Unique Electives

The Silver Tsunami

Their soundtrack was rock and roll: The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and The Grateful Dead. They protested war and discrimination, fought for civil and women’s rights, and championed sexual liberation and drug experimentation. They touted Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Robert Kennedy and Rachel Carson as cultural saviors. They made love, not war. Now—though the feisty generation known as Baby Boomers...

The Pursuit of Beauty

The more I watch The Real Housewives, the more normal the women look. For those of you who have never seen this particularly cracked reality show, it’s a peek into the lives, drama and excesses of Gucci-soaked women in wealthy communities, such as Beverly Hills, Miami, Orange County and Atlanta. More entertaining than their public fighting and constant feuding is their increasingly contorted...

Of Birds and Boobs

Breasts have become iconic cultural and sexual symbols in the United States—lovely lady lumps, as Fergie once sang. They are nourishers of life, they are muses and they are proverbial balls of clay that have been molded, enlarged, minimized, restrained and exposed. But for Florence Williams, breasts are the canary in the mine. “They are a powerful symbol in our bodies,” she said...

Square Pegs

At first glance, Catalyst High School, tucked away in a nondescript office park in Lafayette, looks like a dentist’s office. Or a place that sells car insurance. Or even a paper company like Dunder Mifflin. What it doesn’t look like at all — with its muted carpet, a corner lounge area lit by strings of white lights and tiny, office-sized classrooms —is a high school. “Well, I hope...

Unique Electives

In an interview in October, State Board of Education member Angelika Schroeder pondered the importance of teaching students to be better prepared to enter the workforce. It used to be, she said, that kids who weren’t so good at math and science always had a safety net in the “vocational” classes—code for wood working and shop class, the tacitly acknowledged production line for the...

China Syndrome

When Colorado was still part of the untamed West, it was home to a mellifluous babble of foreign tongues, the native languages of myriad migrants who worked its soil, built its railroads and hunted in its canyons. French, Russian, Spanish and German were just as likely to be heard as English in those days, as was a more exotic language—Chinese. Chinese migrants laid tracks for railroads over...

Editor’s Picks

Wailing Away The Wailers, along with Bob Marley, delivered reggae music to the world, launching a movement as cultural as it was musical. Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh and the Barrett Brothers got their start the same year as the Summer of Love, which fits, considering the powerfully positive nature of the genre. Today, Marley’s spirit lives on with this legendary reggae group, which...

Seven Questions With Actress Angela Reed

Angela Reed plays Rose Narracott in the upcoming War Horse, the national touring production of the 2011 Tony Award-winning best play. It’s known for its impressive puppetry as the main character is a horse controlled by three puppeteers. Here, Reed talks about going to school in Boulder, living on the road and talking to a stuffed horse. French Davis: Working with puppets must be fun. Do you...

Crafting a Brewery

Cruise up Arapahoe. Pass 55th and hook a U-ey at the second or third left-hand pull-off. Roll by the car wash. Try to park legally. Make your way to the brick building between the tanks and that other brick building. These are, no joke, real life instructions I’ve personally given for locating and enjoying Avery beer at its current digs. But local drinkers must soon learn another set of...

Big Brother Really is Watching

“I know y’all are puttin’ cameras in these cable boxes just so’s ya can spy on us.” I was dumbstruck. I was working on the help desk for a cable company, taking calls from customers who needed billing or technical help. This was many years ago, when we released the first DVRs. The absurdity of middle-America paranoia is something that often astounds me. The never-ending sense of...

Challenging Element: Spaghetti Squash

Food is by nature steeped in tradition; that’s how it’s done best. So it’s no surprise that when Patrick Hartnett, the executive chef of Kachina, heard that the mystery ingredient for this challenge would be locally-grown spaghetti squash, he looked to the Native American cultures of the Southwest for his inspiration. His concept for this dish was centered on the Native American farming...

Eatery News

Openings and Closings Poppy Café opened in the Peloton Building in Boulder. Boulder got new brewery when Wild Woods Brewery opened on Conestoga Court. Oskar Blues is opening CHUBurgers in Longmont in 2013. Lucky’s Market will expand to Longmont in 2013. Arlene’s Bistro and Creperie moved into the former Crepes á la Carte space on Broadway. Spirit Hound Distillers opened in Lyons...

Being Beehive

If Beehive were a person instead of “a West Pearl Eatery + Bar,” as the website says, she would be that unbelievably hip acquaintance of yours who always looks perfectly chic, who dances ballet for exercise and who uses mason jars in her décor without a hint of irony. She probably makes her own bitters and has gorgeous, naturally red hair, too. You kind of want to be her, if just for a...

You Say You Want a Resolution

It’s kind of rough being a food columnist in January. Oh, everyone’s excited to talk to you in November and December; family is coming into town, the holiday debauchery is in full swing and everyone wants to know where’s the best place to eat. What have you had lately that’s amazing? Where can I find the best…[insert your favorite holiday treat here]? But come Jan. 1, it’s a whole...

The Art of Aging Gracefully

“In full disclosure” is a statement journalists give when they have something discomforting to reveal. It’s where they divulge an asterisk to their fair and balanced pretenses and then quickly move on to the next paragraph. It may not make it better, but it gives the reader awareness of potential bias. So, as you take a gander at Yellow Scene’s first Senior’s Issue, I have something...

Month in Review

A Boulder company made up of former NASA employees announced plans to fly tourists to the moon for $750 million each. Coloradans can now break out the Cheetos and Goldfish: Gov. John Hickenlooper officially made recreational marijuana use legal by certifying the election results nearly a month sooner than expected. He made the move the day after two CU students were arrested for serving pot...

What is the Fiscal Cliff?

While the passage of Election Day has eliminated most political buzzwords from the lexicon, there’s one term we’re hearing with increasing breathlessness: “fiscal cliff.” It’s a reference to more than just economic calamity in general, but to a specific set of deficit-reducing triggers that will go into effect on Jan. 1 if Congress doesn’t act. What’s so bad about reducing the...

Q&A With Richard Wobbekind

CU economist predicts another strong year for Colorado Every year, the Business Research Division of CU’s Leeds School of Business produces the Colorado Business Economic Outlook. The forecast focuses on 13 different industries, analyzing the current economic trends, predicting job growth and providing the public with an in-depth but understandable look at the economy. Richard Wobbekind...