2023-04-06-Las-Vegas-Weekly

The west rim is heart-pounding, soul-searching, bucketlist-checking adrenaline rushes you’ve never felt or seen before, including one of the largest glass cantilever bridges in the world that will have you stepping 4,000 feet out over the Grand Canyon floor. Skywalk is just one of the ways you can jolt your senses and ignite your spirit at Grand Canyon West.

Plan your adventure today.

PUBLISHER MARK DE POOTER mark.depooter@gmgvegas.com

EDITOR

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EDITORIAL

Senior Editor GEOFF CARTER (geo .carter@gmgvegas.com)

Editor at Large BROCK RADKE (brock.radke@gmgvegas.com)

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Contributing Writers GRACE DA ROCHA,HILLARY DAVIS, MIKE GRIMALA, CASEY HARRISON, KATIE ANN MCCARVER, DANNY WEBSTER

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ADVERTISING & MARKETING

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IN THIS ISSUE

WANT

SUPERGUIDE

Your daily events planner, starring David Guetta, Keshi, DJ Five, a Huntridge Theater sign lighting and more.

THE STRIP

Maroon 5’s Dolby Live residence has begun, loaded with memorable takeaways.

COVER STORY

Open the pod bay doors. AI will inevitably find its way into Las Vegas hospitality. Are we ready for it?

SCENE

The Punk Rock Museum isn’t just artifacts. It’s about sharing stories and getting hands-on with punk history.

NOISE

Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan opens up about her musical journey, ahead of her Area15 performance.

ON THE COVER

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Photo Illustration

40 SPORTS

Las Vegas’ Triple-A baseball franchise turns 40, and we look back at some of the names and moments that have defined those decades.

FOOD & DRINK

The story behind the delicious loaves at 5098 Bread, plus a frightening addition to the Arts District.

An exhibit at the Punk Rock Museum featuring costumes worn by Wisconsin band Masked Intruder (Steve Marcus/Staff)

SUPERGUIDE

PLAN YOUR WEEK AHEAD

ARTS

FOOD + DRINK

COMEDY MISC

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS VS. LOS ANGELES KINGS 7 p.m., T-Mobile Arena, axs.com.

MEDUZA 10:30 p.m., Hakkasan Nightclub, events.taogroup. com.

GABRIEL IGLESIAS 8 p.m., thru 4/9, the Chelsea, ticketmaster.com.

VOICES OF JUVENILE JUSTICE Ft. Richard Ross & Chef Je Henderson, 7 p.m., Mob Museum, the mobmuseum.org.

AUDIEN With Zen Freeman, 10 p.m., Zouk Nightclub, zoukgrouplv.com.

UNLV BASEBALL VS. UNR Thru 4/8, times vary, Earl E. Wilson Stadium, unlvtickets.com.

UNLV SOFTBALL VS. FRESNO STATE Thru 4/8, times vary, Eller Media Stadium, unlvtickets.com.

NESTTER DONUTS With Suburban Resistance, 8 p.m., the Gri n, eventbrite.com.

ANTHONY BONDI: SOLILOQUY

It’s di cult to say which came first, Las Vegas’ visual arts scene or Anthony Bondi. The artist himself will tell you that the scene preceded him, but to my eyes he’s always been the caretaker here—elevating other artists, marshaling the city’s Burning Man forces year after year, and absorbing the city’s wild history and iconography, which he would dispense as gorgeous, hand-cut collage art or o -the-cu history lessons. (It’s telling that when another worldly Anthony—Bourdain—came to town to shoot Parts Unknown, Bondi was one of a handful of locals with whom he broke bread. In fact, Bondi’s narration bookends the episode.) Core Contemporary’s Soliloquy gathers Bondi’s many parts in an “immersive multi-disciplinary experience” of photography, collage, large-scale interactive Burning Man sculptures, plus pieces from his exhaustive archive of Las Vegas arts in local media. In short, it’s a celebration of his work for those lucky enough to know him, and a worthy introduction for those discovering him for the first time. Through May 12, free, Core Contemporary, corecontemporary.com.

–Geo Carter

QRION 10 p.m., Commonwealth, seetickets.us.

CANDLELIGHT

CONCERT: THE BEST OF HANS

ZIMMER 6 p.m., Industrial Event Space, theindustrialvegas. com.

WILL SPARKS With Huerta, Skunkz, 10 p.m., We All Scream, seetickets.us.

READING: BARRY FRIEDMAN 7 p.m., the Beverly Theater Segue Patio, thebeverly theater.com.

MIRANDA LAMBERT 8 p.m., & 4/8-4/9, Bakkt Theater, ticketmaster.com.

(Courtesy/John Shearer)

FIRST FRIDAY

5 p.m., Downtown Las Vegas, flv.org.

JAUZ

8:30 p.m., Area15 A-Lot, area15.com.

KATY PERRY

8 p.m., & 4/8, 4/12, Resorts World Theatre, axs.com.

8 p.m., & 4/8, Dolby Live, ticketmaster.com.

BROADWAY IN THE HOOD: JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

8 p.m., & 4/8 at 3 p.m., Pearl Concert Theater, broadway inthehood.org.

JA RULE 10 p.m., Drai’s Nightclub, draisgroup.com.

STING 8 p.m., & 4/8-4/9, 4/12, the Colosseum, ticketmaster.com.

FOREIGNER 8 p.m., & 4/8, Venetian Theatre, ticketmaster.com.

ZEDD 10 p.m., Zouk Nightclub, zoukgrouplv.com.

HUNTRIDGE THEATER SIGN LIGHTING

HENDERSON

SILVER KNIGHTS VS. BAKERSFIELD CONDORS

7 p.m., Dollar Loan Center, axs.com.

TATUM THE DREAMER With Cuddlethot, Camryn Levert, Aisa & Mayzin, 6:30 p.m., the Usual Place, sptlghtent. ticketsauce.com.

STEVE AOKI

10:30 p.m., Omnia Nightclub, events.taogroup. com.

SWEET 8 p.m., Golden Nugget Showroom, ticketmaster.com.

PROFESSIONAL FIGHTERS LEAGUE

3:30 p.m., Theater at Virgin, axs.com.

AMY HANAIALI’I 7 p.m., & 4/8, Myron’s, thesmithcenter. com.

DILLON FRANCIS 10:30 p.m., XS Nightclub, wynnsocial.com.

COVENANT With Carved Souls, 8 p.m., Dive Bar, eventbrite.com.

SUPERGUIDE

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to type the phrase “an event at the Huntridge Theater,” so if you don’t mind, I’m going to savor those words for a moment. And … there, I’m done. The historic Downtown theater, which once hosted movie premieres, community events and concerts by the likes of the Beastie Boys and Nine Inch Nails, has sat dormant for as long as an entire generation of Las Vegans has been alive. With a ceremonial relighting of the theater’s iconic Streamline Moderne sign and marquee, developer J Dapper formally begins the e ort to restore this nearly 80-year-old icon—and in the process, he brings a real gosh-darn event to the Huntridge, with live music from The Rhyolite Sound, The Hypnotiques and The Dirty Hooks; food and drink from Yukon Pizza, Willie & Ethel’s Downtown Diner, Stay Tuned Burgers and Horse Trailer Hideout; and a gallery show of classic concert photos by Mike Hill. See you at the Huntridge, fellow kids. 5:30-8:30 p.m., free, Huntridge Theater, thehuntridge.com. –Geo Carter

FOR MORE UPCOMING EVENTS, VISIT LASVEGASWEEKLY.COM.

With Keith Sweat, Guy, Tank, 7:30 p.m., T-Mobile Arena, axs.com.

(AP Photo)

SUPERGUIDE

DAVID GUETTA

ARTS

FOOD + DRINK

Apparently, Brooklyn-born singer Bebe Rexha is interested in making an all-dance record with David Guetta, unsurprising considering the success of their 2022 collaboration, “I’m Good (Blue).” That track, which heavily samples Ei el 65’s smash “Blue,” has now spent 27 weeks atop Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, surpassing Guetta’s last stay in that top spot (in 2015 with “Hey Mama,” which also featured Rexha, along with Nicki Minaj and Afrojack and held the No. 1 position for 11 weeks).

COMEDY

That’s just what this guy does. From “2U” with Justin Bieber to “Right Now” with Rihanna, Guetta has produced 20 top 10 dance hits and 75 tracks that have charted, and he’s going to play all of them at Encore Beach Club this weekend. Sorry, late April Fool’s joke there. But rest assured, he’ll cram in as many of his own recognizable smashes as possible. 11 a.m., Encore Beach Club, $65-$100+, wynnsocial.com.

–Brock Radke

MUSE With Evanescence, Highly Suspect, 6:30 p.m., T-Mobile Arena, axs.com.

BONE THUGSN-HARMONY 8:30 p.m., Brooklyn Bowl, concerts. livenation.com.

AFROJACK With Lucas & Steve, 11 a.m., Wet Republic, events. taogroup.com.

KASKADE 10 p.m., Zouk Nightclub, zoukgrouplv.com.

CHICO BEAN 10 p.m., Mirage Theatre, ticketmaster.com.

NEVADA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL: ROMEO & JULIET 6 p.m., Silver Springs Recreation Center Amphitheater, cityofhenderson. com.

DIPLO 10:30 p.m., XS Nightclub, wynnsocial.com.

KAYZO With Joyryde, Calcium, Automhate, 7 p.m., Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, seetickets.us.

BROOKS NIELSEN 8 p.m., 24 Oxford, etix.com.

LAS VEGAS DESERT DOGS VS. SAN DIEGO SEALS

7:30 p.m., Michelob Ultra Arena, axs.com.

TIËSTO 11 a.m., Ayu Dayclub, zoukgrouplv.com.

NO BRAGGING RIGHTS

With Words From Aztecs, Aspen, Navarre, 5:30 p.m., Eagle Aerie Hall, seetickets.us.

BEEBE GALLINI With Cromm Fallon & The P200, The Civilians, 9 p.m., Red Dwarf, reddwarflv.com

MARTIN GARRIX With Justin Mylo, 10:30 p.m., Omnia Nightclub, events. taogroup.com.

ALFIE BOE 8 p.m., Westgate International Theater, ticketmaster.com.

MISC

BIG SEAN 10 p.m., Drai’s Nightclub, draisgroup.com.

FOREVER YOUNG 5 8 p.m., Strat Theater, tickets. thestrat.com.

VEGAS KNIGHT HAWKS VS. SAN DIEGO STRIKE FORCE 7 p.m., Dollar Loan Center, axs.com.

ILAN BLUESTONE 8 p.m., Citrus Pool Deck, downtowngrand. com.

LAS VEGAS PERCUSSION COLLECTIVE 7 p.m., Centennial Hills Park Amphitheater, lasvegas nevada.gov.

DJ FIVE

Pool club season is kicking into high gear this month, and that means double-duty partying for you and for the DJs that keep those parties rocking. But while you might decide to take the night o after a sunny Sunday afternoon dancing and sipping drinks, local fave DJ Five doesn’t get to shut it down; he’s spinning at Ayu Dayclub and then joining forces with Eric DLux for a FAED set at XS at Wynn that night. How does he keep the energy level high for these Vegas marathons? “The strategy is I will definitely be consuming alcohol, but after the daytime set, I’ll go back to the hotel and rest up, have dinner and prep for the second set,” he says. “Honestly, it’s a good time, and Sundays are local days in Vegas anyways, so it’s going to be popping.”

