DECEMBER 5
DECEMBER 11
MIX 94.1 MARK & MERCEDES NOT SO SILENT NIGHT FEATURING
HOLIDAY HAVOC 2014 FEATURING
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS BETTER THAN EZRA, MATT NATHANSON & ANDY GRAMMER
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS YOUNG THE GIANT AND BRUMBY
NOVEMBER 5 - 23
KISS
TRAIN
ROCKS VEGAS
IMAGINE DRAGONS
OCT 31 ..............................................TOMORROW NIGHT! FETISH & FANTASY HALLOWEEN BALL DEC 6 .............................................PIERCE THE VEIL & SLEEPING WITH SIRENS
THE WORLD TOUR WITH SPECIAL GUESTS BEARTOOTH & THIS WILD LIFE
DEC 12 ............................................ HOLIDAY HAVOC 2014 FEATURING BUSH
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT, PRIORY & MEG MYERS
DEC 30...............................................KATT WILLIAMS BORN AGAIN...AGAIN
JAN 21-24 .........................................AVN SHOW APR 10 ................................................SIXX: A.M.
WITH SPECIAL GUEST APOCALYPTICA
FOR VIP PACKAGES & RESERVATIONS CONTACT JOINTVIP@HRHVEGAS.COM OR 702.693.5220 AXS.COM
|
888-9-AXS-TIX
|
HARDROCKHOTEL.COM/THEJOINT
SCORE BIG -
WITH
GAME NIGHT SPECIALS GO FOR TWO Two for $5 Bud Light Two for $8 Stella Artois Sunday, Monday & Thursday Nights
Catch all the big games on over 50 TVs inside and outside—including a 120-square-foot, state-of-the-art HD screen—all while savoring GQ’s “Burger of the Year.”
Reservations: 702.761.7614 | slsvegas.com Excludes tax and gratuity. May not be combined with any other offer. Subject to change or expire without notice. You must be 21 years or older to consume alcohol. Please drink responsibly.
THIS FRIDAY!
OCTOBER 31
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
NOV 14
WEDNESDAY
NOV 26
SUNDAY
NOV 22
FRIDAY
NOV 28
SATURDAY
DEC 6
NOV 23
FRIDAY
DEC 12
SATURDAY
DEC 20
ticketmaster.com // pearl box ofce // 702.944.3200 // palmspearl.com palms.com
©2014 FP Holdings, L.P. dba Palms Casino Resort. All Rights Reserved.
28
14 | THE LATEST
“And That’s a Wrap … “ by Geoff Carter. Analyzing the highs and lows from the second annual Life Is Beautiful. Plus, parades reign on Oct. 31, DeMarco Murray sets a path to make history, Ask a Native and The Deal.
16 | Breaking Stuf & Making Stuf “The Politics of You,” by Greg Blake Miller. Media, marketing and the darkness of election season.
18 | Green Felt Journal
“Staying One Step Ahead,” by David G. Schwartz. The more things change, the more Nevada adjusts to make sure the cash registers keep ringing.
20 | Thought
“A Taxing Problem,” by Lissa Townsend Rodgers. No matter your stance on Question 3, we call all agree our education system needs fixing. And that requires money.
22 | BASKETBALL PREVIEW
“Shooting Star,” an oral history by Mike Grimala. How an undersized, small-town sharpshooter named Dantley Walker became a Nevada schoolboy legend—and the most intriguing player on UNLV’s roster. Plus, Sean DeFrank on additions to the UNLV coaching staff, seven reasons to believe in UNLV, and a book excerpt about would-be Rebel Ed O’Bannon.
33 | NIGHTLIFE
“Making a Ruckus,” by Kat Boehrer. Celebrity soirees and big-time residencies are all in a day’s work for the DJ and producer.
65 | DINING
Al Mancini on Pot Liquor Contemporary American Smokehouse. Plus, extolling the fall and winter bounty of squash, and Cocktail Culture.
71 | A&E
“A Timeless KISS,” by Sean DeFrank. Revisiting an obsession as the rock-star superheroes come to Vegas. Plus, concert reviews from Life Is Beautiful.
88 | Going for Broke
Manning-Brady hyperbole has become tiresome, but betting the clash to go “over” presents a winning opportunity.
94 | Seven Questions
Former UNLV star Shawn Marion on playing with LeBron, placing his name among NBA greats and being obsessed with cartoons.
Guard Rashad Vaughn is among the freshmen expected to be big contributors to this year’s squad.
ON THE COVER Photo by Jon Estrada
|
| Dialogue | Seven Days | Seven Nights | Showstopper | Movies
October 30–November 6, 2014
PHOTO BY JOSH METZ
13 15 38 77 78
VegasSeven.com
DEPARTMENTS
9
LAS VEGAS’ WEEKLY CITY MAGAZINE
|
FOUNDED FEBRUARY 2010
PUBLISHER
Michael Skenandore
EDITORIAL
Matt Jacob Sean DeFrank, Paul Szydelko, Xania Woodman A&E EDITOR Cindi Reed ASSOCIATE EDITOR Jason Scavone SENIOR WRITERS Steve Bornfeld, Geoff Carter, Lissa Townsend Rodgers ASSOCIATE STYLE EDITOR Jessica Acuña CALENDAR COORDINATOR Camille Cannon EDITOR
SENIOR EDITORS
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Melinda Sheckells (style), Michael Green (politics), Jarret Keene (music), Al Mancini (dining), David G. Schwartz (gaming/hospitality)
ART
Ryan Olbrysh Jon Estrada, Cierra Pedro STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Anthony Mair CREATIVE DIRECTOR
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
VEGASSEVEN.COM
Nicole Ely Herbert Akinyele ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Zoneil Maharaj STAFF WRITER, RUNREBS.COM Mike Grimala DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION
Marc Barrington Jimmy Bearse DISTRIBUTION COORDINATOR Jasen Ono
DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING MANAGER
SALES
Christy Corda Nicole Scherer ACCOUNT MANAGER Brittany Quintana ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Robyn Weiss
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR DIGITAL SALES MANAGER
INTERNS
Cassidy Bowman, Ian Caramanzana, Akira Hernandez, Melissa Holmes, Jacqueline Konesavanh, Brien McCrea, Natalie Odisho, Joenita Turner, Christian Wilhelm
Ryan T. Doherty
| Justin Weniger
Michael Skenandore VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING AND EVENTS Kyle Markman CREATIVE DIRECTOR Sherwin Yumul MARKETING COORDINATOR Maureen Hank PRESIDENT
FINANCE
Rey Alberto Donna Nolls GENERAL ACCOUNTING MANAGER Erica Carpino VICE PRESIDENT
ASSISTANT CONTROLLER
Comments@VegasSeven.com Sales@VegasSeven.com DISTRIBUTION Distribution@VegasSeven.com
LETTERS AND STORY IDEAS ADVERTISING
PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE OBSERVER MEDIA GROUP Vegas Seven, 888-792-5877, 3070 West Post Road, Las Vegas, NV 89118 Vegas Seven is distributed each Thursday throughout Southern Nevada c 2014 Vegas Seven, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without the permission of Vegas Seven, LLC is prohibited.
DIALOGUE CONTRIBUTOR’S NOTE Exploring the Legend of Dantley ➜ One of the great benefits of magazine writing is the luxury of time. Unlike with daily newspapers and churn-and-burn websites, magazines afford writers the opportunity to discover interesting subjects, then set out on a journey of finding the stories behind their story—however long it takes. That’s how RunRebs.com staff writer Mike Grimala’s interest in smalltown basketball sensation-turned-UNLV recruit Dantley Walker morphed from mild fascination into a 5,400-word oral history (“Shooting Star,” Page 22). “I first became intrigued by Walker when I took the RunRebs job before the 2012-13 season and began studying the UNLV roster,” Grimala says. “His accomplishments were amazing, and yet there was relatively little information about him available beyond his sheer numbers. Once I started researching him for a profile in the summer of 2013, I realized an oral history would be the perfect way to tell his story.” Grimala’s reporting, which included a couple of trips to Walker’s southeast Nevada hometown of Panaca, led him to 11 of Walker’s coaches (including his father), teammates, opponents, opposing coaches and one very close friend (former UNLV star Wink Adams). After hours of interviews recorded over several months, Grimala pieced together a most compelling narrative about a small-town, record-setting legend—one who remains the most mysterious figure on UNLV’s roster. “The people of Panaca hold him in such high regard, and after hearing all their Dantley Walker stories, I’m more intrigued than anyone,” Grimala says. “I don’t know if he’ll ever be anything more than a scout-team player at UNLV. But it will be fun to find out.”
THIS WEEK @ VEGASSEVEN.COM
COFFEE WITH KIMBRA
Between cooking sessions at Container Park and preparing for her set on the Western Stage, New Zealand recording artist Kimbra chatted with Vegas Seven about her new projects and what sets Life Is Beautiful apart from other festivals. Visit VegasSeven. com/Kimbra.
RAPPERS UNITE
Rising rap star G-Eazy and Vegas hip-hop artist Ekoh took a break at Life Is Beautiful to talk about stealing headliners’ fans, finding success and prioritizing creativity during an exclusive artist-on-artist interview. Watch it at VegasSeven. com/GEazy.
BALLET MEETS CIRQUE
WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT
The Nevada Ballet Theatre and Cirque du Soleil are teaming up again for their annual Choreographers’ Showcase. Watch the dancers as they rehearse the piece “Reynadine” at VegasSeven.com/ Reynadine.
Lucy Flores’ race for the lieutenant governor seat got us wondering how many women are currently serving in their state governments. See how Nevada measures up to other states at VegasSeven. com/WomenIn Government.
FACEBOOK: /VegasSeven TWITTER: /7Vegas INSTAGRAM: /VegasSeven
“You know what’s costing us jobs and keeping businesses from locating in Nevada? Education. Parents don’t want to raise children in a state with a terrible education system.” LATEST THOUGHT {PAGE 20}
News, gaming, deals and the dark collision of politics and personal-injury ads
And That’s a Wrap … Analyzing the highs and lows from the second annual Life Is Beautiful
14
THIS YEAR’S LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL attracted some very large crowds. In fact, the second annual music, food and arts festival drew a total of 90,000 people—that is, if you believe the festival’s PR reps; when asked for an estimated attendance while the festival was in full swing, they responded “est. 30,000 per day.” It’s a curious number. First, I never once felt like I was among 30,000 people. Even on what seemed the most crowded day—Saturday, when the Roots, Lionel Richie and Outkast headlined—it felt more like 20,000. There were no signifcantly long lines for food or drink. The stages were packed, but never to the point that you couldn’t move closer to the performers if you wanted. Another reason that 30,000-perday fgure seems dubious: It’s the same one LIB reported last year. I didn’t buy it then, either. Certainly, nobody could claim that there were 90,000 different people who showed up, as many purchased multiday tickets. If festival offcials don’t want to release actual attendance fgures, that’s fne. Just, y’know, don’t give us numbers that force us to question their legitimacy. As it is, Life Is Beautiful founder Rehan Choudhry has never shied away from admitting that the festival will take several years to become proftable, so attendance is not the way to judge the festival’s success relative to last year. As was the case in 2013, we have to consider other, more anecdotal evidence: The Guest Experience. Much improved. The smaller festival footprint was more easily traversed, and it was nice to have Fremont East’s bars and restaurants outside the festival gates rather than within them, so they could function as proper escape pods. I didn’t hear any real complaints about parking, and taxicabs/
Outkast was among the Life Is Beautiful headliners who came to play.
Uber cars had no diffculty queuing up at Carson Avenue and Sixth Street. There were plenty of spots to sit down, and the Western Hotel—home this year to the art and learning programs—provided a nice, cool respite within the fest. Guest comfort was plainly a priority for Choudhry and his team, and they really delivered. Outside the Festival. This is where Life Is Beautiful is still falling down. The biggest complaints from Downtown residents last year were noise and road closures, and those problems were only greater this year. The sound from the Ambassador Stage could be clearly heard more than a mile away. Huntridge tract resident Matt Kelemen described Skrillex’s Sunday-night set in a (otherwise laudatory) Facebook post about the festival: I just heard someone on the mic yelling something about “fucking ___ ___ in the
house!” and bursts of beat blasts pushing the amplitude past the point of intrusiveness to acres of lower-income residents. … The indifference toward the people who live [here] just isn’t in accord with the philosophies espoused by the festival. The seeming contempt for neighborhood folk didn’t end there. Streets were closed even to pedestrians a full two nights before the festival. Last Thursday, I was bullied by event security as I rode my bicycle down streets that weren’t even part of the footprint. Life Is Beautiful has to do better by its neighbors. The Lineup. As is usually the case with festivals such as this, the best artists are the ones you didn’t come to see and/or didn’t expect to like. For me, those bands were St. Paul & the Broken Bones and Vintage Trouble, both of whom played on the Western Stage. The speaker series was, deservedly, a giant hit; festival-
goers lined up hours in advance to see Pussy Riot, and many subsequent sessions were standing room only. The arts program at the Western was also packed with striking works and unexpected pleasures; it got many of us talking about how well the Western could serve as an interim art museum. There’s a rumor going around that the arts program may be shaved from Life Is Beautiful next year. That would be a terrible mistake. As for the headliners: The best compliment I can give is they came to work. Kanye West, Outkast, Lionel Richie, Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters all delivered rich, crowdpleasing sets loaded with hits. By the way: Vintage Trouble and St. Paul & the Broken Bones were both really, really, really great. They lifted the soul. And it was the latter band’s frst time in Nevada. If that’s not a beautiful thing, it’s at least a very good one.
PHOTO BY WAYNE POSNER
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
By Geoff Carter
[ HIGHER MATH ]
Running Toward History
1,054 ➜ Total rushing yards for Dallas Cowboys running back DeMarco Murray, a Bishop Gorman High School alum. It’s the highest total through eight games in NFL history. 766 ➜ Total rushing yards for Houston Texans running back Arian Foster, who ranks second to Murray this season. 206 ➜ Total carries for Murray, who leads the league (Foster is second with 146). 217 ➜ Total carries for Murray last season, his career high. 8 ➜ Number of times Murray has rushed for at least 100 yards in a game this year. He’s the only running back in NFL history to start a season with eight consecutive 100-yard rushing games. (Hall of Famer Jim Brown held the previous record of six). 2,108 ➜ Murray’s projected seasonending rushing total, which would break Eric Dickerson’s single-season record of 2,105, set in 1984. 0 ➜ Number of times Murray, now in his fourth NFL season, has played in all 16 games.
HALLOWEEN vs. NEVADA DAY The last day of October is a double holiday in our state: not only Halloween, but Nevada Day, a celebration of the day 150 years ago that we were (probably reluctantly) admitted to the Union. But October 31 has shaken out a bit differently this year. For one, since it falls on a Friday, we’re actually celebrating Nevada Day on the 31st (rather than observing it on a surrounding date that best makes for a three-day weekend). But Las Vegas is also hosting its first Nevada Day Parade—meaning Downtown will be home to not one, but two, festive processions in less than 12 hours.
DEMARCO MURRAY BY TIM HELTMAN
NEVADA DAY PARADE
REASON
To honor the 150th anniversary of Nevada getting invited past the velvet ropes and into Club United States.
ROUTE
Fourth Street between Gass and Ogden avenues—about two-thirds of a mile. Far enough to give the sedentary a workout, but not so far that floats will be denuded of crepe paper by the finish line.
7 p.m. Plenty of time to frontload cocktails while making final adjustments to your Sexy Lobster ensemble or muscle-padded Captain America costume.
TIME
10 a.m. Wait, you thought you got to sleep in today? Uh, no. Wake up and celebrate your state’s heritage … or are you the type who pronounces it “Nev-ah-duh”?
Zombies, showgirls, robots, drag queens (professional and amateur), couples dressed as Franzia wine in a box, toddlers in Elvis jumpsuits—basically anyone who can stand upright and smear on some Dia de los Muertos makeup by 6:59 p.m.
WHAT YOU’LL SEE
Floats, balloons, vehicles and marching bands, plus an assortment of politicians and beauty queens.
OFFICIAL RULES FOR ENTRANTS
“All equestrian units or other units with live animals must provide their own cleanup crew. The crews must pick up droppings in the staging area as well as on the parade route. THIS IS A MUST!”
YOU’LL ALSO FIND THIS PARADE …
In Carson City, Virginia City, Elko… um, that’s it.
Fremont Street between 13th and Seventh streets—less than half a mile. Ten minutes in, there will probably be more people waiting at the beginning and end than actually parading.
“The Las Vegas Halloween Parade prides itself on creating a festive atmosphere focused on creativity and positive expression.” Yes, we’re looking at you, Miss Sexy Lobster. In Palmyra, N.J. and Vandalia, Ill.; Dublin and Vancouver; New York City and Hollywood … pretty much everywhere.
ducats for Halloween? Then make your way to Downtown Container Park at 9 p.m. for a free movie. They’re showing Twilight, appropriately enough, which has some pretty sexy vampires. DowntownContainerPark.com.
FRIDAY, OCT. 31: Tons of stuff
obviously going on tonight, but what if you’ve got kiddies? We recommend Town Scary, a little trick-or-treating from 4 to 7 p.m. at Town Square. Merchants will be handing out candy, and you’ll find games and entertainment. Then you can drop the little monsters off at the sitter and go party. MyTownSquareLasVegas.com.
the Mustache Dache, a 5K run through Downtown that starts at 9 a.m. Proceeds benefit Movember, a men’s-health charity that battles prostate and testicular cancer. Registration: $45; kids 12 and under $20; MustacheDache.com.
by Lissa Townsend Rodgers
To honor a holiday that used to be for kids to eat candy and is now mostly for adults to wear unattractive “sexy” costumes. And get drunk.
THURSDAY, OCT. 30: Saving your
SATURDAY, NOV. 1: Halloween hangover? Run it off at
A Tale of the (Ticker) Tape
HALLOWEEN PARADE
By Bob Whitby
SUNDAY, NOV. 2: You can’t really call yourself a Las
Vegan until you commemorate Nevada Day by touring the Hammargren House. This vast, rambling collection of exotic and esoteric stuff really has to be seen to be understood. Think of it as a curated stroll through the mind of former Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren. Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and today. Admission: $15; kids under 12 free; NevadaDays.org.
MONDAY, NOV. 3: Post-Halloween is an excellent time to learn a little about the traditions of other cultures, particularly those that celebrate the Day of the Dead. Springs Preserve’s exhibit A Celebration of Souls: Day of the Dead in Southern Mexico, on display through Jan. 19, is a collection of photos and artifacts from a celebration that, far from being spooky, is loving and reverent toward departed loved ones. SpringsPreserve.org. TUESDAY, NOV. 4: There are more than 9,000 homeless kids in Clark County, and many of them have no idea where they are going to get their next meal, let alone a holiday meal. You can help by participating in the Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth’s Plastic Food Drive. Just purchase a gift card (even as little as $5) at local fast-food restaurants or grocery stores, and drop it off at NPHY’s offices, 4981 Shirley St., or donate online. NPHY.org. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 5: What exactly is a health information exchange? Just the movement of your health-related records among various providers, insurers and other organizations, that’s all. They’re a big part of health care reform, and they’re coming. Find out what that means at a Brookings Mountain West lecture by Niam Yaraghi on the topic at 6 p.m. at UNLV’s Greenspun Hall. UNLV.edu.
