City Weekly July, 23 2020 by Copperfield Publishing

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Exceptional souls leaving their stamp on Utah

UTAH

THEREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S SOMETHING ABOUT

BY JARED BL ACKLE Y

CONTENTS COVER STORY

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT UTAH Exceptional souls leaving their stamp on Utah By Jared Blackley

Cover photo of Anita Coyle by Nick Bruun

5 PRIVATE EYE 8 A&E 10 DINE 22 MUSIC 28 CINEMA 29 COMMUNITY

2 | JULY 23, 2020

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OPINION

Check out weekly columns Smart Bomb and Taking a Gander at cityweekly.net. facebook.com/slcweekly

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STAY INFORMED! Want to know the latest on coronavirus? Get off Facebook and check out these three online resources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov World Health Organization: who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 Utah Coronavirus Task Force: coronavirus.utah.gov

STAFF Publisher PETE SALTAS Executive Editor JOHN SALTAS News Editor JERRE WROBLE Arts & Entertainment Editor SCOTT RENSHAW Music Editor ERIN MOORE Copy Desk KARA RHODES Contributors JARED BLACKLEY, KATHARINE BIELE, ROB BREZSNY, MIKE RIEDEL, ALEX SPRINGER,

Production Art Director DEREK CARLISLE Graphic Artists SOFIA CIFUENTES, CHELSEA NEIDER Circulation Circulation Manager ERIC GRANATO

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Salt Lake City Weekly is published every Thursday by Copperfield Publishing Inc. We are an independent publication dedicated to alternative news and news sources, that also serves as a comprehensive entertainment guide. 15,000 copies of Salt Lake City Weekly are available free of charge at more than 1,800 locations along the Wasatch Front. Limit one copy per reader. Additional copies of the paper can be purchased for $1 (Best of Utah and other special issues, $5) payable to Salt Lake City Weekly in advance. No person, without expressed permission of Copperfield Publishing Inc., may take more than one copy of any Salt Lake City Weekly issue. No portion of this oublication may be reproduced in whole or part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the written permission of the publisher. Third-class postage paid at Midvale, UT. Delivery might take up to one full week. All rights reserved.

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SOAP

BOX

@SLCWEEKLY

It would be amazing to improve the water quality coming out of Utah Lake so it could be a real recreational river! Sucks not being able to swim! @ALTAOPIE via Instagram Ah, just saw this! It’s awesome! @RACHELANNENAZARE via Instagram

River of Dreams

A very informative article. It would be great to see the river have a more clean and inviting environment. CJ SOUTHWORTH via Facebook

Great article! I love the Jordan River! CHRISTINE BRADLEY via Facebook

Funds Can Be Used for More Than Rent

I was able to read your op-ed

@CITYWEEKLY

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[“COVID Crisis Fail,” Note From the Publisher, July 16, City Weekly] and appreciate your words and concern for the truly small businesses that desperately need help from both government organizations and the public to sustain them through COVID-19 —and the havoc it’s brought —particularly for City Weekly as a local paper and others like yours. I hope you’ll allow me to provide one clarification in the column, which is that Salt Lake County’s Small Business Impact Grant program isn’t a rent grant. The $35,000 can be used for a lot beyond rent, but you were very accurate in that our first round of the program targets businesses

that’ve been left behind and weren’t able to tap into any federal funding yet—many because they didn’t have a leg up in the form of a close relationship with a lender, in the case of SBA’s PPP. I’m sure you can empathize with those businesses that haven’t gotten a dime of aid. As a heads up, we will announce additional funding in the very near future that is in the works, and which will likely address a few of your concerns in the column. We will make sure that info and application are shared with City Weekly and your readers. JORDAN CARROLL Communications Manager Office of Regional Development Salt Lake County

THE BOX

What’s your favorite family vacation? Scott Renshaw

2007, taking the kids on their first visit to Southern California, including beach, Disneyland and San Diego Zoo. And now, I’m just going to get pissed off that “vacation” is a concept that incompetent government leadership will crush for the foreseeable future.

Paula Saltas

Greece as usual. Second: Cooperstown, New York. A beautiful part of New York that I had never seen. Cooperstown Baseball Dreams Park is a once-in- alifetime experience for 12-year-old boys playing in a MLB setting: Trading baseball pins, opening and closing ceremonies and a ring ceremony. Bonus: My son hitting a grand slam! A week I’ll never forget.

Kelly Boyce

Hilton Head in May 2016. The last trip I got to do with my amazing mother.

Mary Caputo

Greece 2018 with the entire family and grandchildren. We covered a few areas on Crete and attended my cousin’s wedding where my granddaughters were flower girls. After two weeks with the extended family, each family unit spent an another week in Greece on their own.

Tom Metos

With my boys: travel to a new city to see a pro game (NBA, NFL, MLB, etc.)—sometimes two different leagues on the same trip. We try local food, touristtype stuff and expand our vision beyond Utah.

Eric Granato

Driving up the Pacific Coast to Canada, our documents were stolen before reaching the border. I did get to go up the Space Needle, though.

Eleni Saltas

My favorite family vacation is the one I’ve actually never been on. My family went to Niagara Falls about 10 years ago, and I was unable to go because I was busy moving into a house at college. To this day, my family is convinced I was on the Niagara Falls trip with them, so I can’t decide if they’re crazy or if my presence really isn’t that memorable.

Terri Anderson

My first time in London and Greece in 2005. Touring and theater in London, followed by warm people and wonderful food in Greece. And so many laughs!

OPINION The Freedom Club

already know from controversies of the past that Utah County schools have no problem insisting that girls cover up their shoulders and midriffs, lest those around them be rendered unable to focus on their studies thanks to the lustful thoughts inspired by so much bare flesh. Heaven knows that mouths are capable of doing much nastier things than shoulders; you’d think the easily scandalized would be relieved to have a socially sanctioned excuse to cover up our sinful sucking parts. But I suppose it’s pointless to draw attention to hypocrisy among those who have immersed themselves in it so deeply that they no longer even see it. That’s why Utah Speaker of the House Brad Wilson could somehow say with a straight face—when explaining his opposition to a statewide mask mandate—“In Utah, we prefer to encourage people to do the right thing rather than issuing mandates and demanding compliance,” somehow failing to remember the many mandates and compliance demands applied to anyone in this state who wants to purchase or sell alcohol. They don’t see it, because to them it’s self-evident: Laws restricting your freedom are perfectly fine when they uphold a very specific definition of how I think the world should be. That’s also the way contemporary American conservatives view the idea of freedom of speech in a tumultuous time—and for quite a while before now. Remember when conservatives called country music radio stations in the early 2000s, demanding that they stop playing Dixie Chicks songs after Natalie Maines publicly criticized President George W. Bush? Remember when Colin Kaepernick was effectively blackballed from the NFL for daring to kneel for the national anthem? Surely, that’s not the same as the “cancel culture” they clutch their pearls over when progressives criticize writers for racist comments or organize boycotts of Goya products over the company’s owner praising Donald

Trump. Armed protests against public-health-protecting business closures? Good. Unarmed protests against police violence? Bad. There’s not one set of rules. There’s what they get to do, and what they decide you get to do. That’s because “freedom” as American conservatives use the word isn’t a big tent, a noble principle that protects us all. For them, “freedom” is a club—and I mean that in two senses of the word. First, it’s an exclusive organization to which only those of a certain ideological bent are invited; your “freedom” ends where a perceived threat to their ideology begins. Second, it’s a truncheon to be leveled against anything they don’t like, with claims that their sorts of freedoms are absolute and without the possibility of restriction. “Freedom” becomes something they can swing in front of them as a license to do whatever they want to do, no matter the likely effect on anyone else. If anyone took more than half a second beyond the shrill bleating of the word “Freedom!,” they’d be able to see that not a single American freedom is absolute. Freedom of the press isn’t absolute; if you think so, try printing something about a public figure that you know to be false. Freedom of religion isn’t absolute; if you think so, try performing a human sacrifice and claiming it’s part of your faith. Freedom of speech isn’t absolute; fire, crowded theater, etc. We balance individual freedoms and societal consequences all the time. Anyone who isn’t an intellectual infant should understand that. Instead, we get the word “freedom” weaponized as a culture-war political tool. It’s a club nobody should want to belong to—and furthermore, it’s a club nobody has the right to belong to. Not unless we’re going to have a conversation about removing those onerous government rules trying to control who gets to see my junk in public. CW Send comments to scottr@cityweekly.net.

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rom around the nation, a cry has arisen among conservatives confronted with stay-at-home orders and mask-requirement ordinances: “Freedom!” Like William Wallace at the end of Braveheart facing tyranny and torture, they imagine themselves shouting “Freedom!” as martyrs to a great cause. I, meanwhile, find myself perpetually considering a different movie quote, from The Princess Bride’s Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” On some level, there’s no way of making the freedomhuggers see the blatant illogic in their case for absolute sovereignty over the region between the bridge of their nose and the tip of their chin, and whether or not the government can tell them to put a lid on it. If, in fact, the conservative case is that you have a constitutionally protected right not to have the government tell you what to wear in public, I’m curious if they similarly believe that I have a constitutionally protected right to walk down the street naked. Once you grant the premise that the government can enact rules forcing you to wear a piece of cloth over a specific part of your anatomy, the only question becomes “which parts, and why?” And it becomes evident that the right-wing logic would be “it’s acceptable for the government to force you to cover your genitalia to protect my delicate sensibilities, but it’s unacceptable for the government to force me to cover my nose and mouth to protect your life.” I’m particularly curious about how the parents at that fustercluck of a Utah County Commission meeting on July 12 would react if I asserted my God-given freedom to let “the little general” salute while I was, say, standing anywhere in the vicinity of one of their precious angels. We

BY S COT T R E N S H AW

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HITS&MISSES BY KATHARINE BIELE @kathybiele

Real Journalism Matters

Maybe you’re one of those who calls news outlets the “lamestream media,” and depends on Facebook memes and conspiracy sites for your “news.” But two recent Salt Lake Tribune articles exemplify just why you need to re-focus on real journalism. First, let’s just say—research vs. opinion. Both stories have to do with taxpayer—your— dollars and how they are being spent. Who knew that an organization called Big Game Forever got $5.1 million from the Legislature to get rid of federal protections for the gray wolf? Independent journalist (and former City Weekly reporter) Eric S. Peterson has been seeking names of subcontractors to find out how this money is being spent. Next, our fundraiser in chief, Attorney General Sean Reyes, is fighting disclosure of campaign contributions in the wake of the arrest of an animal activist who stole pigs and faces 60 years in prison. Want to know more? You won’t know any more about it without professional journalists.

