Best of the City 2010

July 29-August 11, 2010

f o t s e B City e h t Special Double Issue

Louis Vuitton tiffany & Co. ErmEnEgiLdo ZEgna robErto CaVaLLi tom ford Christian dior fEndi VErsaCE bVLgari CartiEr CaroLina hErrEra hErmÈs miu miu baLLy PauL smith bottEga VEnEta Kiton Van CLEEf & arPELs KiKi dE montParnassE marni nanEttE LEPorE assouLinE miKimoto brunELLo CuCinELLi LanVin h.stErn tourbiLLon PorsChE dEsign iLori dE grisogono thE gaLLEry fEaturing daLE ChihuLy thE art of riChard maCdonaLd PrEsEntEd by CirQuE du soLEiL ® rodnEy Lough Jr. CEntErPiECE gaLLEry bEso stEaKhousE EVE thE nighCLub mastro’s oCEan CLub todd EngLish P.u.b. soCiaL housE WoLfgang PuCK PiZZEria & CuCina

Introduce your sense of style to your sense of wonder.

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FINE ART

EXHIBITION

DESIGN

ARCHITECTURE

LOCALs ONLy: Featuring sush Machida Gaikotsu

CENTERpiece Gallery is a 2,500-square-foot ďŹ ne art and design venue that focuses not only on the traditional mediums of contemporary art such as photography and works on paper, but also presents unique and functional design objects and furniture. The gallery showcases works by many of the contemporary artists and architects featured throughout CityCenter, including artists Claes Oldenburg, Richard Misrach, Jenny Holzer and David Rockwell.

CENTERpiece Gallery is located along the lower level of Crystals Place, situated inside Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas porte cochère.

3720 Las Vegas Blvd., Suite 181 | Las Vegas, NV 89158 | 702.739.3314

www.centerpiecelv.com

TIMAugust ALLEN 13

For tickets, please visit mirage.com or call

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Performing in the Terry Fator Theatre.

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Contents

This Week in Your CiTY 23

Seven DayS

Lifeguards and bodybuilders compete (though not with each other), Star Trek fans gather and conservatives meet for a country concert.

By Bob Whitby and Patrick Moulin

65

133

seven nights ahead, fabulous parties past, a sampling of the world’s best beers, finding low-cal cocktails, and a question-and-answer session with André Tanneberger, a.k.a. ATB, who is getting ready to spend August saturdays at rain.

The meatballs are among the many reasons to love Lavo.

By Max Jacobson Plus: Max Jacobson’s Diner’s notebook and Peruvian chef raymi Mosca shares a refreshing summer recipe.

nighTLiFe

24

Dining

140

The LaTeST

heaLTh & FiTneSS

A tribute to the late Gov. kenny Guinn, a solution for feet after a long night in heels, and poker’s online academy.

Plus: trends, Tweets, tech and gossip.

Edited by Melissa Arseniuk

Las Vegas yoga experts share their knowledge with groups who need help with mind, body and spirit.

By Sharon Kehoe

142

30

SporTS & LeiSure

SocieTy

Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz had barely removed their gloves in February 2009 when fans craved a rematch. it’s here.

By Andreas Hale Plus: in Going for Broke, our betting expert tells you why the Colts and Chargers are again good plays this year.

By Matt Jacob

nu sanctuary in Town square and Mandarin oriental open their doors for fundraisers.

35 STyLe

This week’s Look and a few choice enviables. Plus, art, fashion and design converge at the CenTerPiece Gallery.

160

115

sen. harry reid on his bid for re-election, the economy and what he hopes his legacy will be.

By Elizabeth Sewell

Seven QueSTionS

arTS & enTerTainmenT

Dennis oppenheim’s “Paintbrushes” form a gateway to the Arts District, and Rex Reed loves a movie.

Above: el Cortez exec Alexandra epstein, Best Friend of Downtown (see page 62).

Photo by Tomas Muscionico

Feature 43

BeST oF The ciTy

Community & Culture, 44; Business & services, 46; style, 48; Arts & entertainment, 50; Dining, 54; Bars & Booze, 56; nightlife, 58; People, 60.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 17

Vegas seVen 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, Abigail R. Esman, Geoff Carter, Laura Coronado, Michael Dougherty, Mikey Francis, Jeannie Goodrich, Andreas Hale, M. Scott Krause, Pj Perez, Rex Reed, James Reza, Jason Scavone, Elizabeth Sewell, Cole Smithey, T.R. Witcher interns

Mark Adams, Charlotte Bates, Caitlin Bradley, Kelly Corcoran, Renata Follman, Jazmin Gelista, Sharon Kehoe, Jena Morak, Patrick Moulin, Kathleen Wilson

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

Jessica Blair, Sullivan Charles, Peter Harasty, Brenton Ho,Tomas Muscionico contributing illustrAtor, Hernan Valencia

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 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 18 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

CoNTribuTors

EdiTor’s NoTE

Paul Szydelko Copy editor

First of the Best

A Southern Nevada resident since he graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism in 1986, Szydelko has been the lead copy editor at Vegas Seven since its inception, and wrote for our Best of the City feature as well. The former sports reporter, news reporter and managing editor of the Henderson Home News worked on the copy desk of the Las Vegas Sun when it was an afternoon daily and sampled the Strip’s many tourist attractions while working for Las Vegas Magazine (LVM ). Szydelko, a San Diego native, is a versatile journalist whose obsession for detail is matched only by his obsession with the Padres.

Sharon Kehoe “Reaching for a Better Day,” page 140 Kehoe’s love affair with words started her freshman year at Saint Mary’s College in California. While most of her peers were texting “brb” and “lol,” she was using up friends’ monthly text quotas with spell-checked novellas. After years of ignoring her family’s pleas to become a writer, she ventured off for a few days to New York City to discover something about herself: Kehoe wants to be a writer. Now 25 and in Vegas writing for both Vegas Seven and 944 magazine, Kehoe comes equipped with a communications major, an English minor and a helluva hankering for movies.

Welcome to the first of what will be many editions of Vegas Seven’s Best of the City. This big, fat double issue you hold in your hands is both a celebration of and an insider’s guide to Las Vegas. We put writers on the case who know this place. We asked the experts who work and play here.

We burned shoe leather looking for the sort of information that transforms a far-flung metropolis into a livable city. The result is an issue so packed with the good stuff that it will take you two weeks to get through it. Good thing it’ll be on the stands that long.

It’s all here—from the Best Sign of the Times (buskers!, page 44), to the Best Ethnic Grocery Store (Greenland Supermarket on Spring Mountain Road, page 46), to the Best Gourmet Burger (Bachi Burger, page 55)—and it’s all about your city, right now. And, if we may be so bold, there’s no better publication to bring it to you. We may be young—our first issue was Feb. 4, which feels like years ago now—but we’re maturing quickly. You keep reading, we’ll keep writing and this thing will only keep getting better. See you again Aug. 12.

– Bob Whitby, Managing Editor

Correction We incorrectly identified auctioneer Curt Hubbard in a photo caption for last week’s story on storage-unit auctions.

“Up for Grabs.”

Vegas Seven Mobile steP 1:

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Your phone reads the 2D code and automatically loads interactive content.

Win Free stuFF ★ rsVP For eVents ★ 2D Mobile exclusiVe oFFers anD eDitorial 20 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

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Szydelko photo by Anthony Mair

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THURSDAY, AUGUST 5TH

VEGAS SEVEN HOSTS THE BEST OF LAS VEGAS ADMISSION & TABLE RESERVATIONS 702-693-8300 • LIGHTGROUP.COM

seven Days The best of the next two weeks in your city.

Compiled by Bob Whitby and Patrick Moulin

The coming fortnight: lifeguards competing, quick movies showing, Bryan White and Allecia playing Henderson, Phantom touring the library, Trekkies invading, and muscle boys and girls flexing at UNLV.

Thur. 29 Yes, it is possible to make a movie in 48 hours, maybe even a watchable one. Since the 48 Hour Film Project began in 2001, more than 9,000 teams in cities around the country have done it. (Las Vegas teams have been cranking out films since 2005.) See the results of this year’s contest tonight at the Century 16 Suncoast theaters, 9090 Alta Dr., 341-5555. Check the 48 Hour Film Project’s website, 48hourfilm.com/ lasvegas, for details.

Fri. 30 It’s all about the muscles this weekend at the National Physique Committee USA Bodybuilding, Figure & Bikini Championships at Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall at UNLV. The flexing starts at 4:30 p.m. with the men’s bodybuilding and bikini pre-judging, and continues on Saturday with the women’s competition.

Tickets are $40 for the pre-judging and $55-$100 for the finals. Call 895-2787 or visit lindsayproductions.com.

Phantom photo by Joan Marcus

Sat. 31 There are fake lifeguards—we’re talking to you, David Hasselhoff—and there are real lifeguards. See the latter compete at the 10th annual Southern Nevada Lifeguard Games. Twenty-two teams will battle in four events, testing their swimming, rescuing and lifesaving skills to see who is the best in Vegas. Sponsored by the American Red Cross, the event is free to attend and takes place 6-8 p.m. at Baker Pool, 1100 E. St. Louis Ave. Call 229-1532 for more information.

Tue. 3

Fri. 6

Hey kids: Feel like no one understands your frustrations?

You’re not alone. In fact, you’re not even original. James Dean immortalized your ennui on film 55 years ago in Rebel Without a Cause, the legendary tale of hellraiser Jim Stark. As a result of his lifestyle choices, things go bad for Jim. Perhaps there’s a lesson in that. Find out at a free screening of the movie today at 1 p.m. at the Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road.

Sixty-five years ago today, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Las Vegan Morris Jeppson was onboard the Enola Gay on Aug. 6, 1945, helping arm the bomb. Jeppson, who died in 2007 at age 87, was the penultimate living member of the plane’s crew. Now it’s down to navigator Theodore Van Kirk, who is 89 and lives in Georgia.

Wed. 4 If we build it, will they come? That’s the question before Clark County commissioners at their 9:15 a.m. regular meeting as they ponder a proposal from the investment group International Development Management. A representative of IDM says he has an NBA team ready to move to Las Vegas, provided the county builds a new arena on the Strip. Check CCTV Channel 4 if you miss the meeting.

Thur. 5 Think Star Trek fans take things a little too far? You might want to keep that to yourself, because Star Trek Las Vegas is in town and it bills itself as the world’s largest gathering of Trekkies (there were about 15,000 of them at the event last year). They’ll be here to see Trek royalty such as William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, to listen to the Nevada Pops perform Star Trek music, and to take a crack at the world record for the most Star Trek-costumed people gathered in a single place. It only stands at 508, so they should have a good shot.

Sat. 7 Two things to know about the Conservative Country Concert at the Henderson Pavilion, 200 S. Green Valley Parkway, 6 p.m.: Bryan White is the headliner, and U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle will be making an appearance. White has charted 17 times in his career, including six No. 1 singles. Angle spends as little time as possible talking to the media, and ducked out of a July 21 press event in Sparks after just three minutes. You’ll probably be seeing a lot more of White than Angle tonight. Tickets are $10-$30, hendersonlive.com/tickets.

Sun. 8 The Phantom has moved from the opera to the Flamingo Library. Musicians William Waldrop and Robert Williamson will create an afternoon of music performed by musicians and actors from Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular. Waldrop had access to the performers from his day job as assistant conductor on Phantom.

A silent auction and reception begin at noon, followed by the concert at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $20. Visit waldropandwilliamson.com or call 866-967-8167.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 23

The LaTesT

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

The Last Moderate

In an age of partisanship, Kenny Guinn practiced old-fashioned Nevada pragmatism

Former Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn, who died on July 22 at the age of 73, was the last of his breed.

If the state ever had a moderate, establishment, Eisenhower Republican who charted a middle course, it was Guinn. When he came into office in 1999, Republicans had lived in the governor’s mansion just eight of the previous 40 years. Guinn won partly by being non-ideological. He ran only after carefully lining up broad business and party support; he became, as Jon Ralston’s book on Guinn’s campaign called him, The Anointed One (Huntington Press, 2000).

Guinn reflected the past he knew as a longtime Nevada Republican, school superintendent, bank and utility executive and UNLV’s interim president. Nevadans have long claimed to vote for the person, not the party. Democrats and Republicans used to cross the aisle in voting and legislating, and were ideologically much closer than they are now.

When Guinn became Clark County’s school superintendent in 1969, the governor was Republican Paul Laxalt, who supported a community college, the medical school and the

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Guinn left the school district in 1978, the year of the election of his old friend Robert List, a Republican who worked with a Democratic legislature to revamp Nevada’s tax system, emphasizing sales taxes and gaming revenues over property taxes in an effort to avoid a repeat here of California’s Proposition 13.

As governor, Guinn too worked with Democrats and Republicans, creating the Millennium Scholarship and trying to change Nevada’s fiscal structure. After his re-election in 2002, he proposed Nevada’s largest tax hike ever. He wound up suing the Legislature to win its passage when 15 Assembly Republicans blocked his efforts.

By Guinn’s second term, it became more difficult to govern Nevada from the center.

His successor, fellow Republican Jim Gibbons, jettisoned centrism altogether. But this, too, reflected Guinn’s legacy: He had represented a vision that more conservative Republicans might oppose, but he had shown a new generation of Nevadans that Republicans—at least, a Republican named Guinn—could govern the state.

– Michael Green

Guinn: Aug. 24, 1936—July 22, 2010.

Gaming

Poker is a game that’s easy to learn, yet difficult to master, which is why poker schools have become a popular way for amateur players to hone their craft.

Enter the game’s most prestigious tournament, the World Series of Poker, which is going online with the debut of the World Series of Poker Academy.

The only school endorsed and licensed by the WSOP, the academy previously offered classes in-person only. But now aspiring cardsharps can learn

from the pros—including Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke and Greg Raymer. The legends share their strategies, provide insider commentary and tell students how to do it themselves.

“We teach people the fundamentals—people who have never picked up a poker chip or learned how to play poker,” says Mark Seif, professional poker player and instructor at WSOP Academy. “But we also go over hands that were worth millions of dollars. The people who actu-

ally go over those hands are the ones who played them. You ask anybody if they’d like to get inside Phil [Hellmuth’s] head, and they’ll say, ‘of course.’”

Former FBI agent and bodylanguage expert Joe Navarro is also involved in the interactive project, and teaches players how to read their opponents while concealing their own reactions.

The site, wsopacademy.com, costs $15 a month after a free trial. – Patrick Moulin Back to school: Learn from the pros, virtually.

24

Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Guinn photo courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau

WSOP U

This week in your ciTy Fundraising

More Than Just Talk

Invention

well-heeled

Women walking barefoot as they leave a nightclub, high-heel shoes in hand, are a common sight in Las Vegas. Sometimes they’re crying, sometimes they’ve lost their friends and sometimes they are looking for a lost phone, but almost always their feet are killing them.

After years of witnessing this smirk-worthy sight, four Las Vegans saw an opportunity. Their new invention, Afterheelz, won’t cure a broken heart, find lost friends or locate a missing phone, but it will save girls from the barefoot walk of shame.

Afterheelz are portable shoes—foldable ballet flats or roll-up flip-flops—that fit into most purses. As ladies prepare to leave the club, they simply unzip a storage pouch to remove the walking-friendly shoes and change into something more comfortable. The Afterheelz case becomes a tote bag in which to carry those sky-high Louboutins home.

Co-creator Jennifer Maneracharasi came up with the idea after relieving her own tired tootsies.

“I came home from the salon with a pair of those disposable flip-flops after getting a pedicure and it just hit me: Why not make something like this—stylish and convenient—for every girl to have?”

It took just two months to get Afterheelz from the idea stage to store shelves. “Going through the legalities, trademark criteria and making sure the [Indian] manufacturers we dealt with were socially compliant were the most time-consuming,” she says.

Afterheelz come in a variety of colors, and sell for $20-$22 at Wynn, Encore, Wet Republic at MGM Grand and Euphoria salons. The company will soon start selling them online for $15 (flip-flops) or $20 (ballet flats). afterheelz.net.

– Melissa Arseniuk

Sometimes all-talk can lead to action, and for the fifth year in a row, ESPN Radio 1100 is hosting The Longest Radio Show Ever to support people living with cancer. Listeners have already helped support the cause by bidding on onehour co-hosting slots, and the 24-hour live broadcast gets under way at 10 a.m. July 30 at the Palms.

Event founder and boxing analyst Al Bernstein, poker player Lacey Jones and entertainers George Wallace, Lance Burton and Clint Holmes are among the celebrity hosts scheduled to take part. Meanwhile, UNLV men’s basketball coach Lon Kruger and athletic director Jim Livengood will also make on-air appearances.

A cocktail reception for ESPN 1100’s Sportsman of the Year, Las Vegas 51s’ longtime general manager Don Logan (who also hosts an hour-long segment), takes place at 7 p.m.

Tickets for that event are $50, or $450 for a table of 10, and can be purchased by calling 871-7333.

Proceeds from the full day of talk support The Caring Place, 4425 S. Jones Blvd., which offers free yoga, massage therapy, medication, nutrition classes and other support services to those living with cancer. – Paul Szydelko

Book

Diva in the Kitchen What could possibly be more appetizing than Las Vegas female impersonator Frank Marino in drag? A cookbook featuring Marino’s favorite recipes along with pictures of him in drag, of course.

Cooking With the Diva contains more than 60 appetizers, entrees and desserts, each accompanied by a photo of “America’s favorite male actress” that has nothing at all to do with the recipe. The image accompanying his secret for spicy turkey tacos, for example, is a shot of Marino at a 7-Eleven sipping on a Slurpee.

Indeed, Marino won’t be a celebrity chef anytime soon— his recipe for Frank’s Cheese Spread calls for a jar of pepper and onion relish, a package of cream cheese and a bag of crackers. The instructions: “Stir together.”

But the Divas Las Vegas headliner isn’t out to be the next Betty Crocker. The soft-cover book is a fun strut down memory lane, showcasing dozens of hyper-stylized and heavily Photoshopped pictures spanning Marino’s colorful quarter-century career. The self-published cookbook/photo retrospective is available at the Imperial Palace box office for $20, and a portion of the proceeds benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Nevada. – Melissa Arseniuk

Tech

On the Case

Unless you live in a cave with poor Internet service, you know that Apple gave case makers a very big gift in the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4’s antenna wraps around the outside of the phone, so if you touch it in the wrong spot, the signal weakens significantly. Admitting the problem, Apple is providing iPhone 4 buyers a free “bumper” to wrap the phone. Problem solved!

But who wants a bumper when there are cool cases to be had? There’s an interesting pricing trend, too. Of the cases available right now—the market for Apple accessories is valued at about $3.7 billion worldwide, so you know the explosion of options is just getting started—most are priced at less than $30. The iPhone 4 bumper, now free, cost $30 before Apple admitted its antenna woes. Apple is giving away bumpers and third-party cases to iPhone 4 owners. Go to Apple.com/ iphone/case-program for details.

But if you need a case today, there are options. Belkin offers nearly 10 iPhone 4 cases as of this writing (all under $30) while Griffin has five (most less than $30). Those two companies could be considered the king of cases, as they have built sizable businesses catering to Apple gadget owners. Other choices include the iPhone 4 Vent Gel Case, for $17, from Florida’s AGF, and the iPhone 4 Ballistic HC Series Case, a rugged model that’s designed for the active iPhone owner. It’s pricey at $50, but if you tend to drop your gadgets and don’t mind a case that looks more at home in a military zone than your pocket, it’s worth the money.

You can bet this will be a huge market come the holiday season.

Because now you need an iPhone case just to make calls. – Eric Benderoff

Vent Gel Case from AGF.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 25

THE LaTEsT THougHT Caught in the Web Liberty and property in Old Media and New

By Greg Blake Miller

I refuse to be tarred with the accusation of coddling bloggers. So before I say what I have come to say, let me first say this: I love my unalienable rights. Life.

That’s a good one. Liberty. Can’t be beat. The pursuit of happiness. Hey, that’s the right to pretty much everything! But let’s get back to original intent: Jefferson just stuck the happiness bit in there as a politically correct code for Locke’s real deal: property. Didn’t he?

And I love my property. In particular, as a writer, I love my intellectual property.

Over the past several months, a Las Vegas law firm called Righthaven has been suing bloggers for posting, with attribution, copyrighted material from the Review-Journal. As a journalist and a Las Vegan, I am proud to be identified, by place of residence if not by institutional prestige, with a newspaper that has finally stood up to the anarchistic e-thieves who believe the purpose of the Internet is to facilitate information sharing.

But as a longtime reader of our local daily, I have learned a thing or two about liberty and property.

Pure liberty gives philosophical cover for violating the next fellow’s space (and don’t be shocked if you get violated right back). Pure property rights, meanwhile, grant liberty only in the imaginary realm where everything around you is yours and yours alone.

In the real world, liberty and property rights exist in a mutually beneficial state of compromise.

enlightened Bronto might even dig into his deep store of digital knowledge and cry out, “Have we learned nothing from Napster?”

But that same Brontosaurus has his paws, or whatever, on the keyboard, eagerly Googling the subject of his next story and turning up, you guessed it, blogs, each of them full of freshly posted newspaper articles. Now, posting articles in full, even with attribution, is lousy blogger etiquette. Under fair use, a short extract—just enough to whet the appetite—followed by a “read more” link sending readers to the source would be about right.

That’s all the R-J should be asking for. And the R-J, if for no other reason than to avoid giving the impression of an institution in its mad death throes, should ask nicely.

A tacit bargain has been struck between content providers and content curators—that is, between prehistoric lizards and bloodsucking bloggers. The more curators you have, the more readers you have.

And in the overstocked warehouse of the Internet, folks aren’t likely to find you without a curator. I am

Newspapers will not retrace their steps to some “ pre-digital Eden by hounding individual bloggers.”

So if a publisher calls out for property rights and a blogger answers in defense of liberty, we wind up with no clear-cut moral winner. The publisher enriches the culture by paying for intelligence gathering, creativity, branding and legitimacy. The blogger, ostensibly, makes the culture smarter and freer by critiquing the publisher’s work and spreading word of its existence. The fact is, these days they can’t live without one another.

There is, of course, a crotchety old Brontosaurus (remember those?) inside every print journalist roaring out, “Stop stealing stuff, bloggers! They can’t pay me if you’re giving it away for free!” A particularly 26 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

a fan of the bundled news product, but in the age of subject searches, news aggregators and archives on demand, Web users increasingly find their way to newspaper articles (and, one hopes, newspaper sites) via a middleman.

Let’s run through a not-so-hypothetical example of how this stuff, at its best, might work. Anthony Curtis, a Las Vegas insider with a good name, niche expertise and a following, provides the R-J with the results of his survey on Las Vegas show prices. The R-J then spins the results into a newspaper article. Curtis, in turn, having been touched by the legitimizing brush of a respected local daily, decides to proudly post the article,

with attribution, on his blog. Are we not operating in the realm of, as Stephen Covey might say, “win-win interdependence”? The blogger gets to spread the word, the reader has better odds of encountering the word, and the owner of the word—the publisher— winds up with increased recognition on the Web. Roll credits. Happy ending.

Except Curtis got sued.

The problem is, recognition alone won’t pay the bills. Newspaper web sites need empirical evidence of eyes on the page: Roughly speaking, eyes mean ads.

Content providers have been donating value since the early days of the Web, and they’re in a foul humor.

They have compromised their culture repeatedly, and at long last they’ve realized that information doesn’t want to be free, because it is not gathered and processed for free. But newspapers will not retrace their steps to some pre-digital Eden by hounding individual bloggers.

Meanwhile, if the digital world wants to continue to reap the benefits of professional newsgathering, its denizens will have to make some cultural shifts of their own. Doing their best to steer readers back to the source would be a good place to start. Much has been made of the liberty offered by the humble hyperlink; but the well-placed link is also at the root of respect for property rights, media mutuality, and simple courtesy between creator and curator. It builds a relationship upon both freedom and fairness. One imagines Locke wouldn’t have a problem with that. And neither should the R-J.

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

Got a juicy tip? gossip@weeklyseven.com

The King Holds Court You know how it is. First Dwyane Wade starts talking about going to Lavo, then all of a sudden you’ve got LeBron James all over the place. He just can’t stay away.

For a town that’s had Spencer Pratt host at clubs repeatedly, bringing in James was an easy move for Lavo and Tao this weekend.

At least it’s only Cleveland that really hates James, instead of a whole Hills-fatigued nation.

The King started off July 23 at Tao Beach in a cabana with 12 friends, including Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets. That night he hosted at Lavo, where Paul and a slew of NBA players joined the fray. Wade came over to the club after he’d already been at Tao. Naturally, James had to get in on that Tao action Saturday night after another day at Tao Beach. He rolled into the restaurant with a crew of 30 and by the time he got to the club, the cocktail waitresses were wearing Heat jerseys and holding up signs that spelled out “K-I-N-G.” Because sometimes forcing ESPN to dedicate an hour of airtime to you and you alone isn’t enough to make you feel really special.

James had one more night in him, turning up at Lavo around 1 a.m. with former Cleveland teammate Damon Jones. The whole weekend he was flashing fives and ones with his fingers, which equals six in case you can’t add, and that’s the number on his jersey. It’s also James’ secret signal as to how many players the Heat will be able to afford next year. Hope your knees feel good enough for 48 minutes a game, ’Bron.

James and his minions at Tao.

Your Weekly Dose of Vitamin K Rest easy, Kardashianphiles. There were a pair of Kardashians here, plus a Kardashian-in-law, so all is right with the world.

