City Weekly March 24, 2022 by Copperfield Publishing

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RINO Rampage

Utah voters say if you can’t beat Republicans, join ’em.

By Katharine Biele

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DINING

CINEMA

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CONTENTS COVER STORY

RINO RAMPAGE Utah voters say if you can’t beat Republicans, join ’em. By Katharine Biele

Cover design by Derek Carlisle

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OPINION A&E DINE CINEMA MUSIC COMMUNITY

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STAFF Publisher PETE SALTAS Associate Publisher MICHAEL SALTAS Executive Editor JOHN SALTAS News Editor BENJAMIN WOOD Arts & Entertainment Editor SCOTT RENSHAW Contributing Editor JERRE WROBLE Music Editor THOMAS CRONE Listings Desk KARA RHODES

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SOAP BOX “All that Utah Jazz,” March 17 Cover Story

I appreciate knowing there is a passion for jazz in Utah. I am a newcomer and have had a hard time finding musicians to play with. I noticed your article featured all male musicians. I am working on creating an all-women jazz band as an homage to the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. The group would play real book standards and improvisations. I play trumpet and sing and arrange the tunes and am looking for drums, piano, guitar, bass, saxophone. TERESA GREGORI

Salt Lake City

Such a great article. Thanks for sharing some accessible jazz in the city and its incredible history. BUFF AND ROBIN HARMSTON

Via Facebook There are 5,000 shades of jazz. More shades than any genre. LARRY CAMARILLO

Via Facebook

“Slow and Steady,” March 10 Cover Story

The Utah Legislature is so messed up. It never listens to the people. DEANNA BISHOFF GARCIA

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@SLCWEEKLY [The Legislature’s] version of governing is, if it’s important … run away. IRIS NIELSEN

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Make Big Oil a Utility

The rise in gas prices should make Americans ask a fundamental question: What’s the difference between what a public, nonprofit utility company provides vs. what a private for-profit oil company provides? After all, they both sell energy to all U.S. citizens. The difference is that natural gas and electricity are sold in the form of a public good whereas oil is sold in the form of a private good. Accordingly, on the grounds of promoting national security, the U.S. Congress should convert all oil companies to utility companies. This would eliminate the windfall profits and force the oil industry to earn just enough income to cover operating

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expenses just as natural gas and electric utility companies are required to do. The resulting drop in gasoline prices would further stimulate the economy and lighten the energy stranglehold upon the United States by the Middle East. It would also eliminate the influence of the oil lobby. In this case, desperate times call for deliberate measures. But as pathetic as the energy policy is in the United States, the effort to develop alternative sources of energy won’t really be accelerated until the oil dries up and the Saudis place solar cells all across their desert and then sell us the electricity. JOE BIALEK

Cleveland, Ohio Care to sound off on a feature in our pages or about a local concern? Write to comments@cityweekly.net or post your thoughts on our social media. We want to hear from you!

THE BOX

What’s the best memory of your pet? Sofia Cifuentes

My little pinscher dog saved me in the most difficult moments of my life by saving me emotionally.

Thomas Crone

I used to keep a seven-legged tarantula named Rob. Sometimes, I’d only see it move once or twice a month. Those were always exciting days.

Carolyn Campbell

When my daughter was a little girl, she was afraid of the dark, like I used to be. Every night, our little teacup poodle would lie next to her on the bed and lick her hand until she fell asleep. Eventually, she discovered that going to sleep alone in her own bed was a safe thing for her to do.

Benjamin Wood

When my now-enormous husky was too small to get on and off our bed, he would wake me up to take him outside by biting down hard on my nose.

Katharine Biele

Trying not to cry. So I’ll tell you the story of my lab, Bear, and his golden friend, Emmett. They were running and playing hard together, came around a corner and smashed into my son, who was 5 at the time. I’ve never seen a kid fly into the air so high. It was awesome—for us. For him, a little breath-taking.

Eric Granato

Every day is the best memory of my cat because he’s always there. Even when he’s draining me of sleep and money.

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PRIVATE EY

Eat a Peach I

n the mid-1970s, I lived in a little cottage house on Laker Court in the area of 400 South and 900 East. The house is no longer there, nor the dirt road that connected 400 South to 300 South. It was a great party house due to it being well hidden with nearly no neighbors. Across 400 South, what is now an Office Max was an Albertsons grocery store, which was known for its excellent apple fritters. As a student at the University of Utah, I was lost in a series of changing academic majors ranging from business to geology. Besides not knowing what I wanted to become—I still don’t—I also didn’t know who I was, which I also still don’t know. I was reading all kinds of mystic books from India and Nepal, along with rigid philosophies, too, until it became apparent that although I understood concepts, I couldn’t concentrate on them for the time it took to listen to “The Dark Side of the Moon” by Pink Floyd. Indeed, it’s fair to say I had more philosophical talks—and more success with the women folk—regarding Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” than I ever did regarding Nietzsche. For some reason, that area of Salt Lake City was among the first to have cable TV installed. I had about a dozen channels and as many new friends attracted to the coffee table punch-button box with a wire attached to the TV. We all loved the WGN network, and each became a Chicago Cubs fan. One night, my good buddy, Wayne “Woody” Robison, a Khe Sanh Marine from Fillmore, Utah, had just left my house. He loved the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes, so he was a frequent guest. When that night’s movie ended,

Woody put down his can of Olympia beer and headed home. He wasn’t gone five minutes when my phone rang. The voice asked if I was John Saltas. The voice said, “I know where you live, and I have a gun pointed at you, and I’m going to kill you.” As I was falling into the fetal position, I remember wishing Woody and his M-16 would come back for another Oly. I turned off the lights. I had two cousin cops, and the first one answered my panicked call. He calmed me down, and I managed to leave, not spending the night there, not getting shot, yet wondering when he’d target me again. I guess the voice was angry and aggrieved at a prosecuting attorney with the same name. More than 20 years later, I was day-drinking at Green Street when my name came over the intercom to take a phone call. When I got to the reception desk, another fellow was there to answer the same call. I realized who he might be, so I asked if he was an attorney. He said, “Yes,” and I said, “Nice to meet you, John. You damn near got me killed!” We said our cordialities and moved on. I didn’t want to stand with him too long, if you know what I mean. Living mid-block had certain disadvantages for potential murder victims. Yet, since it was mid-block, it had lots of empty space. Where I grew up in Bingham Canyon, many people carved out small gardens, but it wasn’t really a thing in Salt Lake City. One day, I rang up Woody, and we went to the “hippie” store on the northwest corner of 900 East and 900 South. I forget the name. Nature’s Way? I left with not only vegetable seeds for my new garden to be, but also three early editions of Mother Earth News. I soon had a garden, and I was also tying macramé, making candles, learning composting and growing mung bean and alfalfa sprouts. The latter were perfect for my new di-

B Y J O H N S A LTA S @johnsaltas

et—I’d become a vegetarian. That lasted about six months. First, I found a way to reintroduce fish—school boys need their kippered snacks— then eggs, because no one can eat Wheaties every morning. Other than that, I was very diligent, except all I was really skipping out on was red meat. At a company Christmas party, I caved and took a bite of steak. I’m still not a burger and steak guy. However, I remain surprised I made it six months, because back then, a vegetarian really didn’t have many options other than to eat tons of salads and beans. To be a vegetarian in the 1970s took supreme dedication. I’m not that guy. But today I fully endorse that path—vegan too, as it’s the diet I’m eating now during Greek Orthodox lent—no meat, no fish, no dairy. I may have stayed the course back then if Salt Lake had the great options for plant-based dining that it has today. Every good restaurant in town now has vegan fare and, with so many new ethnic choices, one doesn’t have to fall back on an iceberg salad three times a day. Eating plant-based is crazy good at places like Zest, Vertical Diner, Buds and many others, like the Mexican vegan eatery, Yumz. You may wonder why a fat guy who mostly opines about Utah’s political Jell-O salad is a fan of plant-based eating. Well, it’s healthy and good for the environment, and because one of these days, Utah will have to use our shrinking water reserves to grow plants for human consumption, not to lavish on cattle and alfalfa. Get your meal planning in order for when that day comes—because like it or not, cowboys are a dying breed and that chicken-fried steak at the local diner will be gone along with him. CW Send comments to john@cityweekly.net

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HITS&MISSES BY KATHARINE BIELE @kathybiele

MISS: Rent Is Too Damned High

Governments just love to tell you that there’s nothing they can do. Maybe it’s because of the Second Amendment or, in this case, private property rights. Indeed, it looks like if you own some land, you can do whatever the hell you want. What’s happening in Salt Lake City is that developers are systematically building and pricing residents out of their homes and likely out of the city. The Salt Lake Tribune ran a story about Gaspar Valencia, who was given 30 days’ notice to get out of his home. The city was supposed to conduct a study on gentrification, but of course, it’s too little, too late. The Utah Property Rights Ombudsman Office wasn’t much help, offering the possibility of a moratorium—if you want to contend with legal fees and hassles. Housing, of course, is a bigger problem than that. The city still has a bewildering homeless problem, and tiny homes are just a tiny piece of the puzzle. ABC4 reported that a couple was injured recently while sheltering in a garbage truck. Will more luxury apartments help?

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Because the war in Ukraine has not stopped partisan maneuvering, let’s talk energy. The price of gas and saving the fossil fuel industry are top priorities among the “Me First!” generation of conservatives. While some are using social media to show the “problems” with electric vehicles and wind energy, the mainstream media is still there for people with brains. “Is the answer to gas prices more drilling?” the Deseret News asked in an in-depth look at the problem. KSL Radio looked at the call to restart the Keystone XL pipeline. But there are no quick and easy answers. Litigation and red tape aside, it takes time and infrastructure to start fossil-fuel production. And to take a quote from the DNews: “Investing now in clean energy will help the country gain true energy security, lower energy prices and improve our health and well-being.” Indeed. Don’t forget health and well-being. The youth who are suing Gov. Spencer Cox haven’t.

MISS: Scare Tactics

Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen is retiring. That’s probably good news for her, but it’s also emblematic of what’s going on in the rest of the nation. Here’s what the Brennan Center found: “One in six election officials have experienced threats because of their job, and 77% say that they feel these threats have increased in recent years.” The No. 1 reason, of course, is the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen and illegitimate. The lie and the threats against election officials are happening in Utah, even though the former guy still won the state. State legislators like Blanding Republican Rep. Phil Lyman continue to push for “election security” in a state that is already a model for just that. Who eroded the trust in elections? It wasn’t Swensen, but she surely doesn’t want to fight the fight anymore.

