First Look: CS Independent Vol. 1 Issue 9 | September 5, 2024

COLON CANCER

BY NOEL BLACK | PAGE 10

chemotherapy infusions at they’re invited to ring this bell.

PUBLISHER

Mackenzie Tamayo

EDITORIAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ben Trollinger

REPORTERS Noel Black, Andrew Rogers and Cannon Taylor

CONTRIBUTORS

Adam Leech, Lauren Ciborowski, Camille Liptak, Bob Falcone and Willow Welter

AD

ACCOUNT

JT Slivka

Monty Hatch, Erin Cordero

AD

Lanny Adams

SENIOR

Adam Biddle

DIGITAL

Sean Cassady

DISTRIBUTION

Kay Williams

Samantha Kelly at One Body Fitness Studio. | Credit: Ben Trollinger

"The Hippopotamus Thesaurus” creator.|Credit: Ben Trollinger

"Illusions of Grandeur."|Courtesy: Gwynne Duchene

EDITOR’S NOTE

LETTERS .

SMALL FRIES AND BIGGER FISH

TBy BEN TROLLINGER ben.trollinger@ppmc.live .

he critic Ted Gioia has traced a disturbing trend in the arts and culture world that could easily apply to our consumption of news and information. Gioia explains that in the late 20th century, art was swallowed whole by the bigger fish of entertainment. In the 21st century, the shark of distraction gulped up entertainment. Now, the great white whale of addiction threatens to devour it all.

Many of us don’t read as much as we used to. Instead, we scroll, consuming information (images, videos and headlines, mostly) as if we were sitting at the slots in Reno, looking not for enlightenment, or even financial reward, but for a squirt of dopamine. We see the negative effects of this daily. And it’s one of the reasons I’m committed to the seemingly antiquated practice of making a newspaper in the age of algorithm and artifice.

Shared visions are increasingly in short supply. Conflict seems more common than consensus. Perhaps unity is out of our grasp because we spent much of time desperately trying to hang on to some semblance of reality.

Not long ago, people would make a statement of fact. Something like, “I heard this is the hottest summer on record.” Then, whoever was listening might say, with a hint of skepticism, “Where’d you hear that?”

“Well, I read it in the newspaper,” you would say. Enough said.

Of course, people still make statements of fact today. Perhaps with even more confidence than ever before. But when they’re asked that same incredulous question — “Where’d you hear that?” — the answers tend to a bit more nebulous: Facebook,

TikTok, X, a random website, a random YouTube video or simply, “I don’t remember — somewhere on the internet.”

We consume more information than ever before, but the quality of that information, the signal versus the noise, has diminished, as has our capacity for discernment. Videos can be faked. Audio can be deceptively edited or altered. And it doesn’t help that people now see mainstream news media sources as propaganda organs for political parties. Skepticism eventually curdles into detachment and indifference. And as a result, we turn to — and turn everything into — entertainment, to fantasy and escape.

It’s alluring to try on spooky beliefs like Halloween costumes. Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing. The earth is flat. The CIA controls everything. In the end, what are the consequences for entertaining such beliefs? Life seems to roll right along as digital media compresses the sum-total of human knowledge into a undifferentiated blob. We might engage with truth in the same consequence-free way that we play a PS5 — always with an endless supply of extra lives at the ready.

However, we need to remind ourselves that our physical existence matters — that there is a world beyond our heads, to use Matthew B. Crawford’s phrase. We need to engage our senses. We need to use our bodies. We need to swim and hike and ride a bike. We need to smell a pine forest after a thunderstorm. We need to cook dinner for your loved ones with food we grew ourselves. We need to fix things around the house. We need to make art and engage with the art of others. We need to read challenging books and hold the news in our hands. We need to act as if reality mattered.

It seems odd that being part of what I call “the reality-based community” has become a kind of deliberate practice, or discipline, rather than the default position for being human in the material world. But it makes sense if you consider our media landscape. Terms like “fake news,” “deep fakes,” “misinformation” and “disinformation” have arisen in the popular consciousness in the last few years. This is what happens when we live in a culture that values power more than truth. There’s an old maxim that says journalism is, in essence, about speaking truth to power. It’s a cliché, of course, and hard to live up to in practice, but it’s also a useful reminder of what’s at stake — just about everything.

REGULATING THE RACKET

Thank you for the article “Amphitheater Empire” in the Aug. 22 edition of the Independent. It highlighted two things that have often been overlooked in many articles: the noise-hardship permit and the real estate and tax incentives. This article serves a cautionary tale for every neighborhood in Colorado Springs because it focuses on the fact that neighborhood issues can be and often are overlooked even as a project’s virtues are extolled. Every project approval should have a mechanism to determine the unintended consequences of the project and notice that mitigation of negative consequences will be paid for by the business or developer, regardless of cost.

Turning to noise, an analogy if you will: Imagine a police officer stops a car going 50 mph in a 20 mph school zone. The officer tells the driver he was speeding, and the driver responds that he’s late for work, adding that he likes sleeping in and the only way to get to work on time is to speed. Moreover, the driver asks for a waiver so that he doesn't have to obey the speed limits. As one might expect, any competent officer would ticket the person. The driver created the conditions necessitating his speeding, and then insists he needs a waiver to speed. JW Roth, the owner of the amphitheater, created the conditions where he needs a noise-hardship permit by having an outdoor venue and placing it near neighborhoods, and, one can conclude, he expects to get a hardship waiver for every concert. Ridiculous!

Independent data from all surrounding neighborhoods and apartments should determine future noise hardship permits.

According to the Denver Post, “The Ford Amphitheater agreement states that amplified sounds are not allowed to exceed more than 110 dB for five minutes at a time, or average out to 105 dB for the same amount of time.” What this doesn't address is the noise in the neighborhoods. Colorado Springs compliance officers need to be in every surrounding housing area for the duration of the concerts this first season to have official readings from these neighborhoods

Time for the Colorado Springs City Council to be competent cops. Time for the City of Colorado Springs Police Department and Mayor to require continuous data from city compliance officers to verify the noise levels

in the surrounding neighborhoods for at least the remainder of this concert season before any more noise hardship permits are issued. And it is time for the city government to ensure that there is public accountability for and reporting of all tax incentives and breaks granted.

Mary J. and Neil L. Talbott Colorado Springs

CHANGING MINDSETS

Global warming is now “global overheating” with clear consequences, while societal understanding and the need to act remains insufficient. It is imperative to shift focus away from the noise of performative politics, culture wars and exaggerated threats that network news and politicians thrust in our faces daily to this existential, but longer-developing, threat. Destructive weather events driven by increasing ocean temperatures are hitting more locations, more frequently. The implications of sea level rise from diminishing Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets should be clear by now. Air quality alerts from intense wildfires are on the rise hundreds of miles downwind of those fires. Less developed countries and the poor and elderly here during heat waves and “natural” disasters are already suffering. That price will be increasingly paid by successive generations, and countless plant and animal species. This is simply the way the chips will fall if we don’t take significant action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, acceptance that our own long reliance on fossil fuels is driving our deteriorating climate seems to be too tough a pill to swallow. The big changes needed at his point will only come from a major societal mindset change. We have the ability in western democracies to choose policy makers who understand the threats and put government resources toward mitigating those threats. We can adapt our habits of energy and consumer goods consumption. As we understand climate deterioration and vote and act accordingly, so governments and corporations will follow. Once we accept collective responsibility, we can undertake, and promote, the necessary solutions to preserve a habitable climate for our descendants and preserve the natural world they should be able to enjoy.

John Schoch

Colorado Springs

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must be signed with full name and include daytime phone number, full address, or email address. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. We reserve the right to edit all submissions. | EMAIL ADDRESS: letters@ppmc.live

NEWS BRIEFS

The Colorado Springs City Council approved sending a ballot question to voters in November to amend the charter prohibiting retail marijuana establishments within the city. The council approved sending the ballot item to voters on an 8-1 vote, with council member Yolanda Avila casting the lone dissenting vote. A group of citizens are also working to get a ballot measure before November voters that would allow for recreational sales within the city limits.

Colorado Springs Utilities is proposing a base rate increase for 2025. Utilities is proposing increases of 6.5% for electric and water, 4% for natural gas and 9% for wastewater for each year between 2025 to 2029. The proposed $1.8 billion 2025 budget is 21% more than the 2024 budget. Capital projects make up nearly 34% of the budget. Utility officials expect the rate increases to equate to approximately $14 a month on the sample residential four-service bill in 2025. Federal funds will help to support a pair of key infrastructure projects in Colorado Springs. The city received a $10.7 million grant from the Defense Community Infrastructure Program for an interchange at Peterson Road and U.S. Highway 24, near the north gate of Peterson Space Force Base. The second grant of $750,000 will match $750,000 in city funding for the replacement and other improvements on the Academy Boulevard bridge over Platte Avenue.

The Colorado Springs Police Department’s 78th police officer class graduated 30 new officers on Aug. 8. The graduates underwent 26 weeks of testing and training. After graduation, the new officers will spend an additional 15 weeks participating in field training before responding to calls. “The weight of the badge is heavy. It requires great courage, deep empathy, true humility, high integrity, and an unwavering commitment to confront danger and protect and serve our community. I congratulate each of them on their achievement and sincerely thank them for their courage, sacrifice and dedication to the residents of Colorado Springs,” said Mayor Yemi Mobolade.

Despite concerns over inflation, Colorado sits atop a recent survey for discretionary spending. According to a study of American spending habits by StorageCafe, a storage space marketplace, essential spending on items like housing, utilities and food increased by 22% since 2018. During that same time period, nonessential spending grew by 32%. The study shows that in Colorado, incomes rose by 23.7% over the past five years, the sixth-fastest income-growth rate among all 50 states. High-income earners (over $100,000 a year) make up 44% of the state's workforce and grew by 34% since 2018. The study showed Coloradans allocate 27% of their monthly budget to “nonessential” items.

COMPASSION FATIGUE

Business owners voice frustration, optimism as mayor readies homelessness plan

by NOEL BLACK • noel.black@ppmc.live

Samantha Kelly was teaching a private class at her Pilates studio in downtown Colorado Springs one morning last April when she noticed a man with a blanket draped over his head staring in through her front windows.

One Body Fitness Studio sits in an alley just off Tejon Street, and Kelly, a selfdescribed “bleeding heart,” prides herself on knowing the names and faces of the unhoused who pass by throughout the day. She regularly offers food, water, clothing and information on support services to those who need it. But she didn’t recognize the man beneath the blanket that morning. Then, after a few minutes, she noticed that he was masturbating.

“When I stood up, I saw what he was doing, and I was, I just … I was screaming, I was yelling. And then that just made him more excited about what he was doing. And then I felt completely helpless and alone and scared. And I have

the responsibilities as a business owner, inviting vulnerable people into this space to protect them.”

Kelly was one among more than 50 business owners at a recent meeting seeking feedback on a draft of Mayor Yemi Mobolade’s forthcoming Homelessness Strategic Plan. The six-part plan aims to: “Increase street outreach and availability of need-based shelter options; enforce and protect people, property and the environment; expand employment opportunities, such as the WorkCOS program, which provides jobs; prioritize prevention of homelessness through mental health care; increase the number of housing units for very low-income residents and housing that provides supportive services for people exiting homelessness; and provide transparent, proactive and accessible communications to the public.”

The wide-ranging plan addresses

problems across the whole spectrum of homelessness — from individuals and families in shelters experiencing temporary homelessness to the chronically unhoused. According to the most recent count, roughly 1,300 people per year in Colorado Springs experience some form of homelessness. Approximately two-thirds of those on that continuum, most of whom go unseen, are actively using public and private services to address their housing issues, says Catherine Duarte, HUD programs manager for Colorado Springs. The other third, she says, struggles with chronic homelessness, which often goes handin-hand with mental health and drug addiction issues. And those 450 to 500 individuals who fall under the chronically homeless category are often much more visible in the heavily trafficked retail areas, where their needs frequently conflict with those of business owners.

Samantha Kelly at her One Body Fitness Studio in an alley off Tejon Street in downtown Colorado Springs. | Credit: Ben Trollinger

After listening to the presentation by city administrators, many in attendance expressed feelings of burnout, frustration and skepticism about the city’s management of the chronically homeless. Public defecation, urination, drug use, dirty needles, sleeping in doorways, theft, harassment, sex offenses like what Samantha Kelly experienced, and violent crimes were among the more egregious offenses cited.

Teona Shainidze-Krebs, the Pikes Peak Library District’s chief librarian and chief executive officer, spoke up at the meeting to say that harassment at the Penrose Library downtown has gotten so bad that she’s having trouble retaining employees.

“We cannot hire people to keep our doors open. So at this point, as a library district, we feel like there is no support. ... When it comes to the downtown area, we take certain matters in our hands because our responsibility is to make sure [of] the safety of our employees and our patrons. It is really hard for me to get calls from my security officers that one of my employees was assaulted, or like one of my security officers had to go to the ER because his ribs were shattered.”

Samantha Kelly knows that the individuals causing the most acute

problems are the exceptions. And she’s in full support of the mayor’s strategic plan.

“The plan to help our community is exceptional. I was moved by everything that they’re doing,” she said after the meeting. However, she noted, “I’m losing business.”

Sgt. Olav Chaney, head of the Colorado Springs Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team, or HOT Team, says that the majority of the worst offenders are wrestling with some form of drug addiction and that existing laws make it difficult to get anyone off the streets for long, even if it’s to get them help.

“It's a continual problem. I mean, we'll get out there, and we’ll cite, and we’ll take people to jail on warrants, and we’ll get areas cleaned up, and then the minute we’re gone and going to somewhere else in the city, many times people come right back.”

Chaney oversees a team of six HOT Team officers charged with covering more than 200 square miles of the city. He says there’s simply no way to keep up with all the enforcement needs.

The Downtown Partnership — a 501(c) (4) not-for-profit organization that advocates for the city center’s cultural and economic vitality — hired Mercurial

Ent Credit Union has announced a new partnership with four Front Range high schools, introducing branded debit cards. This program allows cardholders to show their school pride and raise money for their chosen school. The initial schools include Sierra, Harrison, Pueblo Central and Windsor high schools. “This initiative is more than just a debit card; it’s a step toward empowering the next generation with the knowledge and skills they need to manage their finances effectively,” said Annie Snead, director of community advocacy for Ent Credit Union.

