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IF YOU OBEY ALL THE RULES YOU MISS ALL THE FUN.
DINING / FASHION / NIGHTLIFE
Restaurant Open Daily at 5:30pm
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Reservations Encouraged
THE SHOPS AT CRYSTALS ARIA LAS VEGAS 3720 Las Vegas Blvd. South Suite 260 Las Vegas, NV 89158 Restaurant (702) 254-2376 www.SHe-LV.com SHeLasVegas
EvEnt
Snake eyeS
VEGAS SEVEN
14
[ upcoming ]
march 2 Scale the Strat to benefit the American Lung Foundation (ScaleTheStrat.com) march 14 Hope Is Born to benefit the Pregnancy Foundation at The Act (PregnancyFoundationLV.org)
Photos by Josh Metz
February 28-March 6, 2013
When it comes to celebrating Chinese New Year, no city outside of Asia devotes as much time and effort as Las Vegas. So it was on Feb. 10 that the Cosmopolitan rang in the Year of the Snake with the Dotting of the Eyes ceremony and street parade. About 40 performers “awakened” the elaborate dragons and lions by dotting their eyes with red paint—a Chinese New Year tradition—then began weaving their way through the casino. The festivities paused in the highlimit lounge for the “Collecting of the Cabbage” ceremony before finishing the parade. Along the way, hotel and casino guests looked on, no doubt hoping to absorb some of the good fortune.
the latest
style
Trendsetters Seen at MAGIC By Claire Wigglesworth
last week, Vegas seVen descended on MAGIC/Project market week to scan the crowds for fashion-savvy visitors and to get a feel for the latest looks. Split between the Mandalay Bay and Las Vegas convention centers, MAGIC is one of the world’s largest trade shows, featuring apparel, accessories and footwear from about 5,000 brands, showcased by international trade professionals from more than 80 countries. Among the 56,000 or so visitors, here are fve who had styles we covet. Visit VegasSeven.com/MagicMarket2013 to see many more.
Kiley Kouture, 21, Owner of ShopKouture.com
From: New York. Wearing: Wildfox White Label top, Tripp NYC pants, Unif shoes, Alexander Wang bag. What’s your style inFluence? “I’m inspired by the late ’80s/early ’90s looks, with a little punk thrown in. Always super-girlie, though.”
February 28-March 6, 2013
From: San Francisco. Wearing: Uniqlo chinos and shirt, Tommy Hilfiger tie, Levi’s vest, boots from Italy, Brooklyn Circus hat and Penfield bag. “The jacket is a secret between me and my tailor.” Describe your style: “Bold and covertly comfortable.”
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Eric Ueland, 27, Buyer
From: Canada. Wearing: Tiger of Sweden shirt and blazer, Filson bag and vintage pants. Describe your style: “Smart, tailored and fitting.”
Briana King, 20, Model
From: Los Angeles. Wearing: Divided leather jacket, Pants Vintage and YRU shoes. What’s your style? “Funky as shit.”
Thomas Dant, 22, Buyer
From: Indiana. Wearing: JCP cardigan, H&M T-shirt, Levi’s jeans and Aldo Mr. B’s boots What brings you to magic? “I’m opening my own boutique in August called James Dant.”
Photos by Roman Mendez
Dario Smith, 24, Image Consultant
the latest
national
Can’t Handle the Truth?
How a New Yorker reporter and a team of fact-checkers took on the Church of Scientology By Dan Duray
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lawrence wright’s new book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood & the Prison of Disbelief (Knopf, $29), was spun out of his 2011 story for The New Yorker about director Paul Haggis’ break with the church. Two magazine fact-checkers worked on the story full time for four to six months of its yearlong inception, and close to publication they were joined by three more. Their frst message to the church, verifying facts about its practices, the life of L. Ron Hubbard and the church’s current leader, David Miscavige, contained 971 questions. Peter Canby, head of the magazine’s fact-checking department, said it was the most “diffcult and complicated” story he’s ever worked on in his 19 years at The New Yorker. Second place, he said, went to another piece by Wright, a profle of Ayman al-Zawahiri that came out in 2002, “when we probably knew more about al-Zawahiri than the CIA did.” As recounted in the Haggis piece, in September 2010 the church sent two facks and four lawyers to The New Yorker offces in a grand effort to respond to those questions and to see if they couldn’t dissuade the editors from publishing the piece. The meeting lasted about eight hours. The Scientology team, outftted in sharp suits, frequently giggled as Wright defended his sources. The church representatives presented charts that detailed everything they perceived to be wrong with the story, based on what they knew about it from the fact-checking questions. Tommy Davis, the church’s lead spokesman at the time, would often interrupt Wright’s references to the church leader, saying, “you mean Mr. Miscavige, Larry, Mr. Miscavige.” “He had a pie chart of the 971 questions we’d sent him,” Wright said, recalling the
