The Making of Greg Maddux | Vegas Seven Magazine | July 17-23, 2014

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12 | THE LATEST

“Let’s Go Again!” by Steve Bornfeld.

Reflecting on that improbable day 45 years ago when man went for the moon—and longing for a return trip.

Plus, The Look and Tweets of the Week.

16 | Green Felt Journal

“For Online Gaming, Slow and Steady’s Just Right,”

by David G. Schwartz.

In the three U.S. states where it’s legal, there’s been no bonanza yet—and no big scandal either.

20 | Bar Hall of Fame Induction

The votes are in and the arguments are settled, at least for another year.

Here are our five newest inductees into the Las Vegas Bar Hall of Fame.

22 | COVER

“The Making of a Hall of Famer,” by Sean DeFrank.

On the eve of Greg Maddux’s induction into baseball’s Hall of Fame, we explore the pitcher’s developmental years in Las Vegas, as told by those who knew him long before anyone else did.

29 | NIGHTLIFE

“Enter the Cabana Club,” by Melinda Sheckells and Laurel May Bond.

The action is hot inside the city’s craziest day parties, and the best way to soak it up is from a luxurious cabana. We name the seven best.

Plus, a veteran bartender shares some tips for customers, and photos from the week’s hottest parties.

61 | DINING

Al Mancini on Carson Kitchen. Plus, pastas take on exotic shapes in Vegas’ kitchens, Dishing With Grace and Cocktail Culture.

67 | A&E

“Strip and Polish,” by Jason Scavone.

With big engines, fine patinas and one nerdy stripper, Vegas Rat Rods is peeling out.

Plus, Whitney Cummings helps launch Lipshtick, CD Reviews, Tour Buzz, The Hit List and a review of Chevelle in concert.

74 | Movies

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and our weekly movie capsules.

86 | Seven Questions

Colbalt Data Centers chief Jefferson Brown on our budding tech economy, overcoming the Vegas stereotype and how McCarran could be the key to our tech future.

11 13 14 16 73

| Dialogue | Seven Days | Gossip | The Deal | Showstopper

July 17–23, 2014

DEPARTMENTS

The Hard Rock Hotel’s Center Bar is one of five inductees into the Las Vegas Bar Hall of Fame.

ON THE COVER Design by Ryan Olbrysh

VEGAS SEVEN

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LAS VEGAS’ WEEKLY CITY MAGAZINE

|

FOUNDED FEBRUARY 2010

PUBLISHER Michael Skenandore

EDITORIAL

Matt Jacob and Greg Blake Miller SENIOR EDITOR Xania Woodman A&E EDITOR Cindi Reed COPY CHIEF Paul Szydelko ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sean DeFrank SENIOR WRITERS Steve Bornfeld, Geoff Carter ASSOCIATE STYLE EDITOR Jessica Acuña CALENDAR COORDINATOR Camille Cannon EDITORS

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

Melinda Sheckells (style), Michael Green (politics), Jarret Keene (music), David G. Schwartz (gaming/hospitality)

ART

Ryan Olbrysh Jon Estrada, Cierra Pedro STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Anthony Mair CREATIVE DIRECTOR

GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

VEGASSEVEN.COM

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Christy Corda Nicole Scherer ACCOUNT MANAGER Brittany Quintana ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Robyn Weiss

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR DIGITAL SALES MANAGER

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PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE OBSERVER MEDIA GROUP Vegas Seven, 888-792-5877, 3070 West Post Road, Las Vegas, NV 89118 Vegas Seven is distributed each Thursday throughout Southern Nevada c 2014 Vegas Seven, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without the permission of Vegas Seven, LLC is prohibited.

EDITOR’S NOTE Home, Sweet Home “hey—let’s go to vegas!”

I don’t remember the exact day (sometime in early 1990), or the exact time (somewhere around midnight), or even who made the outlandish suggestion (except that it wasn’t me). I do, however, remember the precise circumstances: A bunch of college buddies and I had just wrapped up a poker game at our dump of a rental house just east of San Diego State University, and clearly somebody’s gambling juices were still fowing.

Now, as a college sophomore, I had no money, and, despite what the second ID in my wallet suggested, I wasn’t of legal age. None of this mattered: I wasn’t about to turn down my frst trip to Vegas. So fve of us crammed into a fourdoor and headed north on Interstate 15. As dawn broke and the local rock radio station fortuitously cued up AC/DC’s “Sin City” (some details you don’t forget), I got my frst glimpse of neon illuminating from the desert foor. Mesmerizing.

For the next 36 hours, I took in this city as millions before and since have: as a wide-eyed tourist. Not that I thought in a million years that this was, in fact, an actual city.

Four years later, I would learn otherwise when I got a call from an old friend I worked with at the college newspaper. He was a sports copy editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and he told me a similar position had opened up.

“You should apply,” he said. Stuck in a going-nowhere job at a going-downthe-drain newspaper in east San Diego County, I fgured, “Why not? Hell, if nothing else, I’ll get a free trip to Vegas out of it!”

Long story short, I got the gig … and a whopping 15-cent-an-hour raise.

“Don’t worry,” I told my wife of three months—a wife who had spent most of her life in San Diego and loved oppressive heat about as much as a polar bear.

“We’ll be there for a year, tops.”

Next month marks 20 years since I made that promise. And guess what?

We’ve never once seriously considered leaving. When friends and family ask why (and they often do), I hand them a copy of Vegas Seven, which each week offers a snapshot of our one-of-a-kind city, one that’s flled with history and culture, entertainment and excitement, triumphs and challenges. The looks on their faces as they start to comprehend how much life—vibrant life—there is beyond Las Vegas Boulevard … priceless.

I’ve been privileged to be part of this award-winning magazine since it debuted in February 2010, initially as a freelance writer and for the past three years as a staffer. Now, starting with this issue, I’ve been entrusted with leading Vegas Seven into the future as its editor, and I couldn’t be more honored or thrilled. I also couldn’t be more grateful, to my new bosses for believing in me, and to my predecessors, Phil Hagen and Greg Miller, for leaving me with an editorial, creative and online team that’s second to none in this Valley.

As for what you can expect in these pages moving forward, well, you’ll probably notice a tweak or two in the coming months. But rest assured the Vegas Seven mission remains the same: to entertain and inform you each and every week, and to celebrate this city that we’re all proud to call home. – Matt Jacob

PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA

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‘Let’s Go Again!’

Refecting on that improbable day 45 years ago when man went for the moon—and longing for a return trip

By Steve Bornfeld

“HOUSTON, TRANQUILITY BASE HERE. The Eagle has landed.”

“Roger, Tranquility. We copy you on the ground.

You’ve got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again, thanks a lot.”

Half a billion people watching down below turned blue, too. I know I did. Maybe that gangly mechanical spider they were driving would nestle gently into the lunar soil, soft as a baby’s breath. Maybe it would suddenly sink, swallowed by the green cheese that mysterious orb was made of after all.

Who knew anything? Humankind hadn’t before attempted this trick that was, by any rational measure, spectacularly suicidal.

And yet: The Eagle had landed.

Channeling the man who was president of the United States on Sunday, July 20, 1969, let me make this perfectly clear—particularly to hoax-obsessed wing nuts who to this day insist it was flmed

by Stanley Kubrick on a paltry budget with bad studio lighting: It happened. I saw it. In real time. That being said: I can’t believe it happened. And that I saw it. In real time.

You know what I mean: that lunar-groundbreaking day 45 years ago this week, when Apollo 11 irrevocably severed our umbilical cord with Mother Earth by depositing humans on another heavenly surface. When President Richard Nixon rang up Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on a giant space rock, placing the longest-distance call—238,900 miles, give or take a few on the cosmic odometer—in Ma Bell history. (With better reception than our cellphones get now. Nixon never once said, “Can you hear me now?”)

Space mania seemed preordained for me from infancy, when my grandmother nicknamed me “Sputnik,” after the frst artifcial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviets in October 1957, fve months after I was born. (That left me on the wrong side of the space race, but Grandma was an Eastern European immigrant, and America hadn’t done squat yet, so looking back, I cut her slack.)

Twelve years later, in front of our prehistoric TV, I watched a Space Age miracle, gaping—

through radio beeps and static, through fatvoiced transmissions between Houston Control and the Eagle, through the foreboding cratered landscape that rolled by during descent—as a once unfathomable destination became Tranquility Base.

On CBS, a nearly childlike Walter Cronkite spoke for America—I recall it as something like, “Oh, boy,” “Wow” and “Gee,” as he raised his eyebrows in amazement. Announcing the late-afternoon landing, the Yankee Stadium scoreboard—to this New York kid, even more authoritative than Walter—fashed: “THEY’RE ON THE MOON.” Astounding words, followed by more than six hours of interminable waiting. Finally, Armstrong hopped off that last ladder rung and onto the fne lunar powder, spoke of small steps and giant leaps, and, followed by Aldrin, walked on a ghostly world in grainy images of what Aldrin dubbed “magnifcent desolation.”

Fear nagged at me when it appeared they could tumble off the perilously close horizon, disappearing into black nothingness. (Later I learned that because the moon is much smaller than Earth, horizons seem closer to the human eye.)

Bolting toward our living room window, I looked up and squinted, as if that would sharpen my view of two moon men in balloon suits, bouncing around like marshmallows with legs.

Today, I still gaze skyward at night, with undimmed awe and gratitude that I was alive for a moment in history that stands with the feats of Magellan, Columbus and Lindbergh. As a reminder, a replica of the plaque left by Apollo 11— “We Came In Peace For All Mankind”—hangs in my home.

How fortunate I was to grow up amid the swagger and romanticism of the Apollo age, when ambition was written in poetry, not prose. Sadly, that era has thus far been a one-off. Valuable though the shuttle program was, I can’t help pitying the generation that saw the challenge of

VEGAS SEVEN

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the heavens only from its Earth-orbital lens.

Apollo’s enormous Saturn V rocket was a chariot. The shuttle was a truck. Apollo astronauts were adventurers on a quest. Shuttle astronauts were space mechanics with to-do lists. Apollo voyages splashed down in the vast ocean, a cinematic fnale for a journey to another world. Shuttle fights jogged around the neighborhood and landed on terra frma, as if taxiing in at McCarran.

Even the names speak of a generation gap between spacecraft: “Apollo” is a Greek god.

“Shuttle” is that bus that runs you from the

ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO

July 17–23, 2014

FEAR NAGGED AT ME WHEN IT APPEARED THEY COULD TUMBLE OFF THE PERILOUSLY CLOSE HORIZON.

By bob whitby

THURSDAY, JULY 17: The kids are bored, it’s hot as the hinges of hell outside and you can only take them to the mall so many times. What to do?

Town Square’s Movies in the Square will cover you for tonight. They project free, family-friendly fare every Thursday evening in the summer, and tonight’s offering, at 8 p.m., is Annie.. Grab a patch of grass and enjoy.

FRIDAY, JULY 18: Money troubles got you down? We can’t put more green in your jeans, but we can tell you where to go for some solid (and free) legal advice: UNLV’s William S. Boyd School of Law, where you’ll find classes on bankruptcy every Friday, 3-5 p.m., through Aug. 8. It’s part of the summer free legal education series. Check out Law.UNLV.edu for other times and topics.

SATURDAY, JULY 19: The heat plays havoc with your plants,

one of the challenges we face when gardening in our often inhospitable climate. Take your botanical woes to Springs Preserve at 11:30 a.m. for Botanicals and Beyond: Compulsive Gardeners, a workshop devoted to keeping your plants happy. SpringsPreserve.org.

SUNDAY, JULY 20: Where the Wild Things Are is a classic, no doubt.

But Maurice Sendak wrote other things as well, including Really Rosie, the story of a sassy young kid who fills her time by acting out show-business fantasies. The Las Vegas Little Theatre is staging an adaptation of the book, with music by Carole King, at 2 p.m., with shows through July 27. $25, LVLT.org.

MONDAY, JULY 21: Thought we should point out that it’s the last day to catch some NBA Summer League action. The championship game tips at 6 p.m. at the Thomas & Mack Center. Miss it and you’ll have to wait a few months to get your next hoops fix. Single-day pass $25; UNLVTickets.com.

TUESDAY, JULY 22: Exercise is medicine. Or so says UNLV’s

airport to the rental-car joint.

For manned missions, the shuttle was all we could afford, and all we should attempt, we told ourselves. Cosmic small ball. Will we ever play long ball again?

After witnessing the televised moonwalk in the movie Apollo 13, anticipating his own (unfortunately thwarted) turn, Tom Hanks as Commander Jim Lovell looks toward the gray-white rock in the sky, with Armstrong and Aldrin and an American fag on it.

“It’s not a miracle,” he says. “We just decided to go.”

Split the difference: This was a man-made miracle, affrming what a miracle our species is when we rely on our human gifts.

Let’s go again. Then go farther. Easy to say, but I, for one, need it.

Cynicism slowly, perhaps inevitably, crept into me over the years. Life’s knocks will do that. I crave one more moment of pure, heart-swelling wonderment to resurrect the ideal that the thoroughly impossible is still thrillingly possible.

I need another Apollo 11 to give me back my 12-year-old soul.

Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences, and they should know. Join them for Tasty Tuesdays, a series devoted to keeping you healthy this summer and all year long. Today’s topic: managing and treating chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart problems through exercise.

5:30-6:30 p.m.; UNLV.edu.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23: If you haven’t heard of Twinkle Time, you’re probably old and/or don’t have kids. If you have, you know that Twinkle is energetic, educational, bilingual and highly regarded by the anklebiting set. Twinkle and friends are coming to the Charleston Heights Arts Center, 7 p.m., and admission is only $3. Time to get with it. ArtsLasVegas.org.

THE LATEST

@LVCabChronicles I just picked up Pat Riley and LeBron James. They were on their way to Chicas Bonitas to do some “negotiating”. #Vegas #NBA

@Adam_Newman Ask an American in three days who won the World Cup, and they’ll have no idea what you’re even talking about.

