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14 | THE LATEST
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“Caution: Road Work Ahead,” by Lissa Townsend Rodgers. When Romain Thievin hands you the keys to one of his Exotics Racing sports cars, he has but one rule: You can’t drive 55—or anything close to it. Plus, a traffic innovation coming to Henderson, Ask a Native and The Deal.
16 | About Town
“Train of Thought,” by Geoff Carter. One passenger is impressed with his virgin voyage aboard the Las Vegas Monorail—and wonders about its potential to offer more.
18 | Politics
“Joe Heck and the Politics of Disassociation,” by Michael Green. The Nevada congressman is seeking re-election in November— although the good doctor would rather you not know it.
20 | Feature
“One Ticket to Primm, Please!,” by Brooke Edwards Staggs. For some Southern California gamblers (and shoppers), there’s no better road trip than a turnaround bus ride to the state line.
22 | GREAT DRIVES 2014
“Wherever the Roads May Lead Us,” by Julian Kilker, Lissa Townsend Rodgers and Greg Blake Miller. Three inspirational detours through the American West.
33 | NIGHTLIFE
“Overlooking It All,” by Camille Cannon. Five nightspots with party patios for your perusal. Plus, Seven Nights.
65 | DINING
Al Mancini on Japanese Cuisine by Omae. Plus, Dishing With Grace, Dessert Before Dinner features a Girl Scout favorite, and Cocktail Culture.
71 | A&E
“Rockin’ It Like an OVIP” by Geoff Carter. Opportunity Village’s music mentor Daryll Borges wants everyone to have that rock-star feeling.
78 | Movies The Drop and our weekly movie capsules.
88 | Going for Broke After two losses to open the season, look for the Saints to roll at home.
94 | Seven Questions
With a new Harley-Davidson store set to open near the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, co-owner Don Andress talks about growing up on two wheels.
| Dialogue | Event | Seven Days | Showstopper
Seeing the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes is one perk of taking a leisurely route from Las Vegas to the Bay Area.
ON THE COVER Photo Illustration by Ryan Olbrysh
September 18–24, 2014
PHOTO BY ROBIN WHALLEY
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DIALOGUE CONTRIBUTOR’S NOTE The Pathfnders ➜ When we set out to explore “inspi-
rational detours” for our annual Great Drives feature, we knew we needed to turn to a driver with uncommon curiosity about our region’s overlooked places and the adventurous spirit (and patience) to explore them. Fortunately, we already knew that driver: Julian Kilker, a UNLV professor of emerging technologies and a renowned expert on low-light photography in extreme environments, produced last year’s remarkable “placemat” map of the forgotten treasures of Interstate 15, as well as a stirring photo essay of the area’s shuttered buildings and burned-out signs. This year, Kilker goes further afield, plotting an adventurous route to the Bay Area without ever putting wheels to the pavement of boring old I-5. We think you’ll enjoy the adventure, which begins on Page 22. This year, Kilker’s work is joined by essays from Vegas Seven senior writer Lissa Townsend Rodgers, who brings her formidable observations and wry humor to the mysterious Mojave, and former Vegas Seven editor Greg Blake Miller, who invites us along on an uplifting father-son journey to Santa Fe and beyond. Buckle up and enjoy!
THIS WEEK @ VEGASSEVEN.COM GET YOUR BIEBER NEWS!
Justin Bieber just Biebered the hell out of it during fight weekend, partying at the Hard Rock shirtless (of course) and with Selena Gomez (still? how?) as he lent moral support to inexplicable buddy Floyd Mayweather. Follow all the Mayweather aftermath—and what we hope will be the week the Biebs finally pulls an O.J. at Palace Station—at DailyFiasco.com.
JUSTIN BIEBER BY ERIK K ABIK
SCOTCH VS. MARIJUANA
GAME ON
With medicalmarijuana dispensaries soon to pop up all over the Valley, a debate rages in the Scotch 80s neighborhood over a proposed dispensary scheduled to go in the adjoining Medical District. Get the story at DTLV. com/UrbAppeal.
We recently paid a visit to the 2014 Classic Gaming Expo to find out why retro video games are making such a big comeback. Make like Frogger and hop over to VegasSeven.com/GamingExpo to see video from the expo.
LIGHTS, CAMERA …
REBELS TAKE ANOTHER SHOT
The $80 million statewide tax credit from the Nevada Film Office is taking a significant hit. Just how much money is left? Find out at VegasSeven.com/ FilmTax.
After missing out on top high school prospect Eric Davis, UNLV’s basketball team is still looking for its first commit from the Class of 2015. We examine Rebels coach Dave Rice’s next move at RunRebs.com/ Recruiting.
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UPCOMING EVENTS • Oct. 11
One Drop’s third annual Walk for Water at Springs Preserve [OneDrop.org]. • Oct. 18 Smiles for Survivors fourth annual Blow Out [SmilesForSurvivors.org].
PHOTOS BY JOE FURY
September 18–24, 2014
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The spirit of The Cat in the Hat filled Lido Ballroom in the Venetian on Sept. 13 for Spread the Word Nevada’s Storybook Gala. The 13th annual affair raised more than $400,000 to promote literacy and provide books to children throughout the Valley. Among the more than 400 attendees were noted local artist Jerry Misko, jeweler Polly Weinstein, host Shawn Tempesta of KTNV Channel 13 and KXMB 94.1-FM, and auctioneer Christian Kolberg, who was dressed as Dr. Seuss’ signature cat (makeup included) all night.
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Yiannis Ploutarhos 2014 WorlD tour saturday, October 11
DoWntoWn BeatDoWn WFC29 WorlD Fighting ChamPionshiPs sunday, October 12
aCROss FROM dlvec.com
“Our monorail could gain some functionality with some effort, ingenuity ... and, you know, money.” ABOUT TOWN {PAGE 16}
News, politics, deals and some plastic-surgery tips for a Strip icon
Caution: Road Work Ahead When Romain Thievin hands you the keys to one of his Exotics Racing sports cars, he has but one rule: You can’t drive 55—or anything close to it
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“PEOPLE IN LAS VEGAS, they come and put $1,000 on black, $1,000 on red,” says Romain Thievin, racing champion, stunt driver and owner of 50 sports cars. He gestures at the crimson Ferrari, scarlet Lamborghini and candy-apple Corvette purring on the pavement: “You put $1,000 on red here, it’s much more fun.” This impressive stable of horsepower is part of Thievin’s Exotics Racing, where mere mortals can take a Porsche or Aston-Martin for a highspeed run on the 1.2-mile road course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If Disneyland is the Happiest Place on Earth for children, Exotics Racing might be the adult equivalent. For Thievin, fast cars have been a passion since he was growing up in France. “My father used to be a race-car driver in Europe,” he says. “I would go with him to the racetrack and fell in love.” But joining the family business wasn’t a given. “Car racing is very expensive; you need sponsors,” Thievin explains. Even if he didn’t have the fnancial backing, he could still drive very fast and very well. “In France, there is a racing school—if you win, you can drive one year in the French F4 championships for free. I won.” Since then, he’s won at LeMans and been a fve-time touring car champion. I, on the other hand, lived for 33 years without a license. But I’ve come to love driving for its own sake, whether it’s cruising along desert back roads in a Chrysler (see Page 27) or tearing up a road course in a Ferrari Scuderia at 160 mph—which is the plan for today. Not that they’re just going to hand over the keys and cross their fngers. First, there’s a 20-minute classroom session, where we learn how to use the paddle shifters, hold the wheel (9 and 3 gives more control than 10 and 2; who knew?) and take a curve (a straight line from outside to
The author behind the wheel of a Ferrari Scuderia at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
inside). Next comes a “discovery lap” in an SUV to familiarize myself with the track before I attempt light speed. Exotics Racing began in France, but Thievin decided to “export this concept. I looked everywhere in the world.” The combination of tourist traffc and track access made Vegas a winner. “I met a guy from the speedway, who said ‘Why not? It’s the craziest idea I’ve never heard.’” Four years later, Thievin says more than 100,000 people have paid big money—packages range from $199 to $399—for the Exotics Racing experience. Now it’s my turn. I slide into the Ferrari and grab the wheel. My frst lap is unnerving. Cole, my instructor, reminds me when to tap the brake and when to slam the throttle. He also keeps encouraging me—to go faster, to rev the engine to a deafening roar, to squeal the
tires. By lap 3, I am. Back in the pit, I tumble out of the car, heart pounding, blood pumping and feeling like Steve McQueen in Bullitt. Speaking of Hollywood, Thievin has done stunts in more than 150 movies, starting with Taxi (the 1998 Marion Cotillard French original, not the Jimmy Fallon U.S. version). “Peugeot gave the producers some cars and some drivers,” Thievin recalls, “I was 18 years old. I said, ‘This is what I want to do.’ I was paid to drive a fast car on the road and the police did nothing … unbelievable!” He’s since driven for Robert De Niro in Ronin and won a Taurus Award (the stuntman’s Oscar) for piloting a Mini Cooper as “Matt Damon” in The Bourne Identity—a chase that didn’t rely on fashy cars or CGI to impress. “When you look at James Bond, XXX, Fast & Furious—it’s not real,” he points
out. “It’s not possible to drive like that. Bourne was 100 percent real.” Now I get to go “drifting” with faux-Damon in a Corvette—and, unlike me, Thievin doesn’t need to be encouraged to go faster. The ’Vette spins, screeches and passes a Lamborghini like it was a Volkswagen. When most people see a barricade coming at them as they fshtail at speeds in excess of 100 mph, it’s the last thing they see. However, I’m going to witness it a dozen times on this ride-along, and by the last turn, it makes me laugh. After we exit the ’Vette, Thievin looks at a gleaming Ferrari Italia and the kid-on-Christmas face of the man about to get in it. “I didn’t have enough money to buy this car when I was young; my father didn’t either,” Thievin says. “But now everyone can drive this car.”
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
By Lissa Townsend Rodgers
By Bob Whitby THURSDAY, SEPT. 18: Want to know
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH Henderson drivers will soon find themselves on the wrong side of the road—intentionally, safely and briefly—in a diverging diamond interchange at West Horizon Drive and U.S. 95. The first of its kind in Southern Nevada, the interchange, which is scheduled to begin construction later this month, will guide vehicles onto the left side of the overpass bridge to access the freeway more easily. “It sounds so weird,” Henderson Public Works engineer Scott Jarvis says. “But the beauty of it is, since you are on the wrong side of the road, when you need to make a left-hand turn to get on the freeway, there are no cars coming the opposite direction, so it’s a free left.” With four traffic signals 1,500 feet apart, the interchange built in 1991 is among Henderson’s most congested, Jarvis says, with more than 18,500 vehicles using the northbound U.S. 95 ramp daily, an increase of 5,200 vehicles a day since 2005. The city paid
$453,000 to traffic-engineering consultant CA Group for computer modeling, traffic analysis and design. The diverging diamond concept was noted as one of the top engineering innovations of 2009 by Popular Science when it was introduced in Springfield, Missouri, and currently there are nearly 40 in the country. Until now, though, the nearest one was in St. George, which opened Utah’s fifth last year. (There also has been a diverging diamond in Reno at Interstate 580 and Moana Lane since November 2012.) An animated video from CA Group will soon be posted on the city’s website (CityofHenderson.com) to alleviate any motorists’ concerns that signs, striping, barriers and lights will not be enough to properly direct them. “When most people hear of the diverging diamond interchange, it sounds a little confusing,” Jarvis says. “I have driven through several of them, and I have to tell you, it’s very anticlimactic.” Construction on the $2.6 million project is expected to take less than five months, with most lane closures scheduled during nighttime hours. – Paul Szydelko
TESLA vs. TESLA: TALE OF THE TAPE by Jason Scavone
ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO; RE-VISUALIZING L AS VEGAS PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NEWS BUREAU
The country’s top electric-car producer.
what’s going on with our university? You can hear UNLV acting President Donald Snyder’s State of the University Address at 2:30 p.m. at UNLV’s Judy Bayley Theatre. UNLV.edu.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 19: Attention, muscle
heads: The 50th annual Mr. Olympia contest starts today and runs through Sunday. This is the big one; it spawned Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career, after all. If you dig oily guys in tiny swimsuits with monster pecs, be at the Orleans Arena at 7 p.m. today and tomorrow, and 11 a.m. Sunday. Tickets: $63-$160; OrleansArena.com.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 20: Downtown, grass, beer, music, food … the third annual Downtown Brew Festival has it all. The Clark County Amphitheater hosts (hence the grass) 50 brewers bringing more than 150 beers for you to sample while noshing on beer-infused eats and digging some local tunes. 6-10 p.m.; tickets: $40-$85; DowntownBrewFestival.com. SUNDAY, SEPT. 21: Perhaps you are already familiar with Mozart’s enchanting opera The Magic Flute. But we’ll hazard a guess that you’ve never seen it “Las Vegasized,” as you will at 6 p.m., for free, on Fremont Street. Sung in English by some of the top operatic talent the Valley has to offer, The Magic Flute on Fremont is a great way to introduce the kids, or anyone, to this amazing work. SinCityOpera.com.
WHAT
The country’s top five-man acoustical jam.
Northern California.
HAILS FROM
Also Northern California, a magical land where anything can happen, from the birth of tomorrow’s technocrats to the birth of genrespanning pop-metal acts.
The $5 billion gigafactory in Storey County.
WHERE
Eastside Cannery on Sept. 20..
TUESDAY, SEPT. 23: Now that you’re all grown up, you may
The Model S, with more than 30,000 on the road worldwide since its introduction in 2012.
BIGGEST HIT
“Signs,” the inexplicably popular 1990 cover that drove more than 1 million in sales because this was an era when people wore overalls with one strap and Michael Bolton had a No. 1 single and society was crumbling down around our ears, but no one noticed because they were too busy buying Tesla records.
The Model 3, expected to bow in 2017 at a more-affordable price point of $35,000-$40,000.
NEXT BIG THING
“About seven new songs!” according to guitarist Frank Hannon’s Facebook page.
In the neighborhood of $5 billion, according to projections released by the state.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
About $140,000 if the band got 10 bucks for every copy sold in the first week of its June release Simplicity.
Geeks, environmentalists, car nuts, futurists.
FAN BASE
Burnouts, former Extreme roadies, pre-grunge music enthusiasts, tape-deck holdouts.
also colorful thanks to photographer Brian Jones, who borrowed some of the most iconic black-and-white photos in the Las Vegas News Bureau’s collection and added color to them in Re-visualizing Las Vegas. The exhibit is a new way to look at the past in a city that rarely bothers to do so. Jones’ work is on display at City Hall’s Chamber Gallery through Nov. 15. ArtsLasVegas.org.
MONDAY, SEPT. 22: It’s Monday. Why
not celebrate our state’s 150th birthday at The Smith Center with a Sesquicentennial All-Star Concert? Performers on loan from shows such as Penn & Teller, Cirque du Soleil, Clint Holmes, Human Nature and many others will take the stage to sing and dance about Nevada’s century-and-ahalf of existence. That should make you feel younger. 7 p.m.; tickets: $25-$100; TheSmithCenter.org.
not realize that there are still scolds out there trying to keep kids from reading books such as Catcher in the Rye, Harry Potter, Captain Underpants and others. Poke a stick in their collective eye at the wonderful Uncensored Voices: Celebrating your Freedom to Read event, 7 p.m. at the Clark County Library’s Main Theater, 1401 E. Flamingo Rd. It’s part of Banned Books Week. LVCCLD.org.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 24: Las Vegas’ history is rich, and now it’s
THE LATEST
ABOUT TOWN
J A M E S P. R E Z A
Train of Thought
One passenger is impressed with his virgin voyage aboard the Las Vegas Monorail—and wonders about its potential to ofer more By Geoff Carter
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
I FUCKING LOVE ELEVATED TRAINS.
