Story archive for July 2008
Time still ticking at Flamingo Showroom
John Katsilometes | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (11:45 a.m.)
Now I can say it: Jerome, you missed a loop in the back. It’s the one we usually miss when slipping the eel-skin (or whatever manner of skin that might be) belt through the back of the ox blood-colored pants that is a crucial component to the ox blood-colored suit. It’s the one not quite in the middle, but near the middle, on the right. Not a huge deal, but the loop is there for a reason, and it’s rather noticeable when you’re not wearing the oversized jacket. I say this because, while Jerome always makes sure Morris Day is properly coiffed and assembled – the famous mirror always at the ready, even onstage – no one cares to make sure Jerome has always covered the details. So Jerome, next time out – check those loops. And while on the topic of loopy (hey! good transition), Morris Day and The ...
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Off the street, onto the stage
Sarah Feldberg | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (3:43 a.m.)
Loews Hotel at Lake Las Vegas has been bumping to a very different beat for the past few days. Where there’s normally a pianist playing the classics, this weekend there’s a DJ spinning Snoop and Rick Ross. Accents from New Zealand, Japan and Trinidad rise from typically serene hallways, where dancers in jumpsuits, ties or Chuck Taylors stretch hamstrings against the hotel walls and count out rhythms with intense concentration. “Five, six, seven, eight.” Around every bend there’s another pack, standing in formation half-dancing through routines they’ve practiced a thousand times already. World Hip Hop Dance Championships Aug. 1, 2 World Hip Hop Dance Championships Finals, Aug. 3 World Hip Hop Dance Championships Watching them half-kick, half-booty shake, half-spin and half-pop, it's hard to believe the frenzy of energy that the crews bring to the stage. Under the spotlights these are totally different animals. Faces flip from huge smiles to ...
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LAX “Surprise” guest no ordinary Joe
John Katsilometes | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (2:43 a.m.)
It’s late-Wednesday, early Thursday in Vegas, and you know what that means: club night for The Johnny.
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Trial run
Damon Hodge | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
“How lucky for me that he made the stupidest mistake of his life in my city!” Scot Savage is talking about former NFL star, television pitchman and double-murder acquittee Orenthal James Simpson.
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Tenth time a charm?
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Dancers—long-legged, festooned in sequins and feathers or little at all—are a Vegas staple. But, quiet as it’s kept, there is an alternative dance tradition in Las Vegas, one that embraces modern and contemporary dance, one that believes dance can be art, not just acrobatics (or merely titliation)
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Who loves the ‘90s?
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Set for no apparent reason in 1994, Jonathan Levine’s The Wackness at first comes off like a calculated exercise in nostalgia, full of forced period details (Nintendo Game Boys, Reebok Pumps, references to 90210) that add nothing to the story and serve only to remind viewers who were teens in 1994 that, hey, you used to think this stuff was cool.
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Waxing insignificant
Greg Beato | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
At the London headquarters of Madame Tussauds, the only place in the world where bloody decapitations and exacting facsimiles of Brad Pitt’s ass are presented as family entertainment, strange and gruesome spectacle is the norm. And yet even by its outlandish standards, the museum’s recent unveiling of a new Amy Winehouse automaton was surreal.
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Brideshead Revisited
Benjamin Spacek | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
It’s no secret that this adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s celebrated novel originally had David Yates at the helm, while Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly and Jude Law were attached to star. Yates left to direct the remaining entries in the Harry Potter franchise, and the three leads were recast.
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Crystal Rock’n Lemonade
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
A little bit Country Time (think rocking chairs) and a little bit rock ‘n roll (think streaking), bartender Toni Rossi’s irresistible creation has a deceptive sting.
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Dream Zone
Lauri Quinn Lowenberg | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Lauri interprets what your dreams are trying to tell you.
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Looking on the brightside
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
A local teen taking on Las Vegas’ biggest rock band? Call him brazen, foolish or naïve if you want, but Ian Shane Tyler might just be the most business-savvy just-turned-20-year-old on the local music scene.
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I wrote what?!
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Local duo The Naturals sent out a MySpace bulletin on July 28 announcing a dramatic mid-tour breakup, with the text attributed to … yours truly.
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Take Back the “Night”
Jacob Coakley | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Shakespeare was a perv. Let’s keep a tally, shall we? Rape? Check. Man-boy-fairy love triangle? Check. Bestiality? Check. Oh yeah, it’s all there. All there and more in Insurgo Theatre Movement’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
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If Kinky called the shots
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Richard “Kinky” Friedman has certainly had a hell of a career: Peace Corps do-gooder in Borneo; singer-songwriter and leader of the band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys; later a mystery novelist and columnist for Texas Monthly.
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Alice Cooper
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Alice Cooper has always been one to go with the flow. Although his theatrical style and dark subject matter have influenced acts from Marilyn Manson to Slipknot, the heavy metal pioneer himself hasn’t been a hitmaker in decades. He dabbled in hair metal in the ’80s and industrial in the ’90s, to relative audience indifference.
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Ladies, lift your daubers
Kate Silver | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
I think we need to take some kind of lucky charm,” I text Sophia, as I don jeans and a T-shirt with a kitty cat on it. “Do you happen to have a troll doll?” As I await her response, I start getting nervous. Please, please be awake, I think. I don’t know if I can go through this alone.
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Pure Satisfaction
John Katsilometes | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
This is an excerpt from the radio show Our Metropolis, a half-hour issues and affairs program that airs Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and is hosted by Greenspun Media Group’s John Katsilometes. Tune in next week to hear the rest of this interview with Pat Davis, president of Passion Parties Inc., which bills itself as “the premier supplier of sensual products in the United States and Canada,” and is based in Las Vegas:
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Local track we love
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Duo Chris Leland and Joe Ervin, mainstays on the Vegas folk scene since 2005, have exceeded solid past efforts with this haunting serenade.
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Swing Vote
Tasha Chemplavil | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
In the town of Texico, New Mexico, lives Bud Johnson (Costner), the epitome of white-trash America. His slovenly and irresponsible ways haven’t stopped him from raising his precocious progeny, Molly (Carroll), who plays the part of the parent in the Johnson family, preparing food and registering Bud to vote.
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The limits of term limits
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
It’s certainly dispiriting to see democracy waterboarded by the people we elect or appoint to safeguard it for us, whether it’s through torture memos, secret evesdropping or the vast corporate porkapalooza that is Congress. Sadly, we’ve come to expect that of politicians.
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Conor Oberst
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Either the Omaha wunderkind has already hit his creative peak, or the contributions of his Bright Eyes cohorts Mike Mogis and Nate Walcott have long been overlooked in favor of heaping praise upon the figure at the rotating collective’s helm. That’s not to say Conor Oberst’s first wide-release solo effort is an outright disappointment; far from it.
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TULADTALLV
Deanna Rilling | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Party with the cars … and maybe a few stars. That’s the basic concept of The Ultra Lounge at Dal Toro & Lamborghini Las Vegas, in the Palazzo resort-hotel-casino (whew—got all that?). But this isn’t your typical party at the standard venue.
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More than words
Ryan Olbrysh | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Ryan Olbrysh’s photos capture ironies you’d otherwise miss in the fast pace of Las Vegas life. A selection of images that speak for themselves.
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See ya later, improvisators
Ken Miller | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
They make their living with nonstop energy on stage, careening wildly from one idea to the next, never sure if anything will stick, and frankly not really caring for fear of that dreaded silence. But this particular afternoon Michael Lehrer and Robyn Norris, improvisational artists who perform in Las Vegas’ Second City show, are surprisingly subdued.
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What about Bobby?
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
The overwhelming majority of comics have “a thing.” A shtick. An angle. And then there’s Bobby Collins.
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Excuses for Skipping
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Imagine if Kevin Shields had produced The Go-Go’s and you’ve got some idea where this Bay Area-based, all-female quartet is coming from.
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12 reasons to not hate the bus
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
It’s been a month of bad PR for the C.A.T. bus system. Whether it’s a crazy guy hijacking a bus or an alleged perpetual drunk crashing into a bus stop, finding reasons to like public transportation is harder than ever. Here are a few.
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Paul Weller
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Can you imagine Paul Weller’s latest album shooting to the top of the Billboard 200? Sure, as soon as John Q. Kansas figures out who the heck Paul Weller is.
