City Weekly April 15, 2021

UTAH'S INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER

APRIL 15, 2021 | VOL. 37 N0. 46

I Want to Believe Catching up with actor and novelist David Duchovny on his polygamist family drama, Truly Like Lightning.

BY MATT PACENZA

CONTENTS COVER STORY

LEAP OF FAITH Catching up with actor and novelist David Duchovny on his polygamist family drama, Truly Like Lightning.

By Matt Pacenza

11

Cover design by Derek Carlisle

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2 | APRIL 15, 2021

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OPINION

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SOAP BOX “Pill Popping” April 8 Private Eye column

Your column is unfortunately absolutely accurate. There is a widespread “conspiracy” to overdose us, all with the best possible intentions.

In our family, we have never found it necessary to use more than a small fraction of the painkillers prescribed after injuries or surgery. A prime example occurred when my wife had dental implants some years ago. The surgeon sensibly prescribed sufficient painkillers to get her through the immediate consequences.

I later got an official rebuke from my Medicare D insurance company saying that they were covering this but only as an exception—in the future, would I please ask the surgeon to prescribe an “appropriate” quantity (presumably a generous 30-day supply). I was unfortunately too slow-witted to think that I could have asked for a massive refill, sold the pills on the street and taken my wife on a Caribbean vacation.

Stay safe—and keep up the good work!

RICHARD MIDDLETON

Salt Lake City

Honor the Earth and Reduce CO2

As a member of the Salt Lake City chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), I’m writing to urge readers to nudge

@SLCWEEKLY their representatives in Congress to act on climate change.

It’s likely that some form of federal climate legislation will be passed within the next year or so. Studies and data show that a carbon fee and dividend (CFD) approach will have the greatest impact in reducing CO2. It also would have the most positive impact on our economy and upon lower-income people. And it could have the most durability over differing federal administrations.

If members of the Utah congressional delegation could be convinced to support CFD legislation, other members of the Republican Party might well follow suit and perhaps a bipartisan solution will be enacted.

Utah Sen. Mitt Romney and Reps. John Curtis and Blake Moore have already made public statements about the need to address climate change. We just need to move these members of Congress a little further to get them engaged in climate change legislation now.

Time is of the essence. The Biden administration is likely to find a way to pass climate legislation. City Weekly readers have a limited time to contact their members of Congress and encourage their support of a CFD approach.

Or, we could end up with something that is not as effective or durable.

MARC PETERSON

Sandy

@CITYWEEKLY

@SLCWEEKLY

On Rescinding the Utah Mask Mandate

Just as long as the Karens are nice to the business owners who choose not to require patrons/employees to mask up. It will be interesting to see how this phase goes.

BRIAN CHILD

ViaTwitter This is going to be worse than when we first started making people wear masks. Retail and service workers are going to start getting their asses handed to them. @MCSUGGAFREE

ViaTwitter I’m old. You don’t ask an asshole to be nice. When they manifest, you treat them like an asshole. The customer ain’t always right. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. @CHANCES_HUMAN

ViaTwitter If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that Americans don’t understand “respect.” @OPTOUTDOORSGIRL

ViaTwitter

THE BOX

If you could be on a reality TV show, which one would you choose and why?

Jackie Briggs

How about those fixer-upper ones where you have a really small budget and then they somehow renovate a 6-bedroom, 4 bathroom, 4,000-square-foot house?

That’s the kind of reality I’d like a piece of.

Scott Renshaw

I think probably The Great British Baking Show, not so much because I think I have the skills to win, but because everyone hugs the person who gets eliminated, and I prefer the opposite of the cocky “I didn’t come here to make friends” you hear from contestants on a lot of other competition shows. I did come here to make friends (and cakes)!

Katharine Biele

I am morally opposed to watching reality TV because “real” actors get short shrift. That said, I wouldn’t mind being on a Property Brothers show because they are danged cute, and maybe I could learn something about repairing my house. In other words, I can be had.

Bryan Bale

I remember watching episodes of Overhaulin’ and wishing I could have a classic car receive that kind of treatment.

Mike Brown

Below Deck so that I could have the honor of being yelled at by Captain Lee.

Carolyn Campbell

I would like to appear on Real Writers of Salt Lake.

Paula Saltas

The Greek Housewives. It’s that new reality show on which a Greek wife makes the best spanakopita. There’s lots of screaming and yelling going on, perfect for me.

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APRIL 15, 2021 | 5

HITS&MISSES

BY KATHARINE BIELE @kathybiele

MISS: Guerrilla Games

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It’s curious how the Second Amendment has become a rallying call for assault weapons—something the honorable Founders never imagined. And yet, every small effort to regulate gun ownership is met with the hysterical cry that “liberals” are trying to take away guns. It’s not surprising then that the Weber County Commission saw fit to join Utah, Uintah and Wayne counties in declaring themselves “Second Amendment Sanctuaries.” Apparently, it’s all about “the safety, health, morals and welfare of Weber County inhabitants,” The Salt Lake Tribune quoted Weber County Commission Chair Jim Harvey as saying. That’s not how Elisabeth Rosenthal sees it. The editor of Kaiser Health News, writing in The Washington Post, shot her first pistol at 8 or 9 and later won numerous medals from the National Rifle Association. Americans now own some 20 million AR-15-style weapons. “The adrenaline in today’s gun culture clearly lies in paramilitary posturing, signaling to the world the ability to bring mayhem and destruction,” she writes. These are not your mother’s bedside pistol.

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Well, Utah is trying—sort of. The lieutenant governor, Deidre Henderson, recognizes that women bore the brunt of job losses during the pandemic and, as such, is launching a “returnship” program to help them out. Women actually lost twice as many jobs as men, according to an upbeat and positive Salt Lake Tribune article. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that Utah still has the second worst pay gap in the nation and that while women often work in lower paying jobs, those jobs still make 30 percent less than men. While there are many reasons—including motherhood and the predominant male-centric culture in Utah—equality should always be the goal. And that begs the question why Utah refuses to pass the Equal Rights Amendment. There’s a meme going around that says men fear the ERA because they figure women will govern the way men do—and they don’t like that.

MISS: GOP Fear-mongering

Ben McAdams might want to start with Rep. Burgess Owens in his quest to combat lies. And The Salt Lake Tribune might have thought better of a frontpage headline that read: Owens: “Migrants coming to your neighborhood.”

Maybe it was to grab your attention, but you know how people read the news— not much, and headlines may be their only source. Turns out, of course, that Owens was wrong (albeit consistent) in his fear-mongering of a mythical enemy that is either communistic or criminal.

Utahns who voted for the congressman apparently respond to this garbage and are hunkering in their homes awaiting the onslaught of the undocumented.

So, McAdams has joined some other losing Democrats to advise Shield PAC in their efforts against accusations that all liberals are socialists.

CITIZEN REV LT IN A WEEK, YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

Save the Earth

It’s Earth Day 2021, and there are many ways you can honor the Earth, work to save it and help others to recognize the dangers of ignorance. At Alta Earth Day, you can participate in a unique environmental stewardship that encourages “responsible recreation and awareness of the relationship between climate change and the future of the ski industry in Little Cottonwood Canyon and beyond.” There’s Snowshoe With a Naturalist from Cottonwood Canyon, Birding on Skis with Tracy Aviary, Trees and Skis with TreeUtah and a free screening of The Story of Plastic. At The Artivism Earth Day 2021, prominent artists, educators and scientists from University of Utah and across the nation collaborate on a series of performances to address climate crisis. You’ll see a Video Mosaic, Hour of Decision: A Cycle of Four Elements, Crossroads project, KUER/Artivism4Earth panel discussion, and finally Artivism for Earth: Expressions of Loss and Hope. There will be multiple online events, mostly set at the Natural History Museum of Utah, and the event will feature performance pieces featuring scientific data, dance, new music compositions, visuals and words to illuminate the climate crisis. Alta: Virtual, or at 10010 E. Little Cottonwood Road, Alta, Saturday, April 17, 9 a.m., free. https://bit.ly/3rZGlBr Artivism: Virtual, Thursday, April 22, noon-7 p.m., free. https://bit.ly/3dMo7hE

Crime Victims’ Rights Week

Some 3.3 million U.S. residents age 12 or older were victims of violent crime in 2018, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey.

Salt Lake City is one of the 20 most dangerous cities in the country, leaving a trail of often-unresolved trauma and victimization. 2021 National Crime Victims Rights Week begins on Sunday, April 18, when you can learn about survivors and how to stand up for victims’ rights. Sunday will feature a candlelight vigil at 6 p.m., while the week will highlight trauma as an expressive artform, a podcast, healing programs, films and panels. Virtual, Sunday, April 18-Friday, April 23, free. https://bit.ly/3d2d2tJ

Black History ‘R’ Us

Maybe you remember when some Utah parents opted their kids out of Black history at school? It’s also notable that it was only in 1963 when Utah’s 75-year ban on interracial marriage was lifted. Also, of note: Mormon pioneers introduced African slavery and provided a local market for Indian slavery when they came to this area. This is only part of the long history of Blacks in Utah and how they helped grow the state into what it is today. Join Black History is Utah History: A Community Conversation, a panel discussion with Utah high school students, Salt Lake school board member Mohamed Baayd, and moderator Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City, to “explore ways to incorporate the history of all Utahns, with a focus on our Black community and the importance of providing a complete, honest and diverse history in education.” Virtual, Thursday, April 15, 7:30 p.m., free. bit.ly/3mzmJTr

—KATHARINE BIELE

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THURSDAYS

Clark, Morag Shepherd, Debora Threedy and Julie Jensen—created monologues for historical figures like Calamity Jane and historian Juanita Brooks, speculating on how they might see our current moment. The 40-minute video is currently available for viewing at pygmalionproductions.org.

“Interweaving the two time periods gave a nice dramatic balance between reality and fiction, past and present, giving the entire piece a nice arc,” Pruyn says. “It was an artistic conceit, in a way, but also one that was actually do-able given our restrictions.” (Scott Renshaw)

While Matthew Ivan Bennett’s Art & Class is yet another case of a work initially planned as a live theater production being adapted for Plan-B Theatre Co.’s audioonly 2021 season, Bennett’s years of experience working on Plan-B Radio Hour productions came in particularly handy.

“Doing Art & Class as an audio production has reminded me of advice I got early on as a playwright: write clearly enough that your dialogue could be performed on the radio and be understood,” Bennett says via email. “The adjustments were minor, all things considered. … None of the changes feel like robbery; it’s just a different medium with different demands.”

