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Friday, August 29, 2008

Plans for the weekend: Labor Day freedom

- The Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog Championship & Country Festival, a four-day tournament of working canines, runs today through Monday at Soldier Hollow, west of Heber City off U.S. 40 in Wasatch County. Tickets - $12 for the prelims, $15 for Monday's finals, with discounts for kids and seniors, and family passes and multi-day passes available - are available online.

- Toronto-based alt-rock band The Coast plays tonight at Kilby Court, 741 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City. Opening acts are Blue Sunshine Soul, Shadow Moses and Neon Trees. Show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at the door.

- The "Pioneer Park Picture Show" outdoor film series ends tonight at 9 at Pioneer Park, 300 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City, with the Brazilian coming-of-age drama "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation." Before the movie, there's a parade - led by a capoeira group - going from Tucanos Brazilian Grill at the Gateway (approximately 200 South and 400 West) to the park. This kicks off the Utah Brazilian Festival, set for 1-5 p.m. Saturday at the Gateway. The movie, the parade and Saturday's festival are all free.

- Australian didgeridoo player Xavier Rudd blows his big stick, Saturday at 8 p.m. at The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Griffin House opens the show. Tickets are $17 at SmithsTix. Must be 21 and older.

- X96's "Geek Show Podcast" is holding a "Healing of the Geek Nation," with a back-to-back screening of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and "Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back," Sunday at 5 p.m. at Brewvies Cinema Pub, 667 S. 200 West, Salt Lake City. Free, but you must be 21 or older because of that beer-like fluid that Brewvies sells.

- Bob Dylan and his band will be free-wheelin' at Deer Valley, Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are sold out, so good luck with the scalpers.

- Another classic act from the '60s, Three Dog Night, will be playing Monday at 8 p.m. at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre, 745 S. State St., Orem. Tickets are $15, or $10 for children, seniors and students, at www.scera.org.

Labels: weekend schedule

Utah's "Runway" guy run over

The blogs were not kind to Keith Bryce, the Salt Lake City fashion designer who got booted from Bravo's "Project Runway" this week.

This comment from the blog Nonsense Upon Stilts: "During the episode, I almost felt really really bad for him, what with the self doubt and the Utah and all, but then he started talking about how much more he wanted this than everybody else, and I remembered why I used to find him insufferable.

Karla Peterson, writing on the San Diego Union-Tribune's TV blog, summed up Bryce's departure thusly: "After blaming his boring ensemble on the model and last week's meanie judges who sapped his confidence, Keith packed his scissors and went back to Utah. But not after crying first. And I have to confess that the thought of a gay man going back to Utah made me sad, too. Maybe he could live in one of Rachel Zoe's gigantic purses."

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show

Nobody expects the Alaskan governor

Bad news for all those Utahns who still want to vote for Mitt Romney: Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain has chosen Alaskan governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate.

Not Michael Palin from "Monty Python's Flying Circus" (pictured at far right), but Sarah Palin from Alaska (pictured at near right).

The pundits are speculating on why McCain chose Palin. I can come up with two reasons: Courting the spurned Hillary Clinton vote, choosing somebody comparatively young, and going after her oil-company ties - three reasons.

Labels: John McCain, politics, Sarah Palin

One day at a time?

One gossip blog is floating the rumor that Mackenzie Phillips, teen star of the '70s sitcom "One Day at a Time," may be heading for Utah's Cirque Lodge rehab facility.

Phillips was arrested Wednesday at LAX, accused of carrying balloons of heroin and cocaine. She got out on bail Thursday.

If she goes to Cirque Lodge - a facility famed for such famous clientele as Lindsay Lohan, Eva Mendes and Kirsten Dunst - what will be waiting for her? The Chicago Tribune this week took a peek inside the facility to find out.

(Photo: Socialite Life)

Labels: Cirque Lodge, rehab

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Plans for tonight: Obama's night

- Young Democrats of Utah and the Salt Lake County Democrats are sponsoring a convention-watching party, to see Barack Obama deliver his nomination-acceptance speech from Denver. The party starts at 5 at Brewvies Cinema Pub, 667 S. 200 West, Salt Lake City. Admission is free if you participate in a Youth Vote Barackathon; get there after 6 and pay $5 to get in. Must be 21 or older to enter, since Brewvies serves that beer stuff.

- If you want to watch Obama and you have kids with you, there is also a convention-watching party from 6 to 10 at Canyon Rim Park, 3100 E. 3100 South, Salt Lake City.

- The Twilight Concert Series closes out its summer run with singer Neko Case and the band Crooked Fingers, starting at 7 at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. Free.

- Banjo master Danny Barnes of the Bad Livers performs, with opening act the Puddle Mountain Ramblers, starting at 9 at Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $8, at SmithsTix.

Labels: Barack Obama, politics, Tonight's schedule

Reality roundup: Bryce crashes

Salt Lake City designer Keith Bryce got the "auf Wiedersehen" on last night's episode of Bravo's "Project Runway" - and if you watched the episode, you could see the car crash coming.

The challenge was to make an outfit out of recycled parts from a Saturn Vue Hybrid (cha-ching - product placement!). Bryce turned leather car seats into a mini-skirt. The skirt came apart at the seams when his model sat down, and the cargo netting that held the top together was - to paraphrase Christian, last season's catchphrase-spouting winner - a hot transmission mess.

As he was making the dress (pictured at right), Bryce complained that it wasn't the style he liked - and that he made a tailored dress only to please the judges, who had ridiculed his fringe-dripping designs in previous episodes. (He had been in the Bottom 3 twice, though he won the "Lipstick Jungle" challenge two weeks ago.)

It didn't help that Bryce, in front of the judges, dissed his model for sitting down and complained that judge Michael Kors' criticisms were insulting. (There's more complaining, and some introspection, on Bryce's exit interview, here - which begins with "I feel like I'm leaving too soon.")

Also Wednesday, Salt Lake City's own Slippery Kittens Burlesque had their turn in the semi-final round of NBC's "America's Got Talent" - and their patriotic striptease, going from military-khaki dresses to star-spangled bras and panties (to the tune of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy"), didn't exactly win over the judges.

Judge Piers Morgan was the toughest, hitting the "X" buzzer (this show's version of "The Gong Show's" gong) and declaring that, "when you started taking the clothes off, I wanted you to put them back on." Ouch!

But the judges are not the decision-makers here - the viewing public is. Watch for yourself.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show, Slippery Kittens

Brazilian flavor

It's a fascinating confluence of celebration: An event that honors important people in Utah's movie industry, fetes Brazilian culture, and marks the sixth anniversary for the Salt Lake City Film Center.

The event - set for Friday at 6 p.m. at Tucanos Brazilian Grill in the Gateway - will pay tribute to influential people in Utah's film industry:

Leigh von der Esch, director of the Utah Office of Tourism and former head of the Utah Film Commission.
Don Schain, producer of the "High School Musical" films.
Jared and Jerusha Hess, filmmakers responsible for "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Nacho Libre."
Kris and Paul Liacolpoulas, founders of the Salt Lake Film Society.

The event will also kick off the Film Center's new collaboration with the Salt Lake Film Society (the nonprofit that runs the Broadway Centre Cinemas and the Tower Theatre). And it launches the two-day Brazilian Festival at the Gateway.

After the dinner, at 8:30 p.m. Friday, a capoeira group will lead a parade from Tucanos to Pioneer Park (300 S. 300 West), where an outdoor screening of the Brazilian drama "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation" - the final installment of this summer's "Pioneer Park Picture Show" series - starts at 9.

Tickets for the gala dinner are $100, with proceeds going to the Salt Lake City Film Center.

Click to a musical bargain

The Utah Symphony and Opera is putting its upcoming concerts on discount this week - via the Internet.

Here's the deal: Starting Friday through Sept. 7, go to UtahSymphonyOpera.org, put in the promo code "websale," choose tickets for three performances (there are 78 to choose from), and you get 20 percent off the ticket price.

For as little as $12 per ticket, you can get yourself a little culture. What's not to love?

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Plans for tonight: No Dave

- Remember, tonight's concert by the Dave Matthews Band at Usana Amphitheatre is postponed indefinitely, because of the death last week of sax player LeRoi Moore. Check back here for a new concert date.

- Tennessee-based rock band Shinedown (pictured) - whose lead singer, Brent Smith, has battled addiction to drugs and alcohol, as well as the departure of two band members - plays the last of the "Wednesday Rocks!" concerts at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. The show starts at 6 with opening acts Red and Jet Black Stare. Free.