Eighty-two nonprofit organizations received grants from El Pomar Foundation at its 2024 Merit Grant Reception. El Pomar Trustee Merit, Elevating Leadership Development (ELD) Merit, and the Dorothy Ferrand funds distributed $558,000 in funding. “This reception is an opportunity each year for us to thank and connect with leaders of organizations doing meaningful work in our communities, and for them to connect with each other,” said El Pomar President and CEO Kyle H. Hybl.

Security Services to increase safety and enforcement, and other business have resorted to hiring their own private security. But not all businesses can afford it, and security is often needed most during early-morning or late-evening hours when officers and security guards are off duty.

Susan Edmondson, president and CEO of the Downtown Partnership, has been working with the city and the numerous charitable organizations that provide homeless services to help find solutions to these complex problems for the past 10 years. She’s also encouraged by the mayor’s strategic plan to address homelessness but sees firsthand the way these problems land on the doorsteps of downtown business.

“What do we do about severe mental health conditions and severe addictions when folks aren’t readily in a place for treatment? And what is our responsibility, collective responsibility as a community, when those things happen?” Edmondson asked.

Colorado Springs doesn’t have so much as a detox center. And what limited addiction and mental health services there are, when they aren’t provided by

The Downtown Partnership held an Urban Living tour of downtown Colorado Springs on Aug. 17. The Partnership hosted the self-guided tour of many downtown rental properties, such as Experience at Epicenter, Fiona, VIM and The Mae on Cascade, along with a private downtown condo. The goal of the tour was to provide a firsthand look at both recently completed and long-standing residential communities located downtown.

A 320,000-square-foot industrial and retail development broke ground Aug. 19. The AZ Opportunity Fund recently acquired a 31.7-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Bradley Road and Foreign Trade Zone Boulevard. General contractor ARCO/Murray says the Colorado Aerospace Business Center is poised to become a premier location for aerospace companies, offering advanced facilities and a strategic location to support industry growth. Cushman & Wakefield will handle the leasing of the center.

Two well-known radio personalities were laid off among massive iHeartMedia cuts. Tammy Oakland was laid off Aug. 8 from her role as assistant program director at Sunny 106.3. Oakland has been a staple of Colorado Springs airwaves since 1996. Kevin “Cheeba” Hopkins was also laid off as program director and afternoon host for iHeart’s 96.1 The Beat. Hopkins had been an on-air presence since 2000. The nationwide layoffs were announced after iHeart reported a $981.66 million net loss for the second quarter of 2024.

A capacity crowd to hear the mayor’s plans to address homelessness. | Credit: Noel Black

NEWS .

emergency responders, get handled by a variety of nonprofits, most of which lack the resources to provide long-term recovery and housing services, which can take years and resources beyond what the city has. Businesses end up bearing the brunt of those missing services. And it’s not that they don’t care, said Edmondson, but that they aren’t equipped to provide those specialized services that so many of the chronically unhoused need.

“No one at that meeting said anything about not having compassion about the condition of being unhoused, but that their businesses are being impacted more by a small but visible portion of the population that really needs deep help in addition to the housing. They need help with mental health conditions and help with addictions.”

Between general operating funds and grants, the city distributes about $2.8 million per year to the various agencies, shelters and providers that serve the homeless, said Catherine Duarte. The city is also in the process of trying to calculate the cost per unhoused person per year, including unbudgeted expenses like emergency services (current estimates range between $30,000 and $60,000 per person). But without more resources, large portions of the mayor’s strategic plan will likely go without funding.

Most people who work directly with the homeless agree that, along with housing, mental health and addiction services are desperately needed, along with enforcement.

“I think we need to figure out the mental

health piece,” said Chaney of the HOT Team. “Lawmakers, they need to come up with something with the mental health piece. And it breaks my heart when we give somebody a ticket, but we can't get them the help they probably need.”

Until the funding realities match the public desire to address the most acute aspects of homelessness, the far more visible, chronically unhoused community will likely continue to land on the doorsteps of local businesses.

“It's really hard, and I understand, but that's what we deal with daily in this downtown area,” said Shainidze-Krebs of the Pikes Peak Library District at the end of the recent meeting with downtown businesses. “And what we need, we need support from the Colorado Springs city administration that when we make calls, that it’s taken seriously.”

She praised the mayor’s plan and all the work the city administrators and their partners put into it, and then added, “But at this point, it's hard for us. It's hard for me to make an eye contact with my staff members every day when they see them in the morning with bags of feces and dirty clothes and then tell me, ‘I want to work for a library, but I cannot work at Penrose Library.’ That's a serious issue that we literally face every day.”

Samantha Kelly says that she’ll keep doing whatever she can for the people who stop by her studio downtown for as long as she can afford it.

“This is my community. And it's been my community for 20 years. I will be so sad if I have to leave. But I will.”

... CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

Men’s bunks at the Springs Rescue Mission on Las Vegas Street. | Credit: Andrew Rogers

THE SOUND OF DISSENT

Homeowners beg for Ford Amphitheater to turn the noise down

The noise of unified applause from the citizens who attended Aug. 27’s Colorado Springs City Council meeting to challenge Ford Amphitheater nearly rivaled the cacophonous concerts they came to make complaints about. The group of about 30 citizens who spoke said that the concerts being held at Ford Amphitheater are negatively impacting their mental health, sleep schedules, property values, loved ones and pets.

Many within three miles of the amphitheater said they could hear the music from inside their homes, even with all doors and windows closed and through other noise like TV chatter and air conditioners.

Citizens at the council meeting told personal stories of service dogs being alarmed by fireworks, their disabled children turning off their hearing aids to escape the noise and their veteran family members secluding themselves in basements or soundproof rooms during concerts.

There was even 11-year-old Millie Jenkins at the meeting to represent her classmates in school, whose ability to learn the nights of and after concerts has been disrupted.

In a recent press release, Venu celebrated their compliance with their Planned United Development (PUD) agreement with the city, which states that maximum noise levels cannot exceed 110dB(A) more than once in a five-minute period and that average noise levels during performances should fall below 105dB(A). Homeowners said that compliance is not enough.

“Regardless of compliance … the loud music coming from the amphitheater has still had a detrimental effect on the families outside of the amphitheater,” said Jerry McLaughlin, a representative of the Sun Hills Estates, an unincorporated community two miles northeast of the venue. McLaughlin presented a survey of the Sun Hills area’s 148 families. Of the 92 respondents, 74 agreed that they had been adversely impacted by Ford Amphitheater.

“We are having conversations actively with city staff,” said Mudd. “We want to hear what people are saying.”

City representatives will soon be meeting with Venu to discuss how to move forward.

The citizens had a few suggestions. At the meeting on Tuesday, they suggested that Venu build additional sound barriers.

Several said that some of the concerts, like Lauren Daigle’s on Aug. 23, were not disruptively loud, suggesting that the solution for rock bands like Primus might be just to lower the volume.

For early shows, Venu hired a third-party company, LSTN Consultants, to monitor decibel levels during concerts from remote locations like Gleneagle and Fox Run Park. Many citizens invited Venu to monitor the sound from their homes so they could fully grasp how they are being affected.

Henjum insisted that noise monitoring be a permanent fixture for all concerts at Ford Amphitheater, with Donelson adding that the monitoring should be done through the city at Venu’s expense.

Henjum also asked that Venu address community concerns directly. “We cannot do this at City Council for the next 20 years,” she said.

Citizens and a few City Council members, including David Leinweber, expressed confusion over the amphitheater’s noise hardship permit issued by the Colorado Springs Police Department Special Events Team at the direction of the mayor. The permit allows them to produce excessive noise on concert nights.

“What on earth is this noise hardship variance? We are the ones experiencing a hardship,” said Janine Sledz. This sentiment was echoed by several other citizens.

City Council members Randy Helms, Nancy Henjum and Dave Donelson expressed their concerns with the negative effects the amphitheater is having on their constituents.

“Trust has really been broken here, with the City Council, with the city administration — previous, current — and we have to start looking at, ‘How do we repair that trust?’” said Henjum.

Venu President Bob Mudd, who attended the meeting, insisted on the company’s commitment to being a good neighbor.

Additionally, Donelson suggested that fireworks should cease at Ford Amphitheater for all shows. While Mudd’s position throughout the meeting was that it was too early to make any promises, he did say that fireworks will be reserved for special occasions rather than being a regular occurrence.

In a recently published interview with The Denver Post, Venu CEO JW Roth is quoted as saying, “We just need time to become part of the ambient noise you already hear every day, because then people will notice it less.” Several at the meeting took issue with this comment.

“The ambient sounds that we are used to are the sounds of owls hooting in the darkness. They are the sounds of birds chirping. It’s the low hum of my neighbors outside enjoying laughter,” said Sheryl Boyes. “We are used to the sounds of silence.”

JW Roth is the co-owner of Pikes Peak Media Co., the parent company of the Colorado Springs Independent.

Citizens voice their concerns about Ford Amphitheater at Aug. 27’s City Council meeting. | Credit: Cannon Taylor by CANNON TAYLOR • cannon.taylor@ppmc.live

HEALTH .

Not death, but the dying

On colon cancer and its discontents

YBy NOEL BLACK • noel.black@ppmc.live

ou can’t stop staring at the bright white dollar signs on your oncologist’s black novelty socks. His legs are crossed, which forces his pant leg up, and there they are: $ $ $ $.

It’s easy for things to take on an outsize significance when you find out you might die a lot sooner than you’d otherwise presumed. The present presses in on you like an accordion squeezing the past and future out of your life until there’s nothing but a single, droning note of now: dollar socks.

“You have a 75% chance of survival over the next five years,” says Dr. Lee, spinning a quarter turn toward you on his rolling office stool, his chin propped on his fist like Rodin’s Thinker in a lab coat. He seems genuinely concerned, but in a far-off way that’s bigger than you. Colon cancer is on the rise among young people all around the world, and no one knows exactly why.

“You’re young and healthy, though,” he says, reassuring you, and then closes his eyes tightly behind his heavy, black glasses as though he’s straining to believe it. “So your chances over the next five years are probably a little bit higher than that, maybe 85%.”

“The hospital makes the cancer real in a way you can’t feel at home, where it stays abstract inside your body with all your other involuntary functions. Here you are all body.” -UCHealth

One-in-six-ish, you think, which sounds a lot worse than 85% — like a single bullet in the otherwise empty cylinder of a snub-nosed revolver. You think about Christopher Walken playing Russian roulette in “The Deer Hunter.” You don’t like those odds.

You look back at the dollar socks, which seem to throb with their refusal to mean anything whatsoever.

YOUNG

According to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute, “The rate of colorectal cancer (which includes cancers of the colon and rectum) has been rising steadily among adults younger than 50” since the 1990s. This trend has been particularly vexing because, they note, “the rate of colorectal cancer has plummeted among older adults — largely due to regular colonoscopies and lower rates of smoking.”

But the trend among younger people had become alarming enough by February 2000 that President Bill Clinton designated March as National Colorectal Awareness Month. But wider awareness of this trend had been slow to come in the decades since the trend was noticed. But then, on Friday,

Aug. 25, 2020, Chadwick Boseman, the star of Marvel’s international blockbuster “Black Panther,” died of colon cancer at 43 years old, and suddenly the world was paying attention. A superhero was dead.

Are you young, though? Almost 51. And if you’d waited even another few months, it might’ve been too late. Why did you wait so long? Your doctor gave you the choice between a Cologuard test, which checks for blood in your stool, or a colonoscopy. You chose the Cologuard because pooping in a cup and sending it off through the mail seemed a lot less inconvenient than getting your butt scoped. But when the box arrived with the sample container that looked like some kind of tactical YETI thermos, it seemed weird, and you put it in the closet. No big hurry. You’re young. Or are you?

Your dad died of AIDS at 49, when you were 21, which still seems young. You can still feel the strange weight of outliving him in years when you turned 50. He never met a single one of your kids, the oldest of whom is now 23, 2 years older than you were when your dad died. Your dad wasn’t even old enough to get his first routine

Infusion Center. | Credit: Ben Trollinger

colonoscopy when he died. But the thought of dying so young like your dad did — before your kids are even old enough to have kids — finally motivates you to get it done six months after your 50th birthday.

You poop in the cup and send it off.

No big deal.

You’re young.

About a month later, you get a call that your test came back positive. You need to come in right away for a colonoscopy.

So you do the bowel prep, which everyone tells you is the worst part, and it is. But not because you have to spend a whole day near or on the toilet, but because the salty-sweet taste of the prep makes you want to puke after the first half.

Your mom takes you to the hospital at 5 a.m. She had cervical cancer when she was 36, had a radical hysterectomy, didn’t do chemo and survived. She’s 77 now.

Black velvet curtains close as you count backward. Lights down. Time winks. Curtains open. Lights up.

The tight, straight smile on the doctor’s face says everything.

“You have a polyp that’s … worrying,” he says. Or was it, “concerning”?

“What does that mean?” he makes you ask.

“It’s about 2 centimeters.”

“What does that mean?” It feels like you’re playing footsie with someone you’ve just asked to kick you in the nuts.

“Too big to take out without the risk of cutting all the way through your colon.”

They biopsy a small sample of the tissue from the polyp, and it comes back benign, but they still want you to get it out. There’s a doctor in Denver who can do it without cutting you open.

You do the prep. It’s horrible. They put you under. The polyp, and the time it takes to remove it, get cut out of you. Everything but salt tastes too sweet.

Then, on the Fourth of July, you get an automated email message from the hospital that says the biopsy came back malignant. You have cancer.

ENDURANCE

It’s August 2023, a month before your 51st birthday. The monsoons arrive and leave a constellation of eye-shaped puddles on the flat roof below where you sit on the fifth floor of the east wing of the hospital. You can see the clouds in each one like you’re staring into some upside-down heaven through a slice of Swiss cheese.

Dr. Garret Shackleton looks like the affable kind of guy who’d have poured your beer at a party 30 years ago, but his last name reassures you. Sir Ernest Shackleton — the famed explorer who failed to cross Antarctica spectacularly in 1915, but succeeded in one of the most harrowing and heroic multiyear survival and rescue expeditions in the history of history — is among your favorite losers. The name of his ship, The Endurance, was a prophecy. He patiently walks you through the procedure that will remove a foot of your colon. (Don’t worry — you’ve got 5!) It will involve six, 1-inch incisions spread across your stomach like a floating staircase, plus what’s effectively a C-section at your waistline. Then, a kind of robot spider will descend on your stomach while he controls the arms with a sort of video game interface, and bleep blorp bloop — you can’t follow, but your ears prick back up when he says “colostomy bag.” No, you won’t need one, unless there are complications.

