It's April, Fool!

As great as March was, April has been pretty fantastic too. The first week of April was jam- packed with fun. Wednesday, April 1, was an unsurprise party for the Super Cool Alex.

Ari invited us all to Alex's house. We started arriving while Alex was still there, but he didn't know that it was planned until more people showed up. His Mom put together this fantastic spread.

Thursday night I went to Dial 'M' for Murder with the usual suspects and Inga. Friday, Rod and I decided to stay in to watch Slumdog Millionaire. The next day, was the best Saturday EVER.

Rod and I have totally different music tastes. My iPod is filled with punk rock,The Cure, Depeche Mode, and NIN. His is filled with bluegrass, americana, and alt country. One of the very few bands we agree on is Better Than Ezra. It helps that they are from his hometown and that I had never heard of them until we started dating. Apparently BTE never made it to Idaho Falls. :) So even though the rest of the world got sick of BTE in the 90s, they are brand new to me. For years, I have been trying to talk Rod into taking me to see BTE in Baton Rouge. But this weekend, BTE came to us AND it was FREE! The concert was at the Canyons. We got there late (because I had a fabulous sushi lunch catching up with my college roommates who were in town for a wedding), but it was perfect timing. We still got close to the stage and only had to wait ten minutes before the band came out. They were even better live! Half way through the concert it started snowing. It was so fun dancing in the snow singing at the top of our lungs. I didn't want it to end!

Sorry the sound isn't better. Here are some clips from their new album and some of their old hits.

After the concert, we met back up with Autumn and Val (the college roommates) for shopping at the outlets and dinner at Red Rock.

To round out our perfect weekend, we spent Sunday skiing.

We ran into Kelly and Seth and spent the rest of the day skiing with them.

The sky was as blue as I've ever seen it (and I got fried!). I did my first black diamond (on skis). It wasn't pretty, but I made it without hurting myself. :)

March was the best month ever!

Between being incredibly busy, taking up a new hobby, and now being sick, I have barely had a chance to write about what was the most amazing month. In addition to the concerts and plays that I've already written about, Rod and I also got in some amazing ski (yes, I said ski) days.


For those of you who don't know, I am a boarder and have been one since high school. Until a couple years ago, I had never even been on skis. I grudgingly agreed to take up skiing because Rod wants to do more backcountry stuff. Until this year, though, I have not taken that promise seriously. I have switched to skis only during the last, already exhaused hours of an okay ski days. But in March I had my first full ski day ever. It helped that my friends Cynthia and Cristina had free passes to Deer Valley (where they don't allow boarders). The skiing was posh and may have ruined me for other resorts. The runs were all really wide, perfect for learning, the mountain hosts were incredibly helpful, and the turkey chilli rounded out a perfect ski day. I also graduated to my first blue run. It wasn't pretty, but I did it.


Then, just when it looked like it was never going to snow again, we headed to Big Sky to see what Montana had to offer. We were actually there to visit our friends and their adorable new baby, but the nearby ski resort was certainly a plus. Chris and Katie were only in Big Sky for a month while Chris did a rotation in the medical clinic. They just had a new baby, Adeline, in November. They had a beautiful cabin on the river.

The first couple of days, the snow was not great, but on the last day it was storming, filling in all of the bumps. Great day! Chris and Katie were such great hosts, we had such a blast.

More about our great month tomorrow (or when I get around to it :) ).

Sundance: One of the many great reasons to live in Utah

Most of the year, people who haven't discovered that if you look past the strange politics, the polygamists, and the weird liquor laws, Utah is a great place to live, avoid it like the plaque. Every winter, though, celebrities and groupies flock to Utah in droves to prance around Park City in their tight designer jeans and knee high Uggs and watch indie films. And it is so AWESOME!


I love independent films (and the celebs aren't so bad either). It is so fun to get to see them (the films) before the rest of the world does and to pick the director/producer/writer/actors' brain about what they were thinking. It is one of the few places where you can run into the director at Starbucks 30 minutes before the film starts.


This year, I messed up and registered for individual ticket sales instead of the locals only sale. By the time my time slot rolled around, all the good tickets were gone. I decided to try my luck at the day-of ticket sales and wait listing. Wait listing is a waste of time, but I had moderate luck with the day-of ticket sales. I got tickets to Toe to Toe and The Greatest. Both were great (but depressing--I think that is a prerequisite to getting into Sundance). Toe to Toe is the not-so-classic story of a spoiled rich white girl and struggling black girl from the inner city. Both girls are new to a school, fighting for a position on the lacrosse team, and fighting over the same boy. The director said that she was trying to explore race relations and why the majority of interracial friendships end by Eighth Grade, but the movie seemed to be just as much about socioeconomic status and how girls apply a different standard to boys than they do to other girls. The main cast was there and they agreed to take this picture with me. The acting was great. I expect that we will see more of these actors in the future.

