School of Rock at the Eccles

I have a long list of musicals that I really want to see and last night I got to cross one that was pretty near the top off (number one on that list is coming to Broadway at the Eccles next season and I will be seeing number two in San Francisco in the fall).  School of Rock the musical is very similar to the movie of the same name starring Jack Black and I really enjoyed it.  Not only is it a feel good show but the kids in the cast, who play their own instruments, are all insanely talented!  Dewey (Merritt David Janes) has been kicked out of No Vacancy, the band he formed, right before the Battle of the Bands.  Ned (Layne Roate), Dewey's best friend with whom he has been living for several years, is under pressure from his girlfriend Patty (Madison Micucci) to get him to pay rent.  In desperation, he takes a substitute teaching job at Horace Green Prep School meant for Ned.  The students in his class are being crushed under the pressure put on them by their parents who don't understand them.  After hearing them during their music class, Dewey decides to form a band with Zack (Mystic Inscho) on lead guitar, Katie (Leanne Parks) on bass, Lawrence (Julian Brescia) on keyboard, Freddy (Cameron Trueblood) on drums, and Shonelle (Arianna Pereira) and Marcy (Alyssa Emily Marvin) on backing vocals.  He recruits Billy (Sammy Dell) to be the band's stylist, James (Jacob Moran) as security, Mason (Dylan Trueblood) on tech, and Summer (Sami Bray) the class know-it-all (I probably laughed harder than I should have when Dewey calls her Hermione Granger) as the band's manager.  Tomika (Camille De La Cruz), a shy and insecure transfer student, eventually becomes the band's secondary lead singer.  As the students play they become more confident and Dewey decides to enter them in Battle of the Bands.  He just needs to convince the uptight principal Ms. Mullins (Lexie Dorsett Sharp) to let him take the students on a field trip (in a hilarious scene involving the music of Stevie Nicks).  Eventually, the parents catch on to Dewey's deception but the kids convince him that they need to perform at the Battle of the Bands and this performance wins over the parents.  Janes has a great rock and roll voice and a fun rapport with all of the kids but I couldn't help comparing him to Jack Black.  The true stars of the show are the kids and every time they performed (my favorite songs were "Stick It to the Man," "Time to Play," and "School of Rock") they brought the roof down on the Eccles Theatre.  This show is so much fun and it runs through June 2 (tickets may be purchased here) at the Eccles.

Summer Reading: The Outsider

I actually started reading The Outsider by Stephen King, the first selection on my summer reading list, last week. I was supposed to be completing the checkout process for the end of the school year but I simply could not put this book down! One of my colleagues started reading it, too, and every time we saw each other we would immediately start discussing it (this even happened at graduation!). I finished it in only a few days because I had to know what happened! A grisly murder of a young boy has sent the small town of Flint City, Oklahoma reeling. Understandably, the police want to solve this murder as quickly as possible. When Detective Ralph Anderson finds multiple witnesses and incontrovertible forensic evidence that points to Terry Maitland, he and District Attorney Bill Samuels decide to arrest the popular teacher and Little League coach very publicly. Despite the fact that Maitland has an iron-clad alibi, the town goes into a frenzy due to the nature of the murder and several tragedies occur. Distraught over the notion that Maitland might have been innocent, Anderson enlists the help of another police detective, Maitland's defense attorney, and a private investigator to determine how one man could be in two places at one time. What they discover is far more sinister than they could have imagined. As you know, I have a love/hate relationship with Stephen King so I tend to judge him more harshly than the rabid fans who gave this book such glowing reviews but, having said that, I really enjoyed this. I found it to be incredibly suspenseful, particularly the police investigation in the first part of the novel. The chapters are short and move from narrator to narrator and this serves to keep you guessing. The action does slow down a bit when they begin hunting the Outsider in earnest (there is a lot of dialogue where characters voice their doubt about what is really happening and it gets a bit tedious) but that didn't stop me from reading into the early morning hours to get to the resolution! I really liked the use of folklore to ground the supernatural aspects of the story and I found the specific legends to be incredibly unsettling. King is the master of writing about ordinary characters caught up in extraordinary situations and this novel is no exception. I particularly enjoyed Holly Gibney.  However, she is a character in the Bill Hodges trilogy (Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers, and End of Watch) which I have not read. Referencing his other works is one of King's hallmarks but in this instance I found it to be frustrating because it happens frequently and I didn't understand the references. This is nowhere near as good as the classic King novels but it is good enough and I definitely recommend it.

Note:  Have you read The Outsider?  What did you think?

