Dana F***ing White

Ulti mate fight weekend

May 27-June 2, 2010

Dana F ***ing White

I nsIde the head of the most polarIzIng boss In sports

Plus: las Vegas Vs. dallas an 'Insane' Workout local noVelIst gets lucky

FREE

Barenaked Ladies May 29 Pitbull May 30 Boz Scaggs June 5 Rick Springfield June 19 Backstreet Boys July 2 OneRepublic July 3 The Wailers July 10 Gipsy Kings July 16 Ziggy Marley July 17 Jimmy Cliff July 24

Sublime with Rome July 30 and the Dirty Heads Adam Lambert July 31 Blondie and The B-52s August 7 Lost ’80s Live August 14 Michael Franti August 21 and Spearhead

Tickets on Sale Now MANDALAY BAY BOX OFFICE 632.7580 800.745.3000 mandalaybay.com ticketmaster.com

Contents

This Week in Your CiTY 13

sEvEN DaYs

The highlights of this week.

By Susan Stapleton

14

37

LocaL NEwsroom

A church that loves hookers and porn stars, and cleaning up Red Rock Canyon. Plus: David G. Schwartz’s Green Felt Journal and Michael Green on Politics.

77

96

Reports on culture, politics and business from The New York Observer.

Plus: The NYO crossword puzzle and the weekly column by personal finance guru Kathy Kristof.

Sonos gets your music under control.

By Eric Benderoff

NaTIoNaL NEwsroom

Vic & Anthony’s is one of the best steak houses in Vegas— and it’s downtown.

By Max Jacobson Plus: Eight delicious dishes and a profile of all-American chef Sam DeMarco.

20

108

socIETY

The Coaches for Cancer fundraiser and the Ruvo Center’s grand opening.

hEaLTh & fITNEss

You want hard core? Crossfit sounds like the workout for you!

By Sharon Kehoe

25 sTYLE

110

This week’s Look, the simplicity of jeans and a T-shirt, and a few Enviables.

sporTs & LEIsurE

45

Meeting Forrest Griffin and other highlights of the UFC Fan Expo.

By Sean DeFrank Plus: Going for Broke

By Matt Jacob

NIghTLIfE

Seven Nights ahead, fabulous parties past and the Captains sum up a big weekend for DJ lovers.

118

On the cover and above: Dana White. Photography by Francis + Francis

arTs & ENTErTaINmENT

The lady behind the new Vegas mystery series, and Rex Reed rips Sex in the City.

99 DININg

ThE LaTEsT

The World Series of Poker takes center stage and Jersey Shore searches for Guidos.

Plus: trends, Tweets and gossip.

By Melissa Arseniuk

85

TEch

Feature

sEvEN QuEsTIoNs

Perma-tanned, spiky-haired chef Guy Fieri talks about his love of Las Vegas and what’s cooking for Memorial Day.

By Elizabeth Sewell

32

borN To brawL

Dana White, the UFC’s no-holds-barred boss, talks about the fight game and the fight in him.

By Ben Conmy May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 9

Vegas seVen Publishers

Ryan T. Doherty | Justin Weniger AssociAte Publisher, Michael Skenandore

Editorial editoriAl director, Phil Hagen MAnAging editor, Bob Whitby AssociAte editor, Melissa Arseniuk news editor, Sean DeFrank A&e editor, Cindi Reed coPY editor, Paul Szydelko contributing editor, T.R. Witcher contributing writers

Richard Abowitz, Eric Benderoff, Tiffannie Bond, Becky Bosshart, David Berns, David Breitman, Geoff Carter, Brooke Edwards, Dan Ewen, MJ Elstein, Mikey Francis, Mericia González, Jeanne Goodrich, Michael Green, Jaq Greenspon, Glenn Haussman, Matt Jacob, Max Jacobson, Jarret Keene, M. Scott Krause, Caitlin McGarry, Matt O’Brien, Jessica Prois, Rex Reed, Jason Scavone, David G. Schwartz, Elizabeth Sewell, Kate Silver, Cole Smithey, Susan Stapleton,Xania Woodman interns

Mark Adams, Charlotte Bates, Kelly Corcoran, Jazmin Gelista, Sharon Kehoe, Jena Morak, Patrick Moulin

art Art director, Lauren Stewart senior grAPhic designer, Marvin Lucas grAPhic designer, Thomas Speak stAff PhotogrAPher, Anthony Mair contributing PhotogrAPhers

Jessica Blair, Hew Burney, Sullivan Charles, Francis + Francis, Roman Mendez, Tomas Muscionico, Harper Smith, Ryan Weber contributing illustrAtors, Rob Tornoe, Hernan Valencia

Production/distribution director of Production/distribution, Marc Barrington Advertising coordinAtor, Jimmy Bearse

salEs Account eXecutives, Christy Corda and Robyn Weiss

Comments or story ideas: comments@weeklyseven.com Advertising: sales@weeklyseven.com Distribution: distribution@weeklyseven.com Vegas Seven is distributed each thursday throughout southern nevada.

WenDOH MeDIa COMpanIes Ryan T. Doherty | Justin Weniger vice President, PUBLISHING, Michael Skenandore director, MARKETING, Jason Hancock entertAinMent director, Keith White creAtive director, Sherwin Yumul event coordinAtor, Richard Alexander

FinancE director of finAnce, Gregg Hardin Accounts receivAble MAnAger, Rebecca Lahr generAl Accounting MAnAger, Erica Carpino credit MAnAger, Erin Tolen

PublisHEd in association WitH tHE obsErVEr MEdia GrouP Copyright 2010 Vegas Seven, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without the permission of Vegas Seven, LLC is prohibited.

Vegas Seven, 888-792-5877, 3070 West Post Road, Las Vegas, NV 89118 10

Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

COntributOrs

Sean DeFrank “Up Close and Personal,” page 110 With 36 years living in the Valley under his belt, DeFrank brings a local perspective to Vegas Seven that is hard to find. Despite cursing his parents throughout adolescence for moving him from the bustle of Chicago to the relative stillness of mid-’70s Henderson, he eventually embraced the 24/7 Las Vegas lifestyle. Besides editing the local and national newsroom sections of Vegas Seven, DeFrank heads up our sports coverage, drawing on more than a decade of sports desk experience at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. While he tries to avoid the Strip whenever possible, DeFrank gets his kicks backing the UNLV basketball team and rocking out at concerts.

Harper Smith “East of Zzyzx” photography, page 26 Smith was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Her interest in photography began in high school, and she received a bachelor’s degree in photojournalism from the University of MissouriColumbia in 2005. Her passion for life stories and social culture gears her daily work toward lifestyle and fashion photography.

She lives in Los Angeles with her pug, Stewie.

Elizabeth Sewell Seven Questions, page 118 Part daydreamer and part go-getter, Sewell can usually be found planning her future travels, shopping for vintage finds or taking a stroll with Charlie, her Chihuahua. Our resident Seven Questions guru is a recent graduate of UNLV’s College of Urban Affairs and a Las Vegas native.

We’ve had her interview a range of folks, including Hugh Hefner, Penn Jillette and Las Vegas’ own John L. Smith.

P.S. Do you mind if she records this?

Vegas Seven Mobile

Sewell photo by Anthony Mair

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Visit the Vegas Seven website May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 11

Seven DayS The highlights of this week in your city.

Compiled by Susan Stapleton

Thur. 27 After an eight-month hiatus, Wayne Brady returns to his improv-filled variety show, Making It Up. Now that his Let’s Make a Deal hosting duties are behind him (and his once-strained vocal cords are healed) the multi-talented performer reunites with his improv accomplice, Jonathan Mangum, during the first of several Whose Line Is It Anyway?-esque shows in the Venetian Showroom.

9 p.m., May 27-31, $49$149, 414-9000.

Fri. 28 While faking it is rarely encouraged, faux fretboard fancywork and exaggerated shredding take center stage during the U.S. Air Guitar regional finals at the Hard Rock Café on the Strip.

Windmills, power slides and scissorkicks abound, and the winner lands a spot in the national championship in New York City.

From there, competitors will fake it to make it to the world championship in Oulu, Finland.

3771 Las Vegas Blvd. South, 9:30 p.m., $20.

Lake Mean photo courtesy Las Vegas News Bueru

Sat. 29 The six-film Star Wars saga spanned generations, but you can hear it from a new perspective as Star Wars: In Concert brings the John Williams’ score to the Orleans Arena.

A full symphony orchestra and choir perform music from the cult classics and modern additions, while a three-story high-def screen shows synchronized footage from the films. Get there early to check out the Jedi Master costumes, helmets from Tatooine and handwritten sheet music from Williams’ The Phantom Menace. (4 and 8 p.m., $25-$125, 284-7777.) Meanwhile, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, a.k.a. New Zealand’s fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo, Flight of the Conchords, take over the Theatre for the Performing Arts at Planet Hollywood.

8 p.m., $55 (plus taxes and fees), 785-5055.

Sun. 30 Lewis Black doesn’t write his jokes down—he just starts talking about a topic (politics and religion are two of his favorites) an lets himself go. His rants are as funny as they are thought-provoking, and considering the BP oil spill and recent political scandals, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart contributor has plenty of material. (In the Terry Fator Theatre at The Mirage. 9 p.m., $59-$79.

792-7777.) Or, if you prefer comedy with international flair, Russell Peters brings his Green Card Tour to The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. 9 p.m., $49.50 (plus taxes and fees), 469-6295.

Mon. 31 Pack up the kids (or grab some friends) and take advantage of the long weekend by heading east to the second most popular recreation spot in Nevada, the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. One of the best activities is paddling the gorgeous 67-mile stretch of the Colorado River that begins at Willow Beach and snakes through Black Canyon before hitting Hoover Dam. Rent a canoe ($15 for three hours or $65 for the day) or a kayak ($10 for three hours or $45 for the day) and get out on the water. The 50-mile drive to Willow Beach takes about an hour, depending on holiday traffic. 25804 N. Willow Beach Road, White Hills, Ariz. $5 per vehicle admission to the national park, 928-767-4747 for canoe/kayak reservations, nps.gov/lake.

Tues. 1 Looking for a book club that’s all business?

The Green Valley Library hosts a monthly session that’s very bottom-line oriented: the Business Book Club. In June, readers discuss Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson (Hyperion, 2009) and consider the ins and outs of free Web content.

The event, like most Web content, is free—just be sure to buy the book (or borrow it from the library) ahead of time. 2797 N. Green Valley Parkway, 6 p.m.

Wed. 2 Fight childhood hunger and satisfy your gourmet appetite at the Palms as Taste of the Nation takes over Rain. Instead of hot DJs, the nightclub showcases 30 of the city’s hottest chefs for the event, which begins at 5:30 p.m. Part of a series of dinners, ticket sales support Share Our Strength, and local beneficiaries include Three Square Food Bank, Catholic Charities of Las Vegas, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension’s Chefs for Kids and Project MANA. $75-$100, 877-26-TASTE (82783), tasteofthenation.org.

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 13

The LaTesT

What’s hip, what’s happening, what’s going on—and what you need to know right now.

Compiled by Melissa Arseniuk

The Shore is calling—can you handle it?

Bag It

embrace Your Inner Guido If you can fist-pump like Snooki and hold your own alongside J-Woww, the Shore is looking for you. And if scouts think you have the look, swagger and Jersey Shore je ne sais quoi, you might soon be sharing a roof with The Situation.

Producers for the hit reality show are coming to Las Vegas on May 30 in search of people to enhance the Jersey Shore cast.

“We don’t exactly know what we’re looking for,” says Rain Halcumb of Doron Ofir Casting. “We’ll know it when we see it.”

Future Pauly D’s need to gel their hair, spray on their tans, don their best Ed Hardy shirt and get to Bare between 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Those with Shore potential—whatever that is—will be invited to callbacks the following day.

As aspiring Ronnies parade around the pool at The Mirage, a second casting takes place on the eastern shore, at

Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City. The duo of Memorial Day events is the largest recruiting effort the hit MTV show has ever conducted.

The auditions at Bare mark the first time a Jersey Shore casting call has come to the West Coast—if the Las Vegas desert counts as “West Coast.”

Sources close to the show say they’re not looking to start a spin-off or debut an all-new cast—they’re simply looking for “additional roommates to join the legacy.”

However, you don’t have to fist-pump your way through an audition to hang out with Shoresalites: Ronnie hosts at Jet nightclub at The Mirage on May 28, and Pauly D spins at Palms Pool on May 30. Questions? E-mail cast recruiters at officialjerseyshorecasting@gmail.com.

Internet Matchmaking for Dogs You can get a date online, why not a dog?

Shelter Pet Rescue Network of Henderson wondered the same thing, so they’ve recently started using petfinder.com to find loving homes for their animals.

The organization joined more than 13,000 animal-welfare associations that use the pet-friendly website to find owners for orphaned cats and dogs. Happy Home Animal Sanctuary, Nevada 14

Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

SPCA and Golden Retriever Rescue of Southern Nevada are among the other local organizations also using the petmatching service.

There are more than 300,000 homeless pets on the site, and about 1,600 within a 100-mile radius of Las Vegas.

If you’re in the market, you can search using a list of variables (including location), and each potential match has a

profile page with background information and pictures.

Petfinder.com also offers up birds, rabbits, horses and pigs that are in need of new owners, although cats and dogs constitute the bulk of the listings.

Since debuting in 1996, petfinder. com has saved 20 million pets from being euthanized through connecting them with new owners.

It’s summer and you’re at the pool. So far, so good. But you’ve dropped your cell phone, MP3 player or camera into the drink. Now what? Bheestie Bag it.

The 6-by-9-inch zip-seal bag is full of liquid-thirsty beads that draw out moisture from soaked electronics. Turn off the device, remove the battery, wipe out as much moisture as you can, then seal it up in a Bheestie Bag for 24-72 hours—the longer the better. Then recharge, repower and hope the gadget gods are on your side. Results aren’t guaranteed, but for $20, it’s worth a shot. Available at REI, bheestiebag.com.

ThIs week In Your cITY Cada and his $8.5 million WSOP haul.

All in for Poker Skill, luck, patience and perseverance take center stage as the World Series of Poker reclaims the Rio May 27July 17, reminding us once again that hope springs eternal and poker really is anyone’s game.

Last year’s event drew almost 61,000 entrants and paid out more than $174 million in prize money.

Among those who made the cut to be in the November Nine in the 2009 Main Event was Darvin Moon, a 46-year-old logger from Maryland who had never been on an airplane but earned his $10,000 WSOP entry by winning a $130 satellite tournament in Wheeling, W.V. Another November Niner was 34-year-old superstar Phil Ivey, a fixture in the world’s most expensive poker rooms

for nearly a decade (and now namesake of “The Ivey Room” at Aria), who holds seven WSOP bracelets.

Nonetheless, the title went to the youngest champion in the WSOP’s history, 21-year-old Joe Cada, whose online poker skills translated to the live table. Cada survived several precarious positions, outlasting 6,493 other players to win $8.5 million.

Moon finished in second-place with $5.1 million and Ivey was seventh with $1.4 million.

This year marks the 41st anniversary of WSOP, and involves 57 events with buy-ins ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. Highlights from several rounds, including the Main Event, are recorded and broadcast throughout the summer on ESPN.

Penn on Point One of Las Vegas’ most opinionated entertainers has a new soapbox: Penn Jillette’s Web-only series, Penn Point, debuted May 24 on Internet TV site Revision3.com. Jillette now sounds off on everything from pop culture to philosophy four times a week.

“I’m saying and shooting whatever I want, wherever I want,” he says, describing the first episodes—which cover Seth MacFarlane, Tea Parties and the iPad—as “really kick-ass.”

Penn Point picks up where Penn Says—the illusionist’s rudimentary rant-and-rave Web series on Crackle—left off in December.

The new show benefits from high-def video, studio lighting, professional editing and sophisticated distribution methods.

To help the performer capture a moment whenever the urge strikes him, Revision3 equipped Jillette with a portable Flip cam and installed two cameras and light rigs in his home recording studio, a.k.a. “the ultimate man cave.” Once video is shot, Jillette is able to send the raw footage to the Revision3’s San Francisco-based production team. From there, new episodes are cut and posted to the Penn Point channel on Revision3’s site (and YouTube), Monday through Thursday.

Founded by Jay Adelson, David Prager and Las Vegas native Kevin Rose, Revision3 produces a range of wildly popular Web series, including Diggnation, Tekzilla, Scam School and Film Riot. In addition to the company website, programming can be found on iTunes, YouTube and TiVo (among others) and is viewable on a range of devices, including cell phones, iPods and, yes, even TVs. revision3.com/pennpoint.

escuela d’été, anyone?

Summer school isn’t just for underachievers. Students looking to get a leg-up on learning a foreign language can beat the heat and hit the books at Town Square beginning June 21 during Camp Lango.

The day camp, for aspiring speakers of Spanish and French between the ages of 4 and 12, was developed in 2006 by a group of San Francisco parents who were frustrated with the lack of options for second-language schooling in the Bay Area. This is the first time Camp Lango has come to Las Vegas.

Each weeklong session introduces day campers to a second language and its culture through simulated immersion,

with minimal English spoken. Programs run 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Monday to Friday, with extended hours available. Classes are $250 and limited to 20 students per week, so register early to secure your child’s spot, and take advantage of the early registration discount ($229/week) through June 4.

The camp kicks off four consecutive weeks of Spanish language and culture classes June 21-30 with its circusthemed El Circo program, while subsequent weeks include El Mar (Mar de Cortez) and La Ciudad (Mexico City).

Meanwhile, students hoping to hone their French language skills are offered two weeks of instruction: July 5-9 (Paris) and July 26-30 (Versailles). 526-4658, langolv.com.

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 15

THE LaTEsT THougHT

Vegas vs. Dallas It’s a fight we can’t afford, but can’t afford to lose

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has made it clear: He’s targeting Las Vegas with his new $1.2 billion stadium. What else can you read into the news that the man who built the Cowboys into one of the nation’s most lucrative sports franchises wants to host a November championship boxing bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao?

Cowboys Stadium—with its Texas-size video screen—hosted the March bout between Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey, which drew 50,994, the third-largest crowd for an indoor fight in boxing history. Jones is convinced that he can double that figure with a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, even in a sport that’s lost its buzz to the Las Vegas-based UFC. “There’s no question in my mind we would maybe approach 120,000 for that fight,” Jones told ESPN. He may be right, and if so that’s one more piece of bad news for a Las Vegas Strip marred by unemployment, plunging casino revenues and threats by casino industry patriarch Steve Wynn to move his corporate headquarters to the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau. Las Vegas needs Mayweather-Pacquiao, as much for a healthy payday as to help reverse the existential crisis rocking this community, from our neighborhoods to our video-poker bars.

Can we compete with Jones and Dallas? Should we even try?

One side of the argument finds those who believe Las Vegas must remain an innovative entertainment 16 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

destination, a place that employs the newest technology while transforming the definition of public spaces.

We could build a stadium with Vegas panache, and maybe attract a professional sports team while we are at it. Building a stadium would create 3,000 to 4,000 construction jobs, backers say, and the construction industry could certainly use the boost, having lost an estimated 75,000 jobs since its 2007 peak. The Associated General Contractors, an industry trade group, places the construction industry’s unemployment rate at 50 percent in Southern Nevada and 75 percent in the north.

We need the jobs, we need a larger venue and we could sure use the ego boost.

The problems come when you start looking at where the $600 million or so will come from.

There are four proposals on the table, three of which include floating publicly backed bonds, offering tax abatements or raising the sales tax in the resort corridor.

In a community that has watched a publicly backed monorail system go bankrupt, maybe it’s time to think a little more carefully about how we spend public money.

It’s doubtful that in the best of economic times Las Vegas could attract an NBA or NHL franchise. But now? Clark County’s population is about 2 million, which would make it one of the smallest markets in any pro sports league. Then there’s the question of whether tourists would buy tickets to see a Las Vegas sports team, not to mention the traditional reluctance

of casino operators to send gamblers off-property for events that don’t ring their cash registers.

Meanwhile, we’re just nine months from the start of what could be the most devastating legislative session in Nevada history—nine months to a session that could see cuts of $2.5 billion to Nevada’s public schools, colleges and universities, public health and public safety.

The concerns that Jones’ mega-stadium has stolen one too many championship boxing matches from us are legitimate, as are fears that we could lose the National Finals Rodeo—hosted by the aging Thomas & Mack Center where it has been held since 1985—to Jones’ new stadium when the NFR’s Las Vegas contract expires in 2014.

But where is the community-wide talk of the devastation that’s about to come with massive budget cuts?

Few Nevadans are willing to push for a corporate or personal income tax in the best of times, but somehow it’s more palatable to talk of building a sports arena with some form of public financing.

Bottom line: If developer Garry Goett, Harrah’s Entertainment, or Sue and Paul Lowden want to build a new arena, have at it. Tap into the public equity and debt markets, assume the risk yourself and you’ll benefit from the success. But in an anti-tax, small-government state where political candidates tout their opposition to corporate bailouts and tax increases, wouldn’t it be wise to say thanks but no thanks to public money?

Illustration by Hernan Valencia

By Dave Berns

THE LaTEsT Gossip Star-studded parties, celebrity sightings, juicy rumors and other glitter.

Got a juicy tip? gossip@weeklyseven.com

star Gazing

Tweets of the Week Compiled by @marseniuk

@emzbenz Can the Kardashians, especially Kim, please fall off the earth, like now? Pls thx. @SinCitizenX I’m no more impressed by your iPad today than I was over your Bluetooth headset last year.

Olympian Apolo Ohno at Tao Beach, Paris Hilton and Jayde Nicole at XS, Ryan Eggold at Lavo, Mario Lopez with his baby mama, Courtney Mazza, at the Cosmopolitan Bikini Bash at Planet Hollywood.

What’s the bigger disaster: magician Steve Wyrick’s “Death Drop” illusion or his checking account?

The former was a stunt on the Strip last summer to promote Club Tattoo that ended with an injured crew member; the latter is in shambles, according to a U.S. Bankruptcy Court filing.

