City Weekly January 25, 2024

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UTAH' S INDEPENDENT NE WSPAPER

How DNA experts and law enforcement uncover hidden identities.

BY CAROLYN CAMPBELL

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Cover Story

Written in Bone How DNA experts and law enforcement uncover hidden identities.

By Carolyn Campbell Cover image from Dreamstime

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Bad Faith vs. Authenticity

After concluding a sumptuous meal at a high-end dining establishment—complete with delectable cuisine, a delightful ambiance and perfect service—one may find themselves pondering: What’s the right tip? However, this seemingly ordinary scenario holds a profound philosophical underpinning, as highlighted by Jean Paul Sartre’s 1943 publication Being and Nothingness.

Sartre expounds on a comparable situation, where he terms the waiter’s behavior as “bad faith,” denoting a lack of

authenticity. In this context, the waiter relinquishes personal agency to adopt the role of a mere performer, catering to patrons’ expectations.

This concept of “bad faith” extends beyond dining experiences and permeates various aspects of our society. Author Merve Emre’s insightful exposition underscores this notion by implicating the entire human resources sector. Emre contends that the prevailing emphasis on compliance and duty within HR prioritizes and encourages the wrong behaviors.

At its core, “bad faith” perpetuates conformity rather than excellence. Bad faith happens under the guise of science and the insane idea that some have the clairvoyance to discern winners from losers. This is simply a pure façade perpetrated by charlatans.

It is time we humble ourselves and acknowledge that not only is the system inherently flawed, but maybe doing more harm than good. By doing so, we still have time to dedicate our time and effort

to both each other and to issues that really matter.

Drawing from personal experiences, the path to authenticity involves respecting boundaries. When interacting with service industry professionals or others, initiating conversations with humor, riddles or genuine interest fosters an atmosphere of authenticity. Granting everyone the liberty to be genuine, even on their less favorable days, and displaying empathy toward their circumstances contributes to good faith.

Happiness lies in embracing our genuine selves and unfettered autonomy.

Rather than perpetuating a culture of conformity, our pursuit of happiness hinges on living authentically, cherishing liberty and embracing each other.

This realization invites us to transcend the trappings of societal expectations, ultimately forging a path toward fulfillment and away from bad faith.

BRENDAN RYAN

Salt Lake City

“Clearing the Air,” Jan. 18 Opinion

Cat Palmer hits all the right notes on our poor air quality. My wife and I have lived here for more than 40 years and have often lamented the air quality.

We have done what we could to do our part.

We put solar panels on our house, bought an electric car and a hybrid car and really try to be mindful of our carbon footprint. It really aggravates me to see someone sitting in their idling car running the air conditioning while their spouse is inside shopping.

We were amazed at how clean our air became during the pandemic. We hoped it would have been a wake-up call as to how much pollution our cars contribute.

Intelligent mass transit, carpooling and remote work will really help. Now all we have to do is get our politicians onboard.

RIC LEE

Sandy 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 musician do you think is overrated or underrated?

Bill Frost

Me, in both instances.

Wes Long

Aimee Mann and Isaac Slade are both underrated in my book.

Katharine Biele

I’m afraid to say it in Utah but ... Kurt Bestor. Overrated.

Carolyn Campbell

Ringo Starr—underrated; he seldom receives the recognition of the other Beatles.

Kelly Boyce

Overrated—Drake. Never understood his hype. Underrated—Gryyfin, he’s my fave.

Jerre Wrobe

Glen Campbell’s underrated guitar solos.

Kayla Dreher

Machine Gun Kelly is underrated. He’s not the most charming human, but he’s a very talented artist.

Benjamin Wood

I’m a textbook hipster so I think all my fave alt/folk/indie-rocker bands are underrated: Typhoon, Carbon Leaf, Blind Pilot, Dispatch, Spoon, Guster, etc.

Doug Kruithof

Donny and Marie—so underrated.

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JANUARY 25, 2024 | 5

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PRIVATE

EYE

BY JOHN SALTAS

To Sit or Stand

F

or as long as I’ve lived in Utah, it’s been verily documented that there exist two Utahs. There’s the Utah everyone seems to embrace—the boundless beauty, the pretty face, the “we want to be loved” Utah, the lakes-filledwith-big-fish Utah, the Utah spirit and the “Utah way” Utah.

There’s also the other heinous, duplicitous Utah, comprised of people who pretty much can’t stand one another.

Oh sure, they dance together here and there, like at ribbon cuttings, Sundance movie screenings, sporting events and mixed-marriage wedding ceremonies (too often with at least one parent absent, especially when the mixing and marrying is with a person of the same gender). However, it’s a more common habit of Utahns to “stick with their own kind,” as the saying goes.

Truth is, that’s everywhere. But it’s seldom as overt as here in Utah where exclusion is as common as catfish in Utah Lake. As an old-timer would be wont to say, “The lake is no longer clean.”

Research shows that as more outsiders move into Utah and as longtime Utahns produce fewer babies, Utah is becoming more diverse, religiously and ethnically. That’s only a good thing so long as the dominant population of Utahns—mostly Latter-day Saint and ethnically white—accept and welcome their new neighbors and their new ideas.

In my lifetime, there have been some great changes among Utahns who view the world with an open mind. But not much has changed when it comes to the practical matter of who’s driving the car and who’s being driven in it to the edge of the cliff.

Politically, Utah is little different today than it was 40 years ago. This past weekend, I was rifling through some old boxes and found a copy of the Event newspaper from 1982. The Event predated the one you’re reading now, and I was a freelance writer for it.

I read a column I wrote about the recent elections (when Democratic candidate Ted Wilson lost to Republican Orrin Hatch in a U.S. Senate race) that I could just as easily run today with the same sentiments and observations. Indeed, I think I’ll type it up and send it to Benjamin Wood next week or so to see if he will run it.

All I’d have to change is a few names and substitute one particular political issue for another and that column would be quite current. Both are an easy exchange, because the political issues that Utahns end up quarreling about (Utah politicians especially) aren’t really about politics, but about people.

Just a word to the wise here: When the Legislature gets you talking about where you can take a piss or where not to apply for a line of work or for education, what’s really going on is political legerdemain, or a legal game of Three Card Monte. You look that way while they steal something this way. Smoke and mirrors.

The best part is, with both the House and Senate stacked to one political party, Utah’s entrenched lawmakers no longer have to play the role of magician or card shark—they have plenty of dazzling assistants to do all the distracting they need for a lifetime.

With Utahns all tied up in knots, those political pros just smile broadly while passing legislation that benefits their bankers or friends, even as they themselves secure rights on the properties that will one day abut a new piece of public transit (a gondola, even), a baseball stadium or a housing development. Today, the distractions are primarily being driven by the nonexistent issue of public urination and the imagined harmful effects that DEI—diversity, equality and inclusion—have upon our society.

As a result of that column I wrote those 40-plus years

ago, I’ve been tagged with the label of “liberal,” “sick liberal,” “uneducated liberal,” “goddamned ignorant communist-loving liberal,” “Go back where you came from libtard liberal,” “Why do you like Mexicans when they are taking your job liberal,” “queer-loving liberal” and, of course, for those who skipped history class, “socialist.” All of that is garbage, same as if I were to heap similar upon the persons who are most identified as leading the charge against transgender and educated minorities.

So I’ll beg off of doing that, while fairly wishing it were anyone but Rep. Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, carrying the transgender bill petard—after all, I defended her in a column here a few years ago when she stood the unpopular ground of supporting Black Lives Matter concerns with a legislative bill to require officers to adhere to procedures and to report abuses of using deadly force.

We are simply different units on God’s earth, an earth apparently divided on whether one should stand or squat in a restroom. I’ve yet to hear of a transgender person in Utah who entered a female environment to commit a predatory act.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, who is lionized by our manly Utah Legislature, famously walked into the dressing rooms during the Miss America pageant (which he owned) because he was entitled to perform “inspections.” Now that was predatory ... as was his conviction of raping E. Jean Carroll, and as was his bragging about grabbing women by the pussy on an Access Hollywood tape. The Utah Legislature overwhelmingly supports him. They therefore vacate their presumed moral superiority over any and all Utahns. Any non-LDS native Utahn knows what I mean by that.

You know what I’d like to see? I’d like to see a female— present or former—enter the men’s restroom on Capitol Hill. My bet is those hound dogs wouldn’t cry foul—they’d start a lottery faster than you could say, “Zip it up, Junior.”

Sex lottery. Utah would pass that one in a heartbeat. CW Send comments to john@cityweekly.net

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HITS & MISSES

BY KATHARINE BIELE |

MISS: Restless Rooms

Not to belabor the irony, but it is stunning how Republicans distrust the “woke” ideology of “govschools” while forcing their own philosophies on an increasingly doctrinaire education system. In this legislative session, bills are all about keeping certain people from feeling “uncomfortable.”

The transgender bathroom bill— HB257—was a case in point. Sponsor Kera Birkeland, R-Morgan, choked up while she talked about people feeling uncomfortable at the idea of trans kids entering a bathroom. Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, even said her grandson was uncomfortable going into a locker room. And like, who wasn’t in high school? But it’s unclear how many trans kids there are in the state— somewhere between 3.7% to 11.8% of adults responded in surveys that they were LGBTQ in the last 10 years. Still, the bill passed the House as conservatives said it’s important to consider the feelings of “the other side.”

MISS: Diverse Opinions

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Moving onto DEI—diversity, equity, and inclusion—and South Ogden Republican Rep. Katy Hall’s deer-inthe-headlights defense of HB261. Her bill, which passed the House, seeks to dismantle DEI programs in all public education and government. Admittedly one Republican, Bountiful’s Rep. Ray Ward, was concerned that the prohibition might affect Utah’s health care, and Democrats asked over and over if Hall had any data to support the notion that DEI was harmful. Nope. Rep. Jen Dailey-Provost, D-Salt Lake City, had a list of reading materials, of which Hall was unaware. Democratic Rep. Mark Wheatley recounted how he, as a child of color, learned about the pioneers and Indigenous populations, but never about any other ethnicities—including his own. Democratic Rep. Carol Spackman Moss noted that she had been asked over the years to provide data for her bills before they passed. But apparently, data is a Democratic thing.

DEI is the love child of the country’s far-right conservatives, as a New York Times article explained in its unraveling of the “Crusade Against D.E.I.” In other words, don’t be “woke.”

HIT: Power Corrupts

As the legislative session began, the Utah Citizens’ Counsel unveiled a report on the “Growing Imbalance of Power in Utah Governance.” You might say, “No duh!” But it’s important to highlight how a supermajority of lawmakers affects representative democracy. “Over the past few years, the Utah Citzens’ Counsel has watched the Utah Legislature pass laws that we believe create an imbalance among the three branches. Similarly, the Legislature has been increasing its power by amending the Constitution and eroding the constitutional right of citizens to legislate by initiative. Moreover, we have also seen state legislative encroachment on city and county responsibilities that are historically local.” The counsel, despite its prestigious membership, is just as likely to be ignored as the general public. But at least they tried.

BY WES LONG

Power Outage

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f the lightning bolts and the blood weeping from our walls have not already made it clear—the Utah legislative season is with us once more. While the issues addressed (invented?) during a session are legion, consider one subject in this world of limited resources and unbounded greed: namely, the issue of energy.

Rep. Kay Christofferson, R-Lehi, and Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, have sponsored HB74, a proposal for cost-sharing between telecommunication, oil and gas companies and the Department of Transportation in the event of projects that affect said utilities (such as highway expansion). Another bill is St. George Republican Rep. Colin Jack’s HB191, which narrowly defines when an established electrical generation facility can be replaced by an alternative energy source.

