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Events

What's the point of hibernating, when the enemy is out there year 'round? The Telluride AIDS Benefit is no longer limiting its fundraising efforts to the end of February/early March. (TAB 2011 is scheduled for February 28 – March 5.) On August 13,...

16 August, 2010 /
[click "Play", Jeb Berrier speaks to Susan about "The Merchant of Venice"]

Merchant_poster The Telluride Repertory Theatre brings back the very popular Shakespeare in the Park series with one of the most controversial play's in the Bard's literature, the tragi-comedy "The Merchant of Venice." The pared-down-to-the-bones production, directed by Jeb Berrier, takes place Saturday August 21 and Sunday, August 22, then again Wednesday, August 25 – Sunday, August, 29, 7:30 p.m. on the Main Stage in Telluride Town Park. (The performance on Saturday, August 28, however, is a 1 p.m. matinee.)

Individuals (like Hitler, and that's a fact) and regimes (like the Nazis) seeking justification for hateful, sometimes murderous policies towards Jews turned to "The Merchant of Venice" and their good buddy Shakespeare. Is the play anti-Semitic? Did Shakespeare knowingly and intentionally write a play that disparaged Jews? Or, was he a writer and visionary whose brilliant mind transcended the prejudices of his age? It is important to remember that just as we are everyone and everything in our dreams, the Bard is famous for speaking through all his characters. Those who choose to believe in Shakespeare's transcendence turn to Shylock's great speech about humanity and revenge, Act 3, Scene1:
15 August, 2010 /
Bag it for August 17 Telluride local, actor-director Jeb Berrier is wrapped up like a Christo monument these days - figuratively and literally.

Berrier's most immediate concern is the upcoming Telluride Repertory Theatre's production of "The Merchant of Venice," his debut as a Shakespearian director. Shakespeare in the Park opens Saturday, August 22. 

But when we meet Jeb the Actor in "Bag It," he is covered from head to toe in plastic bags. Directed by Telluride local Suzan Beraza, "Bag It" begs the question, How worried should we be about everyday chemicals? The answer: big time. Jeb, "Bag It's" Everyman, takes the viewer on a tragi-comic journey that explains why.

15 August, 2010 /
[click "Play", Vivien Russell and Rick Fusting talk about One To One and the "Top Chef" event]

1__#$!@%!#__unknown A few smart Telluride non-profits seem to have gotten the message when New York Times columnist Tom Friedman entreated President Obama to make 2010 "the year of innovation" (NYT January 23 Op Ed).  Events such as the San Miguel Research Center's/Two Skirts' "Clutch for the Cause," The Telluride AIDS Benefit's "Intoxicating Cuisine," the Telluride Historical Museum's Muleskinners' Ball are all examples of what happens when the tough get going.

Telluride-based One to One San Miguel Mentoring Program has also stepped up to the challenge of  how to get enough pie when the overall pie has shrunk. Like many regional non-profits, One to One experienced funding cuts. The reaction: stage a lollapalooza of a first-ever fundraising event.

On Thursday, August 19, 6 – 9 p.m., at The Peaks, One to One hosts a Wine Tasting & Telluride Top Chef Competition, which also includes live music by Westward magazine's choice of Colorado's Singer-Songwriter of the Year, Rob Drabkin, also in the line-up for Blues & Brews.


14 August, 2010 /

 

by D. Dion

It wasn’t anything like seeing Phish or a jam band back in the 90s. For one thing, I was 9 months pregnant and sitting in the back, stone cold sober, and too exhausted to join my one-year-old daughter in her feverish spinning dance on the tarp in front of me. For another thing, I can’t remember ever sitting down at a concert like Phish, or even bringing a chair to such a show. My friend, also 9 months pregnant, was sitting in the back with me. She leaned over and confessed, “I really wish I could have a hit of nitrous. I don’t really miss drinking, and I’ve never been much of a pothead or anything, but I have always loved nitrous.”

The whole night was like that, one long reminiscence. Seeing people twitching with that front-row frenzy, their internal speakers set to “11,” was like looking at myself ten years ago. And the songs evoked long forgotten memories. How long has it been since I sang “Would you please, please drive me to Firenze?” or “When you’re here, I sleep lengthwise, and when you’re gone, I sleep diagonal in my bed,” or since I stayed up all night literally bouncing around the room? There was something familiar and comfortable about the music, the lyrics and the way the mountains cradled the sound, which was, by the way, about twice as loud as any band I’ve ever seen play Telluride Town Park.

13 August, 2010 /

by David Byars

(editor's note: Telluride Inside... and Out has published a lot of content about the Phish concert in Telluride. At the risk of seeming redundant we felt that two younger voices after the fact would be appropriate. Given the amount of hype surrounding the Phish event, and considering the level of apprehension in some parts of our community, TIO has decided to publish this account by David Byers and one by TIO regular, Deb Dion to follow.)

IMG_7572 Phish has come and gone.  I’m feeling what a lot of residents are feeling right now.  A little hungover, slightly confused, and struck by the unreality of the whole thing. 

In the months and weeks before Phish arrived, feelings of excitement mingled with moments of apprehension.  Would Phish turn our picturesque mountain burg into a steaming cauldron of psychedelically enhanced burn outs with the associated flotsam and jetsam of empty PBR cans and wayward cigarette butts?  Or would the fans behave themselves and bring with them a much needed injection of income into a town in desperate need of out-of-towners’ vacation funds?

13 August, 2010 /
[click "Play", Meehan Fee describes the event]

PIG & WHISKEY POSTER FINAL Telluride's sister city, the Mountain Village, is hopping this weekend with two big events: the Telluride Festival of the Arts and the Telluride Conference Center's Pig & Whiskey.

Pig & Whiskey is no pig in a poke: everything about the event is out there on the table. And there is something for everyone.

For film buffs, there's a screening of a documentary by Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood. "The Secret to a Happy Ending" chronicles the life and impact of the Drive-By Truckers, a rock-and-roll band that may not enjoy mass fame, but claims an unusually potent connection with its fans just like the jam band who packed Telluride Town Park earlier this week, Phish. It's a connection the film's director, Barr Weissman felt first-hand when he saw them in 2003. One song in particular, "The Living Bubba," frontman Patterson Hood's high and mournful ode to a friend who had died, purportedly reduced Weissman to an emotional pulp.
13 August, 2010 /

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 /