Wyrick apparently owes more than $54 million against assets of less than $100,000. His 500-seat namesake theater (that opened in 2007 to the tune of $34 million) is in foreclosure and his show, Real Magic, shuttered in December.

By comparison, The Prestige was directed by Christopher Nolan and starred Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson and David freaking Bowie—and cost just $40 million to make. Now what would have been a better investment: $10 to see a movie about magic that involves Ziggy Stardust, or $50 (or however much it was) to see Wyrick’s real crappy magic show?

The irony in Brand’s trash-talking Las Vegas is that just hours before the segment aired, the English comedian/actor was in Las Vegas to premiere his new movie, Get Him to the Greek.

And as he and co-star Jonah Hill walked the red carpet outside the Chi Theatre at Planet Hollywood, no death by apex predator wishes were uttered.

Perhaps his mind was in a different place. He was, after all, on his way into the same theater wherein his former (however unofficial) plaything, Holly Madison, takes it off six nights a week.

As Brand sat smugly on the Peepshow stage and addressed the audience after

@GloriaFallon123 That Lee DeWyze guy is cute—when he’s not making that “I think I’m gonna hurl” face. @obeyjef The voices in my head speak in jibberish and hoopla.

@SheckyGreen Poker room massage = no happy ending. the screening, he was asked what it was like shooting scenes in Las Vegas. Instead of shouting his apparent tiger-laden fantasies, he smiled, looked around and said he remembered the Chi Theatre as far more “erotic” in those carefree, pre-Katy Perry days.

Lost’s Lost star Found at Tao With a two-and-a-half-hour finale that only felt like eight, Lost wrapped up on May 23. Most of the key players ascended to nondenominational heaven through whatever post-island rapture the writers scribbled out 20 minutes before the final script was due, but Charlotte Lewis didn’t make the cut for enlightenment. The redhead egghead played by Rebecca Mader lasted only two seasons on the show, but Mader still managed to parlay her relatively short time on screen into a full weekend of hosting gigs.

She was at Tao on May 21, then changed into a bikini the next day to join Wilmer Valderrama and Olympian Apolo Anton Ohno before hosting a Lost finale party at Lavo later that night.

Mader and Valderrama.

18 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

@MLONGO919 Do you suppose VH1 will re-title it Pacemaker of Love? ;) #BretMichaels.

Russell Brand: Unleash the Tiger When Russell Brand appeared on the Late Show With David Letterman on May 19, he issued his fondest, sunshiney wish for Las Vegans: that they spend the rest of their days in the lower intestine of a large-ish jungle cat.

“I don’t like it. It shouldn’t be there. It’s a neon nightmare. It’s a mistake,” Brand rattled to Letterman. “I wish that tiger would get loose and just eat everyone there.”

Who knew Brand was such a delicate flower? Still, we in the 702 know that however harsh our fair city may be, no late night of bottle service (or early morning at the Rhino) is as merciless as sitting through another viewing of Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

@justinbaule My best feminine feature? Clearly my jaw line, they say it’s like Khloe Kardashian’s.

@AbbiPeltier Country music is full of the worst tough guys ever.

@ RandyVegas It was so damned cold here in Vegas yesterday, they were serving hot chocolate by the pool @Rehab :) LOL jk.

@unlvrebelbuzz I hope all the Rebels take the time in the offseason to master that thing that Kobe does with his underbite. It apparently works. @stevejones20 It’s really hard for me to watch someone else eat pancakes.

@veronicafchou Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars?

@flickrecipes I love waking up past 8 on a weekday. Hurray for furloughs!

Russell Brand photo by Erik Kabik / Retna

Wyrick Makes Millions Disappear

@DailyFiasco Heidi Montag wants to be in Transformers 3. She’s already half CGI, it could be a real budget-saver for Bay.

Society

For more photos from society events in and around Las Vegas, visit weeklyseven.com/society.

Half court Press Basketball fans faced off against eight Mountain West Conference coaches on May 23 during the Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser at the Palms. Held in the resort’s exclusive Hardwood Suite, the event featured a $50 “Hot Shot Basketball Challenge” supporting the American Cancer Society, which included UNLV men’s basketball coach Lon Kruger (above, in red), and fellow MWC coaches Dave Rose (BYU), Tim Miles (Colorado State) and Jim Boylen (Utah).

Photography by Sullivan Charles

20 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Society

For more photos from society events in and around Las Vegas, visit weeklyseven.com/society.

open Minds The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health on May 22 opened its doors to the Las Vegas elite during its grand opening celebration. Attendees included Mayor Oscar Goodman (above), Larry Ruvo (below, on left), CityCenter president Bobby Baldwin (below, on right) and the center’s renowned architect, Frank Gehry, who addressed the VIP crowd midway through the four-hour reception.

22  Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

ENVIABLES

Style

Hidden Gem

Each season Swarovski partners with lauded designers to create its Atelier Collection. For spring/summer 2010, Nicholas Kirkwood, Jason Wu, Matthew Williamson and Zaha Hadid answered the call to reinterpret the use of crystal in fine jewelry. Shown here, bracelets by Hadid. swarovski.com.

Green Queen

Cheryl Samlaska believes that after the green fad is over, eco-responsibility is here to stay. Oya Eco-Couture at The District in Henderson is her nod to the importance of eco-conscious apparel.

2235 Village Walk Dr., Suite 157, oyaecocouture.com.

The Look

Photographed by Tomas Muscionico

JoSEph MorELLI, 45

department manager, Barneys New York Style icons: Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren.

What he’s wearing now: Gucci suit, Dolce & Gabbana shirt, Berluti shoes and belt, Chrome Hearts eyewear and Barneys New York tie and pocket square.

Great Knobs

Roger Thomas, best known as the design director of Wynn Resorts, unveils his new collection of door and cabinet accessories for Rocky Mountain Hardware. Cast in bronze, the Paris Collection reimagines 17th- and 18thcentury styles. rockymountainhardware.com.

A true gentleman, Morelli is known for looking amazing at every occasion. “I characterize my style as upbeat casual,” he says. “You can find me in fine accessories with jeans and a button-down when I am not working. However, nothing beats a fine tailored Italian suit for work.” Always in the moment when it comes to fashion, Morelli says there was one recent trend that at first had him skeptical but he has since embraced: “Pattern on pattern ... who knew?”

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 25

East of Zzyzx Man braves the obscurity of the desert in the simplicity of jeans and a T-shirt

Photographer Harper Smith Hair Ben Skervin Stylist Jesse Jenkins Model Jesse at Photogenics

26 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

RVCA gray shirt, available at Pharmacy Board Shop, 4845 S. Fort Apache Road, pharmacyboardshop.com.

Style

Hudson jeans available at Nordstrom, Fashion Show.

28 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

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May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 29

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5 30 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

7

Born to Brawl On the eve of another titanic UFC weekend in Vegas, the sport’s no-holds-barred boss talks about the fight game and the fight in him

By Ben Conmy Everybody has an opinion on Dana White. Just bring up his name next time you are out on the town and see what happens. “Guy’s an idiot,” “ignorant loudmouth,” “super nice guy,” “one of the most real people in Vegas,” “totally down to earth” and the age-old classic, “asshole.” Those are just a few samples from people I encountered in the run-up to this interview, but one conclusion is clear: The jury is all over the place, except in the middle. That’s one area in which you’ll never find an opinion about the UFC alpha male. That’s because whatever he does or says, he’s all in. Maybe that’s why he recently made the list of 2010’s most influential people in both Time and Esquire.

I ruminated on these character assessments while I waited to meet Mr. White himself. It’s a few weeks before the next colossal fight weekend (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Rashad “Suga” Evans in UFC 114 at MGM Garden Arena, May 29), and I’m sitting in the lobby under the vaulted ceilings of the Ultimate Fighting Championship headquarters on West Sahara Avenue, watching clips of fights on the three giant plasmas. On one screen, a fighter is getting ripped to shreds.

The coup de grâce is a knee to the skull, followed by a cascade of blood down to the Octagon floor. It’s another clue that I’m not about to meet Roger Goodell, a suitand-tie Brylcreem guy who lays down the NFL law with the clean precision of a corporate lawyer.

Dana White’s image is closer to an NFL lineman than a sport’s CEO. But there is one parallel with the latter: I’m kept waiting 20 minutes past our appointment, and it’s not stacking the deck toward the pro-White side of the debate. Just when I start to get restless, his ultra-hospitable assistant, Chari, arrives to summon me upstairs, and it’s clear by her “so sorry” expression that I’m not the first individual bumped around by the hectic schedule of the UFC czar.

After a trek down some long corridors clad with UFC hype, I’m led into the impactful office of The Man himself. I was expecting a motif along the lines of an Affliction T-shirt, so I’m surprised that it is both tasteful and subtle. The room features floor-to-ceiling windows and a lounge area with couches and a table, presumably for high tea with really important people (myself not included). There is also a couple of striking prints on the walls by Albert Watson—one’s the back of Mike Tyson’s head; the other is a monkey holding a gun. But the most dominant feature in the office can be summed up in one word: space. Put it this way, if you work in a cubical and you somehow get invited to Dana White’s office, don’t go—it’ll only humiliate your existence. This could be a hangar at McCarran.

Now that I’m feeling sufficiently emasculated, Mr. White (“Dana’s good”) rises to greet me from the room’s commanding meeting table. The 40-year-old president of a billion-dollar empire is in good shape, dressed casu-

32 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Photography by Francis + Francis

ally in jeans, T-shirt and a baseball cap curved tightly around his shaved dome. He is less imposing than I expected, and his tone is subdued and deliberate, a little incongruous with the vigorous Dana White I’ve seen on television. As I begin to speak, White interjects: “You can ask me anything you want, man.”

Match on. That’s the White I’m expecting—straight into it. My immediate thought is how and why fighting has been such a constant feature of his life. He explains that although he spent a couple of his high school years in Las Vegas, he came from the streets of Boston. A self-proclaimed pugilist (“I love to fight”), he realized in his late teens that the fight game was going to be his destiny, one way or another. “It’s all I ever wanted to do,” he says with conviction, “and when I realized I wasn’t going to be good enough as a fighter, it was time to adapt.”

Adaptation is no doubt a survival trait fostered on the notoriously tough streets of Boston’s Southie neighborhood (think Good Will Hunting).

“I went looking for it, man,” White continues, “and I worked hard to be involved. Found the key guys and went after them. I don’t like to read, but when I was younger, at the start, I would read fucking everything about the fight business—everything. I’m into experience. I don’t give a fuck what your piece of paper says—a college degree, whatever—I want to know what you can actually do. My education was reading and learning everything about what it is I wanted to do: the fight game.”

I was surprised to find out he did attend the University of Massachusetts, but not that he dropped out after a few semesters.

“People make a big deal out of the fact I didn’t get a college degree, but if you went to any college right now, I guarantee half of the kids would have no idea what they want to do. None. They are just wandering around college because someone told them they have to go or they would never amount to fucking anything. These kids leave college with an education that they can’t fucking use, because they have no idea what the fuck they want to do.”

At this point I feel like I should I apologize for the Ph.D I spent six years getting and start telling all the stories from the English soccer dressing room I was brought up in—plenty of fights and shenanigans there. Although, in essence, I’m mentally agreeing with White’s sentiment. If Las Vegas in particular has taught me anything, it’s that

a strong work ethic and some street smarts can go a lot farther than a fancy title. I share this thought with White, and he elaborates: “The one thing about this town is that young people can make it big, and it’s always been that way, unlike the East Coast or wherever. Old money doesn’t run everything here; young people, if they work hard, can make it.”

You have to give White the floor when it comes to that subject, because whatever your definition may be, he’s made it.

“In the beginning in Boston, I paved fucking roads because I had to support myself. Then I went to work as a bellman at the Boston Harbour Hotel, and I was making good money but I started to realize this isn’t what I wanted my life to be. I mean, I respect anyone who earns a living, I respect a hard worker, but I had that moment when I realized this is not my dream, and I decided, then and there, that was it. I told a good friend of mine at the hotel, ‘I’m gonna be in the fight game—I don’t care if I clean the fucking ring at the end of the night or if I’m the spit-bucket guy, this is what I’m gonna do.’ He thought I was crazy.”

What happened next reads like this (depending on whom you ask and what you read): White ran inner-city boxing programs. Started a box-aerobics business.

Did well. Too well. Got pressure from the Irish mob in Boston to share the action. Didn’t like that. Moved to Vegas. Continued to be successful, managed some fighters, ran some gyms, met an old school friend, Lorenzo Fertitta, who had money and connections. Used his powerful personality and drive to buy the UFC with Fertitta and his brother, Frank. Used his vision to make it bigger and better, and his charisma to tell the world all about it. The rest of the legend continues to unfold.

White, a man with a million Twitter followers, is far more eloquent than the clichés, rumors and this article (thus far) would suggest. Yes, he drops a proliferation of F-bombs, but his speech pattern is thoughtful and considered, and the oratory is entertaining. This is not surprising; it is impossible to build a brand like the UFC simply by being a loud mouth. The disarming part is that White appears to actually listen. He asks questions, he probes for answers, he challenges you to engage— the very essence of what makes UFC so successful, and makes him its superlative spokesman.

“Some men are born to fight. That’s who they are.

They are not gonna fucking change. Then you have

“I don’t give a fuck what color you are.

I don’t care what country you come from, or what language you speak. Fighting is simply in our DNA. It’s the way we are built, period.”

The lord of the Octagon, at UFC headquarters.

The man and his muscle car: a 1970 Barracuda.

34

Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

“I don’t like golf. You know what I do? I don’t fucking watch it! What’s golf? A bunch of rich dicks walking around in stupid clothes and hitting a fucking ball. If we stopped that shit, we could build housing for people who can’t afford it on that land. And you have a problem with UFC?” another section of society who’ve had some bad things happen to them in their lives, probably at a young age, and they are fucking angry, they have a huge amount of aggression. You can do one of two things: Take that aggression and use it in a positive way, or you can be nothing but fucking negative.

Fighting has always existed and it always will.

There is always something to fight over—always.

It’s a woman, it’s land, it’s where you come from, it’s religion, whatever. Combat is always going to exist.”

All very true, but a huge section of society in 2010 loathes fighting in all its forms. UFC has been described as “shockingly brutal,” “archaic base violence” and just plain “disgusting.”

White’s response is swift and clear: “I don’t give a fuck what color you are. I don’t care what country you come from, or what language you speak. Fighting is simply in our DNA. It’s the way we are built, period.”

He has moved to the edge of his seat, and for a split second I consider the possibility that he might prove his point. Instead he continues to wax lyrical on the inevitability of combat fighting. I suppose when fighting is in your blood, you are not going to espouse the virtues of peace and harmony. I don’t think Woodstock would have been White’s scene.

It’s simple in White’s eyes: “If you don’t like it, and you’re not into it, fuck it—don’t watch it,” he says. “I don’t like golf. You know what I do? I don’t fucking watch it! What’s golf? A bunch of rich dicks walking around in stupid clothes and hitting a fucking ball. If we stopped that shit, we could build housing for people who can’t afford it on that land. And you have a problem with UFC? Come on, man. Everyone’s gonna have their opinions.

I’m not gonna change that.”

Just imagine what White’s like when presented with a situation that really affects his core passion.

Like the UFC’s mixed martial arts competitors.

CBS recently aired a night of mixed martial arts fights with the support of Strikeforce (an MMA competitor) and Showtime, but the event is most remembered for an impromptu (though White doubts that) brawl that erupted as one fighter was being interviewed and another decided to pick this moment for a Kanye Westtype interruption. The resulting brawl was an embarrassment for all involved, including the UFC, whose goal is for the sport to be allowed in all 50 states (so far 44 are on board).

“CBS, Strikeforce and Showtime couldn’t give a shit if we get sanctioned in certain states,” White says. “These guys aren’t doing anything to move the sport forward. UFC is the one doing that.”

It’s clear that White, who has more than 300 fighters under contract, does not intend to let “second-rate” competitors steal his thunder and muddy the brand he has worked so hard to build.

But what about UFC’s own global events (in Dubai, the U.K., etc.)? Might growth in those markets take the shining light off those Las Vegas UFC nights?

“Never! Nothing competes with Vegas on UFC nights,” he says. “Vegas is the fight capital of the

world, period. Always has been, and it’s always gonna be. This is the place, man. It’s electric here.

I love this fucking city. I’ve been all over the world, to some of the coolest places on the planet, and I can’t fucking wait to get home, man.”

White is rolling now, and it’s time for a little lesson in what the UFC means, where it’s going, what it takes to compete.

“Let’s take jujitsu, for instance,” he says. “Jujitsu is like a giant human chess game. For every move there are several ways to counter. I love boxing, but realistically there are only a couple of counter moves to a punch. Jujitsu demands these fighters have a complex approach to what they do. Brawlers will be exposed quickly. Muay Thai, boxing, kickboxing, wrestling—you have to master all these skill sets. You have to be incredibly athletic and committed to be successful. To train properly across the board and be competitive, you have to be one of the most highly conditioned athletes in the world.

These athletes are incredible. Incredible.”

And when I ask about the potential cultural impact of UFC—the odds that little Billy from Idaho will want to grow up to be a UFC icon instead of an NFL star—White really comes to life: “Yes! For sure. I believe the impact is gonna be huge. Kids now are really thinking about being UFC fighters; it’s a realistic dream. It’s great to be a basketball star and win world championships.

How about, I’m the fucking baddest dude on Earth!

That’s the shit that gives you goose bumps. And all the other sports stars show up to these fights, and they are in awe of how powerful and skillful these guys are.”

Beyond further establishing his product in the States, White’s ultimate goal is to make UFC as universal as soccer around the world—same game everywhere. This means the sport will be his focus for a while yet. It’s clear there is a lot of fight left in him, and that he will not be distracted by the fame and fortune around him.

“This is what I do,” he says. “I don’t pop my head up and look around at what I have, because it will freak you out. I keep my head down, I keep plugging away. I know where the goal line is, and we keep running toward the goal, never stopping. I’m not kidding you: I started in a fucking broom closet across the hall—a fucking broom closet. That broom closet was my office. We just kept buying more and more of the building until eventually we owned it all.”

There’s a pause from White, and I don’t interrupt. I’m hoping for my closing sound bite, and I get it. It’s not the blockbusting right-hander that leaves you wondering what day of the week it is; it’s not boisterous, histrionic or aggressive. It’s calm, considered and lucid—the side of Dana White that perhaps many people (and the media) do not want to acknowledge exists.

“There’s gotta be something that gets you out of bed in the morning, man,” he says, “and for me, that’s fighting. When it comes to money, money doesn’t drive me. Winning drives me.”

Street 7 Ben Conmy asked random Las Vegans he ran into what questions they had for Dana White. Here they are, along with White’s answers: 1. What would you be doing if you weren’t in charge of the UFC? I’d be in the fight business somewhere, doing something.

2. Doesn’t “Dana Black” sound much more dangerous than “Dana White”? Have you ever thought about changing your name?

Fuck no!

3. If you had trained as a youngster, how effective a UFC fighter could you have been?

When I was young I wanted to be a fighter, but one day it hit me in the gym: You’re not it. I was 20 years old. I saw a local fighter recently, and I thought maybe I could have been good. But I had my moment, and I knew it wasn’t me.

You gotta realize what you are and what you are not.

4. Could Floyd Mayweather Jr. be effective in the UFC? Floyd, in my opinion, is probably the best boxer ever, when you talk about pure boxer. He is so fucking talented. Floyd has all the attributes to be a great UFC fighter, and if he’d have chosen that route, I’m sure he’d have been successful.

5. What would your poker style be at the table?

I don’t know how to play poker. I’m a blackjack guy. But if I played poker, I’d probably be in your face.

6. If you ran a casino, which one would it be and why?

Bellagio. You just feel good when you walk in that place.

And it doesn’t have that uppity attitude of some of the others.

7. Do you think the U.S. soccer team will do well in this summer’s World Cup? I care as much about soccer as I do about two insects having a race on the floor.

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 35

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THe LocaL Newsroom Porn-again christians The XXX Church opens a local branch to address the city’s sins

Gross portrait by Anthony Mair

By Matt O’Brien What would Jesus do about legalized prostitution, pornography and sex addiction? One local church believes he’d reach out to those employed in the sex trade, as well as to those who patronize it, with a message of love and acceptance. So that’s exactly what Pastor Craig Gross and the members of his latest endeavor, the Strip Church, are doing.

In the past 18 months, Gross and his flock have renovated brothels, handed out lip gloss and cupcakes at strip clubs and driven the “Jesus Loves Sin City” bus up and down the Strip handing out Bibles and bottled water to tourists. They’ve also gone to run-of-the-mill conventions to convince attendees that what happens here can destroy your life back home.

“It’s been exciting and a challenge,” says Gross, who co-founded the XXX Church with Jake Larson in 2002. “We’ve enjoyed it. I think we do well in places where we’re the only group doing what we do and we stand out. It’s been rewarding to see the things that have taken place here.”

Gross made national headlines with the XXX Church by bringing his anti-porn message to industry conventions and debating porn stars at colleges across the country. With the Strip Church, he and his flock have settled in Las Vegas to concentrate on the sex industry in Sin City.

And they’ve branched out. Their umbrella organization, Fireproof Ministries, includes the XXX Church, the Strip Church and heartsupport.com, which helps people battle drug, food, money and other addictions.

The story of Gross and the XXX Church has been documented by GQ , CNN, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Good Morning America, Nightline and many other media outlets: Grand Rapids, Mich., youth pastors Gross and Larson notice their flock watches a lot of porn, and that many of them feel it’s a problem, so they create a place online where kids can get support. In a stroke of marketing genius, they launch the website—xxxchurch.com—and set up a booth at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas in 2002.

KTNV, Channel 13 airs the story and Gross and Larson are invited to other porn shows and churches. They become semi-famous and decide that addiction counseling is their calling. In 2008, they move to Las Vegas.

“I thought it was funny,” porn star Ron Jeremy says of the move. Jeremy has known Gross for four years and debated him at colleges across the country. “In some ways, I thought he was leaving the porn industry behind and focusing more on gambling and

alcohol and prostitution. Las Vegas is known more for those kind of things than porn.”

