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Author: Susan Viebrock

[click "Play" for Susan's interview with playwright Drew Larimore]

 

 

OUT OF ASKJA Here's another fine example of what happens in Telluride does not stay in Telluride. Which is a good thing.

"Askja" is the name of a volcano in east central Iceland, active in 1961. "Out of Askja" is the name of play which remains very active, thanks to Telluride.

Playwright Drew Larimore workshopped "Out of Askja," in Telluride in 2008 at Jennie Franks' 2nd annual Telluride Playwright Festival. Three years later, "Out of Askja" opens the first week in June at the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity, New York City's premiere eco-friendly theatre festival. According to Planet Connections' mission statement:

16 April, 2011 /

But is it Art?
But is it Art?

We love it when a member of the Telluride Inside... and Out family is tributed, especially this member.

Art Goodtimes and I go way back to the beginning days of the Daily Planet, when the man gallantly stepped aside to allow this then wet-behind-the ears journalist to take her place in hot seat as the town's theatre critic, a job he had performed ever so well. Which is the way Art does everything from governing to organizing festivals to weaving baskets to weaving words together to form a poem.   

In late March, Thunder River Theatre Company and its board of directors announced the appointment of Art Goodtimes as the first ever Western Slope Poet Laureate. He serves as Western Slope Poet Laureate through March 2012, when a new poet laureate will be named at the second annual Karen Chamberlain Poetry Festival.

12 April, 2011 /
[click "Play" to listen to Paul Machado's rap on TJC 2011]

 

 

Toshiko Akiyoshi
Toshiko Akiyoshi, 2010

The aural elixir that is the Telluride Jazz Celebration announces its lineup for the 35th anniversary year.

Telluride Jazz Celebration impresario Paul Machado is no purist: in the context of Telluride Jazz, "jazz" rhymes with "good." "Very good." The 2011 program features some of the best of the best in classic, mainstream, and progressive jazz, but also blues, cajun, pop, funk, and soul, all performed by artists as wide-ranging as Tower Of Power, Allen Toussaint with Rita Coolidge for the first time ever, and "American Idol" winner (2006),Taylor Hicks.

The 2011 Guest of Honor is Paquito D'Rivera, whose long career is a tribute to his diverse talent: he performs Latin, jazz, classical, funk with equal panache. As Guest of Honor, Paquito gets to jam with other festival artists, among them, Edmar Castaneda. Paquito also plays a special Jazz-After-Dark show with the Alex Brown Quartet.

11 April, 2011 /

Glass Heart CD Year after year, they hit it out of the ballpark. We are talking about key players of the Telluride Musicfest, now entering its 9th season. Recently, Musicfest's artistic director Maria Bachmann and her Trio Solisti colleague, Jon Klibonoff received raves from a Fanfare critic for their premiere performance of Philip Glass's "First Violin Sonata," on their latest CD, Glass Heart.

"Strongly recommended for recorded sound that transmits the subtlety and dynamic range of the performances, for repertoire astutely chosen to illuminate the program’s central work, and for insightful and convincing readings of Schubert’s and Ravel’s sonatas," Fanfare

With the sensuous cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach, the Trio Solisti is the heart and soul of Telluride Musicfest, this year, June 22 – July 3.

10 April, 2011 /

Timmy, leading the faithful
Timmy O'Neill leads the faithful, 2010

After record attendance and extraordinary critical acclaim last year, Mountainfilm in Telluride is poised for yet another bumper year. Even prior to the announcement of officially accepted films, the festival is garnering more interest, inquiries, support and sales than ever, according to Executive Director Peter Kenworthy. He predicts that the Memorial Day weekend event will sell out this year and attributes the event’s growing popularity, in large part, to the programming prowess of Mountainfilm’s festival director, David Holbrooke.

“David has an unusually extensive network of connections in diverse worlds – those of independent
filmmakers, writers and artists, foreign policy experts, media personalities, activists and athletes – that
he draws on," explains Kenworthy. "And he has a great eye both for compelling films and for mixing and matching guest presenters so that they fully engage and complement each other. It’s a winning combination and we’re definitely seeing the benefit.”

10 April, 2011 /
[click "Play", Beau Staley talks about diamonds]

 

 

Diamond rings "They will show up the wearer if they can," from The Sandcastle, by Iris Murdoch.

Telluride's Dolce Jewels returns for its regular featured engagement: Birthstone of the Month. And this month, we do mean engagement. April, the month of the Ram and the Bull, is also the month for diamonds.

The name "diamond" is derived from the ancient Greek "adamas," meaning "unbreakable." In the case of the renowned Taylor-Burton Diamond, weighing in at 69.42 carats, the diamond was. The relationship wasn't. After her divorce from Richard, the dearly departed Liz sold her world-famous pear-shaped stone, planning to use part of the $5 million proceeds to build a hospital in Botswana.

07 April, 2011 /
[click "Play", Susan talks with Bob Rubadeau]

 

 

Gatsby Author Photo Dexterity distinguishes Tellurider R. J. Rubadeau from previous award-winning authors. Rubadeau was selected for high honors in both the fiction and the non-fiction categories, when the Colorado Independent Publishers Association announced the results of its 2011 EVVY Book Award competition  in Denver on March 17.

“This talented Colorado writer gave all of us serving on the awards committee a memorable glimpse into his exciting real life as a professional sailor, and a madcap romp through his Rocky Mountain hometown with his alter-ego detective,” said Ravi Snow-Egger, CIPA/EVVY Awards Chair.

Bound For Roque Island: Sailing Maine and the World, published by Bascom Hill, November 2010, was chosen as the 1st Place winner in the Autobiography genre. A mutinous family on a “Shanghai” to remote Roque Island in the Bay of Fundy provides a pivotal personal journey for all aboard. It is a bumpy and hilarious voyage as this long-time sailing writer fetches up on the reefs of adulthood.

05 April, 2011 /

 Come one, come all to the greatest show on earth. But it is not your mother's Ringling Bros. Or Cirque.

Thanks to a big thumbs up by Telluride Inside.... and Out's regular Denver writer Tracy Shaffer, last night we all headed with our family to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to catch a performance of "Traces," a production of  "7 Fingers." The evening proved beyond a shadow of doubt that "7" is a very  lucky number.

"7 Fingers" (for the seven founding members of "Les 7 Doigts de La Main" or "the seven fingers of the hand") is Everyman's circus, eschewing elaborate and fanciful Big Tent production values to create circus on a human scale  –  but with a sexy urban edge.

03 April, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Brandt Garber's conversation with Susan]

 

 

Cinematheque poster "It's A Gift" to Telluride. And there are lots of folks to thank.

Cinematheque, a free film club, is an ongoing collaboration between the Telluride Film Festival and the Wilkinson Public Library. The series is programmed by Telluride Film Festival co-director/historian Gary Meyer.

The current series, covering films from the Great Depression, explored the ways in which cinema served as a valuable medium for social commentary, as well as an emotional release during an extremely trying (and historically relevant) chapter in U.S. history. The fourth and final installment of Films of the Great Depression for Winter 2011 is a double feature: "It's A Gift" (1934,68 min.) and "Duck Soup" (1933, 68 min.) The event takes place in the Program Room of the Library on Monday, April 4, starting at 5:30 p.m. for the pre-SHOW reception. Telluride Film Festival Production Manager and film buff Brandt Garber is Ringmaster.

01 April, 2011 /

[click "Play" to listen to Kristin Holbrook on espadrilles]     It is getting to be that time in Telluride: end of season and the mountain about to close. Feet starting to feel naked without boots, boards or skis? Telluride's Two...

31 March, 2011 /