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14 12 | THE LATEST
“Shift-ing Into Gear,” by Geoff Carter. The Downtown-based car-share startup Shift is now in beta testing. We take it for a test drive. Plus, A tale of the pop culture tape for Pacquiao-Mayweather, and Ask a Native.
14 | INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2015
Our fifth annual celebration of the men and women who are destined to impact our community this year ... and beyond.
29 | NIGHTLIFE
“DJs—They’re Just Like Us!” by Kat Boehrer. The many and varied interests of Dutch duo W&W. Plus, a Q&A with Stellar, and photos from the week’s hottest parties.
53 | DINING
“Bombay, by Way of Auckland,” by Al Mancini. New Zealand import Urban Turban spices up the Valley’s Indian offerings. Plus, Neighborhood Epicurean visits Flamingo Village Plaza, on the corner of Flamingo Road and Buffalo Drive.
59 | A&E
“Land Ladies,” by Steve Bornfeld. The name favors the men, but women add grit and grace to Elko’s National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Plus, album reviews, The Hit List, Tour Buzz and a review of Dilated Peoples in concert.
65 | Showstopper
“Illusional Thinking,” by Steve Bornfeld. Proposed holographic Liberace show raises real issues.
66 | Movies
American Sniper and our weekly movie capsules.
78 | Seven Questions
Legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer on New York-New York’s Shake Shack, consistent hospitality and custard vs. ice cream.
| Elizabeth Blau and Kim Canteenwalla, two of our Most Intriguing People 2015.
ON THE COVER Photo by Anthony Mair
January 22–28, 2015
PHOTO BY ELIZABETH BUEHRING
13 | Seven Days 34 | Seven Nights 64 | Sound Proof
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Shift-ing Into Gear The Downtown-based car-share startup Shif is now in beta testing. We take it for a test drive. By Geoff Carter
January 22–28, 2015
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VegasSeven.com
THIS MONTH, BOSTON-BASED CAR-SHARE
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service Zipcar celebrates its 15th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, Zipcar gifted all its members with a $15 credit (I have already redeemed mine), and posted a snazzy info graphic to the company’s blog detailing its growth. The graphic reveals that Zipcar is now in 471 cities worldwide; that each of their 21,588 cars has a unique name (among them “Jazzhands” and “Mwahahaha”); and that a member books a Zipcar approximately every six seconds. That’s some fairly regular zip. What that info graphic doesn’t state, however, is that Las Vegas has fewer than 10 Zipcars on offer—fve of them parked at the airport, and a few more spread over two parking lots at UNLV. And the company seems reluctant to commit more than that, probably
owing to our lack of urban density. (People with no set place to park a car are less likely to own one, but everybody needs a car for trips to Trader Joe’s and Home Depot.) Shift, a local car-share startup based Downtown, doesn’t yet have Zipcar’s reach. Similar to the national service, Shift has cars stationed in only three Las Vegas locations: in parking lots adjacent to the Ogden apartments and Atomic Liquors, and in front of Art Square. But unlike Zipcar, Shift has indicated it plans to expand in this market. That convinced me to ask for a Shift membership in November. Earlier this month, I got around to trying Shift for the frst time. On the surface, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Zipcar, Car2Go and other car-share companies: It’s a
membership service that allows you to reserve cars by the hour, using a mobile app. But I soon discovered that Shift, which is still in the midst of beta testing, improves on its predecessors in several unexpected and kind of terrifc ways—most notably, the cost. Shift’s beta-membership pricing is only $50 per month, which gets you 10 hours of driving time—$5 an hour, basically. That’s a square deal that even Zipcar can’t match: I pay them $50 annually for my membership, and another $8 to $10 per hour whenever I use a car. Plus, Shift charges by the minute, and has no set reservation times; you can keep the car for as long as you need it (and as long as you have credits in your account). It’s not yet clear if this pricing will stay in place when Shift comes out of beta test-
ing (which should happen by early March), but CEO Zach Ware insists the rates will be “super affordable” and include some features “that will be a frst in the world of car sharing.” Another plus for Shift: the user experience. The feet is entirely electric, composed of Tesla and Chevrolet Volt sedans, as well as Smart micro cars. (The latter take some getting used to—they’re really, really small.) Also, engaging a Shift car is as easy as getting into a Zipcar: You reserve the vehicle via your smartphone, walk to the lot where it’s parked, place your membership card on the windshield scanner and the car is yours to use. I also enjoy Shift’s in-car user interface, a large improvement on Zipcar’s userfeedback system, where vital information on the car—cleanliness, dents and dings—has to be delivered through the app or phoned in. Shift cars ask you to describe the condition of the car even before you turn the key, and you can answer simply by pressing buttons. Like Smart cars themselves, my problems with Shift are small, but not insignifcant. Their current coverage area is convenient to my offce on East Fremont, but not to my home several miles away. To succeed long term, Shift really needs to station some inventory in more Downtown neighborhoods, as well as midtown and—why not?—alongside the Zipcars at UNLV. (Nothing wrong with a little competition, right?) To this point, Ware says citywide expansion is on Shift’s agenda, but it’s dependent on how much the community loves it: “We have a service-area expansion strategy, but it’s not on a set timetable,” he says. “It’s dependent upon expanded demand and partnerships, with additional multiunit residential partners across the entire Valley, many of which are in the works.” My other main complaint? The name: “Shift” is being used by several other tech companies, including a Bay Area startup that allows users to testdrive used cars with greater ease. The name needs to be changed so people can easily fnd Las Vegas’ Shift in their smartphone’s app store. But none of that changes what Shift is, and what it can become. After all, Uber is probably done in Nevada for good, our bus transit coverage is still wanting in some areas, and our taxicabs still stink. Someone has to move Las Vegas’ transit network forward—to shift it, one might say.
PHOTO BY GEOFF CARTER
THE LATEST
chased Diamond’s, and in the 1990s, Ronzone’s original building was demolished for the Boulevard expansion. So goes Vegas.
J A M E S P. R E Z A
I REMEMBER A DEPARTMENT STORE IN THE BOULEVARD MALL CALLED RONZONE’S. ANY CONNECTION TO RONZONE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL? Indeed: They were both named after Bertha (Bishop) Ronzone, a Nevada pioneer who opened a small outpost importing goods from California and selling them to miners. She opened the first Ronzone’s storefront in Manhattan, Nevada, in 1917, later expanding to Tonopah and Reno. In 1968, Ronzone opened a gorgeous location at the thennew Boulevard Mall. It operated until the 1970s, when Diamond’s, a Phoenix department store (also with humble beginnings) bought the chain. In 1984, Dillard’s pur-
YUP, IT GETS COLD HERE. A recent query about firewood in Las Vegas spurred some unexpected commentary on social media and among friends, mainly along the lines of, “As if it ever gets cold in Las Vegas! Hahahaha!” Yes, snarky ones, it gets cold enough. This is Southern Nevada, not Southern California; we live in a high-elevation desert, not on the coast. Unlike, say, San Diego, Las Vegas isn’t temperate. And whereas a dry heat isn’t nearly as oppressive as heat mixed with intense humidity, a damp cold beats a dry cold. Just ask those poor, bone-chilled souls who were still roaming the Strip at dawn on New Year’s Day, while the lucky ones were parked in front of a roaring fire.
HART TO HEART The answer to last week’s question (about adult stars hailing from Las Vegas) wasn’t meant to be comprehensive, so thanks to a reader who wrote to remind us of Veronica Hart/Heart, born Jane Hamilton in Las Vegas in 1956. The reader says she worked with Hamilton in the 1970s as a switchboard operator at the original MGM Grand; both were attending UNLV when Hamilton’s moonlighting was discovered. “We rented the movie one night, and lo and behold, there was our little Janie,” says the reader. Hart, one of the biggest stars of the adult industry’s shot-on-film era, performed in 158 movies and directed 43. She went on to have small mainstream parts in Boogie Nights and Magnolia, and reportedly worked as a docent at our now defunct Erotic Heritage Museum. Questions? AskaNative@ VegasSeven.com.
By Bob Whitby THURSDAY, JAN. 22: So there’s this 21st
century thing called 3-D printing that allows you to create anything at the touch of a few buttons. OK, maybe it’s not quite as simple as that, but printing objects is a pretty fascinating technology. UNLV architecture professor Jonathon Anderson will explain it and explore its possibilities during a free lecture at 5:30 p.m. at UNLV’s Marjorie Barrick Museum. UNLV.edu UNLV.edu.
FRIDAY, JAN. 23: Looking for the old derringer that will
finally round out your pocket pistol collection? Head to the Riviera this weekend for the 53rd annual Antique Arms Show, today through Sunday, with 95,000 square feet of historic pistols, rifles, knives and other weapons on display. AntiqueArmsShow.com.
SATURDAY, JAN. 24: That kitchen remodel you desire isn’t going to get done by itself. So check out the Winter Home Improvement & Outdoor Expo at Cashman Center, where you’ll find ideas to spruce up your backyard, front yard and everything indoors. Starts Friday and runs through Sunday. LVHomeShows.com.
[ SPORTS ]
TALE OF THE TAPE By Jason Scavone
SUNDAY, JAN. 25: Feel the need for
Last week, Manny Pacquiao announced he’s agreed to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s terms for a potential May 2 superfight. Now while the world waits for The Money Team’s official response, let’s take a look at how these two titans match up—both in and out of the ring. PACQUIAO
MAYWEATHER
36
AGE
37
57-5-2 (38 KOs)
RECORD
47-0-0 (26 KOs)
5-foot-6½
HEIGHT
5-foot-8
Pacman
NICKNAMES
Pretty Boy, Money May
$120 million
NET WORTH
$280 million
Tax collectors in the Philippines
TOUGHEST OPPONENT
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
SIDE PROJECTS
Betting ungodly amounts of his $280 million on sports; never losing any of those wagers, judging by the betting tickets he posts to Twitter.
Kirby Asunto. She got her break singing the Filipino national anthem ahead of his 2012 fight against Timothy Bradley, proving that Pacquiao could pull a Trading Places and pick someone off the street to turn into a celebrity in the Philippines just by inhabiting Pacman’s orbit.
NOTABLE PROTÉGÉ
Justin Bieber. Floyd actually claims he can teach The Biebs how to be a champion. Hmm, we didn’t know there was a belt for having your manhood enhanced by Calvin Klein’s Photoshop wizards.
Salma Hayek. Exotic, devastating and you couldn’t take your eyes off her five years ago. Still remarkably capable, but you’re starting to feel like this is the beginning of the end.
CELEBRITY ANALOG
Paris Hilton. Frequents the clubs, spends way too much money on stupid shit, and you can’t help but feel like large chunks of her personality are carefully calculated for public consumption.
Two-term Filipino congressman; actor (appearing in 8 feature films); recording artist; player/coach of a Philippine Basketball Association team
speed? Between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., you can pilot your own vehicle around the high banks of Las Vegas Motor Speedway as part of Laps for Charity. Your $30 donation, which supports Speedway Children’s Charities, buys three or four laps around the 1.5-mile superspeedway. Don’t have a race machine? Don’t worry; last year’s run included an ice cream truck. LasVegas.SpeedwayCharities.org.
MONDAY, JAN. 26: This is it, the final day of the Jamz Youth National Championships, where cheerleading squads from around the country do battle onstage at Orleans Arena. Competition started Friday with 8-year-olds and winds up today with the 15-yearolds. Jamz.com/Youth-National-Championship.com. TUESDAY, JAN. 27: There’s been an explosion in the
number of children who are diagnosed with autism and Asperger’s syndrome. Kristen Linton, an associate professor at UNLV’s school of social work, explains one possible reason why as part of the University Forum Lecture series, 7:30 p.m. at the Marjorie Barrick Museum. UNLV.edu.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 28: Electric violin,
smooth trumpet solos... you never know what you might hear when you take in David Perrico—Pop Evolution. The 20-piece orchestra takes you on a journey of top 40 hits across the decades in Cabaret Jazz at the Smith Center. 10 p.m., $15-30; TheSmithCenter.com. Have an event you want considered for Seven Days? Email VegasSevenDays@Gmail.com.
20 1 5
Our fifth annual celebration of the men and women who are destined to impact our community this year ‌ and beyond
Photography by J O N E S T R A D A and
ANTHONY MAIR
T HE B IG D EAL
Stephen Zimmerman Blue-chip basketball recruit
ACHIEVEMENTS Zimmerman may
be the biggest basketball phenom to ever come out of Las Vegas—literally. The Bishop Gorman High School senior is 7 feet, 241 pounds, but his size is hardly the only reason dozens of the nation’s top college programs would love for Zimmerman to suit up for them next season. Many recruiting services have him ranked as one of the nation’s top 10 prospects because he’s got the kind of two-way game that can turn a college team into an instant contender. He’s already led Gorman to three straight state championships and is working on a fourth, averaging 16 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocks per game for the Gaels this season.
