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A proposal for sanctioned encampment to help the unhoused community is on the horizon by Emma Athena
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Binational partnership calls on the Canadian Pension Plan to divest from its Colorado oil and gas holdings by Angela K. Evans
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On its surface a celebration of nature, ‘Flora & Fauna’ at Bricolage Gallery also represents a new chapter for two lifelong artists by Caitlin Rockett
Lafayette Mini Peach Fest, Voices of Change: A History of Race and Social Justice in Longmont, and more to do when there’s ‘nothing’ to do... by Boulder Weekly Staff
Goin’ virtual at the Great American Beer Festival by Michael J. Casey
Colorado winemakers embrace harvest season amid myriad challenges by Matt Cortina
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Guest column: On Proposition 113: More is needed than eliminating the Electoral College Letters: Signed, sealed, delivered, your views Live Music: Brian Parton, Leonard Barrett Jr. and more Home Viewing: Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 3 Podcast: Former CU Scripps fellow goes intergalactic for second season of ‘Wild Thing’ podcast Astrology: by Rob Brezsny Film: How we got here in three documentaries Food/Drink: What to try this week along the Front Range Savage Love: 30-somethings Weed Between the Lines: Boom times, they are a-changing?
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Publisher, Fran Zankowski Editor, Matt Cortina Circulation Manager, Cal Winn EDITORIAL Senior Editor, Angela K. Evans Arts and Culture Editor, Caitlin Rockett Special Editions Editor, Michael J. Casey Adventure Editor, Emma Athena Contributing Writers, Peter Alexander, Dave Anderson, Will Brendza, Rob Brezsny, Sarah Haas, Jim Hightower, Dave Kirby, John Lehndorff, Rico Moore, Amanda Moutinho, Leland Rucker, Dan Savage, Alan Sculley, Ryan Syrek, Christi Turner, Betsy Welch, Tom Winter, Gary Zeidner SALES AND MARKETING Market Development Manager, Kellie Robinson Account Executives, Matthew Fischer, Sami Wainscott Advertising Coordinator, Corey Basciano Mrs. Boulder Weekly, Mari Nevar PRODUCTION Art Director, Susan France Senior Graphic Designer, Mark Goodman Graphic Designer, Daisy Bauer CIRCULATION TEAM Dave Hastie, Dan Hill, George LaRoe, Jeffrey Lohrius, Elizabeth Ouslie, Rick Slama BUSINESS OFFICE Bookkeeper, Regina Campanella Founder/CEO, Stewart Sallo Editor-at-Large, Joel Dyer Cover, Judith Bergquist September 17, 2020 Volume XXVIII, Number 5 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. © 2020 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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On Proposition 113: More is needed than eliminating the Electoral College by Pete Simon
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was 11 years old. It was the first presidential election I remember. John Kennedy eventually won with 303 electoral votes and a 112,000-popular-vote advantage. We had just witnessed the closest presidential election of my lifetime, or so I thought. When comparing the 2016 presidential election to 1960, something bizarre stands out. Donald Trump won four more electoral votes than Kennedy in 1960, but in 2016 Hillary Clinton had three million more popular votes than Trump. Those crazy numbers are the reason I started looking for real answers. SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
Here is the reason why Trump pulled off his victory: Over the last 91 years, our Electoral College (EC) has become less and less relevant in terms of accurately reflecting population disbursement of the American electorate because it is frozen in time. It is directly linked today to a lack of adequate seats in our House of Representatives, affecting the number of electors in the EC. Currently, a lot of my frustrated friends are on the Proposition 113 bandwagon, promoting a “National Popular Vote” guaranteeing the presidency to the candidate who wins I
the most votes nationwide, at the expense of the EC. With other compliant states, a National Popular Vote can “abolish” the EC without going through the tedious and (some say) politically impossible task of passing a constitutional amendment, requiring approval from 38 state legislatures. The EC is disturbing for more than what meets the eye with election results. It is based on 1910 America; locked-in that way by Herbert Hoover and a Republicancontrolled Congress when it passed see GUEST COLUMN Page 7
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the 1929 Reapportionment Act, setting the number of seats in the House of Representatives at 435; based on 1910 census data. Hoover and his allies used the more ruralfriendly 1910 numbers, as America became more urbanized during World War I. By not using 1920 census data, growing U.S. cities were shortchanged in the number of congressional seats allocated with the 1929 legislation. This directly impacts the EC as it remains stuck with 435 House seats, plus three for Washington, D.C. and 100 Senate seats to arrive at the number of EC electors: 538, a number not adjusted for population growth now for nine decades. Since 1929, the nation’s population grew by more than 220 million. Today we are far from taxation with equal representation. Case in point: One can argue that the most powerful person in Congress today is not Nancy Pelosi, but Liz Cheney because, while they both have one vote, Cheyney represents 563,000 people from Wyoming, while Pelosi and all congressional representatives from California must represent roughly 730,000 in their congressional district. My Colorado Congressman Ed Perlmutter? 810,000 people. “Tiny” Delaware? 980,000. Montana? One representative for 1,016,000 people. Liz Cheney is sitting pretty. Following the 2020 census, Colorado will receive just one additional congressional seat, placing 725,000 people in one district. You can only do so much with 435 seats when they are redistributed every 10 years. But according to the “Wyoming Rule” proposal, 112 seats would be added to the House, to move us closer to “taxation with equal representation” by making the standard representative-to-population ratio equal to the least populous state. This would add 112 electors to the EC, making it far more reflective of
today’s world, instead of the 1910 version it reflects now. With or without an EC, “The People’s House” is in dire need of overdue expansion. Some “Uncap the House” advocates today are tweeting/ advocating a House of Representatives with 1,000 seats. I think the Wyoming Rule proposal, with 112 additional seats, is a more realistic number, but whatever the number, the main point is: something substantial has to happen if we are to return to a truly equal representative form of government. The Founding Fathers established a House and Senate; the Senate to protect small states in Congress by having only two senators from each state; the House to adequately address population distribution. Since 1929, the principle of “representation by population” has slowly eroded. When compared to 2016, the EC results in 1960 were a better reflection of population distribution across the country, since the EC’s total count of 538 was only separated from the 1929 Reapportionment Act by three decades. Now, we are staring at nine decades of separation. 1910: A year that we still base the size of our Congress on and thus the number of EC electors we have, choosing our president. All it takes to add seats in Congress is simple majority approval by the House and Senate. Why this has not been addressed every 10 years with each census is puzzling, unless it has been allowed to flounder this way by design. Ask your Congressional representatives why this situation has been allowed to fester for nine decades. With all the network and cable news “experts” we have, not one of them has mentioned this elephant in the room of American politics. Amazing! This opinion column does not necessarily reflect the views of Boulder Weekly.
According to the
“Wyoming Rule” proposal, 112 seats would be added to the House, to move us closer to “taxation with equal representation.”
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Vote down the ballot
This is a critical time in the governance of Boulder County. We need leaders, who with even less money,
can make strategic decisions that strengthen our country and overcome the impact of COVID-19 on education, health, businesses and unemployment. We are lucky to have Marta Loachamin running for Boulder County Commissioner in District 2 because as a business leader, former teacher and equity advocate she has the skills to be strategic on the best way to keep Boulder County strong during the new challenge of the pandemic. And she holds our values of environmental sustainability and housing options for working families that will enable her to balance the current threats to Boulder County with our long-term commitments. I encourage you to get to know more about Loachamin (marta2020. org) so you share my excitement about local leaders who can make the difference this election cycle. The presidential election and voting for our federal representatives is profoundly important! But leaders in local and state government will make decisions on everything from school quality, to job training, to police accountability. And on the Colorado ballot are key amendments, like Amendment 76, which is being touted as voter protection, but is actually about disenfranchising new voters; or Amendment 62, which the ACLU is opposing, that gives full constitutional rights to fertilized eggs. Together we can elect leaders that can transform our protests into policies that support an equitable and sustainable future for all. Kirsten Wilson/Boulder
SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
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This is a particularly important election year. Like 2020, this election will be quite different. It will mean life and death to many things as we know it. Our way of life is at stake and that includes the environment and racial justice. No matter the outcome of the election results, we will remember this election forever. I ask that you go all the way down your ballot and vote on the state and local issues, which are important to your everyday life. I ask that you vote Claire Levy and Marta Loachamin for the two Commissioners seats that are open. In District 2, Marta Loachamin is a hard worker who has been involved in the community for over 20 years. She has brought people together which makes us more connected and better prepared to confront changes and adversities. COVID-19 is a crisis and Marta is uniquely poised — with experience supporting families after the economic downturn in 2008 as well as her work as a resiliency specialist after the 2013 flood — to help with recovery work and planning when she is elected to the Board of County Commissioners. Her work to uplift cultural brokers and connect experts to local government and organizations will make a significant difference as our local community rebuilds. Janet Heimer/Boulder
Loachamin for Commissioner
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In pursuit of stability
Proposal for a sanctioned encampment to help unhoused community members is on the horizon
Story and photos by Emma Athena A NUMBER OF COMMUNITY MEMBERS are working to present Boulder City Council with a proposal for a sanctioned encampment for those experiencing homeless that would provide basic services like communication, sanitation, connection to resources and a respite from the camping ban.
