MoaBlog

The Utah Shakespearean Festival's "Shakespeare in the Schools" traveling production of the popular comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" came to Moab for two performances today. The first was during a school-wide assembly for students at the high school. The actors repeated the 80-minute performance later that evening. Although the play featured a "Wild West" setting and costumes, the language was faithful to Shakespeare's written script. Because there were only seven performers total, the actors had to "borrow" a few volunteers from the audience to be in the wedding scene, including high school student Derek, seen in the bottom photo acting as the minister who pronounces Petruchio and Kate married.

More pictures from last Saturday night's cruise party, from top: shuffleboard on the gymnasium floor; sculpting ice using chisels and power tools, and posing for "on deck" portraits. Jeff and Penny, pictured here, were the photographers for the event, which was attended by around 80 people.

Jeff and Penny attended a "cruise party" at a local church Saturday night. The event was supposed to resemble a the activities typically found on a cruise ship, including buffet food, shuffleboard. Several people sang karaoke or lip-synched to music as part of the evening's entertainment.

The Moab Western Stars Cowboy Poetry Gathering was held Feb.13 – 15. The event featured performances by western poets Bimbo Cheney, J.P. Carson, Sam Deleeuw, Jo Lynne Kirkwood, Jerry Brooks, Paul Bliss, Phil Kennington, Marion Manwill, Gordon Thomas, Skylar Harward, Ray Lashley, Al Clark, Doug Keller, Jeff Carson, and Curly Syndergaard. There was also a Buckaroo and Cutting Horse Clinic, an art contest and a Dutch oven cook-off.

The Metropolitan Opera HD Opera series continued this year in movie theaters throughout the world. Virginia attended the "Simon Boccanegra" performance. The famous opera tenor Placido Domingo starred in the title role, which is usually sung by a baritone. The opera, composed by Giuseppe Verdi, is based on events from Italian history where Simon became the Doge or leader of an area of Italy, where he worked to bring two factions together.

More photos from "Hamlet," which was the final one of Shakespeare's 37 plays to be "covered" by the comedic trio in last Friday's performance of "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)".

Last Friday night, Jeff and Penny and their oldest three girls attended an amusing performance of the fast-paced comedy “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)." About 300 people attended the event at the local high school auditorium. Top photo: the trio of comedians in the death scene of "Romeo and Juliet". Middle photo: audience members were brought onstage during "Hamlet". Bottom photo: a sword-fighting scene from "Hamlet". Check back tomorrow for more photos of the play!

Last week, Jeff took the on-line test to see if he could qualify to be a contestant on the popular TV quiz show Jeopardy!, hosted by Alex Trebek. This was the fifth or sixth time Jeff has taken a qualifying test, but he doesn't think he did very well this time. He'll have to wait another year before trying again.

Brooklyn and River did a two-hour show on the radio a couple of Saturdays ago. They played a variety of music during their stint as DJs. They are seen here taking a short snack break of microwave pizza and black cherry soda.

Sam has begun to learn the keyboard. This one has keys that light up so you know which note to push, but he has already learned to play some simple tunes without using the lights.

Monday night, Jeff's family went with Penny's mom, sister, a niece, and a nephew to the annual Christmas Carol Sing-Along held in downtown Salt Lake. More than 10,000 people attended the free event, which was held inside a basketball arena. Audience members sang along as the orchestra played various Christmas songs, and noted pianist Jon Schmidt also performed.

Last night was the opening night of the local high school drama club's production of the musical comedy "Once Upon A Mattress." The play is based on a popular fairy tale called "The Princess and the Pea," where a princess passes a test to marry the prince in the story by spending a sleepless night atop 20 mattresses, not knowing that a small pea placed underneath the bottom mattress was keeping her awake. The show, which has a cast of about 40 high school students, continues its three-night run tonight and tomorrow. Brooklyn played one of the ladies in waiting.

A folk music band called "Elephant Revival" performed a one-hour concert at the local high school today, as part of the annual Moab Folk Festival.

Penny (middle photo) and three other ladies (Leigh, Shauna, and Denna) performed an entertaining lip synching act at a church dinner recently. They performed the classic 1962 hit song "Sherry" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

At Penny's high school class reunion, Jeff spotted an interesting mix of old and new audio technology. An Apple iPod was hooked up to the sound system, randomly and effortlessly playing hits from the late 1980s as the event's background music. The iPod likely holds more songs than disc jockeys from that era would have had in their entire record collections.

Virginia spends time putting together jigsaw puzzles for relaxation. She enjoys puzzles of scenery and buildings the best. Here she is placing the last piece into a puzzle of Double Arch, which is shown completed in the next photo.

At the local library this past Saturday afternoon (February 14), 20 students in grades 2 and 3 performed their own songs and poems that they had written with the help of noted author and poet Sid Hausman (top photo, with London). London's poem was titled "Way Out West," was about a cowboy who dressed funny. "Other cowboys laughed, but he didn't care ... 'Cause the cowgirls were everywhere ..." In the middle photo are two of London's friends who also participated (Auburn and Mary). The bottom photo shows the entire group of students with Mr. Hausman in the back. This is the third straight year that Hausman has worked with the kids from the elementary school in conjunction with the annual Moab Western Stars Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

Tonight was the local high school's annual "Junior Cheer" performance. Dozens of youngsters participated in cheering and dancing for the crowd during the halftime of tonight's basketball game. They had spent several afternoons learning and practicing the routines with the high school cheerleading squad. Despite the girls' exuberant halftime performance, however, the hometown Red Devils still lost the basketball game.