CITIZEN REV LT IN A WEEK, YOU CAN CHANGE THE WORLD

March for Trans

What do you think about the Legislature trying to ban trans athletes or judge them based on physical characteristics? If you question any of this, join Trans March for the Transgender Day of Visibility. “We will be starting off at the south steps of the Capitol and marching two blocks south to City Creek Park.” Bring signs and be prepared to hear speakers. Utah State Capitol, 350 N. State, Thursday, March 31, 5 p.m., free. https://bit.ly/3CP yg9d

Law and the Environment

The 2022 legislative session is finally over, and we’re just waiting for the governor to check off the legislation. HEAL Utah will run through the environmental outcomes and how they affect you in the coming year. Sure, there are lots of legislative wrap-ups at this time of year, but not many that offer free beer and appetizers. HEAL is hosting Free 21+: Legislative Recap! but sign up soon because space is limited and free beer is a big draw. Squatters Craft Beer, 147 W. 300 South, Wednesday, March 30, 5:30 p.m., free. https://bit.ly/3iigLVG

White Supremacy and White Women

Jessie Daniels, author of Nice White Ladies, promises to make you uncomfortable. “Daniels will address an unintended complicity of even well-meaning white women and a feminism that pushes women of color aside.” She’ll talk about how white moms exacerbate segregation by choosing schools that lack diversity. The problem, apparently, is that people live in their own little bubbles, but it shouldn’t take much thought to change and work toward real equality. Jewett Center for the Performing A rts, Westminster College, 1840 S. 1300 East, Thursday, March 24, 6:30 p.m. free. https://bit.ly/3tg7f Zp

Stopping AAPI Hate

Attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders continue in a seemingly growing environment of hate. Stop A API Hate found 11,000 hate incidents reported between March 2020 and December 2021. While most involved verbal harassment, physical assaults followed and deliberate avoidance accounted for many incidents. Research released in March by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum “had revealed 74% of more than 2,400 A API women surveyed experienced racism or discrimination within the last 12 months.” Explore How Can We Stop A API Hate and Bias? Research and Policy Perspectives to see how to reverse this troubling trend. Sen. Jani Iwamoto, D-Salt Lake, will join the panel to give her personal perspective on policy issues. Virtual and at Hinckley Institute of Politics, 260 S. Central Campus Drive, Room 2018, Wednesday, March 30, noon, free. https://bit.ly/3JlsZsG

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Jesse Meredith takes on a different side of this Eurocentric sensibility in So That We May Fear Not, which springs from the artist’s experience going “undercover” with a midwestern militia organization. The espoused ideologies of so-called “patriot” movements intersect in Meredith’s worth with photographs punctured with holes, as well as militia artifacts, to investigate the fragility at the heart of white nationalism. Both exhibits run through April 22 at Finch Lane Gallery (54 Finch Lane), open to the public Tuesdays 9:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m. and Wednesdays-Thursdays 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. For health & safety information and additional exhibition images, visit saltlakearts.org/finchlanegallery. (Scott Renshaw)

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Much of the mythology of the American West is built on assumptions about the superiority of a particular white European mindset, being superimposed on landscapes and peoples that existed here centuries before any white Europeans. Two new exhibitions at Finch Lane Gallery investigate colonialism and white supremacy through lenses that still, sadly, have resonance today. Ron Linn’s gridding the west is based on the notion of the earliest white settlers of the west viewing this region as a place to be divided up, owned by and exploited by those who were to come and “claim” it. They laid the “gridded plat”—for them, an indicator of a divide order of things—as a way to identify who would own what particular space. Through the interaction between images of the unspoiled landscape and various forms of grids (pictured), Linn uses imagery that recognizes the violence involved in deciding that this place could be tamed and contained.

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Ron Linn: gridding the west & Jesse Meredith: So That We May Fear Not

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it, “Like Thornton Wilder, Siena invites us to contemplate our place in the universe, and reminds us that the only constant in live is change.” Good Company Theatre’s production of Man and Moon runs March 24 – April 10 at the company’s theater space (2404 Wall Ave., Ogden). General admission tickets are $25, with performances Fridays-Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m.; the Saturday, April 2 performance includes ASL translator. Proof of COVID-19 vaccination and masking during performances is currently required of all attendees. Visit goodcotheatre.com for tickets and additional information. (SR)

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One of the miraculous things about art is its capacity to introduce you to the lived experience of people you’d never otherwise understand. As all of the arts become more open to stories outside of the mainstream, those deeply individual tales reveal something beyond the specific, through basic human relationships. That’s the foundation for Man and Moon, a National New Play Network rolling world premiere from Californiabased playwright Siena Marilyn Ledger that receives its local production from Ogden’s Good Company Theatre. It tells the story of two people who meet in a hospital oncology unit: Aaron (Jordan Danielle), a trans man who is receiving treatment for breast cancer; and Luna (Annie Soleil Potter), a 12-year-old girl whose principal passion is the universe beyond our planet. As the two people spend time together on simple pastimes like playing cards, they share information about what motivates and scares them, including the mysteries of their own changing bodies. As Chicago director James Fleming describes

CAMILLE WASHINGTON

Good Company Theatre: Man and Moon

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with members of the show’s studio audience, she became more than a television personality. She felt like America’s kooky friend. Burnett brings that same dynamic to the stage of the Eccles Theater (131 S. Main) for two evenings of reflection on her career and audience participation, March 28-29, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $67-$177; proof of vaccination or negative test, as well as face covering, is required for all attendees. Visit arttix.org for tickets and additional information. (SR)

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his often-tart sense of humor and non-nonsense disposition, but also his reputation as a politician who got things done. Utah Shakespeare Festival comes to the Salt Lake Valley to present Grandy in a touring performance of Give ’Em Hell, Harry! that he launched last year on Broadway, for four performances at the West Valley Performing Arts Center (3333 S. Decker Lake Dr., West Valley City), March 29 – April 2, at 7:30 p.m. nightly. Tickets are $59 general admission; visit wvcarts.org/harry to purchase tickets and for additional event information. (SR)

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Give ’Em Hell, Harry Actors have to imagine other kinds of lives all the time to inhabit a role, so it’s no great surprise that most actors who take on the roles of political figures have no personal experience with elected office. That’s not the case for Fred Grandy, however. The actor—who became a familiar face in the 1970s with his supporting role as Gopher on the hit TV series The Love Boat—actually had an interest in politics preceding his acting career, including writing speeches for the Congressman from his home district in Iowa. Grandy himself subsequently served four terms in Congress from 1987-1995—so when he takes on the role of Harry S. Truman for the one-man show Give ’Em Hell, Harry!, he knows a little bit about the Washington, D.C. milieu. The 1975 play by Samuel Gallu offers a portrait of Truman from his childhood through his terms as president, including the complex decision to use atomic weapons on Japan in World War II. It captures

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The internet age has made hyperbole part of the background noise of our lives. Every athletic performance is the GOAT; every new movie released is the most amazing thing in the history of ever. So it’s understandable if we should take it with a grain of salt when someone is called a “legend”—unless that someone happens to be Carol Burnett, in which case no salt of any kind is required. If it feels like Burnett has been part of the entertainment landscape forever, it’s easy to understand why; she literally grew up in Hollywood, graduating from Hollywood High School in the 1950s, before moving to New York and launching her career with talk shows and game shows. Over the course of nearly 70 years in show biz, she has done virtually everything one can do: from cabaret singer to Broadway Tony Award nominee, from movie roles to animated voice-over work. Yet her greatest impact came from her 1967-1978 comedy-variety series The Carol Burnett Show, with its classic ensemble including Tim Conway and Harvey Korman. With her tradition of starting the show with an impromptu Q&A session

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Carol Burnett

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A&E

Playing It Forward

Luminaire Theatre Company looks to develop young theater talent the right way. BY SCOTT RENSHAW scottr@cityweekly.net @scottrenshaw

he middle of a pandemic was a terrible time to be trying to stage live theater. It was, however, a potentially fertile time to develop the idea for a theater company. That was the opportunity taken by Jeremiah Sandberg and several local theater colleagues in developing Luminaire Theatre Company, which marks its one-year anniversary with an upcoming production of Ghost: The Musical. At a “Toni Awards” gathering in 2020 hosted by Toni Butler, founder of South Jordan’s Kensington Theatre, Sandberg and the other company founders talked about their experiences working for other theater organizations. “A lot of us were doing what I did: doing high school plays, directing at other theater companies, wanting to do more of that artistic management side of things. We all had a passion,” Sandberg says. “It was COVID time, we have nothing to do, so let’s lay the groundwork.” Those previous experiences of the founding members became a significant part of defining the mission of what would become Luminaire. In particular, they were driven by a desire to improve the theater experience for youth and young adults, compared to a lot of what they had seen in other orga-

nizations. “A lot of us had some bad experiences, especially with youth theaters and high schools, and kind of the politics of everything,” Sandberg says. “Even in the community theater setting, a person in their late-20s or 30s is being cast as younger roles, instead of younger actors. So let’s build a theater company catering to young adults.” That sensibility extends from the casting of their productions to the opportunities offered behind the scenes. This summer will mark the launch of Luminaire’s Silver Light Youth Theatre, which aims to address some of the issues Sandberg had identified while associated with other Utah-based youth theater organizations. “I don’t think a lot of people realize it, but there’s not really a lot of supervision [in some youth theater groups],” Sandberg says. “The environment, the toxicity, can get to be a lot. … Some of us had personal experiences at some of these youth theaters, and wanted to provide that space that some of them wish they had.” Tanner Tate—who will serve as Silver Light Youth Theatre’s curriculum specialist for the educational outreach program— adds, “A lot of directors don’t treat the young actors professionally. They take their time for granted. They’ll make a schedule— six hours of rehearsal time, but they ask all the kids to come, but they’re maybe doing just a few scenes, and they’re wasting the kids’ time. They’re just sitting in a corner, getting bored. Young actors deserve to be treated as professionals.” Additionally, Tate believes that the kind of shows Luminaire chooses provide a more complex artistic experience than might be found at other youth theater organizations. “They tend to choose shows that are kind of surface level: there’s a lot of fun and flash, and it gives kids a chance to make friends,” he says. “But what I saw was lacking is, I didn’t feel most of these companies were

