The Ultimate Shopping Guide by Vegas Seven

brandon flowers december 15 @ the boulevard pool T i c k e T s a r e ava i l a b l e v i a c o n T e s T s o n T h e c o s m o p o l i Ta n â&#x20AC;&#x2122; s Fac e b o o k a n d T w i T T e r pag e s . F i n d u s aT Fac e b o o k .c o m / T h e c o s m o p o l i Ta n a n d @ c o s m o p o l i Ta n _ lv

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702.698.7990

non-ticketed events

B e at s a n t i q u e

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DECEMBER 15—18 @ BOnD

DECEMBER 23—26 @ tHe CHanDeLier

M ay e r H aw t H O r n e & t H e CO u n t y

Ja M i e L i D e L L

D E C E M B E R 1 5 — 1 8 @ B O O K & s taG e

D E C E M B E R 2 9 — J a n u a Ry 1 @ B O O K & s taG e

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DJ M i a M O r e t t i & CaitLin MOe

DECEMBER 15—18 @ tHe CHanDeLier

D E C E M B E R 3 0 — J a n u a Ry 1 @ B O n D

FranKi CHan

DJ e va L i C i O u s

DECEMBER 22—25 @ BOnD

D E C E M B E R 3 0 — J a n u a Ry 1 @ t H e C H a n D e L i e r

FranCis anD tHe LiGHts D E C E M B E R 2 2 — 2 5 @ B O O K & s taG e

c o s m o p o l i ta n l a s v e g a s . c o m

702.698.7990

Ron White December 3 & 4 • 10 & 1 1

Stay & Play RoomS. ShoWS. Dining. Tickets • Dinner & Show Packages • 800.963.9634. Room Reservations • 800.627.6667 Book today and view upcoming entertainment at mirage.com.

Contents

THiS WEEK in YoUR CiTY 13

sEvEn DAys

Axis of Awesome creates laughs, college basketball powerhouses arrive for a tournament, and The Prince and the Pauper hits the stage. By Patrick Moulin

locAl nEwsroom

A local nonproﬁt group creates holiday magic for injured soldiers, and locals stock up on controversial Four Loko. Plus: David G. Schwartz’s Green Felt Journal and Michael Green on Politics.

nAtionAl nEwsroom

Reports on culture, politics and business from The New York Observer. Plus: The NYO crossword puzzle and the weekly column by personal ﬁnance guru Kathy Kristof.

93 100

trAvEl

Unique retailers among the reasons to visit Scottsdale, Ariz., this winter. By Nora Burba Trulsson

sociEty

Fireﬁghters compete to raise money for burn foundation.

102

sports & lEisurE

Awards show, UFC, growth of training centers make Vegas the center of MMA. By Sean DeFrank Plus: Matt Jacob expects the highly motivated Aztecs to roll at home against the Rebels in Going for Broke.

stylE

This week’s Look, a few choice Enviables, and a question-andanswer session with a fourth-generation member of the Zegna fashion empire.

Seven Nights ahead, fabulous parties past, and Yvette Brown works to make Cosmopolitan Connections.

Photographer Jamey Stillings’ exhibit captures the power and ingenuity of the new bridge, and Mystère is still a wonder after 8,000 performances.

Seven dishes that deﬁne comfort food. By Max Jacobson Plus: Diner’s Notebook and Spago’s Eric Klein has a perfect solution for those pumpkin-pie leftovers—soup!

See Cirque in a whole new way, P.J. Clarke’s to open in the Forum Shops, and Cyber Monday joins Black Friday in shoppers’ paradise. The Latest Thought: DJs losing touch with hip-hop roots. By André Sirois

nightlifE

Arts & EntErtAinmEnt

Dining

thE lAtEst

On the cover and above: The Ultimate Shopping Guide. Photography Bryan Hainer; model Monej for Red Agency; styling by Katie Cewe; clothes provided by Gypsy Den.

Features

110

sEvEn QuEstions

Sammy Hagar on the appeal of Cabo Wabo, his favorite memory of Las Vegas and his fan-friendly reputation. By Matt Jacob

it’s BAnAnAs

Your guide to what’s new and compelling in Vegas’ bustling retail corridors. By Laura Coronado November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven 9

Celebrate the holiday season with penn... ...and get teller for free!

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 contributing writers

Melissa Arseniuk, Geoff Carter, Chantal Corcoran, Laura Coronado, Elizabeth Foyt, Jeanne Goodrich, Jason Harris, Una LaMarche, Rosalie Miletich-Ellis, Sharon Kehoe, Patrick Moulin, James P. Reza, Jason Scavone, André Sirois, Kate Silver, Cole Smithey, Nora Burba Trulsson, T.R. Witcher interns

Gabi de Mello Costa, Kelly Corcoran, Carla Ferreira, Natalie Holbrook, Nicole Mehrman art Art director, Christopher A. Jones senior grAPhic designer, Marvin Lucas grAPhic designer, Thomas Speak stAff PhotogrAPher, Anthony Mair contributing PhotogrAPhers

Francis + Francis, Roman Mendez, Tomas Muscionico, Beverly Oanes, Amy Schaefer contributing illustrAtor, Val Bochkov

website online content MAnAger , Billy Steffens

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

sales sAles MAnAger, Sarah J. Goitz Account eXecutives, Christy Corda and Robyn Weiss

Comments or story ideas: comments@weeklyseven.com Advertising: sales@weeklyseven.com Distribution: distribution@weeklyseven.com

locals appreciation offer

Vegas Seven is distributed each Thursday throughout Southern Nevada.

2-for-1 Tickets and Free Souvenir Program

WenDOH MeDIa COMpanIes

For tickets call 702-777-7776 or www.riolasvegas.com

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

Finance Offer code: PNTVS Expires: 1/1/11 Offer is good for one free ticket with purchase of one full price ticket only. Good for up to 4 tickets. Valid for Mezzanine & Balcony seating only. Must present valid Nevada ID to Rio Box Ofﬁce at time of purchase. Management reserves all rights.

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 November 18-24, 2010

COntributOrs

André Sirois The Latest Thought, Page 18 Sirois, a.k.a. DJ Food Stamp, is a hip-hop music junkie, radio/club DJ and Boston Celtics fan, as well as an avid collector of records and vintage DJ gear. His scratches were recently featured on the gold single “I’m Awesome” by Universal Republic Records recording artist Spose. He has been UnderGroundHipHop. com’s resident DJ since 2003. While at the University of Oregon, Sirois noticed a cultural shift coinciding with the popularization of digital DJ technologies and began his doctoral dissertation—titled Scratching the Digital Itch—on the intersection of the technology and music industries with hip-hop DJ culture. Una LaMarche “Jailhouse Crock,” Page 86

Nora Burba Trulsson “Shopping Scottsdale,” Page 100 Trulsson lives and shops in Scottsdale, Ariz. When she’s not single-handedly trying to bolster the local economy, she edits Sources+Design, a regional trade publication for architects and interior designers, and writes for publications such as Sunset and Arizona Highways magazines.

LaMarche is a writer based in Brooklyn, N.Y. She is the managing editor of The New York Observer and a frequent contributor to the Huffington Post, where she writes about pop culture and style. Her writing has appeared in magazines including Gotham, L.A. Confidential and BlackBook, and she can also be found over-sharing on her popular blog, The Sassy Curmudgeon. LaMarche jumped at the chance to fill in for Rex Reed this week, dusting off her film studies degree to pass judgment on Paul Haggis’ The Next Three Days and Nigel Cole’s Made in Dagenham. She was not important enough to be invited to a Harry Potter screening.

Clariﬁcation

JabbaWockeeZ, which we reviewed in our Nov. 18 issue, will perform at the Monte Carlo for a minimum of six months.

Vegas Seven Mobile Try It Now Step 1:

Step 2:

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Visit getscanlife.com on your mobile device to download FREE ScanLife Software.

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

Visit the Vegas Seven website November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven

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Seven Days

The highlights of this week in your city.

Compiled by Patrick Moulin

Sun. 28 Thu. 25 If you’re reading this and you don’t have plans for Thanksgiving, chances are you’d rather eat than cook. Fear not, as restaurants across the Valley are preparing turkey and all the ﬁxings for people just like you. All of the Boyd Gaming restaurants are offering a traditional dinner, just like mom used to make (visit BoydGaming.com for details). Restaurants at the Venetian and the Palazzo have changed their menus to reﬂect a higher-dining Thanksgiving experience (check Venetian.com for details), and if you’re looking for something a little less traditional, Cabo Wabo Cantina at Planet Hollywood is offering a Mexican brunch. Reservations are recommended, so call 385-2226 to make them.

Fri. 26 Studies have shown that laughing out loud can burn calories, something everyone is looking to do after gorging themselves yesterday. Get ready for a workout at the Lounge in the Palms as the Australian comedy trio Axis of Awesome (pictured) is putting on a free show at 10 p.m. tonight and Saturday. Comedian Jordan Raskopoulos, classically trained musician Benny Davis and self-proclaimed “Iron Chef enthusiast” Lee Naimo formed the group in 2006 and have been entertaining audiences with their quirky humor, sarcastic banter and original music ever since. For information, visit Palms.com.

If you could switch places with a celebrity and no one would notice, would you do it? Would the lap of luxury still look as good? That’s the question Mark Twain asked in his novel Prince and the Pauper. This stage adaptation, performed by the traveling production group Hampstead Stage Company at 11 a.m. at the Spring Valley Library Story Room (4280 S. Jones Blvd.), takes audiences to medieval London, where a chance meeting between a prince and a beggar, along with a switch of clothing, results in unexpected mishaps and adventures. For information, call 507-3820.

Mon. 29 Unless you’re planning a trip north, or have access to a snow-making machine, chances are you won’t be seeing much snow in the near future. So pack the kids into the car and take a trip to Sam’s Town Mystic Falls Park as it transforms into a winter wonderland. A 30-foot, professionally decorated Christmas tree greets you as you walk among the snow-covered lamp posts and festive trees. Scenes of polar bears and snowy hills will transport you from the barren desert to the tundra. Visit SamsTownLV.com for information.

Tues. 30 Attend a reading by award-winning author Alissa Nutting and you won’t know whether to laugh, cry or just pick your jaw off the ﬂoor. The author, a devotee of dark humor, will read from her recent book Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls (Starcherone Books, $18) along with her upcoming novel The Father Birth, at 7 p.m. at UNLV’s Greenspun Hall Auditorium. Unclean Jobs is a collection of short stories about unfortunate women put in unusual situations: having sex with a garden gnome, communicating with a dead mother’s ghost and using a parakeet to replace a missing limb, for example. The event is free and open to the public. Visit BlackMountainInstitute.org for more information.

Wed. 1 Sat. 27 While March Madness is still months away, college basketball fans can get a good look at a few teams that could make waves in the NCAA Basketball Championship at the 10th annual Las Vegas Invitational at the Orleans Arena. The action tips off Friday with a ﬁeld of eight teams: Kansas, ranked No. 7 in the AP polls and winner of the 2006 Invitational, is hoping for another championship. Other teams to watch include perennial powerhouse Arizona, and up-and-comers Ohio and Santa Clara. For tickets, visit OrleansArena.com.

Shine your belt buckles and pull up your bootstraps for the 24th annual Downtown Hoedown, beginning at 5 p.m. at the Fremont Street Experience. In conjunction with the 52nd annual National Finals Rodeo, this free concert will feature eight country music bands, including the Eli Young Band (pictured), Kevin Fowler, the Randy Rogers Band, Stealing Angels and Brett Eldredge. Although the lineup lacks the notable names of years past, the concert is a great way to introduce yourself to the next generation of country music superstars. Visit VegasExperience.com for information. November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven 13

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Go behind the scenes of Love, among other places.

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Love phot by Julie Aucoin; Brooks image by Patsy Lynch

Why, Garth, Why?

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Where Somebody Knows Your Name

Head east: P.J. Clarke’s oﬀers that New York state of mind.

SHOPPING

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SPORTS

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D Defensive back IIsaiah Trufant.

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6W^MUJMZ ,MKMUJMZ Vegas Seven 15

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

Got a juicy tip? gossip@weeklyseven.com

Tweets of the Week Compiled by @marseniuk

Making Stupid Pay

@Urbindex I can’t wait to get fat this Thanksgiving.

@TlGERWOODS Tony Parker? #ohjustlikeme

@AdamSadie Leaving Drai’s late Fri night does not make for a productive Saturday #FML

@kjswick Al-Zirkawi “just ousted Bin Laden as the mayor of ToraBoraCaves on @foursquare!”

@MissHeatherTang Plz

Is it still hazing if the rookies enjoy it?

superheroes on ice skates

The last time there were superheroes on skates we got George Clooney’s Batman fighting arnold schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin. hopefully this won’t turn out that terrible. The defending NhL champion Chicago Blackhawks came to Lavo for their team outing Nov. 21, and in the fine tradition of every sports team everywhere, put the squad’s newcomers through the paces. Members of the team had to don costumes normally worn by staff at Lavo—including a superman, an iron Man and a Tony Montana from Scarface. The unidentified Blackhawk who went into the iron Man armor loved his get-up so much he kept it on all night. You know what that means: Mickey Rourke will be suiting up for the Red Wings any day now. it wasn’t all public humiliation and/or comic book fantasies for the team, though. Lavo delivered a six-liter bottle of Dom pérignon. Usually they don’t get that much bubbly until they win in the playoffs.

Margera: Better than a day at the oﬃce.

Vice Has Visitors

@thejohnblog Red Bull may give you wings but this ‘Four Loco’ I mixed with Ambien straight-up gave me hooves and LOOKIME! I’M A CENTAUR! @nippys Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. @ToddPM The Beatles are on iTunes. This is not world-changing news; they’re the same overrated songs they were last week. @mg It continues to baﬄe me why people pay thousands of dollars to attend an event/conference and then stare at their laptops and do e-mail.

@caseycrites Sometimes when I feel my dog has lost faith in me, I take him to the light switch and turn it oﬀ and on a lot to remind him that I’m magic. @GorillaSushi If you run through airport security, is it now considered streaking?

Dodgers’ center ﬁelder and gentleman suitor of Rihanna, Matt Kemp, is still excited when he hears his girlfriend’s songs at the club. it’s like straight out of a Victorian romance. While at Tao on Nov. 21, DJ Vice spun the two latest Ri tracks, prompting Kemp to jump into the booth. it’s the same old thing Jane austen used to write about: Sense and Sensibility and Hot 100 Club Bumpers. That wasn’t Vice’s only visitor that night, though. about 3 a.m., Nelly came into the club. he gave into pressure to come to the booth when Vice shouted him out, then delivered a performance that included new single “Just a Dream.” Vice jumped up to spray some champagne on the crowd, while Nelly held on to his bottle to drink. apparently his dream was about reasonable and frugal things to do with one’s alcohol.

@amishtraveler Somehow, it just doesn’t feel like the holidays are coming. Thanksgiving. Xmas. I’m just not feeling it. I want summer back. @Aimee_B_Loved Oh, Kanye. You are the turducken of the music world. A gifted artist stuﬀed in a crazy person stuﬀed in a total douchebag. DJ Vice and Nelly make nice.

16 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

don’t mistake my alone-ness for loneliness… or my single-ness for desperation. Sometimes fabulous walks alone!

Margera & Vice photos by Al Powers

There are better ways to make a career other than willingly getting hit with things, but at least Bam Margera got a book deal out of it. and a cake. That’s got to count for something, right? Margera was at Lavo on Nov. 20 to celebrate the release of Jackass 3D, the movie sequel that absolutely no one was waiting for, yet somehow made more than $116 million. he was also marking the release of Jackass: 10 Years of Stupid (MTV press, $40), the book based on people willingly getting hit with things. When Margera arrived, he handed off an unmarked CD to DJ skratchy, which turned out to be Die antwoord’s “enter the Ninja,” just in time for the club to deliver his Jackass book-shaped cake. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, Die antwoord is a south african hiphop group—a terrible, terrible south african hip-hop group—that found success in the elusive realm of viral videos. essentially, Margera rickrolled a whole club. how that can be a thrill when one’s job description includes violent genital trauma, however, is a mystery.

The LaTesT ThoughT

scratch

DJ culture in Las Vegas is still booming. But success comes at a price. By André Sirois I became a DJ because I loved being creative with my favorite music, sharing my selection and energy with an audience. I’ve been at it for 12 years now, mixing hip-hop records on radio and playing “familiar” music in clubs. When I get behind the turntables, I have the sense that something new is being born, that I’m making music out of music by breathing life into recordings. I have fond memories of seeing DJs on television and at all-ages clubs in the early ’90s—these guys would just take control of the environment with their selection and skills. Disc jockeys would pen poetic narratives and the audience would soak them up and send all that energy back to the DJ, who would come back with even more magic. There was a kind of creative feedback loop, a beautiful connection. Today, with increased managerial control and an audience that’s grown up in a download culture, a night at the club is more like one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books. The DJ used to be the storyteller, and the best stories had the bite of the unexpected. Now the clubgoers think they know best, and DJs either cave in to their—and the management’s—expectations or wind up looking for a new gig. Disc jockeys worldwide are starting to feel more playlist pressure from club management and promoters, and nowhere is the tendency more pronounced than on the Las Vegas strip. Vegas is the ﬁnancial center of the DJ world, and what happens here with respect to the creativity of the DJ ultimately trickles down to DJs everywhere. and the buzz in the national DJ community is that clubs on the strip have gotten “Clear Channeled”—format, playlist, Top 40, repeat. Katy Perry electro remixes for everyone! The strip is home to 11 of the top 15 revenue-grossing clubs in america, according to the 2010 Nightclub & Bar Top 100. While cities such as Miami, hollywood, san Diego, Chicago and New York also had clubs that made 18

Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

the cut, nearly half of the estimated $1.2 billion earned by the top 100 went into the pockets of casino-backed clubs in Las Vegas. Club revenues can mean a lot of money for those who work in the industry, and that includes the DJs. Weekly resident DJs can make $500-$1,500 per night while “celebrity DJs” can make $15,000-$40,000 for a shift on the strip. In other cities, the money’s not quite there. (Believe me: I got $25 for my last club gig, where I played two hours of funk and old-school hip-hop. Katy Perry sounds like sweet music sometimes.) In most cities, nightclubs do not have casinos backing them. The clubs in Las Vegas are plush, luxurious and cater to high-rollers who buy bottles; in other cities clubs smell like urinal cakes and have clientele who would kill over a Bud Light special. There’s no reason art and luxury can’t coexist. There are some truly great DJs—I mean DJs that other DJs like to check out—who play in Las Vegas every week. Turntablists such as scene, P, Qbert, Z-Trip, Melo-D and skribble— all authentic and skilled music manipulators—hold residencies in Vegas, and the city is lucky to have this caliber of talent rocking its parties. But Las Vegas also has a darker side to its DJ culture: celebrity DJ/ producers whose brand value and draw sometimes mask a lack of talent and commitment to the culture. These guys (and gals) get complete control of their unadventurous sets because they can make the club dough even if they just stand onstage and play a CD. Mean-

while, creative, risk-taking DJs—even legends like DJ Jazzy Jeff, who had the plug pulled at the DJ aM tribute at surrender last august—feel pressure to water down their work. and DJs who are in the trenches, the ones who do it to eat, are becoming expendable. If you won’t cater your sound or style to mainstream tastes, there’s a million other iPod DJs ready to take your spot. Long gone are the days when clubgoers went to see a disc jockey play, ready to be taken on an adventure as the DJ sonically scribes. People at clubs nowadays expect to hear what they want when they want it. They’re selﬁsh and they want it now. iPod. iTunes. iPad. iPhone. Me, me, me! The music industry machine feeds consumers McMusic every day, and the club scene on the strip is hardly the sole cause of the music obesity problem plaguing clubgoers. Las Vegas may seem an unlikely place for the audience

to start dieting, but what if Vegas DJs were allowed to make the art they genuinely wanted to make? how would that change club and DJ culture globally? What if all that money and power on the strip went into encouraging DJs to be trendsetters and gatekeepers of music once again? Maybe the change needs to start off the strip, in smaller, hipper clubs downtown. authenticity has a way of surviving the cultural ﬂood; at some point, weary audiences want the shock of the original. DJ culture is reaching a critical mass across the nation, and old-school DJs like me are watching, hoping that when the bubble bursts, the DJ-as-artist will rise once again. If it happens in Vegas, it will make a difference for us all. André Sirois, a.k.a. DJ Food Stamp, is a hiphop DJ and music nerd who has worked clubs from New England to the Paciﬁc Northwest.

