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Culture

IMG_1808 Telluride Inside... and Out scratched the surface of Denver's robust art scene, visiting two major public spaces and our favorite gallery.

IMG_1815 On a beautiful albeit very windy Spring afternoon, we made a pilgrimage to see Henry Moore (1898 – 1986) in the Denver Botanic Gardens and were blown away (very nearly literally). The show, the very first major outdoor exhibition of the artist's works in the American West, features 20 monumental sculptures, primarily bronze, some fiberglass, by the celebrated Brit, from a reclining " Naked Maya" stretching nearly 30 feet long and dominating a grassy knoll to an tender depiction of  a mother cradling a child, standing under three feet tall, hidden in a clearing.
19 April, 2010 /
Mariela-in-the-Desert-main419.sflb Mariela's bummed, and Jose is in a major slump, but Telluride Inside... and Out is riding a wave that just won't quit on our whirlwind tour of Denver's rich cultural landscape.

Encouraged by Telluride Inside... and Out contributor and member of the Denver Center Company, Tracy Shaffer, on Wednesday night we attended a performance of Karen Zacarias' Award-winning play "Mariela in the Desert" at the Denver Center's Ricketson Theatre,  a tour de force of magical realism –  ghosts live and paint brushes are weapons –  that left us dumbstruck and moved to tears.
18 April, 2010 /
20100414144858896 There is absolutely positively nothing fishy about the collaboration between the Telluride Film Festival and the award-winning Wilkinson Public Library – except the stench from the derring-do portrayed in director Hubert Sauper's "Darwin's Nightmare."

The gripping documentary exposing the booming multinational industry of fish and weapons is part of the "All About Food" series, which continues Monday, April 19, with a pre-SHOW reception starting at 5:30 p.m.

Back in the days of the flower children and the Cold War, the Soviets dumped a non-native fish into Lake Victoria, Tanzania. The profoundly predatory Nile Perch went on a rampage, killing off most of the indigenous species. There was collateral damage too, on the human population, as farmers became fisherman to satisfy the Russian and European demand for fish. Filming undercover, gave Sauper access to a range of people affected, from businessmen and pilots to peasants, prostitutes, and EU politicos, his camera exploring the altogether devastating effects of globalization on one Tanzanian village.
18 April, 2010 /

Hottubtimemachine_smallposter Alice_in_wonderland_depp_movie_poster7 Telluride's Nugget Theatre has two films on the program this week, Friday, April 16-22: "Alice in Wonderland" and "Hot Tub Time Machine". In addition, on Thursday, April 22, the Telluride Film Festival will present "The Ghost Writer".

"Alice" (Rated PG) is Tim Burton's take on the Lewis Carroll classic. In Burton's hands, this is not your mother's bedtime story for tots. This is the second week in Telluride for "Alice".

To get a handle on "Hot Tub Time Machine" we need to accept the  possibility that a ski vacation hot tub can turn back the clock, give a bunch of buddies a big do-over. It's rated R for the reasons you probably already guessed. Not "War and Peace" but probably fun in the right frame of mind. And the cast includes John Cusack and Rob Corddry.

Theghostwriter_smallposter The Telluride Film Festival offering is "The Ghost" (rated PG-13), which is the story of a ghost writer called on to re-write history for a British prime minister, who may remind one of Tony Blair. There probably is a price to pay for not telling the approved version. Roman Polanski directs.

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


15 April, 2010 /
IMGP1119 "Opus." The word is Latin for work, but it was no work at all. The experience was, top to bottom, a pleasure.

Yesterday, Telluride Inside... and Out headed to the Curious Theatre Company for a Sunday matinee of Michael Hollinger's "Opus," a play about drugs (medicinal), sex (past and future and only insinuated), and chamber music, along with our friend and regular Denver writer, Tracy Shaffer. (Tracy, also a member of the Denver Center company and regular in the Denver theatre scene, just completed a run as Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate.")
14 April, 2010 /

Aliceinwonderland_smallcharacter Telluride's Nugget Theatre will show "Alice in Wonderland" for the week of Friday, April 9 - Thursday, April 15. Showtimes are 7:30 pm nightly. The movie is rated PG.

"Alice" may never really have been a children's tale, and this Tim Burton version is decidedly dark, hence the PG rating. Mia Wasikowska has been praised for her Alice and the versatile Johnny Depp is the Mad Hatter. All the familiar Lewis Carroll characters are here, but Alice has been reimagined as a 19 year old, and that has implications. Should be intereting.

See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews.

08 April, 2010 /




STREET DANCE 10 The things these two Telluride bands share are really big ones. I am talking about amps.

The cross-dressing Ralph Dinosaur and his Fabulous Volcanoes headline Telluride KOTO radio's end-of-season FREE street dance/costume contest, tomorrow, Friday, April 2, 3 – 8 p.m.

"There is nothing in the world like a Telluride party," said KOTO's special event queen jumpin' jan (zink), quoting  Ralph from his original "Telluride Stomp."

And now for something completely different. This year, at this party, for the very first time, Telluride's favorite dragster shares the stage with a sizzling hot opening act, performers who might be coaxed into dresses for high school reunions, weddings, and funerals: the town's favorite all-women rock 'n roll band, The 525s.
02 April, 2010 /
[To hear Adrienne Lent's conversation with Susan click "Play"]

Telluride's First Thursday Art Walk is a blast.

_MG_4657 The first Thursday of every month – April Fool's Day is the last of the winter season – the Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities organizes a walkabout to showcase the town's fine art scene. Art venues and retail shops stay open late until 8 p.m.

A relatively new must-visit in the line of march, is Amy Boebel's Sapsucker Studios, 299 South Spruce.

In case you were wondering, Sapsuckers Studios got its name from a dead bird owner/artist Amy Boebel found stiffening outside the door of her studio space before she turned it into a gallery.

01 April, 2010 /
[click "Play" for an uplifting message from Bunzy Bunworth]

IMG_2273 Just when you thought it was safe to go back into Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House...


On April Fool's Day, 7:30 p.m., watch sacred cows getting pounded into Whoppers, when the town's favorite actor, Jeb Berrier, along with friends – Buff Hooper, Doug Jones, Jen Julia, Leo McNamara and Bunzy Bunworth (yes, Bunzy, back in town from Down Under) – get together to perform  "Nothing is Sacred II: The Resurrection." The show is billed as a raucous blend of original sketches and live music by Sorbitol: broader than Broadway, more wild(e) than Oscar. Expect an evening that goes straight to The Dogs.
31 March, 2010 /