Taking a Stand

art entertainment food drink music nightlife Thursday, December 1, 2016

DGO

TAKING A STAND FLC students caravan to protest pipeline, get a taste of activism, while one local learned a lesson about white culture and colonization at Standing Rock

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Also: In praise of macro beer, the good and bad of vinyl, and Eufรณrquestra and Head for the Hills at ACT

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Marcus Garcia hard at work in the Ouray Ice Park

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DGO Magazine

STAFF

What’s inside Volume 2 Number 6

December 1, 2016

Chief Executive Officer

9 Beer with hints of

foot odor or horse

blanket? Yes, please!

Douglas Bennett V.P. of Finance and Operations

Why would anyone want to have a beaver sac, sweaty horse saddle, smelly foot, vomit beer? The answer is something called “brett.”

Bob Ganley V.P. of Advertising David Habrat V.P. of Marketing Kricket Lewis

Nathan Schmidt returns with another quirky look at Durango-y things.

David Holub dholub@bcimedia.com 375-4551 Staff writer

18 You’ve grown it, now

it’s all about the cure

Patty Templeton ptempleton@bcimedia.com 375-4546 Contributors Katie Cahill

Cooper Stapleton Cyle Talley Robert Alan Wendeborn

5

An audio engineer talks vinyl In the first of a three-part series, Scott Smith of Scooter’s Place Studios, tells you what’s great about vinyl and ... what’s not so great.

Advertising

The 2016 harvest is in.

The season now begins its high-energy wrap-up as stalks come down, fan leaves get snipped and tossed, the remainder of the plant gets hung and the trimming and drying processes kick into high gear.

375-4570

DGO is a free weekly publication distributed by Ballantine Communications Inc., and is available for one copy per person. Taking more than five copies of an edition from a distribution location is illegal and is punishable by law according to Colorado Revised Statute 18-9-314.

Sound 6

Beer

18 Weed

Seeing Through the Smoke 18

Netflix and chill ‑ 420 edition 19

20 Savage Love 21 Happening 23 Horoscope/ puzzles/ Bizarro 23 Pages

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247-3504 Reader Services

6

16 Movies

17 About Town

Editor/ creative director

Nathan Schmidt

Love it or Hate it

9

David Holub

Jon E. Lynch

4

Album Reviews 7

Amy Maestas

Bryant Liggett

From the Editor

Downtown Lowdown

Founding Editors

Christopher Gallagher

4

8 Yo, Durango,

I’m Patty!

DGO’s new staff writer Patty Templeton (above) loves historical oddities and rock shows and is a bookworming storyhound honky-tonk lover. Just don’t call her toots.

Tell us what you think!

Got something on your mind? Have a joke or a story idea or just something that the world needs to know?

Send everything to editor@dgomag.com

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@dgo_mag

ON THE COVER A protester in Bismarck, North Dakota, dons a jacket opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline.

David Holub/DGO; photo by John L. Mone/ Associated Press

DGO Magazine is published by Ballantine Communications Inc., P.O. Drawer A, Durango, CO 81302

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[ love it or hate it ]

David Holub |DGO editor

I love craft beer, but sometimes only a macro beer will do

M

ore than any drink I know, beer is the most fascinating: All the different styles, from light in color to dark, light-bodied to full, and how different countries and regions within those countries can have subtle or major variations within those styles. I love how in one beer you can taste flowers or fruit, heavy on the hops, and the next it’s malted barley and coffee or chocolate. I can never tire of the complex nature of beer and the people who make it.

Which is why I find it startling when I say this: Enough with all this craft beer nonsense, all these ales and whathaveyous with their packed-in flavor and fancy fermentation, charging $2 a bottle retail and making me feel bad if the glass I pour it into is the wrong shape. Sometimes, I want a beer that is heavy on the water and light on everything else, one that is as cheap and mass-produced as it is flavorless.

I found myself in one of these moods last weekend when gearing up to watch the Broncos game. With a color spectrum of beers filling the fridge, I wanted something else, something unsophisticated, something that actually might be advertised on TV. I wanted a swillin’ beer. Which is how I found myself actually putting my shoes on and leaving the house to retrieve a 12-er of – wait for it – Coors Light. The horror, I know.

I’ve been known to do similar things with other food items. Nine times out of 10 I get adult bread, made with whole wheat grains, the color and density of bark, seeds and grains on the crust. But every once in a while, give me some straight-up white bread, will you? And sometimes, a macro-brew American-style lager (or in this case, its “light” counterpart, as if the original wasn’t light enough) is all that I want. With a 4.2 percent ABV and a body as clear as day, the fact that Coors Light is more or less beer-flavored carbonated water

was a plus. After a 4.5-hour game of steady light beer drinking, I felt better equipped to operate a forklift than before kickoff.

While craft beer dominates in a town like Durango, we’d find our fancy selves in the minority in much of this country. Many people – even when they’re at a craft brewery – don’t know, and don’t want to know, anything beyond your Budweisers, Coors and Millers (the web address of one of my favorite beer bars back East is nocoorslight.com). And if you’re one of those who sees a big difference in these macro-beer choices: Please. The reason they come out with cans shaped like bullets or emblazon them with the logos of your favorite NFL team is because it’s the only way to distinguish their product from the next thing that tastes and looks the same.

Sometimes, I want to be a part of this Joe-average crowd. One time while visiting the small Nebraska town of Nebraska City (its middle name is “not much of a”), I went from bar to bar until I found the one rumored to have Natural Light on tap. I had two, ironically of course.

I suppose I also have a bit of nostalgia for light lagers. Coors Light was the first beer I ever had. It was on a golf course at the age of 21 (yeah, I was straight-laced). In my previous, pre-craft beer, domestic, married, suburban life, I recall unironically going to TGI Fridays (on Friday no less!) and unironically ordering a tall Coors Light. That was beer to me. Maybe it was because of my youth and maybe it was the beer, but it all seemed so simple back then.

That’s what light, macro beer is to me now: a paradoxical, occasionally-needed respite from flavor, a simple beer reminiscent of a simpler time.

Sometimes when I buy these beers, I ashamedly buy a six-pack of some hoppy microbrew, because, you know, I gotta maintain my rep, bro. But there are times when all I need is a little unsophistication.

Eddie Redmayne Love it Eddie Redmayne’s grandma absolutely loves his newest movie, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” I love that Eddie Redmayne loves his grams enough to talk about how excited she is for his wizard role. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m going to sometime this week purely based on her.

Full truth, I don’t know if Eddie Redmayne’s a booknerd, but he looks like one. I am bookpeople. I love bookpeople. I love people who look like bookpeople. As often as he’s seen in Prada and slick suits, Redmayne wears cable knit, Hemingway sweaters and appears as if he should be toting poetry chapbooks by an old-timey strap. ::swoons:: Even if Eddie Redmayne isn’t bookpeople, he picks literary movie roles that are killer. I mean, come on, “Les Mis,” “Pillars of the Earth,” “Tess of the D’Urbervilles,” and “The Danish Girl”? Um, yes. Costume dramas are my kinda get-down. Sure, sure, “The Other Boleyn Girl” was meh, but he was beautiful in it.

When he’s not slaying on the silver screen, he’s a patron for MNDA, the Motor Neurone Disease Association. He got hooked into the British charity during his role as Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything.” More recently, he’s working with J.K. Rowling’s Lumos Foundation, a charity dedicated to revolutionizing the orphanage system. Yup, down-to-earth, talented actor does charity work. ::double swoon:: And to be totally ridic, dude is hot. I love gingers. Yeah, yeah, he’s not a true ginger. He’s a brunette. But let’s pretend. Besides, even if you put a red wig on a lamppost, I’m bound to lean on it.

— Patty Templeton

Hate it We all have those actors who infuse us with a deep, irrational hatred. Eddie Redmayne is that man for me – a performer I do not quite respect, who irritates me to the point of anger. The projects he commits to are frequently a specific breed of phony, corny, Oscar-bait, usually sumptuous and insincere period dramas; “The Theory of Everything” (for which he won an undeserved Academy Award), “Les Misérables,” “The Danish Girl.”

I can grudgingly admit Redmayne seems a hard worker who doesn’t choose easy films wherein he plays a slightly altered version of himself. He definitely transforms. Redmayne’s most offensive turns have come in “Danish Girl,” where he portrays a transgender 20th century painter, and in “Theory of Everything,” playing the venerable disabled physicist Stephen Hawking.

These are prestige flicks, more concerned with being Affective and Important than interesting or challenging. In each role, Redmayne illustrates an iconic personage with exaggerated and obvious effort.

