Boulder Weekly 5.5.2022

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The art family

Levin A family of artists turns out sculpture, abstract wood carving and upcycled fashion from their East Boulder studio

by Will Brendza

The outdoor industry has a new director, p. 9

Erik Deutsch’s white night, p. 19

A summer full of food and drink events, p. 24

2022

ROAD TRIPPIN’ Take a trip and take a friend.

BOULDER | LONGMONT | BROOMFIELD

This Is What Drives Us.

Official mobility partner of Colorado Athletics.

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: 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 May 5, 2022 Volume XXIX, Number 35 Cover photo, Susan France (sculpture by Mitch Levin) As Boulder County's only independently owned newspaper, Boulder Weekly is dedicated to illuminating truth, advancing justice and protecting the First Amendment through ethical, no-holds-barred journalism, and thought-provoking opinion writing.

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

690 South Lashley Lane, Boulder, CO, 80305 p 303.494.5511 f 303.494.2585 editorial@boulderweekly.com www.boulderweekly.com Boulder Weekly is published every Thursday. No portion may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. © 2022 Boulder Weekly, Inc., all rights reserved.

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 We do not publish anonymous letters or those signed with pseudonyms.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

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Rent relief in St. Paul and the Polis betrayal

by Mark Fearer

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wo very different stories have big implications for renters.

Hard work paid off in St. Paul

While the economic noose tightens around Colorado renters as they suffer through ever worsening rent hikes, the strictest rent control (RC) measure in the country went into effect a few days ago. In a sparsely covered election result last year, St. Paul, Minnesota voters passed a law capping all rents, at 3%. And while virtually all other RC cities exempt new construction (to the consternation of activists and tenants), the new St. Paul law will not exempt new MAY 5, 2022

construction. Additionally, this law will not allow vacancy decontrol, a method landlords use to increase rent to whatever they want when a tenant moves out.

The three-year effort to pass this law by a coalition of community and neighborhood groups was vastly outspent, but had broad support from tenants and their supporters and ultimately from many homeowners.

In spite of it passing by a comfortable margin, there are ongoing efforts by the St. Paul City Council and its allies (landlord, realtors and homebuilders) to undo or weaken the measure, which went into effect l

several days ago.

According to the city’s website, “The Residential Rent Stabilization Ordinance, approved by St. Paul voters in November 2021, limits monthly rent increases to 3% in any 12-month period even when tenant(s) move out. The ordinance is intended to ensure that St. Paul residents have access to affordable housing, while also acknowledging property owners’ right to a ‘reasonable return on investment.’”

But opponents on the St. Paul City Council, along with the mayor, have modified the rent cap. see UNREPENTANT TENANT Page 6

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

news:

Under new leadership, Colorado’s outdoor recreation industry capitalizes on collaboration and COVID-fueled growth

by Emma Athena

adventure:

Neptune Mountaineering’s Thursday Night Events return, with Tommy Caldwell, ‘Cuddle,’ and the debut of some cult climbing shoes

by Will Brendza

cover:

A family of artists is turning out sculpture, abstract wood carving and upcycled fashion from their East Boulder studio

by Will Brendza

overtones:

Erik Deutsch on Italian pests, finding the chill, reconnecting with old friends and just letting it grow

by Dave Kirby

nibbles:

Your guide to a season full of local food and drink festivals, markets, fairs, tastings, classes and contests

by John Lehndorff

9

Safe, full capacity dining, and outdoor patio. Bar open.

13 14 19 24

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The Unrepentant Tenant: Rent relief in St. Paul and the Polis betrayal City Beat: Minimum wage debates, gun control and a full docket for next week’s City Council meeting Film: ‘I Know Where I’m Going!’ kicks off The Film Foundation’s new screening series Events: What to do when there’s nothing to do Astrology: By Rob Brezsny Savage Love: Quickies Drink: Building a bar, one ingredient at a time Cuisine: From tacos and wine to chocolate and chilies, your guide to Colorado’s top summer and fall festivals Weed Between the Lines: Biden grants clemency for 78 nonviolent cannabis convictions, but the political gesture falls short

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UNREPENTANT TENANT from Page 4

The online publication Twin Cities Pioneer Press reports, “Landlords seeking to increase rents more than 3% but less than 8% can ‘self-certify’ such requests by submitting an intake form to the city. Larger increases would require an appeal to a city hearing officer.” These hardship requests would require landlords to justify that exemption and can include property taxes, repairs and maintenance, utility costs (if paid by landlord), fees, etc.

While the St. Paul mayor admitted the RC measure has strong support from voters, he wants to see the law weakened to exempt new construction and allow for vacancy decontrol. RC proponents have pushed back. Perhaps as a result, he recently created a 41-member rent stabilization stakeholder group of tenants, landlords, realtors, nonprofit and community groups and residents.

“The new committee, according to the mayor’s office,” the Pioneer Press reported, “is expected to explore key components of rent stabilization policies that exist nationwide, including rent caps, variations of tenancy decontrol, what types of exceptions and exemptions exist, and ways to administer rent stabilization policy.”

Knowing there would be efforts to gut the law, RC proponents wisely added a provision that would prohibit City Council from overturning the law for at least a year.

Next door in the larger city of Minneapolis, the way is clear for voters there to pass a rent stabilization law next year. Housing activist groups (and the landlord industry) around the country are watching what happens there. And we in Colorado can watch with envy—but perhaps get inspired.

Colorado Governor gut punches rent control

Gov. Jared Polis decided to dropkick mobile home owners (MHOs) last month and by extension, renters.

In my April 7 column (see The Unrepentant Tenant, “The downward mobility of owning a mobile home,” April 7, 2022), I was optimistic because a bill that would help MHOs passed out of committee. It had a lot of protections for some of Colorado most vulnerable population, but the one that drew the most fire regulated skyrocketing rents on mobile home lots. In spite of knee jerk reactions

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SO, HERE’S THE BIGGER POINT: A multi-millionaire who says local governments should decide on mask mandates has no patience for those same entities making their own decisions about affordable rental policy. against all forms of rent control, the bill passed out of committee with the rent control provision intact.

But our Boulder-based multi-millionaire governor put a stop to that, much to the relief of Republicans and landlords/mobile home park owners everywhere. He threatened to veto the entire bill if the RC provision wasn’t stripped out of it.

In a painful decision, the bill sponsors and supporters felt the other protections were too important to risk a certain veto and pulled that provision. There’s a fairly good chance it would have passed the full House and Senate, even with all Republicans opposing it—but it probably wouldn’t have passed by a veto-proof majority.

To be clear, his veto threat was aimed at mobile home owners—not tenants directly. But there’s a 99% chance he would make the same threat if a bill trying to repeal the ban on rent control for the much larger population of residential tenants, ever got close to him.

Polis is almost certainly a libertarl

ian at heart and has been progressive on a number of other issues. But he has proven to be a big friend to Republicans and other economic conservatives by opposing unions, more progressive tax policy, and now rent control.

So, here’s the bigger point: Since Polis seems to despise rent control and the Dems seem unwilling and/or unable to go up against him, there’s virtually no chance for a repeal of the ban on RC this year. If he wins re-election this November, that means it’s unlikely the ban on rent control will be repealed until at least 2026.

In other words: A multi-millionaire who says local governments should decide on mask mandates has no patience for those same entities making their own decisions about affordable rental policy.

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

Send letters to the editor to letters@ boulderweekly.com

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Minimum wage debates, gun control and a full docket for next week’s City Council meeting

by Shay Castle

BOULDER COUNTY PICKS UP PRE-COVID MINIMUM WAGE WORK A higher minimum wage is back on the work plan for the Boulder County Consortium of Cities, a group of area elected officials. That’s according to Boulder City Council member Lauren Folkerts, who will serve on a working group for that purpose, with the blessing of her peers.

Folkerts on Tuesday night told Council that the consortium was looking into “trying to adopt a minimum wage ordinance collectively.”

There was discussion about raising the minimum wage in 2019, before COVID decimated local government budgets and household incomes for most low-wage earners.

Colorado voters raised the state minimum wage in 2016, and the Legislature three years later overturned the state ban on local minimum wages. Just 10% of Colorado municipalities may set a minimum wage; about 33 local governments.

The City and County of Denver are so far the only ones to have done so. Denver’s minimum wage is now $15.87 per hour, 26% higher than the state’s $12.56 minimum.

A July report found that average weekly earnings in Denver were higher and rose more quickly than state average earnings and those of surrounding counties, even during the pandemic. Unemployment was also higher, and sales tax suffered, but those were attributed to COVID. Boulder County will look to Denver’s ordinance as a model, Folkerts said. They hope to have something in place by the end of this year.

“It’s still early stages,” Folkerts said, “but I know that there are a bunch of surrounding communities that are interested in making it happen.”

GUN CONTROL ON THE DOCKET Speaking of local laws the state is now allowing...

Boulder this year decided to redo its 2018 ban on assault weapons, struck down by the courts last March, after Colorado lawmakers overturned the state ban on local gun control measures.

They went further, proposing a half-dozen new laws as well that would raise the age limit for purchase and possession of a firearm to 21; require gun stores to post a health warning about the dangers guns pose to their owners, children and others; adding a 10-day waiting period for purchase and banning concealed carry near parks, playgrounds, churches and other public spaces.

Council largely embraced the suite of laws, aimed at preventing gun violence, when they were discussed in February, recommending few changes.

The revised language of the proposed ordinances has not yet been released.

