NOW OPEN meow.wf/lvweekly
@
March
PROMOTIONS
PUBLISHER MARK DE POOTER mark.depooter@gmgvegas.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER KATIE DIXON katie.dixon@gmgvegas.com EDITOR SPENCER PATTERSON spencer.patterson@gmgvegas.com
SATURDAYS MARCH 6, 13, 20 & 27
TESLA WIN A
MODEL 3 50 points = 1 entry
EDITORIAL Senior Editor GEOFF CARTER (geoff.carter@gmgvegas.com) Managing Editor/News DAVE MONDT (dave.mondt@gmgvegas.com) Deputy Editor GENEVIE DURANO (genevie.durano@gmgvegas.com) Editor at Large BROCK RADKE (brock.radke@gmgvegas.com) Staff Writers HILLARY DAVIS, JUSTIN EMERSON, MIKE GRIMALA, BRYAN HORWATH, SARA MACNEIL, C. MOON REED, JOHN SADLER, RICARDO TORRES-CORTEZ, LESLIE VENTURA Contributing Editors RAY BREWER, JOHN FRITZ, CASE KEEFER, WADE MCAFERTY, KEN MILLER, JOHN TAYLOR Office Coordinator NADINE GUY
CREATIVE
+
Art Director CORLENE BYRD (corlene.byrd@gmgvegas.com) Designer IAN RACOMA Multimedia Manager YASMINA CHAVEZ Photographers CHRISTOPHER DEVARGAS, STEVE MARCUS, WADE VANDERVORT
DIGITAL
FRIDAYS MARCH 12, 19 & 26
M ILLION POINT GIVEAWAY
Swipe your card at any kiosk on each promotion date and win up to
ONE MILLION POINTS!
+ MARCH 28-31
T N I O P CHALLENGE on Reels
Play your favorite Reel machines for a chance to win
2,500 CASH!
$
Play from MIDNIGHT on Sunday, March 28 to 6PM on Wednesday, March 31
Publisher of Digital Media KATIE HORTON Web Content Specialist CLAYT KEEFER Digital Marketing Intern EM JURBALA
ADVERTISING & MARKETING External Content Manager EMMA CAUTHORN Special Publications Manager JENNIFER INABA Market Research Manager CHAD HARWOOD Publication Coordinator DENISE ARANCIBIA Senior Advertising Managers BRIANNA KOURETAS, SUE SRAN Account Executives BRITTANY BURRIDGE, MIKE MALL, ADAIR NOWACKI, ALEX TEEL Events Manager SAMANTHA PETSCH Marketing Coordinator KIMBERLY ALVAREZ
PRODUCTION Vice President of Manufacturing MARIA BLONDEAUX Production Director PAUL HUNTSBERRY Production Manager BLUE UYEDA Marketing Art Director DANY HANIFF Production Artist MARISSA MAHERAS Traffic Coordinator JEANNE GLEESON
CIRCULATION Route Manager RANDY CARLSON Fulfillment Manager DORIS HOLLIFIELD
GREENSPUN MEDIA GROUP CEO, Publisher & Editor BRIAN GREENSPUN Chief Operating Officer ROBERT CAUTHORN Editorial Page Editor RIC ANDERSON
SEE SILVERTON REWARDS CLUB FOR COMPLETE RULES AND DETAILS. Available to all Silverton Rewards Club members. Must be 21 years of age or older. Management reserves all rights. LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 2275 Corporate Circle Suite 300 Henderson, NV 89074 (702) 990-2550
I-15 & BLUE DIAMOND • 702.263.7777 • SILVERTONCASINO.COM
71969-0221 LV Weekly 2.25 Ad • 4.5”x11” 4c • Runs in LV Weekly
www.lasvegasweekly.com www.facebook.com/lasvegasweekly www.twitter.com/lasvegasweekly
ON THE COVER Tricky Tatiana from BurlesQ Photograph by Wade Vandervort
All content is copyright Las Vegas Weekly LLC. Las Vegas Weekly is published Thursdays and distributed throughout Southern Nevada. Readers are permitted one free copy per issue. Additional copies are $2, available back issues $3. ADVERTISING DEADLINE EVERY THURSDAY AT 5 P.M.
EXPERIENCE THE
AT GRAND CANYON WEST
$
59
GENERAL ADMISSION & SKYWALK EXPERIENCE
Visit GrandCanyonWest.com or call 888-868-WEST to Learn More! Visit our website to learn more about our COVID-19 safety protocols. (Skywalk Experience prices valid through 2021. Other restrictions may apply.)
6
L A S V E G A S W E E K LY
2.25.21
FANS TO RETURN FOR GOLDEN KNIGHTS HOME GAMES The Golden Knights will have fans back at T-Mobile Arena starting March 1. The team’s plan to reopen the arena to spectators was approved by the Nevada Department of Business & Industry on February 22, a department spokeswoman said. The Golden Knights can host up to 15% capacity, or about 2,600 fans. The Knights have played 11 home games in front of an empty T-Mobile Arena because of state restrictions on large gatherings. Gov. Steve Sisolak announced on February 11 that organizations can submit plans to bring back gatherings. Tickets went on sale February 23, first to season-ticket holders and then to the general public the following day. –Justin Emerson
GREEN VALLEY GROCERY STORES STOCKING GIRL SCOUT COOKIES
Leadership and entrepreneurial skills are just a few real-world lessons Girl Scouts learn, and this year, they’re finding innovative ways to continue a tradition that began in 1917: selling cookies. Through February 28, Southern Nevadans can purchase beloved treats like Thin Mints, Tagalongs and Samoas in a safe, socially distant way. The Girls Scouts of Southern Nevada has partnered with 66 Green Valley Grocery locations to carry out its biggest fundraiser of the year, with troops signing up for contactless “shifts,” earning proceeds from that time period and completing steps toward their Cookie Entrepreneur Family Pin. All money raised during cookie season helps Girl Scouts attend camp, fund trips and complete service projects. –Genevie Durano
PANDEMIC HEROES GET CHANCE FOR $50K RESORT PACKAGE
THEY SAID IT
■ “While we’ve been fighting this pandemic for so long, we have to resist becoming numb to the sorrow. We have to resist viewing each life as a statistic or a blur or on the news. We must do so to honor the dead, but equally important care for the living, those left behind, for the loved ones left behind.” –President Joe Biden, February 22
Lava flows from the Mount Etna volcano February 23 near Catania in Sicily, Italy. The explosion started before midnight, provoking a huge eruption plume that rose for several kilometers from the top of Etna, as reported by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Etneo Observatory. (Salvatore Allegra/Associated Press)
EXHIBIT AT NEON MUSEUM HONORS HISTORIC MOULIN ROUGE
■ “Iowa and New Hampshire are not representative of the country. There’s no diversity. So it’s unfair, in my opinion, to have those as the first two primary states because it really gives the wrong impression of what the country is all about.” –former Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, in a New York Times interview ■ “I hated going to work
In honor of Black History Month, Neon Museum guests for the Cowboys. A Cowboy can explore the history of Las Vegas’ push toward equality. is all hardy har har and all The Museum of Gaming History has debuted an exhibit of this America’s Team stuff. I Moulin Rouge memorabilia and artifacts inside the Neon belong in Las Vegas with the Museum’s La Concha visitor’s center. Raiders.” –Las Vegas Raiders The Moulin Rouge hotel-casino marked a triumphant if defensive tackle David Irving, brief chapter in the story of Las Vegas. Opened in 1955, February 19, to The Athletic, it was the first racially integrated resort of its kind in Amera day after re-signing with the team ica, and helped lead to the integration of the Las Vegas Strip. Today, the former location of the historical building is an empty lot, but its artifacts shine brightly at the Neon Museum. Since last year, the iconic cursive sign has been reassembled and re-illuminated. And now, the Museum of Gaming History displays Moulin Rouge gaming chips, postcards, shot glasses, branded ceramics and more in its exhibit. There’s even an original copy of the June 20, 1955, issue of Life magazine that featured Moulin Rouge showgirls on the cover. The Moulin Rouge exhibit is one of eight the Museum of Gaming History has up across Las Vegas, at various museums and inside Downtown’s El Cortez and Plaza casinos. –C. Moon Reed
5
1 THINGS THAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK
The Cosmopolitan earlier this month began accepting nominations for its heroes giveaway promotion, which will provide 11 people with complimentary stays at the Strip resort, along with other prizes. Ten winners will receive a two-night stay in a Cosmo wraparound suite and a complimentary dinner for two—total value of about $1,600. One person will win a multiday visit at a Cosmo penthouse suite with 24-hour butler service and a personal photographer. The grand prize, which also includes a helicopter tour of the Strip, is valued at over $50,000. All winners will be chosen by a committee put together by the Cosmo. Any local front-line worker, medical personnel or individual hero who has provided a “shining example of what it means to be Vegas Strong through the COVID-19 crisis” can be nominated, Cosmo officials say. Nominations will be accepted through the end of the month, and the winners will be notified in April. Nominations can be submitted online at cosmopolitan lasvegas.com/ decade-of-mischief. –Bryan Horwath
2
WOODS IN WRECK
DRIVERLESS CARS
Golf star Tiger Woods suffered leg injuries February 23 in a vehicle rollover in the LA area and underwent non-life-threatening surgery. He had to be extricated from the vehicle with the “jaws of life” tools, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
The company Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, announced February 22 it has been testing its driverless cars in Las Vegas in February. The company received permission in November from the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles to begin the tests without a backup driver.
2.25.21
L A S V E G A S W E E K LY
IN THIS ISSUE
10 18 24 26 32 36 38
Cover story: The beat goes on at these Vegas venues Home: How to house hunt without stepping out the door 5-Minute Expert: Geeking out on the Marvel Cinematic Universe The Strip: Virgin has big entertainment plans for its new Vegas resort Food & Drink: Ramen hacks and monster chimichangas Sports: The Lady Rebels push toward the postseason Vegas Inc: Cashless casinos? Yep, it's already happening
TWO MORE GAMES
WEEK IN REVIEW WEEK AHEAD N EWS YO U S H O U L D K N OW A B O U T
Youth Camerata Orchestra musicians prepare for a theater reopening concert February 19 at Winchester Dondero Cultural Center. Renovations included new seating and updated audio-visual equipment. (Steve Marcus/Staff)
The UNLV men’s basketball team will play host to San Diego State on March 3 and then travel to Wyoming on March 6. Earlier this season, the Rebels had their two-game series against both opponents postponed by positive COVID-19 results. The biggest driver behind the makeup games is the Mountain West Conference’s TV contract. The league is committed to provide a certain number of games to fulfill the contracts, and eight makeup games among conference teams should get it over the mark.
3 VIRUS DEATH TOLL TOPS 500,000 IN U.S. The COVID-19 U.S. death toll topped 500,000 on February 22, all but matching the number of Americans killed in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars combined. A model from the University of Washington projects more than 589,000 dead by June 1.
4
5
NASA LANDS ON MARS
DAFT PUNK BREAKS UP
The Perseverance rover landed on Mars on February 18 near an ancient river delta in Jezero Crater to search for signs of ancient microscopic life. High-quality video of the landing was released on February 22. It joins Curiosity, which landed on the planet in 2012 and is still working.
Electronic music pioneers Daft Punk announced February 22 that they've broken up after 28 years. The helmet-wearing French duo shared the news in an 8-minute video. The act won six Grammy Awards and released international hits like “One More Time” and “Get Lucky.”
7I
8
LV W H E A LT H & W E L L N E S S
2.25.21
INVISIBLE
PAIN For those suffering from fibromyalgia, feeling is believing BY LESLIE VENTURA
F
or those living with a chronic illness, getting through the day is difficult enough. But what about when your friends, family and even your doctor don’t believe you? “For the longest period of time, no one believed that fibromyalgia was real, including physicians,” says Dr. Mitchell D. Forman, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Rheumatology at the UNLV School of Medicine. “It continues to this day.” Fibromyalgia is a syndrome that causes widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, mood issues, impaired cognitive abilities and more. The disorder is chronic, meaning it’s long-lasting and often gets worse over time. While fibromyalgia can affect people of all ages and genders, women are more prone to the syndrome. According to Forman, it’s the most common cause of generalized muscular-skeletal pain in women ages 20 to 55.
