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Jun 28
Love0

Where Local Fashionistas Go For Mani-Pedis

By Lifestyle
Utah Nail Salons

From top to bottom: Snowed In, Jingle Jangle, 24 Below, Belle Bottom Babe, Snakeskin, Trippie Hippie, all $6, Got Beauty, SLC.

The moment where they ask “Pick a color” at the nail salon just got a little more exciting. Light up your lacquer this spring with pearly, two-tone mixtures that shimmer. Think of it like balayage for the nails, but with chrome and glitter. Want to try the trend without all the flash? Match it to your go-to hue and try the shimmer to one finger…or two.

Salon Chatter — Where do local fashionistas go to get their mani-pedis? To try out the latest nail trend or stick with a go-to hue, these boutiques are vetted by the best.

Shauna Lake: Nail Garden

Shauna Lake, KUTV evening news anchor

2420 E. Fort Union Blvd, Cottonwood Heights

“Yen does the best job. I’m currently obsessed with the clear dip with gel
overly in OPI’s Copper Meets Rose Gold.”

 

Gina Barberi: Nailed

Gina Barberi,X96 Radio From Hell Co-Host

3369 S. Highland Dr., Millcreek or
875 East 700 South, SLC

“They have so many talented people, usually can get in the same day, and they use sterilized tools. My favorite polish right now is Tell Me About It, Stud’ by OPI’s Grease Collection. I’m a Grease nerd.”

Michelle Cousins: Harper Nails

Michelle Cousins,Michelle Leo Events owner

1840 E. 9400 South, Sandy

“I can walk in without an appointment and not have to wait forever. My favorite polishes are Sweet Romance, Melody
and Candy Crush.”

Jun 27
Love0
3rd-of-July-e1561660790441

Celebrate July 4th Free Family Fun in Park City

By Arts & Culture

Independence Day is just around the corner, which means it’s time to sideline our petty political squabbles for a few moments to overindulge in barbequed meats and frosty beverages while working on outrageous sunburns in the shape of our gaudiest stars-and-stripes-adorned tank tops. Enjoy the perfect setting for your patriotic revelry by celebrating July 4th in Park City this summer. Park City Mountain is hosting numerous free and family-friendly events throughout the extended holiday weekend.

The festivities kick off at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 3 with live music from DJ Velvet followed by a performance from Salt Lake City’s legendary party band The Number Ones. The Number Ones exclusively play number one hits from the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, so you shouldn’t have any trouble singing along to the tunes. When the sun goes down, a fireworks show will ring in Independence Day in traditional, explosive fashion.

Following the annual Independence Day Parade down Historic Main St, Park City Mountain Village will host a July 4 celebration featuring a BBQ, complimentary activities and performances by local ska band Insatiable and the party/dance ensemble Soulistics. Once again, a fireworks show will light up the sky at dusk.

Park City Mountain’s Summer Concert Series starts on Saturday, July 6.

Since Independence Day is on a Thursday this year, you may as well just roll the celebration right through Friday and into a four-day weekend. Saturday, July 6 is the first of show of Park City Mountain’s Summer Concert Series at Canyons Village. At 6:00 p.m. New Orleans Suspects will bring their brand of Louisiana-funk to the stage. The band’s members have experience with some of the top acts in New Orleans—The Neville Brothers, The Radiators and The Dirty Dozen—and they create infectiously swampy sounds reminiscent of the late great Dr. John. Bring your own picnic or enjoy food and beverages from Umbrella Bar, Murdoc’s Cafè and The Farm.

Visit Park City Mountain’s website for more details on July 4 celebrations and for the complete Summer Concert Series lineup.

See all of our community coverage here.

Jun 27
Love0
Crybaby-Bitters-0277

Bitters Crafting Comes to Utah

By Eat & Drink

Get your bitter tooth fix by enjoying locally Utah crafted bitters. Bitter is better so enjoy the taste and choose from dozens of flavors made by Bitters Lab, Crybaby Bitters and Beehive Bitters.

