Life Is Beautiful | Vegas Seven Magazine | October 23-29, 2014 by Vegas Seven

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“An Open Letter to ISIS,” by Jason Scavone. Maybe Las Vegas is on your radar, maybe not. But just in case, allow us to help you narrow down your targets. Plus, Ask a Native, The Deal, Tweets of the Week and Comrade Grumpette laments how consumers have trumped fans at music festivals.

18 | Politics

“Election Primer,” by Michael Green. Not interested in going to the polls this year? You should be—and here’s why.

22 | LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL 2014

Who to see (besides Kanye), what to eat (everything), where to park (for free) and how to kill time before Foo Fighters hit the stage—here’s your all-access pass to Downtown’s second annual festival.

33 | NIGHTLIFE

“A Meeting Between Strangers,” by Kat Boehrer. Long-distance collaborator RAC debuts his new live show at Life Is Beautiful. Plus, a Q&A with the Chainsmokers, Seven Nights and photos from the week’s hottest parties.

66 | DINING

“New Chefs on the Beautiful Block,” by Al Mancini. First-time festival chefs prepare to feed the masses. Plus, what those Health District grades really mean, and Cocktail Culture.

71 | A&E

“If These Walls Could Sing,” by Zoneil Maharaj. While the party will be over in a weekend, Life Is Beautiful’s street art program aims for a more lasting effect. Plus, The Hit List, Tour Buzz and concert reviews of the Slackers and Nas.

78 | Movies

The Book of Life and our weekly movie capsules.

88 | Going for Broke

Several previously highly regarded NFL and college teams, including the defending champions, no longer deserve your support at the window.

94 | Seven Questions

Life Is Beautiful’s Learning Series curator Lisa Shufro on the popularity of TED talks, getting Pussy Riot and learning how to learn.

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DEPARTMENTS

ON THE COVER Illustration by Yann Legendre

October 23–29, 2014

16 | THE LATEST

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SHAKE THINGS UP

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DIALOGUE CONTRIBUTOR’S NOTE ➜ When Vegas Seven creative director Ryan Olbrysh started kicking around cover concepts for our second annual Life Is Beautiful issue, he kept coming back to one particular thought: The image needed to be as distinctive and vibrant as the multifaceted Downtown festival itself. So he turned to internationally recognized illustrator and designer Yann Legendre, whose illustrations have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and GQ. Legendre took it from there. “My idea was to create a surrealistic scene that combines some spiritual and musical elements to follow Life Is Beautiful’s mission statement,” says Legendre, who is based in his home city of Paris. “We see this woman/goddess arriving by floating in the sky above the Nevada desert, with her crazy helmet made of music and cooking instruments. Her head is in the shape of a heart, like the symbol of the festival, and she is welcoming people to join her for an experiential journey. She brings a crazy vibe, emotions and life to the middle of the desert—just like Las Vegas.” To see more of Legendre’s work, visit YannLegendre.com.

CORRECTION In the October 16 issue of Vegas Seven, we incorrectly reported the location of Cold Press Express. The actual location is at Warm Springs and Durango roads (8680 W. Warm Springs Rd., 702-979-9797).

THIS WEEK @ VEGASSEVEN.COM

JAMMIN’ WITH RUSTY MAPLES

The wait is over: Life Is Beautiful returns to Downtown this weekend, and we’re getting things started early with a jam session from local indie band Rusty Maples, who perform at 2:45 p.m. Friday on the Ambassador Stage. Watch their video and get complete festival coverage at VegasSeven.com/ LIB2014.

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RISE UP

Check out our new online music column Hear Now, where you can listen to countryfolk outfit the Badlands’ new EP, get a Halloween treat from poppunk band the Forget Me Nots and watch rapper Dizzy Wright drop a humble freestyle. It’s all at VegasSeven.com/ HearNow.

While the inaugural Rise Lantern Festival at the Jean Dry Lake Bed was not without logistical issues—namely, brutal traffic—the spectacle of releasing thousands of lanterns into the desert night sky was a surreal sight. See for yourself at VegasSeven.com/ Rise.

SEVEN SIPS OF HENDERSON

Henderson hasn’t historically been a mixology destination, but two new bars—Due & Proper and Whist, both in the District at Green Valley Ranch—aim to change that. Get a rundown of the cocktail menu from both establishments at VegasSeven. com/7Sips.

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EVENT

SHRINERS OPEN

UPCOMING EVENTS • Oct. 31

Nevada Day Parade [Nevada150.org.] • Nov. 14-16 Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon to benefit Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America [RunRockNRoll.Competitor.com]

PHOTOS BY TEDDY FUJIMOTO

October 23–29, 2014

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Golfer Ben Martin (above, white hat) wasn’t the only champion at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. The 32nd annual tournament, which ran Oct. 13-19 at TPC Summerlin, raised funds and awareness for the Shriners Hospitals for Children, as well as local organizations such as the First Tee of Southern Nevada, the Clark County School District and the Goodie Two Shoes Foundation. In addition to watching Martin and other PGA Tour pros take aim at TPC Summerlin’s greens, spectators reveled on the sidelines in the Zappos.com Fan Experience swimming pools and on the nine-hole mini-golf course. They also enjoyed libations from Twin Peaks in the Fan Enhancement Zone on the driving range.

“Soon it will be a golden age of getting long-hauled through the magic of technology, instead of just waiting in line at the McCarran taxi stand.”

GOSSIP {PAGE 20}

News, politics, tweets and a great steak dinner that’s light on your wallet

An Open Letter to ISIS

Maybe Las Vegas is on your radar, maybe not. But just in case, allow us to help you narrow down your targets By Jason Scavone

October 23–29, 2014

VegasSeven.com

ISIS IS COMING TO TOWN. And not the heady doom-metal one that you wouldn’t mind setting up shop at The Joint—no, it’s the one full of foamingat-the-mouth, batshit caliphate fetishists. At least, that’s according to a blog run by people sympathetic to the ISIS cause. (Pinterest, probably.) Last month, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department confrmed that the blog contained calls for lone-wolf attacks on Las Vegas using the same instructions the brothers Tsarnaev used in crafting homemade bombs during their Boston Marathon terrorist attack. This is obviously problematic to anyone who has a strong interest in not being blown up. We’re downright obsessed with not being blown up. We have all of Not Being Blown Up’s posters on our walls. And if you doubt ISIS’ commitment, consider that they respond to any real or perceived slight to Islam with roughly the same unhinged hysteria as your average One Direction fan when someone on the Internet slams Niall Horan. “Terrorist” doesn’t begin to do it justice. So with the knowledge that it’s exceedingly diffcult to talk any extremists onto Team NotBeingBlownUp, we’d like to send this open letter to ISIS:

Dear ISIS, What’s up? Did you have a good summer? It was hot here, but you know how that is—LOL j/k. Anyway, heard you might be coming to Vegas soon and that you wanted to wreck some of our stuff. Tell you what, in the interest of earning a little sympathy lest we ever become the world’s lowest-stakes political prisoner, we’ll let you in on the targets that will do the most to make Vegas give up its gambling, stripping and booze-chugging lifestyle.

• The Fontainebleau. Sure, it may look like a desolate eyesore, but we Las Vegans consider this north Strip hulk a proud monument. It’s like our Statue of Liberty. Except for, you know, the other Statue of Liberty outside New York-New York. Besides, we heard the hotel was planning on opening Club Allah Is a Jerk. And you know how much we love intolerance. • The Harmon. Nothing says “typical Las Vegas” excess quite like building half a hotel then using it for a billboard. We’re so decadent, we don’t even know where most of our buildings are. Hell, we built Revel and forgot it in Atlantic City.

It’s like fnding $20 in the pocket of your winter coat. • Those two pylons for the Skyvue: We’re a subtle people. That’s why those two pylons blindly groping skyward might seem like abandoned construction for a doomedfrom-the-start Ferris wheel, but in reality, they’re twin tributes to the two things we cherish most: eating unnerving amounts of pork, and drinking strong liquors with the grim determination of a desertdehydrated Bukowski. • The Nevada Test Site. Oh, the days fesh-baring wanton celebrities spend frolicking together at this monolithic, living testament to

our past. Have you ever seen that Miss Atomic Bomb 1957 photo? Both the Killers and Holly Madison paid tribute to it. It’s how we show our Western hubris. • This one wall in my house. As an agoraphobe who in no way wants to enlarge his living space, I’ll be completely terrifed if you knock down this one non-load-bearing wall and force me to redo my kitchen into something more bright, airy and inviting. Anyway, ISIS, we hope this helps get you started. And please remember, when the time comes, make sure we’re only issued the trainingwheels, kiddie fatwa.

By Bob Whitby THURSDAY, OCT. 23: Lingering fear is

one of the effects of sexual, dating, domestic and gender-based violence. That’s why people have been gathering annually at UNLV for more than two decades for Take Back the Night. This year’s show of strength and support happens from 3 to 9 p.m. at UNLV’s Valerie Pida Plaza. UNLV.edu. Travel back to vintage Vegas at the Peppermill’s Fireside Lounge.

J A M E S P. R E Z A

WHERE SHOULD PEOPLE GO FOR A TASTE OF ‘OLD VEGAS’? I was recently asked something similar by a Canadian magazine, though their query was “Where can we walk among the ghosts of the Rat Pack?” That particular list is getting rather short, but includes the Riviera, the Golden Steer steakhouse, the Little Chapel of the West and—albeit it’s a stretch—the SLS (built in the bones of the Sahara) and Wynn Golf Club (formerly the Desert Inn Country Club). Sure, the Flamingo and Tropicana are still around, but they’re hardly recognizable from the Rat Pack days. Additionally, the Sands (once home of the legendary “Summit

FRIDAY, OCT. 24: You eat sushi and dig manga,

at the Sands,” a nightly Rat Pack party during the filming of Ocean’s 11) gave way to the Venetian—long gone, like most of the old joints. Now, if the question isn’t specifically about places where Frank, Sammy and Deano once roamed, but rather where you can get lost in “Old Vegas,” the list lengthens considerably. My mind immediately jumps Downtown, in particular the Golden Gate (opened in 1906, and where our city’s first telephone was installed) and El Cortez (1941, our city’s oldest continuously operating casino). Back on the Strip, the glamorous fountain-lined frontage of the main Caesars Palace building (1966) looks much the same as it does in jerky 8-millimeter vacation reels posted to YouTube (though the inside is completely different). I’d also include such vintage spots as Champagne’s Cafe, Piero’s Italian Cuisine and the Peppermill, and for Elvis fans, the Las Vegas International/Hilton/LVH/Westgate/ whatever. Places like the Neon Museum and the Springs Preserve,

where ghosts of Vegas Past are certainly present, deserve mention. And off-Strip haunts Frankie’s Tiki Room and Herbs & Rye may be a few short years old, but they represent like the old days. For an online taste of Old Vegas, I’ll share one of my favorite places to get lost: the UNLV Digital Collection of classic restaurant menus (digital.library.unlv.edu/collections/ menus). I have spent hours browsing menus of such places as the Blue Onion, El Cholo Cafe, the Sands Garden Room, Louigi’s Italian Charcoal Broiler (which describes a 60-cent appetizer of anchovies, onions and sliced tomatoes, or a Vegas classic shrimp cocktail for 80 cents), and the Hirschfeld-esque work of art that is the menu of the Dunes’ Sultan’s Table. It’s well worth the wonky interface to find and study these gems— especially as that classic era of Las Vegas further fades into memory. Questions? AskaNative @VegasSeven.com.

PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA

MUSIC FESTIVAL AMATEUR HOUR Music festivals used to be for fanatics. Blues fans, bebop fans, rockabilly fans, reggae fans, metal fans, mambo fans and, of course, Deadheads—no matter the genre, like-minded folk would meet and revel in their favorite music once a year. Today, there are hundreds of annual festivals, all seemingly geared more toward delivering a demographic to a sponsor than music to an audience. To draw the maximum number of eyeballs and wallets, organizers need the widest range of the biggest names they can get—which is why you have no interest in 50 percent of the bands and actively despise at least another 10 percent. So there you are, penned in for hours in a place where there’s nowhere to sit and a Budweiser costs 10 bucks. Which, of course, doesn’t bother most of today’s festivalgoers: They’re here for the scene, not the sounds. Here to show off their Vice-approved festival ensembles, to tweet and Instagram and Facebook and hold a big ol’ iPhone 6 in front of your face to record videos they will never watch ... of the one band you actually came here to see.

so you think you know Japanese culture? You don’t know Japanese culture. Get over to the Rio at 2 p.m. today and 11 a.m. tomorrow for the Aki Matsuri Japanese Cultural Festival. All the good stuff will be on hand: food, music, entertainment, dancing and beer. Admission: $10, free for children 8 and under; LVAkiMatsuri.com.

SATURDAY, OCT. 25: Mix Halloween and Nevada’s birthday and you’ve got Nevadaween, which is a pretty awesome name, honestly. The event, held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., isn’t bad either: pumpkin painting, children’s costumes, pioneer games, a soup cook-off and educational programs about the host venue, the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort. FriendsOfTheFort.org. SUNDAY, OCT. 26: Remember a couple of months back when soccer was super popular? Well, you can kind of relive those glory days by attending a Las Vegas Legends game. The Legends, in case you don’t know, are our Major Arena Soccer League team. And they’re taking on the Turlock Express at 3:05 p.m. in the Orleans Arena. Tickets: $20 for adults, $9 for children 12 and under; LasVegasLegends.com.

MONDAY, OCT. 27: You know how Wicked has been in

town for weeks? You know how The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been around forever? Well, combine the two and you have The Wicked Rocky Horror Show, a live performance at 8 p.m. at the Tommy Wind Theater, 3765 Las Vegas Blvd. South. The cast of Wicked is putting on the benefit show. Tickets: $75-$1,000; TommyWindTheater.com.

TUESDAY, OCT. 28: Cutting-edge illustrators displaying their creations for your enjoyment at no charge? Sounds like Tuesday fare to us. The Society of Illustrators is showing its best work in conjunction with the Vegas Valley Book Festival in Illustrators 56, an exhibit at the Sahara West Library through Oct. 31. LVCCLD.org. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 29: Layering and burnishing are time-tested techniques used to make art. See how masters such as Debra Fritts, Rieko Fujinama and Rod Moss employ these seemingly simple procedures to create works of astonishing depth and beauty in Layered & Burnished through Nov. 15 at UNLV’s Donna Beam Fine Arts Gallery. UNLV.edu.

Not interested in going to the polls this year? You should be—and here’s why.