Housing Shortages

When Utah passed the citizen initiative on redistricting, a lot of people were confused. Redistricting? They thought it was supposed to be about gerrymandering, the biennial chess game of placing voters in districts that were safe for incumbent politicians. It was, but the terminology is confusing, and you may want to know now how an independent advisory commission will function in this very Republican-partisan state. Join the online Redistricting 101 Panel to learn everything you need to know about the practice and how it may or may not affect election outcomes. Members of the League of Women Voters of Utah will teach the history and importance of redistricting, and the Better Boundaries team will provide a refresher on how redistricting will work now that Prop 4 is the law. Tuesday, July 28, 5-6 p.m., via Zoom, free. https://bit.ly/2CF0VCT

RALLY FOR SCHOOL MASKS

The governor is loath to mandate masks in the state, but parents and teachers continue to worry about a risky return to school in the fall. Wear a mask to this rally and maintain social distance. “We need to show our governor that schools should only open up if it is safe, and that kids and teachers and staff are valuable to the state of Utah!” organizers say. Parents are protesting at this Mask-in for Safe Schools to encourage a blended learning model option and CDC workplace compliant HVAC systems. The fear of anti-maskers and their actions only complicates the process to keep schools safe. Utah Capitol, 350 N. State, Thursday, July 23, 9:30-10:30 a.m., free. https://bit.ly/2DT7eDG

HOUSING CRISIS EXPLAINED

JULY 23, 2020 | 7

—KATHARINE BIELE Send tips to revolt@cityweekly.net

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The news has been full of frightening facts about high rents, evictions and homelessness. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem and placed it squarely in the laps of government officials. While the state is doing little, Salt Lake County and City are preparing worst-case scenarios. Responding to a Housing Crisis During a Pandemic is a 45-minute panel discussion on Facebook Live about how state and local government can address the housing crisis during a pandemic. On the panel will be Salt Lake City Councilmember Chris Wharton, County Councilwoman Shireen Ghorbani, state Rep. Sandra Hollins and state Sen. Derek Kitchen. Facebook Live, Wednesday, July 29, 11 a.m., free. https://bit.ly/2WwZehY

The Deseret News was on the right track in editorializing against “shortcuts” during the COVID-19 pandemic. But they missed the real point. The New York Times, and well, every other respected news outlet noted the obvious. The president had gutted any disaster plans long ago and was banking on magical thinking to pull the country through the pandemic. Meanwhile, state governors, including Gary Herbert, resist mask mandates because they have faith everyone will wear them anyway. A Fivethirtyeight article notes that, in recent weeks, confidence in Republican governors’ approach fell eight points as the virus continues to surge. As the D-News pleads for Herbert not to look for shortcuts out of the pandemic, it’s a strategy that’s just too little, too late. Without a national effort to combat disasters, the country is left with scattershot and ineffective game plans.

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Let’s talk housing. No, there’s not enough of it by a long shot. “… A surge in home prices and dwindling acreage of available land in Utah’s urban areas have created a deficit of roughly 50,000 homes affordable to those earning average wages in the state,” The Salt Lake Tribune reports. While building is booming, affordable housing is often left out of the mix. Another Trib report notes that “90 percent of workers employed by Utah’s top 30 largest corporations cannot afford monthly rent for a modest two-bedroom apartment.” And the pandemic is making it worse. Notable is that a legislator-attorney who works for landlords has been raking it in with taxpayer funds to hold landlords harmless during Section 8 evictions.

CITIZEN REV LT

the same story from different perspectives. Audience members also become part of the story, including wearing special masks and costuming elements. Brown acknowledges that the shifting nature of the pandemic has required these productions to adapt on the fly to allow for the safest experience. “I think there’s a potential [for artists] feeling like, ‘I give up … I’m just going to go get a normal job, he says. “But it’s like weeds busting through cracks in pavement, living at all costs. Keeping that in mind is what helps me go, ‘This is important.’” (Scott Renshaw)

The 24th of July in Utah is usually a festive occasion, a state holiday recognizing the arrival of the Latter-day Saint immigrants and Utah statehood with parades, rodeos and more big gatherings. With such events not safe at this time, it’s left for other, smallerscale events to pick up some of the slack. While Spanish Fork’s annual Fiesta Days have cancelled several large gatherings for safety reasons, many other events are still taking place. Interested participants can register for the Tennis Tournament or Golf Tournament beginning Saturday, July 25, or the 10K and Mile Run taking place on Friday, July 24. Most significantly, those looking for a big bang for their Pioneer Day can enjoy the Fireworks Spectacular on July 24 at 10 p.m. over the Sports Park (493 W. Volunteer Dr.). Spectators are encouraged to watch the show from alternate locations, as the fireworks will have larger shells and go higher than in years past, allowing for plenty of socially-distanced ways to enjoy the oohs and aahs. Visit SpanishFork. org for a full list of scheduled events. Kamas Valley Fiesta Days is also continuing with some appropriate events,

including the morning Fun Run at 7 a.m. on July 24, an evening “Flipped Parade” (with stationary floats that visitors can drive by), a Motorcycle Ride Saturday morning, July 25, and a Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival throughout the day on Saturday. Enjoy fireworks shows on both Friday and Saturday night at 10 p.m. from your favorite location. Visit KamasCityUt.gov for additional events, and celebrate safely. (SR)

Godspell concert version at The Gateway

excerpts from Beethoven’s letters will be featured in dramatic readings by Utah acting legend Anne Cullimore Decker. Next week, the programming for the summer concludes on Aug. 3 at 8 p.m., with a program including Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat Major and Nielsen’s Woodwind Quintet. While all of the streaming concerts are presented free of charge to the public, you can support the organization financially at IntermezzoConcerts.org. While we await the chance to join these artists live again for intimate experiences of great classical works, tune in from your home and get a welcome dose of beautiful music. (SR)

We’re all figuring this pandemic thing out as we go along, including what kinds of events are okay, and where it’s okay to hold them. This week, The Box performing arts space at The Gateway presents a concert version of the 1971 Broadway musical Godspell, in an outdoor space with special safety processes for both performers and audience members. “Our feeling is, we don’t know when it’s going to be safe to perform in indoors, or when people will feel safe going to a show indoors,” says The Box facilities director Jim Martin. “We could wait for that to happen, or we can do like other people around the country and figure out how to work within this new normal. A lot of our folks have felt really lost without that outlet they depend upon.” Godspell tells the story of Jesus largely through the songs of award-winning composer Stephen Schwartz (Wicked), including now-standards like “Day by Day,” “Prepare Ye” and “Save the People.” Cast

JIM MARTIN

Intermezzo Chamber Music Streamed Concert Series Music can soothe the soul— and heaven knows most of us need a lot of soul-soothing at the moment, as the stresses of life mount. Throughout the summer, while performing arts have remined largely silent, the Intermezzo Chamber Music Series—now in its 19th year—has presented a series of concerts streamed live from the Gallivan Center in collaboration with the Excellence in the Community concert series every Tuesday night, and this week continues the group’s theme celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. On July 27 at 8 p.m., Intermezzo and the cellists of the Utah Symphony present a program showcasing the complete Beethoven sonatas for cello and piano, accompanied by pianist Vedrana Subotic. Soloists Matthew Johnson, Anne Lee, Louis-Philippe Robillard, Pegsoon Whang and Walter Haman are showcased individually for the five pieces, which cover a span of the composer’s life from 1796 to 1815; accompanying cellists include Symphony member and Holladay native Kevin Shumway. Additionally,

Complete listings online at cityweekly.net

TDK

GRAHAM BROWN

The recent production of Through Yonder Window by SONDERimmersive—a drive-in take on Romeo & Juliet produced in a parking garage—was one of the first original local shows to embrace the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic as part of the staging. The company continue its creative way of making lemonade from lemons with The Carousel, at the Dreamscapes gallery (110 S. Rio Grande St. in The Gateway) beginning July 27. Tickets are $20 per person, available at Universe.com/TheCarousel. According to SONDERimmersive’s artistic director Graham Brown, the show was inspired in part by the 10 rooms in the Dreamscapes space, which gave rise to a story idea involving 10 characters with highly symbolic names like The Bereaved, The Architect, The Pathfinder and The Jester. Audience members—no more than three in a group, socially distanced from the performers—accompany one of the characters on a room-by-room tour of the gallery, before switching over to another character. At times, the individual stories of each character intersect, allowing for an experience of

ENTERTAINMENT PICKS, JULY 23-29, 2020

Pioneer Day events

SONDERimmersive: The Carousel

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ESSENTIALS

the

members include Dee Tua’one as Jesus and Matthew Davids as John and Judas, directed by Beth Bruner, who oversaw a 2001 local production of the musical. “The show has a message of togetherness, and I think collectively, that’s what we need right now,” Martin says. Performances will be held at The Gateway’s Level 4 patio, adjacent to Discovery Gateway, July 29-Aug. 2 at 7 p.m. nightly, tickets $20 per person. Performers will be singing with individual, unshared microphones, with only 50 seats per performance and attendees admitted at staggered times to avoid over-crowding. Masks are required for all audience members. (SR)

A&E

BIG SHINY ROBOT

Unconventional

While fan conventions take a pandemic hiatus, here’s how to capture the experience safely at home. BY BRYAN YOUNG

COMIC CON INTERNATIONAL

San Diego Comic Con takes its 2020 event online this week of an exhibition hall trying to find. They’re both open now, and can help you pick up your comics in the safest ways possible. If they can’t find it, though, eBay certainly can. If you’re looking for coverage of all of the latest news that you would find at a convention, there is no shortage of websites and podcasts dedicated to analyzing that information for you. It just depends on what your area of interest is. Any simple search of your favorite fandom and the word “podcast” is going to bring up any number of shows dedicated to the nerdy introspection of your favorite thing that you would expect from a convention. Say, for instance, you wanted to attend what is essentially a Star Wars convention, and all you have is iTunes. A simple search for, say, Full of Sith, would bring up a podcast hosted by yours truly with all of the celebrity interviews and news analysis you’d ever want from a galaxy far, far away. As we learn to live without things because of the pandemic, it seems as though the world of the internet can offer us most of the things a convention can, but without the plague-inducing crowds. Stay safe, stay home and find your path to replicate the experience without catching a coronavirus. It’s no joke. CW

content we wanted to see, watched it together, and then came back to discuss it as though we were in the hallways between panel rooms. But what about walking an Artist’s Alley or the vendor hall? How could you possibly replicate that feeling? Well, I’ve got news for you: DeviantArt and Etsy are a thing. In that same Zoom room you’ve set up with your friends, you can all take turns walking the virtual vendor hall in order to spot new art and crafts that you may or may not need, and send the links back to your group. Twitter has been an invaluable resource for this as well. Vendors at cons are, in some ways, like itinerant carnival workers—traveling from city to city, selling their handmade wares or art. Seeking them out on Twitter is a great way to find them. If the search bar doesn’t come up with anything, just ask. There are lots of creators out there boosting posts by these vendors, to help them get through these lean times. If you have fared well through the pandemic and have cash to spare, vendors like this could use the boost. If it is comics you’re looking to snag, you have plenty of local options. I’m sure Dr. Volt’s and Black Cat would be more than happy to help you track down whatever dollarbin comic you’d otherwise be kneeling on the concrete floor