2.25.21
Managing pain
Chemical imbalance
“Everybody at some time has a day or two of feeling horrible and having some symptoms we see frequently with fibromyalgia, but the thing that is critical is the chronicity,” Forman says. “Typically, it’s more than three months’ worth of widespread musculoskeletal pain: pain in joints, in between joints, muscle grooves, the chest wall, abdomen, and it varies from patient to patient.” For fibromyalgia patients, the list of symptoms isn’t one-size-fits-all. “We’re sort of lumping lots of different people into this category, when they’re often very different, and that complicates things, too,” Forman adds. Other symptoms can include cognitive disturbances, like searching for words and a feeling of forgetfulness called “fibro fog,” impaired sleep and a repetitive lack of feeling refreshed upon waking. Sufferers can also experience migraines, pelvic pain, increased urination, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), abdominal cramps, constipation, diarrhea and more. Because the syndrome affects people differently, and because it is largely invisible—meaning patients look and appear healthy—it’s often a struggle to receive appropriate treatment. “For those who are affected significantly or are unable to work, there’s always been a great deal of difficulty in getting insurance companies and even government agencies like Social Security [on board], because there’s no definitive physical or laboratory diagnosis,” Forman says.
Because people have historically struggled to find a diagnosis for their fibromyalgia symptoms, psychiatric issues such as depression are common. Many are told they have a mental health problem rather than a physical one. “They are never believed, but they have chronic complaints,” Forman says. To understand why this oversight happens, it’s important to understand how fibromyalgia works. According to Forman, fibromyalgia is a “pain amplification syndrome.” The brain amplifies sensations of pain, because neurotransmitters like norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin are not being released as they should. “The problem is in their head,” Forman explains. “It’s a chemical situation in the brain based upon a very complicated series of things,” mainly a dysfunction of the neurotransmitters that help regulate pain. “When they work well, they reduce the perception of pain from a variety of stimuli,” Forman says. “When they don’t work and aren’t releasing in the right manner, then people experience pain.” Lab results, therefore, rarely find abnormalities, “so [it’s] blamed on a psychiatric cause,” Forman says. “I would become depressed, too, if no one thought my symptoms were real.” Because fibromyalgia is so often invisible to everyone but the patient, it’s important that those suffering with symptoms become their own advocates when seeking a diagnosis. The pain is not imaginary, and the sensations are very real. “There’s no good objective way of diagnosing pain,” Forman says. “What is pain? Whatever a patient tells you.”
Antidepressants are often used to treat fibromyalgia. They can work, but not because the syndrome is caused by depression. Antidepressants often affect the release of norepinephrine and serotonin, which can help mitigate a patient’s pain perception and mood. “Most patients have had fibro for years before a diagnosis is made,” says Forman, explaining that it’s important to assure patients that “it really is an illness and not a psychiatric problem.” So how do people with fibromyalgia combat constant pain? Forman says patients have to find a way of addressing external stressors and other stimuli that can potentially make the condition worse. Meditation, adequate sleep, exercise and medication like SSRIs and other antidepressants can be utilized in tandem to ensure a better quality of life. “There’s very good data that exercise appropriate to the patient’s medical condition can reduce deconditioning,” Forman says. “When you’re out of shape, trying to do anything—walking, going to work, shopping—can be more painful. Develop a program that grad-
(Shutterstock/Photo Illustrations)
LV W H E A LT H & W E L L N E S S
9I
ually improves your deconditioning,” whether that includes physical therapy so the patient can exercise gradually, or developing a healthy program on their own. “If they exercise too abruptly, they’re going to feel worse,” Forman adds. Similarly, seeing a specialist like a chiropractor should be done with caution, because people with fibromyalgia often experience heightened tenderness and pain. Sleep is another area that shouldn’t be overlooked. “People who need to get a good night’s sleep shouldn’t eat or drink, watch TV or read before they go to bed,” Forman says. “You want to remove stimulants when you plan to go to sleep.” While most fibromyalgia patients will continue to have chronic pain and fatigue throughout their lives, there are ways to mitigate the pain. And more alternative therapies, like the use of CBD or attending a fibromyalgia support group, have helped some struggling with the syndrome. “There’s a great deal of research going on,” Forman says, and, hopefully, better ways of managing the chronic illness are on the horizon.
T H E 10
LV W C OV E R S T O R Y
M U S I C
N E V E R
S T O P P E D
2.25.21
T H E M U S I C N E
T H E
M U S I C
T H E
N E V E R
M U S I C
(Photograph by Christopher DeVargas/Staff)
S T O P P E D
N E V E R
S T O P P E D
2.25.21
LV W C OV E R S T O R Y
11I
V E R S T O P P E D BY BROCK RADKE
Y These scrappy venues have kept Las Vegas’ live entertainment heart beating
Queens of Rock at Mosaic
T H E
M U S I C
ou’re about to be immersed in the phrase “Vegas is back!” It will probably include the exclamation point more often than not. This is a good thing—not the exclamation point, the other parts—that everyone should be excited about, even though Vegas won’t be all the way back for a little while longer. On February 15, the rules changed for the first time since November. The maximum capacity permitted inside restaurants, bars, lounges, showrooms and other businesses and entertainment venues was bumped up to 35% or 100 people, whichever is fewer. More importantly, March 15 was set as the date for the next adjustment, returning those venues to 50% capacity or 250 people, giving them all a much greater chance of surviving what we all hope are the last months of this pandemic. Since that change, almost all of the Las Vegas Strip production shows that had reopened in the fall and then closed again in November have announced plans to get back onstage in March. Among those comebacks are Absinthe at Caesars Palace on March 17, MJ Live at the Strat and Terry Fator at New York-New York on March 18, and David Copperfield at MGM Grand on March 21. And other shows at such smaller Strip venues as the V Theater at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood are expected to reopen next month for the first time in a year. While all types of businesses have struggled through this thing, casinos have been open. Restaurants and bars have been open. Nightclubs and dayclubs have been open, though not operating in their usual way, and pro sports
N E V E R
events have been happening, even if fans haven’t been able to buy tickets and fill arenas. It’s important to recognize that when you see that “Vegas is back!” proclamation, the Vegas being talked about is live entertainment. Maybe it should be “Live Entertainment is back!” The idea that there’s pent-up demand for the Vegas experience is based on the reemergence of the complete experience. After a year of COVID-19, we now know what Las Vegas looks like without concerts and shows. Live entertainment is the defining element, the spark of excitement that brings people here to enjoy everything else. * * * * * As bigger and better-known forms of live entertainment come back online, it’s important to acknowledge the other people and places that kept the electric spirit of Las Vegas alive during its darkest days. There are artists who made great personal sacrifices and took risks to go back to work entertaining people, putting aside inner conflict to do so. They feel lucky and grateful. They feel badly for their many colleagues who cannot yet entertain again, and they worry, like the rest of us, about their families and their futures. There are also small business operators bending and flexing and trying not to break while moving forward, meeting the challenges of ever-changing restrictions and mandates, and staying creative in order to keep those artists on the job and provide something fun for local and visiting audiences. Most of them are only making enough money to do it again the next day. There are new venues, like
S T O P P E D
LV W C OV E R S T O R Y
2.25.21
M U S I C
N E V E R
S T O P P E D
John Lloyd Young at the Space
T H E
12
(Photographs by Steve Marcus/Staff)
Notoriety at Downtown’s Neonopolis complex on Fremont Street, which has fought its way forward and hosted a multitude of Vegas-style shows ranging from magic to music to comedy. There are local institutions, like the Italian American Club on East Sahara and the Sand Dollar Lounge on Spring Mountain, adjusting their programming and operations to provide a safe and friendly version of familiar entertainment that has been available for decades. There are casino venues like the Piazza Lounge at the Tuscany, holding it down when it seems like everything else is closed, sharing a few songs and warm hospitality when those simple things mean more than they did before. “These venues are also small businesses that are struggling,” singer Jassen Allen says. “They’re trying to find their way, too, because it’s not
Vegas without entertainment. Food, entertainment and gambling—if you take one of those elements away, it doesn’t feel the same.” Allen is a rarity, an entertainer who has managed to stay busy during the pandemic. He landed a gig at Bellagio’s Mayfair Supper Club just as the Strip was shutting down last spring. The Iowa native and veteran of cruise ship entertainment returned when casinos reopened in the summer, resuming his musical duties for the Mondays Dark charity show. Then came gigs at the Tuscany, the new Vegas Room, the Italian restaurant Prosecco and more. It’s been great, but it hasn’t been easy. “We don’t take performing in these times for granted. We know it’s a tricky and difficult decision to make on our end as well, and don’t think anyone out there is doing it to make a bunch of money, because
that’s not happening,” Allen says. “These are our hearts and lives. When I perform, I perform in honor of all my friends and fellow singers who are waiting for it all to reopen.” * * * * * One of Allen’s musical homes is the Space (3460 Cavaretta Court, 702-903-1070, thespacelv.com), which was an empty warehouse and formerly a boxing gym owned by rapper 50 Cent until Mark Shunock, an actor who came to Las Vegas to perform in Rock of Ages at the Venetian in 2013, leased it to be the home of his monthly Mondays Dark variety show fundraising events. Shunock didn’t originally plan to turn the little venue just off the Strip into a bustling black box theater and event rental spot when he took control in 2017. He also didn’t know the Space would become a hub for
2.25.21
LV W C OV E R S T O R Y
Broadway Mixtape at the Space
experienced,” Shunock says. “We haven’t had 300 people in the building, but our crew still had the chance to pick up two or three shifts a week during COVID from April on, and that’s because of [livestream shows]. We’re a tiny business and a tight-knit family, so it was nice to do that. And we’re excited to go back to some normal sense of putting butts in seats and keeping our scene and our culture alive.” * * * * *
pandemic-era livestream shows when he began outfitting his main theater with cameras and other gear in late 2019; that project started so he could broadcast shows to his Canadian parents back home in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Since last year’s shutdown, the Space has hosted two Mondays Dark shows every month; a livestream telethon rounding up dozens of Vegas entertainers to raise more than $120,000 for unemployed local performing arts workers; pay-per-view shows by Strip headliners like The Righteous Brothers, the Thunder From Down Under crew and The Bronx Wanderers; and more recently, limited live audience and livestream broadcast hybrids featuring popular performers from Vegas and
Broadway. “The willingness of the artists to want to work in a time when there was no work” has given the venue a boost, Shunock says. “Our effort has been on creating a safe environment when we only have six staff members, getting everyone tested, following CDC guidelines and just being able to get it out there, having the technology in place so these performers of all walks can earn a few bucks.” A partnership with Broadway World expanded the Space’s livestream visibility, especially when stage favorites like John Lloyd Young, Adam Pascal and Syndee Winters (who performed with Grammy-winning bass player Ben Williams in January) broadcast their own performances live from Las Vegas.
