EvEnt
Dog Days of spring
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[ upcoming ]
June 7 Blind Center of Nevada’s Glow Ball golf tournament (BlindCenter.org) June 8 Rising Phoenix’s eighth-annual Fire & Ice Gala (RisingPhoenixCharitableFoundation.com)
Photos by Derek Degner
May 30-June 5, 2013
More than 200 people and pets took to Tivoli Village for the inaugural Fur Ball charity festivities on May 22. Benefiting the Animal Foundation, a Home 4 Spot and Hot Diggity Dachshund, the evening raised more than $1,000 for animal-rescue efforts and saw six dogs adopted. The furraising fun included a fashion show co-hosted by Stephanie Mackenzie of KXPT-FM 97.1, as well as pet photography and caricaturist sessions. Pet owners enjoyed wine samplings provided by Southern Wine & Spirits, while each pup picked up a goodie bag that included treats from Mugsy & Moxie and Shaggy Chic dog boutiques. Fur Ball was held in conjunction with Tivoli Days, a weeklong celebration of the Summerlin shopping center’s two-year anniversary.
May 30-June 5, 2013
the latest
Betting
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Sampler Platter
NFL season win totals are out, and our expert serves up an AFC appetizer By Matt Jacob
it’s Been argued by some—OK, many—that I am the Ryan Leaf of NFL prognosticators: an enormous bust. To that I take enormous offense, as I’ve won a lot more than four NFL games. Fine, so my winning percentage might be a tad Leaf-ian, and certainly my balance sheet suggests I’m a long way from being nominated for induction into the Handicapper’s Hall of Fame. But this much you can’t deny: When it comes to NFL win-total predictions, I make Joe Montana look like a chump. Over the past three seasons, I’ve compiled a 52-25-1 record with NFL win-total recommendations; last year alone, I went 22-9-1. What’s my secret? I could tell you … if only I knew. And frankly, I don’t want to know. To paraphrase my electronicdance-music DJ pals, it’s best not to waste brainpower overanalyzing unexplainable success. Just ride the wave until it inevitably pounds you into the ocean foor. With that said, let’s take a quick-hitter look at William Hill sportsbooks’ recently released 2013 season over/under numbers, starting with the AFC. Note: This is just an appetizer; check back in about six weeks for my offcial recommendations. AFC EAST: Bills (6½ wins): Count me among the idiots who last year believed Chan Gailey would guide Buffalo to its second winning record since 1999. The Bills, whose win total jumped to as high as eight last summer, limped to 6-10—its fourth straight season with six wins or fewer. … Dolphins (7½): With a rookie coach (Joe Philbin) and a rookie QB (Ryan Tannehill), Miami went 7-9 in 2012 (its third such record in the last four years). Both Philbin and Tannehill drop to their knees nightly to give thanks for four games versus the Jets and Bills. … Jets (6½): A synopsis of New York’s offseason: It kept coach Rex Ryan, kept quarterback Mark Sanchez, dumped one of the league’s best defensive players (Darrelle Revis), drafted a QB with a questionable work ethic (Geno Smith) and kicked God (Tim Tebow) to the curb. Do you trust this franchise to win seven games? … Patriots (11½): Ten straight double-digit-victory seasons and counting for Bill Belichick & Co., including seven seasons of at least 12 wins. No wonder the Pats are tied with Denver and San Francisco for the highest projected win total.
@SklarBrothers
Paris Hilton signs a record deal with Cash Money. Can anyone say “Redemption Time?”
@JennyJohnsonHi5
Jose Canseco tweeted the name, number and picture of a woman who accused him of rape. All of a sudden the Kardashians don’t seem that bad.
@PjPerez
Vegas: We’re such a literate town, the best place we can find for our former mayor to sign his book is an airport bookstore/sundries shop.
@memetwalker
First night in Vegas, a drunk naked lost 70yo lady climbs in my bed while I’m asleep. It was like The Shining and The Hangover all at once.
@ManlyAsshole
How do you know you’re allergic to cats if you’ve never even tasted one?
History says Joe Flacco and the Ravens will win at least nine games this season.
AFC NORTH: Bengals (8½): Cincinnati is coming off consecutive 9-7 and 10-6 campaigns. The last time the Bungles won more than eight games in three straight seasons? That would be never. … Browns (6½): New offensive coordinator Norv Turner recently told CBSSports.com that the Browns’ offense is “going to attack.” Somebody needs to introduce Norv to his quarterback, Brandon Weeden. (FYI: Cleveland has won at least seven games exactly once since 2003.) … Ravens (8½): Baltimore’s victory totals in the Joe Flacco/John Harbaugh era: 11, 9, 12, 12 and 10. Victory totals for the last six defending Super Bowl champs: 9, 15, 11, 9, 12, 13. … Steelers (9½): From 2000-11, Pittsburgh fnished with fewer than 10 wins four times. Following each of those years, the Steelers posted consecutive double-digit-victory seasons. Pittsburgh went 8-8 in 2012. AFC SOUTH: Colts (8½): Indianapolis was one of eight teams with at least 11 wins last year. The other seven had a point differential of at least plus-85, including fve teams that outscored their opponents by at least 120 points. The Colts’ point differential: minus-30. … Jaguars (5): Who says the Jaguars (7-25 the last two seasons) never win anything?
They have the lowest win total of 2013! … Texans (10½): Houston’s six games against division rivals Indy, Jacksonville and Tennessee are offset by six brutal contests against the Ravens, Seahawks, 49ers, Rams, Patriots and Broncos. ... Titans (6½): Only four teams in 2012 had a worse point differential than Tennessee’s minus-141. Those teams fnished 4-12, 4-12, 2-14 and 2-14. The Titans went 6-10. The password is: fuke! AFC WEST: Broncos (11½): NFL Wagering 101: Never bet on Peyton Manning in the playoffs; never bet against him in the regular season— Manning has won at least 12 games in eight of his last nine full seasons. … Chargers (7½): San Diego went 7-9 in 2012, its frst sub-.500 record since 2003. But Norv Turner and general manager A.J. Smith have left the building, which has to be good for at least one additional victory, right? ... Chiefs (7½): Speaking of addition by subtraction: So long Matt Cassel and Romeo Crennel; hello Alex Smith and Andy Reid. (This is a good thing, Chiefs fans. I swear.) ... Raiders (5½): You did it, Oakland: a full decade (2003-12) without a single winning season, including eight years with fve victories or fewer. Just (Continue to) Lose, Baby!