Americans—and especially Utahns—are famous for their sweet tooth. But we’re learning to love sweet’s opposite: bitter as in the astringent taste that comes in bitters. Maybe it started with the radicchio and arugula craze of the ’80s. That has settled into a permanent relationship but perhaps it broadened our palate to include bitterness.

The popularity of Amaro, Campari, Aperol and Fernet Branca have all increased. In San Francisco, a favorite drink is Fernet and ginger beer and I have a friend whose regular drink is a Coors Banquet with a shot of Fernet. (Yes, odd. We all think so.) This category has exploded. No longer do we have to choose between Angostura and Peychaud’s. In Utah alone there are several bitters-makers—Bitters Lab (bitterslab.com), Crybaby Bitters (crybabybitters.com) and Beehive Bitters (beehivebitters.com) that make dozens of flavored bitters.

See all of our food and drink coverage here.

Jun 27
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Lunar-project-Photo-credit-_Steve-Mayer

Literal Lunacy

By Arts & Culture

What is it? Why, it’s an artistic model of the Lunar Module, being created for the Element 11 Art Festival, part of the Regional Burning Man Network on July 11. In celebration of the moon landing’s 50th anniversary, Artistic group O.A.S.I.S.C.A.F.E. is reinventing the Lunar Module as an interactive installation to show the marriage of art and science. We can’t possibly explain it all here, go visit the website.

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Jun 27
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WT0C2345

Medal-worthy Banh Mi

By Eat & Drink

If there were a Between-the-Bread Olympics, some classic contenders would certainly take gold. The American Grilled Cheese. The French Dip. The Reuben. The BLT. The Hoagie. Note that most of these come from the Western half of the world. I’m just guessing, but maybe this is because the Eastern half is less bread-centric. And a sandwich without bread isn’t one.

There is however, a notable exception. (Probably more than one, but I’m spitballing here.) The Banh Mi. In Salt Lake City, get one at Oh Mai.

A banh mi is constructed on a baguette, itself a legacy of the French occupation of Southeast Asia. With much of the crumb hollowed out, leaving mostly crisp crust, the filling is a layering of Vietnamese culinary history and may include pate, pork head cheese, cilantro, fish sauce, pickled daikon, bean thread, jalapeno, ham, mayo, basil, sriracha…it’s up to you. Somehow all these disparate elements combine in the mouth to make one spicy, salty, sweet, hot, umami, crunchy, fresh flavor. Just another example of how world diplomacy could take a lesson from world cuisine.

There are several Oh Mai locations; this was the original. 850 S. State St., SLC, 801-575-8888, ohmaisandwich.com

See all of our food and drink coverage here.

Jun 27
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biz-shoes

BIZ • Freshly Picked Bootie Strapping

By City Watch

It’s the classic bootstrap tale but, in this case, the bootstraps are more like booties, for babies. In 2009, Susan Petersen was living in Salt Lake City. She was 21 and had moved here from Washington with her husband and two young children while he attended the University of Utah. From their small apartment, Susan came up with a big idea that, at first, was a small idea. She couldn’t find baby shoes for her son’s chubby feet and, well, she knew how to sew. Using scrap leather, she sewed the first pair of what have now become the famous Freshly Picked baby moccasins at her kitchen table.

Susan was on the tip of the spear of a big trend in clothing—the idea that mass-produced products with limited sizes and variety needn’t be the norm, that quality and durability could be included in quantity and sensibilities beyond the bottom line could be factored into a company culture. Of course, at the time, she was just trying to contribute to the family budget, and she sewed her moccasins from that table until 2013, when she earned a spot on The Shark Tank and these concepts, just growing in Susan’s mind burst onto the scene. Her company Freshly Picked is now a multi-million-dollar endeavor, its products are sold at major retailers like Lord & Taylor, Macy’s and Nordstrom. Her baby shoes have been worn by baby Kardashians and millions of children and have a passionate following among a very loyal group, new moms. 

Freshly Picked
”I’m very scrappy and I’m really Stubborn.” —Susan Peterson

How’s that for a bootie-strap story?