Khloe and husband Lamar Odom were spotted along with her brother, Rob, at Encore Beach Club Friday afternoon. Rob Kardashian came in with a group of 10, and Khloe joined up 20 minutes later.

The next night, Odom and the Kardashians were at XS to mark the end of the NBA

Tweets of the Week Compiled by @marseniuk

@jeffbeacher I hate being at the airport and looking at kids and wondering if they r children or midgets. My brain is so warped. @ronstoppable1 Screw trying to get to work tomorrow, I don’t even know how I will get home tonight.

@DamnItsTrue Facebook is the people you went to school with.

Twitter is the people you wished you went to school with.

@PJPerez “Inception” brought up a good question about dreaming: Where do all the anonymous/random people in our dreams come from? @jessicachenow I should be at comic con searching for single guys.

They might all still live w/ mom but at this point I can’t be too picky. @IowaGirlBeth Trips to the mall to return things aren’t as much fun as trips to the mall to buy things. =( #broke.

@Megan_Bonner Why is Victorias Secret website down?

I’m in the online shopping mood! #probablyforthebetter

Summer League along with a bunch of ballers that included the Heat’s Dwyane Wade. Somehow, LeBron James managed to not turn up later on.

There to say goodbye was rapper Wale, who jumped on the mike to do a set for the club and bid the players farewell. It was all very homey, like an episode of Little House on the Prairie, if Pa Ingalls were 6 feet, 9 inches and could drive the lane.

@VegasGalB Taking a break to hit up the M&M store. Gotta love having an office on the corner of the world’s coolest playground.

@AmandaHimes Ugh, why is it The happy Kouple at Encore.

that when friends/family come to town they expect you to be their tour guide? Some of us work and our weekends are *our* time.

@jayfenster Not 100% sure due Bieber channels Elvis at Planet Hollywood.

Canada’s Karate Kid There hasn’t been a Canadian teen to set this many hearts a-flutter since a young Michael J. Fox taught us a little thing about life, love and playing basketball as a werewolf. Yet there was Justin Bieber on July 24 at Planet Hollywood’s Theater for the Performing Arts, making the girls swoon or cry inconsolably, depending on whether they were able to score tickets.

Biebs was doing karate moves onstage either because he thought it was the Elvis-appropriate thing to do while in Las Vegas, or because he’s making a movie about life, love and doing karate as a werewolf. You know how those Canadians are.

28 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

to the 12 hours of drinking, but I’m pretty sure I was photographed wearing cat ears tonight.

@HRGirlVegas I have full fledged chaos on my hands. I didn’t make dinner and they’re all revolting. It’s not in my mom contract to cook EVERY NIGHT. @newandhorrible The woman sitting next to me in the movies laughed even LOUDER than ME. I didn’t think that was POSSIBLE.

LeBron James photo by Denise Truscello; Justin Bieber photo by Erik Kabik/Retna/erikkabik.com

THE LaTEsT Gossip

Society

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

Meet the Locals Las Vegas native Jessica Galindo (left) was the featured artist on July 19 at the monthly Artist Showcase Series held at Mandarin Oriental’s Mandarin Bar. Galindo, a self-taught artist, works in acrylics, ink and mixed media. The show featured her abstract heart-and-wine series.

Photography by Sullivan Charles

30  Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Society

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

Art on the Runway Art and fashion mixed it up at Nu Sanctuary in Town Square for the Fusion for a Cause on July 15.

The event was a fundraiser for two good causes: the Tim Bombard Memorial Scholarship and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and featured artinspired runway shows by local artist Oryan.

Photography by Sullivan Charles

32  Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

at Mandalay Bay Shoppes • Eateries • Fun

CLOTHING • Elton’s Men’s Store • The Las Vegas Sock Market • Metropark Maude • MAX&Co. • Nora Blue Urban Outfitters Paradise Island • SHOES • Flip Flop Shops • Shoe Obsession • Suite 160 • SERVICES • ARCS (A Robert Cromeans Salon) The Art of Shaving • SPECIALTIES • The Art of Music • Cashman Crystal • fashion 101 • Fat Tuesday • Frederick’s of Hollywood Jack Gallery • LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics • minus5º Ice Lounge • Nike Golf • OPTICA • Oro Gold • Peter Lik Gallery JEWELRY • Forever Silver • Le Paradis • TeNo • FOOD • Burger Bar • Rick Moonen’s rm seafood • Starbucks Coffee Yogurt In • Hussong’s Cantina Easy access from I-15, I-215 and Las Vegas Boulevard to our complimentary 24-hour valet.

ENVIABLES

Style The Look Photographed by Tomas Muscionico

DAVE Fogg, 42

Program Director for the N9ne Group Style icons: Steve McQueen, Ozwald Boateng, George Best and Led Zeppelin What he’s wearing now: Rialto vintage sunglasses, John Varvatos jeans, shirt, belt and sandals

it’s Good to Be kinG

Creed’s Aventus is a new fragrance for men inspired by Napoleon, but it will debut in America in September. Visit Neiman Marcus at Fashion Show for the pre-sale. $140 to $370.

The first thing Dave Fogg thinks about when he goes to get dressed is context. “If people think of me as well-dressed ... that’s amazing,” he says, with a twinge of his trademark dry sense of humor. “As long as they don’t think of me as a son of a bitch.” The self-described “alpha nerd,” says there is one thing he never leaves home without. “My prescription glasses are an essential accessory.”

eCo sCript

Write responsibly with the new DBA 98 Pen, a 98 percent biodegradable pen. Because who doesn’t adore a fashionable and environmentally conscious penmanship alternative?

Three-pack $9, available at dba-co.com.

Colorful kiCks

The Sneaker Coloring Book (Laurence King Publishers, 2010) is not only fun for shoe freaks, but it makes a great encyclopedia, with 100 line drawings of the most popular designs dating back to 1916. $19.95, chroniclebooks.com.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 35

Style

Wear Your Art on Your Sleeve The CENTERpiece Gallery creates a convergence of art, fashion and design

By Laura Coronado Amid the complexities of a city where locals moan and groan about having to go to the Strip, and visitors and newcomers wonder with innocent ignorance why Las Vegas lacks culture, CENTERpiece Gallery lives, thrives and introduces beauty, art and style to anyone interested.

“Our concept is to redefine the traditions of the regular art gallery and make it a unique, intimate area with museum-quality works without exclusivity,” says Gallery Director Nicole Moffatt. A longtime resident, she has worked with Michele C. Quinn, an expert gallerist, art consultant and, for years, a fixture in the Las Vegas art scene. Together they have built a bridge to art that welcomes tourists and residents alike into a unique gallery setting.

Offering 2,500 square feet of art, design and literature, the gallery is set in the porte cochere of Mandarin Oriental. “It may be hard for people to find us,” Moffatt says, “but once they do, they love what we’re doing.”

Because art comes in a variety of formats, the gallery will soon showcase wearable art. Opening July 29, the Art Wear jewelry event features limited-edition pieces by three marquee designers: Lee Silton, Andrea Corson and Las Vegan Carla Taylor, whose Lola and George collection has garnered the adoration of celebrities Fergie, Miley Cyrus and Andy Garcia.

When planning the jewelry event, Moffatt and Quinn began with a list of 10 reputable jewelry artists before whittling it down to the three featured. “We wanted a cross range of artists with unique work,” Moffatt says. “Planning the event was an organic process. It

evolved as we went along, and now we have three different, unique artists coming together for art.”

Each collection being presented is based on the power of quality materials, unique style and innovative designs. Pieces range from $120 to $2,000. There’s a preview of the collection online at centerpiecelv.com.

Also on the docket, now through Aug. 31, CENTERpiece is showing works by renowned contemporary artist Marilyn Minter.

Examining the relationships between the body, photography and painting, her work taps into cultural anxieties about sexuality and desire. Moffatt describes the exhibit as “glamorous and seductive.”

Since opening in conjunction with CityCenter in December, CENTERpiece has proven to be hip and modern, but also accessible.

“Art can be intimidating, but CENTERpiece allows the consumer to not feel intimidated and welcomed to ask questions,” Moffatt says.

As part of the gallery’s mission to engage Las Vegans, Moffatt and Quinn developed Locals Only, a rotating series that features the works of local artists—and free admission. The first exhibition was a presentation of a curatorial selection of photographs by Shawn Hummel. The next, opening with an artist’s reception on Sept. 16, will showcase Sush Machida Gaikotsu, whose contemporary art fuses Eastern and Western traditions, namely the woodcuts of the Edo-period Japanese masters with American-style pop elements.

This will be the first solo exhibition of Gaikotsu’s work in the Las Vegas area. “The Locals Only series is a great opportunity for the art community in Vegas to have a voice,” Moffatt says.

Lola and George earrings (top) and ring (left).

36 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Clockwise from top left: Lola and George’s Rock Climber and Yes rings, Andrea Corson’s Caviar ring and Las Vegas artist Carla Taylor.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 37

Style

Beauty Report

1

Youth in a Bottle?

2

Not quite, but anti-aging skin care can help

By Whitney urichuk Anti-aging skin-care products are a billion-dollar industry.

Every day consumers are exposed to endless amounts of creams and potions that claim to rejuvenate the skin, eliminate wrinkles and leave a youthful glow. Each product says it’s the next big breakthrough. What’s next, an anti-wrinkle cream sample with your latte at Starbucks?

However, among all the mumbo-jumbo, are we really buying the right products with active ingredients? Or are we buying products that are nothing more than basic face cream with a hint of jasmine? Here is a short list for the top ingredients to look for, plus (see sidebar) what jars should be on your bathroom counter.

When searching for anti-aging products, don’t be fooled; it is crucial to read the label. Many creams and serums boast anti-aging properties yet are nothing more than overthe-counter face lotion. The ingredients below are backed by research and clinical tests as proven anti-aging remedies.

Look for alpha hydroxy acids; research shows that they may help in reducing wrinkles, fine lines, age spots and enlarged pores. Alpha lipoic acid is more commonly known as an antioxidant, and is used to combat the signs of wrinkles.

Argireline is known in the beauty world as over-the-counter botox. Beta hydroxy acid or salicylic acid has been shown to improve color and texture of aging skin. Studies have shown that dimethylaminoethanol is a successful agent in reversing facial wrinkles and skin firming. Hydroquinone is a widely used ingredient to treat brown spots caused by sun exposure. And lastly, vitamin C, one of the most widely used ingredients in skin care, is used to rebuild collagen.

Many products on the market promise the fountain of youth in a jar, but don’t be fooled by a smart tag and clever packaging. Age is a natural process, and until a real miracle is unearthed, we can only hope to slow down the process one good potion at a time.

3

Anti-Aging Products not to Miss 1. SkinCeuticals Pigment Regulator, skinceuticals.com, $85.

2. Darphin Wrinkle Corrective Eye Contour Cream, darphin.com, $75.

3. Perricone-Concentrated Restorative Treatment, perriconemd.com, $100.

Whitney Urichuk is the CEO/key makeup artist for One Luv Agency in Las Vegas. She is always keeping up on the latest beauty trends, whether it is backstage at a fashion show or with her celebrity clientele.

4. Peter Thomas Roth FIRMx, sephora.com, $150.

4

38 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

5

5. PRIORI Cellular Recovery Serum with DNA Enzyme Complex, prioriskincare.com, $90.

{exclusive} The only place in Las Vegas to find stores and restaurants that speak your language for the exclusive and one-of-a-kind. michael kors sushisamba 7 for all mankind christian louboutin jimmy choo

barneys new york fendi table 10 by emeril lagasse tory burch catherine malandrino diane von furstenberg chloĂŠ (partial listing) suit: versace. provided by barneys new york | dress: poleci

On The Strip in The Palazzo - 2nd Level Located adjacent to The Venetian 702.414.4500 theshoppesatthepalazzo.com

POWER LUNCH

NO BUSINESS LIKE MONKEY BUSINESS

f o t s e B City e h t From art galleries to dog parks, foot rubs to food on a stick, we bring you a celebration of the things that make Las Vegas great.

By Richard Abowitz, Mark Adams, Melissa Arseniuk, Charlotte Bates, Dave Berns, David Boyles, Kelly Corcoran, Sean DeFrank, MJ Elstein, Mikey Francis, Sharon Kehoe, Phil Hagen, Matt Jacob, Max Jacobson, Jarret Keene, Greg Blake Miller, Jessica Prois, Cindi Reed, James P. Reza, Elizabeth Sewell, Kate Silver, Lauren Stewart, Paul Szydelko, Bob Whitby, T.R. Witcher and Xania Woodman July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven  43

f th e C it y e n’s Bes t o Veg a s Se v

Re u t L u C & y it Commu n BEST uSE oF TWiTTER

“Iconic” doesn’t begin to describe Betty Willis’ contribution to the Las Vegas landscape. Her “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign has stood sentry since 1959, bidding tourists welcome and residents welcome home. So it is fitting that the beloved landmark uses its celebrity status as @lasvegassign.com, dispensing all the Vegas news that’s fit to Tweet: “Big Elvis, the King of Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall, finds a fitting bride.” Now you know.

BEST SHoRTCuT

Greg Bambic, president of the Professional Drivers Association, knows his shortcuts. A cab driver since 1992, he shares the quickest way to get from the south end of the Strip to the north end (i.e., Convention Center/Sahara Hotel): Take Interstate 15 north to the Spring Mountain West exit. Head toward Spearmint Rhino on Highland Drive.

At the almost-immediate stoplight, turn left on the Desert Inn arterial. That will take you east on Desert Inn, all the way down to Paradise Road, right by the Convention Center. “This route will save someone 20 to 45 minutes compared to taking the surface streets,” he says.

BEST GREEn iDEA

the regularity and the provocative mix of Vegas news and Vegas criticism seen here. It ain’t all right, but it’s all good.

BEST BLoG

In a valley whose housing stock is ravaged by recession reaching into every gated community, wouldn’t it be nice to find a place with cool houses, cool people and a good neighborhood spirit—in other words, a sense of place? We whittled our list to five and then enlisted the help of two real estate agents respected for their knowledge of Old Vegas neighborhoods: Jack LeVine and Steve Franklin. “It’s tough,” says LeVine, who writes a blog on classic Vegas homes at his website, veryvintagevegas.com, “but I’d vote for the John S. Park/Southridge/ Beverly Green combo.” This central

Local writer Steve Friess has an opinion about everything Vegas, and he isn’t afraid to let you know it on thestrippodcast.blogspot.com.

Sometimes we agree with him (why are Robin Leach and Brad Garrett freaking out over a Twitter feed?), sometimes we want to scream at him right through our monitors (sorry, dude, but Luv-It is on the border of the John S. Park neighborhood), but rarely (the new Cosmopolitan resort can’t be found online!) do we not care at all. There are hundreds of blogs about Las Vegas, but few update with

BEST SouvEniR

Beer-filled guitars are sooo 2009.

We’ve proclaimed 2010 the Year of the Portable Stripper Pole, which can be purchased at Bonanza’s Naughty Town (adjacent to Bonanza Gift & Souvenir Shops, 2460 Las Vegas Blvd. South). The metal pole, which comes packaged in a tube about 2 feet long, is more than 6 feet tall when assembled and retails for $200.

The fine folks who work at the gift shop assure us that it’s “sturdy enough for anything you want to try on it.”

BEST vinTAGE nEiGHBoRHooD

Vegas area (east of Las Vegas Boulevard between Charleston Boulevard and St. Louis Avenue) offers “the perfect blend of architecturally cool mid-century homes” occupied by “vibrant, energetic and community-minded souls.” Franklin agrees it’s tough to pick a favorite, but John S. Park is attractive because it “breaks a very basic rule of master-planned communities, and that is conformity.”

Like many Old Vegas areas, John S. Park homes are eclectic (“Homes that are 900 square feet can rest comfortably next to a 2,500-square-foot home,” Franklin says) and therefore house a diverse group, from artists to attorneys. Franklin sees the area as a naturally developing community, regaining the luster it once had in the 1950s. “Many downtown business owners opt to live downtown,” he says. “It adds to that community and neighborly sensibility. We truly get to live, work, and play, all within a three-mile radius.

Where else does something like that happen in the Valley?”

BEST SiGn oF THE TiMES

Amid the usual signs of life on the Strip—the tourists with their cameras and Stratosphere-shaped plastic margarita glasses, the homeless, the nightclub ticket hawkers—we can add the slow emergence of that emblem of real big-city vitality, the buskers. You

Photo by Geri Kodey

Las Vegas has made news in the last year with a crop of big-ticket, green-

friendly buildings. But Doug Taylor may be leading a more significant green revolution in Las Vegas: food. Last year the longtime chef for three Mario Batali restaurants opened Molto Vegas Farmer’s Market in a warehouse.

It’s grown to include nearly 40 local producers (from within 150 miles of Vegas). There are huge grapefruits and watermelons from Sandy Valley.

Specialty items such as flowers, China Ranch date cookies and boutique goat cheese are all worth a detour. And all produce is organic, grown without pesticides or hormones. Who knew the Mojave even had local produce? Now, we do. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursdays, 7485 S. Dean Martin Dr., No. 106.

The Smith Center: on time, on budget.

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City Man’s best friend’s park: Dog Fancier’s (right).

The city’s green giant: Molto Market (bottom).

can get your share of Elvis or Michael Jackson impersonators, pose for a picture with a human “Welcome to Las Vegas Sign,” or be serenaded by that violinist outside Paris who fiddles artful versions of “Tequila” and “La Cucaracha.” And if you’re lucky, you may even catch one of those human statues spray-painted silver or gold. As Vegas recovers its sense of identity following the Great Recession, the Strip still continues to lead the way.

BEST DoG PARK

As much an opportunity to meet your fellow animal lovers as a play date with your four-legged friend, dog parks provide secure environments for fun outings. The oldest of the Valley’s dog parks, Dog Fancier’s Park has been a place for dog owners to gather since 1974. Events such as Strut Your Mutt each November draw pet owners to this 20-acre park, but it’s the daily serendipitous moments that create special memories—for people and dogs. New competition is coming this fall, though: The Bark Park at Heritage Park (Racetrack Road and Burkholder Boulevard) will have an agility course, restrooms designed to resemble doghouses and benches that look like dog bones. 5800 E. Flamingo Road.

BEST RAnKinG

We’re No. 12! OK, we can’t figure it out, either. Aren’t Nevadans supposed to be this every-man-for-himself, don’t-tread-on-me breed of frontier American? But it turns out we buckle up more than most. In the U.S. Department of Transportation’s annual report on seat-belt use, Nevada ranks 12th, with 91 percent of us choosing to restrain ourselves. That puts us just ahead of such a bastion of old-fashioned common sense as Minnesota (90.2 percent). What’s next?

A Mojave Home Companion? Let’s not get too full of ourselves, though: Michiganders lead the nation at 98 percent, and look where it’s gotten them.

Photography by Anthony Mair

BEST BEACon in DARK TiMES

After The Smith Center for the Performing Arts was topped off in February, Myron Martin, president and CEO, threw a barbecue for the construction workers.

He recalls one of them coming up to him to ask a favor, that Martin “tell everybody over at Smith Center headquarters thank you for this project.” Myron said he would, no problem, and started walking away. But the man grabbed his arm and reiterated the request: “You don’t understand. My family and I have lived here for 17 years. If we didn’t have this, we would have had to leave town.

Please thank them.” Martin estimates that 1,200 construction workers have helped build The Smith Center since it broke ground in May 2009, and about 800 are currently on the job at Symphony Park in July. “It makes you feel pretty good,” Martin says.

“And having jobs means they’re able to do things like shop, buy groceries and pay their mortgages.” Ironically, when the project was

being conceived in Vegas’ pre-recession days, Martin had a hard time getting the attention of construction companies; they were too busy. Now it’s the city’s main gig. And, Martin notes, when the $470 million project’s interiors phase fully kicks in, there’ll be more jobs, as the on-time, on-budget project continues toward the March 2012 finish line.

BEST nonPRoFiT GRouP

Certain names top most giving lists in Southern Nevada, and billionaire Kirk Kerkorian’s name is one of them. The 93-yearold man who has built his fortune to an estimated $3.1 billion, according to the most recent Forbes 400, is the largest shareholder of Mirage Resorts International and has undertaken a major charitable giving effort through the Lincy Foundation, named for his daughters—Linda and Tracy. Much of Lincy’s giving, an estimated $180 million, has gone to Kerkorian’s ancestral home of Armenia, but an increasing number of Southern Nevada nonprofit groups are turning to Lincy and its passionate director of Nevada Giving, Lindy Schumacher. Recipients include: UNLV ($14 million), the Clark County School District ($13.5 million), the Andre Agassi Foundation ($1 million) and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada ($100,000).

UNLV used $3 million from its Lincy money so the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, could open Brookings Mountain West on campus.

BEST-KEPT SECRET

There’s a place in this arid desert of ours where you can sit on a bench under the merciful shade of a mature tree, cast your gaze over a reed-lined pond and watch as dragonflies and damselflies progress through their aquatic life cycle. Or take a walk past cattails towering over your head and listen to the sound of actual running water. And the price for this stroll down memory lane and back to the less-parched place you came from? Free. The place is the Nature Preserve at Clark County Wetlands Park.

Never mind that the preserve is really a giant ShamWow!, absorbing the toxins from the city’s run-off water before it flows into Lake Mead. It’s green, pastoral and calming. But don’t tell anyone; it’s a secret. 7050 Wetlands Park Lane, accessclarkcounty.com.

f th e C it y e n’s Bes t o Veg a s Se v

es C i V R e s & s Busi n es The new MeeT Las Vegas is the kind of rehab Sin City could use more of: small-scale, smart renovations of buildings that help restore a piece of the urban fabric. In this case, it’s a downtown bank from the ’70s that was renovated and transformed into a sleek, high-tech boutique convention space. The 30,000-square-foot building, at Fourth and Bridger streets, has low-power LED lights outside, motion sensors to control lighting inside, and a cooling tower on the roof that cuts down on the energy needed to keep the building comfortable.

BEST FiTnESS CEnTER

The Student Recreation and Wellness Center at UNLV is packed with enough Rebel spirit to keep you and your workout motivated. But we also like the facility—freshly and fashionably built in 2007—for its stateof-the-art equipment and amenities. The center, which is located alongside the Thomas & Mack Center parking lot, is available not only to UNLV students but also Clark County residents. It features a large cardio center facing multiple television screens, a lap pool and spa, all kinds of weight machines, a 200-meter indoor running track, a four-court gym, and a café and juice bar. The center also offers an assortment of complimentary classes, from yoga to martial arts. Open daily, non-UNLV student membership fee $25 a month, 774-7100.

BEST PLACE To TiE THE KnoT

Las Vegas may be the wedding destination of the world, but it’s also our home. And we locals want to celebrate our special day without the cheesy frills (leave that for the bachelor and bachelorette party!). Sitting atop the MacDonald Highland hills is the perfect spot: Dragon Ridge Country Club.

It features a ballroom with panoramic views of the entire Valley, all-around natural elegance inside and out, gourmet food and an award-winning staff. There’s also an onsite wedding consultant who will help you with every detail along the way. Dragon Ridge was also voted 2010 Bride’s Choice from WeddingWire.com. dragonridgegolf.com, 614-4444.

able (all are well-versed on the nuances of the course), helpful (ball finder and sand raker, anyone?), entertaining and, uh, extremely easy on the eyes. Put it this way: If you have played Rio Secco and think the view from the tee box on No. 17 is spectacular, you haven’t seen the view from the seventh green—with T-Mate Ashley tending the flagstick and encouraging you to “aim for the clown’s mouth.” Good luck making that putt! 2851 Grand Hills Dr., Henderson, 777-2400, riosecco.net.

BEST LoCAL SToCK

Bored with all the trendy workouts? Get out of the gym and head to Sky Zone, where you can get a great full-body workout called SkyRobics that requires virtually no coordination. Burn up to 1,000 calories an hour by simply spazzing out on 65 connected trampolines that span 130 feet. The trampoline aerobics class is killer, the dodgeball games are rowdy fun, and the kids’ zone will give you a workout just watching. Open jump and classes $7-$65; 4915 Steptoe St., 436-6887, skyzonesports.com.

Identifying and exploiting any kind of edge is crucial in the casino and in the stock market, and betting on Vegas stocks is no exception. Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money told viewers recently that China’s decision to allow its currency to appreciate against the dollar helps Chinese stocks but also properties such as Wynn Resorts, which earns two-thirds of its revenues from its casinos in Macau, the one place in China where gambling is legal. China’s booming middle class indicates a boost for resorts as well. “What else do people do when they start making enough money to become middle class?”

Cramer asked. “They take vacations.

They gamble the money away.”

BEST CADDiE

BEST PiCKuP BASKETBALL GAMES

BEST GyM ALTERnATivE

Here’s a way to ensure a pleasurable stroll around the links: Book a T-Mate at the Rio Secco Golf Club. For an additional $200 (plus gratuity), your foursome will be treated to a caddie who is equal parts knowledge-

Think you’ve got game? You better lace ’em up tight if you’re taking the court at ClubSport Las Vegas. Former Rebels such as Ricky Sobers and Warren Rosegreen are regulars, and former NFL standouts Doug Flutie and Jonathan Ogden have also played in years past.

Even boxing champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. showed up for game a couple of weeks ago. Many club members show up multiple times each week, and the familiarity players have with each other has created a close-knit community, but also leads to high-intensity, competitive games.

“The guys take ownership because they are members of the club,” says Jason Kibby, program marketing director at ClubSport. “There’s not one guy who is running the show; it’s everybody that makes it happen.” 2100 Olympic Ave., Henderson, 454-6000.

