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12 | THE LATEST
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“Honoring the Sixth Sense—Sense of Place,” by Greg Blake Miller. Forward-thinking architecture and the beauty of the yet-unbuilt.
14 | Next Exit
“Sprawling Toward Gomorrah,” by Stacy J. Willis. Is Las Vegas capable of changing its growth direction?
18 | About Town
“Architecture of the Night,” by Nora Burba Trulsson. An innovative new UNLV program explores the science and poetry of design after dark.
20 | Green Felt Journal
“The Coming Social (Gaming) Revolution,” by David G. Schwartz. What’s the heir to slot play? Our digital gaming habits might hold the key.
22 | COVER
“The Rise of the Ruvo,” by Matt Jacob. Nearly two decades ago, Larry Ruvo set out to create a medical facility to honor his father, who had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Here’s the inside story of how a world-class brain-science center wound up in Sin City.
29 | NIGHTLIFE
“The Empire of the Hakkasan,” by Grace Bascos. The hospitality group’s Las Vegas outpost marks one year. Plus, Seven Nights, a Q&A with Nikki Phoenix and photos from the week’s hottest parties.
53 | DINING
“Warning: NSFW!” by Grace Bascos. Don’t even think about bringing these foods into the office! Plus, what’s in season year-round, Cocktail Culture and Dishing With Grace.
59 | A&E
“Phat Chance,” by Steve Bornfeld. Great reviews and lousy luck have gone hand in hand as the Phat Pack seeks yet another Vegas showroom to call home. Plus, the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s new music director, CD Reviews, Tour Buzz, The Hit List and reviews of Motörhead and Chance the Rapper.
66 | Movies The Railway Man and our weekly movie capsules.
78 | Seven Questions
Award-winning sports columnist Rick Reilly on the night Mike Tyson turned cannibal, the sadistic allure of golf and how today’s college basketball elite would’ve fared against the Rebels of yesteryear.
Pop artist James Rosenquist’s oil painting, commissioned by Steve Wynn and titled “Cervello Spazio Cosmico,” hangs in the Keep Memory Alive Event Center at the Lou Ruvo Center.
ON THE COVER Photo by Jon Estrada
| | | |
Dialogue Seven Days Gossip Showstopper
9 VEGAS SEVEN
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April 24–30, 2014
DEPARTMENTS
LAS VEGAS’ WEEKLY CITY MAGAZINE
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FOUNDED FEBRUARY 2010
PUBLISHER Michael Skenandore
EDITORIAL
Greg Blake Miller Matt Jacob (news and sports), Xania Woodman (nightlife, beverage and dining) A&E EDITOR Cindi Reed SENIOR WRITERS Steve Bornfeld, Geoff Carter, Stacy J. Willis COPY CHIEF Paul Szydelko ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sean DeFrank ASSOCIATE STYLE EDITOR Jessica Acuña CALENDAR COORDINATOR Camille Cannon EDITOR
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DIALOGUE EDITOR’S NOTE
LETTERS
Odds-on Favorite
In response to our April 17 cover feature on Southern Nevada’s looming water crisis, “Get Out of the Damn Shower … and Five Other Suggestions for a Water-Secure Future”:
Senior Editor Matt Jacob is a big baseball fan, so he’ll appreciate the metaphor: He’s a journalistic fve-tool player—an outstanding reporter; a vibrant storyteller; a columnist with a gifted voice and sharp perspective; an eagle-eyed editor; and a mean third baseman for the company softball team. This issue of Vegas Seven is a demonstration of each of those skills (save the ability to snag a low line drive): While carrying a big editorial workload, Matt has created a bracing, informative and deeply humane account of the development of Las Vegas’ Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Embedded in the story, which starts on Page 22, is a sharply observed and empathetic portrait of center founder Larry Ruvo. Matt, who writes our Going for Broke sports-betting column, is a specialist in fnding the undervalued underdog, but this time he’s managed a different and perhaps more diffcult challenge: looking at a well-known, well-respected institution and showing us that sometimes even the favorite outperforms our expectations. – Greg Blake Miller
Tourist Without a Cause
I don’t think there is anyone more obsessed with Las Vegas than I. Every free second is focused on the Valley. My shirts, watch, vanity license plates on my car, magazines in the offce of my business, video collections and wall art are Las Vegas-centric. And I am a good 1970s tree hugger and conservationist. Yet every time I see those “Please help us conserve water by not getting fresh towels daily” cards in my hotel room, I always think, “How about I just don’t visit Las Vegas, so I don’t have to burden you with my excessive water use?” I don’t want to be guilted while I am on vacation! - JeffnOKC, via VegasSeven.com
Cutting Back
I live out in Moapa Valley, and I have cut my water use down to 350-400 gallons a month. My lowest usage was 290. Stopping leaks was a huge savings. When I frst moved in my average was 1,500 gallons a month. – Walter Hess, via VegasSeven.com
THIS WEEK @ VEGASSEVEN.COM CITY OF ROCK
Get your game face on, Electric Daisy Carnival. Now vying for the title of “most important Las Vegas music festival” is Rock in Rio, which is partnering with MGM for an inaugural Sin City event in May 2015, at a $40 million, multistage amusement park on the corner of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard. Get the details at VegasSeven.com/RockInRio.
DOUGHNUT MISS THIS OPENING
DTLV.com takes a first taste of O Doughnuts, the new Downtown shop offering key-lime, baconmaple and even vegan varieties of everyone’s favorite fried pastry. Get your fix at DTLV.com/ ODoughnuts.
CATTLE CHAOS
THE GILDED CABIN
The battle between Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has made national news, but what will be the lasting impact on Nevada? Politics columnist Michael Green breaks down the winners and losers at VegasSeven.com/Bundy.
Take a peek inside the rustic-yet-luxurious estate of attorney, talkshow host and former Senate candidate Edward M. Bernstein, now on the market, at DTLV.com/UrbAppeal.
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THE LATEST
@joeljeffrey It’s Earth Day today. Celebrate by telling people you ride the bus for the environment, not because of your DUI.
@Ron_White Even weed can’t get me to choke down a Peep. #420Easter
@PeytonsHead Kraft is recalling 96K Oscar Mayer wieners. Do you have any idea how bad you have to f*ck up a hot dog to make it recall worthy?
@LasVegasPaco Lets call Slotzilla what it truly is: the Berlin Wall of Las Vegas. Separating the new Downtown from the old Downtown.
@LVCabChronicles A guy just tapped on my window and asked for the number of an escort agency. Because, why not get a hooker on Easter? Right? Am I right?
@KeithOlbermann
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We’re going to talk for a moment about vampires. And not just because we’re determined to live by E L James’ example and piggyback off Twilight fan fction into wild success and fabulous wealth by way of mildly erotic drivel. No, we’re going to talk about vampires because we’re pretty sure Las Vegas is home to some sort of bloodsucker confab. Case in point: After—the afterhours party at the Tommy Wind Theater—started each Sunday at 3:30 a.m. And we all know who comes to party in the middle of the night like that. (We’re not saying we saw Bela Lugosi come out of there just before dawn one day; we’re just saying we picked up a sweet souvenir cape and medallion when he turned into a bat and few off.) But the party, which started its run in early February, is already going on hiatus following a dispute between party organizer Thom Svast and building leaseholder Tommy Riccardo. The two had an agreement to split the cost of paying DJs, but Svast alleged Riccardo wasn’t coming up with his half. Riccardo didn’t
deny it, saying to DJOYbeat.com, “Sometimes checks bounce, and we always cover them. We never screw anybody. We do owe After some money, which we’re absolutely paying him today.” Riccardo says he broke off the arrangement because of some equipment that went missing following one of the After parties. Svast says he’s in negotiations with two or three other operations, and is considering a freestanding location off-Strip. “After-hours is kind of its own beast as it is,” Svast says. “We’re trying to fgure out what’s best for our future.” Which is good news for vampires-at-large, but what about vampire-in-specifc? Lorde claims she’s 17, but there’s a vocal contingent of the Internet braying that she’s much older. What do we call
a person (or undead creature) who’s much, much older than they claim to be, and also dresses extra gothy? You’re damn right. The New Zealand Nosferatu did a show on April 15 at the Cosmopolitan’s Boulevard Pool, where she fnally met the inspiration for her hit “Royals,” George Brett. Brett was invited to go backstage and hang out. Meanwhile, Lorde spent the next evening visiting the Little White Chapel on Las Vegas Boulevard and rapidly dodging wooden stakes and garlic cloves. Finally, Jason Derulo and girlfriend Jordin Sparks hit Tao on April 19 for dinner and a performance to celebrate two events: the release of his album, Talk Dirty, and the birthday of her father, former NFL cornerback Phillippi Sparks. Earlier in the day, Derulo performed at Tao Beach for a crowd that included Ryan Kwanten of True Blood. See? See the threads of this bloody tapestry weaving together? Now go ahead and try to tell us that documentary Fright Night was wrong about vampires taking over.