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Mission to Montreal
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
In their own words, three Vegas comics at very different levels of their respective careers, and one rabble-rousing former Vegas open-mic-er, share their experiences throughout this year’s Just for Laughs in http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dcz4cmfk_110hnzpznggMontreal, the largest and most prestigious comedy festival in the Western hemisphere.
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The Help Desk
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
- Elite Traveler’s list of 101 top hotel/resort suites of the year includes Palazzo’s $20,000-a-night Chairman Suite.
- Word has it that it offers a great view of all the Valley’s foreclosed homes.
- Eva Longoria Parker wants to open Las Vegas nightclub.
- And we want a weekend in Rio with Eva Longoria. Hopefully both our dreams come true.
- West Nile Virus found in mosquitoes in Las Vegas Valley.
- Luckily, no one in Las Vegas ever leaves their home, so we’re safe.
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Stories from your government
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
When she’s finished reading the storybook aloud, she tells the squirming kids, “I’m Catherine, and I’m your attorney general.” They blink, mostly, and wait.
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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Matthew Scott Hunter | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
There’s a thin line between “winking at the camera” and “drawing attention to how bad your movie is.” In its third installment, The Mummy franchise crosses that line.
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The power principle
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Actors like playing the villain, the wisdom goes, because the villains get to be bad and the heroes must remain steadfast and dull. The villains enjoy their villainy; the heroes carry on like they’re wearing an uncomfortably itchy suit. Titanically crazed characters like Daniel Plainview and Anton Chigurh mesmerize audiences—and so it is not surprising that much of the focus on the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, centers on the late Heath Ledger’s bravura turn as the Joker.
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High-concept classics
Max Jacobson | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
When I was a university student, my anthropology professor claimed that the first takeout food in North America was the tamale, or tamal, as it is called in the Nauhatl language of southern Mexico.
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The price is … strange
Steve Friess | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
I am not one of those 9-11 conspiracy nuts. I have an eccentric British pal who does believe that George W. Bush, despite his incompetence at ordering in lunch, was behind the most horrific events of our time. This friend is constantly forwarding e-mails asserting that the Baltimore family behind Vegas casino implosions actually imploded the World Trade Center and made it look to the stupid people of the world as if some “hijacked” airplanes caused their fall.
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The Vines
Annie Zaleski | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
After earning comparisons to Nirvana and Oasis with 2002’s grungy Brit-pop tour de force Highly Evolved (remember “Get Free”?), The Vines found themselves drawing unwanted scrutiny for nonmusical reasons—namely, vocalist/guitarist Craig Nicholls’ bizarre and sometimes violent onstage behavior.
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Slow resurfacing
Deanna Rilling | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
They don’t go overboard fliering parking lots, nor do they post loads of MySpace bulletins. In 2007, they played only 14 shows. But that doesn’t mean eight-year-old Vegas band Slow to Surface was ever over, or even, in the mind of its members, unproductive.
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Vegas Gets Booked
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Giving new meaning to the phrase “Are you in the book?” first-time author Jay Louis’ debut, Hot Chicks With Douchebags (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2008), attempts to plant a righteous finger into a dam bursting with sightings of, well, hot chicks with douchebags, that is, men Louis would consider unworthy with the women they are unworthy of.
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Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis
Richard Abowitz | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
On July 16, 1930, country music’s founding father, Jimmie Rodgers, and jazz progenitor Louis Armstrong found common ground in the blues, creating “Blue Yodel No. 9 (Standing on the Corner),” one of history’s most unlikely and extraordinary recordings. Almost 80 years later, on Two Men With the Blues, Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis find the same sweet spot—a perfect match between Nelson’s Western swing and Marsalis’ New Orleans jazz—showing how much vitality remains to be mined from that earlier recorded encounter between jazz and country
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Five Questions with Troy Nkrumah, local organizing head of the National Hip-Hop Political Convention
Damon Hodge | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
[Vegas hosting the National Hip-Hop Political Convention] is major considering Las Vegas attempted a ban of hip-hop. That, along with the fact that, nationally, Vegas is not on the map for either hip-hop—except for the b-boys—or for progressive youth activism. The 2008 Convention is the perfect opportunity because all eyes will be on Vegas.
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Peggy Plots Your Planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Another month down, but luckily you have Peggy to guide you.
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Half In
Jacob Coakley | Thu, Jul 31, 2008 (midnight)
Timed to make as big a splash with poker fans as possible, Tim Molyneux’s All In: The Poker Musical put on three performances earlier this month during the first days of the World Series of Poker’s main event.
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Happy National Cheesecake Day
Sarah Feldberg | Wed, Jul 30, 2008 (11:43 a.m.)
The Cheesecake Factory at Caesars The Cheesecake Factory in Summerlin The Cheesecake Factory in Green Valley Treat yourself to something sweet today. In honor of its 30th anniversary, The Cheesecake Factory is offering slices of cheesecake today at the prices it charged when it first opened its doors in 1978: $1.50 per slice. The now ubiquitous chain started in Detroit with a small shop run by Oscar and Evelyn Overton. The couple later moved to Los Angeles where they expanded their business, eventually opening the first Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Beverly Hills in 1978. Today the menu boasts more 20 flavors of cheesecake including decadent options like chocolate Oreo mudslide and Dutch apple caramel streusel (as well as my personal favorite, dulce de leche caramel). With slices going for less than a cup of coffee or a gallon of gas, National Cheesecake Day just might be my new favorite holiday.
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Au revoir nos petit canards (or get your ducks now!)
Sarah Feldberg | Tue, Jul 29, 2008 (5:39 p.m.)
Just 28 days after Xania Woodman reported on Palms Place’s new wonderfully casual Tuesday night pool party, it’s time to say goodbye to the little plastic floaters that have scored quite the hit at this summer event. We’re talking ducks, 25,000 ducks to be exact. From the Weekly Palms Place pool party Duck, duck, sploosh! For the past few weeks George Maloof has dished out $7,000 for miniature plastic ducks in a variety colors and designs so his guests could indulge in a sort of amplified communal bubble bath. Ninja ducks, army ducks, ducks with hockey sticks, ducks in pumpkins, even Elvis Presley in duck form have all bobbed along the pool’s surface, while revelers romped through shallow-end Twister or sipped cocktails on dry land. But while the party may continue into August, tonight will mark the ducks’ last appearance. That in and of itself is a good enough reason ...
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Things I learned at Body English’s Sunday School
Jennifer Grafiada | Mon, Jul 28, 2008 (8:17 p.m.)
1) 3:00 am is not too late to start your night. 2) Jamie Foxx’s middle name is “Motherf-cking.” 3) It’s nearly impossible to be elegantly wasted. 4) You have to be smoking hot to be a bartender. 5) Brazilian men do not take no for an answer.
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Wyclef made my Saturday night
Jennifer Grafiada | Mon, Jul 28, 2008 (8:05 p.m.)
The hours leading up to his 9 p.m. concert at the Joint had been not very pleasant. First, my family drove away in a U-Haul, crying their eyes out, leaving me forlorn and alone on the sidewalk. Then my phone died, the charger was lost and three phone stores lacked the correct charger. I also was unable to find anyone to go to the concert with me. So I went alone. I walked out to the Hard Rock poolside where Wyclef was scheduled to play to find it empty. I eventually discovered it had been moved inside to The Joint, and arrived at the door to find out I had arrived ten minutes too late to use my free Spy-on-Vegas ticket. Undeterred, I paid the thirty bucks and defiantly entered the concert, determined to see Wyclef perform. I stood alone in the back of the packed concert hall with my ...
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Despite line up change, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club rides tall
Tovin Lapan | Sun, Jul 27, 2008 (4:45 p.m.)
The Los Angeles-based Black Rebel Motorcycle Club has been touring heavily in the US and across the globe to promote their latest album Baby 81, which came out in May 2007. The tour has seen its share of bumps in the road. In June drummer Nick Jago was replaced with Leah Shapiro. The Las Vegas Weekly caught up with BRMC co-founder Robert Levon Been on the phone in Paso Robles, Cal. where they are opening for the Stone Temple Pilots. BRMC will be the headliner at the Beauty Bar Monday, July 28. Black Rebel Motorcycle ClubBRMC at Beauty Bar How was the show with Stone Temple Pilots at Berekeley’s Greek Theater last night? It actually was a short show, and we didn’t have an idea of what to expect. This was a bigger operation where we were small fish in bigger pond. The crowd seemed to really like it. Maybe ...