@RefriedBrean Big IKEA announcement: Las Vegas’ version of the moon landing apparently.

Sigh.

@RonFutrell

July 17–23, 2014

NOW THAT THE ALL-STAR BREAK IS IN

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our rearview mirror, the next big thing on the baseball calendar is the July 31 trade deadline. Otherwise known as the day the Cubs will try to sell anything that’s not nailed down—up to and including the corpse of Harry Caray—for a couple more Single-A prospects.

But for all the high-profle trades that might go down over the next two weeks (Will the Rays move David Price? Will the Dodgers once again hand over a truck full of money to the Red Sox, no Nick Punto necessary this time?), we’re seeing some signifcant wheeling and dealing happening on our own doorstep.

Vegas Nocturne, the Spiegelworld-produced show that anchored the entertainment offerings at Cosmopolitan supper club Rose.Rabbit.Lie., staged its fnal performance July 12. The restaurant and nightlife will continue, according to a spokeswoman, and live entertainment will still be featured. It’s just the nature of that entertainment that’s rather up in the air—and wildly tricky.

Nocturne felt baked-in to the Rose.Rabbit experience. Take the layout of the rooms, which catered to the anarchic fow of the various vignette performers, from the rotating stage in the ballroom to

a study that contained clues to the show’s convoluted narrative. How the supper club would navigate new entertainment in the space remains to be seen, though rumors have Rose.Rabbit offcials negotiating with specifc performers to stay in place, while Spiegelworld is purportedly shopping around for a new home for the production.

So what do we get in return for Nocturne’s (possibly temporary) departure? Former rock bandturned-marketing department KISS at The Joint, for a nineshow residency November 5-23.

Did the Cosmo already call nobacksies on this deal? This is our No, No, Nanette.

Jenny McCarthy, who was at Azure Pool on July 11 with a few friends, is trading her spot on The View for a new SiriusXM radio show, Dirty, Sexy Funny With Jenny McCarthy. If that sounds familiar, it’s because she did her touring Dirty, Sexy, Funny lady-comic showcase at Vinyl late last year.

The other big trade she made—Jim Carrey for Donnie Wahlberg—will turn aisle-ward in the next few weeks when they get hitched.

Nicholas Pileggi, author of Wiseguy and Casino, which were developed, respectively, into Goodfellas and Casino (you probably could have fgured that last one out) is trading Martin Scorsesedirected, Robert De Niro-starring mob movies for a Brad Furman-directed, Sylvester Stallone-starring mob movie titled Scarpa.

Pileggi, who co-created the recently canceled TV drama Vegas, wrote the screenplay for the biopic based on Colombo family hitman Gregory Scarpa. While much of Scarpa’s activities centered in New York, he did own a home in Las Vegas. And Furman directed the poker fick Runner Runner. Don’t rule out the possibility that Pileggi would put the city on celluloid again.

Finally, Insomniac could be looking to cut a two-for-one deal.

Namely, spreading Electric Daisy Carnival over two weekends. A poll on the Insomniac website is courting opinion as to whether the festival should pull a Coachella and run on back-to-back weeks. Rumors that EDC was going to double its fun started in its second year in Las Vegas, but thus far those rumors have remained just that …

@LifeOfBaha Fan of the World Cup has to go to Rihanna for being able to support 32 teams without ever being biased.

@CaptainXDave Guy Fieri is bringing a breakfast menu to his #Vegas outpost. My colon just winced typing that last sentence.

@MarkMarkLittle LeBron better not eat into Anthony Bennett’s minutes.

@ByTimReynolds A little girl is asleep in Raps coach Dwane Casey’s lap as he watches Toronto-Dallas summer game from the stands.

Hey, Vegas is tough, man.

@EDSBS Santiago Solari looks like the Vegas masseur who tries to sell your wife weed and suggests she remove whatever makes her feel comfortable.

@JayKornegay NFL Network just named P Manning #1 player for 2014. Does that include February?

Share your Tweet! Add #V7.

ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO

Trading Places: KISS Is In, Nocturne Is Out and Jenny Swaps TV for Radio

I went out to S Durango and the 215. I still don’t see IKEA #LasVegas.

What’s taking so long—I thought this stuff was easy to assemble.

THE LATEST

For Online Gaming, Slow and Steady’s Just Right

July 17–23, 2014

In the three U.S. states where it’s legal, there’s been no bonanza yet—and no big scandal either

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BEYOND THE NEON of Nevada and Atlantic City, gaming used to be something the nation spoke about in either whispers (like that cousin who never made good) or screams (like that cousin who never made good and was coming to town to spoil your sister’s wedding). Now, though, online gaming is the subject of serious—and generally calm— discussion. Some bemoan its potential negative effects; others lament the meager trickle of revenues to date. Still others offer both, seemingly contradictory, reactions. But the real news is that there hasn’t been much to either complain or crow about: The rollout of online play has been largely uneventful— and that’s a good thing.

Online gaming isn’t new. People have been betting real money online for nearly 20 years. In the United Kingdom, “remote” gambling (which includes sports betting, bingo and casino gambling) accounted for 16 percent of total gambling win last year, up 11 percent since 2009. Comparing the U.K. to the U.S. isn’t apples to apples—casinos account for 16 percent of all U.K. gambling, while they make up about two-thirds of all American gambling. But the U.K. provides some insight into what kind of behaviors the United States could expect to see if more states legalize online play.

Online or interactive gaming is legal in only three states: Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware. In Nevada, it’s legal to use a computer to play poker, or a mobile device to bet on

sports; in New Jersey and Nevada, it’s legal to play poker and casino games online. To play online, you don’t have to be a resident of the state in which you are gambling, but you do need to be physically present in that state. This means that, unlike in Britain, our legal online gaming market is tightly constricted.

How is Nevada faring? With play restricted to poker, it was not expected to see a windfall. In general, poker represents a small percentage of overall casino gaming: Last year, Nevada poker took in about $124 million, which was 1.1 percent of the state’s total gambling win.

In 2014, online play has consistently represented about 9 percent of total poker in Nevada, which is about where it should be right now.

It takes time for new technologies to gain popularity: For decades, slot play was a small part of total casino win. Eventually, though, slots came to dominate American gaming.

Delaware, with a total population of less than 1 million, has seen small returns on its online games: Through May, the state’s three online casinos had generated $935,000—slightly more than Nevada online poker rooms made in March alone. So New Jersey,

with an established (though beleaguered) casino gaming industry and a population of nearly 9 million, might be a better place to look for evidence of how a wider rollout of online gambling might fare.

Compared with Nevada and Delaware, New Jersey is an online titan.

For most of this year, online revenues have been in the $11 million range each month. What’s interesting is that, in this overall-declining market, online revenues have averaged just less than 5 percent of total casino win—which may mean that the market has room to grow.

The legal online market in the U.S. is still young; Nevada has had poker online since April 2013, and Delaware and New Jersey have been online since November.

But the real accomplishment of the frst few months of American online gaming may be its very existence: Three states have enacted regulatory controls that have allowed players to bet online with no major snafus. That’s not a headline-grabber, but that’s the whole point of regulation.

If online gaming in the U.S. is to have a future, it may be best for a “slow” rollout that’s unmarked by either sky-high revenues or major compliance issues. Right now, online operators are proving that they can work within the same regulatory box as terrestrial casinos. That, in and of itself, is a worthy accomplishment.

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

If you discount it, they will come. Or at least that appears to be the strategy for the High Roller wheel that anchors the Linq. Traffic has been a bit slow, so for the second consecutive month, pricing alterations have been instituted.

Following the implementation of last month’s minor discounts—including refunding the $2 service charge for showing Caesars Entertainment’s Total Rewards card—ride prices have now been reduced more significantly. It’s still $34.95 for adults to ride at night, but it’s now $5 less at $19.95 for daytime rides. Locals get an additional $5 off both, making it $29.95 (night) and $14.95 (day) for Nevada residents.

It gets even better for locals on Tuesdays, when there’s a 50 percent discount in conjunction with the Linq’s “Bloq Party,” making it $10 or $17.50 to ride. There’s also a new price level for ages 13-17, for whom it’s $14.95 during the day and $24.95 at night (children 12 and under ride free).

More economical for many will be the “Family Pack,” which includes tickets for two adults and two children for $49.95 during the day and $79.95 at night. This package saves up to $40 on the nighttime ride. The Family Pack is the least expensive route for a family of four if at least one child is older than 12; if neither are, buying two single adult tickets with the kids riding free is better. In fact, for families of any size with at least one child over 12, buying the Family Pack is the best move, then add individual tickets where necessary.

These new “summertime rates” are ostensibly in place until September 1, but I’d be surprised if they’re raised back to previous levels, at least until crowds have increased noticeably.

Then there’s a new “happy hour” offer: From 4 to 7 p.m. daily, a $24.95 ticket comes with an open bar in the pod. This was just announced, so I haven’t had a chance to test-drive it yet, but it certainly has my attention. If you set the average price of a drink throughout the adjacent Quad at $7, you’d need to consume 3.57 of them on the wheel to break even, with four drinks being the tipping point for a “free ride” on this deal. Can you get four delivered and downed on a 30-minute ride? Assuming that you’re allowed to exit with the last one in hand, it sounds eminently doable—though it will depend on how fast the bartender will be allowed to sling ’em. (I’ll test and report!)

Just don’t forget that there are no bathrooms in the pods. I mean really make sure you don’t forget that.

Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor and LasVegasAdvisor.com, a monthly newsletter and website dedicated to finding the best deals in town.

ILLUSTRATION BY JON ESTRADA

WHEELING AND DEALING CONTINUES ON HIGH ROLLER

THE LATEST

STYLE

Tricia Azulay Sales manager at The Martin

MY CAREER ENTAILS … selling

luxury, high-rise buildings. After projects sell out, I like to take time to travel, be with friends and family, and take a step back from work before I go on to the next project.

I’M ORIGINALLY FROM NEW YORK … where I

started out working in fashion at Polo Ralph Lauren. I did petite modeling and shoe modeling for years in New York, L.A. and Las Vegas.

I’VE BEEN HERE FOR ALMOST 14 YEARS, BUT … my style is

New York influenced: fashion forward, classic, minimalist and sophisticated. I don’t spend a terrible amount of money on clothes. Now, shoes and handbags—that’s a different story. I’m always carrying a Chanel bag whether I’m in jeans and a T-shirt or an elegant dress.

enormous amount of clothes I don’t wear in my closet. I donate them to charity, particularly to Dress for Success.

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– Jessi C. Acuña Versace dress.

B Brian Atwood shoes.

Pandora watch.

PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA

July 17–23, 2014

I DON’T LIKE TO HAVE … an

Introducing the fve newest members of the Las Vegas Bar Hall of Fame

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FUNNY THING ABOUT HALLS OF FAME: No matter if you’re talking sports, music, show business or insurance—yes, there’s an Insurance Hall of Fame—there are always more eligible candidates than there are slots available for enshrinement. We’ve certainly learned this frsthand the past three years with our Las Vegas Bar Hall of Fame issue and subsequent revealing of inductees. Inevitably, some very popular—and very deserving—watering holes don’t make the fnal cut. This year proved no different.

In fact, thanks to the passionate barfies who fooded VegasSeven.com from June 26-July 10 to vote for their favorite establishments—the nearly 14,000 votes cast were more than double last year’s total—our Bar Hall of Fame panel of experts had its most diffcult decisions to date.

Those diffcult decisions, which sparked some spirited debate, involved picking a single inductee from each of fve categories: Classic, Neighborhood, Pioneer, Resort/ Casino and Specialty.

In the end, we’re confdent that this year’s fve winners—all of which fnished either frst or second in the reader poll—are quite deserving. More than that, along with our 15 past inductees (see sidebar), they represent just how truly diverse Las Vegas’ bar culture has become. That’s something we can all appreciate.

So let’s raise a toast to the Class of 2014!

And to those bars that fell a bit short, there’s always next year …

Category: Classic Inductee: ATOMIC LIQUORS

917 Fremont St., 702-982-3000 Readers also liked: Dispensary Lounge; Stage Door Category: Neighborhood Inductee: PARADISE CANTINA

4480 S. Paradise Rd., 702-434-0031 Readers also liked: The Griffn; Steiner’s Category: Pioneer Inductee: HARD ROCK CENTER BAR

In Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, 702-693-5000 Readers also liked: Beauty Bar; Draft House; Herbs & Rye Category: Resort/Casino Inductee: FOUNDATION ROOM

In Mandalay Bay, 702-632-7631 Readers also liked: Gaudi Bar at Sunset Station; Red Square Category: Specialty Inductee: ACES & ALES

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ACES & ALES BY JON ESTRADA; ATOMIC LIQUORS BY GEOFF CARTER; CENTER BAR BY ERIK K ABIK

July 17–23, 2014

Clockwise from left: Hard Rock Center Bar, Atomic Liquors and Aces & Ales enter the Hall of Fame

Major League Baseball scouts took notice of Greg Maddux during his two dominant seasons at Valley High School, where as a senior in 1984 he went 8-2 with 91 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings.

The Making of a Hall of Famer

Once upon a time, the guy Sports Illustrated called ‘the best right-handed pitcher born in 100 years’ was just a Las Vegas kid with a wicked sense of humor, a killer instinct and an off-speed pitch to die for.

This is the story of Greg Maddux’s early years, as told by the men who shared the feld with him.

BY SEAN DEFRANK

MORSKI (Maddux’s childhood friend and his catcher at Valley High School): Back when Greg was DOUG

younger, he was a string bean. He’d ride his bike, and everyone would call him Kermit the Frog, because he was so skinny. He looked like Kermit in The Muppet Movie.

Even as a young teenager, Maddux showed the form that would eventually win him four consecutive Cy Young Awards and prompt many of the best hitters in baseball history to marvel at his pitching acumen.

