The Ladies of Las Vegas Mixology

July 15-21, 2010

A look at the women working behind the scenes and 'behind the stick' to stir up cocktail culture PLUS: Finding our city's fashion, nominating our next school boss and taking a cool hike

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Contents

This Week in Your CiTY 13

seVen DaYs

The highlights of this week.

By Bob Whitby

14

37

LocaL newsroom

69

Giving nature a helping hand after a wildfire, and Clark County schools’ new look for elementary schools. Plus: David G. Schwartz’s Green Felt Journal and Michael Green on Politics.

nationaL newsroom

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.

the Latest

77

arts & entertainment

emily Jillette produces a new improv show at the Palms, and Rex Reed’s perception of Inception.

93 Dining

A radio beauty queen, and an ode to the Yucca Motel sign.

Plus: trends, Tweets, tech and gossip.

Edited by Bob Whitby

our food critic reviews the old Vegas experience at the venerable italian-American social Club.

By Max Jacobson Plus: Max’s Diner’s notebook and the chef behind social house’s new digs.

100

20

heaLth & fitness

societY

Confined in a cubicle? Try these exercises to improve posture and decrease the chance of neck and back pain.

By Scott Pensivy

Club Blue LV of the Boys & Girls Club of Las Vegas celebrates a new facility.

102

25

sports & Leisure

stYLe

Don’t let summer’s heat dissuade you from exploring these hiking trails.

By Jessica Prois Plus: Why the new York Jets are a good bet to win more than nine games this nFL season in Going for Broke.

By Matt Jacob

This week’s Look, a few choice enviables and whether Las Vegas fashion exists.

45

110

nightLife

seven nights ahead, fabulous parties past and a profile of DJ Loczi.

seVen Questions

Above: Mixology execs Lisa Bigley (left), Marie Maher and Patricia richards.

On the Cover: our ladies of mixology. Photography by Ryan Reason

Michael Boychuck, hair colorist to the stars, on how he got a job in the industry and why blondes seem to be fading.

By Elizabeth Sewell

Feature 32

fine spirits

Meet the first ladies of Las Vegas mixology.

By Xania Woodman July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 9

Vegas seVen

JERRY SEINFELD JULY 23 – 24

Publishers

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

Editorial editoriAl director, Phil Hagen MAnAging editor, Bob Whitby senior editor, Greg Blake Miller AssociAte editor, Melissa Arseniuk news editor, Sean DeFrank A&e editor, Cindi Reed coPY editor, Paul Szydelko contributing editors

MJ Elstein, style; Michael Green, politics; Matt Jacob, betting; Max Jacobson, food; Jarret Keene, music; David G. Schwartz, gaming/hospitality; Xania Woodman, nightlife contributing writers

Richard Abowitz, Eric Benderoff, David Boyles, Laura Coronado, David Davis, Mikey Francis, Jeanne Goodrich, Andreas Hale, Caitlin McGarry, Scott Pensivy, Jessica Prois, Rex Reed, Jason Scavone, Elizabeth Sewell, Ida Siverio, Cole Smithey, T.R. Witcher interns

Mark Adams, Charlotte Bates, Kelly Corcoran, Renata Follman, 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, Brenton Ho, Tomas Muscionico, Beverly Oanes, Ryan Reason

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

salEs sAles MAnAger, Sarah Goitz 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

For tickets call (800) 745-3000 or go to Ticketmaster.com

Ryan T. Doherty | Justin Weniger vice President, PUBLISHING, Michael Skenandore director, MARKETING, Jason Hancock entertAinMent director, Keith White creAtive director, Sherwin Yumul

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 July 15-21, 2010

COntributOrs

Greg Blake Miller Senior editor Miller begins work this week as our newest full-time staffer. His byline last appeared in these pages when he wrote our March 18 cover story on the legacy of the 1990 UNLV men’s basketball team’s NCAA title run. Miller grew up in Las Vegas and has written extensively on the city’s culture and history. He returns to town from Eugene, Ore., where he taught journalism and communication studies at the University of Oregon while completing his doctoral degree. (He will defend his dissertation in global media history this November.) A former staff writer for Russia’s Moscow Times, Miller is fascinated with the collision of global urban culture and local memory. “At its worst,” he says, “mega-culture knocks the there right out of there. But I’m interested in the occasional upside, the negotiation of old and new that sparks creativity and energizes communities.”

Scott Pensivy “On-the-Job Training,” page 100 Pensivy, a 1987 graduate of the University of New England, has been a physical therapist in the Valley for 23 years. He’s the owner of S.P.O.R.T.S. (Scott Pensivy Orthopedic Rehabilitation Therapy Services), the author of a book about the spine titled Backwards, and CEO of OrthoCare Plus, which manufactures a therapeutic cream used to help treat patients with strains and sprains.

He’s been a certified athletic trainer since 1993.

Patrick Moulin “Apprentice Has Lots to Learn,” page 88 Moulin is a recent graduate from the University of Miami with a degree in journalism. As such, you might think that he would be ecstatic about LeBron’s decision, until you note that his U of M is actually in Oxford, Ohio. Moulin started at Wendoh Media a little less than a year ago and has already swapped recipes with five-star chefs, walked a course with nationally ranked disc golfers and gone behind the scenes of the Strip’s biggest shows. A self-proclaimed dork, Moulin loves his dogs, zombies, beer, great food, video games, Star Wars, comic books and Family Guy, and can’t believe someone is going to marry him in August. He hopes the summer movie season will finish better than it started.

Vegas Seven Mobile Patrick Moulin photo by Anthony Mair

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Seven DayS The highlights of this week in your city.

By Bob Whitby

Sun. 18 Thur. 15 Because “free” is our favorite “F” word, we note that tonight, and every Thursday night through the summer, is “Movies Al Fresco” at Montelago Village Resort at Lake Las Vegas, 8 p.m. at the events plaza. The offering tonight: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It’s a year old, but so what? Get out and take in a movie in the grass.

Fri. 16 Not only is it possible to build a boat out of cardboard, it’s something of a sport to race the results. But there’s an art to crafting a paper vessel that will endure the rigors of the sea, or in this case a pool, and if you plan on entering Boulder City’s 10th annual Cardboard Boat Race July 21, you may need some help.

The staff of Boulder City’s Parks & Recreation department is there for you with advice, scissors and glue today, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Boulder City Pool, 861 Ave. B. Call 293-9286 to register.

Sat. 17 If the disaster in the Gulf leaves you wanting to stick your finger in BP’s eye, consider switching to an electric car. You’ll find a group of like-minded folks at the monthly meeting of the Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association.

They get together at 10 a.m. on the third Saturday of each month at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, to talk about how to buy, build and live with electric cars.

Call 636-0304 for information, or check their website at lveva.org.

Here’s your chance to meet new people—and tackle them. The Funday Football meet-up is a group of people in shape and otherwise, skilled with a pigskin and otherwise, who get together in the heat because they love the game. Slather on some sunscreen, hydrate yourself and join them at 9 a.m. at Desert Breeze Park, the field nearest the intersection of Durango and Twain. All are welcome.

Mon. 19 Today marks the fifth anniversary of the hottest temperature on record in Las Vegas: 117 degrees, which we hit July 19, 2005. (We also hit that mark once before, July 24, 1942.) If the mercury doesn’t reach record highs, or even if it does, catch the beginning of the Las Vegas 51s four-game home stand against the Tacoma Rainiers, 7:05 p.m. at Cashman Field. It’s value-menu Monday, after all, which means deep discounts on stuff you shouldn’t be eating anyway. Tickets are $9-$20; call 798-7825 for information.

Tues. 20 Has it really been 10 years since Clark County’s Desert Breeze Outdoor Water Park opened? Yes, it has. Come celebrate with live music, snow cones and other things that go well with water when it’s 100-degree plus. Bonus: You can finally meet the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Deputy Drip, and then be thankful you don’t have to walk in his shoes. The party’s at 8275 W. Spring Mountain Road, noon-4 p.m.

Wed. 21 If keeping a lot of balls—or lit torches, or running chain saws, or sharp knives—in the air is your gig, you’ll be excited to know that the World Juggling Federation’s WJF 6 is coming to the Riviera Hotel, today through Sunday. This gathering of jugglers of every skill level features shows, workshops and competitions. Whether you are just starting out or need to polish your complex mess patterns, you’ll find something to keep your attention.

Register or find more info at thewjf.com.

July 15-21, 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 Bob Whitby

a Face for Radio?

Boulder City’s former Miss Congeniality goes for the state crown

pounds, going from 28 percent body fat to 16 percent. She meets with a pageant coach regularly to focus on mastering the proper walk and finding the perfect outfits.

When she’s not preparing for the pageant or on the radio, she’s busy volunteering, and works with the American Cancer Society, Speedway Children’s Charities, New Vista Community and more.

MacKenzie wants to represent our state and act as a role model for other women and girls. But she’s also trying to disprove the beauty-queen myth.

“I just really want people to realize that this isn’t a bunch of airheads running for this title. All these women are extraordinary women.

I’m trying to break the stereotype of what pageants are all about.”

She doesn’t miss a beat before adding, “And Miss USA really didn’t help us with that.” – Kate Silver

MacKenzie: Back in the game two decades later.

Preservation

Ode to the Yucca The recent news that the Neon Museum had saved the Yucca Motel’s sign resonated with me, and not just because it was a coup for the Vegas cultural institution that could become a first-rate museum.

One night in the late ’80s, I found myself looking to the Yucca Motel for refuge. After a relationship meltdown, I threw my meager possessions into my car and left the tiny apartment I shared with my then girlfriend, looking for a cheap place to stay when none of my friends could accommodate me. I handed over $35 to the night manager of the Yucca for a dismal room that hadn’t been updated since the joint opened.

Why the Yucca? The fact is I had loved the Yucca Motel’s fabulous neon sign since childhood. The sign is a threedimensional, neon sculpture of a yucca plant, its twisting white bloom rising above spiky green neon leaves. While not my favorite motel sign—the Blue Angel still holds price of place—it was one of the best examples of neon in the city. In my emotional distress, the Yucca’s sign 14

Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

popped into my mind like a beacon.

Any Vegas native might have a similar association with the city’s less famous signs: rolling into the 76 station on the Strip for gas and “Free Aspirin & Tender Sympathy”; enjoying the smell of fresh baked bread as you emerged from the Charleston underpass and flew by the Holsum Bread sign (“… hours fresher”) late at night; drunkenly winking back at Foxy on the side of Foxy’s Firehouse Casino. Las Vegans are invested in signs— they occupy our visual and imaginative landscape in a way that the buildings can’t. Only the desert has a comparable hold on the city’s visual imagination.

Someday I’ll gaze upon the restored Yucca Motel sign at the Neon Museum, marveling at it not just as a superior example of commercial art, but as a Proustian trigger for memory. That time and that girlfriend are long, long gone, but, like so many Vegas memories, the signs that survive light up my mind the way they light up the collective memory of Las Vegas. – Gregory Crosby

Memories: Saving the past, one sign at a time.

Literature

Lost in Vegas Ready for another book about life around the poker table? Too bad, because it’s already written. Paul “Dr. Pauly” McGuire’s new work, Lost Vegas, is available for order on his website, taopoker.blogspot. com. If you’re not a poker fan, don’t be dissuaded—McGuire’s book is about more than cards, as the subtitle makes clear: The Redneck Riviera, Existentialist Conversations With Strippers, and the World Series of Poker.

McGuire landed in Las Vegas in 2005 when he was recruited from New York to write about the World Series of Poker by the website LasVegasVegas.com. Up until that point, he was a small-time poker player, frequenting underground card rooms in Manhattan and trying to make a living.

Like so many before him, he landed in a flophouse motel somewhere near the Strip and started trying to claw his way up.

For McGuire that meant writing about poker, which is still how he butters his bread.

But the book gave him the freedom to write about things beyond the card table. “You really can’t say some of the things you want to say [on the poker blog],” he says.

“This is a personal search, and an answer to some questions.”

These days he lives in Los Angeles and tours the world writing about poker, travel and life.

But he’s spent enough time here to learn a few things. “[Las Vegas] is a great place to visit,” he says, “but it’s really difficult to live here as a local.”

Yucca motel photo courtesy The Neon Museum

Steph MacKenzie has been referring to herself lately as “classic rock chick meets the pageant world.” That’s primarily because the co-host of the Point 97.1’s “Foxx and MacKenzie in the Morning” show doesn’t just have a face for radio—she has a face for a beauty queen. MacKenzie, who is the current Mrs. Las Vegas, will be vying for the 2010 Mrs. Nevada crown July 18 at Texas Station.

The 36-year-old re-entered the world of pageants in November after a 21-year hiatus. As a teenager, MacKenzie competed for the Miss Boulder City title (her talent that year was singing Journey’s “Faithfully” while accompanied by piano) and walked away as Miss Congeniality.

Now she’s giving it her all, treating her pageant preparation like a second full-time job. Since November, she has changed the way she eats and works out, which helped her lose 35

This week in youR ciTy Tech

Opening

Leaning Towers

Off-center: Veer.

Move over, Pisa, there’s now something … lean-i-er.

Veer Towers opens this week. They are those two shimmery glass residential towers you’ve no doubt noticed, leaning in opposite directions, five degrees from the center. It’s the next-to-last property of MGM Mirage’s CityCenter to open (the Harmon is still to come) and two of the most distinguished buildings in the Las Vegas skyline.

The design of the tilting, 37-story towers comes from architect Helmut Jahn. The German-born Chicago architect says he opted for the angling of the buildings to avoid any kind of view obstruction. Jahn was also the force behind Chicago’s Xerox Center, Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Sony Center in Berlin and much more.

Some fast facts about Veer Towers: • They’re the only solely residential properties at CityCenter.

• Condos are available! According to Dennis Smith at Home Builders Research, 25 units sold in May. There are still 270 units not spoken for.

• Amenities include infinity-edge rooftop pools, hot tubs, sun decks, a steam room, business center, fitness center, media room and more.

• The 670 loft-like studios, one-, two-, three-bedroom apartments and penthouses range in size from 500 to 3,300 square feet. Prices start at $348,000 and top out at more than $4 million.

• An LED system is programmed into the four corners of each tower to radiate a subtle glow. This was done by French lighting designer Yann Kersalé to pay homage to Las Vegas’ historic relationship with neon.

• Mud drawings by sculptor Richard Long line the lobby walls of both towers. Two large-scale works, called “Circle of Chance” and “Earth,” are made from mud that was shipped to Las Vegas from the River Avon in Long’s native Bristol, England. While the rest of the amenities are closed to non-residents, the public can check out the dirty art. – Kate Silver

Legal

Stagliano photo by Glenn Francis /pacificprodigital.com

Fashionistas producer on trial Former Las Vegas show producer and pornographer John Stagliano is being tried on obscenity charges this week in Washington, D.C. The charges stem from the distribution of two of his movies by mail, and a trailer for a movie on his website. If convicted, he faces up to 32 years in jail and a $7 million fine.

In Las Vegas, Stagliano is known for creating and directing The Fashionistas at a club at Aladdin, now Planet Hollywood. The show was based on a porn movie of the same name that won more than a dozen Adult Video News awards (the adult Oscar). It was an erotic-but-fully-clothed modern dance interpretation of the movie’s themes of obsession and sexual dominance.

Stagliano closed the show in 2007 to focus on his day job—making porn movies and running his company, Evil Angel. In an online interview with reason.tv, he says even if you’re not a fan of porn, there’s cause to be concerned with the charges against him. “The government can come in and say ‘behave this way.’ They can easily extend that from looking at porn to consuming fast food to cigarettes … Wait, they already did that.”

– Richard Abowitz Stagliano: Big Brother was watching.

Swype It

In the age of smartphones, two methods of typing have come to dominate: touch (iPhone) or physical keyboard (BlackBerry).

Now there’s a third option, and it may just revolutionize how we use smartphones. It’s called Swype, and the typing technique is a key feature of the Motorola Droid X, a new Android-based phone that goes on sale July 15 at Verizon for $200 (after contract). Swype is also available on the MyTouch 3G Droid Xs at T-Mobile and the Samsung Omnia II (Verizon), and there is hope that an iPhone app will be introduced.

The Droid X has put a bright light on Swype, and it should. I’ve been using Swype for about three weeks, and I dread going back to standard touch-typing when I return my review unit.

With Swype, you simply drag your finger across the keyboard, connecting letters to spell a word. When you spell a word, lift your finger and a space is inserted. Then put your finger down and spell the next word. After a while, you’ll be messaging at a very fast pace.

The amazing thing about Swype is how intuitive the software is; as a user, you do your best to “swype” words accurately, but we are a nation of poor spellers. No worries: As long as you’re close, Swype has an uncanny ability to get the right words.

When it is confused, a list of possible choices pop up on the screen.

The more you Swype, the better you become. I’ve become pretty fast. More impressively, my wife, a dedicated BlackBerry user who hates the iPhone’s touch screen, is seriously considering the Droid X for her next phone because she loves to Swype.

I don’t like swyping when I use the Droid X as GPS unit. I found inserting addresses more difficult than touchtyping. (You can use voice commands on the Droid X for directions, as well, a better option.)

If you haven’t seen how it works, go to You Tube and put Swype in the search box. You can watch several videos, but the real impact comes when you try it yourself. It takes getting used to, but once you figure it out, you’ll be surprised at how long-winded your messages have become.

– Eric Benderoff July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 15

THE LaTEsT THougHT Look No Further

The best superintendent for Clark County schools may be right under our noses

By Phil Hagen

She has education expertise.

Carolyn is big on the no-nonsense, old-school philosophy, with emphasis on the three R’s. She also believes in “teaching to the top,” which is a tough concept to explain, but suffice to say that “no child left behind” to 16 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

her should include the smart kids, too. It’s important to note that one of her biggest influences came from the Clark County School District in the early 1980s: LeOre Cobbley, the principal whose Harris Elementary students consistently tested among the best in the country.

Carolyn found her, got the Goodman children into that school and eventually recruited her to be The Meadows’ first headmistress.

She has a proven track record.

Every Meadows student has gone on to college, they’re excellent test-takers and they’re prepared to succeed at the next level. Some people snicker, “Well, that’s because it’s a rich-kids school.” While it’s true that there are plenty of BMWs in the parking lot, about 15 percent of the students receive financial aid to attend, with the main criteria being that each child is “able and ambitious.”

The school is designed to serve that breed of student, which means the model is not totally applicable to the public system, but the Cobbley-esque basics would quickly help the district get out of the testing basement.

She has budget expertise.

The vast majority of Meadows tuition goes into the classroom instead of having some bloated administration. Carolyn knows education is about the teachers—who, by the way, do not get invited back to The Meadows if they don’t teach well.

She’s a good communicator and a leader with vision.

I’ve combined these two criteria because you can’t truly

separate them. Her communication style is direct, honest and determined, which helps her stick to convictions.

She doesn’t have a lot of business experience, but ...

I’m not sure why a majority of those participating in a school district survey think the new superintendent should have a lot of business experience, but as Meadows Chairman of the Board Ike Lawrence Epstein said in explaining why Carolyn was the school’s chief asset: “She could have been the CEO of General Electric— that’s the kind of person she is. But she did this instead.”

She has experience with a large district.

Well, she has experience with it as a parent of four kids (only one went to The Meadows). Otherwise I consider her lack of experience in this category a good thing, partly because if she gets the job of superintendent, my next hope is that she breaks up the district—the nation’s fifth largest—into manageable pieces. This way we can repeat the grassroots effort that led to The Meadows.

She cares about children and their families.

It’s why The Meadows School exists. It’s why she donated a quarter-century of her life to making sure it was run correctly. It’s also why I think she might take the job, if offered.

Phil Hagen, editorial director of Wendoh Media, spent six months with Carolyn Goodman and The Meadows School in 2008 to write a book for them in honor of the institution’s 25th anniversary.

Illustration by Marvin Lucas

Fifty thousand dollars. That’s what the Clark County School District is paying a Nebraska consulting firm to find a new superintendent. And the focus is national, so, come fall, we’re bound to wind up with a pool of outsiders who—and the firm seems confident about this—will not have any embarrassing legal or financial problems.

I realize that bureaucracies have to do things a certain bureaucratic way to maintain that bureaucratic feel that’s gotten our educational system (ahem) this far, but gosh darn-it if the best person for the job isn’t right here. Does a national search firm have it in its DNA to make the unconventional, inexpensive and courageous choice?

No, this is not building up to another push for Jim Rogers, the Las Vegas multimillionaire who was noble enough to lead the university system for five years without pay. Love ya, Jim, and thanks for offering, but we need someone else to do this particular job. Someone who’s just as sharp, outspoken and audacious—just in a steadier, sturdier and saner kind of way.

That person is Carolyn Goodman, one of the most important educators in our city’s history. She founded and ran the private, nonprofit Meadows School for 26 years, developing it into a nationally renowned leader in K-12 education. She did the job without ever collecting a paycheck. She recently retired and, this summer, is searching for her next challenge.

Problem is, I doubt that she’ll throw her hat into the ring. If it were a campaign, maybe, but this is an application process. Because she is the wife of the mayor and a civic player in her own right, maybe you can see why that might be awkward, especially with Rogers already playing the role of public crusader.

Another possible wrench: She might run for mayor next year when her husband’s term is up. But if the Nebraskans called her up and said, “Hey, we’ve checked your credentials, why don’t you at least apply?” she might go for it. In other words, the school district needs to open the door.

Here’s what’s at stake: Our school district is the most important asset this community has. If we’re to have a brighter future, we need a brighter population. It’s even more crucial now that both district and community are mired in these worst of times. We need to tap into our collective courage now. Let’s do something smart sooner rather than later. For once.

