THE LATEST
@LightKnife Kinda feel like tattoos took a credibility hit when Justin Bieber decided to get a bunch.
@Yassir_Lester I’d rather give you access to my social security number than be an adult man who wears shorts in public.
@ChrisRock If me and Paul George played basketball today he’d win by 4 points.
Tyson jabs a T-Rex, Nelly pops a Pretty Boy and the Biebs might want to duck and cover
August 7–13, 2014
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SURE, IT’S EASY TO PUMP UP THE FIGHT
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game when it’s a big weekend, whether there’s some huge UFC brawl going down, or Manny Pacquiao is taking time away from running the entire Philippines to come over here and spar. But let’s not underestimate the degree to which combat sports seep into the cultural landscape around here. It’s in the water … if the water made you want to get up and punch someone in front of a crowd of 20,000. If you thought the Mike Tyson renaissance was going to stop at Hangover sequels and Undisputed Truth, you clearly underestimated the man’s ability to inspire a Scooby-Doo-esque cartoon where he solves mysteries with the help of a gentleman ghost that’s voiced by Jim Rash, and a drunken, surly pigeon voiced by Norm MacDonald. But the Mike Tyson Mysteries, announced last year, fnally got a trailer at San Diego Comic-Con—a trailer wherein Tyson punches a dinosaur. (Don’t worry: Tyson was wearing gloves. The T-Rex didn’t sustain serious injuries. Probably.) But it didn’t end there: Tyson, in an interview with the U.K.’s Mirror, revealed that the biopic of his life that’s in the works would star Jamie Foxx. And that Foxx, at 46, would be able to portray a 20-yearold Tyson because “now they have this new animation; because you
know Jamie’s pretty much my age so he can’t portray me, but they have this new system.” And here we thought the special effects in Guardians of the Galaxy were impressive. Las Vegas’ other boxing icon, Floyd Mayweather, kept it hopping, too. First 50 Cent fred a shot across the bow on Twitter when he blasted out a picture of Nelly getting cozy with Mayweather’s ex, Shantel Jackson. Nelly fnished off the combo in an interview with ESPN when he said, “I don’t have a beef with Floyd Mayweather. I think the whole thing is misunderstood. I try to understand where he’s coming from, which is a little hard to do. ... It’s kind of hard talking to a guy who hasn’t graduated from high school.” Sure, Nelly can talk all he wants until it’s time to step into a Fatburger. Mayweather didn’t bother counterpunching, though, as he was busy on a goodwill mission: The champ visited NBA All-Star Paul George in the hospital after the latter’s leg exploded August 1 in a USA Basketball exhibition at
the Thomas & Mack Center. Australian casino mogul James Packer has been known to drop the gloves on occasion—he scrapped with fellow mogul David Gyngell outside of Packer’s Sydney home in May. Now the Crown casino owner has taken his second swipe at the Las Vegas market—the frst being a disastrous investment in Fontainebleau. Packer picked up the parcel of land that used to house the New Frontier for $280 million, and he plans to develop a casino on the spot by 2018. It’s just slightly cheaper than the $1.2 billion developer Elad IDB paid for the spot in 2007 with plans to sprout a $5 billion Plaza casino. But what were Packer and Gyngell fghting about? Packer’s new relationship with Miranda Kerr. Kerr’s ex, Orlando Bloom, tried to become the savoir of an oppressed citizenry of the world by punching out tyrannical dictator Justin Bieber in Ibiza. The Biebs is rumored to have said to Bloom, “She was good,” in reference to a God-we-hope-it-never-happened hookup with Kerr. Bloom took the world’s most justifed swing, but at least one fghter wasn’t impressed. UFC Hall of Famer Forrest Griffn said he’d be happy to teach Bloom proper technique so he could do some damage in Round 2. For the love of God, Orlando, take him up on it.
Racism is so bizarre to me. So many better reasons to hate people. Their taste in music. Their politics. Their Netflix Instant queue.
@PattiMurin There are a total of 43 people at this Mets game! Who says Sharknado 2 isn’t realistic?
@daveweigel Cheer up, America! We’re all going to die from cancer or heart disease, not Ebola.
@huntigula Fun fact: Like most viruses of the 20th century, Ebola originated in the ball pit of a Chuck E. Cheese.