Timing was TBD during that discussion. City leaders discussed a desire to coordinate with other Boulder County municipalities to pass the same set of laws, including Superior, Lafayette and unincorporated Boulder County.

The schedule is now set. First reading of the ordinances will be May 10, followed by a second reading on May 24. Council will vote on the laws June 7; a three-hour public hearing has been scheduled.

The first time Boulder passed an as-

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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sault weapons ban, the public hearing lasted hours, with more than 100 community members packing chambers to speak. The city was (successfully) sued soon after its passage.

Lawyers in that case, who were backed by a state NRA affiliate, told Boulder Beat they were prepared to “stand up for” the rights of gun owners again if new laws were enacted.

SEE YOU NEXT TUESDAY Council will vote on a new vision for East Boulder, the area roughly east of Foothills Parkway and north of Arapahoe Avenue. Today, Boulder’s least populated subcommunity has just 466 residents in 213 mobile homes at San Lazaro. (Other nearby neighborhoods are part of different subcommunities.) The mainly industrial area has mostly jobs: 17,666 of them, at places like Boulder Community Health’s Foothills Campus, the Flatiron Business Park, Ball Aerospace and others.

In 20 years, under new plans, the area could have 20,400 jobs and 5,645 new homes, enough for roughly 12,500 residents. (Keeping zoning and such the same would produce 18,600 jobs and housing for 1,300 residents during that same time, according to analysis by city staff.)

Planning Board and City Council got a rundown Tuesday night in a joint meeting. Planning Board will deliberate and make recommendations Thursday, May 5.

Also next week: an update on the city’s attempt to tax weed vapes, even though they were specifically exempted from the 2019 tax, and a first look at what will be on your ballots this fall.

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

Send letters to the editor to letters@ boulderweekly.com MAY 5, 2022

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Sleeping giant no more

Under new leadership, Colorado’s outdoor recreation industry capitalizes on collaboration and COVID-fueled growth

by Emma Athena

A

round age 8, Conor Hall started doing primitive skills courses with his siblings near their home in Crestone, “kind of tucked under the towering Sangre de Cristo Mountains,” he says, “one of the weirder mountain towns out there, and I say that fondly.”

They didn’t have cable TV, just parental encouragement “to spend every waking moment running around in the San Isabel National Forest, in our backyard.” Things got dirty, but no one cared.

“I just loved, loved, loved being in the outdoors,” he says. “And so, to this day, probably where I’m most comfortable is out in nature—where I go to recharge, where I go to think.”

And Hall has a lot of thinking to do these days. In February, at age 32, he took the reins of Colorado’s Outdoor Recreation Industry Office (OREC) and now leads the state’s efforts to protect and expand opportunities in and around outdoor recreation, an industry which his office says contributes 511,000 jobs and $37 billion in annual consumer spending to Colorado—and a job Hall infuses with an expertise in the combined arts of wilderness survival, U.S. politics, and conservation economics.

Prior to his appointment as director of OREC, Hall spent three years working for the Trust for Public Land, a conservation organization hyper-focused on equitable access to nature.

There, he helped raise billions of dollars in public funding for conservation and access enhancement, and won upwards of 50 pro-environment ballot measure campaigns across the U.S. Before that, Hall served in former-Gov. Hickenlooper’s cabinet as director of external affairs and senior advisor, then advised Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential campaign as senior advisor on climate and conservation.

In his early 20s, Hall beat a Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancer diagnosis, too. He’s an alumni of First Descents, an outdoor adventure program designed for young adults impacted by cancer based out of Denver, a program through which he now mentors other young, active people with cancer.

IAN FOHRMAN

“While I’m new to this role as director, I’m certainly not unfamiliar with this office and the rationale behind why it was created and what it does,” Hall says. In fact, he worked closely with Gov. Hickenlooper when Colorado’s OREC office was formed in 2015— the second such office in the nation, following Utah. Hall then collaborated regularly with the inaugural OREC director, Luis Benitez. “[Outdoor recreation] is truly, in many ways, the lifeblood of this state,” Hall says. It’s “integral to our quality of life.... Nearly 93% of Coloradans recreate in some form or fashion in the outdoors every year; it’s just an amazing state—it’s tough to find 93% of folks that do [the same of ] anything anywhere.”

But in 2022, two years into a pandemic that pushed people outside like never before, Hall inherited an outdoor recreation scene more populous, passionate and politicized than ever. According to the Boulder-based Outdoor Industry Association (OIA), 2020 saw the highest U.S. outdoor recreation participation rate on record, with 53% of people age 6 and over recreating outside—7.1 million more people than in 2019. “It just skyrocketed to unprecedented levels,” Hall says.

This has led to reports of crowding, issues related to first-time users, and some trail-related conflicts—not just in Colorado but throughout public lands across the nation—challenging land management

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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CONOR HALL is agencies, local the new director of governments Colorado’s Outdoor and social Recreation Industry organizations Office. to adapt to crowds and provide education about responsible outdoor recreation.

Not long after the initial March 2020 lockdowns, Boulder County rangers began reporting higher visitation numbers and surging trail usage, says Vivienne Jannatpour, Boulder County Parks and Open Space (BCPOS) public information and engagement manager. Ultimately, visits to BCPOS properties increased 45% from 2019 to 2020.

“We found a lot of people who were visiting open space for the first time, and that was a big change,” she says.

Pre-pandemic, park visitors were “very familiar with open spaces and barely looked at our kiosks,” but suddenly folks at trailheads had lots of questions, and many were also “getting themselves in a little bit of trouble because they would not be prepared, you know, or not know their own physical limits,” she explains.

BCPOS quickly prioritized educational outreach, inter-agency collaboration and staffing as their chief focuses over the last two years. They implemented a trailhead ambassador program, added more seasonal summer rangers, and joined forces with eight county, state and federal public land MAY 5, 2022

agencies from north-central Colorado to create NoCoPLACES250, a forum to collaborate on the response to challenges the mountains and foothills are facing from high visitation and a growing population.

In Boulder County, “the biggest stress point was in parking,” Jannatpour says. To help, BCPOS has installed and recently announced live trailhead cameras at parking lots for people to evaluate crowds and their chances of getting a parking spot (bouldercounty.org/open-space/parks-and-trails/ live-trailhead-cameras/).

And while crowds may spoil spirits on switchbacks, they’re helpful elsewhere; the surge in outdoor interest has crystallized the outdoor industry’s political power, shined a light on its demographics, and mobilized Colorado as a multifaceted role model.

Seven years ago, Nicole Brown founded Women Who Hike, a global online community that connects and supports women who enjoy hiking.

Organized through regional Facebook groups, every U.S. state has a page, in addition to several Canadian provinces, Europe and Australia. Colorado, Brown says, is the organization’s biggest group; nearly 40,000 women across the state belong to the private, Colorado-specific Facebook page where they can ask each other questions, share resources and coordinate meet-ups.

When the pandemic hit, Brown also saw “this new influx of users”— they were flooding the message boards, asking for advice on where to go, what to do, and how to do new things outside. She noticed this surge first in Colorado, and as it spread across the globe, the organization turned to Colorado’s group as an example for others.

These digital forums became critical education spaces as Women Who Hike collaborated with other outdoor organizations and local agencies to streamline and strategically target responsible recreation messaging. Concurrently, women were stepping up to help educate each other. “What we saw in Colorado first see OUTDOOR REC Page 10 9

OUTDOOR REC from Page 9

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very five years, Boulder County Parks and Open Space (BCPOS) conducts a system-wide demographics and satisfaction survey. Due to COVID, the 2020 study was delayed a year, pushing the survey collection to the spring and summer of 2021, when trained BCPOS staff and volunteers collected 2,261 exit surveys (with a 72% response rate and a Spanish-language option) at 15 BCPOS park properties.

Key survey findings, published May 2022, show the average BCPOS park visitor: • lives in Boulder County (76%) and has lived here for 10 or more years (46%) • likely lives in Boulder (24%) or Longmont (20%), and is between 25-44 years-old (39%) or 45-64 years old (36%) • self-identifies as white (93%), and traveled to a BCPOS park by car (89%)

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Of BCPOS users, 6% identified as Hispanic, Latino/a/x or Spanish (a demographic comprising 14% of Boulder County’s population); 4% identified as Asian (comprising 6% of the County); 2% were Black and/or African American (comprising 1% of the County); 93% of visitors identified as white (comprising 92% of the County).

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of a sleeping giant because it’s so widespread and decentralized,” Hall says. “Not to say that there haven’t been strong voices there, but, you know, it’s been much less effective, I would say, than other industries like the pharmaceutical or the automobile industries, both of which, on a national level, [outdoor recreation is] larger than, in terms of economic output. And so that [has been] the idea: to give voice, give power, start to organize that industry.”

Part of the evolving work has entailed “putting nature, our public lands, in that economic frame,” Hall says, which has helped “see [outdoor recreation] in a whole different light” and added new, economic-driven people to pro-conservation teams.

“Especially when you’re dealing in politics and government, those numbers are incredibly helpful in increasing funding for conservation, or creating these types of offices to advocate and convene around this industry,” Hall says. “So I think [economic value of outdoor recreation] is a really important argument—it’s not the only argument, but it’s a wildly important one.”

NEW BOULDER COUNTY OUTDOOR REC DATA PAINTS A PICTURE

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was women asking other women who were seasoned solo hikers, [then other groups reaching out to Colorado, saying]: ‘I see that you guys hike solo; how do I do that safely? And where do I do that safely?’”