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don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a pandemic. The economy is tanking—thanks in large part to the lack of leadership at most levels of government in the United States—and since they didn’t do enough to combat the crisis, we’re all still locked in our homes, unable to attend the most beloved of nerdy pastimes: conventions. This week would have been San Diego Comic-Con. This year, it’s been rebranded as a free experience called Comic-Con@Home; all of its offerings will be online. Dragon Con is going virtual with most of its content. How they’re going to do their renowned masquerade via computer is beyond me, but if anyone can pull it off, they can. Megagaming convention Gen Con has done the same, going so far as to offer virtual gaming to all of its attendees. Our own local show, FanX, recently announced that their event scheduled for September has been postponed until next year. All of this can leave you with the feeling that you’re missing out. When you’re accustomed to attending these events regularly, their absence can leave an emptiness in your Zelda-style heart meter. So how do you approximate that feeling of having gone to a convention while being trapped at home, hoping that the most lethal symptoms of COVID-19 pass you by? One of the most important aspects of going to a convention is the social aspect. You want to interact with like-minded people. In these days, a rocking party could be confused for a Zoom room and some Jackbox games while you quietly nurse a Jack and coke at your computer. But that’s also the answer to replicating the feeling of a convention. Organize watch parties with your con friends. Consume all the virtual content the cons have to offer, and then schedule a time to joke around and talk about it. Having recently survived an online conference myself, this was the key to making it feel normal. We strategized together about what

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Spend this Pie and Beer Day with some local experts. BY ALEX SPRINGER comments@cityweekly.net @captainspringer

JULY 23, 2020 | 11

pie and their Blackberry Sour with cherry or banana cream pie. Trolin says that the Vanilla Nut Cream Ale was in short supply outside of the brewery, but stores should be restocked just in time for Pie and Beer Day. Either way, the Kiitos taproom is open for business; if you can’t find one of their brews at your favorite

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I kicked off my quest with Kiitos Brewing (608 W. 700 South, 801-215-9165, kiitosbrewing.com), a relative newbie in the Utah brewing scene. During a phone conversation with Ashlin Trolin, Kiitos’ Regional Liquid Liaison, she was quick to recommend their Vanilla Nut Cream Ale with a warm slice of apple

Bock from Bohemian for those pops of raspberry tartness. As for some key lime pie to go with one of Epic’s or Bohemian’s Mexican brews, your best bet would be The Dodo (1355 E. 2100 South, 801-486-2473, thedodorestaurant.com). Key lime pie is notoriously difficult to pull off, but The Dodo’s iteration is consistently tasty. While you’re there, pick up some Toll House pie, which pairs well with anything at any time. You’re on your own for pizza—if you don’t know where to get good pizza in Utah, I’m afraid you’re beyond hope. I can help you out when it comes to other savory variations, however. Shepherd’s pie aficionados need look no further than Piper Down (1492 S. State Street, 801-4681492, piperdownpub.com). This is the comforting, gravy-forward dish that all other shepherd’s pies answer to. I’d also suggest checking out Fillings and Emulsions (multiple locations, fillingsandemulsions.com) for their tantalizing roster of meat pies—their Cubano is a celebration of salt and vinegar pub food flavors. For those in the mood for some Frito pie and a Los Locos Lager, I’m suggesting you bite the bullet and try cooking this culturally relevant dish at home—even if you fail, the results are always intriguing. Here’s wishing you and yours a happy Pie and Beer Day. Go forth and drink deeply. CW

tah has reached the point where our level of local talent when it comes to pie and beer have made it hard to decide where to hitch our Pie and Beer Day wagon for 2020. If you’re having trouble deciding which varieties of pie and beer to sample, I took the liberty of reaching out to a few local breweries to see which local beer works best with your favorite variety of pie, while providing a rundown of the local spot makes the best version of that pie. If you don’t get the best damn Pie and Beer Day experience of your life this year, then you have no one to blame but yourself.

If a heaping pile of Frito pie—a Utah favorite that consists of chili, cheese and Fritos in no particular order—is in the cards for your holiday, Thompson suggests a dose of Los Locos. “What better beer to pair with this than Los Locos, our Mexican-style lager,” Thompson says. “This beer is brewed with corn, lime and sea salt, and is light in body to complement the savory and spicy notes of Frito pie.” Like local breweries, Utah has a lot of talent in the baking arena— which makes it hard to decide on the best pick for the other half of this happy day. Those looking for something that stretches the boundaries of what pie can be should make way to Tradition (501 E. 900 South, 385-202-7167, traditionslc.com). The spiced cherry pie is a top shelf Mercedes-Benz of a pie, and its mixture of black pepper spice and lemonzest tart would most definitely party with that Kiitos Blackberry Sour. If you’re after traditional pies that are easy to order in advance, you can’t really go wrong with Kneaders (multiple locations, kneaders. com). They’ve got you covered when it comes to caramelly apple pies and fluffy banana cream pies, but I’d also encourage anyone ordering from here to try out their raspberry cream cheese pie—based on the brewers’ recommendations, this one would pair best with the Cherny

Pie and Beer Pioneers

local shop, you can always mask up and swing by for a quick growler refill. From there, I reached out to Will Gillane, Sales Manager of Bohemian Brewery (94 E. Foothill Boulevard, 801-566-5474, bohemianbrewery. com). His first recommendation was their Cherny Bock Schwarzbier with cherry pie, because its roasted coffee and chocolate notes create a full-bodied contrast to the sweetness of cherries. For citrusy pies like key lime or lemon meringue, Gillane recommends Bohemian’s Sir-Veza Mexican Style Lager for its sweet finish that complements pies of the tart variety. If you’ll be dining on pizza pies for your holiday meal, Gillane suggests picking up some classic Bohemian Pilsener which is crisp, refreshing and light-bodied— perfect for the salty savor of a good pizza. Last but certainly not least on my pie and beer tour was Matt Thompson, Lead Brewer with the veterans at Epic Brewing (825 S. State Street, 801-906-0123, epicbrewing.com). Thompson’s recommendations were focused on savory pies, which round out the list nicely. Fans of shepherd’s pie, for example, will want to check out Epic’s Imperial Pink Ale. “This beer is slightly roasty and malt forward, with hints of dried and tropical fruit, which pairs perfectly with a savory meat pie,” Thompson says.

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Arlo Restaurant Opens

The Marmalade neighborhood recently welcomed Arlo Restaurant (271 N. Center Street, 385-266-8845, arlorestaurant. com), a contemporary American restaurant from Chef Milo Carrier. Arlo has moved into the space that was once occupied by Em’s, a Marlmalade favorite until the owner retired a few years ago. In that time, Carrier has worked to bring his concept of a full-service “elevated” casual restaurant to the area. With the pandemic in full swing, Arlo is adopting a flexible approach to their menu, which includes pizza, pasta and salads that Chef Milo will be playing around with as the restaurant continues. Taking advantage of the stellar patio that the space provides, Arlo is currently accepting reservations for socially distant patio dining.

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New Roots is a national program created by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) that gives refugees the resources they need to provide food for themselves and others. The Utah chapter of New Roots has been hosting farmers markets around town since June, the most recent of which will take place at the IRC’s Salt Lake offices (221 S. 400 West) starting on July 22 from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and taking place every Wednesday through Oct. 7. In addition to supporting refugees, the New Roots Markets will help customers who receive EBT or SNAP benefits by matching every dollar spent up to $30 with in-market credit. On top of that, this is a great place to get locally-grown produce and other foods from countries outside the U.S. Check out newrootsslc.com for more info.

Explore Utah With Chocolate

The chocolatiers at Taste Artisan Chocolate (117 N. University Avenue, Provo, 385-312-0331, taste-chocolate.com) have teamed up with Utah County tourism group Explore Utah Valley (utahvalley. com) to produce a batch of chocolates inspired by iconic Utah Valley destinations. The team at Taste took their cues from the vintage travel posters created by Explore Utah Valley, and plan on creating each chocolate concoction with ingredients like dried cherries, honeycomb and almonds grown and produced by farmers in Utah County. The series will consist of three bars inspired by, respectively, the Radha Krishna Temple, Historic Provo and Mount Timpanogos, and can be preordered via Taste’s website. Quote of the Week: “Immigrants, we get the job done.” –Lin-Manuel Miranda

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ice cream treat. It looks great, with a nice, slightly darker orange color featuring a fair amount of haze and a fluffy white head that tends to disappear at a fairly fast clip. It’s hard to retain a lot of foam with such a fruit-forward beer. No matter, you get big orange aromas from a beer that looks a hell of a lot like orange juice. The smell is luscious citrus with creamy orange peel, mango, passion fruit and vanilla. The taste is a full-on fruit basket of sweet, juicy orange, tangerine and clementine. It has all of the fresh citrus components, but the fructose is sharpened by the tartness from the kveik base beer which helps keep the citrus from becoming overly sweet. The vanilla part is subtle and less pronounced than you’d find in the classic Creamsicle

treat. Still, it is noticeable, and if you’re a fan of the frozen confection, you’ll really love this 6.5 percent alcohol take on it. Due to the addition of lactose, I would consider this beer not vegan-friendly. Quarantine Desirability Rating: Ever watch Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and wonder, “Why is poor Jim Fowler getting cheetah-ravaged while that damn Marlin Perkins is all safe and chill behind the bamboo screen?” Well, if I were Marlin, and I was was suckin’ down one of these Creamsicle kvieks, I’d probably let Jim die, too. Unlike my taste in television, these beers are fresh and on point. As more restaurants and pubs open, they’re picking up more beers like these, so keep your eyes on those beer menus. As always, cheers! CW