His family had a pool, so that was the big hot spot. We’d play basketball, and then we’d go and swim in the pool. We would play a lot of whiffe ball. That MORSKI:

was the big thing back then; we would play constantly. We even had a pool derivative of whiffe ball. He would pitch, and it was just amazing the things he would do with a whiffe ball. I’m sure that helped him make a baseball move. It was just crazy.

When he was 14 years old, Maddux began attending informal workouts at Valley High School conducted

by Ralph Meder, a longtime baseball coach who had moved to Las Vegas in 1958. Many of Southern Nevada’s top prospects attended the offseason Sunday sessions, including such professional players as Mike Maddux, Mike Morgan, Marty Barrett and Tom Barrett. Meder downplayed the importance of velocity to the young

FREDDIE BANKS, a three-time Nevada basketball player of the year at Valley High School, led the Vikings to three consecutive state championships (1981-83). Banks, now the head basketball coach at Canyon Springs High, is UNLV’s fourth all-time leading scorer and was inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.

RODGER FAIRLESS, who coached Maddux at Valley High School, won six state baseball titles with the Vikings in the 1980s. A 2004 Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Fairless won 12 state championships in 19 years at Eldorado, Valley and Green Valley high schools, compiling a record of 493-80.

DOUG MAPSON, who is in his 34th year as a professional baseball scout, signed Maddux to a contract with the Chicago Cubs in 1984. Mapson is now in his 22nd year working for the San Francisco Giants, serving as the team’s national cross-checker for the past nine seasons.

DOUG MORSKI, a close friend of Maddux’s since 1979, graduated from Valley High School in 1984 and played catcher for the Vikings. He has worked at the Tropicana’s front desk for 26 years, been a bellman at the TI for eight years and is the co-owner of Ms. Sharon’s Pet Sitting.

SAM THOMAS, a 1983 graduate of Valley High School, was the Vikings’ starting catcher during Maddux’s junior year. Since 1999, Thomas has been the head baseball coach at Las Vegas High School, where he coached Major League Baseball first-round draft picks Bryce Harper and Erick Fedde.

July 17–23, 2014

In 1976, Dave and Linda Maddux moved with their three children, Mike, Terri and Greg, from Madrid to Las Vegas, the last stop in Dave’s 22-year Air Force career. Greg, the youngest child, had been born April 14, 1966, in San Angelo, Texas, and was in fourth grade when the family arrived in Las Vegas. His brother, Mike, became a pitching star at Rancho High School and graduated in 1979 before heading off to the University of Texas-El Paso on a baseball scholarship. That same year, Dave Maddux retired from the military, and the family moved into a house on Rawhide Street, in the southeast part of the Valley. Greg, then 13 years old, attended Cannon Junior High, where he played on the school’s softball and basketball teams.

About the Storytellers

23 VEGAS SEVEN

PHOTO COURTESY VALLEY HIGH

on the pitching mound, greg maddux was the antithesis of what Las Vegas is perceived to be. In the popular imagination, Maddux’s hometown is known for bombast, instant gratifcation and self-absorption. He embodied none of those traits. In establishing himself as one of the greatest pitchers in Major League Baseball history, Maddux instead proved to be reliable, workmanlike, unassuming and durable. Despite his individual greatness—the man won 355 games and four Cy Young Awards—he remained humble, and always put his team frst. ¶ Standing barely 6 feet tall and throwing a fastball that averaged about 85 mph, Maddux dominated hitters throughout his 23-year big league career, thriving as a fnesse pitcher in a power era, relying as much on his mind as on his physical ability. On July 27, he will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, earning immortality as one of the 306 legends elected into the sport’s shrine. ¶ Maddux’s achievements in the major leagues are welldocumented, but this is the story about how he evolved into an all-time great while growing up in Las Vegas, as told by the men who knew him at Valley High School and watched him develop on the diamond, just a normal kid armed with the ability to make a baseball dance.

pitchers under his tutelage, and instead emphasized changing speeds, movement and location. Greg Maddux has often credited Meder, who died in 1983 at the age of 69, with changing his arm angle to give his pitches more movement.

MORSKI: Going to Meder’s workouts helped anyone. That was the place you wanted to be. And our junior year, Greg was really ramping it up. He was always going. And his brother was fve years ahead of him, so I think Greg learned a lot from him, too.

DOUG MAPSON (longtime baseball scout):

When Ralph Meder used to work out all the kids on Sundays, all of us who scouted would head over there and just watch the kids work out and get a feel for them. That was an invaluable asset, not only for us scouts but also for those kids, because they learned a lot pitching and playing in that informal gathering. Even some of the pro guys would come back and help. It was just a really good baseball situation in Las Vegas back then.

he did, but it was just the movement he had, the changeup, the curveball. His curveball was deadly. He really didn’t use his curve that much in the pros, though, because his changeup was so amazing. Our junior year, though, the velocity started to get up there, too.

Gene Handley, then the Western scouting supervisor for the Chicago Cubs, went to Valley to scout senior pitcher Mike Greer. But it was an undersized junior right-hander who caught his attention. Handley phoned his area scout, Doug Mapson, who went to take a closer look at Maddux.

RODGER FAIRLESS (Valley High baseball coach): Greg’s junior year, I had a cou-

MAPSON:

ple of other pitchers and players that scouts were looking at, and then Greg would pitch and they would go, “Wow!” I think the scouts would see how free his [throwing motion] was and how fuid he was, and he had great movement on his fastball. Even then, his movement was his whole key to pitching, whether it was the changeup or the fastball. And that’s something you can’t teach.

guys who were in the minor leagues with Kansas City asked if they could come play in our scrimmage. I said, “Sure, you can at least take some cuts.” Greg was pitching, and after the scrimmage these two minor league players came up to me and said that he had a better changeup than guys in the major leagues.

He was very athletic; he competed, kept the ball down, threw strikes.

If you had a checklist of things you’re supposed to see in a pitcher when you scout, you could have probably checked them all from the frst time I saw him throw. He looked like a professional pitcher even as a high school kid.

THOMAS: Greg wasn’t ... I don’t want to say competitive, because he was the most competitive person I’ve ever met. But he didn’t come out like it was that serious.

We would work hard, but it was like another day for Greg. That’s just the way he was, very relaxed. It was almost carefree.

FAIRLESS: Greg had the best changeup that I’ve ever seen. I can remember one Saturday, we were working out, and two

FAIRLESS: You knew when you put him on the mound that he was going to compete. He was always going to be around

Clockwise from left: Maddux (top row, second from left) with the 1983 Valley High state champions; hanging out with friends Sherri Marino and Doug Morski; on the Cannon Junior High basketball team; and delivering for the Atlanta Braves in 1993.

Maddux played on Valley High School’s junior varsity baseball team as a sophomore, and the following year he was promoted, earning a spot as one of coach Rodger Fairless’ starting pitchers on the varsity squad.

SAM THOMAS (Valley High catcher and current Las Vegas High head baseball coach):

This was the pitching staff my senior year [in 1983]: You had Mike Greer, who was a senior and was drafted in the ffth round by the Cleveland Indians; you had Greg Maddux, enough said, who was a junior; and you had Steve Chitren, a sophomore, who was a two-time College World Series champion at Stanford and pitched for the Oakland A’s. That’s quite a résumé those guys put together. Back then, we played three times a week, so anytime you were running up against those three guys, you were in trouble.”

July 17–23, 2014

MORSKI: Midway through our junior year, and when we were at Meder’s [workouts], it was amazing how Greg’s ball was starting to jump, and the movement on it. He didn’t have that much velocity [initially]; it was more movement. We had three other pitchers [at Valley] who threw harder than

VEGAS SEVEN

24

Maddux Stats TEAMS PLAYED FOR

Chicago Cubs (1986-92, 2004-06) Atlanta Braves (1993-2003) Los Angeles Dodgers (2006, 2008) San Diego Padres (2007-08)

“People think I’m smart? You know what makes you smart? Locate yo

355-227 Win-loss record

(8th all time in wins)

.610 Win-loss percentage (94th)

5,008 / 3 1

Innings pitched (13th)

3,371 Strikeouts (10th)

the strike zone. As a coach, you never expected anything to go haywire, where he couldn’t throw strikes or get outs.

In the 1983 zone playoffs, Maddux pitched a complete game in a 4-0 victory over Basic High, limiting the Wolves to three hits while striking out nine batters in what was the best game of his career to that point.

He bettered that performance in the opening game of the state tournament at UNLV, holding Reno to just two hits and striking out seven in an 8-0 victory, while improving his record to 8-1. The following day, the Vikings (25-3) won their second state title in three years with a 5-2 victory as Maddux relieved Greer in the fnal inning, walking the frst hitter he faced to load the bases before retiring the next three batters, two on strikeouts, to end the game.

FAIRLESS: The thing that I always admired about Greg was that he was never a guy who wanted to put a show on because he did well. He’s always been pretty levelheaded. The best way I can describe Greg is [he’s] like Superman: When he’s in his suit and glasses, you could never imagine that that same guy could be on the baseball feld and be the ferce competitor he is because of his whole demeanor. I always wanted my players to be tough—not necessarily fghting-wise, but tough competitors. And, to me, Greg is the epitome of that. I’ve seen a lot of emotion from him, like he would get really pissed if he would make a mistake or make an error, which was very seldom.

Don’t get me wrong, he had emotions, but he knew how to control them. It

“Greg Maddux could put a baseball through a Life Saver if you asked him.”

wouldn’t go more than one pitch. He knew what he needed to do.

Maddux might have been all business once a guy stepped into the batter’s box, but there’s another side to him that belied his no-nonsense approach to getting hitters out. Over his big league career, Maddux earned a reputation as a notorious prankster—an inclination that was established long before he got to the majors.

MORSKI: We would have pool parties over at his house; everyone would be in the backyard, and he had an old stereo set up and the speakers were out there. His brother had a microphone that he was able to hook into it, and Greg would lock himself in his room and he’d DJ. He would sing and

– Hall of Fame second baseman JOE MORGAN

tell jokes, and play music that half the people didn’t like. He was torturing us.

He was always a jokester. He was pretty disgusting at times, to be honest, certain things he would do. But that was just growing up and being a kid.

THOMAS: Before the start of one game, Greg takes his eight warm-up pitches, and I throw down to second. Usually, I would walk out and talk to whoever was pitching and let them know Coach was calling the game, or whatever. So I walked out there to Greg, and I said, “It’s me and you. You’re calling it.” And he started singing. Eddie Rabbitt [and Crystal Gayle], they did a duet called “You and I,” and he started singing that, and I fell into singing it with him, and we’re on the mound. It was maybe just two lines of the song, but I’m running back to the plate and I’m thinking, “What a goofball.” Every time I look over to the dugout I’m scared for my job, and this guy is out there singing an Eddie Rabbitt song.

Maddux earned the nicknamed “The Professor” during his major league career for his ability to baffe batters, always seeming to throw the right pitch at the right time.

Even facing high school hitters, he was trying to outthink his opponents, relying on his wits as much as his arm.

ur fastball down and away. That’s what makes you smart.”

– GREG MADDUX

999 Walks

(117th)

740

Games started (4th)

35

Shutouts (71st)

20,421 Batters faced (15th)

MORSKI: Greg would shake Fairless off every now and then, and I would go, “Oh man, it’s either going to be me or him that’s going to get in trouble!” But he would shake him off and then throw a pretty good pitch and strike a guy out, so I don’t think Fairless would say a word. But if he walked him or the guy

546 Putouts as a pitcher (1st)

1,194

Assists as a pitcher (11th)

FAIRLESS: We used to always call the pitches, and Greg would always come in on the day he was going to pitch and ask, “Hey, can I call my own pitches?”

And I would say, “No, get the hell out of my offce.” And one day we were going to play Eldorado, and he came in again and asked if he could call his own pitches. And fnally I said, “You know what, I’m going to let you call your own game today.” Now, Greg’s changeup was like a major league

changeup, but when a kid has a slow bat, throwing a changeup is not a good thing to do. He was throwing fastballs past them, but he knew his changeup was good, so he would throw changeups. We ended up losing the game, and when we got done I told him, “That’s why you don’t call your own game.”

During his major league career, Maddux won a record 18 Gold Glove Awards, including 13 straight from 1990 to 2002, for his felding prowess, displaying a dexterity that allowed him to excel in just about every sport he tried growing up.

FAIRLESS: From his sophomore to his junior year, his body had matured, and that’s when you started to realize that he was a pretty good athlete. I can remember sitting in the gym one day when the kids were in there for P.E. and watching him play basketball, and there’s no doubt that he could have made the basketball team. And that’s when guys like [future UNLV star] Freddie Banks were there. Greg could jump, and he could shoot; he had a lot of ability. To be honest, I kinda led him away from that, especially after his junior year, because I wanted him to concentrate on baseball.

FREDDIE BANKS (Valley High basketball star): Greg was going to come out for

Maddux Facts ➺ First pitcher in MLB history to win four straight Cy Young Awards (1992-95). ➺ Only pitcher in MLB history to win at least 15 games for 17 straight seasons. ➺ Won an MLB-record 18 Gold Glove Awards. ➺ In 23 major league seasons, spent only 15 days on the disabled list: a two-week

July 17–23, 2014

stint in 2002 with an inflamed nerve in his lower back. ➺ When he made his MLB debut in 1986, he was the youngest player in the league (20 years old); when played his final game in 2008, he was the fourth-oldest player (42). ➺ Only pitcher in MLB history to record at least 300 wins and 3,000 strikeouts with fewer than 1,000 walks. ➺ In 1994-95, became the first pitcher to post backto-back ERAs under 1.80 since Walter Johnson in 1918-19. ➺ Named to eight

VEGAS SEVEN

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National League All-Star teams. ➺ In August 1997, signed a fiveyear, $57.5 million contract that made him the highest-paid player in baseball.

basketball when he was a junior, and he was a heck of a basketball player. He could shoot the ball, pass the ball. But the thing about both of our coaches— Coach Fairless and Coach [Bill] Bobier— was when you had talent in either baseball or basketball, they wouldn’t allow you to play the other sport. They felt, “OK, he has the potential to be a great player, so I’m not going to let him play basketball and get hurt, or I’m not going to let him play baseball and get hurt.”

