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06 las vegas weekly 01.26.17
27 friday, 5 p.m.
One Night, Three Exhibitions, Fifty Years at Barrick Museum This week, the Marjorie Barrick Museum celebrates a half-century of existence as any other 50-year-old would—by reaffirming its sense of self and having a big to-do. The UNLV space soon to be known as the Barrick Museum of Art (its fourth name change, by our count) is opening three separate exhibitions in one night, plus a special bonus pick. The Matthew Gardocki-curated Process is a group show featuring John Bauer, Kara Joslyn, Christopher Russell and others who are actively modernizing Process Art, the discipline that produced such notables as Eva Hesse and Richard Serra. Masking, curated by Karen Roop, mixes traditional Mexican masks with contemporary works in an effort to “blur the lines between art and artifice.” Lee Cannarozzo presents Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here, a unique exhibition of rare Salvador Dali works contained within illustrated books; the pages of the books will be turned twice weekly through May 13, revealing fresh surprises every Tuesday and Friday. And Fifty Years documents the Barrick’s mission through newspaper clippings, historical photographs and various artifacts. If there’s one other thing 50-year-olds enjoy, it’s humblebrag. Free. –Geoff Carter
Trust Us e v e r y t h i n g y o u a b s o l u t e ly, p o s i t i v e ly must get out and do this week
26
THRU febRUARY 5
HIR AT ART SQUARE THEATRE Realism, as a genre, isn’t dead. It’s just that the confines of realism no longer seem expansive enough to encompass, well, reality. Especially if you continue to define realism by the tenets of the mid-20th century: white, middle-class, hetero-normative. The world no longer looks like that (if it ever actually did). But what happens when you try to shoehorn the world we now live in into that genre? You end up with a play like Taylor Mac’s HIR, a bizarro-kitchen sink drama produced by Cockroach Theatre. “It’s a deconstruction of the classical 20th century, linear, middle-class family drama,” director Chris Brown says. He pulled the script off the shelf on a trip to a bookstore and started browsing through it. “I ended up sitting there reading the whole thing. I fell in love with it. What was so appealing to me about the show was that this was a playwright who was taking that entire form that has excluded a lot of the alternative-lifestyle members, taking that entire establishment of ‘legitimate,’ value-confirming middle class in theater, and turning it on its head.” Days & times vary, $16-$20. –Jacob Coakley
28 saturday, 9 p.m.
28 thru february 4
DAEDELUS AT BUNKHOUSE Saloon
WILLIE NELSON & FAMILY AT VENETIAN THEATRE
The LA underground hero and eclectic producer/DJ highlights the two-year anniversary of progressive dance collective The Rabbit Hole. Nine other billed performers mean this one’s going late. $10. –Mike Prevatt
The outlaw-country icon’s tour of Vegas venues continues (he’s also hit the Chelsea, House of Blues, Westin Resort, Golden Nugget, Smith Center and Sunset Station in the past five years) with five Venetian shows. 8 p.m., $55-$184. –Spencer Patterson
01
Wednesday, 7 P.M.
‘Selling with Signs’ AT Ne10 Neon Museum’s resident scholar, architect/urbanist Martin Treu, speaks on “the placemaking power of commercial streetscapes”—specifically Vegas’ streets and the neon signs that came to define them. He’ll also sign his book. 300 Las Vegas Boulevard N., free (register at neonmuseum.org). –Geoff Carter
07 las vegas weekly 01.26.17
CELEBRATING THE YEAR OF THE ROOSTER ON THE STRIP
The Chinese New Year display stays up through March 4 at Bellagio Conservatory. (Steve Marcus/Staff)
Chinese New Year is one of the most festive annual holidays to take over Las Vegas Boulevard with free attractions and events. The Fashion Show’s runway will kick off the Year of the Rooster with a performance by the Sichuan Song and Dance Theater Company (January 27, 6-8 p.m.). The Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian will host a fan dance above the waterfall (January 28, 3:45 and 4:30 p.m.). Wynn and Encore are displaying three nine-foot golden rooster statues, four 45-foot-long hanging dragons and more than 100 fruiting mandarin orange trees. And martial arts organization Yau Kung Moon will perform traditional Chinese dragon and lion dances at Aria (January 28 at 4 p.m.), MGM Grand (January 29 at 4 p.m.) and Bellagio (January 30 at 6:30 p.m.), which also hosts a full Lunar New Year display at its conservatory through March 4. –Brock Radke
08 las vegas weekly 01.26.17
PAY ATTENTION
the inter w h e r e
i d ea s
Four years after going into effect, the cell phone law still needs Metro’s push BY MIKE PREVATT
I
’m no Metro officer, but anecdotally speaking, people are still handling their phones all too frequently while they’re driving, despite the 2012 statute that forbids it. An actual Metro officer said as much during Sunday’s monthly LVMPD-hosted Community Safety Forum at the Mob Museum, which addressed distracted driving and DUIs. He also said some other interesting things, such as … 1. Metro has seen it all, says Sergeant Peter Kisfalvi of Metro’s Traffic Bureau, who led Sunday’s “DUI and Distracted Driving” discussion. He’s caught you reading the phone in your lap—especially at night, when it illuminates your car’s entire interior—throwing it over your shoulder at first sight of a cop and even watching Real Housewives of Atlanta. 2. You want to legally operate both your car and your phone at the exact same time? Install a cell phone car mount, which allows you to reply to a text or find another Waze traffic route without holding the actual phone. But if an officer sees that you’re not focused on the road for too long, you’ll likely get stopped. 3. Kisfalvi says the average time for someone to read and reply to a text is five seconds. If a driver is going 55 mph, he’ll have taken his eyes off the road for 100 yards, or the length of a football field. 4. Earbuds and two-earpiece headsets are totally legal. Which means you can technically gab with your mother or listen to Iron Maiden on iTunes while driving—again, assuming an onlooking officer doesn’t suspect you’re too distracted to drive safely. 5. Cops aren’t the only ones hypervigilant toward texting drivers. So are motorcycle riders, who don’t need another reason for drivers not to see them riding near their cars. “This is a big concern to our community,” said one motorcyclist in the audience Sunday. 6. Kisfalvi also spoke at length about DUIs, saying arrests have gone down from 10,000-11,000 a year to about 7,500. However, more drivers under the influence of cannabis are going to jail—and with recreational marijuana now legal, that rate should become higher than, well, those drivers.
(Yasmina Chavez/Staff)
OH, THE HUMANITIES A rumored federal plan to defund three public art programs could hurt us where we live
The National Endowment for the Arts knows adversity. Ronald Reagan tried to abolish it in 1981; congressional Republicans, apoplectic over Robert Mapplethorpe, took their shot in 1989. So when The Hill reported last week that the new Republican administration plans to cut funding for the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and to privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—pro-
grams that drew less than $750 million, combined, from last year’s $4 trillion federal budget—girding for battle felt all too easy. “The loss of funding would be grave for us and the communities we serve,” says Christina Barr, executive director of Nevada Humanities, the nonprofit that draws on NEH funds to provide cultural and educational programming. But she remains hopeful: “There’s
rsection A ND L IF E M E ET
09 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.26.17
FORGING AHEAD
Women take to Downtown’s streets in dissent of the new president BY STACY J. WILLIS
+
an incredible bipartisan support for these agencies … None of these (budgetary) proposals have ever passed through Congress and the Senate. I don’t see why that would be any different this year.” Flo Rogers, president of local National Public Radio affiliate KNPR, advises a “keep calm and carry on” stance. “The single best thing someone could do if they care about public media? Invest as an individual member
of your local station to make sure something you value is funded,” she says. And former Neon Museum director Danielle Kelly, who has written several successful NEA grants, states her support in fire. “Was the once-great America, to which we are now supposed to be returning, absent of art?” she asks. “The mere suggestion of eliminating the NEA is a strike at the soul of American identity.” –Geoff Carter
On Saturday, millions of women marched in cities worldwide to show their objection to President Trump and his attacks on them, minorities, immigrants, the environment, affordable health care, public schools, transparency and a slew of other issues. They marched to show unity and a rededication to defending human rights. They marched to vent their frustration with a moment in history that feels more than ever like a horrendously produced reality TV show, or the beginning of something much darker. Or maybe they didn’t. Alternatively, all Americans stayed home to watch President Trump attend church at the National Cathedral, because he is pious. He is 10.4 million times more pious than former President Obama. Sad! We’re pretty sure thousands of Las Vegans showed up Downtown to march. Women, men and children packed the Fremont Street parking lot between 9th and 10th, carrying hundreds of signs: “Keep your tiny hands off of my uterus”; “I deserve dignity, respect and justice”; “Dump Trump”; “Women’s rights are human rights”; “Think! It does a nation good”; “Embrace diversity”; “Hell hath no fury like 157 million women scorned”; “Love is love, climate change is real, immigrants make a difference”; “I will raise children to tear down your walls”; “Girls just want to have fun-damental rights”; “Nasty women unite”; and “Equality.” “I’ve been marching since 1968,” said Helen O’Reilly, 63, who drove to the march alone, dressed head-to-toe in suffragette white. “Every generation has some evil come along, and we have to keep fighting it. It doesn’t stop, and we can’t stop fighting,” she said. “It makes me proud to see everyone here.” The crowd—estimated at more than 4,000— marched west on Fremont, turned south on Las Vegas Boulevard and arrived outside the Lloyd George Federal Courthouse, all the while chanting, “Stronger together, we won’t fall; justice, peace and equality for all.” On the courthouse steps, U.S. Reps Dina Titus and Ruben Kihuen were among the speakers vowing to keep up the political fight, and encouraging marchers to stay involved in the political process. (“Why didn’t these people vote?” Trump tweeted, perplexed, perplexingly, possibly working with alternative facts?) “Now I see all of you, I feel empowered, I feel better,” Titus told the cheering crowd of Las Vegans. “I feel ready to fight.”
10
THE INTERSECTION
LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.26.17
DRIVING US MAD Is technology getting between us and our destinations? ocal Tesla driver Ryan Negri got a lot of grief on social media recently for leaving his key fob at home, driving into Red Rock Canyon and expecting Tesla’s keyless cell phone driving app to open his door and start the engine where there’s no cell service. He and his wife were stranded until she jogged two miles for help. “Even Tesla can’t fix stupid,” one critic said. But to me, a quasi-Luddite, the point was made: Metal car keys are better than fobs, certainly better than cell phones, and all of this is extraneous technology is really not that helpful. To wit: My old landline never PYRAMID OF dumped a call when I was halfway through BISCUITS pushing a zillion pin BY STACY J. numbers to access WILLIS my cable account because my Internet stopped, and although I’m pretty sure the cable bill was paid via autopay, I can’t check my bank account without Internet or cell service, so I just sit there glad that my car keys work. Old, metal car keys. I like the way they feel in my hand: solid. I suppose I should be less concerned about driving, generally, as I slouch toward virtual reality, as I hop on the City of Las Vegas’ admittedly adorable driverless shuttle ARMA, as I decline to drink one of 51,744 cans of Budweiser delivered by Uber’s driverless tractor trailer startup Otto. Last year a man died while watching a
L
Will the kinks ever really be worked out? (Illustration by Ian Racoma/Staff)
Harry Potter movie in his self-driving Tesla, which decided to drive under a tractor trailer. These incidents have been rare, and industry experts say that once the kinks are worked out, computer-driven vehicles will be statistically safer than human-driven ones. Once the kinks are worked out. I think about that when I’m staring at my frozen computer screen and its too-familiar spinning ball icon. Are the kinks ever really worked out? * * * * * “In 200 feet, turn left … You have arrived at your destination,” my phone announces. But I have not arrived at my destination, I have arrived in a massive parking lot full of independent industrial structures. So I begin driving between them, semisearching, semi-waiting for further instructions from a little device that runs my life. Google Maps Lady tells
me, “Make a U-turn.” I once swore I would not be a mindless follower of GPS apps, but I’m late for an appointment, I’m stressing and I see no addresses on these buildings, so I make her U-turn. “In 200 feet, turn right,” she says confidently. I turn right— into a loading dock. Crap. I back out, turn around and head to the street looking for signage. “In 200 feet, make a U-turn,” the increasingly insane and authoritarian voice orders. “F*ck you,” I say to an inanimate object, now very late for my appointment. “If you said something, I did not understand it,” she says. Wow. Passive aggressive much? Why, I wonder, have I not just stopped to place a telephone call to the office I’m trying to find, to ask a human for directions? Why have I grown a weird attachment to my device? There was a time when I
considered myself pretty good with directions, and always prompt. Now that technology is helping me, I’m often turning left three times in giant parking lots, reluctant to resume control over my steering wheel, my mind. “You have arrived at your destination,” she tells me as I stare at a vacant lot. No. I have not. I am not where I need to be, physically, mentally, technologically. I am losing my autonomy. * * * * * Later, after apologizing for being late to my appointment and blaming a phone, I drive out to Red Rock in my old car, with my old keys, where I know there’s no cell service, and I take my old self for a walk among very old mountains. They were here before humans, and Clark County Commission willing, they will be here long after us. But they might not outlast the selfactuating robots.
