The bestest movie ever!!

Who doesn't love Elizabeth Taylor? She seems to get better with age. She saw the new Michael Jackson movie but she was careful to not overhype it. Here are some of her thoughts:

"I was honored with the great privilege of seeing 'This Is It' last week. I was sworn to secrecy, but now I can let you know about it," she wrote. "It is the single most brilliant piece of filmmaking I have ever seen. It cements forever Michael's genius in every aspect of creativity."

She wasn't done there. "To say the man is a genius is an understatement. He cradles each note, coaxes the music to depths beyond reality," she tweeted. "You owe it to yourselves and your loved ones to see this again and again. Memorize it and say to yourselves, 'I saw genius in my lifetime.'" Taylor, who recently broke the news about a minor heart surgery on Twitter, said she wished her vocabulary "encompassed" what she felt. "If you listen to his lyrics, they are those of a modern-day prophet and it beseeches us to listen to him and what he sang," she wrote. "We must his take his words of responsibility seriously. We cannot let his life be in vain."

No offense, but does anyone really believe that this movie is better than Strange Brew, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane and the Godfather? I believe that many people consider those 4 movies, the four best of all time, so it looks like we can add this to the top 5 collection.

the NBA and Mascots

NBA season starts tonight. I love basketball. Back in Washington DC, I would fall asleep to games at 1am nearly every night. This year will be interesting for Jazz fans to see how the team pulls together...around the league, we will get to see if Shaq can settle in with the Cavs, how good will Orlando be with all of their changes, can anyone stop the Lakers, etc.

To get you all pumped for the NBA season, I have a couple of videos...the first one is of the Houston Rockets mascot messing with fans and it is pretty funny (when you click play to start it, push pause and wait for about 15 seconds and then press play again):



And here is a video of mascot bloopers. Go Jazz.

Beautiful hair gone...but Metrosexy man remains

If you see me around town looking extra metrosexy, well, its because I have let my lovely wife cut my hair. Yes, there are some little issues with it--too close of a cut over the ears, a little uneven...and should we say something like "ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh...what have I done?...I wonder if that will show up...EEEEEEKKKKKK....oh no...thats not good...how do people do this?...why did it cut so much, why did it cut so much?" Yeah, she uttered all of those words. With all that said, man oh man, do I look good. Good work Bro.

On an entirely different subject--does anyone have a sharpie that is in dark, dark brown color?

Hosting a Party which would make me the Most unpopular guy in the Neighborhood

I can think of a lot of party ideas. Actually, I can think of a lot of bad party ideas. An adult Twister party? I would probably not get a lot of friends to come to that one. Dress up as your favorite Lords of the Ring party? Yeah, I would probably not get a lot of friends to come to that party.

But both of those ideas look genius compared to the having a Computer Operating System party. For those of you with a computer (A PC, not an Apple Computer), your current computer probably has Windows Vista or XP as its operating system. Well, Microsoft has come out with a new operating system, Windows 7. So Microsoft and its Ad agency came out with a perfect idea of having computer users host parties to introduce their friends to the new computer Operating System. Seriously. Not kidding.

The idea here is to invite your friends over to your house, make some snacks and sit around your computer and learn a new operating system. Yeah, how fun does that sound? To help us, Microsoft even did a video to show you how to host one of these parties. Once again, I'm being serious. (start the video and press pause for about 30 seconds and then watch so that it can run smoothly).

I can't wait to host my own party. It sounds like fun. Look for your invitations in the mail.

Sherlock Holmes and the Brutal Mormons

Here is a brand new post. You may have heard but there are the new Sherlock Holmes moviecoming out in the next few months...it stars Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. I am pretty interested in the movie as I love the Sherlock Holmes character and I think Downey can do a good job with it.

Growing up, I read a few of these novels and I decided to read the very first Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You get to read the first time that Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. Watson (Dr. Watson was a doctor who just served in Afghanistan in the late 1800s and he was looking for a roommate and he was introduced to Holmes). You also learn that Holmes is very good at knowing people by just watching them for a minute. It is interesting to see their relationship develop.

