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Beyond Telluride

by Tracy Shaffer

ChoLon-Map In my fifteen years in Denver, I have never known a restaurant to create the kind of noise that the new ChoLon Asian Bistro has. Open only a month, I have heard friends from every hive buzzing "You have to try ChoLon" and ”Oh my god, I have a new favorite restaurant!". One fine Indian Summer day, I threw out my own "We have to try ChoLon" when I got a call from Tellurider, Jennie Franks, asking where to meet for lunch. Located in the Sugar Cube Building at 15th and Blake, you step from the bustle of LoDo into the hip serenity of the new Saigon: stately and relaxed, peaceful in its minimalist design, and alive with conversation and energy unique to Denver eateries.

There is no pretense here in ChoLon, only warmth, steaming from the baskets of Soup Dumplings and the heart of its chef, Lon Symensma.  Though he looks like a fresh-faced grad just hatched from cooking school, the award-winning Chef Symensma has more than a decade of global seasoning in his wok. Working in world-class kitchens from New York to Shanghai, with stops in San Sebastian and the South of France, our humble host has a refined palate and created an indelible menu that has embedded itself within my dream center. 

28 November, 2010 /

by Eliot Brown, photos by Mary Sama-Brown

[ed. note: Many of us remain in Telluride, not only for all our immediate area offers, but also for the infinite variety just across the hill. Eliot & Mary sampled that variety this Fall. This is Part 1 of their journey.]

Image007 I was yearning for a road trip.  My 95 Porsche 911 C4S was needing some exercise, as she was still feeling young with only 28,000 miles.  My wife Mary and I agreed that it was time to leave the airplane home and take a vacation from our air charter business, MayaAir, and from our doggies, especially Trasea’s five thirty AM wake up call. We spent several weeks planning our journey, which over ten days would take us from Telluride to as far north as Chico, Montana and back home.

22 November, 2010 /

Unknown This post is deeply personal: The award-winnning contemporary painter Riva Sweetrocket is Telluride Inside... and Out's dearly beloved Denver neighbor. She is also an artist in the stable of the Plus+ Gallery, the Mile High City's outpost (at 2501 Larimer) for uncommonly talented artists with something to say, though they usually don't say it in common vernacular. Riva is currently the featured artist at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

A retrospective of Riva Sweetrocket's bold and beguiling pastels, "Riva Sweetrocket: Extra Ordinary," is  on display at Gates Garden Court Gallery through January 23, 2011, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

21 November, 2010 /


(w)holeposter Telluride Inside... and Out was on the road again, this time in Denver for a weekend away to celebrate the most recent triumphs of two talented friends: Ivar Zeile of the Plus Gallery and Tracy Shaffer, actress, playwright, founder of the Thriving Artist Alliance (and TIO's popular Denver writer.) Art by two. Art squared.

Located at 2501 Larimer, Plus is Denver's edgiest art emporium and Ivar, a rainmaker among the avant garde. The night we arrived Ivar had teamed up with Win Wear to host an evening of experimental shorts dedicated to the poetic exploration of landscape. (We bagged: Too tired after the winter drive. But later heard the fun lasted into the wee hours of the morning.)

The next evening, en route to Tracy's play, "(W)hole," we stopped for dinner at the Zeiles' – pizza and wings ordered in from Marco's, the best in town –  and to see the latest exhibition at Plus, "Primitives," featuring the work of California sculptor Mike Whiting.

16 November, 2010 /

  SolarHeart2 A few days after our return to Telluride from our Fall travels, Susan and I needed to spend some time at our place in Denver. Not that being in Denver is a chore: our home here is beautiful and there are friends we enjoy being with.

Yesterday I decided to do a couple of things that had been on my mind, but time is usually a little short when we come to Denver. I hadn't thought about it specifically, but as it turned out, my two stops were very much related.

The first stop was at Boulder's Cool Energy. I had a great conversation with President/CEO Sam Weaver last July, and wanted to check in. Cool Energy is working on an electrical power generation system using low heat from solar and waste heat sources. It was fascinating to see the working model of the Stirling heat engine that is central to the process. Weaver was away on business but Leslie Weise, Vice President of Business Development did a good job showing me the operation and catching me up on recent developments. Thanks also to the engineering staff for showing off the equipment.

13 November, 2010 /

Awareness into Action: Galamsey David Byars and Jenny Jacobi left last year's Mountainfilm with the same inspiration and desire to do good that many take away from Telluride's film and philanthropy festival. Not wanting to lose this feeling, they began a serious campaign to...

13 November, 2010 /

380 Ed. note: TIO's Denver-based contributor Tracy Shaffer muses about the play she has written, which is being performed this week by the Paragon Theatre Ensemble.

After years of living with these characters inside my head and seeing them come to into two-dimensional existence with various staged readings, my play (W)hole is finally on its 3-D feet in Paragon Theatre Ensemble's World Premiere production. I sat down for lunch at Cholon Bistro (more on that) with Telluride Playwrights Festival Director, Jennie Franks, who came to town this week to see my play, discuss our new Colorado playwrights group, Collective 7, and brainstorm about the 2011 Playwrights Festival. As Denver Post Theatre critic, John Moore, wrote in his advance press piece, (W)hole was started years ago and has been the beneficiary of input from various theatre companies along its way.  I wasn't writing or shopping the play around the whole decade, but revising drafts and submitting as time allowed.

30 October, 2010 /

  Here's something we all know: It's all about positive reinforcement. Ted Hoff, trainer/owner of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel, near Crawford, Colorado, puts that theory into practice as he works with Calvin a young yellow Labrador...

23 October, 2010 /

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 /