@RyanTerrana Man, minor league baseball has some weird mascots. Not saying the 51s is good, but the Chihuahuas?! Come on ....
@GrannyVegas My friends at @ThunderVegas gave me a warm welcome! I brought extra long homemade pickles.
@CoachRyanMiller @CoachDaveRice excited to be a part of what you are building here at UNLV. I feel the positivity in the air. Thanks and let’s go REBS!
@DonRickles @JimmyKimmel, thanks for being part of my all-star tribute. What an honor. Not for me, but for you. #OneNightOnly
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ILLUSTRATION BY JON ESTRADA
April 24–30, 2014
Of Night Owls and Nosferatu
Also his age RT @Mets The #Mets select the contract of Bobby Abreu from Las Vegas (AAA) and option Andrew Brown. Abreu will wear #53.
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THE LATEST
ABOUT TOWN
Architecture of the Night
An innovative new UNLV program explores the science and poetry of design afer dark
April 24–30, 2014
By Nora Burba Trulsson
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IF YOU HAPPEN TO SEE A CLUSTER OF EARNEST PEOPLE armed with cameras, iPads and notepads on the Stratosphere’s observation deck later this spring, they may not be your typical Strip tour group. Ditto for the campers out in the desert, peering at Ursa Major and Orion in the middle of the night. These focused folks may be part of NightLab, an innovative new learning program presented by the UNLV School of Architecture’s Downtown Design Center, which spotlights everything from the history of neon and LED effects to desert night skies and low-light photography. While NightLab is aimed squarely at design students and professionals, it’s open to anyone who can pay $3,000 for the intensive 3-week program, which runs May 19 to June 6. “Architecture schools are exploring phenomenology and how we experience design—sound, touch, light,” says Brian Ambroziak, who co-founded the NightLab program and will be teaching a good portion of the course. “You would think that in talking about the senses, night—and light, or the lack thereof—would be a more prevalent factor in architecture and design. But most buildings are created for 2 p.m., not for night use. That’s why we’re trying to create a larger conversation with NightLab.”
The impetus for NightLab came from conversations Ambroziak had several years ago with Ken McCown, director of UNLV’s Downtown Design Center, when both were at the University of Tennessee. McCown then served as the chairman of the university’s landscape architecture program, while Ambroziak is an associate professor at Tennessee’s College of Architecture and Design. When McCown moved to Las Vegas in 2012, he realized his new city would be the perfect place for a program about light versus dark. “There’s a panoply of night-light experiences here,” McCown says, “and outside the city, we have some of the clearest night skies in the world. Students can see a range of night-lighting experiences.” NightLab, presented in collaboration with the American Institute of Architects’ Las Vegas chapter, will be based out of the Downtown Design Center’s Historic Fifth Street School location, where workshops, flms and lectures will take place. Also on the still-evolving agenda are walking tours of Downtown and the Strip; visits to the Pinball Hall of Fame, the Neon Boneyard and light artist James Turrell’s Akhob exhibit at the Crystals mall; a skyline photography session at the Stratosphere; and a desert
camping trek. Along with Ambroziak and McCown, instructors include UNLV media studies professor Julian Kilker, an expert in low-light photography; and architectural-lighting authority Javid Butler, director of technical operations for Traxon Technologies North America. The program will include written and oral presentations, photo sessions and maybe even some flmmaking. Participants will receive a certifcate of completion, which Ambroziak says most students will be able to parlay into college credits. If they get their targeted eight to 16 participants, Ambroziak and McCown hope NightLab will become an annual program. “Students will leave with a comprehensive fundamental understanding of ideas about night lighting, techniques about night lighting, the physiology of seeing and how to think about creating experiences at night through light,” McCown says. “We want them to think, to ask questions when they design in the future,” Ambroziak says. “Like the James Turrell installation, we hope they will be able to balance science and poetry.” The application deadline for NightLab is April 30. For more information, visit UNLVDDC.org/NightLab.
THE RISE OF THE RUVO
Nearly two decades ago, Larry Ruvo set out to create a medical facility to honor his father, who had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Here’s the inside story of how a world-class brain-science center wound up in Sin City. By M A T T J A C O B
all of your personal effects in one of the lockers. Do you have any tattoos? No earrings, right? Good. What about any piercings we can’t see?” ¶ The checklist of instructions and questions is extensive, but the last two are the most important. Because even the smallest piece of metal could send Jennifer, a mid-30s multiple sclerosis patient, hurtling into the magnetically sensitive Siemens 3 Tesla MRI—price tag: about $1 million— with enough force to kill her. Jennifer (not her real name) has returned to the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain April 24–30, 2014
Health for a follow-up brain scan to determine if the meds she’s
VEGAS SEVEN
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been taking are working to control her MS. Key word: control. Because there is no cure. ¶ Lying on her back, Jennifer slowly slides along the track as two technicians on the other side of the glass periodically communicate with her, mostly to offer words of encouragement. The images displayed on the screens in front of the technicians? Not so encouraging: lesions. In three places. This doesn’t necessarily mean Jennifer’s symptoms are worsening. But it doesn’t mean they’re subsiding, either.
There is, however, good news for Jennifer and for the dozens of other patients who will walk through the doors of the Ruvo Center today … and tomorrow … and in the months and years to come: Inside the walls of the most fascinating piece of architecture in Las Vegas, several of the world’s fnest neurological physicians—plus a large supporting cast of physician assistants, nurses, physical therapists, social workers, administrators and volunteers—are working feverishly to give Jennifer and others afficted with MS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and other brain diseases hope. Hope that someday there will be, if not a full-blown cure, a miracle drug that will not only extend life, but improve the quality of that life—both for patients and the loved ones who care for them. This is the story of how, less than fve years post-ribbon cutting, Frank Gehry’s building in the center of town has become a building of massive import, for Las Vegas and beyond. It’s also the story of how one of the community’s most infuential men, thanks to boundless tenacity and a star-studded Rolodex, wound up honoring the memory of his father in a way more profound than he ever expected.
*****
“I was an only child. So he wasn’t just my father. He was my best friend.” – L A R RY RU VO
lou ruvo’s buddies. an employee at Spago. And a billionaire who built his fortune on hair-care products and tequila. Without these main players and their serendipitous convergence, there’s a good chance that the corner of Bonneville and Grand Central avenues upon which the center stands would still be nothing but a plot of hard dirt. It was February 18, 1995, a year to the day of Lou Ruvo’s passing from complications with Alzheimer’s disease. At the urging of some of Lou’s longtime friends, his son, Larry—the onetime business partner of Steve Wynn who had come to build Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada into one of the biggest liquor distributors in the country—organized a dinner to simply “tell Lou Ruvo stories.” Ruvo dialed up his close friend Wolfgang Puck, who agreed to host the dinner at Spago, Puck’s eponymous res-
L ARRY RUVO BY ANTHONY MAIR; RUVO CENTER BY JON ESTRADA
“here’s where you’re going to change. place
April 24–30, 2014 For Larry Ruvo, convincing architect Frank Gehry to design a brain-science center in Las Vegas was critical. “I’ve got to package and market this thing,” he thought, “so the world knows that we’re serious.”
VEGAS SEVEN
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with this formula of [celebrity] chefs, then honoring people and then ultimately bringing in big celebrities.” It was the start of what is now known as the Keep Memory Alive Power of Love gala. And by the early 2000s, Ruvo’s charity dinners had pumped $35 million into Keep Memory Alive.
DeJoria: What are you all doing here? Ruvo: We’re telling Lou Ruvo stories. DeJoria: Wait, your dad died of Alzheimer’s, right? Ruvo: Yeah. A year ago today he passed away. DeJoria: I’m giving $5,000 to Alzheimer’s.