@BobKushell
Going to Vegas for a couple days to hike and stuff, but might want to play blackjack at night. Are there casinos in the area? Suggestions?
@MaksimC
I honestly think that 90 percent of people in Vegas on Memorial Day weekend didn’t really think about Memorial Day. Sad.
@HughHefner
The guy with gray hair and a pipe claiming to be me in Miami and Las Vegas is a phony.
@KenJennings
No Game of Thrones tonight, so I’m pretending the Liberace movie is a super-long Renly/Loras flashback.
@LaDiEkILa1
Busted nose, broken finger, fucked-up body. ... Best weekend ever! I fuckin’ love you Punk Rock Bowling! I wish you were every day!
Share your Tweet. Add #V7.
Gastro Fare. Nurtured Ales. Jukebox Gold.
style The LaTesT
Charles Ressler
Downtown communications specialist Day glow … is my favorite color. OK, it’s not a color, it’s a spectrum. But it’s my favorite of the season. I say “if it glows in the day, I’ll love it.” I use it like a neutral. Rivieras … are my go-to pair of shoes. They are the original, undiscovered Toms. If I could own a pair in every color I would probably only wear Rivieras. A lot of times … I’m talking to people, and I realize they have no idea what I’m talking about. It took me awhile to understand the pace and the way people communicate in Vegas after moving from New York. Downtown … life is about the people. I’d throw myself in front of a bus for most of the people down here. I have, on many occasions—fguratively speaking, of course.
May 30-June 5, 2013
– Jessi C. Acuña
VEGAS SEVEN
Photo by Zack W
25
style the latest
Summer Beauty
Cosmetics guru Sonia Kashuk on the season’s best looks and must-haves By Jessi C. Acuña
Makeup artist sonia Kashuk has been making affordable, highquality products for almost 15 years. Each season, the New Yorkbased Kashuk releases her reinterpreted line of makeup and cosmetics, via her partnership with Target, supplying women with everyday staples for their beauty arsenals. We caught up with Kashuk to discuss her new line of cosmetic bags and to get some makeup tips for the season. What inspired your design for this season’s cosmetic bags? As I design new prints each season, I find different inspirations each time. The yarn print bag was inspired from a knit. It was a reinterpretation, and it added an interesting array of color. I also considered how could I use materials or fabrics that are not at all even related, while still trying to keep up with the trends and colors of the season. I saw beaded work and transformed that into the variety of green flowers. The tile print came from my trip to Morocco.
Any recommendations on how to create the right look for the dayclub? Use minimal amount of product, especially as it gets warmer, so put the energy in the eyes or lips. Try my lip-and-cheek stain to add a little bit of brightness. If it’s super humid, it’s hard to hold anything on the face, so try false eyelashes. They can give a lot of drama when not overly done. Also, start the night before when you’re going to bed. A self-tanner helps the skin look healthy, and you don’t have to worry about skin care.
May 30-June 5, 2013
What is your one must-have beauty item this season? A beautiful bronzer. My line has two award-winning bronzers to consider: the cream matte bronzer and the illuminating bronzer.
If you don’t want the color to become a second skin try the latter—it’s perfect to add warmth and tone. Also, try using a dual-fiber brush to give the lightest delivery.
Sonia Kashuk floral, tile and yarn print double zip foldovers available at Target, $10.
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do nothing but read the works of David Foster Wallace and annotate old perfect-bound issues of The Baffer, but there isn’t much money in that kind of thing these days. Besides, if one were truly to unplug, one would run the risk of missing out on what Jezebel editor-in-chief Jessica Coen refers to as “eye-opening intergenerational experiences.” “Whereas once it might have been easy to slowly disconnect from pop/youth culture and fade, blissfully ignorant, into irrelevance, now ‘disconnecting’ means literally to deny yourself the full experience of a dominant cultural medium,” said Coen, who, at age 33, splits the difference between the Millennials and Generation X.
aging British quartets right alongside their guardians. One wonders what the result of all this generational commingling will be. Will our children be forced to go to further extremes to rebel? Or maybe they’ll become archly conservative boors in response to all of this enforced hipness—the mature grown-ups we’ve not yet had the guts to become. It would serve us right. I know that I’m part of the problem. My nearly 5-year-old son is well-versed in the lore of the Ramones and could offer a dissertation on the original Star Wars trilogy. His younger brother recites the lyrics to Beastie Boys songs like they were nursery rhymes. I have
aren’t hurting anybody. But perhaps what we really need to do is put on suits and take our wives out for expensive dinners, like our dads before us. My father was 45 when I was born—the age I am now. Although he was always youthful and athletic, even to the end, he was a child of the Great Depression, a frst-generation American Jew who grew up poor and scrappy in a shared rental duplex on Detroit’s west side. He seemed to have become an adult the day he graduated law school. In his early 50s, my father was a dark-haired force of nature in double-breasted suits who was as feared in the courtroom as he was generous outside it, and my view of what
“It’s gotten exhausting,” said Kyle Smith, the 46-year-old author and New York Post flm critic. “I have to keep up in some ways, otherwise my cultural references risk sounding like Grampa Simpson’s. But I’m also supposed to stay on top of reality TV, Homeland, everything on HBO, the latest politician’s gaffe and whatever’s trending on BuzzFeed, Vine and Twitter? I can’t do it. There aren’t enough hours in the day. And I just don’t have the desire.” Even when we make an effort to avoid new information, it fnds us, thanks to the constant stream of social media and the omnipresence of digital devices. Sure, some of this is self-imposed. And, yes, one could move to a remote cabin in Montana and
introduced them to the cultural totems I once cared about, but I wonder if I am shortchanging them in the process. Not to mention infantilizing myself. (This topic was covered some in Neal Pollack’s 2007 book Alternadad: The True Story of One Family’s Struggle to Raise a Cool Kid in America, in which he takes his toddler to the Austin City Limits festival, among other generation-sharing adventures.) But maybe that’s the key. There does seem to be a deeper fear of growing up for men and women of my generation—an insecurity about what comes next. Many of us can’t say with confdence whether we’ll have a job in 10 years. Or what our bank accounts will look like in 20. Retirement will be, for many, an impossibility. So perhaps as long as we act like kids, we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are still young, that we have at least one more chance to get it right. Even if, in so doing, we abdicate our roles as serious, solid citizens. As adults. I know guys whose style of dress and off-duty interests haven’t changed a lick since college. They devote their free time to movies about comicbook heroes, to video games and to fantasy football. No, they
adulthood is supposed to be is modeled on this snapshot of him. He seemed older and more respected than I can ever imagine being. When my father wasn’t working—and he was almost always working—he was reading the evening papers, listening to baseball games on WJR radio or watching old cowboy movies. The things I was interested in—punk rock, BMX bikes and National Lampoon—were simply not on my father’s radar. I didn’t take this as a lack of interest. He was loving and warm and present. He just seemed too adult to have an idea that things like Black Flag or Foto Funnies even existed. He had his interests and I had mine. The difference was that, like most of my generation, I became defned by those interests. And have been ever since. Perhaps what is truly lost with the erosion of the generation gap is this sense of actual adulthood—the maturity to stop caring what my interests in pop culture say about me; the comfort in being seen not as an equal, but as an elder (even if my younger co-workers stop asking me out for drinks). As Rushkoff told me, “Maybe that’s the generation gap we’re longing for—the permission to let go of the search.”