Greg played JV ball, but he never got the chance to play varsity. He absolutely would have made the varsity team.

MORSKI: I was into racquetball, and it wasn’t that big of a sport way back then.

I’d say, “C’mon Greg, let’s go play some racquetball.” So we went to UNLV, and I thought, “OK, I’m going to smoke him.”

And, damn it, I couldn’t believe it, he grabs a racket and we started playing, and he kicks my ass in racquetball! And I had been playing for about a year or so!

THOMAS: Greg was so laid-back, and it was fun to him. There were some of us who didn’t have the talent and were working our asses off and running around scared. I was more concerned about how much we were going to run that day, how many times was I going to throw up that day. And here’s Greg, who was about 130 pounds and could run forever. We had to run two miles in under 13 minutes and 30 seconds to be on the team, and Greg would finish in like 11:30. You’re like, “Go run track!” He’s sprinting on his last lap! Everything was so easy to him. I don’t want to sound like I was jealous; it was more like I was just in awe of what he could do.

Entering the 1984 postseason as the defending state champion, Valley defeated Western 8-0 in the opening game of the zone playoffs as Maddux, who was playing shortstop that day, hit a frst-inning grand slam to right-center feld. It was the third homer of the season for Maddux, who led the Vikings that year with a .346 batting average.

FAIRLESS: Greg always thought he was a good hitter, but I didn’t think he was that good. Plus, he always wanted to play another position [when he wasn’t pitching], so every once in a while

I would let him play center feld or shortstop, but I knew that he was more valuable to our team as a pitcher.”

THOMAS: There was one time when Greg and Rodger got into it, in a plain way. And I’m sitting there catching during batting practice, and I’m thinking, “You can’t talk to Coach Fairless like that. What are you doing?” And they’re going back and forth; Greg was hitting. And they had a home run contest, and Fairless was trying to throw harder and throw breaking balls and stuff, and Greg hit three out on him. But that’s just the confdence he had. It was amazing.

Maddux threw a no-hitter against Bonanza in 1984, and allowed just one hit in 14 innings in two starts versus the Bengals during the regular season. He faced Bonanza again in the second game of the zone playoffs, striking out 11 batters in a six-hit complete game, but lost 2-0. The following day, Eldorado beat Valley 3-1 to end the Vikings’ season and Maddux’s high school career.

MORSKI: That game that we lost to Bonanza, he was doing his damnedest to try to win the game. He was trying to do it all. We just couldn’t hit the ball. But he was always a team player. He would never get mad at anyone else. He was a pretty cool guy on the diamond.

FAIRLESS: He was the ultimate team player, even in the majors, which I have always admired about him. There was no individualism with Greg; he was always pretty grounded. I don’t think Greg cared about his stats; I don’t think he even knew what his stats were. It was always about what he had to do in order for the team to win. And when you’ve coached somebody like that, and that’s what you tried to instill in them when they were young, and then they carry that on, that’s what makes you proud of them.

You have to originally give Ralph Meder credit, but during the course of the season, you have to give Rodger all the credit in the world for developing Greg on a long-term basis.

MAPSON:

“One thing anyone can go through is a slump. Unless you’re Greg Maddux it’s going to happen to everybody.”

– 12-time All-Star catcher MIKE PIAZZA

PREVIOUS SPREAD PHOTOS COURTESY GREG MORSKI; MADDUX WITH BRAVES BY RVR PHOTOS/USA TODAY SPORTS

got a hit, we’d be running laps. So we pretty much stuck to Coach’s calls.

“It seems like he’s inside your mind with you. When he knows you’re not going to swing, he throws a straight one. He sees into the future. It’s like he has a crystal ball hidden inside his glove.”

– Hall of Fame third baseman WADE BOGGS

ing for nine teams in a 15-year major league career, fnishing with a 39-37 record in 472 games] and is one of the most respected pitching coaches in the game now [with the Texas Rangers]. I told their mom and dad that I wish they would have had a few more kids, because they did really good with those two boys.

Maddux fnished his senior year with a record of 8-2, striking out 91 batters in 59 2/3 innings. He went 16-3 in his two years playing for Valley, and was named the 11th-best high school pitcher in the nation by Baseball America. He signed a national letter of intent to play baseball at the University of Arizona, but was selected early in the second round of Major League Baseball’s June free-agent draft by the Chicago Cubs. Maddux had a decision to make.

MORSKI: Greg was actually quite nonchalant about it, maybe because his brother had already been drafted before him [by the Philadelphia Phillies in the ffth round of the 1982 draft]. He was excited, but it wasn’t really like he was cheering or it was that big a deal.

MAPSON: I made six trips to Las Vegas to

sign him, and I never really met Greg until the fnal time, when he signed.

He had gone on his senior trip to Hawaii, and so I just sat in their living room and negotiated with his dad. I’d come over from Southern California, where I lived, and would make him a little better offer, and his dad would say, “No, no. That’s not good enough.”

And I’d say, “OK, I’ll see you in a few days.” A couple of thousand dollars meant a lot back then. I think Greg got $75,000, which was far more than we ever gave a second-round pick. I said in one meeting with his dad, “If your son is as good as you say he is, his bonus will be pocket change.” And as it turns out, his dad was very right.

In Mapson’s scouting report on Maddux, he wrote, “I really believe that this boy would possibly be the number-one player taken in the country if only he looked a bit more physical.”

Greg kind of broke the mold.

There was a real reluctance to sign sub6-foot right-handers up until that point, and after Greg people started looking at

MAPSON:

guys a little bit differently. I think had it been [years later], Greg would have been a surefre frst-round guy.

FAIRLESS: I had kids in my career who have thrown harder and maybe had a better curveball, but we all knew he would be drafted. It’s obvious that Doug Mapson took a gamble on him, because I don’t know if that many people had him projected to go that high. There are a lot of factors that play into what a kid ends up doing.

Most kids don’t get drafted now unless they throw 90 [mph]. And if you have 300 kids across the country who are all throwing 90, it’s obvious that something separates the ones who make it from the ones who don’t, because they all have close to the same ability, but those 300 kids who are drafted as pitchers don’t all make it to the majors.

Greg is a unique individual. I think his mental makeup separated him. He never got too upset, and I don’t think pressure ever affected him.”

You know his brother, Mike, was an awfully good pitcher [play-

MAPSON:

THOMAS: I worked a baseball camp in Denver [in June], and there was an older gentleman there who was also working the camp, and he walked up to me out of the blue and said, “I hear that you caught the world’s greatest pitcher.” And I said, “No sir, I didn’t catch Sandy Koufax. Oh, you mean the world’s greatest right-handed pitcher. Yeah, I did.” And I’m very, very proud of that.

HALL OF FAME INDUCTION Greg Maddux will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, on July 27, along with former Atlanta Braves teammate Tom Glavine, slugger Frank Thomas and managers Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre. The induction ceremony will be broadcast on MLB Network at 10:30 a.m. PDT.

July 17–23, 2014

MADDUX PHOTO BY RVR PHOTOS/USA TODAY SPORTS

He made sure that guys had the proper tools to pitch with, knew how to think out on the mound and he didn’t get guys hurt. They were in good shape to pitch, and he didn’t overuse them.

Rodger is one of the best high school coaches I’ve ever been around, and I’ve been scouting for 33 years now, and coached for 10 years prior to that.

27 VEGAS SEVEN

Maddux fires a pitch for the Chicago Cubs in 1991, when he won 15 of his 355 major league games.

After signing with Chicago on June 19, 1984, Maddux reported to the Cubs’ rookie-league team in Pikeville, Kentucky, and quickly progressed through the minors. He made his major league debut on September 2, 1986, at the age of 20, getting the loss in an 8-7 defeat to the Houston Astros at Wrigley Field after allowing a solo home run to Billy Hatcher in the 18th inning. By 1988, Maddux was a National League All-Star, and on July 27 he will offcially become a baseball immortal in Cooperstown, New York.

NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and a longtime drink slinger tells all

The cabanas at Encore Beach Club open onto Las Vegas Boulevard as well as the pool complex.

By Melinda Sheckells and Laurel May Bond

DAYLIGHT BEACH CLUB

The Scene: See DJs such as Alesso, Krewella and Nicky Romero with 5,000 of your closest friends. On Sunday nights, Daylight turns into Eclipse, and this season night swimming is allowed. Also new this year, Daylight doubled down on the fun with the addition of two exclusive VIP pools—one 448 square feet for the northside cabana-dwellers and a 245-squarefoot pool for those enjoying the cabanas to the southwest—to the property’s existing 4,400-square-foot pool. In total, there are 25 cabanas and bungalows.

What to Eat: Coconut shrimp with mango relish and orange marmalade.

What to Drink: The Clooney ($17 small, $35 large, $75 pitcher; Casamigos blanco tequila,

July 17–23, 2014

The action is hot inside the city’s craziest day parties, and the best way to soak it up is from a luxurious cabana.

Here are the seven best

The Scene: The 26 cabanas within EBC are some of the most plush in Las Vegas. Per industry standard, they come with televisions and refrigerators. Eight—reserved for super VIPs—are considered bungalows at 350 square feet. Those have views of Las Vegas Boulevard as well as the pool-party action, plus private bathrooms, infnity pools, showers and air conditioning.

What to Eat: Keep it light and healthy poolside with an Asian chicken salad or vegan chopped salad.

What to Drink: EBC offers refreshing pitchers (frozen and non-frozen), such as the Skyy Strawberry Lemonade.

In Encore, 702-770-7300, EncoreBeachClub.com.

29 VEGAS SEVEN

PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA

Enter the Cabana Club

ENCORE BEACH CLUB

NIGHTLIFE

The scene to be seen at Drai's Beach Club, and the sangria at Mandarin Oriental.

Pools of Fun Got game? Bring it on! ➜ Rehab in the Hard Rock

Hotel offers swim-up blackjack tables, so you can still win big even if you’re at the pool. ➜ Wet Republic has

something even better than pool games: infatable swag, and gorgeous model cocktail servers spray the crowds with Champagne. ➜ Get covered in sand at

July 17–23, 2014

WET REPUBLIC ULTRA POOL

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The Scene: Because every single second of pool season is precious, Wet Republic’s new and improved (read: shaded and misted) queuing area promises to get revelers poolside ASAP; while the addition of accessible storage lockers at the revamped entry may technically exist to keep everybody’s valuables safe and dry, the handy cellphone chargers located within are the ultimate draw. New bungalows boast DJ views and personal dipping pools, TVs, safes and misters for the highrollers. In all, there are 12 bungalows and 10 cabanas.

What to Eat: A shrimp cocktail feast and seasonal fruit platter.

What to Drink: Wet Splash ($18; Absolut Vanilia, Absolut Raspberri, Absolut Berri Açaí, Absolut Mandrin, cranberry and Red Edition Red Bull.

In MGM Grand, 702-891-3715, WetRepublic.com.

MARQUEE DAYCLUB

The Scene: The cabana life at the Cosmopolitan’s pool party is a sweet

MANDARIN ORIENTAL

The Scene: The pool deck sits atop the eighth foor. There are 17 cabanas, each featuring a sectional couch with bright pillows, two additional sun chairs, ceiling fan, misters, television and a stocked mini-bar. Pool attendants circulate to clean sunglasses and distribute amenities, including mini-smoothies and frozen fruit.

What to Eat: Calamari with garlic chili sauce and shrimp and scallop ceviche marinated in tangerine, avocado, red onion, pomegranate, cilantro and paprika.

What to Drink: There is nothing more refreshing than sangria on a hot summer’s day.

702-590-8888, MandarinOriental.com/ LasVegas.

PICNIC

The Scene: This pool perched on the rooftop of the Downtown

Grand has a more down-to-earth, approachable feel than the Strip’s water wonderlands, and it’s also way less of a wallet-buster. Cabana prices vary, but are a mere fraction of what’s required to secure similar poolside real estate uptown.

What to Eat: The OMG Burger comes with grilled tomato, bacon, shallot aioli, fried onions, house-made pickles and cheese.

What to Drink: The 3rd St. Mojito ($13; muddled fresh mint, 10 Cane Rum, Torani mint syrup and lime juice).

In Downtown Grand, 702-719-5100, DowntownGrand.com.

DRAI’S BEACH CLUB

The Scene: Drai’s, the long-standing fnal party stop for the last ones standing, ushers in a new era of decadence with the unveiling of Drai’s Beach Club. With more than 60,000 square feet of indoor-outdoor space perched on the roof of the Cromwell— the Strip’s latest boutique hotel—the venue’s 40 daybeds, nine VIP bungalows sharing fve elevated pools and 15 mezzanine-level cabanas with private pool and private shower/restroom promise to be some of this summer’s most sought-after real estate.

What to Eat: A steak sandwich with blue cheese, crispy onion and arugula.

What to Drink: Drai’s Lemonade ($18; muddled strawberries, Belvedere Citrus, Skyy Strawberry, fresh sweet and sour mix and simple syrup). It can also be prepared without alcohol.

In the Cromwell, 702-737-0555; DraisLV.com.

A version of this story appears in the July 2014 issue of Vegas Rated. For more from Vegas Rated, visit Vrated.com.

➜ Boredom is out the

window at the Flamingo pool with limbo, booty shaking and push-up contests on Friday and Saturday. ➜ Get to twerking at Encore

Beach Club on one of its foating dance-foor lily pads. ➜ Play a raging game of

foosball at Palms Pool.

Win or lose, the bar is only footsteps away. ➜ Don’t sweat it if you can’t

drag yourself away from a luxurious cabana at Azure, where Xbox and iPads are available for VIP guests.

– Susanna Kelly

NO TAN LINES HERE Tired of those pesky tan lines? A few pools in Vegas offer topless options for those seeking to get even color. Ease into the topless scene at Naked in Artisan.

This pool provides an intimate environment without the crowd.

Bare, Moorea and Venus also boast European-style sunbathing, while Marquee and Tao Beach go topless Mon-Thu. – S.K.