BEST ETHniC GRoCERy SToRE

The Korean Greenland Supermarket offers rich cuts of meats and fresh crates of colorful veggies at the lowest prices in a city that lacks a full array of farmer’s markets. Find five bunches of green onions for $1 and slabs of prime beef and tender ribs to make Galbi and Bulgogi, Korean barbecue.

And the store’s packages of dumplings and seasoned tofu make cooking for one a cinch. Beyond Korean fare, there are items such as delicious Hawaiian snacks and Japanese variety packs of sashimi.

6850 W. Spring Mountain Road.

BEST HoTEL DESiGn

Among the many stylish touches to be found at newer Las Vegas hotels, the curving floor plates of Vdara at CityCenter stand out. They’re serious without being staid, crisp without being sterile, and quietly sensuous. When we talk about what the next generation of Las Vegas buildings should look like, this is what we’re talking about.

Rio Secco’s Ashley, the perfect T-Mate (left); and two tailors you can trust: Milton and Claudia Chavez (below).

Photography by Anthony Mair

BEST GREEn REnovATion

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City

BEST vALET PARKinG

We love Las Vegas, where we get to park for free, and for a few bucks more, we get to park at the door. Sure, some casino valets can be a nightmare, but for some reason, the stealthy valet at Mandalay Place is rarely busy, the drivers never have attitude and we don’t have to deal with amped-up concert-goers. Sure, it’s a little hard to find, but that means that even this write-up is unlikely to change all that. In and out, and nobody gets hurt!

BEST STRiP CLuB

Little photo by Anthony Mair; SRWC photo courtesy UNLV Photo Services

Although the Vegas stripper boom is past us, one club manages to consistently impress. Large enough to accommodate hundreds of entertainers and their attendant admirers, yet still comfortably intimate, Spearmint Rhino stages a nice variety of beauties, spins an interesting mix of shimmy sounds, and offers enough stage-side and table seating to accommodate just about everyone.

Plus, the Rhino was among the first to welcome couples.

All of this conspires to offer a sexy good time to everyone who wants one. 3344 S. Highland Dr., 796-3600.

BEST TAiLoR

Milton Chavez and his wife, Claudia, of exclusive Tailoring have been in business for 20 years and have contracts to do alterations with the top boutiques in town, including Louis Vuitton, Dior and Gucci. But the good news for you is that they don’t just work with designer duds. “We do alterations on everything from oneof-a-kind couture gowns to hemming a pair of jeans,” Claudia says. The Chavezes also do leather and suede alternations, which a lot of places don’t want to handle.

Our friends in the style world tell us that Exclusive can “effortlessly create exactly what you want.” Moreover, we’re told that the Chavezes work well with luxury items and are always upfront about their ability to meet a deadline. 3850 W. Desert Inn Road, Suite 107, 220-9232.

BEST SHoE REPAiR

Shoe Lab is the trusted service for nearly all the shows and concerts in Las Vegas, not to mention the top

designer boutiques including Chanel, Dior and Louis Vuitton. They offer cleaning and repairs for any type of shoe or handbag and promise to make your worn-down favorites look brand new again. 8700 W. Charleston Blvd., Suite 101, 870-7463; 3900 Paradise Road, Suite P, 791-0341.

BEST ELEvAToR

The elevators at Mandarin Oriental may be the most pleasant ride on the Strip. Granted, there’s no TV to watch, view to enjoy or attendant to push the buttons for you, but there’s no reason for that stuff, because this elevator only stops at three floors. Designed by Adam Tihany, the walls feature acid-etched, antiqued bronze and panels of exotic Macassar ebony hardwood. The floor is black marquina marble tile punctuated by a honey onyx inlay. What’s more, each of Mandarin’s three luxurious vertical rides have a lovely, red-velvet-topped bench to sit on while you enjoy the ride. And that we do.

Adrian Little

BEST BATHRooM

When Vanity opened at the Hard Rock Hotel late last year, the buzz about the bathroom nearly overpowered the nightclub itself. Still, it takes just one quick trip to the loo to understand the hype. Bar bathrooms aren’t usually the kind of places that ladies like to hang out, but these plush powder rooms are so pampering it’s no wonder women tend to linger a while longer. With manicure and makeup touch-up stations and freeflowing champagne, a trip to Vanity’s ladies’ room is always time well spent. vanitylv.com.

BEST FooT RuB

Why do foot rubs feel so damn good? Whatever the reason, the always-accommodating Mandarin Oriental takes this therapy to the next level with a menu of ceremonial foot baths. Each concludes with a reflexology session, neck and shoulder massage, heated herbal neck wrap and a cup of tea (hot or cold)—all while enjoying a primo view of the Strip from the comfort of the foot spa’s lush, reclining lounge chairs. 590-8886.

UNLV’s fitness facility: first class all the way.

Expert Opinion: A concierge’s seven best go-to services Guests at the Four Seasons Hotel expect the best of the best, and head concierge Adrian Little is there to provide it. With 12 years of experience, he knows quite well what guests want and whom he can call on to handle those requests. Here are seven services that he keeps on his speed dial:

★

1 Cupid’s Pet Service. Anytime a guest needs someone to watch their pup, Little gives Cupid’s Pet Service a call. 785-2968.

★

2 Layers Bakery. “In my opinion, the best cakes and cookies in Las Vegas,” he says.

Until the new Green Valley location opens in September, a limited menu is available from Layers’ commercial kitchen. 121 E. Sunset Road, 221-2253.

★

3 Beck-n-Call. “Not only do they provide the best messenger service in town, they also give VIP tours of Vegas, which we always recommend to our guests who have never been to Vegas before.” 990-2062.

★

4 Maverick Helicopters. Little recommends the “Canyon Dream” tour to any guests who want to venture to the Grand Canyon. 1-888261-4414.

★

5 nannies and Housekeepers u.S.A. “We can relax knowing that our guests’ children are being looked after by the best nannies in the business.” 451-0021.

★

6 Settebello Pizzeria. Serving the best authentic Italian pizza in town. In The District, 140 S. Green Valley Parkway, Henderson, 222-3556.

★

7 Pink Jeep Tours. The best way to tour the Hoover Dam. “The tour guides have a wealth of information.” 895-6777.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 47

f th e C it y e n’s Bes t o Veg a s Se v

sty Le

Unicahome: a beauty of a showroom. Lanvin (right): the ultimate in window-shopping.

Minx has found the veritable cure to the ruined manicure by bypassing the traditional base-andtopcoat routine for flexible stickers that adhere with heat. The stickers come in styles ranging from gold glitter to fully customized pictures, but it’s the fact that Minx doesn’t chip like traditional nail polish that has manicure enthusiasts obsessed. Wild Orchid Nail Spa, 9075 S. Eastern Ave., 914-8063.

BEST HAiR BARGAin

There’s no escaping it: Las Vegas is driven by appearances, and keeping them up can be costly.

But if you are the kind who likes to risk a dollar to save five, then cosmetology schools can be a good bet.

We suggest you stick with a known name, and for us that means the Paul Mitchell School, which consistently turns out well-qualified graduates.

Request a student who’s nearing graduation to lessen the chance of disappointment—and an even pricier salon fix afterward. 9490 S. Eastern Ave., Suite 100, 740-4247.

BEST BRiDAL SHoP

The city known for its weddings has finally gotten a luxury bridal salon all its own. The collection at Couture Bride Las Vegas is handpicked by Dawn Heaney and Flora Petakas Marinelli, former executives for the bridal goddess herself, Vera Wang, along

48 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

with their third partner and fashion industry veteran Annette Cirillo-Bergen. With Monique Lhuillier, Carolina Herrera and Oscar de la Renta gracing the racks, this shop is every bride’s new best friend. 950 S. Durango Dr., Suite 130, 647-7778, couturebridelv.com.

BEST nAiL SHoP To SEE AnD BE SEEn

Red Rock Nails is a crossroads for women looking to give their nails a bit of TLC. The shop’s welcoming staff and array of different pedicures ensure your toes get the attention they need. Nail treatments such as gel tips and UV acrylic nail removal give customers all the amenities of a larger salon without the pricey drawbacks.

10247 W. Charleston Blvd., 838-2378.

BEST HAiR SALon

Salons abound in a place as obsessed with pretty as Las Vegas, but ARCS Salon in Mandalay Place manages to keep the who’s who coming back for more. ARCS, which is brought to you by none other than Robert Cromeans, features stark white mod décor and a product hound’s dream of a retail area, but it’s the top-notch stylists who really keep Las Vegas hooked. ARCS A Robert Cromeans Salon, in Mandalay Place, 632-9390.

BEST SHoPPinG EvEnT

Home décor junkies found a place to call home when the World Market Center landed in Las Vegas, and the Super Bowl for these design lovers is the annual Sample Sale (this year it’s Aug. 26). With top-name designer wares slashed up to 70 percent off, it’s a furniture bonanza unrivaled in all of Las Vegas.

475 Grand Central Parkway, 599-3093.

BEST CoSTuMER

Someone has to be responsible for all the sequins in a town that’s known for its opulent wardrobing. Enter Imagination Las Vegas, an award-winning fullservice designer and manufacturer of theatrical costumes and wardrobe for stage, film, television and events. The brainchild of entertainment producer Blair Farrington, it has been on the cutting edge of the entertainment world

Unicahome photo by Henri Sagalow

BEST BEAuTy TREnD

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City

since its inception in 1996. From lavish showgirls to opulent renaissance pieces, Imagination’s rental department is a treasure trove of one-of-a-kind showstoppers, plus more than 1,500 costumes in an inventory valued at more than $2 million.

BEST SHoWRooM

If you are a design geek and you live in Las Vegas, there is only one word you need to know: Unicahome. Owners Bonnie and Hugh Fogel—two of the leading design minds in the city—have been bringing good taste to the desert and beyond for more than 10 years with names such as Alessi, Cappellini, Artemide and Umbra. They also have an incredible space in which to showcase their goods. There’s more at unicahome.com, too, as people with good taste from around the country know. Either way, thanks to the Fogels’ distinctly well-curated inventory, this is the spot to find designer decor.

3901 W. Russell Road, 616-9280.

BEST SToRE WinDoW

Dreaming of French couture just got a little easier thanks to the impressive window displays at the Lanvin boutique, which opened in February. Boasting a floor-to-ceiling glass façade, measuring 17 feet by 60 feet and hosting the elaborate theatrical mannequin stagings that the designer is known for worldwide, this showcase is not to miss, especially for those who like to look and not touch. Via the display, the customer is immediately exposed to the unique offering of the store: a menswear line that is exclusive to the CityCenter location.

BEST MAnnEquin

The ultimate go-to girl when it comes to supplying Las Vegas’ never-ending stream of trade shows with mannequins (think MAGIC and PROJECT), Alison Wainwright is the mastermind behind LV Mannequins. Her latest offering is the Foamannequins, a next-Gen pose-able wardrobe form made from recycled rubber over an aluminum skeleton that can be fabricated in an assortment of colors. Foamannequins are cheaper, simpler and lighter weight.

Alas, in life as in fashion, there is always a newer and younger model to be had.

BEST PERSonAL SHoPPER

Jenna Doughton realized in 2009 that many of her high-profile clients no longer had the budgets for elaborate shopping sprees, so she started offering a collective gathering called the Recessionista Party, where she brings the store to a host home. Offering great prices on designer merchandise is just one of her many services; outside of the monthly parties, Doughton still offers a full range of shopping and image consultation services, including closet cleaning and reorganization. 569-1008, jennadoughton.com.

Minx nails: the trend to get stuck on.

f th e C it y e n’s Bes t o Veg a s Se v

ment n i A t R e t n e ARts & After building a reputation for radical reinterpretations of the classics over the last few years, John Beane and his Insurgo Theater Movement cohorts have launched an ambitious schedule of productions.

Since moving into their own theater space in the Commercial Center in December, they’ve drawn critical praise and standing-room only crowds. Their first production in the new space, the horror comedy Murder Party, was recently staged by the Regina Fringe Festival. Meanwhile, their signature Shakespearean adaptations continued with a modern-dress Othello and a mind-blowing rock musical version of Love’s Labours Lost. The Bastard Theater, 900 E. Karen Ave., Suite D-114, New Orleans Square, Commercial Center, 771-7331, insurgotheater.org.

BEST REALiTy Tv SHoW

No doubt the best reality show filmed on location in Sin City is Pawn Stars, a blend of American Chopper bad-ass antics and “did-you-know?” lessons on historical items. Filmed at the Harrison family’s Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, the on-screen personalities and the bizarre—and sometimes shocking—pieces pawned have kept viewers glued to their screens. And with Pawn Stars’ continued success, there’s talk of a spin-off show

featuring the shop’s go-to antique restoration guy, Rick Dale. 713 Las Vegas Blvd. South, 385-7912, history.com/shows/pawn-stars.

BAnD WiTH BEST oDDS oF BECoMinG THE nEXT KiLLERS

It’s a tag with which we’d hate to jinx a Vegas act, but on the strength of recent live performances and their latest release, the gorgeously synth-textured five-song EP Hell and Silence, Imagine Dragons are the only group with the pop instincts and arena-ready confidence required to dominate on an international level.

Led by Dan Reynolds, the Dragons dish up confectionary rock tunes that strike the perfect balance between dirty leather-pants guitar antics and suave dance-floor glitter. If there’s any justice, the band’s stomping, disco-kissed ballad “Selene” will be blasting from every conceivable retail outlet and Hollywood rom-com very soon. imaginedragonsmusic.com.

BEST LoCAL ALBuM

Introverted as these four dudes are onstage, Minor Suns absolutely melt the competition on their selfreleased full-length, Minor Suns. Sadly, their debut has yet to enjoy a physical CD release but, like hundreds of others already have, you can simply download it for

free via minorsuns.bandcamp.com. The album is an indie-rock lovers’ dream, with layered Telecaster guitar lines (none of that tired grunge-era distortion, thank you) and heart-on-sleeve lyrics you’ll be Tweeting to your followers like a teenage girl. From the Neil Youngmeets-post-rock blast of “Rising Sun” to the Pedro the Lion-style confession of “Give It a Try,” the Suns serve as a musical beacon of light in an otherwise dark sonic landscape. myspace.com/minorsuns.

BEST GALLERy

God bless all those funky galleries in and around downtown’s Arts District; they are wonderful venues to pop in and check out a show—you know, when the air-conditioning happens to work. But the space that seduces us into spending all afternoon in its attractive grip is the stand-alone Brett Wesley Gallery.

Even though it just opened last October, the gallery has already championed local artists and showcased work by national and international talents. The main exhibit space is a beautiful mix of glass and blond wood, while the second floor typically displays works from gallery co-curator Brett W. Sperry’s personal collection. If you haven’t visited yet, it’s time you did.

Noon to 6 p.m. Tues.-Sat., 1112 S. Casino Center Blvd., 433-4433, brettwesley.com.

Photography by Anthony Mair

BEST THEATER EFFoRT

Marty Walsh: reigning Las Vegas arts champion.

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City “More Than You”: one of Toshie McSwain’s eye-catching works.

first solo exhibition at Winchester Cultural Center Gallery in June. Comprising nine darkly humorous paintings, I Told You So remains one of a handful of highlights in a still-struggling visual-arts scene.

McSwain, a local arts educator who arrived here from Ohio’s Bowling Green State University, makes us happy to observe the birth of a new creative force, even if her dangling egg-shaped subjects make us a tad uncomfortable. Exhibit hangs through Aug. 6 at Winchester Cultural Center, 3130 S. McLeod Dr., 455-7340.

BEST CLASSiCAL MuSiCiAn

BEST GALLERiST

For years Marty Walsh ran the Cutest Little Art Gallery in Las Vegas, otherwise known as Trifecta.

Sometimes, though, especially on a packed First Friday evening, the sensation was like stepping into a shoebox full of pop surrealism. That has changed, now that Walsh moved her digs into a larger room just a few doors away.

What hasn’t changed: the very high quality of artists whose work Trifecta represents. Sure, there’s still a mild emphasis on attractive “lowbrow” artists obsessed with, you know, Godzilla and robots and stuff. But every

show Walsh hangs guarantees at least one smile per visitor (and, more crucially, many sales for exhibiting artists). But more than just sales savvy, Walsh is a tireless champion of the arts in Las Vegas. 107 E. Charleston Blvd., inside the Arts Factory, 366-7001, trifectagallery.com.

BEST nEW viSuAL ARTiST

Plenty of artists come and go in this town, but usually they go, filling us with sadness. Every now and then, though, a loss is offset by a big gain, which is the case with Toshie McSwain, a young artist who opened her

Wei-Wei Le picked up the violin at age 6 in Shanghai and never put it down, going on to win international competitions and to perform with just about every major orchestra, including London’s Royal Philharmonic.

Now she’s a Las Vegan, thanks to UNLV, who recently hired her as an assistant professor of violin. In addition to being an acclaimed soloist who tours the country in between classes and recitals, Le is also one of the most beautiful women in Vegas. But it’s her chops that will make your jaw drop.

BEST BooK ABouT nEvADA

Literary Nevada, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty, came out in 2008 with a whopping excess of 800 pages (Uni-

Photography by Anthony Mair

The seductive Brett Wesley Gallery (shown here with works by John Bell).

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City

Expert Picks: Neon Reverb DJ selects seven acts that could be next year’s Best Band

BEST BooK WRiTTEn By A LAS vEGAn

A dad goes to the nudie bar where his daughter works to borrow money. Yes, that happens in Vegas. And in Blue Vegas (Stephens Press, $15), P Moss imagines that and many other funny, sad or weird tales and vignettes about people just trying to get by in a city that can be mean and brutal, even if there are the occasional moments of beauty and grace. These stories are melancholy and sad, and aren’t quite like anything yet written about life in Las Vegas.

Readbluevegas.com, midnight book signing at the Double Down Saloon on July 31; 791-5775.

BEST SHoWS

We couldn’t decide, so we have two winners. Penn & Teller do a show so entertaining, intelligent and endlessly changing that they could serve as a model for how to come to Vegas without compromise.

Instead, they may wind up the exception that proves the rule in Vegas. The other best show is The Beatles Love at The Mirage.

It manages to endlessly please Boomers (and their children and their parents) by giving them what they never had: The Beatles doing remixes and adapting Cirque du Soleil

stage spectacle for the video generation.

Penn & Teller: 9 p.m. Sat.-Wed., Rio, $75-$85, 777-7776. Love: 7 and 9:30 p.m. Thurs.-Mon., $93.50-$150, 792-7777.

BEST iMPERSonAToR/CoMEDiAn

Terry Fator has managed to charm the Strip with his effortless evocations of voices from the beautiful falsetto of Roy Orbison to the gritty blues of Etta James.

But he is also a ventriloquist and a comic who has proven that the Strip, even in this economy, will always go for a triple threat. This is where to send the relatives when they’re visiting from the Midwest.

The Mirage, 7:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat., $59-$129, 792-7777, terryfator.com.

BEST THEATER PRoDuCER

His father was a Vegas bandleader, his mother a showgirl and his sister a Vegas magician. David Saxe is Old Vegas entertainment down to his toes. But his business is pure New Vegas, where shows must make money. He keeps the vaudeville/Vegas tradition alive with showgirls and jugglers and musicians by operating two theaters in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood. His marquee show collects a variety of variety acts, and the other show pays tribute to the city as Vegas: The Show. But in addition to his own shows, the Saxe venues keep the dream of the independent Vegas producer alive. And his stages are for rent if you have a show, a dream and can pass the Saxe audition for a show likely to please a Vegas audience. davidsaxe.com.

Wei-Wei Le: a Las Vegan with world-class chops.

Donald Hickey, better known as “The Donald,” is the pervasive voice behind Neon Reverb Radio 91.5 KUNV. The full-time airline pilot started hosting the weekly show to bring “modern, left-ofthe-dial music to Las Vegas.” The longtime Las Vegan’s Saturday show features independent artists from across the nation mixed side-by-side with local artists, making him the right guy to spot the Valley’s finest locally grown bands.

Kid Meets Cougar. Very infectious cute-guy-meets-girl ★ duet, combining indie rock, hip-hop and electronica. Very cool 1

videos online as well (kidmeetscougar.com/videos). Right now they are benevolent and very well loved—the king and queen of the local scene.

★

2 The Skooners. I actually disliked this band when I first saw them. However their new album, Grow a Mustache, Change Your Name, is really something special. There is no indie rock kitsch or irony here. Very serious. Very good. I have joked that this album points out why Coldplay totally blows now.

★

3 The Killers/Brandon Flowers. Well, the category is “local bands”! Flowers is apparently putting the finishing touches on an album, which will be a tribute to his late mother. And while The Killers are on a roughly two-year vacation, I feel they are at a fork in the road. Flowers’ new album, plus side projects with which other members of the band will involve themselves, will be well worth paying attention to.

★

4 Jacob Smigel. Although residing in Tucson, Ariz., while going to medical school, he claims Vegas as home. Smigel has a secret life as one of America’s most promising folk artists. He is already seeing success as a musician; having just released his second LP, Hope This Passes the Secretary and having toured with Deer Tick. Check out very cool tracks such as “Grumpy Pill The Donald Bugs” and “Johnny Tocco’s Ringside Gym.”

★

5 Halloween Town. This is a Transfer (San Diego)/ Killers side project headed

by Ryan Pardey. I haven’t spoken with him since his last show at Beauty Bar, but you can be sure that his music on CD will be amazing. It will be a true balance between commercial playability and hard-core street cred. The question is, how to keep a band together when your main members are all in other successful bands.

And many local musicians are itching to be in a good band, but are unwilling/unable to tour.

★

6 America yeah. Where has this band been all my life? Oh yeah, they weren’t born for most of it. They could easily be classified into this re-emerging “baroque rock” category. However, to me, they channel this sort of 1981, postmodern/Thomas Dolby kind of thing.

★

7 Lazystars. They put on an amazing live show. Their music lends itself well to commercial and public radio. I worry they almost sound too now, too fresh, too good, too glossy. Nevertheless, they have a solid fan base and could easily be the next big thing out of Vegas.

52 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Le photo courtesy UNLV Photo Services; Hickey photo by Anthony Mair

versity of Nevada Press, $30). But the book brings together, for the first time, writings about Nevada by all the big names, such as Mark Twain, combined with a chronological reach that goes back to Native American tales and forward into the atomic-testing era and beyond. This is a historical, essential and unique collection of Nevada writings.

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City The Pearl: a gem of a venue that hosts acts such as Fall Out Boy.

BEST ConCERT vEnuE

Photo by Erik Kabik/ Retna/ erikkabik.com

The Pearl at the Palms has the best sound of any concert hall in Las Vegas yet manages an intimacy that usually is available only in much smaller venues with far weaker sightlines. Of course, the bookings are what make the show, and the Pearl will be leading the pack as the home stage to the upcoming Matador Records anniversary concerts. palmspearl.com.

BEST LoCAL vEnuE

In the heart of downtown, camouflaged among legendary hotel-casinos, resides a blossoming bohemian district that is home to Beauty Bar. This retro salon, saloon and venue is the best spot in town to watch local and mid-level touring bands and DJs perform. The sound is well above average compared with its counterparts, the cover charge and drinks prices are relatively cheap, and good music is always blasting through the speakers. With an inside bar and an outside patio area, you’ll have all the comfort and variety you need while catching the bands who are about to break. 517 E. Fremont St., 598-1965.

BEST FAMiLy SHoW

The show is better than the movie and a great introduction to the live theater experience for children.

The theater for The Lion King is not as tricked out for Vegas like Phantom at the Venetian, but there is still plenty to behold onstage with beautiful sets and the music and story that children already love. 7:30 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 4 and 9 p.m. Sat.-Sun., $75-$196, mandalaybay.com/lionking.

BEST PLACE To GET FREE MuSiC

The Internet, with all its myriad (il)legal sonic offerings, has dominated the free-music scene for at least 10 years. But if you prefer the old-fashioned tactile pleasures of flipping through liner notes and gazing into album covers until you can see your future, then there’s no better place to get free music than the Clark County libraries. It’s surprising how many people are surprised by this, but you can check out audio CDs and DVDs just the same as you would books. There aren’t any membership fees, but there

are late fees, which go to a good cause. Visit lvccld.org to find a branch near you.

BEST ART AT A HoTEL-CASino

Strip resorts are famous for displaying magnificently beautiful yet safe pieces of art. Bellagio’s collection of Chilhuly glass, for example, is the type of benign beauty that impresses without offending or challenging viewers.

That’s why Jenny Holzer’s installation in Aria’s North Valet Pickup is so amazing. While guests wait for their cars, dozens of famous truisms—“If you live simply, there is nothing to worry about”—slide by on a giant LED wall. The genius is the insidiousness of it. At first Holzer’s conceptual art only looks like any other LED sign, probably advertising keno or buffet specials. But as guests take the time to read her messages, they are surprised to find that the sayings don’t usually match the preordained themes of a casino. It’s encouraging to see a casino take an artistic risk—risks that need to happen if Las Vegas is going to become the “city” that’s promised in CityCenter.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 53

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Di n i nG

Good coffee roasters make good neighbors, as the saying goes—or should go. Which is why we’re so glad Colorado River Coffee Roasters is just a bean’s throw away in nearby Boulder City. Don Anderson micro-roasts his six varieties of coffee to order, which means this just might be the freshest, most distinctive cup of coffee you’ve ever had in Las Vegas. Don and son Erik then hand-deliver the day’s batch to partners such as The Beat Coffeehouse, DW Bistro, Valley Wine & Cheese, Milo’s in Boulder City, the Molto Farmer’s Market and, soon, Whole Foods and Boca Park’s Sambalatte.