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ll this time at home has really got me in tune with my adolescent self. I’ve discovered quite a bit of ancient programming on the interwebs—and, sadly, it’s affecting my perceptions of beer. Strap in, kids; this shiz is about to get shazbat, Mork & Mindy reference. Toasted Barrel To Be Home: This beer was created in a very old-school way: by allowing the natural outside air to ferment the beer instead of inoculating it with cultured yeast. This ale spent a little time beneath a pine tree in a shallow basin known as a “cool ship.” The resulting natural and wild fermentation created a sour and funky beer in a style that goes back centuries. Right off the bat, you can tell that this is no normal beer. It has a pale gold hue with plentiful carbonation and light floating sediment. An aroma of dry, tart yeast

MIKE RIEDEL

Getting nostalgic for oldschool TV with old-school beer flavors.

comes at you first, with hints of raw grain, hay, mild funk, lactic acid, sour fruity notes, apples and subtle mustiness with an underlying earthiness. There’s not much hop character to speak of. It tastes of sharp, vague sour fruits, with notes of lactic acid, husky grain, hay and subtle funk. Next comes apple skin and a vinegary twang. The end has a vegetal mustiness and earthiness—very dry, with little bitterness observed. At 7.0 percent alcohol, it finishes pretty astringent, drying the palate and fostering an aftertaste of sour fruity notes, earthiness, grain, apples and subtle funk. Quarantine Desirability Rating: This ale kinda reminds me of Marilyn from the old Munsters television show. It seems so sweet and innocent, but it’s hanging around a real funky family of devilish flavors, along with a raw and somewhat untamed cast of craziness. Caveat emptor on this one: If you’re not into the great unknowns of fermentation, take a seat. But if you gotta have the funk, get up and shake that thing over to Toasted Barrel for a bottle. Shades Orange Creamsicle: Shades Brewing continues their onslaught of mimic beers. Just when you think that they’ve used up their arsenal of harmonious flavors, they hit you again with something surprising. This is a faithful representation of the favorite Creamsicle popsicle/

MIKE RIEDEL

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Exceptional souls leaving their stamp on Utah BY JARED BLACKLEY

JULY 23, 2020 | 15

—Jerre Wroble

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at local bars called “Pie and Beer” Day, where patrons indulge in pints and slices, with some bars encouraging their wait staff to dress in pioneer garb. The point being that regardless of religion, ancestry or ethnicity, Utah loves its trailblazers—and the more refreshingly eccentric they are, the better. In fact, it could be argued that Utah reserves its greatest blessings for the most eclectic among us. The more driven and unique a person may be, the more they seem to thrive in this quirky land. Test drive that idea with the visionaries in your life, and let us know if you find it to be true. Three cases in point follow. The author, Jared Blackley, has written numerous articles for City Weekly’s sister publication, Vamoose Utah. The trailblazers he writes about most assuredly march to their own drum. We celebrate them and all modern-day pioneers like them this week, grateful for the mark they leave behind.

ince 1849, July 24 has been a day of celebration, marking the arrival of the first group of Latter-day Saints into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Pioneer Day celebrates their dangerous cross-country trek in search of religious freedom. Over time (except for in this COVID-19 year, that is), parades, fireworks, rodeos, songs, dance, picnics and historical re-enactments have become part of the occasion. But the day means different things to different people. While canceled this year due to COVID, a local Native American group hosts an intertribal pow-wow in Liberty Park on July 24, attracting as many as 65,000 people each year to share song, music, dance, drums and cultural preservation. “We ask the Native American tribes and communities to support our venue in the midst of the State of Utah pioneer day celebrations. … We are not affiliated with the Days of ’47 festivities or any pioneer-related activities,” the website for Native American Celebration in the Park notes. Other non-Mormons enjoy a counterculture faux holiday

There’s Something About Utah

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COURTESY PHOTO

Eileen Muza

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Anita Coyle

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What Could Happen?

When everything in her life unraveled, Anita Coyle, mother of four, made a run for it. When Anita Coyle qualified for the 2017 XTERRA World Championship Off-road Triathlon in Hawaii, she was surprised. The ultra-athlete has always been competitive but qualifying for the world championship is difficult. Of the more than 50,000 competitors in the 35 qualifying XTERRA triathlons throughout the world, only 650 are eligible to compete in the world championship. Of those 650, many devote their lives to preparing and training. But with less than a month between the XTERRA Pan-Am event at Snowbasin (where Coyle qualified) and the world championships, she didn’t think she could properly focus on the race. She’d just given birth to the youngest of her four children the year before and had other priorities on her mind. But she qualified again the following year, and this time, she really wanted to compete in Hawaii. After discussing it with her husband, Jason, though, she ended up not going. Jason was more practical about the situation. Last-minute plane tickets are expensive, he argued, and the family had just spent a small fortune on a trip to Disneyland. It just wasn’t a good time for her to compete. Why was she in a hurry, he asked. He urged her to wait, confident she’d qualify again in the future. “What could possibly happen?” After a small spat, they came to an agreement—that 2019 would be Anita’s year. In case something unforeseen happened, like a flat tire or a muscle cramp, she would compete in two XTERRA events—Beaver Creek, Colorado, and at Snowbasin. They’d make a family vacation of it. They’d rent an RV and visit national parks on the way home. Then, assuming she qualified for the world championship in October, the Coyles would celebrate their 20th anniversary in Hawaii. Like Anita, Jason was also competitive. He swam four days a week. He had completed two 10-mile swims, which is equivalent to an ultra-marathon. (For comparison, a full Ironman consists of a 26.2 mile run, a 112-mile bike ride and 2.4-mile swim.) He also swam the length of Bear Lake several times and across a 6-mile stretch of the Great Salt Lake. He looked forward to one day swimming to Catalina Island or across the English Channel. He pushed his heart to keep up with his demanding workouts. But that was the kicker. Unbeknownst to him,

he had an undiagnosed bicuspid aortic valve, meaning his aortic valves only had two leaflets, instead of the normal three. This required his heart to work overtime to pump blood through the narrowed valve. During a routine swim on the night of January 3, 2019, Jason’s heart malfunctioned. Feeling nauseous, he hopped out of the pool and walked to the locker room, where he collapsed. Medical professionals did their best to revive him, but he died at age 42.

Something Had to Give

After every tragedy, there are those who mourn, and those who grieve. The distinction is stark. After a while, the former move on. Life goes back to normal. Grief, however, settles in for the long haul. One deals with it continually— sometimes for days on end. It can be debilitating. Anita was always one to finish a race. But this time, she sank into a dark fog. She wanted to crawl into a corner and stay there. She even considered a darker, more permanent solution to ending the anguish but knew that wasn’t really an option. Her children and their ongoing needs brought her back to the present. Yet, she needed something else. Overwhelmed with love, remorse and regret, she had no place to unload her emotions. The phone call she received a week after Jason’s funeral didn’t help. A nodule that was surgically removed from her thyroid the day before Jason passed away was determined to be malignant. Tests were needed to ensure the cancer hadn’t spread. “This was just too much to even think about,” she said. “I lost it. It was too overwhelming.” Something had to give. A few weeks after Jason’s funeral, she laced up her running shoes and went out for a long run. “It was the only time I felt any sort of happiness or sense of not bearing a load of weight,” she said. Getting back on a bike was harder. Mountain biking was a favorite date activity for Jason and Anita. They rode in the Wasatch often and vacationed in Moab a few times a year. But getting back into the pool would be the most difficult of all, as that would always be Jason’s domain. The idea of trying to qualify for the XTERRA World Championships began to creep back into her head. She asked her closest friends what she should do, and most told her the time wasn’t right. She knew it would be an enormous commitment to undertake at this point in her life. But she kept hearing the words Jason had said to her a few months earlier: “What could possibly happen?”

COURTESY PHOTO

Anita Coyle: “I finally decided I shouldn’t wait.”

COURTESY PHOTO

Son in tow, Anita Coyle crosses the finish line at Snowbasin

“I finally decided that I shouldn’t wait,” she said. “I needed to do it now, so I asked friends and loved ones to support me. And they did, in a big way.” She got back on the bike. She got back in the pool. She started an Instagram page—@RacingFromTheAshes—as a way to hold herself accountable. She had no specific training regimen—how could she, a grieving widow with four young children? She assessed her schedule daily. She took advantage of every free moment. She had always loved spending the summer months with Jason—a well-liked English teacher at Bountiful Junior High who was renowned for his mustache. But now she dreaded summer’s arrival, knowing her kids would be home all day. Would summer break make the house feel even lonelier? Would she be able to find enough free time to train?

Emotional Roller Coaster

Lab work and CT scans found no evidence the cancer had spread, but she would need to return in three months to make sure. The days seemed long and chaotic, and nights seemed even longer. In July, she competed in the Beaver Creek XTERR A Triathlon and didn’t qualify for the world championships. But she noted who did. In order to qualify at Snowbasin, she would only have to finish no more than two spots behind those contenders. She continued to train while friends and family often helped with the kids. September came, and she wondered if she had she prepared enough. She raced at Snowbasin. There were no flat tires, no muscle cramps. She finished fourth in her age division, two spots behind the women who qualified in Colorado. And this time, she succeeded: She had once again qualified for the world championships in Hawaii. The trip to Hawaii was an emotional roller coaster. The night before the race, she was named the XTERRA Warrior, an award given annually to one participant whose resilience in the face of adversity is inspiring. The next day, her resilience paid off—she completed the race. And she’s glad she didn’t put it off because the world championships were canceled this year due to COVID-19. When she returned home, nothing much had changed, of course. She was still in the throes of her greatest challenge—raising four kids as a grieving widow—and she will be for some time to come. But she has other aspirations, and other races to run. Happily, her lab work and CT scans remain clear. With every sunrise, there are reasons to be hopeful.

