Up Bear Creek

ANNY SALZMAN … Last month Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper dedicated a bridge across Cherry Creek in honor of Dr. Emanuel Salzman, the founder of the Telluride Mushroom Festival and producer of the event for 25 years. Some time ago, according to his son Jason, Manny spearheaded a campaign to convert the old railroad crossing into a pedestrian bridge. The historic bridge – which would probably have been demolished otherwise – was saved, and it's been used by people and bicyclists ever since. The dedication was followed by an honorary dinner at the Oxford Hotel.

NICKNAME … Jason Salzman, Manny's son, confesses that his 9-year-old son calls Denver's esteemed mayor, John Chickenpooper … Perhaps a fair transliteration for anyone in politics these days.

SHE SHAMANS MEET … Kat Harrison, Telluride Mushroom Festival presenter, is one of the organizers behind a conference about and by women psychonauts, She Shamans and Magic Mamas Conference at the Isis Oasis in Geyserville, Calif., June 23-25. Presenters include Susie Bright, Adele Getty, Cindy Palmer, Sandra Karpetas, Jane Straight, M. Macha NightMare, and others … For more info, check the website (www.sheshamans.com). If you're a woman (or a man – they're welcome as attendees) and the non-Western spirit world of entheogens interests you, this is an event not to miss.

REFLECTIONS FROM A MALE HUBCAP … I love the idea of an open conference where only women are the talking heads. About time! One thing that always bothered me about the Telluride Mushroom Festival was the heavy weighting to male experience in exploring psychedelic issues, as brave as such events were/are in the verboten atmosphere of our current Drug War Idiocy. Don't get me wrong. I loved nothing better than hearing Terence McKenna, Wade Davis, Jonathan Ott, Andrew Weil, Paul Stamets, Sasha Shulgin, Rick Doblin, Gary Lincoff and so many more male voices of wisdom in an age of biological prohibition … Really, it's so silly. Both major parties support the military metaphor for dealing with drug abuse, and then lump euphoriants, entheogens, and religious allies of all kinds into the same categories as meth, heroin, cocaine, while considering the most dangerous drugs of all, alcohol and cigarettes, as legal. None of it would pass the rankest scientific muster … But I believe Kat Harrison hit it on the head, when she wrote, "I think [women] often go deeper without those reflections from male hubcaps." My wiseass coyote self included. Especially in this transitional time, when wise women elders are just beginning to draw the attention of our larger society.

RAINBOW GATHERING … OK, I hope you're getting ready to join the Rainbow Family ("Welcome home!") for its annual national gathering of peace and light. It's in Colorado this year – the rumor has it up around Steamboat Springs … Rainbow's a unique experience. There's no money exchanged. No permits secured. But it's not lawless either. Rainbow's Shanti Sena ("peace army") keeps the peace, along with armed federal forest service officers (like my neighbor Dave Closson whose daughter rides horses with my daughter) … No, the gathering is a chance to step outside this straight workaday reality and enter an alternative giveaway society, a week-long encampment where money is useless, the spirit of peace and love lauded, alcohol and combustion engines are not allowed, and food is given away free at various camp kitchens, like the one that Telluride's generous Rev. Chuck Parry has been running for many years … Rainbow is where Mary Friedberg and I met. It's the middle name of my youngest child. And it's a Goodtimes tradition each Fourth of July to stand in a circle with 10,000 other members of the wider human family – hippies, paleohippies, punks, cybernerds, gays and lesbians, outlaws, devotees, the homeless and the larking rich – and pray in silence for peace, before the children's parade breaks the circle, and the gathering erupts into ecstatic drumming and dance.

POST TURTLE … This one's been making the cyberspace rounds lately … While suturing a cut on the palm of a 75-year-old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the fellow. Eventually, the topic got around to former Texas Governor George W. Bush and his elevation to the White House. The old Texan said, "Well, ya know Bush is like a post turtle." Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a "post turtle" was. The rancher replied, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle." The old man saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain, "You know he didn't get there by himself; he doesn't belong there; he doesn't know what to do while he's up there; and you just want to help the dumb shit get down."

COGNITIVE DISCONNECT … Last week's Watch made me wince. On the front page there was Peter Kenworthy's fine story about the new ICLEI report on sustainability which came to the conclusion that affordable housing "will continue to be the largest sustainability issue in San Miguel County" … And on the op-ed page there was Seth Cagin's excellent editorial, pointing out that de facto, regardless of the political rhetoric and some quite small projects, we've pretty much abandoned the concept of housing our workers in our county … How do we start a sustainability initiative when we've pretty much shot ourselves in the foot on its very first premise?