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My favorite things Utah
Lately there has been too much travel, yes, but writings these posts is fun. I am headed toward Sundance. Here goes:
1. Author: Orson Scott Card's The Ender Trilogy (start with Ender's Game) is a modern landmark which will be read for years to come. Next on my list is Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose.
2. Actor: James Woods, as he plays in Casino and Virgin Suicides, two fine movies.
3. Best Robert Redford movie: Out of Africa, schmaltz yes but I love it.
4. Film, set in: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid comes to mind.
5. Novel, set in: Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song. The first half in particular is a knockout.
6. Can I have a category for kidnapping victim? Jeopardy champion?
The bottom line: I love Utah. I love its baked goods, its Mexican food, its sense of building a new world in the wilderness. I love that it has a uniquely American religion and I find Salt Lake City to be one of America's most impressive achievements. I regard southern Utah as quite possibly the most beautiful part of the United States. That said, I had a tough time filling out these categories and of course plenty of the usual categories are blank altogether.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on April 3, 2008 at 04:35 AM in The Arts | Permalink
Comments
Agree on Orson Scott Card but it is not a trilogy but at least 8 books now (not counting short stories). So you have 5 great ones to go.
However, he lives in Greensboro North Carolina now; I think he just went to University in Utah.
Posted by: Joshua Gans at Apr 3, 2008 5:04:45 AM
I loved Ender's Game to death as a kid, but I have been wary of re-reading it because in retrospect the book seems to be a lot of nerd wish fulfillment to me.
Posted by: Jonathan Hohensee at Apr 3, 2008 5:41:59 AM
Favorite Mexican Food: The Red Iguana in Salt Lake City.
Posted by: MostlyAPragmatist at Apr 3, 2008 5:57:26 AM
Favorite Mexican Food: The Red Iguana in Salt Lake City.
Posted by: MostlyAPragmatist at Apr 3, 2008 5:57:39 AM
Guy Tal agrees with you about the beauty of southern Utah. . .
Posted by: Matthew at Apr 3, 2008 7:15:45 AM
I guess you're not a skier. My favorite thing is the quality and quantity of snow and how close the ski areas are to cheap accommodations in SLC.
Posted by: Tom at Apr 3, 2008 8:04:42 AM
Blatant plug for my column in National Geographic's Intelligent Travel: Cinematic Road Trip. http://intelligenttravel.typepad.com/it/2008/03/cinematic-roa-1.html
This link is to the Utah column. It goes up every Friday.
Posted by: John Ur at Apr 3, 2008 8:24:46 AM
I don't know if its just because I am growing older or not but the more I find out about an author and other types of talent I like thats negative the less interested I am in their works. I used to not care. Take Orson Scott Card as an example. He has written several articles supporting Bush and against gay rights. As a result I've lost all interest in his books.
Posted by: tim at Apr 3, 2008 8:27:19 AM
Again, the issue arises of how you define where somebody is from. Although he was born in Utah, most people associate James Woods with Rhode Island.
Posted by: Ted Craig at Apr 3, 2008 8:54:09 AM
Go to Granny's in Heber City. Best ice cream parlor.
Posted by: Roland Stephen at Apr 3, 2008 9:33:30 AM
Go to Granny's in Heber City. Best ice cream parlor.
Posted by: Roland Stephen at Apr 3, 2008 9:33:57 AM
I feel validated.
I chose to get out of the research university ratrace (that I loved) to take what would probably be the only viable offer in my lifetime to work at a school in southern Utah.
Sure, I have regrets. But they just fade away when I look out of the picture window of my university office, or when I take off between classes to go to Zion for a few hours.
Dave Tufte
Department of Economics and Finance
Southern Utah University
Cedar City
Posted by: David Tufte at Apr 3, 2008 9:38:33 AM
Orson Scott Card makes his home in Greensboro, North Carolina.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card
Posted by: John Sterling at Apr 3, 2008 9:47:05 AM
It still shocks me that one of the better strip mall Mexican joints I have been to is in Park City. It's called El Chubasco and it's on Bonanza Drive. The quality and variety of salsa there is, perhaps, the finest I've seen.