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THEATER

giving young adults the opportunity to explore the complexity of the world. There’s not always happy endings. Maybe there’s not a central ‘bad guy’ you need to defeat; maybe you need to make difficult choices.” As a result, Luminaire’s own choices mix the pragmatic goal of trying to appeal to audiences with an attempt to dig a little deeper. The company’s debut production last spring, the popular ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, was a popular success according to Sandberg, who directed the show. But Luminaire also staged the more dramatic production The Last Five Years, directed by Tate, which Sandberg noted with a laugh, “you’re crazy for doing in this demographic.” The company also plans a oneact theater festival for the fall, which will give students in the youth theater program a chance to shadow company members on all aspects of production, including holding some of the production slots for plays written by the young participants. As Sandberg sees it, as much as there’s a sense of serving the youth by giving them opportunities to develop skills and see how

Rehearsal photo from Luminaire Theatre Company’s Ghost: The Musical a theater production is mounted in every respect, there’s also a self-serving desire to build a base of creative local people to be part of their productions. “Ultimately if we want to put on good shows, we need to develop at the community level,” he says. “Everybody’s doing musicals, but some of [the young actors] can’t read sheet music. Or a lot of them are great actors and actresses, but they’re not strong singers. Or they bomb an audition because they don’t know basic dance terminology. We say, ‘here are the tools you need.’” CW

LUMINAIRE THEATRE COMPANY: GHOST: THE MUSICAL

Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center 2525 Taylorsville Road, Taylorsville March 24 – April 2 $11-$13 luminairetheatre.org

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re there any Democrats in Utah anymore? The state’s politics seem to get redder and redder every election cycle. And while that trend is due to the overwhelming embrace of conservatism within the state, this year’s election cycle could also see a surge in Republican activity from an unlikely source—RINOs. For those unfamiliar with RINOs, the acronym stands for “Republicans in name only”—a catch-all term for anyone deemed outside of party orthodoxy and one that certainly applies to recently affiliated Republicans who have signed up to agitate from within. “We’re all Democrats, but we know what we’re doing,” said David Garbett, executive director of the environmental advocacy group O2Utah. Garbett, who ran for Salt Lake City mayor in 2019, not only joined the Republican Party for the current election cycle—he also succeeded at being elected at caucus to represent his neighbors at the state GOP Convention in April. “It’s not a denial of your identity,” Garbett said. “I’m shocked at how many [Utah Democrats] say they can’t do that.” In Utah, it’s nothing new to hear talk of large numbers of Democrats and unaffiliated voters joining the majority party to swing an election, a strategy referred to as “raiding” in political circles. But as national Republicans have drifted farther and farther to the right and with the unchallenged state party increasingly at odds with itself, proponents of party gamesmanship have become unabashed in recent years. There’s a lot of political maneuvering with opposing strategies this season. Like Garbett, many non-Republican voters are openly flocking to the party to participate in its closed primary elections. And other high-profile Democrats have endorsed a plan to stand down on nominating a candidate for U.S. Senate and instead throw the party’s resources and support behind independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin, aiming to build a coalition that can topple incumbent, farright Sen. Mike Lee. Both approaches appear to have been bolstered by the Legislature’s decennial redistricting, which diluted minority votes even more than they were before. In what’s known as “cracking,” legislators spread Democratic-leaning voters among several Republican-dominated districts to keep them from voting in a bloc. Salt Lake County, for instance, is now divided among all four congressional districts, with each county segment outgunned by highly Republican areas. Whether they’re “RINOs,” “Raiders” or “Party-switchers,” they see their voting power best used in a strategic move to moderate the state’s majority party. But can it work when most liberal voters are clustered along the Wasatch Front and gerrymandered into largely Republican districts? “It probably doesn’t make much of a difference,” says James Curry, associate professor of political science at the University of Utah. “It’s hard to tell how many people switch and vote and do so strategically.”

By Katharine Biele comments@cityweekly.net

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RINO Rampage

Utah voters say if you can’t beat Republicans, join ’em.

Former Democrat Joanne Slotnik switched parties.

As of Feb. 28 this year, 857,067 active voters were registered in Utah as Republicans. Less than onethird of that number, 241,575 voters, were registered as Democrats while 494,325 voters were unaffiliated. Since 2020, the state GOP has added 174,883 voters to its rolls while Democrats only added 53,263. Over the same period, the numbers of unaffiliated voters declined by more than 15,000. Midterms elections typically see lower voter participation and even in a good year, only 1 in 5 registered voters bother to show up and vote in congressional primaries. “We’ve seen Republicans go up since 2020,” Curry said. “One has to be skeptical [about turnout]. Very few people vote in primaries anyway. … It’s difficult to get people who already are affiliated to come out, and it’s even harder to get people to switch parties and then show up.” Joanne Slotnik said she saw the futility of voting Democrat in Utah and switched parties. Slotnik, the former executive director of the Utah Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, is registered to vote in a rural area of Utah. “I’ve lived in Utah for 50 years, and the reality is it’s extremely difficult for Democrats to win here— and it seems to me it’s getting more difficult as time goes on,” she said. “I want a voice. I want my vote to count.” She said that doesn’t happen when she votes only in a general election. At that point, most races are reduced to the Republican who will win versus the Democrat who won’t. “It’s a pragmatic decision. It allows me to have a voice and to also moderate and provide some balance in a party that is becoming more and more extreme,” she said. “If I can balance that a little bit, that’s a good thing.” A group called the Independent Voter Coalition is actively lobbying for people to switch parties to “Unseat Mike Lee.” Their purple yard signs proclaim that “You Have Power” to keep Lee off the November ballot by voting in the June GOP primary. For some in the Democratic Party hierarchy, the way, to beat Lee is for the minority party to stay out of the race entirely. That group includes former Congressman Ben McAdams, who surprised many Democrats by backing the independent McMullin. And most recently, Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson joined the McMullin camp. Wilson said her primary concern is that former President Donald Trump will return to power. If that happens, she said, McMullin would be better in the Senate than Lee. “It’s a big move for me and other Democrats,” Wilson said. “We have not gone this way.” Kael Weston, who previously ran for Congress, is among the Democratic candidates seeking the party’s nomination for U.S. Senate. He acknowledges that he faces an uphill battle, but said he won’t step aside. “To me, it’s fundamentally about trusting voters and trusting your neighbors,” Weston said. “It’s about voters’ choices and not about the internal drama in a party or a small group of people in a party. This is a needed and important Utah Democratic Party reckoning.”

COURTESY PHOTO

A Democratic Reckoning

Katharine Biele

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22 | MARCH 24, 2022

The Independent Voter Coalition encourages Utahns to register as Republicans to oppose Sen. Mike Lee.

“I’ve lived in Utah for 50 years and the reality is it’s extremely difficult for Democrats to win here—and it seems to me it’s getting more difficult as time goes on. I want a voice. I want my vote to count.”

McMullin’s website presents a palatable conservative for Democrats and independent voters. But Weston pointed out that McMullin has supported defunding Planned Parenthood, something not included in campaign materials now. Ultimately, the Democrats will have to decide whether they are “D”or “none” at their April 23 convention. “This plot is saying, let’s change the ballot. It’s demoralizing voters,” Weston said. “I would say they will have a hard time moving beyond the plot to the people.” The party-switchers, Weston said, are feeling bruised and giving into self-apathy after the gerrymander. But it’s not just the average, disaffected voter who is making the jump. Former Salt Lake City mayors Palmer DePaulis and Ralph Becker switched. And there are many more. Becker said he tends to switch back and forth— including registering Republican during the 2020 election cycle to support Jon Huntsman’s run for governor. “A Democrat is not going to win statewide office,” he said. “And there are people on the Republican side I want to vote for.” As for Weston’s own strategy, he has donated to Republican Senate candidate—and former state lawmaker—Becky Edwards’ campaign, because he’d rather face her in what he hopes would be a more positive race. Weston is hoping he’ll have a path to victory in a three-way race between himself, the Republican nominee and McMullin, citing the 1958 election when an incumbent senator, Arthur V. Watkins, was defeated by then-Salt Lake County Attorney Frank Moss. Former Gov. J. Bracken Lee ran that year as an independent. But Slotnik isn’t sold on that reasoning. “Kael Weston couldn’t get more than 38 percent against (Rep. Chris) Stewart,” she said. “My vote is not going to elect him.” She added: “I’m tired of voting and losing.”

—Joanne Slotnik

Caucus Night

Slotnik is not just a primary voter—she participates in caucus meetings, too. Once called mass meetings, party caucuses are often groups of just a few highly engaged partisans. That’s where their power comes from. In 2018, the caucus in Slotnik’s rural town garnered about a dozen people. She was ready to stand for election as a state delegate, but her neighbors instead chose a representative from among its county delegates. The luck-of-the-draw nature of neighborhood caucus meetings is where some new Republicans are finding success, as state delegates have the power to stop a candidate in their tracks. In 2010, incumbent Republican Sen. Bob Bennett lost at convention, teeing up a primary between two political newcomers—Mike Lee and businessman Tim Bridgewater. Voters objected to a popular incumbent being ousted without a public vote, which led to the Count My Vote initiative and the dual-track system that now allows candidates to qualify for the primary by collecting signatures. Practically speaking, says Garbett, if you don’t vote in the Republican primary, you’re basically conceding the race. “You’ve taken out the only election that matters,” he said. The GOP started to marshal their ranks in 1999 when the party first talked about closing primaries. Then-GOP chairman Rob Bishop didn’t like the idea but came around to it. “If there’s a purpose to a party, there’s a purpose to a party,” he said. Party-switching, he thinks, is “a slimy way of doing things. I do think politics should have some moral base.” Closing the primary was meant to keep Democrats from jumping in to vote for the weaker or less-conservative Republican. The reasoning was