*****
DeJoria took out his checkbook, and— peer pressure being what it is—others in the party did likewise. “By the end of the night,” Ruvo recalls, “I had $35,000. So I waited until the dinner was over and I went to Wolfgang and said, ‘Hey, Wolf, this was easy. Let’s do another dinner.’” Puck agreed, under one condition: He wanted a different chef to oversee the dinner—a relative unknown with a single restaurant in Los Angeles. “The trajectory of his career,” Puck told Ruvo, “is going to be like a rocket ship. This guy’s going to be that good.” Puck revealed the chef’s name. Didn’t ring a bell with Ruvo. Or Wynn. Or anyone else in Ruvo’s prominent foodand-beverage inner circle. That chef: Nobu Matsuhisa. “We raised $375,000 with that frst dinner in 1996 with Nobu,” Ruvo says. “Next dinner, I raise $1.1 million. Next dinner, $2 million. And I’m doing it all
“The rate at which Alzheimer’s disease appears as you get older is exponential. So about 3 percent of the population over the age of 65 will have Alzheimer’s, and that doubles every fve years. So at 70, it’s 6 percent. By 85, it’s up to [nearly] 50 percent.” – D R . G A B R IE L LÉG E R , DIRECTOR OF THE E A RLYONSE T DEMENTIA PRO GR A M AT THE RU VO CENTER
donna is all smiles when she enters the exam room on the second foor of the Ruvo Center. But it’s diffcult to determine if the smile is voluntary or more the result of the effects from a series of strokes, which have robbed the 72-year-old of much of her ability to speak. Ronald, Donna’s husband of 56 years, is by her side and says he started sensing something was amiss with his wife’s memory about four years ago. He learned of the Ruvo Center in the local newspaper and has been bringing Donna to see Léger for about a year. Today, in addition to giving his patient a brief motor-skills and memory exam— “Is the president male or female? Cau-
casian or African-American?”—Léger wants an update on how Donna is being affected by a recent change in medications. Most of his questions are directed to Ronald, who gives the doctor a rundown of his wife’s daily routine, as well as her mood swings, sleeping and eating patterns and bouts of forgetfulness. “Is she better, worse or the same since she was last here?” Léger asks. “Same. Except for the memory lapses. That’s worse. Although last week she almost seemed like herself for several days.” Léger admonishes Donna about her diet and need for exercise, stressing that she could improve her symptoms by simply cutting back on fatty foods, red meat and wine, while adding 30 minutes of daily aerobic activity. “She knows what to do,” Ronald says. “But she’s not motivated unless I’m standing there, telling her to do it.” As he continues providing Léger with a status report, Ronald is generally upbeat and simultaneously exasperated. The doctor directs another question to Donna’s primary caregiver: “So how are you doing?”
*****
“I’m in the liquor business. I know how to run a liquor company. I don’t know anything about medicine.” – L A R RY RU VO
it was early 2005, and ruvo had $35 million burning a hole in his back pocket, every dime earmarked for
Alzheimer’s research. And he knew exactly what to do with it. He went to see his friend and renowned Alzheimer’s expert, Dr. Leon Thal—the same Leon Thal who for several years treated Lou Ruvo at the University of California, San Diego. Ruvo presented Thal with a check and a request: “Leon, I want you to build a building for my dad in San Diego. And then I’m done.” “Larry, I work for UCSD. If you give me $35 million, by the time I get it, with the bureaucracy, it’ll be worth $20 million. And you’d be doing a really big disservice to the people of Las Vegas. There’s no primary care there for Alzheimer’s patients. We need to do something in Las Vegas.” Ruvo knew this all too well. He spent several frustrating years shuttling his dad around town to see various doctors—all of whom were consistent in their misdiagnosis—then another several years traveling to San Diego so his dad could get the quality care from Thal he couldn’t fnd here. “So I told Leon, ‘OK, I’ll do it if you’re going to run it, because I don’t know anything about this.’ And Leon said, ‘I can’t come for fve years, because I just got a $55 million grant from the government. But I’ll operate it and we’ll run it from afar, and I’ll have all the right guys, and then at the end of fve years, I’ll look to come up there.’ Handshake agreement.” Tragically, Thal would never be able to honor that agreement in full: On February 3, 2007, he died when the plane he was piloting crashed in the desert northeast of San Diego. “One of the great guys in the world, Leon Thal,” Ruvo says. “He was in a league of his own.” By this point, though, Ruvo had committed to putting an Alzheimer’s facility in his hometown. And after receiving
PHOTOS BY ANTHONY MAIR
April 24–30, 2014 VEGAS SEVEN
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taurant in the Forum Shops at Caesars. As family and friends reminisced in a room upstairs, John Paul DeJoria—the co-founder of both Paul Mitchell hair products and Patrón tequila—walked into the restaurant. “Hey,” a Spago employee said to DeJoria, “your buddy Larry Ruvo is upstairs.” DeJoria went to say hello to his friend.
“Hi. Listen, I’m not building a building in Las Vegas.” – FR A N K G E H RY
From left, a state-of-the-art MRI detects brain deterioration; the neuroAD chair could provide relief to Alzheimer’s patients; and Ruvo Center boss Dr. Jeffrey Cummings.
an initial sketch of the building’s design, he proudly showed it off to some close friends at dinner. “They look at the [design],” Ruvo recalls, “and they go, ‘Ah, OK.’ I said, ‘What do you mean, Ah, OK?’ They say, ‘It’s a nice building.’ “And then it hit me later at my daughter’s volleyball game: I know what a celebrity chef will do for a restaurant, and in my business, I know what packaging and marketing does. I’ve got to package and market this so the world knows we’re serious.”
*****
“What’s cool is we’re actually working on fxing the brain in MS— there are certain medicines out there that might actually be able to repair the brain. And that was science fction 20 years ago.” – DR . TI M OTH Y W EST, DIRECTOR OF THE MELLEN PRO GR A M FOR MS AT THE RU VO CENTER
in a nondescript room on the second foor of the Ruvo Center, fve beauty shop-like chairs are lined up in a row under a window, each with an adjacent metal stand from which to hang IV bags. This infusion services room, as it is known, is empty right now, but it’s been a godsend for MS patients who experience acute fare-ups. Those patients visit the infusion services room, where they’re administered steroid treatments to control infammation in the brain. The treatments take 20 to 30 minutes and are given on
three successive days. Symptoms usually subside within a week or so, but sometimes as quickly as the next day. “Our goal when we opened up our MS center here was to try to create a one-stop shop,” West says. “Anything you need, no matter where you are in MS, we want you to be able to get here. If you have aggressive MS, we want to be able to shut it down. And this keeps our patients out of the ER—they don’t ever need to go back there again. Because it’s awful, it’s expensive, it’s a sap on the system and it’s a [brutal] experience.” West would certainly know about the physical and mental distress associated with MS, and not just because it’s his chosen feld of medicine. His mother has been living with the disease as long as he’s been alive. “As far as I can tell,” he says, “her very frst symptom was right after I was born. Both of her hands went numb on the fourth and ffth digits.” His mother’s disease didn’t aggressively progress until West was in high school, but when it seeped into her spinal cord 15 years ago, she lost her ability to walk. “People with MS have a lot of relapses, then at some point, they just start to decline,” West says. “Like my mother. She’s at the point where she’s not having attacks anymore. She’s just gradually getting worse. And there’s no treatment for people like her. So our next clinical trial is going to be an oral medication that treats progressive MS. It’s the frst oral medicine for progressive MS that’s ever been attempted.” As with all medically related services at the Ruvo Center, only registered patients can access the infusion services room. However, West makes himself available to the Valley’s entire MS community—there are 2,500 Southern Ne-
larry ruvo didn’t just want to create a facility that would help people stricken with neurocognitive disorders, like the one that took his father. He wanted to create a showstopper, an architectural wonder on the level of anything ever constructed on Las Vegas Boulevard. So in early 2006, he pulled some strings and secured a 45-minute meeting with one of the world’s most famous—and most cantankerous—architects. Upon arriving in Frank Gehry’s offce in Los Angeles, Ruvo extended his hand and introduced himself. Gehry—seated in his chair, head down—promptly and curtly dismissed his guest’s pleasantries and his request. “I won’t repeat the profanity I used,” Ruvo recalls, “but I’m standing over him and I said, ‘First of all, you didn’t get out of your chair to shake my hand. And you made me fy down here to tell me that you’re not going to do a building in Las Vegas? You have to be the nastiest, the meanest human,’ and I start swearing. And he yelled, ‘Sit down!’” Ruvo began telling his story to Gehry, and 45 minutes turned into 3½ hours, and “I’m not building a building in Las Vegas” turned into “Well, let me think about it.” Three weeks later, Ruvo returned to Los Angeles with his wife, Camille, and by now Gehry had made up his mind. “Frank looks at Camille and says—it was a great line—‘Did you ever make mud pies when you were young?’ She says, ‘Yeah.’ He says, “Well, you never make mud pies with your enemies. I’m getting older. I want to make mud pies with your husband. I like him. I’m doing the building.’” After coming to Las Vegas to survey the 4-acre site, Gehry asked his new client what exactly he was looking for. Ruvo laid out his plans: Inside an eyepopping exterior, he wanted a small campus of multiple independent structures, including a medical facility to treat patients and conduct research; a building for rehabilitation; a small courtyard café; and a dazzling, multidimensional event center in which to house private and corporate gatherings, the funds from which would be
*****
“We had to wait in a small waiting room, and there were three other people: One man couldn’t keep his head up; the other guy was in diapers; and the third guy was in a wheelchair. And my dad says, ‘Is this where I’m headed?’ And I said, ‘No, Dad. These people are here for many, many other things.’ Well, the fact was, that’s where he was headed.” – L A R RY RU VO
per larry ruvo’s insistence, there are no patient waiting rooms in the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. Rather, there are small “tranquility rooms,” where patients check in before being quickly dispatched to an examination “suite.” It’s one of many details—some noticeable, some not—that are unique to the main four-story clinical, research and administrative building. Other examples: soft lighting that points upward (because direct light can irritate those with neurological disorders); different colored furniture in the lobby of each of the foors (to help patients with memory problems recall where they are); and striking art pieces in most common areas (most of the art is for sale, with the proceeds benefting Keep Memory Alive). All of this speaks to the center’s “patients-frst” philosophy. But just as important as the patients are the loved ones who care for them. This in part explains why Dr. Léger made a point to ask his patient’s husband, “So, how are
April 24–30, 2014
*****
used to fuel the entire nonproft organization. Gehry processed this information and within a few hours came up with a rough design of what eventually became the structure that exists today. Now that Ruvo had secured the perfect packaging to promote his product, it was time to focus on the content inside. “In my business, it’s about the liquid,” he says. “I could have a great package, but if the product tastes lousy, who’s going to drink it?” So he set about fnding the ideal institution with which to partner. After meeting with representatives from UCLA and other esteemed medical institutions, he signed a deal in February 2009 with the Cleveland Clinic. Known worldwide as a leader in cardiovascular research and treatment, the Cleveland Clinic—which in addition to Ohio has locations in Florida, Toronto and, beginning next year, Abu Dhabi—was also recognized for its work in neurology. Around the time an agreement was reached, Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Toby Cosgrove shared his goal with Ruvo: “The last frontier is the brain. We want to do for the brain what we did 30 years ago for cardio.”
