MARCH 14, 2019
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CWCONTENTS COVER STORY PUMP UP THE VOLUME
Turn it up to 11, boys and girls. Our annual Local Music Issue is here! Cover illustration by Ryan Williamson pixelhatedesign.com
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CONTRIBUTOR 4 LETTERS 6 OPINION 10 NEWS 21 A&E 27 DINE 34 MUSIC 43 CINEMA 45 COMMUNITY
NICK MCGREGOR
Cover story Our outgoing music editor leaves with quite the bang. “The best part of my time at City Weekly came from peeling back the many layers of SLC’s thriving music scene,” he says. “I discovered not only endless stylistic nuances and tightknit communities, but also passionate people looking for new avenues of creativity.”
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Teacher behind Ashgate takes legislative stage. facebook.com/slcweekly
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COMMENTS@CITYWEEKLY.NET
Cover story, Feb. 28, “The Unsinkable Shireen Ghorbani” Yassss! BRITTNEY HEMINGWAY Via Facebook
Haven’t ever been this excited to see a City Weekly. Congrats, Shireen Ghorbani. Thank you for fighting the good fight and working to represent all of Utah. I love you, truly. SAMUEL TAYLOR Via Twitter You are amazing. You are relentless. The best public servant characteristics. JULIE KASPER Via Twitter The Democrat/media cabal is strong. And now out of the closet, proud and unashamed. @LORDUTE Via Twitter This woman is an unstoppable energy. Wanna know the best part? She cares so much about those around her, that she fights every single day to make our community better. If you haven’t yet, meet Shireen. Once you meet her, you just know. It’s almost inexplicable how just being in her presence gets you excited about change and democracy. Hellooooo Salt Lake County’s newest council
member. JESSICA FOARD Via Facebook Looking forward to your political climb. Chris Stewart should join Trump in prison, and then hell. @RICKBAGGETT7 Via Twitter Sure do wish she was the mayor of SL County. Next election should fix that. FRED A. SCHMAUCH Via Twitter “Unsinkable Shireen Ghorbani” has a nice ring to it! Thank you for running again; we really appreciate having you to represent us. COLBY WILLIAMS Via Twitter
Online News Post, Feb. 22, “Charges Filed in Alleged Hate Crime”
He should be popular in prison. RICKY JOY MONTOYA Via Facebook Florida man comes to Utah! MARC DAVIS Via Facebook Glad they got him. World doesn’t need that stuff! @MCCOOLMEMPHIS Via Twitter A slap on the wrist. This is the Utah we all know. JOHNATHAN LANCE TUERO Via Facebook
Justice isn’t vengeance. Justice means the best possible good for all moving forward. Don’t taint yourself with the hatred you never wanted in the first place. NATHAN DAVID CHRISTENSEN Via Facebook Assault is assault, regardless of what happened first. DUSTIN CLARK Via Facebook Suspects have the right to defend themselves in court. Otherwise, most of us are not interested in hearing their side. MIKE SCHMAUCH Via Facebook Seriously, the police need more evidence? WTF. BARBARA JANE LINDLEY Via Facebook He didn’t look drunk in the video. He looks like a douche pickle! SUE STORY Via Facebook
Online News Post, Feb. 24, “Lawmakers, LGBTQ advocates draft bill to ban conversion therapy” Good. GENO LOPEZ Via Facebook
An awesome step for the future. KAT HULL Via Facebook
Why does it take these old men so long to face basic reality? FRED SCHMAUCH Via Twitter That this even has to be a bill is the saddest of all bills. That had damn well better pass! KRISTIE MCNULTY Via Twitter Editor’s note: HB399 was altered in committee. A gutted substitute motion by Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, took its place.
Online News Post, Feb. 28, “Abortion & Taxes: Guv tackles ‘divisive’ issues”
Not his choice to make. Period! DIANE ARMSTRONG Via Facebook I’m not sure why they want to waste time and money passing bills with qualifying events needed before they could be acted upon. The more immediately disturbing story here is the tax reform by a sponsor that won’t answer questions or provide details around the plan. Makes it seem like they are basing it on their individual gut feeling or maybe making changes to personally profit. JOE SCHMIDT Via Facebook
That’s how Utah government works. NICK FOX Via Facebook The only topic that Republicans consult science about. BRYAN ORVIS Via Facebook How about we defund all these programs and I keep my money instead of paying taxes? TALLON NIELSEN Via Facebook
Dear Soapbox:
What do we need another state reptile for? We already have Gayle Ruzicka. I guess gila monsters are much cuter and far less venomous. We did need a new state fossil since Sen. “Snake Oil” Hatch hung up his carpet bag.
State hamburger? I nominate Willard “Fliptwit” Romney can hold the gentile pickles, please. The Utah Legislature needs a remedial civics lesson. The operative phrase is “We the people” not “We the corporation of cheese and rice of Rattle-day Snakes.” The Mormons should be stripped of their tax exemption and treated like any other political action committee. They can’t even spell his name right. Jesus was Greek to Y’shua, son of Joseph, and I don’t think he visited Utah after he was murdered … skiing hadn’t been invented yet. I think ICE should deport ’em all back to Kolob where they came from and take the orange-haired current occupant with them. ALAN E. WRIGHT Salt Lake City
STAFF Publisher COPPERFIELD PUBLISHING, INC Director of Operations PETE SALTAS
Contributors KATHARINE BIELE, ROB BREZSNY, BABS DE LAY, RACHELLE FERNANDEZ, GEOFF GRIFFIN, HOWARD HARDEE, MARYANN JOHANSON, KEITH L. McDONALD, MIKE RIEDEL, KARA RHODES, MICHAEL S. ROBINSON SR., ERIC D. SNIDER, ALEX SPRINGER, BRYAN YOUNG, LEE ZIMMERMAN Production Art Director DEREK CARLISLE Graphic Artists SOFIA CIFUENTES, SEAN HAIR, CHELSEA NEIDER
Office Administrators DAVID ADAMSON, SAMANTHA HERZOG Display Advertising 801-413-0929 National Advertising VMG Advertising 888-278-9866
Salt Lake City Weekly is published every Thursday by Copperfield Publishing Inc. We are an independent publication dedicated to alternative news and news sources, that also serves as a comprehensive entertainment guide. 50,000 copies of Salt Lake City Weekly are available free of charge at more than 1,800 locations along the Wasatch Front. Limit one copy per reader. Additional copies of the paper can be purchased for $1 (Best of Utah and other special issues, $5) payable to Salt Lake City Weekly in advance. No person, without expressed permission of Copperfield Publishing Inc., may take more than one copy of any Salt Lake City Weekly issue. No portion of this oublication may be reproduced in whole or part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the written permission of the publisher. Third-class postage paid at Midvale, UT. Delivery might take up to one full week. All rights reserved.
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OPINION Trumpty Dumpty Trumpty Dumpty vowed a great wall. Trumpty Dumpty had a great fall. All of his minions, in spite of their ken, Couldn’t put Trumpty together again. As the reign of King Trumpty Dumpty teeters on its crumbling foundation of fraud and lies, there is growing clarity: The bulk of Utah’s congressional delegation are spineless yes-men. If there wasn’t a crisscross frame and a set of strings holding their bodies in normal-looking poses, all except one would be mere piles of over-starched shirts and suit jackets—complete with the imposing GOP lapel pins. Of course, three of Utah’s four representatives all have had good training—spinelessness seems to be much admired in Utah politics. We’re talking about the House vote to repeal Trumpty’s declaration of a national emergency. Three congressional representatives—Rob Bishop, Chris Stewart and John Curtis—have once again shown a tireless tenacity in embracing the morally-defective strategy of party-over-principle. Although they’re all Mormons, who can look for inspiration in their sterling-silver CTR rings, it seems that their commitment to choosing the right is defined strictly as support of the GOP’s agenda. Excuse me for a moment; I’m headed to the head for some more projectile vomiting. And if you’re not suffering from nausea, you should be. Oh, yes, I almost forgot to mention that there was one
BY MICHAEL S. ROBINSON SR. Utah representative who voted to repeal Trump’s national emergency declaration. Joining the 245-182 landslide vote, our Rep. Ben McAdams upheld the laws of the land. It’s hard to say what he would have done had he been a Republican, for he, too, voted along party lines. The only really courageous congressmen were the 13 Republicans who crossed the aisle, rejected their party’s bullshit, and voted according to rationality and conscience. Their constituents should be proud. On the other hand, the 182 who voted against the repeal are a sad reality of partisan politics. McAdams voted for the repeal and made it clear that he disapproved of Trumpty’s latest self-serving ploy. Being Utah’s only Democrat in Congress is an uncomfortable situation, at best, and we can only hope that the future won’t see him sucked into the party-loyalty whirlpool. No congressmen should be fooled by the shocking transparency of Trumpty’s action, recognizing that his “emergency” was a not-even-slightly-veiled attempt to bludgeon Americans into unconscious submission to erecting a border wall. That’s what a pathological narcissist does, and Trumpty clings tightly to his script in order to sustain his highly fragile ego. The declaration of the emergency was like a continuous eight-track loop of the governmentshutdown melody played in December—a disaster that caused millions of American’s a shitload of pain and did both short- and long-term harm to the nation’s economy. There is plenty of verified history on how Trumpty works, and none of it relates to the smooth art of the deal or the real success of a win-win outcome. The “emergency” scam was just his latest attempt to prove Trumpty is the King and he will have his way at any cost but his own. In a state where so much lip service is given to the
“Choose the Right” slogan created by their church’s Primary organization as an inspiring reminder to its young people, how come only one of our congressmen actually looked down at his stylized sterling silver CTR ring and voted according to conscience and the constitutional principles that Utahns claim to be so dear? Get real. Is there really anyone naive enough to believe the border situation is dire? Everyone knows that immigration has been poorly managed, but we’re also at a historic low of illegal border crossings. It’s no secret; Trumpty’s declaration of a national emergency was not based on facts. It was just another temper-tantrum abuse of power. Even Americans who share Trumpty’s IQ aren’t that stupid, are they? Trumpty’s declaration trampled the constitutional mandate that the president is prohibited from spending money without the approval of Congress. Despite the 13 representatives in other states who crossed party barriers long enough to vote responsibly, Utah was only able to deliver one vote to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Pathetic. And we all know: When it’s time for the Senate to ratify the repeal, there will be two Utah senators sticking to the compelling-but-mindless status quo, thoroughly short-changing their constituents by devotion to the GOP, instead of a real commitment to the greater good of the American people. Utah needs wise, strong congressmen—not a bunch of wimps. It’s going to take strong character to drain the swamp. Let’s Dumpty Trumpty. CW
The author is a former Vietnam-era Army assistant public information officer. He resides in Riverton with his wife, Carol, and one mongrel dog. Send feedback to comments@cityweekly.net
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MARCH 14, 2019 | 7
IN ONE WEEK, YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD
YOUTH CLIMATE STRIKE
The need for action on climate change is critical, even as politicians say they are committed to addressing environmental problems. The Salt Lake Youth Climate Strike wants meaningful action, not just words and hope. “We are watching as our future is being stolen right before our eyes due to corporate greed. Enough is enough and now is the time for we the people to demand action,” the event’s Facebook page says. They want economic equity in the battle for clean air. And they want their leaders to see that they are here for the long haul, fighting for the future. State Capitol, 350 N. State, Friday, March 15, 10 a.m.-noon, free, bit.ly/2NMZ3tx.
VCE Company LLC (a Dell Technologies company) is seeking a Senior Advisor, Enterprise Technical Services at our Draper, UT facility to provide support to customer/ users where the product is highly technical or sophisticated in nature. Respond to situations where first-line product support has failed to isolate or fix problems for customer. Req. 005594. To be considered for the opening, please send resume with requisition number to: jobs_dell@dell.com. No phone calls please. Workforce diversity is an essential part of Dell’s commitment to quality and to the future. We encourage you to apply, whatever your race, gender, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation or veteran status.
HEALTHY PRIDE DAY
By now, Utahns realize their lawmakers don’t understand the issues facing the LGBTQ community. Certainly, they’ve dropped the ball on suicide prevention and have left the door open to conversion therapy. With mental and physical problems exploding, Healthy Pride Day offers a door to hope and understanding. Here, you find classes on physical, mental and relationship health for both youth and adults. You’re also able to access STI testing and health and cancer screenings while checking out affirming business booths and food trucks. Utah Pride Center, 1380 S. Main, 801-539-8800, Saturday, March 16, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., free, bit.ly/2EIuhOd.
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In this age of social media and the explosion of #fakenews, it’s important to navigate through the miasma. We are also witnessing the president of the United States accusing publishers and news outlets of spreading lies. The public understandably is losing trust in the First Amendment, and wondering where the boundaries lie between news and opinion. James Dao, the op-ed editor of The New York Times, draws on his experience as a news reporter and editor to shed light on Opinion Journalism in the Age of Fake News and explain just how the NYT goes about opinion journalism. Vieve Gore Concert Hall/ Jewett Center, Westminster College, 1840 S. 1300 East, 801-832-2467, Tuesday, March 19, 6-8:30 p.m., free, bit.ly/2EJCpOs.
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Could children’s panic at dental clinics be caused by adult’s related fear? Some may wonder what is the cause of the fear that children, and even adults, feel when they go to the dentist? This fear can be explained by the fact that the dentist is the only doctor that you will experience pain while you are visiting him and while he is doing the necessary actions to relieve the pain; i.e. Needle injection, cleaning the tooth, removing the dental pulp.., etc. As for the children’s fear source, it can come from one of the following: 1. Acquired Fear: This type can be learned when the child listens to previous bad experience narrated by one of the family or when he sees it if he goes with one of his family members to the dentist’s clinic. 2. Fear of the Unknown: every treatment step that is unknown by the child shall cause him fear and worry. 3. Fear of Losing Control: The child would feel that he has lost control over any reaction, which in turn shall maximize his reaction when he feels any pain or discomfort. 4. Fear of Expected Pain: This happens when expecting the pain at any moment of treatment. Accordingly, dealing with children at dental clinics can be outlined as follows: First: Instructions that must be followed by the Family: Avoid explaining the bad experience of any family member to the child, because this will lead to developing a bad impression of the dentist in the child’s mind. Unfortunately, sometimes the parents, in order to control their children, try to frighten them by some medical terms like Clinic, doctor, needle injection, ..etc. The best practice is to stop this, not to make them one of the child’s fear and worry sources. Second: Instruction that must be followed by the dentist: · Smiling to the child and giving him simple gifts is the best way to start a good relationship between the child and the dentist and are the key for this relation to be succeed · Giving a simple and detailed explanation of all treatment procedures and make it close to a child’s mind to understand by comparing it with things that have been already known to him, i.e. needle injection: is making the tooth sleep, using the handpiece: is like a tap that washes the tooth. Accordingly, the doctor will manage to remove the child’s fear of the unknown. · Giving the child a chance to control the steps of the treatment by previous agreement between them that the child would raise his hand for the dentist to stop treatment if he felt any discomfort during it. This will eliminate the surprising emotional movement and the dentist will manage to control the child’s fear of losing control. · The dentist must praise all good behaviors done by the child to motivate him and must ignore any bad behaviors. · Letting the child participate in treatment steps, like holding some tools or simple devices. · There must be joint and coordinated cooperation between the dentist and the parents regarding how the treatment is done, watching the child at home and urging him to adhere to and apply the dentist’s instructions. this article was done by Sadeem Al-Qassab, Farah Al-Zahawi
—KATHARINE BIELE Send tips to revolt@cityweekly.net
469 East 300 South, SLC.
HITS&MISSES BY KATHARINE BIELE @kathybiele
Socialists Beware
Remember Sen. Joe McCarthy? Oh, of course you don’t. He was the Wisconsin GOP senator who spent a grueling five years trying to “expose” the threat of communism in the United States. Hundreds were prosecuted, maybe 10,000 lost jobs and many more were blacklisted as the perceived threat hijacked the nation’s good sense. McCarthyism even bled into a hunt for homosexuals, perceived as a threat. McCarthy’s dead. Rep. Chris Stewart lives. Stewart has begun a curious effort to educate the masses about the dangers of socialism. He started the Anti-Socialism Caucus, you know, to tell us what it is. In his most recent post, he says it “starts out with high-minded notions of equality and justice but ends with mass graves …” Be afraid, be very afraid, because socialism is indeed in that subversive document—the Declaration of Independence.
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We all know that Gayle Ruzicka is the power behind Utah politicians. Who knew there even was another, this one named Rep. Karianne Lisonbee, R-Clearfield, now quoted in all the Utah news outlets. She believes that LGBTQ kids kill themselves because of their lifestyle, and that electroshock therapy isn’t torture. Yes, the conversion therapy ban died in the Legislature, and you have to point to Lisonbee. The LDS church was neutral and the GOP seemed poised to pass it. But then, the governor signed the weird compromise bill, and had to apologize a little. That’s because kids protested outside his office. Advocates resigned from the task force and people are trying to say the church should get actively involved. Really? Isn’t this a legislative issue if a moral one? But it’s hard to expect much from our lawmakers when they also refused to pass gun laws to prevent youth suicide.
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Give the Deseret News a gold star or at least a pat on the back for tilting at the windmill we call the inland port. Reporter Katie McKellar got hold of a marketing email from the Salt Lake Chamber and boom! Derek Miller has been exposed as the power-hungry and greedy chairman of the Utah Inland Port Authority. Of course, McKellar doesn’t say that outright, but you can connect the dots. Miller also is CEO of the chamber and his email “indicates that Miller was personally offering a national rail business a spot on the chamber’s ‘influential and exclusive international/inland port committee’ in exchange for $10,000, the chamber’s membership fee.” But Miller insists “the money does not influence.” Yeah, right. The fee? It “increases your influence,” the chamber website says.
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10 | MARCH 14, 2019
NEWS
MEDIA
Double Take State senator-turned SLC mayoral candidate Jim Dabakis raises eyebrows with KUTV alignment. BY KELAN LYONS klyons@cityweekly.net @kelan_lyons
ENRIQUE LIMÓN/FILE
L
ast February, Jim Dabakis issued an alert to the more than 60,000 progressive Utahns who subscribe to his newsletter, “The Dabakis Report.” Beneath the links to late-night television monologues and a news report on Rep. Chris Stewart’s modern-day Red Scare was a proclamation: “New Agreement With Channel 2 to Do a Weekly Podcast and Regular News Commentary! Finally, a Voice for Progressive Utahns!” Billed as the “fastest-growing podcast in Utah,” each Friday’s Take 2 episode features Dabakis and recurring strange bedfellow, former House Speaker Greg Hughes, who debate local, state and national issues. KUTV General Manager Kent Crawford says the show’s objective is to add context to the ongoing legislative session. “We’ve had really good response, good comments,” he says, noting that the project will likely continue post-session. “Our goal is to super-serve our viewers, and I think from what we’re seeing from the get-go, people are enjoying it,” Crawford emphasizes. The move, however, produced a doublepronged effect: Did the show give Dabakis a leg up on his political rivals in the crowded race for Salt Lake City mayor? And, did the outspoken ex-senator betray his progressive values by aligning himself with a local news station owned by Trump-touting Sinclair Broadcast Group? In Take 2’s inaugural episode, Dabakis tells debate moderator Heidi Hatch he’s trying to earn a living, now that he has time to make more than the modest perdiem pay doled out to part-time citizen legislators. “I spend all day just wandering around neighborhoods, in coffee shops, pretending I’m working” he jokes. “Look for me in a coffee shop near you.” Missing from Dabakis’ downtime laundry list is the fact he’s running for Salt Lake City mayor. In subsequent emissions, Dabakis, not known for being a wallflower, hasn’t once broached the subject of his mayoral campaign. That doesn’t matter much to freelance journalist and fellow mayoral candidate, Richard Goldberger. “It doesn’t pass the smell test, and in fact it stinks,” Goldberger says of the unholy alignment. “He’s getting an unfair advantage.” Even so, not all of Goldberger’s competitors feel the edge is unsportsmanlike.