And despite the pandemic’s isolating circumstances, the group’s ability to build community and activate grew too; women began looking for COVID-safe hiking partners—people “who align with how [you] deal with COVID,” Brown explains, and that led to other values-based matchmaking throughout the summer of 2020, which, in turn, elevated conversations about how public policy affects outdoor recreation. “We hope that, come local elections and midterms and everything, that people know these things that much more and are empowered to, like, move on them, vote on them, be part of the process.”

Hall, too, understands the amplifying value of collaboration, which he underscores by explaining the strategic positioning of OREC’s office in the state’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade—money connects everything, afterall, and from there his office can easily collaborate with any other state agency.

“Historically, this industry—while always being huge and important—has been a bit

MAY 5, 2022

Visitors primarily hiked (55%) or biked (21%), the survey found. People also viewed wildlife (21%), picnicked (6%), went fishing (3%), among other outdoor activities like photography/art (11%). And the average visitor did not experience conflict with other visitors on the trail (95%)—most visitors (75%) did not feel crowded while at the trailhead or on the trail itself.

In 2021, BCPOS’s busiest month was June; in 2020, it was May. Summer (June-August) typically records the County’s park system’s busiest season, with Saturdays and Sundays seeing 40% of overall visitation, and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. as peak usage time both during weekdays and weekends. l

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COURTESY SENDER FILMS

Return to Neptune

Neptune Mountaineering’s Thursday Night Events return, with Tommy Caldwell, ‘Cuddle’ and the debut of new cult climbing shoes

by Will Brendza

T

ommy Caldwell had expected a long haul. He and Alex Honnold had embarked from the ranger station in Rocky Mountain National Park at 5:15 a.m. with the explicit intention of linking 17 of the most popular climbs in the park as fast as they could. It would be over 65 pitches, 20,000 vertical feet and 35 miles of nonstop mountaineering in some of the most iconic and challenging terrain Colorado has to offer, a route they called the Continental Divide Ultimate Linkup—or CDUL (pronounced cuddle).

What the professional climber and Estes Park local did not expect, however, was to end up climbing a wall with his friend in the dead of night, undersupplied, underdressed and using a phone tucked inside his hatband for a makeshift headlamp.

“We didn’t meet up with one of our support-crew people and we ended up climbing for like eight hours in the middle of the night in shortshorts and without food for a really long time. And we ran out of water for a really long time. And, you know, it definitely didn’t go perfectly,” Caldwell says. “It was one of the first experiences I’ve had that have been caught on film, at least, where I got my butt kicked a little bit.”

Despite the challenges, the power duo smashed the linkup. They completed the never-before-successfully-linked-in-full 35-mile route in 36 hours.

It’s a bewildering accomplishment, says Cameron Martindell, marketing director of Neptune Mountaineering; and the film documenting it, Cuddle, is fantastic, he adds.

“It’s just classic Tommy and Alex, tongue in cheek, not taking themselves too seriously. But they are serious climbers, with some serious objectives,” Martindell says.

Cuddle premiered at the March 2022 Reel Rock tour and will air at the long-awaited May 5 return of Neptune Mountaineering’s Thursday Night BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Which was exactly the case with Cuddle.

“It makes for these really authentic movies because we’re not actually trying to make movies,” Caldwell says with a chuckle. They simply provided Sender Films with the clips they recorded on their phones and the production company filled in the rest with post-production magic, B-roll and athlete interviews shot well-after the fact.

At Thursday’s event, Caldwell will of course be answering questions and talking about the film and the CDUL linkup adventure. But, he says, it’s also partly a place to debut the new iteration of the TC Pros, a climbing shoe he designed with La Sportiva. The same shoe he was wearing when he and Honnold took RMNP by storm. “[The TC Pros] have a cult following and people totally geek out on them,” Caldwell says. “So we’re going to kind of give the lowdown on the redesign of the TC Pros [at Neptune’s event].”

This is just the beginning, Martindell adds. From this Thursday on, Neptune will be hosting other professional adventurers, as well as lesser known names, locals and Neptune staff members who have exciting and meaningful outdoor stories to share.

They’re diversifying the lineup to include as much of the community as possible, he says.

“We want to inspire people to get out and adventure for themselves, and to set their own lofty goals,” Martindell says. Next Thursday, May 12, Neptune will host Jim Davidson, who was climbing Mount Everest in 2015 when Nepal was hit by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, causing massive avalanches, mass destruction and trapping over 100 climbers—Davidson included—on the upper mountain. It’s a chance to hear an amazing story, to win a pair of LOWA hiking boots, and to support rebuilding efforts in the earthquake affected parts of Nepal. Tickets are available on Neptune’s website.

The May 5 event with Caldwell and the showing of Cuddle is already sold out, but hopeful attendees can still sign up for the waitlist online.

And if you don’t make it, fear not: You can still stream Cuddle on your own at home, from the Reel Rock website. You’ll just miss the party.

“This is how we bring people together,” Martindell says, clearly excited for Thursday Night Events to return. “This is all about community.”

Contact the author with comments or questions at wbrendza@boulderweekly.com DETAILS: Tommy Caldwell presents Cuddle at Neptune’s returning Thursday Night Events. See Neptune’s website for tickets and future Thursday presentations.

Events series. Caldwell himself will be there to answer questions about the adventure and to talk about his new TC Pro climbing shoes—which he says accompanied him on the CDUL. “The pandemic gave us a little pause there,” Martindell says of Neptune’s Thursday Night Events.

“But we’re kicking off with a big name like Tommy Caldwell just to help energize the stoke.”

Martindell explains Neptune’s Thursday Night Events go back to the 1970s. Gary Neptune started them as a way to foster community and bring Boulder’s outdoor enthusiasts together. Now, their triumphant return marks the turning of a new page and the beginning of a new chapter.

And what better way to celebrate that than with a film about one of the most ambitious mountaineering linkups ever attempted in Colorado?

“We really didn’t think we were going to make a movie out of this one,” Caldwell says. He and Honnold have been on other big climbs together before, he explains; and they’ve gotten into the habit of shooting video clips throughout their adventures.

In part for their own documentation, but also in case a video production company like Sender Films decides to make a short movie about it. l

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MARLA RUTHERFORD PHOTOGRAPHY

The art family Levin

A family of distinct artists is turning out sculpture, abstract wood carving and upcycled fashion from their East Boulder studio

by Will Brendza daughter] Madi,” Mitch says. “I think it’s really important for parents to nurture and support that.”

Today the three independently successful artists share a studio and gallery space together at East Boulder’s Studio 5.5.

It’s where their distinct styles confluence, enhancing one another’s work, contrasting each other and, of course, exchanging inspiration and influence.

“One thing that we all like is change,” Susie says.

“And I swear every week we evolve slightly.”

Their evolving ideas, methods and styles couldn’t be more different, though. Susie often draws detailed sketches of her ideas first, refining them on paper before seeking out the perfect pieces of wood, the right textures and the color palette to bring it to three-dimensional abstract life. Mitch, by comparison, flies by the seat of his pants, constantly collecting widgets and knicknacks, turning ideas and plans over in his mind, tinkering and cross-assembling different found objects and old machines over time, churning them in his mind before they eventually emerge in their final form.

Funny enough, Madison says her approach lands somewhere between her parents’. But the thread stitching them all together is their appreciation for upcycled, recycled and found art of all forms.

“We find beauty in things that other people might look at and think, ‘That’s a piece of junk,’” Madison says. “We’re like, ‘No, I think that’s beautiful. That’s something to me.’”

SUSIE LEVIN

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rt runs thick in the Levin family blood. Mitch and Susie have been crafting, creating and designing their entire lives, professionally and personally, first in Chicago, then here in Boulder since 2013. They nurtured and encouraged that same creative capacity in their daughter, Madison, who helped her parents work art booths at festivals and fairs, listening and learning from her parents’ creative processes, developing her own style and building an art business of her own.

And within their son, who became an architect and now lives near Breckenridge.

“Both of us as young [artists] were very supported by our parents,” Mitch says. His own parents had supported him in his decision to go to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Susie’s parents encouraged her as a little girl to draw on the walls of their basement, painting murals that would stay there for more than 20 years.

“We’ve tried to do the same thing with [our

The Cobbled Street

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a fashion statement expresses the message far more poetically. Especially when someone designs their own fashion statements by hand.

Naturally, Madison Levin’s inventory of 14

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MAY 5, 2022

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upcycled fashion says a lot about the artist herself: All her pieces are made from repurposed textiles or clothing she’s come across in her frequent thrifting adventures and enhanced with her distinct theatrical panache. She says her designs are heavily influenced by her background in acting, with almost costume-like qualities.

“I’m such an old soul, creating these timeless pieces is a really big part of who I am ... it’s a combination of putting a lot of passion and emotion and that element of fun into [creating] clothes,” Madison says. “When you put on a piece of clothing you’re going to wear for the day, that really feels like you. I just love that. You feel really comfortable in your own skin.”

Madison graduated from CU and moved to New York City before the Boulder bubble drew her back in 2018.

Since then she’s been working as an artist, mixing and matching fabrics, sewing clothes and conjuring up designs in the loft she shares at Studio 5.5 with her mother, Susie. Their space, attached to the Levin family gallery BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

SUSAN FRANCE

stores—specifically Art Parts Creative Reuse Center.

It’s a hobby not so unlike her father’s obsession for hunting down foundart-parts at Resource Central—and it fuels her with the same kind of upcycle inspiration.