@MWhicker03 Melting of Siberian permafrost prompts large release of methane. Greg Maddux denies responsibility.
@DaveAnthony Mike Tyson isn’t the first rapist to get a cartoon. Pepe Le Pew kicked off in the ‘40s.
@DaveHolmes I guess the Sharknado movies are what we have instead of The Love Boat now?
Share your Tweet! Add #V7.
ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO
Fight Club
@jzellis
Shayla Beesley and Michael Madsen portray doppelgängers of Sandy Murphy and Ted Binion in Death in the Desert.
“My dad was a great man. All you got was the fucked-up son.” – RAY EASLER (INSPIRED BY TED BINION, AS PLAYED BY MICHAEL MADSEN) TO KIM DAVIS (INSPIRED BY SANDY MURPHY, AS PLAYED BY SHAYLA BEESLEY) IN DEATH IN THE DESERT.
August 7–13, 2014
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ot the words of a man with a hallmark heart.
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Rather, they’re the words of a man whose heart has gone underground, never again to see daylight. ¶ This man is— was—Lonnie “Ted” Binion. And he was, by most accounts, a pitiable disaster of a man. ¶ Combine painful selfloathing with pharmacological excess, black-sheep status, powerful enemies, unsavory associates, being tossed out of your own business on your cocaine-addled ass, a duplicitous employee screwing your strip-club sweetheart, a buried cache of silver and, fnally, a chemically polluted corpse discovered on a mansion foor, and you’ve got … death in the desert. Sixteen years ago in real life. Coming up in reel life. ¶ “Beautiful women are responsible for an incredible amount of mayhem in this fucking world, man. Men can turn into suckers when they’re in love with someone like that,” says Michael Madsen, who stars as Ray Easler, fctional doppelgänger of Teddy B., in the as-yet-unreleased Death in the Desert, a meditation on love—and life—gone sideways, with tragic repercussions.
As a work adapted from another medium, the independently produced flm doesn’t even carry the standard “basedon” clarifer. Instead, it opts for the more oblique “inspired by”—specifcally by Las Vegas journalist Cathy Scott’s 2000 book of the same title, chronicling the notorious late-’90s chapter of Nevada history you can simply call L’Affair Binion. The one that gifted a national audience of voyeurs with a sex-popsicle named Sandy Murphy and an avaricious stud named Rick Tabish. And a murder trial with convictions. And a retrial with overturned convictions. And eventual acquittals. And a mystery that won’t die—in the public imagination, if not legally—about how a man died. Now it’s a camoufaged, big-screen refresher—without the murder trials, the convictions, the acquittals, the mystery and the Nancy Grace insistence that The Slutty Girlfriend and Her Greedy Lover Did It. What’s left is a cautionary tale exclusively about a romance that began somewhat south of heavenly and spiraled into a scandalous hell, but segues to the fnal credits before even a word of the legal/ media madness ever hits the news pages. “Some of this is fction,” says Josh Ev-
ans, director of Death in the Desert, parttime actor (notably as Tom Cruise’s brother in Born on the Fourth of July and John Lithgow’s psychotic helper in Ricochet), and owner of an impressive Hollywood pedigree as the son of actress Ali (Love Story) MacGraw and producer Robert (The Godfather) Evans. “My movie, while it’s about the generalities of these people, it’s not about the details. What is absolute is the interaction of the relationship.” Filmed almost entirely in and around Las Vegas in February with a largely local crew, Death in the Desert currently idles in that shadow-land between moviemaker and moviegoer. Evans is seeking out flm festivals for exposure to lasso a distributor, with the Sundance, Telluride, Berlin and Tokyo competitions on his wish list. History offers encouragement, since numerous flms rose from obscurity to acclaim via festivals, including Hoop Dreams, The Blair Witch Project, Reservoir Dogs and Sex, Lies and Videotape. Then again, others—which of course you’ve never heard of—never made it past the festival screening parties. “I really want to show this flm internationally, give people a glimpse of life in Las Vegas,” Evans says. “I’m looking
Scott on Tabish: “An opportunist. A very simple guy. I want to call him the villain, the least sympathetic character.” Scott on Murphy: “Really sweet-natured. You’d like her. Sweet, sweet girl. She’s a daddy’s girl, one of those women who baby-talks a man. She was a caregiver to Ted, but she got caught up in something that was bigger than herself, bigger than she could have imagined.” *****
“Sometimes I think Ray’s a guy out of a bad movie, a dime novel. Sometimes I don’t want him to touch me.”