Salt Lake City mayoral hopeful Jim Dabakis says his arguments on the Take 2 podcast allow him to preach his liberal doctrine to a conservative choir. “We as liberals and progressive people are too silent,” he says, adding that he thinks he bests his counterpart, Greg Hughes, most of the time. David Ibarra, a local businessman and philanthropist, acknowledges that Dabakis and current Mayor Jackie Biskupski have been in public life for a long time. Giving Dabakis a regular broadcast makes sense. “He is a television personality—an entertaining personality—and he gets a lot of air time. … That’s kind of his style, and there’s not much I can do about it,” Ibarra says, pledging to “outwork everybody” in the race to “make it even.” David Garbett, another candidate, also seems unfazed. “He’s out there entertaining people,” the local attorney says. “My task is to get out and talk to voters about issues that matter to them.” Adding his voice to the rah-rah chorus is ex-city councilman Stan Penfold. “If people don’t recognize your name and they don’t associate that with running for office, then you don’t have an audience,” the mayoral hopeful says. “Any time, as a candidate, someone sees your name, no matter where it is, it increases your recognition.” That doesn’t bode well for Ibarra or Penfold. Before announcing he’d run for Biskupski’s seat, Dabakis released a survey showing 71 percent of respondents recognized who he is. More than three-quarters knew Biskupski. Less than one-quarter knew of Ibarra or Penfold. Garbett and Goldberger didn’t make the cut, nor did fellow candidates Aaron Johnson or Christian Harrison. Eager to turn that around, Penfold says he could start a podcast of his own, but predicts it wouldn’t get off the ground in the same way as Dabakis’. “The question that comes up for me is the media sponsorship: Does that create an unfair advantage?” he wonders aloud. The Federal Communications Commission has a rule—if a station licensee lets a candidate for public office use their facilities, it must also extend an equal opportunity to the other candidates, if they request
it. However, there’s a loophole. “That regards broadcasts,” Benjamin Whisenant, an assistant professor at the University of Utah’s Communications Department, notes. “It doesn’t regard podcasts.” The responsibility to comply with FCC regulations lies with the broadcaster, not Dabakis. “When you have an opportunity to address an audience, then generally you take that opportunity,” Whisenant says. “I don’t see this as an ethical issue for Mr. Dabakis.” Whisenant, whose academic expertise is in media law and ethics, says this is a gray, unregulated area, but that doesn’t mean it’s illegal. “In the end, this is an issue of ethics insead of law,” he says, though he’s not sure there are any ethical concerns here, either, given Dabakis hasn’t talked about his candidacy during the show. “If there’s no discussion of the mayoral race, it makes it a lot less problematic.” Dabakis’ Take 2 commentary isn’t the first time he’s been a part of a local news channel’s programming at the same time he ran for mayor. In an email sent to City Weekly, ABC 4 News Vice President and General Manager Richard Doutre’ Jones declined to comment on Dabakis appearing on Take 2, but he did note that Dabakis hosted several shows on his channel over an 18-month period that ended in 2015. “We stopped airing that program when Jim last announced his first candidacy for SLC Mayor because we didn’t feel it was appropriate to have him on-air based on the FCC rules mandated for ‘equal time,’ Doutre’ Jones wrote. Requests for comment from two other local TV stations were not returned. KUTV’s Crawford says there’s no “hard, fast rule” that Dabakis can’t talk about his candidacy on the show, “but he knows better.” He knows down the line, Hughes might also decide to toss his hat in the gubernatorial ring. “We don’t see it as a platform for
either one of them to gain a political advantage,” Crawford says. “Until we get closer to a political window, I think we’ll probably continue, because the viewers seem to be appreciating what we’re putting out there.” To call Dabakis attention-seeking might be an understatement. Showboating became a hallmark during the former state senator’s tenure, like when he drank enough mimosas to acquire a .05 bloodalcohol concentration so he could speak out against lowering the state’s legal DUI limit. “Sometimes a spotlight and sometimes cynicism and a bit of poking fun is the best way to call attention to the ridiculous,” he told City Weekly in April 2018. To wit, when reached for this story, Dabakis is on a break from rehearsals from Pioneer Theatre Co.’s staging of La Cage aux Folles, where he has a minor role. He says that by joining the podcast, he’s merely reprising an old career. He was a television and radio talk show personality for 13 years before he entered the art business and, later, forayed into public service. There’s also his role as fixture of KCPW 88.3 FM’s Both Sides of the Aisle, a similar project, albeit without the backing of a major local news channel. “It’s part of my soul. This isn’t a paid deal. This has nothing to do with advancing where I’m going,” he says of Take 2. “This is a continuation of what I’ve been doing … it is explaining, it is imploring, it is begging the non-progressive people to just listen to us, because we would be a much better state with a lot more balance.” Dabakis says each of his fellow candidates bring their own advantages to their campaigns. For example, Garbett is the son of the owner of Garbett Homes, and his family’s name is plastered on developments across town. And Biskupski is constantly in the news, since she’s the sitting mayor. “Nobody talks about the conflict of interest when the mayor calls a press
company,” Whisenant says of the current media landscape. Teaming up with a Sinclair-owned station, he adds, does not automatically mean aligning with the corporation or its values. Maloney posted a comment on Dabakis’ Facebook page asking how he could work with Sinclair. Dabakis replied by saying he was using the space to advocate for his ideals, and to be a voice for young immigrants and Utahns who could benefit from Medicaid expansion and medical cannabis. “I was happy with his response, in that he’s going to continue to speak out for what’s right,” a convinced Maloney says. “He’s going to work with anyone who will let him speak.” Dabakis says a more varied audience gives him an opportunity to convince conservative Utahns that progressives aren’t the socialist boogeymen they’ve all been warned about. Doubling down, he insists that without a platform like the podcast, all those masses would know is their own echo chamber. “How are the people in the state going to know there’s another side?” he asks. Pearl-clutching or not, it ultimately is all part of his unwavering mission to elevate the voices of Utah’s more liberal residents, he says. “I would walk across coal, hot coal, and I would march into hell to talk to conservatives in this state about Medicaid expansion, and about all the patients who are suffering from a lack of medical cannabis, and to get decent education funding for our schools,” a defiant Dabakis concludes. “These are live-and-die issues with me.” CW
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conference, or whatever,” Dabakis reflects. “We all take advantage of our assets—and I don’t know if it’s an asset or not—but if people want to hear me talk about our progressive values and ideas, I consider it an honor and a privilege.” Biskupski declined to comment for this article. Still, that doesn’t cover the Sinclair elephant in the room. Millcreek resident Charlotte Maloney wasn’t vexed by Dabakis joining KUTV’s ranks because of the implications for the Salt Lake City mayoral race. Instead, she was troubled by who could potentially benefit from the venture—the station’s parent company. Best known for forcing anchors from its 163 nationwide stations to read a President Trump-friendly script about the “troubling trend of irresponsible, one-sided news stories plaguing our country,” Sinclair-owned stations are considered to have a conservative slant and are required to air “mustrun” commentary segments that parrot Trumpian talking points. “I was really surprised” Maloney says of connecting the dots between the corporate media behemoth and true-blue Dabakis. “He’s so progressive, and he’s a Democrat, and I think he cares about, like I do, open and fair access to information, and I don’t believe that Sinclair stations always feel the same way.” Noting that Sinclair is one of the largest broadcast companies in the country, the U’s Whisenant cautions against painting its anchors and contributors with a broad brush. “It can be hard to continue to be employed and continue to avoid that
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—Nick McGregor, Music editor
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I
’m not going to lie—putting together this Local Music Issue was tough. How do you tell a major metropolitan area’s story in an all-encompassing fashion? How do you do justice to all the subcultures, stylistic niches and underground scenes that make Salt Lake City great—all while adhering to a strict word count? How do you choose one artist, one local institution or one behind-the-scenes mover and shaker over another? Once I let the pressure go, everything started to flow. A feature about a 40-year lightand-sound veteran who’s manned the boards at all your favorite festivals flowed into a look behind the crucial role that merchandise plays for local bands on the rise. One producer dropped some knowledge about working with fast-rising Utah rappers, while another raved about the safe space created for local drag queens to strut their stuff. We also dug into the City Library’s Hear Utah Music repository for local music—which seems like it’s been around forever even though it just started last year—and we explored the dark corners of rock ’n’ roll with a Utah native who was gone forever but returned last year to spice up local nightlife. Still feeling we weren’t casting a wide enough net, we also absorbed the wisdom of hard-working women on both ends of the age and genre spectrum. We hope you’ll enjoy their tips on how to hustle as much as we did. Most of all, we hope this issue will remind all of City Weekly’s readers about the particular kind of magic SLC’s music scene exudes right now. Whatever your preferences and wherever your heart lies, there’s a community out there waiting for you. If they’re anything like the people I’ve met in my short time here, they’ll probably welcome you with open arms, too. Find your people, find your sound and find your inspiration—that’s all there’s left to do, and we hope this Local Music Issue helps in some small way.
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LOCAL MUSIC ISSUE
BY NICK McGREGOR
D
epending on who you talk to, Salt Lake City’s nightlife scene circa 2019 is either at an unrivaled apex of endless options, or bogged down by an internet-saturated, selfie-obsessed generation more concerned with clicks than connection. But one point can’t be argued: There’s never been more diversity and representation on the city’s stages than there is today. Women, people of color, gender-bending drag stars and every sexual orientation under the sun rub shoulders every night here. That’s particularly true in the DJ and electronic music community, where a recent explosion of new venues, open-minded cliques and themed parties has transformed the menu of options from a vanilla onesheet to a multi-faceted novel. Telling that whole story would require such a novel— perhaps even a trilogy. But one name that’s been jumping off of gig posters and stacked DJ lineups is Choice, the on-stage moniker of 33-year-old Nicole Jaatoul. From the pulsating sensuality of her set at New City Movement’s 20th anniversary party last fall to a Valentine’s Day fundraiser for Encircle, an LGBTQ family resource center in Provo, to her forthcoming China Doll party for LGBTQ fans at Garage on Beck later this summer, Jaatoul exudes a whirlwind energy behind the turntables and a fierce presence in the community. And she does all that while holding down a demanding day job as a massage therapist, which perfectly personifies the hustle required to make it in Salt Lake City. Jaatoul, who grew up outside of Detroit, first moved here from California in the mid2000s to attend massage therapy school. She then spent a few seasons in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., before landing in Salt Lake City for good in 2010 and hasn’t looked back since. Inspired by the Motor City’s long history of house and dance music, she says Frankie Knuckles’ “The Whistle Song” first caught her ear and turned her on to upbeat grooves. But although she loves electronic music, she says her first attraction to DJing came from hiphop, soul, reggae, funk and breakbeats. “I used to follow the Funk Pirates, a group of allvinyl DJs, around Southern California,” she reminisces. “I would stand right in front of the DJ booth and watch them mix thinking to myself, ‘I want to do that!’” In 2005, while working at a Guitar Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., she began learning the ones and the twos from a co-worker who moonlighted as a drum ’n’ bass producer. Channeling all of her influences, which had expanded into the kind of trippy elec-
TIMELESS STYLE MELVIN WAGSTAFF
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Hip-hop producer Melvin Junko keeps it classic while formulating his own boom-bap sound. By KEITH L. McDONALD
JED BALLIET
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Nicole ‘Choice’ Jaatoul personifies the hardworking ethos of SLC’s diverse DJ scene.
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ON THAT HUSTLE
tronic pop found on Björk’s early solo albums Venus as a Boy, Violently Happy and Telegram, Jaatoul’s new mentor taught her how to mix using old Dieselboy records. During her stint in Mammoth Lakes, Calif., Jaatoul started playing house parties and building sets in her bedroom, but when she returned to Utah, she still didn’t consider herself a proper DJ. “Then I was introduced to Yokchi Chang and Al Cardenas, who started Nightfreq the previous year,” she says. “They had a DJ in their crew, Mama Beats, and she booked me my first SLC gig opening for her at W Lounge.” That support extended to Abby Laine, one of Jaatoul’s oldest friends. “Abby has always been my No. 1 supporter, and I wouldn’t be a DJ if it wasn’t for the Technics SL-1200MKs she gave me,” she says, referencing a set of turntables. She expanded her repertoire by working with collectives like New City Movement, Nightfreq, Quality Control, Clan:destine, New World Presents, Kelle Call, The Red Door, Flare, Riche, Telepath, Alchemy, DJ Chaseone2, Bo York, Concise Kilgore and many others. Eventually, Jaatoul became one of the city’s most in-demand spinners of vinyl. She remembers her time at Switch, formerly known as The Fallout, as particularly inspiring. “The promoters invited me to play my favorite underground selections and gave me time slots I hadn’t played before,” she says. “They were very encouraging and supportive, not just to me but to all of the talent that came through there. I’ve received so much love and support over the years, and I’ll keep supporting back.” Lately, her list of upcoming events has expanded with biweekly residencies at Alibi (next gig: March 23) and the aforementioned China Doll party at Garage on Beck (which starts March 28). And so has her work as a massage therapist. In the winter, she travels to and from Park City seven days a week doing outcalls for the ski crowd, a schedule that’s both demanding and rewarding. “I love doing body work, and I love to DJ, but holy shit, sometimes it can be really exhausting juggling the two,” she says. Asked about her future plans, she turns pensive, the strain of two careers obviously weighing on her: “I don’t know if I will always do shows. I’d like to put the decks away for a couple of years and start making my own music. Sometimes I just want to go back to being a bedroom DJ, but I do have dreams of playing vinyl sets around the world. Who knows? Anything’s possible. I took two years of welding when I was 16 and I might still be certified.” But it’s precisely her versatility and voracious appetite for music that makes Jaatoul such a skilled DJ. Open-format sets are her specialty; at one memorable Battle of the DJs contest sponsored by City Weekly, she ran through every genre imaginable during her 30-minute slot, confusing those looking for one particular strain of electronic music but giving those of us looking for something different a thrill. You can chalk that up to how much of a fan girl Jaatoul still considers herself when it comes to electronic music; she says she spends far too many hours scouring the internet for imported records to build out her treasured collection. And that’s what matters in today’s Instagram-dominated world: a real human being spinning real vinyl containing real music that speaks to her heart, gets the crowd moving and keeps the community moving toward a brighter, more all-inclusive future. “The scene in Salt Lake City has changed,” Jaatoul says, “but the community has always been pretty tight. Parties were much simpler in the old days: a dark room, a fan, people dancing and sweating and nobody on their cell phone, that’s for damn sure. Today’s scene is different, but I admire how hard people push themselves and each other and what this city has achieved.”
H
ow would you describe the “normal” Utah father? Around 30 years old with a kid or two? Probably working a job with the state or in sales? Maybe driving a late-model sedan? On the surface, this vision hasn’t changed much in the past decade or so. But a generation ago, most Beehive State dads wouldn’t be caught dead wearing form-fitting jogging pants, waiting in line for exclusive sneakers and paying for designer water. My, how times have changed. Today’s fathers can bond with their children through things like Super Smash Bros., Marvel movies and Vans or Retro J’s. Oh, and through music. Meet Melvin Junko, real name Melvin Wagstaff. He’s a typical Utah dad with an atypical pastime—he makes beats for underground rappers. Junko started his musical career in 2005 as an MC, but according to him, his rhymes weren’t very remarkable. “I stopped rapping [and] just got more into production,” he says. “I found out I enjoyed that more—I was better at it. I wasn’t the best MC.” That affinity for being behind the board and not the mic has to do with a clearcut desire: to hear a finished product that matches his vision. “I’m in control of the whole song being finished,” Junko says. “If you’re rapping, you got other
INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT How Salt Lake City Public Library has local music’s back. BY NICK McGREGOR
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activities, patrons or staff.” In addition, the 12 Minutes Max series celebrates its fifth anniversary this month. Featuring short works by local artists in various disciplines, Rabb and team select three original pieces from local artists in any format that will fit on the Main Library’s auditorium stage: experimental music, dance, film, writing, theater. “Several artists who are part of the HUM collection have participated in 12 Minutes Max,” Rabb says. “It’s performance art, but the whole event is short and sweet, taking about an hour.” Versions of both events will roll up into the library’s next big plan: a full-day HUM Festival tentatively scheduled for September. “We’re going to have music on the roof, music on the plaza, and music in the library,” Rabb declares, pointing to last summer’s two-night HUM launch party at The Urban Lounge and Diabolical Records as inspiration. “It’s fun taking library programming out in the community.” Ultimately, Rabb views his job through that lens—and it’s an outlook shared among his fellow front-line staff members and Salt Lake City Public Library executives alike. “The support has been amazing,” Rabb says. “One big area of focus for the library is celebrating creativity in the community. All the support of local musicians and local arts programming really comes through, all the way from my personal manager up to the director of the library. The support is there, and I feel it down at my level.”
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ENRIQUE LIMÓN
I
n her engrossing non-fiction narrative The Library Book, author Susan Orlean writes, “The library is a gathering pool of narratives and of the people who come to find them. It is where we can glimpse immortality; in the library, we can live forever.” Such lofty language means something concrete to local musicians, though. Last June, the Main Library branch of Salt Lake City’s Public Library system launched Hear Utah Music (HUM), a repository for hundreds of albums by Utah artists. At hum.slcpl.org, listeners can stream and download tunes, read bios and watch videos or dig into a poster collection that’s a singular slice of local history. Backed up by a physical archive of donated CDs and cassettes, this music is meant for public consumption—and it’s built to last, with every entry able to remain in perpetuity if the artist so desires. Better yet, each of those artists whose music has been entered into the HUM collection has received a cash honorarium: $200 for full-length LPs and $100 for EPs. “The library is trying to help support local artists directly,” says librarian Jason Rabb, pictured, who specializes in nonfiction and audiovisual with a particular focus on local and classical music. “We pay the honorarium as a ‘thank you’ for sharing their music. Hopefully we’re able to help them get their music out in the world a little bit, too.” The technology that HUM runs on is solid, as well. “When we started thinking about a digital collection, we weren’t sure how to build a website or license all the music,” Rabb says. “Luckily, we found a startup company, Rabble, which builds local music collections for libraries—a very specific thing. They were flexible, working with us to build the site how we wanted it. That was great.” Reflecting that level of professionalism, HUM debuted with a solid schedule that made it easy for bands to put the new venture on their radar. Twice a year, in February and August, HUM accepts submissions. New entries from the February submission period are announced May 1; from August, on Nov. 1. Each submission is judged on its creative merits by a five- to six-person jury of local radio station DJs, record store owners, studio engineers and critics. “Jurying is a big part of the project,” Rabb says. “It’s not just me choosing the artists; the jury makes the selection process transparent while also helping us reach other communities. That way, we can hopefully build a diverse collection.” Less than a calendar year in, HUM’s diversity is astounding. Nearly 60 artists represent
every genre, gender, age, ethnicity and creative twist under the sun. There’s 100-year-old jazz legend Joe McQueen and young doom lounge purveyors Jazz Jaguars, the raucous noise of The Nods and the searing folk of Wing & Claw, the luxurious beats of Sally Yoo and the riotous poli-punk of Nasty Nasty, all sharing the same space. You can even check out a Local Music Cassette Tape Kit, which have proven so popular that, as Rabb laughs, “A lot of them have been ‘disappeared.’ We’re working on getting replacements.” Rabb knows how special such cross-genre pollination can be for young musicians. A Price native who started playing in bands once he moved to Utah County, he then landed in Salt Lake City, where he studied music at the University of Utah and fell into a thriving thrash-metal scene centered on Bad Yodelers. A few years after co-founder Karl Alvarez left to join garage-punk legends the Descendents, Rabb served time as a Bad Yodeler himself. Since then, he’s embraced more of an experimental bent, performing in avant-garde two-piece It Foot, It Ears and as a oneoff collaborator with NOVA Chamber Series, Deseret Experimental Opera Co., and Christian Asplund’s Avant Vespers series. That far-flung background informs more than just HUM; the music programming that Rabb and his team have championed at Salt Lake City Public Library sends the same open-minded message. In addition to regular summer rooftop concerts at the Main Library and live local music at branches around the city, a new event, SHH! A Very Quiet Concert Series, debuted this winter. On second Sundays in December, January and February, SHH! presented low-volume music commissioned exclusively for the library, with artists utilizing the building’s unique physical layout and architecture. “That was great,” Rabb raves. “We had Christian Asplund wandering around the library playing his viola, along with music inside the elevators and in different parts of the library. But it was music that didn’t disturb normal
classic boom bap.” Of course, Melvin Junko isn’t Superman, and he readily admits to not being quite versatile enough to do anything. “I’ve tried to make trap beats, but I can’t,” he laughs. “If somebody asks me [for that], I tell them they should probably try somebody else.” The good thing about producing beats is that you can do it for a lifetime without worrying about declining stage presence or sagging sales. Hip-hop tastes and sensibilities might change, but classic songs and styles stand the test of time. And if you wait long enough, everything comes back in style eventually. “There’s really no specific thing, like, ‘This is my sound,’” Junko admits. “It’s really just what I’m feeling at the time. If I do a batch of 30 beats of the same style, then I get bored with it and move on to a different variation. I might switch around my equipment, link up some different processes together … But typically I am just on the boom bap.”