Booksmart

Last night I went to see Booksmart because the trailers made me laugh out loud!  I absolutely loved it because, not only is it funny and heartwarming, but I saw a lot of myself when I was in high school in the character of Molly.  We meet two best friends, Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever), as they are about to graduate from high school the next day.  They are the valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively, and have spent all of their time in high school studying to ensure that they get into Yale and Columbia, respectively.  They are quite pretentious and rather disdainful of their fellow classmates.  They think of them as players (Mason Gooding), mean girls (Diana Silvers), jocks (Nico Hiraga), sluts (Molly Gordon), rich kids (Skyler Gisondo), theatre nerds (Noah Galvin and Austin Crute), druggies (Billie Lourd), and losers (Eduardo Franco).  When Molly hears a group of students making fun of her in the bathroom, she brags to them about being accepted to Yale and that she will eventually have a much better life than them.  When they reveal that they have all been accepted to Ivy League schools as well, Molly feels that she and Amy have wasted all of their time studying instead of having fun like all of their classmates.  Molly convinces a reluctant Amy that they should attend a wild party to make up for lost time and thus begins a hilarious adventure where they discover the true meaning of friendship and learn that they may have misjudged all of their classmates!  I really loved the message in this story because the characters are forced to look beyond all of the labels to really see the people behind them.  I especially liked it when Molly is confronted by Annabelle, whom she considers to be a slut, about stereotypes.  I also loved the relationship between Molly and Amy because they are so complimentary to each other ("I have no breath.") and so supportive.  I was quite impressed by all of the young cast but I particularly enjoyed Feldstein, because she has such great comedic timing (I loved her in Lady Bird, as well), and Lourd, because she steals every scene she is in with her over the top antics.  Finally, this movie is so funny (I laughed and laughed and I was not alone)!  My favorite scenes are when Molly and Amy's lyft driver turns out to be their principal (Jason Sudeikis) and when a group performs a karaoke version of "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette at the party.  This just might be my favorite movie of the year so far and I highly recommend it (with the proviso that some of the humor is a bit crude and there is a lot of profanity).

Brightburn

I was very intrigued by the premise of Brightburn so I went to see it last night.  Tori and Kevin Breyer (Elizabeth Banks and David Denman, respectively) have been hoping, in vain, for a child when an alien space craft containing a baby boy crash lands on their Kansas farm.  They decide to take the baby in and raise him as their own.  They are a loving family and Brandon (Jackson A. Dunn) is a devoted son until he reaches puberty.  At this point the alien space craft hidden in the barn begins calling to him and he discovers that he has extraordinary strength as well as other powers, such as the ability to fly and shoot lasers from his eyes.  Because he is different, he is teased at school and his crush rejects him so he decides to retaliate.  Soon he is terrorizing the entire community and, while Kyle begins to suspect his son, Tori steadfastly defends him.  It is an interesting take on the Superman mythology but this movie does not live up the the promise of such a great premise. Despite solid performances by Banks and Dunn, the script doesn't give them a lot to work with.  All of the characters are very thinly drawn and they often make very questionable choices just for the sake of advancing the plot.  I was especially disappointed in the character of Brandon because there is very little motivation for his behavior.  Once he discovers his powers, he becomes evil almost immediately without any kind of internal struggle that would have made him more compelling.  All of this could be forgiven if it was a good horror movie but it quickly becomes a third rate slasher film with scenes that are gory rather than scary.  I didn’t find it suspenseful because there are so many cheap jump scares and obvious musical cues.  Finally, the ambiguous ending, with the sole intention of setting up a sequel, is incredibly unsatisfying. I found it to be very disappointing and I recommend giving it a miss. 

Mahler Symphony No. 1

Last night my friend Angela and I went to the final Utah Symphony concert of the 2018-2019 season and it was the perfect way to begin our summer break.  A smaller chamber orchestra, who remained standing for the duration of the performance, began with Symphony No. 9 by Joseph Haydn.  It had a very intimate and lighthearted feel to it and it did much to lift my spirits after a long and difficult week.  Next, another chamber group performed Moz-Art a la Haydn by Alfred Schnittke with Associate Concertmaster Kathryn Eberle and Principal Second Violin Claude Halter as soloists.  This piece was so much fun because it is a parody of Mozart's unfinished "Music to a Carnival Pantomime" and Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony.  The piece began in the dark with the musicians improvising before beginning in earnest.  As it progressed the musicians moved from place to place, actually mimicking a carnival atmosphere.  Then, at the end of the piece, the musicians left the stage one by one as the lights went out leaving the conductor alone on a dark stage waving his baton to an absent orchestra.  It was highly amusing!  The main event came after the intermission when the full orchestra (including two sets of timpani and eight horns) performed Symphony No. 9  "Titan" by Gustav Mahler.  To say that this piece was spectacular would be an understatement and I absolutely loved it!  I especially loved the third movement which began with a theme played by the timpani and a solo bass and then built in intensity as other instruments joined in.  It was very moody, atmospheric, and emotional (it sounded Russian to me) and it gave me goosebumps.  This concert was an amazing way to conclude a marvelous season!