Set aside the sense that these bills— and others yet to be seen—coddle and shield traditional utilities from any loss of comfort or profit, something that hardly gets extended to the rest of us when push comes to shove. Set aside the fact that Christofferson, Harper and Jack are all recipients of contributions from established industries in telecommunications, oil, gas and petroleum. What strikes me most is how limited our vision seems to be before the grander scheme of things; how riveted we Utahns remain to forms of energy that exploit nature and leave those at the bottom of the economic ladder to pay the biggest price.

In this age of climate crisis and diminishing returns, what are we even doing here?

Utility companies with an interest in remaining the only game in town will discourage anything that weans people off of their services, and lawmakers who are bought by them will duly oblige. But our politics require a larger vision, something that gets us back in touch with our souls and shared existence rather than our immediate gratification and isolated greed.

Moving away from carbon, oil and nuclear energy will never be embraced by industry—which despises any slowdown of “growth”—nor by some of the labor unions that take a dim view of short-term unemployment as the market undergoes long-term shifts. And so many Utahns involved in either group are simply trying to get by within the system we have.

Still, that doesn’t mean we shrug our shoulders and continue to do what we have always done. Down that way lies a dead end.

“The victims of our system are now Third World countries [and our local poor] as well as nature who are exploited relentlessly in order to sustain the system,” said German author Michael Ende. “Those investing money only for the best possible profit to increase capital and to expand will have to pay dearly because economic growth will ask its price. If reason cannot get mankind to change, then events will do it for them.” CW Small Lake City is home to local writers and their opinions.

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Public Access Brewvies Cinema Pub keeps up the fight to let all filmmaking voices be heard.

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BY BRANDI CHRISTOFFERSEN comments@cityweekly.net

t 677 S. 200 West, warm colorful designs, casual decor and a friendly staff welcome moviegoers as they enter Brewvies Cinema Pub. This unique nickelodeon offers 21 and over patrons, craft beers, a full bar and delicious pub food. Pool tables line the back wall, and a stocked concession stand tempts passersby. The comfortable two screen theater is the perfect place for local cinephiles, to not only watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster, but also indulge in classic and modern indie films.

Since 1997, the cinema has been committed to the local community and its right to enjoy quality movies and entertainment. In fact, seven years ago, the theater’s stubborn determination to champion and defend this right led Brewvies into the district court system. The case began when the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC) warned Brewvies of their violation of a state law. The regulation banned serving alcohol during showings of films with simulated sex or fullfrontal nudity. (The movie in question, Deadpool, did depict a simulated sex scene and nudity.) Brewvies sued Utah over the prohibition and, in Sept. 2017, the “little theater that could” won the First Amendment case against the state. In a ruling through the U.S District Court, Judge David Nuffer stated that Utah had “violated the First Amendment by bringing an administrative endorsement action against a mainstream motion picture theater showing an R-rated movie.”

Since the ruling, Brewvies has continued to champion its right and privilege to promote the film industry. It has placed a particular focus on supporting independent filmmaking and storytelling. In the past year, the cinema has showcased such indie classic films as Fruit Paradise, My

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Young Auntie and Diabel AKA the Devil. Additionally, for 2024, Brewvies has partnered with the Salt Lake Film Society (SLFS) to offer their Film Buff Red Carpet Club members a weekly viewing night. Film Buff members are invited to watch a new film —created by local filmmakers—every Monday night at 10 p.m. for no charge.

Moreover, Brewvies’ support for indie projects has gone beyond regular movie showings and includes theatrical spotlights and premieres. One of the most exciting of these events will take place on Thursday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. Brewvies, along with Collective Imagination Productions, will be hosting a screening of the new horror film The Trip. The premier will include a meet-and-greet cocktail hour prior to the show and a Q&A with the cast and filmmakers afterwards.

The Trip is described as “one part haunted house story, one part slasher film with just a dash of hallucinogenic drugs.” The

thriller follows four childhood friends who take a trip to a rural farmhouse and experience a weekend of terror. In addition to it starring internationally known horror actors Hannah Fierman (V/H/S/), Doug Bradley (Hellraiser), John Amplas (George A. Romero’s Martin) and Lori Cardille (George A. Romero’s Day of the Dead), The Trip also features Salt Lake City native Calvin Dittmore, in his acting debut.

While talking about the film’s extremely talented cast, Dean Jacobs—The Trip’s director and producer— was especially excited about its newest actor. “I first met Calvin Dittmore in Los Angeles when I saw him perform at an improv show in Hollywood. I knew he had talent. So when I started writing this script, I wrote a role specifically for him. His raw talent shines through in this film, and it’s a true joy to watch his energy on screen. Even though he had never acted in a film before, I knew he could do it ... and I was right.” The

showing is open to the public, but tickets for The Trip should be reserved at eventbrite.com.

Brewvies’ ongoing support of independent and local filmmaking has been very important to the Salt Lake City arts and entertainment scene. Andy Murphy, General Manager of Brewvies Cinema and Pub, says, “We are excited to premiere The Trip and show locally made films at Brewvies.

Events like this keeps us close to the community that has supported us for 27 years, and we’d like to continue to be the go-to venue for creative content and new ideas that will be so important for indie theaters like us going forward.”

It is this level of commitment and appreciation for unique showings that keeps local movie buffs returning week after week. For a full listing of Brewvies’ showtimes, events and premiers, go to brewvies.com or email contact@Brewvies. com. CW

Myq Kaplan

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JANUARY 25, 2024 | 11

COURTESY PHOTO COURTESY PHOTO

There are times when children can teach adults a thing or two, specifically, about the joy of discovery in everyday experiences. Bluey’s Big Play, an all-new theatrical adaptation of the Emmy Award-winning children’s television series Bluey, brings that idea to the fore.

It features a cast of colorful puppets, brilliant puppeteers, an original story by Bluey creator Joe Brumm, and new music by Bluey composer Joff Bush. Heeler pup Bluey and her sister Bingo dream up a day of activities in order to nudge their dad into participating in their playtime, even though Dad has decided that what’s most important is an afternoon off. Of course, being that Bluey loves to play, she’s never at a loss when it comes to inventing games and involving others. Since she likes pretending she’s a grown-up capable of indulging in adult activities, she decides to assign play parts for everyone—including Dad—and invent the rules as well. She’s clever, committed and determined to get everyone involved, whether they’re initially willing to or not. Naturally, there’s plenty of incentive for the audience to join in as well, and take inspiration from her imagination. After all, who would dare say phooey to our Bluey?

Bluey’s Big Play: The Stage Show comes to Delta Hall at the Eccles (131 S. Main St.) Friday, Jan. 26 at 6 p.m, Saturday, Jan. 27 at 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 5 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 28 at 1 p.m. Tickets are $25 - $75 depending on the performance; some performances may be sold-out as of press time. Visit arttix.com. (LZ)

The age of social media has inspired “attention scolds”—those who chastise you for devoting time or love to anything but that which has been rigorously vetted by them as worthy of such time or love. How dare you care about a movie, or a musician, when people are dying in [fill in the blank]? The apocalypse is nigh; the focus of your consciousness is a statement on your character.

In his collection of essays Is There God After Prince?, writer Peter Coviello draws particular attention to the question of what it means to love things—even things that others might consider frivolous—at a time when the world seems to be falling down around us. In the piece from which the book draws its title, for example, Coviello processes the death of rock musician Prince not just in terms of personal memories, but also how it feels like the loss of someone connected with a unique kind of transcendence. “This is what it means to call Prince the holy man of fucking,” Coviello writes. “No one—I want to say, no one in the history of sound or creation—better understands the way sex is a passage to a world fantastically apart from ourselves.”

Peter Coviello visits The King’s English Bookshop (1511 S. 1500 East) on Monday, Jan. 29 at 6 p.m., in conversation with University of Utah English professor Kathryn Bond Stockton about Is There God After Prince. The event is free, but reservation is required via Eventbrite; visit kingsenglish.com for reservation link, or to preorder copies of the book for signature. (Scott Renshaw)

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Bluey’s Big Play: The Stage Show

Peter Coviello: Is There God After Prince?

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Comedian Myq (pronounced “Mike”) Kaplan is a fixture on the late-night TV circuit, including the Tonight Show, Conan, James Corden and Seth Meyers, as well as various appearances on Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing and America’s Got Talent. He’s hosted a half-hour special on Comedy Central, a onehour standup special on Amazon Prime Video, and a special on the Dry Bar Comedy channel. Other credits include the podcasts The Faucet and Broccoli and Ice Cream, and half a dozen albums—among them, Vegan Mind Meld, one of iTunes’ top 10 comedy albums of the year, and his latest, A.K.A., which debuted at #1 and was described by the NY Times as “invigoratingly funny.” He’s also the author of a book, tellingly titled Heart Brain Art Train.

Still, it seems hard to classify his humor, given that the topics he touches on include such diverse subjects as ghosts, mediums, genocide, birth control, Catholic school and why having kids is like doing drugs. On the other hand, with more than 1,000 performances to date, he can tout the fact he was named “Local Comedian of the Year” in the Boston Phoenix reader’s poll. There’s more to him, however; he’s also a guitarist and vocalist who refers to himself as vegan, polyamorous and “atheistic,” although he adds that psychedelics inspired his spirituality. Is that just another reflection of his oddball imagination?

Myq Kaplan performs two 18 + show at Wiseguys Ogden (269 25th St.), Friday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 27 at 7:30 p.m. nightly. Tickets cost $20; visit wiseguyscomedy.com for tickets and additional event information. (Lee Zimmerman)

Complete listings online at cityweekly.net

UNVIERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

theESSENTIALS

ENTERTAINMENT PICKS, JANUARY 25-31, 2024

Written in

Bone

How DNA experts and law enforcement uncover hidden identities.

BY CAROLYN CAMPBELL comments@cityweekly.net

H

e’s a man of mystery. After all these years, no one knows his real name.

When road workers neared the makeshift place the man called home, they thought the strong smell might be emanating from a dead animal. Moving closer, the Utah Department of Transportation crew found the man’s decomposing body lying on a ledge.

He lived there, under a Riverdale Road overpass and above the roar of rushing freeway traffic. His remains had decomposed to the point that his facial features were no longer distinct.

“You couldn’t even tell what he looked like,” said Brian Davis, an agent with the State Bureau of Investigation “Deterioration had left his hands nearly mummified.”

Among the man’s few scattered possessions—a sleeping bag, a few items of clothing—there were no documents to identify him. There were shoes, water bottles, a pipe and pipe tobacco. A bus ticket was dated March 21, 2012. The road workers found him six weeks later, on May 7, 2012.

Long, graying black hair hung from the man’s head. A medical examiner determined that tuberculosis or lung cancer might have been the cause of death. He told Davis it appeared that the man hadn’t visited a dentist in years.

Davis hoped they could collect a fingerprint, as some tissue and skin remained on the man’s hands. The hands were removed and rehydrated by the state crime lab, Davis said, but whoever the man was, his record was clean.

“There was one good thumbprint,” he said. “But he was not in anyone’s system. He could be anybody.”

Some people reporting seeing the man when he was alive.

When Vern Waters was a library manager at the Southwest Library Branch in Roy, Utah, the mysterious man visited the library every day for three years. He wore jeans and work shirts in layers under a flannel jacket. Beneath his beanie hat, Water said, the man’s eyes were a striking blue. Waters recalled the man’s weathered face, graying hair reaching his collar and his beard.

“He came in and read the newspapers and travel guides,” Waters recalled. “He would just open all the newspapers

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12 | JANUARY 25, 2024

“Someone must play that role and try to find the family.”

—Kathy Mackay, cold case analyst with the Utah Department of Public Safety

and leave them scattered. We said, ‘If you could fold the newspapers, we will gather them.’ He was kind about doing that for us.”

