Story archive for September 2008
Hunting for hauntings in the Vegas night
Jennifer Grafiada | Tue, Sep 30, 2008 (6:56 p.m.)
“If you’re deranged enough to kill yourself, you come here to do it,” remarks Jac, the top hat wearing tour guide for the Vegas Haunted Tour. “Las Vegas is the suicide capital of America.”
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The Naked truth: A look inside a new Vegas picture book
Scott Dickensheets | Tue, Sep 30, 2008 (4:48 p.m.)
Who doesn’t want to look at naked people? You might not by the time you get to the last page of Naked Las Vegas (W.W. Norton and Co., $24.95), a book by photographer Greg Friedler that pairs clothed and unclothed shots of people photographed here.
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All Tease is all good on the burlesque stage
Jennifer Grafiada | Sun, Sep 28, 2008 (11:36 p.m.)
Inside The Rox this Saturday night a crowd gathered that was not of the Strip, not even of our time. Most of the audience looked as if they had stepped out of the 1940s and ‘50s. Real live Marilyns stood next to Bettie Pages, James Deans and Buddy Hollys. The place was packed for the 2nd annual All Tease, No Sleaze Burlesque Pageant.
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Remembering Paul Newman with a movie marathon
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Sun, Sep 28, 2008 (6:49 p.m.)
This Friday, Hollywood lost one of its greatest figures and longest burning stars, actor and director Paul Newman. In memory of one of this century’s enduring legends, the Weekly shares our picks of some of Newman’s best work. Rent a few DVDs, pop some Newman’s Own popcorn and enjoy the talents of a man who helped define what it means to be a star.
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The world is nutty, but in Barry we trust
John Katsilometes | Sat, Sep 27, 2008 (11:55 a.m.)
Criss Angel and Barry Manilow performed new or newly revamped shows last night in Las Vegas. Of course, one is an enormously confident, supremely gifted performer on any stage whose holds a cult-like spell over his eerily loyal worldwide fan base.
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Celebrity NFL picks: Looking for a psychological boost in Week 4
Sal DeFilippo | Sat, Sep 27, 2008 (9:51 a.m.)
Sal the soothsayer is still stinging from a couple of bad beats last week, and a life spent following the New York Jets.
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Hilton take might have been $500,000
John Katsilometes | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 (2:04 p.m.)
According to one published report, a pair of thieves who robbed the Las Vegas Hilton this morning just after 6 a.m. might have made of with $500,000. KLAS Channel 8 has reported that figure, citing unnamed sources, but hotel spokesman Ira David Sternberg could not confirm the amount, only that the crime did take place this morning. "We're deferring all official word on this to Metro," Sternberg said. An update was expected later today. The sports book was closed early this morning, but this afternoon has re-opened as the investigation proceeds.
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After all these years, Donny & Marie suitably entertaining
John Katsilometes, Robin Leach | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 (12:10 p.m.)
You know how there are Stones people and Beatles people? Letterman people and Leno people? There was a time, many years ago, when the world was divided between Osmond people and Jackson 5 people. I was with the Jackson 5 people; I could not stand the Osmonds. The reason I was with the Jackson 5, why I would have been happy to kink my hair into a Tito-esque Afro if not for the cost, was because the Jackson 5 were far more fun/cool than the Osmonds.
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How to make a thriller (and how not to)
Josh Bell | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 (11:32 a.m.)
Fellow Las Vegas Weekly film critic Tasha Chemplavil joins Josh to discuss new theatrical releases Eagle Eye, Towelhead, Tell No One, Choke and The Lucky Ones, plus Iron Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall on DVD.
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How’d we get into this economic boondoggle? A primer to explain
Sarah Feldberg | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 (10:19 a.m.)
How did the U.S. economy get into this mess? UNLV economics professors explain how.
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Rehab’s spring break-like party calls it quits for season
Joe Brown | Fri, Sep 26, 2008 (2 a.m.)
We saw you -- and we saw almost all of you -- sunning, strutting and shaking it every Sunday at Las Vegas' biggest, barest pool party, the afternoon fleshfest known as Rehab.
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My secret (booze-holding) weapon
Sarah Feldberg | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (7:18 p.m.)
About a month ago while attending Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, I had one of those head-slapping “doh!” moments. In front of me a tall young man was watching the Radiohead concert with a pair of huge, suspicious-looking binoculars around his neck.
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The Help Desk
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
- R-J editorial suggests John McCain is physically unable to use a computer.
- Using his cheek, Stephen Hawking typed, “What ... a ... wimp!”
- Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne hospitalized after experiencing pain during the O.J. trial.