- Showbread, a "post-hardcore/alternative band" from Georgia, plays the Avalon, 3605 S. State St, Salt Lake City. The show starts at 6:30, with opening acts Oceana, Kiros and Rosematter. Tickets are $10 at Ktix.

- Portland-based folkie Laura Gibson, with Utah's The Sweater Friends as the opening act, play at 7 at Kilby Court, 741 S. Kilby Court (330 West). Tickets are $7 at 24Tix.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

Kittens on TV tonight

Salt Lake's own Slippery Kittens Burlesque will make their big appearance tonight on NBC's "America's Got Talent."

The question is: Will they appear in the 7 o'clock hour, or will we have to wait until after Bill Clinton and Joe Biden do their thing at the Democratic National Convention to see the Kittens' family-friendly striptease sometime after 9 p.m.?

Checking in on the Utah delegation

Since the Olympics are over, and August otherwise is so bereft of news that New York magazine declared it "National Slow News Day Month," our only shared cultural event this week is the Democratic National Convention in Denver. (Next week, it will be the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn.)

If you're looking for some insight that's a little different than the saturation coverage on CNN and MSNBC, here are a few sites to check out:

For blow-by-blow details of what the Utah delegation is up to, check out the Utah Amicus blog. It's a great reminder that there actually are Democrats in Utah. (Here's hoping the Utah Highway Patrol will let them back into the state when they try to cross back over the Colorado state line.)
The Salt Lake Tribune's sister paper, The Denver Post, is covering the living hell out of the convention in their backyard. They're keeping an exceptionally good eye on the social scene and the celebrities in town (such as this roundup).
The funniest and freshest post-game analysis of the convention is the "DNC Vlog Except That We Hate The Word Vlog" on The Huffington Post. Two of the Post's bloggers, Rachel Sklar and Glynnis MacNicol, are rooming with Time.com writer (and Wonkette founder) Ana Marie Cox - and the three of them give from-the-hip, pre-morning-coffee takes on the previous night's action.

Labels: Barack Obama, politics

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Plans for tonight: Kings at Deer Valley

- The Gipsy Kings (pictured) perform in the Big Stars, Bright Nights concert series, starting at 7:30 at the Deer Valley Resort's Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater. Tickets range from $46 to $76, at www.parkcitytickets.com.

- Salt City Brass performs at 7:30 at the Brigham Young Historic Park, at State Street and 2nd Avenue, Salt Lake City. Free.

- Bonnie Raitt is performing for a second night, starting at 7 with Richard Julian as the opening act, at Red Butte Garden, 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City. The show sold out fast (which is why there was a show added for Monday night), but scalpers should be dangling from the trees.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

Stars shine in Denver

Hollywood is out in force in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. Some are there to support Barack Obama. Others are there to push causes and issues important to them. Some are there because they want exposure for themselves or their careers, and they can smell a camera lens from a thousand miles away.

The Huffington Post has photos of some of the celebs who hit Denver early (such as Anne Hathaway, at right, snapped at the Denver airport looking like she slept during the flight).

Meanwhile, The Los Angeles Times hooked up with Richard Schiff, formerly of TV's "The West Wing" and a longtime supporter of Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, now Barack Obama's vice-presidential pick.

In today's dead-tree Salt Lake Tribune, I devoted my Culture Vulture column to the phenomenon of celebrities latching onto politicians (and vice versa), and why some people - like Republicans - needlessly get worked up about it.

(Photo: The Huffington Post)

Labels: Barack Obama, politics

Monday, August 25, 2008

Plans for tonight: Rockin' in the free world

- Rock and blues legend Bonnie Raitt, whose first Red Butte Garden show (set for Tuesday) sold out so fast that she agreed to a second one as a benefit for national "get out the vote" efforts, plays with opening act Leo Kottke starting at 7 at Red Butte, 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $53 for members, $58 for the public and $35 for kids, at redbuttegarden.org.

- Like Raitt, Sheryl Crow is doing her part to get out the vote, by teaming up with Rock the Vote. Crow shares the bill with James Blunt and reggae legends Toots and the Maytals, starting at 7 at Usana Amphitheatre, 5400 S 6200 West, West Valley City. Tickets are $40, $46 and $61, at SmithsTix.

- Jazz bands - Salt City Saints, World Class Combo and Swingin' Jive - play the finale of the WorldStage Concert Series at 7 at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, 1355 W. 3100 South, West Valley City. Fireworks and a Mardi Gras "bead-fest" follow the show. Free.

- Groups demonstrating three different ethnic dance traditions - the Sura Chhandam Katak School of Dance performing northern India dances, the Salt Lake Russian Performing Group and the Dionysis Greek Dancers - will be on display at 7:30 at the Chase Home Museum at Liberty Park, 500 E. 1300 South, Salt Lake City. It's the final show for the Mondays in the Park series. Free.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

Kittens hit the big time

Warm up your TV for Tuesday and Wednesday night, when Salt Lake City's very own Slippery Kittens Burlesque takes to the nation's airwaves as a semi-finalist on NBC's "America's Got Talent."

In a clear violation of the "local media blackout" that exists solely in the conspiratorial mind of the City Weekly's Bill Frost, I profiled the Kittens in Sunday's The Mix section - along with onstage and backstage photos of these lovely ladies of burlesque by the Tribune's James Urquhart.

"From now on, it's up to America to love us and vote for us, and take us all the way," said the Kittens' founder, Lorrie Ann Dohoney - a k a Miss Lorrie Ann.

Good luck, ladies - you're carrying the hopes of all of Utah with you.

(Photo: NBC)

Labels: Reality show, Slippery Kittens

Protest artists deported from China

Eight American activists - including "laser graffiti" artist James Powderly and several protesters who held a lighted "Free Tibet" banner near the centerpiece "birds' nest" stadium of the Beijing Olympics - were put on a plane to Los Angeles late Sunday night.

According to this Los Angeles Times account, the eight were deported quietly during the Olympics' closing ceremonies after spending several days in detention. (There's a photo of Powderly's return on the web site of his arts group, Laser Graffiti Research. And Students for a Free Tibet, the group with whom Powderly and others collaborated, has updated information here.)

As I mentioned in this space Wednesday, Powderly (pictured) had planned to beam a laser pro-Tibet message onto a Beijing building. Soon after Powderly was detained, protesters holding the lighted banner (using L.E.D.'s developed by Laser Graffiti Research) were also arrested after getting their banner up for 20 seconds.

Laser Graffiti Research made the rounds of Park City during January's Sundance Film Festival, throwing up graffiti-like laser images on outer walls of the Eccles Center and other locations.

A death in Sundance's family

Gayle Stevens, a leader in Utah's arts community and the chairwoman of the Sundance Institute's Utah Advisory Board, died in a car crash Friday night. She was 60.

Stevens was driving north on Utah State Road 66, on the way home from a dinner party, when a deer ran in front of her car, according to this account in The Salt Lake Tribune. The car ran off the road and hit an embankment.

Stevens' husband, Peter, was driving his car behind hers. He attempted to revive her, but she was declared dead at the scene.

Gayle Stevens has been a volunteer for Sundance for 20 years, raising money and awareness for the arts organization. She also was active in other arts groups in Salt Lake City.

Jill Miller, the institute's managing director, praised Stevens: "Whether in her own home or leading a meeting as chair of the Sundance Institute Utah Advisory Board, Gayle had a personal style that was a combination of generosity, grace, femininity and perceptive intelligence. She never failed to bring her sense of fun and passion for the arts to all that she did within and for the community."

Labels: Sundance

Friday, August 22, 2008

Plans for the weekend: Ribs, rock, rage and rap

- The Bollywood adaptation of Jane Austen, "Bride & Prejudice," is this weekend's "Pioneer Park Picture Show," starting tonight at dusk (around 9 p.m.) at Pioneer Park, 300 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City. Free, and community booths open at 8 p.m.

- The Rock 'n' Ribs Festival takes over Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main, Salt Lake City, Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Crystal Shawanda (pictured) and the Hard Rockin' Johnsons are among the performers. Tickets are $5, or free for children 3 and under.

- Angry comedian Lewis Black dissects what's wrong with America in his "Let Them Eat Cake" tour, Saturday at 8 p.m. at Kingsbury Hall. Tickets are $47.50, $52.50 and $62.50, at SmithsTix.

- GG Elvis and the TCP Band, a comedic punk-rock tribute to the King, plays Saturday at 8 p.m. at Burt's Tiki Lounge, 726 S. State, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $10, at SmithsTix.

- Ice Cube - the furious rap artist who's also a star of family-friendly movies (such as "The Longshots," which opened this weekend) - performs Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Depot, 400 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $30, at SmithsTix.