When they spoke, the man said his name was Terry. But Waters has no idea if that is a first name or last name, or whether it’s real. He recalled how “Terry” would rummage for food in the dumpster of a nearby donut shop and corner gas station, and how, in time, those business took to setting out bags of clean food.

“In some ways, the community adopted him,” Waters said, recalling one instance when a library patron called the police to respond to Terry’s loitering. “They came to ask me if he ever panhandled or harassed library patrons. I said, ‘not once.’ Sometimes, people gave him money, but the exchange was always discreet. … I didn’t have any reason to kick him out.”

“Terry” is still unidentified today. The man’s identity is the only one that Agent Davis hasn’t been able to close out in 23 years of police work.

Finding Answers

Kathy Mackay is a cold case crime analyst with the Utah Department of Public Safety and oversaw the cold case database when she started working for the department in 2018. She said there are currently 45 unidentified cases in the state—six women and 39 men.

“They are bones or bodies that are still unidentified. They are kept at the state medical examiner’s office,” Mackay said. “We try to do investigative genealogy. Someone must play that role and try to find the family.”

In a Millard County case where unidentified bones were discovered in the desert, the remains were found to be related to a woman in North Carolina. “The last time she saw her dad was when she was 8 years old,” Mackay said. “This past Christmas Eve, the daughter—who is now 90 years old—learned that her father, Robert Holman Trent, was positively identified.” His identity known, investigators are still working to determine Trent’s cause of death and what brought him to the Utah area.

Utah’s nonprofit Cold Case Coalition is primarily a volunteer-run organization, officially established in 2018. In 2019, the Cold Case Coalition expanded and founded Intermountain Forensics, a fully accredited forensic DNA laboratory. And in 2022, Intermountain Forensics was separated from the Cold Case Coalition to become a separate, independent nonprofit.

The Cold Case Coalition defines a “cold” case as one that law enforcement hasn’t actively investigated for three years. One Utah homicide victim is an example—he graduated from high school in 1975 and decided to hitchhike from his Colorado home to visit relatives in California.

He was seen alive in Wendover, Utah, one day before an unknown assailant murdered him. A day later, someone discovered the young man’s body in a rural Tooele County landfill. The victim was estimated to be between 17 and 22 years old. He had a white scar on his forehead and vaccination scars on his left shoulder and wrist.

After the examination of his body was complete, he was buried in the Tooele City Cemetery. No one identified him for almost 40 years.

Deborah Dilley, executive director of the Cold Case Coalition said it’s difficult to conduct a homicide investigation without first establishing the victim’s identity. Their work often involves receiving bones or bone samples and extracting DNA for an analysis that is compatible with CODIS, a national DNA information repository maintained by the FBI. With CODIS, state and local crime laboratories are able to store and compare the DNA profiles from crime scene evidence and convicted offenders.

“We don’t want to step on law enforcement’s toes,” Dilley said. “We want to be a support, not a hindrance.”

With many techniques and investigative partners, Intermountain Forensics (IF) has helped solve numerous cases.

One such case is the Preble Penny Case. On May 25, 1968, in Preble County, Ohio, a group of children discovered the remains of an unidentified female in an advanced state of decomposition.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) partnered with IF on another case of a young woman whose body was found in an alley between Cortland and Richton Streets in Detroit, Michigan. The young woman wore a white T-shirt with yellow and black smiley faces, a white skirt, socks, gym shoes and a teddy bear watch.

By analyzing a piece of jawbone that NCMEC sent, IF was able to identify Mindy Clevidence, who was 17 when she died 27 years ago. Clevidence was a high school girl who showed sheep and steers in 4-H, earned scripture awards

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ily and friends can disappear without generating a missing persons report. And in past decades, when law enforcement lacked tools to check for records outside their area, it was even harder to make connections.

“Many cases went cold because the unknown person had been disconnected from their family and community,” Lauritzen said, “especially when their remains are located in another part of the country.”

In the past seven years, a cutting-edge new tool called Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) has come to the forefront of law enforcement, says Mitch Morrissey of United Data Connect. IGG combines DNA sequencing, commercial DNA database searches and genealogical research.

Morrissey added that IGG has identified hundreds of previously unidentified men, women and children, giving families answers about what happened to their loved ones.

A Jane Doe or John Doe might be a murder victim whose identity is unknown to law enforcement. Currently, IGG is the last resort for identifying nameless bodies.

These tools have applications outside of law enforcement, as well. Along with providing investigative genealogy in John and Jane Doe cases, Intermountain Forensics offers services for personal genealogy work. Sometimes called “Keepsake” DNA service, IF will evaluate personal items to unlock new ancestral branches to research.

“People send in hats, razors with whisker hair, watch bands, envelopes and locks of hair that people have saved,” Dilley said. “We’ll test any artifact from which we believe usable DNA may be extracted.” CW

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“Terry’s” final resting place: As yet unidentified, the man was known to visit an area library where he read newspapers and travel guides.

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JANUARY 25, 2024 | 13

A road crew in 2012 discovered the body of an unknown man under this overpass on Riverdale Road in Weber County.

COURTESY PHOTO

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Reclaiming Names

in the Baptist church, and loved sketching, writing poetry, singing and dancing.

“Her parents had been trying to find her for years,” Dilley said. “There is power in knowing who somebody is, in giving them back their name and identity.”

She added that while justice may focus on getting “the bad guy,” another important part of justice is resolution and “restoring the name to the victim.”

One of the first cases Intermountain Forensics identified through genetic genealogy was that of Peggy Dodd out of Harris County, Texas. Dodd disappeared in 1984 at age 29 and her family waited 38 years for answers, never knowing Dodd’s unidentified body had been found in a field roughly 20 miles from home only weeks after she went missing.

Fort Bend County Sheriff’s investigators spent decades trying to fit the pieces of an intricate puzzle together with only minimal information, including approximate height, age, weight and clothing located with the remains. Intermountain Forensics scoured every item and explored every available technology, Danny Hellwig, IF’s director of laboratory development, said. “Astrea Forensics took a rootless hair and helped us turn it into a genetic genealogy profile,” he said. “Utah Cold Case Coalition’s genetic genealogists turned that profile into a genealogy lead.”

The use of genetic genealogy to research cases of unidentified remains—referred to as John or Jane Does—has transformed the work on long-term cold Doe cases, says Pam Lauritzen, a senior director with the DNA Doe Project.

Lauritzen said that people who are isolated from fam-

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The body was short, with a slight build, Dilley said. A flood in the local area had disturbed the remains, which were believed to have been previously buried in a shallow grave. There was no identifying clothing and the body had been left outside for some time, allowing local wildlife to scatter the remains. At the time of the discovery, a coroner stated that the victim could have experienced complications if she had given birth.

“In Ohio, they believed it to be a woman and wanted to send us some of the bones,” Dilley said. “When they arrived, we discovered that Preble Penny was not female— there was a male pelvis. Because he was so small, it was an easy mistake to make.”

After IF created a DNA profile, they were able to match the victim’s genetic markers with his great nieces and identify the body. “We do believe it was a homicide,” Dilley said.

“We want to be a support [to law enforcement], not a hindrance,”says Deborah Dilley, executive director of the Cold Case Coalition.

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In 2022, Intermountain Forensics helped identify Peggy Dodd, who disappeared in 1984.

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The remains of Mindy Clevidence, killed in 1996, were identified in 2023 with the help of Intermountain Forensics.

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14 | JANUARY 25, 2024

Rewind Vo l u me 23: 2006 t o 20 0 7 years of

salt lake

CITY WEEKLY

BY WES LONG wlong@cityweekly.net

“I

told owner John Saltas he really should be careful what he asks for—he’s pestered me for years in his Private Eye column to come work here,” Holly Mullen wrote in the April 12, 2007, issue. “His whining finally paid off.”

Having left a job at the Tribune and tried her hand at blogging, Mullen at last acquiesced to Saltas’s entreaties, taking on the mantle of City Weekly editor with the departure of Ben Fulton.

“Saltas, Publisher Jim Rizzi and I have struck a pact about the purpose and value of alternative newspapers,” Mullen continued. “Our job is to dig up the stories the dailies and TV stations either miss or cover only superficially.

That, and to infuse topics with context and voice, properties that mainstream journalists too often label as ‘bias.’”

Mullen noted that she had worked as a writer for alternative papers in Minneapolis and Dallas, and knew that “their power and charm lies in their unpredictability.”

“As I told the staff on my first day,” Mullen continued, “‘Our worst sin here would be to bore people.’”

Mullen’s entrance and Fulton’s exit were not the only developments at the paper during City Weekly’s 23rd year.

Gustavo Arellano’s syndicated column “Ask a Mexican” began its run across our pages, as did the writings of Geoff Griffin on sports and Brian Staker on visual arts, among others.

Our ever-shifting pool of personnel aside, the events covered and subjects broached throughout this year made the 2006-2007 period anything but boring. Plans for the Divine Strake explosion tests in Nevada—which would have resulted in a toxic mushroom cloud to pass over Utah—were fortunately canceled.

Salt Lakers—along with County Mayor Peter Corroon—rejected a proposal for taxpayers to foot the bill for Real Salt

Lake’s soccer stadium, but the proposal went forward anyway. Gay-straight alliance clubs were again hampered by the successful legislative efforts of Sen. Chris Buttars and Rep. Aaron Tilton, while Sen. Darin Peterson and Rep. James Gowans successfully pushed through a bill that removed oversight of EnergySolutions’ waste dump from both elected officials and the public.

With funding and lobbying from people like Overstock.com’s Patrick Byrne and groups like Parents for Choice in Education, Utah lawmakers passed a massive voucher program to drain public tax dollars into private schools. A pipe bomb went off at the Salt Lake City Public Library, thankfully injuring no one. More tragic, however, was a mass shooting that took place at Trolley Square, leaving six people dead, including the perpetrator, and four others injured.

Cydney Neil’s Rocky Point Haunted House attraction (having run since 1979) closed down; the historic Walker Center building (1912) was saved from demolition; and thousands of Brigham Young University students and alumni protested the invitation of Vice President Dick Cheney to give the commencement address at their school.

Certainly not a boring time, and adding to the Weekly’s unpredictability were such notable stories as Shane Johnson’s work on the extensive business empire of the polygamous Kingston clan, as well as his breaking story on County District Attorney candidate Lohra Miller’s dubious campaign contributions from the employees of developer Dell Loy Hansen.

Ted McDonough reported on gentrification in Sugar House’s business district; Louis Godfrey on the 30th anniversary of the death penalty in Utah; Carolyn Campbell on former Sandy councilmember Jenni Jackson’s experience as a transgender woman; and

Jason Berry on the increasingly severe effects of global warming, as illustrated by Hurricane Katrina.

Remembering Vol. 23: In competition In the course of his June 15 editorial, John Saltas made mention of $20,000 that had been approved by the Salt Lake City Council for a portrait of Mayor Ross “Rocky” Anderson to hang in the City & County Building.

“That’s a bit rich considering $20,000 was what [City Weekly] got for relocating to Main Street,” Saltas rejoined, “and at least in our case, the city has gotten a handsome return on that investment with our now 50 employees spending money like mad up and down Main Street. There’s no similar return on a portrait.”

Consequently, Saltas announced a contest for readers to send in their own portraits of the mayor to the Weekly offices: first place received $250, second came away with $100, $50 for third place, and gift certificates going to the rest. With a deadline of July 14, Saltas suggested that the contest would save the city money that could be better spent elsewhere.

More than 20 entrants ultimately came before the Weekly’s evaluation committee, in forms as traditional as a canvas and as exotic as a hubcap. The winners were revealed in the paper’s Aug. 3 issue, with Terrel VanLeeuwen winning first place, James Bible obtaining second and Cecilia Wainright getting third.