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LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.26.17
“I
BY BROCK RADKE
s that my mobile billboard guitar?” Mark Shunock asks as two strangers carry a plastic-wrapped, 10-foot-tall guitar sign out of the drizzling rain into the main room of the Space. “Awesome! Bring it in. I don’t know what the hell we’re going to do with it. Maybe I’ll put it off the front of the building like the Hard Rock.” It makes perfect sense that someone at Caesars Entertainment decided to send the guitar—ripped from a mobile billboard advertising the now-closed Rock of Ages show in which Shunock starred—to the Space, because lots of people have sent things. That’s how the warehouse just west of the Strip transformed into what it is now, “a true community center,” in Shunock’s words. He took control of the building in August and built out the main showroom—“a raw space where everything is movable”—along with a box office lobby/piano bar, dressing rooms, gender-neutral restrooms and a trailer that serves as green room. The northern wing is still under construction but contains two studio spaces—a podcast and recording room and a smaller black box theater—that will be available for rent for classes or rehearsals. One of them has a window, so parents will be able to watch their kids once the Space launches its youth program in the spring, with classes Shunock expects to be taught by Strip performers. The key to the project: creative safety. “You have to feel comfortable as an artist whatever you do. Whether it’s a podcast or teaching a dance class or putting on a play or a concert, you have to feel comfortable in your surroundings, so you can be the best you can be,” Shunock says. “If I open a place that isn’t safe, your work is gonna suck. That was priority one in building out everything. Is this a cool, safe environment? We can make anything cool, but do you feel like you can let your guard down and really go to work as an artist? I think the answer is yes, and that’s what I’m most proud of.” An actor and producer who came to Las Vegas
some four years ago for a role in hair-metal musical Rock of Ages, Shunock harnessed the growing power of his charitable Mondays Dark shows to develop the Space. Mondays Dark was running monthly inside Vinyl at the Hard Rock Hotel, raising money for a variety of local organizations, with entertainment from a rotating cast of Vegas performers. “All of the people who come to Mondays Dark feel like they have a piece of it, which is nice because they helped fund-raise to make it happen,” Shunock says. In the Space, Mondays Dark will happen every other week, serving 22 charities this year, up from 11. December has traditionally been reserved for a big year-end show. “It’s ambitious, but we put a lot of the responsibility on the charity to make sure they’re doing as much as they can to push it, and that’s how Mondays Dark has grown,” Shunock says. “Changing charities changes the fan base. I probably have 150-200 core supporters, but the charity brings 100 new people for every event.” Now that Shunock controls every aspect of the venue, he can raise additional money to support operations— he gets to keep the bar profits, for example—and, ideally, keep costs low for those who use the Space. And there’s a lot going on here. The second Mondays Dark at the Space—a Michael Jacksonthemed show that generated $10,000 for Carestream, which provided haircuts and toiletries for the homeless—was held January 23. Mondays Dark regular Jassen Allen presents his tribute to Luther Vandross January 27, and local entertainment power couples like Penn and Emily Jillette and Clint and Kelly Clinton Holmes will feature in the Pulitzer Prize-winning A.R. Gurney play Love Letters February 10-14. Smash Magazine has booked rock bands for the Space in February and March. Shunock even hints at his own return to the stage this year, if he finds the right role in the right show allowing him time to work on the Space. “Right now the blinders are on,” he says.
13
LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.26.17
MONDAYS DARK
Next show February 6, 8 p.m., $20-$50, benefitting breast cancer charity Send Me on Vacation. The Space, 3460 Cavaretta Court, 702-903-1070.
Mark Shunock wants you to feel right at home in the Space, “so you can be the best you can be.” (Adam Shane/Special to Weekly)
14 COVER STORY WEEKLY | 01.26.17
xtend your arms wide and you can almost touch both walls of an all-white, florescent-lit hallway inside Desert Grown Farms Cultivation Facility in the central Las Vegas Valley. Jump with your hands up and you’ll almost touch the ceiling. The narrow walkway feels like a set piece from The Matrix, except in place of sunglasses and a leather overcoat, you’re wearing a hairnet, surgical mask, black rubber gloves, booties and a disposable, navy-blue bodysuit not unlike hospital scrubs. “The idea is that the environment is sterile and clean,” Armen Yemenidjian—who co-owns Desert Grown Farms with philanthropist Camille Ruvo and Brian Greenspun, CEO and Publisher of Greenspun Media Group, the parent company of this magazine—says as we tour the 54,000-squarefoot medical marijuana facility. “We take care to make sure nothing from outside that could infect our plants is brought inside.” Facilities like this have been popping up around town since the fall of 2015, when medical marijuana dispensaries in Nevada first began opening their doors. The demand for grow houses should only increase once the state legislature
works out details on implementing Ballot Question 2, which passed in November, legalizing up to one ounce of marijuana flower or an eighth of an ounce of marijuana concentrates for recreational use in Nevada. “The number of people who qualify to purchase cannabis will increase dramatically,” Yemenidjian says. “The industry expects clientele to [increase] three or four times from medical.”
nside one of seven plantfilled rooms at Desert Grown Farms, about 1,200 lush, skunkysmelling “trees” as tall as four feet have spent up to 18 weeks growing to maturity. The process starts from the time they’re clipped as a three-inch branch from one of the facility’s 400 mother plants—a process known as cloning. The plants are raised in ground-up coconut, a hydroponic substitute for soil and Rockwool. Half of this particular flower room’s adult plants were cut from their stems and taken to
dry in a Desert Grown Farms darkroom earlier in the week. The remaining 600 trees are also getting close to being harvest-ready. Some of the thickly budded branches’ 60 different marijuana strains—many with fanciful names like Grape Stomper and Black Gorilla No. 3—are as wide as an ear of corn. THC crystals on the buds glisten under high-pressure sodium lights, which fill the room with varying levels of artificial sunlight for 12 hours each day, before they’re switched off for 12 hours each night. “Go ahead,” Yemenidjian says, encouraging us to touch the live buds with our glove-covered hands. Blue Frost flowers smell like freshly baked blueberry muffins, Strawberry Cough like newly picked strawberries. They leave a sticky, sweet-scented nectar on our fingertips. “We’re just hunting for the best genetics right now, so we’re growing a little bit of everything,” explains Yemenidjian, who also co-owns a neighboring edible production facility called Desert Grown Extracts, and the Valley’s three Essence Cannabis Dispensaries, also with
15 COVER STORY WEEKLY | 01.26.17
Desert Grown Farms’ Yemenidjian keeps a watchful eye on his plants. (Steve Marcus/Staff/Photo Illustration)
partners Ruvo and Greenspun. Beneath the plants, a state-of-the-art, Argusbrand fertigation system—that’s fertilization plus irrigation—feeds them a nutrient-rich mix of liquid fertilizer up to five times a day. The feed gets funneled in from six, clear, 1,600-gallon tanks in another room. “This place is way too big to hand-water,” he says matter-of-factly. “It’d take way too much time.” Back in the all-white hallway, C.J. Furtado, Desert Grown Farms’ assistant director of cultivation, opens a door to a room of total darkness. Yemenidjian turns his cell phone into a flashlight and reveals some 70 marijuana plants—recently harvested and hanging from metal drying racks. A humidifier roars in the background, nearly drowning out conversation. The harvested plants will sit anywhere from two to three weeks in the pitch dark, hanging upside down so that their nutrients move from their stems to their buds. When the dried-out trees are ready for shucking, Furtado hand-cuts the remaining leaves and puts them in airtight plastic bins. Though he’s currently cultivating 60 different
strains, Yemenidjian plans to sell only 15 at a time to dispensaries across the Valley. The rest will be preserved in the bins, to be sold when Desert Grown Farms’ clients “get bored and want something new,” he says.
ith current medicalmarijuana facility licenseholders set to get first dibs on a new batch of recreational facility licenses that could double the amount of dispensaries and cultivation, production and testing facilities over the next 18 months, Yemenidjian says recreational legalization will undoubtedly mean more business for him. Ditto for Kevin Biernacki, head cultivator at the Grove medical marijuana cultivation facility, a 32,000-square-foot grow house just south of the Las Vegas Strip. Biernacki, too, passes his visitors a pair of booties, a hairnet, a disposable
face mask and a bodysuit—white this time—to prevent common parasites like thrips and spider mites from getting near his plants. He leads to another sterile, all-white hallway leading to three separate rooms home to more than 4,000 total marijuana plants. Each 1,600 square-foot room features doubledeck growing racks, which allow Biernacki to produce twice as much marijuana in the same amount of space. This place cranks out 6,000 pounds of medical marijuana annually, later sold in its own Las Vegas- and Pahrump-based dispensaries, along with about 50 other medical dispensaries statewide. Across the hall, three more 1,600-square-foot rooms sit empty, waiting for recreational marijuana’s legal framework to kick in next summer, which could double the facility’s output. “We’re probably not looking until July 1 to expand, until we know how the state legislature is going to implement rec.,” Biernacki says. “It’s hard to say right now how they’re going to fulfill that.” Unlike Yemenidjian, Biernacki only uses water to hydrate his facility’s plants, which grow anywhere from two-and-a-half to three feet at their maximum height. Instead of fertilizers, the Grove’s
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White Bubba buds from Desert Grown Farms. (Steve Marcus/Staff)
COVER STORY WEEKLY | 01.26.17
marijuana trees get their nutrients from peat-blended natural soil. New clones spend two weeks spreading their roots in the soil before vegetating two more weeks under 18 hours of sunlight and six hours in darkness, and finally, nine weeks flowering in 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. The Grove is the only facility in the Valley using all-LED lighting as sunlight for its plants, part of Biernacki’s mission to be “as energy efficient as possible. We’re trying to produce the best carbon footprint we can produce and eliminate the amount of power usage that we draw,” he says. “LEDs are more efficient with power consumption; they’re also more efficient in heat mode, so we can cut back on our AC costs.” Instead of hanging and drying his marijuana plants after harvest, Biernacki cuts the buds off immediately, and places up to 200 pounds’ worth on baking racks in a dark, humidified drying room. The buds dry for up to seven days before they’re placed in small, air-tight glass jars—up to one pound apiece—where they’re cured for a month. During that time, a cultivation staff of 15 typically opens the jars once a day to air the buds out. After that, the buds stay shut in the jars, which are packed with nitrogen to reduce harmful oxygen that breaks them down. If preserved properly, they’ll be good for up to a year, Biernacki says.
dibles-only facility Silver State Wellness doesn’t have to worry about crop-destroying insects coming in from the outdoors to ruin its inventory, which means we don’t need to wear bodysuits here. Visitors to this 17,000-square-foot production facility, which creates marijuana-infused chocolates, coffee, lotions, breath mints and more—require only a hairnet, face mask and gloves. “It’s literally just to prevent hair,” explains marketing director Jacob Silverstein. “The production floor is a clean environment, so we make sure that when we’re handing specialty food products, everybody is wearing those. It’s like lunch ladies in the school cafeteria.” Inside Silver State Wellness, Kristal Chamblee—a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef—pours hot, liquid THC oil-infused milk chocolate into 12-square molds. The hardened product will eventually become powerful, 100-miligram THC- and CBDloaded chocolate bars, a single square of which can give users a “relaxing high,” Chamblee says. Those chocolate bars are among nearly 50 products made on these premises, where $250,000 worth of machinery is used to press, filter and preserve gallons of highly concentrated THC oil from hundreds of pounds of marijuana flower each month. The oils are then infused into the products and packaged on-site.