WITHOUT A DOUBT, voter turnout will be lower for next month’s elections than in presidential years. And that’s shameful, because the issues and campaigns in off-year elections often have a bigger local impact than presidential elections do—really. If you are among those headed to the polls on or before November 4, here are some of the more important issues to consider: Anytime the ballot includes more than one state initiative, there’s a Question 2. And since the turn of the most recent century, Question 2 has often been a lightning rod used to drive voters to the polls. For example, in 2000 and 2002, Question 2 asked whether to amend the Nevada Constitution to defne marriage as between a man and woman. To their everlasting discredit, Nevadans overwhelmingly supported it both times, and Republicans used that support to push the anti-gay vote. In 2000, Question 2 helped George W. Bush win our state’s electoral votes, and two years later, it paved the way for Republicans to sweep the six statewide offces (they also almost took the Assembly). Well, Democrats hope lieutenant governor candidate Lucy Flores is the “Question 2” of the 2014 ballot. Because she represents two signifcant party constituencies—women and Hispanics—Democrats are looking to Flores to galvanize the party the same way the gaymarriage ban united the Republicans. The question is, will she be enough to drive turnout? Hispanics In Politics wasn’t too “HIP” this year. It mostly endorsed Republicans, with its leaders reasoning that they are the party that shows up at the polls. So HIP backed Mark Hutchison for lieutenant governor over Flores to avoid identity politics. Yet for overwhelmingly Democratic House District 1, it backed Republican Annette Teijeiro over Dina Titus, who has long roots in the district—this time in the interest of identity politics. The lieutenant governor’s and attorney general’s races are getting the most attention and money. That makes sense. Democrats hope electing Flores over Hutchison will eliminate the possibility that Brian Sandoval would give up the governorship to challenge U.S. Senator Harry Reid in 2016 (a non-issue, since Sandoval won’t run, but that’s another matter). The attorney general’s race was interesting enough from a historical perspective—former Governor Bob Miller’s son against former Governor and U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt’s grandson. But their campaign has been truly nasty, with Adam Laxalt’s blistering internal evaluation at his law frm, as well as family members suggesting he has no business challenging Ross Miller for this job, and Laxalt’s supporters ripping Miller for accepting gifts. Yet the more important race probably is for secretary of state. Across the country, Republicans have tried to capture this offce as part of what is—let’s face it—an effort to make voter identifcation procedures more strict, which theoretically would limit minority voter turnout. This year, Nevadans will choose Kate

PAYING TRIBUTE TO A SPECIAL STEAK SPECIAL

Marshall or Barbara Cegavske for secretary of state, and it will be interesting to see whether region plays a role in the outcome: Marshall is a Democrat in Republican-heavy Northern Nevada, and Cegavske a Republican in more Democratic Southern Nevada. Many northerners usually prefer not to vote for southerners unless they have to. Advantage Marshall. Apropos of that, Southern Nevadans prefer not to support tax increases, but there’s a strong chance they’ll back this year’s actual Question 2, which would (fnally) end the tax break the mining industry has enjoyed since 1864. If the amendment doesn’t pass, Southern Nevadans will have proven that they can’t even unite on the question of whether water is wet. Rest assured, Northern Nevadans will be thrilled if this happens. Lest we forget Question 3, known as the “margins tax” or “educational initiative” that would tax business revenue, with the idea that the money would go toward education. If the money spent for and against Question 3 during this election season actually went into education, we might solve some of our problems. Owners of small businesses may have a point when they say Question 3 will cripple them, but it’s tough to have much sympathy for larger corporations that have fought every other imaginable tax. If nothing else, the issue itself has been educational. Teachers’ unions have been Question 3’s main supporters, but after helping to collect the signatures needed to get the initiative on the ballot, AFL-CIO chief Danny Thompson is now doing ads opposing it; the Culinary Union is against it, too. All of which reminds business and political leaders of what they already knew: that unions won’t stick together. Maybe teachers should start patronizing Station Casinos. Michael Green is an associate professor of history at UNLV.

Las Vegas has put out some legendary deals over the years. They include the Bingo Palace’s (now Palace Station) 49-cent breakfast, the Golden Gate’s 50-cent shrimp cocktail and, of course, Binion’s Horseshoe’s $2 New York steak dinner. Inflation has seen to it that you don’t find deals quite like those anymore, but if you think in relative terms, these sorts of super specials still exist all over town. I write about ’em every week, but if I had to choose one that currently embodies the Vegas-values spirit, it would be the steak special at Ellis Island. This baby never changes. It’s a big filetcut sirloin cooked to order, and it comes with soup or salad, choice of potato, green beans and a home-brewed Ellis Island beer or root beer, all for just $7.99, served 24/7 in the Café. Part of the mystique of this meal is it doesn’t appear on the menu. You have to ask for it. But that’s only one part of the mystery. Pay attention now. If you walk in off the street and ask for the steak special, it’ll cost you $11.99. Still a bargain, but not the bargain I’ve been describing. You need two separate coupons to get that $7.99 price. Get the first by joining the players club, then swipe your card at a kiosk to get a voucher that automatically cuts the price to $8.99 (one voucher is good for your entire table). To receive the second coupon, play at least $1 in a slot or video poker machine. Be sure your card is inserted, play the dollar, then go back to the kiosk and print the second coupon for an additional $1 off, and there’s your $7.99 steak. Of course, you’re gambling now, so your result isn’t guaranteed, but this adds a fun little Vegas twist that also makes financial sense. Most of the time you’ll lose the dollar, and your total outlay will be the original $8.99. But you also might win or break even. What’s important is that the expected loss on the $1 gamble is just 2 pennies, which pegs the real price at $8.01. Want to wring another penny and a half out of the deal? Add a quarter and play $1.25 on one of the 9/6 video poker machines. Playing only the required single dollar causes you to play “short-coin,” which eliminates the royal flush bonus and drops the game’s return to 98.02 percent. That’s a 2 percent edge for the casino. But playing $1.25 is “full-coin,” giving you the bonus value of the royal flush and raising the return to 99.54 percent. Now your expected loss is just sixth-tenths of a penny to satisfy the requirement to get the discount. Do it this way and your mathematical final price for that steak dinner is $7.996 … plus tax and tip! Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor and LasVegasAdvisor.com.

ILLUSTRATION BY JON ESTRADA

THE LATEST VegasSeven.com

| October 23–29, 2014

Election Primer

THE LATEST

@rodger_sherman “Hello, Lorde? This is Brian Cashman. I’d like to offer you $33.5 million to write a song called ‘Yankees.’”

@MikeWiseguy I read somewhere that more Americans have been married to Kim Kardashian than died of Ebola. Still, I’m afraid of both.

@iowahawkblog Cocaine? Hell, if Joe Biden was my dad I’d be huffing paint.

Big Wheels, Big Money and a Big Baby Uber and Formula One consider riding into Vegas, Kim Kardashian cashes in and a Clipper delivers an encore (that nobody demanded)

@Puddinstrip Coinstar is the closest I’ve ever come to a financial advisor.

@FunnyOrDie Peyton Manning passed Brett Favre in career touchdown passes tonight, going into the record books as the only positive NFL story of 2014.

@KingsThings

marks the 74th anniversary of the day heavyweight champ Jack Johnson lost to race-car driver Barney Oldfeld in a $5,000 match race in Brooklyn? Of course you didn’t. Only Wikipedia or possibly the ghost of Bert Sugar should know things like that. But it does raise a reasonable point that, historically, this is a very exciting week for automobiles, big-money transactions and famous people doing things they can only get away with because they’re famous. To the frst point, Uber, the ridesharing darling out of Silicon Valley, has been strutting around town lately, with cryptic ads in print publications (including this one—hi, ad department!), targeted Facebook ads and a full-on closed-door meeting for prospective drivers. Soon it will be a golden age of getting long-hauled through the magic of technology, instead of just waiting in line at the McCarran taxi stand. But tooling around Summerlin in someone else’s Prius is as exciting as revving up the four-banger on a vintage ’79 Chevette. The real fun is that, according to multiple reports, Formula One might be coming back to Las Vegas for the frst time since the Caesars Palace Grand Prix in

1982. F1 head Bernie Ecclestone said the course would run on the Strip. Naturally. Helpful tip: Don’t shut down the boulevard. Sure, it’s impressive to pilot a fnely tuned racing beast around a jaunty street course, but what separates the men from the boys is having to dodge Girls Direct to You rolling billboards, bored dudes in SpongeBob costumes and drunks by the dozen. ... A leaked e-mail shows that Kim Kardashian gets between $750,000 and $1 million per endorsement, plus an extensive rider that includes frst-class plane travel, luxury accommodations and, shamelessly, a per diem. Or you could save a few hundred grand and get Khloe, who’ll pitch any product if you bring in an older woman who can pretend to show unconditional love for like 10 minutes. It’s exotic to her. Like ordering emu in a restaurant. … The L.A. Clippers were back at Tao on October 18, and just like on Octo-

ber 3, Glen “Big Baby” Davis got up in the dining room and serenaded the crowd with “Big Baby Gon’ Turn It Up,” in a move that delighted patrons who thought their chance of seeing a singing NBA player while they ate died when Shaq retired. Davis, Chris Paul, Blake Griffn and other Clippers made teammate C.J. Wilcox dance in the middle of the room as part of his rookie hazing. In an unrelated note, three girls in high heels barely hanging onto their Red Bull/vodkas will be part of the Clips’ starting fve. … The Clippers’ two October appearances are just part of the basketball heat in town right now. Yahoo is flming a Web series, Sin City Saints, at the Orleans. The show stars Andrew Santino as a billionaire who brings a pro team here. Tom Arnold plays a casino host, and Malin Akerman, the least blue-and-naked member of Watchmen, is an attorney for the league’s commissioner. She was at SLS with her husband October 15. At least she’s here working. Matt Damon and Jennifer Lopez were at Marquee on October 18 for the Bruno Mars after-party. Mars sang “Locked Out of Heaven” and, with no trace of irony despite J-Lo being there, “Bubble Butt.”

How did Las Vegas exist before air conditioning?

@BenMaller Enough with this Peyton Manning love fest. Ryan Leaf had four TDs today in the MPFL— ”Montana Penitentiary Football League.”

@DougBenson Toby Keith’s I Love This Place has been downgraded to Toby Keith’s I’d Never Set Foot In That Place.

@UNLVGirl Vegas, where it’s that time of year when it’s the perfect temp outside but 50 degrees in any restaurant.

@JenKirkman “Oh, no. There might be a plague,” say 7 billion people whose planet can’t sustain them.

Share your Tweet! Add #V7.

ILLUSTRATION BY JON ESTRADA

October 23–29, 2014

VegasSeven.com

DID YOU KNOW that October 25

T H E

U L T I M A T E

G U I D E

T O

Life Is Beautiful 2014 Who to see (besides Kanye), what to eat (everything), where to park (for free) and how to kill time before

October 23–29, 2014

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Foo Fighters hit the stage—here’s your all-access pass to Downtown’s second annual festival

➜ Paul Janeway, lead

BAN D PREV IEW

Tycho

OPPOSITE PAGE PHOTO BY JOE TORRANCE

Scott Hansen draws on his artistic past to create a sound that’s all his own

➜ Sacramento post-rocker Scott Hansen, who records under the name Tycho, doesn’t consider himself an ambient musician—at least not anymore. Sure, his just-released fourth album, Awake, shares qualities with music that could be deemed ambient—for instance, stretches of introspective, synth-driven textures that evoke lonely desert highways. But Hansen isn’t deliberately aiming to become the 21st-century Tangerine Dream. Instead, he strives to create engaging music for the listener, channeling guitar and keyboard riffs until a song develops, as he did with standout track “Montana,” an anthemic, drum kit-bashing pop tune that serves as the album’s centerpiece. “For me, the songwriting process is organic, the way the end result emerges,” says Hansen, who will perform on the second day of Life Is Beautiful, joined by Zac Brown on bass and guitar, and Rory O’Conner on drums. “For a song like ‘Montana,’ the initial guitar melody was at a pretty fast tempo—for Tycho, at least—and then the rest of the song followed suit in terms of energy.” Hansen’s background—and full-time job until recently—was in graphic design. He certainly brings an artist’s pal-

ette and sense of design to song construction, and says there are unique aspects to keyboards and guitars that shape the process. He also employs a vintage 1970s-era analog synthesizer, which he uses to striking motifs. “I used the Minimoog [a “classic-rock” keyboard a la Rush’s “Tom Sawyer”] a lot on Awake,” he says. “That synth has a lot of guitar-like qualities in its tonal attack, so it becomes indistinguishable from a guitar in a lot of instances.” Hansen has been a classic-rock fan since he was a kid, and his two biggest contemporary infuences are Scottish IDM duo Boards of Canada and German indietronica artist Ulrich Schnauss. But the ambient tag sticks to Tycho mainly because, well, at one point Hansen often used the term to describe his own music. He doesn’t see it as living in that space, however. He spends time on the textures, no doubt a big part of what makes it all work. “At the end of the day, what I fnd fulfllment in is the melody and structure. The texture is a jumpingoff point, an inspirational color with which to paint pictures.” He also admits to frequently driving across the desert, to Las Vegas and back, for inspiration. “My experiences out there were the basis for a lot of what you hear on Awake.” – Jarret Keene

singer of soul-revival outfit St. Paul & the Broken Bones, recalls his first trip to Las Vegas. “I was little,” he says, laughing. “What blew me away were the slot machines in the airport. That is weird. Someone gets off the plane: ‘I gotta gamble—I gotta gamble right now!’” Almost two decades later, those same slot machines will greet Janeway when he lands in Sin City to play Life Is Beautiful. “This will be our first show in Nevada,” he says. It’s been a year of “firsts” for St. Paul & the Broken Bones, who this summer played their initial gigs in Germany, France and the Netherlands. Additionally, the Birmingham, Alabama, septet released their first full-length album in 2013. Half the City made the Billboard and iTunes charts, earning glowing reviews for a sound that’s tight as a silk stocking

was working as a parttime bank teller. … Now it’s playing shows and people wanting to meet you and take pictures with you.” St. Paul & the Broken Bones already have played a number of festivals this year, from Paris’ Rock en Seine to Tennessee’s Bonnaroo, even sharing bills with Life Is Beautiful headliners Kanye West and Outkast. “When you play a festival, someone might have heard of you or never heard of you at all,” Janeway says. “You get onstage and surprise people—it’s fun.” Another plus when playing festivals? Getting the chance to check out other acts. “I always look at the lineups in case I have free time,” Janeway says. However, this weekend, it’s not the other bands that have the frontman excited so much as the abundance of chefs and food stands available throughout Life Is Beautiful. “Goody, goody gumdrops! I can eat and then throw up onstage!” – Lissa Townsend Rodgers

St. Paul & the Broken Bones performs at 7:35 p.m. Sunday on the Western Stage.

Tycho performs at 5:45 p.m. Saturday on the Ambassador Stage.

For complete Life Is Beautiful coverage before, during and after the festival, visit VegasSeven.com/LIB2014

VegasSeven.com

Paul Janeway and his septet bring some Alabama soul to the Vegas lights

St. Paul & the Broken Bones

and solid as a concrete block, with rolling rhythms, gleaming horns and classic, gritty R&B vocalizing. Indeed, Janeway’s pipes are St. Paul & the Broken Bones’ trademark: No one expects convincing Otis Redding and Sam Cooke covers out of a guy who looks like Ralphie from A Christmas Story grew up to be an accountant. Actually, Janeway was on his way to a career in number-crunching until he decided to take one last swing at the brass ring two years ago, when he and bassist Jesse Phillips got together to record a few tracks. That turned into a band, which turned into the EP Greetings From St. Paul & the Broken Bones. The soulful disc and the band’s roof-shaking live shows, including appearances at SXSW, earned them local love, then industry buzz and, eventually, fans around the world. “I tell people all the time that it was our last-ditch effort,” Janeway says. “[For] me and Jesse, it was our last hurrah. I was unemployed and decided to go back to school. I was in the middle of getting my accounting degree and

October 23–29, 2014

BA N D PR E VI E W

Music in the Middle

For a truly complete festival experience, check out these six artists B Y

BAND PREV IEW

CINDI MOON REED

➜ You’ve already determined which mega headliners you must see under the Life Is Beautiful lights. You’ve also mapped out an early-afternoon plan to check out your local favorites. That leaves you with the meat of the festival—all those about-to-break newbies and dedicated career musicians. This middle class is what makes music festivals great; it’s where discoveries happen. Of course, with so many acts scattered over the three-day festival, making the correct choices isn’t easy. Ah, but that’s why we’re here. Ease your mind—and schedule—by following these recommendations.

