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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 /


The now-famous, extravagantly talented redheaded/adopted son, Tim O'Brien, returns to Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House on Thursday, January 21, for an encore winter concert. The 2006 Grammy winner and singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist – he plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki and mandocello – will be performing solo acoustic. Showtime is 6 p.m.

Whether it's a reinterpretation of an old fiddle tune, a revitalized honky-tonk shuffle from the 1950s or an original bluegrass-inflected folk tune, O'Brien's sound is always at once familiar and fresh. He describes his job as taking old music and serving it up in ways people can understand and relate to.
21 January, 2010 /

Upintheair_smallteaser + The Nugget Theatre in beautiful downtown Telluride is showing two movies for the week of Friday, January 22-Thursday, January 28.

"Sherlock Holmes" is back for a replay. Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law are Holmes and Watson. The movie is rated PG-13. Check out last week's "Nuggets."

Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air" stars George Clooney and premiered at the 2009 Telluride Film Festival. The film was singled out by TIO for the awards season, garnered several Golden Globe nominations, and won Best Screenplay. Rated R, "Up in the Air" was right on in its timing. With the U.S. economy on its ear, the film tell the story of a man whose job it is to go around the country firing people. Pretty funny, eh? But pertinent.

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

21 January, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hlisten to Bunny Friedus-Steel speak about "Carmen"]

116 In one scene, the lovers are hitting high notes while coupling on the floor. Coming soon to your local theater in Telluride: Sex, rebellion, and violence.


Are we talking about the subject of the latest country & western hit or one of The Nugget's nuggets, a Tinseltown bodice ripper starring the babe du jour. Answer: neither of the above. On January 22, 6 p.m., New York's Metropolitan Opera, live in HD, is coming to Telluride's Palm Theatre. And not just any opera, Bizet's 1875 masterpiece "Carmen," reputed to be the most famous opera in the world.

19 January, 2010 /


Legendary guitarist and gypsy Tim Reynolds is in Telluride to perform with his trio,TR3, at the historic Sheridan Opera House on Wednesday, January 20. Showtime is 7:30 p.m.

Out of the gate, Reynolds got spoiled by adoring fans. As the child of pious, fiercely conservative parents, he began playing electric bass in a gospel band at age 12 before writhing congregations of ecstatic worshippers. Reynolds performed at church three times a week  – over 1000 times – until his high school graduation.

19 January, 2010 /

6a00e553ed7fe18833011570134a4b970c-120wi Jennie Franks' Telluride Playwrights' Festival owes a debt to the Bard. Four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare is still the most popular playwright in the world because his every word, every phrase offers dozens of possibilities for the pace, rhythm and trajectory of every scene. Directors and actors only have to get out of the way for the structure of the whole play to reveal itself. The Telluride Playwrights' Festival is all about words, not the production.

18 January, 2010 /