If you’re a fan of the performing arts, especially dance and singing, this weekend is sure to be an exciting one up and down the valley.

While most music released right now is heavily produced, some bands have headed in a different direction. Enter City of the Sun, a three-member band that has taken simple instruments and created something spectacularly original.

“Where the Crawdads Sing” is a literary phenomenon. In the library consortium (libraries from Aspen to Grand Junction and beyond) catalog of which the Basalt Library is a member, we currently circulate 106 hardback copies of this title with 370 people on the waitlist. The 44 audiobook copies…

I once met a couple who was dining at the restaurant where I was pouring wine. When I finished the welcome and the order, and I had placed a glass of red wine in front of the woman, the man said that she had a trick, and implored me to ask her to show it to me. Turns out, she was in recovery…

Evan Zislis believes he has the weirdest job in the world.

You’ve probably heard of Family Game Night, but what about International Games Week?

Not quite ready for the bitter cold of winter that seems to have set in all too fast around the Roaring Fork Valley? Then warm your bones with the sounds of Policulture as the group make its return to the Belly Up Aspen stage on Wednesday. Policulture is dubbed "original mountain reggae," ha…

Somehow, Mother Nature has decided to chuck the rest of the fall season and plummet headfirst into winter conditions. In my attempt to understand where the subzero temps this week fit into the overall understanding of climate change and its effects, I came across terms like troughs, amplitud…

This week, match the sudden drop in temperatures, along with the sturdy gates on Independence Pass, with a couple of nice crisp Italian whites — if nothing else — to simply mirror the weather. But you can bet that they will be sure to heat up your winter-weather-like fall food-pairing plans.

Gretchen Bleiler, Jeff Gorsuch among five 2019 inductees

Ah, Halloween in Aspen.

“I feel like it’s costume night every night at a Lotus show,” says the band’s bassist, Jesse Miller. “People are always wearing something funny.”

This past week I had the pleasure and privilege of attending the presentation and reading of Lee T. Bycel’s beautiful and heart-rending “Refugees In America.” It was a poignant and edifying experience to say the least. Lee’s book tells the stories of 11 people, their stories chosen from hund…

October is a month of delight: We have the turning of the aspen leaves, and after, the dwindling of the crowds. Then there is the World Series, if you care, and lo, the start of the NBA season. Lots of hype there. Of course, the whole fête begins with my birthday, and all of the other sparkl…

On a wintery January morning, Jackson Lebsack woke up in a five-star hotel in Courchevel, France, boarded a helicopter and paraglided over the French Alps, then skied untracked snow — all before lunch.

Who doesn’t love a good ski movie?

Los Angeles-based electronic duo Phantoms makes its Belly Up Aspen debut this Saturday. Over the past five years, Phantoms have seen a steady rise through the ranks of dance music. Comprised of Kyle Kaplan and Vinnie Pergola, who both share long-running experiences in L.A.’s entertainment in…

They are the books written often by women with women protagonists. They are accessible thrillers and many, by some unknown publishing formula, have either “girl” or “woman” or “wife” in the title. They are popular and they are, for the most part, good reads.

This past week I have been tucked away at a retreat in central Florida. Among activities such as meditation in motion, darshan and epic full moon canoe trips — across a glassy lake guided by flocks, or “constructions” of sandhill cranes and sleepy alligators — I have been linking with a deep…

Aspen ‘on the cutting edge’

Summer is truly over now, isn’t it?

Ann Patchett’s latest novel, The Dutch House, had me at first glance. The cover art beckons with luxuriance, vibrancy, and a compelling red-coated girl.

"I was born and raised in Mississippi, so I grew up playing blues and that’s my foundation,” said Garland Burton of Garland & Friends, who has worked toward forming a band since he moved to Aspen in 2009.

This week I opened a pair of white wines from France’s Rhône Valley and a couple of Austrian red wines made from blaufränkisch grapes.

‘The man who put Aspen on the map’

Fall is the best. All of the Aspens up at the Maroon Bells are changing. I can finally wear my fall wardrobe, which is vastly superior to the shorts and polos I wear all summer. And of course, I get to pick a pumpkin and carve it.

One of the best tribute bands in the biz returns to the Belly Up Aspen this Friday. Dead Floyd stands as a high-energy, modern-meshing of two of the greatest American rock bands the world has ever known. Their passion for both bands has inspired Dead Floyd to recreate early favorites as well…

Bright whistling echoes of the end of summer’s spark. Cinnamon and pine cones hold those low beams of the sinking sun, with a promise of winter’s warmth, the comfort of a warm drink and a provocative, crackling fire.

Fifteen years ago next week, about 40 or so prominent skiers, snowboarders and filmmakers from all over gathered on the rooftop of the Mountain Chalet on a bright, beautiful and crisp fall afternoon.

When it comes to theater, sometimes bigger isn’t better. Sometimes all you need is two actors and some trees.

Rising Appalachia is a folk group that began, like most things worth pursuing, on accident. Sisters Leah and Chloe Smith grew up in Atlanta in a family that was interested in the arts. Their mother was a jazz pianist and their father was a folk sculptor and painter. Because Leah and Chloe ca…

“Just for today, I will adjust myself, and try not to manipulate the situation.”— Al Anon

This past week I took some much needed “R&R” in the form of a long camping trip. I threw my tent and chair under a stand of tall fir trees with just enough porous canopy to allow the last rays of summer’s golden sun to filter down and lift spirits high.

‘Enriching, educating, entertaining through cinema’

Next time you’re eating out, take a look at the plate your food comes on. Wouldn’t life be a little more exciting if the plate was, too?

When the famed Studio 54 closed its doors in early 1980 due to tax evasion and skimming more than 2.5 million dollars into the pockets of then-owners Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, it seemed as if the main artery of dance music culture had collapsed in one fell swoop.

With our gazes set towards the diminished sun, and with great speed the fall harvest season has spread over us, we say goodbye to the blissful days of high summer. No doubt that it runs pretty short around these parts. The delicata squash have barely begun to ripen, the tomatoes will not, an…

Demetri Martin has canceled his show tonight at the Wheeler Opera House due to illness, the venue announced on Tuesday afternoon.

After two decades, Martin still feels most comfortable on a live stage

This weekend, the Snowmass Wine Festival is continuing the early fall energy that last weekend’s festivities brought to the village. The event is a fundraiser for the Rotary of Snowmass Village and it brings, unsurprisingly, a whole lot of wine to the valley for two days of revelry.

After more than 55 years in the music industry, David Crosby is still actively touring and creating music. He’s put out three albums in the last four years, and the tour he is currently on will land him in Aspen at the Belly Up this Sunday, Sept. 15.

Dapper Dan is one cool-ass haberdasher. This memoir tells Dapper’s story from street hustler to becoming one of the top and most innovative clothing designers and manufacturers in the business. Dapper Dan was the go-to clothier in Harlem in the late ’90s, and after a rough period, has re-asc…

We’re getting down to the last few weekends of summer, but that doesn’t mean that wine events slow down. In fact, they are ramping up.