Culture

[click "Play" to listen to Erika Gordon speak with Susan about "Steep"]

 

Steep poster-flyer Adrenaline junkie? Head for Telluride's Palm Theatre Sunday, January 16, 4 p.m., for a screening of the heart-pumping 2007 documentary "Steep," an event presented by The Telluride Film Festival, The Telluride Foundation and Telluride R1 School District.

The 19th-century British explorer Richard Burton famously said that the reason he tempted fate searching for the source of the Nile and penetrating darkest Arabia disguised as a Pathan was simple: "The devil drives."

Ditto for the cast  of "Steep."

 

 

[click "Play" to hear Patty Greer discuss her movies and interests with Susan]

 

1-11 Film Screening On Tuesday, January 11, 6 p.m., Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library screens an award-winning film by director Patty Greer. "2012-We're Already In It" won the 2009 EBE Award for Best Feature Film-UFO Or Related at the International UFO Congress Convention, and the Silver Sierra Award in Yosemite. The film also sold out at the 2010 Glastonbury Symposium in England.

"2012-We're Already In It" is a spicy, rich stew, including interpretations of the Mayan Prophecies regarding the transformative events that are meant to occur December 21, 2012, the end-date of a 5,123-year-long cycle in the Mayan Long Count calendar. New Age interpretation on the date posit positive physical and/or spiritual transformation and the beginning of a new era. Or the end of the world as we know it - but not in good sense– events such as a collision with another planet or black hole. NASA compare fears about 2012 to paranoia about the Y2K bug of the 1990s.

A lot of sound and fury signifying nothing? Or not.

[click "Play", Susan speaks with producer and director, Jeff Spitz]

 

 

Navajo-boy-poster kicker: "Like a finely made rug, The Return of Navajo Boy contains multiple layers of color, construction, and meaning.... A must-see." Native Peoples Magazine

On December 6,  Dr. Doug Brugge, a guest of the Advocacy Coalition of Telluride, the Town of Telluride, the Pinhead Institute and the Telluride School District, spoke to an audience at The Palm about the environmental and health consequences of mining, milling and processing of uranium ore.

Dr Brugge, a Harvard PhD, grew up on the Navajo reservation. His wide-ranging expertise in public heath includes the subject of the of uranium mining and processing on Native Americans. In 2007, Brugge testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on uranium contamination in the Navajo Nation, whose chairman, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) became an advocate for the tribe because of one powerful documentary and its powerful new epilogue produced one year later in 2008: "The Return of Navajo Boy."

 Three years ago, the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities, an arts advocacy organization which opened for business in the 1970s, had a light bulb moment: produce an Art Walk that would underline the vibrancy of Telluride's fine art scene. And, while they were at it, why not support Telluride's retail scene, which works hand in glove with our town's cultural life?  Man cannot live by paintings, etc. alone....

Tronlegacy_smallteaser Plenty of chances to see "Tron: Legacy" (PG) at Telluride's Nugget Theatre this coming week. It's "all Tron, all the time."

Kevin Flynn has been trapped in a virtual world of his own making for 20 years. Son, Sam, receiving his father's message, goes to help. Naturally there is a villain. And some great effects. See below for movietimes and the Nugget website for trailers and reviews.

 

 

[click "Play" to hear Susie Billings' conversation with Susan]

 

Green pears copy New Year's Eve in Telluride and the joint was jumping, including a gala sit-down dinner for 80 at the Ah Haa School for the Arts, adult entertainment at its very best.

The annual event at Ah Haa features the work of one major artist, whose images adorn the walls of gallery-space-turned-dining hall contribute to the color and vibrancy of the evening. Last year the featured talent was pastel artist Bruce Gomez. This year, it was mixed media painter Susan X. Billings. Gomez and Billings as main attractions underline the symbiotic relationship between Ah Haa, Telluride's community art center, where Gomez and Billings are popular teachers, and the town's premier gallery, the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, which represents their work.

[click "Play", Todd Altshuler talks about Telluride Jazz and "Icons Among Us"]

Iconsamongus Telluride Inside... and Out has talked about the many and different ways the town's five-star Wilkinson Public Library is definitely not your mother's library. Conventional descriptors like "staid" and "quiet" just don't apply. Dedicated programs for small people and teens are wide-ranging and robust. And on the theory the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, program coordinator Scott Doser is constantly forging alliances with other non-profits to fill the Program Room.

One shining example of a successful joint venture is the Telluride Film Festival's ongoing Cinematheque series at the Library, which launched for the winter season on Monday, January 3, with "Films of the Great Depression." (Stay tuned for ongoing coverage.)

Coming soon to your local Library is yet another film series, this one orchestrated by Telluride Jazz Celebration's new marketing director, Todd Altschuler. The initiative kicks off Thursday, January 6, 6 p.m., with "Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense."

[click "Play" to listen to Susan's conversation with Trefny and Bengt]

 

SilkOrgRuby January 6, 2011. The date marks the Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities' first First Thursday Art Walk of the New Year. The popular day-long event is a chance for Telluride to flaunt its robust fine art scene. It is also a meet-and-greet for locals and guests. Galleries, stores and studios stay open late until 8 p.m.

Lustre Gallery, 171 South Pine, celebrates the season opener with a show of the work of two Durango-based glass artists, the husband and wife team of Trefny Dix and Bengt Hokanson. The artists' reception is 5 – 8 p.m.

[click "Play", David Oyster talks about the series on Depression Era films]

 

1-3 TFF "The best things in life are..." You know the lyric. Ain't necessarily so except for the upcoming Telluride Film Festival Cinematheque at the five-star Wilkinson Public Library. Round #5 of the FREE Cinematheque series, which begins  Monday, January 3, focuses on "Films of the Great Depression."

Too close to home? Well, maybe. Historically relevant? For sure. These films selected by Telluride Film Festival co-director Gary Meyer explore the ways in which cinema provided a forum for social commentary as well as emotional release for its vast audiences.

Monday night is a double feature, opening with Charlie Chaplin's masterpiece "Modern Times," (1936, 87 minutes), followed by Busby Berkeley's "Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933, 97 min.)

The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride is showing three movies for the week of Friday, December 31-Thursday, January 6, 2011.

Loveandotherdrugs_smallposter Thetourist_smallteaser The animated feature, "Tangled" (PG) is back through Sunday as the early program.

Enjoy a thriller set in Paris and Venice featuring Angelina Jolie as the sexy, mysterious woman and Johhny Depp as the hapless fall guy? Well, then "The Tourist" (PG) might just be your flick.

In the interest of full disclosure, the editor of "Love and Other Drugs" (R) is our brother-in-law, Steven Rosenblum. Jake Gyllenhaal is a Viagra salesman and Anne Hathaway is in the early stages of Parkinson's disease. Reviews are mixed but it sounds like a movie one would talk about later.

For movietimes see below, and the Nugget website for trailers and reviews.