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ntroducing himself by nickname, Nutcase sits cross-legged in his friends’ tent sipping hot coffee with cream. His own tent, pitched just a few feet away, had partially collapsed the night before as Boulder’s early-season winter storm dumped inches of snow on Sept. 8 and brought temperatures down below freezing. His shoulders hunched up by his ears, he rewraps his fingers around the steaming cup and says, “If the City were to create a campground for us, I’d say, it’s about time!” His two tentmates agree. They’ve been illegally camped in this quiet patch of woods in North Boulder for about two weeks. They settled here after the police removed, or “swept” them from their camp in the Municipal Building’s courtyard downtown — where it was much easier to find food, water, bathrooms and other supplies. Adding snow on top of distance to amenities makes survival in Boulder as an unhoused person dangerous. Just a few hours earlier, the police found an unresponsive unhoused man in the parking lot of Unity Church. According to the police blotter and coroner, John Aldridge’s body was found 25 yards away from his encampment, and with a core temperature of 75 degrees, he was pronounced dead at Boulder Community Hospital later that day. About two dozen extra shelter beds were made available for those freezing nights of Sept. 8 and 9, and Boulder Shelter for the SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
Homeless reports no one was turned away. Many argue, however, that service providers didn’t effectively communicate with unhoused people, and that available services are generally too restrictive. Neither Nutcase nor his friends knew about the extra bed opportunities, though many of them can’t go to the shelter anyway for reasons like having pets or wanting to stay with a partner. Instead, they think a sanctioned campground — a designated outdoor living space with monitors and agreed-upon rules and regulations — would provide a centralized and much-needed safe space for those who cannot and do not want to use Boulder County’s available shelter beds. Sanctioned encampments have been loosely debated in years past, but it’s never before been seriously pursued. That’s because there are questions of health and safety not only for those who would use the camps but for the community at large, plus the question of who will pay for the resources required to properly run such a campsite. Now, in the wake of COVID-19, that might be changing. Boulder Council member Rachel Friend is currently collaborating with a range of community members to present a proposal to City Council for a sanctioned encampment that could provide basic services like communication, sanitation, connections to resources, storage for personal belongings, trash repositories I
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
and a respite from the police. “The camping is already happening, not the sanctioned part, but there’s already that [service] gap, and it’s been happening for decades,” Friend says. “I am a fan of recognizing the realities.” Since February, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, major cities around the country have been scrambling to serve the wide spectrum of people experiencing homelessness. Cities with existing sanctioned encampments — like Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, California — have erected additional emergency outdoor areas. Others, like Denver and Burlington, Vermont, are in the process of creating encampments within city limits for the first time. Elsewhere, communities have failed to get camps up and running under pressure to keep public spaces available for everyone’s use. In Boulder, COVID presents “this opportunity to do something that we haven’t done here before,” says Graham Hill, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Shared Paths Boulder, who among others is helping Friend craft the local encampment proposal. “When the sweeps happen, which, you know, I’ve witnessed so many of them over the years, people don’t have any place to go.” The hope is that a sanctioned encampment would provide such a place. While exact details are still being solidified via input from a variety of experts, Hill says they’re envisioning an encampment structure that’ll help unhoused people “actually move forward in life and have some positivity [to] look forward to.” Plus, Friend says the proposal will fall squarely in line with Boulder County’s regional “Housing First” strategy, which aims to solve homelessness with stable housing. “The goal still is housing,” she says. But encampments would provide a way for many unhoused people to establish continuous connections with City and County services, “because you’re not moving around and you have some stability in your life.” That stability is key, says Hannah Fageeh, manager of Denver’s forthcoming Safe Outdoor Space, which is being organized by the Colorado Village Collaborative (CVC). And stability is the philosophical foundation of the Housing First model: a safe place to shelter and store belongings can often reduce enough stress to allow someone to figure out what next-steps are best for their needs. Building upon CVC’s successful tiny home village in Globeville, the organization began negotiations for Safe Outdoor Spaces with the City of Denver back in April. Organizers worked closely with City Council members and neighborhood constituents, plus unhoused community members and advocates, to create a management plan and service center. “The fact that evictions are continuing to happen and homelessness is on the rise and BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
they are still doing sweeps — we’re hoping that working with the City we can prevent this from happening,” Fageeh says. “At the end of the day the sweeps happen and then people just move a few blocks away and it doesn’t solve anything.” Though the sanctioned encampments conversations have circled Denver for at least 20 years, Fageeh says “the catalyst for the Safe Outdoor Space opening up was because of COVID,” given the new CDC guidelines, which advise against moving existing unsanctioned encampments to contain disease spread. However, she adds, it’s a service that should exist anyway and could help
during extreme weather scenarios, such as the snowstorm last week or during hot summer months when people need water or shade. The plan is to have CVC’s Safe Outdoor Space up and running by the end of September, and Fageeh says it’ll be Denver’s first sanctioned encampment. But it follows other models around the country. In Portland, Oregon — where sanctioned encampments have existed for years — the pandemic has led to three new emergency encampments. According to Katrina Holland, executive director of the nonprofit JOIN, which staffs Portland’s new encampments, the opportunity to create more safe spaces for the unhoused community has been one of the pandemic’s silver linings. And it’s especially helped unhoused folks with marginalized identities. One of the new camps is devoted to serving people who identify as gender non-conforming and queer, another is exclusively for black, indigenous and other people of color. Holland says it’s helping ameliorate “cultural practices and racism and all the other things [experienced at] traditional shelters, [ensuring] other folks who don’t identify as white, cis-heterosexual males can have a positive experience,” she says. The third camp is for general use, where anyone is welcome. “We advocated really hard with the City to be able to have these affinity camps,” she says. “It was way, way more successful in creating a sense of I
safety and belonging than we thought.” Negotiations for Portland’s emergency camps started in February as COVID hit the West Coast, and within a matter of weeks they were up and running. It was a necessarily collaborative process, Holland says. “There was no way we could do this on our own, no way the City could do it on their own, to be honest.” And though the new encampments were more expensive than many thought, they’ve been so successful that “there’s conversations to make them permanent,” Holland says. Reporting from the Portland Tribune indicates the three camps together cost $175,000 a month to run, with funding going to JOIN to hire security and maintenance positions, and operating costs for things like garbage service, bathrooms and hand-washing stations. Boulder Council member Aaron Brockett participated in a 2016 field trip to Portland where members of Boulder’s City Council learned about homelessness strategies, including visiting sanctioned encampments. One “looked like it provided a dignified alternative for folks who didn’t have another option,” he recalls. “They also had connections to services there so that [camp clients] are always working with people — ‘What’s your plan? You’re not going to stay here forever, what’s your next step?’” Brockett supports the Housing First concept, yet acknowledges: “We don’t have housing for everyone who qualifies right away or in a fairly significant period of time. So then the shelter is the only option, but the shelter doesn’t work for everyone.” With the COVID crisis, he says, “we have some more immediate needs. A sanctioned encampment could be started out much more quickly” than other temporary housing and shelter options. Coordinating CVC’s Safe Outdoor Space was born from similar thinking, Fageeh explains. “Housing doesn’t exist [right now]. We can open this up in like a couple of weeks as opposed to building an apartment building that could take years, right?” It’s not a permanent solution, she says, but it’s an effective interim place for people to go while they wait for housing. “We’re going to do everything we can to use that to help people out and at least have a safe place to stay without fear of being swept and their stuff being taken.” Amos Washington Jr. and Angela Labia — two unhoused people who’ve been evicted from public places by the police several times over the course of their lives, and who were camping at the Municipal Building as part of the recent Occupy Boulder movement — say they often dream of acquiring their own land just so they can open it up as a tent haven for anyone in need: people with pets, see CAMP Page 10
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couples, those who’ve been in Boulder less than six months, all of which can currently limit shelter use and other homelessness services in Boulder. “That way we could all be taken care of,” Angela says. More than anything they want a respite from the police, in addition to a sense of community. “Of course there’d be rules” for a sanctioned encampment, Nutcase says. “I’d want to inspect them all myself.” He spent years in the Army and is no stranger to camping. He’s known to walk back and forth between Boulder and Ward to camp in the national forest — 17 hours up, 16 hours down, he says, pointing to the blister he got on his most recent trek. But having a place to camp in town would make it possible for him to better store and access the refrigerated medicine he needs, which requires monthly refills. To open a sanctioned encampment in Boulder, many different pieces of a complicated puzzle would have to fall into place. For one, Boulder currently prohibits camping within city limits, and any sanctioned area would have to get an exemption. Some already question the efficacy of the camping ban, according to local attorney David Harrison, as the vast majority of people ticketed for camping in Boulder engage with service providers in lieu of punishment. “If you have an ordinance where the cases are dismissed 78% of the time, whether it’s because they were wrongly filed or a jury decides the person wasn’t guilty, then that seems like kind of a bad ordinance,” he says. Sanctioned encampments could be a way to provide access to the same services while reducing interactions with law enforcement. The right location for a camp is another tricky element. It couldn’t conflict with other community uses, Friend says, so they’re looking at options for unused lots or private property owned by faith groups. They’re anticipating a private-public partnership, where the City helps get the camp running, but wouldn’t be obligated to fund operations long-term. Regulations would also be estab-