Labels: weekend schedule

Keeping silent on his "Crush"

The rules of celebrity are simple: Celebrities should mate with other celebrities, thus ensuring the celebrity gene is passed down to the next generation.

That's what David Archuleta's friends are apparently working on.

"All my friends keep saying, 'You should try to hook up with Shawn Johnson,' " Utah's own "American Idol" runner-up told The Los Angeles Times on a quick interview from Tampa, where the "American Idols Live!" tour recently played.

But gold-medal-winning Olympic gymnasts aside, the singer - now riding the hit single "Crush" - was coy when asked who he has a crush on. "I’m just afraid to mention anything now," Archuleta said, adding that when one of his female friends attended him perform, she received a ton of hate male from fans. "They said, 'You’re not good enough for him, and you’re ugly.' You can see why people want to keep things to themselves."

Hey, a celebrity who wants to keep his private life private. Maybe this is a genetic trait we want to pass along.

Labels: American Idol, David Archuleta

"We lost a member of our family"

People in Bremerton, Wash., on the western shore of Puget Sound, are mourning the loss of a leading figure in the town's music scene.

Megan Roscoe, 25, was killed in a rollover crash Tuesday in Millard County, Utah.

Roscoe was riding in a truck driven by her boyfriend, Donnie Rivers - lead singer for the Bremerton band Y.I.A. - when it drifted into oncoming traffic on U.S. Highway 6 near Hinckley. Rivers overcorrected, the truck rolled and Roscoe was ejected. Utah Highway Patrol troopers say Roscoe was wearing a seat belt, but may have been wearing it incorrectly. (Here's the Tribune's brief account of the accident.)

According to the Kitsap Sun, the paper in Bremerton, Y.I.A. was finishing a tour of Utah, opening for the Tacoma punk band Red White and Die. They were scheduled to perform in Salt Lake City on Thursday.

Roscoe was a member of Artists for Freedom and Unity, a Bremerton music venue and art gallery that hosts concerts and supports local music.

"It feels like we lost a member of our family," Rose Smith, co-owner of Artists for Freedom and Unity, told the Kitsap Sun. A tribute concert is planned for tonight at the AFU Gallery in Bremerton.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Plans for tonight: If it ain't Broken...

- Canadian indie supergroup Broken Social Scene headlines tonight's Twilight Concert Series entry, starting at 7 at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main, Salt Lake City. The Big Sleep, a trio from New York, is the opening act. Free.

- Hip-hop MC and political activist Immortal Technique brings his "3rd World Tour" to In the Venue, 219 S. 600 West, Salt Lake City. Also on the bill: DJ GI Joe, Diabolic & The Circle. Show starts at 7. Tickets, at $17.50, available at SmithsTix.

- National Product, a California band, plays at 6 at Club Boom Va, 2701 S. Washington Blvd., Ogden. The opening act is 1997. Tickets are $10, at SmithsTix.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

Bryce survives again, barely

Boy, you'd think a gay man from Salt Lake City - where garish parade floats are a point of community pride every July 24 - would know how to dress a drag queen.

But no, Keith Bryce - owner of Salt Lake boutique Filthy Gorgeous - found himself in the bottom two on last night's edition of Bravo's "Project Runway," once again creating a dress that looked like it had gone through a paper shredder. (There it is at left, on his model, Sherry Vine.)

Bryce (who won the previous week's challenge) survived the cut though, as New Yorker Daniel Feld - he of the self-proclaimed impeccable taste, who never met a challenge he couldn't turn into a cocktail dress - got Heidi Klum's "auf Wiedersehen."

But Bryce's penchant for layering bits of hanging fabric had the judges shaking their heads (though guest judge RuPaul liked the dress). Even his rival designers were whispering, "Keith's doing swatches again." Dude better mix in a hemline, pronto, or he's outta here.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

"Laser graffiti" artist nabbed in Beijing

You may remember the work of Graffiti Research Lab, a group of free-speech tech geeks who brought their laser graffiti technology - projecting graffiti-like images with a light pen onto big buildings - to this year's Sundance Film Festival. (Here's some video of their handiwork in Park City.)

Now the founder of G.R.L., James Powderly (at left) of Brooklyn, was detained by Chinese officials in Beijing around 3 a.m. Tuesday morning (Beijing time), according to Students for a Free Tibet. He was about to employ a new piece of protest technology, a L.A.S.E.R. Stencil, to beam a pro-Tibet message onto a building somewhere in Beijing.

Soon after Powderly's detention, five American protesters with a lighted "Free Tibet" banner - using L.E.D.'s developed by Graffiti Research Lab - were detained at Beijing's Olympic Park. They got the banner unfurled for about 20 seconds before the authorities got them.

Labels: Olympics, politics

Plans for tonight: Suddenly I see

- Singer, songwriter and "folk rock goddess" KT Tunstall performs at 7 at Red Butte Garden, 500 S. Wakara Way, Salt Lake City. Martha Wainwright is the opening act. Tickets are sold out, but you can always try your luck with the scalpers.

- Louisville rockers Tantric and the Salt Lake classic-rock group Opal Hill Drive play the "Wednesday Rocks!" show, 7 at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main, Salt Lake City. Free.

- The Avett Brothers, folk-rockers Seth and Scott from Concord, N.C., play at 8 at The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $20, at SmithsTix or at the door.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

Moving up in the world

It's not always what you say, but who you say it to, that counts.

Take the case of Richard Dutcher, the Utah County filmmaker who in the eyes of some people went from being - to borrow a couple of biblical allegories - the John the Baptist of Mormon Cinema to its Judas.

Dutcher has talked to the Utah press - me in January, and the City Weekly about a year ago - about the "earth-shaking moment of spiritual terror" that caused him to leave the LDS church.

This week, though, Dutcher talked about it to The Los Angeles Times - as his gritty drama "Falling," in which he plays an LDS videographer having a crisis of faith, opened in a Beverly Hills art-house - and it's a big story all over again.

"Falling" got positive reviews in the L.A. media when it opened Friday. Couple that with the L.A. Times profile, and it's possible that "Falling" - the most personal and non-commercial movie Dutcher has made - could end up being the calling-card movie that finally opens doors for him in Hollywood.

Stranger things have happened in the movie business.

(Photo: Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

The dirt on Bush

Your cynical left-winger could look at the Bush Legacy Tour bus - a touring compendium of the current president's scandals, mistakes and foul-ups over the last 7 1/2 years - and say, "How could they fit it all on one bus?"

The biodiesel-fueled touring museum, sponsored by the progressive Americans United for Change, parked for a couple hours today in front of Salt Lake City's City-County Building - giving downtown workers food for thought on their lunch hour.

The exhibit includes commentary on Bush's legacy on the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, the economy, the environment, health care, education and workers' rights. To call it unflattering would be an understatement.

I ran into a friend on the bus, who said she had to check it out "because this kind of thing never comes to Utah."

The tour bus' stop in red-state Utah was brief, and by now the bus is already on the road to Colorado. Next week, it will be in Denver for the Democratic National Convention - then the following week in St. Paul, Minn., for the Republican National Convention.

Labels: politics

Plans for tonight: Lido shuffle

- Boz Scaggs (pictured) gives the lowdown at 7 at the Deer Valley resort's Snow Park Outdoor Amphitheater, as part of the Big Stars, Bright Nights concert series. (Read the Tribune's David Burger's interview with Scaggs here.) Tickets are $46 to $76, with discounts for seniors and children, at parkcitytickets.com.

- Chicago-via-L.A. psychedelic group Wummin plays Kilby Court, 741 S. Kilby Court (330 West), Salt Lake City. The show starts at 7 with the opening act, local experimental band Ken Critchfield's Seraphim. Tickets are $6 at kilbycourt.com.

- Two bands from Austin, Texas - Balmorhea and Bexar Bexar - share the bill with Purr Bats at 9 at Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

"Thunder" rolls

The calls from mental-illness advocates to boycott Ben Stiller's movie "Tropic Thunder," over the use of the derogatory "r-word" - here and here on the Tribune's Letters to the Editor page, for example.

But do those calling for a boycott consider that such protests are the best free publicity the movie could get? Certainly the $25.8 million first-place showing in this weekend's box office - and the $36.8 million worth of tickets sold in its first five days - would suggest that boycotts usually backfire.

For my take on the "Tropic Thunder" controversy - that all offensiveness, like all humor, is about context - check out my column in the Tribune's print edition.

Utah on her mind

Former KTVX reporter Jami Brinton may be in Iowa now, but she still thinks about her home state of Utah.