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Playboy in training takes over the Palms
Allison Duck | Sun, Jul 27, 2008 (3:54 p.m.)
Painted ladies? Open bar and lavish food spread? Hundreds of girls in lingerie? Dude drinking a rare $1,600 bottle of cognac out of the bottle with a curly straw? Yeah, that too. Las Vegas is in training for Playboy’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Party to be held at the Palms Pool on August 16, and this weekend the Palms threw a serious a dress rehearsal. Saturday marked the 7th annual Naughty Nighty Nite Party poolside hosted by Vegas’ own playboy, Jimmy Tipton. His guests sported silk pajamas printed with the event’s logo, and ladies were encouraged to wear their most risqué lingerie. Jimmy, looking pretty pimp in a white hat with a gaggle of beauties dancing around him, took the mic to sing a bluesy set with the band, also in their silk pjs. After his performance, I was able to ask the man of the hour a few questions. Las ...
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A terrible decision
The state Supreme Court’s decision Friday upholding the initiative that put 12-year term limits on state and local elected offices will have wide-ranging effects on Nevada for years to come.
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Creative creatures and 3-D glasses do not a hit make
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (4:26 p.m.)
It's not that director Guillermo del Toro's visual creations aren't incredible. They are. It's just that the imaginative imagery can't compensate for the lackluster storyline in Hellboy II. Get more of Weekly film critic Josh Bell's takes on this week's releases in Josh Bell Hates Everything. Or, ya know, almost everything.
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More than candles blown out at Slash-A-Palooza
John Katsilometes | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (9:47 a.m.)
Maybe this all didn’t happen Wednesday night. Maybe, on my walk through the parking garage leading to The Mirage, someone flung a brick at my head and knocked me cold, and the whole tableau played out in my concussed consciousness.
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Three questions with Scars on Broadway drummer John Dolmayan
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
We caught up with Scars on Broadway drummer and Las Vegas resident John Dolmayan for an update on his new project with fellow System of a Down-er Daron Malakian ... and more.
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Falling Down
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
As they are in most areas of absurd cultural production, the Japanese are way ahead of the rest of the world in creating ridiculous game shows that encourage contestants to injure or humiliate themselves on a regular basis.
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High-dollar crash pads
Team Hangover | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
It’s far better that you crash at one of these high-end bachelor (or bachelorette) pads at CityCenter’s Veer Towers than attempt to make it out to whichever corner of this sprawling burg you call home after a long day and night of party party party.
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The boonies are good enough
Matthew Scott Hunter | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
The Silverton Hotel & Casino has an off-the-beaten-path sort of feel to it, which is odd considering it’s just off of Las Vegas Boulevard—an exceptionally well-beaten path.
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Felina
Damon Hodge | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Vegas has been barren on the R&B front, but Felina, the first R&B act on Heat City Recordz, aims to change this with the debut of Lady Like.
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The Black Ghosts
Scott Woods | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Theo Keating and Simon Lord, aka The Black Ghosts, will be familiar to those who’ve followed the traces of U.K. dance outfits Simian and The Wiseguys, from whence they were hatched. The ominous new band name and skeleton’s-head mascot suggest some sort of doom-laden industrial darkcore, but don’t let that frighten you.
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The Right Wing
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
It’s hard not to feel just a little like a hooker when you’re dressed to the nines, waiting for a man you couldn’t pick out of a lineup and whom you only know by his first name.
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Miley Cyrus
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
"Miley Cyrus is the Coldplay of teen pop,” I said offhandedly to a co-worker the other day, trying to convey the level of anticipation and excitement surrounding the release of Cyrus’ “solo” debut.
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Run, don’t walk
When walking-enthusiast website walkscore.com rated Las Vegas the No. 18 most walkable city in the country, we all scoffed, of course. When being a pedestrian is seen more as a liability than an advantage, you know there’s a problem with the way walking is seen around town.
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Beyond Father Flanagan
John Katsilometes | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
John Katsilometes chats with Tom Waite, CEO of Boys Town Nevada, in this edition of Our Metropolis.
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Aggress me!
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Wisconsin’s Naked Aggression aren’t your normal ’90s Midwest punk-rockers.
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Alkaline Trio
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Agony & Irony by Alkaline Trio is a fast-paced and straightforward but somewhat castrated blend of pop, emo, goth and arena rock: generic bombast that evokes mild unease and not much more.
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The Help Desk
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
- Lake Las Vegas files for bankruptcy.
- Caviar will now be served only on weekends.
- Third terminal project approved for McCarran International Airport.
- More canceled flights than ever before.
- Nicolas Cage selling Las Vegas home for $9.95 million
- Or roughly the combined gross of Next and The Wicker Man.
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Dream Zone
Lauri Quinn Lowenberg | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Lauri interprets what your dreams are trying to tell you.
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“It would be taboo to talk about struggling”
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
All of these things kept coming back to him: the 3-year-old girl’s crushed eye socket, the mask-like face of a woman who had been run over by a truck, her brain laying several feet away on the curb, the dead babies, the sodomized kids, the suicides.
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“One great big family”
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
As Mike Watkins, 26-year-old bassist for Vegas band Nous, smashes into best friend Dave McCraw while moshing his brains out to local metal act Parannoyd during a benefit show in his honor July 16 at the Cheyenne Saloon, you’d never guess he’s sick.
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The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Jeffrey M. Anderson | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
The big question, 10 years after the first X-Files movie and six years after the series ended, is: What’s the point of a new movie? But the real question is: Why not?
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The Baseball Project
Patrick Donnelly | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
The historical overlap between baseball and popular music is pretty grim. For every poignant, evocative song like Bob Dylan’s “Catfish,” you’ve got a thousand like John Fogerty’s “Centerfield,” beaten to death by ballpark PAs and TV highlight reels.
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Double-mocha nonfat soy sadness
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
What really hurts in a near-depression/recession/national tragedy is when cherished neighborhood coffeehouses are affected. Upon hearing the death knell for five—five—of my favorite local Starbucks, I set out to enjoy them all one last time before they close on July 27, and to chronicle them here, so that they’re etched in history.
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There’s wind in them thar hills
Dave Berns | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
The green crowd is at it again, this time pushing for wind farms throughout much of the West and Great Plains. TV commercials are appearing nationally making the case, saying that a sea of wind towers could free us from our oil dependency, with a boost from cars fueled by natural gas.
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Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Christopher Bell may look like your typical meathead jock, but he’s got the outsider gadfly instincts of a Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock in his debut film, Bigger, Stronger, Faster. A documentary about the use of performance-enhancing steroids in America, Bigger is very much cut from the Moore mold of snarky, confrontational filmmaking that puts the director front and center in the narrative.
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Coldplay
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
A really interesting band played the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday night. Its songs were built on unpredictable arrangements and compelling dynamic changes; its lyrics felt heroic without seeming sophomoric; and its musicians displayed instrumental sophistication belying their relative youth.
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A step back
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Step Brothers demonstrates the inevitable negative effects of too much of a good thing by taking a bunch of stuff that has worked in previous Will Ferrell comedies—his chemistry with co-star John C. Reilly; his overconfident-boob persona; a loose, improvisational approach to scenes; jokes largely made up of bizarre non sequiturs—and unleashing them in a movie with barely any sort of plot or structure to contain them.
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Black Kids
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Only two members—vocalist/guitarist Reggie Youngblood and his vocalist/keyboardist sister Ali—are technically black, and with each member well into his or her 20s, none would easily be mistaken for kids. But it’s not the semi-incendiary name alone that has had bloggers, and more recently, Columbia Records, fawning over the synth-loving fivesome’s debut full-length.
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Wire
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
The title of Wire’s latest album refers to its position as the 47th item in the British art-punks’ catalog, an unwise designation considering it reminds us how much peripheral material the band has released since its initial LP trio of 1977’s Pink Flag, 1978’s Chairs Missing and 1979’s 154.
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Peggy Plots Your Planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Find out if the end of July means big things for you, courtesy of Peggy's foretelling talent.
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Shannan Calcutt as Izzy in Zumanity
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
“Izzy loves her eye shadow and blond bouffant!” says Calcutt. “Looking that coiffed takes work. “
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Fee for all
Steve Friess | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Before you roll your eyes and groan, hear Adam Russin out. He’s not trying to get any money, he’s not trying to draw any attention to himself, and he’s absolutely, positively not trying to ruin your good time. He just has a simple question that seems to have only one logical answer. And very soon, odds are good the state will agree with him, and a lot of melon carts will be upset. Russin’s question: How can anyone seriously believe it is not discriminatory to charge a man more than a woman for the same access or service?