Of course, you could always join the coffee club and get some Sumatra Aceh Pantan Lues or Ixil A’achimbal Guatemala delivered to your door for about 27 cents per cup. Not by Don personally, but you get the idea. crcoffeeroasters.com.

BEST nEW CoFFEEHouSE

If you hear the word “coffeehouse” and wax sentimental about those college days spent enveloped in a cocoon of familiarity, routine and camaraderie, then a tiny wicker-backed seat awaits you at Downtown’s new culture club, The Beat Coffeehouse.

The most recent downtown creation of Michael and Jennifer Cornthwaite, The Beat and the adjoining Emergency Arts gallery offer more than just a place to be unapologetically artsy. From the killer coffee to the crave-worthy chefly creations of Andy Knudson to the ’zine-lending library, The Beat is a steadfast bastion of unique in a sea of groupthink.

520 E. Fremont St., 300-6268.

BEST DininG TABLE WiTH A SToRy

It’s not a stretch to find a Las Vegan with a wild reputation. But a table? The massive—dare we

say, erotic?—VIP dining table in Aria’s Union Restaurant has, you know … a past. Like something borrowed from the movie set of Alice in Wonderland, the massive golden tabletop was constructed from one solid piece of wood and flanked at either end by towering, throne-like chairs. While details (such as exactly what kind of wood it is) are shrouded in mystery, it’s said that the table comes from India by way of Ohio, where it was purchased and relocated at a cost of $30,000. The 16-seater reportedly took 12 men to move it into its place of honor. Like so many other wonders of the world—the Grand Canyon, the Sphinx, Elizabeth Taylor—no one seems to know how old the table actually is.

BEST PoWER LunCH SPoT

Ever since former Commander’s Palace chef Carlos Guia took over the stoves at the Country Club, it’s been a magnet for visiting celebrities, Nevada politicians and casino executives, even those from rival Strip properties. Guia serves a fairly traditional steak-house menu during the week, but his Jazz Brunch on Sundays showcases his New Orleans roots, and has been all the rage with locals from the jump. In Wynn, 248-3463.

BEST FRozEn yoGuRT/iCE CREAM SPoT

Atomic #7 may be the most eccentric business model in town, but the ice creams and yogurts— frozen to order from liquid nitrogen in cylinders below the counter—will win you over. First, choose a size, then a flavor from a long list of eccentric choices, including peanut butter and bananas Foster. Finally, choose a base, cream, soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk, lactose-free 2-percent milk or fat-free yogurt. The two women who run

Colorado River beans at work in DW Bistro (left). Spago’s super salad (below left), and the Slidin’ Thru truck (below).

54 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Photography by Anthony Mair

BEST BEAnS

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City

the place will then freeze your treat before your very eyes. 605 Mall Ring Circle, Henderson, 458-4777.

BEST LunCH DEAL

François Payard is a pastry genius, but his restaurant remains a guarded secret. At Payard Pâtisserie & Bistro, $19 buys you a spectacular three-course lunch.

You start with lobster salad or goat-cheese onion tart and then progress to salmon en papillotte or couscous with merguez sausage and chicken. Dessert is one of Payard’s museum-quality pastries, which would be $5 to $7 each if ordered a la carte. This would be a bargain at twice the price. In Caesars Palace, 731-7110.

BEST CoFFEE SHoP

Du-Par’s, the famous coffee shop at the Los Angeles Farmer’s Market, recently opened a branch here and it instantly became the best coffee shop in town. The pancakes are also the best. The cinnamon rolls are as rich as Warren Buffet, and dozens of classic American

Union’s epic table.

pies are made daily in-house. Have the corned-beef hash for breakfast or a crusty chicken fried steak, if you dare.

In the Golden Gate, 1 Fremont St., 385-1906.

BEST LATE-niGHT DininG

Often overlooked because it’s north of downtown, the 24/7 Jerry’s Famous Coffee Shop at Jerry’s Nugget features waitresses who look as if they have been working here since before The Flood, a terrific pot roast, great fried chicken and the best selection of cakes and pies in the city. 1821 Las Vegas Blvd. North, 399-3000.

Geno Bernardo is on to something at his Sunday-only Palms extravaganza. Nove’s High Society features many of the chef’s greatest hits: pizza and panini, salumi, crab claws and fresh shrimp, a brisket, sausage and potato hash, and even Geno’s Sunday Gravy, which he slow cooks, starting at 7:30 a.m. Music is provided by a DJ. Wines are poured from clever inflatable kegs. 1-7 p.m.

Sundays, in the Palms, 942-6800.

BEST TAPAS

At Rare 120, chef Jonathan Snyder’s Kobe meatball lollipops—six lovely skewered orbs—are soft, yielding and delicious, and the three dipping sauces on the side (basil aioli, honey mustard and spicy ketchup) are all winners. In the Hard Rock Hotel, 693-5000.

Lots of Vegas restaurants play at tapas, small savory bar dishes that originated in the Basque country of Spain. But only Julian Serrano does right by the genre at his new eponymous restaurant. His Padrón peppers, chicken croquetas, pata negra ham and pa amb tomàquet (tomato-rubbed bread) have an authenticity few restaurants outside Spain match. In Aria, 590-7111.

BEST FAST FooD

BEST SLiDERS

BEST FooD on A STiCK

Smashburger is a fast-food joint meant to rival In-N-Out and Fatburger. The burgers here are better and the service faster. Meat is smashed on the grill, resulting in a meaty, messy sandwich, and the toppings here—namely apple-wood-smoked bacon and Haystack onions—are all worth adding. 7541 W. Lake Mead Blvd., 982-0009; 9101 W. Sahara Ave., 462-5500; 5655 Centennial Center Blvd., 462-5503.

Light Group corporate chef Brian Massie has a way with sliders. His late, lamented lamb sliders at sister restaurant Brand are missed, but there are always these pricey-but-worth-it Bobby Baldwin Sliders here at Fix. They are made from Kobe beef and served in a trio, with aged cheddar cheese and grilled onions, accompanied by spiced fries. In Bellagio, 693-7223.

BEST BuFFET

In the era of gourmet takes on burgers, chef Lorin Watada’s fusion sandwiches at Bachi Burger are fast becoming a rage. The Lonely Bird, a burger made from ground chicken and turkey, is a highlight, as are the sweet-potato fries served in a metal cone. The Kalbi burger—a Korean-inspired creation of ground beef, pork, soy, garlic, ginger, chili paste, hot fermented redbean paste and a dab of the cabbage kim chi—is definitely not for sissies. 470 E. Windmill Lane, 242-2244.

Cravings isn’t always mentioned with the buffet big hitters on the Strip. But Adam Tihany’s design includes interactive TV screens and interesting spaces to eat in, and the stations—such as the best barbecue station on the Strip, a terrific do-it-yourself Asian noodle bar and a fabulous doughnut machine—give Cravings a unique, eccentric appeal. In The Mirage, 791-7111.

Photography by Anthony Mair

BEST BRunCH

BEST CuLinARy TREnD

It all started in Los Angeles with a Korean taco truck, and Twitter did the rest. Now these food trucks are in most U.S. cities, offering innovative “fast food” to office parks, music festivals and even parking structures. Las Vegas already has a few delicious examples, including Slidin’ Thru, whose sliders attract droves of customers, and Fukuburger’s “Fuku truck,” which made its debut on July 4. And we’re confident more are on the way, including some that are bound to offer Chinese and barbecue.

BEST GouRMET BuRGERS

BEST HEALTHFuL AnD DELiCiouS DiSH

Salmon salads make for great warm-weather meals in Vegas, and nobody does one better than Spago chef Eric Klein. For his Unagi Glazed Salmon Salad, he glazes his wild salmon with unagi (sea eel), then mixes it with romaine lettuce, daikon radish, shiso (a Japanese basil), carrots and avocado slices, and he dresses the whole shebang with celeriac rémoulade and a splash of ponzu.

It’s summer in a bowl, and you’ll feel better after just a few bites. In the Forum Shop at Caesars, 369-0360.

Expert Picks: Max Jacobson’s seven favorite ethnic restaurants We didn’t have to go far to find this expert; he’s Vegas Seven’s food critic and Vegas’ best judge of ethnic cuisine.

★

1 Los Antojos (Mexican). A little dive with great heart and lots of authentic street dishes. 2520 S. Eastern Ave.

★

2 China Mama (Chinese). Great cold dishes, and the best Chinese dumplings in town. 3420 S. Jones Blvd.

★

3 Mi Peru (Peruvian). A little-known cuisine waiting to be discovered. They have great rotisserie chicken on weekends. 1450 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway.

★ Bosa 1 (vietnamese). Surely the best Vietnamese 4

cooking in town, specializing in “broken rice” plates.

3400 S. Jones Blvd., Suite 2A.

★

5 Monta noodle House (Japanese). You are likely to be the only Caucasian slurping in this ramen shop. 5030 Spring Mountain Road.

★

6 Honey Pig (Korean). First you choose your meats and vegetables, then everything is cooked for you by a team of hard-working waitresses. 4725 Spring Mountain Road.

★

7 Rincon de Buenos Aires (Argentinean). Great barbecue, empanadas and lots of soccer-mad fans congregating for live games. 5300 Spring Mountain Road.

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Ze o o B & s R A B

As Vegas’ only true speakeasy at present, you actually do need to know somebody and really must know the password to get into BarMagic of Las Vegas’ Social Mixology cocktail party series, which turned one year old in March and spurred a Miami offshoot this summer. The brainchild of acclaimed bartender/mixologist Tobin Ellis, Social Mixology consists of two to five parties per month, held in secret, mixology-friendly locations and featuring one spirit brand before packing up the citrus presses and antique soda siphons and hightailin’ it outta there. Signature events such as the annual Repeal of Prohibition Party are always the talk around town the next day. To join, newbies must simply sign up at socialmixologyvegas.com and keep an eye on their in-box for locations and passwords.

BEST CLASSiC CoCKTAiLS

If classic cocktails, cocktail lore and cocktail esoterica are your idea of a good night out, then your place is Herbs & Rye, where you will go back in time with just the aid of a glass and a couple of knowledgeable bartenders. Sure, Nectaly Mendoza’s family doles out tasty goodies from the kitchen, but the cocktails are every bit the main course here—as the sign reads, “Bar, Lounge and Restaurant.” There’s a man who has his priorities in order. The extensive menu (19 classic cocktails plus two wild cards) is broken down into seven eras of American cocktailing, from Gothic to today’s Revival. One recent intelligence gathering session began with a luxurious Brandy Crusta from Harry Craddock’s 1930 edition of The Savoy Cocktail Book and ended with a Prohibition classic for dessert, the Bee’s Knees. If you’re curious about any of these cocktails or anything cocktailian, just ask Mendoza.

A seasoned barman, mixologist and outright cocktail history fiend, he’ll be happy to keep you drinking on the edge of your bar stool. 3713 W. Sahara Ave., herbsandrye.com.

BEST oRiGinAL CoCKTAiLS

Switching things up like Mother Nature intended, Downtown Cocktail Room debuts a new batch of creations four times a year. To achieve this, owner Michael Cornthwaite employs a simple system: As soon as one menu launches, work begins on the next one. All conversation turns to trends, seasonal produce and, most importantly, the bartenders’ own inspiration. Among others, DCR has brought Vegas the likes of the Downtown Dill Bloody Mary, The Huntridge and the Cat’s Pajamas, original cocktails that have become veritable staples among Vegas’ cognoscenti. 111 Las Vegas Blvd. South.

BEST EnoMATiC WinE SELECTion

Think of it as a liquid shopping spree—flitting back and forth between the hulking Enomatic machines that line the walls and dot the floor in the subterranean environs of M Resort’s Hostile Grape wine bar. Without the hightech wine preservation and dispensing system, offering more than 160 wines by the glass would be nearly impossible, driving even the most organized cellar master to drink. From Australian shiraz to Washington state pinot, you virtually circle the globe as you circle the cozy room, pre-paid wine card in-hand. Prices start as low as $2 per ounce and launch from there up into the stratosphere.

Best of all, the Enomatics’ one-, three- and five-ounce pours allow you to be as promiscuous as you want to be.

12300 Las Vegas Blvd. South, Henderson.

BEST SAnGRiA

Not your traditional concoction of red wine, liquor, sweetener and macerated fresh fruit, mixologist Michael MacDonnell’s signature Pear & elderflower Sangria

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takes the workaday wine punch to a place few have gone—the nightclub.

Specifically, Eve nightclub above Beso restaurant.

Generously doled out in a 24-ounce Bordeaux wine glass and topped with a berry patch of raspberries and blackberries, MacDonnell’s delicate, Social Mixology at Herbs & Rye (above), feminine white sangria mix master Tom Kunick (right), and the is pretty enough even to Tiki Room owner’s head on a swizzle grace the hand of restau(below right). rant/nightclub owner Eva Longoria. The recipe is a MacDonnell trade secret, but he combines sauvignon blanc, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, Cointreau, white cranberry juice and fresh Asian pears. Then—we are left to suppose—the sangria fairies work their good magic. In Crystals at CityCenter.

BEST WinE LiST FoR THE MonEy

Don’t worry about greedy Strip wine pricing at Vintner Grill. Its encyclopedic list has 50 white and sparkling wines for less than $50, and 50 red wines for more than $50, from both the Old and the New World, all put together by Hawaiian sommelier Troy Kumalaa.

In addition, the restaurant offers 22 wines by the glass, starting at $7. 10100 W. Charleston Blvd., 214-5590.

BEST WinE SHoP

The newest addition to the marketplace, Total Wine needs 27,000 square feet for its inventory, making it The Home Depot of wine stores. There are more than 8,000 labels from which to choose, excluding spirits, and the average price is less than $15. Some wines are sold directly from Total Wine vineyards, further keeping the prices down. Shelves are labeled according to country, region or type, which makes the process more user-friendly.

730 S. Rampart Blvd., in Boca Park, 933-8740 (new location coming to Stephanie Street in Henderson in late August).

BEST BARTEnDER

“Unassuming” is probably a good word to describe Rumor’s new bar manager and lead mixologist, Tom Kunick. The Artisan and Downtown Cocktail Room alum pretty much flies under the radar, preferring to make cocktails for cocktails’ sakes and then let them (and the customers) speak for themselves. But this is not to say that Kunick is unaware of the impact he has had on the Vegas cocktail scene in the last five years. He has amassed a loyal following, many of whom can be found parked in front of the five-seat bar in Rumor’s swanky lobby. Best known for his Old Fashioneds and original creations such as the Foxtail and the Agent Orange, Kunick just seems to read herbs and spirits. A cocktail whisperer, perhaps?

It can’t be coincidence that foams just seem silkier and more tender from his dessert whipper. The Kunick signature of elegant, well-balanced cocktails that showcase either a spirit, key ingredient or technique becomes more established with each creation. 455 E. Harmon Ave.

BEST MiDWEEK DRinK SPECiAL

On a Tuesday night, Todd english P.U.B. beats the price at any dive bar—or even Costco. The bar serves eight-ounce cups of Pabst Blue Ribbons for a nickel each (if you order $12 or more worth of food), and you can order five at a time—that’s 40 ounces of PBR for a quarter! Not surprisingly, the place packs a good-looking crowd, too—up

Kunick and Frankie’s photos by Anthony Mair

BEST MiXoLoGy EvEnT

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City

from scratch. Steaks, booze and gambling? Now that’s a real bar for real Las Vegans. Have a seat, ma’am.

3650 Las Vegas Blvd. North, 644-1220.

BEST SPoRTS BAR

Friendly Enomatics at the Hostile Grape.

to 1,000 hipsters and young professionals on a Tuesday.

9-11 p.m., in Crystals at CityCenter, toddenglishpub.com.

BEST oLD-TiME TAvERn

We hadn’t been in the Hitchin’ Post Saloon in years when our pal Moss invited us to accompany him. Come to think of it, had we ever been in the Hitchin’ Post? Attached to an RV park in North Las Vegas since 1953, this tavern has long been a part of the collective consciousness of Old Vegas. Reopened two summers ago after a yearlong remodel, the saloon is one of the few remaining taverns from Vegas’ good old days. The small room is all knotty pine and stone, and despite the Blue Moon, Guinness and Fat Tire on tap, this is the kind of place hipsters don’t go.

Here’s what else they’re missing: delicious food from a kitchen run by a talented refugee of the old Commander’s Palace (!!) who bakes bread and makes sauces

The most important ingredient in a sports bar?

Not the greasy food, not the frosty beer, not even the attractive barmaid with the plunging neckline (although that ranks a close second!). Above all else, what gets us in the door and keeps us coming back are the quality and quantity of the flat-screen TVs. And this is where Buffalo Wild Wings hits a home run. While there are nine branches in the Valley, one in Henderson scores the highest marks because no matter where you sit, multiple high-definition TVs are within view.

This place has the added bonus of a Leroy’s sports book kiosk onsite (you must first set up a wagering account). Three more pluses: Free wireless Internet (gotta keep track of that fantasy football team!), an attentive staff that’ll help find your game, and if you’re bringing the family, a separate dining/drinking area with multiple big screens that shields your clan from the drunk college students next door. Everybody wins!

10271 S. Eastern Ave., 492-1880.

BEST nEW BAR TREnD

Ginger. It’s so hot right now. Spicy, too. In spirits, infusions, tinctures, bitters, syrups, foams and seasalt rims, ginger is the root of all things tasty at the moment. It adds a predictable kick, pairs well with fruit and sweeteners, and can be easily grated, juiced and macerated. To experience the hotness for yourself, try Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur in the Strawberry Ginger Daiquiri at Rumor; ginger-infused sea salt at Fusion Mixology Bar; Hitichino Nest Ginger Brew at Dragon Noodle Co.; house-made ginger syrup at Noir Bar; or just pick up Skyy Infusions’ ginger vodka at Lee’s Discount Liquor. Sorry, Mary Ann fans.

BEST BLooDy MARy

And the winner is … yours! That is, yours as made by you at Simon Restaurant. Every Sunday, chef

Kerry Simon rolls out the tomato-red carpet for a doit-yourself brunch Bloody Mary bar to beat ’em all. It starts with the chef’s secret tomato base, then instantly careens wildly off the rails as you add booze, veggies, hot sauce and God only knows what else. Love it?

Well, then you can take all the credit. $38 for brunch, plus $10 for all-you-can-drink Bloody Marys, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sundays, in the Palms, 944-3292.

BEST nEW MiXoLoGy BAR/LounGE

The current aesthetic would have many cocktailians believing that, to be good, a mixology bar must be small, antique-y, out of the way and presided over by a mustachioed dandy in a bowler. While fun, those trappings say little about what’s in the glass. Aria’s Sage Restaurant, on the entirely other hand, is beautiful and brand new. Mustaches are discretionary, but let’s not hold that against it! The cocktail menu—assembled from the best of chef Shawn McClain’s Chicago bar menus—is simply superb, showing restraint and careful editing with not a frivolous drink to be found.

Instead, nine elegant classics (each with an artisanal twist) take you to New Orleans, Italy, Manhattan and beyond. Only the finest boutique spirits have made the cut: Carpano Antica Formula vermouth, Plymouth gin, Luxardo Maraschino, Chartreuse, St. Germain and bitters, bitters, bitters. In other words, our bowler hat’s off to you, Sage! arialasvegas.com.

BEST SWizzLE STiCK

As swizzle sticks go, the one found posting up among the South Seas tiki creations at Frankie’s Tiki Room has serious panache. So much more than a humble bamboo toothpick or cocktail umbrella, the long, green plastic totem does triple duty as stirrer, garnish and souvenir.

Sporting the shaggy, bearded visage of Frankie’s owner, P Moss, the stick was said to be modeled after artist Tiki Ray’s totem by the door, which similarly features Moss’ head on a stick. Not so with that squat, non-functioning umbrella. And, anyway, we’re not expecting rain in our cocktails. So let’s hear it for the swizzle-stick gods: Long may they be vain. 1712 W. Charleston Blvd.

Expert Opinion: Bartenders Guild boss serves up his seven bests Southern Wine & Spirits’ district manager Livio Lauro just completed his third term as the United States Bartenders Guild’s president. Therefore it’s safe to say that Livio knows cocktails.

★

1 Best new Bar Tool: the Chef’n citrus squeezer.

Double the leverage, double the juice. And as we know, it’s all about leverage.

Photography by Anthony Mair

★

2 Best up-and-Coming Mixologist: Noir Bar’s Andrew Pollard. He has a very unique style of service that shows a lot of self-confidence behind the bar.

He’s so calm, so well-postured; he could serve you a quick drink or he could serve Prince Charles in white gloves. Two more words: business acumen.

★

3 Best Free Bar nibbles: The garlic potato chips at Nora’s. They’re free and a great complement to cocktails.

★ Best new Spirit Brand/item: Hum Liqueur, designed by Chicago USBG bartender/sommelier Adam 4

Seger. It’s a blend of Bolivian rum, herbs and spices such as Kaffir lime, cardamom, ginger and hibiscus.

It’s spicy, sweet and bitter all at the same time. There’s just a lot going on!

★

5 Best one-Liner: Like Southern Wine & Spirits mixologist Armando Rosario always says, “Make it fresh, keep it simple.” We’ve got all these bartenders doing this geeky stuff, and then Armando shows up at a competition with nothing but his four ingredients and he wins.

★

6 Most Comfortable Bar: Bouchon at the Venetian.

There’s lots of space between the stools and at the counter. There’s something comforting about the service there. It’s so upscale, and yet the staff and the bartenders are so very welcoming. They have this unique way of making you feel at home.

The next Emerging Bar Trend: A refocusing on ★ the importance of garnishes. No culinary art is closer 7

to bartending. Presentation means everything.

Livio Lauro

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n iG htLi fe

Expert Picks: The Captains’ seven Vegas nightlife highlights

BEST LounGE DJ

A longtime fixture at hot spots such as Downtown Cocktail Room and the N9NE Group venues, DJ Douglas Gibbs says he took his inspiration from the room when he was coming up with his loungy, sexy, world-flavor vocal house sound for Encore’s Eastside Lounge. Plying his trade Fridays and Saturdays from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., Gibbs one night early on caught the ear of Steve Wynn, and the very next week, his set was being piped onto casino floor instead of the usual ambient

BEST LounGE

There are plenty of places to drink in this city, but few places have the ability to transport you like Mandarin Bar. While the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the Strip from 23 stories up leave no question that you are, indeed, in Las Vegas, the sleek sophistication of the space feels like downtown Tokyo—and miles from any casino. View and vibe aside, the drink menu is superb, with artisan cocktails and a short but well-selected wine

The Captains of Industry, Graham Funke and StoneRokk, are DJs and nightlife columnists for Vegas Seven. Here are their enlightened opinions about what makes this city great after dark:

★

1 The quality and consistency of the DJ community. DJs come to Las Vegas from across the country because this is the market everyone wants to work in.

The city’s multimillion-dollar nightlife industry counts on a small handful of DJs to ensure success each week, which is a testament to the skill and commitment of those who manage to keep the hottest parties hoppin’.

★

2 The Fireside Lounge at the Peppermill. We have capped many nights at the cusp of morning in this ’80s holdover, and have many fine memories involving the sipping tropical drinks, sitting beside the flaming pool and basking under a fuchsia-and-turquoise glow to the soothing sounds of Fleetwood Mac.

★

3 The Living Room at the Playboy Club. Even though the entire club oozes the exact kind of extravagance we enjoy, it’s this cozy area in back that brings the experience full circle. Granted, we play the main room on a regular basis, but there’s no exotic, safari-themed chairs or fireplace in the DJ booth.

★

4 The last hour of a set by DJ Crooked.

Every DJ has a job to do, and that job usually involves playing some music that he or she doesn’t necessarily enjoy. But when the night winds down, more chances are taken as the DJ indulges a bit—and Crooked is the grimiest.

★

DJ Vice (left) is a big-room smash, and the Moon roof (above) is a favorite of the Captains (right).

5 The lounge at the Artisan hotel.

This dimly lit, portrait-filled room has a pronounced decadence that seems almost quirky in this current era of Las Vegas, yet some of the newer nightlife establishments seem to have taken a cue from their presentation. The late-night scene is choice.

★

BEST niGHTCLuB

The moment you walk in, its name becomes clear: XS is the epitome of excess. From the golden casts that welcome you at the door to the shimmering pool outside, it is luxurious, lavish and fabulous through and through. The club consistently attracts beautiful, international and funloving crowds, and the staff knows how to keep everyone entertained. It’s true, drinks aren’t cheap—but they don’t call it XS for nothing. And in this case, you get what you pay for. In Encore.

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Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

list, and the service is second to none. In Mandarin Oriental, 4:30 p.m.-1 a.m. Sun.-Thurs., 4:30 p.m.-2 a.m. Fri.-Sat.

BEST BiG-RooM DJ

Rumored to be the first DJ to be given a million-dollar residency in Las Vegas, DJ Vice sets the soundtrack for a wild and fun night at the club. We get a double dose of Patrón time every week, thanks to back-to-back gigs at Tao on Saturday and Lavo on Sunday. The tequila-loving S.K.A.M. Artist has been the marquee man at the sister spots since they opened (not counting that yearlong hiatus, when he went to Pure Management Group to play Pure and LAX). It’s no surprise that his signature mixes and air-horn-infused sets have a dedicated and considerable following: He’s the best in town.

★

7 The Green Door. While it’s not necessarily our preferred hunting grounds, it garners a nod simply because a visit to the Green Door is the closest thing our generation gets to experiencing what it must have been like to visit Plato’s Retreat in ’70s New York.

