Tag: Park City

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Park City Pretty

by KE Monahan Huntley

January 22
Conan O’Brien’s last Tonight Show,
broadcast from beautiful downtown Burbank

Insert Snooki Wah-wah.

“Oh Snooki, I really like your hair. I think I’m going to get a Bumpits.”—My Life on the D-List: Kathy’s Smear Campaign

Main Street Bundle Up to Trundle Up
Bunya Bunya bat eyes with Dax Shepard’s baby blues on the way to this chic boutique.

Java Cow Pauly Shore stops M. Argentine to ask where the “Moo” is.

NYU Tisch School of the Arts hosts a cocktail party at the ritzy Riverhorse Café. Michelle Argentine and I sip Tisch-tinis and spy on the black clad (and 90s flannel) crowd. Outside, we spot Seth Rogen, yet fail to mention our umpteenth viewing of Superbad the night before. Leaving, we are handed invites to the NBCUNIVERSAL party at the Coda Gallery. Plus chapstick. What would Conan do?

Sisyphus or Scenechronize?
“Because no matter if you are above or below the line, your ass is always on it.”

Rhys Ryan opens the door for us at the scenechronize house on Ontario. Effusive, engaging: not a moment has passed since last year’s encounter. Introductions are made to snow show-biz cohorts Darren and Amber. Jeremiah concocts vodka mojitos garnished with fresh mint leaves; Rhys compliments my pink sweater adorned with rosettes — hand knitted by my great aunt Katharine Barnes — and regales the tale of dining with Don Rickles. Kathy Griffin is immediately invoked, and I relay MacGuinness and my run-in with her Irish laddie, Patrick, in Toluca Lake. Naturally, he and Rhys are good friends.

Deer Valley Resort
Fireside Dining Alpine based menu
With Julia Child-like aplomb, Michelle instructs the chef to prepare Trinxat: savory cabbage rustic potatoes thick slices of bacon cumin seeds: and laughs at guests who do not remove their festival lanyards.

We chat about Shorty’s Stairs. Shorty’s Stairs is named after Ella’s husband and is the short cut from D. Wong and M. Argentine’s Rossi Hill abode down to Main Street. Twin Peaks Agent Dale Cooper once gallantly helped Michelle off of the slippery bottom step.

Michelle: A coal miner’s daughter, Ella passed away this year. She and Shorty lived on Ontario in their original house since forever. Ella kept a chicken coop, the object of a recent legal entanglement with an underhanded property developer. He said the coop was on his property, she said the land in question had been given to her forty years ago. She retained an attorney, settled out of court, and kept the coop.
WBTL: What was she like?
Michelle: Delightful and charming. When she was young, I imagine she was quite handsome.
WBTL: How did she dress?
Michelle: Like she lived in a time warp. Holding her newspaper and parcels, I would give her a lift from the market to home. She would remember Astro, but never me.

Park City Film Series recommends My One and Only, It Might Get Loud, and Sita Sings the Blues. And currently, the accomplished A Single Man.

Slamdance Documentary Shorts
Eh.

IN•N•Out

Pismo Beach
On the way into Park City, D. Wong spots us authentic Mexican lunch served up at Molacasa. On the way out, we dine on chorizo tacos and orange Jaritos at authentic Anaya’s Market. If you cannot find a seat at one of the two tables, makeshift a place setting on the market shelves. Bueno.

January 25
For Kathy Griffin in The Hills: Adjacent, it “. . . turns out thatI’m Stephanie Pratt and that my mother is Audrina.”—My Life on the D-List: Moving the Merch

The Hill’s Stephanie Pratt applies lip gloss in the SLC Airport Ladies, skinny in her blacked out outfit. Walking through the jet bridge I fixate on the blue blue windows that are Jordan Catalano’s eyes.

Now that’s Park City pretty.

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Searching for Joel Stein

by Katharine Elizabeth Monahan Huntley

Surreality TV
Fifteen minutes elapse between relishing Joel Stein’s astute observations on E! 30 Most Outrageous Celebrity Feuds while packing, and standing right next to him at the Bob Hope Airport, check-in for flight to Park City. Too shy to approach the wry and witty writer, vows are made to track down the crush during Sundance.

