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Author: Susan Viebrock

[click "Play", Nina Tumbas talks about why she works with the TAB fashion show]

363224895306_0_ALB Toss the rule book when it comes to Telluride. We make up our own. Witness the theme of the 2010 Telluride AIDS Benefit fashion show: "Out of your comfort zone. Step out of the box." Expect the unexpected, as expected.


The ideal female fashion model is tall, long-legged, and lean. Their minimum height is usually about 5'8"+ and average weight, between 108-125 lbs.  Generally speaking they are sent to the glue factory past 22. Not in Telluride. In Telluride models come in all shapes, sizes and ages. On the runway of the Telluride AIDS Benefit fashion show, the highlight of a week of outreach and education, talks, HIV screening, and a major art auction, you find an equal mix swizzle sticks and classic egg timers (in and out shapes). At the Telluride AIDS Benefit fashion show, brains meets beauty, personality rules the night, and fashion meets compassion: Enter Nina Tumbas.

18 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Susan's conversation with Joe Pug]

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Joe Pug

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Justin Townes Earle
photo:Joshua Black Wilkins

The program at the Sheridan Opera House on February 20, (doors and box office 8:30 p.m. for 9 p.m. show) features two clear-voiced populist troubadours. Top billing goes to Justin Townes Earle, the son of Steve Earle, who in turn learned his craft from two Lone Star legends, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt.


Since the release of his The Good Life two years ago, which charted on Billboard Country as soon as it debuted, Earle has been hitting the boards all over the world: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Fest, Chicago Country Music Festival, Americana Music Awards, Down Home in Norway and his debut on the Grand Ole Opry. The chip off the old block has also performed in the UK, Australia, and Scandinavia.


18 February, 2010 /


The Telluride AIDS Benefit's Student Fashion Show, February 18, 6 pm., The Palm, is a warm up to the Big Event on February 27 at the Telluride Conference Center in the Mountain Village. But what is true of the gala fashion show is true of the teen event: beneath the sizzle, the through line is the persistence of the pandemic and the need for ongoing support of those with HIV/AIDS and their families and prevention education to keep everyone else safe.

The Telluride AIDS Benefit's Grand Vizer, Ron Gilmer, has been on a soapbox for years: he believes there should be Telluride AIDS Benefity events in communities around the world to help stop the spread of the disease. TAB board member/longtime student activist-educator Sandy McLaughlin wholeheartedly agrees. Year after year Sandy leads TAB's education initiative at the she want them to do more than listen. She want kids to hear. To get it. One who does is Sandy's daughter Mia, a graduating senior/ peer educator like all the models and 2010 Student Fashion Show director.

17 February, 2010 /

Mrs Robinson Fox
Tracy Shaffer as Mrs. Robinson

Editor's note: Telluride Inside...and Out now has a regular Denver contributor, Tracy Shaffer, for readers who may want a big city fix. Tracy is an abundantly talented playwright and well-known actress around the Mile High City, currently starring as the original coyote, Mrs. Robinson, in "The Graduate," which we got to see last Saturday (February 13). White hot always cool Tracy, not Benjamin, was the show's center of gravity, its heft and its raison d'etre. In a sleek production with minimal sets, the other rest of the cast became props to set off Mrs. Robinson's aria. The director, John Ashton, seemed to have pushed everyone else over the top to create cultural stereotypes of the 1960s  – The Successful, Golf-Playing Dutiful Dad; the Well-Intentioned, Hysterical Mom; the Rebellious Son. These contemporary riffs on Chaucer's archetypes allow the story of a complex woman's complex relationship with her daughter to emerge with greater understanding. Denver Post critic John Moore saw it differently: he saw underwear. We see his perspective as the emperor's new clothes, which Tracy describes in her  "Naked Truth."

My Naked Truth: Sex, power and ticket sales

by Tracy Shaffer

Much ado about wearing nothing in the Aurora Fox Theatre’s production of "The Graduate." In his Sunday column, Denver Post theatre critic John Moore took the Fox to task for "copping out" and clothing the star (though scantily) to suit its subscribers. The conversation was off and running.

17 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Susan's conversation with Jane Del Piero]

February 18 and again on February 25, 6 – 8 p.m. at the Ah Haa School for the Arts, acupuncturist Jane Del Piero teaches a very special class about how to heal using sound.

