Model citizeN The big idea behind Adam Throgmorton’s tiny buildings Plus A place where falafel, kimchi and hamburgers live in harmony
01 january
17
In the face of
Uncertaint y Anxiety, hope and opportunity in the age of Trump By Heidi kyser Robert List
Luis Montanez
Rosita Castillo
yucca advocate
undocumented Student
Community Health worker
In Early Childhood, fostering creativity is essential to the development of the whole child. Whether our youngest Dawson students are painting, kneading clay, or creating found-object sculptures, we know each creative experience helps our students learn to express themselves artistically, boosts their confidence, and opens their eyes to the artful beauty of the world around them. -Jude Ross, Art Teacher
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Month 2015
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The Dawson Difference At The Alexander Dawson School, we can’t predict the future, but we can teach children how to shape it.
The Alexander Dawson School’s theater students learn the basic skills of acting and theater craft. But it’s not just about performing; our students also create and build all of the theatrical sets, as well as select their costumes and stage makeup. The overall emphasis is placed upon learning to appreciate the arts and to embrace their creativity. More importantly, they learn to persevere, work with a team, and be courageous and confident in front of an audience. -Sue Boyum, Theater and Choir Teacher
In Dawson’s Lower and Middle Schools, we encourage students to develop individualized artistic behaviors and processes. Giving our students the support and artistic guidance to make their own choices – and yes, mistakes – helps them to develop a true sense of self. Dawson students experiment with ceramics, drawing, printing, sculpture, painting, glass and woodwork. But no matter which medium they’re using, they learn to appreciate the artistic process, take risks, and find their creative voice. -Chantelle Cook, Art Teacher
Research proves that learning how to play a musical instrument, as opposed to simply listening to music, has tremendous benefits to a student’s overall academic success in all areas of study. As a music educator at Dawson, my goal is to create an environment where students not only develop a true appreciation for and understanding of music, but also find their own musical identity through performance or composition. And it’s great to know that, for our Dawson students, the benefits of music education extend beyond the classroom. -Mark Carroll, Orchestra Teacher
(702) 949-3600
www.alexanderdawsonschool.org
10845 W. Desert Inn Road | Las Vegas, Nevada | 89135 Month 2015
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EDiTOR’S Note
58
Party like it’s 10
I
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wish I could write this sentence in such a way to convey a sense of it emerging with a flourish from behind some glittery, billowing curtains amid a fanfare of trumpets and confetti-dazzle. Because IT’S THE FIRST MONTH OF DESERT COMPANION’S TENTH-ANNIVERSARY YEAR!!! Quick history: Sprung Athena-like out of the Zeus head of the annual Nevada Public Radio Fall Cultural Guide, Desert Companion proper came into existence in 2007. It was a simpler time. Home values were soaring, a magical device called the iPhone was captivating the world, and a DayGlo buffoon wreaking environmental and economic havoc on the country merely described Homer’s role in The Simpsons Movie. Art Director Christopher Smith and I started here in January 2010 as the magazine’s first full-time staff, aspiring to develop what had been a lively sidekick to the radio station into a distinct, fully fledged editorial platform of its own. But we hardly did it alone. Convinced that Southern Nevadans desired and deserved a true city-regional publication that balanced the verve of a lifestyle mag with the mission-mindedness and integrity of public media, founding publisher Melanie Cannon led our rapid evolution into a monthly magazine in 2011. Ten years, 90 issues and four additional staffers later, we’re happily counterpunching the received narrative about print journalism gaspily dying in a smokewreathed post-truth liescape. Indeed, in a media world reshaped by the recession, the internet and dramatic changes in ownership, Desert Companion remains a modest testament to the proposition that, shocker, providing meaningful content still matters. And you, the reader, certainly deserve thanks for being part of the equation. So consider this an invitation to a year-long party. For this anniversary year, we’re converting our Notes & Letters page into The Look Back, a riffy retrospective Next on stories we’ve written, issues and MOnth people we’ve covered, and factoids Brace your we’ve accumulated like so much linty superlatives for
sofa change. Online, we’ll dust off some stories at greater length, check in with sundry topics and subjects, and face up to any embarrassing predictions we’ve made. Also, if you’re a reader (but not yet a subscriber) whose monthly ritual is shaking out the 17 subscription cards we lovingly spam into each issue, go ahead and grab one this time around and take advantage of our $10 homedelivery offer. And be sure to watch the desertcompanion.vegas website for special 10-year-flavored events. It all culminates in September’s official 10th anniversary issue, which, if the promise of our preliminary experimental laboratory testing comes to fruition, will be made of cake. I’d be obtuse not to acknowledge that 2017 will mark something much more significant: the presidency of Donald Trump. And Nevada, with its diverse population, vast federal land holdings and tectonic tensions between Western libertarian and urban progressive values, is on a course for deep impact. In “In the face of uncertainty,” (p. 49) staff writer Heidi Kyser sets out to find what that impact might be, spending time with people, organizations and interest groups likely to be affected — for both better and worse — by a Trump administration. After an election campaign marked by hyperbole and rancor, I’m confident that readers of every political persuasion will find Kyser’s even-handed and earnest assessment refreshing. Perhaps most importantly, it’s another instance of the thing we do best: Introducing you to the fascinating range of people Andrew Kiraly editor who call Las Vegas home.
our Best of the City issue!
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January 2017
Vo lU m e 1 5 I s s u e 1
L
et’s begin with an auspicious quote, shall we? “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Perfect! Thanks, William Faulker. That’s just the sort of deepish aphorism we need to embark on this, our rolling celebration of 10 years of Desert Companion. That’s right, as of 2017, the magazine you’re currently enjoying on your couch, in a coffee shop or at the wheel of your car has been your guide to living in Southern Nevada for a full decade. Hooray, us! We’ll mark the occasion with a special, super-fancy, redesigned 10th anniversary issue in September, possibly a massive shindig of some kind and — if certain people have their way — branded vuvuzelas. (Fingers crossed!) Watch this space and desertcompanion.vegas for more details as the time approaches. Until then, because Faulkner’s right about the past never being dead, we will use this space each month to highlight different undead facets of the magazine’s life and times. Let’s begin with an overview blast of factoids: First issue: January 2007 First cover: “The Really Great Outdoors” Issues important to the magazine: “Sense of place,” “pride in community” — from Lamar Marchese’s president’s letter in first issue Familiar names in first issue: Christopher Smith, still art director; contributors John Curtas, Michael Green, Matt Jacob 90: Number of issues altogether, counting this one 3: Issues of Desert Companion Family, not counted above Frequency: It began with three issues a year, then bumped up to bimonthly and with the January 2011 issue went monthly 2: Number of editors — Phil Hagen (2007-2010), Andrew Kiraly (2010-present)
letters@desertcompanion.vegas
Genealogy: Before Desert Companion, Nevada Public Radio published the Cultural Guide and an Almanac Most frequent cover motif: Food and drink, 22 times, in nearly every incarnation, from Caesar salad to steaks (twice), sea bass to escargots, ice cream to donuts, burgers to pasta, beer to, er, beer Quote from 2008 that sounds eerily current: “Let’s not talk politics for a moment. With the finish line in sight, we’ve been blogged out and You-Tubed to the max.” — Florence Rogers, president’s note, September-October 2008 Second most frequent cover motif: Fashion, 11 times 2: Covers featuring kayakers Dubious parenting advice from 2009: “Yet Nevada is a fantastic place to raise kids, for they are exposed to the worst from an early age.” — Dayvid Figler, Winter-Spring 2009 1: Statewide staff road trips, chronicled in May 2016 Wise advice from 2010: “Going forward, rational exuberance is key: Las Vegans, like all Americans, need to retrain themselves to think more like casino owners than casino players, to be realistic and disciplined instead of fingercrossing, magical-thinking suckers.” — Kurt Andersen, from “2020 Visions,” JanuaryFebruary 2010 Third most frequent cover motif: The outdoors, nine times, beginning with a photo of kayakers on the first issue Noteworthy people on covers: actor Dennis Hopper (second issue), singer-actor Bette Midler (third issue), legendary Nevada politician Joe Neal (61st issue) Words from 2014 that sounds eerily current: “In today’s world, you have to be able to talk to both sides of the aisle. They have to know you’re not such a shrill partisan. ... The essence of government is consensusbuilding, if you look at it, and any way you cut it, you have to get there.” — Sig Rogich, January 2014
Correction: In the December issue, our profile of Derek Stevens misidentified his brother; his real name is Greg Stevens.
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www.desertcompanion.vegas
Feature 49 in the face
of uncertainty
r o s i ta c a s t i l lo : c h r i s t o p h e r s m i t h
With the Trump era promising to upend many old norms, we meet five Southern Nevadans who feel a new sense of either anxiety or optimism By Heidi Kyser
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Photo by Jesse Michener
Photo by Eric Ray Davidson
January 17–22 Motown® is a registered trademark of UMG Recordings, Inc.
AN EVENING WITH
Burt Bacharach February 10
SEVEN THINGS I’VE LEARNED: AN EVENING WITH Ira Glass
February 11
TICKETS STARTING AT $24 VISIT
THESMITHCENTER.COM TO SEE THE FULL LINEUP
Shaolin Warriors February 20
February 14–19
The best musical since The Lion King.” “
TIME
GEORGE WINSTON January 20 & 21
STORM LARGE: STORMY LOVE
f the Year! #1 Show o ’s e in z a g TIME Ma
January 27 & 28
RAMSEY LEWIS TRIO February 17 & 18
MARY WILSON
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March 14–19
KODO March 25
702.749.2000 | TTY: 800.326.6868 or dial 711 | Group Inquiries: 702.749.2348 | 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89106 |
January 2017
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Vo lU m e 1 5 I s s u e 1
42
22
32
departments All Things
28 profile
41 Dining
59 The Guide
16 journalism With
Big dreams fit into small worlds with modelmaker Adam Throgmorton By T.R. Witcher
42 the dish Family
Culture, and lots of it.
32 culture
pepito tasted ’round the world!
his new venture, pundit Jon Ralston decares independence 18 games Blinded by
the knight 20 zeit bites What
does the Foxx say? 22 big picture Party
like ya mean it!
The Latinos Who Lunch podcasters create a new brown voice for the Trump era By Kristen Peterson
24 Object lEsson
Toys will be toys 26 Open Topic He
was stopped and frisked — what does that say about police-community relations?
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is the backstory at the Hummus Factory 45 eat this now The
45 cocktail of the month Maple syrup +
Jameson = delicious 46 Block Party Check out all the places to eat in the vicinity of ... Desert Breeze Park? Yep, Desert Breeze Park.
MODEL CITIZEN THE BIG IDEA BEHIND ADAM THROGMORTON’S TINY BUILDINGS PLUS A PLACE WHERE FALAFEL, KIMCHI AND HAMBURGERS LIVE IN HARMONY
01 JANUARY
17
64 End note Will you keep your New Year’s resolutions? Take our totally, 100 percent serious quiz to find out. By Scott Dickensheets
In the face of
UNCERTAINT Y Anxiety, hope and opportunity in the age of Trump BY HEIDI KYSER Robert List
Luis Montanez
Rosita Castillo
YUCCA ADVOCATE
UNDOCUMENTED STUDENT
COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKER
on the cover Photography Christopher Smith
i l l u s t r at i o n : r i c k s e a lo c k ; b a h a m a r m o d e l : a n t h o n y m a i r ; l at i n o s w h o l u n c h c o u r t e s y j u s t i n fav e l a ; fa l a f e l : s a b i n o r r
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17 Fancy jawas, pink Hot Wheels and other toy stories page 24
al l the news th at ’s fi t to c l ic k
journalism
Editor at large Jon Ralston’s ambitious news site will write another chapter in the colorful history of independent Nevada media B y A n d r e w K i r a ly
P h oto g r a ph y b r e n t h o l m e s
S
igh. Remember the days when fake news was something to laugh at? An outrageous headline on the Weekly World News in the checkout rack, a biting Onion story you just had to share on social media? But it turns out that fake news — not mere silliness or satire, but fabricated stories purporting to be true — is no joke. A BuzzFeed analysis found that in the run-up to the election, Facebook users read and shared more hoax stories than real, actual news articles — a factor that likely influenced the outcome of the election. On the upside, that discovery seems to have sparked a renewed appreciation for the role of real journalism in an informed society: According to the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard, many news organizations, including Pro Publica, the New
January 2017
DesertCompanion.vegas
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ALL Things
journalism
Hear more Jon Ralston
York Times and The Guardian, bylines such as Ned Day. UNLV looks ahead saw a spike in donations and history professor Michael Green to the 2017 Legislature subscriptions after Nov. 8. joined the staff when he was 17. on “KNPR’s Jon Ralston is hoping some “We competed journalistically State of of that love comes his way. (with the R-J and Sun), but never Nevada” at You know Ralston as a veteran financially,” Green recalls. “Finandesertcompanion.com/ cially, it was something between a political columnist and TV hearmore pundit (and, in disclosure, failure and disaster, but we published contributor to “KNPR’s State the work of some very good journalof Nevada” and Desert Companion). This ists.” Brown’s devotion to the newspaper month, you’ll know him as something led him down some dark paths. He fell else: As founder and editor of The in with mob associate Frank Rosenthal, Nevada Independent. who laundered money through the “There’s a need for an independent newspaper. Brown even embarked on a journalism site in Nevada; there’s a failed extortion scheme against then-Gov. void here,” he says, “and I think we can Bob List to help get Rosenthal a gaming fill it.” So far, that “we” comprises an license. Brown died in June 1984, and the editorial team that includes Valley Times died two weeks later. familiar names such as Managing Arguably part of the lineage as well: Las Editor Elizabeth Thompson and Vegas CityLife, founded in 1992 as The Las columnist and author John L. Vegas New Times. A weekly newspaper Smith. The Nevada Independent’s known as much for its snarky contrarianboard includes former KLAS ism as its substance, CityLife over the years Channel 8 anchor Paula Francis hosted recognizable names such as Steve and Bob Stoldal, best known for Sebelius, George Knapp and Geoff Schumhis three-plus decades leading acher (and, in disclosure, mine). It was the news division at Channel 8 eventually purchased in 2005 by Stephens (he’s also a KNPR contributing Media, then-owner of the Review-Journal, editor). Ralston aims for The which shuttered the weekly in 2014. Nevada Independent (thenevaThe history extends to online journaldaindependent.com) to go live this month ism as well: Hospitality executive and with an initial full-time staff of seven. philanthropist (and one-time congressioBeyond in-depth coverage of the 2017 nal candidate) Tom Gallagher started a Legislature, The Nevada Independent will news and commentary website, Nevadacover politics, education and business. Today.com, that existed from November Its mission statement sparkles with am2006 to December 2007 and published bition: “To change the face of journalism writers such as Steve Friess, Hugh Jackson in Nevada and establish a new paradigm and Bob Shemeligian. Gallagher rememfor nonprofit, community-supported news bers it as a labor of love — because, then organizations.” But the “new paradigm” as now, nobody had quite figured out how — independent, fact-based journalism to make online news profitable. Gallagher supported by donors — is based on princiestimates he sunk up to $150,000 into ples and models that have been around for the site, not to mention the manual work decades. (Public radio, anyone?) required to post links to national stories in Not to mention the spirit. Indeed, a time before automated news aggregators The Nevada Independent won’t be the became common. “I was doing a lot of the first upstart news platform launched in aggregation myself, staying up late at night hopes of competing with mainstays such to pull stuff from the East Coast papers as the Review-Journal, the Las Vegas and London. We were a little before our Sun and the Reno Gazette-Journal. For time. ... I finally just decided it wasn’t instance, there was the Valley Times. worth the money.” Gallagher sees promise Bob Brown, a former Review-Journal in the nonprofit journalism model and editor, bought a sleepy North Las Vegas says he plans to donate to The Nevada Inperiodical in 1973 and turned it into a dependent. “It’s an expensive proposition citywide daily, publishing iconic Vegas to do any kind of good journalism online
“There’s a need for an independent journalism site in Nevada ... and I think we can fill it.”
