For 25 years, Yellow Scene has been committed to highlighting businesses in the Boulder County area. In this article, we had the opportunity to meet with Julien Motola, the founder of Digital Odyssey Media (DOM). Offering an eclectic array of photography and videography services, DOM is a digital media and content creation firm based out of Longmont, Colorado. 

Growing up in Boulder, Motola had an early exposure to the performing arts. His parents founded the Rocky Mountain Theatre For Kids and Actors Academy for the Performing Arts, which is based out of Denver. Motola began doing theater when he was four years old and continued well into high school. In his formative years, Motola participated in performing arts summer camps and year-round training programs. 

“Doing theater kind of… piqued my interest in media because I appreciated the level of creative liberty that theater was able to provide,” says Motola

In high school Motola got involved in photography, citing his grandfather, who is also a photographer, as his primary influence in the medium at the time. For his senior project in high school, Motola started a photography business and built his portfolio by doing senior and family portraits.

He then pursued film school, acknowledging a fascination with Hollywood. During an internship at Futuristic Films, a local production company, Motola discovered a new passion for digital content media for use in commercial purposes. He says that he enjoys the storytelling aspect of creating content for clients, which ultimately played into the naming of his entity, Digital Odyssey Media.

“I wanted to establish some sort of brand identity, and that came from the people that I’m working with. I really just enjoy telling their story. I like the idea of an “odyssey” as a journey that you go on,” says Motola.

As a content creation company, Digital Odyssey Media offers a variety of photography and videography services. His work with DOM primarily includes coverage for events, conferences, headshots, portrait sessions, and engagement shoots. He also specializes in promotional photography and videography services for local businesses, leading him to develop a relationship with local digital marketing agency PIN Business Network, which operates OCN (Our Community Now) Eatsl. Working with OCN Eats, Motola travels to local restaurants to document and film educational and promotional content on the restaurant for use across websites and social media.

Some of Motola’s favorite clients he has worked with through Digital Odyssey Media include the aforementioned OCN Eats as their Boulder content creator and restaurant promotor. He has also enjoyed working with the Mountain Sun Pub, Southern Sun Pub, and Longs Peak Pub in Longmont, as well as Kutandara Center, a local nonprofit that teaches Zimbabwean marimba music, SEA Change, and Savory Catering. 

Motola attributes his success with Digital Odyssey Media to his genuine interest in building relationships and establishing rapport with clients. He says that a big part of his creative process includes engaging the human element before he brings out the camera. This method tends to make people more comfortable when the cameras do come out.

“My favorite thing (about doing this work) is the diversity of experiences that I get to have,” says Motola. 

He expresses gratitude for the fact that from one day to another, his work provides him with a variety of encounters with people. Opening himself up to various experiences allows Motola to grow both professionally and personally. He derives a great deal of satisfaction from the process of creating content, from the documentation to the editing to the final product, and seeing the reaction from clients to his work.

“The hardest thing about freelancing is the inconsistency. Sometimes, you feel like you’re juggling a gazillion things… You want to say yes to everything, but then there is a fine line of being like, ‘when do I need to stop saying yes?’ because you just have too much on your plate,” says Motola when reflecting on the challenges of doing the work that he does. 

Motola’s long-term goal with Digital Odyssey Media is to run a successful production house. He hopes to develop the entity into an all-encompassing creative agency. As an immediate goal, Motola hopes to continue to expand his range of clients. He also expresses excitement at the idea of what he will continue to learn as time goes on and his business evolves.

Digital Odyssey Media is LGBTQ+ founded and inclusive. For those who wish to learn more about photography, Motola offers photography lessons. The business is currently also offering special packages for your 2024 holiday celebrations. The best way to contact Motola and Digital Odyssey Media for more information on this or any of the other services offered is through the website or by following DOM on Instagram. 

All photos provided courtesy of Digital Odyssey Media. 

The post Embracing the Journey with Digital Odyssey Media appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Bella La Crema’s Shauna Lee Strecker’s French Bath

By Deborah Cameron

Butter is hard to escape during the holidays. It’s in mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and pie crusts. It’s on carrots and under your turkey skin. But there’s a byproduct of butter creation — buttermilk — which makes an unexpected holiday preparation. Shauna Lee Strecker, the self-trained churn master and owner of Longmont’s Bella la Crema Butter Shoppe and Dairy Market, uses it for her days-long holiday turkey presoak.