Note:  I am looking forward to seeing the Utah Symphony perform in some outdoor venues this summer, especially concerts with Kristin Chenoweth and Renee Elise Goldsberry at Deer Valley!  Go here to see their entire summer lineup.

Aladdin

Unlike many people, I don't really have a problem with all of Disney's live-action remakes of their animated classics.  I've enjoyed most of them, especially Cinderella and The Jungle Book, and I am really looking forward to The Lion King later this summer.  However, the 1992 version of Aladdin is one of my favorite movies so I was really nervous about what Guy Ritchie might do with it (King Arthur is a convoluted and bloated mess) and I didn't really like the casting of Will Smith as the genie.  Despite my misgivings, I decided to to see it last night and I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.  In fact, I really loved it!  The story of how a street rat wins the love a princess with the help of a genie freed from a magic lamp doesn't stray too far from the 1992 version but it does give Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) a powerful new story arc that I really appreciated.  I also really liked her new song, "Speechless."  Mena Massoud is an incredibly appealing and charismatic Aladdin and he has great chemistry with Scott.  Both of them have lovely singing voices and I especially loved their rendition of "A Whole New World."  I also, rather surprisingly, liked Smith as the genie.  He is a lot of fun and, in my opinion, he does enough to make the iconic role originated by Robin Williams his own, particularly in "Friend Like Me."  I didn't hate the CGI blue genie but I did prefer it when Smith physically portrays the character in human form while at the palace.  The genie's interactions with Aladdin when they officially meet Princess Jasmine are absolutely hilarious!  Ritchie's idiosyncratic style of directing is most evident in "One Jump Ahead" but the stylized action sequences really work here as Aladdin eludes the guards through Agrabah.  My favorite song in the 1992 version is "Prince Ali" and the big production number in this movie is quite the spectacle and did not disappoint (I even liked the elephants).  The costumes are absolutely spectacular and the production design, especially the palace, is fantastic.  Sometimes the CGI is really obvious and I didn't particularly care for how Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) is portrayed, but I found the movie as a whole to be very magical!  Ignore the critics and go see it!

Summer Reading 2019

Today the 2018-2019 school year is officially complete and I couldn't be happier because, among other things, I now have uninterrupted time for reading.  For the fourth year in a row I am presenting my summer reading list and inviting you to read along with me.  This year I picked mysteries and thrillers from this list including The Outsider by Stephen King, The Woman in the Window by A.J.Finn, The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager, The Broken Girls by Simone St. James, Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris, Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman, Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney, The Witch Elm by Tana French, The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware, and Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell.  I am really excited to get started and I am particularly looking forward to The Outsider because Stephen King has always been one of my favorite authors, The Woman in the Window because it was highly recommended to me by one of my colleagues, and The Death of Mrs. Westaway because I quite enjoyed Ware's novel In A Dark, Dark Wood (which was on my summer reading list several years ago).  As usual I will review each of the selections here every Friday and I hope you will join me and let me know what you think in the comments.  Yay for summer reading!

Note:  If you are interested, here are my past lists: 2018, 2017, and 2016.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum

Last night I went to see John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum and it is awesome!  It is an adrenaline rush from beginning to end!  This movie picks up right where the last one left off with John Wick (Keanu Reeves) on the run after an unsanctioned hit on the crime lord Santino D'Antonio at the New York Continental, a safe haven for assassins.  He is declared excommunicado by the High Table, a shadowy guild of assassins, and placed under a $14 million bounty.  Eluding assassins eager for the bounty at every turn, he calls in markers from the Director (Anjelica Huston), a high ranking member of the High Table, and Sofia (Halle Berry), the manager of the Casablanca Continental, to reach the Elder (Said Taghmaoui), one who is above the High Table, who gives him a penance to perform to atone for his transgression.  Meanwhile, an Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) from the High Table imposes consequences on Winston (Ian McShane), the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne) and the Director for helping Wick and recruits the assassin Zero (Mark Dacascos) to kill him.  These events set in motion an epic confrontation at the New York Continental that results in a betrayal (and the setup for the next movie).  The action sequences in this movie are amazing!  They are brilliantly choreographed and ingeniously filmed with wide shots and fast cuts.  These scenes are intense, unrelenting, and exhilarating to watch!  Reeves gives a great performance in a role that is particularly well suited to his unique style of delivery (Reeves redeems himself after giving one of the worst performances of 2019).  I was also so impressed by his physicality in this role!  He fights off two assassins on motorcycles while on horseback!  Berry is also pretty kick-ass in the action sequences, as well!  Finally, this movie is visually stunning, especially the fight in between glass cases at the Continental.  I loved it and I think it might be my favorite in the franchise.  I highly recommend it to fans of action movies.

