Authors: Alex Springer
Salt Lake Comic Con 2014: Stephen Amell and John Barrowman
Having since joined the Arrow bandwagon—better late than never, friends—I was considerably pumped to see that the show’s hero and villain would be making a back to back panel appearance. … read more
Salt Lake Comic Con 2014: Film Festival
For folks who wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of Comic Con and sit in the dark for eight to ten hours, the Salt Lake Comic Con Film Festival was up and running at the Gateway Megaplex all three days of the convention. … read more
Salt Lake Comic Con 2014: Battlefield Live
Jeanie Burdie and her family take the looming threat of a zombie apocalypse seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they founded Battlefield Live, a mobile laser tag arena dedicated to helping civilians deal with the living dead. … read more
Pop-up Persian Restaurant @ Meditrina 09.21
Regardless of my lack of experience with Persian culture, the events of this Sunday evening transported me to a place I had never been before. This unexpected journey was the brainchild of Shahrzad Jalili and Hossein Dadkha, who are seeking to recapture one of old Iran’s most popular social scenes—the neighborhood café. … read more
Celebrate the Bounty 2014
Not only is Celebrate the Bounty one of the best places to see the rock stars of Utah’s culinary scene work their magic, it’s also a heartfelt tribute to our state’s ability to produce and distribute amazing local ingredients. This evening, the Union Pacific Station was outfitted with representatives from some of the best restaurants in town—an apt setting, considering the gastronomical tour that was in store for the attendees. … read more
Charles Halford: Local Boy Turned Demon Hunter
Charles Halford, an actor who grew up in Salt Lake City, has been cast as the role of Chas Chandler, Constantine’s cab driver/drinking buddy/demon hunter. Halford, whose TV work includes HBO’s True Detective and ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., took some time to chat with us about NBC’s new show Constantine, as well as the simple pleasures of taking a punch in the name of the performing arts. … read more
War and Eats: Chef Katie Weinner Dishes on Top Chef
Because of Katie Weinner’s inventive cooking style, Bravo’s reality cooking competition, Top Chef, sought her out as an applicant for the show. Since then, she’s been representing Utah’s culinary scene with professionalism and grace under pressure. … read more
Cyber Heist: Local Game Rocks the Indie Festival Circuit
It’s the year 2114. The price tag on higher education has been jacked up to an exorbitant rate, resulting in billions of dollars in student debt. Sensing a financial loophole, the Department of Education begins to allow mega corporations to purchase these outstanding debts, effectively turning college students into indentured servants. … read more
Sundance Film Review: 6 Desires: DH Lawrence and Sardinia
On paper, this film comes across as pretty damn intellectually daunting—the type of film that goes over your head. But something about the director’s rhythmic narration set to images of dew-flecked spider webs succeed in transporting the audience into this strange world that appears to have remained unchanged since the 1920s. … read more
Sundance Film Review: It Follows
David Robert Mitchell’s dissection of the paranoia and emotional detachment that plagues our suburbs is the genesis of this fresh interpretation of the horror genre. It Follows feels like a natural progression of the teenage horror film—one that uses the complexity of today’s young people as a canvas for some expertly-crafted, psychosexual drama. … read more
Sundance Film Review: The Hunting Ground
Though the bulk of the film focuses on articulating how colleges like Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley spend more of their resources on covering up sexual allegations than actually punishing the perpetrators, the stories of the survivors and their efforts to gain national traction and support leaves the audience with the feeling that things are slowly changing for the better. … read more
Sundance Film Review: The Witch
Robert Eggers pulls no punches and makes no apologies in this film. The Witch’s scenes are steeped in primal dread, and each actor makes the audience feel the seams come apart as paranoia and mistrust begin to take their toll. The performances are explosive, the tension is gut-wrenching, and the settings are nightmarish. … read more