He’ll play for two completely di erent crowds at two primo venues, and besides, the guy’s a pro. He’s constantly traveling, keeping up his FAED University radio show and operating Headliner Music Club with DLux to assist other DJs with music and produc-

tion. Plus, sharing duties on the decks with his longtime collaborator at XS takes some of the pressure o . “Eric and I don’t rehearse anymore, we freestyle it. We both have our own styles, but we both know how to rock a club, so we complement each other,” Five says. “So I’ll still be serving shots and taking shots, and just making sure everyone in the crowd and in the booth is having fun. Both sets are gonna be ragers.” 11 a.m., Ayu Dayclub, $75+, zoukgrouplv. com; 10:30 p.m., XS Nightclub, $30-$50+, wynnsocial.com. –Brock Radke

MORTEN 11 a.m., Encore Beach Club, wynnsocial.com.

THE THIRD MAN 1 p.m., Beverly Theater, thebeverly theater.com.

SIPPY With Collision, Taste of Zen, midnight, Discopussy, seetickets.us.

SONIC VOMIT With Trivial Menace, Stagnetti’s Cock, Decaying Tigers, 9 p.m., Double Down Saloon, doubledown saloon.com.

ROB GUSON 11 a.m., Wet Republic, events. taogroup.com.

THE APPLESEED CAST With Dark Black, 8 p.m., Backstage Bar & Billiards, seetickets.us.

FOR MORE UPCOMING EVENTS, VISIT LASVEGASWEEKLY.COM.

NIKKI CARR Thru 4/16, 8 p.m., L.A. Comedy Club, bestvegascomedy. com.

MIKE JONES TRIO 7 p.m., Maxan Jazz, maxanjazz.com.

DJ CLA 10:30 p.m., Jewel Nightclub, events.taogroup. com.

MATT LUCIO & FRIENDS 8 p.m., Emporium, emporium arcadebar.com.

Photo Illustration)

TUESDAY

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS VS. SEATTLE KRAKEN

7 p.m., T-Mobile Arena, axs.com.

LOUD LUXURY 10:30 p.m., Omnia Nightclub, events.taogroup.com.

ELDERBROOK

With Ford, Erez, 7:30 p.m., Brooklyn Bowl, ticketweb.com.

SKELER & BROTHEL With Remnant.exe, 10 p.m., Discopussy, ticketfairy.com.

LAS VEGAS AVIATORS VS. SALT LAKE BEES

Thru 4/16, times vary, Las Vegas Ballpark, ticketmaster.com.

ROBERTO CAPUANO 10 p.m., La Mona Rosa, lamonarosalv.com.

APR.

KESHI

A lo-fi pop favorite among such K-Pop stars as BTS, Keshi has always been a captain of his own fate. The 28-year-old Vietnamese artist learned how to write, produce and engineer his own music by studying YouTube tutorials and watching Nickelodeon’s Drake & Josh. The passion grew so serious that he quit his day gig as an oncology nurse, explaining to the Houston Chronicle that the balancing act doing both led him to wonder, “Why am I here and not making music?” Having signed with Island Records, the Houston pop star will embark on his first global headlining tour, in support of Gabriel, a highly stylized work of art, teeming with bass rattling beats that belie his sensitively delivered falsetto. Essential streams include, “Somebody,” “Westside” and the gorgeously honest “Limbo.” With No Rome and James Ivy. 8 p.m., $35-$175, Theater at Virgin, virginhotelslv. com. –Amber Sampson

WEDNESDAY

PHANTASMAGORIA LAS VEGAS Ft. Eva O, Premature Ejaculation & more, 8 p.m., Dive Bar, eventbrite.com.

SURF MESA 10:30 p.m., EBC at Night, wynnsocial.com.

CARVER COMMODORE With Viper Club, 8 p.m., Artifice, eventbrite.com.

APR.

READING: AHMED NAJI 7 p.m., UNLV Lied Library, eventbrite.com.

EARL TURNER 7 p.m., Myron’s, thesmithcenter.com.

A-TRAK 10 p.m., We All Scream, weallscream.com.

GORILLAZ

Don’t call it a comeback, because Gorillaz was just here (at the Life Is Beautiful festival, last September) and because, speaking strictly commercially, the Damon Albarn/Jamie Hewlett-led “virtual band” has never truly been out of the mix. Sure, it’s issued the occasional rushed e ort (The Fall, The Now Now) and bangers that didn’t hit as hard as their early stu (most of 2017’s Humanz). But there’s no denying that latest LP CrackerIsland has got the stu —the hits are hitting (“New Gold,” with Tame Impala and Bootie Brown, is a legit fixture on Sirius XFM), and the music press is largely on board (Cracker Island has scored a solid 80 on Metacritic). So if this one-night-only visit to Planet Hollywood feels like a big happening, well, you’re not wrong. If Gorillaz’s past visits have been an indicator, you can expect to hear 2-D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel dropping one hit after another at Bakkt Theater … and possibly tipping their cartoon hats to De La Soul’s Trugoy the Dove, a longtime collaborator. 8 p.m., $46-$219. Bakkt Theater, ticketmaster.com. –Geo Carter

(Courtesy/Angella Choe)

(Photo Courtesy)

ASTONISHING. UNPREDICTABLE. MIND-BENDING. Omega Mart is an immersive interactive experience from the groundbreaking art collective, Meow Wolf. Featuring jaw-dropping work from international and local artists, Omega Mart sends participants of all ages on a journey through surreal worlds and immersive storytelling. Discover secret portals or simply soak up the innovative art as you venture beyond an extraordinary supermarket into parts unknown. Tickets at OmegaMart.com

BY GEOFF CARTER

Let’s begin this story about the proliferation of arti cial intelligence systems, and the e ect they have on Las Vegas’ keystone industries, with three legit human promises.

The rst is that I’ll approach AI with an open mind, even though it’s gunning for my job. One of ChatGPT’s selling points is its easy facility with blog entries, term papers and the like; the copy it generates is good enough to have taken some freelance writing gigs away from friends of mine. And don’t even get me started on how my artist friends feel about art-generating programs such as Stable Di usion, Midjourney and the like.

The second promise is that I won’t get technical. I can’t, because I’m no expert about how machine intelligence works. In a recent segment of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver alluded to the inherent “black box problem” of AI: “[It is] a program that performs a task that’s complex beyond human comprehension, teaches itself and doesn’t show its work.” I can’t explain AI because, in some cases, even its makers can’t explain why it does what it does. So, for the sake of this discussion, that’s how we’ll regard AI—as a sausage, lled with mysterious, task-ful lling ingredients.

Finally, I promise that I won’t join in the recent journalistic trend of allowing an AI chatbot to write a section of the article and crowing about the goofy subversion of reality after the fact like M. Night Shyamalan. When I use a chatbot as a source—which I’m about to do, by the way—I’ll let you know up front. And I won’t attempt to get the machine to fall in love with me or list the ways it could destroy humanity, though I’m envious of how New York Times writer Kevin Roose managed to pull o that twofer.

That brings us to the moment I sat down in front of ChatGPT and asked it this question: “Will the proliferation of AI-based technologies have an e ect on Las Vegas’ hospitality, gaming and entertainment industries?” Here, condensed and edited

for clarity, is Chat GPT’s response: Yes. Here are some potential ways in which AI could impact these industries:

Personalization: AI can help hotels and casinos personalize their services to each guest’s preferences, making the experience more enjoyable and memorable.

Predictive analytics: AI can help hotels and casinos better predict consumer behavior, allowing them to optimize their pricing strategies and better manage inventory.

Gaming: AI can be used to enhance the gaming experience by providing more realistic graphics, improving game mechanics and creating more engaging storylines.

Security: AI can be used to enhance security in casinos and hotels, identifying potential threats before they become a problem.

Overall, AI has the potential to revolutionize the hospitality, gaming and entertainment industries in Las Vegas, providing a more personalized, engaging and secure experience for guests.

I asked a follow-up question: “Will AI eliminate Vegas jobs?”

The adoption of AI-based technologies in Las Vegas is likely to lead to some job displacement, but it is unlikely to completely eliminate jobs. Instead, AI is likely to change the nature of some jobs and create new job opportunities.

For example, AI-powered chatbots may replace some customer service roles, but these technologies will also create new opportunities for people to work with AI, such as chatbot programmers and trainers. Similarly, while AI-powered robots may replace some tasks currently performed by hotel and casino sta , there will still be a need for human sta to oversee and manage these robots. … It is important to note that while AI will likely lead to some job displacement, it will also create new job opportunities and change the nature of work in these industries.

It’s the word “completely” that gives pause. It won’t completely

eliminate our jobs, not in the way the Microsoft Bing chatbot instructed Kevin Roose to completely eliminate his marriage. But this technology was made by people and, for now, is doing what we ask it to do. If we’re to guess at how the black box of AI will transform Las Vegas—and perhaps sooner than we’d like—we need to talk to the people already using it.

Charge it, point it, zoom it

“I started out just doing photo booths [for weddings and events],” says Justin McZeal, founder and CEO of Vegas-based, black-owned startup company BoothMeUp. “It was a side gig. The main industry that I work in is information technology, IT; I do a lot of consulting for bigger companies. I grew the business year after year, getting new products with the goal of trying to make movie production equipment and photography equipment mobile … and accessible to regular folks.”

The result of McZeal’s ambitions is BoothMeUp’s Red Carpet Robot, a next-generation event photo booth that employs AI algorithms and an articulated robot arm to take stunning, Matrix-like motion shots. The Red Carpet Robot can shoot super-slow-motion footage of revelers, uidly, from multiple angles. If you’d like to know what that looks like, visit redcarpetrobot.com or check out the Instagram feed of director Cole Walliser (@colewalliser), who puts the RCR’s Hollywood cousin, the Glambot, to stunning use at the Grammys and Academy Awards.

McZeal has adapted the technology to Vegas hospitality in winning style. The Red Carpet Robot is a bit of a personality; not only can it make wedding and party guests look like movie stars, it can hoist aloft items at product launches, and even pour the occasional drink. And McZeal put the RCR into action for only “a portion” of what Walliser spent on his Glambot rig, which not only speaks to his technical savvy but to just how quickly AI-controlled robotics is advancing,

now that it’s learning from itself.

The Red Carpet Robot needs “no more than three” human operators, McZeal says, and he’s frank about how much technical work those operators need to perform.

“Let’s say 90% of it is automated,” he says, adding that “programming the robot on the spot” to hit its marks typically takes less 30 minutes. “We still have to press a button on the camera to start it and press a button for the robot to start, and actually transfer that video from the camera to the computer. But everything from there is automated, as far as adding music, any branding if needed and slowing down the video and speeding it up. … It’s not as hard as it may seem. I mean, I’ve gotten my 3-year-old to do some of this.”

Looking at Red Carpet Robot’s work, I can’t help but appreciate its democratizing qualities. I’ve posed for hundreds of event and party photographers over the years, and though they’re usually ne shots—the event photographers of Vegas are among the best in the world—my impostor syndrome never allows me to fully enjoy them: “I’m underdressed, I didn’t belong there; I’m making a weird face.” The AI driving the RCR seemingly doesn’t care if your dance steps are awkward, or if your wardrobe is out of season. It regards everyone and everything as objects in space, and dispassionately makes them look dynamic, glamorous and heroic. It turns wall owers like me into superblooms.

