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June 2009

[click "Play" to hear Eliza Gavin's interview]
Eliza_book-2
Warning: do not read further if you are on a diet (again) or it's been a few hours since you ate your last meal. The mouthwatering menu at Eliza Gavin's Telluride eatery, "221 South Oak," is an eclectic blend of flavors and styles.

The mix at Eliza's table reflects the chef's southern heritage. She was raised in Richmond, Virginia and ran her first kitchen while attending college at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Her extensive travels –   Europe, the Caribbean, New Zealand, Australia, and all over the United States,  Seattle, Boston, Nantucket, the Chesapeake Bay, the Deep South and California – are likewise reflected on the plate, as is her rigorous training.

24 June, 2009 /
IMG_2679 Over time, there are certain facts of life around Town Park Telluride Festivarians have come to expect, like afternoon showers.

Park your attitude at the front gate. Noblesse oblige does not get you very far – certainly not back stage. 

Days at Telluride Bluegrass begin with the running of the tarp crack of 9 or 10 a.m.
(Diehards camp out all night for house seats.)

23 June, 2009 /

The Telluride Bluegrass Festivarian and bride-to-be was hanging on to the gate, shaking a shoe and frantically waving a cardboard sign which read "Play My Wedding," at the band on stage. Kay Vollmayer was not disappointed.Greensky Bluegrass, former band contest winners and new Festival...

23 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Chef Richard Chen on the Telluride Wine Festival]

Chef Richard Chen - Wing Lei photo by Barbara Kraft

Forget what you remember about the Chinese food from your childhood when superstar chef Richard Chen comes to town for the 28th annual Telluride Wine Festival. We are not talking about Moo goo gai anything. We are talking strictly uptown: "Reverse fusion." Chef Chen's food is French-influenced Shanghai, a mix of Shanghai, Cantonese, and Szechwan cuisines. His restaurant, Wing Lei at The Wynn, Las Vegas, is the only Chinese eatery in North America to have earned a Michelin star and the AAA Four Diamond award, also in 2008.

Cooking is in Chef Chen's  DNA. He began his career at the age of seven, working in his parents’ restaurant in his native Taiwan, and continued to work in their kitchen after the family established a restaurant in suburban Chicago.

23 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Maria Bachman on the concert series]

Telluride 2009 5
The seven year itch may ring true for marriages, but fans of the Telluride Musicfest have grown more ardent over the years – and with good reason. The heavy breathing always begins when the Hungarian beauty picks up her 18th century instrument, a Niccolo Gagliano violin, and starts fiddling: The ensuing pyrotechnics mesmerize.

She is Maria Bachman, artistic director of the Telluride Musicfest and a member of the Trio Solisti, recently described by The New Yorker as "the most exciting piano trio in America." The musical materiality between her and her colleagues,  Alexis Pia Gerlach on cello and Jon Klibonoff on piano, is the reason: their complicity is perfect and other-worldly. They play as one.

23 June, 2009 /

by Daiva Chesonis

Otdofsccoversmall[1] Penguin Books author Kaya McLaren is touring Colorado. She will be in Telluride at Between the Covers Bookstore & Café on Tuesday, June 23, 7-9 p.m. to read from and discuss her latest novel “On the Divinity of Second Chances.”  This is our first-ever Book Clubs Mixer. A store full of women who like to read-'n'-discuss plus some wine … what could be more fun, right?"

If you’ve ever been given (or given someone else) a second chance, you’ll relate. If you live in a ski town, you’ll relate. (She actually started the novel on a snow day!) If you have children going in a multitude of directions, you’ll relate. If you think dancing can save a relationship, you’ll relate. If you’re menopausal, you’ll relate.

Kaya McLaren's previous book is "The Church of the Dog."  She’s as enthusiastic about living as she is about dogs. (Can you relate?) With weekly closings of some of America’s finest independent bookstores, gathering at creaky floored shops and talking about books is more important than ever. Thanks for your continued support of Telluride’s indie bookstore … We’re only as good as our readers!
 
22 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Bouqion interview]

Bertrand New 1-07dCopy You may hear unfamiliar murmurings on the streets of Telluride this weekend. The conversation won't be about dogs on sacred tracts of land or the local economy.
The talk may be about "terroir" versus technology. This weekend is all about drinking wine, consuming copious amounts of fabulous food. It is the 28th annual Telluride Wine Festival.

The French word “terroir,” from a Latin root meaning “earth,” describes the relationship between a given wine and the place that wine comes from. The ongoing debate in the wine world about “terroir” versus technology asks the question: Is wine about some place or about the expertise of someone, aided by technology? At its heart, however, the debate is all about the Old World, meaning primarily France, telling the New World, meaning places like Napa, it’s all about the land stupid: We have had it for centuries. You are upstarts.

22 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Barbara Heinrich]

Unknown Jeweler Barbara Heinrich of the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art is a gold medal artist specializing in gold. Her professional training began when she was a young woman living in Germany, her native country, where she studied goldsmithing at Pestalozzi Kinderdorf Wahlwies for four years.

Barbara moved to America to earn a second masters degree in her craft at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and never looked over her shoulder.

21 June, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Andrew Karow]

Dad and Morgan at beach Put the words "green" and "bank" in the same sentence and the conclusion is obvious: we are talking about money, right? In this case, half right. Headed by regional president Andrew Karow, Telluride's Alpine Bank is one of 37 branch locations on the Western Slope, whose primary business is managing its collective total of $2 billion in assets. However, the bottom line at Alpine is not just the bottom line: it is about accomplishing its goals in as environmentally friendly way as possible.

Alpine Bank, which is employee-owned, was one of the first businesses in the country to declare a goal of becoming a paperless environment, and they are well on their way. In 2005, the institution took the next big step, creating a Green Team. As the initiative evolved, Alpine did what banks do: It found a way to measure the success of its good idea. Alpine's Environmental Management System (EMS) is now earning recognition statewide for environmental leadership.

21 June, 2009 /