This local filmmaker wants to rip out your lawn. Here’s why he’s not crazy.

by Lindsay Reichel

Onscreen, you may not recognize Mark Petersen. With golden locks cascading over a teal dress, fake nails covering his fingertips, and an over-fluffed pink boa wrapped in his arms, it’s easy to understand why.

He’s usually not one to sashay around in his high plastic heels. Petersen typically spends his time directing movies and making bold declarations about water conservation. Outside a coffee shop in Louisville, he revealed this glitter-free façade. Turns out the director/lawn-irrigator has a self-described cynicism about the very business he owns, which includes an idea to “tear our your lawn.”

Ironic? Sure. Crazy? Don’t think so.

8:28 am July 12, 2010

The most awesome eco-chic items we are using and loving

by Lacy Boggs

These days, it’s hard to know what’s truly green and what’s been “greenwashed” to seem greener than it really is. It makes shopping with a conscience challenging to say the least. Luckily, we’ve been able to find a few products that are both super-cool and truly eco-friendly that would be great as gifts or just additions to your greenie lifestyle.

July 2010 Issue

Spring Leaf makes your home look like a toxin-spewing, energy-wasting, ozone-killing bungalow. Don’t worry, you may have one of your own some day.

by Andra Coberly

Thousands of miles away, the Gulf Coast is hemorrhaging oil. Global temperatures are increasing, coal-fired power plants continue to pump toxic emissions into air and water, and let us not forget the polar bears on the melting icebergs.

That’s the big picture.

Here, in north Boulder, the geothermal-powered air-conditioning softly hums while the 9.99 Kilowatt photovoltaic system on the roof powers the LEDs in the kitchen, and the super-duper air-sealing package (also referred to as “a guy with a calking gun”) keeps the coolness in, the heat out and everyone happy.

July 2010 Issue

By Lindsay Reichel

Unless you are an extreme outdoors enthusiast, you probably don’t choose to go camping during Colorado’s frosty winter nights.

But what if you didn’t have a choice? And what if the material keeping you from literally freezing to death turned you into a criminal? While this may seem like a hypothetical situation, it is reality for homeless man David Madison.

8:03 am June 29, 2010

Boulder County packrat assembles a treasure trove

by Jim Burrus / photo by Andra Coberly

I get a lot of grief about the stuff I collect; books, magazines and newspapers as well as family heirlooms that I just can’t seem to part with. But my penchant for collecting (OK, hoarding) pales in comparison to the late Ray G. Dougherty.

June 2010 Issue

Summer recreation can be an electrifying experience. Nine ways to avoid getting struck.

Call me a disciple of the “Church of Lightning.” After receiving my baptism in a hair-raising mountain storm, I have new respect for these perilous electrical furies—the No. 1 life-threatening weather risk in Colorado. So with our peak lightning season (June–August) upon us, a little lightning education never hurts.

June 2010 Issue

Colorado Shakespeare’s Director gets patriotic

by Andra Coberly

Sitting at his hulky wooden desk tucked away within a jam-packed house on the CU campus, Colorado Shakespeare Festival Executive Director Philip Sneed is talking fervently about his newest project—something he hopes will transform the canon of American theatrical offerings.

June 2010 Issue

How the topless Gardeners Sprouted a Win For Equal Rights

by Stacey Borage / illustration by Stephanie Mott

Catharine Pierce is fully dressed when she plants herself in an oversized chair that nearly swallows her. Her attire is odd on such a warm day: She’s in a pink shirt with matching sweatpants. Usually, on days like this, Pierce tends her outside garden, and the 52-year-old doesn’t typically wear a top while gardening, only thong underwear and, of course, gardening gloves.

But you already knew that, didn’t you? It seems over the past year that everyone has heard about Boulder’s infamous gardener, a woman who has irked her neighbors and the parents and teachers of a nearby school while getting slammed from media pundits and local bloggers alike. But for Catharine Pierce and her husband, Robert, it’s become a fight for freedom of expression—not just a personal battle.

June 2010 Issue

Boulder Police released a video today of a man alleged to have made unlawful sexual contact with a child earlier this week at a Boulder Whole Foods. If you have any information on the man in the video, contact Detective Heather Frey at 303-441-3369.

3:05 pm June 9, 2010

Senatorial candidate and former Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff took 60 percent of the votes during the Democratic State Assembly. Incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet took 39 percent.

Much of the Colorado Democratic base has shown continuous, solid support for Romanoff. While his win today may not have come to a complete surprise to many of the active progressives in Colorado, the next question is: can he pull off a win in the primary, faced with Bennet’s big campaign budget?

1:12 pm May 22, 2010