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Culture

[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Rhonda Muckerman]

 

Darkness-to-Light The thought of it makes some people quake in anticipation and others shiver with angst and cold. Whichever your camp, in Telluride, all over America, you own it. In this country, Christmas belongs to everyone, not just Christians who celebrate the birth stories about Christ, but also Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, even atheists.

The secular holiday is Chipmunks and Charlie Brown, Grinches and Scrooges. It is Rudolph and giant conifers, baked ham and chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and one too many tipples of eggnog. The holiday season is classic movies such as “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “Miracle on 34th Street.” But most of all, Christmas is music. Perhaps no other holiday in the world is more closely associated with music than Christmas. Locally, Christmas music means the Telluride Choral Society's WinterSing, one of the premier opening events of the holiday season.

The Telluride Choral Society is under the able direction of Rhonda Muckerman.

07 December, 2010 /

Come on, you know you wanna! Don’t you want to be able to make coffee mugs, ice cream bowls? They make great gifts and trust me, people LOVE them. Well, our very own Goedele Vanhille will be teaching Beginning Wheel Throwing next weekend...

07 December, 2010 /

[click "Play" to hear R.J. Rubadeau's conversation with Susan]

 

Gatsby_CVRdj_front_300 Telluride local Bob Rubadeau is familiar with launches. He is, after all, a major league ocean sailor, a Cape Horn veteran. But Rubadeau is also an author of both fiction and non-fiction works of contemporary literature. This time we are talking books – or book – not boats.

On Tuesday, December 7,  6 p.m., in the Program Room of the five-star Wilkinson Public Library, Bob finally shows his hand, revealing the final chapters in his protagonist Wit Thorpe's trials to find the real killer in his latest novel: Gatsby's Last Resort: A Telluride Murder Mystery. Seems Wit, a Telluride native and the local Peeping Tom for hire, has been charged with 1st degree murder of a quick succession of victims, all linked as major shareholders in an attempt to acquire the Valley Floor. And despite what the local Sheriff may think – he describes Wit as "our own Ted Bundy" –  Wit admits that he "probably didn't do it."

Rubadeau's readers across the country have tracked Wit closely over a nine-month publishing odyssey in part on Telluride Inside... and Out, a key partner in the author's premier Community Publishing 101 project. Other partners include the Wilkinson Library, Between the Covers Bookstore, The Telluride Writers Guild, and Beacon Hill Publishers. The latest addition to this stellar lineup is artist Roger Mason, who donated the cover art.

06 December, 2010 /

by Tracy Shaffer

Riva Opening
Tracy, Riva, "Heaven & Earth"

Cool morning, bright day. I sit down for tea with artist, Riva Sweetrocket, in her gorgeous Ballpark Neighborhood loft. She meets me at the door and takes me into her studio, a clean and spare space which reflects the clarity of her thought and vision. A 44 x 38 inch paper is affixed to a Plexiglas wall; the striking image of a crimson cushion with an oversized, gold satin bow hovering above it is in progress. There is nothing else in the room but light, a small cart holding art supplies and a larger blank sheet of paper on another wall, awaiting inspiration.

The precision of Sweetrocket’s work is extraordinary. Many times I’ve stood before her works at Denver’s Plus+ Gallery, mesmerized and wondering “How does she do that?”  It was my privilege to find out. We spoke of images, what strikes the eye and how these fascinations reach the gallery wall. “I keep a file of photographs, things I see and the colors and textures I find appealing. Most of the time I photograph them myself, but others come from memory. When I get an idea about what I want to put together, it all comes alive in Photoshop” says she. I get a sense that there is a lot of silence and rumination in this woman’s daily life, and a fair amount of chalk dust. Riva’s works are created in soft pastel on paper and have a luxuriant quality that is radiantly defiant of the medium. “Once I’m happy with the image, I begin the work on paper and that is when it starts to really come alive” she continues. 

