Evermore surprises...

Three years ago I interviewed Ken Bretschneider who had a crazy, ultra-expensive idea.
He wanted to invest millions of dollars and put tons of long hours into putting a fantasy/theatrical/reality amusement park together.
He had the land.
He had $91 million and plenty of interested investors.
He wanted to share his dreams.
Being a skeptical reporter who had heard lots of big ideas including one for a Six Flags/Disneyland-like Park in the same area, I wished him well but doubted whether he could pull it off.
I looked at the model and listened to the ideas he had, from a pirate treasure ship moored in a man-made lake to the   spooky woods full of magical, dark creatures.
It would be kind of like a Jumanji game come to life.
I came close to seeing the vision but it was so revolutionary and would take so much talent and money to make it real I couldn't totally buy into it. (This is even after I tried the virtual reality helmet and took a journey into The Void which was breathtaking.)
Nevertheless, I persuaded my editors at The Deseret News to run a story and a rendering.
And waited to see.
The months and years passed and I read a few stories about the success of The Void which was making money, news and waves.
I saw the ground broken at the site and construction start.
Bretschneider had a Halloween party on the grounds. It was lively and brought in a crowd.
I crossed my fingers for him.
Then my husband saw a notice about Evermore auditioning for people to be part of the scene.
He got a part.
We heard about an opening date.
We learned they were having a party to announce themselves and teaming up with Fan-X to create some buzz.
This weekend we bought a ticket to a soft opening on a night when my husband was not in the show so I could see for myself what it is.
And it is...different, quirky, magical, a little spooky and very adventurous.
There are lots of visual treats, plenty of creatures with stories to tell and agendas that require a little investigation.
It's a unique kind of venue.
We met vampires, witches, a dragon, an owl, zombies, gypsies and a great big king with a weird voice.
I bargained with a vampire to get information I needed to help a sick lad. I visited with a fortune teller, traded with a potion maker, successfully avoided a scary acolyte. (Didn't know what it was until my husband told me.)
It's like nothing I've seen before.
It's breathtaking.
I don't understand all of it. I think there's more going on than I know and I think I'd like to go again.

Mini-Movie Reviews...

I'm pretty sure most of you out there value your money as much as I do.
So when it's spent on a lame movie, it's frustrating.
I'm going to try an experiment here and see if it works: I will post a mini-review of the movies we see and share what I think. If you find it helps you choose a good movie, I'll feel like I've made a mini-difference. If you disagree with me, that will be educational.
Here goes:

The House With a Clock In Its Walls. This is a dud and I can't understand why Cate Blanchett agreed to be in it.
It's all over the place with the plot and the actors don't have direction. The little boy is alternately scared and worried or unafraid of anything weird.
The house apparently has a secret in the walls but the things outside the walls are pretty odd.
This movie is either a dark comedy or a parody of something like The Munsters.
It just doesn't engage even after a dead guy breaks out of his grave and threatens to make a decent movie of this.
Skip it. Skip it and don't go there.

Crazy Rich Asians. Surprisingly entertaining this one. We went because we needed a movie fix and this was what was the most easily available. It's a trip through life with truckloads of money from first-class accommodations to parties decorated to the top of many towers. It's really lots of eye candy and for those of us who live in the real world, it's somewhat obscene. There's no limit apparently to what one can spend for a wedding the potential mother-in-law doesn't want and the simple economics professor didn't expect.
Here's one for the big screen because much of glitzy effect just wouldn't be nearly as effective in the family rooom.

It's also one not to take very seriously or it would be hard to come down out of the sky to do the dishes.

Good Story...

Donald Davis is a Master Storyteller

Karen Ashton

Almost 30 years ago, Karen Ashton began to try and bring storytelling to Utah County. The wife of WordPerfect founder and successful businessman Alan Ashton, Karen had discovered festivals dedicated to sharing all kinds of stories: stories with heart, humor, history, fantasy and reality.
She offered her backyard for the first festival and put together a committee who worked tirelessly to create a local venue for magic.
That first festival drew a couple of thousand people.
The 2018 Timpanogos Festival brought in more than 10,000 on the just the two Laughin' nights alone.
The tellers come from across the nation and across the ocean including longtime favorite Donald Davis (who tells stories from his childhood in North Carolina and from his lifetime of experiences from riding a mule down the Grand Canyon to standing beside his beloved wife Merle as she succumbed to complications of rheumatoid arthritis), Kevin Kling's witty descriptions of watching a Demolition Derby with his mother's Chevy Nova in the competition, Bill Harley's recounting of a T-ball season and Irish teller Clare Murphy's vivid tale of three women trying to make fools of their husbands for free rent.

Kevin Kling

Dovie Thomason brings her stories of animals, Apaches and the modern-day trials with the TSA ("It's my dog. His name is Rex," she said when the TSA agent wondered why she had a coyote skull in her suitcase).
Each is a master of words, of gesture and of expression.
There's no easy way to describe what the festival is.
I've tried for years as I've written advance stories for the Deseret News.
It's been somewhat frustrating as there's really no way to convey how it works and what happens without somebody actually being there.
I felt better when one of the tent hosts said she never could explain it either.
It's magical, real and unique.
After two days hosting and helping make sure people found their way into the story tents this year, you'd think I'd be weary of storytelling.
But, actually, I came away Saturday night marveling at the complexity and simplicity and creativity of the human spirit.
I realized that as different as the stories were, there was a common thread.
Every story and every teller recognized the value of people, the value of sharing experience and laughter and life.
They celebrate making and learning from mistakes.
They revel in falling in love and the triumphs that come from surviving mishaps.
A storytelling festival is art, reality and tremendous warmth.
I wholly recommend it.