City Weekly December 10, 2020

C I T Y W E E K LY. N E T D E C E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 2 0 | V O L . 3 7 N 0 . 2 8

Crowd-pleasing treats to make the season bright.

BY THE DEVOUR UTAH WRITERS

CONTENTS COVER STORY

THE SWEET LIFE Crowd-pleasing treats to make the season bright.

By Devour Utah writers

11

Cover illustrated

by Derek Carlisle

6 PRIVATE EYE 18 A&E 23 DINE 30 MUSIC 36 CINEMA 37 COMMUNITY

2 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

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OPINION

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

DINE

Go to cityweekly.net for local restaurants serving you.

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

STAFF Publisher PETE SALTAS Executive Editor JOHN SALTAS News Editor JERRE WROBLE Arts & Entertainment Editor SCOTT RENSHAW Music Editor ERIN MOORE Listings Desk KARA RHODES

Contributors KATHARINE BIELE, CAROLYN CAMPBELL, AIMEE L. COOK, ROB BREZSNY, MERRY LYCETT HARRISON, HEATHER L. KING, MIKE RIEDEL, ALEX SPRINGER Production Art Director DEREK CARLISLE Graphic Artists SOFIA CIFUENTES, CHELSEA NEIDER

Circulation Circulation Manager ERIC GRANATO Business/Office Technical Director BRYAN MANNOS Developer BRYAN BALE Display Advertising 801-716-1777 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. 15,000 copies of Salt Lake City Weekly are available free of charge at more than 1,800 locations along the Wasatch Front. Limit one copy per reader. Additional copies of the paper can be purchased for $1 (Best of Utah and other special issues, $5) payable to Salt Lake City Weekly in advance. No person, without expressed permission of Copperfield Publishing Inc., may take more than one copy of any Salt Lake City Weekly issue. No portion of this publication 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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4 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

SOAP BOX “Exiting Print” Dec. 3 Cover Story by Katharine Biele The story leaves the impression that all of The Salt Lake Tribune journalists who contributed to the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting have left the Tribune.

Not true.

Reporter Erin Alberty, who broke the story about Brigham Young University’s re-victimization of its students who had been sexually assaulted, is still there, as is Jessica Miller, who added essential and deep reporting from law enforcement and prosecutors. Managing editor Sheila McCann, the true shepherd who directed and shaped the reporting, continues to bring her immense talents to the Tribune, as does photographer Leah Hogsten, who made evocative images of the brave women who were treated with inhumane indifference by Utah’s institutions of higher learning.

True, two outstanding journalists who made invaluable contributions—Rachel Piper

@SLCWEEKLY

@CITYWEEKLY

and Alex Stuckey—have moved on to larger newsrooms and opportunities elsewhere. That’s the itinerant nature of being a journalist.

TERRY ORME Former editor and publisher Nothing like a fresh cup of coffee and the Sunday paper in your hands. The digital thing just isn’t the same!

@SLCWEEKLY

I cannot even believe that this is happening. Just terrible news for SLC. CHRISTINE MANNOS via Facebook We’ve donated and hope others will.

MARY CAPUTO via Facebook

BRIAN SMALL via Facebook

No Wall Street Journal home delivery any longer, either.

Sad. I love my printed newspaper.

IRENE PETROGEORGE via Facebook

MARIA PAPADAKIS via Facebook Very sad. Our family loves reading printed newspapers. The experience and perspective are infinitely more rewarding than reading online.

GEORGIA ATHAS KATSOHIRAKIS via Facebook I love the newspaper—no digital in the morning.

KATHRYN LEPPERT via Facebook

When any of these monopolies start reporting real news again, maybe they can go back to daily print. But who cares? I haven’t picked up a paper in 35 years. Good riddance, mainstream media!

DAVID MELLEN via Facebook

Blame COVID! Love the City Weekly. @ALTAOPIE via Instagram End of an era. @JORDYGATES via Instagram

“Cotton Bottom Reopening,” Dec. 3, The Backburner by Alex Springer

Hope the garlic oil infused grill plate is still there the next time I need a burger. That’s the real value of the place.

THE BOX What is your favorite Christmas movie?

Mikey Saltas Home Alone, both 1 and 2, are the greatest works of Christmas cinema of all time. Nothing else comes within an iota of the brick scene. Suck brick, kid!

@UTAH_JEN via Instagram

Paula Saltas What Mikey said. But watching these with Pete is funnier than the movie with his laugh, even after watching these every Christmas Eve.

Maybe a couple of vegan options on this newly revamped menu?

Chelsea Neider The Nightmare Before Christmas

@MARTIANGLASSNER via Instagram

Good piece.

I hope they don’t change the garlic burger recipe.

@SALTYBILL999 via Instagram

@JOHNNYST.MARTIN via Instagram

Kelly Boyce The Bad Santa movies, and I’m not ashamed to say that I love Love Actually.

Jerre Wroble I tend to gravitate toward romantic comedies like The Holiday with Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz. Parts of it are over-the-top treacly but who cares? High Fidelity is also on the list, back when John Cusack was adorbs. And then there’s Mermaids, with Cher and Winona Ryder, about an offbeat single mom who made me feel normal.

Eric Granato A Christmas Story. I looked like Ralphie when I was little, glasses and all. My mom wouldn’t let me have a BB gun for the same reason he couldn’t have one. Bad Santa because robbery and Christmas go hand in hand. Christmas Vacation is a must-see every year. Home Alone: I also looked like Kevin when this came out. And The Ref because ’90’s Leary ...

Scott Renshaw Chronologically, the ones that it’s not Christmas season without: It’s A Wonderful Life, Miracle On 34th Street (1947 version), A Christmas Story, A Muppet Christmas Carol, Elf Aspen Perry Christmas Vacation. But it’s a close tie with You’ve Got Mail, even though it’s not really a Christmas movie, I always watch it this time of year, and love Nora Ephron’s writing.

Derek Carlisle Nothing screams Christmas like Tim Burton and Vincent Price. My vote is for Edward Scissorhands.

Followed by Gremlins and Scrooged.

THINK LOCAL • DRINK LOCAL

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6 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

B Y J O H N S A LT A S

PRIVATE EY

She Was Herself I

t’s never a good day when the morning begins with bad news. But that’s how I awoke on Tuesday, learning that Mary Brown Malouf, long the editor of Salt Lake Magazine had died. Mary was an avid, beloved supporter of Utah’s food-and-beverage industry, both as a food critic and ambassador for all things tasty and thirst-quenching.

The following is the content of a message on her Facebook page, where many first learned this news: “There was never a time there wasn’t Mary Brown Malouf.

Today, Mary died when a rogue wave swept her out to sea off the coast of Northern California. Only she—perhaps the world’s foremost lover of Brontë, BBC mysteries and, of course, Moby Dick—would appreciate such poetic drama.”

Her Facebook page quickly filled with hundreds of personal accolades and sorrowful comments as persons who knew Mary paused their day to comment on a mischievous person so many in Salt Lake considered a beacon of wit, wisdom and hope. I did not know Mary as well as many of those people. We were rivals and competitors in the print world, yet we found time to meet and commiserate. Which of course meant we ate, drank, laughed and talked smack on every bit of our industry. Our human rolodexes were a near copy of the other’s, with shared friends and enemies, and combinations of both of those in every iteration.

Our most recent night of libation was with several other masked and sanitized print and book-selling giants at the Garten, the outdoor patio of Mountain West Cider. As per the laws of magnetism, Mary, via wit and smile, held our table together. We agreed to see each other again. Then, we didn’t.

@johnsaltas

Two years ago, I had nearly the identical parting with her late husband, longtime news reporter and editor Glen Warchol. He and I met at Duffy’s Tavern for an afternoon of divining the future, both of convinced that we knew more about our town than anyone else ever could or will. When all was said and done, our drinks consumed, we agreed to meet again because that which we were talking of was going to rattle the Salt Lake newspaper industry. But Glen died not even two weeks later, and I was dumbstruck.

In every conversation with Glen, there was also a conversation about Mary, of whom Glen was so enamored.

I actually knew her better thru Glen than from my own meetings with her. So, comes today where I’m reading and learning even more about Mary. Along with those accolades on Facebook were posted Mary’s posts of her final happy days along the sea. Among those cheerful messages was one Mary pushed to Facebook while she was in northern California. The post simply said, “Dad.” It linked to the Dec. 6, 2020, obituary printed in the Dallas Morning News for 95-year-old Donald Waddington, her father, who fell victim to COVID-19. Mary died the next day.

So many of us go through life without looking up or out.

Mary did both, and she also looked inward. That is a claiming attribute of persons with a good soul. Those around a soulful person just automatically know that person understands something the rest of us can only hope to touch or see. After learning the circumstances of these final days of Mary’s life—the respect for her, her zestful final days, her father’s passing, her own dying as if by script—I’m thinking “poetic drama” in this context is about the most apt term I’ve ever seen applied to another person.

Our local print industry is rapidly changing. The Davis County Clipper has stopped publishing. Our dearest friend

Greta DeJong is shuttering historic Catalyst Magazine.

Meanwhile, The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News will soon reduce their weekly print editions to just one delivered print product weekly starting in January 2021. No one really knows what that will mean for all of us, how it will affect newsgathering in this city or how it will affect other print products in this market.

Believe me, we will watch with a wary eye as, speaking of poetry, it would be poetic malfeasance of the worst kind for City Weekly to suffer the deadly fate of so many other newspapers this year at the very time we become top dog in the weekly print market by virtue of the big guys shrinking down to our size. That will be a new position for us, indeed.

For more than 30 years, we’ve been the little guy compared to them. Even when our circulation topped out at 60,000 per week, they claimed double that.

Come January, they really will become basically our size—in print at least. They will dominate online, but that’s OK with us. We know who we are, and we know our position and place in this great city. As we are fond of saying, we know Main Street, they know Wall Street. In the local print street fight, we will take mom-and-pop all day, every day. We will go to bat for the little guys out there as we always have. And we’ll do that until we cannot.

Mary Brown Malouf, too, was a determined and strong advocate for Main Street. As a food critic and connoisseur of all things, her voice, positive attitude and vibrant personality lent favor to an industry that is often consumed by doubt. I regret I did not know her well enough. However, I know of her well enough to know that she, with apologies to Charlotte Brontë, would be no angel, that should not be one till she died. That she would be herself. CW Send comments to john@cityweekly.net

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HITS&MISSES

BY KATHARINE BIELE @kathybiele

MISS: Spared the Embarrassment

That worked, didn’t it? Utah’s Republican cabal wanted to spare the little woman the embarrassment of being rejected for a spot on the Utah Court of Appeals. That’s the reason for not giving Margaret Plane a hearing? “We don’t have to explain our vote,” Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, told the Deseret News. “I think it would be horrible for her to go through the process, with so many unanswered questions, and then be rejected,” he said. “Then she has a stain on her record.” There’s been pushback to the process, but we don’t know why or from whom because it’s within the echo chamber of the GOP locker room. She’s not as “qualified” as others on the list, and Hillyard was hoping for “diversity” in the courts. By that, he means attorneys from outside Salt Lake City who’ve worked with clients who can’t afford expensive lawyers. These appointments aren’t supposed to be political, but they are. Whatever the reason not to consider her, embarrassment shouldn’t be one of them. Plane, like any judicial candidate, is a big kid now.

MISS: Bad Air’s Price Tag

It’s not too late yet, but it’s getting close.

