I know we need the water, but please stop snowing!  Just for a few days.  Really, this is getting old.  The cities around here are bringing in front loaders to move the snow because we're running out of room along some of the roads.  So, really, come back in a week.

You wanted it, now you are stuck with it.  The city of Sandy, Utah (a suburb of Salt Lake) is now asking the county to cough up some extra money so that the city can get the $10 million to Real Salt Lake for the team’s new stadium.  At the current moment, at least 5 of the 9 county council members have said they would vote against giving Sandy extra money.  You have to remember that the county voted against the stadium, only to have the state legislature take county money and give it the team.  I’m pretty sure the county hasn’t forgotten that.  As far as they are concerned, and I agree, the county has chipped in $35 million that they didn’t want to cough up in the first place.  So, right now Sandy is $6 million short of the money they promised the team.  Of course Real will not dig into its own pockets for that $6 million.  No, instead they claim the stadium will not be completed on time for the team’s home opener against the Los Angeles Galaxy.  Oh, heaven forbid that we don’t have the stadium open in time to see David Beckham sitting on the bench because he’s hurt.  This constant nickel and dime operation by the team is a prime reason why governments should not be paying for professional sports stadiums.  Dave Checketts is a very good con artist, and he has conned not only the city of Sandy, but a good portion of the Wasatch Front. 

Salt Lake County Council unanimously approved a 100 foot protesting ban from residential targets.  This was brought about because Utah Primate Freedom Project started targeting University of Utah researchers at there homes.  The group says the ban (it isn’t really a ban, it is just a distance limitation) on protesting is unconstitutional.  The council says it is trying to defend people’s privacy. 

 

Speaking of defending privacy, the Utah State Senate passed a ban on smoking in a car that caries a child under the age of 5 in it.  It would be punishable by a $45 fine.  I understand trying to protect the health of children, but by taking away privacy and property rights?  This is kind of on the edge.  It still has to pass the House, which it probably won’t.  No idea what the governor would do with this one.

 

And going back to the controversial Utah town incorporation law, the law in which a developer who owns at least 50% of the land and has 100 residents can create a new town, may be up for revision.  Yes, the same folks that brought us the law are now seeing that it is causing more problems than was intended, and they want to fix it.  But Utah House Speaker Greg Curtis is saying that they should just wait and see how those currently ongoing play out.  The proposed town of Aspen is in trouble, but Independence and Hideout might squeak by.  The proposed changes would require at least 5 sponsors instead of just 1, the 5 cannot own more than 40% of the land (ouch – there goes my dream), a majority of qualified voters approve (not sure who those voters are), and the mayor and city council must be elected instead of appointed by the developer. 

 

Correction:  I made a statement about the Sundance move Donkey Punch winning the award for false advertising.  I assumed that the summary of this movie actually explained it instead of giving a nice little sugarcoated gloss-over.  Well, I was wrong.  A friend of mine saw the movie and stated that it was explicit (X-rated sexuality and violence) and that there was a donkey punch that went horribly wrong.  So, I stand corrected.  She also did not describe the movie as a “thriller”, but an excuse for going over-the-top.  And not the good kind of over-the-top like Die Hard 4.  Way to go, Uncle Bobby!

I would be remiss if I did not mention that the LDS Church President Gordon Hinckley passed away Sunday night.  He was 97 and, until the second half of last year, pretty active.  For a religion I’m not overly impressed with, this guy was okay.  And the praise he has received from leaders of other religions in the area is a testament to that.  In fact, he even told his faithful to “refrain” from proselytizing during the 2002 Winter Olympics here in Salt Lake. 

 

On a different topic, another snow storm blew into town today.  I wish I had my camera when it hit.  We were all staring out the window at work as the wall of black clouds raced across the valley and slammed into us.  The sleet and snow was horizontal for the first few minutes.  It looks like we only got three inches, but the wind was blowing so hard I’m thinking there is more, just not evenly spread around.

 

So I was wrong – Ms. Michigan won the Ms. America pageant.  Ms. Utah didn’t even place.  I think her push-up demonstration messed things up for her.  That, and the fact that she stood up there, chugged a beer, and smashed the can on her head.  Sure, most men 18-34 would have voted for her, but evidently the judges didn’t think that was much of a talent.  (Yes, that is a joke – calm down.  The girl was the only one to wear a one-piece for the swimsuit portion.  What do you think her leanings are?)

