Bluegrass

Where can you listen to live music, surrounded by beautiful mountains, look up at the sky and see paragliders drifting down? On a Saturday evening surrounded by hundreds of my new best friends, I saw two paragliders swinging down from nearby mountains as Elvis Costello sang. I couldn't help but wonder if the paragliders were close enough to be serenaded by Elvis as they peacefully sway down.
The Telluride Bluegrass Festival was a big success. The weather held out for excellent camping, Elvis Costello was great, as were the Lovell Sisters (pictured) and David Byrne. After all of the campers packed up and the musicians were well on their way to the next gig, it was time for the town of Telluride to breathe for a few days, suffer through a little rain, and get ready for the wine festival.


The Wine Festival is this weekend; tickets are still available and the festival has grown in popularity the past few years with the wine makers of Napa Valley. With Citizen Cope concert tickets starting at just $28 per person and Sunday Brunch tickets available for $55 per person, the Wine Festival is an affordable way to experience Telluride with a wine glass in hand.

Telluirde Bluegrass

The weather seems to be holding out for all of the campers and festival-goers in town. Last night David Byrne put on a great show that put everyone in the mood for a great weekend ahead. Tonight, Bela Fleck will play at 6:15, followed by Elvis Costello at 8, and Railroad Earth at 10. It should be a spectacular day of music for all ages to enjoy.

If you're sad that you haven't made your plans to come to Bluegrass and you are feeling up for a road trip, single day tickets and hotel rooms are still available, so come to Telluride this weekend for some amazing music and beautiful scenery.

Of course, some people come to Telluride because it is a beautiful, quiet and peaceful mountain town. If this is the vacation you're after, take advantage of our Tuesdays free special this week!

I've got a Friday pass, so I'll be sure to tell all about my Bluegrass experience tomorrow.

May in Telluride

This week the town of Telluride is enjoying a little more down time before Summer fully begins. Locals are spending time rafting, fishing, horseback riding, and doing a lot of things people come here to do during a summer vacation. School isn't out quite yet- just one more week before graduation, but that hasn't stopped most of the kids of Telluride from wearing summer attire of flip flops, shorts, and tank tops. When the weather is in the mid to high 60's in the middle of the day, it is perfect for sundresses and short sleeves. You might be thinking that anything below 75 degrees is a little too cold for a sundress, but temperatures in the Rocky Mountains work differently. It must be something about being close to the sun, the mountain air, and stunning views. All I know is that 65 here feels perfect. If you do live in a place with overbearing summer heat and you're already staring to dread the humidity that comes with it, a great cure is a trip to Telluride. With rates starting at $79 a night for this week, it's a great time to be in the mountains. For those of you interested in planning ahead, June 5-8 is the Telluride Jazz Festival and the Telluride Balloon Festival. My favorite part of the Balloon festival is the balloon glow on main street. All of the hot air balloon participants line up on main street and dusk they put on quite a show. This year's line up for Jazz Festival isn't bad either and includes the Rebirth Brass Band from New Orleans, Bill Frisell, and Christian Scott.

Mountain Film Continued

The best thing about Mountain Film is that it is a film festival about real things and if you attend the festival, you have the opportunity to meet people involved in a wide range of issues. Many years ago I attended the London Film Festival. I had a blast and saw a lot of movies, a few stars, and while one film I saw was based on the truths of human trafficing, it was still a fictional film about fictional characters living fictional lives. That's what's so great about the movies- you have a chance to escape. Mountain Film offers you an opportunity to do more than just escape, it gives you the chance to travel to places you never thought possible. Today I saw Samsara. It is an amazing film about the journey of three climbers attempting to climb the impossible Meru- a peak in Inda's Vindhya Mountain range. The unique thing about Samsara is that it literally takes you to where no video camera and only a handful of people have ever been before. It was filmed by one of the climbers, Renan Ozturk, and he as well as his other partners in this climb, Conrad Anker and Jimmy Chin are at the festival happy to answer questions and mingle with a probably less adventurous crowd. The opportunity to meet people who are passionate about important issues, activists in these issues, and capture them on film. In the case of Samsara, the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride gives festival goers the opportunity to meet world class climbers. If you still don't have any plans for memorial day weekend, come to the Telluride Mountain Film Festival.