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Ping-pong balls and cups! Run for your lives!
Ken Miller | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
I’ll just say up front, in the interest of full disclosure, that I’m 43 and an avid video-game player. I’ll kick your ass on Guitar Hero, and I also played the original home version of Pong. It’s a pastime that’s stuck with me through the decades. Ditto for Jag Jaeger and Vince Valenti. Unassuming with just a touch of mischief, they’ve both lived in Vegas their entire lives, and they know everyone in town—you name ’em, they nod.
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Mandarin Mojave
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Oranges, mint and jalapeños?! Surprisingly, it works.
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Ciao Bella!
Max Jacobson | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
You mightn’t know it to look at me, but I occasionally work out at Las Vegas Athletic Club on South Eastern Avenue, and a mere stone’s throw away is one of Vegas’ truly great Italian restaurants, the unassuming La Focaccia.
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Glen Cohen
Team Hangover | Thu, Jul 24, 2008 (midnight)
Mixologist Glen Cohen focuses on simple and practical cocktails for his list at Revolution.
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Wrath doesn’t live here anymore: Inside the Libertine
Richard Abowitz | Tue, Jul 22, 2008 (6:38 p.m.)
It’s hard to make a living on wrath, even in Las Vegas. Most forms of wrath go by ugly names, such as assault. But Ed Hurt found a way to cash in on biblically sinful, wrathful urges. It was a couple weeks after Valentine’s Day when Hurt opened the Libertine. He was excited because he’d found in this town a huge market and absolutely no competition. “How many people get to say they were the first to create something especially in Las Vegas?” says Hurt, who has thin with bloodless lips and pale skin. “The fact is that there isn’t one.” One what, you ask? Well, that’s where things get fuzzy. The Libertine is a dungeon. Many of the rooms have Hurt’s custom-made torture devices and cages. (All of which, by the way, Hurt is willing to sell. My favorite cage goes for about $700, but the bars are too ...
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What happens outside of the NBA Summer League, stays off the record (almost)
Andy Samuelson | Tue, Jul 22, 2008 (2:05 p.m.)
NBA veterans like Golden State’s Corey Maggette and Sacramento’s Brad Miller were seen out and about in Sin City last weekend. So too was recently crowned Boston Celtic Paul Pierce, who after throwing his own party for his Finals MVP performance at Jet on Friday, took in a UFC fight the next night at the Palms. It seems like the pros know how to party Vegas-style, but their NBA Summer League counterparts were either mildly pathetic or very smart in keeping a low profile. Beyond the Weekly NBA Summer League 2008 on Las Vegas Sun NBA Summer League 2008 “I guess you can go out if you want to, but it’s tiring,” said Minnesota’s second-year guard Corey Brewer (who we will catch-up with in just a bit). “You really don’t feel like doing nothing after playing basketball all day.” Sure Corey, we believe you. It’s not like you’re young, rich, ...
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You’re never too old for neon
Sarah Feldberg | Mon, Jul 21, 2008 (7:52 p.m.)
I love the ‘90s. You love the ‘90s. VH1 definitely loves the ‘90s. How could you hold anything but fond memories of the decade that brought us Crystal Pepsi, Beverly Hills, 90210 and Lorena Bobbitt? Yup, those were the good old days. Step Into the '90s Vol. 1 at Jet Thanks to the friendly folks at Light Group, tonight you can relive those magic years with fellow ‘90s fans at Jet Nightclub at the Mirage. Step Into the ‘90s Vol. 1 is a celebration of all the cringe-worthy things we thought were cool back before we knew better. Hosting the party is none other than ‘90s slacker jerk icon David “Puck” Rainey from The Real World: San Francisco. (Good thing he got cast before MTV took a liking to Abercrombie-clad alcoholics.) In honor of the decade and tonight’s bash, I asked some friends to share their very best/worst fashion decisions ...
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Just call me the Minute (and a second) Man
John Katsilometes | Sun, Jul 20, 2008 (2:04 p.m.)
Until the July 5 Kendall Holt-Ricardo Torres fight at the Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts, it had been more than 10 years since I’d covered any boxing event. That fight ended in less time than it takes to boil an egg, 1 minute, 1 second, with Holt gathering himself after two knockdowns to knock Torres into la-la land with an overhand right. Last night I was on hand for the Anderson Silva-James Irvin UFC light-heavyweight bout at the Pearl Theater at the Palms, and that fight also ended in a quick knockout, with Silva pummeling Irvin into submission in the first round. That fight lasted 1 minute, 1 second. I think most statisticians refer to such episodes as “trends.” Somehow that time span reminds me of my junior prom, but I digress …
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Five reasons Trisha Yearwood is not Garth Brooks (and that’s a good thing)
Josh Bell | Sat, Jul 19, 2008 (12:37 a.m.)
While her superstar husband Garth Brooks was busy helping Billy Joel bid farewell to Shea Stadium on the other side of the country Friday night, Trisha Yearwood was playing to a slightly smaller house at the Orleans Showroom. 1. No one yells "Where's Trisha?" at a Garth Brooks show. Yearwood responded gracefully to the cry of "Where's Garth?" with an only semi-sarcastic "Nobody ever asks," before explaining that Brooks had actually been with her in Vegas for the last two days before being called on his Billy Joel-aiding errand. She then joked that since Brooks wasn't paid for the Joel performance, he was still technically retired. 2. She doesn't swing across the stage on a giant harness. As Yearwood noted, there are no fancy theatrics in her show, unlike the arena spectacles her husband favored in his heyday. She walked casually onstage in a colorful top and jeans, strolled back ...
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Who watches the Watchmen trailer?
Josh Bell | Fri, Jul 18, 2008 (10:35 a.m.)
The Watchmen trailer premiered online and in theaters with prints of The Dark Knight yesterday, and I find myself fairly underwhelmed. Granted, it's been a while since I read Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' landmark graphic novel, but the trailer makes no effort to convey the plot or even much of the general themes of the story. It's a bunch of fairly cool-looking images, along with the pimping of director Zack Snyder as the "visionary director of 300." It's that association that worries me most: 300 was a loud, empty bundle of aesthetic tricks, and the shots in this trailer of characters kicking and falling backward in slo-mo remind me way too much of the look of Snyder's last film. We've got six months to speculate on what the end result may be, and the fanboys online are already going apoplectic one way or the other, but for now I ...
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In water, who matters?
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
When it comes to water in the desert, a few local players have a whole lot of juice.
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The Singing Revolution
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
The tiny Eastern European nation of Estonia gets its moment in the spotlight with The Singing Revolution, a blandly positive documentary about the nonviolent action that led to the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
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Gonged but not forgotten
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
“It’s too bright and shiny out there. I want it to be dark and dingy,” host Dave Attell grumbles in his debris-strewn dressing room in Stage 6 of Hollywood’s Sunset Bronson Studio. “I like bringing out the acts and giving them their moments, especially the quirkier ones, and defending them against the judges. But I think the set should read that this is not a talent show, it’s more of a bar show. It looks like a gay bank.”
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The queen of Pahrump
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
People like Heidi Fleiss tend not to stay in the spotlight once the initial frenzy surrounding their infamy dies down. It’s a little hard (though maybe not impossible) to imagine anyone making documentaries or writing lengthy magazine features about John Wayne Bobbitt or Joey Buttafuoco these days. But even 15 years after her initial arrest for running a high-priced prostitution ring in Los Angeles, Fleiss still generates plenty of interest, and the documentary Heidi Fleiss: The Would-Be Madam of Crystal (HBO, July 21, 9 p.m.) does a good job of showing why she’s still such a fascinating character.
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Freaky and Fabulous
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Las Vegas has no shortage of strange and strangely wonderful performers many of which turned out for The Gong Show try outs at V Theater in Planet Hollywood on May 13th. Meet the five locals that made the cut.
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In the building with “Elvis”
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Brendan Scholz is a man of few words. Or, more accurately, the Lydia Vance vocalist/guitarist is a man of few short-term plans.
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Street Dogs
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Making the leap from Brass Tacks to Epitaph offshoot Hellcat Records elicited nary a cry of “Sellout!,” but the move still raises expectations for the Boston quintet’s fourth LP.
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Onara
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
A sort of treatise on the state of industrial rock, Onara’s Out of Print might be one of the most manic CDs ever recorded.
