March 21st 2007

Wow! I almost cannot believe this is the first post of the 2007 year! Well, without further delay, here we go...

Utah winter...
Well, what can I say about this season except we got the f@*%'n shaft this year. This was by far the worst season I've experienced in Utah since '94. I guess every epic location has a drought. The only stand out weeks in the Wasatch were the 18th - 24th of February and March 2nd/3rd. Check out some video of the stand out storms at snowbird.com


Tropical Paradise...
With Utah not getting much snow to speak/write about gave me a great excuse to leave for a tropical holiday. For the first winter ever, I took a trip outside of North America. Southeast Asia with my beautiful girlfriend during the month of February was the best. Tanya and I traveled through Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. I took some much needed time to rest after 3 months of steady work at the Sundance Institute working as the Music Cafe & Music on Main Coordinator during the Sundance Film Festival, a little more on that in a minute. The trip to Southeast Asia was amazing. Like I said, Tanya and I took the time to relax on as many beaches of Thailand and Malaysia's islands as possible. The two locations that stood out were off the coast from Trang, Thailand. The island group of Koh Lanta, Koh Ngai, Koh Mok and Koh Kradan were amazing. Another group were the Palau Perhentian islands off the coast of Kota Bohru, Malaysia. Click the links above for recommendations to visit.
We visited so many other locations, too many to mention, over the 30 days. As soon as Tanya returns from her extended stay, I will update the photo albums.

Along the way, we scouted out kiteboarding locations in the Gulf of Thailand.


Sundance Film Festival 2007...
This year I had the opportunity to work with the Sundance Film Festival. I had a blast working as event coordinator for the Music Cafe and Music on Main. There were so many amazing musicians that came through the music cafe this year. A short list of standout performances went to Silversun Pickups, A Fine Frenzy, The Album Leaf, The Bird and the Bee, Emerson Hart, Eric Lewis, Alexi Murdoch, Ron Sexsmith, Sparta and Simon Townshend. The line-up was provided by ASCAP! Loretta Munoz did an amazing job and it was a pleasure to work along side her.
The Music on Main stage was a wonderful experience, besides some problems caused by meddlesome booking agents and over zealous band members, the music on main event went off without too many glitches. My team and I had a great experience with the bands we invited to perform on the stage this year. Check out the blog reportsand websites of the bands we had this year(West Indian Girl, Shiny Toy Guns and Of Montreal) for more information and mp3s of their music.




Spring in Utah...
Since my return, the temps in Wasatch Mtns has been above normal. With the temps averaging in the 70's - 80's in the valley, the snow is melting fast in the mountains. Only recently has the weather brought some new snow and cooler temps. Last weekend (March 16th-17th) photographer Mikey Asheim, tele-skier Paul Sherman and I took a trip to Mt. Timpanogas to climb and ski/board the Grunge Couloir. I will have all the photos in the gallery soon.

Whew, I think that catches you all up on the last 3-4 months of the Morrill Media Group action. As always, stay tuned for more updates.

-Maxwell