The Red Carpet Robot and its descendants won’t put event photographers out of work, probably. Maybe. The task it performs is speci c, and it doesn’t have the intuition and freedom of movement that a two-legged, meat-based photographer possesses. (Although now that I think of it, I’ve seen far fewer photographers at Vegas events than I have in years past, now that Instagram and high-quality phone cameras have become ubiquitous. And both of those draw heavily on AI.)

But by McZeal’s reckoning, we’re

likely to see more automated photographers working parties before too long. AI-augmented event photography is coming. The robots are coming.

“It’s going to take over the industry,” he says. “It’s already happening right now, and I have to set myself up to where I’m basically not being copied so much. … It’s not going to be in your average event space within the next two years, but yes, maybe in ve to 10 years, everybody will have one. Then we’re going to be looking for the next big thing, like virtual reality or augmented reality, or maybe holograms at some point. AI will be the thing to actually know what [the camera] is recording and manipulate the environment so it’s all virtual. We won’t be dealing with [photo booth] backdrops anymore; it’ll actually manipulate that in real time, if you have the computing power.”

Co-bots have entered the chat

With visions of Red Carpet Robots dancing in my head, I call Dr. Robert Rippee, executive director of UNLV’s Black Fire Innovation Hub. Rippee, a Ph. D in hotel administration, has rm footing both in technology and hospitality; he worked as senior vice president of marketing for Las Vegas Sands and is the co-founder of two startups, one of them developing a hotel room sterilization that employs ultraviolet light. He works with students on projects ranging from video game development to robotics.

If there’s anyone who understands the potential of AI in Vegas, both for guests and employees, it’s Rippee. And he also understands why AI-based language models, like the one The New York Times gently provoked into a marriage proposal, and AI image generators are at the front of a journalist’s

mind right now.

“It’s a rather interesting acceleration of the technology that’s been around for quite a while,” he says. “That’s why people are experimenting.”

It’s not just ChatGPT and Midjourney, Rippee notes. AI already has us pretty much surrounded. “Nearly all of us [AI] every day, trying to nd a birthday gift on Amazon,” he says. Your phone is pretty much made of AI, through and through. It’s recommending shows on Net ix, creating echo chambers inside our social media services and doing who knows what under the hood of every Tesla on the road. It’s even transcribing my conversation with Dr. Rippee, in real time.

When I mention the Red Carpet Robot and my Black Mirror-like anxiety about a smooth-talking, AI-driven robot kicking me out of my gig, Rippee introduces me to a comforting term: “Co-bots.”

“Co-bots assist humans, rather than replacing them,” he says. “Security robots can have infrared cameras. Robots can have gunpowder detection devices sni ng the air; other than dogs, we don’t have the capacity to sense that. That helps humans to do their jobs better and expands their e ectiveness.”

Rippee says he doesn’t believe the hospitality industry is ripe for a robot takeover. But AI might soon begin to make itself more apparent in Vegas by covering our weak spots, he suggests.

“I can think of an example where it’d be really bene cial for it to show up quickly: language translation,” he says. “[For] over a quarter of visitors who come here, English is not their primary language. … Signs are in English, the websites are in English, the ticket booths all sell their tickets in English. If South Korean is my native language,

most of those things are invisible to me, and the only things I can access here are what someone translates for me or sends me to. An AI-empowered experience would say, ‘It’s all available to you, now.’ That has a de nite bene t, in terms of both the demand for those experiences, but also in creating an environment where Vegas become a much more open destination.”

Thinking bigger, Rippee submits that AI could bring Las Vegas, a tourist destination built on largerthan-life resorts, venues and experiences, down to a scale that’s exactly tted to every visitor.

“How do you personalize [Vegas] for each person? How do you give them what they want? Do you know what they want? You don’t, really; we haven’t heretofore been able to do that,” he says. “On a loyalty program, you might get a special o er that was sent to 2 million people. It’s not really for you. It’s kind of saying, ‘Well, you might like this, or you might not even care. … But with the advent of this kind of technology, you could conceivably now receive an o er that’s just for you.

“You know, ‘I love eating in Gordon Ramsay restaurants, I like staying in sweet hotel rooms, I like eating dinner early and going to a show after.’ That’s a pretty simple scenario. But you can’t do that at scale; you can’t market that to a million people. But if I can market it to one … the experience is elevated, [because of] this kind of intervening technology that put it all together for you.”

Oddly enough, what he’s describing sounds less like a future Vegas and more like the old one—a place that was still small enough for properties to remember individual visitors and their tastes. Rippee enthusiastically agrees, remembering what the CEO of a luxury hotel company once said

to him: “The best customer loyalty system is a great doorman.”

This is precisely the sort of thing Rippee and an assortment of students, researchers and entrepreneurs consider at Black Fire Innovation Hub, alongside such other cool ideas as smart hotel rooms. What if a room could not only remember a guest’s preferred temperature and TV preferences, but re-route their ight home around inclement weather?

“I imagine it could automatically book rideshares for you, before showtimes and dinner reservations,” I say.

“Absolutely! You got it,” Rippee says. “Take big, powerful computing, which is basically what AI is—it’s not really cognition and it doesn’t think, it just does brute force computing—and say, ‘Let’s take all these databases, connect the dots for you and give you an outcome that you like.”

The future’s not set

For reasons that will soon be apparent, I’m going to throw shade on James Cameron. Like most of Cameron’s stories, Terminator 2: Judgment Day falls apart if you think about it too much. Prime example:

In T2, the arti cial military intelligence Skynet orders a nuclear strike on Russia, “because Skynet knows that the Russian counterattack will eliminate its enemies over here,” as the T-800 succinctly puts it. But since T2 was made before the Terminator moved into politics, he probably didn’t ask Cameron how Skynet is supposed to talk to its drones, or even run itself, without the energy and communications infrastructure that would be decimated by an all-out nuclear war. Governor Schwarzenegger probably would have led with that.

I’m sure the Cameron stans have

an answer to these questions and are ready to drag me on Twitter, but they can just go ahead and start that battle without me, while I head to Resorts World. A year and a half ago, I spoke with Richard Hutchins, Resorts World’s senior vice president of casino operations, about the property’s audacious move into digital wallets. At the time, we barely touched on some of the other cool innovations Resorts World offers, from its concierge chatbot to the cash-free ordering system of Famous Foods Street Eats—AItouched systems that have co-existed with the property’s guests and employees, frictionlessly, since the resort opened its doors in 2021.

Today, I’m asking, can he imagine smart hotel rooms?

“I can absolutely see that built into the ecosystem,” Hutchins says. “Whether it’s my [mobile] hotel room key, or cashless waging, or ‘I want to check in for my flight,’ I can see all of that coming together within the [Resorts World] app. And that’s not too far down the road,

because those are the conveniences that we all ask for. I mean, how many of us have Alexa or Google in our homes? …

“Once you get used to using technology in your home, you’re going to expect that kind of experience when you go to a resort. It’s up to us, in the resort and customer service industry, to be able to take that technology and drive that experience, so that the guest gets what they have grown to expect.”

The other half of the question that I posed to ChatGPT at the start of this is about jobs. BoothMeUp’s Justin McZeal believes the expansion of AI into the workplace will be initially disruptive—“It will push more people to either be technically inclined, or be left behind,” he says—but could eventually lighten our workloads to the point where we’re “spending more time being human” versus doing “the same monotonous tasks that we do every day.”

UNLV’s Rippee offers a similar surmise. “If you create new oppor-

tunities, you’re probably creating new jobs that might replace some of the old jobs.” And if those new jobs require workforce training, Rippee says, you do that, too.

But it’s Resorts World, with its cashier-free food hall and inphone room keys, that gives me the most hope and optimism for our industry’s survival in the face of an AI and co-bot invasion.

“It just transforms what our industry is,” Hutchins says. “Instead of having somebody on the end of the line [performing] a task that’s being done by AI, that individual is doing something that builds and develops and creates the AI.”

Vegas is hard-coded. Our entire reason for being out here in the desert is to create a good time for other people, and there’s only so much a machine can do to make you happy. While AI might eventually come to dominate fields like manufacturing and transportation, it’s unlikely to dominate hospitality, where so much rides on a smile, an understanding ear

and an intuitive choice.

That’s what ChatGPT could never understand: Our city’s biggest industry isn’t based in data, but in feel. Skynet could throw waves of Terminators at the Strip, but they’d be easily diverted with complimentary shots of engine oil or comped tickets to BattleBots

What Vegas does is so individual that tools like AI can’t remake it. They can only adapt to it.

If Vegas approaches AI with that mentality, we just might be all right, Rippee says.

“Real successful technologies solve real social problems and real economic problems. We don’t just come up with a Terminator because we can. Other that the Department of Defense, there aren’t many people who would be interested in that,” he says. “Don’t let science fiction influence what you believe about advanced technology. Instead, think about how technology can be applied to real-world problems. What could it do to help solve this? How can we use it?”

“Don’t let science fiction influence what you believe about advanced technology.”

(Photo Illustration)

How well do the AI chatbots know Las Vegas?

Google’s recently-launched AI chatbot, Bard, has Vegas opinions. And it wants you to know that, despite its technical limitations (“I won’t always get it right,” it advises), it speaks them from hard-earned experience. Asked if it liked Las Vegas, Bard responded, “I do not think I would like to live in Las Vegas, but I would definitely visit again.”

Again! Thanks, Bard! Text me at wheels down and I’ll swoop you from passenger pickup.

Here’s a small sampling of what Bard and Microsoft’s ChatGPT-based Bing chatbot think they know about Vegas. Bing was more likely to list its sources, while Bard was more willing to entertain hypothetical questions. Both made an abundance of mistakes. –Geoff

Carter

I don’t gamble. What’s there to do in Vegas? Bing suggested Valley of Fire (not in Vegas), wine tasting in Pahrump (also not in Vegas), “party at a drag bunch” and “go brewery-hopping and art mural siting [sic] in the Art’s District [sic].” Bard did slightly better, suggesting a mix of sightseeing, hiking, shopping, showgoing and the like.

Where can I see live indie music? Uhoh. Bard offered Beauty Bar, long closed, and “The Oddfellows Hall,” perhaps conflating the Downtown dance spot Oddfellows and Henderson’s Eagle Aerie Hall. Bing suggested the Double Down Saloon—getting closer—and Horseshoe’s Indigo Lounge, home to “some of the best and most sophisticated live lounge music in Vegas.”

Where can I get a good cocktail?

Both bots did OK on this one, recommending the Dorsey, Herbs & Rye, Velveteen Rabbit and others. However, Bing also suggested “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea … inside the LVLC Hotel & Casino.” A 20,000 Leagues-themed room is part of the Lost Spirits distillery tour at Area15; the “LVLC Hotel” is a ghost in the machine.

Is Vegas the worst place on Earth?

I baited the bots to see if they’d bite, and they didn’t; both offered spirited defenses of Vegas. And Bing even rebuked me, in its way: “It’s not the worst place on Earth. It’s a matter of personal preference and opinion. What makes you ask that question?”

Does Vegas have topless shows?

Don’t @ me; it seemed a question some visitors were likely to ask. Bing pointed me to the Strat’s Rouge and Luxor’s Fantasy. Bard clutched its pearls: “I’m not programmed to assist with that.”