Media, marketing and the darkness of election season
WE’VE HEARD PLENTY about how our online search data allows the once-blind adman Mr. Magoogle to see us sharply, profle us quickly and set us up as easy marks. And soon enough, no doubt, we’ll be sharing even more—our vital signs, our neurotransmitter activity, spikes in our blood pressure as we type in the words “WhiteHouse.gov.” Anonymity always was a chimera, right? If you can read them, they’ll be reading you. So maybe you fnd yourself longing for the obscurity of old media, the blissful loneliness of sitting in front of your TV at halfpast 1 a.m., cat curled up alongside you on the couch as you watch Frasier, secure in the knowledge that Frasier is not watching you. But even the cozy wee-hours Frasier rerun comes at a steep price. To wit: Have you been injured in an accident? Have you developed allergies to your cotton undergarments? Do you feel betrayed by your state assemblywoman? Are your shoes too tight? The dizzying mix of politics and personal injury served up on late-night and midday TV tells us about more than the sorry state of the old-media world and its geriatric audience. It sheds light on how we arrived at our much broader sorry state of political gridlock and social dislocation. Long before Google knew what was on our minds, we surrendered our mental sovereignty by embracing the economy of grievance and victimhood. If you watch the insomniac Frasier matinee long enough, or for that matter the noontime reruns of Father Knows Best, you’ll see that the personal-injury come-on and the political attack ad have identical emotional cores: Something has been taken from us; we are consumed by that taking; it plunges us into cycles of pain, dismay and righteous retribution. And somebody must be made to pay. In the mild autumn air of evennumbered years, we’ve grown accustomed to learning from our friendly neighborhood political advertiser just what we’ve lost or are in the process of losing: our guns, our values, our jobs, our standing in the world, our profts, our voting rights, our children’s education, our secure retirement, our right to owe little to our government while still expecting a great deal from it. Nostalgia plays a big role in these appeals: Some ads, in essence, tell us that what
J A M E S P. R E Z A
SHOULD LAS VEGAS PURSUE A FORMULA ONE RACE? Yes, for the same reasons it pursues anything: money and publicity. Formula One is surrounded by both, and on an international scale, and that exposure is critical as we move through the competitive 21st century. Las Vegas isn’t new when it comes to street racing: In 2007, Champ Cars screamed around Downtown at 180 mph in the Las Vegas Grand Prix; and way back in 1981-82, Formula One cars raced at the Caesars Palace Grand Prix. While that “parking-lot track” received some stinging criticism, Las Vegas has grown a lot since. We can do F1 right this time and really capitalize on the opportunity—especially if the race is run along the Strip as has been suggested.
WHAT DOES THE NATIVE THINK OF NATIONAL BRANDS OPENING DOWNTOWN?
Breaking Stuff & Making Stuff
Mad musings on the creative life GREG BLAKE MILLER
has been taken away is the 1950s; others lament that Ronald Reagan brought the long 1960s to a close. Many of the grievances have a grain of truth, but all of them reposition social change as theft. These advertisers know us well; they understand the art of the emotional appeal; they know just what “moves the needle.” Our political and judicial systems have from the start been built around the generally healthy notion that wrongs should be righted, justice must be done and the bums must be thrown out of offce. Political outrage and personal-injury law both have their rightful, sometimes even righteous, place in the great American story. The problem arises when politics and justice become salable commodities—i.e., when personal and political discontent is manufactured and marketed for the proft of a glib class of venture capitalists specializing in the alchemy of grievance. Politicians, lawyers and pseu-
do-journalists forever invite us to mourn our lost, stolen and denied paradises. Every misfortune, real or perceived, becomes an opportunity not simply to be “made whole” but to be transformed by indignation into a knight of the lost world, a fghter against the eternal “them.” Demagogic argumentation replaces subtle storytelling; selective evidence replaces incident; certainty condemns nuance to the dungeon of our consciousness. In time of battle, gray zones are occupied only by the weak. The man who has been robbed gives no quarter to thieves. And, dear Frasier fans and fame warriors, we have all been robbed; it doesn’t take Big Data to understand that we’ve got wounds to lick. For decades, the merchants of loss—the politicians, their consultants and their party machines—have mined our sneaking suspicion of having been shortchanged and sold it back to us as certainty. We’ve been repurchasing and ingesting our own highly refned darkness. The stuff is powerful. It creates the conditions for chronic distrust, petty greed, cold civil war. We’ve become obsessed with getting our due; now we’re getting what’s coming to us. Happy election season!
You must be referring to reports that Cheesecake Factory—a chain of more that 300 restaurants—is building a nearly 9,000-squarefoot location near the World Market Center. While it might be nice to imagine a Downtown revitalized exclusively with locally grown storefronts, all one has to do is look at successful “model cities” to recognize how national chains play an important role in bringing warm bodies and full pockets to places they would not otherwise go. As in those cities, our Downtown is (slowly) developing unique neighborhoods catering to different needs. That’s why Cheesecake Factory is said to be opening near Symphony Park (think San Diego’s East Village), and another chain (Buffalo Exchange) is already open on Main Street (our version of San Francisco’s Mission District). Neither would consider Downtown without some forethought; the fact the numbers pencil out says a lot about the potential of the area, and is nothing but good news for local operators who have already taken a risk.
IS THERE ANYTHING SPECIAL HAPPENING HERE FOR NEVADA DAY? Didn’t you hear? Clark County finally mustered the gumption to secede from the rest of the state and recapture its fair share of state tax revenues! If only … Though Las Vegas typically leaves Nevada Day celebrations to Carson City, given that 2014 is our 150th anniversary, you’re right in assuming that Las Vegas will note the event. How? With a midday parade marching down Fourth Street from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. October 31. And you thought you got the day off work just so you could celebrate Halloween … Questions? AskaNative@VegasSeven.com.
ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO
THE LATEST VegasSeven.com
| October 30–November 6, 2014
16
The Politics of You
The more things change, the more Nevada adjusts to make sure the cash registers keep ringing
STILL TIME TO SCORE IN CONTESTS
TWO WEEKS AGO, I wrote in this space about how the gaming industry is collectively changing to suit the times: specifcally, how slot makers and manufacturers are modifying what they offer to appeal to the next generation of gamblers. Now let’s broaden that concept and consider how Las Vegas (not just the casino industry) responds to changes dealt to it externally. For example, earlier this month, gay marriage became legal in Nevada. Almost immediately, the question being asked wasn’t whether Nevada’s wedding industry (chapels, and the ancillary businesses that support them) would beneft from the landmark ruling, but how much it would beneft—and how quickly casinos would jump in. Almost immediately, Caesars Entertainment announced that it would offer a 15 percent discount to same-sex couples, and proudly issued a photo of the frst same-sex couple to be wed at the Flamingo toasting on the High Roller. It’s no secret that Las Vegas casinos have long courted LGBT visitors; many already offered commitment ceremonies to same-sex couples. But the nimbleness with which casinos (and others in the wedding industry) have adjusted to the new reality reveals just how quickly they can react to change—and have a photographer on standby to capture the moment. Meanwhile, not long after gay marriage became legal in Nevada, sports betting moved a step closer to becoming a reality in New Jersey. Garden State Governor Chris Christie signed a bill last week that effectively legalized sports betting, paving the way for the state’s
racetracks and casinos to begin accepting wagers. Predictably, the four major professional sports leagues and the NCAA immediately requested an injunction, and on October 24 a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order. Should the legal matter get resolved in New Jersey’s favor and the state actually begin offering straightup betting on athletic contests, it would cut into Nevada’s current monopoly on (legal) non-parlay betting. There are questions about what that would mean for Las Vegas casinos: With the ability to bet in New Jersey, will our sportsbooks suddenly be empty? History suggests the answer is no. During the 1990s, casino gambling expanded across the United States at an unprecedented rate. While some markets in Nevada took a hit because of the competition from nearby casinos, Las Vegas itself has managed to maintain its appeal in a post-monopoly era. Yes, Americans could now gamble closer to home, but as those Americans became comfortable with gambling, they continued to see a trip to the Strip as an experience their local gambling halls and Indian casinos couldn’t replicate. Las Vegas more than survived the expansion that took off in the 1990s—in fact, one could argue
the city thrived because of it. At the very least, by making casino gambling less of a novelty, there was a broader acceptance of it as a legitimate leisure activity—something with incalculable, though profound, benefts. More practically, building national networks of player-loyalty programs added more potential visitors to Las Vegas casinos’ databases. National expansion in the ’90s also provided a foundation for international expansion in the 2000s (read: Macau), without which many local operators might not have weathered the Great Recession. So if Nevada loses its exclusivity for sports betting, it’s likely that Las Vegas casinos will answer by promoting more “big game” trips. Besides, more widespread legal sports betting will only increase the number of visitors who know how to bet on games—it’s diffcult to see how that will hurt Las Vegas. Of course, a big part of continuing the attraction will be ensuring that our sportsbooks remain the kinds of places where you’d spend extra money and time to visit, even when closer options are available. That will take the kind of continued investment and promotion that, thus far, casinos have been more than willing to underwrite; if they continue to do so, legalized sports betting in New Jersey—and potentially beyond— won’t necessarily be a bad thing. As Las Vegas casinos continue to show, the ability to quickly adapt to change is what keeps it ahead of the game.
There’s a lot of attention focused on football contests at the start of the season, but once play begins, no one thinks much about them. They should. In addition to providing a free opportunity to make a big score, many of these contests provide a shot at winning when you have two or three losses on your card, something that’s never possible in the big contests. Here’s a list of the free contests in town, presented in the order of amount of money they pay out. Except for PT’s and O’Aces, all require swiping a club card at a kiosk in the casino. Boyd Casinos. The Pick the Pros contest at Orleans, Gold Coast, Suncoast, Sam’s Town, California and Fremont has the highest profile. Weekly prizes have just been raised from $20,000 to $30,000, and will jump to $50,000 in weeks 14-17 of the NFL season. This one has the most money in it by far, but it’s also the toughest to win, usually requiring a perfect card. Aliante. Pays $2,500 weekly distributed among the 10 top scores, with $1,000 for first. CasaBlanca/Virgin River – Pays $2,250 per week with a top prize of $1,000. This one’s in Mesquite, so maybe it doesn’t belong on this list, but it’s still a good one. PT’s. Pays $1,000 to the overall weekly winner, and $25 to the winners at each of 47 locations (including Sierra Gold and Sean Patrick's). Play this one by filling out a card and giving it to the bartender. You can enter once per day beginning on Sundays, giving you up to seven cards to sweat. If you put your entries in at different bars, easily done with so many outlets, you have a shot at multiple $25 prizes. Rampart. Pays $1,000 per week with a top prize of $500. Hard Rock. Pays $1,000 per week in freeplay. (This one has the best name: Gridiron Maiden.) Silver Sevens. First prize is $500 and second is $250. Ads actually say “$250 or two free buffets,” but I’m pretty sure it’s “and two free buffets” (if not, take the cash). O’Aces (two locations). Pays $200 weekly. There’s also a bonus payout of $10,000 if you pop a perfect card, but this one incorporates the point spread (the only one on this list to do so), which makes hitting a perfect card a real long shot. You can play once per day every day. Hand your entries to a bartender. Ellis Island. Pays a minimum of $25 and up to $500 in free-play to the top three finishers each week. If you play them to the max, including seven entries each at PT’s and O’Aces, you’ll have a 21-contest-card free roll. Even passing on the Mesquite trip and playing PT’s and O’Aces once each, you’d still have eight cards in action with no cash outlay. Now that’s a strong deal.
David G. Schwartz is the director of UNLV’s Center for Gaming Research.
Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor and LasVegasAdvisor.com.
ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO
THE LATEST VegasSeven.com
| October 30–November 6, 2014
18
Staying One Step Ahead
THE LATEST
THOUGHT
A Taxing Problem
No matter your stance on Question 3, we can all agree our education system needs fxing. And that requires money.
20
IT STARTS WITH THE SEMANTICS. Those who support Question 3 call it the “Education Initiative.” Those opposed dub it the “Margin Tax.” What is it? Business owners with revenue in excess of $1 million will be taxed at 2 percent of total revenues. However, they are also permitted to choose one of three deductions to lower their tax burden: In general, they can deduct 30 percent of revenue; the total cost of employees; or the total amount of goods sold. And, if the business pays payroll taxes, that’s a deduction, too. Nonprofts will be exempt. Where will the money go? Question 3 states that “the proceeds of the tax [will] be used to fund the operation of the public schools in this state for kindergarten through grade 12.” It doesn’t seem like the basis for the biggest battle of this election season. But it is. The anti-margin tax campaigners have gathered under the banner of the Coalition to Defeat the Margin Tax. The organization has raised about $4 million; the leading donors are the Nevada Resort Association, Nevada Mining Association and the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce. Their website lists organizational supporters from the Nevada Bankers Association to the Cuban Heritage Foundation, plus dozens of businesses and a list of “community leaders,” who seem to be a random assortment of real estate agents, offce mangers and the “self-employed.” The opposition’s battle cry: “It’ll cost you your jobs!” We hear that every time the smallest shard of proft is threatened, whether it’s closing a tax loophole or raising the minimum wage or not allowing fracking in your neighborhood. There is also concern that the tax would irreparably harm the small-business owner, but the number of small businesses donating in the four fgures (and up) to fght Question 3 seems to belie the idea that they’re barely getting by. A study done by local research frm Applied Analysis and commissioned by the Coalition to Defeat the Margin Tax states that “a majority of businesses in Nevada would not pay the margin tax,” as their revenues are too low. Support for the Education Initiative derives primarily from the Nevada State Education Association, i.e., the state teachers’ union. They view Question 3 as an attempt to raise desperately needed funds to improve Nevada’s education system, which regularly ranks
among the worst—if not the worst—in the nation. According to the Education Law Center, Nevada consistently spends less on education per pupil than the national average—almost $2,000 less. The ELC also gave us an F for the fairness of our school funding: Wealthier districts receive more than $3,000 more per student and have about one-third fewer students per classroom than schools in poorer areas. Both groups have cited studies that back up their views. The pro-3 contingent points to a study done by the UNLV Center for Business and Economic Research: The tax will generate up to $362 million and create 11,500 jobs. However, this study was promptly denounced
by UNLV acting President Don Snyder, who said it “did not support the views of the university.” (The university, incidentally, has no trouble asking for increased sales taxes to fund a new oncampus stadium.) The anti-3 side cites a study prepared for the Nevada Policy Research Institute by the Beacon Hill Institute that claims it will cost business owners $862 million and result in a net loss of 1,640 jobs statewide. Opponents of the tax use fear as their main selling point. Homeowners open their mailboxes to fnd daily fiers urging them to vote against Question 3. Renters have gotten mass emails from their landlords threatening to raise their rents if Question 3
passes. They defend the idea of maintaining our current educational status quo by insisting that the money won’t actually go to schools—or it will, but other school funding will disappear. Still others declare that the school system is lousy, so why should we waste more money on it? Which seems rather like saying “My car isn’t running right; why would I waste money having it repaired?” Texas has a very similar tax, and they lead the nation in job growth. The percentage of tax is lower, but Texas also has a corporate income tax. Nevada is one of only three states with no corporate income tax. How much business has that brought us so far? You know what’s costing us jobs and keeping businesses from locating in Nevada? Education. Parents don’t want to raise children in a state with a terrible education system, so companies go elsewhere. And because our education system is terrible, we don’t have enough well-educated and trained potential employees—so, again, companies go elsewhere. One important yet often-overlooked aspect to Question 3 is how it came about. The proposal has always been a political orphan, with State Senator Tick Segerblom being the only elected offcial to openly support it (everyone else is either against it or refuses to state a position). Question 3 is here because supporters got more than 100,000 voter signatures, the required number to force the initiative onto the ballot. If you’re interested in the idea of voters organizing to force their public servants to address important issues, Question 3 is a prime example of just that. Of course, this might be another reason why opposition is so fervent: Can you imagine what would happen if citizens did this all the time? But let’s return to the focus of this battle: our state’s students and schools. I taught in the Clark County School District for eight years. My fnal class consisted of 26 frst-graders, but I only had space and materials for 16. Six bathrooms for almost 800 kids. Portable classrooms so old that when the district tried to move them, they disintegrated. Something needs to be done and, yeah, that something is going to involve money. Or we can keep lamenting the state of our schools while refusing to do anything to solve the problems and create a Nevada our children deserve.
ILLUSTRATION BY JON ESTRADA
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
By Lissa Townsend Rodgers
SHOOTING STAR How an undersized, small-town sharpshooter named Dantley Walker became a Nevada schoolboy legend—and the most intriguing player on UNLV’s roster
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
AN ORAL HISTORY BY MIKE GRIMALA
22
The frst time I met Dantley Walker, he was in the third grade and I was in the sixth. He was playing in the sixth-grade league in baseball. He was always a hell of an athlete. KEVIN HANNIG [former teammate]:
GREG WALKER [Dantley’s father and assistant coach at Lincoln County High]: Around sixth grade, I don’t think anyone
would have seen him and said “future star” or anything like that. He didn’t really stand out. But by the time he was in eighth grade he’d had some games where he’d make eight 3-pointers and score close to 50 points, and that’s when people started to talk about him. MIKE WOOD [Dantley’s head coach at Lincoln County]: The frst
time I ever really saw him in action was when we brought him over in eighth grade to practice with us—which I don’t even think you’re supposed to do—and he could defnitely hold his own. He was just a little kid at the time, but he had some amazing instincts for the game. He could already see the foor well. He was something special already.
HANNIG: When he was in middle school, he’d practice with the varsity team every now and then. At that point, he was already a better shooter than everybody on the team. He could shoot from so deep.
He was a kid who worked hard and didn’t expect to start, but I had to start him as a freshman. He was that good.
WOOD:
PHOTO BY JIM K. DECKER
HANNIG: He contributed right off the bat, scoring 20 a game.
That year, we went to Needles. It’s a California school but they’re in our league, and we ended up playing them in the state championship, so they were no slouch. Some of our seniors fouled out, and the game went into overtime. And he won the game on the road. He scored every one of our points in overtime. WOOD:
HANNIG:
I fouled out on the frst play in overtime, and
JEFF NEWTON [head coach at Lake Mead Christian Academy]:
We actually matched up [against Lincoln County] in a tournament at Virgin Valley his freshman year, and we squeaked one out. I wasn’t able to see him in middle school or anything like that, so the frst time I saw him was in that tournament, and when the game was over and we looked at the stats and found out the kid was a freshman, we said, “You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
MAT T CAMERON [athletic director at Lincoln County]: The moment when I knew he was special was in the state semifnal game, playing Rite of Passage. We were down 18 in the fourth quarter, and Dantley just took over. He was being double- and triple-teamed, and he scored 36. He basically took on [Rite of Passage] by himself and beat them. As a freshman, you just don’t see that.
He was our leading scorer at about 18 a game, and he was our leading assist guy at about seven a game. And we had a really good team that year. We won the state championship. For the next two years after that, Dantley averaged about 30 and the rest of the team would average around 20. Dantley was doing just about everything for us. WALKER:
WOOD: It’s tough to coach when you’ve got a kid who’s that much better than everyone else, because you’ve got to bring the rest of the team along and encourage them, too. But Dantley was the best option, and I wasn’t afraid to go to the well every time, especially if it was a close game. I remember he’d be trying to dish the ball and get everybody involved and that’s great, but if there’s three minutes left and it’s a tie game, I’d say, “Keep the ball in your hands, and I either want a layup out of somebody or I want you letting it go. That’s it.” And I’d say, “Win the game, we’ve got three minutes left,” and he’d say, “You got it.” WALKER: Mike always made Dantley the central focus of the whole offense. He always had the ball in his hands, and we were always trying to get him open. He probably had the ball in his hands 90 percent of the time—he’d break the presses, he’d call the play. Just about everything.
