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We've been talking renaissance for two years already, but in 2014 the influence of Zappos and the Downtown Project (complete with flame-shooting praying mantis) will truly reshape the place Plus: Hope for the Rebels, Holiday Gift Guide, Fictional Casinos
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SATURDAY
JAN 18SUNDAY
JAN 19FRIDAY
JAN 31SUNDAY
DEC 29
N E W Y E A R ’ S E V E W E E K E N D
SATURDAY
FEBRUARY 15
T I C K E T S O N S A L E F R I D A Y A T N O O N
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ON THE COVER
Photos by Ryan Olbrysh
DEPARTMENTS
11 | Dialogue
15 | Seven Days
18 | Gossip
20 | Going for Broke
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2614 | THE LATESTSeeds of hope for UNLV basketball and serious money for an urban design competition. Plus, Ask a Native, The Look, The Deal and Tweets of the Week.
16 | Next Exit“Truth, Guilt and Forgiveness,” by Stacy J. Willis.Thoughts on the power of words to wound—and to heal.
20 | Sports“The Bennett Perspective,” by Matt Jacob.Can former UNLV star and NBA top draft pick Anthony Bennett turn around his disastrous rookie season?
22 | Politics“Harry Reid’s Very Good Year,” by Michael Green. Love him or hate him, it’s hard not to admit that the senator from Search-light had the wind at his back in 2013.
24 | Style“Gift Bag.”A hearty helping of holiday cheer for him and for her.
26 | COVER“Downtown: Year One,” by Geoff Carter.Why 2014 might mark the real beginning of Tony Hsieh’s renaissance—and what that means for the rest of us.
33 | NIGHTLIFE Seven Nights, a look at three spots that keep the winter days sizzling, and photos from the week’s parties.
57 | DINING Max Jacobson on Stewart + Ogden. Plus, Diner’s Notebook, bartending runs in the Cooper family, and The Grape Nut.
63 | A&E“Art House Advantage,” by Jason Scavone.We used math to find the real takes of fake casinos.
66 | MusicJarret Keene’s Soundscraper, CD reviews and our concert pages.
70 | Pop Culture“Cat Got His Tweet,” by Jason Scavone.The world lost a voice of honest irony when Deadmau5 left Twitter.
72 | MoviesOut of the Furnace, The Ghosts in Our Machine and movie capsules.
86 | Seven QuestionsDr. Jeffrey Cummings of the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health on research progress for Alzheimer’s, studying fighters and how he feeds his brain.
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letters and story ideas
advertising
distribution
PublisHed in assoCiation WitH tHe observer Media grouP
Copyright 2013 Vegas Seven, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without the permission of Vegas Seven, LLC is prohibited.
Vegas Seven, 888-792-5877, 3070 West Post Road, Las Vegas, NV 89118
las Vegas’ weekly City magazineFounDeD February 2010
PublisherMichael Skenandore
editorialeDitor Greg Blake Miller
senior eDitors Matt Jacob (news and sports), Xania Woodman (nightlife, beverage and dining)a&e eDitor Cindi Reed
senior writers Geoff Carter, Heidi Kyser, Stacy J. Willis Copy ChieF Paul Szydelko
assoCiate eDitors Steve Bornfeld, Sean DeFrankassoCiate style eDitor Jessica AcuñaCalenDar CoorDinator Camille Cannon
Contributing editorsMelinda Sheckells, style; Sam Glaser, nightlife; Michael Green, politics;
Max Jacobson, food; Jarret Keene, music; David G. Schwartz, gaming/hospitality
artCreatiVe DireCtor Ryan Olbrysh
art DireCtor Christopher A. JonesgraphiC Designer Jesse J SutherlandstaFF photographer Anthony Mair
VegasseVen.ComDeputy DireCtor Felicia Mello
teChniCal DireCtor Herbert AkinyeleeDitor Jason Scavone
interaCtiVe proDuCer Nicole ElystaFF writer, runrebs.Com Mike Grimala
ProduCtion/distributionDireCtor oF proDuCtion/Distribution Marc Barrington
aDVertising manager Jimmy BearseDistribution CoorDinator Jasen Ono
salesbusiness DeVelopment DireCtor Christy Corda
aCCount manager Brittany QuintanaaCCount serViCe manager Nicole Bullis
aCCount exeCutiVe Robyn Weiss
internsAdam Culler, Devin Howell, Susanna Kelly, Allison Kyler, Tye Masters, John Schmitz
Wendoh media ComPaniesRyan T. Doherty | Justin Weniger
presiDent Michael SkenandoreViCe presiDent, marketing anD eVents Kyle Markman
eDitorial DireCtor Phil HagenCreatiVe DireCtor Sherwin Yumul
marketing CoorDinator Maureen Hank
FinanCeChieF FinanCial oFFiCer Kevin J. Woodward
assistant Controller Donna Nollsgeneral aCCounting manager Erica Carpino
Follow Us!Facebook.com/VegasSeven
Twitter.com/7Vegas
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This week @ VegasseVen.com
Rebels, Thunderbirds and Highlanders Follow Mike Grimala’s live coverage and pre- and postgame analysis as the UNLV men’s basketball team travels to Southern Utah for a matchup on De-cember 14 before coming home to play Radford (Va.) on December 18.
Wi-Fi for the MassesCities from Los Angeles to Kansas City are working to speed up their public wireless networks, and now Down-town Las Vegas has gotten into the act. The area’s free wireless Internet experiment has plans to increase both its speed and its reach: Could it be coming to your neighborhood soon? Find out at DTLV.com/WiFi.
Musings on MunchiesLas Vegas’ dining scene bursts with so much activity, it’s hard to keep up. Get the latest news on restau-rant openings, menu makeovers and more at VegasSeven.com/Dishing-WithGrace, plus answers to all your foodie questions from critic Max Ja-cobson at VegasSeven.com/AskMax.
A Family-Friendly Strip? Twenty Years Later, the Debate Goes On
“From the Emerald City to Pharaoh’s Tomb,” David G. Schwartz’s December 5 fea-ture on the legacy of Luxor, Treasure Island and the MGM Grand—each of which opened 20 years ago—set off a discus-sion among readers about whether there’s still a place for family-friendly entertainment on the Strip.
Some lamented the demise of attractions such as MGM’s Grand Adventures theme park and Treasure Island’s original pirate show. “The Strip … doesn’t have to be for kids, but they don’t have to kill the personality of the area,” wrote reader Guy Chapman. “Grown-up versions of castles, pyramids, pirate ships ... all of these places were differ-ent and lots of fun for ‘big kids.’ Now it’s all continually being stripped out for overpriced retail shops.”
“This article is so good, it makes me sad,” wrote one commenter. “Am I old? I was there, remember the early-’90s boom and miss it—the excitement, the newness of it all. I’m not fearful of change or progress, but the familiarity of home is slowly eroding away.”
Others were more pragmatic: “Kids don’t gamble, don’t see shows, don’t get bottle service, don’t shop at Crystals,” Mindy Clark wrote. “It was an attempt in the early ’90s to broaden the demographic of tourists, and it failed, miserably.”– Felicia Mello
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From the Emerald City to Pharaoh’s TombTwenty years ago, the MGM Grand, Treasure Island and Luxor ushered in a new Las Vegas. What happened to it?
B Y D A V I D G . S C H W A R T Z
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[ UPCOMING ]
Dec. 13-14 Clark County Museum’s Heritage Street Holidays Festival (ClarkCountyNV.gov.) Dec. 14 Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada’s Suite Holidays (JALasVegas.org)
BOTTOMS UP!Bottles were poppin’ at the Mob Museum on Dec. 5 in
honor of the 80th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition.
More than 300 thirsty revelers—including toastmaster
Oscar Goodman and his wife, Mayor Carolyn Goodman—
raised a glass (or three) at the second-annual soiree that
included museum admission and hors d’oeuvres, plus per-
formances from The Broadway Rat Pack cabaret dancers.
New this year was the Boss of the Bars cocktail competi-
tion, won by Keith Baker of Vanguard Lounge. Proceeds
from the evening will benefit the museum’s educational
programming. We’ll drink to that!
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A FUNNY THING happened to the UNLV basketball team as it entered the final minutes of the second half of the seventh game of what had been unfolding as a nightmare season. Khem Birch scored with 3:29 left to put the Rebels ahead of Arizona, 57-56, in Tucson. The underachieving Rebels, who had lost by 21 points on their home court to UC Santa Barbara last month, showed themselves to be the equals of the No. 2-ranked Wildcats. Almost. Final score: Arizona 63, UNLV 58.
Rewind to, say, one minute before that game began on December 7: It seemed that about the only people in Social Media Land not calling for third-year UNLV coach Dave Rice to be fired were San Diego State fans, who had been using the hashtag #SaveDave to mock the Runnin’ Rebels’ struggles. (With Rice holding a 3-1 career record against the Aztecs, you would think they'd be the first ones to want him gone.) The Rebels were coming off losing three of their last four games at the Thomas & Mack Center, their worst home stretch since the 2002-03 season. And Rebel Nation—or at least a handful of its unruly districts—was leading a rebellion against Rice.
Recent Tweets from fol-lowers of the 3-4 Rebels have a distinct sky-is-falling tone. Of course, in online-commenter-land, the sky is always falling, but a special brand of venom seems to
have been reserved for Rice:Dave Rice is a horrible head
coach. Clueless. … Dave Rice is so dense. … Dave Rice outcoached again last night. … Rice is not the answer, sadly. Dude is in way over his head. … Rice brand of bball is unwatchable. Like a bad AAU team.
What’s strange is that the vitriol toward Rice isn’t new; it started almost immediately after he was hired in April 2011 over another, much fashier, former Rebel, Reggie Theus. Rice won over some early critics with his hire of UNLV legend Stacey Augmon as an assistant—and with his plan to run like the Rebels of old. But
soon Rice became a victim of that stylistic promise (and the incessant marketing of it): The Rebels were slow to master his fast-paced system, and nos-talgic fans began to complain as much about aesthetics as about results. Meanwhile, Rice fell victim to his own recruit-ing success: By attracting high school All-Americans and talented transfers to UNLV (including this year’s top NBA draft pick, Anthony Bennett; see Page 20), he’s ramped up many fans’ expectations to Fi-nal Four-or-bust levels.
It takes time, though, for even the most talented groups
to learn to play as a team—and most of this year’s Rebels nev-er played together before last month. Let’s also not forget that despite the Rebels’ rough start this season, Rice’s career record at UNLV is 54-23, a better mark in his third year than any Rebels coach since Jerry Tarkanian, who was more experienced than Rice was when he came to UNLV.
If the Rebels plan on going to the NCAA Tournament in March, it’s going to take an impressive run in Mountain West Conference play—maybe even a conference title. The talent is certainly there: One-
quarter of the team’s players (junior forward Birch, junior guard Jelan Kendrick, freshman forward Christian Wood) were McDonald’s High School All-Americans; junior transfer Roscoe Smith (the nation’s leading rebounder at 14.7 per game) started on Connecticut’s 2011 national championship team as a freshman; and junior guard Bryce Dejean-Jones might be the Rebels’ best all-around player.
Last season, the biggest knock on UNLV was its lack of a true point guard. But freshman Kendall Smith has adapted quickly to the position at the college level, earning the starting spot after just two games, and has shown the abil-ity to be the Rebels’ best point guard since Marcus Banks a de-cade ago. And senior transfer Kevin Olekaibe has provided a much-needed outside threat at the two-guard position.
Of course, much improve-ment is still needed: The Rebels rank almost dead last nation-ally in free-throw shooting at 58.4 percent; they are averag-ing just 69.6 points per game (255th in the nation); they need to shore up their perimeter defense; and they still haven’t shown the ability to score con-sistently against zone defenses.
With six upcoming games against mediocre nonconfer-ence opponents, Rice has time to fne-tune his talented collective before conference play starts in January. This could still turn out to be the season the Rebels really learn to run. Maybe then UNLV fans will be the ones embracing the #SaveDave campaign. R
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News, essays, politics and forgiveness
Rebel Evolution?Afer the team’s poor start, many UNLV basketball fans had harsh words for coach Dave Rice.
But then the Rebels nearly knocked of mighty Arizona—and showed that the season can still be saved.
By Sean DeFrank
“Reid makes his own breaks—and takes
advantage of them.” POLITICS {PAGE 22}
Rebels Christian Wood
and Kevin Olekaibe battle
for a rebound at Arizona.
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By Bob Whitby
THURSDAY, DEC. 12: Henderson isn’t the kind of city that lets
the holidays slip by without a party. In other words, it’s
time for WinterFest at the Henderson Events Plaza and
Convention Center on Water Street. At 7 p.m., the Henderson
Symphony Orchestra opens the celebration with Sounds
of the Season. Festivities also include a parade, decorated
trees, kids' contests, food and
music. Festival continues 6-9
p.m. Fri and noon-8 p.m.
Sat., HendersonLive.com.
FRIDAY, DEC. 13: We
mentioned the Cowboy
Christmas Gift Show last
week, but neglected to
note its partner in down-
home fashion, the Country
Christmas gift show, through
Sunday at the Sands Expo &
Convention Center. If you’ve always wanted a plastic deer for
your front yard, you now know where to go. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
through Sunday, CountryChristmas.com.
SATURDAY, DEC. 14: The Clark County Fire Department holds an
open house from noon to 3 p.m. at Fire Station 65, 3825 Starr
Ave.— a perfect chance to participate in the Fill the Fire Truck
toy drive. Bring a new, unwrapped gift, have some refreshments
and check out the cool rigs. ClarkCountyNV.gov. Also, head out
to Sunset Wonderland at Sunset
Park for skating, carriage rides,
a petting zoo, a Ferris wheel
and more. 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Sat-Sun., 4 p.m.-10 p.m.
Mon-Fri. through Dec. 22.
SUNDAY, DEC. 15: You can’t
call yourself a holidays
enthusiast unless you take
in at least one showing of
The Nutcracker annually.
Fortunately, you can take in
several here, as the Nevada Ballet
Theatre’s production of this classic tale is in residence at The
Smith Center through Dec. 22. Shows started Dec. 14, and
there are two scheduled today: 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. $52-$178,
TheSmithCenter.com.
MONDAY, DEC. 16: Combine man and machine, and what do you
get? The Terminator, yes, but also the Symbioid Art Exhibition
at UNLV’s Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center. View the future
as envisioned by artists with
grease in their veins, through
Feb. 21. UNLV.edu.
TUESDAY, DEC. 17: Hey, it’s
free movie day at the
Clark County Library’s
Main Theater. They call it
Tuesday Afternoon at the
Bijou, and today features
The Apartment, an Academy
Award-winning tale from 1960
about what we’d refer to today as a
no-tell motel. Juicy. 1 p.m. at the main library, LVCCLD.org.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 18: You’ve still got a couple of weeks to check
out Too Much of a Good Thing Is Wonderful: Liberace and
the Art of Costume at the Cosmopolitan. This collection of the
master showman’s wardrobe and stage pieces, including his
rhinestone piano, is on display. 3-10 p.m. daily, until Jan. 2.
trees, kids' contests, food and
Festival continues 6-9
, through
at Sunset
Park for skating, carriage rides,
Award-winning tale from 1960
about what we’d refer to today as a
WOULDN’T IT BE NICE of the federal government to just give someone an $800,000 prize to come up with a cutting-edge redevelopment idea for Cash-man Field? Or for the medical district around University Medical Center and Valley Hospital? Or maybe for a local business park that needs a shot of economic stimulation?
Maybe. Hopefully. But crit-ics of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities grant wonder if the money would be better used to actually implement a plan, rather than as pure prize money for creating a good idea.
The City of Las Vegas part-nered with the U.S. Economic Development Administration to award $800,000 in federal money to the redevelopment proposal that wins a global competition. The City was re-quired to contribute another $250,000 to implement the winning idea, which caused some City Council members early this fall to question whether that money might be better spent. Plus, some local urban designers worry that the large prize will attract large, out-of-state frms with more resources, essentially pricing locals out of having an impact on their own community.
But the program is under way, and on November 20 the City Council awarded market-
ing frm Faiss Foley Warren a $90,000 contract to oversee the proposal and judging. Mayor Carolyn Goodman is expected to tout the launch of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities initiative in the State of the City address on January 9. Multi-disciplinary teams will have 10 months from the launch to submit proposals in round one for the selected redevelopment areas: Cashman Field, the med-ical district, a business park or an area already identifed by the City as a “redevelopment area.” The top three fnalists will have another six months to perfect their proposals.
