CS Independent Vol. 1 Issue 15 | November 28, 2024
Closed Books
by Karin Zeitvogel Page 8
A Pikes Peak Media Company
“... stupid and shutuppy.”
PUBLISHER
Francis J. Zankowski
EDITORIAL
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ben Trollinger
REPORTERS Andrew Rogers, Cannon Taylor, Noel Black and Karin Zeitvogel
CONTRIBUTORS
Lauren Ciborowski, Bob Falcone, Dave Marston, Deb Acord, Kathryn Eastburn, and Rob Brezny
COPY EDITOR Willow Welter
SALES
AD DIRECTOR JT Slivka
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Monty Hatch, Josh Graham, Carla Wink and Karen Hazlehurst
AD COORDINATOR
Lanny Adams
ART & PRODUCTION
SENIOR EDITORIAL DESIGNER
Adam Biddle
OPERATIONS
DIGITAL AND MARKETING MANAGER
Sean Cassady
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
Kay Williams
FEAR ITSELF
By NOEL BLACK noel.black@ppmc.live
Afew days after the election, I met a plumber at my house who was wearing a red “Trump for President” hat. I needed his help with the new boiler his company had just installed, and he kindly walked me through it for a few minutes before we started talking about other things. He mentioned that he’d just bought a new Tesla, which had cost him much less than he’d thought it would thanks, in part, to the large federal tax credit the Biden administration has offered for the purchase of electric vehicles. I then nodded to his hat and asked him if he thought Trump would continue those tax credits, especially since Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, will likely be a part of his cabinet.
“Oh, I forgot I had this on,” he said, slightly embarrassed, taking his hat off and turning it around to look at it as though to see himself the way I’d been seeing him for the past 15 minutes. I can only presume he presumed that I, in my owlish glasses and Patagonia jacket, had voted for Kamala Harris, or Jill Stein, or Cornell West. Then he admitted that he was glad he’d bought the Tesla now before Trump takes office. When he left, I thought two things. First,
that this mostly unremarkable interaction was typical of the kinds interactions I’ve had for most of my life with people I don’t know in Colorado Springs, where seemingly insurmountable chasms of difference become largely irrelevant, where the far more boring but important business of the day is concerned. Second, that the constant, low-voltage fear I’ve lived with my whole life is still there. Growing up in Colorado Springs in the 1980s, interacting with anyone I didn’t know, even for a the most casual of encounters, always felt dangerous. When I was 11, my mom told me that both she and my dad were gay. Though she didn’t live with a partner, and my dad lived far away in Tucson, Arizona, there was always the implied possibility that someone might find out. And if someone found out, there was the chance I could be taken away from her, or worse, that someone would hurt us.
So I learned to pass. And it wasn’t hard. I liked sports and didn’t have to pretend to like blending into the “normal” backdrop of middle-American high school culture. And despite what the Christian right at the time would have everyone believe were insurmountable odds that both nature and nurture would make me gay, I was straight.
But the fear was always there. It was acute during high school in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when I found out my dad had AIDS, and organizations like James Dobson’s Focus on the Family came to town and began to flog gay marriage in the name of Christ with Amendment 2, which defined marriage as being between a man and a woman until it was overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court in 1993.
Then there was the jolt of Matthew Shepard’s murder in Wyoming in 1998. It waned some after Pastor Ted Haggard of New Life Church got caught having sex and doing meth with Mike Jones in
2006, and then nearly dissipated altogether after Obergefell v. Hodges made gay marriage legal in 2014. But it amped up again after the Planned Parenthood shooting in 2015 and Trump’s victory a year later.
Then there was the mass shooting at Club Q two years ago today as I write this. Trying to cover it as a journalist while processing the terror was sickening. And I will never forget weeping uncontrollably with a microphone in my hand while I tried to do interviews, and Mayor John Suthers stood silently and said nothing while a giant rainbow flag from Pulse Nightclub flew over City Hall.
And now, with Donald Trump set to continue the boomer death grip on America, many (and many who voted for him) will continue to suffer both the fear and the realities of his cruel rhetoric as it becomes policy.
But don’t get me wrong. The Democrats were never going to save us. They lost me a lifetime ago with Bill Clinton’s endless hedging and mealy-mouthed “don’t ask, don’t tell” policies. For all their supposed love of free speech and civil liberties, the only person who ever attacked me or my writing was a liberal employer who paid me so little that I couldn’t afford health insurance, then tried to sue me for defamation after I started my own paper. And then there were the many former friends in the self-immolating progressive left who not only ostracized me, gleefully tried to get me fired (while I was being treated for cancer, no less), and otherwise disavowed me in the years after Trump was first elected because I didn’t always hew to the suffocating standards of the preening, ideological purity pageants that masqueraded as social justice, yet never offered its myriad alleged offenders so much as a means for truth or reconciliation.
This is all to say that, even after a lifetime of fear and terror at the hands of the religious right and its increasingly unhinged Republican standard bearers, it’s not hard for me to understand the voters who flipped for Trump. Whether you take away someone’s seat and tell them to f---
"IF I HAVE ANY HOPE, IT’S HERE IN COLORADO SPRINGS WHERE HALF A MILLION OF US WITH WILDLY DIFFERENT BELIEFS HAVE MANAGED FOR DECADES TO LIVE AND WORK TOGETHER, MOST DAYS, IN SPITE OF THOSE DIFFERENCES."
off forever, or promise them a place that you never set, they’re going to look for a meal elsewhere.
It would be nice to imagine that we could break ourselves of the two-party system and all the false dichotomies, tribal hysteria and endless othering that it creates in our splintered national politics, but the thought itself at this point just seems … “stupid and shutuppy” (as my now-23-year-old son liked to say when he was a kid).
If I have any hope, it’s here in Colorado Springs, where half a million of us with wildly different beliefs have managed for decades to live and work together, most days, in spite of those differences. I spend many of my weekends these days sitting on the sidelines or in bleacher next to parents with whom I often have nothing in common, cheering for our kids, and I’ve made some great friends on that connection alone. It’s a place to start. If the queer movement taught us anything over the 55 years since Stonewall, it’s that it’s hard for people to hate you when they know you. It’s scary, but it has to go both ways. And there are no bumper stickers or yard signs or flags or hats that are going to do it for us.
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
Credit: Matt Chmielarczyk
CONGRATULATIONS 2024 Excellence In Customer Service Award Recipients
THANK YOU TO OUR 2024 EICS EVALUATORS
The Excellence in Customer Service (EICS) Award would not be possible without the experience and expertise of volunteer evaluators who have dedicated years of service to the EICS award program.
• Dawn Kruger - EICS Core Team Peak Surveys
• Martha Neitz - EICS Core Team Dr. SOOT Chimney Sweep, Inc.
Trish Grinnell
Melaleuca Inc.
• Deborah Haas-Henry
Air Academy Credit Union
Paul Kirkbride
Air Academy Credit Union
• Laura Lyman
Alpine Bank
CONGRATULATIONS 2024 Summit Award Winners!
• Katie Ogden Amnet
• Suzanne Qualia LXCouncil
• Liz Rachal
• Raegan Walker Air Academy Credit Union
Turning the Corner HR
Out of nearly two thousand Southern Colorado Accredited Businesses, 25 businesses received recognition for their dedication, activity, and BBB business profile interactions on the local BBB.org website.
• Absolute Comfort, Inc.
• AMC Painting LLC
• Apple Mortgage Corporation
• Art C Klein Construction, Inc.
• Aspen Radon
• Barnhart Pump Company
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NEWS .
Club Q victims, families sue El Paso County
2 lawsuits were filed this week near the second anniversary of the mass shooting at the
LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs
By JENNIFER BROWN • The Colorado Sun
Victims and family members of the 2022 mass shooting at a Colorado Springs nightclub that was a refuge for the LGBTQ community are suing the El Paso County commissioners and sheriff for failing to prevent the tragedy by using the state’s red flag law.
County authorities had “ample grounds” to take away the shooter’s guns under Colorado’s 2019 law, formally known as an extreme risk protection order, which allows the removal of firearms from people deemed a danger to themselves or others, the lawsuit says.
“Law enforcement missed critical opportunities to prevent this tragedy,” says the federal lawsuit filed Sunday, almost two years to the day after the Nov. 19, 2022, attack. “The shooter had a history of violent threats and behavior that clearly warranted intervention.”
The lawsuit was filed by John Arcediano, Jancarlos Del Valle, Ashtin Gamblin, Jerecho Loveall, Anthony Malburg,
Charlene Slaugh, James Slaugh and Brianna Winningham, and on behalf of victims Raymond Green, Kelly Loving and Derrick Rump. A separate lawsuit was filed by Barrett Hudson, who was shot seven times.
Five people were killed and 19 were injured in the shooting. Anderson Lee Aldrich, who was 22 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty in June to 50 federal hate crime charges and was sentenced to life in prison.
Five months before the shooting, Aldrich was arrested by the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and accused of vowing to become “the next mass killer,” while stockpiling weapons, body armor and bomb-making materials. Aldrich’s mother and grandparents did not cooperate with authorities, and the charges were eventually dismissed, according to court testimony.
After the Club Q shooting, investigators discovered that Aldrich had created two websites to post hateful content about the LGBTQ community. They also found that
had shared recordings of 911 calls from the 2016 killing of 49 people at the gay-friendly Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
In conservative El Paso County, county officials denounced the red flag law, and when the shooting at Club Q occurred, the sheriff’s office had not filed any petitions under the law to remove a person’s firearms.
In March 2019, before the state law was signed, the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution declaring El Paso County a “Second Amendment preservation county.”
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, under Sheriff Bill Elder, adopted a policy opposing the red flag law, and said no sheriff’s employee would make a petition under the law “unless exigent circumstances exist” and there is probable cause that “a crime is being or has been committed.”
The lawsuit filed by the victims and families also claims the owners of Club
Q were negligent for failing to provide enough security at the club.
At the time of the shooting at Pulse in Orlando, Club Q in Colorado Springs had a “robust security team,” with at least five security guards, including one with a loaded firearm, according to the lawsuit.
But the focus on security “diminished significantly” over the following years, and by 2022, Club Q had just one security guard, who was not armed. The sole security employee also served as a bar back and food runner, the lawsuit says.
“He did his best to protect patrons, but was left with an impossible task,” the lawsuit says. “Club Q advertised itself as a ‘safe space’ for LGBTQIA+ individuals. But that was a facade.”
Those killed in the shooting were Green, Loving, Rump, Daniel Aston and Ashley Paugh.
The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonprofit news outlet that covers our state. Learn more and sign up for free newsletters at coloradosun.com. n
Aldrich
People gather during a vigil Nov. 21, 2022, to mourn Daniel Aston, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Derrick Rump and Raymond Green Vance, who were killed during a shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs. |Credit: Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America
NEWS .
Recreational cannabis ban fails
Final election results show voters supporting the sale of the product in Colorado Springs, but a City Councilapproved ordinance will likely stand in the way
by KARIN ZEITVOGEL • karin.zeitvogel@ppmc.live
El Paso County voters have cast their ballots in favor of allowing recreational cannabis sales in Colorado Springs and rejected a ballot question that would have changed the city charter to ban the same, the final results of the election show.
More than 54% of voters approved Question 300, which calls for sales of recreational cannabis to be allowed at existing medical dispensaries, according to the results released Nov. 14.
Question 2D — which sought to amend the charter to continue a ban on rec sales in Colorado Springs — garnered 49.43% of votes in favor and 50.57% against. The difference between yes and no votes on 2D is outside the 0.5% range that automatically triggers a recount in Colorado.
Joel Sorensen, a spokesman for the Colorado Springs Safe Neighborhood Coalition, which backs a ban on recreational cannabis, said voters were “confused by the presence of two competing measures on the ballot: 2D, to ban recreational marijuana sales, and 300, which pretended to restrict recreational marijuana sales but in fact legalized them.”
But Meghan Graf, a spokesperson for Citizens for Responsible Marijuana Regulation, countered Sorensen’s argument, noting that Question 300 was approved as a ballot initiative in March, while 2D was added in August.
“To be clear, it was City Council who put up the competing measure designed to confuse voters,” Graf told the Independent.
“It’s egregious and inaccurate to suggest that more than 129,000 Colorado Springs voters who voted to approve 300 were ‘confused’ by a straightforward measure to responsibly regulate marijuana in Colorado Springs. A slap in the face to those voters, really,” she said.
Recreational cannabis has been legal in
Colorado since 2012, but the city of Colorado Springs has opted out of allowing recreational sales within city limits.
One of the arguments for allowing it to be sold in the city is that people simply go to nearby Manitou Springs, Palmer Lake, Denver and Pueblo, where recreational cannabis is sold, and those cities are reaping tax dollars that could be going to Colorado Springs.
Medical cannabis can be sold by dispensaries in Colorado Springs to registered patients.
Despite Question 300 passing and 2D failing, recreational cannabis could remain a pipe dream in Colorado Springs for the immediate future.
That’s because the City Council passed an ordinance roughly two months ago increasing the required distance between dispensaries in Colorado Springs and schools, day cares, and alcohol and drug rehabilitation facilities.
The extended setback ordinance passed by a vote of 7–2, despite Councilor Dave Donelson suggesting council members wait to vote on it until after the Nov. 5 election to allow voters to have their say. Council President Pro Tem Lynette Crow-Iverson refused to withdraw the ordinance, and the vote went ahead. Councilors Yolanda Avila and Nancy Henjum cast the two “no” votes on extending the setback.
Sorensen said it would come as no surprise “if a future city council decides to ask the question again, on a ballot where there won’t be competing measures and, therefore, won’t be any confusion.”
Graf called on “those in municipal government (to) defer to the clearly expressed intent of voters to authorize recreational marijuana.” She called the final results “a win for Colorado Springs voters, who chose rec marijuana legalization over an outright ban.”
CLOSED BOOKS
A community rallies to save Rockrimmon Library as board digs in its heels
by KARIN ZEITVOGEL • karin.zeitvogel@ppmc.live
For a few hours on Nov. 19, supporters of Rockrimmon Library in northwest Colorado Springs –the facility that the Pikes Peak Library District board has slated for closure at the end of the month – had a glimmer of hope.
