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Beyond Telluride

Ragtime arvada mother_baron

Photo by Patricia Switzer

The trees may be getting bare but the 2011-2012 Denver theatre season unfolds in all kinds of glorious color.  In the “not-to-be-missed” category is the Denver Center Theatre Company’s “The Liar”. The David Ives (“All in the Timing”) adaptation fast-forwards Pierre Corneille’s 1644 farce into the present by keeping the structure and tone while updating the language. Matt Zambrano and Drew Cortese lead the way down a path where the disingenuous don’t dare to go: the land of the whopper.  Fluff, fancy and flying flatulence make for a fun, fun, fun night out. Running now through October 16th.

Arvada Center brings a stellar cast together in a stunning production of “Ragtime”. Based on the E.L. Doctorow novel, the musical is a sweeping tale of turn-of-the-century America with all the hopeful promise of the 1900s revealed for our twenty-first century eyes.  The score is exquisite and the Henry Award winning Megan Van De Hay turns in a pitch-perfect performance as “Mother”. “Ragtime” closes at the Arvada Center on October 2, moving to the new Lone Tree Arts Center for an October 6-16th run.

02 October, 2011 /

  It's always fun - for me anyway! - to get up before sunrise and check out the turquoise twilight of impending dawn. This week we witness the slender crescent of a waning September Moon as it moves through the constellation of Leo...

24 September, 2011 /


With apologies to Charles Dickens, it was the best of days. It was the worst of days.

De Kooning, Pink Angels Let's get the bad news out of the way first. When Telluride Inside… and Out visited New York yesterday, we discovered a poster child for Obama's new New Deal. The BIg Apple remains a work in process, its infrastructure falling apart. At one point in our day, a water main broke down so the 7th Avenue subway lines were not running. On our way to the theatre, people were packed like sardines into the overcrowded "E" train. Shades of Tokyo at rush hour. On our way home, access to the upper ramp on the George Washington bridge was blocked. The detour to the lower ramp felt like that really creepy scene from "Bonfires of the Vanities." All day long, streets were blocked with traffic, the ripple effect of meetings at the U.N. Bottom line: moving around town was as always, at best, challenging, but also as always, worth the slog.

First stop: Willem de Kooning at the Museum of Modern Art.

21 September, 2011 /

Home Let's start with Jeff Osaka. The understated elegance and warmth of this chef/owner pervade "Twelve," our "local." When Telluride Inside… and Out heads to our Denver home, one of our first stops is always "Twelve," a favorite restaurant thats feels like our dining room – only with much better food and service.

Located at 2233 Larimer Street, Twelve is a 34-seat restaurant with a 10-seat massive oak bar bar in a neighborhood Denverites call Curtis Park, just blocks away from Coors Field and the heart of the uber hip LoDo district. But rather than an aggressively downtown demeanor, Twelve feels as comfortable as an old pair of slippers: the warm tones of the room, the laid back furnishing, the soft, very flattering lighting are conducive to leisurely dining, lingering conversations and the long glance looks of a romantic evening. The overall effect is warmly contemporary without a sense of trying too hard. Nothing about Twelve screams "Look at me": not the decor, not the patrons, not the farm-to-table menu. At Twelve, artistry and good taste replace the razzle dazzle of virtuosic flourishes, especially when it comes to the food.

14 September, 2011 /

 

In August I was in Washington State to celebrate the 100th birthday of my former father-in-law. I arrived the day before the big occasion and took the time to check out an airplane that interests me in Yakima, and to catch up with family on the East side of the mountains.

I stayed overnight with my brother Denny and family, drank a few beers and told some of the old lies. The next morning I visited with two of my aunts before heading back to the coast.

12 September, 2011 /

On July 9, 2011, our good friend Bean Bowers took flight from his physical, material earth walk and began traveling in the mysterious metaphysical realm of spirit. On Sat. September 10th, friends and family will gather for a memorial service and tribute to the...

08 September, 2011 /

Labor Day in Telluride means the end of the annual Telluride Film Festival. Elsewhere it's a four-day weekend that marks the end of Summer. Designated a holiday since 1884, Labor Day was instituted to celebrate the contributions of labor to the national welfare of...

05 September, 2011 /

For those of you interested in identifying the constellations of Scorpius and Sagittarius in the night sky, the evenings of Sept. 3rd to 5th offer great opportunities to do so. Watch the waxing Moon hug the head of the Scorpion on the 3rd, move...

03 September, 2011 /

 

Late Summer in the mountains. After weeks of rain any time of the day, we've got a forecast of brilliant sunny weather for a few days. What to do?

The answer for my friend Todd Hoffman and me: a motorcycle guy trip. First we thought we'd head for the Utah desert, but it looked like it might be a bit warm, so we elected to stay in the high country. Mostly familiar, but always changing and the roads were made for riding bikes.

The destinations were easy, and the ways to get there, endless. We spent three nights on the road in Aspen, Denver and Gunnison. But the rides- not the shortest way to get to any of them. I met Todd at his place 3 miles up a gravel road outside of Ridgway. A gravel road is just a warm-up for my BMW F650GS. Todd was riding his recently rebuilt 1972 Norton Commando, a beautiful bike (I offered to be the baggage car with my new Caribou hard cases), especially if you're riding light.

30 August, 2011 /
[click "Play", Susan chats with Sarah Rosenberg and Luis Cardenas]

 

Mountainfilm in Telluride and Aspen's Wheeler Opera House announce their third annual joint production: MountainSummit: Mountainfilm in Telluride. The event bookends the Main Event, the annual of gathering of the tribe in Telluride, which happens over Memorial weekend and opens Telluride's summer festival season with a bang: lots of conversations about preserving and protecting endanger people, places and ideas.

MountainSummit takes place Thursday,  August 25 – Sunday, August 28. Among the films to be screened are “Magic Trip,” about the 1960s travels of writer Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters, Christopher Paine's “Revenge of the Electric Car,” a follow-up to Paine's 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”, and “Happy,” a multicultural examination of the universal truths about happiness, produced by Tom Shadyac ("I Am").  The event closer and what a grand finale it is: "Shakespeare High."

24 August, 2011 /