“There is something cool happening,” Susan says. “The buyer who ordered, say, an Old Navy shirt probably had to order 2,000 shirts in different sizes probably many more, that’s just a minimum. But I’m small and control my own manufacturing. If I sell five pairs of one color of shoe it doesn’t mess up our manufacturing flow. We can adjust. We’re not stuck with 2,000 shirts ahead of us. We can look at what’s selling and put a rush on it.”Freshly Picked truly revolutionized e-commerce and still sells 70 percent of its products directly through its own website. Its success got other entrepreneurs thinking about smaller, more customized manufacturing. Now, for example, companies like Third Love and True and Company sell bras made for actual women directly to those actual women, while offering a range of half-sizes and other customizations (and a repudiation of the hyper-sexualized Victoria’s Secret model of bra sales.)

And what’s selling is more than just the moccasin that launched a million moccasins. Susan’s mommy empire has expanded its line beyond booties into clothing, footwear and accessories for both mom and baby. Take diaper bags, for example.

“We asked moms to literally dump out the contents of their diaper bag and justify everything they had in there,” Susan says. “And of course, they could. And then we set out to make a bag that could handle all that stuff but didn’t have Winnie the Pooh on it, like my first diaper bag. Just because you become a mom doesn’t mean you lose your sense of fashion. You’re still a woman.”

Susan has kept her business here in Utah, recently moving into a new HQ on the Silicon Slopes and says there’s an energy and excitement in the state about what’s next.

freshly picked

“Turns out I love building stuff and watching other people build things too,” she says. “So I don’t have a high school education, so I don’t have formal training. I’m very scrappy and I’m really stubborn. I come from a long line of women who get sh** done and I feel really fulfilled to be a part of building something which opens my kids’ eyes up to opportunities we never had.”

Jun 27
Love0
football

Instant Replay

By Salt Lake Magazine

While basking in a hot shower the other morning I had my portable radio volume turned up to the max to override the swoosh of water bouncing off my shoulders. I was listening to FOX sports talk on AM 640. The hosts take on any sports subject—usually something that has occurred the previous day.

The morning after the 2018 NFC Championship game, the 640 sports gurus had conniption fits over a critical play with one minute and 43 seconds left in the NFL Championship game between the Rams and Saints. The game was a nailbiter. With the score tied at 20, on third and 10, the Saints QB Drew Brees threw a pass to receiver Tommy Lewis at the Rams seven-yard-line who was knocked down by Rams safety Nickell Robey-Colemen.

There was no flag, no interference, no call—period.

This has now been characterized as the worst (no) call in NFL history. All the world saw the play, including the seven referees who said they didn’t. Never saw it—all seven. This flimsy excuse should alone be the reason none of them referee again; not one of them came forward to call it as pass interference.

The broadcast networks tape every play and deploy instant replay to review questionable ones, plus coach’s challenges. However, to the surprise of everyone, there was no review of the obvious pass interference and the Rams eked out a 26-23 victory. If instant replay wasn’t used in this game then I’d say we just eliminate it and leave decisions up to the mortal human beings who make them.

The key to
accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact that your choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either success or failure, however you define those terms.

–NEAL BOORTZ

Let’s face it: to make a mistake is human, and the no-call in the Saints game was a big one, illuminated for all the world to see. Every one of those referees, like the rest of us, must live with the consequences of making a bad decision. Like me: I don’t have instant replay in my life­—although I wish I did. I’d love it for some of the decisions I’ve made; as my own referee, I’d jump at the chance for a do-over now and then.

Bad news: the world doesn’t work that way. At birth you are given the gift of “free will,” the ability to choose between alternative courses of action. Bottom line, don’t blame your poor decision making on others. A man I once worked for told me, “Reasoned thought should precede judgement.” In other words carefully examine the alternatives presented, ask questions, and then make the decision that best meets your objective.

We all pay for the bad decisions we make. None of us can escape the onus of a choice that goes south. It’s painful, the emotional price tears you up inside, and you go to sleep berating yourself. There is nothing anyone can do but learn from bad decisions and take responsibility and ownership for them. As radio commentator Neal Boortz reminds us, “The key to accepting responsibility for your life is to accept the fact that your choices, every one of them, are leading you inexorably to either success or failure, however you define those terms.”

