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[Click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Jimmy Herring]

Telluride Jazz, May 5-7. Sideman out front: Jimmy Herring

L_e6755d8529ba3cd6cb3ad15886d5e16f He has been the legend behind the legends, a musician's musician, but the 33rd annual Telluride Jazz Celebration, June 5 - June 7, will set the record straight. After three decades as a sideman, guitarist Jimmy Herring is finally getting exactly what he deserves: center stage.

Fusion guitarists that claim the middle ground generally skew one way or the other: former Telluride Jazz Celebration headliner John Scofield, for example, has deep roots in jazz,  and Carlos Santana is a rocker at heart. Jimmy is a rarity: he stakes his claim where jazz harmonies and rhythmic concepts and the edgy power of classic rock come together, improvising with an intensity that underlines his roots.

Jimmy's formidable chops have been used to great advantage by outfits ranging from Widespread Panic to the Dead, Phil Lesh and Friends (a Dead offshoot), Project Z, the Allman Brothers, Col. Bruce Hampton's Aquarium Rescue Unit, Jazz is Dead and others.

31 May, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Valerie Madonia] Sunday, May 31, 3 p.m., at the Michael D. Palm Theatre, the Telluride Dance Academy holds its annual dance recital showcasing the talent of tots (age 3+) to...

30 May, 2009 /

IMGP0408 IMGP0411 Red letter days under blue skies. Our life in Telluride.

The morning of May 27 started out with a hike out our back door, crack of 7:30 am, our dog Gina running ahead, breaking through the crust of frost. You heard me.

We divided to conquer the middle of the day: Clint rafting on the Uncompaghre with TASP and me holding down the fort, posting and podcasting, which has nothing to do with fishing.

In the evening we joined locals at the Ah Haa School Depot Building, where the winners of the Telluride Writers Guild's annual Write Here Contest were on the boards, strutting their stuff. Writers Guild director Amy Cannon beamed as she introduced the winners.

28 May, 2009 /

At the Nugget Theatre in Telluride, the movie for the week of May 29-June 4 is "Star Trek." The movie is showing twice each night at 6:00 and 8:30 pm., and is rated PG-13.This prequel takes us back to a time before Kirk was...

28 May, 2009 /

Thursday evening, 7 p.m., Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library, enjoy a recap of the Mudd Butts' April trip to Wondo Genet, Ethiopia.  Local trip participants and staffers Wendy Brooks and Luke Brown host a narrated slide show of the trip, and play excerpts from the...

27 May, 2009 /

Violinist Maria Bachmann of the incomparable Trio Solisti is also the artistic director of the Telluride Musicfest. Now in its seventh year, the event takes place  in town June 24 – July 5. This year, the world famous artist Philip Glass is Composer-in-Residence.   On...

27 May, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Steve Winter talking with Susan, and click the YouTube box below to see a slideshow of Winter's photgraphy ]

Tell imovie49 Two years ago, a group of "fellows" from the International League of Conservation Photographers came to Telluride, including James Balog Wade Davis, and Chris Rainier, all three long-time Mountainfilm supporters and popular featured guests. Joining them this year is another member of the ILCP, Steve Winter, since 1995, also a major contributor to National Geographic, and Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008, for his haunting images of the elusive snow leopard.

Photography is a democratic medium: most people don’t paint or draw, but almost everyone owns a camera. It would be delusional, however, to describe snapshots of family get-togethers and beach outings, even the images shot by eco-tourists on their adventures in the Alaskan wilderness or African savannah, as art. In no way can drugstore prints be compared to the work of Ansel Adams, Eugene Atget, Alfred Stieglitz, Annie Leibovitz, Balog, Rainier, or Nan Goldin, all acknowledged masters. That would be like comparing Elvis to Mozart.

22 May, 2009 /

[click "Play" button to hear Susan's conversation with Roko Belic]

30 45 In 1999, former Telluride Mountainfilm director Rick Silverman shared his film favorites. High on the list was "Genghis Blues." The heart-warmng film by brothers Adrian and Roko Belic tells the story of a Tuvan throat-singer Kongar-ol-Ondar and a blind San Franciscan bluesman, Paul Pena, who taught himself to throat sing, a popular form of entertainment in southern Siberia. Ten years later, Festival program director David Holbrooke has asked the brothers and the "Elvis of Tuva" to return to town for a program encore.

Following their score at the 21st annual Mountainfilm, Roko partnered with Italian explorer and author Folco Terzani to make another film, "Twilight Men, the true story of a Westerner and an Indian holy man who go into the Himalayas in search of an enlightened master.

22 May, 2009 /

[ click "Play" button to hear Susan's interview with Josh Aronson]

DSCN6170  Part-time local Josh Aronson is a regular at Telluride Mountainfilm, an event that began as a homespun gathering of gnarly outdoor adventurers and evolved into a crazy quilt of lively talks, memorable exhibits, and yes, films. (Mountainfilm's current program director, David Holbrooke, is also a filmmaker.)

Josh received an Oscar nomination in 2001 for his very first film, "Sound & Fury," which documents one family's struggle over whether or not to provide two deaf children with cochlear implants, devices that can stimulate hearing. Implants are hot-buttons in the deaf community: while they provide easier access to the hearing world, they also challenge one's identity within the deaf culture. "Sound & Fury" screened at Mountainfilm following its premiere at Sundance.

21 May, 2009 /