Galantis

➜ There’s commercial-mainstream dance music, and then there’s dance music that, despite its commercial aims and mainstream appeal, steps outside critical naysaying. Galantis— a.k.a. Christian Karlsson and Linus Eklöw—achieve this by writing, recording and performing music that trades cynicism for open-heartedness. For instance, the track “Smile” is innocently upbeat, with a pulsing beat and fantastical melody that defes whatever bad mood might be brewing in your anxious brain. “Smile” is made better by its controversial, NSFW music video, which depicts lots of skin as bodies of all colors and sizes caress and smash into one another—but in a joyous, not prurient, way. “Unconditional love remains a solid ingredient in our music,” Karlsson says. “We just create music as we hear it. If people feel it like we feel it, then we celebrate along with them.” Fans have been celebrating with Galantis ever since the duo emerged from the EDM scene in 2012. The acclaim has been immediate, and it’s easy to hear why. The thumping, synth-fickering “The Heart That I’m Hearing,” for instance, is a product of Karlsson and Eklöw’s sonic experimentation with recorded human heartbeats. “We worked on the beat of that track for a long time,” Karlsson says. “We insisted on only using different types of heartbeats. One thing led to another, and ‘The Heart That I’m Hearing’ was the end result.” Indeed, Galantis are experts at mixing organic instrumentation with EDM. Another cut from their selftitled EP released in April, “Help,” begins with beautiful piano chords, followed by a piano interlude mid-song. “We don’t distinguish between genres,” Karlsson insists. “Linus and I are always blending analog and digital when we make music together. The piano is the third member of Galantis, so of course she’s in there making a statement every time.” – Jarret Keene

Galantis performs at 7:05 p.m. Sunday on the Huntridge Stage.

Indie folk artist and Vegas native Jenny Lewis performs Friday night.

The Native Daughter

The Smart Spectacle

The Fastest Fingers

The Rock ’n’ Rollers The English Invasion You were prob-

Singer-songwriter Jenny Lewis has been the darling of indie folk ever since her band Rilo Kiley debuted in the late 1990s. The former child actor recently released her third solo album, The Voyager, full of highly personal alt-pop introspection. We love her sound, her style and the fact that this L.A. beauty was born in Las Vegas to loungesinger parents. Jenny Lewis plays the Western Stage at 8:10 p.m. Friday.

It doesn’t even matter if you like their songs. You gotta watch neo-psychedelic rockers the Flaming Lips just to witness their weird and elaborate stage shows. These prolific Grammy winners have been playing around with music for more than 30 years, and their sound remains as innovative and bizarre as ever. The Flaming Lips play the Ambassador Stage at 11 p.m. Saturday.

With a sound of quick-tempo yearning that’s born of banjo, mandolin and fiddle, Minnesota’s Trampled by Turtles will make you want to return to the Appalachian past you never knew you had. Check out their latest release, Wild Animals, to hear what NPR’s Stephen Thompson describes as a “thoughtful, stately grower of a record.” Trampled by Turtles play the Western Stage at 5:55 p.m. Sunday.

ably planning on seeing Fitz & the Tantrums during the 5 p.m. October 25 slot. They’re a great band, but they also live in L.A. and play Vegas all the time. For a much rarer thrill, catch Southern rockers J. Roddy Walston & the Business. There’s precious little rock at this year’s festival, and these guys surely won’t disappoint. J. Roddy Walston & the Business play the Western Stage at 5 p.m. Saturday.

According to The Guardian, indie rockers Alt-J from Leeds, England, have found “success without the fame.” But after the September release of their second album, This Is All Yours, that final ingredient may follow. Rolling Stone describes the LP as an “ambling, entrancing listen—full of songs that blur weird folk and electronic zoinkiness, classical filigree and straightup rock.” Alt-J play the Ambassador Stage at 9:05 p.m. Saturday.

The Homecoming Las Vegas-spawned emo-savants Panic! At the Disco may live in L.A. now, but their 2013 album Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! has our city in its soul. Need proof? Check out the hometown homage “Vegas Lights.” The band has a tough festival slot (playing at the same time as Kanye West), so show your city pride by watching them. Or at least wander over when Kanye inevitably cuts his set short. Panic! At the Disco play the Ambassador Stage at 10:45 p.m. Friday.

JENNY LEWIS BY CHRISTIAN BERTRAND; GAL ANTIS BY HENRIK KORPI

October 23–29, 2014

VegasSeven.com

Swedish electro-pop duo strikes a chord by thinking outside the traditional EDM box

BANDING TOGETHER By Jason Scavone

In addition to working with all of the musical acts, you’re organizing the collaborative performance between The Beatles Love and the Las Vegas Philharmonic. What are preparations for that like?

A lot of it is marrying the two different organizations and making sure we’re getting all of their audio and tech people on the same page—working with Cirque and their props team [and] working with Giles Martin, who arranged the music. I need to make sure it fts in the schedule, and I’m working with our production team to link up with Cirque to make sure they have everything they need, from rigging points onstage— because we’re going to make people fy—to having load-in and props onstage. With Cirque, we’re pulling props from the theater and pulling them out to the festival grounds. But right after the performance, they have to go back to the theater in time for their show. … It’s by far the coolest performance project I’ve ever worked on.

Aside from that, which act are you most excited to see?

That’s like asking me, if I had children, to pick a favorite. I love Outkast. I grew up listening to Outkast. When we booked them, we were the last show on their tour. They’ve since added Voodoo [Fest in New Orleans] after us. To be the second-to-last show of theirs, if this is it and they never perform again, just to be able to have that moment, it’s just gonna be special. I can’t wait to see them. I’ve seen them twice this year, and I still want to see them [again]. How do you assign acts to stages and set times?

It really starts with the headliners and complementing from there. I work with Allen Scott at Another Planet Entertainment. He’s a genius. We work together and tinker with it. You work with tour schedules, too, and how things route. It’s like a puzzle. But you just want to complement the stage. It’s about setting a tone, an energy and a vibe. This year, local bands are playing the same stages as touring acts. What was the idea behind that?

I want these bands to be treated, not as locals, but as “a band from Vegas.” I wanted to give them the opportunity to perform on a bigger stage with regular touring acts. For them as artists, it’s better for their careers. It shows them, “You’ve worked hard, you put out great music, and this is just the beginning.” Being able

to see an act you’ve seen at a bar play for a crowd of thousands … there’s something about that that gives me chills. I know it means a lot to them, and it means a lot to us as a festival. Who is the most underrated act on the bill?

Tycho is gonna be awesome. They started as a project of one. Now they’re up to a three-piece. People might look at them and say “Instrumental? Why do I wanna see that?” But once you see a Tycho show, you’re hooked. They sound so friggin’ good right now. It’s a fun show, there are great visuals. If you’re not familiar, you’re gonna walk away from it going, “This is really cool.” Any tips for festivalgoers who want to plan ahead?

I like to select two to three acts I have to see each day. Once I get through that, I just let the festival take me where it goes. Catch a couple of songs here, catch a couple of songs there. We have a lot of up-and-coming bands that are starting to get bigger, and I hope people dig a little deeper and discover some new stuff.

LIKELY JAM:

Panic! At the Disco and Neon Trees LIKELY JAM: “Bennie and the Jets” ODDS: 7-to-2 PAIRING:

The Flaming Lips and OK Go “We’re Just Playing This Song So We Can Make a Weird Video” ODDS: 6-to-1 PAIRING:

LIKELY JAM:

TV on the Radio and Switchfoot We have no idea, except that it definitely will not be “Let the Devil In” ODDS: 8-to-1 PAIRING:

LIKELY JAM:

Matt & Kim and Fitz & The Tantrums and Panic! At the Disco and Holy Ghost! LIKELY JAM: “All the Punctuation” ODDS: 10-to-1 PAIRING:

Foo Fighters and Jenny Lewis “Viva Las Vegas” (Dead Kennedys version)/“Negative Creep” mashup* ODDS: 23-to-1 PAIRING:

LIKELY JAM:

Kanye West and Arctic Monkeys Yeah, right … Kanye don’t share the stage ODDS: 99-to-1 PAIRING:

LIKELY JAM:

Lionel Richie and Skrillex “Make Your Dad Spontaneously Rage-Combust” ODDS: 150-to-1 PAIRING:

LIKELY JAM:

When the festival is over, how will you know it was a success?

[Seeing] people with smiles on their faces. That’s it. We work all year to put together an event for people to have the weekend of [their] lives. For me, that is the ultimate goal. If someone [leaves] beaming, we’ve done our part.

*This isn’t so much a satiric projection as it is putting the idea out in the universe, The Secret-style, in hopes it happens.

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CRAIG NYMAN BY ERIK K ABIK; LIONEL RICHIE/SKRILLEX ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO

➜ Think it’s diffcult deciding which festival acts to catch? Try being Craig Nyman. As the head of music and live performances for Life Is Beautiful, Nyman has the daunting task of curating the lineup. In between juggling tour schedules, set times and Cirque du Soleil props, Nyman sat down with us to discuss what he’s excited to see, as well as offer advice for festivalgoers.

The Roots and Outkast “Bombs Over (an incredibly funky) Baghdad” ODDS: 1-to-2 PAIRING:

Life Is Beautiful music curator Craig Nyman on the undeniable draw of Outkast, showing love to local bands and the little-known act you must not miss B Y C A M I L L E C A N N O N

October 23–29, 2014

The Man Behind the Music

➜ One of the great joys of music festivals is the chance to see a Super Friends-style team-up of bands dropping in on each other’s sets. I know this from experience: I once saw Sully from Godsmack and Wayne from Static-X do backup vocals on “This Love” with Pantera at Ozzfest. (Please, ladies. Stop throwing all those panties. I was just a witness.) Will we get a taste of collaborative greatness at Life Is Beautiful? Let’s see what the oddsmakers are saying:

LIB for the Aging Hipster

A curated guide for those who find themselves on the south side of life FOOD IS BEAUTIFUL How to make the most of the festival’s culinary offerings ➜ Among the things that sets Life Is Beautiful apart from other music festivals is its culinary program. No fewer than two dozen chefs from Las Vegas and across the country will participate. Here’s some advice to help keep you nourished—because, you know, a festivalgoer can’t survive on a liquid diet alone!

➜ Spoiler alert: I’m 47. If I want to like a band these days, it takes effort, because most new music sounds old to me. And it’s gone far beyond “Interpol sounds like Joy Division, brah,” because there are bands coming up now that sound like fucking Interpol. For a group to break through that ceiling and win my affections, they have to put a new twist on those old sounds … or be really, really good. Happily, Life Is Beautiful has some of those kinds of bands in its lineup. ¶ Moving past the headliners, to whom I’ll probably only devote a few minutes apiece (perhaps more for Foo Fighters and Outkast, and I might linger on Kanye if/when he produces a train wreck), there’s actually a lot of great music for geezers like me to enjoy. For starters, I’m really digging on the terrifc blue-eyed soul of St. Paul & the Broken Bones; I could see them on a bill with Fitz & the Tantrums and go home happy. (Sadly, they’re playing on different days.) Like so many of us, I’m thrilled to see the brilliant Jenny Lewis coming home; she’s one of the best singer-songwriters working today. I fat-out love the bright folk-tronica of Ásgeir, the off-kilter pop of Tune-Yards and the moody, atmospheric synth-rock of Ms Mr and Phantogram. ¶ Finally, I can say, in all truthfulness, that I’ve never in my life heard anything as weird and wonderful as TV on the Radio. Well, OK, so their singer sounds a little bit like Peter Gabriel. But that just makes me feel young again. – Geoff Carter

SPRING FOR “GRILLS AND GUITARS”

This pre-festival event will set you back $175 on top of your regular ticket price. But it’s worth it, as you’ll get to enjoy all the food you can eat, unlimited alcohol and music by Vintage Trouble, Sleeper Agent and the All-Togethers. It’s also the time when all of the chefs get to socialize with each other … and you! KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN

Last year, there was only one culinary village waaaaaay on the outskirts of the festival grounds. Thankfully, organizers learned from their mistake. This time four culinary villages will be scattered throughout. So as you wander from stage to stage, check in at each village to see if your favorite chef is cooking. SEE HOW IT’S DONE

The “Chefs Onstage” cooking demo in Container Park allows you to not only taste their creations, but also to learn something that you might be able to replicate back in your own kitchen.

October 23–29, 2014

VegasSeven.com

HELP SAVE THE PLANET WITH JOSÉ ANDRÉS

One of the most innovative chefs in the world, Andrés will be reducing his carbon footprint by cooking with 30 to 40 solar kitchens at Life Is Beautiful—the same kitchens he brought to the people of Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. DRINK THE GOOD STUFF

If you’re eating great food, why settle for a cheap beer to wash it down? The team at Wirtz Beverage has crafted 57 cocktails that will be offered throughout the festival. There will also be 25 wines and 25 specialty beers available. Because, you know, a festivalgoer can’t live on food alone … – Al Mancini

ON THE DECKS Top electronic acts to see

➜ You know it’s a DJ world, and we’re just living in it. So of course electronic music will have a significant presence at Life Is Beautiful. The electronic act garnering the most buzz is Swedish production duo Galantis. Comprised of Linus Eklöw (a.k.a. Style of Eye) and Christian Karlsson of Miike Snow, the pair made their live debut in April at Coachella.

Already, their music has gotten the attention of such big names as Kaskade and Steve Angello, who’ve been incorporating Galantis’ anthemic pop bangers into their own festival sets. Brooklyn-based two-piece Holy Ghost! combines leather jacket rockand-roll swagger with disco rhythm, employing guitars, drums and heavy synth in their live shows. Expect them to transform the stage into the best basement dance party you never attended. Australian rising star M4sonic is

trained in classical piano, but his claim to fame is remixing and creating dance hits on a launchpad. Yes, he’s pushing buttons onstage, but his agility and creativity are a sight to see, as is the pulsating visual display behind him. Lastly, even though Skrillex is no stranger to Las Vegas, the audio and visual production value he’ll bring to the festival is far beyond anything he can cram into a nightclub. This is the first time his famous spaceship set will land in Las Vegas. – Camille Cannon

HOLY GHOST! BY HARRY MCNALLY

Holy Ghost! rocks the Downtown Stage at 3:40 p.m. Friday.

Waiting on the Foos What’s a rock fan to do in the hours before Foo Fighters hit the stage?