Art & Class was inspired by the real-life case of Mateo Rueda, a Cache County elementary school teacher who was fired in 2017 for showing his student examples of art that included nude figures. Inspired by teachers in his own life including his wife, his mother and his stepmother, Bennett changed the protagonist to a woman, hoping to emphasize how women “dominate the profession, and yet they still face sex-based discrimination and double standards.”

The story also provides an opportunity to explore the ongoing tension between educators’ goals and parents who believe they should be able to control whether and when their children are exposed to anything that could be considered “controversial.” While Bennett believe Art & Class plays fair with parents’ instinct to protect their children, he says “I think there is no ‘real education’ without real challenges.”

Art & Class premieres at planbtheatre.org on April 15 on a “pay-what-you-can” basis.

(SR)

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival

exhibition is also part of the statewide Think Water Utah initiative, a conversation by Utah Humanities and its partners that The opening celebration takes place Saturday, April 17 from 1-4 p.m., at the museum’s north entrance. The family-friendly event will include a water scavenger hunt outdoors around the campus, with free materials provided to record findings. Information will also be available from the exhibition’s partner organizations, including take-home activities Admission is free, but advance registration is required, and health and safety protocols— including mask-wearing—will still be in effect.

(SR)

Ah, spring! The hope that arises from the cycle of renewal, a kind of hope we all really need right now. Many of the activities that were traditional parts of a Utah spring didn’t take place or were abbreviated in 2020 by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now some of us will want to play catch-up, taking advantage of pleasant weather and outdoor environments to get back to our favorite places.

Last year, the beautiful annual Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point (3003 N. Thanksgiving Way, Lehi, thanksgivingpoint.org) was not available to the public due to the closure of the venue. But now it’s time to get enjoy it once again in the glorious Ashton Gardens. You can get a chance to see the specially-bred tulip created exclusively for Thanksgiving Point’s 25th anniversary last year (tulipa Thanksgiving Point), and available for the public to see this year for the first time. Children’s activities, including lawn games, are also

THANKSGIVING POINT

Confluence opening reception @ Utah Museum of Fine Arts Normalcy—or at least an approximation thereof—continues to creep towards us, manifesting itself in multiple small ways. While the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (410 Campus Center Dr., umfa.utah. edu) has been reopened for a while now—including its successful, sold-out show Black Refractions—it’s been quite a while since the space has been able to hold an actual reception.

Welcome, then, to an opening reception for the UMFA’s ACME Lab exhibition Confluence, an exploration of water in the Salt Lake Valley addressing issues ranging from environmental to cultural. Showing now through December 4, 2021, and created as a collaboration with six local organizations, Confluence includes a variety of exhibits, including Larry Cesspooch’s short film Water; a multimedia sculpture by Framework Arts; and information about the local water cycle. An exhibition self-guide—available at UMFA, or online via the website—provides an opportunity to continue investigating water in Utah and our connection to it from a variety of different perspectives. The

Complete listings online at cityweekly.net

PLAN-B THEATRE CO.

PYGMALION PRODUCTIONS

For 20 years, Pygmalion Productions has made it a mission to amplify women’s voices through theater. And over the past year, we’ve seen plenty of news stories about the particular challenges faced by women as a result of the pandemic—disproportionate job loss, bearing the burden of children’s at-home schooling and more. So it only made sense for Pygmalion to apply its mission to women’s stories of our pandemic year, and women storytellers looking back through time at challenges faced by other women.

Inspired by the “Utah Women 2020” mural created last year in downtown Salt Lake City by Jann Haworth and Alex Johnstone, Pygmalion artistic director Fran Pruyn developed If This Wall Could Talk, a 40-minute video created with pandemic safety in mind. Several of the present-day subjects on the mural—including Salt Lake City mayor Erin Mendenhall, actor/dinger Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin and Repertory Dance Theatre artistic director Linda Smith—recorded their own reflections on the past year, and what they’ve learned. In addition, several female local playwrights—including Elaine

ENTERTAINMENT PICKS, APRIL 15-21, 2021

Plan-B Theatre Co.: Art & Class

Pygmalion Productions: If This Wall Could Talk

COURTESY UMFA

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8 | APRIL 15, 2021

ESSENTIALS

the

available at the Tulip Tot Playland. And for those who want to take a little bit of the Tulip Festival home with them, cut tulips are available for purchase at the learning garden (while supplies last).

The 2021 Tulip Festival runs now through May 8, with tickets available online ($15 child/$20 adult) or at the door ($20 child/$25 adult). Due to high demand, however, and limited capacity including timed entry slots 9 a.m.

– 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, online reservations are strongly encouraged. Complimentary guided garden walks are also available with advance online reservation. (SR)

POETRY

A&E

Verse Chorus

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

A

Poet Paisley Rekdal

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APRIL 15, 2021 | 9

April 16-18 Events live and subsequently streamed via Utah Humanities YouTube channel Registration and schedule at utahpoetryfestival.com

VIRTUAL UTAH POETRY FESTIVAL

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tions people make that can turn into collaborations down the road. Here, people might be inspired by others, but won’t be able to make those connections.”

Though Rekdal will serve as the host for the Utah Poetry Festival, she doesn’t plan for her interactions with other poets to be Q&Astyle, since that’s an approach that doesn’t work for her when talking with other artists.

“I talk to them as if they weren’t artists,” she says. Then they talk about what they’re interested in, and I talk about what I’m interested in, and it sort of emerges organically. When you ask a question, they tense up. I just miss having conversations with people.”

If the idea of a poetry festival seems daunting for a layperson, that shouldn’t be the case, Rekdal believes. She acknowledges the reality that some people can feel intimidated by poetry, and might even believe that those who create it are trying to put one over on them.

“I think people think that we’re writing stuff that makes people feel stupid, and that we’re doing it deliberately,” Rekdal says.

“People think of [poems] as elaborate riddles or games that are there to trick people.

You’re asking people to process language, and you use it in surprising ways, but it’s the same kind of language that we all use.

I’d like to get them to relax: This is not an IQ test. If you’re feeling something, why are these words producing that effect?”

As a pitch for the event, Rekdal wants to welcome all kinds of people who might be interested in poetry for all kinds of reasons, and to explore the diversity that makes up the local poetry scene. “If people are interested in writing exercises, things that will inspire them, they’ll find that here,” she says. “If they’re interested in conversations between poets, maybe some of the things that come to define our state, they’ll find those conversations here. It’s a way to just familiarize yourself with the types and kinds of conversations happening between poets around the state. … It’s a little taste of everything we do in Utah as poets.”

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pril marks National Poetry Month, a time to contemplate the way verse can provide unique insight into the complexities of life. After a uniquely complex year, however, there’s not necessarily a reason to think poets have unlocked all of its secrets.

Paisley Rekdal—University of Utah faculty member, Utah poet laureate and host of this week’s virtual Utah Poetry Festival—wants to dispel the notion that a time when most of us were more isolated than usual provided a uniquely fertile period for poets to work.

“It’s a complicated answer,” Rekdal says. “If you were a woman with children of a certain age, you didn’t get a thing done; this time has erased a whole generation’s creative labors. I don’t have children, so in that respect I’m fortunate … but I wasn’t able to do anything new. I just finished what was on my to-do list.”

Yet others were able to do work that addressed the pandemic, and many were able to do it surprisingly quickly. For example, Rekdal notes, there were at least two anthologies of pandemic-themed poetry that were published within two months of the local impacts last March. “I was like, ‘Who? How?’” she says with a laugh. “For me it takes a really long time to process something big. … I think there’s a lot of pressure put on people to write about the now. I just finished this poem about the transcontinental railroad, and the thing that surprised me in my research was disease. There was a cholera epidemic, and the train made that more of a national epidemic. It was not necessarily a pandemic poem for our present moment, but it was good to write about our moment by not writing about our moment.”

Everyone has had to adapt to the realities presented by the past year, and for the Utah Poetry Festival, that meant continuing with a virtual presentation as vaccines begin—but haven’t completed—the work of bringing us back to normalcy. The experience of this year has also provided a chance to understand what has and hasn’t tended to work in presenting literary work virtually.

Programming will include opportunities to explore strategies for teaching poetry, as well as some recorded readings offered up by many poets.

“When we went digital, we knew we’d have to contract a lot,” Rekdal says. “Readings don’t tend to do well online, but I was able to put out a call for a lot of recorded readings. … The spontaneity is really gone in terms of the things that happen at festivals, connec-

UNIVERSITY OF UTAH

The virtual Utah Poetry Festival offers a chance to reflect on creating and presenting poetry in this unique time.

10 | APRIL 15, 2021

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DD HEADSHOT MARK MANN

Catching up with actor and novelist David Duchovny on his polygamist family drama, Truly Like Lightning.

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I Want to Believe

BY MATT PACENZA

APRIL 15, 2021 | 11

Like Bloom, practically, I’m very impressed by the organization, the charitable nature of it. I’m not a believer in any institutional religion—Mormonism or any kind. But I was amazed at the Smith biography [Rough Stone Rolling, by Richard Lyman Bushman]. I’m amazed at what the guy did in such a short period of time. I’m amazed by the Christian brotherhood he created.

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essay on Mormonism, on Joseph Smith.

He calls him a genius. I was like, “Wow, I should take a look at this.” I hadn’t ever looked at Mormonism. I had the general conception of it, which focuses on polygamy, on the undergarments— the clichés.

When I read Bloom, his take on Smith was all about authenticity. Joseph

was this energetic figure, not City Weekly: In the acknowledgements, Smith looking backward. He said, “We can you engage with Harold Bloom’s findbecome gods!” It seemed very American, very “can do,” very “self help.” ing of “genius” in Joseph Smith, his Very unlike the ennui of the Europedescribing Latter-day Saints as “true ans. It stuck with me for years. I started Americans.” He saw the LDS church as with the idea of Bronson Powers, and I the prototypical American religion. Say realized I had a story. more about your connection to Bloom.

David Duchovny: I had a seminar You seem to have admiration for some with Bloom. It was on 19th-century Ro- of Smith’s ideas. However, the novel mantic poetry. He was a captivating also doesn’t shy away from a harsh figure. A genius. A treasure. It wasn’t until many years later, almost 20 years assessment of Mormonism, of the later, I was writing The X-Files episode. church today. Once you were done with I was interested in this Mark Hofmann guy, of how the ideas of forgery and this portrait of Powers, and his beliefs, acting overlap. And I could have it be a where did you land in your own feelings caper, make it fun, in The X-Files mode. about the LDS faith?

