City Weekly March 23, 2023

SLC FORECAST

Cover Story

BY YOUR SIDE

While lawmakers debated the future of the Great Salt

a group of artists, scientists and community stewards kept vigil near the shoreline.

By

Amelia

Diehl and Brooke Larsen

Cover design by Derek Carlisle

S AP

BOX

Crossroads of the West

Once upon a time I had faith that with all the young, tech-savvy people moving into Utah, there was a possibility that the state could at least turn into a reddish-purple and escape from being a right-wing, antiwoman, anti-gay and anti-voting rights, bright-red state run by religious zealots.

How foolish I was! Outside of Salt Lake County, nothing has changed. It’s frightening—if, somehow, Trump should get the GOP nomination in 2024, I suppose Utah would, for the third time, try to put him back in office.

Poor public education is one of the factors keeping the Bible Belt states in the GOP column. The more ignorant the populace, the easier it is to control. While Utah legislators have given token raises to the state’s teachers, classrooms are still terribly overcrowded—especially so for elementary and middle schools.

The Southern Baptist denomination still rules in the South. And, like in most of the South, a fundamentalist religion— The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—rules here in Utah.

Never mind all of the pedophilia, the cheating on federal taxes and a dwindling membership, the Latter-day Saint faith is still the powerhouse and tries to at least maintain the illusion of being powerful by ever-erecting gaudy new temples.

How sad. Utah is at a crossroads. It can go all-in on right-wing racism like Idaho or become a beacon for decency and common sense like Oregon, Washington and California.

TED OTTINGER Taylorsville

“Water, Water, Everywhere”

March 16 Online News

Funny how Republicans hate the feds because of “overreach,” as they claim—yet all the red states are running their own militant government controls through religious ideology over culture and social wars that are not addressing real issues.

JASONSGRS

Via Instagram

“Train Gang,” March 8 Online News

Maybe we should waive transit fares entirely—more people would use the transit system, and we could expand the current network of buses and trains.

MYFLYINGTURTLE

Via instagram

I have been using the train on a regular basis for the past month, and it’s apparent that our city, county and state leaders see it as transportation for “blue collar,” “working class” poor people. They therefore think it’s OK to use the service as shelter for homeless people and with

little-to-no regulation for pet owners. And as much as I sympathize with fellow humans who don’t have a home, their problems are not resolved by crowding them into public transit used by commuters or libraries used by students. Do some root cause analysis instead of happily jumping to unsupported conclusions about [transit] price and usage.

I’d like to continue using the train system but will revert to driving if it continues serving a double purpose.

ADOLFO BV

Via Facebook

A ridership increase is what happens when people from places with good transit visit and actually use the system that locals don’t take full advantage of.

KRISTA VANDERPOOL

Via Facebook

Care to sound off on a feature in our pages or about a local concern? Write to comments@ cityweekly.net or post your thoughts on our social media. We want to hear from you!

THE WATER COOLER

What is your favorite spring activity?

Bill Frost

Trading out winter cargo shorts for summer cargo shorts.

Katharine Biele

Walking in a warm breeze, watching birds fly from limb to limb.

Benjamin Wood

I’m anxiously awaiting two things: when it’s warm enough to set up my patio furniture and when it’s dry enough to take my mountain bike into the foothills.

Kelly Boyce

Being in the sun and burning all my winter clothes.

Scott Renshaw

Not shoveling snow.

Eric Granato

Walking around the Capitol when the cherry blossoms are out and taking the kid out to fly a kite.

Sofia Cifuentes

Hiking looking for flowers

Bryan Bale

I’m most excited about finally putting my winter wear away, only to drag it back out again when the frost returns at unpredictable intervals.

Floodgates Open

Ibarely remember what the coming of spring was like in 1983, only that I lived in a little white, brick home on Main Street in Midvale, just a few yards across the road from one of the largest Superfund sites in the country.

The basement was the first office for what became this newspaper in 1984. I had a nice garden—thanks, Superfund site!—a golden retriever named Doochie and neighbors who never spoke to me, setting in motion a tradition that lives on to this day.

I remember getting ripped off by a kid with a fancy lawnmower (who but a dummy like me would pay $75 to have their grass cut in 1983?), but I don’t remember shoveling the big snow they say we had that year. I surely didn’t hire the kid who had already picked my pocket. Still, by the end of May, there were growing conversations that, “Geez, is that snow up there ever going to melt?”

It did, and soon every stream along the Salt Lake Valley rim—even those over in the Oquirrh Mountains—began to overflow their banks. The Jordan River bordering the Superfund site was flowing strong enough to scrub away the crap that had accumulated for decades in the neglected river, exposing a tossed away washing machine here and an auto chassis there. Few back then cared about the Jordan River, though.

It wasn’t until waters flowing out of the Cottonwood, Millcreek, Parleys and City Creek canyons riled up the finer residents living on those banks that serious action was undertaken. Famously, City Creek—long ago a surface, free-flowing, exposed waterway—exploded out of its subterranean hiding place and ran downhill along State Street. I believe it was diverted west along 400 South, so

BY JOHN SALTAS @johnsaltas

there was a river there, too, memory being that I had to step lightly to enter Club Cabana (now The Green Pig).

One day, as I was driving home, the radio announced that help was needed to fill and distribute sandbags. One of the sandbag-loading stations was close to home, so I got a shovel and volunteered.

There’s not much to filling a sandbag—that was easy. What wasn’t easy was filling them among hundreds of short-attention-span Boy Scouts, the normally lazy people like me who worked night shifts, the elderly who remembered pitching in during the Great Depression and other sundry people just trying to do a good thing.

I was just catching my stride when I heard my name called out. Huh? Who could I possibly know here? Then it came again from amid a dozen or so guys in orange clothing that I quickly guessed as a prison gang. Not only were they not mingling all over the place, they clearly had a guard among them. I walked their way and one of the prisoners shouted my name and waved me over.

There was a brief discussion between him and the guard and, pretty soon, I was filling bags with the prisoners. Those guys were really, really good at loading sandbags. They were the members of the Flame N Goes—prisoners who could earn good behavior points and a few bucks by fighting fires in the Intermountain West. On this day, they were filling sandbags.

That dark evening, I tossed those bags along homes in upper Millcreek and along Big Cottonwood Creek near what is now Hog Wallow Pub, before the area was ruined by big homes. The Flame N Goes didn’t get that duty.

There’s no need to bring up the prisoner by name, but I grew up with him. He graduated a couple of years before me at Bingham High School and had, up until his imprisonment, what one can generously say was an interesting

life. We were always friends, hiking in Bingham Canyon, nursing baby rabbits, hanging out in the crazy State Street bars of the 1970s, him disappearing for stretches with his motorcycle buddies. I was one of the very few who stayed in communication with him after he was incarcerated. He appreciated that. I never asked him about the night he killed a man. He appreciated that, too. Court reports and news accounts told the details as they were exposed, so there was no need to do that anyway. He was found guilty by a jury of his peers.

What no one ever knew, though, was why the shooting that ended a promising young man’s life—my childhood buddy was a near perfect marksman—occurred in the first place. But it did, emotionally destroying the victim’s family and altering the course of so many others lives, mine included. Yet, there he was, those many years later, filling sandbags.

I can attest that while he had a genuinely gentle side, nobody messed with him prior to prison. He was a notoriously good bar bouncer. To say he had some influence among his fellow orange-clad Flame N Go bunch was obvious. He earned his way into time release, too, evidenced one night at about 3 a.m. by him awakening me at home with a bottle of rum, ankle bracelet be damned.

He was released in the early 1990s and later died alone. I don’t know why looking out my window this snowy day reminds me of all that, but it did. Something must be telling me that come warm weather we need to get our act together, fill some sandbags and be on the alert for circumstances that will change our lives.

It also reminds me that lifelong sandbagger Donald Trump will have his day, too. But everyone is already talking about that. CW

Send comments to john@cityweekly.net

HITS & MISSES

BY KATHARINE BIELE | @kathybiele

MISS: Wishful Thinking

The governor could not be more wrong. Not to burst his bubble of love, but let’s talk about negativity, even if Spencer Cox doesn’t like it. “Doom and gloom,” he told participants at the Great Salt Lake Symposium, leads to apathy. Maybe he thinks we’ll all just give up in the face of the shrinking lake and do nothing. Frankly, his plan for the lake is pretty much like doing nothing. “When we tell people that the sky is falling, what most people do is, they give up,” Cox said. “If the Great Salt Lake is already done, if it’s already dried up—we’re all going to die from toxic dust—then I’m just going to go ahead and water my lawn.” What the governor misses is that leadership is fighting against the things that lull us into complacency. Perhaps he hasn’t noticed the fights against the Utah inland port or the anti-woman abortion ban. There’s plenty of doom and gloom there, but it hasn’t stopped anyone.

HIT: Catch and Release

Speaking of activism, the Utah Rivers Council is doing more than talking. It has joined with 12 municipal partners in a RainHarvest rain barrel program, the Deseret News reports. By capturing rain, residents can help prevent urban runoff that washes pollutants into streams and ultimately the Great Salt Lake. The program has sold 8,000 barrels over the past eight years. With a 50-gallon barrel, 400,000 gallons of water can be saved from municipal water supplies. That’s not nothing. “According to the EPA, 30% of daily water is used outdoors. In the Snyderville Basin, that number is closer to 55%.” Zach Frankel of the URC doesn’t stop there. He has been advocating for more realistic water pricing in the state and lobbies against what he calls foolhardy projects like the Lake Powell Pipeline and Bear River Development.

MISS: Real Republicans Only

Utah lawmakers are a strange lot, especially when it comes to legislating on non-issues. Just take their latest effort to keep those radical left-wingers from voting for Republicans. When Becky Edwards ran against Sen. Mike Lee in 2022, activists hit the streets to persuade voters to switch to the GOP and support Edwards in the primary. The thought was that no Democrat could beat Lee in a general election, but perhaps a moderate Republican could win the hearts and votes of the primary electorate. According to Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, it was all about party-raiding to disrupt the election. There was a lot of interest in the 2020 gubernatorial race when Spencer Cox squeaked through the primary with 36.4% of the vote against Jon Huntsman’s 34.6%. Last year, however, Lee won with nearly 62% against Edwards. And yet, Teuscher decided to make it harder still with SB365, making it so you can’t change parties after April 1 of an election year. He must sense an impending tide of raiders.