Brinton, now the Iowa City reporter for Cedar Rapids' ABC affiliate, KCRG-TV Ch. 9, answered a "get to know you" questionnaire on her new station's web site - and her love of Utah still shows.

Brinton and her husband, Jason (ophthalmology resident at the University of Iowa), love waterskiing on Lake Powell. And as a snow skier, she misses "the vertical slope of the Wasatch Mountains," and recalled her last attempt to ski Milly Bowl, the expert run at Brighton: "I ended up doing more rolling down the hill than actually skiing. Ouch!"

Monday, August 18, 2008

Happy birthday, Bob!

Actor/director/activist/Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford is 72 today, and still people persist in referring to him as "The Sundance Kid."

Well, we should all look so good at 72. (I wouldn't mind looking that good now.)

Labels: Robert Redford

Plans for tonight: Surfin' USA(NA)

Mellow musician Jack Johnson brings his earth-friendly tour (no, really, even the tour bus runs on biodiesel) to Utah, starting at 7 at Usana Amphitheatre, 5150 S. 6055 West, West Valley City. (There's even a limited-edition poster, shown at left, designed by artist Gary Benzel just for tonight's show, available at the merchandise booth.) Tickets are $29.50 to $49.50, at SmithsTix.

- This week's entry for best band name - Natalie Portman's Shaved Head - plays at 7 at the Velour Live Music Gallery, 135 N. University Avenue, Provo. Tickets are $8 at the door.

- Runner-up for best band name - Koufax - plays, with The Lionelle opening, at 7 at Kilby Court, 741 S. Kilby Court (330 West), Salt Lake City. Tickets are $10, available at 24tix.com.

- The May-December romance, the 1971 cult classic "Harold and Maude," screens at sunset (around 9) at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main, Salt Lake City. Part of the Sundance Institute's Outdoor Film Festival. Free.

Inside the sausage factory

You've probably read or heard gloom-and-doom stories about the economic future of American newspapers. (The fact that many of these stories appear in newspapers could be a self-fulfilling prophecy or proof that only those of us in the business really care. Journalists know how to cover a funeral - even if it's our own.)

Every newspaper is trying everything they can think of - beefing up the web site, boosting local coverage, laying off everyone in sight, launching niche publications, going into debt up to the publisher's eyeballs. When one of those ideas seems to be working, every other paper wants to know so they can steal it.

One of those apparently successful ideas, written up today on Poynter Online (the web site for the journalism think-tank The Poynter Institute), is from our very own Salt Lake Tribune.

It's something called a "story on a story" or "S.O.S." for short. (The desperation implied by the acronym is unintentional, I think.) Instead of starting a long news story on Page 1 and jumping it inside after a few paragraphs, the entire story runs packaged inside - and a three-inch article (sometimes called a "teaser") runs out front to neatly summarize the big story and entice readers to dive inside for the whole thing. (The story about oil prices, pictured at left, is a recent example.)

Poynter's Sara Quinn interviewed the Tribune's Josh Awtry - who has the unwieldy title of Assistant Managing Editor for Niche Publications, Online and Presentation (we just say, "Hey, Josh!") - who describes how the "S.O.S." format works, and how the newsroom's culture is adapting to it. "The way that I couch it to reporters is, you’re going to get three inches of type out there, one way or another," Awtry said. "This lets you control exactly what you want to say with those three inches - and it still lets you have your narrative."

If you ever wanted an insight as to how a newspaper works, Awtry's interview provides a glimpse. Look if you dare.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Plans for the weekend: Spanning the globe

- The Salt Lake Gallery Stroll goes on tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. in downtown Salt Lake City. Among the highlights: The first annual "Notorious" show (poster at right), with 30 posters by 30 artists, at Signed & Numbered, 221 E. 300 South; the start of the 14th Annual Partners Exhibit and the 11th Annual Teen Exhibit at Art Access Gallery, 230 S. 500 West; and a new exhibit of Waldo Midgely paintings at the Phillips Gallery, 444 E. 200 South.

- The Italian romance "Bread and Tulips" is tonight's movie for August's "Pioneer Park Picture Show," starting at dusk (about 9 p.m.) at Pioneer Park, 300 W. 300 South. The screening kicks off the weekend's Italian cultural festival, Ferragosto, which runs Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. across the street from Pioneer Park, at 300 S. 450 West.

- Son Volt, the current brainchild of alt-country pioneer Jay Farrar (who co-founded Uncle Tupelo with Jeff Tweedy, whose band Wilco will be in town Monday), plays tonight at the Paladium, 415 W. 600 North, Salt Lake City. Bobby Bare Jr. is the opening act. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $25 at SmithsTix. (Read my colleague David Burger's interview with Son Volt's Jay Farrar.)

- The Slippery Kittens, Salt Lake's own burlesque group, will celebrate its second anniversary - and give its last performance before heading to L.A. to compete on "America's Got Talent" - Saturday at Bar Deluxe, 666 S. State, Salt Lake City. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10, at SmithsTix.

- In case you're not getting enough Chinese culture watching the Beijing Olympics, the Golden Dragon Acrobats perform Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Deer Valley amphitheater in Park City. Tickets are $23 for lawn seating, $43 for reserved seating (which is sold out), available at ParkCityTickets.com.

Labels: weekend schedule

Tattoo you

The city of Bountiful has joined the race among Utah cities - think of Kanab's "natural family" ordinance, LaVerkin's ban on the United Nations, or Virgin's efforts to require a gun in every home - to bring ridicule from the national media.

Bountiful's city council, according to this article by the Tribune's Maria Villasenor, has voted to ban new city employees from having tattoos on their heads, faces, necks or hands - and requires all male employees to remove any piercings.

Bountiful resident Steve Richards rightly called the prohibition "a joke." "What are we in now, 2008?" he asked, adding "we've come a long way since things were so judgmental."

Even Bountiful's city manager, Tom Hardy, acknowledges the policy is is likely "generational" and could be obsolete in 30 years.

No, dude, it's obsolete now. Anybody who gets freaked out by a nose stud or some neck ink is living under some very outdated prejudices.

(Photo: Salt Lake City International Tattoo Convention, 2004)

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Plans for tonight: Clapping along

- A pair of indie-rock bands, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (at left) and opening act Delta Spirit, play the Twilight Concert Series, starting at 7 at Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main, Salt Lake City. Free.

- The Back2School tour - featuring Kate Voegele (at right) one of the stars of TV's "One Tree Hill" and singer of the current hit "Only Fooling Myself," and singer-songwriter Brendan James - perform starting at 7 at In the Venue, 579 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $15, at SmithsTix.

- Reggae/punk/hip-hop rockers Slightly Stoopid - a band name that's more than just slightly stupid - plays at 8 at Saltair, 12408 W. Saltair Drive, Magna. Pepper is the opening act. Tickets are $35, at SmithsTix.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

From "Runway" to the "Jungle"

Salt Lake City designer Keith Bryce finally broke from the pack on Bravo's "Project Runway," winning a challenge that will put one of his designs on prime-time TV.

On Wednesday night's show, the 12 remaining contestants were challenged to design an outfit for Brooke Shields' character on the NBC series "Lipstick Jungle" - a professional woman who works both in the boardroom and in the evening social scene. Each of the 12 presented their sketches to Shields, who chose six designs to be sewn - including Bryce's.

The six chosen designers then paired up with the remaining six to produce the dresses. Bryce was paired with Bettie Page-lookalike Kenley Collins to create a chocolate-colored layered skirt with a floral-print top (pictured at left).

Bryce's dress won the round, and the dress will be worn by Shields in an upcoming episode of "Lipstick Jungle." (Yes, Bravo is owned by NBC Universal - how did you guess?)

Bryce - who owns the Salt Lake boutique Filthy Gorgeous - shouldn't rest on his laurels. As host Heidi Klum points out, "in fashion, one day you're in, the next day you're out." The designer who got eliminated, Kelli Martin, won the season's first challenge of designing an outfit based on supermarket products.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Reality show

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Plans for tonight: Ready to rock?

- Southern rockers 12 Stones and Utah's own The Hard Rockin' Johnsons are this week's "Wednesday Rocks!" performers, at 6 at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. Free.

- California ska-punk band RX Bandits performs at the Avalon, 3605 S. State, South Salt Lake. Two Seattle bands, Portugal The Man and Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground, are also on the bill. Show starts at 6:30. Tickets are $13 at the door.