In writing the episode, I read Bloom’s

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D

avid Duchovny knows he will always be seen first as a TV star. But, with the recent publication of his fourth novel, Truly Like Lightning, the world is beginning to notice that his ambition stretches far beyond the small screen.

The new book tells the story of Bronson Powers, a Hollywood stuntman turned LDS polygamist. Powers, his three wives and 10 children live out the teachings of Joseph Smith at a sprawling desert ranch in Southern California— before a rapacious venture capital firm invades their oasis.

Duchovny, 60, is no stranger to the world of words. In the mid-1980s, he was on his way to earning a Ph.D. in English Literature at Yale University, where he studied with famed literary critic Harold Bloom. It was Bloom’s writings that introduced Duchovny to Mormonism, which he would explore first in an episode of The X-Files he wrote and directed.

Duchovny never finished that Ph.D., and soon burst into stardom as Fox Mulder in The X-Files and later as Hank Moody in Californication. In recent years, focusing on his career as a novelist, he has largely moved away from acting, but he spoke in early March to City Weekly from London, where he is currently filming a new Judd Apatow comedy, The Bubble.

The following Q&A about Truly Like Lightning and Duchovny’s interest in the faith of Latter-day Saints has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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DREAMSTIME

In Duchovny’s novel Truly Like Lightning, Bronson Powers, his three wives and 10 children live out the teachings of Joseph Smith at a desert ranch in Southern California

Power’s faith is idiosyncratic, hardly a mirror of current mainstream LDS teachings—or its politics. In the novel, you describe the polygamist and his wives as, “Creating a generation of spiritual revolutionaries who could see through the status quo bullshit of the world at large.” What led you to the kind of Mormon that your main character would be?

You think about the lives of Jesus, about the life of Joseph Smith—these were rebels, these were men who were fighting the status quo. One of the things that I came across in Rough Stone Rolling, and perhaps from Bloom, too, was that Smith came down on the side of Native Americans, in terms of who deserves this land. He was not so impressed by the status quo, by the white folks, who were now practicing 19th-century capitalism. Smith had some of that “Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple” driving him. He was anti-progress. Antimodern. That’s where I was coming from in a novel, creating a character who was not embracing the staid version of Mormonism. This guy is a revolutionary.

Bronson Powers is not in any way intended to be a Mormon in Salt Lake City today—or anywhere else. He’s self-taught, self-revealed. He may call himself Mormon, but what he’s really doing is forging Joseph Smith.

You portray polygamy relatively favorably. Are you aware of all the stories of coercion and abuse among LDS fundamentalists, as in the memoir Educated, by Tara Westover? Did it worry you to paint a positive portrayal of polygamy?

GAGE SKIDMORE

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny speak at 2013 San Diego Comic Con International, for The X-Files 20th anniversary panel

When I was writing this book, her book came out and I purposefully thought, “I can’t read it.” I didn’t want to unconsciously steal from it, or have it be

a driver of the story. I had no interest in weighing in on polygamy as patriarchal or not, as abusive or not. Or whether it works. If it works! I’m trying to write human beings, not institutions. That’s what a novel is, writing about people in relationships.

That’s all I wanted to do.

Near the end of The X-Files episode “Hollywood A.D.”—which you wrote—Scully says, “Maybe true faith is a form of insanity.” Does that mirror your own beliefs, then or now?

I don’t know. [Danish philosopher] Kierkegaard said the moment of any decision is insanity. “Do I go outside and do I go inside?” How can I possibly decide? Salad or no salad? Kierkegaard said all decisions bring on insanity.

I’ve thought a lot about faith for years, but I don’t have one. I believe in spirituality, in ethics, but I don’t believe religion has a corner on that market.

In my experience of life, some people are funny, and some people aren’t funny. Maybe some people have the capacity for faith, and some don’t. I don’t.

For me, it is a leap of faith, akin to insanity. When people make that leap of faith, however, maybe I envy it. I don’t denigrate it. Maybe I envy it.

a different consciousness—which will be the consciousness that comes into being for this generation. You and I, and anyone who wasn’t raised on screens, will be aghast. Hopefully they’ll figure it out. Hopefully, they’ll find in all this something beautiful, something filled with love. But I have my doubts.

You direct a critical gaze at a lot in the book, but the harshest assessments are of what we might call California capitalism—and also of Hollywood.

The character of venture capitalist Robert Malouf and screenwriter Sammy Greenbaum might be the most villainous. Are these borne from your own experiences?

Not really. But I think the Hollywood stuff is honest. I feel loving to all these characters. When Maya [who works for the venture capitalists] is tasked with watching all those dreadful B movies, those horror movies, to try and find a reboot, she comes to the conclusion that it was a beautiful undertaking. They were doing the best with what they had, and they were just telling stories. Everyone in Hollywood, however venal, however shitty, are just trying to tell stories. It’s beautiful, that impulse.

It’s that impulse I’m in love with.

The novel is filled with yearning for a simpler life, a life of ideas, one away from screens and technology. Does that mimic your own feelings? Did it drive Some readers might be troubled by relationships your own parenting? [Duchovny has two children, in the novel, such as a teenage girl in a sexual relaages 18 and 21, with his ex-wife, actor Tea Leoni.] tionship with her much-older stepfather. While that It certainly reflects some of my own anxieties relationship isn’t celebrated, it’s not condemned, and fears about it. I did not successfully confis- either. When you write, are you concerned with how cate screens from my kids at any point. I didn’t these choices will be perceived? Is there a voice in have Bronson’s willpower. I have grave fears about where we’re headed with screens, not just with your head that tells you to be careful? kids. I see adults suffering, too. I can only imagine what it’s doing to children. I’m afraid it’s creating

Of course, that voice is there. Again, as with Mormonism or polygamy, I’m not writing a manifesto,

Matt’s Take

Truly Like Lightning review: Family, religion and desert living shape a larger-thanlife family.

BY MATT PACENZA

DREAMSTIME

GAGE SKIDMORE

F

Matt Pacenza teaches English at Judge Memorial Catholic High School and has recently finished his first novel. He previously worked as a newspaper reporter, a magazine writer, an editor and an environmental advocate.

APRIL 15, 2021 | 13

It’s more than roughly right. It’s exactly what it is. It’s a comedy, it plays for laughs. The movie within the movie should be spectacular. It’s fun. CW

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So, let me see if I have this right: You’re currently an actor in a hotel during a pandemic—making a movie about actors in a hotel during a pandemic? [Apatow’s “meta-comedy” The Bubble also stars Maria Bakalova, Fred Armisen, Keegan-Michael Key and Leslie Mann.]

In the conception of the novel, the most onedimensional character was Malouf. For better or worse, the villain. As I wrote, as I got to the end, where Malouf gets his moment to say, “I am telling the truth. I am a parasite. All God’s creatures have a purpose. Mine is: I need.” And I thought, “Yeah!” He waited till the last chapter to have his story. I get him. I don’t like him. But I get him. It was late when he got his moment. I had already finished the novel. I was editing, I was re-writing. It ended on Maya saying the word “parasite.”

And I thought, “Let him defend himself.” And he did. I certainly wouldn’t want to hang out with him, but he was the most surprising.

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Which characters in Truly Like Lightning did you fall in love with?

the rich, same-sex relationship between Powers’ second and third wives. And, most importantly, we somehow buy Powers, a self-taught dreamer who finds paradise in the desert.

Yet, at times, Truly Like Lighting bogs down.

Duchovny needs to rein in his narrative voice, his sometimes-relentless, allusion-ridden commentary on his characters and world. For example, here’s how he introduces the novel’s villain, venture capitalist Robert Malouf, “The son of a Palestinian immigrant set carpenter in Culver City, Malouf had Gatsby-ed himself, despite a baldness so complete he bore a passing resemblance to Stanley Tucci on good days, and Klaus Kinski’s Nosferatu on market-turndown bad ones, into a jet-owning, polo-playing playboy with billions in assets, debts and connections to seats of power in the States, Europe, Russia and the Middle East.”

One key narrative decision irritates: the novel’s inciting plot device is a deal struck between the venture capitalists and a local social worker who learns the Powers children have been illegally home-schooled. This “deal” never makes any sense, yet it’s essential to why half the Powers family must leave paradise.

The novel’s flaws fade once the plot builds, and Duchovny relaxes and lets his characters and story flow through to Truly Like Lightning’s explosive, satisfying finale. Ultimately, no matter how misguided their beliefs and how fatal their choices, we root for this polygamist, his wives and his children to keep their desert oasis in a world gone mad. CW

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I’m writing a novel. Those characters for me had to do those things in order to get where they were intended to go. A novel is not a how-to manual.

It’s a story. A weaker novelist judges what happens in his story. I try to just let the novel play out.

If this were real life, of course, I would have other things to say about a relationship like this.

I’d have questions, want to know more. But in a novel, I’m just trying to tell a story about human beings, not to celebrate or condemn, as you said.

ew of us have met a Latter-day Saint like Bronson Powers, a former Hollywood stuntman turned Joseph Smith-disciple whose polygamist paradise near Joshua Tree is torn apart when the modern world’s greed comes knocking. Powers is the vivid heart of Truly Like Lightning, the fourth book from actor David Duchovny. His ambitious and smart new novel might be accused of biting off more than it can chew, but it also offers a surprisingly compelling interrogation of faith and Mormonism.

As this novel begins, we meet Powers, living an idyllic, progressive life on a separatist desert ranch along with his three wives and their 10 spirited children. None of the Powers know what year it is, and they haven’t seen an outsider in years, but they can quote William Blake, sing the Beatles and hunt from horseback.

Duchovny flashes back to when an inheritance brought Powers thousands of acres of desert near San Bernardino—if he would convert to his Mormon grandmother’s faith. At first, he faked an interest in the Latter-day Saints religion and its scriptures. But then, the author writes, “He started to get it. To feel it.” Powers wills his idiosyncratic version of Mormonism into being within his family. Their paradise can’t last forever, however, and once forces from within and without intrude, Truly Like Lightning’s story leaps from the idyllic desert to the opioid- and Fortnite-ridden city.

A strength of this novel is the LDS faith of his main character. Powers latches on to Mormonism’s belief that individual members can hear directly from God. The main character believes, “Everybody has a bible in them. Everybody is a bible.” The ex-stuntman’s scripture is an odd, compelling mix: He embraces polygamy, but also believes that Smith’s teachings should be the foundation of a faith that is anti-capitalist and anti-racist—a surprise to anyone who has spent time at the Utah Legislature.