meeting during a recent interview at the Random House offces. “The pie chart showed that 59 percent of them were false.” He let that sink in. “They’re questions! How do they fall into the true-false category? It was bizarre to me.” It wasn’t a complete wash. The Scientology team brought along 48 binders in bankers boxes, which they left with the journalists, claiming the material within would refute all their false questions. Lined up in a row, they were seven feet long. During a bathroom break shortly after the binders were revealed, New Yorker editor David Remnick pulled Wright aside. “You know what you got here, you schmuck?” Remnick said. “You’ve got a book!” The meeting at The New Yorker offces would come to represent the church’s whole attitude in dealing with Wright’s fact-checking questions—the pull its representatives seemed to feel between knowing what was going to be in a story and their inability to respond to it fully. Scientology represents a unique test of the fact-checking system, if investigative fact-checking can be seen as a mixture of research and, in Canby’s words, “controlled explosions” that allow the subject to respond, or freak out, before publication. The questions that arose over the course of writing this book, such as those concerning physical abuse, often did merit some kind of a response, and the publishers’ incentive to keep the church’s “explosions” controlled was strong, given Scientology’s penchant for lawsuits. These high stakes, though, invariably run up against a lack of access— given Scientology’s secrecy and strict PR policy, you might have a better chance of getting quotes from the Taliban. Fact-checking becomes the battlefeld upon
which the piece is hashed out. Wright’s main contact for the book was Karin Pouw, who had replaced Davis as head press offcer for the church in the time since Wright had written the New Yorker story. Initially she told Wright and his assistant handling the factchecking for the book, Lauren Wolf, that it would take seven days to respond to each factchecking question, a rate of just 52 a year. Wolf eventually sent 160 questions, in a dozen or so emails, doing her best to work with Pouw’s schedule, but the lag time between query and response only increased over the course of the book’s writing. Wolf often wouldn’t hear back for weeks at a time. In an email to The Observer, Pouw wrote that the church had been forthcoming with Wright and that her team “answered all of his questions” for the book, although Wright said he found her far less helpful than Davis, who seemed to offer more actual responses to fact-checking questions. “Some of them were outright lies and fabrications, in my opinion,” Wright said, “but still, they were responses.” Early on, Pouw’s staff put forth a general policy of not addressing questions unless they knew the sources for them, which Wright couldn’t provide on principle (and also because the church has a record of allegedly harassing those who speak out against it). According to Pouw, Wright once wrote her an email that said, “It seems that the only thing you’re really interested in is getting a list of my sources. You can have that as soon as the book is published, not before.” Consequently, Wright said, the responses they did receive were often confusing, or not substantive. “For instance,” he said, “we asked about some moveable text in L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianet-
ics. We were trying to fgure out which was the authoritative version, because in this edition it says this, but in this edition it doesn’t say that. Or in this edition it’s here rather than here.” He turned to Wolf, who sat in on the interview. “What was the response to that one?” Wolf glanced at the ceiling. “They asked us if we were accusing them of messing with L. Ron Hubbard’s work, basically,” she said. “Which they were!” Wright said. “But we just wanted— there was no hostile intent,
we just wanted to footnote something and asked how we should do that.” “Literally,” Wolf said, “‘What page number should we use?’” They’d also quibble over semantics. Wolf soon learned not to include any clauses in her questions, to keep things as clear as possible. At the New Yorker meeting, Davis had found fault with Wright’s referring to something that had happened “recently,” when in fact it had happened two weeks prior. The church responded more helpfully to questions about
Photo by Chris Ware
February 28-March 6, 2013
The New York Observer
February 28-March 6, 2013
For the VIP treatment, go with the chef’s choice at Yellowtail.
Photo by TK
VEGAS SEVEN
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Bowl, eat and whatever else comes to mind at Drink & Drag.
on your schedule. Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant, 953 E. Sahara Ave., Suite A-27, 732-0010; Tuscany Suites & Casino, 255 E. Flamingo Rd., 893-8933, TuscanyLV.com.
Order a Jack Daniel’s, Sinatra-style, at the Golden Gate.
February 28-March 6, 2013
RAT PACK NIGHT
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Ring-a-ding-ding, do-bee-do-bee-do, what a cuckoo night. … Feelin’ the Frank yet? Not to mention the Dino, the Sammy and the Joey? Although the members of the Rat Pack are gone, they’re the eternal soul and symbol of Vegas, and a night spent in their spirit makes you just a little more of a local. Kick off your swingin’ evening digging into tasty steaks at the old-Vegas-style Golden Steer, which opened in 1958 and counted the Pack among their regulars. Then channel the guys at The Rat Pack Is Back at the Rio, where the core four (sorry, Peter Lawford) are re-created by tuxedoed impersonators who have downloaded every drop of their cool quotient. Fly to the moon with Frank. Hoof with Sammy and Mr. Bojangles. Find amoré with Dino—fnger-snappin’ all night long. Then head to the Golden Gate and order some Jack Daniel’s Sinatra-style (see VegasSeven. com/FrankieTwoFingers), and the bartenders will know what to do. See, that’s where the Pack actually used to hang out before leaving town after a show. It was across the street from the train station. Golden Steer, 308 W. Sahara Ave., 384-4470; GoldenSteerSteakHouseLasVegas.
com; The Rat Pack Is Back, VegasShowsDirect.com; Golden Gate Casino, 385-1906; GoldenGateCasino.com.