- Public Domain String Band plays their brand of mountain music in the "Concerts by the Creek" series, 7:30 at the Anderson-Foothill Library, 1135 S. 2100 East, Salt Lake City. Free.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

5,000 mornings in "Hell"

A shout-out to my radio buddies at X96's "Radio From Hell" - Kerry Jackson, Bill Allred and Gina Barberi - who are celebrating their 5,000th episode today. (My colleague David Burger reported on the milestone in today's dead-tree Tribune.)

"Radio From Hell" - on KXRK 96.3 FM from 6 to 10 a.m. - has been part of my morning for as long as I have lived in Utah. The threesome gives me the three things I need in the morning: News, laughter, and their unbridled honesty as they talk about what's going on in the world.

Their self-assigned radio roles (based, to one degree or another, on their real personalities) dovetail each other perfectly: Bill, the world-weary observer of modern life; Kerry, the geek-obsessed cynic; and Gina, the consumer-culture comfort seeker.

In the world of "Radio From Hell," a presidential election shares equal time with Kerry's viewing of "Battlestar Galactica" or Gina's bad restaurant experience or Bill's day with his kids. They are your neighbors talking over the back fence, though probably a good deal funnier and a lot more honest than your actual neighbors.

It's a formula that could not have been created by focus groups or radio consultants. It's an organic mix, grown on the spot and constantly morphing in response to events - whether in the morning news or in their daily lives - that confounds the so-called "experts" with his popularity.

The two days of "Radio From Hell" that I remember most are the mornings of Sept. 11 and 12, 2001. I woke up that Tuesday and heard Bill say, "You'd better get to a TV set and see what's happening." I did, and saw the smoke billowing from the World Trade Center towers.

For the rest of the day and the next, Kerry, Bill and Gina set aside everything else - the comedy bits, the music, the commercials - and opened the phone lines for people to talk. Some were crying, others were angry, all were bewildered by this horrific act. "Radio From Hell" gave the listeners what they needed in that moment: A place to come together, to grieve, to support each other.

For about six years, from 1996 to 2002, I was a tiny part of the show, delivering movie reviews every Thursday. For a long time, even after I gave up the gig (which is now held by my Deseret News counterpart, Jeff Vice), strangers would hear my name and say, "Hey, I know you from 'Radio From Hell.' " There are far worse things with which a person could be associated.

Thanks, guys.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Plans for tonight: Paris indoors

- "A Park in Paris," a picnic-style benefit for the Trust for Public Land to support land conservation initiatives in Utah, from 5 to 7 p.m., Hotel Monaco, 15 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City. Events include a raffle and auction, entertainment, food and drink, and tips for eco-friendly living Admission is a suggested $20 donation.

- Folk singer Langhorne Slim (pictured) performs at 9 at the Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $10, at 24Tix.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

And the games played on...

I turned on NBC's coverage of the Beijing Olympics the other night, and there was Bob Costas doing his intro live* from Tiananmen Square.

Not just broadcasting live, but marveling at the fact that he could broadcast live from the site where hundreds of democracy protesters were killed and thousands injured, mowed down by Chinese tanks in 1989. (Costas didn't describe it in those words, of course. His phrasing was more diplomatic.)

Something rankled me about Costas doing his intro of a sporting event from such a place, but I didn't have the words to describe my unease. But Charles Pierce, writer for the Boston Globe and contributor to two of my favorite NPR shows ("Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" and "Only a Game"), had the words - and wrote them on Eric Alterman's Altercation blog:

[W]atching America's corporate media tiptoe carefully around the delicate sensitivities of the butchers of Tiananmen Square is going to be wholly depressing. In fact, one of the most obvious pieces of damage done by the [Bush administration] is that, even if they wanted to do so, American journalists would have to have work up an awful lot of gall to lecture even these mopes on human rights these days. Yes, it's too bad that Joey Cheek isn't allowed to bring his noble anti-Darfur work into China, but after seven years of the likes of this, it's hard to find the moral high ground above China, and that's not just because of the smog. That said, if I see one more American television package that uses Tiananmen for a prop, I may Elvis my TV with whatever's handy. Jeebus Christmas, guys. That place is a grave.

Yeah, what he said.

* "Live" is a relative term in NBC's Olympics coverage, according to this article by The New York Times' Richard Sandomir. Those events that have the "Live" label pasted on the upper-right corner were, indeed, live when NBC broadcast them to the Eastern and Central time zones. But those of us in the Mountain and Pacific time zones are getting them tape-delayed by two or three hours, even if it still says "Live." NBC's experts look at the ratings - 114 million viewers over the weekend on all of the NBC-owned networks carrying the games - and essentially tell the 18 percent of Americans west of the Great Plains to suck on it.

War, brought close to home

We read the headlines about a war somewhere else, between two countries on the other side of the world, and our unfortunate habit is to turn to the sports page.

It doesn't affect us, we think to ourselves. We don't know anybody over there.

This morning, the front page of The Salt Lake Tribune shocked me - and probably many others - out of that apathy.

Accompanying a story about the current fighting in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, there was a photo of Tamrika Khvtisiashvili, co-owner of the Blue Plate Diner in Salt Lake City. As the Tribune's Katie Drake reported, Khvtisiashvili has family in the South Ossetia region of Georgia, where the Russian military has attacked, and only on Monday confirmed that they are safe.

Since leaving Georgia in 1991, Khvtisiashvili has become a prominent fixture in Salt Lake City's culture. Before she and her husband opened the Blue Plate, she ran Monk's House of Jazz downtown. Before that, she managed the Tower Theatre, juggling to keep that faltering movie house from sinking before the owners sold it to a nonprofit group.

We can no longer say a war halfway around the world doesn't affect us. We know somebody there.

Monday, August 11, 2008

One strange puppy

The first time I ever heard about Joyce McKinney, it was years after the 1977 accusations that she abducted an LDS missionary in England and handcuffed him to a bed.

It was at a screening of the collected works of Utah filmmaker Trent Harris where I first encountered Ms. McKinney (pictured at left in 1974, in a BYU production of "The Glass Menagerie"). Harris had made a short documentary, with the ironic title "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told," which recounted the details of the case through McKinney's definitely lopsided view of things.

My favorite line was her denial that she raped the young missionary. She said the sex was consensual, and that raping him would be like "stuffing a marshmallow in a parking meter."

Harris' film was a devilishly clever take on the story, in the "give 'em enough rope" school of journalism. And, as I recall, Harris said it was the film that got him fired from his job as a producer at KUTV.

It was Harris' sharp eye recently that spotted McKinney in a recent news story, about a woman - named Bernann McKinney (pictured at right) - whose five puppies were cloned from her pit bull. Bernann McKinney at first denied she was Joyce McKinney (hanging up on the Tribune's Paul Rolly when he called), but over the weekend came clean in an Associated Press article.

"I thought people would be honest enough to see me as a person who was trying to do something good and not as a celebrity," McKinney said to the AP. "My mother always taught me, 'Say something good or say nothing at all.' I think I gave people too much credit."

Plans for tonight: Because we can-can-can

- Last year's "American Idol" champ Jordin Sparks (pictured) and teen heartthrob Jesse McCartney co-headline at 7:30 at Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Tickets, at $39.50 to $49.50, are available at ArtTix.

- Local Motown-esque band Soul Survivors, recently heard at the Snowbird Rock & Blues Festival, give an outdoor concert at 8 at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, 1355 W. 3100 South, West Valley City. Free.

- "Moulin Rouge," Baz Luhrmann's kaleidoscopic musical romance starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, screens at sunset (around 9) at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main, Salt Lake City. Part of the Sundance Institute's Outdoor Film Festival. Free.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

Fly the friendly Bob

The next voice you hear during the Beijing Olympics may be that of Robert Redford.

The actor and Sundance Institute guru is the off-camera narrator for a new series of commercials for United Airlines, according to this BrandWeek article.

The animated spots use Redford's voice and Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." The first one, "Sea Orchestra," aired during the opening ceremonies of the games. The others - "Moon Dust," "Heart," "Butterfly" and "Two Worlds" - will play during the games, and can be seen on YouTube.

The airline says, are meant to "capture the spirit of international air travel." Is there one where the passengers are herded like cattle at the stockyards, then charged $2 for a bag of peanuts?

Labels: Robert Redford

Friday, August 8, 2008

Snapshots: Outdoor Retailers

The Outdoor Retailers Summer Market has once again invaded the Salt Palace, as well as Energy Solutions Arena (where Rusted Root will play an outdoor concert tonight for OR visitors only, though you can probably hear it two blocks away) and most of the hotels in downtown Salt Lake City.

This is where makers of outdoor gear - from kayaks to climbing gear, boots to sleeping bags - try to sell next summer's supplies to retailers around the country.

