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[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Ben Schatz]

 

 

Kinsey Sicks Don we now our gay apparel. It's Gay Ski Week in Telluride, when the town pulls out all the stops as the week builds toward the Telluride AIDS Benefit art auction and gala fashion show, Friday, March 4, and Saturday, March 5. En route, there's a nonstop line-up of what to do, starting with something really b-a-a-a-d.

And Telluride likes it like that: here, really good is really b-a-a-a-d. We are talking about America's favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet, "The Kinsey Sicks," scheduled for scandal at the historic Sheridan Opera House, Wednesday, March 2, 7:30 p.m. The event is co-production between telluride.arts and Gay Ski Week.

28 February, 2011 /

TFF's Gary Meyer at TFF,2010
Gary Meyer, TFF 2010

What happens in Telluride does not necessarily stay in Telluride. Buzz from the Telluride Film Festival is one great example. And buzz from the Telluride Film Festival generally winds up on the stage of Hollywood's Kodak Theatre, the scene of the biggest glam slam on the winter season in Tinseltown. We are talking, of course, about the 83rd annual Academy Awards. The golden boy. Oscar.

The moment of truth is Sunday evening, February 27.

In one incarnation or another, we have covered the Telluride Film Festival every year since 1993. In every review, we have predicted which films, which actors, etc. should take home a statue. And we've rolled sevens almost every year.

27 February, 2011 /

kicker: Show by artist who celebrated his homosexuality up for Gay Ski Week

Hockney A show of the poster art of David Hockney opens at the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art this weekend and runs through Gay Ski Week. The exhibition features about 20 – 25 images, many of which are out of print.

Telluride Gallery of Fine Art opened for business 25 years ago in the tied-dyed era of hippies and miners, just as development of the new ski resort was kicking in. Owner Will Thompson arrived on the scene with years of experience in the art market.

In the early 1970s, Will represented a New York-based company, whose stable included original Hockney lithographs. Another London-based company, Petersburg Press, became the source of the poster art in the show.

25 February, 2011 /

by Jim Bedford

The-kings-speech-poster-2 True-grit-poster-coen-brothers-1 The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride has two great movies on the bill for the week of Friday, February 25 through Thursday, March 3, 2011.

Yes, it's a rarity at the Nugget, but both the brilliance of THE KING'S SPEECH (R) and the continuing popularity of TRUE GRIT (PG13) have convinced us to keep them around for another week. Look for two new films next week but here's your last chance to catch these great Oscar contenders in Telluride.

Don't forget the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 27 with Anne Hathaway and James Franco as MCs.

See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews, and below for movietimes.

23 February, 2011 /

 Thursday, February 25, starting 6 p.m., Telluride's one and only KOTO community radio, heads uptown to the Mountain Village Ballroom (formerly the Telluride Conference Center), to host an evening of music to beat the band – featuring bands that can't be beat. "Elephant Revival" is on hand to warm up the crowd. The headliner is "Leftover Salmon."

"Leftover Salmon" was formed by a lucky accident in 1989, arising from the flatirons and granite of the Front Range. A local band, the Salmon Heads, asked members of the Left Hand String Band to fill in some blanks in its lineup for a New Year's Eve show at the Eldorado Cafe in Crested Butte. The end result of the mashup was a quintet that went on to pioneer its own genre: "Polyethnic Cajun Slamgrass," a fluid, loose-limbed blend of bluegrass, Cajun, funk, Southern rock, boogie, Caribbean, Latin and jazz influences that is at once rootsy and daring.

23 February, 2011 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Elephant Revival's Dango, Bonnie and Bridget]

 

 

Elephantrevival_annestavely_2-199x300 The now legendary Leftover Salmon is the main event at Friday's fundraiser for Telluride's KOTO Community Radio. However, Elephant Revival, the opening act, is described by Suzanne Cheavens, KOTO musical director, as very "buzzy."

It is the elephant in the room.

Elephant Revival is a Nederland, Colorado-based neo-acoustic quintet. The band plays a unique blend of an emerging new musical genre which marries –  somewhat improbably –  the core ideas of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman about spiritual transcendence through intuition to original folk tunes, Scottish/Celtic fiddle tunes, traditional ballads, psychedelic country, indie rock, reggae, 40s/50s jazz standards, even hip hop. Friends and fans around Boulder/Ned describe Elephant Revival's sound "Transcendental Folk," shorthand for a rainbow of sonic colors. Peers and critics drop that idea and simply call it good:

22 February, 2011 /

Kinsey Sicks Wednesday, March 2, 7:30 p.m., telluride.arts (Telluride Councils for the Arts & Humanities) presents "The Kinsey Sicks: Americas Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet". The event, in collaboration with Gay Ski Week, takes place at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House.

The Kinsey Sicks began in 1993 as a group of friends who attended a Bette Midler concert in San Francisco dressed as the Andrews Sisters. Assuming they'd be among many drag queens, they found themselves to be the only ones – other than Bette, of course. The group were approached that very night to perform at an upcoming event. Their reply, "We don't sing," was quickly debunked when everyone realized they all had musical backgrounds. The group began singing and harmonizing that night, and the seed for the Kinsey Sicks was planted.

21 February, 2011 /
[click "Play", Susan speaks with James Anaquad-Kleinert and Dr. Susannah Smith]

 

 

kicker: filmmaker James Anaquad-Kleinert in Telluride for the event

Horse-bigger “I adopted a wild horse named Voodoo, who had been rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management and adopted out to a killer buyer. The man like many or most killer buyers, played a cruel game of acquiring horses and betting that he could sell them to slaughter before he has to feed them. But the problem did not begin with the killer buyer. It began with the Bureau of Land Management,” said Willie Nelson, now part of the production team for "Wild Horses & Renegades."

The American mustang crisis makes headlines around the world. On Tuesday, February 22, award-winning filmmaker James Anaquad-Kleinert brings his star-studded environmental documentary, "Wild Horses & Renegades," to Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library. A reception with the filmmaker starts at 5:30 p.m. The screening follows, including a sneak peak of the call-to-action music video, cut to U2's hit song "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses."

20 February, 2011 /

Poster Fired. Dumped. Homeless. And – worse – without ski passes. Things don't look good for two longtime Telluride ski bums when they first meet a mysterious figure from the future who sends them on an epic adventure.

"Dude & Bro's Epic Adventure," a bromantic comedy, is the latest production  from Telluride's SquidShow Theatre. Performances are at the Sheridan Opera House, February 24 - 26. Doors open at 8 p.m.

The Squids' founder, Sasha Cucciniello conceived of "Dude & Bro's Epic Adventure" after scouring theatrical archives for a fast-paced winter adventure. The eureka moment came when Sasha realized "Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure" was as much about ski bums as surfer dudes.

20 February, 2011 /