The abstract path

(but separate from the noise, dust and hustle-bustle of Mitch’s high-voltage makerspace) is a neat and comfortable refuge for Madison to stitch her magic, turning out wildly unique apparel.

Fashion isn’t Madison’s only artistic passion, though.

Growing up surrounded by art, she says she’s drawn to creative expression in all forms: She’s an illustrator with a Tim Burton-esque flair for character creation and costume design; she collects antique items that she also sells on her online store, The Cobbled Street, that match her vintage aesthetic; she makes her own jewelry from found items, writes poetry, has an interest in interior design and is even writing her own novel.

What does she do when she isn’t toiling away in her studio space, engaged in some creative pursuit?

“Thrifting and antiquing,” she says. Madison spends a lot of time perusing Boulder’s secondhand, fabric, vintage and craft BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

Susie Levin was 5 years old when she picked up her first paint brush. That early introduction led to a lifetime love of art that she’s never let go of.

MADI LEVIN Before becoming a full-time studio artist, Susie was an art director in print. When she met Mitch, he was an art director in television. But when the two creatives came crashing together, her pursuit of art took on a whole new, more abstract form. They inspired each other and pushed each other, and by the mid-’90s, she says they’d both transitioned out of their “real-jobs” and were pursuing their passions: running a successful art business and raising their two kids in Chicago.

“We started doing art fairs and everything just took off,” Susie says. They sold art at some of the biggest art fairs across the country, their daughter Madison helping them along the way, learning the business side of selling art, as well as the business of making it.

Susie’s work has evolved a lot since those early days and it’s evolving still, she says. But she’s undoubtedly honed in on her specific style of abstract art: painting wood panels with carved elements, unique brushed textures, acrylic and latex. Each of her original pieces is designed almost architecturally, Susie says; and she’s never made the same piece twice. l

MAY 5, 2022

“I’m not like your usual LEFT: The Art abstract artist that just wings Family Levin, in their element, at Studio 5.5 it. I preplan,” Susie says. It’s a TOP: Mitch Levin’s habit from her past as a graphSS Espresso Bean ic designer. Before starting on INSET: Madi Levin’s any piece, she does very tight, Cobblestone Street very detailed illustrations of booth at the Firefly her vision. Then she “puts her Artisan Market order in with Mitch,” she explains; and he’ll find exactly the right sized and shaped pieces of wood, panels or other materials the next time he goes to Resource Central.

“I work directly on the wood panels now. I don’t work on canvas anymore for my abstracts,” Susie says. She likes sanding and layering the paint, working “loose” on the raw wood. It’s taught her to embrace imperfections and be more accepting of mistakes.

“Often having something that’s not perfect, is perfect to me,” she says.

“I believe that with people, I believe that with everything now—imperfect is better.”

Even for Susie, who’s abstract pieces are thoroughly blueprinted ahead of time, there’s an element of spontaneity and a sprinkle of whimsy that works its way into her art. Which she says is essential to how she and her family continue to grow.

“Our family very much believes in always evolving your work,” she says. “Never stay static and do the same thing. We all are really good at that.”

The high-voltage maestro

“I have to show you this, check it out,” Mitch Levin says, walking briskly across the Studio 5.5 makerspace, past the band saw and the drill press, around a table filled with power tools, to a large, extremely detailed, copper zeppelin airship prominently displayed on a long see LEVIN Page 16 15

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LEVIN from Page 15

table. “This is a 1970 espresso machine three burner. I had this idea a year-and-a-half ago, to turn this into a steampunk airship.”

He shows me how he’s motorized the ship with a spinning rotor blade in back, how it lights up from within the espresso machine and illuminates from within its linen balloon that would presumably hold it aloft. He points out a small metal orb onto which he painstakingly soldered a tiny world map “for the pilot to navigate with,” and indicates the captain’s spyglass beside it.

“And what if he happens to blow up?” Mitch asks, not waiting for an answer before picking up a smaller steampunk ship. “He hovers over the water and then he has this little submarine.”

The pieces are titled “SS Espresso” and “SS Espresso Bean” respectively, he explains with pride.

It’s a wildly detailed kinetic sculpture, made completely from found and recycled objects that Mitch says he’s been collecting for years. This is his latest big project, a perfect example of the kind of art that Mitch has carved out a name for himself with, and a glimpse into how the man’s imaginative mind works.

Every single element of this ship, no matter how small or unassuming, has a story and a reason for being there—it all means something, and the longer you look, the more meaning it takes on.

“I like to look at all these things and then gather them in my head and then not look at them for a while, and let them go through in this spaghetti sauce in my mind and come out whatever way it comes out,” Mitch explains. He’ll spend uncounted hours collecting parts for his pieces at Resource Central or elsewhere, coming up with ideas for how to improve or evolve them along the way.

“That’s how I’ve always worked with my pieces,” he says. And more often than not, the end result is something that’s as bright, thoughtful and electric as the artist himself.

In a lot of senses, Studio 5.5 is just another one of Mitch’s eclectic artworks. He shares the gallery space with Susie and Madison, who have their own private studio space above it. But the space where Mitch works is the artist collective side of Studio 5.5—where a rotating cast of wood-workers, ceramicists, luthiers, porcelain artists, welders, jewelers and more rent work spaces from Mitch and all practice their crafts alongside each other. At any one time when you walk into Mitch’s studio you might see him welding a steel sugar skull, while another artist paints fired clay jars, beside another making furniture, and another crafting knives and daggers.

It’s a collection of artists and artisans assembled very much in the style of Mitch Levin’s sculptures and signs. And for Mitch, it’s a self-sustaining source of inspiration and influence.

“We all work in the same studio space, and even though we work independently there’s crossover there,” Mitch says. In his eyes, artistic influence is constantly happening, both consciously and subconsciously, for everyone. “Walk by anyone in this space, and even if you don’t engage them, you’re going to be influenced by what they’re working on ... We get inspired and we get influenced by art. That’s what artists do.”

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

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

‘It’s all been arranged!’

‘I Know Where I’m Going!’ kicks off The Film Foundation’s new screening series

by Michael J. Casey

E

ngland, 1944: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger want to make a movie about an English bomber pilot and an American radio operator falling in love—in this world and the next. They envision a Technicolor fantasia unlike anything seen. The only problem is there’s a war on, and color film stock is rationed. If they want to make a movie, it will be in black and white. What about? How about the story of a girl who wants to go to an island but can’t, Pressburger offers.

Why can’t she, Powell asks. Well, Pressburger says, why don’t we write it and find out?

The result is I Know Where I’m Going!, a singular work that is less a movie and more a gossaON THE BILL: mer dream captured on celluloid. Joan (Wendy Hiller, For The Restoration outstanding) is an ambitious young woman who always Room’s full lineup knows where she’s going. Today, it’s off to the Scottish and screening island of Kiloran, where she’ll marry Sir Robert Bellinger, a sign-ups, visit wealthy industrialist too old to fight at the front but not so delphiquest.com/ old he can’t make a killing funding it. Sir Bellinger never film-foundation/ appears on screen, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to restoration-screenknow he is well beyond Joan in years and probably half as ing-room energetic.

The reason Sir Bellinger is never seen is because Joan fails to arrive. A terrific storm has settled between Kiloran and the Isle of Mull, where Joan is stranded. Lucky for her—but not so much for Sir Bellinger— Joan won’t have to wait alone: The storm has also stranded Naval officer Torquil MacNeil (Roger Livsey, also outstanding) on Mull. And Torquil isn’t well beyond Joan in years, and he’s got the energy to match. Cue the fireworks.

Familiar as that might sound, I Know Where I’m Going!—IKWIG, pronounced ick-wig by Powell and Pressburger fans—is anything but. Few were enchanted by the magic of setting as was the English-born Powell, and fewer still were enchanted by English customs and language as was the Hungarian-born Pressburger. Known as The Archers, theirs is one of the most impressive and curious careers in cinema. They wrote, produced and directed 16 movies, a string of 6 in the ’40s that still represent an artistic high-water mark few have touched. That they go in and out of fashion is one of the more baffling aspects of cinephilia.

IKWIG is more than a movie: It’s a charge. Watching it makes you want to find happiness. When filmmaker Martin Scorsese encountered IKWIG in the ’80s, it so moved him he had to seek out Powell. But the movie industry left Powell behind, and Scorsese found a forgotten genius working on his memoirs. So Scorsese reignited an appreciation for Powell and Pressburger’s incomparable contributions to cinema, not to mention introducing Powell to his editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, who married Powell in 1984.

Schoonmaker-Powell was pivotal in bringing her husband’s memoirs to publication (A Life in Movies and Million Dollar Movie are among the greatest books on cinema you’ll read) and is currently working on a book of Powell’s correspondences while continuing to preserve and restore The Archers’ films through The Film Foundation, Scorsese’s ongoing charge to preserve and promote cinema worldwide.

Created in 1990, The Film Foundation has rescued and restored over 900 films. Many have played theatrically, and more are available for purchase, but now The Film Foundation is bringing them home via a free monthly series: The Restoration Screening Room. On the second Tuesday of every month, The Film Foundation offers a new restoration with an introduction and conversation shepherded by Scorsese. The series kicks off May 9 with IKWIG, and, naturally, Schoonmaker-Powell will join Scorsese along with director Joanna Hogg, actor Tilda Swinton and filmmaker and Pressburger’s grandson, Kevin Macdonald.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

COURTESY ERIK DEUTSCH

ON THE BILL: Erik Deutsch ‘La Nuit Blanche’ Album Release Concert. 7 and 9 p.m.