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that has staying power. Hopefully this is a model that’s financially sustainable.” Ralston is optimistic. “We’re starting purely with donations,” he says, “and we hope to be self-sustaining by the third year, and we hope to have a combination of donations (and) special events, maybe premium content on the site later on, so we’re going to have four or five revenue sources in the end.” Some of the brandname benefactors so far, Ralston says, include MGM Resorts International and Switch, which he says have each pledged $250,000. Ralston anticipates an annual operating budget of $1 million a year. “This whole world of fundraising is totally new to me,” he says. Wait a sec — Ralston, editor and fundraiser? Yes, at least for now. “I’m doing (fundraising) because I have to do it,” he says, promising transparency about the donor list and admitting a certain discomfort with the dual roles, a possible conflict-of-interest quagmire. “I’ve thought about it, and I’m probably going to address it in a column or an editor’s note at some point,” he says. “It’s uncomfortable in the sense that I’m going out and asking people I have covered, and will cover, for money. It’s not the position I wanted to be in, but I think my brand, such as it is — whatever it is — after covering politics and government in this state for 30 years, is going to help jump start this.” He’s not just relying on his brand. The Nevada Independent has a few newish ideas to attract readers, too, including a plan to phase in Spanish-language versions of stories and foster reader interactivity. “That’s one other thing the media has not done well, either locally or anywhere else — interactivity. People feel alienated from the media. They feel the media’s either out of touch, biased or isn’t doing the job that it was meant to do,” he says. “We’re going to encourage interactivity with our readers — and criticism from our readers, without fear of us having the last word. We want our readers to engage with us, we want to have forums, we want to encourage dialogue. We want people to feel that this is the community’s newspaper.” With such an upbeat outlook, it’s enough to make you even consider reading the comments.
ALL Things
field notes
games
Knight moves What happens when a bumbling chess dilettante takes on a blindfolded grandmaster? Reality check! By andrew kiraly
C
hess is kind of having a moment right now. Magnus Carlsen, the photogenic world champion, recently defended his title in New York in a series of games that climaxed in a dramatic tiebreaker. This fall, Disney released an acclaimed biopic about Phiona Mutesi, a Ugandan chess prodigy who rose to renown from the slums of Katwe. Technology has given a profile boost to the ancient game, too, with apps and websites connecting players all over the world. And some of chess’s more sensational traditions, such as the blindfold simul — that is, a blindfolded player, relying solely on verbal notation, challenges multiple opponents who have the advantage of being able to see their boards — are finding a welcome place in a world hungry for spectacle. On December 3, Grandmaster Timur Gareyev brought that spectacle to UNLV, where the man who calls himself “The Blindfold King” attempted to set a world record by playing blindfolded against 48 opponents, including me. I’m what’s called a patzer, a fumbling if enthusiastic
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dilettante. I took up chess a few years back, hoping, I dunno, to bring some sense of elegance, clarity and intellectual mystique to my life. Since then, I’ve played weekly casual games with friends over wine and chatter at a Russian restaurant, but I’ve sometimes wondered how well I might do if I gave the game my deep and complete attention. That’s what I have the opportunity to do at UNLV. But there is no elegance or clarity to be found on this day. Instead, I’m hunched in my chair at table 39, staring mutely at the board as though trying to telekinetically fling it across the room, attempting to somehow extricate myself from what seems to be an iron glacier of Gareyev's pieces slowly advancing to my side of the board. As I’m trembling with pained concentration, in the center of the room, Gareyev, a lanky twentysomething with a flowing fauxhawk, pedals languidly on an exercise bike and nibbles fruit as he calls out moves from behind his eyemask: “Game 39 ... bishop to g5.” That was move 12, where he pinned one of my knights to my queen, paralyzing it so that a few moves further on, Gareyev could snatch both my knight and my hapless pawn (which, in a moment of desperate affection, I had nicknamed “eggling,” knowing how tenuous and fragile its existence was) that was being guarded by the knight. His opening skirmish is a little bit of introductory tenderizing for the real punishment to come. As the game progresses, Gareyev spirits his king away to
the corner and unleashes a triple attack with his rook, bishop and knight on one of my position’s tender spots, a disaster I manage to hurriedly deflect with a pawn push; then, when I think I’m turning the tables with a rook attack on his queen, Gareyev calmly deploys his powerful bishop to the f7 square to muzzle the plot. All the while, he’s methodically crystallizing his pawns into a sort of telescoping cybernetic spear that eventually reaches into my seventh rank and, in the ultimate indignity, checks my king. During my turns, a small group gathers around my board. At first, I think they’re watching in rapt wonderment, silently marveling at how this untrained amateur is marshalling from his deepest brain brazen, novel strategies that are giving the grandmaster a run for his money. When I eat Gareyev’s c4 pawn with my queen and simultaneously give check, I swear I can hear the theme from Chariots of Fire tinkling from the celestial spheres! But I soon realize they’re actually observing me with clinical amusement; I’m a rag doll being toyed with by a god. Over 17 hours, I manage, at best, a creditable if unimaginative defense against a precision onslaught by a terrifying mentat in an eyemask. Near the end, I’m lashing out with petty checks and pointless maneuverings that only delay the inevitable. Bleary-eyed and half-crazed with exhaustion, I resign the game at 1 a.m. Despite the bruising experience, I haven’t lost any appetite for my weekly pickup matches over drinks and dinner. On the contrary, I’m particularly looking forward to the next one — because with all the wine, food and chatter, at least I have a handy excuse when I lose.
I L LU ST R AT I O N B R E N T H O L M E S
NEVADA PUBLIC RADIO
RECYCLING DAY
Our final Recycle Day event of the year took place this past November on the College of Southern Nevada Charleston Campus. With one of our best turnouts yet, over 800 cars passed through our various stations collecting items for Goodwill, pill take back through Care Coalition, proper disposal of electronics and other goods with the Blind Center and Republic Services, and shredding services provided by Shred-It Las Vegas. Special thanks to our presenting sponsor, Subaru of Las Vegas. Thank you to those who participated in this event, with having over 57,000 pounds of recycled products collected! Be on the lookout next year for more opportunities to recycle with Nevada Public Radio.
ca e coalition
ŠAntonio Gudino
ALL Things
zeit bites
Deleted scenes from Sleepless What you won’t see when Jamie Foxx and T.I.’s film about corrupt Las Vegas cops hits theaters this month
EXIT INTERVIEW
Mr. Public Art moves on
A
rtist Michael Ogilvie, who has administered public art programs for the city of Las Vegas and, most recently, Clark County, is leaving town after a string of successes that include the county’s “Centered” project — grabby artworks enlivening medians on local roadways — and last month’s installation of Wayne Littlejohn's “Dream Machine” sculpture in Siegfried & Roy Park (above). He’ll be doing similar work in San Jose, California. So we picked his brain one last time.
What changes, for better or worse, have you observed in the state of public art here? There is no “worse” unless you reach back before the 1970s, when public art was virtually nonexistent in Las Vegas. Public art has come on in a big way in this town, and part of that is because we have this vast landscape, a giant earth canvas, whose inhabitants yearn for more than asphalt and concrete. One of the challenges in public art here has simply been to defend it and educate the public. Thankfully, it is not too hard to do when you have hundreds of talented artists who call this area home and who are creating superior visual art. When the art is strong, it stimulates public imagination. Imagination leads to innovation. Innovation leads to a better world. So “better” is the road Las Vegas is on now in regards to public art, and hopefully it stays that way.
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What’s needed to get public art to the next level? It needs to take on big problems. In Philadelphia, they use their mural program to help reduce recidivism in prisons, and it is working. In Seattle, artists like Buster Simpson are creating art for less toxic sanitation processes. And here, Sush Machida created art to ease the pain of abandonment for children going into Child Haven. Public art, like any good government service, should solve problems and help make life better. Also, Las Vegas needs to continue to employ local artists. If you employ them, they will stay (and more will come). If Las Vegas wants to take its public art to the next level, it needs to keep the ingenious artists living here engaged and employed. This will grow the creative economy, and the larger the creative economy becomes, the greater its impact. Las Vegas can do this if it can retain and attract talent. But it won’t be able to do it with just public art. The entire art infrastructure (museums, galleries, collectors) needs to be in place for public art to get to the next level. What would be your dream public art project in Las Vegas? Developing an artwork that doubles as a water generator/harvester. It can be done, even in regions as arid as this. An artist-designed water generator/harvester that can nourish millions of people is where my imagination goes. Water is our biggest problem. Let’s fix it with public art. Or at the very least get the dialogue going. Scott Dickensheets
I L LU STRAT I O N BRENT HOLMES
“Bad to the Bone” music montage in which villains fall prey to Foxx and T.I.’s zany booby traps.
Crooked cops pause while beating a perp to lament the missing “Las” in Vegas Golden Knights. “It’s ‘the meadows,’ not just ‘meadows,’ you know?” a plaintive Foxx says. Beating resumes.
Tender scene in which Foxx reads son bedtime story; every line punctuated by sick bass drop.
In fleeting cameo, Sheldon Adelson announces that he run Bartertown, then leaves on shoulders of Steve Sisolak.
Car chase skids through mayor’s state of the city address, waking no one.
Foxx and T.I. throw up hands in disgust when they realize whole movie premise is a fake news story.
Director D OM INI C CHAM PAG NE Music Directors SIR G EO RG E M AR TIN & G ILES M AR TIN
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ALL Things
the big picture
desperate insouciance
Party, people! Ah, the raucous glory of New Year's Eve in Las Vegas as an uncertain new era begins i l lu s t r at i o n b y R i c k S e a l o c k
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here have you gone, Dick Clark — our nation turns its auld lang syne to you. After all, when the big ball dropped on January 1, how confident were we that it wasn’t a wrecking ball? Now more than ever we could use an ageless, groovy-haired, preternaturally cheery hepcat to smile us into a future we can dance to. Sadly, Dick’s gone, but he would want you to party on, party people! And if everything has happened as usual (we’re writing this in December), hundreds of thousands of Americans just did exactly that on the Strip and Fremont Street. Good for them! At the rump end of 2016, who didn’t need the dopamine rush of righteous merrymaking? The restorative high spirits of a 3-2-1 countdown to midnight? The purgative release of public vomiting? And surely it felt good to reclaim a nonpolitical use of the word party. On January 1 we rang out a year that registered a sanity-rattling 9.5 on the WTF scale, and the aftershocks will keep rolling in for a while, whether it’s the long tail of this Russian hacking business, vexing domestic fissures or the White House raising the curtain on its four-year run of Tweetzapoppin’. No matter which side, team, crew, coven, social tribe, hunting party, book club or justice league you belong to, uncertainty’s thick in the air, anxiety too, so the mass shindig of New Year’s Eve will probably have to hold us over for a while. Still, a raucous year-end blowout is a Vegas-style way to put your chips on the proposition that it remains possible to take a cup of kindness with one’s fellow revelers, whomever they are and however unlike you they might be: black, brown or white, red or blue, coastal or Midwestern, Raiders fans or normal humans, all of us united behind the wisdom of philosopher Ron White (coming February 10-11 to The Mirage), who says, “If life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.” In that spirit, welcome to fabulous Las Vegas, 2017! After that, who knows? Maybe a nation united in search of a proper hangover cure will find a few other things to agree on, too. Scott Dickensheets
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ALL Things
object lesson
collecting
Toy stories When it comes to childhood collectibles, Johnny Jimenez of the Toy Shack doesn’t play around B y Ja s o n S c av o n e
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ohnny Jimenez never bent his Wookiee. (That’s for the Ralph Wiggums of the world. The ones who actually took their toys out of their boxes.) No, Jimenez had the collector’s instinct all along and kept everything nice and minty fresh. It paid off in 2005, when he opened his first iteration of the Toy Shack, dealing in part from his personal collection. Since 2010, Jimenez has been at his Neonopolis location, where he deals in the vintage, the rare and the offbeat. If your stocking was bereft of your personal Rosebud, this might be where you can make up for Santa’s shortcomings.
What was the thing that got you into toys?
My dad was a coin collector, and he collected old cameras. We would look every morning in the classified ads and go to yard sales or estate sales. I gravitated to toys. He taught me how to date something, without knowing anything about it, by the materials and where it was made. I learned a lot of that stuff from my dad.
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What were the toys that got you into collecting?
I started collecting early tin toys. I started doing tin toys from the ’50s and ’60s. I started doing Star Wars later. As the years went by, I would see it and I’d start picking it up, and it kind of grew until people started looking for the toys in the early ’90s. When a new toy-based movie franchise starts up, how much does that change your strategy?
Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. When G.I. Joe came out, the first movies weren’t all that exciting, and it turned off a lot of collectors. The Star Wars thing will never die. With Marvel, everyone was scared of that, but they’ve done a great job with the Marvel movies. What was the one gift you always wanted for Christmas that you never got?
