However, the Swiss-born artist should not be underestimated because of her easy propensity for whimsy touches and occasional silliness. Her work, rich in vibrant and lush colors, resists the anti-chromatic impulses of several major postwar European art movements. Yet, it also resists the tendency of absolutism readily adopted by the ultra-serious individual artist who sees himself (or herself) as the rigid authority of aethesticisim.

In the latest installment of the Creativity in Focus series, sponsored by the Utah Film Center and the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA), ‘The Color of Your Socks: A Year with Pipilotti Rist,’ directed by Michael Hegglin, is a thoroughly entertaining crisply-paced romp showing the artist’s preparation for a major installation at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City.

The film will be screened in a free, public program Friday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. at the UMOCA’s auditorium.

The 52-minute documentary follows the preparations for ‘Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)’ which opened in November of 2008 at MOMA. Viewers catch the significance of the film’s title at the 48-minute mark when MOMA’s security guards ask the artist how they should handle any visitors who resist the polite instructions to remove their shoes so they can enter on the white-carpet section of the installation. In her characteristic good-natured tone, Rist says they should say something like being curious about the ‘color of your socks.’

The documentary underscores Rist’s capacity for the type of engagement that resounds consistently throughout her work. She eagerly invites the cameras to chronicle the problem-solving details that go into her widely praised video installations. There are a few moments, too, where viewers see how the artist works around the various limitations and logistical issues posed by the host museum.

The MOMA video exhibit, which took the museum’s conservation department 93 hours to copy, included a 16-minute video loop with images rising 25 feet and a carpeted sculpture in the form of a sitting island. However, viewers familiar with Rist’s work go well beyond the most obvious signs of pleasure and whimsical décor to see how the artist cleverly transforms the museum’s space where spectators literally can pour their body out in how they see the exhibit not only within their own intimate boundaries but also in the way they potentially interact with others. As Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine’s senior art critic, wrote at the time of the exhibit:

‘Shoes and coats are everywhere. People lie around, lean on walls, sleep and sprawl in groups on the floor and couch. On one of my visits, the well-known painter Gary Stephan drifted by and said, “I wish I had some ganja.” This is museum as hallucination, opium den, Lotus Land, cubbyhole and pleasure dome. Call it Trance Central station.’

Perhaps the most meaningful take-away from Rist’s work is that artists – and literally each of us – should never hesitate to liberate ourselves from unnecessary fears, even if the results turn out to be a mixed bag of successes and failures. That theme is most prominent in ‘Pepperminta,’ Rist’s first full-length feature film about a young woman, played by the same actress who appears in the video installation portrayed in the documentary.

The film follows Pepperminta, bedecked in a motley-colored drum major’s uniform, who gathers up a colorful troupe of apostles as they mischievously upend the gray, grim sensibilities of authority figures in a European city. Unashamedly silly, the film nevertheless reinforces precisely the artistic statement that is so evident in ‘The Color of Your Socks’ documentary.

For more information, see here and here.

FOOL
Substance abuse.

–Aden Ross, 2011

At about the same time, ‘Amerika,’ was given its world premiere by Plan-B Theatre in 2006, Aden Ross had already begun work on a farcical mashup drawing from a dozen or so Shakespearean characters that was inspired, in part, by her deep anger with the Bush administration and frustration at the president’s chronic penchant for malapropisms.

While ‘Amerika’ was a highly successful theatrical manifesto that zeroes in on the dangers of a nation’s ruling class whose abuses of power manage to escape the public’s constant vigilance, ‘Lady Macbeth’ would capitalize upon the subversive potential of blatant absurdity.
‘And as with any human condition Shakespeare tackled in his work, he was absolute genius for showing the timelessness of political ineptitude,’ explains Ross.

‘However, admittedly, my original versions of the play also were more diatribe than true comedy,’ she admits, adding that there probably were too many Bush-like malapropisms which made the play seem more dated than what she intended. The play had been workshopped as part of the Utah Shakespeare Festival’s New American Playwrights Project and last spring as part of Plan-B’s Script-in-Hand series.

Plan-B’s world premiere of ‘Lady Macbeth,’ which begins Thursday, Oct. 27, now promises to be a riotously funny mashup of Shakespeare and the contemporary inanity of American politics that delivers the appropriately subversive polemical punch.

Audience members will immediately get gems such as ‘budget defecations’ and ‘evolution vs. cretinism,’ reminding them of Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin who have taken malapropisms to yet even lower levels than what was imaginable during the Bush years.

They’ll think instantaneously about the current crop of candidates for the Republican presidential nomination when they hear Lady Macbeth say, ‘Remember what you wrote for my campaign speech: “Trust is founded on ignorance.”’ And, the Fool corrects her: ‘Trust. Will founder. On ignorance.’

And, as Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Beast reminds us how Rick Perry is Bush without the conscience or sophistication, Ross’ script has evolved from its formative days during the Bush years into a satirical romp that forces an eye-opening perspective about upon the audience member wondering just how to make sense of the American political enterprise. Never bilious or cruel, the satire easily invites the audience to feel becoming comfortable and confident not only with Shakespeare but also with recognizing and challenging the inauthentic and sly reinventions politicians try to pass off consistently on to the public.

Set in the Scottish court and the nearby forest, the play incorporates an impressive roster of Shakespeare characters and references: Lady Macbeth, the court fool, Iago, Portia, Gertrude, Malvolio, Ophelia, and Othello. In Ross’ hand, some characters such as Iago, Ophelia, and Malvolio get customized treatment.

The storyline goes: Lady Macbeth and her sister, Queen Gertrude of Denmark, have both been widowed recently under suspicious circumstances. Meanwhile, Iago is wandering Birnam Wood in disguise, where he meets Portia, also in disguise; together they spy on Othello, a sexy soldier of fortune whose ship has just been wrecked on the shores of Scotland. Malvolio and Ophelia, members of Gertrude’s court, add to the confusion of mistaken identities, cross-dressing, and separated twins.

One of Ross’ most marvelous elements is ‘Wicked Leaks,’ a play within a play written by the rational Fool. This sets the stage for some of the play’s wittiest moments such as the following:

OTHELLO
[Disgust re: the upcoming play.]
We should be mobilizing for war, not watching a bunch of eunuchs playing dress-up.

OPHELIA
You can learn a lot from the theater.

GERTRUDE [To OPHELIA.]
Soldiers don’t deal in nuance and latent meanings.

OTHELLO
You can’t be latent and be a soldier.