Since Silver State opened for business in October, its Relaxation Peppermint and Orange Zest Awakening pill-size mints have been its hottest sellers to local dispensaries. Thousands of its root beer-infused elixirs, which feature 100 milligrams of THC per 8.5-ounce bottle, have also left the production facility for Valley shelves, Silverstein says. Other drink flavors include fruit punch and an Arnold Palmer-style lemonade/iced tea hybrid. Where growers at Desert Grown Farms and the Grove expect similar requests for their flower from soon-to-be recreational users, Silverstein says recreational and medical users will likely have significantly different preferences for his edible and infused marijuana products. Topical lotions and suppositories currently available to medical cardholders in Nevada aren’t likely to appeal as widely to recreational users choosing products for their psychoactive effects. So Silver State is preparing for an increase in demand for tinctures and coffee, along with its hot-selling mints, chocolates and elixirs, and has a new line of baked goods set to hit the production line this month. Here, as at Desert Grown Farms and the Grove, it’s all about gearing up for another major growth spurt by an industry that pairs especially well with its surroundings. “Las Vegas has the Sin City connotation, and people are comfortable doing things here maybe they wouldn’t do otherwise,” Silverstein says. “We just want to make sure we have everybody’s needs covered.”
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about us
g r e e n s p u n m e d i a
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Publisher Mark De Pooter (mark.depooter@gmgvegas.com) Industry Weekly Editor Brock Radke (brock.radke@gmgvegas.com) Industry Weekly Writer Leslie Ventura (leslie.ventura@gmgvegas.com) Associate Creative Director Liz Brown (liz.brown@gmgvegas.com) Designers Corlene Byrd, Ian Racoma Circulation Director Ron Gannon Art Director of Advertising and Marketing Services Sean Rademacher CEO, Publisher & Editor Brian Greenspun Chief Operating Officer Robert Cauthorn Group Publisher Gordon Prouty Managing Editor Ric Anderson Las Vegas Weekly Editor Spencer Patterson 2275 Corporate Circle, Suite 300 Henderson, NV 89074
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Juicy J Photo by Olav Stubberud
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T H E B I G G E S T T A I L G AT E PART Y IN LAS VEGAS IS F REE!
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MAR SHMELLO
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The ’mello man has truly gone viral, releasing a new video for his 2015 track “Summer,” in which he falls for social media star Lele Pons at a roller rink.
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D I L LO N F RA NC I S
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MARQUEE
Carnage returns to Marquee Friday night, and then he’ll be in Houston, playing Spire for Super Bowl weekend.
INTRIGUE
Proving there’s nothing he won’t touch, Francis remixed “Hava Nagila” for Hannukah. You might not hear that Saturday.
B AND O F B ROT H E RS
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PA R K T H E AT E R
Coming to the States to celebrate the Year of the Rooster, Chinese pop stars Richie Jen, Steve Wong, Edmond Leung and William So play the new Monte Carlo venue Sunday.
DILLON FRANCIS AND MARSHMELLO BY KARL LARSON; CARNAGE & BAND OF BROTHERS COURTESY; DJ FIVE BY TONY TRAN PHOTOGRAPHY
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Whether solo or spinning with FAED partner Eric DLux—who plays Drai’s on Sunday—Five is always a favorite. The Vegas-based DJ controls the midweek party at Light this week. fri
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emphis native Jordan Houston, better known as producer and rapper Juicy J, knows he’s had an unusually huge career. “Rappers don’t really last this long,” he says. “Most careers might be two or three years, and that’s pretty much it. But I’m the Jay Z of the South.” Most rappers also don’t have an Oscar. Juicy J won one in 2006 as a member of Three 6 Mafia for “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” from Hustle & Flow. That was the pinnacle, but also a turning point. “We had hits [already], but we were still an underground group, so it was a gift and a curse,” he says. “We were doing so many shows and making so much money ... it kinda f*cked everything up. My brother Project Pat pulled me out of it, helped me [realize] it never goes away from the music. When I went solo, I told myself I’d never go back to losing that again.” J released his debut solo album, Stay Trippy, in 2013 and just this month launched his Rubba Band Business tour, which will bring
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him to Brooklyn Bowl Friday night and to Light Nightclub for an after-show gig. “I’ve actually had a spot in Vegas for a couple years,” he says. “It’s cheaper. You can live like a king. It’s a party city, but you can chill out if you want, or you can turn up 24 hours a day. You can wake up at 5 a.m. and go to a club. That’s the first step to heaven.” J, who has already teamed with Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake, says he’d like to collaborate with Eminem, Jay Z, Beyoncé, Adele and Taylor Swift. “Also those greats—Stevie Wonder, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross. I’ve got a song for Diana Ross right now. My manager thinks I’m crazy, but it could be something classic.” Juicy J at Brooklyn Bowl at the Linq Promenade and at Light at Mandalay Bay, January 27. –Brock Radke
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dmit it, when you saw this upcoming gig, you did a double take: New Jersey jam band Blues Traveler at Cleopatra’s Barge inside Caesars Palace? Seems like a typo. It’s not. The group’s “Unhooked” engagement is set for three, twonight midweek sessions in February and March in the lounge that time forgot—until recently the home of crooner Matt Goss. “We always want to match the style of music with the customer set and the environment,” says Damian Costa, Caesars’ vice president of Las Vegas entertainment operations. “This is out of the norm, but Blues Traveler could be in any room. This is something cool and fun that gives the audience something they’re not expecting. I call it an untouchable moment.” Considering this is the same company that set up Keith Sweat in the Donny & Marie Showroom at the Flamingo, it’s safe to say Caesars Entertainment is interested in
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trying some different things. “One thing you’ll find with me or any other executive is that we consider absolutely everything,” Costa says. “We think about the framework of this space, one that’s kind of historic to the Las Vegas environment, and the sensation our customers are able to get there. My job is how we can use music to inspire our customers and create an environment like no other.” He describes the Blues Traveler shows as partially inspired by another ’90s phenom, MTV Unplugged. Expect acoustic, intimate performances at Cleopatra’s Barge, and beyond that, expect other innovative entertainment options arriving at this venue and others on the Strip. Blues Traveler: Unhooked at Cleopatra’s Barge at Caesars Palace, February 22-23, March 1-2 & 8-9. –Brock Radke
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s soon as Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike were announced as 2017 Wynn Nightlife resident DJs, all big EDMloving eyes looked ahead to the night of Saturday, January 28—their debut at XS. The Greek-Belgian siblings are known to go big, after all, dominating European dance music festivals along with DJ Mag’s annual Top 100 DJ rankings. So while the brothers made their Wynn Nightlife debut at the resorts’ newest venue, Intrigue, last week, it served as a warm-up for this week-
end’s XS set, the first of many. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike are perhaps best known for their raucous performances for many thousands of fans at Tomorrowland—the annual festival held in Boom, Belgium, since 2005, and one of the biggest dance music gatherings in the world. Last year, tickets sold out within an hour even though the lineup had yet to be announced. Tomorrowland began rolling out its 2017 lineup this week, so expect Dimitri & Mike to be named to the list
soon. For now, they can be found at Brazil’s Rio Music Carnival in February, Mexico’s Dream Forest Festival in March and, of course, here in Las Vegas all year long. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike at XS, January 28.
PHOTOGRAPH BY KARL LARSON
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ould you be surprised to find out that the virtuoso drummer sitting in with rock icon Carlos Santana is slightly obsessed with the mystical, mind-bending film Doctor Strange? Maybe not. But Cindy Blackman Santana has some very tangible reasons for loving this flick so much.
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“My favorite thing about the movie is that Doctor Strange is an extremely brilliant doctor and person, incredibly wellstudied with an amazing thirst for knowledge, and he redirects that thirst toward learning and using knowledge from the spirit world to help protect humanity from negative forces,” she says. “He learns to manipulate time and space and uses it for good. He finally accepts his new role as a protector even though it meant not putting his own personal needs and desires first.” Cindy, who launched her musical career as a street performer in New York City in the ’80s, first met Carlos at a European festival while she was touring with Lenny Kravitz. She first joined Carlos
onstage in 2010, and that July he proposed to her during a concert. They married that December. Both Santanas resume their ongoing show this month at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, the perfect home for the jazz-bluesrock fusion that drives the band’s sound. And both believe music is a spiritual force, as powerful as the supernatural forces Cindy’s sortahero Doctor Strange deals with. “He learns that the physical realm is only one aspect of our humanity,” she says. “The message is incredibly inspiring and uplifting.” –Brock Radke
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ew can read a Vegas club crowd like DJ Hollywood, who has been spinning in clubs and programming for local radio for decades. “Everything I play is club explosive,” he says. “I don’t do anything that veers away from what people like. So how do you know what people like? I’ve been doing this for 25 years. Being involved in very high-revenue megaclubs and nightlife venues in Vegas for so many years, I’m able to gauge crowds and program for them in real time.” Hollywood carries 4,000-5,000 songs in his computer—far fewer than the average DJ, he says—because he has become so comfortable, he knows which tracks he’ll go through during a set. One of his current go-to songs is a remix of A$AP Ferg’s “The Work,” featuring A$AP Rocky, French Montana, Schoolboy Q and Trinidad James. “You can use it any time, anywhere with any crowd. Even EDM crowds go crazy for it,” Hollywood says. “It’s the energy
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of the song ... a lot of songs don’t translate—they sound fantastic in your car but don’t translate to the club. This one, the way it’s produced and the low end, it fills the room. Everything about it maintains perfect delivery.” Hollywood made a perfect delivery of his own in the second half of 2016, charting his own track, “Love Me” featuring vocalist Abri. It peaked at No. 9 on Billboard’s Dance Club list, and the recently released accompanying video has more than 100,000 views on YouTube. “I couldn’t be happier,” he says of his first big release. “It was overwhelmingly exciting. I’m overconfident, so of course I believed we were gonna get on the charts, but it was exciting and surreal, like, wow, I’m here.” –Brock Radke
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Photographs by Danny Mahoney
best night ever
‘ F a n t a s y ’ S o n y a t o u r
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onya Sonnenberg was born in Las Vegas to parents who were professional, production-show dancers, so it’s not surprising that she’s been performing in Fantasy at Luxor for almost eight years. But the aerialist actually moved away at a very young age and grew up mostly in the Midwest. “I always wanted to do shows here, growing up hearing my parents talk about it and not having really spent any time here. I wanted to see what Vegas was all about.” A performer since the age of 9, Sonnenberg moved back to Las Vegas at 18, packing everything into a car and driving from St. Louis with hopes for the best. “I wasn’t really scared; more excited, but it was definitely a challenge. I’ve been very fortunate it’s gone the way it has.”