It’s really just a matter of going where you are needed, Gross says.

“When we started all this, we had no intention of doing a full-time ministry and moving to Las Vegas,” he says, noting the ministry is supported by donations, speaking fees and merchandise sales. “But I’m open to where this leads and hoping we can expand what we’re doing here. I feel like there are so many opportunities.”

The church’s soft-sell approach helps it reach its target audience. “Rosa,” 21, for example was working at a brothel in Carson City, broke and depressed. She stumbled on stripchurch.com. A few days later, the ministry flew her to Las Vegas and put her up in a staffer’s home.

“I was raised Catholic and I’ve wanted to be religious again, but I didn’t think I was good enough,” says Rosa, who started working as a prostitute when she was 18.

“In most churches I would be looked at as a sinner.

The Strip Church was appealing to me because they’re religious, but they don’t push it on you. They just reassure you about everything.”

Although local churches have been reluctant to collaborate and some staffers and volunteers haven’t liked Las Vegas, Gross says the move has been worth it.

“We just want to get passionate people involved in every aspect of what we’re doing and let them run with it.”

Pastor Craig Gross, co-founder of the XXX Church.

There is no law in Nevada regarding driving and cell phone use.

Can You Hear Me Now? Legislators plan to try—again— to limit cell phone use while driving

By Kate Silver It’s time to put an end to pushing “send” when your hands should be on the wheel, lawmakers say. Plans are in the works to create bills for the 2011 legislative session targeting cell phone use while driving, including bills by state Sen. Shirley Breeden, D-Henderson, and Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas. But is Nevada really ready for such a law?

Currently, six states and the Virgin Islands prohibit drivers from using handheld cell phones while driving; and 25 states, Washington, D.C. and Guam ban text messaging for drivers.

The Metropolitan Police Department also supports a ban on texting while driving.

“We would like to have a law passed where texting is against the law,” says Capt. Richard Collins of Metro’s Department of Public Safety. “As far as a no-phone zone, I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to get that, as far as the law goes. But people need to pay attention to what they’re doing when they’re driving.”

That may be easier said than done. The only law Nevada has on the books regarding cell phones and driving is one passed in 2003 prohibiting local governments from regulating cell phones in automobiles.

Still, while there’s no explicit law relating to cell phones and driving, Collins says Metro regularly issues citations to distracted cell phone users under the “Full Attention to Driving” law.

Out of 134,148 total traffic citations in 2009, 3,856 were issued for motorists failing to pay full attention to driving, the reason also cited in 1,739 collisions.

“I think everybody is aware that if you’re doing something and not putting all of your focus on driving, then things can happen,” Collins says.

Manendo is certainly aware of it. For the past two legislative sessions he has tried to get a law passed targeting juveniles using electronic devices while driving, including cell phones and video games. Twice it’s failed, but he’s not deterred. If elected to the state Senate, he says he plans to bring it up again in 2011.

“We have data from other states that shows juveniles are more likely to get into crashes or get killed behind Continued on page 39 May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven

37

The Local Newsroom

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Casino old-timer getting back in game with Gambet

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38 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

There’s never any shortage of new table games in Nevada. Right now, there are 557 table games approved for the state’s casinos, though you rarely see more than a dozen or so at any casino. But Jose Brito’s quest to find a niche shows that an Old Vegas attitude doesn’t have to mean more of the same old games.

Brito is a genuine casino old-timer who broke into the business at age 23 dealing blackjack, baccarat and roulette in Havana in the 1950s. The Tropicana Night Club Casino and El Casino at the famous Havana Hilton were excellent training grounds, and Brito learned the nuts and bolts of gambling there.

But Cuban casinos didn’t long survive Fidel Castro’s rise to power in 1959, and Brito fled the country, ending up in Las Vegas. Former Havana Hilton executive Larry Snow helped Brito move to Las Vegas, where he quickly scored a dealing job at the Stardust.

During the following decade, he worked his way up to the position of pit boss. Brito had stints at the Dunes, Caesars Palace and Desert Inn before leaving town for Lake Tahoe, where he ran gambling operations for the King’s Castle casino. In the 1980s, Brito moved again, to Atlantic City, where he helped Del Webb open the Claridge hotel-casino before moving to the Playboy hotel-casino.

Retired from the industry for several years, Brito returned to Las Vegas in 2005 with a mission: to work on Gambet, a game he’d been tinkering with since the early 1980s. The game combines blackjack and baccarat, two casino favorites.

Blackjack has long been the most popular game, and baccarat, since elbowing aside craps in 2004, has been the No. 2 earning game in Nevada. Combining the games seems like a can’t-miss prospect.

“I was frustrated with years of trying to explain the rules and regulations of baccarat to players,” Brito says. “It is a classic, elegant game, but it is a confusing and complex one, as well. So I started thinking about options. I started mixing games together and Gambet was born. My daughter (Carmen Gigar, the managing principal of Zenith Gaming,

which is marketing the game) gave me the name and it stuck.”

As in baccarat, the point is to get closer to nine than the house. There is no busting, and the cards are dealt according to pre-defined rules. The game is played on a modified blackjack table and features an insurance-type bet as well as other propositions. An initial draw of nine and a 10-value card (10s or faces), called a “hard nine,” pays threeto-two, like a natural blackjack.

The game has a lot going for it; no skill is required, translating into a short learning curve. But with several side bets, there’s enough variety to keep it interesting.

Getting a new game approved in Nevada isn’t easy. The Gaming Control Board has a 15-point checklist for would-be inventors. Before even being considered, all games must have statistical evaluations, patents on file at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and an agreement from a major casino to permit field testing of the game.

It can be a frustrating journey, particularly for someone who’s been an insider for so long.

“I feel like a dinosaur sometimes,” Brito says when asked about the obstacles he’s facing. “While I knew lots of important people 30 years ago and I was in at the highest level of the business, today I don’t know anyone. I am an outsider and don’t speak the same modern language. So I have had to be creative and more patient.

At my age that’s hard.”

In the end, Brito says, it’s a necessary struggle.

“New games always feed the basic house games and add to the overall action in the casino,” he says. “It is like any other industry. If you don’t look for innovation, it gets stale. Las Vegas is in a period of reinvention, and Gambet should be part of its evolution. It’s my dream to see it played by real customers in a live casino soon.”

is “like[Gaming] any other

industry. If you don’t look for innovation, it gets stale.”

David G. Schwartz is the director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research.

Pedaling Perils Bike hits writer’s car; writer learns a lesson on biking safety

By Becky Bosshart When Alesio hit my car, all I heard was a soft thud, like the sound a Frisbee would make against the window. I was at the stop sign on Dorothy Avenue, near UNLV, scanning for traffic coming north on Maryland Parkway. I looked over my left shoulder and saw a stocky man atop a mountain bike fly into the middle of the street.

I put my Toyota into park and rushed to the grimacing man, who was holding his right leg and rocking on the concrete. Ironically, my week investigating bicycle safety in the Las Vegas Valley had begun just a few hours earlier when I spoke with Lisa Caterbone, owner of BikingLasVegas.com, who teaches basic biking safety classes.

“Riding a bike is a lot like driving a car,” she says.

“You have to follow traffic rules. Stop at stop signs and lights, don’t run through them. If cyclists follow those simple things they’ll have a less stressful relationship with motorists, because they’re showing respect to each other.”

Las Vegas hasn’t had a bicycle fatality yet this year, and I didn’t want to cause the first. Of the five in 2009, two were caused by cyclists, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. Vehicles were at fault for the three fatalities in 2008.

Children were the victims of the two most recent bicycle fatalities in Henderson. On April 26, a 13-year-old boy was killed while riding his bike through a crosswalk on the way to school. That death is still under investigation. In June 2007, an 11-year-old girl was struck and killed at an intersection, according to Henderson Police public information officer Keith Paul.

Here’s what I figured happened in my case: Alesio,

TORNOE'S TOONS

an immigrant with limited English and no bike helmet, was riding down the sidewalk on the wrong side of Maryland Parkway. I stopped at the intersection, and he veered around the back of my car but instead ran into it.

“There are a lot of cyclists out there every day, no helmets, riding on the sidewalk, riding the wrong way on the street,” says Jim Little, vice president of the Las Vegas Valley Bicycle Club.

“You walk against traffic but you don’t ride a bike against traffic because nobody expects you and they don’t see you coming.”

Cyclists don’t have pedestrian rights. Children on bikes should stay on the sidewalk, but adult cyclists must be in a bike lane or the road’s right-hand shoulder riding with the flow of traffic. Walk your bike on a crosswalk.

Put lights on the front and back at night and in the early morning. Wear a helmet and light clothing. Police can fine you for offenses (for the Nevada Revised Statues on biking, visit bicyclenevada.com). As for motorists, they should give bikes at least a three-foot cushion.

Law-breaking cyclists give every rider bad street cred, says Tyler Wirthwein, a Cimarron-Memorial High School senior and avid cyclist who participated on May 19 in the sixth annual Las Vegas Ride of Silence, which

By Rob Tornoe

Local bicycling enthusiasts Lisa Caterbone and Jim Little.

is dedicated to cyclists killed in accidents in the previous year. Bikes deserve to share space with cars, after all, “we pay the same taxes as those who drive,” he says.

The Regional Transportation Commission works to give cyclists their share of the road and perhaps prevent accidents. It has built more than 80 miles of bicycle routes, 180 miles of bicycle lanes and 100 miles of paths (find a map at rtcsouthernnevada.com/cycling). The RTC plans to add 385 miles of routes and 735 more miles of bike lanes over the next 12 years.

Fortunately, Alesio was able to walk away from our encounter with his damaged bike, refusing medical treatment. Next time he might not be so lucky.

Cell phones Continued from page 37

Photo by Anthony Mair

Full ATTENTiON TO DRiviNg the wheel [while texting or using some kind of handheld device] than somebody who’s in their 40s, because they just lack the experience,” Manendo says.

He thinks that a law aimed at minors will help spread awareness about the dangers of texting while driving.

“I’m just absolutely convinced you have to change attitudes early on in life,” Manendo says. “If you have teens that know in advance it’s against the law ... then I’m hoping they’ll be less likely to do that later on.”

Breeden is taking a heavier-handed approach. She sponsored a bill in 2009 that would prohibit texting while driving for people of any age. The bill made it through the Senate but died in the Assembly.

Breeden says she’s working on a more restrictive bill requiring cell phone users to implement hands-free devices while driving.

“We’ve got to keep our roads safe,” she says. “I’m going to try it again, and hopefully the Assembly folks will understand just how important of an issue it is.”

Although there’s no law against using cell phones while driving in Nevada, Metropolitan Police officers do issue citations to people driving erratically (because of cell phones or other reasons) within the city and county, citing them for failure to pay full attention to driving. Of the 1,739 collisions in which “failure to pay full attention” was a factor in 2009, police listed the following distractions: 949 were for “other” 388 were unknown 174 were for cell phones 65 were for children 57 were for radio/CD player 28 were for electronic equipment 27 were for eating 17 were for reading 15 were for animals 10 were for smoking 9 were for personal hygiene

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven

39

The Flora, Fauna and Vandalism of Red Rock Graffiti and trash in the canyon accumulate faster than the BLM can clean them up

By Caitlin McGarry Traversing the trails of Red Rock Canyon, hikers encounter Joshua trees, desert tortoises, yucca plants and even the occasional bighorn sheep. The Native American tribes who made the canyon their home left petroglyphs etched into the gray limestone and Aztec sandstone. These days, many visitors are adding their own markings to the canyon’s rocks, making graffiti almost as common a sight as flora, fauna and wildlife.

For more than 40 years, the Bureau of Land Management has protected the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area just outside Las Vegas. One of their constant battles is to keep pace with the amount of tagging in the park.

“Graffiti is severe,” park ranger Kate Sorom says.

“We can’t keep up with it. … Every time I turn around, I’ve got another volunteer, another hiker or visitor coming in and saying, ‘We found graffiti at Ice Box,’ or ‘We found graffiti at Pine Creek.’”

Many visitors may think marking the canyon’s sandstone is acceptable because they see graffiti across the park. Vandals also carve their names into the sandstone.

40

Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

wash, along with common trash such as food wrappers.

“Unfortunately, some of it is monkey-see, monkey-do Signs placed around Red Rock warn visitors against kind of stuff, where somebody has scribbled their first graffiti and illegal dumping, though it appears the name and the date, or ‘Jim Loves Jill,’ and somebody warnings are often else will go, ‘Oh, hey, it ignored. To actively must be appropriate,’ and combat Nevada’s littering then they do it,” Sorom problem, the Southern says. “Then the next Nevada Agency Partnerperson comes along and ship created the Take they do it. … We just can’t Pride in America in get out there fast enough.”

Southern Nevada Team Concerned citizens often in 2005, and launched the volunteer to clean up the “Don’t Trash Nevada” graffiti, but with a limited campaign shortly staff, the BLM is only able thereafter. The campaign to offer graffiti removal spreads awareness about training sporadically. The respecting the desert via removal process involves television ads and cleanscrubbing the markers up events. Nevadans are or spray paint with wire also encouraged to clean brushes, water and a soyPatricia was here, and now someone else must erase the evidence. up the park on annual based, environmentally Make a Difference Day, a national day of volunteering friendly chemical remover.

“Sandstone is so porous that it’s very difficult to remove set for Oct. 23 this year.

Sorom says public lands throughout the country [graffiti] because the marker or spray paint just soaks are plagued by the same kinds of graffiti and littering into the rock,” Sorom says. “You literally have to remove issues she sees in Red Rock. The BLM hopes punisha good portion of the rock to remove the graffiti.”

Illegal dumping is also an issue at Red Rock, although ments will deter would-be graffiti artists and litterers: Those caught engaging in tagging or illegal dumping littering is more common outside of the park’s scenic drive. BLM officials find discarded shooting targets like face misdemeanor charges, including community service, fines and even jail time. old television sets and computer monitors in a nearby

Photo by Anthony Mair

The Local Newsroom

Live in the Desert, Study the Sea A partnership between UNLV and The Mirage enables students to get close to marine life

Photo by Anthony Mair

By Tiffannie Bond Dolphin trainer and aquarist aren’t your typical Strip jobs. But with several large aquariums at resort properties, the opportunity to study marine life in the desert isn’t such an oxymoron. One collaboration between The Mirage and UNLV enables students to study marine life during a yearlong internship that could help make history.

The Care and Management of Marine Animals Internship allows biology and environmental studies students the opportunity to get paid while they learn more about marine life. In addition to learning about the husbandry, conditioning, education and communication roles surrounding dolphins, aquariafocused interns have been working on a project for the last two years that could change lives.

Dr. Carl Reiber, life sciences professor and associate dean of UNLV’s College of Sciences, heads the Zebrafish Project, which studies the species in hopes of one

day curing Williams Syndrome. The condition affects one in 10,000 people worldwide, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people in the United States, and causes cardiovascular disease, developmental delays and learning disabilities.

The syndrome is caused by the deletion of the elastin gene on chromosome 7, according to the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

The zebrafish’s quick life cycle, uncomplicated breeding process and ability to be genetically manipulated make it easy to study. The project’s goal is to eventually breed a mutant strain of zebrafish missing the same gene in order to study possible cures and treatments, says intern Nick Davi, aquarium curator at The Mirage.

Davi, who works closely with Reiber, first researched and developed the rack system of 12 aquariums that will provide the perfect living environment for the fish at a UNLV lab. Another intern,

Dominique Robbins, currently works on breeding the fish, raising the fry and writing lab protocols.

“I’m finding it really an enriching experience,” Robbins says.

“Their [embryonic] life cycle is only 48 hours.

Being able to monitor UNLV student Shane Watson and friend at The Mirage. that is fun for me.” always the right fit, but that doesn’t mean Robbins, a 2006 UNLV graduate, is it’s not a positive experience.” still deciding on possible master’s degree Shane Watson, 24, a biochemistry major avenues, and Missy Giannantonio, at UNLV, currently trains dolphins at the curator of education at The Mirage, habitat and will graduate in the fall with says that’s OK. As the first intern at the a degree in biology, now with a changed Dolphin Habitat in 1993, Giannantonio emphasis in ecology and evolution. understands how interests can change.

“The thing that really grabbed me and “Students walk away always with a pulled me in, this is a very challenging learning experience. That has never line of work. I love the challenge,” he changed,” she says. “The internship is designed for you to see if this is the career says. “I tend to look at things as more of an opportunity than I used to.” path you want to go down. … It’s not

Also visit us at:

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 41

The Local Newsroom

Politics

Lying is one practice that crosses party lines

By Michael Green

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42 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, recently took deserved lumps for saying he served in Vietnam when he actually had been a Marine reservist. He responded by saying he took responsibility for his error and was proud of his service.

Lee Barnes, an English professor at the College of Southern Nevada, has published several outstanding works of fiction, including Gunning for Ho (University of Nevada Press, 2000) and Minimal Damage (University of Nevada Press, 2007), both of which deal with Vietnam.

Now he is writing a memoir about Vietnam and has spent considerable time pondering why so many Americans claim to have served there when they didn’t.

“I don’t think there is any one simple answer,” Barnes says. “But I think if they’re politicians, it’s just part of selfpromotion and the arrogance that they won’t be discovered in their errors and outright lies.

“The second reason is that the single biggest event of our generation was the war and America’s reaction to it. I think because the climate about soldiering and the war has changed so radically about those who serve, there’s no longer this notion of blame—that a lot of that generation that would have identified with being against the war now wants to be warriors without having been warriors.”

Blumenthal might fit in with some Nevada politicians who have overstated their achievements. Former Sen. Pat McCarran, D-Nev., tended to exaggerate conspiracies by communists and anyone he considered a political enemy.

But he also lied about some accomplishments. He claimed to have introduced the legislative bill creating the eight-hour workday in Nevada, but he didn’t.

His congressional biography listed a bachelor’s degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. Actually, he never finished; he had to leave school to work on his family’s sheep ranch, and sat with his mother in the audience at graduation, where both of them cried because he wasn’t getting his diploma.

Republicans tried to make a case that Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., exaggerated about an attempt to blow up a family car in 1981 over the mob’s displeasure with his record as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission. When radio

talk-show host Heidi Harris questioned the story, Republican challenger Sue Lowden merely chuckled, prompting attacks on Lowden—way before she denied ever saying she supported the idea of bartering medical care or came up with several different explanations for how she got her campaign bus.

Gov. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., chimed in on the Reid issue for reasons known only to him, suggesting the bomb was really a telephone book in a shoebox. Reid’s campaign produced the police report and the story died down, though it revealed that Lowden sometimes isn’t too with it.

As for Gibbons, his list of exaggerations is longer than the decade he claims to have gone without sex, although he did serve in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf War. Some lies are more blatant than others. Many politicians claim business acumen, based on the misbegotten theory that government should be run like a business. This claim leads to problems when your business has problems.

James Ray Houston ran for governor in 1974, claiming to have a gold-and-silver business that proved to be a scam, and once the reality became known he was finished as a candidate. In 2006, Jerry Airola touted his business background in running for Clark County sheriff, but his businesses were collapsing and he exaggerated his law enforcement experience.

Not surprisingly, he lost.

Since all of us shade the truth at some point, perhaps we should consider the lie and the teller. Lying about extramarital dalliances somehow seems less hypocritical and annoying when it’s Bill Clinton than, say, a Promise Keeper senator from Nevada. Not all lies are created equal.

For example, among historians, Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin committed plagiarism—a far worse offense that Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Ellis, whose research has been beyond reproach, lying about his Vietnam service. Happily, nothing like that has happened to historians in Nevada. That kind of nobility is why the caricature atop this column was touched up to reduce my uncanny resemblance to George Clooney.

Michael Green is a professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada and author of several books and articles on Nevada history and politics.

Nightlife

Entertaining options for a week of nonstop fun and excitement.

Compiled by Xania Woodman

Thur. 27 The long weekend starts early and with a splash as Simon throws a poolside Caribbean Cocktail Party at Palms Place. The all-inclusive event features tropical creations from three guest mixologists, all featuring El Dorado Rum, and chef Kerry whets appetites with beaucoup hors d’oeuvres. (7-10 p.m., $40.) Across the street, Voodoo Beach fêtes a pool of its own, as the summer poolside concert series returns to Rio with a live performance by Filter. Doors 5:30 p.m., concert 6 p.m., free tickets at 1079thealternative.com.

Fri. 28 As the sun rises on Memorial Day weekend, two new venues come to life at Encore—the latest it pool, Encore Beach Club, and Surrender nightclub. Throwing out the first beats at the Beach Club is guest DJ Pase Rock and, when the sun goes down, superstar DJ-cum-fashion designercum-Surrender music director Steve “Kid Millionaire” Aoki takes control of his new namesake Friday night party, Aoki’s House, inside, at Surrender.

(Encore Beach Club doors at 11 a.m., Surrender doors at 10 p.m., $40 for guys, $30 for girls, locals free at Surrender, local ladies always fee at EBC.) Also celebrating its opening weekend is Crown Nightclub, which marks its second night of operations on hallowed ground at the Rio, and welcomes Maryland-based DJ and producer, DJ Class (“I’m the Ish”), to its space in the former Club Rio. Doors at 10 p.m., $30 for men, $20 for women.

Sat. 29 Actress Eva Longoria Parker throws a massive 28th birthday bash for her hubby, NBA All-Star point guard, Tony Parker, at Eve. In Crystals. Doors at 10:30 p.m., $30 for men, $20 for women. Over at the Palms, house music reigns supreme as Rain resident Paul Oakenfold hosts a White Party and welcomes guests Markus Schulz, Jes and Louis Puig to Perfecto, while David Morales and Danny Love spin outside at the pool.

Doors at 10 p.m., $50 cover. A very different party goes down in the Copa Room behind the Bootlegger, as DJ/ promoter Lisa Pittman’s new weekly lesbian party, Bootybar, kicks off at 10 p.m. with a live performance

by L.A.’s Rough Duchess (7700 Las Vegas Blvd. South. $10 cover, $5 local ladies, free with “Bootybar” text to 313131.)