It’s impressive when he assumes the affectations of Hawking’s crumpled neck and twisting hands – but he doesn’t draw you inside the character, he merely reminds you how hard he’s working to become him. As Lili in “Danish Girl,” he similarly imitates the femininity of a woman with shamefully exaggerated, clichéd body language.

There’s something about his too-earnest face, his simpering smile, his pandering manner in every single press interview. Redmayne doesn’t appear to hold much complexity or darkness. He doesn’t defy your expectations. He doesn’t say anything of interest.

He’s nice and enthusiastic, but it’s not enough for me.

— Anya Jaremko-Greenwold

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[Expert Advice on Trivial Affairs]

Get Smart | Cyle Talley

An audio engineer talks vinyl In the first of a three-part series, Scott Smith of Scooter’s Place Studios, tells you what’s great about vinyl and ... what’s not so great.

You grew up with vinyl. What do you love about it?

There are and there aren’t. Vinyl is a physical medium. It relies upon itself as the carrier and the playback. An LP That it was an experience. You had to has physical surface noise that can’t be participate. You were physically involved gotten rid of – the needle is touching the in the listening time. You took it out of vinyl as it spins. You have to get the audio its sleeve, put it onto the turntable, and above that surface noise so that you can then put the needle in the groove. If you hear it. The really difficult part about wanted to listen to a song again, you had vinyl is that any kind of wear – dust, to move the tone arm. And, because of the Smith physical touching, contaminants – is now limitations of the medium, there was only in the way of the needle, which changes ever 10 to 12 minutes of music on one and alters the sound. So a little piece of side, and so once you started that first dust has fallen into the groove and, using our river cut, it wasn’t like you could start something else. “I’m analogy, instead of floating, you’re jumping. You’ve going to go and cook dinner!” To listen to a record, missed stuff. That’s where the snap and pop sounds you stopped everything and just listened. I think it come from. Oils from skin create distortion. There made you listen differently. I have a love affair with are major physical drawbacks that you just can’t get vinyl because of it. away from. You could have the greatest turntable in What makes a good turntable? the world, but if I used it to play a record that I didn’t It’s like anything else – the components, how it’s take care of, it’d sound like crap. made and how it functions. Usually the more you Talk about grooves. pay, the better everything is. Sure, you could say, “Why would you ever pay X-amount?! The cheap one does the same thing! It spins! It has a needle and an arm!” Well yeah, but there’s a lot that goes into it to make it work, and then to make it work well.

What are some of those things?

You’ve got belt-drive or magnetic-drive mechanisms.

Belts can stretch over time, which cause wow and flutter, which just means that the music speeds up and slows down. Magnetic-drive systems are more expensive to design but get up to speed better. The needle imparts different sounds because they’re made of different things. Cheap record players won’t have any tone adjustments, so the weight of the needle and how it wears, how it sits and how it glides will affect playback and sound quality. A cheap record player has a plastic arm and one angle and off it goes. Fancy turntables are designed to fit all sizes of discs, so they need the ability to alter angles to allow for proper playback. Think of a record like a river. The groove is the riverbed and the needle is the boat that floats down it. If your needle is too big, it won’t read the riverbed properly; you’ll miss things. Then there’re some basic concepts of physics that get in the way. The angle on the outside of the LP is different than the angle that sits on the inside of the LP. That’s why you get those adjustments on the nicer machines.

Are there limitations to audio on vinyl?

recording. We don’t want it to get lost because of the limitations of the medium.

Tips for burgeoning vinyl-ist?

Remember that it’s a physical medium and that when you use it, it’s going to wear out. You need to treat it as such. The equipment you play it on, how you handle it, it all affects the longevity of the physical product you bought. The nicer you treat it, the better equipment you play it on, the more you’ll be able to enjoy it.

Cyle Talley could listen to Scott Smith talk about audio engineering for days. If there’s something you’d like to GET SMART about, email him at: cyle@cyletalley.com.

To make a soft sound, you have a little teeny groove, and to make a loud sound, you have a deep groove.

I can only get so loud before I cut right through the record itself. We want a loud record so that we get above the noise of the physical medium, but we can only get so loud before we actually ruin it. So the dynamic range has shrunk. We have this little window where we can’t get too loud or it doesn’t work anymore, and we can’t get too soft or the noise outweighs the sound. Music with a high dynamic range is the worst on vinyl. Classical music is a perfect example. Your loud part can only be so loud and then when things come down, you hear the physical record more loudly than the violinist. Stereo information is side to side, and our frequency content is how the groove shakes. The poor needle is going all kinds of directions. The physical limitation is that too wide a groove allows the needle to skip.

You can only cut the groove so wide. That’s, at least partially, why all of the really important things – vocals, bass, kick drum – tend to get put right down the middle of a stereo

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[sound]

Downtown Lowdown | Bryant Liggett

Funk and soul meet strings in a diverse double bill

Tobin Voggesser/Courtesy of Euforquestra

»» Eufórquestra

O

ver the last decade, they’ve become local performing regulars, playing a couple times a year to packed houses. One is a funk and soul band with Afrobeat origins, the other a string band outfit hitting on bluegrass while exploring whatever they can with classic bluegrass instrumentation. The two bands’ friendship began when funk band Eufórquestra played the wedding of a member of Head for the Hills. Both based out of Fort Collins, they run with similar crowds despite playing different styles of music. Both bands, who now annually play at least once a year in Durango, tried to book a show on the same night. Instead of one band bowing out, a double bill was created and two nights with both bands were booked.

Eufórquestra and Head for the Hills will perform Friday and Saturday (Dec. 2 and 3) at the Animas City Theatre.

The two bands, which both have records coming out in 2017, play strikingly different genres: Eufórquestra is horn and guitar drive funk, Head for the Hills an exploratory bluegrass outfit. But they’re also Colorado festival bands, where one genre can and should give way to another in front of audiences that have come to expect just that.

Bryant’s best Friday: Andy Janowsky of the High Rollers plays country music, 6 p.m. No cover. Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave. Information: 375-7150.

Friday/Saturday: Funk, soul and bluegrass with Eufórquestra and Head for the Hills. $22 single night/$36 two-day pass. Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive. Information: 799-2281.

It’s like putting your digital music device on shuffle and having Curtis Mayfield segue into Ralph Stanley. Or in a more perfect world, Frank Sinatra segueing into The Dwarves.

“I think people appreciate a diverse bill like that, and it gives us a chance to come up with some stuff that we’re going to do that will make it a special and unique thing for the weekend,” said Eufórquestra guitar player Mike Tallman.

“We’re maybe coming from a similar place in terms of what we’re trying to go about musically, but obviously the expression of it is very, very different,” added Head for the Hills bass player Matt Loewen. “When you have that going on, I think people latch onto that. People get it. That’s what

I’m getting at, and that’s what we’re going for.”

This show is ripe for some on-stage collaboration. With 10 musicians between both bands, and the genres they play, it may be safe to assume one member could jump onstage with another band.

Both bands are game for some rehearsed or, perhaps, unrehearsed playing. Fans take the risk right alongside them; it’s part of the fun of having these bands that are described one way but make efforts to defy expectations. Maybe the bands worked out a collaboration before this weekend’s show. Maybe that music will get worked out tomorrow or Saturday backstage, or maybe they’ll just say “What the hell” and make something up on the spot.

“Its always interesting how sometimes you put a lot of effort into preparing something and it goes well or it doesn’t go so well,” said Loewen. “Sometimes you put no effort into preparing something and it goes really well, or it doesn’t go so well. So I think some of column ‘A’ and sometimes column ‘B,’ and it’s always fun to see how that dynamic plays out and I think people in general like seeing that.”

Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.

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[sound] What’s new Various Artists,“Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl” Available: Now, via Polyvinyl Records digitally, in both MP3 and WAV formats, on standard black double vinyl LP, and in limited quantities on Splattered Starburst Teal/Pink and Teal/Green vinyl (with a redeemable digital download).