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Trump-atross?
Steve Friess | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
I'm sitting at the lobby bar of the undeniably pretty Trump International Hotel on a Sunday evening about to tuck into a $21 burger and sip from an $8 pink-grapefruit soda. I didn’t mean to splurge on dinner here, but I popped in to take a look-see and realized that this was the only thing for me to do. Which is, of course, the big problem here. The slender gold tower with the most famous name in real estate emblazoned atop it is a bafflement to all who consider its existence. It is also, by a large measure, the very last place most Las Vegas tourists should ever feel comfortable visiting.
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Four questions with The Zombies’ Colin Blunstone
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Spencer Patterson interviews lead singer Colin Blunstone of the 60's British hit rock band The Zombies.
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The Help Desk
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
- Naked man hijacks Las Vegas bus.
- Well, he would have to; no pockets for change.
- Starbucks to close five Las Vegas shops this month.
- Damn! If only there was some other venue we could find coffee at ...
- Michael Jackson spotted at Las Vegas Barnes & Noble in wheelchair, wearing a trucker hat, dreadlocked wig and khaki sweater.
- We know what you’re thinking: A sweater in this heat?
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Taxing argument
Damon Hodge | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Here’s the deal, folks: We need higher taxes. There, I said it. And (gulp) I mean it. We need them because we can’t budget-cut ($1 billion and counting) our way to fiscal health. Nor can we rely on Casino Inc. to part with much more—gaming revenues already provide half of Nevada’s general-fund budget.
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Mamma Mia!
Matthew Scott Hunter | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
I remember reading years ago that when John Woo was making Mission: Impossible II, he conceived the action scenes first and then had the screenwriter write his script around those sequences. It showed. The narrative had to strain to explain why there was suddenly a motorcycle chase and where all these doves were coming from, and sometimes it didn’t even bother.
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Food by the Yard
Max Jacobson | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
The network of overhead pipes above you carries the world’s largest selection of draft beers, up to 250 delicious brews. And the menu seems almost as encyclopedic, as if the world’s largest selection of dishes were on hand to accompany them.
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In the mix
Deanna Rilling | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Gas prices are impeding party funds. We’re thinking twice about ordering another $15 cocktail at the club. Even lap dances in the VIP lounge are no longer in the budget! What is a Sin City club-goer to do?! Relax … Thanks to local Vegas DJs, at least our music collection won’t suffer this summer.
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Girl Talk
Annie Zaleski | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Girl Talk—aka Pittsburgh biomedical engineer Gregg Gillis—elevated the concept of the mash-up to an art form on 2006’s Night Ripper.
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No country for old shoppers
Greg Beato | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
When was the last time you read a John Updike novel cover to cover in a single sitting? Or even a John Updike book jacket cover to cover in a single sitting? While dour eggheads are forever forecasting apocalypse borne of our infatuation with images over text, it should be obvious by now that reading is grossly overrated. For most people, bookstores are where you get lattes and Burt’s Bees sampler kits, and yet life just keeps getting better. In previous centuries, apparently, everyone was so engrossed in Paradise Lost they never got around to inventing the Internet, organic frozen dinners, reality TV. We haven’t made the same mistake.
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Peggy Plots Your Planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
What do the planets hold in store for you this week? Find out as Peggy foretells your luck.
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Enveloped in darkness
Mike D'Angelo | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
"Why so serious?” wonders the poster tagline—invoking, ironically enough, the very question that moviegoers will likely be asking as they emerge from the theater. Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan’s well-regarded reboot of the franchise, was fairly (and appropriately) somber as blockbusters go, but it’s downright frivolous compared to The Dark Knight, which is not even remotely kidding about its titular adjective.
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‘The Hive will open’
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
It’s sweltering inside The Hive, but not because the dance floor is packed with bodies.
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Space Chimps
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
After seeing Pixar’s dazzling, creative and heartfelt WALL-E, it’s a serious crash back down to Earth to watch Space Chimps, the clumsy, unfunny and aesthetically crude middle entry in this summer’s trio of animated movies about space (look for Fly Me to the Moon next month).
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Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Fans of Fela Kuti—and, really, what listener of the jammed-out African funk known as Afrobeat doesn’t worship its creator?—have been treating the emergence of his son, Seun Kuti, like the coming of the messiah, and understandably so.
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John Mellencamp
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
His latest album may be coming out on the Starbucks-owned Hear Music label, and his last hit may have been the soundtrack to a Chevy commercial, but John Mellencamp sounds crankier and more pessimistic than ever on Life, Death, Love and Freedom. T
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Brick Lane
Mike D'Angelo | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Residents of the actual Brick Lane, a London thoroughfare inhabited mostly by Bangladeshi immigrants, turned out in droves to protest this filmed adaptation of Monica Ali’s novel, complaining that her book portrayed them as insufficiently devout Muslims. Once they finally see the movie, expect them to hit the streets again, this time livid that they come off as so damn boring.
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Dream Zone
Lauri Quinn Lowenberg | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Lauri interprets what your dreams are trying to tell you.
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The Gibbons follies
Dave Berns | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
It’s ridiculous, just plain ridiculous to assume that Gov. Jim Gibbons used any political influence to receive a special designation that lowered his annual property tax liability from about $5,000 to $15 on 40 acres of sagebrush in rural Elko County.
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Nas
Damon Hodge | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Nas is cursed. Ever since the release of 1994’s seminal Illmatic, the Queensbridge representer has faced impossibly high expectations.
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Bottle Rockin’ It
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
"The wine area is mobbed. Way busier than last time,” the text message reads. I’m off bridesmaiding in New Jersey, but an enlisted spy keeps me in touch with Red Rock Resort’s second poolside Bottle Rock-It Saturday, a 14-week duet of rock concert and wine tasting ($30, $15 respectively).
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Coca-Cola WE8
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
Calm down, caffeine fiends—Coke hasn’t gone and changed its magic formula or anything like that. But for a short time, at least the bottles will be available in some very original new packaging.
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Scotty, Scotty, he’s our man!
Team Hangover | Thu, Jul 17, 2008 (midnight)
“What happens at the Ball … stays with you forever.” With a motto like that, it’s understandable why the Exotic Erotic Strippers & Hustlers Ball, with events such as the world’s largest girl-on-girl pillow fight, will be taking over the Orleans Hotel like mono at summer camp.
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Water wise
T.R. Witcher | Wed, Jul 16, 2008 (midnight)
The foreclosure crisis. The shaky national economy. The shaky local economy. The state budget crisis. The steady climb of gas above $4 a gallon—great in a town built for driving. Hot enough for you this year? Obviously, we’ve got a lot on our minds as is, but let’s not forget that the fate of Las Vegas is dependent on water. And water has made the news a lot in 2008.
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Obscenity undefined: Stagliano reflects on his indictment
Richard Abowitz | Mon, Jul 14, 2008 (9:38 p.m.)
I first met John Stagliano in the summer of 2004 reporting a backstage feature for Las Vegas Weekly on the creation of his show, Fashionistas, at what is now Planet Hollywood. I had never heard of him before that. The show opened in the summer of 2004 to great acclaim and lasted for three years. That beat Hairspray, Spamalot and The Producers, to name a few of the better-financed shows that closed more quickly. However, it wasn't the longevity but the extraordinary quality of the show that was surprising to a lot of people, including me. The reason: Buttman. The most innovative show the Strip has seen in the new century was backed by the money John Stagliano earned as the legendary pornographer known as Buttman, and as owner of Evil Angel, perhaps the largest distributor of adult content in the country. In fact, Fashionistas the production show was based ...
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The Help Desk
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
- Star Trek: The Experience to close September 1.
- Who needs science fiction? $4 a gallon for gas? A text-messaging governor? Gambling on the decline? We’re living it!
- Harry Reid says that coal and oil “make us sick.”
- No, Harry, what really makes us sick is watching the Democratic Party shoot itself in the foot at every turn.
- Report: Most poker players support Obama.
- So remember, if you’re still undecided, ask yourself: Who would “The Unabomber” endorse?
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The Bleachers
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Named Nevada’s Best New Band in the Boston Phoenix’s recent “50 Bands, 50 States” survey, The Bleachers prove they deserve a big seat at the small table of Las Vegas acts worthy of consideration with their second expert full-length in as many tries.