lished to ensure appropriate clients are admitted to the camp, and once participating, they’d need a structured path out of homelessness. Perhaps most importantly in Boulder, the public would need to feel safe in the camp’s presence; concerns about crime and public health have stalled previous encampment negotiations all over the Front Range. Fageeh says that’s rooted in a perception problem: “There are people that have really good hearts and want to help the unhoused, but then there’s also people that fall into believing the stereotypes of homeless people, just bringing crime to their neighborhood or bringing drugs to their neighborhood, being unsafe for their kids.” Despite these potential obstacles, Friend and Hill are optimistic. “What we’re providing is an option, and options have not existed,” Hill says. Even though colder and harsher weather is on the horizon, a sanctioned encampment could at least provide winter gear, as people will be camping in the community with or without permission, he adds. “We’re not reaching our potential as far as community thinkers in this community. And so that’s why I think the timing is appropriate that we pounce on this.” In Austin, Texas, a similar tug-ofwar between unhoused and housed people occupying public spaces has played out over the years. Just last year, the parameters of the City’s camping ban were reduced, expanding opportunities for people to sleep outside without getting ticketed or removed from areas by police. According to grassroots group Save Austin Now, which organized in response to the camping ban rollback and has spent the last year campaigning for its reinstatement, homelessness in Austin increased 45% last year. A point-in-time survey conducted by Ending Community Homeless Coalition confirms this increase. Still, Save Austin Now posits sanctioned encampments are a great option for getting people help, despite its work fighting for a reinstatement of Austin’s full camping ban. “Ultimately, this is about safety, and sanctioned campgrounds would
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be safer,” Matt Mackowiak, a political consultant and organizer for Save Austin Now, says. “We actually do think sanctioned camping in specific areas would be a much better approach.” In response to similar demands to clean up the unsanctioned encampments in Boulder, more than 100 sweeps have occurred since February, with more planned. A Change.org petition spearheaded by the group Safer Boulder has gathered more than 6,000 signatures demanding stricter enforcement of the camping ban, increased police patrols, more use of the police’s Homeless Outreach Team, and better protection from health hazards like human waste and illegal drugs. While the group declined to comment on the prospect of a sanctioned encampment in Boulder, in an email organizers stated, “Our goal is for City leaders to solve the complex problems in our community.” The current regional homelessness strategy, orchestrated by Housing Solutions Boulder County (HSBC), is working as intended, Systems Manager Heidi Grove says. “We’ve been successful in housing folks straight from the streets to house, which is the true Housing First model,” she says. “Encampments don’t necessarily lead to housing, and since you want people from street-to-house, that should be the primary focus.” HSBC is not currently considering its own outdoor living spaces, as it hasn’t perceived the demand. Grove says it “goes back to the ultimate question of: Do you have enough shelter beds for the folks that are seeking? And right now we do.” But both Boulder’s Human Relations Commission and Housing Advisory Board recently recommended HSBC create at least temporary encampments to serve those who do not meet the requirements for shelter stays. Much like safe lots for vehicle-dwellers (see News, “Gaining traction,” Sept. 10), HSBC has made it clear that any sanctioned encampment in Boulder would need to come from an independent venture. As Friend and Hill put their proBOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
posal together, they say they’re incorporating input from across the Boulder community, including bike path users, City Council members, “BMW drivers,” unhoused people and neighborhood constituents. The idea is to start with a small site that would host up to 25 people. “We’re not trying to do backflips we can’t execute yet,” Hill says, though he hopes the program could grow in the future to help more folks. He thinks more people are warming up to the idea of sanctioned encampments, but they’ll still need to win over one or two more Council members with their proposal. He hopes to find “enough empathetic bones within City Council and the Boulder housing department.” Jennifer Livovitch, an advocate for the unhoused with former homelessness experience in Boulder, agrees. Sanctioned encampments would be a huge boon to people currently sleeping outside, she says. “I think monitoring encampments are absolutely necessary ... because reality is, a monitored encampment would protect people from being criminalized by the police. It would give them a sense of community in their own kind of way, and it would give them a safe, stable place to stay — all things that are currently lacking.” Friend says the ideal solution would be a network of robust and equal homelessness services spread throughout the state, but that’s just not the case. In the meantime, interim solutions like sanctioned encampments are the next-best option. Perhaps they could help prevent more death by exposure to the elements, like the tragedy that befell Aldridge during the snowstorm last week. “Right now I think my focus is on trying to help people be safe,” Friend says. There isn’t yet an official date when City Council will hear Friend’s proposal, but she anticipates it will be ready at some point in the next few weeks. Cautiously optimistic, she says, “Most of what I hear in Boulder is that we do want to help humans who need help. And so I’m hoping that will carry over into saying: People who need shelter have a place to have it.” I
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Shining the flashlight
IN A VIDEO by 350Colorado, Leslie Weiss (center) shares how a proposed Crestone oil and gas development near her house could affect her loved ones. 350Colorado plans to share the video, which includes other concerned Colorado citizens, with pensioners in Canada, since their pension plan owns a majority stake in Crestone.
Binational partnership calls on the Canadian Pension Plan to divest from its Colorado oil and gas holdings
by Angela K. Evans
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ith pleading eyes and a serious tone, idyllic English countryside in the background, several British teenagers take turns addressing teachers from Ontario, Canada. They talk about the human and environmental cost — the poor public transportation inevitably leading to increased traffic and carbon emissions, the harm to wildlife habitats, rural landscapes, natural beauty — of expanding the local Bristol Airport owned and operated by the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan. “Are you happy with this?” one student asks through the camera. It’s a short clip, but one packed with power. And in 2019, it drew support from Ontario teachers, who asked their pension to stop the expansion. With the additional help of Extinction Rebellion protests, the expansion plan was rejected in February. Now, the same method is being employed by 350Colorado and its Canadian partner organization, Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health, in an attempt to get the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) to divest its oil and gas holdings, specifically its 95% control of Crestone Peak Resources, which operates throughout Colorado. (See: News, “Oh, Canada,” March 21, 2019.) It’s the first time such a cross-border collaboration has occurred. “We’ve noticed that Canadians actually really do care where their pensions are invested, but they don’t know,” Adam Scott, Shift’s director, says. “Bringing voices of the communities that company is impacting to Canadians is a really important way [for] Canadians to understand the impacts of those investments ... and we know that when people learn these things, then they take action.” Shift was founded three years ago to specifically target Canada’s 10 largest pension funds, which are some of the largest funds in the world, including CPP. Worth approximately $410 billion Canadian dollars, or about $311 billion U.S., CPP is the national retirement strategy in Canada, somewhat equivalent to Social Security in the U.S., although it’s a privately managed investment fund, Scott says. Shift and 350Colorado connected through the 12
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Climate Safe Pensions Network, a group of a dozen or so organizations across North America “calling on pension funds to do more to protect our pensions in light of climate risk,” says Deborah McNamara, campaign director for 350Colorado. Set to release later this month, the video coincides with a new report published Sept. 17 from the Canada Climate Law Initiative (CCLI) that calls on the CPP to refocus its investments in order to help Canada transition to a low-carbon economy and meet its national climate goals in accordance with the Paris Agreement. “Canada has struggled deeply with climate
downturn exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s a terrible investment,” Cynthia Williams of the Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, and author of the CCLI report, says . “Fracking is like a Ponzi scheme, right? You have to constantly be drilling new wells to pay back your prior investors because of the decline rates in wells. So from a purely financial perspective it looks like a bad investment.” In her report, Williams specifically examines six transactions where CPP created private companies in fracking and oil sands, including Crestone Peak Resources in Colorado, and she raises issues of transparency, potential conflicts of interest CHRIS ALLRED and political contributions in local elections. Crestone was formed in 2015 by the CPP (called the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at the time), in order to purchase all of the oil and gas assets in the DenverJulesburg Basin owned by Encana, then one of the largest producers in Colorado. In 2018, the company contributed more than $600,000 to defeat Proposition 112, which would have required mandatory 2,500-foot setbacks of oil and gas developments from homes and schools. “It is a company that’s 95% owned by the CPP,” Williams says of Crestone Peak. “Its board of directors included CPP employees at the time (of purchase). And I just thought that was a very bad judgment, and that change and only the current government has actually CPP would do that and get involved in the politics put in place a federal policy on it,” Scott says. “But of another country in order to protect oil interests is that said, Canada’s politics are deeply influenced by appalling.” our oil and gas industry in a really disruptive way. Williams has sent her research to CPP, but has And that’s where they limited our ability to deal yet to meet with anyone there as of this publication. with climate change across the board.” CPP has said they are still reviewing Williams’ paper, The CCLI report examines CPP’s public and pri- but did make clear that any political contributions in vately held oil and gas investments in light of Colorado came directly from the U.S. operations and national climate policy, and comes on the heels of a no CPP investments were used in relation to political report released in late 2019 from the Canadian donations. CPP did not respond to Boulder Weekly’s Center for Policy Alternatives that looked into request for comment as of press time. CPP’s public equities portfolio and found it “has “These actions are neither in the best interests invested billions of dollars in companies whose of beneficiaries and contributors, nor consistent financial worth depends on overshooting their carwith the requirements of intergenerational equity bon budget.” that are a constituent part of pension trustees’ fiduIt also raises concerns over the financially risky ciary obligations, and that they present undue risk investments given the decline of the industry, a of continuing financial loss,” the CCLI report con-
