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September 2009

[click "Play" to hear Kate Sibley speak of TFF's educational outreach]


2006 alumni The Telluride Film Festival stands out among the more than 2,000 similar events around the globe for lots of reasons, not the least of which is location, location, location.

The Telluride Film Festival is known to frown upon brown-nosing stars or the media. Quality trumps quantity: the Festival directors vet their selection down to just 20 – 30 films, new and restored, feature length and short. (Only New York does the same diligence.)

05 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" for Ted's story about Bojangles]

Images Over this Labor Day weekend, Telluride celebrates the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival. This week's post from Telluride Inside and Out's dog expert Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, concerns a dog whose breed has star power. From the hero of "Please Don't Eat the Daisies," Disney's "The Shaggy Dog" and Nurse Nana of "Peter Pan" Old English Sheepdogs have stolen the hearts of millions of young cinephiles, captivated by these huge Steiff toys come to life.

When the breed first crossed the pond, it went straight to the top, entering aristocratic families such as the Goulds, Guggenheims, Morgans, and Vanderbilts. The Old English held their place at the top of the food chain until the late 1950s, when a champion named Fezziwig Ceiling Zero became Top Dog in the show world and everyone wanted Nana. The breed's popularity peaked in the 1970s, when an average of 15,000 Old English Sheepdogs were  registered each year with the AKC. However, as besotted owners soon realized: Old English are high maintenance.

05 September, 2009 /

In 1966, long before I had even heard of Telluride, I fell in love with Anouk Aimee, one of the Telluride Film Festival's tributees for 2009. I was a young 707 pilot for Northwest Airlines and saw "Un Homme et une Femme" on a...

04 September, 2009 /

Have you checked out our new horizontal navigation bar? Slick, isn't it? Have you seen it lately? Just in time for the 2009 Telluride Film Festival, we've put up a link to a new page collecting all the best stories from TFF, both past and...

04 September, 2009 /
[click for Gary Meyer's conversation with Susan about the Festival program]

Pasted Graphic It is deja vu all over again as the curtain goes up on the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival, this weekend, September 4 – September 7. The picture on the world screen is dark as pitch: war, genocide, political debauchery and corruption, economic bubbles burst. If there's a silver lining, the toughest times may produce the greatest art – or not.

In 1929, after the global stock market crash, the top grossing film was "The Broadway Melody," escapist treacle based on a backstage show business love triangle. "Broadway Melody," MGM's first musical, was also the first sound film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. The recession of the early 1990s produced "Home Alone," a feel-good family classic featuring an eight-year-old left behind when his family heads out for a Christmas vacation. In 2001, the year America lost its innocence – and possibly its mojo – the trifecta of 9/11, the collapse of the dot.com bubble and corporate scandal led to another socio-economic contraction. The film to beat: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," a movie about a boy magician and his fight against Voldemort and the forces of evil. (Parsing the metaphor is child's play.) Which brings us to the present crisis and the sanguivorous. (And more obvious metaphors about blood-suckers.)

04 September, 2009 /

[click "Play" to hear Gary Meyer talk about "the big picture"]Julie Huntsinger, Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer There are about 2500 film festival across the globe, of which about 1700 are similar to the Telluride Film Festival, still, TFF is widely regarded as in a league...

04 September, 2009 /

[click "Play" to hear Kristin Holbrook's take on boots] Let's play a game of free association. We live in Telluride, so when we say "boot," you probably say "ski." Right? Not if you are Kristin Holbrook of Two Skirts. Telluride Inside and Out's fashionista says,...

04 September, 2009 /

September 3 to 10, 2009

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

The Virgo/Pisces Full Moon Polarity: Working to Make Dreams Come True


1 The Virgo/Pisces axis of the September 4th Full Moon illuminates the polarity between what we dream about and what we do. Hopes, dreams and visions, fantasy and imagination are all subjects in the Pisces kingdom. And across the deep, shining sea lies the land of Virgo – terra firma upon which the workers work to build the dream and manifest the vision, one day and one step at a time. 

 Pisces listens to celestial music, floats on clouds and swims in oceans of emotion while Virgo hears the hustle and bustle of progress, critiques the process and improves the product. Virgo is the sign of analysis and logic; Pisces is the sign of intuition and mysticism. Virgo corresponds to physical embodiment; Pisces relates to spiritual transcendence.

Throughout the Virgo zodiac month, we are called upon to focus, simplify and consolidate. We are asked to discern and sacrifice, take responsibility, cut the fluff and eliminate excess. It’s all about cleanliness and organization, self-esteem and self-improvement, good deeds and nutritious diets. Health is wealth. It’s a time to show up and get the proverbial job done.

04 September, 2009 /

Thursday, September 3, the Telluride Council on Arts & Humanities' First Thursday Telluride Art Walk continues.  Venues in downtown Telluride join forces for a cultural celebration, staying open “late ‘til 8”. The joint is jumping with stills from "Welcome Back," by Jeffrey Schers at Schilling...

03 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Corinne on her work]

CorinneScheman The Stronghouse Studios/Gallery is home base for the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities, which sponsors the First Thursday Art Walk, when galleries, studios, and shops stay open late until 8 p.m. to strut their stuff. Many venues, Stronghouse among them, hold artists' receptions, 5 – 8 p.m. The event was designed to deepen ties between Telluride’s business and cultural economies by exposing locals and visitors to emerging and established artists and the town’s vibrant retail scene.

Stronghouse is featuring new works Corinne Scheman, landscapes, what the artist showed last year in the same venue only different. Because Corrine has changed, grown, moved on. And art is made from dreams and visions and things not known that come from within.

03 September, 2009 /