‘LIFE IS’ IMPRESSIVE This year’s Western Hotel art show answers the big questions in a big way

Live, from Las Vegas … Local acts once again get their chance to shine— only this time under a brighter spotlight

➜ Local musicians—just like

local artists and chefs—had a significant presence at last year’s Life Is Beautiful. But during that inaugural weekend, the Las Vegasbased acts were relegated to a locals-only stage. Although that still provided solid exposure to the crowds, it also tagged them as “small time.” This year, that changes, as the hometown acts will be interspersed on the main stages, performing right alongside national and international touring acts. “I think it will be a step up,” says Vegas-bred retro pop singer Sabriel, who will be making her second Life Is Beautiful appearance. “When you play on a local stage, you’re still counted as a local artist, and everyone knows it. This will bring more opportunities for people to

take the local artists seriously.” Sabriel will be joined by a host of other returning Vegas acts, including hip-hop artist Ekoh and indie rockers Rusty Maples and American Cream. Additionally, the bill also includes such Life Is Beautiful first-timers as rapper Dizzy Wright and jam band Moksha. (Though no longer strictly “local,” we can’t forget Vegas-spawned Panic! At the Disco.) And although it might not be what first comes to mind when one thinks “local band,” the Las Vegas Philharmonic will also take to Life Is Beautiful’s Downtown Stage on Sunday. The Philharmonic will perform the music of the Fab Four, as Cirque du Soleil presents a truncated version of its long-running, fan-favorite show The Beatles Love. – Pj Perez

I F O N LY K H A L E E S I H A D A W I F I S I G N A L …

The last time a linguist was a hot commodity was when JRR Tolkien knocked out The Hobbit. That was 77 years ago, or roughly the amount of time it would take to watch Peter Jackson’s entire adaptation. David J. Peterson, who’s part of the Life Is Beautiful Learning Series, hit pop culture gin when his work on turning Valyrian and Dothraki into living languages on Game of Thrones made him something of a hot commodity. Learning Klingon is for tired old nerds. Learning Dothraki is for the hip kids—which is why Peterson helped publisher Random House put together the Dothraki Companion app. Currently, it’s only available for iPhone users. Because a Dothraki wedPeterson will speak from 2-3:15 p.m. ding with three Android phones is considered a dull affair. – Jason Scavone Saturday at the Western Hotel.

Catch local act Sabriel at 4:10 p.m. Sunday on the Huntridge Stage.

That’s the reaction Patrick Duffy was gunning for as he curated the gallery art that will be featured in the Western Hotel at Life Is Beautiful. Duffy, the president of the Las Vegas Art Museum, says the works selected for the exhibit are geared toward a dramatic emotional impact, universally accessible ideas and an ability to inject meaning back into the familiar phrase Life Is Beautiful. New York artist Audrey Barcio contemplates “Life Is …” with an installation of infinite reflections. An arrangement of mirrors sends visitor reflections rippling into infinity, and a snapped selfie within the installation will continue the reverberation on the Internet. The work of local artist Miguel Rodriguez comments on the challenges we face in life and the feeling of relief that comes over us after surviving a difficult ordeal. The artist compares that feeling of relief to the arrival of rain that brings an end to a long drought. Raindrops, curiously shaped like walruses, cascade down in sheets of pixelated rain. Both JK Russ and Linda Alterwitz craft works looking to nature for solace and sanctuary. Images of nature frequently grace medical rooms, creating a window of escape for patients. Alterwitz’s installation shines light through translucent medical scans, sending diagrams flickering across large-scale photographs of desert vistas. Guests pause in Russ’ installation to reflect on nature by collaging natural elements such as cactus flowers, rocks, clouds and brief written messages onto a wall that will be, by the end of the festival, a massive collage created by festival participants. Aaron Sheppard responds to the question “Life Is …?” with sumptuous Victorian decadence, sensual figures, gilded edges and a chaise lounge. His work urges indulgence in passion and partaking in dessert. With the variety of artistic responses in place, the Western Hotel will offer festivalgoers contemplative moments, visual pleasures and perhaps, as Duffy hopes, visitors will leave with “something planted in the back of their memory, something to change [their] perception of ‘Life Is …’” – Jenessa Kenway

VegasSeven.com

➜ “An emotional wow.”

October 23–29, 2014

➜ I know how you feel, buddy. You’re ready to rock out with Foo Fighters. Just one problem: They don’t go on until Sunday night, leaving several hours of festival time to kill. And, let’s face it: You either have no damn clue who the rest of these acts are—you wouldn’t know A-Trak from an 8-track—or no damn interest in seeing them. Well, just stick with me, and I’ll make sure you don’t accidently end up at some lame DJ set. First, let’s not forget that we’re talking about Sunday. That means NFL games will be played damn near till Dave Grohl belts out his frst note. I surely won’t be the only one Downtown who will be interested in this. Last year, El Cortez had a TV outside showing games. Unfortunately, the hotel-casino is now outside the festival footprint, so hopefully someone is smart enough to plug in at least one fat screen somewhere within the festival grounds, perhaps by the old Western Hotel. Regardless, football is on the agenda. As for the bands scheduled to take the stage before Foo Fighters, don’t expect to fnd much that falls into the rock category. The closest you’re going to get is Arctic Monkeys, who are decent enough, but no one is mistaking them for, say, Queens of the Stone Age. I am interested in hearing indie super duo Broken Bells fush out their dark, swirling psych-pop with a live band; their set has the potential to be one of the highlights of the entire weekend. And while I usually don’t go out of my way to see electro-pop acts, Little Dragon singer Yukimi Nagano’s exciting stage presence requires my attendance. As for where you won’t fnd me Sunday, that would be anyplace I might hear Skrillex. Unless he happens to be a football fan. – Sean DeFrank

Oppressed Revolutionary Showdown: PUSSY RIOT

vs.

KANYE WEST

➜ Two of Life Is Beautiful’s marquee names are known for far more than their music. Kanye West has called himself “the next Nelson Mandela” and says he is “on a track to do something even bigger” than the legendary civil rights leader. Meanwhile, Pussy Riot, who will appear at LIB as part of the Learning Series, has always used their music to support their political message. “The shortcomings of consumer society do disturb us, but we’re not looking to destroy consumer society,” Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has said. “Freedom is at the core of our ideology.” ¶ So who really wants a revolution? You decide … – Lissa Townsend Rodgers

Current president, former prime minister and general maximum leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Putin has said of Pussy Riot: "We have red lines beyond which starts the destruction of the moral foundations of our society. If people cross this line, they should be [held] responsible in line with the law." In 2012, Pussy Riot stages a guerilla performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, performing their “Punk Prayer” when services are not in session. Pussy Riot members Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina are sentenced to two years in Russian prison camps, which are known for freezing temperatures, inedible food, unsanitary conditions and forced labor.

October 23–29, 2014

VegasSeven.com

Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina are denied the usual delayed sentences given to mothers of young children in Russia. Police even threaten to place Aloykhina’s son in an orphanage. During their two years in prison camp, they rarely see their kids.

In prison, Tolokonnikova is forced to sew more than 300 police uniforms for 17 hours a day. Those who do not meet production quotas are reportedly beaten and starved. She goes on a hunger strike and is eventually hospitalized for exhaustion. While attempting to perform during this year’s Sochi Olympics, members of Pussy Riot are whipped, beaten and tear-gassed by Cossacks. They are then detained by police for 10 hours. A fan is arrested at a talk Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina are giving at Harvard in 2014. The fan had been banned from campus for protesting Putin during a classical music concert. Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and a few dozen fans go to the police station and spend a night in jail in a show of support.

Pussy Riot speaks as part of the Learning Series at 4 p.m. Friday at the Western Hotel.

NECESSARY DISGUISE

ARCHENEMY

LEGAL REPERCUSSIONS

CHILDREN’S ISSUES

THE T YRANNY OF FASHION

UNAPPRECIATED PERFORMANCES

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

Wears a series of bejeweled, custom-made Maison Martin Margiela facemasks. The masks are adapted from pieces featured in the couture house’s fashion shows. International luxury design house Louis Vuitton. According to Kanye, when he asked to meet with the head of the fashion house, the response was, “Why should we meet with you?” Kanye has since made anti-Vuitton tirades a feature of his concerts (while still carrying a full set of LV-logoed luggage). To date, no one at Louis Vuitton has made any public comment about Kanye. In 2013, Kanye gets in a scuffle with paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport. He’s sentenced to anger-management classes and community service, and ordered to replace damaged camera equipment. To fulfill his community service, Kanye is teaching at L.A. Trade Technical College—“teaching,” as in giving rambling two-hour lectures on Tupac, Steve Jobs and the Illuminati. Baby North accompanies her parents to tapings of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show and attends couture runway shows dressed in transparent black lace Givenchy outfits that match mommy’s. Says Kanye: “We’re going to fight to raise the respect level for celebrities so that my daughter can live a more normal life.” In 2012, Kanye releases his own fashion line to the world’s tepid response. Of course, he took to the airwaves to berate other designers for not taking him seriously. Apparently, the fact that fur failed to sell in a spring-summer collection was because of haters, not heat. Playing to 15,000 fans in a Brooklyn arena, Kanye goes into a lengthy monologue lamenting that “nobody that runs Disney comes and sees this tour” or gives him “one little, little, little chance.”

At a 2014 concert in Australia, Kanye announces that he will not continue playing until everyone stands up. Two who don’t comply with the request are required to prove their inability to stand via prosthetic limb and wheelchair.

Kanye West plays at 10:35 p.m. Friday on the Downtown Stage.

K ANYE WEST BY CARL BJORKLUND

Wear homemade knit balaclavas that encourage solidarity and help to conceal their identify from repressive and vindictive government.

Scenes from the inaugural Life Is Beautiful PHOTOS BY JOE TORRANCE

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| October 23â&#x20AC;&#x201C;29, 2014

Hearts Beat as One

2014 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL SITE MAP Downtown Stage Culinary Village

6TH ST.

ST E WA R T AV E .

Huntridge Stage

The Court of Miracles

Culinary Village

Ambassador Stage

8TH ST.

7TH ST.

ENTRY

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Culinary Village

Craft Beer

Container Park

Box Office

October 23â&#x20AC;&#x201C;29, 2014

The Western

9TH ST.

FREMONT ST.

Culinary Village

10TH ST.

O G D E N AV E .

The Western Stage

C A R S O N AV E .

Bike Parking

Chefs on Stage

Restrooms Water stations Grass areas

PHOTO BY AMIT DADL ANEY

PARK IT HERE

➜ Unless you live somewhere near the heart of Downtown— or have rectifed that whole “man can’t fy” thing—you’re going to need a place to park your wheels this weekend. Now, you could shell out $40 per day for a park-and-ride pass from the World Market Center. Or you could fade Downtown traffc altogether (not unreasonable) and spend that same $40 for shuttle service from the Linq valet. Or … OR … you could do the sensible thing and park on the damn street. Last year, on the opening Saturday of the festival, you could’ve found ample parking around Seventh Street and Clark Avenue. It

was a short walk on a gorgeous day. There are plenty of streets around the footprint. Don’t be a sucker: park there. Or do be a sucker and free up some street parking for the rest of us. In fact, forget everything we just said. – Jason Scavone KEEP YOUR COOL

➜ Summer is over, but we’re not out of the furnace yet. While the average daytime temperatures for this part of October range from the high 70s to the mid 80s, when you factor in all the asphalt and cement and what have you, it’s not unthinkable that Life Is Beautiful could be, well, hot. Thankfully, festival organizers have planned for that

possibility. Nine free water dispensers will be placed throughout the festival grounds, and there will be shaded, grassy areas on Seventh Street between Ogden and Stewart, as well as near the Ambassador and Huntridge stages. All that freshlaid sod will probably be trampled dead long before the festival ends, but it’ll be out there, sucking up the sun that would otherwise have made you sweat. – Geoff Carter AT YOUR SERVICE

➜ Did you try sending a text message or posting to Instagram at last year’s Life Is Beautiful? The operative word is “try.” Cell service was so bad at the inaugural fes-

ESCAPE THE MADNESS

➜ Life Is Beautiful has music, food, art, inspirational speakers, sensory overload … and exit signs. Whether your goal is a quick break or complete avoidance of the festival, here’s how and where to escape: If you need to fuel up before the show but still want to have money left for merch, hit up a happy hour. The Chicago Brewing Company

scene? Gramatik’s reimagining and remixing of blues, jazz, soul and swing into beat-heavy, head-bobbing jams will be at Brooklyn Bowl on October 25, along with ProbCause’s slowrolling rap. Also that night, the Life Is Shit festival returns to the Dive Bar, with a lineup comprised of local bands, as well as visiting acts from Tacoma to Tucson. They’ll also host a “My Car Is Shit” car show, because even a 1998 Honda with duct-tape upholstery deserves some love. Tired of those young whippersnappers with their skinny jeans and their tiny phones? Head down Fremont Street to Du-Par’s in the Golden Gate for pie—doesn’t coconut custard or chocolate meringue seem like a more appetizing decision than seeing DJ Mustard?—then hit the bingo room at the Plaza. They may not have a fameshooting praying mantis, but they do have glitter stampers and free coffee. – Lissa Townsend Rodgers

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How to access parking, water, cell service ... and the exit gates

in the Four Queens and the Triple 7 Brewery at Main Street Station offer discounted drinks and appetizers during their happy hours, both of which run 3-6 p.m., while the Art Bar in Downtown Grand will knock 50 percent off your booze and bites from 5-7 p.m. For retro Vegas fans, El Cortez—which was part of the LIB blueprint in 2013 but not so this year—has a 24-hour coffee shop, several bars and an Elvis impersonator. On Fridays, its outdoor wine bar, the Vineyard, serves vino and charcuterie. Think your rendition of “Hello” is better than Lionel Richie’s? Prove it at El Cortez’s weekend karaoke. Also, the Bunkhouse has food and drink, as well as some slightly more sophisticated entertainment. Grammy-winning chanteuse and comedian Lady Rizo will perform her “caburlesque” show October 25-26, Want to dig some sounds in a smaller

LIB Survival Guide

tival that I had to walk a mile to the Arts District for any reception. Luckily, things should be different this year— depending on your cell provider. A festival spokeswoman says Verizon is bringing in mobile units near the grounds to help with connectivity, and AT&T has also been notifed of the problem. What about Sprint and T-Mobile users? Sorry, guess you’ll have to tweet that selfe from the corner of Fourth and Hoover. – Nicole Ely

October 23–29, 2014

NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and the Chainsmokers explain our #SELFIE obsession

A Meeting Between Strangers Long-distance collaborator RAC debuts his new live show at Life Is Beautiful By Kat Boehrer

Do you ever think about going back to primarily using traditional instruments? I go through phases. I get sick of one thing and then move on to another. With a live show, we have a full band and it’s kind of traditional in that sense—it’s like a rock band. With recording, I’ve been getting into using acoustic instruments, whether that be guitars or other kinds of strings. I feel like music is all the same thing, you just use different tools to reach a different result.

October 23–29, 2014

PHOTO BY NICK WALKER

You have a background in piano, guitar and traditional instruments. What is it about creating music electronically that converted you? Electronic music was really kind of an afterthought. I grew up playing in bands. That’s how I learned how to write and record. I just kind of did what I was comfortable with. Over time, your sound changes and morphs. There’s not a whole lot of thought behind it; it’s more just out of convenience and just because I like it.

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REMIX ARTIST COLLECTIVE —better known as RAC—is the curious and somewhat misleading name for the solo project of André Allen Anjos. The Portland, Oregon-based musician initially gained notoriety for his remixes of hit songs by Phoenix, U2 and Foster the People, among others. RAC once formally listed other band members, but Anjos has now taken on the name and the lead as his lone endeavor—hence the Collective confusion. Anjos is still frequently accompanied in his accomplishments, however. For his debut album, Anjos enlisted more than a dozen respected artists such as Tegan and Sara, Matthew Koma and Tokyo Police Club as guests. But here’s the kicker: He’s never met most of his collaborators in real life. But you can see him perform live at 9:45 p.m. October 24 on the Huntridge Stage at Life Is Beautiful.

