One of the many luxuries of living or visiting a resort town is the abundance and variety of food choices one has. If you are like me food is right up there on the list of most important things, and it is important to know that Park City has its share of wonderful food to tickle your taste buds and complete a wonderful vacation.

Let’s start at the beginning – breakfast. The Main Street Deli is a great way to start your morning, with fresh Utah brewed coffee and French toast and home fries to die for and also locally owned and run for the 25 years it’s a must if you are visiting PC.

Ok it’s the afternoon, time for some lunch or just a little après ski. If you happen to be in Deer Valley do yourself a favor and get some Deer Valley turkey chili. It’s only one of the best chili’s you will ever have! Park City Mountain Resort has the Corner Store, a great stop for a beer and fries. If you are out and about on Main Street check out Red Banjo Pizza. The pizza is great, and if you are a garlic lover you’ll be asking for seconds and thirds of their garlic cheese bread.

Finally it’s time for dinner, but where do you choose!? Well if you like Mexican then I would have to say you better find the Blue Iguana on Main Street where the perfect pairing can be found in their mole (pronounced ‘mole-eh’) and signature margarita. Bandits has the best BBQ around, or you could travel to the Middle East cuisine at Reef’s Kitchen. Oishi is the place to be for sushi, and if you want a little more of European style then head to Grappa at the top of Main or Adolph’s of Kearns Blvd.

Really there are so many wonderful places to eat you may just have to stay for a month or two to experience them all. Bon Appétit!

The month of February during a Winter Olympic year is always exciting. I would say it is definitely the best reason for anybody to have an excuse to watch TV for an absurd amount of time, every day, for two weeks. But the winter Olympics is so much more for the town of Park City who can proudly boast that we have seven truly local Parkites competing in the 2010 Olympic Games. This is a bit long for a blog I know, but when you have this many local Olympians to brag about, the brevity of a blog can easily be ignored.

Brett Camerota is 24, a Nordic combined athlete, and besides being born in Salt Lake has spent his entire life in Park City. Camerota was 10^th after the jumping portion of the Nordic combined and came out in 36^th after the cross country skiing portion.

Steve Holcomb, “little Steve” as his family calls him, is a 30-year-old native of Park City. Holcomb was a football player and ski racer before discovering bobsled at the 2002 Olympics. His sheer power of his 5’10” 210lb body has made him a major threat in the bobsledding world where he intends to stay.

Anders Johnson, the youngest of the locals group at 20, is a Ski Jumper who qualified for his first Olympics at age 16! An interesting thing about Anders is that his older sister Alyssa is a part of the women’s ski jumping team that has been fighting to have their place in the Olympics for many years now. Anders does a great job representing both he and his sister on the world stage and no doubt looks forward to competing with his sister at the Olympics in the next winter games (we are keeping our fingers crossed for these women, you should too!)

Ted Ligety, the Torino surprise, is a 25-year-old native who has lived and trained here his entire life with the Park City Ski Team. Ligety won gold in the Men’s alpine combined (slalom and downhill in one day) in 2006 and has been a force to reckon with ever since. And if you are interested in wearing your ski gear in Olympian fashion check out www.shredoptics.com it is Ligety’s very own Goggle, Sunglass and Helmet brand!

On the ladies side of alpine skiing is 22-year-old Megan McJames. While possibly the sweetest and most soft spoken person you will ever meet on the street, steer clear on the race hill. Her small frame may not look like much against some of the other women you may see, but her power and desire make her a hulk of the hill on course.

Nate Roberts is a 26-year-old Moguls man. You would never know that he was out for the 2008-2009 season with a knee injury when watching him fly down the course with ease. And even though he ended in 16^th, a position he is not used to being in, fans can bet that he will be back on the podium soon enough. That seems to be the Roberts way.

So show your Olympic and American pride and brag to your friends about the town you got to visit which hosts more Winter Olympic athletes than any other.

Enjoy this last weekend of the 2010 Winter Games. Go team USA and Go Park City!

Sundance Film Festival Feedback-

A SMALL ACT (US Documentary Competition)

Letter from Director/Screenwriter, Jennifer Arnold

It is every filmmaker’s dream to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and my experience this year was so unexpected and so extraordinary that I wanted to say a direct thank you to everyone who made it possible.