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keep up with every new ripple in the sea of culture. You may know, for instance, that Skrillex is the EDM dude with the weird haircut that all the suicide girl baristas had last summer—a trend that, of course, has spawned at least one Tumblr. I didn’t. So I had to do a little studying, in order to communicate intelligently with my younger co-workers. It may sound trivial, but maintaining all this awareness is tiring business. Although I feel neither old nor outmoded, I just turned 45. Assuming I manage to walk the Earth for as long as my recently deceased father did, the frst half of my life is over. By even the most generous defnition, I am middleaged. As such, I tire easily. And I’m not alone.
Some of my peers on the brink of middle age do succeed at ignoring the noise. Stephen Metcalf, a Slate contributor and author of the forthcoming Junk, about the unexplored relationship between Reaganism and pop culture, feels the greatest gift he’ll give to coming generations is his out-of-it-ness. “I’d love to not seem like a used-up husk,” he said. “But realistically, if it hasn’t been on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, I haven’t heard of it.” As an aspiring fuddy-duddy, Metcalf suspects that Generation Xers aren’t the only ones who are suffering due to the loss of the generation gap. “There’s no more ‘gap’ in the traditional sense,” he said, “but isn’t this just another theft, courtesy of the Boomers? Isn’t the Alternadad taking away his kids’ turn at self-defnition?” Take rock concerts, for example, those smoke-flled dens of electrifed wizardry which young people used to seek out in defance of their parents. Now they’re family outings. If you’ve been to venues like Madison Square Garden or the MGM Grand Garden Arena recently, you’ve probably seen second-graders rocking out to Canadian power trios and
May 30-June 5, 2013
The lines are blurred, The edge has been dulled and The TradiTional Timelines have been jumbled. We all noW feed from The same culTural Trough.
Photo by Anthony Mair
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May 30-June 5, 2013
The LATesT
To Las Vegas, With Bytes and Kicks A former soccer star, the Downtown revival, and the fulfllment of an online dream By Timothy Pratt
ries, ranging from what happens on the feld—attacking, defending, shooting—to nutrition and “Things You Should Know” (including, helpfully, “How to Handle a Bad Coach”). The videos are aimed squarely at players, not coaches. There are other websites for coaches, and some have videos for players, but few are as user-friendly and comprehensive as the one Montz has created. •••
possibility of reaching kids, together with the entrepreneurial lifestyle, meant more to me than selling snack food,” Beatty says. Beatty has since taught himself about search-engine optimization, editing videos, Kickstarter campaigns and other aspects of the company. He and Montz live together Downtown and are putting Montz’s old advice to the teenage Beatty in action: The
executive. He and Beatty both note how freely ideas and information are exchanged among members of the Downtown tech scene, even among those—such as the two of them—who are not funded by the Downtown Project. “It’s just amazing when the vibe of a city can attract so many like-minded people,” Beatty says. Montz’s next steps include launching the clothing line
“I was surrounded by dIgItal medIa people, Investors and tech people I had been readIng about for years. I thought, ‘I’m not the only one thInkIng about movIng cross country for thIs!’” In January, Montz convinced an old acquaintance, Stephen Beatty, to leave Louisiana and join the academy team in Las Vegas. Beatty had met Montz while he was still a high school soccer player seeking training, eight years earlier. “Everybody had heard about him,” Beatty recalls. “He was like a local hero.” The two started playing together whenever Montz would come home in the offseason. To this day, Beatty remembers Montz’s early guidance: “‘Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do something. Nobody can tell you that you don’t belong where you want to be—especially if you work hard.” Beatty went on to play college soccer at Montevallo University in Alabama while studying business management. After graduation, he was offered a well-paying job at Frito-Lay. Then Montz’s call came. “I realized … the
soccer academy’s slogan is “Believe In It”—simple words that the company is now putting on a line of sports clothing. They used Kickstarter to raise money for the launch; As of mid-May, the campaign had exceeded its goal by 20 percent. Meanwhile, Montz, Stevens and Beatty broadcast the juggling campaign far and wide this spring, raising $4,500 for anti-malaria nets while building awareness for the U.N.-sponsored project. And Montz, who plays with his two partners on a soccer team made up mostly of Zappos employees, is now thriving in Las Vegas. He marvels at the opportunities the Downtown renaissance has offered: free weekly talks by people such as Whole Foods CEO John Mackey or former Google developer Hunter Walk, not to mention the hour’s worth of free advice he got from a top Amazon
and speaking with investors, several of whom are coming to Las Vegas for meetings after seeing the Kickstarter campaign. As for the online soccer academy, Montz says that more than 1 million minutes of instructional videos were seen on his site in April, drawing viewers from across the U.S., the U.K, India, Australia and other countries. On his anti-malaria juggling tour, he found himself at CenturyLink Field, home of Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders, before 40,000 fans. He was surprised to hear his name screamed out from the stands. And so Montz continues pursuing his dream from Las Vegas, intent on reaching millions of players like the one he was as a boy, “dribbling through pinecones in my backyard, kicking a ball against a fence, imagining myself playing in a stadium.”