Hot on the heels of this contest came another, with the same cash prizes, this time based upon the premise—at Saltas’ own insistence—that Saltas was too old and tired to be writing every week. The “Replace John” contest was to run through Aug. 25.

“Said winner will be published in this space as my replacement at least once,” Saltas explained on July 27.

“Write and submit a 955-word column or editorial on anything you find relevant or topical. Just write better than me, not a difficult task.”

Forty-two contestants submitted their work and the results were presented in the Sep. 14 issue, with such runners-up as Ryan Shattuck, Jim Catano, Deeda Seed and Matthew Welker.

The winning editorial by John Rasmuson was presented in full.

“Mr. John Saltas is not a patron of prospective pundits,” Rasmuson cracked. “Four hundred bucks buys him at least a week off.”

As of this writing, City Weekly is still graced with the occasional writings of Rasmuson and Catano, as well as those of Saltas, of course—when his muse is audible to such ancient ears. Some things never change.

Come to think of it, we still have some old portraits of Mayor Anderson lying around the place, too …

In the blogs In the face of a long-expected website revamp, Bill Frost was wracking his brain for potential blogs to occupy the domain. While the oh-so-stylishlytitled “CW Blog” made the cut, his humorous “Ocho” list on July 13 included some “rejected” alternatives. They are reproduced in full below: 8. “Fulton’s Fobia Files”: Editor Ben Fulton ruminates on new diseases, identity-theft threats and lawsuits gunning for him (updated hourly).

7. “My Big Fat Greek Blog”: John Saltas’ spotlight on non-Greek City Weekly employees: “So how did you get hired?”

6. “Cut It!”: Art Director Susan Kruithof’s rant on long-winded writers who have no damned appreciation for aesthetics.

5. “Yeah, Sorry”: Music writer Jamie Gadette’s apology blog for cool concerts and venues she’s championed

May 16, 1939 - Jan. 4, 2024

T

I was a reporter at the Tribune for nearly 35 years (1983-2018) and was sitting near Lance in the old newsroom on Main Street when he was the copy editor for the business desk. Lance was known as a stickler for the English language, having everything just so, right and proper. Business editor Bob Woody knew his beat and covered it well, but sometimes he wrote kind of fast and wasn’t careful about getting all the words down before he handed in his copy.

So, one afternoon I can recall hearing Lance crying out plaintively, “A verb, Woody. I need a verb.”

Mike Gorrell, SLTrib’s former business writer and reporter So sorry that he, at least physically, is no longer with us. Though we didn’t communicate often, we were friends. As a matter of fact, he came out of the closet—our closet—at one of our Halloween parties. I was so glad he could finally be himself to the world. Hopefully, no more battering by strangers.

Our last interaction regarded his review of my Tribune memoir. He only communicated by phone or with paper letters punched out on his old Selectric typewriter. Unfortunately, he somehow lost the review before it was published. I would have liked to see what he had to say, even if he aimed his razor-sharp wit my way. RIP, Lance.

Diane Cole, Author, former SLTrib reporter and editorial writer In his sweater-vest and tie, Lance was the picture of journalism, a pro who cared about the precision and poetry of language, who could deliver an acerbic analysis of the day’s newsmakers, but who, in his heart, was among the most kind and caring people you ever met. You can almost say he covered it all during his decades at the Tribune — breaking news mayhem, the governor’s latest decision to act or not, business, the arts. And if he happened to edit your story, you were the beneficiary of his meticulous scrutiny. Even when his assignment was outside his areas of expertise, Lance approached it like the professional he was, with care and accuracy.

It was a joy to see Lance resurface at City Weekly after his decades at the Tribune. Kudos to CW editors who coaxed him back into editing and writing. That’s where he belonged.

Terry Orme, SLTrib reporter/editor of 35 years; Tribune editor, 2013-2016 Lance was known as the ACE, or assistant city editor. when I arrived at the Tribune in 1981. He was a great editor who always told us to get to the point immediately. And he was one of the kindest employees there. He quickly let me know who I could trust. He also was the “best-dressed” person in the newsroom.

Carol Sisco, former PIO for state agencies and SLTrib reporter Lance Gudmundson delivered one of the great one-liners in Tribune history. It occurred one day in the 1990s, when many Tribune staffers gathered in the back room at Lamb’s for a luncheon honoring a long-time secretary named Lucy.

Lucy was well-liked by the staff but was not known as the most-worldly person. She received a retirement gift, and everyone in the room waited expectantly as she unwrapped it. She opened the rather large box and pulled out a globe of the world. Before anyone could audibly react, Lance’s voice—and his one-liner—pierced the room: “See, I told you it was round.” Explosive laughter ensued. Game set, match for Lance.”

Lex Hemphill, former SLTrib sports reporter and editorial page editor

JANUARY 25, 2024 | 15

After working on the Tribune’s business desk for years, Lance moved to the Features department and occupied the desk next to mine. Those were the days when reporters actually answered their phones. On several occasions, Lance could be heard saying, “Features department, Lance speaking.” Then the sound of an irate voice could be heard, often complaining about something heard on local TV news but the caller could not get anyone at the TV station to answer the phone.

Lance, ever the gentleman, would listen silently as the caller ranted, and then in the most calm, polite, yet succinct voice, he would say. “Thank you for thinking of The Salt Lake Tribune”—and promptly hang up.

It became a well-used phrase in our department—always prefaced by giving credit where credit was due … to Lance Gudmundson.

Nancy Melich, former SLTrib theater critic

| CITY WEEKLY |

Chase doggedly pursued the cases’ gang connections, searching for the likely murder weapon and eventually getting pushed out of the police department for their troubles.

With assistance from local attorney Ross “Rocky” Anderson, the group eventually got a county grand jury to take another look at the murders.

“Whittle’s conviction for Strong’s murder seemed like it might be the beginning,” McDonough related. “Hatton-Ward, Chase and Ilk, along with Anderson, had put together strong circumstantial evidence suggesting the Various Chosen Few should be looked at for the remaining unsolved killings. … Instead, it would take another seven years and another intervention from Anderson and the former police employees before the break in the Hambleton case.”

With the creation of a police coldcase team reporting to Anderson in 2003 as well as pressure from Ilk and the victims’ families, Hambleton’s body was exhumed for DNA evidence.

Male DNA was subsequently detected, leading to the arrest of Dan L. Peterson of Glendale, Arizona on Jan. 12, 2007.

Peterson had been investigated early on and was seen with Hambleton at a Salt Lake City residential party just prior to her death. But in a development that some close to the case have attributed to shoddy lab work and poor prosecution, the jury acquitted Peterson in August of 2007.

“Dan Peterson was acquitted after it became clear that his was not the only DNA found on the young woman,” Smart recalls. “Two different DNAs is the essence of reasonable doubt.”

As of this writing, the murders of Hambleton, Maxwell and Gallegos linger as unsolved, and numerous loose ends within their investigation remain unchecked by official channels. CW

his gentle, witty soul has met his final deadline. Lance Gudmundsen, 84 years young, worked for City Weekly since 2015, joining our team following his retirement from The Salt Lake Tribune, where he’d worked for several decades.

Even at 84, and despite numerous health challenges, Lance—both a storyteller and a copy polisher—improved and often saved many a story with his deft touch. Former reporter Peter Holslin noted, “Lance made a big impression ... He was so funny—always finished up an edit with a dry quip.”

He also will be greatly missed by his former colleagues at the Tribune, a number of whom have sent the following remembrances that help paint a portrait of the character that was Lance.

For those who knew him or wish they did, we’ll toast to Lance at one of his favorite haunts—Junior’s Tavern (30 E. 300 South, SLC)—on Groundhog Day, Friday, Feb. 2, between 5 and 6 p.m.

—Jerre Wroble

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In custody “In the spring of 1993, City Weekly accused a man of being a killer,” began Ted McDonough in the Feb. 1 issue of 2007. “The paper, then called Private Eye Weekly, fingered the man despite the fact that Salt Lake City Police officials didn’t believe a word of the story.”

Forrest Whittle—the man named in Christopher Smart’s 1993 article— was later convicted for the murder of 25-year-old Lisa Strong in 1996. Up to that point, Whittle’s conviction had been the only time anyone faced legal culpability for the murders of four young women that took place along the Wasatch Front in the 1980s.

In addition to Strong, Tiffany Hambleton, Carla Maxwell and Christine Gallegos had also been shot and/or stabbed, each linked either by the use of a single .38 caliber revolver or the proximity of their murders to the addresses of members of the Varrios (or Various) Chosen Few, a local gang which counted Whittle as a member.

These provocative coincidences were not pursued by Salt Lake City’s lead homicide investigators, who stubbornly (and erroneously) insisted that the murders were the work of Idaho spree killer Paul Ezra Rhoades.

Salt Lake City Police employees Frank Hatton-Ward, John Ilk and Greg

Lance S. Gudmundsen

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

that are ultimately canceled and/or condemned.

4. “No Comment”: By Publisher Jim Rizzi. If he has anything to say, he’ll call you.

3. “News Hole”: Reporter Ted McDonough on stories he could have written better than Shane Johnson.

2. “No, You’re a News Hole”: Reporter Shane Johnson on stories he could have written better than Ted McDonough.

1. Anything by Bill Frost. Seriously.

Enough is enough.

In memory of

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JANUARY 25, 2024 | 17

BASTA PASTERIA 6157 S. State Street 385-474-2093 bastapasteria.com

| CITY WEEKLY |

hen I say the words “fast-casual Italian” I’m guessing the best thought we can muster is that of Fazoli’s, the national chain that has long since abandoned the Wasatch Front. Whether you think fondly of Fazoli’s or not is your own business, but I do remember asking myself why we didn’t have more fast-casual Italian spots around. Whenever I see someone try to attempt this locally, I get a little excited only to find that they’ve folded after a few months in business.

After visiting Basta Pasteria, a new venture from the team behind Sicilia Mia, I think we just might have a winner on our hands—and it’s a helluva lot better than Fazoli’s ever was.

I’m going to call Basta “fast-casual” because of its service model, but that’s where the similarities between this restaurant and a spot like Cafe Rio end. The space itself is a low-key dream of minimalist style where a lone Vespa beneath giant neon signage greets diners in the entry. After checking out the menu, you can’t help but notice the action behind the counter, where piles and piles of housemade pasta are being prepared before your eyes.

Even the understated gallery wall that features portraits of beautiful people eating beautiful pasta reflects a sense of style that you just don’t see at other fastcasual spots. This adherence to a welldefined style also applies to the service at

Burgers so good they’ll blow your mind!

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W

and frankly this pisses me off. I’m happy to say you get plenty of perfectly prepared gnocchi with your order at Basta, so it will remain on my short list of Italian places that don’t skimp on my most beloved of pastas.

If you visit Basta, you should definitely be trying one of their signature pasta dishes. However, if you want to venture out of that territory, their pizza and sides menu does a great job keeping up. The classic Margherita ($10) is an excellent baseline, and tastes like something you might enjoy at a riverside market watching the lazy current of the Arno drift through Florence. Those after something a little more unconventional on their pizza menu will dig the Basta Originale ($10), which has a funky mix of gorgonzola and salami.

On the side, I can definitely recommend the freshly-made meatballs ($10) that come piled high in a bath of marinara. They’re great additions to any dish, and I won’t tell anyone if you plop them right in with your pasta. The house focaccia ($6) is baked onsite, and it’s fantastic; the difference between focaccia right out of the oven and really any other version of this soulful Italian bread is staggering.