NIGHTLIFE 34

What can we expect from your performance at Life Is Beautiful? More recently—well, literally last week—we started rehearsing with live vocals. Since my music [features different vocalists on each track] we just decided to get, like, three people to sing [them all] live. That was something that was lacking in our previous performances. So [Life Is Beautiful] is actually the frst time we get to do it in a festival setting. I’m pretty excited. What are the major differences between playing at a festival and playing a regular concert? At a festival, probably—well hopefully—there are people there who

“FESTIVALS ARE A LITTLE CRAZY— KIND OF A WHIRLWIND. YOU JUST GET IN THERE, DO YOUR BEST AND GET OUT. IT KEEPS YOU ON YOUR TOES.” want to see you. But you probably get a lot of people who are just passing or just curious, and you have to win them over. With a concert venue, you’re assuming that everybody who paid to be there wants to be there. When you do a concert, you have eight hours to set up. At a festival, you have 20 minutes, and you just hope that everything works. Festivals are a little crazy—kind of a whirlwind. You just get in there, do your best and get out. It keeps you on your toes.

I understand you executed your frst album in an interesting way. With the exception of my wife— who’s [also featured] on the album—I did pretty much everything over the Internet. That’s sort of what the title is about. It’s called Strangers, and most of the people [on the album] I don’t know and still to this day have not met. I’m assuming you used Skype a lot? No, we didn’t even do that. It was all over email. We’ve obviously spoken

quite a bit; when you’re working on music it’s very collaborative. But there wasn’t that in-person thing. Your upcoming tour schedule is packed. How do you deal with traveling so much? We’re like 12 people shoved in a bus, and I’m sure by the end of it we’ll be kind of tired of each other. But you know—that’s touring. We’re all really good friends. What’s the best part of touring? I’ve been DJing for fve years straight; I haven’t really taken a break. Every weekend you’re out. It’s nice to be home during the week, but there’s always a sense that you’re in between places. Sometimes it’s hard to get work done. But then again, you get to travel the world and be a DJ! So I can’t really complain. It’s great. I go nuts with all the airline points. I’m big on that. Everybody has their favorite—I’m a United guy.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL DWYER

October 23–29, 2014

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What are your performances like? We’ve gone through a number of changes. For the past fve years or so, I’ve been DJing. So that’s one kind of performance. Just recently, about a year ago, we switched over to the live band thing.

NIGHTLIFE

Camille Cannon

will be “Jealous.” (In SLS, 10 p.m., SLSLasVegas.com.)

SUN 26

MON 27 Keep it classy when hiphop producer Jermaine Dupri headlines XS. Last month, it was reported that Dupri’s friends and frequent collaborators Jagged Edge were thrown out of Dupri’s 42nd birthday bash … for refusing to remove their baseball caps. (In Encore, 10:30 p.m., XSLasVegas.com.)

TUE 28

The Weeknd.

October 23–29, 2014

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THU 23

The sound at Brooklyn Bowl is great, but it’s gonna be earth-shattering during the Safe in Sound Festival. Led by dubstep producer Flux Pavilion and drum and bass collaborative Destroid, the touring show boasts audio enhancements from Canadian party-starters PK Sound. Get there early for sets by Terravita and local duo Caked Up. (At the Linq, 7 p.m., Vegas.BrooklynBowl.com.)

FRI 24 Life Is Beautiful starts today, as do the peripheral parties! Exhibit A: Kim Kardashian West celebrates her Oct. 21 birthday a couple of days late at Tao. Is it safe to assume her

husband and Life Is Beautiful headliner Kanye will be there? Yeah, probably. (In the Venetian, 10 p.m., TaoLasVegas. com.) Speaking of Yeezy, if you watched his performance, you missed Las Vegas’ own Panic! At the Disco, who were cursed with an overlapping time slot. But cry not, Panic! fans! We’re suspicious that frontman Brendon Urie might turn up at Surrender with Dillon Francis. Francis just so happened to release his collaboration with Urie, “Love in the Middle of a Firefght,” last week. (In Encore, 10:30 p.m., SurrenderNightclub. com.) Looking for something different? Franky Perez and the Dirty kick off three nights of Later! Louder beneft parties for Keep Memory Alive at Backstage Bar & Billiards. The booze

and music marathon includes performances from Warren G on Oct. 25 and Everclear on Oct. 26. (601 Fremont St., 11 p.m., LaterLouder.com.)

SAT 25 Venture off the Life Is Beautiful festival grounds to fnd a mini Burning Man in the Arts District. Playa Ween II, presented by burner camp Rootist Lounge, promises hookah, psychics, DJs and live performances that’ll make the roof of the Arts Factory feel like Black Rock City. (107 E. Charleston Blvd., 10 p.m., visit Rootist Lounge on Facebook. com.) Wanna stick to the Strip? Former tween heartthrob Joe Jonas performs at Sayers Club. We can’t help but wonder if little brother Nick

If you feel someone getting eerily close to you at Hyde, it’s probably not your run-of-themill creeper. Characters from the haunted attraction Fright

Caked Up.

Joe Jonas.

Dome will be on hand to offer scares and giveaways as the venue will be fully decorated for Halloween. DJ Konfikt provides the tunes. (In Bellagio, 10 p.m., HydeBellgio.com.)

WED 29 We’re sad to say the fall season of Wednesdays Downtown is coming to an end. Get to the Fremont East Entertainment District for the fnal street fair with all the usual fun: food trucks, painting classes, Downtown Dirty Barfght fnals (9:30 p.m.) and silent disco (10:30 p.m.), plus surprise entertainment (6 p.m., DTLV.com.) Vanguard Lounge hosts the Rapture Halloween Party with DJs Duran, Soulkutz, Bad Anti and Jim Green (516 Fremont St., 10 p.m., VanguardLV.com.) while Beauty Bar boasts a Sin City Massacre with music, live art and a $200 costume contest. (517 Fremont St., 10 p.m., TheBeautyBar.com.)

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JON ESTRADA, WEEKND PHOTO BY AL POWERS OF POWERS IMAGERY

We’re two episodes into Season 5 of AMC’s zombie thriller The Walking Dead. That means its time again for Watch the Dead viewing parties at zombiethemed bar The End. The fun starts at 7 p.m. with drink specials, food and costume contests before showtime at 9:30 p.m. (4821 Spring Mountain Rd., Facebook.com/TheEndVegas.) After playing Life Is Beautiful on Friday, R&B crooner The Weeknd commands the main room at Hakkasan with support from DJ Jesse Marco. (In MGM Grand, 10:30 p.m., HakkasanLV.com.)

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NIGHTLIFE

The Chainsmokers Blow Through Vegas But frst, let’s all take a #SELFIE

ANDREW “DREW” TAGGART was introduced to Alex Pall by an intern working for their management company, and they say their collaboration was like “love at frst sight.” Drew moved from Maine to New York a day later, and the rest is music history. Their breakout hit “#SELFIE” was one of the top fve most viewed music videos this year, making the duo better known as the Chainsmokers a household name. We spoke with Taggart and Pall about their rise and what’s to come before the duo plays at Hakkasan on November 2 and 23. You guys came out of the gate with a lot of content—that’s pretty rare for a new artist. Taggart: We wanted to put out a lot of content; that’s really important when you’re frst starting out. But if you’re a no-name artist, and you’re looking for top lines [melody and lyrics], you’re going to get some of the

worst fucking songs you’ve ever heard in your life. We avoided that by hitting up indie artists that weren’t getting remixed by anybody, and we started remixing their songs. And then “#SELFIE” came along. Taggart: That was just a funny idea we had. We recorded the vocals, and it just got really big. Pall: We thought it was hysterical, but when we frst played it for people they didn’t think it was so funny. I mean there were probably four or fve people we trust whom we sent it to who were like, “Eh.” We initially put it out for free, and it just really took off. What’s the story behind your new, not-so-free single, “Kanye”? Taggart: It’s the opposite of free. We had a group of core fans, before we put out “#SELFIE,” who grew into this massive mainstream audience. We felt that “Kanye” was a real song,

it’s a great song. It kind of bridges the gap between the people whom we pulled in with “#SELFIE” and our core audience. Pall: We thought it was really catchy. As we thought about it more, about the message, it resonated with us. It’s about what he represents—he’s obviously a polarizing fgure. After “#SELFIE,” we are in this very interesting place socially, culturally and musically. It’s a great bridge for us. What does Kanye think of it? Taggart: We have heard that he likes it. But that’s hearsay until we hear it from the horse’s mouth, and we’re not going to put words in his mouth. We haven’t gotten a cease and desist yet. But it’s not about characterizing him. We didn’t do it to make fun of him. We’re not using his likeness to promote the song. It’s just about the idealism of what he represents as a person.

What is satire’s role in pop culture? Taggart: Obviously we wrote a song about girls that we see in New York City all the time, and every girl seems to know a girl like [the “#SELFIE” girl]. Pall: Satire is a great way to communicate different messages. We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We’re kind of self-deprecating. It’s a fun way to get certain messages across. It’s a hard thing to pull off, and it’s also an easy thing to be misinterpreted. I don’t want to get into journalism and books and literature, but some of the best books that were meant to be satires were misunderstood at the time. Do your girlfriends identify with “#SELFIE?” Pall: I think everyone does. I mean, even dudes identify with pieces of it: “What should I make my caption?” Every time you look at Instagram, that comes to your mind.

PHOTO BY JOE TORRANCE/POWERS IMAGERY

October 23–29, 2014

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PARTIES

MALIBU’S BEST SUMMER EVER WITH ONE REPUBLIC

October 23–29, 2014

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Mandalay Bay Beach

See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com

Hakkasan Group has announced the name of its next project, a reinvention of the former Pure Nightclub space in Caesars Palace. Designed by the Rockwell Group, Omnia (Latin for “all things” or “everything“) will be an “opulent, classic design of the physical space with state-of-the-art, modern technology,” according to a recent Hakkasan Group news release. “Omnia will be a completely different experience from Hakkasan, as our aim has always been to ensure that our guests will see both nightclubs as a do-not-miss activity when they’re in Las Vegas,” says Hakkasan Group President Nick McCabe in an exclusive interview with Vegas Seven. “The new nightclub is not about eclipsing Hakkasan, it’s about satisfying our guests’ desire for a second Hakkasan Group nightlife experience during their stays in Vegas.” Rockwell Group is known for creating stunning design elements. The company is responsible for the 81st and 82nd annual Academy Awards, the Nobu Tower at Caesars Palace, New York’s trendy NeueHouse and many features in the Cosmopolitan, including Chandelier Bar. Just as Victor Drai bested his spinning disco chandelier at XS with a suped-up globe at his new rooftop spot at the Cromwell, we look forward to seeing what manner of signature features—as well as the talent roster—that will differentiate Omnia from Hakkasan Nightclub’s DJ temple. To that point, McCabe adds, “We’re constantly challenging ourselves to find new ways to impress our guests with all of our hospitality venues, and there are some design elements in Omnia that will undoubtedly be ‘wow’ moments, married with the level of luxurious finishes that Hakkasan Group is known for.” The party starts in spring. – David Morris

PHOTOS BY DENISE TRUSCELLO/GETTY IMAGES

EVERYTHING CHANGES: PURE BECOMES OMNIA

NIGHTLIFE

PARTIES

SAYERS CLUB SLS

[ UPCOMING ]

See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com

PHOTOS BY TOBY ACUNA AND JOSH METZ

October 23–29, 2014

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Oct. 23 Battle Thursdays Oct. 24 Sayers Sessions Oct. 25 Music by Joe Jonas

NIGHTLIFE

PARTIES

ARTISAN

1501 W. Sahara Ave. [ UPCOMING ]

See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com

PHOTOS BY TEDDY FUJIMOTO

October 23–29, 2014

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Oct. 23 Circus Freaks Oct. 24 Night of 1000 Corpses Oct. 25 Day of the Dead

DINING

“Am I really playing Russian roulette with my stomach if I grab a meal at a location with a ‘B’ hanging on the wall?” {PAGE 68}

Restaurant reviews, news and a cocktail refreshing enough to take on Life Is Beautiful

New Chefs on the Beautiful Blocks First-time festival chefs prepare to feed the masses By Al Mancini

ILLUSTRATION BY JON ESTRADA

October 23–29, 2014

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From left: Chefs Brian Massie, Duff Goldman and José Andrés.

[ A SMALL BITE ]

PATIO POTENTIAL: VERANDA GETS A NEW ’DO Verandah restaurant in the Four

Seasons Las Vegas (702-632-5121, FourSeasons.com/LasVegas) has dropped the “h,” and is now Veranda Cucina Italiana. Along with the name change, the restaurant is undergoing a $1 million renovation, which debuted September 20. The new space designed by Engstrom Design Group will resemble a trattoria, making use of natural light from the neighboring terrace and surrounding gardens to enhance an earth-toned color palette, as well as leather bar stools and wood finishes. Chef Antonio Minichiello will continue to serve Italian specialties with a reimagined (and larger) menu of pastas and wood-fired-oven entrées. There’s even a communal table that seats eight. Veranda is perhaps best known for its namesake patio as well as its weekend PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA

breakfast buffet, which also features a doughnut machine. – Jessie O’Brien

Get the latest on local restaurant openings and closings, interviews with top chefs, cocktail recipes, menu previews and more in our weekly “Sips and Bites” newsletter. Subscribe at VegasSeven.com/SipsAndBites.

[ AL A CARTE ]

FLAY’S MESA TURNS 10, HARRINGTON DECAMPS AND COUGHLIN PREPS BOCHO Bobby Flay was in town October 14 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Mesa Grill in Caesars Palace. The celebrity chef manned the kitchen himself, providing invited guests with a four-course meal of pumpkin soup, lobster-and-corn tamale, fire-roasted venison chop and chocolate coconut bread pudding. Since the recent closing of the original Mesa Grill in New York City, Flay says, “Mesa Grill Las Vegas is really the headquarters for the cuisine that’s so dear to me.” Looking back on his decade at Caesars Palace, he told diners, “I think Mesa Grill has survived is because we were constantly evolving the concept.” Meanwhile, chef Todd Harrington has departed Downtown Grand and is catching some sun in Miami Beach these days. But have no fear—he’s still working hard to make Las Vegas a more delicious town. Harrington’s been charged with bringing Miami’s James Beard-nominated Yardbird Southern Table & Bar to the Venetian. The restaurant is known for its upscale Southern cuisine, and the local incarnation is slated for an early 2015 opening in the space that was formerly home to Pinot Brasserie, next door to Daniel Boulud’s DB Brasserie. (John Courtney, whom Vegas Seven named Chef to Watch in this year’s Restaurant Awards, will serve as chef de cuisine.) Harrington is no stranger to importing a successful restaurant concept to Las Vegas. Back in 2011, he was charged with bringing Michel Richard’s Central to Caesars Palace. Sadly, we hear that restaurant will be gone soon—the website, CentralLV.com, has already been taken down. Central is rumored to be replaced by a new Caesars-run concept insiders are calling Three Sisters Kitchen. Sticking it out Downtown is Le Thai owner Dan Coughlin, who is putting the finishing touches on his new sushi restaurant, Bocho. He says bringing sushi to the neighborhood was a no-brainer. “When the Downtown Project asked if we would take this spot, we said, ‘Yeah—if we can do sushi. Because we live down here and we think there needs to be good sushi here.’” Since his background is in Thai cuisine, Coughlin partnered with the team from his favorite sushi bar, the now-shuttered Tokyo Japanese Restaurant in the East Sahara Commercial Center. While there will be some American-style rolls on the menu, sashimi will be the focus. And two private dining rooms will double as karaoke studios. The opening date still depends on some paperwork, but hopefully by the time you read this they’ll be seating guests. For more impending openings, check out VegasSeven.com/RestaurantOpenings. Finally, if you’re going to check out Wicked at The Smith Center, you may want to grab a bite at Triple George Grill, which is offering a special theater menu through November 8 that includes an Emerald City Martini, a “Greenify” arugula salad, and both Good (grilled) and Bad (blackened) albacore. – Al Mancini

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with the idea of bringing to the festival, Andrés plans to present “a lot of tacos and vegetables.” The culinary lineup will also feature Brian Massie of the Light Group. But while he has eight spots in this town, Massie will be representing just one: the soon-toopen Hearthstone Kitchen & Cellar in Red Rock Resort. And he has big plans this weekend. “We’re duplicating the feel, the ambience and the look of Hearthstone as much as we can, outside of Hearthstone,” says Massie, who promises at least three menu items. “We want people to come to our booth and just hang out. We’re really close to one of the stages, so you have a great view. There are multiple levels and multiple cooking stations.” These are just a handful of the dining experiences in store for concertgoers, thanks to the newcomers and the returning celebrity chefs. There’s clearly no reason anyone should leave the festival hungry—or be forced to settle for a standard concession hot dog. But be careful: If you get too caught up in all the great food, you might miss the music altogether. I speak from experience.

