The Week

I haven't written in a while because it's been a busy week. I suppose I'll start with yesterday and work my way back. Yesterday we took the kids to the Utah Arts Festival. My group was fabulous and it made me so happy. They asked great questions of all the artists and got excited about the art. After work, it was right back to the Arts Festival to hear Megan Wham read. She was fabulous. I could see the moments in her work where she needs to mature, but overall I was very impressed. One of her poems was quite antagonistic, and I am venturing to say angry, about Joseph Smith. I want to ask her what sparked this, because I thought none of her family was LDS, but when I've brought it up to her, she never seemed to harbor resentment. She presented one of her short stories, The Kill Jar. I really liked this, but felt it ended too abruptly. Afterward, I told Megan how much I enjoyed it and then she preceeded to tell me that when you workshopped it in a class, they told her it ended to quickly. I was about to agree when she said something along the lines of, "They said, 'You can't just end it!'" "Yes I can," she replied. And so I left it at that. The poems were erotically charged with skin, lips, and wine but frequently with a tinge of loneliness or aspiration. Needless to say, that girl is amazing. I hope I can be more like her one day. Then Wise Guys Comedy (?) came on stage. They were not funny, and highly offensive. When will Americans learn that being offensive is not the same as being funny. The so-called comics were simply dirty, racist, and gay-bashing. I'm done people. I'm done. Then I spent a half hour listening to the worst poet I think I've ever heard. I was in the front row, so I felt obligated to clap and stay. I did, and I regret it. Then it was off to hear Andy Hoffman, my prior teacher, read with some music. It had a unique flavor, as Andy always does, and I enjoyed it. Nicholas, a kid who was in my class with him last year, was there and came up to say hi. We hung out for a bit. Hannah was hungry, so we went to get her a taco and saw Trent. He looked like he was doing well, and had spent his last $4 on wisky so had no money for food. Ran into Nicholas again and so invited him to Zona Sul, the brazilian jazz group. He met us there, but had to leave before the band started; the band started 20 minutes late. Their first few songs were fantastic, they died down for a bit, and then picked up at the end. Overall, fantastic. I could listen to that beat all day long. Well, I'm off to work so I will have to recap the rest of my week in another post. Asta lasagna, don't get any on ya!!!