PetDance Film Festival on January 24

  While it might not be an entire day of cat videos like I was hoping, PetDance Film Festival looks like a purrfect way to spend a Saturday. The folks at Pets in the City Magazine, a local weekly paper dedicated to pets, decided to claw on the coattails of Sundance Film Festival with their own petcentric … Read more

Nova Chamber Music Series’ new year concert contemplates the beyond

Resolutions in the New Year are as difficult to keep as they are to make in realistic terms. However, how should we respond to the invitation for spiritual renewal and contemplation? Music becomes an ideal platform, as evidenced in the forthcoming program of the Nova Chamber Music Series aptly titled ‘Contemplation of the Beyond.’ With … Read more

Utah Film Center offers a different world of Christmas music in charming ‘Jingle Bell Rocks!’

Fans of Pink Floyd’s 1982 film highlighting one of its best album releases ‘The Wall’ might remember that a recording of Vera Lynn (see below) on the 1937 Christmas song ‘The Little Boy That Santa Forgot’ is featured in the opening sequence. The song is not exactly one that comes to mind during the holiday, … Read more

A celebration with many meanings: Plan-B Theatre to premiere ‘Marry Christmas’

NOTE:This is the second part of a preview featuring a pair of Plan-B Theatre holiday productions. In 2013, during U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments for the landmark Windsor case on same-sex marriage, Chief Justice John Roberts remarked that activists had really found their political momentum. Writing the day after the hearing, The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf … Read more

10 reasons to get psyched about FanX 2015

fanx salt lake comic con logo

Suffering from withdrawals from my first Comic Con, I’ve waited with bated breath for the next nerdy event, FanXperience, the “ultimate fan experience” for those consumed by their love of entertainment including everything from movies to comic books. The inaugural FanX™ in April 2014 had more than 100,000 attendees making it the third largest comic con … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s ‘Christmas with Misfits’ dismantles artificially sweet truths about the holiday

Note: This is a two-part series about Plan-B Theatre’s unconventional approach to holiday entertainment in two world premiere productions. In the critically acclaimed box office success of the 2003 movie ‘Bad Santa,’ there were 300 profanities uttered, Santa is a small-time criminal and alcoholic, and the kid, as the late film critic Roger Ebert recalled, … Read more

Spy Hop’s 12th annual PitchNic premiere of four films promises powerful voice of youth

As memorable as the premieres of the PitchNic films are for the Spy Hop Productions students each year, what becomes the most satisfying bonus for their creative efforts is the opportunity to see their new short films screen at film festivals across the country. More than 90 percent of the PitchNic films produced in the … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s 24th season’s seven new plays explores vast territory of family values

NOTE: This is the first installment in a two-part series about Plan-B Theatre’s 24th season and a preview of Matthew Ivan Bennett’s ‘Radio Hour Episode Nine: Grimm.’ In certainly its most ambitious season during its 24-year history, Plan-B Theatre has programmed seven new plays by Utah playwrights that explore a vast territory of family values. … Read more

Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret

cowspiracy the sustainability secret

Farm Animal Advocacy Group Presents A Park City Screening of “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret” Park City is home to more than 100 non-profit organizations, and one of its newest, Sage Mountain Animal Rescue, plans to host a one-time screening of the groundbreaking, provocative documentary “Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret.” The feature-length film, which explores what it … Read more

Making new art, supporting community in the ‘Rose Exposed: Home’

For six enterprising small performing arts companies, the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center in downtown Salt Lake City is more than a residence for their creative work. It is the home for experimentation in humanity. It is the place for creating and performing new works of art. As Daniel Siepmann wrote recently at NewMusicBox, “Newness … Read more