The PPLD board had scheduled a meeting for that afternoon, with a single item on the agenda: Lease considerations. Maybe they had had a change of heart about Rockrimmon, residents dared to hope. Four weeks earlier, the sevenmember board of trustees, which governs the library system, announced that a decision had been taken to close the library that has served the Rockrimmon neighborhood for the better part of four decades. Its last day of operations would
be Nov. 30, they said.
Two board members, Debbie English and Scott Taylor, voted against closing Rockrimmon. The other five members of the board — Dora Gonzales, Erin Bents, Angela Dougan, Aaron Salt and Julie Smyth — voted in favor, citing financial challenges as the main reason behind the decision.
The chief librarian and CEO of the library district, Teona Shainidze-Krebs, has confirmed that the decision was largely driven by a tight budget.
Within days of the Oct. 16 announcement of the closure, the landlord of the Rockrimmon building stepped in to try to save the branch. Ismet Sahin, who has been leasing the library space to the PPLD for the past 20 years, offered to
Center Drive in the northwest of the city.
The price was within his range, the property looked good to him, but what interested him most was that the shopping center included a library. That sealed the deal for him.
Sahin’s relationship with the library board has always been good, he said. However, last year, he began asking the board of trustees if they wanted to renew the lease on Rockrimmon when it runs out at the end of 2024.
“For a long, long time, they never answered our question,” Sahin told the Independent. “Finally, like two, three months ago, it became, ‘Board will decide.’ Now, they decided they are moving out. What can I say? I’m disappointed.”
He sweetened the deal for the library to try to convince them to stay in the shopping center, which also includes a supermarket, restaurants, a cat rehoming nonprofit, a gym and an accountancy firm. In addition to cutting the rent and shortening the lease, he said he would assume full responsibility for any water damage that occurs in the future.
Flooding was one of the reasons the PPLD board cited in its decision to close the branch. In recent times, the library has flooded once — in the summer of 2023 after a severe rainstorm dumped more than half a foot of water in the parking lot of the shopping center.
slash the roughly $240,000 annual rent by 15% and to give the library a one-year, instead of a five-year, lease.
Sahin said he owes a debt of gratitude to libraries. Growing up in Turkey, he taught himself math and physics at a library some 30 miles away from his home in a tiny village of 80 inhabitants. His self-education was good enough to earn him scholarships to come to the United States to study, first at the University of Kentucky and then at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh.
He came to Colorado Springs 20 years ago, looking for commercial real estate. Unimpressed with the properties he was shown by a real estate agent, he set out to explore the city on his own and stumbled upon the shopping center at Village
“The owner took care of everything, except for replacing the carpets and making minor repairs to the drywall,” a speaker said at one of the many public comment sessions at City Council and the County Commission, where supporters of the library have spoken up since the closure of Rockrimmon was announced. The cost for repairs that fell to the library was $17,000, the speaker said.
Even taking that water damage into account, “Rockrimmon Library has the fifth lowest 10-year maintenance projection out of the 16 facilities — much less maintenance costs that the majority of the libraries within the district,” the speaker said.
But the board of trustees has turned a deaf ear to the owner’s and residents’ pleas and refused to reverse course on the Nov. 30 closure.
Demonstrators hold signs opposing the Rockrimmon Library closure. | Credit: Karin Zeitvogel
COVER STORY.
BOUND BY BOOKS
After Sahin’s efforts appeared to reach an impasse, residents of the Rockrimmon area launched a grassroots effort to save the library. Within a month they had raised close to $58,000 to keep the library open. If fundraising continued at the same pace over a year, they would have nearly $700,000 in their coffers — enough to pay the library’s rent and running costs for two months.
But the PPLD board was unmoved — fundraising wasn’t a solution because it would have to be an ongoing effort.
Undeterred, the backers of the library took their grievances to City Council, where they were told at first that there was nothing the city could do because the library was not in their wheelhouse.
At first, Councilmember Dave Donelson, who represents the district the library is in, was the sole champion of the Rockrimmon cause. But when he asked members of the PPLD board to come explain to City Council why they were closing the facility, or asked that the City Council come up with $200,000 to fund the library for a year, he got no support from his fellow councilmembers.
That’s because the PPLD is “a quasigovernmental entity whose funding comes from mill levies on property tax,” Council President Randy Helms explained in a conversation with the Independent.
“Zero dollars comes out of the City of Colorado Springs budget,” he said. “So people who think that the City Council should spend our tax dollars, their tax dollars on saving this library, they’re just mistaken. This is not a city of Colorado Springs-funded organization.”
Still, residents kept on coming to council meetings, and kept on telling councilmembers that the reasons the PPLD board was giving for closing Rockrimmon didn’t match the data.
They descended en masse on City Hall for the Nov. 12 council meeting, and 30 residents drove that message home in a series of 3-minute speeches in the council chambers. And after that, most of the councilmembers seemed to come around to the residents’ side.
“It is preposterous that they (the PPLD) would be in the business of closing libraries and not opening them or expanding them,” Councilwoman Michelle Talarico said.
“I feel like I’ve lost trust in the appointment of this board,” said Councilman Dave Leinweber. “We’re saying come and seriously explain yourself because we are losing confidence.”
“I want to understand what drives their budgeting process, and I want to understand what drives their prioritization, because it not only impacts your branch, it impacts the entire system,” said Councilman Brian Risley.
Councilwoman Nancy Henjum, who was messaging with PPLD board chair Dora Gonzales during the council session, said Gonzales had told her that board members were not willing to meet with residents to answer their questions directly.
“What they are willing to do, and I am not happy about this… she will answer any of your questions that you send. They will post them online … I don’t personally think that’s an appropriate response,” Henjum said.
Days after that meeting, Donelson, Henjum and Leinweber signed a letter to the board of trustees, asking them to “reverse the decision for closure or at least renew the lease for an additional year at Rockrimmon Library Branch.”
“The closure of this library would have a significant negative impact on the Rockrimmon community, particularly affecting students, families, and seniors who rely on its accessible location, internet access, materials, and learning support,” the letter said.
Days later, the PPLD remained silent. However, the residents’ hopes were buoyed by the councilmembers’ letter when they went to the County Commissioners’ meeting on Nov. 19. The City Council and County Commissioners jointly appoint the library board, and the residents needed to get the county on board with their project to save Rockrimmon Library.
County Commission Chair Carrie Geitner kicked off the public comment period at the meeting by telling Rockrimmon residents they had been misled by City Council and reminding them that people who serve on the PPLD board of trustees are volunteers and should be treated with respect. Geitner appeared to have made a decision about who she was siding with before anyone had spoken about why they wanted to keep the library open.
At the end of more than an hour of
testimony from everyone from children to retirees, urban planners, engineers, finance experts and yoga teachers — who spoke about how Rockrimmon is more than a place to pick up a book and was the reason some people moved to the neighborhood to begin with — the residents got no reaction from most of the commissioners.
But before Geitner could move on to the next item on the agenda, Commissioner Longinos Gonzalez spoke up to say he was “inspired by the funding effort from the community” and might be willing to help them.
He likened their efforts to how Colorado Springs rallied when the community learned that the Veterans Day parade was being canceled.
“Our community came together, sponsors came together to save Veterans Day,” he said.
“So my thing is, if private funding can help keep the library open for additional months or longer, and the library district and community continue to review ideas and options … that wouldn’t add any cost right now for our library district, I think that’s reasonable and that’s something I can support.”
C itizens demand answers from City Council and the Pikes Peal Library District. | Credit: Karin Zeitvogel
But other than Gonzalez, the reaction from the county commissioners was, as one resident put it, “crickets.”
FINAL DECISION
The library board made the decision to close Rockrimmon at a closed-door retreat in October. A week and a half before the County Commissioners’ meeting, they said on their webpage that their decision was final.
The main reasons for closing the library were financial, the board said. Closing Rockrimmon would reap “immediate savings of $242,000, which could help support numerous capital improvements that are needed across the District in 2025.”
But $242,000 is “half of 1% of the $41 million dollar budget,” one Rockrimmon resident pointed out.
A month after announcing the closure, the board had released the PPLD budget — only after the Save Rockrimmon Library movement set up by hundreds of residents had filed a Colorado Open Records Act request for it and other documents.
The budget showed no deficits, said a former chief financial officer for the PPLD, who agreed that Rockrimmon’s
rent represented a “very, very small” amount of the district’s budget.
He offered ways to keep the library open, including through E-rate funding, a federal program that reimburses telecommunication costs and related expenditures for libraries and schools.
“We always tried to get funding for that, because basically it’s free money,” and like other federal monies, it’s a TABOR exclusion, said Mike Varnet, who was CFO for the library board for 30 years until he retired a few years ago.
“We could collect all the E-rate funding that was available that we could apply for.
I don’t know why it’s zero for 2024,” in the PPLD budget, he said.
PPLD tries to have three months of expenditures in a general fund that is not restricted, committed, or assigned, and that is prudent financial policy, Varnet explained.
But there’s wiggle room because the libraries’ revenues come mainly from mill levies on property taxes — 85% — and 9% from specific ownership taxes, such as what’s paid when someone renews their car registration.
That is a “pretty safe revenue stream,” so the board could drop the balance in its undesignated fund from three months of funds to two months and would easily be able to cover the money needed to keep Rockrimmon open.
There was also money to keep Rockrimmon open in the capital reserve fund, which is money assigned to projects, but doesn’t, by law, have to be spent on projects. It can be reallocated.
If the board fails to try to save Rockrimmon, one of the biggest costs it will face is not the $242,000 that’s needed to pay the rent on the library, but the bad will the closure of the neighborhood meeting place is generating within the community, Varnet said.
‘BUMMED AND DEMORALIZED’
Residents had spent weeks speaking to city and county officials, and there were just days to go before the doors of the library were set to close for good. It seemed the residents’ fight was nearing the end of the road. And it seemed no one who might be able to stop the closure cared enough to take action.
The fight to keep Rockrimmon open had brought the neighborhood together, but
residents were alone in the fight.
“We have no way to appeal the board’s decision?” wondered resident Natalie Becker. “There doesn’t seem to be any oversight about this.”
After the County Commissioners spent part of their Nov. 19 meeting discussing how much a senior employee should be paid, Rockrimmon resident Chris Johnson pointed out to them that they had spent more time “debating over more money for a single employee than for this library.”
And the PPLD meeting about leases that had raised many people’s hopes? Rockrimmon didn’t get a mention. It was all about extending the lease of the library in Monument, which is less busy than Rockrimmon, but serves a rural community.
“I’m feeling so discouraged!!!” wrote one resident in an email that was forwarded to the Independent. “They need to understand why Rockrimmon is different, and a vital piece of our community,” she said, ending with a statement that she was “bummed and demoralized.”
There are no other libraries within a 10-minute drive of Rockrimmon. The board has argued that residents of the area can drive six miles to library 21C. But the kids and many of the seniors who use Rockrimmon don’t drive.
“Building something up takes time, but destroying it happens in an instant,” the resident said in the email. She vowed to keep up the fight until the final chapter has been read and the book is closed.
Restocking books at the Rockrimmon Library. | Credit: Karin Zeitvogel
Supporters of the Rockrimmon Library gather in front of Colorado Springs City Hall. | Credit: Karin Zeitvogel
Opposition to the closure of the Rockrimmon Library holding signs in front of City Hall. | Credit: Karin Zeitvogel
MIPSTERZ’s Spotlight Series blends the artistic and the academic
by CANNON TAYLOR • cannon.taylor@ppmc.live
It was a night of scholarship. An audience had gathered in the Fine Arts Center for the Spotlight Series — marketed as a “TED Talk meets house party” — and had listened intently to local lecturers as they discussed subjects like interpretations of the Quran and the history of Afrofuturism. After a few speakers, a guitar-strapped musician named Chocuba took the mic. The house party had arrived. Chocuba began strumming, and as he opened his mouth, the audience seemed to stop breathing. Chocuba needed the extra oxygen as he reached for high notes and ran through chords with the precision and velocity of an Olympic sprinter. One high note elicited an impressed whistle from an audience member, and Chocuba seemed to respond in turn with pitch-perfect, melodic whistling of his own. Where many amateur musicians have crashed and burned trying to get their audience to sing along, Chocuba was able to create a unified chorus as the audience chanted, “Who’s laughing, who’s laughing now?” At the end of the song, Chocuba let out a charming laugh of his own.
Chocuba’s acoustic R&B had sent goosebumps through the audience, each member feeling somehow closer to the strangers sitting next to them. What came next was a shock to the system. Colorado College assistant professor Sofia Fenner came to the podium and warned the audience that she would be showing them an image of a human corpse.
She then projected an image captured by filmmaker Ossama Mohammed in his documentary about the Syrian Civil War, “Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait.” The photo captured a man who had been shot
by a distant sniper.
Following the distress that rippled through the audience, Fenner pointed out a wire looping around the man’s ankle. The wire led to a dark alley between two nearby buildings. A group, hiding from the sniper, were attempting to retrieve the man’s body.
“Footage from across Syria shows people retrieving sniper’s victims with wire rope and fabric, searching for a way to honor the person who has passed,” Fenner explained. “On the surface, this might seem like just another photo of conflict, the kind of photograph that we so often accuse of desensitizing us to Muslims’ pain and suffering, but when we look closely, what we see are, in fact, wholesale rejections of nihilism, of violence and of death.”
It had been a tonal whiplash for sure, but Chocuba’s gentle melodies had primed the audience to approach Fenner’s distressing presentation with their hearts rather than their heads.
Navigating the transitions between tender art and challenging academia was Spotlight Series host Dr. Abbas Rattani, who wore the hats of a comedian, hype man and interviewer (he also wore a kufi, but that’s beside the point).
Rattani is the founder of MIPSTERZ (a name derived from “Muslim hipsters”), a Muslim arts and culture collective formed on the East Coast in 2012. You may know them from their viral music video depicting hip Muslim youth set to Jay-Z’s “Somewhere in America,” which sparked a national conversation around Muslim representation in the early 2010s.
Now, MIPSTERZ’s art exhibit of imagined futures for Muslims, titled
“ALHAMDU: Muslim Futurism,” travels throughout the nation. Displayed in the Fine Arts Center through Jan. 11, “ALHAMDU” is an interdisciplinary sight to behold. Virtual reality experiences, a text-based sci-fi video game, stylish Muslim fashion and colorful prayer rugs make up the exhibit. There’s a playable card game inviting participants to imagine utopian futures. There’s a shelf of satirical books with titles such as “Random Check: Coping With TSA Screenings and Other Humiliations That Are Not So Random At All When You’re Muslim” and “Did You Eat Yet? And Other Things Immigrant Parents Say Instead of ‘I Love You.’” There’s a soundboard visitors can use to create new,
decolonized genres of music, with sliders to turn up the community, imagination, resistance, identity and liberation. And, of course, there are more traditional art forms like paintings, illustrations and ceramics.