A FOOT OF TIME, OR: THE SLEEP OF SLEEP

You write a will, set your affairs in whatever order doesn’t feel

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 ...

‘Nobody really knows exactly why’ Oncologist sees rise in colon cancer among young adults

HEALTH .

like too much of a death wish, then do the colon cleanse for the third time in as many months, this time with pills. You marvel at how disgusting water can taste after you’ve pounded more than a gallon of it.

“I wish I could just punch the cancer out of you,” your 12-year-old says. You see how scared he is as he searches your face for the smile you can’t manage. “Me too,” you say and put your arms out as he fakes a right hook to your belly.

You show up for surgery at 6 a.m., wipe your whole body down with big, warm cloths full of bright red cleanser that come in sealed pouches that make you feel like an astronaut. You put on a gown, climb onto the gurney, and the nurse covers you in warm blankets.

You cry. The hospital makes the cancer real in a way you can’t feel at home, where it stays abstract inside your body with all your other involuntary functions. Here you are all body.

Your mom and your wife stand over you, kiss you. It makes you feel so perfectly unspecial as a loved being that you cry more for how ordinary it is to be alive and mortal than for what you’re facing.

“Take good care of my son, please,” your mom says to the nurse who wheels you off down the hall.

In the operating room all the nurses and doctors introduce themselves and talk to you as though you’re about to have dinner together. They put a mask on you that they say is just oxygen, but it’s the propofol gas. A merciful lie. Snip.

When you sleep, whether you dream or not, you have a sense of sleeping, and a sense that the time that passed while you were asleep has passed. There are those rare sleeps where, when you wake up, it feels as though you’d just closed your eyes. But here there’s still a trace of time, like an aftertaste somewhere in the back of your mind.

There is no sleep of anesthesia, no wake. It’s as though sleep were asleep. There is only OFF and ON. And when you were off there wasn’t even nothing. The peace of it is so utterly reassuring that you don’t mind the pain along each one of the seven new superglued sutures in your stomach when you puke from the Dilaudid in your IV. You’ve lost of foot of colon and a foot of time.

When Dr. Shackleton comes in to see you the next morning, he has the same flat look on his face that the gastroenterologist had after your colonoscopy.

There was a trace of the cancer in one of the 19 lymph nodes they removed along

with the section of your colon. He thinks they got it all, but it’s impossible to say. Even the tiniest amount of cancer can travel once it goes to your lymph nodes — colonists just beginning to migrate beyond the shores of the known world.

That makes the cancer Stage IIIA, which is the stage Chadwick Boseman had when he was diagnosed. Just to be safe, they’ll recommend you do chemo, which poses its own risks and complications to your health.

It’ll be a long winter on Elephant Island.

A friend comes by with a vase of fresh gladiolas from her mother’s garden.

She leaves them on the windowsill like an orange and pink and white flag flying over the once familiar country of your new life.

‘A TEACH’

Why is it called “a teach”? This bothers you. Millennials seem to have figured out how to turn every verb into a noun and vice versa. Why not just a “consultation” or “education”? More than anything, it’s a list. A list of every horrible thing and side effect you’ll go through from adjuvant (preventive) chemotherapy. Everyone’s cancer treatment is different depending on the stage, location, quantity and distance of migration of their cancer cells. Yours

is barely Stage III, with only the tiniest amount of cancer cells and no visible sign of migration. So the recommendation is to have infusions of a drug called oxaliplatin. Then you take capecitabine pills for two weeks, then have a week off, and repeat for a total of four cycles over three months. Because the oxaliplatin would otherwise burn your veins if infused through an IV, you’ll need a port with a catheter that will tap directly into your superior vena cava installed on the right side of your chest. The speed of the blood flow there and the volume of blood will allow it to dilute faster, but it will still poison you. The teacher shows you the port. It looks like a round doorbell with a stiff rubber button and a short tail of wire.

The most bizarre side effect of the oxaliplatin is a jolting tactile shock that can happen when you touch anything cold and can last for up to a week after your infusion. The educator reads through the litany of other possible side effects, which blur past your ears like the rapid-fire readings of disclaimers at the end of TV drug commercials:

FatigueNauseaVomitingDiarrheaAnd/ OrConstipationHairLossSkinPeelingParticularlyOnTheHandsAndBottomsOfTheFeetPeripheralNeuropathy(PainfulTinglingAnd/ OrNumbness)MouthSoresDepressionMoodSwingsJointPainChangesInSexualDesireAndFunctionDifficultiesConcentratingAKA“ChemoBrain”BruisingBleedingDryMouthAnemiaLossOfAppetiteSleepDisturbanceWeightLoss, and … Death, obviously.

On TV they always say it so quickly, and with such sleight of tongue that it barely rhymes with “breath” at the end of the drug commercials that always promise extra life. But it sounds like a hard knock here when your millennial educator says it at “the teach.”

We all death someday, you think. Dying is so dead.

‘JE SUIS FATIGUÉ’

Yes, you have nausea, but not vomiting; constipation, not diarrhea. You were already depressed, and you definitely still are! You get the cold zaps, and it really does feel like touching a live wire. A hundred percent change in sexual desire to absolute zero (no

“Your ears prick back up when he says ‘colostomy bag.’ No, you won’t need one, unless there are complications.” -UC Health Infusion Center. | Credit: Ben Trollinger

shock there). Joint pain, yes; difficulty concentrating, yes; “chemo brain,” probably, but who’s to say if it isn’t brain fog from the multiple rounds of COVID? The peripheral neuropathy comes later and feels like a light tingle at the tips of your fingers, but your feet — it feels like your shoes are full of sand. Amazingly, your hair does not fall out, though it’s not that uncommon with this particular course of chemo.

There’s a side effect you weren’t warned about: gagging. After a few weeks, your body decides to gag at the sight of the capecitabine pills, which are already the vomitous off-pink color of Caladryl calamine lotion and taste like Band-Aids. They meet the definition of the proverbial “horse pill” in that they feel like they’re larger than your trachea going down, if you can get them down. After puking them up a few times, you learn to fill your mouth with water, lean your head back as though you’re going to gargle, then pop the pill forcefully into the throat water and swallow it all in one large gulp. Even if you get it down, you have to distract yourself from gagging at the thought of it by walking quickly into the living room and straightening up or doing the dishes.

The fatigue, though.

Fatigue beyond tired, beyond sick, beyond exhaustion, beyond any and every hyperbole. The only way you can describe it to friends is to say, “I’m so tired that I can’t even watch TV,” as though your chemo would have otherwise allowed you to binge every single episode of “Law & Order” and all its spinoffs.

“Je suis fatigué,” you write in a post on your Instagram (the only thing you’ll say about your cancer on social media throughout the entire ordeal) because it sounds more fatigued than fatigue.

UNSPECIAL

Your wife keeps everything as normal as she can for the kids, which means leaving you to recede into the couch or sleep into the background of the house. It’s easy to imagine being dead as you listen to the rhythms of the day without you as it would be, where “everything continues sanely,” as the poet Ted Berrigan wrote. It’s both comforting and sad. This ordinary is all there is, and you want to live for it — for the groans over homework and the shrieks of hide-and-seek; floor cheese (a delicacy among 2-year-olds), bathtub blueberries and unicorn toothbrushies; laundry basket boat rides, bickering before soccer practice, watching the bees roll around in the poppies while you pull weeds.

You always imagined life would become

more vivid, more meaningful, more clear when you saw the horizon of your death. But it isn’t.

You’d imagined you’d have profound insights, feel motivated to finish creative projects, put a bow on everything. But you don’t.

Everything is extra ordinary if it’s extra anything. You mostly just want to rest. Friends and family come by, or fly in from far away and stay for a few days. It fills you with gratitude and the ache of the brevity of life that’s now more memory than time, even if you survive this.

Some friends bring food you might be able to eat, or books you can’t read (your eyes won’t track for long, and it’s upsetting). Others call or email. Some send money, or cookies, or DoorDash. Even if it doesn’t feed you, it feeds your family. You’re lucky. You appreciate them all with every ounce of fatigue in your body.

You imagined you’d make cancer friends, perhaps through a support group the way Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character does in the movie “50/50,” but you don’t. Some friends seem to disappear, and others seem to forget that you’re sick, which isn’t helped by the fact that you never lost your hair and haven’t lost weight. You decide not to take any of it personally, and mostly don’t. Everyone has a capacity for pain and loss that may or may not include yours, depending on what they’re going through. And you’ve been a shitty friend before, so don’t get all uppity. Besides, it’s all a lot bigger than you, and you are most definitely not special. Nothing says unspecial quite like the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the USA.

THE END

At the end of your last infusion you’re invited to ring the bell. You didn’t know about the bell before. It seems corny at first, but there it is: black and bell-shaped. You ring it, and everyone in the infusion center claps for you as though you’ve just sailed from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island in an ad hoc boat. It doesn’t feel that way, but maybe you have. The sound of the bell and claps are as real as the cancer’s felt abstract. You cry.

You choke down almost two more weeks of capecitabine pills but just can’t bring yourself to take the last one, and don’t. Because cancer is a disease of rapid cell division, chemo drugs attack even healthy cells that divide quickly — your extremities, anywhere hair or nails grow. And as the medication slowly leaves your body, you get pustules at the edges of your fingernails, and the skin on your feet begins to peel in large,

thick chunks. You’re a snake shedding its old life, if snakes were feet. Slowly, in the months that follow, you come back to life the way it was before you first heard that knock at the closing door of the future. The present begins to push through it into plans for the future and the usual tedium of the present, but you low-key think about the cancer all day in intrusive ways that turn down but never quite go away.

Survival, you are told, is a five-year process — waiting for a bullet that might be traveling toward your head at the speed of light from the Alpha Centauri system across the galaxy, you imagine. In the meantime, all you can do is wait for it, avoid ultraprocessed foods and eat a Mediterranean diet.

UNALIVE, NOT UNALIVING

You thought you’d settled things with death after your dad died when you were 21. It was a years-long process, but you got good with the not knowing. His absence has always been a presence you couldn’t quite shake, but you haven’t been afraid of it since, and still aren’t.

But now that you’ve seen it all from the other side, and think about the eight years he was sick, you realize it’s not death you need to come to terms with, but the dying.

Then, a few months after chemo ends, your uncle dies of a massive heart attack while riding his bike outside of Tucson.

“A nice Irish goodbye,” you say to your cousin. “Truly!” It’s not much comfort to him, but it is to you.

You don’t want to know, don’t want to miss, don’t want to hope, don’t want to suffer. You don’t want it to be a process.

Oh well. It was. And it is.

SHINY

A year passes. It’s time for your first colonoscopy since your diagnosis.

The prep is still horrible.

You’re nervous.

More process.

OFF.

ON.

They show you pictures, and everything in your colon is shiny.

Yay!

You get a loaf of seeded bread from an annoying bakery that’s hardly ever open and eat half of it while you lie on the couch and watch TV.

You’re not too tired to watch TV.

You go to your son’s soccer game and cheer.

You play birthday party with your daughter and her bear, Dorothy, and eat purple glassbead ice cube cake.

You curl up with your wife in bed and watch “The Terror,” a TV series about a British sailing expedition in the mid-1800s that gets stuck in the ice pack near the North Pole as they search for the Northwest Passage, but then this mythical polar bear-human hybrid monster thing starts attacking them, which is the least of their worries because they’re all dying of lead poisoning from the canned food as they try to make this death march to find the Hudson Bay company and start killing one another.

I’d rather have cancer, you think.

You go see Dr. Lee for a checkup and have a look at his socks.

Just gray.

Meaningless gray socks.

You go to work.

You sit at your desk and eat pistachios.

WORD PLAY

Local

children’s author channels Silverstein in a lushly designed celebration of language

By CANNON TAYLOR • cannon.taylor@ppmc.live

Tintinnabulation, zenzizenzizenzic, floccinaucinihilipilification. If you have hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (a fear of long words), you’re probably shaking in your boots, and the recently released children’s book

“The Hippopotamus Thesaurus” may not be for you.

“The Hippopotamus Thesaurus, Vol. 1,” by local author Samuel Jennings Vinson, pairs poems about obscure, complex or lengthy words with watercolor illustrations. The goal is to get kids excited about language.

“I think kids are really interested in words lately,” Vinson said. “The Gen Alpha/Gen Z lingo is just this evolving word alphabet soup.”

In stark contrast to believers that social media is killing language skills in children, Vinson sees the development of internet slang as an evolution of language.

“They’re seeing language differently than us, and they’re using made-up words, but it’s an agreed-upon context of usage. They all know what it means, and they all can use it in a sentence, they can define it,” Vinson said. “It's like their own world, and it’s just so fast, which is remarkable.”

The origins of Vinson’s project began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when, like everyone else, Vinson was stuck indoors, desiring a return to nostalgic normalcy.

“I went back to Shel Silverstein, and I got back in touch with that sense of curiosity you had when you were a kid,” Vinson said. “That was so soothing to me as a 30-year-old.”

Vinson looked for other children’s books that picked up where Silverstein left off. Unable to find anything suitable, Vinson threw his hat in the ring.

Vinson’s first work was “A Valentine, of Sorts,” a children’s book for everyone published during the pandemic. It was an intimate and positive series of loves notes, poems, affirmations and stories meant to comfort readers during uncertain times.

Following the self-publication of “A Valentine, of Sorts,” Vinson began work on his next project, “The Hippopotamus Thesaurus.”

While authors like Silverstein and Dr. Seuss adored making up nonsense words and playing with language, Vinson homes in on his fascination with obscure words, to hilarious effect. Poems play with terms like “snollygoster,” “widdershins” and “zyzzyva” (a genus of tropical American weevils named specifically so they would come last in the dictionary).

Each poem focuses on one word and defines it creatively. For example, Vinson characterizes some of these words through magical creatures, such as “tartles,” gremlins named after the verb used to describe the hesitation that occurs when you can’t remember someone’s name. In the poem, “tartles” steal names from the minds of unsuspecting scatterbrains.

It's not just words from the depths of the dictionary Vinson writes about; he also teaches his target audience of 6- to 12-year-olds words they are likely to encounter in regular conversation (“cacophony,” “enigma,” “vamoose”) and essential academic terms

(“onomatopoeia,” “palindrome,” “fallacy”). So, while kids get their giggles with words like “bumfuzzle,” they’re learning something useful as well.