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vadans registered with the National MS Society—by working one day a week at the University of Nevada School of Medicine and also participating in Volunteers in Medicine of Southern Nevada. “I want to make very sure that if anybody has MS in this state, they can see me if they need to—even if you have no insurance.” It’s a far cry from a decade ago, when there wasn’t a single dedicated MS center or MS fellowship-trained neurologist in the state.
you doing?” It also explains why there’s a public lending library on the fourth foor, flled with hundreds of books, videos and online resources to help people learn about the different stages of various cognitive disorders. And why there are disease-specifc support groups available for caregivers, as well as counseling services and educational programs, such as the weekly brownbag Lunch & Learn series. This onehour lunchtime seminar features rotating topics that range from legal and fnancial planning to health and wellness exercises to teaching caregivers various techniques and strategies to better understand and respond to those who are struggling with a brain disorder. The Lunch & Learn sessions, which last year attracted more than 2,200 people, are even broadcast via videoconference to Pahrump, Elko and Carson City. “These diseases not only impact the patient, but they impact all of those around them. These are diseases of the family,” says Susan Hirsch, who oversees a staff of six as the Ruvo Center’s director of social services. “And it’s our hope that people feel comfortable connecting with us in a way that works for them. Because in many instances, caregivers are at risk for developing illness after they start caregiving—the actual act of caregiving puts them at greater risk. And we really want to mitigate that as best we are able.”
*****
“You know, Jeff, I built Yankee Stadium. Now I have to have Babe Ruth. And you’re Babe Ruth. So what do we have to do to get you here?’” – L A R RY RU VO
dr. jeffrey cummings, one of the world’s preeminent neurological minds, was at an Alzheimer’s disease meeting in Washington, D.C., when he stepped out to take a phone call from Larry Ruvo. He readily admits, “That was the frst time I’d ever been compared to Babe Ruth!” Cummings was familiar with what Ruvo was in the process of building in Downtown Las Vegas, but he was also fully entrenched in Los Angeles, where he had spent two decades leading UCLA’s neurological program, including serving as the director of the Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at the university. He was fattered, he says, but moving to Las Vegas was the furthest thing from his mind. Then, much like Frank Gehry, Cummings began to have second thoughts. “During that period, I had become more and more passionate about clinical trials and the need to develop new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other brain
disorders,” he says. “What that requires more than anything else is high patient fow, and I could see that that was the strength of Cleveland Clinic—their devotion to clinical excellence and therefore their ability to establish a high fow of patients who had an allegiance to the institution. So for me the draw was, ‘I can come here and do clinical trials, and that’s what I think is most important.’” Not only did the Ruvo Center land Cummings as its new director, but also his wife, Dr. Kate Zhong, who was brought on board to direct the clinical-trial program. Zhong had previously spent more than a decade doing clinical and pharmaceutical research, including for AstraZeneca, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. It was easy enough for Cummings to convince his wife to sign up. He thought it would be much tougher to persuade other top neurological physicians and researchers to come to Las Vegas and be part of a fedgling program. Instead, his pitch was greeted with enthusiasm. “The recruitment of my staff here has exceeded expectations,” says Cummings, who also directs the Cleveland Clinic’s Neurological Institute in Cleveland and Weston, Florida. “You walk down this hall, our 11 faculty are as competitive as any university in this country.” Dr. Dylan Wint is part of that faculty. He came to the Ruvo Center from At-
HERE’S TO YOUR (BRAIN) HEALTH …
How the community can connect—directly and indirectly—with the Ruvo Center ➺ The Ruvo Center takes new patients through self-
referral or patient referral, and among the insurance plans accepted are Anthem BCBS, Cigna Healthcare, Health Plan of Nevada, Sierra Health Care Options, Sierra Health and Life, and United Healthcare Military. To determine patient and insurance eligibility, call 855-568-7886 or email BrainHealth@ccf.org.
April 24–30, 2014
➺ The Ruvo Center has more than 20 ongoing clinical
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trials for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, and multiple sclerosis, including nine that are open for enrollment. To review a list of current trials being offered, visit ClevelandClinic.org/BrainHealth. Patients or caregivers interested in participating in a trial can contact the research center at 855-568-7886. If a candidate meets initial criteria, a clinical research coordinator will schedule a screening at the Ruvo Center to determine what trial, if any, is the ideal fit.
➺ Have a loved one who has been diagnosed
with a brain disorder? The Lending Library on the fourth floor of the Ruvo Center contains more than 1,500 books, videos and other materials to help patients and caregivers learn about the various
stages of neurodegenerative diseases. The library is free and open to the public from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday through Thursday, or by appointment. For more information, call 483-6033 or email LouRuvoLibrary@ccf.org.
➺ The community is invited to take part in the
brown-bag Lunch & Learn program from noon-1 p.m. Wednesdays. Representatives from Keep Memory Alive, the Cleveland Clinic and other community organizations discuss rotating topics such as health and well-being, legal and financial matters, and coping strategies. Water and dessert are provided.
➺ The Keep Memory Alive Event Center, which has a full
kitchen and catering staff, is available to rent for public and private functions. Money generated from these events help fund the Ruvo Center, a nonprofit organization.
➺ Last year, Wolfgang Puck went public with his
wine label, which is available nationwide and sells for less than $15 per bottle. Puck, who lost his mother to Alzheimer’s disease, donates a portion of the proceeds from each bottle to the Keep Memory Alive foundation.
lanta’s Emory University School of Medicine in 2010 and currently serves as the director of the Fellowship in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry, as well as director of Education in Neurodegeneration. “I don’t know of another place like this that integrates clinical care, research, caregiver support and then the type of education that we do, which is very, very broad-based in the community,” he says. “It’s not just educating neurology residents and behavioral neurology fellows, but trying to educate the entire community about what these diseases are and what they mean.” Indeed, a signifcant portion of Wint’s work requires him to more or less be a teacher. However, he’s just as likely to play the role of student: “I often say that this is the frst place I’ve worked where I’m sure I’m not the smartest person.”