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Sin City sex trade
Damon Hodge | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Tell-all books have a hold on the public psyche for much the same reason that high-level gossip does: Americans are a nosy bunch, as addicted to TMZ.com and Page Six as older generations were to the McNeil-Lehrer Report.
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Beck
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
When the creative well runs dry, what’s a musical mastermind to do? Well, if he’s anything like Bob Dylan, grind away and hope the spark returns, as it did for Dylan in the late ’90s after a long period of muddled mediocrity. Or he can take a more drastic route, say that traveled by Miles Davis, who retired for more than five years when he sensed his best innovations were behind him.
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Flush in the pan
Steve Friess | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Joanna Freund and her boyfriend, George, have flown in all the way from Toronto to be here at the 2008 World Series of Poker’s Main Event. Neither of them actually is playing in the tournament, but they’ve watched it on television for years, and, the weak U.S. dollar being what it is, they figured they could make a holiday out of it and see their favorite poker players in action.
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Out with the new, in with the newer
Matthew Scott Hunter | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
In case you didn’t notice from the dozens of enormous cranes littering the skyline, Las Vegas is a city obsessed with the new. Where once there was nothing, there must now be something, and where once there was something, there must now be something new. The old must be redesigned, reinvented and rebuilt. In some cities, places become more precious with age. They become antiques. In Las Vegas, they just become antiquated.
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Fresh off the vine
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Christian Audigier—the man, the designer, the winemaker? I learned a lot about the French designer-culprit behind Ed Hardy, Diesel and Von Dutch during a hard-hat tour of his new joint, successor to Tangerine at TI. Beyond his fashionable designer-for-hire past, I found out, Audigier, 50, has lent his good name (originally Christian Ginutti) to a good many other personal ventures: “The Cool Wine” by Montpeyroux Estates (“It’s a lifestyle, screw tradition!”), Ed Hardy by Christian Audigier fragrances, Crystal Rock jewelry, named for his daughter … his resume reads like a celebrity’s shopping list.
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Patti Smith and Kevin Shields
Annie Zaleski | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Patti Smith’s 1997 book The Coral Sea is a slim but powerful volume of prose she wrote in tribute to the late artist Robert Mapplethorpe, who photographed her for the cover of Horses.
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A legacy owed to Celine
John Katsilometes | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
This is an excerpt from the radio show Our Metropolis, a half-hour issues and affairs program that airs Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and is hosted by Greenspun Media Group’s John Katsilometes. Tune in next week to hear the rest of this interview with John Nelson, vice president of AEG Live, which produces top concerts and shows across the country, including Elton John, Cher and Bette Midler at the Colosseum at Caesars, and has partnered with Harrah’s for an arena project just east of the Strip near Bally’s:
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Identity Crisis?
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Sometimes finding—and shedding—an identity is tough, especially when that identity is a gateway to drugs, sex and debauchery only yards away from nearly a dozen successful locals joints.
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Ed Harcourt
Barbara Mitchell | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
British singer-songwriter extraordinaire Ed Harcourt has a best-of album, but we in the U.S. get The Beautiful Lie two years late.
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Read between the party lines
Dave Berns | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
We’re reeling from a series of jolts: $4.50-a-gallon gasoline, neighborhoods shaken by empty homes, rapidly rising food prices, growing unemployment and a war in its sixth year. We’re seeking solace, a sense that things will be okay, but there’s no consensus on solutions. It’s the American way. Greater wisdom can come from the partisan divide that passes for enlightened debate in Carson City and Washington, D.C. But it feels as though we’re lacking enlightenment and debate
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Peggy Plots Your Planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
What do the planets have in store for you this week? Find out as Peggy tells of your future.
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Vanessa Hudgens
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens was most recently in the news for a fairly tame nude-pictures scandal, but her second album gives no indication that she’s looking to shed her otherwise squeaky clean image and play with the grown-ups.
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Dream Zone
Lauri Quinn Lowenberg | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Lauri interprets what your dreams are trying to tell you.
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Talk of the Town
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Call Halloween Town a local supergroup if you want, but its leader prefers a different term.
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The Hold Steady
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Over the course of three albums, America’s best bar band has penned modern-classic rock ’n’ roll odes to drinking, drugging and generally partying until one passes out.
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Fleet Foxes
Barbara Mitchell | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
They look like hippies. They frequently get compared to Crosby, Stills & Nash.
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Succulent Carnage
Grace Bascos | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Hot n’ Juicy Crawfish. Just the name of the joint made me want to go in the first time I saw it. Its Spring Mountain location at first made me wonder if it was an Asian concept, but I was elated to learn that the New Orleans tradition of the crawfish boil had made the trip to Vegas.
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Hangover Buster
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a … raging bloody hangover! Summer drinking, pool parties, insufficient water intake, quaffing alcoholic drinks for refreshment—all can lead to killer hangovers. Though not a cocktail per se, this simple concoction of water and an effervescent lemon-lime wafer does in fact—we discovered after an outdoor wine-sampling event—take the edge off a potential hangover.
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Blades of steel
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Jack Dagger, otherwise known as the “King of Fling,” has tossed knives at everyone from potential Louisiana politicians looking for notoriety to targets (or possibly people) on one of those crazy super-surreal Japanese game shows.
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Sparkle … dim … and fade to black
Julie Seabaugh | Published Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
R.I.P. Doug Frye, local drummer, DJ and music scene mainstay
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Phenom of funny
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Not many produce more than a few albums over the entire course of a comedy career.
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A botched operation
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Movies and TV shows about America’s current conflicts in the Middle East haven’t exactly fared well recently, either critically or commercially, but that hasn’t stopped The Wire creator David Simon and his producing and writing partner Ed Burns from following up their groundbreaking and highly praised cops-and-criminals series with Generation Kill (HBO, Sundays, 9 p.m.), a seven-part miniseries about a Marine unit during the early days of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
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Moving house
Team Hangover | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
The Empire Ballroom crew isn't homeless for long, Soundbar hunts for venues, alcohol-free drinks? and Christmas in July. Get a nightlife.
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Anuhea “Anu” Hawkins
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Anuhea "Anu" Hawkins has made a name for herself as the sommelier at Nove Italiano at the Palms, but when she's not studying and serving wine, this native Hawaiian prefers spending time with her 6 year-old daughter.
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Creature Feature
Mike D'Angelo | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Filmmakers with a distinctive vision can generally be divided into two camps: those primarily concerned with human behavior and those obsessed with the properties of cinema itself. Towering figures like Orson Welles and Martin Scorsese fit both profiles. But Mexico’s Guillermo del Toro, uniquely, fits neither.
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Journey to the Center of the Earth
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 10, 2008 (midnight)
Perhaps someday, movies made in digital 3-D will be so commonplace that we’ll see relationship dramas, workplace comedies and psychological thrillers in three dimensions, but at this point the technology is so new that all it’s really useful for is showing off. Luckily Journey to the Center of the Earth director Eric Brevig has a background in special effects and experience working on 3-D movies/theme-park attractions Captain EO and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, so his feature debut finds him perfectly at home with the showy aspect of 3-D cinema.
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A flush of clubs: A look back at those we miss
John Katsilometes | Wed, Jul 9, 2008 (7:43 p.m.)
It was Thursday night at the grand opening of Christian Audigier at Treasure Island, the first nightclub operated by the so-named fashion designer, that I asked a few longtime Las Vegans which now-defunct clubs on or off the Strip they now miss. Nobody said they missed Tangerine, which occupied the spot now home to “CA.” That is probably because, but for some muted tones, dark-red hues and wall art of body art, the new CA effectively mirrors the old Tangerine. Same layout, same splashy view of the Sirens show. Same deal, pretty much. Nevertheless, as the sun set behind this fabulous new club, we did conjure up a few bygone Vegas haunts that have shuttered and we wish hadn’t. Here’s my list; feel free to make your own: Pink E’s: A lot of strange stuff went on in the parking lot of this club, located north of Tommy Rocker’s on ...
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An extravaganza, but not so much
Josh Bell | Wed, Jul 9, 2008 (12:51 p.m.)
Josh Bell likes action extravaganzas, but Wanted, a film where he says "the occasion is not worth rising to," falls flat -- despite the presence of Angelina Jolie. Listen to Josh Bell every Friday night at 6 p.m. on 107.5 FM's Xtreme Disorder.
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Will Smith takes the Fourth with Hancock
Josh Bell | Wed, Jul 9, 2008 (12:38 p.m.)