This is what makes “The Hippopotamus Thesaurus” an excellent resource for teachers of all kinds, according to Vinson. Vinson has created modules for educators on his website that he encourages teachers to use to introduce concepts like exponential numbers, action verbs and cultural cuisine. There has been reportedly positive reception from a group of guinea pigs, a classroom of first graders taught by a friend of Vinson.

Vinson is already working on the second volume of “The Hippopotamus Thesaurus,” and hopes to create a “Hippo-verse” of children’s books exploring concepts like history, science and paleontology.

“This format is so versatile. I could just apply it to anything. If I had the time and money, I could make a million of these,” Vinson said. Vinson currently works as the creative director for an art publishing company that provides reproductions and resource art for health care and government organizations. His favorite projects allow him to conceptualize and create murals in pediatric health care facilities. He often leaves Easter eggs for kids to find in his murals, like animals playing instruments in a jungle mural. He’s done something similar in “The Hippopotamus Thesaurus;” eagle-eyed readers will be able to pick up on a series of 21 riddles that lead them on a treasure hunt throughout the book.

“The Hippopotamus Thesaurus” is just a side project for Vinson. He certainly isn’t quomodocunquizing (making money by any means possible) with “The Hippopotamus Thesaurus;” in fact, he expects just to make enough money to pay for promotions. That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t love for his books to take off, though.

“You realize what I could do if I was doing this full time? This is between the hours,” Vinson said. “The goal is to selfpublish really hard, knock the hippo into the door, generate a bunch of sales on my own and hopefully get discovered.”

“The Hippopotamus Thesaurus, Vol. 1” can be purchased at thehippopotamusthesaurus.com or your local bookstore

“The Hippopotamus Thesaurus” creator Samuel Jennings Vinson in his home. | Credit: Ben Trollinger

| All illustrations by Samuel Jennings Vinson

POWERING THE SHORT CIRCUIT

A sneak peek at the Colorado short film festival

By CANNON TAYLOR • cannon.taylor@ppmc.live

If you told a friend that you’d watched over 100 films in a weekend, they’d probably look at you funny, and then ask to see your Letterboxd account. However, such a feat will be possible on the weekend of Sept. 6-8 at Colorado Short Circuit 2024, where a menagerie of films, ranging from 2.5 to 25 minutes in length and all made by Colorado filmmakers, are being screened.

According to festival director Ralph Giordano, diversity is the theme this year. Filmmakers range in age from 16 to 77 and hail from all over the state. The films cover a wide selection of genres, including drama, comedy, horror, thriller, animation and sci-fi. There are experimental shorts, minidocumentaries and music videos. It truly is a sample platter of everything Colorado filmmakers have to offer.

“I’m not always looking for the bestproduced film,” said Giordano. “There are many filmmakers who don’t necessarily have a film school background, but still make good films.”

Short Circuit began in 2016, sponsored by the Independent Film Society of Colorado. The first festival had 40 films and has continued growing annually. Expanding to a three-day festival this year, Short Circuit is jam-packed with films.

“I certainly understand what it’s like to be invited to a film festival, and also not be accepted to a film festival,” Giordano said. “That’s the hardest part, I think, about producing a film festival — you can’t include everybody. It’s just not enough time.”

The judges will be picking one winner from each of the festival’s 10 categories. Although the judges will have come to a consensus about the winners before the festival, second viewings with enthusiastic audiences have changed their minds before.

“If you see a film with an audience, it’s totally different than seeing it yourself,” Giordano said.

The festival is a great opportunity to network, connect with other filmmakers and get advice from seasoned professionals.

“The filmmakers are there, and at the end of the block, they get up on stage, and you can ask them questions. You can talk to them later. You can meet with them. So, that’s the benefit of a film festival,” Giordano said.

We’ve previewed a selection of five short films, varying in genre, that are being shown at Short Circuit. If one of them sounds appealing to you, consider attending the festival. If not, that’s OK — surely another one of the 95 short films will speak to you.

DRAMA

Springs-raised director Jordan Roman’s film “Cuddle Buddies” questions touchdeprivation in our culture by depicting the life of a professional cuddler.

“I was so captivated and intrigued by the idea that there actually were people in the world who did this for a living, but also people that hired them as clients,” Roman said.

Roman hired professional cuddler Jean Franzblau as a consultant and intimacy

coordinator on the film. You have to walk the walk to talk the talk, so Roman decided to do a cuddling session himself to learn what it was all about.

“After the first 10 minutes, my body physically relaxed,” he said. “I think I was able to release all the stigma in my head.”

Roman learned through Franzblau that clients tend to be older men who are lonely, divorced, widowed or veterans with PTSD.

In “Cuddle Buddies,” two clients are shown: a survivor of sexual assault and a man desiring more vulnerability in his marriage. Roman aims to show how cuddling can help clients add healthy touch to their interactions with partners, friends and family.

He also dives into the pitfalls of professional cuddling, primarily through the custody battle between Lucy and her ex-husband, who tries to claim that Lucy’s profession as a so-called sex worker makes her unfit to be a mother.

Roman is currently developing “Cuddle Buddies” into a feature-length film, which would expand on Lucy’s personal and professional life.

Roman, who has lived in Los Angeles since 2015, will be attending Short Circuit as one of four featured filmmakers. He’ll answer burning questions like, “Is moving to LA to pursue the Hollywood dream worth it?” He has mixed thoughts.

“It’s going to test every ounce of your willpower and your work ethic,” Roman said. “But I think if you do love it, then it’s absolutely the most rewarding thing.”

IF YOU GO

When Sept. 6, 7-10:30 p.m. / Sept. 7, 10 a.m.–10:30 p.m. / Sept. 8, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.

Where

Ivywild School Gym Auditorium, 1604 S. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80905

Admission

$15 per block, or $150 for a three-day pass Free admission for Featured Filmmaker Panel (Sept. 7, 3-4 p.m.) and Awards Ceremony (Sept. 8, 7:30-8 p.m.) Website csc.eventive.org/welcome Advice

• Explore the Schedule and Film Guide to figure out which block(s) you’d like to attend.

• Watch trailers on sites like FilmFreeway, YouTube and Vimeo.

• Go to the Featured Filmmaker Panel if you’re an aspiring filmmaker.

COMEDY

Salad for breakfast — is it an abomination? The title character in short film “Breakfast Salad” certainly thinks so. Inspired by the mockumentary comedy of “The Office” and “Abbott Elementary,” “Breakfast Salad” bravely asks if we would fight against injustice, even if it’s found on our friend’s brunch plate.

“Breakfast Salad” is a collaboration between Los Angeles sketch comedy group Whoops! Sketch Comedy and PiePie Productions, the production company of Aurora-raised Roe Moore. Moore’s

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18 ...

Posters of featured films. | Courtesy: Filmmakers

ARTS&CULTURE .

experience ranges from “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to “Earth to Ned.” This is her first year at Short Circuit.

“Comedy in the film festival circuit is interesting because it’s more experimental. You don’t know what you’re going to get,” Moore said.

Moore spoke to the difficulties that come with the subjectivity of humor. It’s rare for a comedy short film to bomb or to be unanimously loved; rather, it’s a mix of reactions to the same content.

“When you go to Short Circuit, it allows you to see the differences and to absorb it and understand everybody has a different taste, and everybody’s taste is valid,” Moore said.

The screening of many comedy films at Short Circuit allows the festival to cater to the humor of every individual audience member, including those who will chuckle at the confessional asides and dramatic conflict found in “Breakfast Salad.”

“Behind the scenes, it was a lot of fun, because we got the chance to improv on a lot of it. So, I allowed the actors, since they’re in a sketch company, to play a little bit more,” Moore said. “And they got to see what happens to salad when it’s in the sun for 12+ hours. It gets really gross.”

HORROR

In a film festival full of outdoorsy Coloradans, Jamey Hastings has decided to screen her film, “The Dollcatcher,” about the terrors of camping at night — especially when a doll-like forest creature is hunting you.

“It is based, kind of loosely, on some real events. You know, hearing a creepy sound in the woods, or seeing a flashlight approaching

through the trees,” Hastings said. “I wouldn’t tell people not to camp alone, but watch out for girls in creepy masks.”

Said girl wears a drooping mask adorned with twigs created by Manitou Springs artist Katie Orr. Additionally, the masked girl has quite the backstory packed into only a few minutes of screen time.

“In Hollywood slasher films, the character isn’t necessarily developed. They’re just going around killing people,” Hastings said. She wholeheartedly disagrees with the conception that indie horror doesn’t have the budget to be terrifying.

“There’s room to really play with people psychologically, and not be worried about necessarily getting people into a theater seat,” Hastings said.

In fact, she would say that the horror genre is inherently indie.

“It started out with that indie feel. Like, you think of ‘Night of the Living Dead’ — I mean, it was pretty low-budget, experimental horror,” Hastings said. “A lot of these beloved horror films actually were indie.”

Hastings is another of the four featured filmmakers at Short Circuit. Co-founder of the Peak Film Forum, she’ll bring her perspective about what it’s been like to work in the Colorado Springs film scene for nearly 15 years.

ANIMATION

According to Broomfield-based animator Gwynne Duchene, animators are masochists in the best possible way.

“It’s literally drawing the same picture over and over, just slightly different each time,” they said. “You have to be somewhat of an insane person to find pleasure in doing that.”

Duchene’s animation “Illusions of Grandeur” looks like it came straight out of

the MTV era, taking additional inspirations from “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” Marvel comics and 90s anime series like “Neon Genesis Evangelion” and “Serial Experiments Lain.” The film follows an influencer in a cyberpunk reality fighting against the god of the digital world to allow herself to truly exist.

“When I first started working on the project, I was really focused on this idea of people losing themselves in their passions, or in their work,” Duchene said.

It’s unsurprising this would be a theme of interest for an animator constantly huddled at their desk. Their film also explores themes of digital versus actual identity.

“Right now, everyone can just be online all the time,” said Duchene. “There’s this false sense of importance that is your online presence … Like, what are you hiding from through that?”

“Illusions of Grandeur” was Duchene’s senior thesis at Pratt Institute in New York. Their ambition as an up-and-coming animator is to break into the world of concept design and visual development.

“I enjoy that process of constant redoing and refixing and adding this and taking away that,” Duchene said. “I find a sick pleasure in the constant work of that.”

Despite all the pains and destroyed backs that come with animation, it’s a labor of love. Indie animators can create complicated special effects and sprawling worlds without even leaving their desks. “Illusions of Grandeur” is one of six animations being shown at Short Circuit this year.

YOUNG FILMMAKER (NARRATIVE)

A black-and-white world is tinged with scarlet blood in Anthony Meister’s noir thriller “Blurred Lines.” Inspired by the color choice in films like “Sin City” and “Schindler’s List,” Meister used editing to elevate his film from a by-the-numbers detective film to a stylish noir.

Conceived for Meister’s capstone project at UCCS, which required the short to be filmed in under 12 hours, “Blurred Lines” builds around the constraints that come with being a student indie film.

“As a short film, I can’t get too ambitious,” Meister said. So he keeps some of the more grotesque and elaborate effects — like a beheaded murder victim — partially out of frame while still being visible enough to upset the stomach.

Told by his professor that his crime film could only have one scene with a gun in it, Meister reserved the weapon’s placement for the ending. No spoilers here, but sometimes less truly is more.

The performances by local actors Jonathan T. Herrera and Quinton Blanche only elevate the legitimacy of the film.

“I wanted Detective Ray to be kind of a like a disgruntled Batman,” said Meister. Herrera’s growly bass tones certainly achieve that effect.

After being accepted to the American Film Institute, Meister moved to Los Angeles. But he hated the city so much that he withdrew a week before classes.

“LA didn’t really feel like home. I was kind of alone out there,” Meister said. “It felt like I was taking 10 steps back just so I could pursue an education and go into, like, $80,000 worth of debt.”

Meister is currently considering moving back to Colorado. He could pursue directing or editing, but he’s still figuring out what his vocation is. Still, he hopes that the reception of “Blurred Lines” at film festivals will push him in the right direction.

“I think it’s honestly just getting lucky. I tried to further my luck by doing everything I could to break into the industry. But just getting a little bit of a taste of it, I didn’t like it at all,” Meister said. “Really, it’s being around the people that you like that brings you happiness.”

Top: The titular Dollcatcher, played by Morgan Murphy and wearing a mask made by Katie Orr. | Courtesy: Jamey Hastings Left: Jonathan T. Herrera in “Blurred Lines.” | Courtesy: Anthony Meister

.

FLORIDA WOMAN WOULD RATHER BE PAINTING

W.I.P. IT

By LAUREN CIBOROWSKI

AOur recruitment team brings over 25 years of combined experience in marketing, digital marketing, and sales, giving us a deep understanding of the roles we recruit for—far beyond what general recruitment agencies can offer. We offer competitive fees below industry standards and enhance the hiring process with recorded prescreen interviews, allowing clients to assess candidates effectively from the start and streamline their interview process. Additionally, we provide weekly reports and maintain a high level of transparency throughout the entire process.

rtist Angela Casale was nervous to talk to me, nervous enough that she got a pep talk from Bosky gallery owner Brett Andrus before our call. It wasn’t exactly me that she was scared of, come to find out. It was more the idea of having to talk about her work. Which is why, I learned, Casale chooses to sign her work with her artist name, “Volta.” Her dream is to one day hire someone to play Volta, sort of like a stand-in, to attend openings and schmooze and explain her work so she can just stay at home and paint. An introverted artist’s dream and a delightful idea. I hope it comes to fruition for her.

A native of Colorado, 33-year-old Casale has been painting for about 10 years. She moved to Florida in 2017, where she has recently been spending a lot of time working at an art supply store and painting. And I mean a lot of time. Like, wake up at 4 a.m. to paint, go to work, come back and paint until bed kind of time. I’m not shocked to hear of her discipline — the work clearly is painted with the kind of great care that can only be borne of dedication. “She has a passion for artmaking, and an incredible natural ability and talent to mix paint and paint what she sees,” says Andrus. I have to agree.

But here we are, three paragraphs into a story about art, and you can’t even visualize the stuff. (That is, unless you go to the opening this Friday, Sept. 6 at Bosky Studio downtown, but more on that later.)