KZMU, Moab's volunteer radio station, had a special ceremony this afternoon to celebrate the station's transition to an all-solar power system. The $120,000 array of solar panels (middle photo) generates enough electricity to power the entire station, with some extra electricity going back into the power grid. Brooklyn is seen in the top photo during her monthly stint as a DJ for the station.

The entire cast of last week's production of "The Sound of Music" posed for a group picture after the third and final performance on Saturday night. The play had more than 40 students in the cast, and over 100 different costumes were used. Click on picture to see a larger version.

Tonight was the second night of "The Sound of Music" at the local high school auditorium. An estimated crowd of more than 350 attended the performance. Top photo: Ian (as Max) watches as Rachel bows to the crowd. Middle photo: Ivy (as Maria) teaches the song "Do Re Mi" to the von Trapp children. Bottom photo: Ivy (as Maria) and Dayna (as the Mother Abbess) sing "Climb Every Mountain." Tomorrow night is the third and final performance!

Tonight was the first night of the local high school drama class's production of "The Sound of Music." The musical play, written by the famed duo Rodgers and Hammerstein, was made into a popular movie starring Julie Andrews in 1965, and is still one of the most beloved and frequently performed musicals in the United States. Top photo: Ivy as Maria and Clinton as Captain von Trapp. Middle photo: the von Trapps singing "Auf Wiedersehen". Bottom photo: the von Trapp children (including Jeff and Penny's daughter Brooklyn, center) take their final bows.

Today was Labor Day, the traditional end of summer and a day off from school and work for most Americans. Jeff's family enjoyed a picnic at a local park while listening to a free two-hour concert by musicians from the Moab Music Festival.

Brooklyn got to do her first hourlong stint as a disc jockey for a local radio station this past weekend. She brought her own playlist and CDs, introduced each song, and provided her own commentary during the program. She played mostly country music hits, with some jazz and rock mixed in.

Sam is learning to play jazz bass. He plays an electric upright bass (sometimes called a stick bass). It is an amplified version of the double bass that has a smaller body. While it is played the same as a double bass, it has its own unique sound.

Click here to see a video clip

Jake as Crab in the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s 2008 production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. (Photo by Karl Hugh. Copyright Utah Shakespearean Festival 2008.)

John went to see "Two Gentlemen of Verona." Usually in modern productions of the play a live dog is not used even though Shakespeare intended to have a live dog. This production included a live dog. The dog was trained to do tricks on stage but did not respond to the actor’s commands. The dog did not appear to be frightened but acted rather lazy on stage. Even though the dog did not follow the commands, the lazy attitude of the dog added some extra comedy to the performance. The play was great!

John went to the Utah Shakespearean Festival last month. He saw two plays: "Taming of the Shrew" and "Two Gentlemen of Verona." Before the plays, performers put on a greenshow. A greenshow is an outdoor performance. It included various acts that relate to countries in Shakespeare’s plays. At the greenshow the performers did a "dance around the Maypole." A Maypole is a big pole with colored ribbons connected to the top. Each dancer grabs one ribbon and dances around the pole in a pattern. As the dancers dance they make a design on the Maypole by weaving the ribbons in-between each other.

Click here to see a video (requires QuickTime)

David Archuleta, a 17-year-old high school student from Murray, Utah, is still in contention to win the current season of the popular nationwide television talent show "American Idol." The show is down to the final three contestants, and the winner will be decided within the next couple of weeks. Archuleta made public appearances in his home state today, greeting thousands of fans in the Salt Lake area. The top photo shows Archleta's limousine arriving downtown this morning. The middle photo shows a small part of the sizable throng of admirers, mostly teenage girls. Archuleta (bottom photo) also sang the national anthem before tonight's NBA basketball playoff game between the Jazz and the Lakers.

Brooklyn tries her axe-wielding skills at the "Guitar Hero II" video game on the PlayStation 2 at her aunt and uncle's house.

The play "Arsenic and Old Lace" is a murder mystery comedy about two older ladies who have the rather nasty habit of poisoning male guests with arsenic-laced elderberry wine. The drama club from the local high school presented the play for two nights last week.

A traveling production of "Romeo and Juliet" visited the local high school earlier this week. A cast of just eight actors (some playing multiple roles) staged the 90-minute version, which was remarkably faithful to Shakespeare's original play, despite the minimalistic set and costumes. An audience of 400 students enjoyed the performance, which included an informative 15-minute Q&A session with the actors afterward. The production was part of the Utah Shakespearean Festival's "Shakespeare-in-the-Schools" tour, which includes more than 70 performances around Utah and neighboring states. Monday morning's performance in Moab was around the 30th or so stop of the tour.

The middle school choir gave a half-hour singing performance tonight in the high school auditorium. Eighth-grader Brooklyn (in white blouse at far right) and her classmates sang a total of four numbers that they had been practicing in school this trimester.

Sending text messages via cell phones has become a popular pastime for teenagers. It's estimated that at least 90 percent of all students at the local high school in Moab have a cell phone. They aren't allowed to use them in classrooms, but they use their phones to chat and text each other during lunchtime and before or after school.

A rock concert took place at the local high school tonight. About 150 people attended the event, which featured three bands, including one comprised of high school students (top two photos). The second band, known as "Uncle Meat and the Bad Sons," includes Seth (third photo) and other recent graduates and former students of the high school. The five-member headline band, known as Adjacent to Nothing (bottom photo), is from Orem, Utah and has recorded a CD album. The concert was a fundraiser for the high school baseball team.