May 30-June 5, 2013
••• When Montz was growing up in Mandeville, Louisiana, the nearest high-level soccer club was a 2½-hour drive away; his father made the trip at least twice a week for years. Now he wanted to fnd a better solution for today’s young players. “I had a vision in my head,” he says. “I went with my gut and started doing what I would’ve wanted to have growing up. This way, I could reach millions.” Over the next few years, Montz hired companies to help him design the site but was consistently frustrated with the results. He attempted to develop a subscription model, only to fnd that children and teenagers won’t pay for videos on YouTube. Meanwhile, soccer blogger Dave Stevens, who had interviewed Montz about his efforts, moved to Las Vegas in 2010 to work on the Zappos website. His wife had gone to college at UNLV, and her fond memories convinced Stevens—a native of Reading, England—to give the desert a try. Last summer, Montz came to visit Stevens for help with the site. Stevens agreed to do it for free, telling the former pro that they could discuss money when the site became more successful. Montz quickly found himself drawn to Downtown. “I was surrounded by digital media people, investors and tech people I had been reading about for years,” he says. “I thought, ‘I’m not the only one thinking about moving cross country for this!’” He decided to stay. Working after hours and often through the night, he and Stevens relaunched the site in October. At OnlineSoccerAcademy.com, you’ll see instructional videos divided into 15 subject catego-
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Jared Montz stood in black underwear on Hollywood Boulevard, ready to begin juggling a soccer ball for the camera. It was April 19, the last stop in the former professional soccer player’s two-month, 43-city tour across the country. The idea: to juggle and get others to do the same, all in the interest of raising awareness and funds for combating malaria in Africa. Montz was wearing the underwear line of Ellen Degeneres that day, hoping the popular talk-show host would catch wind of it through social media and drum up support for the cause. (She didn’t.) But just then a man came walking toward him with his pants around his ankles, a torn shirt falling off his torso. If Montz was semi-naked, this guy was letting it all hang out. Stop the camera! Although the bizarre tableau says something about Hollywood Boulevard, it also says plenty about Montz, who isn’t afraid to try something different in pursuit of his passions. Like coming to Las Vegas for a month last August to work with a guy he had only met through Twitter and a blog, but with whom he was united by a common interest in soccer. And like deciding, within days of his arrival, to move here permanently, feeling that Las Vegas’ young tech scene was ready to support his dreams. Montz, 30, has rebellious hair and a contagious smile. He played for Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire and other teams until his career was cut short by injury in 2009. He quickly embarked on a plan to combine soccer with an entrepreneurial spirit and an interest in high technology: He would create an online soccer academy for kids.
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May 30-June 5, 2013
nightlife
parties
rehab
Hard Rock Hotel [ Upcoming ]
VEGAS SEVEN
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Hew Burney
May 30-June 5, 2013
May 31 Summer Camp Fridays June 1 Nectar Saturdays feat. Gregor Salto June 3 Relax Mondays
nightlife
parties
marquee Dayclub The Cosmopolitan [ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Powers Imagery
May 30-June 5, 2013
May 31 Keidy spins June 2 Kaskade’s Summer Lovin June 7 The Chainsmokers spin
nightlife
parties
tao Beach The Venetian [ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Powers Imagery
May 30-June 5, 2013
June 7 Jeffrey Tonnesen spins June 8 Maxim Saturdays June 9 Beach Brunch Sundays
nightlife
parties
Gold Aria
[ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Toby Acuna and Joe Fury
May 30-June 5, 2013
May 30 House of Gold Thursdays May 31 80’s Night with DJ Tino June 1 Justin Hoffmann & Madd Maxx spin
nightlife
parties
Xs
Wynn [ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Danny Mahoney
May 30-June 5, 2013
May 31 Sultan & Ned Shepard spin June 1 Martin Solveig spins June 3 John Dahlb채ck spins
Dining
drinking [ Scene StirS ]
Landing Punches
Punch has a long and interesting history— long enough that you could drain a bowl of the stuff before I could fnish retelling how it started with British sailors in the 1600s. It was their daily ration of spirit (usually rum, brandy or arrak, William Grant & Sons’ ambassador Charlotte Voisey said during her punch seminar at this winter’s Après Ski Cocktail Classic) and whatever else was handy. Typically, that meant water, citrus, sugar and spices such as clove, mace and nutmeg. In your own port of call, feel free to take a wide view of that recipe, substituting whatever
you have around, such as tea, wine or milk for the water, a liqueur for sugar and any spirit you fancy. At the Silverton, a collaborative effort resulted in the very enjoyable Walk Good Punch, a blend that includes spiced rum, dark rum, almondfavored liqueur, lemonade and aromatic bitters. Ginger beer and a veritable fruit salad of a garnish take you straight to the Caribbean, where to “walk good” is the lingua Franca for everything from “hello” and “goodbye” to “good luck” and “happy trails.” Just try not to enjoy too many, or you might not walk very well at all.
May 30-June 5, 2013
For the Silverton’s Walk Good Punch recipe, visit VegasSeven.com/Cocktail-Culture.
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kickstarting the Brewery that could Be: crafthaus Local home-brewers Wyndee and Dave Forrest are poised to go pro. The UNLV grads launched a Kickstarter campaign on May 3 to fund their proposed microbrewery and taproom, CraftHaus. At press time, they are almost 90 percent of the way toward the $20,000 needed for a walk-in cooler, licenses and a half-barrel (15-gallon) pilot brew system for testing recipes before going all-out on their 10-barrel (310-gallon) system. CraftHaus is slated for a late-fall debut in a 2,400-square-foot space near Warm Springs and Gibson roads in Henderson, just steps from Las Vegas Distillery and custom-crush outfit Grape Expectations, thus establishing, Wyndee says, the “Las Vegas Booze District.” In Phase 1, CraftHaus would produce kegs for local bars, while welcoming guests for tours, tastings and growler fill-ups. Food trucks will be regular guests, pulling right up to the loading dock. Phase 2 adds a bottling or canning line. Think the Forrests are dreaming? They have been, for the better part of three years, since Dave returned from Sierra Nevada Beer Camp a winner. But now they have a business partner and investors. The Forrests have connected with local pros, poured their own quality brews at Big Dog’s Peace, the Love & Hoppy-ness festival and the recent Great Vegas Festival of Beer, found supporters in the food-truck community and even garnered help from Yelp, which came out to boost CraftHaus at a rally at Las Vegas Distillery on May 18. Crowdfunding a passion project is stressful, Wyndee admits. “But this was our choice,” she says, “this is our dream and this is what we want to do.” They’re not alone. Celebrity boozehound Zane Lamprey of Three Sheets and Drinking Made Easy fame has turned to Kickstarter to fund his latest venture, a travel show called Chug. “Kickstarter is a way for the community to feel involved and to feel a sense of ownership and pride,” Wyndee says. In addition, 5 percent of the funding would go to the Nevada Craft Brewers Association. CraftHaus may not exist yet, but the Forrests give donors a preview with their slick website, a portal to their portfolio of “traditional but tweaked” beers, including Evocation, a saison (French-style farmhouse ale); Comrade, an imperial Russian stout; and Charlie’s Mantra, a pale ale named for the father of home brewing, Charlie Papazian. And if Kickstarter should overshoot their target by $5,000, the Forrests will invest in a barrel-aging program. One local professional brewer recently commented that, of all of Las Vegas’ proposed microbreweries, his money is on CraftHaus to see it through. But the Forrests plan to open whether or not they hit their goal by midnight June 1—they’re here for the beer. Ready to put your money where your beer goes? Visit CraftHausBrewery.com to learn more and to donate. —X.W.