Coinciding with the “ALHAMDU” exhibit is the Spotlight Series, a longtime MIPSTERZ tradition inspired by Rattani’s personal experiences.
The fascinating lectures Rattani attended while taking humanities courses at college made him question why the work of scholars was locked behind university doors.
“I think people in the ivory tower, or even in university settings — they don’t realize how fascinating and
Kevin Persaud reads poetry at the Oct. 25 Spotlight Series. |Credit: Jamie Cotten, courtesy Fine Arts Center
interesting their work is because they’re only communicating in silos,” Rattani explained.
Rattani has continued to find himself enthralled as he connects with people who, despite insisting that they are not intelligent, creative or talented, display expertise in niche yet captivating subjects if they are given the space to dump about their interests.
“When you dig a little bit deeper about what it is they were passionate about, they were talented, but in their domain,” Rattani gushed. He provided Erik Demaine as an example. Demaine is an MIT graduate who channeled his passion for old-school Nintendo games and origami into an award-winning scholarly work.
“I would find similar people like that just sitting next to me at these events, and I would invite them on stage, and I would say, ‘Hey, talk about this thing,’” Rattani said.
As Rattani pursued his own passion of standup comedy, he found it easy to introduce dense, difficult topics to the audience because the humor brought their defenses down.
Somewhere in this blend, the Spotlight Series was born. Rattani compared the artistic performances wedged between dense academic work to taking a whiff of coffee beans to reset the palate. The format keeps the audience’s short attention spans engaged by constantly switching up the tone and content.
The Spotlight Series at the Fine Arts Center is curated by local musician Samir Zamundu, one half of husband-wife hip-hop duo The Reminders. Zamundu, who teaches in Colorado College’s music program, said that when it came time to find a curator for the Spotlight Series, all eyes turned to him. He’s channeled his skills from managing for The Reminders to bring a unique blend of local talent to the series.
“We have Muslims here. We have first-, second-generation Muslims, the converts that became Muslim in America, but we also have a lot of immigrants,” Zamundu said. “The people are here and expressing themselves in different ways. A lot of the times we just don’t get to see it. We just don’t have access to it. So MIPSTERZ being here, hopefully it opens people up to share their art more, to share themselves more, to open up more and say, ‘Hey, this is who I am, and this is what I do.’”
As for the “ALHAMDU” exhibit, Zamundu said that it’s massively relatable for himself and his whole family of musicians.
“My friend Samira Idroos, she has a couple pieces there. What she does is, she’s a big hiphop fan, and she’s Muslim as well. So, she’ll
take a prayer rug and quote hip-hop lyrics. … One of her most famous ones is a Kendrick Lamar lyric that says, ‘Be humble. Sit down,’” Zamundu said. “My kids are able to see that, right? We’re Muslim, but we’re also big hip-hop fans. … It’s special to be able to see that at the Fine Arts Center in Colorado Springs, which is not a place that you would ordinarily see something like that.”
The Dec. 13 Spotlight Series will feature readings by poets Sincerely Sparrow and Jannah Farooque, a performance from rapper Nelo and more. Speakers include Colorado Springs artist Felicia Kelly, several of the “ALHAMDU” exhibiting artists and Colorado College professors.
MIPSTERZ offers refreshments to encourage mingling after the Spotlight Series. Rattani, meanwhile, tends to book it out of there. The Spotlight Series is meant to build community, after all, and people won’t do that if they’re drawn toward the tractor beam of wit and charisma exuding from the MC.
The second Spotlight Series takes place Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. The event is free, with a suggested donation of $10. Space is limited, so RSVP at fac.coloradocollege.edu/event/spotlight-series-2. The “ALHAMDU: Muslim Futurism” exhibit will be on display through Jan. 11.
Chocuba and Abbas Rattani speak at the Oct. 25 Spotlight Series. | Credit: Jamie Cotten, courtesy Fine Arts Center
“The Call” by Sara Alfageeh, from “ALHAMDU.” | Courtesy: Fine Arts Center
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SUSPENSE AND SENSIBILITY
Theatreworks explores vulnerability in a time of transition
by CANNON TAYLOR cannon.taylor@ppmc.live
The first date went well. Now it’s time for the second. As you prepare, you wonder if you should wear your heart on your sleeve or keep your cards close to your chest. Should you show up as the truest version of yourself or slowly unveil that person to your prospective partner only after they’ve proven themselves?
It’s a common theme, not just in romantic comedies and online dating. In 1811, Jane Austen tackled it in her debut novel “Sense and Sensibility,” a tale of two sisters, Marianne and Elinor Dashwood — the former passionately forthright, the latter logically guarded — navigating romance and high society. Two hundred thirteen years later, the furniture has changed, but the house remains the same.
“That question of seeking that balance between vulnerability and protection is one that I think many of us who are seeking all kinds of closeness are always trying to find,” said Caitlin Lowans, artistic director at Theatreworks. Lowans will be directing Kate Hamill’s 2014 adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility” at the Ent Center for the Arts between Nov. 29 and Dec. 22. It will be their final directorial credit at Theatreworks.
HIGH SOCIETY AND HORSES
Hamill’s adaptation retains the visual and verbal language of Austen’s time while adding flavorful additions like as a chorus of chatterboxes, collectively called “the Gossips,” who comment on juicy developments in the lives of the Dashwood sisters. The presence of the Gossips brings to light another of Austen’s ever-timely themes — the role of social pressure and chitchat.
“This idea that we’re under close watch, that we are scrutinized and that we have these societal values that shape not our feelings, but how we feel like we can act on those feelings — those ideas have been around as long as there are people,” Lowans said. “We’ve always been wondering about this push/pull
between the internal life of the heart and the external expectations of those who we live with and love.”
While Hamill’s version casts the Gossips as outsiders to the plot, Lowans has decided to have the Dashwood sisters’ friends and family members act as the chatterboxes spreading rumors.
“Our production is also telling the story that even those that we love — even our love interests, even our parents and friends — they also participate in the judgment of society and trying to foist on the sisters’ expectations, even out of love, that may not fit what they want,” Lowans said.
Another way Theatreworks is putting its own spin on “Sense and Sensibility” can be found in the set design. It takes influences from a modiste shop from the turn of the 19th century to emphasize the ways in which Austen’s characters obsess over appearances.
The storytelling is inventive and fluid in Hamill’s adaptation, urging the director
to create lively scene transitions, portray a certain wealthy mother through forms of puppetry and have actors double up as horses.
“I love to sit in deep, meaningful scenes, which ‘Sense and Sensibility’ has in spades. And surrounding those, I love to create fun and physical and highly theatrical ways of moving between worlds, moving between locations, so that we’re always telling the story, even if we’re doing it in a transition,” Lowans said. “We’re moving at the speed of the imagination and inviting the audience to imagine alongside us.”
CURTAIN CALL
Lowans’ work is no stranger to inventive, avant-garde storytelling. They created Theatreworks’ ACT OUT series in 2019, which took performing arts out of the theater and into libraries, schools and other community spaces. One play, Shakespeare’s “Pericles, Prince of Tyre,” was performed at Springs Rescue Mission.
“We’re in the dining hall between breakfast service and lunch service, and there are noises from the kitchen next door of people clanging and getting ready for the necessary act of feeding people. And we’re doing this Shakespeare play, and we maybe have, like, 25 folks in the audience, but they are rapt with attention,” Lowans recalled. “And there’s this moment near the end of the play in which Pericles, who has believed his daughter Marina to be lost, finds her, and he weeps tears of joy … and there were men literally weeping in the audience at this story of reconciliation and homecoming and something beautiful that had been lost being restored. And it just spoke to the deep power of the human imagination, to watch that scene and see not two 25-year-old, early career actors, but to see a father and child reunited and to be deeply moved by that.”
The creation of the ACT OUT series was just one highlight of Lowans’ time
Caitlin Lowans directing the “Sense and Sensibility” rehearsals. | Credit: Isaiah Downing, courtesy Ent Center for the Arts
as the second-ever artistic director of Theatreworks. Lowans became the artistic director in August 2018 following the death of Theatreworks’ founder, Murray Ross, who founded the theater company at UCCS in 1975.
“I was really grateful to have in that transition so many people who knew Murray very well as an artist, who had collaborated with him deeply … these folks really helped me understand what I was inheriting and what I had to preserve, and also the ways in which Theatreworks was potentially looking to evolve,” Lowans said. “It’s a really enormous responsibility to inherit from a founder, and inherit at a time of grief, because losing a founder unexpectedly, and to death rather than to retirement, means that people were thinking about the transition of Theatreworks, but also grappling with mortality and loss of a beloved mentor and artistic partner. So, it was really complicated, and I think complicated by the fact that Murray and I didn’t cross paths.”
When Lowans became artistic director, Theatreworks was seven months into a transition into the new $70 million Ent Center for the Arts. Less than two years later, Lowans had to navigate Theatreworks through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, as Theatreworks nears its 50th year, it faces another transition. In February 2025, Lowans will become the artistic director of the Ten Thousand Things Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It’s a good fit, given Ten Thousand Things’ influence on Lowans’ work.
“Ten Thousand Things has inspired me since I first learned of the company in 2015,” Lowans wrote in a press release. “Their model of bringing essential and exceptional theater to people from all life experiences through free performances at shelters for the unhoused, correctional facilities, and low-income senior centers, in addition to more traditional theater venues, inspired Theatreworks’ ACT OUT/Free-For All community tour and programming.”
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As for whether Theatreworks can weather the change, Lowans is optimistic. “I think one of the gifts of this time is the opportunity for Theatreworks and the Colorado Springs artists and the Colorado Springs audience community to recognize that one singular artist does not make a theater company,” Lowans said. “The sum total of the theater company is not only the leader. It is the leader and the other members of that theater company, staff and the artists — both those who have been invited to join the institution in a cast or a creative team, but also the whole artistic ecosystem of Colorado Springs — and then the audiences and subscribers and donors and philanthropists and corporations and community organizations that make the theater possible.”
Tickets for “Sense and Sensibility” and a schedule of Theatreworks’ upcoming plays can be found at entcenterforthearts. org/theatreworks.
“Sense and Sensibility” rehearsals. |Credit: Isaiah Downing, courtesy Ent Center for the Arts
ARTS&CULTURE .
WHY DON’T WE PAINT THE TOWN? W.I.P. IT
By LAUREN CIBOROWSKI
Get ready for some W.I.P.-lash, because it’s been a busy fortnight in the arts.
It seems like cheating to mention a nonlocal show, but I just can’t stop myself from writing about the production of “Chicago” I saw in NYC last week. I was there to catch the last of the shows with Alyssa Milano starring as Roxie Hart, and I also had an opportunity to meet her after the performance. There were six of us there to see her, and we got front row seats, something I normally despise for the sake of my neck. But wow, what a fun perspective. We were all very excited and feeding off the performers’ energy and vice versa. The fabulous R. Lowe, who played Mary Sunshine, was kind enough to thank us afterward, which was fun. You gotta wonder how many times they’re looking out there on a dead audience of people who think they’re staring at their Netflix, you know? As for Milano, she played Hart as a somewhat bumbling murderess, a charming take on the character that I hadn’t seen before. There was an alluring desperation there — you got the sense that she really needed the fame; there was no post-jail backup plan otherwise. Anyway, a tip of the bowler hat to all those talented performers. Broadway is hard, repetitive work that doesn’t exactly make you wealthy (I learned they even have to do their own hair and makeup!), and I’m in awe of their dedication.
Back to the home front. Earlier this week, I got to see a special preview of Patrick Shearn’s new show at GoCA, “Psycullescence: A Garden of Imagination.” Opening remarks by director and curator Joy Armstrong took place in the lobby, and then the glitter-paper-clad doors to the gallery were thrown open to reveal a whole wacky universe within a room. An a cappella UCCS choir led by Solveig Olsen, singing that one Fleet Foxes song we all know, was staged under a slowly rotating, oval ring of a cloud. Large figures,
reminiscent of spores, sprang from the ground. Crystal-like objects jutted from one wall, tree branches with acrylic leaves from another. The whole thing felt very much like “Stranger Things” meets Meow Wolf meets Burning Man. Shearn was delightfully friendly to talk to. Turns out this is his first indoor show, and he was experimenting with looking at things on a microscopic scale but then rendering them quite large. It all defies description a bit, so I highly recommend you get yourself to GoCA before it comes down on March 15. It’s worth it.
Friday night found me at the Ormao “small. works. concert.,” an ambitious and creative new modern dance show directed and conceived of by Jan Johnson. The most enjoyable part of it was that it wasn’t just a modern dance show, it was a whole experience. Patrons walked into the main hallway of the Ormao studio space, where the walls were filled with 42 pieces of small visual art, all under 12 inches. The smaller of their studios played host to a soundscape by nuanced flutist Jane Rigler, and had a table of objects that one could use to make small sounds. And then, of course, the performance itself, which offered five different choreographers’ takes on the concept of small. One standout for me was a piece called “ON-TV: Episode 001” by Brandon Coleman. Stark and striking, he made use of periodic blackouts to have his dancers quickly change position into various tableaux. Dancers Tiffany Tinsley Weeks, Ashley Oswald and Britt Ford deftly interact ed with one another and the two main props onstage, a couch and vintage television. Good stuff. Another shoutout to choreographer Jordan McHenry, whose piece “Proximity of Intimacy” made fascinating use of headlamps and organic, undulating movements on the parts of the performers.
As for me, I’m knee deep in my favorite project of the year, “The Modbo Ho Ho” at the Millibo, which is a cabaret of the musical variety. For 13 years now, a group of us have been coming together to create this silly, very R-rated show from scratch, and it’s always a wild ride. (Try directing your mother and some of your best friends, and you’ll know what I mean. Actually. Don’t try that. Just trust me.) You can find tickets at themat.org if you want to laugh and/or blush some of your holiday stress away — and all that jazz. 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.
MUSIC .
THE MOTET MODIFIED
the band’s focus for now will be on harnessing Clarke’s talent.