A heavy metal rock band comprised of local high school students has been writing and practicing their own songs. They posed for these photos during lunchtime at school earlier this week. They call themselves "Pristine Genocide," but have not yet made any official recordings.

Other peformers at the Dec. 13 talent show included (from top): Ivy, Sylvia, and a rock band consisting of five high school students. Prizes were awarded to the top winners in each of five different age categories. The highly popular show was a fundraiser for the high school music department.

Last Thursday night was Moab's Got Talent, a two-hour talent show featuring more than two dozen acts. Pictured here are a few of the performers, including (from top): Sheena and Aaron, Jesse, and Dayton and Daniel. Check back tomorrow for more photos of the talent show.

More images from last week's production of "Guys and Dolls". As a joke on the play's final night, one of the male cast members (Leo) put on a dress and added himself to the lineup of girls for one of their musical numbers (middle photo). The audience responded with appreciative laughter and applause. All in all, it was another successful year for the high school drama department.

Last week, the local high school put on its annual theatrical production. This year's play was "Guys and Dolls," a musical comedy set in 1940s-era New York. More than two dozen students appeared in the production, which ran for three consecutive nights. Check back tomorrow for more "Guys and Dolls" photos.

Jeff's dad Frank, a pharmacist in the Salt Lake area, poses with Kim Peek, the savant on whom Dustin Hoffman's character in the 1988 movie "Rain Man" was based. Frank is holding the Oscar statuette that was given to Peek by writer Barry Morrow, who won the award along with Ronald Bass for Best Original Screenplay. The film also won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Hoffman).

Peek has an amazing photographic memory, and can recall virtually every word from the thousands of books he has read. He enjoys reciting baseball statistics and knows the ZIP code of any city in the United States, along with many other facts in a wide variety of subject areas. The 58-year-old Peek tours the country along with his dad and amazes audiences at his speaking engagements. He enjoys showing off his Oscar statue everywhere he goes.

One of the games played at the recent company party was a fun card game called "Apples to Apples." The object of the game is to win "green" adjective cards by having the other players choose the "red" card with the noun or noun phrase that most closely matches the adjective in question. Players take turns and don't know who laid down which red card; the game ends when someone collects five green cards. Virginia was the winner of the game.

The Utah Shakespearean Festival includes a free nightly greenshow that features music, song, and tales on an outdoor stage. It is called a greenshow because it takes place outdoors on the green (a large public grassy area).

At the Moab Music Festival Emily Smith sang several songs in traditional Scottish dialect. Like Shakespearean English, the Scottish dialect is different from modern American English, but it is similar enough that most Americans can understand it. Here are the lyrics to one of the songs she sang. It was written by one of the most famous Scottish poets Robert Burns.

O, my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my Luve's like a melodie
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair as thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun:
I will love thess till, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run:

And fare thee well, my only luve!
And fare thee weel, a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it ware ten thousand mile.

One of the highlights of the concert that Mary attended was vocalist Emily Smith’s Performance. Ms. Smith has been recognized as the 2002 BBC Young Traditional Musician of the Year. She is respected in Scotland as an interpreter of traditional Scottish songs. She has two solo albums “A Day Like Today” (2002) and “A Different Life” (2005).

Mary recently attended a concert in the Moab Music Festival series. It was a performance of Celtic music. The venue was a pavilion near the Colorado River.

This year at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, Sam saw three plays: Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, and King Lear. This photo shows a statue of King Lear in the famous storm scene where he says:

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulph'rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o' th' world,
Crack Nature's moulds, all germains spill at once,
That makes ingrateful man!

Approximately 150,000 people visit The Utah Shakespearean Festival each year. About 60 percent of the festival’s audience comes from Utah; 24 percent from Nevada; 6 percent from Arizona; 6 percent from California; and 4 percent from other areas throughout the world. This photo shows a statue of the character Sir John Falstaff. Here is one of his famous speeches:

If sack and sugar be a fault,
God help the wicked! if to be old and merry be a
sin, then many an old host that I know is damned: if
to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine
are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto,
banish Bardolph, banish Poins: but for sweet Jack
Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff,
valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant,
being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish not him
thy Harry's company, banish not him thy Harry's
company: banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.

The Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City, Utah is one of the oldest and largest Shakespearean festivals in North America. Its first season was in 1962. On the grounds of the Festival there are several statues of Shakespearean Characters. This photo shows the statue of Juliet from the play Romeo and Juliet. Here are some of Juliet’s most famous lines:

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

One of the groups performing at this year’s Moab Music Festival was the Turtle Island Quartet. They are evolving the traditional string quartet form to include folk, bluegrass, swing, be-bop, funk, R&B, rock, and even hip-hop. They received a Grammy for one of their CDs.

This is the fifteenth year of the Moab Music Festival. Musicians from all over the world participate in this annual festival. Some of the concerts take place in this tent near the Colorado River.

Although William Shakespeare wrote in an older form of English that is slightly different from Modern English, it is close enough to Modern English that most Native English speakers can understand it. Shakespeare’s writings are a standard part of American high school curriculum. There are some differences in prepositional usage and verb agreement, and a few of Shakespeare's words have shifted meanings or disappeared from the present vocabulary. Word order was more flexible in Shakespeare’s day, so some of his sentence structures seem odd to a Modern English speaker. Here is an example:

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Photo: Donald Sage Mackay (left) as Malvolio, Anne Newhall as Maria, and Carey Cannon as Olivia in the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s 2007 production of Twelfth Night. (Copyright Utah Shakespearean Festival. Photo by Karl Hugh.)