Container Park during the festival. “It’s just a fun event,” Marvin says of the launch party. This year he and his crew will be offering lamb to the partiers. “We’re gonna do whole, local lamb,” he teases. “We’re gonna throw a spit up. We’ll be grilling all parts of the lamb, from the shoulder chops to the loin to the lamb chops to the porterhouses. And we’re gonna have fun with it. It’s gonna be a little butcher shop.” While Marvin has at least some idea what to expect at the festival, José Andrés is a newcomer. But he’s an old friend of festival organizer Rehan Choudhry, and says he loves the idea, because the festival “doesn’t belong to any casino; it belongs to Las Vegas, and that’s very beautiful.” In addition to speaking at Learning Session No. 7 (2 p.m. October 26), Andrés will be part of one of the four Culinary Villages scattered across the concert grounds. Eco-friendly Andrés will bring in solar-powered kitchens, but don’t expect his signature avant garde cuisine, which he says just isn’t appropriate for such large-scale outdoor cooking. “The truth is,” Andrés says, “some things are not meant to be done in volume.” So instead of such dishes as his foie gras waffe, which he briefy toyed

October 23–29, 2014

AT LAST YEAR’S INAUGURAL Life Is Beautiful festival, I only saw two bands. That was perfectly fne with me. After a lifetime of rock concerts, this particular festival is all about the food for me. And with more than two dozen of America’s top chefs on the bill, I’m glad to see that a lot of my favorites from last year will be returning. But I’m even more interested in the newcomers. Because while there’s no question that every chef on this bill can cook, there’s a big difference between preparing a meal in a high-end kitchen and feeding the masses on the streets and parking lots of Downtown Las Vegas. Last year, there were some very creative offerings, and I’m eager to see what the class of 2014 has in store. Echo and Rig’s Sam Marvin was drawn to the event by Bruce Bromberg, who serves on the festival’s culinary advisory board. The two go way back, having roomed together while attending Le Cordon Bleu in Paris a quartercentury ago. Marvin lent his old pal a hand last year at the Grills & Guitars festival kickoff party. But this year he’ll be representing his own restaurant at that event, and presenting a cooking demo in

B Is for Botulism (Or Is It?) What those health district letter grades really mean By Al Mancini

ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO

October 23–29, 2014

VegasSeven.com

DINING

WHEN IT COMES TO DINING AND GERMAPHOBIA,

there are two types of people in this world. The frst immediately looks for a health district-issued letter grade before he or she would dream of sitting down in a restaurant, and wouldn’t dare eat a bite at a spot that had anything less than an “A” proudly posted for all to see. The second assumes that, as in all aspects of life, shit happens, so why fret about a “B” grade, or even a “C”? I generally fall into the second category. I’ve had some of the best meals of my life in home kitchens that would never pass a health inspector’s checklist. But am I really playing Russian roulette with my stomach if I grab a meal at a location with a “B” hanging on the wall? Each of the 16,530 restaurants supervised by the Southern Nevada Health District must undergo an unannounced inspection during business hours at least once a year. If a restaurant has any condition that poses an imminent health hazard, it will be immediately closed. Those problems include a lack of power or hot water, backed-up sewage or a “multigenerational” roach population near the food. Yes, those things are pretty gross. But on the bright side, they have nothing to do with posted letter grades. If they’re detected, a restaurant is closed! But the health district also looks for situations that have the potential to cause a health hazard if not fxed. These can range from improper cooling temperatures to a blocked handwashing station. And all of them result in demerits. There are 23 possible reasons for demerits, which range in points from three to fve. If a restaurant receives 10 demerits or less, it retains its “A.” If it gets anywhere from 11 to 20 demerits, it gets a “B.” Twenty-one to 40 scores it a “C.” And anything more than 40 results in closed doors until everything is rectifed. So what should you assume if you see a “C” grade hanging in the door of your favorite restaurant? “While we would close it if it was unsafe,” SNHD’s environmental health supervisor Robert Urzi says, “that ‘C’ is alerting the consumer that we did see some risk factors there that need to be corrected.” But you should never see a “B” or a “C” hanging in a restaurant’s window for long. By law, operators have 15 days to resolve problems—although many choose to do so sooner. Upon re-inspection, each original demerit must have been addressed or the rating will drop to an even lower grade: a “B” will become a “C” and a “C” will become closed. So if you see anything less than an “A” grade at your favorite restaurant, odds are they’re addressing problems that were never considered imminent health hazards to begin with. Of course, the question lingers: Would Urzi eat there? “There’s a lot to choose from in Las Vegas,” Urzi says. “So, unless I really wanted to eat there that night, I would probably go to another one of my locales, knowing I could give that restaurant [with the lower grade] time to correct their issues. But if I really wanted it, I would eat there, because I’d know it wasn’t closed for being unsafe.”

DRINKING [ ASK A (MASTER!) SOMM ]

OUR NEWLY MINTED MASTER BREAKS DOWN THE RANKS, HANDS OUT HOMEWORK Master somms are sort of wine rock stars. What’s the difference, before and after? Passing the master sommelier exam reminds me of the movie Almost Famous: drama, hard work, fun, drinking and actually tasting success. But the title is a heavy crown to bear. Every opportunity that comes your way must be thoroughly thought through. Representing the prestigious Court of Master Sommeliers, one must be mindful of how it is being represented. Mentors are assigned to the new masters. This helps the organization grow. The master sommelier community has welcomed me with open arms and support. The one and only privilege of becoming a master sommelier is the ability to be a beacon of light for every type of wine enthusiast. Any person with the ambition to become a master sommelier must have the passion to teach and guide others. And nothing gives me more pleasure than to see a guest enjoy their experience or a student pass an exam. Master sommeliers are always at your service. ***** I’m a wine aficionado who wants to take my studies to the next level. What are the aspects of the master sommelier test, and what would be my equivalent course of study? Knowledge is the key to the castle! The master sommelier exam is comprised of a 70-question verbal exam, blind tasting of six wines (three white, three red) and a service module, which is further broken down into Champagne, decanting and food and wine pairing/banquet. So sign up for Amazon Prime—you’re about to become a bookworm.

Try it at Hendrick’s gin’s Life Is Beautiful tent at the Western Stage, or get the recipe at VegasSeven.com/CocktailCulture.

Step 3: Mentorship. It is crucial to understand how and why a bottle of wine should be opened and served. But as wine service is best acquired practically, befriend a seasoned sommelier for guidance on service. While you yourself are not working the floor as a sommelier, you can practice on your tasting group. The ritual of serving wine is sacred and personal. A bottle of wine contains four glasses in it for a reason; it’s meant to be enjoyed with others. – Lindsey Whipple, Master Sommelier

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chile liqueur, a Mexican liqueur based on a 1927 recipe that showcases the favor of smoky, fery ancho chiles. “The Ancho Reyes really shines with Hendrick’s gin in this cocktail,” says Mark Stoddard, national brand ambassador for Hendrick’s. Along with fresh lemon juice and a little simple syrup, “the two are married with the refreshing and spicy combination of fresh, muddled cucumber and jalapeño, lending a balanced heat and long fnish.” The drink is then topped with Barritt’s ginger beer for an even more layered spicy refrain.

➜ Even while the rest of the country spends October cooling its heels in delightful autumnal splendor, cracking into pumpkin beers and sipping whiskey toddies, Las Vegas maintains its sunny, summery disposition. So it’s a good thing Hendrick’s gin has taken Southern Nevada’s collective refreshment into consideration while planning its cocktail lineup for Life Is Beautiful. Along with other major beverage sponsors, including Ketel One, Dos Equis, Bacardi, Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam, Hendrick’s adult beverages (and ample water stations, of course) will keep the party going from gates open to gates closed. The Scottish Merchant ($11) takes a sweet-heat approach to cooling you off, thanks to Ancho Reyes

Step 2: Comparison. Organize a salon of similarly minded wine lovers. Blind tasting with others helps relate your palate with other palates to figure out markers. In my earlier years, I picked up sesame seed aromas in Tuscan sangiovese. My peers actually instructed me that I was mistaking it for violets!

October 23–29, 2014

PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA

Life Is Delicious

Step 1: Research. Beginners seeking an intermediate understanding of wine should begin with the following books: Windows on the World: Complete Wine Course, by Kevin Zraly, and The Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia, by Tom Stevenson. (Wikipedia is also very useful!) It is important to establish a strong foundation of basic knowledge. Jumping into Robert Parker’s Wines of the Rhône Valley will lead to frustrating and time-consuming cross-referencing.

A&E

“If you say you are a rap fan but you hate Kanye, what you really mean is that you bought an A Tribe Called Quest CD and took an ethnic studies class 15 years ago.”

MUSIC {PAGE 76}

Movies, music, stage and a wedding for the ages

If These Walls Could Sing

While the party will be over in a weekend, Life Is Beautiful’s street art program aims for a more lasting efect By Zoneil Maharaj Photography by Anthony Mair

TIM BAVINGTON AND SUSH MACHIDA Las Vegas’ Tim Bavington and Sush Machida have created masterful works in various media, but neither

Bavington creates abstract works inspired by music. Both are fans of color. On the vast space along the Emergency Arts building, Machida’s rainbow-colored goldfsh foat among confetti-riddled clouds and a backdrop of Bavington’s radiant stripes (based on a guitar solo in Paul Weller’s “Science”), with images of casino staples scattered about. “I like to tweak reality and imagination,” says Machida, whose work isn’t so much about symbolism as it is about vibrancy. “We’re in the middle of the desert. We have only blue sky, brown desert and some neon. We wanted to put more colors in the landscape, something that gives a more positive vibe.”

had ever done a mural before. The two were handpicked for the collaboration with the idea of bringing fne art to the street. The difference? “It’s fucking scary up on that lift. I’m not usually 50 feet in the air,” Bavington says. Height isn’t the only challenge. They’re using a different surface, different paint and a different technique, which is where the assistance from graffti crew Visual Bluff comes in handy. It’s also the frst time the local artists (by way of London and Japan, respectively) are working together and combining their unique styles. Machida fuses traditional Japanese art and pop iconography, while

October 23–29, 2014

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT your #DTLV Instagrams were getting stale, Life Is Beautiful returns with new additions to its outdoor gallery of murals. This year’s festival features eight new pieces from renowned international street artists, along with a collaborative mural by local fne artists Tim Bavington and Sush Machida. Winners of the festival’s mural contest—one local, one international—also created new works. We caught up with some of the artists to fnd out more about their pieces.

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Two local favorites unite: Bavington and Machida.

A&E

Murals in progress by ROA (top) and Bicicleta Sem Freio.

October 23–29, 2014

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“IN LAS VEGAS, PEOPLE ARE USED TO HUGE THINGS, A LOT OF LIGHTS. IT’S NOT AN EASY TASK TO MAKE PEOPLE STOP AND LOOK AT YOUR WORK.” – Douglas Castro

BICICLETA SEM FREIO The frst time Brazilian art trio Bicicleta Sem Freio (Bike Without Brakes) painted a wall was a year ago at the inaugural Life Is Beautiful. It’s the trippy one with the foating eyeballs on Seventh Street between Ogden and Stewart. And they followed it up with a wall of LIB artist posters for fun, since they were in the neighborhood. Having illustrated concert posters and album covers for the past 10 years, the experience gave them a new canvas to explore—and launched them on a world tour. They’ve since left their vibrant, DMT-dripped works on walls everywhere from Los Angeles to Lisbon. “We never stopped,” says Douglas Castro, the self-described “dramatic” one who most loves painting chicks, skulls and fre. While last year’s mural remains, the new one has a deeper tie to the Downtown community. Painted alongside The Market on Fremont Street and replacing their own painted posters, this mural features the collective’s signature “hot chicks” in a lush garden of fruits and vegetables, the piece itself providing nourishment for the neighborhood just as

the new grocery store. “It’s like a picnic, a psychedelic picnic,” Castro says, joking that we may have just named the piece. ROA Surveying Belgian artist ROA’s intricately detailed black-and-white murals, you’d think he got his education at a fne art institute. Instead, the enigmatic street artist—he hides his face in photos—came up bombing walls and running from cops. “Being free, listening to hip-hop and having a skateboard, that was it,” he says. At 38, things haven’t changed much, except that

he’s traded tagging his name for giant animals, and he (usually) gets permission frst. “This is my form of graffti. It’s a continuation of painting walls. You paint for a long time and you get better and better, and grow as an artist,” he says. That growth is manifested along Stewart Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets where a Godzillasized horned lizard, chosen because it’s native to desert life, stalks half of the block. A man of few words, ROA doesn’t expound on the signifcance of his art: “I don’t make the world into a more beautiful place, I make it a more interesting place.”

CONCERTS

Still Ill, 20 Years Later

Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan, Oct. 17

A&E

If you ever wondered about the power of Nas’ debut masterpiece Illmatic two decades after he kicked the doors down, all you had to do was hear the crowd roar back through “N.Y. State of Mind’s” ominous creep because sleep is the cousin of death. Crowdperformer-lyrical synergy doesn’t get much better than that, and Nas reminded everyone in attendance why Illmatic is still considered one of the best hip-hop albums ever (even if he cut “Life’s a Bitch” way too short). He delivered his masterpiece with a mix of laser-precise nostalgia and Hennessy product placement, but at only 40 minutes, there was about a half hour left for Esco to fill. Which is where attention wandered. He banged through large swaths of the rest of his catalog mostly in twitchy medleys: “Hip Hop Is Dead,” “Street Dreams,” “I Can,” “Hate Me Now” and an extended take on “Made You Look.” A little jumbled, a little rushed, it reminded you that as good as Nas has been throughout his career, he burned the brightest right from the rip. ★★★✩✩ – Jason Scavone

The Slackers Stretch Out Hard Rock Live, Oct. 17

“Vegas, the Slackers have played here many times—we’re used to it. It’s time for the Slackers to stretch out a bit and take it easy,” singer/keyboardist Vic Ruggiero said. With that, the New York ska band jumped into a prolonged two-hour set that placed emphasis on the audience rather than the band. Throughout the night, Ruggiero asked fans for requests, and the six-piece honored most of them, which was impressive given the band’s prolific discography. “Crazy,” saxophonist Dave Hillyard and trombonist Glen Pine taking the lead. The band jousted with their instruments and hopped during Misfits cover “Attitude,” which was followed by their rock-steady rendition of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released.” The band shared cocktails and toasted with fans during “Midnight Rendezvous.” Though impressive,

October 23–29, 2014

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the Slackers' set drew on for a bit long, which led a large chunk of

the crowd to leave before the encore. It was a disheartening ending to an otherwise decent set. ★★✩✩✩ – Ian Caramanzana

AB-SOUL-LUTELY Ab-Soul is a unique and playful voice in the Black Hippy universe. Some critics felt his latest album, These Days ... , was too long and missed the mark, but fans know a 90-minute long player means something for everybody. Ab-Soul plays Hard Rock Live on Oct. 23 ($25-$100).