The script demonstrates that Ross, who spent 25 years teaching Shakespeare before deciding to devote her work full time as a playwright and author, sees the value of practicality in creating a fresh perspective of relevance and contemporaneity in appreciating Shakespeare. As easy it is to target the bungling, awkward articulations of Bush, it is more significant to remember that his handlers and political advisers manipulated him because he could not think independently about the most pressing matters of national interest. Indeed, we should know more about Shakespeare, history, culture, and philosophical ethics, but we also need to avoid cultural elitism if we want to challenge the by-products of false consciousness that taint our societies and communities.

Directed by Jerry Rapier, the production features a larger-than-normal cast common for Plan-B plays. The cast includes Kirt Bateman (Malvolio), Joe Debevc (Othello), April Fossen (Gertrude), Tracie Merrill (Portia), Lauren Noll (Ophelia), Jay Perry (Iago), Michelle Peterson (Lady Macbeth) and Jason Tatom (Fool).

Rounding out production duties are Cheryl Ann Cluff (Sound), Curtis Kidd (props), Phillip R. Lowe (costumes), Jesse Portillo (lighting) and Randy Rasmussen (set). Jennifer Freed will serve as stage manager.

The run goes through Nov. 6. Performances will be Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 4 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 and $10 for students. For more information, call 801-355-ARTS or visit here.

The production also received a grant from the Cultural Vision Fund.

As in many other years, the onstage female voice will again be prominent in the forthcoming 21st season of Plan-B Theatre. However, the significance that all three world premiere productions – ‘Lady Macbeth,’ ‘The Third Crossing,’ and ‘The Scarlet Letter’ – are penned by Utah women is one that should not be lost upon the audience.

‘There’s been a quite a debate about the lack of the female playwright’s voice on the American stage,’ says Jerry Rapier, Plan-B’s producing director. ‘Certainly that voice is less plentiful in many areas outside of Salt Lake. I would say that here in Utah, given our size relative to much larger theater markets, we probably would rank in the top when it comes to produced works by female playwrights – or by original playwrights overall.’

All three playwrights – Aden Ross, Debora Threedy, and Jenifer Nii – have had work produced by Plan-B with excellent results. Rapier adds it is a coincidence that the entire season’s offerings this year are by women. ‘Each of these plays happened to be ready for staging at this point,’ he adds.

There may be 5,000 or more women playwrights in the United States. While women make up approximately 40 percent of the Dramatists Guild of America’s membership (and there are roughly a little more than 2,200 women members), barely 10 percent of works of all types produced by regional, resident theaters, and off-Broadway houses were written by women.

And, women playwrights have barely gained ground in the last century. A 2009 article in The Dramatist indicated that in the 1908-09 New York stage season, a larger percentage of works (13 percent) by women playwrights was staged than in 2008-2009 (12.8 percent).

Unfortunately, while no one either in or out of the artistic field has been able to offer a solid testable hypothesis about why this is so, some of Plan-B’s most successful works – with all but 22 of its productions in its 20-year history as world premieres – have been penned by women. These include Carol Lynn Pearson’s ‘Facing East,’ which transferred off-Broadway, toured in San Francisco, and is now being adapted for a film. Ross’ 2006 play ‘Amerika’ also was produced in Toronto’s Fringe Festival. Mary Dickson’s ‘Exposed’ toured Utah and Lesléa Newman’s ‘A Letter to Harvey Milk’ toured to Der Lesbisch-schwules Kulturhaus in Frankfurt, Germany.

Already, more than 75 percent of the tickets for Ross’ new play ‘Lady Macbeth,’ which opens next week (see tomorrow’s Selective Echo for a preview), have been sold. This is a consistent phenomenon with Plan-B’s strong original brand of theatrical works that deftly challenges cultural and historical biases and stereotypes and effectively trumps the defects of mainstream elitist approaches to cultural awareness and knowledge.

The formula obviously works. Its string of consecutive sold-out productions has spanned the last five seasons.

Plan-B’s new season builds upon a much broader, deeper theme that has been percolating and evolving over the last few years in its work. This, of course, is the era of telegenic politicians, the Glenn Becks, Sarah Palins, Tea Party activists, and other self-anointed conservative keepers of the long-standing humanities canon who believe they have rightly distilled the meaning and intent of classic literature and the nation’s historical narrative as it has been told for the last two centuries.

However, each of these three plays – whether it’s Shakespeare, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic book, or the widely recognized yet hugely incomplete story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings – leads audiences to reconnect with the larger importance of the literature and history. And, to help us realize that each of us has a more extended cultural obligation going well beyond the mere capacity to ‘name drop’ Shakespeare, Sally Hemings, or Hester Prynne as a way of impressing others with our knowledge of trivia.

In their original works, Ross, Threedy, and Nii transform the disparate or remote elements of these historical and literary artifacts into passionate, contemporarily exciting opportunities that suddenly awaken the audience to the practicality of knowing these stories. And, at a time where obsequious loyalty – whether in the community, political arena, and the workplace – seems to be more valued than an independently confident command of even general knowledge, these works awaken our keenest urges to beef up our cultural and historical literacy.

Plan-B’s socially conscious theater, indeed, enriches our lives especially in the practical realm. These plays open up channels for us to have the ideal conversations emboldening us to stand up for our beliefs and principles and to enrich our capacities for loving our families, raising the members of our younger generations, and improving our communities.

Lady Macbeth, which will run from Oct. 27 to Nov. 6, incorporates an impressive roster of Shakespeare characters and references: Lady Macbeth, the court fool, Iago, Portia, Gertrude, Malvolio, Ophelia, and Othello. In Ross’ hand, some characters such as Iago, Ophelia, and Malvolio get customized treatment. Ross is concerned not only about the absurdity of our political discourse but also about how corporatism has rendered government ineffectual.

Aiming for the full weight of contemporary urgency, ‘Lady Macbeth’ becomes an entertaining polemical mashup of Shakespeare and an always full supply of malapropisms, pop culture references, and appropriately timed absurdities. It reminds us that having a broad baseline knowledge about the world – without necessarily being imprisoned or paralyzed by wonky details or Machiavellian machinations – is probably the best attribute to have in making the most judicious choices about how we should progress.