SALSA NIGHT If you want a change from the crowded nightclubs and the surprise grind-from-behind (you know the guys), try salsa, the high-energy dance that’s fun to learn—and a workout, too. Beginners can start with free lessons at Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant at 7 p.m. Thursdays with a partner session at 8 and more dancing at 9. The Mexican restaurant morphs into a full-on dance club with live music and fresh margaritas. Don’t worry about your lack of rhythm, as the pros are too busy showing off to notice your awkward moves. If one night of salsa just isn’t enough, the Tuscany Casino offers free lessons from 6-8 p.m. Sundays and open dancing until 11 p.m. Already a master of the spinning Cuban dance? Try the Tuscany’s Friday-night bachata lessons. The Dominican dance features less-fancy footwork but still offers a good time. And once you’re a Latin-dance expert, you just may decide to make this great night out a regular
Below-the-radar music is thriving. Savor it by testing your open-mic, rap-battle skills against other aspiring MCs at Vegas on the Mic (9 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays) at Money Plays or at Hip Hop Roots (10 p.m. Tuesdays) at LVCS. Afterward head to Favorites for a punk/doom show by touring groups such as New York’s Occultation. The summer’s high points, however, are twin all-day-and-night cult-metal fests Doom in June III (June 1) and Las Vegas Death Fest V (June 15), both at Cheyenne Saloon, each showcasing dozens of (disturbingly named) bands. Money Plays, 4755 W. Flamingo Rd.; LVCS, 425 Fremont St.; Favorites, 4110 S. Maryland Pkwy.; Cheyenne Saloon, 3103 N. Rancho Dr.
VIP NIGHT Want to live like the 1 percent, if only for a night? Start with a cocktail and some caviar at Bellagio’s Petrossian Bar, a staple of the hotel-bar scene and a great perch from which to people-watch. (Vegas Seven cocktail maven Xania Woodman recommends you order their fabulous barrel-aged Negroni). Then head over to Yellowtail, where chef Akira Back does one of the city’s most impressive omakase (chef’s choice) menus. If you are truly special, he might even saddle up to your table for some spirited conversation. Don’t leave without begging for an off-the-menu treat. Then, if you have $250,000 to burn, skip on over to Hyde (also at Bellagio) where six fgures buys a 30-liter bottle
Golden Gate photo by Anthony Mair; Drink & Drag photo by Jon Estrada
UNDERGROUND NIGHT
nightlife
First Look
From the Studs, a Megaclub Rises
A frst look at Hakkasan Las Vegas
VEGAS SEVEN
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When hakkasan Las Vegas Restaurant & Nightclub opens its doors at MGM Grand in April, it will end all the speculation surrounding one of the most anticipated projects on the Strip. I recently walked through the space with Neil Mofftt, founder and CEO of Angel Management Group, who manages party palaces such as Wet Republic, Pure and Social House. Mofftt conceived and will operate Hakkasan Las Vegas, a plan that was hatched two years ago in the offce of MGM Resorts International chairman Jim Murren, when Mofftt presented the idea to remake one of the world’s most recognizable intersections. “In our initial meetings
with Jim, we were astounded by the fact that he would allow us to mess with the façade of MGM,” Moffitt says. “We told him we would like to bring the building out 30 feet, and he said, ‘Great, just as long as I can have some [influence] on what’s going back there, I’m all for it.’” The Hakkasan construction team demolished the southwest corner of the casino on Tropicana and Las Vegas boulevards and brought the exterior wall forward to create a new dual marquee, which surrounds the iconic MGM Grand lion. “This is a complicated project. We had to create the space we wanted,” Moffitt says. Las Vegas has seen the trend
of clubs being owned and operated by the casinos themselves, and conversely by outside management companies who specialize in doing this. The city has also seen big-box, one-room venues and labyrinthine spaces that are modular in their design, allowing for intimate or massive parties as needed. For Mofftt and his team, Hakkasan is a result of all the lessons learned during the roller-coaster ride that was nightlife in Las Vegas over the past decade. Encompassing fve stories, the 80,000-square-foot complex (a footprint that formerly included Studio 54) has a frst-level dining room, a private second-level dining room, a VIP lounge and night-
club on the third foor, and a main nightclub and pavilion that spans the fourth and ffth levels. There, the world’s top DJs will play (Calvin Harris is the frst to be offcially confrmed). Revelers will witness a high-tech audio-visual system, and diners will experience Michelin-rated cuisine. The Entrance Guests enter Hakkasan from the casino floor. With a capacity in the thousands, Moffitt says Hakkasan has devised a sophisticated system to manage both the line and the pedestrian traffic surrounding the entrance. “All things being equal, if the study is correct, it will be great. Until we actually
open and have that number of human bodies, nothing’s ever perfect.” The entrance to the restaurant sits opposite the three elevators going to the nightclub floors. “We can move 2,500 people an hour, up and down,” he says. The Restaurant The “cage,” or shell, of the restaurant is the largest ever built for a Hakkasan (there are two in London, four in the U.S., three in the Middle East and one in India). The dining room, helmed by chef Ho Chee Boon, has 18-foot ceilings, and the kitchen itself is a marvel. “It has to be built in a specifc way,” Mofftt says. “[Hakkasan] decided what equipment works to produce the best-
Photography by Andrew James
February 28-March 6, 2013
By Melinda Sheckells