August 7–13, 2014
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– KIM TO A FRIEND.
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overworked tv scribes owe a debt to L’Affair Binion for providing inspiration to shows from longtime staple CSI to short-lived fop The Defenders, and truecrime installments such as A&E’s American Justice, HLN’s On the Case and network news magazines 48 Hours and Dateline NBC, among others. Most notably to date, the 2008 Lifetime TV movie Sex and Lies in Sin City was based on the book Murder in Sin City by veteran Las Vegas reporter/ columnist Jeff German. Matthew Modine and Mena Suvari starred as the undisguised Binion and Murphy. But it was Scott’s book that hooked Evans. “Just the cover alone made me want to be in the fantasy of this world,” says Evans, who tapped playwright/ screenwriter John Steppling (52 PickUp) to pen the script, and began preproduction in Vegas in August 2013. Evans avoided contact with the Binion family, including Ted’s sister, Becky Binion-Behnen, who doggedly lobbied for a homicide investigation when the offcial line on her brother’s death still favored suicide. However, Death in the Desert does reference the family’s suspicion and dislike of Kim, the Murphy-inspired character. Fictionalizing the story to focus on more universal emotional and relationship questions not only freed Evans from adherence to pesky details, but also from the hassle (and expense) of re-creating ’90s Vegas on flm. “I didn’t want any of what other people had to say to cloud my vision of the dynamics of the love triangle, on which I was basing so much of the movie,” Evans says. “I also didn’t speak with Rick or Sandy. Even though the story is fctitious, I tried to be fair and positive to all the main characters, because the focus of the story was not a judgment on any of them, but more of a study on what can happen in an extremely materialistic environment. Fun to watch, but not to live.” While Evans chose a willing ignorance, Madsen preferred precisely the opposite—and found frustration when
Southern Nevada is a prominent co-star in Death in the Desert, with scenes shot in such locales as the Downtown Grand and Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club.
he arrived in town to wriggle into the skin of real Ted as channeled through make-believe Ray. “Most of the people I ran into along the way, even the staff in the hotels and restaurants, and valets, were surprised and confused and even fearful when they heard we were telling this story,” Madsen recalls. “I didn’t see many who thought it was a good idea or thought kindly about Ted and the Binions. I wish more people had come forward to speak to me and been more accessible.” Adds Scott: “There’s an establishment here, and a real protection over Vegas.” *****
“I need this. I don’t wanna need it, but I do.” – RAY TO KIM, ATTEMPTING TO JUSTIFY HIS OXYCONTIN HABIT
casting filled out around madsen, notably 26-year-old sunshine-blond Shayla Beesley (Sex and the U.S.A.), who negotiates a delicate balance between sweet and sexy, between naïveté and knowingness. Her Kim struggles to fnd her comfort zone with a mercurial lover who showers her with great generosity, then controls her right down to the shade of lipstick he prefer she wear (defnitely not cherry-red). Emotionally insecure, she fshes for assurances of love. Contrary to Murphy’s insistence that she wasn’t a stripper, Beesley’s Kim is, requiring brief nudity, as well as the actress dropping to her knees to simulate servicing Ray behind the club. Hired to portray Tabish-inspired Matt Duvall, John Palladino brings rugged vapidity and subtle sleaziness to a role with little meat on the bones, functioning mainly as a plot catalyst in snug jeans, leering on cue at Beesley. In supporting roles, Evans brought onboard exotic Paz de la Huerta (Board-
walk Empire, The Cider House Rules) as Kim’s confdante, Margo; and Evans’ wife, punk-rock-goth singer/actress Roxy Saint (Zombie Strippers), who performs a song in the flm. Meanwhile, Madsen worked to uncover what made Ray/Ted tick. “You have to grab hold of one thing when you’re building your performance, and I grabbed hold of the girl,” says Madsen, sounding like he doesn’t buy into Kim/Sandy as a hot naïf innocently engulfed by circumstances, as she is largely presented. Instead, he inserts intriguing contradictions into how this Rorschach-style drama is viewed by those creating it. “The enormity of sexuality is a huge card in that deck,” Madsen says. “[Ray/ Ted] was probably nuts to fuck her. Maybe he loved her. Maybe she loved him. But in the dark of the night, it was more of a physical yearning for him to have a young woman with her arms wrapped around him. It made him feel like a man, like his world would be
And a mansion at TPC at Summerlin doubled for the real deal on Palomino Lane, the latter of which has never been occupied since Binion’s death, and which Madsen dropped in on to soak up some atmosphere. “The wallpaper in the kitchen was obviously picked out by a woman, and the drapes and what was left in the master bedroom was clearly done by a woman. I could feel [Murphy’s] presence—she was a nester,” Madsen says. “But it also had a strange kind of coldness. And the fact that he was down in the basement—what the fuck were you doing down there, man? Here’s this guy with this big fucking crib, and it’s like he was hiding from his life. He must have been fucked up and depressed about a lot of things.”