LOVE THEIR WAY New Wave faves the Psychedelic Furs remind me of high school and John Hughes films. There hasn’t been a new album since 1991, but with songs such as “Love My Way” and “Pretty In Pink,” who cares? The Psychedelic Furs play House of Blues with the Lemonheads on Oct. 26 ($30).

ON SALE NOW Jane might be done with Sergio, but Jane’s Addiction fans will never be done with Nothing’s Shocking, which turned 25 last year. After wowing fans with a series of Brooklyn Bowl shows in May, Jane’s Addiction returns to the venue Nov. 21-22 ($74.25).

NAS BY AL POWERS/POWERS IMAGERY; THE SL ACKERS BY ALEX ANDER ZAYAS

“Keep Him Away” and “Wasted Days” sounded especially tight with

ALBUM REVIEWS

The

HIT LIST

By Pj Perez

TARGETING THIS WEEK'S MOST-WANTED EVENTS

By Camille Cannon

POST-HARDCORE

SLUDGE METAL

Kool Stuff Katie

Pianos Become the Teeth

Sterile Jets

It would be easy to look at the composition of Kool Stuff Katie—one dude on guitar, one chick on drums— and think, “Oh, White Stripes rip-off, right?” And although this Portland, Oregon-based duo does turn out raw garage rock not unlike Jack White’s former band on “Just a Thing” and “Hard Girl to Know,” Kool Stuff Katie proves on its debut that it’s a different beast. The vocal interplay between Shane Blem and Saren Oliver is delightful, and the New Wave-ish analog synths that buzz through songs such as “Show Me” and “Rewind” add a charming, retro-pop sparkle. ★★★✩✩

(Epitaph) On its third album (and first for Epitaph), Baltimore-based quintet Pianos Become the Teeth stretches its musical and emotional chops, deviating from its screamo beginnings to craft a set of moving, atmospheric music that toes the line between angular, melodic hardcore and feedback-laden post-rock. Frontman Kyle Durfey sings in a dulcet, earnest tone, revealing intimate feelings on songs such as “Late Lives,” “Traces” and “Lesions.” It’s a powerful record that somehow feels delicate enough to tear apart at any time. ★★★★✩

(Yesca Rock) It’s a Friday night, and you and a couple of your buddies are hanging out in your living room, finishing off a 24-pack of Schlitz while listening to old Black Flag and Melvins records. Feeling equal parts inspired and blitzed, the three of you stumble downstairs to the basement, plug instruments into amps and hit “record” on your fourtrack recorder. You bark out lyrics over sludgy proto-punk-metal for 47 minutes. When you wake up the next morning, you realize through the fog of a hangover that you’ve just recorded your second album. ★★★✩✩

Keep You

Liquor Store

DISC SCAN Upcoming albums on Pj's radar …

Punk rock stalwart Rancid returns for an eighth round with ... Honor is All We Know.

Life Is Beautiful headliner Foo Fighters releases its latest disc, Sonic Highways, and psychedelic pioneer Pink Floyd unveils its first new album since 1994, The Endless River. NOV

JETTISON PHOTO COURTESY OF TRIFECTA GALLERY

FLIGHT ENLIGHTENMENT Sam Davis’ Jettison exhibition appears to take place just after a plane crash, but no details reveal what really happened. Photos show mod-era stewardesses forsaken in the desert. A few salvaged airplane parts allude to The Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” What went wrong? Decide for yourself through Oct. 31 at Trifecta Gallery. TrifectaGallery.com.

NOV

GLITZ AND GIGGLES

Cabaret singer Lady Rizo makes her Las Vegas debut Oct. 25-26 at the Bunkhouse Saloon. Praised by The New York Times as “an ardent champion of live entertainment,” her captivating voice and style will make you forget all about that big festival a few blocks away. BunkhouseDowntown.com. – Camille Cannon

BLUE MAN FOR LESS GREEN Now is a great opportunity for locals to see Blue Man Group at Monte Carlo. Nevada residents can purchase two-for-one tickets to the rhythmic spectacular using the code “LOCALS” with valid ID though Dec. 21. MonteCarlo.com.

VegasSeven.com

DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN Screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show are popular this time of year. The Sci-Fi Center’s Oct. 25 event is extra special, though, because the cult classic is preceded by a screening of Tim Burton’s twisted fantasy Edward Scissorhands. Then the cast of Science Fiction Double Feature joins for the main event. Don’t forget your own costume for the contest! Facebook. com/TheSciFiCenterVegas.

OCT

Brooklyn indie darling TV on the Radio drops Seeds, its frst record since the 2011 death of bassist Gerard Smith.

DON’T DRINK THE KOOL-AID Table 8 Productions’ Jonestown is a play based on FBI transcripts and witness testimonies from the 1978 Jonestown mass murder-suicide. It will be staged outdoors Oct. 23-Nov. 8 at a location disclosed at the point of ticket purchase. Sound creepy? It’s supposed to. Table8LV.com.

Kool Stuff Katie, (Self-released)

October 23–29, 2014

INDIE ROCK

The Wright Way

FACTORY METAL, HASIDIC RAP, SWEET PUNK

Rapper Dizzy Wright spreads peace and positivity By Zoneil Maharaj

DON’T LET THE TATTOOS, snapbacks, droopy eyes and blunt-after-blunt diet fool you: Rapper Dizzy Wright is a hippie. The 23-year-old Vegas native lives by his mantra of three M’s: maintain, “Mary Jane” and make art. He’s been doing the latter since he was 8 years old, with six mixtapes, three EPs and one studio album to date. The second “M” is self-explanatory. But despite his tireless work ethic and the smoke clouds that surround him, the frst “M” is his priority. “It’s about stability, just being able to handle being a rapper, being a father, being a brother, being a role model and just helping everybody around me to be better people,” Wright says. That positivity is Wright’s trademark, heard on songs such as the unifying anthem “World Peace” and “Red Balloons,” a dedication to slain and kidnapped children. It’s why loyal fans nationwide adore him, and why

you should catch his 3:35 p.m. October 26 set at Life Is Beautiful. “I like getting a message across,” Wright says. “Every day I read some shit that makes me want to rap about it. Everyone wants to be funny now, and nobody wants to focus on the real issue.” A perfect example: The August killing of Michael Brown by a police offcer in Ferguson, Missouri, inspired Wright to pen the somber “I Need Answers.” (Why do we always feel like a target? he raps on the chorus.)

The Kanye West Is Beautiful Festival?

While he’s all for awareness, Wright still knows how to have fun. Just listen to the bouncy banger “Everywhere I Go.” When the refrain Everywhere I go turn into Vegas/Now it’s time for y’all to get wild hits, you’ll do just that. Then there’s the live show— bring a mask if you don’t want a contact high. But the partying doesn’t derail Wright’s righteousness. “We need to create more leaders instead of more pimps, players and rappers,” Wright says. “We need [people] who can actually do stuff.”

the Roots, because a festival ain’t a festival without a band that plays every festival. Two are Vegas-bred: the weed-smoking and peace-loving Dizzy Wright and “heart-hopper” Ekoh, who makes his second LIB appearance. And then there’s Kanye, who you absolutely hate if you’re not a rap fan. And if you say you are a rap fan but you hate Kanye, what you really mean is that you bought an A Tribe Called Quest CD and took an ethnic studies

October 23–29, 2014

VegasSeven.com

class 15 years ago. Shut up with your “real hip-hop” dissertation.

The highlight of the entire festival is undoubtedly the reunion of Outkast, who you, your momma and your cousin all love, even if

RAP IS MODERATELY ATTRACTIVE

the only song you know is “Hey Ya!” Sure, this year’s hip-hop selection is a step up in wow factor, but it’s top-heavy. Last year covered some middle ground with

For a festival boasting two major rap acts as the headliners, hip-

under-the-radio-radar rappers Chancellor Warhol, Earl Sweat-

hop heads might feel a little hoodwinked by the rest of the Life

shirt, Danny Brown and a pre-“3005” Childish Gambino. While

Is Beautiful lineup. Of the 69 musical acts on the bill, only eight

other genres are represented by exciting and budding talent, this

fall into the hip-hop genre—and that’s including seedy alternative

year’s hip-hop menu seems like it was slapped together during

R&B act The Weeknd and DJ Mustard, the man responsible for

a Jimmy Fallon commercial break. Part of the fun of music

producing all of this year’s ass-clappers. So, really, six. Of the

festivals is discovering new artists. As far as rap goes, all we’ve

remainders, there’s G-Eazy, who makes obnoxious frat-rap, and

got are the ghosts of Coachellas past. – Z.M.

Life Is Beautiful is a guaranteed good time, and no one is happier than I am about seeing Lionel Richie on October 25 in Downtown Las Vegas. “All Night Long (All Night)” is my grade-school jam, and the worldbeat-pop tune by which I scribbled cartoons into and affixed stickers upon my Trapper Keeper. Still, a few other cool concerts are taking place outside the sphere of Life Is Beautiful that you should definitely consider. First, make a mental note that Cheyenne Saloon has changed its name to Adrenaline Sports Bar and Grill. (Sports? Oh dear.) The official grand-opening-switcheroo-party is supposed to coincide with a 10 p.m. October 24 show by industrial-metal outfit Fear Factory. These drummachine heshers have been pounding out alt-metal since the early ’90s, which is when they punched out their now-classic Soul of a New Machine. “Big God/Raped Souls” is a mind-wrenching, neck-snapping, eardrum-crushing hellride. Also on the bill: Double Barrel Diplomacy and Wretched Sky. Orthodox Jewish reggae rapper Matisyahu serves up his Yiddishflavored, Hasidic-powered rhymes at Brooklyn Bowl at 9 p.m. October 25. His latest album, Akeda, came out during the summer, offering his most personal music to date. As far as I can tell, Matisyahu continues to bring all his skills to the stage—beat boxing, spoken-word poetry. And I’m told he has developed some edginess even as he has honed his pop instincts. Also on the bill: hiphop artists Radical Something and Cisco Adler. Lemonheads leader Evan Dando’s voice is spot-on, whether he’s strumming an acoustic guitar or fronting a ramshackle pop-punk rhythm section. My only gripe is that he’s a slow songwriter, a quality that resulted in an aborted Ryan Adams-produced album in 2012. So I’m looking forward to tasting the Lemonheads’ sonic sweetness at House of Blues 8 p.m. October 26. British legends the Psychedelic Furs are also on the bill. Your band releasing new music? Email Jarret_Keene@Yahoo.com.

DIZZY WRIGHT BY TOMMY GARCIA; K ANYE BY CARL BJORKLUND/SHUTTERSTOCK

A&E

MUSIC

STAGE

Tala Marie and April Needham play the titular lovebirds.

A SHE-SHE AFFAIR Gay-themed Joni and Gina’s Wedding goes straight … to the cultural hot spot

PHOTO COURTESY OF VIVA L AS VEGAS WEDDING CHAPEL

PUT THE ZEITGEIST on the payroll.

With same-sex marriage legal in Nevada, the new interactive dinner show Joni and Gina’s Wedding—a Sapphic spin on Tony N’ Tina’s hetero nups—couldn’t have found a better political-cultural slingshot into the public consciousness. Or onto the Vegas scene, expanding from its longrunning Los Angeles production. What to do next? Take a good but ragged show—genuinely funny jokes and bits diluted by slack timing and tentative delivery—and turn it into a tighter, excellent show. On a leisurely, introductory schedule at Ron DeCar’s Events Center and connected Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel—performances are alternate Thursdays—the show apes the Tony/Tina structure: Two quirky families come together for the joining of their offspring: Joni Gottlieb (Tala Marie, in the butch-ier, tuxedo-ish outft) and Gina Spaulding (April Needham, who gets to wear the gown and be the more blushing of the brides). After gathering in the reception hall, “guests” shift to the chapel for the wedding—conducted by a daffy gypsy of a minister with the groanerjoke name, Rev. Pat Miass (Andee Gibbs)—then shift back. (Seat yourself at the Wanda Sykes, Ellen DeGeneres or Jodie Foster tables.) Predictable but amusing family stereotypes abound. On the Gottlieb side, it’s loud/ East Coast/Jewish. Yenta mom (Anita Bean) with a voice built for kvetching, harasses her boorish ex (Lou De Meis, wearing an orange sport coat that would embarrass a Creamsicle) who totes along his spitfre Hispanic girlfriend (Olga Rios). Meanwhile another daughter (Amy Solomon), devout and socially awkward, turns a toast into endless Hebrew blessings.

On the Spaulding side, it’s whitebread/Midwestern/Christian: Military man dad (Troy Tinker), who wanted a pork-and-shrimp buffet but “couldn’t because of the Jews,” tries to contain his tipsy wife (Ginny Beall) while the straight, beefcake-y son (Brandon Burk) firts with the ladies while trying to keep the famboyant “man of honor” (Aaron Barry) out of his personal space. Meanwhile, the “best woman” (Amanda Kraft) stills lusts after Gina, her ex-girlfriend, and sneers at Joni, fueling the evening’s freworks. That fnally gives Joni and Gina—who spend the frst half smiling sweetly at the loons around them—a chance to jump into the comic fray, seasoned with gay doubleentendres, a conga line, disco-dancing and the hora. Plus, the parents can’t suppress befuddlement at their daughters’ sexuality, but come around to acceptance, the evening ending in a sing-along to “That’s Amore.” (Relevant lyric: Hearts will play… like a gay tarantella.) Mirroring a changing America, what once was attractive to a very niche audience is appealing to a wider demographic now. Joni and Gina draws laughs from its lesbian theme in a way that will be unnecessary someday, if “gay marriage” blends into just “marriage” in the public mind. That would make it redundant to Tony N’ Tina—a small, happy price to pay for normalizing gay marriage. Until then, co-directors Troy Heard and Marianne Basford should smooth out the herky-jerky pacing and dead spots between jokes. Socio-political symbolism aside, it’s fne-tuned comedy that will carry this “wedding” over the threshold. Got an entertainment tip? Email Steve.Bornfeld@VegasSeven.com.

A&E

MOVIES

LOVE IN THE TIME OF DEATH Dia de los Muertos serves as a backdrop for this colorful love story By Roger Moore McClatchy-Tribune News Service

THE BOOK OF LIFE is a Mexican-accented kids’ cartoon so colorful and unconventionally dazzling it almost reinvents the art form. Endlessly inventive, warm and traditional, it serves up Mexican culture in a riot of colors and mariachi-favored music. The tale is told by a museum tour guide in an effort to impress a raucous bunch of American school kids. Mary Beth (Christina Applegate) recounts a love story built around Dia de los Muertos, Mexico’s Day of the Dead. And the moment that story begins, the computer-animated style switches from quirky, big-headed, plasticlooking adults and kids to a bizarre, wooden-puppet world of the past, the Mexican village of San Angel. That’s where Maria (Zoe Saldana), a feisty girl, was pursued by Manolo (Diego Luna), the bullfghter’s son who only wants to sing and play the guitar, and Joaquin (Channing Tatum), the war hero’s son who only wants to live up to his late father’s fame.