It is surprising how well this LA celebrity writes about Powers’ retreat from modernity.

The novel is filled with a yearning for a simpler, disconnected life, for a world free of glitz and distraction. Perhaps not surprisingly for an experienced actor, Duchovny also excels at dialogue, in exchanges that feel both apt and revealing. Many of the novel’s characters, both adults and adolescents, really work, such as the deeply conflicted young venture capitalist who first stumbles upon the polygamist family; Powers’ second wife, a recovering addict who struggles when she reenters society; and his 11-year-old son, a fearless desert rat torn apart by teenage American life.

There’s a surprisingly successful portrayal of

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PRIVATE EY

Fool Me Twice L

ast week, I wrote a little piece about my recent neck surgery and my disdain for the methods used by Big Pharma to guarantee that we U.S. citizens have every opportunity to become addicted to their drugs. I got lots of feedback from readers who agree, so I’m just starting off here with an update. For one, I never even got through a quarter of the painkillers I was prescribed. Unlike in prior years and after such surgeries, I didn’t dump the excess meds into the toilet—a surefire method to kill downstream fish. My newly educated self reads directions much better than my old self, so those meds are heading to a take-back disposal center. Sorry, illicit opioid supply chain.

Meanwhile, I had a checkup Tuesday morning and, despite my complaints, my surgeon assures me all is well with my neck and spine, given my new set of screws and pins. He even showed me the X-rays to prove it, and they perfectly match previous surgery pin and screw X-rays.

When some future archaeologist unearths my remains, he’s going to exclaim, “Eureka! I’ve found Home Depot.”

He’d be right, despite that Home Depot lacks a pharmacy.

I’ve long suspected Big Pharma was no friend of American health. I’ve never understood why it is that the price of something so basic as a lifesaving shot, pill or device is allowed to be measured ever upward to the benefit of CEOs and corporations ahead of the well-being of our citizens.

Even counting for the record-setting pace of companies like Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson in creating and manufacturing vaccines to fight the spread of COVID-19, I’ve not become a fan of Big Pharma. That would be like cheering for Tony “Scarface” Montana—but

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without the swearing, women, drug haze and violence.

On second thought, maybe it is the same but now dressed as a U.S. Senator handmaiden. I don’t know what the dark underbelly of drug use is, nor do I know the whole story of how addictions form (other than cigarettes, of which I was once an expert). Yet, after a career that led me to meet many a scoundrel (some of whom sold drugs) and many a politician (politics is an incubator for scoundrels), I can honestly say I can’t tell the behavioral difference between a drug dealer and any of our four Utah congressmen, the leadership of the Utah House and Senate, and one of our U.S. Senators. Only Sen. Mitt Romney passes my nonscoundrel smell test.

If they hadn’t died young, I could have traded a couple of drug dealers I’ve known for Rep. Chris Stewart or Sen. Mike Lee, and I guarantee you that Utah would be the better for it. Conversely, Lee and Stewart wouldn’t last five seconds on the street. On the street, if a dealer or schmuck tries to pass off a bag of bad drugs, there’s a price to pay, often fatal. In Congress, persons like Lee and Stewart pass off bags of bad information and partisan policy all day long without consequence. They actually get rewarded for being a schmuck. One of the schmucky things they do is dance with Big Pharma while not having to deal with the downstream outcome of bad drug policy, other than to offer thoughts and prayers to families of those who die from illicit drug overdoses. Try that in South Beach. Scarface wouldn’t stand for it.

The above COVID-19 drug companies deserve all the credit for creating vaccines that have allowed most Americans to relax and nearly feel normal again. But, give it time.

In a few years, the COVID-19 shot will be akin to that of insulin—priced up and out to ridiculous levels. As with diabetes, those who wish to avoid COVID-19 will be pressed

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with the choice of living and not living. Who wouldn’t take a shot that might extend one’s life, and what is the price tag of that? That’s when you’ll see our senators and representatives start to back-scratch each other to make sure they say the right things in public forums (“We are in this together!”—yech), but who will also accept the handouts from Big Pharma that insure they loyally allow the American drug cartel to operate unabated.

As they say, it’s always politics, it’s just politics. If so, I wish people would actually take politics more seriously than just taking the side come hell or high water of the person they voted for. The COVID-19 vaccine is a clear example of that. Most Americans who have gotten vaccinated and who also were decent enough to wear masks and social distance this past year associate as Biden Democrats.

The majority of Americans who believe COVID-19 is a hoax, who scorned masks (and who accidentally socially distanced because no one liked them anyway) and who now refuse the vaccine identify as Trump Republicans. That’s just dumb since the disease is an equal-opportunity killer.

Can you imagine what a future historian will write about this? They could open with this: “What caused the great decline of the American dream? It began when Americans quit dreaming, when they began following the craven gods they swore they never would. The dream ended when millions of Americans refused to take a lifesaving vaccine because their president at that time called it a hoax and mocked the scientists who warned him. Millions died and suffered, ever more millions still became enemies of their own brothers and sisters. They did this even though the man who told him it was a hoax secretly took the vaccination himself. Big Pharma smiled. He was the ultimate conman, and his followers were the ultimate fools.” CW Send comments to john@cityweekly.net.

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alt Lake City artist Vincent Draper’s music, at its heart, has always been that of a soloist. Though he’s dabbled in collaborative projects, and enlisted the help of friends for his own music, his own work has mostly been strippedback, acoustic and burrowed in a woolen folk sound that was Draper-centric. From 2013’s EP SAM to his last full-length release, 2016’s Ruinier, this has been true— with the exception of a Salt Lake tribute album in collaboration with Charles Ellsworth from a few years back.

“It was sparse,” he admits of his songwriting from the last few years. “I didn’t want to crowd the songs with noise. And that whole ‘less is more’ mentality was a big part of what I really loved in other people’s music, that delicacy.”

In 2019, though, there was a shift, by way of the EP Heavy Sleeper, which found Draper letting percussion and smokey guitars move up to the front a bit. It’s a shift that’s since been fully realized by way of Draper joining with his band—a group of musicians who formerly filled out some of his bigger live shows, but who became real collaborators when bassist Kevin Schultz all but told Draper they should make it “a real thing.”

Hence, Vincent Draper and The Culls, and their new album, Night Light, out April 16. Night Light finds Draper and the four Culls— Schultz, Eric Peatross on keys, Johnson on drums and Chase Terry on the guitar besides Draper’s—constructing a beautiful collection of 12 songs where carefully crafted instrumentation adds depth and power to Draper’s always-spare lyricism.

“Ghost” opens, establishing that a gently-paced song with frugally-delivered, low basslines—plus simple, slightly reverberating guitar parts and muffled drums that thrush even to the song’s quiet conclusion—can make for complexity. From the follow-up “Guest List” on, the album shifts between smoldering melancholy and brief snatches of light, calling immediately to mind the melodicisms of Duster, with atmosphere and pacing like that of Horse Jumper of Love. The Culls deftly but surprisingly transition from gentleness to tension, in a way that keeps one on the edge of one’s seat.

The instrumentation, infectious on its own, makes Draper’s lyrical style—simple observations, statements of emotional fact— more compelling, too. On “Lit Me Up,” he sings, “You come over unannounced / falling in my arms / falling on my couch / pulling on my heart,” lyrics that recall the bleary-eyed, sentimental focus of folks like The National’s Matt Berninger.

Draper likens his writing to the function of a microscope—that is, to study an object up close. “There are infinite worlds in front of our eyes at any given moment. I don’t feel the need to make really big statements or claims. I just really notice how little things in my day to day will make me super stoked or totally break my heart,” he says. And while he maintains that mostly he feels like

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Vincent Draper makes his band “a real thing” with Night Light.

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Capturing the Culls

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he just writes “teenage breakup songs,” it feels less like his songs are simple teenage songs and more simple odes to the small things that can make up big emotions, like on “Hottest House” where he sings endearingly, “I blew my speakers out last night / thinkin’ about you.”

“It’s been kind of difficult, but a practice I take seriously is to, as a song starts manifesting, focus only on ideas for lyrics and structure, stopping my brain from doing anything else so that I can come with a much less molded piece of clay,” says Draper of his writing process with the Culls—a hard one as a musician native to drums. The Culls pick up these limited ideas he puts down, and run with them.

It’s no surprise it turns out so well; Draper’s shared a love of electric guitar with Terry since they were teenagers, and he’s played in Hectic Hobo alongside Peatross and Johnson. The way “Fireplace” breaks from the rest of Night Light’s songs and rumbles with pounding guitar and stormy keys is a reminder that these artists—plus Schultz, who plays in Crook and the Bluff and Hot House West—are also Americana aficionados.

Most of the rest of the songs are slow, and even when they build, it’s with soft care. That care shows up elsewhere, too, in something as simple as the fact that The Culls care about this project as much as Draper does. After the pandemic hit, it took them a few months to remember that they had studio time booked in the summer of 2020 to record Night Light, which they’d written in 2019. As Draper tells it, the album was the only thing keeping any of them going, so they—not lightly—made the decision to mask up, head to Draper’s go-to studio at Archive Recordings, and bust it out. “All the little subsequent steps after the studio time—the mixing, the mastering, proofing the artwork, getting the photos done—we had all these little steps to keep us excited through what would otherwise be such a difficult and dismal year,” Draper says.

Via Diggers Factory vinyl crowdfunding service, they’ve made some physical records, which are already sold out. But you can and should visit vincentdraper.com for links to stream Night Light when it comes out Friday—it is, after all, one of the best new contributions to local music Salt Lake City has seen in some time. CW

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Josaleigh Pollette’s Pandemic Year Bedroom Demos

Since Josaleigh Pollet has been on the Utah scene since she was basically a kid, her Bandcamp archive is no stranger to teenage acoustic demos. As she’s gotten older and plied her craft as a musician in her ’20s, however, Pollett has moved into projects with grander ambitions. That includes her locally-celebrated 2020 release No Woman Is The Sea, where she collaborated with a full band, filling out her down-to-earth folk leanings for an album’s worth of big emotions—grief and heartbreak, chiefly. But with a uniquely hard year came a return to more modest recording. Pollett’s Bedroom Demos 2021 is an acoustic, straightforward collection of songs, but one full of epiphanies that ring out like isolated, lonely bells.

Mincing no words about her state of mind, on opener “Sad Old Sleep Singers,” she sings “I start to wonder if my heroes had made it, would they still be heroes to me?

Molina and Berman, it was sadness that killed them.”

