Vacation with the Man 09

Clint and I finally went on a vacation just the 2 of us! We started in Las Vegas, where we stayed at the Golden Nugget on the old strip. I was shown this hotel in June when I was in Vegas working Cinevegas, by a friend and loved the pool and vowed to bring Clint and stay there! Its a neat old hotel that has the coolest shark-tank pool with a water slide that goes through the shark tank. I know, only in Vegas. Its way cool. We had to wait in line about half hour to check in, but we were upgraded to a suite so it was worth the wait! We had a fabulous suite with 2 big screen TVs, 2 bathrooms, the one with the shower had a tv in the bathroom. I was in heaven. We cozied in and layed around and watched tv and only left the room to play in the pool and go to the Freemont experience out front. The Freemont experience is the light show/video where they covered Freemont strip about 2 blocks long with a giant lights/tv screen! Every hour on the hour they play a different music video. It was really cool. They also had a band play in the street, cant remember who...some 60's band that was at Woodstock...anyway it was a fun place to stay! Then we moved to the Mirage to spend a night and go to the Cirque show LOVE. Its the one with all Beatles music. Saw a doc on the making of Love last year at Cinevegas and wanted to see it since. It was really neat! Now I need to see the other Cirque de Soleil shows!

The next day we drove to St George to see the Slaters, had lunch at Cafe Rio with them, then we continued on to the Grand Canyon, no. rim. Clint and I have always wanted to see the Grand Canyon from the North rim. We love the GC and have hiked Havasupai twice, and taken the kids to camp on the south rim a couple times, but never the north rim. Its only open 5 months of the year because it gets more snow and weather than the south because its about 2000 ' higher in elevation.We loved it! It was so beautiful. The shape of the rim curves around quite a bit so there are really cool areas to hiking along the rim and arms that jut out into the canyon. very beautiful vistas.

I have to say though that I was a little uneasy about the lack of fencing along the rim....sometimes the chain link fence that was there was only about 2.5 feet high! And the crazy thing is that it didn't stop people from going over the fence, tri-pod and camera bag in tow to get on the edge of the rim for a "closer" shot. Like it will make any difference! Also when were met with our friends the Slaters, they told us about friends they know who were hiking around St. George with their whole family and they were apparently on some sort of ridge and the mother/grandmother of the group, tripped and fell 200 feet and died. Very tragic. When Clint and I got to the Lodge at the No. Rim and were looking around, I saw on the bulletin board a flyer with a man's photo who has been missing since August 31, last seen on such and such trail. Yes people fall over...it's not really that uncommon. Then I made the mistake of picking up the Death on the Canyon book in the Visitors Center. Sometimes people fall and it is witnessed, and sometimes the rangers only find people because the condors are feeding on their bodies. Yes there have been California condors released in to the canyon, but they are hard to spot. We looked. We saw plenty of turkey vultures and jays etc...not condors. Anyway, the GC is fabulous and very romantic, since there is absolutely nothing else to do but sit and watch the scenery, esp sunset, or go to ranger talks which we went to, and I learned there are only 3 types of rock....Some 8 year old home schooled kid from Utah knew all 3! (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic) Also the tiny cabin we were in was a duplex and paper thin walls, and one light bulb that hung from the ceiling, so not conducive to reading. Luckily I brought our dvd player and lap top so we watched movies and played computer games.

After a couple days of the north rim, we headed north to Bryce Canyon in Utah. We have been to Bryce years ago and I think we might have just drove through because I dont remember camping there....or spending much time there. It was beautiful. Bryce is not really a canyon, its more an amphitheatre, from like 200 days of the year of freezing and thawing temperatures. So all the formations are caused from that kind of erosion. It makes some beautiful formations called hoodoos. They are great! Some are huge! We camped here for a couple nights and went to more ranger programs, and a few hikes and bird watching. We added to our knowledge of the amazing Colorado plateau. No place like it in all the world. We met lots of travellers from all over the world. The campers next to us were from Slovakia. We found that most foreign tourists come and start at Zion and hit all the National Parks on the Colorado plateau. One night they even had an amateur astronomer talk with the big telescopes. Bryce was great. We haven't camped together for years and we very excited to. I bought a big huge tent a couple years ago and have been waiting to use it! So we excitedly opened up the big huge tent and found it covered in mold!! There was also sand and a Capri Sun wrapped up inside...hence the mold. I was so bumbed! Cassie probably took it on some YSA campout! Anyway, we did fine after we cleaned it up some. We got some rain at Bryce and it was quite cool.