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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
CHRIS ALLRED
cludes. It also urges the CPP to intentionally focus on supporting Canada’s transition to a low-carbon economy by investing in companies working on sustainable technologies. “I think it’s important that the focus be on what they could be doing in a positive way to support the transition,” Williams says. “That’s really the bottom line we hope to present in Canada.” Williams is involved with the Network for Sustainable Financial Markets, which has looked at a variety of pension funds across the world, and was able to use that knowledge as she examined CPP. “There are other pension funds, the pension fund in Quebec, for instance, and the ones in the Netherlands, the ones in Japan that see sustainability as a much more important part of their investment strategy,” she says. “And there’s recent precedent where when sketchy investments like this have come to light and gotten some media attention, the [CPP] has quietly divested its holdings,” Scott adds. In 2019, in the middle of the international uproar over the U.S. detention of migrants along the U.S.Mexico border, CPP quietly divested from both CoreCivic and GEO Group Inc. This followed reporting from the Guardian and Documented that revealed the CPP held investments of about $8 million in the companies, which manage most of the immigrant detention facilities in the United States. “The Pension Plan is very sensitive to having a flashlight shone on different parts of the portfolio,” Scott says. “[Crestone] is one of many dangerous destructive projects they’re invested in, but this is a very clear example of one where it’s not compatible with anything that they say that they’re doing when it comes to cliBOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
mate or even responsible investing more broadly.” The 350Colorado video features Boulder County residents affected by residential drilling and air quality, informing Colorado pensioners that, “Oil and gas production in Colorado is one of the leading causes of our poor air quality that consistently fails to meet federal clean air standards.” There’s Leslie Weiss in Niwot, near a proposed Crestone development that if built could adversely affect the health of her household, including someone with Down syndrome and respiratory issues. Another resident stands near the Crestone site southeast of Longmont, where a flash fire injured seven in late 2019. Giselle Herzfeld, Fossil Free Pensions campaign coordinator for 350Colorado, addresses the camera outside of Aspen Ridge Preparatory School, where toxic gases were leaking from a nearby Crestone site in 2017. The video also highlights the financial impacts as well as the health and climate impacts of fossil fuel extraction, as the CCLI report indicates. “If you understand climate change, you would know immediately that there is no long-term future for these investments,” Scott says. “And by making investments of this type they’re demonstrating they don’t actually understand the climate crisis at all.” The hope is to circulate the video from Colorado among Canadian pensioners and solicit public comment for CPP’s upcoming fall public information sessions, which occur every two years as required by law, Patrick DeRochie, pension engagement manager for Shift, says. Which is where the partnership with 350Colorado comes into play. “If Canadians were to know what was being done with their retirement savings,” he adds, “they would not accept that.” I
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A comprehensive eye exam at the beginning of the school year will ensure students will have the best vision possible and alleviate the strain of increased hours expected on computer screens.
Dr. Lowell Steinberg 303-447-8470
bouldervisioncenter.com SEPTEMBER 17, 2020
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ART BY JUDITH BERGQUIST, PHOTOS BY CAITLIN ROCKETT
The third act
On its surface a celebration of nature, ‘Flora & Fauna’ at Bricolage Gallery also represents a new chapter for two lifelong artists
by Caitlin Rockett
T
he art world is no stranger to sleeper success stories — late bloomers. Paul Cézanne’s soft, colorful landscapes didn’t garner attention until the painter was in his 50s. Louise Bourgeois was in her late 70s when her sculpture Maman made her a household name. Judith Bergquist and Gigia Kolouch seem to be on a similar trajectory. The two met in an art class at the Colorado Institute of Art 30 years ago, Kolouch a freshly minted transplant from Marin County, California, and Bergquist, who’s from Fort Collins, newly settled in Denver after more than a decade traveling the country as a theater props artisan/director. But art was an outlet, a meditation, for both women — not a way to pay the bills. Kolouch taught cooking and gardening classes while Bergquist became a landscape architect, their shared passion for nature often taking center stage in their artwork. That shared passion for nature is what binds their disparate artwork, now on display in the show Flora & Fauna at Bricolage Gallery in Art Parts Creative Reuse Center. Kolouch’s series of encaustics — painting with pigmented wax — tell a harrowing tale from the garden in abstract, while Bergquist’s paper “paintings” celebrate the intricate wonder of animals large and small.
GIGIA KOLOUCH: A EULOGY TO GRAPE VINES
In the coastal redwood forests of Marin County, a young Gigia Kolouch would sometimes lay inside a fairy ring, that 14
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ON THE BILL: bare circle of earth that forms as Flora & Fauna. the tree reproduces by sending Through Oct. 3. new sprouts up from the trunk of a Bricolage Gallery at ArtParts parent tree. Creative Reuse “Really the best thing in the Center, 2860 Bluff world is just to lie down in the midSt., Boulder, artpartsboulder.org. dle of one of those redwood circles and look up,” Kolouch says. “You almost feel like you can just melt into the ground, it’s just so beautiful.” She found a love of nature at home too, gardening with her mother and grandmother and learning to cook by watching them in the kitchen. She found herself enraptured by the cycle: Growing the food that would go on to sustain her own body felt like the highest expression of life. As an adult, when Kolouch found herself in Colorado after her husband was accepted into architecture school at CU-Denver, she turned to her twin passions to build a career, developing cooking and gardening classes for all ages. She helped build the Seed-to-Table school program through Slow Food Denver, where students as young as second grade learned about gardening. “I tried to make it more like giving students the tools so that they could ask the right questions about plants so that they could pay attention to them,” Kolouch says of the curriculum, “so that they could be, in some sense, in charge of their education and get more excited about it.”
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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
KEEP CONNECTED
tending her own backyard garden and cooking for her family — paper “paintings” — the masterful command of light and shadKolouch was developing her art, namely acrylic painting. She ow, texture and color interplay in her work is a direct result of took classes for about 15 years before discovering encaustic years of creating illusions that look real on stage. Her paper crepainting. Manipulating pigmented wax, building it up in layers, ations are like stage sets, tricking your eye into believing that smudging it, carving into it to create engravings and texture fas- staircase goes to another floor or, in the case of Bergquist’s art, cinated Kolouch, and she’s been doing it ever since. begging your hand to reach out and touch the fuzzy underbelly Her work ranges from of a bat or the luminous feathART BY GIGIA KOLOUCH, PHOTOS BY CAITLIN ROCKETT post-impressionistic to softly ers of a wood duck. focused abstractions, always “Everybody wants to,” centered on nature: macro Bergquist says with a laugh. impressions of voluptuous “I’ve learned a lot over 10 wild rose hips pods and bareyears of doing these. My early there carrot seeds; lush lier works were flatter,” less and misty studies of leaves touchable. and supple blooms; inviting Her love of creating porrepresentations of her home traiture with paper came from garden through the seasons. a love of a good challenge: The series of a dozen or What could she make paper so small encaustics on disdo? Could it create believable play at Bricolage were origishadows? Depth? Varied texnally one large piece, disture? It took years, but she mantled into separate pieces found that she could do a lot that together tell a harrowing with the humble medium. story that more gardeners in Growing up in Fort the U.S. are becoming familCollins, Bergquist iar with as the years pass: a describes growing up in a fight to save a garden from “4-H family,” learning to the steady much of an iridessew and build things with cent army of invasive wood as a young person. Japanese beetles. She got involved with the“They destroyed my grapeater in grade school, which vines,” Kolouch says. They’d later blossomed into a been growing for 15 years. decade-long career travel“So it’s kind of like my ing the country as a props eulogy to my grapevine,” designer and director. Kolouch says of the series, When she grew tired of “because I pulled [the vines] traveling and wanted to be out after I made all those closer to her family, she paintings. I just couldn’t take settled in Denver and tinit anymore.” kered with the idea of But any gardener worth becoming an art conservatheir salt knows that this is tionist before switching the game: Nature throws you a curveball, and maybe you course and entering into another long-lived career as a strike out, but the next time you step back up to the plate landscape architect. Like Kolouch, she raised a family, garyou’re a little bit wiser, a little more prepared. Honeysuckle dened and slowly built new skills as an artist, often experinow covers the fence where the grapevines once were in menting with technique and mediums. Kolouch’s yard. In 2017, she quit one of her two part-time jobs to devote Truth and beauty in the everyday are the beating heart of more time to her art, a kind of third act in Bergquist’s life. Kolouch’s encaustics, her eye attuned to the world’s smallest Perhaps it’s coincidental, but soon after she met Denise wonders. Her art is a way, she says, to combat “plant blindPerreault, executive director of Art Parts and the curator for ness.” Bricolage Gallery, who said that Bergquist’s recycled paper art“People don’t recognize plants as living entities,” she says. works would be a perfect fit for the small gallery dedicated to “They treat them like furniture, not as something that’s alive and found-object and recycled art. has its own independent existence.” Much of Bergquist’s art focuses on endangered species, or “So anything that I can create where a person might stop misunderstood critters like bats. She often donates 10% of the and say, ‘Wow, what’s going on with that plant?’ or, ‘What an proceeds from selling her artwork to the Wild Animal Sanctuary amazing life form that exists,’ I’d be happiest if someone got that in Keenesburg, Colorado. from my work.” “I probably would have been a biologist in another lifetime,” she says, which seems funny considering the evidence JUDITH BERGQUIST: BIOLOGIST IN ANOTHER LIFE at hand suggests Bergquist may very well live that dream in this life. Judith Bergquist’s background in theater is evident in her Screenplays often have four acts, afterall. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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events
events
BY BOULDER WEEKLY STAFF
If your organization is planning an event of any kind, please email Caitlin at crockett@boulderweekly.com. LAFAYETTE MINI PEACH FEST.
