A true rock legend.
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CENTERBAR R E D E S I G N E D .
R E D E F I N E D .
H A R D R O C K H OT E L .CO M
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21 CATCH THE ACTION AT AN EXCLUSIVE CLOSED CIRCUIT VIEWING. TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT ANY MGM RESORTS TICKET OFFICE OR TICKETMASTER OUTLET. Mandalay Bay Ticket OfямБce 702.632.7580 mandalaybay.com | 800.745.3000 Ticketmaster.com
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LAS VEGAS’ WEEKLY CITY MAGAZINE
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FOUNDED FEBRUARY 2010
PUBLISHER
Michael Skenandore
EDITORIAL
Nicole Ely Genevie Durano SENIOR EDITORS Paul Szydelko, Xania Woodman SENIOR EDITOR, A&E Geoff Carter ASSOCIATE EDITOR Camille Cannon SENIOR WRITER Lissa Townsend Rodgers STAFF WRITER Emmily Bristol CALENDAR COORDINATOR Ian Caramanzana EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
MANAGING EDITOR
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Melinda Sheckells (style)
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Michael Green (politics), Al Mancini (dining), David G. Schwartz (gaming/hospitality)
ART
Ryan Olbrysh Cierra Pedro Anthony Mair, Krystal Ramirez
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Christy Corda Nicole Scherer ACCOUNT MANAGER Brittany Quintana ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Robyn Weiss
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PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE OBSERVER MEDIA GROUP Vegas Seven, 702-798-7000, 302 East Carson Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89101 Vegas Seven is distributed each Thursday throughout Southern Nevada c 2015 Vegas Seven, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without the permission of Vegas Seven, LLC is prohibited.
BURNING LESSONS How the MGM fre changed the casino and hotel industry for good By L I S S A T O W N S E N D R O D G E R S
PHOTO COURTESY UNLV SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
The MGM fire, Nov. 21, 1980.
HIGHWAY TO HELL
November 19–25, 2015
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When it comes to radioactive waste shipments, are accidents inevitable? By E M M I L Y B R I S T O L
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➜ from the miss atomic bomb fauxbeauty pageants of the 1950s to the state-issued Nevada Test Site historic preservation license plate, Las Vegas’ history seems to wink approvingly at all things atomic. Bars, drinks, tattoo parlors and even museums are dedicated to our storied relationship with the bomb. But fip that coin and there’s the equally storied controversy of Nevada’s modern-day status as the nation’s nuclear dump. While funding for Yucca Mountain was cut off in 2010, the site is still being considered as the sole repository for high-level nuclear waste despite opposition from Senator Harry Reid and the State of Nevada. And sites all over the country are already storing—and transporting—radioactive waste from military weapons and nuclear reactors. Whether by truck, train or water, radioactive waste passes through almost every state in the country, and some of it is ending up in commercial and government sites in Nevada. With thousands of tons of waste moving around, it’s not a question of if there will be accidents, but when. Accident statistics for radioactive waste shipments are diffcult to collect, since
they are reported by several different agencies depending on the type of waste (low-level, transuranic or spent fuel) and where it originated (private or public facilities). However, in a 2014 Department of Energy report for fscal year 2013, there were two incidents—a package “shift” on a truck from Los Alamos National Laboratory and a package breach in a shipment from Arizona. Just last month, low-level radioactive waste burned in a trench at US Ecology, a commercial disposal site about 115 miles north of Las Vegas. The waste was put in the trench sometime in a 30-year-period before 1992. Emergency responders closed more than 140 miles of U.S. 95, and the Nye County School District evacuated two schools close to Beatty because of the fre. In 2001, a train carrying spent nuclear fuel caught fre after it derailed in a Baltimore rail tunnel. More than 300,000 people in the area were exposed to radiation from the containers, which are built to withstand 1,475 degrees for 30 minutes. The tank car spilled 28,600 gallons of liquid tripropylene, which burned for several days. According to congressional testimony by Dr. Marvin Resnikoff in 2002,