Note:  This movie is incredibly brutal and it is probably best that you don't take your elementary school aged children to see it (there were several in my screening!).

Red Joan

I am a fan of espionage movies and of Judi Dench so Red Joan has been on my radar for the last few weeks.  I had the chance to see it last night and I had a somewhat mixed reaction to it.  Joan Stanley (Dench) is an 80-year-old woman who likes to potter in her suburban garden when she is arrested by the Special Branch for violating the Official Secrets Act.  She is accused of giving vital information to the Soviet Union which hastened their development of an atomic bomb after World War II.  As she is interrogated, there are flashbacks to her time as a brilliant physics student at Cambridge University during the war.  Young Joan (Sophie Cookson) becomes involved with radical politics when she meets Sonya (Tereza Srbova) and Leo (Tom Hughes), who are both Communists.  She and Leo become lovers and, when she gets a job with a top-secret group of British scientists working on nuclear fission, he eventually recruits her as a KGB agent run by Sonya.  The action moves very, very slowly (there were many times when my mind wandered) and having the narrative move back and forth between the past and the present removes a lot of the tension that a traditional espionage thriller might inherently have.  Judi Dench is given very little to do but stare off into space as she remembers her past.  Her talents are definitely wasted in this role.  However, I really liked young Joan's character arc.  She naively falls for the dashing Leo and succumbs to his charms every time he comes back into her life but she ultimately realizes that he is using her and in the end she uses him for her own idealistic motives.  Cookson gives a great performance that is incredibly thought-provoking and Hughes is so charismatic, especially during a speech he gives at a rally (you can totally see why Joan falls under his spell).  Despite an interesting premise and some good performances, the pacing, structure, and lack of intrigue make this a bit underwhelming.

Steel Magnolias

Yesterday I saw Steel Magnolias, the next movie in the TCM Big Screen Classics series, and it was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  This movie tells the touching story of how a group of friends, M'Lynn Eatenton (Sally Field), Shelby Eatenton (Julia Roberts), Truvy Jones (Dolly Parton), Annelle Dupuy (Daryl Hannah), Clairee Belcher (Olympia Dukakis), and Louisa "Ouiser" Boudreaux (Shirley McLaine), support each other through life's triumphs and tragedies in a small Louisiana town.  It is as funny as it is poignant because the women spend much of their time gossiping in Truvy's beauty salon and my audience laughed out loud through much of it.  My favorite line is when Ouiser says, "I'm not crazy M'Lynn.  I've just been in a very bad mood for forty years!"  All of the actresses give outstanding performances, particularly Field during a very dramatic moment, but I really enjoyed Tom Skerritt as Drum Eatenten because he is so goofy.  The movie was filmed in Natchitoches, Louisiana and I loved all of the stately old homes and gardens.  The production design is a lot of fun, especially all of the blush and bashful pink used for Shelby's wedding, and the 90s fashions are fabulous, especially the bridesmaid dresses.  I enjoyed watching this movie as much as I did the first time I saw it on the big screen thirty years ago and I highly recommend it (go here for more information).

Copland's Appalachian Spring & Billy the Kid

Last night I went to a lovely Utah Symphony concert with my friend Angela.  I didn't pick this concert when I was creating my season package but I've had my eye on it.  When my friend suggested that we get tickets I immediately said yes and I am so glad that I did because I enjoyed the performance so much!  The orchestra began with the Orchestral Suite from Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland.  I always enjoy hearing this piece, especially the variations on the Quaker hymn "Simple Gifts" which is first developed by a solo clarinet and then repeated by various instruments.  Then the orchestra was joined by soloist James Ehnes for Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra by Max Bruch.  I had never heard this piece before but I really loved it.  I found it to be incredibly passionate and just a little bit mournful.  Ehnes performed it brilliantly, almost making his violin sing as it soared to loftier and loftier heights.  He was rewarded with an instant standing ovation and he favored the crowd with an encore.  After the intermission, the orchestra performed a new piece called Transcend by Zhou Tian which was commissioned to commemorate the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, which linked the U.S. from east to west for the first time, 150 years ago.  I liked it, especially when the instruments mimicked the sound of the Morse code in the telegraph that was sent when the railroad was complete.  The concert concluded with Copland's Orchestral Suite from Billy the Kid.  My favorite part of this piece was "Running Gun Battle," which represents Billy the Kid's ambush by Sheriff Pat Garrett, because it features very dramatic percussion!  This will surely be one of my favorite Utah Symphony concerts this season and I am so glad my friend suggested it!

Note:  After listening to Transcend last night and attending the Utah Symphony and Tabernacle Choir performance last week, both of which commemorated the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, I really want to visit the Golden Spike Historic Site!