My film, the documentary A Small Act, tells the story of Chris Mburu, a Kenyan man whose early education was sponsored by a woman from Sweden whom he had never met. By donating roughly $15 a month to an education fund, her small contribution paid off: Chris made it all the way to Harvard Law School and then started his own scholarship program, which now sponsors new generations of Kenyan students who would otherwise not have the opportunity to go to school.

I arrived at the Sundance Film Festival this January hoping people would like my film, but I never dreamt that audiences’ reactions would directly lead to changing lives. After Festival screenings, I kept hearing from people how the film empowered them to make a difference. Audience members started handing us unsolicited donations—from twenty dollar bills to thousand dollar checks. By the time the Festival was finished, $90,000 had been donated to an education fund, which means that more Kenyan children will go to school. It was amazing!

Without Sundance Institute, A Small Act would have never had such an impact. The Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program supported the film with a grant and the Festival screenings moved audiences into action. The experience showed me that Sundance is much more than an institution that promotes film; it is a platform for stories that can change the world.

Small acts, when taken collectively, have a huge impact. I know the support of patrons is what makes the work of the nonprofit Sundance Institute possible, and I want to say thank you to everyone who contributes to this important mission. I hope you will consider supporting the Institute today, because your contribution can make a huge difference to not only us individual filmmakers… but also to the world at large.

Make a small act today! Click here to support artists worldwide.

Much thanks to all of you!

Jennifer Arnold

The Music Café is a program produced by the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and which presents an intimate and dynamic showcase of live performances by emerging and established artists during the Sundance Film Festival.  Located at the Stanfield Gallery on lower Main Street, the transformed gallery is an experientially appropriate setting for the sumptuous and poetic style of the artists performing there.  This year the Sundance ASCAP Music Café featured such artists as Leann Rimes, The Fray, AM, Brendan Benson,  Sonos and Grace Potter and The Nocturnals.

Grace Potter singing at the Music Cafe during Sundance Film Festival

When I saw that Grace Potter and The Nocturnals were making an appearance at Sundance’s Music Café, a production by the ASCAP during the Film Festival, I jumped at the opportunity to go and listen to this voice which I had only ever heard in duet with other artists.  I arrived at the venue with a friend who had seen the show the evening before and was so dazzled by the performance she forced us to quit work early for her second round and arrive in enough time to assure a good spot.  It was no mistake as we were delightfully treated to the sultry voice of Holly Palmer, Joey and Rory- a husband and wife duo, and an eclectic Pop artist- AM before The Nocturnal’s blessed us with their presence…And I mean truly blessed us.   Before the anticipated act began, I ran to the bathroom in a frantic hurry so as not to miss even a pluck of a guitar string, only to find Grace Potter standing right in front of me in the bathroom line.  I looked around at the 3 other people in the room who were so busy glamming over their hair and makeup or talking on their phones that they didn’t even notice her distinct presence. I continued to stare at her in awe thinking about what I could say, but came up with nothing.  The reality of the moment seemed fantastical and if you have ever been in the presence of someone of that stature, you know exactly what I mean.  After my star struck bathroom experience, I made my way back to my spot in the crowd and anxiously awaited her entrance.   If my age had prevented the opportunity for me to see the Rolling Stones live in their prime, Grace Potter made up for that unfortunate circumstance ten-fold.  Not only was her comically pristine personality invigorating, but the audience began to ripple with energy and awe as this woman’s vocals seemed to be channeling the soulful style of Janis Joplin.    Her performance resonated with me for the remainder of the evening as I continued to wonder whether or not I had just had a transcendental experience.

With four albums under their wings, we can only hope for more, and as the legendary blues singer Taj Mahal put it “ This is an amazing band!  Keep your eyes on this one.”

As a follow-up to the last post, PCL’s blogger extraordinaire Chelsea Shapard was able to attend the fascinating panel discussion with Dr. Yunus.  The superb documentary To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America is drawing great acclaim for both the importance of its subject and also for the high quality of the film-making.  Our friend Chelsea was on the scene to take it all in and below are a couple of photos:

Dr. Muhammad Yunus in panel discussion at 2010 Sundance Film Festival

Dr. Yunus was very open further discussion after the panel