I walked among the vendors and booths today and caught a few snapshots of the strangeness:

You know, there are some people who - no matter how nice they are or how much they smile - just bug me. (Actually, this poor woman was pitching an insect-repellent technology for clothing.)

Why do I suddenly feel the need for a cough drop? (This guy was blowing his horn at the booth for Wenger, one of the two manufacturers of Swiss Army knives. The other manufacturer, Victorinox, was elsewhere in the Salt Palace - and I'm told they don't like each other.)

Somewhere, the guys in Pink Floyd are slapping their foreheads and saying, "Mammoths! Why didn't we think of mammoths? Why did we go with pigs?"

And when the hotels get booked up, people can sleep like this.

I don't know what they're selling here, but I'm buying.

These guys must have seen "Wall-E."

I looked at this booth and thought, "Cripes - this is bigger than my first apartment." Then I walked around it and thought, "Cripes - this is bigger than my house."

Did you ever wonder what happens to the Tribbles that don't get sold at "Star Trek" conventions? Look no further.

Plans for the weekend: Dog days of August

- Local alt-country stars Band of Annuals play as part of Snowbird's Cool Air Concert Series, tonight at 6 at Snowbird Resort, Highway 210, Little Cottonwood Canyon. Free.

- Corbin Bleu, of "High School Musical" fame, headlines the Weber County Fair in Ogden. He performs tonight at 7 at the fairgrounds, 1000 N. 1200 West, Ogden. Tickets are $25 and $20 at SmithsTix.

- Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away," screening as part of the "Pioneer Park Picture Show," tonight at sunset (around 9 p.m.) at Pioneer Park, 300 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City. Community booths open at 8 p.m. Free.

- Welcome back Marcus, Utah's own "Last Comic Standing" second-place finisher, with shows Saturday at 8 and 10 p.m. at Wiseguys Comedy Cafe, 269 Historic 25th St., Ogden, and Sunday at 8 p.m. at Wiseguys, 3500 S. 2200 West, West Valley City. Tickets are $20, at SmithTix (click here for the West Valley show).

- California hip-hop band Kottonmouth Kings rock out, Saturday at 7 p.m. at Saltair, 12408 W. Saltair Drive, Magna. Tech N9ne, Sen Dog, Hed PE and X Clan are also on the bill. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 on the day of show, at SmithsTix.

- Alejandro Escovedo is out (exhaustion), so folk singer Iris DeMent pinch-hits to share the bill with her husband, singer-songwriter Greg Brown, Sunday at 7 p.m. at Red Butte Garden, 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City. Pieta Brown, Greg's daughter, is the opening act for this family affair. Tickets are $24 for garden members, $29 for the general public $29, and $20 for children at redbuttegarden.org.

Labels: weekend schedule

What the candidates like

If you believe, as I do, in Nick Hornby's maxim from High Fidelity, "what really matters is what you like, not what you are like," you will be interested in these twin interviews in Entertainment Weekly with presumptive presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama.

In the interviews, the candidates are asked about their personal pop-culture habits. Let us compare and contrast tastes:

Favorite sitcom - McCain: "Seinfeld"; Obama: "M*A*S*H"

Favorite movie or TV president - McCain: David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), "24"; Obama: Jackson Evans (Jeff Bridges), "The Contender"

Last movie seen in a theater: McCain: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"; Obama: "Shrek 3"

First movie seen as a kid: McCain: "Bambi"; Obama: Can't recall specifically, but one of the first was "Born Free."

If you could be any superhero: McCain: Batman; Obama: Spider-Man or Batman.

Musical tastes: McCain: ABBA, Roy Orbison, Linda Ronstadt, Usher; Obama: On his iPod include Jay-Z, Frank Sinatra, Sheryl Crow, John Coltrane, Bob Dylan, Javanese flute music, African dance music, a lot of R&B.

Labels: Barack Obama, John McCain, politics

Reality roundup: Marcus loses out

Now Marcus has something else in common with David Archuleta besides being from Utah: He, too, knows the sting when the host calls the other person's name.

Marcus - the guy with one name but many tattoos - took the silver on Thursday's finale NBC's "Last Comic Standing," losing the viewers' vote to the show's first female winner, Iliza Shlesinger.

But Marcus didn't leave without first getting a comment from Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: "I predict Marcus will sell many more CDs than Dane Cook - because he will end up with a job at Virgin Records."

Also on Thursday, the Salt Lake burlesque troupe Slippery Kittens moved into the semi-final round on NBC's "America's Got Talent." If you left the room at the wrong moment, though, you would have missed it - the Kittens got exactly 12 seconds of screen time to show off their prison-themed striptease routine.

And Salt Lake designer Keith Bryce (pictured with his model, Alyssa) was in the middle of the pack on this week's "Project Runway." The task was to design a stylish opening-ceremonies uniform for the U.S. Olympic team. Oddly enough, the show's producers never interviewed Keith about what it was like living in the city that held the last Olympics in North America.

Labels: Keith Bryce, Marcus, Reality show, Slippery Kittens

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Plans for tonight: Rockin' out

- Alt-rock gods Nada Surf (pictured at right) and experimental instrumentalist (say that five times fast) Tim Fite share the Twilight Concerts Series bill, at 7 at Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. Free.

- The A.K.A.s (at left) bring their "dancehall fight music" (that's their description) and their activism to Kilby Court, 741 S. Kilby Court (330 West), Salt Lake City. The Frantic is the opening act. Show starts at 7.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

Is tonight the night for Marcus?

Marcus, Utah's very own one-named and many-tattooed stand-up comedian, will find out tonight - along with the rest of America - whether he will be the "Last Comic Standing" on NBC's reality-competition show.

If Marcus prevails over his four remaining competitors, he wins $250,000 and a talent contract with NBC. But no matter what, as the Tribune's David Burger wrote today, he will be part of the "Last Comic Standing" tour this fall - and he will perform at his home grounds, Wiseguys in Ogden and West Valley, this weekend.

Marcus also got the royal treatment in this week's City Weekly (which hit newsstands late Wednesday) - a cover story by the alt-weekly's TV writer Bill Frost. In the profile, Frost again lamented how Utah's mainstream media has ignored the homegrown talent:

Too bad about the local-media blackout conspiracy against Marcus, huh?

OK, that might be an overstatement—but compared to the months-long (and still going!) Utah media orgasm over "American Idol’s" David Archuleta, the cute Mormon teen from Murray who eventually took the silver, Marcus might as well be competing on the Food Network. No, wait: Kelsey Nixon got more coverage, too. Aside from some radio and City Weekly’s print and blog reports about Marcus’ progress on a major network reality show, the Salt Lake City media has virtually ignored one of its own.

OK, let's do a tally of the City Weekly's coverage of Marcus: Frost mentioned Marcus in his "True TV" column on May 29 and July 3, and the "Lake Effect" feature, also on May 29 - as well as in three blog posts - but this is the alt-weekly's first full-fledged interview with the guy. Frost has repeated the "media blackout" line, or some variation of it, nearly every time.

Meanwhile, the Tribune's Burger has interviewed Marcus twice, and written two blog posts about him, here and here. I've mentioned Marcus in this blog five times (OK, now it's six). The Deseret News' TV critic Scott D. Pierce wrote on Monday that he's rooting for Marcus to win, even though Pierce doesn't like the show much. And KSL - the station that carries "Last Comic Standing" - has done stories on Marcus twice, on July 3 and July 31.

As media conspiracies go, this one isn't going too well.

Labels: Marcus, Reality show

Your Olympic connection

The 2008 Summer Olympics - or the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, as it's officially known - kick off tomorrow in Beijing.

It's likely to be the most-watched Olympics ever - or, at least, the Olympics that will allow the most opportunity to be watched, based on the hours of coverage NBC is dedicating to the Games on all of its networks: NBC, USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, Telemundo and Universal HD. (The Tribune's TV critic, Vince Horiuchi, writes about the TV effort and has compiled a handy viewing guide.)

Online, The Salt Lake Tribune has a web page dedicated to covering the games - including the 19 Olympians with Utah connections. These athletes range from cyclists Dave Zabriskie and Levi Leipheimer to volleyball star Logan Tom. Two Salt Lake Bees players are on the U.S. baseball team, and three Utah Jazz stars are also representing their nations: Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams for USA, and Andrei Kirilenko playing for Russia.

Two members of the Tribune's sports staff - columnist Kurt Kragthorpe and reporter Michael C. Lewis - are in Beijing, are writing both for print and in a blog. Tribune photographer Chris Detrick is also there, shooting and blogging.