POOL BY JON ESTRADA; COCKTAIL BY ANTHONY MAIR; WET REPUBLIC BY JOE TORRANCE

ruby red grapefruit juice, fresh lime juice, pure agave nectar, San Pellegrino Pompelmo).

In Mandalay Bay, 702-588-5656, DaylightVegas.com.

existence, indeed. Each has its own infnity pool, among other standard amenities. A lucky few will get to stay in one of Marquee Dayclub’s threestory bungalows for the night, which have an open-air party deck that looks down on the action.

What to Eat: Buttermilk chicken sandwich with stone-ground mustard slaw and sriracha aioli.

What to Drink: Try the Poolside ($16; muddled grapes, Absolut Tune sparkling fusion vodka, St-Germain elderfower liqueur and fresh lemon juice) or the Beach Bum ($16; Bacardi Mango Fusion, Grey Goose Le Melon, pineapple and lime juice).

In the Cosmopolitan, 702-333-9000, MarqueeLasVegas.com.

one of two sand volleyball courts just outside of the pool at Xposed! in Tropicana.

By

NIGHTLIFE

Camille Cannon

rapper”) G-Eazy performs at The Bank. Consider it a snippet of his forthcoming Life Is Beautiful appearance.

(In Bellagio, 10:30 p.m., TheBankLasVegas.com.)

Sky Ferreira.

SUN 20 Now to revisit this Song of Summer issue... it’s quite all right if you want to get your “Wiggle” on when Jason Derulo performs at Rehab. He might even require it. (At Hard Rock Hotel, 10 a.m., HardRockHotel.com.) If you prefer your pool parties after dark, we suggest Eclipse at Daylight.

House maestro Hook N Sling will collaborate live with quick-rhyming Pusha T. (At Mandalay Bay, 10 p.m., EclipseVegas.com.) R&B singer The Weeknd has worked his way from the intimate Ling Ling Club to Life Is Beautiful festival this October. But frst, he’ll make his debut in Hakkasan’s main room. (In MGM Grand, 10:30 p.m., HakkasanLV.com.)

MON 21

Taryn Manning.

In the annual Song of Summer debate, one thing’s always certain: Every contender is overplayed on the radio. And whether we admit it or not, we all know the hooks to “Fancy,” “Wiggle” and “Problem.” So where can your ears and mind fnd freedom? Soulkitchen at Vanguard Lounge. In this month’s installment of underground house, resident Edgar Reyes will be joined by frequent Drai’s Afterhours and After spinner Justin Baulé, (516 Fremont St., 10 p.m., VanguardLV.com.)

36

FRI 18

VEGAS SEVEN

July 17–23, 2014

THU 17

In a recent interview with the London Evening Standard, Deadmau5 throws heavy shade at his contemporaries and forewarns the certain

death of EDM. His latest LP, While (1<2), clocks in at twoand-a-half hours. Now he’s cooking up surprises for his set at XS. Just don’t count on him to drop any Bon Jovi. (In Encore, 10:30 p.m., XSLasVegas. com.) Downtown, Miley Cyrus’ shock-pop protégé Sky Ferreira headlines the second Under the Lights concert at Container Park with support by DJs Doorly and Technicolor.

(707 Fremont St., 9:30 p.m., DowntownContainerPark.com.)

At Beauty Bar, puff up your pompadour for an evening of R&B and rockabilly by Gizzelle, Josh Hi-Fi Sorheim and the Tone Slingers.

(517 Fremont St., 9 p.m., TheBeautyBar.com.)

SAT 19 Dutch EDM duo Showtek has been blowing up the

blogosphere with their remix of David Guetta’s “Lovers on the Sun.” Give it a listen before you check them out at Drai’s Beach Club with L.A.'s Sex Panther. (At the Cromwell, 10 a.m., DraisNightlife.com.)

If you intend to get drunk this afternoon and watch Taryn Manning, you can either stream Orange Is the New Black on Netfix, or you can see her in the fesh, spinning at Palms Pool. If by chance you hoped to see musician Ryan Cabrera DJ as well, you’re in luck! (At the Palms, noon, Palms.com.) Swing by Big Dog’s Brewery for the reggae-tinged Summer Beer Fest. Pay-as-you-go to sample more than 40 international beers, including the grand dame: Big Dog’s own Summer Peach. (4543 N. Rancho Dr., 6 p.m., BigDogsBrews. com.) Oakland native (or, as Buzzfeed describes him, “your girl’s new favorite

Have you missed Trance champion Dash Berlin since he rocked EDC and Boulevard Pool last month? He’s back in action tonight at Marquee.

(In the Cosmopolitan, 10 p.m., MarqueeLasVegas.com.) At XS, dubstep’s mainstream man Skrillex works the decks. Like a couple of aforementioned entertainers, Skrillex will return for Life Is Beautiful in the fall. (In Encore, 10:30 p.m., XSLasVegas.com.)

Hook N Sling.

TUE 22 Do you fnd yourself pining for childhood? Do you also long for pints of beer? Enter Drink n’ Draw at The Beat, where tables are covered in white paper and you’re provided with art supplies to let your imagination run while enjoying live music and drink specials. (520 Fremont St., 7 p.m., Facebook.com/DWNTWNDND.) Then fy your way to 1 Oak for Turbulence Tuesday.

DJ Turbulence pilots the booth at the aviation-themed industry night. (In The Mirage, 10:30 p.m., 1OakLasVegas.com.)

WED 23 Let local outft The Funk Jam ease your fever for fusion tunes at Brooklyn Bowl. Their four-night residency wraps up July 30. (At the Linq, 10 p.m., Vegas.BrooklynBowl.com.) At Commonwealth, video vixen and DJ Wendicakes mans the booth. (525 Fremont St., 10 p.m., CommonwealthLV.com.)

Did you go to bartending school?

No. What’s the greatest thing about bartending?

When I was single, it was all the numbers I got.

But now, it’s that [the work] comes easy. It feels like I’m part of the party.

What’s the worst?

The hours are crazy; sometimes I go all day, nonstop. Then it’s time for inventory ...

What about bartending in Las Vegas is unique?

People are always up for going out. It doesn’t matter if it’s 1 p.m. or 1 a.m., they’re drinking.

And not just drinking— they’re drinking.

Hey, Bartender!

July 17–23, 2014

A longtime slinger dishes on how best to get his attention (and how to lose it), and what trick actually does get you a little more booze for your bills

VEGAS SEVEN

42

By Laurel May Bond YOU’VE GOT YOUR STRIPED DRESS SHIRT ON. (Or, if you’re a female, likely something tiny. And snug.) You’re clutching a credit card, or maybe a sweaty wad of bills, and now there’s nothing but three feet of polished lumber standing between you and a hard-earned buzz. That and the person standing on the other side, that is. Now, there are times when the services of a mixologist/bar chef/intoxicologist are required, and there are nights when all that’s needed is a tender of the bar. For nearly a decade, 33-yearold Chris Zantua has been slinging drinks all over this Valley. Here, he steps away from his soda gun at Rehab and quenches our thirst on all things bar basic.

When the bar is six-deep, what’s the best way to get your attention?

Eye contact and patience work best. I can see you’re there, man, trust me. Yelling and waving money around makes me angry and is just plain rude. When you come to my bar, address me like a person, I’m not your assistant that you can talk down to. Be polite and respectful. If you can do that, I’ll make sure you have the best experience.

Describe the busy bartender’s ideal customer.

[The customer] should know exactly what he wants, order a common drink like vodka soda, or rum and coke, have payment ready, and leave a tip—at least a dollar per drink. The transaction should be quick and seamless!

And the worst?

The worst customer is broke, doesn’t know what he or she wants, and asks thousands of questions. Like the song says, “If you ain’t got no money, take your broke ass home!” Please don’t

ask vague questions like, “What do you have?” Be specifc: “What vodkas do you carry?” Also, order everything at once—ordering drinks one at a time will get you on the shit list. Don’t ask about prices; doing so will only make the bartender think you are cheap. If you want to get hooked up with a strong drink, you have to hook me up with a strong tip.

If I shamelessly firt with you, will it get me a heavier pour?

Nope. I hear it all the time.

While we’re on the subject of firting, what’s the best way to pick up a bartender?

Run into them at the gym.

What’s the craziest day of the year in Vegas to be on your side of the bar?

Memorial Day was a jungle.

What about fair— can you juggle?

I think I’m better than I am. I’ve defnitely dropped my fair share of bottles.

What drinks are the biggest pain in the ass to make?

Old Fashioneds and mojitos—I hate muddling.

Reveal a bartending secret.

Less ice doesn’t mean more liquor. Also, never order doubles, order on the rocks.

It’s a better deal.

What’s your personal hangover cure?

Two shots of pickle juice in the morning.

Was the recent lime shortage particularly trying for you?

Lime shortage? What lime shortage? By the way, the most underrated garnish is the olive.

Try putting a few in your Jack Daniel’s.

Let Zantua make you a drink; he’s behind the stick Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Rehab Pool at the Hard Rock Hotel.

PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA

NIGHTLIFE

How did you get into the biz?

I worked my way up from a server to bartender in a restaurant in Summerlin.

NIGHTLIFE

PARTIES

TAO

The Venetian [ UPCOMING ]

VEGAS SEVEN

48

See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com

PHOTOS BY TOBY ACUNA AND JOE FURY

July 17–23, 2014

July 17 DJ Five spins July 18 Breathe Carolina and Candyland spin July 19 Justin Credible spins

NIGHTLIFE

PARTIES

MARQUEE DAYCLUB The Cosmopolitan [ UPCOMING ]

VEGAS SEVEN

54

See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com

PHOTOS BY JOE FURY AND JOSH METZ

July 17–23, 2014

July 25 Steve Castro spins July 26 Gareth Emery spins July 27 Vice spins

$ $$

One App â&#x20AC;˘ All Nightlife PartyPetition.com | @PartyPetition

DINING

“Never ones to pass up an opportunity to go all out, Las Vegas chefs are cranking out rare and exotic pasta shapes that will make you sit up and take notice.” {PAGE 64}

Restaurant reviews, Dining news and sushi (fnally!) comes to Downtown

Simon to the Rescue

Carson Kitchen gives Downtown dining exactly what it has so desperately needed

By Al Mancini

61 VEGAS SEVEN

PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR

The crispy chicken skins are usually the first things to sell out at Carson Kitchen.

July 17–23, 2014

LEAVE IT TO KERRY SIMON TO

give Downtown Las Vegas its frst true dining destination—a restaurant that justifes a trip Downtown just to sample its cuisine. Despite a few problems during its soft opening, his newest restaurant, Carson Kitchen, already has local foodies buzzing, and rightfully so.

Simon became a trendsetter by abandoning fne dining for more casual fare more than a decade ago. Long before every celebrity chef in the land was clamoring to open a casual restaurant, Simon was applying his gourmet skills to approachable dishes, such as his signature meatloaf. Now, even as he battles an aggressive form of Parkinson’s disease known as multiple systems atrophy, he’s shaking up the dining world once again by peppering otherwise familiar dishes with gourmet touches and exotic details. The result is the most exciting menu we’ve seen from the chef in years.

Take, for example, his veal meatballs, liberally coated with a rich and earthy sherry foie gras cream worthy of any Michelin-starred restaurant.

And by serving his wonderfully spiced rabbit ragu not over pasta but spaghetti squash, diners get the feel of al dente pasta, but with a lighter, healthier snap.

Don’t be fooled by the description of the gyro tacos.

These grilled fatbreads aren’t flled with the densely packed meat you’ll fnd roasting on a spit in your typical Greek restaurant. Instead, the chef uses fresh, mildly spiced ground lamb, complemented by tzatziki sauce, cucumber and tomatoes.

The beef Wellington offered in a moist faky empanada crust just might give Gordon Ramsay’s famed Wellington a run for its money (at a drastically lower price point). And even a humble turkey burger is elevated with Jamaican jerk spice and mango-chutney slaw.

What may become the restaurant’s signature dishes are at once the simplest and most complex items on the menu.

Fried chicken skins may not

DINING

Al’s

Carson Kitchen’s cooking space is tiny but efficient.

Menu Picks Crispy chicken skins ($6), bacon jam ($12), gyro tacos ($10), rabbit ragu ($12).

seem like a delicacy. But by brining the skin overnight, then lightly seasoning and frying them to crispy perfection, Simon has created an overnight sensation. While they’re accompanied by smoked honey, they stand up just fne on their own and sell out almost nightly.

Then there’s the warm bacon jam, topped with melted brie cheese and served with toasted baguette. This is a dish that presents itself gradually, hitting you frst with its sugary sweetness. Then, one by one, other favors emerge: garlic, vinegar, salty bacon and fnally hot chili peppers that provide a nice spicy bite that stops just short of overpowering the palate.

Given its newness, it’s not surprising Carson Kitchen still has some bugs to work out. On my frst visit, the fll-

ing of the popular Devil’s Eggs (topped with tobiko caviar and crispy pancetta) was watery. Simon’s partner, Cory Harwell, who had been chatting with me while I ate, acknowledged it was poorly executed, and when I returned a few days later the problem had been corrected. Unfortunately, that evening an order of black rice and oxtail risotto was so incredibly bland nobody in my party would eat it—much to Harwell’s horror. Perhaps because of hiccups like these, the menu was recently streamlined, although both of those dishes remain.

While Simon has long been known for his whimsical takes on our favorite childhood sweets, I would avoid the Not Your Father’s Twinkies, which were a soggy mess when I sampled them. Opt instead for the wonderful union of salty and sweet in a bourbon fudge brownie with brown-butter bacon ice cream or the glazed-donut bread pudding made with leftovers from the neighboring O Face Donuts, which, like Carson Kitchen, opens onto Carson Street—a

much grittier locale than the tourist and hipster-packed stretch of Fremont Street a block to the north.

