More than a Building

October 7-13, 2010

More Than a Building The rise of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts: a photographic journal

By Geri Kodey

Plus: Biofuel born in Nevada's hot springs The sexiest shop in Las Vegas 18 great golf deals for fall

KEVIN HART October 8 & 9

For tickets, please visit mirage.com or call

702.792.7777.

Performing in the Terry Fator Theatre.

Now PerformiNg!

For tickets, call 877.386.8224 or visit montecarlo.com

Contents

This Week in Your CiTY 13

37

seven Days

LOcaL newsrOOm

Macbeth haunts henderson, over-the-top fundraising at the rio, and adding up plans for 10/10/10.

By Patrick Moulin

69

A unLV professor is seeking the next generation of biofuel, and supporters have not given up on the DreAM Act. Plus: David G. Schwartz’s Green Felt Journal and Michael Green on Politics.

14

natiOnaL newsrOOm

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

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

the Latest

93 100 traveL

sOciety

Vacation rental homes becoming a more popular lodging option.

By Kate Silver

Planned Parenthood of southern nevada gets help from Corks & Forks, and Mandalay Beach hosts Wine Amplified.

102

25

spOrts & Leisure

Golf deals for locals abound this fall.

By Brian Hurlburt Plus: Matt Jacob has no reservations taking the Colts against the Chiefs in Going for Broke.

styLe

This week’s Look, a few choice Enviables and kiki de Montparnasse imparts creative ways to tease, taunt and titillate your lover.

Seven Nights ahead, fabulous parties past, and rathna singh lights up Casa Fuente.

A supersize book on a supersize personality, a wrap-up of Matador At 21, and Rex Reed says Secretariat is a wire-to-wire winner.

honey Pig is hog heaven for authentic korean cuisine.

By Max Jacobson Plus: Max Jacobson’s Diner’s Notebook, and a taste of three popular sipping spirits.

20

nightLife

arts & entertainment

Dining

Media spotlight shines on Vdara’s “Death ray,” and Las Vegas is among the country’s top Twitter cities.

Plus: trends, Tweets, tech and gossip.

The Latest Thought: rediscovering the glory of “used houses.”

By Andy Kirk

45

77

Above: A few of the performers anticipating the completion of The smith Center for the Performing Arts. Photo by Geri Kodey. On the cover: The 16-story carillon tower, temporarily showing a shade of green sealant. Photo by Geri Kodey.

Features

110

seven QuestiOns

Longtime strip performer Frank Marino on men in drag, his outlandish wardrobe and his legacy.

By Elizabeth Sewell

30

One fOr the ages

note by note, nail by nail, construction continues on The smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Photography by Geri Kodey October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 9

Vegas seVen Publishers

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

Editorial editoriAl director, Phil Hagen MAnAging editor, Bob Whitby senior editor, Greg Blake Miller senior editor, Xania Woodman AssociAte 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

N O T YO U R A V E R A G E

L A S V E GAS S TAY

ACROSS FROM: EL CORTEZ HOTEL & CASINO, DOWNTOWN COCKTAIL ROOM, THE BEAT COFFEE HOUSE AT THE EMERGENCY ARTS & THE FREMONT STREET EXPERIENCE.

contributing writers

Melissa Arseniuk, Eric Benderoff, Gergory Crosby, Elizabeth Foyt, Jeanne Goodrich, Andreas Hale, Brian Hurlburt, Sharon Kehoe, Andy Kirk, M. Scott Krause, Patrick Moulin, Rex Reed, Jason Scavone, Elizabeth Sewell, Kate Silver, Cole Smithey interns

Candice Anderson, Kelly Corcoran, Gabi Costa, Carla Ferreira, Jazmin Gelista, Natalie Holbrook, Charity Mainville, Nicole Mehrman, Alicia Moore, Jill Roth, Kathleen Wilson

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

651 E OGDEN AVE.

800.634.6703

WWW.ECCABANA.COM

Jessica Blair, Hew Burney, Geri Kodey, Tomas Muscionico, Beverly Oanes

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.

RESERVE YOUR ROOM TODAY! FOLLOW US ON

WenDOH MeDIa COMpanIes Ryan T. Doherty | Justin Weniger vice President, PUBLISHING, Michael Skenandore chief MArketing officer, Ethelbert Williams MArketing director, Jason Hancock ntertAinMent director, Keith White creAtive director, Sherwin Yumul

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

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

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

Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

COntributOrs

Geri Kodey Cover and inside photography Kodey began her career professional photography career after winning a local photo contest as a high school student. She advanced to the position of studio manager before taking a position as a photographer for the Clark County School District. Six years ago, she became the photo services manager for UNLV, where she and two other photographers provide images for the university. Her personal photography has been displayed at several art venues, including UNLV’s Marjorie Barrick Museum and the Henderson Water Street Gallery. She and her husband, Wayne, own Casey’s Cameras in Las Vegas and teach photography at UNLV’s education outreach program in their free time.

Gregory Crosby “Angel Eyes,” Page 78 Crosby wrote for Scope Magazine, Las Vegas Mercury, Las Vegas CityLife and other local publications before mysteriously disappearing in 2004.

Formerly the city’s Hardest Working Art Critic Who Was Not Dave Hickey, Crosby is rumored to be enjoying the glamorous life in the fast lane of the space-age jet set as a “professional poet.”

Andy Kirk “Used Houses and Urban Pioneers,” Page 18 As a history professor at UNLV, Kirk focuses on the intersections of cultural and environmental history in the American West. His most recent book, Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, Culture/ America Series, 2007), includes a chapter on how hippies transformed the notion of home as they resettled the West in the 1960s and 1970s. He is completing a new American history text for Oxford University Press that includes vignettes from the many places he’s lived, including Las Vegas.

Vegas Seven Mobile try it nOw steP 1:

steP 2:

steP 3:

Visit getscanlife.com on your mobile device to download Free scanlife software.

as you scroll through Vegas seven, snap a photo anywhere you see a 2D barcode.

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

Win Free stuFF ★ rsVP For eVents ★ 2D Mobile exclusiVe oFFers anD eDitorial

Visit the Vegas Seven website October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 11

4500 children

die every day from the lack of clean water.

You can help.

$10

one cocktail in VeGaS

h2o

for one person for a l i f e t i m e

text “water� to 20222 to donate $10 today.

visit Generositywater.org for more information about our cause. and MyGenerositywater.org to start your own fundraising campaign.

Seven Days The highlights of this week in your city.

Compiled by Patrick Moulin

Sun. 10 Thu. 7 Moviegoing can be a risky venture. Between high ticket prices and allotting two hours of time without any assurance the film in question won’t completely blow, even hardcore movie buffs are waiting for the DVDs these days. That’s why An Evening of Short Films: Academy Award-Winning Shorts at UNLV (Classroom Building Complex, Room A 106) almost guarantees a great evening. For one thing, it’s free. The two-hour event, 8-10:30 p.m., will showcase a variety of 15-30 minute films that pack gripping, well-paced stories into a tight timeframe without all the filler that sometimes permeates longer films. Bring your own popcorn and call 895-2535 for information.

Fri. 8 Have you ever wanted to imitate Spider-Man and cling to the outside of a building? Now is your chance as the Rio and the Nevada Special Olympics present Over the Edge, a fundraising event in which participants rappel 400 feet down the northwest side of the casino. Adrenaline junkies collect pledges for the event before dropping 51 stories to the ground. If you want to do it, you must be in good health and weigh between 110 and 300 pounds.

Fat people could snap the rope. Sign up online at OverTheEdgeLasVegas.com.

Sat. 9 To see Shakespeare in the Park, or not to see, that is the question.

The answer? Go see it. The Las Vegas Shakespeare Company presents Macbeth at Lake Las Vegas (15 Costa Di Lago), 7 p.m. It’s a free performance, so grab a blanket and take a spot on the lawn for a night of one of Shakespeare’s bloodiest tales. Taking on the lead role of Macbeth will be Ken Lally, best known for his role on General Hospital. Don’t expect any cheesy acting here; Lally is a classically trained actor who studied at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. Check HendersonLive.com for show locations and more information.

Las Vegas is built on superstition, making today, 10/10/10, a big day in the Valley. The number 10 is critical in many games of chance, so bet on casinos being full of gamblers banking on a little extra luck. What else is going on? Cupid’s Wedding Chapel, 827 Las Vegas Blvd. South, will have special processions at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m.; Donny Osmond will officiate 10 couples in an engagement event at 10:10 a.m. at the Trevi Fountain at the Forum Shops at Caesars (101010at1010am.com); and Station casinos are offering special wedding packages at their venues.

Mon. 11 Instead of buying a new outfit, why not transform an old T-shirt into a fashion statement?

Join jewelry designer Gulten Dye, from Jewels 2 Dye 4, as she shows you how to create an evening gown out of comfy cotton. The T-shirt, Gems and Jewels Party, sponsored by Crave, takes place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 2248 Timber Rose Dr. Guests enjoy complimentary wine and hor d’oeuvres, browse jewelry from Gulten and meet entrepreneurial women from Crave Las Vegas, a networking group that connects creative women. Visit Facebook.com/cravelasvegas for information.

Tue. 12 Striking lines, beautiful curves and classic designs make some cars real head turners. But are they art? Decide for yourself at Automotive Reflections, a new exhibit by local artist Vincent Yuzon at the Enterprise Library, 25 E. Shelbourne Ave. Using watercolors and pastels, Yuzon’s work has a dream-like quality, focusing on the small details like a chromed taillight or an ornate hood ornament. Visit lvcdd.org for more information.

Today is also the last day to register to vote for the upcoming elections in November. You’ll have to march down to the Clark County Election Department office (500 S. Grand Central Parkway) in person to sign up.

Wed. 13 Hump day just got a little more tolerable thanks to an infusion of contemporary pop and jazz music at the Tropicana. The David Perrico Group featuring Marley Taylor is bringing their original compositions and unique sound to the Celebration Lounge Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

The 10-piece group uses an eclectic mix of instruments to create an organic, free-flowing rhythm led

by Perrico’s trumpet. Guests must be 21 to enjoy this free show. Visit Troplv.com for information.

October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 13

THE LATEST

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Death Ray Becomes Us

Hottest story of the year goes viral

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A Little Credit, Please

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Entrepreneurial spirits: Katie Glazier (left) and Elisabeth Daniels.

Constant Craving

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

Karissa (left) and Kristina Shannon cut loose.

R.I.P., Tony Tony Curtis, the Hollywood icon who starred in The Defiant Ones, Spartacus, Some Like It Hot and The Sweet Smell of Success died Sept. 29 in his Henderson home at 85.

His funeral Oct. 4 at the Palm Mortuary drew a reported 400 people, including his daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Robert Goulet’s widow, Vera, MGM honcho Kirk Kerkorian and porn star Ron Jeremy.

Well, he did have a reputation as a ladies’ man.

Schwarzenegger eulogized away, talking about the nude pictorial Curtis did for Vanity Fair at age 80. Normally, you’d expect something a little more tasteful and restrained from the man who made The Last Action Hero.

Jamie Lee Curtis says goodbye to Dad. 16 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Got a juicy tip? gossip@weeklyseven.com

Twisted sisters Kristina and Karissa Shannon, the blond twins who stole Hugh Hefner’s heart right after the mass exodus of Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt, celebrated their 21st birthdays Oct. 2 at Vanity.

You know how parents of twins dress the kids alike, presumably because they hate their children? The Shannon girls were exactly like that, except instead of matching clothes, they had matching bottles of Grey Goose.

Not matching glasses, mind you. They were pounding straight from the bottles—when they weren’t drinking champagne or doing shots. Hef likes them small, identical and with cast-iron livers, apparently.

The girls were there with their respective men folk.

Karissa has been reported to be negotiating the sale of a sex tape to Vivid with boyfriend Sam Jones III of Smallville. The whole twin thing must have her used to doing everything in twos, though, because she’s also supposed to be Heidi Montag’s playmate in the girl-on-girl scene from that rumored tape.

We were wrong. Hef likes them small, identical, with cast-iron livers and terrible taste in women.

Gleeks Hit the Beach The Glee Club, or Gleeks, or Gleebasers or whatever they’re calling themselves these days, had a big haul this weekend when the show’s Mark Salling hit up Tao Beach on Oct. 2 to kick off his solo album, Pipe Dreams, along with costar Chord Overstreet.

They moved the party downstairs to Tao that night where they were joined by Rumer Willis.

Of course she’s a fan of musical shows—she grew up listening to her dad’s tunes on some of the most famous episodes of Moonlighting. Wait, she also grew up listening to her dad’s solo album. Kind of surprising she’d ever go anywhere they played music ever again, after a traumatic upbringing like that.

Salling and Overstreet were back at Tao Beach Salling (left) and Overstreet, not bursting into song. on Sunday, but they should have stuck around for the nightcap to pick up some pointers.

Stevie Wonder came in to Tao just before midnight with a crew of eight for dinner, and Wonder and company freestyled to the music at the club.

Tweets of the Week Compiled by @marseniuk

@tanyapetrillo Cooking breakfast in my underwear for the boy, until I got to the bacon...ouch.

@misadventurer I guess hipsters are going to start going to #Vdara.

For the irony, hotel starts with VD and causes a burning sensation.

@DougCoupland Gas station sandwich for lunch. If I’m found dead in a puddle of my own vomit in six hours, that’s why.

@jeanniegaffigan Can we table the whole “unisex bathroom” idea until men learn how to properly use a bathroom?

@PaulyPeligroso On my days off, I like to go to Chuck E. Cheese and yell “FREE BIRD!” at Make Believe Band. They’ll play it one day...

@cthagod 42% of black women have never been and will never be married. Just wanted to add to your depression.

@laurenmares I’ve been proposed to 3x in one week...I’m on a roll! @bofran I miss having a sugar mommy! Anybody out there? I have nothing to offer, though...

@Cseardlmp Pretty sure I ate my daily calorie intake w/ that Taco Del Mar... But it was worth it. #gymtonightfosho @SexCigarsBooze I knew a guy once who gave up sex, cigars, booze & rich food. He was healthy right up to the time he killed himself.

@Phamarama I’m the chick your mother warned you about & the girl your father prefers. Mom vs. dad: Choose wisely.

@SaraHennessey I just saw the most anorexic girl I’ve ever seen, so I immediately bought a Snickers and ate the entire thing for her. @tiffanyrinehart A homeless man just asked me for $10 to buy marijuana. At least he was honest.

Shannon twins photo by Hew Burney, Jamie Lee Curtis photo by Scott Harrison, Mark Salling photo by Al Powers

THE LaTEsT Gossip

THE LaTEsT THougHT used Houses and urban Pioneers Maybe the old neighborhood isn’t so bad, after all

By Andy Kirk When my wife and I and our two-month-old son arrived in Las Vegas in July 1999, we were greeted by brutal heat, a history-making flash flood and a real-estate agent named Jody.

We met Jody in the now-demolished Chili’s on the corner of Sahara and Decatur. An epic 13-day crosscountry drive from upstate New York with our pets and a colicky infant had left us dazed and confused, and a steady diet of hot coffee hadn’t helped. We sat at the table clinging to our iced teas for dear life, dreaming of a cool and pleasant nest, and looking to Jody for answers.

She looked across the table, sized us up, and asked: “Are you looking for a new home, or would you be willing to consider a used house?”

My wife and I stared at each other, perplexed.

What, we wondered silently, was a “used house?”

Neither of us had ever heard the term.

Jody kindly explained that a used house was a previously occupied home, “like a used car that someone else already drove for a while.” Most people who move here, we learned, are looking to buy new. Very few people considered “used houses,” she informed us.

Nothing about my new town struck me as more odd than the phrase “used houses.” What did it say about this place that the residents had invented a special definition of home not used anywhere else in America?

I was born in Williamsburg, Va., where historic means colonists, Native Americans and pre-revolutionary splendor. Later, we lived in Colorado, in a 1920s Tudor. For high school, it was down to Galveston, Texas, where we settled into an 1881 house that was once owned by a ship captain; the place had been built with exquisite maritime craftsmanship out of Cyprus timbers from now-extinct old-growth forests. Our neighbors across the street had lived in their home since before my grandparents were born. (These houses were built to last: My whole block of ship-like homes survived the great 1900 storm that remains the worst natural disaster in American history.) After graduation, I went back to Colorado, where I lived in a series of old structures, from an 1870s cabin in Steamboat Springs to a 1910 late-Victorian “Denver Square.” Then I went to New Mexico and bought a 1941 pueblo-style bungalow, just over 700 square feet. We reveled in the newness of that place. It had “modern” electrical features and plumbing that seemed downright space-age to me.

We told Jody our story on that hot summer day in 1999. She turned out to be a Las Vegas native who knew plenty about “used houses.” Jody was happy to meet the rare clients willing to look at “historic”

1950s and ’60s neighborhoods. We settled on McNeil, a swath of 600 ranch houses off West Charleston Boulevard, about two miles from the Strip. The neighborhood was built in the 1950s and ’60s on an old-fashioned grid with wide streets and big trees. We found a 1961 house with a pool and bought it. It is the newest house I’ve ever lived in.

People like me who happily live in “used houses” in older neighborhoods are often described as “urban pioneers.” The trend is old but took off in the 1950s when urban Bohemians blazed the trail for the much more numerous countercultural types who resettled and gentrified cities like New York and Chicago in the 1960s and ’70s. It is easy to forget that in the 1960s upscale neighborhoods like New York’s Upper West Side or Denver’s ultra-hip “LoDo” were decaying and dangerous urban wastelands. Restoring a brownstone in the New York “ghetto” or moving into a loft in a LoDo warehouse was madness to most middle-class homeowners who were abandoning cities for clean and safe suburbs. If back-to-the-land hippies were considered pot-smoking weirdos, then forward-to-the-ghetto hippies were simply beyond comprehension for many Americans.

The story of urban decline and suburban growth is familiar; the success of urban pioneers is less well known. Gentrification often seems to happen overnight, with former “ghettos” spontaneously morphing into hip enclaves for young professionals.

But by the time a newly gentrified neighborhood becomes hip, urban pioneers have been hard at work for decades restoring old building stock, replanting gardens and parks and supporting local businesses.

Alliances with diverse groups of residents have been forged; a sense of pride in the place has been rees-

No city can “survive if it

fails to resettle its center.”

18 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Kirk’s houses in Las Vegas (left), Albuquerque (top) and Galveston.

tablished. Urban pioneers of the 1960s also understood revitalization of buildings and neighborhoods as part of environmentalism: It was as important to recycle and reuse old buildings as it was to save forests and natural wonders.

