Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman refused to be drawn out on gay marriage last night when he and his wife Mary Kaye were honored by the gay rights group Equity Utah for their work in making society safer and more open for gay adults and youth.
Huntsman is especially revered in Utah’s LGBT community because as governor he spoke in favor of civil unions at time when homophobia (and every other phobia) was spiking at the state Capitol.
Still, in a 10-minute cluster interview with reporters before the Equity Utah dinner, Huntsman refused to be drawn out on gay marriage itself. He carefully repeated that he wanted the nation’s “conversation” to continue about “equality under the law” for gays and lesbians.
Under the circumstances of the gang interview, it was impossible to pursue exactly what Huntsman might have in mind. Some marriage equality advocates suggest that “marriage” be separated from a state-sanctioned civil union. In short, a couple would sign the contractual paperwork for a union (straight or gay) through the state and then, if they wish, sanctify their union through a wedding ceremony under the auspices the religion of their choice.
Though Huntsman, former ambassador to China and one-time 2012 presidential contender later told a crowd of more than 2,000-plus gay rights supporters that he is “a failed musician and I’m pretty much a failed politician,” no one was buying the second part of it.
Don’t be surprised to see Huntsman again on the presidential hunt in four years, though it’s hard to conceive of the GOP evolving to the point of accepting equality for gays in marriage under any circumstances.
Huntsman himself acknowledged that his political philosophy no longer jibes with the GOP’s.
“I just try to be true to myself. I’m the Republican, I always have been. My party has moved to the right and I haven’t and I won’t.”
Huntsman delighted the crowd by quoting Mary Kaye’s warning to him when he launched his failed presidential run:
“If you pander or sign any of those damn pledges, I’m going to leave you.”
Huntsman recalled that when filmmaker Michael Moore and President Bill Clinton told reporters that Huntsman was a Republican they could vote for:
“I knew at that point I was toast.”
MINDY SMITH, THE STATE ROOM, Saturday, 9 p.m., $17
I can’t believe it’s been almost 10 years since Mindy Smith burst onto the roots-music scene, delivering a stellar version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” on the Parton tribute album Just Because I’m a Woman. In 2004, she released her debut full-length, One Moment More, earning raves for songs like “Come to Jesus.” She came to play Suede at Kimball Junction around that time (with Tift Merritt, if memory serves), and I was totally hooked. Somehow, though, while Smith followed up with three more albums, including a new self-titled set that arrived this summer, I didn’t follow up well as a fan. I chased down her latest, and it reminded me why I fell for Smith’s sound in the first place–that assured voice delivering smart country and folk-tinged tunes should make for a great night at The State Room. Paul Jacobsen opens the show.
JOHN BELL’S THE NEXT SUPPER–A DINNER HAPPENING, UMOCA, Friday, 7 p.m., Free
This one-night-only special event at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art sounds really cool in concept, but I have the feeling that everyone who goes to check it out will be jealous of artist John Bell’s collaborators. The centerpiece of the show is a 68-person dining table that will be set up in the museum’s main gallery, and the people seated at the table will use the stuff in front of them–food, wine, candles and whatnot–to complete some of Bell’s unfinished canvasses. Ryan Lowder of The Copper Onion is designing the meal, so you know it will be both visually sweet and damn tasty, too. Talk about your interactive experiences–how does one get on the guest list for one of Bell’s future foodie nights? Actually, they sold tix, but it’s sold out, so we’ll all be relegated to watching the proceedings as art fans, rather than diners, but it should still be worthy. This is the third of Bell’s “dinner happenings;” one of the past ones took place in L.A.’s Chinatown.
Novice congressional candidate and Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love has been making national news right and left.
Progressive beacon Mother Jones magazine connected some dots about the GOP’s poster child for inclusiveness that apparently local media overlooked.
In January 2011, Love told the Deseret News that her parents came to America in the 1970s to find a better life. The heart-warming DNews story is guaranteed to leave you misty eyed—unless you’re a rock-ribbed Republican.
According to Love’s account reported by the DNews, under the then immigration statute, her parents needed to have a baby to get that coveted U.S. citizenship.
They had Mia 25 days before the law ran out and were able to bring her siblings to American. Mia told the newspaper, “My parents have always told me I was a miracle and our family’s ticket to America.”
But Mother Jones, unlike the DNews, checked into Love’s story:
According to immigration lawyers and US immigration officials, there doesn’t appear to have been a law of the kind described in the article that would have conferred citizenship on Love’s parents, let alone her siblings, by simply having a baby in the United States.
Love’s campaign didn’t respond to Mother Jones‘s or The Salt Lake Tribune‘s requests for interviews, so the question remains: Is Mia Love a poster child for “anchor babies” (something reviled by immigration hardliners) or simply a gifted yarn spinner? Immigration reform zealots are surely waiting with baited breath.