Moon photo by Anthony Mair

station mix. “I’m flattered and excited to be appreciated on that level,” says Gibbs of getting the nod from Wynn.

He says he has made conscious decision not to be a Top 40 DJ, and will next be recording a set list for the nights he’s not booked at Eastside.

6 The retracting roof at Moon. Yes, it has an amazing view of Las Vegas. Yes, it has an outside deck where one can soak up the night air. And yes, in the interest of full disclosure, we play there on a weekly basis. But the fact that you can cut a rug on the dance floor while staring up at the Milky Way is something you can’t do anywhere else in the city.

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City

BEST PARTy on WHEELS

The monthly night of retro roller skating, Down & Derby, is still the city’s best. With its hipster roots—it all began downtown, at Beauty Bar—and equally fun organizers and participants, D&D always makes for a fun and funky Thursday. Other venues have tried to host similar theme nights, but there’s only one place where roller skates, short-shorts, stairs and booze in sippy cups mix—and it goes down at Rain in the Palms.

be treated, with free admission (excluding special events). Have out-of-town guests? No problem. Visiting ladies get in for free, too, and guys without local I.D. pay just $20 on Saturday or Sunday. While there’s no beach at Tao Beach and the pool isn’t exactly the biggest in town, celebs still flock to the rooftop oasis to catch some rays before hitting Tao and Lavo at night, making it prime territory for both stargazing and sun-worshiping.

The toned and tanned servers of Wet Republic (above), and the big deal on wheels known as Down & Derby (above right).

Wet Republic photo by Anthony Mair

BEST PooLSiDE BoDiES

Wet Republic’s militantly athletic team of Ultra Pool cocktail servers employ all sorts of shape-up regimes to stay in peak condition for the long, hot pool season. Lindsay Andrew, for example, follows a strict schedule with CrossFit Las Vegas, achieving some noticeably amazing results. Others rely on Bikram yoga to keep those muscles lean and toned. Besides great bodies, the servers also sport flawless Mystic Tans and show off their flair and personality through footwear, which mandates impeccable pedicures.

BEST SEE-AnD-BE-SEEn PooL SCEnE

Perched high atop the Venetian is a beautiful, crazy, Balinese-inspired party pool that consistently hits all the high notes: pretty people, A-list celebs, great atmosphere. Open daily from 10 a.m., Tao Beach features solid DJs (including Beatport-sanctioned talent on Sundays) and treats locals the way they should

BEST onE-SToP SHoP FoR ALL you CouLD EvER nEED

Las Vegas traffic is legendary for its post-show valet lines, so it is always nice when you can get everything you need for a night out on the town under one roof.

Sister properties Wynn and encore afford us that, with Encore Beach Club providing the pool; Bartolotta, SW Steakhouse, Switch and Wazuzu among the top-notch dining options; Parasol Up/Parasol Down and Blush offering lounge space with extraordinary cocktails; XS and Surrender serving up all the nightlife we can handle; and the staff at Stratta filling our bellies once it’s all over. There’s also great live entertainment choices (Le Rêve and Garth Brooks), a luxurious fullservice spa and a lively casino floor. If you can afford it, why go anywhere else?

BEST Go-Go DAnCERS

Tired of watching expressionless go-go dancers with overly inflated chests and too-small stripper shoes wiggle

wanly to the beat (and sometimes in complete ignorance of it), we must admit that we were entirely ready for the go-go team at Haze Nightclub to hijack our attention. Proportionally curvy and healthy at that, these real women actually appear to be having a good time as they freestyle dance on various stages around the club.

The very purpose of a go-go dancer being to fuel the

energy of a club, these ladies set that bar pretty high with genuine smiles, sparkling auras and sweet moves. Dance on, dear ladies, dance on. In Aria.

BEST LGBT PARTy

Whereas just two and a half years ago there was not a single LGBT party to be found in Vegas’ mainstream Strip nightclubs, lounges and pools, thanks to a few intrepid promoters such as Eduardo Cordova, Lisa Pittman, J.Son Dinant, Mervat Berry and Rachel Wenman (and to progressive nightlife companies such as Light Group and N9NE Group), today we have oodles.

But the longest-running and most successful of them all, Cordova’s Closet Sundays, was the first, launching in 2008 and still going strong. Relocating from CatHouse to Revolution to accommodate the expanding crowd, The Closet attracts the hottest talent, DJs and hosts from the gay party circuit, and this summer gave birth to Heaven Saturdays at Bare Pool. Cordova’s touch is the perfect balance between high-end and hard-partying, which gives both his crowd and his corporate benefactors exactly what they want. And snaps for that! In The Mirage.

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PeoPLe BEST TEACHER

Jeremy Gregersen is one of the best teachers at the city’s best educational institution, The Meadows School. Last year he was one of 54 teachers nationwide awarded the Milken Educator Award. He was recognized based on his leadership, the quality of his teaching, his interaction with the community and his promise for subsequent contributions to child development. “He’s extremely intelligent and insightful as far as the material he is covering,” head of The Meadows School Henry Chanin says.

Gregersen was named dean of studies for the upcoming school year, but he will continue to teach English. “He opens up the material,” Chanin says.

“The students find that he is satisfying their intellectual curiosity.” And at The Meadows, there’s a lot to satisfy.

BEST TWEETERS

Brothers Chris Rauschnot (@24k, 48,805 followers) and Bill Cody (@ vegasbill, 40,500 followers) are both full-time social media consultants and attend more events than even the most seasoned socialite. They each dispatch up to 100 Tweets daily, and their red-carpet coverage graces myvegasscene.com, YouTube’s “Gershwin9” channel and is even featured on CBS News locally.

“Ninety percent of the time we’re not paid for this work,” Chris says. “It’s truly a love for Las Vegas and a passion for what we’re doing.” It’s also a great case study for their work: designing social media programs for hospitality and nightlife companies. “I Tweet from when I get up to when I go to bed,” Bill says.

Their business CodyCom, encourages

companies to embrace social media.

Bill adds that while he might appear to Tweet at socially inappropriate times (such as during dinner), Tweeting is quickly becoming more accepted and even encouraged, especially among the pair’s foodie followers.

BEST PoTEnTiAL SoCCER STAR

Antonio Murillo, a midfielder for the U.S. under-15 boys national team, is already ahead of the pace set

by Herculez Gomez, the Las Vegas High School graduate who earned a spot on this year’s U.S. World Cup team. While Gomez, 28, was a late bloomer, the 15-year-old Murillo (who is a sophomore at Eldorado High School but doesn’t play there) is part of the Olympic Development Program and plays with teens two years his elder on his Vegas-based Neusport Club team. “He has great vision of the game and has a tremendous work ethic,” says Frank D’Amelio, Neusport coach.

“He’s got great potential. [He] has the potential to make it as far as Herculez Gomez. Technically, he’s a better player.”

Murillo was one of 18 players nationwide—along with fellow Las Vegan and Neusport teammate Antonio Velasquez—to travel with the U-15 national team to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in May.

BEST STuDEnT

Michael Dakduk was a shoe-in. We’re pretty sure there are brainier students out there,

A talented student, Michael Dakduk (above right), and a super Star, Sandy Alomar Jr. (right).

When the RTC Transit bus driver stopped during his route on March 12, 2009, to pull a wandering 3-year-old boy out of a busy intersection, he viewed the move as just another part of his job. For Dyer doesn’t just provide transportation for Las Vegans, he also often gives direction. In five years driving a bus, Dyer, 48, has prayed with passengers, offered help and advice, and also served as a mentor to troubled teens.

“Sometimes you have to be a mom, a father, a preacher or a counselor on the bus,” he says. “You have to put on different hats, but it’s fun. It’s rewarding knowing that you helped somebody.”

Running into late-morning traffic in the middle of Desert Inn Road and Decatur Boulevard to pull a child to safety is just one example of the type of behavior Dyer exhibits each day behind the wheel. While all Regional Transportation Commission bus drivers are trained and encouraged to help distressed passengers, Dyer builds special relationships with his regulars, who often bring him food during his shift.

“It makes my job fun,” he says. “It’s a blessing to come to work. Some people can’t say that; I can.”

Dyer, a father of five, has helped at least one teen on his route stay on the right path, offering his phone number to the boy, who took Dyer’s advice to pull up his pants and get an education, and is now on track to graduate from college next year.

“I love people,” Dyer says. “I get along with anyone; I don’t care if they’re bad or not. I always look for the positive side of people. That keeps me going.” – Sean DeFrank

60 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Dakduk photo by Anthony Mair

Best Bus Driver: Calvin Dyer

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City

Who is the Best Face of the City?

Up until about a year ago, Oscar Goodman—in his third four-year term as Las Vegas mayor and the man who vociferously champions this city like no other—would have been the hands-down winner here. But then a certain buxom blonde strolled into town and started popping up—and popping out!—everywhere. Indeed, in former Playboy model Holly Madison, our good mayor now has some serious competition for the honor Best Face of the City. In fact, Madison recently professed a desire to one day try her hand at local politics (she also claims to be writing a book—all by herself!—about Las Vegas). How to choose a winner?

Old-school tale-of-the-tape style:

but it’s tough to beat this guy’s extracurriculars.

The 24-year-old UNLV senior is a Marine Corps veteran, vice president of the national Student Veterans of America organization, and was instrumental in starting a local Student Veterans of America Organization. Add to that the fact that Dakduk is one of only 60 college students across the nation to receive the Truman Scholarship, a graduate school scholarship awarded to student leaders interested in a career in government. The only drawback? The Las Vegas native plans to attend Princeton, where he’ll study international affairs. He adds that he’ll miss his hometown, but the school made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.

CHiEF ASSETS: Mayor Goodman: Love of law, diehard devotion to his city, rarely seen in public without a showgirl on his arm and a willingness to snub presidents of both political parties who disrespect his town.

Holly Madison: 36D’s, bottomless media exposure (with our city always at the forefront of her hype machine), a new Las Vegas-based reality show and, uh, did we mention 36D’s?

Advantage: Madison.

BEST PRoFESSoR

Last semester UNLV professor Dick Tandy was talking to his statistics class about the site RateMyProfessor.com. “I mentioned that it was a pretty unscientific way of collecting information,” he recalls. “And they said, ‘Yeah, and you’re in the top 12!’” The students were referring to the “Top 25” list of professors across the country, as rated by fellow students. Tandy is the only Southern Nevada professor represented on the list. His main gig is kinesiology (he teaches statistics to undergrads), and he has been at UNLV since 1989. No matter what the subject, he is known for his engaging and humorous teaching style. But that’s not all.

In addition to high ratings for quality, helpfulness and clarity, the website gave him a “red chili pepper” rating for “hotness.”

RALLyinG CRy: Mayor Goodman: “World’s Happiest Mayor.”

Holly Madison: “Every Day Is a Hollyday.”

Advantage: Madison.

Madison Goodman Scott Harrison (top) and Erik Kabik / Retna; Dyer photo by Anthony Mair

Calvin Dyer

CiviC ACHiEvEMEnT: Mayor Goodman: The acquisition of a 61-acre land parcel that is becoming Symphony Park, on the Frank Gehry-designed Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health site, and where the Smith Center for the Performing Arts is under construction.

Holly Madison: Besides starring in the Peepshow nudie revue at Planet Hollywood, she put Vegas in the record books by organizing the largest bikini parade.

Advantage: Goodman.

EnDoRSEMEnT: Mayor Goodman: Bombay Sapphire gin (for which Goodman has received $150,000, all of which he donated to local charities).

Holly Madison: The Sugar Factory (she designed her own candy necklaces); recently cut a commercial for movietickets.com.

Advantage: Goodman. ouTFiT oF CHoiCE: Mayor Goodman: Dark suit and bright tie.

Holly Madison: Two-piece bikini … with one piece often missing.

Advantage: Madison.

FAMouS quoTE: Mayor Goodman: When asked by a fourth-grade student in 2005 the one thing he’d take with him if he were stranded on a deserted island, Goodman replied: “A bottle of gin.” When the inevitable media flak hit, Goodman revised his response: “A bottle of gin and two showgirls.”

Holly Madison: She speaks? Really?

Advantage: Goodman.

AnD THE BEST FACE oF THE CiTy iS …

Both of them. Appropriately, this exercise was nothing more than a publicity stunt.

– Matt Jacob

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 61

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City

Best Friend of Downtown: In your infinite wisdom, you have come back to this place. There was New York. You’ll always have that. Columbia U—a diploma that never grows old. Paris. Paris. Paris. You studied the history of beautiful things, or things that were thought to be beautiful at the time, anyway.

You understand the way time leaves its mark.

And here you are, back in the city that raised you, 105-year-old Las Vegas, a city that dreams of time’s absence. You are on the corner of Sixth and Fremont streets, though, working at the El Cortez, a place that has always forgotten to dream that particular dream.

You are working for your father. He owns the joint. You are strong-willed, have your own way of seeing things. He’s got his way, too. He is a father, though, and if there is one thing a father learns after 25 years of raising a clever daughter, it’s that he cannot possibly win by failing to see things your way. So he makes you a project coordinator and gives you a project: Take the shambles next door and turn it into a boutique motel. The 1977 Ogden House Motel is a place so unlovely that Scorsese cast it as Sharon Stone’s rock bottom. Within a few years you’ve helped turn it into a place where L.A. hipsters escape L.A. You work with brilliant architects (YWS) and designers (Heather Hassan) and they do not disappoint. From the shell of Ogden House you have made the Cabana Suites. It is Palm Springs in 1942, it is the midcentury Vegas dream, it is the geometry that remains when the cultural barnacles are scraped away. But for you it is also Paris, and Harlem, and all the places where you wandered and learned and thought about the ways aesthetics make place and place inspires people and people build community.

Community. That’s where your dreams are now. There is another dead building alongside the El Cortez. It used to be a medical center and then it was nothing. A young couple with a dream, Jennifer and Michael Cornthwaite, believe that an art center should be there. But the Cornthwaites don’t own the building. Your hotel owns the building. There is a recession on. Something is better than nothing. There is now a practicality to small-scale dreams that fill dead space with life. You take on the most unsung role in urban revival—the landlord who looks at a prospective tenant’s crazy dream and says, “Yes.” You keep the old medical signs on the wall. The place is called Emergency Arts. Art gets made here, and sold, along with old vinyl Dylan albums and first-rate coffee.

You take your morning coffee, you carry it across the street, up the red-carpet staircase, into the El Cortez executive offices, past the portraits of the rogues (the associates of Benny Siegel) and royalty (Jackie Gaughan, 89, who is downstairs at this very moment, growing a stack of blue chips) who have run the place.

You take your coffee into the boardroom. Your father is there. He greets you as a daughter, but also as an associate. He greets you as a creator of place where before there was only space, as the one who took on a project and turned it into a passion. – Greg Blake Miller

62

Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Photo by Tomas Muscionico

Alexandra Epstein

Vegas Seven’s Best of the City

BEST MinoR LEAGuE PLAyER—EvER

For more than a quarter-century, aspiring major leaguers have passed through Las Vegas (as Stars or 51s) on the final stop before “The Show.” Making the biggest impact in Major League Baseball after having spent a significant amount time at Cashman Field? We say that’s catcher Sandy Alomar Jr. The brother of likely Hall of Fame second baseman Roberto Alomar (who appeared in nine games for the Stars in 1988), Sandy played in the big leagues for nearly 20 years. Before becoming a six-time All-Star, Alomar was the Pacific Coast League’s two-time MVP in 1988-89. “I don’t think that’ll ever happen again—especially how players move around now,” says Jim Gemma, the Las Vegas 51s’ longtime media relations director.

BEST SiGn SPinnER

The standouts in an industry drive us forward and encourage us to work harder. To literally stand out … on a curb … in Vegas … in the summertime … and inspire everyone who drives by deserves recognition. The sign spinner often seen at Pecos Road and Wigwam Parkway touting “A Gentle Cleanse—Colon Hydrotherapy” is an inspiration.

Named Pelvis Cleansley and donned in full Elvis regalia with a guitar-shaped sign, he dances, gyrates and waves—and waves and waves. Once you get past the humorous getup and watch him a bit you realize that he is no joke; this man is a professional. Drive by again an hour later, and he’s still going, full-on, with the same energy as before. On another day, a different curb, in another costume and for another cause, the same dance and wave, never standing still, a regular good omen reminding us that if he can do it, we can do it.

BEST ACTiviST

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say Linda LeraRandle el deserves sainthood. Through her program, Straight From the Streets, she provides food, clothing, shelter and job leads for dozens of Las Vegas Valley homeless people in any given year. She builds their trust; taps into an informal network of nonprofit groups; churches, synagogues and mosques; and government agencies. She’s worked to defeat a Las Vegas city ordinance that criminalized the feeding of homeless people, and another that prevented people from sleeping in public parks, arguing that a caring, compassionate society embraces and cares for its weakest rather than subjecting them to Oscar Goodman-style bullying. Lera-Randle El sees the person behind the grimy face, the soul within the haggard body. And she appears to be the real thing. She doesn’t live in an expensive home or drive a luxury vehicle. In fact, she’s more likely to let a homeless family stay with her for a couple of nights than ask a potential donor for money, and you’ll find her driving Valley neighborhoods—day or night—seeking to help people that most of us ignore and fear.

Photo by Erik Kabik / Retna

BEST CiviL SERvAnT

When taxpayers complain about overpaid, underworked bureaucrats, it’s obvious they’ve never met Brenda erdos, chief legal counsel for the Legislative Counsel Bureau (LCB), who splits her time between Las Vegas and Carson City. She’s legendary for working 18-hour days during legislative sessions, parsing bills at midnight, e-mailing lawmakers and staff at 2 a.m., then appearing at her office desk at 8 a.m. During February’s special

legislative session, Erdos had worked a 15-hour day when she was asked to testify at 11 p.m. during a full session of the State Senate. Legislators, lobbyists and journalists were exhausted, but Erdos’ mind was crisp; her recall was sharp and explanations nuanced; her demeanor was good-natured. LCB’s 70-person Legal Division serves as the nonpartisan legal adviser to the Legislature, writing, researching and explaining every bill, every amendment under consideration. It also prosecutes, defends or intervenes in any action, lawsuit or any other judicial or administrative proceeding to protect the official interests of the Legislature. Erdos has worked nearly 30 years for LCB and almost 17 as the head of the Legal Division, and many lawmakers and co-workers fear the day when she retires. In fact, her bosses haven’t asked about her retirement plans, says one legislative source, because they fear her answer.

BEST RADio/Tv PERSonALiTy

Yes, Jon Ralston has the rapid-fire verbal pacing and East Coast aura of Joe Pesci circa 1990 (think Lethal Weapon 3 or Goodfellas), but it makes for good TV, and no one—no one—in Nevada print or broadcast journalism is better prepared for interviews. His conversations with Nevada politicians on Face to Face (KSNV Channel 3) have become fodder for national cable news outlets, with MSNBC, among others, replaying some of the juiciest cuts from his conversations with Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle and ex-John Ensign best buddy Doug Hampton. Ralston’s fearless, and he’s not afraid to lose access to newsmakers. Instead, he has the wisdom and experience to realize that his TV show, Las Vegas Sun column and daily e-newsletter force reluctant politicians, business executives and community leaders to appear when summoned.

If not, they’ll lose control of their message and face the wrath of Ralston, who’s never shy about ripping those who fail to appear on his program.

That said, don’t ever doubt the knowledge of this Cornell graduate who has an encyclopedic memory of Nevada politics—back to the late ’80s, at least.

He’s also the beneficiary of a first-rate TV producer, Dana Gentry, who’s equally knowledgeable and possibly even tougher.

Expert Opinion: Mayor Goodman’s very own Best of the City list

★

1 Best Place to Relive the Mob Days: Soon the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement will open. The “Mob Museum” will cover the entire story of the mob warts and all, and that’s great because many of the older properties where there was a [Mafia] presence have been imploded.

Until the museum opens, my favorite place to relive those memories is in my backyard.

★

2 Best vegas Martini Bar: My home. You have to have ice-cold Bombay Sapphire and a chilled glass with ice and two anchovy-stuffed olives on the side so that they don’t take up valuable gin space in the glass. It gets no better than that, especially when my wife, Carolyn, is imbibing with me.

Best Face of Las vegas That’s not My own: ★ Wayne Newton. I’m the happiest mayor in the 3

universe, but he is Mr. Las Vegas.

★

4 Best vegas Moment: It’s a tie between being elected the mayor three times by my beloved people of Las Vegas, and being able to watch the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Brain Institute and Smith Center for the Performing Arts rise out of the desert at Symphony Park.

★

5 Best vegas Landmark: The Stratosphere, because I can use it to help a cab driver find my house, no matter what my condition.

★

6 Best vegas Sports Betting Moment: I love to bet on which direction a cockroach will run. My largest bet on the cockroach was $1,000, and I lost!

★ Best vegas Myth: That there was a mob.

7

BEST PERSon To LEAD THE CiTy inTo THE FuTuRE

You. That’s right: You. If you really live here, stop listing your Facebook hometown as the place you came from. If someone asks you where you’re from, stop saying somewhere else. You’re a Nevadan, a Southern Nevadan, and it’s time for you to get involved. Stop complaining about the way things are done here. Quit lamenting “the lack of community.” You have the power to get involved in a community that’s crying out for greater involvement, to help those in need or speak up at meetings or help set the agenda for this region. This isn’t Chicago or Boston where families dominate because of generational ties that reach back 100-plus years.

This is a region of opportunity—even in these very difficult economic times—and there’s a seat at the table for a wide range of people, newcomers and old-timers. You simply have to want it. So turn off the TV. Close the laptop. Get to know your neighbors. Share your concerns. Attend a meeting or two. And speak up. At the very least, finally go down to the DMV and get a set of Nevada plates.

While you’re there, register to vote.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 63

Nightlife

Entertaining options for a week of nonstop fun and excitement.

Compiled by Melissa Arseniuk

Thur. 29 Get in touch with your inner Rastafarian as the city hosts two reggae festivals on one night. English-born reggae legend Pato Banton is at the Hard Rock Hotel to celebrate his 30 years of laid-back music and island-inspired tracks. The party transcends generations, and the show at Wasted Space begins at 10:15 p.m. (Doors at 9 p.m., $15 in advance or $20 at the door.)

Across town, irie beats sweep the Palms pool, as the Cruzan Campfire Concert Series welcomes Lady Reiko and the Sin City Prophets, ForTwentyDaze, HaleAmanO and One Pin Short. (Doors at 8 p.m., show starts at 9 p.m., $10.) The laid-back island sounds serve as an interesting pre-party for retro roller extravaganza Down & Derby, which hosts its RollerCon edition at Rain at 9 p.m. $5 cover, $5 skate rentals, RSVP downandderby.org.

Fri. 30 Clubbing can be a gong show in itself, so skip it and instead spend your Friday night at the Hard Rock Café on the Strip as the Bang the Gong Tour takes over. Headliners include Neon Trees, Paper Tongues, Civil Twilight and Imagine Dragons. Doors at 8 p.m., shows start at 9 p.m., $12 in advance or $15 at the door.

Imagine Dragons photo by Corlene Byrd

Sat. 31 Saturday night goes country as Toby Keith and Trace Adkins play the Pearl at the Palms. If you don’t want to spend the $89-$154 for a ticket, you can always head to Keith’s namesake bar and grill at Harrah’s and hope he pops by after the show. A better bet might be boxer Lennox Lewis, who hosts a post-fight party at Lavo.

No, he has no plans to lace-up the gloves himself—he’s leaving that to two Juans: Manuel Marquez and Diaz, who meet in the ring at Mandalay Bay Events Center. Lewis will be at the Palazzo hot spot regardless of who wins—and who knows who will stop by after the fight to celebrate (or drown their sorrows). Doors at 11 p.m., $30 for men, $20 for women, local ladies free.

SeveN NIghtS Sun. 1 It’s August and it’s hot, so if you’re going to spend the day outside, you might as well be by the pool. And if you’re going to be by a pool, you might as well make it a good one. Grab some SPF and head to Encore Beach Club, where Digital Lab Music and Oscar G entertain. (At Encore, doors at 11 a.m., $50 for men, $40 for women, local ladies free.) Later that night, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy personality Jai Rodriguez hosts and performs at Revolution, as part of Closet Sundays. At The Mirage, doors at 10 p.m., $20 cover, locals free.

Mon. 2 Sure, Sunday is synonymous with “pool” in Las Vegas—but that doesn’t mean you can’t spend most of Monday on a lounge chair (or better yet, in a cabana). Relax at the Hard Rock Hotel is always a good place to, well, relax (10 a.m.-7 p.m., no cover), but Bare at The Mirage has our vote today, as it hosts 944 magazine’s Camp Vegas pool party.

Doors at 11 a.m., $20 for men, free for women.

Tues. 3 He has worked with T.I., Swizz Beatz, Plies, Jadakiss, Fabolous and T-Pain, and tonight Maino is at the Palms. The Unstoppable Brooklyn, N.Y.-born-and-raised rapper takes to the booth at Moon as part of the weekly Bang! party. Doors at 10 p.m., $20 cover, local ladies free.