May 30-June 5, 2013
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imaginative, groundbreaking—but not, excuse my blasphemy, touched by divinity. Like all of us, Jackson was fawed, even personally tortured, and not what an organization actually named the International Group of The Anointed Michael Followers dubbed “an angel trapped inside human fesh.” (Given Jackson’s reported plastic surgeries, “fesh” might be pushing it.) One website, MichaelJacksonism.com, seems to seesaw between whimsy and adulation. On its homepage, addressing its “Michael Jacksonaughts,” it declares: “Michael Jacksonism is the bold new religion for the 21st century.” Elsewhere, it states: “Some of us think Michael Jackson was the messiah, but that’s not compulsory. You must believe there was something about Michael Jackson above and beyond that which is normally found in human beings. … Radical theorizing and debate about the nature of Michael’s divinity is encouraged.” Such extreme examples of pop-culture deifcation have been given a name by mental health professionals: “Celebrity Worship Syndrome,” or CWS for short. While the proliferation of social and mainstream media exacerbates the phenomenon, it’s far from a modern invention. Nearly 90 years ago, the death of early flm hero Rudolph Valentino triggered a media frenzy and fan hysteria. Flash forward to 2009, when Jackson’s death unleashed what seemed like an interstellar outpouring of garment-rending grief. Quite simply: It was embarrassing. Blame for such overblown adoration can be partially traced to baby boomers (of whom I am one) who grew up with little Michael from the Jackson 5 in the 1960s. Prone to overstating our generation’s importance to the culture, even claiming credit for ending the Vietnam War via college protests, some of us also crow about our role in civil rights advancement, insisting that Jackson engendered widespread acceptance of black entertainers. Wrong: That was Sammy Davis Jr., who overcame the type of racial indignities and bigoted invective likely never encountered by Jackson, who came of age with soul-based Motown Records, whose songs were colossal hits with both blacks and whites. Earnest but unrealistic disapprovers bemoan how Michael Jackson one we worship at the Altar of Pop/Sports Superstars Michael Jackson while some of the worthiTheatre at Manest among us—teachers, dalay Bay, Satscientists, nurses, police Wed, times vary offcers, frefghters, etc.— during current are underpaid and underpreviews, 7 and appreciated. Hey, welcome 10 p.m. as of June to contemporary America. 29 opening, $69 We live to be entertained, and up, 877-632and entertainers are our 7400, Mandalayheroes—period, it won’t Bay.com. change, end of story. Yet there is a line between overdone and overwrought, between admiring a talented human being and transforming him into a golden calf. Here in Las Vegas, fantasy is central to our appeal. Let the fantasy flow at Michael Jackson ONE. Just one caveat: Check your prayer shawls, burning incense and heavenly illusions at the theater door.
A&E
Music
Gang Activity
Brent Amaker (center) and the Rodeo get cinematic.
How a Seattle insurance agent turned a motorcycle club into a rock band
May 30-June 5, 2013
By Jarret Keene
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88
Like a good neighbor, Brent Amaker processes claims in his State Farm offce in West Seattle. Working in the insurance industry isn’t the most glamorous way for a musician to pay the bills—especially when by night he leads an art-rocked old-school country band called The Rodeo, which sounds like Johnny Cash trapped in the violent universe of a ’70s spaghetti western movie soundtrack. “For years I thought, I’ll never be taken seriously or become successful because I have a day job,” Amaker says. “But it honestly gives me the freedom of having my own business. I started it 15 years ago, and I’ve been doing music longer than that. I feel lucky I don’t have to be a barista.” A Seattle coffee metaphor works well in the case of Amaker and The Rodeo. The band delivers a cappuccino-machine steam blast to the senses with their just-released fourth studio album, Year of the Dragon. Indeed, The Rodeo achieves an effect that is simultaneously widescreen-cinematic and nug-
geted with earthy wisdom, the kind derived from watching disasters befall others. Consider “Troubled Times” off Dragon. The song infuses ’60s psychedelic rock, haunted saloon piano and ghostly sleigh bell into the country template as Amaker urges listeners to inhabit the present: Give thanks for what you got/Eat all that’s on your plate/’Cause troubled times might come today. In lesser hands, the sentiment might be cheesy. But Amaker’s bass voice booms like God’s. “We go through life searching for meaning,” he says of the song and others like it on Dragon. “But death is around the corner all the time. If you spend too much time searching for truth, you can’t live your life. It’s a balancing act.” Speaking of living, Amaker isn’t afraid of riding a hog. In fact, his band’s origin can be traced back to 2005, when he and friends founded a cowboy motorcycle gang. “A bunch of us musicians who’d played in various rock bands in Seattle went out for drinks in a
country bar one night,” he says. “We talked about how we hated where country music was going. We wanted to try making western music that was cool, had a good vibe and wasn’t overproduced.” They wanted the same thing for their motorcycles. So they formed a band, rehearsed and began riding their bikes to rock clubs minus instruments or gear. (They relied on other bands on the bills to provide equipment.) The Rodeo had so much fun and success with the music that they moved forward, ditching their bikes and securing a proper tour van. Soon they were recording and touring the world. Previous tours usually included a Las Vegas stop. Amaker has one serious regret playing this town: Because of limited resources, he can’t bring his full Vegas-style stage show, which includes burlesque dancers, neon-lighting rig and props. It’ll just be his band onstage. “When The Rodeo hits the road, we only pack socks and underwear,” he says. “It’s a contest to see who brings the smallest suitcase. We wear the same suits every day. Like traveling salesmen, we go from town to town. We check into a hotel, get into the hot tub and wait for the show to start. It’s a liberating way to live.” Brent Amaker and The Rodeo at Double Down Saloon, 4640 Paradise Rd., 10 p.m. June 16, free, 791-5775, DoubleDownSaloon.com.