Forget instant replay; let’s face the consequences of human error. That’s truly the essence of living.

Jun 26
Love0
RENT16-1-scaled

RENT at the Eccles – It’s Not Family-Friendly

By Arts & Culture

The audience for RENT at the Eccles surprised me, both for better and worse. On one hand, you got the unexpectedly abundant “RENTheads” in the crowd greeted Angel (Javon King) with ravenous cheers before the beats even began, and got to enjoy the full glory of this untoppable cast: 

The aforementioned Javon King played the hell out of gender-fluid Angel. No fear, only love exuded from every glitter-gloss-slathered smile. His vocals were immense and impressive, and he didn’t lose energy for a moment, not even on his fictional deathbed. 

Logan Marks did the bespectacled, scarf-wearing, vintage camera toting narrator all levels of justice, with flawless comedic timing and the prime amount of playful to offset the tragedies of the rest of the show.

 

Joshua Bess brought both the punk anger and the crooning desperation to each word out of Roger’s mouth. Roger can be underrated, especially with Mark Cohen (Logan Marks) narrating, but Bess brought his A-game, and while he (and other characters) was a little out of sync at times, he proved that Roger is undoubtedly one to pay attention to.

If you’re in search of an engaging performer, look no further than Lyndie Moe as Maureen, who proved that she was born to stand out. From her delightfully weird vocals to her wacky outfits, Moe stood alone, but certainly didn’t “moo” alone. That’s right. She made us moo along, and wouldn’t stop until the entire theater was on board.

Maureen’s new boo Joanna (Lencia Kebede) arrives solo, with a vibe even more intellectual than I was ready for, but with a voice that I was even less ready for. There is no real “star” to RENT, but these seemingly minor characters like Joanne and the soloist in “Seasons of Love” stole the show with powerful performances. 

Understudy Alex Lugo brought confidence and sass to Mimi’s character, and the audience was absolutely smitten. At times, it was hard to believe she was an understudy.

Then there’s my personal favorite, Tom Collins. Soulful, peaceful and full of love, Devinré Adams was the perfect fit. A bass voice like honey and new, modern smooth dance moves to match his jazzy theme music added a whole other level of cool to the character. Adams melted hearts and brought audible tears out of the handful of “RENTheads” in attendance.


Thought I forgot about the other handful of theater-goers? Not quite: we cannot end the review without discussing the nay-sayers. The season-ticket holders who didn’t research the show beforehand and left hastily at intermission with their half-eaten snacks and their homophobic mumblings and shock at the raunchy undertones of the show. I wasn’t surprised to encounter those people here, but I was surprised that they were so blind to the real message of the show. 

RENT is not family-friendly. But it’s not supposed to be. It’s raunchy, it’s dark and there isn’t really a happy ending, here. And that is the point

RENT is a story built to make you uneasy. To uproot you, shake you up, and make you think. Even the set was cramped and dark, with the band crammed under the stairs and no transitions. No distractions. It is designed to make you uncomfortable with the way things are, with the status quo. The show is built to make you reconsider your prejudices and your motives, forcing you to face head-on the dismal realities of life. It has been building activists for decades, and it isn’t going to stop anytime soon– I just wish that Utah’s conservative audience could recognize that undying perseverance. 

Because even 20 years later, when the 90’s clothes have gone out of style, this performance still left us glued to our seats remembering there’s no day but today. What can we do today, to find joy, show love and achieve glory?

Because we may not get another chance. 

If You Go:
RENT at the Eccles
June 25-30
7:30 Weeknights
8:00 Friday-Saturday
6:30 Sunday
Afternoon Matinees (see ArtTix.com for more information.)
Read more theater coverage here! 
Jun 25
Love0
RoseTent4_AD

Don’t-miss Summer Food and Drink Events

By Eat & Drink

Okay, it’s summertime (finally) and that means it’s time for Utahns to spend as much time outside eating and drinking as we possibly can. Because summertime sipping and noshing doesn’t last that long. (Especially this year. Savor the Summit just happened and people needed their puffy coats. In June.) Every restaurant that possibly can is cramming an al fresco space next to a sidewalk and there are more opportunities for eating and drinking outside than you could fit into a three-meal-a-day schedule. Check out these three stellar Summer Food and Drink Events see all of our food and drink coverage here.