And at least two of the Utah-linked Olympians are blogging from Beijing, too: Slovakian marathoner Zuzana Tomas (near right), a University of Utah student, has already reported on the toilet facilities in the Olympic Village and running into Yao Ming; while Jake Gibb (far right), a Bountiful native competing in beach volleyball, is getting energized seeing his fellow Olympians.

(Photo at top: A soldier stands outside the Main Press Center at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo by Luca Bruno/Associated Press.)

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Paris Hilton vs. "wrinkly dude"

OK, here's the lesson for John McCain: When you start attacking your opponent by comparing him to air-headed blonde celebrities, remember that the air-headed blondes also have access to cameras.

And their writers are funnier than yours.

And they might not be as dumb as you (or, indeed, America) thought they were.

Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Adfunny videosFunnyOrDie.com

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Labels: Barack Obama, John McCain, politics

Plans for tonight: Rock and reel

- The first of the Gallivan Center's "Wednesday Rocks!" concerts features Royal Bliss and The Spencer Nielsen Band, at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. Gates open at 6; first band starts playing at 7. Free.

- Spy Hop Productions and the Sundance Institute premieres this year's "Reel Stories," nine short documentaries directed, written and shot by high-school students in Utah, at 7 at the Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South.

- "The Future of Food," a documentary about the encroachment of unlabeled genetically engineered food on American grocery shelves, screens at 7 at the Post Theatre, 245 S. Fort Douglas Blvd., University of Utah Campus, Salt Lake City. Free.

- Emerson Drive, a Canadian country band formerly known as 12 Gauge, headlines the opening day of the Salt Lake County Fair, at 7:30 at the Salt Lake County Equestrian Park and Events Center's grandstand, 11400 S. 2200 West, South Jordan. Free tickets available at the fairgrounds and at Granite Credit Union locations in Salt Lake County. (Admission to the fair is free, but parking is $5.)

- A Guitar Hero: Aerosmith tournament will crown Utah's ultimate Steven Tyler wanna-be - and get a chance to go to Boston to win a custom motorcycle - at 9 at the Hard Rock Cafe, 505 S. 600 East (Trolley Square). Free, but you have to be 21 to get into the bar.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

Archuleta follows Miley's footsteps

The links between David Archuleta and Miley Cyrus - like the conspiracy-theory similarities between Lincoln and JFK - are starting to pile up.

Eonline.com reports that Utah's own "American Idol" also-ran will be working with the producers at Rock Mafia Records. That company's producers Antonia Armato and Tim James, co-wrote and co-produced eight of the tracks on Cyrus' latest album, "Breakout," including her hits "7 Things" and "See You Again."

The team also has worked with Mariah Carey, Vanessa Hudgens and Aly & AJ.

Last month, the gossip columnist Janet Charlton reported that Cyrus "had a schoolgirl crush" on Archuleta - and wants him to make a cameo in the upcoming "Hannah Montana" movie.

Labels: American Idol, David Archuleta

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Screaming in the parking lot

Things I learned while checking out the new generation of Menudo - that's Chris Moy, Monti Montanez, Emmanuel Velez Pagan, Jose Bordonada Collazo and Carlos Olivero (from left to right) - during their free concert this afternoon in the Valley Fair Mall parking lot:

When cute teen-age boys ask teen-age girls "Are you having fun today?", the screams will deafening - even if there are less than 100 of them, and even if they are not actually having fun.
Radio is not the glamorous profession you might think it is, as proven when KZHT's mid-morning host TJ had to wipe the stage with paper towels when the rain started. (TJ made the best of it, giving paper towels to the girls in the front row and asking them to wipe the sections in front of them. "We'll have them autograph the towels later," she joked.)
It's doubtful the designers of Valley Fair Mall imagined the mall-management office would be used as a "green room" for a boy band.
It's doubtful that the Ricky Martin and the members of the original Menudo ever used a mall-management office as a "green room."
My tolerance level for standing in a mall parking lot listening to pre-fabricated boy-band music when it's raining: Two songs.

Plans for tonight: Ants and a whale

- The Utah Museum of Natural History's monthly Science Movie Night brings DreamWorks' "Antz," at 6:30 at the City Library auditorium, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City. After the show, Erin Hodgson, entomologist for Utah State University Extension, will talk about insects and their relatives. Free.

- The genre-defying San Francisco band Or, the Whale - which on its website says its music "can fly spirited and boisterous or topple lonely and bereaved. Hell, sometimes it does all those things in one song" - plays at 9 at the Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City. Kid Theodore and Calico are the opening acts. Tickets are available at the door.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

Nary a ripple

Sometimes the nicest reaction is no reaction at all.

That seems to be the case with the lesbian couple who bought ad space for their wedding announcement in the Logan Herald-Journal. According to this article by the Tribune's Jennifer W. Sanchez, the "outcry" was "two letters to the editor (one for and one against), 10 e-mails, several phone calls and four subscription cancellations."

"You would think in small-town Utah that it would be magnified quite a bit, as conservative as we are," said Managing Editor Charles McCollum.

Could it be that America - even small-town America as embodied by Logan, Utah - has figured out that there's no issue here anymore? Wouldn't that be something that deserves a champagne toast?

Donny heading to the jungle?

Marie did it, and so did Jimmy. Now it appears Donny Osmond may follow his siblings' path into reality TV.

Britain's Daily Star tabloid is reporting that Donny is close to signing a deal to join the British series "I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!" The show throws a group of B-list and C-list celebs into an Australian jungle, to see if "they cancope without the trappings of fame."

Brother Jimmy appeared on the same show in 2005, and Marie had her memorable run last year on "Dancing With the Stars."

Labels: Osmond, Reality show

Say it isn't so, Joe

This is what A Cup of Joe looks like this morning, a far cry from the usual bustle of caffeine-seeking customers you'd usually see.

The coffee shop at 353 W. 200 South was shut down Saturday, as owner Kristy Gonzales was locked out in the middle of a rent dispute with the landlord, the nonprofit Artspace and its managers, Evergreene Management Group. (The Tribune's Rosemary Winters has all the details in this article.)

Posted on the shop's window, next to an official "Do Not Enter Premises" notice, is this heartfelt plea, which reads in part:

We all know what Cup O' Joes [sic] means to us, here at Artspace and in our neighborhood. It's a quiet haven for neighbors who just want to enjoy Joe's eclectic atmosphere with interesting conversation or a good book. It's a podium for gifted and talented artists to express themselves. It's a warm cup of coffee and a sandwich for the needy and homeless.

Kristy, you are so much more than a business owner, you are our friend!

Cup O' Joes will ALWAYS be in our heart and nothing and no one can take that away!

There has been an outpouring of support for A Cup of Joe. The Cafe Marmalade coffee shop, at 361 N. 300 West, has "We Heart Cup of Joe" on its marquee. And Baxter's Cafe, at 1615 S. State St., is continuing A Cup of Joe's Saturday night open-mic poetry readings. (The show starts at 8:30 p.m.)

This reaction shows why we need homegrown businesses. When Starbucks recently announced it was closing some 600 of its stores - including four in Utah - you notice there was no similar rallying cry to save them.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Plans for tonight: Hair or no hair

- Band name of the week: Cute Is What We Aim For. The band from Buffalo plays at 6:30 at In the Venue, 579 W. 200 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $14, at SmithsTix and 24Tix.

- James Taylor (left) sings his soothing songs at 8 at Usana Amphitheatre, 5150 S. 6055 West, West Valley City. Tickets range from $29 to $85, at SmithsTix. (And read an interview with Sweet Baby James by the Tribune's David Burger.)

- Chris Isaak (right) who resides on the opposite end of the tonsorial spectrum from James Taylor, swings at 8 at The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Sharon Little is the opening act. Tickets are $65, at the door. (And here's Burger's interview with Isaak.)

- Red Light Books, 179 E. 300 South, launches its "Movies Under the Stairs" series of exploitation and grindhouse hits with "Coffy" (1973), starring Pam Grier, and the Japanese revenge thriller "Lady Snowblood" (1973). A $3 donation is suggested at the door. (Hat tip to Jamie Gadette at City Weekly.)

- The Sundance Institute's Outdoor Film Festival pays tribute to one of Sundance's oldest friends, the late Sydney Pollack, with an outdoor screening of Pollack's classic comedy "Tootsie," at dusk (around 9) at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main St., Salt Lake City. Free.

Labels: Tonight's schedule

McCain's celebrity complex, continued

This is how slippery the slope is for John McCain: He has ceded the moral high ground to Paris Hilton's mom.

