Gabe Spotts has become the next and newest Am to rise up from the Provo area. Like his friends and heroes Matt Fisher and Brodie Penrod, Spotts is hoping to garner enough attention to eventually get him out of the suburbs and into the big city. With the help of his sponsors, which include local companies Fortica Skateboards, Discrete Headwear, Skullcandy and Board of Provo, Spotts has been keeping the Utah scene relevant through traveling and competing on the amateur circuit. … read more
Summer in the Winter: Words with Logan Summers
The origin of Logan Summers’ skate career isn’t typical. He got his first skateboard for his birthday when he was about 7, only to let it collect dust for another year or so. Then, for no reason that he could recall, he picked it back up, telling me, “I kinda did it on my own, for the most part. I didn’t really have any friends that [skated].” Now, kid is prolific, skating in national amateur competitions like the Damn Ams and Tampa Am, and wrangling big sponsorships. … read more
Beer Reviews 4/13
Any beer that you manage to get your hands on has its own little sliver of history to go along with it. I’m not talking about beers being made with the brewer’s “beard yeast” or some crazed fringe zymurgist deciding to throw yak testicles into his latest stout—I’m talking about culturally significant reasons why one region’s beer is so much different than anothers. Looking back on Lenten season (the six weeks leading up to Easter), I thought it would be appropriate to review some beers that were originally designed especially for Lent. … read more
Mike Brown: The Mustang Experience
After driving a souped-up Mustang GT around the racetrack at the Larry Miller Motorsports Park last week, I should have said I wanted to be a goddamn racecar driver. … read more
Finding My Pioneer Roots
I had wanted to be involved with the annual Beer Issue since its conception, but there was always one glaring problem: I don’t drink beer. As SLUG Magazine’s Highest Ranking Mormon ™, I was limited in what I could contribute. I had always been obsessed with the process of making beer (much like early Mormons were until that whole “Word of Wisdom” thing came along) and was intrigued by the culture of local home brewing. As I looked into it, I realized that, with an increase in home beer production, there was also an increase in the number of brewers that wanted to share the experience with their kids—albeit in a non-alcoholic way. Thus, I found my calling: I would brew my own root beer. … read more
Beautiful Godzilla: I Am Not an Athlete
Yes, people, I signed up for OKCupid, the online-dating website. Since I spend a decent amount of time on a bicycle and/or organizing bicycle events (and writing a column about bicycles), that’s obviously something I added to the interests portion of my profile. After getting a handful of messages from “granola” types whose profiles lauded cringe-inducing key words like “hiking,” “climbing,” “camping” and “outdoors,” I realized I was inaccurately marketing myself as athletic. … read more
Product Reviews 4/13
Products from Arnette Sunglasses, Braven, Goal Zero, Xotovo and Zensah are reviewed this month. … read more
Contributor Limelight: Madelyn Boudreaux
Our resident Goth aficionado, bred from the wetlands of Louisiana, Madelyn has been on our staff since 2009, reviewing everything dark and dismal that shuffles through the SLUG offices. Don’t let her penchant for doom and gloom fool you, though––she’s also an avid foodie with a soft spot for ethnic cuisine, and her warm descriptions of the food she reviews always have us drooling. … read more
Localized: The Insurgency and Hectic Hobo
This month’s Localized, on June 15, showcases two hard-rocking groups of completely different spectrums. Salty old-school punkers The Insurgency and dusty vagabond gypsies Hectic Hobo will share the stage and are sure to generate two sets you can easily jerk your limbs to. To round out the evening, indie-blues cross-pollinators The Red on Black will be opening. Per usual, the event is 21+ at Urban Lounge, free until 10:30 p.m. then $5 at the door. The show is presented by GigViz.com, the ultimate online-viewing tube for you underage babies, child-addled hermits and those in faraway lands. … read more
Dear Dickheads – June 2013
Dear Gotti,
As the roommate of two lesbians, I feel ya, man. Imagine two sets of pitchy groans …and this is what it really comes down to … IMAGINE two sets of pitchy groans. … read more
Gallery Stroll: Five Lessons For Loving Art
You’ve heard the cliché: “If you love it, set it free.” Well, that really doesn’t apply to loving art. … read more
The Concrete Waves of the Great Salt Lake
Hill bombing is the foundation of skateboarding. Sometime in the early 1950s, California surfers started unscrewing the trucks from their roller skates and began attaching them to carved planks of wood in an effort to figure out how to surf the streets. Skateboards were skinnier then and had clay wheels, but they still got the job done. Searching for the perfect concrete wave when the ocean lay flat became a daily occurrence among the California natives, until pool skating got big in the ’70s. You see, cruising hills wasn’t like the skate park back then—it was the skate park. Since that time, the concrete wave has only grown. … read more