fame temperatures exceeded 1,500 degrees. The incident has been used as a case study to illustrate how dangerous transporting nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain could be. In his testimony, Dr. Resnikoff stated that the proposed Yucca Mountain spent fuel canisters, which would contain radionuclides that are about 240 times the levels in the Hiroshima bomb, “are not designed to withstand every credible accident.” “A real danger with these sites is that they’re just parking lot dumps,” says Diane D’Arrigo, radioactive waste project director with the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, a watchdog organization. NIRS has been a particularly outspoken opponent of Yucca Mountain. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear power industry has generated more than 74,000 metric tons of spent fuel waste. Last year, the DOE began looking for trains that can haul reactor waste, even though Yucca Mountain has not been cleared to accept such waste. Despite decades long controversy over Yucca Mountain, both the government and private industry have been diligently working on expanding the types of radioactive waste stored in Nevada. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a report in August exploring potential groundwater contamination from burying high-level nuclear waste at the site, which is located about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Meanwhile, in May, the DOE announced that Nevada would start getting shipments of potent uranium waste from a federal laboratory in Tennessee, which has been seen by many as another step forward in the
opening of Yucca Mountain. “This is a new scheme, a plan, that would put exponentially more [nuclear waste] on our roads, trains and waterways,” D’Arrigo says. This is in addition to low-level radioactive waste from nuclear weapons and other government sites that has been shipped and stored at the Nevada National Security Site (formerly called the Nevada Test Site) since 1961. The NNSS facility, also known as Area 5, has received 27 million cubic feet of radioactive waste since 1961, says spokesman Darwin Morgan. The NNSS receives 5 percent of the government’s radioactive waste, which are delivered by trucks that travel public highways. Once on site, the storage casks are stacked in trenches that are buried in 8 feet of dirt when they are full. The DOE site also handles radioactive waste from military weapons, including nuclear bombs. “The vast majority of what we do is focused on national security,” Morgan says. “We make sure the [nuclear bomb] stockpile is safe and secure.” The NNSS is not the only DOE site that monitors and secures the military’s nuclear arsenal. It is possible to be sitting in traffc on a highway next to a truck carrying nuclear weapons in states all across the country. For now, spent nuclear waste from reactors is transported rarely and is often stored onsite, but that could change if plans for Yucca Mountain move forward. With the wide variety of radioactive waste already traveling on public roads and by rail through Nevada, our best and perhaps only defense against a disaster is continued vigilance.
PHOTOS COURTESY DOE
Clockwise from this photo: DOE personnel walk through the U1a complex, 960 feet underground, at NNSS. DOE workers practice radiation contamination drill. DOE technicians at NNSS testing facility.
NIGHTLIFE Your city after dark and photos from the week's hottest parties
Don’t sleep on this EDM-fueled feminist movement By Kat Boehrer
VegasSeven.com
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Disco Naps
WAKE UP! Nap Girls Int’l is a nonproft collective of nearly 150 women— including myself, the group's philanthropy manager—who are promoting gender equality in the dance-music industry. Only a year since its West Coast inception, the Nap Girls movement has impacted the music industry all the way up to its leaders, including Skrillex and Justin Martin, who have both demonstrated support for the group. The group has become more public in recent months by way of a feature on Skrillex’s Nest HQ website, a Nap Girls charity bash in Los Angeles with an all-female DJ lineup, and through philanthropy events, such as a canned food drive in collaboration with L.A.’s Space Yacht. Liz Garard, who founded the group along with music professionals Abi Getto and Christina Boemio, shares the nap-time story.
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November 19–25, 2015
PHOTO BY QUINN TUCKER/IG: @QUASARMEDIA
Ladies use the Nap Girl pose to show their support for gender equality in the dance-music scene.
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NIGHTLIFE
The #NapGirls of Instagram are everywhere!
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It all started with my working all day and taking a “disco nap” before going to Avalon [Nightclub in Hollywood]. I was sending Snapchats doing the nap pose. Abi, Boemio and I were like, “We’re the Nap Girls,” taking naps before going to Avalon or Sound or whatever. I started sending Snapchats to other girls, like, “Hey join my girl gang.” My friend at Warner [Music Group] also gave me the book Riot Grrrl. That was about a movement for punk-rock feminists, [and I thought] Nap Girls could be a movement for dance music females. How did it evolve?