| CITY WEEKLY |

MARCH 24, 2022 | 23

this most recent redistricting cycle appears designed to silence the minority vote. “We don’t have the majority, but we need to participate,” Garbett said. Garbett said there were fewer than 10 people at his Republican caucus meeting, and he estimated that half were “strategic participants.” He attended with the intent of becoming a delegate and said he thought about how to use coded language that might win him a spot. He said he wanted to be careful not to be pegged as a “crazy liberal.” So, he spoke about education, about his kids and how schools are the largest expenditure in the state. Garbett believes the Republicans in his precinct had seen a small, vocal group of “crazies” drive the party’s position on mask mandates and were ready to hear from someone more temperate. “They don’t make it easy for people to participate or to show up,” Garbett said, “but if you are not a pro-Trumper or anti-vaxxer, they can relate to you.” Participation isn’t easy, and it can come with blowback. “Ray” knows what that means. He fears that if his real name is used, he’ll be targeted. Ray became active in politics in Vietnam and was motivated by the war. “When I came to Utah, boy, I was just taken aback by the whole political climate here, which was the reverse of what I was experiencing in high school.” He said it didn’t take very long to see that Utah was, and would continue to be, a one-party state. “If you want to be involved in selecting your government,” he said, “you had to get involved with the Republican Party.” Ray has been active in several caucus meetings, and says he manages to navigate them without lying. “I have been elected by my neighbors as a delegate to county and state conventions because I’m for apple pie and motherhood and am in favor of good govern-

ment and well-managed budgets,” he said. At one state convention, Ray said he took the opportunity to talk to candidates like Bishop, former Utah Attorney General John Swallow and former Congresswoman Mia Love—who, Ray said, tended to defer to her campaign staff for the answers to his questions. “It can be very effective in making connections with elected officials and candidates if you take the time to get involved,” he said. “You don’t have to violate your ethics to do so.” It wasn’t all roses, though. He’s been threatened and followed after speaking at meetings, and was once called an eco-terrorist at a public hearing. He gets objectionable emails from relatives, too. In 2021, Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, set out to make party-switching more difficult. For this year’s elections, anyone who wants to change parties must do so by March 31—months before the November vote. Teuscher said the bill was meant to deter Democrats from joining the GOP ranks and interfering with its nominations. On the other hand, says one Republican insider who requested anonymity, legislators celebrate when one of their own changes parties. In 2012, they were pretty happy when Rep. Christine Watkins, R-Price, switched from Democrat to Republican after losing a re-election bid for the House seat where she’d served for six years. And former Rep. Eric Hutchings, R-Kearns, changed parties to run as a GOP incumbent in 2002. He had been appointed by the county Democratic Party to an empty seat. In both of those cases, it was the Republicans who cheered the swaps. The Democrats, not so much. “I hope (Eric) can sleep at night,” then-Utah Democratic Party Chairwoman Meg Holbrook told the Deseret News. The fear about party-switching may be more perception than reality, but lawmakers will certainly continue to make it more and more difficult for voters to participate. It goes to the heart of whether a primary election is a party function or more of a public act. Utah lawmakers, who are mostly Republican, might consider the taxpayer, too, because it is the public that pays for both primary and general elections. What are voters really concerned about? It’s not party building, says Curry. If you want to build or change a party, you have to get involved at the organizational level—and that means attending caucuses and conventions. Some voters obviously do. Most do not. Others just want things to be fair. Voting rights groups have now sued the Legislature over its district maps, claiming a violation of voters’ constitutional rights. Redistricting takes place every 10 years, during which voters are redistributed equally—but that doesn’t mean fairly. “If you’re a Democrat, it’s obviously frustrating,” Curry said. “If you could plausibly get one more [congressional] seat, redistricting made that less viable.” Slotnik said she is just playing the Republican game. “The Republican nature of the state is [like] a belt. The gerrymander is the unnecessary suspenders,” she said. “It doesn’t make for a strong state when one party just acts as a bully.” CW

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

the same for circling the wagons around the caucus system in the face of Count My Vote. While signature gathering was meant to broaden the candidate field, the results haven’t changed much. Jon Huntsman narrowly lost the Republican gubernatorial primary in 2020 after bypassing the convention vote. His supporters actively got behind party-switching, but however many voters registered GOP to support Huntsman weren’t enough to top the support of now-Gov. Spencer Cox, who finished first at the convention. If raiding is meant to moderate the majority party, Curry said the more moderate candidates are already winning in the state. He cited former Gov. Gary Herbert and Sen. Mitt Romney as examples. But internal dissatisfaction with the party also increased during the Trump years. Kory Holdaway is one example. Holdaway said he left the GOP and joined the ranks of the unaffiliated “after the whole Trump bullshit. The way the Republican Party was so accepting of his antics, I just couldn’t continue to support it.” Holdaway sees the Mike Lee race as the one drawing outsiders, many of them moderate and formerly unaffiliated. Lee is seen as a far-right candidate, but as Bishop notes, Republicans come in all stripes. There are different kinds of conservatives, Bishop says. There’s the fiscal conservative, who Bishop says just looks for the cheapest option. The libertarian conservative hates government, the traditional conservative just wants things to stay the same and the social conservative will spend money for anything they perceive as good moral value, he said. Finally, there’s the constitutional conservative, who really wants change but change based on some constitutional principle. Party switchers don’t fit any of those molds, and instead work to move the GOP to the political center. It has become even more urgent for some since

COURTESY PHOTO

U.S. Senate candidate Kael Weston says the Utah Democratic Party is facing a “reckoning.”

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Poli-sci professor James Curry says party-switching voters are unlikely to sway an election.

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24 | MARCH 24, 2022

AS SEEN ON “ DINERS, DRIVEINS AND DIVES”

Sehr Gut ! Old world flavor in the heart of Salt Lake

Serving American Comfort Food Since 1930 -91 YEARS AND GOING STRONG-BREAKFAST SERVED DAILY UNTIL 4PM-DELICIOUS MIMOSAS & BLOODY MARY’S-TAKEOUT AVAILABLE“In a perfect world, every town would have a diner just like Ruth’s”

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BY ALEX SPRINGER comments@cityweekly.net @captainspringer

Open: Tues.-Sat., 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m., Sun., 4 p.m-8 p.m. Best bet: The combo pizza or calzone Can’t miss: Anything with buffalo chicken

30 east Broadway, SLC

801.355.0667 Richsburgersngrub.com

MARCH 24, 2022 | 25

AT A GLANCE

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izza has a well-earned reputation as a party food. It’s often present at large gatherings, and most pizza parlors are designed to accommodate the large groups that want to share a pizza in a loud, extroverted environment. But what about those of us looking to enjoy some pizza in a quiet spot with just a few other lost souls? What if I’m looking to eat a calzone by myself while “I’m On Fire” by Bruce Springsteen plays in the background? If you’re itching for pizza in a more intimate setting reminiscent of a neighborhood pub, then Rusted Sun (2010 S. State Street, 801483-2120) is the place for you. If you’re a pizza fan living even remotely near Rusted Sun, you already know this place. It’s been serving up pizza, calzones and salads in the Sugar House area since the mid-1990s, and was one of the first restaurants to put me on the path to becoming a huge dork about local food. Back when my wife and I were dating, Rusted Sun was on heavy rotation for any date that brought us downtown—something about its welcoming vibe, cozy interior and delicious thincrust pizza always drew us in. It’s a vibe that owner Wally Stephens has cultivated since the origins of Rusted Sun,

Rusted Sun is the pizza pub where everybody knows your name.

toward the combo ($10-$24.75) in a calzone. Considering that the food is made to order, Rusted Sun consistently gets food out in a timely manner; it wasn’t long until my plate of inverted pizza hit the table. For me, the debate between pizza and calzones is a non-issue—either way, I’m getting meats and cheeses delivered to my mouth. The combo hits all the right notes for those after a chunkily-topped adventure, and I appreciate the preference of sliced Italian sausage over the crumbly variety—it’s much superior. I also picked up a margherita ($9-$21.75) calzone which was stuffed with fresh tomatoes and basil—excellent for those who like their cheesy-stuffed breads on the lighter side. During my most recent visit, I couldn’t help but think of the toll that COVID-19 had on Rusted Sun, who pivoted to takeoutonly service during the pandemic’s peak. “COVID came along and shut everything down, and we were making just enough to get by,” Stephens says. Now that things have changed and more people are getting immunized, dining in at this welcoming pizza joint is back on the table. “We’re to the point where we’re doing as well as we were before COVID,” Stephens says. Though Stephens and I took a moment to acknowledge the impact COVID-19 had on so many local restaurants, it was nice to hear that Rusted Sun was on the mend. I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Rusted Sun, as it fueled a good chunk of my college social life, so hearing that it’s likely to stick around for the next generation of pizza-loving food enthusiasts is heartening to say the least. CW

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Personal Pizza

which was once part of the now-defunct pizza chain known as Delloretto’s. After Stephens spent some time managing the location, Delloretto’s started to fold, which gave him the opportunity to purchase the location and turn it into Rusted Sun. Taking what he knew about making pizza and renovating the space into more of a diner atmosphere, Rusted Sun soon gathered a loyal following. “A lot of building a regular clientele is about having a quality product that people want to come back for, and by being open and friendly to your customers,” Stephens says. That enthusiasm for making tasty Italian favorites was what initially got me hooked on Rusted Sun. During one of my first visits, I was craving buffalo wings, so I ordered up an appetizer of buffalo chicken ($7.25). To my surprise, Rusted Sun serves up a sliced boneless, skinless chicken breast slathered in Stephens’ house made buffalo sauce. “I wanted to have buffalo wings on the menu, but I hate working with deep fryers,” Stephens says. “I tried to bake buffalo wings, but nothing was working, so we decided to take some of the boneless chicken breast we used for pizzas and try it that way.” Regardless of whatever buffalo wing preparation camp you identify with, the buffalo chicken at Rusted Sun is killer. I personally will get boneless wings any time I can, so I completely fell in love with this oven-roasted presentation. “We don’t add any butter to our sauce, and our chicken isn’t fried, so it’s ultimately healthier,” Stephens says. On the subject of pizza, it’s hard to go wrong with any of Rusted Sun’s signature dishes, all of which come in 12-inch, 16inch or calzone varieties. Hardcore fans of the buffalo chicken can get it as a pizza ($9.50-$23), which isn’t a bad way to experience how all that tasty sauce parties with melted cheese and green peppers. I’m a bit old-school with my pizza orders, so I leaned

Burgers so good they’ll blow your mind!

onTAP Moab Brewing 686 S. Main, Moab TheMoabBrewery.com On Tap: Bougie Johnny’s Rose

Silver Reef 4391 S. Enterprise Drive, St. George StGeorgeBev.com

Bewilder Brewing 445 S. 400 West, SLC BewilderBrewing.com On Tap: Vitruvian Pils

Mountain West Cider 425 N. 400 West, SLC MountainWestCider.com On Tap: Manzana Rosa Passionfruit Cider

Squatters 147 W. Broadway, SLC Squatters.com

TUESDAY TRIVIA! 7-9 PM LIVE JAZZ Thursdays 8-11 PM

Bonneville Brewery 1641 N. Main, Tooele BonnevilleBrewery.com On Tap: Peaches and Cream Ale Desert Edge Brewery 273 Trolley Square, SLC DesertEdgeBrewery.com On Tap: British Mild Epic Brewing Co. 825 S. State, SLC EpicBrewing.com On Tap: Experimental IPA #2

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26 | MARCH 24, 2022

2 Row Brewing 6856 S. 300 West, Midvale 2RowBrewing.com On Tap: Feelin’ Hazy

Bohemian Brewery 94 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale BohemianBrewery.com

OUTDOOR SEATING ON THE PATIO

Fisher Brewing Co. 320 W. 800 South, SLC FisherBeer.com On Tap: Fisher Beer

1048 East 2100 South | (385) 528-3275 | HopkinsBrewingCompany.com

Grid City Beer Works 333 W. 2100 South, SLC GridCityBeerWorks.com On Tap: Extra Pale Ale

VOTED BEST PIZZA 2021

Thank you for your support!

