There are no serpents to protect trees in this Garden of Eden. Telluride's The New Community Coalition, however, is doing what it can.
In early May, the TNCC, in partnership with the San Miguel Basin/Colorado State University Extension and USDA Forest Service, held a workshop at Telluride's Wilkinson Public Library to introduce "See the Forest and the Trees" healthy forest initiative.
Are you overwhelmed with papers you would like to get rid of? Do you have old tax documents, bank statements, credit card solicitations, medical records, and other personal documents needing to be destroyed? Then, join Alpine Bank and Colorado Document Security for the 1st Annual...
Last Saturday, July 11, Kimberly and John Kirkendoll hosted a party to support Sparky Productions' Telluride Playwrights' Festival. Jennie Franks' event is in its third year, and the quality of the theatre is getting better with each year. There is one more evening to...
Nick Day, internationally known actor, sometime Telluride near-local, friend, has been in Telluride for about two weeks this time around. Nick is a key element in Jennie Franks' Telluride Playwrights' Festival, on- going, hosting actors' workshops, participating in readings. It goes on.
Nick was on hand for the 4th of July in Telluride, and has consented to let TIO publish the column he wrote for folks back home in England. Read it and ask yourself: "Am I/ are we really doing all we could to preserve this place we call home, Telluride, the wider world?"
Thanks, Nick.
Greenwich Time
by Nicholas Day
by Eileen Burns
I recently spoke to Aspen representatives Katherine Dart, Special Projects Coordinator for CORE which stands for Community Office for Resource Efficiency and Ashley Cantrell, environmental health specialists for the city of Aspen about their involvement in the Colorado Association of Ski Towns (CAST) Challenge.
CAST has been holding a plastic bag challenge since March 1st, with more than 30 ski towns participating including neighboring Aspen. The concept is to reduce consumption of single-use, disposable shopping bags by using your own bag. Participating stores keep a record of reusable bags being used between March 1st and September 1st and when the totals are in, the town with the highest per capita bag reuse rate will win a $10,000 grant from sponsors Alpine Bank and PCL Construction to install a solar panel system at a public school for the winning community.
by Eileen Burns
There may be another tarp run in Telluride Town Park on Saturday, July 11th. Rusted Root rolls into town kicking off an evening of invigorating and energetic music that promises to leave townies dancing all night long. Gates opening at 3 P.M. with the ultimate jam band, Rusted Root, taking the stage at six followed by the Godfather of Funk, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic.
Rusted Root’s bluegrass/rock sound has always been heavily influenced by world music such as African, Native American and Latin America, and their long awaited new release Stereo Rodeo is climbing the charts.
Betsyanew is a start-up founded by entrepreneur and part-time Telluride local Betsy Lummis. The new business is an affirmative response to adversity and a shining example of taking a yoga practice off the mat.
Betsy Lummis was hardwired to practice Karma Yoga. Raised among politicians/philanthropists, she embraced the idea of selfless service, and for 20 years expended time and energy doing fundraising, event coordination, and networking in support of causes she believed in. The Telluride region's Ah Haa School for the Arts and the nascent Telluride Yoga Festival are just two examples of Betsy's largesse.
Betsy Lummis began taking classes at Ah Haa when she first arrived in town 15 years ago. Daughter Phoebe has been a summer art camper at the school for seven consecutive summers.
As much spectacle as fundraiser, the theme of the 2009 Ah Haa auction encourages everyone around Telluride to embrace their love of art and discover their inner artist: "Celebrate Art ! Be The Artist You Want To Be!"
Now in it’s 17th year, Ah Haa’s annual fundraiser is not to be missed. The event includes a live and silent auction, featuring over 100 pieces of original art, services, and excursions, donated by the regional artists, locals businesses and Ah Haa. The monies raised in this single evening support scholarships, supplies,
teachers, the Visiting Artist series, and keeping the spirit of Ah Haa going for another year.
In years past, local celebrities such as General Norman Schwarzkopf have contributed art work they created in conjunction with Ah Haa teachers in support of the school. (Joanne Corzine bought Stormin' Norman's first effort for $17,000.)
by Kris Holstrom
Is it a strip of weedy sidewalk? Or a potential edible landscape? Perspective makes all the difference.What's required is a shift in perspective to get the ball rolling.
We are creatures of habit. We tend to sit in the same seat, walk the same route, think in the same way until something motivates us to change. Sometimes motivators are forced upon us: someone takes our usual seat, an injury forces us to change routines, etc. But a valuable tool when dealing with each other – friends and family to co-workers, community members – and with our environment is to change our perspective on purpose.
How the word "pinhead" entered the Telluride lexicon is a matter of conjecture - but all roads lead to L.L. Nunn and his power plants. One version of the story suggests the term "pinhead" refers to the original geeks running around Telluride at the turn of the 20th century. It seems Nunn had developed a work-study program to get alternating current to run his mine, and the initiative was so successful, he bought more mines in Colorado and Utah, spreading his scholars around. Nunn kept track of the whereabouts of his minions by sticking pushpins into maps.
A geek tends to be odd, overly intellectual – in this country, anyone who prefers arugula to french fries – and generally prefers his computer to other human interests. (A nerd is simply a geek with more RAM and a faster modem.) Geeks tend to wear totemic Clark Kent glasses and are authentically unhip.
On Thursday, July 9, 6:30 p.m., Ah Haa School at the old Depot, 300 South Townsend, the Pinhead Institute, a Smithsonian affiliate institute is hosting its fourth annual Geek Fest: Get Your Green On. The event includes dining, drinks and dancing to DJ Ryan Smith and a silent auction.