Given the current state, generally speaking, of the music industry and the independent record label, it’s encouraging when a label celebrates a milestone for longevity. “Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl” is a testament to the DIY aesthetic and proof that an ethical business model works, seemingly, for all those involved. Following the ethos of tried-and-proven labels like DC’s Dischord and Chicago’s Touch & Go, Polyvinyl was birthed from the zine culture of the late ’90s. Paraphrased

from their own words, Darcie Knight and Matt Lunsford founded Polyvinyl Press, a photocopied fanzine that mainly covered the DIY music scene they loved in the Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, area and the greater Midwest. They sold zines at local record stores, at “ramshackle tables [they] could find in the back of basement shows, traded zines with other zine writers, and sent them out one at a time via mailorder.” They made friends with bands, and for the bands that they liked, they offered to put out their record. Simple. It’s a symbiotic relationship that, again, is proven tried-and-true.

cover their fellow label mates. It’s a great introduction to a label chock-full of indie artists you may (or should) already know. Deerhoof, The Dodos, Mates of State, and Braid take a shot at their friends’ tracks, while newer bands take on classic Polyvinyl artists such as Architecture in Helsinki, American Football, and Rainier Maria. Want to surprise your music-loving friend with an articulate, well-informed and thoughtful gift this holiday season? Look no further.

Recommended for fans of traditional indie rock, made by artists on labels that support their fellow label mates and the label itself and bands such as Japandroids, Jacco Gardner, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, of Montreal, Alvvays, or Beach Slang.

For the label’s 20th anniversary, bands of the roster

—— Jon E. Lynch KDUR_PD@fortlewis.edu

New at Southwest Sound 1. Rolling Stones,“Blue and Lonesome” The Stones’ first album in more than 10 years, “Blue and Lonesome” finds the group fully embracing the Chicago blues roots they have held for more than 50 years. Clocking in at just over 40 minutes, “Blue and Lonesome” is a full-fledged celebration of what makes The Rolling Stones one of the greatest bands in the history of music. The album has covers of blues greats like Howlin’ Wolf, Magic Sam, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed and Willie Dixon, who all helped shape the R&B sound that made the Stones so special. If you want some down and dirty, straight-up blues as only the four Londoners can do, you don’t need me to tell you to pick this one up.

2. Childish Gambino,“Awaken My Love” Upon first receiving my copy of “Awaken My Love,” the very first thing that struck me was the artwork. Simultaneously preternatural and grounded in the familiar, it is a gorgeous package that did a great job of getting my mind in the right space to absorb this new album. Much more reminiscent of old school Parliament or D’Angelo than Gambino’s hip-hop contemporaries, I very well could see this album splitting his fanbase. People come to him for tight rhymes and awesome one-liners. Both of those are lacking on this record, but if you approach with an open mind and a love of where hip-hop

came from and where hip-hop is going, you will find something very special in “Awaken My Love.”

3. Kate Bush,“Before the Dawn” Kate Bush is a treasure who is not part of the modern music lexicon as much as she deserves. “Before the Dawn” is a three-disc monster of a live album recorded during her sold-out two-week run in London. The album centers on performances of the second half of “Hounds of Love” and the second half of “Aerial.” If you care about unabashed musical expression and value a truly wondrous female singer and songwriter, I implore you to listen to this live album.

4. Hamilton Mixtape The Hamilton Mixtape is a reimagining of the musical that won every award ever imagined and also invented some of its own awards so it could win more awards. Instead of the regular cast cuts on the album, Lin-Manuel Miranda curated a veritable who’s who of modern music to come in and perform these quickly-iconic songs. The mixtape includes performances by Chance The Rapper, Sia, Watsky, Regina Spektor, The Roots, Nas, Kelly Clarkson, Usher, Ashanti and more. These reimaginings won’t overshadow the original performances, but exemplify their classic status, restructuring them to appeal to those looking to avoid the Broadway stylings of the original score.

5. John Legend,“Darkness and Light” This new album finds Mr. Legend

quieting down and reflecting on his life, fatherhood, and the state of the world today. The darkness is the shadow of hatred and fear that has encompassed our country recently, while the light is love that people are sharing among

each other more than they ever have in the past. Legend’s voice is on point throughout, and even when the sugar is laid on thick, the performances still come across as wholly genuine.

—— Cooper Stapleton

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[introduction]

Yo, Durango, I’m Patty! »» New DGO staff writer loves historical oddities and rock shows and is a

bookworming storyhound honky-tonk lover. Just don’t call her toots.

I

magine a low, dilapidated stage. A fog machine is workin’ overtime and there’s a knee-deep mist. A disco ball creaks as it spins. For some reason, the room smells like corndogs.

A green glitter curtain rustles as a hand reaches to a side-tabled iPod. Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” roars into the room.

The curtain rustles further, and then ... there’s a stumble.

Or is it a somersault? Either way, I appear on the stage. Mildly sheepish, ear-blushing but makin’ French eyes at you, Durango.

Hiya! I’m Patty. I’m a writer who loves historical oddities and rock shows. I’m a bookworm, a storyhound and a honky-tonk lover.

Along the way, I’ve been a reading teacher, a bartender, a novelist, a public librarian, a go-go dancer, a discount theater concession stand worker, an acquisitions editor for Black Gate Magazine, a demented dentist at a haunted house and a late-night diner waitress. Some people call me The Dread Templeton; others shorten it to Dread. More often than not, folks just yell, “Templeton!” Say it with a smile, and I’m bound to answer to just about anything – unless it’s “toots.” You can take your “toots” and shove it.

I’m from Chicago. Being fresh to town, I’m lookin’ to make friends. So far, I know approximately two people – one is a fabulously kind barista and the other is my boss.

So let’s glad-hand! I may look shy or appear quiet, but seriously, let’s talk. Better still, let’s dance. I’m a horrible flailer, but I enjoy bouncing about. I’m not joking: You wanna shimmy in a hallway? I’m your gal. You wanna dance at a gig where no one else is moving? Find me. You carrying an ’80s boombox down Main and want a street corner skanker? I’m there.

When I’m not at DGO, I’m likely to be found nerding out at a local bookshop, curled up on my couch bookmarking small mutts in need of adoption, drinking copious amounts of tea while pinning cabin porn, dancing in front of my microwave to The Cramps or writing fiction at a coffee shop. (If you’re interested, my first novel was an 1880s ghost story called “There Is No Lovely End” and my current work-in-progress is a short story collection based on union and labor songs.)

Books and music are my life. I’m writing this essay while listening to David Bowie.

When I go home, I’ll finish reading Carlos Hernandez’s debut short story collection, “The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quan-

tum Santeria.” I cloak myself in the arts – or maybe in these trying times it is accurate to say that I arm and shield myself with the arts. I feel intensely privileged that I’ve been given the opportunity to write for DGO Magazine as its new staff writer. You’re a small town, Durango, but you’re big on culture and I can’t wait to dive into your story-pond.

If you really want to get to know me ... it all began at the Frankfort Public Library, in a town far, far away somewhere south of Chicago. Not sayin’ I was birthed there, but truly, that’s where I got my weird from. At 9, the library allowed me to put my formidable troll doll collection in the display case for a month. They let me wander through whatever stacks I wanted at whatever age. Most importantly, they had a forever-running book sale. It was there, at 14, that I bought a copy of Dan Mannix’s “Step Right Up!” “Step Right Up!,” alternately titled (or sometimes subtitled as) “Memoirs of a Sword Swallower,” opened a wide world of whatthe-hell that I didn’t know existed. It begins: “I probably never would’ve become America’s leading fire-eater if Flamo the Great hadn’t happened to explode that night in front of Krinko’s Great Combined Carnival Sideshows.”

This strange, strange man chose his profession based on seeing the job’s former occupant blow up? I had found my tribe. Peculiar reading, whether fiction or nonfiction, showed me that you have to make your own magic in this life. We gotta work for our wonder. I learned to take risks. I became a Curator of Curious Histories and Burrower for the Bizarre. I knew that I wasn’t necessarily the type to act out the fantastic, but I could write about it.

It started with reading about eccentrics and oddballs. It became searching out the side-lined or ignored corners of history and modern day. I’m drawn to writing about glister and grit and I want to know what makes you tick. I want to know what matters to you, Durango. I want to praise your art, promote your shows and find the folks who have a story they need told. Please, give me a holler.

I’d love to hear from you.

I can be reached at ptempleton@bcimedia. com.

And, to steal from Stan Lee ... EXCELSIOR! ­— Patty Templeton DGO Staff Writer

8 | Thursday, December 1, 2016 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[beer]

First Draughts | Robert Alan Wendeborn

Beer with hints of foot odor or horse blanket? Yes, please!

Robert Alan Wendeborn is a former cellar operator at Ska Brewing and current lead cellar operator at Tin Roof Brewing in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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learned the art of making very clean beer, very hoppy beer, making very malty beer, making beer with very high IBUs and with very high alcohol content. Now we’re trying to replicate these old styles of beer and have found that the components of brett flavors – horse blanket, rat taint, funky foot odor – are actually quite pleasant if balanced with other normal beer flavors and in doses that are not overwhelming.