Locals will be invited onto the judging panel, says Faiss Foley Warren managing partner Melissa Warren. She adds that Las Vegas frms are encouraged to enter the com-petition. “We’re going to make outreach locally, regionally and nationally,” Warren says. “But the strategy is not to blast it globally for anyone with an idea, but to very directly target urban-planning frms. We have a whole list of universities that have strong urban plan-ning departments.” (That list includes UNLV.) The contract calls for Faiss Foley Warren to attract 50 “qualifed teams.”
“If you’re seeking solid pro-posals and plans,” Warren says, “you’re going to get frms who
put in hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours.”
That’s exactly what concerns Ken McCown, director of the UNLV School of Architecture’s Downtown Design Center, which focuses on engaging the community in solving development challenges. “We fgured out that you could get 18 ‘person years’ of jobs out of that $800,000,” McCown says, noting that employing locals is key to economic rede-velopment. “[The Downtown Design Center] could basically look at these sites and come up with a plan within the community.”
But the Strong Cities’ pro-gram was set up by the Obama administration in 2011 as a new type of incentive. In 2012, the Economic Development Administration identifed Greensboro, North Carolina, Hartford, Connecticut, and Las Vegas as communities that “lacked a comprehensive plan to reach their job creation and economic development goals,” and targeted them with “economic visioning challeng-es.” Las Vegas’ struggles were largely attributed to being hit hard by the recession.
“This program," the EDA website says, "aligns with the administration’s commitment to use prizes and challenges to promote innovation.”
[ DESIGN ]
For Would-Be Urban Visionaries, an $800,000 Question
How much is a good development idea worth in Las Vegas?
By Stacy J. Willis
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Truth, Guilt and Forgiveness
Thoughts on the power of words to wound—and to healI’m heading back to Las Vegas after a 20-year absence. Can I still score a 99-cent breakfast?
My mother, who briefly worked as a coffee
shop cashier at the Maxim (one of the last
places to offer the special) recalls the cafe
being dead after dinner until about 11:30
p.m., when a massive line would form. And
why not? Bacon or sausage, two eggs,
hash browns, toast—all for under a buck?!
Unbeatable. This is the stuff of Vegas legend.
How things have changed! Much of the old
gamblers’ Vegas has disappeared in favor
of what amounts to a gentrification of the
sport. Most casinos that offered the special
(Bourbon Street, the Continental) are long
gone. As I recall, the last of the casino coffee
shop graveyard specials (which had inflated
to $1.99 by then) disappeared in the mid-
1990s. The closest you’ll get today—at least
without consulting our Deal Czar, Anthony
Curtis (see Page 22)—is the casino special
at Henderson’s Rainbow Club ($1.89 6-11 a.m.
Mon-Fri). Arizona Charlie’s also has a $3.99
breakfast special with a players card—and
it’s available most hours of the day.
Will casinos still cash in my mixed coins?
One of the sounds I miss most from my
childhood is the clang-clang-clang-clang of
coins striking the metal collector of a slot
machine when a lucky player lined up a
winning triplet. The sound was ubiquitous:
casinos, bowling alleys, grocery stores, the
corner 7-Eleven.
Now that most modern slot machines
are fed with paper money and cashed out
via paper ticket, that gorgeous jackpot
sound has all but disappeared, and along
with it another piece of the authentic Vegas
landscape: change girls wearing manually
operated change dispensers around their
waists. Sigh. Also obsolete? Most of the
casinos’ coin-counting machines. It seems
like only yesterday when I would step
into the Hard Rock Hotel with a bucket of
change and walk out with folding money.
There are, however, a few joints that still
have some classic coin-fed slots, including
the “retro” gambling floor at The D (upstairs)
and El Cortez. A quick ask of El Cortez VP
Katie Epstein reveals that the casino does
indeed use coin counters, but they only count
half-dollars, quarters and nickels (dimes and
pennies get lost). Still, I’d rather drop a few
bucks in Downtown than pay a percentage to
cash in the coins at HellMart.
Questions? [email protected].
we can learn from such stories; They can give us empathy and perspective.
“Because that was their story,” I said, “and I thought it was meaningful.”
Sister Rosemary told me that one of the women in the story had cried when she read it.
Then I, too, began to tear up. I really hadn’t meant to cause any more grief to two people who had endured a lifetime full of it.
Why did I write it? Later, I’d debate and re-debate that in my head.
But at that moment, I said to Sister Rosemary, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt them.”
She was silent, and in her silence was pissed-off-ness. Quiet nun pissed-off-ness. I rattled on,
SISTER ROSEMARY LYNCH was the only human from whom I’ve sought divine forgiveness. I’m not Catholic. When I met her, I was in a hybrid Buddhist/Taoist/Pablo Neruda phase.
I had written a story for the Las Vegas Sun about two women who were war refugees. Sister Rosemary was my connection; she and Sister Klaryta Antoszewska ran a refugee outreach from a house in west Las Vegas.
My story told the tale of two women who had come from different sides of the Russian-Chechnyan conflict and had escaped together. They’d bonded in a way most of us could never understand. They’d suffered through the deaths of their families, escaped by stowing away on a plane, landed in Mexico, sneaked across the U.S. border and were sent to a California jail. Finally, the two of them were driven to Las Vegas, where Sisters Rosemary and Klaryta, two aging Catholic nuns, helped them.
Other than the nuns, the refugees were at frst each other’s only friends. But once they moved into a home together, got Strip hotel cleaning jobs and began a new life, their national and philosophical differences re-emerged, and they began fghting. They carried their feud into the halls of the hotel where they worked, and into the home they shared, and re-created the confict on a smaller scale. I thought it spoke to the odd turns of human nature.
Sister Rosemary called me after the story was published. She was unhappy. The subjects of the article were unhappy. “They didn’t know you were going to write about their fghting,” she scolded me. “Why would you do that?”
My heart sank. I mean really, really sank. I am, perhaps particularly for a journalist, a bit thin-skinned, and frequently wrestle with the ethical questions writing stories poses. But truth is often unpleasant, and in the end,
trying to explain to her and to myself why I found the details of their story worth publishing.
And then this came out of my mouth: “Do you forgive me?”
I was dumbfounded to hear those words come from me, a non-Catholic, to a Catholic nun, about a story that later was positively recognized by the Nevada Press Association. To this day I attribute it to the
intangible, supernatural power packed into that spitfire woman, a righteousness that extended way beyond any church. She was serious about helping people; spartan but effective in a ratio so many religious leaders have reversed.
“God forgives you,” she said.
Somehow that wasn’t the point. I said, “Do you forgive me?”
Pause. Long pause. I remember looking out the window, the sun shining, thinking that I was a nut job—a spiritual wanderer long at odds with the Vatican asking an angry nun for forgiveness.
She took a frustrated breath. I can still hear it. “Yes. I forgive you.”
It was the last time I spoke with her.
Nearly 10 years, hundreds of stories and countless ethical debates later—and not a bit less sensitive—I got up one winter morning in 2011 to write. But frst, I perused the news online with a cup of coffee.
Sister Rosemary Lynch, 93, founder of group against violence, dies after car hits her.
Lynch ... was walking with fellow Franciscan Sister Klaryta Antoszewska in their Las Vegas neighborhood Wednesday ... when a car backing out of a driveway hit her and she fell.
It seemed absurd—the way that life and death frequently do. A random brush from a car taking out such a powerhouse of spirit. My tribute to her will always be in respecting, if not fully understanding, the power of forgiveness. And the power of the truth.
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One of the things that makes the Christmas season so compelling is that there’s this weird, unspoken ten-
sion working between two of the holiday’s
biggest moving parts. On the one hand, you’ve got
the bright lights and aggressively dialed-up-to-10 cheer and the relentless bustle. On the other, you’ve got a secretive, clandes-tine streak a mile wide. You’re implored to walk around with a stage smile for a month, dress in bright red and literally go door to door, bothering strangers for figgy pudding.
But in the middle of all that what-you-see-is-what-you-get maneuvering, there’s the de-mand that you do at least some of your shopping alone, away from prying eyes. You take the time to camouflage your gifts and generally act as paranoid
as Nixon when your best friend starts making casual, offhand references to the Joey Season 2 DVDs you’ve stashed for them under the tree. (Also: Maybe don’t be friends with people who watched Joey.)
Don’t even get us started on Secret Santa.
Claus himself is a sneaky bastard, demanding your unconsciousness as part of the deal if you want him to give up the goods. The two main points are A) Christmas is the time for stealth and subterfuge, and B) It’s too bad ninjas were around in feudal Japan, because they’d have been great at this.
Sneaking a new look behind closed doors will be Lavo, which went dark December 9 and won’t reopen until December 27. The rumor is that the restaurant will be expanded and the venue won’t be a full-on nightclub anymore, instead being reimagined as an ultralounge.
Fizz, the Champagne bar near the Colosseum at Caesars Palace from Michael Greco, David Furnish and Steven Kennedy opened late in November, and it’s committed to a Clausian level of secrecy. Photos aren’t allowed inside the lounge, taking another swing at a policy places such as Savile Row tried in the past.
Finally, El Cortez and Jennifer Cornthwaite quietly painted over the Interesni Kazki mural on the outside of the Emergency Arts building they own and oper-ate, respectively. The mural was put up for Life Is Beautiful, but given that it depicted a cowboy with a slot machine in his chest reaching out to zombie hands coming out of the desert, it wasn’t exactly, uh, pro-gambling. There will be a contest held by El Cortez, Emergency Arts and Life Is Beautiful to choose a new mural from a local artist.
@StartsWithanXNelson Mandela wasn’t in
a movie about fast cars,
so a lot of my FB friends
don’t care.
@IAmVonStroheimRemember when Farrah
Fawcett died then Michael
Jackson died a couple
hours later? Apparently
that’s Mandela and The
Sound Of Music tonight.
@HeerJeetI remember the time I
watched The Sound of
Music with Mandela. I said
I’d love to see a remake.
He said that was a dumb
idea. A great man.
@franklinavenueJust think, had Season
4 of American Idol gone
the other way, we’d be
watching THE SOUND OF
MUSIC LIVE! STARRING
BO BICE right now.
@BowtieRamblerWith Anchorman 2 releas-
ing their own line of
Scotch, I can’t wait for
the Leaving Las Vegas re-
release where somebody
just punches your liver.
@emilymayamillsNelson Mandela died
today & every person I
pass in the streets of Los
Angeles has a look in
their eyes that says, “Is
this scarf too much?”
@MrGeorgeWallaceMy bells on bobtail
wouldn’t ring tonight. Hap-
pens sometimes at my age.
@VegasDegenerateVegas has the marathon,
Santa, Glow, Zombie and
Color runs. How about
some pub crawls for the
alcoholically gifted who
don’t want blisters?
@JackPMooreEvery kiss begins with K.
Also every kidnapping.
Also every knifing. Hey
you know what, maybe
this isn’t the best way to
write a slogan.
Share your Tweet. Add #V7.
Santa, Shania and Scary SpiceOf course, the flip side to all this is that Santa is everywhere. Including Downtown, hanging out
with Shania Twain. The 10,000-Claus-strong Great Santa Run was December 7, and Twain served
as the 5k charity race’s grand marshal. But the important takeaway from all of this is that St. Nick and Twain
seemed so close, it’s probably pretty reasonable to send her a letter this week asking for a new PlayStation 4. … Britney
Spears was relatively tight-lipped when she made her grand entrance up the Strip on December 2. She only noted that
“this is my city” when she spoke at the Planet Hollywood stunt. Though the Spice Girls may argue with her—Scary
Spice Melanie Brown was recently quoted as saying she’d like to get the girls back together for a residency of their own
to rival Spears’ Britney: A Piece of Me. … Kelly Clarkson’s musical-comedy twist on A Christmas Carol, the verbosely
named Kelly Clarkson’s Cautionary Christmas Music Tale, filmed portions at the Venetian along with Blake Shelton, Trisha
Yearwood and Reba McEntire. We’ll patiently wait for Bill Murray’s musical adaptation of Scrooged instead. – J.S.
Secrets, Ultralounges and Gamblin’ Zombies
By Jason Scavone
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’TIS THE SEASON WHENHANDICAPPING GETS DICEYBlinding blizzards and single-digit temps. Miracle
last-second comebacks. Yet another miracle last-
second comeback—ripped from the pages of Cal-
Stanford—foiled by a pinky toe. Eli Manning mercilessly
booed all afternoon in a 23-point loss in San Diego.
Fantasy football playoff chaos, thanks to injuries
(Adrian Peterson, Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker) and
incompetence (Cam Newton, RG III). Thirty-five college
bowl matchups unveiled (UNLV playing on New Year’s
Day? A national championship game sans Urban
Meyer and Nick Saban?).
Now that was one glorious football weekend—a
weekend that even included a “Best Bet” winner for
yours truly. No, really, it happened: Michigan State
over Ohio State in the Big Ten title game, part of a third
straight winning week. I’m in such a solid handicapping
groove that my kids are no longer frightened when I
predict that Santa will indeed show up this year.
Of course, as is often the case for me, around
every positive corner is a brick wall: With the pool of
games dramatically depleted (bowl season doesn’t
kick off until December 21) and the NFL season
winding down (which crappy teams have mentally
checked out, and which playoff teams are just trying
to avoid injuries?), this is the toughest time of the
year to pick winners. But I figure no matter how badly
things go, I can’t possibly finish in the top three for
“Most Embarrassing Performance of the Month”—
not after watching Carrie Underwood act on live
TV, Miley Cyrus twerk on St. Nick and the Houston
Texans play football.
So here goes: I’m backing three of this week’s nine
road favorites (Seahawks, Eagles, Bengals) because
each has something to play for, and each is facing
a dead-in-the-water opponent (Giants, Vikings and
Steelers, respectively); I’m pouncing on two feisty
Florida underdogs (Dolphins and Buccaneers) who are
catching opponents (Patriots and 49ers) in great spots;
I’m laying points with a squad that’s 3-10 (Falcons) and
just lost to Matt Flynn, because they host a 3-10 foe
that’s a million times more dysfunctional (Redskins);
and I’m playing that same game over the total, because
you’ll see more defense in the Pro Bowl next month
than you will in Redskins-Falcons.
Lucky Seven: Seahawks -7 at Giants (Best
Bet); Eagles -4½ at Vikings, Bengals -3 at Steelers;
Dolphins +2½ vs. Patriots; Buccaneers +5½ vs. 49ers;
Falcons -5 vs. Redskins; Falcons-Redskins OVER 51.
Last Week: 4-3 (1-0 Best Bet). Season: 47-52-1 (26-
25 college; 21-27-1 NFL; 2-12 Best Bets).
Says RJ Bell (@ RJinVegas) from Pregame.com:
Agree with the play on the Eagles. A bettor must
be extremely selective with road favorites—clearly,
superior teams laying short numbers are almost
always tempting. In this case, Philly is a team with
stats better than its record, a history of strong road
performances and an overall trend pointing upward.
Matt Jacob appears Wednesdays on Pregame.com’s First Preview, which airs 10-11 a.m. weekdays on ESPN Radio 1100-AM.
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The Bennett PerspectiveCritics are rushing to proclaim the former UNLV star an NBA bust.
Not so fast—he’s only been on the job for six weeks.
By Matt Jacob
WITH THE FIRST pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers select …
Nobody saw it coming—not the fans, not the pundits, probably not even some chief decision-makers in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ organization. And right up to the moment when NBA commissioner David Stern said his name, not even Anthony Bennett saw it coming.
Bennett—a one-man wrecking crew in his one and only season at UNLV last year—was most certainly going to be a Top 14 “lottery” pick, and a high one at that. But No. 1? Even in what was widely considered to be a watered-down draft, and even with his unique skill set as a big man who could shoot from the perimeter, Bennett couldn’t climb that high.
But he did. And after the 6-foot-8 forward ambled up the steps to the stage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 27—a burgundy Cavaliers cap sharply contrasting against his gray suit—Bennett shook Stern’s hand and joined an exclusive fraternity of No. 1 overall NBA draft picks. A fraternity where the famous (Kareem, Magic, Olajuwon, Ewing, Shaq, LeBron) rub elbows with the infamous (Pervis, Olowokandi, Kwame, Oden).