 

Bigger news is that Purdue beat #11 ranked Wisconsin in basketball the other day.  This is big because Purdue hasn’t beaten a ranked opponent at home in many years.  Better yet, this is the 5^th win in a row and they are now near the top of the Big Ten.  Oh, and they have 4 freshmen that get a lot of playing time.  In fact, yesterday it was two of the freshmen that took control of the game, and a freshman that made the game saving block at the end.  These aren’t the type of freshman that will play a year and then go to the NBA.  No, these guys are here for at least 3 years, maybe even all 4.  When I was at school there, basketball was king.  It is becoming that way again now.  Thank goodness – I missed it.

 

Sundance awards were handed out last night.  Frozen River won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Dramatic films.  The movie is about smuggling illegals from Canada through an Indian reservation in New York.  Trouble the Water won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. documentaries.  IT was about a couple in New Orleans during the hurricane.  The audience award went to Fields of Fuel, a film about biodiesel, and The Wackness, an oddball about a teen that sells drugs and who has a pot-head therapist.  Captain Abu Raed, Mermaid, and Man on Wire won the World Cinema awards from the judges and audiences. 

 

The true winners at Sundance are the ones that make money.  Hamlet 2 scored a deal for $10 million, American Teen got a deal with Paramount for $1 million, Frozen River, Baghead, and The Wackness got picked up by Sony Pictures.  Others were already picked up for national release, such as Be Kind, Rewind, Black List: Volume 1, Diary of the Dead, U2 3D, Towelhead (this one is a messed-up flick), In Bruges, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden (from Morgan Spurlock, who made Super Size Me).  The other big winner was Paris Hilton, who got way more free press than she needed.  Good job, Uncle Bobby!

The Miss America pageant is tonight, and Ms. Utah is feeling lucky.  Why?  Well, how about the fact that she actually got out of the army without getting shot or knocked-up.  There will also be a lot of soldiers in the audience and a number of the judges have Utah ties.  Hmmm, me thinks me smells a set-up.  Ms. Jill Stevens, a veteran of the fighting in Afghanistan, is also a National Guard member.  The pageant will be shown on The Learning Channel tonight, of all places.  The thing isn’t watch by nearly as many people as it was back in the 1980’s, probably because of cable, and the fact that we see fake looking women all the time now.  I’m curious as to what Ms. Stevens’ talent will be.  Running an obstacle course?  Belching her name?  Doing pushups (the exercise kind – not the bras)?  How about reciting all the cadences she had to learn in boot camp?  I’ve got to say, she has a great chance of winning because of the PR this would bring.  A veteran of a foreign war winning becoming Ms. America – my, how progressive.  Sure, she would get booed at the Ms. World pageant, but who cares.  Looking at this picture all I can say is "Huh, another tall, blonde, blue-eyed girl from Utah.  What a shock."

 

 

 

As far as Sundance goes, I’m tired of it already.  I wish it would go away.  I’ll post the winners when they come out, but really, haven’t we all lost a little something here.  They did announce the Queen of Sundance the other day.  This is nothing more than a title that goes to the woman that has appeared in, or been part of, the most movies for the year.  Melonie Diaz won it this year.  She is in four Sundance movies this year - American Son, Assassination of a High School President, Be Kind Rewind and Hamlet 2.  For the whole year, she has been in 27 movies.  That is prodigious, isn’t it?  This girl has been appearing at Sundance since 2001.  It is safe to say that in a few years I will be complaining about her as one of the “stars” that pretty much come here and take away from the movies.  Good luck girl, you are going to need it.