in Las Vegas. “It’s really an extension of the restaurant, but it also acts as a retreat for people who want to be a part of the experience in a more sedate environment.” The Nightclubs “We are taking the DNA of the restaurant and running it through the building,” Moffitt says, noting the dramatic shift in atmosphere as one moves from the Ling Ling lounge into the adjacent 10,000-square-foot flexible nightclub area. It can function independently, or can be an annex of the main room on the fourth and fifth floors. But no matter on which level guests find themselves, design elements, such as the
lotus-blossom motif, harken back to the first impressions of the restaurant. “The third-floor nightclub is more intimate and has higher energy and lower ceilings than what we have upstairs, [so] we can offer one or three nightclubs,” Moffitt says. “We’ve created a competitive nightclub within our own facility.” Ascending to the ffth foor, I got a frst glance at the club’s vast, two-story main room, which itself can be sectioned off into four separate environments. “We can open up pocket doors and combine the spaces,” Mofftt says. “It can be super intimate for 200, or there could be 4,000 people in here.” The table setup is in the
style of a stadium. Booths are elevated, allowing partiers to see the club from every angle. The DJ will also be in a prime position, enveloped by an LED wall—which Moffitt says will be the first of this caliber in Las Vegas. “Imagine if you’re the DJ: When the downstairs and upstairs are full and it’s got intensity, there’s nothing like it. It makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck,” Moffitt says. “It’s not like walking in a sea of heads; it’s like being in a stadium. When you see someone score a touchdown, he looks up at the coliseum like he’s a god. That’s the DJ’s mentality.” As Mofftt concluded the tour, we observed the corner
of Tropicana and Las Vegas boulevards from Hakkasan’s fourth foor, the view still exposed as the walls have yet to be constructed. “This is not my frst rodeo,” he says in a moment of refection. “I’ve been through the whole electronic thing for the past 20 years. I introduced Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, Swedish House Mafa, Deadmau5 … everybody to this market. I’ve had the big club with only one room. But I believe the clubs that are successful for many years are the ones that offer different things at different times, appealing to different people.” For a complete gallery of images, visit VegasSeven.com/HakkasanTour.
41 VEGAS SEVEN
quality food, and they will not deviate from that.” The second foor’s private dining rooms offer panoramic views of the restaurant below. And on the third foor, the intimate Ling Ling lounge serves as a transitional space and gives guests their frst glimpse into the nightclub zone. “We didn’t want to just appeal to one demographic,” Mofftt says. “There are people who are going to the restaurant who don’t want to go to a nightclub. They might want a more high-end mixology experience.” Mofftt says his team will be very cautious as to who gets to access the lounge, and subsequently, I predict, it will become one of the most exclusive spaces
February 28-March 6, 2013
Clockwise from far left: Neil Moffitt, two views of the main room and Hakkasan’s signature dim sum.
nightlife
parties
LaX Luxor
[ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Bobby Jameidar and Teddy Fujimoto
February 28-March 6, 2013
Feb. 27 JackColton.com’s second annual Local Celebrity Roast March 6 Warren G performs March 9 Naughty by Nature performs
nightlife
parties
the bank Bellagio
[ Upcoming ]
VEGAS SEVEN
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Bobby Jameidar, Roman Mendez, and Tony Tran
February 28-March 6, 2013
March 15 Common’s birthday and live performance March 17 Arizona Spring Fling finale March 28 Trinidad James performs
nightlife
parties
tryst Wynn
[ Upcoming ]
VEGAS SEVEN
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Danny Mahoney
February 28-March 6, 2013
March 7 Sidney Samson spins March 8 DJ Spider spins March 9 Jessica Who spins
drinking [ Scene StirS ]
Dining
Power wining, dom Pérignon dining and Craft Brew news • I received a visit from America’s first Master Sommelier last week. Eddie Osterland stopped by to talk about Power Entertaining, his new book about how to strategically use wine and food in business situations. A sort of Power Lunching (1985) for this generation, Osterland’s book suggests serving the finest dishes and strongest flavors first, saving the simple or rich for last; your palate, he explains, has a short attention span. You should also drink a paired wine with a bite of food still in your mouth and offer guests in your home a wine list from which to choose. Eddie, I’m working on my list now! EddieOsterland.com.
If whiskey makes you frisky, gin makes you sin and brandy makes you randy, then what does dedicating one casino bar entirely to vodka make you? Smart. Before they queue up to get down, partiers heading to Surrender can frst slip over to VDKA, the new vodka bar at Encore, to get the party started. Here, more than 130 varieties of vodka are available straight or in cocktails. The city’s frst Shock-A-Vodka speed-draft system keeps a faction of novelty vodkas chilled and ready to dispense in case of emergency, favors that take direct aim at the kid in you, such as sugar cookie, devil’s food cake and peanut butter. A menu of vodka-based cocktails complements the spirit list, with more sophisticated favors and presentations, such as Francesco Lafranconi’s Asian-inspired Paradiso Cocktail. The executive director of mixology and spirits education for Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada embraced the versatility of vodka to take guests at VDKA and the adjacent Andrea’s straight to the Far East with his house-infused Chopin, exotic Pacifc Rim ingredients and touch of French elegance. Consider the party started.