Will Smith owns the July 4th weekend every year, and that is the case this year with Hancock. But does this down-and-dirty superhero pack a punch? Not entirely. Listen to Josh Bell every Friday night at 6 p.m. on 107.5 FM's Xtreme Disorder.
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Tuba in the club
Sarah Feldberg | Tue, Jul 8, 2008 (4:35 p.m.)
If you weren’t at Body English this past Saturday night you missed a truly unique nightclub accessory: a tuba. At most clubs in this city there are oddities that catch your eye on any given night. The guy who brings his monster python to the party in the hopes that a huge snake will help him get laid. (Note: This might actually work.) The pack of girls who dress in matching schoolgirl outfits in the hopes that plaid and thigh highs will help them score free drinks (Note: This definitely works). The dudes in full kilts for reasons we can’t quite ascertain – they’re Scottish? They were at a wedding? Creative frat hazing? They hate the restrictive nature of pants? But a tuba? Sure enough, around 12:30 a.m. last Sunday morning the music stopped, the lights turned to the stairs and in walked a guy with a tuba. The tuba ...
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The Independence Day Equation
Sarah Feldberg | Sat, Jul 5, 2008 (2:21 a.m.)
It’s around 3:30 p.m. when I walk into Bare Pool Lounge, and the place is jammed. Every daybed hosts a slender bikini-ed young thing or a well-muscled gent. Both small pools are packed with bodies. Hands clasp drinks. Eyes squint behind Technicolor designer shades or oversized aviators. Everything is as it should be except for one tiny detail, it’s the Fourth of July, but among the fit and fashionable at Bare it’s nearly impossible to tell. It only takes a second for me to realize my white skirt and deep blue tank top (paired with red-rimmed sunglasses) aren’t exactly par for the patriotic course here. I should’ve worn black. Maybe pink. Anything but this. I also decipher that there’s something vastly more important than a national holiday going on this Friday afternoon at the Mirage’s adults-only outdoor lounge. It’s something of international (or at least national) significance – an event ...
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Spontaneous battle rocks Christian Audigier
Sarah Feldberg | Fri, Jul 4, 2008 (2:28 p.m.)
What happens when you mix free booze, red patent leather, corset-clad bartenders, a fashion designer and a brand new Vegas hot spot? You get Christian Audigier The Nightclub and, apparently, a high school dance party. At the club’s pre-opening soiree on Thursday, July 3rd invitees met, mingled, imbibed and watched two entertaining and totally free shows: Treasure Island’s signature bikini-clad pirate battle and an impromptu break dance throw down on the club’s dance floor. Sure, the production value of the pirates kicked the dancers’ ass, but there was something intimate and genuinely sweet about the spontaneous circle that formed around two young men break dancing on an empty patch of the Christian Audigier dance floor. It felt like a high school dance, only the girls and boys weren’t on separate sides of the room and everyone was sipping vodka lemonades instead of diet Sprite. Will Audigier take over as the ...
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Your New Best Friends gets a hand from Dick
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (2:30 p.m.)
It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime, you-gotta-know-someone-to-hear-about-it things. After all, Your New Best Friends, the variety production combining classic clowning with bawdy humor and modern attitude, debuted at the Onyx Theatre back in late April and has returned sporadically ever since. When creators and stars Wayne Wilson, Daniel Passer and John Gilkey weren’t taking the show to the likes of New York, L.A. and Seattle, that is. Or when they weren’t occupied with their full-time jobs as La Revecast members. But it was only this afternoon at 1 p.m. that Anthony Cools invited the group – and its members’ family, friends and co-workers -- to his 250-ish capacity showroom at The Paris. And it was only this afternoon that Andy Dick, fresh from serving as celebrity judge for last week’s tapings of Comedy Central’s revamped Gong Show with Dave Attell, stood in for an out-of-town Gilkey. “Daniel and him are ...
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UBS in a pinch for a poke
John Katsilometes | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (10:48 a.m.)
Five minutes. One pint. A record. Last night I donated a pint of whole blood at the United Blood Services main regional center at 6930 W. Charleston Blvd. I was supposed to donate platelets, which takes up to two hours, but was pressed for time and donated just the pint. The “draw” took five minutes, which we all concurred was an unofficial donation record. So I got extra cookies in the post-draws “canteen” area, where looming overhead are many pictures of dignitaries who have contributed to the cause -- including the R-J’s Norm Clarke! Sit for a bit United Blood Services United Services reps – whom I refer to as the Blood Mafia --- contact me whenever I am again eligible to donate. Usually I give platelets, which are used for trauma victims but also have a very short shelf life of three days. Donors are actually eligible to give ...
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Duck, Duck, Sploosh!
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
For all the ground we covered, trying over the last few years to be so sophisticated with our half-a-grand bottles of $35 vodka, the Hummer and that too-good-to-be-true down payment on a condo in that high-rise tower over by the …
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No heroes
Richard Abowitz | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
The generation that fought World War II is beginning to pass, and few remember much about the final year of the war with Imperial Japan except for the decision to use the atomic bomb. That choice has echoed through history without context, endlessly second-guessed, attacked and defended.
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Walkin’ Fremont with Jackie Gaughan
John Katsilometes | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
This is an excerpt from the radio show Our Metropolis, a half-hour issues and affairs program that airs Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM and is hosted by the Greenspun Media Group’s John Katsilometes. Tune in next week to hear the rest of this interview with El Cortez General Manager Mike Nolan:
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The world needs a poker star
Steve Friess | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
t was a Monday, I was overdue on more than one assignment—including that week’s Strip Sense entry—and I don’t usually watch sports on TV anyway. But the human drama of a hobbled Tiger Woods somehow managing one amazing comeback after another in the U.S. Open was so compelling that it even made watching privileged people using a crooked metal stick to hit a small white ball across a water-guzzlingly lush and exclusive private park worth my attention.
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Dirty Blonde Cocktails
Xania Woodman | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
“Sweet” doesn’t even begin to describe the full impact of a Dirty Blonde Cocktail, Sunday night, where five ladies and one somewhat bewildered guy sampled the DBC variety pack.
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RZA as Bobby Digital
Ben Westhoff | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Wu-Tang ringleader RZA faced mutiny last year in the wake of the Clan’s latest album, 8 Diagrams.
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Earlimart
Annie Zaleski | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Is there a more underrated Los Angeles band than Earlimart? While fellow Silverlake darlings Sea Wolf and Silversun Pickups dominate the spotlight, Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray have spent the better part of a decade quietly creating hushed, lush indie-pop.
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Money for nothing
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Whatever you think of VH1’s popular “celebreality” shows, you have to sort of admire their shamelessness. The participants on ABC’s The Bachelor all act like they really expect to find their soulmate on the show, and the producers encourage that fiction; on VH1’s matchmaker shows Flavor of Love, Rock of Love and I Love New York, the prospect of finding love always seemed dubious at best, and the producers were not at all above putting their eligible bachelors and bachelorettes on the block multiple times.
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Th’ seven signs
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Everyone in the lunatic fringe of America’s Southern-tinged swamp-rock scene knows Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers vocalist and all-around madman, Col. J.D. Wilkes.
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Before and After: Margaret Menzies as Connie Mocogni
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Menzies, who got married last year, is ready to start a family: “I have enough experience, being pregnant all the time.”
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Peggy Plots Your Planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Wonder what this week holds for you? Find out as Peggy foretells your future.
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Men in Uniform
Beverly Poppe | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Uniformly interesting. Images of men in uniform make up a genre of their own, and Vegas takes that genre to a new level. Our photographer aims to highlight some of the national icons, such as firefighters, and then expand to the more specifically Vegas personalities who wear uniforms everyday: Caesar, Elvis. Take a look.
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Dream Zone
Lauri Quinn Lowenberg | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Lauri explains what your dreams are trying to tell you.
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Priceless
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Here’s the best bit of insider wisdom that the new Audrey Tautou rom-com Priceless offers us about the art of being a professional gold digger: The key is to pepper your mark with halting, incomplete sentences that suggest unfathomable depths of mystery and desire, until they welcome you into their beds and open their checkbooks.
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Drama 101
Jacob Coakley | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Othello and Cyrano aren’t the only plays you can catch at the Utah Shakespearean Festival.
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Sigur Rós
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Something’s rotten in Hopeland. Or, at the very least, something’s different, judging from the final track on Sigur Rós’ fifth album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust.
