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Aseriousman_smallposter 2012_smallposter The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride is showing "2012" the week of December 11-17.

What are your plans for 2013? Oh, you didn't make any? Just as well, as this movie posits the end of the world in 2012. Buildings, bridges, monuments: all fall down. There is plenty of selfishness involved- who gets on the lifeboat? Anyway, it should be entertaining. (Rated PG-13)

The Telluride Film Festival presents "A Serious Man" (Rated R) on Thursday evening, December 17. For showtimes, see below. See the Nugget website for reviews and trailers.

10 December, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Beth Roberts and Sasha Cuciniello]

DSCN1381 In the early 1870s, miners first came to the Telluride region in search of silver and gold,  but the settlement wasn't called "Telluride." It was named Columbia. But Columbia's post office application was turned down on the grounds a town in California with the same name beat the settlers to the punch. The U.S. Postmaster General resolved the problem in 1880: we got our post office, but it came with a new name:"Telluride."

"Telluride"might have been derived from "tellurium," an element often associated with gold seams. Was the moniker just a crass marketing ploy to lure prospectors to the region? Some subscribe to the idea "Telluride" was code among outlaws. Was the name simple contraction of the phrase "to hell you ride," because way back when Telluride was wild and wooly.

08 December, 2009 /

by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer More than these greens tossed with toasted pecans, I want to serve you the hymn I sung into the wooden bowlas I blended the oil and white vinegar. More than honey ice cream beside the warm pie, I want to serve...

08 December, 2009 /
[click to listen to Sally Strand on her art]

Strand_Awake200808_CC_LG Sally Strand is one of a number of high profile pastel artists in the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art's stable, which also includes Bruce Gomez, Doug Dawson, Carole Katchen, Deborah Bays, Albert Handell, and Ramon Kelly.


Brandishing her colored sticks, Strand teases the magic out of everyday objects and ordinary places/situations – train stations, restaurants, pears, a bowl of flowers, eggs, an unmade bed. The quotidian then becomes a placeholder for Strand's real subject: catching the light as it changes from moment to moment. Although her work is representational, Strand is anything but a strict realist. Look closely at her color choices: her palette is there to create a mood rather than depict what is actually in front of our eyes. In a very real sense, Strand helps her viewer see rather than simply look. Strand once told Telluride Inside...and Out: "Success to me is when you can take an ordinary head of lettuce and cause someone to give it a second glance.”
08 December, 2009 /
Photo_all7 For two years running, the man who is arguably America's greatest living composer of classical music was artist-in-residence for the Telluride Musicfest. During that time Philip Glass was pretty busy doing what he does. He performed all over the world, wrote two new operas and several more film scores. One of the classical pieces Glass agreed to write at the time was commissioned through the Meet the Composer program by Martin Murray as a special birthday gift for his wife, Lucy Miller Murray. Mrs. Murray was celebrating her 70th birthday and 27 years as the founding director of Market Square Concerts. Glass's "Sonata for Violin and Piano," premiered in Harrisburg, PA, in February and got raves. Maria Bachmann of the Trio Solisti, artistic director of the Telluride Musicfest, was the violinist.
07 December, 2009 /


Follow the Yellow Brick Road to the historic Sheridan Opera House, where the Sheridan Arts Foundation's Young People's Theater presents "The Wizard of Oz," this weekend, December 4 – December 6, 6 p.m. nightly.

Director Jen Julia's Telluride production is based on the classic MGM musical "The Wizard of Oz," and features 33 locals, grades 6 – 8.

04 December, 2009 /

Pirateradio_smallposter Disneysachristmascarol_smallposter Telluride's Nugget Theatre is showing "A Christmas Carol" and "Pirate Radio" Friday-Tuesday, December 4-8. There will be three FREE screenings of "Astroboy" on Wednesday and Thursday, December 9-10.

From Disney comes an animation of Dickens' timeless "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carey as the voice of Scrooge.

In the 1960s, the BBC would only schedule a minimum of popular music. To fill the void Radio Caroline (the Pirate Radio of this movie) was broadcasting rock 'n' roll from a ship offshore, and therein lies the tale. Come for the music if nothing else.

Astroboy_smallposter "Astroboy" is a robot with super-human powers. What's left to want? Acceptance, of course. And that's the nature of this story.

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

03 December, 2009 /

You may have seen them last Fall on Letterman, but if you missed the show at Telluride's Sheridan Opera House on December 2 with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, you missed one hell of a show. And right there in the front...

03 December, 2009 /

Wiz of Oz Telluride's Sheridan Arts Foundation's Young People's Theater begins its 11th season with director Jen Julia's adaptation of the MGM classic (1939) "The Wizard of Oz," one of the most popular musicals of all time.

"Everyone can identify with Dorothy, the bewildered yet brave farm girl, on her journey through Oz," explained Jen.  "What's more, the songs are catchy, and the lyrics, almost tongue twisters, are extremely clever."

The production, performed by 33 students, grades 6, 7, and 8, includes all the usual suspects: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "If I Only Had a Brain," "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead," "We’re  Off to See the Wizard." But in keeping with the YPT tradition Julia established, the show has some non-traditional elements, including a few songs from the musical, "The Wiz," to spice up the action.

01 December, 2009 /


[click "Play" to hear Alex Ebert's conversation with Susan]   

Noel Nite in Telluride, December 2,  is the official launch of the holiday season in town. The idea: Shop til you drop, but put some in storage. Following the feeding frenzy, guaranteed you'll be shaking what your mommy and daddy gave you and then some, when Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros performs at the historic Sheridan Opera House.

30 November, 2009 /