Lifestyle

[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Cat Cora]

Cat Cora Iron Chef Cat Cora hits the ground running when she arrives in town this week for the 29th annual Telluride Wine Festival. She is everywhere you want to be, with the spotlight  on her newly released  "Cat Cora Classics with a Twist: Fresh Takes on Favorite Dishes."

Friday, June 25,  9:30 – 11 a.m.,Telluride Farmer's Market, the Iron Chef signs copies of "Cat Cora Classics with a Twist." That same afternoon, 2:30 – 4 p.m., she puts her words to the test at a cooking demonstration in the private home of Chef Chad Scothorn. (Seating is extremely limited, so reserve your ticket now.) Saturday, June 26, Cora goes "uptown" to the Mountain Village, where she is joined by Chef Michael Weist for a luncheon at Allred's inspired by recipes from the cookbook. Telluride Wine Festival co-director, Steve Olson, aka the wine geek, and Ted Diamantis pair Cora's "classics" with Greek wines, tying into roots of this Olympian chef. Both the demonstration and the luncheon should debunk the mythology that all Greek food is straight out of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," heavy and greasy.
[click "Play" to hear Michelle Curry Wright talk about her Wine Festival poster]

Web poster image wine fest Michelle Curry Wright is one of the faces regulars see when they visit the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art. She has worked at the gallery for six of the 25 years the must-visit art emporium has been in business. But what you see at the front desk is not all that you get.

Michelle Curry Wright is also a fine artist in the Telluride Gallery of Fine Art's stable and this year, the poster artist for the 29th annual Telluride Wine Festival. The original mixed media painting for the Festival poster is on display throughout the weekend at the Gallery, 130 East Colorado Avenue, open for bids through a silent auction. (Some of the proceeds from the sale go the the Tellluride Wine Fest.) Michelle signs poster, $25 each, during Friday's Toast of Telluride, 4 – 6 p.m.
[click "Play" to hear Lauren Metzger's debut effort podcasting with Telluride Inside... and Out.]

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

IMG_5431 If you are anything like me, you go into every journey gung-ho on documenting the amazing and crazy experiences you will have; the sights, the smells, the people, the food...I last about 3 days of journaling my thoughts and observations in a small book before it becomes boring and confining. So when Laura Kudo, traveler extraordinare, proposed a travel journaling 2-night workshop at the Ah Haa School, I was first in line to sign up.

[click "Play" to listen to Chef Omar speak about food and his career]

ILC_0104 Moving on. With the Telluride Bluegrass Festival over, thoughts around town turn from KOTO beer to fine wine. This coming weekend is the 29th annual Telluride Wine Festival, June 24 – June 27.

It's common knowledge among the "Sideways" crowd: There are two fundamental considerations when matching food and wine: find a good match based on similar taste or a match based on contrasts. A look at Chef Omar Collazo's menu for his Telluride Wine Festival dinner suggests he goes on instinct.

Located in the Mountain Village, 9545 at the Inn at Lost Creek is hosting one of a number of special dinners held throughout the long Telluride Wine Festival weekend.

[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Scott and Chandra]

Chandraheadshotforweb Scott-2-IMG_0211e-print Two separate but related events and three extraordinary individuals link two magical places, Tara Mandala and Telluride.

The event is a workshop on the subject of "Shadow Yoga and Buddhist Meditation: the Pranic Pathway to Stillness." The individuals leading the two intensives are the husband and wife team of Scott Blossom and Chandra Easton, joined by one of their teachers, Lama Tsultrim Allione.

The workshop at Tara Mandala, a 700-acre retreat center near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, founded by Lama Tsultrim Allione and her husband David Petit, occurs first and unfolds over six days, June 30 – July 7. The retreat targets those interested in learning a set of practices for circulating and preparing the vital energies (prana) for meditation.

IMGP1229 The San Miguel River flowing through Telluride is important to Jagged Edge. So maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that Jagged Edge organized a river cleanup day last Wednesday, June 9.

IMGP1240 Erik Dalton and Cari Mackie were on the river in kayaks, representing the company. Connor Intemann and I were in kayaks, Travis Julia was manning a whitewater canoe as the "trash boat" and George Greenbank patrolled the left bank on his mountain bike.

We put in just upstream from the Town Park bridge. The river was flowing fast, bank-to-bank, but we were able to find small eddies to pull in along the way to pick up the trash we found.

Golf_pro The Telluride Ski & Golf Club welcomes Samantha Fritz as Head Golf Professional. Fritz is a PGA Class A Professional and comes to Telluride with extensive experience in the golf industry.

 Fritz graduated in 2007 from Ferris State University with a Bachelor’s degree in marketing and a concentration in Professional Golf Management. For the past three seasons, she has worked at some of the most elite resort facilities in the country, including The Club at Cordillera in Edwards, Colorado, and The Hawthorns Golf and Country Club in Fishers, Indiana. Fritz established and cultivated the women’s golf programs at both facilities. Through extensive lessons, clinics and relationships, she grew both into the excellent programs they are today.