*****There’s an immense sense of pride that comes with being the frst player drafted in any professional sports league, not only for the draftee and his inner circle, but for the community
that bore witness to the player’s amateur dominance. So when the Cavaliers selected the Canadian-born Bennett, who starred in high school at Findlay Prep before moving on to UNLV, we pumped our fsts, too—just as we did when wunderkind Bryce Harper was the top pick in the 2010 Major League Baseball draft, and when Rebels legend Larry Johnson was taken No. 1 in the 1991 NBA Draft.
For years and years to come, the thought went on draft night, we’d be able to fip on the tube, watch Bennett drain a deep 3-pointer (perhaps with Kobe’s hand in his face!) or slam home a thunderous dunk (perhaps over LeBron!), and promptly (and proudly) Tweet something like, “AB doing his thing again! #SawThatBackInTheDay #RunninRebelsRepresenting.”
Except, well, nobody saw this coming, either: 15 consecutive missed shots to start his career … 28 misses in 32 attempts over his frst nine games … Four “DNP’s” (Did Not Play) in the span of eight games from November 11-27 … Multiple national media outlets mocking Bennett and slamming the Cavs for “wasting” their No. 1 pick … Multiple rumors (all denied by Cleveland management) that Bennett would get demoted to the D-League (think minor leagues).
Look, there’s no sugarcoating it: The frst month of Anthony Bennett’s NBA career was a disaster. He ended November averaging 2.2 points, 2.4 rebounds
and 11 minutes per game. Put another way, in his frst 17 games, Bennett tallied 28 points. By comparison, Johnson—to whom Bennett was frequently likened during his one season at UNLV—averaged 15.4 points and scored in double fgures 14 times in his frst 17 NBA games (then did so in 64 of his fnal 65 games as a rookie).
Not surprisingly, given the current sports-media culture, there’s been a rush to carve the word “bust” into Bennett’s NBA headstone. Perhaps instead there should be a rush to dial up the defnition of “perspective”: This is still a raw talent who took up the sport later in life than most prodigies; someone who was playing in a tiny Henderson gym two years ago; someone who can’t legally drink a beer for another three months; someone who’s been on the job for a few weeks.
Indeed, just as LeBron James’ Hall of Fame career wasn’t built in a month, neither was Michael Olowokandi’s Hall of Shame career. Translation: There’s still plenty of time for Bennett to justify the Cavs’ investment, to make his critics eat crow, to elbow his way into the exclusive part of that frat house where only guys like Kareem and Magic and Olajuwon are allowed.
In other words, there’s still time for UNLV fans to have the opportunity to fre off that aforementioned Tweet, punctuated by this addendum: #IToldYouSo!
SPORTS
’TIS THE SEASON WHENHANDICAPPING GETS DICEYBlinding blizzards and single-digit temps. Miracle
last-second comebacks. Yet another miracle last-
second comeback—ripped from the pages of Cal-
Stanford—foiled by a pinky toe. Eli Manning mercilessly
booed all afternoon in a 23-point loss in San Diego.
Fantasy football playoff chaos, thanks to injuries
(Adrian Peterson, Rob Gronkowski, Wes Welker) and
incompetence (Cam Newton, RG III). Thirty-five college
bowl matchups unveiled (UNLV playing on New Year’s
Day? A national championship game sans Urban
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SWIMMING SANTAS AND SCUBA ELVES Holiday deals dominate this month, starting
with ice skating. In 2011, the Venetian put
up a rink as part of its big Winter in Venice
celebration; as is often the way in Las Vegas,
others followed. Last year the Cosmopolitan
skated into the fray, and this year you can add
Caesars Palace and the Gold Spike. The Vene-
tian’s rink is synthetic “Ven-ice” and a similar
surface is being installed in the area behind
the Gold Spike, while the two other rinks offer
the real thing. Prices haven’t been announced
for the two newcomers, and it’s $10 again at
both the Cosmopolitan and Venetian, with the
Cosmo claiming the better deal with unlimited
skating versus the Venetian’s one-hour limit.
• For a Vegas spin on St. Nick, head to the
Silverton where, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on
Saturdays and Sundays through December
22, Underwater Santa will don scuba gear
and pose for pictures in a 117,000-gallon
aquarium filled with 4,000 tropical fish,
sharks and stingrays. If that doesn’t quench
your underwater Yuletide jones, the upgraded
Atlantis attraction in the Forum Shops at
Caesars now features Scuba Elves. Yikes!
• Skating rinks and aquatic North Pole
denizens are cool, but I’m still partial to
that other great holiday tradition from Ellis
Island: homemade alcohol-infused eggnog.
This one packs a punch and is $6 by the
glass or $29.99 for a bottle.
• In non-holiday news, there’s a new Elvis
memorabilia exhibit at Binion’s called King’s
Ransom. It’s free, and afterward you can hit
Benny’s Bullpen for its $3.49 10-inch pizza
special. ... Meanwhile, get a good bar deal at
the Riviera’s Wicked Vicky Tavern, where
15 wings and a pitcher of beer (15 choices
include Hoegaarden, Guinness and Butte
Porter) are just $15 during any college or
pro football game on Monday, Thursday,
Saturday or Sunday. The Vicky has retained
all the elements of the former Queen
Victoria Pub, including the Brit menu; more
than 100 draft beers; big-screen TVs; plus
pool, darts and other pub games.
• If octagon battles get you in the spirit, the
new Wildfire Valley View has brought back
free UFC broadcasts, a staple at the former
Lift bar, just in time for the big Anderson
Silva/Chris Weidman fight on December 28.
• If you’re looking for a room on New
Year’s Eve, 87 hotels had availability when
our Las Vegas Advisor researchers searched
last week. The best price overall was the
Lucky Club for $90. Downtown, it was the
new Downtown Grand for $199. And on the
Strip, it was Circus Circus, where a two-night
package was $324 ($162 per night).
Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the
Las Vegas Advisor and LasVegasAdvisor.com.
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Harry Reid’s Very Good YearLove him or hate him, it’s hard not to admit that the senator from Searchlight
had the wind at his back in 2013
HARRY REID’S CRITICS insist that he is both an evil genius and an in-competent boob. That doesn’t ex-plain how he rose from a Search-light mining shack to become the U.S. Senate’s most powerful member. But as an admirer of Jackie Robinson, who broke base-ball’s color barrier in 1947, Reid is no doubt familiar with Branch Rickey, the Dodgers general man-ager who signed Robinson. Rickey had a favorite phrase: Luck is the residue of design.
So it is with Reid: He makes his own breaks—and takes advantage of them. That’s what he did in 2013:
• The House Republican majority teamed with a few right-wing sena-tors to shut down the government and bring the nation to the brink of breaching the debt ceiling. The last time matters looked this dire, Vice President Joe Biden went around the Senate majority leader and made a deal with Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, that raised tax rates for those making at least $400,000 a year in a way that somehow defned those making $399,999 as somehow not wealthy.
This time, Reid opposed conces-sions and told the White House to keep Biden out of it. In the end, the U.S. government shut down and Republicans fnally gave up after a deal in which Reid gave them noth-ing substantial and created several pegs on which to hang future po-litical ads. Democrats around the
country hailed Reid’s spine, as if they just discovered it.
• Late this year, Reid took a signifcant step against Republican obstructionism, introducing a rule change to allow a simple major-ity of the Senate (rather than a supermajority of 60) to green-light a vote on executive appointees and federal district and appellate judges (but not Supreme Court justices). Almost as many Obama appointees have been blocked through cloture motions—the proper term for what is commonly called the flibuster—as there were for his 11 predecessors combined. The move doesn’t eliminate the GOP’s ability to block the presi-dent’s nominees, but it reduces needless gridlock. Now whichever party is in the majority will fnd it easier to make appointments that refect the will of that majority. That’s better for everybody.
• A recently commissioned poll shows Assemblywoman Lucy Flores with a good chance to become the Democratic candidate for lieuten-ant governor. The poll signals Democrats that they can and should fall in behind Flores.
Why is that good for Reid? Any-body who follows politics expects Governor Brian Sandoval to be
re-elected—or, more presciently, if re-elected, to try to leave the gov-ernor’s offce for greener pastures during his second term. If Flores wins, she becomes an issue to use against Sandoval: Do Republicans want him to leave the state in the hands of a Democrat—a female, Latina Democrat at that?
If Sandoval leaves anyway and takes a run at Reid for the Senate in 2016, Reid still has an advantage: Governor Flores would help Reid solidify his already strong sup-port from two key constituencies: women and Hispanics.
• The beltway media actually made Reid look better than the average Washington politician this year. Mark Leibovich, a fne long-time political correspondent, pub-lished This Town, about the essential phoniness of Washington, D.C. And Double Down by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann professed to go inside the 2012 campaigns, much as their 2008 Game Change did. In both books, amid an endless array of backslapping capital fakery, what emerged about Reid was the tagline of the late comedian Flip Wilson: What you see is what you get.
And 2013 served as a reminder of his power and importance at home and in the nation’s capital. Worse things could be said about the year that was.
Michael Green is a professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada.
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STYLE
Gift BagA hearty helping of holiday cheer for him and for her
Photographs by Zack W
1 Morgenthal Frederics Royals
Collection Thom sunglasses, $535,
Optica in Fashion Show, 733-
7624. 2 Sony QX, a lens style-
camera that links to a cellphone,
$250, Sony.com. 3 Brixton
Hooligan in gray, $34, The Hard
Rock store, 693-5003. 4 Printed
wash bag, $225, Paul Smith in
The Shops at Crystals, 796-2640.
5 Rod’s Royal Treatment men’s
grooming products (shampoo
and conditioner, $20 each),
RodsRoyalTreatment.com.
6 Call of Duty Ghosts Prestige
edition with a mountable 1080p
HD tactical camera, $199,
GameStop. 7 LSTN Headphones
The Troubadour in beech, $150,
LSTNHeadPhones.com.
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1 Morgenthal Frederics Sex
Symbols Collection Brooke
sunglasses, $450, Optica in
Fashion Show, 733-7624.
2 Ballet flats, $185, Tieks.com.
3 Fitbit Aria Wi-fi Smart
Scale, $130, Fitbit.com.
4 Wing earrings, $165, King
Baby Studio in Caesars Palace,
866-227-5938. 5 Monkey See
Needlepoint pillow, $195, Tory
Burch in the Forum Shops at
Caesars, 369-3459. 6 Grgich
Hills Estate Olive Oil, $35, 800-
532-3057. 7 Hello, My Name is
Paul Smith: Fashion and Other
Stories, $65, Paul Smith in the
Shops at Crystals, 796-2640.
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After two years of expectation, preparation and ballyhoo, the Zappos invasion of Downtown—complete with thousands of employees—
has finally come. Here’s why 2014 might mark the real beginning of Tony Hsieh’s renaissance—and what that means for the rest of us.
B Y G E O F F C A R T E R | P H O T O G R A P H S B Y R Y A N O L B R Y S H
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But almost immediately, the neighborhood began to change. Our offce building was sold to make way for se-nior apartments, so we moved into an eight-story offce building a block away, right at the edge of a huge chunk of land belonging to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and his investment company, Vulcan Inc. Vulcan had a vision of transforming the area into a hub for biotech companies, and constructed several buildings for that purpose. City offcials even directed the creation of a streetcar line from the downtown core to the new buildings on West-lake Avenue, reasoning that those medical professionals would want to run downtown for lunch but leave their cars parked at work. And to in-dicate that this was indeed a fresh start, the Cascade neighborhood was renamed South Lake Union.
At frst, it didn’t look like Allen’s gamble would pay off. Only a few biotech frms moved in. A chorus of locals called out the streetcar as a boondoggle; many took to calling it “The S.L.U.T.,” short for “South Lake Union Trolley.” (Its offcial name is “South Lake Union Streetcar,” but the derogatory name has largely supplanted it.) Some called for a re-examination
of Allen’s redevelopment plans, invoking the specter of the never-built Seattle Commons—a massive project that would have re-centered the Cascade neighborhood around a 61,000-acre park. The Stranger, the city’s fame-throwing alternative weekly, even suggested making the area a legal red-light district.
And then, one fine day, Amazon came calling. The online retailer, which was fast outgrowing its headquarters in a former Marine hospital in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, announced its intent to move its entire Seattle operation, including some 15,000 employees, to South Lake Union.
Shortly after Amazon moved in, I lost my job at the Times in a round of layoffs. After that, I had few reasons to visit South Lake Union. But whenever I did return, I was shocked by how quickly it had changed. Mid-rise apartment buildings were going up everywhere. My garage coffee joint was gone; in its place was a score of upscale cafés. And the corner where a prostitute approached me is now home to a Whole Foods.
But nothing is more disorienting than walking around this once-failing neighborhood and seeing
’ve got a story to tell you. It takes a few twists
and turns, but stick with me; it’ll make sense in a
minute. ¶ In the summer of 2003, I began work at the
Seattle Times’ New Media division. The newspaper’s
headquarters was a campus of several buildings in the
city’s Cascade neighborhood, a hilly area just north of
Seattle’s downtown core and just south of picturesque
Lake Union. ¶ Cascade’s acres of empty warehouses
and shuttered businesses were overrun with drunks
and prostitutes, one of whom was brazen enough to proposition
me in broad daylight as I walked to my car. The neighborhood was
a bit raw, to put it kindly. But I also loved certain things about it. My
offce was one block away from Kapow, a terrifc coffee joint in what
was technically a storage shed. The streets and alleys were lined
with great-looking old buildings: Craftsman-style homes, funky
1950s industrial structures and one of the prettiest mosques I’ve
seen. And the pleasures of the Eastlake neighborhood—including
the late, great Café Venus, home to the best damn mac and cheese
I’ve ever had—were within walking distance.
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young, fresh-faced Amazon employees everywhere—walking dogs, pushing strollers, eyeballing the new roadsters at the recently opened Tesla dealership. They have taken over to such a degree that once, as I walked into a neighborhood restaurant full of Amazonians, a friend of mine who works for the company spotted me, greeted me with a hug and asked, “Geoff, how did you get in here?”
I’ve told that story to several friends who are, in one way or another, tethered to the fortunes of Downtown Las Vegas—either as part of the Downtown Project, or as residents or business owners unaffliated with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s $350 million urban redevelopment initiative. And I usually get the same response: “Yeah, it’s coming here.”
One group of friends is smil-ing when they say it; the expres-sions of the others are grim.
* * * * *
i have been the editor of DTLV.com, a sibling to this publication, for a little more than a year. As befts a website devoted to cover-ing Downtown Las Vegas, my offce is in the middle of the Fremont East Entertainment District—a neighborhood that,
like Cascade, is in the midst of transformation. For the sake of this discussion, I’ll call it the Fremont East corridor, so I can include the Ogden—a high-rise apartment building and, for all practical intents, Hsieh’s Downtown base—and the Gold Spike, a small hotel/casino that the Downtown Project pur-chased earlier this year.
Walking the Fremont East corridor isn’t that dissimilar
from walking in South Lake Union. There are handsome historic buildings, including the art deco-faced Las Vegas High School (circa 1931) and the El Cortez Hotel & Casino, built in 1941 and recently added to the National Register of Historic Places. There are fne eateries in the neighborhood, serving up dishes I’ve come to crave: I can pretty much taste Le Thai’s spicy Three Color Curry
with my eyes, and the Shrimp Grits at Eat are heaven’s own chosen. And the reputation of Fremont East’s bars is fast growing beyond Las Vegas; more and more tourists are drinking here every week.
And the retail component of the neighborhood is growing, as well. The Downtown Proj-ect’s Container Park—a retail complex created largely from repurposed shipping contain-
ers—has opened at the corner of Fremont and Seventh streets. Container Park is as friendly and inviting a space as has even been built in this town; think Town Square, only on a more intimate scale and with only local vendors. It boasts alfresco dining and cocktails, under-neath trees festooned with twinkling lights; it has a sprawl-ing playground with interactive electronic games; and bands play there daily. It’s a terrifc
spot, and I can walk there from my Downtown offce in less than fve minutes. It also has a giant, metal, fame-shooting praying mantis at its entrance.
Being this close to my subject has its advantages and disadvantages, both of which I was made keenly aware of on Container Park’s opening day, November 25. In a little less than 20 minutes, I was exposed to two
radically differing opinions of Container Park, both of which I agreed with.
First, I ran into an artist friend who loved Container Park at frst sight: “This is really nice. It’s very chill, and I love that they’ve got real sod planted by the stage,” he said. “And it’s a lot better than having an empty lot here, or a motel full of meth addicts.”