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You’re talking about someone who rode the Seattle Center Monorail at least twice a year from 2002 to 2012, even though there was no real need for me to do so: Seattle’s buses cover the same route at the same price and allow you to transfer to other routes, streetcars and even ferries, which the monorail does not. While we’re here, I’ll add that I’m a bit of a public transit superfreak. I haven’t owned a car since 2004, when I sold my Mercedes to ride those Seattle buses and trains. And since returning to Vegas in 2012, I’ve gotten around town via bus, bicycle and carpooling. (It’s not easy, but hey, a transit culture has to start somewhere.) All of this leads to the day, last month, when I rode the Las Vegas Monorail for the very frst time. I ignored it for its entire frst decade of operation, because—and this is someone who paid to take a monorail from Westlake Center to the former Seattle World’s Fair grounds, a distance of less than a mile—the 3.9-mile route of the our monorail seemed pointless. It serves mostly faded properties, and it affords a view only of the Strip’s industrial backside. The only thing I could see when I looked at our monorail was wasted potential: an expensive boondoggle that could neither get me
from home to the airport, or take me Downtown from the Strip. Though my frst ride on the monorail didn’t necessarily get me where I really wanted to go, it did soften my opinion of it as a mode of transportation. First, it’s cheap for locals; if you fash your Nevada ID at the window, you can get a one-way ticket for a buck. (You’re allowed two one-way tickets per day.) Once you’ve bought your ticket, you simply walk upstairs or downstairs (it’s different at different stations) to the platform, where there will probably be a train waiting for you. (Computer-controlled and driverless, the monorail runs with very little downtime.) The cars are clean and air-conditioned, and most afternoons, you’ll probably have one all to yourself. The ride from SLS to MGM, barely 15 minutes in length, is more scenic than I had anticipated. Yes, stucco walls and airconditioning units are a large part of the scenery, but you’re also afforded a nice panoramic view of the Wynn’s golf course, a lingering look at Bally’s pool area and tennis courts, and, in a Disneyesque fourish, a low sweep through the Linq entertainment district, with a close pass at the High Roller observation wheel. But is it useful? Somewhat. Even though one stop is listed
as “Flamingo/Caesars Palace,” I doubt that the average Caesars visitor is willing to cross the Strip and two casino foors just to save the cab fare to SLS. The monorail route, and the lack of Strip access to it, remains one of the worst examples of design by committee. At least Seattle’s monorail, which locals consider a straight-up tourist attraction, puts you right at the base of the damn Space Needle. There’s fun in it, but also function. Our monorail could gain some of that functionality with some effort, ingenuity … and, you know, money. Just imagine if we had an elevated rail system that extended as far south as McCarran and UNLV, or as far north as the Fremont Street Experience. We need a light-rail solution like that yesterday, and we already have one mostly built out. We’re constantly talking about ways to alleviate Strip traffc, to avoid the weekend clusterfuck at the airport, and to allow hospitality workers easy access to their jobs; why not fnish off the threefold solution that’s currently running above Paradise Road, and build a damn park-andride lot at both ends of the line? It’s something for a public transit superfreak to ponder. Maybe, even, as he’s barhopping from Linq to SLS. At the very least, I have that option—and I will no longer hesitate to use it.
You might expect a native to eagerly exclaim “Absolutely!” in response to the $100 million “face-lift” recently proposed for one of the last remaining classic-era Strip resorts. But I’m a Las Vegan, after all, and as such, I understand and respect that one of our city’s greatest strengths is its unwillingness to be anchored by nostalgia. Having said that, I will allow a heavily qualified “yes” to the Riviera renovation plan, putting up two contrasting neighbors as examples. In 2000, Steve Wynn anticipated the energy of the Strip shifting north (after years of pushing south), and purchased one of the Boulevard’s most storied resorts, the half-century-old Desert Inn, for a paltry $270 million. That was just three years after it had been exceptionally remodeled for $200 million. Within five years, Wynn had demolished the dapper but diminutive DI and opened his eponymous $2.7 billion resort on the site. Exhibit B: Late last month, north of the Riviera, Sam Nazarian helped launch SLS Las Vegas. SLS is quite a different animal, a $400 million reworking of the 59-year-old Sahara. In contrast to the nearly $3 billion in new construction at the Wynn (and $4 billion at the Cosmopolitan), SLS is all-in for roughly three-quarters of a billion dollars— and that’s in 2013 money. Apples and oranges. Given this, where does the 59-year-old Riviera, the Strip’s first high-rise, fit on the modern Las Vegas Boulevard map? As one of our few remaining classic casinos, the Riviera could posture itself like Downtown’s El Cortez, as part of the classic Vegas experience. But to get there, a lot of work must be done. Much like flippers do with classic homes that have suffered multiple out-of-date additions over the years, the Riviera’s ill-advised 1980s Splash-inspired facade should be removed and the resort returned to its proper mid-century stance on the Strip. The rooms, renovated in 2007, need modernizing (consider how the Plaza benefited from the demise of the Fontainebleau), and given how important dining has become (see: the Cosmopolitan), the resort needs a restaurant overhaul. (Bye-bye food court; welcome back the Hickory Room!) But the curvy classic pool remains intact, as does—behind that messy facade—the mid-century Miami Modern architecture. In other words, as with the Sahara, there is a lot of potential in the Riviera’s old bones. But by my math, $100 million hardly seems enough to scrub the 1980s off the place. Then again, one thing about Las Vegans is we do not count other people’s money. And we don’t tell others what to do with that money we haven’t counted. Here’s hoping the Riv can rise again! Questions? AskaNative@VegasSeven.com.
ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO
IS THE RIVIERA REALLY WORTH REMODELING?
The Nevada congressman is seeking re-election in November— although the good doctor would rather you not know it
JOE HECK IS A CONGRESSMAN.
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
You likely knew that … just not from watching one of Heck’s frst ads of the 2014 campaign. It introduces him as “Dr. Joe Heck,” an emergency-room doctor who also treated troops in Iraq, heals the sick and leaps tall operating tables in a single bound. The ad refers to “Heck for Congress,” but says nothing about re-election. For the record: Heck is seeking his third term, and he is on the ballot for the ffth time in six even-year elections, counting his state Senate victory in 2004 (when the now-moderate Republican ran to the right of the most right-wing Republican in the Legislature) and his defeat for the state Senate in 2008. Over the past decade, he has done more campaigning than prescribing, and more reinventing of himself than those two combined. Normally, this would be considered a typical “getting to know the candidate” ad. Understandably, Heck wants you to think of him as a lifesaving doctor. Tough to blame him. After all, who wants to admit to being a member of the current House of Representatives? Head lice score better in political polls. Beyond that, Heck has made noise about immigration reform, prompting criticism from the left that he’s not sincere and from the right that he better not be sincere. House leaders won’t touch the issue, and he’s taken some hits for such actions as refusing to take on the speaker and trying to get something accomplished. But if he really did go after the House Republican leadership, they might just make him the junior member of the committee on mosquito netting. So, silence is wise, as is running away from Congress. Heck is hardly the only one to do that this year. He’s also far from the frst Nevadan to run for offce by running from offce:
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In 1962, U.S. Representative Walter Baring, once a New Deal liberal, announced his opposition to John Kennedy’s New Frontier and that he was now a Jeffersonian states-rights Democrat. Maybe he felt JFK’s program went too far, or he legitimately changed his ideology, or he saw that his strongest supporters in rural Nevada wouldn’t go for it. Or he knew that one of his biggest campaign contributors thought the John Birch Society was liberal. In the next six elections, more liberal-minded Democrats challenged him in the primary, failing the frst fve times. So for Baring, running away from his past worked. In 1968, U.S. Senator Alan Bible sought a fourth term and pointed to his success at harvesting federal pork. That success had been partly because of his close friendship with Lyndon Johnson, frst when LBJ was Senate majority leader, then president. By 1968, though, Vietnam had destroyed LBJ’s popularity.
Accordingly, Bible was hard-pressed to remember Johnson’s name during the campaign. He won, and he kept the president’s friendship; master politician that he was, LBJ understood. In 1994, Republicans won the House for the frst time in 42 years, in particular taking down longtime incumbent Democrats across the country—including Jim Bilbray, Nevada’s four-term congressman whose daughter Erin is Heck’s general-election opponent in November. That year, U.S. Senator Richard Bryan, a Democrat, easily won a second term thanks to a brilliant campaign. His GOP opponent, Hal Furman, had been an aide to Senator Paul Laxalt and a deputy interior secretary under Ronald Reagan—a spectacular pedigree—but then became a lobbyist/consultant before choosing to oppose Bryan. Bryan’s campaign responded by depicting Furman as a government guy while Bryan had dedicated his life to making government run better as an assemblyman (1969-73), state senator (1973-79), attorney general (197983), governor (1983-89) and U.S. senator (since 1989). Except the Bryan campaign didn’t talk much about all that experience—just that he tried for so long to make government better. It worked. Bryan won by 10 percent. Yes, these three examples were Democrats, the party normally associated with being pro-government, while Heck’s fellow Republicans position themselves as anti-government (and anti-politician). But whatever the party, come election season, politicians know how to operate—especially when they’re doctors. Michael Green is an associate professor of history at UNLV.
TACKLING THE BEST FOOTBALL SPECIALS One thing you can count on every football season—besides the Oakland Raiders struggling to find the win column—is that lots of good deals will show up after the season begins. And only two weeks in, several already have … Reduced Juice: When making a football bet, the typical arrangement is to wager $110 to win $100 (or $11 to win $10). But from 3 p.m. till close on Thursdays, the SuperBook at Westgate offers -105 betting, so it's $105 to win $100 (college and NFL “sides” only). It’s a good deal that cuts the bookie’s edge from 4.5 percent to 2.4 percent, but be sure to use the bet numbers from the “-105 sheet” at the window, or you won’t get the deal. Independents: Here’s another one for bettors. Before placing a wager, you should shop to find the best line. You’ll find line discrepancies among the big books with multiple outlets, but the best places to check are the independent casinos. Though not located in Las Vegas, there’s a new indie this year at the Casablanca/Virgin River in Mesquite. Formerly operated by South Point, the Casablanca now runs its own show. Closer to home, you’ll find indie books at the Westgate, TI, Wynn/Encore, Golden Nugget, Jerry’s Nugget and Aliante. Free Contests: Now that the season’s begun, there’s no value in playing most of the big football contests. But there are several that offer weekly prizes of cash and casino free play. Free weekly contests are running at Aliante, Ellis Island, Silver Sevens, Hard Rock, Rampart and PT’s. Play the casino contests by swiping your players card at a kiosk; enter PT’s by filling out a card at one of its 43 locations (you can enter one card per day, Tuesday-Saturday). Munchies: There’s still a lot of research to do here, but a couple of traditional faves are back. Most Station Casinos sportsbooks serve $1 hot dogs with onions and kraut. Aliante has prime rib (really just roast beef) sliders for $2, or three for $5, that you can top with au jus, spicy mustard and horseradish. The Monday Night Football party at South Point has lots of cheap eats, but the standout is wings for $5. Lagasse’s Stadium at Palazzo features the famous foods of NFL cities during MNF telecasts. For example, the menu for the Bears-Jets MNF game September 21 includes Chicago dogs (for the Bears) and meatball subs (for the Jets). Beers: There’s even more research to be done here, but for now, the best beer deal is $1 for pints of Ellis Island home brews. After that, the best prices are $1.50 at Eastside Cannery and $2 in several locations, including Stations, Gold Coast, Orleans, Aliante, Rampart and Silver Sevens. Drinking only one? Head to Sam’s Town, where the first is on the house. Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor and LasVegasAdvisor.com.
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One Ticket to Primm, Please! For some Southern California gamblers (and shoppers), there’s no better road trip than a turnaround bus ride to the state line By Brooke Edwards Staggs
September 18–24, 2014
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WE WERE SOMEWHERE AROUND BARSTOW
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on the edge of the desert when the bingo began to take hold. Lisa Hernandez—who’s hosted roundtrip bus expeditions from Apple Valley to Primm for a lucky 13 years—walked the aisle, depositing $1 into her fanny pack in exchange for each faded blue bingo card she doled out. The frst game went smoothly. Passengers laughed as Hernandez called out “I-22, toot toot,” and the driver promptly “tooted” the horn twice. A regular named George won $7 after an “X” appeared on his card, and the other riders politely cheered. As the bus cruised through Yermo and the second game started to lag, another man softly called out “bingo” from the back. But Hernandez didn’t hear him. She announced one more spot, and a woman immediately hollered the name of the game. Riders rumbled, “He called it frst!” The woman argued back, “I called it, too!” And one thing became clear: These folks take their gambling, no matter how low the stakes, seriously. Turnaround bus trips like this used to be common. Riders could pay a small fee for a single seat on a bus leaving from multiple Southern California locations early in the morning and returning that night. But ridership dwindled during the Great Recession, as more Indian casinos opened in California and online gaming exploded. Our bus company, Ebmeyer, previously offered four bus trips a week, says Bruce William, the company’s vice president. Now they’re down to one. And even that Saturday run gets canceled if they don’t have at least 20 riders. “It’s just been a little less every year,” William says. Fortunately, on this Saturday, 28 people decided to give 12 hours of their lives over to Ebmeyer and Primm and gambling. The company picks up its frst riders from its home base in the high-desert town of Apple Valley at 7:30 a.m.; most board at an appliance store in Victorville at 8. The bus makes its fnal stop at a Carl’s Jr. in Barstow— often only to pick up the Larsons, a silver-haired couple who make the journey nearly every week. The trip is all you expect it to be. The air is thick with grandma’s perfume.
There’s a raffe where one prize is a magnifying glass, which Hernandez points out is useful “for when you’re sewing.” The random younger riders exchange tips for shopping the outlet stores, while the rest of the passengers talk strategy for playing the slots. “I love to gamble. Period,” Winnie Rueff says. “Almost everyone here does.” Rueff, 90, has been riding a bus from her home in Apple Valley to Primm just about every month since she frst read about the trips in the local newspaper 20 years ago. Vegas is “too busy” for her.
