Culture

[click "Play", Susan has a chat with R.J. Rubadeau]

 

3 D Gatsby Cover small file BFRI Cover final March 10 6 X 9 On December 7, Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library hosted a reading of local author Bob Rubadeau's latest mystery: Gatsby's Last Resort: A Telluride Murder Mystery, released on December 1. Over the past week, the book has captured headlines and attention, with our town's avid readers trying to guess who the local prototypes for the colorful characters really are.

Rubadeau’s award winning non-fiction book about his life as a world-class ocean racer and sailor was released on November 1 to raves. And in most places outside Telluride, Bound for Rocque Island: Sailing Maine and the World, is matching his novel's sales book for book.


 kicker: Chubby Checker & The Wild Cats are featured guests

Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House kills two birds with one big event, celebrating New Year Eve and the 50th anniversary of the Twist. The December 31st gala features the one and only Chubby Checker, in person with the Wild Cats. Doors open @ 9 p.m. Chubby Checker performs @ 10:30 p.m.

In July 1960, a 19-year-old Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans in Spring Gulley, South Carolina) revolutionized pop dancing when he stepped on to the stage of New York's Rainbow Room and put his spin on '"The Twist," a song written and originally recorded by Hank Ballard just two years earlier that had never gotten traction.

Deathlyhallows_smallteaser Tangled_smallteaser The Nugget Theatre in Telluride is showing two movies for the week of December 17-23, "Tangled" and "Harry Potter 7". Note that there are two showings for "Tangled" each evening.

"Tangled" (PG) is an animated take on the old story of Rapunzel and her golden hair. Audience reviews are mostly positive.

We're nearing the end of the Harry Potter saga, the kids have grown up, and the situations get blacker. You know you have to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (PG13); you've come too far to turn back now.

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

[click "Play" to hear Jeb's serious (?) conversation with Susan]

 

Jeb & friend
Jeb & friend, KOTO LipSync

Even in a town as non-traditional as Telluride, there are still some sacred cows, rather hams. And turkeys. We are talking about Christmas dinner, with sides of cranberry sauce and mince meat pies. Except in Tuna, Texas, where tuna is "the feast of choice."

Sunday, December 19 – Wednesday, December 22, Jeb Berrier and his Second Stage Productions – Berrier, Buff Hooper, Bubba Lee Schill, Kelsey Patterson – host an evening of holiday fun at the Sheridan Opera House with their adaptation of "A Tuna Christmas."

"A Tuna Christmas" is the second in a series of satires on Southern life and attitudes set in the fictional town of Tuna, Texas, "the third smallest town" in the state.

[click "Play", David Oyster talks about the program]

 

 

kicker: Scorsese series ends with satire

12-13 TFF Stalkers are unfunny. But a film about stalking? You decide.

The Telluride Film Festival and the five-star Wilkinson Public Library host the final installment in the four-part Martin Scorsese retrospective, brilliantly programmed to show the sweeping range of the pioneer filmmaker by Telluride Film Festival co-director Gary Meyer. The FREE Cinematheque film club is a vehicle for the cinephiles in the greater Telluride community to watch and discuss great film, not just during Festival weekend, but year-round.  Food and beverages with every screening. Popular Telluride Film Festival Ringmaster, producer/director/film professor David Oyster leads the discussion. The featured film is Scorsese's dark yuck, "King of Comedy," (1982, 109 minutes, Rated PG). The event takes place Monday, December 13, 5:30 p.m. for pre-SHOW get-together. (The first screening is @ 6 p.m.)

Robert de Niro stars as Rupert Pupin, a stage-door autograph hound and aspiring stand-up comedic of Herculean ambitions. It is arguably one of the most flamboyant performances of de Niro's career. Jerry Lewis plays Jerry Langford, the star Rupert stalks, a late night talk show host who craves privacy. Rupert pursues Jerry with the mono-manical focus of a true psychotic. There's a kidnapping. And more laughs.
But the laughter could turn in a blink into terror. How will it all work out?

Trailblazers+Sam, 2010
Red Knuckles & the Trailblazers,
plus Sam Bush, TBF 2010

It's always exciting to see the preliminary lineup for the coming year's Telluride Bluegrass Festival. As we go through the list we look for favorites returning, and performers we don't know so well making the list, maybe for the first time.

This year's early release is no different. Brian Eyster of Planet Bluegrass cautions that there will be additions to the list, but this is the TBF lineup as we know it now. Got your tickets yet?

[click "Play", Nancy Landau talks about Friends of the Library and Funday Sunday]

 

12-12 Dinner Why does Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library need Friends?

The Wilkinson is a five-star book mecca in part because it attracts a steady stream of traffic. Locals and guests love the place and use it as a regular hang-out, a kind of safe haven. The kids' section is always alive with activity. And Scott Doser's programs attract regular weekly crowds.

December 12 is Funday Sunday at Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library. The all-day event begins with a brief annual meeting of the Friends of the Library, 1 p.m., to explain the role of the Friends.

The meeting is followed by a High Def/Blu-Ray screening of "The Wizard of Oz." (The High Definition Blu-Ray format projector was gifted to the Library by the Friends.)

[click "Play" to hear Paul DiStefano's conversation with Susan

 

 

kicker: Ames Conservatory's big production takes place this weekend, 12/10 – 12/12

Polar Homeboy Paul DiStefano is a Telluride success story:  He grew up in Telluride, became a street magician and is now poised to become a dancer on the world stage.

In September 2009, Paul showed up at the Telluride Dance Academy, now the Ames Conservatory. His idea was take classes with former prima ballerina and artistic director Valerie Madonia. Within six months of intense study, pedal to the metal (or toes to the boards), Madonia felt confident enough in Paul's emerging talent to recommend him for an audition at the Joffrey School of New York, where Valerie regularly taught.

[click "Play" to listen to Mark Galbo's conversation with Susan]

 

What Now?!? Telluride local Mark Galbo is an innovative educator and a leading voice in contemporary music education. His unconventionally relaxed and spontaneous approach to teaching has endeared him to thousands of students across the country. But especially in the Telluride region.

See on why Saturday night, December 11, when nine all-kid bands, 45 kids aged 7 – 18,  take the stage of the Sheridan Opera House to perform material from Green Day to Taio Cruz, from the Beatles to Bad Company. The event also features a collaboration between the Rock and Roll Academy and the Telluride Karate Studio in a first of its kind choreographed rock and roll martial arts demonstration.

Polar kicker: Theatrical dance event features exclusive guest appearance by Ted Keegan of Broadway's "Phantom of the Opera."

Yes, you read the headline correctly. The Telluride Dance Academy is not serving up the usual Christmas diet of sugarplums. I am saying Telluride is not succumbing to the tweeness that afflicts the rest of America and mounting yet another production of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker."

What's more, there is no longer a Telluride Dance Academy.

Next thing you know, I'll be saying there is no Santa Claus.

Which is what the little boy in another Christmas classic, Chris Van Allsburg's "The Polar Express" was starting to believe.

This coming weekend, Friday – Sunday, December 10 – December 12, at Telluride's Palm Theatre, the brand new Ames Conservatory presents its inaugural holiday production: "The Polar Express."