A Champion

This weekend Tashena competed at the Utah State UHSAA Track and Field Championships at BYU.  On Thursday she competed in the javelin and ended taking ninth place with a throw of 100.01.  She had not competed in javelin all year but her coach asked her to throw at the Region competition to get Bountiful more points.  She ended up getting third place and qualifying for state!  I think placing ninth is absolutely amazing!  Yesterday she competed in discus and ended up taking fourth place with a throw of 115.11.  I know it is not the finish she wanted but I am, and always will be, so proud of her.  She is a champion!

Rainout!

Sean and I have been having really bad luck with the Salt Lake Bees!  We always like to go to a few games during the season so we picked one a few weeks ago and made plans to go.  When I went to get tickets online I discovered that it was an early afternoon game and we couldn't go.  Sean was disappointed but I promised him we would go during the next homestand.  We got tickets to see the Bees play the Las Vegas Aviators last night and, even though rain was in the forecast, the skies were blue so we decided to go.

It was cold so, of course, I had to buy Sean a hoodie!  He picked a really nice one.  As we sat there, the clouds got darker and darker and I told Sean that we could leave any time he wanted if he got too cold.  We usually get ice cream during the bottom of the fifth inning and Sean was afraid that we wouldn't make it that long so he asked me if we could get some before the game started.  This made me laugh!

It was so cold but he still wanted ice cream because it is tradition!  As soon as I said that I thought it wouldn't rain, it started sprinkling!  Sean said that I jinxed it.  We decided to wait it out but then it started coming down really hard with thunder and lightning.  I wanted to wait until the game was called so we could get free tickets to another game but then I saw that Sean was shivering so I decided we should go.  By the time we made it to the car, the game had been called so, hopefully, we can try for another game soon!  Even though we didn't actually get to see any baseball it was still a lot of fun!

Tolkien

I am a huge nerd fan of The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien!  I read all of the books multiple times as a teenager and I stood in line for hours to see all of the movies (back in the day before assigned seating) on opening weekend.  My main motivation for traveling to New Zealand was to see where the movies were filmed!  Needless to say, I've been looking forward to seeing Tolkien, which portrays J.R.R. Tolkien's formative years and how he came to write his classic books, and I finally had the opportunity last night.  John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is played as a boy by Harry Gilby and as an adult by Nicholas Hoult.  His early childhood with an imaginative mother (Laura Donnelly), his later childhood as an orphan in impecunious circumstances, his love for fellow orphan Edith Bratt (Lily Collins), his "fellowship" with Geoffrey Bache Smith (Anthony Boyle), Robert Q. Gilson (Patrick Gibson), and Christopher Wiseman (Tom Glynn-Carney) at school, his study of philology with Professor Joseph Wright (Derek Jacobi) at Oxford, and his experiences on the Western Front in World War I eventually inform his stories of Middle-earth.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie!  As a fan of the books, I took great delight in finding the beginnings of specific characters, places, and events.  I especially liked the scene where Edith introduces him to Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle, a major influence on him.  The movie is incredibly beautiful to look at with stunning cinematography and I really loved the atmospheric music composed by Thomas Newman, particularly "Vinatta" which is simply magical.  Many may find this movie to be a bit tedious and cerebral (there are long discussions about the purpose of art and the origins of languages) but I really loved it and I anticipate that I will eventually own it.

Note:  Nicholas Hoult also played J.D. Salinger, another one of my favorite authors, in Rebel in the Rye.

Grease at PTC

When I saw the Broadway touring production of Grease a number of years ago, I have to admit that I was really disappointed because the stage musical is so different from the iconic movie.  I love the movie (I have seen it more times than I can count, even on the big screen) so I just couldn't help but compare it, often unfavorably, to the musical.  I wondered if I would have the same reaction to PTC's current production last night.  Unfortunately, despite great performances from a talented cast and really fun choreography, it just fell flat for me.  I couldn't turn off the voice inside my head which kept pointing out the differences from the movie (I had a similar reaction to the stage version of The Sound of Music).  Like the movie, Rydell High School during the 1950s is the setting for the romance between bad boy Danny Zuko (Pascal Pastrana) and good girl Sandy Dumbrowski (Emma Hearn), but, unlike the movie, the characters hardly spend any time together before the big finale.  Danny has more scenes with Patty Simcox (Lindsie Kongsore) and Betty Rizzo (Alex Kidder) than with Sandy and she doesn't even go to the sock hop where he wins the dance competition with Cha-Cha DiGregorio (Ashley Marinelli).  Many of the songs in this version are different from the movie.  It was very jarring to me when I would anticipate a particular scene and a different song would be performed such as "Rydell Alma Mater" at the beginning of the show, "Freddy, My Love" during the sleepover, "Alone at the Drive-In Movie" when Sandy walks out on him, and "All Choked Up" when Sandy's transformation is revealed.  All of these songs are performed very well but I was expecting to hear "Grease," "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" (which is performed in a different scene), "Sandy," and "You're the One That I Want" (which is added after the bows).  The song "Mooning" is a lot of fun but I didn't really care about the romance between Roger (Michael Schimmele) and Jan (Kate Cassidy Ryan) and "Shakin' at the High School Hop" and "Rock and Roll Party Queen" go on for too long making the second act really drag.  Also, I didn't really care for how "Beauty School Drop-Out" is staged because it is very incongruous and played merely for laughs.  Having said that, I loved "Summer Nights," "Greased Lightnin'," and "Born to Hand Jive" because they are staged very much like in the movie!  To be fair, the actors do a great job with the material and the sets and costumes evoke a fun nostalgic vibe, especially The Burger Palace.  Most people will really enjoy this production which runs through May 25 (go here for tickets).  I think I will just stick to the movie from now on.