Local label SquidHat Records is harnessing the crowd-funding power of Indiegogo to put homegrown all-girl punk band The Dirty Panties on a plane to the Land of the Rising Sun. Apparently the Panties have been asked to join a bill for a weeklong tour with shows in cities including Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. The invitation isn’t that left-field. After all, the Panties have many fans in Japan, some of whom launched a website in honor of the band. The trip is pricey, though. To offset the cost, the Panties’ Indiegogo campaign offers cool perks, my favorite being the $100 Panty Playah donor package. It includes a signed CD and poster, T-shirt and a pair of logo panties. Now I have something to give my wife for our anniversary, right? To learn more, go to Indiegogo.com/ Projects/Help-Send-the-Panties-to-Japan. Sunshine State Southern rock, represent! Jacksonville, Florida’s Molly Hatchet hacks their way into LVCS at 10 p.m. May 30. Among hipsters, these guys are best known for their Frank Frazetta album cover art. A shame, because the band wields real gothic power. They released a covers collection last year, Regrinding the Axes, which offers Hatchet’s rendering of everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” to George Thorogood and the Destroyers’ “Bad to the Bone,” along with guitar-heavy takes on the Rolling Stones, ZZ Top and Thin Lizzy. I’ve yet to see this legendary, very classic ’70s hard-rock band live, so count me in. Doom in June—still the only all-doom-metal festival in the U.S.—is dialed in for 1 p.m. June 1 at Cheyenne Saloon. It looks to be a doozy. Eighties cult act Manilla Road and heavy stoner-rock trio Karma to Burn are a couple of the highlights. But my main reason for attending? Doom in June serves as Vegas band Demon Lung’s release party for their debut disc The Hundredth Name, out this week on Candlelight Records. Buy tickets at BrownPaperTickets.com or at the door. Tip: Because the fest will wrap up early in the morning, maybe consider booking a cheap room at Fiesta Rancho down the street. (You don’t really need a DUI in your already-complicated concert schedule, do you?) Gracious, this year’s fifth Life Is Beautiful Showcase—which begins at 7 p.m. June 5 at Beauty Bar—looks amazing. Mostly because of the inclusion of indie-electro duo Kid Meets Cougar, who always boast an incredible stage show of projections, lights and loops. Kid Meets Cougar hasn’t performed onstage in a year, so catch this rare musical beast before it disappears into the neon jungle again. I’m also pumped to experience sets by experimental-indie band Twin Brother (Vegas’ answer to Animal Collective), film-inspired instrumental ensemble Cinemetric and grungy psychedelic-rockers Trevor and the Joneses. Also on the bill: XNY and Pax Trend. Your Vegas band releasing a CD soon? Email Jarret_Keene@Yahoo.com.
Photo by Lance Mercer
sending Vegas’ dirty Panties to JaPan
a&E
Stage
Fringe Element
Cult novelist Kris Saknussemm tries to peel of the esoteric label with a metaphysical play
May 30-June 5, 2013
By Kurt Rice
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talking to kriS Saknussemm, 51, one gets a sense of insatiability. This American who has lived half his life abroad, been on the receiving end of near-fatal brutalities and harrowing personal disasters and worked jobs from the mundane to the adventurous has a seemingly constant desire to expand and experiment with his life and work. The Humble Assessment, making its North American debut at this year’s Vegas Fringe Festival, is his frst play. It’s just one example of how he is attempting to shake up his art and, albeit in a very small way, shift away from being characterized as a “cult novelist” and toward becoming more broadly accessible. Anthropology, grand history and the contortions of philosophy that populate his fve novels can make them diffcult for many readers. In the beginning, he says, “I was trying to create
a new, hybrid genre and that is a big ask,” both of the writer and the reader. With Humble, he is trying to step away from his “personal mythology” and move toward a more universal experience: the job interview. But don’t expect The Offce. “The play has a metaphysical resolution, and I wouldn’t think anyone will call it a piece of social realism. On the other hand, it is very relevant. The dreamlike symbolic side works with something that everyone can understand. I hope the live audience response is that this is a bridge between those two.” Saknussemm came to reside in Las Vegas in September after commuting between rural Australia and UNLV as a 2011-2012 Black Mountain Institute Gallagher Fellow. After the isolation of Australia, he fnds collaboration refreshing and is excited to see Humble performed. “I wrote this very fast almost as a kind of riff,” he says. “There is a crispness of dialog I’m proud of, but it’s still very exciting to have actors and a director engage with it. They’ve found levels I honestly didn’t see. The
son dining room table piled 3 to 4 feet high with background material [for the setting of my frst novel].” As a result, his earlier prose is often so thick with imagery it sticks, miring the reader in something both intriguing and inscrutable. Saknussemm agrees, and says that while he hasn’t lowered his artistic ambitions, he is interested in maturing in the marketplace, making his work easier to absorb, although not just from a sales perspective. “I don’t think of it in purely commercial terms, but I want to challenge readers in a different way,” he says. He hopes the play, along with the recent release of his complete collection of nonfction essays and a “graphic novel and movie pitch with a much more straight-up popular adventure feel” will allow him to move into wider acceptance and make more of those connections. How long he will be pursuing that maturation process in Las Vegas is a different story. The sense of something creeping up behind or waiting just ahead seems to director is ex-Cirque du Soleil, itch. He feels a “real sense and his wife is a visualist for of crisis” in America and has them. They’ve brought a flmic been considering alternalevel integrated with live action tives. He explains that he that I haven’t seen in a theater tried marriage twice, and production of this scale.” the “whole nuclear family He explains that a rear-projec- just didn’t seem to work.” tion screen will “loom over the After doing a reading for a audience,” and in the frst and community in San Francisco’s third acts, the protagonist will be Mission District, he started alone onstage interacting with thinking about the possibility “the technological ghosts” of of founding an art colony. two pre-recorded and projected Recently, Saknussemm interviewers. The screen will also noticed a boat for sale in Port project “fragmentary images” of Moresby, Papua New Guinea, company management, Humble’s which could house and transmemories and, toward the end, port 40 art colonists. “If nothimages of the audiing else, it would be ence, thus breaking a fabulous experiVegaS Fringe FeStiVal the fourth wall. ment,” he says. In much of his “Part of me wants May 31-June 9 at work, Humble to dig in here Las Vegas Little included, Saknusbecause there are Theatre, $12 per semm seems to aspects of Vegas that show/$120 for seek intimacy with I think are really fana 12-show pass, the reader: sometastic. I’ve met some performance thing profound and interesting people schedule at LVLT. perhaps mutually diand there is a posorg, 362-7996. dactic that has been sibility of being able frustrated by his to have an ongoing status as a “cult novelist.” He theater. On that level I am very admits that he brought much excited about staying. of it on himself. “At one point I “On another level, I’m thinkhad an entire eight-to-10 pering about the boat.”