True buttermilk is the result of the chemical reaction that happens when liquids left over from the butter-making process are left to ferment. After fermentation, Strecker seasons her buttermilk for several more days with herbes de Provence, garlic, and peppercorn and then allows the turkey to soak in it for 24 hours or longer. She’s nicknamed this preparation a French bath, and it results in a more tender and flavorful turkey. She’s planning to serve it to guests this year.

A large part of the soak’s result is using traditional or cultured buttermilk, not those derived from powders or the acidified varieties that transform milk by using vinegar, lemon juice, or another acid. The traditional version is best at pulling impurities out of the meat and contains lactic acid which tenderizes the protein while imparting flavor from the herbs.

The technique has long been used to prepare fried chicken, but pork, lamb, and beef filets also work well, making it ideal for a Christmas Eve roast. Strecker had smaller portions of the French bath available at Bella La Crema’s storefront but was considering offering 5-gallon buckets of the preparation, with room for the turkey. In either case, the protein should rest in the herbed buttermilk for at least a day, extending another day or two if possible.

Strecker has been around the Boulder County area for a while. She came to her current location after working in Lyons, where she churned in the space that currently houses Theo Adley’s Marigold restaurant. It was there that diners first engaged with her cultured butters, melded with both sweet and savory herbs. Now she makes butter weekly in a larger stainless steel churn or, alternately, an oversized proudly pink mixer, the type that bakeries often use to make dough.

She offers as many as 21 butters at a time. I tasted herbes de Provence butter and a sea salt variety that I preferred for its creaminess and the nuances of the salt. Another butter contained rose petals, lavender, vanilla, and nutmeg, and a fourth had chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, and cayenne. If guests visit Bella La Crema, they can get a tasting of them as a butter flight, sampling them at a counter lovingly called a butter bar. If they’re able to have all 21 flavors, Strecker calls it a “21-butter salute.”

Guests of the shop can taste the butter in the same way connoisseurs taste a wine, craft beer, or spirit — as an experience. The tastings are popular and can take some time. “People will start pulling out every single ingredient in the butter. Sometimes they’re surprised by the finish, which isn’t what they expected. It’s an experience. It’s a slow, wonderful process where people can think about what’s in their mouth. Sometimes we’ve even seen people cry,” Strecker remarked.

Artisan butters can elevate holiday dinners. Using Bella La Crema’s Song of India (blended with cardamom, cinnamon, honey, and spiced orange) as a sauté for pie apples inherently changes the character of the dessert. Serving a butter flight as an appetizer, almost like a cheese board, is an unexpected treat that can get guests talking about something other than politics, religion, or football. There’s a bourbon-forward butter called Hollidays Bourbon (named after Doc Holliday and containing molasses, maple, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, and Bourbon) that could be dropped into after-dinner coffee or hot buttered rum. “Think about butter as in rather than on. It’s a great delivery system for flavor,” suggests Strecker.

In the end, it’s worth considering that Strecker’s holiday secret chef recipe is less about a culinary technique and more about something else — prioritizing slowing down and taking time. Time to churn for the richest butter. Time to consider how to impart flavor in new ways. Time to soak a turkey in buttermilk. Time to enjoy a meal with those we care about, talk, and connect. Perhaps her recipe and other suggestions she has for using butter during the holidays speak to this more than anything else.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Blueberry Sauce

By Charlotte Piper

Frasca Food and Wine’s chef de partie, Rachel Garcia, wants to help you make new holiday memories with her delicious cake recipe.

Recently, Yellow Scene sat down with Garcia to sample her traditional lemon olive oil cake with blueberry sauce. During the conversation, we covered her life working as a chef de partie and how traditional holiday cuisine varies by culture and tradition.

Garcia expressed a love for food from a young age. Her first affinity was for baking and pastry but she found herself in culinary school, working to gain experience while she was attending school. Her initial foray into the culinary world began with working an externship in Beaver Creek. Gaining experience in both fast casual and fine dining restaurants in her formative chef years led Garcia to develop a specific love for fine dining. She now works as chef de partie at Frasca Food and Wine, which is currently celebrating its own milestone: twenty years serving the community of Boulder. Garcia is in charge of making pasta for Frasca Food and Wine, but still loves a good dessert.