Carson Kitchen is currently only taking reservations for parties of six or more, so you might have to put your name on the wait list. (Note that they don’t call you; you call them to fnd out if your table is ready.) The bar and communal dining tables in the 60-seat space can feel a little cramped, but that just gives it a legit urban vibe, as does the rooftop dining patio and bar, which are now open, adding 40 more seats. With Carson Kitchen, Kerry Simon is once again changing the local dining landscape. Let’s hope it inspires more top chefs to get creative Downtown.

CARSON KITCHEN

124 S. Sixth St., 702-473-9523.

Open daily for lunch and dinner, 11 a.m.–11 p.m. daily. Dinner for two, $50-$125.

[ A SMALL BITE ]

AT LONG LAST: SUSHI DOWNTOWN!

Opening a sushi restaurant Downtown has been on Le Thai owner Dan

Coughlin’s to-do list for some time, especially since there is no other sushi in the area. “Honestly, when we bought Le Thai, I thought it would be the perfect space for sushi,” he says. Not far off the mark, Coughlin will open Bocho (Japanese for “knife”) in the repurposed John E. Carson hotel this fall with Jimmy and Becky Chun, former owners of Tokyo Japanese restaurant near Maryland Parkway. “It is going to be their show,” Coughlin says. “They will be the day-to-day operators.” ¶ The July 17–23, 2014

two-story, 2,300-square-foot Bocho will be a traditional Japanese restaurant with standard seating upstairs and an 18-seat

VEGAS SEVEN

62

sushi bar downstairs. The Chuns will offer 10 to 12 rolls, as well as sashimi and appetizers. “We’re trying not to overthink it,” Coughlin says. “If you like sashimi, you will probably like this spot.” ¶ Coughlin also plans to offer sake, soju and rare Japanese whiskeys. Guests will be able to purchase bottles and have a whiskey locker for storage in case they don’t finish—a typical feature of Japanese whiskey bars. He is considering a private karaoke room, as well. “At first we thought we should just have a karaoke stage,” Coughlin says, “but that can get kind of annoying, hearing someone dying.” - Jessie O’Brien

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.

There are only a few moments I can pinpoint where I knew my life had transformed: The night after my first shift as a cook in college; when I met my dog at the shelter; seeing Underworld perform “Born Slippy” live for the first time. Christian Dolias of Desnudo Tacos has promised me seven more such moments on July 27 during his seven-course pop-up titled Unbreakable, which he insists “will change your fucking life” (6 p.m., $65 per person, 3240 S. Arville St., 702-982-6435). High expectations notwithstanding, Dolias is one of the edgiest chefs in town. He’s been banging out SoCal-inspired Mexican food at Desnudo, so it will be cool to see him unleash the fury for an evening. The menu has been revealed in bits and pieces, including surf-and-turf carpaccio, Bloody Mary clams and chorizo, and foie-gras tiramisu, with more to come, all undoubtedly exciting and fun. Will this meal actually inspire you to take on a new career path, accept responsibility for another living thing, or discover the song of your soul? We’ll see.

Sometimes life changes, and sometimes it just chugs along to a new location, as is the case with the new Charcoal Room in Palace Station (702-221-6678). The original Charcoal Room in Santa Fe Station, a classic neighborhood steakhouse, has long been a hit among locals. The Palace Station outpost, closer to the Strip, is housed in a more contemporary dining room, but features the same high-quality cuts of beef and has added the massive Seafood Jumbo Jackpot, a platter chock-full of crustaceans on ice. So now even visitors don’t have to venture too far off the Strip to get a steak the locals love.

At a steakhouse, a good knife is everything—well, everything after a good piece of meat. And Strip House (Planet Hollywood, 702-737-5200, StripHouse. com) has its meats down, thanks to the Pat LaFrieda beef adorning its plates. Now, the seductive steak joint has announced a partnership with Schmidt Brothers Cutlery to produce custom knives for the restaurant’s New York and Las Vegas locations, as well as retail sets that come in an attractive red-oak box—a great gift for knife nerds, from pro chefs to home cooks.

The Strip House piece features a five-inch, 100 percent German stainless-steel blade with a patented, curved Schmidt Brothers bolster and black ash-wood handle, and it cuts like a dream. Or like a knife through a well-marbled piece of steak.

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

A POTENTIALLY LIFECHANGING POP-UP AND SOME KNIFE PLAY

DINING

SCENE

Shape Up The unsung pastas of Las Vegas’ kitchens

By Al Mancini

VEGAS SEVEN

64

Strozapretti (“priest strangler”) pasta at the Blind Pig.

STROZAPRETTI

SACHETTI

PICI

RIPATELLI

BUCATINI CORTI

(“priest strangler”)

(“beggar’s purse”)

(thick and hand-rolled)

(hand-torn)

(hollow and short)

There are numerous stories about how this pasta got its name, but the most popular involves priests devouring it so quickly that they choked.

It’s a hand-rolled, twisted pasta reminiscent of a larger cavatelli. At the Blind Pig it comes in a tomato sugo (sauce) with roasted peppers, olives and sweet sausage. 4515 Dean Martin Dr., 702-430-4444.

These stuffed pastas are called beggar’s purses because they resemble little purses or sacks tied off at the top. At Rao’s, Madyun stuffs them with Parmesan, ricotta and pears, and serves with a brown-butter and sage sauce. Their subtle sweetness will make you forget all about their distant cousins, the humble ravioli. In Caesars Palace, 702-731-7267.

Pici may look sort of like a fat spaghetti. But Scott Conant clearly understands the difference. The celebrity chef who is known for his simple spaghetti preparation at his Las Vegas restaurant, Scarpetta, gives this noodle the royal treatment, preparing it with lobster, tarragon, almond and chili pesto. In the Cosmopolitan, 702-698-7960.

At Portofino, executive chef Michael LaPlaca rolls out his house-made dough into a flat sheet as if he was laying it out for a lasagna. He then tears it by hand into strips of different shapes and sizes, no two of which are the same.

He prepares the pasta with sausage and peppers, broccoli rabe and pesto. In The Mirage, 866-339-4566.

Bucatini is a thicker, hollow take on spaghetti that you’ll find in numerous restaurants across the Valley. At Ferraro’s, Mimmo cuts them down to about an inch or two, so he adds the word “corti,” which means “short.” He offers it Amatriciana style, with pancetta, red onions, tomatoes and cheese. 4480 Paradise Rd., 702-364-5300.

STROZAPRETTI PHOTO BY BRYAN HAINER; PASTA PHOTOS BY CIERRA PEDRO

July 17–23, 2014

SPAGHETTI, LINGUINI, ZITI—YAWN. Never ones to pass up an opportunity to go all out, Las Vegas chefs are cranking out rare and exotic pasta shapes that will make you sit up and take notice.

According to Mimmo Ferraro, executive chef at Ferraro’s Italian Restaurant, there are hundreds of types of pastas in Italian cooking alone. “You can take one cut like a piccolini and cut it a little longer and call it something else, make it a little longer and call it something else, until you get all the way up to a bucatini,” he says.

The good news is that the unfamiliar names you see on a menu almost always refer simply to the shape of the pasta. (Exotic ingredients such as squid ink may occasionally be added, but those are almost always spelled out right next to the shape.) The reason there are so many shapes is because some work better with different sauces and preparations than others.

“We like to use a longer noodle with a heartier dish, something that [the sauce] clings to,” says Fatimah Madyun, chef de cuisine at Rao’s in Caesars Palace. “We’d use a shell for a Bolognese, the smaller pastas for soups, and the thicker fat pastas for a medium-to-thick pasta sauce—something you can throw into it and really showcase the pasta itself.”

So the next time you see unfamiliar pasta on a menu, don’t be intimidated. If you like a restaurant’s other pasta, and the preparation sounds good, chances are good you’ll like it.

For those who want to start exploring the many shapes of pastas, here are some places to start.

DRINKING

July 17–23, 2014

Despite the current breadth and depth of our city’s bar scene, a few gaps do exist. One of those recently filled was the need for an intimate place to enjoy a cocktail or glass of wine, share some conversation and a little nosh, and maybe catch some live entertainment. No smoking, no gaming, no velvet ropes—just a little much needed simple sophistication.

The new spot for that is Scullery in the Ogden, and it’s quietly creeping to the top of the charts as Downtown’s new favorite spot for starting a night off, wrapping it up or everything in between.

Although wine and beer provide the backbone of the menu here, a handful of interesting cocktails complement the artisan charcuterie boards, such as the aptly named Sixth & Ogden ($11), which combines Imbue’s Petal & Thorn domestic brandy-based vermouth from Oregon with Maurin Quina, a French liqueur of wild cherries and quinine, and 2005 Gerard Bertrand Banyuls, a French aperitif.

The powerfully sweet, savory and complex mixture of three fortifed wines is served with an orange peel over crushed ice in a snifter, which allows for ample dilution.

It also doesn’t hurt that the name reminds you where you are. Get the recipe for the Sixth & Ogden at VegasSeven.com/ CocktailCulture.

65 VEGAS SEVEN

PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR

That’s the Spot

A&E

“This is a stereotype,” says Whitney Cummings, “but in my experience, being a female comedian you have to be tough. It’s a tough job.” STAGE {PAGE 70}

Strip and Polish With big engines, fne patinas and one nerdy stripper, Vegas Rat Rods is peeling out

By Jason Scavone

THE MODEL A WAS BUILT TO LAST, sure. But the best intentions of history can only go so far when you’re up against a Ferrari 458 throwing off 550 horses of unadulterated Italian lust made of aluminum, steel and Continental scorn. But one man’s trash is another man’s blown-out, customized, Hemi-sporting terror on wheels. Enter the rat rod.

“This car makes 1,000 horsepower, it looks like shit and it will fuck your day up,” Steve Darnell says.

July 17–23, 2014

Will Vegas Rat Rods’ Steve Darnell (center) lead “apprentice” Twiggy Tallant and his crew to global reality show domination?

67 VEGAS SEVEN

PHOTO COURTESY OF DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS; CUMMINGS BY MICHAEL MULLER/E! ENTERTAINMENT

Movies, music, art and some very, very pricey spinach

VEGAS SEVEN

68

In a reality genre that already saw huge successes with extreme carmodding shows (Pimp My Ride) and a city that proved it was a killer location for that sort of thing (Counting Cars), Discovery Channel’s Vegas Rat Rods was inevitable.

Darnell, 42, has been making rat rods since ’06, when the economy crumbled and his welding production business took a downturn. He started working on a 1928 Dodge Bros. sedan, adding a hulking six-cylinder Cummins diesel engine.

His work takes the distressed aesthetic common to rat rods—patina plays better than polished chrome and buffed-out wax—and layers in a playful, punk ethos. Like the ’32 Ford truck he did that’s upholstered with cowboy boots and rope, with a shotgun barrel for a stick shift and toilet seats on the buckets. But the chassis is still dinged, and the driver’s-side door creaks when you open it. It’s satisfying. It makes you feel like your grandfather outran Johnny Law in this thing.

“I’m a native of Las Vegas. I grew up in the construction world, but I spent time in Montana around farm equipment, ranches. You walk around and see all the old cars and shit people are throwing away. You mix it up with hot rods and machinery, and it just kind of makes sense,” Darnell says.

That Darnell wound up where he did was damn near genetic: His father owned a steel company, and his mother was an interior decorator. Those in-the-blood rat rod instincts were strong enough that multiple production companies were sniffng around the shop before he agreed to do the

show with Canadian outft Proper Television, which also handles the we-should-probably-apologize-for-it export Storage Wars Canada.

They started shooting in March 2013, running six months full of 18-hour days to get eight cars done while the guys in the garage tried to navigate around a camera crew. The results were solid, if not Pawn Stars levels: No. 29 overall the night of its May 19 premiere with about 877,000 viewers. (Just behind

pointed, but I wish they showed a little more of what we were doing on the detail side,” Welderup fabricator and artist Travis Deeter says.

Which is fair—seeing the cars up close in Darnell’s garage is a world apart from the quick looks you get on the show. The Electric Rod especially— a ’28 Buick that looks like it was built

by Al Capone’s personal mad scientist—is stunning up close. The paddedwall upholstery could’ve come out

“YOU MIX UP [OLD CARS] WITH HOT RODS AND MACHINERY, AND IT JUST KIND OF MAKES SENSE.” – Steve Darnell ESPN’s broadcast of the Indians-Tigers game, but well ahead of the critically acclaimed Louie on FX.) The template for these work-related reality shows feels well lived-in at this point: the shop segments, the talkinghead segments, the customer segments, the wacky adventure segments.

Rat Rods does a decent job of offering something different in the latter, with Darnell going to “pick sites” in places like Pahrump, where he combs through junkyards for parts and gets stared down by you-ain’t-from’round-here central-casting locals.

“I thought we were going to see more of the builds. I wasn’t disap-

of a Prohibition-era asylum, and the electric-chair seats are Alice Cooper’s wet dream. That Eli Roth didn’t drive a car like that to the Goretorium every day may explain why it closed. But the point is, if you’re tuning in for pure car porn, you might be disappointed.

Then there’s Rat Rods’ other curveball, Twiggy Tallant, the twentysomething Torontonian who already had a sizeable social media following as the Nerdy Stripper. She was brought on the show as an apprentice, but the show flms her entrance to the garage like she’s parading in front of a room full of Looney Tunes wolves, with the ahhh-yooga eyes and the drop-jawed

red-carpet tongues. It’s rather vague how pure Proper’s intentions were when they cast her on the show, but it wouldn’t be surprising if whatever reality Svengalis were paying attention tried to one day set her up as the Kat Von D of cars.

“In the middle of building these cars, I was training her. It was crazy,” Deeter says. “The hard part is, what we’re doing, there’s nothing repetitive about it. It’s this particular car that has this chassis. Everything on it was made from here to here.”

Discovery only aired the frst fve of eight episodes that Proper Television flmed in the United States, though the entire frst season was broadcast in Canada (as Strip ’n’ Rip), the United Kingdom (as Sin City Motors) and in Australia.