06 December, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear vintage Roger Mason on painting and book covers]

 

Gatsby_CVRdj_front_300 If you live in the R-1 school district, you know the name "Rubadeau." But I am not talking about her. I am talking about him. After a nine month publishing odyssey tracked closely by Telluride Inside... and Out, author Bob Rubadeau just completed his latest mystery, Gatsby’s Last Resort: A Telluride Murder Mystery. And the author picked the work of another Telluride celebrity, Roger Mason, for the cover art.

On Tuesday, December 7, 6 p.m. in the Program Room of the Wilkinson Public Library the final chapters in Wit Thorpe’s trials to find the real killer will be unveiled - along with Mason's deliciously dark image.

04 December, 2010 /

 Jen Julia, director of Telluride's Sheridan Arts Foundation's Young People's Theatre is one twisted sister– and that's a good thing. Generally speaking, when it comes to adapting chestnuts for her actors, Jen goes her own way. This time, she is following the crowd. Sort of...

Take Disney's latest (the 50th) animation,"Tangled," the story of Rapunzel, about an exiled princess who has never been to a hairdresser. In this version, the girl has been shut up in a castle by the evilest of evil stepmoms in the Disney pantheon, Mother Gothel, because her golden hair has the power to heal wounds, cure disease and reverse the aging process. (Hmm, hair as Botox.) Throw Pixar's bravura effects into the mix and voila, everything old is brand spanking new.

02 December, 2010 /

The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride will be showing "Due Date" and "Unstoppable" as the two movies for the week of December 3-9, 2010.

"Due Date" (rated R) pairs an unlikely duo, Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis ( the doofus brother in "Hangover") in an improbable cross-country road trip so Downey's character can be there for the C-section birth of his child. As in "Hangover" there is plenty of teen-boy humour of the low sort.

Denzel Washington has another impossible task in "Unstoppable" (PG13)- this time he must stop a runaway train. What's your bet?

See below for showtimes and the Nugget website for more information.

01 December, 2010 /

Snapshot 2010-11-28 12-19-01 Telluride’s all-women rock and roll band, The 525s, are taking the stage at the Last Dollar Saloon on Noel Nite, Wednesday, December 1, starting at 10 p.m. Telluride audiences last saw the band in April at the KOTO Street Dance, when The 525s had six members. Since then, the group has slimmed down to a lean, mean quartet.

“We found ourselves getting drawn in too many directions, musically,” said guitarist and songwriter Suzanne Cheavens. “Pulling back to just guitar, drums, bass and vocals helped us define our sound. We’re really excited. We love the dynamic and have had a lot of fun working up our new songs.”

Originally called MachSchau and a graduate of Mark Galbo’s Rock and Roll Academy’s short-lived but fruitful Ladies Rock program, The 525s have been a working band for a little over two years. The four core members of the group, Cheavens, singer Baerbel Hacke, bassist Cindy Eckman and drummer Molly Papier – all Lawson Hill residents – rehearse in Hacke’s basement studio.

30 November, 2010 /

Ski The Himalayas, a film chronicling three climbers' 2009 and 2010 attempts at climbing and skiing 23,390' Baruntse is now available on Dish Network Pay per View in HD and SD today through April 14,  2011.  In the 90-minute documentary, ski mountaineers Ben Clark,...

27 November, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Peter Decker's conversaton with Susan]

 

Savingthewest Saturday, November 27, 6 – 8 p.m, Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library and Between the Covers bookstore co-host a triple header: authors Peter Decker, Corinne Platt, and SarahLee Lawrence, each with a unique spin on the American West. The readings take place in the Program Room of the Library, followed by a meet-and-greet book signing.

In the comedy hit "City Slickers" about cowboys and mid-life crises, three disillusioned suits decide to participate in a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado in order to "find themselves." All's well that ends well: the guys go home. What happens if they had chosen to stay is more or less Decker's tale of woe –  or whoa.

In "Saving the West," Decker revisits the theme of his non-fiction biography of Ouray County, "Old Fences, New Neighbors": the cultural clash between the all-hat-no-cattle urban ranchers and old-time "dirt-bags." (So named by the interlopers.)

26 November, 2010 /