Including Carolyn in the process would be a good start. Using some of the district’s own criteria, here’s why:

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

Got a juicy tip? gossip@weeklyseven.com

Patridge and Bohan: Love Is Cyclical

star-powered Campaign President Barack Obama’s campaign for Sen. Harry Reid made a stop at Aria on July 8. The campaign outsourced part of the event’s entertainment and enlisted Canadian songstress Sarah McLachlan (who was in town for Lilith Fair at Mandalay Bay) to entertain the crowd. Meanwhile, local heroes The Killers—Dave Keuning, Brandon Flowers and Mark Stoermer—took a break from headlining tours to open for Obama’s speech and the Reid rally. Leave it to Las Vegas (and Flowers’ sequined tie) to give “Hail to the Chief” a glittery pop sheen.

18 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

devote my summer to making my cats Internet celebrities.

@Lauren_MacD Just because you can talk on your phone on the bus doesn’t mean you should.

@ItsChelseaStaub You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.

Marilyn Monroe only made it to 36 and got “Candle in the Wind,” but when another blond bombshell, Pamela Anderson, recently celebrated her 43rd birthday, Elton John wasn’t there to sing any heartfelt ballads for the former Baywatch star.

Still, Pammy wasn’t alone at Tao Beach on July 10: Her cake was ushered out by a parade-like procession that involved not one, but two shirtless dudes, a girl on a raft and oversize inflatable whale and dolphin floaties—because while your 40th is your ruby birthday and your 50th is your gold birthday, apparently your Anderson and Barth to the world: Like it? Put a ring 43rd is your Caligula birthday. on it. Earth to Anderson and Barth: Wrong hand.

Anderson’s two most famous former flames, Kid Rock and Tommy Lee, were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the birthday girl partied at Tao with tattoo artist Mario Barth and Heatherette clothing designer Richie Rich later that night. This, of course, was kind of disappointing for those hoping to see the former Playboy model swap spit with a well-known rocker in the VIP (à la her and Lee’s very-public petting zoo at the Hard Rock Hotel in August last year—loved it!), but cleaning crews must have been relieved Rock wasn’t there to Kid Rock the place. It takes forever to get that stuff out of banquette cushions.

poker players Cash in, Hockey Fans Get stiffed

With a bedazzled necktie to match his golden voice, Flowers doesn’t need to smile.

@TFLN (917): I think I am going to

@ScottAukerman The last time the entire world watched something this boring, Avatar grossed $1.8 billion.

Anderson: Rocker-free at 43

Hockey enthusiasts cried foul last month when Snoop Dogg gave them the short end of his always-high stick and pre-taped his performance at the NHL Awards the night before the June 23 ceremony. People paid more than $300 to see him open the awards show inside the Pearl at the Palms, but instead got a washed-up version of the Goo Goo Dolls. Shinedown was there, too—not

Compiled by @marseniuk

that anyone noticed.

Apparently, the officials running the show didn’t see a problem with the baitand-switch: No penalties were given and no refunds were issued, either.

Adding insult to post-NHL Awards injury, Snoop performed at the Palms July 11—for free. The rapper did his thing for a room full of invited guests, and PokerStars.net footed the bill.

@mattfraction “AT&T covers 94% of all Americans?” That’s amazing. I know THE ENTIRE OTHER SIX PERCENT.

@blakeshelton Grown men should never order drinks at Starbucks that consist of more than one word.

@natevegas $35 for 3 burger combos! Food was good, but, um, yeah. They’re burgers. (@Fuddruckers) @TheFunnyJosh I love listening to FM radio; it gives me an opportunity to catch up with popular, modern commercials, with limited music breaks! @joncrowley Apparently Spain’s number one export is pretend injuries.

@djshiftlv Ladies, just ‘cause it’s summer doesn’t mean the no-bra look is OK for all of you. #gravity

@TwentyLbPizza Lotta people talk shit about Vegas. But I’m glad I grew up here, as odd as that sounds.

24 hour kid in a 24 hour city! @ConanOBrien Congratulations to Spain on their World Cup victory!

May the streets run red with blood orange sangria and ham! @LatoyaBembry I think I’m finally starting to like this Gaga chick.

Flowers photo by Erik Kabik/Retna

The kissy-faced couple.

Audrina Patridge has been compared to a bicycle. So it’s understandable that BMX racer Corey Bohan has a longstanding interest in the reality TV personality.

Two breakups and Ryan Cabrera haven’t stopped the couple, who split for the second time in October, but were spotted together July 7 at Surrender. And by “spotted” we mean caught on camera kissing and groping each other.

The following night, they shared a table (among other things), and witnesses say the PDA-prone pair never left each other’s side. This was a probably a good thing, considering that whenever one of them strays more than 10 feet, they hop on the express train to Splitsville—and other 1940s euphemisms for breakup land.

Tweets of the Week

Society

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

tools for School The Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas unveiled its new facility during the inaugural Red, White and Blue Barbecue at the Ralph and Betty Engelstad Clubhouse on July 1. The afternoon event collected donations of new school supplies and was organized by Club Blue LV, a group of young Las Vegas professionals working to further the mission of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Las Vegas.

Photography by Sullivan Charles

20  Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Society

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

Social Hour When Social House reopened in its new location in Crystals at CityCenter, the upscale Asian eatery did so in high, Japanese fashion. The venue and its parent company, Pure Management Group, on July 7 hosted a traditional Kagami Biraki sake barrel ceremony, which saw executives come together, don Japanese jackets and break open the wooden sake barrel to symbolize the beginning of a new harmony and good fortune.

Photography by Beverly Oanes

22  Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

2011 SLS AMG

It has wings for a reason.

925 Auto Show Drive s In The Valley Auto Mall s Henderson, NV 89014 702.485.3000 s www.mbofhenderson.com

Nike • Adidas • Elwood Stussy • New Balance New Era Emperial Nation G-Shock • Converse Travis Mathews Creative Recreation Kidrobot • Sneaktip Mandalay Bay Shops 3950 Las Vegas Blvd South 702.304.2513 Summerlin 9350 W Sahara Ave 702.562.6136 suite160.com

ENVIABLES

Style

GUy’s NEW LOOK

At the Las Vegas Market on Aug. 2, Christopher Guy will unveil its remodeled space inside the Robert Allen/ Beacon Hill showroom at World Market Center, featuring furnishings such as the Chris-X nesting tables (pictured). christopherguy.com.

The Look

Photographed by Tomas Muscionico

spray it

Bliss eau de toilette is a mood-boosting fragrance that embodies the signature experience at Bliss spa’s nationwide.

The delicious blend of citrus, greens and florals was developed by a French parfumer. $54, Available at Sephora.

ChELSEA VoudourIS, MAtthEw C. NoVAk

General manager of Kiki de Montparnasse Las Vegas; general manager of Alexander McQueen Las Vegas What he’s wearing now: Alexander McQueen jacket and boots; Rick Owens shirt and shorts.

What she’s wearing now: Alexander McQueen blouse and pumps; Rick Owens shorts.

BiG MaDaME

Jennifer Kelling, a Parsons School of Design grad, unveils Madame Mathilde, a line of vintage costume jewelry and python handbags, which are adorned with a vintage brooch for extra flare. madamemathilde.com.

It was love at first sight for Chelsea and Matt. “We have the same aesthetic. The first time I ever saw Chelsea, she looked like a little goth ballerina.

I was immediately in love,” he says. But when it comes to fashion, Matt wears the pants (albeit sometimes shorts) in the family. “Matt dresses better than me, since I am always borrowing his clothes,” she says.

July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 25

Style

Does Fashion Exist in Las Vegas?

Five experts testify that the city does in fact have a sense of fashion

By Laura Coronado Photography by Anthony Mair “I didn’t even know this place was here. Las Vegas needs more places like this.”

This is what I heard a shopper cavalierly say recently as she perused the vintage styles at The Gypsy Den. She just moved here from Utah, and without meaning to, she exemplifies one of the greatest frustrations of lovers of fashion who reside in Las Vegas: having to defend our retail reputation.

The many people who move here each month are often equipped with an armory of snobbery, skepticism and preconceived notions. Established and proactive locals are well aware of The Gypsy Den, Patty’s Closet, First Fridays, and why Savers should be on everyone’s shopping radar.

Vegas Seven gathered a panel of fashion and retail experts in effort to resolve the issue once and for all: Does fashion exist in Las Vegas?

Christie Moeller Fashion stylist with icanstyleu.com A Las Vegas original, Christie Moeller has 12 years’ experience dressing celebrities and selecting styles for magazines.

She is the go-to-girl for glamour, fashion and style for local print publications and advertisers.

Does fashion exist in Las Vegas?

Most definitely.

Prove it.

As far as fashion goes, Las Vegas covers basically every kind of shopper.

You can shop couture here. You can be a brand-conscious shopper here. You can be a trendy shopper here. You can be a vintage shopper here. And Las Vegas covers all those markets.

How would you describe Las Vegas’ style?

Las Vegas has a very urban, hip image. It’s trendy, current. Just like 26 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

the nightclubs here, people want to try what’s new and leave the old ones behind. People try to stay fashion forward.

It’s definitely a West Coast-style, but it’s a very urban look.

What do you have to say to those people who don’t believe that fashion exists in Las Vegas?

Then why do you come here to do your shopping? Because when you walk through the Forum Shops or CityCenter or Fashion Show, I’d say 60-70 percent of the people shopping there are from out of town. Vegas gets

a bad rep because we have that classic stereotype of everyone coming here and it being glitter and boobs and fake eyelashes. But that’s really the tourists who are doing that, not so much the locals.

What would you love to change about Las Vegas fashion?

I would change the typical boobs hanging out look; and the image of what people think Las Vegas is. Even some of my clients fall prey to this. If we do an ad for a nightclub, they may want that typical boobs hanging out, shiny

tight dress and not the cool, urban look, which is more what the locals in Las Vegas dress like.

What does the future hold for fashion in Las Vegas?

The future only gets better. Every day we have a new, great store opening.

We’re getting the three-story H&M in Forum Shops, which is amazing for trend shoppers. And we just got Miu Miu over at CityCenter. It changes daily. It can only get bigger and better. Las Vegas gets a lot of exclusivity that people don’t give us credit for.

Katie Cewe Owner, The Gypsy Den As the daughter of longtime Las Vegas entertainers, Cewe’s passion for fashion began with an adoration of her mother’s costumes and an addiction to vintage shopping at the age of 10. After graduating from Green Valley High School, she discovered that not only was she good at purchasing vintage clothing, she was good at selling it online, which she did during her college days. Upon returning to Las Vegas, she knew she wanted her own vintage boutique, opening The Gypsy Den two years ago, which is only one of two vintage clothing and accessories brick-and-mortar stores in all of Las Vegas. Cewe’s store has become a local favorite, attracting tons of shoppers every First Friday.

Does fashion exist in Las Vegas?

Definitely.

Prove it.

Fashion exists wherever you go. As long as it’s unique, I think it’s fashionable.

How would you describe Las Vegas’ style?

One thing about Vegas is that the weather is pretty extreme. So, it’s kind of hard to be fashionable when you don’t

want to be wearing anything at all. I think it depends on where you’re going or what you’re doing. But in Las Vegas we always try to look as fashionable as we can.

What do you have to say to those people who don’t believe that fashion exists in Las Vegas?

I think they’re just not from here.

There’s definitely amazing shopping in Las Vegas. On the Strip, there’s de-

signer. But off the Strip, there are a lot of little places that are cool, too.

What does the future hold for fashion in Las Vegas?

I hope more shops open up that have affordable fashion and handmade items.

More vintage shops would be nice. I would like to see more local boutiques.

We have some, but I wish there were more, like what you see on Melrose.

The future “only gets better. Every day we have a new, great store opening.

We’re getting the three-story H &M.” July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 27

Style

Patricia Barba Owner, Patty’s Closet

Nancy K. Bohnett Academic director, Art Institute of Las Vegas

With three women’s fashion boutiques situated across Las Vegas and Henderson, Barba is not only a great resource for fashion information and inspiration, she is well on her way to becoming a Las Vegas fashion icon. The native is running for Mrs. Nevada and has garnered much media attention. For example, her boutique was recently chosen as the 2010 Best Store for Women’s Clothing by the editors and readers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

She has only been here since 2006, but she has worked with Las Vegas clients and done business in the Valley since 1979. Her job is to oversee the interior design, fashion and retail management programs at the institute, so Bohnett is well-versed in the business side of fashion including consumer behavior. She also plays a pivotal role in the planning and execution of Fashion Camp, a fashion education program for teenagers conducted each summer at Fashion Show.

Does fashion exist in Las Vegas?

Oh, yeah. For sure.

Prove it.

Vegas is a melting pot. We come from all over the world, all over the country. Vegas is the school where everyone is teaching each other about style and fashion. Las Vegas is a good place to adopt new trends and adopt new styles.

How would you describe Las Vegas’ style?

We have the best of both worlds: the casual laid-back style of the West Coast for daytime, but at nighttime we go all out like New Yorkers.

28 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

What do you have to say to those people who don’t believe that fashion exists in Las Vegas?

They just haven’t found it yet.

What would you love to change about Las Vegas fashion?

For it to gain more recognition. I would love for people to talk about it more, for there to be more fashion events, schools and programs.

What does the future hold for fashion in Las Vegas?

I think it will get its own unique, distinct style. It’ll be a mix of casual and resort, but still sophisticated. It can only get better.

Does fashion exist in Las Vegas?

Absolutely.

Prove it.

Look at the retailers who’ve come to the Vegas Valley to bring opportunities that other places in the world don’t have. With that comes very high fashion and strong quality goods. And it really allows the locals an understanding and value of the retailers. To visit those spaces influences their way of valuing good fashion. I definitely think that those retailers who make a difference in fashion are here. There’s been talk of bringing more of the fashion industry, because of the affordability of Las Vegas.

But, yet, fashion is everywhere. And we have a lot of it here.

How would you describe Las Vegas’ style?

I think it’s an anything-goes attitude.

What do you have to say to those people who don’t believe that fashion exists in Las Vegas?

a

Cherine Cope Manager, Giuseppe Zanotti

Go outside. Visit those retail venues that expose it in a healthy, enticing and seductive way. And people watch. It’s just fascinating. No matter where you go, good or bad, it’s happening.

Open your eyes. It’s around you.

What would you love to change about Las Vegas fashion?

It would be nice if more people took advantage of the better styling and clothing, and how to really pair it up. People can wear clothes that aren’t expensive and still look nice. I think that there needs to be more education, that can expose people to good relationships with themselves and what they wear. “Anything goes” has gone on for so long that we may need to reel it in a bit.

What does the future hold for fashion in Las Vegas?

It’s endless. This valley is hungry for new opportunities. If you bring it here, it will be so well-received. It would be great to see more fashion venues and shows.

Her fashion experience and Las Vegas residency extends back to the 1980s, working with such brands as Donald Pliner, Stuart Weitzman, Christian Louboutin, L.A.M.B., Betsey Johnson, Laundry, Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs before joining Giuseppe Zanotti USA in 2004. As the manager and buyer of the Giuseppe Zanotti store in the Forum Shops at Caesars, Cope understands fashion and retail trends very well and uses her expertise to keep high fashion and luxury consumers looking like VIPs. Does fashion exist in Las Vegas?

Yes, it does.

Prove it.

Look at the development of all the different malls and the high-end stores that we have now, probably since ’92, when the Forum Shops opened up. That was the first mecca of shopping in Las Vegas. And since then there have been several other high-end malls that have opened. So now we’ve become a destination for fashion shopping, like L.A. is and like New York is.

How would you describe Las Vegas’ style?

It’s so different. People come into my store looking for bling. They like sexy shoes, glamorous shoes, platforms, high heels. It’s all about looking your best when you go out.

What do you have to say to those people who don’t believe that fashion exists in Las Vegas?

That they need to spend some time here. I think what they’re talking about are the tourists. When people travel, they dress more comfortable. They dress to walk a lot. If you actually go into the areas where people reside, the locals, you’ll actually see that people who live here are very fashionable.

What would you love to change about Las Vegas fashion?

Less head-to-toe animal print.

What does the future hold for fashion in Vegas?

There’s just more to come. We keep getting all the highend stores there are in the world. As we get more stores, more people come looking for those stores, so it brings more visitors. I just think we’re going to excel even farther in fashion. Hopefully, someday we’ll catch up with L.A. and New York. I think we’re getting better and better every year.

July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 29

Style

The Modern Muse

What Not to Wear Reading material to keep you out of skankdom

By Jennifer Cornthwaite There she is. Super-tight mini, neon pink dress with cutouts to expose some skin (and in not the right places); huge hoop earrings; a shiny new handbag, extra large; crazy bondage-style platforms; hair done up with highlights and hot rollers; and an arm full of last season’s bangles.

The girl I describe here is, sadly, not the minority in Las Vegas. But she is one of many baring too much flesh and bearing too many accessories. With summer upon us, the urge to take it all off is overpowering, thanks to the blazing heat, coupled with billboards across town featuring Playboy-esque models in tiny dresses.

There is a beautiful way to show those gorgeous shoulders and slinky long legs without having other women talk about you.

I’m inspired by style writer Derek Blasberg’s article on the “sexification” of Paris fashion as well as the growing availability of sex toys at CityCenter (Kiki de Montparnasse and Roberto Cavalli have a great selection). Las Vegas has always had the title of being the most overtly sexual place in the United States.

Stand outside any nightclub and it seems all the girls waiting in line got the same memo. Sometimes I’m tempted to go over to a particularly helpless case, give her my clutch, pull her hair back and cover her with my jacket.

Sexy is something that is incredibly powerful, and showing nicely toned and tanned legs does wonders for getting your car from valet faster and snagging a ridiculously hot husband.

You must think of your sexy powers as something like a chef composing a meal. He (or she) would not think about serving foie gras with a souffle and crème brûlée. Use your sexiness in the same way. A leg there, a little cleavage here, a great big necklace and an overthe-top hair-do. Your powers will be depleted if you use all of them at once, and you won’t make it to the next level in the game if you blow it allwith one trashy outfit.

Especially here, where the neon lights and the late nights can blur the line of what is sexy and slutty. When you see ladies during the day showing a little too much skin at the grocery store, or you pop into a casino for drinks and dancing with friends, think to yourself about how you would make that outfit less trashy and more sexy.

Luckily, The Modern Muse is not alone in her plight. In recent years there have been a slew of books written on the subject, including Jordan Christy’s How to be a Hepburn in a Hilton World (Center Street, 2009, $17). Also see Nina Garcia’s The Little Black Book of Style (ItBooks, 2007, $20). So, happy summer reading, and remember, no bikinis in the casino!

Emergency Arts owner Jennifer Cornthwaite constantly scours the runways for the hottest trends, styles and designers. Contact her at downtownjennifer@gmail.com.

30

Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

S E X Y

I N T I M A T E

B

O

U

T

I

Q

U

E

702.823.2210 • 8665 W. Flamingo, Suite129 • Las Vegas, NV 89147

Women “behind the stick” (from left): Alicia Sanchez, Leann Kelly, Adina Artstein, Mariena Mercer, Rebecca Ahnert Hayden, Wendy Verdel and Kristen Schaefer.

Fine SpiritS

Meet the first ladies of Las Vegas mixology. Vegas Seven salutes 10 who are helping to elevate the city’s cocktail culture, with innovation, good taste, passion and personality

By Xania Woodman

32 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Photography by Ryan Reason

constituent ingredients in a cocktail, and an evergrowing flavor and scent memory.

For a shy 18-year-old girl, working at Las Vegas’ high-end retail shops offered the chance to improve her communication skills and become less introverted. But, at 22, Alicia knew bartending would be the ultimate test. Downtown Cocktail Room owner Michael Cornthwaite hired Alicia fresh out of Vegas’ Crescent School of Bartending. “Michael wanted someone green, who he could mold and teach,” Alicia says. What came next was a complete cocktail immersion under the guidance of bartender/mixologist George Austin Sproule.

“Her amazing attitude and personality won me over,” Cornthwaite says. Alicia’s next lesson: acidity, dryness and body. “I knew what spirits were and had a general knowledge of where they came from,” she says, “but I didn’t know the complexity of making a cocktail.”

Her first menu placement was, ironically, a non-alcoholic “mocktail,” the Sunshine, which still appears on DCR’s rotating menu. But it was with her first true cocktail, the Competition, that Alicia arrived as a mixologist. “It’s been like going to a really intense school for three years, constantly learning, constantly pushing the envelope.” A full-time student pursuing a degree in business management, Alicia says it is anyone’s guess if her degree and her mixology career will eventually coincide. “I’m a student of mixology, but I’m more just a student of life.”

one To WATch

Adina Artstein a.k.a. “Martini” Bartender, Sandbar at Red Rock Resort Age: 24 Specialty: whiskey and scotch Hometown: Chicago Years in the industry: 4 What she’s having: Agua Luca pineapple Caipirinha.

Unique skill: “I can make a martini out of anything!”

The Bartenders The AccidenTAl PourisT

Alicia Sanchez Bartender/mixologist, Downtown Cocktail Room Age: 25 Specialty: muddled drinks Hometown: Weld County, Colo.

Years in the industry: 3 What she’s having: Plymouth gin Negroni, stirred, up.

Unique skill: A sensitive palate, able to identify the

Three years ago, Adina routinely created featured cocktails for downtown’s Sidebar lounge. But like so many of her colleagues, the emerging mixologist had to make an employment decision based on health insurance. So she departed the hip, urban scene for Summerlin, where her poolside clients are sweet-seeking missiles, often preferring the old frozen fruity standbys to her improvised and artful original cocktails. But whether she’s making twists on pre-Prohibition classics or tropical specialties served in whole pineapples, what’s clear is that Adina has caught the attention of the beverage industry as “one to watch.”

When she’s not attending spirits seminars to deepen her knowledge, Adina is pursuing a degree in education.

