The Salt Lake Tribune
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Plans for tonight: Plugged or unplugged
- The Florida pop-rock band Yellowcard plays an acoustic show at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum, on the Utah State University campus in Logan. Jason Reeves is the opening act; show starts at 7:30. Tickets are $24, at SmithsTix.

- Bluesman Robert Cray and his eponymous band play at 8 at The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $27-$32, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 1:05 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tearing down the "Zion Curtain"?
Could it be possible? Some sanity in Utah liquor laws?

The Utah Alcoholic Beverage Commission got an earful at a public hearing Monday (dutifully and expertly covered by the Tribune's Mike Gorrell), from people who want the state's laws to start making some more sense - and by those who like the confusion just fine.

One example is the "Zion Curtain," the barrier - sometimes frosted glass or plexiglas - between the bar and the dining section of a restaurant. "The Zion Curtain issue is very, very confusing," said Hans Fuegi of the Utah Restaurant Association, noting such provisions as the ban on restaurant bartenders handing a drink over the bar to a customer.

A common complaint is that Utah's liquor laws hurt tourism, because out-of-staters get confused by the weird laws and decide never to come back to the Beehive State. This may be true, but I'm weary of the argument. How about allowing sensible liquor laws for the benefit of those of us who live here? Is that too much to ask?

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:18 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, September 29, 2008
Plans for tonight: Heyborne's musical side
- Band name of the week: IWrestledABearOnce, a metal band from Shreveport, La., plays at 6:30 at the Avalon, 3605 S. State St., South Salt Lake. Tickets are $10, at the door.

- The documentary "Por el Bien de los Suyos" (For the Sake of Your Loved Ones), which examines injury rates among Latinos in the construction industry — and how injuries can affect a family, screens at 7 at the Sorenson Unity Center, 1383 S. 900 West, Salt Lake City. Free.

- The documentary "Chicago 10," which chronicles the trial of Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seale and other notable protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, screens at 7 at the City Library Auditorium, 210 E. 400 South. Free.

- Kirby Heyborne (pictured at right), possibly the most talented actor to emerge from the Mormon Cinema boomlet (he starred in "The R.M." and has gone on to mainstream success, too), puts on his singer/songwriter hat for a show at 7:30 at the Covey Center for the Arts, 425 W. Center St., Provo. Tickets are $10, at www.coveycenter.org.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:16 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
What's in a name?

Considering the financial hole Real Salt Lake has dug itself in its first four seasons - losing $3 to $4 million a year - it's somehow appropriate that the team's new stadium will be named for a mining company.

RSL's new digs will be known as Rio Tinto Stadium, the Tribune's Michael C. Lewis reported in this morning's edition. Team officials made the announcement official today on the team's web site.

Rio Tinto is a mining conglomerate, based in London and Melbourne, that is the parent company of both Kennecott Copper and Kennecott Land (developer of the hella-huge Daybreak subdivision in southern Salt Lake County).

(Photo: Artist's rendering, courtesy of RSL.)
posted by Sean P. Means @ 11:36 AM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Sticks and stones ...
It's a deeply held belief in some quarters that watching violence in TV and movies can make a viewer more hostile. Now research from a Brigham Young University professor suggests that just watching people being verbally mean to each other can have a similar effect.

The study, reported in the British paper The Telegraph, involved British university students watching one of three films: A knife fight from "Kill Bill," a catty conversation from Lindsay Lohan's "Mean Girls" and a quiet seance scene from the horror movie "What Lies Beneath."

One of two tests were then administered. One involved competing in an online game in which the loser would get a blast of noise - and the person taking the test could set the noise level. In the other test, the subjects reacted to an actor pretending to be a rude researcher.

The subjects who watched the "Kill Bill" clip or the "Mean Girls" clip reacted more aggressively than the third group, Dr. Sarah Coyne (pictured), assistant professor in BYU's School of Family Life, told The Telegraph. Her study is published in the November issue of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and available online.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:16 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Who's the reddest of them all?
When Utah lost the title of biggest consumer of Jell-O, we rallied and reclaimed the trophy from Iowa. So what are we going to do about this?

According to an August survey of Intermountain West states by the polling company Mason Dixon (and reported on The San Francisco Chronicle's web site and in the Casper Star-Tribune), Wyoming voters are the most conservative in the region.

This trend was most pronounced over the issue of immigration:
  • Likely voters who support moves to stop illegal immigration from Mexico - Wyoming, 77 percent; Utah, 74 percent.
  • Likely voters who support deporting immigrant workers: Wyoming, 47 percent; Utah, 37 percent.
  • Likely voters who support offering the chance for legal status to illegal immigrants: Wyoming, 45 percent; Utah, 50 percent.

Blame it on the LDS Church. "Brad Coker, managing director of Mason Dixon Polling and Research, attributed Utah's somewhat softer approach to illegal immigration to the influence of the Mormon Church, which he said has a substantial impact on voter positions in that state," the Casper paper reported. "He said Mormon beliefs about being a good neighbor may lead some otherwise very conservative Utah voters to adopt a somewhat more lenient position on immigration."

One topic where Utahns are more conservative than their Wyoming neighbors: Drilling for fuel sources on public lands. According to the poll, 61 percent of Utahns would put exploratory drilling as a higher priority than environmental protection - compared with 51 percent of Wyoming voters who think that way.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:52 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, September 26, 2008
Plans for the weekend: Up for debate
- The presidential debate is a go (apparently John McCain declared himself the winner before he confirmed he'd be showing up in Mississippi), so find yourself a comfortable spot to watch the fireworks, tonight at 7 on all channels. If you want to watch with Democratic partisans, the Salt Lake chapter of Drinking Liberally gathers every Friday, starting at 6:30, at Piper Down, 1492 S. State, Salt Lake City. (If you know of a Republican gathering, e-mail me and I'll include it here.)

- Speaking of politics, cha-chas, comedian Dennis Miller - who was a lot funnier (and a good deal more employable) before he turned into a right-winger - performs tonight at 7:30 at Kingsbury Hall, on the University of Utah campus, Salt Lake City. Tickets, from $35.50 to $59.50, available at the Kingsbury Hall web site. (Check out an interview of Miller by the Tribune's David Burger.)

- "Judy Garland in Concert," a multimedia music experience featuring the Utah Symphony, plays at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday at Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Tickets, from $34 to $58, available at ArtTix.

- Psychedelic indie jam-rockers Dr. Dog play tonight at 9 at Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $12, at SmithsTix and 24Tix.

- The X96 Maverik Big Ass Show - which has been around long enough to see the word "ass" no longer be a radio taboo - runs Saturday from 11 a.m. to about 8 p.m. at Usana Amphitheatre, 5400 S. 6200 West, West Valley City. The lineup includes Shiny Toy Guns (pictured at left), Local H, Hawthorne Heights, From First to Last, Jack’s Mannequin, Ludo, Atreyu, Ten Years, Mindless Self Indulgence, Trapt and The Brobecks. Tickets are $20 in advance, through SmithsTix or at Graywhale Entertainment, or $25 at the door.

- Melissa Pace Turner and the Jay Lawrence Quintet will sing from The Great American Songbook, kicking off the Excellence in the Community concert series, Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Grand Theatre, Salt Lake Community College, 1575 S. State St., Salt Lake City. Tickets are $15, $12 for seniors, $10 for students, and $8 for children $8, available here.

- Icelandic experimental rockers Sigur Ros perform Sunday at Saltair, 12408 W. Saltair Drive, Magna. Parachutes is the opening act. Show starts at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $22 in advance, $27 day of, at SmithsTix and KTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:57 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Immortalized (until the crows come)

Today's dead-tree Salt Lake Tribune includes a roundup of Halloween activities along the Wasatch Front - with the usual onslaught of haunted houses, corn mazes and other autumn traditions. (Tribune writers also offer tips on how to pick and carve a pumpkin, how to cook pumpkin seeds, how to create a cool Halloween costume and throw a fun party, plus a look at Utahns who get carried away with the Halloween decorating.)

One of the highlights is Cornbelly's annual corn maze at Thanksgiving Point - which this year features the smiling, singing image of Utah's own "American Idol" runner-up David Archuleta.

If you think that's tacky - that millions of Americans will fly over Lehi and laugh at those wacky Utahns - consider what Ohio farmer Duke Wheeler did to his cornfield:


(Photos: AP)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:17 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Fictionist faces facts
The Provo band Fictionist (formerly known as Good Morning Maxfield) came up short in its bid to win a spot in tonight's Austin City Limits Music Festival.

The Steps, a band from Austin, wowed the judges in front of a hometown crowd Wednesday night, winning the Sound and the Jury contest - a competition that drew entries from 700 bands - according to this story from KEYE, the CBS affiliate in Austin.

"All in all, this was such an excellent experience to be here in Austin, one of the music capitals of America, and meet some great industry contacts and share our music with a new and welcoming audience," the band wrote on its old web site.

I've had a little fun, at Fictionist's expense, over the band changing its name. So let me add that one of the other finalists, also from Austin, has one of my favorite band names: The Scotland Yard Sale. It's no Kathleen Turner Overdrive, but it's pretty cool wordplay.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:57 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Plans for tonight: Satan, satire and more
- Finnish power-metal rockers Children of Bodom plays at Saltair, 12408 W. Salt Air Drive, Magna. Also on the bill: Black Dahlia Murder, Between the Buried and Me. Show starts at 6:30. Tickets are $18, at Ktix or at the door.

- A day before the first McCain/Obama debate (presuming there still is one), get your taste of musical political satire with The Capitol Steps, at 7 at the Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South. Tickets are $35, at ArtTix.

- The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company's newly reconstructed version of Alwin Nikolais' work "Tower" begins a three-night run, at 7:30 at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $30, or $15 for students at seniors, at ArtTix.

- Outlaw country singer David Allen Coe - the guy who wrote Johnny Paycheck's hit "Take This Job and Shove It" (a song we occasionally hear hummed wistfully in the restrooms at the Tribune) - plays at Bar Deluxe, 666 S. State St., Salt Lake City. Michael Dean Damron is the opening act. Show starts at 8. Tickets are $25, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:15 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Moore's five minutes in Utah

Utah gets five minutes and 25 seconds in "Slacker Uprising," Michael Moore's documentary (available on a free download on the movie's web site) about his 2004 college get-out-the-vote tour - and, all in all, the state comes out looking pretty good.

About an hour into the film - at the 57:04 mark, precisely - Moore chronicles when the tour came "to visit the liberals stranded in Utah" with his infamous appearance at Utah Valley State College (what's now Utah Valley University).

We then get a fast montage of TV news coverage (all four local TV news stations - 2, 4, 5 and 13 - are included) of the buildup to Moore's visit, including local businessman Kay Anderson's $25,000 offer the student-government officials to cancel the event. (Anderson was outbid by somebody in Reno, who offered $100,000 to cancel Moore's visit at the University of Nevada-Reno.)

Then the movie shows a bit of Moore onstage, praising the UVSC student leaders for their courage. "They wouldn't back down," Moore said, "because they have the radical belief that Utah is still in the United States of America."

Moore doesn't show Roseanne Barr's less-than-stellar performance on the UVSC stage (though she is shown, briefly, at another tour stop). And no mention is made of right-wing blowhard Sean Hannity's pre-emptive visit to UVSC a few days before.

The movie ends optimistically, in spite of the fact that Moore failed in his goal of unseating George W. Bush. Moore claims that voters in 54 of the 62 cities he visited went to John Kerry - and that the college-age vote was the only demographic group that Kerry won. "Unfortunately, their parents voted for Bush," the movie adds.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:59 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Redford's cash prize
Robert Redford is receiving a rare honor - and a nice chunk of change to go with it.

The Sundance Institute founder will receive the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize at a ceremony in New York on Nov. 12. The award is given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life."

Besides the ceremony, Redford will receive a silver medallion and a cash prize of $325,000 - which Redford will pour into The Redford Center at the Sundance Preserve, a Sundance Institute think tank that aims to use creative expression to promote policy issues.

In a statement, Redford noted that Lillian Gish presented the actor with the Best Picture Oscar for "Ordinary People" 27 years ago. " It was an honor then, as it is now with the Gish Prize," Redford said.

Last year, the award went to experimental musician Laurie Anderson. Past recipients have included architect Frank Gehry (1994, the first year the prize was given), filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1995), musician Bob Dylan (1997), writers Isabel Allende (1998) and Arthur Miller (1999), choreographers Merce Cunningham (2000) and Bill T. Jones (2003), and theater directors Lloyd Richards (2002) and Peter Sellars (2005).

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 6:30 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
The circus is in town
You think the traffic around your office is crazy? This is what my colleagues and I saw just a few minutes ago from the balcony of The Salt Lake Tribune's newsroom:


This parade through The Gateway is the annual reminder that the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus is in town, starting tonight through Sunday, at EnergySolutions Arena.
posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:13 PM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Plans for tonight: A rare bird
- Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus kicks off a five-day run at 7 at EnergySolutions Arena, 301 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Tickets, from $15 to $82, available at TicketMaster.

- Brooklyn rapper/producer Ill Bill (at left) takes the stage at the Murray Theatre, 4916 S. State St. Also on the bill: Sean Price, Illuminati and Ace-High. Show starts at 7:30. Tickets are $14, at SmithsTix.

- We don't get Utah Symphony shows midweek very often, so take advantage and hear Dominick Argento's comic one-man opera, "A Water Bird Talk," featuring baritone Timothy Jones and conductor Keith Lockhart, starting at 8 at the Vieve Gore Concert Hall at Westminster College, 1840 S. 1300 East, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $25 at the symphony's web site.

- Fashion designer and DJ Steve Aoki (pictured at right, modeling one of his T-shirts) spins a set at W Lounge, 358 S. West Temple, Salt Lake City. The show starts at 9. Tickets are $8, at 24tix.com.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 11:22 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Avert your eyes, children!
The Utah State Office of Education is determined to protect little eyes from the artfully displayed cadavers at "Body Worlds 3," the newly opened exhibit at The Leonardo.

According to this story that aired this morning on NPR station KCPW, the Office of Education is recommending that teachers not take elementary or middle-school students to the exhibit, saying the show is "too graphic" for sensitive youngsters.

Further, the Office of Education's warning suggests that the only high-schoolers who should go are those who are studying anatomy or physiology.

Having seen the exhibit, I agree that the polymerized views of internal organs, muscles and blood vessels is a little unsettling. Certainly parents should use caution before letting their elementary-age children go. But middle schoolers? That's putting the "you must be this tall to ride this attraction" bar rather high.

So far, the Office of Education's advisory isn't phasing The Leonardo. According to the KCPW story, field trips for 10,000 Utah students have already been booked.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 11:08 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Moore for free
Michael Moore's latest documentary, "Slacker Uprising," is not playing in a theater near you. It's playing practically everywhere else - on TVs, computers, cell phones or wherever else you wish to download 1.04 gigs.

Moore made the film - which chronicles his 2004 get-out-the-vote college tour - available for a free download, as of Tuesday. On the movie's web site, Moore sent this message:

"I'm giving you my blanket permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone (in the U.S. and Canada only). I want you to use 'Slacker Uprising' in any way you see fit to help with the election or to do the work that you do in your community. You can show my film in your local theater, your high school classroom, your college auditorium, your church, union hall or community center. You can have your friends and neighbors over to the house for a viewing. You can broadcast it on TV, on cable access, on regular channels or on the web. It's completely free - I don't want to see a dime from this. And if you want, you can charge admission or ask for a donation if it's to raise money for a candidate, a voter drive, or for any non-profit or educational purpose. In other words - it's yours!"

Some are taking Moore up on the challenge. BYU College Democrats (yes, both of them - ha, ha) had a screening on campus Tuesday night.

The movie will be of interest for Utahns because the state is prominently featured in one segment (pictured above). Moore, as you may recall, brought his tour to Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University) and raised a ruckus - including the efforts of one Kay Anderson, who offered student-government officials $25,000 to cancel Moore's appearance.

I'll post a brief review of the movie here later, as soon as the sucker downloads on my iTunes account. Only five hours to go!

(UPDATE: I got an e-mail from Austin Smith, who organized the BYU screening, which was enjoyed by about 50 people. "It was kind of a depressing ending for liberals since of course Bush did get elected, but I felt the movie was a warning voice, and it definitely inspired me to try even harder to get a progressive candidate elected this November, specifically through encouraging people my age to vote," Smith wrote.)

(Photo: Brave New Films)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:29 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Ebert makes a funny
Roger Ebert, the esteemed movie critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, has as rational a mind as anyone you might meet in the journalism game - and his recent convalescence from emergency surgery, which has left him unable to speak, has somehow sharpened his writing and his impish wit.

So when he posted a Q&A on Sunday, headlined "Creationism: Your questions answered," I immediately recognized it as a sly satire - and recognized that Ebert was following one of the first rules of satire: You play it 99 percent straight.

In the article, Ebert answered the basic questions of creationism - the alternative "theory" to evolution for how we all got here on this planet - using the arguments, as best he understands them, used by those who espouse creationism.

Apparently, though, not everyone got the joke. In a Tuesday post on his blog, Ebert laments how some in the blogosphere have opined that Ebert is a supporter of creationism, or that he's gone 'round the bend, or that Ebert's web site was hacked. None of the above, Ebert reports, as he explains why he needed to explain his creationism article:

"The purpose of this blog entry is not to discuss politics (a subject banned from the blog). Nor is it to discuss Creationism versus the theory of evolution (that way lurks an endless loop). It is to discuss the gradual decay of our sense of irony and instinct for satire, and our growing credulity."

In other words: Yes, it was a joke, but we're living in an age where jokes must be underlined in neon for everyone to understand it's a joke. We are too ready to believe what we are told - a condition, Ebert suggests, which has led to some jaw-dropping bits of political umbrage:

"These days, there is no room for ambiguity, and few rewards for critical thinking. Now every word of a politician is pumped dry by his opponent, looking for sinister meanings. Many political ads are an insult to the intelligence. Here I am not discussing politics. I am discussing credulity. If you were to see a TV ad charging that a politician supported "comprehensive sex education" for kindergarten children, would you (1) believe it, or (2) very much doubt it? The authors of the ad spent big money in a bet on the credulity and unquestioning thinking of the viewership. Ask yourself what such an ad believes about us. No politics, please."

