SLC 2012: What's so Great about the Great Salt Lake?

With apologies to Rhett Miller and the Old 97s.

I have been to Salt Lake City on four occasions, and this is my first time seeing the Lake. Don't be alarmed, as things to do in Salt Lake City, seeing the Lake is near the bottom of the list.

Now, the Great Salt Lake does surround Antelope Island, which does seem to be a place to go. Sadly, from where I was, it was about a 45 minute drive and wasn't going to be doable. I will still set it out there as a recommendation- I am told it is a palce where you might see bighorn sheep, bison, eagles, and one would presume Antelope.

I also didn't go into the nearby Oquirrh Mountians, which time permitting would have also been interesting. This contains one of the world's open pit mines and a few ghost towns.

The Great Salt Lake is beautiful, for sure, but may be the smelliest beach I have ever been to. Clearly, only tourists were stopping to see it. Although, the place was filled with boats and yachts, there wasn't much else to recommend it.

Still, I was with a friend who was also new to the Lake, and so we both agreed we had to at least 'taste' it. As I tell this story, i would like you to picture me taking a big gulp of the Lake, though that does not resemble what I really did. Needless to say, it was salty.

Because of the high salt content (which is where Morton gets most of its Salt, I am told, but too lazy to look up), there's no fish. What there is was a lot of brine shrimp, and thus, a lot of brine flies.

It's the Brine Flies that are the most memorable thing about the experience. Move towards them and a thousand barely visible creatures move. It's like using The Force.
( Here's some pics... )

White Light, White Heat, White Trash Part 1

Okay, this is where I lose a bunch of you, but I saw Larry the Cable Guy in concert.

Larry comes this way once a year or more and inevitably, I am asked to go by someone.  This time, it was part of a group outing, so I said 'yes'.

I am going  to back up a bit and explain a few things, because I don't want to sound like an unwilling participant.

My teenage years were largely filled in front of The Comedy Channel (forerunner to Comedy Central) watching hours of stand-up comedy clips.  I love stand-up and literally could watch it in a neverending stream.  In fact, besides Dane Cook, there really isn't any comedian that I would ever turn off.  Like concerts, if you are going to a comedy club and you ask me, i am going to go.

With this, I have to also admit that I think the Blue Collar guys are funny.  Sure, I think Jeff Foxwrothy's "You might be a redneck...." jokes aren't particularly hilarious, but Foxworthy, on his own is.  My hesitation to Larry is that he is the least funny (to me) of the Blue Collar guys.  I also really wanted to like his History Channel Only in America (History + Comedy + Strange Unique Stories should be a winner, but it isn't funny and not particularly interesting.)

So, here's my take.  Larry was good.  I thought he was a lot better than I expected, and I laughed most of the way through.  To his credit, I thought he played off the audience well.  Additionally, his material for the most part seemed fresh (It could have easily been a 'Greatest Hits'.)

Sure, at times he pandered to the crowd, and there's no doubt "Larry" is as much as a character as say Sam Malone or Al Bundy.  Still, I was happy. 

Now, some in our group felt he wasn't that good in that he seemed bored and was not enjoying his stage time.  I didn't see that at all, but I feel obligated to add that.

Reno Collier (who is often the 5th Blue Collar guy) opened.  His comedy was down the same path.  He is a very experienced comedian and story teller.   He was enjoyable as well.  The scope of his stuff was generally outside my interests, and I would probably not run to see him again; however, he was good, and would certainly recommend him to people who can't get enough of "Blue Collar"-type comedy.