Fool’s Spring

The end of interminable snow storms and the dawn of slightly warmer temperatures may trick some into thinking springtime is approaching, but I’m not falling for it this year. A hilarious meme from a few years back that still makes the rounds, entitled “The 12 Seasons of Utah,” has recently become my go-to guide in determining where we are in the cycle.

By my estimation, we are either entering “Fool’s Spring” or possibly the “Spring of Deception” if I’m being optimistic. Regardless, we still have another winter phase ahead of us, as the only sign of the true spring’s beginning—according to the OP’s absurdly accurate table of Beehive State seasons—is when the orange barrels of city road construction start sprouting from the asphalt.

But for those who are pining for spring during the inevitable snow flurries of March and April, there are a few ways to get your spirits up. One of my favorites is traveling around the city and spotting murals of spring blossoms—these painted flowers are always in bloom regardless of the weather outside!

And there is a surprising amount to find, varying in both size and variety. If you want a long, linear bouquet, swing by the elaborate roundabout exchange near 2300 East and Claybourne Avenue, whereas if you prefer a more grandiose arrangement, head to the Towers on Main apartments at 1810 S. Main to see 50-foot painted versions of native flowers done by local artist Josh Scheuerman.

But some of my favorite finds are embedded in neighborhoods and on schoolyards. I particularly enjoy the colorful garden depicted on the retaining wall of Dilworth Elementary at 1953 S. 2100 East (bottom photo) where, presumably, classrooms of school children had fun painting.

Similarly, the neighborhood mural by artist Brooklyn Ottens near 1100 East and Lorraine Drive (top photo)— showing geometric petals from a quartet of colorful flowers—will also help your mood if you have fallen victim to seasonal affective disorder.

Just remember, hope (and spring!) springs eternal.CW

A mural by Brooklyn Ottens adds a splash of spring color to a residential fenceline in Millcreek.

A row of hand-painted flowers brighten a playground retaining wall at Dilworth Elementary.

BY YOUR SIDE

While lawmakers debated the future of the Great Salt Lake, a group of artists, scientists and community stewards kept vigil near the shoreline.

By Brooke Larsen and Amelia Diehl | comments@cityweekly.net

Photography by Jeri Gravlin

On a recent February night, strong winds rattled Nan Seymour’s camper on Antelope Island. She woke up and looked at the time: 11:45 p.m.

With so many hours left in the night, she felt compelled to text milo, a young poet and activist sleeping in a van parked behind her. “F—k the wind,” she wrote, before immediately thinking to herself, “Oh man, that’s not cool.”

Seymour habitually speaks with a reverence for all life and elements. And for the past two years, she has organized a weeks-long, outdoor vigil because, as she says, “When the life of someone you love is at stake, you stay with them.”

In November 2022, the Great Salt Lake was at its lowest recorded water level due to un sustainable water use and megadrought conditions. At the start of 2023, a scientific report predicted the lake could dry up within five years without emergency measures.

Seymour views this crisis as a relational one. She encourages people to stop viewing the lake as an object but rather as a sentient being. “Use any pronoun but ‘it,’” she said. Winter camping at Antelope Island has its challenges—not only because of the harsh elements, but also because it offers a front-row seat to the lake’s receding shoreline. that sight greeting Seymour and a group of writers, artists, activists, scientists, faith lead ers and concerned community members for the 47 days and nights that they held vigil near the lake, from Jan. 16 to March 4—the entirety of Utah’s 2023 legislative session.

“It’s not directly a political protest. The lake’s life is at stake every day right now,” Seymour said. “But during these [legislative] sessions, the stakes are higher. Maybe that’s just something that the lake knows.”

“Turn your face to the lake”

Seymour affirms the lake’s wisdom and says the vigil was the lake’s idea. She notes that she wasn’t a predictable person to become a leading voice on the lake—she missed the fourthgrade field trip, she said, and her first visit to Antelope Island was on her 47th birthday.

“I was from what I call the culture of apathy and disdain regarding Great Salt Lake,” Seymour said. “I grew up with that idea that the lake was peripheral—it’s stinky, you don’t go there. And we didn’t—I didn’t go there.”

In the fall of 2021, Seymour listened to an episode of RadioWest during which host Doug Fabrizio interviewed biology professor Bonnie Baxter about the crisis at the Great Salt Lake.

“I drove out to the shore at Saltair to listen,” Seymour said. “I just knew that when I listened to it, it would change everything.”

Seymour started obsessively writing and dreaming about the lake. From her “nighttime listening” came the idea for both irreplaceable—a collective praise poem she launched to reflect the size of a restored lake—and the winter vigil. She says the idea for an annual lakeside gathering arrived like an invitation in the mail or a radio distress call in a war zone. “I happened to tune into the channel,” Seymour said. “I’m not here because I’m special. It’s just that she was crying for help, and I found the channel.”

For the first vigil, in 2022, Utah Humanities contributed funds, and Seymour took the title “poet-in-residence” at Antelope Island. Her fellow creatives in the River Writing Collective—a non-judgmental, community-based writing practice Seymour founded—helped with vigil shifts. Her friend Rachel lent a camper. Others brought firewood and soup.

Jaimi Butler, a biologist who has been working on the Great Salt Lake since the late 1990s, jumped on as scientist-in-residence. Soon, this idea that seemed unfathomable became possible. The vigil has helped foster an emerging community of people connected by their concern for the Great Salt Lake.

When Seymour dreamed up irreplaceable, she set the goal of writing 1,700 lines to match the 1,700 square miles of a fully restored lake. She put out a call for contributions, but thought she’d have to write most of the poem herself. Instead, over 432 voices contributed 2,580 lines. “People want to bring their offerings,” she said.

During the 2023 vigil, 474 people participated in events such as chili cookouts, public talks, writing workshops, hikes, drum circles, sunset singalongs and art projects. Thirtyone people camped overnight, from First Unitarians to fellow writers and activists.

And more than 100 people from near and far participated in 25-minute “lake-facing” meditations, offered each morning on Zoom. This gesture is part of Seymour’s effort to tackle what she calls the “crisis of orientation.”

“When I say ‘lake-facing’ people, I actually really do mean that; turn your face to the lake,” Seymour said. “We’re the periphery, and the lake is the center.”

Throughout both vigils, writing and art were important ways to inspire a more intimate orientation to the lake. River Writing hosted writing workshops to move people away from a culture of apathy to one of attention.

Facilitators often started by asking participants to write sensory details about the Great Salt Lake. Prompts included writing a letter to the lake, and then writing a reply from the lake—an exercise that helped participants understand the lake in a more personal way. To conclude, each participant contributed a line for a group poem.

“I think for people who grew up here, they have to get themselves [to the lake]. And then think about it in an entirely new way,” Amy May, a River Writing facilitator, said. “And River Writing helps you take content and think about it in a new way and do something completely different than what you would ordinarily be doing with your time. It’s a really potent way to kind of quickly create community.”

Reclaiming a relationship

Other artforms have been important tools as well. On Feb. 12, vigil keepers flocked to the Island Buffalo Grill to make avocet, grebe, brine shrimp and brine fly puppets by cutting and coloring paper and adding pipe-cleaner legs.

The puppets represent key members of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, and Therese Berry, the event’s organizer, hopes participants will bring these puppets for future events in celebration of the lake.

Like Seymour, Berry—who was born and raised in Utah—said she “reclaimed” her relationship with the lake in 2021 after hearing Bonnie Baxter’s interview on RadioWest. “After you’re 8 years old and you float in the lake, you don’t think about it again,” Berry said.

But now, art—and especially art made through community—has been a way for her to grow her own bond with the lake. Last year, she made a set of prayer flags to support the first vigil.

“Once you pull people together in a creative environment, it just allows ideas, hopes and dreams and interpretations to flow and exchange,” she said. “We all walk away in a better place, having experienced all those creative efforts of everyone around us.”

Sarah May (no relation to Amy) is another artist inspired by the lake. In February, she spent almost every weekend at the lake, in addition to leading vigil meditations.

Growing up in Utah, Sarah May long ago developed an intimate relationship with the Great Salt Lake, despite hearing complaints about the smell.

“I see a lot of my story in the lake story—also being exploited and oppressed by white supremacy and patriarchy and greed and capitalism,” she said. “I’m biracial, and I grew up in the Mormon faith, but I never saw myself in that, either. I’ve never really had a place that held my story the way I wanted it to, but the lake became that place for me.”

The receding lake has been “discarded, forgotten, neglected,” Sarah May said, and it’s important to make the connection between the exploitation of the lake and other instances of exploitation.

She shared the example of west-side communities, predominantly people of color who are already bearing the brunt of air pollution, and who are at risk to be hit first and worst by toxic dust from the exposed lakebed.

“This has always been a sacred place for me,” Sarah May said. “Driving on the [Antelope Island] causeway, you’re coming to a place where you can exist outside of the expectations of the world.”

She said it’s hard to put the feelings into words, comparing it to translating between languages.

“I think that’s why I’m here creating art,” she said. “That’s really the only way that makes sense to tell not only my story, but also the story of the lake.”

Sarah May uses a variety of mediums, including writing, fabric, cyanotype, photography, digital imaging, weaving and even lake driftwood. She is always careful to practice what she calls reciprocity and sustainability, and she has performed rituals and ceremonies at the lake, inspired by her “witchiness.”

“I never take anything without asking if it wants to come with me,” she said.

She hopes to connect more BIPOC Utahns to the lake through her role with Plumas Collectivo, a group of Latinx writers and visual artists based in the Salt Lake Valley that has hosted events at the Tracy Aviary and Jordan River Nature Center. “[The lake] just feels like a place that can hold us and our experiences as BIPOC community,” she said.

Science with a side of humor

In addition to writers and artists, scientists like Jaimi Butler have played a key role in the vigils. This year, Butler participated at both Antelope Island and the Steep Mountain Farm along the Little Bear River.

Because Butler has extensive knowledge about the lake, she has served as a resource for vigil organizers. For example, when Seymour decided to create a poem the length of the lakebed in 2022, she called Butler to find the appropriate number.

That relationship continued in the second vigil. Butler provided the science—which sometimes included inconvenient answers—and Seymour took on the responsibility of figuring out how to communicate that science in a way that would resonate with people.

Butler met the Great Salt Lake as a teenager in the mid1980s, when the lake was at one of its highest levels. Her father took her out to Interstate 80 to witness the flooding.