• Illustration By Rick Quemado Buffalo Bill’s casino, they’re handed a neon sticker with the phrase “Today’s my day, I’m here to win” and a number corresponding to their bus. It’s in case of a medical emergency, Hernandez explains. One rider jokes, “I don’t think I’ll have a heart attack today.” Hernandez quips, “Well, you never know.” It seems every other person manning the Buffalo Bill’s slots, lounging in the sportsbook and waiting in line for a hot dog have one of the trademark neon stickers on their shirt or purse. The sticker draws nods of rec-
Thanks to heavy subsidies from the casinos, the trip now costs each rider just $15. That includes a glazed doughnut, a cup of coffee and a voucher for $10 in free slot play. Win one round of onboard bingo, and the powers that be are paying you to go. And while there are a couple of Indian casinos closer to home in California, Rueff chooses not to try her luck there, for good reason: She says she never wins. Though she’s traveled the world—and still drives—Rueff feels safer riding the bus than heading out on the open highway alone. Plus, she adds, “It’s cheaper.” Several riders take the bus rather than gassing up their own vehicles. Thanks to heavy subsidies from the casinos, William says, the trip now costs each rider just $15. That includes a glazed doughnut, a cup of coffee and a voucher for $10 in free slot play. Win one round of onboard bingo, and the powers that be are paying you to go. Before riders are set loose inside
ognition, paving the way for conversation between fellow members of the bus-riding club. It’s normal to have 15 to 20 buses in Primm on any given day, says Rachel Zheng, tourism director for the Fashion Outlets of Las Vegas at Primm Valley Resort and Casino. Most of the buses come from California, though Zheng says many are full of Asian tourists— largely from China—who visit as one stop during a whirlwind West Coast vacation. There were 25 buses in the parking lot when Ebmeyer rolled into town, though all but ours were part of tours or private charters for company outings or fundraisers. That’s what brought sisters Angelica
and Rosa Lopez, 28 and 22, to Primm. They each paid $35 for a ride from Riverside, with part of the fee going to help a local high school improve its dilapidated athletic felds. Half the fun, they say, is the ride itself, since the private charter buses offer games plus permission to drink alcohol. Neither of the sisters gamble; instead they’re planning to spend their time at the arcade and with friends. Rueff has her own routine for the seven-hour stay. She usually brings about $300 to play the slot machines; old-school reel-spinners, not poker or the like. She only plays quarters. And despite Hernandez’s cautionary tale of a rider who won $600 instead of $2 million by not making the maximum bet on a progressive slot, Rueff usually plays one quarter at a time. And she always eats free, easily earning enough points on her players card to qualify for a complimentary buffet. Most buses depart at about 6 p.m., but people are already milling around the pickup area an hour earlier, sitting on the foor along the wall and crowding the nearby McDonald’s. Some are tired. Some are bored. Some are here early because Hernandez’s warning was ringing in their ears: “I’m notorious for leaving people [behind].” The bus starts loading at 5:40. A few ladies carry onboard some shopping bags from the outlet mall. One man still has a drink in hand. John Peres, 35, is grinning from ear to ear. It was Peres’ frst time in Primm. He commutes long hours every weekday for work, so he tries to avoiding driving during his downtime. A friend suggested the bus trip, and he took it as a “little vacation” from life. Peres saw entertainment all around Primm’s three casinos, though Buffalo Bill’s was his favorite. “I said, ‘There’s a log ride? I’m getting on that.’” Buffalo Bill’s is also where he “won big,” though he didn’t reveal the amount. “It was so much fun,” he says. “I am so glad I came.” Others on the bus didn’t fare so well. One woman could be heard phoning a family member, letting them know she might need money for gas and cigarettes until her next paycheck. Rueff didn’t win, either. But she still enjoyed the day and plans to go again in a couple of weeks. “It’s worth it to me,” she says, “because I have a good time.”
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September 18–24, 2014
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WHEREVER
THE ROADS
MAY LEAD US
You’ll drive Siri crazy, but if you’re looking for adventure, it’s time to disobey those digital directions and take some I N S P I R AT I O N A L D E T O U R S
American Safari Taking the slow road to the Bay Area, one unexpected delight at a time
➜ I really discovered what “safari” means while living in Kenya in the late 1980s, when I traveled by bus across that country every few weeks. These weren’t the khaki-clad, nativeguided, exotic animal-hunting safaris of such Hollywood flms as Mogambo, but more serendipitous explorations of remote locations under challenging conditions. Like Rutger Hauer’s Roy in Blade Runner, I ended up seeing things and places that people wouldn’t believe—and that sometimes, now, I can hardly believe myself. Unfortunately, most of us have few opportunities for such faraway adventures, and our closer-to-home, more conventional travels often disappoint. But why? Is it simply because they’re close to home? Or is it because the itinerary is so carefully executed that it might as well take place back home? With a little planning, a little anti-planning and some patience, we Las Vegans can create our own “road safari” simply driving outside of Clark County limits. Yes, road trips in the Southwest can seem exhausting and underwhelming:
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1 FIRST STOP:
Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge
FWS.gov/Refuge/Ash_Meadows/
The Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is about two hours from Las Vegas, between Pahrump and Death Valley Junction. The refuge suffers from being too far from Las Vegas for a casual trip, but so close that drivers often don’t want to break the momentum of longer trips to Death Valley. Take a chance and stop: The refuge features beautiful views, bird watching and two boardwalks that children and dogs will enjoy exploring. Be sure to stop by the visitors center to ask about the wildlife, and for directions.
Bishop CALIFORNIA Sequoia National Forest
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Manzanar Lone Pine Owens Lake
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes Keeler 190
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OPPOSITE PAGE PHOTO BY JASON PATRICK ROSS
Convict Lake Sierra National Forest
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Death Valley Junction 15
Ash Meadows Wildlife Refuge
September 18–24, 2014
The Ash Meadows boardwalks provide relief for children (and pets) after a couple of hours in the car.
such long distances, so desolate! But with a reordering of expectations and a readiness to pay attention to history and subtlety, a NevadaCalifornia safari can generate those rare memories so sharp and enduring that, like my Kenya adventures, they hardly seem real. Below, I’ve collected some favorite locations from my Las Vegas-to-Bay Area trips. Most drivers take the most direct route, dominated by two long stretches: Interstate 15 toward Los Angeles and then Interstate 5 north. A more scenic alternative is to head north to Lake Tahoe on the two-lane U.S. 95 before driving west through the Stanislaus National Forest. My safari option, though, is to head diagonally northwest and visit remote, below-the-radar treasures along the way. The driving does take a few hours longer—particularly if you’re stuck behind a dawdling RV along the way—but together these sites are worth spending two or three days to explore, and they’re ideal if you’re traveling with children or interested in photography, history, technology or geography. The key is to be willing to stop at a moment’s notice: When I embark on these journeys, I usually plan to stop every two hours or so, and carry a generous amount of food and drinks, not just for emergencies but so I can stop and snack on my own schedule.
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STORY AND PHOTOS BY JULIAN KILKER
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2 NEXT STOP:
Death Valley Junction
Amargosa-Opera-House.com
The eerily dark and quiet Death Valley Junction at night. On the left, the Amargosa Opera House; on the right, Peter Lik’s surreal photography exhibit.
3 NEXT STOP:
About 30 minutes past Ash Meadows, it’s worth stopping to explore the desolate Amargosa facilities, built in the 1920s by the Pacific Coast Borax Company, and to view Peter Lik’s dramatic photography on the facing corner. When starting the journey from Las Vegas, Death Valley Junction feels like many of the stops on this safari: an oasis built and maintained by spirited contrarians; the results of their dedication are both marvelous and precarious. On the return portion of my trips, usually at night, I find this location bittersweet. It’s the last waypoint before I leave the desert and these oases behind, and the first hints of city life begin to appear: First, stop signs, then increasingly frequent street lights, fussy speed limits and heavy traffic. Marta Becket, the force behind the Amargosa Opera House, left such constraints behind decades ago. If you can, look inside the hotel and take advantage of the increasingly rare events at the Opera House (the Borax company’s former recreation hall). According to the venue’s Facebook page, performances will start again in October.
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
NPS.gov/Deva/index.htm PanamintSprings.com
From the Amargosa Opera House, drive a long stretch downhill into Death Valley toward the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, just before Stovepipe Wells on the west side of the park. On the way, there’s a pricey-butwelcome convenience store and gas station at Furnace Creek (rumor has it that you can pay to use the pool as well, a worthwhile respite in the warmer months). Plan to reach the dunes at sunset; you’ll experience dramatic environmental changes as the temperature and night falls. Sounds will seem to become more muffled at dusk. If you have young children with you, they’ll treat the dunes like a giant sandbox. Be prepared to handle the resulting sandy mess! Consider staying overnight at the Stovepipe Wells Village Hotel, or drive on through the night uphill and down through the Panamint Valley—a steep and starkly beautiful section of this trip; take a moment to photograph one of the longest straight rural roads in the U.S. You can stay at the rustic Panamint Springs Resort. Even if you don’t stay, check out the great beer selection and, if you must, use the resort’s Wi-Fi service (provided by satellite connection). Or continue for another 90 minutes into the mountains to Owens Lake and stay in Lone Pine. Whatever lodging option you choose, be sure to make reservations for a late arrival.
September 18–24, 2014
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A plaque describing the draining and remediation of Owens Lake, which is visible in the background.
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The Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes at dusk.
4 NEXT STOP:
Owens Lake and Keeler
FS.USDA.gov/RecArea/Inyo/ RecArea/?recid=20698
Wake up early and enjoy dawn in the desert (if you stayed at Panamint Springs) or the mountain views (at Lone Pine), then get back on the road. Depending on the condition of your car, it will take about 90 minutes to get from Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes to the southern end of the Owens River Valley. The main challenge facing this region will sound familiar: It was sucked dry for Los Angeles (see Chinatown), and Owens Lake has had to be terraced at great expense to reduce wind-blown dust. Much of the valley is, controversially, still controlled by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Driving next to the lake, you’ll pass Keeler, a semi-ghost town that was a terminal for ships carrying ore when the lake was full. (Note: The remaining residents aren’t enthusiastic about looky-loos.) At the intersection of Routes 136 and 395, see an original portion of the 10-foot diameter of the Los Angeles aqueduct pipe at the Eastern Sierra Interagency Visitor Center, which opens at 8 a.m.
You’ve seen the Lone Pine and Alabama Hills area even if you don’t realize it. The region, just a few miles north of Owens Lake, has provided film locations for nearly a century, from Westerns (starting with The RoundUp, 1920) to recent action films set in the Middle East (Iron Man, 2008) to otherworldly locations (Star Trek Generations, 1994). Make sure to visit the Beverly and Jim Rogers Lone Pine Film History Museum (opens at 10 a.m.). And ask for directions to the nearby film locations in the Alabama Hills.
Renowned mid-century fashion designer Nudie Cohn’s car and other movie memorabilia at the Beverly and Jim Rogers Lone Pine Film History Museum.
6 NEXT STOP:
Manzanar
NPS.gov/Manz/Index.htm
This slab is a rare remnant of the original Manzanar housing. Like much of this trip, the surroundings are harsh but beautiful. You’ve undoubtedly seen the Alabama Hills in the background—at the movies.
About 15 minutes north of Lone Pine on the road to Bishop, you’ll pass by the remains of the Manzanar JapaneseAmerican camp, one of many internment camps created during World War II. Star Trek actor George Takei’s family was forced to live in similar camps in Arkansas and at Tulelake, California. A child-friendly museum, reconstructed on a site that was rapidly demolished after the war, raises questions about patriotism during wartime that resonate today.
The under-visited Laws Railroad Museum has a remarkably large and diverse collection of historic train and building exhibits stretching far back from the main road.
7 NEXT STOP:
Bishop
MountainLight.com LawsMuseum.org
Heading north on Route 395 through Big Pine for about 45 minutes gets you to the small town of Bishop, famous for nearby rock-climbing opportunities. On this trip, I recommend visiting Mountain Light Gallery to see Galen and Barbara Rowell’s influential landscape photography. Continuing north, skip the bakery crowded with tourists on Main Street, and instead picnic on the pleasant grounds of the Laws Railroad Museum northeast on Route 6. Give yourself more time to visit than you probably thought necessary, and be aware that the museum closes at 4 p.m.
Despite the following cautions, I’ve found this trip safe and people along the way friendly and exceptionally helpful. I’ve even had locals stop to make sure I’m safe when I pull off the road at night to admire stars. Nevertheless, you should check both online and printed maps beforehand. (I carry state maps so I can compare notes with other travelers, plan with the family and evaluate alternate routes. AAA maps are free with membership, which I recommend in case you need roadside assistance.) Verify that roads and sites are open, particularly if you’re traveling in the snowy winter season; to that point, this trip is best taken in the fall or spring. Consider what time you’d like to start based on the locations you’d like to see: Leaving Las Vegas in the early afternoon gets you, with the stops mentioned here, to Death Valley in the evening, when it’s cool and the desert night sky is stunning. Plan where you’d like to stay along the way: I recommend two nights, one in Lone Pine and one near Bodie. Cellphone service is poor to nonexistent during much of this trip, particularly in the areas you’d most likely need directions or have car troubles. Make sure your vehicle is in good shape—check your tires, oil and lights—and carry spare fashlights. Know how to mount your spare tire, and check that you have the necessary tools. During the trip, avoid the rookie mistake of depending entirely on your GPS for accurate routes. If you’re directed off the paved roads near Death Valley, your GPS has failed you. Remember: If the road sign tells you one thing and your GPS disagrees, always follow the road sign. People—locals and rangers—are the best resources. There are few gas stations on this route: It’s worth topping off even at expensive stations just in case, and so that you can explore detours if necessary. – J.K.
VegasSeven.com
Before You Go …
Lone Pine
LonePineFilmHistoryMuseum.org
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NEXT STOP:
September 18–24, 2014
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8 NEXT STOP:
Convict Lake
MonoCounty.org/Convict-Lake/
After leaving Bishop, continue north on Route 395 for another 45 minutes. Across the street from the Mammoth Yosemite Airport, turn left and drive two miles to Convict Lake, so-named because a group of convicts who escaped from Carson City were captured there. Today, hiking, fishing and camping are available—just beware of bears—or you can just stop for the view on the way to Bodie or nearby Mammoth.
All Exploratorium exhibits, like this one showing how lenses work, are intensely interactive. The museum is famous for having few rules: If an exhibit breaks, it’s not the visitor’s fault; rather, the focus turns to redesigning and rebuilding the exhibit in the on-site fabrication space.
Onward to Yosemite and San Francisco NPS.gov/Yose/Index.htm SFTreasureIsland.org Exploratorium.edu
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
Convict Lake provides a scenic rest stop, or a chance to stay longer and hike up into the mountains or rent a boat. Just keep an eye out for bears.
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9 NEXT STOP:
Bodie
Parks.CA.gov/?Page_id=509
| Bodie.com
About 90 minutes north of Convict Lake and Mammoth—and 45 minutes past Route 120 (the Yosemite turnoff)—is a chance to explore a uniquely photogenic site. Bodie is a classic “boom and bust” ghost town; once the gold ran out, the remote locale was unsustainable. Because Bodie is so remote, and it’s best to arrive early or stay late in the day, consider using one of the two motels just north on Route 395. Check hours and road conditions beforehand: The location is at high altitude and exposed, and the access road gets snowed in during the winter.
Bodie’s remaining buildings are kept in a state of “arrested decay”—the exteriors are repaired, but the interiors are left untouched.
As Bodie disappears in your rearview mirror, head south to Route 120 toward Yosemite. The Bay Area is about a fivehour drive west through Yosemite on the remarkable climb through the Tioga Pass (closed during the winter). Take time to stop at the viewpoints along the way, particularly if the traffic is sparse, and turn left off 120 to visit Yosemite Village itself. Yosemite, of course, is a popular destination and often crowded—so if you’re lucky enough to be traveling during midweek or other lowtraffic seasons, make the most if it. For the same reason, be sure to research and reserve your accommodations in advance if you plan to stay in the area. Leaving Yosemite, you have about a fourhour drive west to San Francisco through increasingly busy and crowded communities, with multiple traffic chokepoints. (Your best option is to take Route 120 west to Interstate 205 to Interstate 580 to the Bay Bridge.) Fortunately, increasing urbanization means that your GPS and phone work again. I recommend arriving after the evening rush hour to enjoy the beautiful view as you drive over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. At night, it’s worth turning off the bridge at the Treasure Island/Yerba Buena Island exit for panoramic city views (get in the left lane; it’s an abrupt turn). Once you’re in San Francisco, give your car a well-deserved rest and continue your explorations aboard public transportation and on foot. A must-see final destination is the Exploratorium, the superb hands-on science and technology museum recently relocated to Pier 15 on the Embarcadero. Founded in 1969 by Frank Oppenheimer, brother of one of the “fathers” of the atomic bomb, the museum is famous for child- and adult-friendly exhibits—and now also for an excellent cafeteria in its new location. The Exploratorium is a gem for curious visitors, and an inspiration for those coming from regions like ours that aspire to a more technologically sophisticated, diversified economy. It’s a worthy place to conclude our safari, looking back in the direction we started.
