Lifestyle

by Lisa Barlow

Melting potatoes I’ve been getting a lot of diet advice lately. Who hasn’t? It’s January and if you turn on the television, pick up a magazine in a doctor’s room, click open your email or drive past a billboard, you’re a target.  “Hey Fatty” one publication taunts, “those Iced Oreo Balls we told you to make for your office party last month, now you’re wearing them!” There’s penance to pay for holiday fun and everyone from Britney to Dr. Oz want to tell us how to reclaim our inner Skinny Bitches so we can fit into our new pajama jean britches.

Thus prompted by the media, this year I have begun my own reformation with the same dedication and rigor with which I begin every new year.  Each morning I drink a slimming protein shake laden with green powder, flax seeds and a series of unpronounceable berry extracts that are cultivated in the Himalayas, the Hunzu Valley of Pakistan and the Costa Rican rainforest. And I feel great!

Wayne, booth MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, CO, January 7, 2011 -- The Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association (TMVOA), sponsors and organizers of the Telluride Festival of the Arts (TFA) announced today the dates for 2011, which will take place Friday, Aug. 12 through Sunday, Aug. 14. The TFA celebrates the visual and culinary arts and will play host to over 5,000 local, regional and national visitors. Highlights of the event include nationally juried professional visual artists and the signature “Grand Tasting” event showcasing renowned culinary establishments, spirits and wineries.

Visual artists are invited to go online now and apply to be one of the exhibitors at the 2011 TFA. Prospectus and application are available at http://www.Zapplication.org, where artists create an online artist profile, prepare and upload images, and complete the online application. The deadline for application is midnight (MST) on Tuesday, February 22, 2011. The Cherry Creek Arts Festival, one of the nation’s most respected and competitive juried arts festivals, produces the show. The exhibition experience for the visual artists is like none other and includes breathtaking mountain views in a European-style resort town with a year-round population of second and third homeowners that embrace the visual arts. The artists' success and exhibition experience are the core values and measurements of success for the Telluride Festival of the Arts.

[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Kristin Holbrook]   Bells are ringing at Telluride's Two Skirts for Bell. It's the sound of the cash register in response to a line of custom blouses Kristin Holbrook has carried in her store for over seven...

[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....