A WANTED MAN Among the programs Zimmerman is considering are four heavyweights: Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona and UCLA. The only other school on his short list? UNLV—and the Rebels are doing everything they can to keep him home: On the first day NCAA coaches were allowed to contact him last summer, UNLV sent him nearly 100 recruiting letters. UP NEXT Unlike many top recruits, who usually make their college decisions in the fall of their senior year, Zimmerman is waiting until spring. That should ensure that the frenzy surrounding his recruitment builds to a fever pitch—especially here in Vegas. But the 18-year-old understands how big his decision is, and he’s not taking it lightly. “I think about it a lot,” he says. “I don’t usually let it get to me or distract me from doing what I’m doing. I still have time. But it’s definitely on my mind.” THE SKY’S THE LIMIT Zimmer-
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man is on the court, he’s just as big on social media. He’s got more than 11,000 Twitter followers (@Bigg_ Zimm), and his personal brand of goofy/earnest is endearing to fans, whether he’s looping his best dunks on Vine or tweeting out his Snapchat handle. “Social media is definitely a big contributor to how I talk to everybody that I know,” he says. “That’s kind of my personality. I think I’m funny, and I feel like I can be anybody’s friend.” – Mike Grimala
January 22–28, 2015
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
SOCIAL STAR As big as Zimmer-
VegasSeven.com
man’s ultimate goal is to play professional basketball, and he’s already walking the NBA path. He was selected for the USA Basketball Under-18 team this summer, a program that has produced such pro ballers as Carmelo Anthony, Kemba Walker and Kyrie Irving. One NBA scout said Zimmerman’s physical development over the past year makes him comparable to such current pros as Chris Bosh and Kelly Olynyk.
15
INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2015
THE DOWNTOWN S UCCESS STORY
Natalie Young
Chef and restaurateur ACHIEVEMENTS A little more
than two years ago, Natalie Young was leaving Las Vegas for Santa Fe, New Mexico, when a chance encounter with Tony Hsieh ended with $225,000 in her pocket to start her own restaurant. Today, Eat, her breakfast and lunch spot on Carson Avenue, is bustling with locals and tourists eager for a bite of her eclectic comfort food. This summer, she’ll expand her Downtown reach by opening Chow, the area’s first Chinese restaurant.
TOUGH LOVE Young is used to
standing out in the kitchen, but not just because of her tattooed arms or electric curls. While working at restaurants such as the now-defunct Coyote Café in the MGM or the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at Paris, she says she was the only gay African-American female on staff. “When I’d get to work, people would tell me to shut up and cook,” she says. Because of those tough early years, Young makes it a point to create a friendly and family-like atmosphere for her 28 employees. They get holidays off, have potlucks together and receive gifts, such as a new TV for Christmas. “But don’t get that twisted,” she says. “I’m still a prickly chef.” IT TAKES A VILLAGE “I never expected this,” Young says of her recent success. “I just wanted to pay my rent and feed my dogs.” Doing that was a struggle at times while Young tried to get Eat off the ground, so several friends stepped in, covering her rent (which was three months overdue) and other bills. When the restaurant finally turned a profit, she made good on her debts— including paying back Hsieh (which she did a year later). When Young thinks of it now, her eyes well up. “That inspired me to help my neighbors and friends when it’s my turn.”
was flipping pancakes, Young wanted to be an artist. So when muralists began throwing up paint in her neighborhood for Life Is Beautiful, she offered free meals while they worked. If you walk into Eat, you can see some of the muralists’ doodles inscribed on the wall—a “thank you” to the chef. “If I ever leave this spot,” she says, “I’m tearing those out of the wall and taking them with me.”
January 22–28, 2015
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VegasSeven.com
CULINARY ART Long before she
16
NOW EAT THIS Young says Chow’s menu will be a mix of Chinese, fried chicken and some of her personal flare. “I don’t want to alienate my customers with fancy cooking techniques they don’t understand,” she says. “What’s on my menu is what I enjoy fucking eating.” – Nicole Ely
T HE N EW MAN ON CAMP US
Len Jessup
UNLV president
ACHIEVEMENTS Some of the high-
lights from what University Regent Kevin Page calls Jessup’s “sick résumé”: Prodigious fundraiser at Washington State University; creator of a University of Arizona institution that focuses on moving inventions and innovations from the campus to the marketplace; steward of the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona; and guiding hand in restructuring Arizona’s academic medical school. But the one experience that could most benefit UNLV may be his graduate studies in organizational behavior. “This is a heavy lift,” he says, “and it’s going to take a lot of us to get there, both on campus and off, [creating] partnerships to get stuff done.”
THE TO-DO LIST During his first
year on the job, a significant chunk of Jessup’s time will be spent on continuing UNLV’s strategic planning process to become a Carnegie Tier 1 research university, which includes a medical school, and forming political, community and corporate relationships to launch a comprehensive capital campaign. “It really means working very hard now to raise up every part of the university—teaching and learning, the research dimension, community service, medical school and athletics.”
TH E GA M E CHA NGER
Lawrence Vaughan
Co-founder, RealGaming
PHOTOS BY JON ESTRADA
ACHIEVEMENTS When you
consider his background, it’s not surprising that Vaughan is the youngest person granted an interactive gaming license by the Nevada Gaming Commission (he was 27). Born and raised in Las Vegas, Vaughan was always into computers. He created the employment search website Jobbi.com in 2008, then took on the challenge of building an online poker client in HTML5. That became the genesis for RealGaming.com, which Vaughan and others created from scratch. One of only two interactive poker websites doing business in Nevada—and the only one to offer poker on all platforms without a down-
load—RealGaming is a partnership with South Point owner and Las Vegas casino legend Michael Gaughan. BREAKING THE MOLD
Vaughan’s background as a coder inspired him to insist that the entire RealGaming system be built from the ground up instead of relying on old software designed for earlier times (and technologies). “We can offer new things every month,” he says, “and we’re situated to grow over the next 10 years.” KEEPING IT REAL “You can’t just stick your brand on something from Europe,” Vaughan says. “This is a product developed in Nevada to suit Nevada’s needs.” That homegrown approach has given RealGaming an edge, thanks to its built-in social platform. Live, local
customer support is another difference-maker. “That’s a Michael thing,” Vaughan says, showing how the customerfriendly approach of the local gaming pioneer is still a good one in the 21st century. A SOLID GAME PLAN So far,
the online gaming market has proven to be a tough one to solve. But Vaughan is confident he’s got the right formula. “We’re a local startup, filled with young people. We can give people quick, convenient, traditional and nontraditional games. And since we’re so lean, we have the flexibility to change as the players do.” With the potential for legalization in California and other states this year, there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing Vaughan’s local startup shaking up the national online poker scene. – David G. Schwartz
SPEAKING OF ATHLETICS Count the former junior college basketball player among those university presidents who believe successful intercollegiate athletic programs are a vital component to an institution of higher learning. “It’s important not only for people on campus but for alumni and others off campus. [Sports] are the window through which many view the university. You need to be doing well so people are looking—and the window’s gotta be squeaky clean.” A TELLING GESTURE Endearing
himself to faculty right off the bat, Jessup insisted he go through the tenure process at UNLV. “I just didn’t feel that it was appropriate to have it be dictated to them that I was going to be accepted as a tenured faculty member on this campus. That’s their right, their prerogative—I wanted them to decide that, not me.” MOTIVATION The grandson of Italian immigrants, Jessup was inspired by the work ethic of family members who were entrepreneurs. The grueling effort inherent in running small businesses instilled a sense of duty. “Part of my DNA is paying back that debt for the sacrifices they made,” Jessup says. “I want to be able to look back and know that I’ve had as much positive impact on as many people as possible, and that I never shied away from an opportunity to do that.” – Paul Szydelko
INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2015
THE CULINA RY P OWER COUPLE
Elizabeth Blau and Kim Canteenwalla
CEO (Blau) and Managing Director (Canteenwalla), Blau + Associates ACHIEVEMENTS When Blau arrived
in Las Vegas 16 years ago to help open Le Cirque in Bellagio, she so impressed Steve Wynn that he hired her to take the opulent new resort’s food and beverage program to a level Las Vegas had never before seen. Not long after Blau hit town, Canteenwalla moved here to become executive chef at MGM Grand. Working in the same circles, the two eventually met, hit it off, married and formed Blau + Associates, a restaurant planning and development firm with clients all over the world. Locally, they operate Simon Restaurant & Lounge in Palms Place and Buddy V’s Ristorante in the Venetian/ Palazzo’s Grand Canal Shops. Then two years ago, they expanded to the burbs, first opening Honey Salt on the outskirts of Summerlin, followed down the street by Made L.V. Their third neighborhood restaurant— Andiron Steak & Sea—will open in Downtown Summerlin in the spring. THE DYNAMIC Working closely with
your spouse can lead to friction in some cases, but not this one—in part because husband and wife each bring a different skill set to the dinner table. Says Canteenwalla: “I’m more operational, and Elizabeth is more the big picture.”
THE NEXT COURSE Blau says Andiron Steak & Sea, which is being designed by the James Beard Award-winning Thomas Schlesser, will offer a “striking” interior, as well as a menu that will include dry-aged and wagyu beef, raw and cooked seafood, and substantial vegetarian offerings. “It will be,” Blau promises, “our most upscale experience.” Fine dining in the Vegas suburbs—perhaps the start of another trend?
January 22–28, 2015
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VegasSeven.com
WEST SIDE STORY One of Blau’s greatest strengths is her ability to spot (and capitalize on) industry trends. That helps explain why the couple has chosen to set up shop on the west side. “People’s tastes [in and around Summerlin] have continued to evolve, and I think you’re starting to reach a critical mass,” Blau says. “There are a lot more offerings up here now that are on the quality level of the Strip.”
18
HOMEMADE RECIPE Blau and Canteenwalla may not be natives, and their operations may indeed span the globe, but the couple clearly views this as home. “With five restaurants [here], and a son in fifth grade,” Blau says laughing, “I don’t think we’re going anywhere too fast.” – Al Mancini
Mariah Carey
Pop superstar
ACHIEVEMENTS
Touted as the “best-selling female artist of all time,” the 44-year-old singer-songwriter-producer has released 14 albums, delivered 18 No. 1 singles and collected a shelf full of awards, including five Grammys. On January 15, Carey announced an 18-date residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, picking up (along with Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn) where Celine Dion left off. “She’s a huge get,” says music critic Nancy Dunham, who contributes to USA Today. “Mariah has an incredible chart history and, for good or bad, the tabloid reports about her personal life have increased her exposure.” The residency—which will be tailored around her No. 1 hits and promoted as Mariah Carey’s #1’s— begins May 6, continues throughout May and resumes in July.
WELCOME TO THE STAGE Since the
beginning of her career, Carey has had a complicated relationship with performing live. She didn’t tour until her third album, leading some to wonder if her impressive voice was manufactured in the studio. More recently, an October concert in Japan garnered jeers (TMZ said it was “painful to watch”), although Carey claimed to have bronchitis. Two months later, Carey made headlines with a disastrous Christmas tree-lighting performance in Rockefeller Center; even CNN said she “seemed winded and had trouble hitting some of her trademark high notes.” So how will Carey handle the ongoing pressure of a residency? Worst-case scenario, she can always go the Britney Spears route: backing tracks. A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME? Nightclubs
still reign as one of the primary magnets for tourist dollars in this city. But as that market becomes saturated and clubgoers mature, Carey’s show has the potential to help ease the transition back to traditional Strip entertainment. Sure, she is famous for middleof-the-road adultcontemporary songs, but the pop star draws her musical influences from a wider range of sources, including hiphop, soul and R&B.
A COLOSSAL TALENT
Even though it will be Carey’s first long-term gig in Las Vegas, she’s played the Colosseum twice before, during 2003’s Charmbracelet World Tour and 2010’s Angels Advocate Tour. “Mariah can put on a great, theatrical show, and she’s released some great R&B and pop music,” says Rolling Stone music critic Nick Murray. “So [this residency] might be a lot of fun.” – Cindi Moon Reed
BL AU AND CANTEENWALL A BY ELIZABETH BUEHRING; MARIAH CAREY BY C. SMITH/WENN.COM
T H E RESID EN T DIVA
INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2015
THE SHOWM A N
Jimmy Slonina
Cirque performer and multifaceted entertainer ACHIEVEMENTS Slonina found
his life’s calling as a kid watching Three’s Company and Benny Hill on television. “I would hear the studio audience laugh, and I thought: ‘That’s what I wanna do. I wanna make you laugh.’” These days, he provides those laughs in Cirque du Soleil’s Zarkana, after being part of the original cast of Le Rêve and performing in Cirque’s Kooza. Additionally, Slonina has toured with Pink and created viral lip-synch videos seen by millions. “No matter where you’re from, Vegas is a culture shock,” the Chicago native says. “It’s such a weird, circus kind of town.” Just the place for a clown. METHOD TO HIS MADNESS Don’t let Slonina’s onstage anarchism fool you: “I’m really a technical comedian,” he says. “I treat it like a mathematical problem. There’s timing and intensity and volume, and you put them together and make the right mix. … Who are you playing for? How many people are there? Is it an intimate house or a massive house? Is it a Vegas audience or a New York audience? I kind of add, subtract and work it out.” And if he does the math right, it equals laughter. COURT JESTER TO ROCK ROYALTY In 2013, Slonina landed
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FOR HIS NEXT TRICK Slonina will be bringing the laughs to Zarkana for the rest of 2015, but that doesn’t rule out other projects. “Having a show that keeps me at home will afford me a little more creative openness that I’ve been lacking,” he says. He looks forward to making more Web videos and collaborating with other Las Vegas artists, having just finished a short film with fellow Strip moonlighter Amos Glick. “There are a lot of people in town who are writing and putting out great stuff, developing new ideas,” Slonina says. “I’m keeping my brilliant friends close.” – Lissa Townsend Rodgers
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
January 22–28, 2015
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the role of emcee on Pink’s The Truth About Love tour without even auditioning, earning the gig based on his résumé and those lip-synch videos. “I went from performing for 1,800 people a night to 18,000,” he says. “At first, it was daunting: ‘Hey I’m coming out here to try to entertain you while Pink changes her costume. I’m really sorry, but she made me do this,’” he recalls. “We were trying to find what the character was, and how do I fit into this crazy world she’s creating for her concert? But about 20 shows in, we hit our groove.” What did he take away from the experience? “I grew a huge set of balls—everybody in every seat saw my huge balls.”
