A Week of Solo Camping 2026

I had such a great experience on a solo camping trip last year so I decided to do it again and spent the week at my favorite campground.  I love the Aspen campground because it is surrounded by pine trees, mountains, and the North Fork of the Duchesne River and I find it incredibly peaceful.  My campsite was quite isolated and I really enjoyed being on my own.

I was really happy to be in the mountains because it has been so unbearably hot in the valley lately and the temperatures were much cooler.  It was cold enough to wear a hoodie and make a fire and I loved it!

It rained most of the time but I didn't mind because I spent the time inside my tent reading and listening to the storm outside and it was very cozy.  I was still able to explore all of my favorite places along the river in between rain showers.

There is a rock formation known as "Old Stoneface" along the river and I am fascinated by it!  I probably have 812 photos of it but homage must be paid every time I visit.

The sun finally came out for most of the day on Thursday and it was so lovely to sit outside surrounded by pine trees (which smelled amazing after all of the rain).  There was an aggressive chipmunk and lots of birds (even a few blue jays) but it was so quiet and peaceful.  I especially loved listening to the river.

The sunsets every night were beautiful!

I had the best time on this camping trip and, once again, I learned so much and proved so much to myself!

Note:  I am happy to report that I did not blow out a tire off-roading this time!

Cyrano de Bergerac at Parker Theatre

I love Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac but it is not performed very often (I've only been able to see productions at PTC and the Utah Shakespeare Festival with Patrick Page and Brian Vaughn, respectively, in the title roles) so I have been anticipating a new adaptation at Parker Theatre ever since the 2026 season was announced. I was able to see it last night and I had goosebumps all night! Cyrano de Bergerac (Roger Dunbar) is a brilliant poet and swordsman who often makes enemies with his razor sharp wit. He is hopelessly in love with his cousin Roxane (Kristi Curtis) but he is afraid to tell her because he has an unusually large nose and doesn't think she could love someone who looks like him. She confesses to Cyrano that she loves a handsome soldier in his regiment named Baron Christian de Neuvillette (Russ Maxfield) and asks him to protect him in battle. Because he wants Roxane to be happy, he helps the simple Christian woo her by writing eloquent letters for him to give her. Roxane and Christian eventually marry but he is soon sent to war and Cyrano continues writing letters to her on Christian's behalf. She is so overcome by these letters that she comes to the battlefield to tell Christian that she fell in love with him because of his looks but now loves him for his soul. Christian wants her to love him for himself rather than for Cyrano's words but he is killed before he can confess the truth. Roxane is so brokenhearted that Cyrano writes her a farewell letter from Christian. She retires to a convent to grieve and Cyrano visits her every week for the next fifteen years to give her news of the world. One day he arrives late for his visit because he has been mortally wounded by one of his many enemies and asks Roxane if he can read Christian's final letter to her. As he reads aloud before succumbing to his wound, she realizes that he is the one who wrote it and that he has loved her all of these years. One of the things I really love about the Parker Theatre is how well they adapt classic pieces of literature to make them more accessible to modern audiences (if I was still teaching I would definitely try to arrange field trips for my students) and I loved what they did with this play. Audiences are sure to love it because there are scenes filled with adventure (Cyrano singlehandedly fights one hundred swordsmen), wit (Cyrano composes a poem about his nose while dueling with a rival who insulted its size), humor (Christian repeats Cyrano's words to Roxane in a hilariously stilted way) romance (Cyrano finally opens his heart to Roxane underneath her balcony because she cannot see him and it is incredibly swoonworthy), and tragedy (Roxane is heartbroken when she realizes that she loves Cyrano too late). The performances, in these scenes particularly, are brilliant and show the tremendous range of the actors. I also loved the dynamic fight choreography, the detailed set design (it reminded me of the sets used in the Englestad Theatre at the Utah Shakespeare Festival with its wooden balconies, arches, and doors), the gorgeous period costumes, and the makeup design for Cyrano's nose (it is truly spectacular). Finally, this is performed in five acts and I enjoyed the projections on the curtain during the set changes and I also liked the title descriptions projected on a scrim at the beginning of each act. This production is incredibly well-done and I highly recommend it. Tickets may be purchased here for performances on Fridays and Saturdays through August 29.

Wild Inside

I wasn't very interested in any of the new releases this weekend so I spent my Friday night at the Broadway watching a documentary about an owl (as one does).  I really enjoyed Wild Inside because it is both heartwarming and thought-provoking.  Flaco, a male Eurasian eagle-owl, was bred in captivity and spent 13 years in a small enclosure inside the Central Park Zoo before escaping.  When he is discovered in and around Central Park, he captures the attention and imagination of New Yorkers, especially a group of birdwatchers who document his actions and movements online (and provide many of the photos and video footage used in this documentary).  At first, the public is concerned that Flaco will not be able to survive in the wild and advocate for his immediate capture and return to the zoo.  However, Flaco's natural instincts kick in and he eventually improves his ability to fly with practice and develops the ability to hunt on his own.  The public then decides that he should remain free and the staff at the Central Park Zoo stop trying to capture him.  Sentiments shift once again when Flaco meets an untimely end after he is weakened by rodenticides used to control the city's rat population and many point out that he would have lived a much longer life inside the zoo.  Flaco is definitely anthropomorphized but, like many interviewed for this documentary, I also couldn't help but ascribe human characteristics to him, such as choice, resilience, and curiosity, and this made me root for him to succeed.  The photos and footage are adorable and I especially loved his big orange eyes and the way he looked into windows to watch people (much like he was watched in the zoo).  I also learned a lot about Eurasian eagle-owls and about owls in general (they are surprisingly fascinating).  Finally, I really appreciated the discussion about the best way for animals to interact with humans and urban environments even if there are no easy answers.  Penny Lane, the director, has an obvious opinion about zoos and keeping animals in captivity but she does interview people who advocate for their necessity in order to keep them safe and to stave off extinction of endangered species.  I think this is a documentary that will resonate with many people and I highly recommend it.

