The town of Telluride does not have a monopoly on fun and games. There is plenty happening "uptown" in its sister city, the Mountain Village. Here's a rundown of the action in February, including town business.As Telluride looks to a more sustainable future, is every old model new again?
On February 10, 6 p.m., The Telluride Historical Museum presents a lively, invitation only, slide show illustrating the unprecedented 1979 investigation of the gold standard for mountain communities: Zermatt, Switzerland.
In 1978 the Idarado mine, the last dynamic link between the mining town that was and the resort town yet to be, shut down. The ski company had changed hands: Ron Allred became the new Joe Zoline and the county planning process for Mountain Village got underway.
Telluride was a-changin,' but into what was still blowing in the wind.
Experts define abuse as anything from a vague feeling something is wrong to violence. The San Miguel Resource Center is the Telluride region's one-stop shop for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, serving roughly 200 unduplicated clients a year in a population base of about 6,000, spanning the area between southwestern Colorado’s San Miguel County and the western end of Montrose County.
Help for the Center's clients includes a wide range of services in English and Spanish: community outreach/education, crisis intervention, professionally facilitated support groups, advocacy (to help clients with court services, employers, housing, transportation).
Telluride's KOTO Community radio continues its winter fundraising campaign with the 5th annual KOTO Cribbage Tournament. The event takes place at The Cornerhouse Grille, 131 Fir Street, February 10, starting at 6:30 p.m.
The invention of Cribbage is attributed to the poet Sir John Suckling (1609 - 1642) by his biographer, John Aubrey. According to one online source, Suckling was an equal opportunity scoundrel, an expert at cards, dice and bowls and a womanizer. His most notorious scam involved distributing marked cards to English aristos and then traveling the country challenging the local gentry to Cribbage. In the end, Suckling sucked the suckers dry, earning around £20,000 or about £4 million in today's money. Suckling's wayward lifestyle, however, led to his untimely demise. In 1642, the guy allegedly became involved in a plot to free the Earl of Stafford from the Tower of London. In an effort to escape the consequences of his actions, Suckling fled to Paris, where he committed suicide by poisoning at the age of 32, his only legacy: a card game.
Size matters when it comes to Valentine's presents. And small is better. The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art features bling made by some of the finest jewelers in the world, including the work of New York-based goldsmith Pat Flynn.
Flynn's creations are in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. and Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Norway to name a few prestigious institutions.
Kristin Holbrook of San MIguel Resource Center and on the committee for the nonprofit's 15th annual Chocolate Lovers' Fling, its only public fundraiser. The event takes place Saturday, February 6, 7:30 – 11:30 p.m., at the Telluride Conference Center in the Mountain Village.
Since 1994, the Center has supported victims of domestic violence and sexual assault living in the Telluride region. The idea is to help clients help themselves to form a loving relationship, first with #1, and then, perhaps, with a new, healthy, supportive partner. This year's party theme is "Love Boat." From 1977 – 1986, viewers set a course for romantic adventure when "The Love Boat," aka The Pacific Princess, sailed onto their TV screens and into their living rooms.
Sergio Gonzalez
The San Miguel Resource Center is the Telluride region's only nonprofit in the business of eliminating domestic violence and sexual assault. The upcoming Chocolate Lovers' Fling is the Center's only public fundraiser.
Chocolate’s history dates back at least 1,500 years, when the Mayans of Central America crushed cocoa beans into an unsweetened beverage. Closer to home, last year tests of cylindrical clay jars found in the ruins of Chaco Canyon confirmed the presence of theobromine, a cacao marker. Researchers now believe the ancestors of modern Pueblo people of the Southwest used the jars to drink liquid chocolate. Years later in Europe, chocolate was prescribed for depression and made into love and death potions. (Its bitter flavor masked poisons.) You are in good company if you find the allure of chocolate irresistible. (Cravings may be in part be attributed to the natural chemicals in chocolate, including theobromine, thought to produce feelings of well being.) But did you know chocolate is good for you in other ways? According to the Harvard Women's Health Watch, over the past 10 year chocolate has undergone an extreme makeover from "fattening indulgence" to "health food."
Sponsored by the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities, First Thursday Art Walk has become what to do apres ski or pre-prandial for Telluride locals and guests, who get to soak in the town's fine art and retail scene: galleries, studios, arts organizations (such as the Council) and retail stores located in and around Colorado Avenue (Main Street) stay open late until 8 p.m. Lustre Artisans Gallery is one of the participating venues.
For Art Walk, February 4 (also Friday, February 5), 4 – 7 p.m., the husband and wife team of Steve Pflipsen and Katia Pflipsen-Olivová are on hand at Lustre for an artists’ reception. The couple will be talking about their newest large-scale sculptural glass vessels.( Also at Lustre, a trunk show featuring 24K gold jewelry by Gurham, who fashions his contemporary pieces based on techniques dating back thousands of years.)
[click "Play" to hear Adele Kaars-Sypesteyn]
First Thursday Art Walk, February 4, 5 – 8 p.m., is a big night out on the town. Locals and guests meet and greet on the street as they check out Telluride's fine art and retail scenes. Venues are open late until 8 p.m.
