Lifestyle

[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.

[click "Play" for Kristin Holbrook's take on clog boots] Kristin Holbook of Two Skirts, Telluride Inside..and Out's fashionista, is loving clog boots for late summer into early fall. Not yesterday's clogs, this season's reincarnation is clunky but chic and engineered for comfortable...

The 2010 San Miguel Basin County Fair and Rodeo celebrates 100 years of 4H in Norwood this week - so put on your western wear and prepare yourself for several days of down home, country fun. The annual eight-day event kicked off with...

Gina, Eider Creek Small towns have the reputation of "Not much to do". In Telluride? Here, the opposite is true, so much so that writing, publishing and creating the visuals for Telluride Inside... and Out (not that I'm the only one putting in those hours: Susan works harder than I do.) sometimes means I don't spend as much time outside as I would like.

Since mid-May, the schedule has been wild, what with Mountainfilm in Telluride, Telluride Balloon Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Telluride Wine Festival, Telluride Musicfest, Telluride Yoga Festival, KOTO's Doo Dah, Playwrights Festival. And this doesn't even include lectures at the Wilkinson Library, the Palm Theatre, the occasional dinner out with friends, a movie at the Nugget Theatre. One night last week we went to five! events, and still had send regrets to one or two.


 

by D. Dion

No matter what you’re doing this weekend, Ricky Denesik’s got you beat. Denesik is running the Hardrock 100, a 100.5-mile endurance race in the San Juan Mountains at an average elevation of 11,000 feet with 33,992 feet of climbing. It might sound like pain and suffering to most people, but the lanky, local ultra-runner is taking it in stride. “I think I can do it. I just don’t worry about it, I take it as it comes, one mile at a time, one step at a time,” says Denesik.

It’s likely he will do it—Denesik has already finished the race four times, each time coming in the top 10. The first time he ran the Hardrock 100, in 1998, he won the prestigious event. “I was a lot younger then,” laughs Denesik. He says his goal this year is simply to earn his fifth finish; that way, he won’t have to enter the lottery to get a spot in the Hardrock 100 in the future. Five-time finishers are guaranteed a spot in the race, which strictly limits the number of runners.

[For Wah! click "Play"]

2008_hug1_thumb One singular sensation: "Her Wahness" is featured at the third annual Telluride Yoga Festival."Kirtan with Wah! Sean Johnson & the Wild Lotus Band" takes place Friday night, 7:30 – 10 p.m. at the Telluride Conference Center in the Mountain Village.

Sound as a means of healing is a technique –  or a variety of techniques –  recorded in the ancient Americas, Africa, Greece, China, and Rome, and dates back at least to 5,000 B.C. The Yoga tradition has known for centuries that sound is the new apple a day –  only more so. Chanting mantras has physiological benefits such as increasing circulation to the different parts of the body, balancing heart rhythm, deepening exhalation; emotional benefits, such as inducing relaxation and mood elevation; intellectual benefits such as improving memory function and recharging brain cells.
[click "Play" to listen to Scott Rhea's interview with Susan]

Mstrcopy_w_RoJune 26_for web copy I have covered Telluride cultural life over a career of 18 years and counting, and found that the parade of interesting people who gravitate to our Shangri-La never ends. You may not know the names of many of these people, not because they are not abundantly talented and widely accomplished, but because Telluride is their sanctuary, a place to get away from the faces they meet in the real world. Case in point: Scott Rhea.


Scott, who divides his time between Tinseltown and the Ski Ranches just outside the Town of Telluride, has had a very successful career shooting fashion print and editorial fashion. But it is book of unique underwater images released in 2009 that triggered his coming out party in Telluride.