Note:  This is truly petty but it even bothered me that Rydell's colors are blue and yellow in this show because they are red and white in the movie!

Snow Patrol at The Depot

I love the band Snow Patrol!  I have been a fan for a really long time and I try to see them whenever they come to town.  The last time they came to SLC was, however, quite a while ago.  Last summer they released a new album called Wildness and I absolutely love it.  It is one of those rare albums where I love every single song and I play the whole thing on repeat, especially on long road trips.  I really hoped that Snow Patrol would tour with this album and I was cautiously optimistic when they started playing dates in Europe and around the world.  I was thrilled when they announced a U.S. tour and I got a ticket for the SLC show before they even went on sale!  The show was last night and I was able to join my friends Bobby and Esther (ironically I met Esther for the first time the last time Snow Patrol was in SLC).  They played quite a few songs from the new album, including "Empress," "Don't Give In," "Life on Earth" (which is my favorite from the album), "Heal Me," and "What If This Is All the Love You Ever Get?"  They played my very favorite song, "Run," in the middle of their set and Gary Lightbody dedicated it to their two opening acts, Ryan McMullan and Billie Marten, and joked that the song was older than they are!  He also joked about all of the phones during the song and that he would watch all of the videos on social media later and hear all of his mistakes.  I loved it and I didn't hear any mistakes!  They played a nice variety of their earlier hits, including "Chocolate," "Take Back the City," "Crack the Shutters," "Open Your Eyes," "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" (which they rarely play live), "Make This Go On Forever," "Shut Your Eyes," "Called Out in the Dark," "The Lightning Strike," "Chasing Cars," and "You're All I Have."  They ended the evening with "Just Say Yes" which is one of their most upbeat songs and it got the crowd jumping.  They had some great lighting effects and video projections like you would see at an arena show, particularly with "Life on Earth" and "The Lightning Strike," but their performance felt intimate and Lightbody was very engaging with the crowd.  I really love Lightbody's voice (it is so haunting) but I also find him to be strangely appealing in a slightly nerdy and spastic sort of way.  It was a fantastic show!  I loved seeing them again and it was so much fun to hang out with Bobby and Esther!

Region Champion

After her best performance ever at the BYU Invitational last week, Tashena took first place in discus (with a throw of 120.5) and third place in javelin (with a throw of 104.6) at Region yesterday!  I am so proud of this girl and I can't wait to see what she does at State next week!

O.C.Tanner Gift of Music 2019

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the O.C.Tanner Gift of Music concert featuring the Tabernacle Choir, the Utah Symphony, and special guests Brian Stokes Mitchell and Megan Hilty.  This year the concert was in commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of the Golden Spike that united the Transcontinental Railroad from east to west so it featured a patriotic program that was very stirring and uplifting.  I have been looking forward to this concert for weeks because of Brian Stokes Mitchell.  I was first introduced to him when he performed with the Utah Symphony several years ago as part of a Bravo Broadway concert.  He performed the best version of "Stars" from Les Miserables that I have ever heard and I have been a huge fan ever since!  Last night he performed a rendition of "Shenandoah" that was simply stunning.  He also performed "On the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls and "The Flag Song" from Assassins.  He was joined by Megan Hilty for "So in Love" from Kiss Me, Kate, "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" from Shall We Dance, and a lovely song called "Thankful" by Carol Bayer Sager, David Foster, and Richard Page.  Hilty performed a delightful medley from Annie Get Your Gun.  The Utah Symphony played a medley of American classics called "American Salute" by Morton Gould and a beautiful rendition of "John Henry" by Aaron Copeland.  The Tabernacle Choir sang "America the Beautiful," "Bound for the Promised Land," and "America, the Dream Goes On" by John Williams.  The choir was as spectacular as always and they gave me goosebumps multiple times!  The concert concluded with "Wheels of a Dream" from Ragtime performed by Mitchell (he was Coalhouse Walker, Jr. on Broadway), Hilty, the Utah Symphony, and the Tabernacle Choir. It was incredibly powerful and brought a tear to my eyes!  I enjoyed this concert so much!  There were even fireworks out on the Plaza afterwards!