I was very lucky because I had three brothers, so I would convince my brothers to go after the toys I wanted. I would be able to play with their toys and keep mine in the package. What I didn’t get as a kid were a lot of Transformers I wanted. They were kind of expensive, and there were so many of them. I remember going to kids’ birthday parties, and everyone was there to see him get Devastator. Come to find out the kid gets some Go-Bots and everyone disappears out of the park.
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(1) 1950 Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab Gilbert, famous as the maker of the Erector Set, was looking to expand on its line of chemistry sets by capitalizing on all the whiz-bang fun of Hiroshima. So they made the U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, which contains actual uranium and a Geiger counter so you can “prospect” for radioactive material. Fun for the whole family! Of which you’ll be the last of the line, after you go sterile. (2) 1950s Leslie-Henry Gene Autry cap guns It was a better time. A time when mildly simulated violence wasn’t treated like a threat to the very bedrock of civilization. The Singing Cowboy seems, in hindsight, an odd choice to bust a cap.
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But cap guns were big business, even for the most mild-mannered of cowpokes. Jimenez has about a dozen finely crafted cap guns from the heyday of the ’50s and ’60s, and this lovingly jeweled Gene Autry holster set will make you want to practice your quick draw and slightly irritate your coworkers’ eardrums. 1978 Kenner Star Wars Jawa, vinyl cape Any child of the ’80s worth his salt knows that the cheap vinyl capes that came on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia and Darth Vader action figures were only slightly less disappointing than the miscolored lightsaber that slid out of Luke’s hand. (Yellow? Were they watching the same movie we were?) The Jawa figure also had the same flimsy
cloak — for a hot minute. Kids and parents complained that they were paying full price for the half-size Jawa, so Kenner, to demonstrate value, replaced the easily ripped plastic with a slightly less tacky cloth robe. But now the vinyl Jawas command big numbers. This one, still on the card, is worth $10,000. 1984 Mattel Masters of the Universe Snake Mountain He-Man’s pad, Castle Grayskull, had been out for two years before Skeletor was able to stake claim to his own piece of Eternia real estate. Snake Mountain was the far cooler of the two, because it came with an evil attack snake, shackles to get boring old Man-atArms out of the fight and a giant, detachable wolf-head microphone to distort your voice. For the six weeks it worked before crapping
out. And by distort, Mattel meant “sound like you were messing up your cousin’s Burger King order.” Still. Giant wolfophone. (3) 1968 Mattel Hot Wheels From their initial year, Hot Wheels outshined the more staid Matchbox. Jimenez has several from the debut set, including a few pink ones, which turn out to be the hot ticket item. “Hot Wheels thought if they painted a car pink that girls would play with it,” Jimenez said. “It wasn’t true. And the boys didn’t want the pink ones. What happened with the pink cars, when I buy a collection, the pink cars were absolutely perfect because a kid never wanted to show his friends he had a pink car, or he’d take a hammer to it, or paint it another color. In the collector world, those are the most sought-after cars.” (4) 1983 Kenner Strawberry Shortcake Berry Happy Home Girls got a bum deal on Strawberry Shortcake playsets. Snake Mountain came with everything but an evil plan to steal the Power of Grayskull, but the Cake’s Berry Happy Home was just a glorified dollhouse. All the furniture was sold separately, to the eternal joy of parents everywhere. By the time they got to the Berry Snuggly Bedroom, they had to be tossing choice words at Apple Dumplin’ and Plum Puddin’.
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ALL Things
open topic
society
Stopped and frisked What should have been a small incident opens a window onto a larger disconnect between police and the community B y D a n i e l H e r na n d e z
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y hand was on Carson Kitchen’s door handle — I wondered whether my friends were waiting in the patio or bar — when a cop yelled for me to “stop right there.” They approached on bicycles, an Officer Thiele leaping from his as if prepared to engage in hand-to-hand combat. I was informed of my violation. Then after confirming I was a local who “should know better,” the interrogation turned to whether I’d ever been arrested before. Guests in the restaurant’s front window stared at us, curious, I’m sure, about exactly what I’d done. Thiele also wanted to know if I’d received previous citations in Nevada. And was I carrying a weapon? The answer to all of the above was no, but he asked if his partner could search me anyway. I now had my hands up against a wall in a Downtown alley while a Metro officer patted me down for weapons. I’d complied because I wanted to calm what felt like an oddly hostile situation. Thiele said, “Spread your legs, and put your hands behind your back like you’re praying.” So I did as told. My hands outstretched behind my back, palms touching, I was put into a painful wrist hold. The officer searched the insides of my pockets, going as far as to dig two fingers into the coin pouch on the front of my jeans. I assumed they were looking for drugs, too, since rarely does a knife or gun fit into a change pocket. Thiele had my ID, but he also wanted my Social Security number so they could run a more comprehensive background check. All of this because I was
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caught jaywalking. That’s right — I crossed Las Vegas Boulevard at Carson against a “don’t walk” signal. Apparently that’s a real scourge Downtown. But if my experience was indicative of the broader approach, Metro’s investigative tactics might be the bigger threat to our community. Why do minor stops so often include body searches when experts say these tactics do more harm than good? “When you’re doing searches on large numbers of people, the overwhelming majority of whom have done nothing to warrant that, people know what’s going on, and they don’t take kindly to it,” says David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “They may feel humiliated or scared, they may feel powerless and bullied, and the thing is, that doesn’t go away. People carry it around with them, and to the extent that it’s an almost universal experience in communities of color to have these kinds of encounters with police, these things are passed on through the community.” An expert on the dynamic between police methods, crime stats and community relations, Harris says stop-and-friskstyle tactics net evidence at a fairly low rate, and the evidence they do nab tends be relatively trivial — small amounts of marijuana and the like. Metro doesn’t keep records of body searches that don’t result in arrests, so it’s hard to tell how effective the strategy is in Clark County. But in New York, 98.5 percent of stopand-frisks failed to produce a weapon. There, the tactic was deployed with little probable cause until it was deemed unconstitutional in 2013, because black and Hispanic men were disproportionally singled out. Aggressive practices like these hurt law enforcement’s relationship with the community. Harris says they erode public trust and might result in an unwillingness to cooperate with actual criminal investigations and prosecutions — dangerous fallout when one considers how much justice relies on community support.
I L LU S TRAT I O N b r e n t h o l m e s
"What's important for (police) to understand is that body searches are legal, stopping people for jaywalking is legal, asking for consent is legal — but just because you can do something doesn't mean you always should." In my four years as a Clark County resident, my encounters with Metro have been largely positive. But I’ll attest to the frustration an unnecessary body search can inspire. I’d consented, but the experience still left me feeling angry, embarrassed and confused. Adding to my bemusement was the fact that I wasn’t alone in my jaywalking spree; a blond man in a blazer crossed the street right next to me. The integrity of the process is not elevated, either, when Thiele mistakenly addressed me as “Mr. Cruz.” I had to remind him toward the end of the exchange that my name is Hernandez. Officer Larry Hadfield, Metro’s spokesman, says every precinct uses different tactics, and patrols Downtown can be particularly rigorous due to the area’s rough-and-tumble past. “It’s a part of making proactive stops,” he says. “Downtown has had issues historically with narcotics.” It would seem counterintuitive that a person with drugs or a weapon would consent to a body search, yet Hadfield says “dumb” criminals allow them at times. He adds that “if an officer asks a citizen if they can conduct a search for contraband and that citizen consents, then that citizen has given consent.” I presented this fact to Harris, who pointed out what I, and other Las Vegans I’ve spoken to, have felt. That these requests “don’t always feel like requests.” Sean Breckling, 33, recounted a time in 2014 when he was stopped while riding his bicycle on Pecos. The officer said the street was “too dangerous” for cycling despite signs advising motorists to share the road. There was a search request, which Breckling denied. Then the officer allegedly said that if he didn’t allow his bags to be searched, Breckling would have to wait one hour for a drug-sniffing dog to arrive. He then consented and watched the investigation unfold while in handcuffs, only to learn later that holding him for one hour without probable cause would have been illegal. It merits noting that urban police
departments throughout the U.S. are now confronting decades-long tensions with minority communities fed up with what many deem to be unnecessarily aggressive tactics. But Metro has been something of an outlier in this story, having already made great strides in curbing its use of deadly force thanks in part to Justice Department recommendations in 2012 for more rigorous training. De-escalation exercises, “reality-based” use-of-force scenarios, anti-bias classes and new systems of accountability, such as body-worn cameras and civilian-led oversight committees, have helped make Metro the statistical envy of urban police forces around the nation. But in its approach to minor infractions, I’d argue that more (or, depending on how you look at it, less) work is due. Our crime rate has gone up, which will likely lead some to excuse intrusive tactics. Yet while acknowledging that these facts might be unrelated, when New York reined in its use of stop-andfrisk, the city’s homicide rate continued to decline, suggesting the method had little impact as a crime-stopping tool. “What’s important for the departments to understand,” Harris told me, “is that body searches are legal, stopping people for jaywalking is legal, asking for consent is legal — but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you always should. There should be a reason you do stuff like that. It should have a direct connection to public safety. It shouldn’t be all the time, and it shouldn’t be random, allowing your biases to kick in.” After my background check cleared, I received a $160 jaywalking ticket, and was then treated to a slew of wary glances as I entered the restaurant. My friends ordered burgers. I was too wound up, so I asked for a small plate. Having overheard my story, our server brought me a free glass of Fernet — a bitter, aromatic spirit for an event that failed the police reform smell test.
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profile
Small world From tiny buildings to big ideas, the miniature realities of architectural modelmakers Adam Throgmorton and Shawn Bicker b y T . R . W I T C H E R
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don’t see a difference between the model and reality,” says architectural modelmaker Adam Throgmorton in his home studio in November. To him, the only difference is scale; the reality of a model and its full-scale analog are exactly the same. If this sounds a bit romantic — the world view that you expect from a guy who’s been making pieces of the world in miniature his whole life — that’s because you haven’t spent time in Throgmorton’s Henderson studio. The studio could not be more prosaic: It’s his garage. But inside, you find yourself seeing the world as he does, where size or scale doesn’t determine essence. Care and passion do. In this world, a model of a building or place reflects reality and shapes it. “It translates, it educates. They don’t just show off a new design. They show them how to see a new thing,” Throgmorton says. The model is a way station between an idea and its built manifestation. Some models might show designers what it is they are working with. Others can help sell a project. “You can insult a project greatly if you produce a bad model,” he says. But a good model can make people believe and make investors open their checkbooks. “When people see it in a model, they believe it’s going to happen in reality.” Throgmorton’s firm, ModelWorksAJT, has been building models for hotel and resort clients in Las Vegas for more than 20 years. Throgmorton has completed models for Mandalay Bay, for Paris Las Vegas, for Luxor and Excalibur. In addition, he’s modeled office parks, casinos around the country and other retail residential projects.
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Model citizens: controlled by iPad. They He and his partner, Shawn Shawn Bicker, then fashioned a convincing Bicker, have also done work left, and Adam beach and oceanfront with for clients as varied as Disney, Throgmorton have a deft mix of resins, epoxy, Tesla and the Mob Museum. taken the art of gelatins and paint. The Club For Disney, the pair designed model-making to a 33 doors feature tiny doora small replica entry door — new scale. knobs and a faux mechanifront and back — to Disneyland’s fabled Club 33, a private restau- cal locking mechanism on a model that measures just two inches across. On the rant and club. For Tesla, they designed backside is a tiny metal table with creastwo models of the carmaker’s enormous Reno gigafactory. The first shows de- es in the resin tablecloth. The El Chapo model includes a tiny security camera tails of the plant’s operation. The second shows the plant in the context of its sur- unable to observe Guzmán’s escape. Throgmorton, 44, always had a knack roundings. A small portion of that model for sweating the small stuff. As a kid is marked with a black rectangle, which denotes 1 million square feet. The mod- growing up in Florida near Disney World, el gives the clearest idea of just how in- he loved seeing models like the ones of EPCOT. He was frustrated he couldn’t get his sanely large the gigafactory is. Most ingeniously, the designers mod- hands on them. So he started building his eled an exhibit for the Mob Museum de- own out of paper and clay and metal. “I hated the models I was seeing at a picting the 2015 prison escape of Mexican time,” he says. “They were plasticky drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Throughout, the details are every- looking. They were flat looking. No dimensions as far as gradients of color, dething. For a giant resort in the Bahamas tails. That’s why I got into it.” called Baha Mar, the pair illuminated He began when he was about 12. For their models with hundreds of capillary six or seven years, he played around fiber-optic lights, all of which could be
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profile Small is beautiful: Clockwise from top, models for Graton Resort & Casino, Baha Mar resort, and Ritz-Carlton Club and Residences
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and dabbled in designing roller coasters. “I didn’t see any that worked. I wanted to build something that worked. No plan to be a professional.” But when he moved to Las Vegas to attend UNLV in the early nineties, he became friends with Andrew Pascal, Steve Wynn’s nephew. That chance encounter led to Throgmorton getting hired by Wynn’s architect, the late Joel Bergman — who developed the tri-wing design that shaped a generation of Strip casinos — to do model work for Bellagio and Treasure Island. Just like that, Throgmorton’s hobby became a career. He was 18. “It proves that if you stay doing what you love, something will happen with that, if you do it well. Do what you do and do it well, and you can’t go wrong.” Throgmorton started his own model-making business in 1994. Bicker, meanwhile, had always been obsessed with what he calls “little worlds.” One of
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his favorite books as a kid was Beverly Cleary’s 1965 novel The Mouse and the Motorcycle, about an adventure-seeking mouse who learns to ride a human child’s toy motorcycle. “Even as a kid in the sandbox, I’d be cutting cardboard boxes up all the time, putting windows in them, making streets,” he says. Growing up, he built models and forts, and went on to study exhibit design at Bemidji State University in Minnesota. Now 44, Bicker worked as an exhibit designer in Las Vegas and around the country for 20 years. He collaborated on the side with Throgmorton for several years before joining him full-time a few years ago. Throgmorton says, “I thought I had it down. But (Shawn’s) knowledge of technology and CAD programs has brought a level of model-building that I thought I had already hit. It’s only plussed it many times over.” Their garage studio is a workshop of small and precise implements: tiny rolls of tape, a panoply of specialty glues that can bind different materials; tiny brushes about the size of a pen tip. Even the large laser cutter can etch and cut with the subtlety of a scalpel. When you speak with modelmakers, inevitably talk turns to the models they dream of making. We talked about World’s Fairs: the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and especially the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. “You can’t really imagine what it was like to walk through it anymore,” says Throgmorton. “What better way than to see a re-creation in miniature? I’d love to build a fully detailed accurate representation of it.” Closer to home, the pair have conceived an equally audacious idea — to build a scale historical model of the Las Vegas Strip as it was a generation or more ago. Imagine a model of the Strip in 1959 or 1969. Throgmorton doesn’t have anything like that in his studio. But he might have something better: a wooden roller coaster. There it sits in his dining room, an impressive structure of peaks and valleys. It operates like a real wooden roller coaster — a chain lift carries a car up, and gravity sends the car down and around and through the imposing wooden structure. Throgmorton spent years, off and on, on it. He knew the basic design. He knew he wanted big movement on both sides,
and big flying buttress-like supports. He built the models up starting with the tracks, supported by foam. Then he added the wood around it. “It’s moody,” he says. “It breathes.” Indeed, on some runs, the coaster cars glide along the rails. On others, they seem to move a bit slower. But the little car, as it rhythmically “whooshes” along the track, actually does seem to breathe, in a way. He finished the coaster several years ago, but still wants to add a Victorian-era station house. And he’s looking for a name. The High Roller? Taken. The Adam Smasher? Clever, but somehow not the right tenor. For this gargantuan coaster is not a brute. It’s a piece of majesty. Throgmorton purposefully did not attach a scale to it. Maybe 154 feet tall at its highest point if you built it for real? That’s about as tall as the Statue of Liberty replica at New York New York. As I watch the roller coaster make its rounds again and again, asking, with a child’s enthusiasm if I can see it go one more time, I’m hit with the reality of Throgmorton’s work. The model is real. It’s a reminder, too, of why we yearn for the fantastic. The Strip is a fantasy made manifest. But reality already intrudes on that fantasy: traffic, long lines, expensive meals, assaulting noise, disorienting layouts, long and endless hallways, a succession of the tacky and gaudy, underwritten by a thousand corporate entities. The longer you live here, the more the magic of the Strip is best preserved from a distance: the sky lobby at the Mandarin Oriental, the High Roller, the 215, where the cluster of hotels has a kind of Emerald City aura to it, a sense of the impossible. But I find myself mesmerized more by Throgmorton’s ingenious dining room roller coaster. We spend billions trying to bring dreams to life, and it is admirable how well we have done here, in the most inhospitable of climates. But the imagination doesn’t require quite so much infrastructure. It’s a lesson app designers and casino planners and visual effects wizards and architects routinely forget. The poets tend to get it right. As does Throgmorton. Here, you watch the roller coaster go up, and then gravity shoots it through the wooden structure, and the room fades away, and the thing really is alive. And, in that moment of simple perfection, so are you.