And finally, the Bunkhouse hosts an unlikely affair—a benefit for the Southern Nevada Zoo—featuring Monarques, Coastwest Unrest and The Mad Caps. 124 S. 11th St. Doors at 10 p.m., $6 cover.

SeveN NIghtS

Sun. 30

It’s Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas, and House is definitely in the house. By day, Encore Beach Club continues its rollout as Kaskade launches his Sunday residency with guests Chris Lake and Aeroplane. (Doors at 11 a.m., $40 for guys, $30 for girls, locals free.) Later that night, The Crystal Method is next door and toast its new single, “Sine Language,” featuring LMFAO (who perform at Surrender at Encore the same night) at Blush, following an opening set by Justin Baulé. (Doors at 9 p.m., $30 cover.)

Meanwhile, nations unite at Aria as Italy’s Benny Benassi and Germany’s Boys Noize perform for the pool party people at Liquid.

(Doors at 11 a.m., $75 for guys, $20 girls.)

And finally, Erick Morillo returns to his perennial MDW home, Tao at the Venetian.

Doors at 10 p.m., $50 for men, $30 for women.

Mon. 31 MGM Grand goes international as Canadian DJ/producer Deadmau5 follows a late night—make that early morning, considering the 2 a.m. start time—show at Vanity at the Hard Rock Hotel with an afternoon set at Wet Republic. The Netherlands’ very own AfroJack joins the Mau5querade as they spin the holiday away by the pool.

Doors at 10 a.m., tickets $100.

Tues. 1 Bang!—of naughty double-entendre comic book ad campaign fame—follows up on a weekend of electronica by celebrating the coming of Tuesday and DJ Franzen’s birthday with some muchneeded hip-hop at Moon. N9NE Group’s perpetual party starter, Jason “JROC” Craig, will no doubt lead the room in a serenade of thunderous applause in appreciation of the birthday boy. At the Palms.

Doors 11 p.m., $20 cover, local ladies free.

Wed. 2 Hump Day goes to a Higher Level as DJs GanjaBoat and TwoFish spin reggae, dancehall, ska, dubstep and jungle at Daddy Mac’s. 2920 N. Green Valley Parkway. Doors at 10 p.m., no cover.

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 45

Nightlife

Pure | caesars Palace

Photography by Jessica Blair

Upcoming may 29 | Shaggy june 4 | Dj Kellie acreman june 5 | Dj jeSSe marco

46 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Nightlife

Don’t tell MaMa | 517 e. FreMont St.

48 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Photography by Sullivan Charles

Nightlife

TrysT | wynn

Photography by Jessica Blair

Upcoming June 11 | national College Battle of the Bands grand finale

52 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Nightlife

S.k.a.m. SaturdayS | Hard rock Hotel

Upcoming may 29 | DJ CrookeD anD eriC CubeeChee at the pool; ViCtor CalDerone at Vanity may 30 | rehab moDel searCh, plus DJ homiCiDe anD mark mCGrath; DeaDmau5 at Vanity may 31 | DJ sCooter anD laVelle play relax

56 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Photography by Hew Burney

Nightlife

Lavo | the paLazzo

Upcoming May 30 | VOyEUR PaRTy WITH DJ VICE JUnE 5 | sIngER/sOngWRITER DanIEL MERRIWEaTHER, plus sTEPHEn WEBsTER UnVEILs FaLL/WInTER 2010 COLLECTIOn

58 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Photography by Roman Mendez

Nightlife

Nightlife Profile

Surrender to the Nightlife Drastic revamp complete, Encore unveils its adults-only pool and nightclub

By Jason Scavone It’s the kind of sage, homespun wisdom that’s been handed down through the ages: A glitzy porte cochere is nice, but you can’t swim in it. If Mark Twain never said that, he probably meant to.

Regardless, it’s advice Steve Wynn took to heart, and just about 18 months after Encore opened, the radical redesign of the property’s Strip frontage is ready to be reborn as a dual-purpose playland: the Encore Beach Club and Surrender nightclub.

Wynn’s in-house designer, Roger Thomas, led the way on the $67 million expansion, which stretches alongside Las Vegas Boulevard, from what was briefly the valet entrance to the turnoff for Encore’s self parking (and new valet).

“It’s huge, and at the same time it’s intimate,” says Dave Pappas, Encore Beach Club’s senior director of customer development. “The energy it creates is the brilliance of Mr. Wynn and the design team.”

Twenty-six cabanas and eight 307-square foot bungalows with Strip-facing balconies line the west side of the complex, while a central bar and gaming pavilion sits in between. Three tiered pools sparkle in the center of the space, separated by walkways and surrounded by a dozen daybeds and additional lounge seating.

Access to this adults-only water wonderland is gained through the doors at the south side of the Wynn parking garage (and the appropriate cover fee).

The nightclub dominates the space that previously was Encore’s atrium between Switch restaurant and the high-limit gaming area adjacent to Sinatra. A 4,000-squarefoot boutique-style club, it has resort-facing windows on three sides and pays homage to its successful little sister next door.

“It’s the size of Blush, and it’s built like

Blush, except the ceilings are 25 feet high,” Pappas says. “There are massive doors that open the whole entire width of Surrender. … It feels like you’re part of this massive vibe that’s going on outside.”

Beyond Surrender’s expansive doors, Encore Beach Club aims to become Las Vegas’ South Beach-style daylife alternative. The party heats up on Thursdays, when the party transitions from daylife to nightlife, and the venue re-opens at 10 p.m.

It’s all part of Las Vegas Nightlife Group’s most ambitious project to date, and they’re bringing in big-name talent to go with it. In addition to Memorial Day weekend performers Ne-Yo and LMFAO, Steve Aoki takes over at Surrender on Fridays as resident DJ and adds another title—music director—to his résumé (which already includes “fashion designer,” among other things). Kaskade comes to the Beach Club later—every Sunday—and goes head-tohead with Rehab at the Hard Rock Hotel and the new Beatport Beach party one block away, at Tao Beach.

So what does Encore Beach Club do differently? “We’re obviously the newest venue to open,” Las Vegas Nightlife Group owner Sean Christie says. “That is a draw on its own and sets us apart.”

Yet Christie acknowledges that, in Las Vegas nightlife’s cannibalistic climate, new venues open every few months, so no one is the new kid on the boulevard for long— and competition is always fierce.

“There is competition in all areas of business, whether its nightclubs, restaurants or pool parties,” he observes. “We try to focus more on what we are doing internally to create the best experience for our guests and not so much about what other venues are doing.”

Surrender Doors at 10 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. $40 for guys, $30 for girls, local ladies always free. Wednesdays are Surrender Your Wednesday industry nights, which means all locals and industry receive complimentary admission with local ID.

encore Beach cluB Kaskade (top) and Steve Aoki are resident performers at Encore’s new venues.

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Open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. daily, and at 10 p.m. Thursdays. $40 for guys, $30 for girls, local ladies always free. Meanwhile, all locals get in for free on Mondays, and Thursdays, too, during the EBC at Night party.

Nightlife

The Captains’ Log

Spin City The upside of Memorial Day madness in Vegas: great DJs at work

By Graham Funke Before I dive into the abyss of superficiality that surrounds the 72 hours of madness known as Memorial Day weekend in Las Vegas, allow me to commemorate here the men and women who have given their lives for our country, and commend those who continue to keep our shores secure.

It is important to remember why there’s no work on Monday. Or why the barons of this city’s nightlife import exciting talent. And why Southwest Airlines is booked solid. Though for The Captains of Industry, it simply means our crème loafers are acceptable again, at least until Labor Day. Tolerance is the tested entity during Memorial Day weekend: Revelers who descend upon this desert oasis test their tolerance for excess, while DJs such as myself have their tolerance tested while dealing with bad drunks who request bad songs. And for every napkin with a song request scrawled upon it, there is a general manager who stands stoic as a patron yells; a bartender who hides his grimace upon receiving a meager tip; and a security guard who dutifully rolls an inebriated partier off property in a wheelchair, a trail of vomit in his unfortunate wake.

There are also amazing upsides to Memorial Day festivities, including noteworthy guest DJ talent. This year is no exception, though I doubt I will be able to attend

any of the celebrations that pique my interest, due to my otherwise good fortune of gainful employment. But, if I was a civilian, here are a few places I’d love to visit: Deadmau5 at Vanity, May 30, and Wet Republic, May 31 Despite the fact that he has public disdain (or misunderstanding) for what today’s nightclub DJs do, the Canadian producer does make great tracks, and the popularity of songs that he has had a hand in (“Move for Me” by Kaskade, for instance) is impressive and growing. He went head-to-head against Jay-Z on opening night at Coachella this year, yet managed popularity equal to Hova—relatively speaking, of course.

Although I personally opted to see the Jigga Man spit “U Don’t Know,” I did hear Deadmau5’s epic “Ghosts N Stuff” cranking from the Sahara Tent as I left early to beat the mass exodus to the parking lot, and was forced to silently acknowledge my remorse.

Pitbull at Mandalay Beach, May 30 The Cuban-American rapper essentially invented his own style of music in south Florida by laying down lyrics over house tracks; now everybody does it. His show is bound to be a high-energy fête, as Pitbull is one of the few Latin rappers who has achieved a wide mass appeal and, while not all of his singles work in Las Vegas, there is a motto uttered among the resident DJs in Miami: When in doubt, play Pitbull—and that advice has saved my derrière more than once while working in South Beach.

The Crystal Method at Blush, May 30 These gents, individually, hail from Las Vegas, although the start of their decade-plus success stems from a relocation to Los Angeles in the 1990s. They have platinum albums and Grammy nods, and have collaborated with some of my fav artists, including Stone Temple Pilots. Their 1997 hit single, “Busy Child,” still gets regular rotation in my sets.

I’d love to see them play at Blush as House Wednesdays becomes We Love House Music Sundays—especially considering the only chance I’ve had to witness the duo was at some party on the Santa Monica Pier in 2001, and my then-girlfriend nagged me enough to leave before seeing them perform.

Memorial Day weekend delights: Deadmau5, LMFAO and Pitbull.

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Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Zen Freeman at Palms Pool, May 29 When I first met the native Englander, I had no idea about his DJ background; at that time, he was selling men’s clothing upstairs at Ron Herman in L.A., where a different then-girlfriend of mine also worked.

It wasn’t long before he started nabbing every highprofile and celebrity-stacked soiree imaginable. His extensive knowledge of music, dapper presentation and pleasant disposition made him the guy to get for swanky events. In recent months, he has been doing quite a bit of work at the Palms, involved in both Paul Oakenfold’s Perfecto, as well as the new Sunday brunch de jour, High Society at Nove Italiano.

He is part of the massive Love Festival lineup (as am I), and this will certainly afford Mr. Freeman the chance to flex his muscles a bit, even if they are sleeved in an Armani blazer.

LMFAO at Surrender, May 30 These guys are self-proclaimed party rockers, yet the claim has manifested in cities across the country; Sky Blu and Redfoo are wild dudes. LMFAO live the life they sing about, and swing from the chandelier all the while.

When StoneRokk and I invited them to a studio to be involved in our 2008 Christmas project (which awaits online, at youtube.com/watch?v=diUNn9KXYrE), they asked instead that we come to them. This rendezvous took place at the infamous Wonderland house, where four people were notorious bludgeoned to death in 1981. There were no working light bulbs in the room, so we had to record their vocals by the dim glow of an open bathroom door, aided by healthy amounts of room temperature Grey Goose. Merry Christmas, indeed.

Obviously, a slew of great DJs and acts will be present this Memorial Day weekend, joining the impressive talent pool that already performs in Las Vegas week in and week out. And the aforementioned are by no means the only events that would summon me like sirens luring nearby sailors; they are just a few that caught my fancy during a brief visit to the pleasure gardens of Xanadu. It was a fantastical trip in which I wouldn’t be required to work all weekend, and would instead be able to enjoy that rarity known as A Day Off—like Memorial Day itself.

Graham Funke (top left) and StoneRokk push the boundaries of what it means to be a DJ, determined to restore the once-glorious luster to their craft. In addition to contributing to Vegas Seven, The Captains of Industry entertain audiences at clubs across the country and maintain residencies at Moon and Playboy Club. This Memorial Day weekend, they return to the Palms as part of the Love Festival lineup. For more, visit thecaptainsofindustry.com.

Nightlife

Cocktail Culture

By Xania Woodman

Palazzo Takes All

Noir Bar, Caesars Palace and Carnaval Court were all well-represented at April’s Effen Vodka Art of Design competition, but it was the Palazzo’s Fusion Bar that dominated. Along with their respective assigned teammates, Fusion’s Emilio Tiburcio took first place, and Wendy Verdel and Greg Black tied for second place.

All three teams shared their award-winning recipes for the ultimate, artfully designed Effen cocktails:

EffEn SwEET HEAT

By Wendy Verdel (Fusion) and Raymond Williams (Caesars Palace) ¼ cucumber, peeled, reserving some peel for garnish ¼ jalapeño with seeds, reserving one slice for garnish if desired 8 raspberries, plus one more for garnish 1 ounce fresh sweet lemon sour 2 ounces Effen vodka Method: Muddle the first four ingredients in a mixing glass.

Add vodka and some ice, then shake hard. Double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a raspberry and long cucumber peel or a thin jalapeño slice—or all three.

EffEn Good TimE

By Greg Black (Fusion) and Justin Keane (Carnaval Court) 5-7 blueberries 5-7 blackberries ½ ounce egg whites ½ ounce Cointreau liqueur 1 ounce Effen black cherry vodka 2 ounces fresh sour mix Method: Set aside a few berries for garnish, then muddle remaining ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice and shake, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish and serve.

Sun Burn

By Emilio Tiburcio (Fusion) and Andrew Pollard (Noir Bar)

To caramelize bitters, pour a small amount into a small glass atomizer/mister (often used to add vermouth to martinis; available for about $15 at bar supply stores or online at gotmartini.com/martinimister.htm).

Hold a brûlée torch (yes, as in crème) six inches over the cocktail, then spray three clouds of atomized bitters over the flame, allowing the caramelized mist to fall over the top of the drink. This technique brings out the aromatics in any bitters and puts the “burn” in the Sun Burn. When you drink, you should get a whiff of burnt orange rind.

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Method: Muddle first three ingredients in a mixing glass, then add sage and vodka. Briefly dry-shake (no ice), then add some ice and shake again. Double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass, add bitters and garnish with sage leaf.

Photo by Ryan Weber

Brûlée your way to better bitters!

1½ ounces pineapple juice ½ ounce simple syrup 2 pieces cactus paddle 2 ounces Effen vodka 3 sprigs sage, torn, plus one for garnish Caramelized Angostura bitters (see instructions, left)

The NaTioNal Newsroom This week in the New York Observer

real simple Banking in the most Complicated of Times A start-up hopes to ride the backlash against big financial firms

By Max Abelson

Zuckerberg photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

In the basement of a Brooklyn brownstone, two 31-year-olds have spent the year building the next great American bank.

It won’t have tellers, TV ads with handsome couples, well-lit branches, a trading division or even fees, except for the odd international wire transfer.

In the BankSimple office on May 21, Josh Reich, mostly bald, wearing stubble, nice Brooklyn glasses and an orange polo shirt, and Shamir Karkal, at a desk about half the size of his partner’s, said the idea is to go back to old-fashioned Main Street banking, but to do it with a new kind of gorgeous simplicity on the Web. “It’s not a hard job,” Reich said, “unless you become really greedy.” When BankSimple debuts later this year, customers will deposit checks by taking pictures of them on smart phones; take out money fee-free from ubiquitous ATM networks like Allpoint; and have one card that handles savings, credit and checking.

Less than a week after the Senate passed its gargantuan financial reform bill, it’s an interesting time to be a banking upstart. Last year, banks brought in an estimated $38.5 billion on overdraft fees, the money they charge customers when balances are exceeded, an example of what Reich sees as the oligarchs’ Shakespearean-scale dreadfulness.

Without having to worry about branches, his idea is to just

BankSimple founders Josh Reich, left, and Shamir Karkal.

make money from plain lending, and from the little slivers that retailers give up when cards are used for purchases. “You have some people who want to save money, some people who want to borrow money,” Reich said. “It’s not that hard.”

But beside the fact that people might not want to trust 31-yearolds working out of a home office, BankSimple won’t actually be a bank at all. Instead of going through the long and strange process of chartering their own institution, the start-up will use FDIC-insured partners to handle everything on the back end.

“Coming from Twitter, where I built up their platform,” said Alex Payne, 26, who left that website to join BankSimple as a co-founder last week, “getting people to understand platforms and products, it takes a little bit of work.” But the three feel that if they can provide people something that’s minimal, beautiful, helpful and smart, they will come. “We’re taking this opportunity,” Reich said, “to do something that’s beyond us.”

Last September, just as Reich was starting to think about BankSimple, he got an e-mail from JPMorgan Chase that said his account had been overdrawn: He went to the website and saw they had put his payments through twice. He called and was sent to the online banking group, which transferred him to the credit card people, who said the problem would take four days to solve.

He waited and called back, then was told there was no receipt of his original call. He was sent to the home equity group because the problem also involved mortgage payments. “It took them three fucking weeks,” he said. “At the end, they sorted it out and said, ‘Yeah. It happens all the time.’”

The pair does not have warm feelings for most online banking. “You have all these really little pain points that are fundamentally caused by just crappy technology,” Reich said. “So we wanted to fix the technology that impacted customers’ lives, and that was the online experience, and that was the costumer service.”

For starters, there won’t be overdraft fees: The bank will automatically draw down savings, or extend credit, if a balance is exceeded.

More importantly, the website will look like, say, a very painless Tumblr page. On the other hand, Reich said, signing up at Bank of America “drops you back to like 1993.” Community banks have their heart in the right place, he said, but can have even more problems with technology than the big ones. What he likes best is something like ING, although it’s not quite meant for daily banking. He’s even unhappy with kinks in the system at USAA, his favorite bank.

A revised demo version of the BankSimple site will be ready around July for the next round of fundraising, but the history of financial Web start-ups is not good.

Still, in the midst of financial regulation, it could be good to be new. When the Senate Continued on page 82

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg, Bound A new book about the founder of Facebook has us wondering uneasily what we signed up for

By Felix Gillette In the fall of 2005, Michael Wolf, a top executive at MTV, flew to Palo Alto, Calif., to visit the offices of Facebook.

MTV, like seemingly everyone else at the time, was interested in buying the rapidly growing social networking company from its founder, Mark Zuckerberg— then 21, with a fondness for Adidas sandals and a marked ambivalence toward media suitors. When Wolf arrived at the offices, he found an assistant nailing one of Zuckerberg’s worn-out sandals to a plaque. The discarded footwear, Wolf learned, was being presented to one of Zuckerberg’s acolyte programmers as an award for high achievement.

In a new book called The Facebook Effect (Simon & Schuster, 2010), erstwhile Fortune writer David Kirkpatrick recounts the anecdote as part of a richly detailed history of the company and its adolescent founder. Zuckerberg granted full access to the author, and Kirkpatrick makes good use of it, developing a well-paced narrative documenting how the son of a dentist and a psychologist from Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., created an Internet behemoth with a few friends, becoming in a few years the kind of tech guru who is now worshiped by computer scientists, engineers and venture capitalists from around the world.

“Modesty of ambition has never characterized successful leaders at Facebook,” Kirkpatrick writes.

The site may merely seem like a facilitator of collegiate-type socializing, a good way of showing off vacation photos and snooping on your ex-lovers.

But Zuckerberg zealously believes that it is also a powerful evolutionary tool, Continued on page 78 May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven

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The National Newsroom

Langone has no patience for the new finance regulations or the people who pushed them through

By Bess Levin There are a few people who can weigh in on topics as varied as financial regulation, New York politics and Playboy centerfolds with as much authority and passion as Kenneth Langone. The billionaire sat down with us to offer his advice for Wall Street, Washington and those contemplating $2,000 escorts.

The Observer: What are your thoughts on the May 6 “flash crash”?

Langone: I didn’t think much of it. We dropped 1,000 or so, we came back up, the very nature of the volatility was clearly something in the mechanism of the market doing what it wanted to do. There was no impact on value in the long term.

What do you think of the argument that Goldman Sachs is a different bank today than it was during your time, when it was run by bankers who had a commitment to clients, as opposed to now, when it’s supposedly traders running the show?

I think that argument is ridiculous.

And as for the SEC case, let me just say it is a disgrace. They have no case. The essence of the case is that the buyer should’ve been given (former CEO Henry) Paulson’s name. Forget about the fact that he wasn’t big then like he is today.

Goldman had an ethical requirement to not give up names on either side of the trade to the other. That case is totally without merit.

What you think of the proposed financial regulations?

I think they’re far too complicated for someone as simple as me to understand. Listen, when we look at where we were almost two years ago, the financial community was right in the middle of what was going on, and we need to be honest about their role. But we also need to be very careful that we don’t kill the United States’ capital formation capabilities.

And what of the proposed clampdown on the banks’ proprietary trading?

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I think there should be some kind of limit for the banks that are run irresponsibly. There should be a consideration of a limitation on risk. But we need to be very careful because the changes to the banking system could have a profound impact on the economy.

New York magazine has a story out about the relationship between Obama and Wall Street, postbailout. The White House thinks the banks aren’t grateful enough about what was done for them, while the banks think they’ve been plenty appreciative and treated unfairly. Who’s right?

All I’ll say is, look at the two most prominent names in banking—Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan— neither wanted TARP money, but they were told

by Hank Paulson that they had to take it so that they wouldn’t stand out as the healthy ones and make the other banks look weaker. Goldman didn’t need the money; they could’ve survived without it (though Lloyd didn’t know if there were going to be any big failures, and the systemic risk that would create for him).

Your nearest and dearest friend, Eliot Spitzer, has been saying he has no “plan” to run for office again, i.e., it’s only a matter of time now. How would you react to that?