Friday, May 6; 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday, May 7, Dazzle, 512 Curtis St., Denver. Tickets: $15-$20.

Erik Deutsch’s white night

The former keyboardist for Leftover Salmon on Italian pests, finding the chill (or letting the chill find him), reconnecting with old friends and just letting it grow

by Dave Kirby

E

rik Deutsch is in an Airbnb in Rome with his wife Victoria and their puppy. In between playing and traveling, they managed to pick up an Italian hitchhiker. Multi-legged, with probably less than benign intentions.

“Hold on a second,” Deutsch requests from the other end of the line. “‘Hey, Victoria, I found another.’ Sorry... our puppy has a few ticks. When you’re hanging out in Umbria, there’s ticks hanging out.”

Yikes, noted!

As travel restrictions eased and Team Deutsch, like most of the rest of world, felt safe to resume travel, the couple took some time to head over to the Old World for performance and tourist stuff and reacquaintance with anywhere-but-home. For his part, Deutsch even managed to land some video teaching work in, of all places, Corsica, famously known as Napoleon’s birthplace if not necessarily as a center of musical training.

We managed to catch Deutsch just a few days before his return to the States, where he’ll be following up on his latest long player, La Nuit Blanche, a mostly acoustic sextet outing recorded in April of last year with his Brooklyn band. A couple of years now removed from his role as keyboardist for Leftover Salmon from 2016 to 2020, from which he walked away amicably in anticipation of a big-name national tour (that ended up not happening), Deutsch has found himself more invested and focused on his solo work than opportunity had granted him over the last couple of decades.

Followers of Deutsch’s solo work will note immediately that the outing, barely 40 minutes in length, is a relatively straightforward ensemble jazz enterprise, barely any overdubs, generally unaggressive compositions (even if retaining Deutsch’s trademark melodic restlessness—part McCoy Tyner, hints of Horace Silver’s playful melodicism, maybe even Brubeck at his most literal) and scant synth or electronic garnish around the edges. A series of melodic statements, sympathetically adorned by Mike McGinnis and Bryan Drye’s horns, a noted reticence from fireworks.

The drowsy, blues-shaded “Martha” and the title track set a relaxed, almost reflective palette, and even when Deutsch calls the band to attention on a couple of more upbeat numbers (“Lockdown,” with its percussive Latin underpinning, and “Fantasma”), the emphasis leans more toward swing and less on kinetics.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

It all sounds, perhaps inartfully described, as a “club album,” as opposed to a “studio album.” The thing coaxes and breathes. A chops clinic, this is not.

“That was... intentional, and necessary,” Deutsch explains. “This band had never played any of this material before we went into the studio. I got my second vaccine shot in New York and I figured, while I was there, if the guys were OK with it COVID-wise, we should maybe try to do a record. I’d written enough music to feel good about it and played it a little bit in Mexico. All I could really do was send the guys some solo piano demos of the music ahead of time.

“Mike and Bryan, they’re a great [horn] section,” Deutsch continues. “They know my music now really well, I’ve been playing with them for over 20 years. I just told them, ‘I want you to play, but not a lot of parts.’ Sort of like (Herbie Hancock’s band) Headhunters, y’know, with Bennie Maupin in there with that bass clarinet.”

But if dialing back the horn section was intentional, it wasn’t necessarily to give Deutsch’s piano more room for the spotlight. Even he approached this record with some timidity.

“When I arrived there, I had barely played live for a year and a half. There was a part of me that wondered if I could even take a blazing solo, like I was doing with Leftover Salmon. I didn’t know, I hadn’t taken that much time off in years. But once I got in, it came out OK. I was playing on this beautiful instrument, a Steinway D, a 9-foot one. It just had such an even tone, and it was so easy to get across the keyboard. What an instrument.” l

MAY 5, 2022

For Deutsch—whose connection to the Boulder/Denver scene extends well back to his days with the touring funk/ fusion band Fat Mama in the late ’90s, birthed mainly from the CU School of Music, and gigs with The Motet, collaborations with lately lamented Ron Miles and others in the local jazz community—his move to New York years ago gave him access to connections and a dizzying array of sideman work; his resume includes names like Norah Jones, Charlie Hunter, The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) and Shooter Jennings. Being an in-demand keyboardist is a good thing. There aren’t enough of them, and if you can read charts, you’re stylistically limber, you can take the time to be out on the road and you’re not a jerk, there’s work.

There just isn’t always enough time to make your own records.

“I don’t know if it’s fortune or what, but my own music has always been on the side,” Deutsch says. “Really since Fat Mama. I’ve had such a wonderful career as a sideman, I get to play with so many great people, and fit my own music in on the side when the time was there, that I still have a lot of room to grow. I’ve always kind of had this patience, like I know there’ll be a time when I can do more of this. And in fact, I don’t really think my music was good enough 20 years ago. With time and age and experience, I think it’s getting better.”

But lest anyone thinks Deutsch has permanently installed his club acoustic piano id, he’ll be the first to insist that the fusion-head side of his musical personality, the one that was blown away by Chick Corea and Herbie back in the day, is still intact.

“In fact, I just ordered an ARP 2600 reissue,” he says.

“This is basically the same thing that, like, Pete Townsend was using on Who’s Next. That stuff was so cool. So, yeah, I’m still that guy also.”

Email questions or comments to editorial@boulderweekly.com l

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

E VENTS

■ Youth Battle of the Bands

EVENTS

6-10 p.m. Saturday, May 7, Nissi’s, 2675 North Park Drive, Lafayette. Tickets: $12-$15, nissis.com Watch some incredibly talented youth bands perform and compete in a variety of genres. A panel of judges paired with audience participation will decide the winners. There will be an Eats and Sweets food truck and a non-alcoholic bar available. Featuring music from: Melon Husk (fifth wave emo), Deadpan (hardcore punk/alt-rock), Desolation Angels (alternative rock) Lazy Realtors (indie/ dream pop), Undissassembled (punk rock) and Robot Tennis Club (alternative rock).

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

■ Pi’erre Bourne with DJ Yung Profit

8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Tickets: $30-$35 In describing Henry Rollins, the tendency is to try to squeeze as many labels as possible into a single sentence. Provocateur.

Humorist. Punk rock icon. Spoken word poet. Actor. Author. DJ. But if Henry Rollins could be reduced to a single word, that word would undoubtedly be workaholic. See the legend faithfully recount the events of his life in the brief pre-COVID period since the last tour and when things got even stranger over the last several months.

8 p.m. Boulder Theater, 2032 14th St., Boulder. Tickets: $23.50-$27.50 Kansas-born, New York-bred Pi’erre Bourne gained fame producing the Billboard-charting singles “Magnolia” by Playboi Carti and “Gummo” by 6ix9ine. Bourne began making beats when he was in elementary school, using FL Studio. The 29-year-old has now produced songs for 21 Savage, Trippie Redd, Rich the Kid, Lil Yachty, Famous Dex, Nav, Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert. In 2021, Bourne won his first Grammy for his production work on Kanye West’s album Jesus is King.

■ Professor Phelyx Mentalist and Magic Show

■ Boulder Symphony presents Music of ‘West Side Story’

■ Henry Rollins

7:30 p.m. Friday, May 6, Grace Commons Church, 1820 15th St., Boulder.

Tickets at bouldersymphony.org Boulder Symphony Conductor Devin Patrick Hughes has created an exciting program showcasing the Boulder Symphony musicians, anchored by music from Leonard Bernstein’s iconic musical, West Side Story. The program will also feature the greatest dances from all over the Americas—from danzons and tangos to salsas and rumbas. Featured are the sultry ballets of Manuel de Falla and Alberto Ginastera, music from the Three Cornered Hat, and Estancia. The event will also feature a composition by a young Chilean composer in a new competition spanning the Americas.

8 p.m. Friday, May 13, The Louisville Underground, 640 Main St., Louisville. Tickets: $15-$70, thelouisvilleunderground.com Performing since 1981, Phelyx has been captivating audiences with his mind-blowing feats of mind-reading and mental-metal-bending. Phelyx has earned seven acclaimed performing artist residencies, including the Clocktower Cabaret in Denver, and his one-man show at the historic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. As an entertainer and speaker, he has charmed and inspired hundreds of thousands of people during his 40-year career.

■ Upslope Get Down Festival 2022

7 p.m. Saturday, May 7, Upslope Brewing Company, 1501 Lee Hill Drive, Boulder. Free Join in the fun at the annual Upslope Get Down, a free music festival with Upslope beer, food trucks, games, art and more. The festival will take over the back parking lot to bring patrons a day of live music on three stages. Anyone under 21 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

■ Frequent Flyers presents ‘Musical Melodies’

2 p.m. Saturday, May 7, and 7 p.m. Friday, May 6, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets: $16-$20, thedairy.org Lights! Music! Action! Come experience two unforgettable performances of aerial dance choreographed to songs from famous musicals in Musical Melodies. Frequent Flyers’ Youth Student Company, ages 9-16, showcase their beautiful aerial skills in choreography led by their teachers with creative input from the students.