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ear of MCs all over the country. Although Junko doesn’t stray from the tried-and-true boom bap formula, he continues to get props from his peers, both locally and nationally. Not only do his beats display an ear for sound and timing, they display the hard work that’s required to survive in such a fiercely competitive industry. With around 20 projects in his catalogue—some of which he doesn’t even remember—Junko cites as favorites his work with Utah heavyweights D-Strong and EneeOne, who spit bars over Junko beats on a deep cut called “The Real.” In addition, Junko has worked with Artifacts, Bronze Nazareth, Big Lo, Copywrite and Ruste Juxx—from New Jersey, Michigan, Florida, Ohio and New York, respectively. That speaks to his far-ranging appeal, as well as to his (and Utah hip-hop’s) potential for the future. “Junko is good people,” EneeOne says. “He’s very easy to work with and has a solid work ethic on the board and on the mic. He’s versatile as a beatmaker and has a sharp ear for that
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people making beats. I just like being in control of my output. Junko’s tools of choice are the SP 404 SX, an MP 2000 XL, an old Casio keyboard he got from a thrift store for $15, record samples and ProTools. Yet such equipment can pay big dividends. Producer albums are all the rage these days in the hip-hop world. The Alchemist, Apollo Brown, Marco Polo, 9th Wonder, DJ Muggs and Salaam Remi all joined forces with MCs to co-headline 2018 albums. And Melvin Junko is no different. In 2017, he released 10,000 Hours, followed by a new project in 2018 with Tha Soloist and reMEmber (pronounced Remember Me). There’s no end in sight, either, with fans seeming to enjoy the concept of a cohesive album made by a pair of similar musical minds (juxtaposed, for example, with star MCs releasing a 13-track album with 13 different producers). Stylistically, Junko has stayed in the same lane on those past few albums, utilizing lo-fi beats, record samples and traditional hip-hop drum patterns to formulate tracks that have caught the
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CRITICAL GOODS
Copper Palate Press helps local bands get ahead with quality merch and a passionate, print-first perspective.
T
he start-up checklist for a new band looking to play some shows is simple. Instruments and sound equipment. Some kind of wheels to get to the gig. Creative inspiration. A willingness to perform. And, of course, a tip jar to hold George Washingtons. As ambition revs up and perspectives broaden, those $1 bills might not cut it anymore. Ditto for the door take or the venue guarantee. The next step is to find new ways to pad your pocket—and if you’re smart, you’ll figure out how to build your brand along the way. Enter Copper Palate Press, a downtown screen-printing and printmaking shop. Managed by Brian Taylor, pictured, who co-founded the company 10 years ago with Cameron Bentley, Copper Palate specializes in the tangible merchandise—primarily T-shirts and posters—that bands need to start to earn a living. After moving to Salt Lake City from Philadelphia in 2003, Taylor attended the University of Utah, studying graphic design before falling in love with all the different ways to print physical stuff: letter presses, wood blocks, etchings and more. “In college, screenprinting was a fine-art thing,” Taylor recalls. “But I wanted to figure out how to make money doing it.” Like any creative pursuit, the hustle proved tenuous at first. Inspired by Leia Bell’s iconic hand-printed, folk art-influenced gig posters for Kilby Court, Taylor started churning out his own versions. “I was all over the place,” he admits. “I could do five different posters five different ways and you wouldn’t be able to identify my style the way you could Leia’s. It was all done for fun—and to get the experience of exactly how much time and money it takes to make 100 prints.” The poster market became oversaturated, though, and many bands began opting for digital prints. So, in addition to ramping up his commercial printing enterprise, Taylor shifted his small-batch screen-printing focus to T-shirts. “They’re effective,” he says. “If somebody buys your band’s T-shirt and wears it, it’s mobile advertising whenever they’re standing in line somewhere. That’s way cheaper relative to ad space on YouTube or social media, which is out of reach for most people. And who knows whether it’s working? We stay away from that because we have a grip on making stuff that’s physical and real.” That “we” in Copper Palate Press has evolved over the years. Originally, Taylor and Bentley wanted to create a collective where artists could share space, equipment and costs in a gritty, stimulating, non-gallery environment. As artists like John Andrews, Dave Boogert, Sri Whipple and Clyde H. Ashby have entered and left the fold, new blood like Fiz Bradshaw (of local noise-rockers Lube) and Jordan Fairbanks (of outlandish glam-rock act Baby Gurl) have injected fresh energy into the brick back-alley garage off 200 South. “All my real jobs and paychecks starting out were from bands,” says Taylor, who now teaches graphic design and handles e-learning for Salt Lake Community College. “Working with bands snowballed into buying bigger equipment, which we had to do to accommodate bigger orders. In the early years, we’d do a few jobs for bands, buy a used press, push its limits, save up and buy another piece of equipment.” Next up, Taylor has plans to replace the roof on Copper Palate’s physical building, add new workspace and commemorate the business’ 10-year anniversary with a party later this summer. He attributes much of that continued success to the next generation of artists like Bradshaw, who “are really helping us stay connected to the bands.” Bradshaw has dashed off tons of eye-catching runs recently: hand-cut cassette tape inserts, posters, T-shirts and album covers for Utah favorites like Human Toy, Brain Bagz, Sad State of Society and The Violet Temper, along with prints for California’s Similar Alien and Idaho’s Lloyd and Savior. Bradshaw’s kaleidoscopic detail and surrealistic style is unmistakable, and her connections to the Salt Lake City music scene have turned Copper Palate into a must-stop for any band looking to express its creativity and make a few extra bucks by putting out one-of-a-kind merchandise. “Fiz’s art is visually compelling and related, which I’m pretty excited about,” Taylor says. “You know Fiz’s look when you see it. It took me a long time to come up with that for myself.” Copper Palate’s proximity to popular downtown haunts like Este Pizzeria, Fice Gallery, Diabolical Records, Campos Coffee and the Bar X / Beer Bar / Johnny’s on Second triumvirate certainly helps. “We print our posters and then get ’em up and get ’em out,” Taylor says. “People seeing ’em in all the shops and restaurants is just as effective as a magazine ad, a radio stop or an Instagram post. Print—the actual physical thing—still matters.” Here, Taylor launches into the kind of sermon-cum-sales pitch that would resonate with any band eager to share their creative vision with the world. Looking at art on your phone?
ENRIQUE LIMÓN
BY NICK McGREGOR
“How are you going to appreciate something that someone’s labored over for hours?” he muses. Pondering the necessity of marketing and branding? “It’s an investment in yourself and your hard work.” Working with 16-year-olds printing shirts for their first band? “I know they don’t have a lot of money to begin with, so in my eyes they’re deserving of a discount right off the bat.” Understanding the demands of the road for seasoned bands on their first regional or national tour? “I know those guys will be struggling and putting in the work to sell the T-shirts. And if they don’t sell that night, that might mean they don’t have gas to get to the next show. A box of shirts can make money—and keep a band moving.” Although he’s not the same kind of music fan he was 15 years ago, Taylor admits it’s hard not to find himself emotionally invested in jobs for bands. “I like working with bands,” he says. “I always have. It’s fun. It’s always a white-on-black image with some kind of skull or something, but bands are hungry. They’re putting work in to live the dream. I respect that, which is why I still do at least 10 print runs for bands a year, just myself. Pound that out over 10 years.” Asked about the recent job that stands out the most, he mentions a four-color poster drawn for local Americana band Fur Foxen’s November album release party at Lake Effect. “It was a really good illustration by Brett Ferrin, and when I got it back, I was like, ‘Damn!’” Taylor says. “A 13-by-19-inch poster like that with thicker paper and brighter colors will stand out so much better than an 11-by-17-inch digital print with margins. The kids don’t cut ’em down to full bleeds anymore, and at a Beans & Brews kiosk with 30 printers, guess which one’s going to pop off? That’s my sales pitch for that: ‘You want to stand out?’” On the other hand, Taylor says an epic 1,600-quantity run of four-color posters for Bleachers’ August 2018 performance at a PluralSight tech conference nearly broke him: eight days solid of hand-printing, taking time off from his day job, icing his forearms each night. “That was nuts,” he says with a laugh. “Definitely the biggest paper job I’ve ever done.” After doling out so much good advice, Taylor adds even more for bands unsure about which direction to go for their merch: “When I was starting out, I was really nervous to approach people who do what I do,” he says. “But ask questions. Admit if you don’t know something instead of pretending you’re hot shit. Be honest about what you can afford.” As for those epic Copper Palate Press parties of the past, with punk bands raging while Taylor pulled ink over a screen shaking like a drum? Those days, sadly, are mostly over. Taylor waxes nostalgic about Aldine “Punk Rock Farmer” Strychnine old-school hardcore shows, Davey Parrish and “Bad” Brad Wheeler’s DJ sets, and SLUG Magazine Executive Editor Angela Brown’s curated parties, along with all the memories he’s heard about The Moroccan, the former DIY concert venue that once called Copper Palate’s humble abode home. But Taylor also says he doesn’t miss setting up band equipment, fixing his own equipment and walking away at 3 a.m. without any extra money in his pocket. “I couldn’t take it on myself,” he says, lamenting the loss of artist and wingman John Andrews, who moved to New York City several years ago. “I tried for a while after John left, but it’s a pain in the ass.” Still, Taylor says he’s hoping to tap into the energy of younger artists like Bradshaw, who will hopefully help out when the time comes this summer for Copper Palate’s 10-yearanniversary soirée. Hopefully the business can even get back to its collective roots, Taylor admits. Clearly he finds joy in passing down his knowledge, all while letting Copper Palate’s meaning to local bands morph and evolve with the times. “What’s the future hold?” Taylor thinks aloud. “I’d like to do more classes, more shared space … I want to try to build the community again instead of just focusing on growing my commercial shop. I can do that anywhere. Here, I can give back to the art scene, because it’s been good to me. Fiz and I will still do the 10-20 shirt runs, where a lot of people are going to turn those kids down. We have no problem doing those jobs.” “That’s why I’ve always stuck to print,” he adds. “Print is the most important thing. You have to experience it—just like with music and bands.”
W/ KATE MacLEOD
The music vet chimes in on the keys to an enduring musical career.
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s part of this special package, we couldn’t resist sharing with you 10 sound strategies for long-term success from singer, songwriter, teacher and performer Kate MacLeod. With 50 years of experience playing the violin and fiddle, 30 years playing Celtic music in and around Utah and a thriving solo career that’s taken her all over the world, MacLeod knows of what she speaks. If you want to know what it takes to make it in this rapidly changing music game, her time-tested wisdom is worth heeding:
6. FIND A BALANCE. “I raised three kids. As a mom, I couldn’t do everything. I really had to choose how to spend my very little spare time. I’d think, ‘What am I going to do with it?’ I couldn’t do two or three things, so I did what was most important to me: playing music. The songwriting came out of that.” 7. PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR INSTRUMENT. “Even after 50 years, the way I play the violin and the fiddle has changed. In the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a huge amount of freedom has opened up in my playing. In the last year alone, I’ve actually gotten better. I pick up my violin almost every day and play a new melody. I have more fun with it. I always have, but it’s a concept that changes. You have to learn how to connect with your instrument and make that relationship with it really enriching.” 8. DON’T BE AFRAID OF CHANGE. “Coming from Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City has always felt like a bit of a small town for me. So I appreciate the recent increase in population, only because I came from that. Buildings being built don’t freak me out; I go, ‘Oh, new people!’ It makes things more interesting. On the other hand, I’ve had friends since I moved here; it’s a very close-knit community, which is nice. When your friends go that far back in life, they become really good friends. You can do that here pretty easily.”
9. BE YOUR AUTHENTIC SELF. “One reason I don’t play Celtic music all the time is that it’s just natural for me as an American coming out of the culture that I’ve lived and grown up in to play music that’s American-based. Yes, it’s informed and influenced by Celtic music, but to be my authentic self, I can’t make a living off of music that sounds like it was going on 200 years ago. A lot of my friends do that because that’s their passion. But to build a career for myself, my writing and my performing has to be in moment—in the now.” 10. LEARN TO LOVE MUSIC. “The thing I like most about teaching music is helping young people learn to play music so that they will always want to play music. I want to make sure my students are in love with it. That’s actually a quicker route to getting better. My friends and I became so proficient because we loved playing. We didn’t have any goals of becoming good. A lot of young people today see someone doing something on stage and say, ‘I want to be able to do that.’ Well, that may take a few years. You have to find your happy place with the music you love. A lot of people skip over that part. I grew up learning in the classical model, and I bucked it quite young. I was highly criticized by my teachers, who were trying to prepare me for music conservatory. That was quite traumatic for me and took years to get over. But I loved the violin and all the things it could do. I wasn’t only interested in classical music, but I couldn’t articulate that until I became an adult.” —Nick McGregor
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2. USE UTAH’S GEOGRAPHIC ISOLATION TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. “Utah is very isolated from the rest of the music world. It’s difficult to work out of here, and people don’t believe something really great is going to come out of Utah. If you want to get somewhere, you usually have to move. But there’s great talent here—always has been. I did other things for a long time; I worked at the Violin Making School for 10 years, and it was a hard decision not to pursue that professionally. Then, I got into being a full-time musician very gradually. But being here in Utah did allow me to really understand who I was as an artist. And that’s because I wasn’t in a music city.”
5. DON’T LISTEN TO THE SO-CALLED EXPERTS. “So many people say CDs are dead, but I still sell just as many as I used to. As long as I put out projects that have a cohesive theme to them, it really does call for some kind of product that’s not just singles. Ken Sanders published a book of my music for Deep in the Sound of Terra; hopefully my next project will be designed in a book, as well.”
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1. DIVERSIFY AT YOUR OWN PERIL (BUT OWN IT IF YOU DO). “In the commercial music world, they want you to do one thing. If you’re really famous, you can depart from that and people won’t give you too hard a time. But if you’re not famous, it can actually derail you. For me, I’m never so worried about things like that. My whole career has been backwards and upside down anyway. In Utah, I’m known for playing the violin and fiddle; outside of the state, I’m known as a songwriter. Last year, I made my first recording of violin and fiddle, and that confused everyone in the country. It’s almost like this strange dual personality. But I decided, ‘Well, I don’t care—I’m going to do this anyway.’”
4. LET YOUR CRAFT EVOLVE. “My songwriting has always been in the folk music vein. When I perform, most of the time it’s with an acoustic guitar. I’ve been compared to the Carter Family, but my inspiration comes from everything: things I read, stories people tell me, an experience my friend went through. My favorite thing is writing about other people’s stories in a very poetic way. I did an entire collection of songs I wrote inspired by books and put on a live concert at Ken Sanders Rare Books. My fiddle record, Deep in the Sound of Terra, is full of songs inspired by the landscape here. Last year, I was an artist in residence with the Quakers and I spent my time composing peace-motivated inspirational music.”
JEANETTE BONNELL
10 TIPS FOR MUSIC BIZ LONGEVITY
3. LISTEN TO YOUR SUCCESSFUL FRIENDS. “That’s one of my rules: only take business advice from people who are actually doing what they want to do successfully. A friend of mine who was on my first recording had been on Atlantic Records in the big world, and he said, ‘Don’t move to Nashville, Kate. If you do, they’ll just want you to be like a Nashville musician. What you’re doing, that’s your strength.’ I really believe that’s true.”
