POSTED // Jan 14,2009 - nEVENTnBy Jenny PoplarnBeing frustrated with all things status quo can motivate some artists. Dancer, choreographer, SB Dance founder and straight married guy Stephen Brown decided that the outcome of Prop 8 was frightfully unfair. So, Brown—along with Plan-B Theatre Company’s Jerry Rapier—invited some of Salt Lake City’s finest theater and dance companies to participate in...

POSTED // Jan 7,2009 - Looking at an artist’s body of work, motifs and themes tend to repeat themselves over the course of a career and can create a lexicon of symbols, even a mythos—not exact, but allusive and suggestive. Over his career, David Ruhlman has created an individual style that also draws on influences from religion, history, artistic predecessors and folk art. As a self-taught painter, he has be...

POSTED // Jan 7,2009 - Just like that, 2008 is gone already. It seems like just yesterday comic-book fans were on the edge of their seat anticipating whether it would be Final Crisis or Secret Invasion that ruled the industry. But since the new year has arrived with the slate wiped clean, here’s a look back at the year that was. nnnBest Writer: Matt Fraction—He’s been a fringe player for the past coupl...

POSTED // Jan 7,2009 - nBOOKSnBy Scott Renshawn Late in her new memoir That Went Well—about life caring for her mentally disabled sister, Irene—TERRELL HARRIS DOUGAN expresses a very human sentiment about her experience. “I’m not going to go all sappy on you and tell you that these angels have blessed our lives,” Dougan writes. “On the contrary. My sister is a big pain in the ass hal...

POSTED // Dec 31,2008 - Now that the holidays are over, the only thing that will get many through the dark months of winter is the prospect of a ski trip. The problem is, in these times, even those who still have actual jobs or didn’t max out their credit cards with Christmas shopping have little cash sitting around to spend on weekend adventures to the mountains. nA local getaway option that provides both world-cl...

POSTED // Dec 31,2008 - nThere’s a scene in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line where Cash and his band are in the middle of a poor audition for Sun Music’s Sam Phillips. Phillips stops the gospel tune Cash is playing and asks him if he were dying and could only sing one song to sum up his time on Earth, what would it be? nThat’s sort of how I approach trying to decide what my favorite games are. I try...

POSTED // Dec 31,2008 - nIn a world growing ever more focused on “living green”—and in a state where preserving natural beauty is always part of the political debate—it’s a fitting time to take another look at the life of pioneering environmentalist John Muir. Environmental historian Donald Worster takes a comprehensive look at the scientist and Sierra Club founder in A Passion for Nature: T...

POSTED // Dec 31,2008 - nVISUAL ARTnBy Brian StakernIn the setting of a rare-book store, everything seems to take on a rarified air, even the newest paperback book. Amid all the history, Ken Sanders’ annual JOINT ARTIST SHOW assembles notable names in local art for a rare chance to see great original works. nAlmost an entire wall of Pat Bagley “cartoon paintings” is a spectacle in and of itself, and his...

POSTED // Dec 24,2008 - Surely the obscene desperation so many put into the necessity of having a date—or at least exciting plans—for New Year’s Eve is some sort of cognitive dissonance connected to the emperor’s-new-clothes fear of being the one to come out and say it: It’s the most overrated night of the year. nSo sure, if you want to laugh at all the suckers who get depressed just because...

POSTED // Dec 24,2008 - Art and government entities go together like oil paint and water bills—but the largest and most comprehensive collection of Utah artwork is housed in a government edifice. Salt Lake County’s collection of more than 450 original works in paint, photography, pottery and sculpture assembles many of the best-known local artists with some up-and-comers to create a surprisingly eclectic grou...