Both should come in handy when she reaches her goal of becoming a spirit brand mixologist and representative. Adina most enjoys taking classic cocktails and changing up an ingredient or two to arrive at a completely new drink. Guests lucky enough to stumble in when Adina’s working on a new recipe often get to be her test audience. “I’ve always liked watching bartenders interact with their customers,” she says. “That’s

what lured me in.” At Red Rock, Adina gets encouragement from Beverage Director John Arishita, a mixology fan himself. Still working at Sidebar from time to time, Adina will continue to study with her mentor, bartender/mixologist Jerry Vargas, learning “not just how to make drinks but how to make cocktails.”

QuAliTy And conTrol

Kristen Schaefer a.k.a. “Pinkies” (she shakes cocktails with her pinkies up) Lead bartender, Rhumbar at The Mirage Age: 27 Specialty: aperitifs and digestifs Hometown: Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Years in the industry: 8 What she’s having: A Champagne Cocktail with Fee Brothers whiskey barrel bitters.

Unique skill: Kristen’s adaptive bartending skills have been honed “behind the stick” (that is, tending bar) at varying styles of bars—high-volume, dive, restaurant, sports, wine, all-fresh mixology.

Following jobs at a college bar in Austin, Texas, and a biker bar in New York, Kristen’s arrival at Poughkeepsie’s Shadows on the Hudson was “the turning point in my career.” The high-volume mixology bar gave her, she says, “the platform to be creative and actually start thinking about drinks in a different way.” Under the tutelage of the consultants at BarMagic of Las Vegas, Kristen thrived and was quickly promoted to beverage specialist, charged with creating specialty cocktails and with maintaining standards after BarMagic moved on to its next project. As it happens, Kristen followed BarMagic to that next project. And the next after that, moving first to West Virginia to help install a new beverage program at the Greenbrier Resort, then to Las Vegas.

After opening Luxor’s Tacos & Tequila as a bartender, and The Mirage’s Rhumbar as both lead bartender and BarMagic consultant, Kristen joined Drive This! Entertainment, owner of both venues. She trains Rhumbar’s staff to maintain quality, reminding them to make cocktails “to-recipe always, and taste-test always.” Kristen creates a cocktail specialty menu each month to reflect Rhumbar’s spirit partnerships and the seasons. “I really try to get the staff involved to keep up their excitement for creating cocktails.” Look for her to someday rise to the level of beverage director, still running bars for inspired owners with as much passion for cocktails as she has.

on The FAsT TrAck

Mariena Mercer a.k.a. “Miss Wizard” Director of operations, BarMagic of Las Vegas Age: 27 Specialty: tequila Hometown: Las Vegas Years in the industry: 6 What she’s having: Plymouth gin Negroni, on the rocks.

Unique skill: One of Vegas’ bartenders most successfully working with molecular mixology.

Being a second-generation Vegas native, Mariena is something of a rarity. That she’s been 6-foot-1 since the age of 11 is rarer still. Mariena’s exotic look and

July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 33

towering stature might have gotten her foot in the door as Tequila Goddess at TI’s Isla restaurant, but Mariena was determined—despite a barely-there showgirl costume—to be every inch the bona fide tequila expert. On the cusp of 21, Mariena redirected her insatiable wine curiosity toward tequila and, she says, “From there I was hooked.”

Although she had no formal bartending training, she crafted cocktails tableside. “I made it my passionate goal to learn everything there was to know about tequila,” says Mariena, who supplemented her knowledge with a selfdirected home study. “I’m a sprinter. If I enjoy something I give 100 percent—you just can’t stop me.” Competing for the first time in 2009, Mariena took second place and Best Garnish in the United States Bartenders Guild’s annual Nevada chapter competition.

Something of a cocktail prodigy, Mariena is known about town for her molecular mixology prowess: bacon-washed bourbon, cocktail caviars and frothy foams. As director of BarMagic’s Las Vegas operations, Mariena runs the Social Mixology moveable speakeasy program. “I feel like I’m in an environment that nurtures creativity. I’m like a kid in a candy store, so excited to come to work every day.”

A clAss AcT

Leann Kelly a.k.a. “Miss Kelly” Gourmet bartender, Sage Restaurant at Aria Age: 31 Specialty: bourbon Hometown: Blusstin, Ohio Years in the industry: 10 What she’s having: A Blanton’s Old Fashioned or Sidecar.

Unique skill: An uncanny ability to open patrons’ eyes to new cocktails and spirits they’ve never tried before, such as gin. After gaining their trust, she moves them on to tequila and bourbon.

Leann’s life behind the bar has somewhat mirrored her life away from it. Whether it was surviving Army training right out of high school or the boot camp that was a Cheesecake Factory’s service bar, discipline and consistency have defined her. Fast forward to 2004 when Leann spent 10 days learning from the world-renowned “Modern Mixologist,” Tony Abou-Ganim, while opening Sushi Roku at Caesars.

He showed her “a whole world I never knew existed,” she says. His teaching inspired even more study. Since then, Leann earned the only perfect score ever on Southern Wine & Spirits’ Academy of Spirits and Fine Service’s final exam.

Leann is quick to dispel the misconception that a woman cannot possibly know that much about spirits. “I love proving them wrong,” she says. “Your place is where you want it to be.” A motivated self-starter, the studying continues.

Leann and husband Darby—also a Vegas bartender/mixologist—have compiled a home collection featuring exotic spirits, rare cocktail books and antique shakers. Together they venture to bars all over the world trying cocktails, learning always. “If this is going to be my career,” she says, “then I need to be the best I can be.”

FlighTs oF FAncy

Rebecca Ahnert Hayden a.k.a. “Becky the Vegas Bartender” Mixologist/bartender, Fleur De Lys Restaurant at Mandalay Bay Age: 31 Specialty: unexpected flavor combinations Hometown: Lake Geneva, Wisc.

Years in the industry: 15

34

Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

What she’s having: Belvedere vodka on the rocks.

Unique skill: Serving the dining room, patio and lounge from a one-woman bar no larger than a closet.

While remaining calm.

A bon vivant bartender as well as a beautician, club photographer, blogger and budding fashion designer, Becky is an artist to the core. Whether from behind the bar, lens, brush or pen, she says, “I like to play with style; I like pretty things.” Bartending her way through University of Wisconsin, Becky combined her marketing degree with her art and beverage interests when she contributed to a project for Coca-Cola, helping to name the Fruitopia juice line. “I learned so much about the relationship between color and flavor,” she says. Without any help, Becky pumps out aperitifs, wine, dessert drinks, digestifs, absinthe and cocktails to the Fleur De Lys dining room and lounge each night from her one-woman galley bar. “In a lot of cases,” she says, “the only way to get something done right is to do it yourself.”

Becky recently created the Decadent Desert and sparkling Tropical flights that allow guests to sample Fleur de Lys’ most popular drinks. Each flight is served in specialty glassware with chef Hubert Keller’s signature ornate garnishes. An homage to the Alsatian chef himself, her Cassis Crush features Alsatian Gewürztraminer wine. “I also change up the cocktails seasonally and make sure they complement the kitchen’s new creations,” Becky says. The entire cocktail menu is adjusted to incorporate seasonal fruits and purees. “I keep an open mind for new flavors and re-visit ones I didn’t care for before.”

sAvoRing The JouRney

Wendy Verdel a.k.a. “The Rachael Ray of Bartending” Mixologist, Fusion Mixology Bar at the Palazzo Age: 39 Specialty: vodka Hometown: Tampa, Fla. Years in the industry: 18 What she’s having: Chopin vodka, slightly dirty with blue cheese-stuffed olives.

Unique skill: “If it’s edible, I can put it into a cocktail.”

Tomato soup. Asiago cheese. Mole sauce. Even the tricky bitter melon. All have found their way into Wendy’s cocktails. Although Fusion is a South American-themed bar, in keeping with its name, Wendy and her six fellow mixologists are encouraged to experiment with all manner of ingredients, creating cocktails that span cultures.

Few people would expect to find a mixology bar right on the casino floor, including, apparently, TV’s Guy Fieri, who—the story goes—once sat down and asked for a beer. “You are not just going to have a beer,” Wendy told the chef, “you’re going to have something fabulous!” One ginger Caipirinha later, Fieri was converted.

Wendy’s own story goes that she was lunching in a British pub in Florida when she was invited to bartend despite having no experience whatsoever. After learning on the job, her bright and outgoing personality shining all the while, Wendy used her bartending connections to work in England and then clear across the U.S. She arrived in Vegas in 2005 to open Wynn. But she preferred the non-union local bar scene at Timbers, which allowed her to experiment with ingredients. That adventurous instinct comes naturally: Her mother is a chef, and grandma owned a diner. “I attribute my imagination and my palate to my mom,” Wendy says. A tribute to their legacy, Wendy’s ultimate goal is to open a 1920s-style-speakeasy in either Chicago or New York—password, false doors, big band and all. Says Wendy, “It would mean I finally ‘made it.’”

The Executives A sPiRiTed suPPlieR

Lisa Bigley

COO and director of sales and marketing, UBC Enterprises Specialty: special events Hometown: Chicago Years in the industry: 5 What she’s having: Plymouth gin Negroni, up.

Unique skill: “An absolute passion for providing bartenders with the highest level of ingredients available.”

With her husband, bartender Sean Bigley, about to undergo brain surgery six years ago, Lisa, then a construction project manager, asked what she could give Sean in this life that would make him happy. He asked for a bar. She said no. But, 48 hours after a second surgery, the couple put their heads together in the ICU and came up with Ultimate Bar Chef, a company dedicated to providing bartenders with recipes and unique ingredients. Today the Bigleys, now married for 18 years, are the proprietors of UBC Enterprises, Nevada’s only non-alcoholic distribution center with a focus on the mixology industry.

UBC carries 17 product lines, including Fee Brothers bitters, El Sol aloe vera juice, and the Sonoma Syrup line.

This traditionally being the territory of larger companies, Lisa believes in “being a salesperson instead of an ordertaker,” and in “being truly thrilled with what you’re carrying. That’s really what sets us apart.”

And it is truly a family affair: Sean, a Bellagio bartender for 17 years, is UBC’s brand ambassador; their son James, daughter Sara, daughter-in-law Hailey and even Sean’s mother all work for the family biz. Along with its most recent hire, whiskey specialist John Dupont, UBC will this year obtain a liquor license to bring artisanal and boutique spirits to Vegas, beginning with bourbon, whisky and Scotch. It will also launch an intimate monthly evening of bourbon, cigars and jazz in November.

UBC is already well known for its charitable work with breast cancer, and is now branching out in support of children’s charities. “I want to work really hard at giving back to our community,” Lisa says, “and let people know there is a soul to Las Vegas.”

JeT-seTTeR

Patricia Richards

Property Mixologist, Wynn-Encore Specialty: composition Hometown: Vancouver, B.C. Years in the industry: 24 What she’s having: 100 percent agave

Seasons alumna—is used to “producing on a large scale.” But in Macau, she was forced to focus on just two casino bars and think on a micro level—keeping it fresh and simple, Asian-inspired, Wynn-approved and, of course, “with a wow factor.” Travel and beverage are among the very elements of Patricia’s being, with food and wine making up the balance. “I’ll leave it up to the universe to figure out how to put those things together,” she says. “And if I can fit a hike in there now and then …”

geTTing FResh

Marie Maher Director of Food & Beverage, the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel Specialty: using fresh ingredients Hometown: Kilkenny, Ireland Years in the industry: 26 What she’s having: a Dark and Stormy or a tot of Pampero Aniversario rum from Venezuela.

Unique skill: Courage to be a strong female leader during the dark ages of American cocktailing, which lasted through the ’80s.

The executive branch (from left): Lisa Bigley, Marie Maher and Patricia Richards.

tequila, preferably Partida, Milagro or Don Julio.

Unique skill: “Being a woman who has the strength, drive, passion, creativity and work ethic of any guy out there.”

When Steve Wynn’s people call from Macau telling you to be on the next plane to China, what happens next should be obvious. It was for Patricia. The Wynn-Encore property mixologist just returned from a whirlwind visit to Wynn’s new sister property. With the help of translators, Patricia brought the property’s beverage program a little closer in line with that of Wynn Las Vegas, maintaining the Asian flair. Macau

guests can now enjoy Mr. Wynn’s favorites from among Patricia’s cocktails, including the Sinatra Smash and the Berry Infusion, in addition to the “mocktail” menu she created for the largely gaming-focused clientele. “I have an adventurous spirit,” Patricia says. “My spirit is happy when I can go to new places, learn from the local cultures and bring that knowledge into my craft.” To wit, Vegas should soon be able to enjoy the magnolia blossom tea and unique chili spice powder Patricia carried home.

On a fast and furious rise, Patricia’s career has been shaped by risk-taking and a fondness for change.

Overseeing 27 Wynn-Encore bars, Patricia—a Four

In the late ’80s, when the Cosmopolitan became an internationally recognized cocktail phenomenon, Marie’s unwillingness to accept a cocktail poorly made and from inferior products revealed what would become her signature contribution: championing the use of fresh ingredients.

Marie had bartended through her teens at an uncle’s pub in Ireland, then through college, traveling to Germany and finally New York, where she reopened Windows on the World in 1996 after the ’93 World Trade Center bombing. There she was fortunate to work along side modern beverage industry pioneers Andrea Immer, Kevin Zraly and Dale “King of Cocktails” DeGroff of the Rainbow Room. “It was very easy to be good because you had to be just to stand with them and to be able to work with them,” Marie says. In 2000, while at Manhattan’s Beacon Restaurant, New York Magazine honored her for Best Cocktail Menu.

Today, the former Bellagio food & beverage director (also former Wynn executive F&B director) extols the virtues of using only the freshest, seasonally available ingredients at Vegas’ Renaissance Hotel. The smaller property means that Marie can be hyper-focused on quality, freshness and consistency. At the Renaissance, “all-fresh” means that bar produce is sourced fresh through the kitchen and does not come prepackaged and shelf-stable. So no pre-made sour mixes, no bought juices, and as little pasteurization and purees as possible. Of that lifechanging Cosmopolitan back in the ’80s, Marie now says, “It furthered my belief that this was something special, this was the right direction.” Blazing a trail as both a female top executive and advocate of all-fresh programs, Marie says, “I think it’s terrific that our age has come, that [women] are getting some recognition for what we do.”

July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 35

Each year, tens of thousands of seals, many of whom are still babies, are massacred. It’s time to demand a permanent end to Canada’s cruel seal slaughter.

END CANADA’S SEAL SLAUGHTER

The Local Newsroom

THe LocaL Newsroom New School Blueprints Have Green Tinge Energy efficiency, larger classrooms and flexibility among architects’ goals

By T.R. Witcher

Seedlings rise from the charred landscape of Mount Charleston, which recently had 20 acres destroyed by a blaze started by an illegal campfire.

rising From the ashes More efforts needed to rehabilitate post-wildfire ecosystems

By Jessica Prois Wildfire scars have become nearly as commonplace in the Mojave Desert as yellow-flowering blackbrush plants and yucca trees. Charred, twisted Joshua trees still remain along the scenic loop in Red Rock from the 2005 and 2006 lightning strikes. And the recent blaze that started from an illegal campfire and spread to 20 acres on Mount Charleston serves as a reminder that the Southwest is at risk for wildfires this time of year.

A study by UNLV ecologist Scott Abella says these areas burned by wildfires can take up to 65 years to fully recover.

Human-aided restoration of these spots is necessary, he says, as wildfires are expected to be more “frequent and severe” in the region, partly caused by the spread of non-native grasses.

Abella found that invasive species, such as red brome grass in the desert and cheatgrass in the forest, repopulate more quickly after a fire than native plants and trees. Once an ignition takes place, these grasses serve as fuel to the fire, which he says is what happened at Mount Charleston. Climate change also means potentially drier, fire-inducing conditions. “It’s just a matter of time until there’s another bigger fire, or multiple fires,” Abella says. “We could wake up and see we don’t have much forest left in our Spring Mountains.”

Abella is working with the Bureau of Land Management and the Nevada Division of Forestry on new methods for treating post-burn environments. “It’s a trade-off of investing in areas that have burned or preserving what’s left,” he says. “The reality is that in Red Rock Canyon there’s such a small portion of vegetation and ecosystem that’s still intact. Most is now burn scars and non-native grasses.”

A big problem is that once burns take place, trees start to

grow back at the same time, competing for moisture and sunlight, says Pete Anderson, state forester for the Nevada Division of Forestry. The solution is tree-thinning, or physically cutting down trees to maintain a mix of young and old trees and species. “A healthy forest is a well-diversified forest,” Anderson says. “There’s only limited water and soil nutrients.” Abella says the best way to do this is to use the forest’s history as a template. “We try to understand what the forests were like in 1800s, so we can try and go in and reduce tree densities to what they used to be.”

Experts are also looking at the use of herbicides and prescribed burning to rid areas of invasive species that act as tinder, but these tactics come at a cost. “Herbicides can kill native plants, and that’s not appealing,” Abella says. “[Prescribed] burning is good idea, but it’s killed Joshua trees—a native, charismatic plant that can take a couple hundred years to come back.”

Recovery efforts are impeded by cost, says Kevin Oliver, BLM fire management officer. He says the BLM chooses to restore plants that are important to the environment, such as blackbrush, which serves as food and shade for animals.

“We do seedings of annual and perennial native grasses, but it’s extremely expensive and we don’t have enough money to restore every acre,” Oliver says. “We try to build little islands of native vegetation, so the islands can then grow out.”

What’s at stake for the public is increased carbon dioxide emissions from wildfires, as well as the loss of what makes up part of Southern Nevada’s identity, Oliver says. “It’s a pretty special place,” he says. “If we don’t do something, places like Red Rock won’t be Red Rock.”

Clark County schools are known for the consistency of their designs—each elementary school is a near clone of every other elementary school. Ditto for middle schools and high schools.

But this fall the district is rolling out four prototypes of the elementary school of the future. The schools range in cost from $14.5 million to $16.5 million, and all are meant to be on the vanguard of environmental design in the Valley.

“We required them to be about twice as energy efficient and to cost about 20 percent less per square foot [than existing schools],” says Paul Gerner, the school district’s associate superintendent for facilities. “We’re basically using competitive design strategy to improve the breed of elementary school design.

What we have here are probably four of the best elementary school designs in the country.”

Current elementary schools in the system use about 55,000 British thermal units per square foot per year; the new schools are expected to use less than 30,000 Btu per square foot per year.

Further, the prototype classroom sizes are bigger—around 900 square feet versus 700—which will handle larger class sizes in this era of budget cuts.

Only three of the designs will be retained as templates for future schools.

Later this year, the district will hire a third-party expert in energy modeling to see which of the designs does the best job of improving energy performance and maintaining cost. The district will use models of the building performance more so than measurements taken from the actual schools once they open. “I’d rather not throw the design out because the principal left the front door open,” Gerner says.

It sounds like a great example of the school district moving forward, another sign that green design is swiftly becoming standard design. The only problem is that the district isn’t planning to build any more schools. Four years ago, when the prototype process was new, growth in Clark County was continuing at a Continued on page 39

July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven

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The Local Newsroom

Green Felt Journal

Hungarian pro stays positive after quick exit from WSOP

By David G. Schwartz

The World Series of Poker has been going on since May 28, with a series of bracelet events, satellites and cash games filling the Amazon and Pavilion ballrooms at the Rio hotel-casino, but the action really got under way at noon July 5, with the start of the $10,000 buyin no-limit Texas hold ’em Main Event.

For a game that’s all about the money, poker players are surprisingly aware that some things transcend the chips. When they each paid the $10,000 buy-in, 7,319 players anted up for their chance at a $68.7 million prize pool, but they’re also making a run for the record books.

“This is your chance to make poker history,” tournament director Jack Effel reminded the 1,125 waiting players just before 2004 champion Greg Raymer gave the traditional invocation, “Shuffle up and deal,” kicking off the game.

Making history takes time—it will take nearly two weeks to whittle the contestants down to nine players, who will then play the final table in November—and the chances of making it, even for great players, are slim.

So what about those players who don’t have a shot at walking into history this November? The ones who gambled early and gambled big but came up short?

The first player busted out after little more than a half-hour, and didn’t care to share his feelings about his quick exit.

Peter Turmezey, a 24-year-old professional player from Budapest, Hungary, lasted longer, but in the end the results were the same: His $10,000 bought him just 74 minutes of poker action.

Turmezey isn’t a bad player by any stretch of the imagination. He makes his living playing the game, mostly under the screen names “Twirlpro” at pokerstars.com and “Breeth” at fulltiltpoker.com, two popular online poker sites. He cashed in two of the 19 events he entered in this year’s WSOP, no mean feat.

That he was playing in the world’s biggest game, a tournament that has cemented legacies and made stars, didn’t faze the youthful pro.

“I was just playing my game,” Turmezey says. “I didn’t want to be more conservative. … I just played my usual—very aggressive.”

Still, he was aware that there was more than chips on the line.

38 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

“It’s really important to me,” he says when asked how he felt about playing in the Main Event. “You can’t just play for the money. This game is about more than that.”

In the end, it all hinged on a judgment call. Dealt a pair of 10s, he and two other players stayed for the flop, when queen/10/seven came down. With three of a kind, Turmezey bet $1,000, while one of the players folded and the other called his raise. Seeing a possible flush draw on the river card, a five, Turmezey played it cautious, checking. If the other player had raised instead of also checking, Turmezey might have folded.

Instead, he bet $7,500 after the final card, a five, was dealt. His opponent went all-in, and Turmezey called, also pushing all of his chips in.

When his opponent turned over cards that gave him a king-high flush, it was all over. But such is high-stakes poker on the world’s biggest stage.

This was Turmezey’s second visit to Las Vegas to compete in the WSOP, though last year he didn’t chance the Main Event. Despite his early exit this year, he has no regrets.

“I love this game,” he says. When evaluating his performance in this year’s tournament—two cashes, but a quick exit in the big one—he stressed the positive. “I feel good about it,” he says. “I really liked coming out here to Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker. It was a good step for me.”