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International Society of Rock ’n’ Roll puts the vroom back in America’s favorite vintage art form. BY NICK McGREGOR
“Rock ’n’ roll music, if you like it, if you feel it, you can’t help but move to it. That’s what happens to me. I can’t help it.” —Elvis Presley
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ore words have been written about rock ’n’ roll than nearly any other musical genre. But any true rock head will tell you that words don’t quite work to transmit the feeling of the music. Instead, it’s about the unbridled feeling of rock ’n’ roll. Its spontaneous ecstasy and celebration of self-expression was once considered an acute moral threat; the term “the devil’s music” carried intense meaning for authority figures anxious about sexuality and sensuality spread to American youth through two-minute songs played on guitar, bass and drums. Today, rock ’n’ roll might seem downright tame, especially compared with death metal, gangster rap and other controversial art forms. The endearing spirit of danger and edginess lives on, however—and it’s received a local boost thanks to the Salt Lake Citybased International Society of Rock ’n’ Roll. Founded last year by Bountiful natives Corey Cresswell (pictured) and Ryan Menge, ISRNR mission is simple: to connect with rock fans in and around Salt Lake City through live concerts, DJ nights, record release parties and other events that empower the collective over the individual. “ISRNR started as an idea between Ryan and I,” Cresswell says. “We’re the core, but I don’t want it to be about us. It’s a ‘we’ thing—it’s a society. Salt Lake has tons of potential, and knowing that we’re growing so fast, we wanted to do something that shows people rock ’n’ roll is alive and well and moving forward.” As most journeys go, Cresswell’s arrival at that realization was roundabout to say the least. Growing up in Bountiful, he played in thrash-metal bands like Killbot but never felt connected to the area’s straight-edge hardcore scene. He, Menge and their friends would play up in Ogden and in Salt Lake City, frequenting old haunts like The Outer on Redwood Road and Ted Shupe’s music nights at The Comedy Circuit in Midvale. Next came Burt’s Tiki Lounge and Club Vegas. “We were just trying to figure out what kind of scenes we fit into,” Cresswell says. Once they turned 18, however, the two childhood friends went their different ways. Menge moved to Southern California and started managing The Strangers, a band made up of old Orange County punk cats. Cresswell went to what he calls “woodshop college” to learn how to become a luthier. That skill in his back pocket, Menge told Cresswell to come to Los Angeles and be a guitar tech for The Strangers. Next, Cresswell went out on the road with Sacramento alt-rock band Middle Class Rut. He spent the next 10 years traveling, bouncing around Los Angeles, and, by 2015, supporting Menge as he started Rebel Union Entertainment, an LA-based artist management company that today works with Brian Bell (of Weezer), The Relationship, Night Beats, Stonefield and The Warbly Jets. When asked whether he pined for Utah during that decade out west, Cresswell says, “Not at all. I was never coming back. I wasn’t planning on leaving Los Angeles anytime soon. The lifestyle, the fun and the excitement kept me there—but I couldn’t make any money, and I eventually tried not to stay on the road all the time.” A random connec-
ENRIQUE LIMÓN
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18 | MARCH 14, 2019
HAIL! HAIL!
tion with an old friend led Cresswell back, though; last year, he took a job as an electrician and crew member at Ballet West, where he’s worked since. But how had the rock ’n’ roll scene changed in the interim? “It was a big concern coming back,” Cresswell says. “It’s always been pretty mellow here, and my impression upon returning was that the scene was still mellow and pretty small.” Traveling and touring helped him connect with rock ’n’ roll diehards around the world, though, and Cresswell saw the potential for bands and adherents here in Salt Lake City to break out of their geographically isolated bubble. The deep connection to Rebel Union Entertainment helped, too. Cresswell has organized shows at The State Room and Kilby Court for bands like Stonefield and The Warbly Jets, emphasizing the opportunity for locals to support those bands and network to make future tours possible. “Working together and making connections is what it’s all about,” Cresswell says. Other events are steadily filling up ISRNR’s calendar: Sunday Night Sinners Club events at Quarters Arcade Bar featuring DJ Nix Beat and DJ Ledingham. Monday night sets at Beer Bar. In January, ISRNR held a record release listening party for Night Beats’ new album Myth of a Man; in February, the society organized a full ’50s/’60s experience at Garage on Beck with Twist & Shout A-Go!Go! featuring The Boys Ranch, The Poppees, DJ Rondevoodoo and live go-go dancers. “I was always attracted to that vibe,” Cresswell says. “Elvis was big for me when I was a kid; then The Ramones hit me and I didn’t even really know why. That music isn’t seen as very edgy anymore, but as a kid it was. It’s aggressive, it’s true and it’s no bullshit.” During Cresswell’s years on the road, he fell in love with rock ’n’ roll history in all its gritty, purely American facets. Touring the South, he found himself paying quiet tribute to juke joints and recording studios that reflected the hardships of the musicians who birthed the blues. The 2017 documentary Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World opened Cresswell’s eyes to further forgotten corners of rock ’n’ roll history. “People getting the short end of the stick—that was the beginning of rock ’n’ roll,” he says. “Not us white privileged people who took it over. All these things have made me realize why I love the music. That hit me hard.” Luckily, Cresswell fell in with a like-minded crowd: Denny Fuller of The Boys Ranch, Charles Thorpe of Anchor Stage Management, Mike “DJ Fish” Fish, Michael Wood, Jared Soper of Randy’s Records, Lord Vox, Isaiah of Doubt Walk, Joey Mays of The Nods, Wyatt and Cole Maxwell, Shane Kiel. During those Sunday and Monday night DJ sets, Cresswell encourages vinyl nerds to bring their own records and drop a needle in the groove, cultivating a sense of community that hasn’t always existed here. “Everyone’s responded so well toward the excitement and the idea of the society,” Cresswell says. “Maybe it’s something that people were looking for; maybe everybody was too separated before. Now, putting on these events under one banner, we can grow.” Future plans for ISRNR include a record label, more shows this summer and possibly even a more long-term partnership with Blackfeather Whiskey, which sponsored the Night Beats listening party in January. Cresswell says he hopes to team up with all-female motorcycle group The Litas, who host a Blacktop Ramble each June in Torrey, Utah. And he hopes to get Salt Lake City rock bands on the road and connecting with other scenes in Boise, Denver and surrounding cities. “We want ISRNR to be a trusted name for any event we throw,” he says. “No matter where we go, we want people to know we’re going to put on fun shows with quality bands.” About that gig at Ballet West, which might seem incongruous with Cresswell’s longstanding rock ’n’ roll lifestyle? He laughs and says it’s actually a perfect fit. “I work on the crew side, and a lot of them describe themselves as pirates. It’s a nitty-gritty world. But even some of the ballerinas are into rock ’n’ roll. And to me, it’s not just about the music. It’s about the subculture and the attitude. If we can make more people in Salt Lake City realize that, I think we can build a community together.”
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t’s Saturday evening at Adam and Kelly Sandberg’s Salt Lake City home and an aspiring drag queen, Lilia Maughn, is nervously turned toward the vocal booth. Adam is helping Maughn record a track, and the atmosphere in the home recording studio is quiet yet emotional, as Maughn reluctantly starts from the top of a Sara Bareilles song. Kelly, Adam’s wife and business partner, notices the young queen’s timidness. “Don’t second guess yourself,” Kelly says in a firm-butgentle voice. “If you’re not happy with the take, you can do it again.” In that moment, it was the right amount of honest feedback that Maughn needed. He then started belting out a melancholy tune as if he wrote the lyrics himself. This is a typical evening at Another Element Productions. The home studio has recorded and mixed dozens of local bands and drag queens. Some, like the infamous Molly Mormon, sought out the Sandbergs specifically for their services creating intro songs; others, like Disengaged and Dipped in Whiskey, chose the studio to record and produce full-length albums and cover art. “It just felt so natural,” Adam says when asked about his inspiration. “What cooler thing [is there] than to help someone and also produce some awesome music?” Since Another Element Productions started in 2006, more than 100 artists have found themselves recording with the Sandbergs (Kelly helps book the artists; Adam records them). “Anything I do, she manages,” Adam says of his better half. “She’s just as much part of this as I am. I might be down there pushing the
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Adam and Kelly Sandberg put music’s healing power to work on aspiring young artists.
buttons, but she’s the backbone of it all.” Aside from the plethora of management tasks, Kelly also takes on the role of a life coach of sorts to artists, doing her best to provide the right amount of honesty. That coaching is done only to help coax out the raw emotions of artists like Maughn, who might be nervous standing before the mic. “Music is emotional,” Kelly explains. “You hear a song and it takes you back to some kind of moment. So I tell the [artists], you need to go back to those emotions and feel it.” In addition to a recording studio, the Sandbergs’ house serves as a refuge for artists seeking shelter and healing in music. Before the Sandbergs married and settled in Salt Lake City, Adam was close to the Phoenix nümetal scene and former Grey Daze bandmate Chester Bennington, who went on to start Linkin Park. “We’ve lost a lot of friends in the industry to suicide,” Kelly says. “Losing Chester was one of the more horrific events.” The studio is therapeutic, too. “It’s important to get these kids in here to record, to get [music] out to heal,” Kelly says. “I watched [music] heal Adam from his own garbage.” When Adam was 15 years old, his mother left and he was taken in by his grandparents. “I always had this chip on my shoulder,” he says. “I was just pissed off. I found out what kind of release and mental stability [music] ended up giving me.” As he mended his past, he fell in love with Kelly, who managed his band Brik in the early 2000s. The two moved to Utah in 2012, continuing Another Element Productions, first in a recording studio in Kearns. After a few location moves and the increasing accessibility of recording software, Adam began pursuing his passion from home. “I saw these producers that I follow talking about home studios,” he remembers “They had the same gear that I had and I thought, ‘I could do that—why don’t I?’” During the day, Adam works for the Utah Food Bank, providing the perfect foil to his creative side, which he pursues at night. Meanwhile, Kelly brings the more logical aspect to Another Element Productions, striking a perfect yin-and-yang balance. “We’re a good team,” she says. “I get the emotions going, and then Adam knows right when to come in and record.” And when they identify those emotions in their artists, the Sandbergs encourage them to let it out. “We show [artists] their talent,” Kelly says. “You tell them how great they are. It’s not about the money—it’s about you doing something you love and feeding that passion.”
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ENRIQUE LIMÓN
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20 | MARCH 14, 2019
SUPERIOR SOUND Forty years on, Ed Pratt still strives for audio excellence. BY LEE ZIMMERMAN
M
aking great music is reason enough to place a band or artist on a pedestal. But kudos are also due to those working behind the scenes to ensure that sound is heard. Granted, they don’t get their name on the marquee and rarely receive recognition. Without their expertise, however, every big racket would sound like little more than a faint whisper. Ed Pratt of Salt Lake City-based Pratt Sound can attest to that scenario. As the man responsible for one of the region’s most prominent production companies, he’s set up sound for countless concerts and events over the past 40 years. A list of those whose live audio he’s engineered includes the Doobie Brothers, Diana Ross, John Denver, Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Kenny Rogers, Kenny Loggins, Ray Charles, Def Leppard and Crosby, Stills & Nash. “We work with people on their way up,” he says, “and on their way down.” Pratt and his team of sound professionals pride themselves on their ability to adapt to any circumstance, from festivals to trade shows and every stage in between. The company maintains a large, ever-expanding inventory of the latest audio components and a network of sound engineers and support personnel who are hired as independent contractors. Pratt’s career got off to a somewhat inauspicious start in the early ’70s. An itinerant musician, he worked in a recording studio by day and frequented the club scene by night. When a local club owner mentioned that he’d get more bookings if he brought along his own sound system, Pratt took him up on his suggestion. He borrowed $1,000 and added another $300 from his savings to buy his own PA and learned on the job, experimenting with sound levels while setting up his own stage show. One night, he was approached by some onlookers who complimented him on his sound and asked if they could rent his gear for a Taj Mahal concert they were promoting at the University of Utah. Pratt immediately agreed. “I realized I would get paid more from renting my gear than I would if I played the gig,” he recalls. “The light went on in my head: My gear could become a source of income without me always having to be at the gig. I made $400 from the rental that night and if I
had played, I probably would have only taken home $100.” Pratt relished the idea of profiting from production. “We used to make jokes about it,” he says. “We play practically for free, but we get paid to haul our gear.” Not that he was ready to turn his back on center stage entirely. “I was a really good entertainer and a really good folksinger,” he insists. “I played pretty well. I think my reputation as a musician bolstered my aspirations. I never thought I’d be a sound company owner. I thought I’d end up as a guitar player.” Instead, Pratt ended up running sound for big-time venues and events near and far: Twilight Concert Series, Targhee Bluegrass Festival, Live Nite Events, Salt Lake Jazz Festival, Sandy Amphitheater, Utah Pride Festival, Kingsbury Hall, Sundance Film Festival and the 2002 Winter Olympics. Pratt insists that his experience as a performer gives him extra insight into those wildly divergent audio elements and requirements. “I know how things are supposed to sound,” he says. “You don’t have to be a musician to succeed at this, but I think it does give you a leg up. It helps you know where to place the equipment, how loud it should be, how to balance it and that kind of thing. It just came naturally to me.” In a sense, Pratt still lives the rock ’n’ roll fantasy. As an artist, he opened for some big names back in the day, like Chicago, the Beach Boys and Bonnie Raitt. Has he spent the last four decades living vicariously through the artists he amplifies? “Basically, I really wanted to be part of the culture,” he admits. “Not just musically, but also through production.” While Pratt says his satisfaction comes from doing a job right, he also relishes the more intimate encounters, as well. “I revel in the small moments,” he says. “I’m not an autograph seeker; that would be unprofessional. I remember being on the side of the stage and Johnny Cash was sitting there playing his guitar and waiting to go on. And I was thinking, ‘I’m watching Johnny Cash.’ We didn’t have an exchange, but it was a special moment for me. We had Kris Kristofferson here [at Kingsbury Hall] last month, and it was the same thing. I didn’t go up and say, ‘Oh Kris, I think you’re the greatest.’ That would take my credibility away. You have to be cool and just take in the moment.” Pratt Sound’s success steamrolled thanks to a forward-looking business plan, though. Pratt made it a point over the years to reinvest whatever money he made back into the business to keep pace with the technology. “That kind of separates the men from the boys,” he says. “All these old guys would say stuff like ‘Analog, analog, we want to work with analog!’ What I was hearing was that they simply didn’t want to learn digital technology. Like many things, if you don’t keep up, you get outmoded. When I bought my first digital console, I locked myself in my shop for four weeks and learned it. I’ve never looked back since.” All these years later, Pratt prides himself on maintaining a consistent list of clients who have come to expect—and respect—his ability to make things sound right. He claims that his team is capable of working three concerts in a single night. “We’re not the biggest in town,” he admits. “I feel like we’re the boutique rock ’n’ roll sound company here. [But] any time people want to gather and need a microphone, they should call me.”
Pioneer Theatre Co.: La Cage aux Folles Concert Version
On St. Patrick’s Day weekend, everyone claims to be Irish. You can put on a green T-shirt that says, “Kiss me, I’m Irish,” but a more convincing move would be to show up at Salt Lake City’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, hosted by the Hibernian Society of Utah. While the mid-March weather in SLC might be dicey, the chances of the parade happening are not. “Rain or shine, not even St. Patrick himself could stop this parade,” says Meghan Gibson of the Hibernian Society of Utah. “This year’s parade will be celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Golden Spike and the contributions made by the Irish in the completion of the railroad.” The Transcontinental Railroad was finished at Promontory Point in northern Utah on May 10, 1869. The parade begins at the intersection of 500 East and 200 South at 10 a.m. and heads west on 200 South, concluding at the Gallivan Center between State and Main streets. The parade will run about 90 minutes and will be followed by a Siamsa—that’s Gaelic for “celebration”—at the Gallivan Center, featuring offerings from Bohemian Brewery as well as traditional Irish cuisine. There is no charge for entry into the Siamsa. Head over to Mountain West Hard Cider for an alternate parade afterparty until 6 p.m., or stick around the Gallivan Center for a free bagpipe history lesson and performance at 6:30 p.m. A portion of the parade will benefit Fisher House, which provides families of veterans a place to stay while their loved ones get treatment at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Salt Lake City. (Geoff Griffin) St. Patrick’s Day Parade @ 500 E. 200 South, parade route down 200 South, March 16, 10 a.m.; Siamsa @ Gallivan Center, 239 S. Main, following parade, irishinutah.org
St. Patrick’s Day Parade & Siamsa
MARCH 14, 2019 | 21
If he never did anything else as far as his career’s concerned, Bob Saget’s fame would still be assured. His eight-year run as Danny Tanner on ABC’s Full House and its Emmy-nominated Netfix successor, Fuller House, made him a popular TV personality. An equally long stint as host of America’s Funniest Home Videos furthered his perpetual presence on the small screen, as did his off-screen role as the voice of the future Ted Mosby on the hit show How I Met Your Mother. Still, Saget’s moved well beyond those early career peaks, establishing himself as a standup comedian, movie actor, Grammy-nominated recording artist and well-respected director. The latter venture found him delving into more serious subjects, thanks to his work behind the camera for the ABC feature film For Hope, a story inspired by his sister Gay Saget and her struggle with scleroderma, an autoimmune skin disease that eventually took her life. Nevertheless, comedy remains Saget’s specialty—and his personal stand-up style tends to be more adult than his association with the squeakyclean Full House might suggest. His upcoming projects include the new stand-up special Zero to Sixty, the upcoming dark comedy film Benjamin, the tell-all memoir Dirty Daddy and a new, apparently naughty, series coming to ABC aptly titled Videos After Dark, he’s busier than ever. He describes the latter this way on his website: “It’s not the old video show, so put the kids to bed and watch it with your whole family ... that’s, like, over 14.” So, not exactly PG. Might it be America’s Most Salacious Home Videos? While he’s here, maybe he’ll give us a glimpse. (Lee Zimmerman) Bob Saget @ Wiseguys SLC, 194 S. 400 West, 801-532-5233, March 15-16, 7 & 9:30 p.m., $35, wiseguyscomedy.com
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SATURDAY 3/16
Bob Saget
For more than 50 years, Pioneer Theatre Co. has filled its seasons with an enticing combination of beloved Broadway musicals, theatrical classics and cutting-edge new plays. But since 2014, PTC has augmented those seasons with special single-weekend “concert version” performances of favorite musical shows, from The Rocky Horror Show to Chess to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights. “PTC audiences really enjoy musicals,” PTC marketing director Kirsten Park says, “and this was a way to offer more musicals than we could in a typical season.” For 2019, that concert production is La Cage aux Folles, the 1983 musical version—with book by Harvey Fierstein and songs by Hello, Dolly! legend Jerry Herman—of the 1973 French play, which also formed the basis for the comedy film The Birdcage. The story deals with a gay couple, Georges and Albin, who run a Saint-Tropez drag cabaret and are forced to play it straight when their son brings home his fiancee, along with her ultra-conservative parents. Farcical situations, as they say, ensue. The “concert production” format presents the full script and songs, but in a more casual script-in-hand format and without a full set and staging. While such an approach limits the available options for choreography, it allows a shorter production schedule, while audiences can still enjoy the great songs performed by Broadway pros such as Jamison Stern and James Patterson as Albin and Georges. And you can get novelties like former state senator (and current mayoral candidate) Jim Dabakis as the aforementioned ultra-conservative prospective inlaw, Monsieur Dindon. (Scott Renshaw) La Cage aux Folles Concert Version @ Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, 801-581-6961, March 15, 7:30 p.m.; March 16, 2 & 7:30 p.m., $25-$45, pioneertheatre.org
FRIDAY 3/15
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China was once a land of dynasties, one of the world’s earliest civilizations that germinated in the fertile lands of the Yellow River delta. Shen Yun Performing Arts celebrates the country’s long, richly patterned history with meticulously curated performances that incorporate classical, ethnic and folk dances from China; a full orchestra; and vivid animated backdrops. Established in 2006, Shen Yun aims to tell the stories accumulated through hundreds of centuries of Chinese art. These stories are, as the company openly explains, discouraged by the contemporary Chinese government, which has tried to shut the troupe down, attempting to persuade theaters not to book them. This persecution is rooted in the group’s guiding spiritual practice, Falun Dafa, which combines meditation, qiqong movements and moral philosophy—a religion rooted in Taoism and Buddhism. Despite their traditional origins, the group is unable to perform in China. But that hasn’t stopped them. Shen Yun has filled theaters across the world, expanding since their 2006 start to include six full troupes that tour the world, visiting more than 150 venues each year. Talented dancers flip, tumble and leap across the stage, and the entire performance is accompanied by a full Western orchestra augmented with ancient Chinese instruments, such as the erhu and pipa, and individual vocal soloists. Song texts are translated on background screens for Western audiences. Shen Yun translates, roughly, to “divine or captivating rhythm.” A host of audiences agree. Cate Blanchett: “Exquisitely beautiful.” Broadway critic Richard Connema: “Five stars, mind blowing!” You: “An unforgettable experience,” we predict. (Naomi Clegg) Shen Yun @ Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main, March 14-15, 7:30 p.m.; March 16, 2 & 7:30 p.m.; March 17, 2 p.m., $85-$180, shenyunperformingarts.org
FRIDAY 3/15
BRIAN FRIEDMAN
COURTESY OF PIONEER THEATRE CO.