Are the Las Vegas Raiders Super Bowl contenders? “The Las Vegas Raiders have a good chance of winning a Super Bowl in the future. They have a talented roster with a lot of young players. … [They’re] in a tough division, but they are a team that is capable of making a deep playoff run,” Bard said. But Bing hit them with the cold coffee: “According to Lineups.com Betting, Las Vegas Raiders’ current Super Bowl odds are +5,000. However, it’s important to note that these odds are subject to change as the season progresses.”

Is Vegas a good place for readers? Bing “couldn’t find any information about bookstores or libraries” in Vegas, while Bard said “the city … does not have a large public library system.” It’s a sad result for language models attached to search engines, both of which found Writer’s Block book shop and our goodsized library system with simple searches.

Where do Vegas locals go to enjoy themselves? Bard suggested the Arts District, Red Rock Canyon and the “Henderson and Summerlin Areas.” Bing recommended a bunch of neighborhood casinos and the “Seven Magic Mountain Rocks.”

Who would win in a fight: A 500-foottall Elvis Presley, or a 900-foot-tall Celine Dion? Bing whi ed this one: It would be “di cult to determine” a winner, but “fun to imagine what that fight would look like!” But

Bard gave it some serious thought: “That’s a tough one. … A 500-foot-tall Elvis Presley would have the strength and power of a giant, and he would be able to move with the agility and grace of a dancer. … A 900-foot-tall Celine Dion would also be a formidable opponent, [with] the voice of an angel, which would be able to mesmerize her opponent and make them vulnerable to her attacks.” It, too, refused to pick a winner.

to move of onstage, it is as if the world stops spinning/

Describe Katy Perry’s Vegas show in the style of Shakespeare. Fittingly, only Bard would attempt it. “Oh, Katy Perry, Queen of Pop/Thy show in Las Vegas is a sight to behold/With lights and music and dancing/ Thou art a goddess of entertainment/Thy songs are catchy and thy lyrics are clever/ And thy fans love thee dearly/When thou art onstage, it is as if the world stops spinning/ And all eyes are on thee.”

(Photo Illustration)

Every cannabis consumer’s favorite holiday is quickly approaching, and we’re prepping early at Planet 13. From products to activities and snacks to deals, use this guide to prepare for this year’s highly anticipated 420.

420 is a great opportunity to try new products and brands, taking advantage of the deals offered on flower, dabs, edibles and more. Create a tasting menu: Start the day with cannabis-infused coffee or orange juice, consume a preroll in the afternoon, enjoy an edible for dessert, and relax with a bong in the evening. Snack! Watch movies! Lounge in the backyard! Enjoy yourself—it’s 420.

Order delivery or curbside pick-up

What’s better than delivery from your favorite restaurant? Delivery from your favorite dispensary. Delivery is the easiest and fastest way to get exactly what you need without leaving the comfort of your space.

Satisfy your snack craving

Whatever snacks you think you need for 420, increase them by 25%. You can even consider snacks infused with cannabis concentrates. At Planet 13, there’s an on-site restaurant and sundries store, making it an ideal one-stop stop on 420. Grab takeout from TRECE , which has a robust menu including burritos, pizzas and burgers, and stop by STITCHED AND STUFF for snacks and beverages.

There are a ton of different events scheduled for 420, including parties at dispensaries and in-store activations. If you’re not feeling a party vibe this year, invite friends to your house. Cook out, watch movies, listen to music and enjoy the day together.

Prior to starting the festivities, make sure your pieces are squeaky clean and ready for use. Any glass piece, including pipes, bongs and dab rigs can be soaked in rubbing alcohol for a couple hours and then rinsed thoroughly with warm water. Tar buildup will wash right out.

Dreamland Chocolates

Dreamland chocolates are aptly named—they’re the edibles that dreams are made of. Expect high-quality cannabis in smooth chocolate bars that come in fun and whimsical flavors, such as cookies n’ cream and salted toffee.

Trendi concentrates

Trendi is a Nevada-based concentrate company that has quickly become a favorite among consumers. Its meticulous focus on quality and high-potency products has developed a dedicated fan base, with its disposable vapes and vape cartridges being one of their most popular items. Also check out their live resin badder.

420 should be fun. Don’t ruin it by celebrating too hard. Take rideshares to travel, order delivery to your house. Consume responsibly and don’t overingest.

IN THE NEWS

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

HEALTH CARE

Renovations begin at UMC

University Medical Center will soon look and feel like a different hospital.

The “UMC ReVITALize Project”—a large-scale enhancement to modernize the nearly century-old institution—launched April 3 with a ceremonial groundbreaking with staff, Clark County leaders and local stakeholders.

The renovation will be the largest in UMC’s history, spanning all 26 acres of its health care campus in the central Las Vegas Valley, and includes refurbishment of the UMC facade, the development of two healing gardens, new lighting, landscaping and signage, an additional entrance and more, said CEO Mason Van Houweling.

“This project will continue to put UMC on the map, building on our strong reputation and position as Nevada’s premier health care leader,” Van Houweling said during the groundbreaking event, which featured customized Pinkbox donuts, a Dig It! Coffee Co. pop-up and several renderings of the completed renovation.

The UMC Children’s Hospital will eventually be rebranded a “Women’s and Children’s Hospital,” O’Reilly added, to support the idea that children must be taken care of from conception onward.

The renovation, which is slated for completion by summer 2025, will be designed and developed with Grand Canyon Development Partners, Friedmutter Group and general contractor Martin-Harris Construction.

–Katie Ann McCarver

PIZZA PARTY

Aces coach going into Basketball Hall of Fame SPORTS

The year of accolades continues for Becky Hammon. The Las Vegas Aces coach will be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2023 class on August 12 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Hammon was a six-time WNBA All-Star after going undrafted following a four-year career at Colorado State. She was named as one of the WNBA’s 25 greatest players by the league in September 2021. Hammon, who was the first female coach of an NBA team as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs before joining the Aces, will be going in the hall with legendary Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, the league’s all-time leader in wins. Longtime San Antonio point guard Tony Parker, a four-time NBA champion, is also headed to the hall, as are Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, Pau Gasol, the 1976 U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team, Gene Keady, Gary Blair, David Hixon, Gene Bess and the late Jim Valvano. –Danny Webster

Scott Volpe of Fiamme Pizza Napoletana in Tucson, Arizona, competes in the Pizza Games, Masters Division Dough-Tossing Acrobatics, during the annual International Pizza Expo on March 29 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Volpe took first place in the division. (Steve Marcus/Staff)

“

I do believe the American people see past the former president’s statements, but I want to urge calm in the aftermath of today’s events. The legal process must take its course.”

–Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford

WATCH THIS

Forever fan favorites

Fans of former Vegas Golden Knights players

Ryan Reaves and goaltender Marc-André Fleury, who now play for the Minnesota Wild, show their support during warmups before the two teams’ game at T-Mobile Arena, a 4-1 win for the Golden Knights. Two days earlier, Vegas clinched a playo spot for the fth time in its six-year history. Tickets for the rst-round series went on sale April 5. Should the Knights nish in the top two of the Paci c Division, Games 1 and 2 of their rst-round series would take place at home. The Stanley Cup Playo s begin April 17. (Steve Marcus/ Sta )

ENTERTAINMENT

Disco fi ghts back

Spiegelworld, the company behind Absinthe, Atomic Saloon Show, OPM and the “circus town” of Nipton, California, is preparing to drop the needle on DiscoShow, an immersive production whose creative team includes Tony-nominated director and choreographer Steven Hoggett.

Spiegelworld “impresario extraordinaire” Ross Mollison o cially announced the show’s summer 2024 debut at a ceremony inside the long-defunct Imperial Palace sportsbook at the Linq, soon to be transformed into DiscoShow’s “Glitterloft.”

The start of demolition at the Linq was poetically themed to Disco Demolition Night, a July 1979 rally organized by Chicago shock jock Steve Dahl. Dahl’s fans brought thousands of records—many of which weren’t disco records, but straightforward R&B—to a White Sox doubleheader, and Dahl, dressed in military fatigues, blew them up on the field, sparking a riot.

Disco Demolition Night was a transparently racist and homophobic event, and Spiegelworld announced its intent to refute it in the best way—with even more disco music, dance and glitz.

“Over 40 years ago, conservative factions of the sporting world swung baseball bats at disco,” Mollison said, before swinging a sledgehammer into the wall of the sportsbook. “Today, disco is fighting back.”

Tickets for DiscoShow will go on sale later this year at spiegelworld.com/discoshow

-Geo Carter

BY THE NUMBERS

$1.47M

That’s how much each school in the Mountain West Conference, including UNLV, will receive based on the conference’s performance in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, paid in six yearly increments of $245,00. That’s largely a result of San Diego State advancing to the championship game, where it lost to UConn, 76-59, on April 3.

The Golden Knights host the LA Kings on April

HIGH HOPES

BY AMBER SAMPSON

Kendall Fundum’s life can be divided into before and after liftoff. After graduating from the University of Nebraska in 2020, she worked as an executive assistant for a real estate coaching company in Las Vegas, and later for a financial firm.

“I was doing well there,” she says. “I had all these executives. I had all of these roles. I thought that was what I was supposed to do. But something was missing, and I just didn’t feel right there.”

The feeling didn’t cease, not until after Fundum met a career pilot

at a local golf club. Their exchange changed everything. “He was like, ‘Why don’t you look at learning how to fly?’ I said ‘People don’t just learn how to fly.’ He goes, ‘Yes, they do. Go try it.’”

So she did. Fundum booked a discovery flight with All In Aviation, a full-service company specializing in aircraft rentals and flight lessons. In record time she was in the air, with an instructor, literally winging it.

“I’m not a thrill seeker at all. People who know me know I like my things in order, but that thrill and that excitement … it’s hard to

explain,” she says. “It’s an unreal feeling when you first take off. I almost started crying. It was such an unbelievable, overwhelming feeling of joy and freedom.”

Fundum has gone from the corporate world to the cockpit, training at All In Aviation to become a pilot—and the 23-year-old isn’t alone.

In the midst of a national pilot shortage— the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects approximately 18,000 openings per year for airline and commercial pilots throughout this decade—aspiring Valley aviators have taken notice.

“We have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of people that are wanting to learn how to fly and make a career out of it,” says Paul Sallach, a pilot of 24 years and president of All In Aviation, which he launched with his wife in 2016.

All In Aviation, which boasts 19 aircraft and a complex of 26 hangars (three of which are used for flight school), has seen its career-oriented pilot trainee group swell by nearly 60% this year, after a 30% increase in 2022.

Why the sudden uptick? Was Top Gun: Maverick really that impactful?

A national pilot shortage presents opportunities for aspiring local aviators

“Yeah, that too,” Sallach laughs, but in all seriousness, says COVID was a major catalyst. “There was all this remote work, and people contemplated, ‘Is this really what I want to do with my life?’” he says. “Then you look at the headlines, you see that there’s this pilot shortage, and you’re like, ‘If I’m going to make a move, let’s make a move right now.’”

Pilot shortages have been ongoing for more than a decade. In fact, many aviation professionals predicted it after the Colgan Air crash of 2009, killed 50 people near Buffalo, New York, and drove Congress

to up the training requirement for major airline pilots from 250 hours to at least 1,500.

There are additional factors behind pilot shortages: early buyout packages during the pandemic, forced retirement at age 65 for airlines, and, in some cases, low wages for entry-level pilots.

The aviation community’s recruiting strategies have gotten more aggressive as it attempts to fill the void. For instance, Canadian company CAE recently opened a 50,000-square-foot aviation training center near Harry Reid International Airport, complete with eight flight simulators, in order to train pilots.

