Get TIO in your Inbox!

June 2009

My quick morning bike ride in Telluride is a grunt up Mill Creek Road then a fast downhill home, with a short stop at the creek at the bottom so Gina the dog can cool out. ...

04 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Eileen Burns' conversation with Balloonmeister, Peter Procopio]

by Eileen Burns

photo credit: Steve Cieciuch

BalloonFest_0652 BalloonFest_0657 Up, up and away:  The 26th annual Telluride Balloon Festival flies this weekend, June 6th and 7th, with daily launches from Telluride's Town Park.  Balloonmeister Peter Procopio and 15 of his colleagues will begin inflating their multi-colored hot air balloons at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.  Weather permitting, balloon pilots will launch around 7 a.m. and fly towards the Valley Floor, or wherever the wind may take them. “We’ve all had dreams of drifting along with the breeze,” stated Procopio.  Although staying within the valley and keeping below 12,000 feet is challenging for the crew, Procopio admits that flying in Telluride is worth the effort.  “The people are so inviting and the town is so beautiful, we look forward to coming back each year,” he explained.
 
A highlight of the festival is the main street Telluride Balloon Glo.  To get a closer look at the beautiful designs of the participating balloons, you’ll want to gather with the locals on Colorado Avenue, Saturday evening, around 8:45 p.m.  When the burners are lit, not only do the balloons light up the street, they also light up the beautiful historic buildings.  It’s a sight to remember.

04 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Paul Machado]

Paul, Flora and Airto Paul Machado took over the helm of the Telluride Jazz Celebration in 1991 reconfiguring the event with aplomb and extending the venue to include local clubs and the Mountain Village. The depth and breadth of his stellar programming and the mountain setting add up to a musical weekend second to none in the world.

For Paul, "jazz" is not just any four letter word, nor does the handle refer to any one specific thing. If Lawrence Welk plays a song John Coltrane wrote, that's not jazz. If John Coltrane plays Lawrence Welk, it is. Jazz for Paul is contextual. For him, the label refers to a certain kind of spontaneous interaction on stage and off. It is an opportunity to enjoy internationally in a unique setting. At its center, Paul believes his Jazz Celebration is an aural elixir that makes a person's ears smile.

04 June, 2009 /

Angelsanddemons_teaser The Nugget Theatre in Telluride continues showing "Star Trek" this week and adds "Angels and Demons" nightly. Both programs are rated PG-13.

In "Angels and Demons" Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) must follow an arcane set of clues to prevent the destruction of the Vatican. This Dan Brown follow-on to "The Da Vinci Code" finds Langdon between religion and science, a dangerous place to be, it turns out.

See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews of both movies.

04 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Ozomatli's Ulises Bella]

OZObyJonCoulthard268 Telluride Jazz Celebration's impresario Paul Machado programs for cultural diversity, including everything from mainstream to mariachi. This year, booking one act alone, he could have covered all his bases.

Ozomatli plays a notorious mash of hip hop and salsa, dancehall and cumbia, samba and funk, merengue and comparsa, East L.A. r&b and New Orleans second line, Jamaican reggae, Indian raga and rock.

Ozomatli. The name comes from the Nahuatl word for the Aztec astrological symbol of the monkey, also a god of dance, fire, the new harvest – and music.

03 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to listen to Judy Kohin]

Daniel_Judy_bw The Ah Haa School for the Arts in Telluride was founded in 1990 by professional book artist Daniel Tucker to provide the community with arts and crafts enrichment education – only art was just part of a larger vision.

Out of the gate, Daniel saw Ah Haa as a "beacon of light" in our community, a place that both inspires and unifies. From Day One, the school's current director, Tracee Hennigar, has had her eyes firmly fixed on that prize: building a community center with a capital "C."
03 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to listen to Susan's conversation with Daniel Tucker]

Daniel_new On Thursday, June 4, 5 – 7 p.m., Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts celebrates its founder, naming its new gallery at the old Depot after the visionary Daniel Tucker.

Daniel is intuitive and a book artist, whose work is assured a place in history. The company he founded with partner Claire Owen in 1975, Turtle Island Press, has titles in the collections of major museums/ institutions including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art; The New York Public Library; The Library of Congress; The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany; and London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

02 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Christian Scott]

996418782_l At the 33rd annual Telluride Jazz Celebration, audiences get to come face to face with the future of the genre: young trumpeter Christian Scott. The past is a given.

At the turn of the 20th century, jazz  – or "jass" – referred to the kind of music created by obscure black musicians and played in brothels. The word itself was slang for making love.

At early light, jazz was simply a synthesis of Western harmonic language and forms combined with the rhythms and melodic inflections of Africa. In the 60s, the genre waxed emotional, screaming, moaning and piercing the ear with atonality. The 70s was schizophrenic: The decade witnessed a revival, a return to traditional concepts like Big Band. Newness came from a fusion with rock and the modal themes and drone effects of Eastern religion. In the 80s, the jazz train gained speed with a stronger emphasis on Afro-Latino sounds, especially Brazilian. And so on..

02 June, 2009 /

[click "Play" to hear Eileen Burns' conversation with William DeMille]

by Eileen Burns

All-mini-ag Monday, June 1, noon– 1p.m., Wilkinson Public Library, William and Vernie DeMille, founders of MiniAg and owners of Paradox Valley CSA, host the first of a four-part series of seminars, "MiniAg Garden". 

MiniAg is all about teaching people how to grow food in their own backyard.  Today's topic: "The 15 Minute Farmer." The talk centers around the power of drip irrigation, the benefits of intensive gardening, how to build healthy soil and time management. 

For 35 years the DeMilles have been raising organic fruit and vegetables, along with beef and dairy cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, and all kinds of poultry.  They moved to the region from Northern Missouri after discovering the nutrient rich Western  mountain soil of Paradox, Colorado. There they established their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm.  CSAs provide local shareholders with baskets of fresh seasonal food year round.

01 June, 2009 /