Do you know what busking is? If you are a regular to reading my column, I’m guessing you are too drunk or lazy to Google it, so allow me to do that for you. According to the app on my robot phone, to busk is to entertain by dancing, singing or reciting on the street or in a public place. It’s a goddamn street performance. … read more
Beautiful Godzilla: Take a Look, It’s In a Book
It all began with the Bike Snob NYC blog. I was working as the door girl at Brewvies––which essentially meant I’d stare down my nose at kids my age and demand to see their IDs in between writing college papers––and picked up on reading the latest Bike Snob post during my shift. He was the main influence of this column, obviously, though I only chose “Beautiful Godzilla” as the title because “Feminist Bicycle Rants” was already taken by some anarchists in Brooklyn. … read more
Mike Brown’s Monthly Dirt: Babies!
Accidents happen in life. You can’t get mad at them or avoid them. Cars crash, people trip and fall, my favorite pair of pants gets diarrhea-ed, meth labs explode and condoms break. I guess that’s why whenever I hear one of my friends slipped one past the goalie, I have the same reaction as if I had just heard they fell off a cliff: “Oh, fuck!” … read more
Not Just Your Grandma’s Attic: A Closer Look at the Pioneer Memorial Museum
The first time I visited the Daughters of Utah Pioneers’ (DUP) Pioneer Memorial Museum (PMM), despite being heavily medicated and unable to articulate thoughts coherently, I left the museum in awe. I’d never seen anything like it. As a history nerd and a historical kitsch connoisseur, I knew I needed to work there. With the help of my adoptive grandma, I signed up to be a docent, and for the time I spent in Utah, I was a faithful volunteer for eight months. … read more
Princess Kennedy: The Wise-Tran Cometh
Starting this month through January, the UMFA is featuring the photographic work and video performance art of Samoan-born artist Shigeyuki Kihara, aka Yuki. … read more
Colton Reeves Ericksen 1993-2013
Colton Reeves Ericksen, often called “Toner,” was a 19-year-old beacon of light whose passion for life, music and his friends was tragically cut short. He passed on July 15, traveling to Chicago with our band, Dark Seas, in a freeway accident. … read more
Taqueria 27: an Original Spin on Classic Food
As soon as I entered Taqueria 27, my eye was drawn to a wall-sized chalkboard that featured beautiful sketches of the restaurant’s vast selection of beer and tequila. Though I’m not a drinker myself, I hear tell that drinking beer and/or tequila with one’s tacos is the shit. So when you come to this restaurant and see their dedication to providing customers with a wide variety of drinks alongside their wide variety of tacos, you get the sense that someone knows what they’re doing. … read more
Making Provo Weird: The Provo Bicycle Collective
You live in Provo and can’t afford to buy a new bike or pay for repairs at a shop. Maybe you want to learn how to take care of your bike or ride along the streets safely. Maybe you’re considering moving down past the point of the mountain and want to make sure you’ll be taken care of as a cyclist. If you fall into any of these scenarios, allow me to introduce you to a new friend: The Provo Bicycle Collective. … read more
Skate Photo Feature: Danny Souk
It had been five years since I shot a photo with Danny Souk. Thanks to the miracle of Instagram, I was able to see that he was skating Downtown by himself at the same time I was. A quick comment later, and we were looking for spots with enough light to skate. Social media is useful (sometimes). … read more
Beer Pubs with History and Swagger
There is no better way to learn more about Utah’s history with beer than to take a guided tour of a few of the most charismatic pubs in Salt Lake City. The Thirst Fursday Historic Pub Crawl is sponsored by the Utah Heritage Foundation, an organization committed to preserving Utah’s historical buildings through outreach like this fun and drinky tour. On the first Thursday of the month, three pubs are crawled to, all offering insight into Salt Lake’s history. … read more
Mad Max & The Wild Ones: the New Normal
The standard order of things is that, when we find rock n’ roll, we use it to piss off our parents—not to start a family rockabilly band with Dad playing upright bass and Little Brother taking on lead vocals at the age of 4. But “standard” and “normal” are not words that anyone would use to describe the Maxwell family, nor Mad Max & The Wild Ones. … read more
Tolchock Trio: 2000–2013
Tolchock Trio, the group best known for being a performing contradiction by playing as a quartet, are finally calling it quits, three years after everyone already thought they did. However, they did accomplish two things most bands never do: They made more than two albums and stayed together longer than 18 months … So that’s something. … read more
