Culture

[click "Play" for Susan's conversation with the Singing Chef]

Andy-isle-wight What do you get when you cross Mario Batali with Mario Lanza? Dinner theater in Telluride featuring The Singing Chef, Andy LoRusso. In the high stakes super star chefs sweepstakes, LoRusso is sure to bag the talent segment.


Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House is throwing a party for itself on Friday, March 19. The fun-raiser starts at 6:30 p.m. with cocktails. A cooking show and four-course Italian dinner follows, orchestrated by the guest of honor and prepared by Telluride's The Butcher and The Baker. The evening ends with a live auction and dancing to burn some of the calories – and a hole in your wallet for a popular cause.
[click "Play" for Masriera rep Sally Lake's conversation with Susan]

CO-40 The bling at Telluride's Lustre Gallery, 171 South Pine, is as extravagantly fabulous as a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne.

Founded in 1839, the House of Masriera became synonymous with Art Noveau jewelry in Spain, ultimately sharing a podium with Lalique glass and Gaudi's over the top architecture. Lluís Masriera (1872-1958), son of jewelers and painters, pioneered several innovations in his field, including the technique known as “Barcelona Enamel”, a translucent enamel possessing brilliant luminosity and remarkable definition. Fortunately for jewelry collectors today, Masriera saved every mold used in his design process. Each contemporary Masriera is made from these original molds, and so they are not considered reproductions, but originals.

Shawn Colvin Flyer Join the executive director Lanie Demas and the Telluride Academy on March 18 for an apres-ski fundraiser at The Ridge Club, at the Gondola stop next to Allred's in the Mountain Village, featuring singer/songwriter Shawn Colvin.

Colvin is known for slow-release works of craft and catharisis. In the 19 years since the release of her debut album, Colvin has won three Grammys, released eight albums, and toured non-stop internationally. Her songs have been featured in major motion pictures, and she has shared the stage with iconic artists from Jackson Browne to Bonnie Raitt , Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett. The combined sales of Colvin's albums total more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S. alone.

The Telluride Film Festival is now recruiting candidates for the Production Apprentice Program. From the Telluride Film Festival's website: "Sure, there's the pleasure of rubbing shoulders with the film elite. But plenty of elbow grease goes into producing the four-day Telluride Film Festival. Our...

[click "Play" to listen to Erika Gordon speak about Sunday at the Palm]

 The Telluride Film Festival's Sunday at The Palm series continues this weekend, March 14, 4:00 pm, with a film that brought critics to their knees:

"BEAUTIFUL!"
- New York Times

"MAGNIFICENT! ENCHANTING!"
- Variety

"PURE MAGIC!"
- Hollywood Reporter

"Is it too early to announce the most beautiful film of 2009?"
"It's hard to imagine a more transporting cinematic experience!"
- Chicago Tribune

"Azur & Asmar: The Prince's Quest (2006, 99 minutes, PG), the whimsical, epic animated feature from award-winning director Michel Ocelot, is the story of two boys raised as brothers. This masterpiece premiered as part of the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006 . It had its American premiere in 2008 in New York.  The opening was meant to run for one week, but sold- out shows triggered a second week of screenings. When those sold out, a third and final week got tacked on before the film made the rounds to other lucky American cities.  Now "Azur & Asmar" comes to Telluride on the big screen to enchant children of all ages.

[click "Play" to listen to Susan's conversation with Richie Havens]

Unknown Richie Havens has been performing in Telluride since the 1970s. Everything old will be new again when the folk icon returns to town for a concert at the historic Sheridan Opera House on Saturday, March 13. Show time is 8 p.m. Box Office and Vaudeville Bar open 30 minutes prior.


August 15, 2009 marked the 40th anniversary of the momentous Woodstock Music & Art Fair, a festival billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music," held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm near the hamlet of White Lake in the town of Bethel, New York. Bethel, in Sullivan County, is 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York,  in adjoining Ulster County and it was where Richie Havens became an enduring star.
DSCN0068 It is a widely held belief that Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer is one of the most phenomenal among legions of phenomenal women in the Telluride region: as talented as she is beautiful and as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. Here is one of a number of original poems Rosemerry plans to read Thursday night at open mic and arts event at the Ah Haa School for the Arts, part of the San Miguel Resource Center's Phenomenal Woman's Week celebration.
[click "Play" to hear a free-wheeling conversation with Jerry Joseph]

Stockholm_courtesy1_2-25_t620 Fair warning: We have it on good authority that around 7 p.m. on Friday, March 12, the Telluride region will be held hostage by an unruly band of men and worse, fall in love with their captors, thereby conforming to the psychological definition of the Stockholm Syndrome.

The band, the Stockholm Syndrome, takes the town by storm, performing in concert  at the Telluride Conference Center in the Mountain Village. Doors at 6:30 p.m. Show time at 7 p.m.

Aneducation_smallposter Crazyheart_smallposter Three movies on tap this week at Telluride's Nugget Theatre: "Valentine's Day"  (rated PG-13) also showed last week and features an large ensemble cast telling stories of people in love, people who want to be in love, people who are NOT in love, all in the 24 hours of Valentine's Day.

"Crazy Heart" (rated R) is the vehicle for Jeff Bridges' boozed up has-been of a country singer, for which he won Best Actor in the recent Academy Awards.

Speaking of the Oscars, Carry Mulligan was nominated for Best Actress for her role in "An Education" (rated PG-13) which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival last September. If you missed it last Fall, hie thee to the Nugget.

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