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Now creeping up on a decade in the desert, she couldn’t be happier, both in her work—getting to dance and perform the dramatic aerial routines on the Luxor stage is “like having my cake and eating it, too”—and in her Las Vegas life. “I’m kind of a foodie. For my job I have to be very careful of what I eat and make sure I stay in shape, but it’s nice to have a night off and forget all that,” she says. “There are so many amazing options, you can’t just save one for a special occasion. It’s more like once a week.” Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris Las Vegas provides one of her favorite protein fixes.
loves to play pool at neighborhood bar Mickey’s Cues & Brews, and if she has Vegas visitors in town, she’ll lead the way for an outdoor adventure. “I always take visitors to Red Rock, because I like to let people know Las Vegas consists of more than just the Strip,” she says. “The scenery here is so beautiful. You have to do those obligatory things like the fountains and the volcano, but Downtown is so cool now and kind of unexpected, so I like to take people down there to Container Park. You have to see more than just casinos.” –Brock Radke
Sonnenberg also appreciates the low-key entertainment the city provides. She
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uma has arrived in Las Vegas. Created and cofounded by chef Rainer Becker and inspired by the Japanese izakaya, Zuma’s first West Coast location officially opens January 28 at the Cosmopolitan, completing the hip resort’s recent dining update, which also includes New York City transplants Beauty & Essex and Momofuku. “Las Vegas is adrenalinecharged, one of the world’s most unique cities,” Becker said in a statement. “There is a pulse of excitement and anticipation throughout the entire team as we look forward to introducing Zuma to the already-dynamic Las Vegas restaurant scene.” Designed by Noriyoshi Muramatsu of Tokyo-based Studio Glitt, the 9,000-square-foot space incorporates elements of wood, rusted iron, stone and glass, including a wall composed of natural stone from Thailand. The bar and sushi counter are made of tree trunks, also sourced from Thailand.
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The cuisine comes from three sources: the main kitchen, the sushi counter and the robata grill. Elegantly presented and boldly flavored shareable dishes include seabass sashimi with yuzu, truffle and salmon roe; baby chicken oven-roasted on cedar with barley miso; Wagyu beef with ginger and caviar; a spicy yellowtail roll with serrano pepper, avocado and wasabi mayo; and grill selections like spicy beef tenderloin with sesame, red chili and sweet soy and sake-glazed chicken wings with sea salt and lime. If Cosmo’s new restaurants are all about pushing flashy food to new levels, Zuma should fit in just fine. Zuma at the Cosmopolitan, 702698-2199; daily 5:45-11 p.m.
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ometimes the “save the date” is worth it.
One of Las Vegas’ most beloved food and wine events is back this spring for three days of fundraising fun. UNLVino will be held March 30 through April 1, with three events at three dynamic destinations, all to generate money for scholarships and other academic-development needs of UNLV students. The effervescent kickoff will once again be Bubble-Licious at the Ve-
netian, on March 30, highlighting Champagne and sparkling wine to mix, match and mingle with delicious dishes from Venetian and Palazzo restaurants and chefs. Then, it’s time to head west on March 31 for Sake Fever at Red Rock Resort, where a vast variety of cocktails, sakes and Japanese spirits will offer an alternative tasting experience. Paris Las Vegas will again be the final destination for UNLVino’s Grand Tasting, on April 1, loaded with food and drink, live entertainment and
service from some of the students themselves. UNLVino tickets are already on sale at unlvtickets.com. You haven’t officially saved the date until you’ve got yours.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY LAS VEGAS NEWS BUREAU
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f you follow New York City’s food scene, you’ve surely heard of Christina Tosi and her heralded snack spot Milk Bar. After launching the dessert programs at David Chang’s Momofuku, the MasterChef judge opened Manhattan’s Milk Bar in 2008 to worldwide acclaim, and Tosi recently added Las Vegas to her dessert dominion. The Cosmopolitan recently welcomed its own Momofuku and Milk Bar, expanding its already noteworthy collection of trendy dining destinations. You no longer have to hit the East Coast to taste Tosi’s signature treats—just head to the Strip. Tosi has built her quirky bakery empire around her famous cereal milk ice cream, a decadent option that strikes the perfect balance between sweet and salty. Once they roll it in Milk Bar’s house-made cornflakes, you can document the chilly goodness on Instagram, where legions of Milk Bar fans proudly display their coveted cups of the frozen cereal milk.
Spicing things up, Milk Bar Vegas offers exclusive 12-ounce, boozeinfused “fancy shakes,” like the cereal milk white Russian, a cold brew shake and a hot peppermint patty— a minty take on hot chocolate. Other outlandish menu options range from corn cookies to birthday cake truffles to the bestselling crack pie—an addictive pastry made with butter, heavy cream, brown sugar, egg yolks and vanilla. Whether you’ve just devoured ramen next door at Momofuku or are simply passing by, Milk Bar has just what your sweet tooth craves. Milk Bar at the Cosmopolitan, 702-698-2662; daily 9 a.m.2 a.m. –Leslie Ventura
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1/27 DJ Que. 1/28 DJ Dash. 1/29 DJ Karma. Bellagio, Thu-Sun, 702-693-8300. CH ATEAU 1/27 DJ Koko. 1/28 DJ Bayati. 2/1 DJ ShadowRed. Paris, Wed, Fri-Sat, 702-7767770. DRAI’ S
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Palms, nightly, 702-942-6832. HAK KASAN 1/26 GTA. 1/27 Steve Aoki. 1/28 Tiësto. 1/29 Party Favor. 2/2 Jauz. 2/3 Party Favor. 2/4 Tiësto. 2/5 Borgeous. 2/9 Cash Cash. 2/10 Lil Jon. 2/11 GTA. 2/12 Nghtmre. MGM Grand, Wed-Sun, 702-891-3838. HYDE 1/27 DJ Direct. 1/28 DJ Crooked. 1/31 Konflikt. 2/5 Big Game Viewing Party. Bellagio, nightly, 702-693-8700. IN T RIGUE
1/26 DJ Shift. 1/27 DJ Esco. 1/28 D.R.A.M. 1/29 Eric DLux. 2/2 DJ Sourmilk. 2/3 Fabolous. 2/4 Big Sean. 2/5 Future. 2/9 DJ Shift. 2/10 DJ Esco. 2/11 Nelly. 2/12 Rob Stone. Cromwell, Tue, Thu-Sun, 702-777-3800. EM BASSY 1/27 Divan. 1/28 Vera. 2/10 Karol G. 2/12 Hussein El Deek. 3355 Procyon St, Thu-Sun, 702-609-6666. F O U NDATIO N
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1/27 DJ Ikon. 1/28-1/29 DJ Gusto. 2/1 DJ Karma. 2/3 DJ Ikon. 2/4 2 Chainz. 2/8 DJ D-Miles. 2/10 J-Fresh. 2/11 DJ Gusto. Mirage, Wed, Fri-Sat, 702-693-8300. TH E
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1/26 Cedric Gervais. 1/27 RL Grime. 1/28 Dillon Francis. 2/2 Chuckie. 2/3 Marshmello. 2/4 Laidback Luke. 2/9 Sultan & Shepard. 2/10 A-Trak. 2/11 Cedric Gervais. Wynn, ThuSat, 702-770-7300. JEW EL 1/27 Chase B. 1/28 Burns. 1/30 DJ Irie. 2/3 Travis Scott. 2/4 Steve Aoki. 2/6 DJ Shift. 2/10 LA Leakers. 2/11 BRYKLN. Aria, Mon, Thu-Sat, 702-590-8000.
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1/27 DJ Kittie. 1/28 DJ D-Miles. 2/3 DJ C-L.A. 2/4 DJ Excel. 2/10 Graham Funke. 2/11 DJ D-Miles. Mandalay Bay, nightly, 702-632-7631.
1/26 Too Short. 1/27 Eric Forbes. 1/28 DJ Cyberkid. 2/10 2 Live Crew. Luxor, Thu-Sat, 702-262-4529.
FOX TAIL LIGHT 1/27-1/28 DJ Hollywood. 2/3 Kid Conrad. 2/4 Method Man & Redman. 2/10 DJ Wellman. 2/11 DJ Ikon. SLS, Fri-Sat, 702-761-7621.
1/27 Juicy J. 1/28 DJ E-Rock. 2/1 DJ Five. 2/3 Tropic Beauty. 2/4 Metro Boomin. 2/8 Blackout Artists Takeover. 2/10 Clinton Sparks. 2/11 DJ E-Rock. Mandalay Bay, Wed, Fri-Sat, 702-632-4700.
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M AR QU E E 1/27 Carnage. 1/28 Dayclub Dome with Shaun Frank. 1/28 Vice. 1/29 Dayclub Dome with Lema. 1/30 Ruckus. 2/3 DJ Mustard. 2/4 Dayclub Dome with Jermaine Dupri. 2/4 French Montana. 2/5 Q Bowl Big Game Pool Party. 2/6 M!KEATTACK. 2/10 Ruckus. 2/11 Dayclub Dome with Ghastly. 2/11 Tritonal. Mon, Fri-Sat, Cosmopolitan, 702-333-9000. OM N I A 1/27 Kaskade. 1/28 Fergie DJ. 1/31 Borgeous. 2/3 Calvin Harris. 2/4 Afrojack. 2/7 Julian Jordan. 2/10 Martin Garrix. 2/11 Armin van Buuren. Caesars Palace, Tue, Thu-Sun, 702785-6200. S U R R EN D ER 1/27 Slushii. 1/28 Chuckie. 2/1 Brillz. 2/3 Alison Wonderland. 2/4 RL Grime. 2/5 Big Game Viewing Party. 2/8 Walshy Fire. 2/10 Ookay. 2/11 Dillon Francis. Encore, Wed, FriSat, 702-770-7300. TAO 1/26 DJ Five. 1/27 M!KEATTACK. 1/28 Justin Credible. 2/2 DJ Five. 2/3 Jermaine Dupri. 2/4 Ty Dolla $ign. 2/5 Tao Bowl. 2/9 DJ Five. 2/10 Enferno. 2/11 Politik. Venetian, Thu-Sat, 702388-8588. XS 1/27 Marshmello. 1/28 Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. 1/30 Ookay. 2/3 The Chainsmokers. 2/4 Alesso. 2/6 Politik. 2/10 DJ Snake. 2/11 Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike. Encore, Fri-Mon, 702-7700097.