Then on to the 3rd national Park on our agenda, Capitol Reef. We have such good memories of camping here when the kids were young. The campground sits surrounded by fruit orchards planted some 100 years ago by the Mormon settlers. There's a river that runs through the canyon and some huge Cottonwood trees! The deer just hang out in the orchards and campground so its a really cool setting. We also love the fact that one night camping fee is $10 AND you can pick all the fruit you can eat! And you can pick fruit to take for about 1$ lb. The apples and pears were falling off the trees! It was a great time of year. We went on some cool hikes also. One hike to Hickman Bridge, a huge natural bridge and we did a couple smaller hikes. There were some cool places with petryglyphs on the canyon walls. Very neat! All in all the vacation was just about great! We loved being out doors and loved sleeping in our tent! Although it was really cold at night and we had to snuggle and really bundle up! We definitely want to do more camping just the two of us. I guess we were not sure how it would be without the kids....it was pretty darn good and way easier without them!!

Sundance 09! and Nick!

I have been back for a couple weeks now but haven't had a chance to write anything about sundance yet since I was home for barely a week then off to Utah again to take Nick to the MTC! But now he is safely in the MTC learning Spanish for 8 weeks before leaving for Salta Argentina for 2 years. He was very excited to go on a mission and very happy to go to Argentina. He will serve under our former Stake pres. and longtime family friend, Pres. Dan Northcutt (and Cynda) Yes, the same Dan and Cynda that I babysat for when I was 15 and we regularly TP'd their house! I had Dan for 2 years in Seminary. Anyway, Nick was really cute and was anxious to go. So Sundance this year was good. There were a lot of movies that sounded interesting to me so I made an effort to go to movies and ended up seeing 30! It is a lot, the most I've ever seen at Sundance, but I only went to the music cafe 3 times so I was able to see alot of films. Some of the standouts of the Docs were, It Might Get Loud, about guitar legends Jimmy page, The Edge and Jack White. Who knew that jack White is the coolest man alive? Well he is! If you love music and especially guitar, Zepplin, U2 and the White Stripes go see this one, its really fun! I have a crush on Jack now.
When Your Strange- by Tom DiCillo a doc about The Doors is another great look at the Doors. There is footage of Jim from his UCLA film school days that is amazing! So amazing that people thought it was a re-inactment with an actor, so they made an announcement at the beginning of the film that all the footage is Doors original, because a buyer walked out of the first screening after 5 minutes thinking it was re-inactment! In the q & a some woman asked about the "re-inactment" and Tom DiCillo had a cow(or kittens if your from Australia) and practically pulled out his hair! When he explained his frustration and asked if the announcement was made at the beginning, Carly yelled out, "Were not all blonde"! It was great.
Prom Night in Mississippi about the only Public High School in the nation that still has a segregated Prom, yes 2 proms still! This is in Morgan Freemans home town and 10 years ago he offered to pay for the prom if they would have one prom and the school board turned him down so he offered again and they accepted! But the white parents still hosted their own separate prom! The kids in this one were so good. Amamzing that this is still happening today in the USA...well MS anyway.
Crude was a very good David and Goliath story. The indiginous peoples of the Ecuador amazon living and dying due to the polluted rivers from the oil drilling by Texaco or now Chevron. These poor villagers in remote areas have high cases of cancer and skin disease and their water is really polluted by the bad job that the American oil companies did down there. There is a 13 year lawsuit that will probably drag out forever. Trudie Stlyer (Mrs. Sting) is one of the heros. She is a UNICEF ambassador and the filmmaker invited her to go there and she right away had UNICEF buy and put up rain collector barrels with filters so at least the people can have clean water to drink and cook with. I want to raise $300 to donate to buy a barrel!
Sergio,based on the book Chasing the Flame about Sergio Viera De Mello who was the go to guy at the UN who died in 2003 when the UN was bombed in Bagdad. I bought the book because I want to know more about this man and his life.
Other good docs, Over the Hills and far Away, about a family with an autistc son, Boy Interrupted about a 15 boy with bi-polar disorder who commits suicide was really good and tragic at the same time, Afgan Star, about the Afgan Idol, yes they really have it in Afganistan, and Reporter was also really good, about Nicholas Krystof of the NY times who spend alot of time trying to get us to care about the atrosities in Africa.
I saw 11 docs total and there were ones that I didnt see that I wished Id had time to! Now for the features....My favorites of the 19 feature films I saw were these 5,
Adam- starring Hugh Dancy as a man with Asbergers syndrome trying to have a life and girlfriend...very endering and Hugh is so cute!
Arlen Faber- stars Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham and I laugh so much in this one...it was really clever...
The Greatest- Pierce brosnan and Susan sarandon play parents whose 18 year old son dies and they have to deal...and they find out he had a pregnant girlfriend! Pierce was so good in this! I hope this one gets released, but is is a movie about grief...
Against the Current- Joseph Fiennes plays a man dealing with his loss as well in an intereting way.
Taking Chance-Kevin bacon play real life Lt Col Michel Strobl who volunteers to escort a fallen marine back to his hometown. This is a great movie and will be on HBO in April. Watch it, its another story about grief but beautifully done.
okay those were my top 5 but I had a few more that deserve some mention....Moon a good sci-fi that Sam Rockwell carries is very good, An Education written by Nick Hornby is a great British film, Pomegranets and Myrhh was a very good Palestinian love story and Amreeka was a funny and heartwarming look at at a palestian and her son who immagrate to the US and the changes that happen to them. So thats the best of the 30 movies I watched! The music cafe was moved this year and I just wasnt as into it as years past. It was in a tent on main street and not as far of a walk but not like a club at all. I did get there a couple times and got down in the front with my local buddies and saw some good musicians...like John Reznik who was funny and talked alot the first day because he wasnt used to playing such a small club and said it made him nervous! Rachael Yamagata was really good, Wynonna was fabulous! Wynonna was also very chatty, probably for the same reason, the intimacy of the "tent". Also the Irish guy, Damien Rice, oh and the Gin Blossoms. It was good....not like years past though.....oh well!
So that was the highlights! My sister patty came up a couple times and we had a great time hanging out together and also with carly. Carly and I had fun working the midnight shift at the holiday Theatres again. It was fun to see and meet new and old friends.