*****
“I’m a lonely son of a bitch. I got big empty holes in me I can’t get rid of.” – RAY TO KIM.
death in the desert, despite its protagonist’s wealth, rides the downbeat vibe of a back-alley, underbelly Vegas. What emerges is a muted, thoughtful study of disillusionment, dashed dreams and fatal appetites via a relationship that takes root amid the mechanical sensuality of a Downtown strip joint.
Anyone glued to the conviction that Murphy is a murderer won’t fnd endorsement in the climactic scene in which, shocked and frantic, Kim discovers the body of her older lover. “I teared up when I saw it flmed,” Scott recalls of Beesley’s performance. “She reached real deep to do it.” Only the fnal line of dialogue—spoken by a passerby—alludes to the runaway train the Binion saga would become, hurtling into the national headlines. Lurking over it all is Madsen, his clumpy hair a rat’s nest when not smushed under a Stetson, squinting in the low light of a strip club, snorting coke in cars, pissing in empty lots—a big, doughy, dissolute soul circling the drain, heart shredded by drugs and decay … Never to see daylight again.
Madsen consults with director Josh Evans during a break in filming in February.
August 7–13, 2014
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all right. He probably didn’t catch on that there was something dark going on. And she realized he was a fucking loser, but she didn’t know how to get out of it, but she wasn’t going to walk away with nothing.” Locals will be able to play Name That Locale watching this fick. Scenes were shot all around the neon town—with the notable exception of the Strip, by and large. Downtown is prominently featured, as is Sapphire Gentlemen’s Club on Industrial Road, with additional footage flmed at Downtown Grand. Segments at Binion’s ranch were lensed in North Las Vegas, and Mesquite was the backdrop for desert scenes. Camera pans capture Fremont Street, El Cortez and the Stratosphere.
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NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and the DJ who spins in stocking feet
DJ Eva Shaw lives the fast life in high fashion By Laurel May Bond Photography by Anthony Mair Styled by Avo Yermagyan
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Today her name is her brand, and she has big plans to grow her identity beyond the DJ booth and into fashion and acting. Hailing from Toronto, Shaw frst stepped into the spotlight at the age of 13, kicking off what would become a long, successful modeling career. While she lived and worked in Paris and London, her bookings eventually led her
August 7–13, 2014
Jet-Set Life
EVA SHAW HAS IT ALL: a headlining DJ gig at Hakkasan, a modeling career, famous friends and a glamorous life that is catapulting her into the popculture stratosphere. The doe-eyed beauty who launched her music career as “Bambi” has ditched the sexy stage moniker and is going with an even bigger seller: herself.
VegasSeven.com
Photographed at the MGM Resorts International Aviation terminal. To find out what Shaw is wearing, visit VegasSeven. com/EvaShaw.