William Shakespeare’s vocabulary in his works includes over 17,000 words. This is four times the number of words a well-educated English speaker of today uses in conversation. Shakespeare is credited with introducing over 3,000 new words into the language. Here are a few examples: frugal, lonely, fixture, discontent, bedroom, worthless, and zany.

Photo: Shelly Gaza (left) as Cordelia and Dan Kremer as King Lear in the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s 2007 production of King Lear. (Copyright Utah Shakespearean Festival. Photo by Karl Hugh.)

Shakespeare’s writings have had such a strong influence on the English language that even today many people will use phrases from Shakespeare in common speech. Sometimes they don’t even realize they are quoting Shakespeare. Here are a few examples: It's Greek to me, salad days, vanished into thin air, budge an inch, green-eyed jealousy, played fast and loose, tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked, in a pickle, too much of a good thing, bag and baggage, the long and short of it, and dead as a doornail.

Photo: Leslie Brott (left) as Volumnia, James Newcomb as Caius Martius Coriolanus, and Kate Cook as Virgilia in the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s 2007 production of Coriolanus. (Copyright Utah Shakespearean Festival. Photo by Karl Hugh.)

This photo is of a bust of William Shakespeare at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Shakespeare, who lived from 1564 to 1616, wrote in an older form of English that used the pronoun thou. Although we don’t commonly use this form today, most Americans are familiar with it and can still understand Shakespeare’s writings. The word thou is the second person singular pronoun, and ye is the plural pronoun, but in modern usage both have been replaced by you. Thou is the nominative form; thee is the oblique/objective form, and thy or thine is the possessive. Verbs that follow thou have -st or –est added to the end of the word. For example the phrase “You gave me a present.” would be "Thou gavest me a present."

Although it is not yet considered standard English, there is a similar shift taking place in the language today. Many people will use the plural pronoun they to describe a single person instead of using the singular pronouns he or she.

Sam Attended the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City again this year. The Festival received a Tony Award for America’s Outstanding Regional Theatre in 2000. The Tony Award is the live theatre equivalent of the Academy Awards in film and is presented by the American Theatre Wing and the League of American Theatres and Producers. The photo above shows the Tony Award.

Shortly after midnight Saturday, the much-awaited "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" books were released to customers. Brooklyn had reserved and paid for her copy in advance, saving $7 off the $34.99 list price. By late Saturday night, she had finished reading the entire 759-page volume. Penny then finished it the following night. They both enjoyed the book tremendously, and said it provided a fitting and satisfying conclusion to the series. The book, which had an initial press run of 12 million copies in the U.S. alone, sold around 8.3 million nationwide in the first 24 hours.

A local bookstore held a "Harry Potter" party tonight to celebrate the release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's popular series about the boy wizard and his friends at the mythical Hogwarts School. An estimated 200 people crowded the small store, with most of them waiting until after midnight, when the book officially went on sale. Jeff's daughters were among the many fans who dressed up as characters from the books.

The kazoo (technically called a membranophone) is a simple musical instrument that is played by holding it to one's lips and vocalizing, which creates a buzzing or humming sound. The local high school choir used kazoos to comic effect during a number at a recent concert.

The local high school choir and jazz band performed an hour-long concert at the school auditorium last week. The choir performed several numbers, including "Down to the River to Pray," "Kuna Karamu," and "At the Hop." The jazz band performed "Minnie the Moocher," "Green Onions," "Uncle Milo's Slide Show," and "Kansas City."

Three 9th-grade boys (Josh, Clint, and Spencer) donned makeup and costumes of the rock band KISS and performed the song "Rock and Roll All Night" during a recent lip sync program.

Hailey, a 10th grader, beat seven other high school students to win the local Classic Country Music Talent Showdown Saturday night. She sang the Crystal Gayle classic "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue." She'll represent Moab at the state finals in June.

Noted cowboy poet and musician Sid Hausman spent a week at the local elementary school teaching a group of second- and third-grade students how to write cowboy poems and songs. Saturday afternoon, the kids and Mr. Hausman performed their works before an appreciative audience at the annual Moab Western Stars Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Jeff's daughter River (bottom photo) created a humorous poem about an owl and a fish.

One of the members of the local high school drill team was recently injured in an accident, but that didn't stop her and her fellow team members from performing a lively halftime show during last week's basketball game. The dancers used wheelchairs during their unique performance.

A couple of circus performers did impressive bicycle tricks on Monday night. First, a clown (top) did a series of humorous stunts involving a trick bike that could be taken apart and reattached in several interesting ways. Then, another performer (middle and bottom) did several stunts involving a high level of skill, including landing a back flip off a small ramp.

More images of Monday night's circus performances (from top): a man balanced himself on a stack of several wooden chairs that reached as high as the arena's ceiling (over 20 feet, or about 7 meters); performers juggled a variety of items including torches, knives, and small swords; and the lion tamer held a large python snake during intermission. More photos tomorrow!

A traveling circus came to town yesterday and performed two two-hour shows. The show featured a variety of human and animal acts. Pictured here are trained tiger jumping through a flaming hoop (top), an aerialist who climbed up to the arena's ceiling via two long pieces of fabric and did a variety of tricks while suspended (middle), and trained elephants doing tricks (bottom). Check back tomorrow for more circus photos!

The final two acts of the talent show were a song by solo vocalist Hailey (top), followed by a skit reenacting a scene from the popular movie "Anchorman" (middle photo) with Steven, Daniel, and Skylar, plus co-star Dayton (not pictured). After the talent show, audience members were treated to a loud punk rock concert in the school's commons area (bottom photo). The talent show was mainly just for fun, but the winners in each category did earn free movie passes.

