Salt Lake City (August 2005)
My friends and I were in a group show in Salt Lake at this gallery called Unknown. They were super awesome, and they put us up in a pretty swank place in Park City. During the winter it's a pretty big ski resort, but in August, it was a pretty chill place to be at.
At the table on the first night.
Derek, Derek-One, and Jake came in from Oakland, Marci and I flew in from LA, and Bailey came in from Portland.
The first night we tried playing a few board games and Scene-it. They all sucked. Trivial Pursuit is for dumb-asses, Scene-it takes so long and really isn't all that fun, and no one wanted to play Jenga or Yahtze.
The altitude sort of killed us. We'd get tired around 10 or 11. But we stayed up pretty late every night we were there. We went to a lot of 7-11s. And Derek was right, the Slurpees in Utah were amazingly consistent. I got a cheeseburger hot dog in one.
There was a lot to the trip. We never made it out to any deserts, which I thought Salt Lake would be covered in, but apparently, I'm an idiot, cause it looked more like Northern California from the plane.
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Installing
Bailey figuring things out on the floor.
Me installing
Marci and Jake Installing
Derek on the floor
Bail and Derek
The day we installed was pretty much an all day thing. The gallery is outside, at the bottom this huge artist loft complex in downtown SLC, a few blocks away from the temple, a huge mall, and I think the Delta Center.
I went out w/ Derek to get water for Marci and a disposable camera. We went the opposite direction of the mall (cause we didn't know about it at the time) and wound up at some gas station. I was really tempted to try the Cantonese food at the gas station, but there's something wrong w/ buying Chinese food at a gas station, especially from non-Chinese people.
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After the hike, we made our way back into SLC. There we went to a bar called the Mint. Which was really nice made. We got there at a reasonable time, thinking it would get busier, cause it was a Thursday night, but it pretty much stayed the same with the amount of people there. We went out to try and see the temple which we did, but I took a shot of this seagull skateboarding instead.
Later that night we drifted into a golf course and found a jacuzzi. those things are totally over-rated.
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The Mormon Church
So right before the opening, we were suppose to go to Raging Waters, but then were suppose to go the opening straight afterwards so some of us thought we should spend that time chilling out a bit. So after we dropped the Dereks off, Marci, Bail, Jake and I made our way to the big mormon temple in the center of town.
If you never been to Salt Lake, well then you don't know how easy it is to get to the temple. all the streets are gridded to where the temple is. So 200S, is 2 blocks south of the temple. I think there are streets like South Temple, North Temple, ect. So we just found one of those streets and yeah, we were there.
First off, we stuck out. Like a lot. We didn't really come there to make fun of Mormons. I mean, I just wanted to know what they were all doing up there. Apparently not that much. But, anyway, I don't think they were so chill with us being there. they gave us the crappy black and white photocopy of the map while everyone else got these crazy glossed up versions, and we got watched like hawks while navigating the halls of
the Talking Jesus looking for a bathroom.
We tried seeing the family exhibit, thinking we were going to see more diorama's, but that exhibit was sort of a lie, cause all we saw was a small room, a large video screen and some big Spanish lady with a lot of pamplets.
The best part of the temple was the taco stand outside of the temple. $3 gets you a burrito or a quesidilla, $2 for tacos (if I rememember right), and 1.50 for a hot dog.
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The Opening:
The Mall's souvenir shop sucked. There was no Mug with Joseph Smiths face on it. Derek-One got a pink t-shirt for his little sister of a Unicorn with gliter paint. I think it said "Utah" on it. I got a corn dog at Hot Dog on a stick.
After the opening we piled in the car and made our way back to Park city. But we made a stop over at a 7-11 and I got a cheese burger hot dog, and a microwavable sandy.
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Overall the trip was pretty amazing. I came back and told a bunch of people about it, and they said I made Utah sound like some sort of paradise. I mean it wasn't, but it was still pretty sweet.
Unknown was a really great gallery, and the people who work there were super nice. They picked us up and dropped us off at the airport, and they made sure everything was alright. They made us sound bigger than what we were. Also the show turned out pretty well.
Here are some pictures of the show without people in front of the work.
Us waiting for the free bus. Derek went to go hang out with his dad. We took the bus to the Alpine slides and dicked around. I got hot wings at a place called The Eating Establishment. I don't suggest you do that. Then Derek came by and picked us up to go on a nature hike. 
Derek's dad's dog Snoopy. 
getting ready to go.
On the trail. We sort of lost Derek and Bailey. The altitude sort of got to them I guess.
on the way back from a walk.
Marci with Joseph Smith (the founder of the Church of Later Day Saints). There's a bunch of other prophets, they had in dioramas chilling out and writing stuff, and even a statue of adam and eve in the garden. And the photographs of the current saints in suits.
Marci with Jesus. Let's just say, Marci was a little way too into this.
We came back. One of the sisters shot this for us.
We pick up the Dereks and make our way back to the Gallery. When we got there, we decided to go souvenir (sp?/I don't feel like spell checking, sorry) shopping, since all that we found at the Mormon church was "build your own SLC temple" kits. We really wanted to find a Mug with Joseph Smith's face on it, to go along with the mug with the Queen's face on it (Btw: last year in England, Marci broke her's in the Subway, after half a day of looking for one, so she had to get one on Ebay when she got back).
Derek Wood
Marci Washington
Derek McCall (One)
Bailey Buddy Winters
Jake Gabel
Justin
Jeremy