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NIGHTLIFE VegasSeven.com
| August 7–13, 2014
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to the East Coast, where she frst squared up to the decks, playing early DJ sets by age 17. “When I started, being a DJ was more like being in the background,” she says. “Today it’s a concert. The DJ is putting on the show.” Shaw’s personal sound encompasses everything electronic dance music, along with personal infuences past and present, including the music of her jazz-musician father, who played the piano, guitar, saxophone and trumpet. “I grew up listening to all different kinds of music,” she says. And although she doesn’t consider her productions “mash-ups,” they meld genres and combine a world of sounds to create Shaw’s signature blend of “vocals and more commercial sounds, such as hip-hop and rock.” Citing David Guetta (“I saw him before he was where he is now”), Carl Cox and Deadmau5 as early inspirations, Shaw saw that “DJs could be rock stars.” Today, as one of the few
female headliners on the Strip, Shaw is likely providing the same inspiration for a younger generation of women who have dreams of stepping into the booth one day. Being a woman in the man’s world of nightlife has its ups and downs, she says. “There just aren’t as many big female DJs. Sometimes I fnd that diffcult, but other times it is a good thing. Everyone is looking for something different, and as a girl, I can use that.” Which isn’t to say that Shaw doesn’t feel camaraderie with her male counterparts. “We often talk about music and collaborations,” she says of her fellow superstar DJs. “Tiësto is someone I really look up to. He has given me a lot of advice.” Shaw may be living that DJ rock-star dream of her teenage years, but she’s surprisingly light on nightlife vices. She says her typical Las Vegas pre-show routine consists of “[trying] to get in an early nap and go to dinner with friends who are in town. It’s funny, because when
I headline around 1 a.m., I leave my hotel room where it’s all quiet, and then it’s a different mood. Everyone is excited; the lights are crazy. It was a little bit overwhelming at frst—I am a naturally shy person. I try to get together with friends to help me get into the vibe and see how the crowd is feeling.” As for her future, Shaw’s ambitious fve-year plan runs the gamut of artistic endeavors. “I went to New York University for theater, so I’m interested in acting. [I also want to fnd a way] to merge fashion with music.” Now, with her real name on the lips of EDM fans all over the world, and gigs booked for August 15 and 17 at Hakkasan, feel free to raise a toast to Shaw’s success. Just don’t expect her to join you in sipping the bubbly. “I don’t like to drink Champagne,” she says. “I like to spray Champagne.” A version of this story appears in the August 2014 issue of Vegas Rated. For more from Vegas Rated, visit VRated.com.
Mad Decent Designs Flosstradamus, the duo best known for their turnt-up EDM and hip-hop sets, can now add fashion design to their résumés By Kat Boehrer
August 7–13, 2014
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FLOSSTRADAMUS—A.K.A. JOSH YOUNG
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and Curt Cameruci—have a unique fashion perspective to go with their unique fusion of EDM and hip-hop musical vibes. The two are best known for running the trap as industry leaders, and have recently released bass-heavy tracks featuring rappers such as Casino, Travis Porter and Waka Flocka Flame. With the rise to DJ stardom, Young and Cameruci have also created a solid fashion brand with a cult following that shows up at each show decked out in Flosstradamus’ HDYBYZ- and HDYGRLZ-labeled merchandise. The duo recently embarked on the North American mega-tour, the Mad Decent Block Party, which will be arriving at Encore Beach Club on August 17. This tour stop also features a handful of EDM heavyweights, including Dillon Francis, Grandtheft, Paper Diamond,
Paul Devro and Mad Decent label boss Diplo. We exchanged a few fashonforward words with the trap-masters. Describe the Mad Decent Block Party tour and what your part in that will be like. Young: It’s a meeting of like-minded individuals. Las Vegas is the home of just turning up and going crazy. And there are already so many legendary EDM festivals and nights that take place there, so I’m coming into it expecting the utmost energy from the crowd, and I think we’re gonna get that energy and give it right back to the kids. The August 17 show at Encore Beach Club is going to be outside. What does Flosstradamus wear when it’s too hot to wear your signature hoodies?