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1/27-2/4 Britney Spears. 2/8-2/25 Jennifer Lopez. 3/1-3/18 Backstreet Boys. 3/24-4/8 Britney Spears. Backstreet Boys 4/12-4/28. Planet Hollywood, 702-777-6737. P O O L
3/16 Flogging Molly. Cosmopolitan, 702-6986797. B R O O K LY N
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1/26 August Burns Red. 1/27 Juicy J. 1/28 John Kadlecik. 2/2 Ace Frehley. 2/10 Adam Ant. 2/14 Galactic. 2/16 Alter Bridge. 2/172/19 Ween. 2/20 The Infamous Stringdusters. 2/25 Circa Survive. 2/27 The Grateful Ball. 2/28 Railroad Earth. 3/2 Adelita’s Way. 3/4 Gov’t Mule. 3/5 William Singe. 3/9 Tchami. 3/12 Tribal Seeds. 3/17 Umphrey’s McGee. 3/23 Donavon Frankenreiter. 3/31-4/1 STS9. 4/8 Sammy J. 4/20 Kehlani. Linq Promenade, 702-862-2695. TH E
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1/27-2/4 Celine Dion. 2/7-2/20 Elton John. 2/22-3/4 Reba, Brooks & Dunn. 3/8 Jeff Dunham. 3/15-4/1 Rod Stewart. 4/4-4/22 Celine Dion. 4/9 Steve Martin & Martin Short. 5/6-5/7 Jim Gaffigan. Caesars Palace, 866227-5938. TH E
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3/3-3/4 Dierks Bentley. 3/17 Death Cab for Cutie. 3/24 Maluma. 4/14 Bastille. Cosmopolitan, 702-698-6797. TH E
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1/26-1/29 Santana. 1/31 Pop Evil. 2/1-2/4 Santana. 2/9 Tom Segura. 2/11 Wild Child. 2/17 Atmosphere. 2/21 Dark Star Orchestra. 3/3-3/4 Social Distortion. 3/8-3/25 Billy Idol. 3/16 Jason Isbell. 3/19 UFO & Saxon. 3/23 The Worship Tour. 3/31 Locash. 4/6 Mockstrocity Tour. Mandalay Bay, 702-632-7600. T HE
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2/3 I Love the ’90s Tour. 2/10 Iration Lost & Found Winter Tour. 2/17 R. Kelly. 2/18 AFI. 2/25 Better Than Ezra. 3/25 Martin Nievera. 4/8 Bring Me the Horizon. 5/3-5/20 Journey. Hard Rock Hotel, 702-693-5000. M A N DA L AY B AY EVEN TS C EN T ER 2/18 Twenty One Pilots. 3/24 Panic! At the Disco. Mandalay Bay, 702-632-7777. MGM GRAN D GARDEN AREN A 1/28 Frampton vs. Santa Cruz. 2/4 Ariana Grande. 2/18-2/19 Dreamhack Masters. 3/4 Blake Shelton. 3/25 Game of Thrones Live Experience. 4/7 Green Day. 5/27 Dead & Company. MGM Grand, 702-521-3826. PARK
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1/29 Band of Brothers. 2/8-2/25 Cher. 3/113/12 Bruno Mars. 3/25 Il Volo. 4/5-4/15 Ricky Martin. 4/21 Hans Zimmer. 5/3-5/20 Cher. 6/9 Chicago & The Doobie Brothers. Monte Carlo, 844-600-7275. T HE
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2/17 Bonnie Raitt. 2/18 Frankie Valli. 3/24 Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo. 3/30 Chris Stapleton. 4/7-4/8 A Perfect Circle. Palms, 702-9443200.
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1/26 Calibash Las Vegas. 2/9 Harlem Globetrotters World Tour. 2/13 WWE Monday Night Raw. 2/17-2/18 George Strait. 2/25 Bon Jovi. 3/8-3/11 Pac-12 Men’s Basketball Tournament. 4/7 George Strait. 5/28 New Kids on the Block. 3780 Las Vegas Blvd. South, 702-692-1600. VE N E T I AN
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1/28-2/4 Willie Nelson. 2/8-2/25 Diana Ross. Venetian, 702-414-9000. VI N Y L 1/27 Thomas Nicholas Band. 2/1 Carnifex. 2/9 Max & Iggor Cavalera. 2/7 The Tuesday Blend. 2/10 Distinguisher. 2/11 Dumbfounded. 2/16 The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. 2/18 Amaranthe. 3/3 Isaiah Rashad. 3/5 Ekoh. 3/10 Master of Puppets. 3/11 Raiding the Rock Vault. 3/16 Emo Night Las Vegas. 3/21 We the Kings. 3/23 Otep. 3/24 Biffy Clyro. 3/31 Mayday Parade. 4/1 Fortunate Youth. 4/2 Old 97s. Hard Rock Hotel, 702-693-5000.
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He’s back. Chippendales has announced the return of supermodel and actor Tyson Beckford, this time as the show’s first long-term celebrity guest star in residency. After a limited engagement in 2015, Beckford returns to the male revue at the Rio starting March 30. ... Do restaurants have birthdays or anniversaries? Whichever it is, Mr Chow at Caesars Palace is celebrating its first year with a special limited-time dish from its very first restaurant menu, from London in 1968: Beijing shredded pork with leeks and lotus-leaf buns, available through February 28. ... Pitbull and the Hard Rock Heals Foundation have launched the Pitbull Signature Series Edition 35 shirt, a piece of merchandise to support the SLAM Foundation to help advance learning opportunities for children around the world. The shirt features Pit’s nickname “Mr. Worldwide” in turquoise and pink in homage to Miami and can be purchased at Hard Rock Cafe, hotel and casino properties around the world. ... Keep Memory Alive will host its 21st annual Power of Love Gala on April 27 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in honor of businessman and philanthropist Ronald Perelman. Las Vegas legend Andre Agassi will be honored with the Community Leadership Award.
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The radical new way to buy and sell cars, all online.
Beepi reinvented car buying by eliminating the dealership, saving you time and money. All cars pass a 240-point inspection and come with a 10-day money-back guarantee.
Beepi.com
55 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.26.17
(Mikayla Whitmore/Staff)
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT HOMER SIMPSON-WORTHY DOUGHNUT SPOTS 1. FRIENDLY DONUT HOUSE
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The apple fritter should come with a warning label: Each chewy, sweet bite is packed with cinnamon-sugar goodness. 856 S. Boulder Highway, 702-568-6196.
2. RONALD’S DONUTS
3. PINKBOX
4. MASTER DONUTS
5. DONUT BAR
It’s the go-to spot for vegans (soy cream filling!) but dairy eaters can rejoice, too. The buttermilk bar is out of this world, and the bear claws don’t disappoint. 4600 Spring Mountain Road, 702-873-1032.
Known for its cookiesand-cream-filled and Fruity Pebbles-topped doughnuts, this momand-pop has specialties on lock. 7531 W. Lake Mead Blvd. & 10251 S. Eastern Ave.
Choose from classic cake doughnuts, French Crullers, cinnamon rolls and more—but come early. Master opens at 3:30 a.m. and sells out fast. 2300 E. Desert Inn Road #11., 702-796-1790.
We can’t get enough of this San Diego export. Pair a caramel latte doughnut or pumpkin French toast with Stumptown cold brew. 124 S. 6th St. #140, 702-5504646. –Leslie Ventura
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Teenage wasteland Riverdale reimagines Archie and friends as dark and brooding By Josh Bell he prevailing image of Archie Comics might still be impossibly wholesome teens getting into bland adventures, but in the past few years the comic-book publisher has been steadily reinventing its characters for a modern audience, to much acclaim from readers and critics. Now, that makeover is going mainstream in the new CW TV series Riverdale, which puts those familiar faces in the middle of a dark, sexy nighttime soap. All of the major Archie Comics characters are part of the cast: all-American teen Archie (K.J. Apa), his rival love interests Betty (Lili Reinhart) and Veronica (Camila Mendes) and his cheeseburger-obsessed best friend Jughead (Cole Sprouse). Secondary characters like Reggie, Moose, Kevin Keller, Cheryl Blossom and even Josie and the Pussycats take important supporting roles, and the show includes reinterpreted versions of Archie staples like Pop’s diner. The first episode of Riverdale opens with the death of one of the town’s teenagers, and the mystery of
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who killed Jason Blossom fuels the series. With its white-haired spinster into a sultry cougar) isn’t gloomy visuals, buried secrets, young hotties and particularly convincing. Creator Roberto Aguirrestylized dialogue, Riverdale fits somewhere around Sacasa, who’s also chief creative officer at Archie the intersection of Dawson’s Creek, Gossip Girl and Comics and writer of several of its current comic Twin Peaks, and the show can’t quite pull off that books, loads the dialogue with hip-sounding popbalancing act while also sticking to some semblance culture references and suggestive innuendoes, but it of faithfulness to its source material. It’s hard to take often comes off as forced. The young cast is eager and characters with names like Dilton Doiley likable, and the producers fill the adult roles aabcc with actors whose presences recall the show’s and Ethel Muggs seriously, never mind RIVERDALE seeing them as genuinely sinister and/or influences: Beverly Hills, 90210’s Luke Perry, Thursdays, seductive. The show’s best character work Twin Peaks’ Mädchen Amick and Scream’s 9 p.m., the CW. is in the pairing of Betty and Veronica, Skeet Ulrich all play parents of Riverdale Premieres who have far more chemistry with each teens. Even quintessential teen queen Molly January 26. other than either does with Archie (it helps Ringwald is set to guest-star in later episodes. that they shamelessly make out in the first But references are not enough to build a episode), with the potential to become compelling narrative, and the show’s central the CW’s next Serena van der Woodsen and Blair mysteries become less intriguing over the course Waldorf. of the four episodes available for review. Seeing Archie himself is the least interesting character, previously squeaky-clean comic-book characters in and his brooding over his illicit affair with music compromising situations is a bit thrilling at first, but teacher Miss Grundy (changed from the comics’ those thrills quickly wear out.
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GAME ON! FIVE VIDEO GAMES THAT COULD FILL A BIGGER SCREEN
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Video game movies have a long history of spottiness (see: the recent, poor Assassin’s Creed and this week’s likely-to-suck Resident Evil finale, The Final Chapter). Here are five games that could actually work well onscreen. RED DEAD REDEMPTION John Marston’s bloody yarn of high-noon duels and saloon shootouts could make an outstanding Western. The deep cast of quirky characters might have to be pared down, okay provided the fasttalking Nigel West Dickens makes an appearance.
Cheryl Blossom and Archie Andrews hide their dark secrets during science class. (The CW/Courtesy)
A MINER TALE thirds Gold is a mostly dull, straightforward story about a down-onAlthough opening text asserts that Gold is his-luck businessman “inspired by true events,” the inspiration is so loose looking for a comeback. that the movie might as well be entirely Both Michael fictional. Based in very broad strokes on AABCC Mann and Spike the Bre-X mining scandal of 1997, Gold Lee were attached GOLD moves the story from Calgary, Canada, to direct Patrick Massett Matthew to Reno, Nevada, and from the ’90s to the and John Zinman’s screenplay at different McConaughey, Édgar Ramírez, ’80s, inventing a new company (Washoe points in the past, and maybe they could Bryce Dallas Mining) and a new protagonist (Kenny have given it more style than eventual Howard. Wells, played by Matthew McConaughey) director Stephen Gaghan (Syriana), Directed by Stephen Gaghan. who delivers the story with little flair or to form the heart of the story. It’s still Rated R. Opens about a small mining company discovering Friday citywide. momentum. McConaughey, sporting what appears to be a huge cache of gold thinning hair and a thick gut, throws in Indonesia, thanks to the work of a himself into his performance, but it’s renegade geologist (fictionalized here as more energy than the part warrants, Michael Acosta, played by Édgar Ramírez). really. There’s thematic potential in the changes The scandal itself doesn’t unfold until the of location and time period, but the movie never movie is nearly over, though, and for its first twomakes those changes matter. –Josh Bell
GOLD PLODDINGLY ADAPTS A TRUE STORY
METROID Watch video games’ original female protagonist, Samus Aran, blast her way through the planet Zebes. Include the darkambient soundtrack and claustrophobic setting of the NES classic and you’d have a sci-fi thriller that would make Ellen Ripley proud. THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME Featuring Zelda as a cross-dressing badass, a time-hopping Link and a third-act plot twist most won’t see coming. LIFE IS STRANGE The characters are more believable than most of Hollywood’s these days, and the story—about a private school girl who can turn back time—practically adapts itself. BIOSHOCK A film about wealthy elitism, rampant objectivism and a capitalist utopia crumbling to nightmarish dystopia might strike the right chord given the state of the real world today. –Todd Hailstone
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DEER IN THE HEADLIGHTS YOU’LL KICK YOURSELF IF YOU MISS DEERHUNTER’S VEGAS RETURN BY SPENCER PATTERSON
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he last time Deerhunter played Las Vegas, the acclaimed indie rockers pulled around 200 bodies to a room—Hard Rock Live— that holds 1,000. Expect Sunday night’s show at the far-more-intimate Bunkhouse Saloon to draw better, if not sell out, in part because those who witnessed that epic 2013 performance likely won’t risk missing the follow-up. If you missed it, and especially if you’ve never seen Deerhunter before, here are three reasons to consider snagging tickets before they’re gone.