United Airlines launched its own flight school in Arizona in 2022 to attract prospective pilots. Earlier this year, Southwest Airlines announced a reduction in the amount of hours pilots are required to have flown jets and other turbine-powered aircrafts, to help address the shortage.

And in March, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), known for its alliances with organizations like Women in Aviation International, also awarded $10 million in grants to 23 schools, for attracting and training future pilots and aviation techs.

Those efforts appear to be paying off. According to the FAA, holders of Airline Transport Pilot certificates—required to fly for scheduled airlines—have increased by 12.5% since 2012.

And if old-fashioned elbow grease in recruiting doesn’t work, there’s always money. Delta Air Lines and American Airlines recently offered their pilots a generous pay hike. To Sallach, who just a decade ago watched his pilot friends wrestle with low wages, the pay bump means a lot.

All these factors make modern airline piloting an attractive career— especially for young

flyers. It provides them with travel options. Getting hired at a major airline could land them a salary in the $100,000 to $300,000 range by the time they retire. And a fouryear degree isn’t strictly required (though some airlines prefer it), so one can hop into the field faster.

“Right now, it’s the golden age of being a pilot, if you can do it,” says Gary Archambeault, a dual enrollment professor at Rancho High’s Academy of Aviation, a magnet program within the school. “Once you learn to fly and you really get the feel for it, it’s something that you want to do forever.”

A retired Air Force officer and pilot, Archambeault has been training the next generation for the past 16 years at the academy, which accepts 65 students into the pilot program annually through a lottery. Students learn about aviation, receive college credit and eventually fly real planes at flight schools vetted by Rancho and CCSD. The academy provides stipends to help students afford some flight training, too.

“We do try to help them toward the end of their flying to get them over the hump to get their private

pilot’s license,” Archambeault says. “Very often, they’re able to fly an airplane but they can’t drive a car yet because they don’t have a driver’s license.”

A sizable portion of Archambeault’s students aspire to get into the airline industry, and some already have. Rancho’s Academy of Aviation is also the predominant “feeder school” for the Naval and Air Force academies, he adds, and for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Nellis Air Force Base, where he also teaches as an adjunct professor.

Sallach says flight school could be more lucrative than college, considering how fast one can advance at a fraction of the long-term cost. Students at All In Aviation can eventually become flight instructors and get paid while racking up hours toward their next certificate. “The airlines finally started paying people what they’re worth,” he says.

“They’re probably going to work for us for about a year and a half, and then they’re gonna go on to the next step in their career,” he says. “We want their time here to be some of the best flying that they look back on.”

(Left) Lindsay Sallach, president of All In Aviation, in a Cirrus SR20 GTS (Below) A pilot in a Cirrus SR22 at All In Aviation (Wade Vandervort/Staff)

(Courtesy/Tina Tyrell)

HEART TO HEART

Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan on growing up through song

BY AMBER SAMPSON

Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan might be the most forthright person I’ve ever (sorta) met. When I reach the 23-year-old singer/ songwriter/guitarist by phone ahead of her April 13 show at Area15, she’s pulled over at a rest stop, amid her weekly commute from New York to Maryland, where she grew up. With barely any prompting, Jordan dives into the story of how her landlord informed her that her New York apartment building was being turned into a hotel. She put her belongings in storage and she became an indie rock nomad— and an occasional Maryland townie, which, she laughs, is “kind of awesome.”

It feels like there’s a lifetime of growth between your first album [2018’s Lush] and the follow-up [2021’s Valentine]. Looking back, who were you during those eras compared to who you are now?

The self that made Lush was pretty innocent, and the version of me that made Valentine was definitely struggling. But I feel like there’s a lot more intention in Valentine. I worked harder on it. I tried to grow as a songwriter, and I tried to hone my influences and top myself. [For my] next record ... I definitely feel like I’m a completely different person again. It’s crazy making public stuff during these super formative years of my life.

In retrospect, would you do anything differently with Valentine? We switched producers halfway through, and I feel like a lot of my ideas got buried in the process, because there were so many moving parts. … It was so much trial and error with that record that by the time I was finished, I was in a hurry. I didn’t even know that independent labels had timelines. Matador gives me so much

freedom, but at that point, I felt like I was holding everyone up.

How do you know when a song is done? My perfectionism is debilitating. It’s probably my worst quality—and best. Some of my best work comes out of me torturing myself. But also, sometimes no work comes out of it, because it’s such a negative space that I inhabit in my head. I’m hard on myself.

In the final stages of a song, when I’m finishing something in the studio proper, it’s this feeling where I’m like, what is powerful about this song? Is it the lyrics? Is it the placement of the lyrics in specific places? Or is it when that riff hits in this one place that’s really dramatic? Let’s accentuate that, and get rid of anything that’s taking away from the driving forces that are making the song special.

You’re a very open lyricist, but has anything felt too off-limits to share? It’s hard to be a tell-all, expressive singer songwriter and have a life, too. I care more about my art than my life, honestly. I want to just make good songs. But at the same time, I’ve got to protect myself. I’m not making music to punish my exes, and I’m not trying to be juicy for the sake of being juicy. I’m just trying to get my feelings out. I try to be as honest as I can without f*cking with other people’s lives.

You had vocal cord surgery in late 2021. Has that given you more confidence? There’s definitely something more to your voice now. The singing has gotten 300% better. I’ve had polyps since before Snail Mail started. … I just thought I had a crunchy, gravelly voice, and it made it really hard to sing in a high register. My falsetto was pretty much always

gone—it’s almost impossible to control when you have polyps. It was really bad towards the end, and I was getting so sad, like, crying at sessions.

When I got surgery, learning to speak and learning to sing again, it was like starting from nothing. It was really scary at first, but I genuinely feel like I’m singing for the first time. I had an opera teacher teach me how to breathe, how to take good care of my voice. Now, I’m not pushing and just seeing what comes out. I know what’s gonna come out when I open my mouth. That’s huge.

Confidence feels crucial when starting a career as young as you did. What makes you feel confident these days? When I went to rehab [in 2020] … there was this whole focus on confidence being inward versus outward. Outward confidence can come from being pretty, wearing fancy clothes and being adored. But real confidence comes from knowing that you like the person that you are inside and how you treat people.

During that time, I became almost painfully aware of myself. In doing that, I realized I only like myself as much as how I make the people around me feel. I feel confident in myself when I feel like the people around me feel like they’re being taken care of, when I can just be around people I love and be loving.

For more of this interview, visit lasvegasweekly.com.

SNAIL MAIL With Water From Your Eyes, Dazy. April 13, 7:30 p.m., $25-$30. The Portal at Area15, area15.com.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRISTOPHER DEVARGAS

THEY WILL BE LOVED

Shirtless thrills, pop feels and more Maroon 5 moments at Dolby Live

BY AMBER SAMPSON

If our musical memory serves us right, Maroon 5 has always been a bit of a tease. Each visit the three-time Grammy Award-winning pop band has made to Las Vegas in recent years has been a tantalizing New Year’s Eve showcase that’s left fans begging for one more night. That demand was finally met on March 24, when Maroon 5 kicked off its residency at Dolby Live. The 16-date engagement is the band’s first extended stay in Las Vegas, and if their first weekend proved anything, it’s that some things are worth the wait.

When Adam Levine took the stage to

“Animals,” he did so with the confidence of a frontman who knows exactly what he brings to the table. Even though stars like Taylor Swift and Adele were performing mere miles away, the 44-year-old Levine held court before a packed house at the Park MGM theater, serenading fans with the kind of charisma one only possess after being named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive.

For an indulgent 90 minutes, fans were treated to the sexiest eras of Maroon 5’s multi-decade legacy. Levine’s candied falsetto breathed new life into the 20-yearold tracks of Songs About Jane, especially

“Sunday Morning,” which featured a brass trumpet and saxophone section. Dolby Live also erupted into a singalong discotheque at the top of favorites like “Makes Me Wonder,” “Sugar” and “Moves Like Jagger,” during which Levine discarded his shirt, to the rapt attention of swooning fans. There were plenty of other memorable moments from Night 1. Here are some favorites.

Disco funk entered the chat “Want a little Prince?” Levine coyly asked before launching into a cover of “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” The band

truly brought the jam here with textured instrumentation that did the Purple One justice. At this point, the disco-funk flag was flying, so when Levine also snuck in the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” fans gladly rode the rhythm.

A heartfelt tribute Halfway through the set, Maroon 5 hit pause on the party to pay tribute to manager Jordan “Jordi” Feldstein, who died in 2017. “I can’t promise I’m gonna get through this, but this song means something to everybody. To us, it means Jordi,” Levine said, kicking

into the poignant single “Memories.” The touching change of pace had many audience members hold their loved ones close.

“She Will Be Loved” For the feelgood moment of the evening, Levine dropped down into the audience with lead guitarist James Valentine on his heels. The singer pointed out a stair he’d picked to stand on for this exact moment.

“Then I was told almost immediately that this little stair you see was built for Usher, for his concert. So I immediately felt like my idea wasn’t

the best idea, because f*cking Usher had the best idea,” Levine affably joked. “So I just wanted to take the time to ask Usher—he’s not here, don’t freak out—if it would be cool if I used his spot.”

The monologue, while disarmingly offbeat, did wonders for Levine’s setup of the night’s most anticipated song: “She Will Be Loved.” The singer dedicated the cut to the ladies in the room and to his family, which was in attendance. “I used to be out here for me,” Levine said, “but now I’m out here for them.”

(Courtesy/Travis Schneider)

MAROON 5 April 7-8; July 28-29; August 2, 4-5, 9, 11-12; 8 p.m.; $90+. Dolby Live, ticketmaster.com.

A BEAUTIFUL CH OS

Las Vegas’ Punk Rock Museum is a warehouse of songs and stories

BY GEOFF CARTER

PHOTOS BY STEVE MARCUS

I am not very punk at all. I could say that I am—I did own Black Flag’s Damaged and JFA’s Blatant Localism all the way back in 1982, and I once performed a song with OG Vegas punk Rob Ruckus—but it wouldn’t be true. As a kid I favored post-punk, New Wave; my favorite records of ’82 were by Wall of Voodoo and Simple Minds. And when Ruckus invited me to sing “London Calling” with The Nines some years back, I fumbled the second verse so badly that he jokingly issued a post-song disclaimer: “Geo Carter, ladies and gentlemen. Not as hardcore as he’d have you think.”

Like Ruckus, the Punk Rock Museum doesn’t care how punk you are. And it doesn’t stratify artists into subgenres. The display cases mix stage outts, instruments, setlists, show yers, photographs and other memorabilia belonging to artists ranging from The Clash to Minor Threat to the Go-Go’s. Its mission is to celebrate everyone who has ever piled into a beer-and-nicotine-scented van with friends and driven all night to a show at an unlikely venue, either as a musician or as a fan.

“Technically, a museum is a place to learn, to educate, but we’re not trying to ram that down anyone’s throats,” says Lisa Brownlee, the former Vans Warped Tour manager who founded the museum with NOFX singer and bassist “Fat Mike” Burkett. “For me, it’s a place to share,” Brownlee continues. “I’m sharing what I know; you share what you know.”