Droughts, floods, fires, hurricanes and maybe the apocalypse are threatening the globe. We are nearing the 50th anniversary of the Paris Climate Accord—the one President Trump decided to leave—and the impacts of climate change are more dire than ever. HEAL Utah and outdoor industry leaders have planned A Night Outdoors: A Virtual Climate Panel to look at ways to take action and commit to climate in 2021. “Whether you’re skiing, fishing, climbing, biking, hunting or enjoying a walk in your neighborhood, Utah’s natural landscape is something we all love. But climate change is threatening all aspects of the time we spend outside,” they say. Virtual, Friday, Dec. 11, 5:30-6:30 p.m., free.

RSVP/https://bit.ly/3mCLWM1

Social Media Activism

With the pandemic raging, gone are the days when you can gather outside a lab to protest animal cruelty. There are, however, strategic ways to apply pressure in a virtual world.

Learn from Maddie Krasno, a humane educator and grassroots animal activist, who will conduct this workshop. “Before becoming an animal-rights activist, she worked as a student caretaker for two years at University of Wisconsin’s Harlow Primate Lab, an experience that inspired her work in animal protection.” At Virtual Workshop: Utilizing Social Media for Good, you will learn her creative Instagram tactics and how to grow your Instagram audience. Virtual, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 5-7:30 p.m., free. https://bit.ly/3mNZWmo

Flu Shot Clinic

No, it’s not like COVID, but the flu does affect your immune system and the healthcare system’s ability to care for the sick. “By getting a flu shot, you’ll be showing that you care about your family and neighbors,” organizers from the Westside Coalition say. “If there is a large outbreak of the flu, our limited resources will be split between flu and COVID-19 care, rather than focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic.”

This No-Cost Drive-Through Flu Shot Clinic will help protect you with a proven vaccine while winter forces you into closed spaces. Besides the flu shot, you can also get your vision checked and make sure your other vaccinations are up to date.

Utah State Fairpark, 155 N. 1000 West, Sunday, Dec. 13, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., free. https://bit.ly/37lxl0X

CAR CONCEPTS

Holiday Bundle Heated seats & Remote start

Food and Clothing Drives

—KATHARINE BIELE

Send tips to revolt@cityweekly.net

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DECEMBER 10, 2020 | 9

Eccles Broadcast Center and Crossroads Urban Center are partnering for the 2020 EBC Winter Food and Clothing Drive to help families in need this holiday season. Bring frozen turkeys, hams and other food or clothing items to the 2020 EBC Winter Food and Clothing Drive, Eccles Broadcast Center, 101 S. Wasatch Drive, Friday, Dec. 11, 7:30 a.m.-6 p.m., https://bit.ly/2VPwWyq You also can donate at VOAUT Youth Resource Center, 888 S. 400 West, or Geraldine E. King Women’s Resource Center, 131 E. 700 South, daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., https://bit.ly/2JLymrl

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She didn’t fight in a war or against street crime, but Allyson White Gamble fought for health, hope and love—life’s greatest challenges—and she won even in death at 52. Gamble had been executive director of the Capitol Preservation Board for some 19 years and was often seen wandering the halls of a building she treated like home. She was an unfailing optimist, contracting a rare virus while giving birth that attacked her heart. Over the years, two families donated hearts for transplant. While she dealt with the roller coaster of drugs and side effects, she never lost that brightness people recognized. She was seeking a kidney when she suffered a debilitating stroke that ended her life. As Gamble is remembered for her vibrance, she should also be remembered as a symbol of hope and a beacon for organ donation.

Climate Panel

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HIT: Remembering Gamble

IN A WEEK, YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

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As if COVID wasn’t enough, we are still breathlessly fighting air pollution and its deadly effects. And no matter the bad news, Utah politicians seem unmoved or unable to push forward with any remediation. In the oh-well category, University of Utah scientists reported a link between inversion days and lower test scores among kids, poor cognition and more school absences, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. In other bad news, older women in highpollution areas show a higher risk of Alzheimer’s, and life expectancy for everyone is reduced. Oh, but here’s the good news: Air pollution is not only lowering our life expectancy, it’s costing Utahns $1.9 billion a year. That’s good news because money seems to be the only means to move politicians.

We’ve seen that with their stubborn support of the Inland Port, which they equate with jobs and global recognition. It’s hard to cut through the pollution—or the B.S.

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10 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

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Crowd-pleasing treats to make the season bright.

BY DEVOUR UTAH WRITERS

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DECEMBER 10, 2020 | 11

ready to serve as party snacks or give as gifts. From cookies to candy to nuts, there is no shortage of heavenly bites made by Utah’s talented bakers and confectionery makers. We’re pleased to republish the list to support these small businesses and to let readers know there is actually some happiness you can buy!

The holiday season is the time for culinary artists to shine, and you can savor their commitment to using topquality, fresh ingredients and creating their masterpieces in small batches. Not only are these confections something you’ll obsess over—they may the start of new holiday gift-giving and hosting traditions.

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I

t’s undeniable that holiday sweets and treats give the season its pizzazz. Maybe, back in the day, you made popcorn balls with your mom or wrapped soft caramels with your grandma. Each year, we yearn to rekindle those feelings of togetherness by making such treats yet few of us find the time to follow through. Maybe this year, with COVID keeping more of us housebound, our holiday cookies and fudge recipes will become a reality.

But if not, no need to despair. Just set down the cooking sherry and back away from the kitchen. In December 2019, the staff of Devour Utah came up with a list of locally crafted sweets and snacks that are not only to die for but

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12 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

COURTESY PHOTO

Bohemian Baklava’s ‘Cheesecake’

TAMI STEGGELL

Ruby Snap’s ‘Amy,’ a triple chocolate cookie with chocolate buttercream and carmelized cocoa nibs

AIMEE L. COOK

Cache Toffee

It’s a Wonderful Cookie

Growing up in Saudi Arabia without many modern conveniences (such as a local grocery store!) led Ruby Snap owner Tami Steggell to learn how to cook from scratch. Her mother made everything at home—from tortillas to cream puffs—and proudly passed on her recipes. After becoming a young wife, Steggell honed her culinary skills and learned how to make delicious cookies at home. In the 1990s, she became an avid cyclist and wanted to make delicious treats on her off-training days. Not wanting to waste precious calories on a mediocre product, she soon realized she had a mission. She cashed out her savings and left her career as a designer to open RubySnap.

“What makes us truly different is that every ingredient is hand-prepared, or uniquely sourced—from whole vanilla beans, fresh eggs, rich butter, clean nut butters, pure chocolates and fruits and veggies from quality farmers,” Steggell says. Every day, the bakers hand zest, cut, squeeze and peel their ingredients, from citrus to root veggies.

RubySnap produces 450 dozen cookies a day, just for their Salt Lake store. Popular cookies include the Mia, a vanilla bean sugar cookie, with a buttercream beet frosting; the classic chocolate chip Trudy and the cherry-chocolate Suzie. You can also purchase their frozen cookie dough at Harmons grocery stores. (Aimee L. Cook)

RubySnap 770 S. 300 West, SLC 801-834-6111 RubySnap.com

Hark How the Balls, Sweet Rice Balls, All Seem to Say, Throw Cares Away

While Kyung Myers excels at baking Korean goods, although she’s skilled with French pastries as well. The former baker for the Bill White Restaurant Group in Park City is a self-taught baker, having learned the art 20 years ago. “Over the years,” she says, “I have provided breads and desserts to many local restaurants,” and she still works with some Park City and Salt Lake eateries including Blue Lemon and others.

Particular about ingredients, she uses real butter and distilled water in her pastries. Using red bean paste and powder, green tea and sweet sticky rice, she prepares a plethora of Korean-inspired sweets and savory items in the bakery that she opened a year ago. Sweet rice balls (3 for $2.99) are a soft and chewy treat that come in a variety of flavors like cake crumb and green tea, and red bean powder. Homemade Korean breads are filled with red bean paste ($1.89) and the large dough pockets of the traditional Korean favorite, koroke, are stuffed with potato, cabbage, onion, carrots and curry ($3.49).

Her sweet breads are filled with lemon and coconut ($2.49) or melon ($2.99). Other standouts include Myers’ eclairs ($3.49), fruit tarts ($5.99) and cinnamon caramel sticks ($1.99).

In a season noted for sugar-overload, Myers has carved a niche with her delicious glutenfree, dairy free and low-sugar desserts. Hers is a bakery with a strong following of happy customers. (Aimee L. Cook)

Kyung Bakery 153 E. 4370 South, No. 17, Murray 801-904-3849

COURTESY PHOTO

Kyung Bakery’s sweet rice balls

Love and Baklava Come to You

“Punk’d out baklava”—that’s how Elif Ekin describes her homemade treats. Ekin took her mother’s Turkish baklava recipe, made a few changes and began selling it at the local farmers markets in 2004. After her success there and having her recipe featured by Martha Stewart in 2008, she began selling baklava and other items at the Tea Grotto, and now has expanded to local businesses such as Laziz Kitchen and BGR. “My baklava is different in that I only use 26 layers. I use a sugar, water and lemon syrup, which makes it lighter, and I do not butter every layer,” she says.

She’s always up for a challenge, whether it’s creating a boozy product or combination—such as bacon and bourbon—or a candy line using dark chocolate. “I will try just about anything,” she says.

Elkin makes trays of 96 bite-size pieces ($100 for traditional). Her nuts are ground fine so that ingredients combine well together, and she uses a reduced amount of syrup—just what is necessary to create the texture she wants.

Order through her website. Special orders (and challenges) are always welcome, with a minimum purchase of a quarter-tray. (Aimee L. Cook)

Bohemian Baklava 801-674-7047 BohemianBaklava.com

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Toffee

Cache Toffee founder Lori Darr learned the art of toffee-making from her mother, who made the confection for family and friends as a holiday treat. After mastering toffee-making herself, Darr continues the tradition with her family and friends.

In 2016, she decided to bring her toffee collection to market and launched Cache Toffee. The handcrafted, small-batch toffee is made with fresh local butter and chocolate. The candy has a melt-in-your-mouth creamy crunch that’s accompanied by flavors inspired by the changing seasons.

Her Summit flavor ($40/pound) reminds her of fall colors in the mountains. Layered with locally made Solstice dark chocolate, the irresistible toffee is blended with seeds, nuts, dried berries and fruit. It’s finished with a sprinkle of sea salt and organic green tea leaves, which Darr says remind her of the musty, damp, fall smell.

“Blondie ($40/pound) makes me think of summer,” she says, “with the sun shining in your face. I use Solstice white chocolate, local bean-to-bar chocolate, with mangoes, rum and toasted coconut.”

Cache Toffee’s use of quality ingredients, she notes, “is what really sets us apart.”

Sampler boxes, gift boxes and corporate gifts are available on the website, and you can find many Cache Toffee flavors in local Whole Foods, The Store and Provisions on Main Street in Park City. (Aimee L. Cook)

Cache Toffee CacheToffee.com

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DECEMBER 10, 2020 | 13

Amour Spreads features ripe fruits grown in Utah

14 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

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Diverse offerings of trail mixes at Western Nut Co.

Our Finest Nuts We Bring Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum

Oh Bring Us a Figgy Pudding

Western Nut Co. 434 S. 300 West, SLC 801-363-8869 WesternNut.com

Amour Spreads 1329 S. 500 East, SLC 801-467-2947 AmourSpreads.com

Quality and tradition keep satisfied customers returning to Western Nut Co. throughout the year for the best nut mixes, brittles, toffees and fudge. Generations of Utah, Wyoming and Idaho families continue to shop here to pass on fond memories of special favorites and treats, especially during the holiday season. Since it was founded in 1966, only the highest-quality nuts—sourced from around the world—are used and roasted at the Factory Store (the roasting can be viewed through glass windows). Plump peanuts, silken cashews, meaty walnuts and pecans, firm almonds, pistachios, hazelnuts and more are oh-so tempting.