Paradiso CoCktail
February 28-March 6, 2013
As served at VDKA and Andrea’s in Encore, $16
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In a mixing glass, combine 2 ounces pineapple-kaffir-lemongrass infused Chopin vodka, ½ ounce Grand Marnier, ½ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice, ½ ounce rock candy syrup and 1 dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters. Add ice, cover, shake and strain into a chilled 7–ounce cocktail glass or coup. Garnish with a dehydrated pineapple wheel (DressTheDrink.com).
• In local craft brew news, Tenaya Creek Brewery “beer mercenary” Alex Graham (real title) reports that a recently completed expansion has increased output by 60 percent. This is fortuitous as the Old Jackalope seasonal barley wine just received a 97 rating and glowing review (“gorgeous” and “robust”) in Draft magazine. Tenaya Creek distributes to Nevada, Arizona, Ohio, Utah and British Columbia, but in March will expand to Alberta, Canada, and Southern California. Cheers! TenayaCreek.com. For more scene stirrings and shake-ups, visit VegasSeven.com/Cocktail-Culture.
Photo by Lucky Wenzel
Orient Express
• Dom Pérignon Rosé 2002 had its U.S. release in what can only be described as ‘pink-carpet style’ at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health on February 21, a five-course pairing affair attended by the who’s who. “Well, who,” you ask? There were society writers, sommeliers, restaurateurs, casino resort bigwigs, me … but most importantly, chef de cave Richard Geoffroy, who extolled, “There is nothing more exciting than the launch of a new Dom Pérignon vintage.” Chefs from Wolfgang Puck’s camp prepared a five-course meal that paired the 2002 with chestnut agnolotti in brown-butter sauce, Maine lobster under a blizzard of black truffle shavings and a tangerine semifreddo. The 2002 is the first rosé vintage released since the 2000, and a highly anticipated one at that, thanks to the success of the 2002 blanc. Insiders whispered predictions that much of the 2002 will be stashed away for the next decade, to be re-released as a noble oenothèque (library) wine, and after swooning over the Dom Pérignon Rosé Oenothèque 1993, I can see why. Of the 2002, Geoffroy also pointed out that he had to taste all the way back to 1947 (it’s a tough job!) to find its peer in ripeness, and that pinot noir, “the object of fascination” for so many oenophiles, is a fickle grape. Thus, I suppose, the sweeter the reward. DomPerignon.com.
music
The White Buffalo channels outlaw country singers.
February 28-March 6, 2013
Black metal, white Buffaloes, lunar tenderness
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fight cluB author Chuck Palahniuk said: There will always be an underground. In Vegas this week, belowthe-radar shows are teeming. Look for two especially gnarly underground metal shows at Favorites (4110 S. Maryland Parkway). First, Tucson’s Godhunter descends at 9 p.m. March 1 with locals Demon Lung, China, Lotus and Blister Unit. Godhunter’s 2012 disc, Wolves, is a sludge-rock-monger’s wet dream, full of down-tuned guitars, dinosaur-stalking-the-forest rhythms and throat-shredding vocals. The quintet even brings a bit of the blues in John Lee Hooker-meets-Helmet groove of “Dead Hooker on the Side of the Road.” Then, at 6 p.m. March 3, New Jersey “raw-f” black metal unit Krieg kills eardrums with Salt Lake City’s Odium Totus and Vegas outfts Breath of Sorrows, Spun in Darkness and Sarcalogos. Krieg has been kicking around since the mid-’90s, releasing a series of well-respected albums and EPs. The band started out playing primitive, noisy black metal but has gradually expanded its palette to include ’80s elements of goth-rock and shoegaze. This show will slay. On an altogether different musical note, alt-country performer The White Buffalo stampedes into the Hard Rock Café on the Strip at 9 p.m. March 2. The White Buffalo is the stage name of Jake Smith, who last year released his second fulllength Once Upon a Time in the West. The album has some terrifc tunes on it, including the banjo-powered, faster-than-a-locomotive “How the
West Was Won,” about triumphing over personal adversity—and the bottle—in order to fnd love. Smith is a classic outlaw songwriter in the tradition of Johnny Cash and Steve Earle, so if you need a serious shot of dark yet enjoyable whiskey-fueled cowboy-rock, shoot this. Swedish technicalmetal juggernaut Meshuggah joins Intronaut and Animals as Leaders in raising unholy hell at House of Blues at 6 p.m. March 3. This time last year, Meshuggah released its seventh album, the crushing, colossal-sounding Koloss. So many tracks from this album are absolutely skull-pummeling—the lurching riff-frenzy of “Demiurge,” for instance. But my favorite song right now is “Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion,” a rhythm-staggering slab of sheer brutality that makes me pity House of Blues security because the moshpit there will be sick. Sick, I say. San Francisco noise-rock, post-punk darkwavers The Soft Moon easily eclipses all other live-music options at 10 p.m. March 6 at Beauty Bar. Stripped-down, menacing and bathed in jet-black, The Soft Moon offers a harder take on industrial-infuenced rock than anything Interpol ever did. At the same time, this is defnitely the goth event of the year, one that’ll certainly appeal to everyone—from vampire-fction readers to dark-fantasy role-play gamers to Morrissey fans to The Killing Joke-sters. Let me sum it up: I’m dusting off my Joy Division T-shirt for this. You should, too. Your Vegas band releasing a CD soon? Email Jarret_Keene@Yahoo.com.