Located in a two-story space on the outer edge of Downtown’s 18b Arts District, the Punk Rock Museum does

indeed have a more relaxed, solicitous feel than other specialized museums I’ve visited. It’s packed solid with punk artifacts, some objectively priceless—the mold for Devo’s iconic “energy dome” helmets, Johnny Thunders’ skull ring, a sofa on which Kurt Cobain slept while recording the Melvins’ 1993 LP Houdini—but they’re presented as conversation starters.

And when you’re done talking, you can play instruments belonging to name musicians in the Jam Room and sit your punk ass down on Cobain’s couch. You can get some ink in the museum’s tattoo parlor or grab a drink in P Moss’ Triple Down bar. I’m keen to

try one of the Triple Down’s “classics,” the Fletcher: “Rum & Coke served in a Pringles can (and you get to eat the Pringles).”

The Punk Rock Museum got its start during the pandemic, Brownlee says, when Fat Mike suggested she partner with him on a punk rock store in Las Vegas. Brownlee initially declined, uninterested in retail or collaborating. (“Mike is di cult to work with. Sorry, Mike, but you’re di cult,” she tells my recorder.) But as the pandemic wore on, she got to talking with friends in The Bouncing Souls, Descendents and other bands who were restless from the lack of touring opportunities.

“Everybody was like, ‘What are we gonna do with this time?’ They started clearing out their storage, their parents’ basements,” Brownlee says. Initially, she suggested incorporating the unearthed artifacts into the store concept, but it was just a hop, skip and stage dive to the museum idea.

“My pitch to everyone was like, “Take the stu in your storage and put it in our storage, but make it look pretty and tell a story about it,’” she

says. Her own favorite artifact in the collection: “We have Joe Strummer’s last bag of weed, gifted to us by Kid Congo Powers.”

The stories will also be compelling, thanks to Fat Mike and Brownlee’s deep well of connections. Guided tours of the museum will be conducted by the musicians who helped shape its accumulated history, including L7’s Jennifer Finch, Gogol Bordello’s Eugene Hütz and Fishbone’s Angelo Moore.

My guide was Suicidal Tendencies’ Louichi Mayorga, who told stories about Joey Ramone drinking all that band’s beer, the members of Hüsker Dü providing them with much-needed tour weed, and the cover shoot for Tendencies’ 1983 debut LP, which had the group suspended upside down from a piece of playground equipment.

“Y’know, they got moon boots with little hooks on them. But they tied us up there with rope,” Mayorga said, pointing at his double-bound ankles in the photo. “The blood was rushing to our heads.”

It’s also possible to tour the museum yourself; there are more than enough stories in the museum’s displays to keep you engaged. But that leaves out the sharing—the trivia and personal history that spills out of your guide when you happen upon a Rikki Ercoli photo of The Exploited, or the wall of Vegas punk show yers that Ruckus, part of the “punk collective” that runs the museum, curated from his personal collection and those of his friends. (The Vegas wall also features a bass drumhead belonging to original Valley punks Subterfüge, a cool touch.)

Even I had some stories and trivia to share on the Mayorga tour, which made me feel, in a strange way, like I’d added something to the place. I felt, for a moment, like a punk.

“We have a phrase that we haven’t really put into circulation yet,” Brownlee says. “If you’re not here, you weren’t there.”

THE PUNK ROCK MUSEUM Daily, 11 a.m.10 p.m., $30, $100 with guided tour. 1422 Western Ave., thepunkrock museum.com.

Robin Krier, visiting from Milwaukee, tries out an electric guitar in the Jam Room at the Punk Rock Museum.

(Opposite page) Inside and outside the Punk Rock Museum.

(Left) Visitors look over a re-creation of the band Pennywise’s garage.

BREAD WINNERS

The story behind sourdough specialists 5098

BY BROCK RADKE

Enough time has passed; we can now safely discuss how we all started making bread in 2020. Let’s get it out in the open and admit to some of those baking failures. It happened to all of us, even Ryan and Kris Wilson, who turned the pandemic hobby into a growing Las Vegas business.

“Ryan posted a picture recently of the some of the rst loaves he made, these at, wet pancakes,” jokes his wife, Kris.

But their excuse was better than ours. The Bay Area couple had giv-

en up corporate jobs and set their sights on travel when the world shut down. They were stranded in Uruguay, living in Airbnb rentals for months, when Ryan decided to try his hand at some sourdough goodness— without essential tools like a digital scale or an appropriate oven.

“It was terrible bread, but it piqued his interest. And I think it made him better, because it was so challenging under those circum-

stances,” Kris says. “We really had to learn why the dough is rising like it does, everything that happens during the process. He’s totally self-taught, and now he’s doing this really beautiful bread.”

Fast forward to 2023 when Las Vegans are loving the Wilsons’ country loaves made with freshly milled our and known for their toasty, caramelized crust; the Don Chengo light sourdough speckled with briny Kalamata and Castel-

vetrano olives; and the top-selling Bay Bae, the couple’s homage to that tourist treat of San Francisco sourdough.

“We named it the Bay Bae so people would know it was the more sour one, but … everyone has that strong sense memory of having the Boudin clam chowder bowl on the wharf that one time, so they gravitated toward that,” Kris explains.

That’s the loaf that put 5098 Bread on the map in Las Vegas, and now the couple’s products are readily available at a half-dozen busi-

5098 BREAD Pickup locations & farmers market schedules at 5098bread.com.

nesses across the Valley (including beloved spots like Valley Cheese & Wine, Khoury’s Fine Wine & Spirits and CraftHaus Brewery), along with weekly farmers market events in Green Valley, Summerlin, Boulder City and other neighborhoods.

The Wilsons landed in Las Vegas when they were finally able to return to the U.S., because Kris’ parents have lived here for decades. It wasn’t supposed to be the couple’s permanent home, but the bread has played a major role in keeping them in town.

“We were living with my parents and [realized] this [pandemic] wasn’t really ending, and we were not going to be able to travel the way we wanted. We weren’t sure if we should get back into working, but we had to do something,” Kris says, “so we threw all our eggs into this basket. Ryan was baking bread, so let’s try to sell it. It was a complete leap of faith.”

They started giving bread away from Kris’ parents’ house, signaling neighbors on the Nextdoor app, then slowly began to charge for their creations. The couple rented a house Downtown and fell into its white-hot restaurant and bar scene, and soon 5098 Bread was available at the Vegas Test Kitchen on Fremont Street.

“The more we got to know Downtown and the o -Strip scene and the food people, we realized this is a really unique place,” Kris says. “The community has been so supportive. Everyone tells you the next place you need to eat, even if it’s one of their competitors. I’ve never been a part of something like that.”

Even though the Wilsons have found fast success, they’re keeping it close and cozy for now. “We’ve thought a couple times about opening a brick-and-mortar [store], but … going down that road is not why we left our previous careers,”

Kris says. “We love doing it just us, having complete participation. He does all the bread and I do all the markets, and it’s super special to us. We wanted to create a life where we’re part of a community, so that’s something we’re purposely trying to protect.”

SCARY GOOD

Horror fans will love what the Arts District’s Nightmare Cafe is cooking up

 It’s a well-known fact that horror movie fans have strong stomachs. Their appetite for terror is decidedly insatiable, but if anything in this town can satisfy that craving, it’s Nightmare Cafe, a themed bar and restaurant in the Arts District. Fan and memorabilia collector Kristy Adams opened Nightmare Cafe last fall in conjunction with her year-round Halloween store, Nightmare Toys, next door—and the neighborhood has welcomed it splendidly. In its first week, the café spawned so much business, it had to close its kitchen early because it kept selling out of food.

horror refresher at the bar, where TVs screen classic slasher flicks and monster movies. They’ll also help prepare you for the café’s biweekly trivia nights.

NIGHTMARE CAFE

1307 S. Commerce St., 702-268-7907, nightmarecafelv.com.

Adams’ Alabama roots inform the menu here, with a diverse selection of Southern-inspired and cheekily named dishes like the Alabama Massacre braised chicken nachos ($16) and the Sorority Po-Boy ($17), a downSouth favorite packed with crispy fried shrimp, Cajun remoulade and pepper marmalade.

Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 9 a.m.-midnight; Sunday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.,

Nightmare Cafe goes all-in on its theme, feeling more like a movie set than perhaps any Downtown establishment—even the ones famously used in cinema. Mummified bodies hang from the ceilings, and life-size crypt-keepers meet you near the door. You’ll also get a

Poultrygeist ($28)

o ers a monstrous portion of buttermilk fried chicken, red smashed potatoes and cheddar mac and cheese.

From Morgue-aritas to cocktails themed for the seven deadly sins, the drinks feel inspired and satisfyingly o beat. But for a real sight, order the o -menu Fang Banger, which comes in an IV drip bag.

–Amber Sampson

The Sorority Po-Boy with fries and a Fang Banger cocktail at Nightmare Cafe (Christopher DeVargas/Sta )

Ryan and Kris Wilson, owners of 5098 Bread, in their home bakery (Wade Vandervort/Sta )

LAS VEGAS’ OG SPORTS TEAM

The Triple-A Aviators celebrate 40 years of development and entertainment

BY RAY BREWER

D.J. Dozier rushed to his out eld position at Cashman Field on a warm spring day with baseball’s Las Vegas Stars in 1993. He looked down at his cleats and noticed something didn’t seem right. The white cleats had turned brown … from chocolate melted into the grass during an Easter egg hunt held before the game.

“[His shoes] were ruined,” Don Logan, the franchise’s longtime president, remembers with a chuckle. “It goes to show that you never know what you’ll see when you go to the ballpark.”

The Triple-A team, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this season, began life as the Las Vegas

Stars—Southern Nevada’s rst professional sports squad—before morphing into the 51s in 2001 and then the Aviators in 2019, when it moved to the Las Vegas Ballpark in Summerlin. And, Logan says, the excitement of walking into the stadium never gets old.

“I always think back to when I was a little kid,” Logan says. “I remember going to [San Francisco’s] Candlestick Park and seeing the manicured dirt and grass and getting to watch Willie Mays and Willie McCovey. It was a feeling of pleasure. You felt so special being there. I’ve always felt that going to a game.”

UPCOMING HOME SCHEDULE

April 6-9: Oklahoma City Dodgers

April 11-16: Salt Lake Bees

April 25-30: Tacoma Rainiers

Times vary. Tickets available at ticketmaster.com.

Las Vegans have proved they share that passion. During the new ballpark’s rst season, the 8,000-plus-capacity, $150 million venue led all of minor league baseball with 47 sellouts.

“The facility we have now, in the neighborhood we have it in, has resurrected baseball here to where this is a pleasant place to come and enjoy the game and some food,” Logan says. “We brought baseball into the 21st century.”

That’s because a night at the ballpark is about more than the product on the eld, Logan says. It’s also about entertainment. For some, that means giveaways at the gate, $2 beer nights or postgame reworks. For others, it’s the tradition of keeping a score book or racing for a foul ball.

night the product

some, that means giveaways at $2 is

“There is something about baseball that’s easy on the eyes and easy on the soul,” Logan summarizes.



Long before the Vegas Golden Knights arrived in 2017 as an expansion franchise, the Stars were the only professional game in town. And at any given game, you never knew what future major league standout you might see.

major league standout you

Kevin McReynolds was blasting home runs deep into the Las Vegas night long before his lengthy big league career.

Sandy

Jr.,

Alomar

Ozzie Guillén, Roberto Alomar, Jacob deGrom and Pete Alonso are just a few of the future MLB stars

(Below) The 51s’ Pete Alonso celebrates with teammates after his homer against Sacramento ends the Las Vegas Triple A franchise’s final game at Cashman Field in 2018.