Western Nut Co. maintains a quaint old-fashioned shop atmosphere at the retail store but keeps modern by creating new mixes such as the super-nutritious Antioxidant Medley Mix and Golden Spike Trail Mix along with sugar- and salt-free offerings. There are shelves of dried fruits and hard-to-find specialty candies such as Holland mints and Jordan almonds.

As a member of Utah’s Own, the store features displays of locally made jams, sauces, fun gifts and décor, and you’ll find a huge selection of bee- and beehive-themed items.

Creative gift baskets and pre-wrapped gift boxes are available in-store or for online ordering and corporate giving. Holiday kiosks and store displays pop up in malls and grocery stores during the season.

There is truly something for everyone, even a fun Nut of the Month Club that gives superior nuts to those you love all year. Part-owner Lee Mercer says they are happy to help businesses create specialty mixes like the one they are currently working on for a brewery.

Western Nut Co. really knows its nuts! They maintain a strict three-month sell-by date, whereas many stores keep nut products on the shelf a full year. Customers can rest assured that their nut purchase is fresh, whole and delicious any time of the year. (Merry Lycett Harrison)

Casee and John Francis delight in bringing together fresh fruit, pure cane sugar and organic lemon juice to produce flavor-filled, jewel-toned jars of Amour Spreads jams and marmalades. This passion has been both their hobby and business for nearly a decade.

Amour Spreads highlights perfectly ripe fruits primarily grown and harvested in Utah.

Plums, elderberries, peaches, apricots, chokecherries, tayberries and even heirloom tomatoes follow the seasons into each jar of Amour Spreads preserves. As Amour Spreads uses nothing frozen, when an ingredient run out, they’re gone until the next harvest season.

It’s their true dedication to traditional artisan ways that have earned the Francises acclaim as craft producers. “It’s not about the volume—it’s about the quality,” Casee says of their products. Their blackcurrant blackberry jam won a Good Food Award in the preserve division in 2016—celebrating the dark, tart and earthy fruit grown in Paradise by local farmers.

Jams are made by hand in traditional copper pans in their commercial kitchen. John says the copper’s conductive properties provide an even cooking surface and prevents scorching.

In 2016, Casee and John opened Amour Café near Liberty Park (which, due to COVID, is currently not open to the public for dine-in dining). Hopefully, when they reopen, they will again be serving up savory egg plates and grilled cheese featuring Amour Spreads’ Heirloom Tomato jam with baguettes brimming with Black Mission Fig jam and brie. Full jars are available for purchase.

Holiday shoppers can mix and match their favorite flavors of Amour Spreads by ordering online or at other specialty stores like Caputo’s and Liberty Heights Fresh. Better still, give a gift that lasts all year. The Amour Jam Club is a selection of 12 jars of jam shipped in three collections throughout the year that reflect the best of the best from Amour Spreads.

It’s a delicious way to spread the love of local fruits. (Heather L. King)

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Have Yourself a Merry Little Croissant

Crumb Brothers has been a Cache Valley staple since it opened in 2004. For years, the bakery produced more than a thousand loaves of bread each day—much of which was delivered around Salt Lake City to restaurants and grocery stores. But the retirement of the original owners Bill and Diane Oblock and eventual closing of the bakery in 2015 was cause for mourning by loyal customers—until bread lovers and Logan residents Rudy and Luba Otrusinik bought and reopened Crumb Brothers featuring many of the original recipes and employees.

Since then, there’s been significantly more focus on catering to the local Logan community with Crumb Brothers’ celebrated artisan breads and European-style pastries. The restaurant offers a drool-worthy breakfast, scratch-made lunch and a hearty Sunday brunch menu. Wine Wednesday dinners also features seasonal dishes and special wine flights.

Yet, it’s still the baked goods that customers most clamor for. Using organic flours and locally sourced ingredients—everything from black garlic in focaccia, cherries in the cherry chocolate sourdough or polenta and corn flour in the corn ball brioche—the flaky pastries and crusty breads are showstoppers, whether in the restaurant or at home.

For the holidays, a selection of scones, Danish and croissants are the perfect centerpiece for a winter wonderland brunch, while a sourdough braid or crusty baguette makes a delicious and festive hostess gift.

Customers living to the south of Logan are able to regularly find Crumb Brothers baguettes and loaves at farmers markets from Ogden to Murray during the warmer months.

And this winter, enjoy breads and pastries at the Downtown Winter Market at the Gateway, 12 South Rio Grande St., Nov. 14-April 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Of course, the best selection of fresh-baked items is always available at the flagship bakery in Logan—and always cause for celebration. (Heather L. King)

Crumb Brothers 291 S. 300 West, Logan 435-753-0875 crumb-brothers.square.site

The Crunch Before Christmas

In 1942, Cornelius Vanderlinden bought Garden Gate Ice Cream, which he and his wife, Helen, operated while raising their family. As time went on, the Garden Gate eventually became a chocolate store.

Cornelius “worked many hours every day,” his daughter, Linda Peterson, recalls. After he died in 2009, Peterson became a co-owner along with her mother, Helen Vanderlinden, and sister, Connie Plumb. Operated seasonally, Golden Gate Candy opens for the holidays on the first Monday in November. Its bestseller, Garden Gate toffee, is known for its deep, rich flavor with just the right amount of sweetness.

Each year, members of the Vanderlinden family blend the toffee mixture of sugar and butter in a big copper kettle. When it reaches the optimal temperature, they pour it onto a 15-foot marble slab to cool. Then, Peterson says, they use a pizza cutter to cut the toffee to fit on cookie sheets.

They cut the sheets of candy into still smaller pieces and dip them in a thick coating of melted Guittard Chocolate, ordered from California. They then roll the toffee in freshly ground almonds.

The nut dusting provides both a flavor and texture to complement the chocolate and toffee.

Fernwood Mint Sandwiches

COURTESY PHOTO

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“There’s a lot of love in this toffee.”

—Linda Peterson, Garden Gate Candy

COURTESY PHOTO

Crumb Brothers Almond Croissant

They also use the imported Guittard chocolate to coat caramels, cinnamon bears and Oreos. “We dip marshmallows and pretzels in caramel and then in the chocolate,” says Peterson.

The toffee, however, remains the star. “We ship it all over the United States,” Peterson says. “And when we sell out, a day or two before Christmas, we close for another year.”

After 77 years, Garden Gate remains very much a family enterprise. “There’s a lot of love in this toffee,” Peterson says. (Carolyn Campbell)

Garden Gate Candy 928 E. 900 South, SLC 801-328-8436 gardengatechocolate.com

I’m Dreaming of a Mint Sandwich

Mint sandwiches, a melt-in-your mouth blend of mint and chocolate, are a top-selling confection at Fernwood Candy, says Bekah Staheli, manager of the Fernwood Factory in Logan. “As far as I’m aware, we have sold mint sandwiches since Fernwood opened in 1947,” she says. “They are still as yummy now as they were back then.”

The process of making the candy involves pouring a thin layer of velvety-smooth melted chocolate on the factory’s large granite tables. The green “mint-chocolate” center of the sandwich is added next, followed by a top layer of chocolate, completing the layers that in essence form a chocolate sandwich. “We still use a big knife to cut them into squares,” says Staheli.

Mint sandwiches are available in both dark and milk chocolate, or in packages that include both varieties. They are sold in an assortment of options ranging from a two-sandwich foil-wrapped package and in boxes ranging from 2 to 14 ounces. There is a 2-pound box and it’s possible to purchase a bulk order of 10 pounds of mint sandwiches. “People really love them,” Staheli says, “and we have a ton of repeat customers. They are especially popular around the Christmas holidays.”

In 2016, Staheli’s parents, Mike and Linda Staheli, purchased Fernwood Candy from Dick Wood, son of the original owners, George and Leah Wood. The name “Fernwood” is a combination of their last name, Wood, and Fern Street—where their home was located when they were newlyweds. Originally an ice cream parlor and candy store, Fernwood Candy now offers orange and raspberry sandwiches along with the popular mint confection. They also sell other handmade chocolates including nut barks, chocolate-covered pretzels and dipped cookies. Sea salt caramels and pecan logs are also popular during the Christmas holidays, while almondettes are a hit every spring.

Mint sandwiches are available online and at Frost’s Books and Deseret Book. At Christmastime, Kroger and Associated Food stores also sell the mint, raspberry and orange varieties of the chocolate sandwiches. (Carolyn Campbell)

Fernwood Candy 6937 S. 1300 East, Cottonwood Heights 801-566-1045 FernwoodCandy.com This article is republished from the December 2019 issue of Devour Utah.

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Your favorite garden center since 1955 3500 South 900 East | 801.487.4131

DECEMBER 10, 2020 | 17

Christmas trees, wreaths, garland, creative gifts, plants and gift cards

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A Great Christmas

Hogle Zoo: Free Zoo Lights In this strangest of modern holiday seasons, we’re looking for an uncommon cocktail of criteria for our seasonal entertainment experiences. We want stuff that we can enjoy safely, preferably outside, during the time of year in Utah when outdoor activities are rare. We want stuff that’s accessible and enjoyable for family members of all ages.

And—given the financial toll that the year has taken on many individuals and businesses—it would be particularly awesome if that stuff was also really inexpensive, or better yet, completely free.

Help is on the way, courtesy of Utah’s Hogle Zoo (2600 Sunnyside Ave., hoglezoo. org) and a grant from the Utah Legislature through the Utah Division of Arts & Museums.

For the 14th year, now through Jan. 3, “Zoo Lights” illuminates Hogle Zoo with animated displays, decorated trees and a whole range of glowing, sparkling lights. Santa will also be visiting the zoo nightly through Dec. 23, positioned in a safely distanced chair

TDK

creativity of the playwrights.”

Local playwrights participating this year—under the general theme of “TogetherApart”—include Elise Barnett, Morag Shepherd, Chelsea Hickman, RJ Walker, Beth Bruner and Robin Young, who will receive on the evening of Dec. 11 a play title, a line of dialogue and a prop that must be used. They’ll turn their work over the next morning to the director and cast members, who will stage and rehearse the work entirely remotely, before the shows premiere at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 12 via Zoom.

Tickets are $10, available at theboxgateway. org. (Scott Renshaw)

In a “normal” year—and it feels like we’re perpetually putting air quotes around “normal” nowadays—galleries around the Wasatch Front lean into holidaythemed group shows, hoping to attract patrons who might be interested in purchasing art as gifts, while generally showcasing a variety of their represented artists. There’s no reason that part of that tradition can’t continue, as artists are among those certainly needing support in this time. So it’s worth looking around at those galleries that are allowing us a chance to continue that support.

For their closing exhibition of 2020, Modern West Fine Art (412 S. 700 West, modernwestfineart.com) presents Silent Night, now through Jan. 2, 2021. The thematic focus—appropriate in a year when we’ve all been asking ourselves existential questions—is the search for meaning while gazing upward.

Each exhibited work represents that interaction with the night sky, with curiosity, with searching for certainty in vast expanse.