I know that Basta will be described as fast-casual pretty much everywhere online, but I don’t think that appellation is necessarily accurate. Fast-casual has come to represent dining that is in a league just above the drive-through outfits, and that’s simply not the quality of food you’re getting at Basta. I am not quite sure how the team manages to prepare and serve food that punches so far above its weight, but I hope they keep doing it for a long time. CW

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With Basta Pasterai, the team behind Sicilia Mia reinvents fastcasual dining.

Basta, which is much more friendly and considerate than you’d get at your average fast-casual joint. Oh, and did I mention they serve wine? Yeah, score another one for this place.

The current menu includes some heavy hitters in the world of pasta. First up, you’ve got your fettuccine, showcased very nicely in the Fettuccine Parma ($15), a ramped-up, parm-forward take on your favorite alfredo recipe. Then you’ve got your rigatoni, which is a savory delight when served up in the Rigatoni Vodka ($17) with some fresh Calabrian ‘Nduja sausage. Moving on, you’ve got your pappardelle, whose must-try dish is found in the unctuous richness of the Pappardelle Ragu ($18).

For my money, however, gnocchi will always have the key to my cuore Italiano.

It was the Gnocchi Pesto ($14) that truly gave me pause during my visit, though you can also get its textural embrace in the Gnocchi Sorrentino ($15) with a creamy tomato sauce. But back to that marvelous pesto. It’s a sauce that has always enchanted me; how can something this good be so simple? Anyone with a food processor can make pesto and have it turn out at least halfway decent. But when you get pesto like the kind they’re serving out at Basta—the kind that makes the back of your knees start to give out as soon as it hits your tongue—you realize how hard simplicity actually is.

So yes, the star of this dish is the pesto.

If you’re feeling a little crazy, go ahead and add a chunk of creamy burrata ($5) to the party; if you’re feeling a lot crazy, get some truffle ($25) on there as well. As great as the sauce is, however, let’s take care not to overlook the gnocchi here. I always complain that, when you order gnocchi at most Italian restaurants, they only give you like five of them. Just because they’re not long and noodly, they think they can stiff you on the quantity,

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

Avenues Proper 376 8th Ave, SLC avenuesproper.com On Tap: Midnight Especial- Dark Mexican Lager

Red Rock Fashion Place 6227 So. State Redrockbrewing.com On Tap: Munich Dunkel

Level Crossing Brewing Co. 2496 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: Down the Road - West Coast IPA

Red Rock Kimball Junction 1640 Redstone Center Redrockbrewing.com On Tap: Bamberg Rauch Bier

Bewilder Brewing 445 S. 400 West, SLC BewilderBrewing.com On Tap: ESB - English Amber

Level Crossing Brewing Co., POST 550 So. 300 West #100, SLC LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: You-Tah Coffee Uncommon

Bohemian Brewery 94 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale BohemianBrewery.com

RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com On Tap: Strength in Numbers Wheat Wine (Last Call)

Moab Brewing 686 S. Main, Moab TheMoabBrewery.com On Tap: Golden Sprocket Wit

Bonneville Brewery 1641 N. Main, Tooele BonnevilleBrewery.com On Tap: Peaches and Cream Ale Chappell Brewing 2285 S Main Street Salt Lake City, UT 84115 chappell.beer On Tap: Collaboration with Cupla Coffee.

Tweek - Coffee Pale Ale

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Craft by Proper 1053 E. 2100 So., SLC properbrewingco.com On Tap: Gungan Sith Lord - Dark Lager Desert Edge Brewery 273 Trolley Square, SLC DesertEdgeBrewery.com On Tap: La Playa-Mexican Style lager Epic Brewing Co. 825 S. State, SLC EpicBrewing.com On Tap: Barrel-Aged Imperial Vanilla Porter Fisher Brewing Co. 320 W. 800 South, SLC FisherBeer.com On Tap: A rotation of up to 17 Fresh Beers!

BEER + PIZZA = <3

SUN-THU: 11am - 10pm • FRI-SAT: 11am - 11pm

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

TWO LOCATIONS

Grid City Beer Works 333 W. 2100 South, SLC GridCityBeerWorks.com On Tap: Cask Nitro CO2

Mountain West Cider 425 N. 400 West, SLC MountainWestCider.com On Tap: Orange & Cardamom Resolutions Cider 6.9% Abv 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 Park City Brewery 1764 Uinta Way C1 ParkCityBrewing.com On Tap: Salt City Haze Policy Kings Brewery 223 N. 100 West, Cedar City PolicyKingsBrewery.com Prodigy Brewing 25 W Center St. Logan Prodigy-brewing.com On Tap: Cached Out Hefeweisen -Now available to go!

Proper Brewing/Proper Burger 857 So. Main & 865 So. Main properbrewingco.com Proper Brewing: SLC Pils - Pilsner Proper Burger: Salted Caramel Porter Porter Brewed with Caramel and Salt

Helper Beer 159 N Main Street, Helper, UT helperbeer.com

Proper Brewing Moab 1393 US-191, Moab properbrewingco.com On Tap: YRJB - Juicy IPA

Hopkins Brewing Co. 1048 E. 2100 South, SLC HopkinsBrewingCompany.com On Tap: Silent H’s Dub Nectar

Red Rock Brewing 254 So. 200 West RedRockBrewing.com On Tap: Gypsy Scratch

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: Huldra and Holle: Rum Barrel aged Imperial Stout with Chaga Mushroom Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com On Tap: Huldra and Holle: Rum barrel aged Imperial Stout with Chaga Mushroom Scion Cider Bar 916 Jefferson St W, SLC Scionciderbar.com On Tap: Etta Place Wassail - 8.8% ABV Second Summit Cider 4010 So. Main, Millcreek secondsummitcider.com On Tap: Pear Pink Peppercorn & Tarragon Cider Shades Brewing 154 W. Utopia Ave, South Salt Lake ShadesBrewing.beer On Tap: Foggy Goggle Winter Lager Live Music: Thursdays Shades On State 366 S. State Street SLC Shadesonstate.com On Tap: Hellion Blonde Ale Silver Reef 4391 S. Enterprise Drive, St. George StGeorgeBev.com Squatters Pub Brewery / Salt Lake Brewing Co. 147 W. Broadway, SLC

saltlakebrewingco.com/squatters On Tap: Salt Lake Brewing Co.’s Grandma’s Cookies Nitro Stout Squatters and Wasatch Brewery 1763 So 300 West Utahbeers.com On Tap: Tree Beard IPA w Fresh Spruce Tips and Simcone, Citra & Ekeanot Hops Strap Tank Brewery, Lehi 3661 Outlet Pkwy, Lehi, UT StrapTankBrewery.com On Tap: Wake-Up Call Coffee Stout. Collab with KBER 101 and Kings Peak coffee.

Strap Tank Brewery, Springville 596 S 1750 W, Springville, UT StrapTankBrewery.com On Tap: Bananza Hefeweizen TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC TFBrewing.com On Tap: Dark Czech Lager Talisman Brewing Co. 1258 Gibson Ave, Ogden TalismanBrewingCo.com On Tap: The Griffen- Citrus Wheat Ale in collaboration with the 419th at Hill AFB Top of Main Brewing 250 Main, Park City, Utah saltlakebrewingco.com/wasatch On Tap: Top of Main’s Warmer Winter Spiced Ale Uinta Brewing 1722 S. Fremont Drive, SLC UintaBrewing.com On Tap: Was Angeles Craft Beer UTOG 2331 Grant Ave, Ogden UTOGBrewing.com On Tap: Golden Grant 5% ABV. Vernal Brewing 55 S. 500 East, Vernal VernalBrewing.com Wasatch Brew Pub 2110 S. Highland Drive, SLC saltlakebrewingco.com/wasatch On Tap: Top of Main’s Mother Urban’s Parlor Blonde Ale Zion Brewery 95 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale ZionBrewery.com Zolupez 205 W. 29th Street #2, Ogden Zolupez.com

JUICY IPA 7.2%

18 | JANUARY 25, 2024

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

550 S. 300 W. SUITE 100 SLC 2496 S. WEST TEMPLE, SLC LEVELCROSSINGBREWING.COM @LEVELCROSSINGBREWING

FAMILY-FRIENDLY BREWPUB • BEER STORE OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

UTOGBrewing.com

2331 Grant Ave, Ogden

@UTOGBrewingCo

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Hoptimum Flavors Two beers that benefit from creative hop use

R

Wednesdays 8-11pm

Mon, Thurs, & Sat

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JANUARY 25, 2024 | 19

Rock’s Double IPA onslaught.

Grid City - Hazy India Pale Ale #4: So, we have a can that says that this is a “Hazy IPA.” The beer inside is clearly a West Coast-style IPA. I’m reviewing this ale as the beer it is, rather than what’s on the label.

It pours decently fizzy and fluffy, with a finger of head that fades at a medium pace then slows to a crawl—nice frothy lacing, semi-hazy nectar orange color with a column of streaming bubbles.

The nose is quite nice, featuring plenty of citrus—lots of it, including orange rind, grapefruit pith, some juicy citrus fruit like fresh squeezed juice, mild fruit punch notes, a little grapefruit and generic tropical fruit too. There’s so much juice, with a touch of a resinous musty note in there, and a faint hint of malt too.

The taste brings more hops, a little resinous note with a touch of sap and pine. Then more big fruit—a little tropical fruit note and some hints of a berry fruit punch, into some decent citrus, orange rind, plenty of pith and some decent grapefruit notes. There’s even a hint of fruity bubblegum. The grassy, mild piney resinous flavor starts to surge as it goes, with a bit of a spicy hop note, as the mildly sweet malty note attempts to come through, but barely balances the beer before disappearing. The finish is fairly dry with spicy hop notes, along with a little more resin, pine, grapefruit pith and citrus peel.

Verdict: This is a pretty nice 7.0 percent IPA, but as I stated above this isn’t “Hazy,” and it doesn’t have those fruitier hazy qualities. If that’s what you’re looking for, you may not love this one.

If IPAs are your game and style doesn’t matter, you’ll find an excellent, wellmade hop-forward drinking experience.

It was a lot of fun getting to know these two very different well-hopped beers. Hazy India Pale Ale #4 is a limited release that’s only available in cans at Grid City. As Bella Rosa is made with a limited experimental hop, it’s quite limited as well, and available at all Red Rock locations (draft and cans). As always, cheers! CW

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ed Rock - Bella Rosa: This new lager from Red Rock features a new hop variety from Jackson Farms in Wilder, Idaho. They’ve created this new hop that is for now called ‘Pink,” or ID-158. This hop offers the highly sought after combo of citrus and stone fruit, but sets this hop apart from the herd are the subtle flavors of honey, apple, and vanilla.

It’s the Pink hops that give the beer its uniqueness, and that all starts with a fruit filled blend of citrus and stone fruit aromatics. Big cannabis and herbal aromas create an enticing scent that hovers above a clear golden-yellow brew and heady froth that stands tall throughout.

The first sip is cannabis with grapefruit peel and a toasty malt component.

As the lager opens up on the middle palate, the hops shine with a blend of grapefruit, lemon and under-ripened oranges before trailing into an apricot, peach and cantaloupe taste. Drying quicker than is usual, the smooth but quick weedy bitterness is decorated with elements of lemon pepper, sun tea and an herbal array of chive, hemp and hay.

Medium-bodied at 5.0 percent alcohol, the beer shows an herbal character that gives way to the drying nature of hops for a refreshing finish, but also one of limited culinary adventure, roundness and any extension of fruit. A mediumlength aftertaste of botanical bitterness lasts just beyond the fruit peels and herbal nature overall.

Verdict: Interestingly fruity, and dank without so much of the usual citrus.