Then I turned a corner and collided with another friend
who, while stopping short of advocating the return of an empty lot, didn’t have much love for what replaced it. “This is a mall,” my friend said. “It’s a pretty mall, but it’s a mall. It’s not what this neighbor-hood needed, but they built it anyway, because they don’t really understand what this neighborhood needs.”
These comments are the most benign examples of an argument that’s been going on for a while now. One side tirelessly beats the pro-revitalization drum; these are usually the same people who call Downtown “a blank slate” and celebrate the Downtown Project’s efforts to “build a city within a city.” They’re predominately young people, and many of them are new to Las Vegas, brought here by Hsieh’s vision of making Fremont East into some sort of tech startup/Burning Man art utopia: “The co-working capital of the world,” as Hsieh succinctly puts it.
The dissenting opinion is perhaps best expressed by a piece of graffti I saw written on the wall of the men’s room at a venerable Downtown dive bar: “FUCK ZAPPOS,” it screams. (“NOT WELCOME,” says an unnecessary addendum.) This side believes that the Downtown Project is
“This is really nice,” one friend said of Container Park. Another said, “This is a mall. It’s not what the
neighborhood needed, but they built it anyway.”
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bringing on the same kind of gentrifcation that’s come to South Lake Union. While they don’t necessarily want Fremont to go back to being empty lots and meth addicts, they are distrustful of Downtown Project’s intentions, and would like to see some restraint and humility introduced to the redevelopment process. And an end to that “blank slate” meme would probably help, too.
I’ve been hearing from both sides of this fght since before I left Seattle in May 2012 to take the DTLV gig. But something has changed, and only recently: Over the course of these past six months, the two dissenting parties have fnally been given concrete examples to work with. Zappos fnally moved into its new Downtown headquarters in September. The Downtown Project “clubhouse” at the Gold Spike has been active since late May. The Project-sponsored 9th Bridge School is teaching classes. And Container Park, some 18 months in the making, is open. These things are real.
Practically speaking, the next 12 months are the Downtown Project’s Year One. The “Zappos Invasion” that has been foretold in countless Facebook posts and on bathroom walls has
fnally arrived. That means two things: It’s time for the Downtown Project to prove that its plan for Fremont East works, and it’s time for this reductive pro-and-con discussion to mature. Now that everyone has taken their seats at the table, it’s time for us to discuss the particulars of how this ambitious remake of the city core can be made to work for both sides.
* * * * *
here are the facts: According to Downtown Project spokeswoman Kim Schaefer, the Project owns more than 80 properties in and surrounding the Fremont East corridor, amounting to some 60 acres of Downtown. And while that’s quite a bit of land, it’s worth noting that many
of the businesses that have opened in Fremont East over the past few years—including Commonwealth, Atomic Liquors and the Downtown Grand—have no Downtown Project money in them at all. But I’ve heard people assuming that they do, simply because Hsieh owns a hell of a lot of real estate.
The discussion that should be happening right now is
what’s to be done with it. Thus far, the Downtown Project has invested heavily in some of the things that it’s nice for a neighborhood to have—a preschool, a medical center, an off-leash dog park—but not the thing that a city neighborhood really needs: While Hsieh has purchased several already-occupied apartment buildings, he has yet to build any housing from the ground up. And if you
want to move your billion-dollar online retailer’s entire workforce to within a mile of the workplace, you need apartments that workers can afford on the company’s average salary: $39,000 annually, according to job search website Indeed.com
(Even the FAQ section of the Zappos Insights website admits that the company’s pay isn’t great: “While the
Zappos Family tends to pay on the low-average to average side of the scale, the relaxed environment and potential for advancement both add value that cannot be counted on a paycheck.” It also boasts of the “above-average” benefts package and a companywide 70 percent retention rate.)
This worries me, because I want Downtown to succeed, and, judging from a meeting
I had with Hsieh in the sum-mer of 2012, he’s as stymied by the housing question as I am. (“Will there be housing for all the employees you’re bringing to the neighborhood?” I asked. His response was bracingly honest: “Yeah, we’re wonder-ing about that ourselves.”)
To be fair, it’s entirely possible that Hsieh could have changed his mind over the past year, and that the Downtown Project could be planning to build some apartments of its own. (The Project website even hints at it: “… We aim to create dense residential that’s accessible to all types of people.”) But here’s where things get weird:
Let’s assume that Downtown Project will continue to build jazzy new properties in Fremont East over the next few years: bars, restaurants, a boutique Airstream trailer park hotel (yes, that’s really being planned). The more Downtown Project works to build a perfect neighborhood, the more likely it is to drive up property values. By the time they get around to building those apartments, their employees won’t be able to afford to live in them, unless rent control comes to the new Downtown—which seems unlikely, considering that demand for Fremont
When the number of Fremont East residents equals the number of visitors, will the Downtown Project be able to accommodate their needs and wants?
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East housing is already rising outside of the Zappos family. If this isn’t a bull real estate market yet, it soon will be, as people hungry for urban living overrun the Ogden and whatever comes next.
And that begs another question: When the number of Fremont East residents equals the number of visitors, will the Downtown Project be able to accommodate their needs and wants? At present, it’s fairly easy for Zappos to indulge itself—like, say, to completely close off Fremont East for a company party, like it did last August—because, for the most part, it has only dirt lots and transient motels to challenge its whims. What happens when a Fremont East resident tries to walk from his apartment to the corner market and is told to walk several blocks out of his way?
More importantly: What if he doesn’t have a market to walk to? Let’s say a devel-oper builds a 100-unit midrise apartment building on a plot of land that Hsieh doesn’t own. These new Downtowners will need places to shop for groceries, do their dry clean-ing, get their cars repaired, heal their ailing pets and eat meals within a budget. These are all basic urban needs that places like Container Park simply cannot address.
Judging by the Downtown Project’s frst few brick-and-mortar steps, I have some doubt that its immediate plans include things like auto repair and hardware shops. After all, these are 20th-century businesses; no doubt there are those who think we can gin up 21st-century smartphone apps to replace them.
But cities don’t work that way. Someone has to actually get under your sink to fx the plumbing, and if you want him to be someone you can afford, he’ll need a place to live nearby and a restaurant where his family can eat for less than $40. These are the people who make up a city, and as long as we’re having a zero-sum dialogue—either drinking the metaphorical Kool-Aid or screaming that these dot-com kids should be run out of town—we’ll never be able to fgure out how in the hell we’re supposed to make a place for them.
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recently, i went back to Seattle to visit with friends and to poke around my old neighborhoods: Ballard, where I lived, and SouthLake Union, where I worked. Once a sleepy neighborhood largely populated by older Scandinavian folks, Ballard is
now one of the city’s hottest locales; boutique hotels and fve-star restaurants are beginning to crowd out the dive bars of Ballard Avenue, as a young, moneyed techcrowd slowly and steadily replaces the lutefsk set and drives up property values. Huge apartment buildings are going up at 15th Avenue and Market Street, and they’re charging rental prices no sane person should pay. That’s real gentrifcation, and I hate to think of what old Ballard will be like in another 10 years.
South Lake Union is something else. Unlike Ballard, SLU still had some room to grow; it has those old, defunct warehouses, and a few rare-for-Seattle plots of empty land. And though Amazon has claimed much of it, there’s still opportunity for SLU to become something more than a corporate campus.
Walking around the former Cascade, I was reminded of Fremont East in dozens of ways, but one stuck out: I was fascinated, and not displeased, by how much new stuff had gone up. Amazon’s presence has brought some good restaurants to the neighborhood. The Museum of History and Industry has moved into a rehabilitated Navy building at lakeside.
Extensive roadwork is being done to alleviate area traffic; the so-called “Mercer Mess,” an SLU traffic bottleneck of some renown, will soon be no more. And the streetcar, once ridiculed as a civic extravagance, is operating at capacity. There’s even talk of extending the line.
Halfway through my stroll, I instinctively began walking toward Kapow, only to remember that the tiny, ramshackle coffeehouse has been closed for many years. I suspect the building it occupied has been demolished and replaced with midrise condos, but I haven’t the heart to go back and look.
South Lake Union is an object lesson that both the Downtown Project and the rest of us could stand to examine. It’s taken a long time for SLU to get to where it is now, but every step of that transformation has been marked by intense, yet thoughtful, discussion and occasional compromise. The City of Seattle listened to its residents—no more Mercer Mess!—and Paul Allen worked with city planners, not in parallel to them.
That’s the kind of conversation we should be having. Zappos is here to stay, and it has the potential to do some real good in the
years to come. Downtown Las Vegas is not a blank slate to be rewritten, and the Downtown Project should be sensitive to the existing ecosystem. And the City of Las Vegas has a greater role than simply showing up to the ribbon-cuttings, and it needs to start acting that way.
There’s a passage in the introduction to Jane Jacobs’ 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities that’s been running through my mind lately. In it, she decries the “wistful myth” that we could fx our slums, solve our traffc problems and “anchor the wandering middle class” if we only “had enough money to spend.” That naïve wish is addressed on Page 4 and debunked over the course of the next 444 pages. Money alone can’t make Downtown Las Vegas new again, even $350 million of it. You need respect and understanding between the old guard and the new—and you need to temper your ideals with reality.
We have to get everyone back into the same room together, so to speak. And we need to quit asking our neighbors, “How did you get in here?” Everybody belongs in Downtown Las Vegas. Coming to an understanding of that should be our project in the year ahead.
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It’s the most wonderful time of the year … when the ladies put on their sexiest Santa suit, that is. Grab a handful of mistletoe and head to Tao’s Bad Santa Party, where a $5,000 prize goes to Santa’s naughtiest helper. (In The Vene-tian, 10 p.m., TaoLasVegas.com.)
FRI 13
Jay-Z’s Magna Carter World Tour (1) pops into the Mandalay Bay Events Center tonight and tomorrow. The 17-time Grammy Award-winner’s latest album is certifed double platinum, and is Hov’s 13th album to debut at No. 1. (8 p.m., Ticketmaster.com.) While A-Trak has been making recent rounds on the Strip DJ circuit, he’s already a legendary world champion DJ. At 20 he was the youngest and frst Canadian winner of the prestigious Technics/DMC World Championships. He’s also one half of Duck Sauce and the infuential label head behind Fool’s Gold Records. See the multitalented maestro tonight at Light. (In Mandalay Bay, 10 p.m. TheLightVegas.com.) Dillon Francis drops it at Surrender. His Mad Decent hit, “Without You,” recently teased a “rebirth” that Francis describes as a “huge-ass, big, roomy remix.” The full version was released Dec. 10, with remixes from Flux Pavilion, Torro Torro and oth-ers. (In Encore, 10:30 p.m., SurrenderNightclub.com.)
SAT 14
Italian superstar Benny Benassi (2) returns to Marquee. Last month he debuted his new track, “Back to the Pump,” on Ultra Records, followed by a cool stop-animation music video. (In the Cos-mopolitan, 10 p.m. MarqueeLasVegas.com.) Tommy Trash blows into Hakkasan, and with that fowing mane it’s no wonder the Aussie DJ has something against wind. So much so, in fact, that his new single is called “F*ckwind,” and was actu-ally inspired by the ferce winds at Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas in 2012. (In MGM Grand, 10 p.m., HakkasanLV.com.) DJ Crooked (3) has been leaving his mark on Las Vegas for years as the street-wear entrepreneur behind Chinatown’s KNYEW boutique and a prolifc DJ. This installment of Crooked looks straight at the Bellagio fountains from Hyde. (In Bellagio, 10 p.m., HydeBellagio.com.) In November, amid his 3D Morgan Page Presents tour, Morgan Page released an anthemic progressive house single, “Against the World.” The house vet-eran takes on XS tonight. (In Encore, 10 p.m. XSLasVegas.com.)
“The beat drops, the confetti canons
explode, showering the room with a
rainbow of colors, the cryo guns spray
the room with cold fog.” SCENE {PAGE 34}
BY SAM GLASER
Your city after dark
SUN 15
Save the ugly sweaters for your house party. XIV-Mas will be one of the top holiday par-
ties of the year. Whether you’ve been naughty or nice, the Champagne will fall like snow at
Hyde. Dress up like sexy sugar plum fairies or elves, and get ready for this holiday blizzard.
(In Bellagio, 6 p.m., HydeBellagio.com.) Keep it local with seminal Las Vegas DJ Dave Fogg at
XS. Fogg, now the XS music director, de-buted in the Las Vegas scene—and helped
build it—in 1986. In case you missed it, read about Fogg and the city’s other DJ
pioneers at VegasSeven.com/DJ-Pioneers. (In Encore, 10 p.m., XSLasVegas.com.) Stay up
late for Dorm Days’ Red Tie Holiday Par-ty at Body English, featuring a rare DJ set from Linkin Park’s Joe Hahn, sponsored
by the Belvedere (RED) vodka. (In Hard Rock Hotel, 10:30 p.m., HardRockHotel.com.)
MON 16
DJ Five, the self described DJ/poker player, is a SKAM Artist staple on the Strip. Catch Five as he
migrates from the poker tables to the turntables
tonight at XS. (In Encore, 10 p.m., XSLasVegas.com.)
TUE 17
House music addicts, get your fx and party till dawn
with Tao Group resident DJ Javier Alba at Lavo’s All Night Tuesdays. (In
the Palazzo, 11 p.m., LavoLV.com.) Ascend to Moon’s One
Night Stand: Pajama Edi-tion, where the largest in-dustry group wins a Palms Sky Villa after-party. (In the
Palms, 10:30 p.m., Palms.com/OneNightStand.)
WED 18
One of Las Vegas’ fastest rising bands, Rusty Maples, rocks Vinyl. The folk-inspired group played South by South-west and Life Is Beautiful this year, and is working on a full-length album for 2014. (In Hard Rock Hotel, 7:30 p.m.,
HardRockHotel.com.) Chicago’s Krewella (4) fies into Light. The trio recently collaborated with Headhunterz on a pow-erful new single, “United Kids of the World,” which is being
rightfully lauded as an anti-bullying anthem. (In Mandalay Bay, 10 p.m., TheLightVegas.com.) Lace up your ice skates, or just rent a pair, for the Industry Skate with Miss Joy at the
Cosmopolitan’s Boulevard Pool. Or chill and roast s’mores at the fre pits. (8 p.m. CosmopolitanLasVegas.com.)
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In Mandalay Bay, Surrender.
His Mad Decent hit, “Without You,” recently teased a “rebirth” DJ Five, the self described DJ/poker player,
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Nightlife
LAVo’S ChAmpAGNE pArty BruNCh
the Dates: 2-6 p.m. on Saturdays.
the DJ: Lema.the Deets: While there’s no
charge for entry, bar chairs start at $100 per person, and tables start at $500 per person for food and beverage mini-mums; LavoLV.com.
Success Factors: “Lavo was the frst to bring the daytime party brunch concept to Las Vegas, after successfully launching the concept at Lavo in New York City,” Tao Group managing partner Jason Strauss says. “It combines what we do best: great food and an incredible high-energy party. We pull out all of the stops, and everyone really has a great time. The Champagne is fowing and it is all hap-pening during the day, which gives it a very hedonistic feel.”
the themes: “It’s different every week as we are continu-ally developing creative bottle presentations, new themes and more. It can range from costumed hosts being carried on shoulders or the mini-Escalade flled with bottles driving through the middle of the restaurant.”
the prep: “We do a lot of creative brainstorming to come up with themed brunches, and then we have to pull together all of the ele-ments, from the advertising to special costumes and décor, so it is quite an extensive process.”
GhoStBAr DAyCLuB (a.k.a. GBDC)
the Dates: 1-6 p.m. on Saturdays.
the DJ: Mark Stylz.the Deets: Local ladies get
in free and enjoy a compli-
mentary Champagne open bar from 1 to 2 p.m.; local guys get in free till 2 p.m. Then ladies are $10, guys $20; Palms.com/GBDC.
Success Factors: Ghostbar Dayclub is Las Vegas’ original cold-weather daylife party, and has become one of those must-see-to-believe events. The party rages on with nonstop confetti explosions, different themed costume parties, beer bongs, piñatas, group shot-skis, cheeseburger attacks, beautifully adorned dancers (some on stilts), wild bottle presentations, and resi-dent and guest DJs who play to the vibe of the room.
the themes: “The explosive moment typically happens when the room is at capac-ity,” 9Group assistant director of nightlife Roberto Semidei says. “The patio is packed, the go-go dancers are placed
throughout the room, the DJ is killing it on the dance foor bringing the party to a climax, and then everything hap-pens at once: The beat drops, the confetti canons explode, showering the room with a rainbow of colors, the cryo guns spray the room with cold fog and the entire room liter-ally erupts with excitement.”
the prep: “GBDC is always a labor of love that involves many people to create this party, every week. From mar-keting to operations, it’s all hands on deck, and the timing always has to be just right. We strive to keep the content, themes and quirks as fresh and zany as possible, which means a meeting every week to determine how we can top the last big party.”
