Culture

[click "Play' to hear Mark English interview]

English_farm_to_market_road_sm Mark English is in Telluride this weekend – at least in spirit. The newest paintings of this great artist/illustrator are now on display Telluride Gallery of Fine Art. The foggy foggy dew image that became the poster for the 28th annual Telluride Wine Festival is also his.

What is the syntax that unifies Mark English's magical, mystical paintings? Are there any governing principles that unite them? If you guessed that images of Native Americans, a ghost rider, a toy town, and farmscape suggest a rural Western past filtered through memory onto a canvas, you would be right.

Mark English was born in 1933 and raised in the rear view mirror town of Hubbard,Texas, which lies northeast of Waco. This no-count address once called Slap-out is a patchwork of farms, cotton fields, and snaking creeks and country roads, just exactly what is pictured in his "Farm to Market Road."

[click "Play" to hear Maria Bachman on the concert series]

Telluride 2009 5
The seven year itch may ring true for marriages, but fans of the Telluride Musicfest have grown more ardent over the years – and with good reason. The heavy breathing always begins when the Hungarian beauty picks up her 18th century instrument, a Niccolo Gagliano violin, and starts fiddling: The ensuing pyrotechnics mesmerize.

She is Maria Bachman, artistic director of the Telluride Musicfest and a member of the Trio Solisti, recently described by The New Yorker as "the most exciting piano trio in America." The musical materiality between her and her colleagues,  Alexis Pia Gerlach on cello and Jon Klibonoff on piano, is the reason: their complicity is perfect and other-worldly. They play as one.

by Daiva Chesonis

Otdofsccoversmall[1] Penguin Books author Kaya McLaren is touring Colorado. She will be in Telluride at Between the Covers Bookstore & Café on Tuesday, June 23, 7-9 p.m. to read from and discuss her latest novel “On the Divinity of Second Chances.”  This is our first-ever Book Clubs Mixer. A store full of women who like to read-'n'-discuss plus some wine … what could be more fun, right?"

If you’ve ever been given (or given someone else) a second chance, you’ll relate. If you live in a ski town, you’ll relate. (She actually started the novel on a snow day!) If you have children going in a multitude of directions, you’ll relate. If you think dancing can save a relationship, you’ll relate. If you’re menopausal, you’ll relate.

Kaya McLaren's previous book is "The Church of the Dog."  She’s as enthusiastic about living as she is about dogs. (Can you relate?) With weekly closings of some of America’s finest independent bookstores, gathering at creaky floored shops and talking about books is more important than ever. Thanks for your continued support of Telluride’s indie bookstore … We’re only as good as our readers!
 
[click "Play" to hear Barbara Heinrich]

Unknown Jeweler Barbara Heinrich of the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art is a gold medal artist specializing in gold. Her professional training began when she was a young woman living in Germany, her native country, where she studied goldsmithing at Pestalozzi Kinderdorf Wahlwies for four years.

Barbara moved to America to earn a second masters degree in her craft at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and never looked over her shoulder.

Thursday night's closer for Telluride Bluegrass was David Byrne. OK, skeptics, maybe David Byrne doesn't represent bluegrass for you, but what a show! Everyone was dressed in white- David, the band, the three very energetic dancers, and at the end of the evening the crowd,...

The 2009 Telluride Bluegrass Festival kicked off Thursday morning with a great set by two artists who really need no introduction to Telluride audiences. Tim O'Brien has performed at TBF for over 25 years, and the 36th running is Jerry Douglas' 25th appearance. Gentlemen, it...

Rattlin Bones Roots music goes global when Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson perform at the 36th annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival on Saturday, June 20.

Country music by any name – bluegrass, roots, Americana –  is as southern as Martha White's self-rising flour, the Confederate Flag and hospitality, the genre derived from the Scots-Irish who settled in the Appalachian Mountains to the Africans who worked plantations in Georgia. But like so many industries, that sound has been outsourced, in this case with great success.

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Jerry Douglas]

Tn_NEADobro player Jerry Douglas is definitely Telluride's B.M.O.C.  this weekend. He is in town celebrating his silver anniversary at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival: 25 years at the 36th annual gathering of the tribe of legendary artists on a first name basis with the crowd: Sam, Bela, Edgar, Bryan, Peter, Emmylou, Tim – and Jerry.

You might say Jerry is the alpha and omega of this year's Telluride Bluegrass: he and Tim (O'Brien for the uninitiated) kick off the fun and games with a special duet set Thursday morning. Jerry joins the group who have come to define the Festival (as above) to close the curtain on Sunday night. In between, he should be everywhere you want to be...


Terminatorsalvation_smallteaser The Nugget Theatre in Telluride will show "Night at the Museum" through Wednesday, June 24. On Saturday and Sunday, June 20, 21, Bela Fleck presents "Throw Down Your Heart."

On Monday, June 22, the featured attraction becomes "Terminator: Salvation." Humankind is once again threatened; it's continued existence in the face of the Terminators is in the hands of two unlikely allies.

See below for movie times, and go to the Nugget website for previews and trailers.