At the center of the exhibition is Patrick Dean Hubbell’s “Focus,” (pictured), a grey canvas with white crosses representing

the constellations above in an investigation that folds in his identity as based in the Navajo Nation. Silent Night also features works by Andrew Alba, Shonto Begay, Michael Coles, Shalee Cooper, Paul Davis, Al Denyer, Angela Ellsworth, Kiki Gaffney, Jann Haworth, Frank Buffalo Hyde, Levi Jackson, Dick Jemison, Dmitri Kozyrev, Mitch Mantle, Ed Mell, Stanley Natchez, Louis Ribak, Woody Shepherd, Ben Steele and more. Visit the gallery website for operating hours and COVID-19 public safety measures, and join in the artistic experience of gazing heavenward. (SR)

Utah Symphony: Eroica

that will still allow for photo opportunities, so kids can bring their wishes to the Big Guy just like in any other year. Families are reminded that most animals are not necessarily on display or active during the evening Zoo Lights hours (5:30 p.m. – 9 p.m.)

Admission times and tickets must be reserved at hoglezoo.org in order to monitor capacity for a safe experience for all visitors.

Masks are required, and while some walk-up concessions will be open for food purchases, all indoor spaces will be closed, so bundle up to be comfortable on a winter night. (SR)

For just a few weeks, it felt a little bit like 2019 again in the local arts community, as Utah Symphony began inviting patrons back to Abravanel Hall for limited socially-distanced seating of live performances in the fall.

That was before the surge in case counts in Utah, and a county mandate to cancel all scheduled performances at county-operated venues through the end of 2020.

That doesn’t mean Utah Symphony is disappearing from view until 2021, however. Previously scheduled live performances for the month of December are instead moving to streaming on-demand performances. “In the spirit of safety and precaution, we want to be part of a solution of encouraging people to limit interactions outside of their homes,” says Utah Symphony/Utah Opera CEO Steven Brosvik in a press release. “Through streaming our December programs, we hope to remain musically engaged with our listeners and to provide incredible listening experiences until we can be in the same room together for live concerts.”

The December presentations kicks

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

It’s enough of a challenge for a bunch of theater professionals to get a few basic prompts, start from scratch and generate a short dramatic work in 24 hours.

Now imagine trying to do all of that remotely, with playwrights, directors and actors collaborating on virtual plays that didn’t exist when they woke up the previous morning.

In the fine tradition of such marathon exercises undertaken by many performing arts organizations over the years, the 24-Hour Theatre Fest launched last year at the new The Box space at The Gateway. This year, of course, the work moves online, which did lead to a few adjustments to the process, according to The Box facilities director Jim Martin, like making sure the one item every production will be asked to incorporate into its play is a common enough object to be found in most households. We’re going to try to think of some scenarios that could be specific to a virtual format,” Martin says, “but not restricting the

Complete listings online at cityweekly.net

Modern West Fine Art: Silent Night

24-Hour Virtual Theatre Fest

ERICA HANSEN

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ESSENTIALS

the

ENTERTAINMENT PICKS, DECEMBER 10-16, 2020

off with a program featuring Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony No. 3, a landmark piece that marked a transition to the Romantic period of composing; Schoenberg’s Peace on Earth will also be featured. The program becomes available Dec. 12 at noon through Jan. 10 via usuo.org/on-demand, for $10-$20 pay-whatyou-can ticketing. Subsequent scheduled performances include A Merry Little Christmas featuring vocalist Tony DeSare (Dec. 22-Jan. 2) and Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony with Strauss’s Metamorphosen (Jan. 9-Feb. 7).

Bring the beauty of Utah Symphony directly into your homes this holiday season. (SR)

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Utah Presents builds on relationships for productions like Holiday Sauce …

Pandemic!

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

T

he challenges facing all arts organizations in 2020 have been monumental, from maintaining financial viability to finding ways they can continue interacting with their audiences. But the issues facing a presenting organization like Utah Presents are different from those facing a producing organization like a local theater or dance company, which are making their own decisions about how to create their work.

According to Utah Presents executive director Brooke Horejsi, the key for a presenting organization is a factor that we’re all thinking about during a time of separation: relationships. “Even before the pandemic, relationships were a big part of how we build our programming,” Horejsi says.

“If you’re working on something, as an artist, you think about where you’ve built relationships across the world, and whether it makes sense to go to them, whether it’s a good fit. But it is also about us saying, ‘What do our current partners need right now?’ and hearing from the patrons, the students and faculty we serve.”

For the Christmas season, Utah Presents took advantage of one of those relationships to become one of the nationwide group of local presenters offering Holiday Sauce …

Pandemic!, a multimedia live-streamed

A&E

LITTLE FANG PHOTOGRAPHY

Presenting Virtually

production headlined by celebrated drag artist Taylor Mac. While based on a musical variety burlesque show that Mac has been touring since 2017, this incarnation has been specifically re-designed for virtual presentation, incorporating thematic elements about those lost to COVID-19 and the importance of our chosen families.

Earlier this year, the plan was for the live Holiday Sauce to be touring Europe in 2020, with a live visit to Salt Lake City on the longrange schedule for the 2021 holiday season.

That all changed, of course, and Utah Presents’ existing relationship with Taylor Mac made it possible to be part of what is now a nationwide shared live experience.

“We’ve worked with Taylor and Taylor’s collaborators two times previously, to great success,” Horejsi says. “And there’s been a real relationship that’s developed, not just between us and Taylor but between our audience and Taylor. There’s been connections made outside of those shows that have continued. We thought, ‘Let’s support the virtual show right now, and support this group of artists that we’ve had a relationship with.’”

One thing Utah Presents does have in common with producing arts organizations is a growing realization of the kind of virtual show that audiences are actually seeking out right now. While recorded performances do offer flexibility for viewers, it’s clear that people feel more connected to a live presentation. For Holiday Sauce … Pandemic!, that includes a virtual “holiday party” with fellow local audience members, as well as drop-in visits from the show’s performers and collaborators.

“Remember when we used to be in theaters, shoulder to shoulder?” Horejsi says with a laugh. “And even if you didn’t know the person, there still was the opportunity for the shared intake of breath, or making eye contact. When we sit in front of our screen, we lose part of what makes that experience so magical. Anything that’s closer to that, I think audiences are responding to.

“People are getting tired, not just of the pandemic, but we’re in front of our screens

all day—not just in our professional lives, but in our leisure time. The questions I’m going to ask are, “What about that particular piece virtually makes it compelling?’”

Another component that makes the show more local and personal has been built into the structure of Holiday Sauce … Pandemic! The show is dedicated to Mac’s late drag mother, Mother Flawless Sabrina, and each local institution presenting the show this year was asked to honor an LGBTQ community elder who has made a significant contribution to nurturing the local queer community. Utah Presents selected Dr. Kristen Ries, a pioneer in providing care to AIDS patients during the 1980s at a time when the disease was still deeply stigmatized.

“We took lots of suggestions,” Horejsi says of the process for selecting Dr. Ries as the local honoree. “What it came down to with Dr. Ries is … the work she did was amazing. That work has a particularly strong resonance right now—someone who worked during a pandemic in another time, and stood up. But she’s also the most humble, charming, kind person and an absolute delight.”

While Holiday Sauce … Pandemic! offers something unique and possible in this par-

Taylor Mac in Holiday Sauce … Pandemic!

ticular moment, Horejsi knows that we’re all looking forward to the opportunity to share live arts experiences again. Yet as uncertainty remains over exactly when “normalcy” will return, she acknowledges that virtual presentations might still be part of Utah Presents’ planning.

“As much as the vaccine news is great, it’s going to take a while,” Horejsi says.

“Even in the fall, we probably need to look to thing that have a hybrid nature, as some people might not be comfortable going out to larger gatherings. We and the artists we work with have to look toward not being caught unprepared. This is COVID-19, but what about [the next]? In our whole future, there could very well be more of these, so let’s be prepared for it and use the creativity of artists.” CW

TAYLOR MAC’S HOLIDAY SAUCE …

PANDEMIC!

Dec. 12, 8 p.m.

Pay-what-you-can tickets beginning at $10 utahpresents.org

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Best bet: The stir-fry combo Can’t miss: Any pho is good pho

DECEMBER 10, 2020 | 23

can actually pull off plantbased shrimp from both a visual and victual perspective, I have to give Vegan Bowl props for its dedication to texture. The thin slices of soy beef marinated in their pho’s delicious veggie broth look and taste the part, but the

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This West Jordan restaurant has made a name for itself by serving up everything from piping hot pho to overstuffed banh mi with soybased beef, chicken and pork substitutes that don’t skimp on flavor. While I’ll always be impressed when a restaurant

I

’ve long been of the opinion that those intimidated by or otherwise biased against a plant-based food might need to start with a cuisine that isn’t very meat-centric to begin with. There are plenty of options to choose from, but you can’t go wrong with a bit of vegan Vietnamese, for both its flavor profile and its alliterative charms. Vietnamese food has been making bean curd and soy proteins tasty for hundreds of years, so it’s not much of a stretch for a place like Vegan Bowl (8672 S. Redwood Road, 801-692-7237, facebook.com/VietnameseVeganBowl) to create plant-based magic.

chicken were right up her alley. They come with some sweet chili sauce, and there’s nothing wrong with enjoying these crispy little morsels regardless of your age.

If you’re after something to drink, Vegan Bowl’s got a surprisingly vast selection of boba tea and smoothies to go with your meal. I’m not usually one to pay close attention to a boba drink of any stripe—they’re usually overwhelmingly mediocre—but Vegan Bowl has a few bangers on the list. I rolled the dice and went with the mango boba green tea ($5) which is citrusy, sweet and herbaceous all at once, and the Purple Rain ($5) is a refreshing hit of berry flavor that does indeed taste like you’re drinking a Prince song.

With takeout dominating the foodie spectrum at the moment, it can be tricky to mix things up and get outside your burger-and-taco comfort zone. Allow me to submit Vegan Bowl as both an excellent takeout destination, and a great way to dip your toe into the wonders of plant-based cuisine. CW

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Find a new plant-based favorite at West Jordan’s Vegan Bowl

acidic pickled carrot and daikon.

As tasty as the banh mi fillings are, the baguettes can be hit and miss— I like a good crunch on the outside, and sometimes Vegan Bowl makes them a bit blond.

With winter fast approaching, a visit to Vegan Bowl should include a bowl of their excellent pho. The House Special ($11) is always a safe bet, with its slices of soy beef and pork swimming around with generous cubes of fried tofu. I’m always one to enjoy a nice showing of meatballs or brisket in my pho, but let’s not take the pleasure of silky tofu soaked in broth for granted. It’s also worth noting that most pho places treat their vegetarian options less kindly than their meat-based options, but that’s not the case at Vegan Bowl. Regardless of what pho goes home with you, you’ll be getting something aromatic, flavorful and comforting to get you through this bitter winter.

It’s hard to go wrong with an entrée from Vegan Bowl, but don’t overlook the place for some quick snacks.

The veggie eggrolls ($5) are exactly what you’d expect—thin, crispy exterior with a nice soft interior wrapped around crunchy cabbage and carrots.

I also went for an order of crispy nuggets ($5) for my daughter’s sake; she’s in a serious chicken nugget phase, and these panko-crusted bites of soy

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Let’s Hear it for the Soy

chewy texture is what really sells it.

I wouldn’t have to gush this much about the attention Vegan Bowl pays to its plant-based proteins, but the pork and chicken have equally impressive textural similarities to their carnivorous cousins.

