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Show "FRIDAY, ‘SEPTEMBER 15 Small Time Crooks at Park City Film Series It’s been a sad thing watch ling Woody Allen plays Ray Winkler, an ¢ PX-COn whose shot at one more big bank score results in an unexpected sort of success when the cookie store run by y his wife Frenchie (Tracey Ullman) as fa front for - the operation becomes an 0\ rernight sensation. The abrupt shift from caper comedy to fish-out-of-water comedy takes some es the film Allen’s comedies of the last decade, there are - enough lively gags to remind you why it’s still worth looking forward to his films, and enough dead spot s to remind you that he’s just not the same. There’s also that ever-increasing level of condescension in his films, in this case, taking. the form of Elaine May as Frenchie’s brain-dead cousin. May is hillarious, but she’s also a walking punch Ij ne for Allen’s sense of superiority. ae become an immensely gifted film-maker. Unfortunately, you keep getting the | sense that he knows it, that he’s grown so enamored of his ability to impress that he forgets what an incredible gift he has simply to make us laugh. Even when Allen grow as an artist, from bumbling , would-be thief Virgil Starkwe ll in Take the Money and Run to the look-M (a-I’mBergman phase of September and Another Woman. Those who might h hve wished for Allen’s return to arrested adolescence as a filmmaker couldn’t ask f or more convincing proof than Small Time Crooks © that Virgil Starkwell is, in faq t, dead. adjusting, but it neither mak _nor ruins it. As with most of who writes smart comedy, and he’s I'd still rather watch almast any Woody Allen film of the last decade than the majority of what turns u ip on the local multiplex screen. He’s a smart guy he’s turning out a passably entertaining comedy, it’s clear he just doesn’t have any Virgil Starkwell left in him. . Shows are at the Jim Santy Auditorium Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Call 615- 8291. Celebrating Critters of the Creek Benefit “Ten years ago,” says Swaner Nature Preserve’s Stuart Rogers of the Kimball Creek wetlands area, “in that meadow there were 600 acres ready to be devel- oped; the plans had been made. Now, it’s been put aside in perpetuity as open space.” Of course, 600 acres of prime, ready- to-be-developed space don’t come cheap. A $3 million loan was part of the financing that made the preserve possible, and $1.3 million remains to be paid off. Hence Friday’s benefit, cheerfully labeled Celebrating Critters of the Creek, will allow philanthropically-minded individuals to support the cause while actually basking in the location’s glory. The event, which begins at 6 p.m. with a cocktail hour, will be held adjacent to the Kimball Creek parcel. Dinner will be catered by Utah Food Services, to be followed by dancing into the wee hours with the Joe Muscolino Band’s contemporary pop covers. And just so’s you get a little education with your evening, board member Tom Love will be speaking to attendees about the fund- BCR Rea raising campaign and preservation accomplishments. Tickets are $100, but your dollar will go twice as far thanks to a benefactor providing matching funds up to $1 million. An open checkbook for open space, and the money isn’t even all yours. Call 801-363-4811. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 Light of Our Lives ‘Benefit at Utah Olympic Park; Southwestern Elegance Swaner Nature Preserve won't be the only entity asking for your largesse this weekend. [f your charitable instincts. 34 | SEPTEMBER 14, 2000| § tend toward human causes, you have a Harry O's : MONDAY, SEPT EMBER 18 Little Feat at Harry O’s Times change. People change. Bands change. The band that turns up at Harry O's Monday may not be your father’s Little Feat, but then again, Little Feat has always seemed to be a work in progress. Back in Los Angeles in 1969, it was the brainchild of Mothers of Invention veterans Lowell George and Roy Estrada, a blues-rock outfit with plenty of talented session men but little commercial success. In the early 1970s, after Estrada’s departure and the arrival of New Orleans musician Kenny . Gradney, the sound got funkier, and the band built a following in the South and on the East Coast. Then George descended into drug abuse, and band members Paul Barrere and Sam Clayton took the couple of options. songwriting ina more SS The National Ability Center presents jazzier direction. Southwestern Elegance, an evening fea- — George’s death in 1979 masked the end turing exhibitions by Ability Center parof Little Feat ... sort of. After a long hiatus, ticipants as well as world-class equestrithe band re-formed in 1988, beginning ans. They also promise “a live auction, yet another new phase. The current lineline dancing and fall fun.” Call 649up features long-time members Gradney 3991 for additional event details. (bass), Barrere (guitar), Clayton (percus_ The Utah Olympic Park hosts the 3rd sion), Billy Payne (keyboards) and Richard Annual Light of Our Lives Benefit for Hayward (drums), along with more recent Childhood Cancer, sponsored by Rocky additions Fred Tackett (guitar) and Shaun Mountain Candlelighters for Childhood Murphy (vocals). They’re also stilt recordCancer. The event runs from 6 to 10 ing, the most recent addition to their 30p.m., and will feature appearances by year catalog being this year’s Chinese Work Olympic freestyle jumpers and the Jazz Dancers as well as live and silent auc- tions. Tickets for the event are $100 per person. Call 801-487-7844 for further Ae gie event details. Songs. Just back in the’States this month from a long European tour, the Feat just keep on. stompin’. Tickets are available for $20 fbn Orion’s Music and Harry 0’s.4 |