Batman v Superman

Yesterday I had the chance to see an early screening of the much anticipated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and, I must say, it did not disappoint!  It is an incredible spectacle and I absolutely loved it!  After a flashback to the murder of young Bruce Wayne's parents, this film picks up where Man of Steel ends with the epic battle between Superman (Henry Cavill) and General Zod (Michael Shannon).  We get an on-the-ground view of the battle through the eyes of Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) as he witnesses the collapse of one of his buildings.  Angry at the collateral damage, he deems Superman to be a threat and his alter ego, Batman, tries to find a way to stop him.  Meanwhile, Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), a tech savvy genius who also views Superman as a threat, finds kryptonite and wants to weaponize it. Batman intercepts the kryptonite and prepares to face Superman while Lex Luthor forces an epic showdown between the two.  Eventually, the two must unite, with the help of a mysterious stranger who turns out to be Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), to fight an even bigger threat to Gotham and Metropolis.  To be sure, this film is dark and gritty but I feel that the current incarnations of these iconic superheroes are appropriate for the tumultuous times we live in.  I particularly enjoyed the film's exploration of power and the responsibility that comes with it.  I also appreciated the fact that both Batman and Superman are flawed and (without giving too much away) that they meet on equal ground for a battle that is absolutely awesome!  The special effects are thrilling, to say the least, but, unlike most critics (see below), I found the story to be compelling, as well.  The performances are great, including, rather unusually, Ben Affleck's brooding portrayal of the caped crusader.  I'm not a big fan of Affleck, and I questioned his casting, but I have to admit that he is a great Batman.  I loved Jeremy Irons as his butler Alfred and, although I sometimes grow weary of Jesse Eisenberg, his twitchy Lex Luthor worked for me.  Gal Gadot is absolutely kick ass as Wonder Woman; in fact, the entire audience at my screening cheered when she appeared in battle!  I loved all of the cameos of Dana Bash, Anderson Cooper, Nancy Grace, Soledad O'Brien, and Charlie Rose as themselves reporting on the various incidents.  I also loved seeing Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jason Momoa (sigh) as Aquaman, and Ezra Miller as Flash, in brief cameos setting up future Justice League movies (I can't wait for Wonder Woman in the summer of 2017).  This film is everything I hoped it would be and I would recommend it to fans of the genre!

Note:  I often wonder if the critics saw the same movie I did...

Spirit Week 2016

For the past month my student body officers and class officers have been working incredibly hard for spirit week.  They are friends with other student government groups from schools around the valley and have been helping to judge their spirit bowls.  They were really inspired by what other schools have done and wanted to go all out this year.  I told them that we could do anything they wanted as long as they were committed and willing to work hard!  They came up with some very elaborate plans and spent a considerable amount of time getting administrative approval for those plans.  They wrote a proposal and presented it to the administration with justification for everything they wanted to do.  They were so passionate about their ideas that the majority of them were approved (to my surprise).  Each class came up with a theme (Seniors in Space, Aloha Juniors, Sophomore Strong, and Freshmen on Fire) and picked a hall to decorate around that theme.  They spent three weeks during our student government class and after school creating decorations and we spent eight hours installing them last Friday.  Each class did an amazing job but the seniors blew everyone away!  I was so surprised that almost all of the decorations stayed up all week!  We also designed and sold shirts around the theme (thanks to my friend for making them!).  Our dress-up days were: Pajama Day, Tacky Tourist Day, Disney Day, and Sports Day.  We made pancakes for the student body before school on Monday which was a lot of fun once we got everything going (we blew all of the circuits in the Commons!).  Our spirit assembly was yesterday and it was a great success!

Freshmen on Fire

Sophomore Strong

Aloha Juniors

Seniors in Space

These students have made me proud so many times this year (go here, here, and here) but I can't even begin to describe how proud I am of them for all of their hard work and dedication to Hunter High this week.  Our principal has been at HHS for 26 years and he told them that he has never seen anything like this week!  They have definitely set the bar really high for future groups!

Note:  We had the officers from Taylorsville, Copper Hills, Granger, and Kearns come help us judge the competitions!  I want to give a huge shout-out to Kearns for staying to help us clean up after the assembly!  I have long considered the student government advisor at Kearns to be a mentor and his students went back to school with many positive comments about our assembly.  He took the time to email me and congratulate us on our successful spirit week.  That meant so much to me!

