Lifestyle

by Lauren Metzger
Marketing & Exhibitions Manager
Ah Haa School for the Arts

IndianSummer_wilsonrange-386x0 Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. It brings to mind new clothes, crisp blank notebooks and an abundance of newly sharpened pencils. While school is part of my past (thank god) I am happy that the Ah Haa School for the Arts still supplies it's own fall adventures that allow me to grow creatively and not be graded on.

I know that when I go hiking and exploring in our amazing Telluride backyard, I bring my camera and try my damnedest to capture the scenes surrounding me. And I have to admit I fail miserably. This is not to say that my pictures don't capture the beauty but they sure don't capture the depth of the beauty and the majesty of the landscape. So, I am excited to say that National Geographic photographer Dave Edwards is back this fall to give me some tips in making a strong photograph. Capturing dynamic compositions, learning about light, subject content and artistic elements are sure to help me blow my friends and family away. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and if I can truly learn to capture where I live, I will hopefully leave people as speechless as I am taking the picture when they view the picture.

IMGP0588 Telluride Inside... and Out went online for the first time with a short teaser post from Susan on August 18, 2008. There were soon articles by our daughters, Kimm Viebrock and Kjerstin Klein, and a few by me.

In my notes from our early organization meetings I find a comment from the girls that we should consider posting at least "one or two" articles each week to keep the content fresh. The advice seems laughable in retrospect. I'm writing this post on August 16, and our count is 1523, over two stories for every day of TIO's existence!

Tour Operators From Around the Globe Visit August 16-19The Ski Tour Operators Association, also known as SkiTops arrives next week in Telluride August 16-19. For the first time, the largest gathering of tour operators and sales agents has chosen Telluride for their annual summer meeting...

[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.


click "Play" to hear Ashley Deppen of Two Skirts talk about Fall footwear] Summer in Telluride has felt a lot like Seattle. Nothing but rain. Who knows what the Fall will bring – unless we are talking footwear. According to...

[click "Play" to listen to Susan's interview with Steve Spitz]

Postcard Fruits and veggies are seasonal. AIDS tends to ignore changes in the weather.


The Telluride AIDS Benefit, the crown jewel of Telluride's winter cultural calendar, hosts its first ever summer fundraiser. Intoxicating Cuisine with returning TV host/author/entrepreneur Steve Spitz takes place Friday, August 13, 5 – 8 p.m., 602 West Columbia. The event pairs great wines with tapas prepared by Spitz to honor the flavors and ingredients from every continent on the globe.
MarmotteStockFB The creativity patrons experience at Telluride's La Marmotte restaurant is not limited to the table. In July the restaurant hosted  "Le Fair Affaire," a night of art, music, live performance painting, culinary tasting, and film screening, the brainchild of photographer Scott Rhea. La Marmotte's August event promises to be just as much fun.

"Marmotstock" is a pre-PHISH Telluride tailgate party and a benefit for one of town's best loved non-profits, the Telluride Adaptive Sports Program. The all-day event takes place Monday and Tuesday, August 9 and August 10, 11a.m. – 5 p.m., just outside La Marmotte, 150 West San Juan Avenue, one block from Gondola Plaza.



[click "Play", Brooke Ahana for Two Skirts]

DSC00145 Brooke Ahana is a big-city gal, but for the past seven years, the artist has spent summers in Telluride teaching kids and adult classes at Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts, where a show of her abstractions, birds, and portraits of women was on display in July. One of Ahana's Ah Haa classes was "Medal of Honor," in which she taught students how to transform found objects into wearable art in the form of pins.

Kristin Holbrook of Two Skirts, Telluride Inside... and Out's fashion expert, thinks Ahana's mixed media pins made from old keys, pocket watches, chains and more are so cool, they are hot. They fall right in line with the military trend that emerged this Spring and continues into the Fall.

[click "Play", Kristin Holbrook talks about Joie T-shirts] Kristin Holbrook of Telluride's popular Two Skirts is crying for joy over Joie's white T- shirt. Once upon a time, white t-shirts came in a three- or six-pack...