Let me be very blunt—if the public wants more of this guy, then it serves them right to get what happens to them. He’s proven he is unworthy of public trust. The notion he has something to add is nonsense. He’s done more to destroy value than anyone in the country. Look at what he did to AIG! Forget about the hookers—he is a consummate liar with no ethics.

Investment banker Kenneth Langone.

You said in 2005 you’d do whatever it took to show people he was not publicly fit to hold office. Would that perhaps have involved tipping anyone off about the hookers?

I will say this for the umpteenth time—I never had him tailed.

OK. OK. You know the girl wasn’t much older than his daughters?

It’s horrible what he put his wife and kids through.

I know, and she recently had a spread in Playboy— I saw it.

What did you think?

She’s a very attractive girl.

Worth $2,000 an hour?

Not for me. I’m married to a beautiful woman, 54 years. That’s how I do business.

Facebook Continued from page 77

destined to alter human behavior, ranging from love and governance to human consciousness and world peace.

As a sophomore at Harvard, Zuckerberg, a computer science major, tinkered in his spare time with ways of reducing campus life into simple dichotomies. One of his first big hits at Harvard was a program called Facemash, which allowed his classmates to compare photos of two of their peers and vote on which was hotter. Zuckerberg was eventually reprimanded by university officials for uploading pictures without individuals’ consent.

He was undeterred. While past generations of selfobsessed college students justified their navel-gazing by quoting the Oracle of Delphi, “Know Thyself,” Zuckerberg anticipated a fundamental shift in young people’s philosophical needs: “Show Thyself.” Given the right environment, everyone would share.

On Feb. 4, 2004, Zuckerberg went live with the first version of Facebook, which was essentially a stripped-down way for Harvard students to show off their identities in a digital directory of their peers. It was also an efficient way for a guy with a computer to figure out such things as, say, which classes the hot girls were taking. “I know it sounds corny,” Zuckerberg told a campus newspaper around this time, “but I’d love to improve people’s lives, especially socially.”

And so a multibillion-dollar global empire was born.

Kirkpatrick argues convincingly that Zuckerberg’s idea was hardly unique. At the time, various entrepreneurs at campuses around the country were working on similar projects. But Kirkpatrick details the sequence of events and decisions by which Zuckerberg and his friends repeatedly outmaneuvered their competition. By January 2010, Kirkpatrick reports, 11.6 percent of all the time spent in America on the Internet was spent on Facebook.

That’s more than double the time on Google.

However, unflattering details from the early days of Facebook continue to surface. The Business Insider recently published an IM conversation that apparently took place between Zuckerberg and another Harvard student shortly after Facebook’s founding, in which Zuckerberg offers to share his users’ personal information and disparages them for turning it over so readily.

All of which has helped to touch off a sudden wave of Facebook worry. This past week, Time put Facebook on its cover. Subhead: “With nearly 500 million users, Facebook is connecting us in new (and scary) ways.” In October, a film about Facebook, written by Aaron Sorkin, based on Ben Mezrich’s critical book, The Accidental Billionaires (Doubleday, 2009) will arrive in theaters.

The Facebook Effect doesn’t shy away from Zuckerberg’s youthful indiscretions, but Kirkpatrick shows us that ultimately the rise of Facebook is not some simple story about a creepy engineer, but rather a complex tale about engineering creep—that is, the way in which tech geeks and executives are now aggressively applying algorithm-based solutions to areas of human life traditionally ministered by saints and humanists, tribe elders and scholars.

What does it mean for American society that so many adults are now willingly following codes of social behavior prescribed not by their parents but designed by their kids—college-age computer scientists dreaming not only of improving the world and getting rich but also of more efficiently finding coeds and organizing beer pong tournaments?

Friends and followers, beware.

Langone photo by Rick Maiman /Bloomberg via Getty Images

a Banking insider on Goldman, Greece and hookers

Hollyworld

Waiting for Weinsteins

Photo by RD / Bishop / Retna Digital

By Richard Siklos It’s kind of a cliché, bolstered by stereotypes of everyone driving around in Range Rovers and sitting in cafes and surfing and getting spa treatments.

But the idea that it takes forever to get anything done in Hollywood is really getting out of hand these days. The three blockbuster-deal stories of the spring of 2010 are now turning into summer snoozers: MGM, Lionsgate and now Miramax.

All three are very different. MGM is essentially a burst-bubble saga, not too different from what is playing out across the country in various industries and in real estate especially. Every deadline to restructure has turned out to be a false one, and even the next James Bond installment is in limbo because of the mess.

Then there is Lionsgate and its longrunning tangle with Carl Icahn, who believes the company’s stock has been undervalued because it is poorly run and that he—perhaps with his son Brett involved—can turn things round. Icahn has been offering a relatively lowball price of $7 a share to acquire Lionsgate.

But the deadline on his bid was recently extended because it wasn’t gaining much traction with investors. Now both sides are talking about some kind of settlement—maybe Icahn gets some seats on the board—because otherwise he just stays there happily attacking and provoking until something happens.

To the casual follower, the Miramax story is downright curious. For weeks now, the Weinstein Co. has been on the verge of reuniting its eponymous cochiefs, brothers Harvey and Bob, with Miramax, the company they built and sold to Walt Disney. As you’ve no doubt heard before, over a quarter-century they built Miramax into a hit machine, until they left the company several years ago and went on their own.

The new company has not replicated the brothers’ past success, and as Hollyworld has noted before, the Weinstein spin machine has been putting out word for months now that some new capital infusion is coming. Meanwhile, Disney, wanting to focus on big franchise films, essentially shuttered Miramax as a producer of new movies and put it on the block. No one knows the Miramax library (some 700 movies in all) better than Harvey and Bob, and it would be a great coup for them to be reunited with the company named

Harvey Weinstein

after their parents, Mira and Max. Financier Ron Burkle was to provide the bulk of an estimated $625 million purchase price for the deal, and it was to have been announced at Cannes amid, one imagines, a blaze of popping champagne bottles. But Cannes is over, and on May 21 several reports declared that the deal was dead over “structural issues.” In response, the Weinstein Co. and Burkle put out a release saying that they are still working toward completing the deal. Disney has said nothing.

While this might be seen as brinkmanship on Disney’s part, the more likely scenario here is simply that there are too many cooks in the kitchen now, and Harvey Weinstein has not had the autonomy to close the deal. One person with knowledge of the process told me that the price was agreed upon and the financing in place. But every time they came close to signing a contract, the Weinstein Co. side would come back with a few more deal points. (One can imagine an unhappy investor or three in the Weinstein Co. wondering how exactly the Miramax catalog is going to help it out of its pickle.)

So here’s hoping that the Weinsteins can finally close this deal: It makes for the beginnings of an interesting new comeback tale—though it’s a bit of a chimera, as the brothers would essentially be running Miramax on behalf of Burkle, rather than owning it themselves. Still, it would be exciting to watch and, frankly, it’s getting boring here waiting for things to happen.

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven

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22 Really teed off 23 Blue-eyed dog star?

25 1957 Tyrone Power film about a dog that’s left behind?

27 Build 28 Aid, in a way 30 QB’s error: abbr.

31 River under the Pont Neuf 32 Top Egyptian’s first name 34 Film about the happiest dog in the West?

38 Popular canine character that sheds a lot?

42 Tiffany of lamp fame 43 Undergo diffusion 44 Chimp’s cousin 47 Takeoff time, approx.

48 Busy place 51 Ms. Merkel 52 War film starring Snoopy as a flying ace?

57 Silents star Pola 60 Hectic hosp. areas

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NOTE: That French festival ended on May 23, but ours is still quite frisky. (Basset on.)

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61 “Unhappily ...”

62 Cumming of “Spy Kids” 63 Dogs’ favorite actress?

67 The Governator 69 Tabloid tidbits 70 Highest: abbr.

71 Booty 72 Muffin alternatives 75 Film whose poster slogan is “Scratch me if you can”?

82 Actress Sommer 83 Enlist anew 84 Nasdaq debut, perh.

85 ___ Haute 86 Dogs’ second favorite actress?

92 Palindromic writer 93 Rhoda’s TV mom 94 Sphere 95 Sea birds 96 Nuclear experiments, in headlines 99 Bar none 101 “Scariest movie ever,” according to dogs? (with 104 Across) 104 See 101 Across 109 Volume setting?

110 Future seed 111 Daisy or Fannie follower 112 John’s lady 114 New grand-parent, often 118 “Scariest actor ever,” according to dogs?

122 Where the festival is held?

124 “Go right ___” 125 How mud might move

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126 Island shimmy 127 King Kong victim, briefly (1933) 128 Antler feature 129 Repetitive buzzer?

130 Command to a dog 131 VAIO computer maker DOWN 1 Look amazed 2 Partly open 3 “The West Wing” co-star 4 Prefix meaning “occurring together” 5 Dairy sight 6 Funny Ray 7 Shortly 8 Bringer of ill 9 Acting teacher’s first name 10 “___ deal” (“forget it”) 11 Cable car sound 12 Soup ingredient 13 Quirky 14 Hot tar, e.g.

15 Put a value on 16 Superbly pitched 17 Cara or Castle 18 Ben-Hur’s mother becomes one 24 Playthings bought online 26 Aspirin and ibuprofen, for example, in pharmacist parlance 29 Quaint contraction 33 Gush 35 Mecca resident 36 Christmas carols

37 Sound-killing button 38 Dog in a Doyle tale 39 Grant portrayer 40 Insect stage 41 Upper body 45 Close by 46 Ayn Rand’s John 48 Circle of light 49 Russia’s ___ Mountains 50 Compromise 53 Peppery intensity 54 Go wrong 55 Ford filler 56 Hang loosely 58 Chevy, Bill, and Ted’s “Caddy-shack” co-star 59 “Would ___?”

64 Return-checking org.

65 Seed company 66 “Ragtime” author’s inits.

67 Veneration 68 Rapids transit 71 Large family’s dwelling, in a rhyme 72 Partly 73 Attired 74 Soup veggie 75 126 Across accessory 76 Unseat 77 “For starters ...”

78 Toll rte.

79 He directed Greta in “Ninotchka” 80 Grade school subj.

81 Impression 83 Bit of change, in Russia 87 Hit high 88 ___ exam 89 Highland hillside 90 Restless 91 Lawn tool 97 ___ fib 98 Exertions 99 Seeing the sites?

100 Labor class?

102 Invite to a movie, say 103 Cactus variety 104 Literary no-show 105 14th century Russian prince 106 Coq ___ 107 “Don’t hold back!”

108 Cobbler’s supply 113 Folk singer Phil 115 Tropical tuber 116 Paradise lost 117 Classic theater name 119 Barfly 120 Terminal abbr.

121 Fuchsin, for one 123 Frito follower

!!! VOLUME 16 IS HERE !!!

To order Merl’s crossword books, visit www.sunday crosswords.com.

5/27/2010 © M. Reagle Answers found on page 82 80 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Style & Culture

What makes an icon?

My simple formula

By Simon Doonan I used to think an icon was somebody who, were he/she to be lowered from a helicopter into a shopping mall in the Midwest, would be instantly recognizable to the masses.

As of last week, I have an entirely new definition. Ready?

Here goes: An icon is a person who can graffiti your clothing with a Sharpie while you are still wearing it and totally get away with it. If the scrawler is an icon, then you meekly enjoy being scrawled upon. If, however, you find yourself getting all pissed off and filing assault charges, then you know for sure that your attacker is definitely not an icon.

Last week I was in L.A. enjoying a post-book-signing dinner with the outrageous, generous, legendary, foulmouthed and undeniably iconic Jerry Weintraub. His blockbuster memoir, When I Stop Talking You’ll Know I’m Dead (Twelve, 2010), reads like a Harold Robbins novel on crack. Highly recommended. We were dining at Cut, Wolfgang Puck’s ominously named steakhouse. Jerry was entertaining a group of revelers, myself included, with riveting tales of chutzpah and testosterone.

When Wolfgang stopped by our table, Jerry playfully scrawled on his chef’s jacket using the Sharpie that still lingered in his top pocket. Since Jerry was head to foot in black Tom Ford, revenge was not possible. Looking for a suitable target, Wolfgang’s beady eyes appraised the snowy white landscape of my Band of Outsiders tuxedo jacket. Before you could say “Wiener schnitzel,” Herr Puck went to town. After Wolfgang had satiated himself, Jerry spun me round and took his turn, emblazoning his name across my back. Jerry’s old pal Bruce Willis, icon number three, then grabbed the Sharpie from Jerry and scrawled his name over my left shoulder.

The iconography continues.

One word: Iman. On May 20, Barneys celebrated the Somalian supermodel’s upcoming CFDA Fashion Icon Award with a window display homage and lunch.

Naturally, I decided to wear my Sharpie icon jacket.

What it really needed, I had decided, was not the chemical removal of the violent, jet-black autographs, but the addition of more. And there would be no shortage of icons at the Iman lunch.

My dear husband, Jonny, intercepted me at the front door, just as I was stuffing some markers into the pocket.

In no uncertain terms, he pointed out the extreme naffness of my enterprise and cautioned me vigorously against surrendering to any similar impulses. “At the rate you are going, you will end up in a pair of hot pants on Santa Monica Boulevard selling maps to the stars’ homes,” he said, shoving me back in my closet, and forcibly removing the dreaded celebri-jacket. “Or manning the gift shop at the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas.”

Speaking of Liberace: Jerry is producing the upcoming movie based on the iconic sequined, piano-playing poofter, to be played by (!) Michael Douglas.

As Jerry would say, “It’s gonna be some iconicass shit!”

The National Newsroom

Personal Finance BankSimple Continued from page 77

lowered the fees that merchants pay to process debit transactions, for example, the general take was that banks might make up for any lost revenue by stripping away perks and inserting new charges. “They’ll move away from fees people don’t notice to fees that people do notice,” said Jerry Neumann, the new bank’s first serious investor, “and that will be good for BankSimple.”

Neumann, the former managing director of Omnicon’s interactive media investment wing, was given the title of chairman. “I invested on two guys and a PowerPoint.

Actually, I’m not even sure that they had a PowerPoint,” he said. “The thing I like about it is, these guys really want to change the world.”

Still, he had known Reich for a while; Payne had not. “A friend of mine, another techie dude out in San Francisco, Tweeted—appropriately—a link to what BankSimple was doing,” he said. “In the last few years, for the first time in my life, I had a need for a decent bank. I hadn’t been living paycheck to paycheck. And I hadn’t been satisfied with my current bank.”

He e-mailed a request for a BankSimple invitation. The pair had been responding to them personally, so it took a while. It was Karkal’s turn to write back, and he said to say hello if he ever wanted to. Payne replied that he knew a lot of tech types if they had a need for them. Reich got in touch a day later.

“Everyone has been really enthusiastic, much more enthusiastic than when I signed on at Twitter, actually,” he said. “No one has said, ‘I absolutely love everything about my bank. And you’re an idiot for going to work on this.’”

What they have said, especially on techie websites that announced his move, is more traditional. “I’m sorry, but I want my bankers to be grave old men in suits,” one commenter wrote. “I also want my bank to have offices all over the world and I want to know that they are handling money many hundreds of times larger than whatever I have.”

“You’d think that the large banks would have just all the trust in the world for their long history, going back to the robber barons or whatever,” Reich said. “And they haven’t done a very good job of that.”

Can(i)nes Film Festival, Pt. 2

by Merl Reagle

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Fiduciary provision may be most important part of financial reform bill

By Kathy Kristof, Tribune Media Services Financial professionals are waging a heated battle over a little-noticed part of the financial reform bill moving through Congress that’s all about one word: trust. For individual investors who pay professionals to help them invest or plan for retirement, it may be the most important piece of the legislation.

Two similar versions of financial reform—the one approved by the Senate on May 20 and the one passed by the House in December—must now be reconciled to create a final law. Both bills contain a variety of controversial issues concerning financial regulatory changes, consumer protections, regulation of derivatives and corporate governance issues.

All those thorny issues got far more attention than a provision dealing with the duties of financial advisers to their clients. The House version demands a high standard for all advisors; the Senate version does not.

Now there’s a last-ditch battle to determine whether the reform package ultimately will require all financial advisors to be fiduciaries, or trustees, for their clients, as the House bill requires. Why does that matter?

This fiduciary provision is simple, says Bob Webster, a spokesman for the North American Securities Administrators Association. It demands that financial advisers—regardless of whether they call themselves “wealth planners” or “investment specialists”—put their clients’ interests ahead of their own.

If they have a conflict of interest, they have to disclose it. If they think an investment you own or a product they’re selling isn’t good for you, they have to say so.

You thought that was already true? Think again, said Charles Jaffe, author of Getting Started in Finding a Financial Advisor (Wiley, 2010). Under current law, brokers and insurance agents only need to show that the product they sold you wasn’t blatantly wrong for you. That’s a far cry from being compelled to show that the product they recommended was right for you.

In fact, these “advisers” can now sell you products that pay them big commissions, without advising you that there might be a far better (and cheaper) alternative for you—it just wouldn’t be as good for them.

“I think that if clients knew the difference upfront, they would never choose an adviser who was not a fiduciary,” Jaffe said. “The problem is that people think their adviser has their back, when he’s looking after his own self-interest, not yours.”

When the Senate voted to cut off debate on financial reform on May 20, tough language demanding that all advisers be held to a high standard of trust was sidelined for a provision that would just have securities regulators “study” the issue. That would leave brokers and insurance agents able to continue with business as usual.

The battle over holding all financial advisers to a fiduciary standard has been going on for years, Webster said. Each time, the rule has been derailed by a relentless and well-funded misinformation campaign. The same holds true today, he said.

What are you going to hear about the fiduciary proposals, and what’s the truth?

Myth: Imposing a fiduciary standard on all financial advisers would deny investors access to valued products and services.

Reality: Investment professionals could sell exactly the same products they sell now, but they would not be able to tell you that they were offering impartial advice when they were simply trying to sell a product that would earn them a commission.

Myth: If this standard was applied, brokers would not be able to sell clients investments that were held in the firm’s portfolio, such as initial public stock offerings. Investment advisers also might have to constrain their clients from taking risks that they want to take, such as holding a large portion of their portfolio in one industry, investment class or one company’s stock.

Reality: So-called principal trading—trading from the brokerage firm’s own account—presents conflicts of interest that would have to be disclosed.

(And wouldn’t that have been nice for all of those Goldman Sachs clients?) Advisers would also have to warn their clients when they were doing something apparently foolish, such as investing all their assets in their own company’s stock. But the client doesn’t have to listen. A fiduciary standard does not turn brokers into financial policemen. It simply demands that the broker provide the good advice that they’re supposedly being paid to give so that clients can make an informed choice.

Myth: It’s not clear that the system is broken. It should be studied, not fixed.

Reality: Brokers and insurance agents take great pains to obscure the difference between advisers who must look out for your best interests and those who don’t have to. That leaves investors learning the lesson of who they can trust too late—when they’re already stuck with a high-cost, low-value product that enriched the adviser rather than the investor. It’s time to stop calling salesmen advisers.

It’s also a myth to imagine that you could relax and forget about your investments if Congress passes legislation to hold all advisers to a fiduciary standard.

“Life is not a fairy tale,” Jaffe said. People such as Bernie Madoff will always exist. No matter how many laws are passed, those who don’t pay regular attention to how their money is being managed are flirting with disaster.

Kathy Kristof’s column is syndicated by Tribune Media Services. She welcomes comments and suggestions but regrets that she cannot respond to each one. E-mail her at kathykristof24@gmail.com.

Arts & Entertainment Reading

Making Her Own Luck Local writer Deborah Coonts debuts a flashy Vegas mystery series

Photo by Anthony Mair

By Richard Abowitz With short hair and clothes that are casually fashionable, a slight Texas accent and a lot of confidence, first-time author Deborah Coonts does not deny that there are similarities between her and her storybook creation, Lucky O’Toole.

While Coonts’ life carries the messiness of reality (think motherhood and relationship issues, daily routines and hours writing), Lucky’s life falls more into the category of heroic portraiture. The heroine of Coonts’ fiction debut Wanna Get Lucky? (Forge Books, 2010), Lucky is an executive at the newest, coolest mega-resort on the Strip, the Babylon. In addition to the glamorous job, Lucky has a murder to solve, men to juggle, ex-boyfriends to avenge and a mom who owns a Nevada brothel.

Indeed, her protagonist fits the aspirational chick-lit ideal of charmingly flawed perfection: “I made her 6 feet tall, because I really wanted her to stand out, but I did not want her to be drop-dead gorgeous” Coonts says. “But that makes her hard to cast in a movie because everyone in Hollywood is gorgeous. I see her as a mixture of Cameron Diaz and Julia Roberts. She is a little chunky in the first book. But she loses the weight pretty quick.”

Coonts isn’t exactly suffering herself (nor does she have any weight to lose). She spent a recent afternoon giving an interview over lunch at the private clubhouse at the exclusive Spanish Trail Country Club and an evening receiving hundreds of well-wishers at her book party. Mayor Oscar Goodman sent a gift. But while Coonts is having a blast, this sort of activity would be insufferable drudgery to her creation.

One thing you can be sure is that everything will work out for Lucky. And perhaps for Coonts, too. The publisher has already bought the sequel. Coonts has completed the third book in the series and is writing the fourth. But Lucky’s luck does not come from the author’s desire to write more books in the series. As with her larger-than-life character creations, Coonts believes novels should have happy endings, in part, because life often does not and she thinks people turn to fiction for something different than real life. “These are happy books. No one loses their job in the recession. There is romance and picking the right mate, which I haven’t done yet, and so it is always a curiosity to me.”

Coonts notes that people want to be entertained, and she gives the people what they want in her books. It’s not at all a coincidence that entertaining people is also the Continued on page 86

Coonts at a place her creation would love: Johnny Smalls at Hard Rock Hotel.