For a dish that puts them all on display, try out the ramen stir-fry combo ($10). It’s a hefty pile of stirfried noodles, caramelized to perfection, tossed with veggies and soy-based beef, pork and shrimp.

Considering these proteins are all made from the same plant protein, you still get the sense that you’re devouring a multi-meat stir-fry feast.

It’s a seemingly small achievement, but it speaks to Vegan Bowl’s ability to wield the flavors at their disposal.

Making soybeans taste like the entire surf-and-turf protein pantheon is a testament to the versatility of this meat alternative.

Even when Vegan Bowl isn’t disguising their bean curd as meat— like the five spices bean curd banh mi ($6.50)—their creativity is undeniable. The tender slices of bean curd get sauteed in Vegan Bowl’s house special sauce, which imparts a savory richness that ties this sandwich together. I’m also a fan of the thin slices of apple that make an appearance; the sweet crunchiness here is a great complement to the

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Mountain West Cider 425 N. 400 West, SLC MountainWestCider.com On Tap: GULB 2020

Squatters 147 W. Broadway, SLC Squatters.com

Bohemian Brewery 94 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale BohemianBrewery.com Bonneville Brewery 1641 N. Main, Tooele BonnevilleBrewery.com On Tap: Peaches and Cream Ale Desert Edge Brewery 273 Trolley Square, SLC DesertEdgeBrewery.com On Tap: Fresh Brewed UPA

2496 S. WEST TEMPLE, SLC LEVELCROSSINGBREWING.COM @LEVELCROSSINGBREWING

A list of what local craft breweries and cider houses have on tap this week

Epic Brewing Co. 825 S. State, SLC EpicBrewing.com On Tap: Chocolate Raspberry Big Bad Baptist Imperial Stout Fisher Brewing Co. 320 W. 800 South, SLC FisherBeer.com On Tap: Red Ale Grid City Beer Works 333 W. 2100 South, SLC GridCityBeerWorks.com On Tap: Extra Pale Ale Hopkins Brewing Co. 1048 E. 2100 South, SLC HopkinsBrewingCompany.com On Tap: Strawberry Sorghum Hoppers Grill and Brewing 890 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale HoppersBrewPub.com Kiitos Brewing 608 W. 700 South, SLC KiitosBrewing.com Level Crossing Brewing Co. 2496 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: Fruit Bat Blonde Ale

Ogden River Brewing 358 Park Blvd, Ogden OgdenRiverBrewing.com

Strap Tank Brewery Multiple Locations StrapTankBrewery.com

Policy Kings Brewery 223 N. 100 West, Cedar City PolicyKingsBrewery.com

TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC TFBrewing.com On Tap: Alt “Riedel” Bier

Proper Brewing 857 S. Main, SLC ProperBrewingCo.com On Tap: Whispers of the Primordial Sea

Talisman Brewing Co. 1258 Gibson Ave, Ogden TalismanBrewingCo.com On Tap: Udder Chaos Chocolate Milk Stout

Red Rock Brewing Multiple Locations RedRockBrewing.com On Tap: Secale

Toasted Barrel Brewery 412 W. 600 North, SLC ToastedBarrelBrewery.com

RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com On Tap: Project Porter

Uinta Brewing 1722 S. Fremont Drive, SLC UintaBrewing.com On Tap: Was Angeles Craft Beer

Roosters Brewing Multiple Locations RoostersBrewingCo.com On Tap: Cosmic Autumn Rebellion

UTOG 2331 Grant Ave, Ogden UTOGBrewing.com On Tap: Son of a Peach Hefe

SaltFire Brewing 2199 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake SaltFireBrewing.com On Tap: Punk As Fuck Triple IPA

Vernal Brewing 55 S. 500 East, Vernal VernalBrewing.com

Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com On Tap: Seasonal Winter Amber Shades Brewing 154 W. Utopia Ave, South Salt Lake ShadesBrewing.beer On Tap: Peach Cobbler

Wasatch 2110 S. Highland Drive, SLC WasatchBeers.com Zion Brewery 95 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale ZionBrewery.com Zolupez 205 W. 29th Street #2, Ogden Zolupez.com

BEER NERD

Entice-mints

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parts zero sweetness whatsoever, relying on the chocolate malt and cacao to counteract the bitterness from the roasted flavor profiles.

Overall: A nicely-done beer that forms a good balance between the rich, roasted stout characteristics and the more herbal peppermint in a way that doesn’t taste artificial. This 6 percent stout is more of a dessert beer than anything else, as it doesn’t really pair well with savory food.

Uinta - Peppermint Patty: It poured a very dark brown color with a finger and half worth of creamy tan head, resulting in a very good-looking beer. The aroma starts off with a medium amount of sweetness, with the mint being the first to show up as it imparts a nice spearmint-y aroma that seems to dominate this beer. I wish the stout base came through more.

The taste seems to be similar to the aroma, but lighter, and it starts off with a lower amount of medium sweetness. The mint is still the first to show up, but this time it’s heavier than it was in the aroma. Up next come the malts, which impart a mixture of dark malt, grainy and dark chocolate flavors. On the finish there’s a higher amount of low bitterness, with some spearmint and roasted malts showing up in the aftertaste.

This is a nice-tasting beer, but I wish the flavors were a little bolder; they seem just a little watered down.

Overall: This comes across as the name describes: A Peppermint Patty treat. I thought this was decent beer and though it was pretty close to being average for the style, it just doesn’t have the balance and the flavors don’t pop like I wish they would from an 8.5 percent stout.

To sum up these two beers, Epic’s reminds me of a chocolate brownie with mint icing, while the Uinta is a spot-on representation of the York Peppermint Patty candy treat. It will all come down to preference; I think you’ll find both of these to appeal to very different sensibilities. As always, cheers! CW

| MUSIC | CINEMA | DINING | A&E | NEWS |

D

ecember is to peppermint as October is to pumpkin spice. My house is full of mint-infused additives, from coffee creamer to muffins. Yet mint isn’t an easy ingredient to use. Too much and you get toothpaste; too little and you get, well… lighter toothpaste. There are two minty beers out now that taste like the holidays. One or both may be perfect for you.

Epic - Grandma Van’s Candy Cane Stout: Pours a viscous-looking motor-oil black that requires a fairly aggressive pour to yield a finger of mocha colored head. The aroma is dominated by rich bittersweet chocolate characteristics and cocoa nibs alongside the roasty notes of burnt toast and medium char. However, as you smell it more and more, you get the herbal, minty characteristics from the dried peppermint leaves. Unlike the mint that one might typically associate with mint-flavored candy or chewing gum, this has a far more natural feel to it.

The taste picks up right where the aroma left off, with the primary flavors being the semisweet chocolate and flavors of roasted malt and bitter roasted notes. At first sip, you might not even realize that this is infused with mint if you weren’t paying attention—though that’s likely a good thing, since you don’t want the mint to overpower the flavor. Once again, the peppermint comes through in more of an herbal, even earthy vein, rather than the kind of artificial profile in mint candy. In fact, the mint im-

TUESDAY TRIVIA! 7-9 PM

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Two mint-forward beers that are designed for the holidays

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Pallet Announces Indefinite Closure

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The team behind Pallet, one of Downtown Salt Lake’s most beloved establishments, recently announced their indefinite closure via social media. It’s been a repeated punch to the chest to see so many great local restaurants forced to close doors as the pandemic rages on, and we can only hope that “indefinite” is the keyword in this equation. Pallet was one of those upscale restaurants that didn’t feel upscale; its warm, welcoming atmosphere and its menu of rustic favorites were easy to fall in love with. They showed us a side of Utah we don’t see very often—one that is stylish, laid back and quick to leave bullshit at the door in favor of some well-prepared hospitality.

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Not long after its sister restaurant known as The Ivy (55 W. 100 South) opened its doors, owners Bryan Borreson and Vaughn Carrick announced the arrival of Varley (63 W. 100 South, 801-203-4124, varleyslc.com). Based on a visit to Varley’s website, this cocktail bar is the hip side of the coin it shares with The Ivy. Varley and The Ivy share a kitchen, so tasty burgers and bar snacks are available for purchase along with a well-curated menu of craft cocktails. Early reports say this place is bringing their A-game to the table—fans of creative libations with a side of coconut curry mussels are going to want to check this place out.

Avenues Bistro Gets Wild

After a bit of rebranding and restructuring, the team at Avenues Bistro (564 E. 3rd Avenue, 801-831-5409, wildwoodslc. com) has emerged as Wildwood. Outside of a few exciting menu changes, Wildwood looks to maintain that charming neighborhood vibe that made Avenues Bistro a local favorite. Visitors can look forward to tasty caviar pillows, elotes and buttermilk fried chicken as well as modernized takes on classics like Philly cheesesteak—hello, Beehive Cheesewhiz—and pasta carbonara. Wildwood touts an ever-changing menu, however, so don’t be surprised if they’ve whipped up something even more delicious in the time it takes to read this. I kinda hope that Philly cheesesteak sticks around for a while, though.

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GOODEATS Complete listings at cityweekly.net Featuring dining destinations from buffets and rooms with a view to mom-and-pop joints, chic cuisine and some of our dining critic’s faves.

Hell’s Backbone Grill

Nestled just off of Utah’s famed Highway 12 in Boulder, this farm-to-table eatery is open seasonally providing not-so-typical road trip fare.

Acclaimed chefs and owners Jen Castle and Blake Spalding are committed to sustainable farming and dining practices, which show in every one of their delectable dishes. The ever-popular spicy Breakfast Jenchilada is a plate of smothered toasted corn tortillas, sage-potato pancakes and rice and beans. There’s plenty to tuck into at lunch, too, like the Boulter Patty Melt and the award-winning Backbone House Salad. Next time you’re down south admiring Utah’s red-rock wilderness, stop off and admire Hell’s Backbone, as well. No. 20 North Highway 12, Boulder, 435-335-7464, hellsbackbonegrill.com

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Taqueria 27

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Taqueria 27 combines south-of-the-border grub with an American twist. Start with a heap of guacamole and any of the tequilas artistically displayed in chalk at each Salt Lake City location.

Once downed, choose from the copious selection of tacos, such as the citrus pork carnitas, which include charred tomatillo salsa, pickled red onion, cilantro and napkins to sop up the mess you’re sure to make. Multiple locations, taqueria27.com

Trolley Wing Co.

Trolley Wing Co.’s foundation is its wings, which are served with your choice of 13 housemade sauces. These are not your typical wings: thick and meaty with the just right dosage of sauce. Order your wings bone-in, bone-free or vegan, and don’t forget a locally crafted beer to wash ’em down. If you have some sort of gripe with your tastebuds, try the Enema Challenge: 12 wings in the Hotter Than Hell sauce. If you can finish them in 30 minutes, there’s no charge. 2148 S. 900 East, 801538-0745, trolleywingcompany.com

| CITY WEEKLY |

28 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

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Any place that brands itself as a dessert café definitely appeals to the masses. While The Chocolate’s gigantic layer cakes are mouth-watering, You might want to consider the Cazookie. The Cazookie is so named because the cookie dough is baked more like a cake—in a nice, deep ramekin that keeps it warm and melty while a pile of ice cream drizzles its way into the dessert. It’s a cookie that eats like a cake, and that is never a bad thing. 212 S. State, 801-224-7334; 9120 S. Redwood Road, West Jordan, 801-5665330, thechocolatedc.com

ONLINE AT iconnectfarms.com

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DECEMBER 10, 2020 | 29

30 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

MUSIC

BY ERIN MOORE music@cityweekly.net @errrands_

#SAVEUTAHBARS

JOHNNYSONSECOND.COM

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his holiday is like no other before it, in that many people have been deeply financially impacted by this unprecedented yea. Consequently, giving gifts might not be an option for some, perhaps a strictlybudgeted one for others. And for those who haven’t been severely impacted, their gift could mean the world to someone less fortunate in their life.