QUEEN OF ROCK
Brandy Vinyl
Concert booker, band manager ACHIEVEMENTS If you’ve been to a
rock concert in Las Vegas this century, odds are Vinyl had something to do with it. She estimates she’s booked “a few thousand” shows in the region over the past 15 years, including at “pretty much every venue” in Las Vegas. She handled some of Neon Trees’ and Imagine Dragons’ first shows, as well as beyondVegas names such as Snow Patrol, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, TV on the Radio and the Butthole Surfers. Although she also books gigs in Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as an annual showcase at South by Southwest, Vinyl says, “Vegas is definitely my market.” PLUGGING IN Born in Chicago, Vinyl moved to Florida with her family when she was 10. There she became a child-singing star, which she quit upon moving to Vegas at age 13 so she could “be a normal teen.” But she says she never lost her passion for music and was soon sneaking into local concert venues. One of her first bookings was Silversun Pickups in a dive bar off the Strip—when her ex-husband’s band got signed to a major label, she spent a lot of time in the Los Angeles rock scene and got the idea of bringing acts to Sin City. “They weren’t even a signed band. They played on the floor with a few clipon work lights”—something she and the band still joke about. NO NAME TOO BIG, NO DETAIL TOO SMALL “I don’t feel like any-
thing’s out of reach for me,” she says. “I don’t put limitations on who I think I can book.” She points out that bands who “clearly could go to a casino or the Joint or the Pearl [would] rather do the show with me at a smaller venue, because they know they can trust me.” Of course, part of a show booker’s job is meeting a band’s many needs, and Vinyl is on top of that, too—whether it’s getting Peter Murphy black towels or making sure it’s OK for Of Montreal to drop trou onstage.
VegasSeven.com
| January 22–28, 2015
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
COMING ATTRACTIONS
Since 2006, Vinyl has also managed bands, namely electro-pop trio TeamMate and garage rockers 1776. Still, she says that “booking is my 24-7. … I tried to stop, and I can’t.” Gigs already on her 2015 calendar include a series of shows at the Bunkhouse; she also hopes to grab a couple of bands on their way to Coachella. What is Vinyl’s assessment of the Vegas music scene today? “It’s a cool city, but it could be way cooler.” And she’s determined to help make that happen, one concert at a time. – LTR
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INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2015
THE NORTHTOWN STA R
Shamir
Emerging singer-songwriter from North Las Vegas ACHIEVEMENTS Twenty-year-old Shamir (born
Shamir Bailey) is already a hit with the critics: Pitchfork, CMJ, NME and several other key music publications named his EP Northtown and its debut single “If It Wasn’t True”—a relentless episode of classic, Detroitstyle electro house—among the best records of 2014. Now, the North Las Vegas born-and-raised talent need only put the finishing touches on his debut full-length album Ratchet (due this spring) before taking the next step of turning that under-the-radar buzz into superstardom. It feels like a natural next step for someone who learned the guitar at age 9 and formed his first group, a punk band called Anorexia, at 16. “This is something I’ve been perfecting all my life,” he says.
RE-ACQUIRED TASTE Shamir is the kind of performer we’ve not seen in a while: an androgynous dancemusic powerhouse, with a vocal delivery that evokes early Michael Jackson and songwriting chops that one could favorably compare to early Prince. It may be a challenge for Shamir to bring his beats to an audience weaned on far less idiosyncratic stuff, but if they don’t bite, he’s got ambitions that transcend the dance floor: “(Dance music) was really just an experiment for me,” Shamir says. “I didn’t think it would turn into all of this.” THE UNEXPECTED “I sent out my first song (‘If It Wasn’t True’) in January, and it was featured in Pitchfork in February. I didn’t know overnight success was, like, a thing.” MINTING A CATCHPHRASE His current single, the addictive banger “On the Regular,” contains a smart, funny bit of wordplay that’s making the rounds in social media: “Don’t try me/I’m not a free sample.” Shamir is surprised it’s caught on: “It’s just something I say when someone gets on my nerves. When I say it, I’m super serious; I don’t think of the comedy aspect of it.” ON NAMING NORTHTOWN “North Las Vegas is the
best part of Vegas. It feels very diverse. And we’ve had so many artists coming out of Las Vegas, but no one really repping North Las Vegas. I want to represent it as much as possible.” – Geoff Carter
T HE M A N OF THE HO U R
Neil Moffitt
CEO of Hakkasan Group ACHIEVEMENTS As CEO of Las Vegas-based Hak-
kasan Group—specializing in restaurants, hotels, daylife and nightlife—it appears Moffitt is on a course for world domination. He has led the company to acquire or open more than 29 venues in 19 cities in less than 24 months. In 2015 alone, another 15 restaurant openings are planned (including Searsucker at Caesars Palace, adjacent to Omnia, Hakkasan’s Group’s new nightclub), and his hands are full with hotel projects in various stages of development around the globe, including Dubai. “The company and I have a lot to thank Las Vegas for,” Moffitt says. “[We are] taking what we learned here and not only capitalizing on it—I genuinely believe Las Vegas is the center of all food, beverage and hospitality—but exporting our knowledge and brands throughout the U.S. and overseas.”
JOINING THE CLUB Moffitt began his career in
England in the 1990s, turning distressed food and beverage establishments into moneymaking assets. But it was his involvement in superclub and events brand Godskitchen and, later, the Global Gathering Festival—both heavily influenced by electronic dance music—that led Moffitt to the masses.
SEND ME AN ANGEL In 2005, Moffitt formed Angel
Management Group, whose venues introduced the city to EDM superstars such as Tiësto. Nearly a decade later, AMG was acquired by Hakkasan Group, which soon announced plans to develop nongaming hotels in a partnership with MGM Resorts International. At the helm of it all? Moffitt. “To me hospitality [is defined as] a fantastic arrival experience, room experience, restaurant experience and beverage program,” he says. “Now with all the brands that we are associated with, we can develop a hotel product and we can put in a Hakkasan Restaurant or a Searsucker, and when a guest checks in, they not only drop their bags but they want to make a reservation at the restaurant in the hotel. That leads to myriad offerings from bars to lounges to nightclubs.”
Tina Kunzer-Murphy
UNLV athletic director
ACHIEVEMENTS In July 2013, not
long after ending her dozen-year run as the executive director of the Las Vegas Bowl, Kunzer-Murphy returned to her beloved alma mater as interim athletic director, following the surprising departure of Jim Livengood. By December, the interim tag was dropped, making her the first female AD in UNLV history. Her 13 months on the job have been highlighted by two significant—and somewhat controversial—decisions: extending the contract of men’s basketball coach Dave Rice when South Florida was trying to lure him away last March, and replacing football coach Bobby Hauck with former Bishop Gorman High School head coach Tony Sanchez. How Rice and Sanchez perform in the coming
years will go a long way toward determining their boss’ legacy. TACKLING THE BIG PROBLEM
When it comes to college sports, football is king—today more than ever. But UNLV’s gridiron program has been a bottom dweller for decades, with limited funding, marginal talent and a lack of fan support conspiring to create a losing (and apathetic) culture. But Kunzer-Murphy insists there is potential to turn the Rebels into not just a winner, but a revenuegenerator. “The money associated with football is amazing,” she says. “The Mountain West [Conference] does a fine job with its TV deals, but for us, when you walk onto our campus as a studentathlete being recruited, you want to see that the UNLV community is making a full commitment to the football program.” SUPPORTING THE TEAM That football
commitment could come in the form of a shiny new on-campus practice facility, which has been rumored to be in
the works since Sanchez’s hire. (Think something akin to the basketball team’s Mendenhall Center, only bigger and pricier.) In order to make those football upgrades a reality, it will be up to Kunzer-Murphy to pound the pavement and recruit donors—and it probably starts with securing that often-reported multimillion-dollar check from Station Casinos and UFC chief Lorenzo Fertitta. BLEEDING RED Kunzer-Murphy’s loyalties to the Rebels are strong—she was once a student-athlete, then a tennis coach, then served in an athletic administration role during the glory years of Jerry Tarkanian. Thus she’s beyond determined to get the athletic department back on track. “Sometimes I feel like this past year has been like 10 in dog years,” she says. “But I realize how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to serve this institution. I realize how important it is to a lot of people in this community. I love UNLV, and I want to help UNLV athletics thrive.” – Mike Grimala
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T H E FAIT H F UL R EB EL
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deal pending to add the 22 venues owned and operated by The Light Group to its portfolio (as of publication, the deal is not yet finalized). Speaking to the bigger picture, Moffitt says he believes the relocation of Hakkasan Group’s worldwide headquarters to Las Vegas and their aggressive expansion will have positive effects on the city. “We are going to open Omnia in a matter of weeks, and that has created hundreds of jobs,” he says. “We have a lot of fantastic plans in Las Vegas that are globally renowned. We believe now we are uniquely poised, alongside our partner MGM Resorts, to exploit our sizzle factor.” – Melinda Sheckells
January 22–28, 2015
SHAMIR BY ANTHONY MAIR; KUNZER-MURPHY BY JON ESTRADA; MOFFIT T BY ANDREW JAMES
COMING INTO THE LIGHT Hakkasan Group has a
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INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2015
THE SPIRITED TEAC HE R
Francesco Lafranconi
Founder of the Academy of Spirits & Fine Service at Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada ACHIEVEMENTS Yes, his proper
title is a mouthful. But “Executive Director of Mixology & Spirits Education” doesn’t communicate the impact Lafranconi has had on the local beverage scene since he left Venice, Italy, in early 2000. He did so at the invitation of Southern Wine & Spirits boss Larry Ruvo, who wanted Lafranconi to develop an educational program for Las Vegas bartenders and Southern’s sales force. The Academy of Spirits & Fine Service was established in September 2000; since then, more than 1,200 students have attended Lafranconi’s 12-week course, which covers tasting skills, mixology techniques, and the history and manufacture of spirits, from field to bottle to glass. NEXT UP In honor of the 15th year of the Academy, Lafranconi will welcome students in May to a new state-of-the-art training facility at Southern’s headquarters on South Jones Boulevard. Lafranconi has revamped the program (adding more cider, beer, sake and fortified wine), and created the Academy’s first official textbook. The refurbished lab will also host dedicated sake, beer and wine courses, plus an invite-only advanced spirits class for graduates. CLASS IS IN SESSION Before you
conclude that the Academy is just some 12-week-long happy hour, take note of Lafranconi’s personal motto: “We’re not drinking, we’re learning.” Lest anyone forgets, it’s also in his email signature.
THE IMPACT Former students still
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HE’LL HAVE ANOTHER Lafranconi’s love of Campari, amari and Italian vermouth can be traced to his Italian heritage. “I am fascinated by their formulas, centuries-old recipes handed down through generations,” he says. But, surprisingly, Scotch was his career catalyst. “Like Cognac, you are able to sip 20-, 30-, 50-year-old distillate that started from a grape or a grain.” Just don’t ask how many bottles are in his personal collection, which numbers in the hundreds. “But I can’t ‘collect’ them—I always open them!” – Xania Woodman
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
January 22–28, 2015
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talk about the positive effect Lafranconi’s program has had on their careers. “It’s all about confidence,” says Raul Faria, Las Vegas’ Absolut brand ambassador who took the class in fall 2013. “Confidence behind the stick and—when you look around and see 40-plus peers all coming together to learn their trade—confidence in the Las Vegas cocktail scene.”
T HE IN N OVAT IV E HEAV YWEIGHT
Dominic Marrocco
Serial entrepreneur, philanthropist and honorary fellow at UNLV’s College of Engineering ACHIEVEMENTS If you’re a techie
and have attended an event at Mike Tyson’s former mansion on Tomiyasu Lane, then you know Marrocco. He hosts fundraisers, as well as startup and educational events at the retired boxer’s onetime residence, which he bought a decade ago. THE CREATIVE THINK TANK Re-
cently, Marrocco has been transforming Tyson’s gaudy mansion—a lion-head fountain greets guests as they walk through the doors—into a breeding ground for ambitious young business leaders. His new foundation, called Entrepreneuria, will take in eight 18- to 30-year-olds from anywhere in the world who will live in the mansion and work in groups to create companies that Marrocco anticipates will change the world. The participants need not be academic students; they just have to be “entrepreneurs at heart.” The other requirements: Marrocco has to be convinced each startup idea will become a billion-dollar company within five years, and solve some kind of socio-economic problem. BUILDING AN EMPIRE Now a venture capitalist, Marrocco began his entrepreneurial career when he dropped out of school at 15 to sell used electronics. Now 40, the soft-spoken Brit has roots in Leeds, U.K., and a lecturing position at the Peking University in Beijing. He says he circumnavigates the globe once every three weeks.
VegasSeven.com
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BALANCE OF POWER Entrepreneuria will focus on teaching young innovators to be socially conscious as well as business savvy. In addition to fleshing out startup ideas, participants will have to find a local charity and begin their philanthropic careers. “As an entrepreneur, you have to balance greed, passion [and] desire against what your social obligation is, because the more successful you become the more power you have. What determines you as a person is how you use that power.” – NE
January 22–28, 2015
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
WELCOME TO THE OFFICE More than $10 million has been spent supporting the mission of Entrepreneuria, including mansion renovations such as installing a replica of the Denny’s dining area where he first thought of the idea for the program. “All this will be happening in a place with $75,000 door handles,” he chuckles. “It’s bizarre.” He’s in discussions with production companies about making a reality TV series, though he declined to share details.