In Threedy’s ‘Third Crossing,’ (March 8-18, 2012) while she examines the relationship between Jefferson and Hemings, Threedy sets the tone for developing a more informed understanding about race in this country. As Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor for The Atlantic, has written:

‘Put bluntly, this is a country too ignorant of itself to grapple with race in any serious way. The very nomenclature — “conversation on race” — betrays the unseriousness of the thing by communicating the sense that race can be boxed from the broader American narrative. It proceeds from the sense that one can intelligently speak of Thomas Jefferson without mentioning Sally Hemings; that one can discuss Andrew Jackson without discussing the black artillerymen who fought with him (and were ultimately betrayed by him) at the Battle of New Orleans; that one can discuss suffrage without Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells or Frederick Douglass.’

Threedy, a member of the University of Utah law school faculty, is particularly well suited as a playwright to shift the perspective away from verdicts and conclusive answers to enlightened questions and searches for evidence.

Nii’s adaptation of ‘The Scarlet Letter’ (April 12-22, 2012) shows that Hawthorne’s story, published more than 160 years ago, remains fresh and timeless in the 21st century, all while preserving the period integrity of the author’s original manuscript. Nii pulls to the surface all of the most uncomfortable elements that reveal the more accurate accounts of a deeply embarrassing, violent, and religious stream of national consciousness that rips apart the fairytale version of our school days and reminds us just how religious discord always has been a part of our national psyche.

The season will close May 12 with its ninth annual ‘Slam,’ Plan-B’s annual benefit and playwriting slam competition. Performances for all productions will be held at the Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Salt Lake City.

Other events include Plan-B’s involvement on Nov. 7 in the global theatrical event, “Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays.’ The performance in the Creer Auditorium of The Salt Lake Art Center is part of the company’s Script-in-Hand series and will feature local radio personality Bill Allred, Equality Utah Executive Director Brandie Balken, Kirt Bateman, Kim Blackett, RadioWest’s Doug Fabrizio, Stephanie Howell, Jay Perry, Teresa Sanderson and Betsy West. Proceeds from the local event will benefit Equality Utah.

Free readings of new plays in progress – the Script-in-Hand Series – will be held once again this season in conjunction with the Meat and Potato Theatre and the Theatre Arts Conservatory. The dates include March 14 and April 18. In the late summer.

Mindful of making its artistic efforts as widely accessible and affordable as possible, Plan-B has kept ticket prices stable and its budget as austere as possible. However, as with any fully engaged community artistic organization, it will need further financial support to continue its mission of presenting original work by Utah playwrights. And, consistently sold-out productions testify strongly to the deep base of original writing talent being cultivated in Utah.

As a cultural enterprise as wisely predicated on prudent business management as it is in busting conventional aesthetic boundaries of theater, Plan-B has provided the creative outlet for nearly 800 artists in its history. With more than 60 awards under its belt, Plan-B also has been instrumental in raising funds for nearly 40 local nonprofit organizations.

Season subscriptions are $75, which represent significant savings off the single ticket price of $20 and $40 for the playwriting slam benefit. Student tickets are available for individual performances at $10 each.

For more information, see here.

When an audience member at one of her lectures asks if she ever consults anyone else for advice, she says, ‘Who do I go to when I want a second opinion? You mean, like a cardiologist? That would be the only time.’ She laments that too many people are writing books that are terrible because people have been taught to have self esteem. She argues that the best culture comes from a natural aristocracy of talent. Lebowitz, soon to be 61, is firmly for smokers’ rights, adding that the history of art has always been about talking, drinking and smoking in bars and cafes.

The 2010 Home Box Office (HBO) documentary will be screened Friday, Oct. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Salt Lake Art Center auditorium as part of the Utah Film Center’s Creativity in Focus series, sponsored in part by Rio Tinto.

While audience members should not expect to see any deep background details about her formative life, the documentary is really a beautifully edited monologue of her appearances (featuring moderator Toni Morrison) interspersed with footage of her speaking in her customary booth at the Waverly Inn as well as scenes from the 1960s and 1970s featuring William F. Buckley, Jr., Truman Capote, Pablo Casals, Jack Paar, Gore Vidal, Oscar Levant, and James Baldwin.

As for the film’s epiphany, it refers to the extraordinary and refreshing self-confidence of a brilliant wit and mind that refuses to be constrained by digital tools or to be reduced to the pablum dictates of a contemporary age. Lebowitz proudly states that she does not have a computer or cell phone and wonders if a microwave oven would allow someone to text.

One of her favorite possessions, in fact, is a pale gray Checker Taxi Cab that she bought for $9,000 in 1978 with the money she received for a book advance. Lebowitz, who, at 19, moved from her native New Jersey to New York City’s West Village in 1969, drove a cab part-time each month just enough to cover her $121 rent. In the film, the car still looks magnificent, the product of meticulous restoration and its owner’s care.

Lebowitz came rapidly into her own during the 1970s, especially as a columnist for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine and then later for Mademoiselle. The magazine columns – or more accurately, essays – became part of two classic best-selling books Metropolitan Life and Social Studies, published in 1978 and 1981, respectively. A master of repurposing writing, she gathered the essays of both books into the ‘Fran Lebowitz Reader.’

She also published a children’s book called ‘Mr. Chas and Lisa Sue Meet the Pandas,’ which, as recollected in the film, caused a good deal of consternation among panda experts who were upset that the author had the animals eating pizza.

Those unfamiliar with Lebowitz, who is a widely sought speaker, might be quite surprised at how small her published oeuvre actually is. Already successful at 27, she resisted, as we learn, lucrative offers from Hollywood studios to turn both of her books into movie scripts. She already had decided that her next book would be a novel, ‘Exterior Signs of Wealth.’ However, she lapsed into her famous writer’s block – or as she calls it, ‘writer’s blockade’ – which only has been recently lifted.

To give a sense of just how long this blockade had gone on, one only needs to refer to a 1993 Paris article in an interview with James Linville and George Plimpton:

‘Because I didn’t write. I had an idea for this book, but I wrote very little. When I was about twenty and had just started publishing, I thought: I’ll write two books of these funny essays and then I’ll write a novel. I never wanted to write a novel first. I had—because of my aversion to young people, even when I was a young person—an aversion toward writing a young person’s novel. There are few books written by people in their twenties that, even if they are great books, are not in some way young people’s books. It’s that base longing of youth that really irritates me. I like a person who is more embittered. That embittered sensibility is not possible in a young person. You can be nasty when you are young, but you really have to be older to achieve bitterness. When I finished Social Studies, I had an idea for the novel, but I thought I needed a form for the book. When I was writing all those little essays, most of the topics I wrote about, everyone had written about. Everyone has written about everything; you’re not going to come up with some new topic to write about. So I always tried to come up with some kind of form for the piece that would be intrinsic to what I was saying. I like restrictions when I write. I don’t understand people who want more freedom. The terrifying thing about writing is freedom, when people say, but you can do anything. I don’t want to be able to do anything, that’s too terrifying.’