Now is the time to dig deep, forgo the novelty bullshit on Amazon, and give the things needed and missed by your loved ones.

Here’s a guide on how to do it for the musiclovers in your life, and how to do it local first!

For the Makers and Players: If you’ve been reading this music section for the past year, you know that this writer loves to complain on behalf of artists about just how expensive it is to be a musician, and how hard it is to keep it up when making a profit off music is difficult, to say the least. This pandemic year, with the loss of consistent paying shows, it’s fair to assume that burden’s become even heavier for many of Utah’s musicians.

So how can you help ease the burden?

There are several local options, including Acoustic Music (857 E. 400 South), a local guitar stop that’s been slinging the finest in acoustic guitars and accoutrements for more than 40 years. They offer gift cards, so whether you can only afford to give your musicmaker enough for a new set of strings, or enough to cover a new rig or repair (available in the shop), it’s a worthy consideration.

And if you’re thinking “gift cards are so lame!” (even though they’re not), don’t worry—you can spice it up by adding a dazzling handmade guitar pick to the gift by heading over to @bummer_honeys on Instagram. There, local musician Courtney Lane sells their spin on the resin jewelry trend by peddling sparkling, lustrous resin picks they make alongside a selection of jewelry.

Give your friend a cool pick and support a local musician in one go? Okay!

For those who lean electric, there are still more options. While Squarewave Sound doesn’t operate out of a storefront anymore, their Instagram @squarewave.sound is a wealth of buying and trading of electronica gear, from keyboards to mixers and audio equipment for the synth-head in your life. On their site squarewave-sound.myshopify.com, one can browse products and call in to ask for availability.

For your heart’s dearest shredder, Guitar Czar (5979 S. State) offers everything a rock ‘n’ roll-minded person needs—electric guitars, amps, effects pedals and more, plus gift cards which are available at guitarczar.com. Next door at Salt City Drums (5967 S. State), one can find the drums one needs to fill out the ’fit, or just get another gift card, available at saltcitydrums.com. And once your friend the musician has their set-up ready to go? Local electronic musician Passive Tourist recommends the Roland Go Mixer for easy music streaming from one’s phone to Instagram or Twitch—which, as one can gather, is the mode of performance to have a handle on this pandemic year.

ACOUSTIC MUSIC

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

CALL YOUR Merry Music REP TO Gifting for the music-lover TELL THEM Ideas on your holiday list MOM & POP SHOPS ARE T GETTING WRECKED. OPEN THE RAINY DAY FUND! IT’S POURING OUT HERE!

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GIFT GIVING

For the Fans: Anyone who loves music has got to know at least a few of the local spots for snagging records, but you don’t just have to stop at vinyl-shopping. When in Ogden, make a pit stop at Lavender Vinyl (123 25th Street, Ogden) for a gift card or some of their stock of band merch and local vinyl, or browse and buy online at lavendervinyl.com. If you’re farther south in the Utah County area, take a gander at 3hive Records (50 E. 500 North, Provo), who are indeed selling gift cards online and in-store, and may even still have a few of their special tees in benefit of Velour if someone on your list wants to rep the venue that made Provo great. The shop also has a selection of record players and accessories available online (shope.3hive.com) and music-y coffee table books for your coffee table book collecting friend.

In the Greater Salt Lake Metropolitan Area, of course, there are many offerings: Diabolical Records (238 S. Edison Street) has a diverse stock, with many local offerings, cassettes, storebranded swag and gift cards; Randy’s Records (157 E. 900 South) is famous for its largest (has this been checked recently though?) collection of records around; Albatross Recordings & Ephemera (315 E. 300 South) is the perfect spot to browse both expertly curated records while picking up some cocktail accessories, since it’s housed at Boozetique; Peasantries & Pleasantries (807 S. 800 East) is the 9th & 9th neighborhood’s by-appointment-only (on Instagram @pleasantlyslc) boutique record store with rare and über indie selections of records, CDs and tapes. Heavy Metal Shop (63 Exchange Place) is, of course, the place to get the iconic hoodie essential for any SLC devotee.

And if it’s just something a bit more niche, a bit more wacky?

Browse local recordings taken down on tape, bootlegs or oddball found cassettes collected, released and sold by Far Out Cassette Club (@faroutcassetteclub on Instagram, faroutcassetteclub. bandcamp.com), whose dedicated tape efforts City Weekly profiled a few months ago. Or, visit local DJ-centered label FountainAVM (fountainavm.com/shop) to browse tapes, records, and tees created by and in commemoration of DJ sets and music experiments by recognizable local names and recordings of live sets past. CW

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THURSDAYS

LIVE MUSIC EVERY THURSDAY, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT! Andrew Aguilera of Mooninite

Mooninite Returns with Lightworks

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32 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

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Those who appreciate beats and minimal, glossy synth production with an emphasis on looping and sampling will find something to be excited about in a new release from Mooninite’s Andrew Aguilera. The local electronica artist has been a staple of the Hel Audio label for years playing as Mooninite, also working with fellow local Lauren Smith on the starry, lo-fi project Angel Magic.

His last releases as Mooninite were two EPs in 2016 and 2017—a self-titled and EP3, respectively—and this new one, titled Lightworks, while conveying the same soft and smooth texture with unhurried pacing, is much longer than those two shorter releases. The track listing expands to 29 songs, but those tracks are generally quite short (only a handful scratch the two minute mark) and generally less bodied, for the most part coming and going blearily, like fleeting glances from passing strangers late at night. Even tracks like the middling “Everyday” is, with its bright, lively beat, only 54 seconds long. That brief song stands out as the first departure from the 13 gentle tracks that make up the first half of the album, tracks that evoke underground explorations in cool, damp, perhaps crystalencrusted environs. “Acid Net” and “Last Backup” follow “Everyday” in their own vivacious ways, before things settle back down with the somewhat woozy “I Know Where Catherine Street Is,” which precedes the last stack of songs with their dreamiest synths and snappiest beats. That there is cohesion among these many songs makes more sense than not, as they’re all experiments from the past year, representing Aguilera’s various projects. In the notes on his Bandcamp, he explains that Lightworks showcases “the development of new ideas coming together,” and like fleeting thoughts that are sometimes half-finished but often interwoven into larger relation, these songs all feel like bright, intimate snapshots into

LAUREN SMITH

BY ERIN MOORE

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MUSIC PICKS

a creative process taken at its most immediate. Stream it on Spotify, or buy it on Bandcamp at mooninite.bandcamp.com.

The Season of SLAM

A guitar, keyboard, drum kit or any other instrument does cost a lot more than, say, a baseball mitt, a basketball, a football or a pair of soccer cleats. In both cases, however, they can be tools for self-expression, growth and excitement for youth—both can even be team sports. And while the former isn’t as popular a form of socialization for teenagers as high school sports, that doesn’t stop local organizations like Salt Lake Academy of Music from fostering a place for musically inclined kids not just to get better at music, but to form bands, record their compositions and perform. Among the many SLAM alumni bands, two new projects have joined their gallery of young talents. Main Street Marigold is a four-piece which just released their EP Spare Change, a concept project that stemmed from the pandemic and which features four songs directed by each of the four members.

It stretches from the bluesiness of “Broken Clock” and “See You Soon” to the ambitious, dramatic, metal-ish “Better Days” and the classic rock of “The River”—which, in addition to the kids’ talents, definitely benefits from the production hand of long-time local music man Terence Hansen. The other new project that SLAM can take credit for helping build to fruition is Jaxon Brown’s Daydream EP, an indie pop endeavor which was helped along by a crew of Brown’s friends. Besides assisting with producing and releasing these projects, SLAM works to make music accessible even to those who can’t afford it with their sliding scale system, meaning that if music is your kid’s sport, SLAM has a place for them to play their best. If you want to see SLAM continue to provide that gift, give a gift yourself by donating to SLAM (and getting some SLAM swag in return) this holiday season at slamslc.org.

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MUSIC PICKS

T-James Releases Salty

Andrew Bird Brings Gezelligheid to Live Stream

KATE SCOT

Flavor Notes Brings Food and Music Together

There are two things that are certain in the media world: Music journalism is oversaturated with talent and opinions, and that fact is rivaled only by food writing’s own overfull woes. The latter especially is something that local Kia McGinnis Wray has had on her mind, in her ponderings about how to juggle her passion for food with her equal passion for music. “I’ve been thinking about how to combine the two for a long time, though it’s definitely been inspiring to see how many people have put themselves out there during the pandemic!” she says. The way that McGinnis Wray has put herself out there is by reenvisioning her own identity as a music writer and food lover by way of her new blog Flavor Notes—a pun only a true writer could come up with. She has a history as a music reviewer at SLUG Magazine, experience that exists alongside a few of her own music-centric zine projects, but she’s also dabbled in the food world, making, growing and posting about food as well as music over the years. “I wanted to be thoughtful about taking up space as a food writer, because it’s a saturated (and sometimes problematic) world. As far as music, I’ve been writing reviews for so long, and wanted to think about what I was hearing in a different way,” she says. For any music writer, the formulaic approach to describing sounds and the emotions they do or don’t evoke is a familiar one, though it’s also a hard skill to learn—which makes the endeavor of listening differently, especially in relation to something as similarly abstract as food, an impressive and inspiring one. So far, Flavor Notes consists of “duets,” like a cocktail recipe paired with some sweet words about the late Justin Townes Earle and some of his songs, as well as musings on pie paired with a long, delightfully varied pie-themed playlist. Flavor Notes will also include spotlights on local makers in the food and music arenas, and there’s even more to come. Do yourself a favor and follow Flavor Notes at @ flavornotes on Instagram, or at flavor-notes.com.

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Andrew Bird is quite the multi-talented man in the music world, and may be known to many for many different reasons. Some might remember first encountering him by way of his quintessential contributions to aughties indie, which were colored by his talents in the folk and jazz ensemble worlds as much as they were by his tendency to experiment with loops, pedals and his trusty violin. Even with 16 albums under his belt and some Grammy nominations, still others may be familiar with his somewhatannual Gezelligheid performance—a seasonally-minded showcase named after a Dutch word for “cozy”—of Bird’s own songs and some covers, all typically performed on a cathedral stage with big Victrola speakers and Bird’s even bigger, spirited sound. The performance has traditionally taken place at the 4th Presbyterian Church in Bird’s native Chicago, with the first performance taking place back in 2013. Whether folks already know of the series, have been to its real life iterations or are just Bird fans new to this holiday offering, anyone will doubtless be excited that the performance will now be made virtually accessible, with promotion from SLC’s own art lovers, Red Butte Gardens and streaming on Performance Now! via Seated.

And while it’s sad that Bird can’t hold his IRL version of the show in the church with all its grand acoustics, it is special that people far and wide, Chicagoans or not, can stop into the church of Gezelligheid during these strange, lonely holidays and share in what only a talent like Andrew Bird can offer. Ticket-buyers also gain access to archival recordings of the first Gezelligheid performance from 2013, viewable in the days leading up to the viewing, or on the viewing day itself, which is Dec. 13. Tickets are $20, and the performance airs at 7 p.m. EST. Visit andrewbird. net for ticketing links and info.

