Beyond Telluride

Image 1 - OTR Editor's note: Christo is the granddady of all wrappers. He and his wife Jeanne-Claude (now deceased) became world famous for hiding familiar objects, buildings and views in plain sight by wrapping whatever struck their fantasies in what amounts to a second skin. The big idea: transform the quotidian into something transcendent, stimulate our imaginations and the joy of discovery, causing us to take a second look at that which we tend to take for granted.

The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art is Christo's local representative. The Gallery will be mounting a show of his work to coincide with the Telluride Film Festival, September 3 – September 6. The Gallery show is in support of Christo's latest project, Over The River. Telluride Inside... and Out heard Christo speak on behalf of Over the River at a town hall meeting in Salida. The consensus appeared to tilt overwhelmingly in his favor, although there was the equivalent of a Tea Party opposition, fingers stuck in their ears, generally opposed no matter what. The Christo team has recently opened up the debate to the general public. The Christo team has sent the following release, so read on....
[click "Play" for Trevor Tice's interview with Susan]

Trevor1 Causes for celebration are few and far between these days, but Telluride has two great reasons to raise a glass.

Reason #1: The 34th annual Telluride Jazz Celebration.

The Telluride Jazz Celebration is a long weekend dedicated to celebrating the only indigenous American musical form to have exerted an influence on musical development throughout the Western world. The event takes place August 5 – August 8 in Town Park and venues throughout town.

Reason #2: Trevor Tice. (And the Telluride Jazz Celebration)

Gina and the ladies, Lizard Head It's been a busy week in Telluride, capped by a get-together among friends last night: good food, good wine, good conversation. As a result, Susan and I slept in a bit this morning. I was just getting ready to take Gina the Dog out for her morning walk. Susan, checking email: "Susan Dalton wants to know if we want to join her and Bettie Hastings for a hike up at Lizard Head. Maybe see if we can find some early mushrooms?"

Sounded better than whatever I had in mind, so I agreed. There was still time to get Gina out for a short walk, and start the Sunday morning chores. Soon Susan picked us up, then stopped to get Bettie, and in a few more minutes we were out of the car at the Cross Mountain trailhead, and on our way, Gina the Dog happy to be leading the pack.

The 2010 San Miguel Basin County Fair and Rodeo celebrates 100 years of 4H in Norwood this week - so put on your western wear and prepare yourself for several days of down home, country fun. The annual eight-day event kicked off with...


 

by D. Dion

No matter what you’re doing this weekend, Ricky Denesik’s got you beat. Denesik is running the Hardrock 100, a 100.5-mile endurance race in the San Juan Mountains at an average elevation of 11,000 feet with 33,992 feet of climbing. It might sound like pain and suffering to most people, but the lanky, local ultra-runner is taking it in stride. “I think I can do it. I just don’t worry about it, I take it as it comes, one mile at a time, one step at a time,” says Denesik.

It’s likely he will do it—Denesik has already finished the race four times, each time coming in the top 10. The first time he ran the Hardrock 100, in 1998, he won the prestigious event. “I was a lot younger then,” laughs Denesik. He says his goal this year is simply to earn his fifth finish; that way, he won’t have to enter the lottery to get a spot in the Hardrock 100 in the future. Five-time finishers are guaranteed a spot in the race, which strictly limits the number of runners.

by Tracy Shaffer

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Tracy with Paul Page

This is the question slated for the Telluride Playwrights Festival Open House on Thursday, and a conversation that circulates through the theatre community like a five dollar bill. I've popped this and a few other questions to some of the TPF participants. Grabbing a post-rehearsal snack at Smugglers with director/playwright William Missouri Downs, in from Wyoming to direct Telluride Rep actors in Phillip Gerson's This Isn't What It Looks Like.  A prolific author and playwright, Bill has eight upcoming productions around the country and just closed the Denver hit, Books on Tape.

For those of you who enjoy "stargazing" and star watching, mark your calendars for a week of lovely stellar viewing. A graceful waning Moon cups the delicate Pleiades star cluster in the predawn sky the morning of July 8th. On the 9th,...

[Scott, Nancy and Elisabeth discuss the Dalai Lama's birthday party; click "Play"]

"For as long as space endures / And for as long as living beings remain / Until then may I too abide / To dispel the misery of the world," the Dalai Lama's daily prayer.

Newsletter 13 Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library is throwing an all-day birthday party. The guest of honor is a man born Lhamo Dhondrub on July 6, 1935 to a humble farming family in the village of Takster in northeastern Tibet. At age two, this man was proclaimed the tulku or rebirth of the 13th Dalai Lama. He is now His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, living in India as the spiritual head of a government-in-exile along with the 80,000 exiles who followed him.

by Tracy Shaffer

What do you do when you discover royalty has just taken up residence in the neighborhood? Throw a party of course! It was all feathers and fringe as the Flappers and Pharaohs funder took hold of the Denver Art Museum Friday to honor the arrival of Tutankhamun.The band played The Duke, festive femmes, legs akimbo, danced the Charleston, (candy) cigarette girls and bare-chested Nubian slaves roamed while Roaring 20s clad guests raised a glass to the Boy King in Denver's own angular wonder, the Hamilton Building.

After a welcome by DAM Director, Christoph Heinrich,  world-renowned archeologist and Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities,  Zahi Hawass, engaged the crowd with tales of Tut and rhapsody on a life of constant discovery. Now, onward to the gallery as we 550 were the first to preview the pithy exhibit.