Lifestyle

[click "Play", Drew Ludwig talks with Susan about the Iceland trip]

 

Iceland_tio Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts plans to stretch its wings and fly beyond the borders of our box canyon. An upcoming photography trek across Iceland next summer, departing July 21, is an example of another new direction.

The team leading the expedition includes Aaron Huey, a Seattle-based photographer, whose client base includes National Geographic magazines, The New Yorker, Smithsonian, The New York TImes and European rags. Heuy's current ongoing projects include the funerals of Afghan war vets, Sufism (mystic Islam), and a five-year documentary on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Huey's co-instructor is mountain guide Drew Ludwig, also a talented photographer.

[click "Play" to listen to Erika Gordon speak with Susan about "Steep"]

 

Steep poster-flyer Adrenaline junkie? Head for Telluride's Palm Theatre Sunday, January 16, 4 p.m., for a screening of the heart-pumping 2007 documentary "Steep," an event presented by The Telluride Film Festival, The Telluride Foundation and Telluride R1 School District.

The 19th-century British explorer Richard Burton famously said that the reason he tempted fate searching for the source of the Nile and penetrating darkest Arabia disguised as a Pathan was simple: "The devil drives."

Ditto for the cast  of "Steep."

 

 

Palmyra Peak, 1:8:11 Telluride offers air specials to kick off the new year

That’s right. Kids fly free. Free. Welcome 2011 with incredible travel deals from Telluride Central Reservations: kids fly free on select American Airlines flights. Pair with Telluride’s $89 Stay and Ski package and be the family hero.
 
Planning a trip without the kids? Save $100 per ticket booked on select American Airlines flights through April 2, 2011. That means airfare can start as low as $148 from Chicago (plus tax and fees) or $246 from New York City (via Chicago, plus tax and fees), making a Telluride getaway even more accessible and affordable this spring.

 

(Above is a local clip from the 2009 Ice Festival.)

The first time I ever swung an axe at ice, I was surprised. It felt good…really good. It was so different from rock climbing; instead of my hand fumbling, fingers aching, trying to find something to hold onto, the axe made a nice “clink” sound, sticking perfectly into the ice and giving me purchase. I felt like a superhero as I picked my way to the top of the frozen waterfall, right axe, left axe, then moving up with my feet, digging in with the teeth of my right crampon, then the left. It was oddly meditative and beautiful, despite the exertion and the cold. Why, I wondered, isn’t everyone doing this?

[click "Play", Beau Staley talks about garnets]

 

PDT-BB-pss-46s Teacup Pendant In January, you Goats (Capricorn, December 22 – January 19) and Water Bearers (Aquarius, January 20 – February 18) follow Cynthia Zehm's weekly column in Telluride Inside... and Out, Alacazem, to find out what life has in store. For sure, what's in store at Telluride's Dolce is the birthstone of the month: garnet.

The name "garnet" appears to have originated with the Latin "granatum malum," which means "pomegranate," the bush that produces the fruit with seeds the color of the stone. Jewelry made with garnet has been found in burial sites as early as the Bronze Age (3000 BC), when the stone was also used as an abrasive.

 

 Three years ago, the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities, an arts advocacy organization which opened for business in the 1970s, had a light bulb moment: produce an Art Walk that would underline the vibrancy of Telluride's fine art scene. And, while they were at it, why not support Telluride's retail scene, which works hand in glove with our town's cultural life?  Man cannot live by paintings, etc. alone....

Think of Telluride in the winter and my bet is your first thoughts would be of vistas of nearby mountains from one of Telluride's beautiful ski runs. Or, perhaps, the joy of wind in your face arcing turns down those runs. All valid...

by Lisa Barlow

Happy New Year There are myriad superstitions involving food that I ignore. But a few I hold fast to for no other reason than they are habit, and to question the ridiculousness of them would be living life a little too seriously.

If the wishbone makes it intact after carving a roast chicken, I grab my end, dream big and twist. At friends’ weddings, I throw rice or seeds like all the other guests, blessing the bride and groom with a fruitful union and messy hair. When salt is spilled in the kitchen, I throw a pinch over my left shoulder to stave off bad luck, if not the annoyance of the sprinkled person behind me.

And I always eat black-eyed peas on New Years day. The dish is called Hoppin’ John and there are lots of theories why some people eat it for good luck, with a slew of others as to how it got its name.