The chef says that the best holiday traditions are those that you create with your loved ones, and many of them involve food, albeit not every holiday recipe may be typical. While each holiday commonly involves the gathering of loved ones around the table to eat, the food can definitely vary from culture to culture. “I have always enjoyed the combination of lemon and blueberries,” says Garcia, when reflecting on this recipe. Lemon, blueberries, and almond, which are the primary flavor profiles of the cake, are such a classic combination of flavors which tend to be a hit, no matter the holiday function.

“This cake is very easy to make, which is why I like it alot. It is super simple and straightforward,” says Garcia.

Thanksgiving Bar Desserts by Stacy’s Kitchen

By Deborah Cameron

Some people look forward to their Thanksgiving pies all year long. Maybe it’s an old family recipe that brings back cherished memories. Maybe it’s the only time of the year pumpkin pie crosses their table. Maybe they’re just a creature of habit.

However, for every person who looks forward to their annual pie slice (or slices), there may be someone else who is too full to indulge but feels obligated. Or a reluctant pie baker with a packed schedule who would have appreciated permission to not pull out their rolling pin this year. For all of those people, Stacy Gustafson of Stacy’s Kitchen in Old Town Erie has another option: the bar dessert. “They’re just good. And pecan bars have plenty of pecan pie filling and shortbread. It’s that simple and perfect for the holidays.”

Gustafson opened Stacy’s Kitchen a little more than two years ago and, since then, has been keeping the community fed with baked goods (including New York-style bagels), thick Italian sandwiches, and soups. During the holidays, she does bake her fair share of pies for customers’ tables, but she also loves her bar cookies. The three she suggests for Thanksgiving are her pecan pie bars, cranberry bars, and seven layer bars.

Both the pecan pie bars and cranberry bars are made with a shortbread crust. “It’s so simple — just flour, powdered sugar, and butter. I taught it to someone one time, and when I explained it to them, they couldn’t believe that’s all there was to it.”

The beloved seven layer bars are full of graham cracker, toasted coconut, and sweetened condensed milk. “I make those every year at Christmas. I’ve been making them forever. It was my grandmother’s recipe. I make it the same way as the traditional recipe, but I don’t put nuts in mine. I like it without better.”

Whether she is creating pies or assembling layers of bar desserts, Stacy’s Kitchen comes alive during the holidays. “We do hundreds of pies, and everyone looks forward to making them the week before Thanksgiving. We’re not open for regular business. Last year, we had a good time. It was insane and busy and a lot of work. But someone said to me, “I can’t wait to do all of the apples this year.”

Overall, the holidays are special to Gustafson: “I love spending time with family and having that quiet time at home. And on Thanksgiving, I cook all of it — for everyone. I won’t go anywhere else.”

Chef Kyle Brate’s Cranberry Buttermilk Pie

By Ryan Sullivan

Desserts are unquestionably the best part of a Thanksgiving meal, and for those who doubt it, here’s the evidence: they still inspire a ravenous appetite even after everyone has had a heaping plate of dinner.

Pies like pumpkin and pecan usually take center stage, but occasionally, someone will go out on a limb and make a unique pie—salted honey, caramel pear, orange meringue, goat cheese and fig. Sometimes they work; sometimes not so much. But Chef Kyle Brate from Piripi brings generational knowledge to his cranberry buttermilk pie, which combines fresh, tart cranberries with the creamy tang of buttermilk. 

Brate drew inspiration from his grandmother, who used to make buttermilk pies for special occasions. “My favorite pie is buttermilk,” he explained, “and I adapted that for Thanksgiving.” The pie is an homage to tradition with a seasonal twist.

Starring in the dish is perhaps the most controversial of Thanksgiving ingredients: the cranberry. While opinions are often divided on the contrast of flavors it brings to the dinner plate, Chef Brate satisfies everyone by featuring it in a dessert. Fresh cranberries—never canned—bring an undeniable tartness and sweetness within milliseconds of the pie hitting your tongue. Real buttermilk is essential for the pie’s texture and tangy flavor, honoring the pies Brate’s grandmother made during his childhood. To bring these elements together, he carefully layers the flavors and adjusts the sweetness to complement the cranberries’ natural tartness.

