The “it” liquors of Utah: Vida Tequila dominates

Cocktails and fashion have some similarities, right? We’ve long bid farewell to neon clothes, poofy 80s hair, and over-sweetened drinks. But like fashion, cocktail trends change with the times, and the refocus on quality ingredients and technique, make it an exciting time to drink in the good ol’ U.S.A. The art of the well-crafted cocktail … Read more

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company’s Spring Season concert promises electrifying intimacy

For this week’s spring program, the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company will offer three dance compositions – including two world premieres with original soundscapes in music – that imbue the simple Black Box Theatre venue in the Rose Wagner Center for Performing Arts with fresh cultural and emotional energy. For both performers and audience members, the works … Read more

Reaching views reserved for elite climbers on Ogden Canyon’s “Iron Road”

Utah adrenaline junkies get their high-altitude fix mountaineering towering limestone and granite peaks, throughout the state. I’ve watched plenty on belay over sharp outcroppings in various canyons, often anxious to jump in myself. While no one who knows me would ever mistake me for a mountaineer, I’ve managed to traverse my way up several domestic … Read more

Plan-B Theatre set to premiere Kingdom of Heaven, its 1st original musical

The genre of musicals in the 21st century is getting a flattering facelift. Hamilton, for example, with its tantalizing alchemy of stimulating passion for history through ingeniously accessible rap and hip hop stands out for how racial barriers in the making of art and culture can be dismantled. Fun Home, staged as theater in the … Read more

Utah Film Center sets presentations for Newtown documentary, Oscar-winning Spotlight

Two films – a documentary that premiered at Sundance in January and this year’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture – that delve into painful memories involving either the murder or sexual abuse of children are part of the upcoming Utah Film Center’s free, public schedule of screenings. The April 6 screening of Spotlight, the … Read more

Irish whiskey and an interview with Tim Herlihy for St. Patrick’s Day

Tullamore D.E.W. at Piper Down

In late February, I headed to Piper Down in Salt Lake City to meet up with Irish brand ambassador, pub historian and whiskey expert Tim Herlihy from Tullamore D.E.W. His mission: visit all 50 states in the 30 days leading up to St. Patrick’s Day on an Irish pub tour to see what every state … Read more

Lavish Spectacle, Strong Voices in Utah Opera’s Aida

Utah Opera's Aida. Photo credit: Heather L. King

It has been more than a decade since Utah Opera has staged the operatic blockbuster Aida by Giuseppi Verdi, and the energy at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre on opening night was palpable. The production, which runs through March 20, is strong, ambitious, and exciting, but not without a few missteps. Aida is the … Read more

O.C. Tanner Gift of Music: Mahler Symphony No. 8

O.C. Tanner Gift of Music: Mahler's Symphony No. 8

“Music is essential. It is universal,” Carolyn Tanner Irish, Chair of the Board at O.C. Tanner Company, writes. “It brings goodness, light and beauty into our lives.” For the seventeenth time, the Utah Symphony and Mormon Tabernacle Choir joined together for the O.C. Tanner Gift of Music series on February 19 and 20, 2016. The … Read more

Carlos Gaytán’s mission as Mexican culinary ambassador

The long immigration corridor from all parts of Mexico to all parts of the United States has brought some of the most gratifying results to the American restaurant industry, especially with ambitious, eager and talented chefs. No doubt, Carlos Gaytán, who spent three days last week in Salt Lake City in culinary events to raise … Read more

Plan-B Theatre’s Based On A True Story a smart, marvelous time travel experience

The art of writing a good time travel story can be difficult to the point of confounding, tentative, and enigmatic. The pilot script for Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone series was titled The Time Element, concerning a man who is in therapy with a psychoanalyst. Serling’s script lay untouched for a year before producers decided to … Read more