A&E
Movies
Fast And Fantastic
The sixth time’s the charm for this frenzied car-chase franchise By Christopher Borrelli
May 30-June 5, 2013
Tribune Media Services
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Fast & Furious 6, which surely maxed out Universal’s tank-top budget for the year, and sustains its joyful, unpretentious ridiculousness so perfectly that I secretly hoped the “6” meant “hours long,” ends with a disclaimer, the sort of legalese that typically arrives at the tail end of the closing credits. To paraphrase: On the way out of this theater, should you get the urge to drive your tank into traffc across a towering bridge in Spain, or feel the need to race a Dodge Charger down a runway and bring down a military transport with harpoons, Universal Pictures will not be held responsible. Now here’s the thing: I am being only partly facetious. Indeed, that disclaimer
may even be wise. Because regardless of the unbelievability of what transpires, the sixth installment of this fun carthieves-with-honor series— the fourth directed by Justin Lin, quick becoming the John Ford of downshifting—has a genuinely warm sense of playfulness, an anything-goes, real-world tangibility that other grim-faced, CGI-centric summer franchises long ago gave up on. Without a doubt, oodles of digital effects have been mixed in there somewhere—when a character leaps across three lanes of traffc, catches a racing compatriot and lands on a moving car, the spell is broken momentarily. And the storytelling is never as inspired or clear-minded as the flm’s
Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel make superbly entertaining vehicular magic.
action-movie spirit. But as a welcome reminder of how to keep a silly franchise fresh and lighthearted, it’s a surprising, unlikely delight. Even the villain—an international man of mystery (played by Luke Evans) with a pencil-thin, silent-movie mustache and a powerful weapon component that can bring down a nation, so we’re told—seems happily shocked. How remarkable that, in a decade or so, a team of streetwise car thieves led by Vin Diesel’s Dom has gone from stealing DVD players in East L.A. to, well, wrestling with terrorists on the tarmac of a European runway! In the span of six pictures, with increasing fuidity, members of the team— they don’t really have a name, which is a branding blind spot —have become sophisticated citizens of the world, a kind of Pep Boys-Julian Assange collective, their (victimless) robberies and fouting of U.S. traffc laws forcing them into exile. The opening of the new flm fnds us in the Canary Islands, where Dom is residing and now yearning for home. In the previous installment, he stole $100 million in Brazilian drug money, but now he wants to turn in that bling for an old-
fashioned barbecue in his Los Angeles neighborhood. Enter federal agent Hobbs (played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), who wanted Dom and his multiethnic band of thieves taken down in Fast Five. Now he sees a need for Dom and his racers: There’s that British terrorist, and he improbably leads his own racers, so why turn to the CIA or MI5 when you can ask those goofballs who know how to drive really fast? If they succeed: full exoneration and a return to home. Actually, if Fast 6 shows any new ambitions, it’s by enthusiastically embracing its heated, knotty Game of Thrones melodrama: Han (Sung Kang), who supposedly died in the third film, remains in the team and has fallen in love with another racer, Gisele (Gal Gadot), a former Mossad agent. Though I suppose the flm is also at its creakiest in these moments—there’s a longish middle section in which you wonder where Lin left all the gas pedals—that human stuff rarely feels dull. Even bits of class resentment come and go with breeziness; a bit featuring Johnson, Ludacris and a sniffy Brit is straight out of a Cheech
and Chong movie, but I liked Cheech and Chong movies. So maybe none of this is convincing. But the cast seems to sincerely like one another, and the coziness goes a long way until the next action scene. Which are worth the wait: Lin, who knows how to stage a chase as well as the next Bond director, sprinkles them around generously, topping a tank fantasy with an airplane heist and punctuating a Road Warriorlike pursuit through London with a car fipping end over end through a glass offce complex. By this point in the series, it goes without saying that the action is spectacular, but less obviously perhaps is that Lin understands the visceral possibilities of space—the closeness of tires, the wedge of room that allows a car to escape a tight bind. He has said in interviews that before he shoots such sequences, he stages every chase with toy cars and imagines the possibilities. And indeed, it’s a testament to this freewheeling big-budget plaything that his 6-year-old self is still very much evident. And how that 6-year-old could work in that harpoon. Fast & Furious 6 (PG-13) ★★★★✩
A&E
movies
over it
The trilogy that spawned a thousand bachelor parties has lost steam with its fnal installment By Roger Moore
Tribune Media Services
slow, sentimental and
somewhat sedated, the third Hangover movie isn’t so much exhausted of outrageous “Oh no, they didn’t!” ideas as it is spent of energy. And they knew it, too. The only raunchy moment is stuffed into the closing credits, a “we forgot to do that” afterthought. They know they’re done. They just want to make sure we know. The Hangover Part III becomes a fairly conventional caper comedy, with the capers driven by the stillcackling, far-less-manic Mr. Chow, played right to the edge of caricature by the irrepressible Ken Jeong (see Vegas Seven’s interview in the May 23 issue). It begins with Alan (Zach Galifanakis) buying and accidentally decapitating a (digital) giraffe, driving his doting dad (Jeffrey Tambor) to
Disband the Wolf Pack, already: Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis.
a heart attack. And that’s just the frst death. Ditzy Alan needs an intervention, and that’s when the Wolf Pack (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha) is commissioned to deliver him to a rehab facility in Arizona. On the way, they’re carjacked by a mobster (John Goodman) who takes hapless Doug (Bartha, who’s had the
“missing” role in all three flms, poor fellow) hostage. The Wolf Pack has to track down the thieving Mr. Chow, who has escaped from a Thai prison. “You introduced a virus into my life, Mr. Chow,” the mob boss bellows. Go fetch him. The boys promise to “take him out” to save Doug. That leads us to Tijuana and eventually back to where all
this started—Las Vegas. There’s only one funny cameo, and funny lines are rare and random this time— references to past escapades (“Did you get tested?”) and Mr. Chow’s peccadilloes (“Gimme some sugar”). People and animals die. Even the racist zingers feel like pulled punches: “We’re looking for an Asian
May 30-June 5, 2013
short reviews
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Star Trek Into Darkness (PG-13) ★★★★✩
Director J.J. Abrams’ second installment in the classic franchise reboot is fantastic. Life on Earth in the 23rd century is eerily familiar: a massively destructive act of terrorism sets into motion a tale that leads, early on, to an attack on Starfleet; a test of leadership for James T. Kirk (Chris Pine); and the introduction of an also-familiar adversary in Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch). The result is tons of fun. The Enterprise and its crew have never looked better.