“He thought the lake was going to swallow the city up. We were standing on the highway just dropping pebbles into the water,” Butler said. “You can’t do that now. I mean you couldn’t hit Great Salt Lake with a catapult.”

Butler went on to study fisheries and wildlife management at Utah State University and got a job as a field tech on Great Salt Lake in 1999. From there, Butler worked for the brine shrimp industry, the Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Program under the Department of Natural Resources and, most recently, the Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster College. She left GSLI in mid-2022 and moved to her husband’s family farm in Wellsville, which has been a dairy and dry land farm—meaning they only use water that falls on their land—in Cache Valley for seven generations.

Butler spent her birthday, Feb. 3, camping at Antelope Island—a tradition for her—and then, the next morning,

met vigil visitors for a “walk to the water” from Ladyfinger Point. The lake, far in the distance, was nearly impossible to see through the inversion smog. Butler stopped frequently to talk about the science of the lake and pointed out the dried microbialite mounds—Great Salt Lake’s coral reef equivalents that are desiccating as the lake recedes and leaving brine flies without critical habitat.

The group never reached the lake throughout the twohour walk, demonstrating how far the water had receded.

After the walk, Utah Humanities hosted a community conversation in the Antelope Island Visitor Center. Seymour opened up the conversation by asking for people’s associations with the Great Salt Lake. People said words like “beloved,” “mother,” “protector,” and then Butler threw out, “salty bitch.”

Everyone laughed—and it was probably only Butler, someone who has been in a relationship with the Great Salt Lake for 30-plus years, who could say that. While Seymour and other vigil keepers readily expressed grief throughout vigil events, Butler consistently brought humor.

“You just have to laugh at some of the things that happen out there,” Butler says. “I mean it’s just like the wildest, weirdest place.”

This year, Butler held vigil for a week at Steep Mountain Farm, which sits along the Little Bear River in Wellsville near her own family’s farm. She chose to hold vigil in Cache Valley to highlight the relationship between the Great Salt Lake and the Bear River—the lake’s largest tributary—as well as the role of farmers in protecting and preserving the lake.

Butler believes Cache Valley and the Bear River could be the key to saving Great Salt Lake. “It would be really hard, right?” she says. “But this is the only water that’s available to get to the lake.”

Steep Mountain Farm is organic and regenerative, and since 2015, has been under the stewardship of Nate and Tara Stireman, who view themselves as land stewards rather than landowners. The Stiremans like to say that they own the “mortgage,” rather than the land, but admit that formal ownership provides a certain level of security.

“We would prefer for this to not be developed in the future,” Tara Stireman said. “Hopefully, it will help us, by technically owning it, to carry that vision forward.”

Below: Steep Mountain Farm, located near the Little Bear River, was one of two Great Salt Lake vigil locations in 2023.

Above: Jaimi Butler, left, poses for a photo with Tara and Nate Stireman. Butler’s family and the Stiremans own farmland near the Little Bear River, which flows into the Great Salt Lake and could play a critical role in the lake’s rehabilitation.

The Stiremans try to operate their farm in a way that nourishes the land, themselves and others. “We do what we can here on this small property to use water wisely,” Tara Stireman said. “We basically try the idea of the honorable harvest. We take what we need but only what we need.”

The couple were fully on board to host the vigil, and they understand their connection to the lake. “The water that goes through our farm and the rivers nearby ends up in the Great Salt Lake and then it comes back in the form of [rain] or minerals. It’s all cycled,” Nate Stireman said.

Stewards and kin

Butler closed out her vigil on Feb. 11 by hosting a conversation with Darren Parry, former chairman and current councilman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. Cache Valley and the Bear River watershed is the ancestral homeland of the Shoshone People.

Parry opened the conversation by expressing gratitude for Nate and Tara Stireman’s emphasis on stewardship over ownership. “I think there’s a lot of misunderstanding about Native Americans owning the land,” Parry said. “We’ve never felt like we’ve owned the land. We’re stewards over the land, and that’s a distinction the world needs to know.”

But Parry also recognizes that in the United States today, owning property is often the only way to have rights to the land. That’s why he raised over $2 million in 2018 to purchase 700 acres at the site of the Bear River Massacre, one of the deadliest massacres of Native people in U.S. history. The Shosone refer to this sacred place where their ancestors are buried as Wuda Ogwa, which translates to Bear River.

The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation is building a cultural center at the site to tell their story and, in partnership with scientists at Utah State University, they’re restoring the land using plant journals written and illustrated by Parry’s grandmother as a guide. The restoration efforts, ranging from Russian olive removal to the reintroduction of beaver, are estimated to return millions of gallons of water to the Bear River and, by extension, to the Great Salt Lake.

“We’re not doing it to save the Great Salt Lake, but the byproduct of what we’re doing should have a huge impact

on the Great Salt Lake, which really plays into our whole story,” Parry said.

The Great Salt Lake is central to the North western Band of the Shoshone Nation, with the traditional Shoshone creation story taking place at Antelope Island. Parry read from that creation story during one vigil event at the Antelope Island Visitor Center on Feb. 18.

Parry grew up in Syracuse and spent a lot of his childhood at the Great Salt Lake, often visiting the Bear River Bird Refuge with his grandmother.

“She would talk to me about the importance of the lake and how the Shoshones loved to collect duck eggs—it was a delicacy for them, and they could always find those in the wet marshes,” he said. “She always talked to me about the healing properties of the plants that are found around the lake and plants that are found here on the island itself.”

While many of his friends thought the Great Salt Lake was gross, Parry said it was always beautiful to him. “As a young child, I learned the stories of the lake,” he said. “I learned the stories of what my grandmother called our plant and animal kinfolk.”

For Parry, kinship has always evoked familial relatives. If people treated the environment and their non-human kinfolk the way they treat their human family, he said, many of today’s problems could be avoided. “That, more than anything else, sums up all of it,” he said.

After their conversation, Parry, Seymour and attendees went outside the visitor center to face the lake. Parry sang a water healing song his grandmother taught him and played a drum made by his great-great grandfather, who survived the Bear River Massacre.

“It will keep going”

The last day of the vigil, March 4, was a kind of culmination of the preceding weeks—but was not an ending, according to Seymour. “Last year, I thought the vigil ended,” she said. “I think it will keep going.”

The afternoon was designed to celebrate and express the lake in a variety of artistic mediums. Each performer was framed by two of Sarah May’s cyanotype pieces, carefully

hung to avoid blocking the view of the lake. Larger banners, which had been featured in a January rally for the Great Salt Lake (reading “Save Our Great Salt Lake,” “No Dams, Dredging, Diversions,” “Water is Life, Defend Great Salt Lake,” “We Are All Upstream and Downwind” and “Defend Our Future”) flapped in the wind. Next to the stage, Therese Berry left a bouquet of brine shrimp and bird puppets.

Seymour opened with a poem, accompanied by a keyboard player, followed by 20 poets reading while facing the lake, with two dancers performing at the half-way point. One dancer wore the head of a phalarope shorebird, another improvised as audience members shouted out members of the lake ecosystem, from “meadowlark announcing spring” to “mice sharing camper with Nan.”

One poem was told from the viewpoint of brine flies, another in the voice of bison, another the lake herself. To maintain a sacred atmosphere, Seymour asked the audience to hold their applause. And to conclude, the poets read the rights of the Great Salt Lake.

The vigil has been a powerful awakening, organizers say, not only to restore reverence for the lake, but to renew commitments to creating a better world.

“What are we doing to make sure our children, their children [and] our future ancestors have a place where they can breathe healthy, clean air and grow things in the earth and have a home that is safe?” Sarah May asked. “There’s a way for everyone to get what they want—to have stability, to have nature be restored. It’s really just about how we are living our lives where the Earth is not compromised by our lifestyles.” CW

Brooke Larsen is a writer from Salt Lake City with a Master of Arts in environmental humanities from the University of Utah. She is the co-editor of New World Coming: Frontline Voices on Pandemics, Uprisings and Climate Crisis and a recipient of the High Country News Bell Prize.

Amelia Diehl is a writer and organizer from Michigan studying in the University of Utah Environmental Humanities Graduate Program. Her writing has been published in In These Times, Belt Magazine, The Trouble and elsewhere.

Below: Vigil attendees engaged in performances, rituals and other expressions of solidarity with the Great Salt Lake.

Above: Darren Parry of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation performs a water healing song taught to him by his grandmother.

Above: Poet and advocate Nan Seymour launched the Great Salt Lake Vigil in 2022 .

A House Divided

Gordon Matta-Clark’s Splitting explores the ephemeral nature of “home.”

BY MERRITT MECHAM comments@cityweekly.net

In 1974, artist Gordon Matta-Clark set to work on a performance art piece. He took his chainsaw to an abandoned house in New Jersey and carefully, deliberately, cut the home down the middle. Once that was finished, he chiseled away at the foundation until one half of the bisected structure tilted out, leaving the home cracked open like a book.

“The way that I’d think about [Gordon Matta-Clark’s] work, or the way that I’d describe his work, is that he considers architecture sculpture,” says UMOCA Curator of Exhibitions Jared Steffensen. “He really uses architecture as a material to make sculptures.”

While that house in New Jersey has long since been demolished, viewers can currently experience the art via the short film Splitting, on display at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art through July 15. The film documents the process of MattaClark creating this large-scale work.

Matta-Clark was part of an artistic movement that took art out of galleries and museums and into the world. While it may consequently feel at odds to now view Matta-Clark’s work at a museum, Steffensen believes it’s an opportunity to more fully understand the artist’s perspective: “There’s something interesting about seeing an artist work through something on that scale, and to see what that process would have been like.” In the

film, Matta-Clark is not putting brush to canvas or hands to clay in the fashion of a stereotypical artist. Instead, he looks more like a construction worker. His personality comes through in the film, Steffensen says, which “shows how guerilla [the process] ended up being.”

However, even with all that in mind, the film remains a document of an artwork, not the artwork itself. At a contemporary art museum, this historic piece of work might feel out of place, especially considering that Gordon Matta-Clark’s career ended so long ago (he died from pancreatic cancer in 1978, when he was just 35 years old). What is there to gain from viewing a vestige of artwork that existed for such a short while, such a long time ago?

The film shows a fleeting piece of art, but Steffensen says it can come back to “home being somewhat ephemeral or liminal for some people.” Gordon MattaClark began his career in one of the most tumultuous ages in American History: the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steffensen says that much of Matta-Clark’s work pertains to “this sort of post World-War-II idea of home or community… In the ‘70s, those ideas are starting to shift.” Matta-Clark’s work was a critique of urban renewal, and he used the condemned and abandoned properties that were a result of that movement.

