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The Freelance Whales, appearing in concert at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House starting at 9 p.m., Friday night, June 4, plays everything from guitars, banjos, tambourines, harmonium, glockenspiels, and watering cans to the occasional keyboard and laptop assist. Besides instruments, the band favors ghosts and dream-logs. Their first release, Weathervanes, has lots to do with ghosts. And dreams.

Freelance Whales met via Craigslist, went on to play on street corners and in subways, where busy New Yorkers, wanting more of their indie sound, chose to miss their trains. Drilling down in to the sound, well, it ranges far and wide from electronic indie booty-shaking riffs to what one critic described as "overalls on a front porch." And another summed up this way:

03 June, 2010 /

Babies_smallposter Iron-man-poster-2 After a busy Mountainfilm weekend, Telluride's Nugget Theatre is back on a regular schedule, with three movies on tap for the week of Friday, June 4 to Thursday, June 10.

"Ironman 2" continues its run this week. Rated PG-13, "Ironman" is a superhero with a secret, though it's not about his identity. He is known, and the government wants his power as a national asset. And of course there are bad guys to deal with. Sounds like standard superhero fare, but the cast is led by Robert Downey, jr.

"Babies" (rated PG) is a documentary about, you guessed it, babies. Babies of diferent colors, from different places, from rich places, babies from poor places, babies just being babies. Mostly there isn't a lot of voiceover, no explanation, babies doing what babies do.

Robinhood_smallteaser This isn't "Robin Hood" with a band of merry men, and Maid Marion has become the Widow Marion; don't go expecting to see Robin having a jolly time with Friar Tuck. Things are rough in Sherwood Forest: Richard the Lionhearted has died, leaving the weak but venal John in charge, and the Sheriff of Notingham is still a baddie. "Robin Hood" is rated PG-13 for violence and sexual situations.

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

03 June, 2010 /
[click "Play", Susie Billings speaks to Susan from Baja]

E1274393861 Susie X. Billings is a well established mixed media artist, who shows her work locally at the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art. A protean talent (has to do with change, not meat), Susie is intent on proving all life is art, daily to herself, and on magical occasions, to her students.

Susie runs international workshops, but she returns to town this month to her regular stomping grounds, Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts, to teach a three-day intensive, Friday – Sunday, June 11 – June 13, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. The subject is Mixed Media Collage & Watercolor. The starting point for the workshop is a love of summer alpine landscapes. Duh. All levels of student are welcome, from never-evers to accomplished professionals.
02 June, 2010 /

Image003, cropped This weekend, Mountainfilm in Telluride and SquidShow Theatre present "War of the Words: A Murder Trial, Endangered Language vs. English. The dramatic event takes place Saturday, May 29, 9:15 p.m. @ The Masons.

After bringing Howard Zinn's Voices of a People's History to life last year, SquidShow Theatre is excited to pair up with Mountainfilm again, this time creating an original play based on the Festival's theme: extinction.

“Festival Director David Holbrooke approached us about creating an original play, because he wanted to incorporate theatre and live performance in this year’s Festival again," said Sasha Cucciniello. "After several conversations about what we might write about, David mentioned language extinction. After doing some research, the choice was made. Being a writer, I was blown away by the subject, the impact language extinction is having on our world and the implications for the future of language.”

29 May, 2010 /



"The moment when one thing turns into another is the most beautiful moment," Vik Muniz

Mountainfilm in Telluride selected director Lucy Walker's latest film to be included in its program line-up from among more than 600 submissions. "Waste Land," which has already garnered a small bucket of awards including World Cinema Documentary Audience Award at Sundance, will be screened over the long Memorial Day weekend, May 28 – May 30, at the 32nd annual gathering of the tribe.

The "Waste Land" in question is not that of poet T.S. Eliot. Eliot's "Wasteland" is a metaphor (for the disillusionment of the generation post WWI). Although poetic transformations happen there as a result of the film project, Walker's wasteland is a real place, Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest garbage dump, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.
28 May, 2010 /

By D. Dion

 

Greg Stump’s “Blizzard of Aahhh’s” (1988) is perhaps the most beloved movie ever made about skiing. (Skiing Magazine ranked it #1 in its Top Ten Ski Movies of All Times, and a VHS recording of the film sits on the shelf of every self-respecting ski bum over the age of 30.) The movie also holds a special place in the heart of Telluriders, because it features lots of local footage from the 80s, from powder runs down Mammoth in neon-colored, one-piece ski suits to dreadlocked reggae musician Rasta Stevie waxing philosophical about his stint in Telluride politics and the vibe of the ski town.

It’s fitting, then, that the preeminent filmmaker would preview his newest work in progress, the ski flick “Legend of Aahhh’s,” here in his old Stump-ing grounds, at Telluride’s Mountainfilm festival this Memorial Day weekend. “I spent every winter from 1983 through 1988 in Telluride, with my brother Geoff. I really like it there,” says Stump.

27 May, 2010 /
[Anthony speaks to Susan about his art and being Anthony Holbrooke, click "Play"]

Anthony-3 The name "Holbrooke" is listed in the Telluride phone book. It is also gets top billing on the marquee of the world stage.

Dad is Ambassador, now Special Representative, Richard Holbrooke, appointed by President Obama to help his administration tackle the thorniest foreign policy challenges it faces: Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ambassador Holbrooke is also a regular at Mountainfilm in Telluride, the event son David, a talented documentary filmmaker, has programmed for the past three years as its Festival Director.

This year, Ambassador Holbrooke is unable to attend Mountainfilm in Telluride, but another Holbrooke, son Anthony, is on the schedule. His show at the Ah Haa School for the Arts is part of Mountainfilm's Gallery Walk, Friday, May 28, following the Symposium.
27 May, 2010 /

Ironman2_smallfinal Telluride's Nugget Theatre is one of the venues for Mountainfilm in Telluride from Friday, May 28 through Monday morning. Check http://www.mountainfilm.org/festival/2010/online-schedule/index.html for the Festival lineup. The Nugget's regular schedule resumes Monday evening with Iron Man 2 (PG-13). Note there is a "TBA" on the schedule for Thursday evening at 8:30 pm.

Shhh, don't tell: Iron Man is dying. The public knows who he is, and there are pressures to share his secrets with the US government. Naturally there are bad guys, but in this case the level of acting should make Iron Man an interesting evening at the cinema.

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

27 May, 2010 /

By D. Dion


When Sender Films brings their superior brand of climbing flicks to Mountainfilm in Telluride, they know they are getting an appreciative audience—often one full of climbers and adventurers who have been through the ascetic conditioning of sleeping in the cold at high elevations, burdened with just enough food and water to make the journey possible, or who have scars on their hands from jamming them into a crack as they ascend a wall. Sender has managed to dazzle these likeminded folks at past festivals, winning awards for films like “King Lines,” “Return to Sender” and “The Sharp End.”

But the mountaineering world isn’t the only one sitting up and taking notice of Sender: National Geographic International contracted Sender to produce a television series based on the film company’s popular work “First Ascent.” The film company has finished the six-part series and will show four of the programs at Mountainfilm in Telluride this weekend. “In the past we’ve done a lot of television stuff, but we’ve never produced our own series. It was different working for National Geo, but also similar, in that a lot of our films are sort of episodic. But it was a much bigger budget, more storyline, and we were creating a product that wasn’t just for mountain film enthusiasts and the climbing community,” says Nicholas Rosen, who co-produced the series with his partner Peter Mortimer.

26 May, 2010 /