Young: The hoodies have become [more] for club shows or even the frst couple of songs and then we take them off. Those summer festivals, they get so toasty, it’s pretty impossible to actually rock the hoodies for the full set. Since Curt and I linked up—or before we even linked up—we’ve always been interested in fashion. We have a certain distinct set of tastes and the way we look at fashion. Having Flosstradamus blow up so much has given us a platform to actually release some of our tastes into the world. We’ve got our own line, and we’ve got to push and release some of the clothes that we like to wear ourselves. You can defnitely expect some HDYBYZ gear. How much input do you have with the design of the HDYBYZ and
HDYGRLZ brands? Cameruci: We’ll submit a bunch of ideas. I’ll mock up some shit in Photoshop and be like, “Yo, make this.” Our team will go and get it developed and turn it into real product. They’ll also come to us and suggest ideas as well. Then we can tweak those and fddle with them. We do a lot of the design, and everything that’s Flosstradamus branded, we have a hand in it. Are you going to do a sneaker collaboration? That’s something I would expect from you guys. Cameruci: We’d like to. We haven’t been approached by any companies yet. But we came out with our own slides, like our own sandals. So those are for all of the cozy boys out there, trying to just keep it casual in the clubs. But that wasn’t a collaboration, that was all in-house. We’re always open to suggestions and collabs. What are your favorite shoes to wear these days when you perform? Cameruci: I’ve been wearing Gucci slides. But when we’re performing, I take ’em off. I’m just in socks. So my footwear of choice during a show is socks. Young: That’s totally true. He just wears socks. I’ve been wearing Jordan Futures.
PHOTO BY WILL AZCONA
NIGHTLIFE
Meet Flosstradamus’ Curt Cameruci (left) and Josh Young.
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
GREY GOOSE LE MELON LAUNCH PARTY
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY DAVID BECKER
August 7–13, 2014
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Euro Pool at Wynn
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
ENCORE BEACH CLUB Encore
[ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY TOBY ACUNA
August 7–13, 2014
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Aug. 8 AN21 spins Aug. 9 Will.i.am spins Aug. 10 Steve Angello spins
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
STK
The Cosmopolitan [ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY TEDDY FUJIMOTO
August 7–13, 2014
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Aug. 11 Magnum Mondays Aug. 18 Magnum Mondays
A&E
ALBUMS WE'RE BUYING 1 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Hypnotic Eye
2
Adelitas Way, Stuck
3 Jenny Lewis, The Voyager
4 Eric Clapton & Friends, The Breeze (An Appreciation Of JJ Cale)
5 Dark Lotus, The Mud, Water, Air & Blood 6 Various Artists, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1
7 Judas Priest, Redeemer of Souls
Legends of Hip-Hop showed the enduring power of a classic The Joint, August 2
8 Lana Del Rey, Ultraviolence
“You ready to time travel?” shouted Vin Rock of Naughty by Nature, and the crowd whooped in the affirmative. The Joint was packed with old-school fans taking a trip to somewhere back in the day. Rob Base threw down with the “Joy and Pain,” and Slick Rick recounted the “Children’s Story.” Black Sheep had ’em bouncing; Biz Markie roused the crowd with beatboxing and, of course, “Just a Friend.” Naughty
9 Jack White, Lazaretto
by Nature had everyone chanting with their hands in the air for “O.P.P,” and a Tupac tribute gave Treach an opportunity to prove that he’s kept his abs in shape. Another smooth, quick transition and Big Daddy Kane took the stage, suave as ever. He brought on dancers Scoob and Shawn Lover, who flipped into outrageous popping and locking that had the crowd screaming and hollering before being joined by the Big Daddy himself for a last round of badass moves. DJ Scratch did a mini-set ahead of his colleagues in EPMD, a set of gymnastics just as thrilling as the break dancing that preceded it, a throwback to the days when a DJ only had vinyl and turntables. Erick Sermon and Parrish Smith charged onstage and launched into rapid-fire rhymes—golden-age hip-hop wasn’t just about quick hands on the decks, but also
10 Rise Against, The Black Market
According to sales at Zia Record Exchange at 4503 W. Sahara Ave., July 28-Aug. 3.
verbal agility. Sermon decried “McDonald’s rap … it’s making the kids dumb!” Sometimes it takes an old dog to remind us that the new is
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[ ALBUM REVIEW ]
This self-titled, seven-song EP, several years in the making, serves
OH, MAMA! THIS EP ROCKS HARD
up everything that’s always been great about Mama Zeus: the purring
Venerable local band Mama Zeus is a rarity, not just for Las Vegas but
whose soaring vocals on “Umbrella” and “Falling” propel those songs
for the world we now live in. They’re a thoughtful, 1970s-style rock
into the realm of the timeless. All the parts fit together perfectly in
band born of the alt-rock bombast of the 1990s, one that doesn’t have a
“Goodbye,” the lovely piece of Beatlesque psychedelia that closes the
single strand of pretentious hipster DNA. They seem content with you
record. We should all hope that the name isn’t prophetic, and that we’ll
simply banging your head to their booming constructions in your car.