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culture
Making their voices heard On their podcast, Latinos Who Lunch, Justin Favela and Emmanuel Ortega mix food, pop culture and identity politics into a defiantly brown voice for the Trump era B y K r i s t e n P e t e r s o n
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Lunch mates: Emmanuel Ortega, left, and Justin Favela have inspired dialogue — and laughter — with their podcast.
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wo days after the presidential election, Las Vegas artist Justin Favela is in his Downtown studio, fielding calls from friends and family during a special edition of Latinos Who Lunch, a podcast he cohosts with his friend Emmanuel Ortega. Normally, he and Ortega are lunching in the studio (the title is a take on the song “Ladies Who Lunch,” a nod to the queer aspect of the show), but his cohost is out of town, and their laughter-infused discourse on pop culture, art, family, world history and identity politics is on hold, as is the audible chewing and bilingual banter. “We usually come out every other week, but with all the events happening right now, we thought we need to get this out,” Favela tells listeners somewhat solemnly. “I’m calling a bunch of people,
trying to get people’s thoughts just so I can figure out what I’m feeling.” The president-elect’s inflammatory rhetoric has half of the country on edge, and that gives this episode, titled “Call Your Raza,” a special focus. (Raza means race.) Cousin Celeste, the first caller, compares the hate in America’s divided sociopolitical climate to drug addiction’s rock-bottom moment — that is, a requirement for getting better — to which Favela interjects: “We’ve hit rock bottom, now we have to go back to rehab.” His brother Brandon, disappointed in himself for not voting, says he wants to learn about the electoral college, and is in step with the assertion by other guests that calm and civility is the appropriate response to the election of a candidate who famously made harsh comments about race, particularly regarding Mexi-
p h oto g r a p h y K rysta l R a m i r e z
can immigrants, maligning them as “rapists” and “killers.” Nobody wants to feed into Trump supporters’ expectations of them. Eventually, Ortega calls in from Albuquerque, where he’s finishing his PhD in Ibero-American colonial art history, and laments the “display of white supremacy in comfortable shoes.” “The hoods are off,” Favela says. “It’s showtime for a lot of people.” Later, he adds, “We need to make sure our presence is known.” Brown power
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eginning with the first episode, recorded in Ortega’s home on borrowed equipment, presence has been the thrust of Latinos Who Lunch. In more than 20 episodes, Favela (aka “FavyFav”) and Ortega (“Babelito”) have championed brown podcasts and amassed a multicultural following, as well as nods from Latino podcasts. They’ve broken-heartedly mourned the death of flamboyant Mexican singer Juan Gabriel, critiqued Frida Kahlo’s mainstream popularity, deconstructed the Olympic ceremonies in Brazil, discussed the white male privilege of land art, talked about the problem with Hamilton and delved into the complexities of identity and culture. Episodes begin with food, some chewing and a note about what they’re eating: huevos from a Central-American restaurant, Mediterranean tacos, turkey sandwiches, pizza or arepas. So casual is the show’s vibe that the crinkling of bags and food wrappers is audible. Long pauses and sighs are not edited out. The show is designed to reflect the realness of the conversation between the two friends, and they want to keep it genuine, calling each other “gurlll” as they bounce between intellectual discourse, giggles and occasional ribbing, sometimes fumbling with the recording equipment and wondering if the show’s actually being taped. Guests and callers often come from within their own circles, and conversations might end on a personal note — “I love you” or “Say hi to Mom.” As queer male Latinos, well-versed in media, art history and divergent elements within different Latino communities, they are, as one listener put it, adding “brown to the sea of very beige
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podcasts.” A review on iTunes called it, “Smart, witty. Everything my MexicanAmerican self always wanted.” “We are doing this podcast for us and for people like us,” Favela says, sitting next to Ortega in his Downtown studio a week and a half before the election. An artist-in-residence studio at Juhl, it’s a spacious, high-ceilinged storefront covered in piñata-inspired artworks, some of which are headed to the Denver Art Museum, where Favela will be featured in a February exhibit. “There are a lot of white people, a lot of my white friends, who listen to the show and love it because they say they learned a lot, or they didn’t realize certain things, and that’s really awesome. But when Babelito and I started thinking about the show, we thought, We’re not going to cater to white people, because everything is for white people. If we focus on making something for us, for people who sound like us, for people who look like us, talk like us and smell like us (laughs), eat like us, people are going to be able to relate to it. I’ve lived my whole life having to code-switch and to put on a filter so that white people aren’t uncomfortable. Now it’s my turn to be comfortable, and it’s okay if white people don’t relate.” “The podcast at least interrupts people’s thinking for one day,” Ortega adds. It also serves as a reminder of paradoxical race logic, as when Favela points
out during the “Call Your Raza” episode, “You can’t be the crazy brown person. You can’t be the crazy black person, because no one listens to you. But you can be the crazy white person and be elected president.” The frustration of that logic pours through at times during the show, which is one of hundreds linked to on podcastsofcolor.com. The show has made it onto Latino USA’s list of podcasts to listen to right now, and in September, Latinos Who Lunch was Google Play’s podcast of the week. According to Audio Boom, their shows have had 18,000 listens. Favela says the podcast averages 1,000 downloads a week on Audio Boom and iTunes. He and Ortega advocate for other “brown podcasts,” linking to their favorites, interviewing other hosts and even collaborating with podcasts such as Super Mamas and Tamarindo Podcast in Southern California. “We’re connecting with other podcasts around the United States, and we’re pushing each other to become better, for our voices to encourage other voices to become part of the conversation,” Ortega says. “What we’re trying to do is encourage this conversation outside of this medium.” Filling in the blanks
T
he two met at The Cosmopolitan’s Liberace exhibit, where Favela was gallery manager. Ortega, an academic who doesn’t like to call himself an ac-
p h ot o c o u r t e s y j u s t i n fav e l a
TAILWAGGER HEFEWEIZEN TO
N EVADA BAL L E T T H E AT RE P RE S E N TS
ademic, is California-born, his family moving to Las Vegas from El Paso and residing in Juarez before that. Favela, a Las Vegas native and local history enthusiast, received his BFA from UNLV. He was the only Nevada artist represented in last year’s prestigious State of the Art exhibit hosted by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, and was one of 17 Southern Nevada artists featured in Tilting the Basin, a show of Silver State artists compiled by the Nevada Museum of Art, in Reno. Theirs is an engaging matchup. Ortega is more comfortable speaking Spanish and Favela with speaking English. When the podcast launched seven months ago, both were already consuming podcasts by people of color. “We have been hooked on black podcasts for a while, and we wanted to hear that in our community.” The two are filling in the blanks of an American story in real time, or, rather, squeezing in notations where there had been no room for them: “In this country, they never teach us Latino history,” Favela says. “They teach us black history because you can’t ignore the fact there were slaves here. You can ignore the fact that they lynched thousands of Mexicans after the Great Depression because they didn’t need us anymore. They don’t teach us that in history class.” In an episode about the Life Is Beautiful music festival, where Favela turned the entire front of a Downtown motel into a pink piñata, the artist explains that the project used Mexican symbolism to create visibility for Latinos in Las Vegas: “There are so many brown people working behind the scenes, making the city run. Construction, cleaning. A lot of my family built the casinos that are up. And we’re not part of history. Nobody’s talking about us. So making a building that’s covered in a piñata — that’s visibility.” But issues concerning all people of color are addressed unabashedly. An example: In the same episode, Favela reports that some white people wore Native-American headdresses to Life Is Beautiful (there were also whites in dashikis and Afro wigs). He began filming them, asking if they knew that what they were wearing was offensive to some people.
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Culture
Our students learn to think for themselves and to value independence.
ment of cultural stereotypes, even by someone within the culture. “Let’s get to the point,” Favela says in the episode. “We’re recording this podcast after I saw some really f--kedup shit on Facebook, just to be honest. … I watched like 30 seconds of it, and I just had to turn it off. But people tag me in these videos because hey they’re like, ‘Oh, you’re Latino, don’t you think this is funny?’” “Cholosploitation Nation” quickly becomes a fascinating podcast, with tia Jessica, who grew up in the ’hood where Favela also grew up. She shares her personal history of being chola and discusses the evolution of the cholo culture from that of violent gang reputation a few decades ago to one of community, family and advancement: “Now we’ve grown up. We want to be positive in our community and give back.” In reference to her mother, who is now a college student, Jessica says, “You can’t spell scholar without ‘chola.’”
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“Why don’t you put on a bonnet if you want to represent your own f--king culture,” he says. “All these appropriations, it’s disgusting,” Ortega adds. They’re not just critical of white people. The episode “Cholosploitation Nation” — chola is a complex cultural term that sometimes indicates gang affilia-
tions, amid other meanings — takes on a chola “workout video” that features a comedian exercising in his backyard, an offense — it seemed to be a mocking stereotype — that resulted in the hosts inviting Favela’s tia Jessica, aka Cha Cha de Chola Pinup (her name as a member of the nonprofit organization Chola Pinup) into the studio to discuss the treat-
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S
ome of the episodes, much like Favela and Ortega themselves, are smart, sincere, casual and blunt. “There are certain things that we’re trying to open the dialogue for in the podcast, and there’s a lot of things we’re trying to do,” Ortega says. “We’re not going to be careful with what we say to each other, because I’m having a conversation with Justin in the podcast, and that’s it.” That is a big part of the appeal of Latinos Who Lunch, says Luis Octavio, who operates the L.A.-based Tamarindo Podcast with Brenda Gonzalez and says he loves the mutual support and praise of brown podcasts by other brown podcasts. “The moment they started talking, I felt like I knew these guys. I felt like they were my friends. They were so relatable. I just felt like they were talking to me.” Octavio, who has worked in media, says big corporations put out content for the Latino community that’s very formal, news-oriented and on the straight and narrow, while other outlets put out jokes and nonsense. Latinos Who Lunch is different, he says. “They deliver important information. They educate the listener in a fun and engaging way.”
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On the air, they humbly mention being approached by fans and note humorously that the fan mail coming in is no longer just from their friends. Their negative comments about white people, they say, are presented within specific contexts and are not blanket statements about all white people. “I’m not racist. I have three white friends,” Favela says with a laugh. But beneath the sarcasm is a serious intent and the desire to share their slice of reality. “The reason that we’re doing it is because Favy and I have been having these conversations for two years, and we sit down in a coffee shop and talk, and we’re both so stimulated about what we’re talking about,” he says. “Finally, we’re like, We got to record this shit. We got to record these things, and sometimes I don’t think about who’s listening. Sometimes I forget that we’re recording.” To those shocked by the election results, Ortega, in “Call Your Raza,” reminds listeners that America is not living in a post-racial society just because it elected a black president: “This is proving everything we’ve been talking about, and people have not been listening and paying attention.” During “Call Your Raza,” while the two discuss how to respond to the election of Trump, their conversation is interrupted by a call from podcaster Juanita Monsalve, from the show Choices & Chismes. “I was literally on the phone with Babelito,” he tells her on the air. “Oh, that punk,” she says warmly. Favela introduces Monsalve to listeners and says, “I told Juanita to call me today because I wanted her voice on our podcast because it’s such an amazing show that they have, and I really want to know what’s on Juanita’s mind.” Her take: “This is real,” she says, talking about the way that “this random man” rallied people together under the umbrella of racism, adding, “A lot of people need us to be there,” for podcasters to come together, create community and protect one another. After which Favela tells listeners, “If you’re thinking of starting a podcast, now is the time to do it. Stop messing around. Go get some cheap mics. We need more brown voices out there. We need to be heard.”
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The Dish 42
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cocktail of the month 45
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Eat this now 45 block party 46
Our c i ty's be st spots to eat & drink
Mediterranean mix: Hummus Factory's falafel is served with lots of pickled vegetables.