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

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Boulder Weekly Market

BY ROB BREZSNY

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

ARIES

MARCH 21-APRIL 19: “Choose the least important day in

your life,” wrote Aries author Thornton Wilder. “It will be important enough.” I recommend that you make those your words to live by in the next two weeks. Why? Because I suspect there will be no tremendously exciting experiences coming your way. The daily rhythm is likely to be routine and modest. You may even be tempted to feel a bit bored. And yet, if you dare to move your attention just below the surface of life, you will tune into subtle glories that are percolating. You will become aware of quietly wondrous developments unfolding just out of sight and behind the scenes. Be alert for them. They will provide fertile clues about the sweet victories that will be available in the months ahead.

New merchants and specials added regularly

TAURUS

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APRIL 20-MAY 20: “Every successful person I know starts before they feel ready,” declared life coach Marie Forleo.

Author Ivan Turgenev wrote, “If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin.” Here’s what educator Supriya Mehra says: “There’s never a perfect moment to start, and the more we see the beauty in ‘starting small,’ the more we empower ourselves to get started at all.” I hope that in providing you with these observations, Taurus, I have convinced you to dive in now. Here’s one more quote, from businesswoman Betsy Rowbottom: “There’s never a perfect moment to take a big risk.”

SCORPIO

OCT. 23-NOV. 21: “Cursed are those who feel floods but who can only express a few drops.” So says an internet proverb. Luckily, this principle won’t apply to you in the coming weeks. I expect you will be inundated with cascades of deep feelings, but you will also be able to articulate those feelings. So you won’t be cursed at all. In fact, I suspect you will be blessed. The cascades may indeed become rowdy at times. But I expect you will flourish amidst the lush tumult.

comes a point where you no longer care if there’s a light at the end of the tunnel or not. You’re just sick of the tunnel.” That’s good advice for you right now, Gemini.

The trick that’s most likely to get you out of the tunnel is to acknowledge that you are sick of the damn tunnel.

Announce to the universe that you have gleaned the essential teachings the ride through the tunnel has provided you. You no longer need its character-building benefits because you have harvested them all. Please say this a thousand times sometime soon: “I am ready for the wideopen spaces.”

become natural,” wrote Sagittarian author Willa Cather.

I’m happy to report that in recent months, you Sagittarians have been becoming more and more natural. You have sought experiences that enhance your authenticity and spontaneity. Keep up the good work! The coming weeks should bring influences and adventures that will dramatically deepen your capacity to be untamed, soulful and intensely yourself.

NOV. 22-DEC. 21: “It takes a great deal of experience to

LEO

JULY 23-AUG. 22: “Remember that you will never reach

a higher standard than you yourself set,” wrote author Ellen G. White. That’s true! And that’s why it’s so crucial that you formulate the highest standards you can imagine—maybe even higher than you can imagine. Now is a favorable phase for you to reach higher and think bigger.

I invite you to visualize the best version of the dream you are working on—the most excellent, beautiful, and inspiring form it could take. And then push on further to envision even more spectacular results. Dare to be greedy and outrageous.

VIRGO

AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: Before Virgo-born Leslie Jones achieved fame as a comedian and actor, she worked day jobs at United Parcel Service and Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles. Her shot at major appreciation didn’t arrive until the TV show Saturday Night Life hired her to be a regular cast member in 2014, when she was 47 years old. Here’s how she describes the years before that: “Everybody was telling me to get a real

MAY 5, 2022

SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: “A person must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness.” Author Jean Genet wrote that, and now I’m offering you his words as the seed of your horoscope. If you’ve been attuned to cosmic rhythms, you have been doing what Genet described and will continue to do it for at least another ten days. If you have not yet begun such work, please do so now. Your success during the rest of 2022 will thrive to the degree that you spend time dreaming big in the darkness now.

SAGITTARIUS

MAY 21-JUNE 20: Poet Ranata Suzuki writes, “There

JUNE 21-JULY 22: In the coming weeks, your imagination will receive visions of the next chapter of your life story.

These images and stories might confuse you if you think they are illuminating the present moment. So please keep in mind that they are prophecies of what’s ahead. They are premonitions and preparations for the interesting work you will be given during the second half of 2022. If you regard them as guiding clues from your eternal soul, they will nourish the inner transformations necessary for you to welcome your destiny when it arrives. Now study this inspirational quote from poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “The future glides into us, so as to remake itself within us, long before it occurs.”

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LIBRA

GEMINI

CANCER

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job. Everybody was asking me, What are you doing?

You’re ruining your life. You’re embarrassing your family.” Luckily, Jones didn’t heed the bad advice. “You can’t listen to that,” she says now. “You have to listen to yourself.” Now I’m suggesting that you embrace the Leslie Jones approach, Virgo.

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CAPRICORN

DEC. 22-JAN. 19: “I intend to live forever,” proclaims 66-year-old comedian Steven Wright, who then adds, “So far, so good.” I offer you his cheerful outlook in the hope that it might inspire you to dream and scheme about your own longevity. Now is a great time to fantasize about what you would love to accomplish if you are provided with 90 or more years of life to create yourself. In other words, I’m asking you to expand your imagination about your long-term goals. Have fun envisioning skills you’d like to develop and qualities you hope to ripen if you are given all the time you would like to have. (P.S. Thinking like this could magically enhance your life expectancy.)

AQUARIUS

JAN. 20-FEB. 18: “Stop insisting on clearing your head,”

advised author Charles Bukowski. “Clear your f---ing heart instead.” That will be a superb meditation for you to experiment with in the coming weeks. Please understand that I hope you will also clear your head. That’s a worthy goal.

But your prime aim should be to clear your heart. What would that mean? Purge all apologies and shame from your longings. Cleanse your tenderness of energy that’s inclined to withhold or resist. Free your receptivity to be innocent and curious.

PISCES

FEB. 19-MARCH 20: “The winner will be the one who knows

how to pick the right fights,” wrote author Jane Ciabattari.

Heed her advice, please, Pisces. You will soon be offered chances to deal with several interesting struggles that are worthy of your beautiful intelligence. At least one will technically be a “conflict,” but even that will also be a fruitful opportunity. If you hope to derive the greatest potential benefit, you must be selective about which ones you choose to engage. I recommend you give your focus to no more than two.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BY DAN SAVAGE Dear Dan: I’m a straight man who has been married to a wonderful woman for 35 years. I’m the only person she has ever been with. Over the years she has evolved into a wonderful giving partner open to things that turn me on. I take pride in being able to give her multiple orgasms although she only wants to do this about once per month. She has been happy to give me pleasure multiple times per month even, but she talks of it like it’s a chore (“wifely duties”) and is always asking me why I want it so much. I tell her it is more normal for men to want it more, and I wish she would want it more as well! I have used porn to get off since my teens. She accepts this because it means fewer chores for her, but she doesn’t like it. Recently I started using my phone to take videos of her performing oral on me as I enjoy watching this and it cuts down on the porn. She checked my phone and was upset at what she saw. I told her I was sorry, but she says I should’ve asked for permission. I told her I would have asked for permission, but I knew the answer would be no! She said of course it would be no and she called it sick and gross! I tried to explain again that it is quite normal behavior for most men to want to watch and it is for my eyes only! As I said, she has evolved, as early in the marriage she would have never done some of things she has learned to do while pleasuring me! Long story short, any words of advice on this sexy-for-me, not-somuch-for-her activity.

—Sincerely Appreciate Your Advice, Sweet Savage Dear SAYASS: It’s not OK to take photos or videos of someone performing a sex act without their consent, SAYASS, even if that someone happens to be your wife. Even if that someone happens to have a lower libido than you do, even if that someone would rather you not look at porn, even if that someone enjoys most of the things you want them to do—not only isn’t it OK, SAYASS, it’s a crime. It’s not normal behavior, it’s asshole behavior— and, again, in most places it’s literally criminal behavior. So your wife has every right to be upset. You violated her and did so knowingly; you say you didn’t ask for permission to make those videos because you knew she would say no. Dude. If your wife had been writing to me, SAYASS, I would advise her to get a lawyer and divorce you.

Dear Dan: We hear so much about the all-important commitment to monogamy in marriage. What about the less emphasized but clearly important com-

mitment to a healthy sex life? I’m a straight man. I’ve been married for about 20 years.

I’ve never cheated on my wife, although I’ve come close in recent years. My wife and I had a healthy sex life for the first 10 years. For the last 10 years, we haven’t had sex at all. We are both in our late 40s, athletic and attractive, and neither of us has any overwhelming physical or mental problems. My wife is just so engrossed in her work and personal identity that she has stopped caring about sex. It’s all well and good to say, “You need to talk about this with her,” but I know from years of experience that would be futile. She refuses to discuss it.

And she has made it clear that if I were to do anything outside the marriage, it would amount to an unforgivable betrayal. I vacillate between acceptance, frustration, bitterness and deep anger. Yes, I signed on for monogamy. But what did she sign on for? Can a woman or man in a monogamous marriage unilaterally cut off sex for no reason and still expect or demand monogamy, as my wife does? What do I owe her? And what does she owe me?

Despite this issue, we are good partners, good friends and good parents to our two teenage children. Protecting them from the trauma of divorce, and not hurting my wife—these are the reasons I stay in the marriage. But it doesn’t feel right or fair that I have to be monogamous, that I will never experience physical intimacy again, not so much as a kiss or a touch, for the rest of my life, because my wife decided she is finished with that part of her life.

What do other people think?