Also performing at Tuesday's talent show were Clinton (top), who sang "You Are My Sunshine," Athena and Ivy (middle) who sang a song with Clinton and later performed a humorous original skit called "The Audition," and Donald (bottom), who played a medley of tunes on his fiddle. Three more photos tomorrow!

The local high school held a talent show tonight. Among the dozen or so acts in the hourlong program were a dance act featuring a mid-air back flip by Kelsey (top), a song by Abi and Sommer (middle) and their friend Britten, and a humorous monologue by Daniel (bottom). Check back tomorrow for more photos from the event!

The local movie theater has three screens, which commonly feature the latest releases from Hollywood. Tickets are $7.50 for adults, $5 for children. Hot buttered popcorn and a soda costs about $6.00.

The Utah Symphony orchestra performed at the local high school earlier this week. In addition to a full schedule of concerts and operas, the prestigious group travels around the state and performs for some 80,000 schoolchildren each year. Tuesday's program featured a narrative explaining the history of symphonic orchestras, along with selections from the works of composers such as Hadyn, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and others.

The local high school is presenting its three-night run of Irving Berlin's popular musical "Annie Get Your Gun," loosely based on the life of Wild West sharpshooter Annie Oakley. The play started last night (Thursday) and continues tonight and tomorrow.

One of the activities at the recent "Pumpkin Chuckin" event was a pumpkin seed spitting contest. Two separate contests were held: one for small children, and one for teenagers and adults. Jeff (far left in top photo) won the adult division by spitting his seed a distance of about 30 feet (9 meters). He won a $20 gift certificate to a local restaurant. Photos by London, age 5.

A band known as "Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams" performed a popular and entertaining 45-minute concert at the local high school today during school. The band is in town to perform at the fourth annual Moab Folk Festival. They played a variety of catchy and interesting numbers, including selections from their latest album, "Flapjacks from the Sky."

The local drill team, the Devilettes, performed at the halftime of each of the home football games this season. Recently, they performed two numbers together, the second of which involved the use of colorful flags as props. The girls will perform each of their dance routines several more times before competing against other drill teams at the state competition in February.

One of the most popular attractions at Lagoon amusement park is the Colossal Fire Dragon, often simply called the Colossus. The 85-foot-high ride is a metal track roller coaster that includes a full vertical loop 65 feet (20 meters) in diameter. The cars reach a top speed of 55 miles per hour (90 kph) during the ride, which lasts 1 minute and 45 seconds. Built in 1983, the Colossus can carry up to 1,600 passengers per hour.

During their visit to the Lagoon amusement park last Friday (the 13th), Jeff and Penny and their three oldest daughters visited "Frightmares" -- the park's Halloween-themed attractions. In addition to three indoor haunted houses featuring different themes (circus, high school, and movies), there was also one outdoor haunted attraction with a junkyard theme, pictured above.

Sam and Virginia attended the Utah Festival Opera in Logan, Utah, where they saw three productions. On the first night they attended a performance of the popular Mozart opera “The Marriage of Figaro”. Called “Le Nozze di Figaro” in Italian, this piece is a comic opera about a couple preparing for marriage, and how they have to contend with the count’s desire for the young lady. This opera was chosen because 2006 is the year celebrating the anniversary of Mozart’s 250th birthday.

The next day, they saw the popular Meredith Wilson musical comedy “The Music Man”. That night, Giacomo Puccini’s masterpiece “La Boheme” was presented. This sorrowful love story is Sam’s favorite opera. It is based on Murger’s novel “Scenes de la vie Boheme." Originally written in French, the story was adapted into an Italian libretto for this composition.

A variety of interesting acts were performed at last week's lip sync competition held at the local high school. The overall winner was the well-choreographed "Spice Girls" act, featuring Sydney and Mikayla (third photo) and a few of their fellow drill team members, plus the football team's quarterback Gordon dancing in the background while wearing a long wig for good measure (bottom photo).

The annual Moab Music Festival, which brings various world-class musicians to town every September, kicked off its 14th season this past weekend. Friday morning, local middle school and high school students were treated to a lively and entertaining hour-long concert at the high school. The program featured a quintet of internationally renowned musicians (from top): Cuban-born jazz and Latin legend Paquito D’Rivera (a clarinet and saxophone player); Chicago-born drummer Mark Walker; Dana Leong, a trombonist and cellist based in New York; Peruvian bassist Oscar Stagnaro; and Israeli-born pianist Alon Yavnai. The festival's opening weekend concerts were then performed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings. Then, this afternoon, several other festival artists peformed a free Labor Day concert at Old City Park.

An interesting blend of cultures took place at last night's free outdoor concert at Moab's Old City Park. The Shidara taiko drumming group from Japan performed, as did a group of Navajo dancers from New Mexico. The two groups shared their love for music and cultural tradition in front of an appreciative audience of several hundred people seated on the grass.

The renowned Shidara taiko drumming group from Toei, Japan peformed back-to-back in-school assemblies for nearly 1,500 schoolchildren and teachers in Moab yesterday. The highly entertaining musicians played with amazing expertise and precision, and the audiences greatly enjoyed both performances. Tonight, the group will perform a sold-out concert at the high school and then stay one more night in Moab before traveling back to California to continue their six-city U.S. tour. Check out the group's website at www.shidara.co.jp for more information.

Noted pantomime artist Cary Trivanovich performed two one-hour routines at the local middle school and high school yesterday. The rubber-faced comedian combined various humorous skits with a positive message about building self-esteem and giving encouragement to others. Cary performs at schools, colleges, corporate seminars, and churches around the country, in addition to cruise ships overseas.