“Our instrumental stuff does really well on Spotify. So, I think instrumental music translates well in the sort of online streaming platform because people can listen to it in a car, put it in the background. It’s less demanding of attention in some ways,” Watts explained. “But live, I think that people yearn to have a frontperson up there, giving some focus to the show and to what’s happening.”
That doesn’t mean adding a new vocalist doesn’t come with its own challenges. While a new sound can draw in new fans, it can also scare off fans who’ve fallen in love with an older incarnation of the band.
Decades-old Colorado funk band spices things up with new vocalist
by CANNON TAYLOR cannon.taylor@ppmc.live
If every member of a band is replaced over time, is it the same band? Since its founding in 1998, Colorado funk band The Motet has been doing just that. Over 20 musicians have contributed to The Motet, with only their bandleader and drummer, Dave Watts, remaining at the center. Their newest addition, singer Sarah Clarke, joined the band in 2023 and delivers her passionate, honeyed vocals for the first time on The Motet’s new
album, “Love Time.”
“We can be kind of heady musician types, and she rolls up and just gets us all into the spirit of being creative,” Watts said. “She brings a certain joy to the stage and to the rehearsal room and to touring.”
It’s clear from the album that Clarke has given The Motet a new lease on life. She effortlessly nails high notes and fleet vocal runs on the title track. The synths on “Natural Light” compliment her blissful tones in a sonic vision of a future (as imagined by an ’80s session musician).
In “Something Better,” a soul-inspired highlight of the record, Clarke builds from husky purrs to fervent roars as she rallies behind the working class.
“We’re realizing that there is a degree to which we can express things lyrically that aren’t just about being a funk party band,” Watts said. “We already have a handful of tunes for the next record.”
“Love Time” follows The Motet’s instrumental 2023 album, “All Day.”
While there’s a certain synergy that comes in writing and playing instrumental music,
“It’s always changing. It can be a challenge, but it keeps it fresh. For me, that’s the most important thing,” Watts said. “I can’t just go spinning my wheels, playing the same music the same way forever. That’s just unacceptable.”
Even if Clarke and four other members of The Motet have rotated out to pursue other musical ventures by the year 2050, you’ll probably still find an elderly Watts jamming on the drums toward the back of the stage.
“I can honestly say I’m the only person in the world that’s been to every single Motet show,” Watts said. “I plan on keeping it that way.”
The Motet will play at Lulu’s Downtown on Dec. 6. “Love Time” is available on all major streaming platforms and is available for physical purchase at themotet.com.
The Motet. | Courtesy: 7S Management
The Motet’s new album, “Love Time.” | Courtesy: 7S Management
STATE .
Pioneering psychedelic program moves forward
Colorado’s rollout will be closely watched as a national model
By JASON BLEVINS
• The Colorado Sun •
Colorado regulators are making final tweaks to a pioneering program overseeing licensed facilitators and manufacturers who will launch the state into the rarified realm of psychedelicassisted therapies next year.
Following the voter-approved Proposition 122 in 2022 and dozens of public meetings, the 107 pages of regulations around the groundbreaking program were crafted by the 14 members of the Natural Medicine Advisory Board who were appointed by Gov. Jared Polis and
rejected a nearly 40-year effort to use MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The 22-month planning process has divided oversight of psilocybin-assisted therapies between the Department of Regulatory Agencies, or DORA, and the Department of Revenue. Both those state agencies approved final rules in June and August and the Natural Medicine Division will begin accepting license applications Dec. 31.
“Overall they have been really thoughtful about the rules and I think we have ended up in a really good
vocacy Fund, a nonprofit formed in 2020 to help Oregon rollout its voter-approved psilocybin therapy program in 2023.
“They definitely took their time to bring in the right expertise across a whole spectrum of people in Colorado.”
Colorado’s rules — coming out two years after Oregon opened its first psilocybin service center — allow for two facilitator licensing tracks compared to only one in Oregon. In the first year of the program in Oregon, there are 21 licensed service centers, 10 manufacturing facilities and 329 licensed facilitators.
Poinsatte said it makes sense states already
“In Colorado we are in a particularly good position to regulate this therapy paired with a substance and do it well and create a body of evidence that is going to be effective and really help people who are struggling,” she said. “This is a great opportunity for Colorado.”
Poinsatte said her group’s surveys of potential facilitator license applicants in Colorado includes therapists and psychiatrists “who are so frustrated with the limited options that they have for people who are really hurting.”
“The first people who are getting into this are going to do it because they deeply care and they want to make a difference with their patients,” she said.
The state will regulate the use of natural medicines, unlike rules around the sale of marijuana, which is managed by local governments. DORA will oversee the training and licensing program for psychedelic facilitators and the Department of Revenue will license healing centers and businesses involved in the cultivation, manufacture and testing of psychedelic medicines, including psilocybin mushrooms. By June 2026, the Colorado natural medicine program could expand to include other natural psychedelics, including dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, ibogaine and mescaline.
LOCAL LEVEL
grams for -
A survey conducted by state officials of potential participants in the Natural Medicine Program showed about 213 people interested in opening some sort of business. About 146 were interested in opening a healing center, 96 were planning to open a cultivation facility that would grow psilocybin mushrooms, 66 wanted to help process and manufacture psilocybin products and 11 were interested in opening a facility that would test the mushrooms and products to make sure they meet state standards.
At an Oct. 30 meeting between DORA and Department of Revenue officials and municipal planners and staff, a map showed entrepreneurs across the state, with many concentrated along the Front Range.
Of the folks who were interested in opening a healing center, 64 were planning a standard healing center — likely an existing clinical facility — while 112 wanted to open micro-healing centers, which allow some mental health practitioners to add psychedelic-assisted therapies to their offerings.
Golden Teacher psilocybin mushrooms. | Credit: Adobe Stock
“That tracks with the purpose of Prop. 122, which was to promote mental health care services and access for Coloradans who are suffering things like treatment-resistant depression, anxiety and PTSD,” Amelia Myers, a senior policy advisor at the Natural Medicine Division, said during the Oct. 30 meeting.
With the state preventing local communities from outright banning licensed natural medicine businesses, a third of the local towns and cities at the Oct. 30 meeting had zoning requirements for licensed healing centers and facilities and many more were contemplating new land use codes.
Without local ordinances addressing where and when natural medicine businesses can operate, the business could locate anywhere in a city or town. And most communities are scrambling to establish new rules before licensed businesses start opening early next year.
Breckenridge, for example, last month approved a new zoning regulation for natural medicine businesses that mirror the town’s marijuana zoning, which prohibits marijuana shops in the downtown core or near schools or child care centers.
In Fountain, south of Colorado Springs, the city council last week met to consider an ordinance that would keep natural medicine businesses in areas zoned for industrial uses and away from schools and homes.
Some communities, like Woodland Park, are considering temporary moratoriums to slow the rollout of natural medicine businesses inside municipal boundaries.
The Colorado Springs city council last week also reviewed similar zoning adjustments to restrict cultivation, manufacturing, testing and clinical businesses in the emerging natural medicine industry to industrially zoned areas of the city.
“If we can take an ancient medicine and perhaps turn it into a modern solution, I would not be opposed to that,” said Colorado Springs Councilman David Leinweber, who asked planning staff to include medical and public health input in the city’s new zoning regulations. “I just feel like it needs to be done right. I feel like we have kind of messed up with THC.”
TWO-TRACKED LICENSING
The DORA facilitator program establishes two tracks for licensing people to administer psychedelic therapies.
A clinical facilitator license allows already licensed medical and mental health providers to include psychedelic-assisted therapy as part of their existing care after completing a 150-hour training program, 40 hours of supervised work with participants and 40 hours of consultation with participants.
A facilitator license allows people who are not trained in medicine or mental health therapy to offer psychedelic-assisted therapy after finishing the same training program required for those seeking a clinical license. Facilitators can work with participants who have been screened in a mandatory initial consultation that shows the participant does not need a higher level of care by medical or mental health providers. For example, a person taking antipsychotic medications will need to see a licensed clinical facilitator.
The DORA licensing program also establishes an educator license that allows facilitators with two years of experience administering natural medicines to train people in psychedelic-assisted therapies. A training license allows students to work with natural medicines under the guidance of licensed facilitators.
The DORA program details specifics of the licensing training, which sets minimum hours of training and standards of practice that include rules around participant safety and privacy. The curriculum includes training in best practices and ethics, including the appropriate use of touch when participants are vulnerable in an altered state of consciousness. The training requires study of compassionate communication, historical and indigenous use of natural medicines, and assessing the risk of suicide. The training program requires hours studying how to initially screen and prepare participants as well as dosing strategies and integrating the insights of a psychedelic medicine session into daily lives.
COSTS OF LICENSING
There are eight Colorado training programs in Colorado offering licensure training that often exceeds the state’s minimum requirements. They are also expensive. Most of the programs charge between $10,000 and $13,000 for the training.
Add in the state’s fees licenses — $2,000 for a micro healing center and
$5,000 for a standard, for example — and the costs of entry are too high for Laurie Boscaro, a therapist in Gunnison County for 16 years.
She added ketamine-assisted therapy to her practice a few years ago and she’s got a few clients doing that. She’s worried that she will need to charge high prices for psilocybin care to cover her costs.
“As I look forward to the psilocybin rollout, I have to weigh the cost of getting involved against how many folks I can offer this to while making sure the costs for my clients will not be too high,” she said. “All of it is pushing $20,000 to be able to offer this, plus the lost work during training. It’s a process I wholeheartedly believe in but I’m not sure in my small community that it makes sense for me.”
Dr. Wael Garas hopes to bring psilocybin-assisted therapy to Pagosa Springs. The internal medicine doctor is thinking of opening a micro healing center and working with patients who have chronic medical conditions or end-of-life anxiety. Like Boscato, he has concerns about the fees and costs. It takes a lot of energy to host psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions and Garas expects maybe he can host one or two sessions a week. He does not intend for this therapy to replace his full-time job as an internist at medical centers.
“It seems like I will have to see a lot of people and charge them a lot of money to make this work with the cost of training, fees and overhead,” Garas said. “I’m not completely comfortable with the amount we have to charge for the experience with mushrooms, which are legal now.”
Garas is particularly interested in the data that will come from Colorado’s pioneering program of regulating access to psychedelics. The state’s regulations include strict rules about reporting and the documented responses from Colorado participants in psychedelic-assisted therapy could better inform federal regulators as they study new treatments.
“I’m definitely proud of being in Colorado and being in the forefront of trying to get these treatments available to people in a responsible way,” Garas said.
The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonprofit news outlet that covers our state. Learn more and sign up for free newsletters at coloradosun.com n
Mark Rose from Nederland Colorado at the Colorado Health Department rule-making meeting. |
Courtesy: Mark Rose, via Wikimedia Commons
Introducing the give guide for families
This giving season, start a conversation about philanthropy with your family! Many think of philanthropists as millionaires, but the average donation for the Give! Campaign is just $135. Together, we’re on track to raise over $1 million for nonprofits serving Colorado Springs. Scan the QR code to explore fun family giving ideas and learn how you can make a difference in Colorado Springs. We live here, so let’s give here!
www.givepikespeak.org
COLORADO SPRINGS’ PREMIER
ENTERTAINMENT & EVENT VENUE
THE PHIL LONG AND VENU PARTNERSHIP
The exclusive partnership rebrands the beloved music venue formerly known as Boot Barn Hall at Bourbon Brothers, as Phil Long Music Hall at Bourbon Brothers –ushering in a new chapter that strengthens the connection between music, community, and shared experiences in the heart of the Pikes Peak region.
Phil Long Music Hall at Bourbon Brothers, owned by Venu Holding Corporation (VENU), will continue its tradition of hosting intimate live performances and private celebrations. With unmatched hospitality and entertainment at its core, the venue will remain a cultural hub for residents and visitors alike, offering a space for concerts, community gatherings, and private events that foster unity and connection.
HOLIDAY SHOPPING GUIDE
SHOP LOCAL, EAT LOCAL
REVOLUTION JEWELRY WORKS
Revolution Jewelry Works has your gifting covered with stocking stuffers from $35, to diamond earrings, tennis bracelets, and beautifully crafted one-of-a-kind artisan designs! Visit Revolution Jewelry Works on December 6th and 7th for our special old gold trade-in event! We have appraisers in-store, so bring your worn out jewelry to determine it’s recovery value. We can buy your jewelry and gold on the spot to help with your holiday shopping! OR you can shop with us and get a higher value for your rescue on and new jewelry purchased with us! Shop local this year and give a unique gift made with LOVE!
OLD TOWN GUEST HOUSE
Designed to complement its historic Victorian neighborhood, this delightful bed and breakfast was newly built in 1997 on the footprint of the original 1892 city hall, jail, and firehouse. Only a few steps away from numerous boutiques, galleries, and restaurants, this is a neighborhood landmark in the heart of historic Old Colorado City. Eight themed rooms offer exceptional accommodations, as well as extraordinary mountain views. Your
Friday, December 6th from 4:00-8:00pm
Saturday, December 7 th from 10:00am-5:00pm
Please join us for two days of incredible art created by local artists, art activities, and music!
THE 2024 COLORADO COL LEGE
Downtown Holiday Stroll
Dec. 11, 5-8 p.m.
Come to the shopping district on Tejon and Bijou streets to meet Santa and the Grinch Warming station on Tejon Street across from Acacia Park sponsored by Metronet
Shop Local
Spend some face-to-face time with your neighborhood businesses this holiday season!
Visit the more than 75 stores & 130 bars and restaurants in the one square mile of Downtown Colorado Springs.
DOWNTOWN COLORADO SPRINGS
Enjoy Holiday cheer in Downtown Colorado Springs! Spend faceto-face time with your neighborhood businesses this holiday season! Visit the more than 75 boutiques, galleries and specialty shops in the one square mile of Downtown Colorado Springs. From clothing to kitchen wares, books and toys to art, jewelry to stocking stuffers, find everything for everyone on your list Downtown Colorado Springs. While you’re out, grab a bite or a sip at one of the great food and drink establishments. Downtown Colorado Springs is home to the largest concentration of independent restaurants in southern Colorado! Find all the holiday events as well as shopping and dining directories at DowntownCS.com.
FLYING HORSE RESORT & CLUB
Are you seeking to give a memorable gift to someone special?