10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, North Parking lot behind Flatirons Community Church on Waneka Parkway, Lafayette. Tickets are $15.00, business.lafayettecolorado.com/marketspace. Things will look a little different for Lafayette’s Peach Festival this year, but you can bet the Mini Peach Festival will still be a bushel of fun. While orders for baked goods are closed, you can still get fresh Palisade peaches from Morton’s Orchards on-site the day of the event — but get there fast, because supplies are limited. To maintain social distancing, customers are asked to remain in their vehicles and your order will be brought to you. If you’re missing the crafts you can normally peruse at the Peach Festival, get online and enjoy virtually browsing fine artists, potters, crafters and antiques.
VOICES OF CHANGE: A HISTORY OF RACE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN LONGMONT.
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, via Facebook Live, LongmontPublicMedia.org, or local Comcast Channel 8/880. This discussion is free. Moderated by Rossana Longo, local civic leaders and activists gather to share their perspectives on Longmont’s history of race relations and the ongoing efforts to create a more just and inclusive community for the diverse people who call Longmont home. Featuring Lorne Jenkins, CEO of Mini Money Management; Linda Arroyo-Holmstrom, Boulder County Latino History Project; Louie Lopez, community coordinator for the City of Longmont; Glenda Robinson of the Longmont Multicultural Action Committee; and Brett Lee Shelton of the Native American Rights Fund.
TALES AND TRAILS WITH CORDELIA ZARS OF ARÊTE THEATRICS. BOULDER ARTS OUTDOORS.
5:30 p.m. Sept. 25-27, Gerald Stazio Softball Fields, 2445 Stazio Drive, Boulder. Tickets are $15-$26 through Eventbrite, boulderartsoutdoors.com. Following a weekend of successful perforJOSE BALMACEDA mances in August, Boulder Arts Outdoors brings a second series of live, ‘drive-in’ performances to Boulder audiences in late September. The programs include diverse forms of music, dance and circus arts. Each evening will feature a different set of performances by local artists including the Ivalas Quartet; the intertribal Denver Indian Singers and Dancers; American Ballet Theater dancer Leah Baylin; NBC’s America’s Got Talent semi-finalist AscenDance Project; Uruguayan folk singer Elisa Garcia with percussionist Leo Munoz Corona; Boulder Ballet and more. Tickets are $26 per vehicle for front of the lot parking with optimized sight lines, and $15 per vehicle for self-parked back-of-the-lot spots. All proceeds of ticket sales will go to the performing artists. Livestream broadcasts of the performances will be available through the Boulder Arts Outdoors website.
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5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23 (and Sept. 30, Oct. 7 and 14), aretetheatrics.com. This workshop costs $150. Want to learn how to tell a good story? Sick of Zoom? Tales & Trails is designed to teach the fundamentals of storytelling on intermediate-level hikes outside Boulder. Studies suggest that exercise stimulates one’s ability to imagine, think creatively and retain information. The class will cover techniques of effective storytelling, including structure, characterization and style. After four hikes, students will possess the knowledge they need to compose a song, draft a play or take a crack at that novel.
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BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
LIVE
MUSIC
SUMMER SERIES ON THE PATIO: BRIAN PARTON. 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, Dickens Opera House, 300 Main St., Longmont. Free. Hang out on Dickens’ patio for some socially distanced tunes from Denver-based musician Brian Parton, who plays original and cover material — indie, pop/rock, Americana — with a bluesy take on every genre.
Boulder’s Local Music Shop Since 1971 Shop online at hbwoodsongs.com for no contact pickup or free local delivery (on purchases over $20). Open to customers or for pick-up with these new hours of operations: Mon.-Sat. 12-5 pm Sun. 12-4 pm
3101 28th St, Tebo Plaza, Boulder
303.449.0516
hbwoodsongs.com
TIM OSTDIEK AND FRIENDS.
6:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, 300 Suns Brewing, 335 First Ave., Unit C, Longmont, 300sunsbrewing.com. Free. Get ready to cut a rug in the parking lot of 300 Suns Brewing as local musician Tim Ostdiek — and a few friends — play some lively folk music. Ostdiek’s funky take on folk made him a finalist in the 2019 Telluride Troubadour contest, and a finalist in the 2019 Folks Fest Songwriter Showcase.
BACKPORCH SERIES PRESENTS: BONNIE AND TAYLOR FROM EVERYBODY LOVES AN OUTLAW.
5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, Dairy Arts Center parking lot, 2590 Walnut St., Boulder. Tickets are $20-$80 through Eventbrite, thedairy.org. Everybody Loves an Outlaw is a Texas-bred and Colorado-based duo — Bonnie Sims on vocals and Taylor Sims on guitar — who have generated more than 20 million streams in a few months’ time and received plugs from Rolling Stone, Idolator and more. The duo meld country, rock and blues to create their foot-stomping sound. Opening the show is Colorado roots music mainstay Greg Schochet. Concessions, including beer and wine, will be available for purchase with credit card only.
UNFORGETTABLE: THE SONGS OF NAT KING COLE.
5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, BDT Stage, 5501 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, bdtstage.com. Tickets are $35. Singer/entertainer/actor Leonard Barrett Jr. is best known for his starring roles with the Phamaly Theater Company. Most recently he graced the BDT outdoor stage with his rendition of the Frank Sinatra songbook. Barrett has won The Denver Post Ovation award and Best Actor award, and Westword’s Best Season for an Actor award. This event will feature him paying tribute in story and song to the legendary Nat King Cole. see EVENTS Page 18
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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EVENTS from Page 17
WORLD CINEMA PROJECT
PODCAST Former CU Scripps fellow goes intergalactic for second season of ‘Wild Thing’ podcast
by Caitlin Rockett
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HOMEVIEWING
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 3
by Michael J. Casey
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n 1990, Martin Scorsese brought together a band of cinema enthusiasts to protect motion picture history by creating The Film Foundation (TFF) — a bridge between Hollywood studios and archives. Its mission: Preserve America’s visual art form for future generations. Thirty years in and 850 restorations later, TFF remains a beacon of hope in a myopic industry. But American borders couldn’t contain Scorsese’s catholic tastes. In 2007, he established the World Cinema Project (WCP) to focus on the works made in countries not typically associated with cinema. To date, 42 films from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Central America, South America and the Middle East have been rescued, restored, preserved and exhibited for a global audience. And on Sept. 29, The Criterion Collection releases the latest box set of cinematic discoveries, Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 3: After the Curfew (Indonesia), Dos monjes (Mexico), Downpour (Iran), Lucía (Cuba), Pixote (Brazil) and Soleil Ô (Mauritania). Of the six, Pixote is the most familiar to U.S. viewers as it garnered a bevy of acclaim and awards upon its release in the early 1980s. It was director Héctor Babenco’s third feature, made after authorities shut down the documentary he was working on about abandoned children stuck in the reform school system. No biggie: Babenco took what he’d seen and translated it into a scripted narrative à la William A. Wellman’s Wild Boys of the Road and Luis Buñuel’s Los olvidados. The result is a powerful work that feels completely authentic, no matter how grisly the story gets. Probably the least familiar movie in the set is the 1934 Mexican melodrama from Juan Bustillo Oro, Dos monjes — a movie unknown to Scorsese when the title was offered for restoration. But Dos monjes’ exemplary blending of contradicting narrators, gothic horror, expressionistic photography and exaggerated set designs proves that what we don’t know could fill the sky. Cinema is everywhere, and Scorsese’s work is never done. In 2017, TFF partnered with UNESCO, Cineteca di Bologna and the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers for the African Film Heritage Project — an initiative to locate and preserve 50 classic African films. Soleil Ô from director Med Hondo was the first film restored under the banner, and the film is a revelation. Blending animation, documentary and narrative, Hondo follows an African immigrant (Robert Liensol) looking for work in an intolerant France, one that refuses to look at him, let alone employ him, while simultaneously stripping him and his country for parts. “I am bleached by your culture,” he muses. Made over three years for $30,000, Hondo describes Soleil Ô as therapy: “For everything that disturbed me in both my physical and moral life, after all that I’d been through, that others had been through.” Not long after the restoration of Soleil Ô, Hondo died at the age of 82. Thankfully, his experiences and images live on. Each of the six films included in Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 3 are new, restored 4K digital transfers complete with introductions from Scorsese, interviews with filmmakers and scholars, and a substantial booklet collecting essays on each film. 18