hear from Mama Zeus again. ★★★★✩ – Geoff Carter
RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME I think I know what you need right now, and it’s not more cowbell. It’s an evening with New Orleans legends Aaron Neville and Dr. John. The pair perform at the Cannery on August 9 ($30-$70). You must hear Neville’s silky, soulful vocals and Dr. John’s funky, “voodoo”-influenced keyboards.
guitars, the heavy-footed rhythm section and singer Nicole Sottile,
LOVE IS LIKE FOXYGEN Don’t know Foxygen? You should. Last year’s We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic was one of my albums of the year, a generous helping of brilliant, lo-fi psychedelia. “No Destruction,” “San Francisco” and “Shuggie” are three reasons to see Foxygen at Brooklyn Bowl on August 12 ($13.20-$16.50).
ON SALE NOW Remember the first time you heard “King of the Rodeo” by Kings of Leon and you couldn’t understand the lyrics but you liked the sound? Last year, the band released Mechanical Bull—their sixth studio album—and their tour brings them to Boulevard Brew Fest at the lot across from Luxor on September 27 ($59-$129).
LEGENDS OF HIP-HOP PHOTO BY ERIK K ABIK
August 7–13, 2014
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just tricks. ★★★★✩ – Lissa Townsend Rodgers
Magic in the Moonlight (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
Sex Tape (R) ★✩✩✩✩
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
22 Jump Street (R) ★★★✩✩
This Woody Allen film is set in 1928 in the south of France. British illusionist Stanley, played with a tight grimace by Colin Firth, has been invited by a fellow magician (Simon McBurney) to debunk an American mystic working her way through the Cote d’Azur. Then something happens to persuade the skeptic Stanley that Sophie (Emma Stone) is the real deal. Magic in the Moonlight strolls along, muttering familiar axioms about the infernal inconvenience and bedevilment of romantic attraction.
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. The war between the ravaged species in Dawn has driven the surviving ape colony to the redwoods north of San Francisco. There the apes encounter a human survivor on a mission to determine if a dam can be restored to help desperate human city dwellers in the Bay Area. Gary Oldman is their leader, eager to take back the planet by any means necessary.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (PG) ★★★✩✩
In a world of tired sequels, this DreamWorks Animation offering feels and flows like a real movie. It’s as satisfying as the initial 2010 Dragon, based loosely on the Cressida Cowell books. Now a young adult, adorkable Viking lad Hiccup (Jay Baruchel, voice) and his intended, Astrid (America Ferrera), live the good life in the remote village of Berk, ruled by Hiccup’s benevolent father (Gerard Butler). This is a coming-of-age story, and the film rewards our investment in it.
Like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Jake Kasdan’s Sex Tape is a grim cautionary fable about the evils of technology, in this case pitting its desperate protagonists against an unseen force people refer to as “the cloud.” Unlike 2001, it’s also a stupid, strenuous sex farce starring Cameron Diaz, Diaz’s dorsal-view body double and Jason Segel as a couple with a provocative solution to their current coital slump: Make a sex tape! If Sex Tape ends up making money, it’ll be on the backs of its valiant performers’ comic charm, but it’s stretched thin to the breaking point.
The peculiar sweetness of 21 Jump Street has taken a hiatus in this brazen sequel that’s both slightly disappointing and a reliable, often riotous “laffer.” 22 Jump Street tests the bond of this police partnership when the boy-men are assigned to work undercover, again as brothers, this time at a college where a new designer drug has claimed at least one life. Be sure to hang around for the closing credits, which imagine all sorts of Jump Street sequels to come, all of which look funnier than A Million Ways to Die in the West.
Tammy (R) ★★★✩✩
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.
