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Beyond Telluride

IMGP1958 Telluride Inside... and Out wants to talk bull with you. Mega bull: Zeus when he seduced Europa. Here's the story:

Overwhelmed by love for Europa, a Phoenician princess, Zeus transformed himself into a magnificent white bull and appeared on the sea shore where Europa was playing with her maidens.The great bull walked gently over to where Europa stood and knelt at her feet. Overcoming her natural fear of the great beast, she climbed onto his back. What ensued is the ancient Greeks' answer to date rape.
23 October, 2010 /
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While staying in Athens, Telluride Inside... and Out visited Corinth. The ancient city was upon a time a nearly impregnable fortress with a reputation for lewd and licentious behavior in the name of the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite. St. Paul must have found the profligates irresistible: he founded a church in Corinth during an 18-month stay.
"Golden" Mycenae was once the most powerful city state in Greece, with the whole of the Peloponnese under its dominion. 
The entrance to Mycenae's acropolis is through the Lion Gate, the oldest example of monumental sculpture in Europe. Inside the walls, excavations have uncovered a palace complex, Grave Circle A with its six royal tombs, courtier's houses, craft areas, sanctuaries, and other important buildings. Off the acropolis lie more finds: Grave Circle B with its 14 royal tombs and the tombs of 12 private homes. On a nearby hill is one of the most memorable edifices of Mycenaen architecture, the Treasure of Atreus, also known as the Beehive Tomb of Agamemnon.
20 October, 2010 /

Minds of Mountainfilm - Tom Shadyac from Mountainfilm in Telluride on Vimeo.

 

 

This weekend, people enjoying the 2010 Mountainfilm program will be surrounded by skyscrapers instead of mountains—the film festival is screening some of its finest flicks in New York City at the Lincoln Center this Oct. 22-24, including Tom Shadyac's I Am and Reel Thing Productions' Bag It. Mountainfilm is also sharing its message about the extinction crisis (the festival's 2010 theme) by hosting a discussion with a panel of experts at the event.

Over the years, Mountainfilm in Telluride has evolved from its roots as a cinematic collection of outdoor adventures into something even more significant. Today, Mountainfilm offers a broader perspective on the world, a group of films, books and conversations by people who share a love for the natural world and a passion for protecting our place in it. The documentaries presented still portray the pioneering adventurers of the outdoors, but now films like I Am and Bag It also make another type of connection with audiences. They ask tough questions about how over-consumption and greed are affecting our world.

18 October, 2010 /

Dateline: Athens, 10/16/2010

IMGP1701 You know you are not in Kansas – Telluride either – when the view outside your window is, yes, a mountain, but not a very big one, and on top of that mountain –  or "Sacred Rock," the name locals gave it – is a cluster of ancient buildings, marble masterpieces dating back to the late fifth century B.C., the Golden Age of Athens.

The temples on the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, are among the most important monuments in the Western world. Yesterday, day #2 in Greece, we made the required pilgrimage. I say "required," not "desired," because the place is on everyone else's bucket list too, and so even now, the tail end of tourist season, there is barely room to turn around. But I am getting ahead of myself.

17 October, 2010 /

    Labrador retrievers are easy to train, says Ted Hoff, owner of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, near Crawford, Colorado. They pick up skills so easily, he says, because they are eager to please. They are also...

16 October, 2010 /

IMGP1708 Regular readers of Telluride Inside... and Out will recognize a familiar voice at the helm: Deb Dion has the con while Susan and I are on the road. Thanks for taking control, Deb.

We had a good week in Hackensack, NJ, with Susan's parents, with a few side trips into New York for art, theatre (if you're in New York, don't miss "Little Foxes" at New York Theatre Workshop) and catching up with friends. We had good pass rider karma on Delta Airlines, with seats in Business Class for the 10 hour flight to Athens. That set us up to hit the ground running when we arrived.

Construction and traffic delays related to labor strikes (protesting austerity measures mandated by EU bailouts in Greece) slowed our ride into the city. Our driver, Stevios, had plenty of stories to fill the time. Our first home-away-from-home, the Eridanus Luxury Art Hotel, has proven helpful beyond measure, as well as beautiful. The view of the Acropolis from our patio is also a major benefit.

15 October, 2010 /

IMGP1496 I believe I have mentioned before: for me there is no good time to leave Telluride. But things are so busy in Telluride during the Winter and Summer, that if one is to get out of town to visit family, the shoulder season is when it's going to happen.

We were in Telluride long enough to be aware of this even-more-beautiful Autumn, but mostly we have been on the road. We were in Pittsburgh in early September with daughter #2, Kjertsin Klein and husband Greg and grandkids Dylan and Anna. That was a great time. We hadn't been together for a year, so there was a lot of catching up to do, and lots of noticing that the kids had shot up in the meantime.

09 October, 2010 /

by Tracy Shaffer

As the leaves turn in the high country, Denverites turn out in style. Theatres open their season, ball fields close up shop and a flurry of arty events fills the calendar.

There's a not-to-be-missed show at the Denver Center Theatre  as four actors glide through more than fifty characters as fluidly as a flip-book. The 39 Steps is a Hitchcock spoof extraordinaire led by DCTC staple, Sam Gregory as our Everyman caught in a high-stakes international crime caper. Mr. Gregory is always good, but watching him in this film noir frolic opens up the throttle of his comic talent, while Victoria Mack makes an impressive Denver debut as the vixen, victim and vamp. It is by far, the boffo ballet of Rob Nagle and Larry Paulsen that brings this roller-coaster to its vaudevillian knees. My jaw was on my chest in simultaneous awe and laughter. Director, Art Manke, takes the play out of the script's British music hall setting and brilliantly lands it smack in the middle of a black & white movie reel: fast and suspenseful, like Cary Grant running from a crop duster. The result is perfection. Also at the Center, the Caridad Svich adaptation of Isabele Allende's gripping novel, "The House of Spirits", starring the amazing Franca Sofia Barchiesi in the role of Clara, and Thursday's opening of Bram Stoker's "Dracula". Three medium adapted for stage... spooky.

09 October, 2010 /

IMG_7909 Telluride Inside... and Out immediately called Shlomi Eldar's "Precious Life" one of the most powerful films we saw at the Telluride Film Festival last month.

"Precious Life" is a documentary about a Palestinian family trying to save the life of their infant son in an Israeli hospital. Susan had only a few moments to chat with Shlomi after the screening, as he was being rushed off to another event. Shlomi promised to take some time after the dust settled (he was headed for the Toronto Film Festival immediately after Telluride) to do an interview with Telluride Inside... and Out. This article, conducted by email, is the result of that conversation.

S_1 Susan Viebrock: At any point in your life did you imagine yourself directing a major documentary?

Shlomi Eldar: I started this project only because I couldn't get into Gaza Strip after Gilad Shalit has been kidnapped and after the blocked of Gaza by Israel. I had to find new stories so when I have got the e-mail from Dr. Raz Somech I said to myself "let's try and make a piece about it, it might be interesting." Only when one single person donated the whole amount of money I found myself following the process and the journey of saving Muhammad. Something inside me told me that it can become a film. In short I didn’t think or mean to make a major documentary and I didn’t realized that I could take 3 years working on that film.

03 October, 2010 /

 Telluride locals, Ben Clark and Jon Miller, returned to climb and ski Baruntse, 23,390' in the Himalayas of Nepal. Their attempt in the Spring of 2009 was cut short. In this episode, Spring of 2010, we see them climbing in the 20,000' range, getting acclimated...

02 October, 2010 /