It led to some confusion among fans, but Darnell thinks that Discovery might be holding back the last three episodes to tack onto another eightepisode order for a second season.

Nothing is defnite for another run yet, but he’s hopeful.

“We’re in negotiation. I’m pretty confdent it’s going to happen. We want to do another year. I think it’s going to take me another year before I start seeing any money,” he says.

“We’ve had lots of good reviews. Of course you get haters, but haters are watching. I’m OK with that.”

VEGAS RAT RODS

Various times on Discovery channel, Discovery.com/tv-shows/ vegas-rat-rods.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS

July 17–23, 2014

A&E

Transformed from blight to might: Darnell’s rat rods, including the ’32 Ford truck (far right).

CHEVELLE PLAYED AN OLD-FASHIONED KICK-ASS ROCK SHOW The Joint at the Hard Rock, July 12 In an audioscape infiltrated by electronic music and Auto-Tune, it’s rare to hear a band that delivers the quality of its albums during a live show. But the trio of Chevelle more than delivered. Brothers Pete and Sam Loeffler along with Dean Bernardini commanded the stage, sounding just as pristine and on point as any record in their 20-plus-year career. Any fan would have been delighted as they rocked out, playing favorites such as “Send the Pain Below,” “The Clincher,” “I Get It,” “The Red” and, of course, “Hats Off to the Bull.” The band’s newest album, La Gárgola, released in April, also received a fair amount of play with tracks such as “An Island” and “Take Out the Gunman” for a well-rounded balance of enticing,

July 17–23, 2014

legit solid rock tunes. ★★★★✩ – Deanna Rilling

VEGAS SEVEN

70

HEY LADY Reviews of Lady Gaga’s current tour, artRave: The ARTPOP Ball, have been mixed (not enough songs from Born This Way?), but none of that matters to Gaga fans, who are excited about her upcoming album of jazz standards with Tony Bennett. Gaga returns to the MGM Grand Garden Arena on July 19 ($38-$203).

PARTY LIKE IT’S 1994 Do you know where you were on March 8, 1994? Fans were queuing up for new releases by Nine Inch Nails (The Downward Spiral) and Soundgarden (Superunknown). Now, the bands have teamed up for a co-headlining summer tour, which hits Axis at Planet Hollywood on July 19 ($80-$125).

Laugh-OutLoud Ladies WHITNEY CUMMINGS knows what ladies want from a night out: “We love getting together to shit on our men and maybe get roofed.”

Fair enough.

Cummings recently announced the launch of the Venetian’s comedy series Lipshtick, a 14week, 14-comic showcase of all women—a rarity for big, mainstream rooms ($52.25 and up).

“For the most part, I don’t love drawing attention to female comedians being different. ... We’re just comedians. Let’s just stop differentiating. But when it comes to employing them on a regular basis and giving female audiences a consistent place to go to see comedy that speaks to them, I support that a lot.”

The frst date for Lipshtick went to talk-show host Wendy Williams. (“Her boobs take up most of her torso,” Cummings says; you can read our thoughts on her performance on Page 73.) Heather McDonald (“We call her long boobs [on Chelsea Lately],” Cummings deadpanned) and Iliza Shlesinger (“Awesome boobs”) co-headline July 18-19.

Longtime Venetian headliner Rita Rudner returns July 25-26. Veterans Caroline Rhea (“Her boobs are more … viscous.”) and Wendy Liebman are August 1-2. Pearl headliner Lisa Lampanelli (pictured) shifts from the Palms for dates August 8-9, October 3-4 and December 26-27. Cummings does her turn August 15-16 and November 28-29; former host of The View Joy Behar comes in August 2223; and Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Susie Essman is September 5-6.

Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie)) and Loni Love (who’s appearing in the Vegas-based Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2)) round out the list September 19-20 and October 10-11, respectively. If you’re looking to see two killer alt-comics in one shot, go September 12-13, when Natasha Leggero and Jen Kirkman split the bill.

“This is a stereotype, but in my experience, being a female comedian you have to be tough.

It’s a tough job,” Cummings says.

“Natasha is kind of the opposite.

She’s very dainty and fragile. Very feminine, whatever that word means these days. She’s got this ’20s movie-star vibe going. She’s very above it all. It’s really fun to watch.” – Jason Scavone

ON SALE NOW I’m well aware the Strokes may never recapture the perfection of Is This It, but rather than penalizing subsequent albums for not living up to that brilliant debut, I’ve learned to enjoy their current work. Call it fate, call it karma. The Strokes will light up the Chelsea on August 20 ($75-$125).

CHEVELLE BY ERIK K ABIK/RETNA

A&E

CONCERT

(LOCAL) ALBUM REVIEWS

The

HIT LIST

By Jarret Keene

TARGETING THIS WEEK'S MOST-WANTED EVENTS

By Camille Cannon

POWER POP

ROCKABILLY

SHOEGAZE

Rob Lyons

The Royal Hounds

Meade Ave.

Lyons cut his rock ’n’ roll eyeteeth playing in Seattle bands before landing the Carl Perkins role in Million Dollar Quartet at Harrah’s. In his spare time, the blue-suedehead wrote and recorded an exceptionally strong batch of guitar-basted yet eclectic alt-rock songs. From midtempo grunge ballad “Not Like Another” to Foo Fightersesque, barn-scorching riff monster “What Does That Say,” Lyons proves his versatility as a singer, songwriter and guitarist. Harmonica-blowing, blues-stomping instrumental “Lung Machine” is a welcome surprise, as is slick, Bakersfield-style, countryrockin’ “As I Fall Below.” ★★★✩✩

(Self-released) Singer and stand-up bassist Scott Hinds is another Strip musician (understudying as Perkins in Million Dollar Quartet) who moonlights as an underground Vegas rocker. Hinds fronts greaser-punk trio Royal Hounds, which recently played a spate of wellreceived shows at Gold Spike. Hinds is a consummate instrument-humping, crowd-pleasing performer, and his songs are tight, too. Sax-enhanced, garage-blasting rave-up “Stick’A Dynamite” pops. “D-Bag DJ,” dedicated to girlfriend-robbing EDM assholes, rips and swings. Hinds’ band won’t be a hidden gem for long. ★★★✩✩

(Self-released) Comprised of a trio of hotel-casino chefs with superb taste in alt-rock (band members share love for Catherine Wheel and Hum), Meade Ave. crafts big, open-chorded songs in the old Manchester-era way.

“Wide Eyed” wields a walloping hook in the chorus, while “Nothing to Save” rescues the kind of inventive guitar-scraping that nearly died with long-ago Brit-pop groups such as Ride. But it’s “The Silver Chord,” with its jangly and jittery riffs, that gleams like the most precious metal. ★★★✩✩

When It Haunts You (Self-released)

I’m in Love With a Zombie

The Silver Chord EP

JAILHOUSE ART Decades ago, Angel Delgado was put in the slammer for performance art. Now the Cuban native and current Las Vegas local’s exhibit, Constancy, revisits his imprisonment with pieces made from soap blocks and scrap material. On July 17, he’ll wrap up its run at Amanda Harris Gallery with a video reel of his past work … the type of stuff he did time for.

AmandaHarrisGallery.com.

FROM BLOOMS TO GREENS Seems like just yesterday that the Wynn acquired Jeff Koons’ three-ton paean to metallic balloon flowers, “Tulips.” But it was actually back in 2012. Apparently, like cellphone contracts, Steve

Wynn is following the new-every-two rule for Koons sculptures. This time it’s a $28.2 million “Popeye,” and it’s even shinier than the iPhone 6. – Cindi Moon Reed

THE DARK KNIGHT’S DAY Diehard fans don't need an excuse to rock a cape, but for the rest of us, there’s Batman Day. Marking the 75th anniversary of his DC debut, stores nationwide celebrate July 23 with limited releases, giveaways and games.

Score swag locally at the Barnes & Noble on 2191 N. Rainbow Blvd. (BarnesAndNoble.com) and Cosmic Comics (CosmicComics.com).

71 VEGAS SEVEN

POPEYE BY BARBARA KRAFT

GALS ’N’ GUNS Absinthe siren Melody Sweets leads the Shoot ’Em Up! Bang! Bang! Wild Wild West Burlesque Show and music video premiere on July 22. With help from her co-stars, a champion trick roper, a married crossbow stunt team and burlesque babes, she’ll raise funds for AFAN and the Burlesque Hall of Fame. If you still need convincing: the Gazillionaire and Penny Pibbets will appear as Cowboy Summerlin Sam and “trusty steed,” Phallus. MelodySweets.com.

July 17–23, 2014

BACK FOR MORE After winning Best of Fringe at this year’s Las Vegas Fringe Festival, the comedy play Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche returns for encores at Las Vegas Little Theatre July 18-27. So, what’s it about? A 1956 quiche bakeoff where the women keep more than their recipes a secret. Well, they try to keep it a secret. LVLT.org.

MUSIC

Clairy Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes play the Cosmopolitan July 17-19.

BRIGHT LIKE A SUPER DIAMOND THE SUMMER FIREWORKS stands may be shuttered and gone, but the live-music options this week are pure dynamite.

Melbourne, Australia, old schoolsoul nonet (that means nine-piece band) Clairy Browne & the Bangin’ Rackettes will create a joyous clatter in the Cosmopolitan’s Chandelier bar for a complimentary (that means free-to-attend) three-night residency, July 17-19. Browne and her musical mates release a brand-new EP this week called Love Cliques, and for the last few days I’ve been jivestrutting around my house while continually spinning the bottom-heavy, hard-grooving track “Jenny.” Fans of Adele and the late Amy Winehouse are going to love this show. This is feelgood music with a gritty edge performed in the swankiest casino bar on the Strip. The band plays three sets nightly, starting at 8 p.m.

Sheffeld, England, indie rockers the Crookes creep into Container Park for a free concert at 7 p.m. July 19.

The band is touring in support of its recently released third album, Soapbox, recorded in a church in the mountains of Italy. Some truly great tunes on this disc, especially the singles “Play Dumb” and “Don’t Put Your Faith in Me,” which somehow split the sonic difference between the Walkmen and Franz Ferdinand. In other words, the Crookes at once convey atmospheric balladry and straight-up dance-rock. An ideal band for the Downtown crowd. Also on the bill: San Francisco soul-rockers the Soft White Sixties and L.A. neo-soul outft Caught a Ghost.

Not a fan of tribute acts, but I’ll make the rare exception for San

Francisco-spawned Super Diamond, a Neil Diamond soundalike group that really nails, with surprising rock ’n’ roll ferocity and focus, nearly all of the Solitary Man’s deathless hits— “Sweet Caroline,” “America,” “Cherry Cherry.” Heck, it’s not every tribute group that gets to play Late Night With David Letterman! And everybody knows Diamond remains cooler than any indie band from Brooklyn. Rather bizarrely, to my mind anyway, Super Diamond plays jam-band haven Brooklyn Bowl at 9 p.m. July 19. But I bet “Cracklin’ Rosie” will sound amazing over the cracking of bowling pins.

Finally, Alabamaborn, kabukimasked Daikaiju returns to Las Vegas, bringing their giant monster-inspired surfrock instrumentals to the Dive Bar at 10 p.m. July 22. Indeed, the hardestworking band in monster-themed music arrives midway through a two-month summer tour, which means they’ll be sharp and not totally exhausted. In case you haven’t heard them, you should know Daikaiju— whose members include Rockman (guitar), Rumble-man (bass), Hands-man (drums) and Secret-man (guitar)—specializes in reverbdrenched, sci-f, psychedelic-tinged, prog-rockin’ epics that are way wilder than any outdoor EDM carnival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. So if you enjoy watching kaiju (giant monster) movies like Pacifc Rim and the recent Godzilla remake, here is the soundtrack of your cinematic dreams.

Your Vegas band releasing a CD soon?

Email Jarret_Keene@Yahoo.com.

PHOTO BY JO DUCK

A multifaceted Chandelier residency and one sweet tribute act shine this week

STAGE

SOME KIND OF WENDY-FUL

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VENETIAN

Williams makes uneven stand-up debut “BOMB-PROOF” (ADJECTIVE): That state of being for performers in which they belch and receive a standing ovation.

While awaiting a decision from Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary on that submission, let’s discuss its inspiration: Wendy Williams at the Venetian.

Yes, the involuntary gas release after a Champagne sip brought some Wendy worshippers to their feet at the daytime gabber’s one-night, frst-ever stand-up comedy turn. Promoted largely as a stunt—a bone for her fans, a lark for her—the appearance could double as a test run for a secondary career, one that wouldn’t be a stretch for the ex-shock jock.

Booking the sassy Williams as the opening salvo in the new Lipshtick series of female comics— with her fan base guaranteeing a sold-out house at least for a night—was a savvy move whether she soared or sank. (See Page 70 for our preview of the full lineup.) Viewed objectively—i.e., not by her belchapplauding admirers—she didn’t land in either category, falling somewhere between funny and self-indulgent.

More stream-of-consciousness storytelling than structured standup, Williams’ set showcased her wigwhipping boisterousness, streaked with talk show-no-no cuss words (“motherfucker” was a favorite) and tales that swung from her “fatshamed” childhood to brassy adulthood. Occasionally stopping, backtracking or skipping ahead of herself, Williams had a sometimes disjointed delivery that could be distracting, but also had a kind of shaggy-dog charm.

“I’m a nice black girl with a lot of issues,” she said before insisting that her under-21 life was rife with emotional pain. “We can either wallow in it and jump off a bridge, or turn it into funny shit. Well, I ain’t jumping.”

Some family stories were G-rated amusing—say, about her mom’s thriftiness, when she would counsel young Wendy while grocery shopping to pluck the cherry stems so they would weigh less, allowing more cherries for the dollar. Others, not so much—say, wiping the “soupy” bowel evacuation off her newly dead grandmother’s body before the paramedics showed up.

Much time was spent on being a high school outsider, skipping prom, not dating, comparing unfavorably to her siblings and her weight miseries, of which her mom and dad rarely missed an opportunity to remind her.