Diego Luna voices Manolo, a bullfighter’s son who just wants to sing.

Their courtship duel becomes a wager in the afterlife, where La Muerte (Kate del Castillo) and Xibalba (Ron Perlman) vie for primacy over the “Land of the Remembered.” Manolo becomes a bullfghter who refuses to “fnish” the bull; Joaquin becomes a hero who doesn’t fear death, thanks to a magic medal Xibalba slips him; and Maria grows up to become a proto-feminist who won’t be an easy catch for either of them. Joaquin collects medals to win Maria; Manolo sings. Luna’s cover versions of songs from Elvis to Radiohead to Mumford & Sons add romance to the proceedings. The production design, by Paul

Sullivan and Simon Valdimir Varela, is stunning: textured puppet fgures that have the feel of sanded, painted and embossed wood; mosaics; fanciful adobe-clad bullring and church; bulls and boars that are all horns, hooves and snorting nostrils; and characters with oversize heads. Director and co-writer Jorge R. Gutierrez keeps this simple story on the move, and producer Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth touch is felt throughout. The flm is adorned with all manner of clever jokes, gorgeous sight gags and little fourishes. A mini chorus of nuns chirps up from time to time. The town priest is masked as a luchador, a Mexican

October 23–29, 2014

VegasSeven.com

SHORT REVIEWS

Whiplash (R) ★★★★✩

Whatever this ripping melodrama says about artistic torment, or the price of ambition, or mentor/student relationships from hell, it’s too busy providing serious excitement—both as an actors showcase and a confirmation of writer-director Damien Chazelle’s cinematic chops—to get hung up on conventional uplift. Part of what makes it such a kick is Chazelle’s conflicted feelings about his young protagonist and alter ego, a first-year drumming student (played by Miles Teller) who’s a welter of half-hidden feelings and insolent insecurities.

St. Vincent (PG-13) ★★★✩✩

For all the boozed and abusive amusement provided by the great Bill Murray in the good-enough St. Vincent, the moment I liked best was Naomi Watts as a pregnant Russian stripper, manhandling a vacuum across the Murray character’s ancient carpet. Plenty in writer-director Theodore Melfi’s slick feature debut can be accused of overstatement and rib-elbowing. The broader visual comedy lacks finesse. But the actors win out. Even St. Vincent’s climactic, full-on yank at our heartstrings can be forgiven because, well, Murray’s in it.

The Good Lie (PG-13) ★★★✩✩

The saga of Sudan’s Lost Boys—following refugees who wound up in America after fleeing the civil war there—earns an engaging, tear-jerking retelling in this fictionalized account of what faced them. Reese Witherspoon plays Callie, a Kansas City employment counselor entirely too provincial to know what she’s getting into when she picks up the three boys at the airport. Good Lie rambles a bit, but its earnestness in reminding us of this story makes it a winner—a valuable history lesson wrapped in a feel-good bow.

wrestler. The unmistakable voices of the great tenor Placido Domingo, the great comic Cheech Marin, Ice Cube (hilarious) and movie tough guy Danny Trejo turn up. At this point in the animation game, we know what to expect of Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks. Book of Life is something new and a gigantic step up from Reel FX Animation’s previous work (Free Birds). This sometimes riotous, always charming flm suggests the studio has taken its own movie’s message to heart. You can “write your own story” and have it pay off. The Book of Life (PG) ★★★★✩

By Tribune Media Services

Fury (R) ★★★✩✩

Fury is a mixture of sharp realism and squishy clichés that combat movies don’t really need anymore. It stars Brad Pitt as a sergeant known as Wardaddy, commander of a battle-scarred Sherman tank whose nickname gives the film its title. The talk regarding good and evil gets pretty thick. The film’s lyric interlude, set in a German town recently taken by the Allies, sets up virginal Norman (with the help of his mentor, Wardaddy) with a local girl (Alicia von Rittberg). Fury contributes a frustrating percentage of tin to go with the iron and steel.

The Best of Me (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩

Kill the Messenger (R) ★★★✩✩

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (PG) ★★✩✩✩

The Judge (R) ★★★✩✩

For an hour or so, Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden gamely swim against the current, fighting the torpid tide of tripe that romance novelist Nicholas Sparks sends their way in the latest adaptation of one of his books. It’s sad to watch them strain and struggle and then give up as the lachrymose The Best of Me drowns them in a sea of saccharine. It’s yet another doomed lastchance love story set in the coastal South, with star-crossed lovers “destined” to be together but kept apart by tragedy. There’s barely a tear left in this limp weeper.

Kill the Messenger, the film about journalist Gary Webb’s shocking newspaper stories that connected the Reagan-era CIA to America’s crack epidemic, shows just how hard it is to film investigative journalism as a drama and get it right. The film about a reporter destroyed by a story that turned out to be one of the great scoops of all time feels muted, more compelling than riveting. But Jeremy Renner dazzles as Webb, giving him both the swagger of a guy willing to take on the CIA and its media friends, and the nervous worry that he’s in over his head.

Whatever else kids take from Judith Viorst’s delightful film, the subtext of this picture-heavy book is how exhausting and sometimes misguided the optimism of the eternally optimistic can be. Mom (Jennifer Garner) has the stress of all these kids and a job where she’s expected to dazzle 24/7. Dad (Steve Carell) has been out of work for ages and has an job interview where everybody is half his age. It’s just competent, light entertainment, no more ambitious than that.

This film flatters its protagonist Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.), a hotshot Chicago attorney famous for his loose ethics. Then Hank’s mom dies, which necessitates a dreaded trip back home to Indiana. Hank attempts to make nice with his estranged father, the feared local judge (Robert Duvall). Then comes the movie’s hook. The old man is accused of hit-and-run murder, requiring Hank to swallow his pride and defend his father against a clever prosecuting attorney (Billy Bob Thornton). Suddenly The Judge transforms into a darker, better film.

Gone Girl (R) ★★★★✩

Annabelle (R) ★★★✩✩

David Fincher’s film version of the Gillian Flynn best-seller is a stealthy, snake-like achievement. The film’s primary narrator is Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck, never more effective), a laid-off Manhattan magazine writer. To look after his aging parents Nick has returned to Missouri with his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike), who served as inspiration for her parents’ Amazing Amy storybooks. The present-day action begins when Amy disappears from the home leased with her trust-fund. There is no moral to Gone Girl; Flynn’s working on a higher level than that.

The devil-doll lark Annabelle exists to make its host movie, last year’s excellent The Conjuring, look even better by comparison. As prequels go, it’s not bad, even if it does look like cheap digital crud. There’s also premise fatigue, leading to low-level audience exasperation. How many shocks must this bright young California couple (played by Annabelle Wallis and Ward Horton) endure before they realize the doll on the shelf is the source of their problems? The thing reeks of Satan.

BETTING

DON’T KEEP BELIEVING It’s time to pull the plug on a handful of college, NFL underachievers EVER ACCEPT A JOB OFFER, ONLY TO discover within the frst 48 hours of employment that you’ve been sold a bill of goods? Ever get sucked in by a movie trailer, then plunk down a small fortune for a ticket and popcorn, only to come away more disappointed than Johnny Manziel backers? Ever go on a Saturday-night bender and pick up the hottest girl at the bar, only to wake up Sunday morning with a splitting headache and 1,000 regrets? Lemme guess the answers: “Yep … For sure … Oh, God, more times than I care to remember.” My point is things aren’t always what they appear to be in life—and this is certainly true of the gridiron, too. So as we approach the midpoint of the 2014 season, it’s time to put down the pom-poms and acknowledge (in our best Dennis Green gravelly voice) that certain football teams just aren’t who we thought they were. More importantly, we need to think twice—make that three times—before betting on said teams (particularly as favorites): Seahawks: It’s not just that the defending Super Bowl champs are 3-3 (and could very easily be 2-4, if not for a fortunate overtime win over the Broncos). It’s that their overhyped defense has been exposed: Seattle is allowing 23.5 points per game—a fgure that’s 9.1 ppg higher than last year. To their credit, the Seahawks are 3-3 against the spread, but they haven’t been dominant since a 36-16 Week 1 victory over Green Bay. Yet Pete Carroll’s club is a 4½-point favorite at Carolina this week. Saints: After blowing a 13-point fourth-quarter lead at Detroit last week, New Orleans dropped to 2-4. True, all four losses have come on the road (where the Saints routinely stink), but three of those games were in domes (where the Saints usually excel). Even the two home victories were shaky: New Orleans beat Minnesota 20-9, but only had a four-point lead in the fourth quarter, and it trailed the lowly Buccaneers 31-20 in the fourth before rallying for a 37-31 overtime win. This week, the Saints are favored at home over the Packers, who have only won their last four games by the combined score of 145-68. Bears: A chic pick of many (yours truly included) to go over its projected win total, challenge the Packers for NFC North supremacy and be a Super Bowl dark horse, Chicago instead is 3-4 (0-3 at home) and showing more fght in the locker room than on the feld. Yes, I’m a fool

MATT JACOB

LUCKY SEVEN

Ohio State -13.5 at Penn State (Best Bet) Colorado +13.5 vs. UCLA Missouri -21 vs. Vanderbilt Jaguars +5½ vs. Dolphins Packers +1.5 at Saints Jets -3 vs. Bills Colts-Steelers OVER 49

for believing in Jay Cutler … but no bigger a fool than Bears executives, who signed Cutler to a $126 million contract extension this past offseason—with $54 million guaranteed! UCLA: OK, so the Bruins are 5-2 straight-up, but they’re only averaging 5.8 ppg more than their opponents— which explains their 1-6 ATS record (1-5 ATS as a favorite). So of course UCLA is a near two-touchdown road favorite this week (at Colorado). Florida State: How can I claim that a 7-0 defending national champion is a disappointment? Easy: The Seminoles have cashed just once in those seven victories. And let’s be real: Florida State would be 4-3 if not for Houdini acts against Oklahoma State (37-31), Clemson (23-17 in OT) and Notre Dame (31-27). Oklahoma: The Sooners started October ranked No. 4. Results this month: 37-33 loss at TCU as a 3½-point favorite; 31-26 nail-biting win over Texas as a 16½-point favorite; 31-30 loss to Kansas State as a 7½-point home favorite. Total yards Oklahoma has allowed in its last four games: 1,849. Texas A&M: Ranked No. 21 in the preseason, the Aggies went on the road and ripped South Carolina 52-28, the frst of fve consecutive wins that saw A&M climb all the way to No. 6. Since then, the Aggies have dropped three in a row to Mississippi State, Mississippi and Alabama, getting outscored 142-51. Perhaps A&M coach Kevin Sumlin should give his old QB Johnny Football a ring—I hear he’s not doing much. Last Week: 4-3 (2-1 NFL; 2-2 college; 1-0 Best Bet). Season Record: 23-26 (11-14 NFL; 1212 college; 2-4 Best Bets). Matt Jacob appears at 10 a.m. Fridays on Pregame.com’s First Preview on ESPN Radio 1100-AM and 100.9-FM.

Purchase your tickets online at hallOVeen.com or at the Magical Forest ticket office.

What did curating a TEDMED conference entail? I would select the themes, the topics and the speakers who would be featured on the programs—about 60 speakers in a four-day period. Essentially, what I did was put together a team and work with speakers to produce 11 documentaries in four days.

Lisa Shufro

October 23–29, 2014

VegasSeven.com

The curator of Life Is Beautiful’s Learning Series on the popularity of TED talks, getting Pussy Riot and learning how to learn

By Geoff Carter You came to Las Vegas from the health sciences affliate of the hugely popular TED conference, TEDMED. How did you get that cool gig? I have a degree in music and had a career as a freelance violinist, which is a terrible way to make a living. I decided I would get a job in marketing and learn how to market

classical music to audiences. I went to work for a company founded by entrepreneur Jay Walker, who founded Priceline and eventually bought TEDMED. I turned out to be a very good project manager, so I did 10 years of marketing, project management and launching businesses, while doubling as a violinist.

Then I injured my back to the point where I had diffculty standing and walking. I had to re-learn how to walk, [using a form] of biomechanics called the Feldenkrais Method. It’s learning how to rewire your motor patterns, so that they’re more biomechanically effcient and disrupting patterns of pain.

Have you ever done anything like this, programming a speaker series at the heart of what is a music festival at its core? No. My friend Andrew Hessel is a synthetic biologist who prints open-source cancer therapies on 3-D printers, and he’s tickled pink that he’s on the same lineup as Kanye West! [Festival founder] Rehan Choudhry says that the point of Life Is Beautiful is not only to have a smorgasbord of talent in whatever feld, but also to engage. This is a generation that’s super motivated to have a social impact. I’m hoping that the Learning Series will make doing good, fnding meaning and changing the world seem accessible, if still very challenging. That’s how you get smarter—through the right mix of success and failure. Speaking of the right mix: You’ve got Isaiah Austin, who missed out on the NBA Draft because of a career-ending illness but perseveres; Shiza Shahid, CEO of the Malala Fund (the charitable organization founded by recent Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai); and David J. Peterson, who created some of the languages for HBO’s Game of Thrones, among many others. How did you choose these folks? One thing I tried not to do was to pick speakers who would give the traditional motivational talk: “Keep looking at the mountain, keep heading to the horizon.” I believe that the process is a hell of a lot

messier and grittier than that. Take Giles Duley, who went from fashion photography to being a humanitarian photographer. His motivational talk could be, “I’m so amazing, I’m doing good for the world.” But he’s still struggling with the injury of having stepped on a landmine. He’s determined to create a life that has meaning, to use his creativity and his talent and his passion, and do these dangerous things and not be limited. It’s raw. He’s not going to pretend it’s not. It’s not necessarily about overcoming it; it’s about living through it. You gotta tell me how you got Pussy Riot to come to Las Vegas. I have the world’s best teammate Erin Booth [who worked with me on Life Is Beautiful]. That’s the short answer. Every day I would say, “I want Pussy Riot. I want Pussy Riot.” I don’t take credit; it really was Erin who secured them. I’ll just credit myself with being very tenacious. She was remarkable in stalking them on Instagram. Let’s say you’re preparing me to give a TED-style talk. What advice would you give? The frst thing is to fnd out your authentic path. I was infuenced by meeting Richard Saul Wurman, the cofounder of TED, who looked at me with full ferce eyes and said, “Talk to everyone for fve minutes.” What he meant was that everyone has a story in them. I curate, in part, by looking for where a person seems the most alive. Where does that person seem to be at a mental or emotional crossroads? Because that’s usually the kind of pattern that they’ve been hacking at their whole life. I’m very excited to uncover where it is that they have to go off-road from their polished talks. Why do you think we love these kinds of talks so much? What made a TED-style series an anticipated part of a music and food festival? TED has done an incredibly good job of making the world seem possible. There’s something about being able to express a complex idea simply that resonates for us. It’s a pattern that all brains like, and I believe all brains actually like the feeling of learning. When you make learning into something that can be done on your terms, you help people feel like they can engage with the world.

PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA

SEVEN QUESTIONS

I studied behavior change, neuroanatomy, biomechanics, anatomy, neuroscience. Originally, I wanted to do this therapy so I could get back to, you know, bumming my shoulder out [playing violin]. But it ended up being a total reversal of the way I think. Feldenkrais is actually about learning how to learn … and because of it I came to understand the process of learning itself. Curating TEDMED was a natural extension of that.

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