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Performing Arts

Emma Ryan The Telluride Academy's Mudd Butts opens August 13 at The Palm. The 24th annual production is "1001 Arabian Nights." The event takes place Friday, August 13 and Saturday, August 14 @ 7 p.m. The Sunday program, a matinee @ 2 p.m., is followed by an auction of Mike Stasiuk's incredible props. 

While the heart and soul of the Mudd Butts is a trio of outspoken creative geniuses, Sally Davis, Kim Epifano and Mike Stasiuk, its takes a village to mount their ambitious happenings.

A list of this year's cast and crew follows:

13 August, 2010 /
[click "Play", Alex Carter talks about his book]

InsidersCover Telluride is not just any small town. And Telluride Middle School/High School principal Alex Carter is not just any school administrator. In 2003, Carter was recognized as one of the top educators in the United States with his selection to receive a National Milken Educator Award. And Alex Carter is also an author.


On Thursday, August 12, starting at 6:30 p.m., Carter will be on hand at Between the Covers bookstore to sign copies of his latest effort, "The Insider's Guide to High School: A Parent's Handbook for the Ninth Grade Year," (Vandamere Press, 2010), a work he co-authored with Tim Healey. (Together the writing team have 40 years of teaching experience.)

11 August, 2010 /
IMG_7576 Last night, Tuesday, August 10, Phrog and Phidgt from Steamboat Springs threw a little party for a few of their closest friends in Telluride Town Park. Food and drink were served. The main course was Phish. Though clearly not an endangered species.

Here're a few things you need to know about Phish phans:

#1. They are nice people, who smile and look you in the eye as they eagerly answer any and all questions about their favorite band.

#2. They are smart and articulate. (See quotes in related post)

11 August, 2010 /
It's fair to say The Grateful Dead were early adapters of the Google model – predating Google. They understood the power of the people to sell their brand, (Read "What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis if you want to know more.)  Word is that when the Dead parted ways, their sea of fans parted too, some becoming devotees of Widespread Panic and others, Phish phans.

The scene last night in Telluride Town Park was grassroots Gothic, avid Phish phans as far as the eye could see demonstrating a populist zeal rarely seen outside of Tea Party gatherings these days. Only they are positive and having lots more fun. Phish does not hold back, delivering cross genre, super-extended grooves laced with improv and a light show that drives the crowd wild. Phish phans don't hold back either. They give full-throated praise to the boys in their band. Here's a random sampling from our neck of the woods Tuesday night.

IMG_7505 Phrog (his first Phish concert was in 1991) and Phidgt from Steamboat Springs. Phrog is involved with two Phish websites: cotapers.org and etree.org, which tapes and distributes the band's shows. (Trading tapes has helped Phish sell over 8 million albums/DVDs in the U.S alone.)

11 August, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Roy Malan's conversation with Susan]

Roy Malan In the early 1970s, Telluride was just beginning to pulse thanks to a chap from Beverly Hills named Joe Zoline, who had just opened the ski resort. Still, half of Main Street was boarded up and people were high-tailing it out of town muttering darkly about the closing of the Idarado Mines. The historic Sheridan Opera House was a camping ground for derelicts with broken glass and dusty mattresses everywhere. Roy Malan and Robin Sutherland, for many years stalwart co-directors of the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, played despite the venue – and the crowd liked the sound.

That was in 1974. The Telluride Chamber Music Festival returns this weekend for its 37th encore. Following a free concert  and picnic, starting 5 p.m.,  in Town Park, the series takes place two consecutive weekends, Friday and Saturday, August 13 – August 14, then again August 20 – August 21.
11 August, 2010 /

It didn't look too good in Telluride this morning for the final Phish concert. It pretty much rained out our mushroom hunt up at Lizard Head Pass, and it wasn't sunny until late afternoon. But by time to head for the...

10 August, 2010 /

  Telluride audiences first met folk and indie rock star Jenny Lewis when she performed last year with Elvis Costello at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Her encore performance is Thursday, August 12, 8:30 p.m. at the historic Sheridan Opera House. ...

09 August, 2010 /


by D. Dion

It’s hard not to feel lucky having one of the precious tickets to the Phish shows in Telluride. Phish hasn’t played here in almost 20 years, since it was a quirky East Coast band just emerging on the scene, and this is the only stop in the Rocky Mountains that Phish will make on their summer tour.

And while it will be a huge concert for Telluride (the town’s population is less than 2,400, but 9,000 tickets have been sold for each of the two shows), the band has essentially outgrown this small pond. Phish had the largest attendance of any concert, anywhere, on the millennium New Year’s Eve, drawing 85,000 people to the Florida Everglades. The band plays big stadiums like Madison Square Garden or Fenway Park and festivals like Bonnaroo. For Phish, Telluride Town Park will be an intimate venue, albeit not one as cozy as the Moon, the Roma or the old Elks Lodge, where they used to play when they first broke into the mountain music market here in the late 80s.

08 August, 2010 /
MarmotteStockFB The creativity patrons experience at Telluride's La Marmotte restaurant is not limited to the table. In July the restaurant hosted  "Le Fair Affaire," a night of art, music, live performance painting, culinary tasting, and film screening, the brainchild of photographer Scott Rhea. La Marmotte's August event promises to be just as much fun.

"Marmotstock" is a pre-PHISH Telluride tailgate party and a benefit for one of town's best loved non-profits, the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program. The all-day event takes place Monday and Tuesday, August 9 and August 10, 11a.m. – 5 p.m., just outside La Marmotte, 150 West San Juan Avenue, one block from Gondola Plaza.

08 August, 2010 /