Shania Twain at Energy Solutions Arena

Country is my least favorite genre of music so many people are surprised when they learn that I am a huge fan of  Shania Twain.  I really love the album Up! and, when I saw the Up! tour in 2003, I started listening to her other music because she put on such an amazing show!  When I heard that she would be bringing her Rock This Country tour to SLC after an absence of over a decade, I was thrilled!  Last night I joined a crowd of all ages for an evening of her biggest hits.  She came up from the floor on a platform and rose high above the arena wearing a sparkly mini-dress, a black leather jacket with fringe, thigh-high leather boots, and red-tinted sunglasses to sing, appropriately, "Rock This Country."  After that it was one spectacle after another with lasers, pyrotechnics, giant video screens, multiple costume changes, and several forays into the crowd (one of which was on a mechanical bull that circled the arena on a crane).  I loved it!  Twain does not have the voice she did in her heyday but no one, including me, seemed to care and we all sang every word to every song along with her.  She had plenty of swagger and sass to make up for it!  She played for over two hours, dividing the show into three sets.  The first included "Honey, I'm Home," "You Win My Love," "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?," "I Ain't No Quitter," "Love Gets Me Every Time," "Don't Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)," and "Any Man Of Mine."  She started the second set with "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!" and "Come On Over."  Then she sang "Party for Two" with Gavin Degraw, who opened for her.  That was one of my favorite moments.  She continued with my favorite song, "Up!," and then toned things down with some acoustic versions of "Today Is Your Day," "No One Needs to Know," and "You're Still The One."  In my opinion, her voice was at its best during these songs and I was quite impressed to see her playing the guitar.  She began the third set with a powerful version of "From This Moment On" and finished with "That Don't Impress Me Much" and "(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here."  For the encore, she sang a fun and rowdy version of "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!"  I loved this concert!  Shania definitely rocked the ESA last night!

Note:  The teenage girls sitting in front of me took about 812 (a conservative estimate) selfies during the concert...

The Man from U.N.C.L.E

I am too young to remember the television series (I sometimes lament the fact that I didn't grow up in the 1960s), but I have long been looking forward to the film adaptation of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  I had a chance to see it last night and it is fantastic!  During the height of the Cold War, an Italian crime family led by Victoria Vinciguero (Elizabeth Debicki) has enlisted (coerced?) the services of a German scientist to create a nuclear weapon.  Both the United States and the Soviet Union want to prevent this from happening (and possibly steal the technology for their own use) so they join forces and send CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer) to Rome to stop them.  Their only lead is the scientist's daughter Gaby Teller (Alicia Vikander), whom they rescue from East Berlin, but she may or may not be all that she appears.  Can the two enemy agents cooperate long enough to save the world from destruction?  Guy Ritchie is known for very stylized action scenes with pulse-pounding music underneath them and this film certainly delivers.  It is just so much fun to watch and I particularly enjoyed the car chase through East Berlin.  Hammer is not my favorite actor (Don't even get me started on The Lone Ranger!) but he is great in this role.  The chemistry between Hammer and Cavill is one of the highlights of the film.  Their quick and witty back-and-forth banter (another hallmark of a Guy Ritchie film) is hilarious and I loved it whenever they tried to one up each other with their spycraft and gadgets.  This is not one of Vikander's best performances (see here and here) but it hardly matters because she wears fabulous clothes and accessories (the sunglasses!) and has a few great stunts.  Speaking of clothes and accessories, I loved the 1960s aesthetic of the film: suave, stylish, and super cool.  It is well worth the price of admission just to see Henry Cavill cavort in, shall we say, some very well-tailored suits!  Even though the story is a familiar one, I thought it was wildly entertaining and, given the many allusions to the backstories of all of the characters and the montage of their dossiers in the end credits, I predict a sequel (although there is no end of credits scene).  Go see it!

Note:  It is worth mentioning that I am a huge fan of spy movies (I read too many Le Carre, Forsyth, and Ludlum novels in high school) so it is not surprising that I would enjoy The Man from U.N.C.L.E.  I loved the recent Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and I cannot wait for the latest Bond installment, Spectre, in the fall.

Time for Three With the Utah Symphony

Last night, after a long day at school in which I accomplished very little, I went to a concert featuring a string trio called Time for Three with the Utah Symphony under the baton of Maestro Jerry Steichen (always a treat).  I was tired and a little bit stressed but I knew that I would enjoy myself listening to the Utah Symphony under the starts at the Red Butte Garden Amphitheater.  What I didn't realize was that violinist Zach De Pue, violinist Nick Kendall, and double-bassist Ranaan Meyer would absolutely blow my mind.  Clad in black jeans, they looked more like rock stars rather than classically trained musicians (which they are) and they played everything from bluegrass to rock and roll and every genre in between.  I loved it!  The orchestra began the concert with a piece composed by Zach De Peu called "In the Dressing Room" which was just lovely and then Time for Three played a medley of "Eleanor Rigby" and "Blackbird" by the Beatles.  It was at this point that I knew I was in for an extraordinary evening.  They also played a lovely version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and a rousing rendition of Billy Joel's "Angry Young Man."  I especially enjoyed all of the mash-ups of contemporary songs and classical pieces such as "Cry Me a River " by Justin Timberlake with Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, "Firework" by Katy Perry with The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky, and "Gallows Pole" by Led Zeppelin with Beethoven's Eroica Symphony.  Genius!  And then, lest the audience doubt their classical background, they played "Winter" and "Summer" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons much to the delight of the crowd!  They ended the concert with "Little Lion Man" by Mumford & Sons (even singing along with some of the lyrics) and then played a highly amusing version of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" by the Charlie Daniels Band for the encore.  They substituted their own lyrics lamenting the fact that, despite their classical training, this is the only song people want to hear on the fiddle!  It could not have been a more amazing night!  If you have the chance to see Time for Three, I highly suggest you take advantage of it!