Not one moment sags in this 82-minute documentary, thanks to the appropriate New York sensibilities of Scorsese, whose technique in this film also reflects to a different artistic period. However, Lebowitz appears effortlessly timeless. Her 1997 Vanity Fair essay about race in America remains a must-read piece that seems even more relevant after the 2008 election. She is a favorite guest on late night television talk shows, recently returning to David Lettermen after a 16-year absence. And, she appeared as a tough-talking judge on a Law and Order episode.

Indeed, rare is the artist such as Lebowitz with a fascinating gift to resist the temptation to conform or compromise while still being able to outshine virtually every other figure in brilliant articulation, verbal or written.

For more information about the series see here.

With a name change this season – known for its first nine years as the SLC Film Center – the organization is poised to carve its place among the state’s preeminent cultural institutions. In broadening its outreach to Logan, Ogden, Moab, St. George, and other state locations, the UFC uses film – which founder and board chair Geralyn Dreyfous says is so ideally flexible and portable as a form of creative expression – to capture and cultivate a socially connected network that is inspired by film to take up the “what can we do” challenge for creating better engagements in our community.

It was that recognition of film’s capacity to inspire a community-based identity that overcomes the constraints of contentious dichotomies and social fragmentation, which inspired Dreyfous, along with Nicole Guillemet and Kathryn Toll, to form the center in 2002. The original proposal called for the project to be a local adjunct to the Sundance Film Festival, of which Guillemet was co-director at the time. However, in the spring of that year, Guillemet moved to take charge of the Miami International Film Festival.

Dreyfous brought Toll on board and both women, with impressive portfolios in both philanthropy and the film industry, knew instinctively the center could flourish first by capitalizing upon their close connections with filmmakers and industry distributors and then by collaborating with local organizations with goals and objectives that dovetail with the content of film screenings.

The first film screened was ‘Promises,’ a 2001 documentary chronicling three years of experiences for seven Jewish and Palestinian children living in Jerusalem. The Oscar-nominated film, which racked up many honors at some of the best-known international cinematic festivals, played to a standing-room-only audience at a screening, which featured Justine Shapiro, one of the film’s directors, in a Q&A afterward.

Since then, more than 500 directors, producers, and actors have appeared at UFC screenings and the availability of digital technologies such as Skype have even made it easier for audiences to start a dialogue with a filmmaker. And, of course, to mark its anniversary, UFC is offering programs featuring Geena Davis, John Waters, and many others.

So encouraging was audience reaction to UFC’s first screenings that it wasn’t long before the center’s programming expanded from one screening per month to weekly and eventually to the common two to three screenings each week now. In recent years, the annual attendance at UFC programs, of which nearly all are free and open to the public, has easily topped 20,000.

Those numbers likely will continue to grow at a faster pace especially as UFC widens its slate of programming not only throughout Utah but also with smartly curated film festivals of its own. A single screening of a documentary about climate issues drew more than 130 people at Dixie State College, a new venue for UFC programs.

The center opened its anniversary year last month with the first-ever Gandhi Film Festival, cosponsored with the Gandhi Alliance for Peace. The opening film – the 2008 biographical documentary ‘The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Khan: A Torch for Peace’ – played to a packed City Library auditorium and audience members talked extensively with Teri McLuhan, the film’s director.

Last spring, effectively achieving the capacity to provide essentially lifelong cinematic programming for Utah residents, the UFC held its first Tumbleweeds Film Festival, the only large-scale cinema gathering in the Intermountain West geared exclusively toward children, which also played to large audiences.

Likewise, attendance has continued to grow at the Damn! These Heels LGBT Film Festival, which will have its ninth run next June. This festival, in particular, signifies UFC’s customary sensitivity for programming in how it reflects the most current pulse on the most prominent issues concerning social and political awareness. For example, the most recent festival underscored the growing public opinion acceptance that marriage rights and economic equality regardless of sexual orientation or identity were important.

Therefore, the lineup represented films of solid artistic measure with aesthetic attributes and storytelling elements that appeal to a broadly diversified audience regardless of sexual orientation and identity. The festival’s storytelling emphasis was less on political points than on the everyday issues of love, happiness, and personal epiphanies, which everyone faces.

Similarly, the ‘Tillman Story’ which aired last spring in four Utah cities as part of the center’s Films Without Border series opened up a dialogue with director Amir Bar-Lev who answered audience questions at all of the screenings. It became evident that the film did not represent a battle between hawks and doves or between atheists and religious adherents or set out to ascribe blame to a specific group for covering up the details behind Pat Tillman’s death in Afghanistan seven years ago.

Indeed, if one wants to find a commonly accessible thread which runs through the 170 or so films the center screens each year is how a monumental cast of governmental officials, military leaders, corporate elites, journalists, talk-show hosts, celebrity pundits, public relations ‘spin doctors,’ and savvy, opportunistic marketers contribute substantially to blurring the lines of entertainment and information for the sake of a production that hardly represents realities with which audiences identify on a daily basis.

In fact, one would be hard pressed to name an issue, event, phenomenon, icon or cultural element that hasn’t been touched upon in one way or another during the center’s first 10 years. A Creativity in Focus series, in collaboration with the Salt Lake Art Center, has featured experimental films as well as top-rated documentaries dealing with artists such as Banksy, Chuck Close, and Basquiat that compel the local art community to face and discuss the challenges of generating visibility for its own work while wrestling with the temptations of making it big without sacrificing their authentic creative voices.

Body image, civil rights, food sustainability, gender and sexuality, environmental protection and preservation, civil rights, immigration reform, Islam, Africa, and literature have appeared among countless other themes. International cinema, including Spanish language films, also has become a regular component of UFC’s annual programming. Afternoon film series for seniors and retired citizens are offered periodically free of charge.

In its second decade, UFC hopes to build upon the expanding film-literate community of Utah with programs that give more opportunity to local filmmakers to hone their storytelling skills, according to Dreyfous, a Harvard graduate who has assembled an impressive portfolio as a producer and executive producer of more than 15 films including the Academy-Award-winning documentary ‘Born Into Brothels.’ UFC has joined with the Salt Lake Film Society and Spy Hop Productions in hopes of developing a film and digital media facility with production and exhibition capabilities in some of the space of the old Utah Theater in downtown. While the concept has been identified in the master plan for development of a cultural campus that would ultimately link all of the existing and proposed arts and culture facilities, no firm initiatives have yet been made.