a&e
reading
When Smart is Sexy
For this New York Times best-selling author, romance novels ofer more than just a paperback fantasy
February 28-March 6, 2013
By Cindi Moon Reed
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Sarah MacLean dedicated her latest book to “girls who wear glasses.” The Harvard-educated New York Times and USA Today best-selling author has a thing for smart girls, which is why she made one the protagonist in One Good Earl Deserves a Lover (Avon Books, $8). The historical romance, which debuted in January, tells the story of how a “brilliant, bespectacled daughter of a double marquess” connects with the “clever, controlled partner in London’s most exclusive gaming hell.” This is her sixth book, and the second in a planned four-book series, called Rule of Scoundrels. Yes, these are traditional romance novels, complete with RegencyEngland fnery and semi-scandalous covers. However, this is no grocery-store paperback. MacLean’s writing is strong, compelling and smart. Her ideas about romance writing are, too. On breaking the stereotype of the romance genre: “It’s widely viewed that romance heroines are somehow placeholders for the reader. And that romance readers are somehow women who need fantasy in order to live a happy life. It’s a stereotype that we face everyday as romance writers and readers. Really great romances have heroines who are remarkably strong. Invariably, they are the hero of the story.” On romance novels as a feminist act: “I give a lot of speeches at gender conferences around the country, and one of the things that I talk about is if you think of a romance novel as a metaphor, and you consider your romance heroine as your hero, and your hero as society at large, what you’re actually talking about is the feminist movement. A woman is fghting to be unique and accepted in the eyes of a larger, more powerful being. So you have a hero who’s got a ton of money, or has
a title in my case, is physically more powerful—all the kind of things that we pile on to the Fabio image—and, ultimately, she brings him to his knees. If you blow it up to a 30,000-foot view, we’re talking about something much more powerful for women: the idea that we might actually, someday be accepted and viewed on an equal level by society at large. That’s why it’s such a feminist text. They’re written by women, they’re written for women, they’re written about women, they’re about female fantasy.” On the bad-boy appeal: “It’s really fun to write about the bad boy who changes, the rake or the scoundrel who suddenly becomes the perfect husband and father. Certainly, that change always happens through love. But my heroines are all the heroes of their novels. They all change. They all have deep faws at the beginning, and they end up being addressed and dealt with. … This is big picture. We can also talk about the sex bits, if you prefer. [Laughs.]” On ambiguity: “I think there’s power in ‘happily ever after.’ There’s power in ‘he’s dead and never coming back,’ too [laughs], if you’re a horrorflm fan. The power is the same in both situations. The ‘everything is going to be OK’ is why genre fction gets lower marks from critics and from the general public. That’s because ambiguity is intriguing in the way that a fnite reading is more rewarding emotionally.” On the challenge of plotting a book: “I teach a romancewriting class, and we did a week on plotting. I plot from the end forward. In the end, they ride off into the sunset, so to speak, so you have to build the confict so that when you get to the end, there is that fnite end. It’s a scary thing when you start
“My books are full of angst and draMa and devastation.”
with two characters who are diametrically opposed. Or the main character in A Rogue by Any Other Name (Avon Books, 2012) is a horrible, horrible person, and has been horrible for years. Turning that ship around is easily the hardest book I’ve written. I can’t imagine writing if it ended ambiguously.”
On her own marriage and courtship: “Please, it’s shelved in fction for a reason. We’ve been together for a lot longer than I’ve been writing. Romance is tough for him. I think it’s hard for men in general. We live in a world where—poor men—we lap up romance in the world, from ads to movies to books. And these guys are just normal guys, and they don’t know what to do. Eric, my husband, does read my books, and they crack him up, because he’s like, ‘You know men don’t look out the window and brood and think about their girlfriends. They’re like, is it raining?’” On happy vs. sad endings:
“In literary fction, love is a catalyst for pain that moves the story forward. Happiness is somehow less valuable. My books are full of angst and drama and devastation. In the end, it all gets resolved, and tied up in a little bow. Wouldn’t it be nice if the whole world would be that way?” On writing sex scenes: “Write drunk and edit sober.” [Laughs.] An Evening with Julia Quinn and Sarah MacLean: Rogues, Gamblers and Happy Endings, 7 p.m. March 4, Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Rd., free, 507-3459.