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hile journalist Laura Krantz was busy reporting on Bigfoot three years ago for the first season of her podcast Wild Thing, something weird happened — but not in the Canadian forests where she was searching for Sasquatch. Thousands of miles away, in an observatory in Maui, scientists reported seeing an object from another solar system enter our own for the first time. They dubbed it ‘Oumuamua, Hawaiian for “a messenger from afar arriving first.” With its unusual elongated shape — unlike any comet or asteroid seen before — ‘Oumuamua was truly from another world. Even tenured professors, like Avi Loeb, of Harvard University, wondered: Was this merely a piece of space bric-a-brac, or a sign of extraterrestrial life? Krantz, a former Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at CU Boulder, saw the connection between Bigfoot and E.T. — a human “desire to seek things out and try to find answers, even if we know the questions might not be answerable.” For season two of Wild Thing, Krantz leaves the forests of the Pacific Northwest and sets out on a journey to learn more about the search for extraterrestrial life and why it captures our collective imagination. “The feeling I got researching Bigfoot is that people love the idea that the world is still wild enough and unexplored enough that something like this could exist out there and that we could be the ones to find it,” Krantz says. “I think there is something very scary about the idea that the world is already so explored and mapped and paved and discovered that there’s nothing left for anyone to find. … Likewise, I think with space, there’s something very similar there, it’s this desire to know what’s out there and to explore it.” She calls season two a “survey course in the search for extraterrestrial life.” Across 10 episodes she travels to Georgia Tech to speak to faculty in its renowned astrobiology department; to NASA to learn about the origins of life here on Earth and how that informs our search for life in the cosmos; to the SETI Institute in California, where researchers at the Carl Sagan Center have been devoted to the search for alien life for more than 30 years; and yes, Krantz heads to Roswell, New Mexico’s, famed UFO Festival “to talk to people who really do think that in 1947 something crashed into the desert and it was piloted by extraterrestrial life — and the government has been covering it up ever since.” “Thirty percent of Americans believe that extraterrestrial life has visited earth,” Krantz says, “and I don’t think you can have a conversation about these topics without addressing that side of things.” At SETI, Krantz speaks to scientists about lightsails, a still-developing technology that can propel spacecraft using pressure from solar radiation. When ‘Oumuamua came to visit, many wondered if lightsails had carried it across the vast expanse of space. While it doesn’t look like that’s the case for ‘Oumuamua, it’s not far off for us Earthlings. “This sort of cutting-edge technology and science, we’ll be doing things in 20 years that we would’ve probably just chalked up to really well-written science fiction at one point,” Krantz says. “In doing this research I realized how much closer we are to potentially finding something,” she says. “I do think that the possibility of finding microbial life is much more likely than I’ve realized; this is something that could happen in our lifetime, in our solar system. And that’s really cool, because once you find another example of it, then you just have a whole new set of questions.”
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OF COUNTY 2020 WINNER
OF COUNTY 2020 WRITE-IN
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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be candid and transparent and vulnerable about your core truths.
BY ROB BREZSNY ARIES
MARCH 21-APRIL 19: In one of your past lives, maybe you were a Neanderthal midwife in what’s now southern France. In another incarnation, you may have been a 17th-century Guarani shaman who shared your knowledge about local plants with an Italian Jesuit missionary in what’s now Uruguay. All the powers and aptitudes you perfected in those and other previous ages could prove helpful as you cultivate your genius in the coming weeks. JUST KIDDING! Cancel my previous speculations. For you Aries folks, past achievements are often of secondary importance as you create your future. In fact, your mandate is usually to transcend the old days and old ways. It may be better not to imitate or rely on old stories, no matter how dazzling. This will be especially true in the coming weeks.
TAURUS
APRIL 20-MAY 20: “There are no ordinary feelings,”
says poet Dean Young. “Just as there are no ordinary spring days or kicked over cans of paint.” That’s always true, but it will be especially true for you in the coming weeks. I suspect you will be host to a wealth of interesting, unique and profound feelings. They might be a bit overwhelming at times, but I think they will mostly provide rich opportunities for your soul to grow deeper and stronger and more resilient.
GEMINI
MAY 21-JUNE 20: “There should be a science of discon-
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tent,” said novelist Frank Herbert. “People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.” I partially agree with that observation, but I also think it’s a gratuitous cliché that’s not at all absolute. In fact, our culture is under the spell of a mass delusion that tempts us to believe “no pain, no gain” is the supreme learning principle. I’d like to see the development of a robust science of contentment: how fascination and freedom and generosity can build psychic muscles. You’ll be a good candidate to study that subject in the coming weeks.
JUNE 21-JULY 22: Cancerian songwriter Mathangi
LEO
JULY 23-AUG. 22: “If you’re not invited to the party,
throw your own,” declares singer and actress Diahann Carroll. In the coming weeks, I urge you Leos to use that advice as a metaphor in every way you can imagine. For example, if you’re not getting the love you want from a certain someone, give it to yourself. If no one hands you the opportunity you need, hand it to yourself. If you wish people would tell you what you want to hear, but they’re not saying it, tell yourself what you want to hear. It’s a time when you need to go beyond mere self-sufficiency. Be self-gratifying, self-rewarding, self-acknowledging.
VIRGO
AUG. 23-SEPT. 22: “At the necessary moment, going
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SEPT. 23-OCT. 22: Libran playwright Wendy
Wasserstein wrote, “Every year I resolve to be a little less the me I know and leave a little room for the me I could be. Every year I make a note not to feel left behind by my friends and family who have managed to change far more than I.” I recommend Wasserstein’s practice to you, dear Libra. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to launch this ritual as an annual tradition. For best results, write it out as a vow. I mean take a pen and paper and compose a solemn pledge, then sign it on the bottom to seal your determination.
SCORPIO
OCT. 23-NOV. 21: “I may not lead the most dramatic
life,” confesses singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright, “but in my brain it’s War and Peace every day.” He was referencing Leo Tolstoy’s sprawling, exuberant 1,200-page novel, War and Peace, which features stories about five families who lived through Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in the 19th century. I’m guessing that these days your fantasy life may also be filled with epic fairy tales and heroic sagas and tear-jerking myths. Is there a problem with that? Not necessarily. It could be quite entertaining and educational. I do recommend that you keep your actual life a little calmer and saner, however.
SAGITTARIUS
NOV. 22-DEC. 21: “I rejoice to live in such a splen-
didly disturbing time!” said author Helen Keller (18801968). She was a smart activist who worked hard on behalf of women’s equality, labor rights, antimilitarism and socialism. Was she being sarcastic in saying she loved being alive during a time of upheaval? Not at all. She derived excitement and vigor from critiquing injustice. Her lust for life soared as she lent her considerable energy to making life on Earth more enjoyable for more people. I invite you to consider adopting her attitude in the coming weeks. It’s a good time to experiment with generating the personal power that becomes available by taking practical action in behalf of your high ideals.
CAPRICORN
CANCER
Arulpragasam is better known by her stage name M.I.A. She has accomplished a lot in her 45 years on the planet, having been nominated for three Grammy Awards and an Academy Award. Esquire named her the 75th most influential person of the 21st century. One key to her success is the fact that she formulated a clear master plan many years ago, and has used it to guide her decisions. In her song “Matangi,” she refers to it: “If you’re gonna be me, you need a manifesto / If you ain’t got one, you better get one presto.” I bring this to your attention, Cancerian, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to formulate (or reformulate) your life manifesto and master plan.
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LIBRA
naked will be your most convincing disguise,” writes poet Dobby Gibson. As I apply his witty statement to your life, I’ll interpret it metaphorically. My sense is that you could really use the kind of “disguise” he’s talking about. What I mean is that you would benefit by appearing to be different from what people expect of you. You can gain key advantages by shifting the image you present to the world — by expressing a part of your identity that is not usually obvious. And I think the best way to do that is to “go naked” — i.e.
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DEC. 22-JAN. 19: You know what perfectionists are:
people who obsessively strive to finesse every last detail, polishing and honing so compulsively that they risk sucking all the soul out of the finished product. In contrast to them, I propose that we identify a different class of humans known as imperfectionists. They understand that a ferocious drive for utter purity can make things sterile and ugly. They resolve to cultivate excellence while at the same time they understand that irregularities and eccentricities may infuse their work with beauty. I hope you’ll act like an imperfectionist in the coming weeks, Capricorn.