Kudos to Roger for cutting through so many levels of nonsense with one well-sharpened knife.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:00 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Skaters unite!
You can't skateboard in most public places in Salt Lake City, except for a few designated skateparks. Now it turns out you can't do it in your own backyard.

A provision buried in a Salt Lake Valley Health District noise-pollution ordinance passed in August expressly forbids backyard skate ramps:

4.5.21. Sporting Ramps. No person shall build or use nor shall any person cause, allow, or permit anyone to build or allow anyone to use any skateboard, roller blade, bicycle, or snowboard ramp or half-pipe or similar configuration within 800 feet of a dwelling, except within facilities that have been designated for such use by a government entity.

Utah skateboarders are incensed enough that some have started an online petition to overturn this ban.

As the site's creator (who explains his own plight of installing a $3,000 backyard ramp, only to be told it was illegal) points out, "anyone who has ever used a backyard skate ramp knows that it that it would be an impossible argument to say that a Mini-ramp produces any more noise than a backyard swing set, trampoline, swimming pool, basket ball hoop, or a family backyard gathering for a nice summer evening barbeque."

News of the backyard skatepark ban has reached the national action-sports network, which led to an item on ESPN's web site.

UPDATE: That didn't take long. According to this story in Wednesday's Tribune by Derek P. Jensen, the SLVHD is considering a suspension of the skate-ramp ban, after receiving hundreds of complaining e-mails. Fight the power, 'boarders!

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 1:57 PM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Plans for tonight: Hot blooded, check it and see
- Get your metal on with Bullet For My Valentine at Saltair, 12408 W. Salt Air Drive, Magna. Bleeding Through and Black Tide fill out the bill, starting at 6:30. Tickets are $23, at Ktix or at the door.

- The "So You Think You Can Dance" national tour, featuring the Fox reality show's top 10 finalists - including three Utah dancers: Gev, Chelsie and Thayne - pops and locks at 7:30 at the E Center, 3200 S. Decker Lake Dr., West Valley City. Tickets are $35 to $55, at Ticketmaster.

- '80s power-balled mavens Foreigner - whose current "Feels Like the First Time" tour is being sponsored by, I kid you not, the AARP - plays at 8 at The Depot, 400 W. South Temple. Tickets are $35, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:50 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
We also have indoor plumbing and that Internet thingee!
The folks at TV Squad got this nugget while covering the Emmys on Sunday night, when actress and ex-Playboy playmate Jaime Bergman (on the arm of "Bones" star David Boreanaz) couldn't remember which designer made her dress:

"I'm from Utah, we have Nordstrom's."

(Photo: Exposay.com)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:45 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Nader's animal act
In terms of elephantine self-denial and self-aggrandizement, this video is hard to beat: Ralph Nader lamenting the media's coverage (or lack thereof) of his presidential aspirations by talking to a parrot.

(See, that's the joke - Nader complains that the media parrots the corporate line. Get it? Either that or the parrot's the last creature in America who believe's Nader's claim that there's not a dime's worth of difference between George W. Bush and Al Gore.)





That's not just any parrot. It's Cardozo, the pet bird of former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. (Anderson told the Deseret News that he'd probably vote for Nader, a safe choice given the state's Republican stranglehold. "Given the Electoral College, I probably will vote for him because my vote isn't going to make any difference in Utah. As usual.")
posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:00 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, September 22, 2008
Plans for tonight: JazzSLC starts
- The GAM Foundation's JazzSLC season kicks off with singer-pianist Eliane Elias (pictured at left), at 7:30 at the Sheraton City Center, 150 W. 500 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $25, at www.jazzslc.com.

- Guitarist/singer Lindsey Buckingham, famous for his solo work and as a member of Fleetwood Mac, plays at 8 at The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $41.50 at SmithsTix.

- The documentary "Salud!" - which examines what the BBC calls "one of the world's best health systems," in impoverished Cuba - screens at 7 in the City Library, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City. A panel discussion will follow. Free.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:01 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Vulture off today
I'm taking a personal day. Back Tuesday.
posted by Sean P. Means @ 6:00 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, September 19, 2008
Plans for the weekend: If you can't see a Monet ...
- Everybody had the same idea you did - to see the "Monet to Picasso" exhibit at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts this weekend, before it closes for good Sunday - and now the sucker is sold out. That's what you get for procrastinating.

- So, instead, you can go see the artfully posed cadavers to "Body Worlds 3" at The Leonardo, 209 E. 500 South in Library Square, Salt Lake City, which opens today. Tickets are $22, or $16 for children 3 and up, available on The Leonardo's web site.

- Or you can hit the monthly Salt Lake Gallery Stroll, 6 to 9 tonight at several downtown Salt Lake City art galleries. One of the highlights is a fall fashion show, starting at 4, on East Broadway (300 South, around 250 East).

- Lisa Lampanelli - a Grammy-nominated "insult comic" (that's her URL, too) known as "The Queen of Mean" (pictured at right) - sets 'em up and knocks 'em down tonight at 8 at Kingsbury Hall on the University of Utah campus. Tickets are $34.75, at SmithsTix.

- Park City skier Tanner Hall is throwing a party for his neighbors tonight at 8, an outdoor screening of the ski film "The Massive" on Lower Main Street in Park City. The screening is free, but the after-party at Harry O's, at 427 Main in Park City, costs $5 at the door - and you have to be 21.

- The Imagine Peace Festival, a day of exhibits and music to raise awareness of peace-making and social-justice causes, runs Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. at the City Library's main branch, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City. Free.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:58 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
"Body" art
I took a quick walk through "Body Worlds 3," the new exhibit opening today at The Leonardo (209 E. 500 South, in the old Salt Lake City Library building), last night. It's a fascinating and educational exploration of the human body - and a must for anyone who needs to be scared into losing weight, quitting cigarettes or ending any unhealthy behavior.

The exhibit takes cadavers - real human bodies, donated by their previous occupants - and poses them into sculpture by replacing the blood and fat with resin through a process called "plastination." The human sculptures show such things as musculature, skeletons, organs, blood vessels and how they interact with each other. (The Tribune's Brian Maffly dissects the exhibit, so to speak, in this article from today's The Mix section.)

It's definitely worth a look, though small children might get freaked out by it. You might get freaked out by the ticket price, $22 for adults and $16 for children 3 and up.

The Leonardo is banking on those tickets, though. The fledgling science and art center expects 2,000 visitors a day for the exhibit (which runs through Jan. 11), and raise interest and possibly public support.
posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:54 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
From "Warrior" to jailbird
Dutch Elijah Whitlock has had a walk-on role in "High School Musical" and played one of two dorky knights in a Utah anti-smoking ad campaign.

His new role: Jail inmate.

Whitlock, 19, was sentenced to a year in jail - and more than $1,000 in fines and fees - for robbing a Holladay pizza parlor at gunpoint last May, the Salt Lake Tribune reported today. He's already served 117 days in jail, and the judge also gave him 3 years' probation and ordered him to get substance-abuse treatment.

According to charging documents, Whitlock brandished a revolver at the Five Buck Pizza and escaped with some cash. A Five Buck employee recognized Whitlock, who used to work there.

Whitlock had a lead role as Svarnik, one of the "Warriors Against Tobacco" in a now-defunct and really lame ad campaign. Here's a video of Svarnik (he's the blond one) and Byll, ironically, getting arrested.


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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:37 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Plans for tonight: Keys to the kingdom
- The documentary "Monster Among Us," about the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe, screens at 7 at the Jewish Community Center, 2 N. Medical Drive, University of Utah campus, Salt Lake City. Free.

- R&B singer and piano virtuoso Alicia Keys, who collects Grammys the way other people collect license plates, plays at 7:30 at Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple. The show is sold out, so if you're desperate to hear her, you'll have to deal with the scalpers.

- Heavy metal hero Geoff Tate, the lead singer of Queensryche, brings his solo show - timed to the release of a new wine, Insania - to The Depot, 400 W. South Temple, starting at 8. Tickets are $20, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:10 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
A commitment in cash
If the debate about same-sex marriage is ultimately about commitment, here's a sure sign of commitment: Orem's Bruce Bastian, the openly gay ex-Mormon co-founder of WordPerfect, is donating $1 million to the "No on Prop 8" fund - which is fighting a California ballot measure that would amend that state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

According to an article by the Tribune's Rosemary Winters, Bastian was prompted to make the donation when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a statement in June, calling on members to "do all you can" to pass Prop. 8. Bastian said:

The LDS Church has no business [sticking] their big nose in something that's a legal matter, not a religious matter. Constitutions are meant to protect minorities, not to take rights away from people.

Winters' article notes that the campaign supporting Prop. 8 has received donations from 37 Utah residents, totaling $120,550. Also, according to a pro-Prop. 8 spokesperson, many of the 25,000 volunteers are LDS.

(By the way, actor and open heterosexual Brad Pitt is donating $100,000 to the No on Prop. 8 campaign.)

LDS church members were also active eight years ago in getting a no-gay-marriage ballot measure, called the Knight Amendment, passed in California. This time around, the drive isn't as successful: According to a Los Angeles Times poll in late August, 54 percent of likely voters oppose Prop. 8, while 40 percent support it.

What's changed? Life.

Eight years ago, same-sex marriages were more of an abstract concept than a concrete fact. Now, with couples getting married in Massachusetts and (since the state Supreme Court's ruling) California, gay marriages are happening to people in the neighborhood or celebrities you've heard of (like Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, pictured). Every time two men or two women share vows of commitment, it kills the myth that somehow everyone else's marriage will be weakened.

(Photo: Danny Moloshok, AP)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:10 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Shake your pom-poms
Do you want to dance? In front of thousands of screaming fans? Baring your midriff? On AstroTurf?

Here's your chance: The Utah Blaze Dance Team, the dance group/cheerleaders for Salt Lake City's Arena Football League team, are holding open tryouts - and two pre-audition workouts.

The auditions are Saturday, Oct. 18, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Sheraton Salt Lake City Hotel. The workouts are on Saturdays, Sept. 27 and Oct. 11, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Gold's Gym, 5580 S. Van Winkle Expressway, Holladay.

There are fees and registration requirements - click here to get the details.
posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:10 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Entering the litigious phase
The trajectory of Gary Coleman's recent fracas at a Payson bowling alley is proceeding right on schedule.

Cole Rushton, 24, the Spanish Fork resident who accuses the 40-year-old former child star of punching him and running into him with a truck has filed a lawsuit, according to this article by the Tribune's Kristin Owens.

Here's the life cycle of a celebrity misdemeanor: First the incident, then the filing of charges, then the big splash in the tabloids, then the snarky reaction in the blogosphere, then the lawsuit by the supposedly injured party, then the second splash in the tabloids, then the second snarky reaction from the blogs. All that's left is the handling of the criminal case (either a trial or a dismissal of charges) and the out-of-court settlement on the lawsuit.


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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:10 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Plans for tonight: Adios, Spork
- Forget about tonight's Rancid concert at In the Venue - that show (and last night's show) were canceled, according to the band's web site, because bass player Matt Freeman injured his shoulder.

- The Seattle indie band This Providence plays at Solid Ground Cafe, 655 E. 9800 South, Sandy. The show - which includes the bands Everybody Else, The Trademark and Avenue of Embers - starts at 4 p.m. Tickets are $7, at 24tix.

- The War on Everything Tour 2008 - featuring death-metal acts Impaled, Phobia, Kill the Client, Illogicist and Maruta - starts at 6 at Club Vegas, 445 S. 400 West, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $8 at 24tix.

- The Reel Rock Film Tour, featuring movies about rock climbing, starts at 7 at the Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $10, at the door or at Momentum Indoor Climbing Gym, 220 W. 10600 South, Sandy.

- The headliner tonight at Burt's Tiki Lounge, 726 S. State St., Salt Lake City, is SubRosa, but the story of the night is the final - or at least that's what they claim - performance of Spork, the two-man band fronted by the Vulture's good friend, City Weekly TV critic and media-blackout conspiracy theorist Bill Frost (pictured at left). Frost, a k a Billy Sport, reports that bandmate CJ Spork (CJ Burton) is leaving Utah to tour as Air Supply's drummer (and look at the schedule on Burton's MySpace page). The show, which also includes The Invaders, starts at 9. Tickets at the door.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:07 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
The word from on high
The prevailing thought in Utah is that the byzantine "private club" laws, which require drinkers to jump through many hoops (such as signing up for a "membership") to get a drink in a bar, would never be changed unless the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it was OK.

A statement issued Monday by LDS leaders could signal that the church is not opposed to such a change, according to people interviewed by the Deseret News' Lisa Riley Roche.

Here's the key part of the statement that Gov. Jon Huntsman's office called "encouraging" and Sam Granato, head of the state's liquor commission, called "a healthy step":
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that Utahns, including those who work in the hospitality industry, can come together as citizens, regardless of religion or politics, to support laws and regulations that allow individual freedom of choice while preserving Utah’s proven positive health and safety record on limiting the tragic consequences of overconsumption of alcohol.

"This is huge. This is what everyone was waiting for," said Lisa Marcy McGarry, representing the Utah Hospitality Association. "A large majority of our Legislature is going to listen to the words of advice given by the LDS Church."

Don't start pouring yet, though. Any bill still has to go through the Utah Legislature - for whom "byzantine" is standard operating procedure - early next year.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:00 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Mourning DFW

"A man of his breadth and depth doesn't come around often."

That's how Catherine Weller, at Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore, described (to the Tribune's Julie Checkoway) David Foster Wallace, the acclaimed writer who took his own life over the weekend in his California home. He was 46.

Tributes to Wallace are all over the Web - and a fan site, The Howling Fantods, has a good compendium of them.

One question discussed in the wake of Wallace's death is whether his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, considered to be his masterpiece, would (or even could) be turned into a movie.

Karina Longworth at Spout blog tracked down the rumor that Wallace had collaborated on a screenplay. She confirmed from Glenn Kenny, former editor at Premiere magazine (in which Wallace wrote an infamous profile of David Lynch), that there is a script floating around but Wallace had no hand in it. (Kenny, by the way, wrote a heartfelt remembrance on his Some Came Running blog.) There is a movie based on Wallace's Brief Interviews With Hideous Men in the works, written and directed by John Krasinski (Jim from TV's "The Office").

(Photo: Taken, by me, this morning at Ken Sanders Rare Books.)
posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:34 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Redford, on the rocks?
What do you get if you mix Tanqueray No. Ten gin, Cointreau and pink grapefruit juice?

At the Icon Bar (pictured) at The Casino at The Empire, a swank gambling and nightlife establishment in London's Leicester Square, that mixture (according to this item in the British paper Metro) is called a Robert Redford.

Why call the drink a Robert Redford? Is it ruggedly handsome? A bit weathered? Environmentally conscious? Blonde on top?

At 9 pounds a pop (about $16 in American money), Redford himself better be serving it.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:15 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Plans for tonight: Punk, rock, rap
- Punk-rock band Rancid - who, according to the band's MySpace page, wrote songs for their next album holed up in Utah (pictured at right) - plays the first of two nights at In the Venue, 219 S. 600 West, Salt Lake City, with Less than Jake and The Playdead Movement as opening acts. Show starts at 7. Tickets are $20 at 24tix.

- The documentary "Critical Condition," about the troubles of four uninsured and critically ill Americans, plays at 7 at the City Library Auditorium, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City. Part of the Salt Lake City Film Center's "Films to Watch Before You Vote" series. Free.

- Buckethead - a guitar virtuoso and former Guns N' Roses bandmate who, yes indeed, plays with a KFC bucket on his head - performs at 7:30 at the Murray Theater, 4916 S. State St., Murray. Tickets are $20, at SmithsTix.

- Great white rapper Everlast, formerly of House of Pain and best known for his brooding single "What It's Like," and The Lordz play at Bar Deluxe, 666 S. State St., Salt Lake City. The show starts at 8. Tickets are $20, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:48 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
A job cut on the comics page
Layoffs and job cutbacks have been a constant in the newspaper industry in recent years, but you know things are serious when a fictional reporter is getting the ax.

Rick Redfern, for years an investigative reporter for the Washington Post - as least, as seen in Garry Trudeau's comic strip Doonesbury - got the news in today's strip (seen in hundreds of papers, including The Salt Lake Tribune): The budget for investigative reporting is being chopped, and he's being forced to take a buyout.


"The free-fall of newspapers is something I've been thinking a lot about lately," Trudeau told Michael Cavna, a real-life Washington Post reporter, on his "Comic Riffs" blog. "I'm feeling the hot breath of change on my neck too" with space reductions in the comics pages.

The ink-stained wretches can just read this week's Doonesbury and nod knowingly. If we haven't been there, we know somebody who has.

(Illustration: Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau/Universal Press Syndicate)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:41 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tragic life, early death
Her life was one of tragedy - born free, ripped from her family, chained and penned, bullied, shuttled from one noisy environment to another, suffering a series of health problems, and finally giving up her life at an early age.

The life story of Misha, the 27-year-old elephant who died last Tuesday at Utah's Hogle Zoo, is a heartbreaking one. The Tribune's Matthew LaPlante tells that story in a first-class reporting job in today's paper.

One of the sad ironies of Misha's life is that after years of poor conditions, she may have finally found a caring environment at Hogle Zoo (where she lived since April 2005). "Misha was always a happy and playful elephant," Holly Braithwaite, Hogle's spokeswoman, told LaPlante. "Misha quickly became close to her keepers ... she was just a good, hard-working, caring animal."

If you don't shed a tear at Misha's story, you're made of stone.

(Photo: Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:06 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Last call for Picasso...
... and Monet, Van Gogh, Dali, Mondrian and the other great artists whose works are on display at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

UMFA's blockbuster show, "Monet to Picasso: From the Cleveland Museum of Art," ends its summer run on Sunday - so if you haven't seen it yet, get off your butt and get up to the University of Utah campus fast.