So let me try to do it justice. Casale’s art toes the line of magical realism, and

fascinatingly to me, many of the pieces depict unexpected miscegenations of Native Americans and animals from her new home in the Everglades and her Colorado homeland, a bit of an homage to her past and present. One piece in particular really struck my fancy, a 20-by-26-inch piece reminiscent of an old photograph of a Ute chief, but with a black bear’s head where the chief’s would be. It’s captivating and almost whimsical, due in part to the top hat on the bear’s head, and the somewhat jarring inclusion of a man’s hands resting on his lap. Another piece done in graphite shows an alligator woman in Miccosukee garments, the first piece Casale finished and also her personal favorite. Of this piece, Casale says, “To me, she looks so badass and beautiful, and there’s this power to her. She’s human and she’s animal, and strong and pure with her strength.”

For Casale, this is a foray into a newer medium for her, acrylic. Through her employer, I.D. Art Supply, she was sponsored by Atenea Pintura al Frio, a matte acrylic that allows for a quicker drying time and creates a different experience, which she’s been enjoying as a new challenge.

“Rewild” is the title of Casale’s upcoming show at Bosky. This refers to her desire to achieve more balance in her personal life by restoring her connection with nature, something she took on very seriously in preparation for this body of work. She spent hours hiking and fishing in the Everglades, which she likened to Jurassic Park. “It’s insane. There’s alligators, snakes, bugs, all this scary shit that can kill you. There’s a duality, a horrific beauty.”

You can see these works for yourself, which I really recommend because my words can hardly do them justice, this First Friday, Sept. 6, from 5:30 till 10:30 p.m. at Bosky Studio. You’ll find this little gallery in the alley across from Shame and Regret. If you can’t make that window, the gallery is open by appointment.

You need art. Art needs you.

Lauren Ciborowski writes about the arts and music in every issue. W.I.P. stands for Works in Progress.

¿!QUÉ ESTÁ COLORADICALÉS!?SUCEDIENDO,

WHAT’S GOING ON?

By ADAM LEECH

Iam “muy felize” to report that one of my best BFFs in the whole wide world, Andres Romero, has returned “home” to his LO-CO (Lower Colorado) “motherland” after a year spent living in his proverbial/literal “fatherland,” Punta de Tralca, Chile, where his father lived before being forced into exile during the reign of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Dre, as he is known to his linguistically deficient friends, along with his saintly wife and two idyllic sons, spent the past year exploring and examining the culture, music and customs of his paternal homeland. Dre and I go way back to the earliest days of The Leechpit, circa 2003 or so, when we were both just a couple of painfully naive and hopelessly optimistic punk rock hood rats. Me with a fledgling record shop next door to a liquor store, and him with a deli-counter barista gig just around the corner at the (O.G.) Wooglin’s Deli, the cultural anchor of NO-DO (North Downtown), and a fledgling alcohol problem that would damn near end our friendship, and/or his life (more about that later).

We became fast friends over our shared love of punk rock (especially the “intelligentsia” class like Bad Religion and Gogol Bordello), Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond (his early years were punk AF), and Kurt Vonnegut. A few years later, so it goes, we would start a sloppy, two-piece garage punk band called Thee Kissing Disease; like The White Stripes but without the talent and charisma! Jack White, I am not, and Dre, I love you man, but you, sir, are no Meg White! We truly did have a blast “gigg(l)ing” around town with some of our good, and far more talented, friends, many of whom are no longer with us (not dead, just defunct); R.I.P. The Nicotine Fits, Haunted Windchimes, Jack Trades, Avi & Maria; and some who are still killing it (The Reminders, Mike Clark and the Sugar Sounds, who are “sweetening” up Lulu’s on Sept. 6!)

Anywhoodles, those memories are as fuzzy as a mohair man-kini, but the future is as crisp as freshly pressed Speedo. As previously mentioned, Dre

had developed a pretty serious alcohol dependency that not only wrecked him, but damned near killed him, but has since made one of the most dramatic and inspiring recoveries I’ve ever had the absolute pleasure of witnessing. And in his recovery, now 10 (11!) years in the making, he has poured every bit of passion and commitment into a veritable rebirth of photographic and literary expression, dedication to his family and community and an admittedly unexpected commitment to weightlifting and physical fitness. He is a wellknown character at the downtown YMCA, where you can usually find him lifting things far too heavy to be lifted. I myself prefer not lifting heavy things even when they need lifting, let alone lifting things that are perfectly content to lie still.

Over the last year he has chronicled his astounding life as the American-born son of a Chilean political prisoner/exile in his blog, “Later Than You Think,” from which I print the following excerpt:

“‘¿¡¡A DONDE VAN LOS DESAPARECIDOS!!?’ (Where do the disappeared go?) twenty-thousand of us yelled in unison at the men gathered upon the illuminated stage. ‘BUSCA EN EL AGUA Y EN LOS MATORRALES!’ (search in the waters and the bushes) they responded, as the tears began to mix with the sweat on my face, my voice pulling itself together just enough to scream out the next words: ‘¿¡¡Y POR QUE ES QUE SE DESAPARECEN!!?’ (and why is it that they disappear?), and wait for the painful and begrudgingly true answer of: ‘POR QUE NO

TODOS SOMOS IGUALES’ (because, we are not all the same). It sounds like a scene from a political rally, and though often in Latin America these two things approach indistinguishability, we were actually at a concert. A concert I had waited patiently for 27 years to attend: Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, and they were playing the song I had only dreamt of hearing live. ...

“... When ‘Desapariciones’ magically (or not magically, depending on who you know …) appeared in the middle of the setlist, there was an audible gasp from the crowd. I felt the tears just falling out of my face, a mixture of joy and raw emotion, a catharsis of sorts. Shedding tears for the disappeared. Tears for my little time left in Chile. Tears for the sheer goddamn beauty and bewilderment of life that was distilled into that singular moment.”

Dre’s blog can be found at eggman333. substack.com, and you can enjoy his exceptional band and portraiture photography at instagram. com/eggman333. And can you believe it? I made it all the way to the end without mentioning Conan O’Brien! Ting-a-ling! Smell you later!

Adam Leech is the proprietor of Leechpit Records & Vintage at 3020 W. Colorado Ave.

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Live Music, Sept. 5 - Sept. 18

THURSDAY, SEPT. 5

SpringsSCENE

Jazz Thursdays | Free, live jazz music at the Mining Exchange Hotel. 8 S. Nevada Ave. 5 p.m.

Jazz 93.5 Ad Lib Lab | Jazz ad-lib opportunity open to all musicians at The Carter Payne. 320 S. Weber St. 5:30 p.m.

Creekwalk Summer Concerts: Dotsero | Jazz band performing at Creekwalk. 100 E. Cheyenne Road. 6 p.m.

Neal Francis, Psymon Spine | Alternative musicians performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 7 p.m.

Tyler Halverson | Country musician performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 7 p.m.

Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert | Orchestra concert based on the Nickelodeon show at Pikes Peak Center. 3186 Venetucci Blvd. 7:30 p.m.

Ozomatli | Rock band playing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 6

KCME and Jazz 93.5 Variety Show | Variety show fundraiser at Stargazers Theatre. 10 Parkside Drive 5:30 p.m.

Amoré | Americana band performing at Salad or Deli, where art curated by the Pikes Peak Arts Council will be on display. 8 E. Bijou St. 6 p.m. 90s Country Party ft. Double Wide | Country band performing at Boot Barn Hall. 13071 Bass Pro Drive, 7 p.m.

Mike Clark & the Sugar Sounds, Sleeping Jesus | Rock bands performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 7 p.m.

Rough Age | Acoustic musician performing at Ohana Kava Bar. 112 E. Boulder St. 7 p.m.

John Wise Duo | Blues duo performing at Cleats Bar & Grill. 6624 Delmonico Drive, 8 p.m.

Levels House Party | Electro-pop dance party at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 9 p.m.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 7

Beats and Ballots Music Festival | Local musicians and DJs performing at Acacia Park. 115 E. Platte Ave. 12 p.m.

Music on the Mesa with Spoiled Mistress | Variety band at Gold Hill Mesa Community Center. 142 S. Raven Mine Drive, 4 p.m.

Grady Spencer & the Work | Rock band performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 7 p.m.

Itchy-O | Experimental band performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 9 p.m.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 8

Rafiel & The Roomshakers | Rock band performing at Goat Patch Brewing Company. 2727 N. Cascade Ave. #123. 6 p.m.

MONDAY, SEPT. 9

Look’ee Here! | Jazz band performing at Gazebo Lake Park, Green Mountain Falls. 100 Lake St. 6 p.m.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 10

Handguns, Summer of Peril, Years Down, Suitable Miss, The Ragetones | Rock bands performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 11

Hillside Gardens Summer Concert Series | Live music at Hillside Gardens. 1006 S. Institute St. 5 p.m.

Grits & Greens | Rock band performing at Front Range Barbeque. 2330 W. Colorado Ave. 6:30 p.m.

Wynonna Judd | Country vocalist performing at Pikes Peak Center. 3185 Venetucci Blvd. 7:30 p.m.

Dave Hause | Rock band performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.

Robert Jon & The Wreck | Rock band performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 12

Jazz Thursdays | Free, live jazz music at the Mining Exchange Hotel. 8 S. Nevada Ave. 5 p.m.

Itchy-O plays the Black Sheep on Sept. 7. | Courtesy: The Black Sheep

The Well plays Vultures on Sept. 14. | Credit: Cecilia Alejandra, Courtesy The Black Sheep

Bumpin Uglies | Punk reggae band performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 13

Brad Colerick | Singer-songwriter performing at The Black Rose Acoustic Society. 12530 Black Forest Road. 7 p.m.

Songs for Horn | Horn, clarinet and piano concert at the Ent Center for the Arts at UCCS. 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway. 7 p.m.

38 Special | Rock band performing at Pikes Peak Center. 190 S. Cascade Ave. 7:30 p.m.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 14

The Well, Total Cult, Nautiloid | Rock bands performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 7 p.m.

Taylor’s Version | Taylor Swift dance party at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 9 p.m.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 15

Black Uhuru | Dancehall band performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 7 p.m.

Pentatonix | A cappella group performing at Ford Amphitheater. 95 Spectrum Loop. 7:30 p.m.

Badfish | Sublime tribute band performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.

Chris Isaak | Rock musician performing at Pikes Peak Center. 190 S. Cascade Ave. 8 p.m.

MONDAY, SEPT. 16

John Moreland, Justin Bloss | Folk musicians performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 7 p.m.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 17

Front Range Big Band | Big band performing at Bancroft Park. 2408 W. Colorado Ave. 6 p.m.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 18

Hillside Gardens Summer Concert Series | Live music at Hillside Gardens. 1006 S. Institute St. 5 p.m.

Jeremy Camp | Christian singer-songwriter performing at Rocky Mountain Calvary. 4285 N. Academy Blvd. 7 p.m.

September 5 - September 18 | 23

Statewide Live Music, Sept. 5 - Sept. 18

MUSIC . RoadSHOWS

Pendulum | ReelWorks, Denver, Sept. 5

Wallows with Benee | Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Sept. 5

Brandi Carlile with Colorado Symphony Orchestra | Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Sept. 6-7

Kane Brown with LoCash, RaeLynn | Coors Field, Denver, Sept. 6

Cannons with The Moss | Breckenridge Brewery, Littleton, Sept. 7

Charles Wesley Godwin | Belly Up, Aspen, Sept. 7

Creed with 3 Doors Down | Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Englewood, Sept. 7

Green Day with The Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid | Coors Field, Denver, Sept. 7

In This Moment with Avatar | Amphitheater at Las Colonias Park, Grand Junction, Sept. 7

Kygo | Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Sept. 7

Natalia Jimenez | Paramount Theatre, Denver, Sept. 7

RL Grime | Mission Ballroom, Denver, Sept. 7

Struggle Jennings | The Oriental Theater, Denver, Sept. 7

Def Leppard with Journey, Cheap Trick | Coors Field, Denver, Sept. 8

Fuerza Regida | Ball Arena, Denver, Sept. 8

Ice Nine Kills with In This Moment | Mission Ballroom, Denver, Sept. 8

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard | Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Sept. 8-9

Teddy Swims | Dillon Amphitheater, Dillon, Sept. 8

Incubus with Coheed and Cambria | Ball Arena, Denver, Sept. 9

Keane | The Buell Theatre, Denver, Sept. 9

Ringo Starr | Amphitheater at Las Colonias Park, Grand Junction, Sept. 10

Fred again.. | Ball Arena, Denver, Sept. 11-12

Mk.gee | The Summit Music Hall, Denver, Sept. 11

Sum 41 with The Interrupters | Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Sept. 11

The California Honeydrops | Gothic Theatre, Englewood, Sept. 12

Charley Crockett | Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Sept. 12

Snow Tha Product | Mission Ballroom, Denver, Sept. 12

Childish Gambino with Willow Smith | Ball Arena, Denver, Sept. 13

Drake Milligan | Grizzly Rose, Denver, Sept. 13

Telluride Blues and Brews Festival | Telluride Town Park, Telluride, Sept. 13

Two Feet | Ogden Theater, Denver, Sept. 13

Vance Joy with Briston Maroney, Tiny Habits | Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Englewood, Sept. 13

Lucinda Williams | Macky Auditorium, Boulder, Sept. 14

Nightmares On Wax | Mishawaka Amphitheatre, Bellvue, Sept. 14

Peekaboo | Mission Ballroom, Denver, Sept. 14

Amos Lee with Indigo Girls | Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Sept. 15

Gracie Abrams with Tracy Lawrence, Role Model | The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, Sept. 15-16

Kacey Musgraves with Father John Misty, Nickel Creek | Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Englewood, Sept. 15

Arcade Fire | Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, Sept. 16

Crowded House | Gerald Ford Amphitheatre, Vail, Sept. 17

Usher | Ball Arena, Denver, Sept. 17-18

Danny Ocean | The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, Sept. 18

Mitski with Ethel Cain | Fiddler’s Green Amphitheatre, Englewood, Sept. 18

Childish Gambino plays Ball Arena on Sept. 13. | Courtesy: RCA Records

Green Day plays Coors Field on Sept. 7. | Credit: Emmie America, courtesy Warner Records

CALENDER&EVENTS .

ART EXHIBITIONS

“Work in Progress”: Re-Envisioning the Collection

Thursday, Sept. 5, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, 30 W. Dale St., 10 a.m.: “Work in Progress” is an experimental series of collection-based installations designed to explore new ways of presenting and understanding the collection. Participate in the process by contributing your response to each installment through interactive activities. New works of art will be presented throughout the series in response to questions and ideas related to the upcoming reinstallation of the collection galleries. Through Sept. 21. fac.coloradocollege.edu.

“Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!”