Wed. 4 It is the 317th anniversary of champagne (Dom Perignon invented the luxurious bubbly beverage in 1693) and this, of course, calls for celebration. Toast bubbly’s b-day by popping a bottle of Dom (priced from about $185 after tax at Lee’s Discount Liquor), or take things to a higher-brow level, and grab a sophisticated seat with the well-heeled crowd at Restaurant Guy Savoy’s champagne bar at Caesars Palace. Sure, a glass of champagne will cost between $22 and $75, but even the most expensive option is far cheaper than what it costs to have dinner in the country’s only Krug room (which will set you back $750 per person, six-person minimum—but if price is no option, make a reservation: 877-346-4642). When you consider these prices, a trip to the champagne room at the Spearmint Rhino is practically a deal—and talk about bang for your buck! 3344 S. Highland Dr., 24 hours, free admission when arriving by courtesy limousine, 966-2702 to arrange transportation.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 65

Nightlife

Tao | The veneTian

Upcoming july 29 | chris young’s birthday with shwayze, cisco adler and jason smith aug. 5 | worship thursday

66 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Photography by Jessica Blair

Nightlife

EncorE bEach club | EncorE

Photography by Brenton Ho

Upcoming aug. 1 | kaskade sunday featuring Oscar g aug. 2 | industry beach party aug. 8 | kaskade sunday featuring jasOn bentley

68 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

SEE VEGAS FROM OUR POINT OF VIEW OPEN NIGHTLY • Outdoor double-decker nightclub with two difference experiences.

• Featuring the hottest local DJs, celebrity appearances and guest DJs. • Indoor lounge with 180° view of Las Vegas.

Party 51 stOrIes hIgh at the best OutDOOr Party In Vegas For information & VIP reservations: 702.777.6875 or www.riolasvegas.com

Must be 21 or older to gamble. Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700. ©2010, Harrah’s License Company, LLC.

RV0-43

Nightlife

ghostbar | Palms

Photography by Jessica Blair

Upcoming july 29 | Soundbar featuring nickodemuS vS. vikter duplaix aug. 1 | goodlife Sunday with jordan StevenS

72 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Nightlife

Haze | aria

Photography by Jessica Blair

Upcoming july 29 | industry thursday aug. 5 | industry thursday

74 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Nightlife

r e e B Cocktail Culture

By Xania Woodman

Chocolate Chile Bohemia Beer Ice Cream If James Beard Award-winning chef Rick Bayless isn’t afraid to make ice cream with his Bohemia beer, then neither are we!

1 large pasilla negro chile, stemmed, seeded and de-veined 1 ¹⁄³ cups half-and-half 2 ounces Mexican chocolate, chopped into small pieces 3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into ¼-inch pieces 4 egg yolks ½ cup sugar 1 ¹⁄³ cups heavy whipping cream 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla, preferably Mexican ¼ cup Bohemia beer

Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Japan Hitachino Nest White Ale at Dragon Noodle Company, $10 The Belgian-style brand flagship has a light tangerine color and a tutti-frutti flavor reminiscent of clementines plus coriander, nutmeg and orange peel. Bartender Christina says she loves the citrusy notes of this Japanese craft-brew, also available in Weizen, Classic Ale, Ginger Brew and—another winner—Red Rice Ale, which has a rosy color, a strawberry, anise and eucalyptus nose, and a subtle, yeasty sake flavor. hitachinonest.com.

Italy Strada San Felice Italian Chestnut Ale at d.Vino, $15

it is completely cool. Stir in the heavy cream, vanilla and Bohemia then freeze in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s directions. Scrape into a freezer container and freeze for several hours to firm.

ChoColate-Covered Strawberry

78

Take an international beer crawl at Monte Carlo

A medium-bodied, dry-yetfruity and instantly addictive dark-amber chestnut ale brewed with wood-fired chestnuts from the famous chestnut-growing area of Piedmont. A standout from among d.Vino’s exceptional, foodfriendly Italian craft brew portfolio, which also includes Via Emilia Dry-Hopped Pale Lager, Re Ale Extra Italian IPA, and the Birrificio Barley Brewery selections: Friska Biere Blanche, Toccadibo Strong Golden Ale, and Sella del Diavolo Italian Amber Ale. gradoplato.it.

As served at Todd English P.U.B., $10

Germany

Tale as old as time: Tall, dark and stout meets a luscious, sweet redhead and—poof!—magic is made. It’s no different at Todd English’s P.U.B. at Aria, where the cocktail menu boasts—in addition to 50 varieties of beers, including two from casks—a beer “cocktail” as good as any dessert we’ve ever had. First, the bartender pulls half a pint of Fruli Strawberry Beer. This white Belgian wheat ale has been blended 70/30 with real, fresh strawberry juice for an intensely fruity flavor. This is then topped with a draught of Young’s Double-Chocolate English Stout, a classic and beloved liquid treat with deep, unmistakable chocolate notes as well as coffee, malted barley and oats. This Belgian/English union makes an ideal collaboration in the august name of International Beer Day (Aug. 5). But the magic, at least in this case, is in the physics, as the slightly effervescent Fruli immediately begins trying to work its way up into the Young’s. So every sip is like a bite of juicy, decadent chocolate-covered strawberry. Of course, you could also use a straw to go straight for the Fruli, but that would be called cheating.

Warsteiner Dunkel, on tap at the Monte Carlo Pub, $8 From Germany’s largest privately owned brewery, and second only in popularity to the Warsteiner Premium Verum, comes Warsteiner Dunkel, a dark and molasses-y international beer staple, which has been a product of the Cramer family since 1753.

All of Warsteiner’s beers are brewed in strict accordance with the “Reinheitsgebot,” the since-repealed Germany Purity Law of 1516, which states that beer is made from just three things: water, barley and hops.

Too bad Louis Pasteur wasn’t around then to teach the Bavarians about the existence of yeast. warsteiner.com.

Chocolate -Covered Strawberry photo by Anthony Mair

In a small skillet, toast the chile over medium heat, about 10 seconds per side. Place in a small saucepan and add the half-and-half and both chocolates; heat over medium until steaming (but not boiling). Remove from heat, cover and let steep for 10 minutes, then pour into a blender or food processor and puree.

Fill a 4-quart saucepan halfway with water, into which you should nestle a 3-quart stainless steel bowl. Bring the water to a boil over high heat while you’re preparing the custard base, then reduce to maintain a gentle simmer.

In the 3-quart bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar thoroughly, then add the chile-infused chocolate mixture. Set the bowl of custard base over the simmering water and whisk frequently, scraping down the sides of the bowl regularly with a rubber spatula until the mixture thickens noticeably (about 5 minutes). The custard is sufficiently cooked at 180 degrees. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean bowl.

Fill a large bowl halfway with ice. Nestle the bowl of strained custard in the ice bath. Whisk the mixture until

Beer Here!

(And There)

Nightlife

Drinking

How Low Can You Go?

A beer gut is a beer gut—not a whiskey gut or a vodka gut—regardless of what tasty beverage helped cause it. Whether the association is deserved or not is beside the point: Beer has become synonymous with weight gain while liquor has, for the most part, avoided similar connotations.

Yet considering a margarita can pack 600 Finding cocktails with fewer calories is an obtainable goal calories, perhaps it is time to develop a name for the doughy mass that can grow where your

By Michael B. Dougherty abs used to be. Maybe we should start referring to that lost battle of the bulge as “margarita muffin top.”

Tropicana beverage director Todd Kunesh began a quest for a “cool pool drink” two years ago, and the path led him to the Skinny Beach.

The seven-ounce, 100-calorie concoction is widely credited as being the first low-cal cocktail in Las Vegas.

“We started talking about what was going to work was something that wasn’t going to make everybody bloat up,” Kunesh says.

Comprised of TY KU liqueur, key lime, fresh-squeezed lime juice and a splash of club soda, the Skinny Beach appeals to those who want to watch their weight but not give up drinking altogether.

Initially, Kunesh didn’t know if his customers would embrace the cocktail or stick to more familiar (and high-calorie) drinks on the menu, but he says the drink was an instant hit.

“When I put it on the [drink] list, I was kind of [scratching] my head, going, ‘Ah, is this going to work?’ But it ended up being the No. 2-selling drink of [Mandalay Bay’s] whole pool season,” he says.

(Prior to joining the Tropicana, Kunesh worked across the Calorie Counts street as food and (one ounCe) beverage director.)

Between 22 and Grey Goose vodka, 69 26 percent of adult Captain Morgan spiced rum, 57 Nevadans are Patrón, 69 obese, according Jägermeister, 103 to a July 2009 U.S. Centers for Disease (eight-ounCe glass) Control report.

While it is relatively Mojitom, 196 easy to identify Lime margarita on the rocks, 280 caloric missteps at Strawberry daiquiri, 120 mealtime, the same Long Island iced tea, 467 cannot be said Piña colada, 616 about beverage choices.

Source: livestrong.com The average 80-proof distilled spirit (vodka, rum, whiskey) has about 100 calories per ounce-anda-half pour, but when you start adding flavor syrups, mixers and soda, many frosty beverages quickly approach Big Mac territory. Perennial pool favorites such as the mojito and piña colada are bona fide calorie bombs, with about 250 and 650 calories per six-ounce glass, respectively.

82 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Even the seemingly innocuous gin and tonic can pack 200 calories per seven-ounce glass, thanks to the surprising amount of sugar in the tonic water.

“Everybody wants more natural; everybody is becoming more health conscious,” Luxor beverage manager Nick Kabetso says. When he created a low-cal cocktail program for several of the casino’s lounges, including Liquidity and Aurora, it was less about being bikini-ready and more about being in line with the organic food movement.

His drink menu also makes good use of TY KU, and he substitutes soda water for tonic water and a squeeze of fresh fruit juice instead of sugary syrups to keep many of the drinks less than 100 calories.

Like his contemporary at the Tropicana, Kabetso thinks many patrons don’t realize how many calories they’re drinking. “I think [people] know they’re not the healthiest thing for them, as far as calorie count, but people don’t really look into them,” he says.

For resort bartender Darby Kelly, that haze is oftentimes a fog that obfuscates both sides of the bar. “I don’t see any bartenders who actually know what they can do to make a low-calorie cocktail,” he says.

Kelly recommends making simple syrup out of Splenda instead of sugar to cut calories, but he doesn’t think there is a demand for diet options such as that, or that low-calorie cocktails have much staying power in Las Vegas.

“I agree that people need to be paying attention to the calories they’re putting into their body, and I can understand when people want a cocktail that’s low-calorie,” he says. “But for us, we need to show them what that actually is.”

The proof, it turns out, is actually in the proof: Calorie count increases as the percentage of alcohol goes up. Ethanol (beverage alcohol) is metabolized as calories, so the higher the proof, the higher the calorie count.

You only need to go so far as the beer fridge to see the difference: A bottle of Amstel Lager has 132 calories and Amstel Light has 95 calories, and Miller Genuine Draft has 143 calories compared with MGD 64, which, of course, has 64.

While it’s generally true that darker beer has more calories than lighter beer, the color of a spirit generally has no correlation with its calorie count: Absolut Kurant has 69 calories, while bourbon has 65 calories.

A lot of people mistakenly think so-called “neutral spirits” such as vodka contain little to no calories, says Christine Bergman, associate dean and professor of the food and beverage management department at UNLV. “I don’t know where people get this stuff from,” she says.

“It makes me laugh.”

The solution? She suggests avoiding pre-made mixers and instead using diet sodas, sparkling water or asking for spirits on the rocks.

Of course you can cut back and simply not drink as much, but let’s face it: The chances of that are about as likely as … well, you tell me!

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Nightlife

Profile

Redefining Perfection Planet Perfecto falls to the Germans as ATB begins a monthlong takeover

By Melissa Arseniuk Paul Oakenfold takes a break from his Saturday night residency at Rain and hands the reins to André Tanneberger, a.k.a. ATB, on Aug. 7.

The German sensation plays four consecutive weeks of Perfecto as its legendary English headliner takes a hiatus.

ATB’s most recent record, Sunset Beach DJ Session, recently achieved Gold status. Now he talks to Vegas Seven about his plans for the Palms, Las Vegas and global DJ domination.

André Tanneberger is the No. 11 DJ in the world, according to DJ Magazine.

92 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

[Only if ] it’s possible to have a residency [while] also playing in other countries, or other cities. I would never just play in one residency or one city; I need the different experiences. I need different clubs. If [Oakenfold] would do [Perfecto] weekly, then it wouldn’t be special anymore. I think once a month is really good. [So] I will see what happens in August; I think we’ll go on from there. I don’t like to look too far in the future.

As you prepare for Perfecto, what’s your goal for the four-week stint?

To entertain the people and take the people on a journey.

For several years, whenever you’ve come to Las Vegas, you’ve only performed at the Palms.

Why are you so loyal to one property?

I like these guys. I’ve had really good experiences with them in the past. … I never thought about working with other people.

Would you ever consider doing a long-term residency in Las Vegas?

How do you think your version of Perfecto will differ from Oakenfold’s?

The music is different. He has his own style, he has his own unique way of playing his music, and I have [that] as well.

What do you think of Oakie’s live show?

I’ve never had the opportunity to see him [perform]. … I see him when we play in festivals, [but] it’s always a meet-and-greet—“Hey, how are you?” and some small talk.

What do you think the main differences of a Las Vegas crowd are, compared with a crowd in, say, Miami or London?

If [there’s any place that attracts] an international crowd, it’s Las Vegas. They are a bit more excited to be going out, and I think they are not the same as when they are at home. … You see all these shows, and all these lights and I think you get infected.

Is Las Vegas a difficult city to play in, compared with other cities?

It’s not that easy for a DJ to play in Vegas because when you’re here, everyone wants to have the biggest party of the year. … I love this challenge; I love it to try to get 100 percent of these people.

DJ Magazine last year ranked you as the No. 11 DJ in the world, and The DJ List has you in the No. 4 spot. What do you think about these DJ rankings? Do they matter?

I would lie if I say I don’t care about that. Anybody who says that it’s not [important] is not telling

the truth. Of course it’s kind of an indicator—the question is what indicator is it? I don’t think it’s an indicator [that] you’re a good DJ, or have a good technique or something like that. I think it’s a good indicator [that] you’ve done something right.

Are you doing any production work on other artists’ forthcoming albums?

I’m producing some different artists, [but] I can’t talk about that right now because I don’t want to give the artists’ names.

What’s the difference between the DJ in the top spot compared with the DJ in the 10th spot, or 50th spot, or 100th spot?

I don’t want to judge the DJs [and suggest that] if you’re not [in the] top 100, you’re not a good DJ. That’s not the way. I’m sure there are a lot of really good DJs on this planet who are not in the top 1,000 because they do not have the opportunity.

Oh, come on! Give us a hint about one of them—please?!

It just developed this year. I’ve known him for a couple of years, but we just started to work together.

You use the Pioneer CDJ-2000 exclusively.

What’s so special about that turntable?

I hate to play with CDs. … I don’t bring any CDs with me; [I have] my whole library on small USB sticks. The good thing about it [the CDJ-2000] is you don’t have to turn around, so when you’re searching for your music, you always can face the crowd. ... and I think the interaction between the DJ and crowd is really important.

How is the new album coming along?

I start to work in the studio at the end of this year, but right now I’m collecting ideas and searching for artists, for good voices to present. It’s a long-term process, but right now I’m starting with writing some melodies. … [The new record] is coming out the beginning of next year.

Last question: Another well-known German DJ, Paul van Dyk, recently renewed his wedding vows in Las Vegas. What are the chances of you and your wife walking down the aisle again while you’re here?

I’ve done it—three years ago! It was a funny experience. We have it on tape. It was one of the small chapels outside of the city—I think it was a really famous one, but I don’t remember the name anymore. It was cute and … a bit romantic.

ATB liMiTed residency AT rAin Aug. 7, 14, 21 and 28.

Doors at 11 p.m. $30 cover, local ladies free.

Tanneberger will get back in the studio by the end of the year.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 93

Nightlife

XS | EncorE

Photography by Brenton Ho

Upcoming aug. 1 | nightswim sunday aug. 2 | industry monday aug. 8 | nightswim sunday

98 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

CELEBRATING 5 YEARS IN LAS VEGAS

AUGUST 13TH -15TH

ENCORE WYNN LAS VEGAS | WYNN LAS VEGAS

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Arts & Entertainment art

Brush With Greatness?

Dennis Oppenheim’s paintbrush gateway to the Arts District set to open

By Abigail R. Esman

“The Paintbrushes” were assembled by La Paloma Fine Art in Sun Valley, Calif.

When artist Dennis Oppenheim, renowned for his challenging and often-ironic works, looks at Las Vegas, he sees a landscape whose image has real substance. “It has this sort of ring to me, this feeling of exuberance and excess and intoxication, of fantasy in the desert,” he says.

So when the opportunity arose in spring 2007 to design a gateway to Las Vegas’ 18b Arts District, his imagination took off.

After three years of work, the result will be unveiled Aug. 11 at 7 p.m. Two 45-foot-tall paintbrushes along Charleston Boulevard between Las Vegas Boulevard and Casino Center Drive will beam colored spotlights 1,600 feet into the sky. The lights will cross paths and create a virtual arch over the district. The paintbrushes, each of which cost $350,000, are built from galvanized steel. Colored LED lights are strung along the shaft and form the bristles at the tip of the brush; each bristle terminates in custom-designed searchlights.

Light is a relatively new element in Oppenheim’s work, one most would not have anticipated given his

early projects, which were largely earthworks and performances. However, Oppenheim says, “Searchlights have always captivated me ever since I was a young boy seeing them streak across the sky.”

In recent years Oppenheim has started to incorporate the color and rhythmic potential that light can bring to a massive object, creating not just “light” in the sense of illumination, but a sense of “lightness” as well. (The light “fountains” designed for the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston is one such example.)

As is often the case in public art projects, it was a struggle to reconcile the artist’s vision with budget limitations and the needs of the project committee. In October 2007, the Arts District committee in charge of the gateway project selected Oppenheim on the basis of a different proposal altogether, one reflecting his childhood fondness for Reno’s Virginia Street arch: two paint buckets pouring into one another, creating a rainbow of light above the district entryway. After Oppenheim’s selection, however, the paint-bucket project turned out to be well beyond the budget the city

had stipulated in its request for proposals. Oppenheim returned to his TriBeCa, N.Y., studio to sketch alternatives, and “The Paintbrushes” were born.

In the Arts District community, some who were enthusiastic about the initial paint-bucket design wound up frustrated by the process. “I was just confused,” says Marty Walsh, owner of the Trifecta Gallery in the Arts Factory. “He was chosen for the other project. At the same time, when you think of where we were seven years ago, I truly am excited we’re getting this gateway and that people are celebrating the Arts District.”

In the end, the site-specific nature of this installation—its relationship to the Las Vegas landscape, atmosphere and mythology—succeeds. Indeed, that connection to the city, combined with Oppenheim’s genuine enthusiasm for the project, make it one of the most dynamic and exciting ventures in the 71-year-old artist’s career, which has included installations for the city of Los Angeles and Foley Square (New York), and exhibitions at New York’s Whitney Museum and London’s Tate Modern Gallery.

Continued on page 116 July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 115

Arts & Entertainment

Art

Tailor-Made Art

An architect brings his eye for detail to his new career as a painter

By T.R. Witcher

Dennis Oppenheim

This might be the aesthetic at its most audacious—the willful subjugation of curves to lines.

His latest concept, “Splot,” is a series of paintings where the brush strokes are far more random and, as the name sort of suggests, splotchy.

“It’s not as structured as other pieces,” he says, but even here there is a sort of underlying pattern of scale. (You get the sense that Thieme is the kind of guy who doesn’t like his food to mix on the plate.)

Thieme’s paintings change size and color, but the underlying concept remains the same. It is, basically, bespoke design.

Want a “Pixel” motif in a particular color scheme, with brush strokes at a particular size, on a canvas of particular dimensions? Thieme can deliver it for you.

If that sounds a bit more mechanical than what we think of as art, it’s helpful to understand Thieme’s larger ambition. “When people see one of my images and recognize it as Mikel Patrik, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do—I’m creating a brand.” Already he’s licensed his images to a carpet manufacturer in New Jersey to make luxury rugs. And he plans to extend the Patrik brand into purses and jewelry.

Michael P. Thieme in his space at Emergency Arts.

Now that he’s turned the corner, he says he’s willing to consider part-time work as an architect, but “I don’t really envision myself going to work for another firm.” Besides, he’s just at the ground floor of his new life as an artist. “I’ll probably never be done with this,” he says. “There are so many variations to explore.”

Paintbrushes Continued from page 115

Though he anticipates that critics might disparage “The Paintbrushes” as “too spectacular,” Oppenheim shrugs them off. “I didn’t think of the word ‘spectacle’ when I created the piece. But it could be used. ... I’m operating in an environment of spectacles. It’s a city of spectacles, one spectacle after another, where everyone is trying to create something more spectacular than the other, all competitive based on what fantasy one can bring forth.”

And fantasy they are, these paintbrushes, creating imaginary images in celestial space. “In a way they’re kind of obvious,” Oppenheim concedes. “How else would you define an art district than a paintbrush?” Some Las Vegans, in fact, have criticized the work precisely for this 116

Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

reason. But Oppenheim sees far more in the design, and in its meaning. “There’s a mystery to what a paintbrush can do,” he says. “Once you move it across the surface, it has a voyage; you’re holding it, you’re steering it, but it has the potential to surprise you as it commingles with paint on the canvas or paper. So projecting it into the sky, this dark sky, in my mind brought in this mystique, this mystery of the paintbrush projecting into darkness, not knowing exactly where it’s going and what it can run into, what it can illuminate.”

Abigail R. Esman is an award-winning freelance writer specializing in art and design. She is based in New York and the Netherlands.

Michael P. Thieme photo by Bryan Hainer

When Michael P. Thieme moved to Las Vegas in 2005, he did so as an architect. He joined SH Architecture and helped design, among other buildings, the cutting-edge Cashman Equipment building on St. Rose Parkway. A year and a half later he’d moved on to interior design firm Parker Scaggiari and was involved in an ambitious renovation of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Then the economy tanked, and the architect was out of work.

So the 34-year-old turned to a lifelong passion for painting and within months reinvented himself by launching a new design brand, Mikel Patrik.

The name is, he says, a sexier version of his own first and middle names, and he plans to turn it into a visual brand. The first step is through his canvas.

Thieme’s work is precise and geometric—he is particularly interested in the order in which he applies paint onto his canvas—and the results are almost as if his paintings have been created digitally on a computer. He cites prolific designer Max Bill and Dutch painter Piet Mondrian as influences; the geometric-inspired canvasses of the latter, in particular, seem to figure in Thieme’s work.

“Being an architect, I have to have a concept,” he says. “I don’t paint pretty pictures.” These concepts are like design templates around which he can create a variety of similar paintings. His first series of paintings were based on a concept he called “Pixel,” which is a canvas of exact, small rectangular brush strokes. The work, in its careful attention to detail—Thieme uses grid lines to plan the dimensions of the strokes in advance—is like a larger version of pointillism.

But here, he’s making no underlying picture. The geometric patterns are the picture. His other concepts are more ambitious. “Strata” features simple vertical or horizontal lines of varying widths and colors.

“Stitch” combines horizontal and vertical lines on one canvas to produce subtle and complex patterns, including a series of arresting squared-off spirals.

Reading Bookini

Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story

By M. Scott Krause Satire is never easy, but it’s a particularly tough sell during the summer months. By mid-July, most everyone is ready to turn off their brains and enjoy some passive entertainment. But before you gorge yourself on techno-thrillers and chick lit, or pickle your cortex with frozen margaritas, do yourself a favor and consider adding Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story (Random House, $26) to your beach bag.

Without being pedantic, it’s exceedingly clever, extremely insightful and frequently funny. If you’re a fan of The Daily Show or a compulsive reader of The Onion, Super Sad True Love Story is as much a must-have as SPF 50 sunscreen.

It’s a truly enjoyable, near-effortless read. In the end, you’ll feel smarter for having tackled it.

Pity poor Leonard Abramov. His job at Post-Human Services requires him to engage HNWIs (High Net Worth Individuals) interested in Indefinite Life Extension. On an unsuccessful business trip to Rome, Lenny meets Eunice Park, a Korean art student who reminds him of “a very young Asian Audrey Hepburn.” She’s out of his league and they both know it, but that doesn’t prevent Lenny from being immediately smitten, and trying to coax Eunice to return home and meet his parents. Meanwhile, our economy is a mess; China is the superpower in charge; and the American Restoration Authority is firing on homeless people in Central Park. Everyone who is anyone carries a device called

an äppärät, which not only contains your user profile (annual income, vital statistics, religious/sexual preferences, recent purchases) but also streams your rankings (personality, sexual desirability, sustainability) to the immediate community. Is Shteyngart making fun of us?

You bet. Is it worth it? Absolutely.

Shteyngart was born in Leningrad, but emigrated to the United States when he was 7 years old. Although his parents spoke only Russian at home, and deprived Shteyngart of television for a number of years, he’s become a canny observer with a deep understanding of our language and popular culture. Super Sad True Love Story takes our obsession with consumerism, status and social networking to its illogical (and hilarious) extremes, and expertly skewers them all.

M. Scott Krause lives in Arizona and writes about books, film and television.

The LIbrarIan Loves ...

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

We live in a rush-rush world, bombarded by the latest news, celebrity gossip and political ads; we’re pulled by trends and pushed by an erratic economy. Slow down, take a break and turn to your contemplative side with Vietnamese monk and Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh’s Living Buddha, Living Christ (Riverhead Trade, 2007). Nhat Hanh ties Christianity and Buddhism together through his examination of mindfulness. He points out that it is an integral part of all religious practice and offers suggestions about how we can use both religions to cultivate it. During this scorching weather, take a long, cool spiritual sip.