XIV At hyDEthe Dates: One Sunday
each month, from 5 p.m. till very late.
the DJ: D4N13L and guests.the Deets: $40 for ladies,
$50 for men, with VIP tables available for $5,000–$10,000; HydeBellagio.com.
Success Factors: “We put a lot of passion and energy into making XIV a completely im-mersive experience through larger-than-life decorations, special effects and elaborate-
ly outftting our staff,” says Mio Danilovic, vice president of nightlife operations for SBE. “But the culture that’s formed around XIV here in Vegas is what makes the par-ties truly epic.”
the themes: “Our VIP table guests purchase ‘Champagne Showers,’ bottle service packages that allow them to spray Champagne over the dance foor. It’s wild and unexpected—and the crowd loves it. VIPs will also spray Champagne at neighboring tables and receive volleys in return, launching a Cham-pagne shower war. It can get pretty intense, and we do provide ponchos and umbrel-las for guests who’d prefer to stay dry.”
the prep: “Because the themes change monthly, we work throughout the month planning outfts and makeup for the staff, and producing decorations that will trans-form Hyde into another world for just one night. The day of the party, we’re at Hyde early in the morning deck-ing out the venue with signs, props and lighting. We create elaborate invitations for in-vited guests and deliver them in costume to make sure the whole town is buzzing about the event.”
Party All The TimeWhen the pools close, Las Vegas’ daytime craziness is just
getting started. Vegas Seven goes behind the themes of three
parties that keep the winter days hot
By Sam Glaser
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Clockwise from left: XIV at Hyde, GBDC and Lavo’s Nutella crepes.
Scene
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PARTIES
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[ UPCOMING ]
Dec. 13 Cedric Gervais spins
Dec. 14 Morgan Page spins
Dec. 15 Dave Fogg spins
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THE BANKBellagio
[ UPCOMING ]
Dec. 29 T-Pain hosts
Dec. 30 Icona Pop performs
Dec. 31 Common hosts
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LAVO BRUNCHThe Palazzo
[ UPCOMING ]
Dec. 27 Lavo opens following renovation
and redesign.
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LILYBellagio
[ UPCOMING ]
Dec. 16 Football viewing party
Dec. 31 Daniel Park performs
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LAXThe Mirage
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TRYSTWynn
[ UPCOMING ]
Dec. 27 DJ Spider spins
Dec. 28 Jermaine Dupri spins
Dec. 31 Lil Jon spins
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DINING
STEWART + OGDEN at the recently opened Downtown Grand is named for two 19th-century food lovers, Archibald Stewart and Peter Skene Ogden, who are also honored with street names in the neighborhood. It’s a three-meal restaurant just off the main casino foor, and clearly, the management and designer are shooting for a bistro atmosphere. At any rate, Stewart + Ogden’s an al-ternative to the more upscale Triple George Grill across the street, and it serves a mean breakfast, too.
In a former life, this was the
down-market Lady Luck, and the transformation, I must say, is impressive. The new casino foor has a slick, modern look. Adjacent to Stewart + Ogden is a small sportsbook with good deli sandwiches and hearty soups, and there is also Red Mansion, a Chinese restaurant with a menu designed by chef Can Duong of Wendy’s Noodle Cafe in Chinatown.
Just inside the doors from the valet, and to the right, Stewart + Ogden is a narrow room with a tin ceiling, a stainless-steel bar and sea-blue leatherette booths. There
are also two rows of rather generic white tables and yel-low plastic chairs that look like they come from an IKEA warehouse. When I remarked to a young but wise server that the chairs had to go, he had a rejoinder: “The designer is proud of these chairs.” Maybe so, but they just don’t match the elegance of these sur-roundings.
The menu is executed by chef Michael Sellman, who has worked in Las Vegas since the 1970s, with Caesars Palace and MGM Grand on his résumé. But if you’re expecting a ge-P
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Diner’s Notebook, Just a Sip and the wine gadget that’s taking the Strip by storm
“When David Cooper taught his daughter Amanda
how to make the perfect margarita, he was simply
passing on the family business.” SCENE {PAGE 60}
Dr Pepper-braised pot roast at Stewart + Ogden.
A Grand IdeaThe iconic Vegas cofee shop gets a do-over at
the intersection of Stewart + Ogden
By Max Jacobson
DINING
58
neric, coffee-shop menu, you won’t fnd it here. Many dishes have unusual twists, such as Dr Pepper-braised pot roast and the Cubana, a Cuban sandwich with a black-bean schmear and tomato-chipotle sauce, in addition to the roast pork and cheese.
Breakfast is just fne. The fried-green-tomato Benny—lavishly sauced with a classic rémoulade and layered with fresh lump crabmeat—wouldn’t be embarrassed to fnd itself on a menu in a
top New Orleans restaurant such as Galatoire’s or Com-mander’s Palace. If you’re a griddle per-son, you can hardly improve on the springy lemon-ricotta waffe, redolent of sweet lemon preserves.
The lunch menu is reasonable, and the restaurant already seems to be attracting a Downtown crowd, many of whom come in large groups. Sick From School chicken noodle soup has
a 10-cent name, but don’t let that deceive you. This is a hearty bowl-ful with rich broth, egg noodles and shredded dark-meat chicken. It’s a real treat.
The Garden Shed is a nice salad of arugula, kale and spinach leaves dressed simply with light vinai-grette and topped with shaved Parmesan. Among main dishes,
the fsh and chips is a remarkably greaseless version using Arctic cod, although the fennel slaw is overly sweet, and those chips, ordinary french fries, were faccid.
And although I enjoyed the eccentric Dr Pepper-braised pot roast, it is quite sweet, and the sweetness is amplifed by the presence of diced, braised sweet potatoes under the enormous, tender hunks of beef. Colorful spears of broccoli rabe, however, give this dish an almost impression-istic appeal. Additional entrées such as roast chicken, trout and salmon also shine on the din-ner menu. And for dessert, the butter brioche bread pudding is an alliterative delight.
The boys, Stewart and Ogden, never had it this good.
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[ JUST A SIP ]
LAS VEGAS ROLLS OUT THE BAR MATS FOR COCKTAIL ROYALTY Mentorship is the bedrock of bartending. Before he famously set the industry standard for an all-fresh casino cocktail program at
Bellagio, the “Modern Mixologist,” Tony Abou-Ganim, learned the trade from his cousin Helen at Michigan’s Brass Rail. Later, as
an actor and bartender in New York, Abou-Ganim was inspired when he met “King Cocktail” Dale DeGroff, a sage often credited
with reinventing the profession. And Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada’s executive director of mixology and spirits educa-
tion Francesco Lafranconi has advised countless bartenders at the Academy of Spirits & Fine Service he founded that, “We’re
not drinking, we’re learning.” In fact, there isn’t a bartender in America who—whether he or she knows it—hasn’t in some way
benefited from the trio’s collective innovation and passion.
Which is why it’s so amazing that these three will unite December 13 and 14 for the inaugural Masters of Mixology
Cocktail Competition during Winter in Venice at the Venetian/Palazzo (Venetian.com/WinterInVenice). Lafranconi and
Abou-Ganim will each mentor a team of four bartenders vying for a trip to Italy. DeGroff and yours truly (humbled beyond
all comprehension) will judge with first two rounds at 8 p.m. Friday and the final three rounds at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the
event that coincides with Culinary Clash. Both competitions are the brainchild of Venetian/Palazzo vice president of food and
beverage Sebastien Silvestri, and both are open to the public.
While they’re at it, DeGroff and Abou-Ganim will appear with chef Rick Moonen on December 16 for a Holiday Takeover appe-
tizer and cocktail tasting soiree at Rx Boiler Room ($50, 7-10 p.m., RSVP to 632-9900). And for an extra $50, you get three signed
books, one from each of the evening’s hosts. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Helen David Memorial Fund, started by
Abou-Ganim in honor of his first mentor, to provide assistance to bartenders affected by breast cancer. – Xania Woodman
TALKING TURKEY AND SPICE, GREEK DEALS AND LAVO’S PROPER BRUNCHChuck Frommer has built a large local following
at his Northside shop, John Mull’s Meats, and on
Saturday the lines at Road Kill Grill, a food stand
outside his retail store (3730 Thom Blvd., 645-
1200), can be staggeringly long. Frommer sells
a huge variety of product, such as terrific beef
jerky and lean elk sausage. But during the holiday
season, he does smoked turkey, whole birds
scented with applewood, hickory and red oak.
I used to mail-order smoked turkeys from
Greenberg’s in Tyler, Texas, but there are
shipping charges, and a Greenberg’s turkey,
while powerfully smoky, is also a saltier bird than
Frommer’s, which are sold in three sizes, 12-14
pounds ($40), 16-20 pounds ($50) and the big
Kahunas at 24-plus pounds ($65). There is still
time to get one for a blowout Christmas dinner.
Meanwhile, if you’re planning a home-cooked
dinner, you’ll want to know about The Spice
Outlet (6960 W. Warm Springs Rd., 534-7883,
TheSpiceOutlet.com), which opened in mid-
November. The store reminds me of a national
chain of spice shops called Penzeys, and sells
more than 200 spices, spice blends and seasoning
mixes, as well as extracts, oils and gravies. There
is powdered habanero and whole Pequin chilies,
Jamaican-style jerk seasoning, even barrel-aged
vanilla extract. Samples are available on request.
Estiatorio Milos (in the Cosmopolitan,
698-7000), our top Greek restaurant, is pricey
during the evening. But now it’s offering a trio of
three-course affairs, all great deals. The evening
Sunset and late-night Moonlight menus are $49,
but the Pre Event menu is only $29.50, and offers
the Milos Special—a fried eggplant and zucchini
tower with kefalograviera cheese in the center, or
a Greek salad—fresh lavraki (Mediterranean sea
bass) or lamb chops, and a choice of dessert.
Finally, I stopped in for Proper Brunch at
Lavo, the Italian restaurant and nightclub in the
Palazzo (791-1800, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. Saturdays, 10
a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sunday) to sample the wares of
chef Massimiliano Campanari, who most people
on the Strip know as Max. Dishes such as his
16-ounce Kobe meatball and classic veal-chop
Parmigiana leave little doubt that he can cook his
native dishes, but who knew his American brunch
favorites were done so well?
From the griddle, there are perfect pancakes
and a delicious almond-crusted French toast,
and for a more indulgent experience, the lobster
Benedict pairs an entire pound of lobster meat
with poached eggs and Champagne vinaigrette.
The bartender makes one of the Strip’s
best Bloody Caesars (Canadians love it). A
complimentary pastry basket starts you off. The
everything bagels—tiny, crunchy and completely
addictive—are made in-house.
Hungry, yet?
Follow Max Jacobson’s latest epicurean
observations, reviews and tips at VegasSeven.com/
DinersNotebook.
MAX’S MENU PICKSFried-green-tomato Benny, $13.
Lemon-ricotta waffle, $9.
Sick From School chicken noodle soup,
$4.50.
Dr Pepper-braised pot roast, $17.
Butter brioche bread pudding, $7.
Fried-green-tomato Benny (above) and lemon-
ricotta waffles.
the fsh and chips is a remarkably greaseless version using Arctic cod, although the fennel slaw is overly sweet, and those chips, ordinary french fries, were faccid.
And although I enjoyed the eccentric Dr Pepper-braised pot roast, it is quite sweet, and the sweetness is amplifed by the presence of diced, braised sweet potatoes under the enormous, tender
Fried-green-tomato Benny (above) and lemon-STEWART + OGDEN
In the Down-town Grand,
206 N. 3rd St., 719-5100. Open daily for breakfast 7-11 a.m., lunch 11 a.m.-4 p.m., and dinner 4 p.m.-1 a.m.
Lunch for two, $22-$39.
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DINING
➧ TEACHING YOUR UNDERAGE child how to mix drinks could be seen as bad parenting. But when David Cooper taught his daughter Amanda how to make the perfect margarita, he was simply passing on the family business. Today, the 25-year-old Amanda tends bar with her stepmother Lisbeth at Gordon Ramsay Steak, while David (whom friends refer to simply as Cooper) slings drinks at Mario Batali’s Carnevino. Together, they represent the frst family of the local bar-tending scene.
David alone has spent more than 40 years working in Las Vegas bars—and has seen just about everything you can
imagine. His father, whom he describes as a professional “slot cheat,” owned six bars (some on the record, some off), where David worked as a teen, stocking them and occasionally pouring drinks. His frst “legitimate” job was at famed mafa hangout Villa D’Este, which he believes was secretly owned by the infamous Tony “The Ant” Spilotro. As a valet, he parked cars for movie producers, models and mobsters.
“One day a server came out,” David recalls, “and brought me my bowl of food. And he said ‘I can’t believe you do this job.’ And I was like ‘What do you mean, I’m a va-let.’ And he said ‘No, you start
cars for the mob.’ And I went home and told my mom, and she made me quit because she was afraid I was gonna get blown up.”
Once he was legal, David re-turned to bartending at Cae-sars Palace, where he poured drinks for Rodney Danger-feld, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams, among others. (He describes seeing Evel Knievel walk naked into the Caesars’ fountains as simultaneously the best and worst thing he’s ever witnessed at a casino!) Caesars was also where he met Lisbeth, who was working as a barback after immigrating from Mexico to Las Vegas by way of Idaho. (She, too, soon graduated to bartending.)
When I ask the couple who makes a better cocktail, they laugh before David diplomat-ically replies that it depends on the spirit. If it was tequila, he insists his wife would be victorious, while he would win on bourbon or rye.
When asked which of her parents’ cocktails she prefers, Amanda is equally diplomatic, telling me, “I would have my dad make me a cocktail to start, then [my stepmom] would make me one to finish.”
Despite Amanda’s early cocktail lessons, David says he was a little surprised to see his daughter enter the family business. “We thought she was going to be the one to be the FBI profler or some kind of big important crazy job,” he explains. “But with her love of people, I think [bar-tending] was natural for her.”
Amanda, who’s also an aspiring model and dancer, began her frst bartending job on her 21st birthday. She’s already worked for Wolfgang
Puck, José Andrés and now Gordon Ramsay, and explains her career choice simply: “I am my father’s daughter!”
Given the family’s strong attachment to both Las Vegas and its dining scene, they also feel a need to give back. Last month, the entire fam-ily (including Amanda’s two brothers, who are also in the food and beverage indus-try) organized their annual charity golf tournament and silent auction in Henderson. About 80 players, most from the local restaurant com-munity, helped raise enough money to feed and clothe a local family over the winter months. Needless to say, all the Coopers spent some time behind the four bars set up on the course, pouring drinks for the participants.
“[Being] true Las Vegans, we wanted to do this golf tourna-ment to give back to a local family,” Amanda says.
And they’ll continue to give back to the rest of us, from be-hind the stick, year-round.
SCENE
Raising the BartenderPouring drinks isn’t just the Coopers’ family business, it’s a way of life
By Al Mancini
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The Coopers, from left to right: Lisbeth, Amanda and David.
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The Grape NuT
Extreme by-the-GlassInnovative new device, the Coravin, lets wine directors
unleash the wild side of their menus
By Xania Woodman
➧ Las VeGas’ wiNe direcTors have surely gone off the rails. At Carnevino, Crafts-teak and Le Cirque, fne and rare wines are showing up on the by-the-glass menus, offering a few precious ounces of Opus One, Insignia, Château Mar-gaux and Sassacaia for not unreason-able prices. This alone isn’t entirely new; restaurants have happily poured rare and expensive wines by the glass in the past, and happily charged exorbitant prices to make it worth their while. And there’s no telling how long the bottle’s really been open. Ranging from $25 to $575—depending on the wine and number of ounces—these new pours represent some actual value. So, what has changed?
Answer: It’s the Coravin, a “wine access” device with a slim needle that allows somms to extract wine from a bottle directly through the foil capsule and cork. As the wine pours, in-ert argon gas is simultaneously injected, after which the cork, which has natural expanding capacity, reseals itself. Greg Lambrecht, a medical profes-sional with a background in en-gineering and patenting medical devices, designed the Coravin. An avid wine afcionado, Lam-brecht faced an interesting co-nundrum when his wife gave birth and stopped indulging: There had to be a way to get a glass or two of wine out of the bottle without his having to fnish it. And indeed, 14 years and 23 prototypes later, thanks to him, there is.