“That’s a big deal for us in the sense that it put the Space on the map in the eyes of the Broadway community,” Shunock says. “It immediately says to them that the Space is a home for us and we can do shows here, and as restrictions lighten up, I think that’s going to get better.” This week brings shows from David Perrico’s Pop Strings Orchestra on February 26 and Grateful Dead tribute act Catfish John on February 27, and Strip comedian John Caparulo will kick off a monthly series on March 9. Perhaps best known locally as a host for Vegas Golden Knights games, Shunock has seen his career in Las Vegas evolve from entertainer to producer and theater operator, but like many artists, he’s been working on personal creative pursuits during the pandemic. He’s also looking ahead and planning the next evolution of the Space, which might include new staff to take over music programming with an eye on independent regional touring acts. “One of the things we’re most proud of is being able to keep our team employed during the worst possible time we’ve all
It’s not easy to build a specific culture in Las Vegas or anywhere else. The Space had the foundation of Mondays Dark, a familiar name that has been entertaining local audiences for more than seven years and has raised more than a million dollars for local charity groups. A few miles away at Commercial Center on the other side of the Strip, another specific culture is being built at a venue born during the pandemic. The Vegas Room (953 E. Sahara Ave., 702-206-7059, thevegasroom.com) was already on its way to becoming a throwback supper club and listening room before the virus complicated everything. Musician-turned-promoter Tom Michel, chef David Robinson and their team opened its catering operation in 2019 and quickly pivoted to combine great food with intimate entertainment based on early response and the place’s unique setting. It officially opened with intimate dinner and Sunday brunch shows in June, serving audiences of around 40 people, and quickly became a go-to spot for top talent from Vegas shows and lounges, including Serena Henry, Michelle Johnson, Randal Keith, Amanda
13I
LV W C OV E R S T O R Y
A
B I G O F
2.25.21
P A R T T H E
B A T T L E I S
L E T T I N G P E O P L E K N O W
I T
E X I S T S . ” – ADMIT VIP CEO Pete Housley
King, Ruby Lewis, Rita Lim, Skye Dee Miles and Janien Valentine. “A listening room is a great way to describe it, because it’s almost as if the artist has invited you to their living room to sing for you,” says Allen, who performed at the Vegas Room twice before joining the team as entertainment director in December. “With something as intimate as this, people want to hear you sing and see you dance, but they also want to see your humanity. That’s where the Vegas Room shines.” Allen’s plan for the venue is to continue curating local and regional acts—“incredible performers and maybe haven’t had the opportunity or the right venue or chance. And as Michel explains, those artists will find creative freedom awaiting them at the Vegas Room. “We don’t tell performers what
to do. We let them set their own show,” he says. “A lot of them tend to be semiautobiographical, so you end up not only with music but stories that intertwine. I think that goes back to the current COVID [conditions]—we’re all a lot more exposed to what people are dealing with right now, and people are looking for that kind of common humanity.” Dinner at the Vegas room starts at 6:30 p.m., and the show begins at 8. “We don’t serve during the performance,” Michel says. You don’t hear talking and drinks and slot machines, “which is unusual.” Next up are The Doo Wop Kings on February 25-27, then Nieve Malandra takes over for brunch on February 28. The future’s all about expansion. A shuttered 7,000-square-foot nightclub space at Commercial Center is set to become the Nevada Room and is
under construction to create a piano bar-bistro for more retro-style dinner shows (expected to open in April) and a showroom for larger acts and productions (slated for the fall). “Fast-forward to maybe December, when COVID is hopefully more in our rearview than not, and we have three choices,” Michel says. “Maybe you want to see our Christmas show in the Nevada Room, or just go and have dinner at the piano bar, or maybe another entertainer just put out an album and is doing something more intimate at the Vegas Room. You can take your pick.” * * * * * Between innovative venues like these and “ambient”—i.e., unticketed, background—entertainment at restaurants, bars and lounges across the Vegas Valley, live
Jassen Allen at the Vegas Room
(Photograph by Christopher DeVargas/Staff)
14
2.25.21
M U S I C
music has persevered throughout the pandemic. But traditional casino-style production shows have been performed during the COVID-19 era, too—you just have to know where to look. It doesn’t have a casino or any superstar headliners, but the Alexis Park Resort (375 E. Harmon Ave., 702-796-3300, alexispark. com) suddenly became a serious hub for recognizable Vegas entertainment in 2020. Admit VIP Entertainment began producing shows like male revue Black Magic Live and the burlesque Comedy & Dolls there in 2018, but when the all-in-one entertainment company’s other venue partners struggled to reopen last summer, everything was funneled into this off-Strip hotel. Admit VIP CEO Pete Housley says he partnered with Alexis Park to renovate its Pegasus Showroom with new ceilings, lights and sound, but the 150-seat venue doesn’t work for live shows under current restrictions—particularly the required 25-foot setback between stage and audience—so attention turned to ballroom spaces. Now, the makeshift Athena Showroom hosts the Motown Extreme tribute show (soon to be replaced by All Motown), the family-friendly Big Little Variety Show, male revue Rock Candy and sexy variety show BurlesQ, while the Apollo Showroom houses Amazing Magic With Tommy Wind, mentalist Alain Nu’s The Man Who Knows, Jokesters Comedy Club and the adult-oriented Late Night Magic. You can access them through the company’s own sales portal, Ticketkite.com. “Both rooms are hybrid showrooms with cameras to do live broadcasts, so soon enough you’ll be able to come see Rock Candy and also watch it live on TV,” Hous-
N E V E R
S T O P P E D
ley says. “It just makes sense. I can have a million people watching on livecams, and I don’t have to worry about seating regulations or other COVID stuff.” Meanwhile, the Pegasus space has been repurposed for virtual shows from various local producers and performers, expanding Admit VIP’s network. Many of these performances have been consistently selling out. That might not sound impressive while audiences are capped at 50 or 100 people, but keep in mind many Vegas visitors aren’t aware any shows are open these days, simply because big casino productions have been closed. “A big part of the battle is letting people know it exists,” Housley says. “The way we used to market is tremendously different from what we do now, but we also don’t have as much competition, plus the cost of advertising is not what it used to be. “But there are still a lot of people coming to Vegas, so we’re still trying to come up with different productions—and trying to find something for everybody.” * * * * * Meanwhile, the upstart Mosaic on the Strip (3765 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-444-7622, mosaiconthestrip.com), which brought shows back to the Strip first in October, has a different blueprint in place. The freestanding theater on Las Vegas Boulevard near the Showcase Mall occupies the space once home to Club Utopia, Krave Nightclub and Empire Ballroom. As Mosaic, it’s operated by promoter Dean Coleman, who opened male revue Aussie Heat and classic rock tribute Queens of Rock in the fall, using an independent-minded model. By offering each produc-
Tricky Tatiana of BurlesQ at Alexis Park (Photograph by Wade Vandervort/Staff)
T H E
LV W C OV E R S T O R Y
15I
16
LV W C OV E R S T O R Y
2.25.21
T H E
M U S I C
N E V E R
S T O P P E D
Colte Julian as Elton John at the Vegas Room
tion company a flexible, a la carte menu of promotion and support, Coleman keeps costs down while making shows more sustainable. And, “we’ve developed our own ticketing platform, so we can do direct marketing to the people who only want to look at entertainment, not Grand Canyon tours or renting scooters or stuff like that,” he explains. Mosaic has the advantage of its Strip location, a spacious venue and plenty of parking. Coleman plans to add his long-gestating Michael Jackson tribute show, MJ the Evolution, to the rotation soon, and while Mosaic’s shows certainly compete with what’s happening in casino showrooms, he’s still excited about the Strip entertainment reopening push. “All I really care about is the entertainment aspect, focusing on the shows and adhering to the guidelines to be as safe as we can,” Coleman says. “I welcome all the shows coming back and welcome the change. It will help our shows as well, because it makes people more aware.” The Strip’s casino-resorts still drive live entertainment in Las Vegas. They always will. But there are important lessons to be learned from a bizarre, quiet year in this essential industry. “I really hope casinos and hotels remember that entertainment was something else,” Admit’s Housley says. “Until the ’80s and early ’90s, Vegas hotels generated traffic based on entertainment. It was, ‘I want to go to the Dunes or the Sands because Frank Sinatra is playing.’ That was a conscious decision. Hopefully, after all this, we’ll see entertainment as a critical component that you need to have.” (Photograph by Wade Vandervort/Staff)
MORE OFFERS
NEW MEMBERS EARN
For every 1,000 base points earned, receive $7 in Free Play! New Members only. Must be an A-Play Club Member. Offer not valid with any other offer. Promotion subject to change. See the Players Club for details.
gifT GIVEAWAY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26
TUESDAY, MARCH 2
Drone with Camera
Hair Trimmers
4:30PM – 7:30PM
5:00PM – 7:30PM
EARN 2,500 POINTS TO RECEIVE GIFT
EARN 1,777 POINTS TO RECEIVE GIFT
Visit the Silver Sevens 2nd Floor Event Room. Gifts may vary from images shown.
Valid photo ID required. Must be 21 years or older and an A-Play® Club member to participate. Silver Sevens reserves the right to change, modify, or cancel offers and promotions at any time. Bet with your head, not over it. Need Help? Call 1-800-BETS-OFF.
18
L A S V E G A S W E E K LY
2.25.21
HOUSE HUNTING Yes, people are shopping for homes online. You can, too BY C. MOON REED
A
PHOTO SHOPPING TIPS
A picture might tell a thousand words, but that’s still not the whole story. Look at home photos or videos with a critical eye. ■ Lots of Vegas home listings feature impossibly beautiful colors. If the sky looks bluer than blue and the stucco just seems to pop, photos have probably been altered. That isn’t necessarily a red flag; it’s hard to resist a good filter these days. But your real estate agent can help by taking their own photos for a dose of unbiased reality.
(Shutterstock/Photo Illustrations)
house is typically a person’s largest single purchase, so it might seem crazy to buy one without stepping foot inside. Yet in 2020, 63 percent of homes sold in the United States were bought sight unseen, according to Las Vegan Matt Garnes of Nova Home Loans. Sometimes, a virtual buy becomes necessary, either because of pandemic concerns or when a buyer is shopping from outside the area. Las Vegan Leslie Hoke, a real estate agent with Premier Realty Group, has sold houses virtually. “I did it for a military couple who were both stationed in the Middle East,” she says. Hoke led them on video tours using FaceTime and WhatsApp. “When they came back to the States, [the condo] was theirs, and they were very happy with it.” Despite the pandemic and the recession, it remains a competitive seller’s market in Las Vegas. Potential buyers, motivated by historically low interest rates, are met with a relatively low inventory of available homes in Southern Nevada. And that means more buyers are competing for the same properties, thus raising prices. The most desirable homes tend to get snapped up quickly, so a virtual home tour could give a buyer an edge on the competition, while also helping protect them from the risk of COVID-19. “If sellers are pricing the house right, people will send in offers without even seeing the house,” Hoke says. But it’s not for everybody. Hoke says it works best when online house hunters are already somewhat familiar with the area. It’s not just about the home itself, after all; it’s also about the location, the neighborhood and its amenities. The perfect candidate for a remote purchase, Hoke says, is someone who “knows exactly what they want [and] is familiar with Las Vegas but can’t be here in person.” If you’re up for a remote purchase, Hoke says a good relationship with your real estate agent is a must. You’ll be seeing the property through their eyes, so trust is paramount. So how do you know if you’ve found a good agent? Hoke says to look for someone who can answer all your questions with confident responses. And, obviously, a good long-distance agent must be comfortable leading clients on virtual tours. Even paired with an informed agent, you’ll want to do your own research. Sites like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com can help educate buyers in advance. “You can never do enough research,” Hoke says.
■ If a home is staged with incredible decor and the hippest furniture, remember that it won’t look that way when you move in. Picture the house empty or with your own stuff in it. Is it as appealing?
■ Realtor.com advises looking for what photos might be hiding. Sellers can mask a small room by stretching out a picture or just focusing on one aspect of a room, like a bathroom sink.
2.25.21
L A S V E G A S W E E K LY
HOME ALWAYS ASK
There’s a level of uncertainty when buying property remotely, so your goal should be to clarify whenever possible. ■ Request a floor plan and the seller disclosure, Realtor.com recommends. These documents will give you a better idea of the home’s size and layout, and if there are any known issues. ■ Ask your agent to show you anything that might have been excluded from the listing photos. For example, an agent can zoom in on details such as ceilings, flooring, finishes and hardware that might be excluded from the photos. ■ Listing photos often don’t provide a feel for the way a home is situated within a neighborhood. Your agent should be able to help, potentially by taking you on a video walking tour of the immediate area. ■ Homelight.com suggests scrolling through social media sites like Nextdoor to get the inside scoop on your future neighborhood.
TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW
Sure, it’s fun to browse houses on Zillow or Trulia, but if you truly plan to buy, there’s some tedious work involved. Fortunately, you can do it all online. First step: Getting preapproved for a mortgage. Seek out a lender that allows you to do the paperwork online. Also, work with a mortgage company to schedule a home appraisal and to underwrite the loan, recommends Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans. Once you’ve found a home, your real estate agent can submit an offer letter on your behalf. Next comes the inspection. Generally, the buyer would be present for that process, but if you can’t attend, Realtor.com advises sending your agent in your place to “learn firsthand what the inspector has found.” Your agent will be your eyes and ears, so plan to discuss the results after the inspection. Finally, when it comes time to close on your new home, you’ll review the final paperwork and sign the documents online. Exact details might vary.
IN-PERSON SAFETY When possible, it’s still best to visit a potential new home IRL before buying. But, of course, you don’t want to risk a potentially deadly virus in the process. ¶ Hoke says that when giving in-person home tours, she follows pandemic guidelines: masks, sanitizers and social distancing. Generally, it’s fairly easy to spread out when touring a home. ¶ In terms of distancing, Hoke says vacant homes are best. If a listed home is still occupied, however, Hoke says sellers typically leave during tours for safety reasons.
ONLINE SELLING ADVICE
■ Hire a professional photographer. Hoke does this for all her listings. Bad photos can lower the offer amount. ■ If a weekend project can improve curb appeal—like pressure washing the exterior or sprucing up the front yard—do it, HGTV. com advises. ■ Remove clutter, personal items, signs of pets and excess furniture to provide a roomier look for buyers imagining their stuff inside the house. ■ Consider virtual staging. If you can’t afford a traditional stager, technology can help. Virtual staging fills your house with digital decor to help buyers visualize the home at its best. There’s a mix of full-service and DIY virtual staging options out there, which your agent can help you navigate.
19I
20
L A S V E G A S W E E K LY
2.25.21
CHEF’S CHOICE Slurp Society’s Lanny Chin envisions a restaurant empire BY GENEVIE DURANO
C
hef Lanny Chin has only been in Las Vegas for about six years, but he’s already become a mainstay in the local culinary scene, on and off the Strip. Since relocating from Cleveland, he has served as executive chef of PKWY Tavern and Clique Hospitality’s Apex Social Club, and opened Greene St. Kitchen at the Palms as chef de cuisine. He was also tapped to helm the much-anticipated Slanted Door at the Forum Shops at Caesars, which opened briefly before the pandemic hit. Oh, and he’s a Chopped champion, too. These days, you’ll find Chin Downtown at Vegas Test Kitchen, where he’s serving up ramen goodness at Slurp Society. The Weekly caught up with the Ohio transplant to chat about what makes the Vegas food scene unique and some lessons we can learn from these challenging times. What excites you about the Las Vegas food scene right now? It’s super diverse. Cleveland has a great food scene, but in a lot of ways, chefs are doing the same thing. In Vegas, I feel like there’s so many great people going in different directions. And the chef community here is great, super supportive of each other. Everybody just wants to do really good food, especial-
ly in a situation [like] Test Kitchen. Every week I see different chefs coming through and supporting all the different concepts there. In your opinion, what makes a good ramen bowl? The broth is key; it’s everything. Mine is a little bit different. I make a chicken base, I make a pork base and I blend them. Then I season that. It’s sort of a hybrid of a tonkatsu broth and a shoyu broth. It’s very pork-y—a lot of pork fat, super rich—but then I season it with a fair amount of soy sauce as well. It’s a little bit nontraditional, but that’s OK. What kinds of food did you eat growing up? My grandfather came over from China with my great-grandparents, and the rest of my family is [from] West Virginia, so it’s a very eclectic mix. We spent pretty much every Sunday at my grandmother’s house, eating together as a family, so those are very comforting flavors I grew up with. On my mom’s side of the family it was a lot of comfort food, things like stuffed cabbage, meatloaf, classic Midwest comfort foods. If I could open something that married those two [cuisines] in one restaurant, I think it’s worth exploring. To me, the best meals are meals that make me feel comfortable, make me happy.
2.25.21
L A S V E G A S W E E K LY
WEEKLY Q&A The restaurant industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. What have been your biggest takeaways from this time? Probably my health. I took my health very seriously this year, and I’ve lost, at this point, about 65 pounds. I feel great. From a professional standpoint, I’ve come to the realization that there’s literally nothing that separates me from people who have multiple restaurants or multiple concepts. Up until this last year, I’ve never thought to myself that I want to own my own restaurant, or, you know, my own little restaurant empire.
And that has completely changed. Now I’m at a point in my career where I want those things, and I want to be able to provide jobs to the community, provide super positive work environments for people and afford myself a certain quality of life. I love being in the kitchen, but I’m nearing 40 years old. There’s only so long a chef can be on the line, working 16, 18 hours a day, and I don’t know [at] what age I’m not going to be able to do that anymore. But at some point, I need to have a different plan, and I think now is the time to start acting on it. This is a great town to do that in, because Las Vegas attracts a kind of pioneering spirit. Absolutely. We have a lot of people who are very passionate about great and interesting food and trying new and different things. On the Strip, there’s a different mindset: Even if you grew up in the Midwest with limited food options, here you’re on vacation and you’re more likely to try something different. You feel like that’s the right time to do it, and you’re kind of out of your comfort zone. There’s this really great opportunity to do good food, whether it’s for locals or the tourist base. I think the more you slowly push those boundaries, the more you can educate people, and that’s really exciting.
Chef Lanny Chin with a bowl of Slurp Society ramen at Vegas Test Kitchen. (Wade Vandervort/Staff)
What do you think will be the lasting impact of this moment in the restaurant industry? The biggest thing from the pandemic is, people were able to adapt, change a business model, figure it out and come up with creative solutions, instead of letting the situation get the best of them. I think that moving forward, people are going to look at opportunities like this and say, you know what, we did it once, we can do it again. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s not going to be exactly what you want to do. But you’re going to make it work.
21I
22
LV W C U LT U R E
2.25.21
BIG THIS WEEK PODCAST
GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUNDS Hosted by Saira Rahman, HMBradley’s vice president of finance, and her friend Megan McShane, this podcast finds two very different millennials diving into the world of money in a way that actually makes saving and investing sound interesting. Whether you’re already a financial wiz like Rahman or you’re like McShane—without a savings account and no idea where the money goes each week—there’s something useful in every easy-to-digest, 15-minute episode. Girlsjustwannahavefunds.com. –Leslie Ventura
DAFT PUNK: ALIVE 2007 Daft Punk might be done— Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo announced the group’s dissolution earlier this week—but we’ll always have the band’s 2007 Vegoose festival set, approximated on this terrific live album.
SHOW TV
THE LADY AND THE DALE At the height of the 1970s oil crisis, entrepreneur G. Elizabeth Carmichael promised to deliver a low-cost, 70 MPG car called the Dale. Unfortunately, the car was a sham, and Carmichael a longtime con artist. But more remarkably, Carmichael was born a man who transitioned in the late 1960s. Nick Cammilleri and Zackary Drucker’s four-part documentary considers the intersection of fraud, gender identity and, unexpectedly, journalistic ethics; a key figure in the story is muckraker Dick Carlson, Tucker Carlson’s father. HBO, HBO Max. –Geoff Carter
THE DOO WOP KINGS AT THE VEGAS ROOM Michael Washington, Bryin Woods, Josh Smith and David Villella formed old-school a capella outfit The Doo Wop Kings while singing together in the seminal Strip production Vegas! The Show at the Saxe Theater, the busy venue at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. With Vegas! still plotting its return to the stage, the Kings are taking their smooth harmonies to the Vegas Room for a weekend set that should shine a deserving new spotlight on their talents and nostalgic vibes. February 25-27, 8 p.m. $85 (includes dinner), thevegasroom.com. –Brock Radke
The Lady and the Dale (Warner Media/Courtesy)
2.25.21
ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US One of the first runaway hit memes dropped 20 years ago this month. Based on a botched translation of a forgotten Sega Genesis game, All Your Base Are Belong to Us reached its apex with this crowdsourced music video. bit.ly/3bv9kGX
OUR PICKS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
TV
CALL MY AGENT! If you’ve binged The Office for the 10th time and are ready for another workplace comedy to break up the WFH monotony, queue up this French gem maintenant! The show follows the hijinks at a talent agency, where the agents jockey for position among themselves while bending over backward for the actors they represent. The show’s brilliant conceit is casting French cinema’s biggest stars—from Juliette Binoche to Isabelle Huppert to Charlotte Gainsbourg—but even with that star wattage, it’s the core cast that shines. The fourth and final season just dropped. Savor each episode like a delicious éclair. Netflix. –Genevie Durano
LV W C U LT U R E
23I
BOOK
HOW TO AVOID A CLIMATE DISASTER BY BILL GATES Whether you want to believe it or not, climate change is a looming threat. But the problem seems as untouchable as it is terrifying. Is there anything we can do to help? In How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, Bill Gates answers in the affirmative. The Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist shares insights from his decade-long investigation into the global calamity. He explains the need to achieve net-zero emissions and explores the technology that will help us get there. Gates ultimately offers a practical solution to climate change, along with optimism that it’s actually achievable. –C. Moon Reed
MUSIC
VIRGINIA WING: PRIVATE LIFE In the tradition of Jethro Tull, Luscious Jackson and Franz Ferdinand, Virginia Wing is a band named for a real person unaffiliated with that band—in this case the mother of Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick. The name of Virginia Wing’s frontwoman is actually Alice Merida Richards, and on the London trio’s fourth LP, she and her mates surge to someplace new. Where previous records evoked the bubbly electronic-pop of Broadcast and Dots and Loops Stereolab, Private Life fidgets more like Laurel Halo or Julia Holter, which is to say its instrumental maelstrom—swirling around energetic lyrics like “Are you still awake?/I’ve got more to say/I’ve got issues to address/ And habits to change”—compels listeners to dig ever deeper into its otherworldliness. Slick move, Virginia. –Spencer Patterson
24
5-MINUTE EXPERT
2.25.21
WE’LL MCU SOON
Untangling upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe happenings BY GEOFF CARTER
Warning: lots and lots of spoilers here. early 13 years ago, Marvel Studios released Iron Man, the first independently produced film adaptation of one of its comic book properties. Before that, Marvel licensed its characters to other studios to produce films based on them, some of which were faithful to the source material (Sony’s Spider-Man, New Line Cinema’s Blade) and some less so (Universal’s Hulk, Sony’s Spider-Man 3). But Iron Man was different. Marvel Studios employed a director (Jon Favreau) who wanted to stick closely to the comics, and a star (Robert Downey Jr.) who actually read the comics; and in their own Kevin Feige, they had a producer who would protect the legacy set forth by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Marvel’s many other creators. The result was a grounded, entertaining action thriller that ended with an after-credits scene that set up a massive, overlapping series of films and television shows—a figurative universe of interconnected storytelling. Currently, the Marvel Cinematic Universe—or MCU for short—comprises 23 films and a streaming television series. As you’d expect of something with so many moving parts, things are beginning to get a bit … complicated. Case in point: Three characters appearing in 2021 Marvel productions—Black Widow, Vision and Loki—were killed off in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War or 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. And now that Marvel has added television to the mix, you kinda need a scorecard to know who’s still playing and in what capacity. This, true believer, is that scorecard.
N
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE MCU
Marvel Studios is set to release a whopping eight movies and eight or more television shows over the next two years. The dates of the theatrical releases could be affected by COVID-19, and while Marvel president Feige says the studio hasn’t considered a streaming release like the one rival DC/Warner Bros. gave to Wonder Woman 1984,, there’s no telling what could happen if the pandemic doesn’t recede. But the dates of the television shows should stand.
(D
isn
ey
C +/
r ou
te
sy
Now showing: WandaVision (Disney+). Immediately follows Avengers: Endgame. Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) settle down in a suburban idyll based on classic sitcoms. Before long, Twilight Zone-like weirdness ensues. Two characters from other Marvel properties—Ant-Man’s Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) and Thor’s Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings)—get caught up in the action, and additional characters and events from this show will reportedly influence the storylines of no fewer than three upcoming MCU movies. March 19, 2021: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Disney+). Immediately follows Avengers: Endgame. Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes team up to continue the fight begun by their retired friend, Captain America. (No word on whether Chris Evans will reprise that role.) Characters from previous Captain America movies— notably Helmut Zemo (Daniel Brühl) and Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp)—will also return.
