Andrea, Tunnel to Towers Mud season in Telluride ends with Memorial Weekend, May 27 – May 30, with the coming together of the tribe for the celebration that opens the summer festival season: Mountainfilm in Telluride. What began as a homespun gathering of outdoor enthusiasts...
Andrea Garbarini in Rwanda
The events of 9/11 marked a turning point in the history of our country: America lost its innocence. Even in Telluride we no longer lived in splendid isolation from the violence that impacts lives across the globe every single day. Suddenly, violently, our corner of the Big Blue Marble acquired a discernible crack. We became vulnerable.
For the families who lost loved ones, the implications of the tragedy of 9/11 go way beyond the geopolitical to profoundly personal. And the recent execution of Osama Bin Laden does not change much. Terrorism with a capital "T" has entered our vocabulary and there is still no turning back.
A new documentary by Telluride locals George & Beth Gage, "From the Ground Up," is a tribute to those people, telling the story of five widows of FDNY firefighters, men who lost their lives trying to save others. In just a half hour, the film gives depth and breadth to Mountainfilm's motto: "Celebrating Indomitable Spirit."
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Hilton Kelley]
Hilton Kelley speaks at Awareness in Action Symposium
Hilton Kelley, The Sierra Club's 2011 Goldman Environmental Prize winner for North America, is in town for Mountainfilm in Telluride, May 27 – May 30. He is scheduled to speak Friday, May 27, at the Moving Mountains Symposium in one of three afternoon breakout sessions,1:30 – 3:30 p.m., The Nugget Theatre.
Traditionally Mountainfilm's Moving Mountains Symposium has focused on a single issue or place: reintroduction of wolves into the West, Mongolia, energy, water, food, extinction, etc. But this year, with hot spots all over the world and our own country in hot water, festival director David Holbrooke concluded that talking about issues was simply not enough. He decided his event would model "Awareness Into Action."
It's a game of fill in the blanks Telluride style and an example of synchronicity in action.
The initiative began with Will Thompson, owner of the Telluride Gallery of Fine Arts and an active member of the Telluride Merchants' Association.
Since the economic downturn, the need to deal with vacant real estate has been a challenge for business owners from coast to coast. From Seattle to Dayton, Chicago to Cleveland, they have turned to arts organizations and artists for colorful solutions. Empty spaces on Telluride's Main Street got Will's wheels turning.
by Jim Bedford
The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride shows movies all year long and features two great new films this week.
The brilliant, funny and colorful animation RIO, new from the makers of the ICE AGE movies, shares the Nugget screen with Robert Redford's Civil War drama that explores Mary Surratt's role in the Lincoln assassination, both films are playing the whole week of Friday, May 13 through Thursday, May 19, 2011.
See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews, and below for movietimes.
Artistic immersions continue at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts with guest instructor Jeanne Mackenzie. Her class, Plein Air Landscape Painting, takes place Monday – Thursday, June 20 – June 23, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Jeanne Mackenzie lives in a rural setting near Fort Collins, Colorado, where she is a founding members of the Rocky Mountain Plein Air Painters group. Jeanne holds a BA in art and teaching credential from San Diego State University. Her work has been featured in Southwest Art Magazine’s Best of the West, American Artist Workshop magazine and International Artist Magazine-Master Artists. Jeanne is on the staff of the Denver Art Museum, where she teaches color theory, composition and painting.
By Art Goodtimes 
After
Sometimes
the raw data of doing
just doesn’t jell
until way late
in the canning or
cleaning
or whatever
comes
after
cling peaches
blushing apricots
whipped cream
POEM OF MINE … I’m going to start each month with a poem of my own. I think this one was in response to a poem of Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer <www.wordwoman.com> – whose May Day and Mother's Day poems appeared here at Telluride Inside... and Out at the start of this month. She maintains a poem-a-day practice, and has done that for several years now …
By Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (ed. note: Happy Mother's Day to you, Telluride and beyond. In these five beautiful poems, Rosemerry speaks of being a daughter and of being a mother. ) The Daughter’s New Clothes Dark blue velvet, the dress you stitched for me, with a white...
The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride shows movies all year long and features another great film this week.
Playing Friday, May 6 through Thursday, May 12, 2011, is ARTHUR (PG13), with the unique Russell Brand reprising the role that Dudley Moore made famous. With Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner and Nick Nolte.
See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews, and below for movietimes.
by J James McTigue
Temple Grandin’s accomplishments are well known. Despite being diagnosed with autism at three, she earned a Ph.D. in animal science, holds a professorship at Colorado State University, authored multiple books and speaks about autism around the world. She is the subject of an Emmy Award-winning movie based on her life, aptly titled Temple Grandin, and she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2010.
Yet, as I learned Monday night after hearing her speak in front of a packed house at the Palm Theater, if that is all you know about her, you’ve missed the best. You’ve missed her straightforwardness, her practical advice, her jokes, her determined energy and her no nonsense approach to working with autistic children. Essentially, you’ve missed her.