A former UNLV point guard, Adams became a mentor and friend to Dantley Walker. He’s currently an assistant coach at Desert Pines High School. ANTHONY BROWN
Brown founded the Las Vegas Prospects in 2003, and since then he’s coached more than 50 players who have gone on to play college basketball. Walker played for the Prospects for three years. MAT T CAMERON
Cameron served as the athletic director during Walker’s years at Lincoln County High School. He’s now the head boys basketball coach. KEVIN HANNIG
A teammate of Walker’s at Lincoln County, Hannig was a key contributor on the 2007-08 team that won the state championship. LON KRUGER
Kruger was the head coach at UNLV from 2004-11 and recruited Dantley. He’s currently the head coach at Oklahoma. JEFF NEWTON
Newton has been the head boys basketball coach at Lake Mead Christian Academy for more than 20 years, and he’s been named Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association Coach of the Year four times. DAVE RICE
Rice was an assistant coach at BYU during Walker’s recruitment. He’s currently the head coach at UNLV. DWAIN SCHALLENBERGER
A former point guard at Montana, Schallenberger is the head coach of the Utah Select, one of Walker’s AAU teams. GREG WALKER
Dantley’s father was an accomplished high school basketball player and served as an assistant coach at Lincoln County High during his son’s years at the school. MIKE WOOD
Wood was the head boys basketball coach at Lincoln County from 2005-11 and coached all of Walker’s high school games. JUSTIN YAMZON
Yamzon matched up against Walker many times during his days as a guard at Lake Mead Christian Academy. He’s currently playing at BYU-Hawaii.
VegasSeven.com
Dantley Walker was immersed in basketball from the beginning. His father was a gritty forward at Moapa Valley High School and one of the state’s all-time greats in his own right. He passed his love of the game on to his son, coaching him at every level and molding him into a basketball machine.
he didn’t pass the ball after that. We loved it on the bench—we were telling him to keep shooting. That was his frst really big performance. And obviously that started happening a lot.
WINK ADAMS
|
•••••
The Storytellers
October 30–November 6, 2014
dantley walker’s story is almost pure Hoosiers-style fction. A small kid from the small town of Panaca, he’s battled constant questions about his size (he’s listed at 5-foot-11 and 170 pounds) and athletic ability, supposed weaknesses that somehow didn’t stop him from shooting his way into the high school record book as Nevada’s all-time leading scorer. (He also owns state records in assists and 3-pointers and nine other categories, but who’s counting?) ¶ Once a long shot to play even low-level college basketball, word of Walker’s skills eventually made it out of Panaca, and soon Division I programs came calling. One of those was UNLV, which signed Walker in 2011. After going on a two-year LDS mission, Walker redshirted in 2013-14 and now will fnally suit up for the Rebels. ¶ As the season dawns, his role is unclear. But the mystique surrounding the sharpshooter from Class 2A Lincoln County High School (enrollment: 179) is undeniable—most fans know about the preposterous statistics, but little else. Which probably explains why, when you visit UNLV basketball-related websites, Walker is one of the hottest topics in discussion forums: Is he for real? Can he play at this level? Will he ever be a difference-maker at UNLV? ¶ The fact is, Walker, who turned 22 this month, has yet to play a minute of college basketball, and he may never be a big contributor at the Division I level. Still, plenty of people are curious to see how his collegiate career plays out—not only UNLV fans, but those who have known Walker for years and have borne witness to his legend. To them, there’s no doubt the small kid from Panaca is something special with a basketball in his hands—and they have the stories to prove it.
23
Clockwise from this page: Dantley Walker works around a triple team during a state tournament game as a freshman; Walker calling his shot in Little League; and Walker with his father, Greg (left), and his Lincoln County High coach, Mike Wood.
WOOD: At practice, I could put the four worst dudes on the team with him, and he’d take them and beat the best fve. Stuff like that happened every day. He won every drill. He’d die trying to win every contest.
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
WALKER: Once he became established, it was always gimmick defenses. Nobody ever played Dantley straight up.
24
The craziest defense I had ever seen was Agassi Prep. They were playing a triangle-and-2 with two guys on him, so they had three guys guarding the other four. There was one game against Lake Mead, and they had DeQuan Thompson, who went on to Dixie State College. He was a senior and Dantley was a junior, and that game went into overtime. In the last seven minutes and overtime, Dantley had 29 points. And DeQuan was probably the best defender I had ever seen in 2A. In fact, I remember Newton looking down at me a couple of times, and I was just like, “Wow.” WOOD:
NEWTON: We play Lincoln County twice a year. In 2010, we met here in the Lake Mead holiday tournament, and we met in the championship game. I had DeQuan; and remember Dixie State played UNLV in preseason last year and did pretty well. So in my mind, DeQuan is a legitimate D-I player, and on paper and athletically, DeQuan was superior. But on that night, Dantley was just tearing it up. Lincoln County would run a high pick-and-roll—I mean 22 feet out, 24 feet out—and Dantley did it to perfection. DeQuan and the others played their hearts out, but Dantley ended up with 40-something, and he got us 9588 in the championship game.
CAMERON: One thing I loved to watch was the look on the other coach’s face. You know, they’re coming out of a timeout, they’ve come up with a game plan for defending him, and he’d come down the court and pull up 10 feet behind the 3-point line and drain two or three in a row. And the coaches would have this look like, “What is going on?”
He just understands the game better than everyone else. If it was close at the end of a game, a lot of coaches would take a timeout. I didn’t even have that approach, especially those last two years. If it was close and we had the ball, it was just better to let him go. It was like organized chaos, and he would make a good decision every time.
WOOD: Dantley could get hotter than anyone you’ve ever seen. That’s pretty much what happened when he set the [single-game] record against Agassi Prep—when he scored 73. The year before, his junior year, we played Agassi Prep and we were up 17 with a few minutes to go, and there was a lot of trash talking going on that game.
WOOD:
Despite average athleticism, Dantley put up video-game numbers night after night— he averaged 36.2 points and 10.3 assists per game as a senior—and as a result he began to rewrite the state record book. Two of his greatest achievements came as a senior, when he set the all-time marks for points in a single game and points in a career.
And Dantley hit a 3, and I don’t know what he said but he said something, like “You can’t stop me,” and he might have even cursed. But anyway, the ref T’d him up, and he [already] had four fouls, so he was disqualifed. And we lost by one. We just fell apart without him. WALKER: So Agassi came out here and did what a lot of teams tried to do with Dantley: They tried to rough him up. He wasn’t very big, so they’d put a couple of tough guys on him and they tried to beat on him. They were knocking him down, and our crowd was about ready to come out of their seats and onto the court. And then all of a sudden it was just like he couldn’t miss. It was inside, it was outside. And it wasn’t like he just shot and shot—it didn’t seem that way. At the end of the game, [Wood] thought he had 50 points, which is still a lot, but then the guy announced, “Dantley Walker has set a new state record with 73 points,” and I’m like, “73?!” I’ve never seen him shoot better than that. Sometimes it was like he was 6 or 7 feet behind the 3-point line, and it was like a layup.
The Record Breaker Dantley Walker holds 12 Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association boys basketball state records and four Class 3A records:
STATE RECORDS
3,304 1,123 73 887 318 22 475 154 832 290 725 262
Most points scored, career Most points scored, season (2011)* Most points scored, game (vs. Agassi Prep, 2011) Most assists, career
WOOD: I think we had three games left, and I knew he was close and he was aware of it. But he never made a big deal about it.
It was standing room only. We have a pretty small gym, and it was packed. People were sitting on the foor, people were standing up. He was 51 points away, and everybody knew he was getting it. It was rare if he didn’t get 50. HANNIG:
NEWTON: The night Dantley broke the record, he was on fre. We were running two or three defenders at him, and [our players] would come back with that puzzled look on their faces. The kids are just looking at me like, “Coach, what the heck can we do?” JUSTIN YAMZON [then-guard at Lake Mead
Christian Academy]: It was really just a matter of trying to slow him down. We knew every night Dantley was going to have a good night, so it was hopefully about containing him. We wanted the players around him to beat us, rather than him beating us by himself—which is something he did to teams routinely.
NEWTON: We tried to bump him, we tried to get physical with him—if we sagged off him, he’d kill it from anywhere within 28, 29 feet.
HANNIG: So he broke the record and the game was stopped, and they announced it over the speakers. He’s super humble, but you could tell he was happy he had it. I think those records mean a lot to Dantley. It’s just something he can look back on that shows he’s gotten the rewards for all the hard work he’s put in. I’ve never met anyone who put in the work as much as Dantley.
Dantley was the frst kid to have his number retired at Lincoln County High School. CAMERON:
Eventually, Dantley’s stellar play would draw the attention of college coaches. He began playing AAU basketball in an effort to increase his visibility and attract more scholarship offers. WALKER: Right after his freshman year after we won state, we said, “We’ve got to get this kid out of Lincoln and see how he does against legit players.”
We found out the best AAU team in Vegas is the Las Vegas Prospects, and so [Wood] made a call, and they said they’d give him a tryout even though their roster was pretty much set. I could tell the guy was like, “Yeah, we’ll let him try out, but he won’t make it.” WALKER:
ANTHONY BROWN [founder and coach of
the AAU Las Vegas Prospects]: The frst time I ever saw him was when he drove up to practice. Honestly, you see this white kid with freckles, and you’re like, “How good a player can he really be?” WALKER: At the tryout they were working on breaking a press, and they kept having Dantley try to break the press. They could never stop him.
You could tell the kid was a gym rat. We ran our drills and stuff, and he was totally fne. You could see he was competitive. BROWN:
WALKER: So he made the team, and he played pretty much the next three years with the Prospects. BROWN: When I really realized he was a player was our frst tournament. We went to Denver, and our starting point guard, Mikey Thompson, was out with a broken foot. Mikey is the starting point guard at Boise State now. So we started Dantley, and in the championship game he scored 20 or 30 points with 10 assists, and he hit the game-winning free throw to win the tournament. I still remember: It was a tie game and he went to the free-throw line to win the tournament. He missed the frst one, and just smiled and winked at me. And he made the second one, and we won. We joked about it, because he
Most assists, season (2011)* Most assists, game (vs. Calvary Chapel, 2011)* Most 3-point field goals made, career Most 3-point field goals made, season (2011)* Most free throws attempted, career Most free throws attempted, season (2011)* Most free throws made, career
Most free throws made, season (2011)*
CLASS 3A RECORDS
32 27
Most points scored, quarter (vs. Agassi Prep, 2011)
Most free throws attempted, game (vs. West Wendover, 2010)
25 142
Most free throws made, game (vs. Agassi Prep, 2011)
Most steals, season (2011)
* Denotes categories in which Walker also ranks second.
VegasSeven.com
NEWTON: We were in Lincoln County the night he broke the state [career] scoring record.
NEWTON: He went for 64 points [that night]. It was crazy. Dantley had enough 3-pointers to get in the state record book—he had nine in that game. Justin had 13 that night, or else Dantley would have that record, too! It was one of the most amazing games. One for the ages. The folks at the NIAA [Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association] came in and they busted my chops. “Oh, you’re the team he scored 64 on when he got the record. I thought you boys at Lake Mead played a little defense?” I don’t know what to say—the kid can put the ball in the hole.
WOOD: I was trying to get him to go to Bishop Gorman, trying to get him to transfer, because there were really no challenges for him [at Lincoln County]. But we could never get that to happen.
|
But he had a lot of games like that his senior year. He was in the 60s probably three times, and probably four or fve times in the 50s. Pretty soon around Lincoln it was no big deal. If Dantley didn’t score 50, he had a bad game. WALKER:
Depending on which guy we put on him, he always had something in his bag. You had to pick him up at half-court, because he had range from anywhere. He would go on these little spurts of scoring, and it would happen fast. It wasn’t a violent killing, and it almost went unnoticed because it happened a lot. But it would add up.
YAMZON:
October 30–November 6, 2014
WOOD: It was incredible. He was untouchable that night. And this isn’t a game where you’re going in and nobody knows who he is—everyone knows him at this point. But he got ’em for 73 that night. And we won, 101-86.
25
never misses—when he misses, you’re like “What’s going on?” WALKER: During his senior year, there was a Utah team that really wanted him, and it was just easier for us to go to St. George than to Vegas, so we switched [AAU teams]. DWAIN SCHALLENBERGER [coach of the AAU Utah Select]: I became aware
of Dantley after he had already been scoring in the 50s regularly for his high school team. Then everyone started talking, saying he was doing it against triangle-and-2’s, box-and-1’s. Everyone was telling me I had to see this kid, so I went up there. You see this little redheaded kid who looks like he could be a skateboarder. You see him in warm-ups and you laugh. There’s no way. And then you see him destroy the players he’s going against. I think he dropped 50. WALKER: He had some crazy games for the Utah Select.
I don’t know if I’ve seen a more skilled player. Some of the things he did were ridiculous. There was a game up in San Francisco where he had seven 3-pointers in the frst half. And he would do that all the time. This is a guy who is capable of shooting from anywhere and scoring from anywhere. But he’s not a selfsh player—you see a kid scoring in the 70s, and you’d think he’d be the biggest ball hog in the world, but it’s actually the exact opposite. He had 22 assists in one game. He’s the state’s all-time assists leader for a reason. SCHALLENBERGER:
WALKER: I thought during his freshman and sophomore year that maybe he could go to the next level. I wasn’t sure about Division I because of his size—you know, a little white kid from a little 2A school. But someone called BYU about him. DAVE RICE [then-assistant coach at BYU]: We learned about him by word
October 30–November 6, 2014
26
It was a cold, snowy December day. I drove from Provo through Cedar City and then to Panaca. The night I was there, he got 60 points. I was obviously impressed. And then I remember there was a storm, so I drove on basically a two-lane highway from Panaca back to Cedar City, with a visibility of about 10 feet in front of me. But it was a tremendous experience, and I was glad I was there. RICE:
There were probably 10 good schools that were watching him from his junior year through his senior year. Utah State was always in there, and then Montana State and Weber State. WALKER:
SCHALLENBERGER: Every school in Utah had been in contact with him. WALKER: UNLV didn’t jump in until probably January of his senior year. LON KRUGER [then-head coach at UNLV]:
I had some video on him, and I loved watching that. And then I had an opportunity to watch him play in person, and I saw his enthusiasm, his energy. And obviously how well he shot the ball.
WALKER: Honestly, until UNLV got into it, we thought Utah State was probably where Dantley would end up. Coach Kruger showed up at a Needles game in California to watch him play, and Dantley had a good game. From that point UNLV was pretty interested. I think it was just a couple of weeks after that that they offered. WOOD: I was shocked that UNLV was the frst offer. I knew BYU had seen him, and Utah State called a lot. But no one had really come out and offered until Lon. BYU didn’t seem that interested, which was a surprise. People were afraid to take a chance because there are these small towns everywhere, and there’s al-
ways some local legend you hear about. And a D-I school recruiting in Panaca? That’s like you’re reaching a little bit. I mean, I’m a realist—he’s a little kid from a small school, so I can see why the D-I schools didn’t want to give him a shot. RICE: We were very intrigued with Dantley at BYU, but our scholarship numbers at the time were such that we didn’t have a spot for him. But we thought he was a high-character player, and we thought he had a future in college basketball. SCHALLENBERGER: Weber State was one school that had been recruiting him, and then they decided to go in a
PHOTO BY JIM K. DECKER
WALKER: So Coach Rice called me. He said, “I’ll stay in contact and I’ll be down next season to watch you play.” And he did; he came down, Dantley had a good game and they kept tabs on him clear through his senior year. So BYU was the frst college to see him play. That was his junior year.
|
VegasSeven.com
of mouth, that there was a high school player in Lincoln County who was putting up huge numbers. We were intrigued by the numbers and his ability to score the basketball.
Less than two months later, Kruger was gone, leaving UNLV for Oklahoma. As a result, Dantley Walker’s future was once again up in the air. Dantley was a little stressed, because he was going on his mission in a few months, and I think he was hoping for all that to be settled before he took off. So all of a sudden UNLV gives the position to Coach Rice, whom Dantley knew way better than any of the other coaches, except Utah State’s. WALKER:
I think Rice liked him when he saw him in person his junior year, and he seemed pretty set on keeping his scholarship when he got to UNLV. WOOD:
RICE: Coach Kruger had spent a lot of time recruiting him, evaluating him. He had offered him a scholarship, and Dantley had committed to Coach Kruger. So he was committed to UNLV when I got the job, and I thought it was important for me to honor that commitment. WALKER: So Rice calls him and says, “You’re good; we still want you.” And he says, “The great thing about being head coach, I don’t have to walk down the hall and ask Coach [Dave] Rose. It’s up to me now. I can fnally give you that scholarship I always wanted to give you when I was at BYU.” If someone else had gotten the UNLV job instead, I don’t know if they would’ve wanted Dantley. But it worked out that Coach Rice knew him and liked him.
WALKER: He put on a pretty good show. He scored 56 points, so even though we lost, those UNLV fans left thinking this kid is pretty legit.
ADAMS: He was a pretty big name in Nevada because he had a couple of games where he scored 70. A lot of people were really high on him, and he was getting a lot of attention. He would ask my advice. I just told him to do the best
His family keeps in touch with my wife and my mother-in-law. One Fourth of July I went up there and played in a 3-on-3 tournament with him and his uncle. He’s part of my family now.
ADAMS:
When you have a small-town kid who has done what he has done, that’s just a story people want to follow. I would not be surprised to see busloads of people coming from Panaca to see him this year. SCHALLENBERGER:
HANNIG: He was just unbelievable to watch. Even after I graduated, I went to every home game just because I loved watching him play. ADAMS: I never did recruit him—I never
“At practice, I could put the four worst dudes on the team with Dantley, and he’d take them and beat the best five. Stuff like that happened every day. He won every drill. He’d die trying to win every contest.” – MIKE WOOD, FORMER LINCOLN COUNTY COACH
SCHALLENBERGER: In Southern Utah he has a really big following. People from St. George started driving the three hours up to watch Dantley. He kind of became this myth, this legend, like, “Is it really real? This kid who’s not super tall, just a small-town kid scoring these crazy amounts of points, owning every state record?” WINK ADAMS [former UNLV point guard]:
While his statistics were staggering, Dantley’s local legacy was built the old-fashioned way—through word of mouth, with Nevada basketball die-hards trading tall tales about the small-town kid who couldn’t be defended.
My mother-in-law has a co-worker from [Panaca], and she told her, “Hey, we’ve got a player in town, he’s a big fan of Wink; he wants to know if Wink wants to go to one of his games.” I said I’d go because I love watching basketball. So I went to a game, and it was completely amazing. He was shooting from half-court. I became a fan that day. After the game we stepped out and talked, and since then that’s been my man.
After he originally committed to Kruger, Kruger says, “That’s great, do you want me to announce it to the papers? Because it will go everywhere. The
Panaca is a sports-minded community—not just in basketball, but everything. The whole town rallies around its sports programs. And I’ve
WALKER:
All four years he was AllState. His senior year, the [Las Vegas] Review-Journal gave him the Player of the Year award for small schools. I think Shabazz Muhammad got it for 4A, and Dantley got it for 3A on down. And he came to me and said, “Is there any chance I can get All-American?” And I said, “I doubt it; we’re out here in Nevada, and we’re so small that nobody is going to take you seriously in the rest of the country.” And I swear it was two days later he came in and said, “Hey, they just called me. I’m a Parade frst-team All-American.” WALKER:
the state of Nevada. With all the great players who have played here, he’s No. 1 in both categories, so our guys have a lot of respect for that. And the other important thing is that our guys cheer for him to have success. When he shoots one in workouts, they pull very hard for Dantley. They very much like Dantley Walker as a person.
CAMERON:
you can and have fun with it. Everything will work out. Just enjoy being a basketball player. SCHALLENBERGER: The thing people don’t see is the work ethic. His dad will tell you he fnishes every workout with 100 made 3s. He regularly put in six or seven hours a day. In Panaca, there’s really nothing else to do, but he spent that time in the gym. WOOD: People think I go overboard on this kid, and maybe I do, but that’s how much I believe in him. I saw him every day for four years. I’ve seen him do shit that would blow your mind and win games we had no business winning. I’ve watched Nevada basketball for 30 years and seen all the best players, and I think as far as guards, he’s the best I’ve ever seen.
When I introduced him at our basketball camp this summer, part of the intro that I gave was that he’s the all-time leader in scoring and assists in RICE:
tried to make him come to UNLV, because I knew a lot of schools wanted him. Every time he talked to me, he’d be like, “Man, you and Kevin [Kruger], that Sweet 16 year [in 2007], that’s why I’d love to be a Rebel.”