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Chris Baldizan
Senior vice president of entertainment for MGM Resorts International ACHIEVEMENTS As a full-time
event manager for the brand-new MGM Grand Garden Arena in 1993, Baldizan helped host 150 championship boxing matches and more than 60 concerts in the first year. After realizing a short-lived dream of training race horses in Kentucky, he returned to Vegas to join the Star of the Desert Arena at Primm Valley Resorts and, later, Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Now back at MGM since 1999, Baldizan is focused on bringing a new wave of entertainment to the Strip. In 2014, that meant the completion of the MGM Resorts Village across from Luxor, which last year hosted the iHeartRadio Music Festival, among other events. This year, it’s bringing Rock in Rio to North America for the first time. PERFECT TIMING Organizers for Rock in Rio struck a six-year deal with MGM for the North American incarnation (it will also return to Vegas in 2017 and ’19). But it almost didn’t happen. The festival would require even more space than the new 25,000-capacity MGM Resorts Village. “That was the only property that we had,” Baldizan says. As luck would have it, MGM Resorts’ 48-acre lot that has long sat vacant at the corner of Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard became available when another deal fell through. The land is now
THE KICK-STA RT E R
Scott Kreeger
SLS President and COO
January 22–28, 2015
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ACHIEVEMENTS Kreeger be-
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gan his casino-industry career in 1991 with what would become known as MGM/Mirage, eventually rising to the position of director of slot operations and marketing. After a decade, he moved on to work on the corporate side of things at Station Casinos, remaining with the company until mid-2013, when he was hired as the COO of Revel hotel-casino in Atlantic City. In October, SLS executives tapped Kreeger to return home and breathe life into the former Sahara. “I had a career coach for a year,” Kreeger says. “He always said what got you here isn’t necessarily what keeps you here or allows you to grow. You have
to move from being skillful at the task at hand to being strategic, to get the bigger picture. Then you’ll be able to really direct a team.” LEARNING THE ROPES Kreeger worked for Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta for nearly 12 years, and credits them with having “such a tremendous insight for how to speak to customers and stay relevant. They taught me that it all starts with the customer.” EMBRACING COMPETITION
One of the reasons SLS has struggled to gain traction with both locals and tourists is its isolated location on Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue. But Kreeger is optimistic that the May debut of Rock in Rio across the boulevard will provide a big boost to his property. Similarly, nearby Resorts World—as well as the James PackerAndrew Pascal project on the
former Frontier site (for which Kreeger’s predecessor, Rob Oseland, left SLS)—should re-energize the north end of the Strip in the years to come. “When you’re paving the way for a dynamic future,” Kreeger says, “you’re always faced with firstmover challenges.” WHAT LIES AHEAD Kreeger wants to build on the success of the resort’s popular restaurants and plans to court Rock in Rio visitors; he believes the property’s proximity to the monorail will supercharge it once festivalgoers start heading to the north Strip in May. He’s also pulling from his experience with the Fertittas: “We really have something to offer locals; we’re changing our loyalty program to be more in line with locals, and looking at restaurants and price points that will appeal to them. We’re looking to have more fun.” – DGS
being turned into the MGM Resorts Festival Grounds, which will accommodate up to 85,000. “If it weren’t for that, I don’t know that Rock in Rio would be coming [to North America], to be honest,” Baldizan says. A MARBLE TO A MOUNTAIN
While Rock in Rio may have been the impetus for the MGM Resorts Festival Grounds, Baldizan has other hopes for the space. “We didn’t build that site just for one event,” he says. “Hopefully we’ll have things out there like soccer matches and motorsport events that can fit on that site.” THE STAR ARC Because of MGM
Resorts’ many entertainment venues, the company has the ability to build a relationship with artists as their popularity grows. Says Baldizan: “We put them at the House of Blues when they sell 500 tickets. Then we put them at the Beach at Mandalay Bay when they’re selling 3,000 or 4,000 tickets, then Mandalay Events Center when they’re selling 8,000, then the Grand Garden. Then we put them at the new [MGM/AEG arena] we’re building for 20,000. Then we put them at the festival site for 40,000.” IF HE HAD IT HIS WAY So who would play Baldizan’s dream festival? “I’m a huge U2 fan. I love Prince. I love George Strait. That’s a good three-day festival headliner lineup. A little bit of diversity, too.” Alas, he’s quick to admit that it’s not about him. “You don’t book shows based on what you like,” he says. “It’s great if I like them, but I’m booking shows for people who are coming to our properties.” – Zoneil Maharaj
KREEGER AND BALDIZAN BY ANTHONY MAIR; VAN PUTTEN BY JON ESTRADA
K ING OF T H E ENT ER TAINM ENT JUNGL E
INTRIGUING PEOPLE 2015
T HE MOD EL EN T REP REN EUR
Chekesha Van Putten
Founder of Tradeshow Casting.com, an online, nationwide job platform for the trade show and event industry ACHIEVEMENTS Van Putten
got an early start in the entertainment industry, dancing and acting professionally beginning at age 15. She formerly danced and choreographed for the Los Angeles Laker Girls, and her film credits include the first two Austin Powers movies, Last Vegas and American Beauty, for which she won a SAG Award. She moved from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in 2010, “knowing that I wanted to start something entrepreneurial.” THE BIG IDEA After working for
a year as a spokesmodel, Van Putten developed the concept for TradeshowCasting.com, which helps match talent—dancers, actors, models, athletes, etc.—with jobs in the trade show industry. The site launched January 16. “There was no streamlined way to go about getting work,” she says. “I’m really hoping to create a vehicle for performers to promote themselves and find work without having to completely rely on an agent.” THE NUTS AND BOLTS
for me, is helping people,” Van Putten says. “Whether it be somebody becoming a spokesmodel or a person who can pay their next bill doing something they love to do. If [my business] allows someone the freedom to pursue their dreams, then I feel like I’ve made a difference.” – Camille Cannon
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THE END GAME “Success,
January 22–28, 2015
HER DAY JOB Van Putten, who earned a communications degree from Howard University, teaches acting for television and film at the International Academy of Television and Film (6363 S. Pecos Rd.) You can also catch her in a recent commercial campaign for the State of Nevada.
VegasSeven.com
Talent will be able to use the site to build multimedia profiles and connect with potential employers. At the same time, agencies can find new clients to sign, while corporations will be able to browse the site and hire talent directly. Van Putten puts it this way: “TradeshowCasting.com will be to the trade show and event industry what Match.com is to romance.”
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NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark, photos from the week’s hottest parties and DJ Stellar shares how his career blasted off
The many and varied interests of Dutch duo W&W By Kat Boehrer
| January 22–28, 2015
DJs—They’re Just Like Us!
WILLEM VAN HANEGEM AND WARDT VAN DER HARST MAKE UP
the Dutch duo W&W. Initially known in the industry for their trance tracks, the producers’ sound has evolved to encompass other realms within the EDM world. Van Hanegem and van der Harst plan to add some musical twists to future productions that the trance family of followers probably wouldn’t expect. Van der Harst took a few minutes to share some insight into W&W, who will headline Hakkasan on January 29.
VegasSeven.com
Van Hanegem and van der Harst.
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What is your favorite element of a nightclub—beside the music, of course?
The drinks! [Laughs.] For us, the sound is most important. At Hakkasan, what we really like is the whole production: They have the big LED screen above the DJ booth, but also the confetti is really cool and the CO2. It’s a combination of everything. Have you ever gotten to just hang out and enjoy the show there?
January 22–28, 2015
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Not until the week before New Year’s Eve. We had a few days off in North America and we felt like going to Vegas. Our friend Steve Aoki was playing. We took a little walk around the club to see what it’s like from the crowd.
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How do you juggle your record label duties with producing music, touring and everything else?
Administration for the label, for instance—doing the deals and stuff—we don’t do that. We have our label, Armada, doing that for us. But the rest is just a matter of very good time management. And we really focus. So if we’re doing a radio show, we’re doing a radio show and that’s all we do. And when we produce, we shut our phones off. Even if our management or our agent is calling, we don’t pick up.
“IF WE’RE DOING A RADIO SHOW, WE’RE DOING A RADIO SHOW AND THAT’S ALL WE DO ... WHEN WE PRODUCE, WE SHUT OUR PHONES OFF.” You’ve played with a couple of different genres within EDM during your career. What types of music can we expect you to produce in the future?
We started with a bit more trance, and then we went into more house infuences. Right now, we’re producing lots of different things: We have a few cool melodic tracks, vocal tracks and more trance-y stuff. Also, really hard EDM, even with trap—I wouldn’t say just trap, but trap infuences and sounds from trap. That’s certainly a departure! Why the new sounds?
Even when we did trance, we always implemented different styles, otherwise we just get bored using the same formula over and over again. We lose the excitement. The last thing we want
is to lose the love for making music. We like to create, and the only way to keep it interesting is to experiment with lots of different things. You guys are huge in the festival circuit. What are some of your favorites?
That’s a very hard question. Obviously Ultra in Miami, Tomorrowland in Belgium and EDC in Las Vegas—those are just a few. What makes those festivals so great?
The good thing about Ultra and EDC is that they’re so big, because of the [online] broadcast. Besides the amazing crowd that you play for, there’s also an online community watching and listening. You feel like the whole world is at that particular place right then.
When you check your socials—your mentions on Twitter and Facebook— you get so much [interaction]. When we fnished our set at Ultra last year, I think we had like 3,000 new mentions on Twitter. It was insane. I saw that you mentioned your upcoming vocal track releases on social media. Can you say anything about those, yet?
We don’t want to reveal anything until it is a fnished song. We have a few that we are very excited about, because in the last few years we didn’t really do vocal tracks, but it’s exciting to work with vocals again. During Ultra in Miami, we are gonna premiere a lot of new stuff. I also noticed that you guys really like Breaking Bad. What shows are you into right now?
We’re waiting for the new [season of] Game of Thrones—probably like everybody else. I don’t know about Willem, but I watch Suits. That show is pretty cool. It’s about lawyers in New York. The Walking Dead is pretty cool. I like the whole approach on the zombie apocalypse, how humans would actually react rather than just ‘humans versus zombies.’ It’s not a good thing to watch just before dinner.
PHOTO BY BOBBY JAMEIDAR
NIGHTLIFE
W&W at Hakkasan.
avn weekend
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DJ LOCZI
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DJ AERO
Stormy Daniels wicked pictures contract star doors at
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01 24 15
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By
NIGHTLIFE
Camille Cannon
Nick Cannon.
Nights.com.) From ladies with no clothes to a party with no cover—check out Soul Shakedown at Velveteen Rabbit. DJs Selecta’ Scream, Cavallero and Jr. Ska Boss will supply the freshest in funk, soul and reggae. (1218 S. Main St., 9 p.m., Facebook.com.com/SoulShakedownPartyLV.) German-born DJ Miss Nine infuses her set with dance and house music favor at XS. (In Encore, 10:30 p.m., XSLasVegas.com.)
Jesse Jane.
TUE 27 SUN 25 Not to be outdone by ex-wife Mariah Carey’s new Caesars Palace residency, Nick Cannon is booking gigs all over the place. Last time it was 1 Oak, now it’s Drai’s. Just don’t expect him to drop any of Carey’s 18 biggest hits, as in Mariah Carey #1s. You have to wait until May for that set list. (In the Cromwell, 10:30 p.m., DraisNightClub.com.)
MON 26 “Crunkstep” producer Crizzly joins master beat-maker Kennedy Jones at Marquee. Jones has just started his #KJPAYDAY campaign wherein he picks one lucky fan a month and pays for a bill of their choice. He might pluck from social media, Soundcloud or a club crowd, so bring that power bill with you tonight. (In Marquee, 10 p.m., MarqueeLasVegas.com.)
January 22–28, 2015
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THU 22
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Now that Macklemore has rewritten the lyrics to “Thrift Shop,” and performed it on Sesame Street, the next logical step is a new nightclub residency, right? Either way, we’re not complaining. Seattle’s rap centerpiece will throw down a live performance with producing partner Ryan Lewis at Light. (In Mandalay Bay, 10:30 p.m., TheLightVegas.com.) Another duo for your radar: Rev Run and Ruckus. The DJ and emcee odd couple continues their collaboration behind the decks at Hak-
kasan. (In MGM Grand, 10:30 p.m., MGMGrand.com.)
(In Hard Rock Hotel, 10:30 p.m., HardRockHotel.com.)
FRI 23
SAT 24
If you said to yourself, “This weekend is the one time I’m not going to party with porn stars,” we’ve got bad news for you: Jesse Jane, Kaylani Lei and Samantha Saint are ringing in AVN week at 1 Oak. We mean, yeah, we totally don’t recognize those names either! (In The Mirage, 10:30 p.m., 1OakLasVegas. com.) In a not-unrelated note, Vanity opens up for Tommy Lee and DJ Aero.
Whether you did or didn’t get to witness who won “Clever Title of the Year,” “Best Educational Release” or “Best Romance Movie” at the 2015 AVN Awards this evening—yes, they’re real categories—you can still join adult actresses Teagan Presley, Tori Black and Bonnie Rotten at Adam & Eve’s after-party at Chateau. DJs Shadowred and Wellman team up on the turntables. (In Paris, 10:30 p.m., Chateau-
Macklemore.
Coinciding with Nickel F---n Beer Night, local trap/rap hybrid Splitbreed hosts a launch party for their record label, Skyfall music, at Beauty Bar. (517 Fremont St., 9 p.m., TheBeautyBarLasVegas.com.) Also Downtown, the Human Experience presents The Rabbit Hole, “eclectic beats accompanied by stimulating visuals,” at Scullery. Don’t be discouraged by the complicated names of the performers—Mute, Lwkylky, Mayneframe and Weirddough—these artists come correct with the tunes. (150 Las Vegas Blvd. North, 10 p.m., Facebook.com/HumanExperienceLasVegas.)
