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Around Telluride

[click "Play" to hear about "Name that Tune" from Baerbel and Ashley]

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2009 Name that Tune winners

Telluride's KOTO Community Radio was populist way before populist became popular all over again, thanks to Tea Baggers bagging headlines and screaming for attention on behalf of The Man on the Street.


Telluride's KOTO  is one of only about a half dozen radio stations in the country that is of, for and by the people: the station accepts no commercial advertising or underwriting. Twenty percent of KOTO's revenues comes from grants and the rest, a whopping 80 percent, from community-based initiatives and donations.
31 January, 2010 /


(photographer's note: Apologies to a few acts after intermission: my camera battery died halfway through the second part. Something about having shot nearly 600 frames. Sorry, it wasn't intentional.)

The highlight of Telluride's KOTO Community Radio's winter fun-raising campaign is always the annual Lip Sync contest. Rolling Stone red or slightly blue – as it often gets – the lips lived on Friday night, January 29 when KOTO radio hosted #25 at the Sheridan Opera House.

30 January, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Mayor Bob Delves' conversation with Susan]

Telluride's Woman's Network holds its January Brown Bag luncheon (in other words, bring your own) on Wednesday, noon – 1:30 p.m. The event features Bob Delves, second-term Mountain Village mayor and boardmember, The New Community Coalition and the San Miguel Watershed Coalition. Delves is one of the region's standout/standup eco-crusaders. His subject: "GOT WATER? – Just What are the Issues surrounding Water in The Telluride Region?" The luncheon is not for ladies only. The entire community is invited.


The New Community Coalition and the San Miguel Watershed Coalition share a common goal: promoting and supporting sustainable practices and preserving natural resources in the Telluride region. However, unlike TNCC, which operates under a very big tent, the Coalition is singularly focused on the San Miguel,  considered to be one of the few remaining ecologically and hydrologically intact river systems in Colorado. The nonprofit's purview specifically includes the 1 million acres of land drained by the river and its many tributaries – an area which encompasses the incorporated towns of Nucla, Naturita, Norwood, Telluride, Mountain Village, and Ophir as well as several unincorporated towns.
27 January, 2010 /

Telluride, after the storm Friday, January 22, was a long-awaited powder day in Telluride. After a few runs on open terrain, I decided to check out "Captain Jack's". Renamed and with some...

26 January, 2010 /
[to hear Sasha Cucciniello and Colin Sullivan talk about "Reenactments" click "Play"]

IA sheridanrules They all get their 15 minutes of fame: Telluride legends and forgotten characters resurrected: prostitutes, skiers, miners and donkeys in "Inaccurate Reenactments, " a musical comedy commissioned by the Telluride Historical Museum and created by Sasha Cucciniello and her merry band of SquidShow Theatre thespians.

IAskiersandwhores "Inaccurate Reenactments" opened in Telluride in December to packed houses and hosannahs. The FREE encore performance is Thursday, January 28, at Telluride's historic Sheridan Opera House. Showtime is 8 p.m.

26 January, 2010 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Sasha Cucciniello]

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Julia Archibald Holmes

The Telluride Historical Museum's Fireside Chat series continues this winter with "Women in Their Words." The event takes place Thursday, January 21, 5 p.m., in the Great Room at The Peaks Hotel & Spa. SquidShow Theatre's Sasha Cucciniello brings historical women to life, with narration by Colin Sullivan.

The list the Telluride Historical Museum came up with is the tip of the iceberg but nonetheless impressive: Chipeta, wife of the paramount Ute chief Ouray, the "Tomboy Bride" Harriet Backus, early skier Marjorie Perry, homesteader Katherine Garetson, botanist Ruth Aston, Julia Archibald Holmes, the first woman to climb Pike's Peak, and all the "Soiled Doves," the prostitutes of the Old West. 

21 January, 2010 /
[click "Play" for Susan's conversation with Sherab Kloppenburg]

Quilting2 Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts includes courses in time-honored crafts such as quilting. Up soon, case in point, "Crazy Quilting with Sherab Kloppenburg, Tuesdays, January 26 – March 9, 6 - 8 p.m. (Five classes with a two-week break.)


American quilting has been a constantly evolving amalgam of color and texture, pattern and symbolism since the days of mass immigration from across the pond. Eventually the combinations of styles brought by women from their different homelands blended and became known as the American Melting Pot quilts, and later, patchwork or crazy quilts.
20 January, 2010 /

IMG_8474 It was snowing lightly in Telluride this morning, with more snow in the forecast, as the judges made their rounds to pick the winners of this year's CoolSculpt contest.

The finished products were indeed something to behold: beautifully executed, and very imaginative. In the end, the judges must have had a difficult time deciding.

IMG_8482 IMG_8480 The First Place winner ($850) for 2010 is "The White Castle". by D. O. Double-G's, sponsored by Telluride Ski and Golf. This entry featured a castle, complete with towers, stairs, and a dragon clinging to the ramparts. The castle was also attractive to young and old who climbed up to view the Plaza from the walls. Well done, and congratulations.

18 January, 2010 /


When I got to the Mountain Village Thursday morning the big blocks of compacted snow had already been delivered. Telluride's CoolSculpt was underway. On Saturday afternoon, January 16, I went back to see what the artists were up to.

I spoke to Colin Sullivan, who was on hand to turn the Ah Haa School's block of ice into a giant Space Invader, complete with a girl with a handheld controller.

18 January, 2010 /