Getting Some Culture

Last Saturday night Clark's robotics team's robot dropped the ceremonial puck at the Utah Grizzlies hockey game.  Due to all the wireless interference, the robot went a little rogue.  It did make it down the red carpet to drop the puck but had to be manually taken off the ice.

His team was doing a fundraiser silent auction on the concourse and displaying their robot throughout the game.  Drunk guys at hockey games think robots are really cool and they use very colorful language to express their pleasure.

Another view of the robot on the red carpet.   

The robot launches the giant ball.  In competition their robot will be in an alliance with two other robots trying to score while three other teams' robots will be defending them while trying to score as well.  The Utah regionals are coming this weekend.  Should be exciting!

Elinor's Lego League team members were displaying their creations as well.

The rest of us went along because we got a hold of some tickets and the kids had never been to a hockey game before and we thought it would be interesting.
Oh, it was interesting all right!

It's a very fun-loving crowd at the hockey game.  I mean, we love fun too, but perhaps we define "fun" differently.  As far as the actually game of hockey, I told the kids it was a pretty aggressive sport and the players will fight fairly regularly.
When Bethany saw them banging into each other and the sideboards she thought that is what I meant.  When the first real fist fight, knock-down-to-the-ground-fight began her face was absolutely priceless.  She went completely pale and slack-jawed.  And then the crowd went ballistic cheering for the fight and for the long-haired-bad-boy cheering for himself as he skated to the penalty box.  Bethany was so horrified and appalled.  She could not believe grown men were behaving this way.  She declared, "I do not like hockey."
I agreed they were behaving very badly.  I told her to just think of the evening as a cultural experience.  She didn't have to enjoy it, but she could enjoy observing different people in a different setting.  She still wasn't buying it.
I told her don't worry, soon you can go play your violin in Abravanel Hall and cleanse your soul.  So she did.

  Her Lyceum Orchestra was part of a Utah Symphony outreach program where several youth orchestras got to play on the stage at Abravanel Hall.

She felt much more at home in this setting.
I must say that while it wasn't quite as exciting as the hockey game, I enjoyed it much more as well.

Bethany is lovely, but isn't this just about the ugliest sculpture you've ever seen.  I am sorry, but I just don't like it and every time I see it I wonder why someone thought it was a good idea to put in the lobby of such a lovely concert hall.  I don't even know why I told Bethany to stand in front of it for a picture.  Why would I do that?

The boys didn't seem anywhere as disturbed by the violence of the hockey evening as the ladies; in fact, I suspect they may have enjoyed it.  But even so, I don't think we'll be returning to the hockey arena anytime soon.  And the whole evening did make for some very enjoyable conversation on the way home.