stage
Anyone who could resist Million Dollar Quartet’s tsunami of sound—a hits blitz from the catalogs of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash—needs a hearing test. Then a brain scan. However, given that the best musicals—even juke-boxers—invest in a solid plot rather than this one’s quickie, inconsequential confict, Harrah’s new resident production would be better labeled a superior tribute show. Vegas being Tribute Central means Quartet still fits in snugly. Set in 1956, this ex-Broadway show— whose tour version played The Smith Center last year—tells the true tale of how Sun Records founder Sam Phillips united the fresh-faced foursome at his Memphis storefront studio. As they amble in, Phillips (energetic Marc Donovan, full of record-exec hustle) narrates their backstories as they play bits of their hits. Choppy, but it gets the job done. Jamming, joking and needling each other—particularly Perkins, exasperated by brash newcomer Lewis—the boys are at career crossroads. While Cash and Perkins are grateful to Phillips for launching them, they’re hiding that they’ll sign with Columbia Records when their Sun contracts expire. Presley, fresh off his Ed Sullivan Show triumph, wants to return to the Sun fold after Phillips reluctantly sold his contract to RCA to keep Sun breathing. Angling to impress everyone is Lewis, a boastful, self-impressed piano-pounder. You’ll wait 75 minutes in an 85-minute show before any of that gets some feeting dramatic traction, and its resolution amounts to a shrug. What’s left? What you came for—the characterizations of legends and their music. Every song’s a time-traveling blast. Partial set list: “Folsom Prison Blues,”
“Hound Dog,” “See You Later Alligator,” “That’s All Right,” “Ring of Fire,” “Long Tall Sally,” “Great Balls of Fire” and “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” All set afame by actors wailing away themselves, backed by a bassist and drummer. Lip-curled and lacquer-haired, Tyler Hunter—eschewing over-the-top, Vegas-y mannerisms—does a solid Elvis, though physically he’s more flled out than the sleek, hip-swiveling ’50s version. Laconic and barrel-toned, Benjamin Hale offers a dead-on approximation of Cash, including aiming his guitar like a rife, though he sometimes dips shakily below Cash’s foor-scraping baritone (yes, it’s possible). Pulling off the tougher task of embodying Perkins, who’s less fxed in the public consciousness, Robert Britton Lyons bristles with rock ’n’ roll swagger and a mischievous glare. Wielding demonic energy, Martin Kaye entertainingly swallows the scenery as Lewis, though he doesn’t quite match the bigness of the original’s stage presence. Maximizing a minimal role as Elvis’ gal pal, voluptuous Felice Garcia contributes a couple of songs, including a purring, Peggy Lee-like “Fever.” Even if the story isn’t worth a nickel, Million Dollar Quartet’s music is worth every penny. STRIP POSTSCRIPT: Cirque du Soleil and Mandalay Bay gave their new Jacko show—previews begin May 23—a name. Everyone, meet Michael Jackson ONE. Meanwhile, Peepshow re-signed star Coco Austin and her mammoth mammaries to a contract extension through July 28. Suggestion: Rechristen it Coco Austin TWO. Ever perform in a band worth a million bucks? Or was yours called the $2.79 Trio? Email your old band names to Steve.Bornfeld@VegasSeven.com.
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Photo by Erik Kabik
Monster Music, Minor musical.
February 28-March 6, 2013
Million Dollar Quartet hits Musical jackpot but Defaults on story
A&E
movies
devil’s deal
A dad turns drug informant to save his son from prison in this quality action flm By Michael Phillips
Tribune Media Services Large, in charge and nobody’s little Margie: Dwayne Johnson takes on the drug kingpins in Snitch. Place your bets! Snitch comes from a story told in a Frontline documentary about the post-Reagan-era injustice of mandatory minimum sentencing for frst-time, nonviolent offenders. In real life, James Settembrino was the father of an 18-year-old who received a 10-year sentence for the possession and sale of LSD. The kid claims he was set up by a government informant; James Settembrino cooperated with prosecutors by attempting to ferret out information on other drug dealers, in exchange for a lighter sentence for his son. Snitch owes little to what actually happened. Its fdelity, rather, is to the widespread outrage that an offender such as the teenage Settembrino could get rougher judicial treatment than the average rapist, for example. Starring an effectively contained Johnson in the role of a wholly fctionalized father, director Ric Roman Waugh’s modest, effcient
programmer weighs in at roughly 20 percent reality and 80 percent movie-ality, which is about average for a movie “inspired by true events.” Whatever. This one actually works. Snitch is shrewd in its balancing of our sympathies. Set in Missouri but shot in Shreveport, Louisiana, the movie (co-written by Waugh, with Justin Haythe) gets right to it, with the Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation and arrest of 18-year-old Jason (Raf Gavron), whose drugdealer friend strong-arms him into accepting a shipment of a big box of Ecstasy. The feds are ready and waiting, and Jason lands in the clink. (The script implies that Jason’s misjudgment is the result of acting-out over his parents’ divorce.) But dad is ready for high-risk solutions. Johnson, formerly The Rock but now fully on his way to being known as Formerly The Rock, plays John Matthews, a construction manager who convinces a conniving U.S. attorney running for Congress (Susan Sarandon) to allow him to infltrate a drug cartel run
Dwayne Johnson, a.k.a. The Rock, plays one fierce father.
by Mr. Big (Benjamin Bratt) in exchange for his son’s freedom. The drug lord’s middlemen include Malik, played with stony disdain by Michael Kenneth Williams. Barry Pepper, always welcome, tips around the edges of the very full narrative as John’s police contact, a man with a beard like Rip Van Winkle’s and with second thoughts about sending a private citizen into harm’s way. That’d be enough for most flms, but Snitch benefts from an additional key supporting character, an ex-con work-
ing for John, played by Jon Bernthal (of The Walking Dead). Bernthal’s terrifc in the part of a family man dragged back into the life he thought he’d left behind. The movie becomes patently silly in its fnal lap and a climactic action scene featuring Johnson driving a jack-knifng semitrailer while shotgunning drug lords. I don’t recall that part being in Frontline. Even so, director Waugh (who came up as a stuntman) delivers higher-grade obviousness than many movies offer. Mainly, Snitch has a way of
February 28-March 6, 2013
short reviews
VEGAS SEVEN
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Safe Haven (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
The new Nicholas Sparks movie begins as a desperate young woman (Julianne Hough) flees the scene of a crime in Boston. Assuming a new haircut, Katie gets off the bus in Southport, North Carolina, gets a job at the diner and a cabin, and starts sharing smoldering looks with town widower dad (Josh Duhamel). Katie has something to hide; Duhamel has some grieving to do; and the filmmakers have some sunsets to film before things get violent and threatening. Which they do. It’s OK, but like most Sparks movies: meh.