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 85

Arts & Entertainment

Reading

Sites to see

By Geoff Carter SOUND THING, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT (animatedalbums.tumblr. com) I have seen the future of rock ’n’ roll—and it looks like an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, circa 1969. The Animated Albums blog represents the efforts of a wildly talented and imaginative artist calling himself Mr. Dormouse, who’s put his mind to setting the most iconic record sleeves of the past few decades in halting, comical motion—much as Python’s Terry Gilliam once did with vintage photographs and classical portraits.

In other words: We see The Beatles actually jumping walls, we see Björk noshing on that piece of sushi, and we get to see the winged woman on the cover of Nirvana’s In Utero finally flying south for the winter.

INGENUITY AT REST (foolishgadgets.com) Humanity is a dumb species, given to making gigantic piles of idiocy. Sure, we’ve done some cool things, but let’s face it: for every GPS-enabled smartphone, clip-on MP3 player and tablet computer, there’s a Super Mario Brothers Dress-Up Set, a coffee cup shaped like a toilet and a bong with the head of Yoda for a bowl. In fact, every clever or useful gadget in the world probably has two or more useless corollaries, and Foolish Gadgets shows you several of them a day. How did you live without stick-on mustaches for all your light switches? Seriously?

SIMMERING CONTENT (theslowcookedsentence. blogspot.com) Although I never worked with her directly, I had the great honor of working at the Las Vegas Sun at the same time as Rachael Levy. She’s the kind of writer who, through no fault of her own, makes me feel like even more of a hack than I already do; her language is exquisite, her storytelling impeccable. In The Slow-Cooked Sentence, Rachael, who is moving from Sparks, Nev., to Seattle, applies her gifts to describing family life—and the results are no less compelling and no less affecting than when she endeavored to make sense of Vegas’ surreal narrative. Successfully.

Journalist Geoff Carter is a Las Vegas native living in Seattle, land of virtual titillation.

86 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Bookini

Sebastian Junger’s War

By M. Scott Krause

You don’t read Sebastian Junger’s War (Twelve, $26.99) so much as get drafted. Within paragraphs, you find yourself deployed in eastern Afghanistan, rooted deep inside the lives and minds of Second Platoon.

From June 2007 to June 2008 (while on assignment from Vanity Fair), Junger made five trips to the deadly Korengal Valley, where 70 percent of all bombs in Afghanistan are dropped.

He lived with Second Platoon for as much as a month at a time, documenting their entire 15-month deployment. He ate like a soldier, slept like a soldier and patrolled like a soldier.

Instead of carrying a gun (which would have made him a combatant instead of an observer), Junger armed himself with a camera and a notebook. While the soldiers shot at enemies, Junger—along with British war photographer Tim Hetherington—shot footage, amassing more than 150 hours of digital video. The resulting documentary, Restrepo (co-directed

by Junger and Hetherington), took the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

Some war books are all body armor and bloody battles. War is more interested in the psychology of it all: why these men enlisted, how they deal with imminent death, and how they cope with the loss of their fellow soldiers.

Junger’s unique position allowed him to get inside their collective mind. He witnessed their camaraderie first-hand, while confronting the same dangers.

In one vivid incident, Junger’s Humvee encounters an IED (improvised explosive device) which—because it was detonated prematurely—exploded under the vehicle’s engine block, 10 feet from where the soldiers were riding. Another second, another few feet, and none of the passengers would have survived.

War is divided into three sections. In “Fear,” Junger addresses the soldiers’ trepidation about fighting; in “Killing,” he discusses the act itself, and what it

means to take a life; in “Love,” Junger examines the special bond formed when the soldiers learn to entrust their lives to each other, and how these virtual strangers with little or nothing in common, can forge such a close, life or death bond.

Junger (The Perfect Storm, A Death in Belmont) has a gift for writing unforgettable, thoughtprovoking non-fiction that readers connect with on an emotional level. War is much more than mere war correspondence; it’s a deeply affecting book.

War is available now. National Geographic Entertainment plans to release Restrepo in theaters this July.

Because reading is more fun in a swimsuit, Bookini is the name of our summer reading series.

Get Lucky Continued from page 85

core mission of the city she calls home as well as the world of Lucky: Las Vegas.

“People come here from all over and they get anything they want. I like that,” Coonts says. And so, the Las Vegas in which Lucky lives—except for the occasional corpse on the Strip—is as glamorous and over-the-top and wonderfully shiny as any Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority advertisement and much better plotted.

As simple as this formula sounds, the process of creating Lucky came to Coonts after years practicing writing and six years of searching for a topic.

It was her eventual move to Las Vegas that finally brought it all together.

Once Vegas and Lucky merged, she was ready to go at her book.

“It came quickly,” she says. “I spent about a month coming up with my cast of characters in 2006 and wrote the book in six months. I actually had left Vegas. I was in New York getting a master’s in tax law. My marriage was not good, and you

don’t just say you are going to support yourself writing novels. You need a real job. I wrote the first chapters in Colorado where I was practicing law.”

After submitting them to a writing group and receiving tremendous feedback, Coonts returned to Vegas in 2007 to finish her book. “I thought about the ideas and characters and how to tell about the different aspects of Las Vegas that I found intriguing. It all fit.”

As with Vegas resorts, Coonts’ books are written with a specific audience in mind. Although TI’s Sirens show is years old, for example, in Lucky’s world there is still a pirate battle at Treasure Island. “I wanted the pirate show because everyone my age or older will know what I am talking about.”

Not an that older version of Vegas is always portrayed. Coonts is pragmatic. A dead body turns up in the tank of the relatively new Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay in her sequel. In all, Coonts is taking literally what Sinatra once sang, “Luck Be a Lady.”

Stage Showstopper

A handle on Chelsea: drinking, life and laughs

By Richard Abowitz A couple years ago Chelsea Handler was surprised she sold out Pearl at the Palms, and now she’s headlining at the far larger Colosseum at Caesars (May 29, $49.50 to $99.50). “I had to class up my act a little bit,” she says. Really? “No, I just thought I should say that for the casino.”

Next thing you know, she’s talking about scoring with Katie Couric on a date: “I hope to have a romantic liaison with her,” she says. “I am single now.”

It’s hard to say when Handler is composing jokes or simply cracking wise about her life. Asked about the line between life and humor, Handler keeps it blurry: “When people come up and say, ‘Hey, Chelsea,’ they really are talking to me. It is pretty true. People think because I talk about drinking that I drink more than I do. But I definitely drink. I am just not a hot mess. I am not slurring or falling down or anything like that.”

Except when it comes to Vegas, Handler notes that moderation is not on her agenda. “Vegas things get a little bit crazy. I have a bunch of friends who jump on the plane with me. I love to gamble— blackjack. I have a huge strategy to lose all my money in one fell swoop instead of over a period of time. By the time we get back on the plane most of us are unconscious for the next couple of days.”

Handler’s autobiographical humor now fuels not only her stand-up and cable show, Chelsea Lately, but a series of best-selling books. If her life were ever to transition into normality, would she run out of material? Actually, this is not an issue Handler is concerned with, and not because she feels endlessly creative. “My life is not getting more normal,” she says with conviction. This is especially true, she adds, now that she is single. “It is nice not to have somebody up my ass.” And then, after a moment of silence, she adds, “Figuratively.”

New Age in the Buffet. Chef Tina Martini also likes to share a drink with her audience during the taping of her live cooking show-turned-local cable show, Martini Time, at M Resort.

Unlike comedy, performancecooking requires knives, and she notes, “I only have a sip; I want to keep all of my fingers.”

The mixture of a hot enter-

tainment trend, the cooking show, with a Vegas institution, the buffet (the studio is tucked into a corner of M’s gigantic buffet), has proven a flavorful match.

Tapings are routinely sold out. But unlike the stuff-yourself-full aesthetic of the buffet, Martini prefers small portions and healthful food. The audience is even given a “Phyto Nutrition Chart,” which informs that leafy greens have isothiocyanates that “boost the body’s natural cancer-fighting enzymes.”

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Martini—other than her flamboyant stage presence—is just how many ideas (approximately 5,500 written recipes) she has for making food, and all with natural ingredients that she tries to make sure are easy to find locally.

“I am really interested in putting beautiful food together that is nutritious as well as delicious,” she says. So, for Mother’s Day she made up spinach and goat cheese cups that the audience sampled like connoisseurs. “Health food should not taste like cardboard.

We should eat foods that help our health and taste good.” After Martini prepares the food, she answers questions and dispenses advice on nutrition and alternative ingredients.

Then, when the taping is over, the audience takes their Phyto Nutrition Chart and recipes with them as they herd into the buffet lines to enjoy comfort foods. Is transitioning from healthful eating to saturated fat seem a contradiction? Perhaps, but only in the most Vegas of ways.

Boulder Blues. Almost every casino has a lounge where bands play free, creating local connoisseurs of “My Sharona” covers. But what makes the free series of blues shows at Boulder Station (Thursdays at 8 p.m.) special is the quality and originality of the music. For years, rather than offer a house band, Boulder Blues has gone the distance with $2 draft beer and no cover to see real artists whose names are known to blues aficionados. On June 3, Tinsley Ellis, a guitar great whose fans include the Allman Brothers and REM’s Peter Buck, will play.

Grind Burger Bar & Lounge specializes in serving fully-customizable, outrageously appetizing, juicy burgers using hand-pressed meats and fresh, quality ingredients.

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Read Richard Abowitz’s Las Vegas blog at GoldPlatedDoor.com.

Handler May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 87

Arts & Entertainment

Music Soundscraper

Heavy metal tears

Taking Off

By Jarret Keene

The “epic-ness” of Aeroplane descends upon Las Vegas

By Mikey Francis Vito Deluca and Stephen Fasano are on the forefront of a “nu” shift in the constantly evolving genre of dance music. The Italian-themed, Belgian-based duo who make up Aeroplane have been making waves with their originals, remixes and DJ mixes since 2007. They’ve created a compelling “nu-disco” sound, which meticulously blends light ’n’ fluffy melodies, groove-heavy bass lines and disco-infused beats, all in the vein of 1970s and early 1980s Italo, disco and American pop music.

Thus far, they’ve had a busy 2010, preparing for the release of their debut full-length album (due out in September), touring the globe and performing DJ sets at events such as the Winter Music Conference in Miami. As part of their North American tour, Aeroplane will be making a stop in Las Vegas over Memorial Day weekend to perform a Sunday (May 30) afternoon DJ set at the grand opening of “Kaskade Sundays” with resident DJ Kaskade at the Encore Beach Club. Fasano took a moment to talk about Aeroplane’s album, their preperformance rituals and more.

Your career took off when you decided to release monthly “Chart Mix” DJ mixes on the Internet. How did that idea come about?

I’ve always been obsessed by the “white labels” or “promo vinyls” and new music. I’ve always been the one who’s playing a track for the first time, and I was doing a chart every month since I DJ. One time our manager said, “Why don’t you mix your monthly chart?”

You guys were recently chosen to be the 500th DJs to perform your own Essential Mix live on the BBC Radio 1 show. Tell us about that experience.

We were so happy to be chosen, [but] we nearly missed the gig 88 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Stephen Fasano and Vito Deluca play the air horn and guitar, respectively.

because we were in Los Angeles for Coachella and, due to the volcanic ash, we couldn’t fly to Europe. To get there was an adventure in itself.

We took planes, trains, cars and even walked to get to Liverpool on time! We selected the tracks before the actual recording and then we mixed them live during the broadcast. It was so funny to play Lucio Battisti’s “Ancora Tu” in front of techno-dance heads, but most people were really into it. Definitely a great experience!

“We Can’t Fly,” the first track on your Essential Mix, happens to be the first single off your upcoming debut LP. What else can listeners expect?

A broad range of tracks: some danceable, some more down-tempo.

We have tracks with singers, tracks with vocoders, a choir and a lot of surprises. We could say each track has some “epic-ness” in the melody because that is what we love. I think we’re using the word “epic” 15 times a day. Everything is epic in our life—taking a shower, having a lunch, drinking a glass of wine, buying a new shirt.

You’ve done remix work for artists such as MGMT, Friendly Fires, Lindstrom, Cut Copy and Bloc Party. Are there any new projects you’re working on?

We just remixed Breakbot’s “Baby I Am Yours” for the Ed Banger label.

Do you ever want to make the transition from remixing to producing singles or albums for other artists?

We are open to a lot of things, so yes, perhaps in the future if the right thing comes along. Right now we will focus on Aeroplane, though.

Do you have any rituals you do before your DJ sets?

We will talk for hours before the set about what the first song will be. Not the second track, not the last track.

We talk forever about the first track.

Tell us a little bit about your all-time favorite performance.

One of the best memories recently was at Libertine Supersport, a club in Brussels in our home country of Belgium. The atmosphere was exceptional. I rarely felt this, and doing well at home feels special.

Also, Coachella Festival was amazing. We never expected to have so many people dance in front of us and have such a good time.

Name some artists you’ve been influenced by or listening to lately.

Human League, Jacno, The Beach Boys, Lucio Battisti, Pink Floyd, Ennio Morricone, all the ’80s Italian disco and the “cheesy” indie/ American pop from the ’80s.

Mikey Francis is the vocalist/producer for local band Afghan Raiders. Read his blog at afghanraiders.com/mikey.

Been a rough few weeks for your friendly neighborhood Soundscraper. The passing of metal legend Ronnie James Dio (b. 1942, RIP) weighed heavy, causing me to spin nothing but Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Dio and Heaven & Hell albums for hours on end. If I keep this up much longer, my wife will divorce me and my job will be outsourced to someone who doesn’t repeatedly bombard his fellow cubicle dwellers with, say, Lock Up the Wolves. Dio’s death also rubbed salt on the fresh loss of fantasy artist Frank Frazetta whose gorgeously violent paintings graced LP covers of hard-rockin’ acts Molly Hatchet and Yngwie Malmsteen. Only consolation? Knowing my other metal hero, Lemmy Kilmister, will outlive post-apocalyptic cockroaches, Keith Richards and God. Another bitter pill to swallow: the canceled Leatherface appearance at Cheyenne Saloon scheduled for this weekend. For those who don’t know, Leatherface, who sonically resemble Lemmy-fronting Hüsker Dü, is a cult British band whose 1991 full-length (and sadly out-of-print) Mush is considered an underground punk classic. The Icelandic volcano kept this awesome quartet away. There are no plans to try again.

Finally, some good news: Ex-Guns N’ Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke is set to play Wasted Space in the Hard Rock on May 30. Best known for taking Izzy Stradlin’s rhythm guitar slot on the infamous Use Your Illusion Tour, Clarke’s solo albums are more consistent than anything Axl Rose and his revolving cast have ever done. Clarke’s first effort, 1994’s Pawnshop Guitars, still stands as a scarred-knuckled batch of ’70s rock-styled swagger and earned him much critical acclaim. Although he hasn’t released a new album in eight years, he’s proven himself fiendishly accomplished in the studio, producing debut (and so far the best) punk records by Gilby Clarke The Bronx and Bullets and Octane. In January, Clarke suffered a hit-and-run accident on his motorcycle, resulting in extensive surgery. This is his first Vegas gig (and third tour date) since that traumatic event.

The other musical treat this week: Star Wars: In Concert at The Orleans on May 29. A full symphony and giant hi-def screens (along with the presentation of actual Star Wars film props) are involved in every geek’s ultimate musical fantasy—a live orchestral rendering of John Williams’ landmark sci-fi soap-opera film score. I’m bringing my 4-year-old son as cover, but my wife already knows the truth. Is it so wrong to be a Dio-worshipping Star Wars fan? Don’t answer that.

Your band throwing a CD-release party? Got the track listing for Brandon Flowers’ solo album? Contact jarret_keene@yahoo.com.

Arts & Entertainment

Music: CD Reviews

By Jarret Keene

ELECTRO-POP

GLOOM-INDIE

BLUES-ROCK

Sleigh Bells Treats (Mom & Pop Music)

The National High Violet (4AD)

The Black Keys Brothers (Nonesuch)

Much anticipation accompanies this Brooklyn duo’s debut CD, and not without reason. Programmer Derek Miller cut his teeth as a guitarist with hard-core band Poison the Well before settling into a more synthetic, but no less aggressive, mode with newbie naïf-rapper Alexis Krauss. After posting stellar tracks on MySpace, the Bells earned praise from all the right people: Pitchfork, M.I.A. and, um, the Jonas Brothers. Still, Miller and Krauss bring enough uncorrupted, intriguing energy to their full-length effort that a backlash, should it even reach Strokes-like levels, will have little impact on what has been accomplished. Tracks such as “Riot Rhythm” and “Infinity Guitars” come ripping at you with needle-inthe-red ferocity, and Krauss’ ingénue-isms are tailored to Miller’s fractured, chromatic textures. Treats is another helping of electro-pop candy, sure, but it’s the genre’s most sinus-clearing example yet. ★★★✩✩

90 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Frontman Matt Berninger has the whole Joy Division thing down, his low, dour tenor giving import to everything he sings, even if his lyrics tend toward the blatantly absurd (“I was carried to Ohio/in a swarm of bees,” he sings in “Bloodbuzz Ohio.”). Now that the Boss is a National fan and the Brooklyn indie band in turn covers Springsteen material (“Mansion on the Hill”), there was expectation that High Violet, the band’s first full-length in three years, would have narrative focus. It doesn’t, but that’s not what indie-rock is about. Even if you’ve never seen The National, you can hear the rustle of gin-stained three-piece suits in songs such as “Terrible Love,” where Berninger claims to be “walking with spiders.” Masters of mood (if little else), the band cuts a suave, sophisticated path through its cluttered, clunkier peers. ★★★★✩

The gutter blues-punk duo Black Keys continues to broaden and deepen its sound with yet another album produced by famed mixer/DJ Danger Mouse. This time the influences range from Prince and The Revolution (opening track “Everlasting Light”) to Jackie Wilson (the gorgeous “Never Give You Up”).

Boil it down, and what you have is a once-ferocious neo-garage act à la the White Stripes polishing its sound and broadening its appeal in order to reach NPR listeners. Which is great, because what that station needs more than anything is a funky cut such as “Black Mud” sliding into its usually reserved programming.

So far it’s the best blues album this year and definitely a step forward and up for this acclaimed Akron, Ohio, band. Like every Black Keys album, though, you’ve got to play it really loud to get the full effect. ★★★★✩

Arts & Entertainment

Movies Hear Them Roar The City girls are back, and our male critic cries ‘cougar’

By Rex Reed The only thing memorable about Sex and the City 2 is the No. 2 part, which describes it totally, if you get my drift. Everything else in this deadly, brainless exercise in pointless tedium is dedicated to the screeching audacity of delusional self-importance that convinces these people the whole world is waiting desperately to watch 2 hours and 25 minutes of platform heels, fake orgasms and preposterous clothes. It is to movies what fried dough is to nutrition.

It’s been two years since their last chick flick and in the interim, Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda have turned from Cosmo girls who munch into cougar ladies who lunch. They still devote their lives to the credo that no crisis is ever so great it can’t be solved by a new pair of Manolo Blahniks, but now there’s a difference. No longer waiting for orgasms, they’re waiting for menopause, and in all four cases, they’ve found it. No film has ever contained so many sloppy hairdos soaking wet from hot flashes.

This installment opens with Carrie in a man’s tuxedo, playing best man at a gay wedding almost as vulgar as the homophobic one-liners about the minister, played by—are you ready?—Liza Minnelli, who parodies herself by telling the congregation “Marriage is serious … or so they tell me” before blasting Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).”

Carrie, a neurotic black-belt shopper who lives for designer labels and is an occasional columnist who writes about being fabulous and single, has been married two years to Mr. Big (Chris Noth), who once dumped her at the altar.

(Sarah Jessica Parker looks better after her face mole was surgically removed, so why does her hair look like 20 pounds of mattress stuffing?)

Uptight, WASPy Charlotte (Kristin Davis) brings her bald Jewish husband, her two babies and a lesbian nanny without a bra.

Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is back with niceguy bartender Steve (David Eigenberg), but still too preoccupied as a lawyer to pay much attention to her home life (although rarely seen so much as filing a brief).

Samantha (Kim Cattrall), still the group slut who has slept with every eligible man in Manhattan and half of Brooklyn without learning anything about real life in the Porthault sheets, brings a new face that looks like some of the sutures are still in it and her usual stinging one-liners (“It’s a gay wedding—what’s one more bitch with an attitude?”). These are the jokes, and since the four women dress like drag queens it’s not always easy to tell the difference.

Substituting for a plot, the four bimbos brew trouble in paradise. Allergic to the kitchen, Carrie calls herself “more Coco Chanel than coq au vin” and wants to go out on the town

every night, while Big pleads for osso bucco at home and watching old black and white classics in bed like It Happened One Night. (The only sane person in the entire film, if you ask me.)

Smith ( Jason Lewis), the old squeeze Samantha turned into a Hollywood star by smearing sushi on her V-word, comes to town for his new movie premiere and puts a temporary smile on her face, although it sags again when Miley Cyrus shows up on the red carpet wearing the same dress. (Penelope Cruz also makes a cameo appearance as the senior Vice President of the Bank of Madrid. Who could make this stuff up?)

You keep asking yourself, “Where is this going?” and the only answer you come up with is, “Every place it’s already been before.” In the 2008 chapter, Carrie had a nervous breakdown in a Vivienne Westwood wedding gown that looked like a cloud of lemon meringue pie on the front steps of the New York Public Library, and her soul-mates whisked her off to Mexico for mariachis, margaritas and a dose of Montezuma’s Revenge.

This time, after Mr. Big suggests two days a week off marriage, they all drag Carrie to Abu Dhabi (played by Morocco) where more than an hour is wasted on camel rides, karaoke numbers and insulting Middle East jokes like “Abu Dhabi Doo” and “Bedouin, Bath and Beyond.” A mild

touch of feminism makes a brief appearance when a group of women covered in black confess they’ve been inspired by a forbidden book by their idol …

Suzanne Somers!!

Dragging its deplorable carcass into infinity, Sex and the City 2 is so bad you can’t even watch the trailer. Almost everyone who has ever appeared on the TV series re-appears to mutter two or three lines that contribute nothing to the film they’re in. The women—too old now to pout, whine and babble about their wet dreams, affluent and successful for reasons that are never clear—are all vain, narcissistic, selfish, superficial and really rather stupid. The actors work hard to perform triage, but they’ve been playing these roles so long they’ve grown moss.

