Around Telluride

 Since 1977, the San Juan Mountains have been the site of an annual cultural event produced by the Telluride Society for Jazz. The Telluride Jazz Celebration combines performances on outdoor stages in during the day with theater and club shows at night: the best of both worlds.  With its new dates in June, which coincides with the 26th annual  Telluride Balloon Rally, the weekend event becomes even more colorful.

"Jazz means a certain kind of spontaneous interaction on stage and off. Because of how small we are, any impact on our home, Telluride, is positive," said Paul Machado, impresario, the Telluride Jazz Celebration. "At its improvisational center,  jazz in town is so good it makes your ears smile.

"Featured artists typically represent a tangle of styles  and rhythms that add up to one unforgettable experience in sound.

Another Telluride favorite event, KOTO's "Name That Tune" takes place at X Cafe at 7:00 pm, Friday evening, Feb 6.The top three teams will win great prizes, and there are audience prizes as well. However, pride in the winning teams' musical knowledge is the biggest...

[click to hear Susan's interview with Andrew Currie of E2]

  Robert F Kennedy Jr on carpet
Robert F. Kennedy, jr.

Environmental Entrepreneurs or E2 is a national community of business professionals who work towards developing economically beneficial solutions to top priority environmental issues. Specifically E2's diverse membership of about 850 nationally works in tandem with the Natural Resources Defense Council, lending the voices of experience needed to advance sound environmental policy based on the economic merits.

E2's bottom line: It is not business versus the environment. It is business and the environment.

The synergies between E2 and our region's The New Community Coalition are obvious: both organizations recognize that quality interactions among members of a community are key to identifying, coordinating, and implementing sustainable projects that secure our future locally, regionally, and nationally.

The Sheridan Arts Foundation's Young People's Theatre stages "Grease" at Telluride's Sheridan Opera House, Feb 6-8

Hindsight is not always 20/20. Sometimes it needs glasses.

Grease poster When Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey penned "Grease" in 1971, Americans were nostalgic for the white picket fence days of the 1950s. But the innocence of that era was largely fiction: the headlines of the Eisenhower years included Communist witch hunts, polio, the hydrogen bomb, the Korean War, and racial segregation.
Pop culture was all about Mitch Miller, Elvis, James Dean and "Rebel Without a Cause," doo-wop and Doris Day – but also Jack Kerouac, who wrote "On the Road" in 1957. To the road warrior and his legions of fans, America of the 1950s seemed to be many flavors of strange under a white-washed veneer of pristine sameness.

The authors of "Grease" chose to sanitize those realities and dress them up in poodle skirts and leather jackets. The world of "Grease" never existed and always existed.

[click "Play" to hear Susan's interview with Jill Roisman]

  2009 Poster 010609
Poster by Kim Hilley

Chocolate predates Telluride (and its famous Fling). The history of chocolate actually dates back at least 1,500 years, when the Mayans of Central America crushed cocoa beans into an unsweetened beverage. The Aztecs had a name for that beverage: xocolatl or bitter water. The Aztec ruler, Montezuma II, is said to have consumed 50 or more golden goblets filled with bitter water each day.

Chocolate, also called “food of the gods,” was used in religious ceremonies. Its seeds were traded as currency.

The Spanish conquistador Cortes is said to have called chocolate “the divine drink which builds up resistance and fights fatigue.”
Years later in Europe, chocolate was prescribed for depression and made into love and death potions. (Its bitter flavor masked poisons.)

  Images from 2008 Fling 1.   221 South Oak - chefs Eliza Gavin & Sue Govindsamy2.   Allred's & Telski - chef Jason Lemon3.   Argentine Grille @ The Rico Hotel - chef Eamonn O'Hara4.   The Bistro @ The Hotel Telluride - chef Michael Dellaporta5.   Cosmopolitan...

To purchase tickets to the Chocolate Lovers' Fling, go to Two Skirts, Between the Covers, Telluride Bottle Works, and in the Mountain Village, Telluride Coffee Company. Online, go to tellurideticket.com. Act now and the price is $35 through January 31.After Saturday, the price goes up...

The one, the only KOTO Lip Sync takes place this Friday at the Sheridan  Opera House. This is a SOLD OUT show. However, KOTO will auction off two sets of two tickets, on Thursday from 10-11.These tickets are valued at $56.00 a pair. Call...

[Click to hear interview with TNCC's Kim Wheels & Julie Schoenfeld] The Telluride region’s New Community Coalition and The San Miguel Power Association are pleased to announce a partnership with The Governor's Energy Office and the Colorado Solar Energy...