Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2024 i 5280 Magazine

My grandmother always wore Dune perfume. She was partial to the color lavender, read voraciously, liked the Green Bay Packers for no particular reason, devoured chocolate with glee, and channeled angels when she sang aloud, which she rarely did when anyone was around (except in church on Sundays). Her name was Betty, but I called her Mama—pronounced Maw-maw, which is common in Appalachia—and she called me “honey,” as in “I love you too, honey” whenever we said goodbye over the phone. Those were, in fact, the last words she said to me before she died last year at the age of 97. I was fortunate to have a living grandparent well into my 40s, and she went peacefully in her sleep on a hot August day. Her death was not…

Percussionists in LED-rimmed top hats bang on drums. Inflatable, insect-like creatures gyrate in the crowd. Multicolored lasers pierce a layer of fog. Every performer wears a mask. In short: If Mad Max merged with The Phantom of the Opera, the result would be an Itchy-O concert. An underground music favorite, Denver’s Itchy-O is well-known for its blatantly bizarre live performances. Other details about the ensemble are difficult to come by, though. Born in 2009, the group has an unidentified founder and sixtysomething anonymous members who play percussion, guitar, and cymbals—and shroud themselves in elaborate, often creepy costumes. Itchy-O’s founder-who-cannot-be-named says the group creates otherworldly environments to get audiences out of their heads. “There’s a paradox where kind of terrifying stuff is happening, but then people are like, ‘Why am…

9 a.m. Be inside Edgewater Public Market when 18-month-old Black Box Bakery opens to grab a latte or Americano and one of its viral croissant cubes. 10 a.m. If you need a midmorning mimosa, decade-old Rupert’s at the Edge does bottles for $18.50. 12 p.m. Grab some pad krapow gai (spicy chicken with basil) and drunken noodles to go from two-year-old La Mai Thai Kitchen, located on the west side of the lake. Devour your lunch at one of the park’s picnic tables, where the people-watching is as captivating as the skyline views. 4 p.m. Toast the day with a bubbly Sunset Spritz at the four-year-old Patio at Sloan’s or a refreshing Black Razz Blonde at 10-year-old Joyride Brewing Company (pictured). 6:30 p.m. Head to six-month-old ChoLon Sloan’s Lake, situated in…

Death Doesn’t Become Us People have a problem with death—which is odd, really, because other than being born, dying is one of the very few things that we will all experience as human beings. Yet it is only whispered about, if it is discussed at all. We fear it, so we ignore it. Then, when the last breath arrives, we are staggered by the hurt and ill-equipped to manage the obligations that come with laying a loved one to rest. ¶ It is during the liminal hours between the end and the what-needs-to-happen-next—a bleary, anguished, disorienting time—that many of us first encounter the funeral industry. In those vulnerable moments, we often blindly trust a stranger to take possession of our mother or grandfather or husband or daughter and handle our…

SUNSET MESA FUNERAL HOME Montrose, 2018 Case File: Between 2010 and 2018, Megan Hess and Shirley Koch—the daughter-and-mother team behind Sunset Mesa Funeral Home—promised hundreds of families that they would cremate their loved ones. Instead, Hess and her mother, without permission, disarticulated the bodies and sold the parts to body broker services, which work with medical research or educational institutions to provide human tissue for anatomy classes. Hess would then deliver fake cremains—often a mixture of cement—to the families. In 2018, the FBI raided the funeral home after receiving tips about illegal activities. Outcome: Hess and Koch pleaded guilty to mail fraud and aiding and abetting. In January 2023, the women were sentenced to 20 and 15 years in prison, respectively; however, in July, an appeals court ruled that the…

ON A BRISK DAY in early January, Adam Frisch, the Democratic congressional candidate for Colorado’s 3rd District, is in Denver for an event at the National Western Stock Show and to see a Nuggets game—and to accept a moral, if anticlimactic, victory. He’s wearing a suit jacket with subtle Western stitching, a pressed blue button-down, and dark slacks accented by a red-and-white embroidered belt. There’s an American flag pinned to his lapel. Today, Frisch isn’t wearing the cowboy boots so many Western Slope politicians favor and instead wears sporty blue dress shoes. After all, even though there are some ranchers in his family’s history, he’s not a cowboy. Frisch, in his own words, is a fairly successful, straight, middle-aged white guy from Aspen trying to become the first Democrat since 2010…