Drinks super easy, and represents some long-overdue progression from Red

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BY MIKE RIEDEL comments@cityweekly.net @utahbeer

JAZZ JAM

MIKE RIEDEL

MIKE RIEDEL

Tuesdays 7-9pm

1048 E 2100 S Sugar House

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20 | JANUARY 25, 2024

the

BACK BURNER

BY ALEX SPRINGER |

@captainspringer

Sol Agave Opens Downtown Location

Sol Agave (solagave.com), one of my favorite Californian imports, just expanded to a second location in downtown Salt Lake City (660 S. Main Street). Until now, fans of Sol Agave’s unique take on traditional Mexican food had to visit them in American Fork (749 W. 100 North). This second location means it’s easier for those in our metropolitan area to track down a warm, gooey slab of that famous butter cake, which is a win for all of us. Of course, before you get to that signature dessert, you can always try their famous carnitas or their margarita flight—either way, one more Sol Agave in town is a good thing.

Tacos Lopez Takes West Valley

On the local taqueria front, Tacos Lopez recently added to their West Jordan location (1594 W. 7800 South) by opening a second restaurant in West Valley (3609 S. Redwood Road, Ste. 101).

Those unfamiliar with the nuance Tacos Lopez brings to our local dining scene will want to check them out for Tijuana-style tacos along with their traditional take on street food that features mulitas and vampiros made with your choice of protein. This stretch of Redwood Road in West Valley is starting to become a serious local dining destination, and I’m happy to see that trend continue with Tacos Lopez.

A Bewildering Legal Case

We recently got word that our friends at Bewilder Brewing (445 S. 400 West, bewilderbrewing. com) discontinued their Deseret IPA under somewhat ridiculous circumstances. As it turns out, an attorney who worked with a few businesses owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cried “trademark infringement,” which led owners Cody McKendrick and Ross Metzger to discontinue their popular IPA. It’s yet another shot fired in the cold war between Utah’s influential LDS presence and alcohol, but we’re hoping to see the team at Bewilder use this deterrent to break out something new and exciting.

Quote of the Week: “Humankind was built on beer.” –William Bostwick

Your Family Favorite Since 1968

coffeegardenslc.com

878 E 900 S

1968

Dine-In

Take-Out

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NOW SERVING BRUNCH EVERY SUNDAY

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801-355-3425

SINCE

(801).266.4182 | 5370 S. 900 E. SLC italianvillageslc.com

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JANUARY 25, 2024 | 21

coppercommon.com • 111 E. Broadway, Suite 190, Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 Open 7 days a week at 5pm. Sunday brunch from 10:30am-3:00pm

While it’s far from the most interesting thing about the movie, the double-entendre in the title of writer/ director Jesse Eisenberg’s second feature captures both the essence of a love-to-hate-him central character, and the story’s understanding that genuine hurt—whether your own, or someone else’s— can be hard to process. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin play David and Benji Kaplan, cousins who decide to take a guided Jewish history tour of Poland, the native country of their recently-deceased, Holocaustsurvivor grandmother. It’s also a coming-backtogether of sorts for the once-close cousins, and a lot of the wonderful comedy in Eisenberg’s script comes from recognizing the differences in their respective personalities—David introverted and obsessive, Benji spontaneous and likely bipolar— and how those differences create tensions between them. Eisenberg is a generous enough filmmaker that he lets Culkin loose to take control of the story with an electric performance, capturing the qualities that make someone like Benji someone who (in David’s words) “lights up a room, then takes a shit all over it.” There’s material here also about people trying to process tragedy on a grand scale, and how hard it can be to recognize and address one’s own pain while recognizing that others have had it wo much worse. It’s impressive that Eisenberg makes something so raucously funny and simultaneously so sweet about trying to connect with suffering across generations, across cultures, or even just across the hotel room you’re sharing.

I Saw the TV Glow BBB½

Between 2021’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and this sophomore feature, Jane Schoenbrun has carved out a fascinating creative space in exploring the way people turn to media as a way to deal with not being otherwise seen for who they truly are. It opens in 1996, as 7th-grader Owen (Ian Foreman) becomes fascinated with 9th-grader Maddy

22 | JANUARY 25, 2024

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

A Real Pain BBB½

I Saw the TV Glow

Every Little Thing BBB½

Somewhere out there, I’m sure, is someone who could resist the beauty and emotion of Sally Aitken’s documentary—but that ain’t me. Aitken’s primary subject is Terry Masear, a widowed writer and educator who has turned her Southern California home into a sanctuary for rehabilitating injured and orphaned hummingbirds. The film takes its time getting around to the answer of “why hummingbirds,” and the biographical information about Masear accentuates the story without getting in the way of the A+ material, which deals with the birds themselves. Directors of photography Nathan Barlow, Dan Freene and Ann Prum fill the screen with remarkable slow-motion images of the hummingbirds in flight, inspiring not just a sense of wonder at their distinctive movements, but a sense for these creatures as inquisitive and almost magical. That interest in turning the wounded birds into characters naturally leads to an investment in whether they will survive to return to the wild—crowds are likely to burst into applause at the simple act of one bird making an improbable recuperative step— which draws viewers into Masear’s conviction that these creatures deserve to be treated as though their fate matters. It’s a lovely paean to the idea of how much richer our humanity becomes when we decide to act with compassion, even if the recipients of that compassion aren’t themselves human. CW

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A Real Pain

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

CINEMA

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

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Three contenders for the best of the opening weekend of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival

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Fest Finds

(Brigette Lundy-Paine), who has her own obsession in a supernatural TV series called The Pink Opaque; two years later, with Owen now a highschooler himself (Justice Smith), the two reconnect over their shared connection with the show.

Schoenbrun’s gifts for crafting an unsettling production—built largely on sound design and Alex G’s music—continue to impress, and the aesthetics of the series-within-the-movie are period-perfect without feeling like blatant nostalgia-mongering.

Richer still is the psychology that Schoenbrun is mining, understanding that the fandoms behind certain stories are intense specifically because they speak to things that the fans themselves may not even fully understand; it doesn’t require a knowledge of the filmmaker’s own gender identity to see this as an allegory for trans self-discovery. LundyPaine in particular provides a haunting, haunted performance as reality and fiction start to blend into something resembling an evangelical fervor.

Sometimes we connect with a story so much we don’t know where we end and it begins, specifically because it might offer a window into a new beginning.

MONDAY film buff free movie 9pm $3 Pabst Tall Boys

677 S. 200 W. SLC 801.355.5500 TUESDAY

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screening at brunch $3 Mimosas MEAN GIRLS (2024)

POOR THINGS

THURSDAYS

FRIDAY, JAN 26 HIP HOP FRIDAYS

SATURDAY, JAN 27

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SHARK SUNDAYS

POOL TOURNEY HOSTED

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MONDAYS

REGGAE MONDAY WITH DJ NAPO

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165 E 200 S SLC 801.746.3334

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24 | JANUARY 25, 2024

Making Music Milkshakes

Danger Less

Production duo Danger.Less on what it takes to make the shakes

BY EMILEE ATKINSON eatkinson@cityweekly.net @emileelovesvinyl

usic producers wear a lot of hats. Not only do they help bring life to a band’s artistic vision, but they also play the role of mediator, hype man and oftentimes therapist.

Finding a good producer who meets your needs and understands your artistic vision can make or break a project, and Danger.Less knows that more than anyone. The producer duo find themselves taking on these roles for their clients on the daily—and there’s nothing else they’d rather be doing.

Danger.Less, formerly Slow Wave, is made up of Caleb Loveless and Dane Holmes, two friends who lovingly admit to having a major man-crush on each other. Circa 2014, the duo met through the band OKKAH, and after working together on projects for them, they realized there was something special there.

“We just fell in love with each other a little bit, a little man-crush on each other. But mostly, it was that we just kind of had similar vision and we spoke a similar language and just got along really well,” Loveless said.

Loveless and Holmes complement each other in a way that has so far been an excellent recipe for making the best music milkshakes. “I’m really into sound design,” Holmes said. “I obsess over composition, sound design, just the intricacies of the little kind of ear candies and details of the music,” he said. “Not that Caleb doesn’t, but Caleb’s strength I would say, is the songwriting. He oversees executively the vision of the song, and has that in mind much more than I was ever able to, because I was so in the weeds with the production, the electronic production, the instrumentals and all those things.”

Loveless and Holmes are self-taught, and the years spent honing their skills is evident on everything they work on. You can find their credits on local artists like OKKAH, Die Shiny and Robyn Cage, as well as national acts and for company brands. The duo love signing up for

PROVIDED

M

new projects, but working with the same singers/bands on multiple projects is something special.

“You can really create an intimacy and learn an artist on such a deep level given some time,” Loveless said. “I honestly love when I feel like artists I’ve worked with, Die Shiny, for example, I feel like just through the process of working together, everyone got better. They got better and everyone improved.”

“A producer can do a lot of things and take on many roles, depending on the project,” Loveless added. “It’s the creative part of taking a song that’s like a skeleton or just a stripped-down version or an idea and flushing out all the music behind it, and even just overseeing the song structure and how it all works, and that can take many forms.”

Danger.Less love creating music themselves, so a lot of passion for producing comes from there, but extracting creativity from an artist is also a big part of why they do what they do. “There’s a whole psychology behind that,” Loveless said. “Something that I just really love is thinking about how to create a safe enough space or a space that’s conducive to the creative process, and then being bold and patient enough to extract from every person their best artistic self, their most creative self. That’s the greatest gift you could give as a producer

to somebody, I think.”

That’s the difference between a producer or a good producer, according to Holmes. Learning about the artist, what they need to do their best and knowing what their goals are all represent key factors in getting a great project done. “It’s knowing when to push them, knowing when to push them out of their comfort zone, knowing when [not to], having a vision of not accepting anything less than the vision,” Loveless said.

If all those ingredients are put together properly, you end up with a delicious music milkshake. When all of these elements come together and the creativity comes out in full force from everyone involved, it ends up being that perfect milkshake on a summer day.

Loveless and Holmes consider themselves a match made in heaven, so there’s no way they’re going to stop working together anytime soon. “I love working with Dane. He’s a very talented producer and I just like the way his brain works. He’s just really good at what he does,” Loveless said. There are plenty more milkshakes needing to be made, after all.”

Check out Danger.Less’ website dangerless.com to see their work and inquire about help with your producing needs. Also be sure to follow them on Instagram, @danger.less. CW

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UPCOMING SHOWS

Local Kin, Seaslak, The By And By @ Kilby Court 1/26

Belladonna

1/26

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1/27

Lucid Vision

1/31

Glue Coast

2/1

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400 S & MAIN ST. / MUST BE 21+ BUY TIX @ QUARTERSSLC.COM/THE-DLC

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Sometimes you want to go to a live show, thrash around and rock out. But at some shows, you want to head in and feel like you’re watching a good friend play you something personal, like it’s just for you. That’s what you’ll get with SLC folk band Local Kin. They expertly and beautifully weave string instruments into their songs in a way that will put you to sleep, have you crying your eyes out, or both. I don’t mean to say that it’s boring, and that’s the reason you’ll fall asleep; it may be a sleep aid because of how utterly lovely and peaceful their music is. You’ll find this especially true on their song “Rust,” released November 2023. Their most recent and first single of the year, “Stand Your Ground,” is more high-energy and fast-paced, but still has a genuine quality to it that makes you feel like you’re listening to something authentic and soul-baring. “Stand Your Ground” may also make you feel like you’re in an old Western—and that’s not a bad thing. Come check out Local Kin, joined by Seaslak and The By And By on Friday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the all-ages show are $10 and can be found at 24tix.com. (Emilee Atkinson)

1/25

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Our Heated n O p P U a y ti z o

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ALEXIS STURM

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Live Music BASSCASE @ The Complex 1/27 WEDNESDAY, JAN. 24 TJ GURN

THURSDAY, JAN. 25 ACOUSTIC COUNTRY RAMBLE

FRIDAY, JAN. 26 THE PRANKSTERS

SATURDAY, JAN. 27 BEN WEISS BAND

TUESDAY, JAN. 30 HENSKI

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 31 JONNY GOLD

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26 | JANUARY 25, 2024

MUSIC PICKS

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

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If you’re looking for the loudest and rowdiest crowd to headbang with this weekend, BASSCASE is the experience you don’t want to miss. This is the newest branded music event put on by V2 Presents that will take place in all three rooms at The Complex. Each room will have artists from the bass heavy lineup that ranges from energetic and vibrant drum & bass (DnB) to ruthless dubstep. Immerse yourself in an exciting all DnB set from Blossom, who is usually known for her bold house beats, as well as a classic DnB set from Justin Hawkes. There will also be plenty of the savage wonk style of Dubloadz, the unrelenting roar from dubstep legend Midnight Tyrannosaurus and the avant-garde bass of Eprom. The newly announced headliner, SVDDEN DEATH, AKA Danny Howland, will bring his demonic dubstep and that truly feel like you’ve entered the most fun version of hell imaginable. Known for often donning a deer skull mask, Howland’s dark, metal-influenced style will bring BASSCASE to the next level of wicked fun.

