The 18th annual Timpanogos Storytelling Festival starts tomorrow, August 30th in Orem, Utah and continues through Saturday, September 1st.
The storytelling festival is absolutely awesome! If you have never been, and can be in Utah County this week, it really is worth checking out.
Every year, they invite ten or so of the most accomplished national and even international storytellers to come to Utah to teach workshops and perform for the festival. The festival is well known among professional storytellers, and each year the tellers comment on how impressive the event is when compared to similar events nation wide. Thousands of people attend.
Sorry for the lapse in blog postings during the last couple of weeks. Blogging is but one of my time-wasting endeavors. As many of you know, another is Puppetry.
My cousin Rus Wilson, his wife Kelly, my close friend Sean Healy, my wife Chastity, and I founded the Maxed Out Puppetry – Puppet Comedy Troupe nearly a decade ago while still students and recent graduates of Brigham Young University. Since then we have performed at museums, libraries, festivals, parties, churches, and many other venues, primarily in Utah County, but also as far north as the Davis County Library in Layton and as far south as Filmore.
Since then we have been joined by additional puppeteers: Caitlin Shirts, Patrick Svensson, and David Wilson.
We are very excited to present our brand-spanking-new website:
What: A Variety of Family-Friendly Live Music
When: Friday July 6th 5:30pm – 9:30pm
Where: Tahitian Noni Auditorium 333 River Park Dr, Provo, Utah, Utah 84604 (map)
If you live in Utah or will be visiting during the week of Independence Day, bring your family over to the Tahitian Noni Auditorium in north Provo, near Provo Canyon, on July 6th for an evening of family-friendly music and dancing with the former members of the local Ska Band Skook. The concert is free, but they will be accepting voluntary donations for LDS Humanitarian Services.
Brothers Ben and Joe Wilson formed Skook about 10 years ago in Cache Valley as a ska-influenced punk trio. Soon thereafter they moved to Utah Valley where they added some excellent horn players and their sound evolved into their own flavor of ska. From the beginning Skook was decidedly anti-popularity, and the theme is reflected in their lyrics. From the sarcasm of “I wanna be a suave mac-daddy man” to the still popular anthem “I shop at D. I.,” Skook was cool because they rejected what was “cool.”
Listen to a 5 minute sample mp3 of excerpts from nine Skook songs
Some of you know that I have a fascination with Vaudeville and the roots of modern entertainment. We often forget that many of those who first established the conventions of movies, television, and popular music performance were first vaudevillians. I am also a big fan of swing music, both early and the neo-swing revival of the 90s. I have sometimes daydreamed about opening a modern vaudeville theatre.
The artists of that era were truly amazing performers and their energy and talent is often missing from our modern entertainment industry.
Watch the amazing video above, from the film “Stormy Weather.” It showcases the extraordinary talents of some of my favorite performers from that bygone time: the fantastic Cab Calloway and the stupendous Nicholas Brothers . Fred Astaire said this sequence was the finest piece of tap dancing ever filmed.