 

 

As for the Lake, this one goes under the category of “thought grenade”.  A thought grenade is one in which you see or read something, process it, and then sometime later the thought explodes into something that you initially didn’t see coming.  The other day, the Salt Lake Tribune had a story about a committee that was coming together to figure out if Utah Lake can be restored to something close to how it was 100 years ago.  Of course most people outside of Utah wouldn’t know anything about Utah Lake.  It is it the largest fresh water, natural lake in Utah (as apposed to the massive reservoirs in the state).  The city of Provo is next to it.  The committee wants a master plan on land use, natural resources, and recreation at the lake.  Utah Lake has taken a beating over the years, with a steel plant right next to it, massive pollution, and invasive fish species such as carp.  So, why is this a thought grenade?  Well, there was another part of the article, almost a separate story, that talked about the carp in the lake and what to do with them.  The carp are an invasive species that competes for food with the native species and is basically a species that tends to take over because they are very competitive the resources in the lake that other fish need.  That, and we tend not to eat carp because, well, they taste gawd awful!  Evidently, people in the Middle East like and eat carp.  Well, a humanitarian group from Minnesota wants to take the carp and ship them over to Iraq for food.  This group would take anywhere between 5 and 10 million of the fish to areas like Iraq, Bosnia, and the Baltic.  One problem – the state of Utah tells people not to eat the fish caught in Utah Lake.  There is a little problem with pollution, specifically PCBs, and the state advises adults to only eat about 4 ounces of the fish a month, while children should not have any.  These are EPA rules, not FDA rules.  So, if the fish isn’t good enough for us here, why would we ship them over to others to eat?  This seems especially odd, considering it is a humanitarian group offering to do this.  Sure, what people in those areas are eating now may be worse, but this just seems wrong to me.  It just sounds like another story of us shipping our trash off to other places of the world.  The carp should just be chopped up and turned into fertilizer. 

I haven’t posted since Sunday because I have been in the Great White North for a few days for work.  I went to Toronto on Monday, weathering a snow storm that pretty much cripples Salt Lake and held up my flight for close to 6 hours.  Whoo-hoo!

 

While stuck at the airport, I was sitting next to a group of Canadians that had been in town over the weekend for Sundance.  I couldn’t quite tell, and I didn’t feel the need to ask, but it sounded as if they were in town for work.  No, I was not eavesdropping – I was trying to read.  They were loud and obnoxious, two things I would never equate with a Canadian that wasn’t at a hockey game.  Besides talking about the movies they had seen, the celebs they had rubbed shoulders with, and the hairstyles they thought were or were not good looking, they spent time talking about America.  Fine, they are our neighbors and they get to hear a lot about us.  They bad-mouthed our politics for a while, which didn’t surprise me.  Odd, I don’t remember Canada leading the world in anything other than curling.  Then one of them started talking about patriotism, and how Americans had a lot more than Canadians.  This caught my interest, until the person started equating it to attendance at a baseball game.  The argument went that because attendance at Blue Jay games was bad, and people started leaving the game early if the team wasn’t winning, that Canadians weren’t patriotic.  She then argued that because fans showed up for Red Sox games, and stayed the entire game, that Americans were more patriotic.  It took all my restraint to bite my lip.  How about this – the Red Sox are actually good and Boston fans, though annoying, are good fans.  Toronto is NOT a baseball town and the Blue Jays have sucked for a long time.  Patriotism nothing: that is just the way baseball is.  And I thought the Canadians were the smart ones…

 

The Toronto airport sucks.  It is large, but very poorly designed.  And it is the entry point for every pandemic virus that will enter North America.  Last time I went through Toronto, I got strep throat.  My throat has been bugging me today.  I may have SARS…

 

As far as Sundance goes, there have been too many big name stars moving through town while I was out to keep track of, so I’m not going to even bother.  There was one star, not in movies, that was here that I’m sorry I missed.  Giada De Laurentiis was here cooking at the Riverhorse on Monday.  She is the celebrity cook that has the two shows on the Cooking Channel: Everyday Italian and Giada’s Weekend Getaways.  Even though she is 7 months pregnant (damn it!) she is very hot.  My fiancée is going to kill me now.