SONEQUA MARTIN, LOUISA KRAUSE

The Greatest had an all star cast and an incredibly emotional story about how a family deals with the death (car accident) of their teenage son on the last day of high school. The movie hit a little too close to home and I spent the majority of it crying so hard I couldn't see the screen. It had a happy ending, but I don't know how realistic it was. After the screening, Clem and I hurried to the front of the auditorium to talk to Susan Sarandon. We pushed right past James Bond (Pierce), who wasn't as social as Susan. She and the other young actors were so nice, signing autographs and taking photos. I told Susan, "I don't want an autograph or a picture (I had already taken a ton), I just want to shake your hand." Cheesy, I know, but so what. I GOT TO SHAKE SUSAN SARANDON'S HAND. :)

Pierce Brosnan, ?, Susan Sarandon, Carey Mulligan, Johnny Simmons, Zoe Kravitz

The next week, I went to best of fest with Rod and a bunch of friends from work and school. Once again, the winners were depressing. Push is about an overweight black girl, who has been raped by her father, is pregnant with his child (again), abused physically and emotionally by her mom, and illiterate. Her life is about as hopeless as it gets. Everything that could happen to this girl did. She is still hopeful, though. It made us want to slit our wrists. Don't worry, we are not really suicidal, we just don't recommend watching this film if you want to be able to function afterwards.

Afghan Star was the most uplifting film I saw at Sundance. It is about an American Idol-type show in Afghanistan. Unlike the cheesy American show, though, it is making a real difference in Afghanistan. The movie points out that text voting is the first real experience that many Afghans have with the democratic process. The show is also making a huge political statement because for the last 30 or so years, singing and dancing has been forbidden, and men and women do not hang out together in public. That part was uplifting (and eye-opening! Who thought American Idol could have any relevance?). But the female participants will probably be killed for participating in it. Not so uplifting.

Body Worlds

This has really been an amazing year for Salt Lake culture wise. Not only did the UMBA have the Warhol Show and the Monet to Picasso exhibit, but now The Leonardo is hosting Bodyworlds. It was so real it seemed unreal. Does that make sense? It is an exhibit made entirely of plasticized human bodies and body parts. The bodies are arranged in very dynamic poses and sliced very creatively to best exhibit specific qualities of the human body. It was absolutely fascinating. The real parts look nothing like what you would imagine from all those diagrams in your biology books.

PTC: Noises Off

I meant to write about the Pioneer Theater Company's amazing line up this year after the last show I went to, My Fair Lady, but I got sidetracked and it never happened. I am such a big fan of the PTC. I started watching its plays when I was a student and could get season tickets for $5. Now that I am in the real world, the season tickets cost more (not a lot more, though) and are so worth it. I have never been disappointed by the quality of the actors or the set. Sometimes, well actually just once, I was not happy with the play (seriously, who thought that James Joyce's The Dead would make a good musical?).

This year, more so than ever, I am super-excited about the plays. There is not a single one that I'm not looking forward to watching. You have already missed My Fair Lady, which is one of my favorite musicals (I watched for the first time as a movie with my friend LisaDawn), and Noises Off, which about made me pee my pants it was so funny.

The rest of the plays this year include: The Light in the Piazza (2005 Tony Award for best musical score and lyrics), The Yellow Leaf, Romeo and Juliet, Dial M for Murder, and Miss Saigon.

If you're interested, the box office can be reached at 801-581-6961. I also have 1 free ticket that can be used on any of the plays except Miss Saigon. Comment if you want it. If more than one person comments, than I will pick a "winner" at random.

Break a leg!

Powderwhore

Every year, Rod and I go to the Avalanche Center Annual Fundraiser and every year we bid on something at the silent auction only to be outbid at the last minute.

But this year things were different. Kind of. We still did not learn our lesson to get their early enough that there is still food left, but late enough that we run out of people to talk to an hour before the silent auction ends.

We brought Rumba this time though. She loved coming out with us and had a good time running around and meeting other dogs. And at the end of the night, we were victorious. We had to stake out a position next to the bidding table. Here is Rumba sporting her new approach pack before our dusk hike on Wednesday.


If you missed the fundraiser and still want to contribute (or just want to check out some good ski porn), you can check our the Powderwhore fundraiser. The Pact will be screened at Brewvies tonight at 7 and 9 and tomorrow at 7. We're going to hit the early show tomorrow night if anyone is interested in joining us.