)
May 7, 2021: Black Widow (in theaters). Reportedly set between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Scarlett Johansson returns as the assassin-turned-hero. She’s joined by Red Guardian (David Harbour) and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), who might end up stepping into the role Johansson’s Black Widow once served on the Avengers team. May 2021: Loki (Disney+). Set after Avengers: Endgame. Tom Hiddleston returns as the fan-favorite trickster god from the Thor movies. This is a Loki from an alternate dimension created by the time-traveling escapades of the Avengers; he didn’t experience the events of Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok or Avengers: Infinity War. July 9, 2021: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (in theaters). Marvel’s superhuman martial arts master Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) makes his debut in a Destin Daniel Cretton film. He’ll likely be a next-generation Avenger. Summer 2021: What If…? (Disney+) An animated show considers possible—not canonical—alternate realities. Most of the MCU’s stars, including the late Chadwick Boseman, reprise their roles.
2.25.21
What about all that other Marvel TV? Freeform’s Cloak & Dagger? Hulu’s Helstrom and Runaways? ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter and Inhumans? Netflix’s Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, The Punisher, Iron Fist and The Defenders? These shows, loosely based on the MCU but largely self-contained, were created while a schism existed between Marvel’s film and television arms, and aren’t strictly canonical. Feige has recently hinted that some of the Netflix characters might reappear in Marvel’s new, top-down regulated continuity, however. No more Inhumans, though; it was terrible.
November 5, 2021: Eternals (in theaters). Nomadland director Chloé Zhao gives this alien race of heroes—introduced in the Guardians of the Galaxy films—its first feature. Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington and Gemma Chan star. Fall/winter 2021: Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye (Disney+). Iman Vellani stars as the former, Marvel’s first Pakistani-American hero. The latter sees Jeremy Renner reprising his role—his character is retired from the Avengers following the events of Avengers: Endgame—to train a young protégée, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld).
December 17, 2021: SpiderMan: No Way Home (in theaters). Follows Spider Man: Far From Home. Another Marvel/Sony co-production, this film (and also the next Doctor Strange) may change everything in the MCU: By casting actors who appeared in non-MCU Spider-Man movies, Marvel has fueled speculation that it’s about to embrace overlapping universes of storytelling. This could result in multiple Spider-Men sharing the screen with Tom Holland, and perhaps in characters from the 20th Century Fox X-Men series—the rights to which Marvel recently reacquired—joining the fray. (Hel-lo, Deadpool.) Marvel has already hinted as much by bringing Evan Peters’ Quicksilver into WandaVision from Fox’s X-Men: Days of Future Past and the two sequels that followed, replacing the Aaron Taylor-Johnson version of the character from Avengers: Age of Ultron. March 25, 2022: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (in theaters). Follows Doctor Strange and WandaVision. The good doctor (Benedict Cumberbatch) fights either alongside, or against, Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff. (The ending of WandaVision will tell.) The Multiverse title might be telling: Director Sam Raimi, architect of Sony’s first Spider-Man trilogy, could be the one to weave decades of Marvel storytelling—MCU, Fox, Sony and other—into a semi-cohesive whole. Bring back Nicholas Cage’s Ghost Rider, is all we’re saying. Rider
5-MINUTE EXPERT
May 6, 2022: Thor: Love and Thunder (in theaters). Follows Avengers: Endgame. Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and, why not, the Guardians of the Galaxy fight Gorr, the God Butcher (Christian Bale). Ragnarok’s Taiki Waititi returns to direct. July 8, 2022: Black Panther 2 (in theaters). Chadwick Boseman is gone (and won’t be recast), but his memory endures, and so does Wakanda. Ryan Coogler directs, and is reportedly developing a Wakanda series for Disney+. November 11, 2022: Captain Marvel 2 (in theaters). Follows Avengers: Endgame and WandaVision. Brie Larson returns as the title hero, alongside her friend Maria Rambeau’s grown-up daughter Monica (Teyonah Parris, now appearing in WandaVision) and the recently introduced Ms. Marvel (Vellani). Likely December 2022: The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (Disney+). James Gunn directs Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper and the rest of the Guardians crew in a … well, who knows what it is, except that it’ll lead directly into 2023’s theatrical Guardians sequel, feature some 1970s deep musical cuts and probably warm the heart. No approximate dates, but likely 2022: Moon Knight, She-Hulk (both Disney+). Ex Machina’s Oscar Isaac stars as the former, Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany as the latter.
(Shutterstock/Photo Illustration)
Likely 2023: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Fantastic Four, Blade (all in theaters). We know next to nothing about these, except that Mahershala Ali plays Blade. Good choice.
25I
26
LV W C U LT U R E
2.25.21
COUNTDOWN TO FUN Virgin Hotels Las Vegas has a broad entertainment array coming our way
W
e’re less than a month from the opening of Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and I’m thinking you’re not as excited as you should be. Sure, it’s been pushed back— from November to January to March 25—but that shouldn’t dampen your enthusiasm. Pandemic stuff. If it made sense to swing open the doors to that shiny new grand entrance in the fall, it would have happened. This place wants to see you really badly. Your Virgin anticipation should be reaching near-frenzy for a variety of reasons, some of which you already know about. Plenty of info about the hotel, casino and restaurants has been released, and the dining lineup in particular should give you a tingly sensation: Hakkasan Group’s Mexican cantina Casa Calavera, THE LA Thai street food phenom INCIDENTAL Night + Market, the MediterraTOURIST nean-themed Kassi Beach Club, BY BROCK RADKE the return of Todd English’s Olives, plus an evolution of the original Vegas Nobu and the Morton Brothers’ renovation and expansion of their stellar Hard Rock Hotel restaurant into One Steakhouse. You probably already know the legendary concert hall formerly known as the Joint will get a new name (it’s currently being called the Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas) and continue to be a major space for music and entertainment events,
thanks to a partnership with AEG Las Vegas. What hasn’t been completely revealed—only teased to entertainment writer folks like me—is the full entertainment picture at Virgin and the innovative, organic way its versatile venues might work together to create a very different experience for a Vegas resort. Head honcho Richard Bosworth, president and CEO of JC Hospitality, owner of Virgin Las Vegas, dropped a lot of hints in November, just before the opening date was delayed again. The theater space will bring the big energy and set the tone, much the way the Joint colored the vibe at the Hard Rock, but many other entertainment experiences will be sprinkled throughout Virgin.
The old Vinyl room becomes 24 Oxford, named for the address of Virgin mogul Richard Branson’s first record store in London, and will have “a bit of a college bar-type of feeling where you can come in, get a little bit more comfortable, and maybe there’s an alt-rock band or a comedy show,” Bosworth says. “It’s going to be a versatile room. When I think of music venues and bars in major resorts, they don’t have that much that plays to that type of casual environment.” There are plans to highlight local musicians and performers there as well. Commons Club replaces the old Center Bar, though it won’t quite be in the same place, since the entire casino footprint has been altered to
2.25.21
LV W C U LT U R E
THE STRIP
Renderings of the event lawn and (below) resort pool (Virgin/Courtesy)
improve the flow. It will have more prominent entertainment than the Center Bar ever did, along with different environments, from Shag Room ultralounge to a 24-hour restaurant and bar space. “We’re going to have recognizable artists on any given day or night playing at the bar at Commons Club or at the Shag Room, and the goal is not to advertise or charge for it,” Bosworth says. “We’re going to mix it up, but the whole thought process is a little throwback to old Vegas, when you would walk into a lounge and you never knew who was going to get up and perform—that kind of surprise environment. We want to provide high-quality, exciting entertainment throughout the property as a normal course of business.” Bosworth has already stated that there are no plans for a big Vegas megaclub at Virgin, but the old Body English space will be redeveloped. The Vanity club space has become Money Baby!, a combo sports bar and entertainment venue. “We don’t need to be large to be successful, and we don’t need 100,000 or 50,000 square feet to provide that great experience,” he says. “We want to do it in smaller spaces where we can pay more attention to the customer and allow a more intimate experience with entertainment and great service.” If you prefer a more expansive space, you’ll find it outside at the five-acre pool and entertainment complex dubbed the Backyard. Virgin’s versatile event lawn will have fire pits, birdcage seating, shrubbery and block walls that separate the space from a path winding around the pools and various restaurant patios as well as an indoor event space called the Manor. Bosworth suggests the outdoor area will provide a Hollywood Bowl-type concert experience, and it will also be available for private events and weddings. The Hard Rock was known for its legendary Rehab pool parties, but this backyard space wasn’t originally designed for different events. Now it is, between a designated, relaxing resort pool experience and the event lawn. And in April, a separate, two-story dayclub will arrive, which Bosworth expects will compete with the biggest pool parties on the Strip. “The exception, I think, that will take it to a different level is adding some music festival elements, something you might see at Burning Man or EDC or Coachella,” he said. “We felt that was very important, with today’s generation of outdoor festivalgoers, to not just be a pool party but give it more of a festival element.” Are you excited now?
27I
LV W C U LT U R E
28
2.25.21
NOISE
WORTH THE WAIT Vegas rock band Citizens at Risk continues recording— and preparing for the day shows can resume
Citizens at Risk are (from left) Matheus Sá, Andy Gensel, Dave Rivas and Tilliam Mayo (Courtesy)
CITIZENS AT RISK Citizensatrisk.bandcamp.com Instagram.com/citizensatrisk Facebook.com/citizensatrisk
BY LESLIE VENTURA
F
or most of the past 365 days, the members of Las Vegas indie rock band Citizens at Risk haven’t practiced, recorded or even seen one another beyond a computer screen. Like many bands sauntering on during the pandemic, the four locals have relied on Zoom calls, email and Dropbox to share their ideas. It’s hardly the sort of sexy, dangerous-sounding scenario for which rock bands can be known, but it’s what works in the time of COVID. “We were playing shows every weekend from October 2019 to March of 2020, when COVID hit,” bassist Dave Rivas says. “We were gaining a lot of momentum, and then we had to switch into basically writing and recording mode.” Rivas wrote most of the instrumentals for the band’s debut EP, Microphallicosm, released in October. Since then, the group has been working on new material. “The music that’s out there is just the tip of the iceberg of what we have in store,” Rivas says. “We have three singles in the pipeline, and one of them is ready to go.”
Citizens at Risk formed in 2017 with a lineup of Rivas, drummer Andy Gensel and guitarist Tilliam Mayo—but it wasn’t until singer Matheus Sá arrived in late 2019 that the lineup was complete. Born and raised in Brazil, Sá regularly toured with indie bands in his home country before moving to Las Vegas. “I wanted to be an actor, but as you can see, it didn’t work,” Sá laughs. The vocalist sifted through Craigslist ads, hoping to find a new band to join, before coming across Citizens at Risk. Without a specific genre in mind, every member of Citizens at Risk brings his own unique style and sound to the band. Rivas previously played guitar in punk band Child Endangerment; Gensel brings a Bay Area vibe to his drumming technique; and Mayo, an electronic musician, originally auditioned on drums before learning guitar to play for Citizens at Risk. “We all write and have interesting, different tastes,” says Gensel of the band’s synthy, poppy, post-punk stew. “I think the direction is dictated by how we blend those things.” Back in Brazil, Sá says, “I used to tour and travel a lot
every weekend. We would just play shows and rehearse in the middle of the week, and that was it, nonstop.” That’s light years from how Citizens at Risk has worked over the past year during the pandemic, recording at home and exchanging parts over Zoom as the guys patiently await the day when they can jam in the same room and play to live crowds. Whenever normal life resumes, Gensel anticipates an overall attitude shift: being “more dedicated” to the music scene once the pandemic is over. “We were just starting to hang out with other bands, and then the pandemic hit,” he says. Mayo agrees, explaining that he misses “everything,” especially “being able to hang out with each other and have a good time.” Though they never expected to rely on technology this much to make their music, the members of Citizens at Risk are thankful it has allowed them to continue creating. And they know they’ll be back together when the timing’s right. “We’re all very conscientious,” Rivas says. “We don’t want to be a part of causing a superspreader event.”
