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Author: Susan Viebrock

[click "Play to hear Bill Kurtain's conversation with Susan]

 

Bill Kurtain Winter in Telluride is all about snow sports: alpine and cross-country skiing and snowboarding. Summer in Telluride is all about festivals, hiking, biking, fly-fishing, golf, fun on the water and now –  cue drum roll – tennis. This summer, follow the bouncing ball "uptown" to The Peaks Resort and Spa in Mountain Village, where Telluride's premiere hotel plans to serve up getaway tennis retreats for locals and guests starting in June.

The Peaks is the new home of William Kurtain and his Winning Touch Tennis pro staff, in residence to lead four-day (Wednesday – Sunday) tennis immersions focusing on high-energy, play-based drill patterns and positive reinforcement, his "Progressive Learning Program."

22 March, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Flair Robinson]

 

Flair Robinson Telluride local Flair Robinson is aptly named. She is a woman with a flair for art; her medium is the ancient art form of mosaic. On April 1, Flair joints a global group of mosaic artists who have generously donated 126 original works to an online auction to benefit Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The bidding runs through April 27.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent international humanitarian organization which unites direct medical care with a commitment to bearing witness to the plight of the people it assists. MSF includes a network of 27,000 doctors, nurses, logisticians, water-and-sanitation experts, administrators, and other qualified professionals who deliver emergency medical assistance to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, natural disasters, or exclusion from health care in nearly 60 countries. The organization had boots on the ground in Haiti and is now active in Japan.

21 March, 2011 /

[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Beth and George Gage]

 

Tim DeChristopher He was a guest at the 30th and 31st annual Mountainfilm in Telluride in 2008 and 2009. We are talking about Tim DeChristopher, who not only draws outside the lines, he steps over them. He is the man who came to be known as "Bidder 70."

While at Mountainfilm, journalist Alex Chadwick conducted one of his 50-cent interviews with Tim. In those four minutes, Tim recounted the events leading up to and through his arrest. (You can find the interview at: http://player.vimeo.com/video/20626810?title=0&amp%3Bbyline=0&amp%3Bportrait=0&amp%3Bcolor=ffffff.)  Now Telluride locals and award-winning filmmakers George and Beth Gage are telling Tim DeChristopher's full story, a jumping off point for the larger stories of civil disobedience and climate change.

20 March, 2011 /

 Think Telluride is a special place nowadays? Imagine just how good it looked through the bottom of a shot glass filled with hooch. That was then.

Back in the wild and woolly days at the turn of the 20th century, a gentleman could barely doff his hat to a lady without hitting the front door of a watering hole: there were 37 bars in Telluride during the first 10 years of the last century. Throughout Prohibition, drinks were available just about everywhere, including the Courthouse. When hospitals and banks were closing down in the 1960s, and only 600 stalwart locals remained, saloons stood their ground. In the 1970s, when Telluride became a ski resort, ski bums and hippies replaced cowboys and miners on bar stools, ushering in a new era of liquid history.

20 March, 2011 /
[click "Play" to listen to Erika Gordon's conversation with Susan]

 

Food.inc poster-flyer “Eating can be one dangerous business. Don’t take another bite till you see Robert Kenner’s Food, Inc.,” wrote Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, “If the way to an audience’s heart is through its stomach, ‘Food, Inc.’ is a movie you’re going to love.”

The film being shown this Sunday, March 20, 4 p.m., as part of the Telluride Film Festival's 2011 Sunday at the Palm series received a an average rating 8 on a scale of 10 on Rotten Tomatoes, pure poetry since this movie is all about food, the good, the bad, mostly rotten.

 

19 March, 2011 /

 The Infamous Stringdusters return to town to perform at the historic Sheridan Opera House, the lead act on a double bill for the Spring Fever Weekend. (Elephant Revival "opened" for them Saturday night.) The concert takes place Sunday, March 20, 8 p.m.

The progressive acoustic group first performed in town at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. That was four years ago, in 2007, with the release of their now acclaimed first album, Fork in the Road, on Sugar Hill. The collection earned the newbies three top awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Emerging Artist of the Year, not bad in an industry that generally forces anyone wet behind the ears to pay big dues before commanding the limelight.

18 March, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Tony Forrest]

 

 

Family Nordic Skiing Mountain Village is home base for the Telluride Ski Resort. The Town of Mountain Village maintains miles of Nordic and snowshoe trails and an ice skating rink. (Also a tennis court open year 'round, but that's another story.)

To drive the point about a winter wonderland home, this weekend, Mountain Village hosts a community bash. The event takes place Saturday, March 19, starting at 11 a.m. on the Wilson Loop Trail (at the entrance to town on Adams Ranch Road). What's in store is a variety of relay races, an obstacle course, games and more for the whole family to enjoy FREE. All ages and abilities welcome. Or just come as a spectator. 

17 March, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Sasha Cucciniello talk about the program]

 

kicker: Program follows course at Ah Haa

Sugar Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts promoted the class this way:

"Join artistic director Sasha Cucciniello of SquidShow Theatre and Melissa Sumpter of Durango’s Salt Fire Circus, as they take you on a three-week journey into the world of burlesque dancing and performance. At the close of the class, students will be given the opportunity to show off their skills during a live variety show on the stage of the Sheridan Opera House!"

Their time is now. On March 25, 8 p.m., at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House, Sasha and SquidShow Theatre present an evening of burlesque, which includes "boylesque," boys doing burlesque. Sasha promises an evening that is at once "daring, sexy and scandalous." And Sasha always delivers the goods.

16 March, 2011 /