Author: Susan Viebrock

[click "Play" to hear Kristin Holbrook on ruffles] We are not talking about Frito Lay's attempt to revive its brand. Telluride Inside...

Art1 Some of us in Telluride heard that totally subversive speech by our President on Tuesday. You know the one: Obama actually urged kids to make the most of themselves. Take responsibility. "Just like Mao," said Fix News talking heads.

Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts must have gotten hold of an advanced copy of Obama's pep talk. Starting September 14, every Monday and Wednesday, ARTrageous After School Days, 3:15 – 5:30 p.m., offers a wide array of creative projects, from puppet-making to recycled creations. Wednesday is clay day. For two hours, young kids get to create critters that would make Wallace and Grommit proud. What's more, Ah Haa plays the willing chauffeur and plans to pick up students outside school on ARTrageous days.

IMG_5356 Director Todd Solondz, whose "Life During Wartime," had its North American premiere this past weekend at the Telluride Film Festival, is distinguished as an independent filmmaker who dares to go places others fear to tread. Solondz takes on universal themes – "Life During Wartime" is about forgiving and forgetting –  in character-driven stories whose denizens are quirky in the extreme. In high relief under bright lights, these eccentric individuals become Everyman, warts and all. The character actors in "Life During Wartime," both young and old, are fearless, giving flawless performances of very flawed individuals.

[click "Play" to hear Sunny Griffin speak with Susan about skin care]

Sunny at Spa.jpg The Himmel Spa at The Franz Klammer is located in Telluride's sister town, The Mountain Village, a short gondola ride up the mountain from our box canyon.

On Wednesday, the Klammer is hosting Sunny Griffin, founder/owner of Astara Skin Care. The event takes place 3 – 5 p.m. and is open to the general public. Aestheticians are on hand to do free mini- facials (about 20 minutes each). Massage therapists will do chair massage. There is food and Astara gifts.

Maribeth Clemente is host of Travel Fun, a talk show on Telluride's KOTO public radio. On September 8, 6:30 p.m., her special guest is documentarian and Telluride Film Festival board member Ken Burns, talking about his six-part series, “The National Parks:  America’s Best Idea,” which...

SheridanInteriorWidesmall_001 It is a little bit like learning Greek statues were originally brightly painted, not white. Photos discovered in 2002 illustrate the fact that Telluride's Sheridan Opera House was originally stenciled throughout the auditorium. Read on to learn how you can help restore the original decoration.

The original decorative painting of the Sheridan Opera House is significant because it is a rare example of the transitional period between the Art Nouveau style of the late 1800s and the Craftsman style of the 1920s. Because this transitional style is so rare and unusual, the discovery represents a “missing link” along the continuum of architectural styles in the United States.

During the early 20th century, other opera houses in the Rocky Mountains region were decorated in a classical, more traditional style, but true to form for Telluride, our Opera House’s bold stenciling is a more innovative, edgier kind of decoration for the period.

[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Hannah Rothschild]

HBO contact sheet Jazz Baroness Hannah Rothschild's "The Jazz Baroness" hit a high note at the Telluride Film Festival, the documentary's North American premiere.

Like jazz itself, "The Jazz Baroness" is based on a melodic line – the leitmotif is Rothschild's great aunt,  Baronness Pannonica de Koenigwarter or "Nica, " an exotic beauty and mother of five, who left home in 1951 headed for New York in search of the man who wrote 'Round Midnight. Variations on the "melody,"  the improv, is provided by virtuosic friends, jazz musicians and historians – Sonny Rollins, Quincy Jones, Thelonius Monk junior, Roy Haynes, and Curtis Fuller among them – whose lives were touched by the exotic butterfly. The Duchess of Devonshire and other luminaries tell their side of the story too. Rothschild is the bandleader, deftly, sensitively defining the rhythm and pace of her ensemble cast, debunking myths, replacing scandal with fact.

The Telluride Choral Society announces its Fall concert, with the first rehearsal for adults, Wednesday, September 9. Rehearsals are every Wednesday from 5:45 to 7:15p.m., Christ Church, 434 W. Columbia. Artistic director David Lingle is preparing singers for a Mahler and Brahms concert with the...

[click "Play" to hear Kate Sibley speak of TFF's educational outreach]


2006 alumni The Telluride Film Festival stands out among the more than 2,000 similar events around the globe for lots of reasons, not the least of which is location, location, location.

The Telluride Film Festival is known to frown upon brown-nosing stars or the media. Quality trumps quantity: the Festival directors vet their selection down to just 20 – 30 films, new and restored, feature length and short. (Only New York does the same diligence.)

[click "Play" for Ted's story about Bojangles]

Images Over this Labor Day weekend, Telluride celebrates the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival. This week's post from Telluride Inside and Out's dog expert Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, concerns a dog whose breed has star power. From the hero of "Please Don't Eat the Daisies," Disney's "The Shaggy Dog" and Nurse Nana of "Peter Pan" Old English Sheepdogs have stolen the hearts of millions of young cinephiles, captivated by these huge Steiff toys come to life.

When the breed first crossed the pond, it went straight to the top, entering aristocratic families such as the Goulds, Guggenheims, Morgans, and Vanderbilts. The Old English held their place at the top of the food chain until the late 1950s, when a champion named Fezziwig Ceiling Zero became Top Dog in the show world and everyone wanted Nana. The breed's popularity peaked in the 1970s, when an average of 15,000 Old English Sheepdogs were  registered each year with the AKC. However, as besotted owners soon realized: Old English are high maintenance.