Uncategorized: Art & Culture Junction Music & Dance Music Festival Shopping Texas Texclipse
by maribeth
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Texclipse: A Music Festival with a Telluride Connection
Have you made plans for April 8 yet? You know, that’s the much talked about, much anticipated day when a big swath of the United States from Texas to Maine will experience a total solar eclipse. A once-in-a-lifetime event for many people, if you find yourself in the right place, you can experience over three minutes of darkness in the broad daylight. Huh?
Yes, it’s a super cool happening and a good reason to create even more of an event around it. That’s exactly what fellow Telluride ski instructor, Macy Brooks, has done with her planning of the Texclipse Music Festival. Macy did a dry run with this event back in October during the solar eclipse, so this gal has the days of April 6, 7 & 8 cued up for lots of fun and excitement.
Originally from Junction, Texas, the town where Texclipse is taking place, and experienced at organizing all kinds of events, including motorcycle rallies, Macy found it fitting to create added animation around this unique occasion in her hometown. Situated within the renowned Texas Hill Country, just over a hundred miles from San Antonio and a bit more from Austin, Junction is pegged to be one of the best places in the country to fully experience the eclipse. And, of course, the chances of having a clear, sunny day are far greater in Texas than in Maine. Translation: the extended weather outlook for the eclipse is terrific.
Macy has put together a lineup that showcases some of the best of Texas. In terms of music, there will be country, red dirt, rock and a bit of blues. Sunny Sweeney and Grammy-award winning Rick Trevino will be headlining along with a roundup of other top musicians. Since this is Texas, there will also be a chili cook-off, team roping, lots of Texas food and merch vendors as well as a Texas wine tasting. The Hill Country rates tops for the latter, so Macy has aligned herself with a top local vineyard that has produced a robust red with a sizzling label for the eclipse.
The art and science component of the festival promises to be stellar as well. There will be several family friendly presentations by Dr. Sky, the renowned National Space & Science Educator.
And to top it all off, Macy has put together Elope at the Eclipse where you and a handful of other couples can be married by an ordained minister during the actual total eclipse. What a way to create some magic between you and your beloved. I hear Bonnie Tyler singing “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in the background. Dang, those Texans know how to do it up right.
Art & Culture Colorado Telluride Telluride Festivals: Art & Culture Colorado Telluride Telluride Festivals
by maribeth
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My Telluride Film Festival 2014
Telluride: A Beautiful Spot for a Film Festival
I’m exhausted today. It’s Friday and the end of a busy week, so I have good reason. I think most of my fatigue, however, is emotional. I’m coming off of the Telluride Film Festival (TFF) and I feel like every fiber of my being absorbed the many intense emotions I experienced while watching movies that dealt with everything from a mother’s bizarre relationship with her deeply troubled son (“Mommy“) to a journalist’s capture and brutal confinement in Iran (Jon Stewart’s “Rosewater”) to the devastating effects of the housing bust in America (“99 Homes“).
But a film is worth nothing unless it deeply moves you, right? And moved you will always be at the Telluride Film Festival, many times over in fact.
Arizona Art & Culture Music & Dance: Arizona Art & Culture Museums Music & Dance
by maribeth
Comments Off on Making Memories at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix
Making Memories at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix
Inside the Musical Instrument Museum
It has been almost a week that I returned from a wonderful nine-day trip with my mother to the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Carefree, Arizona area. We visited many fine establishments, so expect to see posts on this glorious, sun-drenched part of the United States in the upcoming months.
We shared such a special mother/daughter time that I’ve, of course, been missing her. Thankfully I have many photos, mementos and music to remind me of the times we had together. Yes, some fabulous music that I discovered has taken me right back there with mom.
Are you familiar with French gypsy music? I’m talking about swinging gypsy jazz, moody boleros and tangos à la Django Reinhart. It’s the music of Paris from 1910 through the mid 1920s. You hear it and you imagine a smoky nightclub scene in the City of Light as you tap your foot and swing to the zippy beat. We heard this music performed by Zazu, a local French orchestra of Phoenix, during the Bastille Day celebration concert at the Musical Instrument Museum. Quelle découverte! Experiencing this music and this stunning museum was one of the highlights of our trip.
Art & Culture DC Hotels & Lodging Travel: Annapolis Art & Culture DC Hotels & Lodging Travel
by maribeth
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A Patchwork Quilt of Memories from Annapolis
The Perfect Launching Area for Kayaking at Meadow Gardens B & B
An Heirloom in the Making
Hot weather, boating, men and women in uniform, our nation’s capital, Americana, quilts, the sound of the water, seafood, red, white and blue, family and friends gathering, centuries worth of history—-these thoughts and more flood my mind during this sunny holiday period. I won’t be celebrating July 4th much this year, since I’ve decided to take advantage of the quiet time and catch up at my desk. But I am very much in the Fourth of July spirit and am nurturing memories of these bright, summertime moments even more.
Country Breakfast
Some of the best were experienced about the same time last year in Annapolis, Maryland. I visited this charming Mid-Atlantic town with my boyfriend and his family after his brother’s wedding in Virginia. Annapolis smacks of the sea and we enjoyed many aspects of it from savoring fresh seafood, to taking a sail on the Chesapeake Bay, to peering out into one of the many water inlets that typify this long-established seaport, home to the United States Naval Academy since 1845. We stayed in a charming bed and breakfast, one of countless in Annapolis that define the character of this old, historic town as much as their brick buildings and cobbled streets.
Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging New Mexico Restaurants Shopping Spas The Southwest: Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging New Mexico Restaurants Santa Fe Shopping Spas The Southwest
by maribeth
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Two Brief Stays in Santa Fe
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assis in Santa Fe, New Mexico
My boyfriend, Steve, and I have managed to visit Santa Fe, New Mexico—an almost six-hour drive from Telluride, Colorado—twice within the past year and a half and we’re already plotting our next trip. (That one will surely include exploring the ski mountain.) Each trip was short—only two nights a piece—and we didn’t even step foot in one of Santa Fe’s amazing museums, but still, we felt far from cheated. For us, it has been enough to just chill and breathe in the heartwarming, southwestern ambiance for which this town is known. Just like going to Paris and whiling away time in a corner café instead of scouring the Louvre, in Santa Fe during both stays we just strolled around and admired the beauty of this magnificent city, the oldest incorporated state capital within the United States.
Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging New Mexico Restaurants Shopping The Southwest Travel: Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging New Mexico Restaurants Shopping The Southwest Travel
by maribeth
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For Off-Season and Year-Round Enchantment: Taos, New Mexico
Contemplating Nature’s Beauty at Hacienda del Sol in Taos, New Mexico
Ahhh-hhh, off-season. Anyone that has lived in a resort town knows the true meaning of off-season. Whether it occurs in the winter or summer, spring or fall, this lull in peak travel times provides a much-needed respite from the busy-ness of high season. In Telluride, Colorado it means tons of available parking spaces, no lines at the Post Office or grocery store and a certain quietude akin to a ghost town, something that delights some and bores the heck out of others.
Most don’t mind this downturn of activity, since many take advantage of our seasonal slowdown (during the spring and fall) to go off and seek fun for themselves elsewhere. Since the mountain closed two weeks ago, we’re in the throws of off-season now, also referred to as shoulder season and in the case of the spring off-season, mud season.
Many people take off for exotic locales for as many as six weeks travel; others find their bliss within a two- to six-hour drive from our southwestern Colorado mountain town. Indeed, we’re located just a few hours away from some of the best recreation around in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, all sunny and warm destinations this time of year where spring arrives with the intensity of the desert sun.
Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging Telluride Festivals The Southwest Utah: Art & Culture Hotels & Lodging Telluride Festivals The Southwest Utah
by maribeth
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Telluride, Monument Valley and the Oscars
In Living Color: Monument Valley
How about those Oscars? Wasn’t it a great show? I was thrilled that I had seen most of the films nominated for an award here in our little mountain town of Telluride, Colorado way back in September. Yes, just as in recent years, many of the movies that gained high acclaim from the Academy of Motion Pictures were shown here in T-ride—either as premiers or sneak peeks—during the Telluride Film Festival (TFF) long before they were officially released. Telluride’s selection of films seems to be filled with Oscar contenders more so than the lineups presented at other renowned film festivals in New York, Venice and Toronto.
Much of the Oscar buzz takes place before and after this annual awards show. I was thrilled to tune into CBS Sunday Morning, one of my all-time favorite TV shows, to see Monument Valley: Mother Nature’s scene stealing movie star, last Sunday. It was a wonderful segment that featured the extraordinary sense of place of this iconic site and the many Oscar-worthy movies filmed there including “The Searchers,” “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” “Back to the Future,” “Forrest Gump” and many more. This majestic landscape has appeared in dozens of films as well as countless commercials. Almost a half a million visitors go to Monument Valley every year, largely because of the prominence it has enjoyed in the movies. Thanks to Harry Gouding and his wife, Leone (known as Mike), film director John Ford discovered Monument Valley and its perfect setting for great western movies and feature films. This was highlighted in the CBS piece although Goulding’s Lodge and its terrific Trading Post Museum, which also showcases the history of movie-making in the area, were scarcely mentioned.
Art & Culture Colorado Denver French Life Shopping: Art & Culture Colorado Denver French Life Shopping
by maribeth
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Passport to Paris at the Denver Art Museum
The Beach at Trouville by Claude Monet
THIS JUST IN as of February 5: The Nature as Muse: Impressionist Landscapes from the Frederic C. Hamilton Collection of DAM has been extended through March 24.
Allez vite, vite, vite! Go fast! Only about ten days remain for you to see the magnificent Passport to Paris exhibition at the Denver Art Museum (DAM). I went earlier in the month and it felt like I was transported to Paree for an hour and a half of sheer delight. Truly my heart sang as I wended my way through the suite of three exhibitions that make up this show, a smartly-chosen trifecta that focuses on French art from the late 1600s to the early 1900s. From the grand works executed during the reign of Louis XIV through the more well known paintings of Poussin, Boucher, Pissarro, Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh and other greats, here French culture and society are revealed to the visitor in one of the most effective manners I’ve ever seen. As you saunter through the galleries that make up this show, it’s easy to understand how Paris became the center of culture and the tastemaker for all of Europe.