It evolved very organically. By protecting the group and by not telling people what it was, we were able to induct members who we thought were a good ft or that had genuine interest in fguring out what Nap Girls was about. Within the last three months, I think, have been the biggest developments: We were able to form the internal structure. The frst year was basically growing the group internally
and now we’re at the point where we have this beautiful foundation set up. Now, whoever wants to take initiative and be a leader in the group has that foundation to do so. From what industries do the Nap Girls hail?
Nap Girls is a 360-degree model of the music industry. It’s comprised of press, publicists, artists (DJs, producers, singer/songwriters), publications, marketing and social media managers, talent management, journalists … Any notable members?
It’s kinda hard to say because [Australian DJ] Alison Wonderland is a notable member, but so is Priscilla [Pacheco, a legal assistant], an incredibly notable member, because she threw a wonderful Nap Girls party. What was the purpose of that party?
First and foremost, it was a showcase of our group and the talent that is within our group. It was also a coming-out party. We kept it private for so long that it was important to have the Nest HQ feature and that we really go
public with what we were doing, to get our names and faces out there.
opportunities to get involved in ways that speak to the members.
What is the group’s collective mission?
Is this movement a response to the male-dominated music industry?
It’s to create a culture for women working in the industry where they can support and help one another. And to create an alliance—a sisterhood—which is also an alliance with the brotherhood. So kind of like a human alliance. That’s the goal—achieving a human-to-human alliance. When we work positively with one another, we can achieve so much more. We have so many like-minded individuals joining forces to create impact, which is so much more powerful than one person isolating him or herself with a negative attitude trying to achieve something. What’s it like on the inside?
We have so many opportunities and ways to get involved in the group that girls really step up to bat to do things they’re passionate about. [Music-publishing professional] Gali Firstenberg is doing human resources. There are a lot of different
People are like, “Why aren’t there more female DJs?” There are only so many times you can hear that question. You get to a point where you need to do something about it. We need to take initiative. How can people—female or male— get involved?
Apply [via the “Napplication” at NapGirls.com in January]. Get to know the other Nap Girls, reach out to them [online or in person], and get to know the members. That’s really the best way to get involved. Like us on Facebook, follow on Twitter—all that good stuff. Do the pose, tell your friends. But also start to question how things go on in your workspace. The best way to support Nap Girls is to open yourself up to equality and what it means to be a feminist. Because it doesn’t mean being “anti-man,” it means fghting for equality.
PHOTOS COURTESY INSTAGRAM #NAPGIRLS
November 19–25, 2015
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What are the origins of the Nap Girl movement?
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B O RG E O U S
TICKETS
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VIP
R E S E R VAT I O N S
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NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
DRAIS
The Cromwell [ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONvegas.com
PHOTOS BY TOBY ACUNA, JOE FURY AND THOMAS TRAN
November 19–25, 2015
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Nov. 19 Justin Credible spins Nov. 20 Fabolous birthday celebration Nov. 21 Trey Songz birthday celebration
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
HYDE Bellagio
[ UPCOMING ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SPYONvegas.com
PHOTOS BY TONY TRAN
November 19–25, 2015
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Nov. 20 DJ Konflikt spins Nov. 21 DJ Spider spins Nov. 24 Lost Angels Industry Party with Joe Maz
DINING
Turkey Tech
Professional chefs help you hack your Thanksgiving Day dinner By Al Mancini HACK: BRINE IT
HACK: TIME IT JUST RIGHT
HACK: DISGUISE THE GREENS
Rick Giffen
Matt Silverman
Mary Sue Milliken
November 19–25, 2015
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(Top of the World in the Stratosphere)
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“Unless you’re buying a kosher bird that’s been pre-salted, or you have one of those injected birds with a lot of saline solution in them, I recommend a brine [to keep the turkey moist],” Giffen says. For a 15-to-20-pound bird, Giffen recommends, “take a gallon-and-a-half of water, a cupand-a-half of kosher salt, a cupand-a-half of raw sugar, brown sugar or honey, two limes, two oranges and three or four lemons cut into wedges, peppercorn, bay leaves and garlic,” and bring it to a boil with any other herbs you like. Allow the mixture to simmer for 45 minutes or so. When it cools, soak the bird (innards removed) in the solution and refrigerate for 14 to 24 hours before beginning your preparation.