But let’s back up and talk about the problem the Coravin ($300, Coravin.com) so effciently solves.
Diners are more educated about wine (and wine-and-food pairing) than ever before. So they might not like that powerhouse Napa cab with their deli-cate crab salad. Also, they’re curious and eager to try new things. Restau-rants have responded, adding by-the glass programs in increasing numbers. But despite the immediate savings and perceived value, that’s where wine con-sumers feel the greatest pinch. In that one glass, you’re essentially covering the bottle cost for the restaurant, which is hedging in case they don’t sell the rest. “Within the frst third, you should pay for the bottle; two thirds should be the proft,” says Kirk Peterson, a sommelier and beverage director for B&B Hospitality Group in Las Vegas. “If it doesn’t sell out quickly enough, we have to dump it down the drain.”
Commercial wine dispenser/pres-ervation systems such as Cruvinet and Enomatic have made it possible to keep open bottles viable for weeks. Vacuum pumps and argon gas sprays can achieve similar results. But no matter what, in removing the cork, oxygen gets into the wine and starts the clock ticking for that bottle. The Coravin is the paradigm shifter.
Peterson demonstrated the device for me a week after he launched seven Coravin-accessed wines by the glass at Carnevino on November 15. He clamped the Coravin (it looks like a Rabbit wine opener, if you’ve ever seen one) around the top of a 1999 Fontodi Flaccianello ($235 by the bottle); the hollow needle hovered just off center, so that you can pierce a cork multiple times without hitting the same spot. I pushed down, effortlessly sending the needle through the foil and cork. As I
released the argon into the bottle and inverted the bottle over my wine glass, about 3 ounces poured forth. No longer fearing loss, Pe-terson can offer three ounces for $28, six for $56, where before the Coravin, he might not have of-fered this wine by the glass at all.
So far, Craftsteak offers the largest Coravin wine list in town, with 14 reds and four whites. MGM Grand wine
director and master som-melier Joe Phillips started small, offering Caymus Spe-cial Selection by the glass in November, “but it quickly
expanded into a more com-prehensive list,” he says. Prices range from $25 to $130 for 6 ounces, with 14 incredible selections for less than $75.
Similarly, Bellagio wine director and master sommelier Jason Smith started Le Cirque’s Coravin program Decem-ber 10, offering 2- and 6-ounce pours of six wines previously available only by the bottle. Labels range from Château Gruaud Larose 2003 ($32 for 2 ounces, $90 for 6, $345 for the bottle) to Châ-teau Margaux 2003 ($200 for 2 ounces, $575 for 6, $2,180 for the bottle).
Observing the ease with which Pe-terson accessed the Fontodi again, we fantasized aloud about a future where the Coravin is the industry standard, allowing restaurateurs to keep prices in the realm of the possible. Peterson envisions library collections “vetted” by top professionals instead of your plunking down $1,500 in the hopes that the wine you select is to your liking.
Save the gambling for the casinos.
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HOURS: Mon-Sun 8am-11pm
SUMMERLINBoca Park730 S. Rampart Blvd.Las Vegas, NV 89145(702) 933-8740Located on S. Rampart Blvd.,Between W. Charleston Blvd. (159) & Alta Drive in Boca Park Shopping Center. Near Cheesecake Factory, next to R.E.I.
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ANYONE CAN LOOK at an annual report and fgure out how much gaming revenue differ-ent properties are generat-ing—if you want to take the coward’s way out. But what we’d rather know is who was raking in more dough, Rick Blaine or Montgomery Burns? The mobsters behind the Tangiers or James Caan and his Montecito?
We examined seven fc-
tional gambling halls in an ef-fort to put a peg on revenues. Our methodology was to use available data from the UNLV Center for Gaming Research and apply win per unit per day fgures—normalized for average hold percentage to try to neutralize year-to-year fuctuations—to gaming of-ferings, adjusted for 2013 U.S. dollars. We also tried to take context into account.
Mr. Burns’ Casino, for example, is the only game in town in Springfield. We know that casinos with less competition tend to have a higher slot hold, but they’re also doing less total handle. Or in the case of Rick’s Café Americain, baccarat and roulette would have been more popular in a wartime French colony than craps, but European roulette was V
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A&EMovies, music, concerts and a cat-and-mouse game
“The Las Vegas native who got her start singing “cutesy” folk songs is now
dipping into neo-soul, fusing jazzy riffs and hip-hop bounce with the
warm and delicate rasp of a voice beyond her years.” MUSIC {PAGE 66}
Art House Advantage
We used math to fnd the real takes of fake casinos
By Jason Scavone
Excellent: Mr. Burns’ Casino is a $9.4 million jewel in our film Strip.
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single zero—much better for the player.
We also didn’t include casinos explicitly based on real-life properties. The Bel-lagio of Ocean’s Eleven is still the Bellagio, and Moe Green was making his bones at the Flamingo, according to the original Godfather script. Revenue fgures are for gam-ing only. We’re not adding in entertainment and food, and we’re not accounting for overhead, asset depreciation or employee pensions. We’re frivolous, not masochistic.
ONE-EYED JACKSTwin Peaks, 1990 Main assets: One roulette wheel, one craps table, two blackjack tables, three slot machines.Annual revenue: $1,662,590.Annual revenue (1990): $850,037 ($1,062,547 Cana-dian).The skinny: The annual take of less than $1.7 million makes this the smallest reve-nue generator on our list, but the underground Canadian casino has a couple of things going for it. First, Ben Horne was the only owner, and management was confned to Blackie O’Reilly. Second, it must’ve catered to a reason-ably affuent crowd. When Agent Cooper sits to play blackjack, he plays with more than $5,000—not bad money considering Coop’s onerous pie-and-coffee budget.Other assets: An even bigger draw than the tables and bar were the 12 to 15 prostitutes who populated the brothel. Other liabilities: Paying off Mounties to turn a blind eye.
LOLLY’S CASINOBoardwalk Empire, 1920Main assets: One roulette table, one craps table, one blackjack table, one faro table.Annual revenue: $1,902,257.Annual revenue (1921): $145,421.The skinny: Lolly Steinman is the owner and operator of this small parlor on the second story of an Atlantic City townhouse, but he has Nucky Thompson in with him as an “investor” who takes a cut and provides protection. Arnold Rothstein went on a tear, racking up a $60,000 win in one day, necessitating Thompson’s intervention to cut off the high-roller, lest he clean out the small operation.
Other assets: Steinman had a great provider of bootleg hooch in Thompson, which helped keep the wheels greased, so to speak. Other liabilities: Unfor-tunately, he had to give out booze to keep customers happily gambling, and when the sauce was scarce it was liable to kill business.
RICK’S CAFÉ AMERICAINCasablanca, 1941Main assets: One craps table, two roulette tables, two baccarat tables, three poker tables.Annual revenue: $2,380,125.Annual revenue (1941): $149,425.The skinny: Like Lolly’s, Rick’s was an illegal casino run fairly openly, though German collaborators weren’t welcome. With entertainment options in Casablanca seemingly limited, Rick’s boasted a full house nightly. But all the
expatriates in political limbo who had enough money to fee their countries in the frst place found themselves against the wall by ’41, be-cause even expensive jewelry couldn’t fetch much on the black market. Other assets: Rick Blaine had access to fne Champagne, presumably expensive food and a killer piano player. He did well enough to continue paying his staff for weeks even when the operation was shut down. Other liabilities: A weak-ness for telling desperate young romantics where to bet on a fxed roulette wheel; allowing Capt. Renault to win, even though he’d still shut the place down when shocked—shocked—to fnd gambling there.
MR. BURNS’ CASINOThe Simpsons, 1993Main assets: 150 quarter slots, three blackjack tables, two craps
tables, two money wheels.Annual revenue: $9,409,706.Annual revenue (1993): $5,806,996.The skinny: Despite an atro-cious marketing team that let Mr. Burns design the logo, the casino must have fared well. It got Marge Simp-son hooked on gambling after her frst pull on a slot machine. At only $9 million a year in revenue, it seems like this would be a minor holding in the Burns empire. However, its possible profts from the casino funded genetic engineering research into creating dogs that shoot bees when they bark.Other assets: The Flamboy-ant Magic of Gunter and Ernst had a line well out the showroom door; the Concrete & Asphalt Expo ’93 would have brought in valuable conven-tion business; and Gerry Cooney was a celebrity face to welcome guests.
Other liabilities: Krusty’s Midnight Show was a fop (signature bit: “Herpes, herpes bo-berpes”); Robert Goulet was a no-show after the casino paid him up front; and Jim Nabors couldn’t have been cheap to keep cryogeni-cally frozen.
MONTECITOLas Vegas, 2004Main assets: 150 slot ma-chines, 14 blackjack tables, one roulette table, two craps tables.Annual revenue: $21,323,312.Annual revenue (2004): $17,202,607.The skinny: Although the pilot was shot at Mandalay Bay and the Montecito was mod-eled after it, a behind-the-scenes feature for Las Vegas reveals the casino set was only 20,000 square feet, making it tiny for a Strip property.Other assets: Vibe dining forerunner Mystique; the
Which fictional casino would you visit?: (Clockwise from above) Casablanca’s Rick’s Café Americain; Robert De Niro at Tangiers in Casino; artwork from Ian Fleming’s book Casino Royale; Lolly’s Casino in Boardwalk Empire; and the cast of Las Vegas at Montecito.
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irresistible charm of James Caan. Other liabilities: The bomb that ripped through the joint at the end of Season 2, requiring the place to be rebuilt.
ROYALE-LES-EAUXCasino Royale, 1953Main assets: 17 roulette tables, 11 baccarat (punto banco) tables, two boule tables, fve trente et quarante tables, fve chemin de fer tables. (Estimated—because Royale-les-Eaux was based on the Casino de Monte Car-lo in the pre-slots era—we can guess about 40 tables to the real casino’s current 35. The boule tables were described as only breaking even, so we know there wouldn’t have been many. While chemin de fer was the main event, the punto banco version of bac-carat was also popular.)Annual revenue: $62,228,828.Annual revenue (1953): $7,095,949 (or in French
francs, 1,632,970,000).The skinny: When Bond sat down for his big chemin de fer match with Le Chiffre in Ian Flemming’s debut novel (the 2006 flm version only offers us a look at one absurdly high-stakes poker table in the casino), they each have about 25 mil-lion francs with which to do battle in this baccarat version contested between play-ers. That works out to just under a million in 2013 U.S. dollars each. Their climactic hand—a 32 million franc bet Le Chiffre makes that Bond
accepts—is described as the biggest in the casino’s history. But because Bond won, the casino wouldn’t have earned its 5 percent commission, about $28,000 in one hand alone. That season offered the “highest gambling in Europe this summer.” When Bond frst arrived, he won 3 million francs in two days at roulette, and that while trying to blend in. So no hoi polloi allowed. Roulette at the modern Monte Carlo accounts for 70 percent of gaming revenues there. Other assets: Luxury hotel,
fne dining. Other liabilities: Win a big bet against the wrong guy and there’s a very real chance you end up strapped to a chair with no seat, getting your undercarriage pummeled.
TANGIERSCasino, 1973Main assets: More than 900 slots, several pits of tables, poker and the frst sports-book of its kind at the time.Annual revenue: $129,710,000.Annual revenue (1973): $24,595,980.
The skinny: Casino was flmed at the Riviera in 1994, which generated $82.1 million in gaming revenue that year. The Tangiers is referred to as a hundred-million-dollar empire in the papers, and Ace Rothstein himself says, “I got a hundred million a year goin’ through the place,” but it’s possible he meant in handle and not in win. Because otherwise, even with baccarat player K.K. Ichikawa dropping a million in a session, there’s no way Rothstein could have hit a number that big with the casino foor as it was present-ed onscreen. Especially not with the monster skim going out of the count room.Other assets: Another Siegfried & Roy stand-in, this time as “Jonathan and David”; the morale boost that having Don Rickles on staff provides you. Other liabilities: Manner-less cowboys, thieving wives, treacherous friends and that massive skim winging its way to Kansas City.
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MANNERLESS COWBOYS, THIEVING WIVES, TREACHEROUS FRIENDS AND THAT MASSIVE SKIM WINGING ITS WAY TO KANSAS CITY WERE AMONG THE TANGIERS’ LIABILITIES.
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NiNeteeN-year-old singer-songwriter Sabriel is in the midst of a reinven-tion. The Las Vegas native who got her start singing “cutesy” folk songs is now dipping into neo-soul, fusing jazzy riffs and hip-hop bounce with the warm and delicate rasp of a voice beyond her years.
“When I frst started performing, I was kinda just doing things that people told me I should do,” says Sabriel Hobart, a graduate of the dance program at Las Vegas Acad-emy for the Performing Arts. “After a while of doing things that people tell you to do, you get bored.”
So earlier this year, Sabriel began a stylistic evolution. The singer—who made her public singing debut in 2011, at a Talky Trees open-mic session at Emergency Arts—revis-ited the music on which she was raised. She immersed herself in ’90s-era crooners D’Angelo and Maxwell, and R&B icons Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Refect-ing their soulful quality in her own sound felt “natural” and “more comfortable.” But she could only take the change so far on her own.
In the spring, Sabriel assembled an eclectic new backing band, recruit-
ing moonlighters from local reggae groups Haleamano and One Pin Short, ska band the Remedies and hip-hop crew RNR, whose bassist CoCo Jenkins was the frst on board. “She’s very open-minded, musically,” says Jenkins of Sabriel. “She’s really developing into her own style.”
While this transition has been exciting for Sabriel and the band, her more recent material has been met with mixed reviews. When performing, she sees “a lot of heads turn in confusion.” She’s been confronted with a barrage of ques-tions and continuously pressured to defne herself: “What’s it like to be a jazz singer? … What’s it like playing R&B? ... How is it being a pop singer?”
Her response: “I didn’t know I was any of those things.”
Being under 21, Sabriel has also been challenged by the nature of Las Vegas’s bar-centric music scene. After a recent gig in Los Angeles, where age wasn’t an issue, she found it hard to return home. While she has performed
regularly at First Friday, Gold Spike, Eat and, most recently, on the Homegrown Stage at the Life Is Beautiful festival, she wishes there were more options available to the under-21 crowd. “We just need one really cool spot where it’s just about music,” Sabriel says. “Fingers crossed, it would be the Hunt-ridge,” the Downtown theater and former music venue that’s planned to be renovated.
As for her own future, Sabriel would like to continue exploring sonic possibilities. She’s already released a self-titled EP on iTunes and a live session recorded at PBS studios. Next, she’d like to do “a secret Soundcloud album, with a
lot of acoustic, lovesong-y type stuff,” she says. “I want to do [different] al-bums like that a lot; that way I’m not tied down to one sound.”
Still a teenager, she has plenty of time ahead to develop as an artist. “Hopefully,” she says, “I can keep growing into something less safe. I don’t like safe.”
Music
slot rocker, bearded puNk, fruity sibliNgs
i had the pleasure last week of lunching with the bassist in one of my favorite ’80s jangle-pop bands, Dream Syndicate. Mark Walton joined the L.A. group with 1986’s Out of the Grey, widely considered the Syn-dicate’s best album. Whenever possible, I select the title track on barroom jukes.
The band broke up in ’89. Walton played on Syndicate bandleader Steve Wynn’s solo records and on Giant Sand’s 1990 breakout Swerve. Walton moved to New Orleans with college-rock act Continental Drifters, big in the ’90s bayou scene. After Katrina fooded his house, Walton moved to Las Vegas, fnd-ing work as a webmaster for Bally Technolo-gies, a slot-machine manufacturer. (Over the years, Walton had designed sites for rock bands.) With a corporate job and wife and kids in the suburbs, Walton’s touring days were behind him—until Wynn rang him last year for a festival gig in Spain. They hadn’t played Syndicate songs in 25 years, but it went well. In recent weeks, the group has rocked Cleveland, Chicago and L.A.
“Our goal is to have fun,” Walton says. “Obviously the band needs to pay for itself to be viable. We’ve talked about the possi-bility of doing a new record. If [a label] were interested, I’m sure it would happen.”
Dream Syndicate hasn’t been invited to play Vegas—yet. Maybe this column will fx that. (Hello, Beauty Bar?) Fingers crossed.