P hoto g ra ph y By sabin orr
January 2017
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Dining out
Factory work: Top right, frarej, or baked chicken; below, chicken kabob; far right, the Greek burger
The Dish
Starting from scratch At Tony Tabet’s Hummus Factory, the secret sauce is a spirit of playful invention (and a good dose of spice) B y M i s t i Ya n g
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“I
learned consistency from my grandmother, and I learned to perfect things from my Uncle Frank,” says Tony Tabet, owner and chef at The Hummus Factory, a Mediterranean fusion restaurant that opened last spring. For Tabet, restaurants are a family tradition with roots reaching back to Lebanon. His grandparents Antoine and Leila Hedary opened their first restaurant in Beirut. When they left Lebanon during the country’s civil war, they brought their cuisine to Fort Worth, Texas, opening namesake restaurant Hedary’s in 1976. Uncle Frank imported Hedary’s to Las Vegas in 2003, and Tabet’s aunt owns Khoury’s,
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“I took the good from every restaurant,” says Tabet. stainless shelf, and racing bolts secure some fixtures in the kitchen. When an oven malfunctions, Tabet has no problem whipping out a multimeter to diagnose the problem. He even built his own brick oven to bake his pita bread. (He boasts that it only cost him 50 bucks.) Put it all together, and the end product is an industrial, modern design, complemented by background music he personally curates from SoundCloud. “I am really against having traditional music. The food I want traditional, but I want a different vibe,” he says. On a recent visit, the electronic duo Odesza’s “Say My Name” serenaded customers enjoying falafel and creamy hummus, and it felt right for a type of cuisine that might be called Lebanese 3.0.
Bright ideas, bright flavors What about Lebanese 1.0? What is traditional Lebanese cuisine? “It’s kind of another Vegas Mediterranean staple. Tabet like Greek food,” says Tabet. An apt decooked with all of them, venturing out on scription, as Lebanon has been a culinary his own with a food truck in 2012. “I took crossroads throughout a history ruled by the good from every restaurant,” he says. the Ottoman Empire for a period and by But Tabet hopes to do more than continthe French following World War I. Despite ue a legacy. He doesn’t want to merely build the French influence, Lebanese food does off the family name. He sees the Hummus not rely on heavy sauces, but instead features olive oil, bright herbs such as mint Factory as a unique creation that quite litand parsley and plenty of vegetables. erally came from his own two hands. We’re not just talking about the food. The Tabet honors the role of fresh herbs in bones of the restaurant itself are a product Lebanese dishes by growing mint in front of a hands-on genealogical investigation. of the restaurant and by drying all of his For instance, after he settled on a location, own herbs in-house. Mezza, a selection of Tabet rented a truck, drove to Texas, and small plates and salads, is perhaps the best went picking for restaurant furniture in way to experience the breadth of flavors family barns. (Other family members, not created by using fresh herbs. The Hummus just his grandparents, had owned restauFactory offers an order of six or 12. rants and kept furniture and other items in Other traditional dishes include frarej storage.) He painted old chairs and cleaned and falafel. Frarej is baked chicken, and up tables. “People laughed at what I had in Tabet serves his grandfather’s 64-year-old the truck — cobwebs and junk — but I did recipe. The recipe is legendary. (A Gooit,” he says. “I built this restaurant by myself gle search for frarej suggests an alternate for two months.” search of “Hedary’s chicken recipe.”) “That’s all they would sell in Technical skills and knowHumm us how gained at automotive the beginning,” he says, referFac tory ring to the earliest days of Heschool helped. New pipe 7875 W. Sahara dary’s in Texas. The half-chicktypically used for a diesel Ave. #101 en is basted in olive oil, garlic exhaust system holds up a 702-675-6020
hummusfactorylv. com
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Table 34 Featuring Chef Wes Kendricks’ contemporary American cuisine including safe harbor certified fresh fish, wild game, duck, lamb, angus beef, and comfort food classics. Conveniently located off the 215 and Warm Springs. Dinner Tuesday - Saturday 5pm until closing (around 10pm) 600 E. Warm Springs Road Las Vegas, NV (702) 263-0034
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Dining out and lemon juice and served with potatoes and tomatoes. Unlike some falafel that consist of garbanzos alone, Tabet creates his deep-fried bean balls from garbanzo and fava beans and serves them in a bowl filled with fresh raw vegetables and homemade pickles. With a side of hot, pillowy pita, the dish offers enough to create several sandwiches topped with tahini.
A flair for fusion Still, The Hummus Factory’s subtitle is “Mediterranean fusion,” so it’s not all tried-and-true Lebanese fare. Take Tabet’s self-proclaimed signature dish: the Greek burger. Lebanese cuisine does not feature many beef dishes, but when Tabet started with the food truck, he knew the perfect burger was a necessity. Today, his menu features grass-fed patties. The Greek burger is topped with spinach, feta cheese and crispy onions. On the side, you can substitute zucchini or eggplant fries for a few more dollars. Another twist that Tabet offers to Lebanese is heat — as in peppers. On any given day, the specials board may feature a new, red-hot dish, but Tabet’s signature creations, jalapeño and ghost pepper hummus, are always on the menu. (Of the ghost pepper, the menu warns: “The Hummus Factory is not responsible for any health issues that may arise from consuming this item.”) If you just want the heat without the hummus, you can get the sauces on the side. For more twists, the menu also features pizzas made on pita bread and a dollop of kimchi added to falafel sandwiches. With such a spirit of inventive fusion, it’s no surprise he’s busy building another Hummus Factory food truck to debut this year. “My mother and father are kind of against what I am doing. They say, ‘You’re messing with the culture,’” he says. But when Tabet opened The Hummus Factory last spring, the Fort Worth Hedary’s Facebook page announced like a proud grandma: “Tony Tabet, grandson of Antoine and Leila Hedary, makes the move from food truck to restaurant.” Tradition can be both a foundation to build upon and a maze to navigate. At The Hummus Factory, Tabet proves that the struggle can prove fruitful — and delicious.
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eat this when?
Eat this now! Pork Pepito From Pepito Shack
1516 Las Vegas Blvd. S. #A, pepitoshack.com
p o r k p e p i to : b r e n t h o l m e s ; co c kta i l : C h r i sto p h e r S m i t h
It says “World Famous” Pepito Shack on the sign, so I Skyped Ulaanbaatar, capital of far-off Mongolia, and asked, “Hey, bro, you ever heard of the Pepito Shack?” And the guy was all, “Yes! Everyone here has. It's world famous. Dude” — I translated this myself, so some nuances might be slightly off — “you totally gotta try the pork pepito. (Pepito is a kind of open-faced sandwich served in South America.) The shredded pork is tender, cooked over mesquite and nicely seasoned, and the coleslaw and crispy potato strings stage a texture get-down on your tongue. Great street food. We talk about it all the time.” Perhaps you are skeptical of this account — would a random, real-life Mongolian gentleman really use a phrase like “texture get-down on your tongue”? Well, my friends, we live in a post-fact world now, in which fake food reviews are the new real food reviews, so all you need to know is that our (trust us!) entirely legit Mongolian source is spot-on about the pork pepito. It’s tasty. Scott Dickensheets
Cocktail of the month
The Noble Irishman at Elixir Elixir is hidden atop a curlicue of asphalt that swirls off of Green Valley Parkway, in a nondescript office/retail cube that looks more suited to CPA firms and law practices. (You even have to take an elevator.) It’s worth the hide-and-seek session, though: The sparkly bar-restaurant’s ambitious menu and cocktail list suggest hidden-gem status. My favorite: The Noble Irishman. It’s a Moscow Mule with whiskey instead of vodka, plus maple syrup to play off the earth and spice of the Jameson. The martini glass seems like a fussy touch, but the ginger beer does give The Noble Irishman a festive bite. And while the holidays are behind us, I’m certainly not done celebrating. Andrew Kiraly 2920 N. Green Valley Parkway, 702-272-0000, elixirlounge.net
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Dining out
W
hen it comes to the local Las Vegas dining scene, it’s easy to look to historic Downtown, Downtown Summerlin and even Green Valley as restaurant hot spots. But, on a rather nondescript strip mall stretch of South Durango across from Desert Breeze Park, quite the collection of eateries has come into its own. To discover some new gems and rediscover some mainstays, let’s head from north to south on an edible suburban itinerary.
La Maison du Maggie
block party
Durango unchained This southern stretch of an otherwise standard street reveals flavors from all around B y Greg Thilmont
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I n p e r h a p s t h e mo s t G a l l ic crêperie in the valley, the actual Maggie serves the beloved thin pancakes in her namesake nook. Go for the most authentic of them all, the “France” galette. It’s made with nutty buckwheat flour and is filled with ham, cheese and a fried egg, just like it’s done back in Normandy. (3455 S. Durango Drive #112, 702-8234466, lamaisondemaggie.com)
Paiz Latin Foods If you don’t want any animales in your tacos, you can grab a few vegan tortillas filled with veggies such as mushrooms, zucchini and deep-fried avocado at this Mexican shop. (3655 S. Durango Drive #27, 702-426-0821, facebook.com/ PaizLatinandVeganFood)
P h oto g r a p h y b r e n t H o l m e s
Scoops
Durangolicious: From left, pizza from Amore, "France" galette from La Maison du Maggie, sushi from Naked Fish
While gelato and shaved ice might seem to have taken the town over, there’s still plenty of good ol’ American ice cream about, like at tiny Scoops. Featuring the familiar Thrifty label of frozen treats, you can get your bubblegum flavor on up in here. (3655 S. Durango Drive #19, 702-463-8599, thriftyslasvegas.com)
TC’s Rib Crib One of the most venerable 'cue joints in town, TC’s serves Louisiana-style pork in abundance. There’s also fried catfish on Fridays, and daily inexpensive deals on “sammies,” including beef brisket and pulled chicken. (3655 S. Durango Drive #18, 702-451-7427 tcsbbqcrib.com)
Zaytoon Market & Restaurant The finest Persian cuisine around can be had at friendly Zaytoon, which, of course, has a menu replete with varieties of kabobs, from chicken and beef to lamb and, yes, sturgeon. The saffron-scented rice is amazing, and the lavash bread is addictive. Wash it down with a green tarragon soda. (3655 S. Durango Drive #11-14, 702-6851875, zaytoonlasvegas.com)
The Rice Shop What’s likely the most microscopic eatery in Las Vegas proffers some of the
biggest flavors. Owner/chef Anthony Zappola’s two-table Rice Shop specializes in, of course, bowls of steamed grain topped with savory delights like Korean beef and Kentucky fried fish. With a pedigree that includes Heritage Steak at the Mirage, he even makes his own pickled vegetables, which, like everything else here, taste extraordinary. (3655 S. Durango Drive #9, 702-889-0468, riceshopvegas.com)
Other Mama While less than two years old, Other Mama has made big waves in Southern Nevada’s epicurean scene. Owner/chef Dan Krohmer spent two years in a culinary dojo in rural Japan perfecting his craft, and the restaurant’s seafood-centric menu is the result. Seasonal specials like grilled octopus with aji amarillo and black beans are standout, and the happy hour oyster service is a true score. The bar creates top-notch mixology, too. The entire package is as good as any casual dining destination you can find on the Strip. (3655 S. Durango Drive #6, 702-463-8382, othermamalv.com)
Norm’s Cafe For a handful of years, Norm’s was located in the same plaza as Other Mama, but moved a block to the south in early
December. It has great greasy-spoon offerings, including a from-scratch eggs Benedict and a satisfying lox scramble. (3945 S. Durango Drive, 702-431-3447, facebook.com/normseggscafe)
Naked Fish’s Sushi & Grill Naked Fish’s is one of those oldguard (for Vegas) places that’s been around for more than a decade, but doesn’t really get spoken or written about much anymore. But it’s still quite worthy. Beside raw denizens of the deep, try rustic Japanese maki rolls filled with relatively uncommon gobo ( burdock root) or natto (fermented soybeans). (3945 S. Durango Drive #A6, 702-2288856, vegasnakedfish.com)
Amore Taste of Chicago Expats from the City of Big Shoulders — and the people who love them — surely hold Amore dear for dining. Big, big dining. In the miracle Year of the Cubs, you can satisfy your Upper Midwestern cravings for deep-dish pizza, beef sandwiches, and pasta with peppers, in view of many sports-filled HD screens. Sports are definitely big here, too. (3945 S. Durango Drive, 702-5629000, amoretasteofchicago.com)
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IN THE FACE OF UNCERTAINTY
Spending time with Las Vegans who are likely to see their lives reshaped by the incoming administration, our writer finds that the dawn of the Trump era is creating new fears for some and revived opportunities for others.