WED 28 In September 2013, TJR buried the track “Buckle Up” in his Diplo & Friends radio mix. Just this month, he released it in full on Soundcloud. But will he bless us with it at Surrender? There’s only one way to fnd out … (In Encore, 10:30 p.m., SurrenderNightclub.com.)
NIGHTLIFE
Meet Stellar in Outer Space DJ/producer Dave Garcia networked his way around the world, but regards Las Vegas as his launch pad By Kat Boehrer
STELLAR—KNOWN OFFSTAGE AS
Dave Garcia—is something of a hometown success story. The Light resident has provided support for such turntable luminaries as Alesso, Krewella, and A-Trak, and also headlines his own nights at the visually stunning nightclub. But Stellar doesn’t just orbit Las Vegas. This local DJ has also had fve international tours, and has played Ultra Korea and Space Ibiza with Carl Cox. He attributes much of his success to help from Las Vegas industry heavyweights Josh Donaldson, Zee Zandi, Amy Thompson and Sol Shafer, who all played roles in the growth of Stellar’s career. Stellar recently recounted his takeoff for us. Catch him headlining Light January 28 and celebrating his label’s 100th release February 25.
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I was throwing raves in L.A. and Southern California, and when I got out here it was the days of Empire Ballroom and Utopia. I was just kind of in a limbo position in L.A.; I had nothing really holding me there. A buddy of mine was engaged and had a house out here. He called me up—I remember sitting at a bar in Venice Beach just chilling, doing nothing like in the middle of a Tuesday. And he was like, “Hey, man, I just kicked my fancé out. I have a threebedroom house. Wanna move to Vegas?” A week later, I moved. But beyond that, I was coming out here for Utopia parties and stuff like that about once or twice a month, so it made sense. How has living in Las Vegas impacted your career?
It keeps all the artists in your backyard. You’re constantly being able to shake hands with people within the industry. When I decided to become a DJ myself, having all of those relationships that I built really helped me out. Being able to have all of the top people in the industry at your disposal is a great thing.
When you made that decision to become a DJ, how did you get your start?
I was the starving musician/promoter for N9NE Group and Angel Management Group here and there, and Sol Shafer [former Palms talent buyer, now Marquee music director and an Insomniac talent buyer] gave me a shot. That was in the Perfecto days at Rain; [I] played closing sets there. Then I went to Artisan. I had a weekly residency playing after-hours. How did you end up at Light?
I bugged Josh Donaldson [then Light Group’s VP of strategic relationships] for probably three or four years, because I respected him. One day we fnally exchanged info; I would send him stuff all the time. I got a random phone call one day, and he was like, “Hey, here’s your shot. You have an audition. We’re gonna start a house night at Haze. The owners are gonna be there at this time and this date. Don’t fuck up.” I [became] a resident there for two years, and became part of the Light Group
family. And then when Light opened, they brought me over there. It was defnitely a pivotal point in my career that I’m super grateful for. Do you see yourself as more of a DJ or producer?
I’m defnitely a DJ before a producer. I love doing both, but I love performing. And then when it all comes together, there’s no better feeling. Holding a crowd and watching a reaction to a track that you produced is an amazing thing. You’re a partner in Lucky Foo’s restaurant, which opened late last year. How did you get into that?
What’s cool about that is that it ties in with the music and the relationships in Vegas as well. Mike Fuller who was at N9NE Group back in the day, we became good friends. He had this restaurant venture and asked me to come aboard. What are your favorite dishes there?
Chicken fried rice and ahi poke salad.
Did you have any influence on the menu?
I defnitely got to be really close with the chef, and I’ve messed around in the kitchen with him. There’s actually an appetizer called the Stellar Chips on the menu! They’re basically wonton chips with ginger salt and a little [house-made] sauce. I hear Lucky Foo’s has entertained some pretty exciting guests there.
Tiësto, Martin Garrix, Aoki, Borgeous, Carmen Electra, Pauly D … You’ve had quite a ride—from rave promoter to DJ and producer to restaurant owner. What are your thoughts on Las Vegas after all of these years and careers?
I don’t think people talk as [positively] as they should about how great it is to be involved in this industry. There’s not a day where I’m bummed that I’m in Vegas, because there are always people around you that are moving forward. When you look at it like that, it’s like mad inspiration.
PHOTO BY MIKEY MCNULTY
January 22–28, 2015
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What brought you to Las Vegas nine years ago?
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
MARQUEE
The Cosmopolitan [ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONvegas.com
PHOTOS BY BOBBY JAMEIDAR AND TONY TRAN
January 22–28, 2015
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Jan. 23 Tritonal spin Jan. 24 Carnage spins Jan. 26 Crizzly and Kennedy Jones spin
| Goorin Bros. hats
Best tacos at Chayo The hub of social activity and unexpected experiences lives at the heart of the Strip. Find the Vegas you’ve been looking for at TheLINQ.com. Must be 21 or older to gamble. Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700. ©2014, Caesars License Company, LLC.
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
ARTISAN
1501 W. Sahara Ave. [ UPCOMING ]
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PHOTOS BY TEDDY FUJIMOTO
January 22–28, 2015
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Jan. 30 Sound with Justin Hoffman, Frank Richards and Eddie McDonald Jan. 31 Afterhours with Joey Mazzola and M!ke Attack Feb. 1 Social Sundays with Justin Key and Double J
DINING
“It has to be a place where chefs and food and beverage people feel comfortable coming on their days off.” {PAGE 54}
Restaurant reviews, news and the corner of the city that will feed you Japanese, British and Filipino cuisine
Urban Turban’s Bombay lamb masala.
Bombay, by Way of Auckland Urban Turban nicely spices up the Valley’s Indian oferings By Al Mancini
VegasSeven.com
| January 22–28, 2015
PHOTO BY JON ESTRADA
LAS VEGAS HAS NEVER BEEN KNOWN FOR
its Indian food, as my colleague Max Jacobson has always been fond of pointing out. Whenever a fan asks him where they should go for decent Indian, he dryly informs them that, barring a trip to India, their best bet is to “go to London.” I’ll argue that New York also has great Indian, as do a few other American cities. But one place that never comes up in these discussions is Auckland, New Zealand. Nonetheless, Las Vegas’ newest Indian restaurant, Urban Turban, has been imported from that South Pacifc metropolis. And it’s a solid addition to the local restaurant scene. Urban Turban is a casual, modern space on Paradise Road. Customers enter through the spacious lounge, where they’re greeted by sports on the TVs and a motorized rickshaw nicknamed Turbie that was imported from India to serve as a mascot and photo op. The main dining room is bright and colorful with a view of the open kitchen. Running that kitchen is the Indian-born Vijay Deokar. The chef tells me he’s never been to the Auckland original, and his goal is neither to perfectly duplicate its dishes nor to offer things exactly as they’d taste in his homeland. Instead, he wants to fne-tune all the food for the Las Vegas palate. The menu’s frst page is dominated by appetizers and shared plates. The appetizer selection is extensive, with nine chicken dishes, four lamb, fve seafood and nine vegetarian. Shared plates include tandoori chicken, as well as seafood, vegetable and Bombay tapas platters. The seven traditional entrées include
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Turbie, the motorized rickshaw, and Bombay Samosa chaat.
[ A SMALL BITE ]
January 22–28, 2015
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CHEF BRIAN HOWARD AND WINEMAKER COREY NYMAN FORM A POWER PARTNERSHIP
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Al’s
ridiculously oversized samosas, which were all Chicken tikka ($9), filling and lamb sliders ($10), no crust. paneer tikka ($8), Moreover, Bombay lamb masala ($19). they’re a bit too heavy on the cumin Otherwise, the staff is for my taste. knowledgeable about the (My wife, menu, and extremely however, loves cumin and had no friendly and attentive, the room itself problem with that.) And despite having much more of a casual, party the staff’s ravings about skewers atmosphere than most Indian spots in of curry leaf shrimp, I found them town. I can’t wait to bring Max to see boring and bland. what he thinks.
It’s one of the best worst-kept secrets in Las Vegas: Former Comme Ça executive chef Brian Howard and the Nyman Group hospitality consultant/Labor Wines proprietor Corey Nyman are going into business together. There was a gleam in their eyes a year ago, when they each said in turn, “Good things are coming!” and the way each, separately, spoke of his unnamed business partner that led to the conclusion that the two were actually speaking about each other. Congenially confronted, they spilled the beans. And they’ve been sitting on those beans as best they can ever since while others have speculated. Well, beans to that—they’re ready to talk. Grazing Pig Food Group is the name, and “honest American cookery and libations” is the game. “Las Vegas
Menu Picks
has given us so much, and we believe in the city, which is why we have chosen to launch our first two [Las Vegas] concepts in 2015,” Nyman told Vegas Seven exclusively. The two started talking in 2013 about both wanting to do something on their own. “We noticed the similarity between the concepts we each wanted to do, started drawing on napkins,” Howard says. “And then we said, ‘Why are we still talking about this?’” Among those similarities was the desire to provide truly welcoming service. Both will admit the thought crossed their minds to establish themselves elsewhere, but “most importantly, Las Vegas is home for us,” Howard says. “With what we’ve gotten from the city, we want to give back to the city and start our portfolio here.” And the timing couldn’t be better, as Las Vegas is increasingly becoming a legitimate culinary powerhouse, at least in some part thanks to Nyman and Howard themselves. “Brian is truly on the cusp of something,” Nyman says. “As he has evolved, he needed a chance to have his culinary voice heard. He’s pushing boundaries in a number of ways.” All that talk turned to action as the concepts came
URBAN TURBAN
3900 Paradise Rd., 702-826-3216. Open for lunch and dinner 11 a.m.–late. Dinner for two, $30–$60.
together—literally, as both will be housed under one roof. Harvest & Larder will be a casual, affordable, seasonal-ingredient-driven neighborhood restaurant serving dinner and late night to start. Grazing Pig Charcuterie will be a dine-in or carryout butchery that “very much embraces Brian’s talents,” Nyman says, adding that it will also be warm and fun. “The music is as important to us as is the décor as is the food.” Both venues will also offer Nyman’s Labor Wines, which include pinot noir, pinot blanc and riesling made in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The pair is currently considering spaces and confirms that they have an off-Strip location in mind. “It’s by locals, for locals,” Nyman says. “It has to be a place where chefs and food and beverage people feel comfortable coming on their days off—anyone who enjoys good, quality ingredients and food done well.” A third concept is also tentatively planned for 2016. A bar perhaps? Time will tell what makes up their Las Vegas portfolio. “We’re excited,” Nyman says. “This city is ready for locals to really give back to ourselves.” – Xania Woodman
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.
PHOTOS BY JON ESTRADA
DINING
the British-infuenced classic chicken tikka masala, Indian-spiced snapper and pesto chili salmon. The fip side of the menu includes various soups and salads, fve rice and noodle dishes and a small kids’ menu. The second page is also where you’ll fnd the seven “bottomless” curries. I’ve tried three of these so far, with the Bombay lamb masala, served in a red curry, packing the most favor and spice. But the milder Bombay butter chicken (made with chilies, honey, cashews and cream) and Western India coastal curry (faky white fsh in coconut curry) were also delicious. My problem with the curries has nothing to do with their favor. It’s just that all-you-can-eat curries that can’t be shared don’t ft in well in a restaurant where the overwhelming majority of the menu is geared toward sharing. (Bottomless curries range from $10-$19.) To solve this problem, Urban Turban offers singleserve curries for $12. But they’re not advertised on the menu, so you need to know to ask for them. From the appetizer section, don’t miss the chicken tikka: mildly spiced chunks of tender juicy chicken. Paneer tikka are cubes of marinated cottage cheese grilled just enough to give them a slight char favor. The naan—available with cheese, garlic or butter—is done to perfection: light and airy with just a little char to make them crispy. But my favorite appetizer so far has been the simple lamb sliders. Larger than a typical slider, they’re cooked so as to showcase the mild gamy favor of lamb at its best. I’ve only been disappointed by two dishes so far. The first was the
DINING
NEIGHBORHOOD EPICUREAN
Flamingo Village Plaza; Off the Hook's fish 'n' chips; and KoMex's bulgogi nachos.
OFF THE HOOK FISH ’N’ CHIPS
BABYSTACKS
Las Vegas isn’t exactly teeming with chippies (as the Brits refer to fish-and-chip restaurants), so the opening of Off the Hook a few weeks ago immediately caught my attention. In addition to traditional battered, fried cod with fries, they also offer fried calamari, scallops, shrimp and soft-shell crab—either in baskets or sandwiches. And proving they’re willing to deep fry just about anything, the dessert menu features fried cheesecake, Oreos, Snickers, Baby Ruths and Twinkies. 4155 S. Buffalo Dr., Suite 105, 702-222-3474.
With four locations in the Valley, this breakfast and lunch spot has a massive following. So expect to wait 30 minutes or more for a table during prime weekend hours. But it’s worth it for the gourmet breakfast offerings. Pancakes (18 varieties, plus daily specials) include such decadent options as rocky road, red velvet, banana cream pie, Cinnabun, carrot cake and lemon ricotta crepes. French toast, waffles and eggs are also available. And the menu is dotted with Filipino and Hawaiian dishes, including adobo fried rice, a Spam scramble and various kalua pork dishes. 4135 S. Buffalo Dr., Suite 101, 702-207-6432, BabystacksCafe.com.