Beautiful Creatures (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
Based on the young adult novel, this film follows high school senior Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) who is plagued by a recurring Civil War-era nightmare that he cannot explain or understand. The girl in his dreams resembles the new girl in town, Lena (Alice Englert), who is one of a long line of “casters,” or people with supernatural abilities. Love between a mortal and a caster comes with its risks, of course. Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons and Viola Davis support, but it’s not the strongest effort in the genre.
A Good Day to Die Hard (R) ★✩✩✩✩
The fifth installment in the franchise, this film is a lousy action movie in its own right. John McClane (Bruce Willis) is back, wisecracks and all. Traveling to Moscow to retrieve his estranged son, played by Jai Courtney, McClane the elder discovers his son is really a CIA spook trying to keep a Russian dissident (Sebastian Koch) alive long enough to turn over a top-secret file. Chase scenes are over the top, and the violence takes the film so very far away from what made the original movie so good. All this does is make us feel old and miss the first one.
keeping you guessing about the next turn in its story, and a way of keeping Johnson’s character compellingly at the mercy of others. There’s a fair amount of violence, but most of it is handled crisply and without “attaboy!” relish. The junkyards, crack houses and mean nocturnal streets lend the story a vaguely fatalistic air recalling B-movie noirs of the late 1940s and ’50s. It’s an entertaining picture—pulp, coming from a place of righteous indignation. Snitch (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
[ by tribune media services ]
Identity Thief (R) ★★✩✩✩
Unfortunately, this road-trip movie fails its stellar stars. Denver businessman Sandy (Jason Bateman) discovers his identity has been stolen, his credit ruined. To fix things, he must track down the culprit, who happens to be Diana (Melissa McCarthy), a Florida con woman. The two go on the road to make things right, all the while followed by bounty hunters. Bateman and McCarthy are great performers and likeable, but the material is so dreadfully inferior, there’s just not much to see here.
movies
Warm Bodies (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
This sly film from Steven Soderbergh is a deftly plotted look at pharmacological states of mind. Emily (Rooney Mara) is a tense Manhattanite whose husband (Channing Tatum) gets out of prison. They struggle to connect, and Emily is prescribed antidepressants by her psychiatrist (Jude Law), who benefits from enrolling her in a drug trial. Blood eventually gets spilled, and Mara is a sphinx of an actress, never truly giving us a bearing on her character’s state of mind. It’s taut and worth seeing.
This goofy zombie comic-romance follows the undead fellow known as R (Nicholas Hoult), who “just wants to connect.” One day while hunting zombies, human Julie (Teresa Palmer) gets saved from being eaten by R, and both of their heartstrings go zing. The two of them fall for each other and wind up sparking a revolution. John Malkovich plays Julie’s father and leader of the movement keeping the zombies at bay. It’s a different twist on familiar themes, but lacks a certain something.
Bullet to the Head (R) ★★✩✩✩
Stand Up Guys (R) ★✩✩✩✩
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (R) ★✩✩✩✩
Mama (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
This R-rated horror-action-comedy fairy tale is more Gatling guns and grenades than the Brothers Grimm. Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) have become witch hunters ever since their original goose cooking made them famous. They’re hired to save the village of Augsburg from its witch blight and the Great Witch (Famke Janssen). There’s plenty of action and F-bombs, but it just doesn’t really work.
We know these old mugs well. After a 28-year prison sentence, small-time hood Val (Al Pacino) is greeted at the gates by old friend Doc (Christopher Walken). Doc’s been hired, under threat of execution, to kill his pal Val. But first, some fun. The lads pay a visit to old friend, Hirsch (Alan Arkin). Misadventures, sex with Russian hookers, nostalgia and retribution upon a gang of rapists fill out the dance card. The trio are wasting their time here. It feels like three months in the movie slammer.
The prologue tells of a father grabbing his children and speeding into the mountains. They wind up at a remote cabin, and then something happens to him. Five years later, searchers find the girls, now feral, nonverbal, like rats almost. Their uncle (Nikolaj CosterWaldau) takes them in, but his girlfriend (Jessica Chastain) is reluctant. Naturally, all is not as it seems, thanks to whatever kept them alive in the woods. Chastain and the girls, Megan Charpentier and Isabelle Nelisse, are great. A solid ghost story.
February 28-March 6, 2013
In this pretty cliché, grungy, uber-violent action flick, hit man Jimmy Bobo (Sylvester Stallone) partners up with a crusading police detective played by Sung Kang, and the two get swept up in something to do with police corruption, skeezy development deals and an incriminating flash drive. Stallone is riveting in his way, and director Walter Hill (48 Hrs.) harkens back to action movies of old. It’s gory, brutal and you’ve seen it all before, but it’s not the worst movie ever.
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Side Effects (R) ★★★✩✩