EVENT
SPREADING THE WORD ABOUT LITERACY
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[ UPCOMING ]
Oct. 18 Safe Nest’s 30th annual Domestic Violence Awareness Month Luncheon (SafeNest.org) Oct. 19 The Gay and Lesbian Center’s Honorarium (TheCenterLV.com)
PHOTOS BY JOE FURY
October 10–16, 2013
Once upon a time in the Venetian’s Lando Ballroom, Spread the Word Nevada bolstered its mission to improve childhood literacy with a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-themed soirée. Actually, that time was Sept. 28, when 350 people gathered for the 12th Storybook Gala, which this year honored the Tony (pictured left) and Renee Marlon Charitable Foundation. KSNV Channel 3 meteorologist Kevin Janison hosted the event, which featured a performance by Strip headliners Human Nature and a live auction by professional fasttalker Christian Kolberg. More than $300,000 was raised for the state’s largest children’s literacy nonprofit—enough to serve 12,000 children in Spread the Word programs over the next year. Now that’s a storybook ending.
Gastro Fare. Nurtured Ales. Jukebox Gold.
THE LATEST
Surviving the Meltdown
October 10–16, 2013
The Republicans look ready to implode— but in Nevada they may end up just fne
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IN ITS ATTEMPT to strangle, starve or otherwise maim Obamacare, the national Republican Party has proven itself willing to hold hostage both the functioning of the federal government, and—when the debt-ceiling discussion arrives later this month—the full faith and credit of the United States. In other words, the libertarian fantasy of a stateless state is very real to one of our two major national parties. Nevada Republicans are somewhat less dramatic, but perhaps more interesting: • The state party is disorganized and splintered. It ran up a debt, as Republicans invariably do. Robert Uithoven, who worked for the would-be presidential kingmaker Sheldon Adelson and former Governor Jim Gibbons, ran for state party chair. The incumbent, Michael McDonald, responded by attacking Uithoven’s supporters, including Governor Brian Sandoval and Senator Dean Heller—and then won the vote to keep his job. In criticizing Sandoval, he had support from the Nevada Policy Research Institute and other right-wing Republicans who think Sandoval likes taxes too much and blast him more than state Democratic leaders do. • Sandoval draws fre from his party for the very policies that make him seem reasonable to others. Research frm IHS Global Insight predicts Nevada is one of just three states that won’t return to pre-recession employment
levels until 2018. Republicans think that’s because taxes are too high. That leaves Sandoval trying to remind his party that he’s a great tax warrior, even though his centrist appeal comes from continuing the taxes passed in 2009. • Sometimes reasonable isn’t so reasonable. Representatives Mark Amodei and Joe Heck, who also like to present themselves as clear-thinking men of moderation, voted with all but one other House Republican to keep the government operating only if Obamacare were defunded. • Republicans are banking on low voter turnout. Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey of Reno said on a right-wing radio show, “We have some real opportunities in 2014. It is a great year in a nonpresidential election. ... Probably where we had a million voters out there in 2012, we have 700,000. A lot of minorities, a lot of younger people will not turn out in a nonpresidential. It is a great year for Republicans.” Sad to say, he’s right on the history. Republicans did well in 2010 not only because they were energized, but also because too many Democratic voters stayed home. Also, other Republicans across the country have said much the same thing, and even backed voter suppression to emphasize the
point. (Several Nevada Republicans condemned Hickey’s remarks.) Taking all of this into account, you would think that Nevada, a purple state supposedly headed for pure blueness thanks to its Latino population and its generally effective Democratic apparatus, would be on its way to an era of Democratic ascendancy. But it’s just as likely that the GOP won’t lose much ground in the Silver State. Political experts expect Sandoval to be re-elected, benefting in part from Democrats cowering in fear of him. Amodei’s district is becoming more Hispanic, but he should win. Democrats barely challenge Heck, a doctor, on his resistance to health care reform—or on the fact that he is one of the leaders in spending taxpayer money sending mail to taxpayers to tell us how little money he spends. Meanwhile, Hickey’s district has a 4,000-vote Republican advantage. For every lefty email blast I get attacking Republicans, I get at least seven from right-wingers calling Obama a socialist who will seize my guns. Republicans may not know what they’re doing, but at least they know who they are, and they don’t mind telling us. Democrats don’t seem sure who they are, and they’re paying for it. Perhaps they could use some Obamacare. It will be good for us and help us live longer. It might even help their spines. Michael Green is a professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada.
Dollar blackjack is back—and on the Strip, no less. The Riviera is dealing blackjack with $1 minimums 24/7. It’s currently the only casino in Las Vegas to offer a dollar game around the clock, but don’t get too excited. When I stopped by at 5 p.m. on a Monday, only one table was in operation, and all six spots were occupied. So but don’t be surprised if you show up and can’t get a seat. As expected, the game doesn’t favor the player—a six-decker with the dealer hitting soft 17 and natural blackjacks paying 6-5. That results in a house edge of about 2 percent against basic strategy, compared to 0.5 to 1 percent on most blackjack games. But don’t sweat it. If you’re playing $1, your expected loss is 2 cents per hand, or about a buck an hour. • More frugal gambling is available at Ellis Island, where you can play the Craps Happy Hour with $3 minimum bets from 3 to 6 p.m. daily. Plus, they’ll even pay for you to come play. Take a cab to Ellis Island and show your receipt to get reimbursed up to $20 in slot free-play. They round it up to the nearest $5, so you can actually come out ahead on this deal. Of course this offer is aimed toward Strip tourists, but there’s no rule against local use. • On the other side of the ledger, the players lose one at Casino Royale, where the longrunning promo offering 100-times odds on craps has been discontinued. It’s now down to 20-times odds, which still matches Main Street Station for tops in town. The good news is you can still get a bottle of Michelob for a buck at Casino Royale’s main bar 24/7, which gets my nod for best drinking deal in town. • Occasionally, a monster prime-rib special hits town, and this is one such time. Anthony’s Burgers & Brews at M Resort has a Fridayonly deal that includes a terrific cut of prime rib, with clam chowder, baked potato, vegetable and rolls for just $15. Hours are 4 to 10 p.m. • The M is also one of two casinos to institute new property-wide happy hours, meaning several restaurants or bars run specific specials. For example, Marinelli’s has half-price appetizers, while Hostile Grape offers wine discounts. The other happy-hour deal is at the Cosmopolitan and includes all of its awesome third-floor restaurants—Blue Ribbon Sushi, Comme Ça, D.O.C.G., Estiatorio Milos, Jaleo, Scarpetta and STK. There’s a happy hour somewhere every evening of the week, and all seven run concurrently from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor and LasVegasAdvisor.com, a newspaper and website dedicated to finding the best deals in town.