To Los Angeles, Via America Pull off the 15, take some extra time and rediscover what the open road once meant. Just watch out for potholes. BY LISSA TOWNSEND RODGERS ➜ Ah, the glories of Interstate 15 to Los Angeles! Two-hundred-and-seventy high-speed straightaway miles. Should be enjoyable for someone driving a big, fast car with a loud stereo. But I hate it: Four-plus hours of soul-sucking white-line fever. By the time I hit the Cajon Pass, my eyes hurt, my back hurts and my brain is dead. But there is another way. Fifty miles out of Vegas, I turn left at Nipton Road and within a few minutes, I’m in the middle of nowhere—also known as the Mojave National Preserve. No roaring 80 miles an hour, but also no dodging multiLas Vegas ple lanes of semis and Hon15 das. Just me and my ChrysKelso ler 300 winding through the Depot Mojave National Preserve
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desert. No phone signal. The only hints of civilization are the occasional battered signs reminding me to watch for foods or tortoises, and a row of electric power lines fringing the horizon like eyelashes. As I slowly climb, the scrub twists up into Joshua trees, and the scenery becomes fantastic—giant rocks as eerily smooth as the surface of an alien planet or rows of craggy boulders that break through the earth like the back of a long-buried dinosaur. The view is beguiling, but watch out: The road can break into a sandpaper-rough surface or a patchwork of fading pavement spackled over potholes. And there are parts where you’d best not exceed the speed limit without a lunar rover. Still, hitting a freshly paved stretch is the golden ticket to a personal amusement park. Just wide sky and fat land, the Misfts howling from the speakers, racing down the asphalt and shouting yee-haw every time I take a stomach-dropping dip in the road. Between the pastoral splendor of Death Valley and the raw power of a Detroit engine, it’s an “America, fuck yeah!” moment that puts any halftime display of fghter jets and fags to shame. The fun stops when the potholes recur, then a sudden glide into a curving, downward slope into an oasis of green. Back in the days of silent movies and jazz trombones, the Kelso Depot station was a bustling stop on the Union Pacifc Railroad; today it sits silent and preserved amid shady trees and lush lawns. But in a blink I’m on dusty, desolate Kelebaker Road toward Amboy and Route 66 (AmboyRoute66.com). Eventually the enormous, acute-angled sign for Roy’s Café and Motel rises up like a retro mirage. “Café” and “Motel” are misleading: There’s no kitchen and no place to sleep. All the same, step inside and sit at the circa-The Wild One lunch counter to drink a soda and write a postcard, or walk across a gravel parking lot to snap photos of the decrepit cabins and preserved-in-amber lobby. (Keys dangle on hooks behind the orange trapezoid counter, a copy of Frank Sinatra’s Songs for Swingin’ Lovers leans against the hi-f cabinet.) The only other local feature is the Amboy Crater. One-man
gas station, abandoned Googie motel, giant cinder-black extinct volcano looming above: The perfect setting for an episode of The Twilight Zone or a drive-in sci-f movie. But onward, westward, zooming down 66 toward the endless horizon through a corridor of telephone lines. Train tracks skim alongside the asphalt, then loop away toward the mountains. A train with double-stacked boxcars in pink, green and blue, like an oversize toy, keeps me company for miles. Every so often another vehicle passes by, but damn few. All of them are fairly recent models, well-maintained: The high desert is no place for a fan belt that’s about to snap or secondhand tires. But aside from a recent oil change and full tank of gas, the only necessity required for the road less traveled is time. Time to slow down, whether out of wonderment or caution. Time to go extra miles, to make unexpected stops. I cruise through Baghdad and Siberia—those are real places in the Mojave, only a few miles apart, though neither of them remains more than a pair of wide spots in the road. I slow down and roll into Ludlow, passing the ghost town version—abandoned café, gas station, metal shop, all roofess and rotting in the sun, hand-painted signs advertising fuel pumps serviced and checks cashed are baked to shadows. Barely down the road is the current version of Ludlow, which seems to be stuck somewhere in the last season of Mad Men. The Ludlow Motel is a low-slung brick structure with a lurid yellow lamp; the Ludlow Café is an asymmetrical A-frame with a knotty pine and beige Formica interior. The waitress is harried but cheerful, and the chocolate milk shake is thick and cold. The couple at the table next to me is speaking French; across the room two kids chatter in Japanese; the family I snapped a photo for in Amboy was German—strange how the people I fnd amid all of this archetypical Americana are from somewhere else. A few hundred yards out of the parking lot, I hit the ramp to Route 40. It’s still nearly three hours to Los Angeles. An hour lost, and worth every second.
September 18–24, 2014
PHOTO BY ANDREY BAYDA
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VegasSeven.com
False advertising: There are no beds and no kitchen at Roy’s Cafe and Motel.
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The High Road
A father-son journey to Santa Fe and beyond STORY AND PHOTOS BY GREG BLAKE MILLER
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
Exploring Taos Pueblo, bow and arrow in hand. Below, the San José de Gracia church, standing since 1760, original adobe walls still intact.
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➜ The thing is, Santa Fe is good enough. If you’re driving, as my 13-year-old son and I did, through alpine Flagstaff and then across the badlands of Interstate 40, and doing it during monsoon season, you’ll get your adventure, all right. Zero visibility behind a pale gray semi, the kid warning my old eyes just in time. The itty-bitty, slow-moving yellow Smart car edges in front of us, leaving me, of all things, glad for a bright beacon creeping along at the pace of a geriatric jogger. It changes lanes; we’re on our own. I’m obliged by pride to start speeding again. Next to me there’s a kid, my kid, rolling down the
Las Trampas 76 503
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window and sticking his head out as the hail starts. A sign tells us to tune in to Meteor Crater radio, where we are encouraged to “Experience the Impact!” We decide to Experience the Impact. We climb the ridge. At frst the crater seems about the size of the Rose Bowl, then we’re told that it could ft about 10 Rose Bowls. Our awe sensors are now fully tuned. Clouds break apart and reassemble in menacing new shapes; the Four Horsemen gallop toward us. A lightning strike, and the crater’s four-miles-in-diameter of prehistoric destruction seem entirely duplicable … right … now. Eleven hours of driving, and yes, Santa Fe feels good enough. The red rock formations of the Arizona-New Mexico borderlands have given way to rolling green hills—green, at least, at the tail end of this week’s downpour—the roadside teepees have yielded frst to the Route 66 Casino, then to the cloud-shadowed apparition of Albuquerque, then, an hour up Interstate 25, to the Sangre de Christo Mountains and the fat-roofed red adobe (and, to be fair, rampant fauxdobe) of Santa Fe. Yes, if you’re in the market for turquoise bracelets and art with lots of sunset purple and burnt umber, you’ve come to the right place. But you’ve also come to the right place if you want to feel the sheer elevation of walking into the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis in the center of downtown. The soaring vaults over the nave, the rose-patterned stained glass, the Romanesque arches. This city was founded in 1598; in 1610, it became the provincial capital. It’s still the capital of New Mexico. This part of America knows a thing or two about old. (The ancient-looking church, though, does play tricks on you; the present building, looking for all the world like St. Francis himself might have wandered its aisles, went up only in 1869.) Around the corner, the Loretto Chapel was built in 1873 without a staircase from the frst foor to the second. The nuns prayed; a carpenter showed up. He built a spiral that circled three times and connected with the balcony; the spiral had no visible means of support. The carpenter left town without pay and was never seen again. They
••••• ivan larionov, my father-in-law, was a colonel and an aeronautic engineer; he was the commander of civil defenses of a small, secret city; he was a boxing champion, parachutist, hangglider and farmer. He was a man who built both a car and a house with his own hands. In his fnal years—which he never expected to be his fnal years— he raised bees. In the country house outside the town of Skopin, my wife and her mother spent the early days of August extracting the honey from the
concentration of roadside fast-food restaurants. There are no fast-food restaurants on the High Road, which starts with a wise right turn just north of Santa Fe onto state Highway 503. The 503—another miracle. It takes us to Santuario Chimayo, a quietly dazzling compound of churches, chapels and small shops. You would know it was holy even if its website did not proclaim, “Welcome to Holy Chimayo.” More than 200 years ago, Bernardo de Abeyta saw a glow upon the green-brown mountains, walked toward the radiance and found a crucifx at its source. A church was built at Chimayo, with two adobe towers joined by a wood-frame peak. We enter—mass is in session; every pew is full. The congregants sing in Spanish; the priest makes his announcements, wishes his visitors well. This is a place of pilgrimage, a once-in-a-lifetime place, but it is neither remote nor exotic to the people singing here. In the priest’s voice there is invitation, and the calm certainty that the invitation will be accepted. They will be back. We follow a line toward the altar, then to the left into a small room. At the center of the room, the foor is cut out. The dirt in this space is holy. Congregants enter one by one, pick up small handfuls, stand briefy in silence, return the dirt to the ground. I touch the dirt, think my thoughts, then yield the room to my son.
The towering adobe walls of the San José de Gracia Church fill the frame of our windshield. Our hosts prepared us for the sight of Chimayo, but they spoke nothing of this . hives, Ivan’s gift to the winter ahead. Ivan had died on July 26; the next day, my wife had fown to Moscow. Back home, I was supposed to leave on August 2 for a working trip to Santa Fe. I thought, for a moment, about staying put, sharing the sadness from a distance, spending a quiet late-summer week at home with my boy. Then I looked at the map, looked at the kid, and told him to hop in the front seat and buckle up. Ivan had been an adventurer; he had dreamed of driving my son and me from Moscow to his birthplace on the Siberian banks of Lake Baikal. If you look at a map, you’ll see that that’s a really long way. Ivan would have liked the trek to Santa Fe, but he’d have liked the High Road to Taos even more. They call it the High Road because there is another, lower road. The low road, U.S. Route 84, eventually hits the Rio Grande Gorge as you head north. That part of the 84 is pretty. The problem is, you have to drive the rest of it to get there. This includes a town called Española, which features an unnatural
We continue onto Highway 76, winding among rolling hills. Forest country … occasional low-slung homes with horse trailers … small dirt roads leading upward into the trees. We pass a sign announcing the town of Las Trampas. We round a bend; nature steps back and bows before history. The towering adobe walls of the San José de Gracia Church fll the frame of our windshield. Our hosts prepared us for the sight of Chimayo, but they spoke nothing of this. The plaque out front tells us this church was built in 1760; the adobe, maintained through centuries by the hands of parishioners, has worn patterns like continents from an unknown globe. The doors are rough-hewn, powerful, assembled from diagonal planks, the frame carved with Latin script and a birdlike beast. The church is closed. It feels like my very own discovery, like the abandoned churches I’d stumbled upon as a young reporter in Moscow almost 20 years ago, in a city still unpolished and full of hidden talismans. Those days had flled my mind with mad magic,
possibility, poetry; they led me to my wife. She has just sent me an email— she walked this morning to the riverbank near Skopin and stood alongside her father’s favorite tree and let the place speak to her. Here, the doors of San José de Gracia are speaking to me. It is as if they are not locked at all.
••••• my son has chosen our first activity in Taos. He’s looked up the town on Apple Maps, perused the satellite image and found a baseball feld at Kit Carson Park. And so, on this day of wonders, we play ball. Alongside right feld, tombstones rise from the lawn. I catch the last of my boy’s fastballs and propose that we take a walk in the graveyard. The centuries speak; fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, generations—gone already 150 years. And here is Kit Carson himself, alongside his wife, Josephine. She died on April 23, 1868. He died exactly one month later. Carson lived in this city; here he is both lionized and vilifed. Having made it through a Nevada childhood, I still thrill at the name. But my boyish admiration of the great Western adventurer mixes with a growing awareness that, for Native Americans, the history of Kit Carson is one of staggering loss. The main street of Taos is called Kit Carson Road; his homemuseum is there, lovingly curated. But the debate on Carson is refected on the informational plaque here at the cemetery, where one account of his life has been laid over another, and then partly chipped away. We drive out of town and park outside Taos Pueblo. Inside, we catch the end of a tour—a young man is telling a group of about 10 visitors of the frst elk he killed on the nearby mountain. The mountain belongs to the pueblo; the sign on the path warns trespassers. The residents of the pueblo provide for the mountain, and it provides for them. Here they live and work and sell their wares. My son buys a loaf of bread, fresh from a squat, domed earthen oven. He is a connoisseur of bread; this, he says, is the best. The clouds swirl in a cornfower sky. The adobe complex—multilevel, multipurpose—seems both timeless and strangely modern, the earliest and latest in mixed-use living. Two dogs follow my son across the compound. It is nearly 5 p.m.; all of the other visitors seem to have left. We walk toward the back of the pueblo, where a man is fashioning a bow from oak. Alongside him—a small stack of plum-wood arrows. My son, a budding archer, approaches the man. He asks how the bow is made, how it is fred. The man’s name is Alfred. “It’s a little different than what you’re used to,” Alfred says. He fres a plum-wood arrow across the compound, then hands the bow to my boy. “Like that,” he says. The process is kinetic; it requires a continuity of motion, a rhythmic certainty. My son lets the arrow fy.
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say miracles happen in Santa Fe. A rainbow rises, arcs and terminates precisely on the roof of the house where we’re staying, then the rain starts again. Just out the back gate are the slim Santa Fe River and the juniper-coated slopes of Atalaya Mountain. My son, being my son, laces up his boots and hikes into the downpour, carrying a newly purchased Native American tomahawk. He makes it back in one piece; the tomahawk makes it back in two, to be repaired with some thick glue from Michaels hobby shop. So, Santa Fe, as you can see, is a sturdy provider of all the memories you’ll need from a summer road trip. But we—as our patron saint of road trips, Bruce Springsteen, once said—we wanted everything. So we set off on a day trip on the High Road to Taos.
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September 18–24, 2014
Taos
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NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and the lady who makes the Downtown Project party
Five nightspots with party patios for your perusal By Camille Cannon
VegasSeven.com
When it opened Memorial Day weekend, Drai’s Beach Club & Nightclub gave us a view we’d never seen before. In the Cromwell’s past lives as Barbary Coast and Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall, the roof was just a roof—now it’s Las Vegas’ highest and hottest rooftop pool club. Situated 11 stories above the Strip, the balcony offers a breathtaking vantage point of bustling Las Vegas Boulevard below—so long as you’re not blocked by one of the club’s 10 towering palm trees. But when you’re this close to the sun, it’s nice to seek a little shade, too. In the Cromwell, 702-777-3800, DraisNightlife.com.
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Overlooking It All
DRAI’S BEACH CLUB & NIGHTCLUB
September 18–24, 2014
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
A view from the top at Drai’s Beach Club.
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GHOSTBAR
If you want a panoramic view of Las Vegas, head a couple of miles west of the Strip and take in the vista from Ghostbar. The boutique nightclub sits on the 55th foor of the Palms’ Ivory Tower. And like the hotel rooms below it, the venue underwent a major renovation last year— futuristic furnishings were replaced with fuchsia carpets and black sofas, but the space is still wrapped by 14-foottall windows. The terrace is occupied by two outwardfacing booths and lined with see-through glass panels. There’s even a Plexiglas cutout in the foor for those who dare take a peek of the world below. In the Palms, 702-9426862, Palms.com.
September 18–24, 2014
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HYDE
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With beautiful views begging to be shared, there’s hardly a better location to watch the Bellagio Fountains—one of CNN’s Most Instagrammed Places in 2013—than from the patio at Hyde. And if you really want to show off, you can purchase what’s simply known as Hyde’s $250,000 package. That price tag includes the prime table on the terrace, a 30-liter bottle of Ace of Spades Champagne and a little gold box that lets you control the water show at the touch of a button. Don’t feel like splurging? No worries—it’s free to watch. In Bellagio, 702-693-8700, HydeBellagio.com.