SHEN YUN PERFORMING ARTS
Shen Yun
Complete listings at cityweekly.net
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THURSDAY 3/14
ENTERTAINMENT PICKS, MARCH 14-20, 2019
GRACE MCDONOUGH
ESSENTIALS
the
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22 | MARCH 14, 2019
A&E
big SHINY ROBOT
On Its Own Terms BY BRYAN YOUNG comments@cityweekly.net @swankmotron
“T
he movie doesn’t have any stakes if I know that everyone lives and death isn’t permanent!” It’s a refrain I’ve heard leveled more than once at last year’s Avengers: Infinity War, a movie where half the population in the Marvel universe was wiped out with a snap of Thanos’ Infinity Gauntleted fingers. Another complaint I see often is that the marketing for the upcoming Spider-Man: Far from Home has undermined the dramatic tension of Infinity War, since we have advertisements for a movie starring a character who clearly died in his last appearance in the universe. It doesn’t matter that there’s academic research to suggest that the general audience wants to see spoilers like this in the marketing; these cynical filmgoers can’t suspend their own disbelief in the first place, let alone after more marketing has come out. “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good,” Peter Parker says as he vanishes into dust in Infinity War. And, frankly, when I think about the state of film literacy, I don’t feel so good either. I think people leveling complaints at movies like this might have forgotten how to watch movies, if they ever knew how to watch them in the first place. Watching Infinity War, or any geeky film with heroes of any kind in them, there’s a given: The hero is probably going to win in the end. No matter how bleak the odds might seem, the hero is more than likely going to overcome. That’s simply the way these stories work. As an audience, the knowledge that a hero will most likely overcome
MARVEL STUDIOS
The problem with a movie fandom that can’t accept stories for what they are. should be irrelevant to us. What we should be more thrilled and concerned and excited about is how the hero will overcome. Knowing that they will likely come back to life shouldn’t rob their death of any impact, either. How could a person scoff at the emotional death of Spider-Man at the end of Infinity War? It takes an almost lethal dose of cynicism to see it and say, “Well, they’ll just bring him back anyway, so this doesn’t mean anything.” You know who it means something to? Tony Stark. The moment is real for his character, and since it’s his point of view we are looking through, it ought to feel real for us. Roger Ebert once said that machines are machines for creating empathy, and until I saw these complaints about the film, I would have thought it impossible for an audience to not empathize with the hurt Tony Stark feels as Peter Parker—a kid he dragged into this fight— turns to dust in his arms. Tony Stark, a man who has an answer for everything, has lost everything. It’s emotional and heartbreaking, no matter how the sequel shakes out. But that’s when I realized that maybe we’ve forgotten how to watch movies. These days, it seems like many viewers in the age of “Everything Wrong With …” YouTube videos are looking for ways to outsmart films rather than enjoy them, as though every movie was Smaug and they’re Bard, looking for the missing scale to drive our arrows through. We’re participating in the stories, but as adversaries. The movie should be our ally, not our enemy. It’s trying to show us something, to teach us a lesson, to make us feel. Audiences need to let the
Tom Holland, left, and Robert Downey Jr. in Avengers: Infinity War
movie show us its individual truths without us trying to outwit it. And, for whatever reason, this problem seems to be worst in the superhero, sci-fi and fantasy genres. Even when the answers to audience questions are in the text of the film itself, this brand of filmgoer is unable to see them. They want everything spelled out literally. This phenomenon might be worst in Star Wars fandom right now. Did you know there is a contingent of people who think Finn was going to actually destroy that battering ram cannon with his sacrifice in The Last Jedi? It’s as though the language of cinema—the close-ups of his ship disintegrating, and the dialogue saying that his actions would be useless—meant nothing to the combative sects of the audience. Because they thought it could have been a good place for Finn to have a heroic ending, they considered it a mistake of the storytelling, rather than a part of an unfolding story. When you go into a film trying to find reasons not to invest in the story being told, and hope for a different story altogether, you’re going to be disappointed. When you add in the marketing, and allow it to affect your experience, you’re not viewing a film; you’re meta-viewing. We should all strive to meet each story on its own terms and give it an honest shot to make us feel the things it intends for us to feel. Not only are we all going to have a better cinema experience, we’ll probably be a lot less obnoxious on the internet, too. CW
Now Open!
1881 East Fort Union Blvd. midvalleyguitargallery.com
Handcrafted electric guitars Guild and Teton acoustics Ukuleles Lessons Guitar repair and service
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MARCH 14, 2019 | 23
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moreESSENTIALS
MATTHEW LIPTON
COMPLETE LISTINGS ONLINE AT CITYWEEKLY.NET
Photographer and film director Jason Lindsey speaks about his personal work and career on Thursday, March 14 at Commonwealth Studios (150 W. Commonwealth Ave., 801-230-5352, commonwealth-studios.com).
PERFORMANCE THEATER
An American in Paris Hale Centre Theatre, 9900 S. Monroe St., Sandy, through Apr. 6, hct.org An Evening With Two Awful Men Rose Wagner Center, 138 W. 300 South, through April 7, planbtheatre.org A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder Hale Centre Theatre, 9900 S. Monroe St., Sandy, through March 16, hct.org Gloria Good Company Theatre, 2404 Wall Ave., Ogden, through March 24, goodcotheatre.com Hedwig and the Angry Inch An Other Theater Co., 1200 Towne Centre Blvd., Provo, through March 23, anothertheatercompany.com Julius Caesar Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main, March 14-15, 7:30 p.m.; March 16, 2 & 7:30 p.m., artsaltlake.org La Cage aux Folles Pioneer Memorial Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, March 15, 7:30 p.m.; March 16, 2 & 7:30 p.m., pioneertheatre.org (see p. 21) Mamma Mia! The Ziegfeld Theater, 3934 S. Washington Blvd., Ogden, through March 16, theziegfeldtheater.com Mozart’s The Magic Flute Capitol Theatre, 50 W. 200 South, through March 17, artsaltlake.org Newsies Hale Center Theater Orem, 225 W. 400 North, through April 20, haletheater.org
DANCE
Ballet West: Peter & The Wolf Browning Center, 1901 University Circle, Ogden, March 14, 7 p.m.; Abravanel Hall, 123 W. South Temple, March 16, 11 a.m. & 12:30 p.m., utahsymphony.org Danielle Agami: Framed Leona Wagner Black Box Theatre, 138 W. 300 South, March 14, 7:30 p.m., artsaltlake.org Shen Yun Eccles Theater, 131 S. Main, March 14-15, 7:30 p.m.; March 16, 2 & 7:30 p.m.; March 17, 2 p.m., shenyunperformingarts.org (see p. 21)
CLASSICAL & SYMPHONY
American West Symphony Concert Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 8575 S. 700 East, Sandy, March 16, 7:30 p.m., americanwestsymphony.com
Choirs of Angels: Youth Honor Choir Festival Libby Gardner Hall, 1375 E. Presidents Circle, March 16, 2 p.m., saltlakechoralartists.org Salt Lake Symphony: Classical Tides Libby Gardner Hall, 1375 E. Presidents Circle, March 16, 7:30 p.m., saltlakesymphony.org
COMEDY & IMPROV
Aziz Ansari Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E. Presidents Circle, March 20, 7:30 p.m., tickets.utah.edu Bob Saget Wiseguys SLC, 194 S. 400 West, March 15-16, 7 & 9:30 p.m., wiseguyscomedy.com (see p. 21) Francisco Ramos Wiseguys SLC, 194 S. 400 West, March 14, 7 p.m., wiseguyscomedy.com Open Mic Wiseguys SLC, 194 S. 400 West, Wednesdays, 7 p.m., wiseguyscomedy.com Ramy Youseff Wiseguys West Jordan, 3763 W. Center Park Drive, March 15, 8 p.m.; March 16, 7 & 9:30 p.m., wiseguyscomedy.com Travis Tate Wiseguys Ogden, 269 25th St., March 15-16, 8 p.m., wiseguyscomedy.com
LITERATURE AUTHOR APPEARANCES
Alma Katsu: The Hunger The King’s English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East, March 14, 7 p.m., kingsenglish.com Bruce Berger: A Desert Harvest: New and Selected Essays The King’s English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East, March 15, 7 p.m., kingsenglish.com J. B. Nelson: Exodus Weller Bookworks, 607 Trolley Square, March 19, 6:30 p.m., wellerbookworks.com Jeremy Pugh: 100 Things To Do in Salt Lake City Before You Die Weller Bookworks, 607 Trolley Square, March 16, 7 p.m., wellerbookworks.com; The King’s English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East, March 20, 7 p.m., kingsenglish.com Sara Bliss: Take the Leap The King’s English Bookshop, 1511 S. 1500 East, March 18, 7 p.m., kingsenglish.com Soman Chainani: The School for Good and Evil Provo City Library, 550 N. University Ave., March 19, 7 p.m., kingsenglish.com
7th annual St. Patrick’s Day Tent Party
SUN. MARCH 17
OPEN 10AM ST. PATTY’S BRUNCH FROM 10-3 UTAH’S BIGGEST ST. PATRICK’S DAY PARTY
NO COVER
Robot Dream
6-9PM INSIDE
7-10PM TENT
10PM-1AM TENT
DJ CHASE ONE 2
SALT LAKE SCOTS
10PM-1AM INSIDE
ALL DAY!
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Gourgeous Gourds
Pixie and the Partygrass Boys
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10-2am, Sat & Sun • graciesslc.com • 801-819-7565
MARCH 14, 2019 | 25
326 S. West Temple • Open 11-2am, M-F
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GIANT TENT | DRINKS | FOOD | MUSIC
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26 | MARCH 14, 2019
moreESSENTIALS
SPECIAL EVENTS FARMERS MARKET
Winter Market Rio Grande Depot, 270 S. Rio Grande St., through April 20, Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., slcfarmersmarket.org
ST. PATRICK’S DAY
: PRESENTS
A weekly video series highlighting the BEST things to do in SLC. ............................... Sponsored by:
4th West St. Patrick’s Day Fest Mountain West Hard Cider, 425 N. 400 West, March 16, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., mountainwestcider.com An Irish Evening Jeanne Wagner Theatre, 138 W. 300 South, March 15-16, 7 p.m., artsaltlake.org St. Patrick’s Day Parade 500 E. 200 South, March 16, 10 a.m., irishinutah.org (see p. 21)
LGBTQ
Healthy Pride Day Utah Pride Center, 255 E. 400 South, March 16, 10 a.m.-7 p.m., utahpridecenter.org Matrons of Mayhem Third Friday Bingo First Baptist Church, 777 S. 1300 East, March 15, 7-9 p.m., facebook.com/maytronsofmayhem
TALKS & LECTURES
VODKA
Find us on Facebook @WTFSLC
The Bee: Help! Metro Music Hall, 615 W. 100 South, March 14, 6 p.m., metromusichall.com David Blankenhorn: Promoting Civility in a Polarized Nation Thomas S. Monson Center, 411 E. South Temple, March 14, 6:30 p.m., monsoncenter.utah.edu Jason Lindsey Commonwealth Studios, 150 W. Commonwealth Ave., March 14, 7 p.m., commonwealth-studios.com (see p. 24) Napoleon Dynamite: A Conversation with Jon Heder Peery’s Egyptian Theater, 2415 S. Washington Blvd., Ogden, March 14, 7 p.m., egyptiantheaterogden.com The Planet We Call Home: Form in Nature Ogden Nature Center, 966 W. 12th Street, March 18, 6 p.m., ogdennaturecenter.org Railroad Stories: Community Voices and Regional Perspectives Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 S. Campus Center Drive, March 20, 6:30 p.m., umfa.utah.edu TEDxMarmalade: Fatima Dirie Marmalade Library, 280 W. 500 North, March 16, 7 p.m., slcpl.org Sarah Parcak: Indiana Jones in Space Kingsbury Hall, 1395 E. Presidents Circle, March 19, 7 p.m., tickets.utah.edu
VISUAL ART GALLERIES & MUSEUMS
Art Elevated Urban Arts Gallery, 116 S. Rio
COMPLETE LISTINGS ONLINE AT CITYWEEKLY.NET
Grande St., through March 31, urbanartsgallery.org Bill Reed: Emotionscapes Local Colors of Utah Gallery, 1054 E. 2100 South, through April 16, localcolorsart.com Ecaterina Leonte: Planet Ocean AndersonFoothill Library, 1135 S. 2100 East, through April 11, slcpl.org For the Love of Fiber Utah Cultural Celebration Center, 1355 W. 3100 South, West Valley City, through April 24, culturalcelebration.org The International Tolerance Project Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive, through June 23, umfa.utah.edu Jim Frazer: Glyphs Finch Lane Gallery, 54 S. Finch Lane, through April 12, saltlakearts.org John Sproul: An Underness of Being Main Library, 210 E. 400 South, through April 26, slcpl.org Kallie Hancock: Spectacles Finch Lane Gallery, 54 S. Finch Lane, through April 12, saltlakearts.org Lenka Clayton: Under These Conditions UMOCA, 20 S. West Temple, through May 11, utahmoca.org Life During Wartime Art Access Gallery, 230 S. 500 West, through April 12, accessart.org Mary Pusey: Moab en Plein Air Main Library, 210 E. 400 South, through April 13, slcpl.org Maynard Dixon: High Desert David Dee Fine Arts, 1709 E. 1300 South, through April 5, daviddeefinearts.com Mike Simi: Gettin’ By UMOCA, 20 S. West Temple, through May 11, utahmoca.org Nicholas Coley A Gallery, 1321 S. 2100 East, through April 20, agalleryonline.com Paul Crow: On Ice Kimball Art Center, 1401 Kearns Blvd., Park City, through April 7, kimballartcenter.org The Race to Promontory: The Transcontinental Railroad and the American West Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive, through May 26, umfa.utah.edu Salt Lake Gallery Stroll Various locations, March 15, 6-9 p.m., gallerystroll.org salt 14: Yang Yongliang Utah Museum of Fine Arts, 410 Campus Center Drive, through June 2, umfa.utah.edu Shady Acres UMOCA, 20 S. West Temple, through May 25, utahmoca.org Sounds of Silk Utah Cultural Celebration Center, 1355 W. 3100 South, West Valley, through April 8, culturalcelebration.org Tracing the Path Utah State Capitol, 350 N. State, through June 26, goldenspike150.org Utah Arts Alliance: Dreamscapes Utah Arts Alliance, 116 S. Rio Grande St., through April 15, utaharts.org
JOHN TAYLOR
BY ALEX SPRINGER comments@cityweekly.net @captainspringer
I
AT A GLANCE
Open: Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m., Sunday, noon-8 p.m. Best bet: The hearty beef caldereta Can’t miss: The smoky pork adobo
MARCH 14, 2019 | 27
Yaye Sherer needed help planning a wedding. Sherer enlisted the help of Loida Torres, Sonia Aquino and Edna Rubi—STAR is an acronym for the women’s last names—and the four quickly realized their passion for food and attention
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The restaurant blossomed from a catering service called STAR Events, which was created by four Philippines-born women who immigrated to Utah. According to its website, STAR Events came to fruition when a friend of co-owner
’d wager that I’m not alone when I say that I grew up eating from the sweet and salty ends of the flavor spectrum. In a culinary era that predated our current departure from added sugar and high sodium levels, eating sweet stuff was part and parcel of being a red-blooded American. When I realized that kneeling to the saccharine altar of Big Sugar was doing my palate a disservice, I strove to achieve a better balance. That said, I hadn’t fully experienced the true nuance and depth that comes from a cuisine steeped in sours and bitters, such as that of the Philippines. Filipino food is a love note to the tongue-tickling power of vinegary, acid-forward flavor profiles, and some primo examples can be found at West Jordan’s BFF Turon (8860 S. Redwood Road, 385-557-2909).
pig blood, garlic and vinegar. While I liked the acidic sourness of the vinegar as an alternative to salt, this dish packs a bit of a punch—I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking to take a stroll on the wilder side of the menu. On a sweeter note, the turon ($3) is the best way to top off an evening of vinegary stews and bitter broths. It’s a banana spring roll that’s been deep fried and dusted with brown sugar. Despite the fruit’s natural sweetness, the sugar factor remains pleasantly muted. As the developing trend toward foods that offer up a more sour or bitter bouquet marches forward, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Filipino food start to fill a niche in the millennial diner’s culinary landscape. Regardless, BFF Turon is serving up food that comes straight from the heart, and exploring Filipino culture through the lens of its food offers up some fascinating insights about what makes our own palates tick. CW
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BFF Turon serves up a tasty masterclass in Filipino cuisine.
a smoky undertone for good measure—from the restaurant’s stacked condiment bar. It’s one of the few places where sweet flavor shows up during the evening, and it contrasts nicely with anything of the sour or bitter variety. I’m of course talking about the main dishes, which are served up in generously portioned combo plates ($7.49 to $8.99 depending on your protein) that come with pancit and rice. The pork adobo ($8.49) is a dish that exemplifies the acidic profile in many Filipino stews without being too overbearing. It’s extremely tender—before the pork gets fried up with the soy sauce and garlic mixture, it’s marinated in vinegar, which makes the meat melt in the mouth. For something on the milder side, I’d go with the beef caldereta ($8.99), a middle-of-winter, stickto-your-bones kind of stew that incorporates beef, potatoes and carrots into a rich brown broth that is lovely when it’s served over rice. Those looking to dig deep into Filipino cooking can check out the pork dinuguan ($8.49), or “chocolate pork stew.” While the word chocolate might imply a mole-like broth, it develops its earthy flavors and rich color from being stewed in a gravy of
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Thrilla from Manila
to detail would be an ideal foundation for their own business. By the end of 2018, the friends and business partners opened BFF Turon to focus on cooking the food most reminiscent of their heritage. Filipino food has been heavily impacted by a conflux of Chinese, Malaysian and Spanish influences, which has created something both familiar and unique. Glass noodles called pancit ($2) are one of the most ubiquitous features at BFF Turon— a heaping helping comes with each combo meal, or you can get a cup à la carte. While these noodles look a bit like lo mein, they’re spiked with a heavy dose of black pepper and sit in a pot with sliced cabbage, which imparts the cruciferous veggie’s distinctive flavor to the dish. You dig into them expecting a blast of soy sauce umami and are instead walloped with a dry heat and vegetal highlights. The lumpia are another nod to Chinese cuisine—they’re essentially fried spring rolls that are about half the size of their Chinese cousins, and an order of six will only set you back $3. For a real kick, snag some of the imported banana ketchup—imagine a bottle of Heinz but multiply the sweetness factor by 10 and throw in
the
BACK BURNER BY ALEX SPRINGER @captainspringer
25
year
s!
The Hub Spring Launch
Last year, Utah’s Food Truck League launched The Hub (982 W. South Jordan Parkway), a rendezvous spot for Utah’s finest food trucks. The Hub has maintained limited lunchtime hours throughout the cold winter, but now that spring is approaching, they’re expanding their hours and lineup. Starting in late March, The Hub will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, which means visitors can check out one lineup for lunch and then see a different lineup for dinner. To celebrate, The Food Truck League is hosting a spring launch party on Wednesday, March 20, during their new operating hours. Jamaica’s Kitchen, Fatty Tuna and San Diablo Churros are expected to attend, and the festivities will continue through the rest of the week.
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Celebrat i
ninth & ninth 254 south main
Bartolo’s Opens
Chef Alex Bartolo has recently struck out on his own to open Bartolo’s (1241 Center Drive, Ste. L100, Park City, 435-604-0608, bartolospc.com), a neighborhood-style Italian restaurant open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bartolo has previously worked with other notable Park City restaurants, including Tupelo and the St. Regis at Deer Valley. This new location in Kimball Junction is his first solo venture, and the menu looks pretty impressive. With a breakfast lineup that includes smoked trout benedicts and Dutch baby pancakes and a dinner cast of rigatoni Bolognese and chicken mafaldine, you can bet this place will turn a few heads. AS SEEN ON “ DINERS, DRIVE-INS AND DIVES”
Serving American Comfort Food Since 1930 -CREEKSIDE PATIO-87 YEARS AND GOING STRONG-BREAKFAST SERVED DAILY UNTIL 4PM-DELICIOUS MIMOSAS & BLOODY MARY’S-LIVE MUSIC ON THE PATIO-SCHEDULE AT RUTHSDINER.COM“In a perfect world, every town would have a diner just like Ruth’s” -CityWeekly
“Like having dinner at Mom’s in the mountains” -Cincinnati Enquirer
St. Patrick’s at Twin Suns Café
If you’re after an unconventional St. Patrick’s Day meal, why not try looking in a galaxy far, far away? Twin Suns Café (2305 S. Highland Drive, 385-252-7061, facebook.com/twinsunscafe) is planning a four-course dinner inspired by the cuisine of Ireland and served alongside one of the finest collections of Star Wars memorabilia in town. It’s an event that feels just right for those of us who don’t mind wearing green as long as it’s the color of our lightsabers, and who don’t mind drinking with friends as long as we can ruminate over what’s going to happen with Rey and Kylo in Episode IX in a judgment-free environment. The event lasts from 6 to 10 p.m., and tickets are available via Eventbrite. Quote of the Week: “The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.” —Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
4160 EMIGRATION CANYON ROAD | 801 582-5807 | WWW.RUTHSDINER.COM
Back Burner tips: comments@cityweekly.net
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ORIGINAL
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1968
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5370 S. 900 E. 8 0 1 . 2 6 6 . 4 1 8 2
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GRAND OPENING SOUTH SALT LAKE CITY LOCATION
801-969-6666
123 S. State Orem, Utah 84058
801-960-9669
Lunch Buffet: $8.95 Adults, $4.95 Kids, Mon-Fri 11am-3:30pm Dinner Buffet: $12.95 Adults, $7.75 Kids, Mon-Fri 3:30pm-9:30pm Saturday, Sunday & Holidays $12.95 All Day / Take-Out: Lunch $4.75/lb Dinner $6.25/lb
MARCH 14, 2019 | 29
Hours: M-Thurs 11am-9:30pm, Fri & Sat 11am-10pm, Sunday 11am-9pm
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801-905-1186
5668 S. Redwood Rd. Taylorsville, Ut 84123
3620 S. State Street SLC, Utah 84115
THREE LOCATIONS!