 

Now I feel it is time to call Uncle Bobby out.  Two things are really bugging me about this film festival.  Redford states, constantly, that it is about the small time directors/film makers that wouldn’t normally get a chance to show their art.  If that was the case, why are their so many big name starts in all these movies?  Hollywood executives will pay attention if Bruce Willis is in a movie.  And the steady stream of media frenzy-inducing celebrities that flow in and out of Park City over the last few years pretty much shows that this is now more about being seen that doing a movie.  If Uncle Bobby was serious about keeping this thing focused on the films entered into the festival, he would have told Paris Hilton and her movie distributor to take a hike.  Hilton’s movie, The Hottie and the Nottie, was being pumped by the distributor this week at a party that drew a huge crowd and a number of celebrities.  This girl is a) not hot (she looks like a flounder), b) not talented, and c) is proof that even idiots can be millionaires.  Redford pretty much runs Park City for a couple of weeks each year, and he could have told Paris to take her nasty-ass, and her movie party, someplace else.  But no, he says he has no control over non-Sundance related events.  BS Bobby!  You want more buzz and more media at your little shindig, and this just heaps on the pile. 

 

Additionally, Uncle Bobby is obviously big on promoting family values, or at least his own family.  His daughter, Amy, has a movie in the festival.  Sure, it may be a decent movie, but the only buzz I’ve heard about it is that Amy made it, not that it is particularly good.  In 1998 he let a movie made by his son James into the festival.  Yes, this is about the up-and-comers.  A curse on you, Redford!  May your face shrivel up into a raisin!  Oh wait…Damn! 

 

(Note: this would have gone up Sunday morning, but I was having problems with access to the editing functions for this blog)

 

Uncle Bobby (Robert Redford) keeps telling us that his little festival is all about the up-and-coming directors and film makers that are looking for their big chance, have a creative eye, can pair with a good writer (if they didn’t write the script themselves), oh – and it doesn’t hurt if they share his political beliefs.  Well, if you watch the news, read the papers, scan the blogs, and pay attention to everyone else other than Uncle Bobby, another prerequisite to making it to Sundance would be how many big names an up-and-coming artist can get in his/her movie, and then how much buzz can be created around it, thus pulling even more big names.  In other words, appearance still trumps substance it the extremely shallow world of Hollywood East (i.e. Park City).

 

Okay, yes, I am jaded.  I’m comfortable admitting it.  But let’s run through the list of celebs making it through over the weekend.

 

Bigger than big (in more ways than just his waistline) is Nobel laureate Al Gore, flew in on his private triple-decker jet to watch U2 and his buddy Bono for the U2-3D premiere (yes, all about the small guys).  Which would also mean that Bono, The Edge (pretentiousness is not an issue when you giver yourself such a nickname), and the rest of U2 also graced us with their presence.  This was such a celebrity magnet that others such as Jared Leto, Elisabeth Shue (used to be very hot) and director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) and Josh Peck (from Nickelodeon – lets say B list guy) were also there.  Oh, and Uncle Bobby made sure to usher them all in.  Oh, and then they talked politics after, you know, because they are experts at it.

 

Emily Blunt and Woddy Harrelson were seen walking around during the day, which isn’t uncommon for Sundance.  It is believed that Mos Def was hanging around as well, but not sure about that one.  One typically likes to see the photo evidence.  Michael Keaton has been hanging around (he is directing this year) as well as Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, and Armand Assante.

 

Movie big-wig Harvey Weinstein was walking around as well.  Evidently he was actually here to watch movies.  Uh, wouldn’t have guessed it.

 

I don’t know if I have enough space for everybody here.  Quick run down:

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (one of my favorites) were in town for their movie In Bruges.  Mary-Kate Olsen was in town Friday, looking waif-like.  Eddie Redmayne, Maria Bello (hot!), Kristen Stewart (also hot!), and William Hurt were here for their movie, The Yellow Handkerchief.  John Malkovich (another favorite of mine) was here for The Great Buck Howard, as well as Tom Hanks, Colin Hanks (Tom’s son), and Emily Blunt.  Saffron Burrow was hanging around with Amy Redford (Uncle Bobby’s daughter) for their movie The Guitar.  The Bacons (Kevin and Michael – no degrees of separation there) were performing on their guitars during one of the celeb parties the other day.  Guess if you can’t get in a movie, you get into Sundance any way you can.  Kate Mara (hot!) was here for Transsiberian, along with Aduardo Noriego (no relation to the general), Woddy Harrelson, and Emily Mortimer.  Maroon 5 was also performing at one of the clubs on Friday night (my fiancée will not be happy to hear that she missed them).  Robert Englund (Freddy Kruger) was walking around.  Randy Quaid was also walking around – looking like he just came from an Alaskan expedition.  There were probably others, but I can’t find proof of it.  We saw Gary Coleman last year, but he is sort of hard to spot, so we’ll keep on our toes, looking down. 