“I had to get away from those people we call family,” she said, but while the stories got yuks, there was an undercurrent of bitterness that almost created laughguilt for the audience.

As for recounting her frst oral encounter with an uncircumcised schlong—replete with tastes, smells and “turtleneck” jokes—it was more than I ever cared to learn about a mainstream TV personality. Also, it was funny—though maybe not to gents who never underwent the genital trim.

Packaged on Broadway, Williams’ life travelogue would qualify as one-woman-show stuff. If her Vegas stopover winds up as an out-of-town tryout, it’s got a solid arc—from emotionally scarred child to media queen grownup—that could be molded into a funnypoignant narrative. If it’s toe-dipping into the stand-up pool, it needs discipline, timing and better camoufaging of her lingering resentments.

And if it was a one-time kick? Nothing wrong with a night of shits and giggles and belches.

Got an entertainment tip? Email Steve.Bornfeld@VegasSeven.com.

A&E

MOVIES

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY SHOOT This Planet of the Apes sequel might be a summer blockbuster, but it aims for something more

By Michael Phillips Tribune Media Services

THREE SUMMERS AGO Rise of the Planet of the

Apes proved it’s possible to reboot a franchise while avoiding that sinking feeling of movie capitalism at its dumbest.

Now, in a disappointing July dominated with a shrug provided by Transformers: Age of Extinction, the follow-up Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has arrived. Just in time. The nation’s multiplexes need a solid hit to save face and lend the impression that all’s right with business practices in Hollywood.

Whatever audiences think of it, I’d say the latest Apes picture is just that: a solid success, sharing many of its predecessor’s swift, exciting storytelling and motion-capture technology virtues, while going its own way in the ongoing tale of life on Earth after a human-made “simian fu” virus has wiped out most of the homo sapiens as well as the simian population.

The director this time is Matt Reeves, no stranger to fantasy; he made Cloverfeld and the American remake of the vampire thriller Let the Right One In titled Let Me In. The war between the ravaged species in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has driven the surviving ape colony led by proud, diplomatic Caesar (Andy Serkis) to the redwoods

north of San Francisco. “Ape not kill ape” is the principle of this clan, and the system works: They’re alive.

But not alone. One day in the forest (the movie was shot mostly in British Columbia) the apes encounter a human survivor, played by Jason Clarke, on a recon mission to determine if a nearby dam can be restored to provide power to an increasingly desperate clutch of human city dwellers down in the Bay Area. Gary Oldman is their de facto leader, eager to take back the planet by any means necessary.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes runs about 25 minutes longer than Rise. The movie has trouble fnding its rhythm in the third act and feels somewhat padded. Yet there’s a lot going on in this flm. As with the recent Godzilla, there’s an essential gravity to the mood here. And the human interest element is more present and persuasive in Dawn, thanks to Clarke and his fellow Australian Kodi Smit-McPhee (of Let Me In), who plays his troubled son, and to reliable Keri Russell, as Clarke’s lover, the kindest, warmest human left on the planet and one of the reasons Caesar doesn’t kill them all in the frst 30 minutes of the movie.

In Caesar’s forest palace: A motioncaptured Andy Serkis plays the ape-in-chief.

Serkis is the world’s pre-eminent motion-capture performer, having lent his physicality and vocal fourishes to King Kong and Lord of The Ring’s Gollum prior to the soulful, tormented Caesar of the Apes series. At this point in the motioncapture effects industry, there’s little question of believing what we’re seeing.

We believe. We believe there is an actor, a real actor, in there, behind the eyes of the digital creation. This is why the flm, despite its bloat and its overfondness for scenes of massacre, feels as if it were made by actual humans.

Two other things about this movie make it noteworthy. One is the musical score by composer Michael Giacchino, the best in the business right now. The tension and the atmosphere he evokes with a surprising array of instruments (he’s especially creative in the percussion and keyboard realm) enhance every aspect of the viewing experience. It’s an old-school sound, recalling elements of Jerry Goldsmith, among others, and it’s remarkably free of bombast.

The other is the inescapable politi-

SHORT REVIEWS

July 17–23, 2014

Tammy (R) ★★★✩✩

VEGAS SEVEN

74

Brash yet insecure, Tammy (Melissa McCarthy) lives somewhere in downstate Illinois, and when we meet her she’s having an epically lousy day. The bulk of the story unfolds in Missouri, where grandmother’s cousin (Kathy Bates) has a huge riverside estate, and lives contentedly with her lover (Sandra Oh). The movie exploits heavy drinking and working-class-shlub clichés for fun, until it suits the plot to play them for pathos. The best bits care not for plot, or forwarding the action or any other overrated screenwriting element.

Begin Again (R) ★★★✩✩

Starring Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo, Begin Again is the latest film by John Carney, responsible for the landmark Once, and although comparisons are invariably unfair, the two films have so much in common that the question of whether off-the-cuff lightning can strike twice is inevitable. The answer, unfortunately, is no.

Yet, just when you are ready to completely write off Begin Again, the music starts to play, the camera takes it all in and makes us a part of it, and the film’s unpersuasive emotions don’t seem to matter as much.

Deliver Us From Evil (R) ★★✩✩✩

Classed up by its cast, Deliver Us From Evil concludes with a rip-roaring exorcism in a police interrogation room. Co-writer and director Scott Derrickson’s extremely loose adaptation of the book Beware the Night concerns the book’s co-author, New York Police Department Sergeant Ralph Sarchie, played by Eric Bana. An atmosphere of dread is established by placing various children at risk. Half the time, Deliver Us From Evil is genuinely interested in Sarchie’s all-toohuman demons, and half the time we’re marking time until the big exorcism.

cal element. I write this as a Chicagoan whose city has become an international symbol of gun violence bordering on insanity. In Dawn, Caesar’s ape colony has no use for frearms; only when Koba (Toby Kebbell), the vicious, ambitious rival ape, gets hold of humankind’s weapons does the utopian community turn against itself. The movie’s pretty grim. Then again, the whole Planet of the Apes mythology depends on a vision of the future that speaks very, very poorly of humankind’s ability to trust and adapt and play well with others.

Following the Dawn screening I ducked into Transformers 4 just long enough to see Mark Wahlberg exclaim, in awe, “Weapons!” when a glorious cache of mass-destruction implements are revealed. The Apes saga is different— sadder and wiser. The latest flm is no less a commodity than those manufactured by Michael Bay, but it doesn’t treat the audience like a bunch of gorillas.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (PG-13) ★★★✩✩

By Tribune Media Services

Earth to Echo (PG) ★★★✩✩

Earth to Echo is an engagingly unassuming E.T. knockoff, a kids movie that serves up a similar alien-with-kids story in a Blair Witch/ Paranormal shaky-cam package. Three tweenage pals are about to be split apart forever. Their Nevada subdivision is being demolished for a bypass. The no-name cast spreads from the kids to the adults, but the parents find a laugh here and there. Adults?

You’ll be underwhelmed. But remember, we’ve seen worse fake E.T.’s, especially in the years right after Spielberg’s masterpiece came out. And your kids will be tickled.

They Came Together (R) ★★★✩✩

The agreeable romantic-comedy critique They Came Together is occasionally very funny, and moderately funny the rest of the time. Over dinner with friends, candy conglomerate exec Joel (Paul Rudd) joins Amy Poehler’s chipper confectionary emporium owner Molly in telling the adorable, improbable tale of how they met, fell in love and fell into a vat of rom-com clichés. Poehler and Rudd are such intuitive and creative comic performers, they have a way of both maximizing uneven material and showing it up a tiny bit.

Transformers: Age of Extinction (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩

The fourth installment of Michael Bay’s $2.6 billion franchise about a race of robot freedom fighters is an aggressively charmless act of digital confetti. Transformers will bury us. It’s no spoiler to point out that this chapter ends with Optimus Prime, long-winded leader of the nice robots, soaring into space to continue the fight with someone or thing.

Except, oh, there’s a bad robot who collects Transformers and wants, no kidding, to spread his “seed” around. Also, demolition: Lots of it.

What’s disappointing is the lack of confidence.

Third Person (R) ★★✩✩✩

Jersey Boys (R) ★★★✩✩

X-Men: Days of Future Past (PG-13) ★★★✩✩

Edge of Tomorrow (PG-13) ★★★✩✩

Women! They’re all desperate harpies and relentless sources of conflict in writerdirector Paul Haggis’ exasperating multistory drama about how hard it is for a nice guy to be left alone to write an exasperating multistory drama. Liam Neeson stars as that guy. He’s a famous author holed up in a Paris hotel, trying to wrestle his novel into shape. He recently left his wife (Kim Basinger) for a sensual younger woman (Olivia Wilde). A veteran screenwriter, Haggis has many strengths. But often his dramatic situations are as hoked-up and galling as his writerly flourishes.

Midway into Bryan Singer’s delightfully convoluted flick, there is a prison break so exuberant and uncharacteristic of superhero movies that you sit up a bit. As much as a pricey, box-office-savvy international franchise can indulge in fun anymore, it does here. The film brings together the cast of the original X-Men films and the upstarts of the clever 2011 reboot X-Men: First Class— teaming up generations of X-Men (and ensuring that someone seated behind you will be asking, “Wait, who is that again?”).

Jersey Boys the movie is a more sedate animal than Jersey Boys the Broadway musical. Those who missed the theatrical edition of the tale of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons—how they found their sound and wrestled with temptations—may wonder what the fuss was about. It begins in Belleville, New Jersey, in 1951 and ends with a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1990. Some scenes are frankly theatrical, such as the hardship tour of the famous Brill Building. Jersey Boys is rationally exuberant to a fault.

Insanely derivative, frenetically enjoyable, Edge of Tomorrow takes gaming to a new level of big-screen indulgence, sending Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt through the same alieninvasion scenario over and over until they learn how to win, put down the consoles and get off the couch for a little lunch and some fresh air, maybe. The climax involves Paris in flames and up to its landmarks in water, and a certain museum featured in The Da Vinci Code.

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SEVEN QUESTIONS

How many companies use Cobalt’s services?

Many dozens—that’s about [all] I’d share with you on that. We are a new business. This is our fagship original data center. We have intentions of growing here in Southern Nevada as well as into new markets.

Cobalt was formed about a little over three years ago. In our line of business it takes quite a bit of time to raise capital, select a site, and build and condition the facilities.

Markets like Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Phoenix have become attractive for placing critical infrastructure to go serve that big economy in California.

Of the companies in our data center now, we are probably today maybe 50 percent Nevada-based organizations and 50 percent other.

You were from Silicon Valley before heading to Las Vegas. How does Southern Nevada’s tech community compare with places such as the Bay Area; Boulder, Colorado; and Austin, Texas?

It’s been a topic I’ve been questioned about: “Is Las Vegas the next Silicon Valley?” Sometimes the reputation of Las Vegas, whatever that is, is a bit of an obstacle with organizations choosing to come here or do business here, and that’s been the case for a long, long time. I defnitely get a sense that if we are competing for business, for example, and the customer looks to Phoenix or Las Vegas, sometimes they would pick Phoenix. At the core of that might just be their perception of Las Vegas.

Nevada’s public education system is poorly ranked and underfunded. Do you think that is another obstacle to drawing big business?

I have no doubt in my mind. Southern Nevada’s education really struggles, and that translates into diffculties when trying to get businesses to relocate.

I have resided in the Bay Area for the last almost 11 years and continue to do so. I’ve got three children, two of whom are still in high school. In my situation, my kids would’ve been angry if we took them out of high school [and away from] their friends, but had they been younger, I would defnitely have to question if moving here would be good for my family.

The head of an important local data center on our budding tech economy, overcoming the Vegas stereotype and how McCarran could be the key to our tech future

July 17–23, 2014

By Nicole Ely

VEGAS SEVEN

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BEFORE COMING TO LAS VEGAS, Jefferson Brown spent more than 20 years in the technology industry with some of the giants of the colocation business, such as Equinix. Now serving as president of Cobalt Data Centers, a server hub near Summerlin, he’s among the key contributors to a new age in the Valley’s tech sector.

Why are data centers important?

They’re the other end of everything you have in your hand. These smartphones and all these apps, email—[we are told] all of that exists on “the cloud.”

But it truthfully resides physically in a data center.

As the world has become more dependent upon technology, these data centers have grown and

grown and grown. It is a shining spot in the overall global economy to be in the data-center world. Cobalt is one of probably 10 major data-center facilities in the Southern Nevada market.

Why is Nevada an ideal hub for data centers?

Rather than placing critical infrastructure in Silicon Valley, which has expensive real estate, expensive power and is very close to all those big companies like Facebook and Disney, let’s get that into a [more economic friendly] environment where there is low risk of natural disasters like earthquakes. We have a little marketing slogan: “Get your critical infrastructure off the fault line once and for all.” Bring it out of California, but you don’t have to go all the way to Dallas.

Long before you landed in the tech world, you were a disc jockey in college. Any favorite jams you just have to play?

I did my undergrad at the University of Chicago, and an upperclassman said, “Hey, do you want to tag along with us and go see this cool band that’s playing up at this high school?” So we go to a high school gymnasium and listen to R.E.M. before they became big. [Since then], I’ve always had a soft spot for them in my heart.

How have technology and legalized online poker collided in Nevada? Read the complete interview at VegasSeven.com/JeffersonBrown.

PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA

Jefferson Brown

What does Las Vegas offer the tech community that it is currently not marketing?

The frst thing that comes to mind is accessibility.

We can get direct fights into Las Vegas at all times of the day. I think there’s a fight a day from Seoul and a couple of fights a day from London. That doesn’t happen in Phoenix. So if something isn’t working right, our customers need immediate access, and sometimes that means putting somebody on a plane.

I also think of it from the digital side. In the last 10 or so years, the carriers—the telecommunication providers—have really invested signifcantly into Southern Nevada. And now digital access is robust enough that you may not have to be on a plane to fx a problem. You might be sitting in Silicon Valley and be able to manipulate your environment remotely.

In the technology sector, that’s a big deal.