From there Pollett ponders the spectrum of grief, from the growth that can come from loss (“Sunflowers”) to the reality that she may make the same mistakes again.

She admits warily on “for the tempo,” “I have lost myself often, I will do it again / Like I knew I would. Like I tend to do. / What is it you like? I could like that, too.” On the truly lo-fi iPhone recorded “Earthquake Song” Pollett is paranoid, wondering if the same hurts are “another earthquake / or just the garbage truck?” Despite this tossing and turning between regret and acceptance alike, Pollett finishes the collection on a semi-bright note with “Easy to Forget,” which feels like a memory, or a dream of the future, where alongside strident strumming, she sings about dancing with someone who brushes her sadness off, for a moment. Demos or not, Pollett’s emotional clarity found a conduit in her bedroom, and it’s well worth anyone’s time to listen. Find it at josaleighpollett. bandcamp.com.

New Nights at Hive Live

Hive Live nights are taking off at Soundwell, and since they sell out fast, here are a string of upcoming dates to get a ticket for quick. The locals-focused series will feature artists across genres, so there’s something for everyone. On Saturday, April 24, three artists take the stage, including Changing Reign, who will be showcasing his new album Love That Scars. The solo artist will find support in Vintage Overdrive and Waterside Road— the show starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $12. On Friday, April 30, Soundwell will host reggae band Leopard Skin Zebras, with support TBA. That show starts at 7:30 p.m., with tickets at $10. And though it may seem far, dates for the Saturday, May 1 show may also sell out quick, so take a look. Dangus Kong will be at the top of the night’s lineup, but with support from promising locals like Courtney Lane and The Eric Heideman Band, the side project of one member of Dangus Kong. That show starts later, at 8:45 p.m., with tickets at $10. Despite these dates being beyond the April 10 lifting of the mask mandate, Soundwell will, it seems, be keeping all of their COVID protocols in place for the time being: buying tickets in groups of between two and six; sticking with that group once inside the venue; social distancing from other groups; wearing a mask; and generally being respectful of rules that are just there to keep everyone safe. Visit soundwellslc.com for more info on these shows, their protocols and ticket links.

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22 | APRIL 15, 2021

The Boardwalk Hosts Yes Horizon Music Festival

It’s not that surprising that Orem would be one spot to jump head-first back into events, and one new local venue is spearheading the movement there. As part of a young upand-coming music scene, The Boardwalk opened last year just as the pandemic was just becoming “real” here in the States, and promptly closed for most of the last year. However, they’ve been easing into hosting small shows for local artists in the area throughout the pandemic—and, as a summer comes where many feel safer going to bigger gatherings, they’re going for something even bigger in response. Enter Yes Horizon Music Festival. Taking place May 14 - 15 at The Boardwalk, the two-day fest features a ton of locals, including headliners 19 Miles Per Hour and Suit Up, Soldier, on Friday and Saturday nights respectively. Other notable acts include Park City country kid Carver Louis, heavy indie rockers Beach Death, Sunfish (whose debut album City Weekly reviewed last week), the zoomer-ified EDM of Southernmost Gravy, blues rock from The Fameless, soloist Simon Griffen, and almost two dozen more. It’s certainly a diverse lineup on top of being a robust one, and something fun to look forward to for those who haven’t gone to any shows whatsoever this year. Tickets are $25 per day, or $45 for the weekend. Yes Horizon Music Festival kicks off at 1 p.m. on Friday, ending at 11 p.m. on Saturday. Follow @yeshorizonmusicfestival on Instagram for updates, or @theboardwalksound for more news from the venue’s other show offerings.

HUNTER CLARKE

The Fameless

@ITSTHEFAMELESS

MUSIC PICKS

Aurhe

Aurhe Celebrates Princess Dress at Kilby Court

Ava Stone is one young powerhouse. City Weekly wrote about her project Aurhe briefly a few months ago, ahead of a show at Kilby Court that ended up getting canceled, and now she’s coming back to the Kilby stage with a full album to share. The nine-track debut album Princess Dress is filled out most obviously by Stone’s power pop and heavy rock influences but also by fellow band members Bryannon Burnham on bass and Ray Davis on drums—Stone shreds on the guitar. She boasts a fearless style, an unabashed loyalty to volume and sharp, kicking tempo that also finds her drawing constantly on themes of empowerment. On the power ballad title track she declares that bravery, with a “guitar in my hand and my heart in my throat,” as she sings it. On “Summer Song” she earnestly crows that she believes in love, but on the following track, a “Love Song,” she can’t quite commit to singing a typical one—”I can’t write you a love song, at least not one about romantic things / can’t write you a ballad that’ll bring you to your knees / ‘oh baby don’t go, oh I love you so, baby kiss me goodnight,’ no the words don’t feel right.” Aurhe’s impressive blend of early Fueled by Ramen-era emo and soaring, electric stadium rock riffs seems like a distinctive Gen Z interpretation of things that are technically bygone to her generation—but such is yielded by the passing of time. It doesn’t hurt that Stone also feels like a Hayley Williams for the 2020s, with bright pink hair and tough attitude that instantly mark her as a classic pop punk princess. Don’t miss Aurhe when they visit Kilby Court to show off Princess Dress on April 16. Doors are at 6 p.m., openers are TBA and tickets are $15. All COVID protocols from before April 10 will still be in place, including social distancing and mask requirements. Visit kilbycourt.com for more info.

Song of the Week: “Neon Skyline” by Andy Shauf

The other night, on one of the first warm evenings of the season, I had all my windows open as I chopped every green thing in my fridge for a spring-dedicated minestrone. There I was, letting some very played-out, reverb-soaked indie music wash over me, when it occurred to me that Andy Shauf is what I actually like to listen to in spring, when the weather is fine and I’m feeling misty. His way with a melodic guitar line and willingness to employ quirky keyboard or flute or what-have-you always makes him a pretty listen, suited for the prettiest of seasons. Shauf is also a wonderful storyteller. With the release of his 2016 album The Party, I fell for him and his literary way of delicately telling stories, from their most irreverent details to their most devastating conclusions. The Party had very many such conclusions, which made it particularly refreshing to see him engaging in his more playful, contented side with his 2020 album, Neon Skyline. Like The Party, the songs waltz (that’s what his songs sound like, waltzes, or sometimes a foxtrot) between characters, their connections, pasts and presents. But on Neon Skyline’s title track, Shauf’s narrator is not an outsider lonely at a party, but a bar regular warmly greeting a friend, a bartender, a beer. Among the neons, memories of an ex are lightly remembered—just before that ex stumbles through the door in the next song’s vignette. But before that ever happens, Shauf’s just heading down the street to his neighborhood bar, waiting on a friend who also wants to “hold a lighter head.” This opener—plus all the tales that tumble lovingly after—are a nightlife-tinted nostalgia hit like no other, and a hard but fond listen nowadays. Open your windows and put it on. CW

ALEX SPRINGER

WE ARE OPEN!

Restaurant Readjustments

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fter a year of eating exclusively takeout, I’m getting ready to get back out there and visit restaurants again. Yep, this time next week, my second dose of Pfizer will have fully kicked in, which means bidding adieu to a takeout-only dining experience. It’s been hard to wrap my head around this readjustment; in the past year, I only ate on-site twice. Also, far too many of my favorite restaurants closed up shop, which means exploring our dining scene will be unfamiliar and new in many ways.

The responsibility of tackling Utah’s postpandemic restaurant scene is not lost on me.

I’m definitely going to continue masking up and take full advantage of the warm weather’s patio dining options, but there’s a hell of a lot to cover.

Will the creative minds that were forced to shutter their operations find a fertilized dining ecosystem in which to replant and thrive? Or will we simply have to cope with the gaping wounds that COVID-19 inflicted upon our hospitality industry? This is what I’m hoping to explore as I venture out into Utah’s dining scene this year.

As I’m looking forward to the new and tasty adventures that await, I can’t help but look back on the places that pivoted to meet the pandemic-driven demands. I, like the rest of the world, had a difficult time processing the events of 2020. Yes, the toilet paper famine and Tiger King oversaturation took their respective tolls, but the apparent erosion of human decency that played out every second of every moment on social media just wrung me out from time to time.

It was in these moments I would reflect on how hospitality workers endured that exact same media barrage—not to mention reallife assholes giving them shit about wearing masks—yet got up, went to work and made good food and drinks anyway.

I need to give a shout out to OAK Wood Fire Kitchen (715 E. 12300 South, Draper, 801-996-8155, oakwoodfirekitchen.com), whose spaghetti-and-meatball family meal helped me and my family get through the first month of the pandemic. Something about those oversized bucatini noodles slathered in marinara, paired with meteoric meatballs, created a bubble of comfort in a world that very much felt out of control. I

remember writing about this place early in the pandemic, and its family-style offerings helped me figure out my approach to writing about food when dining in had to be removed from the equation.

Now that I’m digging through these earlystage pandemic memories, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Elizabeth’s Catering (1645 W. 2200 South, 801-359-7184, eccgrocery.com). Not only did their take-and-bake lasagna come through in a pinch, but they leveraged their position as a caterer to secure staples like flour, sugar, rice and even toilet paper for the general public when they were having a tough time finding these items in stores. This early answer to curbside grocery pickup saved our bacon once we ran out of a few basics, and that lasagna was a hearty, soulful dish that fed us for a week.

As my family and I moved from those stages of uncertainty to that shaky territory that everyone decided to call “the new normal,” takeout became more about support than anything else. I read about local restaurants closing down, and all these great grassroots movements to put more money back into the hospitality industry’s coffers, so dining out or buying gift cards to local places seemed like a good way to help. I snagged a gift card to The Copper Onion (111 E. Broadway, Ste. 170, 801-355-3282, thecopperonion. com) that I’m looking forward to cashing in as soon as the right kind of arthouse horror movie rears its ugly head at The Broadway.

Scarfing down a bit of Wagyu bone marrow is the best way to prep for two hours of visually-arresting carnage at the theater.

I also stumbled upon two of my new favorites during the “grim acceptance” phase of the pandemic. Paik’s Noodle / Hong Kong Banjum (3513 Constitution Boulevard, Ste. 100, 385-900-8607, hongkongbanjumwestvalleyutah.business.site) and Brick’s Corner (1465 S. 700 East, 801-953-0636, brickscornerslc.com) both opened their doors in the midst of 2020’s pandemic, giving me hope for the post-COVID future that I hope is rapidly approaching. The jajangmyeon at Hong Kong Banjum is pinnacle noodle-craft for me. The savory-sweet black bean sauce that clings to a host of homemade noodles creates a flavor that you feel in your bones.