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“The science has now progressed to a point where we think we have drugs that do intervene in the basic biology of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. But the only way to know whether those drugs work is to give them to patients who have these diseases. We will never know if a drug works unless patients come and allow themselves to be part of this clinical-trial process.” – DR . JE FFR E Y CU M M I N GS
more than 20 clinical trials are ongoing at the Ruvo Center—nine of which are open for enrollment—but one of these trials doesn’t involve a drug at all. On the frst foor of the main building, in a space the size of a dental exam room, is something called a neuroAD chair. Invented by the Israeli company Neuronix, the chair and its attached parts look like something out of a science-fction movie, and today, Victor, a 76-year-old patient whose Alzheimer’s is in the early-to-moderate stage, is taking it for a spin. First, a technician affxes a rectangular device to a precise spot on Victor’s head (the device is moved to other parts of his head throughout the hourlong session). Once the machine is powered on, noninvasive electromagnetic energy stimulation—which can be heard through periodic “zaps”—is sent to different areas of Victor’s brain. While receiving the stimulation—as with all clinical trials, some subjects receive a placebo, but this patient unknowingly is getting the real deal—Victor simultaneously performs cognitive exercises that test his memory capabilities on a touchscreen in front of him. The machine tracks Victor’s responses, and the diffculty level is altered accordingly. Here’s what Neuronix believes it has hit on: By combining magnetic stimu-
research components like the ongoing Fighters Brain Health study, launched in April 2011, of more than 400 boxers and mixed martial arts fghters—are as crucial as any of the work being done at the Ruvo Center, which as recently as 2012 saw about 7,500 patient visits, including 1,500 new patients. “The key to the future of all therapies is in the hands of the patient,” Cummings says. “We can bring the compound to a population, but if nobody gets into a clinical trial, we will never know whether it works, and it will never be made widely available if it’s success-
ful. That’s why this alliance between us and the community is so critical to advancing new therapies. Because both of those pieces have to be in place in order for a drug to succeed.”
*****
“We’re gonna cure the disease, I believe, if not at the Lou Ruvo Center then because of the Lou Ruvo Center.” – L A R RY RU VO
April 24–30, 2014
lation and cognitive tasks, the connection between nerve cells in the brain is strengthened, which is vital to one’s memory. While the hope is that the neuroAD device, if approved for mass consumption, could help alleviate memory loss, it would not be marketed as a cure. “The hardest part of this kind of work is that, at least right now, we know that our patients will get sicker and will die, either from this disease or from something else,” Wint says. “These diseases can’t be stopped. So you know going into this work that you’re not going to be curing anyone. A lot of the time, you’re not going to even be slowing things down very much. You have to have the attitude that what you’re trying to do, at any point in this process, is make life easier, less stressful and happier for the patient and the caregiver.” Still, just as with cancer and AIDS and every other incurable disease, the goal forever remains stumbling upon a wonder drug that will give brain-disorder victims like Victor, Donna and Jennifer a piece of their life back. Which is why patient-participatory trials—as well as
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PHOTOS BY ANTHONY MAIR
Clockwise: Social Services director Susan Hirsch in the Ruvo Center’s Lending Library; a James Rosenquist painting—a gift from Steve Wynn— hangs in the Keep Memory Alive Event Center; Dr. Dylan Wint; and Dr. Gabriel Léger.
as he makes this proclamation, Ruvo is standing in the Keep Memory Alive Event Center, which is the crown jewel of the one-and-only Las Vegas project in Frank Gehry’s portfolio. It’s late on a warm winter afternoon, and the sun shines brightly through the room’s 199 windows, no two of which are alike in shape. It’s part of Gehry’s genius: With the help of automatic shades and natural light by day, and state-of-the-art lighting at night, those windows make the look and feel of every party staged in this space—from an Estée Lauder corporate gathering to a rock ’n’ roll benefit for chef Kerry Simon—different than the next. As for the walls in this circular space, they’re stark white and bare, save for one vertical spot where a large oil painting by pop artist James Rosenquist hangs, a gift from Ruvo’s longtime pal. “When Steve Wynn walked in here for the frst time, he looked up and said, ‘OK, listen. One piece of art, that’s all you need—a James Rosenquist on that wall. No other art. The building is the art. The building is the statement.’” At this point, Ruvo excuses himself. He has a call scheduled with singer Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio, both of whom will be feted April 26 at the 18th annual Power of Love gala at the MGM Grand, the star-studded, celebrity-chef-inspired extravaganza that grew out of that very frst dinner at Spago in 1995—one that’s now raised in excess of $170 million. Before he leaves, Ruvo cues up a video presentation that features remarks from four U.S. presidents (George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama); one former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Colin Powell); and one Nobel laureate (Dr. Stanley Prusiner, who chairs the Scientifc Advisory Board of the Cleveland Clinics in Las Vegas, Cleveland and Weston, Florida). To a man, they all laud the facility and its visionary. “This Frank Gehry building is going to be a Las Vegas landmark for a long time to come,” says the younger President Bush during a visit in February 2010. “Larry wanted to honor his dad with this magnifcent facility. He’s worked hard to do so, and his care and compassion to his fellow citizens is a great testament to his heart.” Shortly before the video concludes, Ruvo returns. There’s one fnal question to pose: What would his father have thought had he lived to see a brain institute built in his honor? Ruvo pauses, searching for the right words. “If somebody would’ve come to him and said, ‘Here’s what will happen if you’re stricken with this disease’—if he would’ve been able to see the future— he’d have said, ‘Take me right now.’ He was a very unselfsh guy. He would’ve sacrifced his life to have this. “He loved Las Vegas, and he would be proud of his friends and the community that rallied behind his son. And he would give the accolades to the people of Las Vegas for believing in a dream.”
NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and a DJ of the XXX variety
The hospitality group’s Las Vegas outpost celebrates its frst year on the Strip—and my, hasn’t she grown?! By Grace Bascos
as frst birthdays go, this one’s a doozy. The restoclub’s anniversary spans April 24-27, with acts including Calvin Harris, Tiësto, Questlove and Above & Beyond guiding revelers through the party weekend. But this milestone isn’t the only reason Hakkasan Group is celebrating.
April 24–30, 2014
Hakkasan at One
HAKKASAN LAS VEGAS turns one this weekend, and
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PHOTO BY AL POWERS/POWERS IMAGERY
Hakkasan resident Steve Aoki came here to drop beats and spray bubbly.
NIGHTLIFE
SCENE BEFORE YOU JUMP to conclusions: Nikki Phoenix did not just hop onto the electronic-dance-music bandwagon because it’s popular. Quite the opposite. The actress from movies of the adult variety is an old-school raver with a passion for bass and beats. We spoke with the Las Vegas siren about her frst single, her upcoming book and what makes her move.
April 24–30, 2014
How did the track “My Addiction,” with DJ/producer and XS resident Kris Nilsson, come about, and how would you describe it? It’s about love and sex at the same time. When I was writing the song, oddly enough my dog sort of inspired me. [Laughing.] Which is kind of weird, and I swear it’s not bestiality or anything! I was sitting there petting him; his name is Thor. So the hammer and the overall godlike persona of what [mythology’s] Thor is: [The lyrics] “Smack me with Thor’s hammer” just hit me on the head. And then, “A bolt of lightning coursing through my veins,” is like how love is this thing that overwhelms you and is in your blood. DJ Nilsson and I met at XS when I frst moved to Vegas about a year ago, and I asked to take a picture with him. We exchanged numbers and talked back and forth. My manager also made friends with him and told him that I sing and write lyrics all the time. He sent me a couple of beats, and I went from there! The vibe of the single is more dark-house, early ’90s beats, after-hours.
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Beauty and the Beat
Adult starlet, dancer and author Nikki Phoenix launches her EDM career with a little help from Las Vegas By Deanna Rilling
You used to be a raver? I was 14 when I started listening to dance music. I went to the underground raves in Seattle where I’m from originally, and my very frst boyfriend that I had in high school was a DJ and he spun vinyl. I remember just being in his room listening to him mix. He played a lot of drum ’n’ bass, and introduced me to the Prodigy. I dressed in the little furry go-go boots, wore my kandi jewelry. It’s amazing—whatever the genre is called these days— that it’s really grown, and I love most of the genres. What other aspect of your career might people recognize you from? I’m also a mainstream model; I’ve been on the covers of numerous magazines: Eye Candy—a curvaceous/sexy magazine—Got Curves, Xcitement, Glam Modelz and a couple of other ones. I also do adult flms and adult
entertainment/feature dancing. I’ve been in Penthouse, I worked for a bunch of girl/girl companies. I’m a spokesmodel for Twala Intimates and Crimestopper, which is a very high-end alarm for your car that’s pretty awesome. I’ve been on The Maury Show, and 21 & Over is the mainstream movie I’ve been in. You’ve undergone a weight-loss transformation as well? I lost 120 pounds about three years ago, and I’m writing a book about my weight-loss story, the trials and tribulations and what I went through to get to that point, because losing that amount of weight is hard! The book gives you a background of where I came from and how I got to be the weight I was and how unhappy I was, as well as all the positives that came from it. It also has 300 recipes in it, dishes that I’ve pulled apart, remade and came up with new alternative ideas. For example, I put oatmeal in my chili—it sounds kind of weird, but it actually is better than rice! … I think it’ll be very inspiring for a lot of women and men to help them shape whatever they want to do. Looking forward to the rest of the year, what do you have in the works? Perhaps a fulllength artist album? For the rest of the year, I’m defnitely working on my album. My dad and I put in about two or three hours a day—my dad’s helping me produce. I also have another one of my friends who makes video-game music; he makes really good beats as well. The album’s vibe is going to be very different for the EDM community, because it’s a mixture of a lot of the things I like and I fnd fascinating. I like really, really hard bass. I love the bottom ends. Every time I went to a rave when I was a kid I always used to stand next to the subwoofer and listen to the bass because it sort of is like your heartbeat. We’re working toward some of it being really, really deep bass. I also have my book coming out midyear, my lingerie line launches in September and I also have been doing circus training with Vegas Polecats. I’ve been doing the aerial silks, pole dancing and the lyra. I feel like the lyra is sort of my specialty; I’ve been training really hard for that, because I want to start adding that to a feature show that I will be doing later this year. Follow Nikki on Twitter @NikkiPhoenixxx.