I’ll make fun of Sundance some more tomorrow.  This story was too good to pass up. 

 

Police in Washington D.C. arrested a man on Friday who was walking near the Capitol with a shotgun and, get this, a Samurai sword.  This guy supposedly drove a truck with Utah license plates.  No shots were reported fired and no injuries reported.

 

The guy in question was identified as Michael Steven Gorbey, 38.  He is being charged with a count of "felon in possession of a firearm."  Other charges are pending, police said.  Does the “Right to Bear Arms” extend to Samurai swords?  Or would that be the “Right to Brandish Steel”?

 

Police spent several hours probing the contents of this guy’s truck, reportedly having Utah's colorful arch tags (the same type I have).  Police said they were unsure where Gorbey obtained the truck.  It was also reported that the vehicle had wires coming out of the glove box and propane tanks inside.  Police used a robotic camera to see inside the vehicle, and then destroyed whatever was inside the car with a powerful water hose.  Way to destroy all the evidence - nice work boys!  Okay, maybe if there was a bomb inside that would probably be important, I guess. 

 

Gorbey was, allegedly, “wielding” the shotgun and had the sword in a case over his shoulder as he walked through the Lower Senate Park around 1 P.M. Friday.  He was tackled by Capitol Police officers shortly thereafter.  The park is near the three Senate office buildings, just down the street from Union Station.  Gorbey’s pickup truck was parked near the Brotherhood of Teamsters building (a couple of blocks away), which is within the jurisdiction of Capitol Police but on the outskirts of the secured zone of the Capitol.  Interesting – who knew a person could actually find parking next to the Teamster building.  I thought those spots were permanently filled with the vehicles of striking union members.

 

Senate staffers in the buildings were not evacuated when the emergency alert system went off, but were not allowed access to their vehicles in adjacent parking lots.  And really, it is the staffers that need to be kept safe, and not the Senators, as those are the people that actually do the work.

 

On some of the Utah blogs there has been a running gag that if this guy had been walking around the White House, it may have been Rocky Anderson…

So, the lead candidate for Understatement of the year is from James Olsen, president of the Utah Food Industry Association.  His statement is in response to the fact that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has thrown its support behind Utah Attorney General (also Mormon) and the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Commision in their belief that malt beverages in grocery stores should be pulled and sold only in state liquor stores.  Mr. Olsen’s state was “There’s no doubt that the battle just got tougher.”  Really?  You mean because the LDS church pretty much runs this state, no matter what people say?  You mean because the people that don’t know anything about how alcohol works are the ones making the rules?  Or do you mean because this was pretty much a done deal as soon as it was proposed by the ABC Commission? 

 

Flavored malt beverages (Mike's Hard Lemonade would be an example) have the same alcohol content (3.2% by weight, which is roughly 4.0% by volume) as the beer sold in the grocery stores.  The argument is that these beverages also contain a small amount of distilled spirits, which under Utah law must be sold in the state liquor stores.  If this is the case, why are they in the grocery stores now?  If this is the case, why not just tell the stores they can no longer sell the stuff?  If this is the case, why is someone drafting legislation to pull the stuff?  The reason is because the amount of “distilled” spirits in the drinks is about equivalent to the amount of alcohol in non-alcoholic beer.  Its there, but a person would have to drink a case (24 cans/bottles) before feeling the slightest tingle of a buzz.  In other words, the ABC and the legislators are looking for a reason to tighten their hold on the state alcohol monopoly, and the LDS church is more than happy to help. 

 

These drinks have also been dubbed “alcopops” because they taste more like a sugared beverage from the soda section of the store than the alcohol section.  The argument is that kids drink more of this stuff than beer or hard liquor because they can’t taste the alcohol.  Maybe.  The same could be said for Flaming Dr. Peppers – and those will get you smashed.  How about this – parents monitor what your kids are doing and maybe it would be less of a problem. 