- And here we thought the O.J. trial only had that effect on us.
- Federal court to determine Las Vegas flight paths.
- They’re expected to use the scientific “eeny, meeny, miny, moe” method.
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Nightlife industry, we be illin’
Deanna Rilling | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Your mother was right. You look tired, and you need to eat something. It’s about time the nightlife industry started taking better care itself—LVW’s Team Hangover included.
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Ne-Yo
Ben Westhoff | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Before he broke out as an R&B crooner, a dandified celebrity in his own right, Las Vegas product Ne-Yo wrote hits for the Beyoncés and Whitneys and Célines of the world. While penning vapid pop tracks might not seem like an impressive skill, it’s not every man who can speak to women so effectively. One would expect, then, such tenderness to break through on his third album, Year of the Gentleman.
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The Lucky Ones
Mike D'Angelo | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Just what is it about the current war, you have to wonder, that inspires such painfully mediocre movies?
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I Served the King of England
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
In 1930s Czechoslovakia, short, penniless waiter Jan Díte (Barnev) dreams of becoming a millionaire and opening a hotel. He knows that the way to a woman’s heart is to decorate her body with flowers or fruit.
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Kings of Leon
Patrick Donnelly | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Fans of the four Followills—brothers Caleb, Jared and Nathan and cousin Matthew—who constitute Kings of Leon should welcome with open arms the band’s fourth album, Only by the Night, a fully realized fusion of their Southern-grunge roots and arena-rock grandeur that recovers the playful immediacy of their 2003 debut, Youth and Young Manhood, while maintaining the epic scope and sonic opulence of its two follow-ups.
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Atmospheric
Sarah Feldberg | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
“Have you ever chewed on a rubber band?” Sean Daley asks me over the phone. I realize, to my own surprise, that I actually have chewed on a rubber band. I can even remember what it tasted like … a little salty … earthy … very, uh, rubbery. But Daley is making a point.
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Hart Attack
Xania Woodman | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Almost as frightening as the idea of motocross legend Carey Hart’s first aerial backflip attempt is the Wasted Space owner’s favorite drink.
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Jem
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
It’s been four years since Jem’s excellent debut, Finally Woken, and from the way her follow-up, Down to Earth, sounds, the singer probably could have made several vastly different albums in that time. Earth is a schizophrenic mix of pop styles, flirting with a number of familiar sounds but never settling on its own identity.
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He Dunne it
Steve Friess | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
As recently as 10 days ago, I was just like most of you out there. I had absolutely, positively, 100 percent no interest in whatever tawdry affair would unfold in a criminal trial that was news solely because it involved one Orenthal James Simpson.
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Peggy plots your planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Expert astrologer Peggy Allison explains how the planets and stars will shape your week. Mercury is retrograde, so expect some delays.
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Mogawi
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Mogwai, as a band name, has always stood apart from other film-referencing handles—say, Sweep the Leg Johnny or Save Ferris—because it’s about more than simple pop-culture gimmickry. The Scotsmen’s music transforms placid soundscapes into eardrum-stressing infernos, much the way the sweet, furry Mogwai creatures metamorphosed into terrifying monsters in the ’80s movie Gremlins.
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Un-poetic justice
Team Hangover | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
It’s not often that the nightclub-going public receives an invitation from a nightclub’s owner to contact the NAACP, ACORN (a community organization addressing the needs of low- and moderate-income families) and the ACLU of Nevada.
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Nights in Rodanthe
Benjamin Spacek | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Unfaithfulco-stars Gere and Lane re-team for this adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel about two troubled souls who spend a weekend alone in a North Carolina inn.
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Touring the educational corridor
Damon Hodge | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
New York-based Edison Schools, the nation’s largest and most controversial for-profit school-management company, roared into town in 2000, winning the right to manage seven campuses, including one of the state’s most troubled—West Middle School. Burrow into a surly patch of the city, off of Lake Mead just west of Martin Luther King, and there is West. North of the school is Buena Vista, a shuttered apartment complex politely described as a mini-Beirut; to the east, the FBI’s gleaming new headquarters occupies a patch of desert that was once a popular disposing ground for used condoms and spent shell casings.
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Janet Jackson
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Janet Jackson’s last few albums haven’t exactly been huge sellers or spawned memorable hits, but at the Mandalay Bay Events Center this past Friday, she treated all of her releases more or less equally, packing 37 songs into a career-spanning two-hour-and-15-minute show that was a bit dizzying and unwieldy.
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America’s got … Paris?
