Lifestyle

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...

Gina and the ladies, Lizard Head It's been a busy week in Telluride, capped by a get-together among friends last night: good food, good wine, good conversation. As a result, Susan and I slept in a bit this morning. I was just getting ready to take Gina the Dog out for her morning walk. Susan, checking email: "Susan Dalton wants to know if we want to join her and Bettie Hastings for a hike up at Lizard Head. Maybe see if we can find some early mushrooms?"

Sounded better than whatever I had in mind, so I agreed. There was still time to get Gina out for a short walk, and start the Sunday morning chores. Soon Susan picked us up, then stopped to get Bettie, and in a few more minutes we were out of the car at the Cross Mountain trailhead, and on our way, Gina the Dog happy to be leading the pack.

[click "Play" for Susan's weekly conversation with Kristin Holbrook]

Image001 They're boxy. And they are big. In the fashion trend sense.Telluride Inside... and Out's fashion expert Kristin Holbrook of Two Skirts is talking about the small satchel. So move over large totes and hobos. Make way for the boxy, flap silhouette with the ultra long strap, petite purses that suggest a modern edge and ladylike elegance.


Hands-free carry-(mostly)-alls are great for the woman on the go and more than their big sisters, they work as accessories, adding just a touch of je ne sais quoi to any wardrobe, day or night.

IMGP1331 It's so easy in Telluride to return to old familiar trails for our morning hikes- with so many possibilities right out our door it's hard to think about trying something new. So Susan was surprised when I suggested she try Keystone Gorge for the first time.

I had done the trail earlier in the spring with the runoff causing a roar that drowned out all other sound. This morning the falls along the San Miguel River certainly could be heard, but they didn't completely overpower birdsong and rustle of wind in the aspens.

[click "Play" to hear Dr. Philippe Goldin's conversation with Susan]

IMG_5912 Hosting a conference in conjunction with Stanford University, the Telluride Institute was tapping into the zeitgeist. While some people appear ready to storm the barricades, others are turning inward, trying to find ways to play nice in not so nice times: compassion as an antidote to overheated passions. In June, when the Drepung Monks performed at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, they painstakingly created a mandala to generate energies for global healing. Between chants, the message was compassion for oneself and others in equal measure. On July 6, Telluride celebrated His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 75th birthday with events all day at the Wilkinson Public Library and the Sheridan Opera House. The Dalai Lama's message: compassion.

The very next day the Telluride Institute weighed in with its variation on the theme, hosting the first ever "Exploring the Language of Mental Life" conference, July 7 – July 10.

Capella Telluride Hi Res and JPEGS 134 Capella Telluride's former executive chef Kenny Gilbert left the Mountain Village to pursue fame and fortune. He is now a front runner in "Top Chef"  and has a new, permanent slot in the PGA National Resort & Spa in South Florida. Well, some like it hot. Capella's new top toque is Chef Gabriel Kolofon, whose approach to cooking appears far more restrained. In Kolofan's kitchen, less is more.

One of the kitchens Kolofon presides over is Capella's signature restaurant, Onyx, where Telluride Inside... and Out dined last week. Where Gilbert's virtuosic preparations shouted "Look at me," Kolofon's dishes beg to be discovered like a pretty librarian in glasses. When the glasses come off, the effect is magnetic. You just may not have seen it coming. Chef Gabriel's credo: high quality ingredients don't require much improvement in order to taste good.