Lifestyle

[click"Play" to hear Erik Dalton's description of River Festival]

 

RwayRiverFest11.jpg. Ridgway, Colorado, is so much more than a bedroom community for Telluride. The town is famous – or infamous – as the location for several movies, including "How the West Was Won," and one of actor John Wayne's latest and greatest, "True Grit," (1969), in which Wayne stars as Rooster Cogburn. Ridgway's True Grit Cafe is filled with John Wayne memorabilia, but as far as we know, no drunken, one-eyed federal marshals. And the Uncompaghre is a great source for trout fishing and the focus of Ridgway's fourth annual River Festival.

 

By Lisa Barlow

Beet salad It was beastly hot in NYC yesterday. By the time the mercury hit 100 degrees, the cat had tried to climb into the open refrigerator and we were all collapsed in the back yard like Dali’s dripping clocks. With company coming in a few hours, I wasthisclose to offering popsicles to our guests instead of dinner.

But the glorious new cookbook Plenty had just arrived in my mailbox and it was as if a fresh cool breeze had found me limp in the backyard and blew me back into the kitchen.

Plenty is a summer blockbuster of a cookbook. Gorgeously illustrated with pictures of sumptuously photogenic food, I sat down and thumbed through every page before deciding that anything I cooked was going to hit the spot.

  Katie Spotz, Atlantic rower and now land racer, has had some setbacks in her attempt to set a new pairs bicycle record in the Race Across America with her partner Sam Williams. See a previous Telluride Inside...

[click "Play", Kristin speaks with Sususn about bkr water bottles]

 

Bottles
When the going gets tough, the smart consider all their options. They think out of the box. Or the water bottle.

Telluride's uber hip Two Skirts began as a little store on Oak Street carrying designer clothing. Period. Then the store moved to Main Street and began its slow but sure expansion. One day, there were accessories: bags, belts, scarves,   shawls. Next came shoes, jewelry, watches and undergarments, eventually makeup (Bobbi Brown). And now: The bkr bottle.

The bkr bottle, really a dressed up 500 ml glass water bottle, marries design, function and sustainability in one super stylish package. Who says "green" has to rhyme with "grunge"? 

[click "Play", Chef Erich Owen talks with Susan]

 

Erich-owen-pensive Since 2008, Erich Owen has worked as the Executive Chef of The Chop House at Telluride's historic New Sheridan Hotel. His New American cuisine emphasizes quality fresh ingredients impeccably prepared with a light, deft touch in the French tradition for a simple but always elegant presentation. If you are a patron of the 30th annual Telluride Wine Festival, the proof of Erich's skills will be in the pudding – or whatever it is he prepares for the kick-off luncheon. Chef Erich Owen co-hosts the Telluride Wine Festival opening feast, Thursday, June 23, 11:30 a.m – 1:30 p.m. And that's big news. Here's why.

In the art world, there is a reflex known as The Cultural Cringe, an assumption that whatever anyone does in the arts – and we include the food arts here – is not validated until judged by those in the know from outside your world. We cry "foul."

[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?

[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 Gordon Reichard and Dr. Sharon Grundy]

 

Health news you can use every other Monday

Dr. Sharon Grundy
Dr. Sharon Grundy

For 33 years, the Telluride Medical Center has provided health care services to Telluride and the 7,500 residents scattered throughout the R 1 School District. The Med Center is also the only 24-hour emergency facility within 65 miles. As a mountain town in a challenging, remote environment, a thriving medical center is vital to our community’s health. A brand new series on Telluride Inside... and Out features news you can use from the doctors at the Telluride Medical Center. Every other Monday, the column, To Your Health, will focus on news you can use to live a healthier life.

Remember the apple? No, not the one from the Garden that got us all in trouble. The one you take daily to keep the doctor away? Preventative medicine has come a long way since the original prototype. Now the challenge is making sense of the proliferation of received wisdom to make the right choices even about something as basic as which tests are essential. What should be routine in a "routine" check-up?