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The songbook. Few bands have produced a catalog as consistently dazzling as Deerhunter’s over the past decade. Dating back to 2007’s Cryptograms, the Atlanta outfit has delivered six albums and two EPs worthy of inclusion in any post-2000 collection, chiefly 2008’s Microcastle and 2010’s Halcyon Digest, both of which ranked among Pitchfork’s year-end top 10 and continue to hold down spots inside the top 10 for those years among user-generated Rateyourmusic.com charts. Without spoiling the specifics, so
far Deerhunter’s 2017 setlists have sampled from four of those six LPs and both EPs, and have included both obvious “hits” and deeper fan favorites. Interestingly enough, one record the band has yet to cull from, Cryptograms, was released on January 29, 2007—which means it will turn 10 the very night of the Vegas show. Hmm ...
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The setting. The night before Deerhunter plays the 250-cap Bunkhouse, it will play the Forum in LA— capacity 18,000. That’s because the
group has been touring as support for Kings of Leon, playing giant arenas like New York City’s Madison Square Garden and Chicago’s United Center. Deerhunter has also sprinkled in some headlining shows, but those venues have been larger than the Bunkhouse—considerably in some cases. Basically, that means Las Vegans get a chance to get closer—even at the very back of the room—to the six-piece band than any other audience thus far this year. Onstage, Deerhunter tends to feed off its audience’s energy (see: that 2013
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Further Reverberations aving returned from hiatus with a widely praised 2016 edition, Neon Reverb will look to keep energy high for its upcoming 12th edition. And the Downtown festival, scheduled to return March 9-12, appears to have the musical pieces in place to make that happen. Heading up Neon Reverb’s 2017 touring lineup will be a trio of popular indie acts: synthy Brooklynites The Drums, who have sold out their past two Las Vegas gigs; Mexico-based garagepunks Le Butcherettes, led by the charismatic Teri Gender Bender; and English psych-pop outfit Temples, set to release a new album a few days before the fest. “I think the top line is every bit as strong as last year’s,” says talent buyer Mike Henry, who helps organize and run Reverb, along with scene mainstays Jason Aragon, Ronald Corso, Thirry Harlin, Graham Kahr and James Woodbridge. “There’s no [2016 poster-topper] Ty Segall, but I think all three of this year’s headliners are equal in draw.” Other 2017 notables include Bash & Pop, fronted by The Replacements’ Tommy Stinson; LA’s Chicano Batman, set to return to Coachella in April; veteran hip-hop DJ Peanut Butter Wolf; fast-rising New York rockers LVL UP; and the remainder of the
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Deerhunter and a canine friend. (Photograph by Ryan Stang/Courtesy)
Hard Rock Live show, in which a rapt response by the faithful few attendees earned them a four-song, 30-minute encore), so an enthusiastic, packed house could produce another night for the ages.
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The man. More than most rock frontmen these days, Bradford Cox brings a real sense of theater to the stage. Three years ago on the Strip, he connected with the crowd not only with his hypnotic music—at its best a sort of spiralling, controlled chaos—but also with his physical presence, swaying
and slithering more like Iggy Pop or Ian Curtis than any of his modern contemporaries. He’s not always fully engaged like that (see: Coachella 2016’s first weekend, which found Cox and his bandmates coming down with a case of mid-afternoon malaise), but when Cox clicks, few bands out there can touch a locked-in Deerhunter.
deerhunter January 29, 9:30 p.m., $20. Bunkhouse Saloon, 702-854-1414
Temples-topped touring Desert Daze Caravan—Night Beats, Deap Vally, Froth and JJUUJJUU. Also confirmed: Jay Som, Sego, Calliope Musicals, Wheelchair Sports Camp, MNDSGN, Prism Tats, Soft White Sixties, SadGirl, The Shacks, Residual Kid, Palms, Richard Grewar and DJ Jonathan Toubin’s Soul Clap. Local participants are expected to be announced February 2. This year’s shows will take place in some of Fremont East’s anchoring venues—the Bunkhouse Saloon (which will feature an outdoor stage for the fest), Backstage Bar & Billiards and Beauty Bar—along with two Arts District spots: Velveteen Rabbit and a to-be-revealed warehouse space. Reverb’s overall scope will be slimmed down some, in an effort “not to stretch the audience too far,” Henry says. “There’s a bit of a reduction in the number of acts, but the shows should all be more packed, so I think you’ll see a magnification of the overall experience.” Festival passes—good for admission to all events on all four nights—are on sale now for $60 at neonreverb.com. Tickets to individual shows will be available closer to March. –Spencer Patterson Note: The Weekly is Neon Reverb’s exclusive media partner.
TEMPLES PHOTOGRAPH BY ED MILES
Downtown music fest Neon Reverb announces its 2017 touring lineup
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what’s new in indie rock Life Without Sound
Hang
Near to the Wild Heart of Life
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Dylan Baldi’s days of cranking out brash indie/garage-rock are far from over. Two albums beyond the Steve Albini-produced Attack on Memory—Baldi’s critically acclaimed breakout featuring a full-fledged Cloud Nothings lineup—the quartet presents a sonic progression, rather than a reinvention, with Life Without Sound. The band’s fourth LP begins with a piano riff that transforms into bustling Superchunk-style riffing in “Up to the Surface,” a signal the band hasn’t traded its lo-fi, four-chord anthems for something less substantial. Songs like “Darkened Rings” and closer “Realize My Fate” recall the band’s days of frantic, noisy punk goodness. The key here is polish. Cloud Nothings have sanded down most of their grit to expose their melodic undertones and traditional songwriting structures (think Archers of Loaf meets Weezer). The result is an evolution. “Enter Entirely” retains the band’s anthemic qualities amidst a bustling wall of feedback; “Sight Unseen” marries twangy leads and nasaly vocals with a brisk tempo. Perhaps it’s fitting that Baldi ends his latest album’s opener by declaring, “I knew peace in the terror of the mind.” –Ian Caramanzana
Who says today’s indie rock lacks ambition? Foxygen’s Hang marks the first time the psych-pop group has tracked an LP in an actual studio—on two-inch tape, not by computer—and every song on the album features contributions from a symphony orchestra. The resulting music nods playfully to the ’70s—piano-led boogie-woogie, indulgent prog-rock, sizzling funk and Bowie’s glam-blues— refracted by fun-house mirrors. “Mrs. Adams” is a proggy fever dream halfway between Yes and a lounge act in a leisure suit; the brass-heavy “America” drips with orchestral game-show schmaltz; and high-stepping standout “Avalon” melds fractured kaleidoscope-pop with marching band pep and ABBA’s loopy kitsch. Hang occasionally pours the melodrama on too thick (syrupy slowburn “Trauma”), but the record mostly strikes a balance between sincerity and grandiosity. Take the encouraging “Rise Up”: As flutes, timpani and strings swirl, Sam France croons, “It’s time to wake up early/Start taking care of your health/And start doing all the hard things.” Foxygen is full of good ideas and executes most of them here. –Annie Zaleski
If they’d done nothing else, Vancouver’s Japandroids would deserve our admiration for 2012 single “The House That Heaven Built,” a garage anthem that soars past excitement into rapture. Genuine, roofless optimism is tough to pull off, and on Near to the Wild Heart of Life, Japandroids scale those heights seconds into the album-opening title track. Guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse deliver another Hüsker Dü/Springsteen hybrid, one that contains both a problem (“The future’s under fire/The past is gaining ground/A continuous cold war”) and its solution (“May your heart always be ardent/Your conscience always clear”). Other highlights follow similarly giddy blueprints. Half the run time of “No Known Drink or Drug” builds to its chorus, which fills the other half. “North East South West” takes E Street back to Canada. And “Midnight to Morning” makes the album’s openhighway feel explicit (“I pray those yellow lines on the I-5/Bring me back home to you”). By the time Wild Heart concludes, you’re ready to trade everything you own for a motorcycle and ride straight off the edge of the world. –Geoff Carter
“Warm Hands (Freedom Returned),” the third cut on Ty Segall’s new, self-titled record, leaves the house like a glammy holdover from last year’s Emotional Mugger, zigzags through a field of wailing metal and then hits the gas, riffing and shrieking violently as if envisioning moshpits to come. Song over, right? Not even. This trip won’t end until Segall and his pals take one of their own—stretched-out psychedelic improv that pushes “Warm Hands” past the 10-minute mark. It’s either the best or worst Ty track you’ve ever heard, which might be the case for the album, too. Segall’s first visit to Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Chicago studio found the garage-rock great and his bandmates—Emmett Kelly, Mikal Cronin, Charles Moothart and Ben Boye—recording live, and the results range from iffy (the folky “Talkin’,” which sounds like an old Beck outtake) to ace (“Orange Color Queen,” which takes its folk somewhere fresh). But hey, even if the Segall/Albini pairing feels like a missed opportunity, guitar-tastic songs like “Break a Guitar,” “Thank You Mr. K” and, yes, the twisty “Warm Hands” will surely sound great in the pit. –Spencer Patterson
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“The Morning After, The Body of a House, #9,” by Robert Beckmann. (Steve Marcus/Staff)
Fine ARt
WEEKLY | 01.26.17
Forty-year odyssey Robert Beckmann’s latest paintings stitch together styles and subjects By Dawn-Michelle Baude
ransmutations: Robert Beckmann Under the Western Sky 1977-2017 presents 59 canvases painted over four decades in one impressive exhibition. The message is clear: Beckmann is one heck of a painter. Large paintings, small paintings, realism, symbolism, expressionism, abstracts— the range alone is worth a visit, if not applause. Even viewers acquainted with Beckmann’s achievements will find a surprise, since the exhibition draws on artworks usually squirreled away in private collections, along with recent paintings (still drying) from last month. Among the rarely exhibited works is “The Morning After, The Body of a House, #9,” completed in 1994. The enormous, 6-foot-by-8-foot painting depicts the boney remains of a 1952 Nevada Test Site house, meticulously constructed by Las Vegas home builders just so it could be blown to bits. Working from photographs taken at ground zero, Beckmann renders the desiccated planks, rafters, struts and beams with an anatomist’s accuracy, bathing them in golden
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light. The house becomes a martyred relic complete with halo, perhaps, or a seductive artifact glowing eerily with lethal radiation. Either way, the scale, palette and treatment of the subject result in a major work that stops viewers in their tracks. Nevada Test Site activities are one of Beckmann’s favorite subjects; another is the Las Vegas Strip. In an intriguing 48-by-42-inch work, “The Three Graces of Las Vegas” (2013), Beckmann transposes the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue into an alternate reality. Symbolizing Liberty, Luck and Enterprise are New York-New York’s Statue of Liberty, the Blue Angel—teleported from the recently defunct motel—and a ghostly, anthropomorphized building crane. Towering above the traffic, the three Graces bless the city with their beneficent, if uncertain, presence. Like other Beckmann canvases, the power of the painting partly emerges from the deft manipulation of dark/light contrasts. Once again, Beckmann feigns a realism that never intends to be real.
Many other paintings in Transmutations deserve a visit, including the masterful “Carwash” (2016) series portraying windshield views of a cataclysmic car-wash sky. Beckmann’s abstracts, like the fresh and vibrant “Interface” (2012), engage the artist’s study of Buddhism and sync with the current art-world pattern trend. And elsewhere, the city flooded by the Hoover Dam inspires the strange “St. Thomas” paintings, which offer spectral views of “underwater” housing. Yet despite the variety of subject matter and style, the exhibit remains cohesive, easily moving from one body of work to the next. At age 74, Beckmann is still going strong, and his latest Transmutations are not to be missed.
aaaac Transmutations: Robert Beckmann Under the Western Sky 1977-2017 Through March 18; Monday-Thursday, 10 a.m.- 8 p.m.; Friday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. The Studio at Sahara West Library, 702-507-3630.
