Books+

[click "Play" for Susan's conversation with Dr. Cohen]

Mark-cohen-skull-02 Like the Telluride Musicfest  (just over) and the Telluride Playwrights Festival (ongoing this week through July 13) the Telluride Science Research Center (TSRC) is another of the towns well-kept secrets, despite the stature of the participants. The Research Center's mission: to inspire substantive scientific inquiry, breakthroughs, and discoveries by hosting scientific meetings in an open environment conducive to productive collaboration and positive contributions to research, policy, and education. To those ends, TSRC has provided meeting services for top scientists, who have met in the Telluride region every summer since 1984.

The Pinhead Institute, dedicated to teaching young people and adults bio-literacy, and TSRC collaborate from time to time, for example, to present Tuesday night Town Talks, 6 – 7:15 p.m., a program in its eighth year.

Telluride Bluegrass Festival may be over, but the beat goes on at Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library. Monday, June 21, 6 p.m. Back for an encore performance, Raina Rose. This young vivacious songwriter from Austin will be performing original songs that speak to life, love and the human condition. 

Tuesday, June 22, 6 p.m.,The Telluride Music Lover’s Film Festival brings a feature and a short. Rachel Liebling, a student of Ken Burns, created a classic of Americana: “High Lonesome”  the Story of Bluegrass  (95 minutes). The music is perfectly synced with its images as in Bill Monroe's seamless walk from concert stage to his old front porch. Ralph Stanley singing "Man of Constant Sorrow". A young Alison Krauss at about the time she won the national fiddling contest. The film is not a complete compendium, a chronological survey, or a definitive look at Bill Monroe, or any of the individual artists, but it is an impassioned portrait of a true American musical art form.

On Wednesday May 19, Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library opened a remote vending branch in Mountain Village, giving the community "uptown" access to books and DVDs. The Wilkinson Public Library Express is stocked with 20 rows of 16 DVDs and four books with items such as the current best selling hardback Every Last One by Anna Quindlen and the newly released film "Up in the Air." The $10,000 vending machine collection will rotate regularly between 32 books and 140 DVDs and is available to all library cardholders.

Operating the machine is simple: it works just like a typical vending machine. To choose a coveted selection, just swipe a library card. The remote library, located at the entrance of The Market at Mountain Village, is open daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and includes a depository for items checked out either from the vending machine or the library itself.

“Our  extended library community has been asking for more convenient service for a few years now, and we’re delighted to be able to provide a modern, convenient way to use a library without the bricks and mortar,” said Telluride library director Barbara Brattin. “The Wilkinson Public Library Express will be a great experiment to see if Mountain Village is ready to envision a more full service library facility in its community plan.”

"Telluride Hiking Guide" author Susan Kees talks with TIO about her experiences in the region's high country. The third edition of her book is due out this year, and she also has a new website, www.telluridehikingguide.com. ...

ChristmasDinner “Telluride Inside…and Out” is all about what makes Telluride sing, which comes down to the soaring, quirky, original voices of locals such as Ilene and Richard Barth, pedigreed authors in their own right, and also founders/owners of the New York-based boutique gift book publishing company, Red Rock Press.

Red Rock Press’s new holiday book is “A Christmas Dinner” by Charles Dickens, with a series of original paintings for illustrations, and holiday recipes, many taken and adapted from Dickens’ family papers.

Red Rock Press founder and part-time local Ilene Barth explains how her publishing company and this book came about, with detours to reflect on Telluride’s past and present literary riches. Let Ilene tell the story: