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Read Vegas Seven right-side up and then flip it over and start again with Seven Nights, featuring after-dark entertainment and the week’s nightlife happenings. FREE August 17–23, 2017 « VAN JONES RISES UP / IMAGINE DRAGONS’ GALA TO SLAY CANCER / THE ULTIMATE MEATLESS BURGER»
CASINO CRYSTAL BALL
PARQ VANCOUVER
AN INTEGRATED CASINO-RESORT NORTH OF THE BORDER LOOKING BACK TO LOOK AHEAD
JON GRAY
COMES FULL CIRCLE
CASINO CRYSTAL BALL
7
Pictured PARQ VANCOUVER
Opening this fall, Parq Vancouver will create a Las Vegas experience North of the border.
FREE August 17–23, 2017
Martin garrix returns to las vegas
Home Away from Home
SEVEN NIGHTS
Martin Garrix plays Omnia Nightclub and Wet Republic. Photography MARTIN BECK
TABLE OF CONTENTS Ringmaster Willy Whipsnade and Peanut the Elephant in Circus 1903. Read the full story on the new production in Seven Nights.
AUGUST 17–23, 2017 TO DO
CONVERSATIONS
13 24/7
33 Van Jones
BY JASON R. LATHAM
The political commentator and activist brings people together with his We Rise Tour.
What to do around the clock.
14 The Deal
Doing the dirty. BY ANTHONY CURTIS
FEATURE
16 The Strip Through the Decades
Times change. Tastes change. So Las Vegas changes. BY DAVID G. SCHWARTZ
20 Round Two
Why Jon Gray’s return to Palms is a look ahead. BY DAVID G. SCHWARTZ
22 Parq to the Future
Paragon Gaming takes cues from Las Vegas in preparation for Parq Vancouver. BY DAVID G. SCHWARTZ
TASTE
25 Super Burger (Hold the meat.)
BY DIANA EDELMAN
26 Dish & Tell
The Black Sheep, Morels’ summer menu and Central European wines. BY MARISA FINETTI
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Has Had Enough
BY ZONEIL MAHARAJ
34 Lucky No. 7
What we would miss if we moved away from Las Vegas. BY WENDOH STAFF
SEVEN NIGHTS
What To Do After Dark Concerts, nightclubs, food and experiences. BY JASON R. LATHAM
Martin Garrix Is Never Not Working Global exploits lead the wunderkind DJ back to Las Vegas.
OUR SITES TO SEE
BY JASON R. LATHAM
[ Pool Tour ] Tao Beach remains a paradise for fantasy fulfillment. BY JASON R. LATHAM
[ See This ] Behind the scenes with the three-ring acts of Circus 1903. BY DON CHAREUNSY PLUS: Pool
parties.
VegasSeven.com Spend a Day in the ’80s For a trip back in time, we highlight local establishments to visit that have been around since before the dawn of the Rubik’s Cube.
DTLV.com Bygone: Downtown Dogs With National Dog Day coming later this month, we take a look at some of the pooches who provided love and companionship to early Las Vegas residents.
29 Imagine Dragons Aims to Make You a Believer
LifeIsBeautiful.com
The band’s Tyler Robinson Foundation throws its annual gala.
Five Sweet Treats to Eat at Life Is Beautiful These desserts will help you chill at the music and art festival.
BY CAMILLE CANNON
30 Las Vegas 2100
Imagining the future of the city, from rising temps and a sinking water supply to moving to Mars. BY JESSIE O’BRIEN
SpyOnVegas.com The Hookup Find upcoming events, see highlights from the hottest parties, meet the DJs and more.
31 What Republicans Should Have Known
Love or hate Harry Reid, he knew how to pass legislation. BY MICHAEL GREEN
Aug ust 17ñ23, 2017 vegasseven.com
7
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Photography KRYSTAL RAMIREZ
Ryan T. Doherty | Justin Weniger President Michael Skenandore &KLHI )LQDQFLDO 2I¿FHU Sim Salzman Vice President, Marketing and Events Keith White Creative Director Sherwin Yumul Technical Director Herbert Akinyele Controller Jane Weigel
TRY A REFRESHING PITCHER OF DOS EQUIS OR PATRÓN MARGARITAS!
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VEGAS SEVEN 701 Bridger Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89101 702-798-7000 Vegas Seven is distributed each Thursday throughout Southern Nevada. © 2017 Vegas Seven, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without the permission of Vegas Seven, LLC is prohibited.
Publisher
Michael Skenandore Editorial EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Melinda Sheckells MANAGING EDITOR, DINING EDITOR
Genevie Durano SENIOR EDITOR, LIFESTYLE
Jessi C. AcuÒa ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
Mark Adams EDITOR-AT-LARGE
Lissa Townsend Rodgers EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Shannon Miller EDITORIAL INTERNS
Michaela Chesin, Katie Michaels, Ryan Vellinga Senior Contributing Editor Xania V. Woodman (Beverage) Contributing Editors Michael Green (Politics), David G. Schwartz (Gaming/Hospitality) Art CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Benjamin Ward SENIOR DESIGNER
Cierra Pedro STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Krystal Ramirez Online DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL CONTENT
Zoneil Maharaj WEB EDITORS
Jessie OíBrien, Amber Sampson CONTRIBUTING WRITER, RUNREBS.COM
Tyler Bischoff Production/Distribution DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION/DISTRIBUTION
Marc Barrington ADVERTISING MANAGER
Jimmy Bearse Sales BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Christy Corda DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL SALES
Nicole Niazmand ACCOUNT MANAGERS
Brittany Quintana, Mimi Tran ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE
Robyn Weiss DIRECTOR OF SALES, BILLBOARD DIVISION
John Tobin
TO DO
Beauty and the Beast
What to do around the clock in Las Vegas By Jason R. Latham
THURSDAY 17
FRIDAY 18
Just as students arrive for a new semester, UNLV is holding a Public Surplus Sale with deals on used furnishings, electronics and anything else you might need. 1:30–4 p.m., Thunder Warehouse at UNLV, unlv.edu/calendar
Get your weekend grocery shopping out of the way early at the Downtown3rd Farmers Market. 9 a.m.–2 p.m., 300 N. Casino Center Blvd.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF DISNEY
Preview the entire upcoming NFL season as Westgate Las Vegas Race and Sports SuperBook kicks off the sixth annual SuperContest Weekend, featuring an appearance by broadcaster Brent Musburger and a chance to enter the “ultimate pro football handicapping contest.” 11 a.m., westgatevegas.com The monthly Third Thursdays event at the Springs Preserve includes live music, food and cocktails at Divine Café, plus a chance to check out its current astronaut exhibit. 5–8 p.m., $3–$5, free for children 4 and under, 333 S. Valley View Blvd., springspreserve.org And Downtown Summerlin hosts a free screening of this year’s live-action blockbuster Beauty and the Beast. Be the outdoor mall’s guest. 7:30 p.m., downtownsummerlin.com/events
Tonight’s free Poet’s Corner event at the West Las Vegas Arts Center is not just a chance to enjoy some spoken word and poetry; it’s also a chance to salute longtime host Keith Brantley, who is handing off his duties to LaBlaque Williams. 7:30 p.m., 947 W. Lake Mead Blvd., lasvegasnevada.gov Watch gamers compete for a $500 pot at the Grand Cup 7! FIFA 2017 event at Downtown Grand’s esports venue, Downtown Underground. Did we mention there’s also a happy hour? 6 p.m., downtowngrand.com Singer Rein Garcia will play a free show in the courtyard at The District at Green Valley Ranch Resort as part of its ongoing Summer Concert Series. 7–9 p.m., shopthedistrictgvr.com SATURDAY 19
Orleans Arena hosts “the toughest indoor off-road motorcycle race on
the planet,” as Endurocross rides into town. See riders compete against ridiculous obstacles such as logs, water crossings, tractor tires and firewood pits. 8 p.m., $27–$36, at Orleans Hotel & Casino, orleansarena.com
Center. If you’re unfamiliar, “cutting” has nothing to do with blades and everything to do with wrangling herds of cattle. Just like on Hey Dude! 8 a.m.–6 p.m., inside South Point Hotel Casino & Spa, southpointcutting.com
If you’re Downtown, you can kick it by the pool with a live DJ at the free Plaza Pool Nights event. 7 p.m., at Plaza Hotel & Casino, plazahotelcasino.com
Push back your morning workout a few hours and dive into bottomless Bloody Marys and mimosas for $15 at Hard Rock Cafe’s Acoustic Breakfast on the Strip. Tunes will be provided by singer/songwriter Nick Mattera. 8:30– 11:30 a.m., hardrock.com/cafes/las-vegas
And Las Vegas welcomes two big-time tribute acts tonight, but you probably have to choose between one or the other. Life is cruel that way. Will you see Beatlemajesty at Brooklyn Bowl? The Beatles tribute band is playing a free show at The Linq Promenade concert hall. 7 p.m., brooklynbowl.com Or will you see Queen Nation, a tribute to Freddie Mercury and company, at Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Resort? 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., $19, stationcasinosevents.com SUNDAY 20
Catch the last day of action (with free entry!) at The Mane Event IV Cutting Horse Show at the South Point Arena and Equestrian
Sam’s Town Live, which just earned our Best of the City pick for Best Place for Pro Wrestling, is hosting a WWE
Summerslam 2017 Viewing Party.
Catch the action with a crowd of fellow fans. 3:30 p.m., $5, inside Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall, samstownlive.com Learn the secrets of THC-infused skin care at the Puff, Pass and Pamper event hosted by infusion expert Kristal Chamblee. The BYOC event is being held at the CannabisTours.com headquarters. 3–5 p.m., 355 E. Pure April Ave., potguide.com/nevada
Aug ust 17ñ23, 2017 vegasseven.com
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24/7
TO DO
THE DEAL BY ANTHONY CURTIS
Doing the Dirty I HEAR MUCH LAMENTING REGARDING
Queen Nation
MONDAY 21
Missed your chance to play by the pool this weekend? Westgate Las Vegas is hosting Modelo Mondays at its pool, The Playground, with free entry, $2 Modelos and $4 margaritas, a DJ, games, giveaways and appearances by the ladies of its SEXXY revue. How can you say no to that? 2–6 p.m., westgatevegas.com Enjoy an evening of music, spoken word and comedy (oh, and beer, too) at Hop Nuts Brewing during the long-standing weekly Human Experience gathering. 6:30–11 p.m., 1120 S. Main St., hopnutsbrewing.com TUESDAY 22
The Clark County Library continues its Five Summer Blockbusters from the 1970s series with a free Smokey and the Bandit screening that you can hit up Tuesday afternoon. 1 p.m., 1401 E. Flamingo Rd., lvccld.org
Or forget the movie and opt for drinking at this month’s Tap Takeover Tuesday at Umami Burger, Beer Garden & Sports Book inside SLS Las Vegas. Eugene, Oregon’s Ninaski Brewing Company’s summer brews will be featured, and there’s even a two-for-one deal on $9 14-ounce drafts. 11 a.m.–10 p.m., slslasvegas.com It’s your last chance to see the Las Vegas Reyes de Plata (the Las Vegas 51s’ alter egos) as they host the Salt Lake Bees at Cashman Field. The transformation has been part of Minor League Baseball’s multicultural fan engagement program, featuring new names, uniforms and merchandise. The name’s kind of growing on us. 7:05 p.m., $5–$26, 850 Las Vegas Blvd. North, lv51.com
WEDNESDAY 23
Broadway smash and Tony Award–winning musical Man of La Mancha is being staged this month by Super Summer Theatre at Spring Mountain State Park. Catch the show before it wraps on Saturday. 8:05 p.m., $15, 6375 NV–159, supersummertheatre.org Looking for more stuff to do in Las Vegas? Check out vegasseven.com/calendar
Psycho Casino Beach Party WITH HEAVY AND METAL, PSYCHO LAS VEGAS RETURNS By Lissa Townsend Rodgers Summer festivals tend to be pretty mellow places these days. Lots of smiling folks wearing flower crowns holding their smartphones high, meandering from art installation to gourmet food truck as the hits of the summer drift on the air. Psycho Las Vegas, however, is nothing like that. For three days, it takes over Hard Rock Hotel & Casino with more than 70 acts whose fan bases range from cult to KISS Army. Attendees include just-outtatheir-teens fanboys and grizzled folk who can recall seeing Black Sabbath in Birmingham, England, couples from Tokyo and the bartender who works down the street. They’re not here to flash up their Instagram feeds; they’re here to blow out their eardrums. The lineup at the festival’s second Vegas installment indeed offers plenty of volume. For the headbangers, there’s the theatrical metal of King Diamond, the ’70s doom metal of Pentagram and the stoner rock of Sleep. The Melvins bring a fuzz-heavy low end, the Swans are dark broodrock, while the Murder City Devils push garage into punk and the Brian Jonestown Psycho Las Vegas Massacre’s psychedelic rock bends genres. Add in outliers like Mulatu Astake’s Aug. 18–20, funky Ethio-jazz and the art-noise-damage of Psychic TV and it’s a weekend with 11 a.m., tickets start something (weird) for everyone. at $99, Hard Rock Vegas Seven spoke to two of the acts playing this year’s Psycho Las Vegas, the Hotel & Casino, Melvins’ King Buzzo and Michael Gira of Swans. Go to vegasseven.com/melvins and hardrockhotel.com vegasseven.com/swans for the full stories.
the demise of free lounge entertainment in Las Vegas. We used to have 20 different choices for great free entertainment on any given night, but these days, the offerings are greatly diminished. Still, there are plays out there, including the once-a-week comedy show at South Point Hotel Casino & Spa called The Dirty at 12:30. Formerly known simply as The Dirty, this free show runs every Friday night/ Saturday morning starting at 12:30 a.m. (30 minutes after midnight) in the casino’s Grandview Lounge. The show has been running since 2013, and is hosted and produced by Gabe Lopez, who also acts as emcee for (and fills one of the slots in) the classic four-act comedy-club format. It’s tough to give a blanket endorsement to a comedy club of any kind because they’re only as good as the comedians who are on stage each night. But you can rely on a club based on the talent level that’s regularly pursued, and The Dirty brings in some big names from outside the local ranks. A couple of weeks ago, for example, the headliner was Chris Porter, well known in comedy circles. Porter killed it! Following two acts who were themselves good enough to headline, he did a solid 45 minutes, pushing the show to a 2 a.m. conclusion. This is Las Vegas late-night entertainment the way it used to be. Does the content live up to the name? To some degree, but it’s not over-the-top blue. And this is South Point, so you know that drinks at the bar are affordable, starting at $4 for a Budweiser. The combination of a good free show with cheap drinks draws a large, loyal crowd—many of whom are regulars, known as “Dirty Birds”—that packs the lounge. You can see and hear the show while standing outside at the bar but, for maximum impact, you really need to get a seat inside. That requires showing up about an hour prior to showtime to stake out your spot. Several of the South Point restaurants are open past midnight, so you can grab dinner before, if you like. Or get even more creative. A couple of miles north of South Point is The Bootlegger Italian Bistro. The Bootlegger has been a cool hang for years, with good free lounge entertainment of its own. Join the players club and get $50 in free-play after playing $200, which is one of the more juicy welcome bonuses in town. Grab a beer, listen to some music, play through the gambling bonus and order an appetizer or two from the bar menu. Right around 11, head up the road for The Dirty. That’s a pretty nifty parlay for a Friday night. 7 Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor and lasvegasadvisor.com.
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Aug ust 17ñ23, 2017 vegasseven.com
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The Las Vegas Strip of the Future Times change. Tastes change. So Las Vegas changes. BY DAVID G. SCHWARTZ
Looking at how the Las Vegas Strip has evolved over the past 60 years can give us an idea of where it is headed. We’ll survey what’s popular in three facets—gambling, entertainment and nightlife—by decade to give us a feel for how the landscape will continue to transform over the next 10 years.
1957
1967
Odds are you’ll be playing craps. Casinos also offer roulette, blackjack and Wheel of Fortune, but craps is the most popular game. By 2017’s standards, casinos in the ’50s are pretty small—less than a dozen table games and a hundred or so slot machines, which are strictly mechanical with flashing lights. The Jennings Chief, one of the most popular slots of the time, boasted a top jackpot of $5. So, if you want anything close to a pulse-pounding gambling experience, you are definitely headed to the tables. You won’t be betting on sports or horses, thanks to a 1952 federal excise tax that pushed casinos out of that business.
The dice are still big, but you’re probably going to try your luck at blackjack. The game has been around for decades, but since Ed Thorp’s Beat the Dealer (1962) explained card counting, players can’t get enough of the game. Casino managers, betting that most players can’t properly use Thorp’s system, are happy to oblige them (as long as they don’t win too much). Slot machines are looking a little brighter: Bally’s Money Honey, the first electro-mechanical game, beeps and flashes—and has a top prize of $50. You might also play baccarat or pan, a social game (players bet against each other, as in poker) that has migrated over from the Philippines.
E N T E R TA INME N T
E N T E R TA INME N T
You’ll probably be watching a revue show with a major headliner. Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn presented a typical revue in late October: Johnnie Ray moving a million hearts, not in mono but live in person, alternating with Joe Maize & His Cordsmen (“A rollicking routine of pantomime, music and comedy”), the Wazzan Troupe (“presenting an intricate and daring display of real Arabian acrobatics”) and the Cordolins, three violins and one accordion, all backed by Carlton Hayes & His Orchestra. You might also catch an adaptation of a Broadway play, such as Damn Yankees, which ran at Riviera. Most casinos run two shows nightly at 8 p.m. and midnight.
The Rat Pack has (mostly) left Sands, but you can catch Frank at Caesars Palace. This is the golden age of the showgirl. Most revues had featured a line of chorus girls, but in the past decade shows like Folies Bergere (Tropicana) and Lido de Paris (Stardust) put the showgirl center stage. Other casinos are competing with Vive Les Girls! and Casino de Paris (Dunes), Pzazz! ’68 (Desert Inn), and the classic revue is still hanging on, but it’s becoming less cluttered: Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé performed in the Sands’ Copa Room with comedian Corbett Monica, backed by Antonio Morelli’s orchestra and the Copa Girls, with nary a tumbler or accordion in sight. James Brown is headlining the Flamingo with Flip Wilson, Bob Newhart and Rosemary Clooney are splitting the bill at Desert Inn, and Woody Allen is at Caesars Palace, along with a guy named Frank you may have heard of.
NIGH T L IF E Mostly you’ll be gambling for fun, but if you need some downtime, you might catch a lounge act. You can hit Sands for Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five in the Copa Room or Louis Bellson at Flamingo’s showroom. The Desert Inn had two lounges, the Lady Luck and the one in Sky Room—a casino about a 10th the size of today’s resorts had three live music venues running nightly.
Aug ust 17ñ23, 2017 vegasseven.com
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Folies Bergere
NIGH T L IF E The lounges are still where it’s at: Little Anthony and the Imperials or Fats Domino at Flamingo’s Driftwood Lounge. Louis Prima is at Sands. It isn’t all straight from the (relatively) recent pop charts, either: Tropicana’s Blue Room features the Dukes of Dixieland. And there’s comedy, too: Shecky Greene and Don Rickles at Sahara’s Casbar Lounge.
COURTESY OF L AS VEGAS NEWS BUREAU
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1977 G A MBL ING
You’ll see many, many more slot machines. Since Jay Sarno opened Circus Circus in 1968 with slots taking a big part of the floor, other casinos have expanded their slot programs. It helps that the games are becoming more entertaining and offering higher jackpots. Over the past decade, the number of slot machines in Clark County has doubled. Pan is diminishing in popularity, but casinos—inspired maybe by the attention that Binion’s World Series of Poker draws—are adding poker tables; there are almost three times as many in 1977 than there were 10 years earlier. Keno’s still popular, as is bingo. The biggest change, after the growth of slots, is that sports betting is making a comeback following Sen. Howard Cannon’s successful 1974 effort to lower the federal excise tax. And casinos are experimenting with new kinds of gambling: MGM’s jai alai fronton is one example.
E N T E R TA INME N T
COURTESY OF FELD ENTERTAINMENT
Elvis has left the building—if you didn’t see him at the Hilton before December 12, 1976, you missed out. By now, vaudeville-esque revues are history, and most casino showrooms alternate between comedians opening for singers and singers opening for comedians. Liberace is lighting up the Hilton showroom, with Bill Cosby, Helen Reddy and Ann-Margret swinging in as well. The new Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts is hosting a variety of contemporary acts, usually for two nights only, including Joan Baez, Leo Sayers, Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn, Peter Frampton, Jimmy Buffet and Yes. Outside of the “big two” (Folies Bergere and Lido de Paris), showgirl productions, like the Sahara’s Pinups ’77, are still popular. There’s a new genre emerging—female celebrity impersonator revues. Kenny Kerr’s This Is Boy-Lesque at the Silver Slipper features an all-male cast mimicking stars like Barbra Streisand, Carol Channing, Cher, Tina Turner, Diana Ross and Marlene Dietrich.
NIGH T L IF E Lounges are still popular, although many are switching live bands for DJs who spin disco hits. The Maxim opened with “dynamite disco,” and the Landmark unveiled its 31st Floor Disco. You can still find more traditional fare (Rip Taylor, Lee Castle and the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra), but lounges are changing with the times.
Siegfried & Roy
G A MBL ING
E N T E R TA INME N T
NIGH T L IF E
The Stardust and Hilton have opened major sportsbooks, dedicating swaths of floor space to something that doesn’t draw big bucks but does bring dedicated gamblers to the property. The real money is in slot machines, which now bring in more money than table games for most casinos. High-rollers are keeping the tables ahead on the Strip, but no one can deny that slots—particularly quarter slots—are the wave of the future. The slot floor is both larger and quite different, thanks to computer-driven machines that, via the magic of virtual reels, can offer much larger prizes. International Game Technology’s Draw Poker has made video poker a casino staple, and Megabucks is letting slots offer life-changing jackpots. New table games like pai gow and sic bo show the Asian influence on casinos.
The showgirl revue has been given a face-lift. While Lido and Folies still soldier on (joined by recent arrival Jubilee! at Bally’s), a new generation of shows like Maxim’s Playboy’s Girls of Rock ’n’ Roll and Riviera’s Splash are shaking things up. For decades, magicians had been used to entertain audiences during showgirl costume changes; the Frontier’s Beyond Belief put Siegfried & Roy center stage. Headline entertainers are working limited engagements and tend to be of an older vintage. Tribute and female-impersonator shows are still thriving, and theater occupies a small niche, with Ain’t Misbehavin at the Sahara and Natalie Needs a Nightie at the Union Plaza.
Lounges have maintained their dominant role here, although it’s rare to see a performer with a national reputation (Sam Butera at Tropicana’s Atrium Lounge and the Treniers at Flamingo Hilton’s casino lounge are exceptions). Mostly, it’s piano (as at the Marina’s Crow’s Nest Lounge or anyone at Claudine’s Piano Bar) or talented local performers, like Class Act (the Holiday’s Atrium Lounge) or Starfire (the Hilton’s casino lounge). Good luck finding disco anywhere.
1987
G A MBL ING Blackjack continues its ascendance in the pits, although Asian games are gaining in popularity. A variant of pai gow played with cards, pai gow poker, is growing. While some games, like Red Dog, are fading, variants of poker like Let It Ride, Caribbean Stud Poker and three-card poker are coming on strong. Slot machines have almost caught up with tables and they, too, are changing, with video screens displacing reels. Branded titles, such as Wheel of Fortune, are becoming more popular.
E N T E R TA INME N T Showroom entertainment still has singers and comedians, but there are plenty of innovations. The Riviera, Tropicana, Harrah’s and Boardwalk Holiday Inn have their own comedy clubs. This is the age of the production show. Steve Wynn has done the most to shake up the entertainment scene, bringing in Siegfried & Roy to headline The Mirage’s theater in a high-cost, high-profile show. Magicians like Dixie Dooley, Rick Thomas, Steve Wyrick and Lance Burton followed in Siegfried & Roy’s footsteps. Wynn then brought Cirque du Soleil to Treasure Island; its Mystère was a different kind of Las Vegas show. MGM Grand countered with the stage spectacular EFX, which at this point stars David Cassidy.
NIGH T L IF E Most casino lounges still feature live music, with a tremendous selection available: dancing at Cleopatra’s Barge (Caesars Palace), big band at the Gold Coast Dance Hall, “island sounds” at Harrah’s La Playa Lounge, Cajun music at The Orleans’ Bourbon Street Cabaret, country and western at Sam’s Town’s Roxy’s Saloon and “Jazz on the Strip” at Riviera’s Le Bistro are just some options. Outside of casinos, you can party at The Beach or Drink. And, if you want to get onstage, karaoke at Ellis Island is your friend.
1997
The baccarat boom has come and gone; having gotten the Strip through the worst of the recession, the flood of Asian high-rollers slowed to a trickle after a 2013 Chinese graft crackdown. Baccarat is still the king of the Strip, though, retaining its revenue lead over blackjack, whose run at the top ended in 2009. Craps and roulette have held steady, and despite a proliferation of other games, there is no real threat to the “big four.” There are fewer slot machines, but technology is opening up new ways to gamble: Both online poker and mobile sports betting now have solid track records. “Skill games” that rely on more than pure chance have just appeared but have not made many waves. Electronic table games that offer blackjack, craps, roulette and other favorites without a dealer are gaining in popularity, as is stadium gaming, which lets players at multiple stations bet on a single game.
E N T E R TA INME N T Cirque du Soleil’s O
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2007
This is the best year for gambling on the Strip in history— today, Strip casinos still haven’t made as much from gambling as they did in 2007. Tables look much the same, although many casinos now offer party pits like Caesars Palace’s Pussycat Dolls Casino, whose slightly lower odds are offset by attractive, sometimes dancing dealers. Slots have a slight edge on tables thanks to several innovations that gelled earlier in the decade: Bill validators and credit meters made it possible to insert bills and play without cycling coins through machines, and ticket-in/ticket-out removed coins from the equation entirely. Led by Australia’s Aristocrat, slot manufacturers have rolled out low-denomination (penny and nickel) games that let players bet multiple credits across multiple lines. Despite a bill providing a framework for online gaming, it is not possible to (legally) gamble outside of a casino or other locations in Nevada. The first iPhone has just come out, and it doesn’t take a genius to imagine that mobile gambling might be in the future.
While magic doesn’t have the marquee value it once did, most traditional genres of Las Vegas entertainment are booming. You can choose from a variety of “resident” acts ranging from Boyz II Men to Wayne Newton, with comedians, mind readers, hypnotists and tribute artists filling out the roster. There are six Cirque du Soleil shows, Blue Man Group and the hard-to-classify Absinthe. Broadway productions have mostly folded, although musicals (including Menopause The Musical and Evil Dead The Musical) are still around. Burlesque and stripping shows are more popular than they have ever been.
NIGH T L IF E It’s a mature business now, with distinct segments. There are megaclubs such as Omnia and Hakkasan, pool parties from Tao Beach (The Venetian) to Encore Beach Club to Flamingo’s GO Pool. Light relocated from Bellagio to Mandalay Bay, and Drai’s from Bill’s to The Cromwell. But most of the old names have been replaced. Clubs have a lifespan, and it usually isn’t a long one. This trip down memory lane should tell us that it’s not if, but how the Strip will change in the next five years. Here are a few thoughts:
E N T E R TA INME N T It’s taken over a decade, but Cirque du Soleil has gone from outlier to juggernaut. O at the Bellagio, Zumanity at New York-New York, Mystère at Treasure Island, The Beatles LOVE at The Mirage and KÀ at MGM Grand give the Montreal-based troupe five Strip outposts, with Cirque alternatives ranging from Wynn’s Le Rêve to Blue Man Group (currently at The Venetian) to the Sahara’s Matsuri. Broadway is back: Spamalot starring John O’Hurley is at Wynn, The Producers starring Tony Danza is at Paris. Mamma Mia! is at Mandalay Bay, and The Phantom of the Opera is at The Venetian. Long-term residencies have returned with a vengeance as well. Celine Dion at Caesars Palace, Toni Braxton at the Flamingo, Louie Anderson at Excalibur and Barry Manilow at Las Vegas Hilton are a few of the extended-stay entertainers that, with production shows, now dominate the Strip, though a thriving undercard of tribute shows, comedians and variety acts provide something at every price point.
NIGH T L IF E The classic casino lounge, with live entertainment running all week, is on its way out, and nightclubs are rising. Light (Bellagio), Drai’s After Hours (Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon), Pure and OPM (Caesars Palace), Moon and Rain (Palms), Jet (The Mirage), Risque (Paris), Tangerine (Treasure Island), Tao (The Venetian) and Blush and Tryst (Wynn) are the hottest spots, but there are plenty of others: Polly Esther’s at Stratosphere, Tempo at the Las Vegas Hilton and Asia (Planet Hollywood) are lesser known today. Square footage not occupied by nightclubs have been turned over to lounges and ultralounges like Revolution (The Mirage), V Bar (The Venetian) and Tabu (MGM Grand). Led by the Hard Rock’s Rehab, dayclubs are making pools a daytime party zone. 18
Aug ust 17–23, 2017 vegasseven.com
Omnia
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL “O” BY VERONIQUE VIAL; OMNIA BY AL POWERS/POWERS IMAGERY
G A MBL ING
2017
2027
PHOTOS BY SAM MORRIS/L AS VEGAS NEWS BUREAU
G A MBL ING
Overall, more people will be coming to Las Vegas, but fewer of them will be gambling. That’s been the ongoing trend: From 2006 to 2016, the average gambling spend per visitor fell from $156 to $137, while the average nongaming spend grew $230 to $264. Casinos will be investing less, and more selectively, on their gambling floors to capture that smaller wallet share. The “big four” —baccarat, roulette, craps and blackjack—table games will still be here— they have lasted 50 years and don’t seem to be going anywhere. Expect to see more electronic versions of them and even games with a live “dealer” who moves cards while all betting is handled by touchscreen interfaces, but human dealers and chips will still be around, particularly at higher table limits. Slot machines aren’t going anywhere, either (yet), although they will continue to evolve. Machines have been getting taller and more immersive, with haptic interfaces showing up— these may be much more common in a decade. The number of machines will likely be smaller, as the number of visitors gambling and the time they spend doing so continues to decline. Most machines, though, will do much the same as current ones, with a few added flourishes. We’ll likely see more noticeable changes in machines beyond traditional slots. Skill games, though they haven’t caught on yet, may be much more common. Online and mobile play will likely graduate from poker and sports betting to all forms of gambling. This will influence the downsizing of casino floors. Most Las Vegas casinos built in the 1990s or 2000s were designed to cater to two kinds of players: “retail” slot and table players looking for a seat and a gamble, and high-rollers. There are fewer of the former and more competition for the latter, so expect casino floors to get smaller but devote more resources to courting big players. Thus far, casinos have downsized by expanding the number of small pods and clusters of slots. If gambling continues to become a more niche Vegas activity, resorts may replace gambling
space with other attractions. One of those attractions will be esports, not so much for their gaming revenue as for a way to drive foot traffic. Downtown Grand and Silver Sevens have already launched esports programs, and other casinos are not far behind. They are not a way to replace slot machines as gambling devices, but they can bring people on-site who will spend money in other areas and might even gamble. Other attractions? Your guess is as good as anyone else’s. Drone racing? Social games with added gambling dimensions? Competitive fidget spinning? It may take many tries, but Strip casinos are very good at finding ways to monetize their space—one need look no further than their parking garages for proof. These other attractions will be increasingly important because, if present trends continue, hotel rooms will replace gambling as Strip casinos’ primary revenue base. In 2007, Strip casinos made 41 percent of their money from gambling and 26 percent from rooms. Last year, those numbers had changed to 34 percent from gambling and 28 percent from rooms. Extrapolating out a few years, rooms will start outearning gambling in 2019; by 2021, Las Vegas Strip hotel rooms will bring in $7 billion, while gambling will pull in under $6 billion. And, by 2027, gambling will have just edged over the $6 billion mark, while rooms will be bringing in $11.8 billion in rates and fees. So the idea won’t be to build a decent hotel room to lure a gambler, but instead to find activities to entertain people who are willing to pay a high room rate.
The future of gaming: interactive skilled games and giant slot machines
E N T E R TA INME N T Here’s where it gets tricky. Ten years ago, continuing the trendline, every casino would have had its own Broadway show today, but they disappeared. Likewise, the last of the classic Las Vegas showgirl extravaganzas, Jubilee! and Folies Bergere, have closed. So just because something is flourishing now it does not mean it will continue to shine. But some genres, like magic and stripping, have shown incredible resilience, and they will hang on. Given the built-in brand recognition and relatively low cost of entry, parody shows (like 50 Shades! The Parody or Evil Dead The Musical) will likely also be around. Big-ticket entertainment will continue to be driven by marquee-name, sure-thing acts. But they’ll be competing with something genuinely new for the Strip—big-league professional sports. While resorts have hosted championship boxing matches since the 1970s and major MMA cards since the 2000s, top-level professional sports are new to town, exhibition hockey and basketball games aside. By 2027, Las Vegas will be 10 years into its new life as a sports hometown, and the option of attending a hockey or football game on or near the Strip will be as much a given as sequined showgirls once were.
NIGH T L IF E There’s no reason to think clubs will give up their dominance, but disco appeared ready to push out live lounges in the 1970s. While DJs have gotten the upper hand, it took 40 years. The big question is if current clubgoers will graduate to Vegas activities, which will help big investments in nightlife continue to pay dividends, or if they will simply stop coming to Las Vegas once they get tired of the club scene. Another possibility is that clubs will evolve to cater to an aging demographic. 7
Pro sports teams; Raiders Fan
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Jon Gray inside the new buffet space.
Round Two
Jon Gray returns to Palms Casino Resort and gives a glimpse into its future By David G. Schwartz Photography Krystal Ramirez
They say
you can never go home again, but it turns out,
that’s not true in Las Vegas. In late 2014, UNLV business management graduate Jon Gray left town for a job with Nike in Portland. Up to that point, he’d been climbing the career ladder in Las Vegas: progressively greater responsibilities at George Maloof’s Palms Casino Resort, followed by a term as general manager and vice president at Caesars Entertainment putting together the Linq Promenade. Working with Nike gave Gray some perspective on life outside of Las Vegas and new insights into how to build—and maintain—a global brand, but when Rich Haskins, president of Station Casinos, called to ask him if he’d be interested in coming back, not just to Las Vegas, but to Palms, he was sold. There was one call, though, he had to make. “I called George [Maloof, founder of Palms] right away. He said, ‘You’re the right guy for the job. If anyone can bring Palms back, it’s you and the Fertittas [brothers Frank and Lorenzo are the chairman and director of Red Rock Resorts, owner of Palms and Station Casinos].’” So, earlier this year, Gray, who started in the hospitality industry behind the front desk, returned to Palms as general manager and vice president. In fact, Gray and Maloof continue to talk regularly about Palms: “He offers his advice, tells me what he wished he could have done with the property,” Gray says. “I’m honored to have him as a friend and mentor.” It turns out there is no shortage of people whose counsel Gray appreciates. He sometimes speaks with his former bosses at Nike and mentions former Palms president Jim Hughes as well as Joe Hasson, Staci Alonso, Rich Haskins, Stephen Cootey and Glen Bashore of Station Casinos as giving him guidance. Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta have been superb as well, sharing both their deep knowledge of the casino industry and their vision for their latest acquisition. It’s a vision that Gray wholeheartedly embraces, one of a casino run by passionate people who are “hyperobsessive” about the guest experience. Other casinos in the Strip corridor can offer more options to more guests, but management can be removed from the customer; Palms, Gray thinks, has to be about people who care and who are physically present. “That trickles,” he says, “down to every aspect of the property.” Gray had a homecoming that made him feel like he never left: He still sees Manny, Darryl and Ricky at the bell desk, and Ronnie in the Public Area Department wasted no time in returning to one of his favorite topics, the Buffalo Bills. On seeing Gray for the first time in years, the first thing he wanted to discuss was the Bills’ latest draft, which Ronnie thinks has set them up for NFL dominance. That kind of easy rapport
is one thing, Gray says, that has always made Palms stand out. In the old days, Gray says, “What made this place home was that people knew that George was here. If something happened, someone cared.” Gray has returned to a property that feels like a microcosm—the wild ride that has been Las Vegas of the past decade. Palms, after its 2001 opening, became one of the hottest resorts in town despite its small size and off-Strip location. A starring role in MTV’s Real World and the successful rollout of one of the city’s early casino-nightclub scenes made it a must-visit for many. That success fed an unfortunately timed growth spurt that added Palms Place Condo-Hotel and Spa just as the recession was hitting its worst stretch. In 2011, the Maloof family relinquished their control of the property. During the next five years Palms was owned primarily by private equity, and it suffered from a loss of focus: The casino that once offered the best of both worlds to locals and visitors drifted from its roots. Since Station Casinos bought it last year, it’s made restoring Palms’ luster a top priority. Visiting Palms now, you can’t help but notice many construction walls; much of the casino is being renovated and they are making way for an all-new buffet. We can see a tip of the iceberg of Palms’ future in the newly opened Lucky Penny Café. What has taken the place of the former 24 Seven Café isn’t a reskinned Grand Café at Red Rock Resort but rather an unpretentious dining space that, like the menu, is equal parts comforting and cool. Gray is mum for now on much of the ongoing work at Palms, but he says that entertainment will be “a massive pillar” of the new Palms, pointing out a recent three-show weekend at The Pearl. A firstphase $146 million development plan will be completed by second quarter 2018. Changes will include: two new restaurants, upgrades to the movie theaters, renovation to the convention/meeting space, a new high-limit area and lounge, a new hotel registration and VIP check-in and a new low-rise exterior facade along with porte cochere and landscaping improvements. Returning to Las Vegas with a global perspective thanks to his Nike globe-trotting, Gray also has a greater appreciation for his hometown. “When I came back,” Gray says, “I wanted to be more involved in the community.” He is now on the board of the Make-AWish Southern Nevada, and his wife and children are involved in several volunteer projects. So while Gray will definitely help change the game at Palms, he and his family will also have an impact far beyond the casino floor. 7
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PARAGON GAMING HOPES TO SEE YOU IN VANCOUVER THIS FALL
PHOTOGRAPHY KRYSTAL RAMIREZ
BY DAVID G. SCHWARTZ
PARQ TO THE FUTURE Traditionally, Las Vegas has set the bar for casino innovations. In the past decade, however, that has changed because of the proliferation of gaming. There have been tremendous strides taken in casino design in Macau, as well as innovative games and systems on the floors of California tribal casinos. And Parq Vancouver, a soon-to-open British Columbia property, may be redefining the boutique urban resort. Boutique hotels have been getting hotter in Las Vegas, between hotels-within-hotels such as Caesars Palace’s Nobu Hotel, the forthcoming Park MGM and NoMad Hotel, and new projects like Lucky Dragon. They are also becoming more important to casino projects around the world. Parq Vancouver is on the leading edge of this transformation. Physically it looks not unlike a standard hotel tower: a very broad, glass-clad U. This design splits its 517 rooms and suites into two towers that house its two hotels—a JW Marriott Parq Vancouver (western Canada’s first) and the DOUGLAS (an Autograph Collection, also first to market), which is named for the Douglas fir trees native to British Columbia. It will have five restaurants and three bar/lounges conceived by Las Vegas–based Blau + Associates that stress regional cuisines and ingredients. Parq Vancouver’s positioning as an urban resort places it in the mainstream of global casino development. From New England to the Rust Belt and Asia, developers are downplaying the gambling floor and highlighting amenities. This strategy allows new projects to counter critics who fear that gambling-centric casinos will contribute little to an urban economy and attract few non-players. It also gives them
room to differentiate themselves from the competition, a crucial point in an age of—if not saturation—ubiquity. The emphasis on nongaming works, projects from Las Vegas Sands Corp.’s Singapore mega resort to MGM National Harbor have won praise and done good business. Parq Vancouver’s developer, Paragon Gaming, is a company with roots in Las Vegas that has, over the past decade, specialized in western Canadian gaming properties. Paragon CEO and co-founder Scott Menke is enthused about his company’s latest venture. “We just fell in love with the city,” he says. “It’s so diverse, with so much to do. We had an opportunity to build a property that would be additive, bringing a luxury hotel product and restaurants to an entertainment destination.” The core of that entertainment destination is the duo of BC Place Stadium and Rogers Arena, which host the BC Lions (football), Vancouver Whitecaps FC (soccer) and the Vancouver Canucks (hockey), as well as a host of concerts and special events. It’s the kind of synergy that Las Vegas is trying to create with T-Mobile Arena and Las Vegas Stadium. Paragon, though, is walking into a turnkey athletic/entertainment district. Its performance may help guide the Strip’s reaction to big-league sports. Menke is excited about working with the province of British Columbia and city of Vancouver to present what he calls an “elevated gaming experience” that includes all the amenities mentioned above plus something extra: “We want to bring the Las Vegas sense of community to Vancouver. We understand that to be successful, we have to be respectful to the environment and community we are building in.”
OPPOSITE PAGE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP:
Parq Vancouver exterior; Paragon CEO and cofounder Scott Menke; hotel room in JW Marriott Parq Vancouver; hotel room in the DOUGLAS
Parq Vancouver’s food and beverage program, helmed by Blau + Associates’ Elizabeth Blau and Kim Canteenwalla, demonstrates Menke’s approach. The food will be authentic to British Columbia and presented in a way that doesn’t bring Las Vegas to Vancouver, but instead brings the quality of product and service associated with Strip resorts to western Canada. Blau and Canteenwalla bring with them, Menke says, “a philosophy, not a template.” Menke is quick to credit Paragon chair of the board and co-founder Diana Bennett for her vision and investors David Goodman of Dundee Corporation and Paul Bouzanis of the PBC Group for their contributions, as well as the city of Vancouver, which has helped to shape the project. He credits Vancouver’s place on the international stage as a key factor in Paragon’s decision to invest so heavily in Parq Vancouver. “People in Las Vegas have not had the opportunity to discover Vancouver yet,” Menke says. “It’s only a two-and-a-half-hour direct flight. It’s got great connectivity to the Asia-Pacific region and a growing convention center. It’s becoming an international hub.” The numbers bear Menke out. Overall visitation to Vancouver is up 2.7 percent through May 2017, with tourists from Asia and the Pacific up nearly 14 percent. The city is likewise seeing impressive increases from Mexico and Europe. While Las Vegas still handily beats Vancouver in annual visitor volume (42.9 million vs. 10 million), the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority might be slightly envious about those trend lines. So don’t be surprised if, sooner rather than later, the Golden Knights and Canucks develop a keen rivalry—their hometowns have more in common than you might think. 7
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Su
r e rge
p Bu
ONE BITE
TASTE
r
The entirely plant-based Panacea (750 S. Rampart, panacealv.com) in Boca Park is packing them in, thanks to its healthy—and Instagramworthy—eats, as well as smoothies, juices, tonics and elixirs loaded with superfoods. From smoothies (like the Divine Feminine, complete with spinach, kale, berries, banana, dates and rose water) to the bowls and desserts, the fast-casual spot offers delicious, mindful dining. The piéce de rèsistance, though? Panacea’s Ultimate Burger, its take on In-N-Out Burger’s Double-Double. The patties are 100 percent plantpowered, made with a blend of lentils, chickpeas, farro and buckwheat. It comes topped with melted cheese, iceberg lettuce, caramelized onions, agrodolce onions, dill pickles, chipotle ketchup and a ginger mustard, all nestled in a toasted bun. It’s arguably the best plant-based burger in town, and it’ll cure you of your In-N-Out craving forever.
By Diana Edelman Photography Cierra Pedro Aug ust 17–23, 2017 vegasseven.com
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TASTE
DISH & TELL
The Black Sheep, Morels’ summer menu and
German and Austrian wines
F
or very selfish reasons, I’m loving that the southwest corner of Las Vegas is seeing some solid eats. One of the newest standouts is The Black Sheep (8680 W. Warm Springs Rd., blacksheepvegas.com). Chef Jamie Tran, formerly of the shuttered db Brasserie, has given comfort food a Vietnamese twist. The space is one created with love (and sweat) by Tran and her partners Andy Hooper and Jon Schwalb. Gray barnyard slats line the east wall, while across the dining room there is an assortment of white framed mirrors. A friendly bar displays a diverse selection of interesting and value-driven wines. Tran’s food is prepared and delivered with love. I recommend for starters the bao slider (one of the best I’ve ever had), created with house-made pork sausage, fried quail egg, crispy shallots, fresh herbs and jalapeño aioli. The Vietnamese Imperial rolls are like lumpia (Filipino egg rolls) with a serious attitude, made with Duroc pork, shrimp, pickled heirloom carrots, frisée salad and garlic citrus vinaigrette. Then there’s the spicy chicken wings—sticky, sweet, hot, salty and crispy goodness bathed in exotic tamarind flavors and accented with black garlic. The slowcooked short rib and Scottish King salmon in a clay pot are two very satisfying entrées also worth checking out. As evidenced by the triple-digit temps, it’s summer, but the cool thing that Morels Steakhouse & Bistro (inside The Palazzo, morelslv. com) brings to the table is its $45 four-course dinner tasting menu showcasing summertime flavors and ingredients. Available daily through Labor Day, choose a first course between fried calamari with spicy pomodoro or curry coconut shrimp. Next, decide on steamed Prince Edward Island mussels, beef tenderloin tartare with truffle potato chips or Snake River Farm American Kobe sliders. Then, fuel your herbivorous side with a choice of Marchini Farms radicchio salad, snap pea Caesar with red and yellow endive, Greek salad with imported Italian sheep’s milk feta or hearts of romaine with roasted garlic Caesar dressing. For the final course, choose from free-range chicken paillard; shrimp pappardelle; grilled petit filet mignon with potato galette, asparagus, baby carrots and sauce Bordelaise; or New York grass-fed sirloin with potato puree, vegetable ratatouille and sauce Bordelaise. I said it was a great deal, but I didn’t say the choices would be easy. Finally, keep chilling, because a thirst quencher is always welcome in the summer. And because it’s a wine lover’s duty to extol the virtues of genres that are underloved and/or still undiscovered by the masses, we’re going to talk about two. First, the Riesling: The great white grape of Germany deserves a few more sips to realize that it’s just too beautiful to ignore, and let’s just go ahead and make room for it next to rosés this summer. Its “sweet” reputation is not fashionable, you say? Never mind that, because you can have it dry, too. Look for the word “Trocken” on the label, which means “dry.” It doesn’t mean dry wines are better, but it will tell you the most basic detail of what’s inside the bottle. If you’re looking for other clues on the label, look for the words “Grosses Gewächs” or GG. These wines command enormous respect and are winning friends worldwide.
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By Marisa Finetti Photography Krystal Ramirez Speaking of which, try Von Winning or “Winnings” Riesling, as well as other top producers such as Dönnhoff. For a touch of sweetness, Chada Street (3839 Spring Mountain Rd., chadastreet.com) offers the 2015 Kreuznacher Krötenpfuhl Kabinett, which is a phenomenal introduction (or reintroduction) to Riesling and pairs well with the Thai cuisine. The other wine to drink right now is Grüner Veltliner, a signature varietal typically associated with Austria. Like Riesling, it’s also produced in an array of styles— creamy and voluptuous, sleek and snappy, sparkling, sweet and mature—these wines are true chameleons and very food-friendly. Most can be thirst-quenching, fresh and fruity with flavors that tease the palate with citrus and white pepper, greens and dill. An excellent Grüner Veltliner is the Nikolaihof “Hefeabzug,” which is poured by the glass at Lotus of Siam (953 E. Sahara Ave.). Also look for Berger Grüner Veltliner at Valley Cheese and Wine (1570 W. Horizon Ridge, Henderson) and Hofer Grüner at Whole Foods (multiple locations). You might as well grab them in the 1-liter bottle. Bottom line, these wines are the stuff of lazy afternoons, backyard parties and sitting around the pool with friends, feet skimming the water. They refresh the soul and animate the senses. Marisa savors with all five senses. Read more at vegasseven.com/dishandtell or visit her blog loveandrelish.com.
Pork sausage sliders, Vietnamese Imperial rolls and slow-cooked short ribs with yucca gnocchi from The Black Sheep
STAY THIRSTY
©2017 DOS EQUIS® XX Special Lager. Imported by Cervezas Mexicanas, White Plains, NY.
DO GOOD
Imagine Dragons Aims to Make You a Believer
By Camille Cannon Photography Eliot Lee Hazel
A
t the 3:16 mark of Imagine Dragons’ music video for “Demons,” frontman Dan Reynolds is shown singing with his hands on the shoulders of Tyler Robinson, a Utah teen and Imagine Dragons fan who lost his life to cancer in 2013. During his health struggles, Robinson became close with the Las Vegas–bred band and, for the past four years, Imagine Dragons’ Tyler Robinson Foundation has thrown the Believer Gala fundraiser to benefit families like Robinson’s, who have been affected by pediatric cancer. On August 25, comedian Joel McHale hosts the annual event at Caesars Palace’s Palace Ballroom. This year, the nonprofit is hoping to raise $750,000, nearly a quarter of a million more than the previous gala did. “We’ve seen a lot of year-over-year growth,” says Kim Gradisher, TRF executive director. (The inaugural gala in 2014 raised $315,000.) Since then Gradisher says, the foundation has been able to award grants to more than 300 families.
SOCIAL INFLUENCE
The band’s Tyler Robinson Foundation throws its annual fundraiser with a gala hosted by Joel McHale
“Our main goal is to take away their financial burden. We don’t want to just help out a little bit here and there, but make sure the families feel a deep impact,” Gradisher says. Families are invited to apply for grants by TRF-trained social workers at 20 partner hospitals nationwide—more are being added. Applications are then reviewed by TRF staff and a selection committee. If chosen, a grant of up to $12,000, distributed as $1,000 a month to offset non-medical living expenses for one to three years is awarded. Families also have the ability to apply for additional grants to cover travel required for medical care or “fun money.” Gradisher adds that TRF recently partnered with Merrill Lynch to pair grant recipients with financial advisers. “Our reach is outside of Las Vegas, but Imagine Dragons is a local band and this is where it started. We moved our headquarters from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas in January,” Gradisher says. She estimates that 70 percent of Believer Gala attendees are local. According to its website, the Tyler Robinson Foundation receives 53 percent of its operating revenue from the Believer Gala, with the rest coming from corporate sponsorships, merchandise and additional fundraising.
Believer Gala Aug. 25 Caesars Palace Tickets start at $750 trf.org
Preparations for this year’s event include a first-time online ticket giveaway with a grand prize of round-trip airfare for two to Las Vegas, VIP tickets to the Believer Gala, ground transportation by Tesla and a three-night stay at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. A single entry was free on the Tyler Robinson Foundation’s website and additional entries could be obtained with a $5-or-more donation to the foundation. Gradisher says the contest entry page reached about 400,000 people on social media thanks to a post on Imagine Dragons’ Facebook page. As always, the Believer Gala features an acoustic performance by the homegrown Grammy-winning rockers in addition to a preshow silent auction and reception. Honorees being recognized at this year’s ceremony include former NFL quarterback Steve Young, Fox 5 host Rachel Smith and the Children’s Legacy Center. Those who wish to support but cannot attend are also welcome to donate any amount to TRF online. 7
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SOCIAL INFLUENCE
By Jessie O’Brien Illustration Cierra Pedro
Las Vegas
2100
Imagining the future of the city, from rising temps and a sinking water supply to moving to Mars
L
ife seems as if it’s becoming a dystopian scifi or apocalyptic novel, with headlines like “Warming Climate Pushing Desperate India Farmers to Suicide” and “Elon Musk Publishes Plans for Colonizing Mars.” Luckily, cannibalism hasn’t become a mainstream diet fad yet, but according to renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, the future is bleak. In a BBC documentary coming out this year, Stephen Hawking: Expedition New Earth, Hawking predicts that humans will need to colonize another planet within the next 100 years or face extinction. Billionaire businessman Musk shares the same sentiment, albeit with slightly more optimism. “I do not have an immediate doomsday prophecy, but eventually history suggests there will be a doomsday event,” Musk writes in his paper “Making Humans a Multi-Planetary Species,” which outlines his SpaceX program’s plans on how to move to the red planet. Dr. Henry Sun is a microbiologist at the Desert Research Institute, a nonprofit environmental research organization in Nevada, who studies extreme environments such as the exposed mountaintops of the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. He uses the harsh environment as an analogue to Mars to determine if life there is possible. “Life is not going to be ubiquitous like it is on Earth, because Earth is such a good place,” Sun says. “You hear people say we should leave Earth and go to Mars—that’s a ridiculous thing to say, because even with global warming, even with pollution, it’s still a far, far better place than Mars. So we should try our best to preserve this planet.” But some may still want to leave Earth and take a chance as interstellar pioneers on a planet possibly devoid of natural life—a particularly enticing option for Las Vegans wanting to escape the heat. Conjuring images of Las Vegas nearly a century from now means taking a number of factors into consideration: politics, population growth and displacement, technology, wars and diseases, to name a few. But based on climate research, there are a few scenarios we can anticipate. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading voice on the topic, collected data from atmospheric and climate modelers around the globe. The average of those models suggests an increase of 4 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 (some estimate an increase as low as 2
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degrees and others as high as 7 degrees). “That puts us past Phoenix temperatures, pushing close toward Death Valley temperatures in Las Vegas by the end of 2100,” says Matthew Lachniet, a UNLV climate scientist. “We can survive here. Other cities survive even higher heat, but it is going to make it certainly less enjoyable in the summer.” Parts of northern Africa and the Middle East have reached temperatures as high as 130 degrees. Dr. Lynn Fenstermaker, research professor at the DRI and director at Nevada Space Grant and Nevada NASA EPSCoR, says that from an ecological point of view, the city wouldn’t look much different than it already does. Unlike the Joshua trees in surrounding areas of the Mojave, casinos and shopping centers can withstand the hotter and drier weather. “I think we are going to be coming up with the technological advances,” Fenstermaker says, such as more efficient solar panels, wind turbines and battery storage on buildings used to generate power. Some cities are already thinking of ways to stay cool and reduce the heat island effect—an increase in temperatures in urban areas because of human activity. In a recent Los Angeles Times article, “L.A.’s Mayor Wants to Lower the City’s Temperature. These Scientists are Figuring Out How to Do It,” there are certain methods mentioned that L.A. is already considering, such as using “high-tech materials”
on the pavement and on roofs that reflect sunlight and stay cooler. A simple and effective way to reduce heat is to increase canopy coverage. Increased temperatures could lead to using more power in the summer to run air conditioning. “I am hoping we will see more microgrids of renewable power instead of these big solar farms out in the desert [where power] has to be transmitted [to other places] over long power lines,” Fenstermaker says. But there is a larger ramification to rising temperatures than keeping the air conditioning on. Lachniet studies past climatic changes, testing stalagmite layers to determine hot/cool wet/ dry years. “One of the biggest things that I have learned from my work here is when it gets hot in Nevada, it gets a lot drier,” he says. “Those things go hand in hand in Nevada, so there is no reason for us to expect that [an] increase in temperatures is ever going to make things wetter.” With this in mind, the Southern Nevada Water Authority will actively pursue the region’s water resources for the next half century. According to SNWA public information officer Bronson Mack, the Colorado River, Southern Nevada’s primary water supply, will continue to meet water needs for the next 50-plus years. “Now, looking in that crystal ball as far as what the Colorado River is going to look like in the next 80 to 100 years, well,
POLITICS
What Republicans Should Have Known LOVE OR HATE HARRY REID, HE KNEW HOW TO PASS LEGISLATION By Michael Green SENATOR DEAN HELLER’S position
that crystal ball gets a little cloudy,” Mack says. The water authority knows that “nearly all of our eggs are in that Colorado River basket,” so a possible solution is to diversify those water resources. “Assuming that climate change and population growth continue over the next century, I would anticipate that we may see increased use of desalinated water,” Mack says. “Desalinated ocean water could provide drought-proof supplies to various areas of the country.” But he adds that desalination opens up “a host of questions that need to be resolved,” such as funding, energy use and environmental impact, questions that he says are solvable. The two major climate-change effects that are expected to have a direct impact on Las Vegas—more heat and less water—seem to be manageable for the next 100 years with new technologies, proper planning and innovation. But the larger issue is global sea level rise and the displacement of hundreds of millions of people from coastal cities. “If it happens very rapidly, it is going to be harder to absorb,” Lachniet says. Hawking and others project this could lead to global famine, disease, economic collapse and nuclear war. So while Hawking is suggesting our only option is to leave it all behind, some are still hopeful. Years ago, Fenstermaker met with Jean-Michel Cousteau, Jacques Cousteau’s son. “We asked him about what is going to happen to the continental shelves, what is going to happen in the oceans. And he said we might likely hit a point of crisis, but the human mind can overcome,” she says. 7
on health care reform—he’s against it after having been for it while he was against it—has become a contortionist act worthy of the Circus Circus big top or Absinthe tent. But the Republicans’ recent display of legislative incompetence also brings to mind Harry Reid and Ralph Roske. Now, let’s get the conflicts out of the way: Reid’s name will be on an endowed chair in the UNLV history department, where I work and Roske was my adviser at UNLV. But they are important to discuss because they teach us something about what happened. Republicans spent seven years declaring the Affordable Care Act awful because it was a job killer (it wasn’t), it would ruin private enterprise (it didn’t) and it would kill your grandmother (she’s more likely to die sooner without it). It needed to be replaced, they said. But in all that time they never figured out what to replace it with or how to do so. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell decided to force through a bill, whether to prove he’s a genius or because his wife is transportation secretary and her boss made it clear that there needed to be a bill, who knows. It turned into a circus that demonstrated—whatever your view of Obamacare, its supporters and its opponents—that McConnell couldn’t lead a one-man parade down a one-way street. Reid spent more than a decade as Senate Democratic leader. His longtime aide Adam Jentleson made the point that Reid’s caucus never surprised him in the way that McConnell’s just did. Perhaps it has something to do with McConnell gathering a bunch of fellow old white guys to write a bill in secret and simply emailing orders to the other senators. Reid actually talked with the people involved. Also, while McConnell only had to get to 50 and couldn’t, Reid needed all 60 members of his caucus to pass Obamacare (among other things) and he got them. Critics attacked the deals he made—McConnell was one of those critics—then negotiated and threatened both left and right to win votes for his bill. In the end, he lacked them, but went ahead. Republicans have long attacked Reid as both an evil genius and an incompetent boob. Of course, those claims can be compatible—you can be smart about some things and dumb about others—but they seemed to think he was a terrible Senate leader. That’s backwards: They hated him because he was so successful, and McConnell’s incompetence just brought that into even sharper relief.
All that mattered to McConnell was passing a bill, any bill. That was bad for him and members of his caucus, including Heller, whose indecision will cost him dearly. Republicans can’t trust Heller, and northern Democrats who might have voted for him out of regional chauvinism can see through him. Reid understood, in ways McConnell doesn’t or won’t, that each senator represents a state with its own unique views and constituencies. Roske taught that lesson, and wrote about it. In 1956, John F. Kennedy published Profiles in Courage and included the story of Senator Edmund Ross of Kansas, who claimed to have “looked down into my open grave” and buried his political career by voting to acquit President Andrew Johnson of impeachment charges in 1868. Roske was writing the biography of Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, another of the seven Republican senators who voted to acquit Johnson. Roske knew Ross was exaggerating. He published an article, “The Seven Martyrs?” in The American Historical Review, the Holy Grail in my field. Roske argued— correctly—that the claims their votes on Johnson destroyed those Republicans’ careers were wrong. None of them were reelected, true, but for different reasons—health problems, changes in politics, other issues in their home states. In addition, Roske used to say in class that if any of the seven had switched, another Republican would have replaced him. Although some Republicans wanted Johnson removed from office, many feared the fallout from that removal, from the effects on the president’s powers and the impending presidential election to possible changes in fiscal policy. John McCain became heroic in some quarters—mostly Democratic—for voting against a wildly unpopular measure that made no sense. Obviously, fellow Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski faced more criticism and threats beforehand, and it’s hard to keep from pointing out that two women did the heavy lifting and a man got the credit (so hard that here I am pointing it out). But McCain, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin all had been critical of the process in a joint press conference. It isn’t hard to guess that if Collins or Murkowski had folded, Graham or Johnson would have cast the needed vote, and they would have become the newest martyrs. We don’t know that, of course. McConnell clearly didn’t and should have. Reid certainly would have. 7
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CONVERSATIONS
By Zoneil Maharaj
VAN JONES HAS HAD ENOUGH The political commentator and activist is bringing people together with his We Rise Tour
Van Jones wants us to work out our differences. The activist and CNN commentator has become a champion for progressives with his impassioned speeches and critical takes. On the night of the presidential election, Jones likened the outcome to a “nightmare” and “a whitelash against a changing country.” Like many, Jones is heartbroken by the division and political mudslinging. But he is fighting back with his Love Army movement, and he’s bringing it directly to the people. The We Rise Tour, which lands at the House of Blues on August 19, brings celebrities, artists, athletes and community leaders together to focus on our commonalities and take on a range of topics, from prison reform to green jobs. While he’s tight-lipped about the Las Vegas lineup—the kickoff in Los Angeles saw the likes of Russell Simmons and Nick Cannon—Jones took some time to talk to Vegas Seven about his mission, finding common ground and those 2020 campaign rumors. What was the motivation behind the tour? The main motivation is
that everybody is so doggone sad and miserable and depressed in my world. I said, “Enough is enough.” Are we supposed to sit here for four years and be mad at each other and call each other names and hope America gets better? It doesn’t make sense. So I decided we’re going to go to 14 cities and we’re going to get as many artists and leaders and problem-solvers together for 90 minutes of pure inspiration, talking about how the country got off track—both parties need to take responsibility for that—but also talking about the areas of common ground. How are you going to get people on both sides to listen? And will they listen? Because I’m a liberal,
I probably will get more attention We Rise Tour powered by #LoveArmy 7 p.m., Aug. 19, $18–$64 House of Blues inside Mandalay Bay houseofblues.com/lasvegas Ticket proceeds will benefit the Dream Corps’ various initiatives and local organizations.
from progressives, but the reality is I have tough love for both political parties. The Republicans need to look in the mirror in terms of some of the bigotry and the bias that they have allowed to exist in their party. How can the party of Lincoln also be the party of Steve Bannon? That doesn’t make any sense. At the same time, Democrats need to look in the mirror. We have sometimes drawn our circle too small. We’ve been so interested in trying to protect those groups that have been traditionally left out—whether you talk about Muslims, LGBT, people of color, etc.—that we have forgotten that there’s a bunch of people who are being left out, especially some of these working class and rural white folks. We haven’t done a good job of being as inclusive, even as a party of inclusion. In this digital age, why is it important to still get in front of people and get face time with them? I
don’t care how many electrodes they shove in your brain and how many pixels they stimulate your retina with: High tech will never replace high touch. When people are in the same room, they smell each other’s pheromones, they’re getting each other’s vibe and energy. There are so many things that get stimulated in real time. … Part of our movement has to be virtual, but a lot of it has to be actual.
What is the Love Army and how can people get involved? Love
Army is a movement that’s trying to fight cynicism with solutions. We’re trying to fight divisiveness with solidarity. The bottom line is, the question we have to ask ourselves is: “OK, we don’t have to agree on a bunch of stuff. Now, are we going to turn on each other or are we going to turn to each other? Are we going to talk about each other or are we going to talk with each other?” Because if you go down the route that we’re on right now, you don’t have a country. It can get very scary very fast. I’ve seen other countries where things have gotten out of hand. This all sounds like a great platform for a run in 2020. Oh, my
God—no! I was in the White House for six months. I saw that job up close. I don’t know why anybody would ever want that job. What I’m trying to do is figure out how the people who do
want to run can get anything done. All my friends are running. They haven’t told me, but I believe that Cory Booker is going to run, Kamala Harris is going to run, Elizabeth Warren might run. My problem is: Can they get anything done if they win,
given how polarized everything is? I feel my job is to try to figure out a way to de-inflame the situation, number one, and then number two, create a situation so that people are voting for better Republicans and better Democrats. 7
CONVERSATIONS
ASK LUCKY A NATIVE NO. 7
We asked the WENDOH Media staff:
What would you miss the most if you moved away from Las Vegas? “It sounds simple, but I’d miss everything being open 24 hours a day. I love the convenience of picking up an emergency toilet plunger and noshing on tacos at 2 a.m. Other states take note: Nothing should close at 9 p.m. Nothing!” —Amber Sampson, web editor “The panoramic view of the Strip at night during my drive home. Even with all the glitter and glam, our neon kingdom spews off a certain tranquil vibe while observing Sin City from that far away.” —Sim Salzman, chief financial officer
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Aug ust 17–23, 17ñ23, 2017 vegasseven.com
“Living 15 minutes away from worldclass climbing, karaoke bars and a 24-hour Roberto’s.” —Shannon Miller, editorial assistant “The punk-rock swagger of the Double Down. The old-school style of the Golden Steer Steakhouse. The burger-sizzling charm of Vickie’s Diner. The bizarro Cheers of the Huntridge Tavern. Lounging in my pool at midnight, looking up at the Stratosphere, listening to the screams of roller-coaster joy and bungee-jump terror floating on the wind.” —Lissa Townsend Rodgers, editor-at-large
“The sunsets. No matter where I roam, I am eternally comparing their final fleeting moments of sunshine with our dramatic desert sundowns, and—all apologies—other cities’ palettes are simply never as memorable as any given day here in the Valley.” —Xania Woodman, senior contributing editor, beverage
“I would miss the weirdness of Las Vegas—seeing Batman buy cat food at The Market or Elvis exit the 95 in his pink Cadillac, the smoky 24/7 dives, the sensory overload walking through a casino to get to a mundane destination, the kitschy everything, the surreal sunsets and Red Rock landscapes. It’s all so strange here.” —Jessie O’Brien, web editor “The excitement of Friday night when the possibilities seem endless ... and the filthy yet sly regret of Sunday’s hangover.” —Melinda Sheckells, editor-in-chief
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