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May the fourth be with you
Team Hangover | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Happy birthday, America! We got you a little something: boobs.
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The Hillywood Show’s sisters grim
Sabrina Golmossian | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
The future of character acting has a new, well, face. At the Imperial Palace on the Las Vegas Strip, two sisters, macabrely made-up, pose for photographs. The pint-sized pair is set apart from the crowd of mostly middle-aged professionals who don Elvis suits in every hue and blond wigs à la Marilyn, and unlike their plucky predecessors, they’re easy to miss.
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The Watson Twins
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
If your knowledge of the duo formerly known as Black Swan begins and ends with Rabbit Fur Coat—Chandra and Leigh Watson’s alt-country effort with Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis—you’d be forgiven for expecting their debut full-length to evoke the second coming of the McGarrigle Sisters.
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Mystery is killed by the Web
Greg Beato | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
In the earliest days of e-commerce, it didn’t matter if you were ordering from a little old lady on eBay or a venture-funded start-up like Amazon or Webvan: Every transaction was a crapshoot. With a leap of faith, you clicked on the Order button and surrendered your mailing address and credit card number.
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A change does Marche Bacchus good
Max Jacobson | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
For wine lovers in Las Vegas, Marche Bacchus, a small, comely wine store and bistro located in the bucolic Desert Shores community, has been a touchstone since the first day it opened.
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Locksley
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Love-struck garage-pop with huge, doo-woppy choruses may come across as both retro and a bit manufactured, and there’s a fair argument to be made that the Brooklyn four-piece’s defiantly unsigned status is a selling point in its own right.
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Sonic boom
K.W. Jeter | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
There’s something about the Fourth of July that just sets the minds of classical-music programmers racing. The fact that they all race to pretty much the same destination is merely an indication that they all know where their target audience is.
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Rhyme N Rhythm
Damon Hodge | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Press materials for Rhyme N Rhythm describe the group as a hip-hop soul funk experience, but its seven-song demo could more aptly be described as Pharcyde-ish bonhomie mixed with Roots-ish musicality.
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When Did You Last See Your Father?
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Based on the memoir by British poet and novelist Blake Morrison, When Did You Last See Your Father? is a low-key, somber account of the writer’s ruminations and memories as his father lays dying. Played as an adult by Colin Firth and as a teen by Matthew Beard, Blake comes off as a sort of sullen, mopey guy who never really gave his dad, doctor and somewhat boorish philanderer Arthur (Broadbent), the credit he deserved.
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Hogg Corps
Damon Hodge | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Bay Area expatriates Hogg Corps don’t swing for the fences as much as they could on Street Concepts, and the result is an uneven CD that’s about as satisfying as a handful of fries on an empty stomach.
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Reprise
Mike D'Angelo | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Writers are constantly being told to write what they know—a perfectly sensible dictum that nonetheless presents the screenwriter with a serious dilemma. What any writer mostly knows, of course, is writing. Trouble is, few things are less cinematic than some dude sitting alone at a computer (or a typewriter, if you decide to go period) trying to work out what word comes next. And so we get movies like Reprise, from Norway, that are ostensibly about the literary world but strenuously avoid any shots of the characters practicing their lonely and visually tedious craft. Instead, behavioral tics multiply like useless adjectives in an attempt to fill the void.
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Early start
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Nobody said being a jazz musician was easy, but local trumpeter Kevin Early is off to an auspicious start.
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Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
Jeffrey M. Anderson | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
As the father of a two-year-old boy, I know Elmo, Spider-Man and SpongeBob, but I had never heard of the American Girl dolls. Apparently, they have quite a franchise going; they have books and DVDs and accessories. Each girl has a trademarked name and her own story, torn from the pages of history.
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Katy Perry
Josh Bell | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Katy Perry’s pseudo-debut album (she put out a Christian-pop release in 2001 under the name Katy Hudson) is a distillation of everything vapid and annoying about teen culture, filtered through the musical sensibilities of a gaggle of top pop producers and songwriters (Max Martin, Dr. Luke, Butch Walker, Glen Ballard, Cathy Dennis, etc.).
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Underground no more
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
Dave Hawkins was there for its birth, and now he’s marking the passing of Matteo’s Underground Lounge in song.
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Badasses with heart
Danielle Kelly | Thu, Jul 3, 2008 (midnight)
The art handlers who work for MCQ Fine Art are badass—according to the postcard for their group show. The Difference Between Making a Living and Making a Killing is hardcore, and there’s even a skull and crossbones to prove it. Don’t let the act fool you, though.
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The Tao of Donovan (in a Las Vegas penthouse)
Richard Abowitz | Wed, Jul 2, 2008 (11:33 a.m.)
Back in the day, Donovan’s questionable musical skills were more than compensated for by his pixie perfect folkie look that was the dream of a generation of women. These days he is plumper and his hair thinner, but he still has the ego to place a gigantic pillow under his butt to hoist himself a few inches above my 5’ 6” of height. This is before he starts speaking to the value of selfless meditation. There is something horrible about the way boomers have idealized their childhood. Vietnam did not stop Iraq. Free love ended with AIDS. Experimenting with drugs resulted in many deaths and a huge recovery industry. But while the myths of the ‘60s may be dramatic examples of assumptions unexamined, the ‘60s undoubtedly did produce great music like the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Donovan. Ok, that last one was a joke. There was a time when he ...
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Follow Yellow Brick Road to new stations
John Katsilometes | Tue, Jul 1, 2008 (5:59 p.m.)
From across the club I heard my name, then the question, “Got any requests?” It was Brody Dolyniuk, barking into his microphone from the stage at the Railhead at Boulder Station. It was the last Friday before the last Saturday at the Railhead for the city’s premier classic rock-cover band, which has been going off the rails on the crazy train at Boulder Station since 1998. There have been a few other stops for YBR, including a brief stint at Red Rock Resort, where the sound level for such rock classics as “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” spilled into the casino. When asked to turn it down, the band opted to leave. Rightfully so. “Turn it down” is not in the band’s vocabulary. Actually, countless terms are not in the band’s vocabulary. "We'll take any requests for Abba," is another. Anyhow, when I heard Brody, whom I’ve known for a ...
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A super mess
Josh Bell | Tue, Jul 1, 2008 (2:53 p.m.)
Why does Will Smith always have to save the world? Wouldn’t it be nice, just once, to see the king of the summer blockbuster play, like, a regular dude? One who doesn’t become a larger-than-life hero by the end of the movie? Hancock, Smith’s latest box office-conquering action film, almost starts out that way: The title character isn’t exactly a regular dude, but he is a bit of a loser when we first meet him, passed out on a bench in a drunken haze.
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The inside scoop as Starbucks downsizes
John Katsilometes | Tue, Jul 1, 2008 (2:47 p.m.)
The top-10 things overheard at a Starbucks Corp. executives meeting today, as it was announced the company was closing 600 of its 16,000 stores and eliminating 12,000 full- and part-time jobs. 10. “I knew we overstocked that Simon & Garfunkel greatest-hits CDs!” 9. “I said, ‘Why not just black coffee in Styrofoam cups for 95 cents?’ And no one – no one! – listened to me!” 8. “Does this mean our reality show with Paris Hilton working at a Starbucks is a no-go?” 7. “What are we going to do with all these veggie wraps?” 6. “I guess now, we really do have room for cream.” 5. “We should have broken the news by driving hearses up to the drive-thru windows.” 4. “The shot of adrenaline after laying people off is a lot stronger than a shot of double-espresso!” 3. “Our coffee is more expensive than gas. What could possibly ...
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Line drives up the middle — a good way to ruin a night
John Katsilometes | Tue, Jul 1, 2008 (10:08 a.m.)
It’s been a couple of weeks since I last blogged about the Alsco softball team, staples of the Monday Men’s D1 Summer Adult Softball League at Arroyo Grande Sports Complex. I missed a couple of games while covering CineVegas, which is an unexcused absence to this crew. What I can provide as an update is, we are the worst team in the league. We lost another doubleheader Monday night, to a verbose and mostly paunchy ballclub sponsored by T-Bird Lounge (and if the sponsor of that team was seeking to have his business associated with a bunch of juvenile pop-off artists, mission accomplished!) Alsco, the linen company that can’t seem to clean up, is now 0-8. We compete. We lose. Last night’s twinbill – and they are all twinbills at this level of recreation softball – one of softball’s great conundrums unfolded: Whether to hit line drives up the middle. ...
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