For Steffensen, this is where the work becomes extremely relevant today, as cultural ideas about home are shifting once more. “There’s a lot of changes that are happening to Downtown Salt Lake that are really affecting people and how they live in this space and where they live in this space,” he said. Many people in Salt Lake City have found themselves pushed out of their homes in the past few years. In addition to the cost of housing increase throughout Utah, the closing of the Rio Grande area Road Home shelter in 2020 has created a shortage of spaces for unhoused people, whose struggles are compounded by consistent police sweeps and

A&E

the current moratorium on new shelters in Salt Lake City.

“Where do they go now?” says Steffensen, referring to those pushed out of downtown Salt Lake City. “How do they find community, and how do they find a home?” That question, he says, is where he sees a connection between Salt Lake City residents and Splitting. In the 1970s, Matta-Clark “was being critical of suburbs and isolation” with his artwork, Steffensen says, “but I think those things can apply now to what is happening in downtown areas.”

Additionally, these ideas have been amplified due to the pandemic, as stay-athome orders have made the idea of home more abstract for many. The concept of home is watered down when it also serves as a workplace, a school and a daycare; community has to expand beyond geographical boundaries when families are, by necessity, staying within the isolated

box of their homes.

Splitting serves as a start to the conversation. Looking into the split-open house, it’s clear that this structure is just a building, and that the concept of “home” exists elsewhere. These ideas introduced by Splitting will be further explored in the current Haimaz, Heimr, Hjem, Heem, Hām, Home exhibit, running March 10 – July 15. Steffensen hopes that the works on display encourage viewers “to really think about what home means to them, and to look around and see if that’s what they see as home for other people, and really try to consider what’s going on around them and what it means to lack a home.” CW

GORDON MATTA-CLARK: SPLITTING, 1974 Utah Museum of Contemporary Art 20 S. West Temple Through July 15 utahmoca.org

FLORENT BEX

Gordon Matta-Clark

Complete listings online at cityweekly.net

Wasatch Theatre Company: The Melancholy Play

Playwright Sarah Ruhl’s illustrious career has already included a MacArthur Fellowship, nominations for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award nomination for Best Play for In the Next Room (or, The Vibrator Play). But it all started more than 20 years ago with The Melancholy Play, an often-absurdist farce that explores the thin lines between the emotions we identify as “good” and those we identify as “bad,” and deconstructed the idea of the “manic pixie dream girl” character even before culture critic Nathan Rabin coined the phrase.

The protagonist is Tilly (played by Ariana Farber), a bank teller who is examining her feelings of melancholy in sessions with her therapist—who also happens to have fallen in love with her. Indeed, Tilly’s emotional state seems to have that affect on everyone: a tailor who his hemming her pants; her hairdresser; even her hairdresser’s partner. It’s all quite messy, but somehow gets even messier when Tilly’s mood brightens, and that shift has the unexpected impact of making those who were previously infatuated with her less happy themselves. Throw in a magical vial of tears and a unique metaphorical use for almonds, and you have an utterly distinctive tale of how our emotions have ripple effects on others.

Wasatch Theatre Company’s production of The Melancholy Play runs at the MidValley Performing Arts Center (2525 Taylorsville Blvd., Taylorsville), with performances Thursday and Friday, March 23-24 at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, March 25-26, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 general admission/$15 student; visit arttix.org to purchase tickets or for other event information. (Scott Renshaw)

Sankofa, This Journey: Go Back and Get It @ Salt Lake Acting Company

While Salt Lake Acting Company is known and loved in the community for its more than 50-year history of producing and staging its own season of plays, its mission statement also identifies as a goal that it “nurtures, supports and develops a community of artists.” Fulfilling that goal can take many forms, and this week, it takes the form of providing a venue for the Utah Black Artists Collective (UBLAC) to present Sankofa, This Journey: Go Back and Get It, a multidisciplinary theatrical work described as “a journey about reclaiming selfidentity and Black liberation.”

The program is scheduled to include a combination of music, visual art, dance by Diane Bahati and Shakira Smith, and poetry by Andrea Hardeman, Youri Young, Ashley Finley and co-script curators Franque Bains, Jarod P. Garrett and Wynter Storm (the latter is pictured). “This mixed media production is a collaboration of Artistic magic, reclamation, liberation, community; and a whole lot of Black Joy!,” Storm says via press release. “Come out and take this beautiful journey with us. We hope that this experience moves you. As an Artist, watching this show come together has personally had me in tears of joy; it’s so beautiful!”

Sankofa, This Journey: Go Back and Get It runs at the Chapel Theater of Salt Lake Acting Company (168 W. 500 North) for four performances only: Friday and Saturday, March 24-25, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 26 at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. General admission tickets are $20; visit saltlakeactingcompany.org to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (SR)

Geoff Dembicki: The Petroleum Papers @ Sundance Resort Author Series

It’s generally accepted that the fossil fuel industry has been remarkably successful at sabotaging national and international efforts at building policy around mitigating climate change impacts from those fossil fuels. What might be much less widely-known is that they were equally successful—long before “climate change” was in common usage—at understanding exactly what they were doing, and building a plan for making sure they could keep doing it.

In his new book The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change, Canadian journalist Geoff Dembicki explores the evidence for how much internal research by companies like Exxon, Shell and British Petroleum confirmed decades ago that fossil fuels were having an impact on climate, and that specific policy initiatives could prevent the worst possible outcomes.

“Not only had they figured out the causes and impacts of climate change by the early ’90s,” Dembicki said in an interview with David Sirota on The Lever podcast, “but they had a pretty good idea of how to fix this whole thing. [The industry] created a list of talking points … distorting these findings to policy-makers, saying ‘Fixing climate change is horrible for the economy, it’s reckless, and it probably won’t even have the desired environmental effects.’ … This company sold out the entire future of the planet and all of us living on it for, like, $900 million worth of profits.”

Dembicki speaks at Sundance Resort’s Redford Conference Center (8841 N. Alpine Loop Road, Provo) as part of the Author Series on Saturday, March 25 at 11:30 a.m. Tickets are $95; visit sundanceresort.com for tickets and additional event information. (SR)

Something to Fight For

John Wick: Chapter 4 amps up both the action and the attempts at emotion

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

Because the world is wide and mysterious, I assume there must be someone out there who, nearly a decade into the John Wick franchise, actually cares about the emotional arc of the main character. Emotion certainly played a significant role in the initial premise, as legendary, feared, retired assassin Wick (Keanu Reeves) returned to his old life of murder, carnage and natty-black-suit-wearing after the death of his wife to avenge the killing of the puppy that provided a link to her. But despite the series occasionally handwaving at Wick’s deep well of feelings, audiences didn’t keep coming back for that reason, any more than they keep coming back to Fast/Furious movies because of all the platitudes about “family.”

Like their namesake anti-hero, the John Wick movies are relentless machines of forward-momentum action, given additional spark by complex rules and dynamics of an underworld society, full of codes of conduct and a complex bureaucracy to enforce them. If there are indeed viewers invested in the depths of John Wick’s heart, they could probably fit comfortably within the confines of a single theater.

It’s a little bit strange, then, to see John Wick: Chapter 4 devoting so much time to the idea of Wick’s interpersonal connections. After he was left for dead at the end of 2019’s John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum,

he’s still being sought out by the High Table, which has given power over the search to the sadistic Marquis (Bill Skarsgård). The Marquis enlists as his primary enforcer the blind assassin Caine (Donnie Yen), whom we learn was an old friend of Wick’s. Wick, meanwhile, seeks sanctuary with Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada), another old friend. Our protagonist even gets sentimental with Winston (Ian McShane), the now-excommunicated former manager of the Continental hotel who tried to murder Wick in the previous movie. At nearly 170 minutes, John Wick: Chapter 4 has a lot of stuff it wants to include, including plenty of warm fuzzies.

Fortunately, it is much more concerned with including the remarkable shootouts/ punchouts/knifeouts that have been the series’ trademark, and director Chad Stahelski again delivers the goods in jawdropping fashion. It takes a little bit longer here in Chapter 4 to get the adrenaline pumping, but once the thumping strains of Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard’s score get rolling, the movie rarely pauses for a breath. That goes double for the final hour,

which includes not one, not two, but three of the most gleefully insane pieces of choreographed violence ever captured for cinema: John Wick taking on seemingly every assassin in Paris in the middle of the traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe; an overhead view of Wick employing incendiary “dragon’s breath” ammunition; and a staircase battle as Wick races the clock to a life-or-death appointment. As supernaturally resilient as John Wick seems to be— he is hit by cars literally three times in the space of a few minutes, and falls multiple floors multiple times, without seeming more than annoyed by the encounters— it’s hard to care when you end up with this much amazing stuff along the way.

That sense of John Wick as practically superhuman feels particularly elevated here, as Chapter 4 begins to take on the vibe of a comic-book spectacle crossed with James Bond gadgetry. There is at least an attempt to explain Wick avoiding gunshots by having the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) deliver him a suit made out of Kevlar, which later pays off with a great low-key joke. The stakes are

raised with multiple antagonists for Wick, including a grotesque gold-toothed killer (Scott Adkins) straight out of Dick Tracy, and a nameless tracker (Shamier Anderson) who seems to exist primarily to set up a possible spin-off. There is, however, still plenty of time left to focus on Yen’s Caine, whose fluidity offers a great counterpoint to Wick’s brute force.

Does it matter if Chapter 4 provides a sense of closure as Wick attempts to settle all of his old scores, or if he reconciles with his old friends? To someone out there, sure, maybe. Then again, that would mean he would have nothing left to fight for. And for nearly 10 years, one of the great visceral joys of cinema has been watching John Wick have something to fight for. CW

JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 BBB 1/2

Keanu Reeves Donnie Yen Ian McShane Rated R Available March 24 in theaters

JOHN WICK 4 COCAINE BEAR

Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 4

LIONSGATE

The Rice Stuff

Saying goodbye to soup season with Nami Lily Sushi & Ramen.

BY ALEX SPRINGER comments@cityweekly.net @captainspringer

Igrew up in the Riverton-South Jordan area, so I can remember when we all got excited about the concept of a new Arby’s moving into the city boundaries. Now that the Wasatch Front has grown and diversified, these former one-burger towns have really embraced a wide range of local flavor.