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 117

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

Music Soundscraper

Blogocracy

Music blogs transfer taste-making from the elites to the masses, but some blogs are more equal than others

By Mikey Francis It’s no secret that times are tough for music magazines.

Ever since the Internet, music fans have been shifting the ways in which they learn about music. Music blogs, with their ability to deliver much more than words, seem to be at the forefront of that exploration. Whether they are simple, one-man operations or fully staffed online companies, music blogs give everybody a voice.

Many of you have heard of the Chicago-based online music powerhouse known as Pitchfork. With more than 1.9 million visitors per month, Pitchfork is the leading online authority on independent music. With in-depth music reviews, A-list interviews, creative video programs and even its own summer music festival,

Pitchfork has paved the way for the smaller music blogs.

There may never be another online music source as big and powerful as Pitchfork, but countless new music blogs are always popping up across the Internet.

With so much to choose from, the question arises, where do you start? I have sifted through the blogosphere and handpicked five of my personal favorite blogs to help you get started on your path to discovering the some of the best new music in existence. No matter which of these blogs fit your musical personality, you will be able to find what you are looking for at your fingertips. Of course, you can always visit rollingstone.com or spin.com if you miss mainstream music magazines.

TOO Many SeBaSTianS This tastemaker blog started in a bedroom in 2007 and has been steadily gaining a following of electronic music lovers ever since. Too Many Sebastians features some of the best new singles, mixtapes, remixes, interviews and music videos from all types of electronic music. Recently featured artists include Two Door Cinema Club, Cut Copy, Devo and Alan Braxe. toomanysebastians.net

Le BLOgOTheque The Parisian music blog that conceptualized the original live-music video program known as “Take Away Shows” has been collaborating with some of the best indie artists in the business since April 2006. On a weekly basis, Le Blogotheque films an artist’s live performance in the streets, subways, elevators, parks, flats and bars of Paris and beyond. Everything is improvised and filmed on the go, capturing the spontaneous and raw nature of the performance. Some artists recently featured on Le Blogotheque include Yeasayer, Jamie Lidell and Yo La Tengo. blogotheque.net/-Concerts-a-emporter-?lang=en (This link is to the English version of the site.)

RCRD LBL This blog features free, legal downloads of singles and remixes from the hottest emerging artists in all genres on a daily basis. You can sign up to receive their “RCRD of the Day” daily newsletter, which will give you a taste of brand-new music in your inbox each morning. Since 2007, RCRD LBL has partnered with major labels and music-related corporations, and has turned itself into a premier music blog for online music distribution, reaching more than a million downloads and plays per month. Some artists recently featured on RCRD LBL include Solar Bears, These New Puritans, Tiga and Sleigh Bells. rcrdlbl.com

DiSCO DuST Like the name suggests, this is a music blog featuring anything and everything related to electronic music. This bedroom-operated blog is an excellent source for DJs and music fans looking to spice up a dance floor with some funky, friendly, obscure electronic jams. The blog features some interviews, but mostly posts new singles and remixes. Disco Dust has recently posted about artists Jump Jump Dance Dance, D.A.M.B., Elite Gymnastics and Worship. discodust.blogspot.com

STOney ROaDS Stoney Roads is a small but up-and-coming music blog based out of Sydney that features mostly indie dance music singles, remixes, interviews and music videos. In addition to the joy of streaming Stoney Roads’ musical choices, the images alone are worth a visit. Some of the music covered recently on Stoney Roads includes new tracks from Midnight Juggernauts, Diplo and Don Diablo, Goldhawks and Bag Raiders. stoneyroads.com Mikey Francis is the producer and lead vocalist for the band Afghan Raiders. Read his music blog at afghanraiders.com.

120 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Of wallabies, rodents and the triumphant return of glam metal

By Jarret Keene When I think of intriguing live music encounters of the ’80s kind, I don’t usually consider The Monte Carlo. My opinion changes with this week’s lineup of former new waver/ Men at Work frontman Colin Hay ( July 30) and L.A. glam-metal act Ratt (Aug. 5).

Before you laugh, I urge you to secure a (sadly outof-print) CD copy of 1990’s Wayfaring Sons, recorded by the Colin Hay Band. This little saw the ScottishAustralian singer/songwriter ditching synthesizers in favor of Celtic sounds, vocal chants and acoustic instrumentation. I’ve always marveled at how Sons blended electric guitars and mandolin riffs two full years before R.E.M. would dominate the Grammy noms with “Losing My Religion.”

If all you know are his Men at Work hits, you’ll still enjoy Hay’s recent material, much of which comes from 2009’s excellent American Sunshine, which he cut with a bunch of Nashville studio musicians.

Again, don’t laugh, but have you heard Ratt’s latest album, Infestation? It’s darn good! Released in April, this 11-track return-to-form studio effort finds lead screecher Stephen Pearcy and guitarists Warren DeMartini and Carlos Cavazo (formerly of Quiet Riot) mining the Hollywood sleaze-rock territory of their first two classic records Out of the Cellar and Invasion of Your Privacy. Infestation has earned many perfect reviews from mainstream and metal publications, and tracks such as the catchy, driving, street-tough “Eat Me Up Alive” are so perversely enjoyable you can practically hear Pearcy’s boner snapping Colin hay the stitches of his leather pants. I’m not big on glam rock (though I adore Europe’s “The Final Countdown”—who doesn’t?), but Ratt seems to have discovered the fountain of glam-rock youth. You might, too, at this show.

Now for the grittier alt-rock events. Early on, I’d dismissed Neon Trees as a Killers clone; I was only half right. The Provo, Utah, band puts on fiercely charismatic performances, and the vocal interplay and harmonies between frontman Tyler Glenn and ass-whupping drummer chick Elaine Bradley. Glenn’s an especially powerful singer who sounds best live. The band blows up Hard Rock Café July 30 with my favorite Vegas act, Imagine Dragons. At the Beauty Bar Aug. 5, Tokyo Police Club, Canadian indie-rockers who sound like a rickety version of The Strokes.

Don’t let your cool local band appear in the pages of a lesser magazine. Contact jarret_keene@yahoo.com.

Comic Genius!!”

“

CBS-TV, Mark S. Allen

, Peter Travers

ALT-CATHOLIC

The Innocence Mission My Room in the Trees (Badman) No other dream-pop band has so perfectly and exquisitely captured the essence of an untroubled childhood with all its persistent mystery and fleeting beauty better than Lancaster, Pa.’s The Innocence Mission. Singer Karen Peris has the loveliest, purest, most girlish voice in the world. To hear her outline the smallest details of a kid’s private sphere, in which “the imaginary dogs beside us / are old friends, they will speak to you” (“The Happy Mondays”), is an exercise in quasi-melancholy nostalgia. I made the mistake of spinning this CD while viewing some old digitized Super 8s of my family in Florida, and had to dab my eyes repeatedly with a tissue—this from someone who considers himself a callous metalhead! Yes, the Mission mixes in religious lyrics (see “God Is Love”), but it’s nothing John Lennon would’ve eschewed. If you enjoy textured, chiming guitars à la The Smiths, and gorgeous vocals with a subtle Christian bent, this album will haunt you. ★★★★★

“Steve Carell is a Comic Wonder.

Paul Rudd is Terrific.” ‘‘

Outrageously Funny!’’

FOX-TV, Shawn Edwards

GERMAN ELECTRONIC

Klaus Schulze Volumes III and IV (Revisisted/SPV) Before electronic music was kidnapped by psychedelic discothèques, New Age charlatans and Muzak terrorists, visionaries such as German musician Klaus Schulze explored the genre in artistic and challenging ways. The former Tangerine Dream member’s limited-edition ’70s-era output, mostly solo live performances throughout Europe, has been reissued/repackaged, with the third and fourth volume in the series just released in the States. Liner notes, by music historian Darren Bergstein and Schulze manager Klaus Mueller, vividly contextualize the recordings, which are epic in scope and pristine in quality. “I Sing the Body Electric,” inspired by the Ray Bradbury sci-fi story collection of the same name, is the 50-minute highlight, full of oscillating coldness and darkly soaring synth textures. Never mind if your roommates complain of rattling kitchen appliances; you know in your heart that what you’re hearing is atmospheric, deeply spiritual music. If you care at all about electronica and its European roots and history, this is mandatory. ★★★★★

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INDIE-ROCK

Arcade Fire The Suburbs (Merge) Everything you need to know about suburban existence—the mass conformity, the creeping isolation and more—can be found in Canadian rock band Rush’s incredible song “Subdivisions.”

Fellow Canadians Arcade Fire don’t know this, and launched a fruitless mission to make a profound statement in the wake of Neon Bible, a Springsteen-influenced, Grammy-nominated, best-selling indie-rock album from 2007 that offered a blistering critique of American TV preachers/con men and other soft targets. Frontman/songwriter Win Butler was born in the U.S. and, despite living in Canada for years, remains angry about how easy he had it growing up here. The Suburbs is gloomy, tedious, offering little in the way of joy and much in the thrall of Elliott Smith (for instance, the title track) and, yep, the Boss (“Half Light II”). “City With No Children” almost gathers some rock-ish momentum, but is ultimately ruined

by Butler’s attempt to sound like a blue-collar folkie when in fact, and you can tell by listening, he’s anything but. Nice try, guys, but I’ll stick with Rush. ★✩✩✩✩ July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 123

Arts & Entertainment

Movies

Cinema Without the Cineplex Why Video-on-Demand is the future your movie theater doesn’t want you to know about

On an average week, about eight films are released theatrically in the U.S. Of those eight, only two will open at your local cineplex regardless of which podunk suburb you’re trapped in. Three will open in “limited release,” which means they’ll get shown only in the top five to 15 “major markets” (i.e., cities such as Chicago and San Francisco), before gradually “rolling out” to smaller markets (if they do well at the box office). The remaining three movies will open in New York and/or Los Angeles.

In practice, this means that Las Vegans who want to see Nicholas Winding Refn’s latest film, Valhalla Rising, will have to put it in their Netflix queue or wait to purchase it on DVD. This out-of-date distribution model excludes millions from seeing 75 percent of new films.

But technology has brought a potential new solution: streaming video-on-demand (VOD) movies the same day they are released in cinemas.

The industry is full of bellowing Cassandras who believe that this form of distribution will bring down cinema chains. Theater companies have threatened to cease releasing a specific studio’s films if they dare deliver titles through VOD on the same day a film opens in cinemas.

Magnolia Picture’s daring Magnet division recently drew the battle lines. It took advantage of the FCC’s April ruling allowing studios to stream films in advance 124 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

of theatrical release, and they ran George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead at a premium price on VOD Amazon and XBOX LIVE a month before it hit the cinemas.

Blood is in the water.

Ten years ago, the typical lag time on DVDs was six months after release. Earlier this year, Europe’s top cinema chain Odeon boycotted Disney’s Alice on Wonderland due to the studio’s plan to release the DVD 12 weeks after the film’s theatrical premiere. Now, 12 weeks is the standard lag time for a DVD release after a theatrical premiere, and 28 days is the lag time for rentals or streaming through companies such as Netflix and Redbox. I predict that by the end of the year, the timeline will shrink even more.

Blu-ray discs have momentarily juiced up flagging DVD sales, but the market is slipping. Disney is now looking ahead to online distribution, but they’re already behind multi-platform production and distribution companies such as IFC, Magnolia and Variance Films.

EpixHD, (a company jointly owned by Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM) is an online premium movie channel that delivers stockpiled films over the Internet as HD-quality VOD. Viewers can even “share” movies with fellow subscribers to watch the same film from as many as four different locations. EpixHD’s chief digital officer Emil Rensing paradoxically defended the aggressive stance that theater chain owners are taking against day-of-release VOD movies.

On the other hand, Variance Films President Dylan Marchetti doesn’t think simultaneous day-of-theatricalrelease and VOD will become an industry-wide

practice. Though he does think it’ll help indie filmmakers find a national audience.

“I think it works in the indie world,” Marchetti says.

“And we’ve seen hard figures that show theatrical box office isn’t hurt by VOD availability most of the time on independent/arthouse films. But for big Hollywood films?

I have a hard time believing the major theater chains are going to let that happen—that’s a mighty risk. What if Twilight were available on VOD [on the same] day and date? Would you see millions of people hitting the theater at 12:01 on Tuesday? No chance, and everyone knows it.”

In my mind, though, VOD is already poised to serve the full spectrum of blockbuster, foreign and independent films. Hollywood is dying, and charging audiences 50 percent more to see a movie in mediocre 3-D isn’t going to save it. Someone traveling on an airplane is just as likely to take a chance on Lisa Cholodenko’s film The Kids Are All Right on the day it comes out as they are to watch Date Night, weeks after it premiered. iPad users in Las Vegas might want to watch J. Blakeson’s The Disappearance of Alice Creed on their device the day it opens in New York and Los Angeles, even though it’s not playing at a local cinema. I also believe that just as many hormone-raging girls would plan a Twilight slumber party on the day the movie comes out, as they would fill cinema seats. It all comes down to creating an additional income stream for an out-of-balance industry. In the early ’80s MTV’s slogan was, “I want my MTV.” For the next generation of movie audiences it’s, “I want my VOD!” Read more about movies at colesmithey.com.

Illustration by Hernan Valencia

By Cole Smithey

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Arts & Entertainment

Movies

Designer Love A love affair between two modern greats makes for a genius movie

By Rex Reed It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a film as sumptuous as Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky. Exquisitely designed, lushly photographed and beautifully acted, this historic footnote to the secret lives of two of the most brilliant and fascinating people of the 20th century is absolutely mesmerizing. Who knew they were lovers?

Paris, 1913. Opening night of the Ballets Russes at the Champs-Élysées Theatre and the historic world premiere of The Rite of Spring by a revolutionary new Russian composer named Igor Stravinsky, a refined but destitute refugee living in exile. For music lovers of the haute bourgeois, weaned on Strauss and Tchaikovsky, it was like a stink bomb tossed into the middle of Maxim’s. The re-creation of the production’s pagan rites, replete with the visual splendors in décor, costumes and sets, is overwhelming. And so is the reaction, with Diaghilev and Nijinsky and the giants of the dance world dashing madly about in a hysterical panic as the hisses and boos began to swell less than five minutes after the curtain rose. Here was choreography staged in jerks and angles, accompanied by atonal percussion, violent brass and sawing strings, which elicited screams of “Outrage!” and “Go back to Russia!” The ensuing riot that brought the police was considered a major scandal, but at least one member of the audience was enthralled.

Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel—the brittle, stylish, sharply critical, opinionated and demanding French fashion icon who was already taking the world by storm—was so intrigued that she made an early decision to turn the married Stravinsky into her live-in lover for however long it might amuse her. They didn’t meet until 1920, but the mutual attraction was so immediate that the wealthy couturier invited the penniless composer, his tubercular wife and their four children to live in her majestic country villa, Bel Respiro, where the luxury of peaceful gardens and fresh air offered a beatific escape for Igor to work creatively on his music (and to steal conveniently into her bed chamber at all hours for mad passion).

So much largesse in such close proximity leads to an inevitable affair that lasted for decades. Torn between love and loyalty for his ailing wife Catherine and his sexual addiction to Coco, the fabulous darling of Paris society, Stravinsky almost loses his sanity. Both lovers were non-conformists, geniuses in their originality, and seminal in their separate careers. While the film heatedly charts the sexual acrobatics in their relationship, it also parallels the way they inspired each other’s finest achievements: Long after the sex ended, she secretly financed his triumphant revival of The Rite of Spring in 1947, even designed the costumes with Stravinsky himself conducting. He encouraged the demanding, uncompromising precision with which she created the 80 ingredients in her signature Chanel No. 5, basing its modernism on Stravinsky’s music and the bottle on a cubic design by their friend Picasso.

With painstaking accuracy and attention to detail, Dutch-born director Jan Kounen re-creates the differ126 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

ences and similarities in two very difficult artists and their methods of working.

He never began a composition with paper, but with notes transferred from brain to keyboard.

She never began a design with sketches, but had to feel the fabric with her fingertips. His passion only intensified, but she remained too strong, self-reliant and willful to become any man’s mistress. At one point, someone remarks that “She makes even grief seem chic.” There’s plenty of tragedy, but nobody ever looked better in black.

Too bad someone has yet to make a movie about Stravinsky. He was the more interesting of the two—ending up in Hollywood, pals Adultery never looked (or sounded) so good: Mads Mikkelsen and Anna Mouglalis. with Jean Cocteau, George Balanchine, Happily, the film’s gorgeous look is perfectly matched Thomas Mann, and faithfully served by the perfection of the actors.

Christopher Isherwood and Charlie Chaplin, conductAnna Mouglalis is a revelation as the fashion revolutioning at the Hollywood Bowl, decorated by Pope Paul VI ary who brought women into the modern world. Tall and after a concert at the Vatican, arrested in Boston for his ravishing, she looks nothing like the short, butch little wild orchestration of the American national anthem, Coco in photos who resembled Edith Head. No mention dining with President John F. Kennedy. He has his own is made of her Nazi sympathies in World War II or her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I wanted more of other love affairs with the celebrated and the infamous. him, less of her.

But her mixture of steely toughness and cool beauty is an Still, there’s enough material here to make up for Art Deco delight. Less fully developed as a character but any biographical oversights, and the visual opulence equally riveting as a presence is the Danish star Mads takes the breath away. The cameras take you to the Mikkelsen, a handsome, brooding Heathcliff of a hunk actual lab in Grasse where the vials of perfume were who made a big splash as the dynamic villain in the tested endlessly before Chanel chose the one marked James Bond movie Casino Royale. Any movie about two of “No. 5” and the burnished splendor of the Champsthe most dazzling influences on art and culture the world Élysées Theatre where Stravinsky made his shocking has ever produced has a lot riding on its stars. This one is debut. Pages of production notes have been dedicated lucky to spotlight two actors who live up to every demand to the research archives and generosity of Karl imposed by the subject matter. But everything works Lagerfeld and the House of Chanel that provided real miraculously here, making Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky clothes worn by Chanel and made filming possible in one of the most bountiful experiences of the year.

Coco’s country manor in Garches as well as granting full access to her world-famous apartment at 31 Rue Cambon in Paris.

Rex Reed is the movie critic for the New York Observer.

Arts & Entertainment

Movies

Attend This Dinner Paul Rudd and Steve Carell crack wise in a funny French remake

By Cole Smithey Great comic pairings don’t come along often. Yet, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd strike a snappy chemistry as straight-man Tim Conrad (Rudd) to funnyman Barry Speck (Carell) in Dinner for Schmucks, an adaptation of Francis Veber’s César Award-winning Le Diner du Cons (1998).

Career-climber Tim join his boss and associates for a parlor-game-disguisedas-private-dinner. For the monthly contest, an elite group of businessmen dine at company president Lance Fender’s (Bruce Greenwood) mansion where its members invite the most idiotic person they can find. You’ve heard of “blaming the victim,” well here’s a concealed contest that’s more along the lines of “humiliate the geek.”

Entering Tim’s world of economic high hopes is mouse taxidermist-artistextraordinaire Barry, who attaches himself to Tim like a tic on a dog. Carell’s dentally altered character walks a fine line

between innocent and intent as he accidentally but systematically upends Tim’s life.

It’s in this detailed fantasy world that we glimpse Barry’s gentle soul, however juvenile it might me. Barry’s misquote of a John Lennon song (“You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not”) exposes the autistic nature of Barry’s social skills. He might be a “tornado of destruction” but the character never carries the malice associated with dark comedies.

Through a series of laugh-inducing attempts at helping Tim with his girlfriend troubles, Barry opens up countless comic possibilities. During an expensive luncheon between Tim and the German millionaire couple he seeks as clients, Barry unexpectedly shows up with Tim’s stalker ex-girlfriend Darla (played with kooky acuteness by Lucy Punch). The

From left: Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, Rick Overton and Jeff Dunham.

exchange of a cloth napkin with “I’m wet” written in lipstick is enough to ignite a chain of laughter that swells as the scene progresses when Tim’s would-be fiancée (Stephanie Szostak) arrives.

Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers) strategically builds toward the film’s promised climax dinner scene with a steady flow of physical and situational humor that goes over the top without alienating the audience. The inclusion of Ron Livingston (Office Space) as one of Tim’s unsavory

business associates places the film in a specific world of irony that is reinforced with zingy supporting efforts by Zach Galifianakis and Jemaine Clement.

The reason to watch Dinner for Schmucks is to enjoy two great comedians working off one another in a vaudeville style that is as fresh today as when Laurel and Hardy did it decades ago. Here’s one Hollywood comedy that actually makes you laugh.

Dinner for Schmucks (PG-13)

★★★✩✩

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I-15 & BLUE DIAMOND ROAD • S I LV E R T O N C A S I N O . C O M 128 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

The Last Airbender (PG-13) ✩✩✩✩✩

Battlefield Earth has a new rival for the title “Worst Film of the Last 20 Years.”

M. Night Shyamalan extracts melodramatic performances from his largely child cast in a 3-D movie that works best unseen. The gobbledygook plot follows Aang (Noah Ringer), a monklike child who can control water with his kung fu moves.

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 add insult to the injury of its inflated ticket price.

Cyrus (R)

★★★✩✩

“Third act failure” hobbles what might have been a rewarding dark comedy by sibling co-writer/directors Jay and Mark Duplass. John C. Reilly plays John, a loser who meets Molly (Marisa Tomei), whose adult home-schooled son, Cyrus ( Johah Hill), she vainly tries to keep secret. Cyrus is a movie that gets you to root for its damaged-good characters.

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

The latest film in the Twilight franchise is the best so far. 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.

MovIe TIMeS

Toy Story 3 (G)

★★★★✩

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.

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

July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 131

Dining

Lavo’s revamped dining areas provide a warm, stylish atmosphere.

Lavo Love

Yes, our food critic fell for the meatballs, and the rest of the Palazzo restaurant’s menu, too

By Max Jacobson

At first I was confused by the slogan on the billboard advertising Lavo at the Palazzo: “If you like our dumplings, you’ll love our meatballs.” Well, Lavo doesn’t serve dumplings. Later, it was explained to me that Lavo is part of the Tao Group, whose Tao restaurant/nightclub next door at the Venetian does have dumplings.

This is worth knowing because Tao is the No. 1 grossing independent restaurant in the United States, and Lavo is projected to finish No. 7 this year. It’s obvious, then, that somebody up there knows what the people want.

A former Lavo chef, the super-talented Ludovic Lefebvre, did creatively bizarre stuff such as deconstructed Bloody Marys and Reuben-stuffed knishes, but the concept didn’t quite fit.

Now, Brooklyn native John DeLoach, also a terrific talent,

has converted the kitchen into an outpost of classic red-sauce Italian. The bachelor parties, models and tourists now flocking to the restaurant don’t mind one bit.

The dining areas have undergone a partial makeover as well.

The Byzantine chandeliers remain, but now there is lots of red brick in place of green Moorish tiles, which clash less with the dark leather upholstery. If you include the upstairs nightclub, the cost, Mr. Bond, is about $20 million.

Come early if you want to talk above the din; the music and customers get louder as the evening wears on. Cocktails such as the Lavolini (a blend of Prosecco, passion fruit and St. Germain) and Saggio (Stoli Blueberry with sage and freshly squeezed lemon juice) help you not to care.

DeLoach cooks with an experienced hand. He’s mostly Sicilian, Continued on page 134 July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 133

Dining

Diner’s Notebook

A heavenly ramen bar and another yogurt twist

By Max Jacobson

Lavo offers courses such as prime filet (above) and pasta with seafood (below).

Oreo Zeppole (bottom) is among the dessert options available.

Lavo Continued from page 133

and a keen student of Italian cuisine, with the famous Carmine’s in New York City in his long résumé. His food ranges from Old Vegas favorites such as baby clams Oreganato (Little Neck clams with a buttery stuffing) to more contempo fare such as tuna tartare, mixed with avocado on olive tapenade. And he’s at home in either style.

I couldn’t stop eating the warm house bread, with its obscene amounts of chopped garlic and grated cheese, or the chef’s meatballs, which I do indeed love, more so served in an overkill sausage ragu.

Pasta can be a thick sausage Bolognese with rigatoni or a heart-stopping spaghetti Carbonara, made with pancetta, prosciutto and bacon—a triple threat I haven’t encountered anywhere else. Even the normally understated dish risotto gets the red carpet. DeLoach does it with braised short ribs.

Main courses will remind you of what you might get at a classic steak house, such as The Palm, or Chicago’s Gene & Georgetti. There is a live Maine lobster menu, with a steamed, broiled arrabbiata, or even stuffed with crabmeat and scallops Oreganato (for $20 more).

There are prime steaks aged 21 days, such as the Rossini, topped with foie gras, mushrooms and truffle sauce, done superbly. And there are a number of house specialties, such as a delicious brick-oven salmon or the well-traveled veal Milanese, topped with tomatoes and arugula.

By all means save room for desserts, rich, excessive choices possibly even more over the top than the décor and buzz in here. If a chocolate bread pudding or lush strawberry shortcake (a huge, buttery biscuit) is not your cup of tea, then perhaps a raspberry panna cotta or Napoleon filled with real whipped cream and sautéed apples will do.

Who needs dumplings, anyway?

Dinner is served 5 p.m. to midnight Sun.-Thurs., until 1 a.m.-Fri.-Sat. Dinner for two $88-$116. 791-1800.

134

Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

It’s not every day that I get to write that a meal is a life-changing experience. But from now on I’ll probably be eating at Monta, a new Japanese ramen noodle bar at 5030 Spring Mountain Road (367-4600), at least once a week. It’s that good.