As a strong testament to the UFC’s success, Dreyfous also has assembled a staff with significant experience in filmmaking and philanthropy. Missy Dawson, the current executive director, started out in journalism before moving to nonprofit organizational management and development. She came to Utah in 2009 after serving as the senior manager of the San Francisco Symphony’s Second Century Campaign, which raised more than $120 million for the symphony’s core programs and endowment.

In the same year, Patrick Hubley, joined as the UFC’s artistic director. His portfolio includes substantial press, event producing, and consulting experience with Sundance and the Sundance Institute, the Toronto International Film Festival, CineVegas Film Festival, and the Dubai International Film Festival.

Marcie Collett, the center’s current development manager, brings extensive experience from Denver in coordinating various adult literacy programs. Likewise, Levi Elder, communications manager and programmer, has professional credits with several major studios and festivals including Tribeca, the American Film Institute, the Middle Eastern International Film Festival in Abu Dhabi, and Ireland’s Kerry Film Festival.

One of the most familiar faces on the Salt Lake City cultural and arts scene, Mariah Mann Mellus keys the center’s membership and outreach activities. A writer and event coordinator, she brings broad experience from the ski and extreme sports industries as well as organizations dealing with global youth cultural outreach programs.

Rounding out the staff are Keb Brady, business manager and executive assistants Kelsie Jepsen and Sarah Mohr.

It is worth noting the breadth and depth of experience UFC staff members bring to the table, which will be essential for carrying forward the center’s founding mission. No doubt, everyone sees the strategic opportunities in the cost-effective transportability of films as the center cultivates larger and new audiences especially in other parts of the states. Certainly, initial responses to screenings in locations outside of Salt Lake City have been justifiably heartening.

However, Dreyfous and her staff also are focused on the transformative potential of their work for a state that definitively is not as conservative or as reactionary as what mainstream media and pundits often characterize. Miles Horton, who is one of the best-known teachers of social movement leaders, wrote in his 1990 autobiography ‘The Long Haul’:

‘If we are to have democratic society, people must find or invent new channels through which decisions can be made . . . the problem is not that people will make irresponsible or wrong decisions. It is, rather, to convince people who have been ignored or excluded in the past that their involvement will have meaning and that their ideas will be respected. The danger is not too much, but too little participation.’

For more information about the UFC, see here.

‘They have simply gone on ahead:
they will not wish to return home.
We’ll catch up to them on those hills
in the sunshine!
The day is fair on those hills.’ – Translation of Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866)

When a child dies, especially so young and so suddenly, the words don’t come in the same way when a parent or another loved one passes. It always is a struggle to regain those words – to be able finally to express and to let others know that in his long absence his presence remains still so strong. There is always that promise or hope – no matter how many years have passed and regardless of the physical crumbling of bricks and mortar – of the lesson and gift of his presence.

In ‘Tarkio Balloon,’ a five-minute film of fragile poetry, Utah filmmaker Torben Bernhard goes back to a cemetery in a small Missouri town where his brother, Dane, is buried. In 1985, when Bernhard was 2, his two-month-old brother died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Shot on 8-MM film and incorporating excerpts from an audio interview recorded years earlier with his mother (Janae), ‘Tarkio Balloon’ gives visibility to all parents who lost a child.

Bernhard’s film will have its Utah premiere on Saturday, Aug. 20, at 7 p.m. in the Tower Theatre (876 E 900 S) as part of the Salt Lake City Film Festival. The short is paired with the feature-length documentary ‘Better This World,’ by Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega, an impressive piece of investigative journalism going to the surprising background story of how two young men from Texas ended up facing charges of domestic terrorism.

‘Tarkio Balloon’ received its premiere earlier this year at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. It was one of seven films selected for the mini-documentary competition.

The inspiration for the film came to Bernhard at last year’s Cinequest in San Jose, California, where The Sonosopher, the excellent experimental documentary (co-directed with Travis Low) about Alex Caldiero, was being screened. Although it had been 25 years since his infant brother’s tragic death, Bernhard’s mind flooded with memories of Dane and his own challenging attempts as a two-year-old brother trying to understand why his brother had gone away and wondering if he would ever come back. Before returning to Thailand, where he was working on other film projects, Bernhard and his wife Marissa drove from Utah to Tarkio, where he had not been for more than 20 years, to locate Dane’s grave and to see what had become of the town. “It felt like stepping into a myth. My mind sought to contrive the experience. It wanted me to make sense of the experience, structure it like an aimless road trip movie, where I leave my journey, resurrected by exhaled breath making ashes dance again in scattered procession,” Bernhard writes. “But, being isn’t tidy. At least, not from my experience. Being is, well, being.”

Bernhard’s poetic imagery is immensely moving in its stark simplicity. The film opens with a vivid shot of the hills leading into the town. The viewer can imagine easily the bitter cold, slate gray skies which greeted Bernhard and his wife as they moved through the cemetery to find Dane’s grave and document the remnants of a once-vibrant town that had forgotten itself as much as it had forgotten the Bernhard family had ever lived there. Layered among the imagery are the poignant recollections of Bernhard’s mother.

In the space of a few minutes, Bernhard imparts a profound message about our individual challenges in questioning our prevailing social assumptions on the basis of how each of us sees what gives our lives meaning and value. In our contemporary society, the idea of losing a child still seems so rare to many people. However, when it does occur, the grieving parent eventually may be shunned or even ostracized if the grieving continues beyond some norm of appropriate grieving time. Societal expectations of grieving norms are predicated on healing as if one can heal from grief as they would from a cut, wound, or injury.

Bernhard’s film reaffirms that the pain of loss never goes away nor does the memory of a lost child’s presence. As for the pilgrimage, he writes: ‘There is so much to say. There is so much I have left out. My only desire is that I have somehow left breadcrumbs for a future self to find his way back to Tarkio.’