Another thing Brate learned from his grandmother is that buttermilk pie is versatile. He experiments with different variations throughout the year, such as strawberry rhubarb buttermilk pie in the summer. The flexibility of the recipe allows for creativity, building on the buttermilk base to showcase different seasonal ingredients. This experimentation is in Chef Brate’s nature: “I like to experiment with ingredients and flavor profiles I’m not accustomed to,” he said.

When the pies are brought out and uncovered after the Thanksgiving feast, oohs and aahs can usually be heard around the room, and kids start emerging from wherever they were hiding. Everyone chooses big slices or small slices of one type—or two, or three. Brate suggests accompaniments for his pie: either a dollop of cinnamon whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The cranberry buttermilk pie embodies both tradition and innovation. It reminds us of an important truth this holiday season: we can give thanks for everything that came before us while embracing what the future holds, together.

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The post 4 Secret Chef Recipes for the Holidays appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

East Window Gallery in Boulder, Colo., is quickly establishing its reputation amongst the NoBo Arts District as Boulder’s “Library of Alexandria,” an irreverent ode to nonconformity. A great deal of time, energy, and resources have been invested to make East Window what it is today, and the programming is curated with thoughtful diligence. East Window brings awareness to world issues through supporting artistic and cultural expression.

More than a gallery, East Window is an independent arts organization. Founded in May 2020, East Window started out as a single window on the east side of the Boulder Bicycle warehouse building on North Broadway.

According to founding director and visual artist Todd Edward Herman, the goal of East Window is to bring visibility to historically marginalized artists who exist in all communities of color, including Black, Indigenous, Asian, LGBTQ+, nonbinary, Two-Spirit, and people with disabilities and chronic illness. 

East Window’s resolve is to promote the art and culture of these underrepresented communities and provide a platform for people from all backgrounds to share their hearts and minds through exhibitions and public programming. In other words, East Window is bucking the status quo in ways that make one “question habits of understanding, looking, and storytelling.” The artists and exhibitors that show at East Window turn a mirror on the world and reflect back to it the impacts of discrimination, colonization, and the harsh realities of living in a society fueled by capitalism.

East Window is an annex to the studio of the visual artist and founder. His work has generated collaborations with artists on books, films, performances, and exhibitions around the world. Herman is a co-founder and long-time collaborator with Sins Invalid, a performance project that incubates, celebrates, and centralizes artists with disabilities, artists of color, and queer and gender-variant artists. Most recently, Herman was interviewed by Kevin Hoth for The NoBo Artist Podcast.

Since moving to its current location at 4550 Broadway, Ste C-3B2, in Boulder, the passionate team at East Window has curated more than 30 events, exhibits, installations, and workshops. Working notably with Kali Spitzer, Alex Stark, Yvens Alex Santil, and The Plentywolf Singers, East Window also offers a one-of-a-kind reading room full of a variety of titles and many local and regional authors.

Yellow Scene was able to chat with Herman about East Window’s origins and his vision for the gallery’s future. 

Let’s talk a little bit about your background. This is where you can share anything that isn’t in your bio on the EW website (I will also be pulling from there).

In my personal artistic work, I try to question habits of understanding, looking, and storytelling. I examine how images compose, enforce, or undermine—rather than simply reflect—ideas of history, dominant values, authenticity, and authorship. To a large degree, this informs much of what happens at East Window.

What motivated you to open East Window?

The studio space I was renting in Feb. 2020 had a 5ft x 8ft east-facing window. With the pandemic and subsequent shutdown in March of that same year, we all began to avoid being inside public spaces, this of course, included art galleries.

I informally began to contact friends and colleagues to see if they’d be interested in showing their artwork in my studio window for a few weeks at a time so people walking by could view it at a distance, in the open air. Everyone I approached seemed to really like the idea. I honestly didn’t have any thoughts about growing East Window into a formal exhibit space. It just felt good to make the window available to artists to show their work at a time when less opportunities were available to do so.