The exhibit is easily the best $15 bucks you'll spend on culture this year. There are more than 70 paintings and sculptures, representing the sweep of art from the late 19th century through most of the 20th century.

(Pictured: Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853–1890). The Poplars at Saint-Rémy (Les peupliers sur la Colline), 1889. Oil on fabric; 61.6 x 45.7 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Leonard C. Hanna Jr. 1958.32. Copyright: The Cleveland Museum of Art)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:54 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
The logistics of Shakepeare
You ever wonder how the Utah Shakespearean Festival does it every year? The logistics of mounting a world-class theater event are staggering.

Just consider one aspect of the event: Costuming.

DramaBiz magazine, a trade publication for theater groups, talked in its July/August issue to costume experts who either work for or subcontract costuming for troupes nationwide - including Jeffrey Lieder, USF's costume director since 1986 (pictured at right).

For a major play like "Cyrano de Bergerac" (pictured at left), Lieder said, USF builds a third of the costumes, pulls another third from its wardrobe inventory, and borrows a third from other theater organizations - a nice trade, because those theater groups then borrow from USF.

And when it comes to cleaning the costumes, the rules are strict. For a union theater, rules say all costumes must be washed once a week, and garments that touch the body - socks, shirts, underwear - must be cleaned daily, for the health of the actor and the olfactory sensibilities of the front-row patrons.

Lieder has a 10-person crew that cleans the washable parts of every costume between each show - and gets the costumes ready for the actors. He also takes preventative steps: Removable dress shields for the women's costumes, and T-shirts under the men's doublets.

(Photos: Utah Shakespearean Festival)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:38 AM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Monday, September 15, 2008
Good morning, Fictionist?
Imagine you're in a band. You've played a lot of gigs, you've paid your dues and now you're on the verge of something big - you're one of five finalists in a nationwide contest, where the winner gets a slot in a big music festival in the alt-music capital of the world, Austin, Texas.

Is this really a good time to change your band's name?

That's what the Utah band Good Morning Maxfield is doing. The band is one of five finalists for The Sound and the Jury, a nationwide contest (sponsored by Dell computers) in which the winner will play at the Austin City Limits Music Festival in Austin on Sept. 26.

But the band is no longer called Good Morning Maxfield. The band's new name is Fictionist.

On one level, it makes a bit of sense. Now Stuart Maxfield, the band's guitarist and lead vocalist, doesn't have to discuss with his bandmates why he's mentioned in the band's name and they aren't.

On the other hand, the band has gone from slightly silly but charming to really goofy and hard to pronounce - and doing it right when America's being introduced to the band's music.

The five bands will perform Sept. 24 in Austin, and a panel of judges and the Austin audience will pick the winner. Before that, though, Fictionist will be playing two gigs for the home state audience: Friday afternoon at Redfest at the University of Utah, and Saturday night at BYU Fall Fest in Provo.
posted by Sean P. Means @ 2:26 PM | 4 Comments Links to this post
Plans for tonight: Politics, here and there
- The documentary "Iron Ladies of Liberia," which profiles Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (pictured at left), the first elected female president of Liberia - and the first freely elected female head of state in Africa - screens at 7 at the City Library auditorium, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City. Part of the Salt Lake City Film Center's "New Face of Africa" series. Free.

- John Jackson Jr. (pictured at right), associate professor of communication and anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, will deliver a lecture, "Race, Class, Gender and the Elections," at 7:30 at the Vieve Gore Concert Hall at Westminster College, 1250 E. 1700 South, Salt Lake City. Free.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:30 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Visiting Temple Square, on the public's dime
Reporters always love the "hand in the cookie jar" story, when some politician gets caught using public money for personal advantage - like charging the taxpayers for a trip to some tropical location (or, in a recent case, getting a per diem for nights spent in your own house).

From Australia comes a reversal on the formula: The politician comes from a tropical location, and charges his government for a trip to Utah.

The Courier-Mail (the paper in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) reports that a member of the Australian parliament, David Gibson, claimed a $305 daily travel allowance for a weeklong visit to Utah last June.

While in Utah, Gibson (who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) saw a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, visited the LDS Family History Library, dined with a church friend and met both with church officials and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.

Gibson, who also attended a political seminar in Washington, D.C., justified the trip to Utah as a study tour - because he visited a sustainable building and irrigation engineering program at Utah State University in Logan. (Gibson is the climate change spokesman for the Liberal National Party, the opposition party in Australia's parliament.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:27 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
"Did you ever get busted for boppin’?"
Now we know why "Footloose" was filmed in Utah - and why a friend of mine told me that, in some Utah towns, the movie is a documentary.

Bountiful High School has instituted new "Dance Participation Regulations" that strictly limit what teens can do and wear at school dances. To quote from the Salt Lake Tribune article by Ben Fulton:

The regulations prohibit not just "vulgar, seductive, or inappropriate movements" known as "freaking" or "grinding," but also any attire that might lead to that kind of behavior. That means no clothes deemed too tight, short, low-cut or anything stationed lower than the shoulder blades. Straps on dresses for formal dances must be at least two inches wide - spaghetti straps are banned - and sheer fabric is off-limits.
Off-limits for guys is any clothing deemed "slovenly" or worn "for protest, defiance, dissent, or displays obscene, illegal substances, or suggestive words or pictures," according to the regulations.

The wording here is nakedly oppressive. Is it against the rules to wear a T-shirt saying "Question Authority" or "U.S. Out of Iraq"? How afraid are we that our children might be thinking for themselves?

The regs received mixed reviews from students, but a big thumb-down from the Tribune's editorial page on Sunday: "We believe that is a naive, dictatorial and, possibly dangerous approach. ... What such rules promote are smothering conformity and Draconian, discriminatory judgments. They might also encourage students who feel stifled to throw their own, unsupervised, come-as-you-are parties."

And don't our underpaid, overworked schoolteachers and administrators already have enough to do without assigning the role of thought police?
posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:37 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, September 12, 2008
Plans for the weekend: Pick your own music
- Conductor Keith Lockhart kicks off his final season with the Utah Symphony tonight and Saturday, at 8 p.m., with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony - the "Ode to Joy" - at Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple. Garrick Ohlsson solos on piano on Beethoven's piano concerto. Tickets are sold out, but you can always try "alternative methods" of getting in (a k a, scalpers).

- The Utah State Fair finishes up its 2008 run this weekend at the Utah State Fairpark, 155 N. 1000 West, Salt Lake City. Hours are 10 a.m.-11 p.m. tonight and Saturday, and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday. The grandstand entertainment: The Elvis Extravaganza tonight at 7:30 (and you can enter in an Elvis contest); the Colgate Country Showdown, featuring Lady Antebellum (pictured), Saturday at 5 p.m.; and the Utah's Strongest Man amateur nationals, Sunday at 1 p.m. Tickets to the fair $8, $6 seniors and kids 6-12, free for children 5 and young at all Smith's Food and Drug stores.

- The first Bridal Veil Film Festival, featuring outdoor screenings under the falls in Provo Canyon (on U.S. 189), tonight through Sunday at 8 p.m. This weekend's movies are "Life Is Beautiful" tonight, "Amelie" on Saturday, "Akira Kurosawa's Dreams" on Sunday. Tickets are $8, with proceeds going to the Rwanda Cinema Center. Bring blankets and jackets.

- Hell's Belles, the all-female AC/DC cover band (pictured at left), plays tonight at Teazers Bar & Grill, 366 36th St., Ogden. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10 at SmithsTix.

- The 9th & 9th Street Festival, a celebration of community commerce at the popular Salt Lake City intersection, runs Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the intersection of 900 South and 900 East. Food vendors, craftspeople and entertainment are part of the event.

- New York indie-rockers TV on the Radio perform Saturday at In the Venue, 219 S. 600 West, Salt Lake City. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $17 advance, $20 day of, at SmithsTix.
posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:28 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
No more "cheerleader beer"?
Molly Ivins, bless her soul, used to call it "the law of unintended consequences" - the fact that people who write our laws sometimes, even if their hearts are in the right places, don't always think through the domino effect of their modest proposal.

That appears to be the case with flavored malt beverages - sometimes called "alco-pops" or "cheerleader beer" - that will be barred from Utah grocery stores and convenience stores starting Oct. 1.

The law, passed this last legislative session, says such flavored beverages - which includes Smirnoff Ice, Bacardi Silver and even Bud Light Lime - can only be sold in state liquor stores (where the markup is 85 percent). Gov. John Huntsman supported the change, in order to get a change in the law to allow stiffer drinks in private clubs.

And because the law requires new labeling and packaging, according to the Tribune's Dawn House, the major beer makers who market such products probably will skip Utah altogether.

"All Anheuser-Busch flavored malt beverages will no longer be available in Utah," Michael Brennan, president of General Distributing Co., the state's largest beer distributor, told House. "I don't think the public understands that 3.2 flavored beverages will be gone."

And that, according to Jim Olsen, president of the Utah Food Industry Association, may have been legislators' intent all along. Olsen said that some advocates of the law intended "to eliminate flavored malt beverages from Utah. Period."