The Piano

I am so happy that The Piano is back in theaters because I think it is an atmospheric masterpiece and I have always wanted to experience it on the big screen (I missed it during its original theatrical run).  I went to see it yesterday at the Broadway and I was completely mesmerized.  Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) is a Scottish woman in the mid-19th century who has been mute by choice since childhood.  She travels to New Zealand with her precocious daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her cherished piano for an arranged marriage to a colonial settler named Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill).  When she arrives, Alisdair refuses to transport the piano from the beach to his settlement and this alienates her from him.  She asks Alisdair's neighbor, George Baines (Harvey Keitel), to take her back to the beach and he falls in love with her after he witnesses a passionate performance.  Baines has her piano taken to his house and then offers Alisdair a piece of property in exchange for lessons from Ada, which Alisdair compels her to give.  However, Baines tells Ada that he will trade the piano back to her, key by key, if he can listen to her play in various stages of undress during encounters that become more and more intimate.  He eventually gives the piano back to her before she fulfills their agreement and they begin an intense affair with tragic consequences after Alisdair learns the truth from Flora.  Many find the narrative to be problematic but I have a different interpretation. I think the piano represents Ada's voice because she communicates by playing it rather than by speaking.  Both Alisdair and Baines manipulate her with their control of the piano and getting it back represents that she is able to choose her destiny.  This is why she is able to leave it behind in the middle of the ocean and why she begins speaking after she is rid of it.  I love Hunter's performance because, even though she is incredibly stoic, you can still see everything she is feeling in her eyes and her piano playing is incredibly impressive.  I also love Paquin's performance because it is so nuanced and strikes a delicate balance between innocence and mischievousness.  The visuals are gorgeous (New Zealand is one of my very favorite trips) and I was blown away by many of the evocative shot compositions.  Finally, the score by Michael Nyman is hauntingly beautiful, particularly the main theme "The Heart Asks Pleasure First."  This is brilliant on so many levels and I highly recommend it (especially if you have a chance to see it on the big screen).

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at HCT

Utah audiences really love the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (so it is performed a lot) but I am not a big fan because I find it very kitschy (or it could be because I have seen it too many times). I went to yet another production last night at Hale Theatre and, even though I didn't love it, the performances are outstanding. It tells the well-known Bible story of how Joseph rises to become the Pharaoh's second-in-command after his brothers betray him for being their father's favorite with songs that span every musical genre. It is de rigueur for every director to add their own touches but this is a messy mishmash of every version of the show that Jennifer Hohl has been involved with. Much of the staging, including the Ishmaelites riding motorcycles in "Journey to Egypt," the dancers emerging from a psychedelic VW bus in "Go, Go, Go Joseph," and Mrs. Potiphar spinning tunes in a nightclub with a multi-colored dance floor in "Megamix," is recycled from HCT's 2017 production which she also directed (I actually enjoyed the staging of "Potiphar" and "Song of the King" a lot more in that version). There are some strange choices with the costumes (the brothers all wear athletic socks and shoes, the Egyptians wear white mid-length pleated skirts, and the ensemble wears weird Heaven's Gate-inspired shrouds in "A Pharaoh's Story"), a few of the sets are underwhelming (particularly the one for "Potiphar") and the choreography is a bit chaotic because there are so many performers on stage that sight lines are often blocked (this is especially true in "Song of the King"). However, the brothers (including Rob Naylor as Reuben, Matt Baxter as Simeon, Ben Lowell as Levi, Brock Dalgleish as Naphtali, Addison Welch as Issachar, Brevan Ita as Asher, Matthew Tripp as Dan, Enzo Willis as Zebulon, Prince Ko as Gad, Eli Zemp as Benjamin, and Alec Powell as Judah) do a fantastic job singing and dancing and it is very clear that they are having a blast (they are really fun to watch). I really enjoyed Lowell's vocal performance of "One More Angel in Heaven" as well as Welch's rendition of "Those Canaan Days" (this song always makes me laugh) but Powell really blew me away during "Benjamin Calypso." Bailee Morris has a beautiful voice that is very well suited to the role of Narrator but I sometimes found her interactions with the rest of the cast and the audience to be very stilted. She is especially awkward with a group of children (who were presumably selected from the audience) in the Prologue because she is very over-the-top and they did not respond to her (maybe they need a better vetting process to find more animated children).  Finally, Ethan Kelso, as Joseph, is the reason to see this show because he has both the voice and the charisma required for the role. I loved his renditions of "Any Dream Will Do" and "Close Every Door" (the lighting effects used to create his jail cell are really cool) and his physicality in the scenes with Mrs. Potiphar and the Pharaoh's groupies is a lot of fun. I know that almost everyone will enjoy this more than I did (it needs to join Cats and Seussical as shows I never need to see again) so I recommend getting a ticket (go here). It runs on the Young Living Centre Stage through October 24.

Note: My attitude about this show could also stem from when I saw the Broadway touring production.  I was so excited to see Donny Osmond as Joseph but, on the night I went, his nephew David (who was the understudy) performed. He was very good but I am still bitter about missing Donny.