My lucky break

About a week ago I was driving downtown to pick up Cassie from City College and I was reaching down to pick up my phone when I rammed into the back of the car in front of me! I thought more cars were going to make it through the next signal and apparently they did not. Of course the real problem was me reaching for my phone. I motioned for the driver to pull on to the shoulder so we could safely check out the damage.
I jumped out of the car and asked the young woman if she was okay. She said she was shaken, but okay and asked me how I was. The next thing I know we are hugging right there across from the Shell Station on 10th! Then we turned to look at the cars. My license plate was bent back about half way down but that was the extent of it. Her bumper looked fine! It had a couple of small scratches off to the side but she said she was sure they had been there all ready! I couldn’t believe my luck! I hit her pretty hard. I offered a few times to give her my info in case her neck or back started hurting, but she assured me she was fine. I think I might have hugged her again mostly relieved that she was okay but so grateful that she was so reasonable and sweet about it. I couldn’t wait to tell Cassie! As I drove off I couldn’t help but wonder what the people at the Shell station thought when they saw me hit the car then saw us hugging!
Cassie and went to get some lunch, then went to a “random act of kindness” put on by my favorite radio station. Guess who won tickets to Street Scene? That’s right, me.
A few days later Carly had a similar experience. She rolled into a car at the signal by her home and scratched the cars bumper. The driver and his wife were not so nice. The next day the man told her that their “necks were not hurting so they weren’t going to go THAT route”. Carly is still waiting the outcome of the dealerships findings on the car.
Not everyone can be so lucky.

Cinevegas 08

Cinevegas
I worked the Cinevegas Film festival this year! After meeting Goudge at Sundance this year, I knew I wanted to work other festivals like he does, and Cinevegas was a good one to start with! I talked my sister Joanie, Director of Durango Independent film fest, into working it also and we survived the 10 day festival pretty well! We got to see a few good movies and got into a bunch of parties at cool places as well. I saw a few docs that I really liked and a few good features and we even caught one of the shorts programs.

My pick for best of the fest would have to be Explicit Ills, directed/written by Mark Webber. I fell for this movie hook, line and sinker even though I didnt want to! It stared Rosario Dawson and Lou Taylor Pucci (the kid in Thumbsucker) and other great actors, especially the 8year old kid who played Rosarios son...anyway I loved it, even though it had moments of total predictability. The opening night film was also really good, The Rocker, starring Rainn Wilson, (aka Dwight- from the Office) This movie has distribution and so go see it! It's hilarious...Rainn totally rocks! He was so funny and came in costume to introduce the film, which showed in 3 theatres and he went into each one to welcome everyone and introduce the movie. Later that night he came to the opening party at Moon, on the 53rd floor of the Palms and danced with everyone and was totally cool talking to people and even rubbed up against my sister Joanie on the dance floor!! I hi-fived him once but kept my distance!
Other noteworthy movies were the docs. Hi My Name is Ryan was great, about a cherub of a teenager who decides to accept his life situation and make the most of it, no matter who he offends in the process. He decides to make everyday awesome, which is something we can all choose to do. He just goes about with different performance bands and acts.
Women in Boxes was interesting doc about the women assistants of magicians. Mostly about the older magicians but I found it very entertaining and a great Vegas pick!
The doc about the making of the Cirque show "Beatles Love", called All Together Now, was really good. I loved this "making of" movie because it chronicled the whole story from George and Cirque de Soleil's creater who were friends who first thought of the idea of a Beatles Cirque, to the opening night. Great peeks into what looks to be a true Love story of a show! Now I just have to go see it!
One of the special events was an outdoor drive in movie on Freemont St with a screening of the 1954 movie THEM! You remember this one, giant ants in New mexico due to all the nuclear testing....? I really liked it!
Other docs, Lost in the Fog, The End, Chelsea on the Rocks....we saw a few other narrative features but nothing worth mentioning...except for the one Happy Birthday, Harris Malden, by the cute Sweaty Robot guys. These 5 were adorable and sooo nice! The older ladies were all over them! especially Juan!
I did see Viggo Mortensen, up close and he kindof smiled at me and gave me a nod! Ian said I was grinning and blushing for about 10 minutes after, but I cant be sure. Yes, Aragorn gave me a nod! Sam Rockwell did a panel aslo, Joanie ushered that and I guess he's as spacey as he looks. I saw his movie Choke at Sundance and hated it, so didnt really care about seeing it or him actually. Anjelica Houston who plays his mother in Choke also did a panel. She looks fabulous and is well guarded. She really looks great.

