Author: Susan Viebrock

[click "Play" to listen to Rachel Loomis Lee's description of this year's auction]

 

Ah Haa Auction Theme of 19th annual event based on Bond: "License to Create"

First there was Sean Connery. Now there's Jeb Berrier.

Jeb Berrier is Telluride's Bond. Never shaken, sure to stir as he hosts the 19th Annual Art Auction for Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts.

New this year, the auction begins Thursday, July 21, 5 – 7 p.m. Billed as an Intimate Live Auction of 4 Works of Art, the evening includes a reception with champagne and canapes, artist talks, the mini-auction,  music, and a  preview (and pre-bid) of Friday night's silent and live auction line-up. With "buy now" privileges for each of the 4 works, this is an evening not to be missed. (Admissions is $45 and includes entry into the Friday night event.)

[click "Play" to listen to Sean Johnson's conversation with Susan]

 

Sean Johnson At Jazz Fest It was music to our ears to learn that Sean Johnson and his Wild Lotus Band will make an appearance at the 4th annual Telluride Yoga Festival. This summer, the event takes place Thursday – Sunday, July 14 – July 17.

Kirtan derives from the Sanskrit (the language of yoga) "kirtanam," meaning praise or eulogy. The term refers to devotional group singing of mantras, sounds charged with psychospiritual powers. It is a well-documented fact that prolonged and concentrated chanting of these sounds, even without a clear understanding of the literal meaning of the words, leads to positive alterations in consciousness.

[click "Play" to listen to Susan's conversation with Keller Williams]

 

15TH ANNUAL KOTO DOO-DAH Getting tickets to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival can be sketchy at times: the recent 38th annual event sold out virtually overnight. Keller Williams and The Keels performed at the 37th Telluride Bluegrass in 2010. That set breathed new life into old classics, as the trio showcased their hit release "Thief."

Missed the show? It was a doozy, but you are in luck: You get a second chance when Keller and The Keels headline the 15th annual KOTO Doo-Dah, Saturday, July 9, 2011, starting at 4 p.m.

[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Dana Slamp]

 

Yoga central park king pidgeon (2) Aubrey Hackman, visionary founder of the Telluride Yoga Festival, July 14 – July 17, describes guest presenter Dana Slamp as a "vinyasa and bhakti yoga teacher, who truly embodies the integration of physical asana with the beauty of chanting and the practice of devotional yoga."

Dana Slamp, ERYT, was introduced to Yoga while completing her M.F.A. at American Conservatory Theatre. She earned her teaching certification from Sonic Yoga in New York City and completed Prenatal Teacher Training with Gurmukh at Golden Bridge Yoga in 2008. Dana continues her studies with Sri Dharma Mittra.

[click "Play", Susan speaks with Rob, Nancy and Renee]  

Magical works by Craft, Schultheis & Swire

Rob image Among Telluride's many talented writers, Rob Schultheis is an alpha male. In his columns in the Watch, and in his many books, Schultheis reclaims that turf over and over again with steady barrage of satiric, muscular, insightful, brash, bold prose. But forget all the you know about Rob. Well, don't forget it. Amplify it. Did you know Rob turned down a an art scholarship to college because he wanted to live in the Rockies? Rob the writer is also Rob the painter. "Roads to Xanadu" features the work of Rob, his wife, Nancy Craft, and their friend, Renee Swire. The show goes up in the Daniel Tucker Gallery at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts the first Thursday of the month, July 7, 5 – 7 p.m. The opening corresponds to Telluride Arts' First Thursday Art Walk, when galleries and other venues around town stay open late to strut their stuff. ( For a list of venues and participating restaurants, go to http://telluridearts.org/?page_id=111.)
[click "Play" to hear Skip Liepke's conversation with Susan]

 

Lady in Black Malcolm "Skip" Liepke's second one-man show opens at the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, 130 East Colorado Avenue, Thursday, July 7, 5:30 – 8:00 p.m., in sync with Telluride Arts' First Thursday Art Walk, showing off the "Best Of" Telluride's fine art and retail scene.

If you missed it, the artist's first show was a doozy: wall-to-wall pulchritude and sensuality confronting us with looks that would melt steel, rendered by a  painter who is an unapologetic realist.

[click "Play", Susan speaks with Lorain Fox Davis]

 

"Compassion for a World in Crisis" takes place July 8 – July 10

FoxDavis_l_headshot Last year, when the Telluride Institute hosted a conference in conjunction with Stanford University the region's think-and- do tank was tapping into the the spirit of the times. And the mood has only intensified. While some folks appear ready to storm the barricades, others are turning inward. (For evidence, look at the growing numbers of individuals practicing Yoga and embracing spiritual practices from the East.) The underlying theme of Telluride Institute's "Language of Mental Life" conference was compassion as an antidote to overheated passions: compassion for oneself and for others in equal measure.

This year, the beat goes on at the second annual three-day event designed to bring together cutting-edge neuroscientists, Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, and teachers of Native American wisdom traditions for panel discussions, conversations, seminars, question-and-answer sessions.

Ground
"From the Ground Up"

Fireworks don't end on the Fourth of July in Telluride. There's dynamite on the silver screen when Mountainfilm in Telluride hosts its annual July fundraiser. The fun begins July 5,  6 p.m., at the historic Sheridan Opera House with cocktails and light eats and continues with the main event, three short films, starting at 7 p.m.

"Prayer for Peace" is a short animation by Dustin Grella that delivers an important and universal message through a very personal narrative. Dustin’s tale, elegiac and sparely told, is perfectly complemented by the simple haunting beauty of his drawings. (8 minutes.)