Sound as a means of healing is a technique –  or a variety of techniques –  recorded in the ancient Americas, Africa, Greece, China and Rome and dates back at least to 5,000 B.C. In the Yoga tradition, which dates back roughly 4,000 years, it is common knowledge that sound technique used in combination with postures intensifies practice, helps focus attention, deepens exhalation, increases circulation to the organs and balances the emotions. Vowels and consonants (varna), pitch (svara) and volume (bala) are the variables to be manipulated to achieve different physical and emotional effects. Higher pitched sounds tend to resonate higher in the body and energize the system, while lower pitches resonate in the lower part of the body and calm. Louder sounds tend to awaken energy and direct attention outward, while softer sounds pacifiy and internalize.

17 February, 2010 /

Renewable energy education is a top priority for The New Community Coalition (TNCC), Telluride's regional non-profit working to create a more sustainable future. Putting talk into action, TNCC has scheduled a Renewable Energy Professional Development opportunity in conjunction with CU Science Discovery: Science Explorers Professional Development training. The program targets Middle/High School teachers and student teams, grades 5th – 8th grade. The event takes place Saturday, February 27, 9 – 3 p.m. The cost is $225/team for a full-day session and $135 worth of awesome renewable energy equipment to use in classrooms.

TNCC Education Team and high school students are available for follow-up training and in-class support.   Contact TNCC to schedule by Apr. 2, 2010 for spring training dates. (TNCC also has a solar educational module and additional solar educational kits available.)

17 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Cole Early speak about Telluride TV]

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Jeb Berrier

The station formerly known as TCTV12 is throwing a party to relaunch its brand as Telluride TV. The event takes place on Friday, February 19, 7:30 p.m., at the historic Sheridan Opera House. The magnetic north of the evening is Telluride TV's newest star, Jeb Berrier, joined by variety of local acts, including a live band, plus "best of" snippets from Jeb's show: "This Week in Telluride."


What's in a name change? A lot sweeter and more in-depth programming for one thing – or three things to be exact. New initiatives include:

16 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Susan's interview with Marla Hodes]

BABY HEART BEAT_Keener Of the Telluride AIDS Benefit's  (February 18 – March 1) half dozen beneficiaries, several are out of Africa, including the Ethiopian Family Fund.

Ethiopia is the fourth poorest nation in the world. However, unlike many African countries, Ethiopians, who divide among Muslim, Jewish and Orthodox Christian, peacefully co-exist. Given the rampant poverty and wholesale lack of education, HIV risk is high and medications are very limited. According to UN estimates, about 3 million Ethiopians have been exposed to the AIDS virus, with over 600,000 children made orphans and one-third of Ethiopia's hospital beds used by carriers of the disease.

16 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Molly Wickwire Sante's comments about TAB Fashion Show]

N1320290710_30358857_6811191 Fashion is the stuff dreams are made of. AIDS is the stuff of nightmares. Fashion is fantasy; the disease: harsh reality. Fashion celebrates youthful bodies and upbeat attitudes. AIDS ravages both.

In Telluride, AIDS and fashion share equal billing on the runway at the Telluride AIDS Benefit Fashion Show, a reminder of how quickly the game can change.

The fashion show is the highlight of a week of prevention education and outreach, HIV testing and an art auction, all designed to raise awareness and funds to support six beneficiaries on the Western Slope, the Front Range, and in Africa.

15 February, 2010 /
The Town of Mountain Village, in cooperation with the Telluride Foundation, awarded eight local nonprofit organizations a combined total of $48,000 as part of the Town’s 2010 Grant Program. Each grant recipient works to provide the Mountain Village and Telluride region with services that directly support the town’s mission of providing health and human services programs. Since 2001, the town has awarded over $300,000 to a number of regional nonprofit organizations. For 2010, the Town received $170,500 in grant requests from 20 nonprofits. This year’s recipients include:

    •    Bright Futures School Readiness Initiative
    •    Midwestern Colorado Mental Health Center
    •    One to One
    •    San Miguel Resource Center
    •    Telluride Adaptive Sports Program
    •    Telluride Foundation – One Telluride
    •    University Centers of the San Miguel c/o High West Central
    •    Wright Stuff Community Foundation
15 February, 2010 /