FOUNDATION ROOM
A semiprivate club, Foundation Room is an escape to an exotic realm— and a little diffcult to fnd. Perched on the 63rd foor of Mandalay Bay, it’s only accessible by one elevator. However, it is open to the public free of charge until 10 p.m., when the lounge transforms into a nightclub. Once inside, you’ll fnd rich red and brown fabrics, and statues draping the walls, complemented by the Vegas lights that peer in from the windows. From the balcony you can see the Strip and much of the twinkling Las Vegas Valley beyond it. It’s an ideal setting to impress a date. (Let’s just say jaws won’t be the only thing dropping.) In Mandalay Bay, 702-632-7631, HouseOfBlues.com/LasVegas/FR. CHATEAU NIGHTCLUB & ROOFTOP
Nearly a veteran on the Las Vegas nightlife timeline, Chateau has been welcoming partygoers to its lush and leafy patio since opening at Paris Las Vegas in spring 2011. It’s nestled under the Eiffel Tower, meshing the excitement of the Strip with Parisianinspired design elements that radiate romance. As for entertainment, expect an eclectic mix. Recent performers include the Backstreet Boys; Lady Gaga’s DJ bestie, Lady Starlight; and rising rap star Future. In Paris Las Vegas, 702-776-7770, ChateauNights.com.
HYDE BY RYAN FORBES/AVABLU; CHATEAU BY ANTHONY MAIR
NIGHTLIFE
From top: party patios at Ghostbar, Hyde and Chateau.
By
NIGHTLIFE
Camille Cannon
Coin(s). DJs 88, Mamabear and Yo Yolie are on deck, and makeup artist Lisa Stawther will be on-hand. Come early for gift bags by Suzanne Events. (512 Fremont St., 10 p.m., InsertCoinsLV.com.)
Fatboy Slim.
SUN 21 Need more grit with your glamour? Brooklyn Bowl will host NFL game viewing parties on Sunday, Monday and Thursday, plus college games on Saturdays. Team up for a $75 person all-you-can-eatand-drink deal at a bowling lane, or roll solo for $25 bottomless Coors Light Drafts, $5 Fireball shots, $2 sliders and $1 wings. Yes, $1 Blue Ribbon chicken wings! (In the Linq, various times, Vegas.BrooklynBowl.com.)
MON 22
Ariana Grande.
September 18–24, 2014
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Can you detect that sugary scent in the air? It signals the arrival of pop’s sweetest names—Taylor Swift, Iggy Azalea and Nicki Minaj among them—for the iHeartRadio Music Festival Friday-Saturday. Join DJ Prostyle for the offcial festival kickoff party at Haze. And yes, you’ll probably hear Azalea’s “Fancy.” Twice. (In Aria, 10:30 p.m., HazeLasVegas.com.) If house music is more your favor, support local favorite Kris Nilsson as he headlines Tryst. (In Wynn, 10:30 p.m., TrystLasVegas.com.) Or, slap on your swimwear and dance to Tujamo at Encore Beach Club. (At Encore, 10:30 p.m., EncoreBeachClub.com.)
FRI 19 John Borger (known as Bor-
geous behind the booth) returns to Drai’s Nightclub. Learn about the EDM producer’s most recent Las Vegas excursion in our interview at VegasSeven.com/Borgeous. It involves alcohol, Diplo and a nonindigenous rhino. (In the Cromwell, 10 p.m., DraisNightlife. com.) Electronic band Big Data plays Bunkhouse with support from Kitze + CPUs, Magic Bronson and local DJs Wizdumb and Moxcie. Save your ticket stub: a lineup of such awesomely nerdy names doesn’t come around very often. (124 S. 11th St., 8 p.m., Ticketfy.com.) Back in the world of pop, diva-inthe-making Ariana Grande hosts the offcial after-party of the iHeartRadio Festival at 1Oak. Brownie points will be awarded for the best high ponytail and frst Big Sean sighting. (In the Mirage, 10:30 p.m., 1OakLasVegas.com.)
SAT 20 Because of health concerns, Avicii recently bowed out of upcoming appearances. Diplo flls in for the “Levels” star today at Encore Beach Club. (At Encore, 11 a.m., EncoreBeachClub.com.) Eclipse, the nighttime pool party at Daylight, says TTFN with Krewella headlining this season’s fnal installment. (At Mandalay Bay, 10 p.m., EclipseVegas.com.) Fatboy Slim has always been wary of this city. In 2013, he told Rolling Stone “The Vegas side of [dance music] really isn't for me—that whole VIP, table, bottles of Cristal, girls with pneumatic tits. That's not my vibe." Luckily for us, the legend’s been persuaded to reemerge at Life. (In SLS, 10:30 p.m., SLSLasVegas.com.) This last one’s for the ladies: Ring in the one-year anniversary of Girls Night Out at Insert
Originally scheduled for Sept.8, Foxtail fnally launches its Membership Mondays industry night with DJ Five. (In SLS, 10:30 p.m., SLSLasVegas.com.) If you feel like keeping it simple, stop by Marquee for Carnage’s Black & White party. Who cares if it’s after Labor Day? (In the Cosmopolitan, 10 p.m., MarqueeLasVegas.com.)
TUE 23 It’s offcially fall now but Yacht Club, the nighttime splash bash at Drai’s Beach Club, is still going strong with
sounds by Warren Peace. (At the Cromwell, 10 p.m., DraisNightlife.com.) Also helping you get to hump day: Lost Angels industry night at Hyde. Resident DJ Konfikt provides the tunes. (In Bellagio, 10 p.m., HydeBellagio.com.)
WED 24 If you’re going to Light, be sure to put some fowers in your hair. The theme of the evening is Hippie Chic, which means everything bohemian is encouraged. Electronic twosome Sultan and Ned Shepard leads an entertainment lineup that includes visual artists Charlamaine Olivia and Sarah Sandin, and performanceart duo the Bumbys, who promise “a fair and honest appraisal of your appearance” via typewriter. If only the '60s could see us now. (In Mandalay Bay, 10:30 p.m., TheLightVegas.com.)
Borgeous.
Laurie Dorough is the woman behind some of Downtown Project’s biggest parties—Zappos’ grand opening, the Collision Conference and Chive Meetups, just to name a few—but you’ll never guess her credentials By Jessie O’Brien
PORTRAIT BY JON ESTRADA
NIGHTLIFE VegasSeven.com
| September 18–24, 2014
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Project: Party Gal
“I STARTED OFF at a very young age in the entertainment industry,” says the Downtown Project’s event planner, Laurie Dorough. “My sister worked for the Pittsburgh Penguins, and my parents would force her to take me to work with her.” And it was through arena connections Dorough made at those Penguins games that she began touring with some country performers—minor ones, but, hey, it was a start. “Things really began to take off when I started working with larger bands.” And by “larger” Dorough means the largest band there is: “I worked for the Rolling Stones for a while … doing myriad things. I can’t tell you any stories about the Stones,” she laughs. After the Stones, Dorough worked with Australia’s Savage Garden as their production and personal assistant. “[Touring] was just a great experience, and from that I went to work with … Barney.” Naturally. “It was totally different, [going] from the rock ’n’ roll side to the children’s entertainment side, but I learned a lot.” It was Barney’s camp that then connected Dorough to the Wiggles, the Australian phenomenon that commanded the attention of children everywhere about a decade ago. “When I first started touring with them I took them to Sea World. We did a show behind Shamu’s area, and it was in front of six people, three of whom were my sister and her two kids,” Dorough says, reflecting on the Wiggles’ early days. “It went from that to selling out 13 straight shows at Madison Square Garden—it just blew up incredibly. I was really proud.” Inevitably, Dorough grew tired of living out of a suitcase and moved to Las Vegas 15 years ago to be with her husband and two stepdaughters, Last year, she accepted a position as the Downtown Project’s offcial “events guru,” booking and organizing events at the company’s 14 locations, including the Gold Spike, Place on Seventh, the Llama Parking Lot and Container Park. “The idea for Downtown Project is to bring a lot more awareness to Downtown and bring all these people here to experience the different venues,” she says. Her past experiences taught her “just to be myself. And if I think of something that may sound crazy in my head, if I express it, it’s not.” After working with Barney and the Stones, we can only imagine what those thoughts could be.
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
TAO
The Venetian [ UPCOMING ]
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
Sept. 18 Jerzy spins Sept. 19 Justin Credible spins Sept. 20 Vice spins
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
You have to be 21 to get into a bar, but few bars survive to legal drinking age. Coyote Ugly is an exception: Founded in New York in 1993, it now has two dozen outposts, including the Las Vegas location in New York-New York. “Coyote Ugly is where anyone can come and hang out, have fun,” founder Liliana Lovell says. She opened the bar as a place where, “The person on the left might be a doctor and the person on the right can be a mechanic. Anybody can have a good time.” The ‘good times for all’ ethos draws folks who are barely drinking age and those old enough to be their parents, as well as both bachelors and bachelorettes. The bikini-topped, cowboy-booted Coyote Girls dance on the bar, leading hula hoop contests and pouring shots from the bottle. Coyote Ugly (2000) helped take the saloon from New York to New York-New York in 2001. “They came to me once the movie was in production,” Lovell says. “There’s no better way to open a bar than to coordinate with a movie.” While the Vegas Coyote is still a little sister, Lovell gives her girls credit for its 13-year run. “Vegas is great because the girls are professionals; they understand the concept,” she says. “They love the bar … Some girls have been there 9 or 10 years,” she says. “And they look great—I’d need a juice cleanse and a boob job to look nearly as good.” Las Vegas girls have helped open other outposts; there are now Coyote Uglys around the world, from Key West to Kiev. Lovell is still surprised that a rowdy bar made her an international mogul. “I had just thought Coyote would be this one bar and I’d make real money doing something different.” Something very different: “I had investors for an organic, gluten-free fast food joint.” Instead of ordering quinoa at the drive-thru, her customers are dirty dancing and doing Adios Mofo shots. Lovell acknowledges, “It’s been a wild ride.” – Lissa Townsend Rodgers
PHOTOS BY AMIT DADL ANEY AND TOBY ACUNA
COYOTE UGLY TURNS 21, PARTIES ACCORDINGLY
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
REHAB
Hard Rock Hotel [ UPCOMING ]
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PHOTOS BY JOE FURY
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
Sept. 20 Sky Blu of LMFAO hosts Sept. 21 DJs Loczi and Wellman spin Sept. 27 DJs Ikon and Wellman spin
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
LIFE NIGHTCLUB SLS
[ UPCOMING ]
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PHOTOS BY JOE FURY AND JOSH METZ
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
Sept. 19 Dirty South spins Sept. 20 Fatboy Slim spins Sept. 21 Claude VonStroke and Green Velvet spin
DINING
“I don’t know why pork and whiskey work together, but they must, especially if the pairing is thanks to Templeton rye’s Heritage Pork Project.” {PAGE 66}
Restaurant reviews, news and a very compelling reason to enjoy dessert before dinner
Award-winning chef’s new micro-restaurant opens for dinner at last By Al Mancini
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Omae Goodness
September 18–24, 2014
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
Sashimi at Omae.
VegasSeven.com
IT WAS DEFINITELY A BALLSY
move. When my colleagues and I at Vegas Seven declared Takeshi Omae the Best Chef Off-Strip in our annual restaurant awards earlier his month, despite the fact that he’d never served a dinner in this town, we were stepping out on a very long limb. Sure, I’d had the chef’s amazingly priced $20, three-course lunch twice, and had been blown away by each of the six different courses I sampled. It seemed obvious that I would love his seven-course dinner. But as I walked into the 12-seat restaurant on the second night of dinner service, I’ll admit I had my fngers crossed. Fortunately, the chef delivered—beyond my incredibly lofty expectations. Japanese Cuisine by Omae is a tiny restaurant in a strip mall on South Decatur Boulevard. It’s currently open for dinner only, with two seatings per night. The set sevencourse menu is intended to sell for $150 per person, but the chef has currently reduced the price to $100 as he awaits his liquor license. And while that may sound like a hefty tab for a suburban restaurant, it’s pretty astounding when you realize Omae received a Michelin star for his work at Masaharu Morimoto’s Tokyo restaurant, and he’s in the kitchen for every meal, overseeing every dish. While the menu may change by the time you read this, nearly every course I sampled at a recent dinner was exquisite. We began with a combination of salmon roe, mushroom and grated daikon that provided a perfect contrast of their salty, earthy and bitter personalities, rspectively. Next up was an amazing amaebi (sweet shrimp) tartare on a celeriac puree, topped with a mildly bitter tomato sorbet. One of my favorite dishes of the evening was the steamed whitefsh. While the mozzarella cheese that accompanied it was certainly not traditional, it provided a beautiful texture.
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SHARE OUR STRENGTH, GOLDEN WEEK AND WHERE TO DRINK UNICORN BLOOD
Grated turnip and a rich brown sauce rounded out the plate. Next up was the sashimi course. Omae has his raw fsh fown in from Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market, which is as good as it gets. The menu promises three varieties, but on the night my wife and I visited we received four: aji, hirame, salmon and a beautiful piece of squid wrapped around a shiso pepper. While none of the sashimi was as exotic as what you’ll fnd at a spot like Las Vegas’ Kabuto, each was incredibly fresh and expertly cut into tiny bite-size morsels (about a third the size of a typical piece of sashimi). Continuing on the evening’s seafood theme, the chef served us a piece of sea bream cooked on a charcoal grill. The fsh was executed perfectly. Unfortunately, the rice cake it was served upon was a bit
overcooked. Nonetheless, it was still my second favorite dish of the meal. The fnal savory course of the evening was our only non-seafood dish. The menu includes a 120-gram (4¼-ounce) tasting of wagyu beef, although customers can upgrade to Kobe for an additional $80. Unless you’re a huge Japanese beef fan, I wouldn’t bother with the upgrade. At this point in the meal, it was already diffcult for me to make it through the slightly leaner product. And it’s accompanied by a small helping of ultra-rich wasabi mashed potatoes served in a dashi stock accented with sake and a touch of white soy. These potatoes are so outstanding they give Joël Robuchon’s a run for their money. Our meal wrapped up with an assortment of desserts that included green tea tiramisu, a strawberry
coated in red bean and mochi, a spoonful of coffee gelée and a sponge cake fruit roll. Although they weren’t nearly as sophisticated as our other courses, it was a perfect ending to an astonishing meal. Having fnally had one of chef Omae’s dinners, there’s no doubt in my mind that Vegas Seven made the right choice in our restaurant awards. Because Omae is offering the most exciting Japanese dining experience in Las Vegas.
JAPANESE CUISINE BY OMAE
3650 S. Decatur Blvd., 702-966-8080. Open for dinner, 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tue-Sat. Dinner for two, $200. Reservations online at Takeshi-Omae.com.
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.