Greg Beato | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
This is, after all, the reality TV era. If, like Brooke Hogan, you’re the daughter of a famous person, you get your own TV show. If, like Dina Lohan, you’re the mother of a famous person, you get your own TV show. If, like Kim Kardashian, you live in a city where a lot of famous people live and you have a giant ass, you get your own TV show.
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An uphill battle in “Miracle at St. Anna”
Mike D'Angelo | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Entering a theater showing a Spike Lee Joint demands a certain amount of faith and stubborn optimism, in that you never know which Spike showed up on the set this time. Was it the iconoclastic yet disciplined maverick who channeled his righteous anger into such modern classics as Do the Right Thing and 25th Hour? Or was it the overbearing, self-indulgent churl whose well of bitterness poisoned the likes of Girl 6, Bamboozled and She Hate Me?
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Lady love-in
Xania Woodman | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Maybe it was stolen, like Deanna’s purse at Seamless afterhours. Or maybe I “gave it up” like one does one’s virginity … and forgot about it. Or maybe I’ve just misplaced it over time, over too many meandering relationships.
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Tell No One
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
On the eighth anniversary of his wife’s murder near a secluded lake, pediatrician Alex Beck (Cluzet) receives an anonymous e-mail with a seemingly present-day video of her getting off an escalator, along with the titular admonition.
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Worldwide local tour
Damon Hodge | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Juiced by receptive crowds at First Friday performances in February, the West Las Vegas rapper set his sights on large bars and casino showrooms. Most venues declined before even hearing his pitch.
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Here come de judge
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
David Mamet’s great courtroom drama [The Verdict (1982)] has one of cinema’s most corrupt magistrates [Judge Milo O’Shea], who, in the middle of a high-stakes medical malpractice suit, begins questioning a witness, in effect helping to scupper Paul Newman’s case. You don’t mess with Butch Cassidy, man.
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Dream zone
Lauri Quinn Lowenberg | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Lauri explains that dreaming you are pregnant with a gun pointed at you could actually be good.
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Swap a lot
Jennifer Grafiada | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
On a sunny afternoon, stroll down the dusty aisles filled with puppies and parrots and boots and bikes and soccer balls and strawberries, feel the reggaeton music pounding out of huge speakers and, when the sun gets strong, buy a freshly cut coconut.
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Tiny little rant: Ben Stein on banking oversight
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Recently, on CBS’ Sunday Morning, Ben Stein called for greater oversight of the banking business. When a conservative like Stein demands more government regulation, the situation is dire.
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The fine art of political ads
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Congressman Jon Porter’s ad on his energy policies starts off with the bespectacled candidate for re-election standing in front of long rows of solar panels at Nevada Solar One: “Solar energy: inexpensive, and safe for the environment. And best of all, there’s plenty of it. I’m Jon Porter, and we need a balanced approach to solve our energy crisis. That’s why I helped build the world’s third-largest solar facility right here in Nevada.”
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Electile dysfunction
Damon Hodge | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Florida in 2000 gave us hanging chads and butterfly ballots. Ohio in 2004 set precedents for voter intimidation and massive disenfranchisement (350,000 missing or purged names).
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Bringing back poetry
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
When poet Rosa Mendoza took the mic, the place went wild. It was time to build bridges, connect the community, express feelings. The kind of thing Vegas has needed forever, the story goes.
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Small wonder
Max Jacobson | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
My first reaction to Raku, a Japanese pub restaurant on the western edge of Spring Mountain’s Chinatown, may have been undeservedly restrained.
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Eagle Eye
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Apparently in just four short months we’ll have a government surveillance system so extensive that it is linked up to literally every electronic device in the entire country, and can monitor people’s conversations simply by reading their lips or picking up the vibrations in their coffee cups. That’s not even the height of the absurdity to be found in Eagle Eye, which takes place in January 2009, although to chronicle all of its far-fetched speculation would delve too deeply into spoiler territory.
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Towelhead
Tasha Chemplavil | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Pretty young Jasira Maroun (Bishil) attracts attention wherever she goes. And when her mother’s boyfriend starts paying the 13-year-old inappropriate attention, jealous mother Gail (Maria Bello) summarily ships Jasira off to live with her Lebanese father in Texas.
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“Choke” mixes sleaze and sweetness
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Fans of kinky sex, weird urban legends and mild blasphemy will get their fill, but underneath all that seediness is a story that turns out to be rather heartwarming and sweet.
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You have to keep making things happen
Danielle Kelly | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
In the seven years I have bounced around the Las Vegas art community, two things have remained consistent. One is that it is always “burgeoning.”