HIKARI JAPANESE STEAKHOUSE While Hikari calls itself a steakhouse, and puts its teppanyaki tables front and center, the real reason to visit is the all-you-can-eat sushi bar. The overall quality of the fish is well above average. And while the chefs demonstrate little-to-no knife skills in their rush to feed the masses, it’s the only place I know of that includes sashimi in a deal like this (so you’re not forced to fill up on rice). Priced under $30 (exact prices vary by the hours), it’s an amazing offer, and worth overlooking some roughly cut fish. 4175 S. Buffalo Dr., 702-889-6660.
CHEF ZEN This tiny family-run spot is primarily a Filipino bakery. Alongside doughnuts and other familiar offerings, you’ll find sweets such as cream cheese croissant rolls and a flaky shortbread candy known as polvorons (available in mango, taro, green tea and other flavors). But Chef Zen also specializes in empanadas and boba drinks. Those empanadas are either traditional or adobo—but the latter are made in limited numbers, and are so popular that they often sell out from pre-orders a day in advance. 4135 S. Buffalo Dr., Suite 102, 702-889-0433.
KOMEX FUSION
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CAFÉ CHLOE For the past 15 years, this locals favorite has been serving top-notch Italian-American food the way your grandmother used to (assuming you’re Italian). Expect all the classics: rigatoni puttanesca, linguine with clam sauce and fettuccine Alfredo. The portions are huge, with most dishes large enough to share. But beware: The restaurant does charge a $10 fee to split an order. You’re better off ordering two and taking home the leftovers. Trust me: They won’t go to waste. 4155 S. Buffalo Dr., Suite 114, 702248-7048.
One West-side strip mall is a covert international culinary crossroads By Al Mancini FLAMINGO VILLAGE PLAZA, a strip mall behind a Walgreens on the southwest corner of Flamingo Road and Buffalo Drive, doesn’t look like much as you drive by. But if you slow down for a good look, this little enclave offers an eclectic collection of restaurants, from Japanese sushi, Filipino baked goods and Korean-Mexican fusion to British fsh and chips, Italian-American favorites and classic American breakfast. If you’re in the neighborhood and hungry, you should defnitely fnd something to suit your taste. Here’s a rundown of what is offered.
PHOTOS BY JON ESTRADA
January 22–28, 2015
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VegasSeven.com
The Buffalo Trail
This is the second location of this innovative little spot that boldly mixes Korean and Mexican influences. Marinated grilled meats, such as bulgogi (beef), dak-bulgogi (chicken) and daeji bulgogi (pork), as well as Korean vegetables and tofu, are offered in tacos, burritos, chimichangas, enchiladas and other traditional Mexican preparations. I suppose it’s possible that you’ll find a more interesting fusion restaurant in Las Vegas, but you aren’t going to find many where you can enjoy a meal for under $10. 4155 S. Buffalo Dr., Suites 103 and 104, 702778-5566, KomexExpress.com.
A&E
“In a YouTube era when past performances are instantly retrievable, we don’t need higher-tech reruns. We need low-tech humanity.” SHOWSTOPPER {PAGE 65}
Movies, music, stage, books and black gold It takes real love to kiss a man whose whiskers poke and scratch / whose morning breath smells just like eggs, last year’s that didn’t hatch / It takes real love to kiss a man in cattle-checking clothes / who used his sleeve to wipe the calf and then to wipe his nose / but there is one situation where real love is not enough / You never, never kiss a man whose lip is flled with snuff.
Fourteen-year-old Brigid Reedy lives the life of a cowgirl poet.
The name favors the men, but women add grit and grace to Elko’s National Cowboy Poetry Gathering By Steve Bornfeld
VegasSeven.com
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Land Ladies
Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you … the Ladies. (C’mon, gentlemen, scooch over a bit.) “A few years ago, the cowboy poetry gathering wasn’t as open to women. And the women who were there often were writing poems about men—fathers and uncles and grandfathers we admired,” says poet and prose writer Linda Hasselstrom. “But a couple of the real originators of it started encouraging us to tell our own stories. Now you see a lot more women.” Sorry cow-dudes. We know the title of the Western Folklife Center’s 31st annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, happening January 26-31 in Elko, does tilt toward you rugged prairie gents. Still, at this nearly weeklong creative embrace of the Western lifestyle—celebrated with 55 acts in a roster of poets, musical groups, solo musicians, storytellers and yodelers from more than a dozen states (plus Canada and Australia)—11 of the 31 poets scheduled to recite are women. Whether writing as ranch co-owners, workers, cowboy spouses or daughters of the land, they’ve earned inclusion with evocative expressions of the cowboy aesthetic. Consider this excerpt from Hasselstrom’s “Autochthonous”: … A thunderstorm leaps the hills, gallops toward me, rain riding toward the Badlands one more time. The grass that feeds those cows on the hill twines through my fesh; the water tastes of limestone percolated through my bones. This sun leathered my face; this wind wove the wrinkles at the corners of my eyes. Each day that wind erodes a little more. “My mother married a rancher when I was 9 years old and I immediately became a working part of the ranch,” says Hasselstrom, 71, who resides on a Hermosa, South Dakota, ranch and has published 14 books of poetry and nonfction. “I started carrying scraps of paper and a pencil, and writing down things I saw during the day. The landscape, the animals, suddenly being out on a horse in the middle of fve miles of grassland, with no car, no highway, no electric line, nothing around me. I was 10, my father would say, ‘Go on that pasture and collect those cows.’ I’d be riding by myself and see coyotes and eagles and prairie dogs.” Tracing her writing back to her exposure to ranching, Hasselstrom recalls initially being inspired when her parents gave her collections of the works of Charles Badger Clark, late poet laureate of South Dakota and “kind of a god”
January 22–28, 2015
PHOTO BY JOHN MICHAEL REEDY; LIBERACE ILLUSTRATION BY JON ESTRADA
– “IT TAKES REAL LOVE” BY ELIZABETH EBERT
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to cowboy poets. “The rhythm of that iambic pentameter is right in the rhythm of the way a horse walks, so I could recite him.” And if effective writing is rooted in life experience, Hasselstrom’s got the cred. “I’ve been kicked, bitten, stomped and defecated on—that’s part of the romance,” she says with a hearty laugh. “You picture the cowboy of whatever gender, looking nice on the horse and swinging the rope, but there are always the times when you’re in the chute and getting defecated on. It’s just part of the job.” Taking a beating from ranch animals isn’t the only perspective women bring to the poetry gathering. Consider this excerpt from “The Truth About Cowboy Laundry,” by Yvonne Hollenbeck, who often takes a humorous view on tending to those who do the ranch’s downand-dirty—emphasis on dirty—work: … It might be a prolapse or pulling a calf, whatever the job that was done / most of the remnants ends up on their clothes, the urine, the blood, guts and dung. … So here they come in as you stand there in horror and hope that you don’t have the luck / of having to help ’em climb out of that mess but sometimes a zipper gets stuck / on their flthy old Carhartts, as your mind fashes back to the time that you fell for this guy / your mom tried to warn you of cowboy life, and now you can understand why. “Some women write poetry about how, ‘there ain’t nothing a man can do that that I can’t do better’—well, that’s bunk,” says Hollenbeck, 69, who, with her husband, Glen, co-owns and operates a ranch in Clearfeld, South Dakota, where they raise angus beef cattle and quarter horses. And though she does bail hay and look after livestock, “there’s very few women who can physically keep up with a man doing that outside,” she says. “But we have our role as a ranch partner, ranch wife. That’s where my poetry lies. A
lot of time I’ll be [reciting] poetry and rides; in the moonlight the cabin’s bathed in not only the wife is laughing, but her white—in the cold Montana winter. When husband is too.” the snow fies my spirits rise, a glow in the Raised on her dad’s wheat farm in tie barn tells me he’s all right; and his blue the Nebraska Panhandle, Hollenbeck eyes laughing and bright, warm my soul—in was surrounded by her grandmoththe cold Montana winter. ers who wrote poetry. “I thought in “Sometimes you can be with a person rhyme,” she says, adding that as an but really can’t connect with them, but adult, she used poetry “to vent,” the when you’re singing some really beautiventing morphing into something ful songs or a poem, you can connect more when her not-so-busy husband right with them,” Brigid says. Raised on failed to fx a faulty faucet. ranches in both Colorado and Montana, “I come in after a hot, hard day out she’s immersed in creativity: Her moththere, and the sink is full of water. I go er is a weaver and textile artist, and her looking for him. The boys and him were dad is a songwriter, poet and photograpracticing roping, pher. Enthusiasm so I wrote this poem practically bursts called ‘The Roper’s out of her. 31ST NATIONAL COWBOY Wife’s Lament.’” “This has a real POETRY GATHERING While Hasselmeaning, a real Jan. 26-31, Western Folklife Center, strom and Hollensoul, you know? 501 Railroad St., Elko (approximately beck pour decades It connects to a 430 miles from Las Vegas). of ranch life into real lifestyle. We For directions, ticket prices their work, another have horses and and schedule of events, lady is working on a hay meadow call 775-738-7508 or 888-880-5885; only her second and I go out every email wfc@westernfolklife.org; decade. But at age morning for the or visit WesternFolkLife.org. 14, Brigid Reedy, an feeding and to ebullient, homelook at the sunschooled fddler/ rise. Anything to singer/songwriter/poetry reciter from be outside with my dad, anything I can Montana, already has a 12-year perbe useful with—fencing [the horses] or forming career to her credit. In 2003, handling, or exploring the mountains she debuted at the poetry gathering as behind us—I love it!” a 2-year-old saloon yodeler. Adds her dad: “We live a real creative With her father, John Michael Reedy, life, and we’ve connected it to living on she composes pieces such as “When the land. For Brigid, it’s natural for her the Snow Flies,” including these exto see a sunrise and write about it or cerpted lyrics (see the video at vimeo. do a painting or try to fnd something com/83872619): about herself in classic poetry that was … The smell of old Carhartts in the written 75 years ago. We never had to cold, stiff leather work gloves, cedar wood force anything, she just fell into it.” smoke, the feel of horse-hair that’s been Hopefully, Brigid will remain passun-soaked—by the Montana winter. sionate when she can look back from Gates run smooth and silent with the Elizabeth Ebert’s perspective. Widely frost, ice shatters in the steel stock trough, admired among fellow cowboy poets, silhouetted horses greet me with the dawn— Ebert will turn 90 in February, soon saddled with snow. … When the snow fies after returning from Elko. While his spirits rise, horses wheel to see him as he chronicling the challenges and pride
of cowboy life, she still tickles the Western funny bone, as in “Real Cowboys Do Brush”: Have you wondered how a cowboy out riding on his hoss / far from a dentist’s offce and root canal and foss / eating beans and drinking coffee ’round a campfre every night / can keep his smile so charming and his teeth so pearly white? / gunpowder is the dentifrice of choice I’ve heard them say / and I reckon that’s why cowboys shoot their mouths off every day. “My mother was a teacher and her family was great on poetry,” says Ebert, a widow who was married for 62 years and has lived most of her life in Thunder Hawk, South Dakota. “We always had to memorize poetry when we were kids. You couldn’t carry on a conversation with any of my relatives without someone quoting someone.” And yet … Ebert was a closet poet for most of her life. “I wrote all my life, but nobody knew it until I was 65. Not too many people like poetry so I just did it for myself, I was embarrassed by it,” she says. First stepping before an audience in 1989, she has since captured numerous honors, including the Academy of Western Artists’ Best Female Poet award. Decades of running tractors and chasing cows with her husband, S.J., informs her poetry, but it took her spouse to coax it into public view after attending a gathering in Medora, North Dakota. “My husband said, ‘Why don’t you do that?’ so the next year I got up and said a short poem. Then the next year I was asked to be at a show in Bismarck, a Baxter Black show. Baxter [a renowned cowboy poet/philosopher] took me under his wing and I got in at the national gathering. I owe a great deal to Baxter.” And at nearly 90, inspiration has yet to abandon her. “I wrote a poem this morning,” she says. Right on, Elizabeth. Write on, ladies.
EBERT AND HOLLENBECK BY SUE ROSOFF; HASSELSTROM BY JESSICA BRANDILIFL AND; REEDY BY JOHN MICHAEL REEDY
January 22–28, 2015
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A&E
Cowgirl poetry: (clockwise from left) Elizabeth Ebert and Yvonne Hollenbeck; Brigid Reedy; Linda Hasselstrom.
CONCERT
Dilated Peoples
Fremont Country Club, January 16 There’s hip-hop that’s about magazine covers and gossip columns, movie deals and clothing
A&E
lines. Then there’s hip-hop that’s about beats and rhymes: That’s where Dilated Peoples come in, and that’s what they brought to Las Vegas. ¶ The stage was hopping long before the headliners took it, as local heroes Mr.
ALBUMS WE'RE BUYING 1 J. Cole, 2014 Forest Hills Drive
Ebranes and Ekoh represented the scene well with tight, crowd-pleasing sets. Then Evidence, Rakaa and DJ Babu stepped out from behind the curtain to give a clinic in how the
2 Mark Ronson, Uptown Special
underground rolls. Standouts included “Kindness for Weakness” and “Marathon,” with its we don’t run from shit/we run to it refrain. Also solid was a rapid-fire rendition of the timely
3 Meghan Trainor, Title (Deluxe)
yet paranoid (timely because it’s paranoid?) “Century of the Self,” where big oil and big pharma, the TSA and the GMO, Jay Z and Galactus are all out to get us. ¶ DJ Babu— one of the world’s greatest battle turntablists and beat jugglers—supplied the evening’s big moments when he reminded this city what
4 Hozier, Hozier
5 Panda Bear, Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
a DJ really is and what a DJ really does. His juggle-shred of the Roots’ “Seed 2.0” had the whole house howling. Dilated Peoples have
6 Arctic Monkeys, AM
been carrying the torch of purist hip-hop for more than 20 years, and we’re glad they came to shed a little light on Las Vegas.