BY HEIDI KYSER
JANUARY 2017
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I
IMMIGRATION
Luis Montanez It’s around the time that Luis Montanez’s mom, who doesn’t want me to use her name, is brewing chamomile tea and cutting dense slices of pumpkin cake that I feel a surprising pinch in the pit of my stomach. Paranoid thoughts race through my head: What if they get in trouble because of me? What if ICE asks for my notes? What am I doing here? I swallow the vague, fleeting fear — a tiny taste of what Luis, a 20-year-old Dreamer at Nevada State College, and his undocumented immigrant parents endure many times a day in the new world order of Brexit and “border walls.” To me, the feeling seems out of place in this Norman Rockwell scene: A middle-class family has opened its home to a reporter writing a story about the eldest son’s achievements, which include graduating third in his class at Durango High School and working toward a double BA in business and English, with an eye on law school. I’ve been chatting with them for more than an hour, holding their Yorkshire terrier, Jordy, on my lap and tossing an occasional question to Luis’ 6-year-old brother during his relays between the TV, tucked behind an outsized Christmas tree in the
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living room, and the breakfast nook off the kitchen where the adults are gathered. “What school do you go to?” I ask, on the boy’s next go-round. He grabs the edge of the table with both hands, puts his chin on it, and stares at me silently. His mom urges in Spanish, “She’s asking what school you go to.” It’s not the language that escapes him — he speaks flawless American English, just like both his brothers — but the name of his school. Solution? Run back to the TV. We adults resume. I’m getting the story of something that happened a few days before the presidential election. A new client had called Luis’ dad, a home-repair contractor who specializes in HVAC work, for a ceiling fan installation. While Luis’ dad, perched on a ladder, fiddled with the fan, the client came in the room. Referring to the contractor’s heavy Spanish accent, the client inquired whether he had a green card. Yes, Luis’ dad replied, lying. Good, the client said, seizing the opening to complain about undocumented immigrants coming into the country and stealing American jobs. Luis’ dad offered a defense: Actually, most of the jobs that immigrants take can’t be filled by American citizens. After a bit of back-and-forth on this, he asked if the client would prefer that an American complete the ceiling fan job. The client said, “No, you go ahead,” and left the room. Later, his wife, a native Spanish speaker herself, came in and apologized for her husband’s behavior. Overcome by conscience, Luis’ dad confessed to her that he didn’t really have a green card, but had said he did out of fear of being reported to immigration officials. She told him it was okay. “Is that fear new?” I ask. Yes, Luis and his parents concur. Before this year, they felt more secure. They’ve worked hard, paid taxes, minded their Ps and Qs and kept their heads down. In 2013, Luis went through an extensive application process, including a police background check, to qualify for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA. Until recently, none of them worried that they’d be targets of legal action. Then came Trump, who, Luis believes, effectively channeled conservatives’ top concerns — the economy and national security — into the single issue of immigration (despite unemployment going down 3.5 percent, median household incomes going up 2 percent, and 9 percent fewer unauthorized immigrants entering the country compared to 2009). Now, a
looming vulnerability permeates the family’s daily life. Still, they’re eager to share their story. They tell me how they came to the U.S. from Mexico on a tourist visa 17 years ago, landing in California, bouncing back and forth a couple times between there and their home country before settling in Las Vegas. Luis’ dad used his electrician training to find steady work with a home-repair company. After a couple years, he opened his own business, an LLC. He does all the HVAC work himself and subcontracts anything else. He stresses that he doesn’t intentionally undercut American companies when bidding on projects. Luis’ mom adds that she and her husband have always provided for their family, never taking a handout, despite the hardship of raising three boys with no health insurance. Looking around their comfortable, modest home, I imagine how offended they must be by the altright’s portrayal of Mexican immigrants as ignorant criminals. I ask what their options are and am immediately reminded of the time many years ago when, in a moment of absent-minded small talk, I asked a Chinese businessman how many children he had. Cringing, I wait for the obvious answer as Luis blinks at me incredulously. “Well, as far as we know, we don’t have any,” he says. “Right now, we’re just … in a state of uncertainty.” Immigration wasn’t supposed to be the subject of Desert Companion’s January cover story; nor were nuclear waste storage, reproductive rights, the Affordable Care Act or anti-Mus-
lim sentiment. But then Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency and Republicans took majorities in both the House and Senate. Citizens of all political stripes experienced a seismic shift in their world views. Conservative policy proposals that were floated during the campaign — defunding Planned Parenthood, repealing DACA and Obamacare, starting a Muslim registry — suddenly went from unlikely to probable. These new circumstances demand our attention. So, here I am, at Luis’ house, struggling to understand what it’s like when nearly half the people who showed up to vote in the most recent election apparently want to kick you out of the country. My visit caps two weeks spent haunting a Yucca Mountain consultant, Planned Parenthood worker, antiregulation neurosurgeon and head scarf-wearing Muslim woman. Based on what I’ve observed, I’d say Luis’ remark best captures the prevailing sentiment of many locals facing an unexpected reality: We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re preparing for the worst — or the best, depending on how you see it.
S YUCCA MOUNTAIN
Robert List Settling into an armchair in Sambalatte’s loft, Robert List tells me to call him “Bob.” Further exercising his political charm, Nevada’s 24th governor recalls our meeting at a Public Utilities Commission hearing last spring, where he’d gone to show support for rooftop solar. Old-school nuclear energy opponents find it hypocritical that the state’s highest-profile supporter of the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository jumped on the solar bandwagon, but to List, it makes perfect sense. “We’re a nation today that needs multiple sources of energy,” he says. “I’m in favor of wind and solar and geothermal.” What’s more, he lumps nuclear energy in with renewables as “clean,” since it produces no greenhouse gases — so, doesn’t contribute to global warming — and can be developed domestically due to the abundance of uranium in the U.S. As controversial as this stance might seem, it pales in comparison to the pro- and anti-Yucca Mountain polemics in which List and others have engaged for 30 years. The plan to bury the country’s nuclear waste in a mountain two hours northwest of Las Vegas has languished in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, blocked from coming to fruition by U.S. Senator Harry Reid. The senator’s political strong-arming has infuriated the project’s supporters, who see it as a boon for Nevada. Meanwhile, grassroots opposition morphed into an effective advocacy and awareness campaign, keeping public support of Yucca Mountain low and concerns about it high. In 1998, the state agency for nuclear projects reported that more than two-thirds of Nevadans had consistently opposed the project in 20 years worth of polls; by 2007, a Reno Gazette-Journal poll found, that percentage had risen to three-quarters. JANUARY 2017
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But List was among a handful of true believers who never gave up hope. “I’ve felt for decades that sooner or later this project was probably going to happen,” he says. “That’s because we’re a small state, and we don’t have a lot of power compared to the big states where all this (spent) fuel is sitting. … Many of us felt that, once Senator Reid retired and was no longer in a position to single-handedly kill the budget, it was going to come back to the stage where the proceedings would go forward in the NRC, where the science will be completely analyzed and the final decision made.” That day might have come, and sooner than List thought. Like many people, based on polls overwhelmingly favoring Hillary Clinton in the race against Donald Trump, List didn’t expect his Republican party to come out on top. But it did, at least nationally. And that, coupled with Reid’s coincidental retirement, breathed life back into the zombie plan. “Trump Advisers Eye Reviving Nevada Yucca Nuclear Waste Dump,” Bloomberg News wrote on November 14. The Congressional Budget Office called List and other attorneys who had represented Yucca Mountain’s stakeholders, he says, asking them to ballpark the amount of money they would need to get the project’s infrastructure going. I ask List whether Reid’s coup de grâce — getting President Obama to create the Basin and Range National Monument, putting land that a Yucca Mountain rail line was supposed to traverse off limits — wouldn’t be enough to kill it for good. He says no, that the plans also included two other transportation options: a second rail line through Hawthorne, Nevada, and a highway route. Which leads to this exchange:
He emphasizes that he would never encourage the state to adopt a plan that he isn’t convinced is safe for citizens, and that he’s anxious to see such issues addressed in the NRC hearings. But if it is proven safe, he says, Nevada is looking at “billions and billions” in potential economic impact, including thousands of jobs. And there’s one other thing: “This site is 90 miles from Las Vegas, in the middle of the desert, next to an Air Force base, 1,000 feet underground, 1,000 feet above the water table,” he says. “You’re not going to find a safer place, you know.” He might have some convincing to do on this point. At press time Nevada’s official position, as published on Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s website, is as follows: “Yucca Mountain is a singularly bad site to house the nation’s high-level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel for several reasons,” including geology, location, limited space, transportation and national security.
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Me: It doesn’t scare you, the idea of having a truck with nuclear waste in it driving along a public highway? Bob: Not at all. Not at all. They already do this all over the world. Me: Even though there are other spills on highways all the time — chemical spills, milk spills? Bob: Those are far more dangerous. I mean, chlorine on the rail lines is hugely dangerous. Me: Probably not more than nuclear waste, though. Bob: Yes, it is, because the nuclear waste is packaged in these impenetrable containers. And they’ve been tested. I’ve seen videos of the tests. They’re so heavily encased that they can take a full-blown train running into the side of them, and they won’t burst. … There have been so many misconceptions about the material. I mean, it’s not liquid. It’s in the form of little pellets. And what you’d have to do if somehow there were ever a spill, is go out and pick it up and put it back in the container. It’s not going to destroy the area. Me: But it does emit radiation. Bob: Sure, you’d have to pick it up and move it out. Me: It’s a solid waste, but anything it comes into contact with is contaminated. Bob: Yeah, but if somehow it was spilled out in the desert, you’d just pick it up and put it back in something and take it away. Me: Well, it not like picking up wood chips. It’s still radioactive waste. Bob: Yeah, it’s radioactive waste. But you ask a lot of people, and they don’t understand that (it’s not a liquid). They feel it could burn or explode or something.
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HEALTHCARE
William Smith Shadowing neurosurgeon William Smith while on assignment four years ago still ranks in my 10 most enthralling experiences as a journalist. Within minutes of my arrival at UMC, Smith had me scrubbed and standing next to him in the OR. Over the following five hours, I attended six surgeries (including one emergency), accepting his invitation to peer inside open body cavities, study human brains being projected on a video screen from a scope up someone’s nose and many other things I swore in a waiver that I would never write about. At that time, EMR — shorthand for electronic medical records — was the buzz in healthcare circles. Doctors’ offices were scrambling to comply with regulations requiring them to adopt software that allowed various parties access to patient information, and Smith was annoyed by the imposition, which he predicted would increase the burden on healthcare providers without actually improving the quality of care. Given Republicans’ current promise to repeal Obamacare, I wondered if Smith would be happy to see what many doctors consider another onerous government program on its way out. So I met him for coffee to find out. “I believe the bureaucrats have won the war in medicine,” he says, right off the bat. He explains that every week he gets another new form he has to fill out. The week prior to our meeting, for instance, it was a three-pager informing patients of fire risk in the operating room. He says he tried questioning its necessity, then refusing to sign, but ultimately gave in. It’s now required for every surgery. “Why am I so against the ACA?” he says. “Because you have bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., determining what’s the best treatment for my patient. There’s no longer the direct patient-physician relationship. There’s a bureaucrat between us at all times.” Smith predicts that if things keep going the way they are now, protocol-driven medicine will sap doctors’ ability and/or desire to help people. He offers this example: A recent industry conference where he spoke also featured a representative from a Midwestern orthopedic surgeons’ group that has case meetings every Monday. They take or reject cases, Smith says,
MILLENNIAL VOICES Valley college students look ahead to a changing future BY HEIDI KYSER
My ramble through a Las Vegas still reeling from Donald Trump’s presidential win led me to several student groups that are talking about their new realities. Excerpts from these conversations reflect a young generation that’s making plans for the worst, but hoping for the best. 1. At the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on Maryland Parkway, diversity officials from the College of Southern Nevada and Nevada State College met with UNLV volunteers to talk about how they could protect undocumented students from deportation. “I’m going to push for resources to be marketed as being for undocumented students instead of just DACA students. This whole time, we’ve left out that whole population of people (who are undocumented but don’t have DACA status) without really realizing that, once the Trump administration comes in, we might lose DACA, and then we are all going to be in the boat of being undocumented. It’s really scary, because people might get deported.” — Mariana Sarmiento, UNLV senior and UndocuNetwork volunteer “People say, ‘Why does this suddenly just move up in priority of your work?’ We’re talking about undocumented students, but of course, women are afraid, other minorities are afraid, there are ramifications of
the election on all sorts of different groups, but DACA is at the forefront of danger. It becomes a priority because it’s on the list of 100 days of action, and it’s just most realistically going to impact this group soonest.” — Amey Evaluna, Community Engagement & Diversity Initiatives, Nevada State College
2. At NSC, student body president Desiree Decosta had this to say about UNLV math instructor Georg Buch, who had recently reacted to the idea of sanctuary campuses for undocumented students by claiming he would report anyone in his classes that he knew was undocumented (Buch has since apologized and retracted the statement): “He’s an educator at UNLV; that’s why it’s so scary for students that are undocumented. Our college campuses should be hubs for learning, not places for spying on students. There’s a lot of concern about how we will approach these problems.” A couple days later, NSC President Bart Patterson reassured the student government that he wanted to create a welcoming environment for all students to feel safe and get the education they need to graduate. 3. At UNLV, the Muslim Students Association mulled the possibility of discrimination in a country whose new president, during his campaign, proposed creating a Muslim registry and even banning Muslims immigration. “I understand — not just because of my major (political science), but as someone who’s on a campus and who tries to associate with all types of people — that people didn’t go
based on criteria such as cost and whether a person smokes or has a support network to help with their recovery. Smith says most attendees at the conference applauded this approach, but he found it appalling. “I went into medicine to help sick people,” he says. “Your cost-benefit ratio may look good (doing it that way), but are you really taking care of society?” But the Midwestern group’s approach is also understandable, Smith says, given the regulatory environment. For instance, the government has determined that, starting next year, wound infec-
out and vote because of anti-Muslim sentiments solely. People had other reasons, and it would be way too centered on myself to think, ‘Oh, you did this because you dislike me.’ Obviously, that’s not the story. I had friends, who are very respectful towards my faith and my practices, who did put that vote in.” — Tania Dawood, UNLV junior and MSA treasurer “I feel it’s really important not to let a hatred or an anger grow inside me because of what has happened. I’m trying to find connections to Trump supporters and understand why they would choose to vote for him. So, if I want to relate this to my faith as a Muslim, one of the most important things in Islam is fighting against tyranny and oppression. So, if you take it from that point of view, I can kind of connect with Trump supporters, because people like Trump don’t come into power for no reason. When you have a huge upheaval like that, it’s because you have this population that is being underserved or being neglected in some way. … I’m just trying to go back to the most basic and essential part of being a human being, which is, for me as a Muslim, that we’re all creations of God and we’re connected to each other because we are creations of God. So, everything else — the divides that we make between each other, they’re all artificial. There are always ways to look beyond that.” — Muneeba Ahmed, UNLV junior and MSA vice president
tions should be so-called “never events,” a category that includes operating on the wrong patient, the wrong organ, the wrong side and leaving an instrument inside a patient after surgery. “So, if I have two wound infections next year, they’re going to lump me in the same group of guys who amputate the wrong foot,” Smith says. “That’s the way the government’s going to look at it. They don’t want people to have wound infections; I don’t, either. But if it’s going to ruin my career, will I risk taking care of sick, elderly people?” (Rhetoric aside, he says he will, but it will cost him time and money.) JANUARY 2017
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By focusing on burdensome bureaucratic meddling in his practice and the move away from patient-centered care, Smith is expressing a view of healthcare reform that’s common among physicians. The New Yorker’s December 19 financial column argues that Trump’s nomination of Georgia Representative Tom Price for Secretary of Health and Human Services underlines the administration’s determination to roll back Obamacare, in part because Price is a doctor. In 2014, a physicians’ trade group survey found that 25 percent of members gave the ACA a grade of F, while only 4 percent gave it an A. One interpretation of doctors’ opposition to healthcare reform is that they’re acting out of financial self-interest; government-subsidized plans that drive down consumer costs can also reduce competition and fees for services. Smith does say he thinks doctors should get paid a fair price for what they do, but he also believes cost transparency is a key solution to solving the country’s healthcare problems. And he concedes that Nevada’s embrace of Obamacare has benefited him (and low-income people), since more of the patients he operates on at UMC have health insurance now than they did pre-ACA. Indeed, according to federal data, some 90,000 Nevadans gained coverage through the Medicaid expansion. This and ACA’s other popular aspects — restricting denial of coverage due to preexisting conditions and allowing kids to stay on their parents’ plans longer — could make Obamacare difficult to get rid of outright. I ask Smith what he thinks of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare, and he says he thinks Ryan is “one of the honest brokers, who’s trying to do it the right way.” Nevertheless, he’s pessimistic about a true repeal. He asks me to name another government program that has been bestowed and then subsequently taken away, and I can’t think of any. (The 1996 welfare reform that kicked millions of people off federal unemployment assistance hits me when I’m driving back to work, of course.) In any case, Smith believes that, if anything, we’re moving toward a single-payer system, in which whatever insurance companies are left a decade from now will all pay Medicare rates. “I don’t care who comes into power,” he says. “To fight the million faceless bureaucrats, to change what they’ve already done, I think will be nearly impossible. I think little changes might be able to be made, but I think big changes will be nearly impossible.”