(Hexx in Paris Las Vegas) “You can brine [your turkey],” Silverman says, “but if you don’t cook it to the right temperature it doesn’t matter, because it’s just going to be dry. You’re gonna roast out all that moisture that you were able to put in there.” Temperature should be taken right between the thigh and the leg, without touching a bone, and the optimal temperature is 165 degrees. But Silverman reminds us that turkeys continue to cook even after they’ve been taken out of the oven. “An average turkey is going to [cook an additional] five to 10 degrees just by letting it sit on the stove for 20 minutes.” So you may want to remove it from the oven before it hits 165, and re-check just before serving.
(Border Grill in Mandalay Bay and in the Forum Shops at Caesars) Getting your guests to eat their greens amid all the starches and meat can be difficult. But Milliken has a Brussels sprouts recipe that grew out of a challenge she and her business partner Susan Feniger set for each other “to get people to eat the kind of vegetables they normally think they hate.” Shred the sprout really thin on a mandolin, up to two days before the holiday as long as you keep them refrigerated. “Then, when you’re putting everything on the table, get a really wide skillet. I like to put half butter and half olive oil in there,” Milliken says. “And once it’s nice and hot, put in the shredded Brussels sprouts, salt, pepper and a dash of lime.” They’ll cook in just five to 10 minutes.
NOW YOU’VE DONE IT. Sometime over the past 51 weeks you put your foot in your mouth and volunteered to cook Thanksgiving dinner. And now, the chickens (or shall we say, the turkeys) are coming home to roost. While I can’t promise you the feast for which your in-laws/ grandmother/favorite cousin are famous, I’ve rounded up some quick pieces of advice from fve top Las Vegas chefs that should at least put you in the running.
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HACK: SAVOR THE BITS
Kim Canteenwalla
(Andiron Steak & Sea, Honey Salt, Made L.V.) When it comes to gravy, Canteenwalla says it’s about more than just drippings and cornstarch. “I start with the neck as part of the stock,” he says. “I use the wings, the tips and the [other] pieces that I’m not going to use. And I let that cook down slowly with carrots, celery and onion. Then I take the neck out, take the meat out, and shred all of that. Then I make my gravy and fold that back into the gravy. The neck is pretty good meat.” Canteenwalla also uses the turkey liver, combined with chicken livers, although he admits his wife isn’t a fan. “I sweat it off, chop it up coarsely, add herbs into it—parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme—hit it with a little Cognac and fold that back into the stuffing.”
HACK: PUT AN EGG IN IT
Michael Mina
(Michael Mina in Bellagio, Bardot in Aria, StripSteak in Mandalay Bay) For many people, leftovers are the best part of Thanksgiving. But if you enjoy a good stuffing sandwich after the feast, Mina says you have to think ahead. “Be sure to use an egg while mixing your stuffing. It acts as a binder, holding the stuffing together as it’s cooking. Otherwise your stuffing will be all over the place.” For bread, Mina says you can use any kind, brushed with butter, but, he adds, “I recommend using a rich bread full of flavor, such as brioche.” Place the composed sandwich in a sauté pan and cover it with a panini press (or if you don’t have one, another smaller pan), and cook for two-and-a-half minutes on each side, till the bread is golden brown and the stuffing is warm.
