Wise Ax

Roller Derby Recap: Wasatch Roller Derby

The Big Girls

The Little Girls (Half-time demo by the Junior Roller Derby team)

The MVP

and

My write up for SLUG magazine can be found here.

Sundance 2011

For the past few years I've written a small recap of each of the Sundance movies that I've seen. I'm not sure that any of you really care about that but it is a great reminder for me to keep track of what I've seen. Seeing ten movies in ten days always leaves me a bit blurry by the end of the festival.

I'm not sure when I turned into such a lazy blogger but I'm five movies into this year's festival and I haven't written a thing. Sigh. The best I might muster this year is just listing them out. Maybe 'fessing up will inspire, we'll see....

Abraxas This movie was okay. It's the story of a Buddhist monk longing for his punk rock days. It didn't really resonate with me but Ban really enjoyed it.

Shorts Program - We saw six shorts. Two were awesome including Right to Fight: Revisited and Worst Enemy. The rest weren't worth writing about.

Pariah I LOVED this movie. The characters and story were so compelling. I even cried a little.

Higher Ground Vera Farminga's directorial debut (you know her from Up in the Air...yah, she was naked with Clooney). I wasn't sure what to think about the movie while I was viewing it but I've continued thinking about it for days after. Probably a good sign.

Resurrect Dead The first documentary that I saw during this festival. Fascinating story! Tale a three people trying to solve the mystery of some street art (and the artist who created it) found on the east coast and in south america. The weirdest part, however, was during the Q & A and an audience member who stood up and claimed to know one of the potential suspects on the list of possible artists. Small freakin' world.

Page One: A year inside the New York Times

The Green Wave

Gun Hill Road

Benavides Born

Win Win

A Teensy Taste of New Orleans in SLC

Monday night I went to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band play in Salt Lake City. I first had the pleasure of seeing them in New Orleans in 2007 and was blown away by the music. I was very moved by the contrast of a city nearly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and the ability of its people to continue to celebrate life with such joyful music.

Italian Fig Cookies

My Nana used to make these every year during the holidays. I didn't appreciate them much when I was a kid but as I got older I came to appreciate them. My Nana has been gone for nearly twenty years but every once in a while I get the urge to carry on the tradition and make these cookies. Plus, my Dad is in town for Christmas this year and he loves the fig cookies.

I didn't use my Nana's recipe completely because she had the luxury of having a fig tree in her backyard (in Queens!) so she used fresh figs. I have to rely on dried figs so I took some inspiration from this recipe that I found on the Food Network's website.

Merry Christmas!