South Jordan is to the point where it has strip malls or other commercial areas that would make a decent destination for a restaurant crawl. My current favorite of these foodie neighborhoods has to be right around 1000 West and 10600 South, which is where Nami Lily Sushi & Ramen (1072 W. South Jordan Parkway, 385-8878959, namilily.com) recently set up shop.

As I’ve tried to become more familiar with the nuances of sushi, I am often reminded of the late Anthony Bourdain’s opinions on sushi etiquette. On top of avoiding the wasabi and soy sauce mixture, Bourdain said that diners should take note the sushi rice itself before discussing the other ingredients. Since the word sushi refers to the preparation of the rice—an age-old technique for which today’s sushi chefs are still seeking mastery—it kinda makes sense. While I am definitely not to the level of sushi connoisseurship that Bourdain achieved during his life, I like to take this advice to heart when I visit sushi restaurants. There is something beautiful about focusing all one’s sensory faculties on the

length and breadth of a grain of rice.

I’m always happy when I enter a sushi joint that also provides steaming hot bowls of ramen, so Nami Lily was a pretty easy sell for me when I saw that it recently opened. Coupled with the fact that it was sharing real estate with Curry Pizza and Tushar, I was happy to see another regional cuisine make its way into my beloved South Jordan Parkway strip mall. It’s stylish and cozy inside, and I was excited to dig into a few of their menu options.

Sushi had to happen, so I tried their Rock’n Roll ($9.95), Rainbow ($12.95) and Maxima ($12.95), along with a starter of jalapeño yellowtail tataki ($10.95). The yellowtail tataki was an excellent indicator of things to come, as it arrived on its fish-shaped platter, lightly drizzled with the chef’s special sauce. It was difficult to get the ingredients out of my server, but it’s a perfect citrusy complement to the thinly sliced sashimi. Each meticulous slice is topped with an equally thin slice of jalapeño pepper, which adds an herbaceous kick to the fresh flavor of that yellowtail. In short, it was exactly what you’d want at a sushi joint; the yellowtail’s delicacy was showcased perfectly.

Of the three sushi rolls I tried, I may have liked the Maxima best. It’s a fairly classic spicy tuna roll that comes with a bit of tempura shrimp inside and some thin shrimp ebi and spicy crab on top. The roll then gits a drizzle of spicy mayo and a ruby-red dab of sriracha for good measure. I liked the dual servings of shrimp here, which helped balance out the spicy tuna and sriracha—lots of great flavors to explore with this one.

The Rainbow was another classic prepped with glistening slices of tuna, salmon, yellowtail, albacore and shrimp. It was about a quarter of the way through this roll when I recalled Bourdain’s advice to compliment a sushi chef on their rice.

I’ve had enough sushi to allow me to detect the nuances in the rice, but there was a fluffiness to the rice at Nami Lily that gave me a bit of pause. It held its shape exactly the way it should, but I couldn’t deny that there was something unique and tasty about this rice’s preparation. The Rainbow roll remains a classic that I would recommend to anyone, but I’m going to suggest you pay special attention to the rice to see if you noticed the same thing I did. The Rock’n Roll created a similar experience—the rice maintained that signature quality that seemed to support the fresh fish flavor on a cloud of its own starchy mysteries.

On the ramen side of things, you can’t go wrong with the tonkotsu ramen with pork ($11.95), or the spicy beef ramen ($12.95) for something with a bit more kick. Their broth has a signature depth of flavor that felt familiar and new at the same time. It’s always hard to compare ramen joints, but I do respect a place that puts its own mark on the broth they serve up. I could have gone for a bit more trimmings, like mushrooms or fish cakes, but this is definitely the kind of thing that will warm you up after a bitter snowstorm or a bitter heartbreak.

Nami Lily is still a bit new, and thus still figuring out a few things, but they’ve got a strong foundation of technique and execution to build from. I’m looking forward to checking out what else they have to offer as their concept evolves. For now, I’ll continue to ponder the advice of Anthony Bourdain as I resume my quest for sushi enlightenment. CW

2 Row Brewing 6856 S. 300 West, Midvale 2RowBrewing.com

Avenues Proper 376 8th Ave, SLC avenuesproper.com

On Tap: Blizzard Wizard - Hazy Pale Ale

Bewilder Brewing

445 S. 400 West, SLC

BewilderBrewing.com

On Tap: Gluten Reduced Kolsch

Bohemian Brewery

94 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale BohemianBrewery.com

Bonneville Brewery

1641 N. Main, Tooele BonnevilleBrewery.com

On Tap: Peaches and Cream Ale

Craft by Proper 1053 E. 2100 So., SLC craftbyproper.com

On Tap: That’s a KnifeAustralian Cold IPA

Desert Edge Brewery

273 Trolley Square, SLC

DesertEdgeBrewery.com

On Tap: Out of Office Pale Ale

Epic Brewing Co. 825 S. State, SLC

EpicBrewing.com

On Tap: Lemon Bomb Sour IPA

Fisher Brewing Co. 320 W. 800 South, SLC FisherBeer.com

On Tap: A rotation of up to 17 Fresh Beers!

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: Silent H’s Dub Nectar!

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

Level Crossing Brewing Co. 2496 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake LevelCrossingBrewing.com

On Tap: Vienna-Style Lager Trivia: Mondays at 6pm

Moab Brewing 686 S. Main, Moab TheMoabBrewery.com

On Tap: Bourbon & Blonde (Bulleit Bourbon Barrel-aged Blonde Stout)

Mountain West Cider 425 N. 400 West, SLC MountainWestCider.com

On Tap: Pomme Paloma

Offset Bier Co 1755 Bonanza Dr Unit C, Park City offsetbier.com/

On Tap: DOPO IPA

Ogden Beer Company 358 Park Blvd, Ogden OgdenRiverBrewing.com

On Tap: Injector Hazy IPA

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

Prodigy Brewing

25 W Center St. Logan

Prodigy-brewing.com

On Tap: It’s Complicated Sour

Proper Brewing 857 S. Main, SLC

ProperBrewingCo.com

On Tap: Cloud ChaserKölsch with Strawberry and Watermelon

Proper Brewing Moab 1393 US-191

Moab, Utah 84532

On Tap: Angus McCloudScottish Ale

Red Rock Brewing 254 So. 200 West RedRockBrewing.com

On Tap: Gypsy Scratch

Red Rock Fashion Place 6227 So. State Redrockbrewing.com

On Tap: Munich Dunkel

Red Rock Kimball Junction Redrockbrewing.com

1640 Redstone Center

On Tap: Bamberg Rauch Bier

RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com

On Tap: Golden Hour Belgian Wit

Roosters Brewing

Multiple Locations

RoostersBrewingCo.com

On Tap: Identity Crisis

Session West Coast Hazy Cold IPA – the name says it all!

SaltFire Brewing

2199 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake SaltFireBrewing.com

On Tap: 10 Ton Truck West Coast IPA

Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com

On Tap: Save the Lake Pilsner - 5% of sales donated to local non-profits to support preserving our Great Salt Lake

Scion Cider Bar 916 Jefferson St W, SLC Scionciderbar.com

On Tap: South Hill Baldwin (NY) - 8.3% ABV

Shades Brewing

154 W. Utopia Ave, S. Salt Lake ShadesBrewing.beer

On Tap: Tap & Tarot

Live Music: Thursdays

Shades On State 366 S. State Street SLC Shadesonstate.com

On Tap: Mexican Lager

Karaoke: Wednesdays

Silver Reef 4391 S. Enterprise Drive, St. George StGeorgeBev.com

Squatters

147 W. Broadway, SLC Squatters.com

Strap Tank Brewery Multiple Locations

StrapTankBrewery.com

Springville On Tap: PB Rider, Peanut Butter Stout

Lehi On Tap: 2-Stroke, Vanilla Mocha Porter

Stratford Proper 1588 Stratford Ave., SLC stratfordproper.com

On Tap: Yacht Rock Juice Box - Juicy IPA

TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC TFBrewing.com

On Tap: Edel Pils

Talisman Brewing Co. 1258 Gibson Ave, Ogden TalismanBrewingCo.com

On Tap: The Patriot- Session IPA

Uinta Brewing 1722 S. Fremont Drive, SLC UintaBrewing.com

On Tap: Was Angeles Craft Beer

UTOG

2331 Grant Ave, Ogden

UTOGBrewing.com

On Tap: Lovely Lady Nitro Stout

Vernal Brewing

55 S. 500 East, Vernal VernalBrewing.com

Wasatch 2110 S. Highland Drive, SLC WasatchBeers.com

Zion Brewery 95 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale ZionBrewery.com

Zolupez 205 W. 29th Street #2, Ogden Zolupez.com

OPENING SOON! Helper Beer 159 N Main Street Helper, UT 84526

Chappell Brewing 2285 S Main Street Salt Lake City, UT 84115

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

A Tart Start to Spring

Two new citrusy offerings at local breweries

BY MIKE RIEDEL comments@cityweekly.net @utahbeer

Hallelujah! Spring has finally arrived.

To celebrate what is (hopefully) the end, or at least near-end, of a very robust winter, I’d like to share two of the most citrusy adult beverages I’ve had in quite a while. If these don’t get you pumped for spring, nothing will.

Bewilder - Tangerine Wit: A fluffy, vanilla-colored three finger head sits atop a hazy golden glow of wonder— quite opaque, with good head retention. I starts with a whiff of fresh tangerines, straight from the orchard. (Okay, I’ve never been in an orchard, but I have seen fresh produce...) I mean, it smells exactly like a tangerine. It should win an award for that: It actually smells like I’m opening a tangerine at the breakfast table. I doubt I’d be able to discern a difference blindfolded between this and the real deal. I’ll give it kudos just for the wow factor. There is a little sugary sweetness behind it, but I’ll chalk it up to a really sweet tangerine.

To me, this is like drinking a witbier while sucking on a Tic-Tac. Dude, it’s that good. It finishes with style, and leaves me wanting more. I just want to keep drinking it. To provide a little more objectivity here and less effusive praise, there’s also some wheat, grains and citrus rind, while it finishes gloriously with tangerine and/or orange Tic-Tac. Creamy, medium-bodied and lightly carbonated, it ends effervescently dry.