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Cisco’s casual re-emergence as an artists’ haunt in the desert Located on the barren, windswept desert plains 45 miles northeast of Moab—just off Interstate 70 between Crescent Junction and Grand Junction, Colo.—the ghost town of Cisco has seen its share of boom and bust since its founding in 1883. But by the time Eileen Muza pulled into town in 2015, it was a graveyard of abandoned cars and RVs. Most of the buildings had collapsed or were in an advanced state of decay, leaning this way or that. Almost all had been tagged with graffiti or vandalized, their windows shot out a long time ago. Like most visitors who stop in Cisco, Muza was just passing through. An artist, she was on her way to the Great Panel in Horseshoe Canyon. The pictographs there interested her, but there was something else about Cisco that captivated her. Being from the city, it was the first ghost town she had ever experienced. “I couldn’t believe that all this stuff had been abandoned,” she said. “That can’t be right. Somebody’s gotta be here. I mean that house has a satellite dish on it? I didn’t want to assume it was abandoned, because you never know. You can go to any ‘abandoned’ building in Chicago, and you’ll find squatters. People will live there. I couldn’t understand it.” While investigating the town, she noticed one dwelling in particular that, though in a state of disrepair, appeared to be structurally sound. It wasn’t for sale, but she was thinking, “Obviously nobody wants it. Or maybe they do care for it but are too old to keep it up. Who knows what their story is?” Her curiosity led her to find the owner, and she ended up purchasing approximately 2 acres of land, a cabin and several outbuildings, including the original post office, built in 1887, and then moved on joists for over 2 miles when the railroad town was relocated to its current location in 1890, to lie along the standard gauge rail line. Water was pumped from the Colorado River to Cisco to fill the steam engines, and the town saw its first boom. A motel, a mercantile, a saloon and a school opened. Cattle barons and shepherds in the area used the depot to ship their goods. By 1900, the town had 173 residents. The Goslin brothers of Cisco shipped more than a quarter-million pounds of wool out of the town in 1906. The population peaked at 323 in 1910 before the demand for wool saw a steep decline and the town experienced its first bust. Only 95 citizens remained in 1920.

Charlie’s Folly

Over the next several decades, Cisco would experience several other small boom-and-bust cycles. After steam engines became obsolete and trains no longer needed to stop for water, America’s burgeoning fascination with the automobile turned the town into a service center. An eccentric and unemployed geologist named Charlie Steen lived in Cisco with his family for a couple years in the early 1950s while pursuing an educated hunch that other geologists at the time referred to as “Charlie’s Folly,” about where to find uranium. The tarpaper shack the Steens lived in is still mostly standing and can be seen just off the main road. He was deeply in debt when he lived there and desperate for a grubstake. His kids’ clothes were threadbare, and the family was living primarily on venison when his hunch paid off. He found uranium in July 1952. A year later, he owned the largest house in Moab, which is now the Sunset Grill, and was known for throwing extravagant parties and spending lavishly. Though he eventually died broke, his discovery spurred a rush in mine claims, which continued for nearly two decades. When I-70 was completed in the 1970s, Cisco was bypassed by five miles, effectively killing it as a service center. It was a foreseeable fate, one that, according to local lore, inspired Johnny Cash’s song “Cisco Clifton’s Fillin’ Station.” The song is said to be about H. Ballard Harris,

SALLIE HODGES

Solitude and Stars

“ ... what I envision is to make this place somewhere artists can come and work year-round.” —Eileen Muza

who still lives in Dewey, 15 miles south of Cisco on State Road 128. This Scenic Byway follows the Colorado River almost the entire way to Moab and is a painfully beautiful drive. By the mid-’90s, the post office shut its doors and, within a few years, the town was effectively vacant. By the time Muza arrived, no one called Cisco home. At the time, she had a seasonal job working for the Park District in Chicago. She spent her winters traveling. Though there was no running water or sewer system, Cisco seemed a good place to spend her winters.

It’s a Good Thing I Was Super Optimistic

“I was almost 30,” she said. “I was at a point in my life where I was feeling like I needed to do something or make some changes in my life. I thought [moving to Cisco] could definitely change things for me, for better or worse.” Optimistic about owning land and fairly confident in her ability to use power tools, she worked feverishly to clean the place up and make it comfortable. As often as possible, she would reuse and repurpose items strewn around her property. There’s a fence made out of old box springs. The outhouse uses worn oil barrels to support the posts. The walls are composed of rusty sheet metal. Her back porch is a leveled amalgamation of several pieces of concrete of varying size and gravel. “It’s a good thing I was super optimistic about this place,” she said. “If I wasn’t, I never would have succeeded. I told myself, ya know, if worse comes to worst, I guess I could just leave it. That’s what everybody else did. But, of course, I had no plans for that. Once I start a project, I gotta keep going until I see it through.” And she has seen it through. The project has only developed and grown. Muza hasn’t returned to Chicago in a couple years. According to her profile on Airbnb, Muza now lives in a 1950s airstream and is working on a log cabin built in 1932. The original post office and another small cabin can now be rented through Airbnb (no running water but there is electricity, wi-fi and a private outhouse available). An abandoned bus was given to her by the owner of an adjacent property—he didn’t even know it was there— may also soon be used as rentable space. Large and detailed murals have been painted on either side, and both celebrate the history of the town and its lore. On one side there are two revolvers firing at each other; on the other,

a shepherd stands with his coffee and looks into the distance while his sheep wander along the base of the bus and over the wheel wells. An artfully designed wooden camper with Dutch-style gables has been built on the back of an old truck. Muza’s nonprofit organization, Home of the Brave, will host the town’s first semi-annual artist in residence this month. This camper will be the resident’s personal space, and the shell of a refurbished Winnebago with a raised ceiling and added windows for extra lighting sits 15 feet away, to be used as a studio.

You Have Time to Think Out Here

“What I really want to do, what I envision,” she said, “is to make this place somewhere artists can come and work year-round. I mean, there would have to be some sort of vetting process, so not just anyone shows up, but I envision there being different places for different types of artists to stay and work. It’s such a great place for creative thinking. You have time to think out here, but you are subject to the weather and a few other hardships. Perhaps that is its own vetting process. Who knows?” Though this vision has yet to be formally adapted as part of the nonprofit, creative people are already beginning to show up to help with the work and add art of their own. Mike “Marlow” Mewborn, a vagabond friend of Muza’s who camped nearby this summer, said that in his 40-plus years of rambling around the West, he has never been to a place that plays host to so many bohemians and artists. “There are artists showing up all the time,” he said. “They seem to be drawn to this place.” The fall Artist Residency Program received 61 applications, from artists representing numerous mediums. There is no reason to believe the spring residency will be any less successful, and who’s to say where it will go from there? “I have a lot of plans still,” Muza said. “I want to build a house on stilts. I’d like to take some of these abandoned cars and use them to build a bridge over that depression across the street. I mean, why not?”

For short-term lodging in Cisco, visit Airbnb.com Information about the application process for the Artist Residency Program and Home of the Brave nonprofit organization, visit EileenMuza.org. This profile by Jared Blackley was published in the October 2019 issue of Vamoose Utah

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River Whisperer

Herm Hoops took the river less paddled to find his purpose If you ever met Herm Hoops on the river, you’d remember. He was the river guide wearing a baseball cap with an oversize toucan beak on it. His expansive smile, irreverent wit and crass sense of humor are fixtures on the rivers of the Colorado Plateau for more than four decades. Whether working as a park ranger at Dinosaur National Monument, floating the river as a guide, repairing rafts at his home or shuttling boats and guests to and from the river, he’s by nature gregarious with travelers and locals, sharing his experiences and alerting people to threats facing the rivers he loves. Hoops began advocating for rivers after his first trip to Echo Park in Dinosaur National Monument in the early 1970s. The remote site where the Yampa and Green rivers converge was once a refuge and hideout for Butch Cassidy and his outlaw gang. But the fact that the river was almost dammed, and the area submerged under a reservoir affected Hoops. He began a push to make the 83-mile section of river below Echo Park a national monument. This section, known as Desolation Canyon, meanders through one of the most isolated and rugged regions in the country. It’s the largest area in the contiguous 48 states with no road running through it. What we now call the Green River has been carving its way through this area for 10 to 15 million years. From the river, cliffs rise up on either side like giant sandstone layer cakes—a layer of shale then cliff, shale then more cliff. Every bend offers something new, from rapids to ruins, petroglyphs to wildlife. The deepest part of the canyon is cut more than a mile below the top of the Tavaputs Plateau—nearly as deep as the deepest section of the Grand Canyon.

Designated Wild and Scenic

To Hoops, this stretch of river has always felt like home. He began running it several times a year and estimates he’s run it more than 100 times over his life. Though the petition to turn Desolation Canyon into a na-

COURTESY PHOTO

“At night, I lie in bed and imagine I’m on the river.” —Herm Hoops

COURTESY PHOTO

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Celebrating their anniversary on the river: Herm Hoops, right, and wife, Valerie

tional monument went nowhere, Hoops’ advocacy of rivers had begun. On the local and national front, he continued to advocate for the fragile desert river systems of the Colorado Plateau where he met with both success and failure. He spearheaded a campaign to create a boat passageway and fish ladders at the Tusher Dam diversion near the town of Green River. Now, for the first time in more than a century, it’s possible to completely navigate the river from the base of Flaming Gorge Dam to its confluence with the Colorado River. But, he says, he also “spent months pissing into the wind” attempting to get various interest groups along the White River to agree that oil pumps should be removed— not replaced—when they wear out. His advocacy on behalf of Utah’s rivers helped turn Desolation Canyon into the largest wilderness study area in the state. And in 2018, Congress designated the lower 60 miles of the canyon as a Wild and Scenic River, protecting it, in many ways, for future generations.

band-leader uniform while she donned a cocktail dress and a parasol. They’d enjoy wine and cheese and then serve shrimp or scallops. “We were madly in love,” he says. “We still are. She’s a very important part of my life.” Most of his solo trips down Desolation Canyon took place in the off-season, just after the river ice melted or before it froze. “I really preferred solo trips because there was only one asshole I had to deal with,” he jokes. “I didn’t have to talk if I didn’t want to. I didn’t have to socialize. I could write or just stare at the river or the canyon walls. One of the most beautiful things about a river is that it doesn’t care about us. It doesn’t care about our economics or our dams or our need for water. A river just does what a river does.” He reminisces about river otters floating alongside his raft for nearly a mile and the time he watched a herd of elk cross the river. Then he recalls watching a mountain lion come down to the bank for a drink. “He had no idea I was there, man,” Hoops says, noting such wildlife encounters seldom occur on group trips. “At night,” he continues, “I lie in bed and imagine I’m on the river. I imagine I’m lying on a sandbank. I see the river in my mind. I think about the weather on certain trips. But I can’t hear [the river]. I can’t smell it. I can’t feel it.” That’s the hardest part, he says. “I really miss the river, and memories only go so far.” The river regularly surprised him with almost ethereal experiences. “When the moonlight comes down a canyon wall,” he says, “it can be just like sunrise.” And just before dusk, as the canyon walls darken, the buttes and mesas high above reflect the last rays of the sun so brightly that the rocks appear to be radiating light. Within a few minutes, the rocks darken, and the stars appear, vast and incalculable. And the river, of course, does what a river does. It flows on. CW

