January 2010

January 21 to 28, 2010

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

Aquarius, Uranus, Creative Crisis and Catharsis

Aquarisu The Sun entered Aquarius this year on January 19th at 9:28 p.m. MST, shortly before the Moon came into a conjunction aspect @ 23º Pisces with Uranus, the Aquarian planetary ruler, paving the way for a highly charged zodiac month of sudden change and rapid developments, when we’ll be feeling awakened, excited and pretty much in on-and-off creative crisis or catharsis the entire time. And, believe it or not, this is good!

Surprised? Well, that’s both Uranus and Aquarius. Expect the unexpected, think outside the box, try something new, change your patterns, do it different. Aquarius is the traditional revolutionary influence, the part of us that wants freedom, liberation and the right to pursue our heart’s desires. It’s where we are truly individual and where we seek out other individuals with whom to share our wildest dreams, highest hopes and most idealist visions.

[click "Play" to listen to Kristin Holbrook talk about boots] It's a top down thing, according to fashionistas like Kristin Holbrook of Telluride's Two Skirts: celebrities set the trends which infiltrate pop culture. This season it's the Australia Luxe Collective boot...



The now-famous, extravagantly talented redheaded/adopted son, Tim O'Brien, returns to Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House on Thursday, January 21, for an encore winter concert. The 2006 Grammy winner and singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist – he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki and mandocello – will be performing solo acoustic. Showtime is 6 p.m.

Whether it's a reinterpretation of an old fiddle tune, a revitalized honky-tonk shuffle from the 1950s or an original bluegrass-inflected folk tune, O'Brien's sound is always at once familiar and fresh. He describes his job as taking old music and serving it up in ways people can understand and relate to.
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Sasha Cucciniello]

Holmes
Julia Archibald Holmes

The Telluride Historical Museum's Fireside Chat series continues this winter with "Women in Their Words." The event takes place Thursday, January 21, 5 p.m., in the Great Room at The Peaks Hotel & Spa. SquidShow Theatre's Sasha Cucciniello brings historical women to life, with narration by Colin Sullivan.

The list the Telluride Historical Museum came up with is the tip of the iceberg but nonetheless impressive: Chipeta, wife of the paramount Ute chief Ouray, the "Tomboy Bride" Harriet Backus, early skier Marjorie Perry, homesteader Katherine Garetson, botanist Ruth Aston, Julia Archibald Holmes, the first woman to climb Pike's Peak, and all the "Soiled Doves," the prostitutes of the Old West. 

[click "Play" to listen to Ben Clark's conversation with Susan]

Benbioshotlr This is day-in-the-life-stuff for Telluriders.

Backcountry turns? Sure. Ice climbing? Ditto. Bouldering and climbing in the desert? But of course. Long runs in the high country? What do you think. But Telluride local Ben Clark is not just any Telluride jock.

Clark is a successful filmmaker/enterpreneur and alpinist blessed – cursed? – with an unusually high level of the enzyme monamine oxidase (MAO) and the hormone testosterone, both of which are associated with thrill seeking. In other words, the guy is biochemically suited to the extreme endeavors such as his annual pioneering expeditions in the Himalaya. (And for flying without a net in the world of business.)

Upintheair_smallteaser + The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride is showing two movies for the week of Friday, January 22-Thursday, January 28.

"Sherlock Holmes" is back for a replay. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law are Holmes and Watson. The movie is rated PG-13. Check out last week's "Nuggets."

Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air" stars George Clooney and premiered at the 2009 Telluride Film Festival. The film was singled out by TIO for the awards season, garnered several Golden Globe nominations, and won Best Screenplay. Rated R, "Up in the Air" was right on in its timing. With the U.S. economy on its ear, the film tell the story of a man whose job it is to go around the country firing people. Pretty funny, eh? But pertinent.

See below for showtimes and the Nugget website for trailers and reviews.

[click "Play" to listen to Peter Sterios speak about yoga]

 


The Telluride Yoga Center presents a man for all reasons: Peter Sterios.


The smoothie clown & dadda 01 8-09 Sterios is the principal of Sterios Architecture and founder, in 1997, of Manduka, a leading eco-yoga products company and key sponsor of Telluride Yoga Festival. He is a writer and former contributing editor for Yoga Journal, and an inspiring Yoga instructor/presenter at 2009 Telluride Yoga Festival. Sterios is in town to lead a workshop at the Telluride Yoga Center this weekend, Friday, January 22 – Sunday, January 24.

"Gravity and Grace: Creative forces for sustaining self-practice" is a catchphrase encompassing the teachings of a new lineage Sterios developed over three decades of study and practice in America and India. But Gravity and Grace rests squarely on the ancient yoga teaching channeled through Sri Krishnamacharya, the man credited with opening the door of yoga to the West.

[click "Play" to listen to Laurie Madison about her CD]

Laurie - Squat-BW It is not a stretch to think of Telluride Inside... and Out as an exhale, the direct result of 17 years of inhaling – and covering for the local daily –  Telluride’s considerable cultural zazz. It is thanks to Viniyoga I learned how to manipulate my breath to create different energetic, transformative effects.

Laurie Madison, who hails from Nelson, British Columbia, was one of many wonderful people I met over a two-year course of study with Gary Kraftsow to become a certified Viniyoga instructor. (We both completed the program August 2009.)

[click "Play" for Susan's conversation with Sherab Kloppenburg]

Quilting2 Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts includes courses in time-honored crafts such as quilting. Up soon, case in point, "Crazy Quilting with Sherab Kloppenburg, Tuesdays, January 26 – March 9, 6 - 8 p.m. (Five classes with a two-week break.)


American quilting has been a constantly evolving amalgam of color and texture, pattern and symbolism since the days of mass immigration from across the pond. Eventually the combinations of styles brought by women from their different homelands blended and became known as the American Melting Pot quilts, and later, patchwork or crazy quilts.
[click "Play" to hlisten to Bunny Friedus-Steel speak about "Carmen"]

116 In one scene, the lovers are hitting high notes while coupling on the floor. Coming soon to your local theater in Telluride: Sex, rebellion, and violence.


Are we talking about the subject of the latest country & western hit or one of The Nugget's nuggets, a Tinseltown bodice ripper starring the babe du jour. Answer: neither of the above. On January 22, 6 p.m., New York's Metropolitan Opera, live in HD, is coming to Telluride's Palm Theatre. And not just any opera, Bizet's 1875 masterpiece "Carmen," reputed to be the most famous opera in the world.