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Local rapper T-James has stayed busy since the release of his last full-length album, 2019’s Distant Shapes, and a result is here in his new album Salty—an appropriate title for an album that ruminates on the wariness that seems to stick to the hustle for success.

Released Dec. 4, early tracks like “No In Between” set the album’s tone of weariness and strength, sounding like a prayer for confidence and perseverance. “Life Goals,” meanwhile, opens with classic spitfire rapping that cedes later to T-James’s honeyed mantra about his dreams, his pondering over how high he might go; a slow piano-beat winks over and over in the background, providing a golden tone that seems to depict the basis of T-James’s state of mind as an ultimately positive one. Around track seven, when among breezy, airy backbeats “Stuck In My Thoughts” shifts towards a lost friend stuck in a world of their own bullshit, it becomes clear that the friend is really just an example of T-James greatest fear—someone he used to trust who’s turned their back. It’s a fear that comes up elsewhere on the album, as T-James also muses in one of the best lines on the release, “Hardship has a beautiful face, we fall in love with the pain and call it musical taste,” though whether he’s referring to his past friend’s struggles or his own is hard to say. At every turn on the album, T-James rotates between his own sure sense of self and the paranoia that must come from depending on others to help you. And on “Keep ‘em Awake,” he finds some agreement in that sentiment from the wry voice of fellow local rapper Izzy Davis, a welcome addition to T-James’s flows. Even on the smirking (and super catchy) track “Quesadilla,” T-James and his feature, Sleezy, fixate on the cheesy pie in the sky. It’s only on the closer “Burn Out” that T-James takes his eye off his own prize, shifting his gaze instead towards the wider struggle of movements, like the ones we’ve seen spring up this summer around Black Lives Matter. It’s an abrupt departure, but it’s also good to see that T-James’s penchant for parsing out the meaning of work, pain and success extends beyond his own personal saltiness. Stream it on Spotify.

SCOOTER COOPER

T-James

Andrew Bird

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DECEMBER 10, 2020 | 35

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36 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

FILM REVIEW

CINEMA

Guns & Booties

I’m Your Woman wraps a story of motherhood into a crime thriller.

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

AMAZON STUDIOS

G

enre cinema is a terrific camouflage. With many (if not most) conventional dramas, there’s never any confusion from the outset as to what the story is about, or what kind of character journey we’ll be observing. Maybe it’s a love story, or maybe it’s an addiction narrative, or any of a hundred other possibilities, but it’s right in front of you.

Things get more complicated if you wrap a tale of grief up in a supernatural horror film like The Babadook, or if you wrestle with the power of mythologized storytelling in a Western like Unforgiven. It’s almost impossible to feel like you’re being fed a message if a filmmaker is skilled at hiding the fact that there’s even a message coming.

Director Julia Hart proved herself particularly skilled at that sleight-of-hand with 2018’s Fast Color, taking what was nominally a superhero origin story and crafting it into a tale of divided families, and people of color being “othered” as threatening during a time of crisis. With I’m Your Woman, Hart and her co-writer/spouse/collaborator Jordan Horowitz take a run-for-your-life crime thriller and transform it into a surprisingly effective portrait of coming to terms with motherhood.

Rachel Brosnahan stars as Jean—wife of a professional criminal Eddie (Bill Heck)—who spends her days alone in their house, with voice-over narration noting that they’d been unable to have a child. Then one day, Eddie brings home a baby with a cryptic remark that “it’s all been taken care of.” And just as Jean is trying to settle into the realities of caring for a child, her world is further turned upside down when one of Eddie’s associates bursts in to tell her that Eddie is running for his life, and that her own life is also in danger unless she takes on the lam with the baby that she has named Harry.

Much of the first act finds Jean trying to understand

what is happening while her driver, Cal (Arinzé Kene), tries to find her a safe place. Brosnahan plays her early scenes in a reactive state, waiting for instructions from others while simultaneously trying to figure out how to calm a crying baby. It’s low-key character drama for much of that time, but it’s also a perfect set-up for where Hart is going.

And where Hart is going is turning the stakes for a new mom that often feel like life-or-death into an actual life-ordeath scenario. Much of Jean’s arc is built around her fears that she’s made a terrible mistake bringing a child into a world she knows is dangerous, exacerbating her fears that she’s not up to the task of parenting. Repeatedly she finds herself comparing herself to others she thinks are doing better—observing Cal’s gift for settling Harry down with a finger in the baby’s mouth, or complimenting food prepared by others with a resigned, “I’m a terrible cook.” By the time I’m Your Woman creeps towards its violent climax, it becomes a tale of developing the confidence to know that you can do what has to be done, because as a parent, you have no choice.

That violent climax is only part of where Hart shows that she’s just as savvy at handling the actual genre components as she is at subverting them. More of that content is built on simmering tension than it is on actual gunplay, as in a scene where Jean and Cal have taken Harry to the hospital, and paranoia mounts that they might be recognized. Yet Hart

Rachel Brosnahan in I’m Your Woman

also delivers the goods when it comes down to something as fundamental as a car chase, or focusing on Jean’s attempt to hide from a shootout at a disco.

That aforementioned scene is also one of the few places where I’m Your Woman gets more overt about the fact that this story is set in the 1970s, which makes it a unique setting for exploring women’s anxieties over motherhood.

Hart and Horowitz are less successful at incorporating issues of race—a disappointing surprise, considering how deftly they handled the subject in Fast Color—touching on “if you think you’ve got it tough” notions they’re not really prepared to follow through on. They’ve got a much firmer grip on Jean’s journey toward confidence, captured in a story where she can have a baby booty in one coat pocket, and a gun in the other. CW

I’M YOUR WOMAN

BBB Rachel Brosnahan Arinzé Kene Marsha Stephanie Blake R

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY B Y R O B

B R E Z S N Y

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

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

ARIES (March 21-April 19) According to Taoist scholar Chad Hansen, “Western philosophers have endlessly analyzed and dissected a cluster of terms thought to be central to our thinking,” such as truth, beauty, reason, knowledge, belief, mind and goodness. But he reports that they’ve never turned their attention to a central concept of Chinese philosophy: the Tao, which might be defined as the natural, unpredictable flow of life’s ever-changing rhythms.

I think that you Aries people, more than any other sign of the zodiac, have the greatest potential to cultivate an intuitive sense of how to align yourselves vigorously with the Tao. And you’re in prime time to do just that.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) What’s the cause of the rumbling at the core of your soul? How do we explain the smoke and steam that are rising from the lower depths? From what I can discern, the fire down below and the water down below are interacting to produce an almost supernatural state of volatile yet numinous grace. This is a good thing! You may soon begin having visions of eerie loveliness and earth-shaking peace. The clarity that will eventually emerge may at first seem dark, but if you maintain your poise it will bloom like a thousand moons.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Author and student Raquel Isabelle de Alderete writes wittily about her paradoxical desires and contradictory qualities. In accordance with current astrological omens, I encourage you to ruminate about your own. For inspiration, read her testimony: “I want to be untouchably beautiful, but I also don’t want to care about how I look. I want to be at the top of my class, but I also just want to do as best as I can without driving myself to the edge. I want to be a mystery that’s open to everybody. A romantic that never falls in love. Both the bird and the cat.”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Mistletoe is a parasite that grows on trees, weakening them. On the other hand, it has been a sacred plant in European tradition.

People once thought it conferred magical protection. It was called “all-heal” and regarded as a medicine that could cure numerous illnesses. Even today, it’s used in Europe as a remedy for colon cancer. And, of course, mistletoe is also an icon meant to encourage kissing. After studying your astrological potentials, I’m proposing that mistletoe serve as one of your symbolic power objects in the coming months. Why? Because I suspect that you will regularly deal with potencies and energies that could potentially be either problematic or regenerative. You’ll have to be alert to ensure that they express primarily as healing agents.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) I’m envisioning a scene in which you’re sitting on a chair at a kitchen table. At the center of the table is a white vase holding 18 long-stemmed red roses. The rest of the table’s surface is filled with piles of money, which you have just unloaded from five mysterious suitcases you found at your front door. All of that cash is yours, having been given to you no-strings-attached by an anonymous donor. You’re in joyful shock as you contemplate the implications of this miraculous gift. Your imagination floods with fantasies about how different your life can become. Now, Sagittarius, I invite you to dream up at least three further wonderfully positive fantasies involving good financial luck. That’s the medicine you need right now.

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DECEMBER 10, 2020 | 37

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Boisterous Capricorn novelist Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) once made the following New Year’s Eve toast: “To all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle—may they never give me peace.” Right now, I suspect you may be tempted to make a similar toast. As crazy-making as your current challenges are, they are entertaining and growthLEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Novelist Tom Robbins says you have the power to change inducing. You may even have become a bit addicted to them. But how you perceive the world. You can change reality—and in the interests of your long-term sanity, I will ask you to cut back how reality responds to you—by the way you look at it and on your “enjoyment” of all this uproar. Please consider a retreat interpret it. This counsel is especially useful for you right now, into an intense self-nurturing phase.

Leo. You have an unparalleled opportunity to reconfigure the way you apprehend things, and thereby transform the world AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) you live in. So, I suggest you set your intention. Vow that for In the French city of Strasbourg, there’s a wine cellar built in the the next two weeks, every experience will bring you a fresh year 1395. Among its treasures is a barrel filled with 450 liters of wine that was originally produced in 1472. According to legend, invitation to find out something you didn’t know before. this ancient beverage has been tasted on just three occasions.

The last time was to celebrate the French army’s liberation of VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was reelected in 2019. Strasbourg from German occupation in 1944. If I had the power, I During his campaign, the Virgo-born politician arranged to be would propose serving it to you Aquarians in honor of your tribe’s photographed while wearing the saffron robes of a Hindu priest heroic efforts to survive—and even thrive—during the ordeals of and meditating in an austere Himalayan cave. Why did he do it? 2020. I’m predicting that life in 2021 will have more grace and To appeal to religious voters. But later it was revealed that the progress because of how you have dealt with this year’s challenges. “cave” was in a cozy retreat center that provides regular meals, electricity, phone service and attentive attendants. It will be PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) crucial for you to shun this type of fakery in 2021, Virgo. Your There are too many authorities, experts, know-it-alls and arrosuccess will depend on you being as authentic, genuine and hon- gant ideologues trying to tell us all what to do and how to do it. est as you can possibly be. Now is an excellent time to set your Fortunately, the cosmic rhythms are now aligned in such a way as intention and start getting yourself in that pure frame of mind. to help you free yourself from those despots and bullies. Here’s more good news: Cosmic rhythms are also aligned to free you from the nagging voices in your own head that harass you with fearful LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) When author Ernest Hemingway was working on the manu- fantasies and threaten you with punishment if you aren’t perfect.

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CANCER (June 21-July 22) What would it take for you to muster just a bit more courage so as to change what needs to be changed? How could you summon the extra excitement and willpower necessary to finally make progress on a dilemma that has stumped you? I’m happy to inform you that cosmic rhythms will soon be shifting in such a way as to make these breakthroughs more possible. For best results, shed any tendencies you might have to feel sorry for yourself or to believe you’re powerless.

script for his novel A Farewell to Arms, he asked his colleague F. Scott Fitzgerald to offer critique. Fitzgerald obliged with a 10-page analysis that advised a different ending, among other suggestions. Hemingway wasn’t pleased. “Kiss my ass,” he wrote back to Fitzgerald. I suggest a different approach for you, Libra. In my view, now is a good time to solicit feedback and mirroring from trusted allies. What do they think and how do they feel about the current state of your life and work? If they do respond, take at least some of it to heart.