Verdict: Would I drink this 5.0 percent ale again? Nerds, I wish this was in cans. This is a pleasant beer all around. The aroma blew me away, and the taste did little to sway that opinion. Mouthfeel

is spot on for the style, and what else is left? The design of the bottle is catchy, too. Tangerine Wit is the shit!

Mountain West - Pomme Paloma (Pink Boots Blend): I don’t normally review a lot of ciders, but this citrus bomb is worth a mention. No foam here, as this is a cider. It pours a cloudy, golden grapefruit color, so you can tell this is no ordinary cider. The nose was light but tart, and perhaps the most authentic-smelling paloma cider to this point. I have drunk and taken notes on a lot of ciders over the past six months, and while some can come off as artificial, this does not. Mouthfeel was medium.

The taste was clearly grapefruit. I was shown photos of the amount of grapefruit puree added to this special cider, so rest assured that by design, this is a citrus-lover’s delight. It was like a mimosa in many ways—the champagnelike effervescence was snappy but not prickly, while the Pink Boots blend hops add some balancing bitterness. This one was just right in terms of sweetness and authenticity. It had an impressive, easily-identified grapefruit flavor without being overwhelming or in-your-face. The mild hop support dissolves rapidly on the tongue to deliver a bold grapefruit flavor with complex lime, lemon and cider flavors closely behind. At times, this 6.8 percent cider acts like a sour spritzer, at others like a sangria, and then like a creamy cocktail. The diversity in taste bridges the worlds of cider, white wine, beer and mixology quite well. A late palate of clean yet rounded acidity once again echoes with nuances.

Verdict: Light-bodied, crisp, clean and highly refreshing, Pomme Paloma is a Mountain West favorite that finishes brisk with minor aftertastes of dry tannins and hops. The cider’s simplicity makes it effortless; however, it does beg for greater complexity and depth. It finishes dry without being overwhelmingly tart.

Draft is the only option for both of these, with crowlers to-go from Bewilder and growlers available at Mountain West Hard Cider. As always, cheers! CW

MIKE RIEDEL

MIKE RIEDEL

BY ALEX SPRINGER | @captainspringer

Tacos Don Rafa Opens Storefront

The taco carts on State Street between 800 and 900 South were the subject of one of my very first professional food writing gigs, so it’s nice to see Tacos Don Rafa move on up. The owners of the taco cart that outlasted the Sears department store recently announced the opening of their first brick-and-mortar storefront in Millcreek (3804 S. Highland Drive, tacosdonrafa.com), where they will continue their legacy of making some of the finest street tacos in Utah. Fans of the Don Rafa taco carts in Salt Lake and Bountiful will still be able to enjoy the simple pleasures of munching on some tacos de lengua while parking it on a street corner, as it sounds like the carts will continue to operate.

Seed Libraries at County Library Branches

Local branches of the Salt Lake County Library (slcolibrary.org) recently kicked off their seed library program for this year. And how exactly does a seed library work you ask? Well, a seed library works just like a read library—I’m sorry, it was right there. You swing by a county library branch in Kearns, Sandy, Holladay, Draper, Riverton or Millcreek, and grab a bag of seeds that could include radishes, squash, lettuce, peas and other veggies or herbs. Once you plant your greens, you can harvest the subsequent seeds, bag them up and return them to the library. It’s a great way to get your own little garden growing this Spring.

New Eateries in Farmington’s Station Park

Our neighbors to the North in Farmington recently welcomed a slew of new restaurants to Station Park (140 N. Union Park, shopatstationpark.com). Vessel Kitchen, Aubergine Kitchen, and Mo’Bettahs all opened locations in this commercial and recreational area, and there are plans to open a Waffle Love, WannaCinn, Yonutz and a second location of WildFin American Grill (which I mentioned last week). These new additions will round out a food court that includes plenty of local goodness like Ramen Haus, Costa Vida, Santorini’s and Slapfish. Looks like it’s getting to be about time to head up North for a trip to Lagoon and a shopping spree.

Quote of the Week: “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” –Audrey Hepburn

Diving Into a Cyberpunk World

SLC band Spirit Machines wins exciting contest

BY EMILEE ATKINSON eatkinson@cityweekly.net @emileelovesvinyl

Entering a contest can be a nervewracking experience. You send your submission out into the ether, then sit anxiously awaiting a decision. SLC rock band Spirit Machines entered a new song into a big contest for a popular video game, and waited with bated breath—then won.

Cyberpunk 2077 made its controversial debut in Dec 2020 just as next-gen consoles the PS5 and Xbox Series X finally released. The game’s release came with a lot of bugs and performance issues, so it wasn’t the great ending to a hard year that players were hoping for. However, more than two years in, the game is in much better shape, and has millions of dedicated players.

In fact, the game is getting new downloadable content (DLC) for players to dive into and enjoy. The expansion, dubbed Phantom Liberty, is due for release later this year—and that’s where Spirit Machines come in. The developers of the game, CD Projekt RED, held a contest for bands to enter original songs to be featured on the in-game radio station. Spirit Machines’ “Candy Shell” was chosen from 7,800 submissions.

The idea came from drummer Michael Collins, who was a big fan of the Cyberpunk world, and had been eagerly awaiting the game’s release. “I was following Cyberpunk

2077 for a few years before it was released, because I thought the idea in the world and everything was so cool. Leading up to the release, I really started diving into the lore,” Collins said. “I really love these fantasy worlds that are real-seeming. They have such deep stories that it just has this real sense to it, so I was excited for that.”

Collins enjoyed the game at its release, but like many others, he was disappointed by the poor state the game was in, so he ended up putting it down for a while. When Netflix made an anime series based on the game, Collins returned to the game and found that it was in a much better state, and that fueled his creativity. “I was suddenly realizing how genius all these stories were, and these characters and just loving the world and the lore, and the city they built is insane. It’s unbelievable,” he said.

Eventually, Collins became aware of the contest, and jumped at the opportunity. Spirit Machines didn’t just submit any old song they had lying around, though; they spent a lot of time and effort writing a song that would fit with the lore and the world of Cyberpunk.

“Everyone was excited about it, then, so we started doing more research into it,” Collins said. “Then Dave [Crespo, guitarist] came up with a guitar lick and then Pepper [Rose, vocalist] put some vocals to it, and so we kind of had a skeleton. I was really impressed with the lyrics and stuff, ‘cause I really hit on so many of the deep themes, the themes below the surface of the game, so I was really into that.”

Vocalist Rose had been into the tabletop role-playing version of Cyberpunk from the late ‘80s, and was equally excited when this opportunity presented itself. “I had gotten obsessed,” she said. “I asked Mike what should be in [the song], and we had just all these conversations and who the different players were. We watched Mike play the game and … Dave had two songs that he felt were maybe poppy enough. I listened to them and I was like, ‘We got to combine both of these songs,’ So we pulled

those together, cobbled them together, and then wrote the lyrics.

“Then Mike added this crazy part in the song, because one thing that’s important in the anime is that if you get too many cybernetic modifications, that’s like the Cyberpunk part of it, that you lose your mind and go crazy.”

The band spent hours poring over the lore of the world, the game and the Netflix show. They also focused on another very important aspect: the rules of the competition. “I feel the reason we won is just because we read the rules, pretty detailed, and it had to be within three minutes.” Rose said.

Spirit Machines wrote the song quickly, completing it in a matter of hours. “We pretty much wrote this song in the studio. We had a skeleton going into it. Then five hours later, we had had the completed song, so really, it all happened pretty quick,” Collins said.

The band was blown away when they

found out they had won the contest, and will get to be part of this huge opportunity. “There were people from all over the world trying to be in this competition, so even getting your song heard with that many entries is difficult,” Collins said.

“It took a while for it to sink in, because at first I was just, ‘No way,’” Rose said. “We’re such big nerds, and I feel like it’s hard to reach an audience, and the thought of connecting with this new audience that maybe had a lot in common with us, it’s just a cool, exciting prospect. Because my favorite thing about being in this band is, honestly, our fans.”

Spirit Machines is certainly making the music scene in Utah proud with this submission. “Candy Shell” isn’t available for listening just yet, at least not until the DLC is officially released. As of right now, there’s not an official release date for the extra game content, but it will be out this year, and it will be exciting to see the welldeserved attention Spirit Machines get. CW

Spirit Machines

THURSDAYS

FRIDAYS DJ FRESH(NESS)

SATURDAYS POKER @ 2PM DJ DELMAGGIO

SHARK SUNDAYS POOL TOURNEY HOSTED BY JARED AND TANNER

MONDAYS REGGAE MONDAY WITH DJ NAPO

WEDNESDAYS KARAOKE

TUESDAYS

MUSIC PICK S

By Emilee Atkinson

The Stone Foxes, Emily Wolfe @ Metro Music Hall 3/23

Golden State brothers The Stone Foxes have been sharing their brand of bluesy, soulful rock n’ roll since the early aughts, and are just good dudes: They posted on their Instagram page this month that every one of their shows is a food drive. They ask that showgoers bring a bag of nonperishable, healthy foods to the merch booth, which will be given to a local food bank to help out the community. As a bonus, anyone who brings food will score a piece of merch for free. This isn’t something you see often, but it’s a phenomenal idea, so hats off to The Stone Foxes for this cycle of giving and helping. Joining the duo is singer/songwriter/guitarist Emily Wolfe, well-known for her exceptional shredding skills, and ability to blur the lines between rock and modern pop. Wolfe has been inspired by the likes of Judas Priest and Ariana Grande while touring with legends like Heart, The Pretenders and Gary Clark Jr. She is also self-taught on the guitar, and her natural talent with the instrument is a wonder. Her music is the best of both worlds, amplifying different parts of pop and rock by melding them together. Part moody rocker, part pop princess, Wolfe has a lot to offer for those looking for something new, or for those on an exploratory journey looking for music that fits their personality. Catch these two acts on Thursday, March 23 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the 21+ show are $20 in advance, and $25 at the door and can be found at metromusichall.com. (Emilee

Atkinson)