The Flying Horse Cash Card is the gateway to experience the grandeur of Colorado this holiday season:
• dine at the infamous Steakhouse at Flying Horse where culinary masterpieces are crafted on-site and paired with worldly wines, or have a delightful brunch at Fortezza,
• rejuvenate at the Spa with a facial, massage, body treatment, mani/pedi, and more,
• find the perfect stocking stuffers for the golfer in your life at our award-winning Golf Shop
Don’t miss out on our winter lodge special, use code WINTERPROMO for a full Flying Horse Resort & Club experience!
COLORADO COLLEGE ARTS & CRAFT FAIR
We are excited to host the 2024 Arts and Crafts Fair at Colorado College on Friday, December 6th from 4-8pm and Saturday, December 7th 10-5 pm at the Worner Campus Center in Colorado Springs. The Arts and Crafts fair celebrates local and regional creative makers working in a variety of media. This Fair is unique in that it brings together artists at all different points of their practice and careers including Colorado College students as well as artists in the community. Please join us for two days of incredible art created by local artists, art making activities, and music!
MANITOU SPRINGS CHAMBER
Enjoy small town holiday nostalgia and charm in downtown Manitou Springs. Our shops and restaurants are locally owned and operated, so your patronage supports small businesses and families. While you’re taking advantage of our 2-hour free onstreet parking (just enter your information at the kiosks), enjoy strolling brass musicians Sundays from Noon-2pm while viewing the holiday window displays (vote for your favorite). Remember to bring your letter for Santa to the Town Clock and find the hidden elves for a chance to win weekly drawings for Manitou Money. Our holiday happenings are fun for all ages, so come join us in celebration! For more details, visit manitousprings.org.
Rick’s Garden Center is a “full-service lawn and gardening store”. Their location at 1932 W Uintah features every conceivable need for gardeners, whether you have a spacious estate or a couple of sunny windows. The staff is helpful and knowledgeable and their prices are always competitive. In business since 1948 in the same location, Rick’s has delivered outstanding service since. At Rick’s, you know that you’re not at the mercy of some soulless chain store. Rick’s is not just a legacy provider, but a fierce, focused and fun destination. Whether you want seeds, bulbs, plants, bushes, garden tools or anything garden related, Rick’s is the place to find it. And there’s plenty of parking!
OLD COLORADO CITY
Discover something new this holiday season in Old Colorado City. Browse dozens of locally owned shops, boutiques and galleries. Whether you’re looking for high fashion, Colorado art, jewelry, novelties, delectable treats, or handmade crafts - you will find something unique for every person on your list when you shop OCC. You’ll also be supporting your local community by shopping local this holiday season. Help preserve our historic community. Dine at some of the best restaurants in Colorado Springs. Bring the whole family to OCC’s Holiday events: Christmas Stroll, Holiday ArtWalk and Photos with Santa and more. Learn more at www.shopoldcoloradocity.com.
JEN’S PLACE
Jen’s Place is an adorable boutique & gift shop located in the heart of Old Colorado City. You’ll find a large variety of affordable ladies clothing ranging in sizes, along with accessories, jewelry, handbags, baby gifts, children’s activities, greeting cards, soaps, scents, entertainment dishware, tea towels, garden flags, aprons and some locally made items. Many products offered at Jen’s Place gives back to the community or organizations, such as the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Humane Society, National Suicide Foundation, Center for Wildlife, Domestic Violence, American Forest Foundation and Fisher House.
PHOTOS
& STROLLING WITH SANTA, GRINCH, BUDDY THE ELF,
ELSA & ANNA
Plus, holiday coupon book distribution in Acacia Park
Colorado Springs, CO – Downtown Colorado Springs is offering a bit of extra cheer this weekend to officially kick off the holiday season. Holiday characters will be strolling through Downtown from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, interacting with shoppers and posing for photos. Groups of carolers from Soli Deo Gloria Choir will be providing a festive soundtrack for the day from Noon-2 p.m. Downtown Colorado Springs has more than 75 shops, boutiques, and galleries within one square mile, as well as scores of places to grab a bite or enjoy a beverage.
Coupon book giveaway
Downtown’s Coupon Book is a holiday tradition. People can pick their free coupon book up at the Downtown Partnership table in Acacia Park from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16. This year’s book includes more than 100 offers and it’s being distributed in advance of Small Business Saturday to give everyone a jump start on their holiday shopping Downtown.
“We’re encouraging everyone to spend face time in their favorite Downtown shops this holiday season,” says Carrie Simison, Director of Marketing and Communications. “The experience of engaging with your neighbors, who just happen to be expert curators of unique gift items, is so important to the connection we seek as humans, especially during the holidays. The Springs was just voted ‘Most Neighborly’ so let’s live out that reputation Downtown.”
Photo opportunities include:
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16
• In front of the Acacia Park playground from 11 a.m. to noon followed by a character stroll with Santa, the Grinch, Elsa and Anna from Frozen,” and Buddy the Elf. Individuals must be in line by 11:45 a.m. so the characters can start strolling at Noon.
• Along sidewalks of North Tejon Street (between Boulder and Kiowa streets) and East Bijou Street (between Nevada and Cascade avenues) in Downtown Colorado Springs.
• Need a warmup? From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., visit the Metronet warming station on Tejon Street across from Acacia Park.
About Downtown Partnership
Downtown Partnership is the lead nonprofit organization ensuring that Downtown Colorado Springs serves as the economic, cultural, and civic heart of the city. Promoting business growth and retention are two activities of the Partnership. For more information visit www.downtowncs.com or contact Downtown Colorado Springs at 719.886.0088.
SMITH PLUMBING & HEATING
2024 was a milestone year for Smith, as we celebrated 50 years of service to amazing customers throughout Colorado Springs. BEFORE your family and friends arrive at your home for the holiday season, make sure your systems are in “tip-top” shape so you can enjoy the holidays! Celebrate our 50 years in business by enjoying 50% off many of our services. We’re providing exclusive offers with some unheard-of low prices, until December 31st, 2024. Over the past 50 years, Smith has become one of the largest home service companies in Colorado, because of our “customer first” service and competitive prices! Call us today for a “worryfree’ Christmas holiday season this year!
TIMELESS AESTHETICS
Timeless Aesthetics is an award-winning medical spa that provides patients with the highest quality aesthetic services, products, and treatments. Headed by Susie Reese, a professional skincare specialist with 17 years of experience, our clients are rejuvenated with natural results. Years of experience has enabled her to create real-world solutions designed for different skin types so you can look and feel your best. Along with her team, Susie offers aesthetic services (BOTOX®, Dysport®, Bellafill, Sculptra, Restylane®, Juvederm®, microneedling, and more) that are designed to help her clients achieve their beauty objectives. 1750 Telstar Drive, Colorado Springs. 719-426-9336. Hours: Mon-Fri 10 AM - 5 PM.
QUEEN LIQUOR
Queen Liquor is the freshest liquor store in Colorado Springs! A local family-owned and operated business. Stocked with all the best finds in Whiskey, Mezcal and Port. We also carry anything you could want from the TikTok viral “grab and go” bags to Wines from around the world. With a trip to Queen Liquor, you are guaranteed to find something no matter your taste. We even carry Fireball cold, a wide selection of local beers, and we are always expanding our product line to accommodate a variety of palates. So come check out our selection at Queen Liquor, the best liquor store in the area. At Queen Liquor, we value you and show it with a 10% off reward system.
LANE MITCHELL JEWELERS
Lane Mitchell Jewellers, a family run business has graced the heart of Manitou Springs for decades. Creating unique diamond engagement rings and custom jewelry is our specialty. Our goal is to exceed your expectations. We are a welcoming business, serving all couples and individuals. Our process for creating custom designs goes beyond your expectations. Through brainstorming, sketching, and creating the jewelry, your ring is one of a kind, not something spewed out by a distant machine. Lane Mitchell offers a constantly changing inventory of jewelry. You can browse online at www.lanemitchelljewellers.com, or peruse at the shop. But beware - you’re sure to find something you can’t live without!
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO
1350 DISTILLING
This holiday season, give the gift of exceptional spirits from 1350 Distilling in Downtown Colorado Springs. Choose from their delicious, award-winning whiskies, gin, rums, and vodkas—each bottle created with purpose, honoring veterans, first responders, and the “American Spirit”. Perfect for gatherings or as unique gifts, 1350’s bottles bring quality and meaning to any occasion. For those who’d love an experience, purchase distillery tours or give gift certificates for your loved ones. Visit their tasting room to sample, shop, and share in the spirit of the season with gifts from 1350 Distilling—crafted with heart, shared with pride.
ATLAS RESTAURANT GROUP
Atlas Restaurant Group is redefining the Colorado Springs dining and event scene. Since 2018, Atlas has pushed boundaries, elevating local food, drink, and experiences through a diverse team of chefs, bartenders, and creatives. Our unique concepts— Brakeman’s, Ola Juice Bar, CO.A.T.I. Food Hall, Uprise Taphouse, Toasted Bunz, Green Freak, Ephemera, Piglatin Cocina, Areppai, and Anju—offer something for every taste and occasion. Now expanding our catering and private event services across all Atlas spaces, we provide everything from intimate dining rooms to rooftop lounges for unforgettable events. Fine dining or family-friendly, Atlas has your dream covered. Are you ready to explore what’s possible?
ARMADILLO RANCH
Looking for a cozy night out with live local music, great drinks, and a welcoming atmosphere? Head to downtown Manitou Springs this winter! At Kinfolks enjoy an intimate live music vibe with local spirits and brews to complement your listening experience. Down the block, Armadillo Ranch offers vibrant live performances that pair well with tasty apps, meals, and unique cocktails. Both venues are inclusive, ideal spaces to warm up with friends and loved ones. Plus, parking is free after 6 p.m.! Escape the cold, discover amazing local talent, and make memories in Manitou Springs this season.
JANUARY 23
NOMINATIONS OPEN THROUGH DEC. 10 nominate the best and brightest women in the community
$ 50 per person
scan the qr code to nominate and register
THURSDAY, NOV. 28
Jazz Thursdays | Free, live jazz music at the Mining Exchange Hotel. 8 S. Nevada Ave. 5 p.m.
FRIDAY, NOV. 29
Darren Adrian & Scooter Gun | Singersongwriters performing at Goat Patch Brewing Company. 2727 N. Cascade Ave. #123. 5 p.m.
Sinatra Experience with Rick Blessing Jazz Quartet | Christmas tribute concert at Phil Long Music Hall at Bourbon Brothers. 13071 Bass Pro Drive. 7 p.m.
Hummdingers | Blues band performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 8 p.m.
Liars Handshake, Thirteen Plagues, Lava Gato, Slightlyne | Metal bands performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
SATURDAY, NOV. 30
Jahida Esperanza & Lewis Mock | Jazz musicians performing at Rico’s Café & Wine Bar. 322½ N. Tejon St. 6 p.m.
Willow Tree | Acoustic trio performing at Rico’s Café & Wine Bar. 322½ N. Tejon St. 6 p.m.
Night Market Party with DJ Astralselector | Artists’ market and dance party at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 6:30 p.m.
The Long Run | The Eagles tribute band performing at Stargazers Theatre. 10 Parkside Drive. 7 p.m.
Tiffany | Pop singer performing at Phil Long Music Hall at Bourbon Brothers. 13071 Bass Pro Drive. 7 p.m.
Songs in the Key of J | Pianist performing at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. 30 W. Dale St. 7:45 p.m.
Hot Boots Duo | Variety band performing at Lebowski’s Taproom. 3240 Centennial Blvd. 8 p.m.
The Last Waltz | Variety band performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 8 p.m.
Strung Short, Between the Heart, EverFlare, Glowstate | Alternative bands performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
Broadway Rave | Theater-themed rave at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 9 p.m.
SUNDAY, DEC. 1
Blue Violin Candlelight Christmas | Violinist performing at the Ent Center for the Arts. 5225 N. Nevada Ave. 5 p.m.
Spinphony | String quartet performing at Stargazers Theatre. 10 Parkside Dr. 6 p.m.
TUESDAY, DEC. 3
Sarah Brightman | Soprano vocalist performing at Pikes Peak Center. 190 S. Cascade Ave. 7:30 p.m.
UCCS Student Brass Quintet | Brass quintet performing at the Ent Center for the Arts. 5225
N. Nevada Ave. 7:30 p.m.
Stony Jam | Reggae band performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 4
Pikes Peak Opera League Annual Holiday
Luncheon | Opera Colorado artists performing at luncheon fundraiser at Cheyenne Mountain Country Club. 9 Lake Ave. 11 a.m.
Springs Contemporary Jazz Big Band | Jazz big band performing at Trinity Brewing Co. 1466 Garden of the Gods Road. 6 p.m.
Face Vocal Band | All-vocal rock band performing at the Ent Center for the Arts. 5225 N. Nevada Ave. 7:30 p.m.
Jim Brickman | Pianist performing holiday concert at Pikes Peak Center. 190 S. Cascade Ave. 7:30 p.m.
Gnarwhal Jrz, Briffaut, Moth Season | Rock bands performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
A Winter’s Eve with David Arkenstone and Friends | Composer and instrumentalist performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
THURSDAY, DEC. 5
Craig Walter | Folk singer-songwriter performing at Rico’s Café & Wine Bar. 322½ N. Tejon St. 5 p.m.
Jazz Thursdays | Free, live jazz music at the Mining Exchange Hotel. 8 S. Nevada Ave. 5 p.m.
E J R M | Ambient instrumentalist performing at Ohana Kava Bar. 112 E. Boulder St. 7 p.m.
Mannheim Steamroller Christmas | Neoclassical music ensemble performing at Pikes Peak Center. 190 S. Cascade Ave. 7:30 p.m.
Henhouse Prowlers, Armchair Boogie | Bluegrass bands performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
FRIDAY, DEC. 6
Chuck Snow | Guitarist and singer-songwriter performing at Goat Patch Brewing Company. 2727 N. Cascade Ave. #123. 5 p.m.
Amoré | Americana band performing at Salad or Bust Deli, where art curated by the Pikes Peak Arts Council will be on display. 8 E. Bijou St. 6 p.m.
A Celtic Christmas | Celtic holiday concert at First United Methodist Church. 420 N. Nevada Ave. 7 p.m.
Hot Boots Band | Variety band performing at O’Furry’s Bar. 900 E. Fillmore St. 7 p.m.