—Saddened Over Love’s Omissions

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Dear SOLO: People in the comment threads at savage.love have been taking me to task recently for being too quick to give my blessing to cheating... so, instead of answering this one myself, I’m going to open it to the commenters: What do you guys think SOLO should do? Personally, I don’t think a person can insist on monogamy while refusing to meet their partner’s reasonable sexual needs. (Well, a person can insist on it, but they shouldn’t expect it.) Please don’t tell SOLO to talk with his wife. He’s tried talking about it—he’s tried again and again for ten years—and his wife refuses to discuss it. So, gang, what should he do? Should he do the “right thing” and get a divorce? Or should he do what he needs to do to stay married and stay sane? I’ll see you in the comments thread.

Email questions@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

Find columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at savage.love.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MAY 5, 2022

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COURTESY SHERRY’S SODA SHOPPE

Our comeback summer

Your guide to a season full of local food and drink festivals, markets, fairs, tastings, classes and contests

by John Lehndorff TASTY TREATS: (Above) The owners of Rosenberg’s Bagels have now opened Sherry’s Soda Shoppe right next door on the Hill, serving classic treats like floats, shakes and affogatos.

(Inset) Lyons Farmette will host two farm dinners this summer to benefit local nonprofits.

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e’ve missed it. All the sips, tastes and “yums.” Frankly, we missed “us.” We took for granted that every Colorado summer would be packed full of cool tasty events in Boulder County and across the state.

That was PC: pre-Covid. While everything is not back to whatever “normal” was, the summer of ’22 will mark the return of so many food and beverage gatherings that were put on hiatus, along with the launch of new festivals, tastings, classes and forays.

Welcome back to the feast that continues through the fall, but given the pent-up demand, you better get tickets ASAP. Tickets for many popular events are already selling out.

The season in Boulder County starts with a roar. Our favorite mid-week get together, Wednesday evenings at the Boulder Farmers Market, began May 4. The Saturday farmers markets in Longmont and Boulder are already roaring. Many farm stands are also starting to open.

If you’re growing in your garden or on your patio, stop by the Boulder Valley School District organic plant and seed sale, May 6, 7 and 14 at the BVSD Greenhouse, 6600 Arapahoe Road, Boulder (food.bvsd.org).

If you’d rather join Boulder’s ’shroom boom, sign up for an Oyster Mushroom Workshop, May 7, at Boulder’s Benevolence Orchard & Gardens (benevolenceorchard.com).

MAY 5, 2022

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Find out how well you can eat without wheat at the Gluten-Free Foodie Fest, May 7, at Holidaily Brewing Company in Golden. You can sample tastes of gluten-free beers and fare from Crestone Bakery, Love’s Gluten Free Bakery, Wave the Grain, Denver Poke Company and others.

The free Art of Food LYONS FARMETTE Fest, 3-7 p.m. May 14 on Fourth Avenue in Longmont, features art, music and food from local farms and food folks such as Rising Tiger Co., Slow Food Boulder County, Wispy Greens, Green Belly Foods, Pot Heads Coffee, Squeak and Squawk Farm, and KREAM Kimchi.

For a more refined rural repast, sign up for the first ever Ya Ya Sisters High Tea, 11 a.m. May 15 at Longmont’s Ya Ya Farm and Orchard. The event includes little sandwiches, cakes, mimosas and tea in the blooming orchards. Bring a teacup (yayafarmandorchard.com).

If you would enjoy a New Zealand IPA paired with a bacon-wrapped, maple-bacon-bourbon-stuffed jalapeño, then attend the guided Upslope Brewing beer and food tour, May 24 on the rooftop patio at William Oliver’s Publick House in Lafayette (williamolivers.com).

The beloved Boulder Creek Festival is finally back May 28 to 30 in downtown Boulder with free live music, food trucks throughout the site and the Creekside Beer Fest offering unlimited samples from numerous local breweries.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

KEEP CONNECTED

June brings the rebirth of the Taste of Louisville along Main Street on June 4, with booths offering samples from local eateries, bakeries and breweries (louisvillechamber.com).

On June 18 and 19, Lafayette’s Three Leaf Farm hosts Botanica: A Festival of Plants with speakers and hands-on workshops about wild foods, poisons in the garden, mushrooms, herbal infusions and natural medicine, plus a farm dinner (botanicafestival.com).

What kid (or adult) doesn’t want to be out standing in a field? Boulder’s Growing Gardens encourages fingers-in-the-dirt field trips and family events like Meet the Honeybees on June 18 (growinggardens.org) Slow Food Boulder County celebrates summer in the crops with tours, burgers and a campfire June 25 at Longmont’s Community Table Farm (slowfoodboulder.org).

Got visitors coming again this season? Entertain them in a culinary way with a restaurant-and-bar-tasting walking tour in downtown Boulder from the 10-year-old Local Table Tours (localtabletours.com).

Summer Cooking Classes

facebook.com/theboulderweekly twitter.com/boulderweekly

boulderweekly.com

TEAM PLAYER PRODUCTIONS

Longmont’s Journey Culinary offers a basic and fundamentals cooking course in Spanish, Mediterranean and Peruvian cuisines that includes culture, language and tasting (journeyculinary.com).

Boulder’s professional Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts is once again offering a schedule of in-person classes for home cooks (escoffier.edu).

You can meet and milk goats and make chevre cheese in classes this summer at Longmont’s The Art of Cheese (theartofcheese.com).

Isn’t it about time your children learned how to do something really useful, like make French pastries for you? Delphine Gauvain of Chez Delphine cottage French bakery offers French pastry classes in her Superior kitchen or your home (chezdelphine.shop).

Boulder’s Food Lab schedule features date-night classes for adults as well as camps for kids all summer (foodlabboulder.com).

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Boulder County Farm Dinners

Whistling Boar’s summer Farmhouse Supper Club features a dinner series starting June 30 at Longmont’s MetaCarbon Organic Farm (whistlingboar.com).

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 (lyonsfarmette. com) in Lyons include: Aug. 10: Forage Sisters (for Slow Food); and Sept. 7: Blackbelly (for Sophie’s Neighborhood).

Summer food fun continues in Cuisine on Page 29 with food and drink events and festivals taking place across the state.

GRADUATION PARTIES

Local Food News

CONGRATS GRADUATES OF 2022!

Supermoon has closed at 909 Walnut St., former location of Arcana … Rosenberg’s Bagels has opened Sherry’s Soda Shoppe next door on the Hill. It’s a throwback fountain fitted with marble, brass and mahogany, dishing first-class scoops, sodas, phosphates, floats, shakes and affogatos. … Coming soon: Maine Shack, 1600 Pearl St., former site of the short-lived Emerson Restaurant; Dickens 300 Prime, 1125 Pearl St., former longtime home of West Flanders Brewing Co.

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Comments: nibbles@boulderweekly.com.

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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Building a bar, one ingredient at a time

by Matt Maenpaa

A

MATT MAENPAA

negroni, that simple classic of gin, vermouth and amaro, is still a negroni if you swap out the gin (though sometimes you add whiskey and it becomes a boulevardier). But what if you swap out the gin for a smokey cactus spirit and replace the other liqueurs with something scratch-made?

You get Dry Land Distiller’s cactus negroni, with complex layers of herbs, smoke and fruit balanced against a hint of oak—you get something uniquely delicious and difficult to replicate.

Known for a dedication to Colorado ingredients like heirloom white wheat in its whiskey and native botanicals in its uniquely floral gin, MATT MAENPAA Longmont’s Dry Land Distillers holds up the “craft” in “craft distilling” in its tasting room as well.

Dry Land’s bar manager, Glen Carmichael, along with his talented staff, make sure that care and thought are put into each cocktail component— even if it means making it all from scratch.

Distilleries face a unique restriction in running a tasting room bar, in that they may only sell alcoholic beverages that have been produced on-site. Practically speaking, that means finding substitutes for things like amaro and vermouth instead of ordering bottles from a distributor, or making a stop at the liquor store before the bar opens.

The restriction has become an opportunity for Dry Land, Carmichael says, allowing the distillery to refine each recipe for balance and to highlight the small-batch spirits within.

“It is nice to be able to say we make it in house.

It adds a little more uniqueness and makes for a nice talking point,” he explains.

Carmichael has blends of seasonal amaros—botan-

ical liqueurs—with varying ingredients, as well as less-common offerings like the ginger, lime and rum syrup liqueur called falernum, ready to mix and serve in the Main Street tasting room.

The recipes aren’t restricted to just alcohol though, as Carmichael has created pecan orgeat, botanical shrubs and house bitters to supplement the ever-growing cocktail menu.

The motivation, he explains, is balance.

“This way we don’t have to adjust a recipe based on somebody else’s sweetener. That’s important to us.

Instead of changing our spirits or changing the amount of our spirit, we find something that works. And we enjoy it,” Carmichael says.

Earlier this year, Dry Land was awarded the Snail of Approval award from Slow Food USA, given in recognition for excellence in environmentally sustainable sourcing, impact and business values, among other traits.

The commitment to minimizing waste is evidenced in the ingredients created in the tasting room. Even the fruit and herb mascerations used to make shrubs are repurposed, Carmichael says, turned into a spread for crackers in the tasting room. Citrus peels either get turned into dehydrated snacks or garnishes as well.

“There’s nothing lost at all. It’s important to us that we follow these (sustainability) guidelines, but it’s rewarding as well,” he says. “Besides making everything from start

DETAILS: Dry Lands’ cactus spirit is made with mesquite-smoked cactus pads, barreled for two years, and served with a whole lotta’ love.

to finish, knowing that we properly finish out with the product.”

Patience also has a reward in strange fruits. A couple years back, when bringing in the mesquite-smoked cactus pads Dry Land uses to distill its cactus spirit, they also acquired the fruit of the cactus.