Awareness of this window spread quickly, and by 2021, we found ourselves partnering with other art organizations and educational institutions to expand our curatorial possibilities. In addition to showing local and regional artists, we began to show works by internationally renowned artists. We even had outdoor film screenings in the spring and summer months. 

In November 2022, we moved into our current space at 4550 Broadway in the North Boulder Arts District. We are utilizing every square foot of our 820 square feet. This includes our main indoor gallery, an outdoor patio exhibit space, a reading room, and, of course, our exhibit window—it took us a while, but we found a space with an actual east-facing window! 

What type of art/artists can guests to EW expect to encounter?

In 2023, we hosted over 30 exhibitions, installations, film screenings, readings, workshops, and artist talks, bringing together so many amazing people around relevant and often difficult collective issues as well as personal themes.

The artists showing at East Window have all, in one way or another, been marginalized within the art world as well as at large socially.

East Window is an accessible space, inside and out.

You’ve done a lot in the past two years as an arts organization. Who have you enjoyed working within the past two years in the arts community? 

Truthfully, it’s been a pleasure to work with each institution, organization, and individual whose paths have crossed with East Window from its inception. I’ve learned such a great deal from every collaboration and partnership.

How do you curate experiences at East Window? As in, what is your process?

We try to level the playing field in terms of exhibiting established artists side by side with emerging artists and even folks who don’t identify as artists.

We also periodically invite folks to enter our calls for work. These calls are open to everyone and culminate into group exhibits in our main gallery or inclusion into our newly implemented East Window Journal of Written and Visual Arts.

We also offer opportunities to our interns to curate readings, screenings or other events at the gallery.

Additionally, as people continue to learn about us, we’ve been receiving and considering curatorial proposals and exhibition requests from around the region and beyond.

Why are you passionate about East Window?

To a large extent, what happens at East Window has been motivated by my having children. I want my kids and other young people to see that we all have agency to shape the culture around us, to bring together the creative communities that we need in order to incite and sustain personal as well as social change.

The overarching response to the work that East Window is doing has been favorable; for that, I’m very grateful. But we’re constantly looking for ways to transform audience appreciation into concrete community involvement, encouraging our audience to reach a level of deep resolve and engagement with the narratives that artists presenting at the gallery are trying to advance.

What is a primary challenge that EW faces as a not-for-profit arts organization?

There are many ongoing challenges East Window faces as a non-commercial art gallery and cultural hub. One of which is to make every effort to implement a plan where every artist who exhibits, performs and curates at East Window receives some sort of honorarium for all of their hard work. I’ve made this effort a priority. This means in order for East Window to offer paid gigs to artists with any consistency, we are continuously in the process of fundraising and grant writing for the gallery.

How can the community support public programming in the arts at East Window?

An important way to support East Window is to become a member or make a tax-deductible donation. I know this can be off-putting to many folks who might not have the means to support us in that way. Nonetheless, contributions of any amount are vital to the sustainability of East Window’s efforts. 

Other great ways to engage with East Window are to show up in person for our events and opening receptions; let East Window and the artists showing there know what you’re thinking — let us know who you’d like to see exhibit or perform at the gallery; and of course, spread the word and tell your friends all about us!

The next major installation that is coming to East Window is YOUR REFUSAL TO SEE: A Native Guide Project by Anna Tsouhlarakis, an Indigenous Greek artist who works in sculpture, installation, video, and performance. Her work has been part of national and international exhibitions at venues such as the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Portrait Gallery. Inspired by Ralph Ellison’s novel “Invisible Man,” this exhibit deals with the artist’s venture of becoming a resident of Colorado. 

The opening reception for the Tsouhlarakis exhibit is Friday, November 1, 2024, from 7 to 9 p.m. at East Window, 4550 Broadway, Ste C-3B2 in Boulder. 

You can get started on the East Window website to find out how you can become a member or a sponsor and support public programming in the arts.

Like journalism like this? Consider becoming a sustaining supporter (and get our printed copy monthly at home.)

Democracy needs journalism more than ever. We’ve been telling the truth for 24 years. Your support helps us keep telling it for at least the next four years.

Democracy needs journalism more than ever. We’ve been telling the truth for 24 years. Your support helps us keep telling it for at least the next four years.

The post East Window: The Little Gallery That Could appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.