We’ve also learned how to control certain aspects of the yeast’s flavor/ aroma production during fermentation and storage. We know that with large amounts of oxygen, the yeast is prone to acetate production and that the yeast will metabolize all kinds of molecules left over from normal fermentation/packaging/filtering: glucose, diacetyl, oxygen, etc., and that can be really good for long-term storage for beer (this aspect alone would explain why bottle conditioning with brett is so popular).

Also, these “off-flavors” in low doses, in a soft blend with other normal beer flavors (hops and malt) and some other off-flavors (lactic acid being the most common), can yield a delicious beer. Anyone who’s had a Saison Dupont, a Lindeman’s, or Duchesse de Bourgogne, you’ve had a beer with some brett fermentation.

I know the idea of having a beer with hints of nail polish, beaver musk, horse blanket, or smelly feet sounds terrible, but the reward of having a beer that tastes so different than any industrially-made beer is worth the risk. If you’re feeling bold and adventurous, try a beer

by Crooked Stave, Casey Brewing and Blending, or look for the word “Brett” on a bottle at the local liquor store. You won’t be disappointed with the adventure.

E. 8th St.

O

riginally isolated by scientists at Guinness, brettanomyces is a wild yeast that grows on the skins of fruit. Its name means British yeast because the scientists at Guinness thought the unique flavors of English ales came from secondary fermentation by brettanomyces in oak barrels. They weren’t wrong, but brettanomyces is also everywhere.

Shortly after its discovery, brett, as it has come to be known, was shunned by the industrial beer producers as a beer spoiler. It produces acetic acid and has several components that are identifiable off-flavors: ethyl acetate (nail polish), ethylphenols (literally produced in a beaver’s castor sacs, a gland near the beaver’s anus (this is the barnyard, sweaty saddle, horse blanket, or medicinal aroma), ethylguaicols (spicy, woody, vanilla, or bacon/smoky), ethyl butyrate (vomit), and isovaleric acid (literally the smell of foot odor and cheese). Except in Belgian saisons and Belgian lambics, the use of wild fermentation and utilization of brett ceased and the crazy array of flavors that the wild yeast can impart disappeared.

So why would anyone want to have a beaver sac, sweaty horse saddle, smelly foot, vomit beer? Well, have you ever had an industrially-produced burger? A burger that tastes exactly like all other burgers that came before it with nothing that is even a little off about it, a burger without even a texture that stands out? Well, those industrially-produced burgers are a lot like the beer market today, especially for brewers. We’ve had decades of industrial beer and our palettes are seeking out these different flavors; our sense of adventure is pushing these process changes (really reversions to old world production processes). Craft brewers have

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[activism]

Jaime Becktel

Here is what I saw and what I learned at Standing Rock

T

of not knowing and to be hanksgiving flexible without concrete morning I answers and solutions, watched videos there was a flurry of quesof the protests at the Standing Rock Restions and a frenzy to unervation in North Dakota derstand, to make sense of with a wretched feeling in and to control. When asked my gut. Native people of to be prayerful, I struggled the Americas have long with how to integrate that denounced Thanksgiving into my consciousness, as as a cause for celebration living prayerfully was not and have re-appropriated my usual way. the holiday as a nationIn a separate orienal day of mourning in tation, we explored the remembrance of their legacy of white supremacy ancestors who suffered over indigenous people and and perished by the people of color that lies millions under the banner at the core of American of colonization and white history and how taking supremacy. Observing the responsibility for that ofbravery of the Native and ten-denied legacy is a pownon-Native people gatherful step toward healing, ered in solidarity to stop understanding and change. the “Black Snake,” the I began to consider the Dakota Access Pipeline, original inhabitants of the I grappled with my own land I occupy – what haprole in the American pened to them in the disJames MacPherson/Associated Press narrative unfolding before placement of colonization »» A Dakota Access pipeline protester defies law enforcement officers who are trying to force them from a camp on me and I chose to go ... and where are they now? I private land in the path of pipeline construction last month near Cannon Ball, N.D. to stand, to bear witness, pondered the story of my to listen to and to pray own family’s arrival to this with my Native American country as European imbrothers and sisters. migrants and the impact of become the majority in camp and our ways could be Briefed by friends who had recently returned their arrival on existing native populations. I began seen overpowering those of the Native American to wrap my brain around the depth of mistrust that from the camp and by my good friend Wolf KarnefNative people hold for the word and laws of white fel, a veteran and member of the Hunkpapa Lakota people upon whose land we were guests. He asked us culture and government. After centuries of broken tribe, I was told to check my ego at the gate and to to consider that the camp itself was being subjected treaties and promises, lies, violence, murder, theft listen to the tribal elders. This was not about me or to colonization, subtly, and sometimes not so subtly and a systematic dismantling of Native culture, that my ideas or plans. It was about listening, being reby well-meaning non-Natives who were there to mistrust continues to be perpetuated through the spectful, being prayerful and being responsible on a help, but who struggled to listen to and understand construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. level I’d never previously understood. the requests of the tribal elders.

Such questions and investigations are uncomfortOnce I began to consider that possibility I noticed During my time at Oceti Sakowin Camp, I listened it everywhere. Where the tribal elders called for able. The true history of America does not paint a and learned. Before my arrival, I read the Standing quiet introspection, there was incessant talking. pretty picture and, in general, white culture avoids Rock Allies Resource Packet on how to prepare for When they called for people to be still and to listen, going, how to engage with camp culture, how to the fire of responsibility for its role in the oppresso that answers could be heard, there was confollow camp protocol centered around the seven Lasion of Native people and people of color for more than 500 years. But to stand in that fire is the beginkota values and how best to support indigenous sovstant movement and action. Where they asked for ning. To own our individual and collective history ereignty movements upon returning home. An oriand a slowing down, there was a whir of patience entation facilitated by a tribal leader grounded me industry, construction and the development of sysContinued on Page 11 in the awareness that my people – white people – had tems and structures. When asked to stand in a place

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Get involved

gentle lesson reminded me to be less grabby, less »»For more information about how to intrusive and to listen on support the movement to stop the a deeper level for what is Dakota Access Pipeline, visit: http:// given freely and what is standwithstandingrock.net/ taken.

The lessons I gleaned »»To read the Standing Rock Allies from my time at StandResource Packet, visit: http://www. ing Rock are many and standingrocksolidaritynetwork.org/ primarily center around resource-packet.html being more aware, conscious, sensitive, reflective and respectful.

One tribal elder suggestenergy, attention, reed that we be gentle with ourselves sources, pictures, taking through the learning process as we things for granted, and participating in what my explore and unravel our longstanding friend Wolf calls “appropatterns and habitual ways of moving priation” – the taking through the world, and he asked that of another’s story, their we “be in a good way for the duration of our Earth walk.” intellectual property, John L. Mone/Associated Press The Native people I met at Standing their art, designs, styles, »» Tonya Stands recovers after being pepper sprayed by police after swimming across a creek with other Rock were patience, kindness and patterns and culture protesters hoping to build a new camp to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, near Cannon generosity personified. With gratitude without their consent or Ball, N.D., on Nov. 2.

I take with me their lessons to further reflection. An example of indigenous sovereignty movements, such taking came when From Page 10 to own my history and to develop my I moved to hug a Native man without At Standing Rock I observed the capacity as a white ally in this counfirst obtaining his approval. He kindly subtle ways in which I as a white perand respectfully declined with a smile, try and the world. and to acknowledge the role of our son feel entitled to take what I want saying, “That’s mine. You can’t have ancestors and our participation in a in life – a Western mindset that runs that.” After establishing a friendship, white supremacist culture carries the counter to the Native way. There are Jaime Becktel is a writer and artist living he later embraced me warmly, but his power to heal and build relations. many ways that I take: Space, time, in Mancos.

������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Thursday, December 1, 2016 | 11

[activism]

A mission at Standing Rock

By Anya Jaremko-Greenwold DGO STAFF WRITER

I

n case you’ve been living in a cave, here’s the deal: Opposers of the $3.8 billion, 1,170-mile Dakota Access Pipeline have been gathering in Standing Rock, North Dakota, for months to exercise their American right to peaceful protest. Led by the Standing Rock Sioux, scores of Native American tribes have banded together to resist the pipeline project, which they believe will pollute the Missouri River (the tribe’s primary source of drinking water) and damage sacred land and burial grounds. The Standing Rock Sioux are suing the Army Corps of Engineers for not consulting them about the DAPL, but the legal battle hasn’t immobilized construction.