The insipid screenplay and catatonic direction seem chloroformed. Both are by Michael Patrick King. He’s an expert at product placement and marketing (the end credits list hundreds of free plugs for everything from limousines to breakfast cereal), but I seriously doubt if he could direct Jeeps in the middle of the Mojave desert.

When this greed pays off with millions in box-office receipts, the hacks responsible for Sex and the City 2 will say, “I told you so,” but that won’t make the movie any better. You can’t make caviar out of Jujubes.

E-mail the famous Rex Reed at rreed@observer.com.

From left: Cynthia Nixon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis.

92 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Arts & Entertainment

Movies

Only a Thread

Romero’s credibility doesn’t survive Survival of the Dead

By Cole Smithey Zombies represent hell on Earth. Bruegel the Elder’s 1562 painting “The Triumph of Death” shows a terrible vision of an army of skeletons attacking a village while dark fires burn across the sky in the background.

It’s much more than a nightmare. It’s a scenario that the more you study, the more bewildering and frightening it becomes.

Over the years, we have come to understand zombies very well. We know they are slow but tenacious, mind-

less creatures singularly obsessed with ripping apart live human flesh. Unlike Bruegel, George A. Romero has lost sight of the nightmare of such an environment. He prefers to embrace it as more of a dream from which the viewer might not be bothered to be awoken for all of its comforting elements. There’s no horror and no satire.

Sometimes nothing is better than something. Romero’s latest zombie retread demotes the 70-year-old filmmaker to a pale imitation of the groundbreaking director who invented zombie satire in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead, where the Vietnam War weighed heavily in the gritty subtext. Romero’s commentary on race relations gave the film an unmistakable backbone of au currant import that hit you in the gut. He went on to full-on postmodern force with Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Day of the Dead (1985). Dawn foreshadowed the military-industrial complex and radical right-wing extremism that have come to rule America’s social and political spectrum.

By comparison, Survival of the Dead represents a throwing in of the towel.

It’s a cartoon rather than a

work of rigorous cinematic art. Rather than contextualize the breakdown of global societies (witness the current crises in Greece, Thailand and the United States), Romero has written a story that would fit better into a ’60s-era Star Trek television episode. The film doesn’t come anywhere near the thematic heft of a half-hour episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.

Now for the plot, which may seem familiar to Mark Twain fans. On the Delaware island of Plum, rival Irish families feud about how to handle their members who have been infected by the ever-approaching rampaging zombies. A rogue military squad led by Guardsman Sarge (Alan Van Sprang) learns about the island refuge from a hipster boy (an inadequate by Devon Bostick).

The team ends up embroiled in the crossfire of a family squabble after making their way onto the idyllic island.

Strident patriarch Patrick O’Flynn (Kenneth Welsh) has no hesitation about killing infected persons, while his rival Shamus Muldoon (Richard Fitzpatrick) would rather imprison his zombie relatives. Muldoon hopes to train them to eat animal flesh rather than human meat. Athena Karkanis plays Tomboy, the unit’s token lesbian, whose chances of finding love are zero. Zombie blood gets gratuitously splattered, but there’s nothing at stake in a movie that should never have been made. Survival of the Dead doesn’t even qualify as a guilty pleasure.

Horror films shouldn’t necessarily respond to the overwhelming circumstances of economic, natural and social catastrophes, but when you are the progenitor of the myth, you do have a certain obligation to rise to the level you established. Where Night of the Living Dead was a tapestry, Survival of the Dead is barely a thread.

Survival of the Dead (R)

★✩✩✩✩

Survival of the Dead keeps its enemies close and its zombie relatives closer.

By Cole Smithey & Sharon Kehoe

ShoRt RevieWS

MacGruber (R)

✩✩✩✩✩

In this sloppy, one-note expansion of Saturday Night Live’s MacGyver parody, Ryan Phillippe debases himself and Kristen Wiig appears in the dumbest sex scene ever. Worst of all is the plotless meanderings about a villain named Cunth (Val Kilmer). The filmmakers wallow in the character’s cowardice, whiny incompetence and anal fixation.

Even the film’s anachronistic pokes at ’80s culture fall flat. This movie sucks.

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Just Wright (PG)

★★★✩✩

More of a straight romance movie than romantic comedy, Just Wright is sweet and satisfying without being cloistering.

Queen Latifah’s down-played charm connects with that of Common as a believable NBA pro athlete. Latifah’s physical trainer, Leslie, represents a nurturing character archetype that we don’t see celebrated enough in modern cinema. Aside from some formulaic side characters, Just Wright is just that.

Shrek Forever After (PG)

★★★✩✩

The fourth installment of Shrek is the most polished. Even new viewers will get the slapstick tone of the likable characters. Living with his wife, Fiona (Cameron Diaz), and their babies, Shrek (Mike Myers) yearns for his bachelor days.

Rumpelstiltskin (wonderfully voiced by Walt Dohrn) tempts Shrek to trouble.

The film’s 3-D effects seem extraneous, but the spunky vocal characterizations are spot-on and the jokes elicit laughs.

Letters to Juliet (PG)

★★✩✩✩

With clichés and corny lines splattered throughout this movie, Shakespeare is rolling in his grave. Amanda Seyfried does a decent job with her predictable Sophie, while Vanessa Redgrave breaths life into the real romance of the story, but the cringe-worthy script

by Jose Rivera and Tim Sullivan is awkward and often laughable. The only semi-saving grace to Gary Winick’s film is the beautiful Italian landscape.

Short reviewS

robin hood (PG-13)

★★✩✩✩

Ridley Scott (Alien, Black Hawk Down and Gladiator) conjures 13th-century England in this prequel to the Robin Hood myth. A humorless Russell Crowe is the paunchy archer, Cate Blanchett is Maid Marion and Oscar Isaac is Prince John.

In an overworked effort at making Robin a somber man with an idealized sense of justice, the filmmakers have lost the fun.

iron Man 2 (PG-13)

★★★✩✩

Plenty of action and snappy one-liners with Robert Downey Jr. as genius superhero Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man).

Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is working on competing Iron Man suits and Mickey Rourke is villain du jour Ivan Vanko. Romantic tension simmers between Stark and his new CEO Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).

.

A Nightmare on elm Street (r)

★★★✩✩

More contemplative than Wes Craven’s 1984 original, Samuel Bayer’s update has a quiet, surreal edge rooted more in suspense than bloodletting. Quarts still flow from a group of teens who were once molested by Freddy Krueger ( Jackie Earle Haley). Subtle nods to classic horror films create a grotesque universe of the sleep-deprived where nightmares nestle like Russian Dolls.

Furry vengeance (PG)

★✩✩✩✩

Director Roger Kumble (Cruel Intentions) attempts kid’s comedy. Brendan Fraser milks the last of his boyish charm as a real estate developer who moves his wife (played blankly by Brooke Shields) and son to a forest. Blind to his boss’ (Ken Jeong) plan to pillage the land, Dan becomes enemy to the area’s woodland creatures who assault him with a barrage of animal-made booby traps.

Movie tiMeS

Date Night (PG-13)

★★★✩✩

This middle-aged romantic comedy splits between slap-stick and comic delivery. As a wedded couple, Tina Fey and Steve Carell are plausible and funny. Screenwriter Josh Klausner’s hackneyed plot puts the couple on the run. Cameos from Mark Wahlberg, Ray Liotta, James Franco and Mila Kunis barely improve the script. Fey and Carell deserve better.

Scan here for up-to-the-minute movie listings delivered directly to your mobile device.

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 95

Gadgets & Tech

Sonos ZonePlayer sounds like a superb home appliance

By Eric Benderoff

I’ve been testing a new speaker that is just shy of the perfect music-playing device for the digital age. It lacks one teeny, tiny feature (that I will get to shortly), but before I explain that minor whine, let me tell you what makes the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 a product modern music lovers will adore.

The S5 is so many things: a wireless iPod dock, an Internet radio player, a local AM/FM radio tuner and a sweetsounding speaker rolled up into one device. Further, if you elect to buy more than one Sonos S5—hey, the recession is coming to an end, right?—you can network them throughout your house.

I think of the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 as a multifunctional music server with a built-in speaker able to play whatever you want—whether that’s a new CD you just downloaded into your computer’s iTunes library or a radio station from Ireland. It switches audio sources quickly and easily, even from an iPhone.

Basically, it does nearly everything you want a music system to do in this digital era. Do you love Pandora or Last.fm?

You can stream those music discovery services through the Sonos ZonePlayer S5. Do you like local radio? Not only does it tune in your favorite stations, it also finds the additional HD stations being broadcast.

HD Radio is a great but horribly marketed technology. Did you know that KNPR, the Las Vegas public radio station, broadcasts three channels at

once? There’s the standard KNPR at 88.9 FM but with an HD Radio you can listen to classical music on 88.9-1 or talk on 88.9-2. It’s called multi-casting, and it greatly enhances your local radio choices. One problem: You need an HD Radio to hear these free broadcasts.

The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 does all this and the device has no exterior controls, save for a mute button and volume control on the top. (And I think those are included, just so people won’t freak out that they have a music player with no controls.)

This no-control design means the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 appears as a single, elegantly shaped speaker that any room would be happy to house. It stands 8.5 inches tall and measures 14.4 inches across and is less than 5 inches thick. It weighs just over 9 pounds.

At $400, the Sonos is priced comparably with the better-performing iPod docks. While $400 is about twice as much as a typical iPod, it’s a reasonable price for a quality iPod dock—particularly one that offers so much more. For example, good Internet radio tuners, like the Ira Wi-Fi Internet Radio Player from Myine, cost $150. And that doesn’t include a built-in speaker, let alone one of good quality.

The Sonos S5 includes a subwoofer, two tweeters and two mid-range drivers. Five digital amplifiers power the sound system. And, after much feverish and highly scientific testing, I can

The ZonePlayer S5 (left) is just one of the many music-playing options from Sonos.

96 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

The ultimate bedside companions: The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 and an iPhone.

personally tell you that it sounds darn good in my living room.

Everything on the Sonos S5 is controlled through your computer or through one of Apple’s iThings—an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. I’ve been controlling mine from an iPhone and my laptop. I prefer using the iPhone— you need to download the free Sonos app from iTunes—because it’s like having a remote control for all your audio needs. I like to play music while I read at night or watch a game on the TV. With my iPhone on the table next to my rocking chair, I can play any song stored on my computer’s iTunes library, or switch to local radio, Last. fm, Pandora, an Internet radio station, Sirius radio (if I were a subscriber) and a host of other options.

I use the desktop controller when I’m working on the computer, where I have the same control options. It is easier to search for Internet radio stations on the desktop, but you can save the ones you like as favorites and then tune them in later with the iPhone. The integration between the desktop controller and iPhone app is excellent.

However, if you want to play the iTunes songs stored on your computer using the iPhone controller, the computer needs to be on. In my case, that means the laptop needs to be open.

The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 uses your computer as if it were a server where your music is stored. You do not have this issue if you’re listening to Internet radio, local radio or Last.fm.

Setting up the Sonos (Visit sonos. com/demo/ to see how the Sonos S5 works) was easy, as the instructions are

so clear that even technophobes should have little trouble having a networked music player working within 15 minutes.

The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 ships with an installation disk; the set-up is fairly complex but Sonos did a fantastic job of making the steps user-friendly. I suggest manufacturers of other networked devices—particularly the maker of my Blu-ray player—buy the Sonos S5 just to learn how to present a set up that won’t lead to frustrated calls to an internationally staffed help desk.

OK, so what can’t the Sonos ZonePlayer S5 do? Unfortunately, it cannot play audio through an app such as MLB At Bat 2010, the iPhone app that broadcasts each big-league ball game.

Likewise, it won’t play music or talk through any other app. (Think of the Sonos app as a remote control; it does not stream the music.) A spokesperson told me that there are no plans to add app integration, although I suspect it will come eventually.

Thankfully, there is a simple workaround: The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 ships with an auxiliary cable to attach an iThing (iPod, iPhone, or other device that functions as a digital music player) directly to the player. It’s not as elegant as relaxing in your armchair while scanning audio feeds of a dozen ball games in a single sitting, but I can live with this shortcoming.

Chicago-based technolog y columnist Eric Benderoff writes about consumer electronics and runs BendableMedia.com, an editorial services firm. He frequently discusses tech trends and new gadgets on various national radio and TV programs. Follow him on Twitter @ericbendy.

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May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 97

Dining

Downtown Treasure

Golden Nugget steak house rivals some of the best on the Strip

By Max Jacobson

Vic & Anthony’s Steakhouse isn’t part of the renaissance in the downtown dining scene, because it’s been at the Golden Nugget for almost five years. But it’s the best steak house down there, bar none. It even rivals most of the big-shot steak joints on the Strip for ambience, quality and service.

This is a swank, retro room with a stained-glass skylight, amber-colored chandeliers shaped like giant starfish, tall leather-backed chairs and a gallery’s worth of snapshots of old Vegas, such as the one of Elvis with Liberace. Dino was singing “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head” as we were headed to our table. No kidding.

The room has a main floor and mezzanine, just a few steps up from it, where the noise level is slightly more subdued. My wife and I asked to be seated there, and wound up next to a couple on their honeymoon, eating a split grilled lobster. “The Strip casinos are too commercial for us,” said the groom. For those who agree, you’ll be happier here.

The cooking is a real surprise, and the menu has a few nonstandard steak-house items than can’t be ignored.

I love to start a meal here with an appetizer of mapleglazed quail, two beautifully roasted birds basted with maple syrup and Sriracha sauce that I eat bones and all.

Continued on page 100 May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 99

Dining

Diner’s Notebook

Vic & Anthony’s Continued from page 99

Another of my favorite dishes is the jumbo lump crab cake, loosely packed back-fin crabmeat with a few breadcrumbs binding it, topped with buttery chunks of more crab slathered with a chive beurre blanc.

The restaurant, it should be noted, is part of Landry’s seafood empire, so you can order almost anything from the sea with confidence.

There is a shrimp remoulade, with a spicy pink sauce that ramps up the briny, sweet flavors of the large prawns. My wife was disappointed with her sweet and spicy calamari, heavy with breading, and weighed down with too many caramelized onions and sweet peppers. I liked my chopped salad, though, with its finely chopped field greens, cucumbers and a hint of tomato, salami and a microscopic amount of cheese.

And there are no letdowns with main courses. Steaks are wet-aged, USDA Prime and extremely flavorful. We split a 24-ounce bone-in rib-eye, which had exquisite marbling and a perfect char, while staying reddish pink in the center.

We also had a huge baked potato loaded with chives, butter, sour cream, real bacon bits and shards of cheddar cheese, and a dish of creamed corn so thick that my spoon stood up in it. There are healthier choices, such Vic & Anthony’s maple-roasted quail appetizer (right) and the main course: a 24-ounce bone-in rib-eye (below).

as broccoli or green beans, but who comes to a steak house for their health? As Dino might say, ain’t that a hole in the boat?

Save room for one of my favorite desserts in the city: a buttery brioche bread pudding—two mammoth, warm, egg-rich slices alongside a scoop of vanilla ice cream, served in a pastry tuile.

And by all means, peruse the restaurant’s leatherbound, 800-bottle wine list. Wines are stored in a temperature-controlled room just adjacent to the dining room, and the prices, while not retro, are fair.

In the Golden Nugget, 129 Fremont St., open 5-11 p.m. daily; dinner for two, $79-$136 (there’s a three-course meal available for $46.95); 386-8399.

High buffet standards, a worthy cause and a new pasta idea

By Max Jacobson There are two good reasons to partake of the Sunday lunch and early dinner buffet dubbed “High Society” at Nove Italiano in the Palms: the incredible cuisine of executive chef Geno Bernardo, and the wine kegs from Bob Cranston of Sigma Wine Co., poured for $10 to $12 a glass.

The room is decorated with balloons and streamers, and by 3 p.m., the chef has rolled out his wonderful Sunday gravy, stocked with sausage, meatballs and pork shoulder, to complement his panini, summer salad, thin-crust pizzas, raw seafood bar, fruits and endless dessert table.

The wines come in reusable 19.5-liter Franke kegs from Germany, and Nove is the first to use this innovative, essentially green approach to wine service.

Current wines poured are a 2009 Sigma Collection “Long Gamma” White Table Wine from Reynoso Vineyards in Sonoma, 60 percent Sauvignon Blanc and 25 percent Viognier, a light bodied, refreshing wine at $10, and a 2006 Sigma Collection “Nove Rosso” Red Table Wine from Napa Valley, $12 per glass. Both are also available in 750-milliliter Riedel decanters.

The buffet, which is a modest $30 and open 1-7 p.m., gets its name from Nove’s 52nd-floor perch at the top of the Palms Fantasy Tower. Music is provided by a DJ, and things get wilder as the afternoon wears on. It’s some party.

On June 2 the Rain nightclub at the Palms will host what is indeed a worthwhile event, Taste of the Nation.

It’s a charity dedicated to end childhood hunger in the United States, and more than 30 of the city’s best chefs are participating. A few of the big names include Carlos Guia of the Country Club at Wynn, Michael Jordan of Rosemary’s and Rick Moonen of RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay. Tickets are $75 for general admission, and $100 for a VIP admission, which includes 5:30 p.m. cocktails.

Call 1-877-26-TASTE, or go tasteofthenation.org for tickets and details.

Finally, Marcello Mauro, of the family that owns Nora’s Cuisine on Flamingo Road and Nora’s Wine Bar in Summerlin, has rolled out a new family pasta place that I feel is sure to be a success. It’s called MacShack (8680 W. Warm Springs Road, 463-2433), and as long as McDonald’s doesn’t object, look for it to become a franchise.

The idea is simple and clever. You choose from a list of 16 noodles, nine sauces and about two dozen ingredients. The chefs do it your way. I also like the fact that the paper plates here are biodegradable. Every local restaurant, it seems, is going green, inch by inch.

Hungry, yet?

Follow Max Jacobson’s latest epicurean observations, reviews and tips at foodwinekitchen.com.

100 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Dining

Dishing Got a favorite dish? Tell us at comments@weeklyseven.com.

With the chef straight from San Diego, this taco shop gives your taste buds a south-of-the-border charge. The fried beef tacos are one of the most popular items among traditional Mexican dishes. The beef is cooked until tender, and the tortillas are made fresh daily.

The tacos are deep-fried until crispy, and topped with lettuce, cheddar cheese and queso enchilado. If you’re really feeling daring, try the 22-inch burrito! $2.70, 7425 S. Durango Dr., 384-8226

Marinated Roasted Beets at Marché Bacchus

This exceptional appetizer can only be found at executive chef Jean Paul Labadie’s Desert Shores hot spot.

Smoked trout, apple salad, micro arugula and toasted walnut bread are placed on roasted marinated beets.

A classic combination, the beets and apples balance well with the smokiness of the trout. $12, 2620 Regatta Dr., No. 106, 804-8008.

FeaturinG Live muSiC with Jeremy CornweLL ProJeCt 6P–9P

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Chicken Matzo Ball Soup at Bagel Café

This café displays many East Coast specialties, but none better than this homemade chicken soup with fresh vegetables, chicken and a matzo ball. A traditional Jewish dish, it is served with a bagel and cream cheese. $6.95 cup and $7.95 bowl, 301 N. Buffalo Dr., 255-3444.

GriLLinG Live 5:30P–9P

Campfire S’mores at N9NE Steakhouse

What is the best dessert for summer nights in Camp Vegas? You guessed it … s’mores! Marshmallows, milk-chocolate ganache-covered graham crackers and chocolate ice cream are brought to the table and a can of Sterno acts as a campfire for melting them together. $10, in the Palms, 933-9900.

Tacos and Matzo Ball Soup photos by Anthony Mair

Fried Beef Tacos at Amigos Tacos

Dining

Dishing Got a favorite dish? Tell us at comments@weeklyseven.com.

This Southern-fried appetizer is big enough to share with the whole family!

Just get your taste buds ready for a French Creole and everglade adventure that you will find pleasantly tasty. The platter contains fried frog legs, alligator tail, oysters and a large crab cake. It is served with cocktail sauce and rémoulade for dipping. $19.79, 6435 S. Decatur Blvd., 767-8438.

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King Crab Miso Soup at Sushi Roku

Just like the traditional miso soup, but better! The Japanese soup is enhanced with a large king crab leg making it more than just an appetizer. The best part is you don’t have to struggle to get the juicy crabmeat and the broth gives it more flavor. Pair it with Sawanoi Junmai Ginjo Sake for the ultimate experience. $15, in the Forum Shops at Caesars, 733-7373.

Fish Tacos at Zaba’s Mexican Grill

Healthful Mexican food items are made to order at this chain, which originated in Las Vegas. Its popular fish tacos feature crispy cod, pico de gallo, cabbage and homemade chipotle ranch inside a corn tortilla. Presented in a group of three with limes, it is a refreshing and energetic dish. $7.99, multiple locations, 227-7238.

Pierogi at Nu Sanctuary

This restaurant and lounge is the new hot spot of Town Square. People come to enjoy the Garden of Eden-inspired atmosphere, the cocktails, hookahs and cuisine such as this dish. Pierogi are filled with potato and finished with American caviar and chive crème fraiche below a beurre blanc sauce. $13, Town Square, 527-7851.

Sampler and tacos photo by Anthony Mair

Big Easy Sampler at Rhythm Kitchen

Dining

Profile

First-Class Comfort Food

With simple details and creativity, Sam DeMarco is redefining our country’s cuisine at First Food

By Glenn Haussman

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one roof until then. The idea of American food was confusing, and in some ways still is. It is really everything representing all cultures, and this food represents our very diverse nation.”

A typical Brooklyn boy, by the time he got to high school he was getting into trouble. One day a teacher dragged him to the Culinary Institute of America so he could see a better path in life.

“The experience really taught me the ropes of what I could be doing with my life if I focused more,” he says.