After mashing and distilling, the results didn’t flower into something palatable until two years in a barrel, Carmichael explains.

That aged cactus fruit spirit has a small batch but a strong presence, particularly in the Golden Cactus cocktail. Featuring the fruit spirit, house-made falernum, bitters and a splash of simple syrup, “Golden Cactus” is both tart and floral, an easy-drinking cocktail that seems to relish the onset of spring.

Dry Land’s cocktail menu is always shifting, with a focus on seasonal ingredients grown as close to home as possible. The “Golden Cactus” may not be on the specials board for long, but whatever replaces it will surely be worth a stop by the bar. Carmichael and his staff are always on-hand to indulge in any curiosities visitors might have.

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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

FRISCO BBQ CHALLENGE

by John Lehndorff

Tasting Colorado

From tacos and wine to chocolate and chilies, your guide to Colorado’s top summer and fall festivals

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epending on your tastes, there is a food and drink festival event every weekend (and many weekdays, too) from now through September and beyond.

After two years of canceled events and daunting challenges, the state of Colorado is open for tasting again.

The feast starts with a dose of chocolate candy, fountains, brownies and coffees, May 6-7, at the Colorado Chocolate Festival in Denver (cochocolatefests. com).

The easiest way to explore Colorado’s burgeoning, award-winning wineries is at the Manitou Springs Wine Festival, June 4. More than 30 Colorado wineries will be pouring (manitousprings.org).

More wine appreciation moments are available at: Crested Butte Wine & Food Festival, July 20-23 (cbwineandfood.org); Vail Wine Classic, August 1113 (vailwineclassic.com); and the main event, the Colorado Mountain Wine Festival, Sept. 17, in Palisade (coloradowinefest.com).

Father’s Day is all about smoked pork, beef, turkey and sides at two big barbecue competitions. The long-running Frisco BBQ Challenge is June 17-18 in downtown Frisco (townoffrisco.com).

The newer Denver BBQ Festival is June 17-19 at Empower Field (denverbbqfest. com).

Attention hops nerds! Rare and one-off historic beers, ancient recipes, retired craft beer classics and more are on tap at the Brewsology Beer Fest, June 18 at Denver’s History Colorado Center (brewsology.com).

Our state offers a frothy mix of beer festivals this summer including: Colorado Brewers Rendezvous, July 9, in Salida (coloradobeer.org); Lake Dillon Beer Festival, June 11, in Dillon (coloradobeer.org); Vail Craft Beer Classic, June 17-18, in Vail (vailcraftbeerclassic.com; and the granddaddy of them all,

Boulder Recipe Flashback: Lucile’s Creole Café

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ince Lucile’s Creole Café opened in an old downtown Boulder house in 1980, it has championed Louisiana fare. In the late 1990s, a reader requested the recipe for this full-flavored and rich soup. Lucile’s has expanded gradually to six locations with a

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

the 40th anniversary Great American Beer Festival, Oct. 6-8 in Denver (greatamericanbeerfestival.com).

Two June festivals combine our food and drink passions. Top Taco, June 23 in Denver, features unlimited taco tastes, tequila cocktails and voting in four taco categories (toptacofest.com). At Keystone’s Bacon and Bourbon Festival, June 25-26, diverse bacon-centric dishes are paired with bourbon (keystonefestivals.com).

August in Colorado is always about the state’s many magnificent agricultural wonders. The Eagle Mushroom & Wild Food Festival, Aug. 5-7 in Eagle, boasts serious fungi classes, forays and food (eaglemushroomfest.com).

All-you-can-eat corn and a corn-eating contest are a big part of the Olathe Sweet Corn Festival, Aug. 6, in Olathe (olathesweetcornfestival.com).

At the risk of offending the corn, melon and chile folks, peaches may be the consensus favorite for Colorado’s favorite summer crop. All things peach-related are celebrated Aug. 12–13 at the Palisade Peach Festival (palisadepeachfest.com).

While it hasn’t reached the popular heights of Colorado beer and wine, Colorado artisan ciders are rapidly gaining critical fame and a national audience. Find out why at Cidermass, Aug. 20 in Snowmass (cidermass.com).

The sweet melons that Colorado made famous are served up along with a day of rodeo, horse races, a demolition derby and carnival food Aug. 20 at the Arkansas Valley Fair in Rocky Ford (arkvalleyfair.com).

Finally, top off the season with the crop that makes New Mexicans cry, magnificent green and red Colorado chilies. Work up a sweat Sept. 23-25 at the Pueblo Chile & Frijoles Festival (pueblochilefestival.com).

seventh breakfast and lunch café set to open soon in Erie.

Lucile’s Sweet Potato Crab Soup 1 1/4 pounds sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut in slices 1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions 3/4 cup chopped green bell peppers 3/4 cup chopped celery butter or vegetable oil 3/4 cup dry sherry

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1 1/2 cups milk 2 cups heavy cream 2 teaspoons brown sugar Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 2 tablespoons Lucile’s Creole Seasoning (or similar spice mixture) 1/4 pound crabmeat Boil sweet potatoes or yams until soft and drain. Saute onions, green peppers and celery in oil or butter until soft. Then add sherry

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and boil for three minutes. Puree vegetables with sweet potatoes in a food processor. Put into a pot, stir in remaining ingredients except crab and simmer on low for 20 minutes.

Add crabmeat, taste and adjust seasonings and heat level. If the soup is too thick, thin with vegetable or seafood broth. Makes about eight servings. Serve with Tabasco sauce.

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The chosen convictions

President Biden grants clemency for 78 nonviolent cannabis convictions, but for many, the political gesture falls short

by Will Brendza

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pril is apparently “second chance month” (because redemption, like Black history and gay pride, only deserve one single month of recognition in America). And in honor of that, on April 27, President Biden gave 78 individuals serving nonviolent drug offenses their very own second chances. Sort of.

Neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris have ever been serious advocates for marijuana reform.

Biden himself helped author the 1994 crime bill that increased sentencing penalties for cannabis possession and other drug-related crimes, and Harris, for her part, oversaw over 1,900 cannabis convictions as a prosecutor in San Francisco.

Nevertheless, in 2020, when the two were on the campaign trail, drumming up support and stirring excitement, they made big promises. Biden’s campaign page explicitly stated in one of its 17 templates that, “I’m voting to decriminalize marijuana use.” Many thought that could come with the mass expungement of cannabis felony convictions for individuals across the U.S. who’ve struggled with felonies for nonviolent cannabis crimes on their records. Both lawmakers and activists advocated for mass pardons across the board; and with both a Democrat-controlled Congress and Democrat sitting president, things seemed hopeful that pipe dream could actually become a reality.

It never happened. But 16 (going on 17) months into his presidency, on April 27, President Biden finally exercised his executive power to grant clemency to 78 individuals convicted of nonviolent drug crimes, just three of whom received full pardons. And only nine of whom were serving time for cannabis crimes.

“America is a nation of laws and second chances, redemption, and rehabilitation,” Biden said in

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a statement. “Elected officials on both sides of the aisle, faith leaders, civil rights advocates, and law enforcement leaders agree that our criminal justice system can and should reflect these core values that enable safer

and stronger communities.”

It’s a wonderful sentiment. Some said it represents a shift in the executive branch’s stance on cannabis prohibition. Personally, it seems like a reluctant shuffle in the right direction—and a very small one, at that.

The Last Prisoner Project estimates that there are

currently 40,000 people in prison serving sentences for cannabis crimes. Thousands more exist among us, struggling to find employment, unable to get federal loans, unable to vote, unable to live a normal American life with past cannabis felonies following them around.

So what do three pardons and 75 commuted sentences mean in the scope of this issue? If only nine of them were serving time for cannabis sentences, how does this address the problem of cannabis incarceration and conviction at all?

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“My immediate reaction was, ‘[Biden] didn’t pardon all of them?’” says Lenny Frieling, a Colorado defense attorney with over 45 years of drug defense under his belt. “The question that comes to mind is: How do you pick? How do you decide which ones [to grant clemency to]?”

It’s a good question. The statement from President Biden specified that the three pardons were granted to individuals who had “demonstrated a commitment to rehabilitation.” The 75 whose sentences were commuted were designated as individuals serving “long” sentences for non-violent drug crimes. But exactly how these specific 78 cases were selected remains untold.

“Screw that,” says Frieling. “If it’s a possession case in my mind it’s trivially easy: 100% of those should be dismissed. There is no reason anyone over 21, without extenuating circumstances, should be serving a cannabis sentence.”

Biden’s political gesture simply isn’t enough in Frieling’s eyes. It falls short.

Because while three individuals received full pardons (fully removing their sentence and expunging their background), the other 75 weren’t quite so fortunate. A pardon is just one form of clemency, but other forms include reprieves, which temporarily “stay” a sentence; or, as in this case, it can mean a “commutation,” which merely reduces a felony sentence.

Meaning those 75 people serving “long” sentences for non-violent drug offenses are just serving shorter sentences now than they were before. They still aren’t free, and their records remain un-expunged.

“While granting clemency to nine individuals for federal marijuana offenses is the right thing to do, it is woefully inadequate,” Erik Altieri, the executive director for National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said in a press release. “It is well past the time for President Biden to make good on his campaign promise to expunge the records of all federal marijuana offenders and prove that justice isn’t just a buzzword he uses to gain votes during election season.”

Contact the author at wbrendza@boulderweekly.com

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE

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MAY 5, 2022

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