Freelance writer Purchasing a home isn’t an easy process for anyone, especially in a competitive market like Denver. But once a buyer has keys in hand, some of the stress usually abates. That hasn’t been the case for writer Daliah Singer and her husband, Zach Wolfel, both former 5280 staffers. In this month’s “Buyer Beware” (page 30), Singer details the litany of issues the couple has experienced since closing on a new-build duplex earlier this year. What the pair thought would be a turnkey property has instead become a lesson in what happens when a population boom means housing is built quickly and existing guardrails are insufficient. There was a leak in a basement window. An air conditioning unit didn’t work. The floorboards separated. As each new problem popped up,…

The Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company’s (BETC) 2022 staging of The Royale, about a Black boxer during the Jim Crow era, won nine Henry Awards, Colorado’s version of the Tony Awards. Despite the show’s success, BETC’s future was in question the following season, after its founders announced they were leaving the company. Enter: Mark Ragan, who moved to Colorado in 2014 after retiring as the CEO of his Chicago communications company and started dabbling in regional theater. Ragan and Jessica Robblee, an actor and director in Colorado, took over as BETC’s managing director and artistic director, respectively. We spoke with Ragan before his second season in charge to find out how his plans to save the 18-year-old company are playing out. 5280: What’s your background in theater? Mark Ragan: I fell into…

At Convict Coffee Company in Parker, the walls are decorated with prints from the Colorado-based Prison Art Experience, which gives incarcerated creatives the chance to earn income through their work. Some of the baked goods are sourced from Treasure House of Hope, a nonprofit that provides housing and career development opportunities for those seeking positive life changes. And alongside staples like Americanos and lattes, there are one-of-a-kind drinks such as the Orange Jumpsuit (Orange Crush and vanilla creamer). The six-month-old coffeeshop’s unusual theme comes courtesy of Dan Klehm, who has the life experience to back it up: After serving nearly two years for various crimes in his early 20s, he worked his way up, from management to chief operating officer, at chains such as Applebee’s Grill & Bar and Rock…

1913 The Colorado State Board of Embalming Examiners forms to ensure unqualified people don’t perform inadequate embalming practices that can transmit infectious diseases, especially smallpox. 1968 The board, now called the Board of Mortuary Science, is placed within the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA). 1977 A report from the Office of the State Auditor says the board has become irrelevant because small-pox had been eradicated. The report also states that the board had not adequately protected consumers and that license renewal was a revenue-generating procedure instead of a way to prove licensee competence. The audit suggests the board be disbanded. 1983 The Colorado General Assembly terminates the board and licensure. 1990 The Colorado Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association asks DORA to reinstate regulation of funeral practitioners. DORA declines, saying…

5280: Not everyone says they want to work in a funeral home as a kid—how did you come to it? Faith Haug: I was just drawn to it. I feel like people who knew me as a child would be like, “Yup, that seems about right.” Really, though, I like the skill set it requires: You have to know microbiology, chemistry, anatomy, counseling skills, logistics, business, art, religion. You also must understand grief. What don’t most people understand about the job? It’s a 24/7 career with no holidays or weekends. It’s a job that takes it out of you and often doesn’t give that much back. You have to focus on a grieving family that is never happy to see you. It’s money that has to be spent but not…

ONE Traditional burial is what most people think of when discussing final disposition plans, and it might be right for you if you: • Want to have a conventional funeral service, possibly with public viewing, and are OK with being embalmed, a procedure that drains the blood and replaces it with chemicals that temporarily preserve the body • Are down with paying for the vessel (on average, prices range from $2,000 to $5,000), the grave liner or vault (starting around $1,000), and a cemetery plot (between $1,000 and $4,500 on average) • Don’t mind the environmental impact of embalming fluids leeching into the soil, the carbon emissions released when metal caskets degrade in the ground, and the fertilizers, herbicides, and water resources used on traditional cemetery land • All of…

PRICE KEY Average Entrée $ under $15 $$ $16 to $20 $$$ $21 to $30 $$$$ $31 and higher SYMBOL KEY Indicates a restaurant featured in 5280 for the first time (though not necessarily a restaurant that has just opened). Indicates inclusion in 5280’s 2024 list of Denver’s best restaurants. These selections are at the discretion of 5280 editors and are subject to change. ACE EAT SERVE $$$ Uptown / Asian This Uptown restaurant and ping-pong hall features Asian-inspired cuisine and 10 ping-pong tables. Try the Sichuan shrimp wontons. Reservations accepted. 501 E. 17th Ave., 303-800-7705. Dinner, Brunch AFRICAN GRILL & BAR $$ Lakewood / African Explore a bevy of dishes from across Africa at this warm and inviting restaurant run by the Osei-Fordwuo family. Peanut soups, samosas, and jollof rice are just some of the…