King Buffalo with Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol | Rock bands performing at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 7 p.m.
Ugly Sweater Party | Psychedelic rock band performing at Whistle Pig Brewing Company. 1840 Dominion Way. 7 p.m.
MUSIC .
Live Music, Nov. 28 through Dec. 11
SpringsSCENE
Charlie Milo’s Hip Hop is Dead | Improvisational musicians performing at Armadillo Ranch. 962 Manitou Ave. 8 p.m.
The Motet | Funk band performing at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
SATURDAY, DEC. 7
Ashlee & The Longshot Revival | Country musicians performing at The Whiskey Baron Dance Hall & Saloon. 5781 N. Academy Blvd. 6 p.m.
Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Association | Youth symphony holiday concert at Pikes Peak Center. 190 S. Cascade Ave. 6:30 p.m.
A Winter’s Eve with David Arkenstone and Friends | Neoclassical musicians performing holiday concert at Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts. 304 Highway 105. 7 p.m.
The Emo Night Tour | Emo dance party at the Black Sheep. 2106 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
Grant Sabin & Heligoats | Blues album release show at Lulu’s Downtown. 32 S. Tejon St. 8 p.m.
Pinheadz and Astro Zombie | Ramones and Misfits tribute bands performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 8:30 p.m.
SUNDAY, DEC. 8
Platte Avenue Winter Market & Block Party | Artists and musicians’ market at Vultures, the Black Sheep and What’s Left Records. 2100, 2106, 2217 E. Platte Ave. 1 p.m.
MONDAY, DEC. 9
UCCS Jazz Ensemble | Jazz musicians performing at the Ent Center for the Arts. 5225 N. Nevada Ave. 7:30 p.m.
Lightnin’ Luke | Folk musician performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
TUESDAY, DEC. 10
Junior and Senior Recitals | Jake Carter’s junior recital and Symphony 21 concert at the Ent Center for the Arts. 5225 N. Nevada Ave. 7:30 p.m.
Lightnin’ Luke | Folk musician performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 8 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 11
Mugshot, Runoff, Thirteen Plagues, Contorted Self | Hardcore bands performing at Vultures. 2100 E. Platte Ave. 7:30 p.m.
UCCS Creative Music Ensemble | Avantgarde and experimental music performed at the Ent Center for the Arts. 7:30 p.m.
Henhouse Prowlers play Lulu’s Downtown on Dec. 5. | Courtesy: Henhouse Prowlers
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE FOR THE FORTNIGHT
ONE FOR THE NAUGHTY LIST
Friday, Dec. 6, and Saturday, Dec. 7, The Millibo Art Theatre, 1626 S. Tejon St., 7:30 p.m. themat.org
Between its opening in 2009 to its closure in 2021, The Modbo gallery, owned by our wonderful arts columnist, Lauren Ciborowski, had a bizarre holiday tradition: an R-rated revue featuring local talent singing, dancing and joking around in costume. Now hosted at the Millibo Art Theatre, “The Modbo Ho Ho” will definitely land you on Santa’s naughty list.
With its cast of quirky characters, including three tripped-out friends delivering a couch, a boy in search of his pet chicken and a nomadic child fighting for labor rights, “Duck Rabbit” is a surreal, hilarious and thought-provoking film featuring a wealth of local talent and settings. Visit csindy.com/duck-rabbit to read our full review.
MOUSE KING KONG
Saturday, Nov. 30, and Sunday, Dec. 1, Pikes Peak Center, 190 S. Cascade Ave., 2 p.m. pikespeakcenter.com
OK, raise your hand if you’ve ever actually used a nutcracker to crack nuts. No one? That’s what I thought. Colorado Springs Philharmonic and the University of Oklahoma School of Dance are teaming up to bring you Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet “The Nutcracker,” complete with sugarplum fairies and creepy mice. Come show your appreciation for the strenuous art of ballet!
Thursday, Dec. 5, through Saturday, Dec. 14, at Westside Community Center, 1628 W. Bijou St. Times vary. funkylittletheater.org
The Festival of Lights Parade will be celebrating its 40th year this December. Nearly 100 floats will travel through downtown in a display so dazzling it might require sunglasses. Visit the Pioneers Museum before the parade for activities, arts and crafts. And if you can’t make it in person, the Festival of Lights will be aired on KKTV throughout the holiday season.
5 3 7
Funky Little Theater Co. is performing playwright Josh Hartwell’s version of “A Christmas Carol,” which depicts a group of thespians improvising the holiday classic. Despite being the billionth iteration of the tale, this play within a play is refreshingly self-aware and will leave you with the warmth of holiday cheer (or is that the warmth of belly laughter?).
THE STOOGES: RAW HUMOR
Saturday, Nov. 30, The Public House at the Alexander, 3104 N. Nevada Ave., 8 p.m. facebook.com/pikespunks
This iteration of one of the Pikes Punks Comedy Shows is hosted by local comedian Thad B. and headlined by Denver comic Mike Hammock. Presumably, the night will live up to the “punk” in its name: rebellious, fast-paced and cacophonous (with sounds of laughter instead of electric guitars).
PLATTE PUNKS VS. PLUM PUDDING
Sunday, Dec. 8, The Black Sheep, Vultures and What’s Left Records, 2106, 2100 and 2217 E. Platte Ave., 1 p.m. blacksheeprocks.com
You know what sucks about Christmas? It’s not nearly punk enough. You’re telling me rebelling against the status quo gets me coal? What a drag. Come to the winter market and block party on East Platte Avenue to buy rad goods, enjoy rockin’ music and start a revolt against established systems, including but not limited to Christmas. 2 6 4 1
DEFINING THROUGH DANCE
Friday, Dec. 6, through Sunday, Dec. 15, Osborne Studio Theatre at Ent Center for the Arts, 5225 N. Nevada Ave. Times vary. entcenterforthearts.org/vapa/theatre-dance-events
8
What makes us individuals? How might our lives be different if just one experience were altered? The UCCS Theatre Co. is approaching reflective questions such as these in “Meaning-Making,” a showcase of movement and dance that aims to unite us through our shared experiences and appreciation for the uniqueness of others.
JOY TO THE WORLD (OF WARCRAFT)
Wednesday, Dec. 4, Lulu’s Downtown, 32 S. Tejon St., 8 p.m. lulusmusic.co | Saturday, Dec. 7, Tri-Lakes Center for the Arts, 304 Highway 105, 7 p.m. trilakesarts.org
Composer David Arkenstone has explored genres like neoclassical, new age, Celtic and heavy metal. Best known for the “World of Warcraft” soundtracks, he’s also received five Grammy nominations for his original work between 1992 and 2022. Arkenstone’s holiday concert, “A Winter’s Eve,” will feature a variety of original music and reimagined classics to get you in that winter mood.
Throughout human history, the moon has entranced us. We have centered it in religious practices, ideological warfare and fanciful imaginings of a lunar surface made of cheese. Rebecca Boyle, a nationally recognized scientific journalist from Colorado Springs, shares this fascination in “Our Moon.” Boyle will be signing copies at Covered Treasures Bookstore.
Saturday, Nov. 30, Ute Pass Cultural Center, 210 E. Midland Ave., 9 a.m. themountainartists.org
There are many local markets being held this winter, but I chose to highlight the Woodland Park Mountain Artists’ Holiday Show and Sale because it’s turning 40! If this show were sentient, it would probably be facing an existential crisis, but thankfully, it’s not, so let the good times roll with colorful canvases, jazzy jewelry and terrific toys. Visit csindy.com to find other markets to shop at this winter.
TRIPPY TUNES
COMPILED BY CANNON TAYLOR 10 13 11 14
Bird lovers, sing! Local woodcarver Tom Mizik will be selling a variety of hand-carved and painted birds. Swing by Wild Birds Unlimited for the perfect gift for that unreadable grandpa who picked up bird-watching after retirement, or buy a birdie buddy to place on your desk so he can watch you while you work.
Friday, Dec. 6, The Black Sheep, 2106 E. Platte Ave., 8 p.m. blacksheeprocks.com
King Buffalo jams through an acid sea. The vocals reverberate like a water dripping from stalactites and the overlapping instruments weave the sonic version of an Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Put simply, it’s psychedelic, trancelike music. If that sounds interesting to you, clear your calendar and head over to the Black Sheep on Friday night to enter a sonic dreamscape.
Wait, what year is it? Local bands Strung Short, Between the Heart, EverFlare and Glowstate are carrying the torch of early 2000s emo that Pete Wentz dropped somewhere during Fall Out Boy’s hiatus. Between these bands, you’ll find a mix of hometown hatred, hearts sewn on sleeves, and whines and wails of misery. It’s the kind of music you either adamantly hate or nostalgically adore. If you fall in the latter camp, swing by Vultures on Nov. 30.
The 14er is a curated list of the best events you should experience in Colorado Springs over the next two weeks. Listed in order from “You can’t miss this!” (1) to “Check it out if you have a chance” (14).
FOOD&DRINK .
MADE BY HAND
At new Colorado Springs restaurant, Filipino specialties are served with a sense of community
by KARIN ZEITVOGEL • karin.zeitvogel@ppmc.live
Jolhea Bautista-Muhammad didn’t expect all of the more than 100 people who RSVP’d to come to the Nov. 10 grand opening of her new restaurant, the Kamayan Hideaway in the Satellite Hotel, but every single one of them showed up and then some.
Three hours after the first customer had placed their order at the counter of the Filipino-international restaurant, foodies were still queuing for a chance to sample the lumpia, chicken adobo
and island barbecue chicken that Bautista-Muhammad learned to make in the kitchen in a suburb of Manila, Philippines, watching her mother cook.
Diners took the long waits for meals in their stride, with one father explaining to his son that, like all new businesses, the Kamayan would have to iron out a few kinks.
The brainchild of Bautista-Muhammad, who was born in Guam to a Filipina mother and Sudanese-Hispanic-Native
“‘KAMAYAN’ MEANS ‘BY HAND,’ A REFERENCE TO THE TRADITIONAL WAY FILIPINOS EAT EVERYTHING, INCLUDING RICE, WITHOUT UTENSILS ...”
American Navy SEAL father, the Kamayan is the first Filipino restaurant in Colorado Springs. It had its soft opening in July, and with Sarap restaurant, which opened in September in the eastern part of the city, offers back-home cuisine to the 4,000-strong Filipino community.
“Filipino-Americans are the biggest Asian minority in the Springs and the least represented in terms of restaurants,” Bautista-Muhammad said.
“Because I brought this business into the community, I try to take into consideration everyone’s food preferences,” so the Kamayan offers Filipino, international and classic American cooking, she said.
Before people got down to the business of eating, they gathered in the basement of the Satellite to try yet more delicacies from the 7,600-island Philippine
archipelago in southeast Asia, including specialty teas made by Rizza Edelman, and Filipino desserts, sweets and bread rolls by Iyang’s Pasalubong called “pan de sal.”
“Kamayan” means “by hand,” a reference to the traditional way Filipinos eat everything, including rice, without utensils — but the restaurant offers cutlery with meals. A “pasalubong” is a gift offered to friends or family after a traveler returns home from a trip. And “sarap” means “delicious.”
After a speech by City Councilor Yolanda Avila and a representative of the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce for Southern Colorado, Bautista-Muhammad cut a red ribbon, and people headed to the restaurant to dine. The Kamayan Hideaway is, appropriately, hidden away down the hallway that leads to The Q bar on the ground floor of the Satellite Hotel. It’s open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. weekdays, until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays.
One veggie “lumpia” — a traditional Filipino fried spring roll — costs $1.99; two jumbo lumpias, with beef and veggies, cost $5.99; and chicken adobo — chicken marinated and cooked in soy sauce and vinegar with garlic and peppercorns — and island barbecue chicken are $18.99.
For dessert, there’s “ube” — purple yam — or vanilla soft ice cream, or a swirl of both for $3.99. It’s not on the menu but worth asking for.
Jolhea Bautista-Muhammad serves customers. | Credit: Karin Zeitvogel
Jolhea Bautista-Muhammad cuts the ribbon at the Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Southern Colorado. | Credit: Karin Zeitvogel
STOCKING UP
Canvas Credit Union steps up to fund PPSC food pantries amid soaring demand
by KARIN ZEITVOGEL
For Kandy Ruiz, the director of the Pikes Peak State College program that provides support to students who need help meeting their basic needs, food pantries are personal.
When she was a first-generation, lowincome college student, Ruiz often “put nutrition aside” and focused instead on trying to graduate on time, pay rent, and pay for books and other bills.
“I ate once a day most of the time that I was in college,” she said. “Sometimes, I would ask friends or relatives if I could have dinner at their home, but I wouldn’t explain my situation because I was ashamed.”
Ruiz was one of dozens of people who crowded into the food pantry on PPSC’s Centennial campus Nov. 13 for the launch of a new partnership between the college and Canvas Credit Union to make sure students can eat well and focus on their studies. Canvas will provide $50,000 a year over the next five years to fund food pantries on PPSC’s Centennial, Downtown and Rampart campuses. The college’s food pantries have been rechristened Canvas Community Food
Pantries, and a fourth is in the works at the Center for Healthcare Education and Simulation, or CHES.
The partnership with Canvas was forged after the number of people using the college’s food pantries grew from 6,000 a year in 2021 to 38,000 at the end of last academic year. The sixfold increase in demand meant the college struggled to meet the nutritional needs of students who were food insecure.
“We were often out of food here,” PPSC
President Lance Bolton said. “But today we stand in a place where we know that we can provide for this need throughout the year for our students.”
HUNGER RISING
Food insecurity affects around a quarter of U.S. college and university students, or around 3.8 million, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
Eating enough is key to getting a good education, Bolton said.
“If you’re worried about how you’re going to eat, it’s really hard to focus on learning. Helping students be able to feed themselves and stay in college … that’s
the mission here.”
To reduce the stigma associated with struggling to pay for food, PPSC tries to make the experience at its food pantries as close as possible to grocery shopping, but without any money changing hands.
Students are greeted when they enter the food pantry, sign their name and write how many people live in their household on a sheet of paper at the front desk, and then walk around and pick out food items from the shelves and refrigerators. Shoppers are limited to taking 10 items per person. Reusable bags are available to put food items in, and if it’s someone’s first time at the Canvas Community Food
Pantry, a student volunteer or employee will show them how to use the resource. Students are the main users of the food pantries, although they are also open to faculty and staff. After the launch of the partnership with Canvas, the line of students waiting to pick up food at the pantry stretched out the door.
