Around Telluride

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.


 

by D. Dion

It wasn’t anything like seeing Phish or a jam band back in the 90s. For one thing, I was 9 months pregnant and sitting in the back, stone cold sober, and too exhausted to join my one-year-old daughter in her feverish spinning dance on the tarp in front of me. For another thing, I can’t remember ever sitting down at a concert like Phish, or even bringing a chair to such a show. My friend, also 9 months pregnant, was sitting in the back with me. She leaned over and confessed, “I really wish I could have a hit of nitrous. I don’t really miss drinking, and I’ve never been much of a pothead or anything, but I have always loved nitrous.”

The whole night was like that, one long reminiscence. Seeing people twitching with that front-row frenzy, their internal speakers set to “11,” was like looking at myself ten years ago. And the songs evoked long forgotten memories. How long has it been since I sang “Would you please, please drive me to Firenze?” or “When you’re here, I sleep lengthwise, and when you’re gone, I sleep diagonal in my bed,” or since I stayed up all night literally bouncing around the room? There was something familiar and comfortable about the music, the lyrics and the way the mountains cradled the sound, which was, by the way, about twice as loud as any band I’ve ever seen play Telluride Town Park.

by David Byars

(editor's note: Telluride Inside... and Out has published a lot of content about the Phish concert in Telluride. At the risk of seeming redundant we felt that two younger voices after the fact would be appropriate. Given the amount of hype surrounding the Phish event, and considering the level of apprehension in some parts of our community, TIO has decided to publish this account by David Byers and one by TIO regular, Deb Dion to follow.)

IMG_7572 Phish has come and gone.  I’m feeling what a lot of residents are feeling right now.  A little hungover, slightly confused, and struck by the unreality of the whole thing. 

In the months and weeks before Phish arrived, feelings of excitement mingled with moments of apprehension.  Would Phish turn our picturesque mountain burg into a steaming cauldron of psychedelically enhanced burn outs with the associated flotsam and jetsam of empty PBR cans and wayward cigarette butts?  Or would the fans behave themselves and bring with them a much needed injection of income into a town in desperate need of out-of-towners’ vacation funds?

[click "Play", Meehan Fee describes the event]

PIG & WHISKEY POSTER FINAL Telluride's sister city, the Mountain Village, is hopping this weekend with two big events: the Telluride Festival of the Arts and the Telluride Conference Center's Pig & Whiskey.

Pig & Whiskey is no pig in a poke: everything about the event is out there on the table. And there is something for everyone.

For film buffs, there's a screening of a documentary by Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood. "The Secret to a Happy Ending" chronicles the life and impact of the Drive-By Truckers, a rock-and-roll band that may not enjoy mass fame, but claims an unusually potent connection with its fans just like the jam band who packed Telluride Town Park earlier this week, Phish. It's a connection the film's director, Barr Weissman felt first-hand when he saw them in 2003. One song in particular, "The Living Bubba," frontman Patterson Hood's high and mournful ode to a friend who had died, purportedly reduced Weissman to an emotional pulp.

In this week's video, Ted Hoff of Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel shows us an obedience training session with Drake, his young Yellow Labrador Retriever. At seven months old, Drake is expected to make some mistakes. Repetition to teach the right response, patience when...

Emma Ryan The Telluride Academy's Mudd Butts opens August 13 at The Palm. The 24th annual production is "1001 Arabian Nights." The event takes place Friday, August 13 and Saturday, August 14 @ 7 p.m. The Sunday program, a matinee @ 2 p.m., is followed by an auction of Mike Stasiuk's incredible props. 

While the heart and soul of the Mudd Butts is a trio of outspoken creative geniuses, Sally Davis, Kim Epifano and Mike Stasiuk, its takes a village to mount their ambitious happenings.

A list of this year's cast and crew follows:

Hey, Telluride! It's KOTO guest DJ time again. Friday, August 13, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Telluride's Bling merchants will be manning the mikes and phones to raise money for KOTO, Telluride's non-commercial, non-underwritten, locally supported radio station. Each business will have...

Perseid_Vic_341px Veteran starwatchers perennially mark their calendars for the annual Perseid Meteor shower - which always peaks between Aug. 9th and 14th - because it's arguably the best "shooting star" gallery of the year. And for those who've experienced a good meteor show, you know exactly how much fun it can be.

This year, the meteor peak [100 meteors per hour] is projected to be on the late evening/early morning of Aug. 12th/13th - Thursday/Friday. And, with only a slender slip of a delicate crescent Moon - which sets in early evening, leaving a very dark night sky - the show promises to be stellar - as long as the skies are clear.  As with all meteor showers, the rate is greatest in the pre-dawn hours, since the side of the Earth turning into the sun scoops up more meteors as the Earth moves through space. And, if you happen to miss the shower's peak, check it out the following night. The Perseid viewing window actually lasts for approximately six weeks - from mid-July to the end of August - but observation is best when a dark Moon coincides with the Earth's movement through the dust cloud left behind by comet Swift-Tuttle - which happens to be right now!

Hey, Telluride! It's KOTO guest DJ time again. Friday, August 13, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Telluride's Bling merchants will be manning the mikes and phones to raise money for KOTO, Telluride's non-commercial, non-underwritten, locally supported radio station. Each business will have...