Over the past three years, we’ve all learned the dangers of living completely in the future, denigrating the old as “used” and defining progress exclusively as growth. Every important city and town in America learned decades ago that old was not necessarily bad, and that older houses and places, no matter how rough, can be resurrected as vital communities and new centers of economic development. Like many cities devastated by the real-estate crash, Las Vegas now has as much vacant blight in the suburbs as at the core. There are thousands of “used houses” for sale all over the Valley. And many people would be happy to have a stable home, used or not.

For cities, older neighborhoods are like the growth rings of a tree. They start small in the center and become larger and newer as you move out from the core. No tree can live with core rot for long. No city can survive if it fails to resettle its center. Likewise, sustainability is not just about wind and solar power.

Retrofitting and reusing housing stock will be as important as the flashier elements of the green economy.

So, Backward Ho, urban pioneers! Lead us to the fabled land of short commutes, walking, adaptive reuse and a sense of history grounded in place. Living in the future was not as fun as we thought. It’s time to take a look at the past to see what it has to offer.

Andy Kirk is a professor of history at UNLV and director of the university’s public history program.

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

END CANADA’S SEAL SLAUGHTER

Society

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

Pop a cork A beneďŹ t for Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada, the Sept. 24 Corks & Forks event was at Moon, the nightclub atop the Fantasy Tower at the Palms Resort. Guests were served at cooking stations manned by the chefs of N9NE Steakhouse, and libations were sponsored by Barefoot Wine. Supporters listened to a program outlining efforts by Planned Parenthood to provide affordable health care, as well as outreach education and advocacy.

Photography by Beverly Oanes

20â&#x20AC;&#x192; Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

2011 SLS AMG

It has wings for a reason.

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

Society

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

Rock the Grape Five years in business together and going strong, Sonny Barton and co-founder, sommelier Chris Hammond (pictured), once again hosted their annual Wine Amplified Festival. The Sept. 25 party at Mandalay Bay Beach drew more than 600 guests for wine, food samplings and the music of Third Eye Blind. Under a full moon, dozens of wineries offered nearly 150 selections. Other serving stops provided Ethel’s Chocolate, bites from RM Seafood and Fiji Water.

22 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

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

ENVIABLES

Style

Spooky Simon

Known for his quirky sense of style, Simon Doonan, creative director for Barneys New York, has collaborated with Target on a line of comical costumes inspired by pop culture. Be an Evil Paparazzi, D.J. From the Crypt, Glamour Ghost or an Elvis-inspired Vegas Vampire. Available at Target, $30 and under.

Face Time

Make Up For Ever will open one of three new U.S. boutiques at Sephora inside the Venetian on Oct. 8. The first 100 clients to take a complimentary makeup lesson will receive a free Rouge Artist Lipstick in #43, fall’s perfect shade of red.

Sephora.com.

Shop From home

The quirky, chic and playful modern designs of Jonathan Adler (who is married to Simon Doonan; see above) are coming to the Home Shopping Network. A believer in irreverent luxury, his Happy Chic collection of home décor and accessories will launch Oct. 12. HSN.com. canisters, $40.

The Look

Photographed by Tomas Muscionico

KAmILA Z. ELjwAIdI

Wife and mother, age 32 What she’s wearing now: Dolce & Gabbana special edition yoga outfit, Y-3 yoga sneakers, Power-Balance bracelet, Nialaya bracelets, Louis Vuitton yoga bag.

Style icons: Anyone with class and confidence—a lot of people have one or the other, but very few have both.

A fitness devotee, Kamila practices yoga at home with her guru, Angie Wright.

She also does Power Plate (an exercise she learned about in Europe a couple of years ago) at a studio in Summerlin. She credits both with teaching her balance.

“People have a tendency to overdo it and are never happy,” she says. “If it’s working out, sleeping or being in business, looking stylish prepares you to face the world with a positive attitude.”

October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 25

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The Pleasure Principle Kiki de Montparnasse: a lingerie shop so dramatic it requires three acts

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Pleasure palace: the Kiki showroom.

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Style

Shopping

A Kiki Sampler Belle du Jour Romper. Not exactly the same as in the movie, but likely to have the same effect on one’s partner. The French silk one-piece romper (not pictured) comes with silk lace pockets. Available in Kiki’s three signature colors: bordeaux, lilac and champagne. $450.

Onyx Restraints and Lace-Up Panty. The Ingénue Corset Panty is made of hand-crocheted French silk lace. (Available in black, white and champagne, $185.) Onyx Restraints are 10 feet long and strung on military parachutequality metallicized silk. $1,800; $2,400 in pearl.

Love Potion. A unisex blend of sacred aphrodisiacs with which you can safely dose your beloved’s drink. Ingredients include sarsaparilla, Ashwagandha, Muira Puama, honey and crushed rosebuds, with a taste not unlike green tea. $30.

Most leave with a fun new instrument of pleasure, a sexy panty or a boudoir candle. Some, on the other hand, leave with an entire sex trousseau.

Act 3 brings it all together. It’s “the most romantic of all three rooms,” Testa says. Here, costumed mannequins live in the context of a bed equipped with leather restraints and suggestive pillowcases ($225). It’s quieter, darker and the intimate attire takes on fantasies, such as the silk French maid get-up ($550), a feather capelette and a set of unique knot-and-fringe dresses reportedly made by an anonymous female singer with time to kill on her tour bus.

Accessories, too, trend toward the dramatic, with collapsible top hats, mile-long lambskin gloves, artisan nipple clamps and masks by the same designer as those used in Eyes Wide Shut.

Act 3 is also home to the Couple’s Room, a private dressing room, which Kiki ambassadors will stock with all kinds of incredible lingerie and accessories. The couple goes in together—he to his small leather club chair (all the better to gaze up at the object of his desire) and she behind—or not—a gauzy curtain. Within, and aided by replenished champagne, she can demo her outfits to his delight in favorable lighting labeled “before,” “during” and “after.”

Much of Kiki’s offerings are available at KikiDM.com. Still, nothing can replace taking the Grand Tour and a visit to the Couple’s Room.

Finding a willing plus-one is not likely to be a challenge here, either.

28 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Golden Handcuffs. Real standardissue Smith & Wesson handcuffs are plated in 24-karat gold. The included matching keys make an interesting and suggestive conversation piece when worn as jewelry. $350.

Clockwise from top: Love Potion, Onyx Restraint with lace-up panty, Aqua Erotica and a pair of 24-karat-gold-plated cuffs.

Photography by Anthony Mair

Playtime in the Couple’s Room.

Kiki Continued from Page 27

Aqua Erotica. This volume of 18 erotic tales printed on vinyl pages goes with you into the bubble bath, hot tub or beside crashing waves in the world’s first waterproof adult book (Three Rivers Press, 2000). $20.

One for the Ages

The rise of The Smith Center, frame by frame Photography by Geri Kodey

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Clockwise from above: Workers cast a ceremonial bellâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;similar to those that will eventually ring from The Smith Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s towersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;at the groundbreaking ceremony; board members Gary Jacobs (left), Alan Feldman and Don Snyder, president and CEO Myron Martin, and board member Charles Atwood tour the site; a few of the 1,000-plus workers employed on the job; a view from the stage on a rainy January day.

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Clockwise from above: A â&#x20AC;&#x153;connectorâ&#x20AC;? aligns the steel beams that make up the centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skeltonâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;about 4,000 tons of steel and 2,500 tons of Indiana limestone will be used to construct the buildings; members of the Clark High School marching band at the topping-off ceremony in February; a view onto downtown from some of the 373 windows in the main building; young dancers from the Nevada Ballet Theatre getting ready to perform at the groundbreaking ceremony.

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An early view from what will become one of the 23 private boxes on the box tier (above), a panoramic view of the space that will become the Founders Room (top).

Construction of The Smith Center will take 1.5 million man hours during the 32-month project (opposite page). It was 55 percent complete as of August, and will open in March 2012.

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

THe LocaL Newsroom

a Dream Deferred?

DREAM Act supporters haven’t given up

By Jessica Prois

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., says he plans to bring up the DREAM Act, first introduced in 2001, again in the lame-duck session of Congress after the November congressional elections.

Meanwhile, local groups such as Reform Ahora and the Nevada Hispanic Institute are continuing their letter-writing and canvassing campaigns to get people involved in the political process. They are having some luck using the DREAM Act’s death as a recruiting tool. “A lot of young people involved in the rallies, protests and town halls felt disheartened after the bill died, but it’s turning into motivation,” says Michael Flores, director of Reform Ahora, an organization that works toward immigration reform.

The Nevada Hispanic Institute met its goal of registering 10,000 Valley voters two days early last week. Artie Blanco, the Institute’s director, attributes the success to people hearing about the DREAM Act not passing. “We’ve held electoral classes and people want to know more about the DREAM Act, saying that’s why they want to become an active voter,” she says. “The DREAM Act issue is mobilizing Latinos to want to participate.

Flores says Reform Ahora will continue to meet weekly to keep members updated and educated on opposition to the DREAM Act, which seems to be evolving. “First, it was that undocumented people were hurting the economy,” Flores says. “Then the language changed to homeland security and that the border wasn’t secure. Now the major argument is amnesty. They think it’s a free ticket. But it’s not; it’s citizenship—learning the laws, language and paying taxes.”

A Reform Ahora-affiliated high school is close to securing Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle for a meeting with its Hispanic Student Union, Flores says. (He didn’t want to name the school until the meeting is set.) Reform Ahora is also continuing to add to the 10,000 calls it has already made to U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. “We’re trying to engage elected officials in conversation.

We should have access to these people.

Our own senator won’t even meet with us.” Ensign’s office did not return a phone call for comment.

Both groups say they will continue the dialogue with elected officials, calling for the bill to be reintroduced, but not as stand-alone legislation. “If it’s a standalone, obviously Democrats and Republicans won’t want to work on it Liz Hernandez says her undocumented peers see college as too expensive.

Nevada could be a breeding ground for the next biofuel, according to researchers. Look no further than the 400 or so natural hot springs across the state. And if you are, indeed, looking, take a microscope, because the critters that researchers are after are the teeny tiny organisms and enzymes that thrive in the heat of the hot springs. More than 10,000 of them could fit in the palm of your hand.

Microbiologist Brian Hedlund, an associate professor at UNLV, is studying a variety of microorganisms to find out which ones can most efficiently convert waste into energy. He’s looking for bacteria that are the fastest and best at consuming cornhusks and pooping ethanol—or, to put it more scientifically, converting cellulose to simple sugars. This, he hopes, will one day lead to a second-generation biofuel.

Before we get too far into second-generation biofuel, let’s take a look at first-generation biofuel, such as ethanol, which is used as a gasoline additive or even as fuel. Ethanol is an alcohol created by fermenting corn.

But ethanol made from corn is controversial, because the raw material is food that could go to feed people, or animals, instead of powering cars. Using valuable land to grow fuel for cars has some people questioning the ethics of ethanol. This is what’s known as the “food versus fuel” issue.

Now, a number of labs, academics and corporations are working toward second-generation biofuels, where waste (corn cobs, corn stalks, corn husks, etc.) rather than edible food, is converted to fuel. The problem is that waste, like a corncob, is more difficult to convert to fuel than a kernel of corn. That’s where the heat-loving

Continued on Page 40

Continued on Page 39

Hernandez photo by Anthony Mair; Hedlund photo courtesy UNLV Photo Services

Las Vegans who worked to get the federal DREAM Act passed are recharging, retooling and refocusing in the wake of the bill’s death.

The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, or DREAM, would have granted six years of temporary residency for those who came to the U.S. as illegal immigrants before the age of 16 and have been in the country at least five years.

Within those six years, a person could earn permanent residency by completing at least two years of college or serving at least two years in the armed forces with an honorable discharge. The DREAM Act was amended to a defense-spending bill that was killed by a Republican filibuster Sept. 21. A bill that would have repealed the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” law was also amended to the defense bill and suffered a similar fate.

Hedlund: Looking for a better bug.

Microbe Management A UNLV professor searches the state’s hot springs for a new source of energy

By Kate Silver

October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 37

The Local Newsroom

Green Felt Journal

Four decades at the El Cortez

By David G. Schwartz

If you want a lesson in Las Vegas history, you don’t have to go much farther than Liz Butler, who’s still serving drinks at the El Cortez. With an accent and attitude that betrays her East Coast roots, she’s been a fixture at the El Cortez for nearly four decades, and she doesn’t show any sign of leaving.

Butler came to town in 1970 with her then-husband, and on Dec. 2 wandered into the casino at Sixth and Fremont streets. Walking around, she was approached by slot manager Buzz Jackson, who asked her if she needed anything.

“I need a job,” she told him—typical no-nonsense Liz—and he hired her right away as a change girl, an entry-level position with a name that reflects the far-from-gender-neutral sensibilities of the era. Hauling around pounds of change in her belt wasn’t her idea of fun, so she moved up to a job in the change booth after about a year.

Yet the change booth was nothing compared with a better-paying job as a cocktail server. The first time Butler asked the El Cortez’s owner, Jackie Gaughan, for a promotion to cocktail waitress, he told her she was too fat.

Today, that might be grounds for a lawsuit. Back in 1973, she joined a gym, went every day, and lost a few pounds.

She went back to Gaughan.

“Am I skinny enough now?” she asked.

He said she was, and she started serving drinks. And she still adores Gaughan.

“Jackie was the best boss you could have,” she says. “He’s a people person.”

Those were wild days at the El Cortez.

Butler remembers a mix of celebrities (Redd Foxx of Sanford and Son was, she recalls, a constant presence in the keno lounge), locals and out-of-towners, each of whom she met with her unique blend of sass and warmth.

Butler, who is African-American, dealt with her share of prejudice. As a change girl and a cocktail waitress, she encountered customers who refused to be served by her and even slung racial epithets at her. Although she admits “it was rough,” she credits El Cortez security with ejecting patrons who were demeaning to her, and her managers for standing by her.

“You cannot disrespect someone who works here,” she says with pride.

She was more than capable, however, of taking matters into her own hands.

38 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Once, a patron let his hands get a little too friendly with her backside.

“Whammo! Right upside the head,” she chuckles. “Can’t do a lot of stuff that you used to do.”

For Butler, the El Cortez is a family. She’s working with people whose parents were at the casino when she started, and there’s a real bond between them all, who’ve shared so much over the years, most of it centering on their former boss. She recalls Gaughan taking her and a few other veteran employees out to dinner frequently.

“He took us everywhere,” she says.

His generosity is one of her fondest memories. Once, when she broke her foot and was wearing a cast, Gaughan let her come in and do office work to make up the differential between her union sick stipend and her tip income.

After work, she got together with her co-workers at the casino bar—everyone was comped, naturally. “It was fun,” she says repeatedly, as she thinks back.

Butler’s love for the El Cortez—and her co-workers, starting with current majority owner Kenny Epstein and general manager Mike Nolan and on down—is abundantly clear.

“When I see someone looking at the pictures,” she says of the historic photos that decorate the property, “I tell them about Jackie, and that I’ve been here a long time, and that those are some of the greatest pictures you could ever look at.”

Butler has seen plenty of changes, and she’s adjusted to the new realities of customer service. “I have to tone it down sometimes,” she admits. And the younger clientele the El Cortez is attracting, thanks to Fremont East entertainment district, is ordering drinks that the cowboys of yesteryear never would have.

But even when she’s recounting an encounter with an unruly guest, she has a smile on her face. “Mostly, I love the people. I just like talking.” And don’t even ask her about leaving.

“Where would I go?” she asks, in a tone that suggests you shouldn’t hazard a guess. With such devotion, the El Cortez—and its patrons—are lucky to have her.

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

Big Hurt Goes for a Big Hit

Retired White Sox star Frank Thomas aims for the fence with his new Las Vegas-based record label

By Kate Silver In late August, former White Sox slugger and Las Vegas resident Frank Thomas retired his No. 35 during a ceremony at Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field, paying tribute to a 16-season career in the Windy City.

Behind him, a bubbly pop girl trio belted out “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Yankees-Sox game began. What the crowd didn’t know is that Thomas brought this group, BelleVoxx, with him from Las Vegas. While this ceremony was an end to one career, it was the beginning of another.

“They’re the hottest act in America to me,” says Thomas. “They got the looks. They got the moves. They got the vocals. They got it all.”

Of course, as the band’s producer, Thomas, 42, is biased. He’s the founder and CEO of W2W Records, which stands for Will to Win, and is located in Las Vegas. Thomas, who is a future Hall of Famer, moved here in 2002 when he was still playing for the White Sox. He spent the off-season enjoying the warmth of the desert.

In 2006, his Henderson home remained a temperate home base when he played for Oakland and, later, Toronto. Now that he’s retired from baseball, he’s found that the town is a great place to explore his love of music, and he’s banking on BelleVoxx to be the Next Big Thing.

Thomas assembled the band, which consists of twentysomethings Denisse Lara (winner of the Latin version of Star Search and the voice of Melody in Disney’s Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea for the Spanish

Photo by Anthony Mair

There’s a lot of hope “for wind energy and solar energy. It’s a complex problem and it’s probably going to be a complex set of solutions.”

Act 2: Former slugger Thomas and his new pop group, BelleVoxx.

market), Harmony Moniz (who is a performer and print model) and Raquel Houghton (who’s known for both her appearance on American Idol Season Eight, and as the former girlfriend of comedian Dane Cook), about four months ago. Its first single, “Looking for Love,” will be released on iTunes on Oct. 12.

While BelleVoxx is a new venture for Thomas, he and the recording studio are old friends. He became involved with the music world 14 years ago, when his cousin formed a rap group in Atlanta. The cousin asked Thomas to help produce tracks and finance the group.

“Ever since then I was hooked,” Thomas says, adding that he’s drawn to pop, R&B and hip-hop. Other acts on his label include hip-hop artists Cardan and Swerv, and R&B singer Bonnie Marie.

Throughout his baseball career, music remained a hobby and occasional business venture. But for the

Biofuel Continued from Page 37

(thermophilic) microbes found in Nevada’s hot springs come in.

“The idea is if you carry out these reactions at a higher temperature you need less water, things are faster and the enzymes tend to last longer,” Hedlund says. “And plus, actually there’s another possible goal that some of these microbes actually directly make ethanol or other fuels. And if you carry this stuff out at high temperature, the ethanol just boils off. You can collect the ethanol all in one step.”

most part, he kept his focus on the game. That focus and dedication is how the 6-foot-5 designated hitter became a five-time All-Star. He’s No. 18 on the all-time home-run list, with 521, along with 1,701 RBIs and a .301 career batting average.

