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December 2009

[click "Play" to listen to Susan talking with Bertrand Marchal]

Bertrand Longtime Telluride locals referred to them as  les deux Bertrands, the two Bertrands: Bertrand Lepel-Cointet, now deceased, worked the front of the house. Bertrand Marchal was the chef. Together, the two owners turned La Marmotte Restaurant into a local institution.

Bertrand Marchal spent his youth studying under some of the best chefs in France, at Michelin-rated restaurants such as Le Crocodile in Strasbourg and Boyer in Reims. Today, he operates his own catering company, Bertrand's Catering.
09 December, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Beth Roberts and Sasha Cuciniello]

DSCN1381 In the early 1870s, miners first came to the Telluride region in search of silver and gold,  but the settlement wasn't called "Telluride." It was named Columbia. But Columbia's post office application was turned down on the grounds a town in California with the same name beat the settlers to the punch. The U.S. Postmaster General resolved the problem in 1880: we got our post office, but it came with a new name:"Telluride."

"Telluride"might have been derived from "tellurium," an element often associated with gold seams. Was the moniker just a crass marketing ploy to lure prospectors to the region? Some subscribe to the idea "Telluride" was code among outlaws. Was the name simple contraction of the phrase "to hell you ride," because way back when Telluride was wild and wooly.

08 December, 2009 /

by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer More than these greens tossed with toasted pecans, I want to serve you the hymn I sung into the wooden bowlas I blended the oil and white vinegar. More than honey ice cream beside the warm pie, I want to serve...

08 December, 2009 /
[click to listen to Sally Strand on her art]

Strand_Awake200808_CC_LG Sally Strand is one of a number of high profile pastel artists in the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art's stable, which also includes Bruce Gomez, Doug Dawson, Carole Katchen, Deborah Bays, Albert Handell, and Ramon Kelly.


Brandishing her colored sticks, Strand teases the magic out of everyday objects and ordinary places/situations – train stations, restaurants, pears, a bowl of flowers, eggs, an unmade bed. The quotidian then becomes a placeholder for Strand's real subject: catching the light as it changes from moment to moment. Although her work is representational, Strand is anything but a strict realist. Look closely at her color choices: her palette is there to create a mood rather than depict what is actually in front of our eyes. In a very real sense, Strand helps her viewer see rather than simply look. Strand once told Telluride Inside...and Out: "Success to me is when you can take an ordinary head of lettuce and cause someone to give it a second glance.”
08 December, 2009 /

In Telluride we can get high speed internet. We can get home delivery of the New York Times. We can experience the most current movies and music (eg: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros last week). It's easy to think of this place...

07 December, 2009 /
Photo_all7 For two years running, the man who is arguably America's greatest living composer of classical music was artist-in-residence for the Telluride Musicfest. During that time Philip Glass was pretty busy doing what he does. He performed all over the world, wrote two new operas and several more film scores. One of the classical pieces Glass agreed to write at the time was commissioned through the Meet the Composer program by Martin Murray as a special birthday gift for his wife, Lucy Miller Murray. Mrs. Murray was celebrating her 70th birthday and 27 years as the founding director of Market Square Concerts. Glass's "Sonata for Violin and Piano," premiered in Harrisburg, PA, in February and got raves. Maria Bachmann of the Trio Solisti, artistic director of the Telluride Musicfest, was the violinist.
07 December, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Dr. Scott Ortman]

Ja_Scott On Tuesday, December 8, 6 - 8 p.m., the lecture series, Telluride Unearthed, continues at the Telluride Historical Museum. The speaker is Dr. Scott Ortman on the subject of "Archaeology, Oral Tradition, and the Mesa Verde Migration." Ortman is currently Director of Research and Education at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.

Ortman picks up where his Crow Canyon colleague, Dr. Mark Varian, left off on December 1. Varian's overview,  "Life is Movement: Pueblo Indians of the Mesa Verde Region," began about 2,000 B.C. Ortman focuses on two of the longest-running debates in North American archaeology: the famous abandonment of the Mesa Verde region in the 13th century, and the relationship between ancient Mesa Verde peoples and the present-day Pueblo peoples of New Mexico.

06 December, 2009 /

The devil is definitely in the details. Monday, December 7, 6 p.m., The Telluride Advocacy Coalition in collaboration with The Wilkinson Public LIbrary presents an epic documentary by filmmaker James Kleinert: "Horses of Disappointment Valley." Join Kleinert to explore the plight of America’s wild...

06 December, 2009 /

by Art Goodtimes

IMG_5178  Archaeologist Dr. Mark Varien spoke recently in Telluride at the Telluride Historical Museum. If you missed it, you missed a wonderful talk. I know that to be true, even if I was out of town and wasn’t able to attend myself.


I’ve heard Mark talk in Cortez and at Grand Junction. His lectures are riveting – not because of any verbal histrionics. He has a quiet voice and demeanor. But because he has a brilliant mind and speaks with authority and knowledge.
05 December, 2009 /