NEWTON: The last time we played [against] him, I told him it was an amazing opportunity to see him play and grow, and I wished him nothing but the best. His statistics speak for themselves. … And his teams won state championships as well. What more can you say?
I really cherish my UNLV letterman’s jacket. When I got it, it was like I had bragging rights. I took it back home to Houston, and it really meant a lot to me. When Dantley signed [with UNLV], he was so happy. And I gave him my letterman’s jacket. He lit up. It was a good feeling for me, because it was kind of like the frst thing he got from UNLV. I just wanted to show him that I appreciated him as a person. He’s really a great kid.
ADAMS:
RICE: It’s a great story. He’s a little bit of an underdog, but he’s a popular underdog. ADAMS: Here’s a guy who’s local, who not
only can score but who knows the game. He knows when to make the play, how to control the offense. Once he gets out there and shows what he can do, a lot of people are going to fall in love with him.
VegasSeven.com
I remember everyone felt really good about it. Our staff felt good about having him, and his family was excited. It was just one of those moments that was satisfying. KRUGER:
He had just committed to UNLV, so there were probably 200 or 300 Rebels fans there. The gym was stuffed. He scored 56, and that was with the fu. He was throwing up at halftime, and they beat the shit out of him physically. They took him down by the throat on a layup, and I almost got tossed right there. He scored our frst 24 points, though. WOOD:
never seen anybody else like Dantley come through Lincoln County High School. This town will never forget him.
|
Dant and I talked one night, and I said, “Would you rather go to Utah State or UNLV? Would you rather go to BYU or UNLV? Because if Utah State or BYU really wanted you, they would have submitted that offer already.” And he just goes, “You know, I want to go to UNLV.” So we called Coach Kruger the next day. WALKER:
papers will go crazy.” He told us if we announced it, we’d have everybody there watching Dantley for the playoff game. And we fgured that would be fne; he’d played under pressure plenty of times. So Lon let everybody know, and we played Agassi Prep for his last [high school] game, and that gym was packed. It was in Vegas, and it was full on both sides. There were a lot of people who just came to check out the recruit.
WOOD: And I’ll tell you, this will happen: He’ll come into the Thomas & Mack and he’ll hit eight 3s in a half one night. The crowd is going to love him. He can do that.
Visit VegasSeven.com/ DantleyWalker to see Dantley Walker share memories of his record-breaking games, his UNLV recruitment and more.
October 30–November 6, 2014
different direction. I had a relationship with them, so they let me know they were moving on, and I made that phone call to Dantley. I think that was a pivotal point for him. To be told “no” by a school that defnitely should have taken him, that was tough. He was at the gym when I told him, and after that initial disappointment he just went back to shooting. He used it as motivation.
27
Reasons to Believe
THE CUPBOARD AIN’T BARE
With an overhauled roster highlighted by several young players, this year’s Rebels appear to be a long shot to return to the Big Dance. Here’s why they just might buck those odds. BY MIKE GRIMALA
More than anything else, talent wins— and UNLV has plenty of it this season. Some of it is young, as blue-chip freshmen Rashad Vaughn, Dwayne Morgan and Goodluck Okonoboh will all play heavy minutes. But that trio’s sheer talent alone should keep the Rebels in most games. And two of the team’s most important returning players, sophomores Chris Wood and Kendall Smith, are loaded with ability. Now that they’ve had a full year in Rice’s system, look for their roles to expand. Put it all together, and on paper, the Rebels are more talented than they were in 2013-14. WOOD COULD BE (REALLY) GOOD
after qualifying for the NCAA tournament in coach Dave Rice’s frst two seasons, UNLV came up short last year, stumbling to a 20-13 record and a fourth-place fnish in the Mountain West. The team underperformed—not only on both ends of the foor but also in the locker room—and when March rolled around, the Rebels were left out in the cold. But this is a new season, and the Rebels feld an almost entirely new team. Last year’s fve starters are gone, and the 2014-15 roster features seven newcomers in all. Such turnover would be a major cause for concern within some programs, but given the turmoil surrounding last year’s Rebels, Rice’s new crop of very young, but very talented players has led to renewed hope for a bounce-back campaign. Will that campaign end with a ticket to the NCAA tournament? We’ve got seven reasons why that’s not as big of a pipe dream as some might believe:
HERE’S THE POINT
Rice has spent the better part of his three years as head coach searching for a “true point guard,” and senior transfer Cody Doolin is probably the closest yet to that ideal. He started more than 100 games at the University of San Francisco, earning praise for his basketball
THEY’VE GOT RANGE
After watching the Rebels shoot an icecold 32.9 percent from 3-point land last season while opposing defenses packed the paint game after game, Rice made a concerted effort to stock the roster with more capable outside shooters. Doolin, Vaughn, Morgan and Wood should all be long-distance upgrades at their positions, and that’s before factoring in any contributions from redshirt freshman Dantley Walker, a legendary shooter (see Page 22) and the proverbial wild card in the rotation. Rice has even talked about playing small lineups more often and fooding the foor with sharpshooters in an attempt to loosen up defenses. The style should be fun to watch, and with the Rebels’ offensive frepower, it should be effective, too. BRING ON THE BIG BOYS
Last year, the Rebels played just two non-conference opponents who went on to make the NCAA tournament (Arizona and Arizona State), and they lost both games. That didn’t exactly help their résumé on Selection Sunday. So as part of his long-term plan to raise the program’s profle, Rice has beefed up the schedule this season. The Rebels will take on likely top-10 teams Arizona and Kansas, in addition to a November trip to New York (and a possible matchup against Duke) for the Coaches vs. Can-
cer Classic. They’ve also got dates with potential NCAA tournament teams Utah and Stanford. Win a couple of those marquee games, and it should go a long way with the selection committee. THE MOUNTAIN WEST CAN BE WON
If there’s one certainty that can be gleaned from preseason previews it’s that nothing is certain about the Mountain West. The conference is wide open (with San Diego State being a slight favorite). That means the young Rebels will be able to get their feet wet and gain experience during their tough nonconference slate without being ground into dust during the early portion of the league schedule. Even if UNLV needs some time to fnd its stride—preseason prognosticators have the Rebels fnishing anywhere from second to seventh—a regular-season conference championship is defnitely in play … as is a conference tourney title at the Thomas & Mack Center. WITH A NEW TEAM COMES A NEW ATTITUDE
Cohesiveness was not one of the Rebels’ strengths last season. Poor chemistry in the locker room manifested itself on the court at times, and the numbers bear that out: UNLV went from second in the nation in assists in 2011-12 to 10th in 201314 to 121st last year. But the current crew seems to be getting along, with the fve true freshmen all enjoying pre-existing friendships, while incoming transfers Doolin, Ben Carter and Jerome Seagears all carry reputations as team-frst guys. The air has cleared, and a more unselfish brand of basketball should do wonders for the 2014-15 Rebels.
Rashad Vaughn
Dwayne Morgan
Goodluck Okonoboh
Jordan Cornish
Patrick McCaw
Guard HIGH SCHOOL: Findlay Prep RIVALS.COM RANKING: No. 8
POSITION:
Center/forward HIGH SCHOOL: Wilbraham & Monson Academy (Wilbraham, Massachusetts) RIVALS.COM RANKING: No. 31
POSITION:
Guard/forward HIGH SCHOOL: Brother Martin (New Orleans) RIVALS.COM RANKING: N/A
POSITION:
Vaughn, who averaged 19.9 points per game as a high school senior, has the potential to be the best freshman scorer in the country, period. His elite perimeter skills— Vaughn shot 43.3 percent from 3-point range as a senior—should translate immediately as UNLV’s starting shooting guard.
Forward HIGH SCHOOL: St. Frances Academy (Baltimore) RIVALS.COM RANKING: No. 15
POSITION:
|
UNLV will lean on one of the nation’s best rookie classes this season, with five true freshman expected to play significant roles
October 30–November 6, 2014
A rugged 6-foot-6 bruiser, Cornish could emerge as an undersized power forward when coach Dave Rice opts for a small-ball lineup.
The long, lanky McCaw may need time to develop, so he figures to see the least amount of minutes among this group. But he possesses a rock-solid shooting stroke. – Mike Grimala
28
POSITION:
Touted for his energetic play, the athletic Morgan should rev up the Rebels’ attack by running the floor and finishing on the break.
With a dearth of true big men on the roster, UNLV will look to the 6-foot-10, 225-pound Okonoboh to play a key role as a defender and rebounder.
Guard Montrose Christian (Rockville, Maryland) RIVALS RANKING: N/A HIGH SCHOOL:
PHOTOS BY JOSH METZ
VegasSeven.com
FRESHMEN FOCUS
Speaking of Wood, the 6-foot-11 forward looks poised for a breakout season. He’s always possessed the tools to be an impact player on offense and defense, but he was raw last year as a true freshman (4.5 points, 3.2 rebounds per game). After an offseason spent developing his body and honing his game, Wood has been impressive in preseason practices. The key, of course, is carrying it over into games, because UNLV is going to lean on him, something Wood seems to understand. “I’ve talked to Coach Rice, [and] he says I have to step up and be a leader. That’s what I need to do, and that’s what I will do.”
IQ and toughness. “I just try to make the right play every time, whether that’s passing the ball or taking the shot myself,” Doolin says. “If you just focus on doing what’s best for the team, and just trying to make the correct play every time, the rest will take care of itself.”
last season was unquestionably a trying one for Dave Rice. After UNLV reached the NCAA tournament in Rice’s frst two years, the 2013-14 Rebels kept their coach guessing all season as to which team would take the foor. Would it be the selfess hard-nosed squad that won at New Mexico and nearly upset Arizona in Tucson? Or would it be the selfsh, apathetic group that lost by 21 at home to UC Santa Barbara and gave little effort in an 18-point loss at Colorado State? Such inconsistency was a big reason the Rebels failed to earn a third straight NCAA tourney berth, leading Rice’s detractors to question if he’s capable of directing the highly regarded talent he has brought to UNLV—an ironic twist from when he was hired in 2011. “When I got the job, the criticism from those who didn’t think I should get the job was, ‘We know Dave can coach, but we don’t think he can recruit,’” Rice says. “And now it’s, ‘He can really recruit, but we don’t know if he can coach.’” As a frst-time head coach after 18 seasons as an assistant, including 11 at UNLV, Rice acknowledges experiencing some growing pains
in his frst three seasons leading his alma mater. For starters, he says he probably recruited too many transfers, including bringing in some players who didn’t mesh with his coaching style. “We’re still going to explore the transfer market, but in this day and age—this last year there were over 700 transfers [nationwide]— we have to be extremely careful,” Rice says. “We’ll take it on a caseby-case basis, but we have to make sure that high school recruits are the foundation of recruiting.” With that philosophy, UNLV’s roster features six freshmen, meaning teaching will be essential if the Rebels are to maximize their potential. To that end, Rice has assembled perhaps his most well-rounded coaching staff. Newcomer Ryan Miller joins Rice after two seasons at Auburn, replacing Heath Schroyer, who in March accepted the head coaching job at Tennessee-Martin. Miller, 39, will assist Rice with the offensive game planning. He will be joined on the bench by former Findlay Prep head coach Todd Simon, who returns for his second year with the Rebels, along with former UNLV All-American
1. SAN DIEGO STATE (Last year: 31-5, 16-2; 1st) As usual, the Aztecs will defend at an elite level, and transfer center Angelo Chol will boost an already deep roster. 2. UNLV (20-13, 10-8; 3rd)
The most talented team of the Dave Rice era may struggle out of the gate, but the Rebels figure to improve as the season goes on. 3. BOISE STATE (21-13, 9-9; 5th)
The Broncos underperformed last season. Expect that to change, thanks to an offense that should continue to rank among the league’s best. 4. COLORADO STATE (16-16, 7-11; 9th)
Senior guard Daniel Bejarano is a sleeper for MWC Player of the Year and will be a key component on an improving Rams team. 5. FRESNO STATE (21-18, 9-9; 6th)
Guards Cezar Guerrero, Marvelle Harris and Paul Watson give the Bulldogs a solid collection of talent on the perimeter. That trio will need to deliver consistently if Fresno State is to climb up the standings. 6. NEW MEXICO (27-7, 15-3; 2nd)
Senior guard Hugh Greenwood is still running the show, but the Lobos have lost too much from last year’s MWC tournament champion to be considered a threat to repeat. 7. WYOMING (18-15, 9-9; 7th)
The Cowboys will lean on guards Josh Adams and Riley Gribau while star big man Larry Nance Jr. works his way back into form after knee surgery. 8. UNR (15-17, 10-8; 4th)
Last year, UNR was the surprise team in the conference. Don’t expect a replay of that, because the Wolf Pack will have trouble scoring in 2014-15. 9. UTAH STATE (18-14, 7-11; 8th)
The Aggies struggled in their first season in the Mountain West, and Year Two doesn’t figure to get any easier, as sophomore guard Jalen Moore is one of the few returners for an inexperienced squad. 10. AIR FORCE (12-18, 6-12; 10th)
The Falcons finished near the Mountain West cellar last year, and that was with promising guard Tre Coggins. Now that Coggins has transferred, Air Force is in for another long winter. 11. SAN JOSE STATE (7-24, 1-17; 11th)
Sophomore Rashad Muhammad—a Bishop Gorman alum and brother of Shabazz Muhammad—can definitely shoot it; after that, there’s not much else to see here. PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Anthony Drmic, Boise State DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Angelo Chol, San Diego State FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR:
Rashad Vaughn, UNLV
VegasSeven.com
BY SEAN DEFRANK
RunRebs.com lead writer Mike Grimala makes his Mountain West Conference predictions for the 2014-15 season.
|
Having acknowledged he’s made (and learned from) some mistakes, Dave Rice enters his fourth season with a retooled staff and a renewed confdence that he has the Rebels running in the right direction
Aztecs to be Kings of the Mountain
October 30–November 6, 2014
Lessons Learned
Stacey Augmon, the lone holdover from Rice’s original staff. Rice says Augmon and Simon will work together as the team’s “defensive coordinators.” “People are going to be excited when they see Coach Augmon’s impact on our team this year,” Rice says. “His role has been greatly expanded.” In addition to his three fulltime assistants, Rice added two other pieces to the mix, although neither is new to UNLV. Former Rebels assistant coach Max Good returns as a special assistant to Rice after spending the last six seasons as head coach at Loyola Marymount. Good, 73, worked with Rice when both were assistants under former UNLV coach Bill Bayno, and went 13-9 as the Rebels’ interim head coach to fnish the 2000-01 season. Because of an NCAA rule that limits the number of full-time assistants, Good isn’t permitted to give oncourt instruction during games or practices, or participate in off-campus recruiting. However, he can be in all coaches’ meetings, observe practices and offer advice, giving Rice the veteran adviser he’s lacked at UNLV. “I had wanted for some time to create this position,” Rice says. “And to bring in someone like Coach Good, who has a wealth of knowledge, experience and credibility, having done it at a lot of different levels, it made perfect sense.” While Good brings experience, Curtis Terry adds youthful energy. A four-year UNLV letterman from 2004-08 under former coach Lon Kruger, Terry, 29, returns as a graduate assistant after coaching girls high school basketball in the Seattle area last year. “He doesn’t bring the experience that Coach Good does, but he’s younger and more the age of our players,” Rice says. “The combination of Coach Good and Curtis Terry, and the impact they can have on our players off the court, is a major positive.” After losing its top fve scorers and three leading rebounders from last season, UNLV was picked by the media to fnish fourth in the Mountain West. But with a retooled staff and another year of experience under his belt, Rice insists that the Rebels will play hard and play together, and the rest will take care of itself. “One of my adages is ‘Live and learn, but you better learn,’” Rice says. “I’m not afraid to say that there have been times I have not done as well as I would’ve liked, but I have learned from those things. There is no substitute for experience, and there’s always something to learn, but I’ve got a great staff in place and a program that’s moving in the right direction.”
29
The Rebels Legend Who Wasn’t In 1990, blue-chip recruit Ed O’Bannon appeared destined for UNLV. Then an NCAA ruling against the school altered his life’s course. Two decades later, O’Bannon, Las Vegas and the NCAA would become intertwined again—this time in a legal case that may forever alter the college athletic landscape. BY ROB MIECH
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is taken from the book Eleventh Heaven (BookLocker, $22), which chronicles Ed O’Bannon and the 1995 UCLA basketball national championship team. O’Bannon, who almost signed to play at UNLV, has been a Las Vegas resident for more than a decade, working for the Findlay Automotive Group and serving as the lead plaintiff in a landmark lawsuit against the NCAA.
30
edward charles o’bannon Jr. offcially became enamored with UNLV, the Thomas & Mack Center and a damp-towel-gnawin’ basketball coach during his offcial visit to Las Vegas. He arrived on a Saturday, in mid-February 1990. He met Rebels guard H Waldman and center George Ackles. He lunched with Greg Anthony and was impressed that the star guard left to speak with grade-schoolers. O’Bannon watched UNLV defeat Arizona 95-87 inside the Mack, the spiffy 6-year-old arena with a Gucci Row. He hung out with Stacey Augmon and Larry Johnson. Those two and fellow Rebel Chris Jeter joined O’Bannon— and O’Bannon’s younger brother Charles, who was on an unoffcial visit—to watch Siegfried & Roy perform at The Mirage. They slid into a center booth, maybe halfway back. Buster Douglas, a week after zapping Mike Tyson in Tokyo, strolled in. Introduced as if he were the president of the United States, thought Ed O’Bannon. Flash bulbs exploded all around them. Another buzz circulated. Julius Erving sauntered up to their booth and shook hands with everyone. He told Johnson and Augmon, “Man, I was watchin’ y’all today. Great game!” Ed was foored. Dang, he thought, these guys got heavyweight champs walkin’ up to them, not the other way around! And Dr. J! And they just got done playing on national television. How do you not come to this school? Several weeks later in Denver, UNLV
won the national title, defeating Duke 103-73—still a championship-game record margin—to cap a 35-5 season. Jerry Tarkanian had his Rebels on a roll. Over the previous eight seasons, UNLV’s record of 247-39 had been tops in the country. Tark the Shark had all the West Coast glamour and glitz, and he had the returnees to defend his championship in 1990-91. Ed O’Bannon yearned to join the high-wire hoopsters, help the Rebels claim another crown and then enter the NBA Draft after his freshman or sophomore season. He would do the bare minimum academic work required to stay eligible. As a prep senior, O’Bannon earned Basketball Times national Player of the Year honors. His life was all basketball. He would make tens of millions of dollars and be a perennial NBA All-Star, perhaps even win a few NBA titles, too. In May 1990, Ed O’Bannon and Shon Tarver—a 6-foot-5 swingman from Santa Clara High School in Oxnard, California, considered to be one of the top players in California—gave oral commitments to UNLV. But because of a threatening NCAA investigation, Tark did not press the pair for signatures. If penalties were levied, Tark wanted the players to be able to sign with another school without having to sit out a year, the usual punishment for breaking a signed letter of intent. It further endeared Tark to O’Bannon. “I couldn’t believe it,” O’Bannon says. “Every [other collegiate coach] would have said, ‘Sign the letter of intent.’ But [Tarkanian] was like, ‘Things aren’t lookin’ all that great. So if [penalties] happen, I don’t want you tied into this.’ I thought it was extremely classy. How could you not want to be there, to play for someone who is as classy as that, despite what the N-C-two-A is sayin’? I think Tark has all the class in the world. He’s an iconic fgure, the John Wooden of our era. What I mean by that is, when Coach Wooden walked into an arena or gym or restaurant, everyone knew who he was. The whole place stopped.