Kathy Hilton, mother of the oft-photographed socialite, issued a statement to the left-leaning blog The Huffington Post on Sunday, offering her first reaction to the McCain campaign's ad that knocks his Democratic opponent Barack Obama - using images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears - for his celebrity status:

It is a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign. It is a complete waste of the country's time and attention at the very moment when millions of people are losing their homes and their jobs. And it is a completely frivolous way to choose the next President of the United States.

An AP story mentions that Kathy Hilton and her husband Rick donated $4,600 to the McCain campaign earlier this year.

McCain's increasingly negative and snarky campaign ads - like an online ad that suggests Obama is comparing himself to Moses - were all the buzz on the Sunday talk shows.

Mike Murphy, McCain's 2000 campaign manager, called the Spears/Hilton ad "clumsy, juvenile, and a mistake" on NBC's "Meet the Press." And David Gergen, who has worked in both Republican and Democratic White Houses, was particularly stinging on ABC's "This Week":

I think the McCain campaign has been scrupulous about not directly saying it, but it's the subtext of this campaign. Everybody knows that. There are certain kinds of signals. As a native of the south, I can tell you, when you see this Charlton Heston ad, 'The One,' that's code for, 'he's uppity, he ought to stay in his place.' Everybody gets that who is from a southern background. We all understand that.

One thing about McCain's attacks on Obama: According to the latest polls, they're working.

Labels: Barack Obama, John McCain, politics

Archuleta loses to Cook - again

Once again, David Cook beat David Archuleta for a big prize - this time, a large surfboard.

Cook (at right), who beat Archuleta (on the left) in the finals for "American Idol" in May, won at Sunday's Teen Choice Awards in the category of "Choice TV Male Reality/ Variety Star."

Archuleta - the pride of Murray, Utah (as this blog is obligated to say every time it mentions him) - did get his own Teen Choice Award surfboard, though, in the category of "Most Fanatic Fans." (If you don't believe that, let me show you the e-mails from the "Archies" who objected to my criticism of L'il David during the "Idol" competition.)

The Teen Choice Awards were handed out Sunday, but the show broadcasts tonight on Fox.

Labels: American Idol, David Archuleta

No love for Marcus

Utah's favorite one-named, many-tattooed stand-up comedian, Marcus, isn't getting the love nationally from his appearances on NBC's "Last Comic Standing."

This from the always snarky Defamer.com:

In a startling example of accidental domestic terrorism, the CDC announced today a major breach of its "Dane Cook Cloning" program, begun in 1997 when weaponized anthrax was found "simply not annoying enough." Clone DC-01 escaped his holding cell two weeks ago (distinguishable from his progenitor only by his tattooed sleeves), finally appearing in public to try his hand at terrible, terrible stand-up comedy during last night's episode of Last Comic Standing. The experiment was a success. We are all doomed.

Marcus is still in the running on "Last Comic Standing." The final is Thursday night. Until then, here's Marcus' last performance on the show, courtesy of NBC:

Labels: Marcus, Reality show

Swing and a miss

A word of advice to sometime Utah County resident Gary Coleman: Sometimes they're not laughing with you, but at you.

The former "Diff'rent Strokes" child star - in the spirit of Eddie Gaedel - made his minor-league debut Friday night, as lead-off batter for the Madison Mallards of the summer college-player Northwoods League. To say it was not a great day for baseball would be putting it mildly.

As Coleman came up to the plate (and striking the Babe Ruth "called shot" pose, no less), the manager of the visiting Eau Claire Express complained to the umpire about the amount of pine tar on Coleman's bat. The umpire inspected the bat, found it corked with super-bounce balls, and ejected Coleman from the game.

"It's gonna be a short night for you, Gary," said the umpire, delivering his pre-scripted lines with more authenticity than Coleman. Coleman accused the ump of maligning his height, and Coleman tried an Earl Weaver-style chest bump - though it was more chest-to-belly bump.

People who live for baseball were not impressed.

"I don't know how much of a boost in attendance the Mallards saw from the Coleman appearance, but I guarantee it was not worth it," Tom Ziller wrote for The Sporting News' blog. "Kids in the audience actually decided to give up baseball because of that."

Coleman's appearance was so embarrassing to baseball that there's talk he might sign with the Seattle Mariners. (Ooh, snap! It's OK, I'm a Mariners fan - I can diss my own team when it sucks.)

(Photo: Home Run Derby)

Friday, August 1, 2008

Plans for the weekend: Festivals all over

- Snowbird's Rock & Blues Festival is happening tonight and Saturday at the resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Bettye LaVette headlines tonight at 9:45, and Keb' Mo' (at right) brings it home Saturday at 9 p.m. Tickets are $35 general admission, $15 for kids, $50 for priority seating, and $55 for two-day tickets, or $90 for priority seating - at snowbirdrc.org.

- The Gloria Film Festival, celebrating uplifting and family-friendly movies, concludes today and Saturday at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center, 1355 W. 3100 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $5 per screening; go to gloriafilmfest.org for details.

- The Deer Valley Music Festival continues, with the Utah Symphony performing Dvorak's New World Symphony tonight at 7:30 p.m. and a Broadway program Saturday at 7:30 p.m., both at Deer Valley Amphitheatre above Park City. Tickets for the Dvorak or the Broadway shows available at deervalleymusicfestival.org.

- Martina McBride, whose songs were a popular choice among "American Idol" auditioners earlier this week, brings her country flair to Usana Ampthitheatre, 5150 S. 6055 West, West Valley City, tonight at 7:30. Jack Ingram and Chris Young are the opening acts. Tickets range from $33 to $70, at SmithsTix. (Read the Tribune's David Burger's interview with McBride and Ingram.)

- Kansas will carry on, my wayward son, tonight at 8 p.m. at the Ed Kenley Amphitheatre, 430 N. Wasatch Dr., Layton. Tickets are $30 to $55, available at www.thedavisarts.com.

- The Pioneer Park Picture Show Series, outdoor movie screenings every Friday in August, starts with "Across the Universe" tonight at dusk (around 9) in Pioneer Park, 300 S. 300 West. Free.

- Parties for the release of Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final of Stephenie Meyer's teen-vampire saga, are slated at two bookstores tonight: The King's English at 1511 S. 1500 East, starting at 10 p.m.; and the Barnes & Noble in Sugar House, 1104 E. 2100 South, starting at 9 p.m. (though wristbands guaranteeing a place in line were given out this morning).

- U92's Summer Jam, featuring such rap stars as The Game (at right), David Banner, Play-N-Skillz, Wiz Khalifa, Dolla and Chino 4 Real, runs Saturday at Usana Ampthitheatre, 5150 S. 6055 West, West Valley City. Gates open at 1 p.m. Tickets are $20 and $30 in advance, $30 and $40 on the day of the show, at SmithsTix.

- And one more festival: The Park City Kimball Arts Festival runs Saturday and Sunday on Park City's Main Street, if you want to get away from 100-degree weather in the Salt Lake Valley. Free.

Labels: weekend schedule

McCain's celebrity complex

So now the Republicans are playing the celebrity card.

A recent attack ad by presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain attacks his Democratic opponent Barack Obama for being - gasp - popular. The ad juxtaposes images of Obama's recent European tour with red-carpet footage of such celebrity airheads as Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.

I think calling the ad racist, as some have - because it juxtaposes the African-American candidate with two blond white women - is a bit of a stretch. But it does reveal an intellectual vacuum in the McCain campaign, and some hypocrisy for the Republicans' celebrity bashing.

The point of the ad - vote against Obama because he's being treated like a rock star - is vacuous, and betrays a little envy on the GOP side. As Obama himself said in response to the ad, "Is that the best you can come up with?"

Republicans are adept at bashing celebrities who get political active - note the "Shut up and Sing!" mantra aimed at the Dixie Chicks when Natalie Maines spoke ill of President Bush. But this is the same party that more successfully pushes movie stars as candidates (Ronald Reagan, Fred Thompson, Arnold Schwarzenegger) and get all gushy when somebody like Chuck Norris get campaigning.

Folks in Hollywood, according to this Los Angeles Times article, look at McCain's tactics as desperate. And marketing expert Robert Kozinets says the "anti-celebrity de-endorsement" is likely to boomerang on McCain as it gets run through the Internet.

(Cartoon by Pat Bagley/The Salt Lake Tribune)

Labels: Barack Obama, John McCain, politics

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If you have any hot tips - interesting art exhibits, weird experiences at the theater, unusual billboards, sightings of “High School Musical” stars at Crown Burger, whatever - send them along to me at vulture@sltrib.com.