [with HB 1317].”

Niforatos explains SAM is the “top organization holding the [marijuana] industry accountable.” SAM’s position is that “big cannabis” is profiting off “cannabis addiction,” which Niforatos argues is rising at alarming rates across states with legal cannabis. SAM is doing everything it can to stop that exploitation, he says. Addiction to any drug in any form (but especially cannabis) is something he wants to prevent.

“It’s called ‘cannabis use disorder,’ and that has been going through the roof over the last decade since they started legalizing it,” he says, referencing a study on the Centers for Disease Control’s website that says three-in-10 cannabis users are addicted to the substance. That study, however, published in JAMA Psychiatry, looked only at data from 2001-2002 and 2012-2013, comparing those two years’ reported rates of cannabis use disorder.

“That’s what we call addiction for profit,” Niforatos says. “And that’s something we want to stop.”

Notably, when asked if he was concerned about the caffeine industry’s exploitation of addiction for profit, Niforatos laughs dismissively. “Caffeine does not [impair you],” he says. “So it’s not even really in the same conversation.”

As for cannabis use disorder (CUD), according to a

Colorado Democrats worked with anti-cannabis lobbying organizations to pass HB 1317, regulating concentrates and limiting patient access to medicine

by Will Brendza

T

he Regulating Marijuana Concentrates bill (HB 1317) passed last year and went into effect on January 1, 2022. Sponsored by Representatives Yadira Caravero (D-Thornton) and Alec Garnett (D-Denver), the bill was publicized as an effort to protect children from the dangers of high-potency marijuana (see Weed Between the Lines, “Concentrated regulation,” July 1, 2021).

However, opponents of the bill, like Kevin Gallager, the executive director of the Colorado Cannabis Manufacturer’s Association (CCMA), say HB 1317 only harmed Colorado’s medical marjuana patients.

He argues that it limits patient access to medical products that they rely on day-to-day. It reduces the amount of medication medical patients can purchase, requires twice as many physician’s recommendations (doubling the price of a medical card), and puts doctors in a legally tricky spot by requiring them to include dosage and potency recommendations (edging dangerously close to cannabis “prescriptions,” which are illegal for medical doctors to give).

Many within Colorado see this bill as a huge step backwards for a pro-cannabis state. It’s a big reason why Colorado’s “medical cannabis access grade” was knocked down to a C+ in 2022 by Americans for Safe Access (ASA) (see Weed Between the Lines, “Front of the medical middle,” March 3, 2022). HB 1317 harms patient rights and civil protections, according to Abby Roudebush, ASA’s director of government affairs. And it does so without just cause.

“We are suing the state to stop this bill from being enacted because it violates so many areas of the law,” Martha Montemayor, director of Cannabis Clinicians Colorado (CCC), says. “It simply shouldn’t be implemented.”

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study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence in 2019, CUD has actually been decreasing across the country since states began legalizing cannabis. Using data pulled from 2002 through 2016 from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the researchers looked at yearly prevalence of CUD, cannabis dependence and cannabis abuse, examining those trends over time.

That study concludes, “Contrary to expectations, CUD prevalence decreased significantly across all ages reporting daily/almost daily cannabis use between 2002–2016. Cannabis dependence prevalence decreased for adolescents and young adults and was stable only among adults ages 26+ reporting daily/almost daily cannabis use.”

The federally funded Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey also found that youth maijuana use “decreased significantly” in 2021 despite state reforms like HB 1317.

In a press release, National Institute on Drug Abuse director Nora Volkow said they’d never seen such dramatic decreases in drug use among teens in just one year.

Niforatos nevertheless calls marijuana legalization and the subsequent CUD rates a “public health concern.”

“We really want to put public health first and protect families and kids from the harms of addiction,” Niforatos says.

“And we want science to lead the way in the industry.”

According to SAM’s 2018 990 forms, the organization’s 501(c)(4) made $4.4 million and its 501(c) (3) made $3.8 million that year. The (c)(4)s 990s do not itemize contributions to SAM; and those for SAM’s (c)(3) don’t include any information on specific donors. SAM then invests that money to get bills like HB 1317 passed, according to Niforatos.

He was very open—even boastful—about SAM’s nonprofit support for HB 1317, its active involvement in lobbying for the bill, advocacy for it, and “input into the writing of the text.”

Gallager, with the CCMA, says SAM’s opposition to cannabis goes far beyond any moral concerns about addiction or public health. It’s about financial interests preserving their specific profits, he says.

“This isn’t a ‘Just Say No’ campaign,” Gallager says.

“SAM is a war chest aimed at dismantling the industry.”

Contact the author with comments or questions at wbrendza@boulderweekly.com

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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APRIL 21, 2022

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