He started at the bottom, washing dishes, but he would come in early to help out the team and learn about food. It wasn’t long before he was climbing the culinary food chain.

That climb actually included an earlier shot at making it in Vegas. He had a place back in the nascent days of Bellagio, when there was still a Wild West attitude concerning big-city chefs coming to this desert outpost. Although Sam’s American didn’t work out the way he’d planned (he came in after the space was designed, and it never fit his vision), the restaurant did lay the groundwork for his return.

Now he’s making First Food a preeminent place for late-night grub. To Sammy that means food for the drinking crowd, from fully loaded foot-longs to chicken and waffles.

He’s in the kitchen every day to ensure that while his food may work with basic ingredients, excruciating effort goes into each dish.

“It’s all about the details,” he says. “I may stay true to traditions and not utilize a lot of unusual flavors, but you can see the details in the way we do things.”

Sammy D’s sliders.

Seven Things Sam DeMarco Can’t Live Without Kiehl’s. I am addicted to their products. They feel so good going on and smell great. Plus they are very good for your skin.

Sex. My wife and I are trying hard practicing how to produce more children.

The kitchen. Like sex, it gives that immediate gratification I crave. Plus, you make things you get to put in people’s mouths.

The sun. It’s one of the best things about Vegas. It makes you happy and inspires all things that are great.

Cuban tobacco. I love smoking cigars, especially the Hemingway Short Story. It has a lot of get up and go, and is a great smoke.

Dr. Edward Hoffman. My doctor has embraced me and made me feel comfortable in a strange town. It is good to have someone who gets you, and his attention to detail is great.

Scotch. Both blends and single malts, depending on the mood. I love Johnny Walker Blue; it’s the one thing in life that almost took me down.

Photography by Anthony Mair

Chef Sammy D never expected to dedicate his professional life to delivering creative culinary comfort food for the masses. Nah, this rising superstar chef thought he’d employ those skills to pay the bills, then devote most of his time and vision to higher gastronomic pursuits. You know, one of those classy joints that elevates dining to an art form. But a funny thing happened on his way to that dream: He realized he is exactly where he should be.

“This style of food is back. Las Vegas got too high end all of a sudden and there are not enough casual places,” says Sammy D (a.k.a. Sam DeMarco).

Good thing he opened First Food and Bar at the Palazzo last year, at the cusp of this trend. And Sammy D’s deconstruction techniques, combined with adding new elemental twists, are pushing taste buds everywhere to reset their notion of what the American panoply of flavors is all about.

Take, for example, the tuna nachos. You won’t find actual nachos here. Instead, highgrade ahi tuna is covered in a spicy mayo that sits on a bed of plantain chips. And that Philly cheesesteak you ordered arrives as a dumpling served with Sriracha ketchup.

It’s that type of creative interplay between ingredients that won him a fan base composed of many of today’s top chefs. It’s like those comics that every comedian lauds yet aren’t widely known outside the comedy clique. He’s an underground luminary whose original First Food in New York City was a vaunted getaway for the myriad chefs you now see all over television and whose names grace this city’s most renown restaurants. After guys such as Mario Batali and Bobby Flay turned off their stove tops, they’d hang out at Sammy’s place and share war stories, drink and feast on his latest concoction.

“I fed them all,” says Sammy, who was 29 when his NYC First Food opened in 1992. “It seemed as if everyone hung out there. It was a distinct community and culture.”

It was also a food revolution incubator. He started exploring what American cuisine really could be: a mirroring of the disparate cultures that all came together here and in the process created something wholly new. “Food was still very basic,” he says. “French was French. Thai was Thai. There was no global dining under

HEALTH & FiTnEss ‘This Is Insane, What We Do’ And yet Crossfit keeps growing in popularity. What’s the appeal?

By Sharon Kehoe Upon crossing the threshold at Crossfit Las Vegas, it’s obvious this isn’t a typical gym. There are no lines of elliptical machines or treadmills, no rows of Bowflex look-alikes. Instead, it’s a warehouse-size facility with high bars, weight stands and tons of floor space. Walls have whiteboards with names of people, exercises and times scribbled on them.

Some trainees throw weighted balls up the brick walls. Others dangle from Olympic-style rings or stand in a circle and do stretches with a stick. Above them, hanging from ceiling rafters, are T-shirts emblazoned with messages such as “Your workout is my warm-up.”

“This is insane, what we do,” says Joe Marsh, the 32-year-old founder and co-owner of Crossfit Las Vegas (121 E. Sunset Road, 361-4428). “Crossfit pushes you farther than you thought possible, so you have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”

Crossfit, which was introduced in 1995 by a pair of former gymnasts in Santa Cruz, Calif., is a strength and conditioning program that replaces treadmills with high-intensity workouts that combine gymnastics, track and field skills, and bodybuilding exercises, with little resting time in between. After a slow first decade (there were 50 Crossfit gyms in the United States in 2005) there are now nearly 1,700 around the world. Crossfit Las Vegas is one of eight facilities in the Valley.

Crossfit is as intense as it sounds, and that’s why it has gained a lot of momentum among the U.S. military, police academies, firefighters and elite athletes, including Olympians, football players and cage fighters. But in a place like Las Vegas—a city that thrives on its industry professionals looking their best—Crossfit has attracted many regular citizens to this growing flock.

But unlike your average-Joe gym, this regime doesn’t concentrate on weight loss and heavy machinery but instead focuses on performance and proper movement.

Each exercise is used as a benchmark: Do the exercise, train a lot, then repeat.

“It never gets easier, you just get better at it,” Marsh says. “If you’re not nervous before you workout, you’re not working hard enough.”

The nervousness might begin when you hear that all female exercises are named after hurricanes, and all male exercises are named after a fallen war hero. And the workout sequences often live up to the billing. Each features one exercise performed right after the other in a timed manner, for about 20 minutes.

For instance, a sequence can involve as many sets as possible of five pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 squats. For the more experienced Crossfitters, there is the “Murph” program: a timed mile run, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 squats and then another mile run.

Most CrossFit workouts address weaknesses in a person’s fitness, from overall endurance to specific movements. Whichever the case, Crossfit forces you to stare at it straight in the face and deal with it.

Marsh is no stranger to this feeling. After graduating in exercise science at Northern Illinois University, he was a personal trainer and discovered Crossfit in 2005 while researching Olympic-style weight lifting online. He was instantly hooked, but success didn’t come so quick.

“It took me 25 minutes to complete an exercise that everyone else was finishing in five minutes,” he says. “That day I saw what fitness really was.”

But not everyone has bought into the method. Controversy has followed the Crossfit name, especially after word got out about hospitalizations resulting from intense routines, including numerous cases of rhabdomyolysis—a sudden breakdown of skeletal muscle tissues because of muscle strain. Critics say Crossfitters do too much too fast, making them more prone to such serious injuries.

So, is it really worth the risk?

James Stella, the 35-year-old affiliate owner and coach at Kaizen Crossfit (4520 S. Hualapai Way, 982-3333), certainly thinks so. He believes people often misunderstand the goal. “Yes, there’s a risk—that’s a fact. But there’s a degree of injury that’s acceptable in mixed martial arts, soccer or even driving a car.”

Everything is scaled according to a person’s ability: Coaches introduce Crossfit slowly and use each workout as a template. A 70-year-old senior isn’t going to start at the same pace as a 25-year-old cage fighter.

Joe Marsh, founder of Crossfit Las Vegas.

“Crossfit is all about functional fitness,” says Roseann Hill, 43. “Everyone has a fitness starting point, and after two years doing this, I’m improving my overall fitness without sacrificing my body. That’s a great feeling, especially since my body isn’t as forgiving as when I was 20.”

Both Marsh and Stella emphasize the nuts and bolts of Crossfit as doing the common uncommonly well. That is why squats and dead lifts are core exercises.

“If you go to the bathroom, you are doing a full squat,” Stella says. “When you pick something up, that’s a dead lift. These are common human actions that Crossfit employs in a huge way, and makes you better at life.”

Like life, Crossfit thrives on community. Although some people enjoy more progress on the whiteboard than others, everyone gets support. “Egos are checked at the door, and accomplishments are applauded no matter how small,” Hill says.

But Marsh and Stella aren’t kidding when they say it takes a special person to do this. Slackers will get a rude awakening because with Crossfit, you’re not just a number in a computer. Your name is written up on the wall and you’re expected to show. If you don’t, Marsh says, “we’ll harass you.”

Mary (named in honor of Hurricane Mary) • 5 handstand push-ups • 10 one-legged squats • 15 pull-ups As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes Group chin-ups at Kaizen Crossfit.

108 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Griff (named in honor of the late Air Force Staff Sgt. Travis L. Griffin) • Run 800 meters • Run 400 meters backward • Run 800 meters • Run 400 meters backward Executed for best time

Marsh photo by Anthony Mair

SaMple croSSfit exerciSeS

SportS & LeiSure up Close and personal UFC Fan Expo gives enthusiasts an opportunity to meet their favorite fighters

By Sean DeFrank There’s no debating the UFC’s evergrowing popularity, and one primary factor for its rapid ascension from niche sport to mainstream America is the link that has been created between fighters and fans.

In an effort to continue to cultivate this relationship, UFC President Dana White is holding the second Fan Expo at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on May 28-29 in conjunction with UFC 114, which will take place at the MGM Grand Garden on May 29.

While light heavyweights and bitter rivals Quinton Jackson and Rashad Evans are headlining the fight card, the Fan Expo will provide a chance for loyalists to mingle with their favorite UFC, WEC and Pride fighters in a relaxed atmosphere, something unheard of in the world of major professional sports.

One of the more popular draws at the Fan Expo is sure to be former light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin, who was part of the UFC 114 fight card before withdrawing earlier this month with a shoulder injury. Griffin, who lives in Las Vegas, says he enjoys meeting fans but doesn’t often get the chance to do so in an ideal setting, creating some awkward moments.

“I’ve been guilty of being a jerk to a lot of people, and I apologize

Forrest Griffin first gained popularity from The Ultimate Fighter.

for that,” he says, “but the reason is people come up to me when I’m in my ‘office.’ I’m working and I’m concentrating and I’m thinking about the fact that the [guy] there is going to try and beat the shit out of me. And people try to talk to you and make lighthearted jokes, and I’m just not there. But at the Fan Expo, I’ll be in a good mood.”

About 30,000 people attended last year’s Fan Expo, and that number is expected to grow to about 50,000 this year. The UFC announced on May 20 that another Fan Expo will be held in Boston on Aug. 27-28 to coincide with the first UFC card in Massachusetts.

“The UFC has done a great job at making personalities,” Griffin says.

“And there’s somebody out there for everyone. There’s somebody you can relate to.”

Griffin first gained popularity in 2005 competing in the first season of Spike TV’s The Ultimate Fighter, where he defeated Stephan Bonnar in the finale in what has been called one of the best fights in UFC history.

He has mixed feelings about pulling out of UFC 114, knowing that his shoulder ultimately had to be repaired but wondering if he should have postponed the surgery.

“I could have pushed through it and fought,” he says. “It wasn’t one of those things where it was going to do further damage. The damage was already done and it wasn’t really going to get a whole lot worse. … I probably should have fought the fight.”

Griffin is scheduled to sign autographs at the Fan Expo from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. May 28, but fighters on the card will not take part in the Fan Expo.

Besides the autograph sessions, the Fan Expo will have interactive training and development sessions focusing on strength and conditioning, nutrition and various MMA skills; a grappling tournament that will include four “superfights”; more than 100 exhibitors; and a number of special events, including a Dana White look-alike contest.

“I’ve seen a few [possible contestants] walking around looking like Dana White, most likely by accident,” Griffin says. “So it’s going to be interesting to see people do it on purpose.”

Fan Expo hours are 10 a.m.-7 p.m.

May 28 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. May 29.

Tickets are $30 for May 28 and $35 for May 29, and a two-day ticket can be purchased for $50.

While looking forward to mingling with fans, Griffin says he’s had to learn how to deal with people who think they have a shot to beat a professional fighter.

“I explain to them very calmly that they don’t have enough money,” he says. “I get paid real good money to fight in the Octagon now. And although I’m thrilled at the prospect of not having to make weight for a fight, they still can’t afford me.

But if you had a cashier’s check for, like, $100,000, I’ll probably fight you.”

For more information, go to ufcfanexpo. com. To purchase tickets for UFC 114, go to ticketmaster.com, or to watch the card on pay per view, go to ufc.com.

CSN baseball team eyeing second national championship The College of Southern Nevada baseball team has been a powerhouse since first taking the field in 2000, culminating with a Junior College World Series championship in 2003.

Led by 17-year-old freshman phenom Bryce Harper, the Coyotes (49-14) are on the cusp of another national title, and begin play at the World Series in Grand Junction, Colo., at 6:30 p.m. May 29, opening against Pitt (N.C.) Community College.

Harper (.442 batting average, 29 home runs, 89 RBIs), a leading candidate to be the top overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft on June 7, went 6-for-6 with four home runs and 10 RBIs on

May 22 to help CSN sink Central Arizona, 25-11, in the NJCAA Western District Tournament, clinching a spot in the World Series.

While Harper, who leads CSN in most offensive categories, has deservedly received the majority of attention, Marvin Campbell (12 HR, 61 RBIs), Trevor Kirk (.378), Trent Cook (.375) and Gabe Weidenaar (.373) also have contributed heavily at the plate, and pitchers Donn Roach (11-3), Bryan Harper (10-1) and Joe Robinson (9-1) have led the team on the mound.

All of the Coyotes’ World Series games can be heard live on Network1Sports.com. – Sean DeFrank Coyotes star catcher Bryce Harper.

110 Vegas Seven May 27-June 2, 2010

Going for Broke

Following the right trends proves profitable in baseball

By Matt Jacob You often hear how there’s no such thing as a “sure thing” in sports. Not true.

Here are plenty of examples: The UNLV football team underachieving.

An NBA superstar whining whenever he’s called for a foul (and the same referee subsequently whistling a makeup call in the next three minutes).

Patriots coach Bill Belichick being a pompous jackass at a news conference.

The Detroit Lions, Los Angeles Clippers and Kansas City Royals sucking the life out of the few fans they have left.

Tiger Woods stiffing a valet.

A soccer game ending 1-0.

What there isn’t, however, is a sure thing in sports wagering. And so we study. We study statistics, tendencies, injury reports, weather forecasts, umpire/referee rotations, historical trends—anything to get the slightest of edges before making a bet.

Does the studying always pay off? Of course not. But if you’re going to wager without doing some research, you might as well just flush your money down the toilet (or give it to the government).

With research in mind, this week I’m offering some study tips for baseball.

What a Relief: You may recall a few weeks ago I mentioned that before placing a baseball bet you must first look at starting pitching, as the odds on every game are based more on the pitching matchup than anything else. That will never change. However, this isn’t 1972, when pitchers frequently finished games they started. Over the past 30 years, relief pitching has become an increasingly critical component in determining the outcome of games.

Through the first eight weeks of this season, the Tigers had the best relief corps in the game with a 2.34 ERA, 11 wins and 12 saves (with just two blown saves). Rounding out the top five bullpens are St. Louis, San Diego, Tampa Bay and Minnesota. Not so coincidentally, those five teams entered this week a combined 49 games above .500. Also not so coincidentally, all five teams finished the first two months of the season profitable, with the Rays (first), Padres (second), Tigers (fifth) and Twins (eighth) all ranking in the top 10 in money won.

Running Wild: Obviously, pitching is only half of the equation in baseball. You can’t win if you can’t score. And when you cross-reference the best money teams in baseball with the best run-producing squads, you’ll see that six teams rank in the top 11 in both categories: Tampa Bay (tied for third in runs, first on the money list); Toronto (second in runs, third on the money list); Minnesota (ninth in runs, eighth on the money list); Cincinnati (tied for 10th in runs; sixth on the money list); Texas (tied for 10th in runs, 10th on the money list); and the Yankees (first in runs; 11th on the money list).

It’s Official: You’d think that a game’s outcome is mostly decided by the nine guys on the field and the one holding a bat. Not always. The man in blue behind the plate can have a big impact on wins and losses. While it’s very difficult to determine umpire assignments prior to the start of a series (Major League Baseball doesn’t release that information), it’s easy to figure out once the series starts because umps rotate clockwise around the bases each day (just check the bottom of box scores after the first game of a series).

Because each ump calls balls and strikes differently, trends become obvious as the season goes along. For example, home teams are a combined 25-2 in games in which Todd Tichenor (9-0), Mark Carlson (8-1) or Doug Eddings (8-1) are behind the dish. Conversely, road teams are a combined 27-4 when Ed Rapuano (8-1), Marvin Hudson (7-1), Scott Barry (7-1) and Jerry Crawford (5-1) are wearing the mask.

As far as “totals” (over/unders) are concerned, look to bet the “over” when Mark Wegner, Tim Welke, Angel Campos or Tichenor (combined 27 “overs” vs. six “unders”) are calling balls and strikes. On the flip side, Jim Wolf, Tim Timmons, Mike Estabrook, Bruce Dreckman and Bob Davidson have proven to be low-scoring umps (a combined 37 “unders” vs. nine “overs”).

Matt Jacob is a former local sports writer who has been in the sports handicapping business for more than four years. For his weekly column, Vegas Seven has granted Matt a “$7,000” bankroll. If he blows it all, we’ll fire him and replace him with a monkey.

May 27-June 2, 2010 Vegas Seven 111

Seven QueStionS Guy Fieri

The perma-tanned, spiky-haired chef talks about getting your kids into cooking, how Las Vegas shaped him and what’s on the menu for Memorial Day

By Elizabeth Sewell In a world of buttoned-up chefs and unpronounceable ingredients, Guy Fieri, 42, is the Food Network’s resident rebel.

The Ohio-born UNLV alumnus made a name for himself as the culinary world’s everyman with his bleached-blond locks and laid-back attitude. Fieri’s rise to Food Network fame came after winning The Next Food Network Star in 2006, and he now hosts three shows: Guy’s Big Bite, Ultimate Recipe Showdown and Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, in addition to his new NBC game show, Minute to Win It. Fieri began his journey to culinary stardom at the age of 10, selling pretzels from a cart and washing dishes. He saved enough money to study abroad in France, solidifying his love for international cuisine. After graduating from UNLV with a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management in 1990, Fieri, along with business partner Steve Gruber, opened the Italian eatery Johnny Garlic’s in Santa Rosa, Calif., in 1996. Two more Northern California installations of Johnny Garlic’s followed, along with two locations of Tex Wasabi’s, a Southern barbecue and sushi restaurant. Though plenty busy with five restaurants in Northern California—where he lives with his wife and two sons—and his three hit shows, Fieri says a Las Vegas eatery is in the works.

going to cook together, all right, so here you go—you get to peel the potatoes.”

In today’s world, a kid’s attention span to peel all the potatoes is about nada.

They want to be there for the glory moment. So, pick something you like to eat. Do the chopping, get everything out of the way for them, let them show up when it’s stir-the-pan time, let them show up when it’s smell-the-food time.

Get them into the action.

What is your favorite place to eat in Las Vegas?

When I went to school there, it was kind of in the buffet era. Everyone had a righteous buffet. Now you go in and Bobby [Flay]’s got a restaurant, Mario [Batali]’s got a restaurant, Guy Savoy’s got a restaurant. I ate at Guy’s and it was just a dynamite meal. It was just over the top. So I would say that there’s a wide variety, and everyone is just playing top-level ball. If you go to Paul [Bartolotta’s], oh my God, and I don’t get that bombarded, but we went there and these cats lay it out. … Go to my favorite haunt [from] when I was in college—Four Kegs over on Jones Boulevard and U.S. 95. I talk about that place all the time.

How did Las Vegas influence you?

Vegas is such a melting pot. One, it’s the “Entertainment Capital of the World,” and you can’t beat that.

I mean, there’s so much going on in entertainment, food, nightlife, day life, school life … there’s a million and one things out there. I just realized how big the world is and how expansive the opportunity is. I was there when The Mirage was being built and we all just stood there with our mouths wide open, “It’s The Mirage, man.” Now from The Mirage on to all the other big hotels that have come, it was kind of play big, dream big, be big.

How did your famous look come about?

I would love to tell you that there was some really cool reason why the look happened, but there is no reason. …

The girl who was doing my hair, about 10 years ago, said, “That’s it, you’ve got to cut your hair.” I said, “Why?” and she said, “You need a new look.” I said, “Fine do whatever you want.” So I think out of shock factor she tried to wow me by hacking all my hair off to about an inch high and bleaching it. When she took the bag off my head I said, “Well, are you going to wash this stuff out of my hair?” And she said, “That’s your new hair color, baby.”

How do you get kids interested in cooking?

What we have a tendency to do so often with our kids is say, “OK, we’re

Is it safe to say thinking about food takes up a lot of your time?

It’s the center. I mean my kids are my world, my wife and my kids, but every-

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thing that goes on around us, from my business to my personal passion, is food.

Not just because I’m on TV. Way before I was even on TV it was always food. It’s always been food, it will always be food.

I love experimenting with food, trying new food, seeing new food. Besides liver, there’s probably nothing I won’t try.

What will you be grilling for Memorial Day? We’ll be out at Lake Sonoma [in California], and a lot of times what we’ll do is we’ll marinate a lot of meat and bring handmade tortillas out there, so it’s probably going to be Mexican themed.

We like tomatillo salsa, a roastedtomato salsa, we’ll get a little pico de gallo—my mom loves pico de gallo—some good solid tortillas and a little assort-

ment of meat. We’ll do some roasted pork, going a little Cuban with it, with a little momo sauce. We’ll do some carne asada and a little tequila lime chicken.

I just try to make it nice and easy for when we’re going to the lake.

What are your plans for a Vegas restaurant?

I want Vegas for so many reasons.

One, I love the town. Two, I love to do things with UNLV. Three, I love the town. Four, my son wants to go to UNLV, and he’s only in seventh grade. I think four or five years gives me a chance to get a place going there, get a house down there and establish a little bit of consistency down there before he goes to school. So that’s five. And six, I love the town. Hopefully, it’ll happen.