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3 6 2 0
This beer-serving method is a unique Utah creation. BY MIKE RIEDEL comments@cityweekly.net @utahbeer
W
hen it comes to alcohol in Utah, the terms “weird” and “peculiar” tend to come to mind. No matter whether it’s beer, wine or spirits, if you intend to enjoy it, you can plan on jumping through a couple of circus-sized hoops to get to that first sip. Let’s take, for example, the whole decision-making process of ordering a high-alcohol beer in a large format bottle, like a 22-ounce bomber. For the average party kid looking to get his or her “drink on,” this is a no brainer: Big booze plus big bottle equals big time. But for those of us who require a more measured approach to our days and evenings out, we require a little more thought into our alcohol choices. You might or might not be aware that the state of Utah considers everything over 4
MIKE RIEDEL
I’d Love to, but Decant
percent alcohol by volume to be liquor, no matter if it’s spirits, wine or beer. A few years back, some very astute bar owners asked the question, “If we can decant wine and spirits, why not beer”? The state statutes really have nothing in the books in regard to this practice, and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control decided this could be a reasonable process for serving high-alcohol beers. However, there are a few issues that can arise when decanting beer. Oxygen is bad for beer; once opened, the flavors begin to deteriorate. Over time, decanted beers become less effervescent and lose carbonation. And finally, there’s the matter of cost: At the end of the night, unused beers left in the bottle will likely go down the drain. So why do it? Well, a handful of breweries around Salt Lake City have determined that it’s better for their pub-drinking customers to have access to all of the beers in their portfolios, at a reasonable glass size, versus keeping big boozy bottles cloistered in the pub’s fridges. Four breweries in SLC are happy to open up a large, high-ABV bottle and sell you a sample or a 5-ounce pour, for a fraction of the bottle’s original cost. Here are a few examples. Epic Brewing Co.: From Day 1, you’ve known these were the high-alcohol beer guys. You also know the majority of their beers are 22-ouncers. Epic’s flagship beer, Big Bad Baptist, can dial in at anywhere
from 11 to 12.8 percent ABV. I’ve finished one off before and never will again. Thank you, I’ll have just the 5 ounces, please. Proper Brewing Co.: I love barley wines. When Proper’s Géol barley wine hit, I bought a few bottles for home and had a sample or two (or three) at their brewery pub. At 9.8 percent, we can all agree this was the right call. Toasted Barrel Brewing: Generally, if you put beer into a barrel, it will come out bigger. Although it might be a prerequisite of their tasting room license, it’s good to know that their 13 percent Belgian Quad won’t be busting my balls all night.
Uinta Brewing Co.: It’s bad enough to feel intimidated by big alcohol in a big bottle; now add the sour beer factor to the equation. A big dose of high-point sours on top of a big 750 milliliter bottle can be physically and mentally draining. If I go with the taster or the 5 ounce, I still win. After the state’s markup, many high-end beers become too pricey, so decanting can help a beer-drinker’s budget. Suffice it to say, in a state where alcohol logic is often thrown out the window, it’s nice to know there are a few islands of sanity willing to cut a few beer nerds a break on their next big beer. As always, cheers! CW
30 | MARCH 14, 2019
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BEER NERD
Contemporary Japanese Dining LUNCH • DINNER • COCKTAILS
18 MARKET STREET • 801.519.9595
ALL YOU CAN EAT
REVIEW BITES
HIBACHI
ENRIQUE LIMÓN
A sample of our critic’s reviews
Millie’s Burgers
Mere blocks from flashy, modern concept restaurants, this 40-year-old family-owned burger joint seems unfazed by the surrounding urbanization. The frozen treat that first brought me inside its cozy confines is called a glacier ($2.69): a cup full of Millie’s soft serve, topped with a traditional slushie mixture—shaved ice fine enough to drink through a straw, plus your choice of flavored syrup. The frozen all-star duo collides in an unexpectedly delicious way. Their impressive list of side dishes consists mainly of different iterations on fried vegetables. French fries and onion rings are the most popular; for something more unusual, give the fried mushrooms ($2.99), fried zucchini ($2.99) and traditional English chips ($3.59) a go. The Millie Special ($6.09)—the restaurant’s take on the ubiquitous pastrami burger—lacks the punch of other pastrami burgers in town. If you’re in the mood for something that offers more of a kick, the bacon Swiss jalapeño burger ($5.44, pictured) finds the peppers’ heat and bacon’s saltiness offset by the creamy cheese; combined, the ingredients offer up a truly fantastic flavor overload. Plus, ordering one of these fireballs is a great excuse to explore the extensive repertoire of milkshakes. Reviewed Feb. 7. 2092 S. 1000 East, 466-6043, milliesburger.com
Mon - Thur: Fri - Sat: Sunday:
11:00am - 9:30pm 11:00am - 10:30pm 12:00pm - 9:00pm
3370 State Street #8 South Salt Lake, UT 801-466-8888 | Full liquor license
LUNCH - $9.99 DINNER - $19.99
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT SAKURAHIBACHISLC.COM
Delivering Attitude for 40 years!
A LA MAISON
150 South 400 East, SLC | 801-322-3733 www.freewheelerpizza.com
The unique & authentic french experience has arrived 705 S. 700 E. | (801) 537-1433
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Award Winning Donuts
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20 W. 200 S. • (801) 355-3891 Open Mon-Wed: 9am-6pm Thu-Sat: 9am-9pm
MARCH 15TH
SWAGGER
32 | MARCH 14, 2019
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7 EAST 4800 S. (1 BLOCK WEST OF STATE ST.) MURRAY 801-266-2127 • ICEHAUS.COM
SHANAHY
1492 S STATE ST, SALT LAKE CITY 801.468.1492
RED HEADED STEP TWINS
ST. PAT’S ST. PATRICK’S DAY EVE MURPHY & THE GIANT, TAIL LIGHT REBELLION
HEATHEN HIGHLANDERS SHANAHY
RED HEADED STEP TWINS, PAIGE MCGUINESS. THE SALT LAKE WHALEFISHERS, SWAGGER
RED HEADED STEP TWINS, SWAGGER, MURPHY & THE GIANT
THE KOTTER PROJECT
THE SALT LAKE WHALEFISHERS
MARK DEE, TARA SHUPE & THE PONIES, SHANAHY
THE KOTTER PROJECT, TAIL LIGHT REBELLION, MAMA LONGLEGS
751 N. 300 W.
CARRIE MYERS, TAIL LIGHT REBELLION, MURPHY & THE GIANT 2550 WASHINGTON BLVD. OGDEN 801.621.3483 | FUNKANDDIVE.COM
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MARCH 14, 2019 | 33
2106 W. North Temple. Salt Lake City, Utah 801-741-1188
10% off for military, firefighters and law enforcement
Canadian electro-funk band Tupper Ware Remix Party (TWRP for short) has attained a measure of cult-like fame thanks to its frequent collaborations with Ninja Sex Party. Last year, the two acts put out a joint full-length, Cool Patrol, bringing their salacious lyrics and skronked-out mix of synth-pop and old-school rock to the Union Event Center here in Salt Lake City. TWRP returns nine months later to much more intimate environs at In the Venue. But Doctor Sung, Havve Hogan, Lord Phobos and Commander Meouch will no doubt still be wearing their omnipresent costumes—parking cones, superhero tights and lion masks included—and delivering their high-energy brand of intergalactic funk. The support act, Oakland’s Planet Booty, is equally upbeat, splashing its gritty garage R&B with a more futuristic bounce (see last month’s music video for hot single “Junk in the Trunk” for danceable proof). As Planet Booty said on Facebook recently, “Celebrating your sexiness with Planet Booty may result in a religious experience no matter where or who you are.” Plan accordingly for this sweaty dance party. (Nick McGregor) In the Venue, 219 S. 600 West, 7 p.m., $16 presale; $18 day of show, all ages, sartainandsaunders.com
SUNDAY 3/17
Cypress Hill, Hollywood Undead
Known for such classic joints as “Insane in the Brain,” “Tequila Sunrise” and “Dr. Greenthumb,” Southern California’s Cypress Hill exemplified the weed-friendly gangsta rap emanating from the West Coast in the 1990s like no other hip-hop crew—and reached an extremely wide audience, too. They became the first Latino American hip-hop group to have a platinum (then multi-platinum) record with 1993’s Black Sunday, leading to high-profile gigs at Lollapalooza in Chicago. They cemented
Cypress Hill
their place in pop culture history with a guest spot on the 1996 “Homerpalooza” episode of The Simpsons. B-Real’s exaggerated nasal vocals—one of the group’s sonic hallmarks— would encourage a young Marshall Mathers to develop his own distinctively high-pitched style as Eminem. But Cypress Hill is not strictly a legacy act at this point; casual fans might be surprised that the group is still active and dropped its first album in eight years, Elephants on Acid, in 2018. Unlike the group’s last studio effort—2010’s Rise Up, which was produced by a who’s who of guest beatmakers—Elephants is entirely composed by founding member DJ Muggs, who’s built his own thriving career in the years when Cypress Hill has faded from the spotlight. By no coincidence, the record delivers menacing, hard-rolling bangers (“Falling Down” and “Locos”) in equal measure with goofy stoner stuff (“Reefer Man”) and dark, carnivalesque romps (“Crazy”), a potent blend that has defined the group from the beginning. After 30 years of rolling it up, lighting it and smoking it, Cypress Hill is riding as high as ever. They visit SLC with Hollywood Undead, a mask-wearing rap-rock band that might be even goofier, somehow. (Howard Hardee) The Depot, 13 N. 400 West, 6:30 p.m. $37.50 presale; $40 day of show, 21+, depotslc.com
TWRP highlighted their unique choice of instruments (electric cello, anyone?) and their exuberant songwriting skills. Yet where The Happy Fits tend to create a sound that’s generally upbeat and effusive, Deal Casino emphasizes darker designs, drawing from influences such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Cure for their moody motifs. The heavy buzz of the New Jersey band’s sonic sweep and psychedelic fury informs each of their two albums, and is further enhanced in their dynamic and dramatic live performances. Deal Casino also maintains a communal bond, given that three of its four members have been making music together since elementary school; these days, all four of them live, write and rehearse together in the same house. Consider any concert that features both bands akin to a sonic flashback of sorts, where youth, invention and rock ’n’ roll revelry are embraced in a dazzling mix of tone, texture and tempo. We can dig. (Lee Zimmerman) Kilby Court, 741 S. Kilby Court, 7 p.m., $13, all ages, kilbycourt.com
The Happy Fits
MONDAY 3/18
The Happy Fits, Deal Casino, Billy Moon, The Solarists
EITAN MISKEVICH
34 | MARCH 14, 2019
AIR’LETH AODHFIN
Never a cover charge
TWRP, Planet Booty
The Happy Fits and Deal Casino share a common affection for retro references. The former started with its two founders—high school fencing champ Ross Monteith and orchestra enthusiast Calvin Langman— bonding over an enthusiasm for indie rock and subsequently bringing gamer pal Luke Davis into the fold once they turned their attention to writing and recording. The trio’s giddy, off-kilter melodies form the basis of Concentrate, last year’s dazzling debut, which
CHRISTIAN TERAN
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Half Price Wings
BY NAOMI CLEGG, RACHELLE FERNANDEZ, HOWARD HARDEE, NICK McGREGOR & LEE ZIMMERMAN
THURSDAY 3/14
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St. Patty’s Day
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THIS WEEK’S MUSIC PICKS
COMPLETE LISTINGS ONLINE AT CITYWEEKLY.NET
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MARCH 14, 2019 | 35
NIK FRIETAS
Whiskey........ like liquid Sunshine
TUESDAY 3/19
Better Oblivion Community Center
Better Oblivion Community Center, Christian Lee Hutson, Sloppy Jane
SPIR ITS . FO O D . LO CA L BEER 3.14 MICHELLE MOONSHINE
3.15 SPECIAL BAND - ANNOUNCED 3. 14
3.16 OL’ FASHION DEPOT
3.17 MATT CALDER
Take one Phoebe Bridgers (the gentle perfectionist who made the knockout Stranger in the Alps and member of anthemic three-person indie-rock powerhouse Boygenius, which also includes Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus) and one Conor Oberst (he of Bright Eyes fame and longtime indie-folk standard bearer) and you get Better Oblivion Community Center. The band might just be a big joke; a news release for the duo seems at first glance to be a transcribed interview, until you realize it’s a gentle mockery of the interviewer of dubious reality—Chester Middlesworth, Ph.D.—in which ol’ Chester says approximately 10 times as many words as the duo. He also describes the origins of the band’s name—a bungled geotag at L.A.’s Forest Lawn Cemetery that he says translates to Better Oblivion Community Center (Oberst and Bridgers promptly shoot him down, so … origins still unknown). The band’s social media description just lists a mysterious hotline number; when you call, a strangely calm voice announces the opening of Better Oblivion in a Welcome to Night Vale-esque way. Whatever it is, the mythic community center is probably a place you go to die, but you’ll die gently, lulled into a forever sleep by the perfect frisson of Oberst and Bridgers’ voices. Bridgers grew up listening
Fleshgod Apocalypse
3.18 OPEN BLUES & MORE JAM
3.20 THE MOVES COLLECTIVE
3200 E BIG COTTONWOOD ROAD 801.733.5567 | THEHOGWALLOW.COM
CARL FREDERICK
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36 | MARCH 14, 2019
LIVE
to Bright Eyes albums, but more than holds her own on the songs, with the pair frequently singing harmonies in tandem. This show has, unsurprisingly, been sold out for weeks. Ah, well. Given Bridgers’ pace of collaboration and Oberst’s status as an indie rock champion, we can at least hope to see them again soon in SLC. (Naomi Clegg) Metro Music Hall, 615 W. 100 South, 7 p.m., sold out as of press time, 21+, metromusichall.com
Hypocrisy, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Aenimus, WrathSpawn
Drummers are truly the anchor of every band—the glue that keeps an otherwise dysfunctional family at bay. However, growing up, everyone in my high school wanted to be a vocalist or lead guitarist, because they got the most attention on stage. That’s why finding a metal drummer with explosive blast beats and powerful chops is like finding a diamond in the rough. Luckily, Italy has graced the extreme music community with Francesco Paoli, the death metal anchor of Fleshgod Apocalypse. Although Paoli eventually put the sticks down to take over vocals for the band, his blast beats from Fleshgod’s 2011 album Agony will live in metal infamy. For a decade now, the band has extended its refined taste to extreme music, incorporating piano and opera-like vocals, showing the world that metal can be both classy and terrifying. This year, the three horsemen go even further with their upcoming album, making Metallica’s S&M look like a starter kit and forever cementing Italy’s death metal talent in not only the genre, but classical music annals as well. Since the news broke that Paoli will be behind drums again for the band’s as-yet-unnamed studio album, a live show in Salt Lake City is bound to be very interesting. “Being back as the frontman also means this is my last chance to record drums on a Fleshgod Apocalypse record,” the drummer explained to fans last fall in a Facebook interview. “I really think this album will be a true landmark.” Fleshgod Apocalypse coheadlines with Swedish icons Hypocrisy to blast-beat fans into the future of metal. (Rachelle Fernandez) Urban Lounge, 241 S. 500 East, 7 p.m., $22 presale; $25 day of show, 21+, theurbanloungeslc.com
SATURDAY & SUNDAY BRUNCH, MIMOSA, AND MARY AMAZING $8 LUNCH EVERY WEEKDAY! NEW MENU ADDITIONS! THURSDAY: Caviar Club presents Dusty Grooves All-Vinyl Sets featuring DJ Swoop
FRIDAY:
DJ Sneeky Long @ 9:00pm 6:00 pm, REAL SLC Watch Party! DJ Sneeky Long @ 9:00pm Brunch served all day St. Paddy’s Day Celebration! DJ Sneaky Long | Food & Drink Specials | Give-Aways!
SATURDAY: SUNDAY: MONDAY:
Geeks Who Drink Trivia @ 7:00pm! Karaoke That Doesn’t Suck! @ 9:00pm
TUESDAY: WEDNESDAY:
The Freak Out! featuring Nix Beat @ 10:00pm
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AS ALWAYS, NO COVER! 32 EXCHANGE PLACE • 801-322-3200
WWW.TWISTSLC.COM • 11:00AM - 1:00AM
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$
34999
Double Din Touch Screen Entertainment System WITH THESE RECEIVERS YOU CAN ENJOY APPLE CARPLAY™ IN A VEHICLE YOU ALREADY OWN AND GET THE LATEST IPHONE® TECHNOLOGY FOR YOUR CAR.
SO WHAT IS CARPLAY? IT IS THE SMARTER, SAFER AND MORE FUN WAY TO USE YOUR IPHONE IN THE CAR.