7 Taylor Swift, 1989
★★★✩✩ – Lissa Townsend Rodgers 8 E-40, Sharp on All 4 Corners: Corner 1
[ VIDEOGRAPHY ]
Marion Write Mines More Black Gold With 'Rebel American'
9 Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1
Seems like I’m always mentioning Marion Write. I’m not playing favorites; he just keeps dropping
10 Kix, Rock Your Face Off
dope shit. Most recently, he released the video for “Rebel American” from his Black Gold album. Write brings the fire on this one, spitting with
According to sales at Zia Record Exchange at 4503 W. Sahara Ave., January 12-18.
aggression over Rikio’s brooding production. Nate Quest and Nick Crucial don’t slouch either, but it’s clear this is Marion’s show. A Michael
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versial subject of police brutality. Watch it at VegasSeven.com/HearNow. – Zoneil Maharaj
YOU WON’T BE DISGUSTERED Guster just released Evermotion, their seventh studio album. From the sound of “Simple Machine” and “Long Night,” working with producer Richard Swift was a brilliant choice. Guster plays House of Blues on Jan. 22 ($26.50) with Kishi Bashi.
YOU SHOULD KNOW MATO Fans of guitar virtuosos Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King must know Indigenous. Frontman Mato Nanji grew up on the Yankton Sioux Reservation in South Dakota and was raised on rock and blues. Indigenous plays Vinyl on Jan. 28 ($35-$45).
ON SALE NOW Scoff if you must, but Richard Cheese's lounge renditions of “Rock the Casbah,” “Me So Horny” and “Baby Got Back” are entertaining as hell. Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine play Club Madrid at Sunset Station on March 21 ($30-$52).
DIL ATED PEOPLES BY LINDA EVANS
January 22–28, 2015
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VegasSeven.com
Brown-esque storyline addresses the contro-
ALBUM REVIEWS
The
HIT LIST
By Pj Perez
TARGETING THIS WEEK'S MOST-WANTED EVENTS
By Camille Cannon
SOUL
The Sidekicks
Grand Lake Islands
The Get Ahead
(Epitaph) “Hell Is Warm,” the first track on the latest album from Cleveland’s the Sidekicks, sets the tone for Runners in the Nerved World, right from its opening swells of synth strings, bubbling guitars and Beach Boys-like vocal harmonies. Despite being signed to iconic hardcore label Epitaph, the Sidekicks trade in its raw, punkier origins for a driven, jangle-pop sound, almost like a sunnier Built to Spill. The young quartet doesn’t lose any of its energy, however, and songs such as “Blissfield, MI” offer a propulsive wall of sound that’s pure ear candy. ★★★★✩
(Good Mountain Records) Recent Portland, Oregon, transplant Erik Emanuelson is the mastermind behind this 10-track album of dreamy, sometimes dreary, oftentimes haunting modern folk songs that are as influenced by Radiohead as anything coming out of Nashville. Emanuelson, a former New York English teacher, writes songs rich with multisensory storytelling, but his words tend to get buried by his Dylan-esque warble. No matter; the songs are so pleasant— from the breezy, jangly “Monterey” to the mellow, lulling “Silver Moon”—that repeated listens to decipher the lyrics are welcomed. ★★★✩✩
(Self-released) Defying the typically melancholy, indie folk that comes out of Portland, Oregon, The Get Ahead offers a refreshing blend of blues, rock, funk, soul and R&B on its debut full-length, Volcano. The five-piece band impresses as much on raveups such as “Too Hot” and “Dollars to Doughnuts” as it does on such slow-burn grooves as “Moonstricken” and “Face Up.” The dual vocals of Juliet Howard and Nathan Earle are played up to particularly good effect on “Little Devil,” its funky breakdown highlighting the power of Steve Johnson’s dirty sax. ★★★★✩
DISC SCAN FEB
03
Song From Far
Volcano
Upcoming albums on Pj's radar …
Bob Dylan releases his 36th studio album, Shadows in the Night, featuring his takes on classic ballads.
FEB
10
Pennsylvania guitar band the Districts unleashes its latest long-player, A Flourish and a Spoil.
[ READING ]
Desire is strange in this fiction debut from India Deepti Kapoor’s debut novel is the most intriguing release of the winter. In A Bad Character (Knopf, $24), a 20-year-old woman—a restless member of New Delhi’s middle class—enters into a deleterious relationship with an intense and disaffected man. It’s a novel of sex, drugs and keen perceptions chiseled into
FEB
24
Gang of Four drops What Happens Next, its frst album since 2011’s return-toaction, Content.
YES, AND ... Imagine all of the excitement of a Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots match, but replace the robots with actors. That’s Improv Throwdown. On Jan. 23, teams from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas will duke it out in the Clark County Library theater for audience approval. ImprovThrowdown.com. CHASING CELLULOID The LA Times described Four Dogs and a Bone as “an excoriatingly funny take on the film world.” The play, staged at Onyx Theatre Jan. 23- Feb. 8, revolves around a producer, writer and two actresses whose conflicting whims interfere with the success of their upcoming motion picture. Kinda like when four dogs all dig for the same movie, err, bone. OnyxTheatre.com. THE BEAT GOES ON Usually, the Human Experience at The Beat brings us delightfully offbeat open-mic nights on Mondays. They’re switching it up for the Human Experience Unplugged concert on Jan. 26. Local singer Jessica Manalo gets the spotlight with support from Sonia Seelinger, Cameron Calloway and more. Facebook.com./ HumanExperienceLasVegas.
shape by Kapoor’s vivid and plainspoken prose. A Bad Character doesn’t indulge any pretensions of being an “important” book about modern India. This is a fiction concerned with the peculiarity of having one’s basic needs met and desiring strange and dangerous things. Recommended by Drew Cohen, buyer for The Writer’s Block bookstore, 1020 Fremont St., 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Mon-Sat, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun.
TIME TRIP Don’t worry; it’s safe to Google “The Hot Club of Las Vegas.” The gypsy jazz band is a throwback to Django Reinhardt’s Hot Club of France from the ’30s and ’40s. They’re just the kind of group you’d hope to find sizzling in Scullery’s intimate theater. Catch them there on Jan. 28. FRGLV.com.
VegasSeven.com
Runners in the Nerved World
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AMERICANA
January 22–28, 2015
INDIE ROCK
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MUSIC Movement Lifestyle rocks Tuesday Blend at Hard Rock Live.
[ SOUND PROOF ]
GOIN’ UP ON A TUESDAY (AND SATURDAY AND SUNDAY) Local artists get the spotlight at these monthly parties
HIP-HOP SHOWS IN VEGAS ARE HIT-AND-
miss. We can go weeks without a decent headliner. At least I know I can always count on a few monthly parties to deliver—not just live hiphop but art, dance, food and dopeass DJs, too. If you’ve never been, add these parties to your to-do list. Long before iLoveMakkonen, the Tuesday Blend Project had Las Vegas poppin’ on the stay-homeand-watch-Netfix night. Held every frst Tuesday at Hard Rock Live, the event is a diverse night of entertainment, showcasing local and national performing artists. “Our vision is to pull all different scenes together and under one roof when it came to music, dance, art, fashion and lifestyle to share their passion with other artists and infuencers,” co-founder Jayar Tolentino says. The lineup changes each month. You might catch a b-boy battle and a rap performance one night, a live painter and an acoustic set at another. While dance crews consume the bulk of the lineups, live music performances have included Bay Area R&B singer Adrian Marcel, Long Beach frestarter Vince Staples and “Panoramic” rapper Dmac, as well as locals such as Jazz Lazer, Dox Black and Yaygos. The fact that Tuesday Blend just celebrated its fourth anniversary a few weeks ago shows that it’s doing something right. Also in its fourth year of making
sure you dread going to work in the morning is Civilian Clothing’s Sunday Riots. Held every last Sunday from February to November at Civilian’s headquarters (6460 Windy Rd.), the free gathering is a meeting of art, music and streetwear minds. Though there have been punk and reggae editions, the music at Sunday Riots skews toward hip-hop, with emcees Trade Voorhees, Hassan Hamilton and Nate Quest having rocked the mic. The events also feature an art show, a limited-edition T-shirt release and food trucks. Civilian Clothing also hosts the Beatmaker Social every other month at its shop at 5115 Spring Mountain Road, Suite 301, for producers to showcase their work. “We just like to bring people together and have a good time,” Civilian owner David Duran says. And nothing makes for a good time quite like free fried chicken … right? That’s the gimmick for Bunkhouse Saloon’s Chicken Shack party, every third Saturday at the Downtown venue—and you should totally take the bait. DJs spin old-school soul, roots reggae and tropical funk late with special musical guests. While it ain’t necessarily hip-hop, it’s still a damn good time. No cover. And, again, free fried chicken. Got new music or upcoming shows? Holler at Zoneil.Maharaj@wendohmedia. com or @zoneil on Twitter.
PHOTO BY GERALD CAGUIN
By Zoneil Maharaj
STAGE
ILLUSIONAL THINKING Proposed holographic Liberace show raises real issues
FRIED CHICKEN + LIVE MUSIC + BOWLING + BEER ............................
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK ..................................................................... SAT 1/24 AMERICAN HONEY PRESENTS: AN EVENING WITH ..................................................................... MON 1/26 ..................................................................... FRI WITH ZOMBOY & HXV 1/30 RVLTN PRESENTS: ..................................................................... SAT 1/31 O.PENVAPE PRESENTS: .....................................................................
ILLUSTRATION BY CIERRA PEDRO
FORGIVE THIS COLUMN
if it rains on anyone’s synthetic parade, but … a holographic Liberace “live” show in Vegas? Opinions line up behind “it’s cool” or “it’s creepy.” Answer: technologically cool, morally creepy. Recently, the company Hologram USA announced the project— still light on details—that will give us the god of glitter “interacting” with audiences. True, this city trades on simulations—on the Strip we replicated Paris, rebuilt the pyramids, refowed Venetian canals and resurrected ancient Rome—but does reanimating an entertainer cross a line? Exhumations dig up the dead. Zombie movies dig up the “undead.” Now comes digging up someone’s being. Surely it’ll amuse us—isn’t that the priority? Excuse the sarcasm, but beyond jeopardizing the phrase “rest in peace,” this triggers questions more authentic than the headliner. Let’s chew on a few: ➜ Given that most of Liberace’s original fan base is dead, and whatever exists now of genuine, nostalgic enthusiasts is a small niche, that leaves a modest audience at any one show to appreciate his talent and showmanship, and a whopping audience that’s there for a techno-dazzle freak show. Is that what Liberace—a tent pole of Vegas’ founding entertainment legacy with Elvis and the Rat Pack—deserves? ➜ Yes, the Liberace Foundation blessed this endeavor. Yes, we imagine what immortality, even artifcially, would be like. Yet would you be comfortable with your image, words and actions existing beyond your control? Allowing others to present—and manipulate—you to future generations without veto power? Eternal life as a puppet? ➜ Technological fascination aside, isn’t this just soulless? Tribute artists at least bring personal interpretation to bear, as I expect Bob Anderson will on January 24, when, aided by makeup and passion, he might just introduce new colors to our perceptions of Frank Sinatra when he opens in the Palazzo’s new celebration. In a
Z-TRIP
JOSH HEINRICHS & SKILLINJAH BACKED BY BEYOND I SIGHT BASS N’ TRAPMENT
KELLER WILLIAMS & THE MOTET
“ THE WAILERS
2/2 & 2/3 PERFORMING EXODUS (2/2) + SURVIVAL (2/3) IN THEIR ENTIRETY ..................................................................... “SOLD OUT : WED 2/4 ..................................................................... FRI 2/6 ..................................................................... SAT 2/7 ..................................................................... YouTube era when past performances are instantly retrievable, we don’t need higher-tech reruns. We need low-tech humanity. ➜ Decades ago, Liberace was, in the parlance of a more guarded era, “fey.” Now he’d be gay—an identifcation he rejected till the day he died. Whatever you think he owed or didn’t owe the gay community given his public prominence—or how ridiculous his denials were—through what prism should his closeted stance be viewed? Will show creators exploit it as a punch line, with no way for the man to object? If not, will the show’s mere existence invite 21stcentury audiences with the beneft of progressive hindsight to chortle at an entertainer who did what the entertainment industry required to survive during his own shortsighted era? Would he even do a show today, knowing the grandma-fan constituency that thought he was just extravagant had vanished? Can’t we let Liberace own his own legacy as he left it, even if we apply 2015 sensibilities to it? Aren’t we all entitled to that regarding our own lives? Are we so restless for entertainment we can’t let the deceased rest, either? In nature, it’s vultures that feed off the dead. Got an entertainment tip? Email Steve.Bornfeld@VegasSeven.com.
JACK WHITE < < H E L LY E A H > > TRIBAL SEEDS THE STRING CHEESE INCIDENT ..................................................................... 2/13 2/14 2/15
> LOTUS <
2/14 LATE SHOW & 2/15 ..................................................................... MON 2/16 ..................................................................... FRI 2/20 THE DREAD & TERRIBLE WEST COAST TOUR FEAT. ..................................................................... SUN WITH SPECIAL GUEST 2/22 AN EVENING WITH JOHN SCOFIELD ..................................................................... MON 2/23 ..................................................................... SAT 2/28 .....................................................................