Emily Wolfe

By Emilee Atkinson

Lostboycrow, Brooke Alexx @ Kilby Court 3/25

“It just stuck out to me as the perfect amount of not taking itself too seriously because the songs don’t really take themselves too seriously,” Lostboycrow told First Avenue about his latest album, Indie Pop. “This process was a very deliberate I-wanna-make-a-band album, but by the same token, I didn’t want it to come off as, ‘All right now, take me seriously.’” The Pacific Northwest indie-pop icon did indeed create an album that is perfectly tonguein-cheek, while still being able to be taken seriously. The title of the album reflects singer/ songwriter Chris Blair’s lighthearted nature and self-awareness, while the content exudes entertaining and lively tracks that will stick with you. Lostboycrow compared Indie Pop with his previous work, stating, “If Santa Fe was a conversation between my younger and older selves, and Valleyheart was a bouquet of love songs written longingly from my apartment, then I suppose Indie pop is a solitary dance on the way to somewhere unfamiliar. I wanted the music to be as stripped back and carefree as I felt heading into the next chapter. Free from any self-importance or pomp. It was a chance to not take myself too seriously, in all my excitement, hopelessness, hopefulness, and curiosity. A time to lace up my shoes and be more than an observer of life.” Supporting Lostboycrow is Nashville-based pop/R&B artist Brooke Alexx, who is touring amidst her latest release, Look My Age. Catch these pop artists on Saturday, March 25 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the all-ages show are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Grab tickets at kilbycourt.com. (EA)

By Emilee Atkinson

Reba McEntire @ Vivint Arena 3/25

It’s hard not to have Reba McEntire come to mind when thinking about country music. The singer/songwriter has been active since the mid ‘70s, and is showing no signs of slowing down. The Country Music Hall of Famer is stopping in SLC on a 14-date tour that’s continuing from last year, and is having a good time so far. “We’ve learned that the fans like to sing along with us and with familiar music, so we’re having fun with that,” she told WSVN this month. “I am very grateful we’re continuing this tour into 2023,” she said. “I’ve had so much fun being back out on the road and doing what I love to do most, entertaining people. And now getting to headline places like Madison Square Garden and bring my buddies Terri Clark and The Isaacs with me? Well, that’s just the extra icing on an already triple-layered, stuffed and filled, iced and frosted cake!” McEntire had a busy year music-wise last year with three full releases, including a compilation album called Reba McEntire: Celebrating Pride. It’s refreshing to see a country music star supporting the LGBT+ community, when the genre isn’t always known for being tolerant and inclusive. If you’ve ever wanted to see this country legend, now is your chance when she comes to Vivint Arena on Saturday, March 25 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets for the all-ages show range from $80-245 and can be found at vivintarena.com. (EA)

Hermanos Gutierrez @ The Commonwealth Room 3/27 Swiss-Ecuadorian brothers

Alejandro and Estevan Gutierrez decided to make a record after a very successful jam session in Alejandro’s Zurich apartment. Their debut album, 8 Años—named after the eightyear age difference between them—showcased the brothers’ ability to melodize off one another’s rhythms with nothing but their guitars. Alejandro credits older brother Estevan as his inspiration to play guitar, and the age difference also provided the two with very unique perspectives and personalities;the two credit their differences for helping them make such intertwined music. The brothers use music to tell the story of where they have been, what they have seen and the process of making those discoveries. Their earlier albums feature heavy Spanish/Latin influences, but as the music changed their lives, it naturally changed their music as well. Jack Johnson inspirations spoke to Estevan, a surfer, and later trips to Southwestern United States and Mexico brought forth inspirations Westerners are more familiar with. Their most recent album was recorded alongside The Black Keys’ guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach, who found them through word of mouth. Auerbach invited Hermanos Gutierrez to his Nashville studio to record an album. Here, El Bueno y el Malo was recorded, being heavily influenced by spaghetti Westerns, specifically, the soundtrack from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Check out Hermanos Gutierrez at The CommonWealth Room where their groundbreaking ability to jam will be witnessed live. The show is at 8 p.m. March 27th, for audiences 21+. Tickets can be found here, vividseats.com. (Caleb Daniel)

Blvck Hippie @ DLC 3/27

Blvck Hippie is music for the loners, a power totem of indie-rock fueled by self-examination and a natural sense of dynamics and wild, off-kilter energy. There’s an alchemy to these things. Blvck Hippie’s mastermind, Josh Shaw, is looking to make emotional connections with listeners, with songwriting as a window into their life. “I feel like people being vulnerable with art has always been an inspiration to me,” Shaw told Asheville Stages. “It’s so cool seeing artists reaching so many people through being open and vulnerable. Things like that definitely get me through days where I feel like what I’m doing is meaningless.” Formed in 2018 and based out of Tennessee, Blvck Hippie have released a debut LP If You Feel Alone At Parties that should be played over and over again. There’s no down-time between melodies, it’s immediate in tone and the whole thing feels like it has, I don’t know, a greater sense of purpose? It’s hard to put a finger on it. Shaw’s ability to convey emotion through their voice really makes their songs as great as they are—emo appreciation with cranked-up passion. The content is overwhelming, and it’s a joy to behold. Blvck Hippie is such a presence live that everyone should see them at least once. Denver-based moody art rock trio Shadow Work and dreamy psych locals Daytime Lover open. Catch this show on Monday, Mar 27 at 8 p.m. General admission tickets for the 21 and over show are $10 and can be found at quartersslc.com (Mark Dago)

ROBBY KLEIN LARRY

Reba Hermanos Gutierrez

free will ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

If we were to choose one person to illustrate the symbolic power of astrology, it might be Aries financier and investment banker J.P. Morgan (1837–1913). His astrological chart strongly suggested he would be one of the richest people of his era. The sun, Mercury, Pluto and Venus were in Aries in his astrological house of finances. Those four heavenly bodies were trine to Jupiter and Mars in Leo in the house of work. Further, the sun, Mercury, Pluto and Venus formed a virtuoso “Finger of God” aspect with Saturn in Scorpio and the moon in Virgo. Anyway, Aries, the financial omens for you right now aren’t as favorable as they always were for J. P. Morgan—but they are pretty auspicious. Venus, Uranus and the north node of the moon are in your house of finances, to be joined for a bit by the moon itself in the coming days. My advice: Trust your intuition about money. Seek inspiration about your finances.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

“The only thing new in the world,” said former U.S. President Harry Truman, “is the history you don’t know.” Luckily for us, researchers are increasingly skilled in unearthing buried stories. Three examples: 1. Before the Civil War, six Black Americans escaped slavery and became millionaires (check out Black Fortunes by Shomari Wills); 2. Over 10,000 women secretly worked as code-breakers in World War II, shortening the war and saving lives; 3. Four Black women mathematicians played a major role in NASA’s early efforts to launch people into space. Dear Taurus, I invite you to enjoy this kind of work in the coming weeks. It’s an excellent time to dig up the history you don’t know—about yourself, your family and the important figures in your life.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

You’re at the height of Party Hearty Season. I’ll offer two bits of advice on how to collect the benefits. First, exbasketball star Dennis Rodman says that mental preparation is the key to effective partying. He suggests we visualize the pleasurable events we want to experience. We should meditate on how much alcohol and drugs we will imbibe, how uninhibited we’ll allow ourselves to be, and how close we can get to vomiting without actually vomiting. But wait! Here’s an alternative approach to partying, adapted from Sufi poet Rumi: “The golden hour has secrets to reveal. Be alert for merriment. Be greedy for glee. With your antic companions, explore the frontiers of conviviality. Go in quest of jubilation’s mysterious blessings. Be bold. Revere revelry.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

If you have been holding yourself back or keeping your expectations low, please stop! According to my analysis, you have a mandate to unleash your full glory and your highest competence. I invite you to choose as your motto whichever of the following inspires you most: raise the bar, up your game, boost your standards, pump up the volume, vault to a higher octave, climb to the next rung on the ladder, make the quantum leap and put your ass and assets on the line.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

According to an ad I saw for a luxury automobile, you should enjoy the following adventures in the course of your lifetime: ride the rapids on the Snake River in Idaho; stand on the Great Wall of China; see an opera at La Scala in Milan; watch the sun rise over the ruins of Machu Picchu; go paragliding over Japan’s Asagiri highland plateau with Mount Fuji in view; and visit the pink flamingos, black bulls and white horses in France’s Camargue Nature Reserve. The coming weeks would be a favorable time for you to seek experiences like those, Leo. If that’s not possible, do the next best things. Like what? Get your mind blown and your heart thrilled closer to home by a holy sanctuary, natural wonder, marvelous work of art—or all the above.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

It’s an excellent time to shed the dull, draining parts of your life story. I urge you to bid goodbye to your burdensome memories. If there are pesky ghosts hanging around from the ancient past, buy them a one-way ticket to a place far away from you. It’s OK to feel poignant, OK to entertain any sadness and regret that well up within you. Allowing yourself to fully experience these feelings will help you be as bold and decisive as you need to be to graduate from the old days and old ways.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

Your higher self has authorized you to be impatient with the evolution of togetherness. You have God’s permission to feel a modicum of dissatisfaction with your collaborative ventures—and wish they might be richer and more captivating than they are now. Here’s the cosmic plan: This creative irritation will motivate you to implement enhancements. You will take imaginative action to boost the energy and synergy of your alliances. Hungry for more engaging intimacy, you will do what’s required to foster greater closeness and mutual empathy.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Poet Richard Jackson writes, “The world is a nest of absences. Every once in a while, someone comes along to fill the gaps.” I will add a caveat to his statement: No one person can fill all the gaps. At best, a beloved ally may fill one or two. It’s not possible for anyone to be a shining savior who fixes every absence. If we delusionally believe there is such a hero, we will distort or miss the partial grace they can actually provide. So here’s my advice, Scorpio: Celebrate and reward a redeemer who has the power to fill one or two of your gaps.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Poet E. E. Cummings wrote, “May my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple.” That’s what I hope and predict for you during the next three weeks. The astrological omens suggest you will be at the height of your powers of playful exploration. Several rhythms are converging to make you flexible, resilient and creative as you seek the resources and influences your soul delights in. Your secret code phrase: higher love .

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Let’s hypothesize that there are two ways to further your relaxation, in healthy or not-so-healthy ways—by seeking experiences that promote your long-term wellbeing or indulging in temporary fixes that sap vitality. I ask you to meditate on this question. Then I encourage you to spend the next three weeks shedding any relaxation strategies that diminish you as you celebrate the relaxation methods that uplift, inspire and motivate you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Don’t expect people to guess what you need. Don’t assume they have powers that enable them to tune in to your thoughts and feelings. Be specific and straightforward as you name your desires. For example, say or write to an intense ally, “I want to explore ticklish areas with you between 7 and 9 on Friday night.” Or approach a person with whom you need to forge a compromise and spell out the circumstances under which you will feel open-minded and open-hearted. PS: Don’t hide your truth or lie about what you consider meaningful.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

Piscean writer Jack Kerouac feared he had meager power to capture the wonderful things that came his way. He compared his frustration with “finding a river of gold when I haven’t even got a cup to save a cupful. All I’ve got is a thimble.” Most of us have felt that way. The good news, Pisces, is that in the coming weeks, you will have extra skill at gathering in the goodness and blessings flowing in your vicinity. I suspect you will have the equivalent of three buckets to collect the liquid gold.

