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Author: Susan Viebrock

[click "Play" to hear Erika Gordon on Halloween at the Palm]

100 This weekend in Telluride, "boo" does not signify displeasure. It is an exclamation tied to a holiday that is a very big deal in town. Because Telluride has a dirty little secret: denizens love any excuse to dress to kill. And that goes for the gnarliest of jocks to the littlest of kids. We are basically all pagans at heart.

Dress rehearsal for the weekend's derring-do – you won't want to miss KOTO's Halloween bash at the historic Sheridan Opera House – is Telluride Film Festival's Sunday at the Palm Halloween Celebration. The event takes place on October 25, 4 p.m., and features a phantasmagorical line-up of of children's short films based on the theme of Halloween and Autumn, when kids and kids-at-heart get to test drive their costumes. Here's a taste of the backstory.

24 October, 2009 /

Telluride showed up en masse for its portrait during Mountainfilm in May, 2009, when Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org was in town for the festival. Telluride is again helping the organization bring worldwide attention to the requirement to bring our carbon level back down...

24 October, 2009 /

DSC_2155 The Telluride region's Second Chance Humane Society is one of a number of no-kill facilities in the state that rescues hundreds of homeless pets each year, many of which have become beloved Telluride pets. But many of the dogs who are given a "Second Chance" have been badly abused and/or neglected. Once they are rescued, they need a leg-up (no, not that kind) to find their way back into society to become a cherished family member. Enter Telluride Inside... and Out's expert dog trainer Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch & Kennel in Crawford, CO. This past week, Ted has been very busy training several groups of rescue dogs, new adoptions, including Lulu, from Second Chance.

"The moral of the story is these dogs are very resilient, very trainable and so glad to find a good, loving home," explains Ted. 

24 October, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Victoria Hoffman speaking with Susan]

St. Barths 355 Tim-padmasana Telluride's primary Ashtanga teacher, Victoria Hoffman, arrived in town with husband Todd and son Max in 1999. Victoria, a former dancer and model, began practicing yoga as a teenager. She was first exposed to the Ashtanga lineage in 1995, when her teacher was Wayne Kraffner. Since then, Guruji, as Patabhi Jois was known in life, Annie Pace and Tim Miller have been her primary Ashtanga instructors. Miller, the first American certified to teach by Pattabhi Jois at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India, is coming to town for a weekend intensive for all levels of practitioners.


23 October, 2009 /
Tim_miller_flyer This weekend, the Telluride Yoga Center welcomes yoga instructor Tim Miller to town for a weekend immersion in his lineage, Ashtanga Yoga, including pranayama or controlled breathing techniques, and kirtan, group chanting.

Tim Miller is first among equals. His studio in Encinitas holds the distinction of being the birthplace in America of Ashtanga Yoga.

The practice of Ashtanga Yoga is an ancient and powerful discipline for cultivating physical, mental and spiritual health. Progressive techniques of breath, posture and movement, cleanse, stretch and strengthen the body as well as focus and calm the mind. A steady, focused practice holds the potential for profound personal transformation.

22 October, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Walter Wright speaking about the 350.org celebration in Telluride]

350eblast Environmentalist/writer Bill McKibben came to Telluride in May for Telluride Mountainfilm, hair on fire about the number 350. That's the maximum CO2 parts per million the Earth's atmosphere can handle without a catastrophic meltdown. And we are already above that safe zone at 390 ppm and rising by about 2 parts per million annually. The number is higher than any time in recorded history of our planet and we are already witnessing the consequences: glaciers, the source of drinking water for hundreds of millions, are melting and disappearing; drought is becoming more common; sea levels are rising; mosquitoes, which like the warming, are spreading disease like malaria.

Bill McKibben's first book, "The End of Nature, published in 1989 by Random House, was one of the first, if not the first to explain climate change to a wide audience. ("The End of Nature" was published in 20 languages and reprinted as recently as 2006.) McKibben's 350.org turns his words into deeds.

21 October, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Laren Metzger talk about "Spooktacular]

Spook_poster The trick: Carving out the time on one of the busiest days of Fall for family fun.
The treat: A Spooktacular day at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts.
The event takes place October 24, in conjunction with the 350.org celebrations.

Halloween, the annual holiday celebrated one week later on October 31, has its roots in the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain, marking the end of the summer season and harvest, and the Christian holy day of All Saints, honoring all those who have attained the beatific vision in heaven.

In anticipation of Halloween, Ah Haa opens its doors from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. for parents and kids work together to create creepy crafts and temptations to decorate the ultimate spooky home.

21 October, 2009 /
[click "Play" to listen to Roz Savage speaking with Susan]

Roz_Savage_Enhanced Many of them are regulars and veterans of Telluride Mountainfilm: climbers Conrad Anker, David Breashears, Lynn Hill, and Jim Whittaker, as well as ocean rower Roz Savage. They are among the elite and professional athletes, 350.org.Athletes team, who have pledged their support through actions, words, and general celebrity to back the global initiative spearheaded by author/environmentalist Bill McKibben.

Bill McKibben is a man with a plan: Move the world back to 350 ppm –  the maximum carbon dioxide parts per million Planet Earth can handle without coming unhinged. Experts have clocked us in at 390 parts per million now and climbing, an unhappy fact of life triggering a meltdown in Mother Nature.

20 October, 2009 /
IMGP0672 On the road, Telluride Inside... and Out, especially on family visits to big cities on both coasts, tends to build our days around friends and museums and our evenings around theatre, music, or dance. Now and again, food is the main event.

Kjerstin Viebrock Klein, TIO's partner in charge of social networking and optimization, lives in Pittsburgh with her family, husband Greg Klein, entrepreneur and owner of Willi's ski shops, and their two children/our grandchildren Dylan and Anna. On our weeklong visit, Kjerstin and Greg suggested an evening out at their favorite Italian restaurant.
19 October, 2009 /