Moonlight on Canyon Walls

Now in his 70s, Hoops’ river days sadly are behind him. Because of health issues, he took his final trip down Desolation Canyon in October 2018, just a few weeks after being inducted into the John Wesley Powell River Museum Hall of Fame (there’s even a short film about that journey on YouTube titled The Salad Days). A few years prior, he’d been diagnosed with COPD and placed on oxygen, A short while later, he learned he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Amid these life-changing diagnoses, he also had a hip replacement. All the while, he was working on an extensive archive on the history of inflatable boats, a project he completed in 2018 and turned over to the University of Utah’s Special Collections in the J. Willard Marriott Library. He fights back tears when he talks about the river and his most memorable trips, most of which were done alone or with just a few others. Earlier in their marriage, his wife, Valerie, and he would celebrate their anniversary on the river. At camp, he’d dress up in a Sergeant Pepper-like

This profile by Jared Blackley was published in the March 2020 issue of Vamoose Utah

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or The Aces, the “new normal” goes beyond the challenges of the pandemic—a fact that isn’t stopping them from releasing the follow-up album to the pop smash debut that was 2018’s When My Heart Felt Volcanic. The four-piece band—which is half-way anchored in Utah by guitarist Katie Henderson and bassist McKenna Petty, and half-way anchored in Los Angeles by the sisters of the group, vocalist/guitarist Cristal Ramirez and drummer Alisa Ramirez—has spent the last few months navigating what it means to be growing artists, while also learning to fuse their art with activism. Released on July 17—and streaming on all platforms now—the new album Under My Influence is as introspective as it sounds, with narratives that fill out the pop-perfect tracks veering into more specific lyrical territory than ever before. “We’re being very, very candid about our experiences in our lyrics, and there is gender pronoun usage,” says Cristal Ramirez, in reference to the fact that she, her sister Alisa and Henderson have not just come out as queer, but are letting that reality into their music for the first time. “I think it just influenced the

music to be more vulnerable and honest, just because we’re getting really down to the root and of the true raw honesty of what happened in those stories. It’s just allowed it to go deeper.” The new self-ownership comes out not just in the title, but in the style and attitude of the songs, which—alongside their signature jangling guitar hooks and Hollywoodpowered pop production—fret over and lust after crushes like “Kelly,” or the blue bikini-clad babe in the oh-so-millennial “My Phone is Trying to Kill Me.” The songs join other lovesick and angst-struck tracks, and odes to home: the beachy “801,” the hooky and forlorn single “Lost Angeles” and the melancholy standout “Going Home,” some of the strongest songs on the album. Throughout, even at their most stormy, the bright production often calls to mind the bouncy banger-isms of Carly Rae Jepson. However, the 14 songs on Under My Influence also fell under the influence of the times, namely the protests that erupted nationwide over the death of George Floyd. Cristal Ramirez points out that it felt obvious to all four of them that they needed to pause the release of their album, which was originally due out June 12. “We didn’t wanna steal any of the attention from what was going on and what we wanted to use our voice for. … It just felt like it would be better to push the record so we could adequately be a part of the movement and do our part,” she says. Since then, they’ve been keeping busy on their social media by participating in calls for justice, selling rainbow merch to benefit the National Black Justice Coalition, hosting Instagram Live sessions with guest experts on the topics of empowering Black LGBTQ+ community members as well as justice and prison reform, and teaming up with Amazon Prime Video for a Pride performance. In considering how to move

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forward with promoting their music while not losing their activist steam, they’re not worried, though. Henderson points out that it feels many people, themselves included, have gone into an activist mode that hopefully has staying power. “I think activism is becoming a very active part of what we do as a band now, and I don’t want it to ever go away. I think that’s how it should be,” she says. “Everyone should learn how to do both. I think for so long, there wasn’t enough activism, there weren’t enough people talking about what’s happening in the world. This is what ‘normal’ should have always been—which is shedding light on what needs to be talked about while simultaneously going about your own life, kind of tying the two together.” Their music, though, also has power on its own to give something back to this weary world. The new record, after all, builds on their already strong presence in the realm of glittery, feel-good pop. Infused as it is with sunshiny, swinging tropicalia at some points and steely-hearted pop bops at others, the album finds a perfect closer with “Zillionaire,” which is rooted in love and devotion over anything else. Cristal Ramirez says of that song, “You can get caught up in the details and the material things of life when things like that don’t really matter. I think that right now during this time, that’s been reiterated more and more.” While dealing with a pandemic, threefourths of their group coming out, getting involved in a global movement towards liberation and releasing new music on top of it all, The Aces have had the time to pinpoint what matters—and hopefully their music influences others to, too. Ramirez reduces it to this: “What really matters is the people around you and the love you feel and the love you give.” CW

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On the Arena Screen

While the drive-in concert format picks up steam on a local level, big celebs in both the country and pop realms are using it, too, to solve the problem of lost tour opportunities and provide fans with some summertime entertainment. While recorded concerts have mostly been popular among young fans of big pops acts like Taylor Swift and her Reputation: Stadium Tour or Lady Gaga and her Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: Madison Square Garden, and released on platforms like Netflix, now the cross-genre Hollywood power couple of Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are teaming up with Trace Adkins for a countrymeets-pop concert of their own. Instead of being released for streaming, this concert is viewable in CDC-approved social distancingcapable spaces—i.e. drive-in theaters. The concert was filmed specifically for the format, and maintains the sense of a one-time viewable experience. Launched by Encore Live, this is the first in a wave of concerts to hit the summertime screens, and three Utah theaters will play host to the films (other offerings TBA), which also feature interviews and stories from the artists. All showings are on July 25, and attendees can snag tickets at $114.99 per car, which means up to six people for what might usually be the price of a ticket for one normal concert. Fans can find screenings at the Basin DriveIn in Mt. Pleasant at 9:15 p.m., Motor Vu Theater in Tooele at 9:20 p.m. and at the Redwood Drive-In in West Valley at 9:30 p.m. If it’s big-time entertainment you’re missing, don’t miss this chance to see such a rare and exciting film. Visit encorelive.com for ticket info.

Get Down with Our Streets SLC

SLC, like many other cities all over the country right now, is peppered weekly with protests, addressing both those who have been killed locally by police and also in solidarity with those who have been murdered in other cities. In addition to tracking protests by Justice for Bernardo and others for their followers, and sharing events and educational opportunities from the likes of Utah Against Police Brutality, Our Streets SLC uses their Instagram (@ ourstreetsslc) to share their own events, too. These community-led events are a little less demands-driven than other local groups that have led protests, but their efforts keep people out on the streets, in a way that’s a little easiergoing than other protests have been. If some of them have felt intimidating, or you have a job and can’t afford to get arrested, or if you just miss going out and dancing with friends, Our Streets SLC has a solution that lets folks get out on the streets while also getting to enjoy good music with their community. Every Sunday, Our Streets and their truck bump jams and lead a march around the city for one of the liveliest (and most fun) protest activities around. Their marches often veer into spontaneous dance parties, and videos on Instagram even document Electric Slide excellence. The group maintains that the events are familyfriendly, which is good for people with small kids who still want to do their part to disrupt the city streets. Recently, though, the familyfriendly atmosphere didn’t stop riot cops from showing up to strong-man the group’s path. Luckily, organizers diffused the situation and moved along, but it only goes to show how valuable it is to keep getting out there to march, dance or just yell a little. Let Our Streets SLC show you—in the grooviest way—how to keep the streets our own.

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Local Binge: SLUG Magazine’s Local Reviews Section

City Weekly has something of a sister in SLUG Magazine, our match in reporting all things SLC. While we follow different beats, SLUG has a dedication to the local in the same way CW does, and in particular their local reviews section offers up a deep archive of local music from the past several years. Churned out by their group of volunteer writers, the locals review section offers something CW doesn’t really have within our own music section: regularly-scheduled and critical reviews of these local albums. The space offers a jumping-off point for young writers in the city looking to test the waters of getting published, but more importantly, the section is a great resource for anyone who wants an expansive list of local artists to investigate. Their famous “equation” at the top of the review makes it easy to reference if the artist in question is for you: equations like “Rose Colored Roots = Franz Ferdinand + STRFKR” help readers know right off the bat if this is something they might like, based on who the artist in question is immediately compared to. SLUG’s also been busying themselves with other particularly local issues lately, just like CW, and their coverage of fashion, art and other happenings have taken a particularly local bent as they strive to amplify the voices of some of SLC’s busiest and best Black creators.

It seems like just yesterday that the Salt Lake City Public Library’s local music project, Hearing Utah Music (HUM for short), released its round-up of local music for streaming on their site; now it’s already time for this year’s second and last call for submissions. It’s also the last time for this specific panel of judges to make their choices, before another judging panel is selected from Salt Lake’s music-lovers and music-makers. The call for artists runs Aug. 1 - 22, and asks local musicians to submit any work made in the last five years. For those who may have felt hesitant about submitting in the past, there’s a $200 payout for any album selected, and $100 for EPs, which will surely help at least a little for any artist who has been struggling during the corona-time. HUM accepts and seeks out many different genres from artists around the state, so this is a great opportunity for those who live both near Salt Lake itself and farther afield to show their stuff and have it secured in the library’s archive. Visit hum.slcpl.org to see what sort of stuff is already up, try out their streamers and check out their complementary collection of old show posters, too. Any submissions can be sent in at hum.slcpl.org/ submit on Aug. 1.

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One corner of the local music scene that’s been affected rather uniquely by the pandemic is Utah’s Violin Making School of America. The small space at 304 E. 200 South is a distinct hub for the musical arts, because they house a number of students who, through the course of their program, learn the specialty that is making violins. Though small, the classes had to pause in the way they existed before, since as Director Charles Woolf says, “Violin making requires in-person instruction and evaluation, so studies during the lockdown consisted of online lectures only.” In May, when the state shifted to orange status, they resumed classes, pushing the graduation of last year’s students from that month into July to allow for making up lost time. Luckily, the school is not open to the public, which is a boon for them right now as they work to create a social-distancing-friendly classroom. Features like a touch-free wall with a hand sanitizing station, multiple hand-washing sinks, constant disinfection of high-touch surfaces and a new project involving screens to place between benches are all ensuring safety for the students as they continue their luthier-ship. But Woolf is keeping a historical mind towards the problem of pandemic, as only a violin maker could: “Violin making has been around since the early 1500’s, and has survived plagues, famines and wars over the centuries. I think the school will make it through this pandemic, and we are looking forward to celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2022.” Maybe they can give the rest of us some advice on how best to cope in the meantime.