Turmezey can take some solace in the fact that, just by playing, he’s put himself into an elite class.

“You are already a winner,” Effel told players before the game started, an hour and 15 minutes before Turmezey’s fateful big raise. “Out of 100 million poker players in the world, you’re the best onehundredth of 1 percent.” It’s an important message at a tournament where only 10 percent of entrants finish in the money.

Turmezey still has plenty of poker left in him, and he’s not discouraged. After all, if the cards go his way, he might be wearing a World Series of Poker bracelet someday soon.

“I’ll be back next year,” he says with a smile. He won’t be the only one.

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

Chuck Baker started the Veterans Chamber of Commerce of Nevada, which is also open to non-veteran business owners.

Closing Ranks, Opening Doors Veterans Chamber of Commerce links former military members with business opportunities

By Caitlin McGarry

Transitioning back into civilian life is far from easy for many returning veterans, and Veterans Reporter publisher Chuck Baker has long worked to publicize their issues, ranging from physical injuries and emotional scars to difficulty acclimating at home and finding work. To ease that transition, Baker and Air Force widow Su Phelps, who owns Lakewood Recycling in North Las Vegas, launched the Veterans Chamber of Commerce of Nevada to help former military members publicize their business endeavors.

Baker, a Vietnam veteran, once worked as a real estate reporter and editor for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and says he campaigned while at the newspaper for more coverage of veterans’ issues. He launched the monthly Veterans Reporter 10 years ago and became increasingly interested in connecting veteran business owners with non-veteran-owned businesses. With support from the Las Vegas Valley Water District, Baker and Phelps registered the Veterans Chamber of Commerce of Nevada as a nonprofit organization last December. The group now has 25 members.

“I’m a journalist, but I’m also a businessman; I own a newspaper,” Baker says. “Just like I felt that veterans deserved more news coverage in the state and the country, I feel that veteran-owned

Photography by Anthony Mair

Schools Continued from page 37

brisk pace. In 2006, Gerner says the school district was planning to build 125 schools; a year later the figure had dropped to between 85 and 90. Now, the four elementary schools, plus one vocational academy in Summerlin, are the final schools in the district’s pipeline.

All are scheduled to open this August.

Gerner calls the change a “pretty dynamic swing,” and notes that even when the district sees a new “tidal wave of growth, it’ll take us two years to get a school in the pipeline ready for delivery.”

The four prototypes are Triggs Elementary in North Las Vegas, designed

by JMA; Duncan Elementary in North

Las Vegas, by SH Architecture; Stuckey Elementary in Las Vegas, by DCC Architects; and Wallin Elementary in Henderson, by Pugsley Simpson Coulter.

Wallin is the group’s only empowerment school—a design aimed at improving learning and student performance through increased autonomy and accountability, smaller class sizes, a longer school day and year, and more financial support. It is tucked into a tiny basin amid the hilly topography of Madeira Canyon. Shorn of curves, Wallin is a series of stacked rectangular shapes punctuated by long and narrow bands of windows. The $16.5 million school is set to open this year.

The Wallin design is meant to be flexible—its classrooms, administrative spaces

businesses deserve to be promoted. I know that the people I talk to want to do business with veteran-owned businesses. Some people would like to do more—be a volunteer, give money—and they can’t always do that for whatever reason, but when it comes to doing business with a veteran-owned store and company, that’s very easy. They’re already going out and spending money, so if they can help a veteran-owned business, it’s easy for them to do it.”

Chamber membership is open to both veterans and non-veterans, with lower membership rates for veterans, and has drawn non-veteran-owned businesses that are interested in finding veteran-owned vendors with which to do business. Rob Supin, sales manager of Southwest Printers, met several veteran business owners in April at the chamber’s kick-off mixer—which attracted Reps. Shelley Berkley and Dina Titus—and has received a handful of inquiries about his company’s services since then.

“We like to support veteran affairs, so we joined and I was hoping to get some action out of it for our printing business at one of the mixers,” Supin says. “I have gotten a few inquiries about printing, and I’ve done up some quotes. I expect one of those inquiries to turn into a job. Right now, we really haven’t made any money off of it, but I do expect to make something of it in the future.”

While matching veteran-owned businesses with non-veteranowned businesses is the chamber’s primary goal, the organization also aims to assist newly returning veterans who plan to start their own businesses.

“There’s a lot of younger vets that are coming out of the service,” Baker says, “and they might want to start their own business or learn how to start a business and what they have to do, so we’re going to be helping those people as well.

“Older veterans who have established businesses, they know more about starting a business, about running a business, about how to keep it going. But as far as reaching out to the public, new businesses or younger vets, they have to jump through the same hoops and do the same things. You always have to be out there promoting your business and working with the public, providing good products and services or whatever it is you’re selling. To a certain extent there are differences, but there’s a common ground.”

As the group becomes more cohesive and solidifies both its membership base and its board of directors, Baker says the chamber plans to release a directory of veteran-owned businesses in Nevada, organize a job board for unemployed veterans and veteran-owned businesses, and eventually launch a scholarship program for children of wounded veterans. The chamber also recently began offering health-benefit supplements for its members.

For more information about the chamber, visit veteranschambernv.org.

and multipurpose spaces easily can be reconfigured to fit into other school sites in the Valley, says Wade Simpson, principal at Pugsley Simpson. “When we’re given a different site we can adjust how they’re connected and make sure the orientation is always correct,” he says, “so we’re getting north and south daylight in all the classroom.”

Wallin Elementary is set to open for the upcoming school year.

Wallin will use evaporative cooling as well as sophisticated schools, the prototypes may help the electrical sensors that help mitigate district if it needs to retrofit or augment the “vampire” effect—when unused existing schools. Simpson says Wallin’s electronics suck energy off the grid. flexibility was designed, in part, with With the freeze on constructing new that in mind.

July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven

39

The Local Newsroom

Looking for Leaders Chamber of Commerce program helps foster sense of community

Outsiders often suffer from the common misconception that Las Vegas has no community. But ask many longtime residents, and they still hold the mindset that Las Vegas is a small town.

Unfortunately, as in many small towns, it can be difficult for newcomers to connect with our community’s entrenched social networks. Las Vegas compounds this problem by burying its small community within a huge city. However, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce created the Leadership Las Vegas program 25 years ago to address this problem.

Most residents still have never heard of the program. Leadership Las Vegas has more than 900 graduates, and has led to many community projects being started or strengthened, including DJs for PJs and the Three Square BackPack for Kids food program. “You start to really understand how our community is intertwined,” says 2007 graduate Cara Roberts, director of public relations for the chamber.

40

Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Each year, the Leadership Las Vegas organizers, all former graduates of the program, select 48 applicants from a diverse cross section of industries, incomes, ages and backgrounds. Students share the potential to contribute to the Las Vegas community, but are otherwise notable mostly for how different they are. This is not just a club for old, rich white guys.

Not everyone can get in, though. Each student must pay $3,500 (but there are some discounts and partial scholarships) and tuition is nonrefundable, even if a student quits or gets dropped for missing too many sessions. In addition, there are usually two or three times as many applicants as positions available. Applicants from overrepresented professions face even more competition, since only a sample from each profession will get in.

The program has grown slightly, from 40 students in 1986 to 48 today, but the class size is deliberately kept small to encourage the students to form strong

More than 900 people have graduated from the Leadership Las Vegas program.

relationships, which is a crucial element of the program.

“We really try during the interview process to discern whether or not these people have either the ability to lead or the desire to lead, and if they really want to learn more about the community in order to make a difference,” says Aggie Knoblock, Leadership Las Vegas council chairwoman and properties director at Thomas & Mack Co. The students spend 10 months together,

during which they work on joint projects and attend intensive daylong sessions once a month on different aspects of Las Vegas, including criminal justice, education, gaming and tourism. By sharing these experiences, students learn from each other and form solid working relationships, which often last years after graduation.

The program has proven to be very successful, and the cities of Henderson and North Las Vegas both have similar programs of their own.

Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce

By David Davis

The Local Newsroom

Politics

Angle does quite the job on jobs

By Michael Green

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42 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Listen carefully. Hear that whirring sound? It’s the noise being made by every deceased former U.S. senator from Nevada, each spinning in his grave.

Recently, Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle went on a conservative talk show. A caller asked, “Harry Reid brags all the time about the jobs he saved in CityCenter. Would you have made that same call? Would you have saved CityCenter?”

Angle replied, “No, I would not,” then went off on a long explanation about why the stimulus (which had nothing to do with CityCenter) was bad, deregulation (which had nothing to do with CityCenter) is good, taxes (which, well, you know) are bad, and “government does not provide jobs.”

As MGM was building CityCenter, it had trouble with bankers. Reid made a few calls on its behalf. So did another senator from Nevada, John Ensign, that noted socialist. Their—well, Reid’s— calls helped, the bankers’ pressure eased and MGM finished construction.

Thousands of construction workers kept their jobs and thousands more obtained jobs when CityCenter opened.

It’s easy to point out that MGM is a private company, not a government entity. But what’s really troubling about Angle’s position is that it’s antithetical to what U.S. senators do, especially from less-populous states such as Nevada.

Reid and Ensign did what any senator would do for their state.

Her response also stands history on its head. Consider the kinds of things that senators from Nevada have done for the folks back home: • Democrat Pat McCarran was nuts on the subject of communism but a believer in big government—if the big money came to Nevada. Thus, he helped the state obtain New Deal projects, the Basic Magnesium plant and military bases, all of which meant jobs for his constituents.

But McCarran also helped private enterprise, and did it through his Senate power. McCarran, a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee, chaired its Subcommittee on Aviation. The Civil Aeronautics Board—the Federal Aviation Administration’s forerunner—went before his committee to determine its budget. McCarran wondered if the board had decided on a Nevada airline’s application for a route. The members said they

hadn’t had the chance. McCarran said he anticipated that and had reserved a meeting room for them to gather. He told the members to take a recess, decide on his friends from Bonanza Airlines, then come back in and tell him more about the budget that he would decide on.

What do you think they decided?

They did as McCarran wanted, thereby helping Bonanza, which was founded by, among others, Ed Converse, who happened to be a Republican. Later, he merged with another company and sold the airline to some guy named Howard Hughes, who did very well in private enterprise but made a lot of money from government contracts. He employed a few people, too.

McCarran also personally took an Elko businessman to San Francisco to the War Production Board’s regional office to get action on an application. McCarran’s intervention helped the businessman, and helped create jobs. Most in Elko today would rather not ponder the federal government doing something for them.

Presumably, they would prefer starvation.

• McCarran’s political protégé, Alan Bible, followed him into the Senate and spent a decade keeping open a small Bureau of Mines office in Boulder City the Interior Department wanted to close.

Why? It created about two dozen jobs in Boulder City. Those employees shopped at local stores, banked at local banks, ate at local restaurants and contributed to the economy—for everybody.

• Bible’s successor, Paul Laxalt, helped friends get jobs in Washington, D.C. Among others, Bob Broadbent became commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, where he pushed for more Colorado River water and lower power rates for Nevada—the kinds of things that benefit individuals and businesses. Frank Fahrenkopf became a national party chairman and later American Gaming Association majordomo, lobbying for Nevada’s main industry.

Oh, yeah. The party Fahrenkopf chaired? The Republicans. Laxalt was such a lefty that he chaired the three presidential campaigns run by Ronald Reagan. Perhaps the critics who call Angle obtuse are right.

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 Melissa Arseniuk

SeveN NIghtS Sun. 18

Thur. 15 Forget “Happy Birthday”—this evening’s song of the night doubles as a b-day wish list, as “Birthday Sex” singer Jeremih marks his 23rd year at Tao. Sure, his big day is actually July 17,, but he’s decided to celebrate a few days in advance. Regardless, we all know what he’ll be wishing for as he blows out the candles.

At the Venetian, doors at 10:30 p.m., $20 for men, $10 for women, free for local ladies.

Fri. 16 Tao Beach becomes a bikini-filled fairground on Friday, as the rooftop pool deck hosts an afternoon of fun and games high atop the Venetian. An industry dunking booth with 10 yet-to-be-named “local celebrities” (we’re going to venture a guess, and suggest Mike Tyson and Flava Flav will not be taking part) is sure to be a highlight, while palm readers, cotton candy and clowns help foster the carnival environment, and Bacardi snow cones keep the crowd cool.

(Doors at 10 a.m., free for all locals and all ladies, $10 for non-local men.) Later that night, the Hard Rock Hotel hosts a duo of live entertainment options: The Silversun Pickups play The Joint at 8 p.m. (all ages, tickets from $24, see story on page 82), and The Great Big Mouth of Slipknot and Stone Sour, Corey Taylor, plays Friday Night Live. Roy Mayorga of Stone Sour joins him for the poolside show at 9 p.m. $22

Sat. 17 Peter Hernandez, a.k.a. Bruno Mars, never seems to get his fair share of the spotlight, but tonight he takes center stage at Haze. The singersongwriter behind hits such as B.o.B’s “Nothin’ on You,” Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire” and Flo Rida’s “Right Round” is at CityCenter’s go-to nightclub where he’ll do double duty—hosting and performing—as part of the Saturday night party. At Aria, doors at 10:30 p.m., $40 for men, $20 for women. Or head to House of Blues and crack a cold one or two as Zane Lamprey brings his Drinking Made Easy comedy tour to Mandalay Bay. Steve McKenna and Marc Ryan join the comic for an alcohol-inspired (and infused!) night of laughter, which gets under way just after 7 p.m. Doors at 6:30 p.m., $22-$28.50.

Goodlife Sundays get a little hairy this week as Hair Wars return to Ghostbar. Pin-up icon and model Sabina Kelly hosts the special summertime edition of the popular party, which sees local salons go head-to-head as they compete for tress success.

(At the Palms, doors at 10 p.m., $25 cover, locals and all ladies free, n9negroup.com/hairwars.) If blowouts and extreme makeovers really aren’t your thing, consider heading to the Hard Rock Hotel, where punk rockers MXPX play Wasted Space, with special guests the Sprockets. (Doors at 9:30 p.m., show at 10:30 p.m., $25 in advance, $30 at the door.)

Or keep it classy and take in the most glamorous Sunday night in the city, as XS hosts its weekly pool party. At Encore, doors at 10:30 p.m., $30 cover, free for industry and locals.

Mon. 19 Get ready to make like a Polaroid picture and cash in, as Bare hosts a bootylicious bootyshaking contest that awards $2,000 to the girl who shakes what her momma gave her the best. As 50 Cent oh-so-eloquently put it, “Shake, sh-sh-shake that ass, girl! At The Mirage, doors at 11 a.m., $20 for men, free for women.

Tues. 20 Moon nightclub at the Palms retains its stranglehold on Tuesday nights by bringing renowned DJ Pittsburgh Slim to this week’s installation of Bang!

(Doors at 10 p.m., $20 cover, local ladies free.) Another solid option involves a trip to the Palazzo, where Lavo beats the midweek blahs with a Saturday night-style party featuring DJ Five. Doors at 11 p.m., $20 for guys, $10 for girls, free for all locals.

Wed. 21 Model Material turns up the heat at Aria and celebrates summer fashion with a dramatic party for Young & Reckless Clothing at Gold. The brand’s owner and founder—MTV Rob & Big and Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory star Chris “Drama” Pfaff—will be there, along with tasty Model Material regulars, the Syrup Swimwear crew.

Meanwhile, DJ Scene will be in the booth to set the, ahem, scene. Doors at 10 p.m., $10 for girls, $20 for guys, free for all locals.

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Nightlife

Relax mondays | HaRd Rock Hotel

Upcoming July 17 | S.K.A.M. SAturdAy with dJ lil Jon And dJ Five July 23 | FridAy night live with KAtchAFire And SpeciAl gueSt toMorrowS BAd SeedS July 24 | dJ guSto, dJ oB-one And eric cuBeechee plAy S.K.A.M. SAturdAy

46 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Photography by Hew Burney

Nightlife

Lavo | the PaLazzo

Photography by Brenton Ho

Upcoming July 17 | VIENNA GIRARDI of ThE BAchEloR hosTs “sINGlE AND fABulous” July 18 | DJ VIcE July 21 | lABEl JuNKIE PREsENTs KElly KIlloREN BENsIMoN WITh A fAshIoN shoW shoWcAsING hER NEW JEWElRy lINE July 23 | lEBRoN JAMEs hosTs July 24 | TWIlIGhT sTARs AlEX MERAZ, TINsEl KoREy AND JulIA JoNEs hosT July 25 | DJ VIcE

48 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Nightlife

TrysT | Wynn

50 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Photography by Jessica Blair

Nightlife

Beauty Bar | 517 e. Fremont St.

Photography by Sullivan Charles

Upcoming July 15 | Southern elementS tour with Feat, mC aStro, Goat Kilo, JaCKrabbit JameS, FirinG Squad, boomer VS Jayr and dJ’S, pluS hip hop & eleCtro with JeSSiCa ChaVez July 16 | atlantiC line and VanapraSta July 19 | monday niGht KaraoKe

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Nightlife

DJ Profile

A Degree of Higher Turning

a nonstop party. “There’s a huge business aspect to running this as a career,” he says. “I have a record label [Earwax], I have a radio show [ShockwaveMIX], I’m a producer and a remixer, I have a publishing deal and I’m a full-time DJ as well, so I’m constantly juggling. ... I’ve put a tremendous amount of time and effort to really, really practicing the craft. It’s not something that started six months ago because I‘ve got a laptop. I have 25-30,000 records at home.”

“They don’t necessarily know exactly what I’m going to play, but they know it’s going to be mixed well,” he says of his audience. “I play high-energy mash-ups, I play a lot of house music and some classic hip-hop—but for the most part, I play mash-ups.”

It’s possible that Loczi’s best-of-both-worlds blend of European and American styles has something to do with his multinational upbringing: He was born in Michigan, but lived in Sweden and England before heading off to college.

DJ Loczi has mad skills, not to mention some serious smarts

By Melissa Arseniuk

If you think the nightlife industry is full of moneyhungry half-wits who look good but can’t form complete sentences, think again.

The club scene seems to have attracted a growing number of well-studied, well-spoken individuals, and among the smart and most talented few stands Zachary Loczi, a.k.a. DJ Loczi.

The resident DJ at Studio 54, Tabu and Liquid is also the proud owner of not one, but three degrees— a bachelor’s in sociology from University of California, Irvine, a master’s in education from Cal State San Marcos and a certificate in music mixing and mastering from Icon Collective in L.A. “I graduated at the top of my class, with a 4.0—I was super-studious when I was there,” he says of his time at Cal State. “But the reality was my passion has always been music. ... I was playing in San Diego and Orange County and L.A., at minimum, five nights a week.”

Still, he pushed himself into a quote-unquote “real job”—then realized three years later that he could make a career out of being DJ. “I was DJing the whole time,” he says of his tenure as a middle school teacher. “I would fly out to Chicago or New York or San Francisco and I’d play a party, and then I’d fly home the next morning and teach.”

His double professional life ended shortly after a club-loving parent recognized him at his middle school.

“They were like, ‘What are you doing here?’ and I was all, ‘I’m your son’s teacher,’” Loczi says.

After that, he says word spread and things got weird.

“There were [some parents who] never saw me teach, but thought that I shouldn’t be with their kids … and then the other half of the parents just wanted me to put them on the guest list for everything,” he says. “It was a really interesting dichotomy.”

He ultimately decided to leave the classroom, but he still teaches, at Serato’s online DJ academy, Serato Scratch Live. Still, he spends most of his days crisscrossing the country, playing nightclubs along the way—and despite abundant misconceptions about the mean nightlife employee’s IQ, Loczi says he encounters smart people everywhere he goes.

“The majority of people I work with in this industry are well-studied, are articulate, are incredibly intelligent,” he asserts. “There’s a ton of people who call themselves promoters, but … the people who are truly, truly, truly a part of the industry … for the most part, are highly, highly intelligent individuals.”

The big business of being a full-time DJ requires a lot of hard work, but Loczi says most outsiders— including well-seasoned party veterans—think it’s 60 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

DJ Loczi traded summers off as a schoolteacher for late nights as a DJ, and is now enjoys residencies at Studio 54, Tabu and Liquid.

While he is generally known for his sets of American-style mash-ups, Loczi says it was the European DJs he encountered as a teenager while living in London, who first piqued his interest.

Still, he says it was more a sign of the times— before the dawn of the mass-market mash-up, or widespread popularity of well-known American DJs with a signature style all their own, like DJ ZTrip—than a cultural divide. He says “there wasn’t really a huge, huge influx of American DJs” when he first tasted the sweet nectar of the 1s and 2s more than a decade ago. “There were guys DJing and stuff, but they weren’t really recognized, or given any kind of respect like the European kind of DJs were,” he explains. “You’d have a stadium that would sell out for Paul Oakenfold in Europe, and he’d be, like, one of the biggest pop stars in all of Europe. But then, in the United States, most of the guys that were DJs were just playing the weddings, the stuff like that.”

He strives to be a diverse DJ, playing Euro-house one day, mash-ups another, and hip-hop the day after that.

“My father was a car designer,” he says, “so we’d kind of cruised around when he was working for different companies.”

Much like his father’s career path, which has ranged from GM to Volvo, the genre-hopping DJ’s driving habits aren’t exactly brand loyal.

Loczi prefaces by saying he has owned “five or six Volvos,” but says after he totaled his last one in an unfortunate traffic cone-related accident on the freeway (oops!), he traded Swedish for German engineering.

“I just went to the lot and bought a Mercedes,” he says—and no, his dad doesn’t give him any grief.

“He doesn’t even drive a Volvo!” Loczi says with a laugh. “He drives a Ducati.”

DJ Loczi SouL of our city ALBuM reLeASe pArty July 16 at Studio 54 at MGM Grand. 10 p.m., $10-$20.