Other attractions at Moab's new Adventure Land include an indoor playland for kids (top photo) and a video game arcade, including an air hockey game (bottom two photos).

The Adventure Land family fun center recently opened near the McDonald's restaurant in town. Attractions include go-cart racing (top two photos), laser tag (bottom photo), miniature golf, arcade games, and an indoor playground. Check back tomorrow for more photos.

The Museum of Ancient Life in Lehi has several "hands-on" exhibits, including (from top) an erosion table where kids can submerge toy dinosaurs and trees in wet sand and water; a mock fossil dig where children can brush away the sand from buried dinosaur "skeletons"; and a "create your own dinosaur" exhibit where people can put together various body parts made out of foam and cloth to create colorful creatures.

Old Faithful, the world's most famous geyser, erupts about every 90 minutes on average. Last Thursday afternoon (top photo), Jeff and Penny's family watched Old Faithful go off at 3:33 p.m., five minutes earlier than the ranger station had predicted. The park's predictions are almost always accurate within 10 minutes, hence the geyser's name. Two nights later, back at camp in Idaho, Penny's nephew Andrew created a geyser of his own by pouring a package of Mentos mint candies into an open 2-liter bottle of Diet Coke. The resultant eruption (caused by CO2 bubbles) shot the soda an estimated 12 feet in the air (bottom photo).

Brian Vaughn (left) as Hamlet and Dan Kremer as Clown in the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s 2006 production of Hamlet. (Photo by Karl Hugh. Copyright Utah Shakespearean Festival 2006.)

Sam and Virginia visited the Utah Shakespearean Festival again this year. This annual event features six plays. The three by famed British playwright performed this year were two tragedies, “Hamlet” and “Antony and Cleopatra”, and one comedy “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. “Hamlet” is probably the best known of the three, quoted in many other contexts. “To be or not to be, that is the question” is one of the famous lines used in movies and books, and comes from a soliloquy that the title character speaks.

The other plays included “On Golden Pond” and “Room Service”, a production made famous by the Marx Brothers in a comedic movie of the same name, which chronicles the trials of a 1930’s Broadway show producer. “H.M.S. Pinafore” by Gilbert and Sullivan, made a fun night of dancing and silly songs satirizing love and plot twists set aboard a ship of the British navy. A famous number from this operetta (or light opera) is “I’m Called Little Buttercup”.

The last set of Lagoon photos shows the park's famous Carousel, which is over 100 years old and which features dozens of hand-carved animals. One-year-old Indy is seen here riding a large frog. Although some people say that a "carousel" moves counter-clockwise and a "merry-go-round" goes clockwise, the terms are used interchangeably in American English (Lagoon's rotates counter-clockwise). Incidentally, Indy's aunt Coral stepped off this same ride the day before this photo was taken and severely sprained her ankle.

Another fun ride at Lagoon is the "Tidal Wave," which is shaped like a pirate ship that swings back and forth like a pendulum over the water. Brooklyn and London's varied expressions (ranging from excitement to fright) were captured by Penny holding the camera in seat in front of them. Both girls said afterward that they liked the ride and wanted to go on it again!

At the Lagoon amusement park in northern Utah last Friday, London and River enjoyed riding the children's version of the "bumper cars" attraction. The cars are powered by eletricity conducted through a pole that touches the ceiling of the room. Alhtough some kids like to bump into other cars on purpose, both London and River tried to avoid hitting other riders. Check back tomorrow for more amusement park photos!

River and her 1st-grade classmates performed the "Mexican Hat Dance" last Thursday night as part of the school's annual Celebration of Learning activity.

Today was a dress rehearsal for tomorrow night's big winter dance recital, which will feature some 80 girls (and a few boys) in 15 different groups. The children will perform a variety of dance types, including jazz, tap, ballet, and tumbling.

Sudoku puzzles are taking America by storm. The popular puzzles involve filling in a 9x9 grid with numbers so that each row and column contains each numeral between 1 and 9 exactly once (along with each of the nine 3x3 squares as well). Many newspapers around the country have started carrying the puzzles each day. Jeff filled in the puzzle above (rated 4 stars, or the highest difficulty) in about an hour.

The premiere production of the musical "I Saw Three Ships" debuts tonight at Moab's 100-year-old historic Star Hall. The two-hour Christmas-themed play takes place in the early 1900s in the mountains east of Moab. Penny plays the role of a woman who runs a boarding house. The play's three-night run ends on Saturday. Here are a few pictures from last night's dress rehearsal.

Last night was the first night of the local high school's three-night production of "South Pacific." The popular musical, written for Broadway by Rodgers and Hammerstein in 1949, is set in the islands of the South Pacific during World War II. Sam's son Paul played the part of Tom O'Brien, one of the navy seamen. The cast included nearly 40 students in grades 9 through 12.

Members of a local dance group and their parents and other family members are staging a four-night "haunted house" fundraiser this week. Last night was the first night of the event. Organizers decorated the dance studio with scary props and secenery, and dressed up as frightening characters. People aged 10 and up paid $5 each to take a 20-minute tour through the building. Scary sights included Freddy Krueger from the "Nightmare on Elm Street" horror movies (top), a chainsaw-wielding madman (middle), and an indoor corn maze (bottom).

While in Cedar City, Sam took a backstage tour of the theater used for the Utah Shakespearean Festival. One of the actresses from the production of "All's Well That Ends Well" served as the tour guide (top photo). The middle photo shows the dressing room, while the bottom photo shows the Styrofoam heads used to store the fake beards used by the actors. The beards are made out of yak hair.