© 2020

ARSON

BY DAVID LEVINSON WILK

ACROSS

1. Member of the fam 2. Puzzle solver’s cry 3. Played the first card 4. Daughter in the “Descendants” movies 5. Huffington of The Huffington Post 6. Ben of Ben & Jerry’s

G

Insane Market

7. Canine collar dangler 8. Floral wreath by a coral reef 9. ____ beam 10. He directed Heath and Jake in “Brokeback Mountain” 11. Kind of education 12. Oklahoma nickname derived from settlers who were early to stake claims 13. Clothing 18. Annoyance for an oyster eater 21. First Asian-American woman to host “SNL” 22. In a lovely way 23. In a merciless way 24. Losers to the Dodgers in the 2020 World Series 25. R&B’s Bell Biv ___ 26. Adam’s apple location?

27. Costa del ____ 28. Thompson of “Thor: Ragnarok” 30. On account of 32. “Peer Gynt” composer 33. Syst. with hand signals 36. Abbr. on an office memo 37. Beethoven’s birthplace 39. ____ alai 40. Tailgate party recyclable 42. Dr. with Grammys

43. Bay Area force: Abbr.

45. “What the Butler Saw” playwright Joe 46. Puts money in, as a meter 47. Drops in a forecast 50. Yr.’s 8,760 51. “I see a cockroach!”

52. “Just ____ suspected!”

53. MGM rival of the ‘30s 54. Like offline interaction, initially 55. Miss Piggy’s coy question 56. Opposite of WSW

Last week’s answers

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

DOWN

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

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

1. Hollywood’s Hayek 6. Tiny hairs 11. Inspiration for Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” 14. “Rumor has it ...”

15. Literally, “singing place” 16. Debtor’s note 17. Photographer’s bane ... or a good clue for 36-Across 19. Dad ____ 20. Surveyor’s calculation 21. Microscope part 22. Passion ... or a good clue for 36-Across 28. One trading dollars for quarters 29. Manet who painted “Olympia” 31. 2010 Emma Stone comedy set in high school 32. “The People’s Court” prop 34. Sch. whose sports fans shout “Geaux Tigers!”

35. Takes evening courses?

36. Answer to the clues given in 17-, 22-, 44- and 50-Across 37. Diminish 38. Depot: Abbr.

39. It’s worth 8 points in Scrabble 40. “____ Subsequent Moviefilm” (2020 mockumentary) 41. TV Guide info 43. Mailed 44. Stealing from a coworker, e.g. ... or a good clue for 36-Across 47. Bit of ancient script 48. Not an orig.

49. “Solve for x” subj.

50. Result of a jealous rage, say ... or a good clue for 36-Across 57. Fighting a fever, say 58. Fill in, as a lawn bare spot 59. City where LeBron James opened the I Promise School 60. The Bronx Bombers, on scoreboards 61. Potato ____ 62. “I’m telling the truth!”

SUDOKU

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38 | DECEMBER 10, 2020

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

Pity the poor real-estate buyer right now in today’s insane seller’s market. I listed a home in Millcreek a few weeks back using a specific marketing strategy that ended up getting the seller 24 offers within three days. Nowadays, most buyers will offer slightly above asking price, and a few wild offers even include “escalation clauses” where the buyer is willing to pay up to 20% above the asking price.

Let me backtrack and explain what a seller’s market is. It means the available inventory is less than the number of buyers wanting to buy homes. I’m seeing about half as many homes for sale right as there was a year ago.

An escalation clause in a buyer’s offer might read something like the following: “Buyer will offer seller’s asking price, but if there are multiple offers, buyer is willing to pay ‘X’ over the highest bona fide offer, not to exceed ‘Y.’” For example, if a home is listed at $450,000, a buyer might offer the asking price, but if the seller receives six offers, the buyer’s escalation clause says the buyer will pay $1,500 over the highest offer received by the seller—not to exceed a sales price of, say, $475,000. The escalation clause doesn’t guarantee the buyer will win the battle for the home because the seller is free to accept whatever offer they choose.

I have seen sellers accept lower offers because they were charmed by a letter written by the prospective buyer(s) or because they knew the buyer.

But above all, the cash buyer is beating out all the other buyers these days, especially cash buyers who write contracts with no contingencies. What are purchase contract contingencies? To paraphrase language in the Utah Association of Realtors’ real-estate purchase contract, there are three contingencies, or protections, built into the real-estate purchase: 1. Buyer’s right to have the property inspected by anyone they choose, and buyer can cancel the contract without penalty by a certain date; 2. Buyer’s right to cancel the contract without penalty if the property does not appraise for the purchase price; 3. Buyer’s right to cancel if buyer’s loan is denied by the lender.

Cash buyers are often “flippers” who intend to purchase, update and sell/flip the home for a large profit. Savvy cash buyers will present offers with no contingencies and offer a fast closing to the seller. If you currently own a dwelling, you probably get dozens of postcards per week that offer to “buy your home for cash.” Beware of such offers because their strategy often include getting you to accept their cash offer, and then they have the home “inspected” and come back and tell you there’s a ton of things wrong with the home.

And if you still want them to buy, you have to discount your price to get your money out quickly. Flippers like these take advantage of people facing foreclosure and find them in public records of foreclosure notices.

Whether you’re a buyer or seller in this real estate market, know you need a strategy and call a professional! n Content is prepared expressly for Community and is not endorsed by City Weekly staff.

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in August when he got a surprise delivery: A meteorite crashed through his roof and landed outside. “When I lifted it, the stone was still warm, and I brought it into the house,” the coffin-maker told local media. United Press International reported the 4.5pound meteorite was a rare variety, valued by experts at almost $1.9 million, which attracted American expert Jared Collins, who paid more than $1 million for the rock. “I have also always wanted a daughter,” Hutagalung said, “and I hope this is a sign that I will be lucky enough now to have one.” He also plans to donate some of the funds to his local church’s new building project.

Compelling Explanations French police in Lannion, Brittany, became suspicious when they spotted a man lurking near a parked car at a time when France’s COVID-19 lockdown rules required him to be at home on Nov. 20. Upon questioning, the 39-year-old unnamed man produced the legally required “attestation,” including his full name, the time he left home and his written-in reason for being out: to “smash a guy’s face in.” Local police chief Daniel Kerdraon said, “He was trying to fulfill the letter of the law, in his own way,” The Guardian reported, “but we told him his reason for going out was not valid.” He was fined not only for violating the curfew but also for being drunk in public.

Bright Idea Matthew Piercey, 44, has been indicted on 31 federal felony counts related to a suspected Ponzi scheme, but when FBI agents tried to arrest him in Redding, California, on Nov. 16, he took off, authorities said. NBC News reported agents followed him to Lake Shasta, where Piercey pulled a $1,200 Yamaha 350LI Seascooter out of his vehicle, then disappeared into the frigid water, spending about 25 minutes “out of sight underwater where law enforcement could only see bubbles,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Hales wrote in court papers. The agents waited him out and arrested him when he resurfaced. Piercey faces up to 20 year in prison if convicted.

The Way the World Works Evidence of election rigging in New Zealand’s Bird of the Year competition has set organizers all atwitter, NPR reported.

Officials at Forest & Bird, a conservation organization, noticed that more than 1,500 votes in the annual event had come from one email address on Nov. 9, all in favor of the spotted kiwi.

“That is an amazing bird,” spokeswoman Laura Keown said, “but ... these votes had to be disallowed, and they’ve been taken out of the competition.” The disqualification cleared the way for the competition’s eventual winner: the kakapo, or moss chicken, a rare nocturnal bird and the world’s only flightless parrot.

Signs of the Times n Alexios Gerakis, 37, a candlemaker in Thessaloniki, Greece, has updated his Santa Claus candles for 2020 with blue surgical masks covering the big elf’s beard. “Because of the times, we are trying to convey a message that health comes first, then everything else,” Gerakis told Reuters Television. His snowmen candles also sport masks. n And in Lajosmizse, Hungary, confectioner Laszlo Rimoczi can’t keep up with the orders after he added tiny marzipan surgical masks to his chocolate Santas. He has simplified the design, Reuters reported, and has increased production to about 100 Santas a day in his rural workshop. Father Christmas “will have to wear a mask because Santa has to show a good example to people,” Rimoczi said.

Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

We sell homes to all saints, sinners, sisterwives and... NEW YEAR’S BABIES!

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Creme de la Weird The Design Museum in London has included a “DIY meal kit” featuring steaks that could be grown from a diner’s own human cells among the nominees in its Beazley Designs of the Year exhibit.

Developers of the Ouroboros Steak envision that an individual will be able to harvest cells from their own cheek and feed them with serum derived from donated blood that has expired, Dezeen.com reported. After about three months, the steaks would be fully grown. “People think that eating oneself is cannibalism, which technically this is not,” said Grace Knight, one of the designers.

Researcher Orkan Telhan added, “Our design is scientifically and economically feasible but also ironic in many ways,” he added.

Inexplicable Officers from Utah’s Department of Public Safety were helping the Division of Wildlife Resources count bighorn sheep from a helicopter on Nov. 18 when a shiny object in the desert landscape caught their eye. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turn around,” one of the biologists shouted, according to pilot Bret Hutchings. KSL reported the crew landed and found a 10- to12-foot-high silver monolith planted in the ground and tucked into a red-rock cove. After joking about extraterrestrials, the crew decided it looked man-made and took pictures, chalking it up to “some new wave artist ... a big 2001: A Space Odyssey’ fan,” Hutchings mused.

Collateral Damage Police in Corvallis, Oregon, said Dylan Milota was high on marijuana when he crashed the 2019 Tesla S he was driving at more than 100 mph into a utility pole on Nov. 17, breaking the pole and spraying hundreds of small batteries through the windows of two nearby residences. One landed on a bed, starting a fire in the bedsheets, KMTR reported. A tire from the car struck the second story of a nearby apartment building so forcefully it broke water pipes inside the wall, destroying the bathroom on the other side and causing flooding in the lower level, police said. Citizens were warned not to pick up any stray batteries, which can stay hot for up to 24 hours and release toxic fumes. Milota fled on foot but was quickly apprehended and charged with various offenses.

News You Can Use n College student Benjamin LaRose of Millis, Massachusetts, is recovering from third-degree burns he suffered at an outdoor party with friends this fall when someone used hand sanitizer as an accelerant in the fire pit they were gathered around, Boston25 reported. “It was rather sudden how quick it reacted,” LaRose said, “very much like napalm,” catching his leg and shorts on fire and requiring skin grafts to treat the burns. LaRose’s pediatrician, Dr. Lester Hartman, warned of the dangers of using hand sanitizer and then being exposed to open flames: “Alcohol is very volatile and explosive ... and people that are doing a barbecue or even lighting a cigarette or lighting a candle” need to let the alcohol evaporate first. Or, experts say, use soap and water. n “Do not let moose lick your car,” say the flashing electronic signs along roads in Jasper (Alberta) National Park, where park spokesman Steve Young told CNN: “(Moose are) obsessed with salt. ... They usually get it from salt lakes in the park, but now they realized they can also get road salt that splashes onto cars.”

Officials say if moose become accustomed to licking cars, they’ll lose their fear of vehicles, putting the animals in danger. In Jasper, where drivers often stop to get photos of the moose, officials recommend driving away if the animals start to approach.

Awesome!

Josua Hutagalung, 33, was working outside his home in Sumatra

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

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