Monet to Picasso

Even though last week was completely insane at work, I managed to fit a few cultural events in. Wednesday night, I spent a long, but worthwhile wait for the UMFA's Monet to Picasso Exhibit. It was incredible to see so many noteworthy artists in a Utah museum. I was really surprised, though, that my favorite was not a Picasso or Dali (usually my favorites), but Paul Gauguin, Woman in the Waves.
This picture doesn't do it justice. It is supposed to symbolize abandoning oneself to nature.

Other notable works included La Vie, Picasso
and The Dream, Dali.

It was incredible to see so many of my favorite modern artists in Utah. If you haven't seen the show already, it's gone. You will have to go to the Cleveland Art Museum to catch it. But from October 18-January 11, the UMFA will host the traveling exhibition Changing Identities: Recent Works by Women Artists from Vietnam. On Saturday October 18, the museum will host a mask-making seminar related to the themes in the paintings.

Also, on November 19, the museum will be hosting a lecture on the idealized femine figure as depicted in art. Here is what the UMFA website says about the lecture:
This lecture by Dr. Margaret Toscano, Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Utah, searches for the identity and nature of the “Divine Feminine” by looking at images that represent her in art and literature. Whether a person believes in the concept of the divine feminine literally or metaphorically, goddess archetypes can serve as a powerful mechanism for women claiming power and exploring personal identity and spirituality, as the contemporary art of a woman like Shauna Cook Clinger illustrates so well. I highlight Clinger’s work in my visual essay because of the many ways she examines the relationship between the inner and outer self, light and shadow, death and rebirth, active and passive, and the masculine and feminine principles. Like Clinger, I use archetypes to validate the centrality of “embodiment” for women’s personal identity without reducing them to their physical bodies. I emphasize the importance of women making their own self-representations to counter their historical objectification; and I explore the question of whether we can put the “feminine” on an equal footing with the “masculine” without falling into the very stereotypes that have restricted women to narrow gender roles in the past. While my emphasis is on female images, my slide presentation ends with a plea for balance, with the hope that men too can find metaphors for self-exploration in the nearly three hundred art works I examine.

All the Cool Kids at the Back of the Bus

G Love was great! It was probably the most fun I've had at the Red Butte concerts all year. It started out with a little dancing in the rain and a double rainbow. The opening acts--Tristan Prettyman and the John Butler Trio--were both good, especially the John Butler Trio. The whole sold out crowd was on their feet for most of the night.

Another great season

Sunday night, Rod and I sat out under the stars, drinking porter, and listening to Joan Osborne and John Hiatt. Rod packed a picnic of grilled cheese and pepper jelly panini, tomato salad, and peaches drizzled in balsamic vinegar. It has been a really incredible summer for the Red Butte Gardens concert series. Rod and I missed some of the best ones (Emmylou Harris) because we were doing wedding/honeymoon things, but we tried to make up for it when we got back.

Although the music is always wonderful, my favorite part of the shows are spending time with friends. The setting is really unbeatable too.

I didn't take any pictures of the John Hiatt/Joan Osborne concert. Here are some pictures of Emmett, Mike and Kim's son, at the Wilco concert. He is too cute for words!





If anyone is interested in catching the last show of the season (G Love and the Special Sauce) Thursday night, let us know. Rod always packs an amazing spread!

V-day Celebration

To celebrate Valentine's, Rod and I made reservations at one of our favorite restaurants: Francks. Franck, the owner, is an incredible chef, who was recognized as the best chef in Utah 2007. The meal, as always, was incredible and too beautiful not to photograph.

We started with Mussels beurre blanc with pomme frites to sop up the juice, closely followed by a salad for me and an incredible lentil and coconut soup for Rod (it sounds weird, but it was indescibably good).


Next, our entrees. Rod got the Dueling softshell crabs. I went with the Hawaii sea bass and amaretto-glazed carrots and bok choy.

Usually we share a dessert, but there were too many to pick just one. Rod got a chocolate-wrapped rasberry-chocolate mouse. I got the lemon trio: lemon crepes, lemon sorbet, and lemon creme brulee.


Franck sent out two of his handmade chocolates to end our meal.


What we really love about this restaurant is that the experience is always different, but consistently great. Franck changes the menu frequently and there is always something new to try. Also, it is an incredible value. I can't believe how inexpensive it is for how amazing it tastes!

SKI DAY (FINALLY)!

I know this is incredibly pathetic, especially given the fact that it has been an epic snow year, but today (Human Rights Day - - yes, I know I'm behind) was my first ski day of the year. There was so much snow. I can't believe this is what I've been missing.

Tri-Lakes Hike

Rod and I did a hike in September that was just beautiful. It always amazes me how many beautiful places are in our own back yard. If you are looking for something to do, I highly suggest this hike from Brighton to Alta--the Lake Mary trail.