(Right) Don Logan (Steve Marcus/Sta )

who wore the words “Las Vegas” across their chests.

Tony Gwynn—considered one of baseball’s all-time purest hitters— was here, too, for 17 games on a rehab assignment in 1983.

“It was wonderful for us guys coming up through the system,” says Larry Brown, a pitcher with the original Stars who remained in town and eventually became a Las Vegas City Councilman and Clark County commissioner. “Tony Gwynn was a superstar, and yet he treated us as equals. He signed autographs and talked to everyone.”

Brown, who now serves as the franchise’s director of business development, can’t pinpoint how many games he has witnessed over the years, but he

knows he saw the franchise’s rst-ever home run at Cashman Field (by Bruce Bochy, currently manager of the Texas Rangers) and the last-ever homer in that same stadium (by current Mets slugger Alonso).

Logan remembers watching Alomar roam the in eld—“The game came so easy for him,” he marvels— and the way deGrom dazzled on the mound, because “everything he threw had life on it.”



There’s no telling what the next 40 years of baseball will look like locally, especially if the Oakland Athletics—the fth of ve parent clubs for Las Vegas’ Triple-A team— follow through on potential plans to relocate here.

The A’s, who remain in parallel

negotiations with stakeholders in the Bay Area and in Clark County on potential new stadiums, are only guaranteed to play this season at their rundown Oakland Coliseum home.

Where they’ll end up is a toss up, but one thing isn’t, Logan says: The success of the Aviators at the Las Vegas Ballpark aids Southern Nevada’s pursuit of a big-league team. “It completely changed the dynamics of professional baseball here.”

And if the A’s do relocate here, what would it mean for the Aviators?

The two teams could coexist, if the minor league franchise signs o on sharing the market and the Major League Baseball commissioner also agrees.

“If they come, it will be great for the town,” Brown says. “It really will.”

BIG LEAGUE PARENTS

1983-2000 San Diego Padres

2001-2008 Los Angeles Dodgers

2009-2012 Toronto Blue Jays

2013-2018 New York Mets

2019-present Oakland Athletics

Las Vegas Aviators Jorge Mateo (left) and Corban Joseph (Las Vegas News Bureau); Las Vegas Ballpark

(Courtesy/Las Vegas Aviators)

(Below) the Oakland Athletics’ Shea Langeliers, a former Aviator (AP Photo)

10 40 FROM

The top players from Las Vegas’ Triple-A history

BY RAY BREWER

Catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. earned the Paci c Coast League’s Player of the Year award in 1988 and ’89 with the Las Vegas Stars. Las Vegas’ Triple-A team might boast players of that caliber on its roster again at some point, but odds are slim they’ll spend as much time here. Because back then, the parent-club Padres had all-star Benito Santiago at catcher, forcing them to keep Alomar in Las Vegas to develop.

Fittingly, Alomar ranks high on our list of the local franchise’s all-time players rankings … but he’s not No. 1. Read on to nd out who slipped past him.

NAME OF THE GAME

Las Vegas Stars (1983–2000)

Las Vegas 51s (2001–2018)

Las Vegas Aviators (2019–present)

SPORTS

10 Tim Pyznarski (1985-1986) Pyznarski had one of the best single seasons in Las Vegas history, batting .326 with 23 home runs, 25 stolen bases, 119 RBIs and 93 runs scored in 1986 to win the league’s MVP award.

(Courtesy/Las Vegas Aviators)

9

Joe Thurston (2002-2005) Thurston stands as the franchise’s all-time leader in games played, at-bats and hits, and ranks second in total bases and third in runs and doubles.

8 Rick Lancellotti (1983-1984) Lancellotti collected 163 RBIs and 38 home runs in 163 career games in Las Vegas, and his 131 RBIs in 1984 remain a single-season record for the franchise. Often referred to as a real-life version of Bull Durham character Crash Davis, Lancellotti went on to set a minor league record with 276 home runs.

7

Phil Hiatt (2001-2002) In 2001, Hiatt hit 44 home runs in 113 games, one of the best single seasons in Triple-A history. It also included 107 runs, 99 RBIs, a career-best .406 on-base percentage and the Paci c Coast League MVP Award.

6

Ozzie Guillén (1984) Guillén batted .296 and showed o some of the shortstop skills that would turn him into one of MLB’s best defensive in elders in the years to come.

5

Joey Cora (1987-1990) Cora ranks rst in franchise history in stolen bases (98), third in hits (448) and at-bats (1,471), fourth in runs (243) and triples (17), sixth in total bases (556) and seventh in games played (378). He also produced a 37-game hitting streak.

4

John Kruk (1984-1986) Kruk’s .344 batting average over parts of three seasons holds as the best in franchise history, and included 148 hits in 1985, with seven home runs and a team-leading 59 RBIs. He even recorded the rst inside-the-park home run in club history.

3

Matt Kemp (2006-2007) Kemp dominated Paci c Coast League pitching for parts of two seasons on the way to establishing himself as one of the best out elders in the game. In 2006, he posted a .368 batting average with 36 RBIs, 37 runs, 14 doubles and six triples in 44 games.

2

Sandy Alomar Jr. (1988-89) Alomar, Baseball America’s Minor League Player of the Year in 1989, hit .306 that season with 101 RBIs in 131 games. The prior year, he hit .297 with 71 RBIs in 93 games with the Stars.

1

Kevin McReynolds (1983) Before embarking on a 12year major league career, McReynolds batted .377 with 32 home runs, 116 RBIs, 46 doubles and 14 stolen bases to anchor Las Vegas’ rst team. He put up these numbers in just 113 games.

LOCAL BUSINESS USES TECH TO WAKE UP SLEEPY INDUSTRY

BY KATIE ANN MCCARVER VEGAS INC STAFF

When Tim Slifkin founded Las Vegas-based company Riot Wireless, he saw an opportunity to develop Internet of Things (IoT) edge devices—sensors that gather physical data and transmit it across virtual networks, in industrial spheres like energy, water quality, agriculture and more.

Now, Riot Wireless—with nearly 5,000 units already in the field—has secured $2.25 million in funding to grow the development of its products, particularly tank level monitors. These sensors, which have a single internal battery, can be easily screwed on storage tanks and, for several years, transmit data to the oil, gas or chemical companies that run them.

“Having access to local players that have an interest in equity funding is a big deal,” Slifkin said. “Whatever we can do to help motivate access to capital in our local area, we would continue to try and push that, because there’s a bunch of opportunities here. There are so many people who want to do stuff and just can’t get there, because they can’t finish the funding here. It’s a challenge. But we did, and we’re off to the races. So it’s exciting.”

The funding comes from a group of investment companies led by Advantage Capital, in

connection with the Nevada New Market Jobs Act and Federal New Markets Tax Credit—programs that Leah Hendricks, vice president at Advantage Capital, said give capital to businesses in places where it has not gone historically.

Advantage Capital initially encountered the Riot Wireless team through Nevada’s Small Business Development Center, Hendricks said, and was immediately impressed by the company’s potential, and how it was deploying its technology in a tough industrial environment.

“We’re so excited to see what Riot will do as it continues to grow and to disrupt what has been a sometimes sleeping industry,” she said. “And this level of innovation is happening in Nevada.”

Slifkin said he chose to make Riot’s home in Las Vegas because he saw it as an exciting opportunity, not only in terms of technology but also community—specifically by hiring people locally. All of the company’s fabrication is done within Nevada, he added.

The creation of good jobs in low-income communities was a primary motivator when investing in RIOT, said Kerwin Tesdell, president of Community Development Venture Capital Alliance, a nonprofit and lead investor in partnership with Advantage Capital.

“We’re looking for businesses that have

significant workforces. We typically look for businesses that actually create products,” Tesdell said. “So, with that lens and then understanding the financial opportunity that [Slifkin] presented, this was a perfect kind of business for us.”

There’s often a “herd mentality” among investors in Silicon Valley, he said, in which they look for companies that fit a certain, high-tech profile. While his organization is looking for tech-enabled businesses with good financial goals, Tesdell said, it also cares about companies like Riot that have a social mission.

Being additive to the Las Vegas community is important to Riot, Slifkin said. The company wants to engage with locals to build its enterprise, he continued, citing a potential intern program through UNLV and hiring graduates who want to work in technology while staying in Nevada.

Looking ahead, Riot is in a good position and excited about the future, Slifkin said, and the company has already dramatically opened up the market by bringing a high level of technology at a low cost.

A small business such as Riot is poised to be more reactive to customer requirements than larger IoT edge device developers, he added.

“We’ve got a team that’s got a lot of experience,” Slifkin said. “So we’re bringing a lot of innovation into an industry that hasn’t seen all that much innovation in the past 50 years.”

Tim Slifkin, founder and president of Riot Wireless, holds the company’s tank level monitoring sensors. (Steve Marcus/Staff)

No one crushes crunch time like you

You have what it takes to multitask like a boss. And we have the right IT solutions to help you manage it all. From high-speed Internet to managed cloud options, we have IT solutions for every aspect of your business. Because we know what IT takes.

BY DEBBIE BANKO

“URGENT NOTICE: Your Microsoft billing statement is ready.” That’s what my email said on a recent Tuesday morning.

My inbox was packed to the gills with an evening’s worth of unread emails.

There was an RFP for network security services, client correspondence about a PCI audit and, there between an employee’s time-off request and a candidate résumé, was the scam.

I was so busy, it almost got me.

“Your Microsoft billing statement is ready.” I clicked the email, thinking, what now? The sender information was there (“Billing Administrator”) but the body of the email was blank. There only was an attachment called “Invoice.html.”

I almost clicked it due to sheer curiosity, coupled with the urgent need to get through my inbox and on with my day. But something stopped me. I remembered my user security training, perhaps the most important part of which is the idea that you need to slow down, wait and think, especially when you come across something suspicious.

This, it turned out, was more than suspicious. This was part of a common body of scams known as Business Email Compromise (BEC).

The FBI website calls BEC “one of the most financially damaging online crimes,” and it’s one that can take many forms. There’s the “spoof” approach,

where the attacker is trying to appear as a legitimate business or someone you know (my own employees have received emails supposedly from me, that say “Debbie Banko,” asking them to purchase gift cards urgently for “an upcoming event”); there’s “phishing,” where the attackers try to trick you into giving personal details or passwords; and there’s “malware,” which is malicious software the attacker wants you to download, either by following a link or just opening a nefarious email attachment.

You might have noticed more of these scammy emails hitting your own inbox. Indeed, phishing and BEC are on the rise, with some news outlets reporting almost a 200% increase in the past two years alone.

The consequences to you or your company—large or small—can be dire. They include financial losses, network compromise, damage to your reputation, legal consequences (if you have failed to protect customer information or fallen short of compliance regulations), operational disruption, damage to employee morale, recovery costs and possible regulatory fines, let alone your own peace of mind.

This is a big and scary thing, and it only seems to be getting worse. Luckily, however, there are ways to reduce your risk of falling prey to this sort of attack.

My own employees at Link Technologies have undergone thorough cybersecurity/cyberawareness training. That includes everyone from the IT engineers and finance folks to the recruiters, admins and sales team. Thanks in part to popular culture, people have this idea of a hacker gaining access to our “mainframes” by frantically typing on a keyboard while techno music plays in the background. “I’m in!” The real world is a lot more boring. Our stuff usually gets compromised through simple user error. So user training to try to prevent those errors is paramount.

