Author: Susan Viebrock

[ click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Rosemerry]

H3TaO Front300 Instead of pulling the covers over your head, make Friday the 13th your lucky day. Kick off the holiday weekend at Telluride's Between the Covers bookstore with a Valentine's Day Eve celebration, 5 - 6:30 p.m.

The event is a poetry party to celebrate the release of two new books of poems, "Holding Three Things at Once" and "Come Together: Imagine Peace: Poems" (Harmony), by  San Miguel county's poet laureate, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.

Rosemerry is joined by her friends, country commissioner Art Goodtimes, and Ellen Metrick, for readings. Bobbi Smith has created a batch of "naughty cookies."  Frannie Major created the flower arrangements.

Humming beneath the surface of every elegant line is the author's child-like sense of inquiry. Sleek and sinuous as a cat, Rosemerry is just as curious about the many gifts of the natural world and the metaphors they enfold.

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Jeb Berrier]

Comedy Fest begins Thursday at Telluride's Sheridan Opera House

Guaranteed the barbs will hit their mark – us – when the 10th annual Telluride Comedy Fest opens for business Thursday, February 12, with Locals' Night.

The weekend produced and hosted by town clown Jeb Berrier is always a great excuse for his old friends to gather and party hardy on the mountain and on the stage of the historic Sheridan Opera House. When those friends include the Who's Who of the world of comedy, then all bets are off. Anything goes.

The usual suspects include Rob Corddry, Ed Helms, Rob Huebel Jason Mantzoukas, Jamie Denbo, Scott Armstrong, Jessica Chaffin, Paul Scheer, Arj Barker, Steve Agee and DJ Eric Appel!

Poster Part two of Elisabeth Gick's  three-part series on Tibet at Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library is a pause to refresh from the country's challenges: a screening of the award-winning documentary, "The Saltmen of Tibet."

According to Eilsabeth, the film offers a loving look at an ancient way of
life in one of the harshest, yet gorgeous regions of the world, the
Tibetan plateau. The story follows the daily rituals of a Tibetan nomadic community,
transporting us into a realm untainted by the tides of foreign invasion or
encroaching modernity. Step by step we experience the unforgettable, annual
three-month pilgrimage to the holy salt lakes of northern Tibet.

"Tibet is the roof of the world, a place where we feel we are in the
sky just as much as you are on the earth. The intense blueness of space
contrasts sharply with the deep green of Eastern Tibet's rolling grasslands
and the mineral colors of the west with its expanse of barren rock. For over
a thousand years Buddhist culture has been at the heart of Tibetan society,
and anyone who has travelled across these high plateaux will understand how
this contemplative civilization flourished in a landscape of such vastness," explained physical scientist/Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard.

Because of the heavy toll AIDS took on the fashion industry early in the epidemic the Telluride Aids Benefit Fashion Show is a fitting highlight to end a week of educational initiatives and community outreach focusing on prevention awareness.Because TAB’s muse and constant angel, Robert...



[ click play button to hear the Schoenau interview]

IMG_1256 Alice Schoenau is one of about 50 designers whose creations will be seen on the runway of the Telluride Aids Benefit Fashion Show on February 28.

“Throughout my studies in the Fashion Design Department at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I explored the means and meanings of changeable clothing. While always searching for new ways to create garments that can be worn in numerous ways, there is still a concern for function in addition to style.”

This recent graduate has created a small clothing line showcasing multi-functional designs in natural and organic fibers.

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Cynthia Sommers, Kristin Holbrooke and Jenny Delves]

IMG_0172 SMRC's Chocolate Lovers' Fling, the nonprofit’s only major public fundraiser, takes place on Saturday, February 7, at the Telluride Conference Center. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
 
 Marriage is gobbledygook, a gallimaufry of biblical, classical, courtly and Christian rules and mores. Historically, the ritual was a way to regulate procreation and tighten the screws on unbridled lust – especially female lust. Relatively recently, marriage became a tribute to romantic love and lifelong companionship. But it does not always affirm the optimism the institution celebrates.

Mollie Fast in free concert at Christ Church in Telluride Sunday night These song birds seem to pop up our of nowhere,  then their talent hits you like a fresh blast of gale force wind and bowls you over. Joey Lindly (the madam in "Best...

[ click the "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Alanna]

Alanna poster Alanna Kaivalya was included in a Yoga Journal article featuring "Top 21 Instructors in the U.S. under 40." She returns to Telluride on the heels of her recent visit to town for the first annual Telluride Yoga Festival this past July, having woven her spell over that magical weekend. This time the senior Jivamukti instructor is here to teach a yoga workshop, "Compassion Through Action," in support of the San Miguel Resource Center.

On  Saturday night, February 7, the SMRC holds its only public fundraiser, the 14th annual Chocolate Lovers' Fling. The SMRC is the region's only nonprofit that helps victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and offers prevention education.

Appropriately, the theme of Alanna's workshop is "Compassion Through Action," and book II, sutra 35 from the "Yoga Sutra's of Patanjali," the first and foremost scripture if Yoga, provides the leitmotif:
 "Ahimsa Pratisthayam Tat Samnidhau Vaira Tyagah or "In the presence of one firmly established in non-violence, all hostilities cease."