Personalities

[click "Play" to listen to Peter Decker's conversaton with Susan]

 

Savingthewest Saturday, November 27, 6 – 8 p.m, Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library and Between the Covers bookstore co-host a triple header: authors Peter Decker, Corinne Platt, and SarahLee Lawrence, each with a unique spin on the American West. The readings take place in the Program Room of the Library, followed by a meet-and-greet book signing.

In the comedy hit "City Slickers" about cowboys and mid-life crises, three disillusioned suits decide to participate in a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado in order to "find themselves." All's well that ends well: the guys go home. What happens if they had chosen to stay is more or less Decker's tale of woe –  or whoa.

In "Saving the West," Decker revisits the theme of his non-fiction biography of Ouray County, "Old Fences, New Neighbors": the cultural clash between the all-hat-no-cattle urban ranchers and old-time "dirt-bags." (So named by the interlopers.)

Unknown This post is deeply personal: The award-winnning contemporary painter Riva Sweetrocket is Telluride Inside... and Out's dearly beloved Denver neighbor. She is also an artist in the stable of the Plus+ Gallery, the Mile High City's outpost (at 2501 Larimer) for uncommonly talented artists with something to say, though they usually don't say it in common vernacular. Riva is currently the featured artist at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

A retrospective of Riva Sweetrocket's bold and beguiling pastels, "Riva Sweetrocket: Extra Ordinary," is  on display at Gates Garden Court Gallery through January 23, 2011, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Awareness into Action: Galamsey     Telluride locals David Byars and Jenny Jacobi left last year's Mountainfilm with the same inspiration and desire to do good that many take away from Telluride's film and philanthropy festival. Not wanting to lose this feeling, they began a serious...

[click "Play" for Todd Murray's conversation with Susan]

 

Unknown The Telluride AIDS Benefit has focused on prevention education and outreach since its inception in 1993. The next chapter in TAB's playbook occurs Friday, November 19, when TAB hosts Hope's Voice, a special program, exclusive to the student body of the Telluride Middle School/High School.

The talk, "Does HIV Look Like Me," features Hope's Voice spokespeople Todd Murray and Christina Rock, two young adults living with HIV/AIDS. Specifically the duo plan to discuss the realities of living, not dying, with an uninvited and persistent "companion."

by Lisa Barlow

ShopsinsL93 (2) One of the things I love most about living over the F train in Brooklyn is that I am never hungry for very long. All I have to do is think about lunch and in the space of 15 minutes, I might have traveled from my quiet kitchen to the cacophonous din of the Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side where I will be sitting at the counter at Shopsins eating the best chicken soup of my life.

Kenny Shopsin is legendary in New York. With his big girth and wild look, he is half culinary wizard and half troll under the bridge. For years he bellicosely presided over a storefront on Bedford Street in Greenwich Village that simply said “GROCERY” over the door, but everyone referred to as Kenny’s or Shopsins.

In my twenties, eating lunch at Shopsins became something of a regular occurrence. The restaurant was originally a real grocery store, but it had morphed one day into a grocery store that served food. There were a few tables next to the shelves of canned goods, a window booth, stools along the counter and an upright piano where it wasn’t uncommon to see one of the Shopsins' 5 kids or a customer banging at the keys. Kenny was behind the counter tossing ingredients into pans and onto plates. His wife, Eve, was alternately bussing dishes and hoisting a baby onto her hip as she served a burger. There would also be a fair amount of yelling, which was fine unless it was directed at you. And if there wasn’t yelling, there was bound to be something else to shock.

[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with John Jacobs]

 

 

JJacob Telluride Inside... and Out has some sound advice to offer.

Thursday, November 11, 6 p.m., Telluride's five-star Wilkinson Public Library hosts Grammy-nominated producer, engineer, arranger John Jacobs to lead Engineering Live Sound 101. His workshop explores how to set-up and get the most out of a PA system. Find out what EQ is and how to dial it in to your system and what equipment you might need for whatever sound reinforcement you are doing. Jacobs also talks about how to get better sound while you are operating cameras or doing live broadcast work.

Former Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler made the following comment about Jacobs' production of Maria Muldaur's Richland Woman, describing the project as "the best blues album of the century." (Billboard, 2002.)  Jacobs' folk, blues, and jazz projects have included work with Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Dan Hicks, Dave Brubeck, Joe Craven, and John Sebastian. A physics-turned-UCLA music major and a working musician for 20 years, Jacobs has built a reputation for melding production and advanced recording technology with the artistry of a musician.

IMGP2160 Telluride Inside... and Out headed out of town at 4:30 a.m., the dark time when Rethymnon turns its streets over to cats stalking scraps from bags of garbage put out for collection, and a few stragglers, mostly guy gangs, done stalking women, ready to turn in just ahead of their alarm clocks.

Clint and I made our way quickly through the narrow, winding path leading to the car park, grateful, in the absence of string, that we had rehearsed the route, reminding ourselves what our guide Joanna Kalypso Glyptis, had told us about what the town planners had in mind. Rethymnon's  variation on the theme of labyrinth was intentional, designed so that its denizens with local knowledge could easily elude invaders or pirates in hot pursuit.

Joanna feels most guidebooks and guides talk the party line, not the facts. For example, Knossos was never a palace. Palaces have kitchens. No places to prepare meals were ever found on the site. The dolphins in the queen's room, the ones our guide told us signified music and harmony? The illustrious Welshman Arthur Evans who excavated the place did some redecorating. The dolphins were transplants from another location. Heresy?

IMGP2073 Telluride Inside... and Out's travels are as much about the people we meet as the places we see. And among the most interesting of the interesting we've encountered so far on our Greek adventure is Nikos Stavroulakis.

Jenny, the concierge at our hotel, Casa Delfino – fabulous, but more on that later – suggested Etz-Hayyim Synagogue and the old Jewish quarter as interesting stops on our tour of Chania's Old Town. She also mentioned that since her husband Alex worked at Etz Hayyim, perhaps he could arrange a meeting with the man responsible for Phoenix-like resurrection of the former house of worship. The interview with Nikos was scheduled for 5 p.m. yesterday.