Culture (18)
Polyamory: "Respectable" Non-Monogamy?
by Jim Catano
Rather than simple promiscuity, polyamorists claim a more complex desire: to create and maintain honest, consensual, ongoing, loving relationships with more than one person.
The term "non-monogamy" is appearing more regularly in the press and in the national dialogue. A catch-all reference for relationships that can involve sexual intimacy with more than one partner, non-monogamy manifests in several ways. Utahns, of course, were aware of polygamy long before "Big Love" and "Sister Wives." "Swinging," with its partner swaps and often anonymous, recreational, and temporary sexual hookups, has been grist for books and films since the '50s. Despite Utah's ultra-conservative reputation, an underground sub-culture of swingers continues to thrive here. Those drawn to polyamory, however, claim a more complex desire: to create and maintain honest, consensual, ongoing, loving relationships with more than just one other person.
Museum (S)hopping: A creative gifting alternative
by Adele Flail
With options that range from artistic and sophisticated to downright dorky, museum gift shops offer fun, unique gifts.
Salt Lake City has a myriad of funky and eclectic locally owned shops, offering great alternatives to the mass-produced goods sold at the malls. But if you’ve exhausted the ingenuity of your favorite corner shop or boutique, and haven’t checked off
everyone on your shopping list—there’s one more alternative for nifty gifts that supports the local community instead of chain stores. With offerings that range from artistic and sophisticated to downright dorky, museum gift shops offer fun, unique gift for friends and family while supporting the missions and programs of cherished Utah institutions.
Etsy in the Area: Shop Local—Online!
by Adele Flail
How you can mix the convenience of shopping online with the shop local ethic.
No matter how early the holiday season begins, I still find myself in the nightmare scenario of dashing around at the last second through hellishly crowded stores (although I should be thankful that, unlike other nightmares, I tend to be fully clothed). All that changed when I found Etsy two years ago. With an emphasis on handmade and vintage goods, www.etsy.com is my primary procrastination go-to and, hence, my primary gift-shopping tool. And getting to know an artist, seeing their connection to their art or craft, and then being able to take home —or give away—the fruit of that artist’s passion can be totally addictive. Many of the artists and craftspeople I’ve bought from in the past have been seriously far away—like, Australia–far-away, or Ireland-far-away. But Etsy gives you the option to search by location—and I am finding an astronomical number of talented artists and craftspeople right here in Utah. So, fellow procrastinators, check out some of my local favorites bellow. This holiday season you can shop local, while still shopping (so conveniently!) online.
Hot Time: Summer in the city (and the canyons)
by Carol Koleman
Cloudwatch, peoplewatch, linger late, with the help of our guide to summer dining in SLC and environs. Our picks for patios, Sunday outings and late-night eatin’.
As summer progresses (are we there yet?), you may find yourself giving in to the pull of spending your social hours outside surrounded by other like-minded folks. Whether it’s relaxing under a grapevine-covered patio at Sage’s Café or people-watching on a deck overlooking lively Main Street in Park City from Red Banjo Pizza, it’s difficult to imagine a better way to enjoy the sensual summer nights or slow-moving weekend mornings.
Want to add some live blues to your tamales? You’ll find that at the Sun and Moon Cafe in Emigration Canyon (801.583.8331, open Wednesday-Sunday). Or how about an award-winning Sunday brunch nestled up to the mountainside? That’s Kimi’s Mountainside Bistro at Solitude in Big Cottonwood Canyon (801.536.5787, open every day). You can find just about any outdoor dining experience that you could wish for within a 30-45 minute drive. If it gets too hot in the city, take a drive up one of our many canyons, there is a great restaurant in every one, and the journey is as beautiful as the food is delicious.
Zine queens, print princes, beat puppets and more
by Emily Moroz
SLC's Main Library houses the largest alt press collection in a public library in the U.S. Visit it, and attend the 2010 Alt Press Festival this month.
Salt Lakers who go gaga for independent press are in luck: Our own downtown Main Library houses the largest zine and “alt press” collection in a public library in the U.S.