»» Students

caravan to N.D. to battle corporate might, protest pipeline and protect the environment, sacred grounds

Relations between police and protesters have grown increasingly tense. One week ago, an explosion badly damaged the left arm of a young woman from the Bronx; some claim the police threw a grenade, though police deny it. Law enforcement officers have sprayed protesters with water from a fire hose (in freezing temperatures), tear gas and rubber bullets. The Army Corps of Engineers just recently informed the Standing Rock Sioux they have until Dec. 5 to vacate entirely; but according to NPR, the Standing Rock’s tribal leader Dave Archambault II has promised the protesters will remain.

Continued on Page 14 Illustration by Alexi Grojean

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From Page 12

The FLC caravan The student body at Fort Lewis College is comprised of about 36 percent Native American undergraduates, so it’s no wonder they are passionate about this battle. A caravan of 55 people (42 students total) in 12 cars left Durango on Nov. 22 to drive more than 16 hours to Standing Rock and spend their Thanksgiving break among the protesters.

Anthony Nocella, assistant professor of sociology at FLC and one of the primary trip organizers, says he gathered folks from Durango, Aztec, Farmington, Mancos and Bayfield, making it one of the largest caravans leaving from a university or college in the United States.

In preparation for the cold, caravan members winterized their tents with tarps and packed warm sleeping bags (no swanky hotels for these guys – they wanted to camp in solidarity with the other protesters). “We know it’s going to be a struggle, but that’s part of creating positive social change,” Nocella told me from the car on his drive up. He has been involved in activism for 25 years, aiding in organizing mass demonstrations both nationally and globally. Nocella met with and trained caravan participants for weeks so they could better deal with possible aggression from police. “We’re going to eat together, have moments of silence at the beginning and end of the day, and give as much labor and support to the people up there as possible,” Nocella said.

Media manipulation This is the first protest for many Fort Lewis students, and several admitted their families worried about them attending after seeing footage of Standing Rock on TV. While in North Dakota, Nocella witnessed police yelling at protesters, inciting and telling lies. They accused protesters of putting weapons in their bags, when they were merely bottles of water filled with milk (to soothe their eyes in the event of pepper spray). “They were trying to manipulate the narrative,” Nocella said. “The word is getting out, but it’s so dominated by one perspective.

Smaller papers are trying to tell the truth.”

There’s a saying in journalism: “If it bleeds, it leads.” The stories that get the most hits are filled with drama, bloodshed, ruckus. Readers eat it up.

Sidney Kabotie, a Native American FLC junior whose mother is a Crow from Montana and whose father is a Santa Clara Pueblo and Hopi from New Mexico, was shocked by the discrepancy between his experience at the protest and what he had seen via mainstream media. “They focus on the moments that are hostile, cars burning and police using brutal force,” Kabotie said. “But really, the experience was beautiful, to be a part of a community on such a huge level. It didn’t matter where you came from.

You could walk into any tent and they would offer what they had to you.”

Personal connections It is natural that many indigenous people feel strongly tied to these issues. Citing the bitter history between Native Americans and their country, Kabotie feels his people have long since been shunted

Courtesy of Lee Eversole

aside, but their voices are being heard this time. “It really hurts to watch my indigenous community be stepped on by the agendas of large corporate entities in it for monetary gain,” said Kabotie. “They see these natural resources as dollar signs, not sacred.

This process has been ongoing for over 500 years. Everybody thinks Native American people don’t even exist on this planet anymore, that we’re all extinct.

It’s not true. These ways of life are still going strong.”

Damon Young, an FLC junior, has a mother who is full-blooded Taos Pueblo and a father who comes from Hopi in Arizona. Young says there are similar water settlements going on constantly in small communities across America. For him, this battle is being waged to preserve a spiritual connection between people and the earth, which he feels is being shattered by the DAPL and the disinterest of big corporations. “In Native American culture, we pray for the rain, for the food we eat, the water that comes through to irrigate our lands,” Young said. “We’ve been doing that for thousands of years.”

But a person needn’t be Native American to care.

Marissa Anderson, another FLC student, says the DAPL is important to her because she’s human.

“We’re all part of the human race, and it would be horrible on my part to not partake, when I have so many brothers and sisters in my backyard who are suffering,” Anderson said. “You’ve got to stand up and give people their voice back.” Nancy Wickham, an FLC alumnus who lives in Bayfield, believes this shouldn’t be a fight left to the indigenous populations. “I’m a mom,” Wickham said, when asked about her particular ties to the people of Standing Rock. “I’m going to demonstrate my respect and solidarity with people who are putting their lives on the line to protect water.”

Lessons learned on the scene Upon their return from Standing Rock, caravan

members were elated and humbled. The expansive campsite of the protesters was described to me as a kind of mini-utopia, where everyone lived together in peace with a common goal. It’s a shame something so destructive was necessary in order to bring about this harmony.

Caravan members reported more than 200 indigenous nations represented at Standing Rock, and more than 400 different countries. They met citizens of Egypt, India, South America, New Zealand, Ecuador, Brazil, Ireland, Ukraine, Sweden and more; people who had traveled from all over the world to be a part of the movement. Ceremonies were going on 24 hours a day, and there was perpetual prayer. “No one was homeless or hungry,” said Young. “Food was served until 2 or 3 am. There was music, songs and dances everywhere, from every kind of tribe.

And there were also non-native performing artists.”

Young himself sang several songs to the crowd.

It wasn’t all serenity. On Thanksgiving Day, Kabotie says the caravan members journeyed by boat to Turtle Island, a sacred burial ground. They all stood at the base of the island in “peaceful prayer” – but the police didn’t see it that way. “They were accusing us of being threatening and violent,” said Kabotie. “We were holding hands, saying we weren’t there to fight. They were standing on sacred land, armed with tear gas and rubber bullets and concussion grenades and pepper spray. That’s like bringing weapons to a cemetery. It was terrible and disrespectful and it was scary, to be threatened by police officers who are supposed to be our protectors.”

Because so many students from FLC journeyed to Standing Rock (they were the largest college caravan during their time there), many protesters and activists wanted to speak with them. People were literally lining up, Kabotie and Young said, Continued on Page 15

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From Page 14

including Colorado representative Joe Salazar; Simon Smith, one of the only Native Americans on CNN; Dr. LaNada War Jack, the first Native American student to attend University of California-Berkeley; and journalist Myron Dewey, currently embroiled in a lawsuit for capturing human rights violations at Standing Rock on camera.

Members of the Durango caravan cooked food, built fires and permanent structures, donated medical supplies and sifted through other donations. On

their way home, they felt inspired to organize an impromptu rally in Denver, for which more than 100 people showed up on a Saturday night. They held another protest on Sunday evening in Durango.

Trump administration President-elect Donald Trump, who recently owned $1 million of stock in the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, has made it known he supports the DAPL project and wants to speed up permits for more oil and gas pipelines after taking office in January.

“I don’t really have faith in anybody, but especially not Trump,” said Anderson. “Even if we set aside all the stuff he’s said about human beings – he doesn’t care about the environment!”

Wickham agrees that Trump’s administration will likely have a tremendously negative impact.

“He’s doing exactly what a lot of people want him to do – run the government like a business,” she said. “But if we’re not active and vigilant right now, we’ll have no say-so in January.”

Young believes people of extreme privilege struggle to understand why drinking water or sacred ground could match the Courtesy of Lee Eversole importance of greed and cold,

hard cash. “We only have one planet and limited resources,” he said. “These people in charge, they’ll have anything they want. They’re privileged and not worried. But we are still around, and we actually need water.”

Of anyone, Kabotie has the most positive spin on the incoming 2017 administration, seeming to find this election has brought people together in fierce resistance. “There’s a deterioration in peoples’ faith in humanity and in the functionality of our government,” he admitted. “But it’s lighting a fire under peoples’ butts.”

Helping back at home Durangoans can help without traveling to North Dakota. Protesters have built permanent structures in the campgrounds, so it seems they mean to stay through the long, cold winter. You can send donations (http://standwithstandingrock.net/donate), supplies, and be sure to spread awareness any way you can. “You can’t just read the headlines,” Anderson said. “There’s people who have been at Standing Rock for months. Look into things, dig, try to figure out what the truth is.”

Talking might seem a passive exploit, but quite often ignorance is dashed and education spread through simple conversation. “People need to be talking about the human rights violations that are happening there,” said Wickham. “This is 2016, this is the United States of America, and there is a warzone in our country. Talking about it is what we need to be doing.”