Note:  After the concert, a man sitting behind me told his wife that it was much better than he expected!  I love listening to the Utah Symphony but this concert was better than I expected, too!

Irrational Man

I am not a huge fan of Woody Allen (other than Midnight in Paris, which is one of my all-time favorites) but the previews for Irrational Man intrigued me so I decided to see it last night (I fear my late night Sunday excursions to the Broadway Theatre are numbered).  Abe Lucas (Joaquin Phoenix) arrives as a new philosophy professor at a small New England college suffering from existential ennui.  He eventually begins an empty affair with a married chemistry professor (Parker Posey) and a romance with Jill (Emma Stone), a student infatuated with his dark side.  He quotes Dostoevsky in the classroom and keeps a copy of Crime and Punishment, with passages highlighted, on his desk.  Like Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Crime and Punishment, Abe decides to murder a complete stranger because he feels that it would be to the greater good and the petty rules of middle class society do not apply to him.  Unlike Raskolnikov, who is tormented by what he has done, Abe finds renewed meaning in life and comes alive.  Jill eventually figures out what Abe has done and, like Sonya in Crime and Punishment, she becomes Abe's conscience when she urges him to confess.  Will Abe find redemption as Raskolnikov does?  The story is definitely interesting and the themes are thought-provoking (I was reminded of an intense discussion with a group of friends at a bar in downtown Denver about situational ethics where I said something very similar to what Jill says to Abe as she confronts him) but I don't think Allen quite pulls it off.  The dialogue (and there is a lot of dialogue, particularly when characters are walking from one place to another) is extremely stilted and contrived.  Even philosophy majors (and I know a few!) don't quote Heidegger, Kierkegaard, and Kant constantly in everyday life.  Phoenix and Stone do the best they can with the material but it still feels like they are reading pages of script with grim faces and I found it hard to care about them.  I found the students to be incredibly naive, especially in the Russian roulette scene, and the acting from the minor characters is, at times, completely laughable (they are trying so hard to be earnest).  The murder mystery also seems a bit implausible.  Jill figures out the entire complicated scenario during a conversation at dinner and then just happens to run into people who can give her proof.  Even the twist at the end of the movie felt a bit hokey rather than dramatic.  I found the relationship between a college professor and a student to be somewhat troubling.  Abe and Jill conduct their affair quite openly and I can tell you unequivocally, having taught on the college level, that it certainly wouldn't be condoned on campus and I can't imagine any parents who would be as accepting as Jill's (they invite him over for dinner!).  Clearly, Allen has no concept of appropriate boundaries in light of his own personal life.  The premise of Irrational Man is note-worthy but the execution of it is not.  Read Crime and Punishment instead and, if you want to watch an excellent Woody Allen film, find a copy of Midnight in Paris.

Brunch at Eva's Bakery

I always begin summer vacation with a list of new things I want to do, new places I want to see, and new restaurants I want to try and this year was no exception.  Now that school is about to start, I realize that I haven't accomplished anything on my list.  What have I been doing with all of my free time?  Yesterday I had to wake up early (on a Saturday!) and vacate my house for several hours for an inspection.  Eva's Bakery in downtown SLC has been on my list for quite a while so I decided to have brunch there so I can check at least one thing off!  I was in absolute heaven!  Eva's Bakery is a little slice of Paris right on Main Street.  Paris is my favorite city in the world and when I spent a semester abroad there, I loved to wander the streets and find an out-of-the-way cafe in which while away an afternoon.  When I walked into Eva's Bakery, the aroma and ambiance immediately transported me back to that time and place!  Why have I never been there before?

Eva's Bakery has a breakfast and lunch menu with many traditional French dishes.  I had the Stuffed French Toast with lemon cream cheese filling and blueberry compote ($8.00).  The lemon and blueberry flavors really complemented one another and it was cooked to a crispy perfection.  I loved every bite!  Next time, I want to try the lunch menu.  I love French onion soup and I haven't had a good Croque Madame since I was in Paris!  Eva's Bakery is located on 155 S. Main Street in SLC and is open for breakfast and lunch Monday - Saturday from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm and for brunch on Sunday from  9:00 am to 3:00 pm.  All of the items on the menu are reasonably priced from $8.00 - $11.00.