Note:  The O.C.Tanner Gift of Music was created and endowed by Obert C. Tanner and Gordon B. Hinckley as a way to share the music of the Utah Symphony and the Tabernacle Choir with the community.  I have been lucky enough to attend several of these concerts, including the 3oth Anniversary Gala with James Taylor and the Mahler Symphony No. 8 several years ago.

Star Wars in Concert

Last night I had more fun than should probably be allowed on a Thursday because I got to see Star Wars: A New Hope on the big screen while the iconic score was played live by the Utah Symphony!  It was amazing!  I am a huge fan of the Utah Symphony's Films in Concert series (I have seen every one since they began with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) but last night was my very favorite performance.  First of all, I love this movie so much!  It is still my favorite movie in the whole saga.  I haven't seen it on the big screen since I saw it in its first release as a nine year old little girl so it was thrilling, to say the least, to see it how it was meant to be seen again!  It brought back so many memories of watching it for the first time (I was terrified of Darth Vader as a nine year old).  Second, the score by John Williams is one of the best, in my opinion, and every theme is instantly recognizable.  I especially love "Imperial Attack," "Princess Leia's Theme," and "The Return Home" (I own the soundtrack on vinyl and know the names of the themes because I am a nerd).  The orchestra played it brilliantly and hearing the music live enhanced the experience of watching the movie so much!  Finally, the crowd at Abravanel Hall was quite rowdy!   When the orchestra played the fanfare during the opening crawl everyone went absolutely crazy!  We cheered out loud when Darth Vader, Leia, Luke, C-3PO, R2-D2, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Chewbacca, and Han Solo appeared for the first time on the screen but I think the biggest applause came when we saw the Millennium Falcon for the first time!  Lots of people were in costume and a little boy sitting in the first tier had a light saber which he wielded at key moments!  It was so much fun!  If you are a fan of this movie I highly recommend getting a ticket for one of the two remaining performances (go here).

Note:  Fingers crossed that they will eventually perform all of the movies in the franchise!

True Grit

I have recently become a fan of Western films and there are so many that I need to see!  Luckily the TCM Big Screen Classics series features a lot of Westerns, including the latest selection True Grit, so I might be able to catch up!  After trying to see this movie on Sunday (there were technical difficulties so the screening was canceled) I got to see it last night and I really enjoyed it!  This is probably my favorite John Wayne film (so far) and his riveting performance earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor.  Wayne plays Rooster Cogburn, an aging, overweight, alcoholic, and trigger-happy U.S. Marshall, who is hired by a young girl named Mattie Ross (Kim Darby) to bring her father's killer, Tom Cheney (Jeff Corey), to justice.  A Texas Ranger named La Boeuf (Glen Campbell) is also on the hunt and is looking to claim a large reward because Cheney killed a Texas state senator.  Cogburn and La Boeuf set out to track Cheney down and reluctantly allow Mattie to ride with them leading to an epic showdown with the gang protecting Cheney.  I absolutely loved the character of Mattie because she is so feisty, determined, and resourceful.  I especially love the scene where she negotiates with a wily horse trader (Strother Martin).  Darby more than holds her own with the veteran actors in this film and she has great chemistry with Wayne, particularly in a poignant scene where Cogburn tells Mattie about himself while they are waiting to ambush the gang.  In my opinion, Wayne can sometimes seem like a caricature with his laconic line delivery but in this film he brings a sensitivity to the grizzled character he plays and his performance is very compelling.  The action sequences are incredibly exciting, especially when Cogburn gets into a gunfight on horseback with four other men in the middle of a meadow!  While the film is set in Arkansas and Oklahoma, it was mostly filmed in Colorado and the cinematography is breathtaking.  I am so glad I was eventually able to see this film on the big screen and I highly recommend it!