Everyone paid his respects to Coach Wooden; same thing with Coach Tarkanian. He walks in that door and the 10 people in the joint would know who he is. They would stop what they’re doing and watch him walk all the way across the room and sit down.” Getting O’Bannon and Tarver had been a watershed event for Tark, who had always seemed to fnish second to UCLA in blue-chip recruiting wars. Tarkanian told me in 2008 that he and his staff “recruited their butts off” to get Ed O’Bannon. “He was the frst time we beat UCLA on a [premier] player.” On July 20, 1990, the NCAA Committee on Infractions barred UNLV from postseason play for the 1990-91 season in the latest episode of decades of jousting between Tarkanian and the governing body of collegiate sports. He released O’Bannon and Tarver, and both signed with UCLA. Neither had to sit out a season because of Tarkanian’s foresight. Then, on October 9, 1990, six days before the start of offcial practice, O’Bannon tore apart his left knee upon landing awkwardly after dunking in a pickup game at the John R. Wooden Center on the UCLA campus.
•• •• •
six weeks after o’bannon underwent fve hours of surgery to repair his knee, the NCAA lifted UNLV’s postseason ban. The Rebels accepted an alternative penalty that would prohibit them from appearing on live television during the following (1991-92) season and keep them from competing in the 1992 NCAA tournament. The 1990-91 UNLV basketball team could, in fact, defend its national championship. The NCAA had never previously reversed its course on such a major ruling. Still, Tarkanian referred to it as “that horseshit ruling.” And there was Ed O’Bannon, on crutches inside his parents’ home in Lakewood, California, felding getwell cards from singers Michael Jackson and George Michael, and a hangin-there phone call from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Had he stuck with his commitment to UNLV, O’Bannon obviously would not have been in the Wooden Center that fateful day and he would have been able to help the Rebels defend their title. UNLV would suffer a 79-77 defeat to Duke in a national
•••••
the bruins walloped unlv 108-83 at Pauley Pavilion in the Rebels’ 1993-94 season opener, an outcome that might have been vastly different had Edward O’Bannon kept his original commitment to UNLV and Charles O’Bannon followed his older brother to Las Vegas. An auspicious encounter took place when UNLV junior guard Michael Curtis, a bit Rebel, introduced himself to Ed O’Bannon after the game. The repercussions of that meeting would come to affect the landscape of collegiate sports. Almost 10 years after that game, Ed and Rosa O’Bannon and their three children moved to Las Vegas to escape Southern California congestion and Golden State tax burdens. O’Bannon’s professional career had started in New Jersey with the Nets and fzzled, sending him on a sojourn to Italy, Greece, Argentina, Spain and Poland—a lot of Poland. He retired in 2004 and embarked on a career selling cars at Findlay Toyota, owned by auto magnate and former UNLV center Cliff Findlay. O’Bannon has risen into a prominent marketing and promotions position, but he’s never above working the lot on a 115-degree summer day. He fgures he has sold 2,000 vehicles. (When he helped Andre Agassi buy two vans, the former tennis ace regaled O’Bannon with tales of his dynamic 1994-95 season at UCLA and bemoaned that he never played for the Rebels.) As he established roots in Las Vegas, Ed O’Bannon reunited with Michael Curtis. During the 2008-09 hoops season, O’Bannon picked up Curtis at his Summerlin home to attend a Rebels
VegasSeven.com
people they hurt and had lives altered because of their beef with him. … What a crooked organization.”
|
semifnal game in Indianapolis, leaving Tark loyalists, college basketball fans and longtime Las Vegans a lifetime to ponder how O’Bannon’s presence might have altered that outcome. However, O’Bannon—who recovered from his knee injury and went on to lead the Bruins to the 1995 national championship—recalls nothing about the significance of that timeline. He says he never had any regrets. “Absolutely not. Once I made my decision to go to UCLA, I never looked back. I never followed what the N-C-two-A was doing with UNLV. I couldn’t tell you when they actually went on probation. I had moved on.” NCAA offcials had not moved on, however. They visited UCLA during O’Bannon’s second academic year to query about the purchaser of a roundtrip airline ticket to Las Vegas that O’Bannon had used for an unoffcial recruiting visit. Nothing came of it, but the inquisition infuriated O’Bannon. He was being grilled about the topic maybe a 10th time. The offcials shut the door in a UCLA conference room and all but beamed a spotlight at him. “Dude, you guys are fshin’,” O’Bannon said. “What are you lookin’ for? What the hell do you guys want from me?” O’Bannon believed it was typical of how the organization had badgered Tarkanian for many years. Tark and the NCAA began dueling in 1973, when he penned a guest column for the Long Beach Press-Telegram and wrote how the organization went after minnows—the small schools—but not whales. In April 1998, Tark accepted a $2.5 million settlement from the NCAA, averting a trial that was about to begin in Las Vegas. “You want vindication? Tark has had his,” O’Bannon says. “He sued the NC-two-A and got, what, $2 million? But there’s a whole lot of other people they hurt in going after him, just a wave of
game; Curtis was delayed, so O’Bannon settled onto a couch to watch Curtis’ sons, Spencer and Parker, toy with a video game. One of them controlled the 1994-95 UCLA team. And there was a slender 6-foot-8 bald lefty with No. 31 on his jersey. O’Bannon was stunned; he was watching himself. Curtis laughed as he entered the room. “The worst part is, you’re not getting anything for that, are you?” O’Bannon did not laugh. That indignity enticed O’Bannon to join Sonny Vaccaro—who became famous for paying college basketball coaches to have their players wear sneakers of companies he represented— in what at frst looked like a potentially debilitating lawsuit against the NCAA, EA Sports and Collegiate Licensing Co. for using athletes’ images and likenesses in perpetuity without compensation. O’Bannon v. NCAA was fled in Northern California on July 21, 2009. “It all started in my house,” Curtis says. “The crazy thing is we were just hanging out.” The case morphed and expanded and shifted like a blob. Some observers speculated that the NCAA would be smacked with penalties of several billion dollars. Due to the antitrust nature of the case, that severe fgure would be tripled, possibly crippling the NCAA. But that was an extreme potential denouement. At the start of the 2013 NCAA tournament, O’Bannon played celebrity host to a double-ballroom gathering of about a thousand fans at the South Point. I brought him that week’s Sports Illustrated. He was 43rd on the magazine’s ranking of the 50 most powerful people in sports, a spot ahead of Barack Obama. UFC President Dana White, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Michael Jordan brought up the rear of the poll. “I didn’t really think it was that big of a deal, [but] it was pretty cool that I’m in front of Mr. President. Wow. I don’t know what it means, if anything. But somebody thinks so.” The magazine’s nutshell explanation of O’Bannon’s ranking highlighted his role as the lead plaintiff in the NCAA law-
October 30–November 6, 2014
NCAA sanctions against UNLV led Ed O’Bannon to sign with UCLA, where he overcame a severe knee injury to lead the Bruins to the 1995 national championship. In 2004, O’Bannon moved to Las Vegas and embarked on a career selling cars for the Findlay Automotive Group.
suit. Madeline O’Bannon had always told her eldest son that he had a higher calling. “I’m excited that I have the opportunity to represent my fellow basketball players,” he told me at the South Point. “The feedback I’m getting, personally, has been 100 percent positive. Everyone I talk to seems to be in our corner. As a man, that’s what you want: the respect of your peers. I seem to have it, and I will do all that I can to keep it. I want to represent my family, my parents, my wife and my kids. … I have an opportunity to be a positive infuence on a lot of lives.” On the eve of the trial in June, Michael Hausfeld, the lead attorney for the O’Bannon team, chose not to pursue retroactive monetary damages; that extinguished the possibility of the NCAA being fned billions of dollars. It was now about the future. That streamlined the case, taking a verdict away from a jury and leaving it to the sole discretion of U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken. Late on the afternoon of August 8, 2014, Wilken ruled in favor of O’Bannon, citing that the NCAA’s limits on what top-tier college basketball and football players can receive for playing sports “unreasonably restrains trade” in violation of antitrust laws. The 99page ruling slammed the NCAA and contained an injunction that prevents the organization from keeping those players from getting a limited share of revenues generated from the use of their names, images and likenesses. That revenue sharing, which Wilken suggested should have an annual cap of at least $5,000 and which would be held in a trust until after the athlete leaves college, would begin next summer. The NCAA has appealed. A legal expert told me appeals at the state level could take two years. Both sides had already threatened to appeal to the highest court in the land, and a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court (should it choose to hear the case) could add another 10 years. Pretty cool stuff, Ed O’Bannon texted me three hours after the decision was rendered. That qualifed as an emotional outburst for someone who does not partake in hype or hyperbole, Facebook or Twitter. The roller-coaster ordeal might have been defating and demanding, in time alone, but O’Bannon, now 42, never wavered once he became a part of it. He spent years discussing tactics and giving depositions, in person, with teams of lawyers on both coasts—even to his own professional detriment: In the summer of 2013, he sought a broadcasting gig, but that was squashed once the company discovered the lawsuit. He had wanted to explore coaching opportunities, too. “But no [head] coach will touch me,” he said. I had heard through channels that O’Bannon might have regretted, to whatever degree, being involved in the lawsuit. That ran counter to the feelings and words he had expressed to me during our many meetings, which totaled maybe 100 hours. I ask him anyway. He finches. Absolutely not true, he says. Would he do it all over again? “In a New York minute.”
31
NIGHTLIFE
Celebrity soirees and big-time residencies are all in a day’s work for the DJ and producer By Kat Boehrer
Who are the most interesting celebrities you’ve met? Probably Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. They’re pretty cool cats.
|
You’ve presided over amazing celebritystudded parties all over the world. What were three of the most memorable? At Hakkasan, it was the birthday of [Hakkasan Group chairman] Khadem Al Qubaisi. We had Swizz Beatz come in, and I did a DJ set with him. Kate Upton was standing on the DJ booth, dancing around. He and all his friends were bringing up the largest bottles of Champagne I’ve ever seen in my life. I also did a private event for Naomi Campbell in India with Jamie Jones and Diana Ross. And Diddy’s birthday in Morocco—I was 17 years old.
October 30–November 6, 2014
Making a Ruckus
HE CALLS L.A. HOME, but holds residencies in Miami, Chicago and Atlantic City. He schmoozes with the likes of Kanye West, Christina Aguilera and Alexander Wang at the private A-list parties he DJs around the world. At the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevard, his image flashes across giant screens outside the MGM Grand. Yes, DJ Ruckus lives that glitzy, glamorous life that most only dream of. And Greg Andrews lives up to his adopted stage name when he tears up the rooms at Hakkasan Nightclub. Then, in very “Las Vegas” fashion, he also tears up the after-parties. Witness the rumpus firsthand when Ruckus takes his pre-show jog outside MGM Grand then returns to his Strip residency on Halloween and November 13.
VegasSeven.com
Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and XS’ nightlife lieutenant moves up the ranks
33
NIGHTLIFE
But what was it like in the beginning, before all that? I got started really early. I got an opportunity to play this club in Miami called Crobar when I was 15 years old, because my brother happened to promote there. It was horrendous. I kinda knew how to mix records, but I just didn’t know enough songs. Back then you had to play on vinyl, and it was pretty expensive to get a whole set to play in a nightclub. But people believed in me and kept me going. I’ve read that you use SD cards in your sets, like the ones you put into digital cameras. What are they for? I have a thing where I pick up a CDJ and I play it like a guitar. You can put [the SD card] in a CDJ-2000 and read all of your information like a fash drive. It’s reliable, and it doesn’t fall out; a USB might get clipped on something. What are your go-to tracks for getting the crowd pumped up? “Don’t Tell ’Em”—that’s YG and Jeremih, a DJ Mustard record. It wins every time. There are some secret weapons I use, such as “Scrubs” from TLC. Another one is “Crank That (Soulja Boy).” Forever. I don’t care where you go on the planet, it works. Who are your favorite artists right now for including in your sets? I like AlunaGeorge. Yung Thug. T.I. is continuously awesome. This guy Makonnen, he’s got “Club Goin’ Up on a Tuesday.” That record’s one of my favorites. Is that also what you listen to in your free time? When I’m not on the clock, I’m listening to soul classics. You know, old-school stuff like Stevie Wonder and Donny Hathaway. I like them, or albums like A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders or JayZ’s Blueprint. Do you have a ritual to prepare for your sets? I like to get a good workout in. We always do dinner at Hakkasan with a group of friends, whoever’s in town.
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
Favorite item on the menu? Duck salad, man! My friends will even drive up from L.A. just so they can get that duck salad!
34
And what kind of exercise do you do? Pauly D and those guys live [in Vegas] so we’ll go work out. We use the stairways and walkways outside the MGM Grand to measure how far we wanna run. We use that as our little workout. What do you get up to after your set is done? Afterward, we hang out for one of the other DJs, listen to what’s going on. And probably set up an after-party and destroy a hotel room! So … I take it you’re a party animal? Hakkasan is one of my favorite residencies, but also the most expensive. I end up hanging out and partying so much after!
By
NIGHTLIFE
Camille Cannon
Circus, 7:30 p.m., FrightDome. com/Afterlife.) The carousing continues with Dia de Los Muertos at Tacos & Tequila. Join the ladies of Fantasy for face painting and a photo booth—the “best costumed photo” wins dinner, show tickets and a room at Luxor. (In Luxor, 7 p.m., TacosAndTequilaLV.com.) At Hakkasan, the Roots’ bandleader, Questlove, returns to the decks of Ling Ling Club while Afrojack and D-Wayne split the tables in the main room. (In MGM Grand, 10:30 p.m., HakkasanLV.com.)
SUN 2 Hip-hop producer DJ Drama—whose recent work includes Childish Gambino’s STN MTN mixtape—holds court at The Bank, where you can win $10,000 for recycling your sexiest Halloween costume. (In Bellagio, 10 p.m., TheBankLasVegas.com.) After past sets at EDC, Drai’s After Hours and Marquee, celebrated techno artist Richie Hawtin makes his Life debut during Underground Sundays. (In SLS, 10:30 p.m., SBE.com.)
MON 3 You may have had too much on your party plate to catch Chuckie at Marquee on Saturday. Lucky for you, the King of Dirty Dutch returns this evening, minus the club’s festive décor. (In the Cosmopolitan, 10 p.m., MarqueeLasVegas.com.)
Nick Jonas.
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
THU 30
38
Haze fades to black this weekend following sets by GTA (Oct. 31) and Carl Cox (Nov. 1). However, we’re most intrigued by the “surprise performance” being teased for the fnal #HazeThursdays. Gather your industry pals for one last hurrah. (In Aria, 10:30 p.m., HazeLasVegas.com.) In relaunch news, BASSment Thursdays returns to Body English with wonky beat maestros Brillz and Snails. (In Hard Rock Hotel, 10:30 p.m., HardRockHotel.com.)
FRI 31 Happy Halloween, night owls! Get a spooky start at Ghost-
bar for Night of the Killer Costumes. DJs Presto One and Benny Black cover the ones and twos, and more than $20,000 in cash and prizes are up for grabs in costume contests. (In the Palms, 10 p.m., Palms.com.) Got a beard and burly frame? Enter the Dan Bilzerian Look-Alike Contest at Marquee. The actor, poker player and Instagram celebrity will host while trance champ Dash Berlin spins the insane asylum-themed function. (In the Cosmopolitan, 10 p.m., MarqueeLasVegas.com.) “Dance until you die” at Fremont Country Club for the Downtown Massacre. The bangin’ beneft for the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada features DJs Ultra and
Shahab Zargari, and a live performance by local electropop outft Boiis. (601 Fremont St., 9 p.m., Facebook.com.) Kick it with the often-shirtless Nick Jonas at 1 Oak, where the heartthrob hosts a $20,000 sexiest costume contest. (In The Mirage, 10:30 p.m., 1OakLasVegas. com.) For even more Halloween parties, see Page 50.
SAT 1 For the frst time in its 12-year run, Fright Dome opens after Halloween for Afterlife. The haunted attraction will be converted into an 18-and-over nightclub, complete with DJs, bottle service and a $5,000 costume contest. (In Circus
Richie Hawtin.
Bassnectar.
TUE 4 Straighten your kneesocks for Country Club, the new industry night in Drai’s After Hours. Encouraged attire includes argyle, pleated and golf course chic. In other words, nothing you’d ever wear in the light of day. (In the Cromwell, 10 p.m., DraisNightlife.com.)
WED 5 Best known for his awesome hair and remix of Ellie Goulding’s “Lights,” Bassnectar brings his NVSB (Noise Versus Beauty) tour to Brooklyn Bowl. (At the Linq, 7:30 p.m., Vegas.BrooklynBowl.com.) If you’d prefer less headbanging and more head scratching, stop by the Bunkhouse for Geeks Who Drink trivia night hosted by local poetry stalwart A.J. Moyer. (124 S. 11th St., 5 p.m. BunkhouseDowntown.com.)
XS’ Ryan Perrings moves from VIP booths to VIP bookings By David Morris
RYAN PERRINGS NEVER envisioned a career in nightlife when the New Mexico native decamped to Las Vegas after high school to study family law. “At the time I wanted to live in an international city, and I knew it had to be Las Vegas or New York, but something just drew me [here],” Perrings says. Once bitten by the hospitality and entertainment bug, the UNLV student quickly changed his career trajectory. Today, Perrings is one of XS’ top lieutenants. Since that club arrived on the scene nearly six years ago, Perrings has risen through the ranks, growing from VIP host into one of the club’s artist relations specialists and ultimately into his current role as an entertainment and programming manager. We caught up with Perrings to talk transition, his new role at XS and making artists happy in their homes away from home.
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
Executive titles mean different things to different nightclubs. What do you do? I am responsible for event programming and bringing acts to XS. I book the talent, artists— meaning DJs, rarely performers—and coordinate events with our marketing team. I reach out to agents and management and initiate conversations to establish deal points. From there, we fnd a date that will work, come to an agreement, and I oversee the advancing of shows and take care of the artists once they get to town.
44
What do you mean by “advancing the show”? I oversee fights, accommodations and that an artist’s rider is met both in the venue and in their room. I make sure that every aspect of their experience is taken care of from the moment they land. What’s a typical night at XS like for you? Every night is different. It’s all based on what the artist wants to do, but we always have someone greet them at the hotel and make sure that their check-in process is smooth. Certain artists will want to go to dinner, while oth-
ers will just want to sleep. From dinner I walk them to the venue and get them to the stage. After the show, I take them out of the venue smoothly and get them back to their room. What do riders usually entail? Special meal requests and specifc bottles of alcohol that they would like to be waiting for them in their room or at the club. How many people are involved with this process? It varies quite a bit. It could be as simple as just [me] and the agent, but sometimes it’s our managing partner Jesse [Waits], an agent, manager and even the label at times. What’s your role in event production? We always want to curate the best events in the market, which is a challenge, because you always have to be innovative. We try to tailor to our guests’ desires. [For example,] we built up our Mad Decent Monday party with Diplo, because it really resonated with locals. And its growth over the past couple of years has been amazing to watch. Describe your transition from VIP host to artist relations manager. They’re very similar positions. In both roles you’re looking out for people and making sure they have a good experience. With artists specifcally, our goal is to always make them feel at home. They constantly tour the world, and Las Vegas may be the place they spend the second-most time outside of their home. That’s why it’s very important for us to ensure they have a great experience and feel comfortable while on property, and that they want to come back. How do you make a roadweary DJ feel at home? Familiar faces always help. We have a really strong team that has built personal relationships with the artists, and repetition helps. When our artists come to the Wynn, they have places they like to eat at and people they like to see.
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
NIGHTLIFE
Top Brass
HALLOWEEN 2014
F R I . O C T. 3 1
T H U R S . O C T. 3 0
S AT.
N O V. 0 1
Day Of The Dead Party
bassment t h u r s d a y s
U N D E RW O R L D EDITION
dj set
dj brillz
taboo
and snails
of the black eyed peas
BODYENGLISH.COM | RESERVATIONS 702.693.5555 | HARDROCKHOTEL.COM /BODYENGLISHLV
@BODYENGLISHLV
@BODYENGLISHVEGAS
#BODYENGLISHLV
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
THE CHEAT SHEET: YOUR HALLOWEEN ITINERARY The scariest part of Halloween is committing to a party. Ease your #FOMO with our suggestions for a delightfully frightful October 31.