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
HAZE Aria
[ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY TOBY ACUNA AND TONY TRAN
April 24–30, 2014
April 24 Ma$e performs April 25 Mario performs April 26 TurntUp with DJ Pauly D
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
HYDE Bellagio
[ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY TONY TRAN
April 24–30, 2014
April 25 Dave Fogg spins April 26 The men of Vanderpump Rules host April 27 XIV Sessions: Life is a Beach
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
MARQUEE DAYCLUB The Cosmopolitan [ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY JOSH METZ
April 24–30, 2014
April 25 Audien spins April 26 Tritonal and Paris Blohm spin April 27 Chuckie spins
Instead: Head to—and please stay
CURRY
We love ethnic food, too. And that defnitely includes rich, fragrant curries. But this isn’t India, where tiffns of curry are delivered along with everyone else’s tiffn of curry, effectively canceling out the net aromatic effect. Japan, India, Thailand, Vietnam—it doesn’t matter where the curry originated from; each has its own overpowering scent that isn’t always appreciated in close quarters. Instead: Treat yourself to the
polarizing dish in its natural habitat at the new Royal India Bistro in the Rio. 777-2277, RoyalIndiaVegas.com. RAW ONIONS
Instead: Splurge a little on Popped
gourmet popcorn. Besides coming ready-to-eat, fancy popcorn comes in a variety of interesting favors, including white cheddar, s’mores, salt and vinegar, and the beloved sweet-and-savory Chicago mix of caramel and cheese. 9480 S. Eastern Ave., Henderson, 9989234, PoppedCornShop.com.
TOO MANY TOPPINGS
While not necessarily in the offensively odoriferous category, the sandwich piled high with fllings inevitably falls apart, whether from the bread failing under the sheer weight of its contents, or simply poor construction. Whatever the cause, it’s now all over your keyboard, and maybe even your shirt.
Raw onions add pungency and bite to plenty of dishes, including salads and sandwiches. But I’m looking at you, Mr. bagel-and-loxwith-all-the-fxin’s: You know the onions are the offender here. Instead: Sorry, there’s no getting
around the unmistakable scent of the raw onions. Any meal that includes them is best eaten away from the offce. Maybe in your car. Followed by a mint.
[ A SMALL BITE ]
THE WHOLE PACKAGE: INTRODUCING WEDNESDAYS DOWNTOWN Beginning on May 7, Vegas Seven sister publication DTLV.com presents Wednesdays Downtown, a weekly event that brings together all the good stuff Fremont East has to offer—cocktails, dining, live entertainment, visual art—and wraps it up in refined, Brooklyn/San Francisco-style urban swagger. ¶ The area will be closed to vehicular traffic at Las Vegas Boulevard and 6th Street, and festooned with thousands of string lights. Nearly every Fremont East bar will offer drink specials from 6 April 24–30, 2014
p.m. to midnight; organizers are calling it “The World’s Greatest Happy Hour.” And a village of food trucks will be set up, over-
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seen by event co-producer Jolene Mannina’s new company Relish; this will be no scrubby Portland-style food truck pod, but a comfortable outdoor dining area with plenty of picnic seating and gelato bikes. ¶ There will be entertainment of virtually every stripe, from live bands and a painter’s lounge to DJ sets to spoken-word performances. There is a rumor of fireworks, and talk of a Pac-Man game that will cover the entire side of a building. ¶ There’s still more to be said about Wednesdays Downtown—including its bicycle-friendliness and the terrific mix of entertainers scheduled to appear—but really, the most exciting thing about the event is the fact that it’s bringing all of Fremont together, really for the first time. – Geoff Carter
Get the latest on local restaurant openings and closings, interviews with top chefs, cocktail recipes, menu previews and more in our weekly “Sips and Bites” newsletter. Subscribe at VegasSeven.com/SipsandBites.
THINGS I : SANDWICHES, EGGS,SURPRISE OYSTERS AND RED ROCK RESORT My love for sandwiches is well known. I’m always on the hunt for the next best thing served between two slices of bread. Most recently, La Cave (in Wynn, 770-7375) has piqued my interest, offering a new spread of sammies for lunch during the week. Vegetarians will be happy with a Capresestyle version ($12) with fresh mozzarella, basil and pepperoncini olive tapenade, while the pulled pork ($16) topped with Nueske’s bacon looks like a flavor bomb, topped with dill pickles, Swiss and sweet garlic mustard. The New York Steak, however, is calling my name, with caramelized onions, Gruyère and garlic mustard aioli ($19). I’ve also got a soft spot for eggs, prepared any which way, but especially deviled. Whenever they’re on a menu, I am compelled to order them. Which I did, naturally, at Brooklyn Bowl (in the Linq, 862-2695) along with the Bromberg brothers’ famous fried chicken, the nostalgic San Gennaro French bread pizza (Stouffer’s never tasted this good!) and the savory roasted adobo corn topped with queso fresco, chipotle butter and lime. Then I learned I could order one of the restaurant/concert venue/bowling alley’s best-kept secrets: the signature egg shooters, which can be garnished with yet another of my most craved ingredients— oysters. Order the giant, fried, plump oysters topped with pickled jalapeño and Anaheim peppers to crown the creamy deviled egg. It’s a bite that you’ll be glad you discovered. But there’s always room to make new favorites. Though it’s less than a decade old, Red Rock Resort (797-7777) is preparing to add a slew of restaurants, thanks to $35 million from parent company Station Casinos. By the end of this year, we’ll get an established name in the Chicago restaurant game, Mercadito, from the Sandoval brothers, who will bring their margaritas and traditional-yet-creative Mexican fare from their award-winning flagship eatery. The Light Group will expand beyond the Strip to manage a new, as-yet-unnamed spot designed to emulate the neighborhood dining experience, with a market-driven, small-plates menu, craft beer and extensive wine list. Terra Rossa says arrivederci to make way for a new contemporary Italian restaurant, while Asian dining also gets an upgrade with the addition of a noodle-bar concept located between the Grand Café and high-limit gaming room. Aside from the noodle bar, the other upcoming establishments will all be built to create a restaurant row along the Charleston Boulevard entrance, with plenty of outdoor space. Grace Bascos eats, sleeps, raves and repeats. Read more from Grace at VegasSeven.com/ DishingWithGrace, as well as on her diningand-music blog, FoodPlusTechno.com.
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
DINING
at—Capriotti’s for the SlawBeJo. It’s got “sloppy” in its name (kind of), thanks to creamy coleslaw tucked in with roast beef, provolone and Russian dressing. But the bread integrity is solid, so there’s no need to fear that the sandwich’s innards might fall through like a wet paper towel. Maybe tuck a napkin into your shirt, just to be safe. Locations throughout the Valley, Capriottis.com.