HOURS
10AM TO 7PM
W W W. S O U N D WA R E H O U S E .C O M SLC 2763 S. STATE: 485-0070
Se Habla Español
• OGDEN 2822 WALL AVE: 621-0086
Se Habla Español
MONDAY– SATURDAY CLOSED SUNDAY
• OREM 1680 N. STATE: 226-6090
Se Habla Español
MODEL CLOSE-OUTS, DISCONTINUED ITEMS AND SOME SPECIALS ARE LIMITED TO STOCK ON HAND AND MAY INCLUDE DEMOS. PRICES GUARANTEED THRU 3/20/19
MARCH 14, 2019 | 37
COME IN TO YOUR NEAREST SOUND WAREHOUSE LOCATION TO SEE ONE OF OUR KENWOOD OR PIONEER MODELS
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ting star at
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38 | MARCH 14, 2019
WEDNESDAY 3/20
CONCERTS & CLUBS
CHRISTINA HANKIN
Wet, Kilo Kish, Helena Deland
Kelly Zutrau’s vocals sound like the name of her band: Wet. Her voice is slippery and frustratingly liquid, gliding through breezy broken chords and feeling all the time like it’s about to slip through your fingers, ungrounded until she dips into her lower register and adds a hit of gravity. The effect is—for the most part—light, unconcerned, distant from the subjects she sings about: lovers she’s over, boyfriends she’s ready to break up with. Zutrau (pictured) is the star here, to be clear; her vocals rise above the precise arrangements of fellow band member Joe Valle. The duo hail from Brooklyn but feel more like they should be from L.A., or at least somewhere weed is legal. They’ve released two studio albums and a large handful of singles—most recently, 2018’s Still Run, which was produced by Valle and a team of star producers, including John Hill (Portugal. The Man, Florence & The Machine), Rostam (Haim, Solange) and Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief). In 2015, The Fader called Wet the most promising group in music, and that determination shows on Still Run, which feels resonant but unforced, slickly produced but not so polished a little grit can’t slip through. Opening for Zutrau and Valle are experimental hip-hop/art-pop artist Kilo Kish and enchanting Montreal singer-songwriter Helena Deland, both of whom are worth a listen on their own merits. (Naomi Clegg) Metro Music Hall, 615 W. 100 South, 7 p.m., $27 presale; $30 day of show, 21+, metromusichall.com
THURSDAY 3/14 LIVE MUSIC
Adia Victoria + Dick Stusso (The State Room) Dan Weldon (State Road Tavern) Dave Mason (Egyptian Theatre) Flogging Molly + Face to Face + Matt Heckler (The Complex) The Harmed Brothers (Kilby Court) The Head and the Heart (Park City Live) Lord Vox + Cupidcome + Say Hey (Urban Lounge) Los Hellcaminos (Gracie’s) Michelle Moonshine (Hog Wallow Pub) Satsang (Soundwell) Scott Foster (Lake Effect) Snyderville Electric Band (The Corner Store) Tyler Rich (The Westerner) TWRP + Planet Booty (In the Venue) see p. 34
DJ, OPEN MIC, SESSION, PIANO LOUNGE DJ Chaseone2 (Lake Effect) Dueling Pianos: Jules & Jordan (Tavernacle) Dueling Pianos (The Spur) Dusty Grooves All Vinyl DJ (Twist) Hot Noise + Guest DJ (The Red Door) Jazz Jam Session (Sugar House Coffee) RE:FINE (Downstairs) Synthpop + Darkwave + Industrial + Goth w/ DJ Camille (Area 51) Therapy Thursdays feat. Jason Ross (Sky)
FRIDAY 3/15 LIVE MUSIC
A.M. Bump (The Bayou) Bearcat Mazuma & The Hotsy Totsies (Brewskis) Blue Divide (The Spur) Caleb Chapman’s Soundhouse: Pop Goes the Music Festival (Velour)
Carrie Myers (Harp and Hound) Dan Walker Blues Band (Garage on Beck) Dave Mason (Egyptian Theatre) Galantis (Park City Live) Head for the Hills + Gorgeous Gourds (The State Room) Leifwave + Luco + Indigo Waves (Kilby Court) Live Local Music (A Bar Named Sue) Mike Rogers (Silver Creek Lounge) Nate Robinson (Legends) Oingo Boingo Dance Party (Liquid Joes) Ol’ Fashion Depot (The Yes Hell) Rail Town (Outlaw Saloon) Rick Gerber (Deer Valley) Royal Bliss Green Beer Party (The Royal) Special Band (TBA March 14) (Hog Wallow Pub) Sydnie Keddington (Lake Effect) Tyler Carter (The Complex) Watsky (The Depot)
DJ, OPEN MIC, SESSION, PIANO LOUNGE
All-Request Gothic + Industrial + EBM + and Dark Wave w/ DJ Vision (Area 51) Dance Music (Chakra Lounge) DJ Chaseone2 + Lounge 40 (Lake Effect) DJ Dirty Dance (Sky) DJ Juggy (Bourbon House) DJ Sneeky Long (Twist) Dueling Pianos feat. Troy, Drew & Jules feat. Dave & JC (Tavernacle) Funkin’ Friday w/ DJ Rude Boy & Bad Boy Brian (Johnny’s on Second) Funky Friday w/ DJ Godina (Gracie’s) Glow Holi Bollywood Party (Urban Lounge) Hot Noise (The Red Door) Miss DJ Lux (The Spur) New Wave ’80s w/ DJ Courtney (Area 51) Scooter and Lavelle (Downstairs) St. Patrick’s (Chakra Lounge) Top 40 All-Request w/ DJ Wees (Area 51)
ST. PATRICK‘S WEEKEND! PARTY LIKE PIG SATURDAY
SUNDAY
IRISH DRIFTERS 1PM MATT BASHAW 5:30PM MURPHY & THE GIANTS 7PM DJ LATU 9PM
IRISH DRIFTERS NOON MURPHY & THE GIANTS 2PM MATT BASHAW 5:30PM DJ LATU 8PM
ROOFTOP PATIO WILL OPEN FOR ST. PAT'S
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DAILY ENTERTAINMENT SATURDAY, MARCH 16
EVERY MONDAY
SUNDAY, MARCH 17
TOM BENNETT
DJ LATU
BLUES JAM W/ WEST TEMPLE TAILDRAGGERS ANNUAL ST. PAT’S PARTY
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FRIDAY, MARCH 15
$5.99
$2 TUESDAYS
LUNCH SPECIAL
MONDAY - FRIDAY
31 east 400 SOuth • SLC 801-532-7441 • HOURS: 11AM - 2AM
THEGREENPIGPUB.COM
MARCH 14, 2019 | 39
$2 MIX & MATCH TACOS $2 TECATE $2 SHOT OF TEQUILA
NEW!
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GREAT FOOD
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40 | MARCH 14, 2019
GRACIE’S
RACHELLE FERNANDEZ
BAR FLY
KARAOKE
Areaoke w/ DJ Kevin (Area 51) Karaoke (Cheers to You SLC) Karaoke (Willie’s Lounge)
SATURDAY 3/16 LIVE MUSIC
The Aces + Tishmal (The Complex) Alan Michael (The Bayou) B.D. Howes (Deer Valley) Blue Divide (Brewskis) Caleb Gray Band (The Spur) Cavedoll + Broke City + King Niko + Starmy (Urban Lounge) Cazwell + Lardi B + DJ Shutter + DJ Justin Hollister (Metro Music Hall) Citizen Cope (The Depot) Dave Mason (Egyptian Theatre) Daverse + Natural Roots + Ray Leger + Dubwise (The Royal) George Charles Nelson (The Yes Hell) Heathen Highlanders + Michelle Moonshine + Pixie & The Party Grass Boys (Lake Effect) Joy Spring Band (Sugar House Coffee) Junction City Blues Band (Garage on Beck) Lash Larue (Park City Mountain Village) A RELAXED GENTLEMAN’S CLUB DA I LY L U N C H S P E C I A L S POOL, FOOSBALL & GAMES
NO
COVER EVER!
275 0 S O U TH 3 0 0 W E S T(8 01) 4 67- 4 6 0 0 11:3 0 -1A M M O N - S AT · 11:3 0 A M -10 P M S U N
In my 31 years of living, I’ve managed to go through life never knowing what the term “gastropub” meant. Yes, I know I’m awful: A communications major going through life thinking the word involved some sort of guttural district. But in my defense I called a coupon a “q-pon” up until I saw an episode of 2 Broke Girls two years ago, so take it easy on me. This all changed when I checked out Gracie’s on a Monday night for some after-work munchies. Although I haven’t committed to full-on veganism yet, I fall somewhere in the middle (vegetarian) during the week. So when I saw Gracie’s exterior, with the word “gastropub” in bold, I knew it was fate. Inside the establishment’s little red menu book, I quickly landed on an open-faced portobello sandwich paired with sweet potato fries and a Kiitos Coffee Cream Ale as the best way to end a workday. And I wasn’t alone in that choice: Sean and Mike came to Gracie’s to play pool and tip back Park City Hooker Blonde Ales. But before Mike’s partner in crime could stray away from giving Kiitos a chance, I took him under my wing and sang Kiitos’ praises. With The Cars’ “Just What I Needed” playing and a nice, meatless, delectable meal, I realized: I had finally arrived at the true meaning of gastropub. In a nutshell, it means a pub that serves fancy food. At Gracie’s, a simple item such as a sandwich is elevated: A marinated portobello mushroom with sautéed spinach and roasted red peppers on sprouted wheat bread becomes sublime. That, my friends, takes the term gastropub to a whole ’nother level. (Rachelle Fernandez) 326 S. West Temple, 801-819-7565, graciesslc.com
Live Local Music (A Bar Named Sue) Live Trio (The Red Door) Matt Nathanson + Blu Sanders (The Commonwealth Room) Nina Nesbitt + Plested + Sophie Rose (Kilby Court) Ol’ Fashion Depot (Hog Wallow Pub) Pixie & The Partygrass Boys (Canyons Village) Rail Town (Outlaw Saloon) Shakey Graves + Cameron Neal (Park City Live) Spazmatics (Liquid Joe’s) St. Patrick’s Party (The Westerner) St. Patties Day Party (Club 90) St. Pat’s Weekend (HandleBar)
Matt Calder (Hog Wallow Pub) St. Patrick’s Day (Brewskis) Tyler Hilton + Mia Grace (Urban Lounge)
DJ, OPEN MIC, SESSION, PIANO LOUNGE
Amanda Johnson (The Spur) Chelsea Cutler + Anthony Russo (The Complex) The Happy Fits + Deal Casino + Billy Moon + The Solarists (Kilby Court) see p. 34 Josh Wright (Covey Center) Mertle + Tenkaras + The Painted Roses (Metro Music Hall) Metric + Zoé + July Talk (The Depot) The Psychomatics + Galleries + Heavy Rollers (Urban Lounge) Tony Holiday & the Velvetones (Lake Effect)
Dance Music (Chakra Lounge) DJ Brisk (Bourbon House) DJ Latu (The Green Pig) DJ M.Ramirez (Lake Effect) DJ Scooter (Downstairs) DJ Soul Pause (Twist) Gothic + Industrial + Dark ’80s w/ DJ Courtney (Area 51) Top 40 + EDM + Alternative w/ DJ Twitch (Area 51)
KARAOKE
Areaoke DJ Kevin (Area 51) Karaoke (Willie’s Lounge) Karaoke w/ B-Rad (Club 90)
SUNDAY 3/17 LIVE MUSIC
The Browning + Betraying + The Martyrs + Extortionist (Kilby Court) Cypress Hill + Hollywood Undead (The Depot) see p. 34 Dave Mason (Egyptian Theatre) Folk Hogan (Canyons) Gorgeous Gourds (Gracie’s) Heathen Highlanders (Lake Effect) Live Bluegrass (Club 90)
DJ, OPEN MIC, SESSION, PIANO LOUNGE Dueling Pianos (The Spur) Last Call w/ DJ Juggy (Downstairs) Open Blues Jam (The Green Pig) St. Patrick’s Day feat. DJ Brisk (Bourbon House) Sunday Night Bluegrass Jam w/ Nick Greco & Blues on First (Gracie’s)
MONDAY 3/18 LIVE MUSIC
DJ, OPEN MIC, SESSION, PIANO LOUNGE Industry Night Mondays w/ DJ Juggy (Trails) Monday Night Blues & More Jam hosted by Robby’s Blues Explosion (Hog Wallow Pub) Monday Night Open Jazz Session w/ David Halliday & the JVQ (Gracie’s) Open Blues Jam w/ West Temple Taildraggers (The Green Pig) Open Mic (The Cabin)
TUESDAY 3/19
LIVE MUSIC
Balms (The Beehive) Better Community Oblivion Center + Christian Lee Hutson + Sloppy Jane (Metro Music Hall) see p. 36 Daniel Torriente (The Spur) The Expendables (Soundwell) Hypocrisy + Fleshgod Apocalypse + Aenimus + WrathSpawn (Urban Lounge) see p. 36 Illuminati Hotties + Gibbz + Ugly Boys (Kilby Court) Lonesome Shack (Garage on Beck) Matthew Bashaw (Lake Effect) Ryan Bingham & The Americans (The Commonwealth Room) State Champs (The Depot) The Salt, the Sea, the Sun God + Wander + Yufi64 + Mary Todd Lincoln (The Underground) Wristmeetrazor (Gold Blood Collective)
WEDNESDAY 3/20 LIVE MUSIC
All That Remains + Attila + Escape The Fate + Sleep Signals (The Depot) The Black Queen + Uniform + SRSQ (Urban Lounge) The Black Realm (Gold Blood Collective) Bronze Radio Return + Wildermiss (The State Room) Changing Lanes Experience (Park City Mountain) Hayley Kirkland & Company B (Gallivan Main Stage) Live Jazz (Club 90) The Moves Collective (Hog Wallow Pub) Matt Weneger (Lake Effect) Mike Krol + Vertical Scratchers (Kilby Court) Riley McDonald (The Spur) Tony Holiday Blues Band (Gracie’s) Wet + Kilo Kish + Helena Deland (Metro Music Hall) see p. 38
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CINEMA
FILM REVIEW
PRESENTS
Re-Animated Ruben Brandt, Collector offers a surreal reminder of the potential for animation.
O
Ruben, Fernando and Mimi in Ruben Brandt, Collector dog with a severed hand in its mouth; and Ruben’s fondness for making his drinks with ice cubes in the shape of Alfred Hitchcock’s profile. The nightmare sequences— with works of art turning homicidal—are often genuinely creepy, and while it’s possible that Krstić’s game of “spot the reference” might grow tiresome, there’s never a moment of Ruben Brandt that isn’t working to grab your attention visually. It would have been nice, of course, to have a narrative as engaging as the aesthetics. None of the characters are particularly compelling—despite the attempt to build Ruben’s psychological problems on childhood trauma—and the “dogged detective on the case” subplot is completely perfunctory until Krstić drops in a plot twist that feels horribly misguided. It seems almost essential that weird things are happening in the background of every scene, because the conversations in the foreground generally feel like a necessary evil on the way to the next set piece. But Ruben Brandt, Collector does the job of reminding you that there are an infinite number of ways to use the unique properties of animation in service of a story. The features of these characters might be square, but the sensibilities of creators don’t have to be. CW
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nce more, and extra loud for the people in the back: Animation is not a genre; it is a way of telling a story. Animated feature filmmaking has been associated for generations with kid-friendly fare in this country, but despite that, there’s a whole wide world of creative people out there who understand that you can tell all kinds of stories for all kinds of audiences with animation, and it doesn’t have to be limited to bright and shiny CGI. From the emotionally complex narratives of Studio Ghibli to work from indie iconoclasts like Nina Paley, there really are as many different ways to explore a narrative through animation as there are through live action; it simply feels as though we’ve self-selected ourselves into a restrictive box of Disney/ Pixar, DreamWorks and Blue Sky. And then there’s Ruben Brandt, Collector—the feature debut from Hungarian filmmaker Milorad Krstić—which bursts out of the screen like a surrealist psychological thriller crossed with Ocean’s Eleven. The basic plot is in some ways fairly easy to describe: Ruben Brandt (voice of Iván Kamarás), a successful art therapist, has been experiencing vivid nightmares connected to images from famous works by celebrated
painters—Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” Manet’s “Olympia,” Hopper’s “Nighthawks” and more. Convinced that the way to end his nightmares is to get these masterpieces physically into his possession, Brandt enlists the aid of several of his patients who also happen to be thieves, led by the daring cat burglar Mimi (Gabriella Hámori). Thus begins a globe-trotting gathering of the artworks, with detective Mike Kowalski (Csaba Márton) in pursuit. The heists themselves might have been little more than an afterthought, but Krstić proves to have a deft touch as an action director. An early extended car chase eventually gives way to Kowalski’s purtuit of a physics-defying Mimi, who handsprings, pirouettes and jackknifes across the cityscape like The Matrix’s Trinity. Later, the crew attempts to steal Andy Warhol’s “Double Elvis” at a Pop Art exhibition; a somewhat tired setup suggesting that gullible patrons could be convinced anything is performance art morphs into a mix of gunfight, fistfight and a game of pass-thebaton with the rolled-up canvas. Brad Bird has long been in a league of his own as a choreographer of animated action; Krstić gives him a run for his money. The real draw, though, is Krstić’s wildly inventive approach to illustrating his story. The characters themselves are stylized in ways ranging from a basic but blocky human face to cubist-inspired visions where it’s simply accepted that someone has three eyes or a nose embedded in an ear. Every shot is dense with background detail: a boxing match where the fight involves the two guys just making punching noises; a zoetrope being powered by a hamster wheel; an air freshener hanging from a car’s rearview mirror in the shape of a Yojimbo-esque
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NEW THIS WEEK Film release schedules are subject to change. Reviews online at cityweekly.net CAPTIVE STATE [not yet reviewed] Sci-fi drama set in Chicago, 10 years after an alien race has occupied earth. Opens March 15 at theaters valleywide. (PG-13) FIVE FEET APART [not yet reviewed] A romance between two teens (Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse) with cystic fibrosis is complicated by their illness. Opens March 15 at theaters valleywide. (PG-13) RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR BBB See review on p. 43. Opens March 15 at Broadway Centre Cinemas. (R) WONDER PARK [not yet reviewed] A young girl’s imagination comes to life at a fanciful amusement park. Opens March 15 at theaters valleywide. (PG)
SPECIAL SCREENINGS PRIMAS At Main Library, March 19, 7 p.m. (NR) STAN & OLLIE At Park City Film Series, March 15-16, 8 p.m.; March 17, 6 p.m. (PG-13)
CURRENT RELEASES APOLLO 11 BBB.5 Every frame of Todd Douglas Miller’s documentary about the NASA mission that took man to the moon is archival, finding astonishing you-are-there intensity in a 50-year-old event. Strewn throughout are wonderfully humanizing tidbits, from the crew’s quips to photo montages reminding us that these three pioneers had childhoods, careers and families. And there are reminders of how monumental an undertaking this was, as we watch ground technicians sitting behind bank after bank of massive computers. There are certainly moments when the rapid-fire technical jargon becomes a lot to process. But it’s a terrific achievement to make the countdown to ignition feel as fraught with consequence as if you didn’t know the outcome. (G)—SR BIRDS OF PASSAGE BB.5 Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego (2015’s Embrace of the Serpent) again take on the corruption of indigenous peoples resulting from contact with the outside world—including, apparently, being too strongly influenced by that world’s cinematic genres. Rapayet (José Acosta), an indigenous Wayúu of Colombia, finances the dowry for his wife by beginning a marijuana distribution operation. Unsurprisingly, drug dealing has consequences, and the story attempts to focus on how greed leads the Wayúu to violate cherished traditions. But while the narrative rarely lingers on mere cultural anthropology, it’s too immersed in gangland drama clichés instead of giving Rapayet a distinctive personality. Guerra and Gallego do offer vivid imagery, which at least provides a specificity of place that the story can’t always manage. (NR)—SR CAPTAIN MARVEL BB Indie drama/episodic TV veterans Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck attempt to humanize a cosmic-level Marvel hero: a powerful woman called Vers (Brie Larson) who lost her memory and is now serving as a soldier for the intergalactic Kree empire, fighting
shape-shifting Skrulls. Initially, there’s an impressive efficiency to the structure the story as a mystery of identity, allowing us to dive right into the action. Unfortunately, Boden and Fleck aren’t up to the task of the action sequences, and even their theoretical strength as directors of actors comes up short. Larson generally seems adrift between grinning self-confidence nd the stolidness of a warrior lost in space and time. She’s a powerful, resilient role model in a movie that wrestles unsuccessfully with the tension between basic humanity and cosmic laserblasts. (PG-13)—SR EVERYBODY KNOWS BB In Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s first Spanish-language film, Laura (Penélope Cruz) visits her small Spanish village for her sister’s wedding, encountering extended family and friends, including local winemaker Paco (Javier Bardem). It’s a bit tricky keeping track of how everyone is related, but we do see that deep interconnections between all these people make them reliant on one another for favors big and small in unquestioning ways. But after the wedding sequence early on, Everybody Knows takes a turn it never recovers from. Farhadi indulges in more “plot” this time around than he has before, but he flounders with the stuff of a melodramatic thriller. He attempts to meld potboiler with his usual slow-burning humanistic drama, but there’s little space for either cinematic impulse to be satisfied. His mystery undermines the humanity, and his humanity undermines the mystery. (R)—MaryAnn Johanson GRETA BB This throwback to mid-1990s “from hell” thrillers reminds us what made those genre entries work on a rudimentary level. Frances (Chloë Grace Moretz) finds a lost purse on a subway and returns it to widowed Greta (Isabelle Huppert), beginning a friendship that curdles when Greta becomes obsessed with Frances. Rather than providing a slow burn of Greta’s breakdown, Greta has her go off the rails too soon for anyone to doubt there’s something bad going down. That early turn allows Huppert to go impressively bonkers, yet director Neil Jordan
doesn’t take full advantage of that whacked-out performance. The script winds up too obvious and lacking in detail, making it easy to see Greta become a monster—a surrogate mom from hell—while the movie around her is barely from heck. (R)—SR
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD BB.5 An animated franchise that had been a glorious exploration of reason over violence and human partnership with the natural world comes to a disappointing conclusion. Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), now leader of his Viking village, attempts to save dragonkind from cruel hunter Grimmel (F. Murray Abraham) by finding a legendary sanctuary for the beasts. Yet not only is The Hidden World not about this hidden world, it’s not about much of anything else, either. Everything Hiccup has been working toward over the previous movies is threatened, yet the stakes feel low. Sure, the world of Hiccup and Toothless still looks touchably gorgeous, and there’s nothing offensive here. Indeed, Hiccup remains a great example of non-toxic heroic masculinity. But his final adventure is sadly forgettable. (PG)—MAJ
TYLER PERRY’S A MADEA FAMILY FUNERAL B The Madea franchise remains excruciating and baffling, offering viewers occasional flecks of bemusement at how misguided it is. Sassy grandma Madea, straight-man nephew Brian and raunchy brothers Joe and Heathrow—all played by Perry—are irrelevant observers to a family gathering at which infidelities are revealed. Most of the plot elements, which would be traumatic if played seriously, are treated as farce, but not the funny kind of farce (though Perry clearly believes he’s hilarious). The dialogue sounds like it’s being made up by actors who didn’t know they’d be asked to improvise. I kept wanting to take a red pen to the screenplay and cross out unnecessary lines—or entire scenes. The result would still have been bad, but at least it would have been shorter. (PG-13)—Eric D. Snider
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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 2014, NASA managed to place its MAVEN spacecraft into orbit around Mars. The cost of the mission was $671 million. Soon thereafter, the Indian government put its own vehicle, the Mangalyaan, into orbit around the Red Planet. It spent $74 million. As you plan your own big project, Pisces, I recommend you emulate the Mangalyaan rather than the MAVEN. I suspect you can do great things—maybe even your personal equivalent of sending a spacecraft to Mars—on a relatively modest budget.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 1993, an English gardener named Eric Lawes used his metal detector to look for a hammer that his farmer friend had lost in a field. Instead of the hammer, he found the unexpected: a buried box containing 15,234 old Roman coins worth more than $4 million today. I bring this to your attention, Virgo, because I suspect that you, too, will soon discover something different from what you’re searching for. Like the treasure Lawes located, it might even be more valuable than what you thought you wanted.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The coming weeks might be a good time to acquire a flamethrower. It would come in handy if you felt the urge to go to a beach and incinerate mementos from an ex-ally. It would also be useful if you wanted to burn stuff that reminds you of who you used to be and don’t want to be any more; or if you got in the mood to set ablaze symbols of questionable ideas you used to believe in but can’t afford to believe in any more. If you don’t want to spend $1,600-plus on a flamethrower, just close your eyes for 10 minutes and visualize yourself performing acts of creative destruction like those I mentioned.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover,” wrote author James Baldwin. “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” To fully endorse that statement, I’d need to add two adverbs. My version would be, “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to kindly and compassionately make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” In accordance with current astrological omens, I recommend that you Libras enthusiastically adopt that mission during the coming weeks. With tenderness and care, help those you care about to become aware of what they’ve been missing—and ask for the same from them toward you.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus aphorist Olivia Dresher writes that she would like to be “a force of nature,” but “not causing any suffering.” The way I interpret her longing is that she wants to be wild, elemental, uninhibited, primal, raw, pure—all without inflicting any hurt or damage on herself or anyone else. In accordance with your astrological omens, Taurus, that’s a state I encourage you to embody in the coming weeks. If you’re feeling extra smart— which I suspect you will—you could go even further. You might be able to heal yourself and others with your wild, elemental, uninhibited, primal, raw, pure energy.
