Ear to the ground

“I’m calling this week my hay days.”

– A DHS teacher discussing the senior prank where 30 stray hay bales shut down the school for the week

Ralph’s place

(Editors’ note: We sincerely apologize for back-to-back weeks of Lauren family coverage and solemnly swear that theTelegraph is not receiving pastel-colored clothing kickbacks.)

Oprah Winfrey has gone where few to no Southwest Coloradans have gone before – behind the gate of the Double RL Ranch. Winfrey recently sat down with fashion icon Ralph Lauren at his fabled ranch near Ridgway. Lauren’s first interview in 20 years and the public’s first glimpse into his Rocky Mountain retreat aired on “Oprah” May 18.

Most Durangoans have driven past the Double RL’s miles upon miles of fencline between Ridgway and Dallas Divide. The 16,000-acre (yes, 16,000) ranch sits beneath one of Colorado’s most iconic skylines, but few people outside the Polo inner circle have ever been inside.

Oprah’s visit marked the first time camera crews were allowed inside the ranch and she sat down for a little fireside chat with the 71-year-old fashion magnate.

“He’s defined American style for more than 40 years,” reads a statement on Oprah.com. “For the first time, designer Ralph Lauren allows cameras inside for a look at his family’s Rocky Mountain retreat.”

The hour-long show captured Ralph taking a tour of his giant spread in a 1948 Jeep, and Oprah went into Lauren’s “prized collection of teepees,” each of which contains antiques he and his wife Ricky have bought over the years.

And even though the ranch is located dozens of miles from Telluride, Oprah.com is confident that the program will be “sure to make television viewers feel as though they have stepped inside a Ralph Lauren advertisement with the breathtaking views of the mountains of Telluride as the backdrop.”

sNew Mexican Kung Fu

When “Kung Fu Panda 2” hits the screens next week, audiences will surely miss an important backdrop in the Dreamworks Animation blockbuster. Much of the film, which follows the antics of the Dragon Warrior Po in his new “life of awesomeness,” was produced in Albuquerque.

In spite of the fact that film incentives are on the wane in New Mexico, “Kung Fu Panda 2” is the Land of Enchantment’s latest contribution to the silver screen. The Albuquerque-based company CereLink did much of the heavy lifting in animating the CGI film.  

“As it turns out, part of the movie was actually made here in New Mexico in collaboration with a company called CereLink who Dreamworks Animation does cloud computing with,” Kate Swanborg, of Dreamworks, told KOAT Channel 7.