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Masters of old-school razzmatazz, each with a Ph.D in showmanship, they’re a tuxedoed treat. Breathing freshness into every Great American Songbook standard and Broadway classic they belt out, they garnish their performances with touching personal stories and easygoing warmth. Irresistible, regardless of the generational ID you hold. “It came about because we all walked out to the parking lot together for all those years,” Ewing says. “As you get older in musical theater, there are less and less roles and there’s so much politics within theater. And we thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could have our own show and be our own bosses? Not make it about an overproduced project, but just about the music and the camaraderie.” Rewind to June 2012, less than two months before Phantom haunted the Venetian for the fnal time, when the Phatties road-tested their act at a local church, packing the pews. “We just wanted to invite about a hundred people to try it out in front of people,” Ewing remembers. “But word got out in a really good way and we had around 700 people show up that day.” Success came again when they gave a well-received performance at Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center. Suffciently encouraged, they went about coaxing cash from wallets. “People gave us gifts from $25 to $10,000,” Ewing says. “They saw the show and wanted to be a part of it. We raised $125,000, which was enough to get us going, because our show is really low-cost compared to anything else.” Moving up meant heading Downtown when they opened at the Plaza Showroom in November 2012. Friends of Ewing who produced
“WE GOT GREAT PRESS, THERE WAS A BUZZ BUILDING AND THEN EVERYTHING WAS PULLED OUT FROM UNDERNEATH US.” – Bruce Ewing one of the Plaza’s other shows, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, helped score them the gig, sharing space with Whorehouse and other showroom roomies Bite and The Grand Ole Vegas Revue. Rhapsodic reviews poured in from both Vegas critics and out-of-town publications such as Broadway World. Cachet snowballed and they were even asked by the Mayors Goodman— current chieftain Carolyn and her predecessor-hubby, Oscar—to perform at a conference of mayors from around the nation. Yet disappointment—multiple disappointments—loomed. Audiences were slow to discover them Downtown— Ewing estimates the average draw at their three-day-a-week, 5 and 7 p.m. performances at 35 to 50 patrons—in a troubled showroom. They weren’t the only ones feeling shortchanged by venue and boxoffce management. After voicing concerns over the operation supervised by manager (and comic hypnotist) Anthony Cools, Bite producer Tim Molyneux pulled his show in December, and Whorehouse and Grand also shuttered. Less expen-
sive and simpler to stage, the Phat Pack hung on until the room locked up on New Year’s Day in 2013. Two months later, with the showroom now operated directly by the Plaza, the Phat Pack reopened in March of last year and saw a slow, steady climb in audience draw—for eight months. “The second time we just ran out of money,” Ewing says about their closure last November. “We tried to produce ourselves and just ran out of resources.” More elation—and the greatest letdown—was on the way. Before the Phat packed it in, Andrew Van Slee, known primarily as a movie producer but leasing the Windows Showroom at Bally’s at the time, popped down to the Plaza and, Ewing says, fipped for the Phatties and agreed to produce them at Bally’s. Finally they’d leapt to the Strip, in a sumptuous room with promotional muscle behind them … and survived for nine performances, closing on the cusp of Christmas, snake-bitten again by behind-the-scenes turmoil. Bad news, Ewing says, arrived in an email from Van Slee, explaining he was putting them on ice to rework his producing plan, with the expectation of a Feb-
ruary return. There was no return. And no more Van Slee, who withdrew from Bally’s. “We got great press again, there was a buzz building and then everything was pulled out from underneath us. We thought, what a bizarre choice for a producer to make after putting all this money into moving us,” Ewing says. Asked to specify what went sour, Ewing will only cite “fnancial irregularities,” and adds: “I don’t want to sound like a bitter performer, but I picked the wrong business partner.” Requests for comment from Van Slee by Vegas Seven went unanswered, as does—at least so far—Ewing’s hope for a new home. This writer’s hope, too. Graciously, Ewing recalls our post-show encounter in the Plaza Showroom lobby. “You foored us the very frst day. You came over and said to me [after the show], ‘You put me in a tough spot.’ And I asked you why and you said, ‘because there are no words to describe your show, but I still have to write about it.’ That was a pivotal moment for us, when we realized we had something and we have to keep pushing.” Yes, I said that. Then I wrote that. I still mean that. “Look, I had no business raising over $100,000 trying to produce a show. I’m a singer, not a producer,” Ewing says. “But then we saw the reaction when we did the show for the frst time in the church. So many times, people in their lives say, we should do this and we should do that. This is the one time in our life when we said we should do this—and then actually did it. So even now, I really don’t think it’s over in Las Vegas.” Damn well better not be.
PHOTO BY FRANKIE SANCHEZ
April 24–30, 2014
How can Vegas talent find an audience? Ewing, Patriquin and Keith are trying to find out.
A&E
MOVIES
PRISONER OF HIS PAST Colin Firth shines as a former POW who confronts his captor By Michael Phillips Tribune Media Services
THE CONCEPT OF MANLY GRIEF leads into so many dark areas and cultural expectations—questions about how men are expected to bury their trauma long after the traumatizing event. Or else, how men are expected to examine it, reckon with it emotionally, when everything in their upbringing tells them to keep it in. In The Railway Man, which has many problems but also has Colin Firth, the story belongs to Eric Lomax. Lomax’s memoir gave this half-good, halffraudulent flm adaptation its title. The former signals engineer and lifelong train enthusiast made it to age 93, long enough to visit the set of the flm mid-production. Following the 1942 British surrender in Singapore to the Japanese, Lomax was relocated to Thailand, where alongside his fellow prisoners of war he was put to backbreaking work in the construction of the Burma Railway. When his captors discovered the homemade radio receiver Lomax built on the sly, the Scottish-born prisoner was subjected to near-fatal torture, including what Americans know as waterboarding. An interpreter, Takashi Nagase,
As Lomax, Firth offers quiet anguish.
worked with the Japanese military, questioning and torturing Lomax. Years after the war, Lomax dreamed of exacting revenge on his enemies and on this man. In the postwar era, Nagase worked as an interpreter for the Allies. He wrote a book, Crosses and Tigers, about his experiences in the war, including the brutal interrogation of a man whom Lomax, reading the account years later, recognized as himself. The miracle is simple: The men eventually met and became friends. Lomax’s story has been dramatized before, in a British teleplay, starring John Hurt, and in the documentary Enemy, My Friend? The building of the Burma Railway was most famously dealt with in The Bridge on the River Kwai. Where, and how, does The Railway Man ft into the rest of the stories?
It’s more of a home-front war story, focusing on the strain Lomax’s marriage underwent because of everything in his wartime past. Screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce invents plenty and cooks up scenes, decades after the war, where an aging Lomax confronts, interrogates and threatens to kill the apparently repentant Nagase (Hiroyuki Sanada). The flm begins in 1980 with the meeting of Lomax and his second wife-to-be, Patti, played by Nicole Kidman. The Railway Man is about the rehabilitation of a broken man, largely through the persistence and the efforts of his wife, intent on unlocking the anguished riddle before her. Firth is marvelous throughout, and in the wartime sequences, Lomax in his 20s is played well and truly by a shrewdly matched Jeremy Irvine. The
April 24–30, 2014
SHORT REVIEWS
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Transcendence (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
Transcendence—a.k.a. The Computer Wore Johnny Depp’s Tennis Shoes—offers the same excitement as listening to hold music on a call to tech support. Like much speculative fiction, Transcendence is in thrall to technology even as it warns of unleashed AI. Depp, who Skypes in his performance, plays Dr. Will Caster. He and his researcher wife (Rebecca Hall) have pioneered AI experiments, bringing the human race to “transcendence,” the ability to imbue a computer with the personality of a human.
Oculus (R) ★★★✩✩
Longer on chills than entrails, this crafty horror film is about a haunted mirror. Certainly writer-director Mike Flanagan has learned the virtues of a simple idea, fruitfully elaborated. The script takes the time to make us care about a brother and a sister we meet in flashback, then 11 years later. In the prologue, young Kaylie (Annalise Basso) and Tim (Garrett Ryan) are beset in their home by ... we’re not sure, exactly. The mirror did it! Referencing The Shining and The Stepfather, Oculus lacks a big finish. It does not, however, lack for sequel possibilities.
Rio 2 (G) ★★✩✩✩
The 2011 hit Rio was a baby sitter. And so is Rio 2, a routine sequel following the perilous adventures of the blue macaws Blu (clever character name), Jewel and their offspring as they leave urban Rio life for a chaotic trip to Amazon rain-forest country. The movie is heavy machinery of a different kind. Directed by Carlos Saldanha, Rio 2 offers the same approach to story and to story clutter as did the first movie. Sergio Mendes returns to oversee the music, which is pretty tasty. The movie’s an acceptable, if tiring, baby sitter.
story gets to you on various levels, even though director Jonathan Teplitzky shoots it all very conventionally, matching the script’s facile, hoked-up air with a clean-scrubbed visual touch. (Also the musical score is terrible.) Even when the flm’s cheating, Firth refuses to tidy up the fctionalized Lomax’s emotional state. The actor, so good at playing stalwart men contending with inner demons, can utter a simple line—“I don’t think I can be put back together”—and break your heart, legitimately, without histrionics. He’s far more effective and convincing than the flm overall, but Firth and co-stars Kidman, Sanada and Stellan Skarsgard (as a fellow POW survivor) keep their heads down and see it through. The Railway Man (R) ★★★✩✩
By Tribune Media Services
Draft Day (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
Draft Day feels like a play, in the same way J.C. Chandor’s 2011 Margin Call felt that way. Set mostly in a series of offices across 13 hours in a pressure-cooked day, the film lives and dies on the low-key, take-it-easy spectacle of Kevin Costner maneuvering through an administrative obstacle course, crises intermingling with draft-pick opportunities. Costner plays the (fictional) general manager of the Cleveland Browns. Costner’s range as an actor remains an open question. But he carries the movie easily and well.