Nightlife

Cocktail Culture

By Xania Woodman

Tea Time

Whether you call it an Arnold Palmer or a John Daly (sorry, John), the half iced tea, half lemonade refresher tastes that much better when you substitute sweet tea vodka for iced tea. But imbiber beware: These sweet tea sippers go down, as one reviewer put it, “absurdly easy.”

Tea up with caution!

Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka

As used in the John Daly at Encore Beach Club, $15.

Muscadine grapes give this sweet tea-flavored vodka from Wadmalaw Island, S.C., a leg-up in the down-home department. Adding to this, Firefly uses only locally grown tea and Louisiana cane sugar, and just introduced a Sweet Tea Bourbon using authentic Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey from Buffalo Trace Distillery.

Red Square bartender Aaron Harmych likes his Firefly on the rocks with just a squeeze of lemon, but Matt Jensen of BarMagic prefers to drink his Firefly up, with a bit of water and some lemon wedges. fireflyvodka.com

Seagram’s Sweet Tea Vodka

As used in the Wet Tea Shirt at Wet Republic, $16.

Made with Indiana-grown grain (five-times distilled) and “mineral-rich water,” Seagram’s sweet tea vodka took the gold at the 2009 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Tom Kunick of Rumor resort uses this sweet tea-flavored vodka to make frozen sweet peach sangria, with Pallini Peachcello, Schonauer apple liqueur, lemon juice and white cranberry-peach juice. Meanwhile, Tony Banawa of PT’s Gold on Horizon Ridge Parkway serves it with lemonade and a splash of 7Up. seagramssweettea.com

Jeremiah Weed Sweet Tea Vodka

Lemongrass Cooler

As used in the Sweet Tea Martini at Blue Martini, $12.

Born of a bourbon tradition rarely seen beyond America’s Air Force bases ( Jeremiah Weed bourbon is consumed almost exclusively by U.S. fighter pilots), Weed brings us a sweet tea vodka with the sort of rich, deep sweetness and fresh-brewed flavor that warrants a salute.

Scott Schubert of Memphis Championship Barbecue uses Jeremiah Weed sweet tea vodka in his Arnold Palmeretto—along with house-made lemonade and a shot of Amaretto Disaronno. jeremiahweed.com

As served at Tao Beach, $14 Besides the pool and the sweet breeze at sunset, the most refreshing thing about Tao Beach is the cocktails. From the iconic frozen margarita to the daring combination of Grey Goose, chardonnay and muddled grapes known as a Poolside, take your pick! We think this long, cool, Thai-inspired tea cocktail pairs especially well with Tao Beach’s poolside massage menu.

1¾ ounces Belvedere Citrus vodka 1 ounce Teas’ Tea golden oolong iced tea ¾ ounce lemongrass syrup* ½ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice stalk of lemongrass and wheel of lemon for garnish Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with lemon and lemongrass, then serve. *Try Monin’s lemongrass syrup ($10 at bobateadirect.com or on amazon.com), or make your own by first simmering 1 cup each sugar and water with the cores of two lemongrass stalks for 10 minutes, until sugar is dissolved. Strain into a jar, infuse with a few additional lemongrass stalks, then cover and keep in the fridge.

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Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Forté Tea Cocktail Infusions From the innovators at Forté Tea comes a new line of delightful little tea teepees designed to diffuse three types of freshly steeped tea into cocktails and spirits.

Tender flavors of white tea, lavender citrus, lemon balm and bergamot come together in the lavender variety; lemongrass, spearmint and myrtle compose the lemongrass mint; and a rich blend of organic black teas and exotic spices combine in the silkroad chai. To use, there’s no need to heat: Simply add an infusion sachet to your spirit of choice (vodka and rum are popular picks), add a splash of juice or soda (or don’t!), and tea is served. $12, teaforte.com

The NaTioNal Newsroom This week in the New York Observer

George steinbrenner, New Yorker The outlandish Yankee was a boss akin to Robert Moses and Abe Rosenthal

Illustration by Kathryn Rathke

By John Koblin “I will never have a heart attack—I give them,” once said George Steinbrenner, the endlessly quotable owner of the New York Yankees, off and on, since 1973.

On July 13, he finally had one. Steinbrenner, 80, died of a heart attack at his home in Tampa, Fla. On the New York networks, he was lionized and hailed as a runaway success who was brash and unapologetic; the man who brought the Yankees out of their nadir in the late ’60s and early ’70s and made them champions.

He would have been plenty pleased with the coverage. “George was a totally new invention,” said Peter Golenbock, author of George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire (Wiley, 2009) and the 1979 classic about the early Steinbrenner days, The Bronx Zoo (Outlet). “He was an owner who wanted to see his name in the paper every single day. He was the sort of guy who didn’t care that much whether he was praised or lambasted. He just wanted to see himself in the paper every day.”

If the Yankees today, with their outlandishly high payroll of $200 million– plus and their $1.6 billion value and their $1 billion new stadium and their history and their rings, are the Evil Empire, Steinbrenner was their guiding force. He has at times been loathed equally by fans and by the baseball world—he was once socked with the same lifetime ban from the game as Pete Rose and Joe Jackson after he hired a bookie to get dirt on Dave Winfield, only to have the ban lifted and return to the Yankees. This is the man who oversaw the exile of Yogi Berra from the Yankees family; who feuded with legends like Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson and Joe Torre; and who took a proud franchise and made it a laughingstock by rotating more than a dozen managers in and out of the Bronx.

And yet this is also the man who won.

“Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing,” Steinbrenner once said. “Breathing first, winning next.”

Since he bought the team, Steinbrenner won more titles than any other owner in New York sports. The Giants

have won three times, the Rangers once, the Mets once. During the time Steinbrenner owned the Yankees, they won the World Series seven times, and 11 American League pennants.

“He was a guy who if he ran a newspaper or a shipbuilding firm or a baseball team, it would have been successful,” Gay Talese said of Steinbrenner. “He never left anything to chance. He was on top of everything.”

He was, in many ways, a quintessentially complicated New York leader. If Robert Moses rebuilt the city and left behind an amazingly mixed, even ugly, legacy, Steinbrenner did the same. He led on his terms, no matter the cost.

“There were people whose budget for public relations was a total waste,” said Talese, who compared Steinbrenner to Moses and Abe Rosenthal, the imperious and legendary former editor of The New York Times. “They didn’t know how to behave beyond what they were. They didn’t have a capacity to spin anything. They were so incontrovertibly who they were. They didn’t make a secret of it.

“Abe Rosenthal loved Steinbrenner, too,” Talese continued. “And there was kind of a similarity in personality—a great editor, but someone who was loathed up and down and on every floor of the building.”

By time the ’90s rolled around, Steinbrenner seemed softer, even a little kinder. Hotheads such as Jackson and Martin were replaced by cool-headed leaders such as Derek Jeter and Torre.

Even Phil Rizzuto and Bill White, two wacky announcers in the 1970s, are long gone, replaced by the painfully serious Michael Kay. And then, in 1999, fences were mended and Berra came back.

Naysayers say the Yankees built their two championship clubs (the ’77 and ’78 team; and the 1996-2000 team) despite Steinbrenner. The argument goes like this: After he was suspended following some shady contributions to Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign, it allowed

team president Gabe Paul time to pull together the talent that made the Yankees champs. Likewise, when the Boss was banned from baseball, Gene Michael built the team that would later dominate in the late ’90s since Steinbrenner wasn’t around to trade them away.

But that seems too fine a point. He laid the ground for those men to work. He created the atmosphere that led to that team.

To a Mets fan—and that’s what I am—there’s no better way to illustrate the Steinbrenner legacy than the 2000 World Series. The Yankees had won three out of the previous four World Series, and were trying to put the capstone on their dynasty. The Mets were a ragtag bunch that included the likes of Turk Wendell and Jay Payton and Benny Agbayani.

It’s been said by many sports writers

that Steinbrenner hated losing attention to the Mets almost more than anything.

In that series, which the Yankees won four games to one, the Yankees outscored the Mets by only three runs. It was a close series. But the team that acted like a champion did win it. Whereas Mets fans would fall to their knees and scream in joy when they got as much as a single against the Yankees, very little (other than winning) could satisfy Steinbrenner.

Talese said that when he visited the Steinbrenner box in the ’90s, the Boss was drinking a beer, eating popcorn and screaming and cursing, probably at some beloved Yankee such as Bernie Williams because he made some minor mistake.

“He was like a crazy man,” Talese said, “but later that day, or later in the week, the results were evident. He was ahead.”

July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven

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The National Newsroom

The New Doom A second wave of economic pessimism is spreading outside of wonkdom

By Max Abelson “

70 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

A pervasive gloom about the economy goes beyond the New York Stock Exchange, shown during the Great Depression.

begun the worst market decline in something like 300 years, Krugman’s colleague Ross Douthat used his Independence Day column to complain about worrywarts. If Jimmy Carter was wrong about shortages, grim sacrifice and an energy emergency, he said, the new pessimists are, too. “ Humans have this poignant desire to feel that we’re in control,” the hedge fund manager said. “I know there will be abrupt change.”

“We have Ben Bernanke, who has figured it all out; but you and I know he’s just guessing,” Shiller said. The first edition of his book Irrational Exuberance (Princeton University Press) warned in 2000 about a stock market bubble, and the second edition in 2005 predicted the real-estate collapse. “When you see something like the BP oil spill, you know we’re just plunging headlong into the future without knowing what we’re doing.”

“If you’ve got job security and wealth preservation under lethal pressure, then you’re going to take the negativism into a place that it hasn’t been before,” Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley’s nonexecutive Asia chairman and the firm’s former chief economist, said. “TARP, zero interest rates, trillion-dollar budget deficits, you name it, we’ve thrown anything we can at the system. And that has been successful to a limited extent at stopping the bleeding, but it has not really allowed the patient to get up off the table and resume a normal life again.”

One problem is that there isn’t a consensus about what our catastrophes are, or how they can be fixed.

Roach and Krugman, for example, have feuded this year over China. (One said a baseball bat should be taken to the other.) This week, Lloyd’s of London and the monolithic English think tank Chatham House warned about peak oil, the semi-apocalyptic moment when the world’s oil production will max out and then decline. Not preparing for the new energy realty, they say, will have “potentially catastrophic consequences.”

On July 9, just before that report was published, the blog Zero Hedge, a kind of global hub for catastrophists, posted a “wall of worry.” The American government, said the first of 50 factoids about the economy, is projected to issue about the same debt this year as the other governments of the world combined.

“Few appreciated that the shift would be as deeply structural as it was demonstrated to be,” the site’s editor, who writes pseudonymously as Tyler Durden, said in an e-mail. “With trillions of dollars spent to prevent an all-out economic collapse we have only managed to buy under two years of time and the economy is once again starting to roll over.”

The hedge fund manager said he doesn’t even trust gold. “It’s worthless if the social fabric tears,” he said.

“We’re going to have to do something different, before we get down to where it’s really bad.”

Bettmann/CORBIS

Life is such a fucking disaster,” a prominent New York hedge fund manager said recently. “We all live in some kind of world we create for ourselves. And I think that what happened is that built into that world were very enlarged expectations about what life was going to be. There’s been this sensation of excessive expectation that, frankly, became unsustainable.”

He had just returned from his ranch in the wilderness of central Idaho. “I just like it because it’s massively low human density. It would be a place you could hole up in. But, gosh, I hope that doesn’t happen.”

Last week, not very far from the hedge fund manager’s ranch, the billionaire John Malone gave a little-noticed interview to The Wall Street Journal from Allen & Co.’s annual Sun Valley conference.

Asked about the biggest risks to Liberty, his media conglomerate, Malone said his concern was this country’s survival. “We have a retreat that’s right on the Quebec border. We own 18 miles on the border, so we can cross. Anytime we want to, we can get away.”

His wife is more concerned: She’s already moved her personal cash to Australia and Canada. “She wants to have a place to go,” said Malone, No. 400 on this year’s Forbes list of the richest people in the world, “if things blow up here.”

Before the financial crisis, furious pessimism about the national economy started with a small and mostly scholarly group of doomsayers, like New York University’s Nouriel Roubini and Yale’s Robert Shiller. But that pessimism has now gone mainstream, spreading from wonks in finance to the city’s daily conversation as last year’s rebound drifts further away. Growth is slow; unemployment is enormous; the world feels sludgy. It won’t help if banks post withered profits later this week, as they’re expected to.

Part of what makes this second wave of gloom different is the sense that the rot isn’t going anywhere. You read through The Times and worry that the country will sink into a third depression—Paul Krugman said a few weeks ago that it already has—unless the U.S. government does something serious. But then you think about where money for another stimulus would come from, and what will happen if trillion-dollar deficits get worse.

“I think that a lot of people are becoming realistic over the outlook, because let’s face facts,” said David Rosenberg, the chief economist and strategist at the investment firm Gluskin Sheff. “It’s going to leave some pretty deep emotional scars, don’t you think?”

Still, optimism lives. After this month’s Times profile of Robert Prechter, the forecaster who says we’ve

The End of Sex: Goodbye Highbrow Smut

By Lee Siegel A couple of weeks ago on the op-ed page of The New York Times, Camille Paglia declared Americans sexually dead.

Some months before that, the essayist Katie Roiphe declared male American novelists literarily dead in the description-of-sex department. Just about a year ago, the critic Cristina Nehring published a book, The Vindication of Love (Harper, 2009), declaring Americans also sexually dead—as well as erotically, romantically and literarily.

What all this means is that, finally …

Americans are growing up about sex!

For what these women really seem to be complaining about is that sex is no longer treated as though it were some momentous experience that is sacredly separate from the rest of life. Three cheers for that.

In fairness to these unhappy bedfellows, they all have different benchmarks for when sex was fun and fulfilling. Paglia laments the waning of “the elemental power of sexuality” that she found in the “sexual revolution” of the ’60s. She also misses “the humorous sexual candor of both men and women during the agrarian era.” Roiphe complains that novels by male American writers nowadays lack the exuberant sex scenes that you found in the work of Roth, Mailer and Updike.

Nehring yearns for a return to the good old days circa 1100, when Abelard lost his senses (and his testicles) over Heloise. In a review of Nehring’s book, Roiphe writes with mild revulsion that “for most of us love [i.e., sexual love] is largely a matter of shared mortgage payments, evenings curled up on the couch in front of a video, or maybe a night in a hotel for an anniversary.” Clearly, for these women, any moment before our moment was a time of sexual happiness.

But they bump heads when it comes to agreeing on anything about the sexual qualities of the past. While Paglia blames the “priggish” ’50s for ushering in a new age of sexual repression, Roiphe longs for the days of Portnoy’s Complaint, The Time of Her Time and Couples, an age that had been ushered in by the ’50s. While Roiphe celebrates Saul Bellow’s evocations of sex (perplexingly, since he never once came close to writing an explicit sex scene), Paglia celebrates the Dionysian “sexual revolution” of the ’60s, which Bellow reacted to with a kind of vatic disgust.

As Updike himself once wrote, “Nothing in history sinks quicker … than people’s actual motives, unless it be their sexual charm.” Adjust that to “nothing in history sinks quicker than how people

actually conducted their sexual lives,” and you have the chief problem with pronouncing, so generally, on sex, still the most hidden thing we do. Paglia and Roiphe aren’t writing about life; they are writing about cultural representations of life. As anyone knows who has read about conservative culture warrior Allan Bloom’s unrestrained private exploits, there is a whole world beyond what we read about the world.

Does Paglia really crave a return to that rollicking “agrarian era,” when men and women could return from a 16-hour day in the fields and really get down to it, night after frenzied night? Has there ever been a historical moment when the mass of adult humanity did not spend most of their time not having sex, when life was not (fill in the historical blanks) largely “a matter of shared mortgage payments, evenings curled up on the couch in front of a video, or maybe a night in a hotel for an anniversary”?

Elsewhere, Paglia speaks glowingly of the “ribaldry chronicled from Shakespeare’s plays to the 18th-century novel.”

But surely this posturing academic knows as well as anyone that behind the ribaldry was the daily horror of children forced into marriage and lords of the manor raping their servants when they weren’t busy raping their wives.

Let’s, however, stick with cultural representations for a moment. By now the weary caricature of the “priggish” ’50s has given way to the reality of a decade that saw the rise of beat culture, cool jazz, interracial romances and the widespread enjoyment of marijuana. It was the age of Kinsey, when sex was, underneath the Rockwellian surface, as polymorphous and plentiful and perverse as it had been in ancient Roman times. Postwar periods are always times of appetites loosened and unconstrained by the absolute permissiveness and horror of war. Paglia could at least watch a couple of episodes of Mad Men. As for Roiphe’s golden age of novelistic sex, it lasted about 20 years. Instead of indicting contemporary novelists for their weak and “ambivalent” treatment of sex, she might want to go back and read Twain, Melville, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Faulkner, none of whom ever portrayed sex graphically. True, they would have run up against the enforced prudery of their day, but the lack of sex hardly diminished the power of their writing. Anyway, you would look in vain for graphic sex scenes in literature from the Hebrew Bible through Continued on page 74 July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 71

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24 What I did at the track?

26 Who follower, in riddles 27 Extinct kiwi kin 29 Language finish 30 What’s next if “nude news-casting” ever catches on?

36 Alphabet section 37 Madonna role 38 It causes a drop in the rime rate 39 Many moons ___ 40 Changed 42 She, in Italian 43 Test for a breakfast cook?

48 “___ just do that” 49 Cinema’s Mr. Tibbs 50 Disobedient one 55 Crime-fighting org.

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62 Disco that has its own deli?

67 Actor Davis 68 1948 Literature Nobelist: inits.

69 “Call me ___” “Okay, you’re ___” 70 Brother of Jack and Bobby 71 Prefix meaning “chest” 74 Entertainer O’Shea 76 Statutes 77 Pictures from my Florida vacation?

81 El ___ TX 85 Can’t ___ write 86 Wednesday mark 87 Like peas, e.g.

89 Hair color 91 Siam visitor 93 Comedian’s funnysounds-from-hisarmpit routine?

96 Coin-___ 99 With “art,” a man’s name 100 Document that a company may ask you to sign to protect its secrets: abbr.

101 Eyeballs?

103 Buckminster Fuller, for one?

109 Book boo-boos 110 Select group

Answers found on page 74

72

8

18

24

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Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

97

98

102 109 112 115

111 “Thanks ___” 112 Neighbor of Chad 113 Was really enthusiastic (about) 114 Reindeer’s name 115 Fringe benefit DOWN 1 Come up 2 Unconscious states 3 “My Fair Lady” composer 4 Where Mexican Hat is 5 Beauty or brains, perhaps 6 “___ could not rob” (Beatles lyric) 7 Sun Devils’ sch.

8 Bounder 9 Cologne conjunction 10 One way to turn: abbr.

11 Malcolm’s place, on TV 12 Chef ’s secret 13 Chef ’s invitation 14 Science that deals with nuclear energy 15 Seats of government?

17 Calculated deception 21 Arduous 102 Down 23 Coal or pine product 25 “Do the Right Thing” pizzeria owner 28 Taj Mahal site 31 Roberta Flack’s “If ___ See You Again”

32 “Batman” villain 33 12 Down instruction 34 French director Jacques 35 Chart type 36 Pop of rock 39 Con 41 “Ragtime” author: inits.

43 Raise in relief 44 First lady’s nickname?

45 Opera set in Africa 46 Former Mississippi senator’s first name 47 Mild oaths 48 As ___ say 51 Pacific island republic 52 “According to me,” in e-mail shorthand 53 Headstone inscription 54 Continues, as a subscription 56 Beef fat 58 Beef adjective 59 Untrue 61 Old Ford models 63 Donate, in Dundee 64 ___ at (become proficient in) 65 Squirrel fur 66 Co. VIP 72 Intense 73 Certain cry of approval 75 ___ living 76 Actress Kudrow 78 Experimental environments 79 Doing nothing 80 Early light?

81 Fotos 82 Someone else 83 Booth’s bandager, Dr. ___ Mudd 84 Like an antonym: abbr.

88 Fancy 90 Nonemployment 91 A network 92 Footwear giant 94 ___ Paulo, Brazil 95 Blade type 96 Missouri River’s largest tributary 97 One of the Greats 98 Unembellished 102 Journey 104 Louis, the Sun King 105 Aussie outlaw Kelly 106 Ex of Artie and Frank 107 Writer Deighton 108 Reactor overseer: abbr.

!!! VOLUME 16 IS HERE !!!

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

6/15/2010 © M. Reagle

Despicable Mel, Scene Three

By Richard Siklos Audiences everywhere are ranting about Despicable Mel: the unraveling of an actor whose career as an entertainer seems like it ought to be kaput.

In the past two weeks, the Aussie-born Mel Gibson has supplemented past anti-Semitic outbursts with leaked recordings that use the N-word (in an especially off-putting reference to rape) and what sounds like a death threat to the mother of his 8-month-old daughter. “I’ll put you in a fucking rose garden. You understand that?” Gibson is purportedly recorded telling ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, “because I’m capable of it.”

After the first recording was leaked to RadarOnline, Gibson was fired by talent agency William Morris Endeavor.

Setting aside how reprehensible Gibson sounds, his antics have set off a fascinating discussion in Hollywood about how awful you have to behave in this town for your career to be really, truly Gibson over. Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times brilliantly terms it a great example of Hollywood’s “situational ethics.” Actor Danny Glover— Gibson’s co-star in all those Lethal Weapon flicks—has had no comment, but longtime friend Whoopi Goldberg defended him—sort of. “You can say he’s being a bonehead, but I can’t sit and say that he’s a racist having spent time with him in my house with my kids,” she told The View. “I don’t like what he’s done, make no mistake.”

It must be noted that just before his firing from William Morris, Gibson’s longtime agent there had passed away. Powerful agent Ari Emanuel had called for a boycott of Gibson’s work back in 2006 when reports of his making anti-Semitic slurs were first made public.