This case centers around two murders in the London area. As they focus on suspects, the book then shifts to Salt Lake City, Utah. It goes into a story of man who was rescued by the Mormons as they were traveling across the country to find Utah. The man never becomes a mormon but is accepted by the mormons because he is a hardworker and he doesn't cause trouble. Trouble begins though when his daughter plans to marry a nonMormon. The book includes a visit by Brigham Young to the man's home where he orders the man to have his daughter marry a mormon. Basically, the mormons keep pressuring the girl and the father to follow their ways or suffer the consequences.

I don't want to give away the ending and the book...but it is interesting that such an iconic character such as Sherlock Holmes began his 'career' with mormons and their murderous ways. The book is over a 120 years old so it was quite an accomplishment for Sir Doyle to use London and early Salt Lake City as a backdrop to this first book. It is an entertaining read to see how it is all tied together and how justice is served.

Radio SuperStar

As some of you know, I graduated from Utah with a degree in Broadcast Journalism with a focus on Radio. I loved radio. I had my own 2-hour show up the University of Utah on their college station. I believe that at least 13 people would listen to my show every week (mainly family and probably some interns who were forced to listen to it). I also worked at KALL radio where I was an associate producer and fill-in producer for Chris Tunis. I loved finding him guests and putting together a show for him. I also served as the fill-in sports guy for KNEWS 570. I did that for about 6 months. I applied to be Tom Barberi's producer and it was down to me and this other girl for the position. She got it.

A few months later, I was offered an overnight talk show position and I accepted. I had my show from 12midnight till 4am. It was called the Sandman Hours. Brodi was on one of my shows as a guest...we had some absolutely crazy call ins...one guy called in and hated what I was saying so much and that he said that knew where the station was (we were upstairs at the Kinkos building on 33rd South 7th East) and he was coming in to 'talk' with me. He never came, but if he had, he would have received a severe tongue lashing. I spent nights talking about sports and current events. There are few things more glamorous than doing talk radio through the middle of the night. But I soon came to the conclusion that I was no longer interested in talking about Karl Malone wrestling or BYU football players breaking the honor code. My job didn't last long, and I realized it was time to move on.

So, why do I mention all of this? Well, last week, I was brought on to a national internet radio broadcast to talk about international business and the company that I work for...it was very cool. One hour to talk about the company and the obstacles of working in Pakistan. It was a last minute thing though, so I wasn't able to tell family and friends (and I know you were all crushed to not hear it). Lets just say that I was rusty, but it was cool. And let me just say--the audience was probably mesmerized by the exciting discussion. I also have a feeling that only about 9 people heard it, but I am sure that they will not forget it.

Utah Site: Delta Center and the Utah Jazz

Back in 1991, one of my best friends from high school, Jia Yn, took me to the first ever regular season game for the Jazz in this arena (they had just left the Salt Palace). I still remember it and the Jazz played the Seattle Sonics (don't ask about the results, it was a bad game for the Jazz). I can't believe that this stadium is nearly 20 years old. This arena cost $93 million and was built in record time, 16 months, to have it ready for the basketball season. Couple of interesting things--the roof weighs 3 million pounds. There are nearly 2,700 panels of insulated glass on the arena. The arena holds around 20,000 people. It is now called the Energy Solutions Arena, but I have always known it as the Delta Center and I refuse to call it by its new name.


I decided to take the boys downtown to see the Utah Jazz have their annual scrimmage. It was a good time. On the outside of the Delta Center, there are 2 huge action statues of Karl Malone and John Stockton. A nice little remembrance of those two and all of those years in SLC. Right when we entered the arena, I said to the boys to get ready to take some pictures...and the cheerleaders were right there and they came up and started talking to the boys. Too bad that the camera was on the wrong setting (darn that Becks and his playing with the camera) but we still got a shot with the boys and the ladies.

There were a couple of pretty cool things that we got to see while we were in the stands. They filmed a couple of commercials with us sitting there...so when you see the Jazz commercials at the start of the season, look really hard and you may see us in the background. We also got to see the Jazz players have a dance off to show who was the best rookie dancer. Kosta Kofous won that very prestigious award.

We left the inside of the arena and wandered down the halls. We found a staircase that was not being guarded and the boys and I headed up to the top floor. Great views and we went to the doors to sneak back into the arena until Carter said, 'I don't think we should be here, should we?' We wandered for a bit more and headed back downstairs.

