Aspen Highlands rocks at closing day party

robin smith | Sun., April 12 @ 11:11 pm

The annual end-of-season party at Aspen Highlands on Sunday, April 12, was graced with an afternoon of sun, warmth and eye-popping costumes as dueling DJs blasted flames over the dancing, selfie-taking crowd on the base area plaza. Both the Alehouse and the Willow Creek Bistro featured outdoor music ...

Cantante famoso Latino, Chayanne, le gusta esquiar en Aspen/Snowmass

por Robin Smith, traduccion por Catalina Cruz y Marcela Marnett | Sat., April 4 @ 5:53 pm

Chayanne, el famoso cantante Puertoriqueño, disfrutó la semana pasada unas lindas vacaciones de esquí con su familia en Snowmass. A pesar de ser asaltado por latinoamericanos en varias ocasiones, en donde le pedían autógrafos constantemente, Chayanne se dejó ...

Screenwriter Alan Trustman reviews 2015 best picture nominees

2BY Alan Trustman, intro by Robin Smith | Mon., February 9 @ 6:39 pm

Prior to last year's Academy Awards, screenwriter Alan Trustman, lifelong skier and perennial Aspen guest, gave ABJ readers a rare look at his Hollywood career, the making of films and how he judges a successful ending. This week, he gives us access to his take on the eight movies that are in the running ...

A week for personal photography at Anderson Ranch

1Robin Smith | September 3, 2014 @ 4:45 pm

Snowmass Village - Last week, ten of us, photographers all, hunkered down in front of monitors for five days straight at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, focused on mastering the software program Lightroom under the guidance of superstar educator/photographer Jan Kabili. We voluntarily trapped ...

JAS Aspen/Snowmass experience set for another big weekend of music in Snowmass Village

4Tripp Devers | August 29, 2014 @ 5:20 pm

Snowmass Village is set to host another weekend of sunshine and music for the JAS Aspen/Snowmass experience in the Snowmass Town Park. The weekend always draws enormous crowds from around the valley and around the state for one of the premier music events of the year in Colorado and with a perfect ...

Photographer Karim Iliya goes deep for underwater dreamscapes

4Robin Smith | July 4, 2014 @ 2:13 am

Roving photographer Karim Iliya had stopped off earlier in Boulder to photograph a CU student /professional windsurfer, but is back on Maui to focus on a favorite environment - shooting underwater at big surf breaks, up close and personal. Mountain iJournals caught up with him to ...

Aspen Food & Wine 2014 — a smorgasbord of tastes

3John Colson | June 21, 2014 @ 11:32 am

A panel of bartenders and entrepreneurs, at a seminar titled “Shake It Up — Using the Bar to Drive Business,” told a gathering of attendees at the 2014 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen Friday that the bar is an increasingly critical component of attracting and retaining customers ...

Jerome bartender shares his passion for flavors

1Robin Smith | June 20, 2014 @ 1:06 pm

J-Bar bartender Mattias Horseman can barely contain his enthusiasm for his work and for Aspen as he passes me a tumbler of his special Bloody Mary mixture. “Try this,” he recommends. “Coming from England, we pride ourselves on making our Bloody Marys the right ...

Vocalist Jarrod Lee opens Snowmass Rodeo with national anthem

6Robin Smith | June 19, 2014 @ 10:23 pm

Jarrod Lee, a returning opera student in the Aspen Music Festival and School, was the featured singer of the national anthem for the Snowmass Rodeo competitors and audience on Wednesday evening, June 19 in Snowmass Village - a special treat for all, as his voice effortlessly soared through the challenging ...

Summit County booms with summer music festivals

2Kimberly Nicoletti | June 12, 2014 @ 9:42 am

Summit County brims with music festivals — most of them free — from June 12 through Labor Day weekend. Each town and resort has its particular take on the tunes, so pick your favorite genre and head up to the High Country. Breckenridge If you’re into classical and orchestral ...

Vail Valley fills its summer with music festivals

Kimberly Nicoletti | June 12, 2014 @ 9:02 am

From classical music to rocking, outdoor sonic rallies, Vail and Beaver Creek offer plenty of concerts, both paid and free, to keep the acoustics rollin’ through the hilltops. Free Tuesday night music in Vail Hot Summer Nights offers a variety of bands, from rock and country to bluegrass and funk, ...

"Blood moon" awes Colorado stargazers during total lunar eclipse

8Robin Smith | April 15, 2014 @ 1:05 pm

The total lunar eclipse of April 15 was the undisputed star of Colorado's night sky in the wee hours, as the full moon turned a coppery red color during its passage through the darkest section of Earth's shadow. The so-called "blood moon" was supposed to be visible from most of North and South ...

Author Maria Semple charms audience at Winter Words event

3Robin Smith | April 1, 2014 @ 9:36 pm

The last Winter Words presentation of the season was a warm, laughter-filled evening of cozy repartee between two of Aspen’s own – billed as an interview of featured writer Maria Semple, to be conducted by her brother Lo. It quickly turned into “The Maria and Lo Show” of lighthearted ...

You say you're in the movies? NOT!

9Alan Trustman (as related to Robin Smith) | March 2, 2014 @ 12:02 am

As the most brilliant, dishonest liar I ever met in the movie business once explained it to me, of every ten people who say they are in the movie business, nine are not. They are in the movie development business. Most of them have never been associated in any meaningful way with a successful movie ...

The five kinds of successful movie endings

13Alan Trustman (as related to Robin Smith) | February 28, 2014 @ 1:34 am

The end is the beginning - or at least, it should be, for the makers of movies. A movie's ending, the last emotional beat the audience takes out of the theater, is the key to good word-of-mouth -- and good word-of-mouth, more than reviews, more than newspaper advertising, and even more than the Oscars ...