And Brick’s Corner brought Detroit-style pizza to the Salt Lake Valley, which I feel is a milestone in its own right. This thick-crust pie packed to the edge with toppings like grilled Spam, braised beef and barbecue pork is a pizza lover’s dream come true.

Though my space is limited, I’d like to throw a gigantic “thank you” from the bottom of my heart to those frontline workers who kept right on filling orders, mixing drinks, supporting local farmers and just doing their damnedest to keep the local hospitality industry from imploding. Here’s hoping that the light at the end of the tunnel will keep getting brighter. CW

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Midvale’s Fort Union area continues its quest to ensure any and all types of cuisine are available within walking distance, with Koino Poké (7186 Union Park Avenue, Ste. B, 801-948-4771, koinopoke.com) joining the ranks. For the most part, Koino sticks to the traditional playbook of this Hawaiian dish that finds luscious slices of sushi grade fish placed gently atop a bed of rice, veggies and sauces. They’ve also adopted poke burritos into the mix, taking a cue from the popularity that sushi burritos have recently enjoyed. Diners can build their own bowls or snag one of Koino’s signature dishes—all of which can be converted into burrito form. If you’re craving fresh poké on Fort Union, check this place out.

Millcreek Nutrition Opens

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APRIL 15, 2021 | 25

Quote of the Week: “I think every chef should have a food truck.” –Jose Andres

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One of the reasons that SoHo Food Park (4747 S. Holladay Boulevard, sohofoodpark.com) is my food truck roundup location of choice is that the SoHo team does a nice job vetting their vendors. For food trucks to earn a spot in SoHo’s lineup, they have to send in applications and have their operation taste-tested by the SoHo team. SoHo Food Park recently announced that they would be accepting applications from new food trucks for their 2021 season via their Facebook page (facebook.com/sohofoodpark). Essentially, interested food truck owners just need to send in a text message with the basics of their business and the SoHo team will reach out to those who would be a good fit at this outdoor dine-a-thon.

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26

ng

Celebrat i

Those fond of working out and getting active in the Millcreek area will want to check out Millcreek Nutrition (970 E. 3300 South, Ste. 8, 801-603-3004, facebook.com/millcreeknutrition), a juice and smoothie bar that just celebrated its grand opening. Their menu touts protein-rich and vitamin-enhanced smoothies and bowls that active folks will love to incorporate into their diets, but the junk-food enthusiasts will dig their protein waffles and house-made energy drinks. From the looks of their Instagram page (@millcreek_nutrition), this is the kind of place that will feel right at home in the Millcreek area. It’s a fresh take on the juice bar concept, and I’m looking forward to checking out those energy drinks.

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onTAP 2 Row Brewing 6856 S. 300 West, Midvale 2RowBrewing.com On Tap: Feelin’ Hazy Bewilder Brewing 445 S. 400 West, SLC BewilderBrewing.com On Tap: Orange Honey Wheat Bohemian Brewery 94 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale BohemianBrewery.com Bonneville Brewery 1641 N. Main, Tooele BonnevilleBrewery.com On Tap: Peaches and Cream Ale Desert Edge Brewery 273 Trolley Square, SLC DesertEdgeBrewery.com On Tap: Fresh Brewed UPA Epic Brewing Co. 825 S. State, SLC EpicBrewing.com On Tap: Tart N Hazy Woodaged Sour IPA Fisher Brewing Co. 320 W. 800 South, SLC FisherBeer.com On Tap: Red Ale Grid City Beer Works 333 W. 2100 South, SLC GridCityBeerWorks.com On Tap: Extra Pale Ale Hopkins Brewing Co. 1048 E. 2100 South, SLC HopkinsBrewingCompany.com On Tap: Raspberry Gose Hoppers Grill and Brewing 890 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale HoppersBrewPub.com

Moab Brewing 686 S. Main, Moab TheMoabBrewery.com On Tap: Bougie Johnny’s - Rose Ale Mountain West Cider 425 N. 400 West, SLC MountainWestCider.com On Tap: Single Varietal Elliott Gold Ogden River Brewing 358 Park Blvd, Ogden OgdenRiverBrewing.com On Tap: Injector Hazy IPA Policy Kings Brewery 223 N. 100 West, Cedar City PolicyKingsBrewery.com Proper Brewing 857 S. Main, SLC ProperBrewingCo.com On Tap: Veni Vidi Bibi - Italianstyle Pilsner Red Rock Brewing Multiple Locations RedRockBrewing.com On Tap: Baked Pastry Stout RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com On Tap: Americano Coffee Blend Roosters Brewing Multiple Locations RoostersBrewingCo.com On Tap: Cosmic Autumn Rebellion SaltFire Brewing 2199 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake SaltFireBrewing.com On Tap: 10 Ton Truck West Coast IPA

Kiitos Brewing 608 W. 700 South, SLC KiitosBrewing.com

Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com On Tap: Bombshell Cherry Belgian Ale

Level Crossing Brewing Co. 2496 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: Vienna Lager

Shades Brewing 154 W. Utopia Ave, South Salt Lake ShadesBrewing.beer On Tap: Berliner Weisse

A list of what local craft breweries and cider houses have on tap this week Silver Reef 4391 S. Enterprise Drive, St. George StGeorgeBev.com Squatters 147 W. Broadway, SLC Squatters.com Strap Tank Brewery Multiple Locations StrapTankBrewery.com Springville On Tap: PB Rider, Peanut Butter Stout Lehi On Tap: 2-Stroke, Vanilla Mocha Porter TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC TFBrewing.com On Tap: Haze #3 Talisman Brewing Co. 1258 Gibson Ave, Ogden TalismanBrewingCo.com On Tap: EL Norte - Mexican Style Lager Toasted Barrel Brewery 412 W. 600 North, SLC ToastedBarrelBrewery.com Uinta Brewing 1722 S. Fremont Drive, SLC UintaBrewing.com On Tap: Was Angeles Craft Beer UTOG 2331 Grant Ave, Ogden UTOGBrewing.com On Tap: American Ale Vernal Brewing 55 S. 500 East, Vernal VernalBrewing.com Wasatch 2110 S. Highland Drive, SLC WasatchBeers.com Zion Brewery 95 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale ZionBrewery.com Zolupez 205 W. 29th Street #2, Ogden Zolupez.com

BEER NERD

Bitter Ends

BY MIKE RIEDEL comments@cityweekly.net @utahbeer

Great Beer, No Compromise

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Grid City - Nitro Apricot Whole Flower Dry Hopped Pale Ale

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MIKE RIEDEL

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and a bit of pale malt round things out. The bitterness is quite strong initially, but it becomes a bit more balanced as it warms up. Finish is lightly bitter with some light sweetness, lingering on the palate for quite a while after the finish. The medium-light body with moderate nitrogen drinks slickly, with a bit of lingering sweetness and no hint of the 5.0 percent alcohol at the end of each sip.

Overall: Damn, this is one nice fruited pale ale. The fruit is intense, but it matches perfectly with the hops bill. I hope more beers like this find their way into Grid City’s regular line-up.

Epic - Big Bad Baptist Reserve 2021: The Reserve series from Epic is a blend of the previous season’s Big Bad Baptist and its many variants. This year’s Reserve is a blend of 5 variants, and thus can have a complex flavor profile. This imperial stout’s nose is quite nice, with big, earthy roasted coffee up front, quickly followed by toasted coconut and eventually layers of chocolate—ganache, dark chocolate, cocoa, a nice Mounds bar thing—plus a little peanut butter and some fruity whiskey/rum and barrel notes.

The taste brings a lot of rich cocoa, dark chocolate, ganache, even a little fudginess, with more baking spices and cookie dough.

Peanut butter and toasted coconut play beneath, with some added nougat character and coffee. It’s a little roasty and earthy from this point on, as vanilla from various whiskey barrels enhance the already-noticeable 13 percent alcohol. The booziness brings some warming rummy notes as it comes up to temperature.

Overall: Solid—not my fav of the Baptists, but good. There’s a lot happening in this bottle and my tiny brain has a difficulty keeping up with it all. Its many layers offer a smorgasbord of pastries and confections for even the fussiest palates.

As far as fun goes, these are both a blast.

However, they are on opposite sides of the alcohol spectrum, so beware in that regard. As always, cheers! CW

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Y

ou may say that there are too many IPAs out there—and you would not be wrong. They are hugely popular right now, and you can guarantee that every week, you’ll see a new one. But guess what? I found a couple of non-IPA beers this week. So this one is dedicated to you, the anti-hop heads and the haze-resistant bros.

Grid City - Nitro Apricot Whole Flower Dry Hopped Pale Ale: This may be one of the longest names to come out of a Utah brewery in recent years, and it comes from a brewery that has taken on specializing in true nitro-conditioned beers. To that end, I think it’s appropriate to dub Head Brewer Jeremy Gross as the “nitro maestro.”

Gross’s latest nitro ale pours a slightly hazy golden-amber color, with moderate to heavy amounts of fine active visible carbonation rising quickly along the edges of the glass, and moderate golden-yellow/ burnt orange-colored highlights. The beer has a two-finger tall dense, creamy, foamy white head that slowly reduces to a large patch of medium-thick film covering the entire surface of the beer, and a mediumthick ring at the edges of the glass. Light to moderate amounts of lacing linger. It smells of fresh-picked ripe apricots, intense citra hops, fresh-cut grass, a bit of backing pale malt and no hint of booze. The fruitiness is intense initially, but it gets more balanced as it comes to room temperature.

Upon first swig, there’s a mix of intense citra hops and a smack of super-fresh apricots. Some fresh grass, tropical fruit zest

Fuzzy Pucker Peach Sour

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No astringent-tasting ales for the IPA haters this week

You already have your BURGER JOINT & TACO JOINT Now meet your TERIYAKI JOINT

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

W

hat will pandemic art look like? It’s not a hypothetical question any more—between a spate of recent documentaries, and quickie fiction projects like the Netflix quarantine rom-com caper Locked Down—but it’s also a question that was never going to have a single easy answer. People were going to respond to a weird time in a wide variety of ways, and some of those ways were bound to be weird themselves.

Take writer/director Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth, for example. Even if the setting of a story during a viral pandemic in England didn’t give you a clue, you just need to stick around for the closing credit for a “COVID production assistant” to know that this was a very specific response to the past year. And it’s also not exactly a leap of the imagination to take a scary time and turn it into horror. But what exactly is Wheatley teasing out by combining his pandemic creepshow with a kind of mystical environmentalism?