Here's where the unintended consequences come in: If you go into a liquor store looking for one of these "alco-pops" and can't find any, maybe you'll buy some hard-liquor alternative - for example, peach schnapps or Southern Comfort - which will get you drunker faster before driving home. All this so Gov. Huntsman can get potential investors from out-of-state liquored up enough to do business in the state.

Score another point for the Utah Legislature in their ongoing effort to "fix" our alcohol laws and make things worse.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:11 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Plans for tonight: Cowboys and playwrights
- The Utah State Fair continues at the Fairpark, 155 N. 1000 West, Salt Lake City. The Fair is open until 10 tonight. No big grandstand show tonight, but the Veterans of Foreign Wars are planning a ceremony to mark September 11 at 6:45 p.m. Tickets to the fair $8, $6 seniors and kids 6-12, free for children 5 and young at all Smith's Food and Drug stores. All military, law enforcement and emergency services personnel are admitted free today (bring ID).

- Cowboy poets Brenda "Sam" DeLeeuw and Doug Brewer will read and play music at 7:30 at the University of Utah's Little Theater in the Olpin Student Union Building, 200 S. Central Campus Drive, Salt Lake City. The Johnson Creek Band also will perform Western songs. Free.

- The annual Page-to-Stage Festival, a showcase of local playwrights' short work and featuring a full-length production of John Minigan's "Breaking the Shakespeare Code," starts tonight at 8 at the Studio Theater at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, 138 W. 300 South, Salt Lake City. The festival, presented by Wasatch Theatre Company and Utah Association of Community Theatres, runs through Saturday - and again Sept. 18-20 and 25-27. Tickets are $12, at ArtTix.

(Photo of DeLeeuw by Lori Faith Merritt/Photography by Faith)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:36 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Back to the "Runway"
Salt Lake City fashionista Keith Bryce returned to Bravo's "Project Runway" last night, two weeks after his elimination - and he still brought the drama.

The challenge for the eight remaining contestants was to design an avant-garde dress inspired by a sign of the zodiac. Each of the eight was paired with one of the eight designers who were previously cast off.

Bryce (once again wearing a T-shirt advertising his Salt Lake store, Filthy Gorgeous) was teamed with Terri Stevens, the headstrong designer from Columbus, Ohio. But aside from choosing to adapt Bryce's astrological sign - Leo - the collaboration ended there.

The camera picked up several moments of Bryce and Stevens arguing, mostly about whether Bryce could do anything more than pin up a piece of fabric for Stevens' "vision." (In a priceless moment, fashion adviser/den mother Tim Gunn had to wake up Bryce, in self-exile in the "Project Runway" lounge, in time for the runway show.)

Stevens' gaudy "vision" (pictured at right) turned out to be a loser, as both she and the "tanorexic" Seattle designer Blayne Walsh got the "auf Wiedersehen."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:47 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Bye-bye, Kittens
So, let me get this straight - the ZOOperstars, a bunch of oddballs in inflatable animal costumes, got more votes from the viewing public than a burlesque troupe in all-American red white and blue?

Sure enough, that's the way the cookie crumbled for Salt Lake City's Slippery Kittens Burlesque, who were eliminated last week from competition on NBC's "America's Got Talent."

The troupe will be back at their home base, Bar Deluxe at 666 S. State St., on Sept. 20. Welcome them home, Salt Lakers!

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 5:10 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
The "glam rock" Salt Lake City guy
My cubicle neighbor, Tribune TV critic Vince Horiuchi, always fears the arrival of a new reality show, because there may be a Utahn on the show that he'll have to write about every week.

Brace yourself, Vince - here comes another one.

Gawker.com is following the new season of "MTV's The Real World," now being filmed in Brooklyn, N.Y. - and, sure enough, there's a guy named Chet Bannon, a Mormon from Salt Lake City (with a fiancee at home here), whose virginity is, apparently, a topic of much discussion.

Here's how the New York Press describes an encounter with Bannon, at a club where the band Semi Precious Weapons was performing:

MTV had the kids well trained. "I’m sorry I can’t divulge that," the cast members would tell me when I pressed them for any details on life in the Pier 41 house. But Chet Bannon, the Mormon who the producers are trying to have de-flowered, was too nice not to talk. By far the most suave of the yahoos, he was wearing an H&M scarf, Elvis Costello glasses and had his short blonde hair spiked. Best of all, he admitted that they were indeed the cast of 'The Real World.'

"I love glam rock," Chet told me as he sipped a Shirley Temple, "you just don’t see anything like it in Salt Lake." As if on cue, Justin Tranter, the mascara-wearing, teased, peroxide-haired frontman of the Weapons, put a medallion around Chet’s neck, whispered something in his ear, then strutted off.

Good luck with that one, Vince.

(Hat tip to Bill Frost, on the City Weekly blog.)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 2:38 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Plans for tonight: Southern-fried rock
- The Utah State Fair continues at the Fairpark, 155 N. 1000 West, Salt Lake City. The Fair is open until 10 tonight. Tonight's grandstand show is a Southern rock three-bagger - The Marshall Tucker Band, The Atlanta Rhythm Section and The Georgia Satellites - starting at 7:30. Tickets are $8, $6 seniors and kids 6-12, free for children 5 and young at all Smith's Food and Drug stores.

- Alex Gibney’s Oscar-winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side," about the death-by-torture of an Afghani cabbie and the Bush administration policy decisions that allowed torture of detainees in American custody, screens at 7 at Post Theatre at Fort Douglas, 245 S. Fort Douglas Blvd., University of Utah campus, Salt Lake City. Part of the Salt Lake City Film Center's "Films to Watch Before You Vote" series. Free.

- The reggae band Rootz Underground plays at 9 at the Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $7, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:22 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Dunst talks about depression
Actress Kirsten Dunst talks, guardedly, about her recent visit to Utah's Cirque Lodge rehab facility in the upcoming issue of Harper's Bazaar (which features her smiling face on the cover, timed to promote her upcoming movie, "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People").

"I don't want to get into too much detail," Dunst tells interviewer Marshall Heyman, "because I give a quote and then it's blogged about on the Internet for the rest of my life." (Like this one.)

But Dunst does get into what brought her to the Cirque Lodge, when she was "enormously co-dependent":

"I wasn't taking care of myself emotionally. I wasn't expressing my anger. I was making nice all the time. When you spend your entire life as a child actress, being told where to go and where to stand, you're performing constantly for people. It definitely breeds the kind of person who's dependent on other people’s approval. If I’d trusted myself and listened to myself all the times that I ignored myself, I would have been fine. But everyone has to learn their lesson, and now I've got it. ... Now, I’m great."

The new issue hits newsstands Sept. 23.

(Photo by Alexi Lubomirski/Harper's Bazaar)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:43 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Fair on a stick
It would be possible to traverse the length of the Utah State Fair by sliding on all the greasy food one can eat there.

Last night I hit the Fair with my family, and we shared a tasty but undoubtedly artery-clogging funnel cake. The sharing was not equal, as my 8-year-old only nibbled a bit while my 5-year-old declared it "vomitrocious" after the first bite.

We missed out on what my colleague Kathy Stephenson reports today (in the dead-tree Tribune) is one of the hits of this year's Fair: A deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The line at the booth - which also serves deep-fried Snickers bars, Twinkies and Oreos (and faces the barbecue stand that serves "pork chop on a stick") - was way too long, a hidden blessing to my cholesterol count.

We weren't the only ones taking advantage of good food. In the Zion building, we popped in just as Gov. John Huntsman and his family were checking out the pie-recipe contest. My 8-year-old mustered the courage to walk up and shake the Guv's hand.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:35 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Plans for tonight: Marcus' night
- The Utah State Fair continues at the Fairpark, 155 W. 1000 North, Salt Lake City. The Fair is open until 10 tonight. Tonight's grandstand show is the VeggieTales Rockin' Tour - with all of your favorite cute, cuddly and Christian plant-based characters - starting at 6. Tickets are $8, $6 seniors and kids 6-12, free for children 5 and young at all Smith's Food and Drug stores.

- A free screening of the documentary "Fighting Goliath: The Texas Coal Wars," narrated by Robert Redford and presented by the Utah chapter of The Sierra Club, is set for 7 at the Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City.

- Marcus - the man with one name, many tattoos and a second-place showing on NBC's "Last Comic Standing" - will be performing his act in a live taping for an upcoming DVD release, at Peery's Egyptian Theatre, 2556 Washington Blvd., Ogden. Doors open at 6, with a warm-up band and an appearance by Wolf from "American Gladiators," before Marcus takes the stage at 7:30. (Don't be late - they won't let you in, because you might walk in front of a camera or something.) Tickets are $25, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:23 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
"Goliath" in Texas
The old adage that "you can't fight City Hall" has required modification in recent years, to include corporations as something one isn't supposed to fight.

But the short documentary "Fighting Goliath," narrated and backed by Robert Redford and screening for free tonight in three Utah cities, shows an instance of determined local activists fighting a big corporation and (for now, at least) winning.

