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[click "Play" to listen to Erika Gordon's remarks about "Ponyo"]

Ponyo.11x17 The Telluride Film Festival's Sunday at the Palm series continues Thanksgiving weekend, Sunday, November 29 4 p.m., with a rare treat for the holidays: magic and joy. Unbridled joy that sweeps up like a giant tsunami into ecstatic reverie in the newest award-winning film from animator extraordinaire Hayao Miyazaki, who won an Oscar for "Spirited Away." The film "Ponyo," (2008, 100 minutes) a sorta goldfish – actually some half-human, half-fish daughter of a powerful wizard (Miyazaki's persona?) –  desperately wants to become a little girl after she meets a little boy who loves her.


"Ponyo" takes some inspiration from "The Little Mermaid," by Hans Christian Anderson, but there is nothing macabre about Miyazaki's tale, no one dies and only a few tears are shed.

24 November, 2009 /



The Telluride Gallery of Fine Art opens for the winter season with its traditional Thanksgiving locals show. The featured artist is Michelle Curry Wright.

Yes, the very same inscrutable Michelle who sits behind the desk of the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art, smiling like the Mona Lisa.

The very same Michelle, who rides her bike or roller-blades in the summertime on the bike path, tuned into her iPod, tuning out the world.
23 November, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Sandra Dorr]

Bilde Friday, November 20, Telluride welcomes acclaimed poet/ teacher Sandra Dorr to town for two distinct events at the Wilkinson Public Library. At 1 p.m., Sandra offers a workshop: “Out of Your Mouth:  Performing Stories and Poems in Public. " She has this to say about that:

 "Sometimes reading in front of a crowd dries your mouth, freezes your throat, and jams your tongue.  This is a workshop for writers, young and old, to bring in samples of work, in poetry or prose, and, through several passes, improve the quality of their reading and thereby make the work, and their voices, live in public.  I will read short excerpts of my work, and explain some of the basics in elocution and just plain enjoyment in reading to an audience.  Come learn how to enjoy reading aloud."

At 6:30, the Program Room at the Wilkinson Public Library reopens for a reading by Sandra Dorr at 7 p.m. She will select works from her latest book of poems, "Desert Water."

19 November, 2009 /
[click "Play" to listen to Susan's conversation with host Seth Berg]

11-16 TFF Poster final A handshake between the Telluride Film Festival and the Wilkinson Public Library developed into a popular local's film club, Telluride Film Festival Cinematheque. Last season, Telluride Film Festival director Gary Meyer  based his programming on the theme of the French New Wave. (Not a hairstyle.) This season, the subject is film noir, flicks with chicks who put the mythological sirens to shame and hapless heroes whose lives are one bad hair day.

The next FREE program in the noir genre occurs Monday, November 16, starting at 5:30 p.m. for the pre-SHOW reception. The evening is double-billed as it would have been in the 1940s and 1950s when film noir was in its heyday. First up is Stanley Kubrick thriller "The Killing" (1956, 83 minutes), considered by buffs to be the director's most perfectly crafted film.

15 November, 2009 /

Wherethewildthingsare_smallfinal Capitalism_smallposter The Nugget Theatre in Telluride is showing "Where the Wild Things Are" Friday, November 13 through Wednesday, November 18. There are two screenings nightly, plus a matinee on Saturday. "WWTA" is based on the wonderful Maurice Sendak children's book, and the critics have raved about the integration of live characters and the special effects "Things" who are animated (inhabited) by the human actors who provide the voices.

On Thursday, November 19 there will be two showings of Michael Moore's "Capitalism: a Love Story." Moore's films often irritate, but they inevitably make us think.

For showtimes see below. For reviews and trailers, check the Nugget website.

12 November, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Dr. David Lingle on the concert]



104 At 6 p.m., Saturday, November 14,  the Michael D. Palm Theatre welcomes guests to a beer, wine and champagne reception (cash bar). At 7 p.m., the Telluride Choral Society and artistic director, Dr. David Lingle, join colleagues from The San Juan Symphony and the Durango Choral Society for a second joint MasterWorks Concert. In keeping with the San Juan Symphony’s 2009 season theme, “Once Upon A Time”, this musical collaboration offers the audience a journey through the myths and fairy tales select composers drew upon to create well-known and well-loved works. Specifics on this MasterWorks program are Brahms' "Nänie," Op. 32," and Mahler's "Forest Legend."


Based on a poem by Friedrich Schiller, "Nänie," Op. 82, was composed in memory of Brahms's friend and 19th century German classicist painter Anselm Feuerbach. But "Nänie," comes with a warning label: Enter at your own risk.  Due to the difficulty of the chorale composition, "Nänie,"is one of Brahms's most rarely performed pieces, tackled only by extremely experienced choirs.
12 November, 2009 /


Last Thursday, November 5, Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts displayed about 50 works of art created by middle and high school students from Telluride, Ridgway, Norwood, Naturita, and the Dolores area, participants in the school's 8th annual Youth Art Award. Judges selected from Ah Haa Art Advisory Committee selected the winners based on originality and strength of the work submitted. Best in show, an honor that also paid $300, went to Jonas Fahnestock for his oil painting entitled "Self Portrait."

11 November, 2009 /
[click "Play to listen to Susan's conversation with Arthur Post]

Snapshot 2009-11-13 15-35-33 The San Juan Symphony and the combined choruses of the Telluride Choral Society and the Durango Choral Society present a MasterWorks choral concert, “From The Old Country”,  Saturday, November 14, 7 p.m., following a beer, wine and champagne reception (cash bar), at the Michael D. Palm Theatre. Included in the program are the beautiful albeit professionally daunting Brahms "Nänie, Op. 82," and Mahler’s wildly dramatic "Forest Legend," an early work by the inspired composer.


The artistic director of the Telluride Choral Society, Dr. David Lingle, and his counterpart at the Durango Choral Society, Linda Mack, are charged with prepping the chorus, which involves teaching singers the notes and the German. Arthur Post, now in his eighth season as music director of the San Juan Symphony, conducts.
11 November, 2009 /