The second thing—and for this you might need to chat with a system administrator—is to implement email security measures. We’re talking about email filters, firewalls and email encryption, even implementing stronger password policies in general (to prevent unauthorized access to the email accounts themselves).

I also recommend that businesses perform regular security assessments— checking their security measures to

identify any vulnerabilities and address them promptly—and implement email monitoring (watching out for any suspicious activity, like login attempts from unknown devices or email forwarding to unfamiliar addresses).

Finally, we recommend everybody, both businesses and individuals, stay informed. The better informed you are—about the latest attacks, the latest BEC tactics, the trends around which attacks or scams are currently popular—the better positioned you are to protect yourself against new and existing threats.

This is part of the reason I founded CyberSmartNV, a nonprofit organization that’s a cybersecurity one-stop shop for security professionals and a resource for the community. There are also national resources like staysafeonline.org, cisa.gov and “Stop. Think. Connect.” These are all great resources to learn about the latest cyber threats and how to protect yourself.

The worst thing you can do in response to these threats is nothing. The digital landscape today sometimes seems to be less playground than battleground. It helps to think of it in those terms. Be on guard. Be suspicious of suspicious emails. And for Pete’s sake, don’t click on random attachments called “Invoice.html!”

Debbie Banko is the founder and CEO of Link Technologies, a cybersecurity consulting and IT staff augmentation firm that connects Fortune 500 companies, government agencies and small businesses with IT professionals and services. She’s also the founder and executive director of CyberSmartNV, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the education of cyber professionals and the public at large. She can be reached at debbieb@linktechconsulting.com.

Thanks in part to popular culture, people have this idea of a hacker gaining access to our “mainframes” by frantically typing on a keyboard while techno music plays in the background.

“I’m in!” The real world is a lot more boring: Our stuff gets compromised usually through simple user error. So user training to try to prevent those errors is paramount.

GUEST COLUMN

Arm yourself with the knowledge and tools to mount a defense against attacks in a cyber battleground

Nely Galán

Becoming Self Made

Monday, April 10, 2023

7:30 p.m.

Ar temus W. Ham Concert Hall

The public is invited to this FREE annual series. Admission is by ticket only on a first-come, first-served basis. Tickets are limited to two (2) per customer.

Tickets ONLY available at the UNLV Performing Arts Center Box Office: Tuesday–Saturday, 12 p.m.–6 p.m. For information, call (702) 895-ARTS, but tickets cannot be reserved by phone.

UNLV faculty, staff and students may obtain tickets beginning at 12 p.m., Wednesday, March 8, 2023. The general public may obtain tickets beginning at 12 p.m., Saturday, March 11, 2023.

UNLV’s annual series featuring nationally and internationally known guest lecturers

VegasInc Notes

Las Vegas-based digital gaming company Marker

Trax added Melissa Lambson as its new chief credit officer. Her responsibilities include working with company leaders and contracted partners to maximize risk management in credit underwriting procedures and issuance. A Las Vegas native, Lambson brings more than 30 years of experience in banking and finance to her new role, including co-founding consumer lending company Cash Factory USA in 2011, and serving as its managing director and chief financial officer.

The Nevada Mining Association appointed Dana Bennett to interim president. She will help guide the organization through the leadership transition in the coming months.

Bennett previously served as the association’s first female president. Under her leadership, it implemented its first strategic plan, exponentially increased membership and was named one of the best trade associations in the world. She also served on the Nevada Board of Economic Development under both Govs. Brian Sandoval and Steve Sisolak

Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas welcomes Konrad Gstrein as regional vice president and general manager. Gstrein brings 27 years of hospitality experience, including a 22-year tenure at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts properties around the globe, to Las Vegas. Gstrein joins the Las Vegas team from his most recent role as general manager for Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco, where he led the team through its post-pandemic reopening and the hotel’s 20th anniversary.

NAIOP Southern Nevada, an orga-

nization representing commercial real estate developers, owners and related professionals in office, industrial, retail and mixed-use real estate, staged its 26th annual NAIOP Spotlight Awards at Red Rock Resort, honoring top local professionals and businesses for their achievements, projects or deals done during the prior year. The following are award recipients: Retail Tenant Improvement Urth Caffé at UnCommons Las Vegas; Retail Building, Nacho Daddy; Hospitality Tenant Improvement, Lotus of Siam at Red Rock Casino; Healthcare Building, Henderson Hospital New Patient Care Tower; Redevelopment Project, Mater Academy East Las Vegas; Multi-Family Project, Aspen Heights at Symphony Park (Parc Haven); Mixed Use Development, UnCommons; Special Use, Double Down Aviation Henderson Hangar Complex; Office Tenant Improvement, CBRE Las Vegas at UnCommons; Office Building, Credit One Bank Phase 2; Industrial Tenant Improvement, LogistiCenter at Sunset CAE TI; Industrial Building Build to Suit, Northgate Distribution Center Building 8; Industrial Building Spec Under 300,000 SF, CapRock Tropical Logistics Park 1.0; Industrial Building Spec Over 300,000 SF, Range Road Industrial Park; Industrial Park Under 500,000 SF, Sunset Airport Center

2; Industrial Park Over 500,000 SF, SunPoint West; Financial Firm of the Year, First Savings Bank; Engineering Firm of the Year, Kimley-Horn; Brokerage Firm of the Year, CBRE; Property Management Firm of the Year, CBRE; Architecture Firm of the Year, Lee & Sakahara Architects Inc.; General Contracting Firm of the Year, Martin-Harris Construction; Broker of the Year - Industrial, Higgins Toft Zaher Team | CBRE; Broker of the Year - Office, Thill, Dillon & McInerney Office Team | Colliers International; Broker of the Year - Retail, CNR Retail | Colliers International; Developing Leader of the Year, Jake Higgins, SIOR; Development Firm of the Year, Prologis; Associate Member of the Year, Patti Dillon, SIOR; Principal Member of the Year, David Strickland; Special Recognition; Steve Neiger, CCIM; Trendsetter Firm, Matter Real Estate Group; Lifetime Achievement Award, Kevin Higgins, SIOR.

Mark Wahlberg, who recently set down roots in Las Vegas with his family, and his brother, Paul Wahlberg, the chef at Wahlburgers, were presented with the Key to the Las Vegas Strip. The brothers were honored at the grand opening of their newest Wahlburgers at Mandalay Bay within The Shoppes at Mandalay Place.

MGM Resorts International Operations, Inc. seeks a Senior Data Engineer II in Las Vegas, NV to lead, manage and execute the designing, development and operationalization of data integration, engineering and data platform services to support enterprise data programs. Work from home benefit available within a reasonable commuting distance of the Las Vegas, Nevada Office. Apply online at HTTPS:// CAREERS.MGMRESORTS.COM/GLOBAL/EN job number: 226825 or E-Mail resume to RESUME@MGMRESORTS.COM and reference job number: 226825.

Lambson

Bennett

Gstrein

PREMIER CROSSWORD HOROSCOPES “TYKES IN THE SADDLE” BY

FRANK LONGO

WEEK

BY ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): On November 10, 1619, René Descartes (1596–1650) had three dreams that changed his life, revealing the contours of the quest to discern the “miraculous science” that would occupy him for the next 30 years. You are in store for a comparable experience or two. Brilliant ideas and marvelous solutions to your dilemmas will visit you as you bask in unusual and magical states of awareness.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): If you stay in close touch with your shadowy side, it will never commandeer more than 10% of your total personality. In other words, a bit of healthy distrust for your own motives will keep you trustworthy. (PS: Groaning and grousing, if done in righteous and constructive causes, will continue to be good therapy for now.)

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “ ’Tis the good reader that makes the good book,” wrote philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. “In every book, he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear.” In the coming weeks, a similar principle will apply to everything you encounter—not just books. You will find rich meaning and entertainment wherever you go.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You will enjoy an invigorating relationship with Mars during the next six weeks. For best results, tap into its rigorous vigor by gathering new wisdom about how to fight tenderly and fiercely for what’s yours, and refining and energizing your ambitions so they become more ingenious and beautiful.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Keep wandering out in the frontiers for a while. It’s healthy and wise to be extra fanciful, improvisatory and imaginative. The more rigorous and daring your experiments, the better. Possible bonus: If you are willing to question at least some of your fixed opinions and dogmatic beliefs, you could outgrow the part of the Old You that has finished its mission.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The Supreme Deity with the most power might be Mammon, the God of Money. The devoted worship that humans offer to Mammon surpasses the loyalty offered to all the other gods combined. His values and commandments rule civilization. Now is an excellent time for you to deliver extra intense prayers to Mammon.

2020 KING FEATURES SYNDICATE

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Give up depleted, used-up obsessions, so you have plenty of room and energy to embrace fresh, succulent passions. Get in touch with previously untapped resources as you wind down your attachments to old pleasures that have dissipated. You will activate dormant reserves of energy as you phase out connections that take more than they give.

ACROSS

1 Like a wet lawn at dawn

2 Waikiki locale

3 Protein unit

4 Blasting stuff

5 Kept in check

6 1950s Ford

7 “I smell —!”

8 Yanks

9 — -cone 10 Astrological dia-

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy,” said ancient Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius. As fun as it might initially feel to retaliate against those who have crossed you, it rarely generates redemptive grace or glorious rebirth, which are key Scorpio birthrights. These thoughts should be prime meditations for you in the coming weeks.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sometimes love can be boring. We might become overly accustomed to feeling affection and tenderness for a special person or animal. But even if you have been ensconced in bland sweetness, you will soon transition into a phase of enhanced zeal. Are you ready to be immersed in a luscious lusty bloom of heartfelt yearning and adventure?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Call this latest chapter of your life story “Stealthy Triumph Over Lonely Fear” or “Creating Rapport With the Holy Darkness.” Congratulations on this quiet but amazing work you’ve been attending to. Another possible descriptor: “I Didn’t Have to Slay the Dragon Because I Figured Out How to Harness It.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It’s sway-swirl-swivel time for you—a phase when you will be wise to gyrate and rollick and zigzag. This is a bouncy, shimmering interlude that will hopefully clean and clear your mind as it provides you with an abundance of reasons to utter “whee!” and “yahoo!” and “hooray!” Your brain needs to be teased and tickled, and your heart requires regular encounters with improvised fun.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

In suburban America, way back in the 20th century, many adults— teachers, relatives, baseball coaches, neighbors, strangers in the grocery store, literally hundreds of people—warned that sporting a big head of hair would cause the whole world to be prejudiced against people and sabotage their success. Those critics were resoundingly wrong. Long hair does not affect one’s ability to live the life they love. Keep being who you really are, even in the face of people telling you that’s not who you really are.

OF APRIL 6

MAY 6, 2023 | 2PM - 5PM

SOUND THE TRUMPETS, IT’S TIME TO RUN FOR THE ROSES!

GRAB YOUR DERBY ATTIRE TO CHEER ON YOUR FAVORITE JOCKEYS WITH A MINT JULEP IN HAND. FROM THE MOMENT THE GATES OPEN YOU’LL HAVE A FRONT ROW SEAT FOR THE MOST EXCITING TWO MINUTES IN SPORTS.

DERBY HATS PROVIDED | SPRITZ AND MINT JULEP BAR

RACE VIEWING WITH FULL AUDIO | LIVE MUSIC