The documentary shows what happened when the energy giant TXU proposed building 11 coal-fired power plants in central and eastern Texas, with a regulatory process fast-tracked by Gov. Rick Perry. Ranchers, small-town residents and big-city mayors banded together to fight the plan, citing the environmental and health dangers the plants posed.

The movie is supported by The Redford Center at Sundance Preserve, founded in 2007 and "devoted to a distinct brand of problem solving that brings artists to the table to collaborate with diverse groups of policy makers."

Redford told the Associated Press he was inspired by the coalition of divergent interests coming together on this issue. "To me, that was a sign of changing times," he said.

The movie is screening tonight at 7 p.m. at three Utah locations: The Tower Theatre, 876 E. 900 South, Salt Lake City; the Quality Inn in Richfield; and Grace Episcopal Church in St. George. The screenings are free to the public.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:48 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, September 8, 2008
Plans for tonight: Country at the fair
- The Utah State Fair continues at the Fairpark, 155 W. 1000 North, Salt Lake City. The Fair is open until 10 tonight. Tonight's grandstand performer, country singer Chris Cagle (pictured), starts at 7:30. Tickets are $8, $6 seniors and kids 6-12, free for children 5 and young at all Smith's Food and Drug stores.

- A Spanish-language screening of the documentary "Critical Condition," about the plight of the medically uninsured, is set for 7 at the Sorenson Unity Center, 1383 S. 900 West, Salt Lake City. Free.

- The Texas-based indie-rock band Centro-Matic plays at 9 at Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $10, at SmithsTix and 24Tix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:27 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
NOT released in Nigeria
Last week in this space I reported on Andrew Berends, a New York-based documentary filmmaker who had been arrested in Nigeria.

Happy news, from the Sundance Documentary Film Program, which gave Berends a grant to make the film he was shooting at the time of his arrest: Berends and his interpreter, Samuel George, were provisionally released by the Nigerian government on Friday. They "hope to be headed home soon," the Sundance release states.

UPDATE: It's not over yet, according to this site maintained by Berends' supporters (and thanks to the commenter who linked to it). Berends was re-detained Monday and questioned for three hours by Nigeria's State Security Service. Berends' friends are urging anyone to contact their congressperson to apply pressure to the State Department to intercede on Berends' behalf.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:25 AM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Ripples in a pond
It's fascinating, if not a little depressing, to see how one incident in the life of a quasi-celebrity can send ripples across the Internet.

Take the example of former child star Gary Coleman, who was involved in an auto-pedestrian accident early Saturday morning outside a Payson, Utah, bowling alley.

The Salt Lake Tribune dutifully reported the incident in its Sunday paper, about how Coleman reportedly got irritated by a man, Colt Reston, 24, tried to photograph him. The argument started inside the bowling alley, then continued out in the parking lot, where the accident took place.

The Deseret News also reported the incident, and then the Associated Press picked up the story. Then it was off to the races.

Papers in the UK and Australia ran the story. So did Perez Hilton, and several other celebrity blogs - each one giving the blogger and commenters ample opportunity to mock or pass judgment on a human being they have never met (something that I, admittedly, have done on this blog on many occasions).

Let this be a lesson to anyone who seeks to become famous: Once you are famous, even a little bit, your whole life goes on public display - even in Payson, Utah.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:04 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Friday, September 5, 2008
Utah State Fair snapshots
The Utah State Fair is up and running over at the Fairpark, 1000 W. North Temple - the place to be to see a farm animal, eat a giant ear of corn or lose your equilibrium on the Tilt-a-Whirl.

I walked around the fair today, and picked up a few impressions.

I saw this sculpture in the Creative Arts exhibit. It's really cool - but where the heck do you put it after the fair's over.

The beauty of this rotating display is that not only does it show off the hot tub, but it doubles as a midway ride.

After an hour of trying to avoid stepping in manure, you become the perfect target for somebody trying to sell you cleaning supplies.

"I don't care if the other kids go to the bathroom inside, young man. In this family, we leave our manure outside before come into the house."

"Oh, did you see Mabel this year? Just between you and me, I think she's had some work done on her udder."

I have never been more creeped out than when I walked past this booth. Seriously.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 2:17 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Plans for the weekend: Let's get festive
- The Utah State Fair continues through the weekend, open from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. today and Saturday and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday, at the Utah State Fairpark, 1000 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City. Tonight features the big headliner on the grandstand: "High School Musical" sweetheart Vanessa Hudgens (pictured), at 7:30 p.m. Gospel singer Natalie Grant sings Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and the "Country Gold Tour" arrives Sunday at 5 p.m. Tickets for the fair are $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and kids 6-12, and free for children 5 and under. Tickets for Hudgens are $23, at SmithsTix. Admission to the other grandstand shows is included in the fair ticket price.

- The Salt Lake Greek Festival continues this weekend, through 11 p.m. tonight, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., at Holy Trinity Cathedral, 279 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City. Admission is $3. And don't forget the fun run Saturday morning, starting at 7:15 a.m.

- The Avenues Street Fair - with entertainment, street vendors, community organizers (and when did it become OK to boo community organizers?), a children's parade and public art gallery - is set for Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Third Avenue between I and N Streets. (Here's a challenge: Hit the Avenues fair, the Greek Festival and the State Fair all on the same day.)

- LAHPAH Fest, a one-day event to benefit Utah's homeless community, runs Saturday from noon to 10 p.m. at the Gallivan Center, 239 S. State, Salt Lake City. A slew of local acts - Afro Omega (pictured), Colin Robison, Gentri Watson, Debi Graham Band, Andale!, James Shook, Brinton Jones of The Devil Whale, Shaky Trade, Jebu, RuRu, Radio Rhythm Makers, Mad Max & The Wild Ones, Chaz Prymek, The Mandalas, Our Time In Space and Jackie Campbell - will perform at the event, sponsored by Wasatch United Front and KRCL. Tickets are $8, at the gate or through 24Tix.

- Singer-songwriter John Hiatt plays Sunday at Red Butte Garden, 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, with Joan Osborne - who is probably as sick of singing "(If God Was) One of Us" as much as you are of hearing it - as the opening act. The show starts Sunday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30 for garden members, $35 for the public and $25 for children, available at redbuttegarden.org.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:42 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Why I hate the Cougars
When I moved to Utah 17 years ago this month, I learned that new residents to the Beehive State quickly have to choose a side - red or blue.

Not politically, but in which football team to support: The University of Utah Utes or the Brigham Young University Cougars.

Since I am a fan of my alma mater's team, the University of Washington Huskies, the choice was simple. I hated BYU long before I ever got here.

It goes back to 1984, when I was a junior at the U-Dub. My Huskies had compiled a 9-0 record and took the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press poll, before losing a 16-7 heartbreaker to Southern Cal - who took the Pac-10 title and the Rose Bowl slot. The Huskies rallied by beating their cross-state rival, Washington State, and getting an Orange Bowl berth.

That Orange Bowl was amazing (and here's the Wikipedia account of it). The Huskies held the No. 2 team in the nation, the Oklahoma Sooners, into the fourth quarter. Then there was the infamous play in which a Sooner field goal was nullified - but not before the Sooner Schooner rolled out onto the field, prompting a 15-yard penalty, a blocked field goal, and two Huskies touchdowns in less than a minute. Huskies win, 28-14.

By rights, the Huskies should have been national champions. But, no, the AP voters decided BYU - which went undefeated, although they didn't play any team in the top 25, and their bowl victory was in the who-cares Holiday Bowl - should get the title.

So that's why I hate the BYU Cougars. And that's why on Saturday, when the Cougars go to Seattle to play my Huskies (at 1 p.m. MDT on Fox Sports), I'll be rooting like crazy for the Purple Reign.
posted by Sean P. Means @ 10:15 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Putting the "party" in "political party"
The words "fun" and "political speech" usually don't go together - unless you, like me, watched John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention with the members of the Salt Lake City chapter of Drinking Liberally.

The group, which is as dedicated to liberal causes as it is to having a good time, gathered last night at Saints and Sinners, a private club in South Salt Lake, to watch McCain's speech. About 30 or 40 people showed up - including the Democratic challengers for governor and lieutenant governor, Bob Springmeyer and Josie Valdez.

Drinking Liberally was born in New York City in May 2003, and now boasts 293 chapters in all 50 states. The Salt Lake chapter has been around for about three years, according to Heather Culligan, one of the three "hosts" of the McCain event. (The chapter meets regularly on the second and fourth Fridays of the month at Piper Down, 1492 S. State St., Salt Lake City.)

Before McCain's speech (which we watched on one-hour tape delay, because the TVs were tuned to KUED, and nobody realized it wasn't a live feed until it was too late), and I got chatting with Valdez and with Misty Fowler, chairperson of Utah for Obama (who was live-blogging the speech from the bar on her web site, saintless.com).

Valdez and Fowler were both in Denver last week for the Democratic National Convention, and they compared that experience to the show from St. Paul they were seeing on TV.

"It was absolutely amazing," Fowler said, "seeing so many different people gathered in one place from so many different backgrounds."

Valdez remarked on how disorganized and dispirited the Republican rank-and-file looked on the floor of Xcel Energy Center. "We had better sign flow and coordination at our party," Valdez said. Fowler added that the cheering and sign-carrying was all organized by Democratic volunteers, who took the job because it gave them a chance to get into the Pepsi Center and be part of the event.