Dine-around season is back, and they’re always more fun when you’re eating for a good cause. The 22nd annual Taste of the Nation returns October 2 to Rain Nightclub in the Palms to benefit Share Our Strength. Once again, Wynn Country Club’s Carlos Guia leads the charge of 35 other restaurants and chefs providing fare for the affair, including B&B Ristorante, STK, Mix and Border Grill, along with the Palms’ N9NE Steakhouse, Nove Italiano and the new Lao Sze Chuan. Off-Strip will be represented by Raku Sweets, Raku, DW Bistro and Kuma Snow Cream. This might be one of the more intimate dine-arounds, but it’s always one of the most memorable of the year. After Chinese New Year, the Golden Week that surrounds October 1 is the biggest holiday in China. Whereas lunar New Year revolves around people going home to their families, Golden Week, which celebrates the creation of the People’s Republic of China, usually includes international travel. However, like lunar New Year, Golden Week involves lots of food, but way fancier than its winter counterpart. And Hakkasan is definitely the spot for fancy Chinese food, offering a prix-fixe menu from September 29 to October 12. Chef Ho Chee Boon’s $138 menu features extravagances such as Peking duck and Tsar Nicoulai Reserve caviar, as well as a dim sum platter, braised whole sea bass in a clay pot and Szechwan beef rib eye with enoki mushrooms. You’ll leave the meal full, happy and with your very own gold macaron. I don’t know why pork and whiskey work together, but they must, especially if the pairing is thanks to Templeton rye’s Heritage Pork Project, which raises Duroc pigs on a diet that includes spent grain mash. Along with Templeton, these pigs will head up an a la carte menu September 27 at Delmonico Steakhouse (in the Venetian, 702-414-3737). Whole-animal dishes will be served, such as house-made head cheese with wild arugula, Cajun boudin boulletes and caramelized porchetta with Brussels sprouts. Mixologist Max Solano even washed some of the pork-belly fat into whiskey, and has created cocktails with the results that are bound to pair well. If, after an excess of whiskey and pork, you need to cleanse, roll over to Juice NV (9500 S. Eastern Ave., 702-463-1689, JuiceNV.com). The new juice bar’s selection of cold-pressed juices and bites are made from ingredients sourced as locally as possible. Unicorn’s Blood includes sweet watermelon and pineapple, with some heat from ginger. And because Juice NV is a vegan spot, no unicorns are harmed in the making of this juice. Grace Bascos eats, sleeps, raves and repeats. Read more from Grace at VegasSeven.com/ DishingWithGrace, as well as on her dining-andmusic blog, FoodPlusTechno.com.
PHOTOS BY JON ESTRADA
DINING VegasSeven.com
| September 18–24, 2014
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Clockwise from top, Omae’s fresh produce is flown in from Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market; steamed white fish with bocconcini (small mozzarella balls) in golden brown sauce; and salmon roe with mushrooms, grated daikon and ponzu sauce.
DINING
This One’s for the Girls Chefs spoil Las Vegas with Dessert Before Dinner to beneft Girl Scouts
September 18–24, 2014
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By Al Mancini
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REMEMBER WHEN MOM used to warn you not to fll up on sweets before dinner? Well, the Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada are giving you permission to do just that September 27 at their annual Dessert Before Dinner gala at Caesars Palace. The event will feature a full dinner as well as a cocktail reception, silent auction and performance by Terry Fator, and will honor seven local female leaders who have had an impact on the community. But the highlight for anyone with a sweet tooth will be a pre-dinner dessert competition that will pit some of the town’s top pastry
chefs against each other. The only rule is that they’ll have to create their sweet treats using Girl Scout Cookies. Guests at the gala will then vote on who made the best dessert. So how do the pastry chefs feel about having their creations served front and center, rather than leaving the fnal taste in diners’ mouths? “I like it, I think it’s a fun concept,” says Stratosphere pastry chef Cynthia Werth, whose white-chocolate raspberry cheesecake with a Thin Mint cookie crust tied for frst place in last year’s competition. But, she admits, “I’m sure that it spoils some
appetites for dinner.” Werth and the other contestants will work with a different cookie this year: shortbread. “The Thin Mint is our best-selling cookie, but the shortbread is our historic cookie,” Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada CEO Liz Ortenburger says of the choice. “That’s what we started with 103 years ago. So it has a lot of history. And I think it’s gonna give the chefs a lot of ability to be very creative.” Werth isn’t worried. She’s worked with these cookies in a past competition, and actually prefers them. “To me it’s more versatile, and
you can just do a lot more stuff with it,” she says. Her plan for this year is to incorporate the cookie into a bread pudding. Marie Yonge, executive pastry chef at Giada, is less confdent. “It’s a diffcult cookie for me to make the favor stand out,” she says. “It’s not something that I grew up liking. So it wasn’t like I [immediately] had all these ideas going through my head.” In addition to forcing the chefs to get creative with their recipes, the event also allows them to interact with the Girl Scouts, with one Scout assigned to assist each chef. “Some of the girls are a little shy in the beginning,” Werth says, “but then they begin to come out of their shell a bit as they’re trying to get people to try the dessert as they pass by.” Have Dessert Before Dinner from 6-9 p.m. Sept. 27 in the Palace Ballroom at Caesars Palace. Tickets start at $300 at DessertBefore Dinner.org. Get Werth’s winning 2013 recipe at VegasSeven.com/GirlScouts.
DRINKING [ SCENE STIRS ]
(now Lobby Bar), he looked to the past. “The Tennessee Highball No. 2 ($50) is a riff on the Tennessee Highball I created in 1999 to showcase Bellagio’s frst barrel of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel whiskey,” Abou-Ganim says. More than a decade later, he has Jack Daniel’s Sinatra Select to work with— a newer expression that’s had deeper contact with charred oak. “It truly is a world-class libation that I would like to imagine Frank would have approved of.” Find the recipe at VegasSeven.com/CocktailCulture.
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In 1963, Frank Sinatra famously told Playboy, “I’m for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.” The topic was religion, but the quote has outlived its context and probably gone on to spur countless debauched nights. But then, Sinatra was also a believer in second chances. When the fve-star general of mixology, Tony Abou-Ganim, was tapped to create the new cocktail menu to accompany a very Sinatra-esque renovation of Caesars Palace’s former Galleria Bar
September 18–24, 2014
PHOTO BY TIM TURNER
A Sentimental Journey
Ladies and gentlemen, please rise to honor Sir Adam Carmer, just back from Belgium, where he was knighted—yes, knighted!—by the Belgian brewers guild. Carmer was “enthroned” by members of the Grand Council as a Knight of La Chevalerie du Fourquet des Brasseurs (the Knighthood of the Brewers’ Mash Staff) on September 5 as part of Brussels Beer Week “in appreciation of his dedication and acknowledgment of his significant contributions in education and promotion of the Belgian beer industry.” The UNLV professor and Freakin’ Frog owner has received numerous awards over his more than two-decade beer career, and has presided over a selection of at times 400-plus Belgian beers. But this is about the highest honor a beer professional can attain; it also marks the first time a Nevadan has been bestowed with this title. The festivities began—as all things in Belgium do—with the honorees sharing a beer. They were then given a decorative boutonniere made of beloved Belgian hops; trumpets announced the start of the parade. The streets of Brussels were lined with cheering people taking pictures and videos as the participants made their way through the town to the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. There, in an hourlong service, two priests and a Bishop called down the Lord’s blessings on the future Knights and on the brewing industry by consecrating a cask of beer. “It was surreal!” Carmer says. “The church must have held nearly 4,000 people. There was a ceremony blessing the beer ingredients, there was singing—it was beautiful. I was knighted using a 6-foot mash staff, an old wooden utensil that was used to move the mash around. “This is full circle for me. To get the fruits of the labor without knowing that it’s coming, it’s very rewarding to know that someone is watching and appreciating what I’ve been doing.” Carmer admits that when he received the call earlier this summer, the Guild had to follow up with him via email to confirm—and more than once. “Because I simply didn’t believe the call at first.” So what does a newly made knight get for his reward? Well, for starters, Carmer can request to be called “Sir” anywhere he goes. He is of course now obligated to continue with his good works. His wife is now Lady Jill Carmer. And with his Guild medallion on, Carmer gets free beer for life in Belgium. Asked whether he might even add the honorific to his business card, Carmer says, “I very well may.” – X.W.
VegasSeven.com
PRESENTING: SIR ADAM CARMER, KNIGHT OF THE BREWERS’ MASH STAFF
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“The dark comedy is about a man torn between his fancé and the demands of his dysfunctional family. How dysfunctional? His aunts poison old men with homemade wine.” HIT LIST {PAGE 75}
Opportunity Village’s music mentor Daryll Borges wants everyone to have that rock-star feeling By Geoff Carter
VegasSeven.com
disabilities to fnd their footing in the community, and even to get jobs—is that shouted greeting. It’s boisterous and genuinely friendly, and it takes me aback even though Borges told me to expect it. Then, suddenly, a woman I’ve never before met runs up to me and takes my hand, declaring, “I know him! I know him!” She introduces me to several of her friends, and then our tour moves on to another room, where I’m greeted in much the same way. Opportunity Village calls the members of its community
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Rockin’ It Like an OVIP
“IF YOU WERE TO WALK INTO THE ART
room right now, the frst thing that would happen is everybody in there would yell ‘hi,’ and they would want to know you,” Daryll Borges says. “That’s exactly what happened to me. It was overwhelming at frst, but at the same time, it was the neatest thing I’d ever experienced.” He’s absolutely right. The frst thing that happens when I walk into the art room of the Ralph and Betty Englestad Campus of Opportunity Village—a local charitable organization devoted to helping people with intellectual
September 18–24, 2014
PHOTO COURTESY OF OPPORTUNITY VILL AGE
Movies, music, stage and hitmen in disguise
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“OVIPs”—a portmanteau of “OV” and, obviously, “VIP”—and for as long as you’re there, they make you feel just that important. “I think Ellen DeGeneres once said that everybody should know what it feels like to walk into a building and have people applaud for them,” Borges says, grinning. “And man, I got it.” Borges, a youthful-looking 48, knows a little something about the adulation of crowds. As a working musician with 28 years of experience, he’s been receiving applause for most of his adult life. These days, he gets it in his role as a substitute Robin Gibb in the Australian Bee Gees Show at the Excalibur. (And he’s brilliant; he vanishes into the role so thoroughly that I didn’t recognize him until I was told.) Borges may know applause, but he’s never before known the kind that greeted him the frst time he toured Opportunity Village. This wasn’t polite applause for playing a good riff, or like the cheering he justly receives for “Stayin’ Alive.” This was the kind of applause one gets for simply being alive, and we get it all too rarely. Perhaps that’s what made Borges decide to become OV’s music mentor. It’s his job to teach music and performance to the OVIPs—some as young as 18 years old. His workspace is a full-on rehearsal room, loaded with guitars, drums, keyboards—virtually everything you could want to make music with. And he leads a group of OVIPs called the Roaring Thunder, which plays concerts on the campus and around the city, most recently at the Historic Fifth Street School as part of the Vegas Unplugged Music Festival. It’s just a theory of mine—but I think that Borges wants to share the warm and gratifed feeling he got when he frst came to the campus. He wants the OVIPs to know what it’s like to get applause. “I think we should all be rock stars,” he says.
***** Borges, originally of Napa Valley, California, came to Las Vegas in 1998, when gigs for working musicians were pretty much growing on trees. “I was working full time, fve or six nights a week. At that time, you could do that,” he says. He held down steady gigs at local lounges and clubs, playing the Rio’s Voodoo Lounge for a six-year stretch. And he just might have stayed on that path … if the economy hadn’t tanked in 2009. “People were getting rid of their bands right and left. I ended up playing as a hired gun for whoever wanted
teamwork.” He regularly holds percussion classes in “drum circle style,” an arrangement that allows him to connect with several students at once. “I make sure they know there’s no mistakes, and they only need to be in the moment and just play,” he says. “When that happens, I’ll look at each one of them and I’ll see them staring at the ceiling or out the window—and I know that’s when they’re in the zone.” Delivering OVIPs to that place is his daily mission, and he takes great pleasure from it—whether he’s helping a student to realize a tune plunked out on
“I MAKE SURE THEY KNOW THERE’S NO MISTAKES—THEY ONLY NEED TO BE IN THE MOMENT AND JUST PLAY.” – Daryll Borges to hire me,” he says. Some time later, in January 2011, a friend suggested that he apply for the music mentor position at Opportunity Village. At the time, Borges was resistant to the idea, telling his friend, “I’ve never worked with people with disabilities. I’m a performer. This is what I do. I don’t teach.” One applause-flled tour later, he changed his tune. “To my shock, I got hired,” Borges says. “And I thought, ‘Well, now what?’” Borges decided to start with what he knew best: the drum kit, his go-to instrument since he was a child. “Drums are a great thing to educate on,” he says. “It helps with motor skills, hand-eye coordination, hearing and
“a little tinker-toy piano” brought from home, or guiding another to an instrument he doesn’t know all that well: “I have one student here, Michael. I started with him on piano, and I noticed him looking at the drums, and I asked him if he wanted to play the drums … but because they were loud, he didn’t want to do it. Then one day, he just decided to play the drums, so I started him on the electronic kit, because you could control the volume on those. He eventually moved over to the acoustic set, and for someone who never played drums before, he just picked it up like that. It’s great, because he and I have this great love for KISS, so we’re always learning KISS songs.” Oftentimes, his OVIPs end up expand-
ing his horizons. Sure, he’s had to learn his share of songs from High School Musical and to play most of the current top 40, but every now and again, someone throws him a real curveball. “When I frst started working here, there was a girl who wanted to learn the title track to her favorite animé, and it was in Japanese,” Borges says. “I said, ‘OK, we’re on this journey together. I don’t know Japanese. You don’t know Japanese. I can help you with the music, but I’m going to learn Japanese, too.’ I knew entertainers who worked in Cirque who spoke Japanese, and they helped me out with it. “It was a learning process for me, which is what I love about this job. I love when somebody comes to me and says, ‘Hey, I want to learn an Italian aria.’ We did it, and that girl performed it in our spring show and … not a dry eye in the house, including mine.” For someone who wasn’t sure he could teach music to people with disabilities, it’s impossible to imagine Borges doing anything but. He refers to his students as his peers: “I’m a professional musician, and I’m teaching everybody what that’s like.” To hear him talk about his work, it’s clear he believes that the bad economy ultimately enriched him in ways he could never have predicted. “I’ve seen people with behavioral problems come in here who have just completely changed,” he says. “I’ve had people that were nonverbal who just suddenly speak, and you have that moment: ‘Wait, did I just hear that?’ There’s just something about music.” ***** One night, the OVIPs go to see Borges in his nighttime guise with the Australian Bee Gees. Curiously, Borges has pre-show jitters: “I’m more nervous about that show than I have ever been about anything,” he says. “I told the guys in the group, ‘Just be prepared; you’re going to hear a crowd scream like you’ve never heard a crowd scream. These guys are enthusiastic, and when they like something, they’re going to let you know about it.’” They do. When the Australian Bee Gees begin laying down disco beats, the dance foor is instantly packed, and the crowd goes positively wild. They applaud every song as if hearing it for the frst time ever, and when Borges introduces “our friends from Opportunity Village,” they explode in cheers—appreciation for their teacher, appreciation for the music, appreciation for being alive. And their teacher, disguised as Robin Gibb, allows himself an expression of unabashed pride and joy. “I’m so fortunate,” Borges says. “I’ve performed music for a long time, and then I fell into a day job in which I get to still be involved with music. And it’s a much more gratifying thing, for me, than performing it, to give it.”
ROARING THUNDER PERFORMANCE PHOTO BY MIGNON L AZATIN; BEE GEES PHOTO BY JESI LEE
September 18–24, 2014
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Borges performs with the Roaring Thunder at Opportunity Village and in the Australian Bee Gees.
