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Lifestyle

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.

30 December, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Susan's conversation with Johnnie Stevens]

79 The Telluride Historical Museum is anything but a sleepy repository of dusty old memories. Quite the contrary: at the Telluride Historical Museum, "history" is an active verb. Case in point: the Museum's latest new program, "Ski Into History," featuring life-long Telluride local and Colorado Hall of Famer, Johnnie Stevens.

To put on this unique event –  every Monday throughout the winter season 2011, starting December 27, 10 a.m.  – the Telluride Historical Museum worked diligently with The Peaks Resort & Spa. The Telluride Foundation and Telluride Ski & Golf Company also helped make "Ski Into History" a reality.

25 December, 2010 /

by Lisa Barlow

Tamales_1 Growing up, I thought it was just my family that had skewed tradition a little on Christmas day. The morning always began straight out of a storybook with a delicious slice of homemade Stollen bread, a mug of steaming hot chocolate and the frenzied unwrapping of Santa’s bounty. But for Christmas dinner, while the other families in our New York City apartment building were sitting down to roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, we were tucking in to a pot full of spicy pork tamales.

It turns out we were just borrowing from another culture, and from my mother’s past. She had grown up in San Antonio, Texas, a beautiful city whose architecture and cuisine is influenced by its southern neighbor, the country it once belonged to. The population of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in San Antonio still outnumbers everyone else, and the Mexican-influenced food is some of the best in the country.

 

24 December, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Ashley Deppen's idea of what to wear]

DSC00434 For sure, not some cliched Christmas sweater, with reindeer dancing across your chest. Especially not in Telluride, where cliches go to die.

And fagettabout the low cut red velvet number trimmed in faux fuh. There already is a Mrs. Santa.

Some je ne suis quoi in red and green? Nope, your holiday tree has that color combo cornered.

23 December, 2010 /

[click "Play" to hear Wade Davis' conversation with Susan]

 

100_2229 In Telluride, simply saying "Wade Davis" is like incanting "Open Sesame," the name unlocking doors of the mind. Mountainfilm in Telluride executive director Peter Kenworthy described Davis as a "Renaissance man," a defensive move, because the actual list of accolades and credits that adhere to the man could fill the Manhattan telephone book.

20091004-20091004-3919121-02 At Mountainfilm's annual fundraiser, Davis anchors a program that highlights five projects recently awarded $5,000 each. One of the projects is Sacred Headwaters, Sacred Journey, a photographic exposition by Paul Colangelo of the shared birthplace of three of British Columbia’s great salmon-bearing rivers, the Stikine, Skeena and Nass. The Stikine Valley, sacred to the First Nations, is one of the largest predator-prey ecosystems in North America. This area is now threatened by resource development. Colangelo's project is especially near and dear to Davis, a native of British Columbia and frequent visitor to the region that has been called “The Serengeti of the North.”

22 December, 2010 /

[click "Play", Erik Dalton talks about "Promo Weeks."]

 

 

IMG_0988 Erik Dalton of Telluride's Jagged Edge is among the tough ones who got going in response to economic doldrums, exercising a well-deserved reputation for being an innovative retailer, an asset any day of the week, but especially now. Case in point: "Promo Weeks."

Erik hatched the idea for "Promo Weeks" initially as a way to motivate Jagged Edge employees, each of whom is responsible for several brands. Having his staff work directly and closely with the companies whose labels the store sells deepens their knowledge of every product on Jagged Edge's shelves/racks. That knowledge then gets passed along to customers, with the added bonus of discount programs organized by those Jagged Edge employees for these special "Promo Weeks."

21 December, 2010 /

Telluride3
Roger Mason painting

In the beginning there was Telluride's The New Sheridan Hotel. At least for us.

Twenty-five years ago, Clint Viebrock rode into Telluride on his metal horse, a Yamaha, on his way to no place in particular. One night at The New Sheridan Bar and The Sheridan Hotel was all the convincing he needed: Clint had found home.

Friday night, December 17, Telluride Inside... and Out returned to a vastly different New Sheridan under vastly different circumstances. We were there as a couple at the invitation of general manager Ray Farnsworth to experience the hotel in all the glory of its latest incarnation following the 2008 renovation, which cost about $7 million – and Ray, who lovingly shepherded the process, more gray hairs.

A date night at The New Sheridan? Twist my arm.

20 December, 2010 /
[click to hear Susan's conversation with Hillaree & Brian O'Neill]

 

CRussell-4384 Telluride has lots of great people around town, but some, sadly are addicts. A number of them are addicted to a white substance. Its name is POW. I am talking, of course, about powder, as in snow. If you are one of them, listen up.

On December 23, Travis Julia Productions announces a showing of Warren Miller's 61st film, "Winterventions." The two screenings, sponsored by Jagged Edge and Bootdoctors, take place at the Sheridan Opera House @ 6 p.m. and @ 9 p.m.

19 December, 2010 /