Special Advertising Section

Holiday Gift Guide

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Creative Home Teater

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Ethel M Chocolate Snowﬂake Collections

Sweeten your holiday traditions with these gifts from Ethel M Chocolate. Mention Vegas Seven and receive $5 off your in-store purchase of $30 or more until 12/25/2010. (800) 471-0352 www.ethelm.com Chocolate Factory Store, Fashion Show Mall, California Hotel, Flamingo Hotel, and all gates at McCarran International Airport

Handbag Express

Lettuce Entertain You

Free $25 Bonus gift card for every $100 in Lettuce Entertain You® gift cards you buy now through December 30. Available at El Segundo Sol, Mon Ami Gabi and Stripburger. www.leye.com

"The Valley's best kept secret" Handbag Express, a fashion accessories manufacturer and distributor with more than 1,000 styles in stock, makes available to the public its huge winter selection of beautiful fashion handbags. Normally restricted to large quantity wholesalers, Handbag Express is, for a limited time, offering the public an opportunity to purchase single or multiple handbags for 40-70% off retail. You can browse a huge selection (more than 600 styles) in its outlet showroom located at 125 Corporate Park Drive in the Henderson/Green Valley area. Showroom hours are 7:00am4:00pm, M-F. (702) 616-0997 www.handbagexpress.com

Society

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

Hot competition the tower climb Benefit, a combined effort on Nov. 13 by firefighters from clark county, North Las Vegas, Nellis Air Force Base, Henderson and Las Vegas, was a rousing success. With nearly 150 firefighters and emergency personnel participating, the fundraiser on behalf of the Firefighters of Southern Nevada Burn Foundation was a friendly competition between local agencies. each participant climbed the 108-floor, 1,455-step tower in the competition sponsored and hosted by the Stratosphere hotel-casino.

Photography by Jessica Blair

20 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Society

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

Sleep tight the Women’s club of Summerlin recently rallied members and friends to present a remarkable afternoon of charitable giving. the annual eat, Drink and Make a Difference luncheon at the JW Marriott was one of the largest and most successful fundraisers of the season, drawing together members of the Summerlin community as well as those who support their efforts. this year’s beneﬁciary was Baby’s Bounty, a nonproﬁt organization with a mission to provide safe sleep environments for infants.

Photography by Tony Tran

22 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 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

FOOD + DRINK

CLOTHING

SPECIALTY

JEWELRY

Burger Bar

Elton’s Men’s Store

The Art of Music

Forever Silver

Hussong’s Cantina

fashion 101

Bay Essentials

Le Paradis

minus5º Ice Lounge

Flip Flop Shops

Cashman Crystal

TeNo

The Las Vegas Sock Market

Fat Tuesday

Rick Moonen’s rm seafood Starbucks Coffee Yogurt In

Metropark

Frederick’s of Hollywood

Maude

Jack Gallery

Nora Blue Paradise Island

LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics

Shoe Obsession

Nike Golf

Suite 160

OPTICA

Urban Outﬁtters

Peter Lik Gallery

www.MandalayBay.com

SERVICES ARCS A Robert Cromeans Salon The Art of Shaving

Located on the skybridge connecting Mandalay Bay and Luxor. Free valet parking.

ENVIABLES

Style

Holiday Legs These aren’t your grandma’s holiday socks. NeedSupply rewrites the stereotypical bad rap associated with holiday patterned knits. Curl up by a ﬁre and be festive yet fashionable in these Nordic knit leggings. $38, NeedSupply.com.

The Look

Photographed by Tomas Muscionico

Lavetta Fajardo and Kate Stromberg Artistic styling director at Kim Vo Salon, age 27; director of cosmetics and beauty at Kim Vo salon, age 28

Prada Goes Undercover This camo print leather wallet from Prada is the perfect mix of fashion and masculinity, and makes a great gift for him. With eight card slots and two bill slots, there’s enough room for all the essentials, but it’s slim enough to not make a bulge. $355, available at Prada inside Crystals.

Howlin’ Decor For the lover of all things Nightmare Before Christmas, Disney has created a set of glass ornaments featuring Jack Skellington, Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, in ﬁve expressive moods. $30, DisneyStore.com.

Style icons: Kate Moss, Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, Kim Kardashian (Stromberg). What they are wearing now: Joseph Ribkoff dress and Rock & Republic shoes (Stromberg); Alberto Makali jacket, BCBG Max Azria skirt, Victoria’s Secret stocking and Michael Antonio booties (Fajardo). Ask two people for their definition of beauty and you will get different answers. These two people are no different, even though beauty is their full-time job. Says Kate: “The most beautiful experience is when you feel content and happy with yourself. And purchasing an amazing pair of shoes doesn’t hurt.” Says Lavetta: “Being in an industry filled with stunning people, I still think the most beautiful woman is my grandmother. She’s confident and classy. You can’t get any more beautiful then that.”

November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven

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Fashion

The Ermenegildo Zegna Centennial Collection (left) and the company’s image director, Anna Zegna.

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Images from the 100-year retrospective book (clockwise from left): Ermenegildo Zegna, Tom Brady and Giselle at the New York Zegna on Fifth Avenue, a classic Zegna ad campaign and a suit pattern.

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Style

Seven Very Nice Tings

The Boot

The latest kicks for Christmas 1. Frye Engineer 12R shearling boot Zappos.com, $298. 2. UGG/Jimmy Choo Kaia boot in leopard UGG Store, Forum Shops at Caesars, $595. 3. Koolaburra Victoria thigh-high boot in black ShopStyle.com, $410.

6. Christian Louboutin Mazurka Coyote fur suede boots At Saks Fifth Avenue, Fashion Show, $1,695.

7. Dolce Vita Josh boot in natural At Nordstrom, Fashion Show, $250. – Compiled by Carla Ferreira

4. Tory Burch Embellished Genuine shearling-lined boot in camel Nordstrom.com, $325. 5. Michael Kors Vail suede boots At Saks Fifth Avenue, Fashion Show, $225.

5. 28 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

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It is true that some of the world’s best fashion and luxury shopping is conveniently located in one hot spot: the Las Vegas Strip. However, there is more beyond the Boulevard. Pockets and capsules of great retail dot the Valley; one just needs guidance on where to look for the buried treasure. The even better news is that more shopping options are on their way, including an expansion at the Las Vegas Outlet Center, the highly anticipated Tivoli Village at Queensridge and the nine new stories at the Cosmopolitan. Here we break down the city into districts—your guide to where to shop till you drop!

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WHAT’S NEW

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32 Vegas Seven 6W^MUJMZ ,MKMUJMZ

My Mile of Style Richard Worthington Real estate developer and entrepreneur; age 47. Favorite place to shop: Town Square. Favorite store: Whole Foods. The selection of organic foods is fantastic, the wine department is well-stocked, and the prepared foods are delicious and perfect for those busy weekends when you don’t want to cook but have great food available in the house. Favorite restaurant: California Pizza Kitchen. My daughter Ally loves the pizzas, and I like the salads—the perfect compromise. Best deal: Classic white T-shirts at the Gap for $13 each. Unique oﬀering: Retro T-shirts from Lucky Brand Jeans. Best spot for gifts: Victoria’s Secret for my girlfriend. Favorite shopping experience: Borders Books. They have a dedicated section for young readers, and my daughter loves to read while I peruse the vast selection of architecture books and magazines. Other spots in the neighborhood: Apple Store. Since I have thrown away my PCs at home, I have also become hooked on iPods, iPads, iMacs, MacPros and their cool selection of accessories and cases. I am now on a 12-step program, though, and expect to be cured soon.

My Mile of Style Jessica Berlin Social media manager, age 31. Favorite place to shop: Fashion Show. Favorite store: Saks Fifth Avenue. Favorite restaurant: RA Sushi for happy hour. Best deals: Forever 21. Last purchase: An amazing Tahari bag at Saks. Place for unique items: Z Gallerie. We would be surprised to know you shop at: Ann Taylor Loft. I love all of their great basics. The ﬁrst time you went to Fashion Show: It is the mecca of Las Vegas shopping. It was one of my ﬁrst stops after moving here eight years ago. Other spots at Fashion Show you also frequent: Kate Spade and Zara. .

6W^MUJMZ ,MKMUJMZ Vegas Seven 33

DOWNTOWN CHARACTER

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34 Vegas Seven 6W^MUJMZ ,MKMUJMZ

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.Q^M .QVL[ NWZ \PM *IZOIQVQ[\I You can bank on these discount stores for good buys

Las Vegas is home to just as many bargain “shopportunities” as it is luxury, with a breadth of amazing buys that offer the same satisfying rush. Looking and living like a VIP no longer requires the bank account of one. Dedicated, patient and progressive-minded shoppers find they do not have to compromise their champagne taste no matter how limited their budgets. For a treasure trove of mind-blowing steals and deals, consumers need to think beyond the super-large discount chain stores and shop the smaller spaces for unique and even luxurious retail reductions that no one knew existed. Here are five such budget-friendly retailers: Susie’s Deals may be a chain of 90 stores along the West Coast, but it is also a familyrun operation with eight stores in Las Vegas. While it advertises $5.99 and up, many items are listed as low as $3.99. Susie’s is the kind of bargain retailer that a surprising number of Las Vegans appreciate but somehow it remains a bit of a secret. The deals they go for are Susie’s junior, misses, plus size, men’s and children’s apparel. And if you’re wondering whether there is anything suitable to wear given how low the prices are, here’s what you need to know: When Kohl’s, Old Navy, JCPenney and other favorite retailers get rid of their stock, it ends up here. Susie’s store listings are available at SusiesDeals.com.

The best buys are the nondesigner, fashion-forward pieces with a label that no one has heard of, but with a style that no one will forget. Conveniently adjacent to the Strippers’ Strip Mall, Diana’s Dollar Deals will cost you more than a dollar, but not much more. With a wide range of G-strings, sexy bras, hosiery, cosmetics and even Xotic Eyes kits for far less than regular retail prices, this is the go-to bargain shopping spot for the sensual working girl—or those who just want to look like one. 4211 W. Sahara Ave., Suite A. If the idea of secondhand shopping seems unappealing, then try thinking of it as being earth-friendly. Thrift-store retailer Savers has five clean, well-organized locations in the Vegas Valley, each featuring shoes, apparel, furniture, home ac-

cessories, books and collectibles. Sure, a fashionista could spend $150 on a Michael Kors dress. Or she could transform herself into a “bargainista” and spend under $20 for one at Savers. See Savers.com for store listings. Do-it-yourselfers find that heaven exists in the form of Home Fabrics and Rugs. It has limited locations across the country, but two here in the Valley. What you’ll find in both are designer interior material for as low as $13 per yard and area rugs for $60. Scared to make the DIY leap? Attend one of the store’s many free Q&A sessions or workshops. 1825 S. Decatur Blvd. and 1437 W. Sunset Road in Henderson. Authentic celebrity-owned clothing may not be the reality behind The Refinery Celebrity Resale, but there is definitely enough luxury and glamour in this store to make anyone look like a celebrity. Skip over anything with the original retail tag still attached; the real deals are the “almost new” designer denim, furs, handbags and shoes, while the best buys are the nondesigner, fashion-forward pieces with a label that no one has heard of, but with a style that no one will forget. 3827 E. Sunset Road. · 4I]ZI +WZWVILW

6W^MUJMZ ,MKMUJMZ Vegas Seven 35

GET TOGETHER WITH AN EVEN WACKIER FAMILY.

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to get together with family. Which also makes it the perfect time to get away from family. Escape to a happier place with buy-one-get-one tickets to see Blue Man Group live at The Venetian. Much like family gatherings, the show combines music, comedy, and humor, but rather than driving you insane by asking “What’s new at work?” and “Have you lost weight?” Blue Man Group simply inspires you to laugh and make music of your own. Offer valid through January 5, 2011.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING. LOCALS BUY 1 GET 1.

CALL 702.414.9001 FOR YOUR TICKETS. MENTION CODE LOC241 SHARE THE FUN.

Offer is valid for red and blue zone seating only. Each ticket is subject to tax and $10 Venetian Service Fee. Show your Nevada ID and mention code: LOC241 at any Venetian/Palazzo box ofﬁce to receive this offer. Offer subject to availability and not valid with any other offers. Offer not valid on previously purchased tickets. All sales are ﬁnal. Blue Man Group reserves all rights. Offer valid through January 5, 2011.

LocaL Newsroom

Holidays That Heal

A Nevada nonproﬁt group extends its reach beyond Christmas to help injured soldiers By Kate Silver

Kevin Hardin and Lillian May met when he was being treated for injuries sustained in Iraq.

crazy for Four Loko Crackdown on beverage results in stockpiling By Kate Silver

although he’s only 24, Kevin Hardin has had more than 30 surgeries in the past two years. The frontline army medic was driving a Humvee in Iraq in 2007 when a rocketpropelled grenade hit his vehicle, severely injuring his hands and arms. shrapnel from the explosion still remains in his brain. He was transported to walter reed army medical center in washington D.c., and that’s where the silver lining appears. In 2008, while recovering at the hospital, Hardin met the love of his life: Lillian may. she was there visiting a cousin who had been wounded in the military. when she encountered Hardin in the hospital’s courtyard, the two became fast friends, and then more. Hardin says she gave purpose to all that he’s been through. over Veterans Day weekend, the two flew to Las Vegas from their home outside of Fort Hood, Texas, along with 40 family members and friends, courtesy of christmas can Cure, a nonprofit group founded by andre carrier, the chief operating officer of Eureka Casinos in Las

Vegas and mesquite. They drove to mesquite, where they were married in a wedding ﬁt for a soldier. “I’m excited to have our family and friends there so we can celebrate with them together,” says may, who is 27. Prior to the mesquite wedding, she and Kevin had already been legally married. They said their vows in april at a county courthouse in Texas, knowing they couldn’t afford a wedding. when carrier heard through family and friends about the couple, he wanted to help. “we’re hoteliers,” he says. “what’s more fun than doing a wedding?” It’s a change from past christmas can cure festivities. The organization began in 2007 as the result of discussions among carrier family members about how they could make a difference. every year, the family spends christmas at their home in Jackson, N.H., a picturesque town with sleigh rides, covered bridges and snow. They wanted to share their fairy-tale holidays with the men and women who fought—and had been injured—in the armed forces. so they Continued on Page 39

strip Liquor, on Las Vegas Boulevard near convention center Drive, was bustling on the morning of Nov. 19 as patrons stocked up on beverages for the weekend. one of those beverages—Four Loko—has become particularly popular in recent days. The alcoholic energy drink, nicknamed “blackout in a can,” is on a publicity blitz following scrutiny this week by the U.s. Food and Drug administration. It’s the eve of Prohibition for Four Loko. “sales are through the roof,” says one Continued on Page 40

Blackout in a can or party in your hand?

November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven 37

Local Newsroom

Green Felt Journal

Tales from the Global Gaming Expo By David G. Schwartz The Global Gaming Expo, gambling’s biggest trade show, has come and gone, with plenty of discussions and deals in the conference rooms and exposition halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center. This year it proved, despite the beating that Las Vegas has taken in the past few years, it is still a city where people come to talk casinos—and to get a peek at the future of the industry. It’s a big show, with more than 26,000 attendees. The conference program, with more than 430 speakers spread across 130 sessions, is big on ideas, but the real action of the show takes place on the expo floor. Here, you’ll find more than 250,000 square feet of exhibit booths, in which salespeople tout the benefits of every product from flooring to ticket-recycling machines. The slot manufacturers take up most of the space in the central area of the hall, and with hundreds of slots on demo mode they get the most attention, too. But there are plenty of other exhibitors here, although you might need a scorecard to tell them apart. You could be forgiven if you mixed up Micro Gaming Technologies, Micro-Star International, MicroFirst, Micros Systems and MicroStrategy. The exhibitors are a diverse lot, as casino suppliers (and potential casino suppliers) go. For every heavyweight such as Global Cash Access or International Game Technology with a massive spread on the expo floor and private areas for salespeople and buyers to work out deals, there are smaller, almost mom-and-pop operations. The developer of Die Rich Craps, Ken Coleman, is one of them, demoing the game himself in his booth. The big exhibitors might be the heart of G2E, but the one- and two-person setups valiantly selling everything from chip-cleaning machines to name badges might be its soul. Almost one-sixth of the exhibitors came from countries outside the United States, and an increasing number of the attendees were from overseas, giving the show a more international flavor than ever. One company that came to G2E for the first time had a long and tricky journey. Numbers Play Hungary, founded last year, is a Budapest-based company that’s put together a new game called Kabala 6. Available across several platforms, including a lottery draw, a mobile gaming application and a slot machine terminal, 38

Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

the game requires no knowledge of, and has no real reference to, the ancient system of Jewish mysticism for which it is named. Rather, it’s an evocation of both “luck” and “superstition,” according to the company. And, like other new game developers, NPH is going to need a good run of luck to get its game into a casino. Like other exhibitors, NPH is here because it has hope; hope that if the right casino manager sees its game, it will make a sale. Five officers and employees of the company flew out to Las Vegas with their booth packed in their personal luggage, to cut down on shipping costs. Travel hiccups separated the group from their luggage, and a missed connecting flight temporarily stranded two of their number in Detroit. Reunited with their luggage two days later, the NPH five somehow got their booth assembled just in time to meet potential buyers on Tuesday. Luck might have had something to do with it. Communications manager Andrea Szabados revealed that NPH’s trip to Las Vegas had truly global roots. “We were at G2E Asia [a sister tradeshow held in Macau] and decided that, if we wanted to make an impact, we had to be present in Las Vegas. When you think of gambling, you think of Las Vegas.” She’s also hopeful that, should the U.S. Congress permit Internet gaming, Kabala 6, which has a robust online and mobile platform, will be a popular choice for casinos and lotteries. In Las Vegas for the first time, Szabados likes what she sees. “It’s incredible,” she says of her stay. “I love the openness. Everyone smiles at you. And it’s such a lively environment, with the music, the sounds, the sights.” Ironically, some of the best contacts NPH made during the show were with its nearby neighbors. Casino managers from Hungary and Slovenia expressed interest in Kabala 6. The game was born in their backyard, but they had to come to Las Vegas to see it for the first time. “Yes,” sales manager Eszter Szeremi says, “it’s been a worthwhile trip.” And, it’s one that shows that Las Vegas is still relevant in an increasingly global business scene. David G. Schwartz is the director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research.

Christmas Can Cure Continued from Page 37

Body Talk In an image-conscious city, educators try to inject a little reality into the discussion

Photo by Getty

By Kate Silver Five years ago, Cortney Warren, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, moved to Las Vegas to start a body image and eating disorder lab while teaching at UNLV. She was interested in the ways that body image and eating disorders are manifested in this image-conscious city. Not long after she settled in, Ann Marie Perone approached Warren. Perone, who is a health teacher at Valley High School and also educates teachers in the Clark County School District about issues surrounding eating disorders and body image, was alarmed by the negative body talk she heard coming from her students daily. To address the issue, she started a club called Body Rocks, and she asked Warren to come to the school and talk to the kids. It turned into a two-year engagement. Warren spoke to all of the ninth-grade health classes about body image perceptions and misconceptions, how students feel about the way they look, and the media’s portrayal of gender roles in magazines, newspapers, television and the Internet. “I talked to them about the reality of the media—that the messages they see aren’t

actually true, aren’t actually real. They’re edited and they’re extreme,” she says, referring to the predominately white, ultra-thin, airbrushed celebrities and models that surround us at the newsstand and elsewhere. In the process, Warren conducted a study of her own. She focused on more than 200 Latino teens to see how they were affected by images of thin people in the media. The Latino culture has always considered a curvier, more feminine female body the ideal, as opposed to the super skinny look that Caucasians lean toward. Warren wanted to see if that was true in these youth. She found that the kids she studied were just as susceptible to body image issues and eating disorders as their Caucasian counterparts. “The more the Hispanic kids compare themselves to media images, the more likely they were to have eating disorder symptoms. The more they aspired to look like mainstream media, the more eating disorder symptoms they reported,” she says. Her ﬁndings were published in the September issue of Sex Roles: A Journal of Research.

Perone, who sees these issues constantly at Valley High School, isn’t surprised by the ﬁndings. In her Body Rocks club, she works with nearly 75 students to try to raise self-esteem and direct them to focus on areas other than physical appearance. The club sponsors themed events such as End Fat Talk Day, Love Your Body Day, MakeupFree Monday, Eating Disorders Awareness Week and more. Still, Perone is the ﬁrst to admit that more needs to be done. “Nobody wants to talk about eating disorders. They’ve got every program for drugs and alcohol, but when it comes to eating disorders and body image they’ve got nothing,” she says. Perone says that Warren’s program, which ran during the 2007 and 2008 school years, helped her students a great deal and opened a dialogue about the taboo topic. But without funding from the school district, there’s only so much Warren and others can do. “If we don’t educate and this isn’t seen more in the media, other than celebrities in the media getting thin or getting fat, the situation is just going to worsen for our population,” Perone says.

spoke with inn owners around town and found other people interested in helping. In 2008, they hosted two families, and have continued doing so ever since. Carrier sees it as his way of contributing, since he never served in the military himself. It’s also his way of bringing awareness to the fact that more military troops are coming home with injuries than in any previous war. “I think the clock is ticking now, because we’re still at war,” he says. “But as the story becomes more about winding down troop levels, I think people will think about soldiers less.” Potential families are selected by the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonproﬁt organization headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., that advocates for injured soliders. Families are chosen based on whether they have young children, and whether they live in an area of the country where it snows at Christmas. Carrier says that his family originally expected to fund Christmas Can Cure themselves. But the more they spoke about the concept to others, donations started coming in. The Hardin wedding, for example, brought together partners such as Eureka Casino Resort, Bliss Salon, Days Remembered Flower Shoppe and Pleasant Holidays travel agency. “It’s really the desires of other people to be involved in service to our nation’s veterans that made us become an ofﬁcial organization,” Carrier says. For more information about Christmas Can Cure, go to www.ChristmasCanCure.org.

November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven 39

Local News

Four Loko Continued from Page 37

“We have repeatedly contended–and still believe, as do many people throughout the country—that the combination of alcohol and caﬀeine is safe.”

Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Strip Liquor staffer, who didn’t give her name as she rushed to get off the phone to return to her customers. “They’ve increased because of the publicity.” Similar scenes of stocking up are being reported across the country as people rush to snatch up Four Loko while they can. There have been numerous reports of college students getting sick (and, well, drunk) after consuming Four Loko. Michigan and New York are among the states that have banned the drink to date, which has the alcohol content of wine (12 percent) in a 23.5-ounce can, with 156 milligrams of caffeine (about the same as a tall cup of Starbucks coffee). On Nov. 16, Chicago-based Phusion Projects, the maker of Four Loko, responded to pressure from the FDA by announcing that the company would remove caffeine, guarana and taurine in the beverage. Chris Hunter, Jeff Wright and Jaisen Freeman—Phusion’s three co-founders and current managing partners—released a statement saying, “We have repeatedly contended—and still believe, as do many people throughout the country—that the combination of alcohol and caffeine is safe. If it were unsafe, popular drinks like rum and colas or Irish coffees that have been consumed safely and responsibly for years would face the same scrutiny that our products have recently faced.” The next day, the FDA told Phusion Projects and six other companies that make caffeinated alcoholic beverages that their products are “a public health

concern.” The companies were told that the beverages, as formulated now, cannot stay on the market. The controversy has elicited a divided response. On the one side are those who agree the product is unsafe, irresponsible and should be banned. On the other side are defenders of the free market who don’t believe the government should be involved in the issue. Then there are the die-hard fans of the beverage who are stocking up at places like Strip Liquor, Facebookers who are planning virtual drinking parties, mourners who are scheduling live vigils, and fans who are sharing bootleg recipes online for DIY Four Loko. Tony Abou-Ganim is the ﬁrst to admit he’s not a fan of mixing energy drinks with alcohol. The former Bellagio beverage specialist and founder of TheModernMixologist.com says he’s rather get a root canal than drink an upper-downer cocktail. “It’s kind of like a poor man’s speedball. You get wired and you get a buzz on,” he says. “Personally, when I’m that tired and I need something like that to stay out at the club, it’s probably time to go home anyway.” Still, he says it’s a decision that should be made by the consumer rather than the government. AbouGanim adds that this is a great opportunity to spotlight responsible drinking. “It comes down to education. People are going to do it. The FDA can come in and say you have to take this out, but people will still just mix the two substances together,” he says. “Prohibition proved to be a huge lesson in that.”

Local Newsroom

Politics

Carnage at the R-J: a retrospective By Michael Green Stephens Media Group replaced Las Vegas Review-Journal publisher Sherm Frederick, now a columnist/consultant, with advertising director Bob Brown on Nov. 12. Editor Tom Mitchell became “senior opinion editor,” which sounds like he’ll be visiting local Sun City communities to gauge seniors’ views. With a fulltime publisher, as opposed to Frederick doubling as Stephens CEO, general manager Allan Fleming lost his job. Newspapers are capable of reporting well on anything but themselves, so don’t expect the R-J to explore these changes. The Sun tried, but Mitchell hung up on its reporter, as he did when the Los Angeles Times tried to interview him about biased local news coverage of Harry Reid. Hence the speculation that Reid’s victory triggered the upheaval, which probably wouldn’t have happened if profits had remained strong. Perhaps national attention for the R-J’s ridiculously antiReid coverage disturbed the Stephens Media overlords. With fingers in many financial pies, they should be worried that Reid doesn’t forget and rarely forgives. Apparently Frederick and Mitchell forgot, or never knew, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s admonition: When you strike at a king, you must kill him. Their job is to know their state and readers, and, as their certitude about Reid’s defeat shows, they clearly don’t. They did their best—or worst—to Reid, and he still won, which speaks volumes about their lack of influence and judgment. So does the R-J concentrate on being a paper of record, or keep letting bias govern too much of its political coverage? Granting that this is the first big change at the top under Stephens’ ownership, what does history tell us? First, when the R-J changes, it isn’t incremental. From 1929 to 1960, Al and John Cahlan, generally conservative Democrats, ran the paper with two different co-owners. Majority owner Don Reynolds had an agreement with Al Cahlan, a coowner, that one could buy out the other. On Dec. 11, 1960, with Hank Greenspun’s Sun gaining ground on the R-J, Reynolds cashed out Al Cahlan. The next day, Al Cahlan’s column vanished after 30 years, his presence erased from the paper. John Cahlan left shortly thereafter. John’s replacement was—oddly—a man named Bob Brown, a veteran reporter, a 42

Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

newspaperman’s son and later my boss at The Valley Times. He and his staff redesigned the R-J for the ﬁrst time in years. A Republican, he clashed with Reynolds, a Democrat hoping for an ambassadorship. When Reynolds ordered him to slant coverage against GOP Senate candidate Paul Laxalt in 1964 and for incumbent Democrat Howard Cannon, Brown quit. While the R-J grew more conservative under Reynolds, it didn’t turn sharply right until another regime change in the early 1980s. New editor George Collier redesigned the R-J and forced out Bill Wright, the longtime general manager and by then the dominant presence at the paper. The next editor, Tom Keevil, gave considerable latitude to his sharp, libertarian editorial page editor Rafael Tammariello—but Tammariello didn’t control the newsroom. Frederick arrived in 1989 after Keevil’s death. Under Frederick and Mitchell, the R-J tilted further right editorially, but, more importantly, editorial attitudes increasingly affected what the R-J covered, how it was covered and where it appeared in the paper. During the Reid campaign, the R-J was so blatant that it was embarrassing, including for some R-J staffers. Whatever Frederick did or didn’t do as publisher, his love for history and Nevada served us well in The First 100, an outstanding history of Southern Nevada, and in the purchase of several rural weeklies that otherwise might not have survived. He was a journalist, while Brown comes from advertising. But that isn’t too different: In the 1960s, R-J ad salesmen had preferred parking and could make reporters move their cars, prompting one ink-stained wretch, Colin McKinlay to park his sports car in the lobby. As for Mitchell, besides hanging up on callers, he ordered one professor whom he called a “communist” banned from being quoted in political stories, but didn’t require Republican professors to be identiﬁed as such. Fidel Castro and I discussed this at our most recent meeting. But, like the earlier Brown, this Brown also has his work cut out for him. Credibility and morale have suffered in recent years. For his paper’s good, and thus the community’s, he deserves our best wishes. Michael Green is a professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada and author of several books and articles on Nevada history and politics.

Nightlife

Entertaining options for a week of nonstop fun and excitement. Compiled by Melissa Arseniuk

Thu. 25 Need one more reason to be thankful? How about two? Tao combines two holidays into one party as it hosts a holiday toy drive on Thanksgiving night during its annual Terminate the Turkey party. KLUC 98.5-FM Morning Zoo personality Chet Buchanan kicks off the Toys-forTots program, which gives back to those who donate with an open bar 10-11 p.m. Meanwhile, a portion of the night’s cover supports the worthy cause. At the Venetian, doors 10 p.m., $20 guys, $10 girls, all locals free.

Fri. 26 It’s been 30 years since Pink Floyd released the game-changing album, The Wall, and tonight, the epic, iconic, legendary—however you want to say “important”—Roger Waters (pictured) brings his solo tour to the MGM Grand Garden Arena. (8 p.m., $75-$250.) Meanwhile, comedians Steve White and Don Learned headline Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the Tropicana (8 and 10 p.m., $39, 2-for-1 tickets for military), and DJ Exodus headlines at Rain. At the Palms, doors 11 p.m., $30, local ladies free.

Sat. 27 Get your Asian drink on at Blush, as Rock Sake and Sapporo invite revelers to taste the Far East with an open sake and Japanese beer bar, 11 p.m.-midnight. (At Wynn, doors 9 p.m., $30, local ladies free) Over at Aria, hip-hop up-and-comer J. Cole (pictured) answers his own question when he performs his single “Who Dat?” and a handful of others at Haze. (10:30 p.m., $20 women, $40 men.) And Manufactured Superstars—creators of Beatport, a.k.a. the home of electronic music on the Web—are at Rain at the Palms. Doors 11 p.m., $30, local ladies free.

Sun. 28 They’re out, they’re about and they’re making a difference, and tonight Closet Sundays toasts the biggest movers-andshake-things-uppers in Las Vegas’ LGBT community during The Power of 20 at Revolution. At The Mirage, doors 10 p.m., $20, locals free.

Seven nightS Mon. 29 Hangovers can be hellish payback for the night that was, but tonight Jet beats booze to the morning-after punch, and re-creates the best (and worst) hangovers before they happen (again) during its Industry Hangover party. Be proactive, pop some vitamin C, and then submit your best/worst hangover pics to JackColton.com (or vote for your favorites) for a chance to win a stay in one of The Mirage’s über-luxe tower suites. Doors 10:30 p.m., $35 cover, locals and industry free.

Tue. 30 Get the most out of your student ID card at PBR Rock Bar, as the cowboyed-up drinkin’ hole gives college kids (ages 21 and up) three hours of open bars that even cash-strapped philosophy majors can afford. From 9 p.m. until midnight, girls get all-they-can-drink access to beer and cocktails from the rail for $5, and guys get the same for $5 more. Meantime, those who have already graduated or didn’t go the postsecondary route pay twice the price. At Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, doors 9 a.m., $10 men, $5 women with college ID; $20 men, $10 women without.

Wed. 1 It’s World AIDS Day, and tonight the leader of Las Vegas’ LGBT nightlife, Eduardo Cordova, presents his latest undertaking: an AIDS awareness event at Lavo featuring an open bar, all beneﬁting Aid for AIDS of Southern Nevada. Wear red in honor of the occasion (and to score free booze from 11 p.m.-midnight), and the venue will donate $2 for everyone through the door. (At the Palazzo, doors 10 p.m., $20 men, $10 women, free for all locals.) Meanwhile, Guilty By Association and Battle Born join fellow punk rockers the Dead Kennedys (pictured) at the Hard Rock Café on the Strip (Doors 8 p.m., show 9 p.m., $20 in advance at TicketWeb.com, $25 at the door, ages 18-plus) and Surrender hosts Tapout’s World MMA Awards after-party at Encore. Doors 10 p.m., $40 men, $30 women, locals and industry free.

November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven 45

Nightlife

Pure | Caesars Palace

Photography by Hew Burney

Upcoming Nov. 27 | DJ Jesse Marco Nov. 30 | Industry Night with DJ Shift

46 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Nightlife

Haze | Aria

Upcoming

Nov. 25 | Industry night Nov. 27 | J. Cole performs

48 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Photography by Roman Mendez

Nightlife

Tryst | Wynn

Photography by Amy Schaefer

Upcoming Nov. 25 | Tryst Thursdays Nov. 26 | L.A. Invasion Fridays Dec. 2 | Toy drive

50 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Nightlife

Tao | Venetian

Photography by Tony Tran

Upcoming Nov. 25 | 5th annual Terminate the Turkey Dec. 2 | Holly Madisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s birthday celebration Dec. 4 | Guest DJ Jack. E

Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Nightlife

Proﬁle

Miss Connections Yvette Brown has her finger on the pulse of social networking parties By Natalie Holbrook auditioned out of 500 girls and came out here because I always knew I wanted to be in Las Vegas,” Brown says. “I saw the movie Casino and was like, I have to live there.” When the show concluded two years later, Brown decided to stay because of the opportunities she found here. The bubbly, blond Brit’s first venture was Vegas VIP Hottie Hosting, a concierge service specializing in VIP nightclub hosting by, well, hotties. As Brown navigated the ins and outs of Vegas nightlife she also learned the importance of networking and began attending events where she found herself mingling with movers-and-shakers. “Vegas is conducive and is set up to help you start your own business,” Brown says. “More so than anywhere in the world.” The idea for her own event was conceived after a friend discovered Brown’s collection of thousands of business cards. “As a woman, I felt like I could put my own unique spin on [networking],” Brown says. Her formula: “I am very personable. I greet everyone, make sure no one’s standing alone and they’re always introduced to someone in the group, and I think people really appreciate that.” Through word of mouth and making liberal use of social media channels, Cosmopolitan Connections has amassed a loyal following. Each week from 7-9 p.m., guests receive free admission to partake in drink and appetizer specials as well as discounted dinners, and even chances to win prizes such as Light Group gift certificates. At the Nov. 30 “Don’t Forget Your Overnight Bag” edition, one lucky

Te New Guy OPM/Poetry owner Mike Goodwin suits up for the Palms By Jason Scavone It’s been over a year since Poetry Nightclub went down with the Chinois ship. When the Wolfgang Puck restaurant closed at the Forum Shops it took the subletting hip-hop nightclub (then in its second incarnation) with it. Now, the club’s former owner Mike Goodwin is back on the Vegas entertainment scene, coming on board at the Palms as director of entertainment, 60 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Yvette Brown has your social networking calendar on lock.

attendee will win an overnight stay. “Vegas is a melting pot, so we have a diverse group of people who come in. It’s great to meet new fun people, business contacts and have a good time. I had one

replacing former vice president of entertainment, Michael Greco. “I’ve been a voyeur, watching the market here in town, keeping up with everybody,” Goodwin says. “I was never really far from it. I’ve always had a good relationship with the Maloof family and stayed in communication with them throughout the time that I have been away from the nightclubs.” Now begins the full-time job of overseeing bookings for the Pearl and the Lounge, as well as entertainment overall for the property, which includes partnering with N9NE Group. “I certainly think that there’s a continual change in what customers are looking for. Our job is to predict those changes and try to do it better than the rest,” Goodwin says. The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel is

guest say, ‘Every time I come, I make new best friends,’” Brown says. “It’s not like stuffy networking—the emphasis is on fun.” It’s comforting to know that someone is looking out for our priorities.

expanding its offerings to include a DJ Tiësto residency beginning on New Year’s Day, but Goodwin was guarded as to whether the Pearl would counter with a big electronic show of its own. He would only say that the property is looking at options right now, though he did point to the upcoming New Year’s Eve programming that will see old-school DJ Grandmaster Flash spin a free show at the center Island Bar as a new element the Palms could start to incorporate more regularly. “I think that this,” he says of bringing DJs to the casino ﬂoor, “is just the evolution—not putting it away in nightclubs, but bringing it out to the forefront. [The Palms] was designed to be an entertainment facility. The excitement gets into your heart the second you walk in the building.”

Photos by Anthony Mair

Anyone who’s lived in Las Vegas for more than six months knows that success in Las Vegas is all about who you know. With Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites dominating the grounds for communication today, it’s easy to lose track of our “real-life” interactions. But there is hope, thanks to Yvette Brown, founder of Cosmopolitan Connections (CosmopolitanConnections.com), Las Vegas’ premier ongoing social networking event. Whether a networking novice or a Nobel laureate in “getting the hook-up,” Cosmopolitan Connections offers the increasingly rare opportunity for face-to-face interaction. Brown debuted her “evening of socializing and networking for singles, couples and business professionals” in February at the Hard Rock’s Rare 120, and continues to venture into a new venue each week. Union, The Deuce and Gold at CityCenter, Caramel at Bellagio and Rumor Boutique Resort have all been hosts. Each week features a different theme (such as speed-networking), celebrates a holiday, or incorporates an attendee’s own business. For instance, the popular oncemonthly “Taste of Tarot” night, which provides free astrology and tarot readings by Kerry Fezza, came about because Fezza was a Cosmopolitan Connections regular. “I’m all about helping people that come to my events,” Brown says. “They hand me their business cards, and I want to do what I can to help them succeed.” A former Paris showgirl, Brown arrived in Las Vegas in 2002 after joining Spirit of the Dance at the Golden Nugget. “I

Nightlife

Cocktail Culture

By Xania Woodman

Delmonico turns the page with its Book of Whiskey

Backwoods Fiddler

At the Venetian’s Delmonico Steakhouse, whiskey is put on par with wine as the perfect steak mate. Delmonico/ Table 10 beverage manager and mixologist Max Solano has amassed a collection that has climbed into the multiple hundreds. It was high time they were catalogued—into a Book of Whiskey. In a leather-bound volume not unlike those found bearing the bar menus at other meateries lay Delmonico’s whiskey-only wonderland—17 pages that transport whiskey aﬁcionados and neophytes from Scotland and Ireland across the sea to Canada and the U.S. (including a deep collection of bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and American rye) and still farther west, on to Japan. There are 258 whiskeys in all, not to mention another 15 waiting in the wings for spring’s updated edition. It’s a collection that physically bursts forth from every liquor cubby in Delmonico’s back bar and spans every inch of counter space while bottles of Skyy vodka teeter on the edge of oblivion. The book’s high-end highlights include Springbank 25 Year “Dearly Departed” ($95 per dram), Glen Grant 40 Year Vintage 1964 Jewels of Scotland collection ($115) and the Macallan 30 Year ($140). But what sets Delmonico’s whiskey book apart from its competitors (one such being MGM’s Craftsteak with its own collection of 216 whiskeys) is that Delmonico forgoes some of the prestige bottles considered de rigueur by whiskey fanciers—those bottles one never actually opens but merely acquires to complete the collection—in favor of quality middle to high-end bottles that are reasonably priced and which enjoy heavy rotation. Says Solano, “Everything we have we move.” In the middle there are great buys: Glenmorangie Signet “Chocolate Malt” ($34), which is perfect with or even as dessert; High West “Rendezvous” rye from nearby Park City, Utah, ($15); and Solano’s favorite, the Caol Ila 12 Year Vintage 1997 Wemyss “Burnt Heather” ($23). And yes, you can still get Southern Comfort for just $11.50. If you must, then you must.

As served at RM Seafood at Mandalay Bay, $14 Fresh and easy does it! RM Seafood lead bartender J.R. Starkus was looking for fresh, great-tasting and approachable cocktails with which to populate his fall list. But they also had to be easy to make when the restaurant’s bar is hoppin’—as is often the case—and hopefully easy for guests to replicate at their own events. So he created one! “At RM Seafood we focus on seasonal, sustainable ingredients,” Starkus says. “I like to make all kinds of cocktails, but always keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be complicated to be great.” Combining Hangar One’s spiced pear-ﬂavored vodka with real pear purée and a deeply cinnamon-ﬂavored house-made syrup, this one is sure to launch you into fall mode (it’s autumnmatic!) and is even simple enough to bring home for the holidays. ½ ounce fresh lemon juice ½ ounce cinnamon simple syrup (see sidebar for recipe) 1½ ounce Funkin pear purée 1½ ounce Hangar One Spiced Pear vodka 1 dehydrated, cinnamon-dusted pear chip for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a pint glass, add ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and ﬂoat the pear chip garnish on the surface of the cocktail.

Bring a 50/50 ratio of water and sugar to a boil and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat to medium and add 2-3 whole cinnamon sticks. Allow to steep— tasting periodically—until you’ve reached the desired ﬂavor intensity (about 10 to 12 minutes). Remove from heat, cool slightly, then strain through a cheesecloth or ﬁne strainer and refrigerate.

64 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Photos by Anthony Mair

Mise en Place: Cinnamon Syrup

NATIONAL NEWSROOM

Where Are They Now?

If you’re looking for the biggest players in the Wall Street mess, most of them are right where we left them By Max Abelson Have you ever noticed,” the chairman of Citigroup, Richard D. Parsons, asked The Observer on Nov. 15, “that in the NFL, or in the NBA, or in Major League Baseball, this guy was a failure at Cleveland, and then he becomes the coach in Houston? These guys just move around from one team to another. Why is that? Because there isn’t a very deep pool of skilled talent that exists. “And so, too, for a lot of financial stuff: Not everybody who’s walking up and down Fifth Avenue at noon is capable of running a derivatives book,” he went on, voice low, sitting in the 57th Street offices of the firm Providence Equity, where he’s a senior adviser. “It takes a certain amount of skill and knowledge to be in that business.” By now, the idea that Wall Street’s cast of characters would have changed just because of a global financial crisis is considered quaint, as Parsons’ short laugh when asked about it showed. “Every time we stumble and fall we think we’re the first ones to do it,” he said. “Like, ‘Oh, the world is going to melt down!’ Well, it didn’t melt down. In fact, you can still go down to the corner and get a pizza.” Finance is still finance, and the bankers are still bankers. And yet most of the what-happenedto-them-after-the-crisis look-backs, even the really interesting ones, give the sense that most of the executives who led the financial system to the precipice have faded into shadows. It’s true that there are enigmas, like Joe Cassano, the former AIG credit default swap kingpin, and a few retirees, but nearly everyone else carries on. When the players have moved, they haven’t moved far. Bear Stearns’ mortgages head Tom Marano, for example, is the CEO of mortgage operations at GMAC, now called Ally Financial. The Lehman chief Dick Fuld is doing “executive strategic consulting,” and his communications head, Andrew Gowers, is BP’s head of media. Even Osman Semerci, Merrill’s fixedincome chief, responsible for increasing subprime exposure by about $50 billion in a single year, is a CEO, of the hedge fund giant Duet Group. Two recent AIG ex-CEOs, Bob Willumstad and Ed Liddy, are at private-equity firms, and a third, Martin Sullivan, is a deputy chair-

man at a major insurer. Top Treasury ofﬁcials have landed at Bridgewater, GE Capital and PIMCO. Fannie’s old CEO Daniel Mudd leads the $44 billion Fortress Investment Group, and Freddie’s Richard Syron sits on the board of the biotechnology behemoth Genzyme. Still, any then-and-now tally of Wall Street is bound to be incomplete for two reasons. For one thing, a focus on the main American banks meant leaving out foreigners such as Barclays, Deutsche and UBS, and also big U.S. privateequity houses and ﬁrms such as the risk manager Black Rock, not to mention mortgage giants and hedge funds. For another, the important thing to know these days isn’t necessarily that it’s the same players on Wall Street, but that it’s the same game. As the G20 summit meeting in Seoul, South Korea, closed earlier this month, Reuters quietly reported that the world’s largest banks, the ones that would be considered too big to fail, “won a reprieve of at least a year” on measures that would require systemically important institutions to rein in risk. Divisions between regulators and bank

lobbying “led to the softening of the capital rules,” the wire report said, “and put off ﬁnal decisions about liquidity standards.” At that conference, the Citi chief Vikram Pandit complained that the new global banking rules known as Basel III are overly strict. A day before Pandit published those feelings in the Financial Times, as MIT’s Simon Johnson points out, a Nobel laureate and more than a dozen top economists wrote a letter to that paper explaining why the rules aren’t strict enough. Back at home, meanwhile, some efforts to soften Dodd-Frank’s regulations have been quiet, like the 510 meetings with lobbyists since July, according to a Los Angeles Times tally, but others aren’t. Spencer Bachus, the Republican expected to replace Barney Frank as House Financial Services Committee chair, wrote about the “doubtful” beneﬁts of the so-called Volcker Rule’s ban against proprietary trading. Even if the ban stands, though, banks have been saying this fall that they can sidestep it because of a loophole for what’s known as principal investments, like Lehman’s leveraged multibillion-

dollar takeover of the Archstone real estate trust in 2007. Banks such as Morgan Stanley have announced that certain proprietary teams will be spun off, though that would be unnecessary if Dodd-Frank’s rules are interpreted loosely, as Bachus is encouraging. So are the dadaist old days back? Just before Halloween, two firms called Phoenix Capital and Taylor-DeJongh announced that they had started the first Washington-Baghdad financial services firm. (Iraq, their press release said, is “a potential major oil and gas play.”) A few days later, CNBC reported that Goldman might pay out compensation before the year’s end, because of 2011 income tax rates. After that, The New York Times said bonuses and overall compensation will both be up this year. “Are people who once earned staggering sums going to earn nonstaggering sums going forward? No,” Parsons explained on Nov. 15. The next day, the New York State comptroller released a report saying Wall Street will earn around $19 billion in 2010. That would make it Wall Street’s fourth-best year ever. Chart continued on Page 70

JPMorgan

dubbed by The Journal “The Golden Boy of Wall STreeT”

CeO JaMie diMOn

CFO MiChael Cavanagh

goldMan sachs “Throw him,” This monTh’s Hustler ediTor’s noTe says, “in jail”

CeO llOyd blankFein

said To have his own four seasons banqueTTe

dimon’s colleague since The early 1990s

viCe ChairMan JiMMy lee

head of Treasury & securiTies services

investMent bank CO-head steve blaCk vice chairman, buT will leave nexT year

“i Think ThaT’s very unforTunaTe To have on email,” he Told sen. carl levin abouT monTag’s famous “shiTTy” line

CFO david viniar

he and dimon lefT ciTi in The 90s afTer a dance-floor squabble wiTh sir derycK maughan

CO-president and CO-COO gary COhn sole presidenT and coo

investMent bank CO-head bill winters on The uK’s commission on The banKing indusTry

paid $460,000 for a horse in 2005 named i sho spensive

“we did noT ‘beT againsT our clienTs’”

CO-president and CO-COO JOn winkelried ranching in colorado

The dealmaKer who memorably Told a dying bear sTearns, “The numBer’S $2”

was said To noT geT along wiTh dimon

investMent banking head dOug braunstein cfo

“a seamless major domo,” The times’ landon Thomas Jr. called him

seCretary tO the bOard JOhn F.w. rOgers

senT The email ThaT called goldman’s own deal “shiTTy”

seCurities CO-head tOM MOntag presidenT of global banKing and marKeTs aT banK of america

November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven

National Newsroom Wall Street Continued from Page 69

Managing direCtOr OF struCtured prOduCts grOup trading JOsh birnbauM

Managing direCtOr OF struCtured prOduCts grOup trading MiChael swensOn nicKnamed cruz missile

head OF MOrtgages dan sparks

seCurities CO-head harvey sChwartz

spending Time wiTh his family and in his communiTy, he said

sTarTed his own hedge fund, Tilden parK capiTal

“we’ve clearly losT The baTTle for The consumer’s ear”

paulson reporTedly Tried To arrange a marriage beTween lehman and goldman Through him

“regreT, To me, means someThing you feel you did wrong. and i don’T have ThaT”

said To have losT The firm $9 billion because of morTgage beTs

“clearly we made misTakes”

CO-president JaMes p. gOrMan

ChairMan and CeO JOhn MaCk

Managing direCtOr hOwie hubler

ceo

chairman “ThaT’s a shiTsandwich,” he reporTedly said of wachovia during merger TalKs, “even i can’T geT my big mouTh around”

worKed wiTh macK for decades, lefT in 2002, Then was broughT bacK in 2008

a secreT merger wiTh lehman was discussed in his Townhouse, which has a doorman

Morgan stanley

spearheaded The firm’s massive beT againsT housing

advising morTgage lenders wiTh his loan value group

s sec enforcemenT chief under reagan

pasT employers include fannie mae, sen. Joseph lieberman, crediT suisse, and burson-marsTeller

advised The u.s. governmenT on The aig, fannie and freddie bailouTs

reporTedly TooK clienT calls in The delivery room during her firsT son’s birTh

CO-president zOe Cruz CO-president walid ChaMMah

ChieF risk OFFiCer kenneth deregt

execuTive vice presidenT

Bear stearns

“no, i’m aT peace wiTh ThaT,” he said abouT his performance aT bear, “iT’s Time To move on”

was effectiVely running the firm By its end

was aT a 10-day bridge TournamenT in nashville as bear’s hedge funds collapsed

prEsidEnt and cOO Bart mcdadE iii CeO alan sChwartz

CeO JiMMy Cayne

execuTive vice presidenT aT guggenheim parTners

said To be playing bridge

spent $1.22 million renoVating his office

cEO JOhn thain

lion for three months at the firm

ExEcutivE vicE prEsidEnt pEtEr Kraus

ceo of cit, the trouBled lender

ceo of allianceBernstein

citigroup

execuTive vice presidenT sent a letter to his son’s houston school complaining aBout a “gay female coach” and a teacher’s “leftist inVectiVe”

got thain to accept the Bank of america merger

vicE-chairman and cOO ahmass FaKahany

incOmE chiEF Osman sEmErci

prEsidEnt GrEG FlEminG

inVesting in restaurants, like marea

ceo of the hedge fund giant duet group

inVestment management president at morgan stanley joined in earlY 2008 from the carlYle group

“as long as the music is plaYing, You’ve got to get up and dance”

Bp’s head of media

aiG Financial prOducts chiEF JOE cassanO

CEO Vikram Pandit

CEO ChuCk PrinCE senior counselor at global strategY firm albright stonebridge

became general counsel just as the merrill deal was wrapping up

sued bY cuomo along with lewis

GlObal bankinG hEad nEd kElly

was paid $126 million for 8 Years, but had no main responsibilitY for what happened to the firm, he saYs

saYs outside consultants pushed citi to get into collateralized debt obligations

negotiated the terms of the merrill merger

treasury

former goldman banker who became the bailout chieftan

GlObal COrPOratE and inVEStmEnt bankinG brian mOynihan

CfO JOE PriCE president of consumer and small business banking

ceo

paulson had wilson’s harvard business roommate, president bush, call to ask him to join

adViSEr tO thE trEaSury SECrEtary kEndriCk wilSOn iii blackrock vice-chairman

SEniOr ExECutiVE GrEG Curl president of singapore’s temasek holdings

pimco’s managing director and head of new investment initiatives former goldman vice chairman

a frequent drY heaver, according to his memoir

trEaSury SECrEtary hEnry PaulSOn joined johns hopkins universitY paul h. nitze school of advanced international studies last Year

other goV

aSSiStant SECrEtary fOr PubliC affairS miChElE daViS

ChiEf Of Staff Jim wilkinSOn

undErSECrEtary fOr dOmEStiC finanCE bOb StEEl

partner at the pr firm brunswick group

managing partner at brunswick group

ceo of wachovia, then new York citY deputY maYor for economic development

70 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

started the hedge fund tegean

partner at priVate equity firm clayton, duBilier & rice

bank of america

feuded openlY with pandit

online records connect him to an obscure texas firm called forest ridge capital

“i was right 70 percent of the time”

fEdEral rESErVE Chairman alan GrEEnSPan has advised deutsche bank, pimco, and john paulson’s hedge fund

CEO kEn lEwiS

demoted, then fired, and now bank of america’s president of global wealth and investment management

said to be traveling and “spending time with his familY

encouraged mitsubishi’s deal with morgan stanleY

a point-man on tarp

undErSECrEtary fOr intErnatiOnal affairS daVid mCCOrmiCk

aSSiStant SECrEtary fOr finanCial inStitutiOnS daVid naSOn

senior leader at the hedge fund bridgewater

ge capital’s senior vice president and global regulatorY management and compliance officer

shY, bearded, bald and verY powerful, his 2009 time person of the Year profile explains

fEdEral rESErVE Chair bEn bErnankE

attorneY general cuomo sued him for fraud, alleging the bank hid merrill lYnch’s losses from investors during the merger

CfO SalliE krawChECk

former goldman deputY cfo who spearheaded treasurY’s a.i.g. efforts

trEaSury COntraCtOr dan JEStEr

took oVer the firm after the Bailout, defended a luxury retreat for executiVes the following month

cEO Edward liddy

aSSiStant SECrEtary fOr finanCial Stability nEEl kaShkari

white house iraq group member under karl rove

previouslY worked for fannie mae and dick armeY

CO-CEO Of Citi markEtS and bankinG thOmaS mahEraS

cEO stanlEy O’nEal

partner at his priVate equity firm Brysam gloBal partners

deputy chairman at insurer willis group

counselor at investment bank centerview partners

played a lot of golf alone as merrill tanked

cEO BOB willumstad

cEO martin sullivan

SEniOr adViSEr bOb rubin

brieflY made cfo, then vice chairman, and is now chairman of global banking

banK of america board member

on the Board at alcoa; said to Be playing squash and golf “they Blinked!” he said when told aBout the Bailout

called aig’s mortgage exposure “manageaBle”

aiG

led the secretiVe, highly-paid unit that sold trillions of dollars of protection on suBprime mortgages

said to Be liVing in london or connecticut

CO-president rObert sCully

cfo

cOrpOratE cOmmunicatiOns hEad andrEw GOwErs

executiVe Vice president at lampert’s sears holding corp.

prime exposure By aBout $50 Billion in a single year”

FinanCial institutiOns grOup head ruth pOrat

had left an editorship at the ft oVer “strategic differences”

a fuld loyalist who was chauffeured daily from greenwich in eddie lampert’s old denali

ExEcutivE vicE prEsidEnt scOtt FrEidhEim

head of gloBal inVestment Banking at Barclays

put in charge of risk management, a suBject he didn’t know much aBout

complained this month about lack of warmth for bankers in new York

is in line for The no. 2 Job aT The sTaTe deparTmenT

vice chairman

invEstmEnt BanKinG GlOBal hEad sKip mcGEE

started riVer Birch capital with three lehman Veterans; partnered with roger altman’s inVestment Bank eVercore

COO tOM nides

ChieF legal OFFiCer gary lynCh

CFO COlM kelleher

merriLL Lynch

sTarTed her own hedge fund, voras capiTal

an aYn rand devotee, like greenspan

SEC Chairman ChriS COx partner at bingham mccutchen law firm, and its consulting subsidiarY

Dealing With a Touchy Subject By Ted Rall “Don’t touch my junk!” Will this be the battle cry of the next American Revolution? If you think about it, it’s amazing. Why this? But thinking doesn’t have anything to do with it. There’s a good reason, which we’ll get to. “This,” of course, is the intrusive new security-screening regimen at 68 major U.S. airports, including McCarran International Airport, where the wholebody image scanners actually have been in place since September 2008. You can walk through one of the new “backscatter” body-image X-ray scanners, suck up 2.4 microrems of radiation, and live with the knowledge that a high-res version of your nude ﬂabby body is being stored on some government database so that the Palin administration will be able to kill you for food and use your cyborg doppelganger as a slave laborer in the living hell that will be the year 2015. Or you can choose the pat-down. But think twice. By all accounts, the pat-down procedure is thorough. Extremely thorough. “I didn’t really expect her to touch my vagina through my pants,” Kaya McLaren, an elementary school teacher from Washington state told The New York Times about her experience at Dallas/ Fort Worth International Airport. What prompted this feel-up? “The body scanner detected a tissue and a hair band in her pocket,” The Times reported.

Verily, the end times draw nigh. The New York Times is talking dirty. A visit to the Transportation Security Administration’s official blog (blog.tsa. gov) furthers the impression that the Obama administration has jumped the security shark. One citizen asks: “Is touching the genitals a mandatory or discretionary part of the pat-down? Will the screener give notice and ask for consent prior to touching the breasts, vagina, penis or scrotum?” Another asks: “Can they spread the buttocks to feel if something is concealed between them? Can they move the penis or testicles aside to see if something is strapped to a man’s leg? Can they lift up breasts to feel underneath them?” There’s something terribly wrong when a federal government website gets too racy for online parental control software. CNN’s Rosemary Fitzpatrick reported that an airport screener “ran her hands around her breasts, over her stomach, buttocks and her inner thighs, and briefly touched her crotch.” In Charlotte, N.C., a flight attendant was ordered to remove and display her prosthetic breast. It’s happening to guys, too. Men wearing baggy pants report TSA personnel, some of whom are convicted rapists and child molesters, sticking their hands down their trousers and ferreting out their naughty bits. In a bit of surrealism recalling my “Al Kidda” cartoon (in which terrorists take advantage of the fact that children aren’t required to show ID to board a plane) there are now YouTube videos showing little kids getting felt up by the TSA. TSA workers at Miami International Airport got caught passing around printed scans of a man they deemed to fall short in the male endowment department. A 61-year-old cancer survivor from Michigan wound up “humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers” at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The oafs broke the seal on his urostomy bag. There was, naturally, no apology. Remember the good old days of the early 2000s, when the only thing the TSA did was announce their favorite color of the day? Of all the indignities inflicted upon the flying public since 9/11, the radiation/molestation combo strikes me as relatively minor.

Is this the next step in airport security measures?

Continued on Page 74

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November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven 71

National Newsroom

Giving Thanks 1

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ACROSS 1 Mediterranean fruit 4 “Save me ___” 9 Whistle blowers 13 Fall guy 16 Tiny bit 17 Less bright 19 It’s 85 miles S of Lillehammer 20 Mr. Geller 21 THANKS 23 Dr. Livingstone, for one 24 “Confound this ___!” (“King Kong,” 1933) 25 Like talent, perhaps 26 THANKS 29 Forward, a name; backward, an organ 30 Receiver’s pickup: abbr. 32 Hard-rock center? 33 Oath 34 Let out 36 Like Yeats 40 Tee add-on? 42 Rapper-turned-actor 43 THANKS 45 Weasel’s cousin? 46 Wayne vehicles 48 Sticky stuff 49 THANKS 52 Emulated Emmy winners 54 Self-styled authority 55 Not 45 Down, in tennis 60 Dickensian cry 61 Part of A.M.E.: abbr. 63 Start of a state capital

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72 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

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The Death of the Phone Call By Clive Thompson

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By Merl Reagle

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122 Syrian city 123 “The Blue Dahlia” star 124 Dr. colleagues 125 Amazon zappers 126 Part of a setup 127 Easily bruised item? DOWN 1 THANKS 2 Hand ___ (congratulate) 3 Architect Frank 4 USN VIP 5 Chop follower 6 Ticklish doll 7 Baseball family name 8 Earth, to Caesar 9 Kate, in “Titanic” 10 POW’s plan 11 Bakery bagful 12 ___ voce 13 Do 14 Something exciting 15 Pen denizens 16 Way to address a friend, in Rouen 18 Deli buys 21 Threat to Bambi 22 Salad green 27 “One planet” religion 28 Ersatz: abbr. 31 Mazatlan Mrs. 35 Yarn 37 Imbue 38 Wall brackets 39 Ranch bunch 41 Words to Brutus 44 Bro

45 Given a ranking 46 At the location itself 47 Info on board-game boxes 50 Expander 51 To a certain extent 52 Skip ___ 53 Nab 54 Playwright Harold 56 WWII arena 57 THANKS 58 Beethoven’s “Für ___” 59 Tour info 62 Dance-hall instruments 64 Used as a booster 67 Pine ﬁnish? 69 Meter feed 70 Misanthropes 73 A son of Willy Loman 76 Cold and damp 79 Where to get off 81 Other-planets question 83 Diva’s delivery 85 Must 86 Watcher’s cry 87 Accomplish: slang 88 Dressing choice 89 Lunar craft 90 Starbuck’s boss 93 “La Cage ___ Folles” 94 Verbal noun 96 Tribulation 99 Emulated Taylor Swift 101 Craftiness 102 Frasier’s dog 104 ___ Romeo 105 Role models 107 Inscribed pillar 110 Thanksgiving treats 111 Type of school 112 Dog food brand 113 Suction starter 115 Hidden obstacle 119 “My boy” Answer to last week’s Bonus Message: The numbers in the message referred to numbered squares in the completed grid. In keeping with the “enter” theme of the puzzle, the letters in the message read: “You unlock this door with the key of imagination,” which is a famous intro line from “The Twilight Zone.”

!!! VOLUME 16 IS HERE !!! To order Merl’s crossword books, visit www. sunday crosswords.com.

My phone bills are shrinking. Not, unfortunately, in cost. I mean they’re getting shorter. I recently found an old bill from a decade ago; it was fully 15 pages long, because back then I was making a ton of calls—about 20 long-distance ones a day. Today my bills are a meager two or three pages, at most. Odds are this has happened to you, too. According to Nielsen, the average number of mobile phone calls we make is dropping every year, after hitting a peak in 2007. And our calls are getting shorter: In 2005 they averaged three minutes in length; now they’re almost half that. We’re moving, in other words, toward a fascinating cultural transition: the death of the telephone call. This shift is particularly stark among the young. Some college students I know go days without talking into their smartphones at all. I was recently hanging out with a twenty-something entrepreneur who fumbled around for 30 seconds trying to find the option that actually let him dial someone. This generation doesn’t make phone calls, because everyone is in constant, lightweight contact in so many other ways: texting, chatting, and social-network messaging. And we don’t just have more options than we used to, we have better ones. These new forms of communication have exposed the fact that the voice call is badly designed. It deserves to die. Consider: If I suddenly decide I want to dial you up, I have no way of knowing whether you’re busy, and you have no idea why I’m calling. We have to open Schrödinger’s box every time, having a conversation to figure out whether it’s OK to have a conversation. Plus, voice calls are emotionally high-bandwidth, which is why it’s so weirdly exhausting to be interrupted by one. The telephone, in other words, doesn’t provide any information about status, so we are constantly interrupting one another. The other tools at our disposal are more polite. Instant messaging lets us detect whether our friends are busy without bugging them, and texting lets us ping one another asynchronously. For all the hue about becoming an “always on” society, we’re actually moving away from the demand that everyone be available immediately. In fact, the newfangled media that’s currently supplanting the phone call might be the only thing that helps preserve it. Most people I know coordinate important calls in advance using e-mail, text messaging, or chat (r u busy?). An unscheduled call that rings on my phone fails the conversational Turing test: It’s almost certainly junk, so I ignore it. (Unless it’s you, Mom!) Indeed, I predict that as this sort of hybrid coordination evolves, it will produce a steep power law in the way we use voice calls. We’ll still make fewer, as most of our former phone time will migrate to other media. But the calls we do make will be longer, reserved for the sort of deep discussion that the medium does best. Our handsets could also use a serious redesign. If they showed our status—are you free to talk?—it would vastly streamline the act of calling. And as video-chatting becomes more common, we might see the growth of persistent telepresence, leaving video-chat open all day so we can speak to a spouse or colleague spontaneously. Or, to put it another way, we’ll call less but talk more. This article first appeared in Wired.

National Newsroom

Personal Finance Airport security Continued from Page 71

I’m still scarred by the sight of the young Iraq War vet in front of me at Kansas City International Airport security. Both of his legs had been lost in an IED blast in the Middle East. Instead of respect or a free pass at the metal detector, TSA goons repeatedly grilled and humiliated him about the titanium in his body. Contrast this with Iran. Yes, Iran. As at security checkpoints throughout the country, I was waved past the checkpoint at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport in August as soon as I presented my U.S. passport. As guests, foreigners are not subject to most bag searches. Not even citizens of the Great Satan. Don’t touch our special parts, but feel free to poke around our frontal lobes. If Richard Nixon had been accused of listening to every American’s phone calls and reading their mail, there would have been riots. But that’s exactly what the National Security Agency has been doing since 9/11. Bush started it; Obama made it ofﬁcial. They’re reading your e-mail and listening to your phone calls and tracking your bank statements. It’s a fact. And no one cares. Personally, I’d rather have the government touch my junk than rape my brain. Now that they’re feeling up our privates at the airport—with, truth be told, considerably more justiﬁcation than the NSA has for reading your Facebook status updates—the American people are freaking out. Which should come as little surprise to Obama’s pet louts at the TSA. The United States, after all, was founded by Puritans. The folks we’re celebrating this week were religious fanatics, prudes, crazy repressed and so far off the charts that they were too uptight to get along with the British. Immigration has helped loosen us up, but that’s still our national culture. I had hoped that when the revolution came, it would be about economic injustice or torture or racism. But, to paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, you don’t revolt with the revolutionaries you wish you had. If this is the beginning of the end, so be it. Say it all together: Don’t touch my junk!

Gold buyers and sellers should beware of shady dealers By Kathy Kristof, Tribune Media Services

Giving Thanks By Merl Reagle

A B E A T

C A T C H

F O R B E I N G T H E R E

P U T O V E R

I T A L I A N

L A N D E R S

F I R E

M O N A M I

I T T O

A H A B

T A L E S O L

G A S E A T E DU L L E R H EMEMOR Y RN YOUR E Y D S A S I R I S H D V A NC E R U E F ORWA D P UND I T E P I S C D E I N E E D E D B A T S I N I N E S ME L F OR T H E R I F S OA S F OP S E GE R T A I UDD YO L D P I D E A F OR L I AM A L E E E L S S P

R O S B E A H E A T I T U S T H OA O T D E OR N S A L P O

L I P O

74 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

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Howard Wolfe watched gold prices soar for several years before he ﬁnally decided to jump. Last year, the Mississippi retiree answered an advertisement for a company selling gold bullion. He wired $20,000 when the metal was retailing for $1,100. As of last week, gold was selling for more than $1,300. But Wolfe was not celebrating. The gold he bought was never delivered, and he can’t get the company to answer his calls. “I liked the company because they seemed kind of low-key,” Wolfe said. “They’re still low-key. Really low-key. I’m trying to ﬁnd the rock they’re hiding under.” As the price of gold surpassed one record after another over the last two years, all too many investors discovered the dark underbelly of gold sales. Scams proliferated as unsophisticated buyers poured into the market to take advantage of rising prices. The phones at Wolfe’s gold dealer, Superior Gold Group in Santa Monica, Calif., have been disconnected. The company has an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau, largely as the result of 44 unanswered complaints. A precious metals trade group said it received complaints from individuals who invested more than $170,000 in bullion that Superior never delivered. The chance of getting the investors’ money back? Negligible. Gold buyers are not the only ones who should beware. Those seeking to sell their gold are also at risk. Jerry Jordan, managing editor of the Examiner, a weekly newspaper in Beaumont, Texas, spent the last eight months conducting sting operations on traveling gold buyers. These itinerant pitchmen and pitchwomen, who set up shop in local hotel ballrooms, advertise that they’ll pay “top dollar” for jewelry and coins. Jordan noticed that the traveling purchasers often targeted areas hit hardest by the sour economy. It was where consumers were likely to be the most desperate. He borrowed a pocketful of rare coins when one of these road shows passed through town and went to see what he’d be offered. Jordan was told that a coin worth $13,000 would fetch $250. Another worth $10,000 got a bid of $60—not exactly the “top dollar” that was promised. Jordan has since attended traveling gold-buying shows in four states and written a series of awardwinning exposés. The short version: “They routinely offer pennies on the dollar,” he said. “They have an internal motto: If the customer is not educated, do not educate them.” Mike Fuljenz, president of Universal Coin and Bullion in Beaumont, says most dealers are honest. But shady dealers can take in millions overnight. It’s a classic case of buyer beware.

“Just because you see an advertisement on your favorite network doesn’t mean that the company has been vetted,” Fuljenz said. “It doesn’t mean that the company is legitimate or that they’ll give you a good deal. You have to do your homework.” What must you know before you buy gold? Spot price: The best way to buy gold is to buy common coins, such as the American Gold Eagle,

As the price of gold surpassed one record after another over the last two years, all too many investors discovered the dark underbelly of gold sales. which sell for 3 percent to 5 percent over the spot price of gold. A recent spot price was $1,334, so consumers should not have paid more than about $1,400 an ounce at that point. Better Business Bureau rating: Wolfe would have saved himself a world of hurt had he checked out his dealer’s rating before he invested. You can find a rating on a company, if it’s available, by going to the organization’s national site at bbb.org. Click on “Check out a business or charity.” Dealer affiliations: Is the dealer a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild or the American Numismatic Association? If so, the dealer must abide by a code of ethics and can be kicked out of the group if it fails to resolve consumer disputes. History: How long has your gold dealer been in business? Many of the fly-by-night operators launched their businesses in the last couple of years as interest in buying gold soared. You could have problems with any company, but dealers with long histories are at least likely to have a trail of complaints if they operate unethically. “If you don’t know a lot about gold,” Fuljenz said, “you should at least know a lot about your gold dealer.” 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.

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Arts & Entertainment aRT

Immortal Images A photo exhibit is history-in-the-making with the Hoover Dam bypass bridge

By T.R. Witcher Photographer Jamey Stillings ﬁrst saw the bridge by chance. It was spring 2009, and he had been scouting locations for a photo project on solar energy. Stillings was instantly captivated, and it’s easy to see why: Nearly 2,000 feet long, the Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Bridge soars almost 900 feet above the Colorado River, a mere 1,500 feet from the Hoover Dam. The bridge tapped into his own fascination with “technology and man-altered landscapes.” As soon as he saw it, he wanted to be in on creating the historical record—in shaping how future generations remembered the bridge. But recording history was no easy feat. It required that Stillings make numerous trips to the bridge from his home in Santa Fe, N.M.—he worked more than 35 days and nights on the project. He had to pay permitting fees by the hour to be on the site, and sometimes he was there for hours, waiting for the right shot. Capturing spectacular aerial shots meant renting a helicopter at $500 an hour. Stillings produced more than 16,000 exposures during his eight trips to the bridge (some of which were displayed in Vegas Seven’s April 22 issue). His new exhibit at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, The Bridge at Hoover Dam, displays 37 images from all angles. In the aerial shots, the bridge and the dam become small toys you could scarcely imagine existing in the real world. Up close, the bridge, along with its support columns and cables and girders, is a brute—infrastructure as shock and awe. Stillings’ lucid photographs capture both the strength and the delicate poetry of the structure. You absolutely must see them in person. Some shots are particularly arresting. “Arizona Arch Segment” was taken at dusk; the construction lights wink like stars, draping the bridge in a silver, almost angelic glow. “Bridge at Nevada Hairpin” is a wide-angle shot of the bridge as it anchors into the rocks of the Black Canyon; it’s as dramatic and beautiful as a landscape painting. Tightly controlled access from any number of private contractors and public agencies meant Stillings was unable to get close enough to shoot portraits of the workers, which would have given the project an extra dimension of intimacy. Yearning to see the men’s faces, you instead must settle for seeing them only as worker ants. “Ten Climbing” is an incredible, vertiginous shot of ironworkers scaling up the arch. But perhaps the most striking photo is “On the Deck,” a closeup of the arch at the top of its crest and the roadway above, upon which walks a lone worker with pail in hand. The juxtaposition of giant erector set and tiny man is all the more powerful because the worker appears so nonchalant, just another day at the ofﬁce, like walking across the Colorado River on a thin ribbon of concrete suspended a thousand feet above the ground is nothing. The Hoover Dam, meanwhile, has never looked better.

A photo of the Colorado River bridge taken on June 30, 2009.

Continued on Page 78 November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven 77

Arts & Entertainment

Stage

Mysterious Milestone

Teater Review

Insurgo Theater’s The Crucible

8,000 shows later, the original permanent Cirque du Soleil show continues to confound and amaze

By Rosalie Miletich-Ellis

On the evening of Oct. 18, once the audience had been seated—including those who were led by Mystere’s mischief-making clown, Brian Le Petit, to take the scenic route to their seats—the lights dimmed in TI’s Mystere Theatre for the 8,000th time, and the show began. It was Christmas Day 1993 that La Vache a Lait first sounded her ancient horn of fertility to announce the birth of Mystere, and to mark a new era in Las Vegas entertainment. The feather boa, previously reigning supreme, suddenly found itself outclassed by the first Cirque du Soleil show ever to be performed in a permanent theater. Each yellow female bungee artist costume has more than 2,500 sequins. Mystere’s custom-built stage would bring the quality shows that have a permanent home on the Strip. Yet, despite of Vegas entertainment to new heights: high-bars, trapeze and bungee acts, Chinese poles and trampolines. And new lows: The newer Cirque creations and bigger, more elaborate stages (O’s is comprised of a 1.5 million gallon pool) Mystere remains a stage was built to bottom-out, accommodating an underworld local favorite. scene and some good old-fashioned ladder-kicking slapstick. It’s the intimacy of Mystere’s older and smaller theater that With Mystere, artistic director Guy Laliberte ́ and director enthusiasts extol when defending it against larger and newer Franco Dragone created a performance of abstract brilliance shows. With a mere 120-by-70 foot stage and only 1,629 seats, that stretches imaginations in a way the Folies Bergere never to sit in the theater is to sit amid the performers—they fly could. They melded the aesthetics of contemporary culture with above, fall below, sneak behind and even squeeze between the traditional circus acts to explore the mystery and miracle of audience. The experience is akin to stepping into a live painting life’s origin. The result: a collage of gravity-defying stunts, feats where classic meets mythic meets circus. of strength, music, song, dance and comedy. It’s a fantasyland of bizarre and thought-provoking images. The big bang shares the stage with original sin, archangels, freaks of nature, sperm Mystere Theatre at TI, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Sat-Wed, $60-$99, 2-for-$99 personified, the praying mantis and large, obnoxious babies. specials and dinner specials available, 894-7722, Cirque Week is Nov. Nearly 17 years later, Mystere is just one of seven Cirque 29-Dec. 5, which includes special show packages, events and more.

and the counterpoint, from the air, this tiny little arch, it looks so delicate.” So how does he get these shots? Sure, Stillings has a fantastic Canon DSLR, a bag full of lenses (he used a dozen on this project) and a tripod. But his technique is mostly Colorado River Bridge construction, May 2009. a matter of paying careful attention to light, to extreme Dam photos contrast ranges, to composition. Oh, and Continued from Page 77 wind. And moving objects. “Even though I was dealing with what one would consider an inanimate, imStillings says both structures really shine mobile object, to take really good images from the air, where you can see “the forat the right time of day requires attention mal relationship between the completed to detail through the whole process, from arch of the bridge and the arch of the shooting to the imaging work at the end dam. And at the same time … the massiveness and the complexity of the bridge, to the printing.” 78 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

He hopes to take the exhibit on the road when it finishes its run at the Springs Preserve in January—and then to try to publish a book. But bringing his images to Las Vegas first was especially important. “I wanted to share with the people involved with the bridge and the communities of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada,” he says. “That had been a goal I put out at the first of the year.” Stillings is thankfully undeterred at the prospect of all those amateur shooters out there trying to capture their piece of the bridge. “What I found early on is there was something in the subject of the bridge that was allowing me to pull together three decades of experience into something where I could take my particular skill set and apply it very successfully to this subject,” he says. “It felt like a fit.” 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, through Jan. 23, Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd., 822-7700.

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible during the era of McCarthy hearings, when accusations of communist ties ran rampant. This play, set around the Salem witch trials in 1692, has become a classic statement against fear-mongering and mob behavior. Insurgo’s production stays true to the period and features several notable performances. Ernie Curcio (as farmer John Proctor) seethes with passion and rage as the perfect foil for his icy wife. Breon Jenay (as Abigail Williams) plays the central instigator, and carries a glossy air of confident, almost flirtatious, manipulation. Candice McCallum shines as the slave Tituba, using a thick Barbados accent and the movement of a woman worn down by physical toil. Dave Surratt (Reverend Hale) expands his emotional range from previous performances as his character undergoes a change of heart. Sam Craner (aged significantly as Giles Corey) strays into caricature with a down-home accent and waggling eyebrows. With a spare set and plain costumes, the focus stays unflinchingly upon the characters’ emotional turmoil. We’re glued to Proctor’s struggle to earn his wife’s forgiveness, and Abigail’s stubborn aim to send people to their deaths for her benefit. Director Daneal Doerr uses the small space effectively, utilizing the atrium and central aisle to spread the action nearly into the laps of the audience. A projector shoots images of mob scenes and general destruction, possibly to distract the audience from set changes. However, it may be an unnecessary frill for a production so visually simple. With subject matter centered around mass hysteria, penitent husbands and possessed teenage girls, Doerr effectively steers the show away from overwrought melodrama, instead guiding her actors toward subdued emotional dialogue. Full disclosure: Rosalie Miletich-Ellis has performed in Insurgo’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Salome. The Crucible at Insurgo Theater, 900 E. Karen Ave, Suite D-114, $20, 8 p.m., Nov. 19-Dec. 4, 771-7331.

Photo by Al Seib

By Chantal Corcoran

Arts & Entertainment

Reading

Sites to see By Geoﬀ Carter

EXCELSIOR! (ourvaluedcustomers.net) Recently I gave in to one of the more persistent devils of my nature—the eternal nerd—and I began feeding it comic books. This means biweekly visits to the comic book store. I pop in, get my funnybooks, talk gossip, and leave ... which is why I’ve never seen the real, scary hard-core nerds, like the ones who populate Our Valued Customers. In this hilariously funny blog, an anonymous comic book store employee and cartoonist calling himself MRTIM provides a visual record of the “creeps, crazies, jerks and ﬁghters” who visit his place of business and manage to distinguish themselves. My three current favorites: the sensitive sort who admired a plastic Thor hammer and wished it were real so he could “take it to work and lay waste to everyone in the whole hospital”; the patriot who declared, “Fuck Superman. I’m so sick of everyone kissing his ass”; and the “man of discriminating taste” who demanded to be taken to the shop’s “horror nightmare fairy-tale erotica section.” Comics! Your best entertainment value!

MISTAKES WERE MADE (archive.mistakereports.com) Mistake Reports neatly illustrates Mel Brooks’ take on the difference between comedy and tragedy: “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.” Every day, people list their mistakes on this site using a form that allows you to put your blunder in context: You’re asked to explain your mistake, to classify it (personal, professional or existential), to summarize any advice you might have picked up in the process, and to make a final assessment of your error. (“I regret this mistake”; “I enjoyed this mistake”; “I will probably repeat it.”) The daily haul is a litany of woe and despair—bad first dates, poor planning, nonlethal injuries—and it will lull you into a false sense of superiority that begs to be punctured by a lapse of coordination or judgment.

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(sleeveface.com) The kids are doing this thing. They’re going into used record stores, buying LPs and taking pictures of themselves with the album sleeves held in front of their faces in such a way as to achieve a kind of reverse trompe l’loeil. (Put another way: “Dude, check it, I’m Carly Simon!”) Admittedly, the Sleeveface phenomenon has been happening for a while now—long enough for someone to compile an entire book of Sleeveface photos— but there’s still some treasure to be mined at this funny blog. There’s even some Al B. Sure! Journalist Geoff Carter is a Las Vegas native living in Seattle, land of virtual titillation.

Arts & Entertainment

Music

From Garage Band to Japan

Soundscraper

Author and bar owner P Moss’ newest exploit takes him across the pond

By Jarret Keene

By James P. Reza

Should I trust my eyes upon seeing what looked like fewer than 200 people at The Hold Steady show at the House of Blues a few weeks ago? Where were you when the indie-rock scene needed you, fellow hipsters? The Hold Steady was your last shot at hearing quality indie rock this month, because now the pickings are slim. The smart, sensitive bands have begun hibernating for the winter. Now all that’s left out there, are killer metal bands, Christmas hard-rockers and Roger Waters. Goodness, have you been reading the reviews of Waters’ tour this year in support of an updated The Wall, one of the top ﬁve best-selling rock albums in the history of mankind? They are uniformly stellar and give the spectacle-makers of Cirque du Soleil a run for their money. Forget Michael Jackson; why doesn’t Mandalay Bay demand a Pink Floyd production instead? Emotional and elaborate, Waters’ concert will bestows its joys unto Vegas on Nov. 26 at MGM Grand Garden Arena. No doubt we’re all going to be left “Comfortably Numb” that night. Cough, psychedelic doom-sludgers from Richmond, Va., are coming to town. Relapse Records just released the band’s debut album, Ritual Abuse, a heavy, harrowing, claustrophobic, deeply atmospheric, genuinely frightening slab of aggressive music that makes me fear for the owners of the bar on Nov. 27 at Meatheads (1121 S. Decatur Blvd.). Hope they have insurance for acts of Satan, because this band might not leave the building standing. That’s how sonically catastrophic Cough is. The gloom endures with the savage team-up of the “Darkness Reborn Tour 2010,” featuring the biggest names in modern metal: Enslaved, Dimmu Borgir, Blood Red Throne and Dawn of Ashes. Best of this brutal bunch is Enslaved, a progressive black metal band from Norway that has earned rave reviews since the mid-“aughts.” Once just another mediocre Viking metal act, they began incorporating elements of Pink Floyd-style ambience, punk-rock guitar attack and even Scandinavian folk music. If you enjoy forceful music played smartly and with tons of melodic intent, you will dig this band. In a more theatrical, costumed and fantasy-gothic vein is Dimmu Borgir, also Norwegian, who will likely blow your mind—or at least make you chuckle—with what’s sure to be an elaborate stage show. It’s rare that a metal band offers so much pomp and circumstance, so don’t miss this one at House of Blues on Nov. 30. If that’s too grim for you and maybe you still need to hear upbeat Christmas music, let me remind you that the world’s best symphonic holiday hard-rock band Trans-Siberian Orchestra is performing at Thomas & Mack Center on Nov. 27. Talk about pyrotechnics! Caught a show by this metal orchestra—the brainchild of Scorpions producer Paul O’Neill and Savatage singer Jon Oliva—years ago, and it was incredible, a real treat for the senses. Both Santa and Satan would be proud to see you in attendance at this one.

Black Christmas

P Moss is not normally this giddy. Although he’s often had reason: He’s written screenplays, self-produced a local television show (TV/OD, in the 1990s) and is a published author (Blue Vegas, CityLife Books, 2010). The 58-year-old provocateur is also responsible for the world-infamous From left: Louie “The Letch” Thomas, Rob Ruckus and P Moss. punk rock dive the Double Down Saloon (both full of “lo-fi and horribly underproduced” Bloodcock in Las Vegas and in New York City), and his 7-inch records (a four-song wailer on Las Vegan Darran dream bar, Frankie’s Tiki Room. Wells’ Wood Shampoo label). Oh, and the band’s fourth But even Moss finds his stint as a guitarist and stage member, Annie, a blow-up doll. frontman for the Bloodcocks UK an improbable reality. The transition from bar owner to published author to As Moss tells it, the origins of this upstart Ramonesmeets-Cramps garage trio are typical. In early 2009, he lead singer for a touring garage band reads like, well, a screenplay. “From start to finish, none of it sounds and his ginger-chewing, drum-banging sidekick, Louie real,” Moss says. And yet it is. The tour, secured by “The Letch” Thomas, were sharing a drink. “Wouldn’t the contacts Moss has made with the Japanese garage it be cool if we started a band?” Louie wondered. bands he books at the Double Down, was a success. A short time later, Moss, a music fan—just check the “The people there flipped for us,” Moss says. “By the curated jukeboxes at his bars—but not a musician, bought time we did the last couple shows, people were yelling a guitar in London. Soon after, the two enlisted self‘Where’s Annie?’ before we even hit the stage.” It didn’t proclaimed “band whore” and Vegas scene legend No. 3, hurt that the band screamed naughty chants in Japanese. guitarist Rob Ruckus, whose continuing 16-year stint with Eventually, the band may return to Japan, maybe The Vermin presents plenty of opportunity to practice his play England, but there were and are no plans for shows always entertaining and occasionally nude stage antics. stateside, leaving locals who long for a listen to search Moss scribbled some songs. After an impromptu YouTube and Facebook for tour videos, or eBay for one practice on March 8, 2009, in a Bowery Hotel room of the 7-inchers the band sold on tour. in New York City, up popped the Bloodcocks UK. Fast “We’re not looking to get a record deal or become break to today, and the band is fresh off a 10-day tour of famous,” Moss says. “We just want to have a good time, Japan. Yes, Suntory whiskey was involved. and have the pride of a job well done.” Surprisingly, that’s “There is a gigantic niche for us there,” Moss says, alsomething Moss says he’s just beginning to appreciate. luding not only to Japanese music fans’ love of surf and garage music, but also to the tale that Tokyo’s Shibuya District has the highest concentration of vinyl-selling James P. Reza is a Las Vegas writer and frequent contributor to record stores in the world. Along for the ride was a crate Vegas Seven who drinks with Moss on a regular basis.

Concert Preview

Singer Jeff Brinkman It’s the day after Thanksgiving. You find yourself with a bellyful of leftovers and a house full of visiting family members. You’re wondering how to entertain them (and yourself) without falling into a tourist trap or harshing your tryptophan mellow. Load up the fam and take them to the Silverton hotel-casino to enjoy the soothing guitar chords of singer/songwriter Jeff Brinkman. Think of him as a rootsy mix between Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, Jim Croce and Ben Harper. The unassuming singer with a strong, slightly sandpapery voice looks like somebody from a more innocent city. Indeed, he left Iowa to 82

Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

“make it” in the bright lights of Boulder, Colo. It seems to be working; he even has a debut album out, To the Bones. Commence the family bonding. —Cindi Reed Jeff Brinkman, doors 7 p.m., showtime 8 p.m., Nov. 26, at the Silverton, $10, 263-7777.

Got tix to see Roger Waters? E-mail jarret_keene@yahoo.com.

with Eric Church and Josh Kelley

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DECEMBER 4

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JANUARY 15

Arts & Entertainment

CD Reviews

By Jarret Keene

INDIE-ACOUSTIC Bombay Bicycle Club Flaws (Island) The hush-hush-now indie acoustic movement in England seems to be growing at a brisk rate, but who knew this indie-rock quartet had it in them? The band’s bright and raucous (if a tad Interpol-indebted) 2009 debut, I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Off, gave no real indication that these guys could just as easily pare it all down to gently strummed and fingerpicked guitars and frontman Jack Steadman’s eerily plaintive tenor. Mostly (and literally) recorded in Steadman’s bedroom, Flaws is a flawless collection of gorgeous folk-pop, especially the lilting title track, a fragile duet with singer Lucy Rose. There’s a smidgen of kick and snare and acoustic bass on “Rinse Me Down,” which works itself into a fine lather of mandolin and fretboard runs. “Ivy & Gold,” with its whistling chorus, is childlike, compelling songcraft. BBC has undergone a wonderful and total transformation. ★★★★✩

COFFEEHOUSE POP Liz Janes Say Goodbye (Asthmatic Kitty) I love hanging out on the couch with a cup of coffee and some warm, organic pop tunes on the stereo. Liz Janes satisfies the musical part with her ethereal, jazz-tinged folk-pop that sounds like Norah Jones crashing K Records’ crashpad. Her previous albums have been produced by people such as indie superstar Sufan Stevens, but it’s difficult to think Janes can record anything better than Say Goodbye, a quietly, richly arranged (glockenspiel, electronics, muted trumpet) effort that would clean up saleswise at the corner Starbucks. “Bitty Thing” flutters, a melancholy butterfly drifting with the breeze until erupting with pounding drums and cymbals, a joyous explosion. The descending minor chords of “Anchor” provide the ideal foundation for Janes’ wounded statements and voice: “No one’s there to anchor me/and tether me down,” she sings. Indeed, with songs this pitch-perfect, Janes will certainly rise to the top. ★★★✩✩

INDIE-AMERICANA Jarrod Gorbel Devil’s Made a New Friend (Burning House) For years, Brooklyn’s Jarrod Gorbel toiled under the moniker The Honorary Title, creating the best and most sophisticated (for lack of a better tag) emo-tinged indie-rock of “the aughts.” His Elvis Costello-worthy songcraft and addictive hooks coupled with his furious passion for every word he sang made 2004’s masterpiece Anything Else But the Truth so necessary in the years after 9/11. Now Gorbel strips away the band name and unveils an Americanainfused indie record produced by Rilo Kiley’s Blake Sennett. Devil’s Made a New Friend involves reﬂection, especially on the Hammond organ-drenched “Ten Years Older,” in which Gorbel laments, “I know life’s so unfair/We used to escape under the brilliant glare.” In the oh-so-subtly anthemic dance rock of “Don’t Want This to End,” when he admits “This time you’re mine,” he could be talking to a lover, muse or fans—probably all of the above. Be careful “Each Breath” doesn’t steal yours with its ﬁerce romanticism. ★★★✩✩ 84

Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Arts & Entertainment

MoviEs Jailhouse Crock

Breaking out is hard to do in the disappointing thriller The Next Three Days By Una LaMarche As both a writer and a director, Paul Haggis is known for exploring murky moral waters—see Million Dollar Baby (may you administer illegal euthanasia to someone if you’ve already given her a cute irish nickname?) and Crash (is it oK to debunk racist stereotypes against African-Americans if you propagate racist stereotypes against Asians in the process?). it should come as no surprise, then, that his latest film, the uneven thriller The Next Three Days, is centered on a similar meditation: should you break your alleged murderess wife out of jail if to do so you must become a hardened criminal? Without spoiling anything, i can tell you that the answer is, essentially, “meh”—a word that also encapsulates my response to this intermittently gripping but ultimately contrived movie that might best be described as Kramer vs. Kramer meets The Shawshank Redemption. John Brennan (Russell Crowe) is a bearish, mildmannered English professor at a community college in Pittsburgh (Crowe struggles with the accent at first, but admirably controls his phone-throwing). We get to see only a five-minute window into his life before the plot goes bananas, but we learn that he’s got a beautiful wife named Lara (Elizabeth Banks) who gets so worked up after a fight with her boss that she lustily mounts her husband in the front seat of their environmentally responsible sedan. The next morning, she rustles the hair of their sears-catalog-perfect 6-year-old son, Luke (Ty simkins), and injects some insulin into her shapely thigh. Then she finds blood on last night’s blouse. And then she gets arrested for her boss’ murder. A few years later, Lara’s in the clink and John and Luke are making do, although the former is depressed and lonely and the latter sports the bowl cut and vacant eyes of the kid from The Shining. For her part, Lara mostly misses sex and (from the looks of it) a blow dryer; Banks plays an early jail-visit scene as though she’s flirting with her husband over cocktails. John is handling Lara’s appeal, but it’s not going well—through a series of odd flashbacks and some expository dialogue from the Brennans’ lawyer (Daniel stern, in what amounts to a walk-on cameo), we learn that after their public spat, Lara’s boss was bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher in the office parking lot. A co-worker saw Lara leaving the scene of the crime, but she maintains it was a robbery perpetrated by a young woman she bumped into on the way to her car. Lara’s prints are on the weapon, and the only defense 86 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Would you bust Elizabeth Banks out of jail? Russell Crowe would.

she has is her insistence that she heard a button pop off the assailant’s sweater. The button has stubbornly neglected to turn up, and when the request for an appeal is denied, Lara attempts suicide, prompting John to hatch a plot to break her out of jail and flee the country. A man of letters, John begins his descent into criminality by tracking down Damon Pennington (Liam Neeson), the author of a memoir about multiple successful prison breaks. He learns that he needs fake passports and a reserve of cash to live off of once he gets his family to Yemen (Pennington’s suggestion) or whatever far-flung, American-tourist-free destination he chooses, so he trolls around Pittsburgh’s seedier neighborhoods, getting roughed up and robbed by drug dealers until a deaf biker (yes, really) takes pity on him. John also consults YouTube for tutorials on how to create a “bump key” (a key that will open any lock). His first effort at breaking and entering—into the elevators of Allegheny County Jail, the real Pittsburgh correctional facility that serves as a location for much of the action—results in nervous vomiting, but before long he’s fatally shooting people and setting fire to meth labs like a seasoned pro (which, incidentally, is much more believable than Crowe’s lecturing college freshmen about Don Quixote, Haggis’ heavy-handed choice of literary parallel). The second half of the film picks up the pace, offering moments of real suspense as John finally carries out his plan, but the elements of the escape (doctored medical records, elevator roulette, costume changes, chases through hospital corridors that send orderlies sprawling) aren’t anything new, and while Crowe is compelling as

the desperate, morally ambiguous hero, Banks’ Lara is so bland and bloodless that one wonders why her husband would risk so much to be with her (i can only conclude that the sex in the Prius must have been spectacular). Haggis avoids saying whether Lara is actually guilty for most of the film, which is meant, i suppose, to indicate that it doesn’t matter, and that John would do anything for the woman he loves, regardless of her virtue. But the details of the murder seem more ludicrous as the movie progresses (A fire extinguisher? A button?), and when the truth is finally revealed—through another flashback that looks like an Unsolved Mysteries reenactment—it feels more like an afterthought than a climax. speaking of afterthoughts, olivia Wilde has a bit part as a single mom who unwittingly aids and abets the Brennans in their escape, and Brian Dennehy lurches silently through a number of scenes as John’s working-class father. it’s jarring to see such big-name actors in thankless roles; unlike Crash, The Next Three Days is not an ensemble film, and the supporting players have little do but stare meaningfully at Crowe (Neeson has the meatiest of the scraps, but even he is onscreen for only five minutes). Wilde does get one of the film’s only laughs, however. After revealing that his wife is in prison, John sputters defensively, “she didn’t do it. she didn’t kill that woman.” “oh,” Wilde’s character says, taken aback. “Good!” What else is there to say, really? Una LaMarche is the managing editor for the New York observer and a contributor to the Huffington Post.

Arts & Entertainment

Movies

Big-Pharma Love Story This health-care-focused social satire comes up wanting By Cole Smithey Drawn from the same murky well of Hollywood ethical ambiguity that gave us Thank You for Smoking and last year’s Up in the Air, Love and Other Drugs audaciously defines its slick anti-hero protagonist as beyond reproach. Jake Gyllenhaal’s Jamie Randall is a sex-addicted stud whose effortless ability to bed women gets him fired from a job selling electronics equipment during a bustling 1996 economy. Jamie’s seduction skills are elevated at his new position hawking drugs for Pfizer. Partnered with old-hand Big-Pharma peddler Bruce Winston (Oliver Platt), Jamie utilizes his mythologized appendage to help better place samples of Zoloft on doctors’ backroom shelves. He has no qualms about posing as a medical intern to “shadow” Dr. Stan Knight (Hank Azaria) to make a sale. It’s a line-crossing stunt that introduces Jamie to Parkinson’s disease-suffering patient Maggie Murdoch (Anne Hathaway) via her exposed spider-bitten breast. Based on Jamie Reidy’s memoir Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, the by-committee script bounces between comedic, dramatic and indie genre conventions like a magnetized pinball. The grab-bag satire is so riddled with out-of-place irony that its artificial characters achieve an “uncanny valley” effect characteristic of robots who too closely exhibit human characteristics. The filmmakers are clearly banking on the allure of nude sex scenes between Gyllenhaal and Hathaway to attract audiences. There is nothing here that scratches at the intimate degree of pornographic

In sickness and in health: Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway.

expression in Blue Valentine, which stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. Jamie starts living the high-life selling Viagra from the start of its popular launch. Unfortunately, Maggie’s condition demands that Jamie take her on an active search for proper medical treatment. Love and Other Drugs wants to lampoon a corporate milieu of medical industry corruption that promotes and sustains America’s ongoing health care crisis. But it does it all wrong. Gyllenhaal and Hathaway look too perfect naked together to be anything other than art. We accept the lighthearted entertainment like drinking a spiked cocktail. So what if Gyllenhaal’s character is a reprehensible cad, he looks great and just so happy with that health-challenged Venus of a lass. The ﬁlm’s worst transgression is the inclusion of a nerdy-but-ﬁlthy-rich younger brother for Jamie in

the guise of a completely inappropriate Josh Gad. A masturbation gag drops like a sack of sand on the film’s lumpy tone. It’s sickening to see such layers of irredeemable gloss shellacked over a story that should infuriate its audience. With Pfizer coincidently in the headlines for corruption involving doctors paid enormous paychecks to lecture on specific drugs, Love and Other Drugs may have an unintended consequence of prompting a forum for people to discuss a medical system hamstrung by pharmaceutical companies. More likely however, it will acclimate citizens to the idea that we should like, respect, and lust after corrupt people, or at least embrace them for being people, too.

Love & Other Drugs (R) ★★✩✩✩

Short reviewS

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩

A ﬂawed decision to split the ﬁnal Harry Potter into two releases results in a formless narrative that overstays its welcome. We get that Harry is in grave danger, but don’t get any sense of his abilities or his inclination to rescue the human and underground magic worlds from sinister forces if he survives to defeat the evil Lord Voldemort. Harry Potter tries and fails to be all things to all people. 88 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

By Cole Smithey

Due Date (R)

★★★★✩

This conventional road picture draws on the delightful chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Zack Galifianakis. On his way to Hollywood to follow his dreams, Ethan (Galifianakis) is an effeminate, scarf-wearing misfit who spoils straight-arrow Peter Highman’s (Downey) flight plans. Outrageous pratfalls and slapstick humor ensue. Due Date is a laugh-out-loud movie that earns its R rating.

Morning Glory (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩

In this less-than-mediocre comedy, Rachel McAdams plays a go-getter who gets a lucky break producing a failing morning TV show. She takes veteran anchor Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) for her “ﬂuffy” program. Insult is added to injury because he co-hosts with Colleen Peck (Diane Keaton), whose ego is as big as his. Here’s a script where if you took out the scenes that don’t move the story forward, you wouldn’t have a movie.

Megamind (PG) ★★✩✩✩

Brad Pitt is voice to Metro City’s much beloved Metro Man, who must continually face off against his ex-con rival, Megamind (Will Ferrell), and his spaceﬁsh assistant, Minion (David Cross). Megamind ﬁnally beats his opponent and then transforms geeky cameraman ( Jonah Hill) into his newest adversary. Local news broadcaster Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) is caught in the middle as every hero’s and villain’s love object.

Arts & Entertainment

Movies

Flynn Ryder and Rapunzel voiced by Zachary Levi and Mandy Moore.

Full of Knots Rapunzel adaptation disappoints By Cole Smithey In keeping with the trend that all bigbudget animated movies must sanctify their villain protagonist, Tangled recognizes bandit-in-hero’s-clothing Flynn Ryder (voiced by Zachary Levi from TV’s Chuck), a cad with a sexy “smoldering” stare. Flynn rescues an animeinspired Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) from her comfy tower prison where she has spent most of her nearly 18-years since being kidnapped from noble parents by a deranged witch called Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy). Rapunzel’s magniﬁcently long golden locks possess a secret power that keeps Gothel young.

The adventure that Flynn and Rapunzel share once she escapes is as bland as they come. Rapunzel’s squeaky pet chameleon has as much personality as the rest of the characters put together. Recycled-sounding songs from composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater percolate across an immediately forgettable narrative that makes Finding Nemo look like a Pulitzer Prize-nominee by comparison. Although Tangled utilizes an expensive Eclipse 3-D technology, involving special synchronized electronic glasses, the ﬁlmmakers are too timid to test the technology’s potential at all. Here’s just more proof that Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks have got nothing on the folks at Aardman. Between Shaun the Sheep and Wallace & Gromit, Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks are just grasping at straws.

Tangled (PG) ★★✩✩✩

Movie Times

Unstoppable (PG-13) ★★★★✩

This is one hot nail-biter. Denzel Washington is Frank, a veteran Pennsylvania railroad engineer who is training his young replacement, Will (Star Trek’s Chris Pine), when a 47-car train loaded with acid is traveling head-on in their direction at more than 70 mph. Neatly placed grace notes of humor temper the ﬁlm’s palpable tension. Unstoppable is a beautifully executed action movie that’s well worth seeing on a big screen. 90 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

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Fresh Assorted Berries Au Chambord

796-7111

Dining 7 Great Comforts

Our food critic shares the dishes that feel and taste just right during the holidays

By Max Jacobson No time of year resonates more for comfort foods than the one between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is a time for office parties and cozy dinners with friends, and the colder weather makes heavier, more filling dishes justifiable. I admit, I’m biased in favor of foods one would call indulgent, but let’s face it, so are most people. Here are my seven choices for most comfortable dishes in town:

Photo by Anthony Mair

Continued on Page 94

Du-par’s apple pie: It’s all about the crust.

November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven 93

Dining

Diner’s Notebook

Comfort food Continued from Page 93

A great French bakery, man-friendly cupcakes and a hot gourmet room

Shrimp and grits at American Fish. Michael Mina’s newest Las Vegas restaurant may be his best, thanks to killer appetizers such as this ultra-soothing dish. Don’t be put off by the price. It’s a real meal for one and a great starter for two. Picture a large bowlful of cheesy grits topped with three large, fresh prawns. Your Southern grandmother will blush with envy. $18, in Aria, 590-7111. Trader Joe’s corn-bread mix. This one requires a little work on your part, but you’ll marvel at the taste and texture of this mildly sweet, cakey corn bread, which you make with an egg, the oil of your choice and milk. I like butter, but lard is equally delicious. After you bake it, slather it with more butter while it’s hot. $2.69, multiple locations. Chicken matzo ball soup at Weiss Deli. The Jewish deli is a dying breed, in no small part because a good pastrami costs nearly as much as a steak. Mike Weiss attempts to keep the genre alive at his small deli in Green Valley. He bakes his own rye bread and makes soups from scratch, such as this hardy perennial stocked with shredded chicken and matzo balls as light as feathers. He also does a delicious mushroom barley soup. $5 (small) and $9.50 (large), 2744 N. Green Valley Parkway, Henderson, 454-0565. Soboro Gohan at Raku. What could be more soothing than a steaming bowl of Japanese rice, crowned with a layer of ground chicken cooked in Japanese dashi, the mushroom and seaweed-ﬂavored broth that gives Japanese cuisine its distinctive cast. Chef Mitsuo Endo throws some chopped pickles onto the top for added dimension, and serves the dish with a wooden spoon so that the jarring metal of a conventional spoon won’t spoil the effect. $7.50, 5030 Spring Mountain Road, 367-3511. Meat loaf, Simon at Palms Place. Celebrity chef Kerry Simon made a meat loaf by accident for a prominent Miami food writer, who then proclaimed it the “best meat loaf on South Beach.” He’s been doing it ever since. The secret is a little fatty pork in the mix and grill marks on every slab. Served on a bed of buttered mashed potatoes laced with English peas, with a dollop of spicy tomato sauce, it’s just perfect. $25, in Palms Place. 944-3292. 94 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

The Vegas comfort-food spectrum: from Michael Mina’s Shrimp & Grits to Albertsons’ fried chicken.

Fried chicken at Albertsons. A noted national newspaper conducted a tasting on fried chicken, using highly regarded restaurants, prominent chains such as KFC, Popeyes and Church’s, and grocery stores. Guess who won? That’s right, Albertsons, where the birds are fried to a wicked crunch, with juicy, moist meat inside. $6 for eight-piece bucket, $9 for 12-piece, multiple locations. Apple pie at Du-par’s. Perhaps no American dish is as comforting as apple pie. And, to me, a great pie is all about the crust. This restaurant and bakery, a small, family-owned chain from Los Angeles, has the best pie in the city. I’m guessing this crust uses a combination of butter and vegetable shortening, and the ﬁlling is tremendous, with just enough pectin and a real apple taste. $4.25, at the Golden Gate Hotel, 1 Fremont St., 366-9378.

Life is sweet this week in Vegas. The sensational new Patisserie Manon, at 8751 W. Charleston Blvd. (586-2666), gets my vote as the best French bakery in town. It belongs to a French couple, Jean-Paul and Rachel Ladeyn. He does the breads. She does the cakes. The Black Forest cake, a huge, high rectangle of chocolate, cherries and whipped cream in layers, is amazing, and so are the macaroons—with the mint chocolate one especially getting my attention. Man does not live by bread or cake alone, though. There are also quiches, croissants and hot dishes such as beef Burgundy and cassoulet, sold by weight. I was also surprised how much I enjoyed Gigi’s Cupcakes (1150 E. Flamingo Road, Suite 105, 7359783), a bakery near the UNLV campus. I have never gotten the fuss about cupcakes. In general, they’re just too girly for me. But these cupcakes are da proverbial bomb. I tasted several, including German Chocolate, Wedding Cake, Peanut Butter Cup, Red Velvet and my favorite, Grasshopper, a chocolate cake base slathered with mint frosting. They are all $3.50. Meanwhile, Elspeth Reeve, in a recent article for TheAtlanticWire.com, writes: “Chocolate industry experts say that in just 20 years, chocolate will be as expensive as caviar. African farmers, who produce a huge chunk of the world’s chocolate supply, are abandoning their farms because the work is so backbreaking and the pay so miserable.” That hasn’t curbed demand for chocolate, though, which is rising sharply as emerging nations such as China and India develop Westernstyle sweet tooths. “The biggest hope,” writes reporter Anthea Gerrie, for The Independent, “is a Nestlé project to replant 10 million trees over the next decade.” By 2030, chocolate may exist only for the very rich. Finally, if you’ve had your ﬁll of leftover turkey, head over to the Charcoal Room (515-4385) at Santa Fe Station where executive chef Raymond Mansour is cooking with gas. Start in this elegant room with seared lump crab cakes, bacon-wrapped barbecued shrimp or an excellent chopped salad enriched by ripe avocado and lots of bacon. Steaks are cooked in an 800-degree mesquite charcoal broiler, and you can have them with add-ons such as a gorgonzola crust, Oscar-style (crab, Béarnaise and asparagus) or shrimp scampi-style (cooked in butter and garlic). There are a slew of good side dishes to cut your teeth on. Two not to miss: French green beans and creamed corn au gratin. The large, eclectic wine list is well put together and reasonably priced. Hungry, yet? Follow Max Jacobson’s latest epicurean observations, reviews and tips at FoodWineKitchen.com.

Mina photo by Anthony Mair

By Max Jacobson

Dining

Dishing

Ropa Vieja at Havana Grill

Halibut with Fennel at Panevino

Nam Tok at Ping Pong Thai

Duck with Chorizo Hash at Biscayne

This house favorite (whose name literally means “old clothes”) is a traditional Cuban meal consisting of thinly shredded beef simmered with tomatoes, bell peppers and onions in a tomato wine sauce. It is served with a choice of rice or beans. After dinner, when the sun goes down, the setting here rapidly changes into a Latin club full of live music and the Havana rumba! $17, 8878 S. Eastern Ave., 932-9310.

Chef Mario Andreoni is from Italy’s northernmost province of Alto Adige, and he’s a real talent. This off-menu seafood dish, known by its Italian name, ippoglosso con ﬁnocchio, is pan-seared, wild-caught Alaskan halibut with caramelized fennel in a light Pernod sauce. Market price ($28-$36), 246 Via Antonia Ave., 222-2400.

They serve authentic Thai food here with good vegan-friendly options. Try this power salad on your next lunch break. Nam tok features grilled beef mixed with red onions, scallions, cilantro, roasted rice powder and lime juice, and it’s topped with cabbage and carrots. $10, 2955 E. Sunset Road, Suite 110, 228-9988.

One would hardly call this rich combination of duck meat, Mexican-style sausage and fried potatoes a light appetizer, but it’s wonderful anyway. The Trop’s new South Beach-style steak house tops it with ﬁngerling potatoes and a fried egg. It’s a great dish any time of day. $14, in the Tropicana, 739-2222.

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Ropa vieja and nam tok photos by Anthony Mair

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

Dining

Cooking With ... Wine Pairing

Savory Squash Soup

“Smaragd Grüner Veltliners from top producers like Prager have a complex combination of fruit flavors (like mandarin, apricot and lime) in conjunction with spices (like anise and pepper) and minerality,” says Tim Wilson, Spago director of beverage. “They also have abundant extract and an excellent acid structure. This profile is a perfect complement to the butternut squash soup, which is quite rich and accented with flavorful holiday spices.” If this producer or vintage is not available, look for Smaragd Grüner Veltliners in any recent vintage from Rudi Pichler, F.X. Pichler, Alzinger or Knoll.

A dish you can make using your Thanksgiving leftovers

Ingredients 3¾ cups of pumpkin or butternut squash (canned may be substituted) 1 acorn squash 3/4 stick unsalted butter 1 white onion, diced ﬁne 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/8 teaspoon fresh-ground white pepper 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1/4 teaspoon ginger 1/8 cardamom, ground 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon brown sugar juice of 1/2 lemon 4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock 1 cup heavy cream 1 sprig fresh rosemary cranberry relish, to garnish

Eric Klein

Spago chef takes a rare holiday break to share a favorite seasonal soup By Melissa Arseniuk Eric Klein has cooked Thanksgiving meals for thousands of people, but has never celebrated the holiday himself. “To be honest with you, during the 15 or 16 years I’ve been in America, I haven’t had the time off yet to do the Thanksgiving,” Spago’s executive chef says. “My wife gets the end of the stick. I told her already, this year on Thanksgiving, we won’t do Thanksgiving on Thursday—it’d not be fair. We’ll do Thanksgiving on Sunday.” Despite growing up in France and missing all those Thanksgivings since he arrived in the United States, Klein still has a fondness for our culinary tradition. “I love the rolls, the turkey, the vegetables—all of it,” he says. When asked to cite his favorite holiday menu item, Klein pauses to think carefully about his response. “I think of a menu like a child,” he says. “Which one’s your favorite child? You can’t have a favorite child, because you love them all. It’s the same thing with my dishes; I love them all. I love all the good things the soul needs to feed on.” 98 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Klein is also associate partner at Spago, which means he has his hands in all aspects of the operation. “I make all the recipes, I make all the food, I decide what goes on the menu, what doesn’t go on the menu,” he says. Klein, whose Wolfgang Puck experience includes Spago Beverly Hills, came to Las Vegas in 2005 when Steve Wynn brought him to town to open SW Steakhouse. He moved to Fix at Bellago before returning to his Puck roots, making the move to Spago in 2007. While the Puck name carries serious weight, Klein says it takes more than brand power to keep his dining room full. “It’s not about who we are; it’s what we did,” he says, offering up every chef’s favorite saying: “We’re only as good as the last meal we serve.” Things haven’t changed since he took the helm. “I’ve always wanted customers to come and say—excuse my French— ‘Fuckin’ eh, this is awesome. I feel today is the best $40 or $50 that I ever spent,’” Klein says. “And at the end of the day, everybody loves eating.”

Preheat the oven to 350. Cut each squash in half and discard the seeds. Brush cut sides with 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Arrange squash cut side down on rack placed in baking tray, bake until tender, 1 1/2 hours, then scoop out insides of the squash once cooled. (If using leftover squash that has already been cooked, do not re-cook.) Purée the ﬂesh in a food processor. Reserve. In a medium stockpot, melt the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter. Over low heat, sweat the onion. Do not allow it to brown. Add the puréed squash and cook over very low heat until heated through, stirring occasionally. Do not allow it to bubble up. Season with the salt, pepper, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, brown sugar and lemon juice. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil, still over low heat, stir often. Cook 20 minutes. In a small saucepan, heat the cream with the rosemary sprig. Remove the rosemary and pour the cream into the soup. Transfer to a blender or food processor and process, in batches, for 2 or 3 minutes. Adjust the seasoning to taste. To serve, ladle the soup into heated bowls. Place a tablespoon of cranberry relish in the center.