Thursday, Sept. 5, Manitou Springs Heritage Center and Museum, 517 Manitou Ave., noon: an exciting tribute to the 2024 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Hall of Fame inductees, Clint Vahsholtz, Ari Vatanen, Ted Foltz and Beck Bechtelheimer. See the Hill Climb’s Hall of Fame members and many other exciting race photos taken by Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Jackson. Watch our collection of PPIHC videos including the award-winning “The Ari Vatanen Climb Dance.” Through Sept. 15. manitouspringsheritagecenter.org.

“Van Briggle Pottery” and “Garden of the Gods Pottery”

Thursday, Sept. 5, Manitou Springs Heritage Center and Museum, 517 Manitou Ave., noon: See dozens of beautifully designed pottery creations crafted by Van Briggle Pottery, America’s longest-running pottery works, and The Garden of the Gods Pottery, founded by early Colorado Springs craftsman Eric Hellman. Through Dec. 31. manitouspringsheritagecenter.org.

“The Way of Water”

Thursday, Sept. 5, Laura Reilly Fine Art Gallery and Studio, 2522A W. Colorado Ave., noon: Finding water in unexpected places in Colorado takes a keen eye and a willingness to hike just one more hill. Water might be found by following a flock of birds flying in the early morning light or a line of trees dense with greenery in a low area at the base of a cliff. Through Sept. 29. laurareilly.com.

“Kaleidoscope of Nature”

Friday, Sept. 6, Commonwheel Artists Co-op, 102 Cañon Ave., 10 a.m.:

Featuring plein air paintings by Elisia Fernandez and wood sculptures by Grant Morris. Through Sept. 29. commonwheel.com.

“A Moment of Solitude: Meditations of Earth and Clouds”

Friday, Sept. 6, Surface Gallery, 2752 W. Colorado Ave., noon: All of my pigments are real dirt that I have gathered and processed by hand. Each time I take a road trip, a trowel and bags are packed in the car so I can stop along the way. Using these materials, I create images of the landscapes that I live in and interact with. Through Sept. 27. surfacegallerycos.com.

ODE: No. 41

Friday, Sept. 6, Surface Gallery, 2752 W. Colorado Ave., noon: Heidi Almosara is inspired by her grandmother’s 1962 ikebana exhibition catalog titled “Sogetsu Exhibition No. 41.” Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging, and both her grandmother and she practiced this art form. Through Sept. 27. surfacegallerycos.com.

“Colors of Colorado: Woven by Hand”

Friday, Sept. 6, Auric Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St., 3 p.m.: A fiber group exhibit featuring works by Susan Bowman, Jeanne Steiner, Bev Weaver and Dottie Weir. Through Sept. 27. auricgallery. com.

Four Solo Exhibits

Friday, Sept. 6, Auric Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St., 3 p.m.: “Continuum” by Margaret Kasahara, “On the Way Back” by Jean Gumpper, “miscellaneous” by Judith Marie and “Flutter and Flow” by Mandy Hansen. Through Sept. 27. auricgallery.com.

“photo·synthesis”

Friday, Sept. 6, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., 3 p.m.: “photo·synthesis” is an exhibition featuring the work of James Tapscott, an Australian artist renowned for his use of light as a medium in minimalist sculptural installations. Tapscott’s art is deeply intertwined with nature, creating immersive experiences that draw attention to environmental phenomena like air currents and water ripples. Every Friday through Sept. 20. entcenterforthearts.org.

“Classport”

Friday, Sept. 6, Cottonwood Center for the Arts, 427 E. Colorado Ave., 5 p.m.:

With mediums ranging across painting, ceramics, illustration, digital art, stained glass, mixed media, poetry and beyond, this collection showcases the diverse talent of our many Cottonwood arts instructors. The opening reception will include opportunities to enjoy and engage in demonstrations presented to you by the artists. cottonwoodcenterforthearts.com.

Hunter-Wolff Gallery Featuring Lorraine Watry

Friday, Sept. 6, Hunter-Wolff Gallery, 2510 W. Colorado Ave., 5 p.m.: Along with Hunter-Wolff Gallery, dozens of art galleries and other businesses will be open in Old Colorado City for First Friday ArtWalk. Hunter-Wolff Gallery will be featuring award-winning watercolor artist Lorraine Watry and displaying her newest collection of paintings inspired by flora and fauna! hunterwolffgallery. com.

Old Colorado City ArtWalk

Friday, Sept. 6, Old Colorado City, 2300-2800 W. Colorado Ave., 5 p.m.

Visit dozens of shops and galleries representing hundreds of works of art by local artists. Artist demonstrations are featured at many locations along with complimentary beverages and

light eats. Featuring the unveiling of a new collection of oil paintings by Hunter-Wolff Gallery’s featured artist, Marlene Kort. First Friday of every month. shopoldcoloradocity.com.

“Wild Places”

Friday, Sept. 6, Gallery 113, 125 N. Tejon St., 5 p.m.: Pop over to Gallery 113 to meet two local artists. Denise Duker’s new work blends the simplicity of Japanese woodblock prints with the spontaneity of Sumie brushwork, creating a sense of uncluttered calm for her rich Colorado landscapes and wildlife images. Love and wonder of wildlife is clearly evident in Dana Lee Stoner’s most recent works. From the fierce to the delicate, her photos display the audacious beauty found in nature. gallery113cos.com.

“We Are The Sky”

Monday, Sept. 9, Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave., 2 p.m.:

“We Are The Sky” is a group exhibition presented by the Galleries of Contemporary Art, featuring over 40 talented artists from the Pikes Peak region. The exhibition explores themes of mental health, community identity, and innovation through a diverse collection of 2-D and 3-D artworks, performances and

“We’ve Been Waiting for You, White Buffalo Calf” by Denise Duker. Meet the artist at Gallery 113 on Sept. 6. | Courtesy: Gallery 113

ephemeral experiences. Through Oct. 5. entcenterforthearts.org.

Blue Hands Festival

Saturday, Sept. 14, Manitou Art Center, 513 Manitou Ave., 10 a.m.: Spend time with us indigo dyeing during this unique event. Learn some easy shibori techniques and dye some beautiful pieces in indigo for you to take home and show to friends and family. Bring your own natural fiber T-shirts or use ours (supplies are limited). Have something small, like washcloths or a tired pair of linen pants, you'd like to overdye or change? Bring it and make it beautiful. $10 for adults, free for kids. manitouartcenter.org/textiles-classes.

PERFORMING ARTS

Mark Normand

Friday, Sept. 6, Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave., 7 p.m.: Dubbed by Jerry Seinfeld as the “best young up and coming comic,” Mark Normand has quickly become one of the most talked about touring comedians on the scene. This tour follows Normand’s self-released special, 2020’s “Out To Lunch,” which amassed over 12 million views on YouTube. pikespeakcenter.com.

Magic and Mind Reading

Saturday, Sept. 7, and Friday, Sept. 13, Cosmo’s Magic Theater, 1045 Garden of the Gods Road, Unit 1, 7:30 p.m.: Continuing in our tradition of storytelling, light and fun presentation and comedy, this show includes brand new, original material created specifically for this performance. Weekly performances throughout 2024. cosmosmagictheater.com.

Adam Cayton-Holland

Friday, Sept. 13, Lulu’s Downtown, 32 S. Tejon St., 7 p.m.: Comedian bestknown for comedy trio The Grawlix and the TV show “Those Who Can’t” performing at Lulu’s Downtown. lulusmusic.co.

Jim Gaffigan

Friday, Sept. 13, Ford Amphitheater, 95 Spectrum Loop, 7 p.m.: Seven-time Grammy nominated comedian, actor, writer and producer performing his “Barely Alive” tour at Ford Amphitheater. fordamphitheater.live..

The Dinner Detective Comedy Mystery Dinner Show

Saturday, Sept. 14, Great Wolf Lodge, 9494 Federal Drive, 6 p.m.: America’s largest interactive comedy murder dinner theater show is now playing! Solve a hilarious mystery while you feast on a fantastic dinner. Just beware! The culprit is hiding in plain sight somewhere in the room, and you may find yourself as a prime suspect before you know it! thedinnerdetective.com.

Ralph Barbosa

Saturday, Sept. 14, Pikes Peak Center, 3185 Venetucci Blvd., 7 p.m.: Ralph Barbosa is bringing his Super Cool Ass Tour to Colorado Springs! One of the shyest attention hogs to ever do comedy, Ralph Barbosa’s disarming and laidback style has made him a headliner across the country and later this year he will star in his first hourlong Netflix standup special. pikespeakcenter.com.

Saturday Night Improv

Saturday, Sept. 14, Yoga Studio Satya, 1581 York Road, 7:30 p.m.: If you like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” you will love our show! You help with suggestions and we then create the fun. Bring the family or make it a date, it will be a fun night out. fun@improvcolorado.com.

FOOD & DRINK

CFAM Downtown Farmers Market

Wednesday, Sept. 11, and Wednesday, Sept. 18, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, 215 S. Tejon St., 3 p.m.: The Wednesday Farmers Market is a vibrant weekly event that brings together local farmers, artisans and community members in a lively and welcoming atmosphere. Held every Wednesday, the market offers a diverse selection of fresh locally grown produce, handmade crafts, baked goods and specialty

CALENDER&EVENTS

foods. Visitors can enjoy live music, family-friendly activities and the opportunity to connect with local producers. farmandartmarket.com.

3rd Annual Best of the West Wing Fest

Saturday, Sept. 14, Western Museum of Mining & Industry, 225 N. Gate Blvd., 1 p.m.: What’s the best chicken wing in town? That’s the question we know many of you out there have. Reading this question in a local Colorado Springs Facebook group is what sprung to life the idea of the Best of the West Wing Fest. bestofthewestwingfest.com.

Taste of Old Colorado City

Sunday, Sept. 15, Bancroft Park, 2408 W. Colorado Ave., 1 p.m.: Grab your friends and families for a day of eating, drinking and entertainment! We are expecting a select few restaurants to be present selling their best food items and OCCP will be running the beer and wine tent. oldcoloradocitypartnership. org.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

Urban Market

Thursday, Sept. 5, Buffalo Lodge Bicycle Resort, 2 El Paso Blvd., 5:30 p.m.: Our enchanting seasonal urban market will be set up in the serene backyard area, offering a delightful array of handcrafted goods from local artisans and makers. Once you've found your favorite finds, step inside the Lodge to savor Colorado’s finest brews, wines, or spirits while enjoying live music from 6-8 p.m. bicycleresort.com/events-activities.

Junkin’ Market Days Fall Market

Saturday, Sept. 14, and Sunday, Sept. 15, SoccerHaus Sports & Event Center, 4845 List Drive, 10 a.m.: Grab your girlfriends and make plans to attend the Junkin’ Market Days-Fall Market on Sept. 14 and 15! Support local small businesses and find unique products like seasonal décor, boutique clothing, home decor, furniture, candles, jewelry, gourmet food and one-of-a-kind finds.

junkinmarketdayscs@gmail.com

Fiestas Patrias

Saturday, Sept. 14, and Sunday, Sept. 15, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, 215 S. Tejon St., 11 a.m.: Join us for a vibrant cultural celebration at the heart of downtown Colorado Springs. Our two-day family festival invites people from diverse Hispanic origins to come together and experience the rich tapestry of our heritage. Get ready for a weekend filled with live music, colorful dancing, and the exhilarating spectacle of Mexican wrestling. Browse through our array of vendor booths offering crafts, artwork and authentic Hispanic goods, and tantalize your taste buds with a variety of mouthwatering food options. fiestaspatriascolorado.com.

OUTDOOR REC

Barnyard Buddies

Thursday, Sept. 5, Rock Ledge Ranch, 3105 Gateway Road, 10:30 a.m.: Designed for preschoolers, Barnyard Buddies is an educational initiative of the Ranch to engage early learners with fun and engaging storybooks about farmyard animals — all while enjoying the company of the Ranch's very own farmyard animals. Join us at Rock Ledge Ranch on the first Thursday of every month for story time, crafts and a snack in the Barn. rockledgeranch. com/barnyard-buddies.

Rotary Wings of Change Reveal

Friday, Sept. 6, Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum, 215 S. Tejon St., 5:30 p.m.: The Grand Reveal is a free event that provides an opportunity for the public to view the butterflies and dragonflies that will be auctioned off at the Wings of Change Celebration and Auction on Sept. 28. Proceeds of the fundraiser support STEAM education in Colorado Springs Schools and Community Service Projects of the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs. The Grand Reveal will feature a food truck, music and artists displaying artwork and jewelry for purchase, as well as displaying the butterflies and dragonflies. csflight.org.

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FESTIVAL RISING

Fiestas

Patrias returns, bigger and better than ever

By CANNON TAYLOR • cannon.taylor@ppmc.live

Every September, artists, vendors, dancers, musicians and luchadores gather in downtown Colorado Springs for Fiestas Patrias, a twoday, free family festival celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Among the vendors is a 13-year-old girl who runs her own business making and selling slime. While she’s learning business skills, she’s also funding her tuition for ballet school.

“Those are the things that make Fiestas special,” said Moni Hernandez, founder of the festival.

The slime seller from last year is just one of many vendors coming out to participate in Fiestas Patrias.

Some of the food and art vendors are traveling from as far as Denver, Greeley and Pueblo to be there.

According to Hernandez, a few new businesses sprout up every year as a result of vendor participation in the festival. Often, obtaining permits for Fiestas Patrias acts as a doorway to other business opportunities.

“A lot of people see the lady in the corner selling tamales, and the taco trucks. They’re always out and selling,” Hernandez said. “For the most part, the

majority do have their permits, but there are some that don’t, and don’t even know that they needed a permit to be selling.”

The language barrier often prevents Spanish-speaking business owners from obtaining their business permits and paperwork, Hernandez said. According to the Fiestas Patrias website, 90% of the Spanish-speaking vendors in Colorado Springs have never participated in a citywide event. Hernandez and the rest of the team at Fiestas Patrias are trying to eliminate that barrier, assisting business owners in filling out their

Luchadores wrestling at Fiestas Patrias 2023. | Courtesy: VIVA Digital Marketing and Consulting

paperwork so they can participate in the event.

“We have one business owner — he owns a taqueria up in Greeley, and he doesn’t even know how to write. So, he’s literally driving from Greeley tomorrow, so he can come and we can help him fill out his paperwork,” Hernandez said.

It’s more than just vendors showing up for Fiestas Patrias. This year, the festivities will include live music and dancing, a car and motorcycle show, dancing horses, Mexican wrestling, piñata breaking, an art zone and more.