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[movies] Incarnate Playing at Stadium 9 Rating: PG-13 Genre: Drama,

horror, science fiction & fantasy Directed by: Brad

Peyton Written by: Ronnie Chris-

tensen Runtime: 1 hr. 39 min.

Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: Not available Synopsis: After a single mother

(Carice van Houten) witnesses terrifying symptoms of demonic possession in her 11-year-old son (David Mazouz), a Vatican representative (Catalina Sandino Moreno) calls on scientist Dr. Seth Ember (Aaron Eckhart) to rid him of the evil spirit.

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This Week’s Events

Genre: Drama,

romance

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Directed by:

Asif Kapadia Written by: Christopher Hampton

FRIDAY 12/02 Space Wail 8pm

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Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer:

SATURDAY 12/03

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of history, this is the tale of a romance that crosses political, geographic and religious divides. Azerbaijan, 1918: Though he is Muslim and she is Christian, Ali (Adam Bakri) and Nino (Maria Valverde) defy their parents and marry. At first, it appears that their love will be enough to overcome the differences in their backgrounds. But their bond is soon put the test, first as she confronts what it means to be a westernized woman living in a traditionalist society, and again when by the arrival of World War I.

Thanks for nothing:‘Bad Santa 2’ is bad

By Michael O’Sullivan THE WASHINGTON POST/WP BLOOMBERG

If the 2003 Christmas-themed comedy “Bad Santa” was, as critic Stephen Hunter put it, “demographically engineered for the smallest interest group in America: those who hate Christmas,” then its sequel appears to have been made by an even smaller demographic: those who don’t understand why people loved the original.

“Bad Santa 2” insults the intelligence and taste of the first film’s audience by including all of the biliousness and vulgarity of the first film, but none – or precious little – of its scabrous joie de vivre.

Like Willie Soke, Billy Bob Thornton’s lecherous, larcenous, alcoholic and nearly amoral department-store Santa – now 13 years older, but no less of a lech and a lush, if seemingly a lot worse for wear – the film has the air of a once vital but now senescent reprobate. Like the Ghost of Christmas Past, it isn’t transgressive so much as creakily evocative of dimly recalled transgressions.

“Remember when we did that?” the movie seems to say. “Well, watch this – ow, my lumbago!”

Set in Chicago, “Bad Santa 2” reteams Willie with his partner in crime Marcus (Tony Cox) for a heist of $2 million from a Salvation Army-esque charity. They add a third conspirator in the form of Willie’s foul-mouthed, tattooed mother (Kathy Bates). Never mind that Bates is only seven years older than Thornton, a disconcerting bit of casting that writers Johnny Rosenthal and Shauna Cross try to explain away with a crack about how she gave birth to him while in juvenile detention. Willie actually seems older than his mom, who at least manifests a certain vitality sorely lacking in Thornton’s Willie, who shuffles gingerly through the action, mostly consisting of what might euphemistically be called politically incorrect wisecracks.

Jokes about race, women’s anato-

Jan Thijs, Broad Green Pictures/Miramax

»» From left: Tony Cox as Marcus Skidmore, Kathy Bates as Sunny Soke and Billy Bob Thornton as Willie Soke star in”Bad Santa 2.”

Bad Santa 2 Playing at Stadium 9 Rating: R Genre: Comedy Directed by: Mark Waters Written by: Johnny Rosenthal,

Shauna Cross Runtime: 1 hr. 32 min.

Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 25%

my and little people are sprinkled, like rancid pepper, over a script that depends on the inherent humor of cuss words. Not that coarse language can’t be funny, but here it appears to be evidence of a toxic mix of laziness and sociopathy, not defiance of seasonal propriety. I’m all for turning Christmas-movie clichés on their head, but half the jokes sound like they were written by Donald Trump, on a bus, using Billy Bush as a sounding board.

The one concession to cockle-warming is the reappearance of Brett Kelly as Thurman Merman, the little boy whose appearance in “Bad Santa” helped humanize Willie. Now 21, his character alternates between merely grating and cringe-inducing, as when Willie tries to help Thurman lose his virginity to a prostitute played by Octavia Spencer, who looks like she hopes no one will recognize her.

That impulse informs “Bad Santa 2.”

You can dress it up in a fake beard and a ratty red suit, but it still ain’t the original.

16 | Thursday, December 1, 2016 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[cartoon] About Town, by Nathan Schmidt

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[ weed ] Seeing Through the Smoke Christopher Gallagher

You’ve grown it, but now it’s all about the cure

T

he 2016 harvest is in. The season now begins its high-energy wrap-up as stalks come down, fan leaves get snipped and tossed, the remainder of the plant gets hung and the trimming and drying processes kick into high gear.

I remember those days fondly, from that almost comical first run of a dozen-anda-half little plants under shop lights next to the furnace – a quarter to a half ounce each. The progress led to a little slice of heaven, a tropical field in my basement: By the end of our run, we were cycling about 30 at a time (out of 90 or 100 in bloom, with replacements always ready to move from veg to their final home under the high pressure sodiums) to finish on a manageable cycle. (When I say “manageable,” I mean just barely so – usually starting on a Thursday night, taking Friday off, and finishing sometime mid-weekend to prepare a pound and a half to two pounds, depending on the strain.)

It was absolute sensory overload: The greens running the spectrum from chartreuse to one of those bottles you might drink skunky beer from, the smell overpowering enough to make the girl at the grocery checkout where we’d go to grab snacks and drinks think she was smelling not weed but an actual skunk; the motorized hum of the fans and air scrubbers filling our ears along with the Dead or some Tribe Called Quest; the sharp bite of the

4 Days

3 Days

popcorn buds I’d chew for giggles, the constant tacky grab of the residue, like Velcro between our fingers, and the smoke from the live resin scraped off gooey scissors by razor blades and puffed in my bong. As time went on, I developed a continually refined process, aided by my mentor, Rooster, who looked at me one day and said, “Curing ... It’s all about the cure.”

The drying process for us involved hanging the trimmed buds from strings across a darkened area with a couple fans aimed toward the ground and one of the small HEPA filters running for about four days. As the stalks got to the point where they maintained a bit of flexibility when bent (this is important because if you rush to dry your buds, they can become too brittle and will flake apart like old oregano), I would cut them into smaller portions and place them into paper bags for another three or so days (I found sandwich-sized bags

packed to medium density worked best): After this stage, when the stalks reached a point of holding a bit of moisture but snapping when bent, the buds would be removed from the stems and placed into glass jars to begin their long period of rest to final preparedness.

This is where things get crucial.

There is a risk during the first few days of molding, so the jars must be opened – or “burped” – a couple-three times a day to allow moisture to escape. I’d go the extra step for the first few days of having one extra jar and moving each portion from one jar to the next, making sure they were not growing any unwanted nastiness. After about a week of this, the buds are ready to go, but that’s where “connoisseur status,” like the aging of a fine wine, begins. Rooster advised me to cure at 90 days, minimum, and he was onto something.

At that juncture, much of the chlorophyll leaches from the buds and you’re left with golden-hued, smooth smoking nuggets that accentuate the best elements of the fruit of your labor. Try this long cure with at least a portion of your harvest (or some that you were given or bought), and let me know around late winter if it was worth the wait.

I’m confident it will be.

90 Days

Christopher Gallagher lives with his wife and their four dogs and two horses. Life is pretty darn good. Contact him at chrstphrgallagher@gmail.com.

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18 | Thursday, December 1, 2016 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[Netflix and chill — 420 edition]

‘The NeverEnding Story’ Wolfgang Peterson’s “The NeverEnding Story” (1984) is one of those campy, scary, wildly imaginative films that most kids growing up in the ’90s took fanatical pleasure in watching at sleepovers. And what’s better than a combo of weed and good old-fashioned nostalgia? (Hint: Nothing).

It begins with a kid named Bastian whose mother has died, and whose unsympathetic father instructs him to stop brooding and get on with his life. Bastian is a shrimp of a boy, one who gets stuffed into trashcans by his peers, so of course he reads books – and after stumbling into a dusty city bookstore, he steals a very special novel from the desk of the grumpy store owner. Surprise: It’s called “The NeverEnding Story.”

Bastian skips a math test to curl up with his plunder in the school’s attic. (Do most schools have attics?)