Since the advent of the typewriter in the mid-19th century, self-published and alternative press has been a crucial outlet for literature, poetry and art seen as avant-garde compared to mainstream media. Today, anyone with the motivation can self-publish; a zine (a term invented in the ‘60s to denote a quirky cousin of “magazine”) is a great way to start.
Psychedelic Renaissance
by Trisha McMillan
The MAPS conference could mark the end of a 30-year dark age regarding the study of entheogens.
In mid-April, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) presented Psychedelic Science in the 21st Century, a three-day conference that drew together researchers from around the United States and all over the world. This was no easily dismissed gathering of aging hippies and modern-day mystics—the conference was the first of its kind: over 90 scientifically grounded presentations exploring the state of the art in psychedelic research. And I do mean scientific; the papers were unassailably rigorous and sometimes academically dry (“The Chemical Analysis of Hallucinogenic Tryptamines Obtained from Organic Synthesis” anyone?). These scientists have been working strictly with governmental approval, and the scrutiny under which they have been laboring has been extremely intense. In his opening comments, MAPS founder Rick Doblin, Ph.D. said, “…the eyes of the world are upon us because these [psychedelics] are the tools to connect us to what most makes us human…Regulators the world over are now willing to eventually give permission for these studies.”
Rehab in the Garden
by Katherine Pioli
Life skills and metaphors.
Gardening is commonly considered a reflective and calming passtime. It is not a huge stretch, therefore, to turn to gardening as therapy. Horticultural therapy is one of the healing tools used at the Volunteers of America (VOA) Center for Women and Children in Salt Lake City. And it takes gardening to a whole new level. The women enter the center with addictions to alcohol, methamphetamines, cocaine, prescription drugs or other substances. They go through a period of detoxification. They learn ways to cope with emotional stress. They put their full energy toward their rehabilitation—a process that often leads them to the garden. In 2003, the organization received a generous donation under the condition that they build a greenhouse. Leigh Ann Morse had previously developed a youth gardening program for the Wasatch Community Gardens. She had a degree in horticultural therapy. In 2005, she went to work at the VOA, adapting her youth gardening program to suit the needs of women at the center.
Dance, Don't Drive
by Chip Ward
Resilient thinking for turbulent times.
Shedding a way of life based on limitless growth, the celebration and reward of excess, and deeply ingrained habits of acquisition, consumption and waste is going to be an overwhelming challenge. The culture of ‘faster-bigger-more’ will not yield easily to a new orientation where sustainability is the rule. We are going to need all the expertise we can muster to understand how we have overloaded the carrying capacity of our planet and its ecosystems—and how we can tread from here on with a lighter footprint. Innovations in technology, law, policy and practice are absolutely essential. We must change the goals and rules we live by and create incentives and constraints to shape sustainable behaviors. We need new models.
Return to Health
by Todd Mangum, M.D.
Western medicine's 300-year-old mechanistic view of the body is due for a major upset as more people (and their caregivers) gravitate to a new model of wellness care that puts the person's health, not the disease, at the center.
Consider this: Although a pharmaceutical exists to treat nearly every ailment and illness, not a single illness or ailment is due to a deficiency of even one pharmaceutical. Although numerous diseases and disorders are due to deficiencies of amino acids, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids, physicians rarely prescribe or even recommend using them for treatment and doubt nutritional supplements have any significant therapeutic value at all.
WEB EXTRA: Sundance 2010 Cheat Sheet
by Geralyn Dreyfous
Sundance 2010 promises to be an amazing line-up for new Sundance Festival Director John Cooper.
Long admired for his talent as a programmer who discovers new voices and tracks new distribution models, Cooper has already made his mark with a great new B-side website and calendar, an ical Sundance app and more shorts and trailers on line. Sundancing never looked so virtual and so easy to navigate. Also look for entries in THE NEXT CATEGORY, a new offering designed by Cooper to cordon off space for low and no-budget filmmaking. Eight “younger and fresher” American filmmakers will be showcased.
Quick Links
