Telluride’s Valerie Madonia trains the troupes
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Valerie Madonia]

Abstract paintings and drawings pulsing with the energy of the Telluride region by artist Meredith Nemirov are on display throughout the month of October in Ah Haa's newly renovated Daniel Tucker Gallery. In November, the exhibition space will feature the work of the winner's of Ah Haa's Youth Arts Awards. (Submissions from 7 – 12 graders due by October 26.)
Telluride Inside... and Out is just past our first birthday and we felt it was time to a look backward to get an idea if we had done what we set out to do in August, 2008. In that look over our collective shoulder, mostly we are proud of what we have created.
The concept was to build a platform to talk about the Telluride lifestyle; the people who live here; what they do when here; what they do when they leave our high mountain valley; the artists, musicians, filmmakers, visitors who come here and enrich our lives. In short: Telluride, inside and out.
Doors/box office open at 7:30 p.m. Show time is 8 p.m.
The English Beat is celebrating its 30th anniversary...For Crying Out Loud. The set includes a medley of the band's greatest hits such as "Stand Down Margaret," "MIrror in the Bathroom," covers such as "Tears of a Clown" and "Can't Get Used to Losing You," and chestnuts-in-the-making such as "The Love You Give Forever."
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OK, Telluride: dress for the occasion, thinking caps and party shoes, when singer/songwriter Dave Wakeling and The (reincarnated) English Beat perform Tuesday, October 6, at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House.
Margaret Thatcher may be out of the spotlight, but Dave Wakeling's band, (they blasted on to the scene in 1979, the year she became PM) is still making news – and tracks, on tour to celebrate the band's 30th anniversary...For Crying Out Loud. (Still, the band's "Sit Down Margaret has relevance as more and more Americans embrace the power of one.) Since then, Wakeling has never met a challenge he didn't want to take on: Greenpeace, Rock the Earth, CND, Amnesty International, The Smile Train, and Heal the Bay to name a few headliners.
Just gotta sing? Check out the KOTO karaoke jam tonight, Friday, October 2, 2009. The poster says it all. ...
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"Leaps and Turns" is a departure for the artist, known for her impressionistic, representational paintings drawn from nature. These works on paper, completed over the last two years, are abstractions. But earlier paintings explain later ones.
The model for the relationship between the new and the old work is jazz: improvisation off a melody line.
Telluride's The New Community Coalition, The Telluride Institute and the Wilkinson Public Library joined forces to present a workshop, keynoted by Dr. Kevin Gurney. The subject: "Forest Health and the Community Carbon Connection." The event takes place Wednesday, September 30, 6 p.m., at the Library.
The context in digestible sound bytes: Marcel Theroux's new book "Hot Ice," is a novel about what happens to the world post collapse. (Hint: Civilization is largely reduced to preindustrial levels and cities have gone the way of "The Road.") If the Arctic is the proverbial canary in the coal mine in terms of global warming, many scientists agree the bird has already chirped its last. Ever since Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shared The Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, climate change and the constellation of horrors surrounding the real possibility – inevitability? – of a total meltdown is the new normal, and carbon dioxide emissions, the new Darth Vader. It will take lots more than good will, driving a Prius, riding a bike, turning down thermostats, replacing light bulbs, and solar panels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It will take a village, and then some.
There is a lot of conversation about how much effect the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival have on the Oscar nominating procedure. I don't pretend to have inside information on this subject, but TIO had the opportunity not only to view some great films at Telluride, but to witness audience reaction in the theaters and to converse with film buffs in the lines outside. Our take on the Oscar season? For an in depth look at what TIO said right after the festival see Susan's review from September 14.
We called out Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air", starring George Clooney, as a contender in several categories.
Telluride Film Festival Cinematique, a collaboration between the Wilkinson Public Library and the Telluride Film Festival, is a film club catering to local cineastes, who want After-the-Festival to last year 'round. Each of the four-film series develops a theme. Last season's hot button was the French New Wave of Varda, Truffaut, Godard, and Chabrol. This season, the subject is film noir.
What is this thing called film noir? We all understand the word "film." Film is, according to Orson Welles, nothing more than "a ribbon of dreams." The word "noir" is French for "black." The defining characteristic of these "dark films" is fatalism and alienation, shady motives, and bleak prospects: one false move and you're out. Predatory "femmes fatales" populate this bleak landscape, sirens who lure hapless heroes into the world of illicit desires.