Flight Connections
On the prop-like plane, our Delta flight attendant hails from the O.C., just like The Hills‘ LC. The vociferous Rhys Ryan masks his fear of flying with bourbon and sweet mentorship of 25 year-old NBC intern Justin Leader: “Do you know how Main Street works? Filmmakers Lodge?” Differences defined by pop culture references: “I grew up watching Maude.” “I grew up watching Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Convos continue: industry lore, dotcom days, Movie Magic and Creative Planet. “Where can you buy original Pan Am Luggage?” Rhys says, “Corner of Hazeltine & Burbank Blvd.” A young Dyan Cannnon look-alike, named Diane, pipes up she’s best friends with the owner.

Email addresses exchanged; party invitations issued.

Eggs Over Ehren
Main Street Deli contretemps: hung-over hungry filmmaker accuses Michelle Argentine of allowing us to take cuts. Sundance may be subdued but the diner is slammed. Later, same filmmaker glares and stubs out cig in front of the Treasure Mountain Inn — venue for Slamdance Film Fest. Three times is the charm as we bump into nemesis Ehren Parks, producer of six and a half, at the UCLA party held at Café Terigo.

Postcards exchanged; apologies issued.

UCLA Alumi Party
Robert Rosen, Dean of UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television expounds on “expanding the possibilities of what story, sound, and image can do.” I spy Dr. Rosen on the flight home. He diligently works on a crossword puzzle, which reminds me to Netflix Wordplay.

Barbara Boyle, Film Chair, Professor, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and past president of both IFP/West and Women In Film exhorts me to get more involved (and compliments my blue nail polish and black beret.)

We chat with the delightful Stacy Barnes and discuss the possibility of being distantly related.

Great Aunt Katharine Ross was married to Great Uncle Reverend C. Rankin Barnes. His first short-lived marriage was to Florence Lowe “Pancho” Barnes, pioneer of women’s aviation and owner of the Happy Bottom Riding Club. Fun fact: Uncle Rankin, Canon of San Diego, was occasionally flown up to San Simeon to play chess with William Randolph Hearst in the fabulous Hearst Castle.

Slamdance Fireside Chat: The Art, Craft, and Business of Screenwriting: panelist Pamela Gray declares, “You expect when you’re a poet, no-one’s going to read your work, [however], when you write a screenplay, you expect to see it on the screen.”

Reverting back to “Flight Connections,” Pamela Gray’s first writing credit was Star Trek: The Next Generation teleplay “Violations” co-written with Jeri Taylor and based upon the story by Gray, Shari Goodhartz, and T Michael, the latter who was a member of the Movie Magic crew, pre-Creative Planet.

Panelists discuss great expectations in topics ranging from pitches to copyright issues and the individual writing process. Perhaps because she is a junior high drama teacher and fellow Virgo, Nancy Kissam Drool is particularly inspiring. Tip: Beyond script & storyboard, Catherine Hardwicke creates “books,” scrapbook visuals for Suits.

Gallery Shorts Block 1
Unfortunately, there isn’t time to see Tony Zoreil, but The Covenant of Mr. Kasch, Dish, and I Don’t Sleep I Dream are all highly charged short films that bode well for these filmmakers’ future.

Be Ready on the Set
Rhys Ryan is our genial host at The Spur for scenechronize, “radically useful software for the entire production.” The NBC intern circulates; M. Argentine and I chat with cute locals Cory Burnett and his blonde bombshell gal pal Tangee.

Hospitality Sweet
The Argentine • Astro • Wong Household is accessorized with a fire engine red fire hydrant.

Heber Field Trip
Breakfast at Chicks alongside barbershop Dicks.

E!
Astro’s Bigger Than Bob at the Entertainment Weekly headquarters Kimball Art Center.