At a recent Hawaiian-themed "luau" party, several of those in attendance attempted to dance under a bar held by two people. This type of dance is called the "limbo." Each dancer must pass under the stick without knocking or touching it, and without falling to their knees or losing their balance. The bar is lowered after each successful pass until only one dancer remains. The limbo, generally accompanied by highly rhythmic music (usually Polynesian, Hawaiian, or Carribean), is very popular at beach-themed parties.

Today is Labor Day, a federal holiday that commemorates not only organized labor unions but also "the social and economic achievements of American workers." It is traditionally viewed as the end of summer vacation, and for many folks it offers the chance for one last camping trip or barbecue. In Moab, the Moab Music Festival holds a free family concert at Old City Park on the afternoon of Labor Day. Here are a couple of pictures of this afternoon's two-hour concert, which featured a variety of musical styles, including a couple of Venezuelan classical pieces.

The popular Pac-Man video game series recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. The original game, developed by Namco in 1980, spawned several spinoff games, including the highly popular Ms. Pac-Man (pictured here), which debuted in 1981. The object of the game is to eat all the dots in a series of mazes and avoid the four ghosts. Eating a "power pill" turns the ghosts dark blue, and they can then be eaten by the Pac-Man character. In Ms. Pac-Man, you can earn bonus points for eating any of the several types of fruit that come out and bounce through the maze.

While attending the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City last week, Sam's family and other festival-goers were treated to a free "green show" performance. The tradition dates back to the time of Shakespeare, when actors would perform songs, dances, and short skits on the lawn near the theater, in order to entice patrons to attend the show inside the theater afterward. The "green show" gets its name from the grass on which such performances were typically held. The similar term "green room" is traditionally used to refer to a room backstage where actors wait before going on stage (back then, they simply waited outside the theater). The bottom photo shows Paul with a statue of William Shakespeare.

Sam and his family are in Cedar City this week to attend the annual Utah Shakespearean Festival. Yesterday, they watched "Doctor Faustus," written by Christopher Marlowe. Today, they'll attend two plays by Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet" in the afternoon matinee and "Love's Labors Lost" in the evening. The above photo, taken by Karl Hugh, shows actors Tiffany Scott as Juliet and Paul Hurley as Romeo. Photo courtesy of the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Tomorrow, Sam's family plans to visit Bryce Canyon National Park.

Sam and Virginia are on vacation this week. Their first stop was in Logan, Utah, where they attended a performance of the musical "Annie Get Your Gun" (top photo). The next day, they saw the Puccini opera, "Turandot" in the same theater. The middle photo shows Sam standing under the marquee. No photography was allowed during the show, but Sam took the bottom photo of the theater interior before the performance. The next stop for Sam and Virginia is Yellowstone National Park.

Dozens of Harry Potter fans of all ages gathered at Arches Book Company in Moab late Friday evening, about an hour and a half before J.K. Rowling’s latest Harry Potter book went on sale at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, July 16. “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth book in the popular series, reportedly sold a record 6.9 million copies in the United States alone in its first 24 hours. Many of the fans at the bookstore were dressed as Hogwarts students or other Potter characters. The party featured magic tricks, a trivia quiz, and a raffle for prizes. A bookstore employee even read part of the first chapter aloud shortly before the $29.99 hardcover books went on sale.

A small traveling circus came to town for two 90-minute shows last night. The circus had no animal acts -- just human performers doing a variety of acrobatic stunts. A crowd of more than 300 people attended the 7 p.m. show at the Old Spanish Trail Arena. Adult admission was $9, and children aged 12 and under were free (if accompanied by a paying adult). The circus took in additional money through the sale of popcorn, cotton candy, drinks, and souvenirs.

A traveling carnival came to Moab for three days last weekend, allowing people in town a chance to ride about a dozen different rides, including a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, a train, and a small roller coaster. One "Ring of Fire" ride spun riders in a circle and dangled them upside down! The rides cost between $1 and $4 per ride. Attendees could also play games of skill or buy treats like cotton candy, popcorn, and lemonade. The Utah-based carnival travels around the country in a caravan of 18-wheel semi trucks and RV trailers. It visits a new location every week, usually stopping in smaller communities.

When the sixth and final "Star Wars" movie opened yesterday, many fans across the country turned out to see it. Numerous movie theaters, including Moab's Slickrock Cinemas, held midnight showings of the much-awaited film, which links the two epic George Lucas triologies together, some 28 years after the first film. Pictured here are a family (five of whom are former Moab residents) lined up at a Salt Lake area theater in full "Star Wars" costumes just prior to the opening-night screeening of "Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith." Moab's theater also sold out that same night, with several audience members having to sit on the floor! Sam's son Paul attended the show and didn't get home until 3 a.m., even though it was a school night.

Sam and Virginia attended the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s traveling production of William Shakespeare’s "The Taming of the Shrew," performed at Star Hall in Moab last month. Pictured above are Shelly Gaza as Katherina and Michael Reed as Petruchio. The event was part of the festival’s annual “Shakespeare in the Schools” tour, which began January 31 and lasts until April 22, with more than 60 performances at schools across Utah and in neighboring states. Photos by Karl Hugh, Utah Shakespearean Festival.

