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Around Telluride

IMG_7576 Last night, Tuesday, August 10, Phrog and Phidgt from Steamboat Springs threw a little party for a few of their closest friends in Telluride Town Park. Food and drink were served. The main course was Phish. Though clearly not an endangered species.

Here're a few things you need to know about Phish phans:

#1. They are nice people, who smile and look you in the eye as they eagerly answer any and all questions about their favorite band.

#2. They are smart and articulate. (See quotes in related post)

11 August, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Roy Malan's conversation with Susan]

Roy Malan In the early 1970s, Telluride was just beginning to pulse thanks to a chap from Beverly Hills named Joe Zoline, who had just opened the ski resort. Still, half of Main Street was boarded up and people were high-tailing it out of town muttering darkly about the closing of the Idarado Mines. The historic Sheridan Opera House was a camping ground for derelicts with broken glass and dusty mattresses everywhere. Roy Malan and Robin Sutherland, for many years stalwart co-directors of the Telluride Chamber Music Festival, played despite the venue – and the crowd liked the sound.

That was in 1974. The Telluride Chamber Music Festival returns this weekend for its 37th encore. Following a free concert  and picnic, starting 5 p.m.,  in Town Park, the series takes place two consecutive weekends, Friday and Saturday, August 13 – August 14, then again August 20 – August 21.
11 August, 2010 /

It didn't look too good in Telluride this morning for the final Phish concert. It pretty much rained out our mushroom hunt up at Lizard Head Pass, and it wasn't sunny until late afternoon. But by time to head for the...

10 August, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Susan's interview with Steve Spitz]

Postcard Fruits and veggies are seasonal. AIDS tends to ignore changes in the weather.


The Telluride AIDS Benefit, the crown jewel of Telluride's winter cultural calendar, hosts its first ever summer fundraiser. Intoxicating Cuisine with returning TV host/author/entrepreneur Steve Spitz takes place Friday, August 13, 5 – 8 p.m., 602 West Columbia. The event pairs great wines with tapas prepared by Spitz to honor the flavors and ingredients from every continent on the globe.
09 August, 2010 /
[click "Play" to listen to Diana Conovitz's conversation with Susan]

Unknown Before Telluride was a ski resort, way before. Before town sported tricked out Victorians, hot and cold running condos and gourmet eateries. Before there were non-profits to fundraise for, there was lots of fun-raising. Over the top. Slightly wicked. Take for example the Muleskinners' Ball.

Muleskinners had nothing to do with hunting. Hauling was their game. They ran pack trains used to transport ore and the bare necessities to miners and loggers. Butch Cassidy was said to be a muleskinner. He allegedly worked for the Tomboy Mine before he was arrested in 1887. In Telluride's mining days the end of the 19th Century/ turn of the 20th Century, the Muleskinners' Ball was one of the era's most popular annual events.
09 August, 2010 /


by D. Dion

It’s hard not to feel lucky having one of the precious tickets to the Phish shows in Telluride. Phish hasn’t played here in almost 20 years, since it was a quirky East Coast band just emerging on the scene, and this is the only stop in the Rocky Mountains that Phish will make on their summer tour.

And while it will be a huge concert for Telluride (the town’s population is less than 2,400, but 9,000 tickets have been sold for each of the two shows), the band has essentially outgrown this small pond. Phish had the largest attendance of any concert, anywhere, on the millennium New Year’s Eve, drawing 85,000 people to the Florida Everglades. The band plays big stadiums like Madison Square Garden or Fenway Park and festivals like Bonnaroo. For Phish, Telluride Town Park will be an intimate venue, albeit not one as cozy as the Moon, the Roma or the old Elks Lodge, where they used to play when they first broke into the mountain music market here in the late 80s.

08 August, 2010 /
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.

08 August, 2010 /