Allegiant

Last night I saw an advance screening of Allegiant with a fun and rowdy crowd.  With Jeanine dead, Evelyn (Naomi Watts) has become the leader of Chicago and sets out to publicly try and execute all members of the Erudite faction who followed Jeanine.  Realizing that they have merely traded one totalitarian regime for another, Tris (Shailene Woodley), Four (Theo James), Caleb (Ansel Elgort), Christina (Zoe Kravitz), and Peter (Miles Teller) escape and scale the wall surrounding Chicago to find out what is on the other side.  What they find is a post-apocalyptic world scarred by the effects of a nuclear annihilation.  They are soon rescued by the Bureau of Genetic Welfare and its leader, David (Jeff Daniels), who tells Tris that the faction system has been an elaborate experiment and that they have been under surveillance for years.  David reveals that genetic engineering is what lead to the nuclear war and that the Bureau is seeking to return the genetic code to its former purity.  He further reveals that Tris is the only person who is genetically pure and he wants to replicate her DNA.  Meanwhile, in Chicago, Johanna (Octavia Spencer) forms a group called the Allegiant to oppose Evelyn and David encourages the development of this new faction system by sending the slimy, albeit entertaining, Peter to help Evelyn to destroy them.  Tris finally realizes that David has been manipulating her and returns to save the inhabitants of Chicago.  I am not a fan of dividing the original source material into two films because the first film inevitably feels like a long preview for the final one.  This tactic is especially tiresome in Allegiant because there is an incredible amount of exposition, most of which is extremely confusing (it has been a while since I've read the book), the characters are very static (and a bit boring) without any new development, and there are way too many scenes of Tris parading around in one white outfit after another and of Four brooding while breathing deeply through his nose.  It gets old very quickly.  Granted, the action sequences are exciting, especially when they scale the wall, and the special effects are pretty amazing, especially when they use the drones and the surveillance equipment.  However, these scenes are few and far between.  Even the final battle seems a bit anticlimactic and that fun and rowdy crowd was pretty subdued by the time the credits rolled.  As someone who has enjoyed this franchise, I am a bit disappointed and I hope Ascendant can provide a satisfactory resolution to the story.

Utah Opera's Aida

There is nothing quite like the experience of watching an opera.  In my opinion, a great opera combines everything I love about the performing arts: a dramatic and tragic love story, powerful and passionate vocal performances, a beautiful symphonic score, innovative staging, dazzling choreography, and elaborate costumes and sets.  Last night Utah Opera's production of Aida ticked every one of those boxes!  Aida, an Ethiopian princess captured as a slave by the Egyptians, is torn between her burning love for Radames, the general of the Egyptian army charged with defeating the Ethiopians, and loyalty to her father, the king, and her country.  The story is definitely full of enough pathos to satisfy even my romantic heart.  What could be more dramatic than choosing to die for love?  The performances are amazing!  Marc Heller (Radames), Jennifer Check (Aida), and Katharine Goeldner (Amneris) all sing their roles beautifully.  I particularly loved Check's rendition of the aria "O patria mia" where Aida laments the fact that she will never see her country again and Goeldner's rendition of "Ahime!...morir me sento," where Amneris curses the priests for condemning Radames, gave me goosebumps!  I had tears in my eyes when Check and Heller sang "Morir! Si pura e bella" as Radames and Aida die in each other's arms inside a tomb.  Verdi's score is absolutely spectacular and I particularly enjoyed the instantly recognizable fanfare played inside the Temple of Vulcan, which sent tingles up and down my spine! The staging is also quite spectacular, especially the pageantry involved in sending Radames off to war and I loved the choreography in that scene.  I also loved the staging of the Judgement scene, most of which takes place off stage.  Alice Bristow's costumes, in various shades of turquoise and gold, are exquisite.  The set, created by Tony Award-winner Michael Yeargan, is bold with Egyptian columns and monuments and I was particularly struck by the use of multiple levels.  To say that I enjoyed this production would be an understatement; in fact, I think it is one of Utah Opera's best!  I would highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) to one of the remaining performances through March 20.  Bravo, Utah Opera!

Weekend at the Cabin

Marilyn and I just returned from our annual weekend getaway to the KOA in Fillmore.  We have stayed in one of the cabins on opening weekend for the past four years and we look forward to it for weeks.  It is a sure sign that spring is on its way (although, ironically, it snowed during the drive home).

I absolutely love this KOA and a lot of my friends ask me why I like to stay in a place that is in the middle of nowhere (it is about 150 miles south of Salt Lake) but it is precisely because it is in the middle of nowhere that I like it!  There is nothing that I have to do and I can relax completely.

This was our cabin for the weekend.  Dave and Corinne (who own this KOA) upgraded us to a bigger cabin!  One of the reasons we love coming to this KOA is because Dave and Corinne are such wonderful people!  They waited up for us to check-in late Friday night and asked about our family!

We had such a great time doing absolutely nothing!  We spent some time sitting out on the porch reading but it was still pretty cold.  We ended up inside quite a bit and we watched movies, ate treats, and laughed!  I haven't laughed that hard in a really long time!

In the evening we sat around the fire talking and laughing for hours!  It is my very favorite part of camping!  I loved this little getaway and I was really sad to come home to my busy and, sometimes, stressful life.  I can't wait to come back in a few weeks!