Road cycling, mountain biking, gravel riding: You’d think Coloradans would have enough pedal-propelled pursuits. Two outfitters in the state, however, beg to differ. In 2021, Revolution Rail Co. began offering railbike rides along repurposed tracks near South Fork, and this past summer Colorado Railbike Adventures started plying 150-year-old rails in Erie. With five East Coast locations in addition to its two Rio Grande–adjacent routes, Revolution is a national pioneer of the tourist-friendly activity, which draws inspiration from the handcars used for railway maintenance in train travel’s heyday. Today’s railbikes are built for leisurely cruising with four wheels and pedal-equipped, high-backed seats. “We had over 4,800 riders in our first 12 weeks, ranging from six weeks old to 92 years old,” says Colorado Railbike Adventures owner Jeff Rummer, whose father, Bob,…

Along the Front Range, there are old-school red sauce joints sporting plaid table-cloths and serving heaping portions. Then there are upscale Italian eateries with petite bowls of lobster-studded handmade pastas and eye-poppingly expensive wine lists. Pizzerias, delis, and homey family-style bistros fill the spaces in between. But where does six-month-old Gusto fit in? Even after my third visit to the new Sloan’s Lake spot from chef Lon Symensma, whose résumé includes owning Pan-Asian and French eateries ChoLon, YumCha, and now-closed Bistro LeRoux in downtown Denver, I still couldn’t decide. Then I realized that what the establishment does best is what makes it so difficult to define: Here, you don’t have to pick one Italian archetype over another, because Gusto, tucked inside the Lakehouse Residences building facing Sloan’s Lake Park, straddles…

Gregory Lowe can barely get the words out. He works at Ace Hardware in Montrose, so he knew what Sunset Mesa Funeral Home had given his mother wasn’t his father’s remains. “It looked like concrete patch when we opened it,” says Lowe, whose family was contacted by the FBI several years after his dad’s death. “We sell it at the store. Gray, ashy-looking stuff. I was like, What the heck? That’s not human ash.” Lowe was correct. Instead of cremating his father as they were paid to do, Megan Hess and Shirley Koch had sold his body parts. The owners of Sunset Mesa had done the same thing with the body of 46-year-old David McCarthy Jr., a fact his wife, Danielle (pictured above), didn’t know until the FBI called her…

SENATE BILL 24-173 The Pertinent Parts SB 24-173 mandates that an individual obtain a license to practice as a funeral director, a mortuary science practitioner, an embalmer, a cremationist, or a natural reductionist. To get that license, an applicant must pass a background check and meet the requirements for each area of practice; these vary slightly but typically include graduating from an accredited mortuary science school or receiving official certifications from an approved association, passing relevant parts of a national board exam, and receiving workplace learning for a year or longer. What It Means For Coloradans By January 1, 2027, anyone working as a funeral services practitioner in the state will be licensed. The law also establishes grounds for disciplining an applicant or license holder and authorizes DORA to take…

Andy was a ski bum and beer lover I met in Santa Fe. We got married in 2011 and moved to Colorado in 2014. I work as a forensic scientist, and Andy was the best stay-at-home dad to our daughter, who was five when he was first diagnosed with leukemia. He had a bone marrow transplant and was in remission for two and a half years before the cancer came back in August 2021. We’d never really had a conversation about what he’d want done if he ever died, but a friend of mine’s wife had died suddenly, and he told me he regretted never having had that talk with her. Bringing up that conversation with Andy was difficult for me. I didn’t want him to think that I thought…

Jamie Sarche doesn’t like small talk. She likes big talk. That fact became very clear when Jim Cohen, the owner of Denver’s Feldman Mortuary, asked her to pop into his office, where he and I had been chatting. After Cohen pointed at me and summarily informed his director of preplanning that “she doesn’t have a person,” Sarche smiled a warm smile and said something like, “Well, then we’ll take care of it with you.” By “it,” Sarche meant my funeral. I’m 45 years old, I am healthy and fit for my age, and I don’t have any immediate plans to kick it. But as Cohen rightly pointed out, I do not have a spouse. I also don’t have any children. In other words, I don’t have the people in my…