2021

Hopkins Brewing Co. 1048 E. 2100 South, SLC HopkinsBrewingCompany.com On Tap: Black Sesame Stout Hoppers Grill and Brewing 890 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale HoppersBrewPub.com Kiitos Brewing 608 W. 700 South, SLC KiitosBrewing.com

1465 S. 700 E. | 801.953.0636

brickscornerslc.com

A list of what local craft breweries and cider houses have on tap this week

Level Crossing Brewing Co. 2496 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake LevelCrossingBrewing.com On Tap: Throwing Smoke Smoked Porter

Ogden River Brewing 358 Park Blvd, Ogden OgdenRiverBrewing.com On Tap: Injector Hazy IPA Policy Kings Brewery 223 N. 100 West, Cedar City PolicyKingsBrewery.com Proper Brewing 857 S. Main, SLC ProperBrewingCo.com On Tap: Veni Vidi BiBi- Italian Pilsner Red Rock Brewing Multiple Locations RedRockBrewing.com On Tap: Zwickle Mandarina RoHa Brewing Project 30 Kensington Ave, SLC RoHaBrewing.com On Tap: Spudnik 7 Roosters Brewing Multiple Locations RoostersBrewingCo.com On Tap: Cosmic Autumn Rebellion SaltFire Brewing 2199 S. West Temple, South Salt Lake SaltFireBrewing.com On Tap: Mobius Trip Oak Aged Sour Salt Flats Brewing 2020 Industrial Circle, SLC SaltFlatsBeer.com On Tap: Barrel-Aged Winter Amber Shades Brewing 154 W. Utopia Ave, South Salt Lake ShadesBrewing.beer On Tap: Winter Warmer Amber Ale

Strap Tank Brewery Multiple Locations StrapTankBrewery.com Springville On Tap: PB Rider, Peanut Butter Stout Lehi On Tap: 2-Stroke, Vanilla Mocha Porter TF Brewing 936 S. 300 West, SLC TFBrewing.com On Tap: Edel Pils Talisman Brewing Co. 1258 Gibson Ave, Ogden TalismanBrewingCo.com On Tap: Kingslayer Toasted Barrel Brewery 412 W. 600 North, SLC ToastedBarrelBrewery.com Uinta Brewing 1722 S. Fremont Drive, SLC UintaBrewing.com On Tap: Was Angeles Craft Beer UTOG 2331 Grant Ave, Ogden UTOGBrewing.com On Tap: Snowcat IPA Vernal Brewing 55 S. 500 East, Vernal VernalBrewing.com Wasatch 2110 S. Highland Drive, SLC WasatchBeers.com Zion Brewery 95 Zion Park Blvd, Springdale ZionBrewery.com Zolupez 205 W. 29th Street #2, Ogden Zolupez.com

Belgian Rebellions BY MIKE RIEDEL comments@cityweekly.net @utahbeer

Celebrat i

year

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Call your order in for curbside delivery! 801-355-3425 878 E 900 S

MARCH 24, 2022 | 27

pic - Flower Power Sour: There aren’t a lot of local breweries that utilize foeders to aid in their fermentation of beer. If you’re not familiar with the term, foeder (pronounced FOOD-er) is the Dutch word for a large oak tank where beer is fermented. Traditionally, foeders were used to store wine; today, they are also used by breweries to ferment both clean and wild beer, while adding pleasant oak notes. To my knowledge, Epic, SaltFire and the Templin Family Brewery are the only locals that make beer utilizing this Old-World method. One of Epic’s latest foeder sours, the Flower Power Sour, is pale orange in color, a little thin in body but with a short and lasting white head from the tap, just short of clear with some haze. The aroma is piquant with some lemon, orange and white wine elements to it, a hit of fading pale malt and oxidation, earthy minerals, oak tannins and lactic pucker. The flavor features all of this, plus an identifiable but subtle note of passion fruit. I like it being authentic and more tangy than sweet, almost all of it in the finish. The beer is sharp but not caustic, and the high carbonation helps keep it from being too much; there is an underlying woody sort of mellow layer here that brings some balance. It’s not too vinegar-forward, and with just enough natural passion fruit character for this to be modern at the same time that it’s very classic—Old and New Worlds coming together in a rather drinkable sour. Overall: I thought this 6.5 percent sour was quite good amd unexpected, but it

seems like Epic has been doing more and more flavored stuff in recent years. It’s a cool one to find in a 16-oz. can, and I will be picking up a few more of these, for sure. Bewilder - Tripel: Tripels are one of the more infamous of the strong beers. They normally utilize candied sugars to add to the alcohol levels without sacrificing malt sweetness and body. This beer pours a bit “clear” for the style’s typical amber/ gold. An excellent rocky head quickly dissipates to fine lacing throughout, and it’s very effervescent bubbling for the style. The aromas are a mixture of classic tripel— banana/phenols, bready biscuity yeast— mixed with tropical or light stone fruits (peach? apricot?). Unique, but inviting. The flavor is to the dry end of the spectrum for this style (especially the first sips), but not bitter by any means. “Crisp” is a more apt word. The phenolic and fruity notes (again, I’m thinking lighter stone fruits, like peach, nectarine, apricot) are balanced by white pepper, slightly medicinal or herbal notes, and warming booziness (but no bite). If at first the brew strikes you as too dry, bitter or otherwise not quite “true” to the style, make sure you take your time and enjoy the brew as it warms. As the temperature comes up, some of the dryness gives way, and the malts, fruits, breads and overall sweetness start to shine through. It’s an enjoyable quaff to sip and take in as the flavors mature through the temperature changes. Overall: A damn fine take on the style that is another win for one of my favorite brewers. Though it’s perhaps a little dry and hoppy for a tripel purist, especially for the first few sips, I’ve had few other brews that morph and improve as much as this one did through the gradual temperature change. Sit back and enjoy this 9.5 percent brew or, perhaps better yet, start this one off a little closer to room temperature than you normally would for the style. You’ll find Bewilder’s Tripel at the brewery for sure, as well as some of SLC’s better beer pubs in 16-oz. cans. Epic’s brewery in SLC (and Denver too) is your best bet for Flower Power Sour, but it is also popping up in various beer pubs around the state. As always, cheers! CW

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Inspired by Belgium, but not of Belgium

MIKE RIEDEL

BEER NERD

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28 | MARCH 24, 2022

SLC just got a little HOTTER!

the

BACK BURNER BY ALEX SPRINGER @captainspringer

Serving fresh Seafood Boils lunch & dinner daily

The Pearl Soft Opening

Nightspots in the Central Ninth neighborhood continue to get more interesting as The Pearl (919 S. 200 West) recently entered the soft opening phase of its lifespan. Owned by the team behind Alibi (369 S. Main Street, 385-259-0616, alibislc.com), The Pearl was the lucky recipient of the DABC’s only bar license during the organization’s February meeting. The whole ordeal has given The Pearl a mysterious air of felicity during its soft opening phase, which will be sure to generate some heady buzz for those interested in checking out the new digs. The Pearl is also in good company given its proximity to Water Witch and Nohm—Central Ninth bar crawl, anyone?

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Ascent Kitchen Opens

The Downtown, Liberty Park and Sandy locations that once belonged to Pulp Lifestyle Kitchen have been taken over by Ascent Kitchen, which appears to share a similar health-conscious menu. Currently their menu features plenty of breakfast and lunch options—makes sense, considering the 9 a.m.-12 p.m. operating hours—all of which can be ordered vegetarian and vegan with a few gluten-free options as well. It’s interesting to see such a similar style of restaurant take over Pulp’s previous locations, though I know Pulp’s closure has a lot of people heartbroken. We’ll see how well Ascent balances tasty flavors and healthy ingredients.

Miyazaki Opens

A new Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar called Miyazaki (6223 S. State Street, Ste. 4, 801-8777788, miyazakislc.com) recently opened up near Fashion Place Mall in Murray. I’ve been checking out their menu, and it looks like something both hardcore steak fans and sushi fans will want to sink their teeth into. On the steak side of things, you’re looking at some high-quality wagyu beef that’ll set you back anywhere from $30 to $130—sounds badass. Miyazaki also offers plenty of great signature sushi rolls and they’re not skimping on dessert either; the Cotton Cake with its souffle-like texture sounds particularly lovely. Quote of the Week: “There is only one right way to eat steak: With greed in your heart and a smile on your face.” –Soumeet Lanka

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Infinite Storm and the dilemma of when to diverge from the “true” of “based on a true story.”