Astro on a lead is the lure for Joel Stein, still not to be spotted. Instead, the Harlequin Great Dane encounters Emma Roberts — both are immediately enamored. Atop The Dakota, E! News new correspondent Ashlan Gorse gets camera-ready to interview Greg Mottola and Kristen Stewart. Denise Richards minces down Main Street with a phalanx of men in black. Benjamin Bratt needs no entourage; tall, dark, and handsome (like Joel!) he passes out his own postcards. Packing for SuBurb(ank)ia, Joel Stein is found at last. Alas, not in real life, but on a re-run of Celebrity Feuds. Same time next year? Fortune not fooling, he might even be our Delta flight attendant!

Editor’s Note: The aforementioned crush is purely writerly. Otherwise this article would be titled “Kissing Joel Stein.” Really.

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Local Motion: Interview With Destiny

by KE Monahan Huntley

Local Motion:  An Interview with Destiny
When you’ve made arrangements in years past to attend the Park City film festivals (Sundance, Slamdance, X-Dance, et cetera) over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, it might not occur to you to check the current year’s dates until well after you’ve made your reservations and it’s much too late to change.

Upon horrified realization of your Park City faux pas, the only thing to do is your finest Hayley Mill’s Pollyanna impression and go.

The following is an interview with the vibrant Destiny Grose (with a brief interjection by Dennis Wong), in a quest to find out how Utah’s historic silver mining town and world-renowned ski resort prepares for ten days of film fanaticism. Destiny is the theater critic for the Park City Record and President of the Park City Film Series Board, Her self-deprecating claim to fame is “Destiny’s 10 Days in the Dark” — film festival reviews on local radio station KPCW.

WBTL:  How did your moniker come about?

Destiny: The one year I saw fifty-five films in the ten days . . . I will never do that again. At Sundance, viewing 5+ films a day isn’t that uncommon, but day after day it’s a killer. There is talk of an energy drink sponsor following me around. The pitch would be that only by consuming the “_____” energy drink could it be accomplished. With my luck I’d die of a heart attack from all that caffeine!

WBTL:   How does Park City prep for the attack of the LA/NY people in black (PIBS)?

Destiny: Tons of water is ordered. And sushi. One year, a laundromat in town ran a special on all black loads. Wash at a reduced price — just a way to joke around and get the employees psyched.

Dennis: The high school students pay $50 for annual parking passes. During Sundance, a few entrepreneurs sell their passes for $250.

WBTL: How do the locals feel about the film festivals?

Destiny: People that embrace the film festival are in for an exciting time — it’s one of the major cinematic moments in the world. I advise locals to go see ten, or at least two, movies. There are star sightings in the grocery store. If you see someone wearing a dangling pass, ask if they have a movie in the festival. You’ll feel part of it, even if you don’t have the opportunity to screen one. Get into the spirit of Sundance. Hang out on Main Street. There are masses of people — it’s alive, exhilarating. I would prefer nine months of Sundance people to the two months of summer tourists. Unfortunately, this year I’m seeing fewer movies.

WBTL: Why is that?

Destiny: It’s getting harder and harder to buy tickets. Just look on eBay. Tickets for this year’s The Upside of Anger are offered at $500. On the plus side, there’s more time to hang out on Main Street — go to the Sundance house, or an alt festival like X-Dance. See what’s going on. One year an RV held a soft-core porn fest — pasties on the headlights — just one example of the many rogue film festivals you can find in Park City.

WBTL: What happens after the festivals leave town?

Destiny: A couple of days afterwards, the Sundance Institute screens a few of the festival films which is great for residents to catch up on what they might have missed. They also show films in the summertime (about six from previous festivals) on an outdoor screen in the City Park. Another thing they do is work in conjunction with the Park City Film Series (which is a separate entity) to bring a documentary from the festivals on the first Thursday of the month. (More information about the Park City Film Series is available at www.parkcityfilmseries.com.)

It’s also great for festival-goers who arrive in town too early . . . At the Park City Library, we caught Mike Leigh’s perfectly bleak period piece Vera Drake. The titular character, her comfortable countenance secured by a home permanent wave, helps out girls who find themselves “in a bit of trouble.” A film set in Britain’s 1950s, it is every bit as relevant in George W.’s scare tactics America. Followed by cheeseburgers, chips, and Guinness draughts at O’Shucks — who needs Sundance fancy?

