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August 2010

[click "Play" to listen to Susan's interview with Steve Spitz]

Postcard Fruits and veggies are seasonal. AIDS tends to ignore changes in the weather.


The Telluride AIDS Benefit, the crown jewel of Telluride's winter cultural calendar, hosts its first ever summer fundraiser. Intoxicating Cuisine with returning TV host/author/entrepreneur Steve Spitz takes place Friday, August 13, 5 – 8 p.m., 602 West Columbia. The event pairs great wines with tapas prepared by Spitz to honor the flavors and ingredients from every continent on the globe.
09 August, 2010 /

  Telluride audiences first met folk and indie rock star Jenny Lewis when she performed last year with Elvis Costello at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Her encore performance is Thursday, August 12, 8:30 p.m. at the historic Sheridan Opera House. ...

09 August, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Diana Conovitz's conversation with Susan]

Unknown Before Telluride was a ski resort, way before. Before town sported tricked out Victorians, hot and cold running condos and gourmet eateries. Before there were non-profits to fundraise for, there was lots of fun-raising. Over the top. Slightly wicked. Take for example the Muleskinners' Ball.

Muleskinners had nothing to do with hunting. Hauling was their game. They ran pack trains used to transport ore and the bare necessities to miners and loggers. Butch Cassidy was said to be a muleskinner. He allegedly worked for the Tomboy Mine before he was arrested in 1887. In Telluride's mining days the end of the 19th Century/ turn of the 20th Century, the Muleskinners' Ball was one of the era's most popular annual events.
09 August, 2010 /


by D. Dion

It’s hard not to feel lucky having one of the precious tickets to the Phish shows in Telluride. Phish hasn’t played here in almost 20 years, since it was a quirky East Coast band just emerging on the scene, and this is the only stop in the Rocky Mountains that Phish will make on their summer tour.

And while it will be a huge concert for Telluride (the town’s population is less than 2,400, but 9,000 tickets have been sold for each of the two shows), the band has essentially outgrown this small pond. Phish had the largest attendance of any concert, anywhere, on the millennium New Year’s Eve, drawing 85,000 people to the Florida Everglades. The band plays big stadiums like Madison Square Garden or Fenway Park and festivals like Bonnaroo. For Phish, Telluride Town Park will be an intimate venue, albeit not one as cozy as the Moon, the Roma or the old Elks Lodge, where they used to play when they first broke into the mountain music market here in the late 80s.

08 August, 2010 /
MarmotteStockFB The creativity patrons experience at Telluride's La Marmotte restaurant is not limited to the table. In July the restaurant hosted  "Le Fair Affaire," a night of art, music, live performance painting, culinary tasting, and film screening, the brainchild of photographer Scott Rhea. La Marmotte's August event promises to be just as much fun.

"Marmotstock" is a pre-PHISH Telluride tailgate party and a benefit for one of town's best loved non-profits, the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program. The all-day event takes place Monday and Tuesday, August 9 and August 10, 11a.m. – 5 p.m., just outside La Marmotte, 150 West San Juan Avenue, one block from Gondola Plaza.

08 August, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Tony Smith]

TFA2010Poster_v8 It is the ultimate pairing. The Telluride Festival of the Arts is an annual weekend-long celebration of both the visual and culinary arts. The unique event, produced by the Cherry Creek Arts Festival and sponsored by The Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association, welcomes over 5,000 locals and visitors to the Mountain Village Friday, August 13 –  Sunday, August 15.

08 August, 2010 /

Summer in Telluride is a busy time. Hard on the heels of the Telluride Jazz Celebration (going on this weekend, August 5-8) is two days of good Phish-ing. There is a lot of excitement around Telluride for the Phish concerts, but the excitement...

08 August, 2010 /
Image 1 - OTR Editor's note: Christo is the granddady of all wrappers. He and his wife Jeanne-Claude (now deceased) became world famous for hiding familiar objects, buildings and views in plain sight by wrapping whatever struck their fantasies in what amounts to a second skin. The big idea: transform the quotidian into something transcendent, stimulate our imaginations and the joy of discovery, causing us to take a second look at that which we tend to take for granted.

The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art is Christo's local representative. The Gallery will be mounting a show of his work to coincide with the Telluride Film Festival, September 3 – September 6. The Gallery show is in support of Christo's latest project, Over The River. Telluride Inside... and Out heard Christo speak on behalf of Over the River at a town hall meeting in Salida. The consensus appeared to tilt overwhelmingly in his favor, although there was the equivalent of a Tea Party opposition, fingers stuck in their ears, generally opposed no matter what. The Christo team has recently opened up the debate to the general public. The Christo team has sent the following release, so read on....
07 August, 2010 /