Park City and the Sundance Film Festival

Welcome to Park City, Utah and the Sundance Film Festival. This is the second year I will be volunteering at the Eccles Theater, where all the hottest movies will premier during the evening shifts. Last year was a blast, and I expect this year will be filled with more fun stories and experiences.

As you can see, Marley has his volunteer credentials and cool shades to hang with other celebrities. For those of you who don't realize it Marley does have a movie credit as he appeared in the movie "The Retrievers" in 2001 and has been seen in "Times of the Islands" magazine and the "Fresno Bee". He has been a spokesdog for K-9 Quencher and is a spokesdog for Central Bark groomers in Fresno. Though he does not have a SAG card, he thinks he should have one. Marley will be trolling Main Street during Sundance, giving out paw prints and allowing wannabe's and other potential celebrities to rub his ears.

I'll be working the premiers of "Blue Valentine", "Twelve", "The Runaways", "Douchbag", "Howl", "The Killer Inside of Me", "Sympathy For Delicious", "Nowhere Boy" and the final night where the Grand Prize and Audience Grand Prizes are awarded. I'll keep you posted which stars I see and anything that might be worthy of public consumption.

I have had a little bout with Mountain Altitude Sickness. That slowed me down for a day. But I am adapting.

We drove to Utah from Fresno in one day. Even with a speeding ticket in Nevada for doing 85 mph, we made good time. The cat settled down and turned into the tourist she is by Madera. Eddie has taken over where she left off last year, and is enjoying kitty snow shoeing, Marmot hunting and bird watching.

Joel has been keeping occupied with snow blowing, not quite in the nude, but close. When the sun shines here even in winter, it is wonderfully warm and dry. Marley loves to hang with Joel when the snow blows.

Today, Thursday the 21^st, is the opening of Sundance and we have two feet or so of fresh snow to greet everyone. Of course that will make some things problematic, like waiting in line outside for admission to the theaters.

Joel and Lou are going skiing, but I'm staying home as my knees still function correctly. Two feet of fresh snow sounds great, unless it is being skied in a white out of clouds and fog, which the top of Park City Mountain appears to be from our back windows. I think my manicure sounds more enticing.

For those of you not familiar with Park City, it was a venue site for the 2002 Winter Olympics. We are at about 6700 feet here at the house. The area is an old silver mine location that went into disrepair until after WW II. Then it was discovered as a ski resort. Through the years it has developed into not one, but three major ski areas: Park City, Deer Valley and The Canyons.

It is located about 40 minutes east of the Salt Lake City airport and about 8 miles south of Interstate 80. It is very convenient actually. We have a Whole Foods, Walmart, couple of major grocery stores and lots of charming little shops and restaurants. Great restaurants actually.

It is pretty low key much of the time, unless Sundance or the World Cup events are in town. Then traffic can be backed up for hours if you don't know back roads, short cuts or have friends with open bars near major thoroughfares and are home to let you hang out while traffic subsides.

I'll keep you posted on Sundance after I pull some shifts.