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[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Katia and Steve]

Necklace-mask-b-e Sponsored by the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities, First Thursday Art Walk has become what to do apres ski or pre-prandial for Telluride locals and guests, who get to soak in the town's fine art and retail scene: galleries, studios, arts organizations (such as the Council) and retail stores located in and around Colorado Avenue (Main Street) stay open late until 8 p.m. Lustre Artisans Gallery is one of the participating venues.

For Art Walk, February 4 (also Friday, February 5), 4 – 7 p.m., the husband and wife team of Steve Pflipsen and Katia Pflipsen-Olivová are on hand at Lustre for an artists’ reception. The couple will be talking about their newest large-scale sculptural glass vessels.( Also at Lustre, a trunk show featuring 24K gold jewelry by Gurham, who fashions his contemporary pieces based on techniques dating back thousands of years.)

04 February, 2010 /

[click "Play" to hear Adele Kaars-Sypesteyn]

TELLGALLERYsypesteyn_Candle 3 First Thursday Art Walk, February 4, 5 – 8 p.m., is a big night out on the town. Locals and guests meet and greet on the street as they check out Telluride's fine art and retail scenes. Venues are open late until 8 p.m.

The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art , 130 East Colorado Avenue, features the work of artist Adele Kaars-Sypesteyn , who paints images of aged and decrepit walls, floors and other architectural features of buildings marred – or enhanced? – by time. Repetition of forms, the visual marks of lives well lived, evoke a feeling of bygone days and the weathering of lived-in spaces. The power and physical beauty of Sypesteyn's abstractions and landscapes also suggest the artist holds some interesting views about the aging process in humans.
04 February, 2010 /

Avatar_smallteaser James Cameron's "Avatar" recently replaced James Cameron's "Titanic" as the highest grossing movie, and Telluride can see "Avatar" this week, Friday, February 5-Thursday, February 11, at Telluride's Nugget Theatre. On Friday and Saturday, there are two showings each day.

If you know nothing about "Avatar" you must have been living in a cave. In fact Roger Ebert calls "Avatar" "...one of those films you feel you must see to keep up with the conversation." The movie is a hero's quest in the sense of Joseph Campbell, and now you can join in the conversation.

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

04 February, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to MD about his art]

Md_web The Telluride local known on the streets simply as "MD" is not what his handle suggests. Michael Patrick Doherty is an artist, this month the featured virtuoso at the Ah Haa School for the Arts. "Life on Telluride" officially opens tomorrow, February 4, for the First Thursday Art Walk., 5 - 8 p.m. in Ah Haa's Daniel Tucker Gallery.


03 February, 2010 /


He's beginning to be a habit around these parts: Telluride Bluegrass Festival, 2005, again in 2007, and most recently, the 2009 Telluride Blues & Brews Festival. And that's a good thing. Multi-instrumentalist  – voice, guitars, dobro, piano, harmonica, and percussion – Jackie Greene returns with his band to Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House for an encore performance Saturday night, January 30.

It rained cats and dogs throughout the 2009 Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, but not on Greene's parade: the skinny man-boy with a shock of dark hair had the crowd dancing in the mud and hooting for more of his quirky songwriting and winning way with words. As his meteoric rise to the top suggests, Greene is a captivating acoustic solo artist and an electrifying bandleader with a kickass band covering his back.
29 January, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Susan's conversation with Judith Michaels Safford]

Web1_book_graphic Telluride's Between the Covers bookstore welcomes debut author Judith Michaels Safford to town for a book-signing on Saturday, January 30, 5 – 7 p.m. Her memoir, "Don't Sell Your Soul: Memoirs of a Guru Junkie,"  is a story about some hard lessons learned and a life reclaimed.


In our society, the distance between first and second place is measured in terms of yards, not inches. It is the difference between winning and losing, gold and silver. We might remember who came in second in the World Series or Superbowl, but first place rains confetti and grabs headlines. Ditto in a family.

28 January, 2010 /

Itscomplicated_smallposter Alvinandthechipmunksthesqueakuel_smallteaser Something for everybody at Telluride's Nugget Theatre this week, Friday, January 29-Thursday, February 4. And those of you who are young or young at heart have two opportunities to see Alvin and company on Saturday.

In "Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel" the furry ones go to high school and are pitted against a girl chipmunk trio in a music contest. Alvin and group hope to win the $25K first prize to support the school music program. Need more plot than that? It's rated PG.

Meryl Streep (Jane) and Alec Baldwin (Jake) are ten years divorced, and find themselves out of town together. This being Hollywood, they have an affair, though Jake is re-married and Jane has an incipient relationship. "It's Complicated" is rated R, for sexual situations and some drug content.

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

28 January, 2010 /
[to hear Sasha Cucciniello and Colin Sullivan talk about "Reenactments" click "Play"]

IA sheridanrules They all get their 15 minutes of fame: Telluride legends and forgotten characters resurrected: prostitutes, skiers, miners and donkeys in "Inaccurate Reenactments, " a musical comedy commissioned by the Telluride Historical Museum and created by Sasha Cucciniello and her merry band of SquidShow Theatre thespians.

IAskiersandwhores "Inaccurate Reenactments" opened in Telluride in December to packed houses and hosannahs. The FREE encore performance is Thursday, January 28, at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House. Showtime is 8 p.m.

26 January, 2010 /
Mrs R 6 Editor's note: Telluride Inside... and Out welcomes a new writer to our pages. Tracy Shaffer is an award-winning playwright and actress, realtor and ass-kicker, who has worked in New York, Los Angeles, and the Denver Metro area. Founder of Thriving Artist Alliance, a member of the Denver Center Theatre Company, a Chameleon’s Stage Playwright, and mother to sons, August & Gabriel. Tracy has been to town to participate in Jennie Franks/Sparky Productions Telluride Playwright's Festival. She is about to star as Mrs. Robinson in an upcoming production of "The Graduate"  at Denver's Aurora Fox Theatre, 9900 E Colfax Ave, six miles east of the State Capitol in Aurora, Colorado. The show runs from February 12 – March 14. Show time on the weekends are Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call (303) 739-1972 or visit www.aurorafox.org

Look for Tracy Shaffer on TIO for whatup in Denver.

A Cougar and Her Spots

by Tracy Shaffer

I’m in rehearsal, which is usually no big thing, but this time it’s for the iconic role of Mrs. Robinson in the upcoming production of The Graduate.

24 January, 2010 /