ILLUSTRATION BY JESSE SUTHERLAND
FRUGAL GAMBLING, A MONSTER PRIME AND KILLER HAPPY HOURS
THE LATEST
STYLE
Erin Cooper
Brand ambassador for Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum and portfolio manager for William Grant & Sons When I dress up … it’s a pinup-inspired look. My mom used to make me poodle skirts when I was a kid, and I grew up listening to the oldies. I fell in love with the music and then learned more about the culture. It eventually led me to modeling for Sailor Jerry. My frst tattoo … was on my hip when I was 18 after I moved to Vegas from New Mexico. All the work on my arms is custom—some of which was done locally by Austin at Studio 21—so it’s cool to know no one else will have the same ones. My favorite is a pinup girl dedicated to Mom for when she passed away seven years ago from breast cancer.
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24 Ladykiller Designs custom dress inspired by the Marilyn Monroe film Niagara. Manolo Blahnik shoes.
PHOTO BY ZACK W. SHOT AT STUDIO 21. HAIR BY SARA BRYAN. MAKEUP BY KELSEY FENNER.
October 10–16, 2013
When the eBay craze started … my cousin was trying to sell an antique toaster. He couldn’t sell it because of the shipping cost so I took it. It started a craze—I have about 45 now. They’re all metal and incredibly heavy, but I love vintage appliances. – Jessi C. Acuña
October 10–16, 2013
The aging emperor: Sarno in 1983.
Caption text goes here and here
PHOTO BY TK
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He’d gone home to his wife, Joyce, and the kids to get one last night’s sleep before the opening of his dream project, Caesars Palace, but he’d spent most of the night tossing and turning, sick over what was going on across town at the hotel. More than two years of planning, and so much was still up in the air. As he lay in bed on the morning of Friday, August 5, 1966, he ran through some of his problems. First, there was the money: There wasn’t enough of it. Although the Gaming Control Board had warned Sarno and his co-owners about having a suffcient bankroll before the place was ready to take bets, they had only $100,000 behind the cashier’s window, not $350,000. This was a gamble: With a run of luck, winners could break the bank. The casino would have to close. Then there was the airline strike. Virtually all commercial airline traffc had been grounded for nearly a month now. With the rates he was charging (Caesars’ lowest room rate was $14, well above the average of $9), Sarno needed to draw a wealthier visitor than Las Vegas had seen before, the kind of jetsetters who wouldn’t drive or take a train, let alone a bus. The Downtown places were booming despite the strike, and the other Strip
casinos that relied heavily on weekenders driving up from Los Angeles were limping along. None of them were as vulnerable to the airline strike as he was. Even if they bused people from Los Angeles and flled the hotel, it wouldn’t help in the casino. Without the East Coast high-rollers, without the machers, this might be a big bust. Third, he and Nate Jacobson, the casino’s president and the man who’d arranged much of the fnancing, weren’t getting along. They had an agreement: Jay would be the idea man, and Nate would be the money man. But each wanted to be the boss. Jacobson infuriated Sarno with his penny-pinching; Sarno’s disregard for the bottom line drove Jacobson nuts. Sensible adults who respected each other could see past these differences, but the tension between the two would-be bosses grew. Maybe it was because they were both self-described degenerate gamblers who fgured that one of them winning meant the other was losing. But, fundamentally, they just didn’t like each other. Fourth, the place just wasn’t ready to open. The night before, contractor Stuart Mason had given him an honest assessment of how much work remained. The casino was mostly done, but guys were still laying carpet in
the lobby. Half of the rooms wouldn’t be ready for another three days; the frst guests were due to arrive in three hours. Most of the rooms that overlooked the pool didn’t have their plumbing hooked up. Sarno lost track of how many rooms didn’t have all their furniture; several thousands of dollars worth of beds and chairs were still sitting in the parking lot. At least it hadn’t rained. Then there were the less immediate troubles. Sarno’s friend Jimmy Hoffa had nearly exhausted his appeals and would probably be sitting in prison in a few months. Without Hoffa’s help at the Teamsters Union, Sarno might be cut off from the loans he’d need to expand the hotel, and he’d be without a powerful ally. Right now, declaring “Jimmy says so” ended more than one argument. A few months from now, who knew? Plus there were rumors swirling in the papers that Sarno’s casino was overrun by mobsters, that a crew of Mafosi had already divvied up control of the joint. Had they? Sarno knew that unoffcial casino boss Jerry Zarowitz didn’t answer to him or Jacobson, but he couldn’t say whether this would be a problem. There were plenty of reasons not to go ahead with
PHOTO COURTESY L AS VEGAS NEWS BUREAU
October 10–16, 2013
ay Sarno was used to bad luck, but this was ridiculous.
Sarno and staff at Caesars’ Bacchanal Room in 1967.
NIGHTLIFE
balcony that overlooks the whole Linq. What are the other nightlife and entertainment options? F.A.M.E. is our Asian restaurant that has a sushi lounge on the second foor; they’re gonna play some really cool, loungey, chill-vibe late night. Chayo Cocina has a mechanical bull, and they have a DJ that plays to the bull; it’s just a fun party vibe. The Tilted Kilt will be a pub kind of vibe, with hot girls serving you beer. And you’ve got the Stomping Grape wine bar; that’ll be another chill environment. Flour & Barley is Billy Richardson’s pizza concept with craft beers—a good place to watch the game. And you’ve got the Yard House.
‘Mayor’ Jon Gray on the ride that will make the merry go ’round
October 10–16, 2013
By Sam Glaser
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AT 29 YEARS old, Jon Gray is already something of a Las Vegas nightlife legend. He worked at George Maloof’s right hand at the Palms during the 2000s, and functioned as the liaison between the hotel, N9NE Group and the celebrities that helped establish the Palms’ brand. In 2010, Maloof appointed Gray general manager of N9NE Group, where he worked for a year and a half before Caesars tapped him to become ‘mayor’ of the Linq project. Vegas Seven sat down with Gray to talk about the Linq after dark. What insights from your Palms experience carry over to the Linq? I got a great crash course working for George; he was always very involved in the N9NE Group and the programming, integrating the property with the nightclubs and the restaurants. Bringing the sense of an off-Strip property with such a great local following, we want
to bring that to the Linq. We aren’t just going to rest on our laurels and say, “We have 20 million people walking right by our front door, and we have the High Roller that’s 550 feet tall, and we’re at the 50-yard line of the Strip—if we build it and they will come.” That’s certainly true, but we want to create reasons for locals to come.
What will be the draw for locals? Live music is something I’m very passionate about, and I know that a lot of locals are as well. I think that will be a great driver for local traffc, but also for tourists to come out here and see live musicians playing actual instruments. I love the EDM movement, but I think there’s such
Where will we party and listen to live music? I think you’re going to party at Brooklyn Bowl, which is going to have a concert every night of the week. They have 32 lanes, effectively the VIP tables. You’re right on top of the act. It will be such an alternative to the nightlife scene today in Las Vegas, and really fll a void: a great local hangout to see acts that you can’t see anywhere else in town, as well as some really big names, too. I’ve been trying to balance that mix of cool kids coming, while making sure that it’s not intimidating to the masses that are walking right by. It accommodates 2,200 people and has two balconies—one really big one and then on the third foor they have a VIP
Will there be a DJ-oriented venue? There’s an opportunity for that behind the Linq, and then also on our Vortex, the very front of our project on top of the old O’Sheas/ the new Quad Casino. That right now is effectively a 25,000-square-foot roof deck. We’re still going through the conceptual design of that, but our current thinking is that that will be a great function space that can serve as a cool DJ opportunity, concert opportunity, weddings, private events and seated dinners—just a great outdoor roof-deck space with great views of the Strip. It’s an amazing space.
PHOTO BY ANTHONY MAIR
The Strongest Linq
a void right now in great live acts other than big concerts every once in a while.
Talk about the Linq event space. The open outdoor events space out behind the wheel is 19 acres that’s effectively our surface parking lot, and we fully intend to do temporary events back there. Music is a big focus for the Linq, so we’ll have a lot of great music festivals and concerts, but we also want to do some culinary events and fghts and other sporting events. … Another component, our central plaza, has a big fountain feature that we can cover, and we can do live performances on that as well. I really want to develop a really ambient programming throughout the Linq. I want it to feel like a cool, active street, and I think that our central plaza lends itself well to do that.
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
LIQUID
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PHOTOS BY JOSH METZ
October 10–16, 2013
Aria
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
XS NIGHTSWIM
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PHOTOS BY DANNY MAHONEY
October 10–16, 2013
Wynn
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
REHAB
Hard Rock Hotel [ UPCOMING ]
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PHOTOS BY TEDDY FUJIMOTO AND TOBY ACUNA
October 10–16, 2013
Oct. 11 Summer Camp Fridays ft. The White Panda Oct. 12 Nectar Saturdays Oct. 13 Sean Kingston performs
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
PURE
Caesars Palace [ UPCOMING ]
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PHOTOS BY BOBBY JAMEIDAR AND TONY TRAN
October 10–16, 2013
Oct. 11 DJ M!ke Attack spins Oct. 15 Almost Famous party hosted by Jack Colton
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
HAZE Aria
[ UPCOMING ]
VEGAS SEVEN
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PHOTOS BY AMIT DADLANEY AND TEDDY FUJIMOTO
October 10–16, 2013
Oct. 12 B Smyth performs Oct. 18 DJ Bamboozle spins Oct. 19 Turnt Up with DJ Pauly D
ENTS
PRES
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NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
HYDE Bellagio
[ UPCOMING ]
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PHOTOS BY TONY TRAN
October 10–16, 2013
Oct. 11 Eric D-Lux and D-Miles spin Oct. 12 DJ Five and Jace One spin Oct. 20 XIV Neon Circus
NIGHTLIFE
PARTIES
TAO
The Venetian [ UPCOMING ]
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PHOTOS BY POWERS IMAGERY
October 10–16, 2013
Oct. 10 A$AP Ferg performs Oct. 11 DJ Ross One spins Oct. 17 DJ Five spins
DINING
DRINKING [ SCENE STIRS ]
October 10–16, 2013
Ramos Shake Up
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HERBS & RYE owner Nectaly Mendoza is known for his uncompromising dedication to classic cocktails made the classic way. Uncompromising till now. The Ramos Gin Fizz can be the undoing of a place: a celebrated Golden Age cocktail that tradition dictates should be shaken a full 12 minutes to emulsify gin, egg whites, cream, simple syrup and lemon juice into an impossibly light, delightful fzzy froth kissed with orange fower water. As there were no Magic Bullets in the 1880s, bartenders took turns in a sort of relay that you can still see today at Vesper in the Cosmopolitan if you order yours “around the horn.” The trick is to get the foam frm enough to rise out of the glass like a souffé. But, Mendoza contends, the traditional method is fawed, and likely always has been. Up until two months ago, he’s
turned down orders for that drink, saying he was out of orange fower water. Why subject a beautiful cocktail to 12 minutes of unabated dilution? He broke it down and started over. Today, the Mendoza edition gets a quick iced shake, is strained, gets a quick dry shake and is then dumped hard over 1½ ounces of soda water. After settling, that is topped with another 1½ ounces of soda, and—boom!—a Ramos Gin Fizz souffé popping two inches out of the glass! No doubt, when eight-tops are ordering rounds at a time, Mendoza and his staff are both as proud to be able to offer the drink as they are relieved to use the Mendoza Method, which above all, he says, simply yields a fner cocktail. Watch Mendoza make a Ramos Gin Fizz his way at VegasSeven.com/Videos and get the recipe at VegasSeven.com/Cocktail-Culture.
Whilst warming the barstools at Herbs & Rye doing research on owner Nectaly Mendoza’s new method for making the Ramos Gin Fizz—incidentally, my septuagenarian great aunt’s favorite cocktail—I noticed that Campo de Encanto pisco is the only product on the new Herbs & Rye menu to be mentioned by name. (That is, outside of unique products that sort of own their category such as Bols Genever, Cherry Heering and Grand Marnier.) It might have something to do with the fact that Mendoza once flew down to Peru to help blend a batch during Encanto’s infancy. But Mendoza’s pisco knowledge is not limited to one brand. Indeed, the Peruvian government has made him a pisco ambassador along with the nine other American bartenders who recently flew down to Peru for La Diablada Pisco’s Become a Shaman Bartender Invitational, in which Mendoza took first. His cocktail, the Dia-Blanca, combined La Diablada with another Peruvian specialty, quinoa (after all, the United Nations has named 2013 the International Year of Quinoa). Also in the mix were cream, nutmeg, cinnamon, all-spice, bitters, condensed milk and honey, garnished with whipped cream and raisins soaked in Peruvian Amargo Chuncho bitters. La Diablada will become the second pisco named on the new Herbs & Rye menu, in the classic Pisco Punch, on October 11. That same day, I’m heading to Denver for my second Great American Beer Festival. Last year, I signed up so late that I was relegated to the frat party that is the Sunday afternoon session. This time I’ll be trolling the massive space during Saturday’s members-only session for brewers and homebrewers, hopefully tagging along with our local guys and gals to see what beers light them up. If you’re heading to Denver, check out the free festival app, My GABF, for Apple and Android. It’s as essential to navigating the 600-plus breweries and 3,000-plus beers as a pretzel necklace. If you’re not Denver-bound, but you consider yourself a budding hophead or beer nut, download Untappd, a sort of Foursquare for beer. It’s actually from the same designers, so Untappd enjoys all of Foursquare’s robust location abilities. Now you can brag to all your friends exactly which fresh-hopped Holy Grail of beers you’re downing at exactly which incredible beer mecca. Plus you can rate the beer, earn badges and post a photo of your smug beer ’stache. If they’re going to “toast” your post (like “liking” on Facebook), they really should have all the info. And while you’re in the App Store, download Delectable, which lets you scan your wine bottle and “check in” at that wine, tag friends you’re drinking with and where. Now if only there was an app for checking into cocktails. I’d be the mayor of Manhattan in no time! – X.W.
PHOTO BY KIN LUI
BIG PISCO PIMPIN’, AND CHECK INTO THESE BEER APPS
Night terrors: (clockwise from above) A shadowed Scorch prowls the courtyard; Reflecto, Hoopie Dinker and Flash get ghoulish backstage; and patrons huddle against the ringmaster outside the Circus of Horrors.
“reality isn’t PG. that’s why i wanted to do a rated-r haunted house. it’s a horror exPerience, so a horror exPerience should be Grisly. there should be Profane lanGuaGe. there should be realistic violent situations.” – JT Mollner the Mortuary after it had been dismantled. Economics opened Hell’s gates. This year, the Mollners are taking Hell’s graphic, violent realism and making it even more graphic and violent. With The Victim Experience, which is limited to five participants a night, JT
promises that fans will be “psychologically, emotionally and physically abused.” The idea originated when the family noticed that fans were waiting to be in the night’s last group because the actors happened to make the final round a little more intense. So the Mollners upped the
ante, made that last round a separate happening, and raised the price for Gates of Hell from $15 to $85 for The Victim’s Experience. So what does that extra $70 get you? That’s kind of a secret. But here are some clues: 1.) The logo for The Victim Experience is a red-hued draw-
ing of a girl being held by the throat with somebody’s hand over her mouth. Considering that touching is allowed, something similar might happen to you. 2.) Mention of one “high-voltage glove” was overheard in a backstage meeting. 3.) Russell Eaton, one of the frst “survivors”
backStaGE photoS by anthony Mair
VEGAS SEVEN
October 10–16, 2013
A&E
ates a carnival atmosphere, where guests swap horror stories and demented clowns torment those waiting in line. On at least one night last October, a collection of hearses spent the evening parked there. Both Castle Vampyre and Circus of Horrors are legitimately scary. But Freakling’s coup de grace, its dark crown jewel, is Gates of Hell. It’s an R-rated attraction, and guests must be at least 17 or accompanied by a parent in order to participate. This 3-year-old haunt requires written consent to be touched and cursed at without retaliation. Cardinal Sin—with his upsidedown cross and simpering predilection for young male guests—makes all sign a waiver before entering. “My filmmaking philosophy Freakling Bros. The is very similar Trilogy oF Terror to my haunted house philoso2321 N. Rainbow phy,” says JT, Blvd., 7-11 p.m. who spends (open till midnight the other 10 on Fri-Sat and Oct. months of the 30-31) Oct. 10-13 year working and 17-31, $12-15 in Hollywood. individual haunts, “I want to be $30 Freak Pass, $85 honest, and I for The Victim Exwant to push perience, 362-3327, the boundaries. FreaklingBros.com. When I make a movie I usually want it to be provocative, and I want it to upset some people. When you film something that’s realistic or reflective of reality it will upset people. Because reality isn’t PG. That’s why I wanted to do a rated-R haunted house. It’s a horror experience, so a horror experience should be grisly. There should be profane language. There should be realistic violent situations. That’s scary.” Gates of Hell is a success, but the Mollners weren’t always certain it would be. JT led the charge on this adultthemed haunt, and it was the 35-year-old’s first real venture in haunted house creation. He was afraid that if it failed, his father would blame him. Duke had apprehensions of his own. He 72 realized, perhaps too late, that they had dismantled a perfectly popular haunt, the Mortuary, for this wild risk. Duke went so far as to price the cost of rebuilding
A&E
MUSIC
RODENT PUNK, SINFUL ROCK, SWEET PSYCHE
How Punctuation Brings Perspective
Through shakeups, Brendon Urie sheds resentment and embraces his roots By Camille Cannon
October 10–16, 2013
FROM THE SUBURBS of Summerlin, Panic! at the Disco emerged as a glittering ray of emo-pop with their 2005 debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. In the years since, the band has shuffed their sound, swapped out several members and relocated to Los Angeles. But recently, frontman Brendon Urie has fallen for Las Vegas, and the band’s new album Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die! is his love letter to our city. Here the 26-year-old tells us why he’s celebrating life and the band’s latest effort with a homecoming at the Cosmopolitan’s Boulevard Pool on October 11.
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How is Las Vegas manifested in your new music? There’s actually a song on the record called “Vegas Lights” that I wrote as an homage to Vegas from a couple of different standpoints. I grew up in a strictly religious Mormon household so when I was younger, there was always a feeling that if I walked outside, something bad was going to happen. “Don’t go near the Strip, it’s not good” or whatever. I was curious then to see the debauchery. Now I’m witnessing it and being a part of some of the debauchery and seediness. Were you inspired by specifc experiences here? There were a couple of times in the last year or two when [before we got married], my wife and I were going [to Las Vegas] to visit family. We spent a couple of days to ourselves going to restaurants, going to clubs—something I had actually never done before. I dropped the cynicism and I was
like, “You know what, this is just fun.” I could have been the bitter hipster in the corner, having a beer alone saying “you guys are stupid for dancing,” but I didn’t feel that way. I felt like I could just jump in and be a part of it.
with where I’m at now, but there are songs like “Miss Jackson” that revisit old memories. For me, when I’m able to talk about stuff that I feel guilty about, it instantly clears it up. Putting it into song form is even better because I can revisit it with a melody that I love. If it’s catchy to me, I can sing it over and over without being in pain. MTV.com once said, “Panic! at the Disco seem to pride themselves in never being the same band twice.” As the frontman, do you accept that? I totally accept that. Honestly, I accept any criticism. I pride myself on writing records that are very different from one another. I want to make sure that keeps happening because it makes the whole process exciting for me.
Is that really Las Vegas on the album cover? It is! We drove out toward Primm a little bit just to get that whole landscape with the new stuff that’s popped up in the last decade and What should fans be excited for some of the old stuff that’s been at this performance? there a few decades. I wanted to [The band] has been talking have that scene. In the about getting as much fantastical version of production in as we can. Vegas in my mind, that’s PANIC! AT THE We pride ourselves on how I saw it. DISCO the live show and makIs it safe to say that this ing it an event, creating 9 p.m. at Boulealbum is a departure an atmosphere that is its vard Pool at the from the more broodown specific environCosmopolitan, ing material on past ment. Song after song, $26.50, 698-7000, Panic! releases? we don’t really let up. CosmpolitanLasIt is a celebration in So, be prepared to sweat Vegas.com. terms of being happy it out.
It’s been too long since I’ve enjoyed a solid Las Vegas-centric punk-rock compilation. The last one was 2007’s Merry X-Mas Dammit From the Double Down Saloon, 16 tracks of reindeerslaying tunes. (The Vermin’s “Santa Was a Cross-Dressing Nazi” is a classic Christmas carol at my house.) Since then, there have been a few digital-only comps done for charity. But SquidHat Records’ just-released Desert Rats With Baseball Bats is the best, most professional sampler in years. SquidHat is throwing a party in honor of the CD at 10 p.m. October 11-12 at Double Down Saloon. Many of the bands on the 21 tracks on Desert Rats will perform—Battle Born, Burning Agrestic, the Dirty Panties, Geezus Cryst & Free Beer, The People’s Whiskey, the Quitters, the Seriouslys, S.F.T. and Surrounded by Thieves. Admission is free and you can purchase the compilation there. My favorite cut on the sampler is the throat-punching “As the City Sleeps” by skatecore group Aluminum Falcon (who won’t be at Double Down). Hard-rockers Sin City Sinners have soldiered on in the casino bars despite losing frontman Todd Kerns to Slash’s touring band last year. With the band reduced to a trio, bassist Zach Throne took over vocal duties, doing a fne job. However, Kerns returns for one night only to lead the Sinners through a couple of sets at 10 p.m. October 12, at the Lounge in the Palms. The band will likely deliver their heartfelt ballad “Blow Up Doll.” OK, it’s not heartfelt and it’s not a ballad, but it is a great song about the artifcial way some people approach relationships. Fucked Up has been hailed for making two of the best hardcore albums—make that albums, period—of the last several years: 2008’s The Chemistry of Common Life and 2011’s David Comes to Life. Their name sounds amateurish, but it’s no stretch to label them the Radiohead of the punk world, since they can do no wrong even as they take musical risks. (David is a full-blown, hardcore-punk rock opera.) Fucked Up performs at 8 p.m. October 16 at Triple B with Tony Molina. The next night at Triple B, Vegas’ psychedelic art-punk outft Candy Warpop, led by frontlady Amy Pate, sweetens the deal at 10 p.m. October 17. The band is still riding a sugar rush, having released its frst full-length Transdecadence this summer. If you haven’t heard it yet, I encourage you to take a few licks on Warpop’s live set to get to the center of their tasty goth-glitter-grunge assault. The band opens for L.A. metalcore ensemble The Icarus Line, who are no slouches, either. Your Vegas band releasing a CD soon? Email Jarret_Keene@Yahoo.com.
A&E
READING
THREE GENERATIONS OF AMERICAN WRITERS: FEATURING GEORGE SAUNDERS 7 p.m. Oct. 15, UNLV Student Union Theatre, 895-5542, BlackMountainInstitute.org, free.
Author George Saunders takes us on a sci-f theme-park ride By Cindi Moon Reed
October 10–16, 2013
ON JANUARY 3, The New York Times Magazine proclaimed with the title of its cover story that “George Saunders has written the best book you’ll read this year.” Heady words for being only three days into 2013. Tenth of December, the best-selling author’s fourth short-story collection has lived up to its hype, but don’t take Saunders’ word for it. “I think if someone didn’t read any other books then that prediction would be true,” he quips. These 10 imaginative and very human tales offer a vision of a near future in which all our yearnings for commercialism and technology have been realized to tantalizingly dystopian results. Saunders—who once hitchhiked to Las Vegas in the ’80s and “had the ignominy of staying at Circus Circus”—returns on October 15 to lead a Black Mountain Institute panel discussion with UNLV professors Douglas Unger and Maile Chapman, his former teacher and student, respectively.
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Theme parks are a recurring theme in your stories. Vegas is like one giant theme park. Any thoughts about that? When I frst started to write after grad school I was drawn to Hemingway and to that sober realism. But I didn’t have much gift for it. I think I was meant to be a funny, comic writer. I found that if I set a story in a theme park they were automatically funny somehow. ... There’s something about being in that alternate space that was
so magical to me. I fnd setting it in those Vegas-like atmospheres helps my imagination start to run wild. It seems like the world has evolved to meet your sci-f visions. I can hardly keep ahead of it. I did a story for GQ, where I went to Dubai, which is a version of Vegas. I was thinking that our senses don’t really know from real or not real. So if it’s a fake river, it could be beautiful. In
What are your thoughts on technology since it’s so prominent in your stories? I think it’s great, and I think it sucks. … You can have it both ways. You can fully immerse yourself in [technology] while watching it carefully. People have always been what they are, and whether the technology is a club or a suit of armor that gets you all sweaty or an iPhone, I think people’s basic tendencies are so strong that that’s what’s interesting. Chapman describes your writing as simultaneously dark and light. I’d go with that. I’ll start with some dark proposition and
then over the course of the story I’ll feel the characters start to struggle a little bit to try to be better. If there’s any trace of worldview in my stories that’s where it is. It’s when there’s a ton of bricks on a guy and he wiggles a bit. Is the world dark or light? Yeah, it is. Our best understanding of the world is that it allows both things to exist, I guess, right? Yeah? I guess. I don’t know. I’m just making it up sitting here in a parking lot. What’s your favorite moment in the writing process? I’m trying to be an equalopportunity enjoyer. Whatever stage I’m in, I’m just going to go, all right, now I’m at the stage where the story is totally kicking my head in and I can’t get any purchase and I’m going to be OK with that. Any advice for new readers? They’re pretty dark stories, and some people fnd them a little cruel in their conceptions. But I would say they’re almost like lab experiments. Of course no actual human beings were harmed in the writing of the
stories. It’s an elaborate game. I don’t mean it as a linear representation of life as it quoteunquote actually is—more like an amusement park ride. Why short fiction as opposed to novels? I just don’t want to suck. I want the energy of the story to be high; I want the intelligence to be high. So far I’ve been able to accomplish that by paring things down, trying to tell them as quickly as possible. I’m working on something now that’s longer, and it feels fun. It’s the same principle. It’s made of a bunch of small pieces that are all pretty intense. Anything you want Las Vegas readers to know? The one thing I’m really excited about is that I’m going to be onstage with Doug and Maile. Both of them were so important to my development and my life. Doug was my teacher when I got to Syracuse, and just the most generous, selfess teacher. Then Maile came along once I started teaching, and she kind of transformed the program with her luminosity.
To read an expanded version of this interview, visit VegasSeven.com/GeorgeSaunders.
PHOTO BY CHLOE AFTEL
Future Tense
a way our senses are smarter than we are. I also noticed that there’s something geopolitical in it that I can’t put a fnger on. When you go to Disneyland or Disney World, and you go to the French Quarter section, it’s not like the French Quarter really. It’s like a hygenicized version of the French Quarter. There’s no winos. There’s no vomit. There’s something about human beings that likes that. It’s not necessarily a healthy impulse. They want the beauty without the complications. Again, I’m really just kinda talking. When I’m writing, I’m not thinking about any of this, I’m just trying to make a lively surface.
A&E
movies
bum (movie) deal Timberlake and Afeck should’ve folded on this online gambling thriller By Roger Moore
Tribune Media Services
whatever his other gifts, Justin Timberlake has a hard time playing “hard.” Ben Affeck has no hint of sinister about him. For director Brad Furman, The Lincoln Lawyer is looking more and more like a fuke, and even bringing in someone with gambling-movie experience—the screenwriter from Rounders—didn’t help. So the problems of the Internet-gambling thriller Runner Runner are many and manifest. A thrill-free thriller with no urgency, scanty wit and limited sex appeal, it plays like just a paycheck for A-list actors who should know better. Timberlake plays Richie Furst, a Wall Street dropout we meet as he tries to hustle
Who’s bad? Not Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck, who walk through Runner Runner.
his way to a graduate degree at Princeton. But the online gambling he’s using to fnance college fails him, and a little number-crunching tells him he’s been cheated. Somehow, he scrapes together the cash and the moxie to go to Costa Rica and confront the online gaming kingpin, Ivan Block (Affeck). Ivan likes that moxie, and next thing you know, Richie’s his right-hand man, crunching numbers, recruiting “affliates” to their Internet empire and making eyes at the boss’ babe (Gemma Arterton).
He has “everything you ever thought you wanted, when you were 13.” And then a rules-bending FBI agent (Anthony Mackie, funny) kidnaps him, and we wonder whose loyalty Richie will honor— Ivan’s, the feds’ or his own. Runner Runner is the sort of movie in which the “hero” narrates his tale so thoroughly that there’s little mystery as to what’s coming. It’s a static picture about a sexy world that robs that world of sex and pizazz with student-flm staging and camera blocking. Actors stalk
into a shot, hit their marks, make eye contact and recite (weak) lines. (“You forgot the eternal truth. The house always wins.”) A couple of scenes in this choppy, glumly edited picture work, but they involve “real” gambling, not the online kind, which is uncinematic. There’s barely enough gambling slang to dress up the script. Timberlake’s best moments come in scenes with Richie’s apple-doesn’tfall-far-from-the-tree dad (John Heard), who is the very picture of addiction.
October 10–16, 2013
short reviews
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Gravity (PG-13) ★★★★✩
The latest from filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón is a nerve-wracking visual experience of unusual and paradoxical delicacy. If your stomach can take it, it’s truly something to see. Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a medical engineer and newbie astronaut. Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) is a veteran space walker. They, along with their colleagues are wrapping up a space shuttle mission involving an add-on to the Hubble telescope when disaster strikes. The rest of the film finds Stone’s and Kowalski’s oxygen levels depleting while Stone attempts to reach something to hold onto.
Don Jon (R) ★★★✩✩
Joseph Gordon-Levitt writes, directs and stars in this ambitious, crafty feature about Jon (Gordon-Levitt) who’s somewhat addicted to sex, both real and online. When he falls for Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), who looks like a million sexual daydreams come true, Jon’s “real” life scuffles up against his “imagined” one as he becomes more of an adult. The filmmaking is impressively solid and the casting is spot-on in this modern-day lothario tale.
Rush (R) ★★★✩✩
Ron Howard’s Formula One film is based on the true story of English driver James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) and his rivalry with Austrian ace Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl). The racing sequences are well shot and exciting, but it’s the screenplay that rings a little hollow. Lauda is a sober, meticulous character, Hunt a carouser who must be taught, by life and circumstance, to respect his rival. There’s a gut-wrenching crash, Olivia Wilde in big hats and some impressive moments, but the drama just kind of goes around in circles.
As for Affeck’s Ivan, you never believe a word he says, not a gesture. This is the sort of acting he did in the sort of movies he made before he started writing and directing his own movies—bad. Let’s hope this was just a quickly forgotten bump in the career paths of our stars. And Furman had better hope Matthew McConaughey someday feels indebted for the launch Lincoln Lawyer gave him. This Runner goes nowhere. Fast. Runner Runner (R) ★★✩✩✩
[ by tribune media services ]
Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 (PG) ★★★✩✩
Every now and then an animated sequel comes along and surpasses the original, and this is definitely the case with Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. Enterprising inventor Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) is back. The island of Swallow Falls is evacuated by Live Corp., led by Chester V (Will Forte). But Lockwood’s food replicator is still alive and kicking. Strange and tasty things have been spawned on the island, food-animal hybrids of uncertain bloodthirstiness. Hilarity ensues. This is not your ordinary sequel, it’s great.
movies
Baggage Claim (PG-13) ★✩✩✩✩
Prisoners (R) ★★★✩✩
Battle of the Year (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
Insidious: Chapter 2 (PG-13)
The Family (R) ★★✩✩✩
This violent action comedy stars Robert De Niro as Giovanni Manzoni, who ratted out his mob pals back in Brooklyn and now has a $20 million price on his head. And he’s in France. Maggie (Michelle Pfeiffer), the long-suffering wife, moves with him to yet another town where they yet again need to fit in. And Tommy Lee Jones takes a turn as a government agent who tries to keep the family alive, and keep the incidents with the locals to a minimum. Director Luc Besson isn’t exactly comfortable with comedy.
★★✩✩✩
This sequel picks up moments after the first one. Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) is a demon-possessed family man. His wife, played by Rose Byrne, returns as his justifiably paranoid spouse, who keeps losing her children. This installment is a jumble. There are too many reliable gotchas, like an invisible someone playing the piano, closet doors opening on their own, etc. It’s no wonder director James Wan has expressed a desire to get out of horror for a while.
Riddick (R) ★★★✩✩
Vin is back in this installment of the Pitch Black sci-fi franchise. We open on a hot, scrubby planet, where our antihero (Vin Diesel), betrayed by the Necromongers, is left for dead among the beasts of the swamps. Riddick tries to survive in isolation, and eventually the bounty hunters, some old, some new, come for him. Especially good is Katee Sackhoff of Battlestar Galactica. It’s a simple, compact sequel, and it knows its goals and limitations.
October 10–16, 2013
How long before hip-hop isn’t cool? This is what worries Dante (Laz Alonso), who has to protect his music, dance and fashion by putting American b-boys back on top. He hires his old dance buddy, W.B. (for “Wonder Bread,” and played by Josh Holloway) to recruit and coach a dream team of the best of America’s best to take on the rest of the world. That team consists of assorted arrogant showoffs, including singer Chris Brown in the role of Rooster. You’ve seen this before, but this one’s OK.
In this dark well-made thriller, Keller Dover’s (Hugh Jackman) daughter and her friend go missing in the Pennsylvania woods on Thanksgiving. At first they seem more misplaced than lost. A frantic search ensues. No one is found. The police are brought in, notably Det. Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal), who gets goaded into action by Dover. Paul Dano worms around as Alex, the chief suspect. Keller becomes judge, jury and potential executioner when he kidnaps Alex. An impressive film with great performances.
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In this strained and cliché rom-com, Paula Patton plays Montana, a flight attendant so incensed by her younger sister’s engagement that she vows to find a wed-able date to take to that sister’s nuptials. Her besties (Adam Brody, Jill Scott, etc.) use their professional connections to hurl Montana in the path of her most promising exes, by way of ticket tracking and jumping through the security line. Patton tries incredibly too hard, and the film is just not good.
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At what point did you know that you could really play the game? When I was 11, I played in my frst tournament, and to that point I had never played with anybody my own age. The frst hole we played was like a 250-yard par-4, and I drove the green—I used to hit it a long way when I was a little kid because I played baseball, and I just ripped it, just hit it as hard as I could—and two-putted for birdie. I didn’t know if I was any good at that point—I had no clue. I had only played with my dad. I won the tournament, and I was like, “Ah, this is kind of fun. I like this.” Obviously, I didn’t win the next tournament. Or the next one. Or the next one. Still, from that point on, I was hooked.
October 10–16, 2013
Ryan Moore
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The former UNLV star and defending Shriners Open champ on his early success, impressing Tiger Woods and why you’re not the big hitter you think you are By Matt Jacob
NEARLY A DECADE into his career, Ryan Moore has yet to get his hands on one of the PGA Tour’s four major championship trophies. However, the Las Vegas resident can at least lay claim to the next best thing: A year ago, Moore—the most decorated golfer in UNLV history—shot a course-record-tying, 10-under-par 61 in the opening round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin, and rode that hot start to the tournament title. That his second career PGA Tour victory came just a couple of weeks before the birth of his frst child was even more cause for celebration. “It was just an amazing October,” says Moore, who will try to defend his title when the Shriners Open returns to TPC Summerlin on October 17-20. “This is the one tournament I would’ve played forever until I won it—the one I wanted to win almost as much as any other. I think any of us UNLV guys feel that way about it.”
As a junior at UNLV in 2004, you won every signifcant amateur title, including the U.S. Amateur and NCAA championship. Nearly a decade later, do you appreciate those accomplishments more than you did at the time? Oh, absolutely. It’s kind of funny in that I played with Tiger at the fnal round of the [Deutsche Bank Championship in September], and he was asking about my amateur days, “Man, did you win this one? Did you win that one, too?” To have someone like that who noticed and remembers that 10 years later, that means you had a pretty spectacular year. Obviously, it’s hard for me to live up to it professionally, unless I have a year in which I win a couple of majors and a few other tournaments.
Speaking of majors, the Masters, the British Open or the U.S. Open—what’s the most challenging, and which do you most want to win? Challenging, it depends on the conditions. The U.S. Open is generally the most diffcult. The British Open, it just depends on the setup and the wind—so many factors; it can play really easy depending on what happens with the weather. As far as the one I want to win, probably the Masters. There’s just something about that place—I love the event, I love the course. And if you win it, you get to go back every year. That’s nice. Most important attribute for a successful golfer: physical ability or mental toughness? Well, there’s a certain balance of both. If you don’t have the physical ability, it doesn’t matter how good you think around the golf course if you’re not hitting good shots. [Laughs.] I’m usually pretty good mentally, but if I hit a terrible shot, it’s not going to help that I was mentally focused. But once you get to this level and you physically have the gifts and talents to win golf tournaments, it’s defnitely mental at that point—just being able to stay composed and make good decisions for 72 holes, and you’re out there all day long, a lot of times in severe heat and humidity. It’s hard to explain how tired you are by the end of a four-day event. What’s the best advice you can give to the 20-handicap weekend duffer who just wants to get down to, say, an 18-handicap? Hit more club. I play in pro-ams every single week, and the one thing in common [with amateurs] is everybody comes up short, all the time. Just because you’ve hit your 8-iron 160 yards one time doesn’t mean that’s how far you hit your 8-iron every time. ... You actually probably hit it more like 145 yards most of the time. So [expect to] hit it 145. If you happen to hit it over the green a couple of times, that’s OK; that’s not going to kill you. Coming up short every time, that’s going to kill you. Good advice—well, that and put down the beers, right? No, absolutely not. Have more beers. Enjoy it. Golf is for fun. Don’t take it too seriously.
PHOTO BY ANDREW JAMES
7 QUESTIONS
You learned the game from your father at an age when most of us barely know how to walk. Do you remember what the appeal was early on? I wanted to be like my dad, and as soon as I could pick up a golf club and carry it around and hit shots—I walked around my house with a club in my hands at all times. I played a lot of other sports— baseball, basketball, soccer. But golf had a different place in my mind. Maybe it was the individual aspect of it—it was all on me; it was all on my shoulders, and there was a part of me that liked that. I didn’t have anyone else to blame. Either I won or I didn’t, and if I didn’t, it was my fault.