As previously noted, the Nugget Theatre is closed Wednesday and Thursday, September 2-3 to set up for Telluride Film Festival. The Nugget is one of the venues for Film Fest from Friday, September 4 through Monday, September 7. The theatre will be closed Tuesday...
Art Goodtimes, Telluride local, poet, county commissioner, fungophile, and sometime correspondent on Telluride Inside...
Telluride's summer cultural season is winding to a close as the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival officially opens for business Labor Day weekend, Friday, September 4 and runs through Monday, September 7.
Thanks to Ralph and Ricky Lauren, however, the Telluride Film Festival kicks off unofficially for passholders and nonpassholders alike today, Wednesday, September 2, and Thursday, September 3, with two free al fresco screenings at the Abel Gance Open Air Cinema in Elks Park, beginning at sunset, around 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday's film is "Hidalgo," a 2004 film made by director Joe Johnston, based on a story from 1890 about an American cowboy, Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen), the first outsider or infidel to be invited by a wealthy Sheik (Omar Sharif) to race in the greatest long-distance horse race ever run, the "Ocean of Fire," a grueling 3,000-mile survival horse race across the Arabian Desert with the winner receiving $100,000 as prize money and the honor of being the best in the world. When the sheik's emissary approaches him, Hopkins, once a dispatch rider in the U.S. Cavalry, is working Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The race itself, held every year for the last thousand years, has only been open to the purest line of Arabian horses ever bred. Hopkins' horse, Hidalgo, a small mixed-breed mustang, was regarded as impure, and therefore not fit to run wth purebred Arabian stallions.
Did you know you had an artist living next door? Robert Weatherford is a Telluride local, an Ah Haa board member, and a painter with an international reputation. The course he teaches, "Painting from Within" is all about helping students bring their inner Picasso or Matisse to the surface. The class echos one of the founding premises of the school itself: Everyone is an artist.
Focusing on expressing what's hidden or unspoken, rather than technique, Robert believes what makes a painting speak to the painter – and the viewer – is honesty. The work should come from the soul, not the intellect. The end result are interior landscapes expressing the movement of the spirit that are still aesthetically appealing and accessible.
The Telluride Film Festival opens this weekend, September 4 – September 7. The perfect warm-up is a trip to the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art to view the work of long-time Festival photographer John Fago.Fago claims to have been born at a very young age of artist parents: dad, an animator and mom, a painter/journalist. Growing up just outside New York surrounded by creative types, Fago never once considered a real job. At college, he studied painting but switched to photography in the mid-1970s. His robust career has included extended photographic journeys to Asia and North Africa. He is currently pursuing a multi-year project in Brazil.
Be aware Telluride: it's a short week at the Nugget Theatre. The Nugget will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday, September 2 & 3 to get ready for the Telluride Film Festival. For the rest of the week, Friday-Tuesday, the program is "G-Force" and "500 Days of Summer."
"G-Force" is a Disney animation featuring guinea pigs with a mission to save the world from the machinations of an evil tycoon. The movie is rated PG for some mild action and rude humor.
"500 Days of Summer" is not a love story, as the audience is warned at the very beginning. The movie does not follow the "Boy meets Girl, Boy gets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy gets Girl back" formula, and doesn't so not in chronological order. With me so far? Rated PG-13 for sexual material and language.
See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews. The week's schedule is shown below.
The girl can't help it. Sculptor and long-time Telluride local Julie McNair was born to make art. Her mother had studied fine art and music in college. Her grandmother was an antique dealer with a large collection of dolls from Europe and China. Both women were always up to something creative. McNair's entire family encouraged her in her personal goal to become an artist.
McNair gathered credentials. She studied sculpture at North Texas State University and then earned a master of fine art in sculpture at the University of Wyoming. After graduating, McNair worked as an Artist-in-Residence for Northwest Community College in Powell, Wyoming, where she taught bronze casting and set up a foundry and was then hired as an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University to teach ceramics, sculpture design and art appreciation. She was director of the Art League of Houston, which involved running all aspects of a non-profit school and gallery.
Richard Turner is known world wide as "the greatest card mechanic of all time." Richard Turner will be performing at Telluride's Sheridan Opera House on Thursday, August 27th at 7pm, to raise funds for the local youth organization Young Life. This performance will humor and entertain an audience of all ages. Turner does not perform magic tricks, he demonstrates the moves used by cardsharps intended to cheat players gambling with cards. He can deal a wining hand to anyone, anywhere...every time. Richard Turner's demonstrations have been featured on "That's Incredible", "Ripley's Believe It Or Not", "The 700 Club" and "The Paul Daniels Magic Show" in the USA. Turner has been asked to lecture to international corporations as well as government agencies. His inspirational lectures promote honesty, integrity and discipline.
Turner first picked up a deck of cards at the impressionable age of seven, after watching an episode of the late 1950s TV sensation "Maverick", featuring James Garner. On the show Maverick did a trick that Turner just had to learn. By age 19 Richard Turner was fully immersed in cards and for the next 20 years, he practiced ten to 20 hours a day. He worked for Bob Yerkes and Circus of the Stars when he met Dai Vernon, who then schooled him until his skills surpassed Vernon's. Legally blind, Turner is also known for being a "touch analyst" for the United States Playing Card Company, who employed him to evaluate the texture, flexibility and cut of dozens of decks of cards. In his illustrious career, Richard Turner has received countless awards, including the Golden Lion Award in Magic by Siegfried and Roy of Las Vegas. To date he has performed over 80,000 shows. Richard Turner is semi-retired but still enjoys performing for a good cause, including Young Life which in partnership with our local community churches, helps raise support for the youth living in the San Juan Mountains.
Thumbprints. Snowflakes. Telluride. Harold O'Connor's jewelry. These are all unique, one-of-a-kind.O'Connor is in town to teach a class in his art at the Ah Haa School. In addition he will appear at a reception and a showing of his work at Telluride Gallery...
This week August 21-27, Telluride's Nugget Theatre will be showing three movies. Harry Potter is back for another week. In addition, "Ice Age III" can be seen early in the week, including a matinee on Saturday. "The Ugly Truth" rounds out the week's program.
We know about Harry Potter: watch for the continuation of that story. "Ice Age" is the animated sequel to that series, rated PG for some potentially scary scenes.
"The Ugly Truth" is a romantic comedy, rated R for sexual content, in which Mr. Wrong plays Cyrano to a TV personality looking for Mr. Right. You can probably guess how this turns out.
For reviews and trailers, see the Nugget website. See showtimes below.