AQUARIUS
JAN. 20-FEB. 18: “Everything good I’ve ever gotten
in life, I only got because I gave something else up,” writes author Elizabeth Gilbert. To that melodramatic declaration, I say, “Really? Everything? I don’t believe you.” And yet I do think she has a point. On some occasions, the most effective strategy for bringing good new influences into our lives is to sacrifice an influence or habit or pattern we’re attached to. And often the thing that needs to be sacrificed is comfortable or consoling or mildly pleasurable. I suspect that the coming weeks will offer you one of these opportunities, Aquarius.
PISCES
FEB. 19-MARCH 20: “I and me are always too deep-
ly in conversation,” confessed philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. I wonder why he said “too deeply” and not just “deeply.” Did he mean his dialogs with himself distracted him from important matters in the world outside of his imagination? Was he implying that he got so consumed while conducting his self-interviews that he lost his bearings and forgot what his goals were? With these cautions in mind, Pisces, I invite you to dive into an intense but spacious communion with yourself. Make this a delightful and illuminating conference, not a raging debate or a debilitating argument.
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
Politics on screen
How we got here in three documentaries
By Michael J. Casey
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e’re less than 60 days away from another Election Day — and just three short weeks until Boulder Weekly’s annual Vote Guide! — and politically minded documentaries are coming fast and furious to theaters physical and virtual. Here are three to paint a picture of hope and despair, and maybe hope again. Let’s start on the positive side of things with Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President, probably the most uplifting 96 minutes you’ll spend watching a political doc this year. Granted, that’s not a high bar to clear, but it’s something. Using the typical talking heads/archival footage formula, director Mary Wharton presents Carter’s story — from GREENWICH ENTERTAINMENT Plains, Georgia peanut farmer to the elected leader of the United States — through the connections Carter made with musicians. Politics are about charisma, and Carter had it in aw-shucks spades, but charisma can only get you so far. You need publicity, and Carter had the Allman Brothers, Willie Nelson, even Dizzy Gillespie. Would Carter have been elected president if not for their willingness to come and play? Probably not. Would Donald Trump have been elected if not for The Apprentice? The music’s great but the coup of Wharton’s doc is Carter himself, who recounts his work in politics with enough distance to see the successes and mistakes. Carter supplies humility — a welcome counter to the other interviewees who wax poetic about the one-term president. Wharton tends to wax poetic too, and the absence of squabbling pundits and vitriol in Rock & Roll President makes the world appear kinder. Maybe it was. Or maybe we just want to remember it that way. I’m sure you could make a counter documentary, one that shows how disenfranchised the country was and how ready Americans were to accept Ronald Reagan after four years under Carter. There would be a lot of truth in that documentary too, but you would also lose all the humanitarian work Carter did after leaving the office. And those are the moments that lift. Now playing in select theaters, home entertainment release Oct. 4. When George Washington was elect- AMAZON STUDIOS ed president of these United States, it was done so by a specific group of people: white, male, property owners. As All In: The Fight For Democracy says, that represented 6% of the population. A lot has changed since, and a lot more have the right to vote, but filmmakers Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés make the case that our “one person, one vote” representative democracy is under new threat from systemic voter suppression. Using Stacey Abrams’ 2018 gubernatorial campaign in Georgia as a framing device, and Abrams as the doc’s grounding voice, Garbus and Cortés make a compelling case, one that falls along the lines of: “If you’re not outraged, PATAGONIA FILMS you’re not paying attention.” Streaming on Amazon Prime starting Sept. 18. The same could be said of Public Trust, the new call-to-action doc from David Garrett Byars and Patagonia Films, about private interests invading public lands in search of oil and gas profits. America is home to 650 million acres of public land for conservation, recreation and preservation purposes. But the vast resources that can be monetized makes the divide between what we have and the money to be made all the more tentative. Streaming on YouTube starting Sept. 25. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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Adovada Burrito @ Santo THE RECENT
snowstorm had us thinking about Christmas… chile. So we headed to Santo for New Mexican fare courtesy of Chef Hosea Rosenberg (who hails from the Land of Enchantment). Santo’s doing COVID-related precautions well, having implemented temperature checks, spaced-apart seating, outdoor dining (weather permitting) and meals from breakfast to dinner available for pick-up. We opted for the pork adovada burrito on a recent dine-in visit — succulent, chocolaty braised pork is wrapped in a tortilla with refried pinto beans, cheese, cilantro and onions, then, of course, smothered in red and green chile. You can pick one chile or the other too (or none, we suppose), but the brightness of the green and the warm spice of the red make a perfect pair.
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1 Drink this: BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse’s Hop Harvest IPA Beer is ephemeral. That’s especially true during the waning days of summer with breweries flooding the market with harvest ales, fresh hop beers, festbier, even pumpkin and squash brews. Here today, gone tomorrow. And if you haven’t cruised past BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse for one of Aaron Stueck’s R&D beers, you don’t know what you’re missing. Take his Hop Harvest IPA (6.8% ABV, 50 IBUs) — pale straw in color with a slight haze and plenty of tight carbonation (which gives the beer a Pilsner-esque crispness). The nose is fresh, floral and vibrant, as is the taste: Ripe melon, lemongrass, orange blossom honey and a full hop presence in the back (Stueck says the recipe uses Strata, Loral and Jarrylo). It’s bright and clean, and the bitterness prickles your cheeks. And, as the beer warms, the malt shines through, sweet and delicious. If you hurry, you might snag a pint (word on the street is the BJ’s in Golden also has a keg). But even if it’s gone, Stueck has plenty more to try. Get ’em before they’re gone. BOULDER WEEKLY
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Oktoberfest with Big Red F West End Tavern’s offering a package to take home for Oktoberfest celebrations that includes smoked, candied nuts, pretzel bites with beer mustard, local bratwurst with onions and buns, smoked chicken served with smoked Cheddar spaetzle and apple strudel for dessert. Preorder by Sept. 18 at 2 p.m., and pick up on Sept. 19 or 20 ($55 for two, $110 for four people). Click the reservation pop-up on thewestendtavern.com. If you’re just into Oktoberfest for the beer, head to The Post Brewing Co. in Boulder, Lafayette and Longmont on Sept. 18 and 19 from 4-9 p.m. for the tapping of the Oktoberfest Lager — $10 steins of the beer plus brats, fried cheese curds and chicken schnitzel are available. Reservations are encouraged.
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Brewnited
BELOW: Brooklyn
Goin’ virtual at the Great American Beer Festival
Brewery brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, at the 2019 GABF
by Michael J. Casey
T
his won’t come as a shock to most of you, but for those just joining us, there won’t be a Great American Beer Festival (GABF) this year — at least not the way we’ve come to expect it. The crown jewel of the beer festival circuit, GABF is three days, four sessions, 60,000 attendees, 800 breweries, 4,000 beers and another 8,000 in competition for 300 medals. It’s an extravaganza, one that incorporates the killer Paired session, a pavilion dedicated to beers aged in Jameson whiskey barrels, talks with brewers, live music — GABF has it all and then some (some might even say too much). Well, there won’t be any of that this year. It’s hard to celebrate like that in a pandemic, so, like everyone else, GABF has gone virtual. Which has its benefits: The festival will be longer (Oct. 1-18) easier to access for those who cannot make their way to Denver, and considerably more localized. First, you’ll need a GABF passport. It costs $20 (greatamericanbeerfestival.com/tickets/public-tickets/) and will net you special deals from more than 1,000 participating breweries — mostly in the form of free beer and discounts. Plenty of Boulder County breweries are included: Avery, The Post, Twisted Pine, Vision Quest, Front Range, Liquid Mechanics, Wibby, Crystal Springs, Left Hand and more. But the passport is more than just discounted beer; it also allows you to access GABF’s online content — 10 sessions with an opening and closing ceremony — broadcasting Oct. 16-17, and kicking off with the announcement of the 2020 medal winners.
Two sessions not to miss: The Michael Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling (8:10 p.m. Oct 16), hosted by Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver, and The Black is Beautiful Project (7:25 p.m. Oct. 17), hosted by Marcus Baskerville, head brewer and cofounder of Weathered Souls Brewing Co. in San Antonio, Texas. Both were developed in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, and both MICHAEL J. CASEY are designed to make a predominantly white and male industry more inclusive and diverse. Named after the beer writer, not the King of Pop, the Michael Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling is a scholarship program directly funding accredited technical education within the brewing and distilling fields for people of color in the United States (Jackson was a Scotch aficionado in addition to being a leading beer scribe), and Oliver — one of the most prominent faces (and hats) in the craft beer movement — brings his signature level of education and enthusiasm to the foundation. Similarly, Baskerville’s Black is Beautiful initiative has garnered enthusiasm with more than 1,000 breweries across the U.S. brewing a stout under the moniker Black is Beautiful and donating the beer’s proceeds to local charities committed to fighting racism. Oliver and Baskerville’s advocacy is encouraging. The world feels divided on just about every level imaginable. But for 18 days in October, GABF offers a chance at unity over a glass of beer. They’re calling it Brewnited. It’s a hope.