Parties? Oh yes, there are lots of them. Being a non-drinker I am not all over the parties, but...they were at some pretty cool clubs! Tao, Moon, Rain, The Palazzo, The pool at Palms Place, Revolution Lounge...we even saw Brittany at the Palms Place party! That was also one of the few with food! All the returning volunteers said last year the food was better! The party at the club Rain made me feel like i was at Disneyland..and R rated Disneyland....I have never seen so many big boobs, and dancing girls in bikinis, or beautiful people whos job it is to just stand around in a bathing suit! Is that really a job? All of the parties had beautiful girls, and some guys, standing around in bathing suits> We even saw a couple girls with these huge angels wings and they were stuck up on the wall and one beautiful girl in a huge champange glass with pasties on and she was just blowing kisses and smiling...she was adorable....it was very surreal.

The volunteers were great also! I made friends with a bunch of older ladies who kept me laughing....they were crazy fun! Joanie and I did our share of dancing at these parties! Yes, we danced, mostly with fellow volunteer Rodney who knew all the songs...we did some shopping, and had a good time meeting people and she knew a bunch of industry people! One guy she knew was there with a friend and I thought his friend looked familiar, then later I read his badge and he was Beastie Boy, Adam. I think he was hoping not to be recognized, because later, when I read his name, I realized who he was and said "I know you!", he just kindof shrugged it off. He had a film at Sundance a couple years ago...thats how I knew him. ANyway, Mr. Mitchell had a film that only screened once call The Black List, that I really wanted to see but was working. Elvis (Mr. Mitchell) seems nice and he moderated some of the panels as well. SO...it was a fun week and I really liked all the people I got to work with! Everyone was so nice and really liked the theatre manager Stephanie. She is great. Joanie and I would rather have not had "volunteer" badges, we got kicked out of a couple of happy hours...maybe next year we can have badges that say "Industry", or at least Joanie.

Kabobs Mom

Not only am I lucky enough to be a mom of 3 great kids, I am also Kabobs mom! Kabob is our 10 year old yellow lab retired guide dog who we raised as a puppy and got him back last June. We weren't told why he was being retired or really anything about his life as a guide dog, just that he was going to be retired as a working dog and we had first crack at getting him back. We had gotton back another one of the guides that we had raised, Gunnison, and he died last January and so we jumped at the chance to have Kabob. We also had 11 year old Joelle who was never a working guide dog, who helped "raise" kabob so we knew she would love to have him back. Joelle has shoulder problems, not major problems but enough to get her "Career Changed" so she spent her life in luxury on two big pillows in our house. She was the softest dog and also passed last August. It was a sweet reunion when we brought Kabob home and Joelle and him sniffed each other out and then jumped around on each other, well kabob jumped on her! We used to say that kabob was such a good puppy because Joelle helped raise him! Anyway, now we are left alone with Kabob...even the kids are either on their own (Carly) or in Idaho at school (Cassie & Nick). Clint and I would be really lonely with out kabob to trip over at night because he moves off his comfy pillow bed to lay right next to our bed 6 feet closerto us. He is not without his quirks....he doesn't know how to chew on a dog bone/rawhide or anything that would help clean his teeth. it's like he has never been given a chew toy. He simply doesn't know what to do with it! He also absolutely hates being outside. Now I know this is common amongst house dogs. But Kabob will try to go behind me at the door to make sure that I will go out with him, so he has a better chance of getting back in if I go out! One of these days he's gonna push me out the back door! He also has replaced me as his blind person. He makes sure that I can go to the laundry room, garage, bathroom, anytime I get up and move around the house he is there by my side, or under my feet to make sure I find it okay. I am getting used to it and sometimes when I tell him I'll be right back, or to stay, he trusts me and waits for me....kindof. Mostly he is just a constant, loving, adoring, dozing presense in our life. Now if we could just get him to brush his own teeth.