Thomas draws a parallel between baseball and music, saying that in both, you learn where your talents lie and act accordingly.

“You have to know the different level that you’re at.

You know if you’re a pro baseball player or you’re a minor league player, or you know that you’re a college player,” he says. “I mean, it’s the same thing with the artists. You know if you’re a local band or you’re a world-traveling band or you’re a superstar. That’s just the way it is.”

As for BelleVoxx? As far as Thomas is concerned, there’s no question. They’re superstars.

Hedlund is working with researchers from the Desert Research Institute and Lucigen Corp., a private research firm located just outside of Madison, Wisc., to find out which microbes work best. He says it could be years before they know the answer.

In the meantime, he doesn’t just work with Nevada hot springs.

Hedlund recently received a $3.75 million grant from the National Science Foundation to work with seven other U.S. universities and six Chinese universities to study Tengchong, the largest geothermal springs in China. It’s the largest research effort of its kind.

Hedlund knows that it will take years of research and millions, if not billions, of microorganisms to test before fully decoding the capabilities of hot springs organisms. And of course, microbes are certainly not the only option, when it comes to fuel.

“There are many, many possible solutions to the energy crisis, and this is only one of them,” he says.

“There’s a lot of hope for wind energy and solar energy, and it’s a complex problem and it’s probably going to be a complex set of solutions.”Ten thousand of those solutions might even be in his hand right now, as he speaks.

October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 39

The Local Newsroom

DREAM Act Continued from Page 37

together,” Flores says.

Opponents of the DREAM Act say undocumented young people have enough options under the current law. “These students can apply to college on student visas like any other foreign student,” says Ira Mehlman, media director for FAIR, The Federation of American Immigration Reform, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that aims to stop illegal immigration.

The DREAM Act would have provided in-state tuition, and allowed students to apply for loans and work-study programs. Liz Hernandez, a sophomore at UNLV and organizer for Reform Ahora, says many of her undocumented peers didn’t pursue college because of the expense.

“I have friends who could be great web designers, photographers or political science majors who can’t afford it. I have friends who want a master’s. But how are they going to pay for it?” she says.

There is a lack of motivation among undocumented students because they know they won’t be able to stay in the country and work after college, Flores says.

“Latinos have the highest drop-out rate because they don’t see a future and think they’ll have to become a day laborer. That’s the reality they see.”

Flores is hopeful Reid will come through on his promise to resuscitate the act in November. But Reid himself may be a lame duck in the lame-duck session, so the fate of the DREAM Act remains to be seen.

Reform Ahora director Michael Flores says the DREAM Act is a path to success, not a free ride.

40 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

The Local Newsroom

Politics

Singing the Fernley-Las Vegas-Pahrump blues

By Mike Green

Fernley is iabout 30 miles east of Reno.

Its population would fill Cashman Field beyond capacity, but not by much. Born in response to a federal reclamation project, it boasts industry, warehousing (including for Amazon.com) and a suburban lifestyle for commuters to the Reno-Sparks area. It’s the hometown of Frank McCulloch, the greatest journalist to emerge from 20th-century Nevada, the onetime Los Angeles Times managing editor, Time-Life bureau chief and editor of the McClatchy newspapers when their reporting on Paul Laxalt inspired the U.S. senator from Nevada and best friend of Ronald Reagan to file a libel suit.

More important, Fernley has topped Las Vegas as the nation’s foreclosure capital. Las Vegas has fallen to second, followed by Pahrump, giving Nevada the triple crown in the housing market’s collapse. Responses to this situation and/ or the problems that created it include: • Sharron Angle, runner-up to anti-masturbation advocate Christine O’Donnell of Delaware as the most ridiculous GOP Senate candidate, blames Harry Reid for singlehandedly causing the economic collapse, unless she thinks it’s due to autism and allowing women to have maternity leave.

• Brian Sandoval, the GOP candidate for governor, proposed dealing with the “short-term” budget shortfall by privatizing some state services because private enterprise—for example, the real-estate market—has done so well.

He also suggested cutting government employee salaries but not raising taxes, although that proposal taxes their income (including mine, but I would be thrilled if Nevada entered the 20th century and had a state income tax, so I am complaining about Sandoval’s failure of vision, not his vision of failure).

Another Sandoval gem this year was to take more than $100 million from Clark County and give it to the rest of the state. Rory Reid, his opponent, should say Sandoval is a Northern Nevadan and hates Las Vegas—not to mention that since his proposal advocates the redistribution of wealth, Sandoval is a socialist.

But I digress … slightly.

Reid went so far as to say he would sign a tax hike the Legislature passed, then backed away. He had no need to do so, because even if he signed an anti-tax pledge in blood, Republicans would 42 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

claim he stole the blood from the blood bank. Reid has released detailed plans for reforming education at all levels that would, he hopes, prove revenue-neutral.

• Candidates for the Legislature are trying hard not to talk about any of this—and who can blame them? Besides, whatever they do about taxes will be caught up in backroom deals about redistricting and the insanity of trying to run this state with a biennial Legislature that meets for only 120 days at a time.

So, to paraphrase Sarah Palin on “hopey-changey,” how’s that libertarian paradise working out for you? Fernley is in Lyon County, in rural, Northern Nevada, where any form of government inspires some to think they are in Stalinist Russia. Pahrump may be just over the hump, but that hump takes you to Nye County, which is so far right it meets the far left coming around.

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, for example, the unemployment rate is under 9 percent, and Nevada’s unemployment rate is higher than Michigan’s, which includes Detroit, for heaven’s sake.

Blaming Harry Reid may seem politically convenient for Angle, but it’s also ridiculous, and that isn’t a defense of Reid so much as an effort to introduce reality to the debate. Blame for Nevada’s problems should be distributed around the state—not to the congressional delegation, but to governors and legislators from both parties who have relied on gaming revenue and federal projects.

Not only have Democrats and Republicans alike done nothing to encourage us as Nevadans to take responsibility for our own fate, they have encouraged dependence on outsiders in a state that claims to believe in independence. And those who have fought for economic diversification have been stymied.

Worse, the libertarian philosophy encourages gambling on a real-estate bubble. How many of these foreclosures resulted from mortgages that never should have existed in the first place, and would not have in a better-regulated society? Remember: Utopia was a novel, not nonfiction. Fernley, Las Vegas and Pahrump are all too real.

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

Presents

The Only Latin Night Under the Stars

WEDNESDAYS 9:30 PM

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Nightlife

Entertaining options for a week of nonstop fun and excitement.

Compiled by Melissa Arseniuk

Thu. 7 Jared Evan’s single, “In Love With You,” made its debut on Entourage earlier this year, and tonight the singer makes his Las Vegas premiere at Revolution. The performance is part of the Beatles-inspired lounge’s new Next Best Thing series, which showcases up-and-coming artists. (At The Mirage, doors 10 p.m., $20 cover.) Earlier that night, the Nevada Hotel and Lodging Association hosts its new hospitality industry happy hour and mixer, the Under 30 Gateway, at Caramel from 6-9 p.m. (At Bellagio, doors 6 p.m., no cover.) And renowned DJ Calvin Harris (pictured) takes to the tables at Tao during a special edition of Worship Thursdays. At the Venetian, doors 10 p.m., $20 guys, $10 girls, locals free.

Fri. 8 Everyone’s favorite party on wheels, Down & Derby, moves from The Palms to the Hard Rock Hotel this week, as the monthly retro roller-skating party rolls into its new home at The Joint. The best part: $1 from every ticket sold through The Joint box office goes to the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. (Doors 10 p.m., $15 cover, $5 roller skate rentals, no Rollerblades allowed.) Or take it one step further and head to House of Blues, where Fall in Vain and John Zito & Electric Church join Steel Panther (pictured) for a night of raunchy ’80s rock ’n’ roll. At Mandalay Bay, doors 9 p.m., $16, ages 18-plus.

Sat. 9 She’s a porn crossover starlet with a beautiful body and brains to boot, and tonight Sasha Grey (pictured) hosts at Playboy Club. (At the Palms, doors 11 p.m., $40 cover, local ladies free.) Across the street, The Movement and Crown nightclub present the second annual Black & Pink Party benefiting breast cancer research and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Actor Brian White hosts, and as the name suggests, black and pink party attire is encouraged. At the Rio, doors 10 p.m., $20 guys, $15 girls.

SeveN NIghtS Sun. 10 The booziest brunch in town, High Society, embraces its clubby side and welcomes billionaire wannabe Travie McCoy (pictured). Breakfast meets lunch at 1 p.m. (and the bar opens at the same time, too!), but those who want to get their drink on and not let food get in the way can do so in the lounge. (At the Palms, doors 1 p.m., a la carte brunch, no cover.) Later that night, head to the Palazzo, where DJ Vice returns to the decks for another edition of Vice Sundays. Doors 11 p.m., $20 guys, $10 girls, local ladies free.

Mon. 11 Harlem Kruiden Liqueur, Tasting Panel and the San Francisco World Spirits Competition come together and bring us a shot-making competition—and in the middle of the afternoon! The contest brings together the best mixologists and booze lovers in Las Vegas, and gets under way at 1 p.m. (At the Palms, no cover.) Later on, pick your industry night and make the most of it: XS at Encore (Doors 10 p.m., $30 guys, $20 girls), or Jet at The Mirage. Doors 10:30 p.m., $30 guys, $20 girls, locals and industry free before midnight.

Tue. 12 Bring a fist full of nickels to P.U.B. as Todd English’s bar at CityCenter hosts its weekly five-cent draft night. Patrons in the bar area enjoy 8-ounce glasses of Pabst Blue Ribbon for just a nickel from 9 p.m.-midnight, but broke drinkers beware: Outside the immediate bar area, a $12 food minimum applies. (At Crystals, no cover.) Also tonight, DJ Graham Funke goes Bang! behind the decks at Moon. At the Palms, doors 11 p.m., $20 cover, local ladies free.

Wed. 13 Todd Rexx (pictured) has cracked jokes on HBO, Showtime, BET, NBC and Comedy Central, and rubbed elbows with comedians including Dave Chappelle, Tommy Davidson and Martin Lawrence, and now the D.C.-hailing comic performs in Las Vegas—for free! Rexx takes to the stage at 10:30 p.m. (In the Lounge at the Palms. No cover, no drink minimums required.) Alternatively, surrender your Wednesday at—you guessed it—Surrender (At Encore, doors 10 p.m., $40 guys, $30 girls, all locals free), or head next door, to Blush at Wynn, and take in house night at the ultralounge. Doors 9 p.m., $30 cover.

October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 45

Nightlife

LoLita’s Cantina | town square

Photography by Jessica Blair

Upcoming oct. 7 | college night oct. 8 | DJ MichAel toASt oct 9 | DJ SoXXi

46 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Nightlife

Vanity | Hard rock Hotel

Photography by Hew Burney

Upcoming Oct. 7 | GODSKItcHEN WItH tOM StEPHAN Oct. 8 | DJ ERIc D-LUX Oct. 10 | SIN ON SUNDAY

48 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Nightlife

XS | EncorE

Upcoming oct. 8 | DJS KRIS NILSSoN AND PIZZo oct. 10 | DJS FABIAN AND KRIS NILSSoN oct. 11 | INDUStRY NIGHt WItH DJS G-SQUARED AND WARREN PEAcE

50 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Photography by Jessica Blair

Nightlife

Deals

AMG Bets Large With the purchase of PMG, Angel Management Group becomes Vegas’ largest nightlife company

By Jason Scavone

Head Angel Neil Moffitt and one of his company’s new acquisitions, Pure Nightclub (right).

54 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Angel Management Group CEO Neil Moffitt is the picture of poker-face cool. He leans back in the chair of his Henderson office and calmly plays with a stack of purple chips on his desk as he discusses his company’s game-changing bet on Las Vegas nightlife.

The deal, to acquire rival Pure Management Group, gives AMG control of 21 properties (eight are wholly owned, five they operate and eight more they work with as clients) and moves them into the big leagues with Light Group and its own 17 venues, signaling a major consolidation of power in the nightlife industry.

For a man who just added to a portfolio of clubs that drew between $70 million and $105 million last year (according to Nightclub & Bar Magazine), Moffitt is exceptionally reserved. Maybe that’s because after spending years duking it out in the U.K. in the concert game, he’s seen enough rough-and-tumble to know what to expect.

“My competitors in my previous world were AEGLive and LiveNation,” Moffitt says. “They’re people you need to be nervous about, because they’re powerful, they’re organized, they’re structured and they completely own the marketplace. And regarding Vegas: “There’s more than enough [customers] to go around the city. One nightclub doesn’t create the industry.”

AMG already works with Studio 54 and Tabu at MGM Grand and ROK Vegas at New York-New York, plus the party pool Wet Republic at MGM, and it experienced accelerated growth when it added Moorea Beach Club at Mandalay Bay in late June. That was quickly followed by AMG’s takeover of operations for the Hard Rock Hotel’s Rehab in July.

It was a stunning move for that notorious party, already successful enough under management by the Hard Rock Nightlife Group so as to spawn its own television series on TruTV, but it wasn’t the only deal AMG had up its sleeve.

Since the IRS raid on Pure in February 2008, PMG has been faced with setbacks. Long before the company’s most recent problem, a high-profile lawsuit filed in September by husband-and-wife partowners Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, Moffitt says he was approached about a takeover.

“We started talking aggressively I would say three months ago,” he says. “We were meeting with a lender group based out of Los Angeles. I have a twoyear relationship with those guys. It was natural that they would reach out to me and talk business. They were very proactive in helping get this deal done.”

Around the same time, Moffitt says the Hard Rock came to him with an offer to take over marketing of Vanity. “We assessed the property and the opportunity and felt it was a good move for us. It wasn’t something we pursued. It was an approach made by the Hard Rock. There was a huge synergy between the pool and the club. It made sense to step in there and take over that property. Opportunity seemed to have come our way for whatever reason.”

However, not every property in the PMG portfolio has changed hands. Christian Audigier the Nightclub was the first casualty of negotiations—PMG and Treasure Island came to an agreement that left the club shuttered Sept. 24—but it isn’t the only space that could face major changes as a result of the takeover.

Before the buyout, PMG had already been in internal discussions to overhaul LAX at Luxor, with the possibility of a complete rebranding bandied about.

Post-takeover, it’s a spot that Moffitt says AMG is going to take a close look at.

“People will see LAX is a much broader study where we find out where LAX currently sits within the marketplace,” Moffitt says. “We will do whatever we feel is best suited to make that nightclub perform to the standards to which it’s supposed to. I think it falls a little short right now.”

Moffitt sounds impressed with the staff at PMG—a group that held the fort after the departure of key executives since the IRS raid—and doesn’t plan to bring in any of the free-agent industry talent that have become available in recent months.

Even with the newly acquired venues, AMG’s collection is hardly complete. It recently announced plans to unveil the XOXO Supperclub (at a yet unidentified location) on New Year’s Eve. And Moffitt hinted at opportunities nationally and internationally that the company will explore. If his self-effacing narrative holds true, those opportunities will come to Angel on gilded wings.

Nightlife

Profile

Our New Flame

Rathna Singh

Rathna Singh lights up the room as Casa Fuente’s new Embajadora de la Casa

By Natalie Holbrook She’ll match you up with the perfect Arturo Fuente cigar. She’ll cut it, light it, pair it with a scotch and enhance your smoke with her mere presence. Lighting Casa Fuente’s fire like no other, the vivacious Rathna Singh is stepping into her new role as Embajadora de la Casa and her only goal is your smoke-filled satisfaction.

The captivating Singh, 28, has been a prominent member of the Casa Fuente family since she arrived in Las Vegas five years ago, joining the team in time for the cigar bar’s opening. Recognized for turning business relationships into friendships with each customer, Singh is now responsible for the Havana-inspired haven’s welcoming and family-like atmosphere. “People call me to make sure I’m here when they’re here,” she says. “Even if it’s my off day, I’ll come in and sit down, entertain and have a cocktail.”

Casa Fuente, at the Forum Shops at Caesars, offers cigar aficionados an indoor patio, the perfect spot to people-watch as they puff. “We have regulars that stop by Casa Fuente before checking into their hotel,” Singh says. That Casa Fuente is the only retailer licensed to carry Arturo Fuente’s custom “Casa Fuente” cigar and is the only Arturo Fuente-branded store in the world makes it an even more premier destination. Some guests even say they’ve come to Vegas just to visit the store.

Cigar bar though it may be, Casa Fuente completes the guest experience with a bespoke, cigar-friendly cocktail program.

Casa Mojitos—the on-demand delight, available in traditional, peach, tangerine and seasonal fruits—are so popular that other cocktails are all-too-often forgotten. Singh’s favorite, a fabulous femme fix, is the Killer’s Kiss. “It’s a little tart, light and refresh-

ing, made of grapefruit and vodka,” she informs, not forgetting to tack on a cigar pairing: “With that I’d mix an Ashland or a Diamond Crown.”

For men, she suggests Carlito’s Way (Absolut Vanilla, Kahlua and espresso) as the perfect match for a full-bodied cigar such as the OpusX or Forbidden. (One of Casa Fuente’s best-kept secrets is that, when a box of Forbidden is purchased, a percentage of the sale benefits children in the Dominican Republic).

Every weekend hundreds of guests drift in and out for a smoke session, but Casa Fuente expects even higher traffic with the November launch of its weekly soiree, Spirits and Scotch Society, which comes complete with a DJ spinning salsa and meringue. Cigar fanatics also inevitably find their way to the humidor while in town for the annual Cigar Aficionado Big Smoke event, which takes place Nov. 12-14 at the Venetian.

But the most anticipated day for the Casa Fuente family falls on Oct. 29, when Señor Carlito Fuente himself returns to his home away from home, to conduct a signing, meet fans and indulge alongside guests in their favorite cigars and cocktails.

“People are fanatics,” Singh says of Señor Fuente’s celebrity.

“Carlito is like the president.”

But like Singh he, too, has the ability to put people at ease while also putting them into one of his famed cigars, smiling broadly and mustachioed from under one of his ubiquitous his wide-brimmed hats (available for purchase at Casa Fuente, of course). “And he always tells me, ‘Princess, I’m just a humble cigar-maker.’”

