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May 2010

[click "Play" for John Vaillant's conversation with Susan]

On Saturday, May 29, 12:15, at The Palm, Mountainfilm in Telluride guest author/journalist John Vaillant talks about his latest book,"The Tiger" (Knopf).

But "The Tiger" is not just an action-adventure tale about a big cat. The story is a variation on Vaillant's favorite theme: Man and nature at odds.

A growing body of evidence in the form of melting glaciers and extended droughts to escalating species extinction, the subject of Mountainfilm's Moving Mountains Symposium, suggests the natural world is spinning out of control. And Mother Nature is showing her extreme displeasure by biting back.
23 May, 2010 /
[click "Play", Susan and Nick Sherman are NOT silent]



Mountainfilm in Telluride waxes eloquent on the subject of silence with the inclusion of  "Soundtracker" in this year's lineup. The documentary, the intersection of science and poetry, was written and directed by Nick Sherman.

The Sounds of Silence were first immortalized in lyrics that propelled folk duo Simon and Garfunckel to fame back in 1964. Forty-six years later the sounds of silence are celebrated once again in "Soundtracker," as Sherman pursues sound recordist Gordon Hempton pursuing the few remaining quiet corners of the Earth, where deer cross a quiet country road and tall grass waves in the wind. In a way, the two media events are related: both the hit single and the documentary are responses to an assault, the first on an American president; the second, on our senses. Both tributes argue for an awakening.
22 May, 2010 /

If you have been watching Ted Hoff's videos from Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, you can't help being aware of how much dog training is about allowing the dogs to do what they want to do anyway. Of course, Ted is adamant that a...

22 May, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Joel Sartore's conversation with Susan]

Rare_500px It's been a long and winding road from the Wichita Eagle to Mountainfilm in Telluride, where photographer Joel Sartore is a guest presenter at the opening Moving Mountains Symposium. He is also scheduled to give a talk about  the findings in his latest book. Both events focus on the crisis of extinction.

“We are living in the sixth major extinction on this planet and the first one to be caused by humans,” says Festival Director David Holbrooke. “The statistics are staggering. We’re currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-off since the loss of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. It’s estimated that a species dies off every 20 minutes. Some scientists predict that between 30 and 50 percent of all species will be extinct by mid-century. E.O. Wilson says that biodiversity is the key to life on this planet and that its collapse is the biggest threat we are facing.”

21 May, 2010 /
[Elisabeth Gick speaks to Jamyang Yeshi about "Shining Spirit", click "Play"]

Jamyang_Yeshi (editor's note: After publishing it was pointed out that this post was written by Elisabeth Gick. My apologies.)

Telluride and Tibet have more in common than alliteration. Mountain cultures nurture individuals unafraid to reach for the sky. They support shining spirits such as Jamyang Yeshi, the subject of a celluloid study, "Shining Spirit" by filmmaker Karen McDiarmid.

"Shining Spirit" is featured at the 32nd annual Mountainfilm in Telluride Festival. Jamyang is also scheduled to perform his music throughout the long weekend, May 28 – May 31, chock full of lectures (the all-day Moving Mountains Symposium on extinction is Friday), breakfast talks, art, music – and film – in support of endangered species, cultures, and ideas.

21 May, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Kevin Swain discuss the ordinance]

Effective May 20, the Town of Mountain Village, Telluride's sister city, will vigorously enforce its amended Business License Program Ordinance. The changes to this piece of legislation, approved unanimously by Town Council last month, specifically address homeowners renting their properties and not remitting lodging taxes collected from renters.

The Council’s impetus for amending the Business License Program Ordinance is threefold: level the playing field for competing businesses that are already in compliance with the laws; generate much needed data useful for planning purposes; and capture the lodging taxes, which are then reinvested in the community.
21 May, 2010 /
May 20 to 27, 2010

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

The Rock n' Roll Runoff of Multi-versal Gemini

Steps Color The Sun enters the mutable air sign Gemini on May 20th at 9:34 pm MDT and initiates a zodiac month of increasing mobility, curiosity and communication. The traditional scholastic year is coming to a close; the thrill of summer looms upon our proverbial horizons and a sense of freedom and excitement is in the air. We think of trips and travel, places we’d like to go, things we’d like to see and people we want to visit.


Gemini energy is restless, inquisitive and eager for knowledge. Its mutable modality is flexible and adaptable while the air element breathes in thinking, perception and all things born of the mental plane. It is here we encounter the curious, inquiring mind, the talker, the reader and the gossip, the student, the classroom and the teacher. Writers, professors, editors and professional speakers are often born under the sign of Gemini or have Gemini planets placed prominently in their natal charts. But Gemini also rules medicine and magic, actors and acting, travel, transportation, comedy and laughter, tricksters and thieves, information, communication and commerce. And because this energy is so multi-dimensional, multi-faceted and multi-talented, we find a great variety of personalities, professions and pursuits popping up whenever and wherever Gemini is involved.
21 May, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Mark Galbo's conversation with Susan]

N174399212347_8010 On Saturday, May 22, 7 – 10 p.m., Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House hosts a Spring Rock Concert featuring local talent from director Mark Galbo's Rock and Roll Academy.

An innovative, passionate and dedicated music educator – and life coach – Mark Galbo founded the Rock and Roll Academy is 2004 on the strongly held conviction that music is "instant community." The goal of his School within the School at Telluride's Mountain School and his after-school initiatives are the same: deliver an experiential music program that encourages team building, self-expression, personal transformation, and social responsibility. In a nutshell, Galbo's Academy has little to do with chest-beating, guitar smashing or priapic strutting and much more to do with teaching kids how to make positive choices in their lives. They learn fearlessness while finding mystery and having fun.
20 May, 2010 /

by Tracy Shaffer

Denver starts to rock, the season of new beginnings. The town is warming up for the summer nights to do what Denverites do best— hit the streets! Not long after the ski slopes close, concert venues open: for the next five months, music will waft through our city’s all too thin air. Picnics in the park, treks up to Red Rocks: I can almost hear the clickety-clack of Prada sandals as the charge of the Botox Brigade hits the patio at Elway’s.  Kicking it off this Saturday is the 7th annual Five Points Jazz Festival at 27th & Welton Street.

Long before Denver welcomed the likes of Matt Holliday or the Birdman, Duke Ellington, Charlie “Bird” Parker and Billie Holiday roamed the streets of Five Points, frequenting the jazz clubs and speakeasies that tarted up the streets. Sitting down for coffee with Denver Office of Cultural Affairs Public Programming Coordinator, Gina Rubano, the talk was all that jazz and how the festival pays tribute not only to the rich cultural heritage of the Five Points neighborhood, but to modern day jazz icons as well.
20 May, 2010 /