According to Forbes Magazine, Salt Lake City is the best city in the country for jobs for the upcoming year.  Texas, as a state, had more cities in the top of the list than any other state, but Salt Lake takes the gold in this little contest.  The rankings are based on unemployment rate, job growth, income growth, median household income, and the cost of living (for the year 2006 – the last year that full data is available).  The top ten cities are, in order:

 

1. Salt Lake City, UT

2. Wichita, KS

3. Austin, TX

4. Atlanta, GA

5. Fort Worth, TX

6. Indianapolis, IN

7. Houston, TX

8. Omaha, NE

9. Raleigh, NC

10. Seattle, WA

 

I have to point out that I moved from out to Utah from the Indianapolis area, so I’m staying in the top ten.  Maybe next I’ll go to Raleigh.  Where will I not be going?  Well, try Los Angeles, which sits at 87, New York City, which is at 58, or Las Vegas, which is at 98.  Worst place?  Detroit – but of course.

 

Salt Lake is number 1 for a couple of reasons.  Unemployment here is ridiculously low, job growth has been chugging along (but has begun to slow over the last few months), and the cost of living is reasonable.  What does this mean?  It means that the housing market here is still crazy, but has finally slowed down not because people don’t have the money, but because loan offices are tightening up on jumbo loans.  Those are the loans over $430,000+ (or something in that neighborhood).  I give it another six months to a year before the housing market here catches up to the rest of the country.

 

One thing jumps out at me as I look at the list: The best Californian city is Riverside, sitting at 42.  Yes, California is a great place to live, but maybe this list isn’t what it is cracked up to be, because Gary, Indiana is sitting at 39.  Huh?

 

Forbes List

It is official - Sundance is now nothing more than a pawn for larger entertainment companies.  Why?  Well, Paris Hilton is coming to the festival to be part of Regent Releasing's party with here!TV (a gay-themed network) to promote her upcoming movie The Hottie and the Nottie.  Regent owns here!TV and is distributing Ms. Hilton's upcoming craptacular movie.  Yes, Sundance is about the up-and-coming independent movie maker, and corporate money. 

Purdue announced on Friday that Danny Hope will be taking over for Joe Tiller has head football coach.  Mr. Hope will be coming in as assistant head coach, or some such title, for the upcoming season while Joe gets his wins for 2008 to become the coach with the most wins in Purdue’s football history.  I don’t know much about Mr. Hope other than he has been a head coach at a Division I (or II – they’ve changed how they call the divisions and I can’t keep it straight) and didn’t do much to get attention outside his tiny corner of the country.  I hope that Hope can take this upcoming year and recruit like crazy.  The only good thing about a succession plan like this is that the players coming in know who will be coach and there doesn’t have to be a drop in recruiting while a new coach is found.

 

The Purdue Men’s basketball team beat Ohio State the yesterday, and had almost won at Michigan State earlier in the week.  The Spartans aren’t as good as everyone thought they were, having lost to Iowa the other day.  Ohio State, not as strong as last year, is still a respectable team.  So far in Big Ten play, Purdue is 2-1, all of them being well played and close games.  I bring this up because I’ve gotten to see two of these games now.  One was on ESPN last week; the other was on the Big Ten Network, a pay channel around here.  I was at a bar with some friends watching NFL games when I noticed a familiar looking basketball arena on a small TV in a corner.  I asked one of the managers and he told me they decided to get the Big Ten Network during football season because enough people were asking to see some of the games.  He told me they will keep it through basketball season and decide after that whether to keep it.  I now have a place to watch Purdue games – a nonsmoking bar.  I’m a happier camper now.

 

The snow has finally slowed down.  We even got sun yesterday and it warmed up over freezing.  Today is gray again, but at least it isn’t snowing.

 

I get to go to Toronto for work in a week.  Last time I went through the Toronto airport, I came back with strep throat.  If any nasty disease tries to come to North America from Asia or Europe, it always seems to hit Toronto first.  I think there were even a few cases of SARS there a few years ago.  The problem with Toronto is that there are more foreigners there than Canadians, and I’m not talking about Americans in this case.  I’ll have to figure out what I can do to prevent getting sick.  I’ll just take a HazMat mask on the plane with me.  I’m pretty sure I could check that on.