WHere THere’s smoke …

Deadmau5 Lives The man in the mouse head returns to resurrect Body English By melissa Arseniuk The biggest DJ to emerge from the Great White North, Deadmau5 is known the world over for wearing a gigantic mouse head while performing. Then there’s his music. Is it house? Is it trance? Even he isn’t quite sure—but he’s got a knack for it, and crowds dig it, too. So much, in fact, that he was the best-selling artist on BeatPort last year, was the house artist for the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards, and today is one of the hottest talents on the electronic music circuit. Deadmau5 follows up his Memorial Day performance at Wet Republic with an Oct. 15 return to revive Body English for one intense night of sound and light. Before that, Vegas Seven had a quick talk (no one could accuse him of being verbose) with the man behind the mouse, Joel Zimmerman.

Deadmau5

60 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

I would be remiss if I didn’t at least pose a few quick questions about your signature look, the mouse head. How many of them do you have?

Six, including the LED head.

How much does each weigh?

It varies, but up to 14 pounds for the LED one.

Leave it to you to wire 14 pounds and six amps of electricity to the top of your head. You’re obviously into computers and technology—what’s your current gadget obsession, beyond masks covered in LED lights?

The designing controller screen on my iPads. I use them to control Ableton wirelessly. Kind of cool.

So how does it feel to be the highest-profile DJ in Canada?

Kinda cool.

You and Tommy Lee have released a few tracks together— “Chicken” and “Redic”—under the name WTF. Was that a onetime project or do you guys plan to release more tracks?

It was just a one-off at the time—not to say that the one-off won’t happen again; just not right now.

Any plans for future collaborations?

There is a possible something with artists [whom] I worked with at the MTV VMAs. Nothing definite—yet—but watch out.

An instant guide to cigarfriendly drinking in Las Vegas: Rhumbar: More than 50 cigars are paired with handcrafted Latin-inspired cocktails served on a lush tropical patio that welcomes cigar aficionados. At The Mirage, RhumbarLV.com.

Petrossian Lounge: Take in the bustle of the Bellagio lobby from Petrossian’s plush, relaxing environs. It’s open ’round the clock and offers 11 varieties of smoke, from the Hemingway Short Story ($16) to the Fuente Fuente OpusX ($80). Bellagio.com.

La Havana Cigar Bar: An entirely bustle-free evening awaits along the serene shores of Lake Las Vegas, where La Havana serves up its own hand-rolled cigars along with more than 500 varieties of wine. HavanaSmoke.com.

Nightlife

Beer Culture

By Xania Woodman

Three Belgian beers (on the wall …)

Hop to It! The Stella Artois pouring ritual

Since 1997, the Stella Artois World Draught Master Competition has been dubbing champions who can best adhere to the strict nine-step pouring ritual. In August, Hard Rock Hotel bellman Scott Ast took first place in the 2010 regional competition, then went on to take third in the nationals in Boston. Visit WeeklySeven.com to watch a demonstration of the ritual from the Purification of the glass to the Bestowal of the perfectly poured Stella.

Step 1. The Purification Begin with a cleaned and rinsed Stella Artoisbranded glass.

Hoegaarden

Leffe Blond

Stella Artois

Available on draught at Yard House Red Rock ($6.25 pint, $13.50 half-yard) and $6 by the bottle at Freakin’ Frog.

Available on draught at Yard House Red Rock, $7.25, and by the bottle at the Freakin’ Frog, $5.

Available on draught at Todd English P.U.B. for $9/$19/$30 (pint/yard/pitcher) and $4 in the bottle at Freakin’ Frog, $5 at Downtown Cocktail Room.

Freakin’ Frog owner Adam Carmer’s favorite of the three, he calls Hoegaarden wheat beer (4.9 percent ABV) “the benchmark Belgian wit. Often imitated, never duplicated.” The original Hoegaarden from De Kluis Brewery is smooth, light-bodied, naturally cloudy in appearance and a bit sweet and sour on the palate with a subtly spiced-citrus flavor. Aromas of orange peel, coriander and spice are best experienced from Hoegaarden’s traditional, chilled hexagonal glass. From here, pack your bags and travel to the Benelux countries for the raspberry-infused Roseé and the citrus zest-infused Citron.

At 6.6 percent ABV, Leffe is higher in alcohol than its cousin Stella. Of the six Leffe varieties available—Blond, Brown, Radieuse, Ruby, Triple, 9°—the Blond is the sunny-colored flagship of the venerable Leffe Abbey brewery, which has been making beer where the Leffe and Meuse rivers meet since before the 1200s. Despite flood, fire, countless wartime occupations and even a complete abandonment in 1809, the Leffe Abbey began brewing again in 1952. Leffe Blond is characterized by its smooth, fruity elegance with a spicy, bitter orange peel finish. Pair Leffe with steak, smoked or roasted meats, and sweet and sour dishes.

Latin for “star,” Stella dates back to 1366 at the Den Hoorn Brewery in Leuven, Belgium. Displaying a light, pleasant bitterness and just a bit of yeasty grain with a crisp, refreshing finish and exceptional clarity, Stella Artois pilsner lager (5 to 5.2 percent ABV) is best enjoyed from its signature chalice following the nine-step pouring ritual, which insures a clean environment in the glass and properly crowns the rich, golden beer with the exact amount of foamy head. While shrouded in mystique on this side of the pond, be assured that Stella Artois is a staple, “the Bud of Belgium,” Carmer says.

Oktoberfest: It ain’t over till November The Hofbräuhaus will celebrate with all the pomp and circumstance befitting this faithful reproduction of the world’s most famous beer hall. Keg-tappings, every Friday and most Saturdays, are led by local celebrities, so bring a camera. 4510 Paradise Road.

Keg-tapping starts at 7 p.m. No cover. Rockhouse Bar & Nightclub will rock Octobeerfest with Das Boot, a 48-ounce, boot-shaped souvenir mug for $27 with $16 refills. Or, spring for the über-size 64-ounce “Super Beer,” $27 with $20 refills. In front of Imperial Palace. Open 10 a.m. to 5 a.m. daily. Rocktoberfest at O’Sheas Casino, 3 p.m. to midnight Oct. 9, will feature barmaids in lederhosen, German cuisine, beer-fueled party games, a broadcast by KOMP 92.3-FM and a performance by Sick Puppies at 9 p.m.

3555 Las Vegas Blvd. South. No cover, 21 and up. X-treme Radio X-107.5 will partner with Sunset Station to host X-toberfest, a poolside party featuring live entertainment, from 3-8 p.m. Oct. 16. $20 cover includes food and drink vouchers; 21 and up.

64 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Step 2. The Sacrifice Open the tap in one quick action and let the first drops of beer flow away.

Step 3. The Liquid Alchemy begins Hold the glass just under the tap without touching it, at a 45-degree angle.

Step 4. The Crown (Head) Lower the glass to allow the natural formation of the foam head.

Step 5. The Removal Close the tap quickly and move the glass away so beer doesn’t drip into the glass.

Step 6. The Beheading While the head foams up and overflows the side of the glass, smooth it gently with a head-cutter.

Step 7. The Judgment The right amount of foam is usually about two fingers in height.

Step 8. The Cleansing Clean the bottom and sides of the glass.

Step 9. The Bestowal Present the beer on a clean beer coaster with the logo facing the consumer.

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The NaTioNal Newsroom

Good Nerd, Bad Nerd

The Facebook movie taps into the old stereotype of geeks as misfits. In New York, at least, the old image no longer applies

Illustration by Viktor Koen

By Leon Neyfakh Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network as a maladjusted misanthrope who talks like a robot and is better at communicating with his computer than he is with other humans.

He is awkward, uncomfortable and helplessly off-putting when forced to deal with anyone who is not like him. Unable to hack it in the real world, he is moved to create a virtual version of it and anoint himself its lonely king.

Writing for the technology blog TechCrunch recently, Alexia Tsosis argued that Zuckerberg as depicted in The Social Network represented the archetypal “terror nerd,” a figure that instills fear and resentment in people who don’t know how computers work and have never written a line of code.

The terror nerd presents a threat because he is “almost inhumanely driven by the formidable pain of never fitting in,” and because his technical ability gives him power over everyone who lacks it.

The movie, Tsosis wrote, thus marks the beginning of a new era in which “the Internet is the enemy” and “anonymous engineers have become creators of anxiety.”

But is it really that? Or is it the opposite: that is, a reminder of just how far computer geeks have come in recent years in terms of gaining the trust and respect of their nontechnical contemporaries?

The fact is that tech in 2010 does not connote what it used to: By and large, the best-known people in the industry are not geeky or threatening but charismatic, photogenic, friendly and idealistic. Unlike the “terror nerd” represented by the Zuckerberg character in Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher’s movie, they tend not to be closed off and isolated from the rest of society, but rather personable and empathetic. They fit in, they sit up straight, and the things they build on their mysterious computers are embraced and celebrated by the masses.

Think of David Karp from Tumblr, the blue-eyed darling of New York media who posts pictures of himself and his attractive girlfriend riding around town on a Vespa. Or think of floppy-haired Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley and cute-as-a-button Nate Westheimer

of the NY Tech Meetup, both of whom have made careers out of services that facilitate the distinctly nongeeky pursuit of going out into the world and getting to know new people.

These are not terror nerds. These are cool guys, and they don’t scare anybody.

At the Web 2.0 Expo in New York recently, an advertising-oriented techie named Kelly Eidson recalled how just a few years ago, she avoided developer panels because watching the participants squirm and mumble onstage was too awful to bear. “People weren’t good at speaking!” Eidson said. “They were always really quiet and awkward, especially if they were by themselves.

Now it’s like, they’re prepared, and they have a presentation and they’ve done it before—there’s a lot more taking pride in talking about what they’re making, telling people what it means and why they should appreciate it.”

These days, Eidson said, when she thinks of developers her brain no longer conjures up grimy guys eating Cheetos off their desks. Instead, Eidson said, she pictures skinny, iPhone-wielding hipsters with funky haircuts, “wearing dark skinny jeans, some designer shoes and plaid shirts with the sleeves rolled up.”

At stake in this shift is much more than just fashion, however, or even the health of a cherished subculture. Social skills have become essential in tech—they are the industry’s best weapon against the anxiety and resistance that so-called “normal people” have historically shown when confronted with an unknown future determined by technically savvy weirdos.

“There’s been a geekification of all culture over the years,” said Tristan Louis, a veteran Internet critic and, recently, the founder of the start-up Keepskor. “Computer geeks have moved from being the scary hackers who could

blow up the world to, nowadays, building the new economy.”

Techies just don’t want to be scary anymore, and they don’t want to alienate people who aren’t like them. They need to be socially accepted by the masses because their products are by definition dependent on widespread adoption.

On Oct. 1, actor Tom Hanks announced an animated web serial he is producing about what the world will be like in the future: an optimistic take, Hanks said, that he hopes will serve as an antidote to all the dystopian scenarios that gloomy people like to dream up because they’re scared of the unknown. “Without a doubt, everything has changed, but not necessarily for the worst,” Hanks told The New York Times. “It hasn’t degenerated into an Orwellian society—just the opposite.”

It’s hard to think of anyone in Hollywood more perfectly suited than Hanks to take up the cause of techno-utopianism Continued on Page 72 October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 69

The National Newsroom

Myth, Mystery and Tragedy Documentary chronicles the life and death of NFL player turned Army Ranger

By Greg Beato

70 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

high-ranking Army officials in a congressional hearing all vigorously not recalling when they learned that Tillman had been killed by friendly fire, but it never offers a concise, convincing explanation for who specifically decided to modify the details of Tillman’s death. By not narrowing down the possibilities, The Tillman Story is free to keep the indictments it makes against the Army, the Bush Administration and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as broad as possible.

In his 2009 account of Tillman’s story, Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman (Doubleday, 2009), Jon Krakauer takes a less sweeping but ultimately more damning approach. He doesn’t answer every lingering question about the incident and its aftermath either, but he does name the specific soldier who most likely shot Tillman and reconstructs how it happened. He identifies Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the head of the Army’s Joint Special Operations Command, as the person who decided to officially contain the true facts of Tillman’s death from Tillman’s family, the public and

even the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. Krakauer also reports that McChrystal was the person who initiated and expedited the Silver Star application so that it could be awarded before Tillman’s memorial service, even though he knew Tillman was not technically eligible for the medal. Silver Stars are awarded only for gallantry against an enemy of the United States, and there were no enemies present when Tillman was killed. (Tillman, along with former Nevada Gov. Mike O’Callaghan, are namesakes for the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge set to open next month.)

Krakauer reports on the various ways the Army breached protocols when communicating information about Tillman’s death to his family, and ultimately, by taking this matter-of-fact approach, Krakauer sidesteps a trap The Tillman Story partially falls into: He keeps Tillman from devolving into a tragi-poetic metaphor for all that is wrong with our recent wars, and instead presents him as a real, specific person, against whom real, specific injustices were committed.

Pat Tillman’s family, led by mother Mary Tillman, testifying at a hearing in 2007, accused the U.S. government of “deliberate and calculated lies” in the days following the Army Ranger’s death.

Pat Tillman by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images; Mary Tillman photo by Ken Cedeno/Bloomberg via Getty Images

tale his commanding officers concocted The opening scene of the documentary in the wake of his death. On April 22, The Tillman Story shows Pat Tillman 2004, less than two weeks after Tillman taping a promotional video while still a and his younger brother Kevin had college football player at Arizona State deployed to Afghanistan—he’d done his University. After saying his name, Tillinitial tour of duty in Iraq—Tillman was man keeps looking at the camera while shot three times in the head by one of his awaiting further instruction from unseen fellow Rangers. crew members. He seems The firefight had good-natured about the taken place at dusk, in process, but also eager to disorienting terrain, be done with it and maybe but according to Bryan even a little disdainful, as O’Neal, the Ranger who if he can’t quite believe all was kneeling alongside the effort that is going into Tillman, it was immedicrafting empty pageantry ately clear that Tillman designed to iconize himself had been killed by their and his fellow athletes. fellow soldiers—that A few years later, of those soldiers had in course, a similar dynamic fact been firing at them would play out on a larger repeatedly even as they scale. Tillman was far from shouted and waved their a household name when he arms to indicate their put aside his NFL career Pat Tillman in 2000 status as “friendlies.” to enlist in the U.S. Army Instead of conveying this inconvenient eight months after the 9/11 attacks. But truth, however, the Army announced at a time when there was a lot of highthat Tillman had been killed by enemy minded talk about the price of freedom, fire during a chaotic exchange that had Tillman captured the nation’s attention involved as many as a dozen enemy as the most vivid example of all those combatants. who were willing to walk the walk. Just The first person the Army told this lie married to his high-school sweetheart, to was Tillman’s brother Kevin, who’d forsaking a $3.6 million contract extenbeen been traveling with the platoon but sion offer from the Arizona Cardinals, was too far back to witness his brother’s Tillman was giving up an extremely death. Then, the Army repeated this enviable life to serve his country. That lie to the rest of Tillman’s family and he understood his decision to do so made eventually to the public at large. him no nobler than anyone else who’d Five weeks later, the Army changed its done the same—and therefore refused to tune, announcing in a press conference speak publicly about his enlistment—only that Tillman had “probably” died from added to his appeal. friendly fire. At that point, Tillman’s In his long-haired days, Tillman looked family, especially his mother Mary “Danlike a cross between G.I. Joe and Kurt nie” Tillman, began pressing for more Cobain. With his military buzzcut, he information. Who actually killed him? looked like a cross between G.I. Joe Who decided to say he’d been killed by and Sgt. Rock. His jaw was as fortified the enemy rather than his fellow Rangers? as a concrete bunker. His fierce glower Why had the Army burned his uniform, packed so much firepower you could his body armor and even his journal days almost imagine him staring Osama bin after he’d been killed?

Laden to death. In reality, Tillman was a The Tillman Story does a good job of complicated individual—an atheist who raising these questions, and it also capprobably read more religious texts than tures the fierce love Tillman’s family have all but the most devout, a patriot who felt for him and his memory, and their anger morally obligated to defend his country and bitterness at the way they were lied but also admired Noam Chomsky. On a to in the wake of his death. To a certain superficial level, he seemed tailor-made degree, though, director Amir Bar-Lev for propaganda and he knew it. He signed seems more interested in implications a form instructing that he did not want a than answers, and The Tillman Story military funeral should he die in combat. leaves all the major ones thoroughly Ultimately, the story referenced in the veiled in the fog of agitprop documentatitle of The Tillman Story, which opened ries. The movie shows Defense Secretary to a limited release on Aug. 22, is not so Donald Rumsfeld and a succession of much Tillman’s own biography as it is the

Tweeting Our Brains Out Just because we can tell the world our every move doesn’t mean we should

By Bob Morris The blog of a friend kept showing up in my inbox. I felt guilty not reading it each week, and couldn’t get it to go into my junk mail. Then I saw the unsubscribe button. Click. No more weekly navel-gazing posts.

How was I to know that my friend would be notified?

“I don’t get it,” someone we both know told me she said. “Why did Bob do that?

Because I’ve reached my quota of e-nnoyances for the moment, that’s why.

I mean, even if you still like Facebook and think The Social Network is a great movie, do you really have any more space in your brain for Mark Zuckerberg? He likes to think his quest is “to make the world a more open place,” rather than a more lucrative one for himself. I won’t quibble. But can he please stop my sister-in-law’s septuagenarian father from trying to friend me?

The other night I was at a Broadway play. The man next to me started checking his messages after the curtain went up. The light from his screen was so distracting I asked him to stop. He glared at me for so long that I had to change seats. Maybe he thought that since using his device is OK at the dinner table and urinal, why not in the theater?

You certainly can’t attend a pop concert without being surrounded by people making videos and texting pictures and comments. “Are you writing nice things about us as you Tweet the show?” the lead singer of Vampire Weekend recently asked an audience at Radio City lit up by iPhone screens.

“We appreciate that, we really do.”

Did I detect, beneath his boyish cheer, the unthinkable question: Are you people ever able to turn those stupid

things off and live your lives instead of documenting them?

Are any of these messages so important? Don’t get me wrong. It’s great that we can text money into flood-ruined Pakistan or promote civil rights rallies.

And I appreciate being able to kill time while alone with my device in a restaurant, too, even if I’m only deleting old photographs. But is every little thing worth Tweeting about? Must we post every tiny opinion, regardless of whether it’s based on fact, thought or anything resembling sentence structure?