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Tick Segerblom The state senator on his passion for medical marijuana, running for governor and the last time he inhaled
August 7–13, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
By Sean DeFrank
86
You authored the 2013 law allowing the establishment of medical marijuana dispensaries, and have been a proponent of the issue for more than a decade. Why? I’m a child of the ’60s, so I know frsthand that it’s not the devil’s weed. I wouldn’t encourage people to use it if they don’t need to use drugs, but if you’re going to use a drug, it’s the one that is probably the least harmful to you. Medical marijuana, it was passed by the voters in 2000 with 65 percent
approval, and yet for 12 years we hadn’t been able to get it processed where people could purchase it after the doctor says they’re entitled to it. It just seemed crazy. Everyone said, “Oh, you’ll never get [the law passed], and I said, “Well, I’m going to put my weight behind it.” And it turned out that there was no opposition. It was like the emperor had no clothes. Which state is doing the best job in handling medicinal marijuana dispensaries?
Colorado is clearly the gold standard. They’ve gone beyond that to recreational [use] now, but when they did the medical, they did it perfectly. Their law was actually copied in Arizona, and we copied Arizona when we drafted our law. They have the best law, because they designed a system where they could control it. The plants are tagged, they’re traced, so there wasn’t anything going out the backdoor. Once you show that you can control it, then you can treat it like alcohol
A petition, which you have signed, has been fled to make marijuana legal for recreational use in Nevada. Is medical marijuana just the next step toward full legalization? It is. It was not our intent that we would use that to get our nose under the tent, but given what’s happened in [other states], I think that recreational marijuana is inevitable. And Nevada is the perfect place for it. We have to get [just over 101,000] signatures by November. I’m confdent we’re going to get that; that means the Legislature has to take it up [in 2015]. I think there’s actually a 10, 15 percent chance that the Legislature will pass it with a two-thirds vote, but the public opinion, I haven’t talked to anybody who doesn’t support it. Why put people in jail? Why give money to the [drug cartels]? Why miss the tax revenues? Our schools are dying. So I think there’s an outside chance we’ll actually pass it, but if we don’t, it’ll be on the ballot in 2016, and I would bet my life that it will pass then. Nevada has a golden opportunity to jump out there and get recreational [marijuana] and use that as a drawing card around the world. People come here anyway to commit vices, so what better place? How do you strike a balance between local, county and state interests? To get the law through the Legislature, we want to say, look, if Boulder City doesn’t want it, we’re going to give them that right to say they don’t want it. But maybe in a few years we say, look, you cannot deny the people in Boulder City—the patients— the right to be able to get it without driving 10 or 20 miles to get it, and force them to at least have one [dispensary]. But for now, it’s fne. We’re not trying to force this down anybody’s throat. Let’s just get it up and running for the places that want it. What do you think about the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s mandate that
no person with a gaming license is to be involved in the marijuana business in any way? I understand their concern, because you don’t want to invite the feds in. That’s always been our stance, that we’ll have a tightly controlled regulatory policy so the feds don’t come in and cause trouble. But the reality is that the most qualifed people to [get a medical marijuana license] would be people who have a gaming license, because they’ve already been screened, they’re vetted, we know who they are. So I disagree, and we’re going to look at that issue next [legislative] session. You considered running against Governor Brian Sandoval this year before deciding against it. What made you frst consider it, and why did you ultimately not run? I didn’t feel like I could win, but I thought we needed to have somebody running to carry the torch and to raise the issues that need to be raised. Looking at it real closely, the question is: Do we need to have somebody there raising the issues and carrying the torch, only to get squished? Maybe that sends the wrong message, because once that person gets squished, then it’s like that message isn’t viable. And the reality is that a good message is important, but you also have to have enough resources to get the message out, and it was clear that there wouldn’t be enough resources to do that. Since you’ve so heavily championed the medical marijuana movement in Nevada, I have to ask: When was the last time you inhaled? Let’s just say that within the last year, people have come to me with innovative products, and in an effort to better understand the industry, I have tried some new methods of distribution. Not that I have done it regularly, but I will say that there are things out there that back in the ’60s you would have never believed possible. Why does Segerblom support annual legislative sessions? Find out in the full interview at VegasSeven.com/TickSegerbom.
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
SEVEN QUESTIONS
or tobacco, where you can regulate it, tax it, monitor it and make sure that it doesn’t go to people who shouldn’t have it.