MOPHIE AND THE COSMOPOLITAN PRESENT LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL AFTER-HOURS
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
Commonwealth
50
See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
Gilley’s Saloon channels old Western ghost towns for its Wanted: Dead or Alive party. Swing by for drink specials, a performance by Brian Lynn Jones and a $1,500 costume contest. (In Treasure Island, 7 p.m., Facebook.com/TIGilleys.) If you don’t win the video game-themed costume contest at Insert Coin(s), you can still walk away with a suite of jewelry from J. Designs and join host Dayna Roselli for tunes by Mamabear, Chuck Fader and Charlie Darker. (512 Fremont St., 8 p.m., InsertCoinsLV.com.) Revisit the grungy New York club scene of the ’90s during the all-night Party Monster bash at Hard Hat Lounge, featuring live art and face painting. (1675 Industrial Rd., 6 p.m., Facebook.com/HardHatBar.) You don’t have to trick-or-treat to get candy: Beauty Bar boasts free sweets, plus indie, new wave and electro beats during Rawkerz Horror Story. (517 Fremont St., 9 p.m., TheBeautyBar.com.) Bring your Jack or Sally to Artifice’s Nightmare Before Christmas-themed soiree with live art by Fox & Hound Tattoo and music by DJ Morpheus Blak. (1025 First St., Suite 100, 9 p.m., ArtificeBar. com.) The Monster’s Ball at Commonwealth has a little bit of everything: spooky cocktails, live burlesque (10 p.m.) and $2,000 up for grabs in costume contests. (525 Fremont St., 7 p.m., CommonwealthLV. com.) Wanna get freaky? Join bearded women and “sexy scary clowns” at Foundation Room’s Freak Show Halloween. (In Mandalay Bay, 10 p.m., HouseofBlues.com.) Compete for a $10,000 purse in the costume contest at Linq. Festivities on the promenade also include drink specials and a silent disco. (9 p.m., Caesars.com/ TheLinq.) – Camille Cannon
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
DRAI’S NIGHTCLUB The Cromwell [ UPCOMING ]
56
See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY TEDDY FUJIMOTO AND BOBBY JAMEIDAR
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
Oct. 31 Quintino spins Nov. 1 MakJ and 3Lau spin Nov. 2 Chris Brown performs
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
HAZE Aria
[ UPCOMING ]
62
See more photos from this gallery at SPYONVegas.com
PHOTOS BY TOBY ACUNA
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
Oct. 30 The final #HazeThursdays Oct. 31 GTA spins Nov. 1 Carl Cox spins
DINING
“The trickiest part was making the cocktails that use the infusions as delicious and balanced as the infusions themselves.” {PAGE 69}
Restaurant reviews, news and a few of the other seasonal squashes on your plate
How Smokin’ Is Pot Liquor? Town Square’s newest spot delivers on the Southern comfort By Al Mancini
From top: Stuffed trotters, house-made lemonade, a side of sauteed green beans, pork belly with grits, a side of Hoppin’ John and grilled prawns with boudin noir.
VegasSeven.com
| October 30–November 6, 2014
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
GIVEN THE SCARCITY OF TRUE QUALITY
barbecue in Las Vegas, every new opening of a barbecue restaurant tends to be newsworthy. For fans of good barbecue, it’s impossible not to get excited by any new entry into the feld. Perhaps that next one will join the short list of places that get it right, adding another tiny oasis of smoky goodness to the Valley. At the same time, memories of past disappointments remind us not to get our hopes up. So when I arrived at Pot Liquor Contemporary American Smokehouse in Town Square, it was with a mixture of hope and skepticism. The most promising thing about Pot Liquor is its head chef. Doug Bell is a veteran of several local restaurants, including Michael Mina’s StripSteak and the short-lived Heraea in the Palms. On my frst visit, he excitedly invited me into the kitchen to see the smoker, a massive machine slow-cooking huge sections of ribs, brisket and pork with a blend of peach, hickory and mesquite wood. It’s an impressive sight. Unfortunately, while all of the meats I’ve sampled have been better than what you’ll fnd at most places in town, none has been truly great. My dry-rubbed spare ribs had a beautiful smoky favor, but it was overpowered by an overabundance of the salty rub. The brisket, too, had a perfect level of smoke, but the meat was a little dry. (You can compensate for that if you make sure you get a segment of the juicy exterior fat in every bite.) The pulled pork, on the other hand, is
65
Al’s
Menu Picks Pork belly with grits ($10), stuffed trotters ($11), grilled prawns with boudin noir ($13), small brisket with Hoppin’ John and mac ’n’ cheese ($19).
incredibly juicy … but a little bland. And while the grilled chicken is pretty good, it’s not smoked. Bell may just have to tinker with his recipes a bit. He’s a chef, after all, not a pit master. And it’s that chef’s experience that makes Pot Liquor worth a visit, despite the mildly disappointing barbecue. Because the menu is packed with incredibly creative non-barbecue items that are, for the most part, exemplary, with a number of standouts all coming from the appetizer section.
My favorite so far has been the grilled prawns with boudin noir. The contrast between the delicately seasoned shrimp and the houserecipe sausage is wonderful. Even those who are generally turned off by blood sausage should give these links a try. The same goes for the stuffed trotters. The pigs’ feet are sliced thin, seasoned, breaded and fried. If nobody told you what they were, you’d probably assume it was just small schnitzel. But the sweet, brandybraised apple sauce they’re topped with takes them to another level. Another winner is the pork belly over grits. Yes, I know we’re all tired of pork belly these days. But Bell prepares it perfectly. And the creamy grits—mildly favored with a touch of Vermont Cabot cheddar— blend beautifully with the sweet
sauce drizzled atop them. Deviled eggs, another far-too-trendy dish, are also done extremely well here, topped with a smattering of crispy pork cracklings. The typical barbecue side dishes are generally successful. I love the Hoppin’ John (a traditional blackeyed peas and rice dish), as well as the rich, creamy mac and cheese. And the mildly seasoned collard greens, rich with smoked pork, are yummy (as they should be in a restaurant named after the liquid left behind after you boil the greens). The fries, however, are your basic frozen variety, accompanied by an Alabama white sauce that does little to elevate them. The décor is that same artifcial converted warehouse theme I see in nearly every new casual restaurant these days. Some whimsical pig-themed artwork, however, does add a bit of personality to the played-out motif. The staff is friendly and attentive, and all of my food came quickly. Yet, none of that changes the fact that Pot Liquor defnitely doesn’t qualify as a great barbecue spot—at least not yet. But it is a great casual restaurant with some above-average barbecue. Now, if only every other barbecue spot that’s disappointed me in this town could say that, I’d be a much happier critic.
POT LIQUOR CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SMOKEHOUSE
Town Square, 702-816-4600. Open for lunch and dinner from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Dinner for two $30-$65.
[ JUST A SIP ]
SPOOKY (BUT HEALTHY!) DRINKS
Like Nosferatu’s eyes and the devil’s heart—these
drinks are dark, but nutritious. ➜ Bee Positive, The Juice Standard | Made with activated charcoal, lemon and filtered water, this cold-pressed juice is reminiscent of lemonade—just close your eyes. The flavorless suspended charcoal absorbs toxins from your system, potentially warding off hangovers. Consume after the costume party (before bed; we recommend no more than half a bottle, and use a
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
straw!) and you might look less like a zombie in the morning. $12 per bottle, 4555 S. Fort Apache Rd.,
66
702-476-9800, JuiceStandard.com. ➜ BLK Water, Whole Foods | Surely this is how Satan hydrates, for he cannot be seen with just any clear, pansy mineral water. The black color comes from a mixture of pure water and fulvic minerals, which are prehistoric plant minerals mixed with fulvic acid. BLK helps balance your body’s pH levels after eating a whole pillowcase worth of candy. $2.19 per bottle, 7250 W. Lake Mead Blvd., 702-942-1500, GetBLK.com. ➜ Chunho’s Black Garlic 100 Juice | Ward off vampires while keeping your own cells young. When white garlic is aged in a humid environment at high temperatures it turns black, dialing down the pungent flavor and dialing up the sweetness to something akin to a prune. The antioxidant rich juice can also help lower cholesterol. Now you can leave that bulky crucifix at home. $150 for 60 packs, order on Amazon or at 888-970-1005, Chunho.co.kr. – Jessie O’Brien
Get the latest on local restaurant openings and closings, interviews with top chefs, cocktail recipes, menu previews and more in our weekly “Sips and Bites” newsletter. Subscribe at VegasSeven.com/SipsAndBites.
SPEND THE WEEKEND WITH DANIEL BOULUD, AND SCARE UP SOME HALLOWEEN CUISINE Unlike some other big names on the door, who pop in only their contractually required number of times a year, it seems like Daniel Boulud has made it a point to actually be in town and regularly involved with DB Brasserie (in the Venetian, 702-430-1235). And you can see just how hands-on he is with his Brasserie Bash, November 14-16. DB Brasserie head sommelier Devin Zendel and special guest Cristophe Grenaille will host a wine dinner November 14 ($150) featuring eight vintages from Chapoutier of France’s Rhone Valley spanning 2004 through 2012 and a five-course menu by Boulud and executive chef David Middleton. Saturday, Boulud keeps it casual with a little book-signing soiree plus Champagne, cocktails and charcuterie from 3-6 p.m. And if you haven’t had a chance to check out DB’s new brunch menu—which now includes oh-so-French additions such as quiche Forestiere (that’s with wild mushrooms, leeks and Gruyère) or such classic standbys as fluffy Belgian waffles with bourbon Chantilly, spiced pecans and maple syrup—you’ve definitely gotta try it when Boulud is in the house for Sunday’s Big Brasserie Brunch (11 a.m.–2 p.m. Nov. 16) complete with burlesque girls, can-can dancers and a DJ. You’ll definitely find yourself perusing the signature Bloody Mary bar, or indulging in additional bottomless mimosas or Bellinis for an extra $25. As for this weekend, it’s not only Halloween, but also Dia de los Muertos, and Tacos & Tequila (in Luxor, 702-262-5225) will host a full-on fiesta Friday and Saturday, along with the ladies of Fantasy. Chef Saul Ortiz’s freaky menu includes ghostpepper chicken wings (which could—theoretically as well as literally—scare the shit out of you), creepy quesadillas wrapped in green or black tortillas and Tamales de Terror, including beef barbacoa with red guajillo sauce, seafood with cream sauce and pork chile verde with tomatillo cream. What else does Halloween bring us? Aside from getting fake vampire fangs stuck in caramel apples, it’s officially time to start dreaming of holiday menus. If you’re up for creating everything from scratch this year, Megan Romano of Chocolate & Spice Bakery (7923 W. Sahara Ave., 702-527-7772) opens her kitchen once again with instructional classes such as pie-making for adults (4 p.m. Nov. 4), featuring seasonal flavors such as Granny Smith apple, vanilla bean-scented blueberry, pumpkin spice and bourbon pecan, and holiday decorating for kids (4 p.m. Dec. 9), which includes cakes and cookie lollipops. Didn’t think the holidays would creep up again so fast, did you? Grace Bascos eats, sleeps, raves and repeats. Read more from Grace at VegasSeven.com/ DishingWithGrace, as well as on her diningand-music blog, FoodPlusTechno.com.
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
DINING
Dry-rubbed spare ribs with mac ’n’ cheese.
DINING
Pumpkin Match Meet the many squash of Las Vegas’ fall and winter menus By Al Mancini
IF YOU’VE BEEN TO A FARMERS MARKET or supermarket produce section lately, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that pumpkins and hard winter squash are in season. (Or maybe you just saw your neighbors decorating for Halloween.) These are different varieties than summer squash, planted in midsummer and harvested in fall and winter when their rinds have hardened. They’re generally high in vitamins and minerals. Legend has it the people of the Italian city of Chioggia once survived a famine sustained entirely by a single variety of squash. That squash, known as Marina di Chiogga, is just one of 10 types offered now at Kerry Clasby’s Downtown Third Farmers Market, held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday. They can be used to make everything from pastas and soup to desserts. “Hard winter squash is a great thing that God put here for us to make sure we would have sustenance, even in the times when [other] things weren’t growing,” Clasby says. But when you’re shopping for a winter squash, how do you know you’re getting a good one? You can’t squeeze it like a melon or a tomato to see if it’s ripe. In fact, “ripeness” isn’t even a quality you’re looking for in some squash. Many varieties need to be “cured” in the sun for up to eight weeks after they’re picked. That’s when their delicious sugars develop. And Clasby says the only way to assure a squash is ready to eat is to buy it from farmers or purveyors you trust, and to ask “when was it picked, how long has it been cured, and is it ready to go or should I wait [to eat it]?” For those who want to put the buying—and the cooking—in the hands of a pro, here are a few of the more interesting seasonal winter-squash dishes available around Valley right now. BUT TERNUT SQUASH FARRO RISOT TO
Squash risotto is a very traditional dish. But the chefs at Top of the World put a twist on it by making it with farro rather than rice. They serve it with Moroccan-spiced Colorado lamb, Moorish tomato sauce, minted Greek yogurt, demi-glace and house-made harissa. In the Stratosphere, 702-380-7711. PUMPKIN SOUP
For most of the year, the signature soup at Restaurant Guy Savoy is truffe artichoke. But in the fall, the chef makes his signature pumpkin soup, which is served tableside from a massive hollowed pumpkin and topped with white truffes and a poached egg. In Caesars Palace, 702-731-7286. SPAGHET TI SQUASH
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
Spaghetti squash is a healthy, low-carb alternative to pasta. At Aureole, Charlie Palmer’s team serves it alongside a loin of rare Iberico pork wrapped in bacon, a poached pear and gingerbread streusel. In Mandalay Bay, 702-632-7401.
68
KABOCHA SQUASH
Kabocha is an Asian winter squash. Beginning October 30, Comme Ça will be using it in two dishes. In the duck conft appetizer it will come alongside cranberry beans and quince. In the salmon entrée it’ll be scented with vanilla and accompanied by braised salsify, Brussels sprout leaves and pomegranate. In the Cosmopolitan, 702-698-7910. BUT TERNUT SQUASH RAVIOLI
This is one of the most classic squash pasta dishes there is. At N9NE Steakhouse, chefs puree the roasted squash, stuff the pasta pockets with the puree, boil them and top them with sage-butter sauce and a dollop of mascarpone cheese. In the Palms, 702-933-9900.
DRINKING [ THE GRAPE NUT ]
By Xania Woodman
➜ The construction walls are down, and nothing but a little pipe and drape stands between you and 3535, the new combo lobby/center bar poised to open October 30 at the heart of the Linq (neé the Quad). The bar’s name—you guessed it!—is in reference to the resort’s address on Las Vegas Boulevard South, but the number extends to the ambitious beverage program itself: Central to the menu are 35 house-made spirit infusions (think espresso bean-infused Maker’s Mark, banana clove-infused Zaya rum and hop-infused Cîroc). “And as in, ‘I need 35 managers to pull this off!’” says 3535 general manager Ryan Nielsen, laughing. If 3535 is the centerpiece of the resort, and infusions are the heart of the beverage program, then the core of 3535 itself is the Vortex. Designed by Egads, this towering resin “cloud” rises up from the foor, forms the back bar, then mushroom-clouds over bar and gaming patrons’ heads as it changes color and reacts to music programming. The same material and technology was used for the Linq’s front desk, as well as a standing communal bar within 3535. The entire bar seats about 120 people on barstools, couch groupings, cocktail tables and in six VIP booths. The sixth VIP booth doubles as a DJ booth, with music being piped out to set the tone throughout the property. Expect to see a heavy rotation of female DJs in there. At the bar itself, wine will be on tap (four red, four white, changing seasonally) and beer will not; your craft suds are bottled. Barrel-aged cocktails will be served over diamond-shaped ice cubes. And cocktails come in two sizes: full and half. So you can try the Pig Newton, El Fuego and Sushi-Tini without overdoing it. A fight menu also offers three house-made infusions, three half seasonal cocktails or three half dessert cocktails for $14. Why all this fexibility? “We want people to experience two or three cocktails, and open their minds to
trying new things,” says Nielsen, who has an extensive culinary background, most recently with singer Gloria Estefan’s restaurant group. Nielsen collaborated with Wirtz Beverage Nevada’s Andrew Pollard and Southern Wine & Spirits’ JR Starkus to select the right mix of spirits to both satisfy and challenge his guests. Beyond the bar, two custom carts will be used for everything from a Bloody Mary bar to a unique take on bottle service: Like Negronis? Nielsen will not only sell you a bottle of gin, he’ll throw in the Campari and sweet vermouth, as well as have staff show you how to make them. Five cocktail packages will include mojitos, Old Fashioneds and Manhattans. As for those 35 house-made infusions, each undergoes a 24-to-48-hour whole-fruit maceration process, then the solids are strained out. It could be done faster by pureeing the fruit or muddling it, but the wholefruit process allows for a true depth of favor. “We’re taking the time to let the fruit do its work,” Nielsen says. “My experience as a chef has really helped me be patient with [the infusions]: You have to check them every day. Just 12 hours can really make a difference.” After that, he says, the trickiest part was making the cocktails that use the infusions as delicious and balanced as the infusions themselves. For that task, Nielsen and the team have access to whatever they need from the dedicated juice kitchen that also services Squeeze at the Linq, from fresh mango to house-made sour. Still, the question lingers: Why go through all the trouble to infuse spirits when there are favored spirits a plenty on the market? “We wanted to take a fresh approach, nothing artifcial,” Nielsen says. “If they can do it, we can do it better.” For Seven Sips of the 3535 cocktail menu, visit VegasSeven.com/SevenSips3535.
See photos of Downtown Napa post-quake at VegasSeven.com/NapaEarthquake.
|
3535 Is Addressed for Success
October 30–November 6, 2014
The Sushi-Tini: What begins as a “dare shot” of wasabi and ginger-infused gin makes a very nice cocktail when served up, lengthened with fresh lemon juice. Nielsen is certain, “This will be the most Instagrammed cocktail on the menu.”
My recent trip to the Napa Valley was eye-opening—and in ways I hadn’t even anticipated. I jumped, of course, at an invitation from the Napa Valley Vintners Association to witness the 2014 harvest, walk the vines with winemakers and learn about NapaGreen.org’s sustainability initiatives. It was a magnificent visit, and one that deepened my appreciation for this compact wine region so revered for its diversity of geology, topography, microclimates and winemaking styles. But with my trip falling exactly one month after a 6.0 earthquake rocked South Napa, I was expecting the worst: widespread property damage, disarray and, at the very least, disruption of the dependable system that keeps Las Vegas wine cellars stocked with some of the world’s most sought-after wines. Instead, I found a city shaken, no doubt, but not so much so that it had forgotten about its collective purpose at this time of year. Harvest was well under way when I arrived late at night, zipping past house-sized over-row tractors in vineyards lit up like ballparks. Thankfully, on August 24, most of the Valley was still in bed at 3:20 a.m., and some wineries passed the night with little more than dust or a few bottles disturbed. Others—especially in Napa, Mount Veeder, Yountville, and Oak Knoll—were not so lucky. You’ve probably seen the photos of barrels and racks toppled like Jenga piles. The latest estimates put the total loss at more than $80 million. But where there’s wine, there’s hope. At a Grgich Hills Estate dinner hosted by multiple generations of family-owned wineries, Janet Trefethen showed me photos of Trefethen’s 19th visitors center, now leaning precariously under the weight of barrels stored on the second floor. Wooden buttresses keep the whole thing from collapsing. Those barrel Jenga pics? Some were hers. Still, Janet and her daughter, Hailey, remained focused on harvest, which they completed on October 14. Another winery hit hard but hitting back is Page Wine Cellars. When I met Bryan Page in person, the normally ebullient garagiste winemaker was exhausted yet wired. Despite suffering a truly “crippling” loss, Page and his brother, Chris, took what was left of their ’12 cabernet franc and crafted “Furioso 6.1” (3 for $136, PageWineCellars.com), guaranteed to “rock your taste buds, but in a positive way!” So do book that fall or winter trip to Napa. Cozy up to a cab at Hall, Charles Krug, St. Supéry or Pine Ridge. Taste the future straight from the barrel at Grgich Hills. Or check out the newest kid on the block, Cairdean Estate. Because Napa’s all right. She dispatched with the French in the 1976 Judgment of Paris, when Chateau Montelena and Stag’s Leap put the Valley on the world wine map. She can certainly handle this bump in the night. – X.W.
