4 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | W ® 17 HOT TOPIC How the Mosco family created Colorado’s green chile dynasty. BY CATIE CHESHIRE 9 MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE David Sirota’s new podcast traces the origins of Project 2025 back to Joseph Coors. BY BRENDAN JOEL KELLEY 14 SHOP OF HORRORS Anna Lyon has found her lair with Wicked Basement Books. BY JUSTIN CRIADO 21 PUNK POLITICS Queer punk band Soy Celesté celebrates Feminista Manifestó with a free release show. BY EMILY FERGUSON 14 Culture 17 Cafe 21 Music CONCERTS/CLUBS ................................... 22 27 Marijuana CANNABIS CALENDAR ............................ 27 ASK A STONER ......................................... 28 VOLUME 48 NUMBER 5 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2, 2024 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] ON THE COVER PHOTOGRAPH OF JAMES PINO BY EVAN SEMÓN 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! PHOTOGRAPH BY EVAN ANDERMAN “HIGH ON THE HIGH LINE,” BENNITO L. KELTY, SEPTEMBER 19 W H E E L I N G A N D D E A L I N G Thank you for the fascinating story on the High Line Canal. Good to know that something good came out of another Colorado boondoggle. Harris Foster Denver They seriously need to give a good fl ood of water to the High Line Canal in good years to give the beautiful and enormous old cotton- wood trees a good drink and a hope of surviv- ing for years to come. Why was the water that used to run through (now and then) shut off? It’s a spectacular place all along the wind- ing path. Great birding and wildlife and walking/biking. Richard Ramsey Denver “DUMBEST BIKE LANE IN DENVER?,” BENNITO L. KELTY, SEPTEMBER 19 S T I C K T O Y O U R O W N L A N E This isn’t California. Colorado has four sea- sons. It’s impractical to cater to entitled trans- plants who can’t bike with the weather here. Felicia Amor Pueblo Thanks for the attention to improving Denver streets. I do want to counter the com- pletely negative views of the Broadway bike lane, though. I live in the Baker neighborhood, and I can tell you that the protected bike lane from Seventh to Center, and a signalized in- tersection put in at Fifth a couple of years ago, have made my life better. In particular, it has improved bicycle rider access to the Capitol Hill neighborhood from Baker. My daughter uses the lane to get to Morey Middle School. I use it to get to Ideal Market, Pie Hole, Illegal Pete’s and Natural Grocers on Broadway. The protected lane defi nitely needs to be extended all the way through downtown and out to South Broadway (south of I-25), and maybe there should be a protected lane on both sides of Broadway, rather than a two-way on the east side. But it is an improvement from the prior state. Belatedly, I would like to put my vote in for the stupidest bike lane: Third Avenue, just west of the rail tracks crossing Kalamath, for maybe four blocks to Osage/Rio Grande. A wide painted lane with painted buffer from traffi c and parked cars. Runs on each side of the street. No bike lanes lead into it, and none lead out. A mostly industrial zone, the lane runs the length of the Xcel property. I suspect that Xcel put it in for some sort of tax boondoggle (I have no direct evidence of that; I just can’t think of any other reason for the lane to exist). Patrick Bosque Denver The one along Yale in between University and Colorado is pretty dumb. There are several curves, and one in particular is an accident waiting to happen. Patrick O’Brien Denver From Cheesman Park to Broadway, there are bike lane markers on the street on 12th Avenue; also, there is the number 10 bus, and no room with parking on both sides of the street. One block south is 11th Avenue, with bike lanes on both sides of the street, no buses, and a 7-Eleven and other amenities along the way from Cheesman to Broadway. So much safer and pleasant. The bike lanes continue to Speer. It just makes me cringe to see bikers on 12th with a bus chugging slowly behind. Arlo Panter Denver “TURNING THE CORNER,” CHRIS MARHEVKA, SEPTEMBER 12 S T A T I O N B R E A K Thank you for the story about Johnson’s Station. I love learning more about the his- tory of this place. Emma Wild Boulder This is destined to be a very cool hangout. Carl DeVere Longmont