The whole thing is a testament to the power of reading, to a book’s ability to drag a person away from their crappier, duller existence (though eventually Bastian is sucked straight into the book’s increasingly volatile world). The enemy in the story’s fantasy realm is a vague entity known as “The Nothing,” whose presence is sweeping over the fictional land of Fantasia. I always appreciated this metaphorical “emptiness” foe, perhaps the scariest prospect of all; the Nothing encapsulates the destruction of

imagination, of childhood awe, and mourns a quickly modernizing society in which kids are less inclined to read “Treasure Island” and more apt to play video games.

Slowly, the novel manifests Bastian’s own hopes and fears. His fictional alter-ego is a child-warrior named Atreyu, a hero who is supposed to stop The Nothing – but who ultimately fails, leaving the fate of Fantasia in Bastian’s hands. He must decide whether or not to put stock in his own imagination, something his father has sternly warned him against.

This film is all kitsch, over-the-top acting and themeparky sets; but without mounds of CGI, it also stands the test of time better than most computer-generated stories.

The strange and inventive characters are all three-dimensional and stocky; a small man who rides a racing snail; a gigantic man made up entirely of rocks; a flying pink dragon with a loyal, dog-like temperament; and a cynical wolf with flashing green eyes who scared the shit out of me as a kid.

The sets may be artificial, but they are also more absurdly convincing than any digital effect would have been. There is a tangible, solid world to work with in place of transparent, flimsy shapes and colors moving about on the screen, untethered. It holds up.

— Anya Jaremko-Greenwold DGO Staff Writer

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[love and sex]

Savage Love | Dan Savage

And now for another marathon bout of Q&A quickies My boyfriend of almost two years is wonderful, and we have had very few issues. But there is one thing that has almost been a deal breaker. He fiddles with his penis almost constantly – in front of me and in front of our roommates. I’ve confronted him about it a number of times. He said he should be able to fiddle with his dick in every room of the house if he wants to and he should feel comfortable doing so. I told him that he is being “comfortable” at the expense of the comfort of those around him.

We’ve had a number of confrontations about this, and he does it a lot less, but he still does it. If he doesn’t stop when I tell him to, I just leave the room. My question to you: Is this behavior unacceptable or am I being unreasonable?

Frustrated With The Fiddling Until a few weeks ago, I would have said that neo-Nazis sieg-heiling around Washington, D.C., was unacceptable, and any elected official or pundit who didn’t immediately condemn neo-Nazis would be finished politically and professionally. But it turns out that neo-Nazism is just another example of IOIYAR – “it’s OK if you’re a Republican” – and relativism reigns.

In other words: “Unacceptable” is a relative concept, FWTF, not an objective one.

That said, FWTF, I don’t think you’re being unreasonable: Fiddling with your dick in every room of the house is inconsiderate and childish. It sounds like you’re doing a good job of socializing your boyfriend – better late than never – and I would encourage you to keep it up.

I’m a straight man in a mostly healthy marriage. Our sex life is average, which I understand is better than some people can hope for, and we communicate well. For example, I felt comfortable admitting to my wife a few weeks ago that I would like more blowjobs. She in turn felt comfortable admitting to me that she would pre-

fer if I showered more often. So we made a deal: I would shower every day and she would blow me twice a month. But the first month came and went with no blowjobs in sight. I’ve showered every single day. Should I bring this up to her?

Bathe Longer Or Withhold Sex Your wife doesn’t wanna suck your [rooster], BLOWS, squeaky clean or stinky cheese. I would recommend outsourcing non-birthday blowjobs – if your wife is OK with that, BLOWS, which she won’t be.

I’m a mid-30s bi woman in an incredible poly marriage with a bi guy. A few months ago, I learned that one of my closest friends (also poly) has a crush on me. I also have always had a crush on him. My crush-friend needed to ask his other partners how they felt about him being involved with me.

Three months have gone by, and he’s not yet told me how his other partners feel. One of those partners is under a lot of stress – not the best time to bring up potential new partners to her – but my friend has dated other people in the past three months. I think if he really wanted to do something with me, he would have asked by now. I know you can’t ask someone to give you closure. I’ve also got a shit-ton of pride that prevents me from asking him directly how he feels. Should I just move on?

Confused And Pathetic Yup. I am a queer trans woman in my mid-20s, and I am in a monogamous relationship with a queer cis woman.

We have been dating for about three months now. We have had an absolutely amazing sex life since day one, except for one caveat: She has never in her life had an orgasm. For most of the time she has been sexually active, she has felt ambivalent about getting

off. It has only been in the past month that she has started feeling a “sexual awakening,” as she calls it. We have been making progress, but she has been having issues with getting caught up in her head when I am pleasuring her. This has been causing dysphoric feelings for her. We have had a few discussions about what we can do about the situation, but we are feeling lost. We know there isn’t going to be a quick fix, but what do we do about this?

Confused And Nervous Truly Can’t Overcome Much Exasperation Pot. I’ve been in a long-term relationship with the girl I’m going to marry.

While I’ve had a few relationships in the past, she has had only one other relationship before me, who also happened to be her only other sexual companion. My girlfriend is very vanilla in the bedroom, which is fine for me, but the issue is that currently the only way for her to have an orgasm is to grind (dry hump) on my boxer shorts until she climaxes.

This obviously causes her a little bit of embarrassment, along with some heavy rug burn on both of our ends.

My question for you: Is there any toy or something that may help with this?

Girlfriend Dryly Humping Pot and sex toys – they might not help, but they couldn’t hurt.

I’m a woman with a small build who has never had children. During sex, my current partner frequently says, “Squeeze your pussy,” as in he expects me to do Kegel exercises during sex (and hold it), which I will not do because it’s not pleasurable for me to tense up like that during sex. He doesn’t have the biggest or the smallest dick I have ever had, and I have never had this comment before. I have actually been told many times how

“good and tight” I feel. We both enjoy anal, so we tried that. Same request: “Squeeze.” I have no abnormalities.

I’m not sure if there is a work-around for this, other than doing Kegels every minute of my life. Help!

Sex Partner’s Annoying Requests You have two options: You can tell your current sex partner you aren’t going to “squeeze” his dick with your pussy or your ass, as the sensation isn’t pleasurable for you, or can you lie to him. Tell him you’re squeezing your pussy/ass – you’re squeezing so hard – without actually squeezing your pussy/ ass. Odds are good he’ll notice a difference even if you’re not doing anything differently, SPAR, so great is the power of suggestion.

I had to write after reading your recent Savage Love Letter of the Day from a woman who spotted a friend’s husband on Tinder and didn’t know whether she should say something to her friend. My (single and tindering) friend has been mistaken for his identical (married and non-tindering) twin brother more than once on the app.

They live in Seattle and Los Angeles, and so most people in their lives don’t realize they have a twin. My friend has freaked out his sister-in-law’s friends by popping up on their Tinder feed. It came out after the sisterin-law posted a photo of the twins together on social media and multiple people expressed extreme relief that her husband was not a cheater but an identical twin!

Deluded Acquaintances Needed Answers Thanks for sharing, DANA! Dan Savage is a nationally syndicated sex advice columnist writing for The Stranger in Seattle. Contact him at mail@savagelove.net or @fakedansavage on Twitter and listen to his podcast every week at savagelovecast.com.

20 | Thursday, December 1, 2016 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

[happening] Thursday Live music by Ryan McCurry on piano, noon, Smiley Cafe, 1309 East Third

Ave., 903-5598 Powerhouse Trivia!, 6:30 p.m., Powerhouse Science Center, 1333 Camino del Rio, 259-9234.

World AIDS Day Candlelight Remembrance Service, 5:30-6:30 p.m., FLC

Amphitheater, 799-2081.

Karaoke, 9 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509

East Eighth Ave., 259-8801.

Karaoke with DJ Crazy Charlie, 9 p.m.,

Wild Horse Saloon, 601 East Second Ave., 3752568.

Friday Warren Miller’s “Here, There, & Everywhere,” 7:30 p.m., Sunflower Theater, 8

E. Main St., Cortez, (970) 564-9727.

Andy Janowsky, 5:30 p.m., Diamond Belle

Saloon, 699 Main Ave., 375-7150.

Holiday Arts and Crafts Festival, 2-5 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave., 247-2117.

Noel Night, community-wide holiday event,

5-9 p.m., Main Avenue, East Second Avenue and side streets, www.local-first.org.

“Fill Your Bowl” fundraiser, 5-8 p.m., Dancing Spirit Community Arts Center at ELHI, 115 Ute Street, Ignacio, www.dancingspiritgallery.org.

