Events

By Jon Lovekin

A Tom Boy Ride
A Tom Boy Ride

Preparing for a festival as grand as the Telluride Bluegrass Festival takes time. For many Festivarians, the week to 10 day experience is their one vacation of the year. The excitement in the weeks before the Summer Solstice reaches a fever pitch the weekend before the music starts. In the early years, an entire festival was spent flopped in a tent in Town Park listening to the music from there, too sick from altitude, sun, and fun to be able to move.

As the festival caught on, pitching a tent in an empty lot or sleeping in a car late in the week ceased being possible. Prior planning became necessary and arrival in the campground early in the week morphed to getting there the weekend before. Town passes on the Landcruiser faded to no longer trying to leave town at all. We started working at the ticket booths, renting bikes, and moving in for the week.

Silent auction and more added to the fourth Annual Touch-A-Truck Fundraiser Saturday, June 25.

Mountain Munchkins Child Care and Preschool, operated by the Town of Mountain Village, hosts the fourth annual Touch-A-Truck Fundraiser in support of the childcare center’s infant, toddler, and preschool programs. The event takes place Saturday, June 25, 2011, 10 a.m.– to 1 p.m. in the Telluride Middle/High School parking lot. Admission is $5 per adult and/or child.

“My favorite thing about Touch-A-Truck is driving the school bus,” said three-year-old Gia Neyens.

by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer   ed. note: Maybe it's my age- though I think of myself as a very positive person, living pretty much in the now, and though I love the light on the longest day of the year, it brings with it the...

[click "Play" to hear Maria Bachmann speak with Susan about the Musicfest program]

 

Maria There's no judging this book by its cover. Although its cover is a thing of beauty. Tall and elegant, violinist Maria Bachmann has the look of cool patrician refinement but just beneath the surface, a red hot gypsy soul. In performance the combination intensifies the present moment. And those moments are upon us.

Maria Bachmann is the artistic director of Telluride Musicfest, an event that occurs annually in Telluride in June to celebrate chamber music in its intended form: first class musicians performing in an intimate home environment. (See related post for details.)

[click "Play" to  hear Steve Swenson's conversation with Susan]

 

Wine poster "I cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food," W.C. Fields

One of the longest running wine festivals Colorado, the Telluride Wine Festival, celebrates its 30th anniversary over a long weekend, beginning Wednesday, June 22, 5 – 7 p.m. The event starts with an opening reception at La Piazza in Mountain Village, where patrons get to mingle with guest speakers, guest chefs, homeowners, and members of the Telluride Ski & Golf Club.

Mountainfilm in Telluride and Telluride Bluegrass are festivals for folks. Both have reputations for a welcome-to-the-neighborhood feel. But Wine Fest? Is it all about a sleek, well-heeled fraternity? Them, not us?

By David Feela

ed. note: The Summer Solstice occurs on June 21, 2011, at 11:16 am, MDT. David Feela gives us a bittersweet memory of that moment in time we begin to contemplate that at first imperceptible slide toward the shortest day of the year. Enjoy.

David Feela On the longest day of the year when sunlight puddles at the horizon, it’s officially summer.  Every year from such a precipice we call the solstice, the long ascent and the long decline are equally visible.  Maybe that’s why there’s so much light, and so much extra time to see.

Give me a beautiful sunset and a warm evening to conjure my red 1965 Mustang convertible. Just the thought of it makes me close my eyes. Like light from a burned-out star, all that flashy chrome still shines from somewhere inside me. All those layers of wax I buffed clean through the hood still make the sweat on my forehead bead up. The top folded back, the radio blaring, a full summer moon rolling like a hubcap across the sky.

Maria, Jon, Josh Year after year, they hit it out of the ballpark. We are talking about key players of the Telluride Musicfest, now entering its 9th season, June 22 – July 3.

Musicfest's artistic director Maria Bachmann and her Trio Solisti colleague, Jon Klibonoff received raves from a Fanfare critic for their premiere performance of Philip Glass's "First Violin Sonata," on their latest CD, Glass Heart.

[click "Play" to  listen to Beryl's interview with Susan]

 

Beryl Beryl Bender Birch is among the presenters at Aubrey Hackman's 4th annual Telluride Yoga Festival, July 14 – July 17.

Beryl's history is the history of Yoga in America, a story of assimilation and diversification and recently, big business. This spiritual teacher, yoga therapist, and author ("Power Yoga,""Boomer Yoga,""Beyond Power Yoga") was an early adaptor and pioneer: in the early 70s, the tie-dyed days of drugs, sex and rock 'n roll, Beryl, a former student of philosophy and comparative religion, became an avid student of yoga and the study of consciousness.

[click "Play" to listen to Jesse's interview with Alicia Stark]

 

By J James McTigue

Alicia Stark, RN-BSN, began her career as a labor and delivery nurse in a high-risk hospital in Virginia.  
She gained incredible medical experience, but realized she hadn’t learned anything about birth. This education came when she worked literally worlds away -- on the Navajo Reservation in Tuba City, Arizona.

Inspired by her experiences on the Reservation, she added certified Hypno-Birthing practitioner to her Bg-1 list of credentials.  She is excited to share the methods of hypno-birthing and what she refers to as birthing “tools” to pregnant women in and around Telluride. She will be teaching a two-day, Hypno-Birthing class, from noon to 6 p.m. on June 25th and 26th at Shantihi Yoga Studio in Ridgway. 

[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Sonchia and Amy]

 

Pinheadmay2011 The Science of Cocktails an elixir of science and fun

Wednesday, June 22, 7:30 (VIP), 8:30 – 11:30 p.m., the Pinhead Institute hosts is only major public fundraiser: "The Science of Cocktails." The event takes place in the Crystal Room (and Deck) at The Peaks Resort & Spa in Mountain Village. The evening includes drink, gourmet desserts, and dancing to DJ Will of SoulAtomic.

Think of "The Science of Cocktails" as a remix of the witches' scene in "MacBeth."

Pinhead's evening bills itself as "an in-depth look, interactive look at the physics, chemistry and biology of cocktails and spirits." Mixers include six restaurants and one Ridgway distillery – Cosmopolitan, Honga's, M's Restaurant at Hotel Madeline Telluride, La Marmotte, The Steaming Bean, Siam, and Trail Town Still – competing to concoct the  "Perfect Pinhead Potion."