Bearded acoustic punk rocker Brock Frab-biele (who’s in local hardcore act The Core) has a new live disc out, Unemployment Is a Helluva Drug. Recorded earlier this year at the Bunkhouse (please re-open it soon, Down-town Project), the album will be celebrated with a show at 6 p.m. December 14 at Artistic Armory (a warehouse space behind a tattoo parlor at the corner of Arville Street and Reno Avenue). Frabbiele is touring the West Coast with the Drunks Go Acoustic tour. This par-ticular show, though, features sets by Lawn Mower Death Riders, Dead Frets, Matt Salkeld, Lowbrow, Mercy Music, Zabi Naqshband, Tony Savelio and Mike Law.
I’m not a huge admirer of musical comedy, but the Apple Sisters look worth biting into with their close-harmony singing and jump-blues arrangements and odd lyrics. (Think the Andrews Sisters on acid.) The Sisters are throwing a release party for a disc, Happy Holidoozy Merry Christ-mess, at 10 p.m. Decem-ber 15 at ArtSquare Theatre (1025 1st St.). They write original tunes such as “Simple Christmas Rules,” about stuffng peppermint and reindeer poop in your stockings and wearing them near the freplace so your feet “smell like Christmas cheer.” Jolly good!
Your Vegas band releasing a CD soon? Email [email protected].
Sabriel’s Got SoulThe teenage singer-songwriter is done with cute
By Camille Cannon
sabriel8 p.m. Dec. 14,
Container Park, 707 Fremont
St., Downtown-ContainerPark.com. For more on Sabriel, visit SabrielMusic.
com.
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music
Epic indiE
Avalon Landing, Reside (Self-released)
Las Vegas’ indie-rock dark horse has to be
this quintet, led by singer-guitarist Mike
Vargovich and singer-keyboardist Josh
Rabenold, whose voices blend majestically on
this collection of bigger-than-life pop songs.
Starting with the twilight-fading, guitar-
chiming splendor of “About Face” and ending
with the charging call-to-arms of “Escape
Yourself,” the immaculately produced Reside
mines emotional territory between despair
and faith in love. Avalon Landing has clearly
arrived. Fans of Coldplay and The Fray
should buy this pronto. ★★★★✩
powEr pop
The Bones, What Would Ginger Do? (Self-released)
Each musician in this outfit has served time
in established rock acts—Ace Frehley, Lynch
Mob, Nuclear Assault. But the Bones sound
entirely different, closer to Cheap Trick and
The Jam. Every song on their debut slugs
your eardrums with a sing-along hook—from
the naughty, retro come-on of “The Marcia
Brady Song” to the hot-and-heavy, riff-
crackling Weezer homage “Catholic Girls.”
Sure, the Bones are a bit on the horny side,
but their lyrics are more clever than crass.
Terrific band. ★★★✩✩
cowboy HardcorE
The People’s Whiskey, The People’s Whiskey (SquidHat)
Gaze too long into the bottom of a whiskey
glass, and the bottom gazes back at you.
Nietzsche or Hank Williams Sr.? This blue-
collar country-punk quartet would likely go
with the latter given the pedal-steel guitars
and honky-tonk flourishes that spice up their
self-titled full-length. Most tracks here echo
earlier Americana-tinged bands such as X
and Social Distortion. But when the Whiskey
pours its collective heartbreak into the ballad
“Drunk Dial,” this band is simply unbeatable.
Solid fucking disc. ★★★✩✩
(LocaL) aLbum REViEWsBy Jarret Keene
Disc scan Upcoming albums on Jarret’s radar …
Jan. 7: Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks continue their experimental foray into weird ’60s
garage-pop with their sixth studio disc, Wig Out at Jagbags. First single “Lariat” name-
checks the Grateful Dead, which should give you an indication of the jamming, psyche-
delic turn Malkmus is taking here. Jan. 14: James Mercer (the Shins) and Brian Burton
(Danger Mouse) reconvene as broken bells for a second album, After the Disco. This one
channels—can you believe it?—the Bee Gees, at least judging from initial single “Holding
on for Life,” which boasts a thumping electronic beat and layered, Gibbs brothers-esque
vocal harmonies.
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HEY NOW, HEY NOW/
DON’T DREAM IT’S
HOVA: Hot on the heels
of wife Beyoncé’s
recent concert
appearance, Jay-Z
brings his Magna
Carter World Tour to
Mandalay Events Center
on December 13-14 ($39-
$150). Any rapper can boast
about Lamborghinis and Bugattis, doing
drugs, sleeping with models and making
fat stacks. Jay-Z, whose recent album
Magna Carta . . . Holy Grail was his 13th
No. 1, distinguishes himself by rapping
about Sotheby’s auctions, Basquiat,
Picasso, Fendi, Gucci and Tom Ford. On
“Crown,” he informs listeners, You in
the presence of a king/Scratch that, you
in the presence of a God. Considering he
can tackle racism while simultaneously
mocking Miley Cyrus (“Somewhere in
America”), he’s probably right. Let Hova
have his fun; rappers with low self-
esteem aren’t worth a listen.
SOMETHING TO CROWE ABOUT:
When it comes right down to it, there’s
absolutely nothing wrong with being
known as a good-time jam band. The
Black Crowes may be 20 years removed
from the height of their fame, but that
name on the marquee still guarantees an
evening of solid, Southern-fried sonic
entertainment. Chris Robinson and the
gang rock The Joint on December 13
($34.50-$70), which means they’re going
to perform the hell out of their mid-
’90s hits, along with some well-chosen
covers. Can I get an amen?
ON SALE NOW: There’s a perfectly good
reason I never heard of Danish rockers
New Politics. I don’t play video games, so
I didn’t get exposed to “Yeah Yeah Yeah”
when it appeared on Need For Speed: Hot
Pursuit in 2010. And my kids are too old for
Disney movies, so the fact that “Harlem” is
featured on the Frozen trailer doesn’t mean
squat. But you know what? I like both of
those songs. New Politics plays Vinyl on
February 12 ($15), and if you’re anything
like me, you’re probably going to go.
CONCERTS
JAM HSIAOThe Orleans, Dec. 7
I like experiencing new and musically interesting shows. Unfortunately, the Taiwanese native’s perfect pop persona failed to bring
much beyond Top-40 knockoffs.
Hsiao, a talented vocalist with a camera-ready jawline, was discovered via a popular Taiwanese talent show and has been sell-
ing No. 1 hits in Asia since 2008. But he seems transparently groomed for a mass market so saturated by Western pop tropes that
if it hadn’t been for the Mandarin lyrics and stage patter, I could have been listening to New Kids on the Block rip-offs and arena
rock stylings a la Triumph. Still, my disappointment seemed unique. The manufactured, syrupy, vanilla tunes—such as “Marry Me,”
“Loving You Too Deeply” and “Miss You Forever” (the titles are rough English translations)—were replete with aching-heart vocals
and crying guitars. They drew fans, like the young couple next to me, who traveled from L.A. to cheer and squeal and wiggle their
light wands. ★★✩✩✩ – Kurt C. Rice
NAVAJOThe Griffin, Dec. 4
Local band Navajo turned in a notable alternative to much of the rodeo celebrations happening in town. With a style reminiscent of
prog-jammy-electronic-non-pop the likes of Radiohead and Lapalux, they turned in an eight-song set of originals written over the
year and a half that the band has emerged.
After some microphone issues, singer-guitarist Phillip Seaton sang moody stories of love gone bad and life gone south with a fal-
setto vocal delivery that often hit the notes. Guitarist Michael Romano used his instrument in unconventional ways, at one point laying
it on the floor and plucking it like a Japanese koto. Drummer Justin Truitt banged along, at times wildly in the vein of Ginger Baker, at
others precisely a la Stewart Copeland. Keyboard player Brandon King rounded out all the lower tone registers and provided spacey
fluidity to the sometimes-choppy melodies. Their song “ Crawling” is the one that sounds most like a potential breakout number, but
it’s still refreshing to see somebody being brave and different in the local music scene. ★★★★✩
– Danny Axelrod
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Gastro Fare. Nurtured Ales. Jukebox Gold.
commodity men. In theory. In theory, communism works—in theory.
Instead, we’ve got our-selves a Frankenstein sce-nario, where outrage stands in for torches and pitch-forks. To the point where it’s left poor Deadmau5 huddled alone, by himself, on an ice foe—with nothing but two synthesizers and a mouse
head to keep him warm.Actual smart people can
sit down and fgure out where the Internet Outrage Machine came from, what it wants, and whether or not it will achieve sentience and launch a coordinated nucle-ar strike against humanity on August 4, 1997, July 25, 2003, July 25, 2004 or April 21, 2011, depending on which
part of the Terminator canon you buy into.
In the meantime, the rest of us are left to sort through some spectacular point-miss-ing. Like in several reviews for the Ridley Scott/Cormac McCarthy moviemaking su-perhero team-up, The Coun-selor. It’s a deeply cynical, bleak fick (which you knew as soon as we wrote “Cormac
McCarthy”) that deals in the fner points of McCarthy’s misanthropy.
There were several reviews, though, that went out of the way to note the fick’s misogyny. Which misses the point on two very important levels: A) McCarthy has never once in a decadeslong literary career indicated he thought anyone, male or female, was
worth a damn, and B) the mastermind, the person who wins, the one who carefully maneuvers enemies into the most unescapable traps (and I’m about to spoil the holy living hell out of this movie because the plot mechan-ics are like the 10th-least important part of it, slightly behind “Whatever happened to Cameron Diaz’s cheetahs”) is Diaz.
If all you’re going to tune into is the misogyny—out of the mouth of Javier Bardem’s character, and not systematic to the flm—you’re missing out on a fick that will sucker-punch you in the soul. Why would anyone, especially a critic, trade in a blistering moviegoing experience for a few seconds of cheaply won moral certitude?
Deadmau5’s decision to leave Twitter is utterly de-fensible in that light. If he’s going to take the time to put together an interconnected suite of songs—and the thing people start talking about is a manufactured faux pas by way of 4 a.m., 14th martini logic—it’s readily appar-ent that he can’t win. With all those Space Invaders tattoos, the dude obvi-ously is a student of the ’80s. He learned the lesson of WarGames: The only winning move is not to play.
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Cat Got His Tweet
The world lost a voice of honest irony when
Deadmau5 lef Twitter
By Jason Scavone
HERE’S THE THING that makes Deadmau5, if not compelling to non-EDM fans, at the very least interesting: He came up with the greatest marketing hook any DJ ever had by put-ting on that mouse head, but he doesn’t show any indica-tion of wanting to play the same self-promotion game that chipper, relentlessly positive DJs normally do. He can command hundreds of thousands of dollars a night to pump tracks over a sea of glow sticks, but he just did a drop-in set at XS for, if the hype is to be believed, free.
He told Justin Bieber to “grow the fuck up” and said of Madonna’s cynical foray into dance music that he “fucking can’t smack my head hard enough right now.”
In other words, he’s acting like a good old-fashioned temperamental artist. It’s wonderfully retro.
That don’t-give-a-fuckness is what made his Twitter ac-count one of the incredibly few DJ social media channels worth following, and also what seemingly made him rage-quit the whole shebang in November.
After posting a suite of songs that had the Latin names for the seven deadly sins—one of which was “Ira” for “Wrath”—Deadmau5 started catching static for it on Twitter.
From people who thought he was supporting the Irish Republican Army. The IRA. (And not, as I originally suspected, from legions of furious Ira Glass fans.)
Deadmau5 claims he didn’t fee Twitter because of the heat. In a statement, he said, “I’m going to let management deal with that account. My reasons are my own, not because of some-thing I said, not because of this hilarious IRA vs “Ira” craic, not because of Lady Gaga’s infnite legions of
brain-dead fans. But as I said … reasons of my own.”
On the one hand, we’re pretty much obligated to take those “reasons of his own” at face value. Deadmau5 hints at the need to focus on work instead of checking his phone every fve minutes, and there’s no reason to suspect that he’s using that to cover for his crippling Legend of Zelda addiction. (Everyone knows you budget in your crippling Legend of Zelda addiction to your weekly planner, anyway.)
On the other, the Irish Republican Army? That is a transcendent achievement. It’s the Felix Baumgartner Stratos jump of achingly beautiful stupidity: A stun-ning testament to man’s ingenuity in a feld no one actually asked for. Who wouldn’t take a long, hard look at an elemental force like that and walk away from that particular pipeline of the
inter-tubes? It’s John Wayne turning back into the wilder-ness at the end of The Search-ers. Sometimes a man has to know when he don’t belong.
The idea was to break down the wall between artist and audience in the spirit of harmony and coopera-tion, which would have been our birthright if not for the cynical meddling of the
THE IDEA WAS TO BREAK DOWN THE WALL BETWEEN ARTIST AND AUDIENCE IN THE SPIRIT OF HARMONY AND COOPERATION,
WHICH WOULD HAVE BEEN OUR BIRTHRIGHT IF NOT FOR THE CYNICAL MEDDLING OF THE COMMODITY MEN.
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stage
Jeepers, creepers, what do you do when you’re no longer a Peep-er?
Left gig-less after Peepshow quit peeping in September, singer Josh Strickland transferred his power pipes to another corner of Planet Hollywood, joining Vegas! The Show. Peeking in on a recent performance revealed that Strickland is gelling nicely with his new peeps in this af-fectionate paean to retro Vegas.
Likable and sensu-al in equal measure, Strickland adds un-ruffed sleekness to a show that thrives on a hellzapoppin’ vibe as it compul-sively leaps from performer tributes to vaudevillian shtick to balls-out production numbers. Entertaining as all that is, this show equates taking a breath with taking a nap.
Keeping pace while keeping cool, Strickland blends into the vocal en-semble but anchors the antics almost intangibly. When he’s on, a ring-a-ding-ding ease envelopes the stage. Asked to assume the veneer of Vegas legends, he does so with style, if not dead-on impersonation.
Admittedly, it’s tough to fall into the illusion of Strickland as 15-year-old Wayne Newton making his baby-faced Vegas debut, but he imbues “Danke Schoen” with the sweetness and fn-ger-snappy swing upon which Newton built his career. It’s not an impression, but an interpretation that conjures up Mr. Las Vegas just as well.
Likewise, he meets his Frank Sinatra requirements just as impressively in an extended Rat Pack segment. Taking turns with talented David Villella as Dino (singing “Mambo Italiano”) and high-spirited Eric Jordan Young as Sammy (“Once in a Lifetime,” “The Candy Man”), Strickland purrs and powers his way through “Luck Be a Lady,” especially effective milking
the lengthy lead-in (they call you lady luck, but there is room for doubt … ). Re-creating the Rat Pack clowning from their Sands heyday, he channels the Chairman’s “cuckoo” charm.
Happily, during the Elvis segment, Strickland doesn’t distract us with a clichéd impression—even his spiffy white suit and tie is classier than the hoary white jumpsuit that’s long been a visual joke. Instead, Strickland reaches
his zenith in a spine-tingling take on the King’s “If I Can Dream,” following it up with a raucous “Devil in Disguise.”
Only Strickland’s fnal appearance—garbed as Elton John warbling “Rocket Man” to clips of hotel implosions—falls shy of a bull’s-eye when he dons oversize Elton specs and sequins. Though Strickland can sing Elton convincingly, like most impersonations, his fails to capture the pop legend’s grand eccentricity.
Still, given what Strickland adds to Vegas! The Show, you hope his run is pro-phetically refected in the “Rocket Man” lyrics: I think it’s gonna be a long, long time …
STRIP POSTSCRIPT: Oh, what a Ve-gas web he’ll weave when Spider-Man downs a yard-long margarita, goes clubbing with a Kardashian, then tries to scamper across the rafters of a Strip theater.
Such a scenario is possible now that Broadway’s notoriously problem-ad-dled Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark has announced its Gotham closing come January, with an intention to relocate to Vegas in 2015.
Hey Cirque, there might be a new ceiling-scraper in town. Be a good scout and welcome him with a gift basket of Dramamine.
Got an entertainment tip? Email [email protected].
LittLe Boy PeePJosh Strickland doesn’t lose a beat moving from
Peepshow to Vegas! The Show
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MOVIES
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OUT OF THE FURNACE is a lot of movie, a lot of it good and pungent.