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Rosita Castillo On December’s first cold Friday, I pull up to a business office fourplex on East Sahara that’s supposed to be the weekly meeting location for networking nonprofit Grupo de Mujeres
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(“Womens Group”). I hesitate to go in, because the building looks abandoned, but I really have to go to the bathroom, which, it turns out, is locked. I find Suite 3, upstairs on the right, where a middle-aged woman with cheerful eyes and red lipstick is taking clothes out of a bag and arranging them on a row of tables. She greets me like we’re old friends, introduces herself as the founder of Grupo de Mujeres and explains that she’s getting ready for their monthly clothing swap. Fun, I say. And do you have a key to the bathroom? She doesn’t, so I go back downstairs, where the receptionist for a paralegal service in Suite 1 — evidently, the only heated spot in the building — gives me the key to the bathroom (thank God!). By the time I get back to the Grupo de Mujeres meeting room, members are trickling in, nodding buenos dias as they rub their hands together briskly. A woman from Puerto Rico shows me a deep scar on her wrist from carpal tunnel surgery a few weeks earlier. I think she’s saying that the operation went well, and the incision is healing on schedule, but I can’t be sure; it’s all in Spanish, a language I haven’t used in conversation since graduate school. I nod and smile, throwing in “Si” when I understand something. Around 10:15, Rosita Castillo bursts in towing a rolling suitcase filled with literature and condom-stuffed goodie bags, part of her presentation as a Hispanic-community health worker, or promotora de salud, for Planned Parenthood. Castillo’s no-nonsense
energy pumps up the room, and within minutes of her arrival, she’s giving me her autobiography, rapid-fire style: farm worker on the West Coast for 10 years, chemical dependency counselor in Mexico for 15 years, various government and NGO social work gigs since. Her passion for community health started when she was a child. “I remember my mother crying when she found out she was pregnant. We were migrant workers, and it was very hard,” she says. “A lot of women don’t know their rights. They don’t understand that their bodies belong to them. And there are so many barriers to getting health care: immigration status, fear, poverty. … Health is a human right. Reproductive health is a human right. In Latino cultures, women carry a lot of the responsibility for making sure the family succeeds, so keeping women healthy is a priority.” Castillo says that when she started this work in Las Vegas, most Latinos didn’t even know that Planned Parenthood existed. Seven years later, they call it la clinica, “the clinic.” Grupo de Mujeres is one of many community groups that regularly invite her to speak. Today, in honor of World AIDS Day, the topic is HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment. The dozen or so group members draw their chairs around her in a circle and listen politely as she debunks transmission myths, introduces a new morning-after-like pill and urges open discussion to reduce the disease’s stigma. Looking around the 30-something and middle-aged faces, I wonder how much of Castillo’s pitch is getting through. Two little girls who’ve come with their moms make eyes at and then advances toward each other, though it doesn’t seem to distract anyone but me. Castillo’s English was hard enough to keep up with; her Spanish whizzes by me so fast I can only catch the occasional phrase: zero transmicion (“zero transmissions”), mucho trabajo por hacer (“much work to do”), es problema de todos (“it’s everyone’s problem”), comprender y respetar (“to understand and respect”). But after about 20 minutes, the audience gets involved, and things take an unexpected turn. One woman shares her experience of giving her daughter a condom for the first time. Another says she didn’t know how to respond when her 12-year-old
asked what AIDS was (the situation is then work-shopped). Another asks how to get help for a friend-of-a-friend who just found out she’s HIV-positive. These women aren’t listening as a courtesy, I realize. They’re there to get information they can use. As her presentation winds down, Rosita reminds them where Planned Parenthood is located and mentions that it has programs to help with everything from family communication to sexual assault recovery. The group invites her — and me — back for a holiday party and moves on to tea and clothes swapping. Driving away from the fourplex, I wonder what will become of promotores de salud under the new administration. A couple days earlier, Politico reported that 2017 would almost certainly see the revival of a 2015 bill, vetoed by Obama, to defund Planned Parenthood, which gets more than 40 percent of its $1.3 billion annual revenue from the federal government. During his campaign, Trump said he would defund the group, but in true Trump fashion, he also expressed appreciation for Planned Parenthood’s non-abortion services for low-income populations. Castillo’s boss doesn’t return my calls looking for a follow-up interview. But I get some insight a week later when I drop by UNLV for an officers meeting of Students United for Reproductive Justice, a Planned Parenthood-sponsored campus organization. The current president is handing the reins to Suki Narwal, who’s going over her plans for the spring semester. Narwal talks about an upcoming conclave of progressive groups where they’ll formulate their demands for the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency. Noting that the campus pro-life group is currently out-organizing and out-recruiting SURJ, Raquel Cruz-Juarez, the group’s Planned Parenthood advisor, says the gathering will be a good opportunity to enlist volunteers by helping people turn their post-election anxiety into action. “We definitely know we’re going to get defunded in the first 100 days,” Cruz-Juarez says. “I can feel the fear,” Narwal says. “It’s so uncomfortable. A lot of people have been contacting me and sharing their concerns. So we really need to let them know we’re still there for them.”
N ISLAM
Najah Masaddiq Najah Masaddiq is full of surprises. On the phone she sounds like a 20- or 30-something, but she’s actually 50. She arrives to meet me in the lobby of her gated apartment community on Gowan Road, riding a motorized scooter with a small boy, her grandson Kye, sitting cross-legged between her feet and the steering column. And despite being a devoted Muslim who wears niqab, the head- and face-covering that conceals all but JANUARY 2017
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her eyes — the very symbol of demureness — she’s quite direct. Telling me about the bus driver who’s been giving her a hard time since he started on the Martin Luther King Boulevard route that she takes every day to get Kye to Acelero Learning Center, she says, “Yesterday, when I was pulling my wheelchair onto the bus, another passenger who’s not usually there asked what was happening, and he said, ‘She always takes forever.’” And then, as we ride that bus, within earshot of said driver, she says, “You can see that only took a minute!” The biggest surprise comes when we get back to her apartment after dropping Kye off, and she immediately removes her niqab. I had turned away for a moment, and when I turn back, there she is, barefaced (her head scarf, or hijab, was still in place). I feel a flash of intense embarrassment, followed quickly by the thought that she looks nothing like I’d imagined. Masaddiq hasn’t always worn niqab; she hasn’t always been Muslim. The former Southern Baptist converted in 1997 following a personal rough patch. A Gardena, California, native, she came to Las Vegas in ’92 following the birth of her first child (Kye’s mom), because a girlfriend from the Navy had convinced her they could live and raise their kids together. That didn’t work out, and Masaddiq soon found herself not only pregnant again, but also married to an abusive man. Disengaging from that relationship, she says, drove her a little crazy. In her search for sanity, she found Islam. “The people from the big mosque here sent me to Masjid As Sabur and said, ‘I think you’ll be more comfortable there,’ you know, for obvious reasons,” she says, alluding to the mosque’s ethnic and racial diversity. “And there I learned more about Islam and took my Shahada, which is the oath that Mohammed is God’s prophet, and I’ve been there ever since.” Her faith has steadily deepened over the years, finding expression first in her decision to wear hijab, and then, in the fall of 2015, to go full niqab. This wasn’t easy for Masaddiq, because she has multiple sclerosis, which makes her sensitive to the heat. But her worry that the garment would suffocate her has proven unfounded, she says. She also hasn’t experienced any harassment, until recently. On another bus route, a driver told her she couldn’t get on “with that thing,” meaning the niqab. But Masaddiq had already boarded when the conflict broke out, so she stood her ground, saying it was a religious face covering and that she’d been riding the bus with it on for nearly a year. She refused to disembark, forcing the driver to call a supervisor, who verified that, yes, religious face coverings are allowed on public transportation. “When I got off the bus, all she said was, ‘Have a good day,’” Masaddiq recalls. “And I said, ‘Thank you, you too,’ and got off the bus. But I proceeded to call the RTC at the same time, and when they heard what had happened, they were aghast. The woman on the phone was like, ‘Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry. That’s a Title VI incident, and you have to fill out this form,’ which I did.” Masaddiq says it’s impossible to know whether the incident is related to her being Muslim; to Trump’s campaign talk about
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radical Islamic terrorism, barring Muslim immigrants from the U.S. and creating a national Muslim registry; or to the anti-Muslim sentiment that has bubbled to society’s surface since his election, manifesting itself in widespread cases of harassment nationwide, including several against women in hijab. She does say that her driver on the MLK route is less patient with her than others in wheelchairs, though. It leaves her to wonder if it’s because of her religion. I ask if the bus driver who asked her to remove her niqab might have been under the same mistaken impression as the Peppermill employee who, in November, ejected Muslim Louvenia Daan for wearing hijab, blaming it on the Strip restaurant’s policy that required patrons’ full head and face to be visible to security cameras. (Peppermill has since apologized to Daan and rescinded the policy.) “That’s all malarkey,” Masaddiq says. “No, there’s absolutely no reason why you have to take off your head covering. … It’s like telling a church lady to take off her church hat. Do they do that? I bet they don’t.” So, I venture: What would she say to someone who argues that female terrorists in burkas have carried bombs under their clothing into crowded places and set them off, and that she could do the same thing in her niqab? She leans back against her sofa, folds her hands over her belly and levels a serious gaze at me. “What would I tell them?” she says. “There are terrorists in our country that wear jeans and T-shirts and baseball caps. You can’t identify who’s a bad person and who’s a good person by their attire. … We’re living in critical times. We’re living in dangerous times, and people are very afraid of what might happen tomorrow. I’m kind of afraid of what might happen tomorrow. But I can’t adjust the person that I am any more than Donald Trump is going to adjust the person that he is based on how somebody might feel about him. I have a right to practice my religion in the way that I see fit, in the way that makes me happy and peaceful. … I’m going to do the best that I can to be the best example of Islam that I can be. I cannot tell you how to think. But nobody else can tell me what to think, either.”
TM
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your Arts+Entertainment calendar for january
Feb. 8-11
18-22
Dam Short Film Festival Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America Boulder Dam Hotel
Toruk — The First Flight
The annual soiree featuring more than 100 short films, plus parties, meet-and-greets and more – including rumors of a James Franco appearance *squee!* — all held in the historic Boulder Theatre. For details, see damshortfilm.org
T-Mobile Arena
If you see only one touring Cirque show this month based on the movie Avatar, and featuring projections, indoor kites and puppets, this ought to be the one. 8p, $39-up, cirquedusoleil. com/toruk
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The Mob Museum
Author Ioan Grillo talks about the rise of narco-kings in Latin and Central America, “hybrid CEOs, terrorists and rock stars” and the new king of threat they pose. Scary. Essential. 7p, $13.95 (Nevada residents), themobmuseum.org
The MountainTop The Smith Center
Presented by Broadway in the ’Hood, Katori Hall’s play about Martin Luther King Jr. — born this month in 1929 — takes place inside Memphis’ Lorraine Motel the night before his assassination. The charismatic and doomed civil rights leader meets a mysterious maid who seems to know a lot about him. 7p, with matinees 3p & 2p, $34, thesmithcenter.com
All Month Havana — In the Time of Fidel Summerlin Library
Cuba is a hotter potato than normal right now, with the recent death of Fidel Castro and its uncertain status with the U.S. government. But as these evocative photos by Armand Thomas show, the island’s lovely, dilapidated capital and its resilient people carry on. Free, lvccld.org
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THE GUIDE ART
EDWARD BURTYNSKY: OIL THROUGH JAN. 14
Canadian artist Burtynsky’s exhibition features more than 50 large-scale color landscape photographs exploring different aspects of the modern world’s most transformative resource: oil. Free. Marjorie Barrick Museum at UNLV, edwardburtynsky.com
ENCOUNTERS
THROUGH JAN. 14 The exhibit consist of drawings of people whom the artist, Donald Corpier Starr, has encountered over his lifetime. Free. West Las Vegas Arts Center Community Gallery, 947 W. Lake Mead Blvd., artslasvegas.org MUSIC
DEAN WEEN GROUP JAN. 10, 6P
For more than 30 years, Dean Ween has been best known as the guitarslinging partner of Gene Ween in the international cult band Ween. Dean and Gene formed Ween as middleschool students in 1984 and released nine studio albums and six live albums before going on hiatus in 2012. The group reunited in 2016 and plans to continue performing live. $22–$25. Brooklyn Bowl at The Linq, brooklynbowl.com
MORE MUSIC OF THE CLASSIC HORN BANDS WITH THE LON BRONSON BAND JAN. 13, 8P
Bronson and his band return to their roots with an evening of songs made famous by Chicago, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Tower of Power and others. $15–$35. Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com
JAN. 14, 7:30P; PRE-CONCERT CONVERSATION AT 6:30P The Las Vegas Philharmonic performs Michael Torke’s Ash; Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major; K488; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Opus 68, Pastoral. Maria Radutu is featured on piano. $30– $109. Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com
LAS VEGAS SHOWSTOPPERS … THE BEST OF LAS VEGAS JAN. 21, 7P; JAN. 22, 3P
Twenty-five local performers from recent Las Vegas shows such as Million Dollar Quartet, Steve Wynn’s Showstoppers and Jubilee! will be performing along with a live band, saluting Vegas icons like Elvis, Liberace, Wayne Newton and more. $20. Starbright Theatre, starbrighttheatre.htm
NEXTET
JAN. 25, 7:30P UNLV’s contemporary music ensemble performs the best in new music, including works by students, faculty, guests, and 20th- and 21st -century masters. Discover something original and unusual, and prepare to be surprised! Free. Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center, unlv.edu
STORM LARGE: STORMY LOVE JAN. 27–28, 7P
Rock Star: Supernova finalist Large has performed around the world, including gigs at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. She performs songs ranging from Broadway classics to classic rock anthems and her own compositions. $39–$59. Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com
RONNIE FOSTER TRIO
OPERA LAS VEGAS PRESENTS DUELING PIANOS
Foster emerged in the ’70s as a jazz organist on Blue Note and as a sideman on seven of George Benson’s most popular albums, including Breezin’. Guitarist Langley worked with organist Joey de Francesco for five years. $10 in advance, $12 on concert day. Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 McLeod Drive, clarkcountynv.gov
Philip Fortenberry, Spencer Baker and guest artist Yelena Dudochkin will perform an all-Gershwin musical program, including “Rhapsody in Blue,” songs from Porgy and Bess and more. The $199 ticket includes a tour of the renovated Liberace Mansion. $125–$199. Liberace Mansion, 4982 Shirley Street, operalasvegas.com
JAN. 14, 7P
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CABRERA CONDUCTS BEETHOVEN & MOZART
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JAN. 28, 7:30P
DOM FLEMONS, THE AMERICAN SONGSTER JAN. 29, 2P
A founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Flemons sings and plays banjo, guitar, harmonica and many other instruments, including bones! $10 in advance, $12 on concert day. Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 McLeod Drive, theamericansongster.com THEATER
FUN HOME
JAN. 3–8, 7P; JAN. 7–8, 2P This hit Broadway musical, based on Alison Bechdel’s memoir, introduces Alison at three different ages as she explores and unravels the mysteries of her childhood. Not recommended for children under 13. $29–$127. Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com
A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
JAN. 13–29, THU-SAT 8P; SUN 2P Set in 1900 Sweden, A Little Night Music explores the tangled web of affairs centered on actress Desiree Armfeldt and the men who love her. Book by Hugh Wheler, music and lyrics by Steven Sondheim. $21–$24. Las Vegas Little Theatre, lvlt.org
BROADWAY IN THE ’HOOD PRESENTS THE MOUNTAINTOP
JAN. 13–14, 7P; JAN. 14, 2P; JAN. 15, 3P Playwright Katori Hall’s drama explores the final hours in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. After a prophetic speech to sanitation workers, Dr. King arrives at the Lorraine Motel and is visited by a mysterious maid who has a bigger mission than just delivering his coffee. $34. Troesh Studio Theater at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com
MOTOWN THE MUSICAL
JAN. 17–22, 7:30P; JAN. 21–22, 2P The story of Berry Gordy and his iconic label, featuring the hits of The Supremes, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson Five and so many more. $29–$127. Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com
Channel 10
ANTON CHEKHOV’S CHERRY ORCHARD OF THE LIVING DEAD
JAN. 19–FEB. 11; THU–SAT 8P; SUN 5P Russian angst meets zombie-fu in Troy Heard’s mash-up of classical theatre and modern horror. Part of Majestic Repertory Theatre’s inaugural season. $25. Majestic Repertory Theatre, majesticrepertory.com
HIR
JAN. 19–FEB. 5 THU–SAT 8P; SUN 2P A comedic tragedy by Taylor Mac about Isaac, a marine working in Mortuary Affairs, coming home from the war to take care of his father. Will Isaac’s newly radicalized mother and transgender sibling make it easy for him? $16–$20. Cockroach Theatre, cockroachtheatre.com
Sherlock, Season 4 on Masterpiece Premieres Sunday, January 1 at 9 p.m.