Ramen—long, skinny noodles slurped from a garlicky broth—is almost a religion in Japan, and far more common than nigiri, the fish-topped rice that we Americans think the Japanese eat. The menu here is simple and to the point. Tonkotsu ramen comes in milky white broth, while miso ramen comes in a broth flavored with bean paste.

Choose toppings from a short list at an extra charge: hard-boiled egg, roast pork in thin slices that virtually melt into the soup, corn or even butter. There are other dishes too, such as g yoza dumplings and a mini pork belly bowl (only $3.95), whose meat comes on white rice with pickles. The food here is exactly like it is in Japan, and the boys behind the counter snickered at my suggestion the place be renamed “Sick of Taiwan- and Korean-Owned Sushi Places Noodle Bar.” If you love frozen yogurt, meanwhile, you’ll want to beat feet over to I Love Yogurt, at 11700 W. Charleston Blvd. This winsome shop offers a choice of more than 50 toppings for its many flavors, some of which, including Red Velvet and Cap’n Crunch Peanut Butter, were invented in-house.

The place belongs to a pair of guys from the nightclub industry, Rich Bowen and Branden Powers, and has a cool, ’80s theme featuring retro video games such as Pacman, which you can play for a quarter a pop. The price for the yogurt and toppings is 39 cents per ounce.

In nearby Boca Park, meanwhile, Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria has opened a new location, with high ceilings and red-checked tablecloths to complement the black-and-white photos of old New York (its home base) and the Rat Pack. The thin, crisp crusts are amazing, and I especially love the white pizzas. The Red White & Lite Special, $37, buys you a large white and a full bottle of Coppola Sauvignon Blanc—an excellent deal. And on Tuesdays only, all wines on the list are half-off by the glass or bottle.

If this location is as busy as the one in Henderson, you’ll need a reservation: 479-1351.

Hungry, yet?

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

Dining

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

Bringing the flavors of French Creole cuisine to Las Vegas, Rhythm Kitchen puts a Cajun twist on an American favorite. This version of the club sandwich includes grilled shrimp, blackened with a slightly spicy seasoning, fried bacon, lettuce and tomato, on toasted white or wheat bread.

The dish includes the choice of potato salad, coleslaw or French fries. $13, 6435 S. Decatur Blvd., 767-8438.

136

Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Blue Cheese Salad at Grand Lux Café

Where can you get delicious cuisine from around the world and around the clock? From the same people who brought you the Cheesecake Factory, this casual eatery is open until 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 a.m. weekdays in the Palazzo, and 24 hours in the Venetian. For a late bite, try this salad, which is made with blue cheese crumbles, tomato, croutons, bacon and blue cheese dressing. $9.50, in the Palazzo, 733-7411; in the Venetian, 414-3888.

Melanzane alla Griglia con Formaggio di Capra at Panevino

We love the spectacular view of the airport and the mouth-watering smell of Italian spices when you walk into this restaurant. One of our favorite dishes here is the grilled marinated eggplant with goat cheese, Kalamata olives, basil, capers and oven-roasted tomatoes.

This lean dish was created by executive chef Mario Andreoni, and it’s perfect for anyone—especially vegetarians— looking for that extra juicy flavor. $13, 246 Via Antonia Ave., 222-2400.

Griddle Platter at The Griddle

This breakfast and lunch restaurant serves up all the comforts and classics with a twist. In this case a Mediterranean twist. The house special includes chicken, spinach and feta cheese over home fries and three eggs with pita bread. $10, 9480 S. Eastern Ave., Suite 170, 360-3636; 7150 S. Durango Dr., Suite 140, 260-0535.

Club sandwich photo by Anthony Mair

Shrimp and Bacon Club at Rhythm Kitchen

Dining

Cooking With ...

Chef Mosca’s pick for a summertime dish to try at home: Causa de Atun.

Summer comfort food, from the city’s top Peruvian chef

Suggested pairing

By Max Jacobson Raymi Mosca, who owns Mi Peru South American Grill in Henderson (1450 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway), was a real estate agent in Chicago for 14 years before going back to his roots as a chef of his native Peruvian cuisine. He once had a small restaurant in Lima that specialized in criollo (native) dishes such as seco, dried beef and the mixed grilled local seafood specialty known as parihuela.

Today, Mosca has the best and most authentic Peruvian restaurant in the Valley. If you are not familiar with this cuisine, it’s nothing like the cuisines of Mexico or Cuba, but rather a mix of the Andes and Asia.

In the late 19th century, Peru had a flood of Chinese and Japanese immigrants. It gave the world ceviche, tomatoes and potatoes. Fish is popular on the coast, but meat is eaten in the mountain regions.

Weekends, Mi Peru has a killer pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken) and the tiraditos, served

anytime, is like sashimi but with a kick, thanks to aji, a fiery yellow Peruvian pepper used in the marinade. Go try them sometime. But for a summertime treat in your own kitchen, Mosca recommends Causa de Atun, Peruvian-style mashed potatoes with tuna, eaten cool. It’s a comfort food that a 10-year-old could prepare (with a little help from Mom). What gives the dish its unique flavor, Mosca says, is the aji. Make sure you use the yellow, he reiterates, not the green.

A dish to try at Mi Peru: tiraditos.

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Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

1 pound of potatoes, preferably Yukon Gold ½ cup vegetable oil 2 limes 1 spoonful pureed aji amarillo (available at International Marketplace and Mariana’s Supermarkets) 2 cans water-packed tuna ½ cup mayonnaise Chopped parsley, one hard-cooked egg, capers Method: Peel and boil the potatoes until soft. Mash them firmly, mixing in oil, salt, pepper and aji until they turn a pale yellow color. In a separate bowl, combine the tuna with the mayonnaise. Let the potatoes cool in the fridge, about 20 minutes.

The perfect companion for this dish is an ice-cold Cusqueña, a beer from Lima, Peru, that comes from an old German recipe.

Like with almost any spicy dish, the beer balances out the acidity of the yellow pepper aji. Alas, the only place you can buy this brand is at Mi Peru.

A good, widely available alternative is Bohemia, a German-style pilsner brewed in Mexico.

Take a mold, preferably about four inches in diameter and two inches high. If you do not have a mold, you can do this by hand. Make one layer of potatoes and top it with an equal in thickness layer of the tuna.

Then add a top layer of the potatoes.

Repeat four times.

Garnish liberally with the chopped parsley, thin slices of hard-boiled egg and the capers. Chef Mosca serves the dish with a salad of red onion and chopped tomatoes.

This is optional, he says.

Photography by Peter Harasty

Raymi Mosca

Causa de Atun

Serves 4

HEALTH & FiTnEss Reaching for a Better Day Yoga instructors help change lives— one pose at a time

By Sharon Kehoe

140 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Anne Yendrek-Schadler (above and below) has developed a program to help cancer patients using yoga techniques.

their fears and organically allowing them to acknowledge what’s happening within their body, opening the way for them to accept and embrace their situation.

With acceptance and acknowledgement comes clarity, Yendrek-Schadler says. With clarity, receptivity. Ultimately they become more receptive to their doctors, treatment, family and friends. All of this so important to their health, mind and total well-being.

Taking this to heart, yoga seems like the best physical and mental exercise for anyone looking to maintain a healthy connection with oneself. And let’s face it, we all need some “me” time (see sidebar). But in these hard economic times, being a regular yoga student takes a decent cash flow.

Enter Cheryl Slader, owner and instructor at Blue Sky Yoga in the Arts Factory. Slader offers the only open-door, donation-based classes in Las Vegas for anyone who otherwise couldn’t afford weekly classes elsewhere. Blue Sky hosts a variety of yoga, including Mommy & Me classes, quick Lunchtime Bliss classes, and kids classes. Slader recalls one child in particular whose mean-streak attitude took a turn for the better after a yoga class.

“I had the kids put a toy on their tummy for our breathing exercise,” Slader says. “I told them to watch it go up and down with their breathing. After class, one of the kids got in an argument with his mother at home but abruptly stopped himself, laid down on his bed, put a pillow on his stomach and followed the breathing exercise. He felt so much better and thanked me for it.”

Yoga: Do It for Yourself!

Looking for some “me” time? Head over to donation-based Blue Sky Yoga (107 E. Charleston Blvd., 592-1396) for an eclectic variety of yoga classes, some of which include: Lunchtime Bliss: This is just a quickie, but it’s still so good! Take a break from the office to re-energize your mind, body and soul. Includes neck, shoulder and forehead massage. 12:15–1 p.m. Mon., Wed. and Fri. Gentle/Candlelight: An extra slow and savory yoga class for all levels. Students will explore the mind-connection with slow movement, deep stretches, restorative poses, meditation, aromatherapy and deep relaxation. Class taught by candlelight to reduce the distraction of visual stimulation and deepen the inner experience. Mon.-Wed.; check for times at blueskyyogalv.com.

Mommy and Me/Prenatal Yoga: A loving, sacred practice to be shared with the entire family. A beautiful way to bond with each other as a family, as well as like-minded members of the community.

All ages welcome. 10–11 a.m. Wed.

Photography by Anthony Mair

Three Las Vegas yoga instructors are among a growing number nationally who have created programs for those most in need of intense self-connection.

Abby M. Geyer, a volunteer yoga teacher at Solutions Recovery, offers classes informally called “sober yoga” for clients who are in substance abuse recovery.

“Yoga is a great outlet for my students to release the anxiety bottled up inside them,” says Geyer, who is also the advertising manager for journals published by the International Association of Yoga Therapists. “The breathing exercises balance the brain and body, helping shift the mind’s focus, which is exactly where the disease is battled.”

Yoga quiets the mind as students feel their breaths and move through the postures, Geyer says. This helps them to think more clearly, which is life changing for recovering clients. One of Geyer’s yogic influences, clinical psychologist Richard Miller, Ph.D., has found heightened activity in the prefrontal cortex of patients involved in yoga therapy. Yoga anchors a person’s core, creating complete, positive awareness of the body and the decision-making process.

This notion also holds true with Anne Yendrek-Schadler’s classes. When the Nevada Cancer Institute was founded, about eight years ago, she proposed an idea that eventually jump-started a yoga program for cancer patients.

First set in a small meditation room, the class gained so much success it has moved twice more to accommodate its growth.

“Many walk into the yoga room for the first time feeling confused, angry, frightened, stressed, lonely and exhausted,” says Yendrek-Schadler, who has her own private yoga practice, with classes offered throughout the Las Vegas Valley. “But they leave relaxed and calm. They just feel better. You can see it in their eyes and how they carry themselves.”

Yoga provides clients a chance to reconnect and feel a self-intimacy they haven’t achieved in a while, or possibly ever. Yendrek-Schadler says that Yoga helps her cancerpatient students by breaking

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SportS & LeiSure UFC middleweight champion Silva to get tough test from Sonnen

More Big Hits in Store Lightweights Marquez, Diaz ready for rematch of 2009’s fight of the year

By Andreas Hale While the possibility of a bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao has been the most hyped story in boxing for the past year, the fight that generated the most excitement in 2009 was the dramatic clash between lightweights Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz. That Feb. 28 fight in Houston ended with Marquez adjusting to Diaz’s pressure and knocking him out in the ninth round of a scheduled 12-rounder, and it was recognized by both ESPN and The Ring magazine as the fight of the year.

Marquez (50-5-1, 37 knockouts) and Diaz (35-3, 17 KOs) are now ready to take their best shots at each other again in a July 31 rematch at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, but things have changed since the 135-pounders’ first meeting.

Marquez went on to drop a unanimous decision to Mayweather on Sept. 19 at the MGM Grand Garden in a bout in which Marquez had no answer for Pretty Boy Floyd’s size and speed. Diaz fared slightly better as he moved up to junior welterweight and split two fights against Paulie Malignaggi, winning a unanimous decision on Aug. 22 in Houston before losing unanimously on Dec. 12 in Chicago.

With both fighters coming off losses 142 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

in higher weight classes, Diaz says he didn’t think the rematch with Marquez would happen. Diaz is looking to get back on track with a fight that can be considered crucial for his career. After winning his first 33 professional bouts, Diaz has lost three of his last five and must win in order to put himself back into the pound-for-pound conversation.

Otherwise, it may be time for him to hang up his gloves.

“This fight is going to prove to me whether I have it or I don’t,” Diaz says.

“This is what’s going to take me to the top in the lightweight division. If it doesn’t happen, then it’s not meant to be and I can move on to bigger and better things.”

Diaz, 26, has already prepared for a life outside the ring. He owns a construction business with his brother, and is on the verge of applying for law school.

Marquez, 36, is focused on casting the Mayweather loss aside and taking down Diaz for a second time.

“It was very significant and motivating,” Marquez says about his first bout with Diaz. “The rematch will be equal, if not better than the first fight.”

Marquez has been in his fair share of

entertaining bouts. His 2008 clashes with Pacquiao and Joel Casamayor have showcased his unique ability to alter his game plan on the fly and make the adjustments necessary to stay in a fight. But might all those bouts be taking their toll?

“It’s not harder at all (to train for big fights),” Marquez says. “I’m motivated to defend my titles with the same amount of pride. I don’t know how much longer I will fight; that’s up to God to decide.”

So will the rematch have a different outcome? Noting that his overzealousness cost him the first fight, which was even on the judges’ scorecards before the knockout, Diaz says that he won’t deviate from the game plan and leave himself open against Marquez again.

“The game plan I had in the first fight was working. It was really close and I had the edge,” he says. “What Marquez does well is that he thinks every second of the fight. What you hit him earlier with, you won’t catch him with later.”

But if you ask Marquez, he doesn’t see the fight playing out much different than their first bout.

“We’re not thinking of anything he can do different,” Marquez says. “We’re not going to be overconfident. We’re going in just like the first fight to take care of business.”

Tickets for the Marquez-Diaz fight, which range in price from $50 to $350, can be purchased at ticketmaster.com.

The card can also be seen on HBO Pay-Per-View.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

Marquez and Diaz photo by Tom Hogan www.hoganphotos.com

Juan Manuel Marquez (left) knocked out Juan Diaz in the ninth round of the lightweights’ action-packed fight on Feb. 28, 2009.

UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva will put his 12-fight winning streak and title on the line when he faces top-ranked challenger Chael Sonnen in UFC 117 in Oakland, Calif., on Aug. 7.

The 35-year-old Silva (26-4) has held the title since October 2006, and his string of consecutive victories is not only the longest active streak in the Ultimate Fighting Championship but also the longest streak in UFC history.

Sonnen, 33, is 26-10-1 and was an All-American wrestler at the University of Oregon. His grappling skills have some experts believing he can take the title away from Silva, who was ripped by fans and UFC President Dana White after his last fight, on April 10, for his lack of aggression in the ring.

The undercard also has some intriguing matchups, with veteran welterweights Jon Fitch (25-3) and Thiago Alves (22-5) engaging in a long-awaited rematch after Fitch’s 2006 victory. Hall of Famer Matt Hughes (45-7), who has the most wins in UFC history, will take on Ricardo Almeida (12-3) in a welterweight bout; and Las Vegas-based heavyweight Roy Nelson (16-4) will fight Junior Dos Santos (11-1).

UFC 117 can be watched on pay-perview. Go to ufc.com for more information. –Sean DeFrank

Going for Broke

Colts, Chargers still poised for big things this season

By Matt Jacob It’s back to work for the NFL’s players and coaches as training camps for all 32 teams begin, and I go back to work breaking down NFL over/under season win totals, wrapping up the AFC by focusing on the South and West divisions.

It’s no surprise which teams are favored to win these two divisions; the Colts and Chargers have the two highest over/ under win totals in the league this year.

However, who falls in line behind those two powerhouses is far less predictable.

Once again, note that my recommendations are rated from a 1 ( just flip a coin) to 5 (hello, college fund for the kids!). Also, with no plays last week, my bankroll remains at $5,605.

AFC SOUTH COLTS (over/under 11): Winning 12 games in an NFL season is no easy task … unless you’re the Colts. Indianapolis has finished with at least a dozen victories in seven consecutive seasons, going 14-2 twice (including last year). And since a 3-13 rookie season, Peyton Manning has led the Colts to double-digit wins 10 times in 11 years. Indy is a cinch to come flying out of the gate again this year as it kicks things off with six winnable games (Texans, Giants, Broncos, Jaguars, Chiefs and Redskins). The middle of the schedule is tough with consecutive games against the Eagles, Bengals, Patriots, Chargers and Cowboys; but three of those are at home. Bottom line: As long as Manning remains upright (and he’s never missed a start), the Colts will get at least 11 wins. As for betting on Manning to win the Super Bowl, only a fool would do that! Recommendation: OVER (2).

JAGUARS (over/under 7): After losing six of its final seven games to close out the 2008 season, Jacksonville nearly duplicated the collapse last year by stumbling to a 1-5 finish. Somehow, coach Jack Del Rio has been spared the unemployment line, but his margin for error in 2010 is slimmer than an Olsen twin. Del Rio spent the offseason shoring up a defense that surrendered nearly 24 points per game. He used his first four draft picks on defensive linemen and acquired two solid veterans in ex-Raiders

linebacker Kirk Morrison and ex-Packers pass rusher Aaron Kampman. If the overhaul works, the Jags have a decent shot to get to .500 with 11 of their opponents projected to finish with eight wins or fewer. Recommendation: OVER (2).

TEXANS (over/under 8): I fell victim to the Texans’ hype for three straight years, betting them over their season win total from 2006-08, only to be left holding three worthless pieces of paper.

Refusing to be fooled a fourth time, I shied away last season, and of course Houston finally broke through, winning its final four games to post the franchise’s first winning season. The Texans’ reward for that accomplishment? Along with Tennessee, they have most difficult schedule in 2010. That’s partly the result of facing the Colts twice, but also on Houston’s slate are the Cowboys, Giants, Chargers, Jets, Eagles and Ravens. Also, the Texans are 5-27 all time against division rivals Indy and Tennessee.

Recommendation: UNDER (3).

TITANS (over/under 8): I can count on one hand the number of NFL coaches whom I believe actually make a difference in the win-loss column. One of them is Tennessee’s Jeff Fisher. Over the past four seasons, his Titans have gone 8-8, 10-6, 13-3 and 8-8, and his starting quarterbacks were Vince Young and Kerry Collins. Last year was Fisher’s masterpiece, as the Titans started 0-6 but rallied to finish 8-8. Young is back under center this year, and you can be sure he’ll be doing a lot of handing off to speedy RB Chris Johnson (2,006 rushing yards in 2009). Still, as noted above, the Titans face a daunting schedule, and they also lost their best player (Kyle Vanden Bosch) from a defense that ranked 28th in the league last year. But with Fisher on the sideline, a .500 season is rarely out of reach. Recommendation: UNDER (1).

AFC WEST BRONCOS (over/under 7½): After a 6-0 start last year, the Broncos imploded like Mel Gibson’s career, losing six of their last eight games under first-year head coach Josh McDaniels, Continued on page 144 July 29-August 11, 2010 Vegas Seven 143

Sports & Leisure

who brought a cocky attitude from New England, where he learned all there is to know about arrogance from Bill Belichick. Denver shocked the football world this year by using a first-round draft pick on Tim Tebow, this after trading prolific WR Brandon Marshall. Tough games against the Chargers (twice), Colts, Ravens, Jets and 49ers are offset by winnable contests against the Seahawks, Raiders (twice), Chiefs (twice) and Cardinals. Recommendation: UNDER (2).

tk Continued from page ##

Quarterback Peyton Manning has led the Colts to at least 10 wins in 10 of the last 11 seasons.

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Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

CHARGERS (over/under 11): San Diego has won 11 or more games in four of the last six seasons, including twice with Norv Turner as head coach. Of course, that success is mostly the product of getting to face the Raiders, Chiefs and Broncos six times a year (over the past three seasons, the Chargers are 15-3 against division opponents). This year, San Diego has the added benefit of drawing the weak NFC West, and only three of the Chargers’ opponents—Colts, Patriots and 49ers—have projected season win totals higher than eight (and San Francisco’s is 8½). And two of those three tough games are in

San Diego. The Chargers have two key players (WR Vincent Jackson and offensive tackle Marcus McNeill) threatening to hold out for much of this season, but Turner is really the only person who can keep the Bolts from challenging Indy for the best record in the league.

Recommendation: OVER (3).

CHIEFS (over/under 6½): Here’s how bad things have been in Kansas City: The Colts won more games last year by the end of November (11) than the Chiefs have won in the last three seasons combined (10). On the bright side, K.C. competed to the end last year, losing three December games by six, seven and seven points before going on the road and hammering the Broncos 44-24 in the season finale (ending Denver’s playoff hopes). QB Matt Cassel had his moments under first-year head coach Todd Haley, and figures to progress even more with Charlie Weis as his offensive coordinator. Kansas City has picked up a lot of talent in the draft the last two years, and if the defense takes a couple of steps in the right direction, a 7-9 or 8-8 record is realistic. The Chiefs benefit from a soft schedule with seven winnable home games (49ers, Jags, Bills, Cardinals, Broncos, Titans,

Raiders) and road contests at Cleveland, Oakland, Denver, Seattle and St. Louis.

Recommendation: OVER (3).

RAIDERS (over/under 6): The Raiders continuing to cling to their “Commitment to Excellence” motto is a lot like me clinging to size-32 jeans. Oakland hasn’t won more than five games in a season since reaching the 2002 Super Bowl.

To put that into perspective, the last time the Raiders finished with fewer than 11 losses in a season, an incoming senior in high school was in fourth grade!

And yet why do I have a feeling this is the year Oakland actually flirts with .500? One reason is that it finally cut bait with QB JaMarcus Russell, replacing him with ex-Redskin Jason Campbell. This team has talent on defense and depth at running back, and 10 of the Raiders’ 16 opponents finished at or below .500 last year, including four teams that had 11 or more losses.

Recommendation: OVER (2).

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.

Photo by John Sommers II/Retna

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Harry Reid Why don’t all Nevadans like Harry Reid? Because they don’t know him. That and more, according to Harry.

By Elizabeth Sewell You may have noticed that this issue of Vegas Seven is chock full of the Best of the City. To keep up our end of the bargain, Seven Questions needed to take on someone with enough staying power to last the two weeks this issue is going to be out on the stands. One Nevada politician clearly fills that bill: U.S. Sen. Harry Reid.

As the Senate majority leader, the 70-year-old Democrat is one of the most powerful men in the country.

But his backstory is the stuff of Nevada legend. His hardscrabble youth in Searchlight led to a life of public service as state assemblyman, lieutenant governor and congressman before he landed in the Senate in 1987. Not known for being subtle or cuddly, Reid has become a controversial figure in his home state where, despite his position as the Senate’s top man, he finds himself in one of the hottest races of this election season.

Why do you think you’re in such a close race this year?

I haven’t had a difficult election for 12 years. During that 12-year period of time we’ve had about 600,000 new people move to Nevada, and so those people that move here really don’t know me. I’m a guy who has made my reputation being a moderate person, and I have the role of trying to stop the privatizing of Social Security, fighting these huge deficits that the former administration ran up, monitoring two wars going on that weren’t paid for, and so they’ve seen me fight George Bush and that’s not really who I am. The other problem is because of the policies of the prior administration the economy is in really bad shape and so I’m faced with all that stuff, none of which I had any control over, especially the economy that is so bad. So that’s why my election is difficult.

160 Vegas Seven July 29-August 11, 2010

Do you ever regret going into public service?

I practiced law while I was [the Henderson] city attorney, while I was on the hospital board, while I was in the assembly, while I was lieutenant governor and when I was chairman of the gaming commission. I had my private law practice during all those different phases of government service doing all those different things. When I was elected to the House of Representatives, I had to be full time. I made a decision because I felt that I had enough money to be able to put my kids through school when I came to Washington and I’ve been able to do that. I had some investments in land, principally—that’s about it, that because of the rapidly increasing value of land in Nevada I was able to keep my kids in school. So, no, public service is a choice I made.

My wife and I have enjoyed our public service and I feel comfortable with what I’ve done. Have I been perfect? Of course not, but I’ve done the best I can.

When and how will Las Vegas rebound?

Las Vegas is rebounding. It’s just so slow it’s not good enough. There are some things happening. We got good reports from the Labor Department; they indicate that during the next six months almost 40 percent of businesses around the country are going to be hiring more people. So there are good things happening around the county, which is good for Nevada. Nevada just hasn’t felt the love that it needs and it can’t until we get the economies going in other places because we thrive on other places. Jobs in Las Vegas are created because of other places doing well enough to allow other people to come spend their money in our fine hotels.

Is your home still in Searchlight?

It sure is. I’ve got a big windmill, a big solar array, a flagpole with the Nevada flag. That’s where I was born and raised, and I love coming back and looking out my window, looking west especially. I’ve got nice picture windows, and I can see those storms building in the summer and the winter. I love my home.

Why do you think you’re so polarizing in Nevada?

I think the only reason that I know of would be the economy.

Logically, there is no way of getting there. I had nothing to do with job loss during the Bush years; I had nothing to do with Wall Street collapsing during the Bush years. The so-called TARP, that was Bush’s idea, not my idea.

Your son Rory Reid is running for governor. Have you given him any advice?

You know, my boy is a fine young man, but he is almost 50 years old and these are decisions he’s made on his own, and he’s going to have to run his own race. He’s been a wonderful boy, he’s my oldest son and always set such a great example and I love him very much, but he’s running his race and I’m running mine.

What would you like your legacy in government to be?

I don’t think it’s my legacy in the Senate as much as just being a person, and that is just trying to live the golden rule. Trying to be fair to people and not take advantage of them in any way. I would like to say that I was a good dad and a good person.

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