Once McCain's speech started, everybody was gathered around the TV with their beer glasses ready. Culligan had passed out copies of a drinking-game (devised by Drinking Liberally's Portland, Ore., chapter) to go with the speech. A few people added their own rules, such as taking a drink every time the cameras captured a person of color (which, for the whiter-than-white Republicans, became a sort of televised "Where's Waldo?" game).

Most got into the game with good spirit, though there was one loud angry guy who kept getting louder and angrier as his beer intake increased. I hope he got home OK.

Here's the drinking-game scorecard, as I tallied it:

  • Sip when McCain says taxes should be cut: 6
  • Sip when he mentions Barack Obama by name: 6
  • Sip when he talks about his bipartisan record: 3
  • Sip when he refers to his running mate, Sarah Palin, as a reformer: 1
  • Sip when he talks about the "surge" being a success: 1
  • Sip when he says we have to stay in Iraq until we win: 1
  • Drink when he mentions he's a POW: 1
  • Drink when he refers to Palin's "executive experience": 1
  • Drink when he acknowledges that most Americans think the economy is in bad shape: 3
  • Chug when he calls himself a maverick: 2

And we didn't even get to the end of McCain's speech, because the bar's regular Thursday night reggae band, Soul Redemption started playing at 10 p.m. Those who wanted to catch the rest of the speech did so without sound, with the closed-captioning on.

As it turns out, some good reggae music is the perfect way to relax after fiery political rhetoric.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:26 AM | 2 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, September 4, 2008
McCain, "Straight Talk" on the rocks
If you can't survive listening to John McCain's acceptance speech tonight without alcohol, the group Drinking Liberally is having a listening party tonight - around 7 or 7:30 - at Saints and Sinners, 3040 S. State Street.

According to one member of Drinking Liberally, there will be a John McCain drinking game, in which you take sips or shots when McCain says certain keywords or phrases.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 4:32 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Plans for tonight: McCain's night
- The Utah State Fair starts its 11-day run today, open 'til 10 at the Utah State Fairpark, 1000 W. North Temple, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $8, $6 for seniors and for kids 6-12, and free for children 5 and under.

- The Salt Lake Greek Festival, the city's largest ethnic festival, starts its four-day run today, 5 to 11, at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 279 S. 300 West, Salt Lake City. Admission is $3 at the door.

- The Hinckley Institute of Politics is having a party to watch John McCain (pictured here with his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin) accept the Republican Party's nomination for president. The party starts at 7 in room 253 of Orson Spencer Hall, 260 Central Campus Drive, on the University of Utah campus.

- New Zealand-born singer-songwriter Tim Finn, known both as a solo artist and as founder of the '80s band Split Enz, plays at 7:30 at Bar Deluxe, 666 S. State St., Salt Lake City. Tickets are $25, at SmithsTix.

- Heavy-metal warriors Dokken, on the comeback trail with their new album "Lightning Strikes Again," will rock out at 7:30 at the Murray Theatre, 4961 S. State St., Murray. Tickets are $20, at SmithsTix.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:55 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Fair and warmer

The Utah State Fair kicks off today - 11 days of farm-raised fun, locally produced art, fried foods on sticks, carnival rides to make you puke up said stick-based cuisine, the chance to blow several bucks to win stuffed animals you could buy for half as much money, and the opportunity to introduce your city-fied kids to real live cows and all the smells that accompany them.

Here, in random order, are the fair events I always look forward to:
  • The canned food award winners, if only to imagine the long-running rivalries between Ida Lou from Hurricane and LaVerne from LaVerkin.
  • The commercial exhibits, to marvel at the fine art of hawking dust mops and kitchen knives.
  • The giant butter sculpture.
  • The Fine Arts and Creative Arts exhibits, to gush like a proud papa over my children's entries.

The Tribune kicks off its coverage of the fair with a full schedule and - if you pick up the print edition - a "Fair Libs" game so you can create your own wacky Utah State Fair story.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:13 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Plans for tonight: Heaven or hell?
- The Rev. Al Green displays his soulful sound at 7 at Red Butte Garden, 300 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City. Tickets are sold out, so good luck with the scalpers.

- On the other end of the musical mood scale, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails bring the noise at 7 at the E Center, 3200 S. Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City. Tickets are $32 to $42, at TicketMaster.

- A screening of David Earnhardt's documentary "Uncounted," tracking widespread voting problems in the 2006 elections and how they might hurt the chances for a fair election this year, will screen at 7 at the Post Theatre at Fort Douglas, 245 S. Fort Douglas Blvd., on the University of Utah campus. Bruce Funk, the Emery County clerk who raised concerns over electronic voting machines and lost his job over it, will take questions after the movie (presented by the Salt Lake City Film Center in its "Films to Watch Before You Vote" series). Free.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:23 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Hatch vs. TMZ
TMZ.com, the bottom-feeders of tabloid TV, ambushed Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch at the Republican National Convention, asking if there should be a comparison between Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and celebrity mom Lynne Spears - because they both have had to deal with their teen-age daughters' pregnancies.

Hatch brushed off the TMZ guy politely but firmly, as this video shows.

TMZ is late to the party, anyway. Most everyone - from Barack Obama to Lindsay Lohan (no, seriously, Lindsay Lohan has weighed in on this, and quite intelligently, too) - has declared Palin's daughter Bristol off-limits.

It's not about the politician's family, it's about the politician's policies.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:48 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Memories of Speed Week
Speed Week came and went last month to the Bonneville Salt Flats, the time when racing enthusiasts go out to a flat spot east of Wendover and try to see how fast they can get their engines racing.

Cory Farley, columnist for Auto Week magazine, recalls here the early days "back when Wendover, on the Utah line, offered a gas station, a drive-in and a couple of horror-movie motels." He also recounts, quite hilariously, bringing a British automotive journalist out for the event, and camping out among the rattlesnakes and the "quite alarmingly spacious" scenery.

If you're interested in seeing cars racing on the Salt Flats, the World of Speed (organized by the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association) is set for Sept. 17-20. Just head west on I-80 until you're almost to Wendover. (If you see the Nevada state line and a lot of casinos, you've gone too far.)
posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:18 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Give or take 24 years

(Top photo: Apple Computer ad; bottom photo: Mike Segar/Reuters)

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 8:43 AM | 1 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Arresting journalists, at home and abroad
It's a chilling thought to any journalist: That you could be arrested for doing your job.

That appears to have happened to New York documentary filmmaker Andrew Berends (pictured), who (according to this AP dispatch) was arrested in Nigeria - accused by the military of spying in that nation's troubled oil region.

The anti-censorship group Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest of Berends and his interpreter, Samuel George, in the town of Port Harcourt on Sunday. Berends was released after 36 hours and told to return for more questioning; George is still in custody.

Word of Berends' detainment spread quickly across the Web, thanks to e-mails sent around by editor Aaron Soffin (who edited some of Berends' documentaries) and filmmaker James Longley (who directed the Sundance entry "Iraq in Fragments").

And if you think what happened to Berends can't happen in America, I direct you to this news of the violent arrest of Amy Goodman and two of the producers of her "Democracy Now!" radio program in St. Paul at the Republican National Convention.

Goodman was charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a peace officer. The producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, face felony counts of "suspicion of rioting" - even though they identified themselves as members of the press. The three were covering the anti-RNC protests, and the riot-squad response by St. Paul Police.

Salazar captured footage of her own arrest:




Here's the video of Goodman's arrest:

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 1:36 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Plans for tonight: Sister act
- Utah-bred acoustic-rock sisters Meg & Dia (pictured) - the official MySpace band of the 2006 Warped Tour - play at 6 at Studio 600, 26 E. 300 South, Salt Lake City. Tickets are $14, at SmithsTix.

- This month's Science Movie Night feature is the Jerry Seinfeld-written animated tale "Bee Movie," at 6:30 at the City Library, 210 E. 400 South. Maurice Cobo, beekeeper and president of the Wasatch Beekeepers Association, and Debbie Amundsen, beekeeper and Utah Beekeepers Association board member, will discuss beekeeping and colony collapse after the show. Presented by the City Library and the Utah Museum of Natural History. Free.

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 12:53 PM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Hey, I've met Robert Redford, too
Jay McDonough, a progressive blogger for the Salt Lake City edition of Examiner.com, perfectly pegged the off-the-wall suggestion by Cindy McCain that her husband John's vice-presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has foreign-policy experience because "Alaska is the closest part of our continent to Russia." (No, she really said that - here's the YouTube evidence.)

Countered McDonough: "I met Robert Redford so I, therefore, know about acting."

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posted by Sean P. Means @ 9:16 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, September 1, 2008
Happy Labor Day
This day is dedicated to the working men and women of America - and this working man is celebrating by not working on his blog.

If you're looking for a fun day out, check out the Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog Competition. The finals run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Here's my article from Sunday's Tribune about the event.)

Back to the blog on Tuesday.
posted by Sean P. Means @ 7:00 AM | 0 Comments Links to this post
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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.