In the first hour especially, its many moving parts keep a sprawling ensemble cast busy and engaged. Christian Bale and Casey Affleck play Russell and Rodney, sons of a dying Pennsylvania steel-worker. Russell has gone into the family business, working in the mill. Rodney enlists in the Army. The year is 2008. An early twist of fate lands Russell in prison. Upon his re-lease, he and his brother, back from a punishing fourth tour of duty in Iraq, must learn to
adjust to new versions of their old lives.
Russell’s ex-girlfriend, played by Zoe Saldana, now goes around with the mild-mannered local sheriff (Forest Whitaker). Rodney tries to work off his gambling debts (Willem Dafoe plays his bookie) by bare-knuckle box-ing in the realm of a vicious New Jersey backwoods gang headed up by Woody Harrel-son. Everyone in Braddock, Pennsylvania, and environs knows everyone else’s busi-ness, and in some cases they know they’d better keep quiet about it.
Writer-director Scott Cooper’s debut feature was the simple, satisfying country ballad Crazy Heart, and if that Jeff Bridges showcase oper-ated like a three-minute song expanded into a full-length movie, Out of the Furnace is more like a mournful Spring-steen album reimagined for the movies. The film opens with a grim prologue, barely related to the stories to come. We’re in a drive-in, and the Harrelson character commits an act of sexual violence so rough it risks throwing people straight out of the movie. It’s effective in one way, certainly:
Christian Bale and Casey Affleck play brothers in this talent-laden ensemble.
Boiling OverThis working-class revenge fick simmers with some
heated performances
By Michael Phillips Tribune Media Services
It establishes the casual venal-ity of the story’s chief adver-sary, a meth-addled sociopath thriving in a tough economy where honest workers have criminally few options.
In its setting and portraits of machismo under duress, Out of the Furnace recalls the homefront sequences of The Deer Hunter. The actors clearly are enjoying one another’s screen company. Sam Shepard is also in the cast, as the broth-ers’ wise old uncle, who joins Russell in his search for the brother who messes with the wrong criminal element.
There is an oddly frustrating showdown at the end of the script’s increasingly famil-iar, predictable and weary-ing path. Cooper’s strength as a writer lies in creating dramatic situations in which there is no simple matter of right or wrong at stake; often, it’s a matter of two rights. So why does the picture settle, in the end, for good-versus-evil revenge? Audiences demand
such things, I suppose. But au-diences are open to other sorts of depictions of the American working class. They simply need some help fnding mov-ies that come and go in a fash, such as the recent, ambitious Place Beyond the Pines, which married melodrama with soci-ology in ways Out of the Furnace cannot reach.
It’s the little things we take home with us, such as the handwritten menu above the bar in the local tavern (“We Have a New Fried Hot Sausage Sandwich”). The big things, such as the cross-cutting between a deer hunt and the grisly demise of a major char-acter, betray a heavy hand. Yet Affleck, in particular, finds something fierce and noble in uneven material and in his character’s rage. He’s not like any other actor in American movies. Out of the Furnace has four or five actors of which you could say the same.
Out of the Furnace (R) ★★★✩✩
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movies
[ by tribune media services ]short reviews
many documentaries steeped in social or political issues get very insistent and often very noisy in expressing a point of view. Michael Moore is, of course, the model for effective, engag-ing and defantly in-your-face activism in this arena.
In contrast, The Ghosts in Our Machine, a heartfelt meditation on animal rights, comes at you as a whisper. It depends on the persuasive powers of creatures great and small—in their natu-ral habitat or in cages—to argue that we stop using them for food, clothing, research and entertainment. That the cages be tossed away.
There is a secondary story on activism itself and how a belief can shape a career, defne a life. Both narrative threads are compelling in writer-director Liz Marshall’s fnely wrought new documentary.
The flmmaker spent a year following animal photographer Jo-Anne McArthur into the fox and mink factories, the cattle slaughterhouses, the monkey-exporting trade and other dark corners where proft margins make for such misery that one
magazine editor concedes that McArthur’s imagery is excep-tional but too much for a main-stream audience. Equal time is spent in animal sanctuaries, not to soothe but to show us the other side.
It’s a bit of a meta-experience to watch Ghosts. Marshall’s camera team captures McAr-thur with her own camera trained on the tranquility that is possible and the terror that too many animals experi-ence. Four cinematographers contributed their efforts: John Price, Iris Ng, Nick de Pencier and Marshall.
Though there are some difficult images in the film, Ghosts is more a case of let-ting haunting beauty do the talking. Close-ups of eyes are strikingly effective, whether they belong to a cow, a piglet or a beagle who spent years on and off an operating table in the name of science.
The footage also makes a per-suasive case that behind those eyes are personality, emotion, the ability to feel fear, pain, pleasure, joy. A shot of piglets going at a milk pan is adorable;
the way they snuggle together afterward suggests sentient be-ings making choices.
They are the “ghosts” of the title, forgotten when we grab that leather handbag, roast Thanksgiving turkey or use life-saving drugs. The machine is all the infrastructure required to feed consumer demand.
While Marshall was flm-ing, McArthur was turning her photos and thoughts on the human-animal dynamic into a coffee-table art book, We Animals, due December 13. Much of the narrative is built around McArthur’s discussions with editors, animal-sanctuary
workers and other activists as she shapes her ideas and takes her pictures.
McArthur has fused her work with her ideals, and Marshall is defnitely into agenda-setting too. The flmmaker’s 2010 documentary debut, Water on the Table, looked at whether the liquid of life was fair game as a consumer commodity or an inalienable human right. Ghosts is urging us to rethink our relationship with the animal population—what they owe us, what we owe them.
The flm has a few loose story arcs built around vari-ous species, but a spent milk
cow and her calf claimed by an animal sanctuary are the stars. The beagles who’ve been sprung from research facili-ties are a thematic choice, but they also serve to bring the point home, literally, since we already see dogs as members of our human families.
Data and animal-rights fnd-ings are woven into the main narrative, but some of the more interesting stats come in the title cards dropped into the credits—a loss for anyone who leaves before the very end.
The Ghosts in Our Machine ★★★✩✩
Frozen (PG) ★★★✩✩Big, bright and often beautiful, Frozen comes
from Walt Disney Animation Studios. While
crediting the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale
The Snow Queen as inspiration, the movie owes
a lot more to Broadway’s Wicked. It’s a tale of
two sisters. Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) has
been blessed/cursed with the emotion-trig-
gered ability to whip up ice and snow in threat-
ening amounts. Anna (Kristen Bell), the heroine,
is a shrewd mixture of assertiveness and
relatability. Following Disney tradition, Frozen
works magic in its nonhuman characters—Sven
the reindeer and Olaf the snowman.
Black Nativity (PG-13) ★★★✩✩Writer-director Kasi Lemmons struggles with
uneven success to find a cinematic home for
the 1961 Langston Hughes “gospel song-play”
setting of the Nativity story. A Baltimore
teenager (Jacob Latimore) is sent by his
cash-strapped mother (Jennifer Hudson) to
spend the holidays with the boy’s estranged
grandparents (Forest Whitaker and Angela
Bassett). Their relationship with their daughter
is a fraught and weighty affair, which must be
righted right around the time Black Nativity gets
to the Christmas Eve church service, complete
with Mary J. Blige as an angel.
Homefront (R) ★★✩✩✩A bloody bore featuring Jason Statham wasting
piles of rednecks in small-town Louisiana,
Homefront tries to be a modern Western but
ends up being a swampy, derivative action film.
Sylvester Stallone wrote the script, adapting
Chuck Logan’s crime novel. For a time the pic-
ture was being shaped as a Rambo film, to star
Stallone. Instead it became a Statham revenge
outing, in which he plays a DEA cop who infil-
trates a nest of drug dealers, survives a bust
gone bad and relocates to bayou country with
his preteen daughter. James Franco provides a
bit of color as the local meth kingpin.
Oldboy (R) ★✩✩✩✩This American remake of a 2003 Korean re-
venge drama stars Josh Brolin as the victim of
a kidnapping and 20-year imprisonment. Upon
his release, he must determine who did this to
him, why, and why he’s being framed for his
wife’s murder. His ally in his detective work is
a social worker played by Elizabeth Olsen. By
the time everyone onscreen realizes what’s
up and who’s who, the audience may be more
in a “Why? Why?” mood. The sleek lines of
the original have been replaced by Spike Lee’s
wobbly directorial signature. The revenge in
Oldboy is neither sweet nor sour; it’s just drab.
a squeal for HelpThis animal rights documentary makes its
case with graphic and gorgeous imagery
By Betsy Sharkey Tribune Media Services
Writer-director Liz Marshall wants you to wallow in a pig’s plight.
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Delivery Man (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩A meat truck-delivery driver (Vince
Vaughn) going nowhere in his life learns
that as a young man, his rampant sperm
donations led to 500-plus women being
impregnated. More than a hundred of his
offspring are suing the errant sperm bank
to learn their father’s identity. The film
isn’t terrible, but it’s all sort of unseemly.
Vaughn’s character has no defining traits
other than a mysterious, heal-all lovability.
The Best Man Holiday (R) ★★★✩✩This sequel follows in the footsteps of
writer-director Malcolm D. Lee’s success-
ful 1999 comedy The Best Man. The Best
Man Holiday is a far more Tyler Perry-ish
mixture of comedy and tragedy than the
easygoing Best Man. Still, some of the
writing is pungently funny, as when Nia
Long’s new squeeze Eddie Cibrian is
described by one of the characters as “a
tall vanilla swagga latte,” and the movie,
while nothing visually special, earns its
queen-size dose of pathos honestly.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (PG-13) ★★★✩✩Consider Catching Fire an example of
successful franchise installment delivery,
on time and in sturdy condition. Heroine
Katniss Everdeen begins this second Hunger
Games movie fulfilling a PR tour as penance
for her killer—literally, killer—popularity.
The movie is part treatise on the hardships
of notoriety, part blood sport revisited, the
games this time played by an all-star cadre
of past winners. The violence can get rough,
but the reason these movies work relates to
our ability to take the carnage seriously.
Nebraska (R) ★★★✩✩This is the feature-length equivalent of a
wry comic ballad, observing ordinary lives.
A lot of Alexander Payne’s film is funny, in
that gently sardonic way distinguishing his
best work. Some of Nebraska feels thin, but
Payne elevates the material with images of
paradoxically ordinary beauty. Bruce Dern
won the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film
Festival this year for his portrayal of a man
who believes himself to be the lucky winner
of a million-dollar sweepstakes and is de-
termined to travel from his home in Billings,
Mont., to Lincoln, Neb., to collect the prize.
The Armstrong Lie (R) ★★★✩✩Documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney initially
set out to make a movie called The Road
Back, a look at cyclist Lance Armstrong’s
comeback. How could he lose? But then
Armstrong, the subject of investigation,
caved under the weight of the “one big lie”
(his phrase). The Armstrong Lie is pretty
good when Gibney is able to focus on the
2009 Tour de France itself, a race fraught
with old rivalries and backstage dramas. It’s
the movie he set out to make, after all. But
getting there is tough going.
Dallas Buyers Club (R) ★★★✩✩Diagnosed with AIDS and given a one-
month death sentence by his doctors,
drug-using heterosexual Ron Woodroof
scrambled to stay alive and used the next
seven years to create an underground phar-
maceuticals way station for others with HIV
and AIDS. Matthew McConaughey lost 50
pounds to play Woodroof, and co-star Jared
Leto lost 30 to play transgender character
Rayon, Woodroof’s business associate and
the movie’s secret weapon. McConaughey
and Leto may well find themselves with
Oscar nominations come the new year.
361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89106TheSmithCenter.com I 702.749.2000 | TTY: 800.326.6868 or dial 711
CLINT HOLMESFriday, Jan. 10 & Saturday, Jan. 11 — 8:30pm
Sunday, Jan. 12 — 2:00pm
ANN HAMPTON CALLAWAYPRESENTS THE STREISAND SONGBOOK
Friday, Jan. 17 — 7:00pm | Saturday, Jan. 18 — 4:00pm & 7:00pm
SOUL MEN AND LADY SOUL STARRING SPECTRUM AND RADIANCE
Friday, Jan. 24 & Saturday, Jan. 25 — 7:00pm
TICKETS STARTING AT $34
THE DEANA MARTIN CHRISTMAS SHOWDeana Martin takes the audience on
a musical sleigh ride, flled with classic yuletide tunes and songs honoring her legendary father, Dean Martin, and other great performers who
shaped American music and popular culture for over four decades.
Friday, Dec. 20 & Saturday, Dec. 21 — 7:00pm Sunday, Dec. 22 — 2:00pm
M a r k e t p l a c e
M a r k e t p l a c e
M a r k e t p l a c e
downtowncontainerpark.com | 7th & Fremont
S A N T A I S C O M I N G T OS A N T A I S C O M I N G T O
D O W N T O W N C O N T A I N E R P A R KD O W N T O W N C O N T A I N E R P A R K11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on December 14 & 15 and December 21 & 22.
Come by and have your photo taken with Santa.
M a r k e t p l a c e
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You’ve been working in neurology for more than three decades. What at-tracted you to this particu-lar field of medicine?
I’ve always been interested in the mind and the life of the mind. And the brain is the physical basis of the life of the mind. At the University of Wyoming, I double-majored in philosophy and zoology, so [I encountered] all the philosophical questions, the mind/brain problems: When is someone dead? What comprises a mental life? These are all actually brain issues, so I was pulled into this idea of cognitive neurology.
How far away are we from a cure for Alzheimer’s?
It’s impossible to tell. We might be one step away or
100 steps away, but we can only get there if we take the next step. It is a very compli-cated disease, [but] we un-derstand its complexity more as we go along, and we’re defnitely making advances. For instance, in 1990, we didn’t have a single approved medication for Alzheimer’s disease. Now have we fve. We didn’t have anything like the kind of scans that we have now. Our trial meth-odology has matured so that we’re able to test drugs more effectively than before. So there have been many, many advances in our understand-ing of the disease and even our therapies. But when that’s going to represent the breakthrough of a new treat-ment, it’s very diffcult for anybody to foretell.
If you came to work tomor-row and found that a $5 million check had been anonymously slipped un-der your office door, what would you use it for?
I would create a brain-health education registry, try to get as many people in Las Vegas registered as I could and make this a demonstration city—a model city—for how one can reach out and provide brain-health information, from the youngest people to middle age to old age.
Brain health is something that has to be built over the lifespan; our concept is that we need to build a brain span that matches our lifespan. I would [create the regis-try], and then I would use that to bring people in for clinical trials, and I would do
more clinical trials with that money. And we are going to fnd a way to do that, even if nobody slips that $5 million check under my door. But I hope they do! [Laughs.]
What’s the status of the Professional Fighters Brain Health Study that the Lou Ruvo Center is conducting?
We are going great guns. I think we have now seen 340 fghters and mixed martial artists—it’s by far the largest combat-sports study in the world. And we’re already see-ing results. We can see that
there are relationships, for example, between educa-tional level and [cognitive] effects from boxing, in particular. The lower the educational level, the more vulnerable the boxer seems.
Our real goal is to sort out which boxers have cogni-tive risk. Because we know that some boxers have no cognitive risks; they do just fne. But what we would like to understand is which boxers are likely to undergo cognitive decline, so that we can empower that fghter to make a decision about his or her future.
Your wife, Dr. Kate Zhong, does clinical research at the Ruvo Center and has spoken about the relationship between nutrition and brain health. How often does she harass you about your diet?
[Laughs.] Well, we collaborate in trying to have a good diet. We eat a lot of fsh, and we do try to adhere to a Mediter-ranean diet. And she’s convinced me that it’s good food and that I enjoy it!
So what’s the best thing a person can do to improve their brain health?
Exercise—physical exercise. It’s clear, and it’s the strongest literature that we have, that 30 minutes of vigorous exer-cise three times a week to get your pulse up will make a dif-ference in your brain health. The studies are most com-pelling for midlife and late life, but I would confdently extend that to early life.
When is the last time you couldn’t remember where you left your keys?
I can’t remember. But that’s because I’m very systematic. So it would be very rare for me to misplace something like my keys or my wallet. Whereas my wife, I’m sorry to say, isn’t as systematic, and we’re always looking for her keys!
Dr. Jeffrey CummingsThe director of the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health on research progress for Alzheimer’s,
studying fghters and how he feeds his brain
By Matt Jacob
What are some tricks to help improve your memory? And is it true that elephants never forget? Find the answers in the full interview at VegasSeven.com/Cummings.
The Cleve-land Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for
Brain Health is conducting clinical trials
for Alzheimer’s disease, Par-
kinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis. If
interested in participating,
call 483-6025.
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