IRATION - TALES FROM THE SEA CHRONIXX & PROTOJE
GOV’T MULE
PHANTOGRAM FLIGHT FACILITIES
“ FREE SHOWS : .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1/22 LATE SHOW - 2/7 - 1/2 PRICED FOOD, DRINKS A BOWLING ..................................................................... SUN 1/25 ..................................................................... THUR 1/29 > ROCKSTAR LIVE KARAOKE < ..................................................................... THUR NAIVE MELODIES - TA L K I N G H E A D S T R I B U T E . . . .2/5 ................................................................. SUN BROWNOUT PRESENTS . . . .2/8 .................................................................
SPARE TIME: DJ LOGIC RESIDENCY
MARCH FOURTH MARCHING BAND
B R O W N S A B B AT H
CENTER STRIP AT THE LINQ
BROOKLYNBOWL.COM
MOVIES
A&E
ALL-AMERICAN HERO? Clint Eastwood’s Navy SEAL biopic almost misses the marksman By Michael Phillips Tribune Media Services
PEOPLE WILL TAKE WHAT THEY WANT TO TAKE
from American Sniper, director Clint Eastwood’s latest flm. Already it has turned into an ideological war to be won or lost, rather than a fctionalized biopic to be debated. It’s the most divisive movie out now, and it has caught a wave of desire among audiences—conservative, liberal, centrist—to return to stories of nervewracking wartime heroism in varying degrees of truth and fction, from Fury to Unbroken. American Sniper is reverent and slippery. You don’t have to know much about the real Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle (1974-2013) to wonder if it’s telling the whole truth about him. With Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County and Letters From Iwo Jima at the crest, and decades of ups and downs beneath it, Eastwood’s career behind the camera has veered in continually unexpected directions. Yet his work, like that of any auteur worth his salt, expresses different aspects of a single personality, in Eastwood’s case a plainspoken but wary personality. The phrase “Eastwood war movie” has come to mean ... what, exactly? Can you draw a line from the cockamamie Grenada invasion-set Heartbreak Ridge to the mournful Flags of Our Fathers to his latest, American Sniper? And yet it’s there to be drawn. Warriors who keep their heads down and
do their jobs and derive a kind of noble purity from the lethal work they do: These are some of Eastwood’s most admired heroes. There’s nobility, too, in watching the struggle, even if the struggle is to keep the worst hidden away, leaving the anguish to others. Eastwood introduces us to Kyle shrewdly and well. We’re on a rooftop in Iraq, watching the man who became the deadliest sniper in U.S. history (160 confrmed bodies, 95 unconfrmed) as he watches for insurgents out to kill the occupying U.S.-led coalition forces. Kyle (Bradley Cooper with a convincing Texas accent) spies a local woman slip a huge grenade into a young boy’s hands. The boy eyes the U.S. soldiers. Kyle has seconds to pull the trigger. It’s not really a moral dilemma because, as Eastwood flms it, there’s no question these “savages” (Kyle’s word) are up to no good. Still, the flm’s frst depiction of two of Kyle’s confrmed kills comes at a cost. This isn’t what Kyle imagined or hoped for. A childhood fashback shows Kyle deer hunting with his father. “You’ve got a gift. You’re going to make a fne hunter someday,” he’s told, and the moment carries a hushed, churchlike quality. Over dinner, Kyle’s father informs him he was “blessed with the gift of aggression ... the need to protect the fock.” From there, American Sniper rolls for-
Bradley Cooper plays the deadliest sniper in U.S. history.
ward, as Kyle survives four tours of duty, while his wife, Taya (Sienna Miller, effective every second), maneuvers through her husband’s absence. Once he’s home, she maneuvers through his post-traumatic stress disorder. Cooper plays Kyle as a “legend” (that was his nickname) whose vulnerabilities remain a secret, even to himself, until the breaking point. He’s very good. Muscled up for the role, he suggests a world of contradictory impulses behind the character’s eyes, even when the script is skating on the surface. The sharpest scene fnds Kyle back from another tour, but he hasn’t told his wife he’s home. He’s calling from a bar. He’s not ready to re-enter what’s left of his ordinary life. This complicates and deepens our understanding of a man who, too often in American Sniper, is a collection of stalwart patriotic virtues. American Sniper gins up all sorts of confict, treating Kyle’s beady-eyed Syrian sniper counterpart, Mustafa (Sammy Sheik), as vaguely subhuman adversary.
January 22–28, 2015
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VegasSeven.com
SHORT REVIEWS
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Paddington (PG) ★★★✩✩
Based on the beloved children’s books, Paddington is witty and charming, with a considerable if sneaky emotional impact, and it offers more than enough to satisfy. Graced with unusually delicate computer-generated animation mixed with live action, the film retains elements of the first book, ropes in bits of other books and invents a lot of its own. Raised in a tribe of surprisingly verbal bears in Peru, Paddington is shipped off to London, where he and his adoptive human family negotiate life under the same roof. Nicole Kidman is a villainous taxidermist.
The Wedding Ringer (R) ★★★✩✩
In this Wedding Crashers Redux, Kevin Hart plays a guy who hires himself out as a rent-a-best-man to rescue grooms who have failed to establish long-term friendships. He’s hired by a sad sack (Josh Gad) who needs not just a best man but a whole team of groomsmen. The film softens Hart and his manic funnyman persona into someone more sentimental than abrasive. A savvy, sassy script and genuine chemistry between Hart and Gad make this an R-rated bromance that will touch you as often as it tickles you.
Still Alice (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
It’s terrible to watch someone lose their mind, but the splendid acting here makes it worth the pain. Scarier than any nightmare, the film succeeds because of two strong performances. Oscar-nominated Julianne Moore stars as respected academic Alice, shocked by her diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s disease, and Moore’s work deserves all the plaudits it’s going to get. But if it weren’t for costar Kristen Stewart, who plays Alice’s daughter, Still Alice wouldn’t be nearly as emotionally effective as it is.
The climactic showdown between these two leads to Eastwood’s most shameless techniques—clichéd slow motion just when you expect it, an audience-baiting “kill” shot complete with cheeseball bullet’s-point-of-view trajectory. This flm is rarely dull; it’s one lifeand-death sequence after another, and the flmmaking’s effcient, crisply delivered. But Eastwood honors his subject without really getting under his skin. Some will see any objection to American Sniper as unpatriotic, although plenty of military veterans on have expressed their problems with Kyle’s book. They see it as dangerously romantic in its view of war. Eastwood’s view isn’t that, exactly. But there’s a difference between a flm about a man reluctant to acknowledge the psychological toll of what he endured and a movie that basically doesn’t want to talk about it or question it, or think about it, period. American Sniper (R) ★★✩✩✩
By Tribune Media Services
Blackhat (R) ★★✩✩✩
This movie is a thickly plotted disappointment, yet it has three or four big sequences proving that director Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral) has lost none of his instincts for how to choreograph, photograph and edit violence. Chris Hemsworth plays a hunky convicted hacker, doing hard time stateside. He’s sprung from prison to assist the hunt for a cyberterrorist. If Blackhat had more movement and less story, or if it had a story and characters that excited the imagination, we’d have a swell globe-trotting thriller. But the intrigue level rarely rises above medium.
Spare Parts (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
Spare Parts is about undocumented high school kids who enter a big robot-building competition and make a splash in that state most hostile to illegal immigration— Arizona. It’s a little more concerned with making a statement than with covering new ground in an original and entertaining way. Still, it’s a pleasant enough run-ofthe-mill outsiders-beat-the-odds dramedy. It makes its point and does it with heart, if not a lot of laughs or originality.
Two Days, One Night (PG-13) ★★★★✩
Oscar-nominated Marion Cotillard stars in the latest compelling examination of the human condition and how we treat one another from the sterling filmmaking team of JeanPierre and Luc Dardenne. Cotillard plays a solar panel factory worker in Belgium coping with depression. After her job is eliminated, her only hope is to persuade her co-workers to reinstate the position, which means forgoing bonuses. She has two days to accomplish this before a secret vote. The filmmakers and Cotillard scrupulously avoid melodrama.
Into the Woods (PG) ★★★✩✩
Big Eyes (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
Unbroken (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
Mr. Turner (R) ★★★★✩
For years, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s 1987 fairy-tale mash-up has hacked its way through the thicket of Hollywood development. And the movie now before us? It’s good. In creating the stage show, Sondheim combined the tales of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood. he added new characters: a baker (James Corden in the film, terrific) and his wife (Emily Blunt, also terrific). Their desire to have a child has been forestalled by a curse laid on them by a witch (Meryl Streep). Streep kills it and has serious fun.
Laura Hillenbrand’s 2010 nonfiction account Unbroken described Louis Zamperini, the Italian-American who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and, in World War II, became an Army Air Corps bombardier flying missions over the South Pacific. In Angelina Jolie’s film version, Unbroken makes for a grueling experience, which is not quite the same as a memorable one. At too-convenient dramatic junctures, the screenplay darts back into flashbacks of Zamperini’s youth, when we should really be sticking with the crisis at hand.
For Big Eyes, director Tim Burton cast four of the biggest eyes today. Two of them belong to Amy Adams, who plays painter Margaret Keane, creator of huge-orbed waifs mysteriously popular but credited to her scoundrel of a husband. The subjects and themes of Big Eyes are plentiful: the appeal of kitsch; the strictures of marriage in the 1950s and ’60s; the whims of taste; and the Keanes themselves, whose power struggle animates this bright but curiously flat movie. Big Eyes settles for a pastel set of emotions lost in a primary color world.
Mike Leigh’s excellent Mr. Turner asserts its rightness and sureness in the opening shot. It’s a beautiful film, and not merely that. This is the past brought to life, and Timothy Spall—whose first close-up as J.M.W. Turner follows the opening shot— makes the act of seeing and sketching a quietly compelling one. Mr. Turner covers a quarter-century in Turner’s life. Happy, or sad? It’s too complicated to say, and without a speck of pomposity Leigh’s film—one of the year’s best—honors its subject in all his tetchy ambiguity.
MARKETPLACE
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SEVEN QUESTIONS
two additional summers. Because it was so popular, we said, “Let’s turn this hot dog cart into a 20-foot-by-20-foot kiosk.” That became Shake Shack, and the rest is history. What lessons from the fine-dining world carry over into what’s basically fast food?
The biggest one is how we hire. We look for people who have what we call a high HQ—a high hospitality quotient. We’re looking for people who, whether they’re serving black truffes, beef Bourguignon, barbecue or burgers, their greatest pleasure is in making you happy. The price point shouldn’t have any impact on how much hospitality you get. We’ve learned a lot about how to source premium ingredients. If it’s good enough to be served in one of our highly rated fne-dining restaurants, it’s good enough to be served at Shake Shack. We don’t cut corners. What’s the secret to a great shake?
The legendary restaurateur on New York-New York’s Shake Shack, consistent hospitality and custard vs. ice cream By Al Mancini
January 22–28, 2015
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VegasSeven.com
Let’s start with the question I asked Mario Batali about a year ago: Why does Las Vegas need another high-profile burger joint?
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I don’t know that it does. I just know that we need Las Vegas. I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to tell anyone they need more of anything. I love Shake Shack, and I’m so excited to share Shake Shack with Las Vegas. We have a fantastic setting. If you’re gonna have a hotel called New York-New York adjacent to you and what I think is the frst park (MGM Resorts International’s The Park) ever on the Strip, it’s an ideal spot. How does Las Vegas Boulevard compare with your original location in New
York’s Madison Square Park?
There’s nothing, really, to compare to Manhattan. And there’s nothing, really, to compare to Las Vegas. But what they do have in common is uncommon density of foot traffic. The original Shake Shack, and many of our Shake Shacks, are in places that cars couldn’t get to even if they tried. It’s designed for people who want to walk there and want to be with other people. … So if you can have a park that’s right in the middle of an incredibly popular place where people want to be—and I would say the Strip has to be in anybody’s Top 10 list in the world—
and you don’t need a car to do it, it’s gonna be ideal. As a high-end restaurateur, what inspired you to go into the burger-andshake business?
It was all an accident. We started by being in the hot dog cart business, trying to help out a piece of public art in the middle of Madison Square Park. The artist wanted to have a working hot dog cart to go with his huge [sculpture of] New York taxis on stilts. We volunteered to do that in 2001. Our hot dog cart was so popular that even though the sculpture was only up for that summer, our cart came back for
What will this location offer that’s not available at other Shake Shacks?
As we do in any city, our chef designs concretes [frozen desserts] whimsically and deliciously to pay homage to the city. One is called All Shook Up, using this incredible house-made peanut butter banana cheesecake from [Henderson’s] Gimme Some Sugar mixed in with our frozen custard. And the second one is waffes and strawberries—you eat it, and it feels like you’re eating Las Vegas glitter. It is the most deliciously bizarre concoction that I’ve ever come across in my life. It’s called the Jackpot. Tell me about your relationship with First Friday.
Every Shake Shack we open, we require that the general manager and the teams select a not-for-proft that they want to support both fnancially and through any kind of volunteer work possible. … And this particular Shack was very interested in art. So every time someone orders an All Shook Up concrete, a portion of those proceeds will go to the First Friday Foundation.
PHOTO BY MELISSA HOM
Danny Meyer
What’s interesting is, you could have asked the same question about burgers. The frst thing you have to do is stake out a position on what you want to say about burgers or what you want to say about shakes. Then, once you stake out that position, you realize that for 80 percent of people, that may or may not be their favorite way to enjoy a burger or shake. But you have to take a point of view, and you’d better execute it as well as you can. With shakes, our point of view is the richer and thicker the better. … We use frozen custard as opposed to ice cream. It has a lower butterfat content but a higher egg content. What that means is the favors sustain themselves, and you really get a sensation of thickness. And then anything we mix into the shakes is completely natural. So we’re using the same Swiss chocolate that our pastry chef uses at Gramercy Tavern.