In addition to food items, the Canvas Community Food Pantry at Centennial has a fashion closet with clothing for all ages, pet food, and baby and adult hygiene products.
PPSC’s Canvas Community Food Pantries are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
• karin.zeitvogel@ppmc.live
Kandy Ruiz | Credit: Karin Zeitvogel
A patron shops at the Canvas Community Food Pantry at Pikes Peak State College. | Credit: Karin Zeitvogel
BROKEN, BUT STILL A RIVER WITH A LIFE OF ITS OWN
A remembrance and a close look at Fountain Creek, the West’s ‘most human-dominated water system’
By DEB ACORD
• Rocky Mountain Reader •
“Water has the magical power to create beauty or, at the very least, to conceal what is broken.” I was already under the spell of Jim O’Donnell’s “Fountain Creek: Big Lessons From a Little River” when I read those words, and that sentence stayed with me.
After nearly four decades in the Pikes Peak region, I’ve been drawn often to the Fountain (as O’Donnell calls it), a watershed that originates up high on the slopes of Pikes Peak and winds down through Colorado Springs on its way to the Arkansas River near Pueblo. As I drive Ute Pass, I know I’m following the mostly concealed path of the waterway, and when the canyon breaks open just west of Manitou Springs, bubbling water sparkles in the shade of the cottonwoods that line the highway.
In the heart of Colorado Springs, the Fountain attracts deer, foxes, raccoons, the occasional moose and much of the region’s unhoused population. Head south toward Fountain Creek Regional Park, and the water cuts a wider path. In the park, it nurtures great blue heron and egrets, more raccoons and more deer. It can look — and smell — bucolic and ugly at the same time, with abandoned shopping carts and chunks of concrete, hunks of metal and other industrial waste dumped into its waters.
O’Donnell, a writer, photographer and conservation activist now living in Taos, New Mexico, was born and raised in Pueblo, Colorado. He grew up exploring the Fountain in the 1980s, fishing for trout, hiking its banks, cataloging the wildlife he encountered, learning about the people he met along the way, and making sense of the changes he observed
there throughout his youth.
Today, the Fountain is drastically different than it was in O’Donnell’s childhood. But it’s also the same. “Over the years, [it] has been … known, unknown, forgotten, remembered, misunderstood, blamed, monitored, sampled, screened and very nearly tamed,” he writes.
“The Fountain is one of the most human-dominated water systems in the West,” O’Donnell said recently in an article in the Taos News. In Fountain Creek, he writes about that domination and its consequences: flooding, diversion, damming, litigation, poisoning.
Much of the book is a primer on complicated water rights, laws and regulations that impact the Fountain. Yet the way O’Donnell weaves together personal recollections and experiences, lyrical descriptions of birds, animals and people, and the Fountain’s history, make it memorable. Among other things, O’Donnell establishes that the Fountain is an integral part in the creation and development of the city of Colorado Springs, founded in 1871 by Gen. William Jackson Palmer.
A Civil War hero and entrepreneur, Palmer fell in love with the expanse of land at the base of Pikes Peak. Others were skeptical, thinking it barren and desolate. Decades before Palmer, Dr. Edwin James (the 1820 Long Expedition’s botanist and first non-native person to climb Pikes Peak), offered this bleak opinion: “It is almost wholly unfit for cultivation and of course uninhabitable by a people depending on agriculture for their substance.” Palmer, who arrived in 1869, was determined to prove naysayers wrong. “He set to building his oasis,” writes
O’Donnell. “First, he purchased land at the confluence of the Monument and the Fountain, where America the Beautiful Park lies today.” He rounded up investors, and the first irrigation canal was dug in 1871. “By the end of the next year, 600 cottonwoods had been planted along the freshly platted streets. The colony’s growth began,” and Palmer’s dream became a reality.
Today, more than 150 years later, the state of Colorado lists the Fountain as “impaired.” “When it comes to water quality, the state also suggests you think twice before wading into Fountain Creek. At least not without some protections. There are ‘sharp objects,’ the state says, referring to broken glass, nails and used needles.” O’Donnell further explains that the “impaired” designation comes from the presence of high amounts of E. coli, selenium, hepatitis A, mercury, lead and other toxins in the water.
That makes the Fountain sound like an appalling, apocalyptic cesspool flowing through the Pikes Peak region. But it is still a river, O’Donnell reminds us, and “rivers have a life of their own.”
As he explores the Fountain’s past, present and future, O’Donnell also explores the waterway in its current state, setting out on foot along each section and narrating with a voice reverential toward the water and the living things that depend on it. He offers a clear-eyed but compassionate look at the unhoused people he encounters on its banks, and chronicles the trees — elm, ash, willow, cottonwood — and the birds — American dippers, white-crowned sparrows, hermit thrush, blue herons and dozens of other species.
Near the end of the book, O’Donnell acknowledges there is no shortage of
literature and music about rivers, creeks and streams, and quotes Olivia Laing, author of “To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface”: “The vast, disordered library of river literature signals the power of moving water as thoroughly as does the wearing down of formidable mountains by those same waters.”
O’Donnell’s book is a worthy addition to that library.
Deb Acord is a journalist and author from Woodland Park, Colorado. For decades, she wrote for The Colorado Springs Gazette, Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post and The Indy. At the Gazette, she was co-creator of Out There, a section devoted to the outdoors of Colorado. She is the author of Colorado Winter and Biking Colorado’s Front Range Superguide and has written car trend stories and environmental stories for Popular Mechanics. This story first appeared at rockymountainreader.org , a nonprofit service dedicated to the literary landscape in Colorado. n
THROUGH A PRISM OF LIGHT AND DARK
By KATHRYN EASTBURN
•
Rocky Mountain Reader •
It’s hard to place “Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder and an Obsession with the Unthinkable,” Sarah Gerard’s newest book of nonfiction, into a traditional genre, though it’s most frequently referred to as a memoir. Gerard, a private investigator and author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, rarely appears as the first-person narrator of the book. It moves along instead in several woven narrative threads, each deeply researched and packed with thousands of details, experiences, relationships and memories that make up the best possible facsimile of a life. The book begins and ends on the day of Carolyn Bush’s murder, Sept. 28, 2016. One thread comprises the murder,
up the majority of pages in the book, distinguishing Carrie Carolyn Coco from its distant cousins in true crime. Gerard precedes the book with a diagram of an extensive list of characters, more than 130, attesting to the sprawling tentacles of influence and impact a murder like this one encompasses, and the vast territory of a human life, even one as short as Carolyn’s. She was 25 when she died. Gerard digs deeply into Carolyn’s life and life force: moving apartments frequently, taking multiple jobs and Airbnb’ing a room to pay the rent, maintaining relationships with friends and family, hanging on in her academic and artistic pursuits, optimistic and hopeful in the face of day-to-day failures and triumphs. Underlying the course of her life is one of the book’s more intriguing
character.
Referring to Botstein’s letters of support and others from college personnel, Gerard concludes: “In our judicial system, a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In a murder trial such as Render’s, all that the defense must do is cast reasonable doubt on a defendant’s intent to kill. The letters from Bard personnel helped cast that doubt. In these same letters, Carolyn is mentioned in passing, barely at all.”
Gerard goes on to point out that the school was careful in its exchanges with media to clarify that Carolyn hadn’t graduated from Bard.
A reader walks away from this book feeling as if she has entered and walked through a prism, multitudinous points of light reflecting aspects of Bush’s forget Carolyn and everything that made
OUTDOORS .
SNOWSHOEING 101: RECREATION DOESN’T STOP FOR WINTER
Winter weather is always a mixed bag on the Front Range and Pikes Peak region. Newcomers are usually surprised to learn that we can typically go through November and December without much snow — the snowstorm that hit here just after Election Day being a notable exception — and that our snowiest months are typically March and April and our coldest month is typically January. But go 100 miles west of here, into the Collegiate Range (Mounts Princeton, Yale, Harvard, etc.), and things are usually much different, with lots of snow throughout the winter and much lower temperatures to match. And whether we’re going to experience a La Niña or El Niño winter can also factor into what kind of winter we’ll have. I recently interviewed Fox 21 News chief meteorologist Matt Meister about the proclivities of Colorado’s weather, including what this winter will look like, on my podcast. You can listen to it here: https:// tinyurl.com/y59r9pz3.
Colorado is an outdoor recreation mecca, no matter the season. Coloradans fish in streams in the summer and ice fish in the winter. We even bike all year round, and of course, skiing is a major tourist draw and economic driver for the state every winter. And we don’t let winter put the brakes on our hiking and camping activities.
Obviously, the change of seasons necessitates a change in gear and clothing.
Shorts and T-shirts are replaced with thermal base layers and layered tops, and baseball caps are replaced with knit beanies.
If you want to keep hiking in the winter, you’ll also need to change your footwear. Lightweight hiking boots need to be replaced by insulated, waterproof boots and heavier socks. Traction devices, such as those from Yaktrax or Kahtoola will keep you upright on icy surfaces.
For deep snow, the only thing that really works is to wear snowshoes, which keep you from sinking — postholing — deep into the snow. For the most part, hikers adapt to snowshoes pretty easily, but it takes a little getting used to. First, while wearing snowshoes is much easier than postholing through deep snow, it is more strenuous than hiking on dry ground. Don’t expect to go the same distances in snowshoes as you would while hiking in the summer. Hiking in snowshoes can also be awkward. It’s easy to have one snowshoe step on the other and to trip and fall. Going up and down rock or timber trail steps can be difficult due to the length of the snowshoes.
When choosing a pair of snowshoes, sizing, as with any footwear, is important. Snowshoes are sold by length, and the length is determined by the weight they will be supporting. The weight is not your weight on your bathroom scale, but your weight when fully outfitted: clothing, outerwear, boots, backpack, etc. Each manufacturer sizes their snowshoes a little differently, so consult with their websites to determine the size for you. My personal experience with snowshoeing in Colorado is that due to our typically light, dry and powdery snow, you will still sink in a bit, so I suggest going up a size to help keep you afloat.
There are other features you should consider when choosing which pair to buy. The bindings that secure your boots to your snowshoes can be complicated affairs or, as in the pair I use from TSL Outdoors, can be as simple as a BOA system, which locks in with a quick twist of a knob. A heel lifter, which raises the back of your foot in the snowshoes, allows your feet to remain fairly level, even if the snowshoe is at an extreme angle, which makes going up steep terrain more
comfortable. The heel lifter is typically deployed by merely lifting your heel and then flipping the lifter down.
If you’re not accustomed to using hiking poles, you’ll definitely want to use them when snowshoeing. Not only will they keep you stable in general, but if you fall in deep snow, you’ll find it easier to get up with poles.
Finally, don’t forget the basics, such as water and food, and an extra layer of clothing in your pack. Also, fresh snow is highly reflective under the bright sun, so don’t forget sunglasses and sunscreen. 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 this 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
Snowshoeing through the backcountry. | Credit: Adobe Stockl
NATURE IS BECOMING UNRELIABLE
By PEPPER TRAIL
• Writers on the Range •
Twice a year, I hike a favorite trail in Oregon’s Cascade Range. I have done this for over 20 years, timing my hikes for early spring and fall. The first hike is for wildflowers, the second is for autumn leaves.
In June up high, the forest floor is lit by the spires of flowering vanilla-leaf spangled with starflowers, along with coralroot orchids. The towering conifers and mountain river lined with vine maples and dogwoods are a world apart from the cottonwood-shaded creeks of my home ground in the valley.
Visiting in fall, it’s a far more colorful spectacle. Down in the valley, the oak leaves manage a rusty orange brown, but up in the mountain forests, trees along the river prepare for winter with a blaze of glory.
The dogwoods now bear leaves tinged with delicate salmon pink, while the wild hazel glows yellow and vine maple leaves flame orange and red. In places, the trail passes through a tunnel of these trees, and I can feel my body soaking up the luminous colors, as if storing light for the dark winter ahead.
Salt Creek Falls in Willamette National Forest in the Cascade Range of Oregon. | Credit: Adobe Stock
Everyone who is attuned to the natural world experiences and anticipates seasonal delights. For most of us, these are simply opportunities for appreciating the beauties of nature. But the reliability of nature is something that every living thing depends on and responds to in timeframes both long—evolutionary adaptations—and short—ecological strategies.
This reliability has shaped the flowering and fruiting times of plants, the migratory patterns of birds, and the yearly cycles of nomadic people, who knew the seasonal availability of resources in exquisite detail.
But what would it mean if nature were no longer reliable? I’m afraid that we and every organism on Earth are finding that out through much hotter days and more frequent floods. The reason, of course, is global climate change. But that phrase has become so familiar that it has lost much of its power. It seems to promise some orderly change from one climate to another, admittedly less desirable, one. But what the planet will really be experiencing in the coming decades can better be described as climate chaos.
Climate chaos could manifest in two very different ways. The first, and most terrifying, is that global warming will trigger one or more “climate tipping points” that cause “abrupt, irreversible and dangerous impacts with serious implications for humanity,” reports Science magazine.
Its 2022 investigation identified no fewer than nine tipping points that could be activated this century, including collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, failure of the Indian summer monsoons, and breakdown of the Atlantic Ocean circulation that delivers the warm Gulf
OPINION .
Stream to northern Europe.
The effects of passing any of these tipping points are almost too momentous to contemplate. Let’s instead focus our attention on the other, seemingly less all-encompassing aspect of climate chaos: spring wildflowers and autumn leaves.
Even if global warming doesn’t send the planet over a tipping point into an entirely new climate reality, it will affect the distribution of every organism and the seasonal timing of every natural phenomenon. To quote a report by the National Climate Adaptation Science Center, “… not all species are responding at the same speed or in the same ways. This can disrupt the manner in which species interact and the way that ecosystems function overall.”
In other words, the ecological effects of climate change are chaotic. The reliable pleasure of mountain wildflowers may fade as the complex ecology of the forest breaks down in the face of changes in snow cover, spring temperatures and soil moisture. The spectacle of autumn colors may be muted.
To be sure, these are small losses in comparison to, say, the reversal of the Gulf Stream. But as you hike through your corner of the world, or as you tend your home garden, you might spare a moment of gratitude for the reliability of nature that you have experienced in your life.