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64 The STrip
WEEKLY | 01.26.17
Thomas John leads some spooky conversations at the Foundation Room. (Spencer Burton/Special to Weekly)
NOW HIRING PARTY PIT DANCING DEALERS AND BARTENDERS Break into the hospitality industry in a young, dynamic work environment with FREE on-the-job training! AUDITIONS AT 5:30PM TUESDAY-SATURDAY GOLDEN GATE HOTEL & CASINO
LooK, WHO’s Talking? Dinner with the Dead can unnerve even the strongest skeptic Applicants must audition in dance-wear, GoGo attire or swimwear.
By Geoff Carter
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don’t believe in life after death. I don’t believe in ghosts or the “spirit world.” If I may paraphrase Dickens, my skepticism in this matter must be distinctly understood, or nothing interesting can come of the story I’m about to tell. You see, last weekend I had dinner with psychic medium Thomas John. And I’ve got some questions. The event is called Dinner With the Dead, and it returns to the Foundation Room on February 17 (watch for details at dinnerwiththedeadllc.com). It’s a five-course dinner party for about 20 people, presided over by John, who genially works the entire room. He doesn’t begin by asking anyone’s name or singling out individual diners (and you don’t furnish any information to him beforehand), but in short order, he’s sensing vibes from certain sections of the table (“I feel like I’m over here,” he says) and naming off deceased friends and relatives with uncanny accuracy. At first, it’s easy to shrug him off: He does a lot of fishing (“Does someone at this table have a father who’s an inventor?”), and people talking about their loved ones don’t bother with poker faces; even a layperson could read those nonverbal cues. But then,
John turns his attention to me, and things get weird. “There’s a woman coming through,” he says. With minimal acknowledgement from me, he volunteers that she was a smoker (“I felt like it was kind of her trademark”) and that we were close friends. He even gives me the first letter of her name and adds that she has a sardonic edge: “She says you ‘don’t believe in this sh*t anyways, ha ha.’” Anyone in the room could deduce that last part for themselves, but the tone of the comment strikes me: John rarely swears during the dinner, but my late friend swore colorfully and often. Then he says she’d done a lot for other people (she had) but didn’t let many people get close to her (also true). He comes fairly close to using her nickname for me … and most chillingly, he says she’d passed on about 10 years ago. It will be 10 years this August. So, yeah. Weird. Dinner With the Dead didn’t make me a believer. It would take nothing short of a fully visible, chainsmoking, shade-throwing apparition to do that. But I was terrifically entertained, and I’m curious to know how John knew all that stuff. I may not want to believe, but I’d love to understand.
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It’s hardly curtains for DCR. (Spencer Burton/Special to Weekly)
SCene
WEEKLY | 01.26.17
A decade of distinction An appreciation of the pioneering—and now 10-year-old—Downtown Cocktail Room BY MIKE PREVATT ost of us have our Downtown Cocktail Room stories. But they’re not your typical Vegas-insanity stories, where people boast of leaving the bar well past sunrise or prematurely due to unwise dalliances with either alcohol or bouncer. This is not that kind of bar. The spot affectionately known as DCR is the kind of bar where you begin—and maybe finish—every Downtown New Year’s Eve, just to ensure a proper start to the night and some good company. Even when it first opened in January 2007 and gave Vegas drinkers and scenesters their first walkable Downtown barhop, you always started at DCR, because its inviting atmosphere always set the tone for the evening. And, chances were you’d run into a friendly face or five, the locals far outnumbering the tourists (thanks to the concealed, speakeasy-style entrance). It’s where you meet someone for the first time and then successfully set up a first date, partially because the room is intimate and relaxing, and the vibe—the dim lighting, the crimson interior,
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the mature house beats (more on those in a bit)— is downright sexy. It’s also where you take your dates—and your cousin visiting from out of town and your roommates, for that matter. It’s where you learn to be patient with the evercareful bartender, and trust that whatever seemingly uncomplementary, but nonetheless quality ingredients he takes off the shelf will magically synthesize. DCR pioneered Vegas mixology as much as it did Downtown bar-going, its innovative cocktails and seasonal menus influencing other establishments in the area, on the Strip and across the rest of the Valley. It’s where the groove is so irresistible, you and your friends create a dancefloor right in front of the DJ, and if you’re there on the weekend, you’re likely dancing in front of a resident who has been performing in that booth since the beginning: Carlos Sanchez on Fridays and Douglas Gibbs on Saturdays, both offering up deep house inspired by New York City, the West Coast, various exotic international locales and, of course, Chicago,
the very city that birthed house music and whose lounges inspired DCR. It’s where the staff offers to order you dinner from a nearby restaurant, though usually DCR is somewhere you end up after dinner—or a show at the Smith Center or a Pride parade. And it’s where you go to get to know people better, and have adult conversations about your alma mater’s football team, or the industry, or why you should attend Burning Man already, whether at the main bar, the curtained table in the center or in one of the circular booths in the back room. Those booths are now gone, replaced by a new, separate bar called Mike Morey’s Sip ’n’ Tip, inspired by a DCR regular who has since passed away. The more casual space—and biggest evolutionary step in DCR’s decade of distinction— makes its public debut 9 p.m. this Friday, January 27, exactly 10 years from when DCR first opened its doors and blessed Downtown Las Vegas with a sophisticated drinking spot, one that still excels in both cocktails and community.
66 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.26.17
SATISFACTION GUARANTEED THE LUCKY DRAGON’S PEARL OCEAN ASTOUNDS WITH ITS DIM SUM BY BROCK RADKE efore it opened in November, the Lucky Dragon hotel and casino made us a promise: This is where you will find the best Chinese food in Las Vegas. Considering it’s the first Vegas resort built specifically for the Asian audience—locals and tourists—high-quality, authentic cuisine is mandatory. It took a single lunch at Pearl Ocean to make good on that promise. One of two second-floor restaurants at Lucky Dragon (the other, Phoenix, is for fine dining), Pearl Ocean offers an expansive, refined dim sum experience for lunch and adds live seafood and other traditional dishes for dinner in a casual but lovely atmosphere with impressive, elegant service. The friendly staff ’s careful efforts stand out most during dim sum; in Las Vegas, this style of dining is almost always associated with notoriously bad service. Still, the food is the focus. Five guys xiao long bao ($12.88), a creative, colorful assortment of juicy dumplings like black truffle in squid ink dough and crab roe in turmeric skin, is ready to become the next Vegas foodie-cult must-eat dish. Equally delicious are dim sum standards har gow ($6.88) and shui mai ($5.88) dumplings, and well-assembled tweaks like pea shoot and shrimp dumplings and Mongolian beef rice rolls (both $8.88). From a selection of Northern Chinese specialties, chive and pork dumplings ($6.88) and pork dumplings in chili peanut sauce ($7.88) are simply addictive. That these bites are so much better here than at other Vegas dim sum spots at comparable prices boggles the mind. Fried dishes satisfy fast, so maybe only order the slightly sweet barbecue pork puff ($5.88). From the wok, experiment with espresso-rubbed ribs ($10.88) and clams in chili-wine broth ($12.88). Congee, noodle and rice dishes—fried scallop and egg white fried rice ($16.88) is a subtle treasure—and sweet stuff round out the lunch menu, leaving nothing to be desired. The Lucky Dragon is a truly unique Vegas destination for those interested in gambling and great Chinese food. Pearl Ocean has enough of the latter to keep us coming back often.
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PEARL OCEAN Lucky Dragon, 702-579-1287. MondayFriday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m.
Creative, colorful dumplings are in the spotlight at Lucky Dragon’s Pearl Ocean. (Mikayla Whitmore/Staff)
FOOD & DRINK
67 LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 01.26.17
A mock bird’s nest dish at China Poblano. (Mikayla Whitmore/Staff)
THE ORCHARD’S TRAIL
INGREDIENTS 2 oz. Havana Club Añejo Clásico Rum 1 oz. Cinzano Bianco Vermouth 1 oz. apple cider 2 dashes of Bar Keep Baked Apple Bitters Lime wheel
DELICIOUS STORIES CHINA POBLANO’S SPECIAL MENU CELEBRATES THE YEAR OF THE ROOSTER
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“In Chinese cuisine, there’s a lot of mytholFor the Chinese New Year menu, each dish has a ogy based on just about everything. Going story behind it. Good Fortune and Potato ($16.88) into the Year of the Rooster, meaning a features sautéed dried oysters with vegetables over prosperous year ahead, we based a lot creamy potatoes. “Taste-wise, for a lot of of the menu selection off the mythology CHINA POBLANO guests in the United States, dried oyster Cosmopolitan, itself,” explains China Poblano chef Eric might be a little too much,” Suniga says. 702-698-7900. Suniga. But there was another major “So we thought we could mix it into the Sunday-Thurselement in creating the José Andrés vegetables and braising liquid to mellow it day, 11:30 a.m.11 p.m., Friday & restaurant’s Chinese New Year menu, out.” In Cantonese, dried oysters, or ho see, Saturday, 11:30 available January 27 through February 11. mean “good things to come.” a.m.-11:30 p.m. “We had a meeting, and José said, ‘I want For those hoping for a wealthier 2017, sea cucumber. I want abalone.’ That was a try Tied Up for the Moment ($13.88), redstarting point for a few of the dishes.” braised tofu knots topped with wok-fried Andrés has brought his version of global cuisine to Las shishito peppers and finished with XO sauce. It’s a spicy Vegas in several iterations, including tapas joint Jaleo bite and a different texture than most tofu. and the animal-centric Bazaar Meat. China Poblano Dessert options include a delightful apple bun, is perhaps the most eccentric, where half the menu is hopefully leading to a sweet new year for all those who Chinese and the rest is Mexican. enjoy it. –Jason Harris
Star anise and cinnamon bark for garnish
METHOD Combine ingredients in shaker filled with ice and shake. Strain into chilled coupe glass, garnish and serve.
Mastering the art of balance, this cocktail is fresh and crisp while simultaneously rich and warm. The rum has notes of apricot and pineapple, which are complemented by oaky hints of almond and vanilla. The vermouth is sweet, but it’s more dry and fruity than its traditional counterparts. The crisp apple cider and baked apple bitters, in all their caramelized apple and warm-spice goodness, tie these elements together to create a cohesive, satisfying drink.
Cocktail created by Francesco Lafranconi, Executive Director of Mixology and Spirits Education at Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits.
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calendar
las vegas weekly 01.26.17
Live Music
Beat Poetry Workshop Series Clark County Poet Laureate Bruce Isaacson 1/30, 6 pm, free. Paseo Verde Library, 280 S. Green Valley Parkway, 702-492-7252. Elevate: The Beat Battle Final Four ft. Chem Clinic, Vers, DU+CH, Bosie T 1/29, 8 pm, free. Beauty Bar, 517 Fremont St., 702-493-4463. Eye Ceremony & Lion Dance Celebration 1/28, 3 pm, free. Venetian, 866-725-2990. Las Vaudeville 1/27, 7 pm, $5. Bunkhouse Saloon, 124 S. 11th St., 702-854-1414. Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival Thru 1/29, times vary, $10-$50. Locations vary, lvjff.org. Las Vegas Lineup: Identifying the Past for the Future 1/31, 6 pm, free. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 702-507-3459. Mecum Motorcycle Auction Thru 1/28, 8 am, $20-$60. South Point Arena, mecum.com. Paws on the Patio: Street Smarts 1/28, 1-4 pm, free-$15. Gene Woods Racing Experience, 121 E. Sunset Road, 702-323-9112. Vegas Music Summit 2/2-2/3, 11 am, $49-$99. Downtown Las Vegas, vegasmusicsummit.com. Vegas Nights Variety Show 1/27, 7:30 pm, $10. Artifice, 1025 1st St. #A, 702-489-6339. Writer’s Block Neon Lit 1/27, 7 pm, free. 1020 Fremont St., 702-550-6399.