THE DAY’S
BIGGEST NEWS
STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX Sign-up Now at LVSun.com/Optin
30
LV W C U LT U R E
2.25.21
ART
ART IN TI E Alisha Kerlin experiments with paint, words and junk mail at ASAP
BY C. MOON REED
A
lisha Kerlin is a shining star in the Las Vegas art scene. As the executive director of UNLV’s Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, she leads one of Nevada’s most important arts organizations. And yet, her success in showing others’ art has mostly kept her too busy to make her own. “I’m around art a lot. I live and work around it,” Kerlin says. “And I haven’t made a solo project since I became a director and a mother in the same year.”
That was half a decade ago. So when ASAP (Available Space Art Projects), located in New Orleans Square inside Commercial Center, offered Kerlin its space for the last week in February, she jumped at the chance to make and show new work. Deciding to “treat it as a residency,” Kerlin used the compressed time frame as a catalyst to finally prioritize artmaking. The competing roles of mother, artist and working professional appear in all aspects of Kerlin’s art, from the materials to the process to the com-
pleted works. Kerlin’s “studio” is her family breakfast table. Her canvas is literal junk mail. And her subject matter is snippets of conversation: what her 5-year old daughter says, artists’ dialogue, Zoom meetings and more. Kerlin says that it all “leaks into what the show is all about.” The title, Content May Settle, indicates the sort of provisional nature of life and art, especially during a pandemic. It fits perfectly with the mission of ASAP, which aims to be a workshop rather than a polished shrine to a final draft. It all creates a sense of energy and urgency to the art. While she’s best known for her administrative work, Kerlin is an artist
first. She has a master’s in painting, and an artist-in-residence program took her from a career in New York to a new life in Las Vegas. In the past, Kerlin made “very large oil paintings.” And while her general style is the same, she says her works now are “much smaller [and] a little bit looser.” “It starts with an object or text. Then there’s squishy, loose clouds, water, mud,” she says. “I lean toward anything that resembles a watery ocean, the desert horizon or a cloudy sky. Frankly, the compressed time I have to make art now has led to the way it looks.” Returning to artmaking has been “hard and kind of painful,” Kerlin admits. She battled against impostor syndrome, asking herself, “Is it weird to be a director and an artist? … Is what I’m making stupid? ... Are my muscles broken?” But she says the show has given her “permission to make again.” Content May Settle consists of 115 paintings framed on a backdrop of grocery store ads. “I’m aware that they’re imperfect,” Kerlin says. “I’m aware that they’re quick.” Yet, the seemingly homespun nature of the pieces cuts past the fancy facade and allows immediate access to the emotional core. The work feels authentic, honest and powerful. “When I found the junk mail, it just felt really fun and natural,” Kerlin says. “If it weren’t for ASAP, I probably wouldn’t have let this side of myself go.”
ALISHA KERLIN: CONTENT MAY SETTLE Through February 27, by appointment (email availablespaceartprojects@gmail.com), free. Artist reception February 27, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. ASAP, 900 Karen Ave. #C-214, availablespaceartprojects.com.
2.25.21
LV W C U LT U R E
ASAP: AN ARTIST’S PLACE TO PLAY
Artists Holly Lay and Homero Hidalgo saw something missing in the Las Vegas arts scene: experimental “project spaces,” which are common in places like San Francisco. So in May 2019, the two UNLV MFA grads created ASAP (Available Space Art Projects). They donate their shared studio space in Commercial Center’s New Orleans Square to a different artist one week a month, to encourage them to create something new. “We wanted to have a space where artists could come and experiment,” Lay says. “It’s not like an official gallery or anything; it’s more like a pop-up space for projects.” The co-owners give each artist the keys to the proverbial castle, allowing them to use the space however they see fit. The space is purposefully noncommercial: ASAP doesn’t take a commission on any art sold. It does accept donations to help keep the lights on. Past participants include painter/ photographer Krystal Ramirez, performer Heidi Rider, miniature sculptor Mary Sabo, installation artist Chad Scott and a class of UNLV art and architecture students studying public art. Upcoming projects will feature Iranian conceptual artist Nima Abkenar in April and wearable textile artist Jennifer Henry in June.
Alisha Kerlin at ASAP; (left) a piece from Content May Settle (Christopher DeVargas/Staff)
31I
32
LV W F O O D & D R I N K
2.25.21
FLAVOR EDGE El Luchador brings south-of-the-border splendor to the suburbs
El Luchador’s Triple Threat chimichanga (Christopher DeVargas/Staff)
2.25.21
FOOD & DRINK
EL LUCHADOR
BY GENEVIE DURANO
F
olks in Mountain’s Edge are fortunate that Andy Hooper, the restaurateur behind Locale and the Black Sheep, doesn’t like to stray too far from his home when dining out. He and his wife love Italian food, so he opened Locale mere blocks from his house so they’d have a place to pop in for a weeknight supper. His latest venture is El Luchador, a vibrant Mexican eatery that fits right into the neighborhood. It puts a fresh and modern spin on the cuisine, with food from executive chef Aaron Bryan paired with an outstanding tequila and mezcal program. “I love tequila and I love mezcal, and I love really good Mexican food, and I love having it right beside my house,” Hooper says. “We wanted to make sure the community has somewhere to go. So many people live in Mountain’s Edge, Rhodes Ranch and Southern Highlands, and we wanted to give them an opportunity to come get that Strip-level quality of food, service and atmosphere at a fraction of the price.” Once Hooper secured the spot, his
LV W F O O D & D R I N K
choice for a chef came easily, he says. Bryan came to Las Vegas by way of Southern California; he spent nine years at the Cosmopolitan, where he was a “jack of all trades,” opening the sports bars and Wicked Spoon, running food and beverage for the pools and working as executive chef at Eggslut before coming to work with Hooper. “I could not ask for a better team,” Bryan says. “Andy is probably the best owner I’ve ever worked for. Our values are the same when it comes to running the business. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel. We’re trying to feed the community here in Mountain’s Edge with the food they want to eat.” That means Mexican classics elevated but wholly approachable, starting with addictive complimentary house-made chips and salsa. Pair that with the creamy queso dip ($9), topped with chorizo to balance, or the tableside guacamole ($12) as you catch a game on several TVs in the convivial dining room. (There’s also a sizable patio.) Pace yourself on the apps, but
7825 Blue Diamond Road #102, 702-260-8709. Sunday-Thursday, 4:30-9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 4:30-10 p.m.
don’t skip the plated Elote en Plato ($8), charred corn prepared with pico de gallo, aioli, Fresno chili, cotija cheese and Tajín seasoning. Taco plates come three apiece, accompanied by rice and ranchero beans with pork belly. Choose from adobo beef ($14), carnitas ($12), chicken ($12), shrimp ($16), portabella mushroom ($10) or mahi-mahi ($14)—an
Mahi-mahi tacos and (above) Elote en Plato (Christopher DeVargas/Staff)
old favorite that’s been in the chef’s repertoire for years. “I’ve been selling my fish tacos for over 10 years at a couple different restaurant, and I can’t ever get rid of them, because it seems to be one of the items that everybody comes back for,” Bryan says, laughing. “They just keep on truckin’ with me.” Enchiladas—cheese ($10), your choice of protein ($14) or the vegetarian La Verdura ($12), with mushroom, black bean and elote—also come with rice and beans. And the aroma of sizzling fajitas (steak, chicken or shrimp) certainly turns heads as servers walk past. But perhaps the most Instagrammable dish on the menu is the Triple Threat chimichanga ($16), a behemoth of a meal stuffed with adobo beef, chicken or pork, pinto bean puree, and cotija and Jack cheeses. It’s topped with salsa verde, cilantro crema and enchilada sauce, striped like the colors of the Mexican flag. That was the dish that sealed the Hooper-Bryan partnership. “As soon as I put my knife into it and had my first bite, I knew he was the chef,” Hooper says. “That chimichanga is the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.”
33I
34
LV W F O O D & D R I N K
2.25.21
IN FOCUS Chef Bobby Silva zeroes in on technique at Sparrow + Wolf
BY BROCK RADKE
I
f you’re the type who makes the rounds at the hottest restaurants in town, you’ve eaten Bobby Silva’s food. He’s cooked at RM Seafood, SushiSamba and Momofuku, and helped open Sake Rok on the Strip and Hatsumi Downtown. Now he’s joined the Sparrow + Wolf team as chef de cuisine. “I’ve always been a big fan of what Brian [Howard] has been doing there, and for him to reach out and pull me in was really exciting,” says Silva, who joined the team in late November. “It’s wild to me, because we are like-minded as far as our approach to food, so we’ve been bouncing ideas off each other.” Silva has been acclimating to his new post and working with new kitchen collaborators, so it makes sense that he’s focused on inspiration and education right now. He says he’s “learning the place and letting it influence me more,” and that includes Sparrow’s approach to old-world techniques and detailed processes, which often result in seemingly simple yet richly delicious dishes. An early result is a new take on sunomono, the familiar Japanese appetizer of cucumber salad. Silva adds citrus-cured albacore as an umami-laden highlight, but the treatment of the cucumber is the real story. “This is a dish that looks like not a lot of thought goes into it, but it’s a process,” Silva says. “The cucumber must have the proper texture and flavor. I do a cure on the cucumbers to extract moisture, because when you season them they release a lot of water, and that will dilute your dish. Then I’ll marinate them in a rice vinegar solution, and that’s a whole other process, because the vinegar has been aged with kombu [edible kelp] for at least 48 hours.” Small details make a big difference when the plate hits your table—a shared philosophy between Sparrow + Wolf’s crew and its new chef.
Chef Bobby Silva at Sparrow + Wolf (Steve Marcus/Staff)
2.25.21
LV W F O O D & D R I N K
35I
FOOD & DRINK
HACKS These simple twists give the humble noodle packet new life BY LESLIE VENTURA Add an egg. This might be the most basic of add-ons, but it will take your ramen to the next level. For an even better indulgence, try your hand at a soft-boiled egg with a perfectly jamlike center, or marinate it in soy sauce, mirin and water for that extra jolt of umami. Skip the water. Use miso, chicken broth or vegetable stock in place of water to take your $1 ramen to flavortown. It takes zero effort to swap water with stock, and boiling ramen in broth will give the soup unexpected richness. Hit it with some spice (and some fat). Don’t be shy; try sriracha, sesame oil and chili paste or chili crisp. Get creative with your condiments, and don’t be afraid to turn up the sweet heat with some Lao Gan Ma chili crisp. Amazon reviewers speak of the condiment “ruining their life” because it’s so good. “You could tell me this causes impotency and I would still crave this,” wrote one buyer. Consider it the best $10 spent during the pandemic.
Think outside the (Maruchan) box. No shade at the ramen brand—we grew up on the pantry staple. But there are so many brands of instant noodles these days, all it takes is a trip to your nearest Asian grocery to get your hands on something highly rated, like NongShim’s Shin Black Noodle Soup. While technically not ramen, another noodle favorite is NongShim Chapagetti mixed with Spicy Seafood Neoguri. The earthy Korean black bean noodles really bring out the spiciness of the Neoguri udon.. Add some cooked ribeye, and you have a hearty meal perfect for the cold weather.
(Shutterstock/Photo Illustrations)
Add protein. For a rib-sticking twist, grill onions with oyster sauce and soy sauce, throw in a protein of your choice (ground pork for meat eaters or tofu for vegetarians) and cook thoroughly. Combine with cooked ramen, and enjoy.