Maza is a great Lebanese restaurant in SLC. You can get dishes there that I haven't seen anywhere else outside the Middle East. The one at 15th and 15th can get packed and I haven't been to the new, nicer one at 9th and 9th. I hope the upscale expansion hasn't affected the quality of the food.
I don't care for Sundance because you can get far more beauty for your buck elsewhere in Utah, but the Sunday brunch can be great. I forget the name of the more expensive restaurant, but I've had a couple distinctly bad meals there.
Posted by: ABB at Apr 3, 2008 10:14:21 AM
Ditto Jonathan_Hohensee. I'm surprised Tyler_Cowen would endorse such a book...
I mean, I liked it, but I can't help but feel a lot of the love for it is for the wrong reasons...
Posted by: Person at Apr 3, 2008 10:37:32 AM
I've been living and working here in Salt Lake for the last five years. When I moved here, I thought I'd just want to leave, but it's definitely grown on me. The quality of our restaurants is excellent - Mazza is one of my favorites, but there are so many more great places. You can't beat the wilderness and our national parks. I wish we had a great museum or two to round out some of your categories, but we do have a pretty amazing opera, symphony, and ballet.
And thanks for leaving out any reference to the Osmonds or Touched by an Angel.
Posted by: Jen (SLC) at Apr 3, 2008 10:37:56 AM
Desert Solitaire is mostly set in Arches. I've been in every corner of the state, down most of its rivers, and all over the deep backcountry of Moab before it became industrial and I still don't have much to add. It's quite true that southern Utah provides many of the greatest vistas available on the Earth, for hundreds of miles in many directions. But there's not much culture, there.
Posted by: Russell L. Carter at Apr 3, 2008 10:39:23 AM
Lived their for a number of years & it is the best place I know for living out of doors.
The (first few) Ender books are fine, but better than Stegner?
Posted by: Bill Gardner at Apr 3, 2008 10:50:35 AM
TC thinks The Virgin Suicides is a good movie???
Don't quit your day job, Professor.
Posted by: Anderson at Apr 3, 2008 10:54:04 AM
I just read Ender's Game for the first time, because it seemed to be on top of everyone's "Best Sci-Fi" list, and I had never read it.
What a HUUUUUGE disappointment. It was just a a big Mary Sue story. One boy overcomes many woes by himself, and is -- by himself -- smarter (in every way) than every single individual in the military, and doesn't need to learn anything from anybody.
Total and complete dreck.
Posted by: Rich B. at Apr 3, 2008 11:02:26 AM
What a HUUUUUGE disappointment. It was just a a big Mary Sue story. One boy overcomes many woes by himself, and is -- by himself -- smarter (in every way) than every single individual in the military, and doesn't need to learn anything from anybody.
Total and complete dreck.
That's kind of what bothered me about it; it kind of feeds into a "I am sure lonely always being the smartest person in the room" mentality that I thankfully grew out of. (After eating crow about 1,000 times)
Posted by: Jonathan Hohensee at Apr 3, 2008 11:16:55 AM
tim:
Take Orson Scott Card as an example. He has written several articles supporting Bush and against gay rights.
If it makes you feel any better (it may not), he's not a conservative, he's a religious hawk whose other views tend to the left. See e.g. this essay (in favor of immigration amnesty), in which he says:
but free market economists never mind a few thousand deaths here and there.
(I like his books anyway.)
Posted by: Aaron Brown at Apr 3, 2008 11:28:45 AM
It's quite true that southern Utah provides many of the greatest vistas available on the Earth, for hundreds of miles in many directions. But there's not much culture, there.
Isn't that like complaining there aren't enough wilderness camping opportunities in New York City?
Posted by: RJ at Apr 3, 2008 11:30:11 AM
film, set in: SLC Punk!
http://imdb.com/title/tt0133189/
Posted by: Noah Yetter at Apr 3, 2008 12:00:44 PM
You forgot:
Best work of earth art: Spiral Jetty
Posted by: Ben M at Apr 3, 2008 12:11:04 PM