The film is part of Bernhard’s ‘Lost and Found’ project, comprising five short films running under 15 minutes each and representing different angles and settings (Utah, Missouri, and Thailand) that yet carry through the theme suggested by the series’ title. Among the other films is ‘Boomtown,’ co-directed by Travis Low and which documents the vanishing of a southwestern Utah town which flourished in the late 1800s with the discovery of gold and other precious metals at the Horn Silver Mine. ‘Trash Collector’ explores the life of Chaan, a man living in a slum along the train tracks that snake through Nakhorn Ratchasima (Korat) en route to the northeast region of Thailand. Bernard’s wife Marissa is directing ‘Thailand Cowboy,’ a fascinating look into a Thai man who lives to fuel his passion for American westerns and the romanticized personalities of that genre including John Wayne and John Ford. The fifth film – ‘The Gospel According to Ralphael’ – is about a Salt Lake City man who has transformed a shabby warehouse into a museum of enormous concrete and steel sculptures, paintings, murals, and ceiling frescoes that synthesize his religious beliefs taken from traditional and personal interpretations of many theological foundations.

Bernhard has launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign here. The goal is $5,000 which must be accomplished by the end of business on Sept. 18 in order to be funded. A pair of trailers featuring the filmmakers and the stories is below.

For more information about the festival and to purchase tickets for the screening, see here and for more about The Lost and Found Series, see here.

‘The Crossing’, directed by Cristian Plesh of Romania and written by Victor Dragomir, received the Grand Jury Prize (photo). Set in 1944, the film is an other-worldly piece about two soldiers who believe they are trapped behind enemy lines but whose problems are confounded by the onset of unexplainable health problems affecting one of the soldiers.

‘Love Sick,’ by Kevin Lacy took the prize among nine contenders in the Utah Short Film of The Year Competition. The five-minute film, which took the $2,000 prize earlier this year at the Utah State University Fringe Film Festival, is a romantic comedy about a young man and the woes of love and affection.

Jaehee Lee of South Korea took the Fear No Filmmaker Award for ‘A Scene at The Sea,’ a beautifully shot meditation showing how life comes full circle for an old, blind fisherman who now must entrust his well being to his son.

Grand jury honorable mentions went to the following films: ‘First Contact,’ a six-minute hilarious animated film directed by James Cunningham of New Zealand; ‘Proposal,’ a 16-minute film from California directed by Chris King about a man, feeling ready to move on with his life after the tragic loss of his love, who carries an heirloom wedding ring and steels himself to ask the most portentous question of his life, and ‘Protect The Nation’ by German director C. R. Reisser, which tells the story of a young boy caught amid the wave of xenophobic attacks and riots that plagued South Africa in 2008.

Fear No Film had standing room only attendance at many of its screenings, held in the City Library auditorium, according to Topher Horman, coordinator and curator. Also, the first-ever screening of comedy shorts exclusively for kids in the Art Yard proved to be a rousing success.

Now in its ninth year, Fear No Film, which featured 66 shorts, has raised the festival’s bar of production quality and storytelling significantly in the last three years. A festival jury of film-making and media industry peers along with audience members selected the festival winners.

Audience award winners included the following:

Applauding the Muse of COMEDY: ‘For a Fistful of Snow,’ Switzerland

Applauding the Muse of TRAGEDY: ‘The Birds Upstairs,’ Michigan

Applauding the Muse of LOVE: ‘Time for Change,’ New Zealand

Applauding the Muse of DANCE: ‘A Moment,’ Minnesota

Applauding the Muse of HISTORY: ‘She Wore Silver Wings,’ California

Applauding the Muse of ASTRONOMY: ‘The Hack,’ Kansas

Applauding the Muse of LYRICAL STORYTELLING:‘Metro,’ Utah

Applauding the Muse of SPIRITUAL STORYTELLING: ‘A Scene
at the Sea,’ South Korea

Kudos to Bombshell Music and Media for a great series of webisodes.

Continue to follow The Selective Echo’s wall-to-wall coverage with my colleague and assistant editor, Max Dahl.

Making Tracks to the Utah Arts Festival from Utah Arts Festival on Vimeo.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each morning, The Selective Echo will highlight the day’s national music headliners from the Utah Arts Festival.

Kinetix, which takes the Utah Arts Festival’s Amphitheater Stage today at 8:30 p.m., is similar to many bands that exist today. That is, the band is completely indefinable if one is going by genre.

I guess Generation-X mastered the art of bucking authority and resisting neat categories, instead choosing to dump every style of music into one messy yet glorious whole. It’s like a kid at an ice cream sundae bar – one scoop rock, another scoop improvisational jazz, a squirt of funk, the artery-choking spray of whipped ‘pop’ping, with sprinkles of rap for speed of delivery and language as a finishing touch. Selections of musical delights, blended until the concoction take on a new life, but this shake drinks smoothly, and undoubtedly has an energetic kick to it.

Fitting, I suppose, for a group of jazz majors from University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music who teamed up to form a rock group.

‘As it started out, we all had the same dream to get to college and find a band, and start playing with our college band,’ says Eric Blumenfeld, vocalist and keyboarder for Kinetix. After joining three other bands, Blumenfeld interacted with other bands on campus, eventually meeting guitarist/vocalist Adam Lufkin.

‘We got together, jammed and it just felt right. We all liked the same style of music and we all wanted to do this for the rest of our lives,’ Blumenfeld says. ‘It was one thing that we all agreed upon in our first conversations. We were serious about being in a band; didn’t want to have a part time jobs. We just wanted to be in a band, and that was it. That was the main deciding factor that got us together.’

As mentioned on the band’s Web site, Kinetix was formed originally to be an outlet to release stress, but after local bars and fraternity houses couldn’t hold enough people for its shows, the band struck out on the road. It simply followed logic, as Blumenfeld explains: ‘People enjoyed the music that we played, so we kept doing it. Then put out a couple albums.’

It has been a quick learning curve for Kinetix, with new aspects continually being refined. The members are working on a new EP to be released by the end of this year. It will contain new songs that have been played on the road.
‘Writing was a simple process at first, since then we’ve gotten real creative with it,’ says Blumenfeld. ‘Before, the guys had input in the song, I would bring a song, and one of the guys could make suggestions. Now every single member is involved in the writing process by sending things digitally to each other. It has changed throughout time, as it should with any group of musicians working together.’

Members of Kinetix stay fresh and relevant in the scene by keeping their eyes on other successful acts.

‘We continue to meet up with great bands on the road, and always run into people at festivals that we really life,’ Blumenfeld adds. ‘One example is The New Mastersounds, a really good funk band that tickled our funk-bone and got us back on that train. Anytime we get to see a band at a festival, it always inspires us to write new music and get crowds involved.’

Kinetix has learned to involve and excite the crowd, and has enjoyed the response from the audience. ‘The Flowbots from Colorado taught us a few things about clever stage banter, stage antics, etc.,’ says Blumenfeld. ‘Basically, how important it is to put on a good stage performance. Since then we have been going buck-wild on stage, which is one of our signatures.’