FLC Music Department Holiday Concert, 7 p.m., Community Concert Hall, FLC,

www.durangoconcerts.com.

Merely Players presents “A Christmas Carol,” 7 p.m., Mainstage Theatre, FLC,

www.durangoconcerts.com.

Open mic, 7-11 p.m., Steaming Bean, located downstairs at the Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200, theirishembassypub. com.

Karaoke, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509

East Eighth Ave., 259-8801.

Saturday Warren Miller’s “Here, There, & Everywhere,” 7:30 p.m., Sunflower Theater, 8

E. Main St., Cortez, (970) 564-9727.

Between Ski Movie Presented By Wild Women’s Project – And No Man’s Land Film Festival, 5 p.m., Du-

rango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave., 2592606, durangoarts.org.

St. Columba Parish Christmas Bazaar, featuring more than 35 crafters and

food, 8 a.m.-3 p.m., 1801 East Third Avenue.

The Durango Native American Winter Arts Market 2016, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.,

No, but seriously, who is Lydia Loveless?

KDUR will be hosting a movie night, featuring the film “Who is Lydia Loveless?” next week at Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Drive.

This 2016 rock documentary follows countrified-rock ’n’ roll singer-songwriter Lydia Loveless as she makes an album and hits the road – all the while contemplating the music industry and her place in it.

Doors open at 7 p.m. and the movies starts at 7:30 Thursday, Dec. 8.

Five bucks gets you in the door.

For more information, call 247-7261 or go to www.kdur.org.

Durango High School, contact Linda Baker, 759-3433.

Holiday Arts and Crafts Festival, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave., 247-2117.

Merely Players presents “A Christmas Carol,” 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., Mainstage

East Eighth Ave., 259-8801.

Sunday

Theatre, FLC, www.durangoconcerts.com.

Holiday Arts and Crafts Festival, 10

Henry Stoy, piano, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Jean-

Pierre Bakery, 601 Main Ave., 385-0122.

a.m.-2 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave., 247-2117.

Karaoke, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509

Henry Stoy, piano, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Jean-

Pierre Bakery, 601 Main Ave., 385-0122.

Karaoke, 8 p.m., 8th Avenue Tavern, 509

Irish music jam session, 12:30 p.m.,

East Eighth Ave., 259-8801.

Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200, www.theirishembassypub.com.

Monday

Jazz church (experienced musician drop-in session), 6 p.m., Derailed Pour

Four Corners Arts Forum, 9 a.m., KDUR

House, 725 Main Ave., 247-5440, www.derailedpourhouse.com.

91.9/93.9 FM, www.kdur.org.

Continued on Page 22

������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Thursday, December 1, 2016 | 21

[happening] Not your mother’s holiday craft fair

Where should we

DGO tonight?

In case you haven’t noticed, the holidays are in full swing: It seems like every store has Christmas carols cranked, bell ringers are doing their thing, and parking lots around town are jampacked.

So if the thought of battling your way through a huge store in search of the perfect gift makes your hands sweat, why not support local artists instead?

From 6 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday (Dec. 2 and 3), the DIY collective Sweet 101 will be hosting a Craft Fair & Art Sale. With 10 local artists – five each night – selling their work, including textiles, typography, illustration, printmaking, etc., you’re bound to find something cool.

Friday night’s artists will be: Kelsey Kansas, Tayler Hahn, Jill Babovec, Vanessa Bohaty, and Ben Palmer. Saturday is: Mymsi, Emily Perea, Betsy Ward, Saint Sinner and Natascha Sorensen.

You can find Sweet 101 at 858 Main Ave. (alley entrance).

From Page 21 Happy Hour Yoga, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Ska

Brewing Co., 225 Girard St., yoga and a pint of beer for $10, www.skabrewing.com.

Spoken Word, 7-9 p.m., Steaming Bean,

Your #1 source for what’s going on around Durango dgomag.com/calendar

located downstairs at the Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200, theirishembassypub.com.

Tuesday Useless Knowledge Trivia Bowl, 7

BREW Pub & Kitchen, 117 W. College Drive, 259-5959.

Pub quiz, 6:30 p.m., Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200.

Pingpong and poker tournament, 8

p.m., Moe’s, 937 Main Ave., 259-9018.

Karaoke with DJ Crazy Charlie, 9 p.m.,

Wild Horse Saloon, 601 East Second Ave., 3752568.

Open Mic Night, 8 p.m., Moe’s, 937 Main

Submissions

Super Ted’s Super Trivia, 6:12 p.m.,

Ska Brewing Co., 225 Girard St., 247-5792, www.facebook.com/SuperTedsTriviaAtSkaBrewing.

Wednesday

to the DGO calendar with

Geeks Who Drink trivia, 6:30 p.m.,

p.m., Durango Brewing Co., 3000 Main Ave., 247-3396.

Ave., 259-9018.

+ Add an Event

Bluegrass Jam, 6-9 p.m., Irish Embassy Pub, 900 Main Ave., 403-1200, theirishembassypub.com.

Stand up Drink Down Comedy Night, 8 p.m., Durango Brewing Co., 3000

Main Ave., 247-3396.

Bird Walk, 9 a.m., Rotary Park, 382-9396.

To submit listings for publication in DGO and dgomag.com, go to www.swscene.com and click “Add Your Event,” fill out the form with all your event info and submit. Listings at swscene.com will appear both at dgomag.com and in our weekly print edition.

Posting events at swscene.com is free and takes about one business day to process.

22 | Thursday, December 1, 2016 ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Horoscope ARIES (March 21 to April 19) This is a fabulous week to schmooze with others. Enjoy your interactions with groups and friends, as well as partners and those who are close to you. Laugh it up!

TAURUS (April 20 to May 20) This week, you make a great impression on bosses, parents, VIPs and anyone in a position of authority (including the police). Your ambition is strong, and so is your confidence.

GEMINI (May 21 to June 20) Do whatever you can to take a vacation or find a change of scenery because you need this. This week, you want adventure, thrills and a chance to learn something new and exciting!

CANCER (June 21 to July 22)

Bizarro

This is an excellent week to discuss shared property, taxes, debt and inheri-

tances because quite likely you will end up laughing all the way to the bank.

These discussions will benefit you.

LEO (July 23 to Aug. 22) Your interactions with others are positive and dynamic this week, primarily because you have lots of energy.

Because enthusiasm is always contagious, people are pumped to be in your presence.

VIRGO (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22) You will get a lot done at work this week because you are energetic, focused and upbeat. A happy mind that is ready to work is unstoppable!

LIBRA (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22) Accept all invitations to party because this week is a wonderful, social week for you. Enjoy the arts, sports events, playful times with children and romantic liaisons.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23 to Nov. 21) Increased activity and chaos on the home front might be a challenge. However, this week, you have the energy to pull your act together at home. Do what you can.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22 to Dec. 21) Because you are in such a positive frame of mind this week, you will be successful in all your communication. This is great news for those of you who sell, market, teach, act or write for a living.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22 to Jan. 19) This is a moneymaking week for you!

Trust your moneymaking ideas. All of your financial negotiations will benefit you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20 to Feb. 18) Fiery Mars is in your sign this week,

dancing with lucky Jupiter. This gives you lots of positive get up and go! It’s a great week for athletics and outdoor activities.

PISCES (Feb. 19 to March 20) Secret liaisons will be exciting this week. (This includes private love affairs.) You’re happy to work alone this week.

BORN THIS WEEK You have a great sense of humor. You are tactful and diplomatic. Your pursuit of your goals brings you success. Cultivate a headspace so that you are ready to take advantage of opportunities that will arise in 2017 because 2017 is the year you’ve been waiting for! Expect a major change, perhaps as significant as what occurred around 2006. It’s time to test your future! © 2016 King Features Syndicate Inc.

weekly bestsellers Nov. 20 – 26 »»1. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay, by JK Rowling (Hardcover)

»»2. Santa is Coming to Durango,

by Steve Smallman (Hardcover) »»3. Double Down (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #11), by Jeff Kinney (Hardcover) »»4. A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman (Paperback) »»5. Polar Express 30th Anniversary Edition, by Chris Van Allsburg (Hardcover) »»6. Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kaur (Paperback) »»7. The Funniest Joke Book Ever,

by Bathroom Reader’s Institute (Paperback) »»8. Ghosts, by Raina Telgemeier (Paperback) »»9. Thank You for Being Late: An Optimists Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, by

Thomas L. Friedman (Hardcover) »»10. In the Woods, by Tana French (Paperback) ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Thursday, December 1, 2016 | 23

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