ACROSS

1.Yearn (for)

5.Work ____ sweat

8.Ophthalmologists call it a hordeolum

12.Pastoral poem

13.Neither’s partner

14.“Suuuuure”

15.Thanksgiving pie choice

17.Dietary guideline letters

18.More than needed

19.Painter Magritte

21.Bargaining ____

23.With 25-Across, children’s entertainer who famously wears a 56-/61-Across

25.See 23-Across

28.Suffix with senator or president

29.Emmy-winning scientist who famously wears a 56-/61-Across

31.“The Matrix” hero

33.Nursery bed

35.Some jeans

36.A little bit of everything?

37.Nobel Prize laureate ____ Ishiguro

39.Performed

40.Contacting privately via Twitter or Instagram

41.“Quiet!”

43.Untruth

44.Comedy legend who famously wore a

56-/61-Across

49.“Peek-____!”

51.Rent-____ (purchasing option)

52.Bibliography abbr.

55.L’homme upstairs?

56.With 61-Across, fashion accessory depicted by the arrangement of black squares at the bottom of this puzzle’s grid

57.____ Nostra

58.Water under the drawbridge

59.Cut drastically

Last week’s answers

WITH BABS

Snowbirding

SNOWBIRD: noun. 1. any of several birds seen chiefly in winter, 2. a ski resort in Utah, and 3. one who travels to warm climes for winter.

Right now, spring fever is rampant here in our state—even though spring break at our universities and colleges has already come and gone. Some will have joined the crowds of hikers, bikers and ATVs in Southern Utah while others will travel in the next month to enjoy their favorite warm vacay spots and/or our “Mighty 5” national parks.

More established folk look to St. George and Washington County as a place to retire or to have a second home for getting out of the cold and snow in other, colder parts of the country. With the amount of winter that Mother Nature dropped on so many areas this season, flights, hotels and B&Bs are in high demand.

One of my twin daughters lives in Lake Arrowhead, California, and got 11 feet of snow in 5 days—and another 5 feet the following week. She and her husband are champing at the bit to find someplace warm, and places like St. George have them eyeballing prices.

It’s not surprising, then, to learn that Washington County was awarded as the nation’s top luxury secondhome market in the country this past year—from data gathered by Pacaso, a luxury home real estate website that hooks up dreamers who want to make owning a luxury second home a reality.

The firm analyzed lock-in rates for second mortgages by homebuyers in Utah, California, Florida and Nevada. Their definition of a luxury home is any residence listed at $1 million or more that is specifically designated as a second residence.

The multiple listing service (MLS) in Washington County currently lists 1,504 homes and condos for sale in all price ranges, with 208 of them (14%) asking $1 million-plus. Salt Lake County’s MLS has 230 properties (16%) listed at more than $1 million, with a total of 1,452 active listings in all price ranges.

The most expensive home listed in Salt Lake County right now is a 15,540-square-fo0t, 7-bedroom home at 2304 S. Oneida St.—for $11.9 million. There are two homes in Washington County listed at $10 million and almost two dozen asking for more than $1 million in Summit and Wasatch Counties.

The highest-priced property I can find in Utah is in White Pine Canyon, near Park City, going for $50 million. That one sold in 2022 for $36 million: 17,567 square feet; 6 bed/10 bath; 15 fireplaces; 6-car garage; 60-foot-long indoor/outdoor stainless steel pool; motorized interior walls; spa with a Himalayan salt room; bowling alley; and cinema laser projection system. Hey, if you have the bucks, I’d be more than happy to sell you any of these—whether it’s your primary resi

dence or second home! n

Young Living Holdings, LLC seeks a Software Engineer III in Lehi, Utah. Position may also telecommute from any location in the United States. To apply, go to https://www.youngliving. com/en_US/company/careers/ current-openings and search for the above job title. Applicants who fail to provide a resume and prescreening question responses will not be considered.

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

NEWS of the WEIRD

BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

Wait, What?

The Exmoor Squirrel Project, a conservation endeavor in the United Kingdom aimed at saving the native red squirrel, has proposed that people set live traps for the non-native gray squirrel and that restaurants serve its meat, the BBC reported on Feb. 28. “Our woodlands, landscape and the biodiversity isn’t set up to deal with the behaviors of the gray,” said the group’s manager, Kerry Hosegood. “We’re going to introduce them to restaurants in the Exmoor area because they actually make for good eating,” she added. “This isn’t something that we like to do ... just target grays ... It’s a very serious project.” She said the gray squirrels have caused about 40 million pounds’ worth of damage to trees annually.

Suspicions Confirmed

Madison County (Illinois) coroner Steve Nonn solved a nearly year-old mystery on March 2 when he released the results of an autopsy on Richard Maedge of Troy, Illinois. Maedge’s wife, Jennifer, had reported him missing in late April last year after he failed to come home from work, KTVI-TV reported. His car, wallet and keys were at the house, but she couldn’t find him. Police searched the house, which they described as a “hoarder home,” but did not locate him. In fact, they searched twice, as Jennifer was also looking for the source of a “sewerlike” odor in the dwelling. Finally, on Dec. 11, as Jennifer pulled out Christmas decorations from a concealed storage space, she discovered Richard’s mummified body. The coroner ruled that Maedge hanged himself and that there was no foul play in his death.

News You Can Use

Mushrooms have been in the news a lot lately, but you probably didn’t know that Texas has a state mushroom: the Devil’s Cigar or Texas Star. KXAN-TV reported that the Lone Star State’s designated fungi is ultra-rare, growing only on decomposing cedar elm or oak tree stumps and roots in the U.S. and Japan. It comes out of the earth in a cylindrical shape, then “will open up into a three- to eight-pointed star,” said Angel Schatz of the Central Texas Mycological Society. That’s when the mushroom releases its spores and sometimes hisses. “It is a very cool mushroom to have as our state mushroom,” Schatz said.

Awesome!

Kansans take their tornado sirens seriously, so it was no surprise that on March 4 in the Wichita suburb of Park City, a ribbon-cutting ceremony took place to mark the reinstallation of the city’s oldest Thunderbolt siren, KSNW-TV reported. The sirens are remnants of the Cold War, and four of them are still in service in Sedgwick County. “About a year ago, we took them down, had them refurbished, and put them back up in our system,” explained Jonathan Marr, deputy director for Sedgwick County Emergency Management. The feted siren had been in use for 70 years.

It’s Come to This

Tattoo artist Dean Gunther of Manchester, United Kingdom, has made one man’s body goals come true: He’s inked a ripped six-pack onto the man’s torso, freeing the man from eating right and exercising more, the Daily Mail reported on March 6. “He decided that by getting a six-pack tattoo, he will always look summerready while still being able to enjoy beer and good food,” Gunther said of his customer. The artistic tat took two days to complete.

Compelling Explanation

At a preliminary hearing in San Francisco Superior Court on March 6, police officers offered testimony about a Feb. 1 incident in which Dmitri Mishin fired a replica gun inside a synagogue, The San Francisco Standard reported. As officers interrogated Mishin, he explained that the shooting was an act of prayer he was giving for his neighbor’s bird. Mishin, who pleaded not guilty, told

officers he lives on a submarine and talks with North Korean and Japanese leaders, and that weapons found in his home were movie props. After the shooting at the synagogue, he waved goodbye and left. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t Mishin’s first run-in with the law; his mother testified that he suffers from mental illness. The hearing was ongoing.

Pick on Somebody Your Own Size

David Jimenez, 65, of Maui, Hawaii, was arrested on March 6 for “pursuing a humpback whale,” CBS News reported. Jimenez, who calls himself Dolphin Dave, was allegedly harassing the whale and dolphins in Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park, where he was snorkeling. Jimenez was unrepentant, though: He told officers “he’s not going to stop swimming with whales and dolphins ‘because it’s magical and others do much worse things.’” Humpback whales are protected under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act.

Bright Idea

In China, women modeling lingerie for online retailers violates the country’s rules about spreading obscene material, Insider reported on March 1. Instead, underwear companies are hiring men to model the clothing— and it’s working out better than you might think. “The guy wears it better than the girl,” one online commenter posted. Others argue that the restrictions are “depriving women of job opportunities.” “We don’t really have a choice,” said one business owner, Mr. Xu. “The designs can’t be modeled by our female colleagues, so we will use our male colleagues to model it.”

It’s Good To Have a Hobby

You missed it again. Key West, Florida’s annual Conch Shell Blowing Contest took place on March 4, with Carol Whiteley of Ontario, Canada, winning the women’s division and Brian Cardis of Macon, Georgia, taking the men’s top prize. Entrants of all ages were judged on quality, novelty, duration and loudness, the Associated Press reported. Michael and Georgann Wachter from Avon Lake, Ohio, impressed the audience with a shell and vocal duet of Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog.” Whiteley said she toots her shell to celebrate sunsets at her riverside home. Time to start practicing for next year!

Irony

Your Mates Brewing Co. has recalled cans of its Watermelon Sour Beer because of “excess alcohol,” United Press International reported. The Australian brand said the beer could pose a risk of illness; it was unintentionally fermented twice, causing it to have a higher alcohol content and carbonation. The brand is sold in Queensland and online Down Under.

Police Reports

Belinda H. Miller, 50, was in jail four days after a Feb. 18 incident at a Popeye’s restaurant in Richmond County, Georgia, WJBF-TV reported. Miller became angry when her order was missing biscuits, the store’s manager told police, and the mistake was corrected—but that didn’t appease her. Instead, she allegedly drove her SUV into the store’s front window, narrowly missing a worker standing inside. She continued driving until debris inside the building stopped her car. Miller was charged with aggravated assault and criminal damage to property.

■ Hayato Baba, 21, of Narashino, Japan, was taken into custody in March because he allegedly assaulted another man and stole his wallet outside of a convenience store, Japan Today reported—all because the other man was taking too long in the restroom. Baba admitted to punching the victim twice in the face and taking the wallet. Send