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Radioactive both employs and upends cinematic biography clichés. BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

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or many years, I’ve half-jokingly lamented how contemporary film biopics often include photos or footage of the film’s real-life subjects. The “showing the real people at the end” problem might be a peculiar bugaboo of mine—it feels like both an insult to the actors who work to create their own interpretation of a real-life person, and a desperate plea for respect because, after all, these are real people—but, more to the point, it’s a cliché. And considering the way that the cinematic biopic is a genre often riddled with clichés, it’s worth considering how many of them can and should be discarded. Radioactive takes on the life of pioneering scientist Marie Curie (Rosamund Pike), covering the breadth of her professional and personal life with husband Pierre Curie (Sam Riley). And the extent to which it’s a mixed bag is indicative of the ways director Marjane Satrapi and screenwriter Jack Thorne choose either to embrace or re-invent some of the most common tropes of the biopic world. The “Masterpiece Theater” problem. Whether the subject is an athlete or a musician, a politician or a scientist, there’s often an over-earnestness to these productions that’s absolutely crippling to any sense of creativity. It’s an approach that can manifest itself in a variety of ways—for example, as happens here, when every character speaks with a British accent despite the fact that the story is set almost entirely in Paris. Somehow this is supposed to make the production seem more respectable, even if the main character was born and raised in

Poland, and even if you end up with preposterous stuff like a Parisian day laborer having an East London accent—because even if everyone has a British accent, class distinctions must be preserved. On the other hand, credit to Satrapi for bypassing a serene orchestral score in favor of the funky electronic sounds provided by composers Evgueni and Sasha Galperine. The “this, then this, then this” problem. Biographies are often hampered by a sense of obligation to chronology, beginning at whatever point is deemed most relevant then dutifully ticking off a bunch of boxes from the subject’s “Greatest Life Hits.” Radioactive starts with a structure that was mocked in Walk Hard—with Marie near death in 1934, and reflecting back on her life—as we see Marie’s first meeting with Pierre in 1893, their subsequent professional collaboration, their key discoveries, etc. But Satrapi and Thorne then take an audacious step by leaving the framework of Marie’s lifespan for visits to later historical moments impacted by her scientific breakthroughs: a young boy receiving radiation treatments for cancer in 1957; the

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Enola Gay dropping the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima; the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Satrapi isn’t entirely successful at integrating those scenes—at times they feel entirely separate, at times like Marie is having visions of what is to come—but the visual imagination at least allows Radioactive to consider the notion of what might ripple outward from the narrow range of years encompassed by the “born” and “died” in a famous person’s biography. The “spotlight performance” problem. The statistics are pretty clear that playing a real person is an easy path to a performance getting praised and showered with awards. The movies around those performances are often built with that concept in mind, giving the central character plenty of dramatic material to work with in the form of big emotional breakdowns, showy speeches and the like. Pike’s work as Marie is solid, capturing the prickly personality exacerbated by her struggles to be taken seriously as a woman in a man’s field, yet there’s something missing from the characterization beyond single-minded professional determination, especially when we move into her later

Sam Riley and Rosamund Pike in Radioactive

years and how she starts to think about her legacy. Radioactive’s version of Marie Curie feels more like an object of veneration than a person—especially when we get a scene featuring the dreaded “slow clap that turns into a standing ovation.” The “showing the real person at the end” problem. Yeah, Radioactive does that too, although it is admittedly kinda cool seeing her in a photo of colleagues including Albert Einstein. In a way, that seems like the perfect way to conclude Radioactive, a movie that wants to do interesting things with some genre clichés, while still benefiting from the cachet that those clichés bring. CW

RADIOACTIVE

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ARIES (March 21-April 19) “The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time but takes place every day.” Aries playwright Samuel Beckett made that observation, and now I’m passing it on to you as you glide into an extra-creative phase of your astrological cycle. I hope you will regard Beckett’s idea as an open-ended encouragement to improvise and experiment. May it rouse you to brainstorm about novel possibilities. May it inspire you to explore fresh trends you could launch. May it mobilize you to imagine the new worlds you might Big Bang into existence. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Author Diane Ackerman tells us, “So often loneliness comes from being out of touch with parts of oneself.” That’s the kind of loneliness I worry you may be susceptible to right now, Taurus. You’re a bit out of touch with aspects of your psyche that are crucial for you to include in your total sense of self. You’ve been neglecting to nurture certain soulful qualities that keep you healthy and wise. Please note: It won’t be useful to try to find those parts of you in other people; you will have to locate them in your own depths. Here’s the good news: The coming weeks will be an excellent time to do just that. GEMINI (May 21-June 20) “Someone ought to do it, but why should I?” Author and activist Annie Besant identified that sentence as the motto of people who are moral cowards: those who know about an injustice but do nothing to address it. Very few of us have completely avoided that behavior. Most of us, including me, have now and then chosen to serve our need for comfort instead of standing up against corruption or unfairness. But I think it’s more important than usual that you Geminis don’t engage in such moral cowardice now. More depends on your integrity and bravery than you realize.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) “The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them,” says Scorpio-born Liberian politician Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. “If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough.” I trust you’ve arrived at this realization on your own in the past few weeks. And I hope you have audaciously expanded and supercharged your dreams so that they do indeed surpass your current ability to accomplish them. If you have not yet done this daring work, please attend to it now. If you have done it, move on to the next step: making definite plans to acquire the power and resources necessary to achieve your new, improved dreams. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) “The soul should always stand ajar,” wrote Sagittarian poet Emily Dickinson, “That if the heaven inquire, / He will not be obliged to wait, / Or shy of troubling her.” I’m confident that this will be a fertile meditation for you in the coming weeks. So, what does it mean? By “heaven,” I assume Dickinson meant marvelous interventions, sacred revelations, and lucky accidents—and maybe also soulful invitations, out-of-the-blue opportunities and supernatural breakthroughs. What do you think, Sagittarius? What can you do to make your soul ajar for phenomena like those?

JULY 23, 2020 | 29

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) You’ll be extra sensitive to stimuli in the coming weeks. Every little event will touch you more intensely than usual. Every LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) “How can I communicate to wild bunnies that I am their ally?” perception will flow into you with an unusually strong potential asked a Twitter blogger named Ghost Girl. That question is a to move you and influence you. That’s why I think you should be good place to start my oracle for you. In the coming weeks, I vigilantly self-protective. Erect a psychic shield around yourself. think you’ll be wise to meditate on how to enhance your rela- Make sure your boundaries are firm and clear. Affirm your tionship with all kinds of wild things: animals, people, weather, unshakable commitment to deflecting vibes that aren’t of use landscapes and your own exotic thoughts and fantasies. In my to you and welcoming vibes that will enhance your well-being. opinion, you will upgrade your intelligence and well-being by increasing your access to influences that don’t necessarily play PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) by conventional rules and that draw their energy from primal Actress Gwyneth Paltrow founded Goop, a company that markets exotic, expensive health treatments. She claims that far-infrared sources. gemstone therapy and crystal-based sound-healing baths will dissolve your negativity. Allowing bees to sting your scars will supposedly VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) It’s never too late to have a rebellious adolescence—hopefully cause the scars to fade. Drinking “sex juice,” a blend of watermelon bigger and better and smarter than any you’ve had before. And and alkaline water, will enhance your libido. The “collagen martini,” according to my analysis, now would be a favorable time to get which is a mix of vodka, vermouth, olive juice and collagen peptides, started. Is there any stuffy authority you’d be wise to flout? will smooth your skin’s wrinkles. I’m favorably disposed to you takAny dumb and oppressive conventions you would benefit from ing strong actions to improve your well-being in the coming weeks, breaking? Any stale old traditions you’re primed to ignore so you Pisces, but I recommend that you try cheaper, more reliable modalican create some lively new traditions? In my estimation, you will ties than those Paltrow recommends. Like what? Ample sleep and generate good fortune for yourself if you try some benevolent good food, for starters, along with fun exercise, time in nature, enjoyable meditation sessions, and tender expressions of love. mischief and creative experiments.

| COMMUNITY |

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) “Everything is complicated,” wrote poet Wallace Stevens. “If that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.” I agree! And therefore, I conclude, you should shed any resentment you might feel for the fact that our world is a crazy tangle of mystifying and interesting stories. Drop any wish that life will stop being so fascinatingly messy and confusingly intriguing. Instead, why not celebrate the deep riddles? And revel in the intriguing complexity? And give holy thanks for the paradoxical beauty? Everything I just said should prepare you well for the next four weeks.

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CANCER (June 21-July 22) Born in 1936, Cancerian author and activist June Jordan was a black feminist bisexual born to Jamaican immigrant parents. When she was growing up, her father beat her, and her mother committed suicide. Later, she raised her child alone as a single mother. Despite the challenges she faced, she published 28 books, won numerous awards and wielded significant influence. How did she do it? She was a highly evolved Cancerian in the sense that she put a priority on treating herself well. “I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect,” she testified. I’d like to make that your keynote for the rest of 2020. Your task is to achieve June Jordan-levels of self-care.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Your word of power for the coming weeks is ubuntu, a Zulu term meaning “I am because we are” or “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.” Nobel Prize-winning theologian Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes, “A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished.” I hope that between now and Aug. 25, Libra, you will put ubuntu at the center of everything you do. Make it an intensely practical practice.

AFTERTHOUGHTS

BY DAVID LEVINSON WILK

ACROSS

1. Things blockers block 2. ____ pal 3. “Don’t have ____, man!” 4. “Divergent” star Woodley 5. Black-and-white animal in the World Wildlife Fund logo 6. 1980 film with the #1 hit “Magic” 7. Related (to) 8. Ped ____ (street sign) 9. List-ending abbr. 10. Postpaid encl. 11. Smartphone feature 12. “Don’t wait out here”

Rollin’ Rollin’ I

13. Conceder’s comment 21. Opposite of WSW 22. “BlacKkKlansman” director 25. Dumbbell abbr. 26. The NFL’s Cardinals, on scoreboards 27. Prefix with air or afternoon 29. Acknowledge as true 30. Number of weeks per annum? 31. Suffix with violin or novel 32. You can deal with it 34. Lighten, as a burden 37. “The Crying Game” actor Stephen 38. Opposite of “bon” 39. Certain sneakers 40. College URL suffix 41. Hwys. 42. Drunkard 45. Alludes (to) 46. Dietician’s concern 47. A deer, a female deer 48. “If thou must love me, let it be for ____ / Except for love’s sake only”: Elizabeth Barrett Browning 49. Funny thing 51. “White Teeth” author Smith

53. “All ____ in favor ... “ 55. Puerto ____ 56. Eliot Ness, notably 57. Online search metric 58. In years past 59. Hens and heifers 63. ‘Fore 64. “Party Up (Up in Here)” rapper

Last week’s answers

No math is involved. The grid has numbers, but nothing has to add up to anything else. Solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. Solving time is typically 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your skill and experience.