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Post-it Notes from Park City

by KE Monahan Huntley

At the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards Elvis Costello croons: “What’s so funny ’bout peace, love, and understanding?” War is a horror show.

. . . What if everyone went to the movies instead?

Park City is the locale for film festivals and festivities that promote peace, love, and understanding. And a little bit funny. The following are a few . . .

 Notes from Park City 2003
In the shuttle enroute to Park City—eavesdropping on seatmates: One is George Clooney’s agent. Another is Oliver Stone’s travel agent. With Screenplay Competition postcards in hand, I am posing as a HypeFest special agent.

Screenings
Sundance Film Festival
Thierry Michel’s stunning documentary, Iran, Veiled Appearances, offers pertinent insights into the complexity and diversity of Iran—its clash of civilizations where inhabitants suffer from the “systematic derangement of the senses,” and children of the revolution feel “lost in space.” The last scene, Iranian women flying through the air with the greatest of ease on rainbow colored hang gliders, conjures an image of liberation over a landscape of constricting dust and black veiled oppression.

NoDance Film & Multimedia Festiva
Now in Year 6, Direktor Jim Boyd crafts an alternative indie film and dv event comprised of: “features, shorts, docs, music videos, panels & parties galore.” This year’s program showcased the caliber of talent that continues to hone indie’s edge. Here’s a slice:

The 7th Man (Audience Award for Best Short) Director Jason Liggett takes inspiration from a newspaper article, and along with DP Matthew Libatique (Requiem for a Dream, Pi), brings an iconic war photograph to life and the audience to tears. Another kind of war story is recounted in Shadowboxer (Grand Jury Award for Best Short in Program 1). Vilka Tzoura’s examination of female teenage violence and the reasons why is carefully considered is this fictionalized short film set in the gritty city of New York.

Two documentaries expand the SoCal state of mind: Dana Brown’s most excellent surf doc Step into Liquid visually enlightens us to why: “Surfing is not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that” and Brad Bemis’ Venice: Lost and Found embellishes on Albert Kinney’s Venetian dream, Venice Beach, California—”a tidal pool, a distillation of the greater metropolis” that is Los Angeles. Featured interviews with Dennis Hopper, Gregory Hines, The Doors‘Ray Manzarek, cameo by Dogtown and Z-Boys‘ Skip Engblom.

SheDance and X-Dance Film Festivals
“Girls Getting’ It Done.” Misti L. Barnes celebrates films written, directed, or produced about women. Girls outfitted in pink tees ushered the audience into Cicero’s Restorante to watch dark matter shorts: In Rush of the Palms, two hit men reevaluate their day jobs mimicking Mamet patter; Mind Wars l and ll journeys into the minds and minefields of two individuals with mental illness. Paige Cameron’s directorial debut: Hills Like White Elephants is an intriguing interpretation of Ernest Hemingway’s classic short story, marred only by melodramatic music and abrupt cuts.

A sly line of auburn-haired Cameron’s dialogue: “Every woman wears red sooner or later” could be applied to one of the X-Dance Festival’s short films in which New York tough chicks carry toy poodles, wear matte crimson lipstick and make mad love and war. Definitely “Girls Getting’ in on the Action.” 

Stars and Bars
Cocktails at The Caledonian Hotel—espying Emmylou Harris and entourage across the way; Tilda Swinton glides past the Sundance Wait List line for Born Rich—she gets in, we do not; Party Monster and occasional werewolf Seth Green cruising up Main Street; also on Main Street: Farrah Fawcett in fun fur, Stanley Tucci on his cel, Aiden Quinn on his cel, cute Loco Joe boys handing our free coffee drinks and compliments; those nutty yet strangely endearing TromaDance kids handing out party invites; chatting up the congenial Forest Whitaker at NoDance; running ’round with the lovely Indian actress Delna Rastomjee and her elegant beau, entertainment attorney Alan Abrams; listening to Stephen Baldwin bray at the Bad Ass Cafe; making eyes at Steve Buscemi at Zona Rosa while lunching with Santa Cruz District Attorney turned filmmaker Dennis Wong. Look for his doc on California gangs in 2004.