Blumenfeld enjoys interacting with the crowd. ‘I love when people sing along, and so we incorporate a lot of call and response. We also see who can scream louder, Adam or the crowd. We’re hoping the crowd in Utah will beat him.’

After playing its first show at Red Rocks at a film series, Kinetix aimed for a new goal: ‘To sell out Red Rocks on our own someday; pack a whole venue for ourselves,’ Blumenfeld says.

A bonus for festival visitors: a free summer sampler will be distributed, courtesy of the band’s April tour, featuring the band’s best recordings. Kinetix’s Utah Arts Festival performance will include songs from their albums and a major cover song.

‘Especially for a new crowd, we like to play something familiar,’ Blumfeld says. ‘Anything from Led Zeppelin to Queen, to more dance-y like Jamiroquai. It will be something that everyone out there should know.’

If you enjoy the buffet selection of music Kinetix offers, the band will be back in Salt Lake City on July 2, playing Bar Deluxe on State Street.

Young Dubliners

Note to all parents: ‘Despite what you hear, I will be watching my language.’ – Keith Roberts, vocals, Young Dubliners

The Young Dubliners, who are the Thursday headliners at the Amphitheater Stage at 9:45 p.m., have been around as long as I have. I mean they have been a band as long as I have been ALIVE. In the past few years, the band has matured, taking a more adult look at life, but the members remain young at heart. With a festival schedule that zigzags them across the country – from Boston to Salt Lake, and back to Manheim, Pennsylvania for the Celtic Festival this weekend – they remain disciplined in their nightly scheduling and alcohol intake.

Don’t be deceived, even though I make them out to be a bunch of stiffs. They are a true Irish-folk band with a pleasant rock twist. They are a fun-creating and loving bunch of blokes who know how to make music, and, of course, have a good time.

‘Don’t believe everything you read,’ Roberts explains. ‘We have been known to party over the years, but the more you get the hang of what your limitations are, you start to wise up. We love to hang out after gigs, maybe with a couple pints, but we’re definitely a little more reserved than we were 10 years ago, where we would be burning the candle at both ends and severely in the middle.’

Although they have played with household names like Collective Soul, Chris Isaak, John Hyatt, Johnny Lang and Jethro Tull in venues around the world, they still know how to relate to their fans.

‘The Young Dubs have been known as a festival band where after the show we come out and sign,’ Roberts says. ‘We must have a strong ongoing fan base or we wouldn’t be going this long. Over the years, we have developed direct relationships to the fan base that we build where people feel like they do know us, and because of that they are actively supporting the band and keep us going: by buying records as they come out, and seeing us when we come into town. It propagates itself.’

The Young Dubs are working on their ninth studio album and Roberts is excited for the recording to begin.

‘What works best for us is everybody writes ideas on our own as we’re touring. We developed a system, where we write on our own ideas on the road, then come together and lock ourselves away in the fall. Once we shut the door, we have to come out the other end with an album,’ Roberts explains. ‘Like electing the Pope, when you see the white smoke coming out, either we’ve rolled a joint, or we’ve finished the album. Either way we’ve got a new Pope.’

Roberts also adds a few props for its destination today. ‘Salt Lake is one of the best kept secrets as far as we’re concerned. A lot of bands don’t go there, or can’t get a following there but we have been blessed from the day when we showed up and stepped out of the [former] Zephyr. I’ll admit that we love playing in Utah, generally.’

He adds, ‘Salt Lake has been great. Everyone at the sing-alongs sings together, and we look forward to gigs like that. The Depot is one of my favorite venues in terms of the people that come and that work there. The trouble is that it’s for 21 and older.’

Roberts is looking forward to the festival appearance. ‘I’m excited about the idea that it’s a show for all ages. We’ve been playing a lot of tour dates, and for a long time where you miss seeing the kids and the families, it’s a wider demographic, and I think it’s the perfect opportunity for that.’

For more information, see here.

With scores of Utah Arts Festival performing artists to choose from, sprawled across five stages, the question arises, ‘how to prioritize which one to see?’ At some point, make it a point to check out one of the local headliners. The four groups play a variety of styles, and have similarly eclectic views on music.

The UAF Youth Rock Ensemble is an amalgamation of young performers who are enrolled in one of Utah’s great musician combines. They will play popular music chosen by members of the group, and have only had two months to pull it all together, playing two-hour rehearsals each Saturday.

The highly entertaining Joshua Payne Orchestra, one of the city’s most recognized groups, boasts community-known to world-class classical and jazz musicians on trumpet, guitar and drum, along with a kickass supporting brass section.

Fictionist is a group fostered in Utah County that has migrated well beyond its Provo boundaries, and The Rubes are bona-fide rock-and-roll performers from Salt Lake City who offer effective musical commentary, with just the right balance of sarcasm, on the contemporary ‘junk-culture’ world.

Each is discussed below:

The Utah Arts Festival Youth Rock Ensemble: Thursday, June 23, 4 p.m., Park Stage

Where you might have heard them? Perhaps, next door, blasting music from their bedroom or garage.

The UAF Youth Rock Ensemble comprises a broad spectrum of rock schools throughout the state: MusicGarage.Org, Rest 30 Rock, School of Rock and Wasatch Music Coaching Academy. The idea is to take the most dedicated and motivated students and mash them into a super-group.

Choosing standout music students isn’t easy for any of these groups because each musician already possesses the professional discipline and creative spark to push forward in an insanely competitive musical world. I sat down with vocalist Janey Lyon of MusicGarage.Org to understand the work it takes to be a superstar at 17.

‘I sang my whole life, played guitar for six years and my uncle wanted me to take a step up and widen my musical knowledge,’ Lyon says. ‘It was intimidating at first to be performing with the older kids, but now I come for a good time. I love it; it’s a good community of supporters, where everyone comes to play music together. I’ve made really good friends, and we’re still such good friends even though we’ve moved on to different bands.’

Students are allowed to pick their own music at MusicGarage.Org, which occasionally can be the cause of creative turmoil, but they also are coached in how to work through band disagreements.

‘Overall, I would rather these kids be great people than great musicians,’ says Steve Auerbach, the father figure at MusicGarage.Org. ‘Granted, on stage I want them to play it right. I never tell kids what they can’t do. I say, “Okay, let’s see what you’re capable of” and then try to nurture their talent and show I believe in them until they do things they can’t believe themselves.’