Last month, the Moab Poets and Writers group hosted the second annual “Western Stars,” a four-day celebration that featured cowboy poetry as a highlighted event. Cowboy poetry, which is generally read aloud in a Western-style accent, is often laced with humor and exaggerations. The performers sometimes play music to accompany their poems, as shown in these photos. In addition to poetry recitals and musical performances, the event also had chili cooking contests, a Western art competition, square dancing, barrel racing, workshops, and lectures. Photos courtesy of Rusty Salmon

Last weekend, a karaoke contest was held at the Stagecoach Grill, a western-style restaurant a couple miles south of Moab. Weekly contests were held over a six-week period, after which the half dozen winners competed against each other in the finals to try to win the grand prize of $200. Each contestant sang two songs (most were country music favorites), and a panel of judges determined the winners. The event drew a standing-room-only crowd. In the second photo, taken after the competition, Penny (left) sings a duet with Dianna, who finished fourth and won $50.

About two dozen local schoolchildren (including Jeff's daughter River) performed in the Missoula Children’s Theater’s production of “The Jungle Book” last week in Moab. The hour-long musical was adapted from the Rudyard Kipling book by the same name. The children (ranging in age from 5 to 13) auditioned for their parts on Monday, then rehearsed and practiced throughout the week before performing for an appreciative Star Hall audience Friday night.

During a recent visit to downtown Salt Lake City, Sam listened to this street musician playing folk songs on his guitar while sitting on the sidewalk. People passing by occasionally drop money into the man's guitar case.

Although casual dress is usually appropriate for most social events nowadays, there are still occasions when more formal attire is expected. Sam and Virginia recently traveled to Salt Lake City to see the Utah Opera’s production of "Aida," by Giuseppe Verdi. Sam wore a dark suit and tie and Virginia wore a long skirt and a black top covered with silver sparkles. At the performance, many men in the audience wore a suit and tie like Sam did, but some dressed even more formally by wearing tuxedos. The evening performances of the Utah Opera’s winter season tend to be the most formal. In the summertime, Sam and Virginia like to attend the Utah Festival Opera in Logan, Utah, where dress is less formal. Sam still wears a button-up shirt and tie, but he usually doesn’t wear a suitcoat.

Jeff’s daughter Brooklyn was among the nearly two dozen kids who tried breaking open a piñata during a recent family party. Piñatas, which are a traditional Mexican game, are made of papier-mache. The inside of a piñata is a hollow receptacle that is typically filled with candy, small toys, and other prizes. Piñatas are usually brightly colored and can be found in many sizes and shapes (some are shaped like animals like parrots or donkeys). Usually, those trying to break open the piñata are blindfolded. In this case, after about 20 children each took three swings blindfolded, each child was given one more chance to hit the piñata without the blindfold. Right after Brooklyn (above) dislodged some of the candy with her final swing, her cousin Amber finished the job, scattering the remainder of the candy all over the lawn for the excited children to collect.

A community chorus of about 50 local singers performed selections from George Frideric Handel's famous oratorio Messiah in Moab recently. Virginia was the chairman of the chorus committee. Some of Moab’s most talented vocalists and pianists participated in the 90-minute performance. Messiah is Handel’s most famous work, written over a three-week period in the summer of 1741 using Charles Jennens’ text taken from Biblical passages. Messiah premiered in Ireland in the spring of 1742 to celebrate Easter, but now the oratorio is almost exclusively performed during Christmas season. The “Hallelujah Chorus” at the end of the second part is the most well-known piece, and audiences traditionally stand during this song. The term “Messiah” is derived from words meaning “The Anointed One” in Greek and Hebrew.

Pageants are a traditional part of American Christmas celebrations. A Christmas pageant usually consists of costumed actors portraying the events surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ. A basic pageant typically includes the infant Jesus, Mary (His mother), Joseph (Mary’s husband), shepherds, and wise men (traditionally thought of as three kings). More elaborate pageants may include angels or even live animals such as sheep and donkeys. There have been several pageants held in Moab this Christmas season. Sam (far left) recently portrayed one of the wise men in a pageant at a local church.

Many high schools throughout the United States have dance teams (often called drill teams or pom teams) that perform at high school basketball and football games. These teams also perform at state and national dance competitions, where they compete against dance teams from other schools. Christy’s 17-year old daughter Kimber dances on her high school’s dance team, nicknamed the Devilettes, and is the team’s choreographer. They recently competed in their first competition of the season, which was held at Jordan High School in Salt Lake City.

DHC U.S. Office staff members have been following the recent exploits of fellow Utahn Ken Jennings, a 30-year-old software engineer from Salt Lake City. Over the past several months, Jennings won an amazing 74 consecutive games of the popular national television game show Jeopardy! In each half-hour show, three contestants (including the returning champ) compete to see who can answer the most trivia questions from a wide range of topics. All responses must be given in the form of a question. The winner of each game receives his or her point total in dollars and gets to play again the next day. But on the show that aired last night, the seemingly invincible Jennings finally lost to Nancy Zerg of California when he missed the game’s final question and Zerg got it right. Jennings (seen on-screen in the photo above as Sam watches in his living room) won a record $2.5 million and answered more than 2,600 questions correctly during his remarkable run.

Approximately 30 students from Grand County High School performed in the school’s theatrical production of State Fair over three nights last week. Sam’s 17-year-old son Paul played the role of a carnival “barker.” The comedic musical, set in the 1940s in a small rural American town, was written by the famed composer team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, who also penned such popular classics as The Sound of Music, South Pacific, and The King and I.

U.S. Office staff members were among those who attended the second annual Moab Folk Festival last weekend. The two-day concert event drew numerous folk singers and fans from around the country. The concert venue was at a local baseball park. People sat in lawn chairs or on blankets in the outfield grass and listened to the various performers.