THe Strip & Nearby Brooklyn Bowl August Burns Red, Protest the Hero, In Hearts Wake, ’68 1/26, 6 pm, $23-$459. Juicy J, Belly 1/27, 7:30 pm, $30-$115. John Kedlecik, Catfish John 1/28, 7 pm, free. Ace Frehley, Lita Ford, Enuff Z’Nuff 2/2, 7 pm, $35$60. Linq, 702-862-2695. Caesars Palace (Colosseum) Celine Dion 1/271/28, 1/31, 2/1, 7:30 pm, $55-$500. 702-731-7333. Double Down Thee Swank Bastards 1/26. Children of Eden, The Whining Pussys 1/27. Sector 7-G, Agent 86, The Negative Nancys, Super Zeroes, William Neal 1/28. Uberschall 1/29, midnight. Franks & Deans Weenie Roast w/Professor Rex Dart, Gold Top Bob & The Goldtoppers 2/1. Shows 10 pm, free unless noted. 640 Paradise Road, 702-791-5775. Flamingo (Showroom) Keith Sweat, Aries Spears 1/26-1/28, 1/31, 2/1-2/4, 7:30 pm, $59$225. 702-733-3333. Hard Rock Hotel (Vinyl) Thomas Nicholas Band 1/27, 8 pm, $40. Sage the Gemini, SOB X RBE, Derek Pope 1/28, 9 pm, $22-$45. Carnifex, Fallujah, Rings of Saturn, Lorna Shore, She Must Burn 2/1, 7 pm, $18-$30. 702-693-5000. Hard Rock Live Filthy Experience 1/27, 9 pm, $10-$20. Borderline 1/28, 9 pm, free. Chadwick Johnson 2/1, 8 pm, $25-$50. Hard Rock Cafe (Strip), 702-733-7625. House of Blues Carlos Santana 1/27-1/29, 2/12/4, 7 pm, $90-$350. Pop Evil, Red Sun Rising, Badflower 1/31, 7 pm, $20-$25. Mandalay Bay, 702-632-7600. Monte Carlo (Park Theater) Band of Brothers 1/29, 8 pm, $71-$173. 844-600-7275. Orleans (Showroom) One Night with the King 1/28-1/29, 8 pm, $19-$40. 702-284-7777. Planet Hollywood (Axis) Britney Spears 1/271/28, 2/1, 9 pm, $69-$500. 702-777-2782. Stoney’s Rockin’ Country Jackson Michelson 1/27, 9 pm, $5-$10. Town Square, 702-435-2855. T-Mobile Arena Ricky Martin, Don Omar, Wisin, CNCO, Zion y Lenox, Osmani Garcia & more 1/26, 8 pm, $69-$305. 702-692-1600. Venetian (Venetian Theatre) Willie Nelson & Family 1/28-1/29, 2/1, 2/3-2/4, 8 pm, $60-$200. (Venetian Ballroom) Sam Hui 1/28, 8 pm, $78$268. 702-414-9000.
Downtown Backstage Bar & Billiards Freeze Warning, Kings of Kush, Brad Bailey 1/27, 8 pm, $5-$7. The Curse 1/28, 8 pm, $10-$15. Down by Law, Guilty by Association, Battle Born 2/1, 8 pm, $10-$12. Almost Normal, Avalon Landing, Smoke Season, Ray Little, Cameron Dettman, Zach Kibbee 2/2, 8 pm, $10. 601 E. Fremont St., 702-382-2227. Beauty Bar Dorothy, The Georgia Flood, True Violet 1/27, 8 pm, $13-$15. Go Betty Go, The Roxy Gunn Project, Pet Tigers, Kat Kalling 1/28, 8 pm, free. Chris Lorenzo, Boogie Snacks, Ben Diesel, Gardner, Gabriel Blu 1/31, 9 pm, $10-$12. 517 Fremont St., 702-598-3757. Bunkhouse Saloon Rabbit Hole Two-Year Anniversary ft. Daedelus 1/28, 10 pm, $10. Deerhunter 1/29, 9:30 pm, $20. Leopold and His Fiction, Mercy Music, Acid Sisters, DJ Jacob Savage 1/30, 9 pm, $10. Opera on Tap 1/31, 7:30 pm, $10. Sango 2/2, 9 pm, $17-$20. 124 S. 11th St., 702-854-1414. Golden Nugget (Gordie Brown Showroom) Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals 1/27, 8 pm, $32-$162. 866-946-5336. Griffin Together Pangea, The Birth Defects 2/1, 10 pm, free. 511 Fremont St., 702-382-0577.
Sports
Dorothy Martin brings LA band Dorothy to Beauty Bar on January 27. (Courtesy)
Hard Hat Lounge Folk Hogan, The Rifleman 1/26, 9 pm, free. 1675 Industrial Road, 702-384-8987. Plaza (Oscar’s Steakhouse) Mercy Music, Dark Black, DJ Fish 2/1, 10 pm, free. 702-386-2110. Ron Decar’s Event Center Jimmy Hopper 1/27, 7 pm, $27-$42. Musical Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1/30, 7 pm, $20. 1201 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-384-0771. Smith Center (Cabaret Jazz) Storm Large 1/271/28, 7 pm, $39-$59. 702-749-2000.
Everywhere Else Adrenaline Sports Bar & Grill Vatican Falling, Mynas, Asylum of Ashes 1/27, 7 pm, free. Bipolar, DiM, Levitron, Quor 1/28, 8 pm, $5. 3103 N. Rancho Drive, 702-645-4139. Aliante Casino (Access Showroom) Timothy B. Schmit 1/28, 8 pm, $30-$50. 702-692-7777. Cannery Celebration of the King’s Life 1/27-1/28, 8 pm, $20. 2121 E. Craig Road, 702-507-5700. Dive Bar DJ Clay, Willie Psycho, Fisty Cuffs, Sly, 614 Villainz, Critical Ways, Upchuck, D.U.M. & more 1/27, 8 pm, $5. Powerman 5000, EMDF, Knee High Fox, The Darkest Day, Astoria, Opticon 1/28, 8 pm, $15-$17. 4110 S. Maryland Parkway, 702-586-3483. Red Rock Resort (Ballroom) Chris Botti 1/28, 8 pm, $35-$75. 702-797-7777. The Space Jassen Allen: Tribute to Luther Vandross 1/27, 8 pm, $25-$45. 3460 Cavaretta Court, 702-903-1070.
Comedy
Harrah’s (Main Showroom) Ralphie May 1/261/28, 2/2-2/4, 10 pm, $35-$99. 702-369-5000. Mirage (Terry Fator Theatre) Jay Leno 1/27, 10 pm, $65-$87. Tim Allen 1/28, 10 pm, $65-$87. 702-792-7777. South Point (Showroom) The Capitol Steps 1/27-
1/29, 7:30 pm, $30-$40. 702-796-7111.
Performing Arts
Art Square Theatre Cockroach Theatre’s HIR 1/26-1/28, 2/2, 8 pm; 1/29, 2 pm, $16-$20. 1025 S. 1st St., #110, 702-818-3422. Baobab Stage Theatre Midnight Cabaret 1/27, midnight, $20-$25. Town Square, 702-369-6649. Clark County Library (Jewel Box) The Weir 1/27, 7 pm, free. 1401 E. Flamingo Road, 702-507-3400. Faith Conservatory of the Fine Arts Peter and the Star Catcher 1/27-1/28, 7 pm; 1/29, 4 pm, $6-$20. 2015 S. Hualapai Way, 702-804-4400. Las Vegas Little Theatre (Mainstage) A Little Night Music 1/26-1/28, 8 pm; 1/29, 2 pm, $21-$24. 3920 Schiff Drive, 702-362-7996. Majestic Repertory Anton Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard of the Living Dead 1/26-1/28, 2/2-2/4, 8 pm; 1/29, 5 pm, $25. 1217 S. Main St., 702-478-9636. Sci Fi Center Madam Heartsmith’s Fomato Burlesque 1/27, 9 pm, $10. 5077 Arville St., 855-501-4335. Smith Center (Reynolds Hall) Drumline Live 1/26-1/27, 7:30 pm, $24-$69. (Troesh Studio) One Woman Sex and the City: A Parody on Love, Friendship and Shoes 2/1-2/4, 7 pm, $25$37. 702-749-2000. Theatre in the Valley Tribute 1/27-1/28, 8 pm; 1/29, 2 pm, $12-$15. 10 W. Pacific Ave., 702-558-7275. Winchester Cultural Center Ballet Folklorico Sol Huasteco 1/28, 6 pm, $10-$12. Dom Flemons 1/29, 2 pm, $10-$12. 3130 S. McLeod Drive, 702-455-7340.
Special Events
A Night of Hope with Joel Osteen 1/27, 7:30 pm, $15. T-Mobile Arena, 702-692-1600. Artisan Craft Festival 1/29, 10 am-5 pm, free. Suncoast, ArtisanCraftFestival.com.
Boxing: Frampton vs. Santa Cruz 1/28, 2 pm, $54-$504. MGM Grand Garden Arena, 866740-7711. Future Stars of Wrestling 1/28, 7:30 pm, $15. Silverton, 702-263-7777. Real MMA 1/27, 7 pm, $25-$35. Sam’s Town Live, 800-745-3000. UNLV Men’s Basketball New Mexico 2/1, 8 pm, $15-$130. Thomas & Mack Center, 702-739-3267. UNLV Women’s Basketball San Jose State 1/28, 4 pm, $5. Cox Pavilion, 702-739-3267.
Galleries
Arts Factory 107 E. Charleston Blvd., 702-383-3133. Obsidian Fine Art First Friday w/live music by Dia Asberry 2/3, 6-10 pm. #240, 702-540-9331. Wonderland Gallery Mel Balatbat: Ikonic Arts 2/2-2/24. #110, 702-686-4010. Big Springs Gallery The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards 1/29-4/2, $5-$19. Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd., 702-822-7700. Bubblegum Gallery Chewbacca Paint Class 1/28, 6 pm, $20. Harry Potter Paint Class 1/29, 10 am, $20. Sublime Group Art Show 2/3, 6-9 pm, free. Downtown Spaces, 1800 S. Industrial Road #207D, 702-806-0930. Historic Fifth Street School (Mayor’s Gallery) Chinese New Year: Year of the Rooster Thru 3/4. Artist Reception 1/26, 5:30-7:30 pm. 401 S. 4th St., 702-229-1012. Las Vegas Natural History Museum Andrew Feiler dual collection: Naturally Nevada; The Wild World Thru 3/31. Daily, 9 am-4 pm, $5-$10. 900 Las Vegas Blvd. N., 702-384-3466. Left of Center A Room of One’s Own: An All Women’s Exhibit Thru 3/31. Artist Reception 1/28, noon-3 pm. 2207 W. Gowan Road, 702-647-7378. Skye Art Gallery (Live painting) Eyob Mergia 1/28, 6-11 pm, free. Caesars Palace, 702-836-3538. UNLV Barrick Museum of Art “One Night. Three Exhibitions. Fifty Years.” 1/27, 5-8 pm, free. (Lobby) Fifty Years Starting 1/27. (Main Gallery) Process 1/27-5/13. (Teaching Gallery) Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here 1/27-5/13. (Braunstein Gallery) Masking 1/27-5/13. (Auditorium) Josh Azzarella Screenings Program 1 1/28-2/22; Thu, 4-7 pm; Sat, 1 & 3 pm; and by apt. 702-895-3381. UNLV Grant Hall Gallery Brandon Lacow: Out at Home Closing Reception 1/27, 6-9 pm, free. 702-895-3011.
Crowd Pleaser.
79
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