A&E
UPFRONT WITH MÖTLEY CRÜE BACKUP DANCER ALLISON KYLER
ALBUMS WE'RE BUYING 1 Ryan Adams, Ryan Adams
raised on a diet of Madonna and Paula Abdul videos, Allison Kyler knew her future involved dance. Now at 31, Kyler’s 16-year professional dance career has led her to the gig of her life as one of two backup singer/ dancers for Mötley Crüe’s The Final Tour, which makes a stop in Vegas—her home since 2012—for iHeartRadio on September 19. (Kyler is also a former WENDOH Media intern.) With an aptitude for gymnastics, cheerleading and dance like her younger sister, Ashley, Kyler started with typical offerings such as ballet and jazz. Seeing both girls’ potential, Kyler’s mother drove her daughters to New York City on weekends, where they both would be signed by famed Wilhelmina Models, and Allison was cast in off-Broadway shows such as Gypsy and Bye Bye Birdie. At 13, Kyler got the ultimate break for a girl who dreamed of dancing on MTV: the chance to relocate with her family to New York or L.A. to pursue her career full time. Kyler spent the next 13 years in L.A., dropping out of high school at 16 to study eight hours a day at the Edge Performing Arts Center, where her work ethic and fnesse caught the eyes of mentor choreographers Brian Friedman and Andre Fuentes. Kyler credits them with giving her opportunities most 16-year-olds didn’t get. Her career highlights include the frst iPod commercial; a tour with American R&B group B2K; a role in the 2004 dance fick You Got Served and the 2006 flm Date Movie; and dancing for Shakira, Fergie, Nelly Furtado and Christina Aguilera. In 2011, Kyler got a life-changing call from Tommy Lee’s then-girlfriend and now fancée, Sofa Toufa, to join her as a backup singer/dancer for Mötley Crüe. It was an opportunity for Kyler to do what she does best, but on a much larger scale. After this Crüe tour wraps in January 2016, it will be a fve-year stint performing for one of the most prolifc rock ’n’ roll bands in history. After all the touring, Kyler is looking forward to putting down roots. “I want to come back to Vegas, and I’d like to hang up my touring shoes,” she says. “I feel as a dancer there’s pretty much nothing on my bucket list. But then again, I’ve never headlined a show in Vegas.” – Jen Chase
2 Robert Plant, Lullaby and ... The Ceaseless Roar
3 Interpol, El Pintor
4 Young Jeezy, Seen It All
5 In Flames, Siren Charms
6 Rittz, Next to Nothing
7 Death From Above 1979, The Physical World
8 Various Artists, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1
9 Jhené Aiko, Souled Out
10 Opeth, Pale Communion
According to sales at Zia Record Exchange at 4503 W. Sahara Ave., September 8-14.
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LOVE, LUST, LETO Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto is so charismatic and pretty, audiences always get their money’s worth, even if songs like “End of All Days” are little more than chants. The band rocks the Boulevard Pool at the Cosmopolitan on September 20 ($44).
JUST A STRANGER ON THE BUS Joan Osborne is known for her 1995 hit, “One of Us.” But she's offering more than just '90s nostalgia. Osborne plays M Resort on September 20 ($30-$52) in support of Love and Hate, her first album of original material since 2008.
ON SALE NOW Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde will perform an intimate show at the Pearl on November 28 ($43$93). Expect plenty of classic Pretenders tracks along with a generous sampling of songs from Stockholm, Hynde’s recent solo album.
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
GROWING UP IN HICKORY, North Carolina,
The
HIT LIST TARGETING THIS WEEK'S MOST-WANTED EVENTS
By Camille Cannon
DREAM TEAM
For its 43rd season debut, Nevada Ballet Theatre will offer a mix of great minds (and
bodies). In no particular order of genius, there’s Shakespeare, classic American choreographer George Balanchine, Pacific Northwest Ballet principal dancer Lesley Rausch, members of the Las Vegas Philharmonic and 30 children from the Academy of Nevada Ballet Theatre. The Smith Center’s resident ballet company will perform Act I of A Midsummer Night’s Dream followed by Seasons, which will be danced to Antonio Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons.” Watch it at 7:30 p.m. September 20 and 2 p.m. September 21 ($29 and up). NevadaBallet.org. – Cindi Moon Reed
COME TOGETHER Nova Scotia-born Tahir Faridi Qawwal credits the Beatles for sparking his interest in Eastern music. Now he plays internationally with his seven-piece band, The Fanna-Fi-Allah Sufi Qawwali Party. Catch them bringing devotional Sufi music to Winchester Cultural Center on September 19. ClarkCountyNV.gov. ULTERIOR VOTIVES Artist Melissa McGill has had success in the commercial world for 15 years, creating pieces for Sony, AT&T and more. Now she steps out for her first solo show: a mixed media exhibit entitled Lucent, at Brett Wesley Gallery through September 27. See how her waxwork puts Yankee Candle to shame. BrettWesleyGallery.com. LAST SIP OF SUMMER September 18-20 is your final opportunity to savor Super Summer Theatre. Pack a picnic blanket and prepare yourself for Arsenic and Old Lace. The dark comedy is about a man torn between his fiancé and the demands of his dysfunctional family. How dysfunctional? His aunts poison old men with homemade wine. SuperSummerTheatre.org.
VegasSeven.com
Arturo Sandoval lowered his trumpet and looked into the packed audience. His band had just blasted and bubbled its way through a burning Afro-Cuban opening number, but some folks were still keeping their cool. Sandoval grinned down at one fellow: “Relax, man, smile. The only one who impresses me with that face is my wife. Or a cop.” Sandoval is touring with a program celebrating his mentor, Dizzy Gillespie. The influence isn’t just in the bebop brass, but also in Sandoval’s stage presence, which, like Dizzy’s, adds a touch of the comedian and raconteur to the virtuoso. Beyond the horn, Sandoval also snapped out a few rhythms on his timbales, dueted on an electric keyboard and soloed on a baby grand. His vocals ranged from cartoonish scatting to a soft, melancholy rendition of his recent ballad “Every Day I Think of You,” dedicated to his mentor. For the finale, Sandoval rendered one of the master’s masterworks: “A Night in Tunisia,” its sinuous melody, curving around glittering horn runs, carried along by the rumbling background rhythm. Heads bobbed, shoulders shook, the audience whooped and hollered. “We have a lot of fun up here,” Sandoval said. We had a lot of fun down here, too. ★★★★✩ – Lissa Townsend Rodgers
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MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM BY ANGEL A STERLING; ARTURO SANDOVAL BY LINDA EVANS
Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center, September 13
CONCERT
September 18–24, 2014
Arturo Sandoval channeled the master
THE STRUGGLE IS REAL Thomas J. Misuraca’s new comedy, The eBook of Love, follows six singles whose search for romance is muddled by modern technology. Ever been there? Stop by a staged reading of the play at Onyx Theatre on September 20. Your feedback could make the rom-com genre a more accurate place. OnyxTheatre.com.
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A rabbi and a hitman walk into a bar …
FLASHLIGHTS, GARDENS, CHVRCHES
Author Tod Goldberg reveals his clever way to write about the Vegas mob By Chantal Corcoran AVID READERS MAY ALREADY BE ACQUAINTED
September 18–24, 2014
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with the wiseguy at the center of Tod Goldberg’s recently released crime novel, Gangsterland (Counterpoint, $26). Sal Cupertine—a Chicago Mafa hitman who’s hiding out in Summerlin disguised as a rabbi—made his debut in “Mitzvah,” a story Goldberg wrote for the 2008 anthology Las Vegas Noir. In fact, it was Vegas Seven’s own Jarret Keene (along with co-editor Todd James Pierce), who asked Goldberg to write a story set in Summerlin—where Goldberg lived in the late 1990s. Goldberg has since moved to La Quinta, California, where he directs the MFA writing program at the University of California, Riverside, but his Las Vegas connection is still strong. He’s written for the now-defunct publications Las Vegas Mercury and Las Vegas City Life, and he reviews books for Las Vegas Weekly. Goldberg’s literary credits include 12 previous books: crime novels, story collections and the Burn Notice series based on the television show. Add to that list Gangsterland, a mob story with all the usual treats—thugs, rackets, bullets to the brain and … a little 11thcentury Jewish scripture.
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How has Sal’s story evolved to ft the longer novel form? “Mitzvah” was, effectively, the end of the story, while Gangsterland covers the entire course of actions that brought Sal to Las Vegas, and how and why he ended up hiding out as a rabbi. You combine outrageous fction with very real Nevada communities, especially Summerlin. How do you think readers will respond? The challenge with books about Las Vegas has always been how one captures a place that seems, on its face, entirely unreal, even to those of us who live—or in my case, lived—here. My hope is that locals will remember what it was like in the late 1990s, when the city was at war with its own image, when the boundless hubris of
building thousands of homes before there was anyone to live in them seemed like a good idea, and how we still romanticized criminals as being good for the business of a city. Have you had any objections to marrying the mob to Jewish religion? Not yet. I think the fact that I’m Jewish probably mitigates this. I don’t have a lot of faith in organized religion, but I do have faith in searching for higher meaning. And Sal doesn’t become Jewish per se, but he begins to understand a world outside of himself, that his own existential thoughts aren’t one-of-akind … that if he thought he had problems, well, he should check in with the 11th-century Jews. That’s not something anyone might quibble with. Gangsterland transcends the typical mob story by including religion and meditations on morality. Did you feel you were taking a chance doing this? I did feel I was taking a chance. There’s not much new under the sun as it relates to the mob—at least not
the one we know traditionally. Casinos are multinational corporations now. Operation G-Sting revealed what everyone already suspected about the strip-club business in Las Vegas. The drugs are being handled by the cartels. Whitey Bulger is in prison. John Gotti is dead. The Sopranos dispelled a lot of myths about how glamorous the job might be. And now, to be an effective organized crime syndicate, you’re better off employing hackers than leg-breakers. But that was the challenge, to ask how an enterprising crook might con people out of money, and I needed to look no further than people’s relationship with their God and the business of death. Can we expect a sequel? A movie? I hope you can expect a sequel. I wrote it with the intention of revisiting some of the characters. You’re more likely to see a TV show than a movie: CBS optioned the story for TimbermanBeverly, the folks who make Justifed, Masters of Sex and Elementary, which excites me to no end.
AUTHOR EVENTS
Book signing, 1-5 p.m. Sept. 20, the retail store in the Mob Museum, 300 Stewart Ave., 702-229-2734, TheMobMuseum.org. Book talk and signing, 3-4:30 p.m. Sept. 21, Jewel Box Theater at Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Rd., 702507-3459, LVCCLD.org.
Orlando, Florida, punk band Flashlights illuminates Beauty Bar at 10 p.m. September 19. Big, fat vocal melodies and unorthodox, often-shimmering guitar chords put these guys a cut above your average Ramones-genuflecting rock act. This summer, Flashlights dropped a full-length called Bummer Summer. It’s a bittersweet collection of adolescent longing and existential despair, but it’s all put to the catchiest (yet still quite aggressive) music. Also on the bill: Paws and Total Slacker. I’d heard plenty of synth-rock before landing on Gardens & Villa’s Bandcamp page. But there’s something about this Santa Barbarabased ensemble that speaks to my guilty-pleasure side—you know, that secret longing to indulge in a marathon of John Hughes films from the ’80s. The band released its second album, Dunes, earlier this year, and it’s full of hypnotic moments, like the keyboard-glitched, falsetto-crooned “Bullet Train” and the spectral journey of “Domino.” Garden & Villas will blossom in Bunkhouse Saloon at 10 p.m. September 20. Scottish female-fronted electronica trio Chvrches will make you a devotee at Brooklyn Bowl at 9 p.m. September 21. The band’s debut last year, The Bones of What You Believe, is among 2013’s best discs. Take “The Mother We Share,” which straddles that delicious line between Reagan-era pop-schlock a la Thompson Twins and current epic-synth groups a la M83. Indeed, Chvrches is both pop-oriented and artful, and I’m just tickled Miami Vice-pink to see this red-hot act. If that’s too much candy-coated keyboard-humping, let me suggest a CD-release event for Smoke in Mirrors, the new disc by UNLV Jazz Ensemble I (led by Dave Loeb and Nathan Tanouye) and UNLV Latin Jazz Ensemble (led by Uli Geissendoerfer). The two groups strut their stuff at 2 p.m. September 21 in Artemus Ham Concert Hall. The concert also stars multi-woodwind musician Bob Sheppard. Your band releasing new music? Email Jarret_Keene@Yahoo.com.
PHOTO BY WENDY DUREN
A&E
READING
STAGE
THE GENTLEMAN IS A (LITTLE) TRAMP Limelight blends Chaplin, the 1920s and burlesque into an odd stew
PHOTO BY ROBYN ANDRZEJCZAK
ADVICE FOR THE PLAZA’S NEW LIMELIGHT
star: After the pretty lady dancer yanks your skivvies down to your ankles and you’re waddling your naked buns off stage-right and pulling that fake-shy cup-your-junk move, kindly extend your palms downward to completely obscure your … low-hanging fruit. We—or at least some of us—would appreciate it. OK, Slick? Otherwise, featured performer/coproducer Danial Brown is an entertaining (and limber) fella to watch in Downtown’s new wriggle-and-jiggle entry, weekends through November 1. (Given the Plaza’s run of here-and-gone fops, being billed a “limited engagement” allows for a graceful exit, if needed.) Titled after Charlie Chaplin’s 1952 flm, Limelight is a hodgepodge-y curio that dresses its skin parade—but no toplessness and just one pasties moment—in a Chaplin-esque/ Roaring ’20s motif. That sets an ambitious goal as burlesque shows go: using a unifying theme beyond the standard playbook of unconnected, sex-slathered production numbers (cowgirls, construction workers, Sapphic suggestiveness—you know the drill). Cool idea. Lukewarm result. Nominally cloaked in the iconic Chaplin persona of the mustachioed, bowler-hatted little tramp—fused with a blast of Magic Mike—Brown is the star gyrator, aided by six female dancers, including co-producer/ex-L.A. Lakers girl Jodie McDonald. Also featured as Betty Boop—in pale black-and-white makeup to match her black-and-white outft—is Felice Garcia, pulling double duty with Million Dollar Quartet. (She warbles “I Wanna Be Loved By You”— yup, with “boop-oop-a-doop”—and serves shots to audience members.)
Opening with a grainy video of the performers in a silent-movie homage to Chaplin, they emerge through the screen onto the stage in a promising kickoff to the theme. Yet over 65 minutes, adherence to it is spotty and often discarded in favor of the clichéd stream of hips/tits/pecs/rears set to a generic soundtrack of throbbing contemporary music. (And do we really need another “Hey Big Spender” number?) Despite the perplexing muddle, Limelight offers energy, imagination and impressive choreography. Several numbers bristle with retro dynamism—fapper-style steps and fan dances reminiscent of Sally Rand’s heyday—performed to vintage tunes. The (too-infrequent) bounce-back to the theme is inspired: Brown mouths Chaplin’s speech from The Great Dictator in one military-favored number; gals outftted in plastic soap bubbles scrub clean in old-fashioned wash buckets; and perfomers do the Charleston in danceclub double-time. Humor and audience connectivity play sizable roles—performers sprint through the crowd and dance atop pillars near the booths. Comedy moments include that hide-the-junk maneuver, as well as Brown wearing a bra swiped from a dancer, and donning a polka-dot tutu (with underwear—thank the testicle gods). And when Brown displays his slick tap-dance chops, the effect is dazzling. Yet thematic consistency should be solidifed so this talented cast doesn’t wind up as The Not-Ready-for-LimeTime Players. Got an entertainment tip? Email Steve.Bornfeld@VegasSeven.com.
A&E
MOVIES
FAREWELL FILM The late, great Gandolfni gives a thrilling performance in The Drop By Michael Phillips Tribune Media Services
EVEN A TERRIBLE ACTOR COULD WIN FRIENDS
and infuence moviegoers in the role of Bob, a sweetie-pie Brooklyn bartender who saves an injured pit bull puppy from a garbage can in the opening minutes of The Drop, expanded by screenwriter Dennis Lehane from his own short story, Animal Rescue. For the record, Tom Hardy is not a terrible actor. He’s an excellent one. In The Drop, Hardy, brandishing (or, rather, Brando-ishing) an outer-borough dialect and mumble, is surrounded by terrifc support in Belgian director Michael R. Roskam’s uneven but pungent English-language debut. Notably, the late James Gandolfni plays Marv, Bob’s cousin and employer, the bearlike manager of the tavern that bears his name, and it’s both lovely and extraordinarily bittersweet to see Gandolfni one last time, his eyes alive with his character’s demons. As a performance vehicle The Drop does the job. As a story, and an uncertainly padded script, the movie lurches and lets us get out ahead of its developments. Previous Lehane screen adaptations, ranging from Mystic River to Gone Baby Gone and
Gandolfini and Hardy play cousins who are caught in a web of other people’s crimes.