Lovin’ Love
A news cycle or two before Mother Jones story broke, Washington Post columnist George Will was happily using GOP rising star Mia Love to Congress to bash liberals about the myth of a “racial stalemate” in America.
Love is running against the Utah delegation’s only Democrat, if only in name. Will ominously points out that two-thirds of the voters in the newly created Fourth Congressional District NEVER voted for Matheson—formerly of the Second District.
“In this, one of the most racially and culturally homogenous states, the only uninteresting thing about Love is that she is black. This is not just progress; it is the destination toward which progress was directed during the brisk march to today’s healthy indifference to the fact that Love would be the first black Republican woman ever in the House. Some “stalemate.”
“In March 2008, in the speech ostensibly explaining the inexplicable — his 20 years in the pews of the raving Rev. Jeremiah Wright — candidate Barack Obama referred to ‘a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years.’ Hardly.”
Getting national recognition, obviously, has its downside, besides embarrassing stories like the one in Mother Jones, Love, along with Matheson, will soon be bashed big-time in attack ads. The DNews reports that PACs have bought up $3.6 million in air time to savage the candidates, bringing some swing-state excitement to Utah.
Looking for something autumnal to kick off your weekend? You could do worse than Poor Yorick’s annual open studio Friday night.
The point, of course, is to buy something to support the struggling artists who rent studio space at Poor Yorick’s. But besides some edgy and affordable art—you will encounter Big fun. Quoting from the official postcard:
“Art! Food! Drink! Music by the Red Rock Hot Club! People all dressed up like decent folks!”
Don’t believe that last part. We go to P. Yorick’s open studio ever year and enjoy it without stooping to dressing like decent folks.
Note: If it’s your first time at Poor Y’s labyrinth of studios, prepare yourself for navigating a crowded corn maze with art on the walls by the likes of Sri Whipple, Thomas Atkins, Grant Fuhst, and Stacy Young—only without the corn, dust and itch.
Friday, 6-10 p.m.
Poor Yorick’s Studios, 126 W. Crystal Ave. (2500 S.), South Salt Lake. http://www.pooryorickstudio.com.
The image accompanying this post is by Poor Yorich’s inmate Natalie Simpson and, yes, it is for sale.
The Classical Greek Theatre Festival is always a different kind of theater experience, and not just because the source material goes back to the days when guys like Sophocles, Socrates and Euripides were running around Greece.
The festival is in its 42nd year, and is now run by Westminster College’s Theatre Department after being housed for 40 years at the University of Utah. This year’s festival features a modernized take on Sophocles’ Antigone, drawing parallels to modern political happenings like the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street movements, as well as the importance of social media to those causes.
Hard to say if Sophocles was truly that forward-thinking when he penned Antigone sometime around 441 BC, but this production directed by L.L. West makes the parallels from Sophocles’ story to modern times abundantly clear, blending his words with a booming electronic-music soundtrack, and adding to classic-looking costumes with modern props like iPads and cell phones.
For the unfamiliar, the story of the classic Greek tragedy is roughly this: Creon, the ruler of Thebes, must decided the fates of two brothers killed fighting in a civil war; one brother, Eteocles, will be honored as a patriot, while the other, Polyneices, will be left unburied and unsanctified–the worst punishment imaginable at the time. Antigone, sister to Polyneices, manages to bury her brother despite Creon’s order, earning his wrath when Creon finds out. He order Antigone entombed alive, with causes the public to last out at the ruler for his unfair treatment of the women seem as simply giving an honorable burial to a member of her family. Creon’s own son, Haemon, tries to convince his father of the mood of his people, leading to a bitter fight between the two that, suffice to say, doesn’t end well for either of them.
From the beginning, the audience quickly realizes this version of Antigone is going to be anything but traditional. While electronic music booms from the speakers on the Red Butte Garden stage, the chorus starts chanting about “money, success and fame.” The program invites the audience to scan a QR code with their smart phones to follow along with the story unfolding on stage, cuing moments to check your phone with an eagle screech through the sound system. It’s a clever conceit to modern audiences, and tied in with the mob crowds need to document the protests against Creon on stage through social media.
There were some problems with the production, most of them technical. The need to have the actors talking through remote microphone headsets led to some inconsistency with the dialogue; some lines disappeared into the ether, or were overwhelmed by the sound effects.
Even so, strong performances, particularly by Jared Thomson as the tone-deaf politician Creon and Annie Louise Brings as the title character, helped make Antigone well worth getting up early on a weekend morning. For the most part, the show moves along at a steady clip–total running time is about 80 minutes–with only a noteworthy lag during a lengthy conversation between Creon and the blind prophet Teiresia (Holly Fowers), who arrives to tell Creon how he’s displeased the gods.
The Classical Greek Theatre Festival’s production of Sophocles’ Antigone appears at Red Butte Garden again this weekend, Sept. 29-30, at 9 a.m. Tickets are $15 for the public, $10 for garden members, and $7 for children between 3 and 17.
Daniel Nailen 