Kasey's Page of Mindless Rants

Well, I promised an entry on Saturday and it's now Sunday night. I guess you just can't trust me. I am, however, posting before the weekend has ended, so I suppose that I will redeem myself to some extent.

So what will be the topic of tonight's rant? Why, Cedar City, of course. You know, Cedar City just doesn't get the respect for which it is so justly due. Let me explain.

I just got back from the Utah Geographic Information Council Conference (or UGIC). UGIC is pronounced "You - Jick" by the GIS community and "You - Geek" by everybody else. It was the State's annual GIS conference, and I (being one of the biggest GIS geeks west of the Mississippi) gave three presentations. But that's not my point.

The conference was held in Cedar City. Poor Cedar City is situated just 60 miles north of it's bigger, sexier, shinier cousin, St. George. Cedar City is St. George's under-appreciated often-forgotten sidekick. Cedar City is to St. George as Robin is to Batman, as Jelly is to Peanut Butter, or as Garfunkel is to Simon.

Nobody ever says, "Hey, let's head down to Cedar City this weekend" or "I bet the weather in Cedar City is great right now". The only thing that people recognize Cedar City for on a consistent basis is the Shakespearean Festival, and most people don't even give it that much credit. Poor Cedar City.

While at the conference, I picked up a brochure called "Festival City USA". The first words of the brochure were (and I quote) : "There's a reason that most people in the Country automatically recognize Cedar City as 'Festival City USA'. It's because of the Festivals!" Poor Cedar City. They've developed such an inferiority complex that they've had to invent a name for themselves.

The Shakespearean Festival the city is known for has apparently spawned a motley list of events that cover every type of celebration imaginable and cover such a wide range of time that life in town has seemingly become a big year-round party. In addition to the five-month long Shakespearean Festival, the new festivals include a zany tribute to Neil Simon's plays and "Himmelsk", a bizarre Festival Royale that incorporates a strange mix of Scandinavian and Polynesian traditions. The picture above is the royalty in charge of this wild event. This one even has its own website: http://www.himmelsk.org/ . Other festivals the city boasts include:

• The American Family Fest
• The Utah Summer Games
• Groovefest
• The Cedar City Skyfest
• The American Children's Christmas Festival
• The Cedar City Cowboy Gathering
• The Paiute Restoration Gathering (and Pow-wow)
• The Midsummer Renaissance Faire (Since they don't focus on that time period enough with five months of Shakespeare)
• The Wildflower Festival
• The July Jamboree
• The Cedar City Livestock and Heritage Festival
• The Great American Stampede
• The Thunderbird Film Festival
• Iron Mission Days
• The Cedar City Fashion Fest
• The Gold Wing Rally
• The Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival

All things considered, the list ends up at 20, and those were just the ones listed in the brochure. Cedar City just does not sleep.

All I did while in Cedar City was attend the conference (at the Cedar City Festival Center) and go on a hike with Andy. We went out to the desert west of the city, and followed some pretty cool trails that let to this crazy voodoo tree with weird toy skulls and bike tire tubes hanging all over it.

Anyway, I'm not sure where I'm going with this other than I had a hopping good time in Festival City USA this week, and I want to give the poor deluded underdog town its due. So go visit Cedar Cedar, and maybe we can help the town feel just a bit better about itself.

Well, that's it for this week. I promise to keep up with the weekly posts to the best of my ability, so check back around June. No, I'm just kidding. Really. I'll write next weekend. Seriously. I think?