DOWN
1. Moo goo ____ pan 2. "Methinks," in texts 3. Opposite of "Yep!" 4. Senator Romney's state beginning in 2019 5. ____ grigio 6. "Hold your horses!"
7. Elaine ____, cabinet member for both Bush and Trump 8. Ask, as for assistance 9. Figures in Iranian history 10. Swank affair 11. They're checked for life 12. Loses it, with "out" 15. Little, in Lockerbie 18. Pete who co-wrote "If I Had a Hammer" 20. Title woman in a Beach Boys hit 21. One way to run 22. Bite-size, say 23. Reykjavik's land: Abbr. 28. Berry that's photographed a lot? 30. Wasn't overturned 32. Barely ahead, scorewise 35. Chicago suburb 37. Sheena who sang "U Got the Look" with Prince 38. "Wedding ____" (2005 comedy) 39. Gravy holder 40. Panama, e.g.: Abbr. 41. Home of "the bell," briefly 45. Troy Aikman, e.g. 46. Slightly 47. Some French wines
48. Brillo alternative 52. "From ____ shining ..." ("America the Beautiful" lyric) 54. "Dick ____" 57. Travel (about) 58. Firestone product 59. Canyon effect 62. Debt note 63. Result of a failed Breathalyzer test, for short 64. 123-45-6789, on a sample doc.
Last week’s answers
| COMMUNITY |
MARCH 14, 2019 | 45
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Wompsi’kuk Skeesucks Brooke is a Native American woman of the Mohegan tribe. According to her description of Mohegan naming traditions, reported by author Elisabeth Pearson Waugaman, “Children receive names that are descriptive. They may be given new names at adolescence, and again as they go through life according to what their life experiences and accomplishments are.” She concludes that names “change as the individual changes.” If you have been thinking about transforming the way you express and present yourself, you might want to consider such a shift. 2019 will be a favorable time to at least add a new nickname or title. And I suspect you’ll have maximum CANCER (June 21-July 22): Philip Boit was born and raised in Kenya, where it never snows inspiration to do so in the coming weeks. except on the very top of Mount Kenya. Yet he represented his country in the cross-country skiing events at the Winter Olympics CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): in 2002 and 2006. How did he do it? He trained up north in For many of us, smell is our most neglected sense. We see, hear, snowy Finland. Meanwhile, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong taste, and feel with vividness and eagerness, but allow our olfaccompeted for Ghana in the slalom in the 2010 Winter Olympics. tory powers to go underused. In accordance with astrological Since there was no snow in his homeland, he practiced his skills in omens, I hope you will compensate for that dearth in the coming the French Alps. These two are your role models for the coming weeks. There is subtle information you can obtain—and in my months, Cancerian. According to my analysis of the astrological opinion, need quite strongly—that will come your way only omens, you’ll have the potential to achieve success in tasks and with the help of your nose. Trust the guidance provided by scent. activities that might not seem like a natural fit. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb says humans come in three LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the process of casting for his movie The Girl with the Dragon types: fragile, robust or antifragile. Those who are fragile work Tattoo, director David Fincher considered selecting A-list hard to shield themselves from life’s messiness. The downside? actress Scarlet Johansson to play the heroine. But ultimately They are deprived of experiences that might spur them to grow he decided she was too sexy and radiant. He wanted a pale, thin, smarter. As for robust people, Taleb believes they are firm in the tougher-looking actress, whom he found in Rooney Mara. I face of messiness. They remain who they are even when they’re suspect that in a somewhat similar way, you might be perceived disrupted. The potential problem? They might be too strong to as being too much something for a role you would actually surrender to necessary transformations. If you’re the third type, perform quite well. But in my astrological opinion, you’re not antifragile, you engage with the messiness and use it as motivaat all too much. In fact, you’re just right. Is there anything you tion to become more creative and resilient. The downside? can do—with full integrity—to adjust how people see you and None. In accordance with the astrological omens, Aquarius, I understand you without diluting your brightness and strength? urge you to adopt the antifragile approach in the coming weeks.
1. Enliven 6. Hwy. crossings 10. Letters on a lotion bottle 13. Prized Italian instrument 14. "No way, José" 15. Lip-puckering 16. John Wayne or Johnny Carson, by birth 17. Hall & Oates' first Top 10 hit 19. *2008 film derived from Dr. Seuss 21. *Self-reflective question 24. "____ Carter III" (Lil Wayne 3x platinum album) 25. Mao ____-tung 26. "Yikes!" 27. Lansing's home: Abbr. 29. ____ buco 31. *Question while covering someone's eyes 33. Prime draft pick 34. Circus safety feature 35. Mo. when the NFL season starts 36. *Opening line of a classic nursery rhyme before "I, said the Sparrow, with my bow and arrow" 42. A.L. West team, on scoreboards 43. Obsession of el rey Midas 44. Asking too many questions 45. *"So?" 48. Mt. Rushmore's state: Abbr. 49. Grub 50. ____Kosh B'Gosh 51. Name on Chinese restaurant menus 53. "Park it" 55. *Preceder of Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock 56. Sentry's query ... or a hint to understanding why answers to the starred clues seem to go off the grid 60. Fruity dessert 61. They turn litmus paper red 65. Had too much, briefly 66. Basher ____ (Don Cheadle's "Ocean's Eleven" role) 67. Dogs with dark tongues 68. "Absolutely" 69. Wordsworth works 70. Query at the start of a poker game
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GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In some major cities, the buttons you push at a crosswalk don’t actually work to make the traffic light turn green faster. The same is true about the “Close Door” buttons in many elevators. Pushing them doesn’t have any effect on the door. Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer says these buttons are like placebos that give you “the illusion of control.” I bring this phenomenon to your attention, Gemini, in hope of inspiring you to scout around for comparable things in your life. Is there any situation where you imagine you have power or influence, but probably don’t? If so, now is an excellent time to find out—and remedy that problem.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): For thousands of generations, our early ancestors were able to get some of the food they needed through a practice known as persistence hunting. They usually couldn’t run as fast as the animals they chased. But they had a distinct advantage: they could keep moving relentlessly until their prey grew exhausted. In part that’s because they had far less hair than the animals, and thus could cool off better. I propose that we adopt this theme as a metaphor for your life in the coming weeks and months. You won’t need to be extra fast or super ferocious or impossibly clever to get what you want. All you have to do is be persistent and dogged and disciplined.
ACROSS
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.
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.
WHO
BY DAVID LEVINSON WILK
Complete the grid so that each row, column, diagonal and 3x3 square contain all of the numbers 1 to 9.
B R E Z S N Y
© 2019
SUDOKU
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY B Y R O B
CROSSWORD PUZZLE
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According to several websites, the largest employers in the state are the University of Utah and its health care system, Brigham Young University, Micron Technology, Skywest Airlines, Nu Skin, Smith’s Food and Drug, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and, of course, the state itself. If you live in Davis County, though, you or someone you know likely works as civilian or military personnel at Hill Air Force Base. According to HAFB, there are 5,788 military members, 3,621 military dependents and 16,300 civilians who work and live near the gates. The base recently released its 2018 economic impact statement, which shows it had a $3.6 billion impact on the Utah economy last year. That’s up from $3.4 billion in 2017. The figures include $1.43 billion in payroll, $760 million in expenditures and $1.38 billion worth of jobs created. From the people who replace the fighter-jet windows and the military police who let them in the gate, to the gas station cashier and tire salesman down the street, the money the base spends and the off-base economic impact spreads far and wide, from generals down to grunts. HAFB was built in 1939 and is controlled by the Air Force. It was named after Major Ployer Peter Hill of the U.S. Army Air Corps, who died test-flying a prototype of the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. You might have driven by the base a million times but never actually stepped foot inside the gates. What goes on there is pretty phenomenal. First, they provide engineering and logistics management for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, A-10 Thunderbolt II and Minuteman III. Second, they provide base operating support for the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings of the Air Force Reserve Command; the 84th, 309th, and 508th Sustainment and Maintenance Wings; the 729th Air Control Squadron; and the 75th Civil Engineering, Medical and Mission Support Groups. Originally, the field just south of O-Town was intended to be a temporary western terminus for airmail operations, but as World War II ramped up, the base became an important military supply and maintenance facility, with 24/7 services rehabilitating and returning warplanes to combat. What was formerly known as Hill Field became Hill Air Force Base in 1948, just after the Air Force was created. The personnel became instrumental in providing fighter planes for the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and they continue to maintain and rehabilitate fighter jets, air-to-ground rockets and air combat missile systems. n Content is prepared expressly for Community and is not endorsed by City Weekly staff.
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Religious Rascality Pastor Alph Lukau of Alleluia International Ministries in Johannesburg, South Africa, is facing lawsuits after a stunt in which he appeared to resurrect a dead man on Feb. 24. Sowetan News reported that a video of the incident shows Lukau placing his hands on the man’s stomach as he lay in the coffin, when suddenly the man, identified as Elliott, begins to gasp for air and sits up. “Can you see what happened?” Lukau exclaims in the video. “This man died since Friday, he was in the mortuary. ... Devil, I told you wherever I find you I will kick you.” Pastor Rochelle Kombou said the hearse driver heard noises coming from the coffin and ran away as soon as they arrived at the church. “I was screaming,” she said. “I saw his tongue moving. ... The man of God completed the miracle by praying because prayer is the key.” The lawsuits, meanwhile, stem from the misrepresentation of the situation to three funeral parlors, whose services were sought by church officials; a coffin was bought from one and the hearse was hired from another. Prince Mafu, who is representing the funeral homes, said the matter had been reported to the Jeppe police station for further investigation.
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Wait, What? Filipino medicine man Angelito Oreta, 55, has an unusual method of protecting himself and his home from thieves and attackers. He and his followers raid fresh graves near Manila to steal the kneecaps from corpses. Oreta uses a scalpel to remove the patella, then soaks the bone in coconut oil for several days to dissolve the skin. Once dried, the bones can be found scattered around his home or worn around his neck. “The benefit that the guardian angels from the patellas will bring is that they will help your livelihood,” Oreta explained to Metro News. “The kneecaps are used for protection. Or they also work as a shield.” Oreta gifts the bones to his trusted friends and followers. Rude Detective Constable Claire Fitzpatrick is no shrinking violet, evidenced by the fact that she’s in danger of losing her job at the village police station in Bedwas, South Wales, U.K. The 44-year-old says her inappropriate language and habit of audibly breaking wind are just part of the “culture of banter” at the station, but she faces 25 counts of inappropriate behavior, including: farting outside her sergeant’s office, using the C-word with a suspect, and propositioning a junior officer (asking if he wanted an affair with a “fatter, ugly, older woman”). DC Fitzpatrick told Metro News that swearing is “just the nature of the place” and she had replaced the F-word with the C-word as her word of choice. However, she appeared to have regrets about her actions, calling them “stupid.” Ewwwww! Silence of the Lambs, indeed. A Manchester, England, woman named Joan has a unique project in mind for a custom clothing designer. It seems Joan, 55, is anticipating having her leg amputated because of peripheral arterial disease, reported the Daily Mail, so she posted on sewport.com, requesting help to “create something beautiful and useful”—a handbag, using her own skin. She has budgeted about $3,900 for the project, which she envisions as a “medium-sized handbag with a short strap and a section down the middle that will be made from my skin,” she explained in the post. “I know it’s a bit odd and gross ... but it’s my leg, and I can’t bear the thought of it being left to rot somewhere.” There are no laws against her keeping the limb, though there is paperwork to fill out. Boris Hodakel, the founder of sewport.com, reports that no designers have come forward yet to help with Joan’s request. Send tips to weirdnewstips@amuniversal.com
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MARCH 14, 2019 | 47
Bright Ideas Smartmouth Brewing Co. in Norfolk, Va., launched a new “magically ridiculous” beer on March 2: Saturday Morning, a limited-edition IPA—with marshmallows. Chris Neikirk, brewery spokesperson, told USA Today the beer is “brewed with in-house toasted marshmallows and bulk dehydrated marshmallow bits. ... It has a soft pillowy body with a slight cereal taste.” Smartmouth hopes the beer evokes “nostalgia in adults who remember when ... Saturday mornings were a time that you sat around watching cartoons and playing games,” Neikirk added, while warning that the brewery is “not marketing to children.”
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People With Issues Volleyball players at the University of Kansas had reported to Lawrence, Kan., police a number of break-ins over 2017 and 2018, but it was the list of missing items that was most puzzling: swimsuit bottoms, socks, shoes—and many pairs of underwear. After a spring break 2018 incident, police got a lead in the case: Surveillance video captured a suspect vehicle that had a dealership sticker in the window. The Lawrence Journal-World reported that officers worked with the local dealership, which had loaned the car to Skyler N. Yee, 23, while his own car was being serviced. Yee, a volunteer assistant volleyball coach since 2016, was arrested and charged with 15 counts of burglary, property damage and theft after police searched his home in early February, where they found a 40-drawer plastic storage container full of women’s underwear, with each drawer labeled with a player’s name; six other containers with underwear; and bags containing pink high heels, boots, a sundress and a jumpsuit that victims had reported missing, along with jewelry, sex toys and other items. Yee resigned from his position in mid-January; KU Athletics spokesman Jim Marchiony said, “We have taken precautions to ensure that he is not permitted to be anywhere near the volleyball program.”
Unclear on the Concept On Feb. 13, Nina Harris of Kentucky told her husband, Allan, that she wanted tulips for Valentine’s Day. As she explains it: “He wasn’t paying attention. He just said, ‘Yes, I know.’ When I got up, I had my first cup of coffee, and he said, ‘Oh, your turnips are here.’ And I said, ‘Turnips?!’” Nina told WPVI TV. Allan’s story is slightly sweeter: “I ... put the turnips in the bucket that says ‘I Love You’ on it,” he said. “I went in there, got her coffee—and here you go!” Allan, who admitted he wasn’t really listening when Nina requested tulips, later made it up to her by getting her the flowers and candy and balloons.
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Least Competent Criminal Christopher Thomas Knox, 37, of Hillsboro, Ore., thought he was just calling for help when his car became stuck in the snow in Clatsop State Forest on Feb. 15. He didn’t count on Clatsop County sheriff’s deputies putting two and two together: In the car with Knox was a 13-year-old girl from King County, Wash. He initially introduced her to responding officers as his daughter, but they quickly determined the minor had been lured from her home. The Oregonian reported that Knox had started an online relationship with the girl’s mother, and the girl left home without her parents’ knowledge or consent. Along the way, Knox allegedly sexually abused her twice, according to the sheriff’s office. Knox was arrested for attempted second-degree rape and first-degree custodial interference.
n If you’re looking for a creepy weekend getaway, The Gas Station along Texas Highway 304 near Bastrop now offers overnight stays. Why, you say? The old filling station was the setting for the 1974 film “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” The Gas Station opened as a restaurant in 2016, serving barbecue and souvenir merchandise to film buffs. Manager Ben Hughes said the Coke machine in the movie is the same one that’s now in the restaurant, and they have a van parked outside that’s an exact replica of the one in the film. Now, he tells KVUE TV, fans can stay in one of four mini-cabins right behind the restaurant. But Hughes promises the staff won’t try to scare you: “We want to make sure that everybody that comes out has a good time ... not just freakin’ out or anything like that.”
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