LVIP NEW YEAR’S EXTRAVAGANZA JAN. 21, 5PM
The Las Vegas Improvisational Players offer clean-burning entertainment — meaning no swearing or even PG-13 comedy — that is made-up right on the spot. For their first show of the year, they are offering live skits and musical comedy for free! Have fun being part of the show, as everything is made up on the spot from suggestions by you — the audience. Free. Windmill Library, lvimprov.com
REMEMBERING RED — A TRIBUTE TO RED SKELTON JAN. 25, 7P
Command and Control: American Experience
Victoria on Masterpiece
Tuesday, January 10 at 9 p.m.
Premieres Sunday, January 15 at 9 p.m.
Brian Hoffman recreates the best-loved sketches and characters of legendary comic Skelton. $15. Starbright Theatre, starbrighttheatre.htm
DRUMLINE LIVE
JAN. 26–27, 7:30P A new show created by the musical team behind the hit films Drumline and Drumline: A New Beat, based on the marching band tradition of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. $24–$69. Reynolds Hall at The Smith Center, thesmithcenter.com
CHARLOTTE’S WEB JAN. 30, 10A
Wilbur has a problem: How to avoid winding up as pork chops! Charlotte, a fine writer and true friend, weaves a solution which not only makes Wilbur
FRONTLINE: Divided States of America Tuesday and Wednesday, January 17 and 18 at 9 p.m.
Alzheimer’s: Every Minute Counts Wednesday, January 25 at 10 p.m.
VegasPBS.org | 3050 E Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89121 | 702.799.1010 january 2017
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THE GUIDE a prize pig but ensures his place on the farm forever. E.B. White’s treasured tale, featuring madcap and endearing farm animals, explores bravery, selfless love and the true meaning of friendship. $14. Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall at UNLV, theatreworksusa.org DANCE
COALESCE
JAN. 20, 2:30P Coalesce means to come together and form one mass or whole. See the UNLV Dance Department do just that, in their dance recital. $18. Alta Ham Fine Arts at UNLV, unlv.edu
wiretapped conversations. Free; books and merchandise will be available for purchase and signing. Clark County Library, lvccld.org
STORIES TO TELL JAN. 14, 2P
International award-winning storytellers Diane Ferlatte and Djeliba Baba perform an afternoon of folktales and fables in the African storytelling tradition. These stories are sure to delight and entertain all audiences. $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush St., artslasvegas.org
JAN. 25, 8P
Men can, indeed, dance en pointe. You want to see Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo’s playful, entertaining parody of classical ballet because you’re guaranteed to enjoy dancers like Ida NevaSayNeva and The Legupski Brothers perform works from Swan Lake, Esmeralda and Don Quixote. Warm up your winter with the world’s foremost all-male comic ballet company. $25–$75. Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall at UNLV, trockadero.org
BALLET FOLKLORICO SOL HUASTECO JAN. 28, 6P
Jacquelyn Guzman formed Sol Huasteco in 2012 after her dance students at Rancho High School graduated, but wanted to keep dancing. Since then, the group has performed all over the valley. The group boasts fabulous costumes, talented dancers and a deep knowledge of Mexican dance tradition. $10 in advance, $12 on concert day. Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 McLeod Drive, clarkcountynv.gov
Hirschman, who was appointed Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 2006, has written more than 50 volumes of poems and essays. He will read from some of his works. Free. Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 McLeod Drive, clarkcountynv.gov
THE POETS’ CORNER JAN. 20, 7P
A monthly forum, hosted by Keith Brantley, for established poets and open-mic participants featuring the best local talent. Free. West Las Vegas Arts Center, 947 W. Lake Mead Blvd., 702-229-4800
BOOK DISCUSSION FEATURNING AUTHOR MARK MAYNARD JAN. 21, 2P
Nevada Reads is the state’s first “one read” program. The 2016-2017 Nevada Reads novel is Grind, by Mark Maynard, a writer from Incline Village, Nevada. Maynard’s debut collection of stories examines the characters of a town whose means and meanings are eroding and are searching for the next big thing, or at least the next thing. Free. Laughlin Library, lvccld.org
THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE LECTURES, SPEAKERS AND PANELS
WIRETAPPING THE MOB JAN. 10, 7P
Kansas City historian, author, documentarian and lawyer Gary Jenkins will discuss how wiretapping was developed and used by the FBI in its fight against organized crime. Jenkins will play clips of actual
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LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS: FROM NAZI NIGHTMARE TO AMERICAN DREAM JAN. 29, 2:30P
Las Vegas-based author, educator and entrepreneur Ben Lesser is also a Holocaust survivor. In his memoir, Lesser recalls a time when the world went mad and tells how, with determination and hard work, he went on to achieve the American Dream. Free. Summerlin Library, lvccld.org
JACK HIRSCHMAN JAN. 20, 7P
LES BALLETS TROCKADERO DE MONTE CARLO
Matters in the End. Free, tickets required. Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall at UNLV, atulgawande.com
JAN. 25, 7P
Atul Gawande, MD’s bold visions for improving performance and safety in healthcare have made him one of the most sought-after speakers in medicine. His three books, Complications, Better and Check-list Manifesto, have all been highly praised inside and outside the medical community. His new book is Being Mortal: Medicine and What
FAMILY & FESTIVALS
GLITTERING LIGHTS
THROUGH JAN. 2, SUN-THU 5–9P; FRI–SAT 5–10P Leave the Strip to see the real glittering lights! This holiday sensation is a 2.5-mile circuit that gives car-bound visitors the opportunity to see more than 400 animated displays. New this year is the addition of the Santa Tram. $20–$70. Las Vegas Motor Speedway, glitteringlightslasvegas.com
DISNEY ON ICE - WORLDS OF ENCHANTMENT
JAN. 12–14, 7P; JAN. 14, 11:30P & 3P; JAN. 15, 1P & 5P From wheels to waves, icy wonderlands to infinity and beyond, your family’s favorite Disney moments come to life on ice. $18–$83. Thomas & Mack Center, unlv.edu
THE 16TH ANNUAL LAS VEGAS JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL
JAN. 14–29, VARIOUS TIMES The longest running, most popular film festival in Nevada continues to present informative and entertaining contemporary global Jewish cinema for the entire community. Various venues, details at lvjff.org
A NIGHT OF EXPRESSIONS: YOUTH TALENT SHOWCASE JAN. 27, 7P
A showcase of community youth talent in singing, dancing, spoken word and music, all in recognition of Black History Month. Free. West Las Vegas Library Theatre, contact Willie Henderson at 702-229-2473 for more information.
Yo u Wa n t t o S e e T h i s . . . Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Sons of Serendip
Tuesday, January 24 • 8 p.m
Saturday, March 11 • 8 p.m.
Hungarian Masterworks
Piano Battle: Andreas Kern vs. Paul Cibis
Thursday, February 9 • 7:30 p.m.
David Russell
Friday, February 17 • 8 p.m.
Simply Three
Saturday, February 18 • 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 25 • 8 p.m.
Ben Verdery
Thursday, March 30 • 8 p.m.
Ying Quartet
Thursday, April 6 • 7:30 p.m.
pac.unlv.edu • (702) 895-ARTS (2787)
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END NOTE satire
Will you keep your resolutions: a Quiz By Scott Dickensheets
T
hat squalling baby wearing the “2017” sash means it’s time to set a bunch of self-improvement goals you truly believe you won’t abandon this time. To eat better and exercise. To quit self-destructive behaviors. To be more mindful. To read more. To improve the planet. To just be a better person. Will this be the year you actually follow through? Possibly! Or will you give up before Baby New Year soils his second diaper because you’re a total loser? Probably! To be sure, take our predictive quiz and add up your score to gauge your odds of success.
1. Describe your general level of discipline A) I always leave one cookie so I can truthfully say I didn’t eat “the whole box” (-10) B) You know the scene in Will where G. Gordon Liddy holds his hand in the candle flame without flinching? I taught him that. (+10)
5. How often do you eat fast food? A) Never (+5) B) Occasionally (0) C) I can’t answer, thanks to the Super Gonzo Cheesy Bacon Jumbo Bacon-Cheese Butter Jack I just crammed into my burger hole (-8)
2. In what ways do you already try to be a better person? A) My sneakers are non-sweatshop, I give money to good causes, I eat nothing that had a face (+10) B) Well, a face I recognize (0) C) Last week I gave a homeless man some good investment advice and charged just half my usual fee (-5) D) I haven’t yet chainsaw-murdered you for asking stupid questions (-10)
6. Kale? A) Often (+5) B) Occasionally (+1) C) Never (-2) D) Can I smoke it? (-5)
3. How’s your blood pressure? A) Like a baby’s! Uh, that is, if a baby has good blood pressure. What am I, a doctor? (+6) B) I blame Obama (0) C) Better, now that I found my chainsaw (-10) 4. Three words that describe your general level of fitness A) Trim, healthful, cyclist (+8) B) Breathe, walk, pant (-5) C) Ernest Borgnine-shaped (-7) D) Sad! Shame! Unfair! (-10)
7. Sustainable foods are ... A) Produced in a way that minimizes agricultural impact on the environment and thus promote global wellness (+5) B) A plot to keep liberals employed at Trader Joe’s. Wrong! Shame! (-5) 8. Distance you comfortably walk at one time A) One mile (+5) B) Half-mile (+2) C) The duration of a Pall Mall light (-5) D) From my car to the slop trough (-10) 9. The last time you went to the gym? A) Within the month (+6) B) Clarify: to the gym or into the gym? (0) C) If Pokémon Go g yms count, then 12 times today (-5)
10. Most recent sporting activity A) Pickup basketball with friends (+10) B) Monthly pickleball at the rec center (+5) C) Pickleball is too a real sport, jerk (0) D) Captain of the Trump University three-card monte team (-7) E) Reading Sports Illustrated (-10) 11. Was it the Swimsuit Issue? A) No (0) B) You’re lying (-5) C) Okay, yes (-10) 12. How many hours a week do you lounge in front of the TV? A) Fewer than 10 (+10) B) I only watch NCIS and its reruns and spin-offs, so 335 (-5) C) Zero. I’m too busy binge-watching my favorite shows on a smartphone (-7) D) While I drive (-10) 13. Speaking of which, have you seen the new season of Black Mirror? It’s awesome! A) Not yet! Don’t spoil it for me! (+10) B) No. Just can’t get into that show (-50, putz) 14. How many books do you read in a month? A) At least three (+10) B) Does skimming the plot summaries on Amazon.com count? (-3) C) I’m waiting until literature arrives in delicious gummy form, thank you (-10) D) Books? Clearly you did not see my Make America Great Again hat? (-15)
SCORE: 100-50: See you next year, Ms. Thin Healthy Better Than Everyone Else! 50-0: If you totally commit to fooling yourself about your chances of success, you might hold out until January 3. LESS THAN 0: Go ahead, eat those pork rinds while sprawled in front of the TV. Also, make sure your beneficiary’s contact information is current.
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JOIN US ON AN INSPIRATIONAL JOURNEY
MARCH 3, 2017
AT NEW YORK–NEW YORK HOTEL & CASINO, LAS VEGAS
Don’t miss the 5th edition of this breathtaking, one night only production. An annual celebration to raise funds and awareness for critical water issues. TICKETS ON SALE NOW – 1.844.33WATER – ONEDROP.ORG/ONENIGHT
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