“Der Abschied” is ideal for Simson’s MahlerFest farewell because the text literally describes the parting of two friends. It is, Olson says, “the most colorful, beautiful, intimate piece of music ever written. Period.”

Akerfeldt, singer/songwriter/guitar/driving force of Opeth, says touring is how the band became known outside of Sweden and how it built its following and reputation.

Staying the same for almost 30 years has it benefits, explains Yo La Tengo helmsman Ira Kaplan, but it’s also OK to shuffle the deck once in a while.

Scholarship applications are currently being taken for the Women’s Wilderness Institute girls’ programs. The Institute offers four- to 14-day trips for girls beginning at age 9. Their classes allow girls to try out backpacking, rock climbing and hiking a peak, or delve into a committing trip, like an eight-day backpacking expedition.

SUNDAY, MAY 19: Boulder Bicycle Swap. 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Fat Kitty Cycles, 3380 Arapahoe Ave., Boulder, www.boulderbicycleswap.com.

More than 60,000 people are expected to participate in the Bolder Boulder this year — what “may be the world’s best mass participation race in the United States,” according to Runner’s World magazine.

The City of Boulder is holding two events on May 18 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the East Boulder Community Center, 5660 Sioux Drive, to cover some summer concerns: water restrictions and a noxious weed eradication program.

Deforestation is at the top of the CIA’s list of environmental issues facing Indonesia, and much of it can be attributed to the creation of palm oil plantations, built to satisfy demands of the American market, which has increased the import of palm oil by 485 percent over the last decade.

Something unsightly has gotten a bit too close to one of Boulder’s crown jewels. An environmental contractor hired to deal with possibly hazardous materials from an old gasification plant near the Dushanbe Teahouse downtown has confirmed the need to clean up contamination at the site.

1770 13th St. wasn’t always a center of Boulder culture. For more than 50 years it was home to a towngas manufacturing plant that appears to have left behind a serious mess in the form of soil and groundwater contamination, contamination that is proving to be quite a challenge to clean up, mostly because the City of Boulder built a plaza and a teahouse right on top of it even after it knew the subsurface contamination was an issue.