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at the apparent surrender of the man she calls “John.” She amplifies the sensibility in Rollins’ script that while yes, there was certainly a component of heroism in Bales’ rescue of John, it was also someone just doing their job—and every job has its moments when you’re just annoyed about having to do it. All of those things are working in Infinite Storm’s favor—and then there are the issues that are mostly extra-textual. Rollins builds in a backstory for Bales that involves a tragic incident that gradually unfolds in flashback, and indeed makes the day of Bales’ hike the anniversary of that incident. It’s an effective way to make the narrative a kind of redemption story for Bales … except that there’s no evidence from any of the contemporaneous reporting about Bales’ rescue operation that the tragic incident in question ever happened. And even if it did happen, linking it with the rescue feels tidy to the point of being exploitative. Infinite Storm has a lot going for it as a basic survival narrative; turning it into yet another movie about Capital-T Trauma feels like someone turning to the Screenwriting 101 textbook rather than trusting the actual

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story. Things get muddied again during the extended epilogue, which explores what happens after Bales and John get down the mountain. Without spoilers, it’s another shift from actual events that probably has a more conventional level of audience-appeasement to it, but removes something distinctive and memorable that really happened. Do the filmmakers owe audiences reality, when fiction is often more satisfying? Not necessarily. It is reality, though, that generally delivers the unexpected—and it’s also worth asking if fitting reality into a more easily-consumable package scrapes away a lot of the spiky unpredictability that makes real-life stories worth telling. CW

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Naomi Watts in Infinite Storm

a day with an iffy weather forecast. The hike gets harder when a severe storm blows in, complicating the return trip even for a veteran hiker. And that return gets even more complicated when Bales stumbles upon a lone man (Billy Howle), dressed in shorts and sneakers, already hypothermic and likely incapable of traveling on his own. Director Malgorzata Szumowska and screenwriter Joshua Rollins get the story off to a solid start with quiet, observant scenes capturing Bales’ methodical preparations for her hike. At its best, Infinite Storm works as a kind of procedural thriller about how surviving in nature depends on being ready to have to survive in nature— or, in this case, being ready to help other people survive in nature, as well. It’s also a portrait in competence under pressure, which Watts accomplishes wonderfully. She has been a terrific screen actor from literally the first moment she got a showcase for American audiences, in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, but she’s only grown savvier over the years at playing complicated, prickly women. Playing a role that easily could have been a saintly savior, Watts makes Bales frequently exasperated

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ife is not dramatically tidy. Intuitively, we understand this, yet the matter always gets messy when we’re dealing with movies based on real people and actual events. Every year, it seems, some awards-season favorite comes under fire for the way it purportedly altered or whitewashed the real-life circumstances on which it was based—sometimes for perfectly legitimate reasons, and other times because it’s an easy piece of publicrelations dark-ops by the competing films. Altering reality for dramatic expediency is endemic to the form; the only question is, how much re-writing of history is acceptable in the name of making a better movie? Infinite Storm isn’t exactly based on a high-profile story or person, and it’s unlikely to be drawing much attention when next year’s awards season rolls around. Yet it provides an interesting case study in asking that question about poetic license. Maybe giving a fact-based story a more conventionally satisfying dramatic arc is the best way to appeal to audiences. And maybe it’s simultaneously a way to erase a lot of what’s idiosyncratically interesting about the real-life story in the first place. That real-life story takes place in fall 2010, when Pam Bales (Naomi Watts)—an experienced search-and-rescue professional living in New Hampshire’s White Mountains—decides to take a solo hike on

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Alexander Blocher turns local band performances into a wideranging documentary. BY THOMAS CRONE tcrone@cityweekly.net

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lexander Blocher heads up a film/music production outfit called Only Loud. At this point, it’s largely a solo operation, with Blocher’s frequent recordings of local bands captured through a one-camera, one-editor model. That may change at some point. In fact, a project that’s on the cusp of release might be the one that moves his business into a more expansive direction. That project is called The Field, a feature-length film that highlights 16 local bands, all “friends or friends of friends,” as Blocher says. They were caught in action at local clubs throughout the fall and winter of 2021, spilling a bit into 2022. The work will receive its first public showing at Brewvies (677 S. 200 West) on Monday, March 28, with doors opening at 6:30 p.m. Envisioned only last autumn, the piece runs 90 minutes thanks to interstitial scenes and vignettes that allowed the film to take on a different feel than a simpler approach of featuring Band A, B, C, etc., in performance settings. Those “narrative” elements, as Blocher considers them, were also blended into the single-song showcases of each band, giving the film a cohesive, flowing feel. “I guess it started last September, when I was filming some friends’ bands at Urban Lounge,” Blocher says. “It just started out as live show footage. Towards the end of the year, I wanted a ‘night in retrospect,’ a showcase of my work presented as an end-of-2021 kind of thing.” Though he’s got a better-than-average home projection system, as you might expect, Blocher “thought it would be cool to show it in a theater.” And so he will. Though the idea hit a while back, months and months back, it’s not as if Blocher was able to successfully stave off additions, or “tweaks” as he frequently refers to his 11th-hour editing additions. On a recent morning, he found himself at an SLC coffeeshop noting that he’d been up late the night before, working on edits to a film due to screen in less than two weeks. Working early, late, whenever … it’s been a bit of a rule all through March. “I’m really riding the wave of meeting this deadline,” he says. “I’m glad that I put a deadline on it. It’s been weird talking to people when it’s essentially not finished.” After a second’s pause, he adds for emphasis, “It is finished. I’m just doing some last little tweaks.” Included among the bands represented in the film are 90s TV, Branson Anderson, Calvin Lee, Division of Doubt, Durian Durian, Fairmont, Gamma World, Idi Et Amin, Mercy Seat, Musor, Mutie, Red Bennies, Sculpture Club, Spike Hellis, Total Cereal, Worlds Worst. Some of these folks were friends prior to shooting; some became friends after.

Alexander Blocher

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Playing The Field

“I honestly enjoyed hanging out with the bands the most,” Blocher says. “I didn’t anticipate that. I was nervous, at times, especially with members of the bands that I didn’t know at all. I’m always a little socially anxious with people I don’t know. And then you’re hanging out with them and making something creative out of it, too. I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. It wound up being such a good experience working with everyone.” His hopes for the film aren’t wild. In fact, they seem pretty practical. “Outside of this night, it would be nice to get it seen by as many people as possible,” he says. “Maybe some other local theatres and organizations would like to show it. I would love for the Tower to reopen and have it shown there. It does feel like a locallyimportant film. So I’d like to get it into the local scene first, then would like to send it to other documentary film festivals and see what happens. The real important thing is that it’s a first step. Using all the resources I have myself, I’ll see how far I can push it, and then whatever happens, happens.” What will also likely happen is a trip to Oakland and San Francisco, where Blocher’s got friends. Who probably have friends, too. And there’s unfinished work here, building on the narrative threads that he feels were really developing into something special with The Field. “I don’t necessarily think the new project will be a feature,” he says, “but I think I wanna take what I’ve done with this movie and expand those segments further. Go more narrative with bands, and have more planned show footage. Not necessarily a live show with an audience, but getting them somewhere interesting. I’d like to get to a point where I can have a second shooter and two cameras. Editing with that kind of set-up would be very nice.” For links to tickets to see The Field, as well as some YouTube clips of the bands featured, visit linktr.ee/onlyloud. CW

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Katt Padden

Utah Tunes

New singles both from and about the Beehive State BY THOMAS CRONE tcrone@cityweekly.net

ingles are now the coin of the musical realm, and many acts, young and old, are finding it preferable to release one song at a time. Sensing a trend, we’ll occasionally highlight one, two or even three singles in a batch, tipping you to new sounds around (and in today’s case, about) Utah. Send links to music@cityweekly.net. Katt Padden, “Love in Utah” Here’s an interesting one. Katt Padden’s a Music Industry Studies Major (Bachelor of Arts) at California State University Northridge in LA. Though not a resident of Salt Lake, she’s got evident emotional ties to the place, and Salt Lake and its namesake body of water have a prominent place in the lyrics of “Love in Utah.” “I fell in love with a guy who had moved to Utah in 2020,” Padden says. “Between August and October of that year, I spent a lot of time in Salt Lake City with him, and it was the deepest and most profound feeling of love that I have ever felt in my entire life. Together, we had spent a good amount of time at the Great Salt Lake, and it was a very special and spiritual experience. The water was so calm that it was completely flat, and it mirrored the sky above it. The water was warm and the salt kept me afloat. It was amazing to be immersed in the water, in this incredibly beautiful bright place, with the person I loved, and I could not imagine anything better in that moment.” This piece of highly-polished, hummable pop is solely the work of the Bay Area native, as the “lyrics, vocals, melodies, instrumentation, and sound fusion (were) all created by me in my home studio. I bought

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an electric guitar and have enjoyed creating melodies and then using my Ableton software. The software enables me to add drums and piano and build layers in my songs.” Padden suggests that she’s open to residing here someday, and in the meantime, “I have been reaching out to various music venues and festivals in both Los Angeles and Utah in the hopes that I can have an opportunity to perform.” Various Padden-related links are found via: linktr.ee/kattpadden. The Yesternights, “Guardrail” The Yesternights are Matt Enright on bass, Mike Anderson on guitar and vocals, and Steve Beck on drums. Veterans of various bands, the trio are releasing their debut single in this lineup, recorded and produced by Stetson Whitworth. The rock track’s based in a classic real life story, as “the core of the song was written around 15 years ago when we crashed while on tour and, according to the police, hit the only guardrail for hundreds of miles,” Anderson says of a prior version of their group. “I approach every song lyrically a bit like found-object sculpture, so there are many ideas and themes are combined and inform each line, and becomes something that has a specific meaning to me but, hopefully, also means something unique to any listener. So in my mind, this song is about loss, relationships, memory, belief, existentialism, death, grief, hope, and similar emotions. But I also hope it means something special to someone who happens to hear it.” Anderson says that he “love(s) albums, and hopes The Yesternights will get there someday. But as much as I love albums, the industry has moved away from them to some extent, which has had a silver lining of freeing us up to record and release individual songs as we go.” To that end, another cut’s already recorded by the trio, and will be released shortly. This self-described “Rock and/or Roll” band’s info can be found at linktr.ee/ theyesternights. CW

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Gary Numan

Gary Numan at Metro Music Hall

Anyone with a passing interest in this show is keenly aware that Gary Numan’s got a deep and varied catalog, dating back to his two pre-solo albums with Tubeway Army. That band released “Down in the Park,” a stone-cold new wave-era classic in 1979, the same year that saw Numan’s solo debut The Pleasure Principle, which spawned another chestnut of that era, “Cars.” Those tracks still feature in his live sets, though they’ve been toughened up a little bit, with guitars that bring those 40-year-old tracks into more of a modern sound. That said, the songs are still the songs, and the voice is still the voice—and a delightful crash-YouTube-course finds some interesting twists on each, as well as other cuts from his 20-odd album history. Fascinating, too, is that the songs from his recent works don’t need to be hidden in his current setlists, unlike other performers of a certain age group. A recent spate of singles, like the title track off of his latest, Intruder, fit perfectly well into the overall fabric of his life’s work as a songwriter and frontman. And the look and feel of his live performance—which has taken on sort of Dune vs. Matrix staging feel, at times—has moved along with the times, too, though the “robots are our friends” vibes of early tracks remain intact, and just as fun as they ever were. In Europe and certain festival settings, Numan can pull off the big show for a big venue. In the comfortable confines of a room like the Metro, things’ll be intimate but huge at the same time. Gary Numan appears at Metro Music Hall with I Speak Machine on Saturday, March 26; doors are at 7 p.m. Tickets for the show are $32, available at metromusichall.com.