A nice downtown late stroll back to the car and Carter made me promise that I would let him stay up late during the season to watch some games of the Jazz. I love this pic except Carter is giving one of his absolutely hillariously terrible 'camera smiles.' If you need to get the kids out this winter, a Jazz game is very entertaining even if the kids don't want to sit much as they can just wander the crowds and the hallways.

We just may have to move....

We love our neighborhood. Great families, great kids, great location. But there is something about this house (and yes, this is an actual active home listing right now) that is making me ready to move my family.

It has just about everything that you would want.

**A main house? Check

**A guest house? Check

**Privacy from the neighbors? Check.

**A feeling like you are living on the moon? Check...uh, what? Seriously?

This real estate purchase comes with 60 acres of lunar landscape views. It is also located midway between LA and Las Vegas. And for those that have made that drive--and I have made that drive about 15 times, there aint much between those two cities.






I can just see it--my boy Carter saying, 'Hey, can I go and play with my friend?' and me responding, 'Son, the only kids that live around here are about 45 miles to the South, go play with GI Joe figures.'

This could be all yours for only $750,000. Which isn't too bad when you consider you get two homes and 60 acres of land. Also, if you don't like door to door salesmen, this place could be ideal.

Utah site: Ensign Peak

I went to West High School and I played for the basketball team there. Our coach, for whatever reason, decided he wanted his players to be in shape (how crazy is that?), so every Summer/Fall before the season started, we would run and run and run. In our training, we would run down 3rd West, all the way to Beck Street, then run up Beck Street until you reached the capital, then we would run all the way up the hill to get to the starting point of Ensign Peak and then up to Ensign Peak and then all the way back down to West High. Lets just say, this was a good 6-8 mile jaunt which left many of us either puking or near puking. It was such a good run, that even former Jazzman Thurl Bailey used to run this with us.


Ensign Peak is where the Mormon Prophet, Brigham Young, as well as several other leaders of the early church joined together on the hike to the top...2 days after they arrived from their trek across the United States. Brigham Young, upon reaching the top, then proclaimed "Here is the proper place to raise our ensign to all the nations." This site gives you a view of the entire valley from East to West, North to South.

If you haven't been, it is in the neighborhood above the Capital (and a neighborhood where I spent a good deal of my high school years hanging out with some families up there). Very easy to find the hiking entrance as they have added a nice little area to start the hike. Let me just say--doing this hike is pretty simple and short and much easier than having already run several miles to get to this point.

I decided to take my boys up to Ensign Peak. The boys liked it quite a bit because it has fabulous views of the entire city. Roundtrip, the hike is only about 1.5 miles or so, so not too strenuous. Carter likes to get up the hill as fast as he can, while Beckham moves just a tiny bit faster than turtle...as he scans the landscape. There is also a nice little monument at the top to read and look at while admiring the views of the Valley.

Howlingly Cool

Brodi and I have been married now for over 11 years. I am thinking of doing something to spice up the marriage and I found the solution:

What woman does not want tough and mysterious? Nothing says 'danger' and 'living on the edge' than a guy that wears a wolf t-shirt. I no longer need a stupid polo shirt, or a sweatshirt, or some other typical shirt...I will now wear the Wolf shirt as this is truly a crowd pleaser.

So, the question for you all--which says 'a more manly yet still metrosexy man'? The three wolves howling at the moon (pic on the left)...or the patriotic pack of wolves in front of the american flag (pic on the right)? Let me know and Brodi better be prepared to fall in love with me all over again.

I was falling in love...now I'm only falling apart

Can it get any better than Bonnie Tyler's 'Total Eclipse of the Heart'? Years ago, I had the chance to perform this song with my little musical band over at the University of Utah. There were a couple of hundred people listening to us (I will save this story for another day) but we pulled out the 'Total Eclipse of the Heart.' Let me just say, there was not a dry eye in the crowd.

Here is a literal version of that song. Take a listen as it is very entertaining and very funny even though it cannot improve on the classic original song. And, as you will see, the feathered hair will never go out of style:

It would have been much better, I bet, if we had sung it this way.