Following in his father Marvin Payne’s footsteps, the singer-songwriter from Utah has emerged as a staple in contemporary and LDS music circles with an eclectic style reminiscent of artists from James Taylor and Bob Dylan to Brian Setzer and the big-band jazz of the fifties. His live shows, highly energetic at times and acoustically soothing at others, are just as much stages for Payne’s stories as they are for his songs.
Dallyn Vail Bayles is living the stereotypical life of the aspiring thespian. He’s now in New York — well, he actually lives in New Providence, N.J., which is a train-commute away — where he holds down 2 1/2 jobs, one as an administrative assistant at a legal firm, one as an usher at the New American theater and the other as an intern at a talent agency.
Utah dancers, it’s time to slip on your blue suede shoes.
Cirque du Soleil, the international performance/circus troupe that has become known for its spectacular-sized productions such as “O” and “Mystère,” is designing a new show around the music of Elvis Presley for next year. And renowned Utah choreographer Bonnie Story has been tapped to develop the show’s dancing.
Consequently, Salt Lake City is one of four cities that will hold auditions for the show, which plans to hire at least two dozen dancers.
A beloved fairy tale tells the story of an emperor who loved fine clothing. One day, two tailors appeared claiming they could make clothing so beautiful and delicate it would be invisible to all except those with refined tastes. The emperor was naturally intrigued and, although the price was extravagant, he commissioned the tailors to make such clothing for him.
John McCain disappointed many Utahns when he bypassed Mitt Romney as his running mate. Explanations for why he was overlooked vary, but few think Romney’s political life is over.
The Church has announced a new manual for Primary nursery classes titled Behold Your Little Ones. In addition, this manual has been designed to be a great resource to help parents teach basic gospel doctrines to small children.
Seven semitrailer loads of emergency relief supplies from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are on their way from Salt Lake to Gulf Coast church storehouses near the expected impact zone of Hurricane Gustav — and more is on the way.
The Association for Mormon Letters has announced the winners of the 2008 Irreantum Fiction Contest and the new Charlotte and Eugene England Personal Essay Contest. I’m pleased to note that AMV’s own Shawn P. Bailey was awarded third place in the fiction contest for his short story “Outside.”
These three Latin words mean “Swifter, Higher, Stronger,” and of course, are the Olympic motto.
I remember as a kid watching the 1976 Olympics with my mother and being impressed at the abilities of the athletes. I distinctly remember Jim McKay leading us through the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” Jim Mckay was excellent at his job.
Excellence has always spoken to me. I am not a huge sports fan, but I do enjoy “top of the sport” events. I enjoy the occasional Super Bowl or NBA playoff. I like to watch the Red Sox win the World Series.
But there has always been something special to me about the Olympics. I did enjoy it more when it was all amateurs, and there is certainly an element of that still today. I thrilled to be able to watch Bobsledding in Salt Lake City in 2002. That event has always been extremely cool to me. It is certainly an event that translates better on television. When you are there in person, you hear a tremendous rumble and then about a two second blur as the sled flashes by your position. Still it was all very, very cool. About 18 degrees if I recall correctly.
It is amazing to me to watch these young athletes, under such intense pressure, culminate all of their years of training into just a few events, just a few brief moments when the eyes of the world are upon them.
I recall the stories of my childhood and the Greek heroes conquering epic foes. I think today the legacy of those Greek heroes lives on each time the Olympics meet.
This year, the world was witness to a truly remarkable event. An unassuming yet determined young man from Baltimore named Michael Phelps won an unprecedented 8 Gold Medals in swimming, for a total of 14 golds in his career thus far. He truly is the embodiment of “Citius, Altius, Fortius.”
I don’t recall if I actually watched Mark Spitz win seven Gold Medals in Munich in 1972, or if it was replays at later Olympics. I do remember that for some 36 years, his standard of excellence stood for the world to see. It stood as a reminder that hard work and effort pay off. It stood as a goal for one young unassuming yet determined kid from Baltimore. He had a dream and he made it work.
“I wouldn’t say anything is impossible. I think that everything is possible as long as you put your mind to it and put the work and time into it. You can’t put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get.” So says Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian and perhaps the greatest athlete of all time.
At least, until some other unassuming yet determined young kid comes along and is “Swifter, Higher, Stronger.”
There’s very little on Robin Jensen’s desk that distinguishes it from any other. From the computer screen to the family pictures to the mouse pad decorated with an island sunset, it’s a fairly typical setup.
‘I listen to the music of the brain,’ he tells me with a winning, para-electoral smile. ‘There’s a steady buzz when it’s functioning normally, an angry, chaotic sound when there is damage. Therapeutically, we are skimming the surface in how music can promote recovery. There is a connection between music and the mood centres of the brain. It needs to be researched aggressively. This is going to be a vital field.’
Besides being a bit hard to spell, the name Dallyn Vail Bayles (pronounced “BAY-less”) has long been associated with dramatic vocal, stage, and screen performances. Now this Green River, UT, native returns from his new home in the New York City area with a CD and a live concert simply called “Prayer.”
Two-time “Dancing” winner Julianne Hough returns for her fourth season. And the Alta High grad made it clear that she’s not taking time out from her burgeoning country music career simply because she’s contractually obligated.
We invite and encourage all local and LDS filmmakers to participate in the 8th LDS Film Festival 2009 and submit their work to the festival. The success of the LDS Film Festival is a direct result of the quality and diversity of the work submitted. The 2008 LDS Film Festival had an attendance of over 6500.
One of the primary reasons Mormon Media Observer exists is to help improve the quality of media reporting about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through media criticism. So, like the MMO did back in December, it’s time to hand out grades on recent reports about the LDS Church.
The city park was humming with activity—businesspeople were hurrying to their lunch breaks, and shoppers were briskly walking by with their packages. A mother with a stroller was rushing back to her parking meter, when her young child called to her to wait. Exasperated, she stopped, and the child pointed up to the trees. “Listen,” he said.
“Religion is detrimental to the progress of society.” That’s my favorite quote from Bill Maher’s often brilliant, but often unfocused “documentary,” called “Religulous.” It opens in early October right after its debut at the Toronto Film Festival.
Now she’s back in New York City, working to draw attention to her dance company and her mission to bring dance to troubled parts of the world. The Utah-trained dancer, who earned an MFA from the University of Utah and used to teach dance classes at Brigham Young University, faces an obstacle familiar to most artists: fundraising. To make a living to pay her expenses, Legatt does data-entry office work from her apartment.
The trek master for Sandy’s Canyon View Stake is the man behind the mission to expose his LDS Church community’s young Latter-day Saints to a piece of their history. Earlier this summer, he led about 200 teens up to central Wyoming so they could re-enact, across the high desert, the Mormon pioneer journey - one that proved dangerous and deadly for hundreds in 1856.
HISTORIC MORMON TRAIL, Wyo. - On these unforgiving high plains, where the sun beats down unobstructed by shade and the winds blow through bearing blankets of dust, the landscape for lessons is wide open. Here, tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints leave their iPods and cell phones behind to put on pioneer garb, load up wooden rickshaw-like handcarts and trudge back in time.
“Storytelling is a marriage between the mind and the heart,” said Ducey, former president of the National Storytelling Association. “It’s a practice deeply embedded in our brains.”
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John Starrs is a husband and dad.