36
LV W S P O R T S
2.25.21
TASK FORCE Behind senior leader Bailey Thomas, UNLV’s women’s basketball team works through its list of goals BY MIKE GRIMALA
E
very day, Bailey Thomas makes a to-do list. Lots of people do that, but her docket tends to go more in depth than your normal checklist. “Instead of ‘Do laundry,’ I’ll have ‘Put laundry in, take laundry out, dry, fold, put laundry away,’ ” Thomas says with a laugh. “It’s a very detailed list. I just enjoy crossing things off as I go through my day.” Maybe it’s her self-described analytical personality or her inner accounting major taking the wheel, but that’s exactly how Thomas has approached her senior year with the UNLV women’s basketball program. The former Centennial High star has methodically crossed off task after task while leading the scarlet and gray to its best season since she arrived as a transfer in 2017. After sweeping a two-game series at San Diego State on February 15 and 16, UNLV found itself with an 11-5 record in the Mountain West Conference, tied for the most wins of any team in the conference. Thomas, with her mission-oriented attitude and attention to detail, has been the driving force in the team’s bounce-back campaign. Her younger sister, Jade Thomas, a freshman guard at UNLV, has witnessed the list-centric behavior firsthand for a long time. “She’s definitely a planner,” Jade says. “She’ll cross something off, and it will be the most aggressive cross-off you’ve ever seen, like she just accomplished something so amazing. It’s part of her everyday life.”
The to-do list Bailey is now working through dates back to last year. The 2019-20 UNLV squad struggled to a 13-17 overall record and a 9-9 mark in conference play, culminating in a coaching change. Out was longtime head coach Kathy Olivier, replaced by former UNLV player Lindy La Rocque. That made the first item on Bailey’s list a rather obvious one: develop a strong relationship with the new coach. As the only senior on the roster—and UNLV’s longest-tenured player—she did everything she could to make La Rocque’s transition as smooth as possible. “Of course it’s nerve-racking—senior year, getting a new coach who didn’t recruit me,” Bailey says. “But I knew her pedigree, and I knew that me not buying in was not going to help the team. I wanted to give it a chance and make it work.” In her first Zoom meeting with the new coach, Bailey added another item to the checklist: become a vocal leader. Bailey’s hard-nosed, all-out style had already earned her the respect of her teammates. She was named Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year as a
junior, and no one questioned her commitment to winning. But stepping up and making her voice heard in video meetings and on the practice court wasn’t something that came naturally. Bailey made a concerted effort to come out of her shell, and the team gradually took on her personality, lists and all. Jade had never thought of her big sister as an in-your-face leader type while growing up, but over the offseason she got a close-up look as Bailey grew into the role. “I think she’s grown to be better around people,” Jade says. “She was always good, but now I see it’s like she can influence people without forcing it. She’s always been very straightforward. We have kind of an inside joke on the team—we call her President Bailey, because she leads by example in that presidential way.” As the season drew nearer, La Rocque gave Bailey perhaps her most difficult chore: play point guard. Bailey had no prior experience at the position, having spent her prep
REMAINING SCHEDULE February 25: at Fresno State, 6 p.m., Mountain West Network February 27: at Fresno State, 1 p.m., Mountain West Network March 7-10: Mountain West Conference Tournament at Thomas & Mack Center, times, opponents and broadcast info TBD
( S te ve M
a rc u s / S
taff/Photo Illustration)
BAILEY THOMAS
and early college career off the ball as a defensive-minded wing player. But as La Rocque gauged the assorted skill sets on the UNLV roster, it became clear to her that Bailey was the best option. “It wasn’t my intention or plan, but that’s sort of how the roster fell out,” La Rocque says. “I thrust that upon her. I asked if she’d do it, and with her selflessness and willingness to do what’s best for the team, she said, ‘I’ve never done it, but I’ll try.’ ” It was one task Bailey was not able to cross off immediately. There were growing pains, like during a season-opening loss to Northern Arizona, in which she tallied 10 points and a team-high five assists but also fouled out after just 30 minutes. “That was her first real basketball game at the Division I level as a point guard,” La Rocque says. “We were watching film afterward, and I’m telling her you’ve got to do this, do that, and
the next day at practice she was doing it. That let me know that it was going to work. With Bailey, I can talk to her, show her, tell her, and there’s immediate carryover. She wants to do it right.” Bailey has since made herself into one of the Mountain West’s top point guards. She’s scoring 10.1 points and grabbing 4.1 rebounds per game, and her 95 assists were tied for most in the conference at press time. She has also more than made up for her early exit in the season opener—at press time, Bailey ranked first in the nation in minutes played. Bailey can probably cross that position change off her list as done. “I still can’t believe I’m playing point guard,” she says. “Coach La Rocque showed a lot of trust in me to be a leader. You have to know every play, every spot on the floor. Usually if there’s a mistake or someone doesn’t know the play, it’s your fault. But we needed a leader in that position, and having Coach behind me has really helped. The season’s almost over and we’re doing well, so I guess it’s working out.” When the Mountain West Conference tournament begins March 7, Bailey will have one more task to accomplish: win the thing and lead UNLV to the NCAA Tournament. UNLV hasn’t participated in the Big Dance since 2002, but Bailey does have limited tournament experience. She was a freshman at West Virginia during the 2016-17 season, when the Mountaineers made it to the second round, though she only saw the court for a total of one minute. Bailey transferred to UNLV following that season and now has her hometown team poised for a potential March run. “I think I’ve lost in the first round of the [conference] tournament every year I’ve been here, so I definitely want to get past that point,” Thomas says. “I want to win it. We have a really good team, and I think we can do it.” Such an achievement would definitely be worthy of an extra-aggressive crossoff. “I like to feel accomplished,” Bailey says. “That’s what I get my happiness from, accomplishments and getting things done.”
UNLV senior guard Bailey Thomas, second from left, poses with her sister Jade and parents Derek and Julie Thomas (Steve Marcus/Staff)
LV W S P O R T S
37I
Alex Tuch (NHLI/Via Getty Images)
2.25.21
PLAYER OF THE WEEKLY: ALEX TUCH It was a tough week for the Golden Knights with two regulation losses to the Avalanche, but Alex Tuch’s goal at Lake Tahoe on Saturday was worth talking about. He came in on Colorado goalie Philipp Grubauer and pulled off a spin-o-rama back-hander to bring Vegas within a goal.
Report THIS WEEK’S VOTE 1. Alex Tuch 2. Alec Martinez 3. Alex Pietrangelo 4. Jonathan Marchessault 5. Marc-André Fleury As voted by Las Vegas Weekly’s panel based on games February 15-21. SEASON STANDINGS 1. Max Pacioretty (15 points) 2. Mark Stone (14 points) 3. Marc-André Fleury/Jonathan Marchessault (tie, 13 points) 5. Alex Tuch (9 points) 5 points for 1st place in a week, 4 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd, 2 for 4th, 1 for 5th. UPCOMING GAMES February 25 at San Jose Sharks, 7:30 p.m. February 27 at Anaheim Ducks, 7 p.m. March 1 vs. Minnesota Wild, 7 p.m. March 3 vs. Minnesota Wild, 7 p.m. Games air on AT&T SportsNet and 98.9-FM/ 1340-AM unless noted. STANLEY CUP ODDS: 7-to-1 at Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook PROSPECT WATCH: PEYTON KREBS The 20-year-old first-round pick from 2019 looked right at home in his first pro action, netting a goal and five points in five games with the Silver Knights. With the WHL season starting next month, he’s now off to his junior team, the Winnipeg Ice, per NHL requirements. Krebs is expected to dominate there after putting up 60 points and 38 goals with the Ice last season.
38
VEGAS INC BUSINESS
2.25.21
Pandemic accelerates move toward cashless casino industry
O
BY BRYAN HORWATH
mer Sattar, executive vice president and co-founder of Sightline Payments, anticipates that three out of every four casinos in the United States will offer some form of cashless payment system for gaming within the next three years. And Sightline, a Las Vegas-based financial tech firm helping make the casino industry less cashdependent, hopes to capitalize on the marketplace. The industry—synonymous with cash for decades—has flirted with the cashless concept for years, but Sattar and others believe consumer habits driven by the COVID-19 pandemic will help that courtship progress. “You can go to almost any casino in the country, and if you want to play blackjack or play a slot machine, you’re going to be using cash,” Sattar said. “In your everyday life, however, you use electronic payment options for almost everything. In the next 36 months, we believe you’ll see 60-70% of the U.S. casino industry offering some form of cashless.” Sightline, which has 43 employees in Las Vegas and 70 total, has worked with gaming companies like MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, and game technology firms like Aristocrat Technologies, to bring forth cashless payment options. Much of what it has done to date has been in the sports-betting arena. For instance, Sightline’s Play+ program allows BetMGM or William Hill mobile account users to load money into their sports betting account through a prepaid card without stepping foot in a casino. The card can also be used like a debit card to make purchases, though fees apply—for every $100 loaded, it costs $4 in fees. Taking the concept further, Sattar said a deal is in place with a major Strip casino operator to allow
loyalty program members to use a cashless system to pay for their entire experience at the property. That could include lunch at a restaurant or a few hands of blackjack, all without handling paper money. The endgame, Sattar said, is that casinos nationwide would require a customer to do nothing more than present a smartphone to gamble—no touching potentially germ-laced money or unwrinkling old bills. There are reasons why the industry has generally been reluctant to move away from the cash standard—security concerns among them—but Sattar said the pandemic has put the changeover into overdrive.
“Places were getting shut down in March [2020], and we started getting calls from casino operators around the country in May,” Sattar said. “They were saying they needed to open and that many of their consumers were no longer comfortable using cash. Contactless payments have skyrocketed all around the world, because consumers are wanting to touch less paper.” It’s all part of a trend that isn’t likely to slow down. Last year, Gary Ellis, owner of Ellis Island Hotel, Casino & Brewery in Las Vegas, started testing a cashless line of credit system for casino loyalty program members. That system, called Marker Trax, was set to debut at Morongo, a tribal casino in Cabazon, California, early this year. This month, Sightline, along with Aristocrat, announced the launch of Boyd Gaming’s BoydPay digital wallet product at casinos in Indiana and Ohio. The system, which is also in a trial phase at Aliante Casino in North Las Vegas, allows gamblers to play slot machines using their Boyd loyalty card account without handling any cash. Boyd officials have said they plan to have the option in place at all of their casinos sometime this summer. Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, said one silver lining in an otherwise disastrous past 11 months for the industry has been the acceptance of digital payment options. He said it’s important to present gamblers with the same “payment choice they expect in every aspect of their daily lives.”
Sightline Payments co-founder Omer Sattar (Wade Vandervort/Staff)
The Largest Medical School Welcomes The Newest Medical School Congratulations UNLV School of Medicine on achieving accreditation! We look forward to working together to solve the physician shortage in our state. Shelley Berkley
CEO and Senior Provost Touro University Western Division
Dr. Wolfgang Gilliar
Dean College of Osteopathic Medicine
LEADING THE WAY IN TEACHING THE HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS AND EDUCATORS OF TOMORROW WHILE CARING FOR OUR COMMUNITY Touro University Nevada
874 American Pacific Drive, Henderson, NV 89014
702-777-8687
Touro University Nevada is accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) as a branch campus of Touro University California and licensed in Nevada by the Commission on Post-Secondary Education. Touro University Nevada does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, age, sex, gender, color, creed, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability.