In You Are Not A Gadget (Knopf, 2010), Jaron Lanier laments the mindless chains of insults, gossip, video pranks and silly mashups that now dominate our online lives. Aaron Sorkin, who wrote The Social Network, is no Internet fan, either. “While everyone deserves a voice,” he tells New York magazine, “not everyone deserves a microphone.”

Nor do they deserve a cell phone on the job. But that didn’t stop 178 New York City bus drivers from texting at the wheel between last January and now. There have been drownings in recent years at pools and beaches where lifeguards were texting, too.

Table manners, meanwhile, continue to sink to new lows.

“Don’t you dare leave until I finish this e-mail,” a friend tells me while writing messages on one of his two devices long after we’ve finished lunch.

“That’s so rude!”

Maybe I should have been that direct with my overzealous blogger friend.

Then again, everything I had to say to her was done with one click of an unsubscribe button. Sometimes the best messages don’t have any words at all.

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ACROSS 1 Engage in debate 5 What’s-___-face 8 Lyricist Lerner 12 Vertical passage 17 Battle buddy 18 Continue (a subscription) 20 Do ___ ...

21 Four starter 22 Long-term solution to crime?

24 Guy who can hit the high notes 26 As opposed to 27 Synagogue scroll 29 Tablet for dictation 30 Keats wrote one to Psyche 31 Complains (about trees?)

33 Makeovers 34 iPhone download 37 Fido’s favorite tree?

39 22 Across setting 41 Court sport 42 Global warming?

44 Where Shiloh is 46 Bing Crosby’s label 47 Popeye, to Bluto 48 “See if ___!”

49 Utter shambles 53 Ending with honor 54 ___ nitrite 55 Mountain pass

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87 Bus. school admissions test 88 Pale with fright 89 Aspartame, e.g.

91 They might be spiked 92 Cooking fat 93 Explorers John and Sebastian 96 No. 1-rated player 98 Drano ingredient 99 Voters since 1920 100 Fairly divided 102 Britney’s “___ Slave 4 U” 105 “Little Mermaid” lyricist Howard

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107 “An original in ___ of imitators” (Mick Jagger on Elvis) 108 RNA component 110 Flood-control structure 113 Major anniversary 115 Still on the plate 116 Floor model 117 Adds a dash of flavor 118 Free, courtesy of yours truly 119 Duane, Nelson, and Mary Baker 120 Part of 121 Across 121 PBS funder 122 Ruhr rejection DOWN 1 Battle barrage 2 Engaged in 3 “My strength is as the strength of ten” poet 4 Bakery buys 5 Chick tender 6 Premeditated 7 Motion endorser 8 St. Louis landmark 9 Sign of summer?

10 Makes smile 11 GameCube maker 12 69 Across parts 13 Queen on Olympus 14 Being there 15 Back again 16 Gravel replacer, maybe 18 Darn and darn again

19 “As you ___” 23 Circuit-board wrecker 25 Elmer or Homer, e.g.

28 Venom varmints 32 Vitamin strength 33 Bupkis, to Sarkozy 35 Slangy movies 36 Ad Council ads, briefly 38 Mighty Mel 40 Sign on for another hitch 41 Overcrowded housing 42 Moves using a mouse 43 Renaissance setting 45 George of “Just Shoot Me” 46 Functional prefix?

48 Nanny tester 50 “Death Becomes Her” co-star 51 Copier insert: abbr.

52 Fuel for the fire 54 Have a bug 56 Pre-cable need 59 Applied balm to 60 Noisy bird 61 Mexican relative 63 Over-the-counter drug 64 Initiation, for one 66 Mongolian desert 67 City near Provo 68 Hang loosely 69 Transgression 70 E. Lee et al., briefly 72 No later than 74 Practiced profession 76 Bug-eyed TV canine 77 Periodic table abbr.

78 Delphi notable 79 Angel’s instrument, in Swedish 81 Starbucks order 82 Anthem start 83 Said “Or else!” to 84 “Help ___ the way” 86 Very loud 87 “___, do I have to?”

90 Highlights network 91 Encourage 93 “Catch a Falling Star” singer 94 Mystery author Cross 95 Drinking bout 97 Renders speechless 99 Bleaches 101 Yank foes 103 “CSI” city 104 Microsoft co-founder Paul 106 Stick around 107 “Famous” entrepreneur 109 In a bit, poetically 110 “You’ll ___ the day” 111 Word with dead or deep 112 Qty. 114 Delivery guess, briefly ! VOLUME 16 IS HERE !

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

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Techies Continued from Page 69

and spread its gospel. Indeed, his smiling endorsement of the tech industry—his apparent willingness to be its affable, nonthreatening face—underscores the industry’s transformation from a haven for strange, unappealing nerds to a bright and inviting sector of the new economy.

Joshua Schachter, who created the pioneering social bookmarking site Delicious while working at Morgan Stanley, said that building consumer software aimed at regular people requires a certain kind of emotional intelligence and a capacity for empathy.

“A lot of great product design is emotional,” Schachter said. “A lot of building a product is putting something out there and listening to people’s reactions.

You can’t get angry if they say it sucks: That’s meaningful; that’s important. If you’re able to understand and connect to the feedback, you can build a better thing that people don’t react to negatively.”

Charlie O’Donnell of First Round Capital said that social start-ups need founders who can perceptively observe and relate to other people. “I think that comes from just talking to people and understanding other people’s situations and being social enough to relate to people who aren’t like you,” he said. “If you were just a developer coding away in the basement and you weren’t particularly social … you might not be able to understand the nuance of how the average person thinks about, say, privacy.”

And therein lies the heart of the matter, which is that in the age of social media, developers must be sensitive to how the average person thinks—and feels—about a whole range of issues that are likely to make them nervous and scared if they are not carefully and strategically addressed.

Take, for example, Chris Dixon’s Hunch, a New York-based recommendation service. The way Hunch works is that you open an account and then start answering multiple-choice questions about your habits, values and preferences. The questions are all over the map: Which of these four people do you find most attractive? What’s your favorite kind of pizza? Do you wear a hoodie to work, or a suit? They are surprisingly fun to answer, and once you get going, it can be hard to stop. But the real point of using Hunch is to ask it questions and get answers back based on data collected from you and your fellow users. The more of Hunch’s questions you answer, the smarter it’s supposed to get about suggesting things you might like.

There are those for whom this a scary proposition.

What happens when people start trusting Hunch so completely, one wonders, that they start doing whatever it tells them? Could it be that an individual would risk losing his sense of self, if every personal choice that might distinguish him from other people is determined by this piece of automated software?

Dixon and his team bumped into these fears after their description of Hunch as a “decision-making” application caused some people to denounce the service.

“We changed the description precisely because some people were like, ‘Now we’re outsourcing our decisionmaking to computers!’” Dixon said. “And that’s not really what we intended. We don’t want people to decide whether to get divorced based on our website. … I just sort of thought that was obvious, but I guess we needed to spell it out a bit more to some people.”

They started calling it a recommendation engine, which according to Dixon has “milder connotations.”

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desired effect, Dixon knows full well that he’ll never be able to eliminate every skeptic. There have always been and always will be some fearful people, he said, who suspect the tech industry of laying the groundwork for some dystopian future in which humans have been transformed into mindless cyborgs with no sense of self or purpose. Those people, according to Dixon, tend to be motivated by self-interest rooted in fear of their own obsolescence, and tend to be wrong.

“There’s a natural aversion to change,” Dixon said.

“A lot of these technologies are supplanting older technologies. The newspaper and magazine businesses are shrinking as a result of social media, and as you’d expect, older people from those industries are afraid of that.”

At the recent Web 2.0 Expo, entrepreneur Tim O’Reilly gave a keynote speech in which he called upon engineers and founders to recommit themselves to putting their talents toward making the world a better place. The future, he said, “is all about what happens when we work together.” In a tone that conveyed nothing so much as childlike wonder, O’Reilly spoke of all the “fascinating applications that let us work together, that let us change the world together.”

Techies who lived through the end of the dot-com bubble say that the possibility of a backlash toward this newest wave of technology might not be far-fetched.

“It’s cyclical,” Louis said. “Right now we’re in a period that’s largely positive towards technology. I think we’ll enter another cycle in probably another five years that will be largely negative about it. [The cause] could be that some of the larger start-ups become overly powerful. You can see people are starting to question the motives of companies like Google and Apple, and even Facebook is starting to get there. You start getting some cracks in the picture-perfect image people have of technological changes, and that will result in a fair amount of negative press for a while. ... In better times, people look at the machine as the magic box and look at the people who can operate the machine as the high priests. In dark times, they look at it as dark magic.”

SIPC considers revamping rules

By Kathy Kristof, Tribune Media Services

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If you own U.S. stocks, you should know that the Securities Investor Protection Corp. (SIPC) is considering revamping its rules in the wake of the two biggest quakes ever to hit the brokerage industry—the massive Lehman Brothers collapse and Bernard L. Madoff’s record-setting Ponzi scheme.

SIPC is the brokerage-industry equivalent of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., with some major differences. SIPC will cover a stock investor for up to $500,000 in securities and cash (there’s a $100,000 cap on the cash part) in case his or her brokerage goes bust.

If your brokerage was lying to you, as was the case with Madoff, and fabricated your investment portfolio, SIPC may pay you considerably less than you think you’re due. SIPC has decided to pay Madoff investors only the money paid in, minus any received from the sham brokerage.

In fact, Madoff investors who got back more in gains than the total funds they paid in have been told they have to pay the net gain back.

Some investors are crying foul. They say the brokerage industry, which funds the SIPC, should have done a better job policing itself.

The SIPC, which has been operating under rules written in the 1970s, is accepting comments from securities professionals and the public on how it should evolve in today’s dicey securities environment.

Both SIPC advocates and detractors maintain that the revamp is long overdue.

“It’s time to look at whether retail investors ought to be treated differently than sophisticated investors such as pensions and hedge funds,” said Stephen P. Harbeck, president of the SIPC. “It’s time to look at the levels of protection and the adequacy of our funding.”

Securities lawyers say it may also be time to consider whether the agency needs a mandate on how to cover various types of securities fraud. Chicago securities lawyer Andrew Stoltmann, for instance, maintains that the SIPC provides “phantom protection.”

“Getting money from the SIPC, even in meritorious cases, is extraordinarily difficult,” Stoltmann said. “They have been very cheap in paying out claims to injured investors. I think there is a major need to revamp the SIPC to provide real protection.”

Harbeck says the SIPC has provided 100 percent coverage to all but 351 investors from its inception through 2009. (Madoff claims are still being litigated.) But Stoltmann counters that the numbers don’t include thousands of people who have lost money to malfeasance by brokers but whom the SIPC won’t protect. And the insurance fund’s definition of “full coverage” is also debatable.

Consider two Ponzi schemes—the $60 billion Madoff con and the $8 billion scheme allegedly orchestrated by R. Allen Stanford of Texas. The SIPC is providing insurance payments to Madoff investors but is not promising anything to those allegedly taken

by Stanford. Why?

“The investors in Stanford Financial Group are holding the certificates of deposit in a bank in Antigua in their hands,” Harbeck said. “We do not protect fraudulent projections of value. We ensure that investors receive the securities that they bought, and they have them.”

Investors in the Madoff scheme, however, were told that they were buying listed stocks and bonds. The fact that their brokerage statements were falsified didn’t negate the SIPC coverage, Harbeck said.

“Customers got statements saying that they had a portfolio of securities. They had reason to believe that was true, so we replaced it to $500,000,” Harbeck said. “The methodology we used was the most customer-friendly methodology that the law permits us to use.”

Still, even Madoff investors are not thrilled with the SIPC coverage they’re getting.

Why? They want the SIPC to provide payment based on their last brokerage statements. Instead, the SIPC has promised to return their principal—that’s the money they put in, minus any withdrawals they’d made—but no investment return.

That formula has reduced SIPC claims from the $64 billion that Madoff investors thought they owned to just $20 billion that the SIPC considers to be the insured loss, Harbeck said.

Another shocker to Madoff investors is that the SIPC wants any investor who took out more than he or she paid in to return the net gains. Harbeck says the “net winners” in the Madoff scheme were essentially taking capital from the net losers. But the Madoff investors, many of whom are suing the SIPC for higher recoveries, don’t agree. They want to be covered for the profit they thought was theirs.

By the same token, providing insurance coverage for falsified profits presents a troubling situation. If the SIPC insured 100 percent of a con artist’s stated profits, which are based on unrealistically lofty returns, why wouldn’t all investors invest with crooks to guarantee themselves a windfall?

Another issue that has advocates as the SIPC considers changes: an increase to the $500,000 limit, which was set in 1978, to adjust for inflation. And Stoltmann wants reformers to figure out how to deal with the fact that the SIPC does not cover arbitration awards left unpaid by bankrupt brokers. Shouldn’t those awards be given the same insurance coverage as a cash account, given that they were usually connected to securities losses the broker caused?

Any investor who has a strong feeling about how securities insurance should be revamped can learn more at sipcmodernization.org.

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

t

Arts & Entertainment Reading

Greatest Book of All Time

Boxing behemoth re-released at a lighter weight—and a price that photography lovers and sports fans can afford

By M. Scott Krause

Neil Leifer’s 1965 photo of Ali vs. Liston II is one of the many classic photos in the epic book Greatest of All Time.

Muhammad Ali is such a beloved cultural icon, and his achievements—both in and out of the boxing ring—are so significant, that no standard biography can do the man justice. You simply cannot tell the full story of the only boxer to win the heavyweight crown three times in a couple hundred pages with two dozen pictures neatly inserted down the middle. Cannot be done.

Just ask German-born publisher Benedikt Taschen. In 2004, he unveiled the Muhammad Ali project he’d been working on since 2000. Taschen envisioned a tribute befitting a king of the ring, an illustrated biography as dynamic as the former heavyweight champ himself.

The resulting book, simply called GOAT (the acronym stands for “Greatest of All Time”), was supersized

in every way, spanning 800 pages and weighing a staggering 75 pounds. Many of the photos (there were about 3,000) were by Neil Leifer and longtime Ali photographer and biographer Howard L. Bingham, but Taschen also licensed photography and art from an additional 70 sources, making room for everyone, from Andy Warhol and Annie Leibovitz to Philippe Halsman and David LaChapelle.

Still, GOAT, wasn’t conceived as some fancy picture book. Taschen paid equal attention to the words, all 600,000 of them, calling on six decades’ worth of essays, articles, observations and opinions from sportswriters, mainstream journalists, the boxing community and Ali’s inner circle. There’s a lot to digest here, a lot of

choice material, much of it never before published.

Taschen produced two limited editions of GOAT. One, dubbed the “Champ’s Edition,” was limited to 1,000 copies and included a copy of GOAT bound in pink leather (the color of Ali’s first Cadillac) by the official bindery for the Vatican. The cover was white silk with pink lettering, and the complete package included “Radial Champs,” a specially commissioned sculpture from artist Jeff Koons. The book was signed by Ali and Koons, and also included four “gallery-quality” prints of Ali (signed by Bingham and Ali). Each copy was nestled in a silk-covered box with Leifer’s famous overhead shot of Ali’s knockout of Cleveland Williams, from November 1966.

Continued on Page 78 October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 77

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Angel Eyes

The price tag? A whopping $15,000.

For budget-conscious fans who love Ali but like to eat, there was also a collector’s edition, which only cost $4,500. That version (limited to 9,000 copies) was also signed by Ali and Koons, but fans missed out on the Koons’ sculpture (it was replaced by a lithograph), and the Bingham photographs. The cover was different, too, swapping the while silk cover with a shot of Ali’s famous torso.

Now, as part of Taschen’s 30th anniversary in publishing, GOAT (re-titled The Greatest of All Time) has been reformatted and republished at a price that’s simply too good to pass up: $150. It’s smaller than the previous editions, and doesn’t come loaded with any extras, but at 15 pounds it’s still enough to make your coffee table groan. The pictures, the essays and the interviews are all here, and the book has been updated for 2010, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Ali’s first professional fight.

The Greatest of All Time now sports a third cover, Neil Leifer’s famous and exquisite shot of Ali towering over a flat-on-his-back Sonny Liston, from their 1965 bout. There’s no silk-covered box this time, but you do get a nifty cardboard carrying case with a little plastic handle, which makes it easy for you to cart this book up to a cash register.

In the end, it really doesn’t matter whether you consider yourself a serious student of “the sweet science” or find boxing difficult to stomach. Ali will long be remembered as a consummate athlete and competitor, the man who elevated trash talk to an art form and taught us the “rope-a-dope,” and as an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War (long before it was fashionable) who refused to serve and was convicted of draft evasion, until his case was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Score The Greatest of All Time a triumph for both Ali and Taschen.

It’s a knockout, no two ways about it.

Montana Black’s spiritual art brightens up the hospital bland

The LIbrarIan Loves ...

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

How did we get into this economic mess? In The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine (W.W. Norton & Co., 2010, $28), Michael Lewis, a financial insider with both personal experience on Wall Street and as an accomplished investigative reporter, chronicles the run-up to The Great Recession. Lewis manages to make the financial world—subprime mortgage bonds and derivatives and those who created them and those who saw them as the risky investment vehicles they proved to be—understandable, fascinating and darkly risible. I guarantee you will come away both much better informed and angrier than you already are.

78

Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

By Gregory Crosby No one wants to go to the hospital; on the long list of places to avoid, it falls somewhere between the IRS office and the DMV. But that dread is also a function of our aversion to the alltoo-often-institutionalized banality and ugliness of their architecture and décor. Picture a hospital, and what you see is bland tile, hideous pastel and corporate blah. And all too often, the art hanging in hospital lobbies and waiting areas is nauseating, fourth-rate abstract paintings that even the doctors find dispiriting.

Now imagine a hospital lobby filled with paintings of people engaged in spiritual joy: a woman communing with hummingbirds against a backdrop of golden light; a man and an ape sitting and pondering each other in a warm, red landscape; a young woman spreading her arms wide as penguins march toward her.

“Janet,” “Erik,” “Justin,” “Bill,” “Elaine” and “Terrien”—each figure is attended by almost invisible angelic wings.

The paintings embody a feeling of light, joy and connection with both the physical world and the world of spirit, the world of the body and of the mind. Each is the work of artist Montana Black, and can be found in a permanent installation in the entrance of the University Medical Center on Charleston Boulevard.

Black has long been interested in the power of positive images in art to act as a healing environment. “I’ve always striven to create art for the express purpose of helping to remind individuals of their innate desire for harmony, healing and wholeness, especially for spaces designed for healing and recovery,” Black says.