[ MUSIC ]
A&E
Have Faith! Morrissey Won't Cancel His Show
➜ Yes, he’s canceled his last three shows here. Yes, we just opened a White Castle. But we're certain that Morrissey’s next scheduled Las Vegas show—January 2 at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel—will finally bring the Moz back to town. In fact, we’ve got five solid reasons why he’ll actually come this time, based on precedent and well-established facts: He loves performing. In an interview with Mexico City-based alternative radio station Reactor 105.7, he says that doctors have suggested he retire from performing, but he doesn’t think he could even if he wanted to: “I have been cautioned to [retire], but it’s difficult for me because it’s very ingrained in me." He was really sick for a bit, but now he’s better. Morrissey canceled his November 23, 2012, performance at the Cosmopolitan because his mother was hospitalized and he went home to take care of her. The show was rescheduled for February 9, 2013, but Morrissey had to cancel when he discovered he had a bleeding ulcer and Barrett’s Esophagus, a condition that sometimes leads to esophageal cancer. Soon after that Las Vegas show was rescheduled for April 30, 2013, it was canceled a third and final time because of anemia resulting from that bleeding ulcer, plus a case of double pneumonia. But Morrissey loves Las Vegas. Since the breakup of the Smiths
[ COOL EVENT ]
The Cosmopolitan Glides Into Winter
in 1987, Morrissey has performed in Las Vegas a dozen times. At the start of his Oye Esteban tour in 1999, guitarist Alain Whyte suffered a back injury, resulting in the cancellation of the Las Vegas show; undaunted, Morrissey scheduled two December 1999 shows at Mandalay Bay’s House of Blues to make up for it. Playing multiple shows in Las Vegas during one tour is not uncommon for Moz; he also performed multiple House of Blues shows on his 2002 tour, and visited twice on a 2007 tour. He loves his Latino fans. Morrissey adores all of his fans, but in recent years, he’s developed a strong relationship with his Latino fan base. What better place, outside of Los Angeles, to visit with his favorite kind of people? According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Clark County has one of the largest Hispanic populations in the country: Some 30 percent of our population is of Hispanic descent. He recorded a cover of Lou Reed’s “Satellite Of Love” at a show at the Cosmopolitan and released it as a single in 2014. How many American cities can boast that Moz gifted them with a live single, recorded in a venue in their hometown? For the most part, however, we think he’ll play Las Vegas because it’s what he does. During a 2007 interview with Morrissey fanzine True To You, the man emphatically said that he’s meant to be onstage: “I think it’s the only time in my life that I feel right about myself. Otherwise, I don’t have any function at all as a human being ... which is unfortunate! I’m not sure if I even exist off stage.” Welcome back to Las Vegas, Moz. You belong here. –Krystal Ramirez
The Cosmopolitan has some nice ice.
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observe Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month with Ice Out Cancer Over Vegas at 7 p.m. on November 20, an evening of world-class fgure skating at Boulevard Pool's ice-skating rink. Ice Out will feature performances by Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton, British champion Steven Cousins, U.S. champion Kimmie Meissner and many more. It’s an opportunity for fans to get autographs from the stars, and even skate with them. Participants can also make freside s’mores, enjoy a variety of culinary tastes and experience a sprinkling of snow. Figure skating champions Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner will co-host the event, which will include a silent auction. General admission tickets are $30; VIP tickets are $75. If you can’t make it to that night of ice skating, the Cosmopolitan’s Vice on Ice industry skate night returns on Wednesday, December 2, with headliners DJ Vice and DJ Technicolor. Partcipants will be encouraged to show off their glides from 8 p.m. to midnight. –Tia Keys
ILLUSTRATION BY KRYSTAL RAMIREZ; ICE RINK BY ERIK K ABIK
November 19–25, 2015
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➜ The Cosmopolitan and Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation
MARKETPLACE
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SEVEN QUESTIONS
You’ve covered local disasters such as the MGM Grand fire and the Pepcon explosions in Video Vault, but have there been other incidents that are overlooked?
In 1964, a F-105 took off from Nellis Air Force Base, heading south and over North Las Vegas and lost power. The jet was going down toward Lincoln Elementary School, and everyone generally agrees that pilot Raynor Hebert stayed with the aircraft and rode it down so that he’d steer away from the school. [He avoided the school but] crashed into a neighborhood and destroyed several houses. Hebert was killed as were several people on the ground. If you can imagine that in 1964 when it was a much smaller city, that was the biggest tragedy that people had seen up until that point. You got a helicopter pilot’s license in 1991, but haven’t flown yourself since the mid’90s. Ever feel like taking the controls again?