Grocer at Kilby Court

Princess Goes to the Butterly Museum

The latest in a peculiar string of Philadelphia bands hitting town is Grocer, fresh off the release of their ninesong release Numbers Game; it joins a previous LP and EP in a short, but very appealing collection of material. The four members of the group (Nicholas Rahn on vocals and guitar; Danielle Lovier on vocals and bass; Emily Daly on guitar; Cody Nelson on vocals and drums) trade lead vocals appealingly, with tremendous harmonies. Mid-way through last year, the band told the Idaho Weekly that “We make music with pop rock sensibilities with some quirks here and there for the deep listener. We’re most frequently compared to The Pixies meets Paramore.” A listener with more-seasoned ears might also pluck names from the golden age of college rock, like Pylon or Scrawl, while younger listeners would have their own batch of comps. While folks of all ages have a myriad of ways to find new music like Grocer’s, you can begin your search through the band’s Bandcamp page (@itsgrocer), or via a really fine live set captured by Audiotree and available on YouTube, found by simply punching in “Grocer on Audiotree.” In fact, their li’l blip about the group does a nice job of encapsulating the sound, too: “Grocer is a chaotic, multi-vocal quartet who write alternative rock with urgent, intricate constructions.” Grocer will play Kilby Court on Sunday, March 27 with Headportals and Strawberry Cough. Doors for this all-ages show are at 7pm, and $10 tickets are available at kilbycourt.com.

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Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum at Metro Music Hall

Sometimes a band comes together with some really unusual parts, the pieces fit together delightfully. Princess Goes To The Butterfly Museum is such a band, featuring vocalist, lyricist, musician and actor Michael C. Hall, known for his roles in such works as Dexter, Six Feet Under and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Drummer Peter Yanowitz knew considerable commercial success in Jakob Dylan’s The Wallflowers, and played in a great indie group that missed the big-time, Morningwood; he also backed Natalie Merchant on three solo albums. Keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen has spent the bulk of a decade working within the seemingly-eternal Blondie, and has performed or recorded with other ’80s luminaries, like Boy Geroge and Cyndi Lauper. After a formation and a first round of shows in 2018, followed by various pandemic delays, the group’s on their first extended national tour now, in support of the 2020 album Thanks for Coming. With a frontman known for a host of TV roles, it’s perhaps not surprising that the group’s already created a nice collection of videos, as diverse as the 14-songs. To the degree that the lyrics break through the band’s wild assortment of styles, well, things are quite diverse in that department, as well, with no one way to pin down what the group seems to be about. Katz-Bohen was quoted in americansongwriter.com as saying, “There’s a lot of noise happening in New York’s East Village, which we’ve all been around now for quite a while. And I think that just kind of seeps into us, this [idea of], ‘We’re not gonna really play in one particular game here; we’re gonna do whatever the f*ck we want,’ kind of thing.” In that case, success is unlocked in a delightfully-unpredictable package. Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum plays at Metro Music Hall with Lorelei K on Wednesday, March 30; door at 7 p.m. and tickets are $20, available at metromusichall.com. CW

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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) It’s the start of the listening season for you Libras. I propose a full-on celebration of listening: a three-week holiday of paying close attention to important and interesting words being said in your vicinity. Make yourself a magnet for useful revelations. Be alert for the rich information that becomes available as you show the world you would love to know more of its secrets. For inspiration, read these quotes. 1. “You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time.”—M. Scott Peck. 2. “Learn to listen. Opportunity sometimes knocks very softly.”—my friend Jenna. 3. “Listening is being able to be changed by the other person.”—Alan Alda. 4. “If you want to be TAURUS (April 20-May 20) “It’s always too early to quit,” wrote author Norman Vincent listened to, you should put in time listening.”—Marge Piercy. Peale, who popularized the idea of “positive thinking.” I’m an 5. “Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. optimistic person, but I think his advice is excessively optimistic. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold.”—Karl On occasion, it’s wise to withdraw your energy from a project A. Menninger. or relationship you’ve been working on. Struggling to find relevance and redemption may reach a limit. Pushing ever onward SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) might be fruitless and even harmful. However, I don’t think “Worry doesn’t count as preparation,” writes author Lily that now is one of those times for you, Taurus. According to my Akerman. That sounds wise, but I don’t think it’s true in all reading of the astrological omens, it is too early for you to quit. cases. At its best, worrying may serve as a meditation that helps us analyze potential problems. It prompts us to imagine constructive actions we might take to forestall potential disGEMINI (May 21-June 20) “You can be as earnest and ridiculous as you need to be, if ruptions—and maybe even prevent them from erupting into you don’t attempt it in isolation.” So says author Barbara actual disruptions. I bring these thoughts to your attention, Kingsolver. She adds, “The ridiculously earnest are known to Scorpio, because now is an excellent time to engage in this kind travel in groups. And they are known to change the world.” In of pondering. I declare the next three weeks to be your season of my view, this is perfect advice for you right now. If you and the productive worrying. members of your crew focus on coordinating your efforts, you could accomplish blazing amazements in the coming weeks. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) You may solve riddles that none of you has been able to decipher If I had my way, you’d be a connoisseur of kisses in the coming alone. You can synergize your efforts in such a way that every- weeks. You’d make it your intention to expand your repertoire of kissing styles and ask willing partners to do the same. You one’s individual fate will be lifted up. would give and receive unwieldy kisses, brave kisses and mysterious kisses. You would explore foolish, sublime kisses and CANCER (June 21-July 22) About 200 years ago, poet William Wordsworth wrote, “Every sincere but inscrutable kisses and awakening kisses that change great and original writer must himself create the taste by which the meaning of kisses altogether. Are you interested in pursuing he is to be relished.” Now I’ve come up with a variation on that this challenge? It will be best accomplished through unhurried, wisdom: “Every great and original soul must herself create the playful, luxurious efforts. taste by which she is to be understood and appreciated.” That’s what I hope you will work on in the coming weeks, Cancerian: CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) fostering an ambiance in which you can be even better under- “Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough informastood and appreciated. You now have extra power to teach tion about life to last him the rest of his days,” wrote author Flannery O’Connor. Her observation may be a bit of an exagpeople how to value you and get the best out of you. geration, but not much. And I’m offering it to you now, as you begin a phase when you can glean many new teachings about LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) “I hate housework!” complained comedian Joan Rivers. “You your childhood—insights that could prove handy for a long time make the beds, you do the dishes, and six months later you to come. I encourage you to enjoy a deep dive into your memories have to start all over again.” I wish I could give you a six-month of your young years. They have superb secrets to divulge. reprieve from having to attend to those chores, Leo. In fact, I’d love it if I could permanently authorize you to avoid all activities AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) that distract you from thinking big thoughts and feeling rich “Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected,” emotions and pursuing expansive adventures. But I’m afraid I said author William Plomer. I agree with that. And I’m pleased can only exempt you from the nagging small stuff for just the to let you know that in the coming weeks, you will have more of next three weeks or so—four, tops. After that, you’ll have to this power to connect than you’ve had in a long time. I hope you do the dishes and make the beds again. But for the foreseeable will use it to link your fortunes to influences that inspire you. future: Focus your energy on thinking big thoughts and feeling I hope you will wield it to build bridges between parts of your world that have been separate or alienated until now. And I hope rich emotions and pursuing expansive adventures! you will deploy your enhanced capacity for blending and joining as you weave at least one magnificent new creation. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) A British plumber named Kev Crane worked for weeks to install a new bathroom at a private home. As he toiled, he passed PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): the time by singing his favorite songs. He didn’t know that the “I use my intelligence to discover more ways of appreciating homeowner, Paul Conneally, was the owner of a music label. you,” author Piscean Anaïs Nin told her lover Henry Miller. In So he was surprised and delighted when Conneally offered him the coming weeks, I recommend you activate a similar ambition. a deal to record an album in the label’s studio. There may be a Now is a time when you can enhance your close relationships comparable development in your life during the coming weeks, with important allies by deepening your insight into them. What Virgo. You could be noticed in new ways for what you do well. magic is at play within them that you haven’t fully recognized Your secret or unknown talents may be discovered or revealed. before? How could you better see and understand their mysterYou might get invitations to show more of who you really are. Be ies? PS: You may be pleased when your deepening vision of them prompts them to extend the same favor toward you. alert for such opportunities. ARIES (March 21-April 19) The Carib people from Surinam quote their mysterious Snake Spirit as follows: “I am the force of the spirit of the lightning eel, the thunder ax, the stone. I am the force of the firefly; thunder and lightning have I created.” I suspect you will have access to powers that are comparable to the Snake Spirit’s in the coming weeks. Your state of being reminds me of how Aries poet Marge Piercy expressed her quests for inspiration: “When I work, I am pure as an angel tiger, and clear is my eye and hot my brain and silent all the whining grunting piglets of the appetites.”

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U GO

BY DAVID LEVINSON WILK

ACROSS

1. Scale units: Abbr. 2. Country music’s ____ Young Band 3. Lines to some stoves 4. Not fooled by 5. Shoulder blade 6. Get into a rhythm, informally 7. Flow that may be 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit 8. “Your turn,” on a walkie-talkie

Pop That Bubble

9. One in handcuffs, for short 10. ____ skills 11. Mostly online writing genre 12. Trading board game with “settlers” 13. Sty sound 21. Le Monde article 22. Eye rudely 23. Number of sides on a sign reading “ALTO” 24. Warehouse loading areas 28. Declaration made with a card in hand 29. Easter Island’s country 30. Objective 31. Start to mature? 35. Freddy once hailed as “the next Pelé” 36. Directory info: Abbr. 37. Arm muscles, in bodybuilding lingo 38. At the first moment 39. Couple of bucks? 40. Name in a noted ‘90s breakup 41. [Nodding] 42. Causes of modern shutdowns 43. Use as a rendezvous point 44. Where to conform, as the saying goes 45. “And, uh, that about covers it”

46. His portrait hangs at Tiananmen Square 47. What locusts do 48. Sevigny of “Boys Don’t Cry” 52. Art ____ 53. Piece of mind? 54. Damaging gossip 55. Ginger at a sushi bar 59. Abbr. after a lawyer’s name 60. Old auto with its founder’s monogram

Last week’s answers

No math is involved. The grid has numbers, but nothing has to add up to anything else. Solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. Solving time is typically 10 to 30 minutes, depending on your skill and experience.

