Culture

[click "Play" to hear Bryan Simpson talk about Cadillac Sky]

Cadillac Sky 2010 Promotional Photo Listen: Cadillac Sky comes straight from red dirt country to the Main Stage of the 37th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival, on a high from the heat their brand spanking new CD, "Letters in the Deep," is generating.

Telluride Bluegrass Festival's marketing guru Brian Eyster described "Letters in the Deep" as "one of the coolest bluegrass albums of the year."  He raves about Cadillac Sky's great songs, virtuosic picking (the band includes national champions on fiddle and banjo), and no-holds-barred delivery. Their stage setup includes lots of effect pedals (for distortion and other tricks of the trade), as well as a small drum kit one band member or another might sit at "when the energy needs to go to 11."

Sexandthecity2_smallposter Shrekforeverafter_smallposter The Nugget Theatre in the heart of beautiful downtown Telluride is showing two films for the week of Friday, June 18-Thursday, June 24, plus a Telluride Film Festival presentation of "City Island" on Thursday.

"Shrek" is back in another version of the old "be careful of what you wish for" we've heard all of our lives. Shrek is tired, tired of being king, so when he is offered a deal to just be an ogre again, well... How was he to know that history is about to be re-written? Rated PG.

If you can accept the concept of our four favorite New York friends striding across the desert in the United Arab Emirates in their Manolos, "Sex and the City 2" (rated R) may be for you. Hard to say, but make mine Manhattan.

Cityisland_smallposter "City Island" has one big secret: Everyone has secrets. Andy Garcia's Vince Rizzo is a corrections officer with a yen to be an actor. He would rather have his wife believe he is having an affair than admit he is taking acting classes. Audiences have loved the movie. This Telluride Film Festival presentation is rated PG-13.

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

Telluride local Jared David Paul is known for a variety of artistic explorations. His "Back of Beyond" is currently on display in the Daniel Tucker Gallery at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts.Jared David Paul was trained in traditional Chinese painting in...

[click "Play" and listen to Nora Jane Struthers speak about her music and career]

Struthers01 When Nora Jane Struthers hits Telluride to compete in both the Telluride Bluegrass Festival's Troubadour and Band contests, she'll be doing it in style – vintage style.

She loves vintage threads. Just last week, Nora Jane visited vintage outlets in her hometown of Nashville, where she made a video of herself playing a couple of songs and chose vintages togs fans and fellow vintage addicts can sign up to win. (The videos are live on her website.)

by Daiva Chesonis

JohnFayhee Mountain Gazette resurrectionist M. John Fayhee & contributor B. Frank at Wilkinson Public Library in Telluride on Wed 6/16 at 6pm to read and discuss their new books! 

If you've ever read (or written for) the Mountain Gazette ("When in doubt, go higher." ) then you know it's a classic Mountain Time Zone rag. We are so fortunate to have both John and B in town on the eve of Bluegrass as they hit the road to launch their new books "Bottoms Up: Greatest Hits from the Mountain Gazette" and "Livin' the Dream: Testing the Ragged Edge of Machismo." They'll read, we'll listen, and then swap stories about this West we call home; what's right, what's wrong, what's to be done, and which regional microbrew rules. At the heart of it all are the surroundings we choose to live, work and play in, float through and fight for. Afterward, there'll be live music by Bay Area band Calaveras on the terrace. Storytelling from the gut, then music under the stars; ain't life grand?
 
[For Ben Sollee's conversation with Susan click "Play"]

Ben_main You have seen Ben Sollee with his cello on the Telluride Bluegrass Festival's Main Stage, performing with Abigail Washburn, and with Bela Fleck in the Sparrow Quartet. But this time when he steps onto the stage in Telluride's Town Park Friday morning, 10 a.m., Ben Sollee will be all alone in the morning sun. And he will shine.

Ben Sollee looks like central casting for the son in the father/son Patek Philippe watch ads that appear, well, like clockwork in The New York Times Sunday magazine: a handsome preppy with a geek bent. But looks, as we know, can be deceiving. Ben Sollee was not to the manor born. His roots are in the blue grass of Kentucky, where his grandfather owned a farm. Not to put too fine on point on it, the tag line for those watch ads, however, does ring true: "Begin your own tradition." That's just what Ben is doing – with great success.
[click "Play" to hear Keller Williams in conversation with Susan]

Keller:Keels 2010 credit Melissa T. Colombo I'm just saying. Throughout its wild and wooly history, Telluride has been a haven for misfits and miscreants, so Keller Williams fits right in no problem. I mean this is a guy whose latest album is entitled "Thief." No accident.

For "Thief," Williams' first ever all-covers collection, the iconoclastic one man band broke with tradition and enlisted the help of the husband and wife team of Larry and Jenny Keel, a former Telluride guitar champ and bassist respectively.
[click "Play" for Pastor Pat's conversation with Susan]

Pat_bailey_photo Telluride's Christ Presbyterian Church launches a series on luncheon talks about world religion on Wednesday, June 16, noon – 1:30 p.m.. The event takes place downstairs at the church, 434, West Columbia Avenue, across the street from the Telluride Elementary School. (Lunch and the program are free.)

A defining characteristic of human society is tribalism, a tendency to huddle in groups with common ideas/characteristics that set themselves apart and often at odds with groups that don't share their views. Tribes breed distrust and engender fear. The fear is of "they" who cannot be trusted. "They" who could be a danger. "They" who is The Other. Religious groups are tribes. And crimes committed in the name of God, Allah, Ishvara, Yahweh, you name it, against The Other are legend throughout history. (The Crusades and the Holocaust are just two examples among hundreds, perhaps thousands). How to staunch the venom and learn to live together?