Memorial Day Weekend in Telluride

If you are facing a long weekend and don't know what to do, consider coming to Telluride. There is no more snow and our spring colors are out (Spring in the Mountains starts in May, not March). If you are worried about the weather ruining a hiking trip, then just plan to duck into a movie. The Telluride Mountain Film Festival is this weekend. Movies start Friday night and continue through Monday morning. This festival has always had a focus on independent films about Mountain Life around the world and Telluride is the perfect setting for this Festival. After spending significant time browsing through the festival guide, I have a long list of movies that I would like to see and I'm sure I won't have enough time to see them all. There is a series of six films on the National Parks of the US by Ken Burns entitled, "National Parks: America's Best Idea". The series follows the story of the National Parks from conception through 1980 and promises to offer a story with amazing footage and a new perspective on our National Park system. I also hope to get a chance "Burma VJ"; it looks absolutely fascinating. It is a film that follows the uprising of Buddhist monks and students as they joined together against the oppression of their own government. The country of Burma has been closed since 1962, but footage of the uprising in 2007 was smuggled out of Burma and shared with the world. On the lighter side, "Rock Prophecies" is a film following the photographer Robert Knight; he has a knack for finding rock legends pre-stardom. Mountain Film tickets are still available from their website at http://www.mountainfilm.org/

Sunshine Shining in Telluride

Or at least it will soon. The snow is slowly going away and you can see the dirt on the "sunny side" of the hill peeping through our slowly melting snowpack. We've had several snowstorms that have dumped a few inches on us after the ski area closed April 12th, but now it looks like the winter storms have passed and there only be light snow flurries before summer comes.

We've had some changes in our offices at Telluride Alpine Lodging- we aquired Resortquest Telluride and with most of their properties, we have also recieved some of their employees- Shaunda in Sales and Sara in Owner Services. This off season, we'll be working on updating our websites and getting all of our sales agents familiar with all of our properties.

Someone asked me a very interesting question- what is there to do in Telluride during the off season? This will be a great time to explore some of those options. The Wilkinson Public Library is a nice place to visit, for kids to get out of the sun, to have free access to the internet, catch up on your daily news, and attend a weekly program. Tonight at 6pm the library will host a program called, "Beyond Shamanic Visions". This program will explore the similarities between ceremonial activities in Northern Indians and Native American sites. April 29th the Library will host a program, "Where You End and I Begin" and on the 30th, "Just the Facts: Obama's first 100 days".

The Nugget Theatre on Main Street is also still open- this week they will be showing, "The Wrestler" in a one night showing April 23rd courtesy of Telluride Film Festival. Tonight and tomorrow they will be showing "I Love You, Man", this weekend "Coriline" and next week as well as this weekend- "Fast and the Furious"

If you're planning a night out on the town, you'll also want to plan dinner. Brown Dog is open for business- pizza, burger, beer, and hot wings among other dishes will make your night out perfect.

More off season ideas to come, but for now, just enjoy a break and the ability to walk down mainstreet without getting in the way of someone trying to take a picture of Ajax.

Henry V in Telluride

Thursday night I had the pleasure of attending Henry V presented by the Guthrie Theatre. They put on a great play at the Palm Theatre that was a complete un-edited version of this Shakespearean classic. I have to admit that I was a little surprised at how exactly un-edited the version was; with minimal props, a minimal set, and simple costumes all of the spectacle of the play relied on the performance of its actors. One of the great things about the Palm's relationship with the Telluride School District is that some of the actors were able to put on a workshop for some students at the school. Being a strong advacote of both theatre and youth education in professions outside of the norm, I am very glad to know that kids here have the opportunity to exposed to young professional actors. Upcoming events at the Palm include the Ballet Folkorico Quetzalli de Vera Cruz featuring "traditional Vera Cruz, Mexico dance, costuming, and music" and another MET at the Palm production- La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker); an Italian Opera Composed by Bellini and brought to Telluride in the form of an HD brodcast.