DOWN

URBAN L I V I N

WITH BABS DELAY Broker, Urban Utah Homes & Estates, urbanutah.com

Complete the grid so that each row, column, diagonal and 3x3 square contain all of the numbers 1 to 9.

1. Audibly appalled 6. Horizontal lines on graphs 11. Part of a sci-fi film’s budget 14. Black Sea getaway 15. Japanese dog breed 16. Pioneer in email and 61-Across 17. New York’s Memorial ____-Kettering hospital 18. Singer Simone and actress Dobrev, for two 19. Cattle call? 20. It helps you get the big picture 23. Promised ____ 24. Native American tribe with a namesake lake 25. ____ duck 28. Type of geometry 33. Pickle juice 35. River to the Seine 36. Baseball’s Dan Quisenberry and Kent Tekulve, famously 43. Someone may run for it 44. Little buddy 45. 2014 Ice Cube/Kevin Hart comedy 50. Blast of wind 51. Greek known for paradoxes 52. Solemn pledge 54. They may occur to you later ... or where this puzzle’s circled letters are all located 60. “Breaking Bad” org. 61. Cyberchatting 62. ____ and aahed 65. Vex 66. Father-daughter activity 67. ____ whale 68. Suffix with Brooklyn 69. Initial stage 70. Neighbor of Hertfordshire

SUDOKU

| COMMUNITY | | CITYWEEKLY.NET |

30 | JULY 23, 2020

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

n the 1984 movie Footloose, which was filmed in Utah County, the main character, Ren McCormack, was played by Kevin Bacon, who became famous for his role. But the real star of the show was the Lehi Roller Mills, located at 833 E. Main in Lehi, where much of the movie was filmed. WTF is a roller mill, you ask? Think of the steam roller that you curse at while you wait in a long line of traffic as it flattens asphalt during road construction. Now, take that image and picture metal or stone rollers crushing grain instead. Lehi Mill and Elevator Co. crushed its first grain into flour in 1906 after shareholders got together to put up funds and invested $20,000 to build the mill and grain elevator. They’ve been rolling ever since, despite weathering financial ups and downs in grain prices as well as fluctuations in demand locally and nationally. In 2009, the FDIC closed the mill owner’s bank, but still, they kept rolling. Their philosophy is, “Only the best wheat makes the best flour,” and it’s guided the company and benefited Utah farmers for over 100 years. When COVID-19 first hit Utah, it was hard to find toilet paper, Lysol, hand sanitizer, pasta and flour. Lehi Roller Mill did not stop grinding wheat at all. In fact, they were so overwhelmed that they had to close their retail store because they couldn’t sustain both retail and wholesale demand. That’s OK, though, because the supply line was not interrupted. It gave the mill time to update its amazing retail store inside and out. The famous logo and mural outside the building—which you can see driving south on Interstate 15 on the west side of the freeway—have been repainted along with the interior and exterior of the building. Why not stop in sometime and see the manufacturing plant with its movie history plus peruse all products and doodads they sell at the retail store? Lehi Roller Mills takes in wheat from farmers who grow both spring and summer white and red wheats within a 300-mile radius of Lehi. With all the concrete, glass and steel structures sprouting up and the growing sprawl along the Wasatch tri-city area, it’s hard to see wheat being grown anywhere. But drive to Utah’s more rural areas, and you’ll see acres and acres of our fine wheat. All of Lehi Roller Mills’ products are a blend of the two colors of grain. You want to support local? Then reach a little farther on the shelf from your usual Bob’s Red Mill selection and look for local containers of Utah flour, cereals, waffle and pancake mixes, muffin mixes and now, even vegan mixes sans animal products. n Content is prepared expressly for Community and is not endorsed by City Weekly staff.

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n Yoshito Harada, 32, readily admitted to police in Higashiura, Japan, that he slashes women’s car tires so he can then step up to “help” them fix their flats. On June 11, Oddity Central reported, a 43-year-old unnamed woman leaving a grocery store noticed that her tire was flat. As she pulled over, a man stopped his car and offered to help, but the woman had had a similar experience a year before and recognized the good Samaritan, so she contacted police. Officers viewed surveillance video from the market and saw Harada slashing the woman’s tire just before she emerged from the store. Further investigation revealed Harada has a history of approaching women this way going back to 2013, and authorities believe he has pulled the stunt more than 1,000 times. Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

Babs De Lay

HAPPY PIE AND BEER DAY!

| COMMUNITY |

n While Americans celebrated the Fourth of July by blowing stuff up, people in Seoul, South Korea, were surprised by an unannounced high-tech aerial display of encouragement and gratitude for medical personnel treating victims of COVID-19. AFP reported that 300 unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, lit up the sky for 10 minutes over the Han River on July 4 with messages about wearing masks, washing hands and socially distancing, then shifted focus to thank frontline health care workers. It ended with a silhouette of the Korean peninsula and the message, “Cheer up, Republic of Korea.” The event was not advertised in advance in accordance with social distancing rules. Do It Yourself Don Peters, 44, was arrested without incident on July 4, according to Akron, Ohio, police, after forcing his way around the counter at a Subway sandwich shop and making his own sandwich. According to police, Peters was intoxicated when he entered the store demanding a meal and became belligerent, damaging some plexiglass before charging behind the counter. Cleveland.

com reported officers said they found a bottle of vodka and a block of Subway cheese in Peters’ pockets; he was charged with disorderly conduct, criminal damaging and open container. Lucky Nathalia Bruno, 24, of Newark, New Jersey, survived a harrowing mile-long ride through the storm sewer system under Passaic on July 6 after she drove into high water during a flash flood, NorthJersey.com reported. Bruno, a driver for DoorDash, escaped her car as it filled with water, but the current pulled both her and her car into the waterway that runs under the city, Passaic Fire Chief Patrick Trentacost said. Bruno rode the wave until it reached its outlet above the Passaic River, where she was “shot out” and swam to a backyard on the other side. A homeowner called 911, and Bruno was taken to a hospital where she appeared not to be seriously injured. Her Toyota Prius was later found under a street the next day. Need for Speed Kevin Nicks, 55, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, was up to the challenge when he was invited to a racing event for unconventional vehicles at Elvington Airfield in North Yorks on July 4. Using parts lying around his house, Nicks mounted a Honda moped engine to the back of a wheelbarrow that recorded top speeds of 36 mph. “No wheelbarrow has flown down at the speeds I was going,” Nicks boasted to the Daily Star. “It’s thrilling and absolutely bonkers to drive it.” This isn’t the first time Nicks has motorized gardening equipment. He’s also the owner of the world’s fastest shed, which can reach speeds of 100 mph. “I like being creative and thinking out of the box,” he said. The Passing Parade Pennsylvania State Police received multiple calls on June 21 about a Mercedes-Benz driving in reverse on the Pennsylvania Turnpike during rush hour. Troopers arriving on the scene said they found Symara Cole, 27, of Silver Spring, Maryland, passed out in the car with all the doors locked, WTAJ reported. A semi driver had stopped his rig behind her to prevent others from being harmed. First responders found that Cole was under the influence of drugs; pending charges include DUI and drug possession. Bright Ideas n Chen Haigang, 50, of China’s Shanxi province, credits his good health and well-being to a fitness regimen he created and has been following for about 30 years. Instead of doing tai chi or heading to the gym, Oddity Central reported on July 9, Chen acts like a monkey, walking on all fours and dangling his arms, even climbing trees and swinging from branch to branch. “I often watched the monkeys at the zoo. I thought it looked so fun and I started imitating,” Chen said. “Since I moved to the city for work, I’ve spent my free time doing the (monkey) walking exercise. ... I never need to see a doctor.” Recently, Chen has added other animals’ movements to his routine, such as crawling like a crocodile. He said many people have asked him about his routine but are too embarrassed to do it in public.

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

The Continuing Crisis The Cheyenne (Nebraska) County Commissioners vented their frustration on July 6 over an alarming threat posed by a native species in the state’s panhandle. The Scottsbluff StarHerald reported that commissioner Philip Sanders told the gathering that prairie dogs had caused almost $3 million in damage to 2,600 acres in the county and pleaded with representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture: “We have a group here from Lodgepole. Their whole town is being surrounded by prairie dogs, and we need your help.” The county has contracted with the USDA to handle its animal control problems, but Sanders said the lone wildlife specialist charged with the task has been overwhelmed. “I feel like we’ve let Lodgepole down,” Sanders said. “I don’t want to eradicate (prairie dogs). ... I get it, but they’re out of control.” Sign of the Times A statue of Christopher Columbus stands in Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood, but if signers of a petition get their way, it will soon be replaced by a statue of Chef Boyardee. The petition, signed by hundreds, suggests Ettore (Hector) Boiardi, known for his “food and iconic mustache,” would be a much better recipient of Cleveland’s love, Cleveland.com reported. “Boiardi and his brothers built a canned food empire from the ground up,” the petition argues, and “during World War II, this company produced canned food for American soldiers 24/7,” earning Chef Boyardee a Gold Star in 1946. Surprise! Wynn Hall of Exeter, Nebraska, might have expected to find a few beer cans or old tires at the bottom of his farm pond when he drained it for maintenance on July 3, but he discovered something entirely different: an empty, broken ATM. “I thought, who would throw a refrigerator or a stove and put it in the pond?” Hall told KOLN. “I took a picture and zoomed in on it and thought, that looks like an ATM.” When authorities arrived, they had a good idea of the source of the machine, since one had been stolen recently, but the numbers didn’t match up. Hall said he didn’t drain the pond last year, but didn’t think the ATM had been there too long. “This is by far the strangest, and I was really shocked to see it,” Hall said. Awesome! n Paragliding instructor Hasan Kaval, 29, in Izmir, Turkey, took couch-surfing to a whole new level when he rigged a red leather couch, lamp and TV to a parachute harness and launched himself from a cliff at Babadag Air Sports and Recreation Center. United Press International reported Kaval videoed himself July 2 as he sailed over Oludeniz Beach on the couch, pulling out snacks and drinks, and kicking off his shoes to put on slippers as he settled in to watch cartoons. Kaval’s rig landed safely, and he didn’t miss any of his shows.

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