The speakers will be cranked and the crowd hyped! Come to The Complex on Saturday, Jan 27 when doors open at 6 p.m. to support the local talent on this line-up.

This event is 18+ and will sell out fast, so grab your tickets now. General admission costs $50. Go to thecomplexslc.com (Arica Roberts)

Silent Planet @ The Urban Lounge 1/30

Lydia Loveless @ The State Room 1/31

Christine Baird, Sean Marshall, Angie Petty @ Urban Lounge 1/31

“New York City shaped me, broke me, shook me, filled me, thrilled me, ate me up and then spit me out. But, without it, there’s no chance I’d be anywhere close to where I am today. The irony is, the change came when I packed up and left,” Christine Baird told Canvas Rebel last September, as she described her journey of moving from Utah to New York at the age of 18. “Before leaving New York, I had an exceptionally hard time figuring out who I was as I tried to balance both musical theater and rock singing passions. I realize now that getting out of the bustling city was the best thing that could have happened to me. It is no exaggeration when I say that I feel the most like myself that I have ever felt. And, hey—all it took was life completely falling apart so I could have the opportunity to piece it back together again without any preconceived ideas of who I ‘should’ be.” Now Baird is living her best life as a singer/songwriter back here in her home state, and is putting out her best work yet.

Her most recent single, “Older Than I Was Last Year,” is a beautiful ballad about how time races by as we age, the years going by in a blur. Catch Baird with singer/ songwriter Sean Marshall and R&B singer Angie Petty supporting at Urban Lounge Jan. 21. Tickets for the 21+ show are $10 and can be found at 24tix.com. (EA)

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There are those who consider Lydia Loveless something of an insurgent, given the fact she’s known for consistently expressing an irrepressible attitude. In the past dozen years or so, she’s successfully bridged the boundaries between punk, pop, country and honky-tonk, as evidenced by eight albums that bear a signature sound flush with conviction and clarity. Her new album, Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way, delivers on that demonstrative attitude, as evidenced not only by the album title, but also through songs such as “Sex and Money,” “Runaway” and “Do the Right Thing.” Restless yet resilient, Loveless finds herself on the front lines when it comes to both her verve and vulnerability.

“I’m getting older, and my jets are starting to cool,” she coos on the track appropriately dubbed “Feel.” “If I ever get sober, it’s really over for you fools.” It takes courage and determination to deliver with such defiance and not be afraid of revealing one’s emotions, however shattered they sometimes seem. A 2016 documentary titled Who Is Lydia Loveless offered insight into her craft and career, but the opportunity to see this daring artist in concert offers an even more intriguing encounter. Ever daring and demonstrative, Loveless fearlessly confronts her demons without allowing the possibility of defeat or disappointment to stand in her way. It’s rare to find an artist who’s both so captivating and compelling. Lydia Loveless performs a 21 + show at The State Room on Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $32.

Go to axs.com. (Lee Zimmerman)

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The never-ending new permutations of musical approaches and influences keep getting greater and greater—perhaps even to the point of being spoiled by choices sometimes. California metalcore band Silent Planet continues to style it out with each new release.

The fifth studio LP, Superbloom, dropped in November of 2023 to rave reviews and a sound that so many desperately crave.

“In the last couple of years, with everything that’s happened, there were times when we wondered if we should keep doing this, but the community around Silent Planet kept me going and renewed my passion for writing songs,” frontman Garrett Russell told Kerrang! “Now, I feel like we’re constantly having new life breathed into us.” With there being a current/chronic vogue to mess around with the dynamics of sound instead of making anything resembling traditional songs, you get mixed results. Sometimes it’s highly unusual and great; sometimes it’s highly unusual and with bends that are effing evil. Garrett’s screams and cleans are top-tier, and the riffage goes hard. There are some well-made tunes represented on Superbloom—the thall and industrial elements take this album to the next level. The title track is flawlessly fashioned, enveloping and exquisite. It takes your body out of this world. You have to see them live. Aviana, Johnny Booth and Thornhill open. Catch the Superbloom North American Tour at the Urban Lounge on Tuesday, Jan. 30. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets for the 21+ show are $22 and can be found at 24tix.com (Mark Dago)

Lydia Loveless

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free will ASTROLOGY

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Aries author Dani Shapiro has published six novels, three bestselling memoirs, and a host of articles in major magazines. She co-founded a writer’s conference, teaches at top universities and does a regular podcast.

We can conclude she is successful. Here’s her secret: She feels that summoning courage is more important than being confident. Taking bold action to accomplish what you want is more crucial than cultivating selfassurance. I propose that in the coming weeks, you apply her principles to your own ambitions.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Throughout history, there has never been a culture without religious, mythical and supernatural beliefs.

The vast majority of the world’s people have believed in magic and divinity. Does that mean it’s all true and real?

Of course not. But nor does it mean that none of it is true and real. Ultra-rationalists who dismiss the spiritual life are possessed by hubris. Everything I’ve said here is prelude to my oracle for you: Some of the events in the next three weeks will be the result of magic and divinity.

Your homework is to discern which are and which aren’t.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

“Life as we live it is unaccompanied by signposts,” wrote author Holly Hickler. I disagree with her assessment, especially in regard to your upcoming future. Although you may not encounter literal markers bearing information to guide you, you will encounter metaphorical signals that are clear and strong. Be alert for them, Cancerian. They might not match your expectations about what signposts should be, though. So expand your concepts of how they might appear.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Physiologist Ivan Pavlov taught dogs to have an automatic response to a particular stimulus. He rang a bell while providing the dogs with food. After a while, the dogs began salivating simply when they heard the bell, even though no food was offered. Ever since, “Pavlov’s dogs” has referred to the ease with which animals’ instinctual natures can be conditioned. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Pavlov had used cats for his research. Would felines have submitted to such scientific shenanigans? I doubt it. These ruminations are my way of urging you to be more like a cat than a dog in the coming weeks. Resist efforts to train you, tame you or manipulate you into compliance.

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CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Before poet Louise Glück published her first book, Firstborn, it was rejected by 28 publishers. When it finally emerged, she suffered from writer’s block. Her next book didn’t appear for eight years. Her third book arrived five years later and her fourth required another five years. Slow going! But here’s the happy ending: By the time she died at age 80, she had published 21 books and won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature. By my astrological reckoning, you are now at a phase, in your own development, comparable to the time after Glück’s fourth book: well-primed, fully geared up and ready to make robust progress.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath,” wrote author F. Scott Fitzgerald. I’d like to expand that metaphor, Aquarius. I propose that your best decision-making in the coming weeks will be like swimming under water while holding your breath. You’ll get the best results by doing what feels unnatural. You will get yourself in the right mood if you bravely go below the surface and into the depths.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

In honor of this time in your life, I offer four pronouncements. 1. You can be released from a history that has repeated itself too often. Indulge in a big cry and laugh about how boring that repeated history has become. 2.

You can finish paying off your karmic debt to someone you hurt. Change yourself to ensure you won’t ever act that way again. 3. You can better forgive those who wounded you if you forgive yourself for being vulnerable. 4. Every time you divest yourself of an illusion, you will see how others’ illusions have been affecting you.

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

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

JANUARY 25, 2024 | 29

In 1951, filmmaker Akira Kurosawa made a movie adapted from The Idiot, a novel by his favorite author, Fyodor Dostoevsky. Kurosawa was not yet as famous and influential as he would later become. That’s why he agreed to his studio’s demand to cut 99 minutes from his original 265-minute version. But this turned out to be a bad idea. Viewers of the film had a hard time understanding the chopped-up story. Most of the critics’ reviews were negative. I bring this to your attention, Virgo, with two intentions: 1. I encourage you to do minor editing on your labor of love; 2. Don’t agree to anything like the extensive revisions that Kurosawa did.

Psychologist Carl Jung wrote, “Motherlove is one of the most moving and unforgettable memories of our lives, the mysterious root of all growth and change; the love that means homecoming, shelter and the long silence from which everything begins and in which everything ends.” To place yourself in alignment with cosmic rhythms, Scorpio, you will do whatever’s necessary to get a strong dose of the blessing Jung described. If your own mother isn’t available or is insufficient for this profound immersion, find other maternal sources. Borrow a wise woman elder or immerse yourself in Goddess worship. Be intensely intent on basking in a nurturing glow that welcomes you and loves you exactly as you are—and makes you feel deeply at home in the world.

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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

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I wrote a book called Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings. Among its main messages: There’s high value in cultivating an attitude that actively looks for the best in life and regards problems as potential opportunities.

When I was working on the book, no one needed to hear this advice more than me! Even now, I still have a long way to go before mastering the outlook I call “crafty optimism.” I am still subject to dark thoughts and worried feelings—even though I know the majority of them are irrational or not based on the truth of what’s happening. In other words, I am earnestly trying to learn the very themes I have been called to teach. What’s the equivalent in your life, Leo? Now is an excellent time to upgrade your skill at expressing abilities and understandings you wish everyone had.

I have selected a poem by 13th-century Zen poet Wu–Men for you to tape on your refrigerator door: “Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, / a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. / If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.” My wish, Libra is that you will have extra power to empty your mind of unnecessary things. More than ever, you will be content to focus on the few essentials that appeal to your wild heart and tender soul.

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Several wise people have assured me that the pursuit of wealth, power, popularity and happiness isn’t as important as the quest for meaningfulness. If you feel your life story is interesting, rich and full of purpose, you are successful. This will be a featured theme for you in the coming months, Gemini. If you have ever fantasized about your destiny resembling an ancient myth, a revered fairy tale, a thousand-page novel or an epic film, you will get your wish.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

© 2024

BEST OF 2023

BY MATT JONES

Broker, Urban Utah Homes & Estates, urbanutah.com

Time Capsules N

40. Endeavor 42. Alphabetically last U.S. state capital 43. Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave 44. O’Hare’s airport code 45. Dictionary entries (abbr.)

47. Not quite good 51. Rhyming works 53. Like a specially formed committee 56. Many mos.

57. Shouts of discovery 60. Brian with the 2022 album “ForeverAndEverNoMore” 61. Not just my 62. “The Voice” network

Last week’s answers

Complete the grid so that each row, column, diagonal and 3x3 square contain all of the numbers 1 to 9. No math is involved. The grid has numbers, but nothing has to add up to anything else. Solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. Solving time is typically 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your skill and experience.

1. “Asteroid City” director Anderson 4. Calendar pages 8. Active sorts 13. “Yeah, right” laugh 14. “There oughta be ___ against that!”