Lyons is no lightweight, having played solo shows at Kilby Court, Desert Rocks Festival, and other Utah venues. She also knows her rock history too. ‘Led Zeppelin defines what it is,’ Lyons says. ‘I’ve done a lot of Led Zeppelin covers, because they have the most emotion, and most brilliance. They have been the hardest to nail. They always kind of frighten me because they take so much work, but they are so much fun. I’m definitely a fan.’

The four schools provide two songs each, for an eight-song set. Individual schools will also perform earlier Thursday, starting at noon.

Joshua Payne Orchestra, Friday, June 24, 10:15 p.m., Festival Stage

Where you might have heard them? On the street, downtown Salt Lake, Grand America Hotel. Max’s Bar-Mitzvah.

Joshua Payne Orchestra (JPO) can admit to being ‘by far, Salt Lake’s busiest band,’ and can show the schedule and experienced talent as proof. Being booked for at least six weekly performances in venues such as the Grand America Hotel, JPO also plays at weddings or special occasions by far-in-advance planning. Also, recently, the ensemble has played at midnight in alleys throughout downtown Salt Lake.

‘Midnight street shows are really something else, my favorite thing in life right now,’ Payne says. ‘The nine-piece band does midnight performances every Friday night, and we always have a new song ready every week. That’s just the best.’

Payne tries to schedule studio recording every three weeks, which have been done with more than 60 songs in the ‘orchestra book’ over the last three years. JPO’s first full length vinyl release ‘ZOOM’ has been out for two weeks, with original tracks recorded by the band.

Payne is especially looking forward to the festival. His high school friend Ryan Thorell has become a guitar builder with artist Frank Vignola, musical producers and university instructors as clientele. Recently Payne acquired one.

‘I haven’t put it down since. I take it with me everywhere – to the coffee shop, to the grocery store, the bar – and wherever I go, I love it so much,’ Payne says. ‘I think it’s the best guitar on the planet and I’m going to be using it for the performance.’

Payne has earned his performing chops – with the breakneck scheduling pace, from making his living playing in the New York subway system, and jamming with legends.

‘I got invited to sit in with Les Paul at the Iridium Club. And Les put his arm around me and said “Josh, boy, you could make this your home. Come and play with me anytime,”’ Payne remembers. ‘He was just very encouraging and very supportive because he knew I was struggling. It really meant a lot to me.’

For information about JPO or locations for midnight shows, follow them on Twitter @jp_orchestra.

Fictionist, Saturday June 25, 9 p.m., Park Stage

Where you might’ve heard them? Online: Free downloads available on their Facebook page. Pages and promotions for Rolling Stone magazine.

Fictionist is a band out of Provo hoping to follow in the footstep of Neon Trees and become a Billboard leader, crowding out more well-financed and experienced artists. After participating in Rolling Stone’s tournament-style competition, ‘Do You Want to be a Rock ‘n Roll Star,’ Fictionist was thrust into a larger spotlight.

‘The competition put us in a big pressure cooker, and forced us to act a little bit more like the professional musicians that we hope to be,’ says Brandon Kitterman. ‘We got a lot of attention due to the fact of being associated with the Rolling Stone name, and it came with good feedback on our sound and our sets, playing and recording, which benefited us musically as a band, and a huge PR push gave us a bigger network for distributing music.’

Fictionist advanced to the third round before exiting the competition. ‘We realized how great of a fan base we have. So many people we were willing support us and help us to vote and post things about it online,’ Kitterman says. ‘I guess it’s more about catching a glimpse of what it would be like. Being a local band trying to make it into a bigger scene doing bigger things, we got a glimpse of what it would be like to deal with a new set of problems.’ For example: working with established producers.

‘We wrote two songs produced by David Bendeth, and it was definitely an interesting experience. We went in with our preconceptions and it went totally different. It tweaked us; helped us understand more about what is most important to us and solidified us as a unit,’ Kitterman says, adding the band emerged, reenergized to make great new music.

Kitterman admits the biggest benefit was the sense of being a part of a network of musicians in the country. ‘Sometimes it can feel like a competition, but when you play with a band and talk afterwards and build a relationship it changes your perspective. Eliminating the idea of competition has been an eye opener for me,’ he adds.

The Rubes, Sunday, June 26, 9 p.m., Park Stage

Where you might’ve heard them? Virtually any concert venue in a 600-mile radius from Salt Lake City during the last 10 years.

The Rubes have the coveted Sunday evening spot, and have a lot expected of them. ‘We get this reputation for being showstoppers because we have always tried to be really entertaining; I think that’s very important,’ Greg Midgey says. ‘People come to see a band, and also expect to have something visually interesting.’

The Rubes have been a Salt Lake staple for the past decade, playing consistent shows in venues and for high-profile community events. ‘We’re getting a bit older, married, and some of us have kids, which change the dynamic of the band a little. The Rubes has always been the effort to translate all of our favorite music, do it in our own way without being dramatic or out in left-field – just playing rock-and-roll. It’s really about the four guys in the band, and how much fun we have when we play together. It’s the main thing we’re trying to get across,’ Midgey explains.

Although The Rubes typically play excellent covers, they will perform all original music from the band’s three studio albums as well as new music being developed. ‘We are hoping to finish this summer and release by fall. We’ve got a really exciting gig in July opening up for music legend Andre Williams; it’s going to be at Garage [on Beck Street in north Salt Lake]. The guy is one of the greatest performers and song writers of all time. We opened up last year for him, and we’re hoping as many people as possible will come—even if they don’t like us! Anyone who hasn’t seen Andre needs to come see him, he’s the real deal,’ Midgey says.

All members of the Rubes still maintain day jobs, school schedules, and family commitments but they stay heavily involved in the Salt Lake music scene. ‘We’re not hell bent on getting signed or dominating the music scene. If people come to hear us play and have a good time, it keeps me wanting to perform publicly,’ Midgey says. ‘I would be content playing at family get-togethers, but when you play in public with a decent-size crowd enjoying and dancing and feeding off that energy, it makes you want to keep doing it.’

Any spoilers for the festival? ‘Generally we don’t have the resources to shoot flamethrowers nor does a Houdini act. We’re usually a traditional four-piece band, but for the festival we have a ‘big band’: a four-piece horn section named the ‘brass knuckles’, four backup singers and hopefully a special guest as well. For the festival, we’re bringing our vibe and trying to make it sound like rock ‘n’ roll. But, we might be wearing some outrageous costumes.’

For more information about the performers and times, see here.