Shutter Island, have contended with compressing a novel into manageable movie material. With The Drop it’s a stab in the other direction, with Lehane struggling to transform a 7,650-word short story into a satisfying two-hour experience. The tavern called Cousin Marv’s is an occasional “drop bar,” in underworld parlance. Unmarked envelopes stashed with ill-gotten cash make their way into Marv’s safe, so that the Chechen gangsters who own the tavern and, apparently, most of Brooklyn can keep their wheels nice and greasy. A couple of lowlifes in masks hold up Marv’s place at gunpoint and make off with fve grand. The Chechens want it
back; Marv and Bob have to get it. Also there’s the puppy, whose previous owner is the neighborhood sociopath (though he has company) played by Matthias Schoenaerts. (The actor starred in director Roskam’s previous feature, Bullhead, another study in macho sensitivity at war with macho animal rage.) Named Rocco by new owner Bob, the dog is recovered early on from the garbage can owned by wary Nadia (Noomi Rapace, of the original Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). This charismatic loner, whose narrative existence is to provide a bookend for charismatic loner Bob, comes with a shady past. In Lehane World the sins of yesterday smear the skies of today.
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
SHORT REVIEWS
78
Dolphin Tale 2 (PG) ★★✩✩✩
You might have thought Dolphin Tale was an uplifting story that didn’t need a second act. You were right. It was the fictionalized account of Winter, an injured dolphin who was rescued by a Florida aquarium, and how a prosthetic tail was fabricated for her, allowing her to survive and inspire humans. Dolphin Tale 2 feels like little more than Winter’s Greatest Hits. Still, seeing what Winter can mean to a disabled child, the educational side of the story and the adorable animals make this every bit as child-friendly as the original..
The Last of Robin Hood (R) ★★✩✩✩ The Last of Robin Hood is the latest film starring the dashing Kevin Kline. In it, he plays the roguish Hollywood legend Errol Flynn, who had an affair during the final two years of his life (Flynn died in 1959 at age 50) with a would-be starlet, Beverly Aadland. Dakota Fanning handles Beverly uncertainly. The script by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, who co-directed, never makes up its mind about tone, style and approach. It all feels a bit off and a little underpowered, in ways unrelated to its budget.
The Skeleton Twins (R) ★★★✩✩
Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader play Maggie and Milo, twins who haven’t seen each other in 10 years. In the opening shots, a phone call interrupts Maggie’s suicide attempt. It informs her that her twin, a struggling actor, has just survived his own suicide attempt. After this crisply diagrammatic beginning, the script brings Milo to recover and to reconnect with Maggie. It’s packed with incident, this movie. And it’s too bad The Skeleton Twins settles for tidy, slightly hollow narrative developments. The performers are ready to rip. For many they’ll be enough.
Hardy is superb as a soulful man of few words, an endearing early-Stallone bashfulness and, when violence is called for, the wrath of a working-class Khan. I can’t be the only flm lover who’s grown weary of a particular sentimental cliché: the saintly avenging angel, designed for audience adoration one minute and an outlet for the audience’s bloodthirsty instincts the next. With actors as interesting as Hardy, Gandolfni and Rapace, at least the clichés in The Drop have a fghting chance of holding your attention alongside the odd severed limb. The Drop (R) ★★★✩✩
By Tribune Media Services
Life After Beth (R) ★★✩✩✩
The modest, occasionally amusing Life After Beth, now in limited release, has been kicking around on DirecTV since mid-July. Writer-director Jeff Baena has made what is essentially a pre-zombie-apocalypse origin story. At the start Beth (Aubrey Plaza) has been dead 10 days, a victim of snakebite. Her sullen, vaguely off-putting boyfriend Zach, played monotonously by Dane DeHaan, is surprised to see her alive-ish, well and living in her folks’ house. Baena co-wrote I Heart Huckabees and while he has a sense of humor, the jokes here tend to be meager.
Love Is Strange (R) ★★★★✩
The November Man (R) ★★★✩✩
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (R) ★★✩✩✩
If I Stay (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
In this film’s final minutes, a humble examination of a marriage opens up emotionally, thanks in large part to co-writer and director Ira Sachs’ use of a lullaby. This film’s outline is simple. It begins with Ben and George, readying themselves in their Manhattan apartment for the day ahead. They are tying the knot because after nearly 40 years together, they can. Then life intervenes. Do not expect dynamic filmmaking. This is about other things, and John Lithgow and Alfred Molina are splendid, their eyes full of wisdom and experience.
Pierce Brosnan plays Devereaux, an ex-agent who was once nicknamed “The November Man” because of his lethal nature. Here’s a humorless, muddled, bloody and generally unpleasant thriller about a man sucked back into The Business because somebody needs his help. Or somebody knows something. That’s one of the problems with this Roger No Way Out Donaldson film. It leaves us with no clear sense of who or what to root for. That makes November Man another sad refugee of August, the dumping ground of mediocre movies.
Devotees of the 2005 Sin City and its halfway point between “real” and digitally illustrated sadism will be happy to revisit this outlandishly scuzzy urban hellhole—now in 3-D—with its crazed, revenge-fueled antiheroes. The same directors reunite for Sin City 2, gathering actors and characters from the first picture, among them Mickey Rourke as Marv, the vigilante protector; Jessica Alba as the zoned-out stripper; Bruce Willis, as the ghost of her savior; and Rosario Dawson, as the queen of the prostitutes.
Artfully assaultive, If I Stay is better than average young-adult material, adapted from Gayle Forman’s 2009 novel about a teen cellist experiencing true love, a terrible car crash and magical realism. Chloe Grace Moretz is Mia, a cellist aiming for a Juilliard tryout, growing up in an idyllic, funky Portland, Oregon, household. By senior year, Mia has fallen hard for a slightly older boy in a band of great promise. Fate intervenes in the form of a wintertime car accident, which leaves two members of her family dead and two more hanging in the balance.
The Giver (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
The Expendables 3 (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
In the dystopian future of The Giver— director Phillip Noyce’s film version of the 1993 Lois Lowry best-seller, which remains a staple of the young-adult shelves alongside The Hunger Games and Divergent books—books and music are banned, as are “stirrings” of a sexual nature. The world according to The Giver isn’t above killing off elders and unhealthy newborns by the hundreds, a sinister plot point. But The Giver gives off an air of wearying familiarity, without much in the way of design wiles or cinematic wonder.
The leitmotifs in Expendables 3 involve fist-bumps (Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham’s primary means of communication) and that old action standby, the teamassembly sequence. Director Patrick Hughes shot most of Expendables 3 in Bulgaria. The climactic and semi-endless assault features tanks, helicopters, motorcycle stunts only a digital effects specialist could love and some terrible staging and editing. Even so, the movie’s less a failure than a shrug, and it’s pleasant in a numbing way to see everybody again, killing, killing, killing.
Marketplace
Marketplace
Marketplace
BETTING
THE BIG EASY
Back in the friendly confnes of the Superdome, the Saints will do what they always do at home: win big TATTOO ARTIST IN PROVO, UTAH. TUNA
fsherman in Wichita, Kansas. Financial analyst for death-row inmates. Public relations manager for Ray Rice. All of these professions offer an easier way to make a living right now than betting NFL favorites. Through the season’s frst two weeks, chalk-eaters have collected in just 12 of 32 games. Even more shocking, more than 40 percent of those 32 games have ended with outright upsets by the underdog (seven in Week 1; six in Week 2). So guess who tabbed the NFL’s biggest favorite as his Week 2 best bet? (Gee, thanks for jumping offside and nullifying that late fourth-quarter, spread-covering pick-six, Broncos!) And guess who is now backing the second-biggest favorite for his Week 3 best bet? Not just the second-biggest favorite, either, but a team that’s 0-2, ranks next-to-last in points allowed and just lost to the Cleveland Browns! (Actually, the lobotomy scar is healing quite nicely, thank you.) Believe it or not, my decision to lay 9½ points with the winless Saints against the Vikings has nothing at all to do with any hunch that favorites are “due” to start covering. Fact is, we very well could be headed for one of those years in which oddsmakers struggle all season to properly adjust power ratings. Nope, I actually have sound logic for digesting heavy chalk with New Orleans in this spot, and it starts with this: The only thing more predictable than the Saints winning big at home is Justin Bieber doing something douchebaggy in the next fve minutes. Including two preseason contests, New Orleans went 10-0 straight-up and 9-1 against the spread in the Superdome last season. That includes regular-season victories by margins of 25, 18, 32, 18, 21 and 24 points. Throw out the 2012 season (when coach Sean Payton spent the year in timeout for his role in Bountygate) and the meaningless 2010 regularseason fnale (when the starters were pulled early), and the Saints have won 20 consecutive regular-season and postseason home games, going an astounding 19-1 ATS. Number of doubledigit wins in that 20-game stretch: 17. Average margin of victory: 19 points. But wait, there’s more! Including the Saints’ two last-second losses to start this season (37-34 at Atlanta; 26-24 at Cleveland), the home team is 17-3 SU and 18-2 ATS in the last 20
MATT JACOB
LUCKY SEVEN
Saints -9.5 vs. Vikings (Best Bet) Chargers +2.5 at Bills Cowboys -1 at Rams Syracuse -1 vs. Maryland Utah +5.5 at Michigan Florida +15 at Alabama Northern Illinois +14.5 vs. Arkansas
regular-season games Payton has been on the New Orleans sideline. What about that defense that’s surrendered 63 points in two contests? Two words: Matt Cassel. The Vikings’ quarterback has a passer rating of 65.7; that ranks 34th among 35 qualifying QBs. (Frankly, I trust a shirtless Biebs with the pigskin in his hands right now more than I do Cassel.) What about Adrian Peterson returning to Minnesota’s backfeld? I’ll believe it when I see it; I certainly wouldn’t rule out an NFL-mandated suspension before kickoff. And anyway, the Saints are doing fne against the run. They’re just god-awful against the pass. Again: Matt Cassel. True, Minnesota’s defense has been very good so far. Then again, in Week 1, it faced the Shaun Hill/Austin Davis pupu platter in St. Louis; in Week 2, it faced the artist formerly known as Tom Brady. (I don’t want to say the Golden Boy is done, but he sports a 78.9 QB rating; he’s completing just 56.4 percent of his throws; and his 5.1 yards per pass attempt—a vital stat—is the worst in the league.) This week, the Vikings’ D gets an angry Drew Brees and his feet of weapons on a fast track indoors where, to repeat, New Orleans always wins … big. Oh, and while the Saints have allowed the second-most points in the league, they’ve also scored the secondmost points in the league—and they haven’t even set foot in the Superdome. Last Week: 5-2 (2-2 NFL; 3-0 College; 0-1 Best Bet). Season Record: 8-6 (3-5 NFL; 5-1 college; 0-2 Best Bets). Matt Jacob appears at 10 a.m. Fridays on “First Preview” on ESPN Radio 1100-AM and 98.9-FM.
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Growing up around the dealership, were you a car guy or were you more into bikes? I’ve always loved cars. I’ve always had way more cars than I needed. I had a bunch of hot rods. My dad had a race car. They used to have a racetrack where the Silver Slipper was—now it’s nothing. They called it the Sportsdome. That was a quarter-mile circle track in the late ’40s, early ’50s. That was before NASCAR. Did you do any racing yourself? I did some off-road racing. Mostly cars, though. We used to ride motorcycles through the desert a lot, but not racing. I think I fnished three or four Mints in the ‘70s. There was a race called the Sonoroa 250, which me and my partner won. We had a car for four or fve years. [The racing] didn’t last that long. I had to start going to work and making money.
Don Andress
September 18–24, 2014
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VegasSeven.com
With a new Harley-Davidson store set to open near the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, the 18-year franchise co-owner talks about growing up on two wheels
94
By Jason Scavone When did you become involved with motorcycles, and what was the bike culture like in Las Vegas then? I had a bike I rode when I was 12. It was a Villiers Dot, a British bike. I rode that for a while. Then I had a Triumph Tiger Cub 200cc small bike. My frst Harley was in 1966. It was a Sportster XLCH. It was
an 883. It was still nice to ride in this area, because there wasn’t much traffc. The Harley store at that time was, I think, 711 First Street, which would have been a few blocks south of Fremont. It was a little shop, probably 2,000 square feet. It was actually a duplex. There was a cleaner on one side and the
Harley store on the other side. The building is still there. My original exposure to Harley-Davidson was the frst one was built across the street from my grandfather’s Chrysler/Plymouth dealership. The Harley store was literally—you might have a shed in the back yard? That’s what it was. Dirt foors. It was
With Shelby American being in the same area of your new dealership, did you consider you were creating a little cluster for motor tourism? Not really. I think Shelby having the ability to put it where it is was probably a good idea, but it doesn’t cross over much. Some people love bikes and cars, but most weigh more on the car side or the bike side. Some people, all their vacations are consumed by motorcycle trips. A lot of the rental customers we have are renting bikes from Europe in Vegas, and they’ll take a 30day trip all over the United States. They can leave the bike here and fy back [to] wherever. We get a lot of people from France, from Germany and England, but we get a lot from Asia now. Japan is huge. I think they’re more passionate about Harley than the Americans. The Japanese dealers, they go crazy. Is there a road trip from Vegas that’s exceptional on a bike compared to a car? There are four or fve rides from Las Vegas to Utah that are day rides. You can go up to the Grand Canyon and back. You can come back through St. George or Cedar City. You can go to the coast in four hours. You’ll probably
HARLEY-DAVIDSON ON THE STRIP
Opens Oct. 1, with celebration Nov. 1 to include a drawing for a custom Nevada-themed motorcycle, celebrating the state’s 150th annversary. 5191 Las Vegas Blvd. South, 702-431-8500.
stay overnight. Even if you don’t go real far north—if you go up to San Simeon and back to Vegas, that’s a nice loop. Or you can go from San Simeon up through Big Sur, Carmel into San Francisco and up into Northern California by the Redwoods. The Redwoods are really a cool bike trip. There are a lot of good roads in Southern California, too. I used to go up the Ortega Highway. You can go all the way to the Palm Desert, or you can stop at Lake Elsinore It’s like 80 miles round trip, and it’s like 10,000 turns. All the crotch-rocket guys go up there. They have a place called the Lookout where all of a sudden there will be 300 bikes and everybody sitting around talking. Summers here aren’t an ideal time to ride. How do you handle the heat? Most people go early in the morning. The Germans, however, love to go to Death Valley in the middle of the summer with all their leathers on. Big smile on their face. I guess it rains and is so cold there all the time. I was sweating. It was 120 degrees. Those guys were just laughing and having a blast. Harley has been touring an electric bike, the Live Wire, around the country. Will electric bikes take off like electric cars have? [Co-owner] Tim [Cashman] and I were original investors in this bike called Lightning. There are several electric bikes out there now. I think Harley’s done a good job of bringing a new idea to market. Having the customer input is a very good thing. We’re trying to get that Live Wire at the grand opening [Nov. 1]. Hopefully we can get it there and let people take test rides as part of the grand opening. Once they get the distance and the battery life for electric bikes [fgured out]—the last thing you need to do is be pushing your bike down the road because you didn’t have any juice.
PHOTO BYJON ESTRADA
SEVEN QUESTIONS
right where the California Hotel is today. I used to run around over there when I was a little kid. It was pretty rustic.