Epic (PG) ★★✩✩✩
Twentieth Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios present Adequate? This deceptively named animated feature just doesn’t provide much. A girl (Amanda Seyfried) discovers an alternative and tiny universe in the forest where warriors (Colin Farrell and Josh Hutcherson) fly on the backs of hummingbirds. Quenn Tara (Beyoncé) must pick a special flower to regenerate the forest. And the plot gets evermore convoluted from there. Let’s just put it this way, it’s no FernGully.
The Great Gatsby (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann’s attempt at this great American novel means one thing: It’s party time! Employing 3-D (simply because he could), Luhrmann goes all operatic spectacle in this adaptation, all glitz and glamour and poolside parties, without much attention paid to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s deeply psychological look at facades and desires and pasts. Sure there’s Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Daisy (Carey Mulligan), and they’re fine. But the film fails to capture almost all of what made the book what it is today.
guy. He’s short.” “They’re all short.” As is the movie, though it plays considerably longer than the frst two. As Hangovers go, Part III isn’t challenging or unpleasant, just instantly forgettable. It won’t take much to sleep this one off. The Hangover III (R) ★★✩✩✩
[ by tribune media services ]
Peeples (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
In this comedy, Craig Robinson plays Wade, an entertainer for kids who somehow wound up with the stunning U.N. lawyer Grace (Kerry Washington). Wade decides to follow Grace to the Hamptons and surprise her and her folks with a proposal. The moment he meets her father, “The Judge” (David Alan Grier), Wade realizes the folly of his plan. The Judge is a handful and there are a slew of overachieving misfit siblings. Family drama and hilarity ensue. Producer Tyler Perry should take a few notes for the next time he directs.
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110
McCarran’s boss on his upcoming departure, the merits of a monorail stop and why visitors should appreciate our airport’s location
Did you think about sticking around until the monorail reaches McCarran? I might not live that long.
By Matt Jacob
On a more serious note, should the monorail extend to the airport? Well, if the monorail becomes a larger system, at least within the tourist corridor—has more than six stops, gets to the west side of the Strip—and we can fgure out how we can take care of the [luggage] for our customers on the front and back end so they’re not riding the monorail with four to fve bags between the couple, then I think the monorail would provide a good transportation alternative and would have some beneft. But coming to the airport as an extension of the existing system absolutely makes no sense and could not be economically viable given the six stops that are available. You wouldn’t have a large enough pool of customers. I think the airport would be helpful in a much larger system, but the airport by itself is not going to make the monorail successful.
Randy WalkeR’s bio reveals two stints with the Clark County Department of Aviation: frst as deputy director from 1990-95, then as director, the post he’s held since 1997. Not revealed, though, is Walker’s very frst job with McCarran International Airport: After graduating high school in 1971, Walker and other recent graduates spent the summer working with the heavy-maintenance crew out on the airfeld. “The guys who were assigned to us would come out and say, ‘Hey, you want to learn how to use that skip-loader and the dump truck?’” he recalls. “They were teaching us how to use all this heavy equipment. We were too young and dumb to fgure out that they were probably getting us to do all their hard work for them. But we thought we were having fun.” Little did Walker know that decades later he’d watch others operate the heavy equipment as he oversaw massive airport expansion projects, such as the construction of the D gates and, a year ago, Terminal 3. After 16 years as the airport’s captain, Walker will deplane on June 3, a few weeks shy of his 60th birthday. “I’m just retiring from government service. I’m ready to move on to my next era of life.” Why retire now? Terminal 3 fnished about a year ago, and that’s the largest project we’ve ever done, and probably the last large project that’ll ever be done here at McCarran because we’re pretty much built out. So the next focus here needs to be really on driving the effciencies of the
organization. We’ve been building so fast for 30 years to keep up with the community and the hotel growth that we need to start focusing on effciencies. … That means changing the way you do things. And when I looked forward, I came to the conclusion that I really wouldn’t stay [on the job] long enough to
Do you remember the very first time you flew into Las Vegas and what the Valley and airport looked like from above?
I do: It was the summer of 1970. I was 17 years old and went to Medillín, Colombia, as an exchange student for the summer—those were my frstever fights. We actually went to what’s now the rotunda—the A and B gates, that’s pretty much what the airport was—walked down the stairs and onto the [tarmac], walked across [the tarmac] and went up the stairs and into the airplane. The airport was so small then. In fact, sometimes we have somebody who’s relatively new to the community who wants to know what idiot put the airport in the middle of town. So one time I emailed someone a copy of the 1951 aerial [photo] when the airport was literally in the middle of nowhere. And the community just grew up around us. What’s the most underrated feature of the airport? How close we are to where most people want to go, and that’s the Strip. When I [fy into] a lot of cities, once I get my bags and get in a cab, sometimes it’s a long ride to get to where I want to go—you go to Orlando or Denver, some of those places, it’s a long drive.
Ivanpah airport: Good idea whose time has come or bad idea that should be laid to rest? It was a good idea at the time because the community was growing so fast that we could actually see the point in time when we would reach the ultimate capacity of this airport. The recession has changed all of that. So right now, it’s basically on hold. We’ll continue to own the land, and if we ever get back to the point where this airport is going to exhaust its capacity and the community still wants to grow, then we’re going to revisit that. There was a time, for four or fve years, when we would go out with the [Las Vegas] Convention [and Visitors] Authority and meet with the hotels, and the frst thing every hotel executive asked me was, “When’s that new airport going to be open?” Nobody asks me that anymore. So it’s just a change of circumstance. Window seat or aisle seat? Aisle every time, if I can get it. I just like the ease of getting in and out. Plus, I’ve fown so many times [sitting] in the window seat—I’ve seen enough out of the window.
For Randy Walker’s recollections about the aftermath of 9/11—and his best-kept airport secret for local travelers—visit VegasSeven.com/Walker.
Photo by Anthony Mair
May 30-June 5, 2013
Randy Walker
start and fnish [that] process. So I thought it was a really good time for me to leave.