KSNV Channel 3’s longtime transportation and history buff on drones, a plane crash that shook the Valley and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro By Paul Szydelko
November 19–25, 2015
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You’ve reported on traffic since 1988 and full-time with Channel 3 since 1995. What drew you to transportation?
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I was a junior assistant news guy for a local radio station, and they decided to do traffc reports, got a helicopter and assigned me to it. From there I found an interest in it and got more into the transportation aspects. Sometime in the ’90s, in addition to being a reporter, I became a journalist—which I don’t necessarily consider the same thing. Pointing out where accidents are is important and what the TV station wants to do, but it’s not the same thing as researching and interviewing and writing. That’s something that developed on the job here.
How has spending tens of thousands of hours in a helicopter over traffic affected your views as a motorist?
It’s easy for people to be angry and frustrated because we all drag in traffc, and people will say, “What idiot designed this?” But while there are mistakes out there, most people don’t appreciate the challenges that engineers and traffc planners face. … Many things could be done [to improve traffc], but the money’s not there to do them. The current traditional system of fuel taxes is broken. As cars are getting more fuel-effcient and we’re going to electric cars, that’s putting fewer dollars in per-mile traveled every year. There needs to be a new model.
Can drones be a useful tool for covering traffic?
Drones are a horrible idea as anyone who fies would tell you. It’s not a matter of if there will be a drone versus aircraft accident, it’s when. We’ll see if laws are revised whenever that happens. I hate drones. How did Video Vault come about?
Our tapes go back to 1980 (with flm back to 1975), and they rarely get used. I would go through them and once in a while use something for background for a story. People liked seeing this old stuff, and then eventually, I don’t even know that it was my idea, we decided to put a name on it and make it a regular segment. It gathered steam. Some individual stories
What’s your favorite Video Vault?
I was fast-forwarding through this video from 1981 and stumbled across footage of a plane on a golf course. I looked at it, and I realized that’s the scene in Casino. At the time we interviewed a boy who was playing tennis out there, and luckily they mention the boy’s name on the tape. I was able to track him down, and he was former Assemblyman David Goldwater! So we were able to use both 10-year-old David Goldwater and 40-something David Goldwater, put the two together, along with the real video from the actual incident and the movie footage. That was fun!
You’ve hiked Mount Kilimanjaro up to Gilman’s Point (more than 18,000 feet elevation). Anything else on your bucket list?
I’ve been to Kilimanjaro twice, and for different reasons I didn’t get to the summit. I’m considering going back a third time, but’s that’s a lot of time and money. I would also like to climb Mount Fuji. I hope to make a serious stab at that next summer. … [Closer to home] I also love Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. It’s just stunningly beautiful. You really feel like you’ve gotten away from society completely out there. It’s a paradise down there, and you see the world a mile above you; it’s one of my favorite places on earth. For personal achievement, climbing Mount Whitney—I’ve been there six times and gotten to the top three. It’s challenging, it’s quite beautiful and it’s also the highest point in the contiguous 48. And I’m not climbing Denali [in Alaska]; that’s out of my league, so I’ll have to settle for Whitney.
PHOTO BY KRYSTAL RAMIREZ
Tom Hawley
provide context and background [to current events]. For example, a young woman, Debra Anderson, was killed while crossing Maryland Parkway in 1980. She was blind, and she and her seeing-eye dog were hit [by an impaired, speeding driver]. To this day it affects people who remember her, and it felt good to keep her memory alive. It led to changes on Maryland Parkway [at Harmon Avenue], which ended up saving lives.
No. It was quite fun [to get a license], and I’m glad I learned how to fy, but if I never fy another day in a helicopter, it’s fne. I’ve got my helicopter thrills. … Maybe it would surprise me to say that 20 years ago, [when] what it was all about for me was the helicopter. Nowadays it’s much more interesting for me to research and write than it is to fy a helicopter.