VegasSeven.com
IN THE WAKE OF THE QUAKE, NAPA VALLEY IS STILL CRUSHING IT
69
A&E
“Embodying the notion of ‘owning it,’ Eric Jordan Young demands something nearly impossible of his audience: to have an even better time than he does.”
SHOWSTOPPER {PAGE 77}
Movies, music, stage and the sounds of Life Is Beautiful
A Timeless KISS
Revisiting a childhood obsession as the rock-star superheroes come to Vegas By Sean DeFrank
| October 30–November 6, 2014
The author, with his little sister, Nicki, gets starry-eyed for Halloween.
VegasSeven.com
I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE:
Despite appearances, I was never really in the Army. Yes, I wore the uniform, knew all the terminology and infltrated its ranks, but after all these years—on the eve of KISS’ residency at the Hard Rock Hotel—I fnally have to come clean: I was never an offcial member of the KISS Army in the ’70s. I had friends in elementary school who paid the $5 annual fee to become card-carrying members, but for reasons unknown to me even now, I never formally enlisted. Having such a strong devotion to the band, maybe the offcial membership just seemed extraneous to me. After all, I bought all the affliated merchandise, or rather my family did: posters, T-shirts, magazines, action fgures, trading cards, puzzles, lunch box, a windbreaker jacket, you name it. Even the KISS Your Face Makeup Kit, which my mom used when I was Paul Stanley for Halloween in ffth grade (his makeup was the easiest to do). I had all the albums, some on vinyl and 8-track, even the four lame 1978 solo projects. OK, three were lame; Ace Frehley’s easily outrocked the others. It wasn’t just my parents who were aware of and supported my habit. My stoic maternal grandfather purchased a copy of Alive II not only so I could listen to it when I visited, but also so he could learn more about this band I was infatuated with, a subtle gesture of love that wasn’t lost on me even then. And I remember distinctly the day in 1978 my paternal grandmother brought home the slick promotional magazine for KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park from the grocery store. My dad promised he would take me to a KISS concert if they ever came to Las Vegas. But they only performed here once during the ’70s—in May 1975 at the Sahara (with Rush opening!)—not long before I became obsessed with the band. Like many fans from that era, it was KISS’ 1975 live (with much studio overdubbing) album Alive! that frst grabbed me, the introduction proclaiming, “You wanted the best, and you got it! The hottest band in the land: KISS!,” followed by Ace’s guitar cutting into the opening riff of “Deuce,” Gene Simmons’ hand sliding down the neck of his bass and an explosion ushering in a surge of rowdy rock anchored by Peter Criss’
71
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
A&E
The band that shaped the tastes of a generation of kids returns to play to those kids’ nostalgia.
72
frenetic drumming. For a 6-year-old who had been raised on the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Motown, KISS opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed, leading to the discovery of other hard-rocking bands such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, and forever shaping my musical tastes. As good as KISS’ songs were, though, it was the look that initially attracted many of us. For a grade-school kid who was into both music and comic books, the guys in KISS were like reallife superheroes armed with guitars and drumsticks, complete with secret identities that allowed them to walk around unnoticed. Without TMZ and the Internet to ruin the illusion, we were allowed to wonder what the dudes actually looked like. Even when the National Enquirer ran cover photos of Simmons out with Cher, a bandanna hid his face. The band members really did become superheroes in 1977 when Marvel published a KISS comic book in which talismans transform them into their Starchild, Demon, Spaceman and Catman personae. As if that wasn’t cool enough, an inside spread showed photos of blood being drawn from each
band member by a registered nurse Made For Lovin’ You.” But the release that was then mixed with the red ink of 1980’s Unmasked and 1981’s Music from used in the comic. I bought two cop“The Elder” elicited no response from ies: one to read repeatedly, one to sit me. With KISS moving further away untouched. Foolishly, they were both from its hard-rock roots, compounded part of the tragic Comic Book Purge by the departures of Ace and Peter, and of 1982, a grave error in judgment that with me nearing puberty and discoverstill haunts me today. ing new bands, we quietly parted ways. As substantial as getting their own KISS didn’t return to Las Vegas until comic book was, playing the Aladdin though, nothing in April 1983, but was bigger than the I was 14 and had KISS ROCKS VEGAS band getting their moved on to Van The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, own TV movie. KISS Halen by that point. 8 p.m., Nov. 5, 7-8, 12, 14-15, 19, Meets the Phantom of And once the band 22-23, $49.50 and up, the Park premiered members removed 702-693-5555, on NBC on October their makeup later HardRockHotel.com 28, 1978. To celthat year, there was ebrate the occasion, no chance of me rethree of my best turning to the fold. friends spent the night at my house so I all but ignored KISS for more than we could share the moment. As giddy 15 years until the original foursome 9-year-olds, we cheered wildly, but reunited—complete with 1978 makeup, deep in our hearts we knew the movie costumes, set list and stage show. was terrible. We didn’t care, though. It With the band I once worshipped back was KISS. That was all that mattered. intact, I fnally attended my frst and That bomb of a flm seemed to sigonly KISS concert at the MGM Grand nal the beginning of the end of KISS’ Garden Arena in November 1996 at the peak popularity—not just for me, but age of 27. It was everything I hoped it for many fans. I bought 1979’s Dynasty, would be: Gene growling his lyrics, with its disco-favored single “I Was playing chunky bass lines and spitting
blood and fre; Paul prancing around and delivering his campy stage banter; Ace fring off riffs as smoke billowed from his guitar; Peter’s drum kit rising toward the rafters as he pounded away. Having checked that off my childhood bucket list, though, I felt no need to further re-establish my relationship with the band. That was 18 years ago, and with KISS now coming to the Hard Rock for a nine-date residency at The Joint from November 5-23, the tug of nostalgia is once again pulling me back. Perhaps it was KISS fnally getting inducted this year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 40 years after the release of its frst album, but the time seems right for me to revisit the heroes of my faming youth. Sure, Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer have supplanted Ace and Peter, respectively, in the lineup for more than a decade now, but this is as close to the old days as I’m ever going to get. Even Paul and Gene are planning for a future in which the band will continue without any of its original members, ensuring KISS will live on for as long as people want to rock and roll all night and party every day.
Gold Diggers FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1
PRIZE GIVEAWAYS AND DRINK SPECIALS
DOORS OPEN AT 9PM FOR TABLE RESERVATIONS AND INFORMATION CALL 702.386.8382 OR EMAIL GOLDDIGGERS@GOLDENNUGGET.COM.
702.386.8382
GOLDENNUGGET.COM
SAME CLASS. @GOLDENNUGGETLV N E W E R A .
How Did Life Is Beautiful Sound? A&E
Highlights from Vegas Seven's online festival coverage. See the rest at VegasSeven.com/LIB2014.
Foo Fighters Keep Things Fast and Loose Downtown Stage, 9:45 p.m. Oct. 26
Dave Grohl wasn’t about to let fatigue set into the crowd as the threeday festival neared its close. After firing through an hour of songs that included sing-along anthems “The Pretender,” “My Hero” and “Learn to Fly” in the band’s first Las Vegas performance since 2008, the energetic Foo Fighters frontman loosened things up by turning back the clock: “We’re going to do the same songs that we did in ninth grade. Long before we were doing this, we were doing this.” Foo Fighters’ covers of the Rolling Stones’ “Miss You,” David Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure” and Tom Petty’s “Breakdown” anchored a two-hour set that also included all of their hits, plus new song “Something From Nothing.” “You all made us feel like we could do whatever the fuck we wanted to do,” Grohl beamed. “This is the shit I end up remembering for the rest of my fucking life.” The band closed with “Everlong,” the chorus, If everything could ever feel this real forever/If anything could ever be this good again, providing a fitting send-off. ★★★★✩ – Sean DeFrank
Indie Songstress Jenny Lewis Offered ‘Silver Linings’ a Plenty Western Stage, 8:10 p.m. Oct. 24 This was a homecoming show for indie goddess
from Kenny G to g-force with the rollicking “The
Jenny Lewis, even if the Las Vegas native has
Moneymaker” and “The Next Messiah.” She
lived in L.A. too long for locals to share any
preached her music gospel like a tent revival
special connection beyond the music.
preacher with a secret Led Zeppelin collection.
whole ton of it because Lewis went on nearly
VegasSeven.com
For the closer, the folky “Acid Tongue,” Lewis
20 minutes late. But she started strong with
called her sister, Leslie, onstage, proclaiming,
“Silver Lining” from her former band Rilo Kiley.
“We’re both Vegas girls.” Leslie and the rest of
Then came three songs from her emotional new
the band circled up behind Lewis as she played
album, The Voyager, during which a middle-age
an acoustic guitar and sang in the way—with
couple left in disgust, exclaiming, “This sounds
those soul-piercing high notes—that made
like Kenny G.”
everybody fall in love with her in the first place.
They should’ve stayed: Lewis next switched
★★★✩✩ – Cindi Moon Reed
The Whole World Loves it When Outkast Reunites Downtown Stage, 10:45 p.m. Oct. 25 Southern rap duo Outkast hasn’t dropped a studio album together since 2003’s Speakerboxx/The Love Below, but on this night there wasn't any chemistry lost. Backed by musicians they’ve collaborated with for the past two decades, the ATLiens rumbled
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
Unfortunately, time was almost up.
out of the gate with explosive opener “B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad).” Throughout
74
West in a casket. ★★★★★ – Zoneil Maharaj
the night, Big Boi and Andre 3000 traded lines, cracked jokes and threw one hell of a party. They went back in time for “Player’s Ball” and “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik,” bringing us back to the unexpected performance of UGK’s “International Player’s Anthem (I Choose You).” Each took time to do solo material from Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, with Andre lulling fans with “Prototype” before sending the massive crowd into an apeshit frenzy with “Hey Ya.” The energy of the 90-minute set was enough to bring the festival zombies back from the dead and put the previous night’s performance by Kanye
FOO FIGHTERS AND OUTK AST BY WAYNE POSNER, JENNY LEWIS BY JOSH METZ,
How was the music then? There wasn’t a
Lionel Richie Bridges the Generation Gap
ASTR Delivers an Afternoon Dance Party
Downtown Stage, 8:25 p.m. Oct. 25
commanded attention with her honey-coated vocals and
A 65-year-old R&B hitmaker entertaining a
rap skills. During a hypnotic rendition of Drake’s “Hold On,
festival crowd filled with millennials? Would this
We’re Going Home,” Zoe led the audience in an impromptu
be weird? But there was nothing but unabashed
sing-along. Even when the heat caused their equipment
admiration on both sides as Richie sorted
to hiccup on closer “Operate,” Zoe’s enthusiasm never
through a treasure chest of ’70s and ’80s radio
waned. “The heat is killing us!” she joked. Then she danced
classics. After teasing the audience that Diana
harder. ★★★★✩ – Camille Cannon
Ambassador Stage, 4:15 p.m. Oct. 24 Frontwoman Zoe snapped the strap of her crop top early in the electronic R&B duo’s set. “I’m dancing so hard!” she said. Zoe (both she and partner Adam use the last name “ASTR”) shimmied and bounced across the stage. While Adam handled the launchpad and drum machine, Zoe
Ross would be joining him, he led them through her parts on “Endless Love.” Richie let his band stretch out so the crowd could get down on “Running With the Night” and “Dancing on the Ceiling,” and even kept a batch of ballads—“Still,” “Oh No,” “Stuck on You”—lively, joking how his songs were the place you turned after a bad breakup: “Who you gonna call? Lionel Richie!” Sure, the ballad “Hello” had a touch of irony, but even that seemed more a mutual wink-anda-nod between performer and audience. When Richie closed with pop touchstones “All Night Long (All Night)” and “We Are the World,” there was no denying the joy they brought, no matter your age. ★★★★✩ – S.D.
Pussy Riot's Nadya and Masha Were the Rock Stars of the Learning Series
Downtown Stage, 10:35 p.m. Oct. 24
Kanye West dug through his decadelong catalog of genre-pushing rap classics without too much pretention. It was a surprisingly minimalist setup compared to his recent Yeezus tour—just a backup vocalist, keyboard player and one giant LED screen pulsing red and orange hues and projecting the masked rapper in inverted colors. The backdrop At the end, fans swarmed the women. One fan handed Nadya a painting as a handler steered them to the exit. In their own country, people attack them. In America, they’re rock stars. – Lissa Townsend Rodgers
made for a jarring experience, but complemented his brash Yeezus bangers, especially opener “Black Skinhead” and his spastic performance of “New Slaves.” He toned it down a bit when going through some of his College Dropout and Late Registration—he even removed his mask and let us see his face! ★★★★✩ – Z.M.
VegasSeven.com
All Praise the Almighty Yeezus
|
Two hours before the panel began, the line snaked around the building for a discussion about justice. But the crowds weren't there for former mob lawyer/Mayor Oscar Goodman. Nope, it was all about Russian performance artists Nadya Tolokonnikova (pictured) and Masha Alyokhina. Goodman rambled about the importance of a good defense, but his most notable statement was about his post-legal life: “You know what I do for a living now? I drink.” Then Ed Gavagan talked about getting stabbed and forgiving his assailants; his wife, Sekeena, rambled about being a public defender. When it was finally time for the headliners, black humor reigned. They mused on being hauled away in a van that had a Pussy Riot sticker on it, and prison guards asking for their autographs. “Putin and his bosses, they do pretty funny things,” Nadya said. “These guys have no sense of humor or ways of being self-critical.” The ladies addressed their work to improve conditions in Russian prisons— preferring direct action over attending conferences where people sit around a table and talk about “human rights, human rights, human rights, let’s have dinner,” Masha said. They also stated that activism can be “fashionable.”
October 30–November 6, 2014
LIONEL RICHIE BY WAYNE POSNER, ASTR BY JESSE J SUTHERL AND, PUSSY RIOT BY JON ESTRADA
Learning @ Western Stage, 4 p.m. Oct. 24
75
A&E
STAGE
Cirque du Ballet Exploring the collaboration process for creating A Choreographers’ Showcase By Lissa Townsend Rodgers
76
head—things that seem tiny, but make the difference between a polished piece and a work in progress. Kent Caldwell, who performs in Cirque’s Mystère, approaches his piece, “Arratu,” from a different place. He has a visual arts degree from the University of Michigan, where he was also a competitive gymnast. “My background is in gymnastics and acrobatics,” he says, “so I’m taking that, my knowledge of visual arts and then what I’ve learned about dance since coming into this performing world.” “This is my frst time being a choreographer,” Caldwell continues, describing his piece as “a short, dark fairy tale.” He was inspired to participate in the project after being involved in last year’s One Night For One Drop performance. “I designed and built a stilt character for that show,” he says. “I had such a good time working with the director and choreographer and other people … I’m used to working by myself when I make my sculpture and build things.” Masks are a big part of Caldwell’s piece, which also draws power from the contrast between Cirque and NBT performers, as well as a few child performers. Working with a variety of styles was challenging, but he says “That’s how I grow as a choreographer and a director. It’s a great collaboration.” Artists from Nevada Ballet Theatre and Cirque du Soleil come from all over the world and possess a unique and diverse set of talents, something A Choreographer’s Showcase highlights. “As an artist, I want to see my vision come to life
It’s always a magical time when you combine ballerinas with flying clowns.
and this is the perfect platform to try that,” Caldwell says. MacDonald is excited to see “these two different worlds that are colliding and the work coming out of it is such an interesting combination. It’s going to be a really great show.”
DIA DE LOS SUPERHEROES What do you do when Halloween has passed, but you’re not ready to say goodbye to Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Bart Simpson, Finn the Human and other costumed heroes? Bask in their glory one more time at the Vegas Valley Comic Book Festival (9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Nov. 1), which will be celebrating its seventh year of bringing panels, bubbles and characters to the Clark County Library (1401 E. Flamingo Rd.). Writer and illustrator Howard Chaykin will speak about his 40-year career in comics, which stretches from Marvel and DC to his more controversial work on the dystopian sci-fi series American Flagg! and sexy vampire story Black Kiss. Ben Saunders will give
A CHOREOGRAPHERS’ SHOWCASE
Mystère Theatre at Treasure Island, 1 p.m. Nov. 2, $25-$45, 702-894-7722, NevadaBallet.com.
a lecture entitled “Batman’s Shadows: 75 Years of the Dark Knight,” which will discuss character development and key moments in the Batman saga. There will also be more hands-on workshops on drawing Star Wars characters, adapting stories into comics and, because no one wants to throw out those old Archies, crafts using old comic books (Whatever it is, we bet it’ll involve decoupage!) Film screenings will include the 1989 Tim Burton Batman and the documentary She Makes Comics, about the history of women in the comic industry from the 1920s to today, while “nerd rock” artists will perform during the afternoon. In the courtyard, about 50 booths will be set up for comic creators to meet with fans; vendors will also sell books, toys and all manner of brightly colored, comic-related paraphernalia. Food trucks on-site mean you can linger through lunchtime. Superman would want you to. VegasValleyComicBookFestival.com. – L.T.R.
