Life has come and gone and July ended up being an extremely busy month for yours truly. First of all I saw 15 live performances, 5 of which were reviewed for Utah Theatre Bloggers Association. I will be writing a separate post with my theatre round up but it was a wonderful experience, and I’m grateful for every person who gave of their time to entertain me on the stage.

The highlight of July was finishing my 17th open water race with the Bear Lake Monster Swim. I love taking mini-trips to give a little break and that’s what I got with this race. I went up to Bear Lake and stayed in the Beaver Creek Lodge about 20 minutes outside of Garden City. It was a beautiful location and I had delicious food at Reva’s (the ebelskivers are so good!).

I wrote about the experience of swimming the race on my blog for work here. Even thought it was only a 1/2 mile the temperature of the water and the boat traffic made it challenging. I’m proud to have finished the race. It was a wonderful weekend.

I also had a great month as a film critic. I saw 8 films on the big screen/in theater including 2 events put on by the Utah Film Center. If you are in Utah and not taking advantage of the fantastic events put on by UFC you are really missing out. The first event was a screening of Batman 89 with a panel of experts afterwards led by Radio West’s Doug Fabrizio. I’m actually not the biggest fan of the movie but it was super fun to see it on the big screen and hear what the experts had to say. I also went to one of their movies at Liberty Park and saw one of my favorites Wolfwalkers. Considering the cloudy skies and intense heat I was pleased to see the good turnout and I’m always happy to watch Wolfwalkers with a crowd.

I also heartly recommend seeing Marcel the Shell with Shoes On while it is still in theaters. What an adorable heart-warming film the whole family can enjoy. It’s so endearing and one of my favorites of 2022. You can read my full thoughts here. Keep an eye out for this Wednesday Stanford and I share our thoughts on the film in this month’s Talking Animation podcast.

Speaking of podcasts I have certainly stayed busy creating mine. Hallmarkies Podcast had a great July, which makes me happy. I’m particularly pleased our TV coverage of Heartland and Sex and the City have continued to do well sometimes beating out the week and getting the best ratings of the pod. I have also been very busy getting things ready for August where I am taking 10 days off for a California trip that includes both Christmas Con in Pasadena and the HCA TV Awards in Hollywood. It will be a busy time but also a relaxing time with the whole month prepared in advance.

Rachel’s Reviews and The Criterion Project also kept me busy as well as writing reviews for rachelsreviews.net. I know some people humble brag about their content but I legit love everything I put out. Not because I’m delusional of its grandeur but because of the great people I get to interact with while creating it and the amount I learn along the way. It’s an incredible experience and I feel extremely fortunate.

So that’s July! It was a great month. I’m so grateful for my life, my community and the many wonderful experiences I am blessed with.

If you enjoy what I do please consider supporting at patreon where you can get tons of fun perks. https://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies