The Future of Mass Transit

March 4-10, 2010

The Future of Mass Transit It's here! But Is It what we need?

By T.R. Witcher

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Contents

This Week in Your CiTY 13

37

seVen daYs

LocaL newsroom

The highlights of this week.

By Jessica Prois

Tax season trends and an explanation of why Las Vegas crime is way down.

Plus: David Schwartz’s Green Felt Journal and Michael Green on Politics.

14

69

88

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.

Navigating the best GPS deals.

By Eric Benderoff

Tech

naTionaL newsroom

91 dininG

The LaTesT

Our food critic offers some new options for your next business lunch.

By Max Jacobson Plus: Max’s new Diner’s Notebook and how to make a sexy dinner out of steak and potatoes.

Wonderland returns (in a variety of ways) and local chefs make the cut for “Oscars of food.” Plus: trends, tweets and gossip.

By Melissa Arseniuk

20

100

socieTY

Snapshots from the Women’s Leadership Luncheon and the Love Gala.

heaLTh & fiTness

A beginner’s guide to shifting bicycle exercise to the next gear.

By Chris White

25 sTYLe

102

45

If the Rebels make a run, it’ll be behind their new leader, Tre’Von Willis.

By Rob Miech Plus: Going for Broke

By Matt Jacob

This week’s Look, tips on men’s accessories and a few choice Enviables.

Plus: Re-envisioning the desert home.

sporTs & Leisure

niGhTLife

Seven Nights ahead, fabulous parties past and a Studio 54 “freak show.”

77

arTs & enTerTainmenT

The challenge of West Side Story, and Cole Smithey predicts the Oscars.

110

ACE in the Arts District: Photo by Tomas Muscionico On the cover: Photo by Tomas Muscionico

Features

30

where The rubber meeTs The road

The ACE Gold Line begins a new era of transportation in Las Vegas.

By T.R. Witcher

seVen QuesTions

Student Body President Adam Cronis talks about the level of school spirit at UNLV amid budget cuts.

By Elizabeth Sewell

34

Jason Giambi’s new TraininG Ground

The All-Star slugger talks about his next career: Vegas nightclub owner

By Ben Conmy March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 9

Vegas seVen Publishers

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

Editorial editoriAl director, Phil Hagen AssociAte editor, Melissa Arseniuk News editor, Sean DeFrank A&e editor, Cindi Reed coPY editor, Paul Szydelko coNtributiNg editor, Todd Witcher coNtributiNg writers

Eric Benderoff, Tiffannie Bond, Geoff Carter, Ben Conmy, Sean Dunn, M.J. Elstein, Mericia González, Michael Green, Matt Jacob, Max Jacobson, Jarret Keene, Alissa Kelly, Nicole Lucht, Rob Miech, Pj Perez, Jessica Prois, Amy Schmidt, David Schwartz, Elizabeth Sewell, Melinda Sheckells, Cole Smithey, Chris White, T.R. Witcher iNterNs

Kelly Corcoran, Patrick Moulin and Robert Opacki

art Art director, Lauren Stewart seNior grAPhic desigNer, Marvin Lucas grAPhic desigNer, Thomas Speak stAff PhotogrAPher, Anthony Mair coNtributiNg PhotogrAPhers

Hew Burney, Sullivan Charles, Brenton Ho, Roman Mendex, Tomas Muscionico, Al Powers, Ryan Weber coNtributiNg illustrAtor, Rob Tornoe, WACSO

Production/distribution director of ProductioN/distributioN, Marc Barrington AdvertisiNg coordiNAtor, Jimmy Bearse

salEs AccouNt MANAger, Chelsea Hefley AccouNt eXecutives, Christy Corda, Tracy Story-McPherson and Robyn Weiss

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

WenDOH MeDIa COMpanIes Ryan T. Doherty | Justin Weniger vice PresideNt, PublishiNg, Michael Skenandore director, MArKetiNg, Jason Hancock eNtertAiNMeNt director, Keith White creAtive director, Sherwin Yumul iNterActive MediA MANAger, Josu Ibarguen eveNt coordiNAtor, Richard Alexander

FinancE director of fiNANce, Gregg Hardin AccouNts receivAble MANAger, Rebecca Lahr geNerAl AccouNtiNg MANAger, Erica Carpino credit MANAger, Erin Tolen

PublisHEd in association WitH tHE obsErVEr MEdia GrouP copyright 2010 Vegas seven, llc. reproduction in whole or in part without the permission of Vegas Seven, llc is prohibited.

Vegas seven, 888-792-5877, 3070 West Post road, las Vegas, nV 89118

10

Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

COntributOrs

Rob Tornoe, cartoonist “Tornoe’s Toons,” page 39 No one is safe from the brunt of Tornoe’s brush, and once again that includes Nevadans—especially his favorite Nevadan, Gov. Jim Gibbons. Vegas Seven’s new weekly cartoonist has skewered New Jersey politicians for years for The Press of Atlantic City. Tornoe, who lives in Delaware, honed his skills at The New York Observer (our Seven partner) and he also used to contribute cartoons about Nevada politics for PolitickerNV. com. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer, and he draws cartoons about the media for the trade magazine Editor & Publisher.

Ben Conmy “Jason Giambi’s New Training Ground,” page 34 The “doctor,” as we call him, is a performance consultant who specializes in sport psychology techniques. He received his Ph.D. in 2008 from Florida State University. Conmy has worked in Europe and the United States with an eclectic clientele, but has always maintained a professional focus on athletes at all levels (high school to professional) in a variety of sports (tennis to skydiving). He has lived in Las Vegas for one year and has no plans to leave the city, which he describes as a “daily lesson in humanity.” An interesting fact about Conmy: He has seen David Beckham naked several times.

Michael Green Politics, page 42 We asked Green to do our weekly politics column for good reason: No one knows politics and Nevada history like he does. And the odds are pretty good that no one is as passionate about both subjects, either. Green, who earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University, is a professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada and the author of several books, including Las Vegas: A Centennial History (University of Nevada Press, 2005, with Eugene Moehring) and Nevada: A Journey of Discovery (Gibbs-Smith, 2004), which is a middle school textbook.

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Seven DayS The highlights of this week in your city.

Compiled by Jessica Prois

Sun. 7 Thur. 4 It’s no Egyptian pyramid (or even the Luxor) but Las Vegas High School is one of the city’s most notable structures.

Built in 1930, the first high school in town still stands with much of its original Art-Deco façade—and the stories that unfolded inside its halls are just as authentic. Come hear alumni tell all about the teen club called “The Wildcat Lair,” the drill team that made it onto the The Ed Sullivan Show and other tales of teenage dizziness at “Vegas High School Confidential” at Springs Preserve.

The 90-minute panel presentation is part of the monthly Untold Stories program, which gets under way at 6:30 p.m. $10 adults, $8 children 5-17, $2 discount for members.

Fri. 5 Everybody who loves Raymond will love his stand-up comedy, too. Head to The Mirage to see Ray Romano, who starred in the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and King of Queens funnyman Kevin James onstage at the Terry Fator Theatre. March 5-6, 10 p.m., $89-$119.

Sat. 6 Enjoy a tapas-style night of entertainment at UNLV, where a tasting menu of musicals will be served instead of a standard, single-serve main event. Small tastes of top-rated revues are the focus of Broadway à la Carte, which features excerpts from Les Misérables, Hello Dolly, Evita and South Pacific. The concert is the third in the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s popular “Pops” series. Artemus W. Ham Concert Hall, 8 p.m.,

Learn how to be a life-saver as the American Heart Association co-hosts “Go Red for Women–CPR Anytime” at Touro University of Nevada. While the class won’t get you CPR certified, it will provide potentially life-saving knowledge.

The first 100 to RSVP will receive free CPR Anytime kits, which are required.

874 American Pacific Dr., Henderson, 1 p.m.3 p.m., free to register, kit $30.

Mon. 8 Head to the Atomic Testing Museum for an explosion of artwork as UNLV students unveil their collaborative collection, Cloud 9. The exhibition features a variety of atomic-themed video, photography, paintings and more from about 30 student artists. The exhibit is presented in conjunction with UNLV’s Intermedia and Art in Public Places classes and will run through March 19.

While you’re there, mark your calendar for the artists’ reception, which will support of the victims of Haiti’s devastating earthquake. That event will be held on March 19 from 6 to 9 p.m. and include a range of art and performances, a raffle, an auction and music by DJ AK1RA. 755 E. Flamingo Rd., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday –Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday, March 8-19, $9-$12.

Tues. 9 Swing by the Freakin’ Frog as the venue’s weekly jazz night gets going. The venue opens early and closes late, providing more than enough time to browse the big beer selection (with 777 brands, they claim it’s the best in town) and perhaps work up the courage to skat along with the band. The best part: Cover, as always, is free. 4700 S. Maryland Parkway, music starts between 7 and 8:30 p.m.

Wed. 10 Johnny Cupcakes founder John Earle literally started from threads, selling T-shirts from the back of his van, but he has gone on to become a fashion phenom. The 27-year-old shares his secrets for success at UNLV at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A session, trivia and prizes—now that’s icing on the cupcake. Just remember, Johnny Cupcakes bakes on the first date—so consider yourself warned.

Greenspun Hall, free.

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 13

The LaTesT

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

alice, 70 Feet Tall Disney made a cartoon out of it, Janis Joplin wrote a song about it, and now Tim Burton is bringing Alice in Wonderland back—and in 3-D. Ninety percent of Burton’s fantastical film was shot in 2008 using green-screen technology, and audiences will be able to see it on the silver screen in standard, 3-D and oversize IMAX formats beginning Friday, March 5. Several midnight showings

14

Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

have been scheduled for those who can’t wait to see the season’s most anticipated movie, including Brenden Theatres at the Palms, Century 16 at Santa Fe Station and Regal Colonnade (8880 S. Eastern Ave.), among others.

Burton uses actors and animation to reinvent Lewis Carroll’s most famous fairy tales, 1865’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and 1871’s Through the Looking-Glass. The updated version of the story stars Australian actress Mia Wasikowska as a 19-year-old Alice, who falls into Wonderland only to realize she has been there before, 10 years earlier. Johnny Depp rejoins the director on this project to assume the role of the Mad Hatter in a cast that also includes Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Matt Lucas and Alan Rickman.

Burton isn’t the only one revisiting Wonderland: A video game (for Wii, Nintendo DC and PCs) has just been released, as has an album of music inspired by the movie (not to be confused with the soundtrack, which is exclusively Danny Elfman’s cinematic score).

The collection, Almost Alice, features tracks from Avril Lavigne, The All-American Rejects, Shinedown, Franz Ferdinand, Neon Hitch and 3OH!3 (who will be at Pure on March 13) and a compilation from bassists Mark Hoppus (Blink 182) and Pete Wentz (Fall Out Boy).

Compiled by Melissa Arseniuk

The Bald and the Beautiful St. Baldrick’s hosts three Irish-inspired events on March 6 to raise money and awareness for its worthy cause: fighting childhood cancer. The events will see more than 200 Las Vegas volunteers get their heads shaved and collect more than $80,000 from those who dared them to do it. Of the 37 teams registered, Cirque du Soleil’s team, Cirque du SoBald, is leading the way with more than $33,194 collected as of press time. While the figure is impressive, it is still short of their goal of $50,000. Meanwhile, other leading teams include Miller Lite ($9,645), Tate Snyder Kimsey ($ 8,105), Bald Team Stations ($7,498) and International Game Technology’s team, Bald is the New Black ($7,330). Support them all—with applause, donations and a few pints—at McMullan’s Irish Pub (4650 W. Tropicana Ave., 2 p.m.), the Nine Fine Irishmen (in New York-New York, 1 p.m.) or Fado’s Irish Pub (9470 S. Eastern Ave., noon) or donate online at stbaldricks.org.

This week in your ciTy Belated-But-Grand Grand Opening Audi Henderson waited a while—months, actually—but the owners are finally ready to cut the ribbon and throw themselves a proper grandopening celebration. The March 4 VIP event will be worth it even if you’re not in the market for a car: Several shiny VIPs will be there, including the 2011 Audi R8 Spyder, the R10 LeMans and a two-tone 1939 Audi Horch Phaeton. Also at the reception will be the vehicle that led to Quattro being banned from Sports Car Club of America racing: the 1989 Audi 200 Trans Am that Hurley Haywood drove to victory in six out of nine SCCA races in 1988. (7740 Eastgate Road in the Valley Auto Mall, 6-9 p.m.)

Goodman photo by Eric Kabik/Retna Ltd.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman James Beard Award nominee Kamel Guechida.

Twitter’s new holy Trinity

Forking Over the Nominations

Welcome to the digital age of enlightenment: The Dalai Lama has opened a Twitter account. Early reports pegged his “follow rate” at five people per second and, after a week, he had gained more than 132,000 faithful Twitter followers. He opened his account three days after meeting with President Barack Obama (and enraging Chinese authorities yet again). His first post, dated Feb. 21, linked to a story about his recent trip to Beverly Hills, which included a photo of the exiled spiritual leader with CNN’s Larry King.

His Holiness isn’t the only noteworthy new member of the addictive micro-blogging community: Las Vegas’ own Oscar Goodman has a new account, too. Unfortunately, the mayor’s office says the account is a fake—so the 268 people currently following the Happiest Mayor in the Universe won’t able to track him as he pops from one martini bar to the other.

The real-life Conan O’Brien joined the discussion on Feb. 24 after holding out for months. (Yes, his account has been verified.) Perhaps he’s grown restless, post-Tonight Show, and Twitter—which rivals Facebook as “the ultimate time-waster”—was just what the former host needed.

“Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial,” O’Brien joked in his inaugural post. “Somebody help me.”

It’s no secret that Las Vegas enjoys the best of the best that the culinary world has to offer, yet the James Beard Foundation just recognized 10 of our best chefs and restaurants with an array of prestigious award nominations. The annual honors effectively serve as “the Oscars of the food world,” according to Time, and celebrate the best chefs, new talent and other culinary wizards who work their magic behind the scenes.

Vegas Seven food critic Max Jacobson would like to see an ethnic restaurant like Lotus of Siam win this year. His wish may come true, since Saipin Chutima is nominated for Best Chef: Southwest.

Although Jacobson believes Chutima is a “really deserving chef,” the Thai cook is up against some pretty stiff competition, including Claude Le Tohic ( Joël Robuchon) and Rick Moonen (RM Seafood).

Two spots at MGM Grand—Joël Robuchon and Nobhill Tavern—are nominated in the Outstanding Service category, while other locals on this year’s short list include Julian Serrano of Picasso at Bellagio (Outstanding Chef), Vanessa Garcia of Restaurant Charlie at the Palazzo (Rising Star Chef of the Year) and Kamel Guechida of Joël Robuchon (Outstanding Pastry Chef).

Sage in Aria at CityCenter and Picasso at Bellagio round out the baker’s dozen, nominated for Best New Restaurant and Outstanding Wine Service, respectively.

Another round of nominations will be announced on March 22, and winners will be crowned on May 3 in New York.

Zappos Hits the Books Internet retailer Zappos already wrote one of Henderson’s biggest modern-day success stories and today the company is asking all of us to help write another tale: its 2010 Culture Book.

(Think of it as a yearbook that showcases the culture that helped Zappos reach the 23rd spot in Fortune’s list of Best Companies to Work For, peppered with pop culture references and, if you’re lucky, your photos.)

The 2009 edition, which was limited to submissions from customers, employees and partners, was so well-received that Zappos decided to open it up to the rest of us this time around. “It was really fun to see everyone’s unique ‘eye’ on the world,” the open invitation, posted on the company blog, said.

The guidelines are simple: Send images to cbphotos@zappos.com and see if your submission(s) make the cut. Suggestions include “something fun and a little weird,” “something that makes you smile” and “something you’re passionate about.” Note: The company isn’t interested in “dirty laundry” or “anything inappropriate”—though both of those are up for interpretation, now, aren’t they? Oh, and nothing that’s been Photoshopped or altered beyond recognition. (Sorry, Elizabeth Taylor; apologies to Bruce Jenner’s face.) Visit blogs.zappos.com for details, submission deadline is March 19.

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 15

THE LATEST THOUGHT

Stranger Than Fiction A webcam game of Chatroulette can be a dicey affair—just watch!

By Alissa Kelly

Just when I thought that social media was prevalent enough, along comes something that changes the way the world looks at itself—one freak, geek, voyeur and “normal” person at a time.

One day I’m hard at work chasing the dream of “catching up” when a chat pops up on my Facebook page. It’s an acquaintance of mine who drops the bomb: “Have you heard about Chatroulette?” “What’s Chatroulette?” I ask.

He responds with approximately four warnings all in caps, the final being, “DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU.” Then he provides the URL, chatroulette.com.

I ignore his warnings, of course, and immediately go to the website, where I find a “play” button and some basic guidelines that in no way could prepare me for what I was about to experience.

While intrigued, I wasn’t born yesterday. I worry that if I click that button I might be rickrolled. So I head to Google to do a little Web-based research. A quick search or two reveals Chatroulette is a program that turns your webcam on and puts you face-to-face with a stranger. From the comfort of your home—or, in my case, the office—you are suddenly staring at a complete stranger who, if you’re lucky, is just as wide-eyed and hesitant as you are.

Scary? Yes. Intriguing? Definitely. Am I too much of a wuss to try it? Absolutely. I spend the entire following weekend talking about it and thinking about the thousands of potential weirdos lurking on the site.

After a couple days, I decide to put my fears aside and try it. As I prepare to log on for my first time, I get nervous again. What’s on the TV in the background? Does my hair and makeup look OK? Is the room clean? I consider disabling my webcam, but decide that would be cheating.

16 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

I take a deep breath, then click “play.”

My first victim—uh, subject … er, “stranger,” as they are called on the site—is a kid in his 20s. He’s blond and looks completely normal, and I ask him what brought him to the site. He says he saw it on CNN that morning. I tell him he’s too normal for me to talk to, and he laughs. But deep down, I was kind of serious.

I continue my interrogation and ask him about the weirdest thing he’s seen on Chatroulette. He tells me that, so far, it was a guy playing with his genitalia. Gross!

My second random video chat connects me to a guy who is clearly doing something to himself. Eek! Disconnect! After that, my third spin of the Chatroulette wheel brings me to two teenaged girls, and they immediately disconnect. The bitches. I don’t like rejection.

Next.

Another masturbator.

Next!

Finally, someone normal: David, a 28-year-old guy who looks like Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional. David lives in Germany but is originally from Spain, and what seems like it might be an interesting chat soon ends when he asks if I speak Spanish and, I have to tell him that, though I did take two years of Spanish in high school, I do not.

Next.

More guys and their junk.

Seriously?

One of them asks to see my boobs—yeah, right. I’m getting bored.

Next.

My final video chats of the night are two University of Oregon students who say that being on Chatroulette on a Monday night beats going to the library.

Point taken.

I quiz Tommy, a 21-year-old archaeology major and his buddy, and they tell me their craziest experience was a “girl and her boyfriend putting on a show for us, but he was in a ski mask.”

It all sounds like a scene from True Blood to me.

Tommy tells me he is coming to Las Vegas in May for a friend’s 21st birthday. “So, President Obama’s comments about blowing the college fund are right?” I ask.

“I already did that,” he replies, then, after I tell him to get a job, he asks if I’m hiring.

Next.

I see an Asian guy who types “w a u from” and I am convinced I am watching a freeze frame of a movie because the guy isn’t moving. Someone’s screwing with me, I’m sure. I say “Vegas” and he disconnects. Touché.

And with that, I’m done—I’ve had my dose of voyeuristic experimentalism for the day. Back to work I go.

As a social media junkie, I’m surprised it took so long for something like this to make its way to the masses—though I’m not sure what practical purpose it will come to serve. Or how they’ll get rid of all the perverts.

Alissa Kelly (pictured above) is Partner and COO of PR Plus. You can friend her on Facebook, follow her on twitter (@vegaspr) or, if you’re lucky, chat with her on Chatroulette—just please, guys, keep your pants on.

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

Got a tip? gossip@weeklyseven.com

LiLo the No-Show

­Compiled­by­@marseniuk

@Jockin_JB I like Borders more than I like the library because the books have pretty covers and that’s how I judge books ... By the covers. @dwax Wow, the interest rate on my ING savings account has dropped from 3.65% 2 yrs ago to 1.1%.

Mariah Carey at Haze and Nick Cannon at Vanity.

Carey-Cannon Kerfluffle Are Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon already spending unnecessary time apart?

The couple, who have been married less than two years, were in Las Vegas on Feb. 27 as Carey closed her Angel’s Advocate tour at Caesars Palace. However, instead of celebrating together after the show, they headed in completely different directions.

Money may have had something to do with it, since both parties were heavily promoted appearances—but maybe not.

Either way, the separate nightlife vacations came on the tail of a tabloid firestorm, when a source close to Cannon said Mr. Carey wants his sweet-singing wife to put down the champagne and check herself into rehab. Still, there was no shortage of champagne on Saturday and the PerrierJouët flowed freely in the VIP at Haze

after Carey finally arrived at 1:15 a.m.

(She was about an hour late, but that was nothing for the less-than-punctual singer, who delayed her performance earlier that evening at the Colosseum by 90 minutes.)

Ever the diva, Carey still managed to make an entrance. She rolled in with a massive entourage of nearly 50 people and immediately took over a special section of the VIP that had been reserved for her and her crew.

Meanwhile, Cannon was across town, holding down his portion of the night’s party—and there was no shortage of help for him at the Hard Rock Hotel. Several young and restless women were at Vanity and suffice to say many of them were extremely eager to help him get the party started, so to speak.

Perhaps that’s why Carey didn’t stay at Haze all that long. She was only there for about an hour before she rushed off, suddenly determined to meet up with Cannon.

You Are What You Eat They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover—but can you judge a reality TV star by her cake?

It sounds completely ridiculous, we know, but take a look at two examples from Feb. 27: Exhibit A (pictured, right) is the cake presented to Kim Kardashian at Tao. Like the picture-perfect socialite, the cake was curvy and perfectly manicured. And like the dress that Kim K was wearing that night, the cake had an designer label, too (Gimme Some Sugar).

18 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Exhibit B (left) also reflects the person who received it, Jersey Shore personality Jenni Farley.

The cake, like JWoww herself, is unpretentious and unrefined. In fact, it looks like something you could pick up at the grocery store—and we’re talking Food 4 Less here, not Whole Foods.

Although they were very different, both cakes suited both women perfectly. Kim K’s perfume bottle-shaped cake was voluptuous and coincided with the curvaceous entrepreneur’s new fragrance. Meanwhile, JWoww’s b-day cake at Moon matched her fake nails and ridiculous, marabou-topped tiara. And you know what?

That’s totally fine. Let Kim Kardashian and JWoww have their respective cakes—and let them eat them, too.

@criss_angel A little bit of tinkle missed the toilet, but levitated right back in. Mindleak! >@gingerninja90 And what happens with number 2s? MindDump? >>@criss_angel Don’t be silly, that’s a MindDeuce. @Cudlitz Dear Congress: Show me you can take care of the medical needs of the men and women of our armed forces. Maybe then you can care for my mom. @stephaniekmusic Hearing Kim Kardashian complain about having 2 “work” by gettin hair/ makeup done & making an appearance @ a club in Vegas makes my head hurt. @helle1981 Just made my younger cousins listen to Steel Panther. Not sure they were ready for that. #badinfluence. @WriteRCastle The Olympics were like some of my ex-gfs exciting and mysterious @ first,

then hit or miss, & finally I’m just glad it’s over. @Vegasgeoff @toddhuish I am the king of useless knowledge. Never play me in Trivial Pursuit. Seriously.

You will lose horribly.

Lohan photo Erik Kabik / RETNA / erikkabik.com, Carey photo by Jacob Andrzejczak

Although it may have looked like a classic case of bait-andswitch, Pure Management Group weren’t the ones who pulled the plug on Lindsay Lohan’s Feb. 27 appearance.

The beleaguered actress had been on the books to appear at Pure but she canceled at the last minute, on the afternoon of Feb. 26.

Lohan’s people were having trouble finding her and had no idea where the hot mess was hiding. Paparazzi reports suggested she had left L.A. (and apparently cell phone range), but no one seemed to know where she was.

So what was it that was ohso important? Why, partying at Fashion Week, of course!

Lohan was photographed living it up in Milan, Italy, the Lindsay Lohan day after she was supposed to be at Pure, at an event for designer Roberto Cavalli.

Tweets of the Week

Society

Women’s World The United Way of Southern Nevada’s annual Women’s Leadership Luncheon honored former UNLV president and Black Mountain Institute Executive Director Carol Harter for her commitment to education, former lieutenant governor and Clark County Commissioner Lorraine Hunt-Bono for her work regarding financial stability and Keep Memory Alive CEO Maureen Peckman for her efforts related to access to health care. The event, which was held on Feb. 25 at the Paris hotel, also featured a keynote address by Marie Osmond.

Photography by Sullivan Charles

20 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Society

Love in the Air The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health raised $27 million on Feb. 27 at the Power of Love Gala at Bellagio. Guests enjoyed food prepared by renowned chefs Wolfgang Puck (pictured top left) and Thomas Keller, and a special performance by Barry Manilow. Guests included Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman (pictured right), Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf, Brad Garrett, Leeza Gibbons, Mayor Oscar Goodman, Rep. Shelley Berkley and Rep. Dina Titus.

Photography by Brenton Ho

22 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

ENVIABLES

Style

calliNG all STraiGhT JuNkieS

Yuko Beauty, the Japanese hair-care company, and Tangles Hair Studio (2300 N. Rainbow Blvd.) want to treat five Vegas Seven readers to luscious locks.

Tell us what celeb’s hair you most envy at beautycontest@weeklyseven.com and win Yuko’s Bella Treatment and Shampoo (a $40 value).

The Look

Photographed by Tomas Muscionico

MEgAN WAthEN, 26

Hairstylist, Globe Salon

Time afTer Time

Looking for some unique home accessories? The Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art boutique offers a range of interesting options for interiors fanatics, such as this Kikkerland clock, which makes telling time fun with exposed mechanisms. $85.

Beach Bum

Anya Hindmarch knows how to make a great bag and the British lass knows a thing or two about the beach, too.

Hindmarch’s limited-edition beach totes (a.k.a. pool totes here in Vegas) are available at her signature store in the Shoppes at the Palazzo, including the Pebble Beach, shown above. $225.

Style Icon: Audrey Hepburn’s “classic, timeless style.”

What She’s Wearing Now: Silence & Noise lace blouse from Urban Outfitters, vintage skirt, fuchsia tights from Target, Pink Duchess “Emma” shoes from modcloth.com, hand-dyed necklace a friend made from a torn white T-shirt, her mom’s vintage watch, a braided metal bracelet fashioned by her iron-working grandfather and a bejeweled bangle from Brass Plum.

Megan’s Style Mantra: “Wear clothes that fit well and express your personality.” Every few months, she recycles her closet at Buffalo Exchange. On her radar this spring: a vintage Chanel jacket, along with a piece or two from Target’s latest designer collaborations ( Jean Paul Gaultier and Zac Posen, in stores March 7 and April 25, respectively).

– Amy Schmidt

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 25

Style

Beyond the Stucco Box Architect Eric Strain re-envisions desert architecture with The House in Two Parts

By M.J. Elstein From the peaks of Summerlin to the valleys of Henderson, Las Vegas is a murky sea of Tuscan and desert contemporary architecture. Stucco dominates, rocks meld the terrain and color ... well, it doesn’t really factor. Sadly, a city that was once a younger playmate to Palms Springs—another desert community possessing era-defining design—has become somewhat of a faint bleep on the residential scene. In part, architects are continually challenged by the tight guidelines set forth by community management associations controlling the look and feel of every structure within their bounds. The rulebooks say there can be little variation. Or is that really case? Can an architect design a home that breaks all norms, meets all the guidelines of the association and still walk away with his integrity intact?

Eric Strain of assemblageSTUDIO recently answered these questions with the completion of a residence that has been in the works for more than four years, The House in Two Parts, located within Redhawk at The Ridges. Resting on the dictum that as a city we don’t have to be victimized by what already exists within our sight line, Strain conceived a home that defies current labels.

The story starts with a married couple in their 50s who bought a plot of land in The Ridges with panoramic views of the Strip. They have two college-age daughters who don’t spend much time at home. They want to keep their family tight yet still downsize from their current house. They hire assemblageSTUDIO to design the new abode. The result is a perfect fit: a series of stacked boxes, no internal connection points and two separate houses on the same lot, totaling 6,000 square feet. We asked Strain to explain the rest: “The original idea was a main house for the owners and then a guesthouse for their daughters when they come home from school. They could come and go as they want without walking by Mom and Dad. When the kids finally leave altogether, it would be about the time the owners’ parents would be needing more assistance and they could move in. What we ended up with is two separate houses with no internal connection points. The main house only has the master and a guest bedroom, and the other house has three rooms plus a media room.

Each has its own garage and entrance.’’

What if it rains? How do you get back and forth between the houses?

“It’s almost like when it does rain we should go out in and actually experience it since it doesn’t happen 26 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

that often. And the distance between the buildings is 20 feet. In this case, you don’t have to be exposed to the weather at all because each house is self-contained.

This concept starts to open up opportunities of living in the desert. Everybody’s been so afraid of heat but if you build in such a way that you use the structure to protect large expanses of windows, we can actually benefit from the amount of sun we have.’’

People will call it modern or ultra contemporary. How do you characterize it?

“Everybody thinks they know what modern is and what contemporary means, so we like to use the words “desert regionalism,” something that is more environmentally connected—not contemporary, modern, traditional or Tuscan.’’

The materials are striking against the landscape. What was used?

“This house uses all insulated concrete masonry units.

All the insulation is contained within the block and with that you get a high level of protection. It’s smooth on the outside, so it looks like granite. The rest of the house is copper treated with black acid so it will darken instead of turn green as it weathers.’’

Why do you think such an edgy project was approved with such ease?

“It actually meets all the guidelines. It’s a smaller home than what we could really build on the site, so that’s been one of the advantages. The size gives us the latitude to play within the setbacks and we can get clean, straight lines inside of the pitch roofs. We haven’t asked for a lot of variances. Everything we’re doing, it’s a new form, but it fits right in with the guidelines of The Ridges.”

What has the reaction been from the community?

“The association came out and toured the house. It’s exactly what we thought—love or hate. It’s not a house that inspires lukewarm feelings. They said they’re glad that it’s there because it’s different from everything else, and it adds the variety they want in the neighborhood, it’s just not their particular style. But the red tile—everybody so far loves the red tile. From the community at large, it is really starting to spark some interest. You don’t have to live in a stucco box anymore. You can live in something that works within the environment that is made of interesting materials.”

In response to the home owners’ love of color, assemblageSTUDIO opted for a pool accented by red tile. Eric Strain says he mocked up the design and received approval from The Ridges before showing it to his clients. In what has become the residence’s most recognizable feature, the neighbors now refer to it as “the red-tile house.”

Photography by Drew Gregory

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 27

Style

Fashion Rx Fashion expert Sean Dunn delivers style-starved Las Vegas men their marching orders.

Tied and fit: men’s accessories By sean Dunn

How to tie ...

A Windsor knot in six easy steps according to the experts at tieanecktie.com

During our last brief (Feb. 4), we covered wardrobe building blocks, style basics and some fit guidelines. Keep those in mind as we begin to navigate the minefield of men’s accessories, which can be tricky.

It is best to use the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) approach when it comes to selecting your hardware. Remember, less is more—unless we’re talking style, in which case more is definitely more.

Ties A necktie is a yard of silk that, when expertly crafted, could double as a noose—and sometimes does, especially when you can’t get the knot right and the dimple to stay in place. The most important aspect of the tie-tying process is practice. I recommend going through the steps while wearing a favorite dress shirt and dress pants so that you can experiment with different knots and see which one works best as far as length and collar type. After the knot, the other half of the battle is color and style. Since there are a million tie patterns, there are a gazillion shirt-tie combinations, which can be overwhelming. Simple solution: One pops, the other doesn’t. With a loud shirt, wear a muted tie or vice versa. For a busy tie, wear a subdued shirt. You’ve probably seen those cool Tom Ford ads with pattern-on-pattern combos, but trust me: That’s some Delta Force shit you aren’t ready for.

BelTs

soCks

Belts are pretty straightforward.

Generally, match the belt to the shoes; it doesn’t have to be an identical match, but it should be close. If the shoes are an odd color (red, gray, etc.), wear a belt that blends with the pants. The middle eye should be buckled to give a balanced appearance and leave room for expansion or contraction. Stitched belts, no matter how expensive, won’t last as long as a hand-fussed three-piece belt. Invest a bit more up front and the belt will last longer than you do.

It’s pretty simple if you follow tradition and match socks to pants, though some guys insist on wearing socks that would make Elton John proud. I don’t care whether you go crazy of stay conservative; just don’t wear white socks with your dress shoes.

It’s bad—very bad. Regardless of how you decide to cover your ankles, buy good socks that are made mainly of wool or cotton and come above the calf. Natural fibers help wick away moisture, which protects feet as well as your footwear.

Cuff links Start simple. Gold or silver solid links or knots are great foundation pieces. A rule of thumb is to match hardware: Belt buckle and links should be of the same color; if you’re wearing colored links, then that color must be somewhere else in the look. Cuff links range from conservative to all-out funky—I’ll leave it up to you to determine where you fit in.

WaTChes Once you drop some serious coin on a watch, it gets complicated. So let’s stick with the every-dude watch: classic, metal and versatile. You want your watch to be something that looks good with a suit, while wearing a T-shirt and jeans, or even lounging in board shorts by the pool. The standard metal-banded military watch is the perfect mix of style and substance for almost any occasion.

2. Cross the wide end over the narrow end and bring through into a loop

3. Cross the wide end over the narrow end again

4. Put the wide end down through the loop and across the narrow end

5. Turn and pass the wide end up through the loop

6. Complete by slipping the wide end down through the knot in front.

Tighten and draw up snug to the collar

sunglasses Nothing pains me more than seeing a well-dressed fellow rocking a great suit wearing the same sunglasses as Dog the Bounty Hunter. Now, there is nothing wrong with wearing plastic frames since one of the most popular sunglass styles is the Ray-Ban Wayfarer, but the multicolored face shield look is no bueno unless you are actually hunting fugitives or fielding fly balls for the Dodgers. Stick to black or tortoise. Face shape plays a critical role in sunglasses looking right on your mug, but most people can wear either aviators, wayfarers or a good pair of black plastic chunk sunglasses. Try on a variety of makes and models, but keep within the boundaries of classic or a modern twist on classic.

Until next month gentlemen, shoot straight and look sharp.

Sean Dunn makes a living by keeping his clients at Astor & Black Custom Clothiers looking good—not just good, real good. Contact him with your style-related questions or comments, 785-2269, e-mail sean@astorandblack.com, or visit astorandblackvegas.com.

From left: Hamilton khaki field officer watch ($995, hamiltonwatch.com), Paul Smith classic striped sock ($30, Paul Smith in Crystals at CityCenter); Montblanc & UNICEF elegance cuff links ($360, Montblanc in the Shoppes at the Palazzo) and Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses ($119, various stores).

28 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

1. Start with the wide end of the tie on the right extending below the narrow end

Where the Rubber Meets the Road The era of Bus Rapid Transit begins this month. How far will it take us? Will we regret abandoning light-rail?

By T.R. Witcher

Photography by Tomas Muscionico

Jacob Snow, general manager of the Regional Transportation Commission, has spent his career working on ways of bringing people to Las Vegas and moving them around. In a transit-averse, auto-heavy town like this, that hasn’t been easy. Cars are happiest, he says, when there aren’t other cars around.

“We’ve got a lot of unhappy cars.”

And Snow thinks he has a solution to get people out of them. It’s called Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), and it’s about to unfold across Las Vegas.

While the city’s economic engine is stuck in neutral (or worse), the RTC is moving forward with two dramatic additions to our region’s infrastructure by month’s end.

The first is the unveiling of the ACE Gold Line, which will run through downtown on dedicated lanes, connect to the Las Vegas Convention Center and head down the Strip in mixed traffic. The second launch is the ACExpress C Line, which will connect Centennial Hills with downtown via high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes on U.S. 95. Then, in April, the RTC will break ground on a BRT line from downtown to Henderson via Boulder Highway. A few weeks ago, the agency was awarded $34.4 million for a BRT line along Sahara Avenue, which is scheduled to open by February 2012. In addition, the downtown lines will converge on a new $17 million tran30 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

sit center at the corner of Bonneville Avenue and Casino Center Boulevard that is set to open by year’s end.

Dependence on the automobile is a problem many American cities face, and for many out West, the answer has been to install light-rail trains. Over the last 15 years, Denver, Dallas and Portland have built the largest systems, multi-line networks that radiate out to distant suburbs and converge downtown, and other cities have systems under way, including Salt Lake City, San Diego and Phoenix. But Las Vegas is headed down a different route, one that will put it in league with Cleveland, Kansas City and Eugene, Ore. So, this is our future. Whether or not that’s a good thing boils down to these two arguments: 1) Light-rail trains are sexy, sleek and speedy. They don’t use the road. People want to ride them. They’re more expensive to build, for sure, but you get what you pay for.

2) The BRT system approximates the quality of trains for a fraction of the cost. These hybrid vehicles allow curbside ticket purchases (so you don’t have to queue at the driver’s door to board and fumble around for your change), boarding and exiting through multiple doors, have fewer stops than a bus, and often have dedicated right-of-way in the road.

The debate is about to be taken to the streets, as Las Vegas will shortly have the core of a long-distance mass-transit option, where before there was nothing.

The sure thing right now is that the RTC is delivering it to us cheaply—all of the lines have been benefited from federal funding, either through the U.S. Department of Transportation or the stimulus bill.

On the other hand, for those of us who remember the monorail being introduced in Disneyland a half century ago, BRT doesn’t sound very futuristic. It’s a little like Las Vegas is trying to be prime time, but this isn’t really prime time.

When transit officials began looking to link the Strip with downtown and/or McCarran International Airport, the idea was to expand our monorail. But after the monorail was shut down temporarily for repairs not long after its launch, the feds withdrew funding promises. Then other monies that had been set aside were moved over to help fund the Gold Line.

“We wanted dedicated right-of-way along the Strip,” Snow says. “That’s the best transit market for this community. If you connect the airport, the Strip, the convention center and downtown, that’s the best transit market in the state of Nevada. If we can connect the rest

of the community to that core, now you’re talking.”

But having a dedicated lane along the Strip is a problem, no matter what the mode of transportation.

“We wanted to go right down the middle of the Strip,” Snow says. “There was enough room on the Strip until we got to Flamingo Road, going north.”

Taking a lane of traffic away from the Strip was a “real concern for a lot of people”—a polite way of saying it was a non-starter. There were other concerns, too, such as the location of bus stations and if any of the casinos workers would really use the line.

The RTC had formed a committee to find the optimal solution. The committee came back in favor of diesel-powered light-rail, but the RTC ultimately settled on BRT. Asked whether supporting BRT was the best choice or merely a pragmatic one, Snow said this: “Honestly, I prefer electric light-rail. If we had the money and the resources, that’s how I would have preferred to have gone. We don’t have the money and the resources.

Nor did we have the support from the community to do the technology, so the answer is pragmatist. We’re making incremental improvements in transit that the community will support. And it’s important to point out that the whole concept of Bus Rapid Transit can be viewed and should be viewed as a precursor to making a higher level investment in the future.”

There are probably 30-40 BRT systems across the country, says Dennis Hinebaugh, director of the National BRT Institute at the University of South Florida.

Most large transit agencies are at least contemplating BRT lines, he says. “It’s a mode that’s here to stay.”

So, what is it, exactly? The common denominator among all systems is that Bus Rapid Transit is associated, as the name implies, more closely with a bus than a train, which is a problem because the bus is perceived as a lower-class affair in this country. Beyond that, there is some confusion about what a BRT constitutes.

Some cities merely reduce the number of stops (compared with a bus route) and time a few signals so they can slap a “rapid transit” tag on the result.

“Fairly mediocre bus improvements have been called BRT by their promoters and given the technology a bit of a bad name,” says Walter Hook, executive director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy in New York.

Most experts agree that a strong BRT system includes a dedicated right-of-way, off-vehicle ticket purchases and level boarding platforms, all of which Las Vegas’ ACE line will have (though all but two miles of the 11.2-mile Gold Line will operate in mixed traffic). BRT advocates cite success in smaller cities, such as Eugene, as well as lines in large cities, such as Cleveland, where the Euclid Avenue corridor links downtown to a cultural and medical district. The nine-mile line there has helped spur billions in new development, and the naming rights were recently sold to the Cleveland Clinic. (The route is now called the Health Line.)

Cleveland spent only $21 million a mile on the system, and unlike light-rail, there was no need to install electrification systems or to dig up the ground to reroute utilities. “You can do it a lot quicker and with less disruption,” Hinebaugh says. “You can also do it incrementally. If you have a mile of a BRT down, you can start operating it. If you have a mile of [light-rail], until you finish everything in between you’ve got nothing.”

Supporters also tout its flexibility. BRT lines can leave their right-of-way lanes and operate like regular buses,

Opposite page: Driver Marvin Wilkins rolls the ACE into the Arts District during a test drive. Other BRT’s are being readied for action at the Sunset Maintenance Facility.

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 31

32 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

for greater growth. “We should always build public transit infrastructure of the proper type in the appropriate corridor,” he says. “You can’t look at it as a cost; you have to look at it as an investment.”

He even finds the flexibility of BRT a disadvantage, as it tends to discourage private investment. The Cleveland example notwithstanding, he argues that buses follow development, while trains lead it.

Light-rail train cars tend to go faster (though they also tend to have fewer station stops; so pedestrians might have to walk or drive farther to connect), and they certainly can carry more people than buses. It’s easy to couple three or four cars together under the control of one driver.

“If you have really, really high numbers of passengers and really narrow rightof-way, you can probably move more people through that narrow right-of-way” with light-rail, Hook says. Then again, he notes the reality is that most systems in American cities are not running anywhere near their maximum capacities, so BRT may make more sense.

The question of light-rail and Bus Rapid Transit brings us to what could be a turning point in American transit planning. If we begin to live more densely, then the greater carrying capacity of light-rail systems begins to make more sense. If not, then BRT may prove to be the effective solution—less expensive and less ambitious. For all the success of the back-to-cities revival of the last two decades, this is still—love it or hate it—a suburban nation. Especially Las Vegas, which has had less success in revitalizing its center city as a place to live than most other places.

Although the city seems to be finally shifting in a more urban direction, it’s still one big cluster of suburbs.

If you want a taste of the BRT, check out the RTC’s MAX line, which opened in 2005 and runs from downtown up Las Vegas Boulevard to Nellis Air Force Base. The stations feature cool, curving sheets of metal, and ridership has been pretty good, about 8,000 people a day. The buses are clean, airy and light, with skylights, and the ride, which takes about 30

Gold Line map courtesy RTC

The RTC’s new Gold Line snakes north and then south through downtown.

It begins on Grand Central Parkway, between the Clark County Government Center and the outlet mall, passes the World Market Center and ends up going south on Casino Center Boulevard, through the heart of downtown and the Arts District. (Neon artwork will be displayed at three of the station stops. Two are vintage Vegas signs: Fifth Street Liquor and the Landmark Hotel.) In this stretch, the bus will run in its own dedicated lane.

From downtown the Gold Line will enter mixed traffic en route to the Las Vegas Convention Center, then it will head west to the Strip, where it will travel the length of the resort corridor and terminate at the South Strip Transfer Terminal.

if need be. “What the bus lacks in sex appeal it makes for in flexibility because it’s on rubber tires,” Snow says. “If you build tracks, you’re stuck. You don’t have flexibility to respond to special events, to respond to accidents or incidents or to meet the needs of a dynamic, changing community over time.”

In fact, BRT may work best when it’s not thought of simply as a train line on rubber wheels. Advanced BRT systems coming up in China and Colombia allow regular buses on local routes to pick up riders and then interface with a massive trunk line that enables buses to pass each other, and then allows buses to exit out of the trunk and back into local service. It sounds like a freeway system, only instead of one HOV lane for buses, the whole thoroughfare would be buses.

In cities such as Curitiba, Brazil (the Ground Zero of large-scale BRT) and Bogotá, Colombia, BRT systems can really haul. In Bogotá, where buses have the ability to pass one another in the system, the average speed can top 30 mph. “An optimally designed BRT will probably [be] very competitive with what you can achieve with light-rail or trambased technologies,” Hook says. And it will have lower infrastructure and capital costs, and comparable operating costs.

And the cost consideration can’t be ignored. Phoenix’s new light-rail line, which is pretty much at street level, cost $70 million a mile to build. Seattle’s new 15.6-mile line, which had to negotiate a trickier topography, cost around $173 million per mile. The Gold Line cost about $52 million for the entire 11.2-mile route.

“We think a system that serves the entire community is better than just one small line that serves a portion of it,” Snow says.

Not everybody agrees. One of the most vociferous critics is Dave Dobbs, a former Las Vegan who started a website 10 years ago to push for light-rail in Austin, Texas. Today LightRailNow.org has become a nationwide champion of that mode.

For starters, Dobbs prefers the smooth ride of a light-rail car to the sometimesspringy ride of a bus. “It’s a fine thing,” he says, “but don’t tell me a bus is a train.” Moreover, while he concedes BRT might work well in a small city such as Eugene, bigger cities should plan

TKRubric

Above and opposite: Marvin Wilkins drives along the Gold Line.

minutes, is smooth. The passengers are about the cast you’d expect: a young woman and her baby, an older woman, young couples holding hands, people chattering away on their cell phones or talking to their friends about the swap meet. The agency has saved some 60 percent of costs to operate the line versus the slower line it replaced.

Will the MAX success be replicated on the Gold Line? The RTC certainly hopes so, but questions remain. Ridership, for one. The RTC is being coy about releasing projected ridership information on both the Gold Line and ACE Express, possibly a hedge on numbers coming back less than what it anticipates.

Because the Gold Line does not have a dedicated right-of-way from start to finish, there will be no fixedtime schedule. Instead, the schedule will be based on frequency, with peak-hour headways of eight minutes.

Snow says the Gold Line will add 40 percent capacity beyond the 33,000 people who ride the double-decker Deuce bus every day, though that’s not quite the same as predicting ridership will be 40 percent higher.

Certainly, it remains to be seen how fast the ACE Gold Line will run once it gets in heavy traffic on the Strip—which remains the street most in need of a fixed-transit solution. You can imagine tourists making good use of the Gold Line to get from the Strip to downtown; and business travelers moving to and from the convention center will also likely use it. It’s unlikely many locals will use it at first, but that may be understandable—as lines from the rest of Las Vegas come into the central city, the Gold Line may start to

act as a trunk line, not just for the resort corridor but for the whole city.

It’s easy to think that we’re blowing it with BRT. If even the transportation boss says he’d have rather gone with light-rail, why are we settling for a second-banana system? Then again, Nevada doesn’t have a smoothrunning state government at the moment, and so you’d have to wonder how a light-rail system—absent an extraordinary gift from the feds—would even be funded.

Would Nevadans support a tax? The value of these BRT lines may be as much symbolic as functional—creating the idea for Las Vegans that mass transit belongs here.

And we have to be careful not to paint with too broad a brush. After all, Denver’s light-rail will soon include a rapid bus route to Boulder (and without a new tax increase, its ambitious network of lines is more than $2.4 billion short of funding); and even in New York City—America’s heavyweight champ of mass transit—a BRT line is being discussed down Manhattan’s transitdeprived Second Avenue, thanks to delays in constructing a new subway.

Snow hints that perhaps, if ridership demand proves high, the BRT might be upgraded to some sort of rail option. Yet you can easily imagine the difficulties of such a proposal—to rip out a system that people like and replace it with one they might like better. By the time such a change was made, all those people might well have started driving instead.

Or, as John Shonsey, chief engineer for Denver’s Regional Transportation District, puts it, “If I were to spend my capital, I would want not to rip it up.”

Honestly, I prefer “electric light-rail.

If we had the money and the resources, that’s how I would have preferred to have gone.

We don’t have the money and the resources.

Nor did we have the support from the community to do the technology, so the answer is pragmatist.”

– Jacob Snow

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 33

Jason Giambi’s Next Training Ground With baseball in the twilight phase, the All-Star slugger has a full-time Vegas career on deck

By Ben Conmy “Party like a rock star, hammer like a porn star, and hit like an All-Star.”

I was told by an Oakland A’s fan that Jason Giambi came up with that emotive quote, but I was skeptical. Upon meeting the All-Star first baseman in the foyer of the Hard Rock Hotel’s opulent new HRH Tower before our interview, I thought he could undeniably pass for a rock star, with ripped jeans, faux hawk and tattoos. I didn’t know how to gauge that second simile, but he looks like he could hit a baseball to California.

I suppose I could have asked him. For someone who delivered such a candid line, Giambi is an incredibly down-to-earth fellow. He is star-quality relaxed as we ride the elevator with his entourage (a.k.a. “his boys”) up to a delightfully plush suite, especially considering it’s 10:30 on a Friday night in Las Vegas.

His demeanor tells me there’s been no rock-star partying yet— or any other kind of Giambi fun.

In fact, he’s just come from a meeting that ran 30 minutes over. Maybe this is the new Jason Giambi, hard-core businessman who’s transitioning from a 15-year career in the major leagues. He makes very precise eye contact, speaks with an authoritative voice and once in the suite, he takes his seat like the pro he is, satisfying just another chump interviewer with a column to fill (cue my sinking ego). Even when I flat out ask him, “Was that infamous sound bite really yours?” he confirms it with a knowing laugh. “Yeah, that was me.” It’s clear this isn’t the first time he’s been asked about that quotation. He owns it, and the entourage has a giggle, too.

Giambi is no stranger to controversy (he’s OK with that, too) but he’s been good to baseball overall, with a .282 lifetime average, more than 400 home runs and six All-Star appearances. And baseball has patently been good to him, affording a breathtaking lifestyle that includes a house in Las Vegas, an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a house in Cabo San Lucas, a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, a ’67 Shelby Fastback, a Range Rover, a Porsche, an Escalade and (why not?) a private jet. All of it only overshadowed by a lifetime of extraordinary memories.

The mere mention of spring training—Giambi’s about to head down to Arizona for a month of baseball with a bunch of youthful athletes who might need shaving tips as much as they need hitting tips—sparks a glint in his eye. “All I ever wanted to be was a ballplayer,” says Giambi, now a pinch hitter and backup first baseman with the Colorado Rockies.

“I never wanted to be anything else, not a fireman, not a cop.

A ballplayer. And the more people told me I couldn’t do it, the more I wanted to prove them wrong.”

This is a recurring theme throughout the evening. Proving people wrong is not driven by malice, but with an impish grin that conveys he is likely to get his way in the end. “I know I will work as hard as necessary, whatever it takes, in whatever I do.”

Giambi is under no illusions about what it takes to make it in his new training ground: Las Vegas nightlife. “You have to respect this town, you have to respect what people have done, 34

Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

what they’ve achieved. Whatever you have done before you come to Las Vegas, especially career-wise, you need to start again here, prove you can do it here. Las Vegas is a very small family when you get down to it, and I’ve always responded well to that environment, like teammates in a locker room, you know?”

So far so good. He’s been a partner in Man Down (as in, you have too many drinks, wake up and text a friend, “I went man down last night”) for a couple of years, and when he has to hit the road for baseball, his business interests are attended to. “I have a family here I can trust. My partner [Cory McCormack] will make sure everything is dealt with. You have to know who you can trust, and I’d take a bullet for my guys, and I know they would for me.”

Giambi has several business interests in the Hard Rock Hotel, including Rare 120º restaurant, the Wasted Space rock ’n’ roll club and Vanity, a nightclub that opened New Year’s Eve and continues to evolve (there’s an after-hours spot planned called After Life, as well as Johnny Smalls, a restaurant where people can catch a quick bite before they hit the clubs).

When I make the mistake of asking a question that implies Giambi is simply the money man for Vanity, the response is swift and unambiguous: “I’ve been involved to the point where I wanted to know what the fabric for the couches was—the littlest things. I drive Cory crazy with this stuff, but it’s really important for me. I’m not just a money man; I want ownership.”

But why be bothered with the hassle and stresses of nightclub décor when he can have someone else do that work?

“I’ve been to a million nightclubs. I’ve been talking about this for 10 years. We want people to have an experience. I want to have responsibility for that experience, not leave it for everyone else to do. This is like my baby. One day I will make the transition from baseball into nightlife full time, and I want to be ready for that.”

When Giambi was going full steam in his heyday, the party train never really stopped, and his eyes widen as he remembers those days. It’s clear that while he was tearing the roof off various clubs all over the country, he was also taking note of what made that experience work for him. Now those indispensable fundamental features of the good times are being transferred to his projects here.

It is clearly important for Giambi to convey the message of the moment (Vanity) in this interview, but after that he proves to be exceedingly easy company. There’s no brush-off. No hurry to the action downstairs. He’s certainly achieved enough in his career to behave like an arrogant athlete, but that plainly isn’t his style.

“It’s always been important for me to treat people with respect—on the ball field, but also in my nightclub, whether it’s signing autographs or buying a tray of shots. I remember all my first autographs—Tommy John in baseball, Vince Ferragamo in football. That stuff was really important to me, and that’s how I want to treat people. I try to make time.”

More giaMbi

Scan here with your mobile phone to read Jason’s answers to Las Vegans’ questions, or visit weeklyseven.com.

Las Vegas is a very “small family when you get down to it, and I’ve always responded well to that environment.”

Jason Giambi in his suite at the new HRH Tower. Photo by Anthony Mair

And what about the fun? “The truth is, I’ve lived here 11 years now and I do love the action, but you learn to pace yourself. It’s a tight-knit place. It really is a small town in the end. … I love that about Vegas. It really is a small circle. Unwritten rule: It’s like baseball, you gotta look out for your teammates. You look after Vegas, and Vegas will look after you.”

I would be remiss not to explore Giambi’s career, so I asked whether it was possible to isolate a standout highlight. “Yeah, for sure. The greatest day of my life was with the Oakland A’s in 2000 when my teammates carried me off the field [after clinching a playoff berth].

I won the MVP that year, but it didn’t mean as much as

when they carried me from the field—that just isn’t done in the big leagues. To know your teammates care like that means everything to me. It surprised me and it shocked me, I was pretty overcome. I’ll never forget that, ever.”

After a pause, Giambi begins again unprompted, ostensibly realizing what this year is going to be about for him, and where he sees himself right now. “I’m not a 23-year-old rookie anymore, I’m 39 years old. And I do feel I work twice as smart, because it’s simply impossible to work twice as hard as some of the young guys. If this is my last year, it won’t be because I wasn’t prepared.”

When he does retire, he’ll miss the camaraderie most.

“Someone once said, ‘You don’t miss the game, you

miss the guys,’ and I totally understand that. You miss the whole being a part of something. That’s what I have here with Vanity, Wasted Space, the Hard Rock and my other projects. I feel like I’m part of something special, something that’s going to grow, that we can share, and it’s a great feeling to have that.”

Giambi invites me out to Vanity before he leaves the suite with his entourage—another night on the town before he flies out to spring training on his plane. You can’t guarantee much in this world, but his roguish countenance told me a couple of things were absolute certainties: the shots would be on him, and the night wasn’t ending early.

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 35

THe LocaL Newsroom Tough Times for crime Most commonly committed offenses in Vegas on the decline— partly due to the bad economy

By Jessica Prois

revenue through tuition fees, might seem like it would help to cancel out the 24 percent budget cut from last July, but Maryanski says the math isn’t that simple.

“It doesn’t cover administration and student support costs,” he says. “That’s where we have to tighten up and do more with the same size staff.”

Lee Young, vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Experience, has been feeling the pinch for months.

The department, which recruits students to the college, could attend 20 more events such as high school meetings and college fairs if they had more staff, he says.

“We could do more, but our staff is already pushing 50 to 60 hours [a week] for our standard services,” says Young, whose workweek usually tops 70 hours. “I think we’re absorbing as successfully and gracefully as anyone with the cuts. The situation is so fluid it moves from extreme to extreme every day, every hour. You have to live in the moment. Whatever happens we have to maintain the day-to-day operations.”

Three years ago, Young’s staff was 15 percent larger with fewer students to serve. Although he wonders how he will stretch his already-stressed staff even further, if the state government looks “at the pattern of growth and how we’ve done so well with so little, I think we could be used as an example of what you can do with opportunity.”

Short on change, short on time and short on—crime? While the slumping economy has taken a vexing toll, in other ways it’s been a proverbial police force itself, keeping criminal activity in check.

“People are home more. You’re not going to get your house burglarized if you’re sitting inside of it,” says Metropolitan Police Department Lieutenant Chris Carroll.

The three most commonly committed crimes—burglary, larceny and auto burglary—are all down in Las Vegas.

Compared with last year, auto theft has fallen almost 40 percent and burglary is down almost 20 percent.

The downward trend hints that a lagging economy isn’t necessarily a catalyst for crime. “This shows that the people who commit the crimes are not citizens just like you and me who all of a sudden are on bad times and took up robbing and stealing,” Carroll says.

UNLV criminal justice professor William Sousa says a lot of people assume higher crime rates are inevitable during a recession, but that isn’t the case. In fact, the “I got your back” mentality prevalent during trying times in older cities is where Sousa says he sees Las Vegas heading.

“That sort of generational investment in neighborhoods, you don’t see that as much here as in the East,” he says.

“But there are defined neighborhoods here. The students I have now are the first larger generation of locals. As the city grows and matures, you have … investment in neighborhoods.”

Lieutenant Robert DuVall, commander of Metro’s financial property crimes unit, doesn’t attribute the lower crime rate to just the economy. He says the police department has implemented new tactics in recent years and the community is now seeing the effect. For example, Metro has been emphasizing not just recovering stolen cars but training its officers on three classes of car thieves. In recent years, the department also has assigned detectives to substations, where they

Continued on page 39

Continued on page 39

A nursing student at Nevada State College hones her skills on a medical mannequin during a classroom exercise. Photo by Anthony Mair

a Learning experience Nevada State College faces uncertain future as increasing enrollment offset by budget cuts, low graduation rate

By Tiffannie Bond There are many clichés that describe current feelings at Nevada State College—“carpe diem,” “waiting for the other shoe to drop,” “bide your time.” The list goes on, but for the faculty and staff at the Henderson-based college, they aren’t just clichés.

Like those at other educational institutions in Nevada, faculty, staff and students at Nevada State College have been holding their collective breath since the most recent round of budget cuts last July. And with another 6.9 percent in budget cuts made during the Legislature’s recent special session, NSC President Fred Maryanski and his staff have run numbers and strategies like two teams before the Super Bowl. They have a game plan. Now they just have to implement it.

For now, the numbers seem to be on the school’s side. The Henderson-based institution boasts a 23 percent enrollment increase since last spring and more than 2,600 students—the most in the school’s eight-year history.

But those aren’t the numbers on the minds of Maryanski and his staff.

“The government gave us some hints about what will be coming,” he says. “We’ll have to find the approach that minimizes the damage to our students. We’re looking at positions and programs, and so I can’t say there is anything for sure that will happen. … It’s a complicated formula.”

A 23 percent enrollment increase, which means additional

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven

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3/3/10 10:47 AM

The Local Newsroom

Green Felt Journal

Tweets connecting casinos with potential customers

By David G. Schwartz

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Casinos are always looking for new ways to reach customers. So it’s no surprise that they’ve embraced Twitter, the popular social networking application that lets anyone tell the world, in 140 characters or less, “what’s happening.”

Casino tweets range from straight-up promo offers (TI Suite Sale $50 F&B + 20% Off Spa / Also $61 Strip View w/ free breakfast) to single-sentence press releases (Celine Dion is returning to @CaesarsPalace and will be back home at the ColosseumatCP 3/15/2011!) to actual interaction with followers (Hey #vegas tweeps, come introduce yourself this Saturday night! #stationsocials).

On one hand, it’s great that casinos are connecting with potential customers, whether it’s by smoke signals or Short Message Service. On the other, just because you can do something, it doesn’t mean you should. Does all of this tweeting, retweeting and following actually add anything to the bottom line, or is it just sound and fury for the sake of sound and fury?

Even if the sample tweets above seem like gibberish to you, they make sense to plenty of people online. According to Hunter Hillegas, whose Rate Vegas website is a rallying point for Web-savvy Vegas visitors, the benefits go far beyond having another avenue to push offers through.

“Many tastemakers, journalists and other early adopters are active users of Twitter. This lets the casinos get closer to these people in a way that just isn’t as practical through other means,” Hillegas says.

As with any other advance, some are jumping in without looking back, while others are more tentative. Those who do it well—Hillegas singles out Planet Hollywood and Wynn Las Vegas—put a human face on their property, responding to requests, complaints and praise with finesse. Others adopt a less personal approach, broadcasting existing PR campaigns and ignoring critical comments.

“Simply re-tweeting praise from other

users,” Hillegas says, “creates an echo chamber of little value.”

A recent personnel move highlights Twitter’s increasing prominence on the Strip. Brandie Feuer, until recently known to 12,000-plus followers as @phvegas, saw her Twitter star rise during her tenure at Planet Hollywood. She won the 2009 Trippie editor’s choice award (if you must ask, they’re like Oscars for Vegas casinos) for “Best Twitterer” for having elevated casino marketing tweets to an art form.

After pioneering casino tweeting with Luxor in 2007 (and being chosen as one of the top 40 Twitter brands by social media site mashable.com), Feuer is a veteran in the budding world of casino tweets.

Recently, Feuer left Planet Hollywood for the Tropicana to become the property’s director of marketing and innovation, and the rapport she’s built on Twitter over the past couple of years helped make her announcement of the move something special.

Instead of firing off a Tropicana press release, Feuer broke the news in an exclusive interview with vegastripping.com, the site that hosts the Trippies.

“It was great,” Feuer says, “to be able to talk about the move candidly with people I respect, and to get feedback right away. None of this would have been possible had I not been on Twitter.”

Feuer, who’s now tweeting as @VegasGalB, sees limitless potential in a channel that can create immediate oneon-one communications between casino executives, guests and team members.

“I think everyone who has something to say should use it,” she says. “At Planet Hollywood, the poker manager did a phenomenal job of connecting to poker players in a way that no one else could have.”

As more and more customers want to talk, it’s a good bet that Twitter won’t just be for marketers for long.

Does all of this tweeting ... actually add anything to the bottom line, or is it just sound and fury for the sake of sound and fury?

David G. Schwartz is the director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research. You can find him on Twitter @unlvgaming.

38 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

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College Continued from page 37

However, an increase in enrollment doesn’t necessarily mean most of those students will actually leave Nevada State College with a degree. In 2008, the school reported a six-year graduation rate of about 16 percent, with 187 total graduates (in the spring, summer and fall). In 2009, the number of graduates jumped to 224, and there are 110 students projected to graduate this spring.

Meantime, continuing curriculum as planned is the goal of the School of Education, which is second to the School of Nursing in enrollment increase. Despite sweeping cuts to education, Lori Navarrete, interim dean of the School of Education, says her graduates have a place in Nevada school districts.

“We have areas we can’t fill [in the schools] even in these hard times,” she says. “Within a couple of years, there will be more jobs opening up. Clearly, our district hasn’t closed schools.”

As the enrollment numbers illustrate, Nevada State College is gaining real estate on the radar of diverse students.

The average age of an NSC student is 25, but Maryanski says he’s seen an increase in students in their 30s as well.

“That’s true of all schools of education.

We’re seeing that nationally,” Navarrete says. “[Older students] are coming back. ... We definitely feel we have a place in the system other schools may not meet.”

No matter what the future holds, however, Young says he will continue to do the best he can with what he is given.

“There is a light at the end of the tunnel,” he says. “But I’m not sure what it is. It may be an oncoming train or the light of salvation.”

Men’s salons cleaning up with growing demand Business brisk nationwide at ‘grooming lounges’

By Nicole Lucht Grab a beer. Kick back in a leather chair and catch the game. Jump online to check e-mail. Enjoy some fraternal banter.

This isn’t the scene at some spare-room man cave.

Barbershops across the country—including in Las Vegas—have been outfitting themselves for the man who, like Don Draper in Mad Men, wants to look good and is willing to pay for it.

The customer base at Fino has grown over the past year. Photo by Anthony Mair Besides the standard shave-and-a-haircut that Amerifinal strip of wax is ripped. Fino is trying to create a sort of can barbershops have traditionally offered, these salons—or camaraderie among its clientele, hosting networking events for “lounges”—also offer manicures and pedicures (they call it its affluent clients who, Hormechea explains, are in prestigious “detailing”) and even some spa treatments, such as sports executive professions such as medicine, law and gaming. massages. But don’t expect the same serene environment found Despite most businesses taking a hit lately, Hormechea says predominantly in salons and spas catering to women.

Fino’s sales increased 40 percent over the course of 2009.

At male salons, it’s all about making guys feel at home, and that “We’re taking the dying art of barbering and taking it to means big-screen TVs, wireless Internet access and cold beer. the next level,” he says, noting the master barbers on his staff.

At Fino, a “gentleman grooming lounge,” the clientele are “We’re taking the ordinary and making it extraordinary.” generally upscale men looking for treatment beyond a traditional Men also have taken to spa treatments, although it doesn’t barber’s chair, or (dare it be said) a women’s beauty salon. appear there are any spas in Las Vegas that cater specifically to Here, men can get their hands and feet detailed, along men only. with facials and waxings. The most popular services, though, Men’s visits to spas have remained steady for the past 10 remain the haircut and razor shaves, Fino co-owner Alejandro years, accounting for 31 percent of total spa visits, according to Hormechea says. the International Spa Association.

“These are gentlemen that spend money anyway,” he says.

But increasingly, more spas are offering services for men, espe“This is for men that see value in presenting themselves [well] cially the popular basic massage. Some 80 percent of spa owners and looking the part.” surveyed by the association last June said they now offer services to On a global scale, demand for male-specific grooming men, although there are very few that strictly cater to men only. products was valued at $19.7 billion in 2009, according to “Any [treatment] that caters to men is up a bit,” association Packaged Facts, a subsidiary of MarketResearch.com. By public relations manager Shelby Jones says.

2014, that demand is expected to increase 42.1 percent, to $28 billion, the study said.

The amenities don’t stop after the last hair is dusted of the shoulders or the TORNOE'S TOONS

By Rob Tornoe

Crime Continued from page 37

can work more closely with individual police units and the community.

“Now we’re kind of reaping all the benefits of all of this,” DuVall says.

“Take all of this ... and do incorporate it with the tough economic times where people are at home more, and that’s the crime trends we’re seeing. It’s really coming down here in Vegas.”

But some areas of crime are holding steady or even rising for the same reasons other areas are decreasing. Sexual assaults are up, according to Carroll, commander of Metro’s sexual assault unit.

“When you hear sexual assault, most people think of rape that occurs with a stranger in the street. That’s a small portion in the single digits,” he says.

“The vast majority of these offenders

are people like mom’s boyfriend, an uncle, a neighbor.”

Another area that’s increasing is identity theft.

“We’re a money town, so there’s an attractiveness to it here,” DuVall says. “But it doesn’t matter if you live here or in Las Vegas, New Mexico, it’s too easy to do it.

There are too many scams out there.”

DuVall suggests basic precautions such as getting free credit reports and making sure your bank is willing to prosecute if you do become a victim of identity theft.

Sousa seconds the notion of taking personal responsibility. “Even if propensity for criminal activity is high,” he says, “if criminals lack opportunity, crime will decrease.”

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The Local Newsroom

Ready for tax season? An old pro offers write-off advice

By Nicole Lucht It’s the same every year. Gather the W-2s and 1099s, and dig out the receipts. Figure out business expenses and deductions, and wade through ever-evolving tax laws. Get it all done by April 15 and ship it off to the Internal Revenue Service.

“Tax law is getting far more complicated than ever,” says Jack Cohen, a 33-year veteran of the IRS who now works as a certified public accountant in Las Vegas handling taxes for individuals and small businesses. “If you have a return beyond a plain W-2, you should think about using a [tax] preparer.”

This year, the top tax credits are geared toward new home sales, unemployment, low-income workers and the new-car sales-tax deduction, he says.

In 2009, the home credit was changed from its earlier structure of requiring first-time homebuyers to pay back the $8,000 over 15 years to a refundable credit. That means, Cohen says, if the taxpayer owes nothing on his or her taxes, the $8,000 credit is refunded to them in their tax return.

“You don’t have to pay it back,” Cohen says. “It’s free money.”

New this year, too, is a home credit for people who sold their old home and bought a new one. Like the first-time homebuyer credit, this $6,500 credit has income restrictions. Joint filers who earn $150,000 or less and individu-

40

they can be worn elsewhere (unlike formal uniforms, als who earn $75,000 or less qualify for the full amount. which can be written off). And for those who bought a As those income levels increase, the credit decreases. new car last year—as many did thanks to the cash-forFor those who lost their home last year to foreclosure, clunkers deal—the sales-tax deducalthough the tax law says a forgiven tion no longer needs to be itemized. debt, such as a mortgage, is considOther credits to promote environered income, the first $500,000 will mental consciousness were continbe forgiven in the case of primary ued and, in some cases, boosted residences, Cohen says. for 2009, including the purchase of Taxpayers will still need to file the alternative fuel systems, Cohen says.

1099 form the bank that took the loss Energy Star-rated appliances also issues to them, he says. are eligible for credits or rebates.

Working-class taxpayers may qualify for the $400 work credit, – Jack Cohen, Las Vegas accountant Where to find free depending on income, although tax preparation: if that worker also collects social Through April 15, United Way of Southern Nevada security and was previously refunded $250, that person offers free tax prep for individuals and families who won’t qualify, Cohen says. made less than $49,000 last year. Visit uwsn.org/EITC “Bottom line is, a lot of working class will get this,” or nevada211.org, or call 211 for locations; he says.

Also through April 15, AARP is offering free tax For workers collecting jobless benefits, the first $2,600 prep for people of all ages. Call (888) 227-7669 or visit in unemployment is not taxable, unlike previous years foundation.aarp.org/GetTaxHelp for locations or to in which all benefits were taxed, Cohen says. make an appointment.

And job-hunting expenses—such as traveling for an Or do it yourself. The IRS offers free filing online to interview, printing of résumés or moving for a job that is taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $57,000 or more that 30 miles away—all can be used for write-offs. less. Visit irs.gov/efile.

Purchases such as new suits, however, can’t be since

Tax law is “ getting far more complicated than ever.”

Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

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The Local Newsroom

Politics

Bayh resignation hits home for Bryan

By Michael Green

Depending on whom you ask, the decision by Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, a moderate Democrat, not to seek re-election is the best or worst thing to happen to the U.S. Senate in years. But if you want to try to understand it, it’s worth asking Richard Bryan.

They overlapped in the Senate by two years. Bryan retired in 2000 after representing Nevada for two terms and spending much of his adult life in politics, as an assemblyman, a state senator, attorney general and then governor before going to Washington. In February 1999, he rocked Nevada politics by announcing he would get out. Today, Bryan is a senior partner at Lionel Sawyer and Collins, the state’s largest law firm, and a not-verygray eminence to Nevadans in general and Democrats in particular.

Bryan wonders why Bayh acted so close to the 2010 election. Democrats are—and should be—concerned about keeping their congressional majorities. Bryan announced his plans nearly two years before the next election, giving Democrats time to seek a successor, and they still lost to Republican John Ensign, who is heard from these days as often as Halley’s Comet.

While liberals dismissed Bayh as a weather vane, he denounced what he considers the Senate’s excessive partisanship and dysfunction. When Bryan left Washington, he expressed similar sentiments about Congress.

“The atmosphere is so venomous now,” Bryan said. “There is less and less of a political center. Decades ago you didn’t get straight party-line votes on virtually everything. There were Democrats and Republicans who were moderates and frequently voted together.

The civil rights bills of the 1960s were the classic example—some Republicans voted for them, and Southern Democrats voted against them.”

Bryan spares neither party in analyzing what went wrong, although, as a lifelong Democrat, he understandably (and rightly) sees Republicans as a bigger problem. “The rise of talk radio, the increasing takeover of the Republican Party by the far right—moderates are not welcome. Fringe groups have coopted the political process, sometimes in both parties, more often in the Republican Party. In the previous decade, the social conservatives have made their

point of view the litmus test for support and had a disproportionate impact. The real zealots have changed the process.”

Another problem is how people view government. Like anyone with common sense, Bryan doesn’t believe government is always the solution, but—common sense again—he doesn’t think it’s always the problem. Yet Bryan doesn’t spare the people in government, either. He thinks Democrats have done a poor job of explaining why they have been pursuing the policies they support, and understands the public’s displeasure, as manifested in criticism from the left and the right.

“The economy is looking better, manufacturing numbers are up several months in a row, but the average person doesn’t judge it by macroeconomic reports, however encouraging they are,” he says. “Their question is, do I have a job, or am I losing my job or why am I working fewer hours next week, and they have reasons to ask those questions.”

Bryan also has a theory about Bayh’s decision to leave. Like Bayh, he served as a governor. “Governors by the nature of their office are action-oriented. They can’t just debate. They have to decide.

The legislative process requires the kind of consensus that has been elusive due to the partisan discord and I think the lack of accomplishment is particularly difficult for former governors whose attitude is, ‘I don’t have until next month, I have to make the decision today.’ Governors aren’t the only ones frustrated by this, especially when you have gone into the public sphere to make policy.”

Bryan remains one of Nevada’s best and most popular politicians ever. In 1994, when Republicans swept to power in Congress, he easily won re-election against an opponent who used most of the popular talking points. In other words, he’s worth listening to. And it’s worth pondering that with every question, he paused thoughtfully before answering.

But when asked, “Do you miss it?” he sounded like he leaped 10 feet.

“I do not miss it,” he said. It’s easy to see why. It’s harder to see why both parties, Democrats in particular, don’t learn more from him.

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.

42 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

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3/3/10 10:48 AM

Nightlife

Entertaining options for a week of nonstop fun and excitement.

Compiled by Melissa Arseniuk

SeveN NIghtS Sun. 7

Thur. 4 Ladies come first at First Food and Bar this Thursday as the restaurant and lounge reinvents “retail therapy” and hosts its first ladies night. Women can unwind with some bargain-priced, beverage-based retail therapy ($5 cocktails) and enjoy gift bags furnished by Dior Cosmetics. Representatives from Dior will also be there to perform makeovers. Second floor of the Shoppes at the Palazzo, 9 p.m., no cover.

Fri. 5 It’s First Friday, so head downtown and join the colorful crowd at the Arts District’s monthly street party. Browse the galleries, watch the performers and get your fill of culture. Charleston Avenue at Casino Center, 6-10 p.m., free. As things shut down, keep the art theme going and make your way to the Artisan for a few rounds of creative cocktails. 1501 W. Sahara Ave., no cover.

Sat. 6 Grab a spirited spot at Blue Martini’s Saturday afternoon Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party.

The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party on the Patio starts at 3 and continues until 6 p.m. and features a hookah lounge and croquet, so don’t be late for this important date. Wear a Mad Hatter-style hat for a free tea martini. At Town Square. Later that night, mix laughs and libations with Family Guy personality Seth Green as he celebrates his birthday at the Wynn. Though the Austin Powers actor actually turned 36 on Feb. 8, he’ll celebrate his belated b-day at Blush, while resident DJ Mighty Mi—not to be confused with Mini Me—spins. Doors at 10:30 p.m., $30 for guys, free for girls.

Sunday usually means the end to the weekend, but since the 2010 Nightclub & Bar Convention gets going on Monday, Sunday serves as a bridge between the weekend-that-was and the week-of-nonstop-partying-that-it-will-be. While, sure, you could be responsible and catch up on your sleep (and rest that overworked liver of yours), why stop now?

Head to Vanity and keep the party going and kick off N&B at Sin Sundays. At the Hard Rock Hotel. Doors at 10 p.m., $40 for guys, $20 for girls, locals free.

Mon. 8 Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines— and by that, we mean raise your glasses: The Nightclub & Bar Convention begins on Monday. The annual event is marking a quarter century with an opening night party at Haze. It’s going to be one heck of a birthday; consider yourselves warned. At Aria.

Doors at 10 p.m. for convention-goers, 11:30 p.m. for the rest of us, $40 for men, $20 for women.

Tues. 9 The Nightclub & Bar Convention always overtakes the Las Vegas club scene, and today it takes over XS. Victor Drai’s glittering nightspot at Encore (which was named Nightclub of the Year by Nightclub & Bar last month) is the hottest Tuesday-night ticket in town and it hosts the convention’s “Hot 100” party. Doors at 10 p.m. for invited guests, 11:30 for the general public, $30 for guys, $20 for girls. Meanwhile, multiplatinum singing sensation Kevin Rudolf will be next door, at the Wynn, for a smaller yet still celebratory CD release party. The “Let It Rock” star will perform his track “I Made It” (minus Birdman and the now-imprisoned Lil Wayne) while DJ Mighty Mi maintains his place in the booth. At Blush. Doors at 10 p.m., $30 for out-of-towners, free for locals.

Wed. 10 As the 2010 Nightclub & Bar Convention comes to a close, Tao will host the 10th annual N&B DJ Spin-off competition.

The first portion of the party is once again closed to the public; the floodgates open to the rest of us at 11:30 p.m. At the Venetian. $20 for guys, $10 for girls, free for locals.

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 45

Nightlife

pure | cAesArs pAlAce

Photography by Brenton Ho

Upcoming March 5 | Shannon ElizabEth March 6 | big boi and dJ JESSE Marco

46 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Nightlife

Blue martini | town square

Upcoming March 6 | Mad hatter’s tea party on the patio March 8 | industry night March 10 | bikinis and Martinis

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Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Photography by Roman Mendez

  Nightlife 

The Bank | Bellagio

Upcoming March 5 | perforMance by nikki Leonti and dJ/ producer rich VeLonskis March 7 | scaM artist takeoVer with dJs irie, cubeechee, sky neLLor, tony arzadon and stonerokk March 8 | industry night

52 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Photography by Hew Burney

Nightlife

Tao | The VeneTian

Photography by Al Powers

Upcoming MARCH 4 | WORSHIP THURSDAYS MARCH 10 | DJ SPIN-OFF WITH KEYS N KRATES, KID CAPRI AND MORE MARCH 11 | ASHER ROTH HOSTS WORSHIP THURSDAYS MARCH 12 | JEROME BETTIS’ BIRTHDAY MARCH 13 | DJ ERICK MORILLO

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Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Nightlife

EvE | Crystals

Photography by Al Powers

Upcoming March 5 | bikini fashion show with holly Madison March 12 | soulja boy

56 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Nightlife

Return of the Ringmaster DJ Skribble launches new ‘Freak Show’

By Melissa Arseniuk DJ Skribble is back. Again. And he’s bringing a circusinspired show to the MGM Grand. Vegas Seven caught up with the legendary DJ as he prepared for his return.

Tell us about your new residency at Studio 54.

They’re calling it a freak show. It’s going to be an experience, not only through music but visually as well. ... It’s going to be like a carnival on steroids. I want to be able to take it to another level of what I do musically and ... I want to be able to take them on a ride—a musical roller coaster.

Did you like going to the circus as a kid?

I actually remember the first time I was ever at the circus. There was a very famous clown who was dressed up as a bum [and] I remember being really scared of him because he came over and ran and sat on my mom’s lap. ... I was traumatized.

If you had to be in a freak show, what role would you play?

I want to be the ringleader, of course. The ringmaster.

I want to control it.

How are you feeling these days, personally?

I am content. If it all ended tomorrow and I had to go work at a supermarket as a stock boy, I wouldn’t be happy about it but I’ve done more things by the time I was 21 than most people did in their life. And that, to me, is a blessing.

You’ve obviously been around the block a few times. How do you handle the ups and downs?

You’re never hot forever, and I’ve been hot to warm to hot to warm for a very long time, and I’m still on that wild roller coaster ride. And, you know, every time I think the train is going to pull in the station, and

you’re going to put me out to pasture ... something else wonderful happens in my life.

Of all your past shows, what’s the one that stands out in your mind?

I’ve done everything from Mardi Gras to Super Bowl to Disney World. I’ve done most things that most DJs would never get to do, and I’m very lucky for that. But I guess the greatest gratification that I’ve ever gotten as a DJ was when I got to go to Iraq and play for our troops [in November]. Hands down, that’s one of the most humbling, amazing, mind-blowing experiences of my life.

What game-changer helped hip-hop crossover into mainstream nightlife?

Rihanna came out with the song “Please Don’t Stop the Music.” It had the full, on-the-floor beat to it. The Black Eyed Peas made it cool for the hip-hop kids to like

this music, which I think is great and appropriate for putting the vibe up and the energy in the club. ... Now you are playing everything under one roof and there is no segregation on the music anymore.

Do you only play songs that you’re into?

There’s some stuff I may not like but you know what? ... I’m not there to play for myself ... I’m there to play for the masses that came to see DJ Skribble get down.

What should aspiring DJs remember after they make it?

[Remember] that talent just takes you so far. You can be the most talented person in the world and be a jerk and nobody [will] want to deal with you.

What still amazes you, after all these years?

People in Japan know who I am. That’s crazy to me— I’m from Queens.

Hometown: Kalispell, Mont.

Best Tip:

$2,000 from some British international exchange rate traders. They deal with trading billions of dollars in just one day, so a couple grand is literally pocket change to them.

Brandon Ring, 31 VIP Services Manager at Pure

60 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

If he wasn’t taking care of the shiny people at Pure for a living, he’d be:

In finance. I was a stockbroker previously for about five years, so I would still be doing that.

Color he associates himself with: Black—like my suit and car.

Superpower of choice:

I would like to be able to fly. X-ray vision could come in handy as well but would probably be too distracting.

What do you want to see invented in your lifetime?

A cure for global warming.

Favorite iPhone app: I am T-Pain.

The thing you don’t know about him is:

When I was younger, I competed in ski racing at the Junior Olympics.

Skribble photo by Douglas Sonders. Ring photo by Brian Weber

Profile

Nightlife

Cocktail Culture

The Cherry Citrus Cooler Created by danny Phee for the V bar at the Venetian, $12 Sweet and sour flavors dominate V Bar’s refreshing cherry citrus cooler. V Bar uses cherry vodka and pomegranate liqueur as the base, then adds vanilla vodka, lemonade and a fresh squeeze of lemon to finish it off.

1 ounce Three Olives cherry vodka 1 1/4 ounces Pama pomegranate liqueur 1/4 ounce Stoli vanilla vodka 2 ounces lemonade 1 fresh squeeze of lemon ice Combine both vodkas, pomegranate liqueur and lemonade in a martini shaker with ice. Shake well, then strain into a glass filled with ice and serve with a fresh squeeze of lemon.

V Bar bartender Danny Phee makes this martini extra sweet for the ladies by rimming the glass with sugar, but adds a masculine touch, too, and serves it James Bond-style, shaken not stirred, in a 10-ounce highball glass.

– Mericia González

V Bar Centrally located between the Venetian and the Palazzo on “Restaurant Row,” V Bar provides a convenient location for both locals and the post-convention crowd to grab a drink after the day’s work is done. Known for its wide selection of martinis, the venue turns up the volume as it progresses from lounge to ultra lounge.

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I looked back up and my co-workers just started to laugh—along with the guests. ... Needless to say it was one of the most embarrassing nights of my life.”

– As told to Mericia González

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The NaTioNal Newsroom This week in the New York Observer

The skies Get Friendly once again A hot new reality show, the movie of the moment, Capt. Sully and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner—can flying bring the sexy back?

By Irina Aleksander In the opening sequence of Fly Girls, a half-hour reality series premiering later this month on the CW, five Virgin America flight attendants are shown buttoning up white blouses, slipping on pencil skirts and tying ascots to the tune of Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok.” A coquettish voice-over begins: “We jet to the most beautiful places in the world”— actually, Virgin America only travels, well, in America— “get invited to exclusive parties and lead extraordinary lives. And the best part of it is? It’s our job.”

This was the way stewardesses (back when they could still be called that) used to appear: beautiful, independent girls with college educations who were carefully selected to “host” the sort of passengers that had reason to fly and could afford it. There was a titillating factor, naturally, to having a pretty girl in uniform bring you a stiff cocktail. In A Big Life in Advertising (Knopf, 2002), Mary Wells Lawrence, the advertising exec who devised “The End of the Plain Plane” campaign for now-defunct Braniff, described the airline’s stewardesses after Emilio Pucci put them in his colorful designs: “It was wonderful to watch Braniff’s hostesses feel so beautiful and begin to walk like models, one foot in front of the other, tra-la-la, on the planes.”

Flying hasn’t been sexy like that for a long time. It is difficult to remember the last time a flight attendant elicited anything but pity—the grueling schedules and security requirements, the bickering with passengers over luggage, the sad cans of sugary soda and stale crackers they serve, demanding small bills for headsets and pillows.

But almost a decade after 9/11 played out our worst fears about flying, there are signs that the romance is re-

Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson shows off three cast members of Fly Girls, a reality series premiering later this month on the CW.

surgent. It began, perhaps, with Capt. Chesley Sullenberger (“Sully”), who landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River last year and subsequently told NBC’s Matt Lauer that this act of heroism led to “rock-star sex” (with his wife of 20 years). Mad Men writers began and ended their blockbuster third season with the main characters escaping stuffy suburban domesticity on planes, and The Bachelor this season is a square-jawed pilot in uniform. Up in the Air, the feature film by Jason Reitman adapted from the 2001 novel by Walter Kirn, is up for six Oscars.

Back in real life, there is the much-anticipated 787 Dreamliner, the name conjuring all the excitement of the 1950s, a fuel-efficient plane with a sleek design and roomy seats, expected to start flying later this year. Even JetBlue, which had suffered in the public imagination in recent years thanks to twisted landing gear and mismanaged delays, has spiffed up with its futuristic John F. Kennedy International Airport terminal, home to manicures, hip restaurants and supersonic Internet access.

As for Fly Girls, it’s two parts MTV’s The Hills (executive producer Colin Nash worked on both) and one part Bravo’s Real Housewives. In the opening, a 26-year-old named Mandalay, the youngest and cutest of the girls, tells her story: “Back in Arizona, I was destined for the

white-picket-fence life of settling down, getting married and having kids, but I knew that wasn’t for me. … Now I’m in control of my own destiny.”

The other day, Mandy and her colleagues met The Observer at the London Hotel in New York to sell us on the concept of the new glam skies.

In the first episode, Louise meets a gentleman on a plane whom the girls refer to, giggling, as her “IFB” (in-flight boyfriend). “Usually, he’s also an ABP, an able-bodied person,” said Mandy, meaning he could sit in the exit row.

“But ‘in-flight boyfriend’ can also just mean any person you connect with,” said Nikole, a 31-year-old brunette from Sacramento, Calif., who is cast as the villain on the show. “It could be the guy in 13A that you just laugh with the whole time, so even if I have a boyfriend, my in-flight boyfriend is my boyfriend for the flight.”

Farrah, 33, put in that it is possible to meet an in-life boyfriend in addition to an in-flight one. “If you’re open to meeting people and going on dates, then it happens sometimes,” she said. Sleeping with the flight attendant is a fantasy that still exists, they all agreed.

“But it’s really guys and girls who have fantasies about flight attendants,” Nikole said. “Women always Continued on page 70

Rattner in Limbo The conventional wisdom is that the financier and former car czar is toast, and was abandoned by his friend, the mayor. Don’t be so sure

By Max Abelson

While Manhattan suffered through another desperately slushy storm recently, financier Steven Rattner was holed up inside his family’s Westchester horse farm. There were no taxis to splash through icy curbside puddles. Snow fell from the pretty white sky.

It was bad. There are only two things that can happen after a hugely baroque Manhattan scandal: survival or ruin. But sometimes a New Yorker gets trapped in between, in the gooey limbo of semi-disgrace, which you wouldn’t wish

on your worst enemy. Important chief executives ask aloud if the U.S. attorney general’s office might be interested in having a chat with you. Over iced teas at midtown hotel bars, important publicists nudge reporters about around-thecorner indictments. Friends speak about you gently, and foes, voices even gentler, purr about your fate.

Almost one year ago to the day, Rattner triumphantly left Wall Street to become car czar in the Obama administration, then equally triumphant. Six months

later, he was gone, and under the cloud of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation into the putrid world of state pension-fund money.

And there Rattner, 57, has sat since the summer, simmering in purgatory. When the news broke two weeks ago that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was moving $5 billion away from Quadrangle, the enormous firm Rattner co-founded, tongues again clucked and mouths watered. Was the mayor, an old friend, quietly shuffling away from an oncoming train wreck?

Continued on page 71 March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven

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The National Newsroom

Fly Girls Continued from page 69

say, ‘When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a flight attendant before I got married and had kids.’”

The Fly Girls agreed that they wish they could still be called stewardesses, with the exception of Tasha, a 28-year-old from Sacramento, whose objection was not that it was offensive, but that the word felt too old.

“I feel like ‘stewardess’ was when people dressed up to go on a plane and drinks were served,” Mandy disagreed. “It’s the romance of flying.”

With the maximized number of seats and the minimized personal space, the constant terrorism threat and minor technical difficulties that always feel like terror but inevitably turn out to be the result of cutbacks and neglected aircraft—could the thrill ever return?

“Air travel has got an erotic component that’s underappreciated,” Kirn suggested by phone as he was traveling (by train) from D.C. to New York last week. “I mean, c’mon, strangers are sitting very close to each other in an environment in which they could potentially end up dying, so it’s got that wartime romance charge to it, and they are taking time out from their lives, so they get to try on other selves. It should be one of the most erotic experiences available—at least as much as going to Whole Foods and sitting alone at the herbal tea bar. And you’re in a fast, phallic machine, dammit!”

The author paid attention to flight attendants while working on his book and still does, he said. “Lately, I’ve actually noticed among flight attendants, male and female, a little bit more flamboyance and fun with the job than I was seeing five or six years ago,” he said. “I think in the way Mad Men has made us conscious of an earlier, slightly more dangerous, stimulating age of business, flight attendants have become self-conscious and said, ‘Hey, wait! We used to be sex symbols, and the men used to be maitre d’s of the sky.’ So I think we’ve been coming to this point.”

Kirn suggested that flights should be like international ocean voyages, with legalized gambling and a pornography section for those who qualify. “And you should be able to Facebook-poke your fellow passengers. Like, ‘Hey, 4B! Nice hair. Turn around, let’s see what the rest of you looks like.’ I think Branson is right, let’s bring a little bit of the libido back to flying.”

Sir Richard Branson, who lent his company and himself to the show—he appears in the first episode hosing down a Virgin America plane from a fire truck with Fly Girl Nikole—had an entirely sensible and not uncommon reason for forging a partnership with the CW. “We can’t afford national ad campaigns, so this could grow awareness of the Virgin brand,” he said.

Branson’s transatlantic airline offers passengers massages, a shoe-shining service, hair dressers and in-flight bars for mingling during the flight. “I have the picture of the world’s first stewardess here in the pressurized plane, and it’s a glamorous picture,” he said.

Back at the London Hotel, Mandy was brimming with optimism about her show and what she argued was a revitalized workplace. “The airports just seem fuller to me,” she said.

The girls told a story of how their passengers have been chatting via the seat-to-seat chat on their screens and sending drinks to one another. Two passengers, Mandy bragged, even got engaged.

rigging the oscars This year’s awards are more unpredictable than ever

By Richard Siklos When watching the Academy Awards on television, count to 10— and wait for the controversy over vote counting to begin.

The big question mark surrounding this year’s Oscars is not so much who is going to win, but how. This year, the Academy expanded the field of nominations from five to 10, and introduced a system known as “preferential” voting in the category.

The idea behind preferential voting is that in a wide field of candidates, it ensures that, as the Academy put it, “the collective judgment” of its nearly 6,000 voting members is “most accurately represented.”

Indeed, if it were a simple case of the film with the most votes winning, in a close field of 10 nominees, it would take as few as 11 percent of the votes for one candidate to take the prize. Preferential voting is more complicated but more effective: Voters are asked to rank their choices from 1 to 10, and the votes are tallied in such a way that the lowest first-place vote-getter is eliminated and the second choice on those ballots is applied to the next round; the process is repeated until a clear winner has more than 50 percent of the votes.

Confused? Never mind. Preferential voting has its flaws. It’s possible for a nominee to win even if that movie doesn’t have the most firstplace votes. The switch to the new system has led to some interesting hypothesizing, namely that Inglourious Basterds, an acquired taste, has a shot at unseating front-runners such as Avatar and The Hurt Locker, if enough voters who didn’t love Avatar or Locker don’t fill out the 1-to-10 rankings. (Or if, as several Oscar aficionados said to me, lots of voters are just too confused by the new ballot.) “It is difficult to understand how it works,” says Tony Angelotti, a PR executive who consults on Oscar campaigns.

At this point, of course, a surprise means a win by anyone who is not

a member of the one-time husband-andwife duo of James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow. The irony is that the expanded field of nominees in its first year (with apologies to The Blind Side, A Serious Man and An Education) feels more padded than inclusive.

A delayed campaign season because of the Winter Olympics and not one but two ceremony hosts have helped make the whole exercise seem as stretched out as a Terrence Malick director’s cut.

But the extra time has also allowed awards campaigners to reach deep into their bag of tricks. Both Cameron’s Avatar and Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker are up against the fact that neither a sci-fi film nor a female director has ever taken home the big prize. We’ll see whether that’s a boon or a burden.

In general, weightiness and critical acclaim matter most to the academy—as the Slumdog Millionaire juggernaut last year attests. (The Departed, to name one recent winner, shows there are exceptions, too.)

As Peter Hammond, a film reviewer who also blogs about the Oscars, noted, the quest for weightiness has led to some amusing eleventh-hour positioning of lead nominees: Avatar is being touted for its eco-activist message as much as for its technological wizardry and popcorn entertainment value.

The Hurt Locker, if it wins, could be one of the least-watched Best Pictures ever (it has done $12.6 million domestically so far, less than half of what Avatar brought

in on its first day.) Of course, The Hurt Locker has had to overcome audiences’ aversion to war films set in Iraq, and its early marketing smartly tried to play that aspect down—lately, however, Bigelow has participated in panel discussions on the war, as controversy has brewed over the film’s depictions of the military. The idea that it is one Iraq war movie that people should actually see is tough for the Academy to ignore.

Meanwhile, with the backing of the Harvey Weinstein marketing machine, Inglourious Basterds has tried to show that it is not just a shoot’em-up, blood-soaked Tarantino-fest by touting various rabbinical endorsements and holding a recent screening at L.A.’s Museum of Tolerance. Others are being less subtle, of course—Up in the Air has tried in its “for your consideration” marketing to be less about the film’s message than about positioning director Jason Reitman as an auteur in the mold of Billy Wilder.

The deadline for Academy members to submit their ballots was March 2, so it’s all over but the bean counting and, come Oscar night, the statue wagging.

And, remember, it’s just an honor to be nominated.

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Illustration by Edel Rodriguez

Rattner Continued from page 69

“I’ve heard from a zillion people, ‘Did you hear?’” a longtime friend who asked for anonymity said. “And everyone’s reaction is, ‘Oh, that’s a bad thing.’”

But like with many great stories, first reactions are often exceptionally wrong.

Interviews with sources close to Rattner and the mayor, and with their peers at the top of the city’s political and finance circles, paint a much more interesting picture, one in which the financier might make it out of the long winter alive, maybe even with some dignity.

The first thing anyone says about Rattner is that he is simply the most coolly focused and ambitious and intelligent man on the Upper East Side, which is why it is incredibly hard to fathom how he got tangled in such a vulgar mess.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has said that at the New York State pension fund, one of the most immense masses of assets anywhere in the world, more than half of the $9.5 billion put in alternative investments from 2003 to 2007 was stained by kickbacks.

Hank Morris and David Loglisci, middlemen between the fund and the investors who wanted its business, were charged last March on 123 counts of larceny, corruption, fraud, bribery and money laundering. According to reports published a month later, not only did Rattner have his firm quietly pay Morris more than $1 million in exchange for a $100 million investment from the fund, but a Quadrangle affiliate paid $88,841 to acquire the DVD distribution rights to a slapstick comedy produced by Loglisci and his brothers. The film, Chooch, is about goof balls from Queens who get in trouble on a Mexican adventure.

Instead of leaving D.C. as a heroic savant who managed to entirely rebuild Chrysler and GM in mere months, even though he hadn’t been to Detroit in decades, Rattner slouched back home in July as the subject of an escalating investigation. “I think he had a sense that the whole thing was something foolish that had been blown up way out of proportion. In other words, he certainly didn’t feel that what had been done was right,” said New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger, a longtime friend. “But it was a mistake that was being exploited.”

When the news broke on Feb. 20 that Bloomberg would be moving billions

away from Quadrangle, the New York Daily News put Rattner’s pension-fund investigation in its lead. The New York Post called it “a humiliating blow” to the firm he co-founded. “People were speculating,” said someone who knows the investor from New York City political circles, describing guests at a recent Upper East Side dinner. “Was the mayor distancing himself from Rattner? Was it a put-down?”

“It’s actually the opposite,” a source close to the investor said. “He’s moving toward Steve.”

Here’s how the thinking goes: The mayor had brought his billions to Quadrangle in the first place only because of his relationship with Rattner, an old friend and fundraiser. And not only has Rattner been gone from the firm for a full year now, but there doesn’t seem to be any love lost between the man and the firm he left during a very fraught era.

What if, at long last, there are real stirrings from investigators? “I don’t see that anything that’s happening is going to come between them, in my personal opinion,” said Thomas H. Lee, the private-equity pioneer.

Spokespeople for the New York State attorney general’s office and the SEC wouldn’t comment, and a call to the U.S. attorney general’s office wasn’t returned.

Friends of his like to point out that the giant private-equity firm Carlyle Group, which was essentially accused of paying a much bigger fee to Morris, about $10 million, was allowed to settle with Cuomo in May for $20 million.

And that firm’s decorated chief, David M. Rubenstein, still gets to speak at Davos and sit on the boards of the Kennedy Center and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Then again, Rattner was said to be personally involved with Morris and the pension-fund money.

For now, he wafts in limbo. “His greatest strength always has been a rock-hard realism. He knows that a lot of stuff happens and you deal with it,” Goldberger said. “He’s not one to say, ‘I’m taking my ball and going home!

Fuck you all.’”

“Do I know how bad it is inside his head? No, I don’t,” the anonymous friend said, “Am I convinced personally that it’s bad? Yes.”

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven

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The National Newsoom

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NOTE: Not that this puzzle is really about the Oscars, but it’s the kind of thing I think about during the commercials.

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19 Word after belly 20 Imitate 21 Explosive stuff, for short 22 Nabisco treats 23 _ _ _ _ O _ S _

__ C__AR 26 Tavern salute 27 Spanish queen born

in Scotland 28 Old word for a spread 29 Hits ___ (satisfies) 31 Scanned symbol

on a prod.

32 Hard ___ (unpleasant) 34 Paper section 35 Some cephalopods 38 _ O _ S _ C _ _ _ A R 41 “Says which?”

42 William in “Body Heat” 43 Florida feature 44 Italian car 45 Esther replaced her as

queen, in the Bible 48 Actor Mineo 49 Mary-Kate or Ashley 52 Place to sit a spell 53 Mother-of-pearl

55 _ _ O _ S _ _C

____AR 60 Way 61 Burger content, perhaps 62 Price place 63 At some time or other 64 Old information?

66 Heyerdahl’s second papyrus boat 69 _ O _ _ S _ _ _ _CA____ ___R__ 74 The Sundance Kid’s girl 75 “Addams Family” cousin 76 Yes ___ 77 Fore kin 78 Whiz preceder 79 Actor Stoltz 81 _ O _ _ _ _ _ SCAR_ __ 85 Splatter catcher 87 Unfulfilled 88 Glyphics opener 89 Singer: abbr.

90 Whip 92 Bring on board 94 Actor Tognazzi 97 Natalie Port-man’s birthpl.

98 Poet’s contraction 99 O _ _ _ S C A _ _ R _ 103 Arabian shelter?

105 Leaping rodent 108 Like some football kicks 109 Hypo units 110 Travel companion?

112 “Brave New World” drug 114 Teachers’ org.

115 Actor Jack (who wasn’t

from Muskogee) 117 _ _ O S _ _ _ _

__ C__AR 120 Astaire and Rogers 121 Ducks behind bushes 122 Sen., e.g.

123 Poker words 124 Newspaper employee,

for short 125 Forecasters 126 Langley trainee 127 Screwy DOWN 1 “___ of this bread”

(John 6:58) 2 Meek sort 3 Comedy group,

Firesign ___ 4 Old nuclear org.

5 Actress Shields 6 “Law & Order” job 7 Doing 8 Louvre pyramid designer 9 News bigwig 10 April 15 participant 11 “This is only ___” 12 Dice game 13 Mower brand 14 The opposite of 15 In ___ 16 _ _ _ _ O _ S C _ A R _ _ 17 _ O S C _ _ A R 18 Darned ending 24 Steve’s Oscars

co-host, 2010

68 “Ah-ha ...”

70 Poi need 71 Early word forms 72 Long time 73 Signs of use 80 Chip maker 82 Coin-___ 83 Drive-___ 84 Defeats and how 85 Budget rival 86 _ O S _ C A R _ 87 Incur a penalty, e.g.

91 Popular brand of liniment 92 Big bang pro-ducer

since 1952 93 “___ man answers ...”

95 Attacking 96 Hard times 99 Think too much (about) 100 Singer Perry 101 Bayer rival 102 Like Oscar night 104 Other 45 surface 105 Amy, opposite Meryl,

in a 2009 film 106 Wash away 107 Early ___ 111 Adolph of “The Trust” 112 Street sign 113 Left Turn ___ 115 Son ___ gun 116 Mind meld of a sort 118 Pkg. service 119 Hosp. area

!!! VOLUME 16 IS HERE !!!

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

25 March honoree, briefly 3/4/2010 © M. Reagle

The End of Trends When exactly did fashion become such a warm, welcoming melting pot?

By Simon Doonan “In fashion, you’re either in or you’re out.” So says Teutonic temptress Heidi Klum at the beginning of every episode of Project Runway, currently unspooling its seventh season on Lifetime.

Achtung! If Heidi were correct, I would be out of a job and so would many other fashionably employed people.

Thankfully, Mrs. Seal is dead wrong. Fashion is no longer icy and aloof. Fashion is a massive, forgiving, ambiguous melting pot where people and trends can dig in their Lee Press-On nails and hang on for years and years without ever being out.

Let’s have some concrete examples: • Uggs. Style pundits may have broadcast their out-ness for years, but last week’s snowy streets in New York were packed with Uggs-sporting fashion plates.

• Diane von Furstenberg and Oscar de la Renta. At 63 and 77, respectively, more popular and groovier than ever.

• Skinny jeans. Despite their supposed out-ness, they have managed to become a fashion staple, especially when tucked into riding boots. Tally ho!

• Jean Paul Gaultier. Thinking he’s a bit last century, dahling? Think again! He’s launching a new collection with Target this month, fer Chrissakes!

• Military style. It was in 18 months ago, and now it’s allegedly in all over again. Was it ever really out?

• Dill pickles? We’ll get to them in a moment.

Why has fashion turned into this come-all-ye-chafing dish? I’ll tell you why: In the old days, style used to be the prerogatives of a small group of people. Now it is a national sport. Ticket sales are exploding. People are pouring into the arena in such vast numbers that none of us can keep track of the rule book. All bets are off.

Anything goes, even scrunch boots.

The latest trend to enter the fashion arena is a real shockerooni. Grab your gherkins, girls! I’m talking about pickles.

Pickles are the new macaroons. (Ladurée macaroons have been the fashionista nibble of choice for the past couple of years.) I am not kidding! All my hippest friends are proudly crunching their way through jars of dildo-shaped dills and—blech!—guzzling pickle juice like it was Diet Coke.

The trendiest and chicest pickles are bottled at the Brooklyn-based McClure pickling plant by Bob McClure and his team. I called McClure recently to ask him about the semiotic/psychological underpinnings of the new It snack. The droll prince of pickles took a break from bottling his new pickle brine, Spicy Bloody Mary Mix, and tartly laid it on the line: “Pickles are low-calorie and healthy, but the real reason they are now in fashion is because everyone already has an iPhone.”

I am sure Klum would contend that Ladurée macaroons are out and organic artisan pickles are in, but, as per my thesis, the reality is that pickles have merely joined macaroons in fashion’s gigantic in-box. They, like reindeer sweaters and tribal tattoos, are now here forever! This is a good thing. It’s a sweet thing.

Answers found on page 74 72 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

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The National Newsroom

Personal Finance

Why you should talk money before walking down the aisle

By Kathy Kristof, Tribune Media Services

Passion often blinds sweethearts to the fact that matrimony is, at bottom, a contract. Figuring out how that partnership can prosper is critical for a successful union. Yet financial differences rank among the greatest sources of marital misery, in part because talking about money before you tie the knot makes many couples uncomfortable.

Some worry that prying into each other’s finances might indicate a lack of trust, or that a prenuptial agreement is a self-fulfilling prophecy for splitting up.

In fact, experts say, just the opposite is true. Spouses who find themselves bickering about finances early in their marriage could well end up hashing out the same issues in divorce court, according to Tina Tessina, a licensed psychotherapist and author of Money, Sex & Kids: Stop Fighting About the Three Things That Can Ruin Your Marriage (Adams Media, 2008).

“Everybody wants to focus on putting the wedding together and talk about things like having kids and a house,” Tessina said. “But nobody wants to talk about the money part until you are married and financially entwined. Then it’s too late.”

So what do you need to talk about? Here are a few suggestions from the pros: Know the history Understanding the past is important to building a solid future, said Cicily Maton, partner at the Chicago financial planning firm of Aequus Wealth Management.

Each partner needs to have an understanding of the other’s experiences to grasp what might be motivating their behavior now. If your in-laws were cautious with

Solution to Spaced out at the Oscars

by Merl Reagle

E A T E T H

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Y E A R L Y

money, chances are your beloved is too. If your parents spent carelessly, it would help to explain your credit card addiction.

This background can help you understand whether your partner sees money as a reward, a punishment, a tool or an albatross, she added.

Air the laundry Forget affairs, drug habits and rap sheets. Some newlyweds have been most shocked to learn of a new spouse’s checkered credit history.

That’s why trading credit reports is also advisable before you tie the knot, Tessina said. These reports show how much debt you have outstanding and whether you’ve always been responsible about paying your bills.

You wouldn’t necessarily dump somebody simply because they were in debt, said Brett Graff, a former government economist who edits the website HomeEconomist.com. But you’d certainly want to know whether that debt was linked to a lost job or an unexpected medical issue, or if it was a sign of something more ominous such as a hidden gambling habit or shopping addiction.

You may decide that you’re so in love that you’re willing to marry an overspender, said Laura Tarbox, a Newport Beach, Calif., financial planner. But having that information might cause you to handle your finances differently, keeping your accounts separate, for example, so that the unencumbered spouse doesn’t end up liable for debts he or she had no hand in creating.

Set your goals Next, you need to talk about the way you want to live and what you want to achieve. Those conversations need to be specific, Tessina said.

Shared goals keep partners from blaming each other if things don’t quite go as planned, said Lorraine Steen, a Miami Beach mother of two.

After Steen and her husband bought a house two years ago, they were dismayed to see prices tumble in the real estate bust. But they didn’t take it out on each other because they had already agreed not to second-guess themselves.

“You can never go back and say, ‘I told you so.’

Once we buy something, we enjoy it and move forward,” Steen said.

Who does what?

After you understand how you feel about money and what your priorities are, it’s time to get practical. How are you going to pay the bills?

Some couples choose to merge their checking and savings accounts and pay bills out of just one pot.

Others divvy up expenses, and each pays certain bills. Some couples choose a “yours, mine and ours” approach, where they have a joint account that’s fed with money from both to pay shared bills, but each keeps smaller separate accounts too.

When Mark and Maria Wilson got married 20 years ago, for instance, they were fresh out of

college and barely scraping by. They merged what little money they had because there wasn’t enough to keep in separate accounts. No one could spend a dime without consulting the other.

About 15 years of doing that kept them on the same page, says Mark, a certified financial planner who works with Tarbox. The Wilsons could now afford to keep separate accounts, but don’t feel they need to.

In contrast, when Lorraine and Joseph Steen married four years ago, they were both in their mid-30s and used to handling their own finances, so they kept it that way.

A year later, the couple had their first child and bought a house. Suddenly, completely separate accounts didn’t work.

They opened a third checking account to pay all the joint household expenses. They still keep their own accounts so they can maintain a certain level of fiscal autonomy.

Get it in writing Prenuptial agreements are written contracts laying out the division of assets and future earnings if a marriage falls apart.

Some people consider these documents so unromantic that they swear they would never marry anyone who even suggested such a thing.

But prenups make sense for couples that come into marriage with children or widely disparate assets, said Eleanor Blayney, consumer advocate for the Certified Financial Planners Board of Standards and the founder of Directions, a financial planning firm focused on women.

“They can take money out of the relationship, so there are no nagging questions, like ‘Hmm, I wonder if he married me for my money?’” she said. “By recognizing that there is a financial aspect to a relationship, they can spell out that that’s not what the relationship is about.”

Consider the kids Planning to have children? That begets a whole series of money discussions.

For instance, will you want one partner to stay home while the kids are young? If so, who? And how will you handle money matters then? After all, while that partner may not bring home a paycheck, they’re still contributing to the family well-being. If they don’t have an income, does that mean they lose their “mad money” too?

With older couples, the practical issues get even more complicated, Tarbox said. You not only have to talk about how you’ll pay your ongoing bills, you have to discuss the assets and debts each of you have coming into the marriage and whether you want to co-mingle those assets or keep them separate.

“Everybody talks about marriage in terms of love and romance,” Graff said. “But, ultimately, it’s a legal and binding contract that affects property. It’s important to know where the person is coming from and make sure you can live with whatever they are bringing to the table.”

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.

74 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

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Arts & Entertainment

movies

Across the Stage

Our Critic Handicaps the 2010 Oscar Race

By Cole Smithy

You can practically hear Academy Award producers shouting, after the fact, “Whose idea was this?” about changes in the ceremony that are doomed to be criticized. Following Hugh Jackman’s stellar performance hosting last year’s Oscars, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin have been chosen to dispel the adage that “less is more.” The most glaring change in the program is the addition of five Best Picture nominees, for a total of 10, in an attempt to broaden the show’s mainstream appeal.

For a notoriously overlong awards show, you might imagine that a little sacrifice would be in order. Deleting the widely reviled song-and-dance numbers seems like a no-brainer. But no such tradeoff is in store. Prepare yourself for a very, very long program.

Academy President Sid Ganis defends the switch as a “return to the past”—by which he means back to the Depression era, when Americans camped out in movie theaters for a warm place to sleep. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea in that light, but the real impetus seems to come from last year’s exclusion of The Dark Knight, a movie that fanboys got their panties in a twist over its exclusion from the nominations. Such obvious pandering to a 14-year-old boy’s mentality might get a pass if the adjustment weren’t an 100 percent increase.

Why not add one new slot, and see how that goes before turning the category into a marathon?

Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, and Up in the Air are the 10 films nominated for Best Picture.

Although no one in Hollywood will admit it, I argue Continued on page 78 March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 77

Arts & Entertainment

Movies Oscar Picks Continued from page 77

Damaged Goods Director Antoine Fuqua does his due diligence

By Cole Smithey

Director Antoine Fuqua returns to the gritty cop drama genre that made him a household name in 2001 with Training Day. This time around, East Brooklyn’s 65th precinct is home to three police officers whose ethical compasses are way off—in ways we’ve all seen before. By tackling cop drama conventions head-on, screenwriter Michael C. Martin puts a fine point on the chronic temptations and struggles that urban cops face. Fuqua massages the script’s obvious clichés with a sense of personal attachment to his characters that makes you believe in them. The extraordinary demands on underpaid cops, this film seems to say, is the same no matter what big city they work in. There’s nothing simple or pretty about any of it. It’s still a lot closer to the truth, and more entertaining, than any episode of Law and Order.

Richard Gere plays Eddie Dugan, a burned-out, lonely cop lost on the other side of the spectrum that Travis occupied in Taxi Driver. He frequents the same prostitute that his police peers visit, and doesn’t mind waiting in the hallway for his turn at a woman who represents the only kind of love he can imagine. Dugan even tries to woo her away with a knuckleheaded retirement fantasy that is probably the only dream that keeps him hanging on.

To work so hard, for so long, at a thanklessly underpaid job that has robbed his soul, Dugan has held up remarkably well. But there won’t be a bright side even after he’s unceremoniously released from active duty.

Like any good family man, officer Sal Procida (Ethan Hawke) wants the best for his ailing pregnant wife (Lili Taylor) and their five kids. But they are cash-strapped

Wesley Snipes and Don Cheadle 78

Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

and their home is under attack from toxic mold. Naturally, stealing money from drug busts seems like the way out of his predicament.

Undercover drug agent Tango (Don Cheadle) has been “under” for so long that he barely knows which side he’s on anymore. A helpless pawn in the department’s game, Tango carries around a compressed energy that threatens to explode without warning. His bosses bait him along with the promise of a desk job, but deep down he knows they’ll never give him the promotion he’s already earned four times over. Like Dugan, Tango is burned out. Because of the suppressive nature of his work, he’s had to compartmentalize his emotions and personality in an unnatural way.

Wesley Snipes makes a strong appearance as Caz, a drug lord and best friend to Tango. Caz’s decision to get out of the business before it gets him can’t come soon enough.

Brooklyn’s Finest doesn’t pretend to sugarcoat anything.

Just as easily as the film can be viewed as a retread of every other cop drama, it can be seen as part of an ongoing effort from filmmakers demanding changes in a public system that doesn’t work. American citizens are beyond fed up with the way police departments handle crime in their cities. The cops who do the job for any period of time build up an incredible amount of resentment against their superiors and the citizens they’re entrusted to serve. From this perspective, Antoine Fuqua is doing his due diligence as a concerned citizen.

Rated R, 125 minutes, ★★★✩✩

that District 9 gains the most advantage from the modification because it’s better than Avatar.

But the Oscars are about politics, and that frequently comes down to whose turn it is to finally receive the heavy little statue and precious seconds of career-invigorating limelight. For example, seven years of war has put a past-due stamp on the Academy to shine a light in the direction of the battlefield. For that reason— coupled with the fact that no woman has ever received an Oscar for Best Director—Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker is a heavy shoe-in for both Best Picture and a Best Director honors.

Inglourious Basterds is a better movie, but we’re not talking about what should win a statue, only what the Academy is most likely to do.

Jeff Bridges is long behind schedule for an Oscar win. His mesmerizing performance in Crazy Heart means that he’s due for an “it’s time” Best Actor win.

Of the five women in the Best Actress category (Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side; Helen Mirren, The Last Station; Carey Mulligan, An Education; Gabourey Sidibe, Precious; and Meryl Streep, Julia & Julia), the deck is heavily stacked in Carey Mulligan’s favor in the Academy’s “kid with a future” way of thinking. With a record 16 nominations, and two Oscars under her belt, Streep has already won plenty. Bullock’s performance in The Blind Side is strong, but she takes a hit for two crappy films that preceded it (The Proposal and All About Steve). The Last Station wasn’t a solid enough movie to lock in Mirren, and Sidibe’s muted character in Precious didn’t allow her to express enough range.

Christoph Waltz blew the roof off cinemas with his gleefully diabolical performance in Inglourious Basterds. That kind of virtuosity is money in the bank for a Best Supporting Actor win.

The Best Supporting Actress category is tough, but I’d put my money on Maggie Gyllenhaal for her terrific work in Crazy Heart. Over the course of her nearly 20-year career, she’s proven that she consistently creates complex characters and makes very smart choices about the roles she chooses. However, Mo’Nique could take the prize for her fearless performance in Precious.

Up has it sewn up for Best Animated Feature Film.

Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet should narrowly edge out Michael Haneke’s impressive The White Ribbon in the Best Foreign Film category.

Crazy Heart’s “The Weary Kind” will get the trophy for Best Original Song.

Original Screenplay is a toss-up between Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) and Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds).

Jason Reitman (Up In the Air) will pick up a consolation Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

James Cameron will lock up Best Cinematography and Best Editing awards for Avatar—if enough years have passed for Academy members to have forgotten his ridiculous “I’m the king of the world” proclamation for his Titanic win. In a perfect world, statues would rightfully go to Inglourious Basterds for Best Editing and to The White Ribbon for Best Cinematography. But the Oscars are far from a perfect world.

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Arts & Entertainment

Short Reviews

By Cole Smithey

Radha Mitchell, Timothy Olyphant, Danielle Panabaker and Joe Anderson.

The Crazies (R) ★★★✩✩

George A. Romero produced this update of his own 1973 social satire horror flick, and his guiding influence as a master of the genre shows. Timothy Olyphant is convincing as small-town Sheriff David Dutton, whose pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell), works as a doctor in their once-happy community. What seems like a spree of murder-suicides among its zombie-turning citizens is revealed to be caused by an accident with a biological weapon designed by the government. Carefully placed satellite-view imagery hints at unseen military officials orchestrating a genocidal attack on the area that traps David and Judy, along with deputy Russell ( Joe Anderson) and medical assistant Becca (Danielle Panabaker), between military violence and the bloodthirsty zombies. Director Breck Eisner (Sahara) compresses the suspense into tightly edited set pieces that balance thematic import with shocks of gory confrontation. While not on a par with Night of the Living Dead, The Crazies hits the zombie on the head with good reason.

Percy Jackson (PG) ★★★✩✩

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80 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

NO PASSES ACCEPTED

Aside from underwhelming CGI, this is a well-paced kids’ action flick that uses Greek mythology. Logan Lerman plays a regular kid who discovers he’s the son of Poseidon and must rescue his mother from Hades and return Zeus’ stolen lightning rod. Director Chris Columbus takes a literal approach to spectacle that denies the use of weirdness and scale of old-school stop-action classics.

From Paris With Love (R) ★✩✩✩✩

As with Spaghetti Westerns and sit-coms, you know they’ve jumped the shark when the tone turns to selfmockery. So it’s in one fell swoop John Travolta and suicide bombers have bid audiences adieu. From Paris is a shameless shoot ’em up body-count movie with barely enough humor to distract from the pejoratively exploitative nature of its relentlessly bloody action.

Valentine's Day (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩

The Wolfman (R) ★★✩✩✩

Shutter Island (R) ★★★★✩

The Ghost Writer (PG-13) ★★★✩✩

Yet another date movie that’s less than the sum of its parts. Jessica Biel, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, and Anne Hathaway provide cast padding for B-listers.

Intertwining romantic threads weave a haphazard pattern in the City of Angels where Ashton Kutcher proposes to Jessica Alba. With half as many sub-plots the film might’ve worked.

For his 45th film, Martin Scorsese crafts a gorgeously stylized psychological thriller. As U.S. Marshal Edward “Teddy” Daniels, Leonardo DiCaprio and his partner (Mark Ruffalo) arrive on a foggy isle to investigate a patient’s disappearance from a private prison hospital for the criminally insane. This Cold War-era mystery exponentially folds back on itself during its shocking third act. A truly engrossing picture.

In this why-did-they-bother update of the original 1941 Wolfman, director Joe Johnston proves incapable of handling horror. The filmmakers struggle for any sense of rhythm, timing, romance, humor or symbolic meaning. Benicio Del Toro returns to his father’s (Anthony Hopkins) English mansion after his brother is killed by a werewolf.

Co-written by Roman Polanski with political journalist Robert Harris, upon whose novel the film is based, Writer is full of plot holes yet still entices. Ewan McGregor plays an unnamed English writer who becomes a ghostwriter for a former British prime minister (Pierce Brosnan) accused of war crimes.

Despite Harris’ personal experience as a journalist once close to Tony Blair, the screenwriter fails to excite.

Movie TiMes

Dear John (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩

Think of Dear John as post-9/11 America lite; very lite. Blame Nicholas Sparks for the novel, but it’s Lasse Halström’s direction that pulls the audience out of the puffy romantic wartime equation.

His beautiful sun-kissed compositions reek with the odorless endorphins of his love-struck characters (Amanda Seyfried as rich girl Savannah and Channing Tatum as special forces soldier John).

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March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 81

Art Who Needs Picasso Anyway?

New exhibit explores a decade of artistic works by a Las Vegas expatriate

By Pj Perez It’s hard to remember a time when Dray Wilmore—typically known by his first name only—wasn’t a prominent figure in the Las Vegas art scene. He’s had his paint-stained fingers in a little bit of everything: from painting municipal murals to sitting on the advisory committee of the First Friday art walk to applying pigment to bikini-clad beauties. Even since moving to San Francisco (after a brief stint in Atlanta), Dray keeps one toe in our desert sand, evidenced by his forthcoming retrospective solo exhibit No Picassos in Vegas, opening March 4 at the Laura Henkel Gallery inside the Arts Factory.

“I keep coming back to Vegas,” Dray says.

“I met a lot of great artists and a lot of cool people. And when I come back, I’m always able to get back into something artistically.”

One of those projects brought Dray’s work to the attention of gallerist Henkel, who commissioned him—along with other local artists such as KD Matheson and Joseph Watson—to create murals for the Erotic dray Wilmore Heritage Museum.

“He is one of those free spirits whereby his art leads him to continually grow without limitation,” Henkel says of Dray. “One cannot help but be captured by his artwork.”

Its name inspired by a comment made by Mayor Oscar Goodman in a 2007 Las Vegas Review-Journal article, “No Picassos in Vegas” explores the breadth of Dray’s painting styles, ranging from cubist-influenced, geometrical designs and abstract expressionism to stylized portraiture and graffiti-flavored works, displaying in one space the flexibility that’s earned the artist fans in both the fine- and street-art worlds.

It’s no accident that Dray chose Henkel’s Arts Factory gallery to host a show reflecting upon his decade in Sin City. Years ago, this same space housed 5ive Finger Miscount, the underground art collective Dray launched in 2002 with fellow graffiti-influenced artists Vezun and Iceberg Slick. At that time, the nascent downtown art scene was a tough nut to crack for cutting-edge artists. But after demonstrating success in alternative venues such as Dirk Vermin’s Gallery Au Go-Go by bringing urban muralism and outsider art to Vegas, 5FM’s presence and influence was quickly legitimized.

“We were about providing an opportunity for artists when they wouldn’t normally show at a gallery,” Dray says. “And we were trying to stimulate the artistic consciousness of the scene.”

Dray was one of the first to set up shop inside one of the live-work cottages at Casino Center Boulevard and Colorado Avenue, where his controversial mural, “Birth of an Art Scene,” adorned an exterior wall.

The cottages were torn down, and though Dray continued to be heavily involved with the arts—including opening two short-lived fine-art galleries downtown—he eventually hit a wall, feeling he had gone as far as he could within the constraints of the Valley.

It’s been about five months since Dray relocated to the Bay Area, and he’s already going to be featured in multiple group art shows there, as well as a solo show at the Jazz Heritage Center. He’s overwhelmed by the numerous galleries and crowded receptions. But the biggest difference between Vegas and San Francisco?

“I see red dots on everything,” he says, referring to the amount of art sold at these shows. “Selling art in Vegas is a task in itself, so if you can make it work there, you can do it in a city with rich culture.”

“We Vibe,” acrylic on vellum, 2010.

At First FridAy, ChArACter MAtters Las Vegas gets a little more surreal this week as a new group art show opening at The Fallout Gallery (1551 S. Commerce St.) focuses a light on the outsider works of three distinctive illustrators in Character Matters, on display through April 10. Pairing Cristina Paulos’ disturbing spin on cartoon dolls with Kelly Shon’s vibrant relief assemblages and Maranda Espinosa’s dreamlike paintings, the exhibit offers a complex—and sometimes twisted—take on childhood themes. First Friday runs 6-10 p.m. March 5, in the Arts District downtown. For more information, visit firstfridaylasvegas.org. – Pj Perez Cristina Paulos at The Fallout Gallery

82 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Reading

Sites to see

By Geoff Carter BEST PART OF THE DAMN MOVIE (annyas.com/screenshots). My favorite part of a film, any film, occurs just after the studios blast their logos and before a single actor can open his mouth. A film’s title card can either prove the cornerstone of a golden pyramid or the shiniest brick in a dull, insurmountable wall, and the Movie Title Stills Collection compiles some of the best we’ve seen over the course of the past 90 years. Would Spartacus, Pulp Fiction or Lost in Translation have proven quite as iconic without their elegant and memorable title flashes?

BUT IT DID HAPPEN (facebook.com/group. php?gid=14966119962). For several years in the mid-1990s, the nowdefunct Enigma Garden Café was the cultural epicenter of downtown Las Vegas—a place to find art, music, performance and the best coffee to be had in this town, ever. All that remains of Enigma, and the community of artists, professionals and friends that formed around it, is this Facebook group—and though it’s populated by a number of wonderful people, that notion depresses me quite a bit.

ALL TENTACLES AND NO SUBSTANCE (sleeptalkinman.blogspot.com). The premise of the Sleep Talkin’ Man blog is a simple one: His name is Adam, he is English, and he talks in his sleep.

None of these things are remarkable in and of themselves—but the content of those nighttime conversations, dutifully recorded by his wife, hints at a truly fantastic inner life. Adam organizes jungle militias (“Monkey power! Straight from the jungle”), sails with pirates (“We haven’t got a plank. Just fucking jump.”), and even provides color commentary on underwater sports (“Squid wrestling: all tentacles and no substance”). If you’re reading this, Adam, go back to bed: We demand fresh material.

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

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 83

Music Gleeful Noise

West Side Story rumbles into the LVA

By T.R. Witcher

The daunting score to West Side Story is one of the most rigorous in American musical theater. “Most companies, if they do West Side Story, they modify it, they adapt it, they strip it down,” says Robert Connor, theater director at the Las Vegas Academy of the Performing Arts.

Connor is overseeing a production of the classic about star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria. When asked if he planned to simplify the show so his talented high school cast could handle it, he responded quickly: “We would never do that. When we do a show here at the school, we do it as written. We don’t water it down. We challenge the students to rise to it.”

Budgeted at $60,000, LVA’s production features 75 performers and a 40-piece orchestra. At its center is Leonard Bernstein’s swaggering score—a kaleidoscope of classical, jazz and show tunes, built atop a latticework of heavily syncopated Latin rhythms. It demands from the young musicians the ability to shift stylistic gears on a dime, to mesh with musicians who come from other musical traditions and to endure (the show runs two and a half hours).

They’ve held up well.

French-horn player Sabrina Bernstein says playing the music has West siDe story been a great growing experience. She hails March 4-6, 11-13, 18-20 from the classical 7 p.m. world, which is “really Lowden Theater for precise and strict in the Performing Arts how you view the 9th & Clark St. music. In West Side Story lvacademytheatre.org the music has room. $18 The eighth notes have to swing.”

Las Vegas Academy students rehearse West side story. Photo by Anthony Mair

The score is no less demanding for the cast, a talented mix of theater and chorus majors. But there’s not a weak voice in the bunch. “The beats have such a Latin, Puerto Rican flair, but the style they want us to sing in is almost operatic,” says Primrose Martin, one of two actors playing Anita, Maria’s best friend.

“It’s a big task to take on,” adds Cody Canyon, who plays Tony. “People know the show so well, people come in with such high expectations we have to come up to it.”

Alexis Fitting, one of two actors who play Maria, describes the score as “beautiful, but much more vocally demanding.” Maria’s songs are basically opera, and fortunately the diminutive Fitting has a voice strong enough to reach the rafters. The music, she notes, was “pushing the envelope then. That’s why people still love it.”

The show is pushing the cast, too, but as you catch glimpses of the ups and downs of rehearsals, it’s clear

that this version of West Side Story is stocked with some of Las Vegas’ most promising singers and musicians.

(Bernstein hopes to head off to USC next year and embark on a career as a singer-songwriter; Martin, a singer-dancer-actor, has already been accepted to the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts and is gearing up for a spring audition at Juilliard.)

During one rehearsal, the orchestra kicked into the muscular mambo section of the “Dance at the Gym,” a set piece where rival gangs the Jets and the Sharks show off on the dance floor. The number still packs an exuberant punch. You can hear the confidence and ambition of mid-century America—and see it echoed by this crop of talented performers.

“These kids,” Connor says, “live and die musical theater.”

T.R. Witcher played the saxophone in high school.

CD REviEws JEWFOLK

DEATHPSYCHE

Adam Green, Minor Love (Fat Possum)

Brian Jonestown Massacre, Who Killed Sgt. Pepper?

(A Records)

In an earlier era, probably the 1970s, ex-Moldy Peaches mastermind Adam Green would be bigger than, um, English pub-rocker Joe Jackson. Born too late for beautychallenged stardom, Green makes do with his formidable songwriting chops, which now borrow equally from Leonard Cohen’s probing spirituality and Beck’s rough smarts. Green’s latest effort, Minor Love, is a major step toward maturation as a craftsman. While the potty humor may be gone, a neurotic yet emotional tenderness has taken its place. In “Breaking Locks,” Green confesses over Wurlitzer organ and electric guitar arpeggios: “I’ve been too awful/to ever be thoughtful/to ever be nice.” The jaunty “Cigarette Burns Forever,” meanwhile, finds Green pushing his reverb-drenched baritone into Lee Hazlewood’s cosmic-pop territory. Still, this is a folk-rock record for the urban hipsters of Williamsburg, N.Y., who are probably yearning for more Green after enjoying the Peaches’ contribution (“Anyone Else But You”) to the Juno soundtrack. They’ll find much to love here. – Jarret Keene 84

Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Almost famous courtesy of the 2004 music documentary DiG!, Anton Newcombe has long been on a bad acid deathtrip. Still, his new self-released effort crystallizes the best elements of his dark-side-of-the-’60s obsession. There are palettes here he has never tried previously. As a result the sonic canvas is broader, richer, deeper. Silly on the surface, the album title indicates that rock has grown too soft tilling the same ol’ “Strawberry Fields,” where craftsmanship and studio experimentation evoke pleasure rather than hard truths about sex, drugs and evil music. The answer to the album’s question is obviously Newcombe, who basks in the drum-marching, tape-looped, electronic nihilism of “Someplace Else Unknown,” in which the song’s speaker, starved for a fix, snarls: “’Cause I’ll fucking kill you and everyone too/I don’t give a fuck about World War II.” Newcombe has never sounded so desperate and invincible as he does in the bluesstomp storm of “Pungur Hnífur.” Scary nighttime rock music for the fearless. – J.K.

BIG HAIR. BIG GUITARS.

MARcH 6

Soundscraper

9PM To 1AM

Wings and things

By Jarret Keene Forty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix continues to inspire six-string samurai. Even at his most bizarre and outlandish—for instance, my favorite sci-fi apocalyptic war song of all time, “1983 …

(A Merman I Should Turn to Be)”—Hendrix is imminently listenable.

Arguably the premier Purple Hazer tribute is a biennial touring extravaganza called Experience Hendrix, which returns to The Joint on March 6. Featuring bassist Billy Cox (from Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys project), Surfing With the Alien svengali Joe Satriani, and Texas ax-slinger Eric Johnson, Experience Hendrix is a rock guitar lover’s wet dream. Watching the combination of diverse talents—Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Living Colour, Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford and Los Lobos—as they perform classics such as “Little Wing” and “If 6 Was 9” is a spiritual occasion. During the last 20-odd years, “wanking” wasn’t cool.

I’m happy to say that’s over; it’s once again hip to play guitar with soul, as this concert will prove.

It’s a big Hendrix week, actually.

Were you on the Strip New Year’s Eve? Notice a Hendrix impersonator playing guitar with his teeth in front of Harley Davidson Café? Turns out he goes by

the stage name Jimi Taylor ( jimisimage.com), and is established on the “bike” circuit. For example, he rocked Feelgoods March 3 on “Hot Rod & Bike Night,” and he’s flying out to perform March 6 at the Daytona Beach Bike Week in Florida. He even provided the live-action motion for Guitar Hero IV’s Hendrix avatar.

By the time you read this, you’ll already have heard: Another famous pop-music act, the Eagles, added an April 24 date at MGM Grand Garden Arena. The band’s spring tour is ostensibly in support of 2007’s Long Road Out of Eden. Singer/ drummer Don Henley admitted the double album is the Eagles’ last, but perhaps new songs will be road-tested? Let’s see. Tickets went on sale last Saturday.

For whatever reason, readers seemed to enjoy my holiday iTunes playlists.

March 4 is National Poundcake Day, so I’m spinning—what else—Van Halen’s “Poundcake,” the band’s last really great radio hit. Also, March 9 is the plastic toy doll Barbie’s birthday (she turns 51 this year, and still has a great figure), which means Shonen Knife’s “Twist Barbie” is on heavy rotation.

Your band playing Neon Reverb? Got a St. Paddy’s Day party? Email jarret_keene@yahoo.com.

POSTHUMOUS

Johnny Cash, American VI: Ain’t No Grave (American) It might be time to admit something uncomfortable: Producer Rick Rubin’s much-celebrated series of albums by legendary country singer Johnny Cash (a series that stretches back to 1994) are, in hindsight, slow, ponderous and overwrought in their forced simplicity. At least that’s what the sixth (and third posthumous) installment unfortunately suggests. From the Alfred E. Neuman cover photo of Cash as a child to the awful album title, everything about American Vi seems flawed, diminishing those qualities (Nine Inch Nails covers, Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers working as a backup band, etc.) listeners enjoyed about the preceding “American Recordings.”

Sheryl Crow and Kris Kristofferson are worthy songwriters, yes, but their material here is dull, moody and—this may be the worst part—dated. Despite the praise lavished on Rubin’s efforts, Cash’s final works (recorded three months before his death from surgery complications) are inextricably linked to the MtV Unplugged trend of the ’90s. As such, hearing Cash’s heartfelt departure songs can be a bit of a chore. – J.K.

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Gadgets & Tech

Navigating the best deals as GPS prices continue to drop

By Eric Benderoff

If you need help getting around town or finding a gas station with the lowest prices, a GPS unit is worth the money.

If money’s tight, wait six months, save your pennies, then buy a GPS in the fall. Prices for these useful gadgets are falling—and some bargain-priced units are already available.

A quick search of Amazon.com returns several fine models, most below $150 and many priced below $100. Two major players, Garmin and TomTom, dominate these price points, offering models at a steep discount compared with this time last year, when a good dashboard-mounted GPS cost north of $200.

Part of the reason for the steep and stunning pricing decline is that mobile phones are getting much better at duplicating the functions of dashboardmounted GPS devices.

Google introduced Google Maps Navigation for Android—a fantastic application that offers accurate, turnby-turn driving instructions—in November. The app is free and it comes included on several Androidbased phones (including the Motorola Droid and Google’s new phone, the Nexus One) and as an upgrade for others (including the first Android phone, the G1 from T-Mobile). The application includes traffic alerts, recommendations for restaurants and other handy roadtrip functions. (It even links to Google Map’s Street View function to show you a picture of your destination’s front door before you get there.)

Nokia followed suit this January, offering a free software upgrade that put turn-by-turn driving instructions on 10 of its smartphones. (Nokia bought Chicago-based digital map-maker Navteq in 2007 for $8.1 billion.)

Then there’s the iPhone, which ships with a free mapping function and has dozens of other apps available for a richer service.

I’ve used Google Maps for Navigation on the Motorola Droid for several 88 Vegas Seven March 4-March 10, 2010

months and the service is brilliant.

There is one cost and it’s well worth it: Motorola built a special mount ($30 at Verizon Wireless stores) for the phone that sticks to your windshield and launches the navigation service automatically when you place the Droid into the mount. When a call comes in, all you have to do is touch the phone’s screen to answer. (Taking calls does not disrupt driving directions.)

As far as iPhone-based GPS apps are concerned, I’ve found the maps app that comes pre-loaded on all iPhones to be handy and largely accurate, which is why I don’t recommend people spend $80 for the TomTom app. I do, however, recommend iPhone users download the free “Compare GPS Apps” tool to find the best app if they decide they need one that is more robust than the standard version.

For BlackBerry users, TeleNav’s GPS Navigator series consistently receives good user reviews, though versions vary depending on the model of BlackBerry and service provider.

You don’t need a fancy Droid, iPhone or BlackBerry to take advantage of mobile GPS services: Many wireless carriers offer GPS service to standard mobile phone, too.

I recently tested a $10 monthly service from TeleNav on a standard Motorola flip phone and was blown away by the accuracy of the directions. TeleNav is available through AT&T but all major carriers—Sprint, Verizon, etc.—offer a similar service of some sort.

You can also download a 24-hour version of the service for a few dollars, which is a great deal if you only need GPS features from time to time.

While convenient, there are a few drawbacks to using your mobile phone as a GPS device. The screens are often smaller (difficult for aging eyes) and the constant use drains the battery—though you can compensate with a car charger.

On the other hand, having your phone double as a GPS is a convenient tool if you travel a lot. Without having to worry

about renting a GPS from the car rental place or bringing (and subsequently forgetting?) your personal GPS from home, your cell phone GPS can help get you from the airport to your final destination. What’s more, a GPS (traditional or cell phone-based) saves you from having to check and re-check maps as you try to navigate streets and contend with traffic in an unfamiliar city.

Another reason prices for GPS units keep eroding is that most new car buyers don’t need them. One of the best lures automakers have going right now—besides steep discounts and government incentives—is to include an upgraded “telematics” package into a new car. Telematics (auto electronics) are getting more robust by the day.

GM continues to build out OnStar (which it launched in 1996) and currently offers the service in more than 30 new models. One of the system’s options involves a navigation service where drivers simply push a button and say the address of where they want to go and OnStar gives them turn-by-turn driving directions through the vehicle’s speakers. The service can also provide diagnostics (time for an oil change!), voiceactivated hands-free calling and a “crisis-assist” program for drivers in trouble. OnStar is free for up to one year on many new cars, but after that, service plans starts at $200 a year.

Ford’s answer to OnStar, “Sync,” is a Microsoft-branded technology that links your phone or music player to the car stereo by voice command. Further, the system includes a connection to emergency services (similar to OnStar), traffic updates and turn-by-turn driving instructions dictated through the vehicle’s sound system. Ford claims 32 percent of new car buyers called Sync “critical or important” to buying a new auto. And unlike OnStar, Sync has no monthly fee and comes standard in some Ford vehicles (but is a $400 option in others).

Ford and GM are not alone, as almost every automaker—particularly the luxury brands—provides an enhanced electronics package with GPS technology.

Still, dashboard-mounted GPS units show no signs of going away anytime soon—they are useful and increasingly affordable accessories. And if prices keep dropping, they may soon be no more expensive than the traditional maps at the gas station.

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

Follow him on Twitter @ericbendy.

GPS Best Buys There’s a never-ending stream of new dashboard-mounted GPS units—Automotive News said about 380 in-vehicle accessory companies were at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, all displaying new products— so choosing one can be a daunting task.

I suggest focusing on devices that are affordable, portable, and will fit into your carry-on luggage. Here are three solid options to consider: Garmin Nuvi 285W Once priced at more than $200, this model can be found for less than $150 at several retailers. It offers an easyto-see 4.3-inch screen and provides real-time traffic updates, too, though the real-time data requires service from MSN Direct, which is free for nine months and then $50 a year after that.

Garmin Nuvi 285W TomTom ONE XL-S This model once topped $300 but can be purchased for $150 today. I’ve had good experiences with TomTom devices in past tests, so I’d feel confidant purchasing this model, which features a 4.3-inch widescreen display. This feature-rich product offers text-tospeech directions, map updates via USB, and celebrity voice directions— because, really, who doesn’t want Sean Connery, Homer Simpson or Ozzy Osbourne guiding them through gridlock?

TomTom One XL-S Magellan Maestro 3100 This smaller device is ideal for road warriors: It weighs less than a pound and easily fits in your jacket pocket.

Originally priced at more than $200, you can now find them for about $130.

Maps are displayed on a 3.5-inch screen and include points of interest such as coffee shops and gas stations.

– E.B. Magellan Maestro 3100

March 4-March 10, 2010 Vegas Seven 89

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Dining

Illustration by WACSO

Tk photo caption Photo By tk photographer

Hooking Up for Lunch Always looking for the right spot for a midday business meal? Here are seven sure things

By Max Jacobson

It’s an old problem in Las Vegas—where to meet for lunch? One person works in Summerlin, the other in Green Valley, and you’re both tired of the same old spots. This is one problem Google can’t fix.

Well, I’m here to tell you that the prospects are on the rise for the business lunch. In coming up with seven, I had to leave a number of places off the list. For example, maybe Mastro’s Ocean Club at Crystals should have made the cut, as I think it might quickly evolve into the power lunch place for casino executives—you tell me.

I chose the following places for their menu variety, quality and location, making sure that neither you nor whomever you’re meeting has to drive too far.

They also all have good vibes—to ensure the ink on that contract will be dry before dessert.

Table 34. The former Wild Sage Café doesn’t have the cache it once had, but the food here is still terrific, and it’s next to the airport. I always expect a smile from Laurie Kendrick, the lovely manager, and good food from the chef, her brother, Wes. His salami pizza, French dip, meatloaf and salads still rival any in town. Great desserts, too. 600 E. Warm Springs Road, 263-0034.

China MaMa. If you’re anywhere near Chinatown, take Horace Greeley’s advice and go west, young businessman, to this comely little café at the far end of the district ( just north of Spring Mountain Road, on Jones Boulevard). China MaMa belongs to a woman from Taiwan, and the specialty here is juicy pork dumplings called xiao long bao, which spurt liquid Continued on page 92 March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 91

Dining

Diner’s Notebook

Off the Strip buzz, Wal-Mart applause and some sage absinthe advice

By Max Jacobson

Clockwise from top: Hash House a Go Go, Verandah and Marche Bacchus.

Lunch Continued from page 92

when pierced. Shanghainese beef roll, green onion pancake and sliced fish in chili sauce also make great lunch fodder. 3420 S. Jones Blvd., 873-1977.

Marche Bacchus. Sit by the lake at Desert Shores while lunching on the food of Emeril Lagasse alum Jean-Paul Labadie. You can buy any wine in the shop and drink it with your meal for only a $10 corkage, and choices are amazing. Labadie makes a mean gumbo, serves some of the best charcuterie in town, and does several classic French sandwiches. 2620 Regatta Dr., 804-8008.

Verandah. This power breakfast and lunch spot is a pastel-hued room with excellent acoustics and free newspapers. There is the option to eat outside at the pool, or inside in the series of small alcoves. The cuisine is best described as Italianate with touches of California, from the accomplished hand of Executive Chef Michael Goodman, and the pastries and breads from Alsatian Jean-Luc Daul are masterful. In the Four Seasons Hotel, 632-5121.

Mozen Bistro. Never mind the easy-in-easy-out parking valet, plush elevators or the fact that this restaurant 92 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

isn’t terribly busy at lunch. If only for the food alone, this would be my choice for a power lunch at CityCenter. I love the tandoori platter, sushi made to order by a master chef, Shawn Armstrong, and the Chinese dim sum that complements traditional Western lunch fare.

If there is a more eclectic, refined or sophisticated hotel restaurant in town, I haven’t found it. In the Mandarin Oriental at CityCenter, 590-8888.

Lola’s. Lola (call her Beth) Pokorny is a real downhome Louisiana girl, and it shows on her menu at this hot spot. Since the city lost Commander’s Palace, this is the most reliable place in town for Cajun cooking.

Don’t miss the charbroiled oysters, crawfish pie, red beans and rice or a star bronzed catfish with grits and andouille. How ’bout dem Saints? In the Holsum Lofts, 241 W. Charleston Blvd., 227-5652.

Hash House a Go Go. If excess is your thing, this is the place. One-pound stuffed burgers, fried chicken and waffles, and a potpie large enough to hide a turkey in are wildly popular in this room, which is too crowded and noisy for my taste. But it must be crowded for a reason. 6800 W. Sahara Ave., 804-4646.

I’m a compulsive reader of food blogs, but sometimes I wonder whether to take them seriously.

Off the Strip at 10670 Southern Highlands Parkway ranked No. 1 out of 1,739 Las Vegas restaurants on the website TripAdvisor. When I saw this, I had to rush over.

What I found is best described as a neighborhood joint for spaghetti with giant meatballs and some fancy fare, such as lobster ravioli. The menu is on a huge blackboard, and the portions are enormous. I like the friendly service, open kitchen, affordable prices and the rolled steak. The wine list, on a separate blackboard, is quite interesting.

My 20-year-old niece gave the food an eight; I’d stretch it to a six. So much for TripAdvisor.com, but it still rocks for Southern Highlands.

For the most part, the Web is full of invaluable information for anyone who takes food seriously.

The website for The Atlantic Monthly (theatlantic. com), for example, has an article by Corby Kummer about “The Great Grocery Smackdown” between Wal-Mart’s organic produce and that of Whole Foods Markets.

Who won? Not Whole Foods.

I tried Pink Lady apples and Earthbound Farm’s lettuce and celery hearts at a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market, and they were more than satisfactory and competitively priced. So far, the produce manager said, only a few customers are aware of the new program.

That’s bound to change, though, and I applaud this new trend.

Another trendoid phenom is absinthe, the notorious spirit that was outlawed in this country until a few years ago because of wormwood, a noxious substance that is present in it. But the Food and Drug Administration allows so many parts per million, and now this bitter distillate is present in Las Vegas bars.

Sage, in Aria at CityCenter, has eight of them, one from San Francisco, four from France, two from Switzerland and one from Spain. I prefer San Francisco’s St. George Absinthe Verte, made from brandy and star anise, with not quite enough wormwood to make Verlaine or Rimbaud mad.

The best way to have it is in a Sazerac, the famous New Orleans drink here made with Peychaud bitters and not a little rye whiskey. But if you want to impress your date by being hip or dissolute, then have it the traditional way, strained through a sugar cube to reduce the bitter aftertaste. Go St. George. Buy American!

Hungry, yet?

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

Dining

Dishing

Nanny Mac’s Shepherd’s Pie at McMullan’s Irish Pub

Pizza Settebello at Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana

Tableside Guacamole at Cabo Mexican Restaurant

This pub near the Orleans offers live entertainment on weekend nights and is a great place to go even when it’s not St. Patrick’s Day. A big reason in the winter: this traditional Irish dish, which consists of ground sirloin, carrots and sweet peas in a broth with a mashed potato crust.

The hearty meal also comes in a lunch portion. $11.95 lunch, $13.95 dinner, 4650 W. Tropicana Ave., 247-7000.

Brad Otton fell in love with his VPN (vera pizza Napoletana, meaning “real Neapolitan pizza”) concept while on a mission for the Mormon church in Naples. So he brought back a stone oven, a pizza man and several recipes, and the rest is Vegas legend. You don’t slice this baby; it’s meant to be torn apart by hand.

Expect thin, chewy crust and toppings such as salamis from Mario Batali’s dad in Seattle. $12.99, 140 S. Green Valley Parkway, The District at Green Valley Ranch, 222-3556, settebello.net.

This casual Baja eatery will excite your taste buds before you reach your entrée.

After being presented with a selection of fresh ingredients, your server will fuse all your choices into a vibrant guacamole masterpiece right there in frzont of you. Ingredients include avocados, Roma tomatoes, green serrano chiles, sweet red onions and freshly squeezed limes. The chips are pretty good, too! $8.99, Red Rock, 797-7540.

94 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Sea Bass Anticuchos at Sushisamba Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian cuisine each have had a great impact on the culinary world, and here is where they deliciously merge. The sea bass anticuchos are skewered and miso-glazed and cooked on a robata grill. They are served with Peruvian corn that is marinated in butter and lime. By the way, the restaurant now has a “Sake-oke Superstar” competition every Wednesday. $16, Palazzo, 607-0700.

Dining

Dishing

Chocolate Chip Babka at Freed’s Bakery

Crème Brûlée at Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill

Ahi Tuna Sliders at LBS

The Garbage Salad at N9NE Steakhouse

Freed’s is well-known for wedding cakes decorated to the nines, but I go for their humble selection of traditional JewishAmerican pastries, such as Black and White cookies and Racetrack coffee cake. Their chocolate chip babka must have 1,000 calories, made from dough so dense it wouldn’t float in the Dead Sea. A tiny slice weighs a lot more than you think, so ask the counter person to go easy with the knife.$12.95, 4780 S. Eastern Ave. and 9555 S. Eastern Ave., 456-7762, freedsbakery.com

The restaurant’s interior colored-glass designs and open dining area in front of the casino action give Puck’s place a contemporary but laid-back feel.

And this dessert is a perfect fit for the atmosphere. Pastry chef Kenny Magana describes it as “still familiar but modern and, most important, fun. We wanted to break the mold of crème brûlée always served in a dish … and make it whatever shape we wanted.” And it tastes even better than it looks. $9, MGM Grand, 891-3000.

After stepping inside LBS and seeing the handblown glass steer head and the American flag comprised of 3,500 license plates on the ceiling, you will know you are not in an ordinary burger joint. This retro-style roadhouse, inside Red Rock, serves gourmet beefy burgers loaded with toppings and health-conscious items for burger lovers who don’t want to miss out on the taste. The ahi tuna sliders are a perfect solution made with seared rare ahi tuna, chili mayo, Asian slaw and teriyaki glaze, all in a mini bun. $8, Red Rock hotel-casino, 835-9393.

This bold, innovated steakhouse— a favorite among celebrities and hip locals—has a lot of amazing things come out of its 1,200-degree oven, but it also features salads that can compete with the heartiness of any steak. This dish is a zesty case in point, with ingredients that include romaine lettuce, salami, shrimp, Maytag blue cheese, cucumber, tomato, hearts of palm, artichokes and olives in a Dijon vinaigrette. With an abundance of diverse flavors, it’ll make you want to take in the Garbage. $12, Palms, 933-9900.

96 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

Dining

Cooking The Steak

Dinner for Two … at Your Place

Strip House chef offers a romantic combo meal that you (or your loved one) can handle at home

By Patrick Moulin To celebrate a birthday, anniversary or even a Saturday night, a romantic home-cooked meal for two is always enchanting. Vegas Seven sat down with John Schenk, corporate executive chef of Strip House at Planet Hollywood (striphouse.net), to help plan your perfect evening.

“The whole focus of a romantic dinner is your attitude and what you bring to the meal,” the Buffalo, N.Y., native says. “Know who you’re cooking for and cook what you know.”

For our dinner for two, Schenk suggests a charred strip steak and simple yet impressive cheesy potatoes.

For dessert he recommends a little danger (and a little liquor) with bananas Foster. (He recommends you try a rich, creamy lobster bisque, which is a little more complicated, but you can find that recipe on our website, weeklyseven.com).

Before stretching your culinary limits, Schenk recommends that first-timers practice these dishes a few days beforehand. ”Nothing’s worse than if it all goes to crud,” the chef says. He has had his own attempts at romantic dinners fall flat in the past and now keeps a list of reliable take-out restaurants ready “in times of crisis.”

For the main course, Schenk provides many helpful pointers for preparing the perfect steak and potatoes.

When shopping for steaks, he recommends the choice rib-eye steak, “which will naturally give you a large marbelization, without the cost of other overpriced filet.”

This preparation is for an outdoor grill, which adds “a real sense of texture, an extra palate sense,” the grill master says. “A nice char really adds a lot of layers of flavor.”

Dry the steaks (about one pound each) on a paper towel before dipping them in a blended oil, lightly coating each side. Season each side with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Schenk suggests seasoning “more than you think is necessary,” and place it on a very hot grill. The oil allows the surface temp to come up quickly and char the outside, which seals the juices inside. When charred (roughly 8 minutes for medium rare, but will vary depending on the thickness of the steak), flip the meat over to another hot part of the grill for another 8 minutes.

When finished, remove the meat from the grill and place on an elevated rack to rest for 4-6 minutes. This will allows for the air around the meat to circulate and the juices to filtrate back through the steak.

One trick they use at Strip House is to place the steak back on the grill for a brief moment right before serving to give it “a good sizzle.” They then top it off with French gray sea salt, a milder salt, which accentuates the flavors without giving a salty taste.

Potatoes Romanoff 4 pounds grated whole baked potatoes 1½ cups minced shallots 4 cups grated white cheddar cheese 3 cups sour cream kosher salt and ground white pepper for taste.

Perfectly complementing the steak is Schenk’s own recipe for a dish that looks complicated, tastes amazing but couldn’t be simpler to pull off.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the grated potato, shallots and 3 cups of the cheese. Season well with salt and pepper. Use the “open hand” method to fold in the sour cream one cup at a time. Schenk picked up the technique while watching pitas being handmade in Egypt.

The potatoes may be baked in individual ramekins or in a large baking dish. Just be sure to spray it with a light oil (Pam) before lightly layering the potatoes inside.

Sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese and if using an individual ramekin, place in a water bath before baking in an oven at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, until the cheese has browned. Schenk suggests preparing the dish ahead of time and refrigerating until you’re ready to bake. It may need additional bake time if refrigerated, though.

Bananas Foster 2/ 3 cup dark brown sugar ¼ cup unsalted butter ½ cup heavy cream ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg ½ cup Myers Rum ½ orange zest 2 under-ripe bananas, cut into thick circles

If dinner is still going well and you’re feeling adventurous, bananas Foster is a surefire way to impress your date and show off your cooking skills.

“Dessert is always complicated for the home cook,” Schenk says. “But done right and it can be an excellent dish to share and enjoy together.”

In a high-topped pan, flame the rum until it stops burning. Careful though: This night should end with a trip to the bedroom, not the ER. Once the alcohol has burned off, add the heavy cream, cinnamon and nutmeg, blend together and set aside off the heat. In a separate pan, melt the butter, add the brown sugar and cook until dissolved. Next, add the bananas and cook until the edges brown. Stir in the cream mixture, add the orange zest and bring to a simmer.

To make the dish truly decadent, Schenk suggests placing a pecan cookie or chocolate brownie on the bottom of your serving dish followed by a scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream. Pour the bananas and sauce over the top and serve in one dish—two spoons.

Following these steps should almost assure you of a romantic evening that will not only win over your date’s stomach, but also his or her heart. Whether you choose to use these recipes or one of your own, the most important thing is to be comfortable with what you’re preparing. It’s not only practical, it’s sexy.

Before-and-after steaks, Potatoes Romanoff and bananas Foster. Photography by Sullivan Charles 98 Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

HEALTH & FiTnEss Cool Bike ProduCts S-WORKS TT2 Helmet. Specialized recently made its new Time Trial Helmet available to the public. Worn in the Tour de France, this helmet is miles ahead of the competition when it comes to aerodynamic drag reduction, ventilation and fit. $250, specialized.com.

Oakley LiveStrong Jawbone Sunglasses. The company’s legacy of sports performance innovation continues with the new Jawbone—so named because you can pivot the nose piece to unlock the lower jaw and open it for easy lens changing. The best part is that when you buy a pair, Oakley gives $20 to LiveStrong. $205, oakley.com/livestrong.

Biking Tips From a Pro Rider Chris White offers advice on how to get up to speed So you’ve seen that guy zip down the road with nary an ounce of fat on his body, legs pumping, muscles flexing as he easily outpaces the local traffic on his way to who knows where. If you don’t remember from your childhood, what he’s doing is a fun and exciting activity. And, in adulthood, it’s a great way to get into shape, especially if you know the secrets to doing it right.

Start by setting reasonable goals and then progress slowly. The key is to increase your time or distance on the bike to no more than 10 percent per week.

Writing down your goals and recording your time and mileage are also essential to tracking your progress. Realistically, beginners should be committed to four or five rides a week of varying intensity, with at least one day of rest.

If you want to go speeding down the road like that guy you saw, you’ll have to get serious eventually. No more putting around the cul-de-sac at a paltry 5 mph; you need to turn it up to 11. But before you even think of showing up at a local fast ride, you should be riding 20-30 miles a day, plus longer rides on the weekend (40 to 60 miles per day).

Overall, 100 miles a week is a good start.

100 Vegas seven March 4-10, 2010

In biking, like weightlifting, you should have a goal each day. One day train your sprint. Turn it on between two utility poles, then recover to the point where you can catch your breath. This cycle should be four or five minutes, then repeat five or six times. Another day, try sustained efforts—riding at the point your legs begin to burn. Hold that for 10 minutes, recover 10 minutes and then do another 10 minutes. The following week increase to 12 minutes for each effort.

The idea is to build up for longer and longer distances. Do these exercises for

four-week blocks. The last week is always a recovery week, where mileage and intensity are equal or slightly less than your first week.

You’ll know you’re in good shape when you can ride a steady pace of 18 mph for an hour and feel comfortable. Professionals routinely ride four to five hours a day, and the average speed of a local professional race is close to 30 mph. When you’re ready for that level, let us know!

Chris White is a 15-year cycling veteran and is currently a Category 3 Master.

Ready to Join the Pack?

After you’ve gotten into shape, start off with easy group rides to become more familiar with riding in a pack. Being comfortable here is the first step to upgrading to a faster-paced, race-like environment.

Recreational rides are a great place to start. Contact JT’s Bicycle Co. at 5645345 or Aspen Creek Cycling at 893-2453 (ask for Mike). Most rides average 20-25 miles in length.

When you’re ready for the next step, contact Nu Vision Cyclery (228-3813, 1970 Village Center Circle, Suite 5), where a moderate to fast ride (17-24 mph) leaves the shop every Wednesday morning at 6:15.

CamelBak Flow Meter.

CamelBak added a few new gadgets this year, including a water gauge that allows you to convert any CamelBak reservoir into an intelligent hydration system. Perhaps not a complete necessity, but we’re suckers for gadgets. $30, camelbak.com.

Independent Fabrication XS. Here’s where fine furniture meets sculpted metal. Working with Edge Composites, custom frame-builder Indy Fab was able to laminate cherry veneer to its carbon fiber tubing to create this one-of-a-kind beauty. $5,995, ifbikes.com.

SportS & LeiSure taking control

Willis comfortable in leadership role as UNLV prepares for March Madness

By Rob Miech to 48 percent, and his free-throw shooting from 74 percent to 85 percent.

“I can’t ever remember a guy improving his shot in a year like he has,” former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian says. “Last season he was a sketchy shooter, up and down. This season he’s been so consistent. His game has been tremendous.”

UNLV’s first-round defeat at Kentucky in last year’s National Invitational Tournament after falling short of the NCAA Tournament stung Willis like a thousand bees. “That wasn’t fun,” he says with a dour expression.

Last season was Willis’ first as a Rebel after transferring from Memphis, and he often took a backseat to seniors Wink Adams, Rene Rougeau, Joe Darger and Mo Rutledge. But things are different this year.

“He has really come a long way,” Kruger says of Willis. “He’s really matured and his game has really matured. In the last few weeks, he’s seeing even more of the big picture, in making sure each teammate is playing well and playing with confidence, which is a whole other level for a young player.”

Willis overslept and missed practice a couple of times last season, but now he starts every day with leadership vows, showing how far he’s come since arriving in Las Vegas.

When the Rebels regrouped for spring drills and summer pick-up ball last year, Willis quickly stepped into a leadership role.

“I’m very different,” he says. “At first, when I came here, it was more about me and what I’m doing. Now, I have a lot of guys to worry about, one to 12, every day. I’m taking things on my shoulders and digesting them, getting everyone involved and demanding everyone’s presence.”

Including his own—even if that means some late nights.

I can’t ever remember a guy “ improving his shot in a year like he has. Last season he was a sketchy shooter, up and down.

This season he’s been so consistent.

His game has been tremendous.”

– former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian

West Coast Conference action returns to Vegas The West Coast Conference moved its college basketball tournament to the Orleans Arena last year to provide a neutral court, but despite the new surroundings, the result was largely the same as it has been over the past decade.

Gonzaga won its ninth WCC tournament title in 11 years, gaining an NCAA Tournament bid in the Matt Bouldin is the leading scorer for Gonzaga.

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Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

process, and seems poised to do so again as the event returns to the Orleans on March 5-8.

The Bulldogs are the top seed after winning their 10th straight conference regular-season title. They are led by senior guard Matt Bouldin, who averages 16.2 points per game.

Second-seeded St. Mary’s, however, has the top player in the tournament

in senior center Omar Samhan, who is 16th in the nation in scoring (21.1 ppg), sixth in rebounding (11.2 per game) and 13th in blocked shots (2.9 per game); and is the biggest threat to wrestle the title away from Gonzaga.

Reserved seats are sold out, but standing room-only tickets are available. Call 284-7777 or visit orleansarena.com. – Sean DeFrank

Willis photo courtesy Aaron Mayes/UNLV Photo Services

Tre’Von Willis has been working overtime to make sure he’s at the top of his game.

There have been late nights when the UNLV junior guard has tracked down a janitor to open the gymnasium doors and turn on the lights for him. Willis polishes his ball-handling skills and often runs through a demanding regimen that includes taking more than 3,000 shots from all over the court.

Not even Rebels coach Lon Kruger realized Willis was putting in the extra work at night, twice a week. Willis can’t just lie around and watch TV. There’s too much to accomplish on the court.

UNLV is 22-7 heading into its regularseason finale at home against Wyoming on Saturday, March 6, and might need to at least reach the championship game of the Mountain West Conference Tournament next week to be selected for the NCAA Tournament.

Willis, as the heart and soul of the Rebels, knows how much his team feeds off him, how much his teammates look to him for direction. A deep run into March depends on Willis, and he wants it no other way.

“Really, all I try to do is show the guys how much urgency we need and how hard we have to play, and how tough we have to be,” Willis says. “Sometimes, it’s the smallest things. I definitely try to lead the team, whether it’s on defense or hustling on offense.”

Willis has made his biggest contributions on offense. He is averaging 20.3 points per game in conference play, including a career-high 33-point performance in an 8874 home rout of Brigham Young on Feb. 6.

Overall, he leads the Rebels with 17.6 ppg, up from 11.4 last season, and he has boosted his shooting from the field from 38 percent

Going for Broke

End of college regular season offers winning opportunities

By Matt Jacob Like the U.S. hockey team, our state budget “deal,” Wayne Newton to his debt collectors and Mr. Chow from The Hangover, I came up a little short last week, going 1-2-1 for a net loss of $155.

That was after consecutive weeks of positive results.

Overall, I remain in a bit of a hole with a bankroll of $6,220 after a month on the job (and you better believe I curse Peyton Manning daily for it), but I’m ready to cut into that deficit with three selections this week as the madness that is March officially begins. $440 (to win $400) on Minnesota (-12.5) over Iowa (Sunday, March 7): If Minnesota wants to be playing in the only meaningful March tournament, it must continue to win and win impressively. Thankfully for the Gophers, who entered this week on a 3-1 run (4-0 against the spread), they have the perfect foil in Iowa.

Barring a miracle, the Hawkeyes lost at Wisconsin on March 3 to fall to 10-20 overall and 4-13 in the Big Ten. Not counting the Wisconsin result, the Hawkeyes have dropped six Big Ten road games by an average of 14.6 points.

How weak is Iowa? It started the season with losses to Texas-San Antonio and Duquesne ... at home!

Minnesota has won and covered in its last three meetings with the Hawkeyes, including a 12-point victory in Iowa City on Jan. 2. The Gophers are also 13-3 on their home floor this season, covering the spread in 10 of 15 games that were on the betting board, and two of those home losses were one-point defeats to third-ranked Purdue and seventhranked Michigan State. Iowa is ranked, too—311th (out of 347 teams in the country) in scoring at 61.8 ppg. $110 (to win $100) on Louisville (-2) over Syracuse (Saturday, March 6): Motivation matters in March, and even though Syracuse will be looking to avenge last month’s home loss to Louisville (and hang onto the No. 1 ranking it earned this week), the Orange likely will come into this game in a flat spot.

All Syracuse had to do to clinch the Big East regular-season title (and

No. 1 seed in the conference tournament) was beat St. John’s in its home finale on Tuesday, March 2. With that accomplished, the Orange’s only goal at Louisville will be to remain healthy.

On the other hand, the Cardinals need to win to A) improve their position in the Big East pecking order; B) bolster their NCAA Tournament résumé; C) send their seniors out with a victory in their final home game; and D) prove their win at Syracuse wasn’t a fluke. To add to that latter point, Louisville has had its way with Syracuse lately, winning the last five meetings (4-0-1 ATS). $110 (to win $100) on Air Force (+9.5) over San Diego State (Saturday, March 6): Instead of rally towels, posters or T-shirts, the folks at Air Force ought to give away surgical masks to its fans to ward off the stench of the Falcons basketball team. Assuming they lost at Wyoming on March 2—which is like assuming the sun came up, since they haven’t won a road game all season—the Falcons enter their game against San Diego State with a 1-14 Mountain West Conference record (including last week’s 30-point home loss to UNLV).

But if ever Air Force is going to show some fight, it would be in this contest.

For one thing, it’s the Falcons’ final home game (and the final home game for four seniors). For another, all the pressure is on the Aztecs, who are “on the bubble” and cannot afford a slip-up against an inferior opponent. Problem is, the kids from sea level have struggled playing in the Mountain West’s higher altitudes (they blew a 14-point halftime lead at Wyoming earlier this year, barely won at mediocre Utah and lost by 14 at Brigham Young last week).

The Aztecs, who haven’t been favored on the road by more than 7.5 points all year, also have just one victory in their last six trips to Colorado Springs.

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.

March 4-10, 2010 Vegas Seven 103

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Seven QueStionS

Adam Cronis

UNLV’s student body president talks about the school’s fragile reputation and fickle campus spirit

By Elizabeth Sewell

What’s it like to be a student at UNLV now?

UNLV is still a great school, and I’ve been afforded a lot of great opportunities, but there’s a sense of frustration. Students have been hammered with tuition increases and face the possibility of their programs being cut or eliminated altogether. There’s a lot of uncertainty. I’m graduating, so I don’t face the nega110

Vegas Seven March 4-10, 2010

tive impacts all the students coming up will face. At the same time I really worry about the credibility my degree is going to have and the credibility their degree is going to have.

Do you think the budget situation has steered students away from UNLV? I think it could. The enrollment numbers have been actually a little bit higher this year than last year, but I think a lot of that is the economy and people coming back to school to polish up and look for new job opportunities. I think this is having an impact, especially [with another] round of cuts. It could dissuade some people from coming.

What’s your least favorite part of the job?

Petty squabbles and arguments. There are some people in organizations like this who just aren’t very good people. It’s just like anywhere else—you get some good people and some bad people, and you can get in some very strong disagreements with the people who may not be the best-natured. I won’t miss that. Unfortunately, you see some of the root causes we face in higher levels of governance. You see it early on. Those bad habits start early.

Does school spirit really hinge on the basketball team winning?

That’s a huge part of it. If they don’t do well, things are considerably different on campus. I think it’s branching out to more than just basketball, but basketball is still the flagship.

What’s your favorite place to go in Las Vegas?

I’d say the top of the Stratosphere. Gazing out over everything is very calming. I think it really sets your mind free.

Why do you want a political science degree?

I guess I’m naive enough to think that you can still do some good in government. I think that political science helps to provide you the base in which to build your abilities to craft policy and come up with pragmatic solutions.

Who is inspirational to you?

It probably sounds kind of clichéd, but my dad has had a big impact on me. He’s a very hard worker, and he took two or three jobs to support us in the past and never complained about it. I’d like to think I have those qualities.

Photo by Anthony Mair

Being a leader in good times is difficult enough, but with UNLV having been dealt significant budget cuts and now facing another 6.9 percent reduction after the special session of the Nevada Legislature, Student Body President Adam Cronis has had some significant weight on his shoulders. The 23-year-old Lake Tahoe transplant, who puts in 70 hours a week on campus, is one of only six two-term presidents at UNLV in the past 25 years. His job is answering to the 20,000-student constituency, and from class sizes to scheduling, there isn’t an issue he doesn’t hear about. Yet it’s hard to spot frustration when he talks about his job and the situation on campus. He is majoring in political science and history, and with his own graduation around the corner, Cronis is using his last couple of months in office trying to preserve whatever he can of UNLV’s hard-fought reputation.