2 westword.com WESTWORD SEPTEMBER 21-27, 2023 | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 5 BLOWBACK Steve Wolf wants to fi ght fi res with Hurricanes. BY STEPHEN SINGULAR 12 TRAIL BLAZERS Bowls With the Bard brings a Stoned Shakespeare experience to the Coffee Joint. BY TONI TRESCA 15 WHAT’S BREWING The evolution of the Great American Beer Festival. BY RYAN PACHMAYER 19 LOST AND FOUND May Pang details her relationship with John Lennon in a show at Bitfactory. BY EMILY FERGUSON 12 Culture 15 Cafe 19 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 22 28 Marijuana TOKE OF THE TOWN ................................ 28 ASK A STONER ......................................... 30 STRAIN GANG .......................................... 32 VOLUME 47 NUMBER 4 SEPTEMBER 21-27, 2023 E D I T O R I A L Editor Patricia Calhoun Editorial Operations Manager Jane R. 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Peri- odicals postage paid in Denver. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $100/year or $50/six months. Postmaster: Send address changes to Westword, P.O. Box 5970, Denver CO 80217. Mailing address: P.O. Box 5970, Denver, CO 80217 Street address: 1278 Lincoln Street, Denver, CO 80203 For retail or classifi ed advertising, call: 303-296-7744 For general information, call: 303-296-7744 For Editorial, email: [email protected] “PAINT THE TOWN READ,” TEAGUE BOHLEN, SEPTEMBER 14 R E A D A L E R T Your September 14 issue was a keeper! I am planning to read all the books in “Paint the Town Read,” including those by the Colo- rado authors — although I’ve already read several of those, including Alan Prendergast’s Gangbuster, thanks to the Westword excerpt in April. This was a real service to readers. Thank you. Marcy Rogers Denver Absolute knockout issue: fed my brain with thirty new books (I’ll read anything Mario Acevedo recommends); fed my belly with ten great, reasonable places for good eats; and most of all, fed my soul with the tribute to Janie and Mel Master. To crib from Tyler Wiard’s comment, “simply delicious!” Jude DeLorca Denver “IRONY ALERT,” BENJAMIN NEUFELD, SEPTEMBER 14 M A K I N G T H E L I S T This is so gross! How can someone be so vo- cal against this kind of thing and then turn around and do it themselves? Tony Mason Denver Hopefully they are both now blacklisted from anything to do with Denver music and Denver politics. Josh Petre Denver “REMEMBERING MEL AND JANIE MASTER,” BILL ST. JOHN, SEPTEMBER 14 T H A N K S F O R T H E M E M O R I E S Who could forget Mel’s in Cherry Creek? It was a great place to go for a good meal for years. Karla Norvell Wheat Ridge What a beautiful and well-deserved tribute. They certainly left their mark on the most fabulous days Denver ever expe- rienced. Godspeed, and thank you. Lisa Olson Denver The golden years of Denver dining. Beau- tifully recounted, Bill. They shall rest in peace, working the room. John Westcott Denver “PRIME NUMBERS,” CATIE CHESHIRE, AUGUST 31 C U O N T H E F I E L D I would love a college education system that didn’t force things to be run like a business. We do have a bizarre system compared to the rest of the world, where athletic pro- grams are key marketing for universities, and universities’ primary incentive is to attract students who can pay high tuition. Ed Briscoe Denver I’d pay Deion Sanders double right now before anyone else gets an idea that he needs to be their next coach. There are about fi ve people in the world who are as talented at what they do as Sanders is. Pay him now. The grift is the University of Colorado not being affordable for people from Colorado. We all go to CSU. I love CU football, but the actual university is a grift. Ben Beeby Northglenn Tuition has become insane at CU com- pared to when I went there twenty years ago; I think it will only go up more now. But at least you get a great football team for the costs compared to the last ten years. Jeremy Heimlich Denver I thought CU was such a great team. So why did it take double overtime for them to win over CSU? Just another loudmouth jock. Steven Giles Denver ON THE COVER ART BY GETTY IMAGES/MILE HIGH TRAVELER LETTERS T O T H E E D I T O R YOU CAN COMMENT ON ANY STORY AT WESTWORD.COM; SEND LETTERS TO [email protected] Don’t miss a word! The stories in this print edition are just a fraction of the pieces we publish every week on westword.com. For a cheat sheet on all that content, subscribe to our daily newsletter at westword.com/profi le. You can also follow @denverwestword on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. And it’s all free! ART BY JAY VOLLMAR