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CINEMA Reece Shearsmith in In the Earth

NEON FILMS

Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth explores the pandemic through the lens of a psychedelic thriller.

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Viral Video

Before we get there, we’re introduced to Martin Lowery (Joel Fry), a scientist heading from the city to a forest outpost, having volunteered to seek out Dr. Olivia Wendle (Hayley Squires), a researcher who hasn’t communicated in months. Park ranger Alma (Ellora Torchia) serves as a guide to bring Martin through the forest to Dr. Wendle’s encampment, but along the way it becomes clear they aren’t alone in the woods.

Wheatley builds a strong foundation for his world as Martin arrives at the ranger station—a converted vacation lodge, with no one in the vicinity doing much vacationing—and is required to go through a variety of tests so he can be cleared to stay.

The word “COVID” is never specifically mentioned, leaving more general terminology like “third wave” to allow for the possibility that this is the present, or perhaps a near future.

Things shift once Martin and Alma begin their multi-day trek into the woods, and while there are a few references to the outside world—specifically, the possibility that some people have attempted to flee from the contagion in the city to more remote places—the focus is on a different tone and subtext. Martin and Alma encounter another man, named Zach (Reece Shearsmith), and there’s an intriguing notion of how people attempt to be civilized with one another after a time spent in isolation, wondering if every new person is a potential threat. Fry also makes for a different kind of protagonist, his obvious discomfort with the outdoors as an inveterate city-dweller manifesting itself in a variety of ways that set up the clash between hu-

manity and the natural world.

It’s in that area where In the Earth starts to go kind of bonkers, as it delves into folk tales of a possibly-benevolent/possibly-not forest spirit, and a de facto cult arising to worship that spirit. Wheatley gets back to his genre roots with a mix of body horror and hallucinatory images—and, fair warning to all those who might be affected by such things, a lot of strobe lighting—to emphasize his protagonists’ sense of disorientation, while attempting at the same time to build an entire mythology full of witchcraft, herb lore and the notion of a responsive, conscious force of nature that feels like Wheatley spent a bit too much time watching M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening.

So is Wheatley diving into similar territory as that ill-fated Shyamalan joint, using the rise of a killer virus as a way to tell us that the natural world has a bone to pick

with us? It doesn’t take a ton of dot-connecting to get the sense that that’s where In the Earth wants to lead us, but it feels like Wheatley is taking an awfully circuitous path to get there. His unsettling visual storytelling feels like a way of tossing a cloak of enigma over something that’s actually fairly clear thematically. Add “psychedelic thriller” to the list of ways artists chose to dive into this pandemic, and maybe remove it from the checklist as one that doesn’t necessarily need to be done again. CW

IN THE EARTH

BB½ Joel Fry Ellora Torchia Reece Shearsmith R Available April 16 in theaters

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY B Y R O B

COMMUNITY CLASSIFIEDS

B R E Z S N Y

Go to realastrology.com for Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text-message horoscopes.

Audio horoscopes also available by phone at 877-873-4888 or 900-950-7700.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) “Today I feel the whole world is a door,” wrote poet Dennis Silk. In a similar spirit, 13th-century Zen master Wumen Huikai observed, “The whole world is a door of liberation, but people are unwilling to enter it.” Now, I’m here to tell you, Aries, that there will be times in the coming weeks when the whole world will feel like a door to you. And if you open it, you’ll be led to potential opportunities for interesting changes that offer you liberation. This is a rare blessing. Please be sufficiently loose and alert and brave to take advantage.

half of the 13th century, kept a retinue of 5,000 astrologers on retainer. Some were stationed on the roof of his palace, tasked with using sorcery to banish approaching storm clouds. If you asked me to perform a similar assignment, I would not do so. We need storms! They bring refreshing rain and keep the earth in electrical balance. Lightning from storms creates ozone, a vital part of our atmosphere, and it converts nitrogen in the air into nitrogen in the ground, making the soil more fertile. Metaphorical storms often generate a host of necessary and welcome transformations, as well—as I suspect they will for you during the coming weeks.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Taurus philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein was called a genius by Nobel Prize-winning author Bertrand Russell. His Philosophical Investigations was once voted the 20th century’s most important philosophy book. Yet one of Wittgenstein’s famous quotes was “How hard it is to see what is right in front of my eyes!”

Luckily for all of us, I suspect that won’t be problem for you in the coming weeks, Taurus. In fact, I’m guessing you will see a whole range of things that were previously hidden, even though some of them had been right in front of your eyes. Congrats! Everyone whose life you touch will benefit because of this breakthrough.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) “Unexpressed emotions will never die,” declared trailblazing psychologist Sigmund Freud. “They are buried alive, and they will come forth, later, in uglier ways.” I agree, which is why I advise you not to bury your emotions—especially now, when they urgently need to be aired. OK? Please don’t allow a scenario in which they will emerge later in ugly ways. Instead, find the courage to express them soon—in the most loving ways possible, hopefully, and with respect for people who may not be entirely receptive to them. Communicate with compassionate clarity.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) What do you believe in, exactly, Leo? The coming weeks will be a fine time to take an inventory of your beliefs—and then divest yourself of any that no longer serve you, no longer excite you, and no longer fit your changing understanding of how life works. For extra credit, I invite you to dream up some fun new beliefs that lighten your heart and stimulate your playfulness.

For example, you could borrow poet Charles Wright’s approach: “I believe what the thunder and lightning have to say.” Or you could try my idea: “I believe in wonders and marvels that inspire me to fulfill my most interesting dreams.”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) In the past few weeks, I hope you’ve been treating yourself like a royal child. I hope you’ve been showering yourself with extra special nurturing and therapeutic treatments. I hope you’ve been telling yourself out loud how soulful and intelligent and resilient you are, and I hope you’ve delighted yourself by engaging with a series of educational inspirations. If for some inexplicable reason you have not been attending to these important matters with luxurious intensity, please make up for lost time in the coming days. Your success during the rest of 2021 depends on your devout devotion to self-care right now.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Sometimes when a disheartening kind of darkness encroaches, we’re right to be afraid. In fact, it’s often wise to be afraid, because doing so may motivate us to ward off or transmute the darkness. But on other occasions, the disheartening darkness that seems to be encroaching isn’t real, or else is actually less threatening than we imagine. Novelist John Steinbeck described the latter when he wrote, “I know beyond all doubt that the dark things crowding in on me either did not exist or were not dangerous to me, and still I was afraid.” My suspicion is that this is the nature of the darkness you’re currently worried about. Can you therefore find a way to banish or at least diminish your fear?

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Coffee Garden is looking for a baker with at least two years experience. Ability to multi task and organize time and a day’s production. Ability to work early morning hours. Professional and positive attitude. Dependable, HUGE! Bring or mail your resume or pick up an application at: Coffee Garden, 878 E 900 S or email to: contact@coffeegardenslc.com Glover Nursery is now accepting applications for our 2021 Team!

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APRIL 15, 2021 | 29

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) “Some people, if they didn’t make it hard for themselves, might fall asleep,” wrote novelist Saul Bellow. In other words, some of us act as if it’s entertaining, even exciting, to attract difficulties and cause problems for ourselves. If that describes you even a tiny bit, Pisces, I urge you to tone down that bad habit in the coming weeks—maybe even see if you can at least partially eliminate it. The cosmic rhythms will be on your side whenever you take measures to drown out the little voices in your head that try to undermine and sabotage you. At least for now, say “no!” to making it hard for yourself. Say “yes!” to making it LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongol Empire and China in the second graceful for yourself.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Virgo poet Charles Wright testifies, “I write poems to untie myself, to do penance and disappear through the upper righthand corner of things, to say grace.” What about you, Virgo?

What do you do in order to untie yourself and do penance and invoke grace? The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to use all the tricks at your disposal to accomplish such useful transformations. And if you currently have a low supply of the necessary tricks, make it your healthy obsession to get more.

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| COMMUNITY |

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Cancerian poet Denis Johnson eventually became a celebrated writer who won numerous prizes, including the prestigious National Book Award. But life was rough when he was in his 20s. Because of his addictions to drugs and alcohol, he neglected his writing. Later, in one of his mature poems, he expressed appreciation to people who supported him earlier on. “You saw me when I was invisible,” he wrote, “you spoke to me when I was deaf, you thanked me when I was a secret.” Are there helpers like that in your own story? Now would be a perfect time to honor them and repay the favors.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Sagittarian author Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz wrote a poem entitled “Not Doing Something Wrong Isn’t the Same as Doing Something Right.” I propose that we make that thought one of your guiding themes during the next two weeks. If you choose to accept the assignment, you will make a list of three possible actions that fit the description “not doing something wrong,” and three actions that consist of “doing something right.” Then you will avoid doing the three wrong things named in the first list and give your generous energy to carrying out the three right things in the second list.

HELP WANTED

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GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Why don’t rivers flow straight? Well, sometimes they do, but only for a relatively short stretch. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, no river moves in a linear trajectory for a distance of more than 10 times its width. There are numerous reasons why this is so, including the friction caused by banks and the fact that river water streams faster at the center. The place where a river changes direction is called a “meander.” I’d like to borrow this phenomenon to serve as a metaphor for your life in the coming weeks. I suspect your regular flow is due for a course change—a meander. Any intuitive ideas about which way to go?

In which direction will the scenery be best?

Only $5 per line | Call 801-654-1393 or email pete@cityweekly.net | Deadline Monday at 3 p.m.

© 2021

TIGHT ENDS

BY DAVID LEVINSON WILK

ACROSS

DOWN

1. Unable to relax 2. Color named for a planet 3. Some Winter Olympians 4. Apt. coolers 5. Cul-de-____ 6. Be currently popular, as a Twitter topic 7. Big name in cosmetics 8. Country between Togo and Nigeria 9. Public squares 10. Wee, informally 11. Submachine gun named for its designer 12. Abbr. in a birth announcement 13. Male turkey

G

Nature Challenge

I

18. Yuletide beverage 19. Tic-____-toe 23. City east of Santa Barbara 24. Slender and long-limbed 25. Joe Jackson’s “____ Really Going Out With Him?” 26. Young fellows 27. Provide, as with a quality 28. Star pitcher 29. Serve as an agent (for) 35. WNBA’s Dream, on scoreboards 36. Archaeologist’s find 37. By ____ (just barely) 39. Anna of “Fringe” 40. Doodled, e.g.