Photography by Anthony Mair

Instructions

TRAVeL Shopping Scottsdale From indie stores to high-end chains, this collection is worth a trip By Nora Burba Trulsson

2B Mod. Design purists, keep on walking. But if you love mid-century furniture and your bank account, slip into this pocket-size shop, where you’ll ﬁnd chairs, sofas, tables, lamps and more inspired by those classic designs of the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s you only see in museums or rich architects’ homes. They also offer cool kids furniture and even have modernist cat condos and dog beds. Closed Sun; 4158 N. Goldwater Blvd.; 480-941-8192 or 2BMod.com. Bicycle Haüs. No one’s suggesting that you peddle a bicycle back to Vegas, but if there’s a biker on your holiday gift list, this spot is nirvana. Besides carrying everything from beach cruisers to mountain bikes, this ever-growing shop has performance wear, helmets, shoes, backpacks, those Lance Armstrong-y shades, patch kits and more. There’s even an in-house massage therapist who’ll help you with muscle tension or assist with stretch-

ing. 7027 E. 5th Ave.; 480-994-4287 or BicycleHaus.com. Bischoff’s at the Park. Anselm Bischoff’s grandfather ran Canyon de Chelly’s trading post, so he grew up steeped in Native American art. His Scottsdale gallery, housed in a gracious old bank building, is stuffed to the rafters with regional art, furniture, accessories and more. The best part? Tucked between cases of Zuni pawn jewelry and stacks of kilims are piles of books, covering everything you ever wanted to know about Southwest art and culture. Maynard Dixon bio? Check. The lore of cowboy boots? Check. History of the city’s landmark Camelback Mountain or a coffee table book on Mexican hacienda style? Check, check. 3925 N. Brown Ave.; 480-9466155 or BischoffSouthwestArt.com.

Fashion by Robert Black. Robert Black ran one of Arizona’s largest and best-known modeling agencies for decades, so the guy knows his Blass from a Dolce & Gabbana. Last year, he opened a shop specializing in exquisite vintage-wear for women, covering the 1920s to the ’80s. Channel a sequined Cher with a Bob Mackie gown or make like a lady who lunches in a Chanel suit. Other labels that have twirled through the shop include Pucci, Halston and Trigère. Closed Sun-Mon; 7144 E. First Ave.; 480-664-7770 or FashionByRobertBlack.com. Local Talent. Walk into this airy shop and you’ll ﬁnd clothes, jewelry and home accessories created by some 40 Phoenix-area fashion designers and artists. You’ll walk out with one-of-a-kind clothes for men, women and children, and maybe a chunky bead necklace, art glass plates or an embellished evening bag. Closed Mon; 7050 E. Fifth Ave.; 480-874-1000 or LocalTalentAz.com. SMOCA Store. The store at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art is a great place to score big, beautiful art books, desk accessories and jewelry. This time of year, you can ﬁnd artsy boxed Christmas and Hanukkah cards, and the staff can help with gift-wrapping. While you’re in there, do stroll into the galleries. Bridges: Spanning the Ideas of Paolo Soleri is one of the current exhibits. Closed Mon; 7374 E. Second St.; 480-8744666 or smoca.org.

The FireSky Resort’s lagoon.

If You Go … Where to eat and drink. Start with a salad of lamb’s tongue, rye bread and green beans, then work your way into the pasta with chanterelles and bacon at FnB (7133 E. Stetson Drive, 480-425-9463), a tiny eatery that emphasizes fresh and local. Bonus points for an all-Arizona wine list. A knot of rising-star young chefs gathered to create Crudo (7045 E. Third Ave., 480-603-1011), an Italian raw-fish restaurant, where you can dine inside or on the patio on squid-ink risotto or white anchovies with fried mozzarella. Kazimierz World Wine Bar (7137 E. Stetson Drive, 480-946-3004) offers a wild sipping cruise through Polish mead, a Jordanian cabernet or a British ginger current wine, to mention only a few choices. Live jazz is also on the menu. Get an espresso jolt at Sola Coffee Bar (7124 E. Fifth Ave.), a warehouse-style hangout, where local creative types congregate and The Beatles’ Rubber Soul plays on the turntable. Where to stay. These two downtown hotels are walking distance to shopping: FireSky Resort & Spa, which features lagoon-style pools and a nice spa where you can recover from a day on your feet (from $129; 4925 N. Scottsdale Road; 480945-7666, FireSkyResort.com); and Hotel Valley Ho, a swanky, restored shrine to 1950s modernism, with a spa and a Trader Vic’s on property (from $99; 6850 E. Main St.; 480-248-2000 or HotelValleyHo.com).

Scottsdale retail highlights (from left): 2B Mod, Fashion by Robert Black and Bicycle Haüs.

100 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Getting around. Want to cover more ground? Jump on the free Downtown Scottsdale Trolley, which loops past hotels and shops (ScottsdaleAZ.gov/trolley).

Bicycle photo by Kevin Krieg

Scottsdale’s winter visitors have many agendas—golﬁng, hiking, clubbing, just to name a few. Sooner or later, almost everyone succumbs to shopping’s siren call. Like Las Vegas, this desert city is famously loaded with high-end retail opportunities (check those out at vast Scottsdale Fashion Square or newly opened Scottsdale Quarter). If you’re looking for a more local experience, try Scottsdale’s downtown district, which has become an incubator for indie shops that sell everything from books and bikes to evening gowns and sofas. This time of year, scout the shops for unique holiday gifts. If you can’t stuff your buys in your carry-on or car’s trunk, most places will ship. Here are a few worth a visit:

SportS & LeiSure

Winning over Vegas

102 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

Lady Rebels still perfect heading into four-team tournament the uNLV women’s basketball team is off to a 3-0 start this season, and has a good chance to grab two more wins when it hosts the Lady rebel round-up at Cox pavilion. the Lady rebels open the four-team tournament at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 26 against oregon State, which had a complete turnover in the offseason when seven players, including its leading scorer and rebounder, left the program, and the head coach was fired. uNLV will then play either pacific or rutgers on Nov. 27. the Lady rebels return all five starters from last season, including junior forward Jamie Smith, who has led the Mountain West Conference in rebounding in each of her first two years; and sophomore guard Kelli thompson, who is averaging a team-high 14.3 points per game this year. While senior guard erica Helms, who led uNLV in scoring last season with 13.3 ppg, has played limited minutes after giving birth in September, junior forward Lenita Sanford, a junior college transfer, has bolstered the Lady rebels’ inside game with 11.3 points and a team-best 9.3 rebounds and three blocks per game. – Sean DeFrank

Jamie Smith powers UNLV’s inside game.

MMA photo by Chris Jones; Lady Rebels photo courtesy of UNLV photo services

would do that,” Simone says. “And your skills would just pick up and level out.” Nowhere is the sport’s appeal in Las Vegas more evident than at the uFC Fan expo, which attracted an estimated 125,000 fans to Mandalay Bay in late May in its second year, following an attendance of 30,000 to 50,000 in its 2009 debut. the event allows fans to meet many of their favorite fighters, another factor that has contributed to MMA overtaking boxing in popularity, with expos also held this year in Boston and London. the sport’s unique relationship with Las Vegas can also be found in local sports books. While MMA betting accounts for just about 1 percent of the Abraham Medina, left, and Rion Almeida work on their MMA skills at Wanderlei Silva’s Training Center. annual $2.6 billion handle in Nevada, Jay Kornegay, executive director for the Las Vegas Hilton race and sports book, says that number is misleading when compared with MMA Awards is latest example of close relationship between the sport and our city sports such as baseball, football and basketball. By Sean DeFrank “it’s not because [MMA is] not popular,” he says, “it’s just because of the number of games Capital of the World,” Las Vegas is in the shadow of the Strip at Wanderlei that are played versus the number of hosting the World Mixed Martial Arts Silva’s training Center, the next fights that are fought.” Awards for the second straight year, on generation of mixed martial arts fighters Not only has MMA become more popuDec. 1 at the palms. is hard at work learning the techniques lar than boxing with fight fans in general, the awards show will honor those necessary to become a champion. the it also has overtaken the more traditional chosen by MMA fans, who can vote online students range in age from 4 to 12 years fight game at the betting window. until Nov. 26 at WorldMMAAwards.com old, and instructor peter Simone directs “there’s only a couple of matches here in 19 categories, from Fighter of the Year the kids to perform each move over and and there that attract betting interest in to ring Girl of the Year. over, until it becomes second nature. the boxing world these days,” Kornegay Staging the awards show here makes “A good way to stay close to your says. “And they normally need a name sense since Las Vegas has hosted 59 of opponent is to trace his body,” Simone out there before they get the attention. uFC’s 164 events—140 of which have explains as he works on grappling moves … there’s a lot of people who can’t been held in the united States. the with 12-year-old rion Almeida, one name five boxers these days, and they city even has its own homegrown hero of about 25 children taught at Silva’s can name 20 MMA fighters.” in former uFC heavyweight champion facility each week. MMA betting action is seemingly growFrank Mir, a Las Vegas native and 1998 With about 100 gyms in the Las Vegas ing with each card, something Kornegay Bonanza High School graduate. area offering martial arts instruction, it’s attributes to the sport’s visibility through While the early days of MMA brought just another sign of the growing popularavenues such as The Ultimate Fighter reality combatants together with clearly ity of MMA, and nowhere has the sport show, which is produced by Spike tV outlined fighting backgrounds such as been embraced like it has here. and uFC, and has allowed fans to watch Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, karate, wrestling and Since MMA competitions were the ascension of uFC champions such as boxing, aspiring competitors such as introduced in the united States with the Forrest Griffin and rashad evans since Almeida, who already has two sponsors first uFC event in Denver on Nov. 12, debuting in 2005. and his own website although he is only 1993, the sport has made tremendous in seventh grade, have the benefit of strides, especially after Station Casinos having grown up with the sport and executives Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta Tickets for the MMA Awards range from $59 learning a combination of styles. purchased uFC in 2001 and installed to $99 and can be purchased at The Pearl box “if i started when i was 10 years old and Dana White as its president. With MMA office and through Ticketmaster. The awards i had the opportunity to train Brazilian Jiunow king among fight fans in what has show, which begins at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 1, will Jitsu and train Mui thai in the same day, i always been considered the “Boxing be taped and air on Versus at 7 p.m. Dec. 9.

Going for Broke

Rebels’ road woes will continue in San Diego By Matt Jacob If this is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, then why am I more depressed than Oscar Goodman at the sight of an empty gin bottle? No, it’s not because I went 6-2-1 last week and yet cleared only $77 (seriously, this is getting ridiculous; I’m 21-11-2 over the last four weeks, and I’ve lost $234!). Rather, my melancholy stems from the news that the Minnesota Vikings ﬁred coach Brad Childress, which comes just two weeks after the Dallas Cowboys gave Wade Phillips his pink slip. Childress and Phillips not only were like personal ATMs for sports bettors, they provided an endless source of unintentional comedy for columnists looking for an easy laugh. (Stevie Wonder can manage a clock better than Brad Childress! Wade Phillips looks more lost on the sideline than Kirstie Alley in a health-food store!) I’m really going to miss those guys. Which brings me to my wish list for Santa Claus this year: contract extensions for Norv Turner, Chan Gailey and Mike Singletary (oh, and a big winning week between now and New Year’s Day would be nice, too!). On to this week’s picks (with my bankroll now at $4,383). $660 (to win $600) on SAN DIEGO STATE (-24) vs. UNLV: Just what UNLV needs: another road game, this one against a pissed-off opponent that’s blown double-digit leads the last two weeks against teams ranked third (TCU) and 25th (Utah) in the nation (two losses by a combined nine points). Not only that, San Diego State can play the revenge card after squandering a 24-14 lead to the Rebels last year and falling 28-24. Well, payback ﬁgures to come easily for the Aztecs, as UNLV is 0-5 straight up (SU) and against the spread (ATS) outside of Las Vegas. Cumulative results: Opponents 215, Rebels 44. San Diego State, which is 6-2 SU and 7-1 ATS the last eight years in this rivalry, is averaging nearly 34 points per game, while UNLV is averaging 18.5. Take out the Rebels’ two wins over Wyoming (42-16) and New Mexico (4510), and they’ve put up just 13 ppg. $220 (to win $200) on ARIZONA STATE (-13) vs. UCLA: Arizona State has just two victories against major-college

competition, and one of those was a 42-0 home rout of Washington State, which is 4-31 since the start of the 2008 season. So for the Sun Devils to be giving away nearly two touchdowns this week is proof positive that UCLA is about as functional as Charlie Sheen’s liver. The Bruins are coming off a 24-7 loss at Washington in which they produced just 163 total yards; they’ve been outgained by 243, 292, 284 and 158 yards in four of their last five contests (losing all four); and they’ve tallied 65 total points in those five games. As for Arizona State, if there was a tough-luck award this season, the Sun Devils would be the unanimous recipient. They’ve lost four games (to Stanford, USC, Oregon State and Wisconsin, all Top-25 teams at one juncture this season) by a combined nine points. The last time UCLA traveled to Tempe it got whacked 34-9. Expect a similar result here. $220 (to win $200) on BUCCANEERS (+7½) at Ravens: Some things in life you just can’t explain: the reality-TV craze; the public’s continued hypnotic-like infatuation with The Beatles (yeah, I said it!); and the 2010 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A team that was projected to win just six games prior to the season eclipsed that mark four days before Thanksgiving with a 21-0 shutout at San Francisco. The Bucs arrive in Baltimore at 7-3 SU and 6-3-1 ATS—cashing in each of the last four games—and they’re 4-1 SU and 5-0 ATS on the road (all as an underdog). The Ravens have an identical 7-3 record, but seven of their 10 games have been decided by a touchdown or less. That includes two narrow come-from-behind home wins (and noncovers) over the Browns and Bills. BEST OF THE REST: Vikings (+2½) at Redskins ($55); Utah (-9½) vs. BYU ($44); Nevada (+14) vs. Boise State ($44); Seahawks (+1½) vs. Chiefs ($33); Browns (-11) vs. Panthers ($33); Minnesota (+16) vs. Iowa ($33); Auburn (+4½) vs. Alabama ($33). 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. November 25-December 1, 2010 Vegas Seven

103

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Seven QueStionS

Sammy Hagar

The Red Rocker spouts off on retirement, how Vegas put a bulge in his pants and those paranoid Van Halen brothers By Matt Jacob Sammy Hagar enjoyed moderate success for the first decade of his music career, but it wasn’t until 1984—when he flipped the bird to law enforcement across the land with the fast-driving tune “I Can’t Drive 55”—that he really hit it big. Little did Hagar know the song would become a metaphor for the rest of his life, as he hasn’t slowed down since. His accomplishments over the past quarter-century include fronting one of the biggest rock bands in history (Van Halen), helping to turn a sleepy outpost at the tip of Baja Mexico (Cabo San Lucas) into a popular tourist destination, launching a second successful solo career and becoming a brand unto himself with his award-winning Cabo Wabo tequila company (80 percent of which he sold in 2007 for $80 million), his Sammy’s Beach Bar & Grill airport restaurants (from which 100 percent of the profits are donated to local charities) and his Cabo Wabo Cantina franchise, the most recent of which opened a year ago at the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood on the Strip. Despite all the success onstage and off, and despite turning 63 in October, don’t look for the Red Rocker to slam on the brakes anytime soon.

the ﬁght. In the 12th round–BOOM!–down goes Trinidad, on the canvas, count to 10. And I go, “I’ll be right back, I’m gonna go get my money!” I don’t care how rich you are, you walk into that place and they hand you $30,000 in cash … I had it stuffed in my pants–I had the biggest bulge in my pants that night you’ve ever seen! I went back to the restaurant and I told Toby and everybody, “Guess what? Dinner’s on me, and so is the rest of the night.” And we went all night and we had a great time.

You’re as busy as you’ve ever been in your life. Ever going to slow down? I’ve considered myself retired since the day I picked up a guitar. Retirement? I’m in it. What do you do when you’re retired? Everything you love to do, right? Well, I’m doing the things I love to do. The fact I can play music, get paid for it, make people happy and then help in a charitable manner or build a brand by playing music around it, all at the same time? Hello! That’s better than retirement.

Still can’t drive 55? Oh, yeah. In fact, I got off my plane here, and I had a guy waiting for me with a new car called a Talon. It’s a three-wheeled vehicle that’s zero to 60 in under four seconds and does an eight-second quarter-mile. It’s just a mean, crazy, wild-ass thing. So I was scooting around with that, and it was just a prototype that was here for a show. But I’ve got ’em making me one!

What about Las Vegas resonates with you? Ah, Vegas is the party capital of the world, dude! Cabo San Lucas is way down on the list compared with Vegas. This is it. It’s the real deal. It’s like New York—if you 110 Vegas Seven November 25-December 1, 2010

can make it in New York, you’ve won the race. Well, if you can make it in Vegas, you can go to New York, too. Plus, there’s so much to do here. You run out money a lot quicker than you run out of things to do in this town! Favorite Las Vegas memory? Years ago I was at Sunset Station looking at a potential location for a Cabo Wabo, and there was a ﬁght that night between Felix Trinidad and Bernard Hopkins. I put $10,000 on Hopkins at 3-to-1, then went back to a restaurant where I was having a steak dinner with Toby Keith, who I met that night, and watched

You’re one of the rare rock stars who makes a point to be extremely fanfriendly. Why is that? It’s just how I was raised. I believe that without the fans, I’m nothing—they’re totally responsible for all my success. The only thing they’re not allowed to do is come to my house and beat on my door. I have children, I have a wife, and we don’t need guys coming over and going, “Hey Sammy, let’s rock! Let’s do a shot!” Other than that, they ﬁnd me out on the street, I’m theirs. That’s how it’s gotta be. I heard a guy say something recently and thought it was the greatest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. He goes, “You know, if you ﬁnd a turtle on a fence post, chances are somebody helped him get there.” Well that’s me. My fans put me here, and I love ’em.

Photo by Anthony Mair

You tried for years to bring a Cabo Wabo to Las Vegas and ﬁnally landed at Planet Hollywood, but it was in a bad economy. Any hesitation to open when you did? No. Cabo Wabo is one of those bullet-proof brands— and it’s not because I’m arrogant. It’s really priced right and it offers a lot of bang for the buck. Besides, even in a bad economy, people still gotta party and they need a place to go! So I knew it would be OK.

Better rock ’n’ roll feud: Van Halen or Aerosmith? Oh, Van Halen kicks everybody’s ass there, because Eddie and Alex [Van Halen] can’t get along with anyone. … I love the guys, I loved being in Van Halen. But those guys are impossible now. When they were younger, it was OK. But as they get older, they get more and more paranoid and harder to deal with. And they’re not even demanding. They’re just so distrustful that if you go, “Hey, how are you doing?” they go, “What do you mean by that? Why, do I look weird?” And you’re just like, “Get outta here!”