Over the years, when the streetcar sat quaintly beneath the Trolley Square water tower, it has been home to a number of businesses, including, Trolley Wing Company The historic streetcar’s return is just one component of a three-pronged repositioning of the area, which includes the development of a multifamily complex, renovations to the main property; and an attentive … [Read more...]
10 Signs You are Waaaaaaay too Serious about Climbing
A few years ago, fresh from a five-month hiatus from climbing in order to write a book of poetry (I know, right?), I had an epiphany that continues to affect me today—and not just any old epiphany, either, but one of those serious, earth-shattering, I-can-still-feel-it-in-my-bones sort of thing. It came on suddenly, so strong I nearly fainted. I was at the climbing gym that … [Read more...]
When Worlds Collide—Climbing Through Parenthood
One of the few things I feel I can say with a secure declarative is this: Climbers of all abilities are the most dedicated, spiritual, and philosophical athletes in their "sport." I quotate that word because to any climber, the word "sport" undermines the legitimacy of their life because, well, climbing is their life. Climbing transcends such a trivial attribution—it is an … [Read more...]
Turning the Page on “Big Book”
In the early naughts, myriad wealth reports predicted the eventual extinction of the independent bookshop—Amazon, by this time, had become an ever-present goliath; Barnes & Nobles had hundred of stores, and more were popping up everywhere, seemingly every week. On the surface, the dire prediction made sense; the way things go in our world, it was inevitable. And it stirred … [Read more...]
Is “Certified Organic” Worth the Price?
Okay, so I’ve now placed myself on the Bascule and secured my own neck with the Lunette for you—I’m ready for the slice of your guillotine. Before you pull the blade’s release handle, though, grant an already-condemned writer, guilty of apostasy against the Church of Organic, the reassurance that you will at least ask and consider why it is you buy and defend organic food from … [Read more...]
Through God’s Typewriter
Marie Ogden claimed a direct communiqué with God via divine manipulation through her typewriter. She began touring the country, lecturing, slowly gaining a devout and following congregation, and would eventually establish the little-known pious commune, the Home of Truth, in 1933 … You probably haven’t heard of Marie Ogden. Hell, most of the people living in Monticello, … [Read more...]
Realms of Inquiry: The View From Here
Realms of Inquiry, a private school in Salt Lake City, Utah, offers students a view past the walls of the classroom by utilizing climbing and nature to prepare them for future success. It is 12:30 in the afternoon on a Monday and I’m waiting at the base of a popular climbing crag up Big Cottonwood Canyon known as The S-curves. For autumn, it’s unseasonably warm. The … [Read more...]
360 Degrees of Rad
On August 21st, local Utah climbers Kyle Dempster and Scott Adamson left their base camp to attempt the unclimbed, staggering 23,000-foot north face of Ogre II in Pakistan. On August 22, their Pakistani cook reported seeing the lambency of their headlamps halfway up the mountain right before a storm blew in… They were never seen again. A few months ago, only … [Read more...]
Salt Lake Makeup Brings Fright to Life
I met local artist, Brett Hamilton, at his studio in the popular haunted attraction, Fear Factor. Props smeared with blood are piled here and there, randomly; makeup swells out of toolboxes and crates; mannequins and body casts stand and lean like the frozen living, lay like scattered corpses. We sit down at a table scummed with a thin layer of dust, and when he speaks, his … [Read more...]
Salt Lake City Prostitution, Drugs & Theft
It is 6:30 a.m. and a clutch of people is already assembled. Two more, shabbily dressed, totter across the street and join the assemblage; a man on a bicycle stops and asks me for a cigarette, or change for a cup of coffee, peddles away, circling me twice in a wide berth before joining them. He straddles the bike and stares at me. The rest of the group is sitting, idly … [Read more...]