Boulder-based Arryved reimagines beer point of sale
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efore March, you probably didn’t give a lick about brewery point of sale, did you? You might have noticed that each place was slightly different, depending on the establishment’s size or age. Some had a tablet on the counter; others had waiters who would come to you and handle business at the table. There were even a couple of holdouts that still relied on paper and pen and took only cash. Then: virus. Now, things are a lot more standardized, and most businesses are looking to emphasize minimal or no physical contact. Enter the point-ofservice software to rule them all: Arryved (pronounced “arrived”). Founded in 2016 and based in Boulder, Arryved is a software breweries can use to track inventory, split and merge guest checks and publish QR codebased menus, among other things. Patrons can also download the app on their phone and use it for touch-free on-premise ordering, online ordering and mobile payment. “We’re a Swiss Army knife kind of platform,” Alexandra Ostler, Arryved’s head of marketing says in a press release. According to Arryved, 60,000 craft beer patrons are currently using the app, as are several Boulder County breweries: Avery, Bootstrap, Gunbarrel, Left Hand, Odd13, Twisted Pine, Wild Provisions and more. Even the Rayback Collective uses it. To quote Leonardo DiCaprio/Howard Hughes in The Aviator: “The way of the future. The way of the future. The way of the future...” Visit arryved.com for more information, or download the mobile app from your phone’s app store.
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Colorado winemakers embrace harvest season amid myriad challenges by Matt Cortina
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f this year were normal, we might be planning to head out to Palisade for the annual Colorado Mountain Winefest, a rip-roaring celebration of the Western Slope wine harvest, and an important revenue generator for the region and its wineries. But the Winefest, along with other events, has been postponed until 2021. You can also add to the disappointment of 2020 a relatively low-yield year due to an early freeze, an ongoing financial crunch caused by the pandemic and, oh yeah, smoke for nearly all of harvest season from surrounding wildfires. That said, winemakers are confident the quality of this year’s vintage will help keep the momentum going for the local industry, which has received a growing number of accolades. In just the last two months, for instance, Wine Enthusiast reviewed 70 Colorado wines (boosting the state’s profile) and gave nine of those wines a score of 90 points or higher. And one way to look at the low 2020 yields in a positive light is to consider that vintners have been able to pay more attention during harvesting and processing. Take Balistreri Vineyards, which crushed its first harvest of teroldego grapes by foot and moved the rest of the “crush” inside when the snow rolled in. The grape is indicative of what makes Colorado’s wine industry unique — because it’s still in its relatively early stages, vintners are still tinkering to find out what grapes work best in our climate and in the micro-climates within Palisade. Teroldego, a rare grape grown typically in AltoAdige, Italy, could thrive as a single-varietal red wine here, perhaps a blend — we’ll find out when Balistreri releases it. Boulder’s BookCliff Vineyards, meanwhile, hauled in an impressive sauvignon blanc harvest — a harvest which began under smoky skies and endured the freak snow storm. You can join BookCliff, by the way, for a virtual tasting on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 5 p.m. via the winery’s Facebook page. Look, it’s been a rough year in a lot of industries, wine included. And though the yield is low this year for Colorado producers, availability of imported wine is likely to be somewhat limited too: imports to the U.S. from France and Italy are down 23% and 18% respectively for all foodstuffs, including wine, according to a recent analysis by Jungle Scout. But you might also find now’s a good time to enjoy some choice vintages from Colorado winemakers. Settembre Cellars, in Boulder, recently released its 2015 chardonnay. Settembre’s taproom was closed for most of the pandemic, but recently launched some excellent winemaker-paired dinners in conjunction with local restaurants and you can currently make reservations to visit the taproom. So maybe we can forget about the troubles of 2020 with some good wine from years past, and when the 2020 vintages come up in a few years, maybe they’ll be the best things to come from this year. BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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premature commitment? You’re only eight months in — is it possible you involved your kids too soon? You obviously need to have a conversation with Dear Dan: I’m a 32-year-old straight man dating a 31-year-old straight woman. your girlfriend — if you can get her on the phone — about your expectations and We’ve been seeing each other for eight months and became “Facebook official” (if definitions. If you expect her to let you know where she is at all times and who that’s still a thing) in June. We are both in she’s with, TAG, make that clear. But if our first serious relationship after being that is what you expect, well, here’s hopdivorced from relatively long marriages. ing she dumps you. Because even if you (Me: eight years, two kids. Her: 10 years, no kids.) My question is when does suspi- lived together, even if you were married, even if she wanted to spend the rest of cion — suspicion of cheating — become her life with you, your girlsomething you should bring friend would still be entitled up? I tend to spill everything ROMAN ROBINSON to a little privacy and her that’s going on in my life, autonomy. which she says she appreciates but isn’t used to Dear Dan: I’m 34, nondoing. She’s a very indebinary but presenting pendent person, which I’ve female. Due to a series of never experienced before. personal tragedies (death, It’s refreshing to know that deportation, illness — it my partner has her own was not a Top 10 year), I’m friends but there are sheltering with my parents. moments when I get stoneLong story short, I’m 100% walled. Sometimes I get financially dependent on my vague answers or no parents right now. The answers about where she is upside is, I’ve had a lot of time to become or who she’s with. She often tells me she comfortable with the fact that I really, real“accidentally” turned off her notifications. ly want to mess around with cross-dressSometimes she will say she’s staying in and then I later find out that she went out. ing. I would love to get a binder and a Maybe I’m taking things way too seriously masc get-up and haircut and just see how that feels. My parents will want to know considering the amount of time we’ve “what this means” and they won’t take been together but I feel I have to take “fuck if I know” for an answer. It will be a things seriously since kids are involved. long time (maybe years) before I’m either —The Absent Girlfriend eligible for disability or ready to work again, and I just can’t wait that long. So Dear TAG: The uncharitable read: much of my life has already passed me by Your hunch is correct and your new girland I’m tired of waiting for a “right time.” friend is being cagey about where she’s But binders and clothes and haircuts cost going and who she’s with because she’s money. Keeping masc stuff around the cheating on you. house means people will eventually see it. The charitable read: Your new girlfriend is 31 years old, she was married for Again, they’d probably be supportive, but I 10 years, and you’ve been dating for eight just want to keep this private. Is there a way to do it? months. Math has never been my strong —Hoping For A Third Option suit but assuming her marriage didn’t end five minutes before you met, TAG, your Dear HFATO: Other than winning the girlfriend married very young. Which lottery and moving out on your own tomormeans she spent her entire adult life — row, HFATO, there’s no third option here. most or all of her 20s and possibly a chunk of her teens — having to answer to You’re going to have to pick your poison: risk having an awkward conversation with a spouse. She only recently began to parents who are likely to be supportive or experience the kind of autonomy most of us get to enjoy before we marry and settle continue to wait — possibly for years — before you start exploring your gender down (if we marry and settle down), TAG, presentation. The choice seems obvious and she may be reluctant to surrender that autonomy so shortly after achieving it. to me. She may also have different ideas This week on the Lovecast, America’s about what being Facebook official favorite mortician — Caitlin Doughty! Visit means. Does that mean you’re monogamous? If it does, does she define monog- savagelovecast.com. Send questions to mail@savagelove. amy the same way you do? Some other net, follow Dan on Twitter @fakedansavage questions: Was going Facebook official and visit ITMFA.org. your idea or her idea? Did you ask for a
BY DAN SAVAGE
BOULDER COUNTY’S INDEPENDENT VOICE
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Boom times, they are a-changing?
Armed with stats that indicate support for marijuana legalization is at an all-time high, legislators try for federal decriminalization
by Seymour
D
espite the fact that 33 states have legalized medical marijuana, and a handful have passed laws allowing for adult recreational use, marijuana is still a banned substance according to federal law. The designation of marijuana as a Schedule 1 banned substance means that those who operate state-legal marijuana businesses often have a tough time accessing banks and live under the fear that the federal government, under a certain administration, may seek to crack down on their operations. But a bill working its way through Congress will likely receive a vote next week. The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, if passed, would remove “marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act” and eliminate “criminal penalties for an individual who manufactures, distributes or possesses marijuana,” according to the Congressional Research Service. The bill would go even farther to right wrongs related to marijuana. It would establish a trust fund to support various programs and services for individuals and businesses in communities impacted by the war on drugs (funded with a 5% tax on cannabis products). It also, critically, would establish a process to expunge convictions and conduct sentencing review hearings for people who were previously charged with cannabis-related federal offenses. The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on the bill sometime during this current legislative session. The time appears to be right for federal action. Voters in several states will consider marijuana legalization in the November election. Several recent polls suggest Americans — about two-thirds of them — support marijuana legalization or decriminalization on a federal level. And the proof is in the profit-pudding, in Colorado at least. Perhaps spurred by stay-at-home orders and the closures and restrictions of many social spaces, people bought a ridiculous amount of pot this year — $1.2 billion worth so far, with over $220 million in sales coming just last month. That said, the bill is ultimately unlikely to pass the Republicancontrolled Senate. Still, it’s a step forward — at least the conversation about decriminalizing and legalizing marijuana is happening on a national level.
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