The Intruder

My preferred method of choosing which movies to see based on the trailer has frequently backfired on me this year!  Friday night I went to see The Intruder because the trailer made it look like an interesting and atmospheric psychological thriller.  Unfortunately, it is a total mess.  Scott Russell (Michael Ealy), an up and coming San Francisco ad executive, and his wife Annie (Meagan Good) decide to leave the city in favor of finding their dream home in Napa Valley.  Charlie Peck (Dennis Quaid) tells the couple that he is selling his house to go live with his daughter in Florida but he can't seem to leave and starts dropping by at inconvenient times.  He spies on the new inhabitants and yells at them when they make alterations to the house.  Scott is unnerved by Charlie's continual presence but Annie feels sorry for him and frequently invites him in (this character is so mind-numbingly stupid that I wanted to scream).  Charlie eventually breaks into the house to attack Annie provoking a confrontation with Scott.  The script is very derivative and there is one scene in particular which mimics another well-known scene from a much better horror film that had the audience hooting with laughter (not the intended reaction).  There is absolutely no suspense, even with the jump scares, because Charlie is creepy from the moment we meet him and it is absolutely incredulous that Scott and Annie can't see this.  Not only are the characters incredibly stupid but they behave illogically, especially in the final sequence which contradicts everything we have learned about about Scott's character (and prompted more laughter).  Ealy and Good try hard with the material they are given but they don't have a lot of chemistry.  Quaid is so completely over the top as the villain that, again, I laughed at some of his facial expressions.  All of the other actors are abysmal, especially Joseph Sikora who plays Scott's best friend.  Finally, there are quite a few glaring continuity issues which point to lazy filmmaking (did anyone view this movie before it was released?).  This is not even as good as the late night movies found on Lifetime and I recommend giving it a miss.

Utah Opera's Norma

Last night Abravanel Hall was magically transformed into a forest for Utah Opera's production of Norma.  I had never seen this opera before and I didn't really know anything about it but I am glad that I decided to get a ticket.  It is spectacular!  The Druids of Gaul are occupied by the Romans and wish to overthrow them.  The Druid Patriarch Oroveso (Adam Lau) sends his daughter Norma (Marjorie Owens), the High Priestess, to speak with the Proconsul Pollione (Jonathan Burton) but he is her secret lover and the father of her two children.  She loves him and so she urges her people to seek peace.  However, Pollione has fallen in love with Adalgisa (Annie Rosen), Norma's acolyte and best friend.  He convinces Adalgisa to renounce her vows and follow him to Rome and she eventually confesses to Norma that she is in love.  Remembering how she felt when she fell in love with Pollione, Norma releases her until she discovers that it is Pollione who she loves.  The three of them have a passionate scene where Norma demands that Pollione return to Rome, Pollione begs Adalgisa to go with him, and Adalgisa refuses to leave Norma.  Adalgisa begs Pollione to reconcile with Norma but he refuses.  Norma wants vengeance for this betrayal so she rallies her people to war but this requires a human sacrifice.  She decides that she must sacrifice herself because she has broken her vow of chastity and throws herself on a pyre.  Pollione, moved by her sacrifice, realizes that he still loves her and joins her in death.  This opera is incredibly emotional and powerful with themes of love, friendship, jealousy, loyalty, and betrayal.  Bellini's music is beautiful, especially when the Druids are called to war, and it is performed brilliantly by the Utah Symphony.  The title role is one of the most difficult in the repertoire (which is why it is not performed very often) because it requires a great range and involves many different emotions.  Owens sings it so passionately, especially the aria "Casta Diva," and I was moved to tears several times.  Because the Capitol Theatre is undergoing some renovations, this opera is being performed at Abravanel Hall and is semi-staged with projections rather than scenery.  I think these innovative projections add to rather than detract from the story, especially the flames at the end.  The costumes are designed by Bradon McDonald, a Project Runway finalist, and they are gorgeous, particularly Norma's cloak which looks like a giant tree (his inspiration for the cloak was imagining what Lady Gaga would wear to the Met Gala if the theme was Norma).  Seeing this opera is a very unique experience and I highly recommend it!  There is one performance left on Monday (go here for tickets).

BYU Invitational

Yesterday my niece competed in discus at the BYU Invitational.  As the name implies, only the top athletes are invited to this meet.  Tashena has been invited every year because she is amazing in discus but she has really struggled at this meet (she doesn't like the cage at BYU) and has never reached the podium.  Not this year!  She took third place with a throw of 118 and I am so proud of her!  The State Championship is in two weeks (also at BYU) and I am so excited to see how she does after this confidence boosting performance!  Go Tashena!

Tulip Festival 2019

Yesterday when I woke up there was snow on the ground but the sun came out eventually and it turned into a really nice day.  I decided to spend the afternoon visiting the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point.  It was absolutely perfect because the temperature was cool and it wasn't crowded.  There are fifteen different themed gardens featuring 280,000 tulips in hundreds of varieties imported from Holland.  I loved wandering through all of the blooms.

The Creek Garden

The Italian Garden

The Fragrance Garden

The Secret Garden (my favorite)

The Tulip Festival has been extended through May 11 at Thanksgiving Point.  It is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm.  Tickets are $20 in advance for adults and $15 in advance for children ($25 at the door for adults and $20 at the door for children).  The tickets this year are time specific.  When you buy an advance ticket you will be asked to pick a time to visit.  This is so they can control how many guests are in the garden at any one time and I really appreciated that as it does sometimes get very crowded.  Go here for more information and to purchase tickets.