The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
‘Last Cowboys’ book chronicles legendary Utah rodeo family
ST. GEORGE, UTAH » A Utah family that has produced several generations of rodeo champions is chronicled in a new book called “The Last Cowboys.”
The Wrights family book written by New York Times’ Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter John Branch was released May 15. Branch spent more than three years with the Wrights to put it together, The Spectrum reported .
“They’re like the Mannings of rodeo,” Branch said. “As long as the Mannings had five or six more quarterbacks in the NFL. The Mannings wish they were the Wrights of the NFL, probably.”
The Wrights, from the southern Utah town of Milford, have produced generation after generation of rodeo champions. But the book isn’t just about winning saddle bronc titles. It’s about a family’s challenge adapting to a changing American West as the world grows smaller.
It’s about a parcel of land on Smith Mesa and whether the Wrights can, or even should, remain there. It’s about the Old West becoming new.
“I wanted to be able to highlight the broader picture,” Branch said. “The drought, the federal land use, the organization of the West. . Cities and small towns are dying, but some are booming, and that brings its own kind of problems.”
Iglesias loves his fans, but misses family ‘like crazy’
TELAVIV, ISRAEL » Pop star Enrique Iglesias misses his newborn twins “like crazy.” But he says performing for his fans is the next best thing to being home.
While the Spanish singer has traditionally kept his personal life private, he and his wife, former tennis player Anna Kournikova, took to social media last week to share some rare photos and videos of themselves and their children. He said he wanted to open up to his fans because they have given him so much.
“I don’t mind sharing part of my life with them,” he told The Associated Press. “I always have, in a way, through my music.”
Iglesias performed to nearly 50,000 fans in Tel Aviv Sunday night. The crowd cheered when Iglesias took to the stage, starting with his song “I’m a Freak,” accompanied by a show of lasers. Devoted fans wore T-shirts proclaiming their love for the 43-year-old pop star, and held signs declaring him the “sexiest father alive.”
“I miss my family like crazy,” said Iglesias. “But I love doing what I do, which is being on stage and just being surrounded by my fans. Those are the two things I love most in my life.”
It was Iglesias’ fourth performance in Israel. Artists, including Iglesias, often come under pressure from a grassroots pro-Palestinian boycott movement not to perform in Israel. But Iglesias said he never had second thoughts about coming to the country
“I’ve sang in so many countries around the world during conflicts, my music is not about politics,” he said. “If my fans ask me to go to a place and there is demand, I will be there no matter what.”
Iglesias’ most recent single, ‘Move to Miami’ was released in May. Iglesias has been performing around Europe and South America, and came to Israel following a performance in Ljubljana, Slovenia.