Eat Drink SLC, Tracy Aviary

July 10 —  Eat Drink SLC Tickets are going fast for this one! Nibble, nosh, sip and swirl the evening away while listening to live music and watching the birds on Tracy Aviary’s cool, green grounds. Festival-goers, aged 21 and over, will sample seasonal fare from many of Salt Lake’s leading restaurants and purveyors; sip from a selection of 80 wines from an international assortment of family-owned wineries; taste craft cocktails from small-batch distilleries, including several which are locally owned and operated; and enjoy local beers from award-winning Utah craft brewers. This year, there will be several new festival zones, each with a distinct culinary mix and entertainment feature.

Payson Salmon Supper, Payson Town Square

Summer Food and Drink Events

August 2 — The Payson Salmon Supper a decades-old event that still seems as fresh as the fish they fly in from Alaska. Side dishes served by cheerleaders, fish cooked by firefighters, long picnic tables set up in the dappled shade of the Payson town square—the whole thing is pure idyllic Americana, straight out of The Music Man and if you haven’t been, you need to go.

The Food Truck Face Off, Liberty Park

Summer Food and Drink Events

Aug. 3 — The Food Truck Face off at Liberty Park gives you a chance to sample and compare fare from Salt Lake’s mobile finest. More than 30 food trucks will gather to compete and your $4 entry ticket (purchased online; $6 at the event) goes to benefit four of Utah’s charities: 4th Street Clinic, YWCA, Volunteers of America and Utah Community Action.

See more Utah food coverage here. 

Jun 24
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taiwan_pink_circle-joel_nava

Summerfest Brings the World to Utah Families

By Arts & Culture

It’s festival season! Utahns are celebrating the arts that unite us and the cultures that give us our stories, while parents have a chance to instill love for art and appreciation for diversity in kids. Recently, we covered the Utah Arts Festival and counted down eight cultural events families shouldn’t miss this summer, but wait… there’s more. We recommend heading 20 minutes north for the Bountiful Davis Summerfest. Entering its 32nd season, Summerfest will bring performances, art and food to Bountiful City Park, June 28–29, 2019.

“Summerfest is a Davis County tradition,” says Alysa Revell, executive director of Bountiful Davis Art Center, which hosts the festival. “The performances are varied and entertaining, and the performers themselves are warm and wonderful people who are happy to chat with locals about their home countries and interesting lives.”

This year’s warm and wonderful performers include Native American storyteller Gary Hansen, rock band King Tree, singer/songwriter Kristen Beckwith and international acts from the Scottish Highlands, Singapore and more. (See all of the 2019 performers.)

Summerfest

Children in a Mexican dance performance at Summerfest, photo by Joel Nava, courtesy of Bountiful Davis Art Center

“The arts can be an important bridge between people of different nationalities,” Revell says. “One important aspect of Summerfest is having international performers housed with local families. This allows individuals a chance to get to know one another, to learn from and appreciate each other’s cultures, and to create lifelong friendships.”

In past years, Summerfest was held in August. Organizers moved it to June to avoid Utah’s dreaded late-summer microbursts. Along with performing arts, families can enjoy visual arts from more than 30 vendors, including grand prize winner from the 2019 Davis School District Exhibition, Jarom Mollinet, international foods and the Children’s Art Yard, where kids will learn to make crayon and ink drawings inspired by Singapore’s Nayang-style art. Families can also participate in or watch live demos, including glassblowing, spray paint art and learning to tie a sari.

“Throughout the years, hundreds of thousands of local residents and international performers have interacted and learned from one another,” Revell says. “Understanding and appreciation of other cultures is vital in our world today, and Summerfest has contributed to that in countless ways over the past three decades.”

Admission is free. An opening ceremony will be held June 28, 2019 at 6 p.m., and a closing ceremony will be held June 29, 2019 at 9:40 p.m.

Read more of our family content in our Kid-friendly blog roll.