Sean the Bomb

Watching Sean play football is becoming one of my favorite things to do!  Yesterday the Bountiful Braves played the Bingham Miners and, even though they lost 21-7, it was a great game.  Bingham is a tough team and the Braves had some great plays, including another spectacular tackle by number 98!  Here are some pictures from the game.

Beethoven & Tchaikovsky

I have been looking forward to the opening weekend of the Utah Symphony 2016-2017 season for quite a while.  It has been too long since I've seen the orchestra perform in Abravanel Hall!  Much too long!  However, it was worth the wait because the opening concert last night featured one of my favorite composers and it was a wonderful performance!  The orchestra began with Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks.  This piece was commissioned  by George II to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and I really enjoyed it, especially the brass fanfares throughout.  It was very dignified and majestic.  Then pianist Jonathan Biss joined the orchestra for Beethoven's Concerto No. 1.  This piece reminded me a lot of Mozart (at intermission I read in the program that many of Beethoven's earliest works were influenced by Mozart) and I loved it.  Biss was absolutely incredible and I enjoyed watching his fingers literally fly across the keyboard.  Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5, the piece I had been waiting for, came after the intermission and it certainly didn't disappoint!  I love Tchaikovsky because his music is so emotional and it is so quintessentially Russian.  The orchestra played with so much passion that they almost blew the roof off Abravanel Hall!  I loved the plaintive theme played by the woodwinds in the first movement and the horn solo in the second movement was amazing!  The final movement is incredibly stirring and, even though this piece is filled with melancholy and yearning, I think that the ending is, ultimately, triumphant.  This concert is being performed again tonight and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here).

Note:  This concert was our first chance to see Madeline Adkins, the new Concertmaster.  I really like the fact that both the Concertmaster and the Associate Concertmaster (Kathryn Eberle) are women.  Girl power!

Sully

I have been on hundreds of flights which means that I have heard the safety briefing hundreds of times.  You know the one.  "In the unlikely event of a water landing, life jackets are located under your seat and your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device."  I never really think about the fact that the plane could actually crash into the water and that I might actually need to locate my nearest exit and jump into an inflated raft.  I bet the passengers aboard US Airways Flight 1549 never thought about it, either.  Watching what happens when a plane is forced to land in the water in the movie Sully last night was very disconcerting, to say the least, and I don't think I will take that safety briefing for granted any more!  Sully focuses on the NTSB investigation of the landing of Flight 1549 in the Hudson River and calls into question the actions of Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and First Officer Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart).  The board members suggest that the plane could have returned to LaGuardia unharmed and Sully is forced to defend his actions in the midst of PTSD and the bewildering onslaught of media adulation.  I have said it before and I will say it again:  I think Tom Hanks excels at playing the Everyman character.  He gives an incredible performance as the calm professional who is secretly tormented by what could have happened (I actually had to look away from the screen in the opening sequence when the plane crashes into a building during one of his nightmares).  Hanks quietly portrays the dignity of the man and I especially loved the scene when he learns that all 155 passengers survived because he is not overly dramatic but simply shows his emotion through his eyes.  Clint Eastwood puts the audience right inside the cockpit during the re-creations of the flight and the rescue scenes (I loved that the heroism of all of the rescue workers involved was emphasized) are intense but the true drama is played out in an NSTB hearing.  The audience in my screening actually cheered at the end of it.  I walked out of this movie reminded that there are still good people in the world and for that I highly recommend it!

The Great Barrier Reef

The next stop on my Australian adventure was Cairns in the state of Queensland.  It was so interesting to go from the desert to the tropics in just one day!  While in Cairns, we had a full day excursion to the Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea and it was seriously cool.  We took a catamaran out to the reef and then we were based on a large pontoon boat.  You could scuba dive, go snorkeling, take a ride in a glass-bottomed boat, or see the reef in a submersible.  It was amazing!

It was one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever been.  My favorite moment was when a school of barracuda swam by!

Uluru

After our sunrise balloon ride, we spent most of the day driving though the outback to get to Uluru National Park (formerly known as Ayers Rock).  I have always felt that this place must be incredibly mystical and seeing it for the first time exceeded my expectations!  We were able to see it at sunset and the resort where we were staying provided champagne and snacks for our viewing party (yes, more champagne!).  It was absolutely magical!

Early the next morning we drove back into the park and had a chance to see Kata Tjuta, another impressive rock formation.  We saw it from a viewing platform because, apparently, it would take several hours to get up close to it.  The vastness of the outback is mind-boggling!

Then we had the opportunity to hike around Uluru.  Our guide told us lots of stories about the rock formations which are the basis of many aboriginal creation myths.  It felt very sacred to me (in fact, there were a few places along the rock where photos were forbidden).

The red rocks reminded me so much of Southern Utah!

Note:  The aborigines who administer the national park are very cautious about letting people climb the rock.  Unfortunately, the day I was there it was deemed too windy to climb but it was incredible to hike around it!