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July 2009

[click "Play to listen to Marcia Cohen on Geek Fest]

4__#$!@%!#__unknown How the word "pinhead" entered the Telluride lexicon is a matter of conjecture - but all roads lead to L.L. Nunn and his power plants. 

One version of the story suggests the term "pinhead" refers to the original geeks running around Telluride at the turn of the 20th century.  It seems Nunn had developed a work-study program to get alternating current to run his mine, and the initiative was so successful, he bought more mines in Colorado and Utah, spreading his scholars around. Nunn kept track of the whereabouts of his minions by sticking pushpins into maps. 

A geek tends to be odd, overly intellectual – in this country, anyone who prefers arugula to french fries – and generally prefers his computer to other human interests. (A nerd is simply a geek with more RAM and a faster modem.) Geeks tend to wear totemic Clark Kent glasses and are authentically unhip.

On Thursday, July 9, 6:30 p.m., Ah Haa School at the old Depot, 300 South Townsend, the Pinhead Institute, a Smithsonian affiliate institute is hosting its fourth annual Geek Fest: Get Your Green On. The event includes dining, drinks and dancing to DJ Ryan Smith and a silent auction.

06 July, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Dayne Conrad & John Ehlers on Amlavi]

Australia New Zealand April 2007 209 Listen, Telluride: It is no longer just about solar panels, wind turbines and bio-diesel. America's green revolution has infiltrated the world of beauty.

One of the Telluride Yoga Festival sponsors, Amlavi heads an alphabet of new labels representing super effective, eco-friendly cosmetics, bath products and scents, including companies making soy polish remover (Priti), producing make-up brushes fashioned from sustainable wood and brushed recycled aluminum (Ecotools Cosmetic Brushes), making nontoxic nail polish (Sula Paint & Peel), and producing mascara (Organic Wear).

06 July, 2009 /
Download Jacques Parker, 10th Mtn Div [download file to hear Jacques Parker talk about his experience with the 10th Mtn in WWII]

IMG_3588 I had the unique opportunity to talk to a living legend in my Telluride living room on July 3. Jacques Parker had agreed to an interview, and what a treat to hear from one of the participants what it was like to be at Camp Hale (near Leadville, CO for the uninitiated) for training, how he came to be a combat artist, about the camaraderie among the men of the 10th Mountain Division during the Second World War, and generally to have a good conversation with a real gentleman.

Fourteen years ago, Beth and George Gage, Telluride locals and well known documentary filmmakers made "Fire on the Mountain" about the 10th. The film is being screened at 6:00 pm, Monday, July 6, at the Sheridan Opera House. The movie is the highlight of Telluride Mountainfilm's Summer fundraiser.

05 July, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Liz Lance on the Media and Beauty]

Liz_about On Monday, July 6:30 p.m., at Telluride's Wilkinson Public LIbrary, itinerant daughter Liz Lance plans a multimedia presentation of her Fulbright research on the subject of beauty and the way mass media affects ideas about body image and femininity in Nepal.

The conversation has never been more interesting. We live in a world of swizzle stick celebrities, binge diets and surgeons armed with needles, scalpels, lasers, whatever is desired or required to overhaul anyone with a chunky checkbook from head to toe. Make-up, skin and hair care, cosmetic surgery, health clubs and diet pills rolls up to a global industry worth over $160 billion per annum.

05 July, 2009 /

July 2 to 9, 2009

Visible Planets: Morning: Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter  Evening: Saturn

Michael_jackson_casanova_in_concert Once again, this week’s “eclipse window” opens to some rather stunning world news as the Sun and Moon move into the exact opposition aspect of a lunar eclipse on July 7th. Taking place at 3:21 a.m. MDT @ 15º 24’ Cancer/Capricorn, this particular eclipse illuminates themes of home and family, mother and father, parent and child. Also highlighted are the dichotomies and polarities of traditional parental roles and relationships, themes of nurturing and caretaking, family of origin issues and issues related to professional status, achievement and/or failure.

 The most outstanding collectively experienced media event – and one that perfectly constellates the Cancer/Capricorn archetype – is the death of pop-icon Michael Jackson, his multi-dimensional life story and the multi-faceted jeweled legacy he leaves behind. His unique and eccentric lifestyle, whether a direct or indirect result of his aborted childhood and unusual family conditioning, serves as a rich tapestry for all to examine and reflect upon. The love, nurturing and emotional security characteristically found in childhood at home (Cancer) appears to have been sacrificed for the financial gain, professional achievement and economic success of world-wide recognition, wealth and fame (Capricorn).

03 July, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Philip Glass]

Portrait2a There is nothing minimalist about Philip Glass when it comes to loving.

Last year, the iconic musical wizard came to town for the Telluride Musicfest just to watch his ladylove, bravura cellist Wendy Sutter, perform. Caught up in the electrifying energy of the world-class chamber music event, he wound up giving an impromptu performance in the Mais' living room at the old Skyline Guest Ranch, home base for the concert series. At the end of the season, Glass asked artistic director, virtuoso violinist Maria Bachmann, if he could return as the 2009 Composer-in-Residence. Who would turn down the man described by renowned New Yorker critic Alex Ross as  "Without a doubt, America's most famous living composer of classical music?"

03 July, 2009 /