Dom Hemingway (R) ★★ ✩✩
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
In this facile, Guy Ritchie-esque crime jape, Jude Law plays a London safecracker of insatiable appetites and Olympian selfregard. Writer-director Richard Shepard (The Matador) introduces Dom in prison, near the end of a 12-year sentence. Once out of prison—he took the fall for his underworld employer, a Russian assassin played by Demian Bichir—Dom is hellbent on settling old scores. Visually, the film is as loud as Law’s performance. The material, limited payoff; the performer at the center, never less than arresting.
This is a better-than-average Marvel superhero bash, intriguingly plotted and clever in its speculations about 21stcentury life for Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, as he contends with contemporary geopolitics. There is no “just enough” in today’s computer-generated Marvel marvels; there is only “too much.” And there’s a, element of hypocrisy in this film, which bemoans America’s bloodthirsty, weaponsmad impulses even as it offers an obscene body count for fun and profit.
Frankie & Alice (R) ★★✩✩✩
Noah (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
Sabotage (R) ★★✩✩✩
Bad Words (R) ★★★✩✩
True cases of people suffering from multiple-personality disorders are harrowing. So it’s a shame that the movies have rendered such rarities humdrum and routine. But actors just love the idea of slinging several accents during the course of a film. Halle Berry certainly did. That goes a long way in explaining Frankie & Alice, a long-shelved 2010 melodrama “based on true events.” And Berry, winner of an Oscar for Monster’s Ball, treats this showcase for what it is—an acting exercise, and a fairly broad one.
There’s a weird, bashful moment in Sabotage when Olivia Williams, atypically cast as a tough Atlanta police detective, is drawn like a moth to the flame of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lips. At least screenwriters Ayer and Skip Woods keep the moral compass spinning in circles before selling out in the end. A “drug-war god,” John “Breacher” Wharton is the Schwarzenegger role. It’s amusing to watch an actor try to wring some juice out of juice-free material. It’s less amusing to contemplate how much further an R-rated kill’em-up can go in the blood-spritz department.
Darren Aronofsky’s strange and often rich Noah deserves better handling than a plainly nervous Paramount Pictures has given it. This Noah, played with steely purpose by Russell Crowe, is a flawed, angry and murderously conflicted man just trying to do his job: listen to the Creator; prepare for the cleansing, annihilating flood; fulfill his mission and then live with the emotional consequences. The movie is unpredictable, which is saying something, and it argues rather sweetly that if we had just listened to Noah, we’d all be more careful stewards of the only planet we’ve got.
Sarcastic, sanctimonious, salacious, sly, slight and surprisingly sweet, the black comedy of Bad Words, starring and directed by Jason Bateman, is high-minded, foul-mouthed good nonsense. The movie zeros in on the bizarre world of spelling bees, a petri dish of strange behavior between bright kids and zealous parents. The filmmaker has surrounded himself with a solid cast of distinctive comic and character actors, including Kathryn Hahn, Allison Janney, Ben Falcone and Philip Baker Hall. The drama is basically split between hotel rooms and spelling bee stages.
Marketplace
Marketplace
Of all the sports you’ve covered, you seem to be particularly partial to golf. What is it about that sport that appeals to you from a literary perspective? Because it seems like it should be so easy! In baseball, OK, it wasn’t your fault [that you failed]; the pitcher threw the greatest curveball ever. In basketball, you had to try to shoot it over somebody who’s 7 feet tall. In football, the guy in front of you didn’t block. But in golf, [the ball] is just sitting there—and you’ve done it a million times. You go to the driving range with Charles Barkley, he hits it beautifully. He hits it like a 7or 8-[handicap]. But then he moves 100 feet to the frst tee, and his brain literally won’t let him swing like that. To me, it’s just the most mind-screwing game ever invented.
Rick Reilly
The award-winning ESPN columnist on the night Mike Tyson turned cannibal, the sadistic allure of golf and how today’s college basketball elite would’ve fared against the Rebels of yesteryear
April 24–30, 2014
By Matt Jacob
VEGAS SEVEN
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You’ve covered numerous sporting events in Las Vegas over the years. What’s the most unforgettable? Well, I was in the second row when [Mike] Tyson bit [Evander] Holyfeld’s ears—bit ’em both! And the frst time, I’m like, “I think he just bit his ear!” And the guy next to me says, “No, no he didn’t.” “Yeah, I think he did!” And then [Tyson] bites the other one! And the guy next to me says, “Oh my God!” He was eating a man like an all-you-can-eat buffet, and I’m thinking, “Am I in some kind of Punk’d episode? There’s no way this is really happening.” In those days, Tyson [fghts] attracted the
wildest, most fun group of people—guys in green zoot suits and bright orange suits with fedoras, and women in heels that had to have been a foot off the ground. One girl was wearing only chains—her whole outft was chains. … That was also the night people took [betting] chips off the tables. It was just madness, absolute chaos. And I loved every minute of it. Are you a big sports bettor when you come to town? No, hell no. They call me the Walmart of betting. I’m betting $10 on games. Plus, I lack the gene that some guys have to bet thousands
And yet we all keep going out there. [Laughs.] And I know why that is, too: Because there’s that one moment in a round where you hit like a 5-iron, and it’s perfect. That one moment, as the ball is fying, you’re like, “That’s as good as Tiger Woods can do it— that’s as good as anyone can do it.” You could never have that moment on a pitcher’s mound. You could never serve a tennis ball 140 mph. But in golf, for that one moment, you’re as good as anybody. And it’s just intoxicating. Of all the college basketball teams that have cut down the nets over the past 30 years, where would you rank UNLV’s 1990 national championship team? They’d have to be in the top 10. Can I tell you how much better a team like that was than the [top teams] today? These were men. These were grown, mature, schooled, skilled, seasoned men. Do you know what they would’ve done to a team with seven freshmen, like Kentucky had this season? If you took any of these championship teams from the last, I don’t know, 10 years, and put them up against that Vegas team, it would literally be boys against men. It wouldn’t be
SNEAKER BALL
On May 2, Rick Reilly will be the guest speaker at the Sneaker Ball, a dinner and auction program at the M Resort that benefits the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada. For more information, visit BGCLV.org/Events.
close. It would be a 40-point blowout. I don’t think people realize how watered-down, discounted and crappy basketball is now compared to what we once had. What’s the most important thing for aspiring sports writers to learn? My No. 1 rule is something Oscar Wilde said, and I follow it every time I write: Never write a sentence you’ve already read. The problem is so many guys—especially young guys—they see sports writing, and they’re like, “Oh, I guess this is what sports writing sounds like,” so they write the same sentence they’ve already read: cooler heads prevailed, we’ll just have to see what develops, he’s a special player. … What you want is for the words to jump off the page and slap the reader around. But so many times, guys don’t take the time to get rid of all of their clichés. And it does take a lot of time. You just naturally write them sometimes if your brain is lazy. You’ve been known to tackle the occasional death-defying challenge, be it facing a Nolan Ryan fastball or skydiving with the U.S. Army Parachute Team. What’s next on your adventure bucket list? You forgot the most fun thing: I few in an F-14. And I tend to get airsick. So I was throwing up, but then we went upside-down, and I became the frst guy in history to throw down. It was like this new scientifc wall I had broken through. … One thing I still want to do? I guess I’d like to be a porn stunt double. Can you work that out? They’d be like, “OK, bring in the body double!” And that’s when I’d come in. Rick Reilly’s latest book, a collection of his best ESPN columns titled Tiger, Meet My Sister … and Other Things I Probably Shouldn’t Have Said (Blue Rider Press, $28) is due in bookstores May 13.
PHOTO BY JOE FARAONI/ESPN
SEVEN QUESTIONS
of dollars. I see my buddies at the sportsbook, and I know that I make more [money] than some of these guys, and they’re betting $1,000! Are you crazy? Don’t you ever want to redo your basement?