Trust Us

Trust Us: Leslie Jones at the Mirage, Anderson .Paak at HOB and other stuff to know about

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    • The Track at the Beat

      The Track

      The Best Local Feature winner at this year’s Las Vegas Film Festival is a drama about the unlikely friendship between a middle-aged woman and a teenage prostitute in Las Vegas. Cast and crew will be on hand for a screening to benefit anti-human trafficking organization the Embracing Project. Free, donations welcome. July 30, 8 p.m. —Josh Bell

    • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child book release

      The boy wizard is now a dad in a new London stage production. Grab its hardcover/digital script at the midnight-countdown book release parties at all Zia Record Exchange (9 p.m.) and Barnes & Noble (8 p.m.) locations, the latter also hosting events on Sunday (doors at 9 a.m.). July 30-31, free. —Mike Prevatt

    • Leslie Jones at the Mirage

      Leslie Jones in Ghostbusters.

      Leslie Jones has made audiences laugh since 2014, first as a writer for Saturday Night Live, then as a cast member. But it’s her role as the indelible Patty Tolan in the recent reboot of Ghostbusters that set social media ablaze.

      It’s no huge surprise that Jones, a famous comedian and actress working in the age of the no-holds-barred Internet, has been a target of Twitter trolls. But no one could’ve imagined the racist backlash she’s received for her participation in Ghostbusters. Three days after the film’s release, Jones wasn’t celebrating a successful opening weekend, but reporting and retweeting hundreds of racist tweets.

      “I feel like I’m in a personal hell. I didn’t do anything to deserve this. It’s just too much. It shouldn’t be like this. So hurt right now,” she posted on July 18. “I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart. All this ’cause I did a movie. You can hate the movie but the sh*t I got today ... wrong.”

      Jones got serious in highlighting Twitter’s allowance of racism, hate speech and bullying on its platform, but she’s still the same funny-as-hell performer who routinely leaves us in stitches. Since returning to Twitter, the comedian has been devoting equal time to live-tweeting about sexy baseball players while continuing the dialogue about harassment on social media. For that, we’re even more excited to see what she does onstage. July 29, 10 p.m., $44-$66. —Leslie Ventura

    • Christopher Jones' 'Usus Gloria' at Clark County Government Center

      A detail from "Usus, Gloria" by Christopher A Jones at the Clark County Government Center Rotunda Gallery on July 22, 2016.

      Lost dogs, garage sales, political signs, DIY advertisements, business handbills and corporate proclamations offering promises and rewards, great customer service and anything else that will get you in a door. According to artist Christopher Jones, that’s the stuff we see peripherally in different ways, or more importantly, “messages we actually ignore on three different levels.” In Usus, Gloria at the Clark County Government Center Rotunda Gallery, Jones takes the rhythmic mantra of the streets, layers it on a towering, 10-foot cylindrical sculpture and encourages visitors to add to, tear from or spin (like a prayer wheel) the three segments, each level representing “different inadvertent subversions of consciousness.” Here, the repurposed materials—the evolving literature, graphics and familiar ephemera —go from ignored to noticed. Through September 9; Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; free. —Kristen Peterson

    • Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals at House of Blues

      Anderson .Paak plays House of Blues July 29.

      Anderson .Paak plays House of Blues July 29.

      After guesting on six tracks on Dr. Dre’s Compton last year, the fast-rising Paak dropped his own 60-minute party in January, the funky, soulful and consistently interesting Malibu. Hear what happens when the singer/rapper and his crack band bring it to life onstage. With Pomo, Duckwrth; July 29, 7:30 p.m., $20. —Spencer Patterson

    • Gringo Bandito Chronic Tacos Eating Contest at the Palms

      Chronic Tacos and Gringo Bandito team up for another taco-eating contest at the Palms July 29.

      Gringo Bandito, the hot sauce created by the Offspring’s Dexter Holland, and Chronic Tacos team up again for a taco party during Ditch Fridays at the Palms Pool. Takeru Kobayashi will compete, and he can eat more tacos than you—150 in 10 minutes, as he proved last year. July 29, 1-3 p.m., $10-$20. —Brock Radke

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