 

 

Many years ago, Uncle Bobby (Robert Redford for those of you that don’t live in the Park City or Sundance area) decided to have a little film festival so that up-and-coming film makers could show their talents without having to get money from big, bad film studios.  It worked, and today the Sundance Film Festival is an anticipated event that draws people from all over the world.  One problem – now all those up-and-coming artists are having to compete with the established guys and the star power in these movies makes the casual observer think it were the summer block-buster season, without the explosions. 

 

So, what do we get?  Try guys like Robert De Niro, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Stanley Tucci, and John Turturro in one movie directed by Barry Levinson (Rain Man).  Wow, sounds like a movie that will make mainstream theaters in a couple of months, so why should I bother seeing it at Sundance?  Well, if I had a lot of money and needed to be “seen” on the scene, then I would of course need to go, and wear my sunglasses at night.

 

While a number of the directors and writers (obviously they didn’t go on strike until after the movies were done – or “gasp” – are non-union) are green and unknown, most of the actors are very well known.

 

Sleepwalking – this one has Charlize Theron, Dennis Hopper, and Woody Harrelson

Diminished Capacity – has Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda, and Virginia Madsen

The Escapist – a little Irish picture staring Brian Cox, Joseph Fiennes, Damian Lewis, and a well known Brazilian Seu Jorge

In Bruges – another Irish picture with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson

A Raisin in the Sun – a remake of a classic starring P-Diddle (Sean Combs – or whatever we’re calling him now) as well as Audra McDonald and Phylicia Rashad

Smart People – stars some dumb people by the name of Dennis Quaid, Thomas Haden Church, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Ellen Page

The Year of Getting to Know Us – this has winner written all over it with the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Tom Arnold, Sharon Stone, and Lucy Liu (I like Lucy, but not really for her acting)

Bottle Shock – a movie about the California wine take-over stars Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Freddy Rodriquez, and Chris Pine

 

But the movie that will most likely win the award for false advertising is Donkey Punch – a thriller about a party on a yacht that turns deadly.  I have a feeling that we won’t really see a “Donkey Punch” happen in that movie.

 

Don’t miss The Guitar, directed by Amy Redford (that’s right, Uncle Bobby’s little girl).  I’m sure this one will win the award for Best Movie Ever, you know, because her dad owns the festival.

Forget what I put down about Chryst the other day.  Looks like that was a bunch of smoke with no real fire.  I don't know what Burke is up to, but the Purdue AD is making things interesting.

 

This year the weather forcasters have been over estimating how much snow we will get.  They say 6 inches, we get 2.  Granted, compared to last year we are getting a much more constent stream of storms, but I don't know if we have more snow.  What we do have is a couple of weeks without an inversion, which is nice.

 

The new Mayor of Salt Lake City was sworn in the other day.  I like him better than Rocky already - his speech was only 10 minutes long.  Compare that to Rocky's marathon mouth-off sessions, and we are already ahead.

This has nothing to do with Utah, but with Purdue, my favorite university.  It looks like the athletic director, Morgan Burke, decided to go ahead and look for someone to replace head coach Joe Tiller without consulting Tiller.  From everything I’ve read, it looks sounds like this is the case, though no one knows exactly for sure.  It also sounds like Tiller is a little miffed about this, since he wasn’t part of the process.  It seems as if Burke did not want someone from the current group of Purdue assistant coaches to take over, so he decided to start the search process and possibly bring someone in for a year or two as an assistant and head-coach-in-waiting.  This would work if 1) Tiller is cool with it, 2) if he is allowed to identify the recruits he wants going forward and be allowed to do the leg-work, and 3) can recommend new assistant coach to bring in between now and when he takes over.  That, of course, depends heavily on Tiller and how much control he is willing to give up. 

 

The man in question is Paul Chryst, the offensive coordinator at Wisconsin.  Now, the Badgers are not known for a flashy offense, but it is known that the powers-that-be in Wisco dictate the old standby of power running and simple passing.  From what I can tell, Chryst would love to open it up and do something more of a wide-open offense.  Evidently, he turned down a job as an assistant coach at Dallas for one reason or another.  Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with him yet, other than he hasn’t been a head coach yet.  I’m not sure if that is a big enough knock not to give the guy a shot.  Additionally, he is not one of the current Purdue assistant coaches that are helping to spread the mediocrity that has been Purdue football for the last 3-4 years.