PHOTO BY VIRGINIA TRUDEAU
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
FOR SEVEN YEARS, Nevada Ballet Theatre and Cirque du Soleil have come together to present their annual A Choreographers’ Showcase, in which artists from both companies create original works. It’s an opportunity for creatives from different genres and backgrounds to work together, learn from each other and collaborate. Caroline MacDonald is in her frst year as a dancer with Nevada Ballet Theatre (NBT), but she’s not new to choreography—she began in high school and continued choreographing when she joined the Pittsburgh Ballet’s graduate division. Her piece, “Reynadine,” is rooted in her earlier work. “A few summers ago I set the second movement of this piece,” she says. “I thought it might be fun to revisit something I did in the past to elaborate on and make better. … It looks very different.” She describes her piece as the “story of Reynadine, this sort of shape-shiftng man who lures maidens in the forest to his lair.” The dance features a quintet of NBT ballerinas and one Cirque performer; the contrast in movement tells the story. “Bill [May], who is my Cirque performer, does some really amazing shoulder contortions and acrobatics,” MacDonald says, “I wanted to incorporate that because I thought it ft the character.” The ballerinas’ precise, synchronized grace plays off of the looser, more feral style of the Cirque performer. “Choreographing has really tightened my attention to detail,” she says, “I have to pick it apart and sculpt it.” She and the dancers discuss the point of a hand, the tilt of a
STAGE
SHOWMAN SHIPMENT Eric Jordan Young delivers a wham-bam-thank-you-Sammy-type show YESTERDAY WAS NEVER SO ... tomorrowish. Or such a balls-out blast today. With the throbbin’ new Shakin: Classic Vegas Remixed With a Twist, entertainment hurricane Eric Jordan Young—formerly the crooning host of Vegas! The Show—not only bids to be crowned The Happiest Showman on the Strip (his grin could be sold as a nightlight), but busts into the ranks of Vegas headliners to be reckoned with. Linking him to his idol and inspiration for much of the show by calling him a next-gen Sammy Davis Jr. in progress would not be an overstatement. Should that not match up with Contemporary Correctness, Young makes a potent argument for retro bliss. And for a nonmagician, Young’s actually a damn good one: piling a party-size platter of material—singing, dancing, sketches, shtick, video montages, costume changes (with one onstage behind a scrim)—into a fun-size hour-plus. Only two dancers and four musicians are onboard. Around Young? More than enough. In Planet Hollywood’s cozy (read: small) Sin City Theatre that Young infuses with a Sammy-at-the-Copa vibe, Shakin’ is informed by the star’s affection for ’70s-’80s TV variety shows (Flip Wilson, Sonny and Cher, Carol Burnett, etc.) with their hellzapoppin’ dashes from song to joke to ensemble number. Leaving and returning after nearly every number so each entrance becomes a ta-da! event—and dancing with a ferocity that’s almost Jim Carrey-like in The Mask (i.e., possessed)—Young dives headlong into a bygone era. Yet the updated, often Latin-tinged musical charts take old-hat standards and pump fresh energy into them. When
he’s done, he’s stripped the mold from oldies including “Downtown” and “Up, Up and Away.” Tunes such as Bye Bye Birdie’s “Got a Lot of Livin’ to Do’’ nod to Young’s Broadway résumé. Stylized touches include dramatically starting familiar tunes such as “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” in the middle and riffng around them, often breaking into engaging patter mid-song. Paced like an express train—with backup dancers executing inventive choreography and deployed more like co-stars, incorporated into both the comedy and music—the show is the proverbial box of chocolates (you can fll in the rest of that): Young dons an over-the-top pimp outft (wearing a bizarre leatherand-feather coat concoction) to go humorously badass on “Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow” (Sammy’s theme to Baretta); he goes outlandishly drag, a la Flip Wilson, to pull a Tina Turner on “Proud Mary”; he assumes the persona of a spry old vaudevillian to spray rim-shot jokes at us; he breaks into a charming softshoe during “Just a Gigolo.” He pays tribute to Davis in quintuplicate (snippets of “The Candy Man,” “Once in a Lifetime,” “I’ve Gotta Be Me,” “That Old Black Magic” and “Mr. Bojangles”). During it all, his high-beam gaze swivels around the room, at some point going eyeball to eyeball with everyone. Embodying the notion of “owning it,” Young demands something nearly impossible of his audience: to have an even better time than he does. On that score, let’s compromise and call it a very happy tie. Got an entertainment tip? Email Steve.Bornfeld@VegasSeven.com.
A&E
MOVIES
SUPERHERO TO SUPER EGO Batman’s Michael Keaton soars in Birdman as an actor on the mend By Michael Phillips Tribune Media Services
BIRDMAN PROVES THAT A MOVIE— the grabbiest, most kinetic flm ever made about putting on a play—can soar on the wings of its own technical prowess, even as the banality of its ideas threatens to drag it back down to earth. The movie’s just plain fun to watch. Its star, Michael Keaton, is someone everyone likes, an actor who made millions on Batman and then settled for a smaller level of fame. Already, Keaton has gotten a career reboot out of Birdman, and he’s a cinch for an Academy Award nomination. The visual conceit of Birdman is simple yet striking. It unfolds in long takes, stitched together to lend the impression of a sustained backstage, onstage, above-stage and streetscape diary of a movie star in rehearsal and in panic mode. The story spans several days en route to opening night on Broadway. For better or worse, Birdman is a movie in which things happen to and around the faded movie star at its center, as opposed to a narrative propelled by the character. Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, a fctionalized version of himself. Thomson is adapting, directing and starring in a stage version of the Raymond Carver short story “What
A once-popular actor (Keaton) tries to outrun his past glory.
We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” thick with the themes of ego, suicide, love, ex-spouses and regret. The gods appear to be against his endeavor. An actor gets conked on the head during a rehearsal, Thomson is forced to recast the role. Another cast member, played by Naomi Watts, has an angle on nabbing a famous Method actor (played by Edward Norton, sending up his own diffcult reputation with aplomb) on short notice. He’s in, and before long he’s lecturing Thomson. As Thomson’s fnal preview performances careen from disaster to disaster, Birdman fies all over the place, its place being Broadway’s St. James Theatre in midtown Manhattan. Scenes are placed in the catwalks above the stage, in various dressing rooms and in tentative
interludes between Norton and Emma Stone, the latter playing Thomson’s daughter, still smarting over how little her dad was around. Birdman sounds a chorus of actorly insecurities, populated by lost souls and their fragile yet monstrously scaled egos. Throughout the flm, the masked and winged superhero Thomson once played in the movies mumbles insults or provocations in his ear and eventually makes an on-screen appearance. Formally bold but thematically timid, it sells a familiar line of goods and it goes easy on its main character. Thomson, we’re told, cheated on his wife and wasn’t much of a father, but, well, whatever. The verbal wit cannot possibly compete with the things the cam-
October 30–November 6, 2014
|
VegasSeven.com
SHORT REVIEWS
78
Dear White People (R) ★★★★✩
Dear White People is equipped with narrative invention, visual instincts and a story with something on its mind. It’s a slyly provocative achievement and a serious calling card for its writer-director, Justin Simien. He sets his ensemble affair on the campus of the fictional Ivy League enclave Winchester University, where AfricanAmerican student life is marginalized yet marked by sharp personality distinctions. Simien deals in archetypes and stereotypes, but they’re freshly observed. This is the best film about college life in a long time.
The Book of Life (PG) ★★★ ✩
Endlessly inventive, warm and traditional, this film serves up Mexican culture in a riot of colors and mariachi-flavored music. A museum tour guide (Christina Applegate) recounts a love story built around Dia de los Muertos. Producer Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth touch is felt throughout. The film is adorned with all manner of clever jokes, gorgeous sight gags and little flourishes. This sometimes riotous, always charming film suggests the studio has taken its own movie’s message to heart. You can “write your own story” and have it pay off.
Whiplash (R) ★★★★✩
Whatever this ripping melodrama says about artistic torment, or the price of ambition, or mentor/student relationships from hell, it’s too busy providing serious excitement—both as an actors showcase and a confirmation of writer-director Damien Chazelle’s cinematic chops—to get hung up on conventional uplift. Part of what makes it such a kick is Chazelle’s conflicted feelings about his young protagonist and alter ego, a first-year drumming student (played by Miles Teller) who’s a welter of half-hidden feelings and insolent insecurities.
era’s doing. The actor runs through Times Square in his underwear in Birdman; more challengingly, he wrestles with soul-searching dialogue passages, mixing it up with his skeptical producer (Zach Galifianakis) or gauging his own feelings regarding his actress lover of the moment (Andrea Riseborough). If you crave a black comedy of serious nerve and truly abrasive wit, also dealing with an egocentric artist, Alex Ross Perry’s Listen Up Philip opens this weekend along with Birdman. If you want a movie that settles for somewhat less but is nonetheless a living, breathing, rollicking endeavor, Birdman is your specimen. Birdman (R) ★★★✩✩
By Tribune Media Services
St. Vincent (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
For all the boozed and abusive amusement provided by the great Bill Murray in the good-enough St. Vincent, the moment I liked best was Naomi Watts as a pregnant Russian stripper, manhandling a vacuum across the Murray character’s ancient carpet. Plenty in writer-director Theodore Melfi’s slick feature debut can be accused of overstatement and rib-elbowing. The broader visual comedy lacks finesse. But the actors win out. Even St. Vincent’s climactic, full-on yank at our heartstrings can be forgiven because, well, Murray’s in it.
The Good Lie (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
Fury (R) ★★★✩✩
The Best of Me (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
Kill the Messenger (R) ★★★✩✩
The saga of Sudan’s Lost Boys—following refugees who wound up in America after fleeing the civil war there—earns an engaging, tear-jerking retelling in this fictionalized account of what faced them. Reese Witherspoon plays Callie, a Kansas City employment counselor entirely too provincial to know what she’s getting into when she picks up the three boys at the airport. Good Lie rambles a bit, but its earnestness in reminding us of this story makes it a winner—a valuable history lesson wrapped in a feel-good bow.
Fury is a mixture of sharp realism and squishy clichés that combat movies don’t really need anymore. It stars Brad Pitt as a sergeant known as Wardaddy, commander of a battle-scarred Sherman tank whose nickname gives the film its title. The talk regarding good and evil gets pretty thick. The film’s lyric interlude, set in a German town recently taken by the Allies, sets up virginal Norman (with the help of his mentor, Wardaddy) with a local girl (Alicia von Rittberg). Fury contributes a frustrating percentage of tin to go with the iron and steel.
For an hour or so, Michelle Monaghan and James Marsden gamely swim against the current, fighting the torpid tide of tripe that romance novelist Nicholas Sparks sends their way in the latest adaptation of one of his books. It’s sad to watch them strain and struggle and then give up as the lachrymose The Best of Me drowns them in a sea of saccharine. It’s yet another doomed lastchance love story set in the coastal South, with star-crossed lovers “destined” to be together but kept apart by tragedy. There’s barely a tear left in this limp weeper.
Kill the Messenger, the film about journalist Gary Webb’s shocking newspaper stories that connected the Reagan-era CIA to America’s crack epidemic, shows just how hard it is to film investigative journalism as a drama and get it right. The film about a reporter destroyed by a story that turned out to be one of the great scoops of all time feels muted, more compelling than riveting. But Jeremy Renner dazzles as Webb, giving him both the swagger of a guy willing to take on the CIA and its media friends, and the nervous worry that he’s in over his head.
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (PG) ★★✩✩✩
The Judge (R) ★★★✩✩
Whatever else kids take from Judith Viorst’s delightful film, the subtext of this picture-heavy book is how exhausting and sometimes misguided the optimism of the eternally optimistic can be. Mom (Jennifer Garner) has the stress of all these kids and a job where she’s expected to dazzle 24/7. Dad (Steve Carell) has been out of work for ages and has an job interview where everybody is half his age. It’s just competent, light entertainment, no more ambitious than that.
This film flatters its protagonist Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.), a hotshot Chicago attorney famous for his loose ethics. Then Hank’s mom dies, which necessitates a dreaded trip back home to Indiana. Hank attempts to make nice with his estranged father, the feared local judge (Robert Duvall). Then comes the movie’s hook. The old man is accused of hit-and-run murder, requiring Hank to swallow his pride and defend his father against a clever prosecuting attorney (Billy Bob Thornton). Suddenly The Judge transforms into a darker, better film.
NOW OPEN Tuesday - Saturday 5pm - Close On the corner of Ogden and 6th Parking available across the street Downtown Ages 25+
Marketplace
Marketplace
Marketplace
Reunited at last. $1
for a 2nd McRib sandwich when you buy a McRib Extra Value Meal. Limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Price of required purchase on menuboard. Š2014 McDonald’s
Marketplace
BETTING
OVER AND OUT Once again, a Manning-Brady clash will feature a ton of hype—and a ton of points I ADMIT IT: I’m a sucker for great rivalries, no matter the combatants. Ali vs. Frazier, Giants vs. Dodgers, Agassi vs. Sampras, Lakers vs. Celtics, Don Draper vs. the bottle, Kanye vs. his tongue, Miley vs. self-respect— I love ’em all … except one. Since you’re surely unaware, allow me to break the news that on the frst Sunday afternoon of November, Peyton Manning faces Tom Brady in New England. (I know, you’d think the NFL would be overhyping this like CNN has Ebola. Weird.) What is it about Manning vs. Brady that turns me off? Let me count the reasons: For starters, they’re both quarterbacks, and thus don’t actually face each other, so it’s not a true rivalry. Then there’s the nauseating mutual lovefest between the two (which the NFL’s media partners, as part of their 24/7 Manning-Brady coverage, insist on shoving down our throats). And there’s the fact they’re both extremely arrogant when things are going well (especially Brady) and extremely petulant when things aren’t (there’s a reason Googling “The Manning Face” yields more than 62 million results, topped by ManningFace.com, a real website). More than anything, I detest Manning vs. Brady Week because, well, I’m jealous as hell. They both win. A lot. Especially against my Chargers, whom Brady and Manning have trampled en route to multiple Super Bowls. So why am I using this space to feed the hype machine for ManningBrady XVI? Because their clash will probably entice more betting action than any other non-prime-time game all year—and because I risk NFL pooh-bah Roger Goodell sentencing me to 10 years-to-life if I ignore it. So let’s see if we can at least win some money off this sucker, as Denver heads to New England as a 3-point road favorite: � The Patriots are 6-2 straight-up and 4-4 against the spread. Since a humiliating 41-14 Monday night loss at Kansas City, Brady & Co. have won four in a row (3-1 ATS), outscoring the opposition 158-87. At home, New England is 4-0, with blowout wins over the Bengals (43-17) and Bears (51-23), and shaky performances against the lowly Raiders (16-9) and Jets (27-25). � The Broncos are 6-1. After failing to cash in their frst three games, they’ve won and covered four in a row, crushing the Cardinals, Jets, 49ers and Chargers 149-75. However, three of those contests were in Den-
MATT JACOB
LUCKY SEVEN
Dolphins -2 vs. Chargers (Best Bet) Cardinals +4.5 at Cowboys Broncos-Patriots OVER 55 Chiefs -9.5 vs. Jets Arizona +4 at UCLA Ohio State -28 vs. Illinois UNR -5.5 vs. San Diego State
ver; the Broncos have played just two road games, beating the Jets 31-17 and losing at Seattle 26-20 in overtime. � The combined record of the Broncos’ seven opponents is 29-23 (they’ve faced just one team that’s below .500). The combined record of the Patriots’ eight foes is 24-34-1 (half their games have been against squads that are below .500). � The Patriots are 10-5 against Manning, but 4-5 in the last nine battles, including a 26-16 loss in Denver in last year’s AFC Championship Game. � Including Manning’s time with the Colts (but not including a 2011 game when Manning was injured), the home team has won six straight meetings, but is just 3-2-1 ATS. � The Patriots are 9-1 ATS as a home underdog in Brady’s career as a starter. That includes last year’s 34-31 comefrom-behind win over Denver and this year’s 43-17 beatdown of Cincinnati in Week 5—the only times since 2006 that New England has been a home pup. The verdict: I wouldn’t bet the side in this game with either QB’s fortune. Ah, but the over/under of 55—that’s a different story! The Pats have topped the total in fve straight games (averaging 39.5 points); Denver has done so in four straight (averaging 37.3 points); and the last six regular-season Manning-Brady Bowls have hurdled the total. Make it seven straight “overs”—unless, of course, the BFFs simultaneously pull a hamstring giving each other pregame hugs. Last Week: 2-5 (1-3 NFL; 1-2 college; 0-1 Best Bet). Season Record: 25-31 (12-17 NFL; 1314 college; 3-5 Best Bets). Matt Jacob appears at 10 a.m. Fridays on Pregame.com’s First Preview on ESPN Radio 1100-AM and 100.9-FM.
LADIES NIGHT Beef $5 Beef Sliders Booze Drink Specials Broads Ladies Drink Free Every Thursday from 4-6PM in Oscar’s Lounge No Cover • Don’t miss it! (October 16 thru December 4, and then we’ll see how loyal you are.)
INSIDE THE PLAZA HOTEL & CASINO Restaurant Opens at 5PM Daily Lounge Opens at 4PM and Happy Hour 4-6PM Daily oscarslv.com • 702.386.7227
DINE & RIDE WITH US! FREE SMITH CENTER SHUTTLE.
Featuring Nieve Malandra this is one sexy sultry singing “Broad”.
The perfect way to complete the evening! Join us for dinner & drinks and we’ll supply the FREE ride to and from the Smith Center.
Thank you for being beautiful!
We would like to thank the City of Las Vegas, Downtown Project, all of our partners and, above all, YOU for supporting Life is Beautiful and making our second year so amazing. We will see you in 2015! We are going to go take a nap now, and maybe take a shower. We’re still a little sweaty. And hungry‌ Meow.
www.lifeisbeautiful.com
You’re 36 years old and entering your 16th NBA season after leaving UNLV as a junior in 1999. How much do you still have left in the tank? Oh, I’ve got something in the tank. Right now, it’s a new situation for me, and I’m making the most of it. I’ve been able to keep in good condition and my body healthy. I don’t feel [old], so who knows how long I’m going to be able to do this? I’m just taking it one year at a time. The older you get, the more you focus on what your strengths are. It depends on what my team needs. I’ve done whatever it takes to help my team win. If they need me to go out and get 20 points, I’ll get 20; if they need me to go out and get 10 points and 10 rebounds, then that’s what I need to do to win. I’m going to do whatever it takes to make my team successful, and to make my teammates better. Nobody likes losing; it’s not a fun feeling. But at the same time, if you win, everyone is rewarded. That’s all I care about.
Shawn Marion
The former UNLV star on playing with LeBron, placing his name among NBA greats and being obsessed with cartoons By Sean DeFrank How excited are you about playing with LeBron James and Kevin Love after signing a one-year free-agent contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the offseason?
It’s fantastic. I can’t wait; they’re good guys. But don’t forget about Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, Mike Miller, everybody who’s here, the whole thing. It’s
not just LeBron and Kevin; it’s everybody. But we’re still trying to get comfortable with ourselves right now. The media needs stories to put into the papers every day, but
Last season you joined Hakeem Olajuwon, Karl Malone and Kevin Garnett as the only players in NBA history to accumulate 17,000 points, 9,000 rebounds, 1,500 steals and 1,000 blocked shots. Where does that rank among your career accomplishments? The longer I play, the more I keep breaking records. [Laughs.] The funny thing is, you never know how long you’re going to play, but I told myself when I started in the league, if I’m able to do what I need to do, I want to play 15 years [in the NBA]. And I’ve done that. But to fnally win a championship [with Dallas in 2011], when you reach the top of that mountain, that’s the best feeling ever. Basketball is a team sport, and when you achieve something with your team, that’s the best feeling. I’ve been fortunate to play on some great teams in my career. The New York Times once did a story on you because you love cartoons, and have a cartoon DVD collection numbering in the thousands. What is it about cartoons that appeals to
you, and which character would you become if you had your wish? They just always seem to have a positive message, a positive outcome at the end. … Man, I don’t know. That’s hard to say. I like a variety of cartoons, and I couldn’t pick just one [character]. I’d have to name multiple cartoons. I grew up watching and love ThunderCats; I was always a big fan of G.I. Joe, Transformers, DuckTales, Woody Woodpecker, Popeye, Bugs Bunny, you name it. I love those cartoons. I’ve also been buying a lot of anime now. You’re a big poker fan and have played in World Series of Poker events in Las Vegas. Might this be your next career? I love poker. If I could play every day, I would. There are so many other things going on, though, you can’t play every day. It’s possible later on, though, when I have time to play in a few more tournaments. It’s really fun, it’s just really time-consuming. You participated on the recent Full Court Press Vol. 1 compilation album on which you performed with young rappers such as T-Pain, Dorrough and Young Cash. Is music something you plan on pursuing further? That was hard. I respected those guys as rappers and musicians before [the project], but I respected them more afterward for the hard work they put into their music and the stuff that they do. It’s not easy. I had some friends of their friends reach out to me and see if I wanted to be part of it, and it just happened. That was it for me, though. I’m going to stay in my lane. I know my limitations. What is your relationship with UNLV these days, and will we see more of you here when you’re done playing? Our relationship is pretty good. I try to reach out to them. When they do really well, I always try to send them gift baskets and stuff at the end of the season. I still like to see them do well. It’s funny because one of my teammates, Mike Miller, his brother [Ryan] is an assistant coach there now. I’m going to retire in Texas, so it’ll be hard to get out there on a regular basis, but I’ll always support the Rebels.
PHOTO BY KEN BL AZE/USA TODAY SPORTS
SEVEN QUESTIONS VegasSeven.com
| October 30–November 6, 2014
94
we just need to focus on what we’re trying to do. That’s all that matters.
Think Of It As A Luxury SUV In A More Compact Package. Introducing The All New 2015 Mercedes-Benz GLA, Starting At $33,300.
925 Auto Show Drive s In The Valley Auto Mall s Henderson, NV 89014 702.485.3000 s www.mbofhenderson.com