And Emanuel ended up in charge of William Morris after merging his Endeavor firm with William Morris last year, but for whatever reason he held his powder on Gibson until the tape of him using the N-word emerged. Emanuel was either biding his time or giving him a second chance, but now Gibson is toxic and no other talent agency is going to touch him.

It’s worth remembering that Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ generated plenty of controversy and stands as the highest-grossing independently financed film ever.

And his directorial follow-up, Apocalypto, was released

by Disney several months after Gibson had to apologize for the anti-Semitic and sexist slurs he made to police officers who pulled him over for a suspected DUI in Malibu, Calif. It’s cynical to say, but the inescapable reality is that as long as someone is bankable, they are tolerable and even possibly redeemable (a lesson that Lindsay Lohan ought to ponder right about now).

Other celebs have survived sex tapes and leaked recordings of mean and bullying behavior, but Despicable Mel is in a category of his own. What happens next is up to him. For starters, a little public contrition should not be hard to muster. After all, the guy does know how to act.

Mel Gibson photo by Pablo Cuadra/Retna

1

By Merl Reagle

The National Newsroom

Personal Finance Sex Continued from page 71

Homer and Ovid and up to Les Liasons Dangereuses—a novel entirely about sex that is entirely devoid of graphic portrayals of sex—phases of culture when, for the most part, the idea that explicit depictions of sex should be censored would not have occurred to anyone.

To use a nice ’60s term, Paglia, Roiphe and their ilk seem to be the victims of false consciousness. For them, the gold standard of happy sexuality is the throbbing mores introduced by the sexual revolution of the ’60s. But the ’60s presented human sexuality as a fairy tale, in the same way as American culture tends to represent most of human existence as a fairy tale. The result is our present situation, where the obligation to have sex, and to have sex all the time is broadcast at us night and day. If anything, the tentativeness with which contemporary writers treat sex is a subtle protest against what has now become something like an ideological line we all have to toe.

Contrary to Paglia and Roiphe, sex now is so available, that it is nearly continuous with everyday life. No wonder, then, that our novelists depict it so off-handedly, so mundanely, if they depict it at all. The great benefit of this sudden Greekness of ours is that rather than write about sex, our male novelists can at least try to take on everything else that happens in our human existence around sex. Can you imagine The Great Gatsby written by Philip Roth? It would be The Great Cocksby, and nobody would ever make it out of bed.

What is strange is to see women writers hitching up their pants and swaggering around, calling for “elemental” sex and frank portrayals of sex, and “deranging” sex in the same way as men of a previous generation did. From my phallocentric perspective, just about every bad thing in history was caused by men who could not work out the right relationship between themselves and their penises. Having experienced the social transformation of their gender in their lifetimes, these women are now speaking the language of their former masters and accusing men of failing to live up to the naughty-boy standards of yesteryear. Too bad that for all the changes of the last several decades, the vagina still can’t get a word in edgewise.

Home Repair

by Merl Reagle

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Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

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F I E R I MP E L E J O I N T X I T E D E L AWS C L I P S A S H NN A I T OP S K E T S E T E RR A T A N I GE R P E R K

Special savings accounts can help break cycle of poverty

By Kathy Kristof, Tribune Media Services

Dametria Williams started her financial life as a statistic—a poor single mom, just like her mother and grandmother before her.

But the San Francisco health-care worker decided to break the cycle of poverty. Now the 38-year-old is a college graduate on the cusp of opening her own business. She is also raising a high-achieving teenager who is in position to win merit-based college scholarships.

She attributes her life’s 180-degree turn to two things: a new attitude and a savings account with matching funds provided to low-income participants.

“I used to walk through the world thinking there is never enough,” she says. “There is not enough money; there is not enough food; there is not enough time.

“When you are in the mindset of thinking there is not enough, you aren’t even looking for help. But when you realize that there is enough—that money is a manageable tool—you start to see what help is available to you.”

The key for Williams was a so-called Individual Development Account, which funded tutoring for her daughter and is now helping Williams save for her business.

Unfortunately, IDAs like the one Williams discovered may be among the best-kept secrets in finance.

These amazing accounts, offered in every state, help low-income workers set aside money for education, a first home or starting a business.

But they’re frequently overlooked because the programs are neither standardized nor offered on a national basis. Instead, they’re provided through a patchwork of local groups and charities, each of which may have different rules on who can qualify for help and what kind of help they can receive.

What they all have in common is a belief that anyone can break the cycle of poverty, regardless of how little they earn, through savings.

But it’s tough to save when you’re not good at money management and have little inspiration because your savings seem to grow so slowly. The solution: Link money-management classes with the ability to earn a matching amount of savings that can boost the money in your account by as much as $3 for every $1 you set aside. Each program handles the matching differently.

That’s exactly what Williams got when she opened accounts with San Francisco-based Earned Assets Resource Network, better known as EARN. She saved $500, and EARN matched her threefold with $1,500. The combination was enough to pay for eight months of tutoring, which was the leg up her daughter needed to put her on a scholarship track.

“We talk a lot about the numbers,” says Ben Mangan, president and chief executive officer of EARN, a nonprofit organization. “But the most important thing that we see is the profound effect this has on individual people’s lives and their behavior.”

There are two problems with getting low-income workers to save, experts note.

The first is that they simply feel that they can’t afford it. The second is that, because they don’t have savings, relatively small upsets—a car repair or an illness that keeps them from work for even a few days—can push them into high-cost borrowing and unravel their financial lives.

Williams, for example, was earning about $14,000 annually and thought there was no way she could save because she was spending every dollar on basics: rent, food, car payments and tolls to get across the bridge into San Francisco.

“A week after I got my paycheck, I needed to borrow money,” she says.

But during the mandatory counseling with the EARN program, Williams discovered an array of government and social assistance programs that could help defray some of her expenses, including her rent. She also got coaching on how to set aside money in advance for regular expenses, like the $50 she spent each month on tolls.

She says she’s now using her money so effectively that she’s able to donate each month to her daughter’s school in addition to saving for her business.

Her goal: Save another $2,000, which the EARN program will match with $4,000. That should help create some economic cushion for Williams to identify potential customers for the business she plans to launch later this summer, which will connect aged and disabled people with the health services they need.

“It’s a work in progress,” she says. “I’m hoping to launch in August, but I’m waiting for licensing and Department of Justice clearances ... and I’d like to have a few clients signed up.”

How can you find an Individual Development Account program? The Corporation for Enterprise Development in Washington, D.C., maintains a listing of IDA programs offered in every state on its website, cfed.org, but each program has different criteria and makes different promises.

Some match savings on a dollar-for-dollar basis; others provide more generous matching grants, depending on your savings goal.

You have to call each program to find out if you qualify. Eligibility standards typically are based on where you live and how much you earn. Some also only provide money to those saving for a specific goal, such as home ownership, while others will provide matching grants for education and business start-ups.

Williams’ message: If she can do it, so can you.

“I’ve learned to live off about 70 percent of what I earn, rather than 100 percent,” she says. “No matter what you have, it’s manageable if you utilize your resources properly.”

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

From left: Kimmy Gatewood, Paul Mattingly, Matt Donnelly, Emily Jillette, Sarah Lowe, Rebekka Johnson and Colin Trahan.

Photo by Anthony Mair

Stage

Monkey See, Monkey Do A new improv show at the Palms combines Twitter, tarot and celebrity

By Richard Abowitz

The troubled economy has created a unique paradox in Vegas entertainment: There is an excess of stages and showrooms that need filling, yet never has there been a smaller budget to do so. On the bright side, this quandary allows for a creative freedom that may have never otherwise occurred. And since we don’t live in a recession-free parallel universe where Vegas entertainment consists solely of endless Cirque-like shows with ever-rising budgets, there’s now room for the little guy to take artistic risks.

One such experiment is Matt Donnelly’s Executive Monkeys at the Palms Lounge. It’s a mash-up between improv, stand-up and—since this is Vegas—celebrity. Rather than

offering a cheap Second City or another stand-up series, Executive Monkeys feels more informal, like a ’60s Happening with a sense of community.

Producer Emily Jillette (Penn’s wife) describes the show as “long-format improv.” What the heck is that?

As opposed to short-form improv (most famously used in the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?), long-form has “no games, just characters, scenes and montages,” according to Donnelly, the show’s host and co-creator.

Executive Monkeys opens with the audience being asked to Tweet anything from thoughts to photographs, which are displayed on a giant screen for the improv troupe to react to.

Continued on page 78 July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 77

Arts & Entertainment

Celebrity Improv Continued from page 77

From left: Jennifer King, Patrick Matzig, Kelly Ward-Radan, Stephen McMillan, Kim Glover and Drew Yonemori.

Not Quite Perfect Little Theatre players better than the play

By David Boyles Reviewing community theater musicals is always a scary proposition, as you run the risk of coming off like the critic in that David Sedaris story who rips apart elementary school Christmas pageants. Criticizing the work of earnest amateurs and semi-professionals trying their hardest to do The Music Man or West Side Story isn’t fun. However, with this year’s Las Vegas Little Theatre’s summer musical I Love, You’re Perfect, Now Change ( July 9-25; 362-7996; $25), we have the opposite problem. Instead of earnest but limited performers laboring through some old standby, we get a group of six talented performers whose efforts are wasted on mediocre material.

The show was an Off Broadway smash for 12 years, though I can’t for the life of me figure out why. With no

central storyline or characters, the show features six actors playing various characters in a series of unconnected comic sketches about relationships. Although occasionally amusing, the sketches mainly just draw on the most clichéd, hackneyed tropes about relationships—men are slobs, women are emotional, married couples don’t have sex, etc.—and the show basically comes off like the musical adaptation of a Paul Reiser standup routine.

However, this pig at least has some good lipstick, as the cast and two-person orchestra do a great job. The female cast members all have excellent voices and manage to give the songs some emotional resonance. None of the male cast members can match them vocally but are all deft comedians. Patrick Matzig, in particular, has some of the show’s funniest scenes, playing a guy tearing up at a chick flick and a new father who has lost the ability to communicate with adults. The cast demonstrates that, for its one musical a year, LVLT has plenty of talent to draw upon, but needs to be more discerning in choosing material.

“Everybody lives around Twitter these days,” Jillette says. “And in typical improv, audiences say the same things and shout over each other. It feels sloppy. Twitter gets around that.” The result feels like an enhanced take on what The Second City did for years at the Flamingo.

For the second act, Donnelly dons his red-spangled psychic jacket and welcomes a celebrity guest to the stage. (Upcoming guests include Tiffany Michelle of Amazing Race and Trishelle Cannatella of Real World: Las Vegas.) Now it’s time for the psychic reading: The celebrity chooses a tarot card, and with the help of two beginner’s tarot books, Donnelly interviews them about their destiny.

For example, actress, poker player and Executive Monkeys inaugural guest Shannon Elizabeth drew an Ace of Pentacles. Since it can represent “prosperity,” Elizabeth discussed a future movie that she was working on, among other topics. After the interview, the improv troupe reappears to act out a scene based on the Tarot Reading. In this case, they did a comedic scene based on a movie filming in which Elizabeth added her acting talents.

Laughter ensues.

The question remains, will this creative use of improv work as a new and accepted form of Vegas entertainment, or even as a Happening? Pull out a Tarot deck to figure that out, or instead go to the Palms to watch the comics pretending to read the future for you.

Matt Donnelly’s Executive Monkeys, $25, 9 p.m.

Wednesdays in The Lounge at the Palms, 942-7777, executivemonkeys.com, Twitter @ExMonk.

REad The Librarian Loves ...

My Favorite Show Selected by Matt Donnelly, co-creator and host of Executive Monkeys New Yorker Matt Donnelly followed his fiancé, Sarah Lowe, to Vegas when she became dance captain for Jersey Boys. Two years later, he’s teaching for Improv Vegas, appearing on ABC’s True Beauty and hosting Executive Monkeys. Here’s his favorite show in town: One of the coolest shows in Vegas is the Composer’s Showcase, which happens once a month at the Liberace Museum. It’s fun for two reasons: 1) All the talented musicians and singers in town do their own material; 2) the Liberace Museum itself is quite the experience. The Composer’s Showcase features performers from shows like Phantom—The Las Vegas Spectacular, Jersey Boys and The Lion King. They all do their stuff. I’ve seen the Apple Sisters stop by; they’re a sketch comedy group from L.A. and one of my favorite acts.

Another one is Danny Roque, he’s a comedy partner with Tish [Diaz] from Jersey Boys. He does comedy, she does piano.

Composer’s Showcase, tentatively Aug. 26, 10:30 p.m., $5, Liberace Museum, 1775 E. Tropicana Ave., composersshowcase.com 78

Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

What differentiates a successful leader from an unsuccessful one? The ability to handle, rather than succumb, to stress is a major factor. Resonant Leadership (Harvard Business Press, 2005), by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee (who coauthored with Daniel Goleman Primal Leadership), utilizes multidisciplinary research and real world experience to provide a framework for ensuring the continued ability to manage one’s emotions and workplace demands. Specific techniques are provided for combating stress, avoiding burnout and renewing the self through mindfulness, hope and compassion.

Mastering these soft skills makes leaders even stronger and more effective in their businesses or organizations.

Photography by Anthony Mair

Selected by Jeanne Goodrich, executive director for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.

Flo rida

Thursday, July 15

PalMs reggae FesT

Thursday, July 29

shaggy

Thursday, augusT 12

TickeTs available aT and The Pearl box office

.com

4321 West Flamingo Road | las Vegas, nV 89103 | 702.942.7777 | palms.com Š2010 Fiesta palms llc. all Rights Reserved.

Arts & Entertainment

Art

The Art Shake-up Buyers are coming out of their caves to take advantage of falling prices

By Jessica Prois The art market has been kind of like the housing market. It boomed and went bust, and now most artwork is valued at about 20 percent of its speculator-inflated 2002 to 2006 prices. The good news is that more people can afford to buy art. And buying they are, in a warming trend that experts say has been around for about six months.

“Something is happening,” says Marty Walsh, owner of the downtown Trifecta Gallery, where art sales have increased about 200 percent in the last three months.

Walsh surveys her new 1,200-squarefoot space that feels like a New York City loft and looks out onto Charleston Boulevard, the Art District’s main artery.

“We’ve had more foot traffic today than we get in two weeks’ time,” she says. It helps that the district is now listed on the bus route. It also helps that buyers can nab work by such up-and-coming artists as Brian Porray at moderate prices. (Porray’s pieces run from $400 to $3,500. Walsh sold some of his work even before his show opening on July 1.) The gallery had its best month ever in June, partially thanks to the sudden popularity of accessible artists such as Tom Pfannerstill, who carves wood into pieces of “trash” (think startlingly realistic crushed PBR cans and trampled McDonald’s cups).

Brett Sperry, owner of the nearby Brett Wesley gallery, says his sales are typically split evenly between new buyers and those who pay a princely sum of $350,000 for an Andy Warhol.

Sperry’s gallery sells pieces from $200 to $25,000, but lately he’s selling more moderately priced emerging artists’ work than ever before. The price of top-shelf art hasn’t decreased, but the number of people with deep pockets has. “Most collectors are average people, with modest incomes, not Steve Wynn,” says Ryan Mennealy, co-owner of Summerlin gallery Ambient Art Projects. “And when they do make a purchase, it will be for much more reasonably priced work.”

Prices for the best of the best in a collection won’t budge, experts say.

“Within each body of work, there are pieces that are just better than others,” Mennealy explains. But value can vary right now within a renowned artist’s series. Investing in some of these discounted bigticket pieces is a good idea if you’re willing to play it safe, Sperry says.

That is, stretch your dollar by doing 80 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

some research and working with a gallerist. During the art boom, he says, speculators would buy a piece just for the name, knowing they’d be able to resell it quickly. Today, though, people are attempting to fine-tune their tastes.

Now that money’s tighter, Sperry says, collectors want to buy the best work by an artist that they can possibly afford, knowing it will retain value.

At the gallery level, Sperry says the next three months are ripe for the picking for those who haven’t been able to afford expensive pieces before, or those looking for deals. But he says this might not last long. The three big New York art auctions—Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips de Pury and Company—will take place in November and might set the tone for all new pricing.

Mennealy thinks upcoming auctions might continue to put low estimates on artwork. “Because everyone knows the estimates are low, they are willing to pay above the estimate, and that makes the auction look like a success,” he says.

“Nucleosynthesis” by Brian Porray.

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Arts & Entertainment

Music Soundscraper

Death metal and dirt-digging bandmates

By Jarret Keene

This car has four drivers: Brian Aubert, Nikki Monninger, Joe Lester and Christopher Guanlao.

L.A. Story

Silversun Pickups talk about their new record, new tour and the origin of their name

By Mikey Francis The four-piece indie rock outfit Silversun Pickups hail from the funky, artsy neighborhood of Silver Lake in Los Angeles. But during this interview they are in Detroit waiting for sound-check. It’s just another stop on a tour in support of their sophomore effort, Swoon, which will also bring them through Las Vegas to play The Joint at the Hard Rock on July 16. The band blew up the modern-rock charts after the release of their debut album, Carnavas, in 2006 and they have been touring ever since. Silversun keyboard player Joe Lester took a moment out of the tour to catch up with Vegas Seven.

What track on Swoon do you love to play live?

My favorite song to play live is “Growing Old Is Getting Old,” which is usually the first song we play.

It is the one song that encapsulates the breadth of all the dynamics and everything on the record. It starts out slow and it’s got a really cool movement and there is a really nice key change that I like. It goes from soft to loud and builds in a nice way.

Artist Darren Waterston did the artwork on both Carnavas and Swoon. Why him?

It took us almost as long to make the record as to try and figure out what to do with the artwork.

Nothing was doing anything for us, and then at our old rehearsal space, Brian [Aubert] found this art magazine that had his paintings in it. We reached out to him ... sent him the record and he ended up being super into it. He sent us all these amazing images to use and as soon as we got this pile of art we were like, “OK, this is it.” When the next record came around, we asked him again. It makes the two album covers make sense together, but they are totally their own thing, which is great.

How did you guys get hooked up with Dave Cooley as a producer?

The guy who owns our record label [Dangerbird Records] is from Milwaukee originally and years ago he managed Cooley’s old band, so when we first signed to Dangerbird, he was just one of the suggestions.

82 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

We talked to him and just hit it off. We developed a really good working relationship with him. It’s a very productive back and forth, and we’ve had lots of good fights with him. He is always doing it for the right reasons, and he wants you to justify in your own mind why something should sound the way it does.

What was it like to tour with Muse?

Opening for big bands is always interesting because you get to see what that world is like. They’ve [Muse] got a massive stage setup and they put on a really crazy show, so that was definitely fun. They were really nice guys, and we had a really good time. You never really know how it’s going down. They [the fans] could just be like. “Get the fuck off the stage, we wanna see Muse,” but for the most part it seemed really good and it was a really positive experience.

Are you guys working on any new material?

We don’t really have any new material at this point. We are not one of those bands who can write on the road. There are inklings of ideas, but those could all completely disappear by the time we are done with touring and start working on a new record.

What music are you listening to right now?

We all have a core of bands that we all really like, but then everybody’s takes sort of diverge pretty wildly from there. I have been into weird electronic stuff lately, like Fever Ray and Four Tet, but that’s just me.

Everybody in the band still listens to the standards like Wilco and Radiohead.

I love it when an obscure, kickass band attempts to sneak in and out of Vegas, only to be caught in the white-hot spotlight of yours truly, the Soundscraper. So trust me when I say the first of four bands (which include Thrice, Kevin Devine and Bad Veins) playing House of Blues on July 18 (all-ages, 6 p.m., $17-$21) should not be missed. They’re called The Dig, and their 25-minute set of dark, brooding, synthpunched rock will be tighter than a gnat’s chuff. Here’s why: Growing up just outside New York City, guitarist David Baldwin and bassist Emile Mosseri met in sixth grade.

The two of them were introduced to Erick Eiser during a high school summer music program. Drummer Jamie Alegre joined last year. As a result, Eiser has less dirt on Alegre’s past musical, um, indiscretions than the other guys’.

“David, though, is still really into Dave Matthews, which is serious dirt,” confirms Eiser via phone. “Lucky for me, I met him and Emile at a Guitar Center during my classicrock phase—Grateful Dead, Hendrix.”

When the band moved to NYC three years ago, they worked intensely—recording in basements, wallpapering streets with fliers and securing a top-notch manager, publicist and booking agent. Everything’s in place now—well, except for a good, old-fashioned record company.

“Right now it just makes sense for us to operate without a label,” Eiser says. “What we’re doing on our own is sufficient so far. Of course, if the right label or deal came around, we’d certainly think about it.”

So many mind-blowing summer music festivals, so little time. Las Vegas Deathfest II arrives July 16-17 (preDeathfest on July 15), at Yayo with a gruesome avalanche of the vilest underground death- and gore-grind acts you’ve never heard of: Pathology, Putrid Pile and Sarcolytic, to name a spew. Mark your calendar for Las Vegas Shakedown, Aug. 13-15 at Beauty Bar and Las Vegas Country Saloon. Every psyche-rock, retro-billy, goth-surf and gutbucket blues act from The Warlocks to Spindrift to Andre Williams is playing this monster (21 and over, $20-$25 per event).

Wanna scalp your extra Matador at 21 ticket or complain about the record company’s birthday bash? Contact jarret_keene@yahoo.com.

Did your band get its name from Silversun liquor store in Silver Lake?

Brian [Aubert] used to live right above that liquor store. It’s not specifically about the liquor store, but it’s an homage to the idea of the neighborhood.

Mikey Francis is a member of the band Afghan Raiders, and they will be performing Aug. 7 at the HARD Summer Music Festival in downtown Los Angeles.

The Dig’s new album is called Electric Toys.

