Examples of the answers in the party game Dang You to Heck. (Courtesy Jerilyn Pool)
The idea of a family-friendly version of the super-offensive party game Cards Against Humanity sounds like it makes as much sense as a Disney edit of "Deadpool."
But Dang You to Heck, the brainchild of Provo woman Jerilyn Pool, aims to use the party-game model to poke fun at Mormon culture.
Read my story about Pool and her game, here on sltrib.com.
I didn't have a good image to go with this article, so here's a picture of my cat, Gracie.
In the neverending attempt to keep children safe from all the bad things on the internet, many have sought technological fixes — like filters to keep objectionable material away from the kids.
A study by the Oxford Internet Institute, published this month, found that this filtering technology doesn't keep teens from finding objectionable material.
Read more about it here on sltrib.com.
A "moosetaur" rises up to terrify Alaskans in the made-in-Wasilla horror-comedy "Moose: The Movie," which will open the 2018 Bicknell International Film Festival in the central Utah town of Bicknell on Friday, July 27. (Photo courtesy Sons of Winter Productions)
What's the connection between a half-man/half-moose creature, an 8-mile caravan route, one of America's most beautiful national parks and a small-town movie theater?
They all come together in the small town of Bicknell, Utah, just a few miles west of Capitol Reef National Park in central Utah. That's where the Bicknell International Film Festival, an unabashedly weird two-day celebration of B-movies, makes its return this Friday and Saturday after a five-year absence.
This year's theme is "Alaska: Films Worth Freezing For … in July," and opens with a homemade horror-comedy, "Moose: The Movie," in which park rangers are confronted by a "moosetaur." Read more about the movie, the festival, and the renovated movie theater that hosts it, here at sltrib.com.
Martin L. Washington stars as Leo, a teen discovering a love for drag performing, in "Alaska Is a Drag," written and directed by Shaz Bennett. The movie will screen during the Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival. (Photo courtesy Utah Film Center)
The Damn These Heels LGBTQ Film Festival is marking its 15th year next weekend, so the novelty of Salt Lake City having an LGBTQ film festival has long since worn off.
The festival, running July 20-22, boasts a line-up of 23 feature films, plus shorts programs and the results of the 48 Hour Film Festival, in which groups of filmmakers have a weekend to shoot and edit their own LGBTQ-themed films.
One of the films at Damn These Heels this year is "Alaska Is a Drag," a coming-of-age tale written and directed by Salt Lake City native Shaz Bennett. Read about her, and her film, at sltrib.com.
Rafael Casal (left) and Daveed Diggs play best friends in "Blindspotting," which the two wrote. (Photo by Robby Baumgartner, courtesy Lionsgate)
Oakland is having a moment. The Bay Area city is featured prominently in two movies that are hitting theaters this summer, after auspicious premieres at this year's Sundance Film Festival: Boots Riley's "Sorry to Bother You," and Carlos López Estrada's "Blindspotting."
The films take different approaches to issues of race and class divisions in Oakland — one through absurdist satire, the other through high drama and performance poetry.
I talked to Riley, and to "Blindspotting" stars/writers Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal about their movies, and their hometown. Read it here on sltrib.com.
A gay-rights protester flies a rainbow flag over a rally for "traditional marriage," in a scene from the documentary "Church & State." (Photo courtesy Blue Fox Entertainment)
A funny thing happened on the way to legalizing same-sex marriage around the country: Utah actually got there first, thanks to a lawsuit filed by three couples to overturn Amendment 3, a 2004 addition to the state's constitution that decreed marriage as being only between one man and one woman.
A new documentary, "Church v. State," looks at the case, Kitchen v. Herbert, and how it came to be — with a fair share of the credit going to an activist, Mark Lawrence, who was pushed out of the spotlight as things progressed.
Read about "Church v. State," which begins a theatrical run Friday in Salt Lake City, here at sltrib.com.
Steve Mascaro, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah, competing on "American Ninja Warrior." (photo by Adam Bettcher, courtesy of NBC)
The other day, I got to talk to Steve Mascaro, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Utah. He teaches a robotics course, "mechatronics," and recently challenged his students to design, build and program a robot that could navigate an obstacle course inspired by "American Ninja Warrior."
As an incentive, Mascaro told his students that if they could build robots that could survive his "Robot Ninja Warrior" course, he would train for and audition for NBC's "American Ninja Warrior."
Well, it happened, and Mascaro will be appearing on Monday night's episode. Here is my story about Mascaro, his robots, and his upcoming TV appearance, from sltrib.com.
Salt Lake Acting Company's summer perennial, "Saturday's Voyeur," promises every year to lampoon Utah politics and Mormon culture — and for the show's 40th anniversary, the laughs and the anger are in full force.
Being an anniversary show, this year's edition is in part a throwback, patterned after the LDS roadshows of yore as the 1978 version was. That means most of the focus is on LDS doctrine and attitude, rather than recent events.
For the review, go to sltrib.com. (And apologies that there isn't a recent photo.)
The 2015 production of "Saturday's Voyeur," the long-running musical satire of Utah and Mormon culture. (Photo courtesy Salt Lake Acting Company)
One of Salt Lake City's oddest theater traditions — the satirical musical "Saturday's Voyeur," at Salt Lake Acting Company — turns 40 this year, one of the longest-running local revue shows in the country.
I interviewed several of the people involved with the making of this send-up of Utah politics and Mormon culture, as well as critics and some of its past targets. The result is an oral history of "Saturday's Voyeur," showing how it came to be what it is today.
Read it at sltrib.com.