The artist, who received her bachelor’s of fine arts from UNLV, has shown her work in diverse galleries and settings around Nevada; for the last decade, she has been focused on work that speaks to art as a therapeutic tool.

Art therapy—the practice of art itself for health benefits—is a respected technique for ill individuals, but Black feels just as strongly that the art people see in their daily lives can have as much of a therapeutic benefit. “I’ve always felt that images of beings engaged in acts that express kindness and love for other living beings can have a very powerful effect on the healing process,” Black says.

The group of paintings now on view at UMC, Angels Unveiled, found their way into the hospital’s newly constructed area thanks to the efforts of Suzanne Hackett-Morgan, who in her capacity as a fundraiser for the UMC Foundation brought Black’s work to the attention of hospital officials. The works installed are limited-edition giclée prints of the

“Janet” is one of the Human Angels at UMC.

Angels series, mounted between glass; arrayed on the walls across from reception, they bring an aura of hope to a transaction—the entering of a hospital—that is often fraught with anxiety, pain and uncertainty.

But the real beauty of Black’s work is that each painting is a vibrant, fully realized expression of joy. It would be all too easy for hospitals to reach for kitsch when it comes to “positive images” (the ubiquitous poster of the HANG IN THERE! kitten-up-a-tree springs woefully to mind). Black trades in images of animals, but her evocations go beyond the merely warm and fuzzy.

“The works are my continual attempt to explore what I believe to be the true nature of the human condition and all other living beings on this planet, which is divinity,” Black says. “I have each human angel communing with an animal, a bird or other wildlife—a reference to St. Francis of Assisi and his enlightened understanding of the oneness of all life.”

Black has also set her sights beyond UMC; she hopes to bring reproductions of her images to hospitals around the nation, bringing positive, therapeutic art to the despairing infirm and weary nurses alike.

“I really think it’s imperative that the patients and staff in hospitals, hospices and healing centers are surrounded by the highest level of energy possible so that deep healing can be more effectively realized,” Black says. “Hospitals can be such sad places, and they don’t have to be—and they don’t have to swing in the other direction of enforced cheerfulness. Illness can be such an alienating state, and art can be a healing bridge that reminds people of their connection to the world of health and light.”

Arts & Entertainment

Music Soundscraper

Pocket Protector

Ren fairs, art rock and a British revival

N*E*R*D’s Shae Haley talks about their innovative sound and finding time to be a band

By Jarret Keene

By Andreas Hale Very few bands deliver a unique experience with every release. N*E*R*D is one of those few. The genre-bending trio—Chad Hugo, Pharrell Williams and Shae Haley—has been producing an energetic hybrid of hip-hop, alternative rock and funk since 2001. Their albums In Search Of …, Fly or Die and Seeing Sounds have collectively sold more than a million copies and garnered critical acclaim. But for N*E*R*D, sharing their music is just as important as making it.

“Next to creating an album, our live performance is what we solely concentrate on,” says Haley, the vocalist. “We’re such an eclectic band and our objective [is] to come with loads and loads of energy throughout our live performance. We dedicated a lot of time and energy to our show. That’s like our signature. When you come to an N*E*R*D show, you know you’re going to get an energetic experience.”

The band has been busy this past year creating its fourth studio album, Nothing. Tinkering with a number of ideas and collaborations, N*E*R*D has been trying to pioneer an innovative sound. “When you listen to the radio, a lot of the songs sound the same,” Haley says. “We always wanted to be left from center and we’ve always wanted to cut a path and lead a trail for others to follow. That’s been the goal and we’ve done it effortlessly as it is instinctively in us, but it has always been our mission.”

“By stripping down my show, I can reveal a rawer side of me as an artist and performer. I think it’s maybe even a truer representation of who I am,” says Scott Stapp in a phone call from New York. He soon will be playing stripped-down acoustic sets of both Creed hits and his own solo material at Red Rock hotel-casino. Stapp’s work is even more emotionally grandiose than what he does with Creed, but at least he’s worked up about something “I always talk about love, because that’s what’s always in my heart,” he says. When, in his song “The Great Divide,” from his 2005 album of the same name, he sings, “I have run to the ocean/Through the horizon/Chased the sun/I’ve waited for the light to come,” no one should doubt him, given his earlier battle with the bottle. He’s transcended that battle to offer a solid musical purpose: “Music nowadays is produced for mass consumption and void of good messages,” he says. “I can safely say that Creed always has a message. We pride ourselves on delivering what’s in our hearts and minds.”

Another incredible week of wildly varied music for your friendly neighborhood Soundscraper, who’s still riding high from last month’s mind-bending, booty-shaking Ratatat show at House of Blues, where I drank a too much and ended up making out with a random stranger. Man, that bouncer could kiss!

I’ll definitely need a designated driver and a full suit of armor for this weekend’s Age of Chivalry Renaissance Festival (Sunset Park, Oct. 8-10). Or as I prefer to call it, a Vegas Burning Man for fantasy geeks. In addition to getting all medieval with my bad self by munching fish and chips by the ton and downing mead by the barrel with a bunch of costumed wenches, knights and knaves (guess which category I fall under), I plan on absorbing much of the musical entertainment being offered. No less than four Celtic punk-rock headliners are slated to perform: The Mahones (Quebec, Canada), The Tossers (Chicago), Seven Nations (New York) and Lexington Field (San Diego). I look forward to seeing these bands live, especially since their recorded output is so strong. More musicians, magicians, jugglers, bellydancers and other performers will be playing all over the park. Visit Lvrenfair.com and download a PDF of the complete schedule.

If you’re in the mood for a serious, un-ironic, New Wave of British Heavy Metal revival, you might want to keep your suit of armor on for the Oct. 12 Vegas stop of the “Speedkiller” tour at Divebar (3035 E. Tropicana Ave.), featuring Portland’s Spellcaster and England’s Evil Survives This is pure, all-out, denim-jacketed, white-joggingshoed, dueling-lead-guitars thrash metal with melodic, balls-in-a-vise singing (or screeching, really) powerful enough to shatter glass. Both bands are signed to Heavy Artillery Records, one of the best metal indie labels around right now, and you won’t encounter a better attempt to resurrect the spirit of ’80s-era Iron Maiden-style metal.

Heck, Spellcaster even has their own aerial dogfight anthem (“Locked On”) just like their heroes. Evil Survives, meanwhile, is more fantastical, unleashing songs such as “Masonic Enforcers” and “Die Like a Samurai,” which tell weird, supernatural stories of outlandish combat. I haven’t been to a Divebar show in years, so I’m very much looking forward to enjoying a kickass metal lineup at a non-casino establishment where beers don’t cost $10 each.

Finally, I’d better not notice your absence at Warpaint’s Oct. 13 show at The Bunkhouse Saloon (124 S. 11th St.), people. This all-female experimental L.A. art-rock quartet is set to release its full-length debut, The Fool, on Rough Trade later this month, an album that looks to garner acclaim for what I can only characterize as a dreamy, hazy style with layers of spooky, sensual vocals and eerily chiming and atmospheric guitars. Drummer Stella Mozgawa is particularly effective, as she avoids many of the clichés of the rock genre, working in a more thoughtful direction.

Frosting on the cake is the addition of local epic indierockers Minor Suns to the bill. Should be a fun week!

Rocks Lounge in Red Rock hotel-casino, 10 p.m. Oct. 9, $20, 797-7777.

Is your band self-releasing a CD? Contact jarret_keene@yahoo.com.

From left: Shae Haley, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo.

Ultimately, Haley says that they are excited to perform the music they have been working on. “Creating is fun,” Haley says. “But going out and seeing the reaction of your fans or people who never even heard of you and end up admiring you after their first N*E*R*D show is an indescribable feeling.”

What is more impressive is how the trio have other side projects, but somehow find the time to come together like Voltron.

“N*E*R*D is our heart and what we eat, shit and breathe,” Haley says.

With Hugo constantly producing, Williams busy with his Billionaires Boys Club fashion line and collaborating with a number of artists and Haley managing two up and coming groups Mansions on the Moon and Christian Rich, it’s amazing how the trio make it work. “Of course our schedules clash but we always find time. … Next to the Roots and a couple of other bands, we’re like the ultimate touring band. You might see us in Europe and the next day you might see us in the center of fucking Vegas.”

The Joint at the Hard Rock, $34-63, 8:30 p.m. Oct. 15 during the Mountain Dew Tour Championship, 693-5583.

Stapp-ing Out Florida grunge-rock icon Scott Stapp brings acoustic spirituality

By Jarret Keene

80 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Arts & Entertainment

Music Pavement

Spoon

Belle & Sebastian

Indie-rock Invasion

What happened when New York’s Matador Records partied in Las Vegas

By Jarret Keene I took to calling The Palms “Little Brooklyn” during Matador At 21, the record label’s three-day musical birthday binge. I don’t think I was off since locals were indeed scarce, and since Chan Marshall (a.k.a. Cat Power) remarked during her set that it was good to see familiar faces from her New York audiences. The locals who somehow scored a ticket enjoyed a packed weekend with a family feel. As for everybody else, here’s your water-cooler recap.

Friday, Oct. 1: The first night was guitar-centric. Math-rockers Chavez were airtight, lethal. Toronto’s Fucked Up played joyously. Testing the length of his mike cable, singer Pink Eyes stormed the crowd, pushing his way into perimeter seating. Sonic Youth played the best I’ve seen in 20 years of festival shows, with mind-slaying renditions of “Catholic Block” and “Shadow of a Doubt.” Pavement was intentionally loose, sloppy; the 30-year-old “kids” loved it. Me, I prefer bands that don’t fake nonchalance.

Saturday, Oct. 2: Despite an explosive performance by Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Saturday was fey, with Perfumed Genius’ Mike Hadreas offering note-perfect facsimiles of songs from this year’s startling debut, Learning. There were lots of yawns in the balcony, but I was transfixed by his narratives of adolescent melancholy. Cat Power’s haunting voice was evocative, especially during a recalibrated version of her Kurt Cobain elegy, “I Don’t Blame You.” Superchunk attempted to rouse the audience with their borderline power-pop; they mostly succeeded.

82 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Spoon was fiercely compelling, nailing it, and they should’ve capped off the evening. But then Glasgow twee-popsters Belle & Sebastian arrived, with singer Stuart Murdoch prancing through a delicious best-of set. He annoys me, but his band is superb.

Sunday, Oct. 3: On the final day, I longed for profundity. Instead I got wellcrafted, rehearsed indie rock from Ted Leo & the Pharmacists and the New Pornographers. Liz Phair failed to appear with a full band, instead joined on electric guitar by what looked like her personal trainer. ( Joke!) Yo La Tengo was stunning. Their song about Matador At 21, their choreographed dance moves and their wide range of songs were all a blast. Hopefully Matador will release a DVD of Guided By Voices’ two hours, because the band’s blue-collar, straightout-of-Ohio “hits” were bountiful. Not bad for a bunch of drunk 50-year-olds.

Unfortunately, the Matadorians never got control of the sound, especially the kick drum, which stupidly pounded its way into my organs no matter where I stood, most gallingly during Shearwater’s chamber-pop orchestrations. Can’t blame The Pearl; The Cult (of all acts!) show two weeks earlier was pristine.

All in all, my favorite moments were “in-betweens”: Giving and getting thumbs up from Pink Eyes while eating dinner in the café, chatting with GBV”s Robert Pollard in front of Little Buddha about truckin’ music and seeing various band members blend into (and out of ) the crowd. In sum, Matador’s frosting almost overshadowed the birthday cake. But it was still one hell of a cake.

Arts & Entertainment

CD Reviews

By Jarret Keene

ETHEREAL-INDIE

Glasser Ring (True Panther) On the surface, “one-woman orchestra” Cameron Mesirow (a.k.a. Glasser, perhaps named after the American “reality therapy” psychiatrist) sounds like Björk, thanks to her quirky, intergalactic vocal attack.

After a deeper listen, Glasser is less abstract, more organic than the Icelandic chanteuse. Plus, this lady wails on a xylophone, a darn cool instrument lacking in today’s indie scene. When playing live, Mesirow and her musical friends wear goofy conical Asian hats and hump MacBook Pros with the best of hipsters. Ring, a studio effort, feels a bit more subdued and haunting.

But once you reach the confectionary dance track “Treasury of We,” there’s really no use in resisting Glasser’s ebullient attraction. The throbbing, windcharm-tinkling “Mirrorage” offers a cappella charms galore; sax-farting, tom tom-beating “Clamour” builds into a massive, layered groove—all the while, Mesirow’s flexible voice provides a sensual electricity that runs throughout the album’s nine fractured yet faultless tracks. Clever without being cloying, Glasser’s debut rings true. ★★★✩✩

SUAVE-POP

Bryan Ferry Olympia (Astralwerks) For too long, Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry has focused on performing other people’s material.

Dylanesque (2007) was enjoyable, but not enough to tide over fans when you consider half of his preceding effort, 2002’s Frantic, consisted of covers. Olympia, his first work for Astralwerks, is a proper album of originals, albeit with a number of collaborators, including Scissor Sisters, Brian Eno and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. This is Ferry’s best work since 1987’s Bête Noire, sounding less processed and produced than what we’ve come to expect, but no less polished.

The melodies and lyrics are effortless, smooth and attentive, as in “Alphaville,” which benefits from Eno’s eerie synthesizer flourishes and a snippet of the famous French film’s dialogue. Brandon Flowers could’ve learned about debonair melancholy from “Heartache by Numbers,” with its driving beat that only surrenders to intriguing choral moments and a surprising, our-of-nowhere bass solo by Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Olympia marks Ferry’s return to mythical, magical suave-pop grandeur. ★★★★✩

POP-ROCK

Gin Blossoms No Chocolate Cake (429) This Tempe, Ariz.-based guitar-jangle quartet never recovered from the suicide of its fifth and founding member, Doug Hopkins, whose sadly beautiful songs (“Hey Jealousy”) made the Gin Blossoms’ debut, New Miserable Experience, so compelling. To its credit, the band soldiers on and still sporadically ekes out quality albums, including 2006’s overlooked, well-crafted Major Lodge Victory, the Blossoms’ first full-length after a 10-year silence. While No Chocolate Cake lacks the alcoholravaged edge that initially carried the band so far, it’s a superbly constructed effort on every level, from first song (“Don’t Change for Me”) to last (“Goin’ to California”).

Singer Robin Wilson’s laid-back tenor remains perfectly suited for bittersweet, punchy anthems of intense loss and mild redemption. Sure, at times it gets middle-of-theroad (“I’m Ready”) and I begin to miss the old Blossoms who wrote songs about porn stars and binge drinking. Well, we all grow up. ★★★✩✩

84

Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

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Arts & Entertainment

Movies Triple Crown Winner Thoroughbred horse-racing movie Secretariat takes the prize

By Rex Reed With so much junk crowding movie marquees these days, it’s a joyous feeling to see a warm, wonderful, skillfully made picture with nothing on its mind but pure pleasure for all ages. Secretariat fills the bill nicely. If you’re a horse-movie junkie like me, you will love this one.

I mean, it’s got one of the most spectacular horses of all time. And it’s got Diane Lane. What’s not to love?

Secretariat, directed with style and elegance by Randall Wallace, is, of course, the awesome chronicle of one of the greatest American thoroughbred racehorses in history who, in 1973, became the first U.S. Triple Crown champion in 25 years, winning the Kentucky Derby in less than two minutes, the Preakness in a last-minute dash by two lengths and the Belmont Stakes in 2 minutes, 24 seconds. These records have never been duplicated. No proud owner ever toiled so bravely and vigorously to save her beloved horse, farm or family than Penny Chenery Tweety, a Denver housewife who hocked her life and compromised her marriage to follow her dream. Played with honesty and naturalism by the beautiful, heartfelt and deeply committed Lane, Penny comes alive as much as Secretariat does. You will end up loving both unconditionally.

No need to go into Secretariat’s breeding history or vital statistics, but you get all the facts, meticulously condensed without cost to the overall entertainment value. The story begins in 1969, when Penny flies to her childhood home in Virginia for the funeral of her mother, the brains and conscience behind the family’s failing horse-breeding farm.

Everyone, including her husband (Dylan Walsh, from TV’s Nip/Tuck) expects Penny to sell what remained, but after rummaging through the books and 86 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

discovering the farm has been mismanaged by a crooked trainer, she fires him and hires a flashy, eccentric replacement named Lucien Lauren who is crazier than anything with four legs ( John Malkovich, chewing the scenery with over-the-top temper-tantrums in purple hats, cherry-red shirts, fuchsia ties and a Truman Capote lisp).

You get a lot of facts about sires, brood mares, foals, tax issues and dishonesty in the ranks, but the genealogy is tangential to the real story of how Penny ignored everyone’s sound advice and raised a new chestnut colt called Big Red, whose moniker was rejected by the Jockey Club 10 times before her family’s loyal secretary, Elizabeth Ham (played with solidity and gusto by Margo Martindale), submitted the name Secretariat.

In July 1972, the stallion won the first race under his new name in Saratoga, saddled with a controversial new jockey named Ronnie Turcotte (Otto Thorwarth), so aggressive he was known to drive his horses until their hearts exploded. But Ronnie fell for Secretariat the same way Penny did, and from there, it was silver trophies all the way. Seven wins in four months, named “Horse of the Year” at age 3, Secretariat could not be slowed. Financial ruin followed when the $6 million inheritance tax on the farm could only be paid by selling her prize horse. To her family’s horror, she refused, insisting her father’s legacy was not money, but “the will to win.”

More setbacks in 1973, when America’s favorite horse arrived at the Kentucky Derby with abscessed gums, but Penny’s critics were flummoxed again. Most horses are built for speed or distance.

Secretariat could do both. And in June 1973, this great horse made his bid for immortality and won the Triple Crown.

There’s not much suspense. I mean, it’s not that we don’t know how it all turns out. But director Wallace still manages to milk every event of maximum excitement. The movie is about the mutual adoration between owner and horse, unwavering faith, and about the people who believed in them both.

Before his 1989 death, Secretariat sired more than 650 foals, many of them prize winners, and he is one of the few horses who was buried instead of cremated.

I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff, and there is plenty of it in Secretariat. This is one terrific movie about one terrific horse. It enthralls on so many levels— emotional, cinematic, historic—that I am willing to bet you’ll go away sated with satisfaction from paddock to finish line.

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

Must love horses: Diane Lane as the tenacious Penny Chenery Tweety.