 

As for the State of Utah, we did not get the fall-out from the storm that wrecked California over the weekend.  Sure, we got some snow, but it was nothing that the folks here aren’t accustomed to.  We’re supposed to get a little bit of snow every day this week.  Whoo-hoo.  I’m ready for a break. 

A two year, $227 million, restoration of the Utah Capital building has been completed and it is now open to the public.  I may need to go take a look at it soon.  From all reports, it is one of the more beautiful state capitol buildings in the U.S. now that the renovation was completed.  While adding seismic shock absorbers under the building to prevent an earthquake from causing the building to crumble, a good amount of restoration of the original décor was done.  So, about half that price tag was for “prettying up” the building.  I could have done without that, or rather, my wallet could have.  I may change my mind once I’ve seen it.  The other upgrades were needed – since we do sit on a fault line here. 

 

Salt Lake County is considering passing a measure that would limit the distance at which protesters could picket a private residence – about 100 feed.  Salt Lake City passed a similar measure last year.  Why are they considering this?  Well, because the number of picketing folks outside the homes of researchers from the University of Utah has increased.  Primate Freedom Project, which has used the private properties of U. researchers as a platform for their grievances, has been making quite the nuisances of themselves.  These animal rights activists are within their right to picket in public places, like the university.  The founder of the group, Jeremy Beckham, has made veiled threats that passing such a measure would lead to the activists doing less than peaceful demonstrations.  Good luck with that, chuckle-bucket.  If things get violent, or property is damaged, your group will loose support and court cases.  Please go away.

 

Rocky Anderson, the soon to be former mayor of Salt Lake City, will be continuing the work he started in office.  He will continue to press for the impeachment of President W. Bush.  He has joined a list of flaming liberals that sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee demanding that they investigate W. and his administration for abuses of power.  Just because Rocky won’t be around here being annoying, doesn’t mean he can’t be annoying on a national level.  Give it a rest, Rocky.  The Pres is about to hit lame duck status and he’ll be out soon enough as is.  Please go away.

 

Britney Spears – you hit the big time 10 years ago and rocketed to the top of the Pop Charts.  You have since sunk to the lowest of lows, dragging your family along with you.  Hopefully, you will do us a favor and disappear into obscurity.  Please go away.

As I watch the primaries, I have one wish for the presidential candidates: No one from Arkansas; no one from Texas; no one named Bush; no one named Clinton.  Okay – maybe that makes four wishes, but I don’t care.  I’ll probably add on to these over the next few months.

What do Michael Vick and Utah have in common?  Well, his fighting dogs for one thing.  Vick’s dogs, from the Bad Newz Kennels, arrived in Kanab, Utah the other day to begin rehab at the Best friends Animal Society.  22 of Vick’s dogs made the journey to southern Utah, where they will be part of the largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the country.

 

Best Friends plans, if possible, to rehabilitate the dogs so they can be adopted out.  "This is the best possible chance for them," said Hagwood, one of two Best Friend staff members to travel with the dogs on the flight. "We hope to have them on couches and beds of loving families."  

 

Um, let me get this straight.  These dogs were raised and trained to fight to the death.  The breed is known for powerful jaws and being very aggressive.  Sure, not all Pit Bulls are mean, vicious animals.  Some are big wimps.  But if I understood correctly, Vick and his boys killed off the “wimps” and left only the good fighters.  So, they want these dogs to be “on couches and beds” of people.  Whoa!  What doesn’t make sense here?

 

Michelle Besman, Best Friends dog care manager, said the hounds will go through the society's program for traumatized dogs.  The animal society has had to deal with dogs suffering behavioral problems before.  "These dogs are resilient," she said. "They don't feel sorry for themselves, so we have to give them credit for that and that they can come through to begin a new life."  Lady – these are Pit Bulls.  They don’t feel much of anything because they were bred to be fighters. 

 

I don’t accept dog fighting as ethical, but I don’t think that dogs raised, trained, and bred to fight should be put into people’s homes as well.  I would like to see if these dogs are tracked and how many end up being put down because the rehabilitation doesn’t work or they end up bighting or attacking an future “loving family”.