DOWN

URBAN L I V I N

WITH BABS DELAY Broker, Urban Utah Homes & Estates, urbanutah.com

Complete the grid so that each row, column, diagonal and 3x3 square contain all of the numbers 1 to 9.

1. Toys with much assembly required 6. Opposite of a smash 10. “Super” campaign orgs. 14. Color between bleu and rouge on the French flag 15. Icicle spot 16. Joie de vivre 17. “Nature of a ____” (1991 Queen Latifah album) 18. At any point 19. Palindromic guy’s name 20. Variety of tree that everyone loves? 23. Kimono closer 25. A third of tri26. Brief flash 27. Juliet’s dosage unit? 32. “Laughing” carnivore 33. Employ 34. Bone, in Bologna 35. “Sailor Moon” genre 37. “On & On” singer Erykah 41. Bedroom poster figure, say 42. Carpentry shop gadgets 43. Doesn’t treat Little Orphan Annie and her roommates well at all? 47. “A-a-a-and ____!” 49. Rowboat mover (and a homonym of 50-Across) 50. Yossarian’s tentmate in “Catch-22” (and a homonym of 49-Across) 51. Hide-and-seek player’s query ... or what the first word of 20-, 27- or 43-Across said to each answer’s second word 56. Kind of sax 57. Falco with four Emmys 58. More balanced mentally 61. Travel aimlessly 62. Michael of “Arrested Development” 63. Shake an Etch A Sketch, e.g. 64. Dole (out) 65. One might speak under it 66. “Thong Song” singer

SUDOKU X

| CITYWEEKLY.NET |

| COMMUNITY |

38 | MARCH 24, 2022

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

For those hoping that the crazy housing market is just a bubble about to pop, the news is bad. Home prices in February have shot up in Salt Lake County by a whopping 23% over last year, with Utah County coming in at a record high of 30% in 12 months, Davis County up 25%, Weber County up 26% and Tooele County beating out all other areas by coming in at an increase of 43%. The researchers at the University’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute estimate that 67% of Utahns can’t afford a median-priced single family home. The U.S. Census Bureau reported our statewide population at 3.36 million people in 2022. Sixty-seven percent would mean that 2.25 million of our neighbors can’t afford to live in this state. But where can you afford a home? Zillow estimates that homes in Boise, Idaho, cost an average $534,806 and in Phoenix, Arizona, it’s $404,000. Realtor.com reports the average home price in Reno, Nevado, is $555,000 and $406,000 in Las Vegas. You probably know that gas prices are insane right now and food prices just keep going up. Just before the pandemic in 2019, the annual inflation rate in the U.S. was 2.3%. From February 2021 to February 2022, that rate jumped to 7.9%—the highest since 1982. Meat, poultry, fish and egg prices are up 13% in the past 12 months; fruits and veggies are up 7.6%, gas prices are up 8%. All this bad news adds up to everyone having a lot less take-home pay at the end of the month. If you had purchased a home in 2021, your mortgage rate would have been in the high 3% to low 4% rate. Now it’s jumping to around 5%. The payment on a mortgage of $500,000 has gone up almost $400 in just a year—principal, interest, taxes and insurance—from around $2,700 a month at 3.5% interest to almost $3,100 at 5%. That drastic increase pushes out many first-time buyers who can’t qualify for the higher payment. We are currently down tens of thousands of units to meet the demand of not just home buyers, but also renters. This bubble won’t burst soon given that as of March 17, we had only 515 properties for sale in Salt Lake County (all prices), with 10,500 members of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors trying to put offers on these properties for their clients. In a normal market, we’d have between 2,000 and 3000 homes for sale. More people are moving to Utah than out of Utah and that alone puts immense pressure on housing inventory. Stacker.com reported this month that Utah has massive amounts of people moving here from California, Colorado, Idaho, Arizona and Texas, in that order. Although we’re in a building boom, we definitely are not keeping up with demand, nor does it look better in the next few years for anyone hoping to find a deal on their first home. CW Content is prepared expressly for Community and is not endorsed by City Weekly staff.

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MARCH 24, 2022 | 39

borhood? Where was the driver? Why would someone steal human remains? Police wouldn’t provide many details because the case is still open. Creepy Yes, this item is about clowns. Or at least circuses. Or circus train cars. In Nash County, North Carolina, nine railroad cars from the 1960s Barnum & Bailey circus that had been abandoned in the woods caught fire on March 10, WRAL-TV reported. The cars were just outside the city limits of Spring Hope, where they were stored after the North Carolina Department of Transportation bought them in 2017, hoping to refurbish them for passenger service. Later they were put up for auction, but more recently the cars were a popular destination for urban explorers and people seeking shelter. At least four of the cars appeared to be badly damaged by the fire; the cause of the blaze is under investigation. People With Issues Prosecutors have accused 20-year-old Mauricio Damian Guerrero of Bensalem, Pennsylvania, of burglary after he traveled to Somersworth, New Hampshire, and hid in the attic of a woman he had met on the website OnlyFans, WKBN-TV reported on March 7. Guerrero allegedly descended from the attic to take video of the woman while she was sleeping, stole some of her underwear and planned to place a tracking device on her car. Police were called after someone at the home heard a noise; Guerrero was found on the roof of the home. He was released on bail and ordered to wear a tracking device. Ewwwww U.S. Customs and Border Protections agents probably rarely have a boring day, but between Feb. 19 and 25, officers in Philadelphia came across particularly skin-crawly cargo: about 300 leeches from Bulgaria, NBC New York reported. The medicinal leeches, which arrived in jars distributed among six separate air cargo shipments, were headed for Connecticut, Florida and Illinois, but they’ll never make it: That type of leech, the Hirudo medicinalis, is a protected species and can’t be traded internationally. Instead, they were turned over to federal wildlife agents. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Dot Grant, 52, attended the musical Bat Out of Hell with her family at the Edinburgh Playhouse in Scotland in February, Edinburgh Live reported. It was a real treat, as it was her first theater visit since the pandemic began two years earlier. But as Dot tapped her thigh and sang along quietly under her mask, one of the ushers “flashed their torch” at her before the intermission. Dot couldn’t figure out why: “I did not think I was doing anything wrong.” As the performance continued in the second half, a security worker motioned for Dot to come to the aisle, and she was removed from the theater and told she was “at a musical theater show, not a concert.” “I was surrounded by eight men, which made me feel very uncomfortable and uneasy,” Dot said. “People had been complaining about my actions of singing and dancing in my seat, that it was a distraction and off-putting for the cast. I waved my hands a few times, but I didn’t think that was wrong.” The theater said that audience participation “had never been encouraged.” Least Competent Criminal U.S. border agents at the San Ysidro crossing in California stopped a 30-year-old man driving a truck on Feb. 25 as he attempted to cross from Mexico, the Associated Press reported on March 8. Agents found 52 live reptiles tied up in small bags— not so weird, except they were “concealed in the man’s jacket, pants pockets, and groin area,” CBP said in a statement. Nine snakes and 43 horned lizards were seized. Some species were endangered. The driver was a U.S. citizen. Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

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Ooohhh-kkkaaayyyyy Some romantic relationships are full of drama and strife, so maybe Sandra, 28, of Budapest, Hungary, has come up with a better model. According to Oddity Central, Sandra has fallen for Luffancs, a plastic model of an airplane. After breaking up with her latest human boyfriend in January, Sandra bought Luffancs for $660 and fell madly in love. “I don’t know why I love him, I just love him,” she said. Sandra works in the aviation industry and is around airplanes every day, but says she will never cheat on Luffancs. In fact, she doesn’t know if she’ll ever date another human being. “Planes are more reliable as partners,” she said. Unclear on the Concept When Bshar Ahmed, 30, of Youngstown, Ohio, was arrested on March 7, he told police that he was selling marijuana from the gas station where he was working the midnight shift because he just got out of prison, and he needs the money, WKBN-TV reported. The owner of the station called officers about Ahmed and produced a bag, which Ahmed admitted was his, that contained bags of weed and a loaded .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun, along with suspected methamphetamine, crack cocaine, indeterminate pills and over $1,000 in cash. Ahmed’s previous convictions bar him from possessing a firearm. The Neighbors When ya gotta go ... At 4:40 p.m. on March 4, Kenneth Clark Carlyle, 64, walked up his neighbor’s driveway in his birthday suit and relieved himself, No. 2 style, on the neighbor’s glass patio table, The Smoking Gun reported. The whole thing was caught on not one, but two “separate angles of the victim’s home security video footage,” the police report noted. Clearwater, Florida, officers arrived at Carlyle’s RV camper, where they spoke to him “through the door ... and he was still visibly naked and highly uncooperative.” The bond on this incident is $250, but he was already in trouble from a December infraction, so he remains in the pokey. Unexpected Trip Three Michigan men ice fishing in a homemade shanty on Saginaw Bay on March 6 went for the ride of their lives as winds nearing 50 mph pushed their structure about a mile across the ice, the Associated Press reported. The men had spent the night before in the shanty and were aware that a storm was approaching, but thought they could ride it out. But the next morning, someone onshore saw one of them struggling with the hut as it scooted over the ice. It eventually ended up about 1 ½ miles offshore before deputies arrived; the men were able to return to shore without rescue equipment and were unharmed. Surprise! As construction crews worked to remodel the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland, California, on March 9, they made an alarming discovery, NBC News reported. The building, which has been out of use since 2005, was the final resting place for “an unidentified, decayed body,” said Lt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. “We found remains best described as mummified,” he said. “The conditions in the walls were such that the body was preserved in good condition.” He said authorities will obtain fingerprints to try to identify the deceased. “Any theory is possible,” Kelly said, “... from someone who got in behind the wall and became trapped ... to someone put the person there.” It’s a Head-Scratcher On March 3 in a quiet Denver neighborhood, someone broke into a box truck parked along a street and stole a box marked “Science Care,” KDVR-TV reported. Inside the box were a number of human heads that were being transported for use in medical research. The thieves also stole a dolly. Isaac Fields, who lives nearby, was perplexed: Why was the truck parked in his neigh-

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40 | MARCH 24, 2022

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City Weekly March 24, 2022

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