Arts & Entertainment

Movies

Modern family: Josh Duhamel, Katherine Heigl and their “daughter.”

Life As We Don’t Know It This false romantic comedy doesn’t know where to begin

By Cole Smithey

Aspiring to combine comedy, tragedy and romance into a deep-meaning treatise on the prettiest and happiest white people you’ve ever seen, Life As We Know It is less than it pretends to be. Newbie screenwriters Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson give us frat-boy womanizer Eric Messer ( Josh Duhamel), who is a broadcast technician for a live television sports show when he isn’t chasing anything in a skirt.

As best friend to married couple Peter and Alison Novack, Messer goes on a doomed date with the couple’s single friend Holly (Katherine Heigl). A car accident unites Messer and Holly as bequeathed legal guardians to the Novacks’ only

daughter Sophie. The duo play house for much too long without broaching the idea that they should get married in order to bring up Sophie in a committed familial atmosphere. Baby-poo-on-Holly’s-face humor stubs its toe periodically on strained reaches at sentimentality that leave the movie in a cloud of genre confusion. There isn’t enough redeeming entertainment value here to make Life As We Know It worth the trouble.

Hollywood romantic comedies have become the bargain basement genre that’s like a sinkhole for talent. Heigl has turned herself into its latest victim by not sticking with the likes of Judd Apatow, with whom she made the hugely successful comedy Knocked Up. Poor choices such as The Ugly Truth and 27 Dresses have left Heigl on wobbly ledge. Duhamel shows up like a younger, more polished version of Johnny Knoxville. The Transformers actor has an easy movie star quality that’s all surface and poker-faced attitude.

The clear lack of attraction between the two actors might come as some sort of reprieve if only there was a shred of believability to their perfectly quaffed characters. For example, Holly owns and runs a pastry shop because that’s what all Hollywood romantic comedy women do these days.

A would-be emotional moment comes when Holly and Messer wake up in their deceased friends’ house after living there for several months to realize that they should redecorate.

There’s something not entirely right in the construction of the storyline where Peter and Alison perish off-screen before the audience has had a chance to sufficiently

identify with their characters. Apparently, all we need to know is that baby Sophie is in the hands of two good-looking people who respect but don’t like one another. Or is it the other way around?

The trouble is that, although two years pass, we never see Holly and Messer develop any system of communication and support system that could sustain a parental relationship. Holly has a crush on Sophie’s pediatrician Sam ( Josh Lucas), who conveniently isn’t really man enough to make much of a claim on Holly and Sophie in the face of Messer’s big-dog approach to everything. The story splinters off for a subplot feint about Sam’s and Holly’s relationship but nothing is revealed about how they relate on a personal level.

The audience is never shown which piece of teetering emotional relationship to invest in. Holly seems to have it made with two hot-shot guys vying for her attention.

Messer is satisfied to bed random women he meets with Sophie as his romantic ploy.

Baby Sophie becomes a codified message about grown-up interaction. The character archetypes of Holly, Messer and Sam compete in ways that shut down emotionally.

Here’s a story bogged down by its unexpressed ideas. Not narratively sturdy enough to support its mishandled strike of tragedy, Life As We Know It draws suspicion to its dramatic motives. There’s a veneer of insincerity shrink-wrapped over a movie about an inherited responsibility for a child between two glossy caricatures of potential parent material. It’s a good thing that this movie doesn’t actually represent life as we know it.

Life As we Know it (PG-13)

By Cole Smithey

Short reviewS

Let Me in (r)

★✩✩✩✩

This is an uninspired American remake of Tomas Alfredson’s original Swedish horror film, Let the Right One In (2008).

It’s as if writer/director Matt Reeves made a shot-for-shot copy, but with lesser actors and less attention to Alfredson’s more surrealistic elements. Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road) plays 12-yearold misfit Owen, who find a friend when the similarly aged Abby (Chloe Moretz) moves next door. Stick to the original.

88 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

★★✩✩✩

Case 39 (r)

★★★✩✩

Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) is a child protection services social worker who rescues a little girl named Lilith Sullivan ( Jodelle Ferland) from her abusive parents. But Emily turns out to be a little more evil than advertised. Case 39 isn’t perfect, but it’s plenty creepy for a run-of-the-mill suspense film. Zellweger, Bradley Cooper and Ian McShane more than pull their weight to make the movie enjoyable.

it’s Kind of a Funny Story (PG-13)

★★★✩✩

This is a safe adaptation of Ned Vizzini’s semi-autobiographical novel with genuinely moving moments. Keir Gilchrist plays a suicidal high schooler who commits himself into a psyche war. This may not be the most dynamic movie you’ll ever see, but it does gently present mentally troubled young characters working through personal dilemmas under professional supervision.

It’s teen-psychology-super-drama-lite.

inside Job (PG-13)

★★★★★

If you only see one movie this year, Charles Ferguson’s financial meltdown documentary is the one to see. Matt Damon narrates this soup-to-nuts explanation of Wall Street and the government players whose illicit methods brought down the global economy.

Candid interviews with economists, activists, financial journalists and more give perspective on the scope of the biggest heist in history.

Arts & Entertainment

Movies

With charter school lotteries, this student’s future is left to chance.

Schoolhouse Rut

Documentary seeks out what’s wrong with the school system and how to fix it

By Cole Smithey In Waiting for ‘Superman,’ documentarian Davis Guggenheim petitions the same level of cultural awareness about American education myths as his film An Inconvenient Truth delivered regarding global warming. The filmmakers methodically explore America’s public education crisis with data and graphs that show how the majority of U.S. high schools have become “drop-out factories.” With U.S. students’ math scores lagging behind 30 other countries, you know we’re in trouble. A significant crux of the problem comes from a teacher’s union contract—with the American Federation of Teachers—that tenures teachers after just two years, upon which time it becomes impossible to fire them regardless of their success rate.

Harlem charter school founder Geoffrey Canada (Harlem Children’s Zone) discusses his effective approach to teaching children. Canada has enjoyed tremendous success with sending his program’s students on to college. Canada’s passion and commitment to educating young people carries a refreshing ring of clarity. We also follow newly minted Washington, D.C. public-school system chancellor Michelle Rhee as she attempts to clean up the nations lowest performing school district.

The subject switches to the nation’s best charter schools as the primary option over an abysmal public school system. The problem is that charter schools have a limited number of spots.

As such, lotteries are held to randomly choose students.

Utilizing five case studies of children whose parents have entered their child in 90

Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

charter school lotteries, Guggenheim arrives at the harsh reality that under our current system, many children will be blocked from a significant opportunity for financial success.

Waiting for ‘Superman’ opens alongside Freakonomics, which supports this film’s emphasis on how today’s students will be the ones ruining or running the country 20 years down the road. It also comes out at the same time as Charles Ferguson’s important documentary Inside Job, about Wall Street’s heist of our economy. All three films are mandatory viewing for anyone who cares about saving our country.

waiting for ‘Superman’ (PG)

★★★★✩

Movie tiMeS

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Dining High on the Hog

Honey Pig is our critic’s choice for authentic Korean food

By Max Jacobson From the intense animal funk of meat grilling on hot iron to the dreaded kimchi—fermented cabbage, dusky with chili—Korean cuisine isn’t for sissies. And Honey Pig is probably the most hard-core version of it in Las Vegas.

We live in a city where most Korean restaurants have identical menus, as if they were faxed from business to business. Honey Pig doesn’t vary a lot from the form, but it does enough to stand apart.

One reason is that the waitresses cook for you at the table, on crazy contraptions that look like your grandmother’s juicer, had it been made of pig iron instead of glass. Another is the selection of quality meats for the grill: black pork, wine pork, prime beef and exotic combinations such as one with tripe, small intestines and pork.

Like most Korean barbecue restaurants, there are braziers at every table, which the staff will fire up when you sit down. Korean cuisine is not

Photo By Anthony Mair

Continued on Page 94

Honey Pig’s kalbi on the table-top brazier.

October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 93

Dining

multicourse. The pan’chan, or side dishes, do come out first, but the idea is to eat everything at once. I should add that the sides are wonderful, and replenished on request. On any given day, you’ll get cabbage and radish kimchi, cubed potato sprinkled with sesame seeds and marinated in sweet soy, yellow bean sprouts, julienned sweet potatoes, tiny salt fish and many others.

Eat here at lunch and the menu is an absolute bargain. Set lunches start at $6 for hand-rolled noodle soup chock-full of seafood. Night is different. The Gold Pig Combo is a whopping $90, but comes with four meats, octopus, seafood bean paste soup and a choice of beer or soju, Korea’s version of sake.

The pork belly is extraordinary. Think unsmoked bacon, in thick slices that your waitress places deftly on the grill. When they are cooked she will place them on top of your steamed rice so you can dip them in one of the three sauces provided. Koreans love sesame oil. The perfume of it penetrates many of the beef dishes, especially kalbi, beef short ribs.

After you’ve cooked your meat, you can have Korean-style fried rice as an extra, for only $2 per person. The waitress will cook that as well, so just sit back and watch. The rice is mixed with cabbage, egg and a soy paste. When the bottom becomes a crust, she’ll vector the delicious results to your plate.

It’s not all ’cue. Two of us shared mandu, pan-fried meat dumplings. There is also soon doo bu, a spicy broth laced with soft tofu—more like custard than the firm cubes of tofu so feared by novice Asian food fanciers.

Service is solicitous at all times and the all-woman staff aims to please. The level of English is minimal, but be patient and you’ll get the point across. It’s part of Honey Pig’s exotic charm.

Honey Pig’s sides (above) and inside.

4725 W. Spring Mountain Road, 876-8308. Open daily, 11 a.m.-4 a.m. Dinner for two, $34-$65.

The Grape Nut

Getting a Little Air Wine aerators: controversial contraption or essential gift-giving?

By Xania Woodman

Whenever I go home to New York I get to watch my father proudly break out his Vinturi wine aerator—my gift to him after first encountering so-called “active aerators.” At the table he’ll solemnly do his aeration ritual, pouring the wine through the acrylic funnel directly into my glass.

He is one of the many who believes in the Vinturi’s power to introduce air into the wine thus opening it up and bringing forth the best character, bouquet and taste, a feat that is traditionally accomplished passively, only with time.

Issa Khoury of Khoury’s Fine Wine & Spirits (9915 S. Eastern Ave., 435-9463) sells the Vinturi ($40) as well as the VinOair ($19), and blows through them during gift-giving season. “Generally, everyone’s pretty impressed with them,” he reports.

(Devotees of the classic decanter do not despair—Khoury’s has those, too.)

94

Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

The convenience of active wine aeration is also big business. Online, I found the Soiree ($25, WineSoiree.com), which attaches to the wine bottle, and the Wine Weaver, which sits atop the glass and neatly delivers wine to the “sweet spot” where the glass curves ($20, WineWeaver.com). But wait, there’s more: the Metrokane Rabbit, the Centellino Areadivino, the Respirer, the Wisp …

However, I like the Vinturi. It feels solid in my hand, and while it’ll never slap enough polish on a $15 cab to mistake her for a Romaneé-Conti, I can aerate one glass, reseal the bottle with a pump and save the rest. For me, it’s truly a matter of convenience and time. But remember, as it is an aerator’s duty to loosen up harsh tannins, don’t expect much of a change to a softly tannic wine.

Khoury’s advice: “Take a sip and if it makes your whole mouth pucker, run it through an aerator. If not, then why mess with it?”

Diner’s Notebook

A northern bright spot, Total Wine deals and Batali’s fantasy market

By Max Jacobson As I was making the long journey from downtown to the Hitching Post Saloon & Steakhouse, at 3650 Las Vegas Blvd.

North (644-1266), the scenery was bleak, the landscape alien. It’s a different world up here—RV’s, country music and the best chicken fried steak between here and Texas.

This is a rustic Western-style saloon, pardner, but the kitchen is quite accomplished. Lunch specials are killer deals at $7, such as a patty melt on Thursdays, served with steak fries or potato salad. Bull Kickin’ Chili ($6) is made fresh, with huge chunks of beef and, yes, a nice kick. But Full Belly Breakfasts, served all day, are my favorites.

Meanwhile, in Henderson, the newest branch of Total Wine & More has settled into the spot where the mighty Wild Oats was once bought out by Whole Foods, in a strip mall at the corner of Stephanie Street and Warm Springs Road (433-2709).

What makes the values so good here is factorydirect pricing. The chain has dozens, maybe hundreds, of New and Old World wine at low prices because they are shipped directly to the store, eliminating the need for a middleman.

That means you can get a wine such as a 1.5-liter bottle of Valpolicella from the producer, Montresor, for $17. It’s a dark, inky wine loaded with black currants and it goes great with red-sauce pasta. Or how about Gumdale Shiraz from Australian, scented with plums and vanilla, for $12?

You can get low—really low—here with wines such as Pacific Peak, $1.97, either chardonnay, merlot or cabernet. (Life is too short to drink them, if you ask me.) And those with a really fat wallet may want to try a 100-point (from Wine Spectator) ’05 Chateau Margaux from France. But if I had the $1,099 to spend, I’d do the weekend in Paris instead.

Finally, Mario Batali and his team, who already have several New York and Las Vegas restaurants, including B&B, Carnevino and Otto in the Venetian/Palazzo resort complex, opened Eataly on Aug. 31 in New York City’s Flatiron District, at 200 Fifth Ave. It’s the world’s largest artisanal Italian food and wine marketplace, and it includes seven full-service places to dine. The 42,000-square-foot space that cost more than $20 million also includes a bookstore and areas that sell wine, pasta, cured meats, fish—anything to do with Italian cuisine.

It has to be seen to be believed.

Hungry, yet?

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

Honey Pig photos by Anthony Mair

Honey Pig Continued from Page 93

Dining

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

Locals favorite Lindo Michoacan features a “soda drink” dish, pork marinated in Coca-Cola. This delicacy includes a special sauce made with black pepper, cloves, dry pasilla chiles, fresh garlic and the owner’s mom’s secret ingredients. When you’re thirsty for some Coke and hungry for real Mexican food, the carnitas plate satisfies. $16.95, multiple locations, LindoMichoacan.com.

96 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Jack Daniel’s Sampler at TGI Fridays

This chain restaurant elevates a few of its dishes with a sauce featuring a taste of Jack Daniel’s, and they are combined to form a popular appetizer. The special glaze covers crispy Cajun-fried shrimp, succulent Sesame Jack chicken strips and tender baby-back pork ribs. $14, multiple locations, TGifridays.com.

Grilled Lamb Chops on the Stone at Ventano Italian Grill

An exciting way to begin your dinner course, as part of the antipasti menu, a full rack of lamb is rubbed with garlic olive oil and thyme and marinated for 24 hours. It is then chopped between the bones, grilled with seasonings and served sizzling on a hot granite stone. $13.50, 191 S. Arroyo Grande Blvd., 944-4848.

Chinese Sausage Fried Rice with Fried Egg at Tao

Forget the box of fried rice you’re used to getting with Chinese takeout. This version is mixed with rounds of lap cheong (Chinese pork sausage), scallions and asparagus rounds with a fried egg on top and drizzled with a thickened teriyaki sauce. It’s a tasty side dish to accompany any entrée. $18, in the Venetian, 388-8338.

Carnitas photo by Anthony Mair

Carnitas a la Coca-Cola at Lindo Michoacan

Dining

Drinking

Just a Sip These sipping spirits are ready and waiting—no mixers need apply

By Xania Woodman Please, set down that carafe of cranberry cocktail. Put down the soda gun that sips diet cola syrup concentrate from a bag-in-box somewhere deep within the bowels of the casino. Do not crack open another tiny bottle of tonic from the cubby beneath your bottle service and don’t even look at a can of Red Bull.

Now that we have your attention, consider the spirit in your glass, the glass now devoid of a sugary, tart or faux-fruit distraction meant to mask its quality or lack thereof. Would you drink it straight? Perhaps not …

Look instead to these fine specimens—three “sipping spirits” of unparalleled quality, craftsmanship and taste.

They invite your discretion and deserve your undivided, undiluted and uncarbonated attention.

Let There Be Flavor

Savory Sophistication

One Bottle at a Time

Karlsson’s Gold Vodka

Oxley Classic English Dry Gin

Casa Dragones Sipping Tequila

Available by the glass throughout Mandalay Bay, $12, and by the bottle at Lee’s Discount Liquors, $28.

Available at BOA Steakhouse, $14 per glass, and at Wynn/Encore property bars, $15-$17.50.

Available at Mesa Grill for $45 per glass, The Bank for $70 per glass and $1,175 with bottle service.

The notion that vodka must be “without distinctive character, aroma or taste” is a relic and a too-literal adherence to the U.S. government’s definition for most premium vodka connoisseurs. Distilling a spirit into utter submission yields a “pure” product certainly (sterile, really), but at the cost of its becoming devoid of any noteworthy and appreciable characteristics. And really, what fun is that?

Intentionally giving up on the premium vodka market’s race to neutrality is Karlsson’s Gold Vodka, made from a blend of individual vintages of seven varieties of virgin new potatoes grown in Sweden’s Cape Bjäre, and distilled but once at the Gripsholm Distillery by master blender Börje Karlsson, also known as the father of Absolut vodka. Potatoes hold a special place in Swedish hearts. Says Karlsson’s area sales manager Gilby Olsen, “They’re known throughout Europe for having the best boutique potatoes; they’ve been growing them for centuries.” Grain distillation was not even legalized until 1980. Collectively, these Golden potatoes (18 pounds per bottle) give Karlsson’s its distinctive and complex flavor: at once earthy and minerally with a touch of natural sweetness, silky on the palate with a long floral finish. Like terroir to wine, this vodka remembers where it came from. But while Karlsson’s behaves itself in cocktails (especially savory and those with orange bitters, basil, tarragon or mint), it is best appreciated on the rocks with a touch of freshly cracked black pepper, a.k.a.

Black Gold. KarlssonsVodka.com.

To paraphrase the Oxley Gin marketing think tank, every single drop of Oxley is meant to be savored. So while mixologists and bartenders will happily guide you to an Oxley & Tonic, Oxley Martini or to specialty creations such as the C’est la Vie by Wynn/Encore property mixologist Patricia Richards, Oxley is fine enough stuff to be considered a sipping gin. And though qualified to be called a London Dry Gin, it is currently named otherwise to separate it from the pack. In a squat bucket glass with naught but a few quality ice cubes and— maybe—a swath of grapefruit rind, revolutionary, small-batch Oxley is in her element.