Fiestas Patrias hasn’t always been a staple in Colorado Springs. Hernandez, whose career as a radio personality had taken her all over the west coast, was shocked at the lack of a Hispanic heritage festival in Colorado Springs — a staple in every other city she’d lived in — when she moved here in 2011. She knew something had to change and drew on her community collaboration experience from public radio and the festival organizing skills she learned 20 years prior while helping to organize Fiesta Broadway in Los Angeles to plan Colorado Springs’ Hispanic heritage festival.

IF YOU GO

In 2021, she brought her idea to The Thrive Network, a nonprofit that offers free, three-month classes to teach entrepreneurs and small-business owners in underserved areas back-end business skills. Ten percent of this year’s festival proceeds will be donated to The Thrive Network. Collaboration between The Thrive Network and Hernandez’s company, Viva Digital Marketing and Consulting, brought Fiestas Patrias to life in 2022.

Hernandez expected a turnout of 7,000 people at the first Fiestas Patrias but was excited to see 23,000 turn out. In 2023, that number increased to 43,000. Hernandez attributes that increase to digital marketing, sponsors and the desire for such an event.

This year, the list of sponsors includes the Denver Broncos, who, according to Hernandez, have never come down to Colorado Springs for an event. Their cheerleaders will be there along with their mascot, Miles, who will be sporting a luchador outfit.

Hernandez described Hispanic people in Colorado Springs as “hungry” for options, content and things to do, as evidenced by the number of people

A band performs at Fiestas Patrias 2023. | Courtesy: VIVA Digital Marketing and Consulting

A bouncy castle at Fiestas Patrias 2023. | Courtesy: VIVA Digital Marketing and Consulting

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who have come up to her, expressed their gratefulness for Fiestas Patrias and asked to volunteer at the festival.

“We don’t know what to do with all the volunteers we have,” Hernandez laughed. “People just love the event and want for it to continue to stay alive.”

ARTS&CULTURE .

She hopes for 65,000 people to attend this year’s event and for the city to make Fiestas Patrias an official heritage festival.

“With the growth that’s coming to Colorado Springs comes that Hispanic growth as well. We are the largest minority, and it just really saddens me that it took until 2022 for the city to acknowledge Hispanic Heritage Month,” Hernandez said. “It would just be wonderful for the city to embrace it as a heritage festival.”

AMERICAN

AMERICAN

Mackenzie’s Chop House

Mackenzie’s Chop House

128 S. Tejon St. Historic Alamo Building / Downtown / 719-635-3536

128 S. Tejon St. Historic Alamo Building / Downtown / 719-635-3536

Offering half off all bottles of wine under $100! Voted Best Power Lunch, Steakhouse and Martini! Downtown’s choice for quality meats and mixed drinks. Mackenzieschophouse.com. Open Mon-Fri. 11:30a.m.-3p.m. for lunch, and 5p.m. - close every day for dinner!

Voted Best Power Lunch, Steakhouse and Martini! Downtown’s choice for quality meats and mixed drinks. Mackenzieschophouse.com. Open Mon-Fri. 11:30a.m.-3p.m. for lunch, and 5pm every day for Dinner. https://www.MackenziesChopHouse.com

https://www.mackenzieschophouse.com

Tony’s Downtown Bar

Tony’s Downtown Bar

326 N Tejon St. / (719) 228-6566

326 N Tejon St. / (719) 228-6566

Winners of 80+ Independent “Best of Awards” in 25 years. A great Midwestern Tavern with warm beer, lousy food & poor service!!! Pabst, Fried Cheese Curds, Leinenkugle’s, Walleye Fish-fry, cocktails, burgers and more. 11am-2am daily. HH 3-6.

GO PACK GO!

Winners of 80+ Independent “Best of Awards” in 25 years. A great Midwestern Tavern with warm beer, lousy food & poor service!!! Pabst, Fried Cheese Curds, Leinenkugle’s, Walleye Fish-fry, cocktails, burgers and more. 11am-2am daily. HH 3-6. GO PACK GO! https://tonysdowntownbar.com

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GERMAN

Edelweiss

Edelweiss

GERMAN

34 E. Ramona Ave. / (South Nevada & Tejon) / 719-633-2220

34 E. Ramona Ave. / (South Nevada & Tejon) / 719-633-2220

For 55 years Edelweiss has brought Bavaria to Colorado Springs! Using fresh ingredients, the menu invites you to visit Germany. Voted Gold Best German, Silver Dessert Menu and Bronze Best Patio by Indy readers! Reservations and the menu can be found online at https://Edelweissrest.com.

For 55 years Edelweiss has brought Bavaria to Colorado Springs! Using fresh ingredients, the menu invites you to visit Germany. Voted Gold Best German, Silver Dessert Menu and Bronze Best Patio by Indy readers! Reservations and the menu can be found online at https://EdelweissRest.com.

JAMAICAN

Rasta Pasta

JAMAICAN

405 N Tejon St. / (719) 481-6888

Rasta Pasta

405 N Tejon St. / (719) 481-6888

Open daily for lunch and dinner. Happy Hour daily 3-5 PM. Italian-Jamaican Fusion Cuisine, unlike anything else! Caribbean inspired pasta dishes, fresh and fun Salads, full bar with local drafts and rum specials, ridiculously good desserts. Lively atmosphere and friendly service. http://realrastapasta.com

Open daily for lunch and dinner. Happy Hour daily 3-5 PM. Italian-Jamaican Fusion Cuisine, unlike anything else! Caribbean inspired pasta dishes, fresh and fun Salads, full bar with local drafts and rum specials, ridiculously good desserts. Lively atmosphere and friendly service.

MEXICAN

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José Muldoons

222 N. Tejon St. / 719-636-2311 / 5710 S. Carefree

MEXICAN

CR @ Powers / 719-574-5673

José Muldoons

222 N. Tejon St. / 719-636-2311

Celebrating 50 years! Authentic Tex-Mex & Mexican fare in a Contemporary Sante Fe-styled establishment. Across from Acacia Park Downtown. Award winning Queso, Chili Rellenos, and Mean Green Chili. https://JoseMuldoons.com

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Bull riding at Fiestas Patrias 2023. | Courtesy: VIVA Digital Marketing and Consulting

Dolls sold at Fiestas Patrias 2023. | Courtesy: VIVA Digital Marketing and Consulting

THE STATE . REINTRODUCED WOLF PACK TRAPPED, RELOCATED

By JENNIFER BROWN and TRACY ROSS

• The Colorado Sun •

State wildlife managers are capturing and relocating wolves that have been killing livestock in northern Colorado, state officials said in a surprise announcement Aug. 27 that is a blow to the state’s controversial wolf reintroduction plan.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife said it has begun an operation to capture wolves from the Copper Creek pack, which has been feeding on cattle and sheep in Grand County near Kremmling. The pack includes two adult wolves and at least three pups, but CPW did not say whether it was relocating all of them.

The decision to remove the wolves from the area comes after Colorado Parks & Wildlife denied a request from a local

rancher to take lethal action to protect his livestock. And it comes only about nine months after 10 wolves were brought to Colorado from Oregon and released by wildlife biologists.

Wolves were introduced in Colorado in December west of the Continental Divide, after Colorado voters narrowly passed Proposition 114 in November 2020. The ballot measure, passed mainly by urban voters, directed state wildlife officials to begin reintroducing them by the end of 2023.

The Copper Creek pack is a family group started by two of the 10 wolves that were relocated to Colorado late last year. The two wolves had at least three pups, which were captured on video this month playing in a rain puddle with an adult nearby. They were the first births of gray wolves since the animals were reintroduced.

Wolves in Grand County have killed nearly two dozen cattle and sheep, and the mating pair of the Copper Creek pack killed at least eight sheep in one go in July on rancher Conway Ferrell’s cattle operation, west of Granby.

Some of the livestock kills are listed as confirmed on CPW’s website, but “there were more sheep killed that are missing, and it’s still under investigation,” said Tim Ritschard, president of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association.

The rancher has been asking CPW since early April for help with the pack’s continued killing of his livestock, which Dallas May, chair of the CPW commission, recently called “unnatural behavior.” In announcing the trapping and relocation plan, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis said he wasn’t setting a precedent by authorizing the trapping.

“The decision to capture and relocate the Copper Creek pack was made with the careful consideration of multiple factors and feedback from many different stakeholders,” Davis said in the news release that was emailed around 8 p.m. Aug. 27.

“Our options in this unique case were very limited, and this action is by no means a precedent for how CPW will resolve wolf-livestock conflict moving forward.”

The agency refused to answer further questions. State officials also would not say where the wolves were being trapped or relocated, only that it would provide details when the operation is complete.

“The ultimate goal of the operation is to relocate the pack to another location while we assess our best options for them to continue to contribute to the successful restoration of wolves in Colorado,” Davis said.

Colorado outdoorsman Mike Usalavage posted a video on social media Aug. 17 of wolf pups playing in a rain puddle and wrestling on a dirt road in an undisclosed location. A few minutes into the video, Usalavage’s passenger says he spots the mother, which CPW confirms was with them. | Courtesy: Mike Usalavage via Colorado Parks and Wildlife

WARY RANCHERS

The Copper Creek pack was linked to the killings of three yearling cattle April 17, and deaths of three other yearling cattle in April and May. It was also linked to the July 17 killing of a sheep, according to a letter from CPW denying the rancher’s request that the wolf be killed.

When the wolves were released in December, they were wearing tracking collars and wildlife officials have been observing their movements. They believe the female wolf was hiding in a den in April, and then in June, CPW announced that at least one pup had been born. The rancher reported seeing the male wolf carrying parts of livestock in its mouth, likely back to the den.

In an April 24 letter, the rancher had requested a permit that gives the permit holder authority to kill wolves if they are chronically killing livestock and hazing has not worked.

In its response, the state wildlife agency said the rancher likely could have avoided

A Grey Wolf (Canis lupus). | Courtesy: Adobe Stock

FRIDAY

GO ALL-ELECTRIC—AND HELP CHANGE THE WORLD

By AUDEN SCHENDLER

The company I work for recently built a new ticket office at the base of Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado. Environmentally, we killed it: argon-gas-filled windows, super-thick insulation and comprehensive air sealing, 100 percent electrification using heat pumps instead of gas boilers. All within budget.

Yet one of the first comments we received was from a famous energy guru: “Nice building. But why do you have a heating system at all?” Or more simply put: “Why didn’t you build a perfect building, instead of just a really good one?”

Solving climate change could depend on how we answer that question. My answer: Society needs the Prius of buildings, not the Tesla X.

The green building movement didn’t originate only from a desire to protect the environment. It often had elements of the bizarre ego gratification that trumped practicality.

Recall “Earthships” that used old tires and aluminum cans in the walls. Geodesic domes were interesting looking but produced inordinate waste to build. They also leaked. Rudolf Steiner’s weirdly wonderful Goetheanum was an all-concrete structure designed to unite “what is spiritual in the human being to what is spiritual in the universe.”

Early practitioners such as Steiner, Buckminster Fuller, and Bill Mc-

Donough, among others, were often building monuments, whose ultimate goal became the concept of “net zero.”

Net zero was a building that released no carbon dioxide emissions at all.

Designers achieved that goal by constructing well-sealed, heavily insulated, properly oriented and controlled buildings—but then they did something wasteful. They added solar panels to make up for carbon dioxide emissions from heating with natural gas. The approach zeroed out emissions, but at extraordinary cost that came in the form of added labor, expense and lost opportunity.

While net zero wasn’t a good idea even when most buildings were heated with natural gas, the rapid decarbonization of utility grids— happening almost everywhere—and advances in electrification make the idea downright pointless.

Instead, all you need to build an eventual net zero building is to go all-electric. It won’t be net zero today, but it will be net zero when the grid reaches 100% carbon-free power. So, all that really matters is that building codes require 100% electrification.

Yet many communities remain focused

on that sexy goal of net zero, and therefore include requirements for solar panels, or “solar ready” wiring. Even apart from the issue of cost, many utilities don’t need rooftop solar because they increasingly have access to huge solar arrays, giving them more electricity than they need in peak times.

What utilities really need is energy storage and smart management.

That means home batteries and grid integration that allows utilities to “talk” to buildings and turn off appliances during peak times. The problem is that environmentalists haven’t evolved: Just like we can’t retire our tie-dyes, we think “green” means rooftop solar panels.

My company’s Buttermilk building passes the only test that matters: “If everyone built this kind of structure, would it solve the built environment’s portion of the climate problem?” The answer for our building is “yes.”

Still, aspirational monuments matter. We need the Lincoln Memorial, the Empire State Building. But if we’re going to solve climate change in buildings, which is about a third of the total problem, new structures will have to reconceive what

we consider efficient and beautiful. And it doesn’t have to break the bank.

Electrification, for example, is getting cheaper every year. Years ago, I served on an environmental board for the town of Carbondale in western Colorado. The overwhelming interest there was ending dandelion spraying in the town park. But at one point, we worked on a building. After a long conversation about the technical tricks and feats we could pull off, a Rudolf Steiner disciple named Farmer Jack Reed said: “We should also plant bulbs in the fall so colorful flowers blossom in the spring.” “Why?” I asked, stuck in my own technocratic hole. He said: “Because flowers are beautiful and they make people happy.”

So, too, are realistic solutions as we adapt to climate change.

Auden Schendler is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange. org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He is senior vice president of sustainability at Aspen One. His book, Terrible Beauty: Reckoning with Climate Complicity and Rediscovering our Soul, comes out in November.

Guest Services Building at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado |Courtesy: CCY Architects

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LINEUP

Jim Gaffigan | September 13

Pentatonix | September 15

Cage The Elephant | September 19

Barenaked Ladies | September 21

Steve Miller Band | September 27

ZZ Top & Lynyrd Skynyrd | September 28 for KING + COUNTRY | September 29

Foreigner | October 2

Ivan Cornejo | October 4

Godsmack | October 17

Photo Credit: Krys Fakir at Chief Creative

OneRepublic at the Grand Opening of Ford Amphitheater, August 9, 2024

Fire Pit Suite at Ford Amphitheater

Photo Credit: Krys Fakir at Chief Creative

EXPLORE THE TRAILS OF PUEBLO MOUNTAIN PARK

Pueblo Mountain Park, nestled into the Beulah Valley about 20 miles west of Pueblo, offers a treasure trove of hiking experiences.

First established in the early 1900s, it has the distinction of being the first recreational planning and development project in a U.S. National Forest. Many of the buildings in the park that were built in its early days are still standing, including an old, decommissioned fire tower, and others are still in use today. The park was created, and is still owned by, the City of Pueblo.

