Sunclubbin’

Ever since Mrs. Kyality and I started dating, we’ve gone to the Sundance Film Festival. As of yesterday, we completed our 10th year of what Mrs. Kyality refers to as "Sundancing"—her and all the blinged-up 65 year-old ladies cruising Park City. Anyways—this year was a massive success, due in part to our mode of transportation. You might have heard by now, but last week, I traded in my beloved Dark Silver R53 MCS for a 2009 MINI Cooper S Clubman—and I’m lovin’ it. One evening about two weeks ago, I was snooping around the inventory of MINI of Murray and spotted a special lease option on a Pepper White Cooper S Clubman. Seeing as how it wouldn’t affect my monthly payment too dramatically, I decided to jump on it.

The Clubman’s been awesome and the new turbo blows the older, supercharged S out of the water. Granted the new R56 Cooper isn’t as raw and gritty as the previous generation, but it's quicker and more refined, which has its pluses too! It's definitely perfect for the canyon run up to Park City to catch a quick Sundance flick. And this year did not disappoint. We saw three films this time around.

It Might Get Loud is a rockumentry fan’s dream come true. It explores the history of the electric guitar through three generations of guitarists, specifically Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White. It’s so amazing to see these guitar-gods geek-out over their passion and teach each other the riffs that made them famous. This one is definitely worth adding to a personal collection, even if you're a hipster-Edge-hater.

Five Minutes in Heaven is a unique take on the decades of conflict in Ireland. It shows the reunion of a man and his brother’s killer. It’s brutal, funny and heart wrenching. It explores the psychology of reconciliation, Irish-style. I’ll let your imagination take it from there.

The coolest thing about this year was all Mrs. Kyality’s doing. She scored us tix for An Evening with Steven Soderbergh, one of my all-time fave directors. He premiered an experimental film he's been working on and did a Q&A session. The flick was a non-linear, non-professional actor, non-scripted, structured-improvisation style film. You catch all that? Needless to say, it proved to be a memorable event.

With all the canyon carving up to Sundance, I can definitely say I’m well on my way to destroying my annual mile allotment on my lease. But it’s been well worth it! PS: I also want to apologize to all those peeps out there who Googled “Sunclubbin” hoping to find info about nudist gatherings. I didn’t catch that connotation until after I’d written this post, but I still like it as a title so too bad for you!