Unlike other heavier or perfume-ier gins, Oxley is bright, herbaceous and spring-like, full-flavored yet light even in the midst of her intense blend of 14 botanicals with fresh grapefruit and orange peels, and almond-y meadowsweet being among them. It took Oxley’s creators 38 tries over eight years to finally alight upon the perfect method for creating the first spirit made by cold distillation, a method used in the perfume industry where the product boils at minus 5 degrees Celsius. Oxley is said to be the only spirit being made in this fashion and only two 120-bottle batches (240 individually numbered bottles) can be made per day. And only upon final inspection does each receive its leather tag, the Oxley seal of approval. The verdict: remarkably sippable. OxleyGin.com.

Co-founder and CEO Bertha González Nieves says it best: “We worked really hard so you don’t have to do anything.” And every lead-free crystal bottle, hand-engraved in the traditional pepita style, states it plainly that Casa Dragones is a “sipping tequila.” Casa de Dragones—so named for the still-standing stables of the soldiers of the brand’s “spiritual home” of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico—is a joven tequila, a style almost never seen in a 100 percent de agave tequila, more so with mixtos. Young ( joven) white tequila is finished with just a touch of extra añejo, in this case aged five years in new American oak barrels to impart luxurious vanilla and hazelnut nuances to the blanco’s citrus, floral and pear notes. In 2009, just 1,000 cases were released in the first production for both Mexico and the United States, with a second production about to begin. Following an October launch in Vegas, Casa Dragones will be available for about $275 per bottle retail. The recommended method for enjoying it is from the official Overture tequila-tasting glass by Riedel. “It has the ideal shape to appreciate clarity, body, color, aroma, taste and aftertaste,” González Nieves says. Not to bash the snifter or the workaday shot glass but “from a connoisseur’s point of view,” she continues, “this glass provides an extraordinary experience.” When not available, a champagne glass will do. But please, enjoy it either neat or on the rocks.

Let the citrus notes speak for themselves.

CasaDragones.com.

98 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Travel

Home for a Holiday Vacation rentals offer affordable alternative to hotels

By Kate silver The last time I went to Zion National Park, the biggest decision I had to make was which bed I would sleep in each night in my vacation rental home. That’s because Coyote Ridge (yes, the place even has a name) sleeps 14. It has a 10-person hot tub, gas grill, fireplace, a kitchen that far exceeded any I’ve owned, two satellite TVs and a DVD player. And it opens up to an acre of outdoor space, just seven miles east of Zion (see for yourself at CoyoteRidgeZion.com).

Sure, it may seem a bit excessive for two people, but wait until you hear the cost. We paid just over $180 a night (actually it was $275 a night for its winter rates, but the third night was free). Add to that the fact that we were cooking our own meals instead of going out to eat, not to mention the sheer relaxation value of a luxurious house, rather than a mediocre hotel room—there’s no question that the excess was well worth it.

It was only my second time staying in a vacation rental, but now I don’t want to travel any other way. And I’m not the only one. Options run the gamut—a one-bedroom beachfront Heaven in Zion: the Coyote Ridge rental home. cottage in Santa Monica, Calif., a five-bedroom estate in San While many sites, such as HomeAway.com and VRBO.com Diego, high-rise condos on the Las Vegas Strip. are geared toward vacation rentals, other heavy hitters in the While it’s long been a popular way of traveling in Europe, travel industry are also beginning to take advantage. Last year, vacation rentals are just now starting to pick up in the United TripAdvisor.com began listing vacation rentals and now has States, thanks to the Internet. The vacation rental market more than 100,000 on its site. represented $24.3 billion in 2007, which is more than one-fifth It’s an option that business travelers are using as well as vacaof all hotel room revenue ($107 billion) and 8 percent of the tioning couples and families looking to stay in the city, country total U.S. travel market ($289 billion), according to market or suburbs. But the most popular rentals, says Hank Hudepohl, research group PhoCusWright. director of vacation rentals at TripAdvisor.com, are near the “Renting a vacation home is simply a better deal than ocean, lakes and mountains. staying in a recreational hotel,” says William May, director of the Vacation Rental Industry Association, based in Seattle. “If “Hotel operators don’t have the exclusive on the main attraction, you’re going to go to New York on business and stay one or two and that main attraction is the geography itself, whether it’s the nights, a hotel is an ideal solution for you. But if you’re going mountain landscape or the beach landscape or a lake,” Hudepohl to go someplace for a week or two, let down your hair, relax, says. “That’s where the renting a private vacation home is a better deal, and I don’t rentals really tend to just mean financially.” thrive and do well.”

Where to look HomeAway.com: Lists more than 230,000 properties in 120 countries. This site also runs VRBO.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner), which includes properties listed by more than 140,000 homeowners.

TripAdvisor.com: Lists more than 100,000 verified rentals and has partnered with FlipKey.com to provide property reviews.

100 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

DiscoverVacation Homes.com: Powered by the Vacation Rental Managers Association, this site not only connects travelers with vacation rentals but also serves as a consumer resource and guide to the industry.

Top VacaTion RenTal DesTinaTions in The WesT According to TripAdvisor.com, in September.

1. San Francisco 2. Las Vegas 3. Lahaina, Hawaii 4. Palm Springs, Calif.

5. Kailua-Kona, Hawaii 6. San Diego 7. Big Bear Lake, Calif.

8. Princeville, Hawaii 9. Los Angeles 10. Ka-anapali, Hawaii San Diego: house-rental hot spot.

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SportS & LeiSure Fair Pay for Fairways Fall deals plentiful for local golfers

By Brian Hurlburt There was a time not so long ago when Southern Nevadans were persona non grata at local golf courses. Securing a tee time in spring or fall was like getting a ticket to opening night of a show on the Strip: You either knew someone or paid an arm and a leg for the opportunity.

But that’s not the case these days, and specials and good rates are offered year-round. Here are some good deals for hitting the links this fall.

The first deal isn’t to play but instead to watch some of the best golfers in the world as they tear up TPC Summerlin, the host course for the PGA Tour’s Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Tickets start at $15. 256-0111, JTShrinersOpen.com.

OK, enough watching; it’s time to hit the course.

Rio Secco Golf Club in Henderson is offering local rates starting at $35 for the Happy Hour Special after 3:30 p.m., and rates start at $60 before 8 a.m., and $75 between 8 a.m. and 12:50 p.m. 777-2400, RioSecco.net.

Rhodes Ranch offers a weekly Monday Night Football deal for $25 that starts at 4 p.m. and includes nine holes, two beers and specials in the clubhouse during the game. The course is also holding its annual “Beat the Pro” Halloween event on Oct. 31, a two-person scramble for $65 that includes lunch, drinks and prizes.

740-4114, RhodesRanchGolf.com.

Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort is offering the Paiute Advantage Club Card, with members receiving rates of no higher than $49 year-round on the Snow and Sun Mountain courses, and $59 on the Wolf. PACC membership is $275 annually, and participants get a round free if they sign up by Nov. 1. 658-1400, LVPaiuteGolf.com.

Desert Pines Golf Club offers rates of $45-$65, down from its normal $199. Golf magazine Top-100 instructor Mike Davis offers a free clinic every Tuesday at 6 p.m. If you mention Vegas Seven when calling sister course Royal Links Golf Club, home to 18 replica holes from the British Open, there is a special local rate. 450-8170 for Desert Pines, 450-8181 for Royal Links, WaltersGolf.com.

Primm Valley Golf Club, home to two Tom Fazio courses, is offering rates of $35 Monday through

Rhodes Ranch not only provides spectacular views, it also offers a weekly Monday Night Football deal.

Thursday and $45 Friday through Sunday. 874-6750, PrimmValleyGolf.com.

Las Vegas National Golf Club is offering rates of no higher than $42, in addition to a players card that offers savings off that rate. 734-1796, LasVegasNational.com.

TPC Las Vegas, a former host course for the PGA and Champions tours, is offering a $75 rate for locals with two-day advanced reservations, and $99 if you reserve further in advance. 256-2000, TPC.com/LasVegas.

Bear’s Best Las Vegas, a course made up of Jack Nicklaus’ favorite holes, is the home of the Jack of Clubs membership. The membership is $99 and locks in a rate of no higher than $70 year-round. 804-8500, BearsBestLasVegas.com.

OB Sports offers a card good at several courses. The annual fee of $149 (if purchased by Oct. 31) includes rates no higher than $55 at Angel Park and Legacy, and no higher than $85 at Jack Nicklaus’ The Chase at Coyote Springs. The Chase, about 50 miles north of town, also just announced a new deal for Las Vegas residents: $70 for a round when you tee off between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., which is a $30 savings. 254-4653 for Angel Park, AngelPark.com; 897-2200 for Legacy, TheLegacyGC.com; 422-1400 for The Chase; CoyoteSprings.com.

Siena and Arroyo are offering a players card for $189 for new members. That includes two free rounds in

2011, and the card also gets members a rate of no higher than $55 at these courses. 341-9200 for Siena, SienaGolfClub.com; 258-2300 for Arroyo, TheArroyoGolfClub.com.

Revere Golf Club is offering rates of no higher than $59 on Concord and $85 for Lexington. Casino employees and residents of Sun City Revere get discounts off those rates. 259-4653, RevereGolf.com.

Boulder Creek Golf Club offers rates of $65 prior to 11 a.m., $55 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and $40 after 1, while sister course Boulder City Golf Course offers rates of $35 until 11 a.m., $25 until 2 p.m. and $20 in twilight. Readers of Vegas Seven can earn the 15 percent discount through November by calling the golf shop.

294-6534 for Boulder Creek, 293-9236 for Boulder City, GolfBoulderCity.com.

Golfers can play the private SouthShore Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas and get a room at Loews Resort for $299. 558-0020, LoewsHotels.com.

In Mesquite, Wolf Creek Golf Club is offering an unlimited special for $200 over two days starting Nov. 22.

Golfers can now book a three-night package for $137.50 per night that includes golf each day and a room at the Eureka Casino Resort. 346-1670, GolfWolfCreek.com.

Brian Hurlburt has covered golf in Las Vegas for more than 15 years, and is the founding editor of GolfLasVegasNow.com.

Lakers return for annual exhibition at Thomas & Mack Center Las Vegas may never land an NBA franchise, but there’s no doubt that the city already has adopted the Los Angeles Lakers as its team of choice.

The Lakers played a playoff game here in 1992 because of rioting in Los Angeles; Lakers jerseys are abundant throughout local sports books during the postseason; and there’s even a Facebook page dedicated to Lakers fans who live in Vegas.

The two-time defending world champions will visit our city once again on Oct. 13, playing a preseason game against the Sacramento Kings at the Thomas & Mack Center for the fifth straight year.

The Lakers show off their hardware.

102 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

Lakers stars Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol likely won’t play more than 25 minutes in the exhibition, but fans can expect to get extended looks at rookie forwards Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter as they attempt to make the final roster. And don’t forget the Laker Girls!

The Kings are led by guard Tyreke Evans, last season’s NBA Rookie of the Year.

Tickets for the exhibition range from $10 to $110 and can be purchased at UNLVtickets.com or the Thomas & Mack box office (739-3267). – Sean DeFrank

Going for Broke

Angry Colts will stampede over unbeaten Chiefs

By Matt Jacob The list of surprising stories this football season is as long as Tiger Woods’ “to-do” list.

There’s Michael Vick resurrecting his career in Philadelphia. You’ve got the Chiefs—losers of at least 12 games in each of the last three years—as the NFL’s lone remaining unbeaten team after four weeks, while the Rams (6-42 from 2007-09) have the same record (2-2) as the Colts and Chargers. And college football enters the second week of October with a Top 25 poll that includes five teams from the Mountain West and Western Athletic conferences—Boise State (4th), TCU (5th), Utah (10th), Nevada (21st) and Air Force (25th)—but no USC, Texas or Penn State.

Shocking, all of it.

But the biggest surprise of all? You’re looking at him. Yep, I did it last week, producing a winning record and turning a profit. Sure, it took five weeks to pull off, and a 6-4 showing for $201 isn’t exactly going to put the kids through college, especially with my bankroll now at $3,852. But come on, I’m not a miracle worker.

Besides, you think Warren Buffett made his fortune overnight? Or Oprah?

Or JaMarcus Russell? (OK, bad example on that last one.) The point is it takes a lot of time, hard work and dedication to be successful at anything.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find that lucky quarter I used last week.

On to this week’s picks … $440 (to win $400) on COLTS (-8½) over Chiefs: Three things you should never do if you want a long NFL career: 1) steal food off Rex Ryan’s plate; 2) steal anything from Pacman Jones; and 3) face a pissed-off Peyton Manning.

Unfortunately for the Chiefs, they can’t avoid No. 3. Manning and the Colts are fuming after a bitter 31-28 last-second defeat at Jacksonville, and now Kansas City has to pay the price. Remember the last time Indy lost? That was in Week 1 at Houston, and all Manning did the following week was return home, throw three TD passes and humiliate little brother Eli and the Giants in a 38-14 whipping.

The Chiefs are a bigger fraud than Holly Madison’s chest, with two wins against teams (49ers and Browns) that

are a combined 1-7, and a third fluke victory over San Diego (the Chargers outgained K.C. by 192 yards). Manning (1,365 passing yards, 11 TDs, 1 INT) will pick apart the young Kansas City defense and make sure that the last of the NFL’s unbeatens falls … and falls hard. $110 (to win $100) on ILLINOIS (+8) over Penn State: Rule of thumb: If you’re so old that family members are afraid to let you operate the microwave, you shouldn’t be in charge of a major college football program (yeah, I’m talking to you, Joe Paterno!). Rule of thumb No. 2: If a team is averaging 13 points per game the last four weeks—and two of those games were at home against Kent State and Temple—it should not be favored by more than a touchdown against anyone. Illinois, which fought hard versus No. 2 Ohio State last week, has covered three of the last four in this series and will keep this one close. $110 (to win $100) on WEST VIRGINIA (-27) over UNLV: Could this situation be any worse for the Rebels? Coming off another blowout loss (at home) to archrival Nevada (read: letdown), UNLV now goes back on the road (for the third time in five weeks) to face an opponent that’s had an extra week to prepare and is coming off its first loss of the season (one that knocked the Mountaineers out of the Top 25). The Rebels lost their first two road contests by a combined margin of 68-17, and they’re 16-33-2 against the spread in their last 51 road games. UNLV first-year coach Bobby Hauck knew this was going to be a rough season, and this could be the Rebels’ ugliest loss of the year.

WATCH YOUR FAVORITE FOOTBALL GAMES HERE!

E. Lake Mead & Mt. Hood W. Cheyenne & Fort Apache

BEST OF THE REST: Saints (-7) at Cardinals ($44); Titans (+6½) at Cowboys ($44); Redskins (+2½) vs.

Packers ($33); Michigan State (+4½) at Michigan ($33); San Diego State (-5) at BYU ($33).

Horizon Ridge & Stephanie

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.

N. Durango & Dorrell

Ann & Simmons W. Cheyenne & I-215

Tenaya & Azure

Promotional support provided by

Gibson & American Pacific

October 7-13, 2010 Vegas Seven 103

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seven questions

Frank Marino

We ask the longest-running performer on the Strip: What exactly is the appeal of men in dresses?

By Elizabeth Sewell Frank Marino arrived in Las Vegas in 1985, armed with a cast of female impersonators, to star in a threemonth engagement of An Evening at La Cage at the Riviera. Twenty-five years later, he’s still decked out in diamonds and doing 17 costume changes a night, six nights a week as the Strip’s longest-running performer. Marino didn’t always want to make a living dressing as Joan Rivers—his original dream was to be a doctor, but he soon discovered it was makeup, not medicine, that spoke to him. Marino has accumulated quite the résumé since: 20,000 shows, 10 million audience members and 350,000 costume changes to his name. Now with his own show, Divas Las Vegas, running at the Imperial Palace, he has just one notch left to mark in his belt—a wax figure. Madame Tussauds, he’s coming after you.

Why are men in drag so fascinating?

I don’t know why but, besides hooking, it’s probably one of the oldest professions in the world. It started back with Kabuki, went to Shakespeare and in more modern times we had people like Milton Berle. We had a person like Flip Wilson who was a comedian on television, and even closer to modern-day times, The Adventures of Priscilla—Queen of the Desert, Tootsie and Mrs. Doubtfire had major actors portraying drag characters. It’s been around so long, it’s just a fun form of entertainment and that’s how we portray it. It’s just a very light form of entertainment and I make it very clear we’re not selling a lifestyle, we’re selling a form of entertainment.

What’s your wardrobe worth?

I would say I have over $1 million in costumes. I have a warehouse and in the last 25 years every time I’ve had a gown made there’s always a brand110 Vegas Seven October 7-13, 2010

new pair of shoes to go with it and a brand-new set of jewelry. I never wear the same shoes twice with any outfit, or the same set of jewelry, and I do that for the audience. I do it to entertain the audience.

Day One, I think it was, someone said to me, “I loved all your shoes,” and I thought, “Thank God I changed my shoes because if I was wearing the same shoes they would think I was trying to be lazy.”

Have you ever wanted to play another character?

Nowadays what I do is I open the show as Joan Rivers, but I’ve created my own character. The way RuPaul is music, Frank Marino is comedy and I do my own glamorous look that I’ve created where I come out as myself between each act in the crazy gowns and the crazy wigs. I want it to be Vegas, I want it to be over the top, I want to be as flamboyant as I can because I feel you can go next door to see the girl next door. If you’re coming to a Vegas show, you want to see something over the top.

If you weren’t a performer, what would you be doing?

Originally I was going to be a doctor, but at this point 25 years later, if I was ever to stop show business I’d either retire or do anything I could do in Vegas. I would rather be a mailman in Vegas than an enter-

tainer anywhere else because I love Vegas that much.

What do you love about it?

I love the 24-hourness of it, I love that at midnight I can go to a fancy restaurant or nightclub and it will still be in full force. I love the energy of all the tourists being here all the time, and I love the way the city expands at such a great pace.

When will you know it’s time to retire?

I’m going to know it’s time to retire when they stop asking me back. I

thought I retired last year when La Cage closed and then I had someone say to me, “You’ve been always saying how much you wanted to be the owner of a show. Why don’t you do it now while you can? Get that out of your system, or you might regret it.” I went to the executives of the hotels and joined up with SPI Entertainment and we went over to Harrah’s Entertainment and they loved the show and they put it at the Imperial Palace.

What will be on your tombstone?

He came, he conquered, he’s now retired.