At over 600 acres, the large park is set between the San Isabel National Forest and the small town of Beulah and is home to many great hiking trails within its boundaries. Some trails also connect to several others that allow you to extend your venture into the surrounding national forest.

There are two main trailheads in the park (see COTREX map here: tinyurl. com/3ey4259h). The Tower Trailhead, at the south end of the park and the Devil’s Canyon Trailhead a little less than a mile farther north on the main park road. A third trailhead, the Carhart Trailhead, at the northeast corner of the park, mostly serves an archery range in the park but can be used to access hiking trails too.

My preference is to start and end my hikes from the Tower Trailhead. From there, you can do a number of different out-and-back or loop hikes, returning to the starting point. From the Tower Trailhead, it’s about a 0.75-mile hike to an intersection with the Mace Trail. A left turn here takes you to the old fire tower, about 0.25 mile away. Bearing right and

just a few feet away is an intersection with the Ranger Trail, which leads to into the San Isabel National Forest and, eventually, the South Creek Trail No. 1321. Staying on the Mace Trail for about another 0.25 mile, you’ll come to an intersection with the Mace Trail continuing to the right, an overlook trail straight ahead, and the Devil’s Canyon Trail to the left. You’ll definitely want to check out the views from the end of the short overlook trail, and then return to go down the Devil’s Canyon Trail. At the south end of Devil’s Canyon, you can either turn left onto the Northridge Trail or continue straight and follow the trail deeper into Devil’s Canyon. The Northridge Trail takes you up over the west side of Devil’s Canyon, and some really nice views of the Beulah Valley. The first 0.5 to 0.75 of a mile of the Northridge Trail is a combination of being rocky through what is usually an intermittent creek and then a steep uphill climb out of the creek bed until you reach an overlook. Continuing on the Northridge Trail, you can continue around until you drop down into the north end of Devil’s Canyon, or about 0.10 of a mile from the overlook on the Northridge Trail, you can turn left onto the Mountain Park Trail No. 1385, which quickly leaves the park and enters the San Isabel National Forest. The Mountain Park Trail is much less used than the other trails in the park, and is overgrown in some places, but is still easy to follow. After about 1.25 miles, the Mountain Park Trail meets the Squirrel Creek Trail No. 1384. Continuing straight at this intersection will

return you to the Pueblo Mountain Park on the Carhart Trail. Although not shown on maps, there is a marked shortcut to the Northridge Trail, a little bit more than 1.25 miles after re-entering the park. Turning right onto this shortcut will take you to the Northridge Trail after only a few hundred feet. Turning left here onto the Northridge Trail will then take you to the north end of Devil’s Canyon, and a left turn here will take you to the main park road. The north end of the Mace Trail is easy to spot about 100 feet up the road from the Devil’s Canyon Trail . Hike it back up to where it meets the Devil’s Canyon and overlook trail, and bear left to rejoin the Tower Trail and return to the start.

A loop of the Tower, Mace and Devil’s Canyon trails and then back on Mace and Tower trails is about 3.5 miles round trip. Doing the same loop but taking the Northridge Trail instead of the Devil’s Canyon trail is about 4.5 miles, and doing the Mountain Park and Carhart trails (including the shortcut between Carhart and Northridge) is about 7 miles round trip. Adding in the side hike to the fire tower will add about 0.5 miles to each of these, and to the overlook above Devil’s Canyon will add about 0.2 miles.

Things You Need to Know: Pueblo Mountain Park is free to enter and open from dawn to dusk every day. Dogs are allowed but must be leashed within the park boundaries, and they should be leashed while in the national forest. Horses are allowed on the trails, but bikes are not allowed on any trail within the park. All

trails in the park are well-marked. When you return to your car, follow the park road around to the exit and take in the magnificent stone bridges and old baseball field in the park.

To Get There: The town of Beulah is 20 miles west of Pueblo on Colorado Highway 78. Just before reaching town, bear left onto Highway 78 and take it for a little more than 2.5 miles to the entrance to the park. When you enter the park, take your first left and follow the road to the start of the Tower Trail. You can also bear right as you enter the park to visit the Horseshoe building, home of the Nature and Wildlife Discovery Center (HikeAndLearn.org), which also doubles as a visitors center. The staff there is very helpful with providing information.

A follow-up to my July 25 column “A couple of must-do summer hikes”: Fishers Peak State Park has changed its hours of operation to be the same as other Colorado state parks and is now open daily from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Be good. Do good things. Leave no trace

Bob “Hiking Bob” Falcone is a retired career firefighter, USAF veteran, an accomplished photographer and 30-year resident of Colorado Springs. He has served on boards and committees for city, county and state parks in the Pikes Peak region, and spends much of his time hiking 800 or more miles each year, looking for new places and trails to visit, often with his canine sidekick, Coal.

By BOB “HIKING BOB” FALCONE

Pueblo Mountain Park |Credit: Bob Falcone

Featuring

DR. TATIANA BAILEY & MR. BRYCE COOKE

The Colorado Springs Business Journal is back and excited to host Dr. Tatiana Bailey of Data-Driven Economic Strategies (DDES) and Bryce Cooke, Chief Economist at the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting.

Their presentations will provide a comprehensive overview of the U.S. economy. Mr. Cooke will provide an in-depth analysis of the Colorado economy, including a legislative update, while Dr. Bailey will discuss the economic landscape of Colorado Springs.

Following the presentations, attendees are invited to network and share ideas during happy hour. Tickets are limited.

Three continuing education (CE) real estate credits available to attendees.

SEPT. 5 | 1:30 P.M.

Tickets &

AT BOOT BARN HALL

PUZZLES!

VOTING HAS STATRED!

BACK TO BASICS:

1. Online voting must be complete before midnight August 31.

2. For verification purposes, all ballots must be submitted with a verifiable email address.

COS 2024 Best of VOTE:

3. Please confirm the correct spelling of your submissions.

4. In cases where businesses share a name, please include their zip code.

5. Take time to review this year’s categories. Some are new. Some are gone. Quick heads-up — there must be at least three businesses operating in a given category in order for that category to appear on our ballot.

6. Cheaters never prosper.

From August 1 to August31, vote for your favorites to determine who is the Best Of Colorado Springs! Submit your digital ballots at vote.csindy.com. Vote in at least 20 categories for your votes to count. Winners will be announced in the Best Of magazine inserted in the October 31 Independent. When categories specify a region (North, South, East, West, Downtown), please reference the Independent’s distribution map.

News of the WEIRD

BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT

• An Applebee's restaurant in Portage, Indiana, became the site of a scuffle on Aug. 2, USA Today reported. According to the Portage Police Department, officers arrived in response to a report of a verbal disturbance. There they found Shawneesha Cobbs, 28, who had been loudly arguing with the store manager. Cobbs' companions were under the impression that the restaurant's $15.99 all-you-can-eat deal applied to the whole group, and when the manager explained that the deal was per person, Cobbs said the menu didn't specify that. (It did.) The rabble-rouser then verbally assaulted another couple leaving the restaurant; that's when she was placed under arrest and charged with disorderly conduct.

• Jeff Daniels lookalike Mayor Benji Cranford of Thomson, Georgia, was arrested on Aug. 14 after a grand jury indicted him for allegedly supplying a 750 ml bottle of Seagram's Extra Dry Gin to prisoners on a roadside work crew, WRDW-TV reported. The indictment said Cranford bought the bottle on June 4 and left it in a ditch along the path of the work crew from the Jefferson County Correctional Institution. Cranford was charged with furnishing prohibited items to inmates and criminal attempt to commit a felony. He bonded out three hours later.

IT'S COME TO THIS

Students are headed back to school at H.E. Charles Middle School in El Paso, Texas, with a fresh restriction on the clothes they can wear, KVIA-TV reported on Aug. 2. Principal Nick DeSantis sent a letter to families stating that students would no longer be able to wear "black tops with black bottoms," saying the look can be "associated with depression and mental health issues and/or criminality."

Sarah Venegas, executive principal for the district, backed DeSantis up: Students will be allowed to wear only blue jeans or khaki pants. Some parents don't agree: "I don't think we should be grouping, and red-flagging kids that just like to wear black," said

Stephanie Rascon. Mental health expert Krista Wingate suggested that educators might instead "be looking out for different signs of stress or ... anxiety."

THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

Jose Marti-Alvarez of Miami Gardens, Florida, came up with a shady plan to make some dough, Local10-TV reported. Marti-Alvarez, 55, was in court on Aug. 19 facing felony charges of running "an elaborate scheme to defraud tourists staying in the hotels of Miami Springs," police said. He had distributed flyers to hotels near Miami International Airport, advertising "Roman Pizzeria" -- a name dangerously close to Roman's Pizzeria, which has had a loyal following in the area for four decades. Marti-Alvarez's pizzas were delivered "bad, uncooked, sometimes in a box with a piece of raw dough," said Jesus Roman, the real pizza man. Marti-Alvarez had been duping folks for several years, garnering bad reviews and customer complaints for the real Roman's. Finally Roman went to the police. Marti-Alvarez was held on fraud charges, along with aggravated battery after he hit a hotel worker with his car while trying to flee.

DASTARDLY

Russian chess player Amina Abakarova, 40, of Dagestan could be banned from competition for life after she was accused of poisoning another player at the Dagestan Classical Chess Championship on Aug. 2, Oddity Central reported. Surveillance video captured Abakarova stopping at a table and spreading a substance on the board and pieces where her competitor, Umayganat Osmanova, 30, soon would be playing. Her behavior could have been innocent, but about 30 minutes later, Osmanova started experiencing nausea and dizziness. Doctors confirmed she had been poisoned with mercury; Osmanova ended up in the hospital. "I felt a lack of air and a taste of iron in my mouth," she said. Abakarova confessed to using mercury from an old thermometer to soil the board, hoping to "knock her (opponent) out of the tournament." She will likely also lose her job and may face criminal prosecution.

Taboo, a black-and-white 12-yearold cat from West Yorkshire, England, has made a name for herself in the neighborhood, People reported. She's a cat burglar. Taboo's owner, Sandra Danskin, said she steals clothing and gardening equipment from nearby households, forcing Danskin to post them on social media to reunite them with

their owners. "This morning, I had four pairs of socks and a pair of underpants," Danskin said. "Also, we've had mopheads and kitchen rolls." She suspects the kitty grabs items off laundry lines or sneaks into homes where the door is left open. Helpfully, she always brings both socks of a pair, carrying one at a time.

Astro-logic

ARIES

Busy much? Sept. 9 supercharges your daily grind, so don’t forget to pencil in some “me time” to avoid burnout. Sept. 14 is all heart eyes for your relationships and routines, setting you up nicely for the Sept. 17 lunar eclipse. Spoiler: it’s as draining as it is revealing. Brace for impact and maybe a breakthrough or two…

TAURUS

Transformation, anyone? Sept. 7 serves up a home life reality check, forcing you to rethink what you really want. But don’t fret—Sept. 9 opens the door to creative vibes, and by the Sept. 17 lunar eclipse, friendships are front and center. A chat with your ride-or-die crew could spark the next big idea. Get ready to glow up…

GEMINI

Home sweet home? More like home busy home. Starting Sept. 9, you’re urged to revamp your space, which may rock the boat with family. The good news? This friction begets a creative boost. Then there’s the Sept. 17 lunar eclipse, which spotlights your career—maybe even marking a major conclusion. Big moves are coming, get ready to seize them…

CANCER

BY CAMILLE LIPTAK, COSMIC CANNIBAL

Mental fog? Not anymore! Sept. 9 brings crystal-clear clarity and some sharp convos that could pave the way for personal growth. The caveat is the Sept. 17 lunar eclipse. Though it’s your ticket to a new adventure, it also marks the end of a chapter in this part of life. Don’t worry—instead, start plotting your next big move…

LEO

Surprise! Sept. 7 might drop a career curveball that challenges your sense of self. But don’t worry—Sept. 9 helps you get your ducks in a row. By Sept. 12, sweet connections with close friends make everything feel right. Come September 17, the lunar eclipse stirs up some deep emotions—perfect for shedding old baggage and embracing a fresh start…

VIRGO

Clear mind, clean slate—starting Sept. 9, you’re ready to reorganize life’s chaos. Sept. 11 could bring a golden networking opportunity, so don’t be shy about rubbing elbows with the right people. But heads up: the Sept. 17 lunar eclipse has relationship revelations written all over it. Expect a shift in your partnerships, and maybe also a plot twist…

LIBRA

Your inner world lights up like a disco ball on Sept. 9, making it prime time for self-reflection. Journaling? Highly recommended. Sept. 11 could bring a career opportunity that helps you tackle challenges with ease; by Sept. 14, life is so sweet it’ll give you a sugar rush. Soak it up, because you’ve earned every bit of it…

SCORPIO

Career and partnerships in a tug-ofwar? Well, that’s pretty much the vibe leading up to Sept. 7. But don’t stress— Sept. 9 brings order to the chaos and opens doors to new friendships. By the Sept. 17 lunar eclipse, your creative and romantic passions are lit. Dive into whatever truly excites you. Magic only happens when you’re all in…

SAGITTARIUS

All eyes on your career starting Sept. 9, and it’s time to focus on the nitty-gritty. Sept. 12 might throw a relationship curveball, but keep an open mind—compromise is 100% your secret weapon. The Sept. 17 lunar eclipse shakes up your home life, revealing what truly matters. Big changes ahead. Get ready to realign with your true north…

CAPRICORN

Adventure time! Sept. 9 activates your wanderlust, making it a great time to plan that trip, publish your magnum opus, or dive into something new. Relationship tensions may crop up around Sept. 11, but clear communication saves the day. Lastly, the Sept. 17 lunar eclipse lights up your big ideas and long-range plans. So, speak up and shine…

AQUARIUS

Home life throwing curveballs at your relationship goals? Well, Sept. 14 opens doors to new learning opportunities, so go explore! Romance is also in the air, so make time for love. The Sept. 17 lunar eclipse puts shared resources in the spotlight—time to reevaluate your spending habits and brighten your financial outlook. It’s all about the balance, baby…

PISCES

Clarity arrives in your relationships starting Sept. 9, but Sept. 12 could bring tension at home. Focus on finding harmony, because you’re gonna need it. The Sept. 17 lunar eclipse hits you where it counts, signaling a personal shift. Time to let go of old fears and stop running from the transformation. Ready or not, here it comes…