What’s coming is bound to change everything.
Pepper Trail is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org , a nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He is a biologist and writer based in Ashland, Oregon. n November 28 - December 11 |
NO CHRISTMAS SEASON IS COMPLETE WITHOUT THE VILLAGE SEVEN CHRISTMAS CONCERT! THE MUSICIANS OF VILLAGE SEVEN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS TO JOYFULLY CELEBRATE THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. COME HEAR YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS CAROLS IN THE FULL RANGE OF STYLES INCLUDING CLASSICAL, JAZZ, POP, AND GOSPEL FEATURING OUR CHOIR, ORCHESTRA, SOLOISTS, BAND, and DANCERS. THERE WILL ALSO BE A CHRISTMAS STORYBOOK READING, SO BE SURE TO BRING THE ENTIRE FAMILY TO THIS FREE EVENT.
Cir S, Colorado Springs, CO 80917
4040 Nonchalant
THE TRUMP TRIUMPH PORTENDS AN ECONOMIC FALLOUT
As I watched Donald Trump arrive at an astounding victory on election night, I was struck by his strong turnout in both rural and urban parts of the country. But I couldn’t stop thinking: Do voters understand what Trump’s sweep means for the price of eggs, housing and cars?
As it became clear that enthusiasm for Kamala Harris was waning leading up to the election, bond markets were already going down. That’s important because the bond market is a predictor of the future.
For contrast, the stock market went up 3% the morning after the election, as Trump promised dramatic tax breaks and lenient environmental regulations for corporations. That explains why so many billionaires supported Trump.
Our bond market, perhaps not as well-understood as stocks, is the biggest in the world, and the Federal Reserve sets a “target” interest rate and regulates short-term interest rates.
The nation’s $28 trillion treasury market sets the final interest rate through an auction.
Here’s what an auction determines: When prices of bonds drop, yields for investors go up. But this also drives up mortgage rates and influences interest rates on car loans, credit cards and so forth. Foreign countries and investors also trade bonds based on expectations for future borrowing. If our government needs to sell more bonds, lower prices and higher rates of return to investors usually follow.
America is piling up huge annual defi-
cits, and when buyers of our bonds grow concerned about the credit worthiness of the United States, they typically start selling. This creates a knock-on effect of higher deficits as the nation pays higher interest rates on its massive borrowing.
Never downplay the impact a falling bond markets can have. Bond traders have toppled governments — Great Britain in 2022 is a prime example, reinforcing bond traders nickname “bond vigilantes.”
After Trump was elected, the bond market, which had already declined significantly in anticipation of his win, fell 3% the next morning. That is considered a very bad day for the bond market. Investors began predicting that two of Trump’s election promises would lead to higher prices for consumers.
His first promise was to deport millions of undocumented workers even though our country is at full employment. Deporting workers will cause a labor shortage and drive up the cost of American made goods, especially the cost of vegetables, meat and housing, industries that rely heavily on manual labor.
His second promise, using presidential power to impose tariffs on goods from other countries, is another way a president can raise costs for consumers. The president-elect has talked up tariffs repeatedly, calling them “beautiful” and promising that other countries will pay for them.
That is not how tariffs work.
If we want foreign goods from China and Mexico, we must pay the going rate. If we want to substitute an American good, we should be sure it’s available and that there is labor to produce it.
During his last presidency, Trump levied tariffs on China. It retaliated by levying tariffs on our farm products, which erased profits for Midwestern farmers.
Trump quickly reallocated $12 billion via the U.S. Agriculture Department to support those farmers. That is called a bailout, or welfare.
Moreover, if he raises tariffs across the board on goods from other countries, there will be widespread “revenge tariffs” — just as happened last time. Unless we borrow even more money in the bond market for various welfare schemes, the
tariffs will harm the smallest American companies, while international corporations, with operations overseas, will be less impacted.
Once again farmers will be hurt. We are mostly a nation of consumers, not producers, and 68% of our economy is buying goods. That is why so many suffered during the inflationary spike under Joe Biden, causing the necessary goods in life to become shockingly pricey.
When Trump takes charge next year — and if he fulfills his promises — tariffs and labor shortages are bound to dramatically raise prices and interest rates for American consumers. Once an economy contracts, recession follows.
Somehow, we missed thoroughly debunking Trump’s wrongheaded assumptions about what makes our economy work. Now, we face an uncertain future with a leader whose policies benefit the rich while harming working people.
Dave Marston is the publisher of Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He lives in Durango, Colorado. n
By DAVE MARSTON
Donald Trump speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). | Credit:Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons
PUZZLES!
Friday, May 9
SEASON
Thursday, May 22
Friday, August 8
News of the WEIRD
BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
RECURRING THEME
On Nov. 8, Los Angeles police arrested a man who had apparently been living in the crawl space beneath a 92-year-old woman’s home, The New York Times reported. She had heard unusual noises from inside her house and assumed they were animals, but when family members heard knocking, they called police. When officers arrived, the alleged squatter, Isaac Betancourt, 27, who was naked, would not come out from under the home. Betancourt was forced out with gas; he was released after his arrest for trespassing. The homeowner’s son-in-law, Ricardo Silva, said entrances to the crawl space would be secured. “It’s probably not uncommon, you know,” he said, “in this day and age, people are looking for shelter.”
THE ARISTOCRATS
Auction house Reeman Dansie in Colchester, England, announced that a slice of wedding cake from the marriage of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip has been purchased for $2,831, United Press International reported. The little slice of history, part of a 500-pound cake served at the Nov. 20, 1947, wedding, had been given as a gift to Marion Polson, a housekeeper at Holyrood House in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was preserved in a box bearing the then-princess’s insignia and included a letter from the bride. No word on how it tasted.
OSO CRAZY
Four Californians were arrested for insurance fraud Nov. 13 for an incident that took place in January, NBC News reported. Ruben Tamrazian, 26; Ararat Chirkinian, 39; Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32; and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39, filed insurance claims on three Mercedes cars, complete with video, which they said had been damaged by a bear. The Jan. 8 alleged attack took place while the cars were parked at Lake Arrowhead northeast of Los Angeles. “The investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume,” the insurance department said. The bear costume, paws and metal hand tools that simulate claws were found in the suspects’ home, officials said. Investigators said they had shown the video to a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who “opined it was clearly a human in a bear suit.”
ICE-O-LATED
Aaron Fowler, a surfer in Denmark, Western Australia, was riding the waves Nov. 1 when he spotted an unusual bird, the Albany Advertiser reported. “There was this big bird in the water ... and it just stood up and waddled right over to us,” he said. The emperor penguin had swum thousands of kilometers from Antarctica and was malnourished; it was given into the care of the University of Western Australia’s School of Biological Sciences, where its rehabilitation is expected to last a few weeks. One expert there said the penguins are never observed north of the 60th parallel south. “It was kind of funny,” Fowler said, “like as he came out of the water, he went to do a tummy slide — like I guess he’s used to on the ice — and he just did a kind of face-plant in the sand ... and looked a bit shocked.”
UNDIGNIFIED DEATH
The Marion County (Indiana) Coroner identified a man found deceased Nov. 11 as Derek Sink, 39, People magazine reported. Sink was discovered in a tanning bed at a Planet Fitness location, where he had arrived Friday, Nov. 8. His family had not heard from him since Friday and reported him missing Sunday; Sink, who had battled addiction, was wearing an ankle monitor, so his probation officer was able to see his last location. Sink’s mother, Karen Wetzel, said a syringe was found in the room with him, and she suspects he overdosed. She called her son “the kindest person” with “the softest heart.”
ANIMAL ANTICS
Residents of Mablethorpe in Lincolnshire, England, seem conflicted about the badgers causing problems in their burg. The Daily Star reported Nov. 13 that the burrowing animals have caused roads and sidewalks to collapse, resulting in construction projects and delays. But the locals are reticent about eliminating them: “I don’t want anything untoward to happen to them, but I’m a believer that they’ve got to be controlled in certain areas,” said resident Des Barnett. Natural England has warned road workers that their projects must be complete by the end of November, when badger mating season begins, or be put off until July 2025.
On Nov. 7, the South China Morning Post reported an uproar following a social media post depicting a small child urinating on a table full of food. The baby’s mother captured the moment on video when her child sprayed the breakfast table with
urine, then proudly revealed that the family had continued to eat the food. The Beijing mom commented that they “rarely put disposable diapers on him. ... We do not cover it because it is better not to interrupt the child while he is urinating.”
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Renowned composer Mozart had a sister nicknamed Nannerl. During their childhoods, she was as much a musical prodigy as he. They toured Europe doing performances together, playing harpsichord and piano. Some critics regarded her as the superior talent. But her parents ultimately decided it was unseemly for her, as a girl, to continue her development as a genius. She was forcibly retired so she could learn housekeeping and prepare for marriage. Is there a part of your destiny, Aries, that resembles Nannerl’s? Has some of your brilliance been suppressed or denied? The coming months will be an excellent time to recover and revive it.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Do you know if you have any doppelgangers, Taurus? I bet you will meet one in the coming weeks. How about soul friends, alter egos or evil twins? If there’s no one like that in your life right now, they may arrive soon. And if you already know such people, I suspect your relationships will grow richer. Mirror magic and shadow vision are in the works! I’m guessing you will experience the best, most healing kind of double trouble. Substitutes and stand-ins will have useful offers and tempting alternatives. Parallel realities may come leaking through into your reality. Opportunities for symbiosis and synergy will be at an all-time high. Sounds like wild fun!
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Humans have been eating a wide range of oranges since ancient times. Among the most popular types in modern times is the navel orange. It’s large, seedless, sweet, juicy and easy to peel. But it didn’t exist until the 1820s, when a genetic mutation on a single tree in Brazil spawned this new variety. Eventually, the navel became a revolutionary addition to the orange family. I foresee a metaphorically comparable development in your life during the coming months, Gemini. An odd tweak or interesting glitch could lead to a highly favorable expansion of possibilities. Be alert for it.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian, you are a finalist for our “Most Resourceful and Successful Survivor of the Year” trophy. And if you take a brief trip to hell in the next two weeks, you could ensure your victory. But wait! Let me be more exact: “Hell” is an incorrect terminology; I just used it for shock effect. The fact is that hell is a religious invention that mischaracterizes the true nature of the realm of mystery, shadows and fertile darkness. In reality, the nether regions can be quite entertaining and enriching if you cultivate righteous attitudes: a frisky curiosity to learn truths you have been ignorant about; a brave resolve to unearth repressed feelings and hidden yearnings; and a drive to rouse spiritual epiphanies that aren’t available when you’re in the trance of everyday consciousness.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In my astrological opinion, you need and deserve big doses of fun, play, pleasure and love. Amusement and enchantment too. As well as excitement, hilarity and delight. I trust you will schedule a series of encounters and adventures that provide you with a surplus of these necessary resources. Can you afford a new toy or two? Or a romantic getaway to a sanctuary of adoration? Or a smart gamble that will attract into your vicinity a stream of rosy luck? I suggest that you be audacious in seeking the sweet, rich feelings you require.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): December will be Home Enhancement Month for you Virgos. Get started immediately! I’ll offer tips for how to proceed and ask you to dream up your own ideas. 1. Phase out decor or accessories that no longer embody the style of who you have become. 2. Add new decor and accessories that will inspire outbreaks of domestic bliss. 3. Encourage everyone in your household to contribute creative ideas to generate mutual enhancement. 4. Do a blessing ritual that will raise the spiritual vibes. 5. Invite your favorite people over and ask them to shower your abode with blessings.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran songwriter and producer Kevin MacLeod has composed over 2,000 pieces of music — and given all of them away for free. That’s why his work is so widespread. It has been featured in thousands of films and millions of YouTube videos. His composition “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” has been played on TikTok over 31 billion times. (P.S. He has plenty of money, in part because so many appreciative people give him donations through his Patreon page.) I propose we make him your inspirational role model in the coming weeks and months, Libra. How could you parlay your generosity and gifts into huge benefits for yourself?
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): According to my grandmother, I have such a mellifluous voice I should have pursued a career as a newscaster or DJ on the radio. In eighth grade, my science teacher admired my work and urged me to become a professional biologist. When I attended Duke University, my religious studies professor advised me to follow his path. Over the years, many others have offered their opinions about who I should be. As much as I appreciated their suggestions, I have always trusted one authority: my muses. In the coming weeks and months, Scorpio, you may receive abundant advice about your best possible path. You may be pressured to live up to others’ expectations. But I encourage you to do as I have done. Trust your inner advisers.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I invite you to get a head start on formulating your New Year’s resolutions. Jan. 1 is a good time to instigate robust new approaches to living your life, but the coming weeks will be an even better time for you Sagittarians. To get yourself in the mood, imagine you have arrived at Day Zero, Year One. Simulate the feeling of being empty and open and fertile. Imagine that nothing binds you or inhibits you. Assume that the whole world is eager to know what you want. Act as if you have nothing to prove to anyone and everything to gain by being audacious and adventurous.
BY ROB BREZSNY
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): There was a long period when many popular songs didn’t come to a distinct end. Instead, they faded out. The volume would gradually diminish as a catchy riff repeated over and over again. As you approach a natural climax to one of your cycles, Capricorn, I recommend that you borrow the fade-out as a metaphorical strategy. In my astrological opinion, it’s best not to finish abruptly. See if you can create a slow, artful ebb or a gradual, graceful dissolution.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When he was young, Aquarian musician and sound engineer Norio Ohga wrote a critical letter to the electronics company now known as Sony. He complained in detail about the failings of their products. Instead of being defensive, executives at the company heeded Ohga’s suggestions for improvement. They even hired him as an employee and ultimately made him president of the company at age 40. He went on to have a stellar career as an innovator. In the spirit of the Sony executives, I recommend that you seek feedback and advice from potential helpers who are the caliber of Ohga. The information you gather in the coming weeks could prove to be highly beneficial.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): What would your paradise look and feel like? If you could remake the world to suit your precise needs for maximum freedom, well-being and inspiration, what changes would you instigate? Now is an excellent time to ponder these possibilities, Pisces. You have more ability than usual to shape and influence the environments where you hang out. And a good way to rouse this power is to imagine your ideal conditions. Be bold and vivid. Amuse yourself with extravagant and ebullient fantasies as you envision your perfect world.
IMAGINE HAVING THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE – TO EVERY SHOW… EVERY