CD Reviews

By Jarret Keene

CONFESSIONAL

Perfume Genius Learning (Matador) Like a cross between doomed indie-folker Elliott Smith and transgression-obsessed author Dennis Cooper, Seattle’s Perfume Genius (real name: Michael Hadreas) sketches out damaged characters who make most “normal people” uncomfortable. Home-recorded with little more than a piano and vocal mike, Learning isn’t a disc you casually spin with company over or while puttering around the house. This is sit-down-and-absorbthe-craziness music, full of screaming ghosts and fractured nightmares.

“Mr. Peterson” chronicles an inappropriate, distressing student-teacher relationship: “He let me smoke weed in his truck/if I could convince him I loved him enough./He made me a tape of Joy Division/He told me there was part of him missing./When I was 16/he jumped off a building.” One suspects these narratives aren’t creative writing; rather they comprise a confession. Minimalist in sound, massive in ambition, Learning has much to instruct. Album of the year so far. ★★★★★

DOWNER-POP

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse Dark Night of the Soul (EMI) A leaked but low-quality version of the much anticipated yet legally-in-limbo collab between the late Mark Linkous (he committed suicide in March) and the producer half of Broken Bells, Danger Mouse, has circulated for some time now. Finally, EMI has properly released Dark Night of the Soul, which features a number of guests, including Iggy Pop, filmmaker David Lynch and Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne. Hearing it, you better understand the gloom that snuffed one of indie-rock’s brightest lights. Problem is, the grim tone is relentless, and not so different from what we came to expect from a Sparklehorse album. Still, it’s interesting to hear Linkous’ dim vision interpreted by so many talents. Suzanne Vega digs into the jittery, static-kissed folk-rock of “Man Who Played God”; The Shins’ James Mercer ballasts the turbulent melody of “Insane Lullaby.” However, hearing Vic Chesnutt (who took his life in December) warble through “Grim Augury” is too much. ★★✩✩✩

DANCE-FLOOR

Kylie Minogue Aphrodite (Parlophone) Exactly how Kylie Minogue evaded one-hit wonder status and sustained a career after her horrendous “Locomotion” cover way back in 1987 remains a deep and abiding mystery to me. I don’t have anything against the woman, except that she’s another female superstar in the Madonna mold who can’t sing, dance or write songs particularly well, and yet remains a top international entertainer and celebrity. Aphrodite, her 11th album, doesn’t do anything to change my estimation, but the songsmiths and producers she brought onboard created a pleasant enough dance album that never sinks into vapidity badly enough to warrant changing the disc. “Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)” absolutely crackles with rich electronic textures and flourishes, while “Closer,” with its rapid-fire minor-chord synth arpeggios, is hypnotic and makes it difficult to keep from dancing around the house while cleaning.

Which is really all this CD is: killer house-cleaning music. ★★✩✩✩

July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 83

Arts & Entertainment

Movies

Bad Dreams Nolan bewilders again with Inception

By Rex Reed At the movies, incomprehensible gibberish has become a way of life, but it usually takes time before a bad movie really stinks. Inception, Christopher Nolan’s latest assault on rational coherence, wastes no time.

Director-writer Nolan is an elegant Hollywood hack from London whose movies are a colossal waste of time, money and IQ points. “Elegant” because his work has a crisp use of color, shading and shadows, “hack” because he takes an expensive germ of an idea and reduces it to a series of cheap gimmicks.

Like other Nolan head scratchers—the brainless Memento, perilously inert Insomnia, contrived illusionist thriller The Prestige, idiotic Batman Begins and mechanical, maniacally baffling and laughably overrated The Dark Knight—this latest deadly exercise in smart-aleck filmmaking makes no sense whatsoever.

Like bottom-feeder Charlie Kaufman, Nolan’s reputation as an arrogant maverick draws a first-rate cast of players, none of whom have an inkling of what they’re doing or what this movie is about, and all of whom have been 84

Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

when the mind is at its most vulnerable.”

To this end, Nolan works in something about the world of corporate espionage that turns Leo into an international fugitive. Now, Leo and his team of special “extractors” must achieve “inception”— meaning that instead of stealing dreams, they must plane some. If you’re still awake, you’re one step ahead of me.

Leo is aided by a college student (Ellen Page) with a kinetic knowledge of dream therapy who acts as a “brain architect,” a loyal assistant ( big waste of charismatic Joseph-Gordon Levitt) who floats through space without gravity, a two-fisted barfly (Tom Hardy from Guy Ritchie’s abysmal Rock’n’Rolla), and assorted villains who sometimes double as saints (Tom Berenger, Cillian Murphy and Japan’s Ken Watanabe from The Last Samurai).

The script is jabberwocky: “We extracted every bit of information you had in there.”

“I’m not in your dream—you’re in mine!”

Every new dream brings to life a new picture postcard. One minute they’re flying over Manhattan. The next, they’re heading for Buenos Aires by helicopter.

In Mumbai, they join people sleeping on cots in a sort of opium den where the patients pay to wake up. “I’m getting off in Kyoto,” says Leo, leaving the bullet Lucid dreaming: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. train, and I wanted to shout, “Take me with you—and the movie, too!” seen to better advantage elsewhere. Especially Through the use of computer-generated Leonardo DiCaprio, who remains one of the effects, buildings fold like cardboard, cars drive screen’s most gullible talents. After his recent upside down and the only way you can wake up debacle in Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese’s within the dream is death. You never know who dopey insane asylum bomb, one hoped for anyone is, what their goals are, who they work something more substantial from the easily for or what they’re doing. misled Leo, not another deranged turkey like Since there’s nothing to act, the cast doesn’t Inception. He should have stayed in bed. bother. Ambushed by mercenaries or broadI’d like to tell you just how bad Inception really sided by a freight train, it’s the easiest kind of is, but since it is barely even remotely lucid, no movie to make, because all you have to do is sane description is possible. Let’s see. It opens strike poses and change expressions. I have with crashing waves on a beach. In the middle no idea what the market is for this jabbering of a July heat wave, I wanted to jump in, but the twaddle—probably people who fritter away thrill didn’t last. Cut to the battered face of Leo. their time playing video games.

He has come from another location conjured up Nolan labors over turning out arty horror in a dream, and is fond of muttering jabberfilms and sci-fi action thrillers with pretensions wocky such as, “I am the most skilled extractor to alternate reality, but he’s clueless about how of dreams.” In other words, he can close his eyes, to deal with reality, honest emotions or relevant enter somebody else’s dreams with his pockissues. Inception is the kind of pretentious marked baby face and blow up China. perplexity in which one or two reels could be The excellent Marian Cotillard—who has transposed, or even projected backward, and spiraled down from her Oscar-winning role nobody would know the difference. It’s what as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose—is the ghost we’ve come to expect from summer movies in of his ex-wife. Leo lives in a state of guilt general and Nolan’s movies in particular, but I for her death. He is also a thief, plowing his keep wondering: Can he do anything of more way through dark kitchens waving guns with lasting value? He’s got vision, but creating silencers to relieve locked safes of their contents. jigsaw puzzles nobody can figure out and using Living in a continual dream state, all he wants actors as puppets saying idiotic things, dwarfed is to get home to his father (Michael Caine in by sets like sliding Tinker Toys, doesn’t seem a walk-on of fewer than a dozen lines) and two like much of an accomplishment to me. kids, but first he must, according to the production notes, “extract valuable secrets from deep within the subconscious during the dream state Rex Reed is the film critic for the New York Observer.

Arts & Entertainment

Movies

Sophomore Jinx With Fire, Stieg Larsson’s trilogy crashes and burns

By Cole Smithey The Girl Who Played With Fire—the second installment in the film adaptation of the late Stieg Larsson’s large-scale crime trilogy, Millennium—pales in comparison to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The compelling Noomi Rapace returns as the series’ bisexual Goth-girl computer hacker heroine, Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth has taken the money she appropriated at the end of the first film to see the world and purchase a chic apartment in Stockholm.

Lisbeth’s court-appointed guardian, who raped Lisbeth at great personal expense when she took revenge in the first installment, turns up dead after she pays him a visit. Lisbeth becomes a fugitive from the law after learning that she is the primary suspect.

Meanwhile, two romantically attached journalists working on a sex-trafficking story for Lisbeth’s journalist/publisher pal Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), also turn up murdered. Once again, fingerprints at the scene of the crime point to Lisbeth as the shooter. Convinced of her innocence, Blomkvist initiates his own investigation into the upper echelons of Swedish society implicated in the sex trafficking cover-up.

The trouble with the story is that the mystery isn’t as compelling it was in the first installment, and the story is back-loaded to a fault. We wait impatiently for Lisbeth and Blomkvist to unite and work together as they did in the first film, but the moment never arrives. As with this year’s Red Riding Trilog y, the Millennium triad proves a problematic format for sustaining thematic energy and emotional truth.

Where The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was layered with a depth of dramatic tension around a 40-yearold mystery involving the disappearance of a

woman connected to a Kennedyesque political family, the sequel spells out a more prosaic storyline. Lisbeth seems to have gotten past her romantic attraction for Blomkvist and is ready to return to Stockholm and resume her swinging bi-sexual lifestyle, albeit from a more adult perspective. Blomkvist is back to running Millennium magazine, sleeping with his same-aged Sexier (and scarier) than the Swedish bikini team: Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander. editor and hiring upstart It’s fun to see Lisbeth use a taser to take on a couple journalists to cut their teeth on a big scandal story. of badass bikers sent to haul her in to the local Part of the problem here is that the sex traffickkingpin, but a certain buried-alive sequence pulls ing subplot isn’t personalized enough to serve as the drama into the realm of farce. The tonal shift anything more than narrative window dressing. between Dragon Tattoo and Girl Who Played with Fire The politically powerful bad guys are painted with can be attributed to a change of directors. Daniel broad strokes that minimize the effect they have on Alfredson’s sense of creating suspense and focusing their characterless female victims. on small details served Larsson’s source material The most gratuitously entertaining scene takes place in a barn where Lisbeth and a local champion better than newcomer Niels Arden Oplev’s approach. Oplev wants the film to be flashier and less boxer take on an oversize villain who suffers from gritty than the story mandates. The director stresses a neurological disorder that prevents him from the narrative rhythm. The result is a film that clangs feeling any pain. It’s a convincing all-out brawl when it should glide, and leaves you always wanting that appropriately comes to a fiery conclusion, but something that the characters are no longer able to doesn’t do much for moving the narrative in any deliver—believability. meaningful direction.

The film takes on a few too many pulpy B-movie tropes that conflict with its otherwise serious tone.

The Girl Who Played With Fire (R) ★★✩✩✩

By Cole Smithey and Sharon Kehoe

ShoRT RevieWS

Despicable Me (PG) ★★✩✩✩

This film is a scattershot attempt at animated comedy that never clicks. Russian super-villain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) has a soft spot for playing daddy to three little girls if he can send them out on clandestine missions to bring down his arch-rival Vector ( Jason Segel).

The film’s feeble 3-D effects only add insult to the injury of its inflated ticket price. Where are Wallace & Gromit when you need ’em?

86 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

The Twilight Saga: eclipse (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩

The latest film in the Twilight franchise is the best so far but still has meandering subplots, miscalculated segues and inexcusable flashbacks. Fickle Bella (Kristen Stewart) is caught between vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and wolfboy Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner).

Director David Slade (Hard Candy) elevates Melissa Rosenberg’s unwieldy script, but can’t mask a bare-bones story.

Jonah hex (PG-13)

✩✩✩✩✩

“Slipshod” doesn’t begin to express the approach that its team of screenwriters and clueless director ( Jimmy Hayward) take in making a pejoratively cartoonish movie. Most upsetting is the utter waste of talents Josh Brolin, John Malkovich and Michael Shannon. Rather than a cohesive story with developed characters, Jonah Hex is an abomination of disjointed apocryphal elements set during the Civil War.

Grown Ups (R)

★★★✩✩

The SNL gang share more laughs onscreen than the audience does, but when the guys are on their game, they score and entertain. In a fun summer setting, the BFFs and their families show us what being on vacation and playing in the sun is all about. Grown Ups doesn’t resonate past a week, but it’ll surely inspire more trips with good friends this summer.

★★★★.

“

Arts & Entertainment

AN AMAZING FILM.

IT IS DEEP, RICH, HUMAN.” Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

‘‘SUMPTUOUS.’’ ‘‘RAPTUROUS.’’ ‘‘SENSUOUS.’’ ‘‘RAVISHING.’’ Sarah Ball, NEWSWEEK

Rene Rodriguez, MIAMI HERALD

Aaron Hillis, THE VILLAGE VOICE

Movies

Andrew O’Hehir, SALON

TILDA SWINTON

Apprentice Has Lots to Learn Special effects help rescue the film from a formulaic storyline

By Patrick Moulin

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The team behind the National Treasure franchise—Nicolas Cage, Jon Turteltaub and Jerry Bruckheimer—are back with this summer’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, an action-packed adventure full of magic and mystery. Although the trio has found success before, Cage has been pulling the same rabbit out of his hat for years. In Disney’s reimagining of Goethe’s classic narrative poem (and of its own 1940 animated adaptation in Fantasia), Cage is Balthazar Blake, a centuries-old sorcerer whose role is better suited for an older actor. I couldn’t help but imagine Sean Connery conjuring a ball of lightning and shouting, “Who’s the man now, dog?” Instead, we get a Balthazar who is seemingly more concerned with his hair and looking cool than teaching his apprentice.

Jay Baruchel, as the nerdy apprentice, is definitely the star of the show. His natural geekiness lends itself well to the role, although his character’s wishywashy attitude toward the discovery of magic is a little hard to fathom. If someone, even a creepy man in a leather duster, offered to teach me magic, I might be a little intrigued, but if I SHOOT FIRE FROM MY HANDS … I’m all in.

With Apprentice, Baruchel starts and stops his ethereal education one too many times, all for the love of his 10-year-long crush, Becky Barnes

(Teresa Palmer). I felt the film should have focused more on the relationship between student and master, but in the age of Twilight, young love is seemingly a requirement in Hollywood, even if only used as a device to move the story along.

Not letting the formulaic film stifle his talents, Alfred Molina thrives as Balthazar’s arch-nemesis Maxim Horvath.

Molina brings a calculated cruelty to the screen, rarely seen in a Disney film.

There were some amazing special effects, including a car transformation that Michael Bay might want to borrow, but they only serve as a magician’s sleight-of-hand to distract you from the truth: While both kids and parents will enjoy The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, they may find themselves wishing it would just get to the big finale.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (PG)

★★★✩✩

Nicolas Cage and Alfred Molina.

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★★★★✩

Feels like no time has gone by when Woody, Buzz and the gang are on screen in this third installment of the Toy Story franchise. Turns out their beloved owner Andy is college-bound, leaving them panicked over their fate. With a mix of creepy and cute new characters, and a hellish day-care center, the toys are back in town and still at their best.

88 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

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Dining Nostalgic Vibe, Hearty Entrées

Italian-American Social Club serves comfort and value

By Max Jacobson

Groucho Marx once said that he wouldn’t want to belong to any club that would accept him as a member. So the good news is that you don’t have to join the Italian-American Social Club to eat there.

This square white building, set way back from Sahara Avenue on a stretch that looks down at the heels, is Old Vegas at its nostalgic best. Inside the door is a dimly lit bar, where older gents pick at their meatballs in marinara sauce while nursing glasses of red wine.

The dining room has a drab carpet and faded walls decorated with the sort of Italian-themed paintings you find for sale in a thrift store. Either Tony Bennett or Dean Martin is crooning on the sound system, when it isn’t taken up with Sinatra—or the live entertainment on Wednesday and Friday nights.

The place, which has been open since 1960, is a relic, and so is the food: red-sauce Italian cooking in the traditional style. The funny thing is, everything tastes good and is less expensive than similar restaurants scattered throughout the city.

My three dining companions and I were quite surprised, for example, when we ordered a $20

Photo by Anthony Mair

Continued on page 94

Italian delight: bruschetta.

July 15-21, 2010 Vegas Seven 93

Dining

Italian-American Continued from page 93

A taste of the Laundry and a perfect Match

By Max Jacobson

Shrimp fettuccine A lfredo exemplifies the comfort food.

are reliable and satisfying. The food at the ItalianAmerican Club won’t set the world on fire, but you’ll leave wondering why this place has been overlooked by the media for such a long time.

Maybe the members like it that way.

2333 E. Sahara Ave., 457-3866. Dinner only, 5-11 p.m.

Tuesday-Saturday. Dinner for two, $28-$49.

The Grape Nut

The Last Wine Taboo?

Champagne—gasp!—on the rocks

By Xania Woodman Somewhere, a butler is fainting. Mais no, I’d protest, it’s not a new idea, adding ice cubes to one’s bubbly! Well, not to the French, anyway. Une Piscine, it’s called on the chic French Riviera: “a pool.”

I ponder the notion, sipping Ice Imperial, Moët & Chandon’s newest release, from a curvaceous, white plastic goblet at Palazzo’s Azure Pool. Launched in Vegas over Memorial Day weekend, the pale golden champagne displays fine, small bubbles and a strong, rich structure. Another champagne-maker, Piper-Heidsieck, got minimal traction from the 2007 push of its own Piscine, a cocktail of brut champagne on ice. But then, of course, ice dilutes traditional champers. Three years later, sunbathers are again putting down their flutes of warm, dry brut but this time in favor of large goblets of Moët’s fresh and crisp demi-sec (literally “medium dry,” but really it’s slightly sweet), specially designed to stand up to both intense heat and ice cubes. This makes it ideal for daytime poolside refreshment, served on the rocks with fresh fruit garnishes (think orange, lychee and mint).

94

Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Diner’s Notebook

Moët & Chandon Ice Imperial, available on-premise only until 2011. Try it at Azure ($250), Encore Beach Club ($495), Tao Beach ($295$395) and Liquid (two bottles for $375); a steal at Rhumbar ($17 glass, $90 bottle).

Two weeks ago, I dined at The French Laundry, Thomas Keller’s restaurant in Napa Valley, Calif., and am pleased to report the dinner exceeded my expectations. Housed in a stone building more than a century old, a meal here is a feast for the five senses.

Keller, as you probably know, operates Bouchon at the Venetian, as well as Bouchon Bakery on the casino level there. But he is at the top of his game in Napa Valley, having won three Michelin stars and also having twice been voted Top Restaurant in the World in a poll conducted by an international team of journalists for San Pellegrino.

The meal, at $250 per person (service included), is an indulgence, a multi-course affair that lasts more than three hours. You get a market menu that changes daily as well as signature Keller dishes such as his Oysters and Pearls, oysters in a tapioca butter sauce with caviar, hen’s egg custard with truffles, and Coffee and Doughnuts, a sweet custard that looks like a cappuccino accompanied by hot beignets.

The one caveat is the jackets required for gentleman at dinner, a dress code that even Robuchon at the MGM has done away with.

You’ll need to make reservations well in advance, at 707-944-2380. Reservations are accepted up to two months from the calendar date. Lunch is from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; dinner from 5:15-9:15 p.m.

I also dined recently at one of our most unusual restaurants, Match, which opened in March to almost no fanfare. The restaurant features chefs from Spain, Korea and Japan, and the Asian fare is as authentic as anywhere in Vegas.

Picture a modern restaurant with Korean barbecue tables in the front room, and private rooms behind, decorated Western style. The menu is a hybrid of Korean barbecue, Japanese pub dishes and Spanish tapas. Paellas (Spanish rice casseroles) are available by calling in advance.

Prices here are astonishingly low. Seared tuna with spicy garlic sauce is $6, while Singaporean dragon balls (spicy battered tuna, chopped onion and peppers with eel sauce) are $3.50.

The Korean barbecue includes pork, sliced rib-eye, beef tongue, or beef short rib, plus choice of two Korean sides ($18). Private karaoke rooms are available at $70 for two hours, but if you spend that amount on the food or beverages, the rooms are free.

The restaurant is at 1263 Silverado Ranch Blvd. Call 629-4444 for more info.

Hungry, yet?

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

Italian-American photos by Anthony Mair

bottle of Chianti from the waiter and got a superior bottle of Fattoria—a Brunello also from Tuscany—at that price. It was so good, we ended up ordering a second bottle.

And the bruschetta was a surprise as well—toasted rounds of Italian bread topped with tiny cubes of bufala mozzarella to go with chopped tomatoes, basil and olive oil.

Our Caesar salad was workmanlike and had a surfeit of grated cheese, but it was enormous, easily enough for us to share. I especially liked the greens and beans, a soupy concoction of escarole and white beans, which tasted even better when we sprinkled some of the pungent house Parmesan cheese on top. There is also a nice, crisp fried calamari appetizer, but we decided to die another day.

Main dishes are plentiful and tasty. We all agreed that the fettuccine Alfredo topped with shrimp was too rich, but I kept spooning up the cheese-and-cream sauce with my bread. The veal parmigiana has too much breading, lots of cheese and a tangy marinara, perched over a giant pile of overcooked spaghetti. But somehow the dish works, and we ate it all heartily.

A New York strip, at only $17.95 with soup or salad, vegetables and pasta, had more flavor than steaks I’ve eaten on the Strip at twice the price. A side order of meatballs in marinara sauce—what one of the old gents at the bar was eating when I walked in—proved its mettle with a homespun flavor and springy texture.

Spumoni, cheesecake and an impossibly rich chocolate cake are the only dessert choices, but they

A Sahara Avenue institution since 1960.

Dining

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

96 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Osso Buco at Ferraro’s

This traditional Italian delicacy, the house specialty, is made with veal shank braised in red wine served with farro.

“With the main ingredient being love,” executive chef Mimmo Ferraro says, “our osso buco is hard to beat! We have guests tell us once they’ve had our osso buco, they can’t go anywhere else.” $39, 4480 Paradise Road, 364-5300.

Grilled PB & J at Johnny Smalls

As the newest addition to the Hard Rock Hotel, Johnny Smalls takes a laid-back approach with a small-plates dining experience featuring classic comfort foods. For a creative take on the traditional sandwich, crunchy peanut butter, chipotle jam and premium bread are grilled into an unbeatable combination. $9, in the Hard Rock Hotel, 693-4414.