Reading Modern Drunkard Magazine on the outbound shuttle. Literary Libation! Our driver is Samoan. And a bounty hunter when not shuttling the “People in Black” to and fro in the Park City snow.

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Sundance Film Festival: Local Motion: Interview with Destiny

by Katharine Elizabeth Monahan Huntley

The self-proclaimed “Queen of Sundance” RHOSLC: Lisa Barlow

When you’ve made arrangements in years past to attend the Park City film festivals (Sundance, Slamdance, X-Dance, et cetera) over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, it might not occur to you to check the current year’s dates until well after you’ve made your reservations and it’s much too late to change.

Upon horrified realization of your Park City faux pas, the only thing to do is your finest Hayley Mill’s Pollyanna impression and go.

The following is a 2005 interview with the vibrant Destiny Grose (and brief interjection by Dennis Wong), in a quest to find out how Utah’s historic silver mining town and world-renowned ski resort prepares for ten days of film fanaticism. Destiny is the theater critic for the Park City Record and President of the Park City Film Series Board, Her self-deprecating claim to fame is “Destiny’s 10 Days in the Dark” — film festival reviews on local radio station KPCW.

LINES: How did your moniker come about?

Destiny: The one year I saw fifty-five films in the ten days . . . I will never do that again. At Sundance, viewing 5+ films a day isn’t that uncommon, but day after day it’s a killer. There is talk of an energy drink sponsor following me around. The pitch would be that only by consuming the “_____” energy drink could it be accomplished. With my luck I’d die of a heart attack from all that caffeine!

LINES: How does Park City prep for the attack of the LA/NY people in black (PIBS)?

Destiny: Tons of water is ordered. And sushi. One year, a laundromat in town ran a special on all black loads. Wash at a reduced price — just a way to joke around and get the employees psyched.

Dennis: The high school students pay $50 for annual parking passes. During Sundance, a few entrepreneurs sell their passes for $250.

LINES: How do the locals feel about the film festivals?

Destiny: People that embrace the film festival are in for an exciting time — it’s one of the major cinematic moments in the world. I advise locals to go see ten, or at least two, movies. There are star sightings in the grocery store. If you see someone wearing a dangling pass, ask if they have a movie in the festival. You’ll feel part of it, even if you don’t have the opportunity to screen one. Get into the spirit of Sundance. Hang out on Main Street. There are masses of people — it’s alive, exhilarating. I would prefer nine months of Sundance people to the two months of summer tourists. Unfortunately, this year I’m seeing fewer movies.

LINES: Why is that?

Destiny: It’s getting harder and harder to buy tickets. Just look on eBay. Tickets for this year’s The Upside of Anger are offered at $500. On the plus side, there’s more time to hang out on Main Street — go to the Sundance house, or an alt festival like X-Dance. See what’s going on. One year an RV held a soft-core porn fest — pasties on the headlights — just one example of the many rogue film festivals you can find in Park City.

LINES: What happens after the festivals leave town?

Destiny: A couple of days afterwards, the Sundance Institute screens a few of the festival films which is great for residents to catch up on what they might have missed. They also show films in the summertime (about six from previous festivals) on an outdoor screen in the City Park. Another thing they do is work in conjunction with the Park City Film Series (which is a separate entity) to bring a documentary from the festivals on the first Thursday of the month.

It’s also great for festival-goers who arrive in town too early . . . At the Park City Library, we caught Mike Leigh’s perfectly bleak period piece Vera Drake. The titular character, her comfortable countenance secured by a home permanent wave, helps out girls who find themselves “in a bit of trouble.” A film set in Britain’s 1950s, it is every bit as relevant in current scare tactics America. Followed by cheeseburgers, chips, and Guinness draughts at O’Shucks — who needs Sundance fancy?