15. Ibuprofen option 16. Game whose sequel was Time’s #1 best video game of 2023 18. Early parlor game (and nothing to do with drawing first blood) 19. Take an unfair share 20. His Best Supporting Actor Oscar win was part of CBC’s best pop culture moments of 2023 22. “University Challenge” airer, informally, with “the” 24. Be down 25. Monday, in France 26. “Fine with me” 28. Ice, in Germany 30. Part of a sword 31. Diane Morgan-starring British mockumentary series that landed on many U.S. DOWN “Best of 2023” lists 1. “Huh...?!”

34. “___ the fields we go” (“Jingle Bells”) 2. Animal that goes for a long swim?

35. Got an ___ effort 36. Word after even or odd when describing 3. New Hampshire senator Jeanne with a rhyming surname mammals with hooves 4. “Deputy ___” (TV canine) 38. Actress Carrere of “Wayne’s World” 5. Chicken-king connector 41. Highest-placing Taylor Swift song (at 6. Oldest of the “Animaniacs” siblings #19) on Rolling Stone’s “100 Best Songs 7. “Popeye” kid whose name has an apostrophe of 2023” 8. Actress Hannah of “Kill Bill” 46. Tonsillectomy docs 9. Not-so-see-through 48. Ending for racket or rocket 10. Major Spanish newspaper 49. Former Georgian president 11. Brand with a new label Shevardnadze 12. More rocky 50. Consume 15. Hosp. heart ward 52. Custard fruit 17. Like some cheesecakes 54. Netflix stopped mailing them in 2023 55. With 59-Across, Hayao Miyazaki’s final 21. Beneficiary of, as an estate 22. Ballpoint brand film, which made many 2023 top ten lists 57. ___ Khan University (Karachi institu- 23. Ostrich kin 24. “Oh ___!” (Marcia Brady quote, in that tion) episode with the football) 58. Dirty clothes basket 27. ___ Stadium (L.A. venue that hosted 59. See 55-Across Super Bowl LVI) 63. East Coast toll-paying convenience 29. Candy maker Russell 64. “Game of Thrones” actress Chaplin 32. City near Buffalo, NY 65. Masseur’s specialty 33. Take advice from 66. Second effort 37. Lackey 67. Basic training figs.

38. Cranky infant, perhaps 68. “Lord of the Rings” beast 39. Befogged

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30 | JANUARY 25, 2024

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ot only are tens of thousands of visitors in town for the Sundance Film Festival, there’s also a multitude coming in to enjoy our fantastic skiing along the Wasatch Front. Many arrive at Salt Lake City International Airport and proceed to their lodging downtown, where they might just pass by historic Temple Square. Unfortunately, they can’t get a good look at the actual temple since it’s currently surrounded by scaffolding.

At the end of 2019, the temple closed for seismic retrofitting that should allow it to withstand a 7.3-magnitude earthquake. The work is particularly relevant after a 5.7 quake hit Salt Lake City in March 2020. Locals will remember that damage to the temple from the earthquake didn’t seem to be anything major, except that the trumpet held by the Angel Moroni statue fell off its perch.

The statue is not just for looks; it acts as a lightning rod to prevent damage to electrical systems within the temple.

After 128 years of overlooking Temple Square, Moroni was removed to repair and update the structure of the statue.

While atop the temple, Moroni sat on a large round granite capstone that contained a time capsule that was opened in 2020 in the presence of Latter-day Saint church authorities. The treasures they found inside had not been properly protected to last 100-plus years, but there were some juicy bits of history and sacred texts like the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, two documents by Parley P. Pratt (the namesake of Parleys Canyon), a Bible, a copper plate inscribed with “Holiness to the Lord,” several unidentified photos and a bunch of change that authorities think construction workers threw in before the capstone was closed.

Time capsules are common in older buildings around the world. In 2016, one was found at the St. George Tabernacle—also containing books and coins as well as a bottle of wine! Brigham Young wanted Washington County to be a wine-producing region, and the church used wine back then during its sacrament services. Sadly, the bottle was laid on its side and the cork popped out over the years, destroying much of the books and paper in the capsule.

The Kaysville Tabernacle also had a time capsule that contained samples of wheat and barley seeds grown in Davis County. Ogden’s 63rd and 66th ward buildings also had capsules, which were opened in 1962. In those, they found homemade memorabilia—like a pen given to people who paid $1 to the fund for the building, a knit potholder and a fake flower corsage.

One of the oldest known American time capsules was made by Paul Revere and Sam Adams in Massachusetts and found in 2014 after repairmen were fixing a water leak. It contains a trove of artifacts including coins from the 1600s, a medal with an image of George Washington and a silver plaque, probably made by Revere. The Utah State Capitol building has a time capsule that is to be opened in 2122. And, if you’re wondering: The construction at Temple Square should be completed by 2026. n

Content is prepared expressly for Community and is not endorsed by City Weekly staff.

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NEWS of the WEIRD

BY THE EDITORS AT ANDREWS MCMEEL

Unconventional Weaponry

The Laconia (New Hampshire) Daily Sun reported on Jan. 5 that police were called to the Market Basket supermarket in Tilton the day before after a “fruity fracas” broke out in the produce section. Social media posts indicated that a watermelon had been used in an assault, and Sgt. Andrew Salmon of the Tilton Police Department confirmed that his department is investigating. Salmon said one person went to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries “from being struck by a produce item.” A worker who answered the phone at the Market Basket said, “We have been instructed not to say anything.”

Awesome! n King, a rescue dog at the Lost Our Home Pet Rescue

in Tempe, Arizona, enjoyed a brief reign among his shelter buddies, Fox10-TV reported on Jan. 11. Sometime around midnight, King managed to break out of his kennel at the shelter and busted out several other dogs. He also found a stash of food and enjoyed a little feast. In the meantime, alarms were triggered; Jodi Polanski, the shelter’s founder, looked at video from the scene and saw the mess. “The police actually came because he set the alarm off,” Polanski said. The unnamed responding officer cleaned up after King’s free-for-all and got the dog settled back in bed. “I was just like, wow, amazing man that he did that,” Polanski said. The rescue’s website indicates that King is no longer looking for a home.

Goals

High Tech

Inauspicious Award

But Why?

On Jan. 8, as an Air Canada flight prepared to leave Toronto for Dubai, a passenger opened a cabin door and stepped out, falling about 20 feet to the ground.

CTV News reported. The passenger was injured, and emergency services were called, the airline said. The flight was delayed but eventually took off. There was no explanation for why the person jumped out.

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Crime Report

A 32-year-old woman who had been arrested for assault in Boone, North Carolina, took her aggression out on the backseat of a police car on Jan. 2, The Charlotte Observer reported. Boone Police Sgt. Dennis O’Neal said that a “substantial amount of padding” had been chewed away, adding up to $650 in damages. The department’s Facebook post suggested they “may need to invest in Kevlar seat covers.” Authorities were still deciding whether to charge her in connection with the car’s damages.

That’s One Way to Do It

The Bean Monger, a coffee shop in Indianapolis, Indiana, was the site of a “pop-up” marriage on Dec. 31—with no prior notice that the happy couple and their guests were planning to converge, the New York Post reported.

Twenty to 30 people, including an officiant, photographer and guests, crowded into the small store, where they treated the unsuspecting workers as if they were hired staff. “They were asking us to take coats, purses and watch personal items as if they had rented us out,” one person said. The wedding party blocked the entrance to other patrons, and when a barista asked them to move, the photographer replied, “No, wait at least five minutes.” The store typically charges $500 for private events, which they have requested from the bride, but she deemed the amount “unreasonable.”

Not Likely n Roderick Jackson of Waskom, Texas, is suing Walmart

for $100 million—or “unlimited free lifetime shopping” at any location—in relation to a vague incident from an Omaha Walmart in March 2021. NBC News reported that Jackson alleges there was a “false pretense of shoplifting” that was a violation of his civil rights “based on race/color.” Walmart responded that the suit is “almost identical to a lawsuit he filed against our company in 2021 that was dismissed.” The earlier suit said he suffered emotional stress and pain from the handcuffs.

HOME LOANS MADE BRIZZÉE Julie Bri-ZAY, makes home buying ea-ZAY Loan officer NMLS#243253

n Joao Pimenta da Silva, 71, of Minas Gerais, Brazil,

repeatedly dreamed that gold lay deep under his home, the New York Post reported. To that end, over a year ago, he began digging a hole in his kitchen floor that ended up being 130 feet deep and about 35 inches in diameter.

But on Jan. 4, Pimenta’s dreams died when he lost his balance and plunged to his death at the bottom of the cavity. His neighbor Arnaldo da Silva tried to discourage the project, but Pimenta was convinced his dream would come true. In the fall, he suffered head injuries and broken bones.

Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com

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JANUARY 25, 2024 | 31

Kathleen Murray of Sandford, Tasmania, credits bandicoots for helping her win the first-ever World’s Ugliest Lawn competition, The Guardian reported on Jan. 11. The marsupials, Murray said, have “actually liberated me from ever having to mow it again. I’m all for guilt-free weekends, especially since my ex-husband left with the lawnmower back in 2016.” (That must have been a goodlooking Toro!) The contest began as Gotland’s (Sweden) Ugliest Lawn, which was conceived to encourage water-saving and environmentally friendly gardening in 2022. “All of (the lawns) were hideous and well worthy

Wayne State University in Michigan has announced its 15th annual list of 10 “long-lost” words that should be resurrected, United Press International reported on Jan. 10. The Word Warriors program has identified “blatherskite” (nonsense), “curglaff” (the shock felt upon diving into cold water), “rawgabbit” (a person who speaks confidently but ignorantly), and “pawky” (having a cynical sense of humor), among others. Let’s get together and twankle during our kaffeeklatsch!

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The story about the Alaska Airlines plane that lost a panel while flying at 16,000 feet is all over the news. But it’s the little human-interest stories that really capture us: When the panel flew off and the hole gaped open midair on Jan. 5, someone’s iPhone got sucked out and landed on a roadside in Washington state, Yahoo! News reported. Sean Bates, who found the phone, posted a photo on X showing the phone’s intact screen and a battery life of 44% remaining: “Pretty clean, no scratches on it, sitting under a bush,” he posted. Jennifer Homendy of the NTSB said all found phones would be returned to their owners.

NAMASTE

What’s in a Name?

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LuLu Lotus of Mississauga, Ontario, has earned a Guinness World Record for an impressive, if dubious, skill: She blew a 44.1-decibel whistle through her nose.

United Press International reported on Jan. 9 that Lotus visited Aercoustics Engineering Ltd. to have her whistle measured in a special room. She said her 5-year-old son has recently discovered he, too, has a nose-whistling ability: “It would be a dream come true if he beat my record one day,” Lotus said.

YOGA INSTRUCTORS

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n Rodney Holbrook, a 75-year-old retired postman from Wales, had been noticing for a couple of months that small messes in his shed were being mysteriously tidied overnight, the BBC reported. So he set up a camera and caught a little mouse picking up pegs, corks, nuts, bolts and bird food. Holbrook aptly named the rodent Welsh Tidy Mouse. “Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the mouse will tidy up throughout the night,” Holbrook said.

“I don’t bother to tidy up now, I leave things out of the box, and they put it back in its place by morning. I’ve added different things to the desk to see if they can lift it,” he said.

of winning, but the winning entry was really, really bad,” said Gotland’s Mimmi Gibson. “It brings me a lot of joy to see all the little creatures who now feel safe to come out during the day in my yard,” Murray said.

We sell homes to all saints, sinners, sisterwives and...

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32 | JANUARY 25, 2024

See Greece like you SHOULD see Greece!

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