Culture

[click "Play" to hear what's happening at Ah Haa this Fall]

Ahhaa_hp_middle Fall in Telluride is a colorful time of year as aspens turn gold and local institutions  such as the Ah Haa School for the Arts announce their kaleidoscopic Fall/Winter season.

Abstract paintings and drawings pulsing with the energy of the Telluride region by artist Meredith Nemirov are on display throughout the month of October in Ah Haa's newly renovated Daniel Tucker Gallery. In November, the exhibition space will feature the work of the winner's of Ah Haa's Youth Arts Awards. (Submissions from 7 – 12 graders due by October 26.)

[click "Play" to hear Susan speaking with Dave Wakeling]

Image001  He describes himself as "The happiest man in ska." Tonight, October 6, Telluride welcomes back Dave Wakeling and The English Beat. The band is performing at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House, resplendent in its re-stenciled glory.

Doors/box office open at 7:30 p.m. Show time is 8 p.m.

The English Beat is celebrating its 30th anniversary...For Crying Out Loud. The set includes a medley of the band's greatest hits such as "Stand Down Margaret," "MIrror in the Bathroom," covers such as "Tears of a Clown" and "Can't Get Used to Losing You," and chestnuts-in-the-making such as "The Love You Give Forever."

[double click to view in larger format]

OK, Telluride: dress for the occasion, thinking caps and party shoes, when singer/songwriter Dave Wakeling and The (reincarnated) English Beat perform Tuesday, October 6, at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House.

English Beat in Concert Margaret Thatcher may be out of the spotlight, but Dave Wakeling's band, (they blasted on to the scene in 1979, the year she became PM) is still making news – and tracks, on tour to  celebrate the band's 30th anniversary...For Crying Out Loud. (Still, the band's "Sit Down Margaret has relevance as more and more Americans embrace the power of one.) Since then, Wakeling has never met a challenge he didn't want to take on: Greenpeace, Rock the Earth, CND, Amnesty International, The Smile Train, and Heal the Bay to name a few headliners.

Allaboutsteve_smalltitle

The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride is showing "All About Steve" once each evening at 7:00 pm the week of Friday, October 2-Thursday, October 8. Rated PG-13.

Mary (Sandra Bullock) is a socially backward, over-the-top smart crossword puzzle creator who has a blind date with hunk TV cameraman Steve (Bradley Cooper). Will nerd get stud? You guess.

For reviews and trailers, see the Nugget website. Movie showtimes are repeated below.

[click "Play" to hear Meredith speak about her art]

[double click to view in larger format]

A show of new work by artist Meredith Nemirov opens October 1 at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts.

"Leaps and Turns" is a departure for the artist, known for her impressionistic, representational paintings drawn from nature. These works on paper, completed over the last two years, are abstractions. But earlier paintings explain later ones.
The model for the relationship between the new and the old work is jazz: improvisation off a melody line.

IMG_5417
Jason Reitman

There is a lot of conversation about how much effect the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival have on the Oscar nominating procedure. I don't pretend to have inside information on this subject, but TIO had the opportunity not only to view some great films at Telluride, but to witness audience reaction in the theaters and to converse with film buffs in the lines outside. Our take on the Oscar season? For an in depth look at what TIO said right after the festival see Susan's review from September 14.

We called out Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air", starring George Clooney, as a contender in several categories.

[click "Play" to hear Seth Cagin speak about film noir]

MV5BMTg1MDI0ODYyMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTk4MTYyMQ@@._V1._SX100_SY140_

Telluride Film Festival Cinematique, a collaboration between the Wilkinson Public Library and the Telluride Film Festival, is a film club catering to local cineastes, who want After-the-Festival to last year 'round. Each of the four-film series develops a theme. Last season's hot button was the French New Wave of Varda, Truffaut, Godard, and Chabrol. This season, the subject is film noir.

What is this thing called film noir? We all understand the word "film." Film is, according to Orson Welles, nothing more than "a ribbon of dreams." The word "noir" is French for "black." The defining characteristic of these "dark films" is fatalism and alienation, shady motives, and bleak prospects: one false move and you're out. Predatory "femmes fatales" populate this bleak landscape, sirens who lure hapless heroes into the world of illicit desires.

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

Raiders11x17

The Telluride Film Festival leaves no child – or parent – behind. It is an educational engine that runs throughout the year. This Sunday, September 28, the Telluride Film Festival in collaboration with the Telluride R-1 School District and The Telluride Foundation re-opens the 2009/2010 Sunday at the Palm season with the first in a series of films that are free and open to the general public. Show time is 4 p.m.

Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones is an Everyman for all seasons, the quintessential action hero, both vulnerable and charming. In the four-time Oscar winner "Raiders of the Lost Ark," he shows everyone, not just the smart-mouthed, hard-drinking Marion Ravenwood, a real good time.

"Tarantino films have a way of growing on you. It’s not enough to see them once." (Roger Ebert) Quentin Tarantino; a war movie; the Hero, the Nazi, the Girl. With me so far? Enough said? And to Roger Ebert's point (see above), "Inglourious Basterds"...