41. Blubber 42. Tip 43. Portrait seen on renminbi bills 45. Annually 46. Passage near the end of an aria 47. Spot about every two blocks on a major city street 49. Monotony 53. Trio in elem. school 54. Cap’ns’ underlings

55. Tenochtitlan resident 56. Something up one’s sleeve 59. Bit of ink 60. ____-haw 61. “Ich bin ____ Berliner” 62. One vain about his looks 63. Gold: Prefix 64. Army fare, for short 65. Provide, as with a grant money

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.

71. Megan Thee Stallion genre

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. Unconfident utterances 4. Take ____ at (try) 9. Hybrid fruit also known as an aprium 14. Karachi’s country: Abbr.

15. Do the Thanksgiving honors 16. “Good As Hell” singer 17. Literary movement of Emerson and Thoreau 20. Analogy phrase 21. Cameron of “Bad Teacher” 22. In 1582, it was proclaimed by the Pope as a reform of the Julian one 30. She/____ pronouns 31. German agreements 32. Filling in between lasagna layers 33. Some ESPN highlights, for short 34. Michael who played Cochise on ‘50s TV 38. Like some pockets 39. Some football linemen ... or what’s contained in four squares in this puzzle’s grid 41. Wrestler in a mawashi 44. “Old ____” (1957 Disney classic) 45. Chem. pollutant banned in 1979 48. Eye-deceiving designs 50. Finish, as a cake 51. It fills la mer 52. Make extreme efforts 57. Physician who was once a regular on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” 58. Some whiskeys 59. Protector of free speech 66. Group seen in gathering clouds?

67. Prefix with biology or chemistry 68. Dye variety 69. Evening news hr.

70. One may have a flat head

SUDOKU

| COMMUNITY | | CITYWEEKLY.NET |

30 | APRIL 15, 2021

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

t will soon be time for the 2021 City Nature Challenge—just what we need to get out from in front of our computers and Netflix binges and into our neighborhoods, parks and downtowns. From April 30-May 3, people from around the world will join together to document their time out in nature using the iNaturalist app.

Just think for a moment about the many TV documentaries regarding how our planet is dying. Let it motivate you to get out and smell the flowers, and then document what find outside your front door. You’ll find native trees like the desert willow, mountain mahogany and bigtooth maple. None of these blew over in the hurricane winds of the past Labor Day weekend!

Then there are all the wildflowers starting to poke their heads up. They include white sand, snowball sand and desert sand verbenas; common yarrow; desert rock peas; horsemint giant hyssop; northern water plantains; and our state flower, the sego lily. Many local nurseries in have expanded their native plant selections, and it’s fun to discover each year what will grow in our yards.

And lest we forget the invasive garden weeds also vying for garden space—those that fool us with their flowers but take over the yard—such as common mallow, bindweed, henbit, morning glory, prickly lettuce and the scarlet pimpernel. And then there are dandelions and grasses such as the evil crabgrass, hare barley, junglerice and perennial ryegrass. I have a newer iPhone that has Google Lens on it, so I just click on the lens icon, point at the plant and voila!—it tells me what I’m seeing.

The City Nature Challenge asks you to take photos of what you find and share with fellow nature lovers and tree huggers. The Natural History Museum of Utah and more than a dozen organizations throughout Northern Utah are in on this effort.

As a sidebar, I know there are Utah urban foresters who advise cities and counties on including more indigenous flora.

I drove by a school recently where they were planting a long row of pines along a fence line. I gasped when I realized the fir is not a native plant. Not only does it have short roots—making it susceptible to being blown over in high winds, but it requires much water. (If you weren’t living along the Wasatch Front in September 2020, you missed hurricane-force winds that yanked out 100-year-old trees across our valleys.)

Happily, “Thor,” my all-time favorite local tree did OK. This male Fremont cottonwood, located just north of The Bagel Project at 753 S. 500 East, doesn’t give off cotton. He was planted in 1857 by Peter Beck Hansen. History has it that Brigham Young told his followers to “forest the valley” when they got here, and thus Thor was planted and thrives to this day with deep, deep roots to the artesian well in the neighborhood (where you can bottle your own water 24/7 at the park on the corner of 800 South and 500 East). n Content is prepared expressly for Community and is not endorsed by City Weekly staff.

IHC Health Services, Inc. DBA Intermountain Healthcare seeks an Application Systems Technical Analyst in West Valley City, Utah. Upon hire, all applicants will be subject to drug testing/screening and background checks. To apply, please send a resume to Mary Hansen at Mary.

Hansen@imail.org and reference the above job title.

Applicants who fail to provide a resume and pre-screening question responses will not be considered.

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S NEofW the

BY T HE EDITO R S AT A ND RE WS M cMEEL

We

sell

sinners,

WEIRD

April Fools An April Fools’ Day prank went wrong in Wichita, Kansas, on ... April 1, KWCH-TV reported, when Arnthia Willis, 58, called her daughter that morning and said she’d been shot. The Wichita Police and Fire departments and Sedgwick County EMS responded to the address given, but discovered no one was there.

They later found Arnthia in suburban Derby and arrested her for an unlawful request for emergency service assistance. n Michael Boatman, 41, discovered by two sheriff’s deputies wandering down the street at 1 a.m. in Spartanburg, South Carolina, wearing only a “clear bag over his genitals” on April 1, told the officers he was doing a “walk of shame” in penance for cheating on his wife, according to an incident report. The Smoking Gun reported Boatman, who was smoking marijuana, according to the report, also allegedly told officers he had taken methamphetamine earlier. Boatman briefly tried to run away from officers, police said, but was captured and arrested for indecent exposure, among other offenses.

Everyone’s a Critic Jason Harvey, 50, of Romford, England, has been fined about $3,800 after his east London town council received 150 complaints from neighbors about his Saturday-night karaoke parties. “It has been a nightmare,” said one neighbor. “It was so loud, and his singing was terrible.” Noise officers told the Evening Standard they received specific complaints about Harvey’s covers of Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing” and Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s “Islands in the Stream.” Harvey, who said he would appeal the fine, defended his voice: “I admit I’m no singer, but I have a go. I would have a couple of people over and they loved all that.”

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Animal Antics n Alaska’s Anchorage Daily News reported on March 26 that customers at a local Costco store are routinely robbed of large cuts of meat as they transfer their groceries to their cars ... by ravens. More than a year ago, Olani Saunoa was buckling her toddler into a car seat when a raven swooped in and grabbed a package of short ribs from her car. “He had picked up the entire package,” she said. And this year it happened to her again—a bird snatched a pack of pork ribs. Other customers are reporting similar incidents on social media. Rick Sinnott, a former wildlife biologist, isn’t surprised: Ravens “much prefer ... a package of short ribs from Costco to half of a hamburger bun from McDonald’s.” n Neighbors in Northampton, England, have been annoyed by a swan that has been knocking on their doors, sometimes for hours at a time, for five years, Fox News reported on March 24.

“He starts by rattling the letterbox then bashes the metal with its beak quite loudly,” said resident Stephen Legg. “The racket reverberates through the whole house.” The bird targets houses only on one particular block, according to local media, but no one seems to know why.

Overreaction Thomas McCann, 49, of Stockport, England, was sentenced to prison for life on March 30 for the brutal murder of his wife, Yvonne, 46, in May 2020, following an argument over a bag of french fries left out of the freezer, according to court documents. The Guardian reported McCann strangled his wife in the bathroom, then dismembered her body and disposed of some of the parts in Reddish Vale Country Park, where dog walkers discovered her remains; other parts were taken to a recycling center. During this time, McCann texted their children, saying Yvonne had walked out on him. He was later spotted on video footage carrying trash bags to his car and while walking toward the park, and confessed the killing to police.

Compelling Explanation Deputies in Brevard County, Florida, clocked Charles Thomas, 65, of Malabar, going over 100 mph on his motorcycle and weaving in and out of traffic on March 31, according to an arrest report.

When they finally caught up with him, Thomas reassured them by saying “he is trained to drive like that,” WKMG-TV reported.

He was charged with reckless driving.

Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com

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APRIL 15, 2021 | 31

Don’t Eat That!

Among the treasures discovered at Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, England, is a 121-year-old chocolate bar, still in its tin, commissioned by Queen Victoria for troops fighting in the Second Boer War in South Africa, Reuters reported on March 31. Oxburgh was the ancestral home of the Bedingfeld family for 500 years,

all

| COMMUNITY |

Cliche Come to Life Around 4:15 a.m. on March 24, an unidentified resident of Laurium, Michigan, woke to find a gun pointed at his head, WLUC-TV reported. Laurium Police said Warren Meyers, 52, of Calumet, Michigan, allegedly demanded the homeowner give him his two cats. The “cat burglar” left with one cat and was later apprehended, along with the gun he used, said authorities. He was arraigned on March 29 in Houghton County Court; the fate of the stolen cat is unknown.

Unexpected Diagnosis Kent Ryan Tomao, 25, of Kidapawan City, Philippines, has experienced pain in his chest during cold weather ever since he was stabbed by some teenagers on his way home from work in January 2020. Inquirer.net reported on March 24 that a recent X-ray taken as part of Tomao’s application for a mining job revealed the source: a 4-inch knife blade buried in his chest, just inches from his lungs. Tomao told local media he had “no idea there is a knife in my chest” and now “I am just seeking help so it can be removed.”

to

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

Yikes!

An unnamed man emerged with his groceries from an Albertson’s supermarket in Las Cruces, New Mexico, on March 28, to find that his car had been overtaken by a swarm of an estimated 15,000 honeybees, according to the Las Cruces Fire Department. The man, who had borrowed the car, had left the back window down during his 10-minute trip inside the store, and the bees took up residence in the back seat. The New York Times reported he called 911, and responding firefighters turned to Jesse Johnson, 37, an off-duty firefighter who keeps bees as a hobby. Johnson brought an empty hive box treated with lemongrass oil (“It really mimics the scent of the queen,” he said) and lured the swarm out of the car. “I’ll do anything to keep people from killing bees,” Johnson said.

and one of them, Sir Henry Edward Paston-Bedingfeld, fought in that war; the chocolate bar was discovered in his helmet case.

“Although you wouldn’t want it as your Easter treat,” mused Anna Forrest, cultural heritage curator at Britain’s National Trust, “it is still complete and a remarkable find.” On the lid, a message is inscribed in Queen Victoria’s handwriting: “I wish you a happy new year.”

homes

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

| CITY WEEKLY • BACKSTOP |

32 | APRIL 15, 2021

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