40
VEGAS INC BUSINESS
2.25.21
VegasInc Giving Notes Credit One Bank granted more than $1.75 million to 23 organizations in Southern Nevada in 2020. The grants ranged from $10,000 to $140,000. Organizations that benefited included the Academy of Finance at Clark High School, HELP of Southern Nevada, Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada, the Shade Tree, U.S. Vets – Las Vegas and 18 others. In addition, Credit One committed to donating $1 million as part of a new partnership with Best Friends Animal Society to help grow operations and outreach across the country to animal shelters and rescue groups, as well as promote foster, adoption, advocacy and spay-andneuter practices. Nevada Gold Mines, operated by Barrick, launched the Endowment Fund, with a $500,000 initial investment to support community needs and a Heritage Fund to support local nonprofit organizations via employee giving. Through the Heritage Fund, Nevada Gold Mines employees can help nonprofit organizations of their choice. All 7,000 employees got $25 to start their giving account, and 120% of each employee contribution to qualified
organizations or to the Endowment Fund will be matched. SR Construction donated $5,120 to St. Jude’s Ranch for Children. The donation will assist the nonprofit organization in its efforts to provide a safe, nurturing home with therapeutic residential treatment services to abused and neglected children in Nevada. The Shade Tree and Noah’s Animal House announced $5,000 donations to each organization from Findlay Toyota on behalf of the Southern Nevada Toyota Dealers. The Shade Tree also received a $65,000 donation from the Estate of Laurel Davis. UFC announced a five-year extension of its longstanding collaboration with Cleveland Clinic and its continued support of the Professional Athletes Brain Health Study. Supported by a $1 million contribution to the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, the contribution supports research to help determine the long-term effects of repetitive head trauma and factors that put certain people at higher risk of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
The Rogers Foundation awarded an additional $125,000 to seven of its inaugural 2016 scholarship award recipients who have completed their undergraduate studies and are now interested in pursuing advanced degrees. The seven young women, pursuing master’s degrees in a variety of fields including public health, public administration and engineering, are Reilly Barth, Gargi Pandey, Brooklyn Stepro, Georgina Martinez, Natasha Waters, Kaylee O’Donnell and Isabel Mendez. The LGBTQ Center of Southern Nevada awarded the Petzing Perseverance Scholarship to three students who plan careers in the LGBTQ community by providing culturally sensitive health and human services. The recipients included Willy Jay Nicolas, who volunteers as a testing counselor and plans to use the scholarship to pay for medical school applications and MCAT test fees; Kandall Dietz, who volunteers at the reception desk and is a CAN advocate, and was accepted into the UNLV social work master’s program; and Izzy Fernandez, who volunteers as a testing counselor in the clinic reception and plans to apply to medical school. The Mayor’s Fund for Las Vegas LIFE received a $50,000 grant from SilverSummit Healthplan to underwrite the purchase of an ADA-compliant van to
transport homeless patients to medical and social services appointments from the Recuperative Care Center. The fund also received a $25,000 grant from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to support the Vegas Strong Academies program that provides a safe, caring and affordable child care option with emphasis on support for distance learning, as well as $90,000 from donors including the Las Vegas Raiders, KVVU Fox5, Barclays, D&L Roofing, Home Depot Foundation and Les Olson Company to underwrite new playground structures at Gary Reese Freedom Park. The Las Vegas Area Council, Boy Scouts of America donated over $18,000 of popcorn sold this past year to the staff and patients at the VA Hospital. Last fall, local Cub Scouts and BSA Scouts sold over $426,000 in popcorn. Over $46,000 was in donations for their local Hometown Heroes Program. Already $13,000 was donated to Serving Our Kids Foundation and $10,000 to Veterans Village. FundNV, the pre-seed investment fund of StartUpNV, Nevada’s nonprofit business incubator for scalable startups, announced its inaugural investment of $50,000 that offers a novel and innovative software solution to streamline the process of placing and tracking purchase orders for electrical contractors.
LOS E POUNDS AND INC H ES WITH THIS
CAREGIVER NEEDED
HCG DIET
Working Days: Monday thru Friday Hours per Day: 5 Hours Wages: $19.50 per Hour
23 DAY INCLUDES: ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶ ▶
Initial Medical Consultation Full Body Composition Analysis 6 Weekly Follow-up Visits 6 Weekly B12 Injections 23 Days Pharmaceutical Grade HCG Medicine
SPECIAL OFFER $
475
www.iuventusmedcenter.com (702) 919-1099
2
CONVENIENT LOCATIONS
3365 E FLAMINGO ROAD STE 2, LAS VEGAS, NV 89121 4966 S RAINBOW BLVD STE 100, LAS VEGAS, NV 89118
All Job Seekers Should Contact This Email Address Directly: cfus46832@gmail.com
now slicing
extraordinary
ELEVATE YOUR SPACE
snake river farms CAPRIOTTI’S NEW ROAST BEEF -
RANCH TO TABLE QUALITY NO GROWTH HORMONES MINIMALLY PROCESSED NO ARTIFICIAL INGREDIENTS
SAFELY!
order at capriottis.com
TASTE A SLICE OF EXTRAORDINARY PPE Custom Dividers, Barriers & Partitions
Elegant Affordable Solutions
www.placelyft.com // 866.652.2100
42
LV W P U Z Z L E & H O R O S C O P E S
2.25.21
PREMIER CROSSWORD “SCRAMBLING TO GET THINGS DONE” BY FRANK LONGO
HOROSCOPES
WEEK OF FEBRUARY 25 BY ROB BREZSNY
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Think about one or two types of physical discomforts and symptoms to whi your body seems most susceptible. Meditate on the possibility that there are specific moods or feelings associated with them. Then monitor any interactions that might transpire between the bodily states and emotional states. Make a plan for how you will address them. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Poet Billy Collins describes “standing on the edge of a lake on a moonlit night and the light of the moon is always pointing straight at you.” In the coming weeks, you’ll feel as if the world is alive with special messages just for you, that every situation you’re in will feel like you belong there. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The coming weeks will be a time to be motivated to raise your integrity and impeccability to record levels. Let this affirmation from a moral code reputed to be written by a 14th century Samurai warrior inspire you: “I have no divine power; I make honesty my divine power.” Also: “I have no enemy; I make carelessness my enemy.” CANCER (June 21-July 22): “The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle,” writes author and Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield. But there are many other modes of awareness that can be useful as we navigate this crazy world. Regarding each minute as an opportunity to learn something new, for instance: That’s an excellent way to live. Or treating each minute as another chance to creatively express our love. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The coming weeks will be a poignant and healing time to remember the people in your life who have died—as well as ancestors whom you never met or didn’t know well. They have clues to offer you, rich feelings to nourish you with, course corrections to suggest. Get in touch with them through your dreams, meditations and reminiscences. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The 18th century painter Quentin de La Tour specialized in creating portraits that brought out his subjects’ charm and intelligence. As he grew wealthier, he became a philanthropist who specialized in helping poor women and artists with disabilities. Make him your patron saint for now. Be inspired to tap into your inner Quentin de la Tour.
2020 KING FEATURES SYNDICATE ACROSS 1 “Just a moment!” 7 Crusade 14 Changes gears 20 Debonair 21 Spiritedly, in music 22 Bull battler 23 Clinton drains material away by percolation? 25 Celebrity chef Lagasse 26 Deborah of Separate Tables 27 Coach Parseghian 28 Competent 30 Red Book chairman 31 Presley wears a disguise? 35 Rathbone jumps ship? 38 RSVP encl. 39 Ideologies 40 Kylo — (Darth Vader’s grandson) 41 British peer 42 Prefix with angle 43 Liquidy lump 44 Keaton argues back in a debate? 49 Longhorn’s gridiron rival 51 Anticipated 53 Downy quilt 54 Locke adds decorations? 57 Carders’ demands 60 Nothing more than 61 Work for 62 ER roles 63 Up — (cornered) 65 Cobra variety 66 Romero competes in a relay? 70 Ford marks a word for omission? 72 7 Faces of Dr. — (Tony Randall film)
73 Matt of Good Will Hunting 74 Links org. 75 FBI guy, e.g. 76 Words clarifying a spelling 78 Osaka money 79 Heaney makes people smile? 84 Fiber for hose 86 Kept safe 88 Submit taxes paperlessly 89 Leroux does a ballroom dance? 92 Santa — (desert winds) 95 Zero 96 Engrave 97 Singer Janis 98 Baseball’s Felipe or Moises 99 Scottish Celt 100 Thompson works as an usher? 104 Deane goes on a cruise? 106 Bush press secretary Fleischer 107 Old British gun 108 Alternative to Yahoo 109 Russia’s — -Tass 110 One of Janet Jackson’s sisters 112 Wiig mends a sweater? 119 Precursor to web forums 120 Tartish brew 121 Peanut butter cup brand 122 Composed 123 Transition zone between plant communities 124 Will subject
DOWN 1 Ogre of myth 2 “Uh-uh” 3 Scratch (out) 4 Chicken with long, soft plumage 5 Curvy letters 6 Herb of the parsley family 7 Actor Linden 8 Ryan and Tatum of film 9 Fib tellers 10 Family rec facility 11 Infant cry 12 Lunched, e.g. 13 Lovers’ flowers, in Spain 14 Superb 15 Native 16 Wrath 17 Physicist Enrico 18 Case hearing 19 Goes it alone 24 “Am not!” comeback 29 Funeral stand 31 These, in Mexico 32 Slowly, musically 33 Winner’s hand gesture 34 Tough dude’s self-assertion 35 Surpasses 36 Cost of cards 37 Picture book 40 Devastates 43 Actor Depardieu 44 Poet-singers 45 Tweaks text 46 Of the middle eye layer 47 Concise 48 Footfalls 50 Mental flash 52 Part of NOW 55 Matrix 56 Jim Croce’s “I Got —”
58 Wine barrel residue 59 Actress Blair 63 “There Is Nothin’ Like —” 64 Daniel Boone actor 66 Trolley sound 67 Cushy course 68 Stains 69 Winding-line dance 70 “Yipes!” 71 Adequate, to Li’l Abner 74 Argentina’s Juan or Eva 77 Lecture jottings 79 Long stories 80 Politico Mo 81 Exodus peak 82 Architect Saarinen 83 Peddles 85 “So far, no” 87 Army group 90 Univ. in Raleigh 91 Fare-well link 93 Condition in outer space 94 Morally strict 98 Actress Quinn 99 Precious red stone 100 Bone of the 103Down 101 Scratch out 102 Located 103 Foot-leg joint 104 — voce (softly) 105 “— alive!” 108 At — time (prearranged) 111 Words before dare or diet 113 Rocker Ocasek 114 “I believe,” to a texter 115 Scot’s denial 116 “There — god!” 117 New Year in Vietnam 118 MI-to-SC dir.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Now is the right time to schedule an appointment for a consultation with your favorite healer, even if just by Zoom. In addition, consult a soul doctor for a complete metaphysical check-up. Chances are your body and soul are in fair shape. But they need to receive intense doses of wellwrought love and nurturing. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Love commands a vast army of moods,” writes author Diane Ackerman. “Frantic and serene, vigilant and calm, wrung-out and fortified, explosive and sedate.” This fact of life will be prominently featured in your life during the coming weeks. Now is a fertile time to expand your understanding of how eros and romance work when they’re at their best. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Poet and visual artist William Blake (1757– 1827) cultivated a close relationship with lofty thoughts and mystical visions. His wife once said, “I have very little of Mr. Blake’s company. He is always in Paradise.” Practical matters and intimate alliances need more of your attention than usual. Consider spending less time in paradise and more on earth. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Poet Robert Graves regarded the ambiguity of poetry as a virtue, not a problem. As we read its enigmatic ideas and feelings, we may be inspired to understand that experience is too complex to be reduced to simplistic descriptions and overgeneralized beliefs. Whether or not you read a lot of poetry, it will be wise and healthy for you to celebrate, not just tolerate, how paradoxical and mysterious the world is. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The coming weeks will be a favorable time to shed old habits that waste your energy and create constructive new habits that will serve you well. Be inspired by Henry David Thoreau, who said: “As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. … To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Author Anaïs Nin was a maestro of metamorphosis. She regarded her ceaseless evolution as a privilege and luxury, not an oppressive inconvenience. “I take pleasure in my transformations,” she wrote. “I look quiet and consistent, but few know how many women there are in me.” Her approach is a healthy model for you—and will be especially worth adopting in the coming weeks. Be a Change Specialist whose nickname is Flux Mojo.
WATCH ALL THE GAMES
all season long! 143 Foot Screen Full Game Audio Heated Pools & Cabanas The only place in Vegas you can lounge poolside, year-round is Stadium Swim. Catch a game from one of our six heated pools, hot tubs, or kick back and lounge in style. You’ve never experienced a watch party like this.
Reserve your spot, before the puck drops
702-247-2258 | 8 Fremont Street Las Vegas, NV 89101
CircaLasVegas.com
Circa Las Vegas is a 21+ experience. We encourage you to gamble responsibly. For problem gambling, call the Problem Gamblers Helpline at 800.522.4700.