Maxwell Street Polish Dog at Chicago Hot Dogs

Your taste buds will travel to the Windy City at this place, which was established here in 1974. All their hot dogs are made with Vienna beef. This Polish dog is split, grilled, and served Chicago-style and in a poppy seed bun with grilled onions, spicy sport peppers, celery salt and mustard. $5.49, 1078 N. Rancho Dr., 647-3647.

Johnny Smalls photo by Jeff Dow

Choucroute Garnie at Spago

It isn’t on the menu, but Alsatian chef Eric Klein’s take on the classic assorted sausage and sauerkraut platter is always around ( just ask), and it’s simply astounding. There are usually three or four kinds of homemade meats, including weisswurst and smoked pork loin, various mustards and the requisite boiled potato. Don’t plan on windsurfing after you eat a plate. $37, in the Forum Shops at Caesars, 369-0360.

Dining

Profile

Meet the Sake Somm

Chef Joe Elevado: a Nobu protégé.

Michael Humphrey plays matchmaker at Social House

By Xania Woodman At the newly opened Social House at CityCenter, manager and sake sommelier Michael Humphrey divides his small-format (300 milliliter) sake menu into seasons for ultimate approachability: clean, mellow and sometimes floral for spring; fruity and with a sweet, smooth finish for summer; big-bodied and dry for fall; and cloudy, thick and cool for winter. Humphrey, who studied under acclaimed sake sommelier Eric Swanson, recommends the following sake pairing mates from the Social House menu: Water Flows, Jozen Mizunogotoshi (Junmai Ginjo), $39, 300 milliliter.

Notes: Light and clean, with hints of citrus fruit and just a bit of heat on the finish.

Pair with: Raw fluke served with chili oil, soy salt, and citrus juice, $21.

Social House is all-new again except for one key ingredient: Chef Joe Elevado

By Max Jacobson It would be tempting to call Joe Elevado the best Japanese chef in the city, were it not for the fact that his food is pan-Asian and his ethnicity Filipino-American.

Elevado is the executive chef at Social House in Crystals at CityCenter, the same position he held when the restaurant was at the TI. And he hasn’t changed the menu radically, other than adding a dish or two, such as Crispy Pata, Filipino-style fried pork shank.

The chef, now all of 36, hails from Staten Island, N.Y., where he grew up a latchkey kid. “My brother and I used to fool around a lot with cooking after school, while we were waiting for my mom to come home,” he says. “I guess I’ve always had the knack.”

He was also an avid watcher of cooking shows as a teen, pre-Food Network shows such as Julia Child’s The French Chef or Martin Yan’s Yan Can Cook. So after graduating high school, he enrolled in the New York City Restaurant School in TriBeCa, and later did an externship at the legendary Friars Club, before landing at Nobu, where he learned a fusion style from the even more legendary Nobu Matsuhisa.

At Nobu in New York City, he started as a prep cook and slowly worked his way up the ladder, first to line cook, later to sous chef. At Nobu, he learned the importance of product and how to run a kitchen. And in 1999, when Nobu was asked to open at the Hard Rock, the boss tapped Elevado to move here as that restaurant’s chef de cuisine. He held the position until 2006, when 98 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

he joined the first Social House project.

“What I am trying to do at Social House is stay true to Asian cuisines,” he says. That’s why you might want to try his lumpia, which are shrimp-and-pork-stuffed egg rolls like you’d get in the Philippines, or any of Chef Joe’s fluke goes well with his raw appetizers, such Jozen Mizunogotoshi sake. as yellowtail with crispy jalapeño, garlic dust and micro-cilantro, or oysters with salsa and garlic chips.

A few dishes on the Social House menu are traditionally Japanese, but from there the chef gets creative, inspired by his days with Chef Nobu. Seasonal vegetable tempura, for example, plays it straight, served with a daikon oroshi (grated radish dipping sauce) just as anywhere in Japan.

But his newest creation, chicken dumplings, are coated with a rich Thai Massaman curry sauce, fragrant balls of almost pure ground chicken, in a pungent yellow sauce. They are crazy good.

Elevado, as a meal at Social House will show, is comfortable in almost any cooking idiom. Las Vegas is lucky to have him.

Drunken Snapper, Narutotai (Ginjo Nama Genshu), $71, 720 milliliter.

Notes: Fruit forward and unique, with raw coco on the nose, lactic hints of milk, and a sweet fruit finish.

Highly drinkable (watch out—18 percent alcohol!) and approachable, it pairs like a Super Tuscan or an Old Vine Zin. Pair with: Sweet sesame prawns with baby celery, $18.

Gorgeous Devil, Kira (Honjozo), $65, 720 milliliter.

Notes: Big-bodied, bold and richly nutty.

Earthy, mushroom flavors with a dry finish.

Pair with: BBQ Pork “Tocino” baby back ribs served with compressed watermelon, $15.

Cabin Flurries, Yuki No Bosha (Nigori Ginjo), $41, 300 milliliter.

Notes: A light-bodied, elegant nigori with gentle strawberry hints, and a peppery heat on the finish. Goes down like fresh snowmelt.

Pair with: Coco-Nuts, the coconut sugardusted doughnuts served with coconut lychee jam, $8.

Photography by Anthony Mair

Man of the House

Pride of the Village, Sato no Homare (Junmai Ginjo), $59, 300 milliliter.

Notes: From the oldest sake brewery in Japan (1146 A.D.) comes this fruitforward, medium-bodied wonder with hints of cotton candy, anise and apple on the nose, and a lingering citrusy finish. “Honestly, I’d put this against any Junmai Dai Ginjo,” Humphrey says.

Pair with: Tuna Special, served with sweet chili sauce, crispy shallot and negi oil, $22.

HEALTH & FiTnEss Workplace Stretches These exercises will help with some of the overuse injuries caused by sitting at a desk for long periods of time.

They should be performed five times per day.

1. Sit up with head straight.

Lift chest upward while moving shoulder blades down and back, as if squeezing a tennis ball between them. Perform a light chin tuck, as if making a double chin. You may experience a mild stretch in the base of your neck. You may also have some muscle soreness in your shoulder blade and chest regions, but it will resolve in a few days.

This stretch should be held for 1012 seconds and repeated 25 times.

On-the-Job Training Local physical therapist shares seven ways to stay loose at work—and avoid neck and back problems

By Scott Pensivy Sitting and standing for long periods of time is the norm in the work world these days. Even if your posture is perfect and your ergonomics are by the book, spending eight hours a day at your computer can lead to dysfunction and derangement, which leads to neck and back pain.

Which inevitably leads people like you to people like me. As a physical therapist, I get daily reminders of how this trauma unfolds.

When you sit for long periods of time, there’s a decrease in blood flow to certain tissues. Pressure then builds up in your discs, whether neck or low back, and if you do not have appropriate posture during these times, a dysfunction is bound to emerge (where the tissue is irritated). And if this is not corrected or cared for, a derangement can occur (where the tissue is actually damaged). While you’re just trying to survive another day, each bit of postural laziness adds up—that lean forward, that slight slouch from fatigue. Over time these positions can change the soft-tissue alignment and cause poor mechanics and inappropriate support.

Research shows that 80 percent of Americans will experience some type of low back pain in their lifetime. From my 23 years of experience, I believe it. I also know that percentage can be reduced with a few little adjustments to your routine—and, no, one of them is not purchasing one of those expensive ergonomic chairs.

100 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

The first step you’ve probably heard before: Form good habits. The best way to sit, for example, is to use the 90-degree rule, which is feet flat on the floor, back against the chair at a 90-degree angle, head forward. The screen of the computer should be at a 90-degree angle, straight ahead. Arms should rest either on the chair arms or on the desk.

The more radical idea is to add a few exercises to your workday routine. Don’t worry, your office mates probably won’t even notice. In fact, the first thing I tell patients is to get up out of the chair every 45 minutes and take a short walk. Pretty simple idea, right? But too few people do it.

I also recommend postural relief exercises, especially those created by the New England Spine Institute. I’ve highlighted a few of them on this page. Take a five-minute break every couple of hours and give them a try. They will help increase blood flow, help lymphatic drainage, decrease tension and improve appropriate ergonomics. In other words, they’ll make you feel better, which will make you perform better, if not live better.

Scott Pensivy has been a licensed physical therapist since 1987 and a certified athletic trainer since 1993. He is CEO and founder of Scott Pensivy Orthopedic Rehabilitation Therapy Services (S.P.O.R.T.S.), which has three locations (see sportstherapylv.com for details). If you have questions, e-mail him at sports@lvcoxmail.com.

2. Interlock fingers behind the back while turning elbows inward and straightening arms. You may also use a doorway for this stretch (see Figure 1), which is for shoulders and arms. Hold this for 5-10 seconds for two repetitions.

Fig. 1

3. To stretch forearms, use one hand to force the other hand into either extension or flexion. Hold for 10-15 seconds for 2-3 repetitions.

4. To stretch the lower back, sit with left leg bent over the right; rest elbow on the right leg/upper thigh area; and apply steady pressure toward the right elbow while looking over left shoulder (see Figure 2). Do this on both sides, holding 15 seconds for 2-3 repetitions.

Fig. 2

5. Interlace fingers, turn palms upward above head and straighten arms. Elongate arms and feel a stretch through upper arms and ribs (see Figure 3). Hold 10-20 seconds for 2-3 repetitions.

6. Sitting in a chair, squeeze buttocks together, holding 10 seconds while sucking in belly button (pulling it toward the spine), then release. Do one set of five to increase blood flow to the buttocks area and help to stabilize lower back.

7. Roll your ankles in a circular direction 5 times, to the left and right.

Fig. 3

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SportS & LeiSure No-Sweat Summer trails Looking to stay cool while still getting in some hiking? Here are some suggestions

By Jessica Prois

Waterfall hike: Big falls, sPring Mountains While it won’t be the plunging 100-foot gusher it is in the spring, Big Falls still offers a misty breather for a midsummer day’s hike. “Since this was a big snow year, it will still be flowing,” says local hiking expert Branch Whitney, who recommends the trek on his website hikinglasvegas.com. You’ll start at the Mary Jane Falls trailhead, where Ponderosa pines dot the landscape and offer some shade. With a scenic view of Kyle Canyon, the trail follows around to the canyon head, where huge limestone cliffs surround you. Once you hit the waterfall drainage, it’s just a short distance to your destination.

Distance: 3.5 miles total Difficulty: moderate Getting there: Take U.S. Highway 95 north to Nevada State Highway 157. Go west onto 157, veering onto Echo Drive.

Turn left at the sign for Mary Jane Falls to a gravel road that leads you to the parking lot.

think-Winter hike: Bristlecone trail, Mount charleston Cool down as you picture yourself doing figure eights around the ski area’s bristlecone pine, white fir and Rocky Mountain juniper trees on this hike. Bruce Grubbs, author of Best Easy Day Hikes Las Vegas (Falcon, 2009), recommends this one because Mount Charleston, at 11,916 feet, is 20 degrees cooler than the Valley.

Follow the trail up the canyon and pass a small, sputtering spring, continuing up the canyon through Aspen groves.

“Mount Charleston is just gorgeous, with 100-mile views and alpine terrain,” Grubbs says. “And in the summer it’s chilly, and you’re looking down at a desert frying in the heat.”

Distance: Six-mile loop Difficulty: moderate Getting there: Take Highway 95 north to Nevada State Highway 156. Turn left onto Highway 156 and drive west past the ski area to the parking lot.

get-out-of-toWn hike: kanarra creek, southern utah Pack your waders, neoprene socks or water shoes because you’re getting wet.

Whitney recommends a day trip to Kanarra Creek, a canyon that sits north of the Kolob section of Zion National Park, which starts you out on an open

Las Vegas Overlook in Red Rock Canyon is a great place to take an early morning hike.

access road, then leads you into a narrow slot canyon. You’ll stay cool in the shade and wade through runoff from two waterfalls. “The water there is so cold we’ve had to stop and warm our feet in the sun,” Whitney says. One of the falls has a rope to climb up, leading you a short distance to a swimming hole with a rock slide covered in cushiony moss.

Distance: 3.5 miles Difficult: moderate Getting there: Drive north on Interstate 15 for about 155 miles (about a 2½-mile drive), and head for the center of tiny Kanarraville, Utah. Park at the library and hike down the road to the streambed.

Moonlight hike: lone Mountain No need to bake in the daylight hours; trek over to Lone Mountain on the northwest side of Las Vegas. The trail is simple to follow with just a headlamp and the light of the moon. It packs a workout into a short distance, as the ascent maxes out at 600 feet above the Valley floor in the distance of just half a mile. Once you’re at the top, take in the

panoramic view of the city.

Distance: One mile Difficulty: moderate Getting there: Take Interstate 215 to the Lone Mountain exit and go east.

Turn right and arrive at 4445 N. Jensen St. Park at the south lot.

sunrise hike: las Vegas oVerlook Not quite as high as Mount Charleston but not as low as Lake Mead, Las Vegas Overlook in Red Rock Canyon makes for the perfect view of the entire city, as well as the canyon. Arrive at the overlook by about 5 a.m. to catch the sunrise overlooking the fossilized sand dunes, and be thankful you set your alarm early because you get to stroll back down in the afternoon shade.

Distance: 4.5 miles total Difficulty: easy Getting there: Take Charleston Boulevard west. About one mile past the turnoff for Red Rock Canyon, there’s a parking lot at a horseback riding stable on the left side of the road.

team usa to train in las Vegas for World championships

kevin Durant

Las Vegas is hosting the U.S. men’s national basketball team this month as it prepares for the International Basketball Federation World Championships in September, but don’t expect to see stars such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade taking the court.

While those players are expected to suit up for the U.S. in the 2012 Olympics, injuries and other priorities will keep them idle for Team USA’s training camp here July 19-24.

In fact, of the 12 players from the 2008 U.S. Olympic roster, only New Orleans guard Chris Paul and Utah guard Deron Williams might

102 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

participate in the camp, but even their status is questionable.

One superstar who is expected to be among the 22 or so NBA players in camp is Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant, who will likely be joined by Thunder teammates Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green. The U.S. team will train against a 20-player squad made up of the nation’s top collegiate players.

The practices are closed to the public, but the team will play an exhibition at the Thomas & Mack Center on July 24. Tickets range from $12 to $75 and are available at unlvtickets.com. – Sean DeFrank

Hiking image by Brian Jones courtesy of Las Vegas News Bureau; Durant photo by Icon SMI / Retna Ltd.

With temperatures flirting with the 110-degree mark, locals are getting the itch to escape to cooler climates—or maybe even just stay indoors. But for those who still want to experience the great outdoors while staying relatively close to home and out of the blazing sun, opportunities do exist. Here are some hikes that are good for getting your heart rate up but not your body temperature.

Going for Broke

AFC East leads off look at NFL ‘futures’ wagers

By Matt Jacob Much like there are more ways than one to jab an ice pick into the back of a tortured city—as LeBron James so cruelly proved—there are more ways than one to satisfy your NFL betting fix.

Even though the first preseason game doesn’t kick off until Aug. 8, many local sports books have been taking action all summer on the season over/under win totals for the NFL’s 32 teams. These “futures” wagers have become increasingly popular in recent years, as the betting public tries to match wits with oddsmakers in determining which teams are poised to make a leap forward and which squads are plummeting faster than LeBron’s jersey sales in Cleveland.

With the opening of NFL training camps just days away, I’ll spend the next few weeks breaking down the over/under win totals for each team. My recommendations are rated from 1 (flip a coin) to 5 (hello, college fund for the kids!).

NOTE: My MLB All-Star Game picks were still in play at press time, leaving my bankroll at $5,345.

BILLS (over/under: 5): Poor Marv Levy must be rolling over in his grave— and he’s not even dead! The Hall of Fame coach who took Buffalo to four consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1990s has been a tough act to follow.

Hard to believe the Bills’ latest leader— former Cowboys coach Chan Gailey—is going to fare any better, especially since his QB depth chart reads like a law firm: Edwards, Fitzpatrick, Brohm and Brown. Considering how the Bills start (Dolphins, Packers, Patriots, Jets) and end the season (Bengals, Steelers, Vikings, Browns, Dolphins, Patriots, Jets), it’s no wonder Buffalo’s win total is tied with the Lions and Rams for lowest in the league.

Still, only once since 1986 have the Bills finished with fewer than five wins.

Recommendation: UNDER (1).

DOLPHINS (over/under: 8½): Miami went from 1-15 in 2007 to 11-5 (and an AFC East title) in 2008 to 7-9 last season. So it’s only natural that Vegas would have Miami pegged for an over .500 season this year, especially with rocket-armed QB Chad Henne having a full season under his belt, plus the acquisi-

tion of Pro Bowl WR Brandon Marshall and a maturing offensive line. However, the early portion of the Dolphins’ schedule is tougher than a steak at Sizzler.

After opening at Buffalo, Miami plays consecutive games against the Vikings, Jets, Patriots, Packers, Steelers, Bengals and Ravens, with only three of those at home. I can see 8-8, but 9-7? That’s a stretch. Recommendation: UNDER (2).

JETS (over/under: 9½): I’m definitely no Rex Ryan fan, but you’ve got to hand it to the guy: Last year, he started a rookie quarterback (Mark Sanchez) whom I thought would be a bust, threw him into the fire, supported him with an incredible defense and reached the AFC Championship Game. Then Ryan went out in the offseason and picked up one big name after another. I’m still not willing to go “all-in” with Sanchez, and four of New York’s first five games are hardly gimmees (Ravens, Patriots, Dolphins, Vikings), but three of those are in the Jets’ new stadium. Also, only half of the team’s 16 games are against opponents that finished 2009 with a winning record.

Recommendation: OVER (3).

PATRIOTS (over/under: 9½): You know the last time the Pats finished with fewer than 10 wins? It was 2002, Tom Brady’s second season as the team’s starting QB and the year after they won their first Super Bowl. And even then, New England went 9-7. So history suggests you should just close your eyes and blindly bet the OVER here, right? Wrong. While Brady should be fully recovered from the devastating knee injury that cost him all of 2008, primary target Wes Welker won’t be fully recovered from the knee injury he suffered in the final game of the 2009 regular season. Also, the NFL schedule-makers finally stuck it to Bill Belichick (eight of the Pats’ first 14 opponents finished with 10 or more wins last year). Recommendation: UNDER (1).

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.

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Seven QueStionS

Michael Boychuck The Oscar de la Renta of hair talks about blondes in general, Paris Hilton in particular and getting his hands on Christina Aguilera

By Elizabeth Sewell Every industry has its celebrities. If you like fashion, Oscar de la Renta is your guy. If you travel and/or eat, Anthony Bourdain is the man. And if you like hair, Michael Boychuck is our resident superstar.

Boychuck is best known for his coloring skills, and has an affinity for blondes, as is evident in his long relationship with Paris Hilton. But his client list includes non-blondes like Mandy Moore, and sometimes-blondes like Fergie.

After completing his training in Pennsylvania and starting his career in Florida, Boychuck set his sights on working with famed hairstylist José Eber in Beverly Hills, Calif., a goal he achieved with the help of a bottle of Dom Pérignon he sent to Eber. Boychuck moved to Los Angeles to work in Eber’s salon, but it was his partnership with legendary hairstylist Laurent Dufourg that brought him to Las Vegas as a partner in Prive Salon at Bellagio. Nearly 10 years later, Boychuck owns three salons in Las Vegas—AMP at the Palms, PRIMP at Palms Place and COLOR at Caesars Palace. Earlier this year, the hair care company Schwarzkopf named Boychuck Las Vegas Colorist of the Decade.

How does it feel to be the Colorist of the Decade?

I’m humbled. It’s one of the biggest honors I’ve ever gotten because I’ll have it for the next 10 years.

Schwarzkopf is one of the longest-running companies, I think it’s the third biggest [hair care] company in the world, and it’s the oldest color company, so for them to recognize me like that is just a fantastic honor.

What celebrity would you like to get your hands on?

Christina Aguilera. I think she’s really cool and very talented. Carrie Underwood is incredible. I’ve been pretty lucky. In the last 10 days Shanna Moakler called me. Lindsay Lohan’s people called for me to do her hair. I just did Trishelle [Cannatella] from the Real World yesterday and I did Laura Croft from Holly Madison’s [Peepshow], so I really get a lot of different celebrities.

110 Vegas Seven July 15-21, 2010

Are there trends you would like to see go away?

I enjoy working with blondes most, and everyone is going brown. We’ve had so many people go brown and I would like to get back to the blondes. The last six to eight weeks people are starting to go blond again, but even [Zowie Bowie performer] Marley Taylor, who is one of the most famous blondes in Las Vegas, came to me and went brown.

Who’s your favorite blonde to work with?

I think most people know I do Paris Hilton’s hair once a month, and she is obviously my favorite. I’ve watched her career blossom. I started doing her hair when she was 15, and it’s just been fun working with her. She has all these different looks, long hair, short hair, bleached out, natural, so she’s had all the different combinations and she’s definitely my favorite blonde to work with.

What advice do you live by?

Have passion in what you do and never get an ego.

When people come in, they come in because they want your advice and they want you to guide them

to where they want to be. But when you start saying, “This is what you need” and, “I don’t care what other people say or what other people think,” it just makes everything uncomfortable. I started off as an assistant and that was the best thing I could ever do, so take the knowledge people are willing to share with you, be humble and have passion for your job and you’ll go far.

What do you like about Las Vegas?

I just love Las Vegas in general. Every casino is like a little city, so you can go to all these different places and have the best restaurants and the best shows—it’s the best of everything in a few miles. If you just go a few miles off the Strip you can be in a nice, relaxing home in a nice neighborhood.

If you weren’t doing hair what would you be doing?

I’d probably be a bartender. I like talking to people, and I think I could hand out drinks pretty easy. There are not a lot of things that I’m passionate about, so it would have to be something with the public where I could make people happy.