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Why I can’t stand Judge Judy
Scott Dickensheets | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
When she gets home early enough, my wife watches Judge Judy, and it always drives me from the room.
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Judging the judges
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
There are three new judge shows premiering in syndication this season, all of them hosted by no-nonsense women, all of them following the well-worn format with little deviation.
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Three questions with “Choke” director Clark Gregg
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
I started out by kind of trying to just do the world’s most faithful adaptation of a book I already loved, despite the fact that [Chuck Palahniuk] had told me to be careful of that, that adaptations that are too faithful rarely are any good.--Choke director Clark Gregg
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Duel citizens
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
It’s 5 p.m. inside the Water Street Gallery on a Third Thursday in August, and Henderson artist Chris Waters is making final preparations on one of his paintings. For Waters, it’s a strange and lonely homecoming. The 30-something artist hasn’t shown his work in downtown Henderson since his own city-subsidized gallery, the acclaimed contemporary-art haunt A6 Gallery, closed 14 months ago—a victim of high-rise condo economics.
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Plain White T’s
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Seems like a lifetime’s passed since the Jason Schwartzman-bolstered Phantom Planet struck gold with starry-eyed O.C. theme song “California.”
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Riding the wave (again)
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Sep 25, 2008 (midnight)
Kevin and Scott Leonard seem like pretty normal guys on the surface—family men, brothers, bandmates for most of their lives. But as they sit inside a hot mini-trailer applying removal wipes to garish-looking makeup, they admit something took their lives in an unexpectedly bizarre direction.
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No stretch: Cutler muscles way to Olympian stature
John Katsilometes | Wed, Sep 24, 2008 (3:04 p.m.)
He brings to mind Stretch Armstrong. You might not remember Stretch, one of the strangest, pointless toys ever produced. Stretch Armstrong was a blond, muscular, Speedos-wearing plaything filled with some mysterious goo that made him uncommonly malleable.
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No flip-flops
Damon Hodge | Wed, Sep 24, 2008 (midnight)
Sunday morning and the sun is on low boil. An inordinate number of flies annoyingly hover near the entrance of the Sunrise Library. Outside, a few Barack Obama supporters prepare clipboards and paperwork for the day’s mission: persuading people to support their man.
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Wine and rock: A perfect pairing
Allison Duck | Mon, Sep 22, 2008 (7:20 p.m.)
Music lovers, wine lovers, unite! This weekend the Las Vegas-based wine events company Rock 'n Roll Wine is pairing good sips not with Gruyere or pate, but with a concert featuring The Gin Blossoms at the 3rd Annual Wine Amplified Festival at The Beach at Mandalay Bay.
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Lidine wins the Battle of the Bands at Rox Club
Allison Duck | Sun, Sep 21, 2008 (5:13 p.m.)
Some of the competitors in the Battle of the Bands finals at Rox Club had to ask their parents for a ride to their gig, while others were proud parents themselves. The ages of the participants ranged between fourteen to thirty-six. Top honors went to indie metal band Lidine, whose large contingent of fans made sure they didn’t walk away empty handed. This competition wasn’t just for bragging rights. There was a lot at stake. Lidine’s prizes included studio recording time and the chance to show their material to recording companies in hopes of scoring a record deal. When I asked Lidine where their interesting name came from, co-lead singer Will explained that most of them had been in “a band called Left In Distraught and we met [the other lead singer] Uneek and she was a solo artist under the name of Is Never Enough and we came up ...
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Cynicism and redemption
Josh Bell | Fri, Sep 19, 2008 (12:42 p.m.)
Anthony Del Valle, theater critic for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and former film critic for the Las Vegas Mercury and Las Vegas CityLife, joins Josh to chat about new theatrical release Ghost Town. Due to a technical difficulty this week's podcast is an abbreviated version of a longer conversation. Josh will return at his full length next week.
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The Jones boys: A true rock-star relationship
John Katsilometes | Fri, Sep 19, 2008 (12:05 p.m.)
When I settled into the family Mazda 626 to take my driving test for my first driver’s license, I turned the ignition key and the song, “Juke Box Hero” blared from the car stereo. I sat still for a moment, listening to one of the hits from the Foreigner 4 album, with Lou Gramm belting, “This one guitar! Slung way, down low! Was the one-way ticket! Only one way to go!” Mick Jones' Wikipedia entryRoman Jones Web siteStar of the Desert Web site Seated in the passenger’s seat was a California Department of Motor Vehicles official tersely gripping a clipboard, who was assigned to take my case. He jerked backward a bit and instructed, “Turn that off.” Seemed unfair, as my usual state of driving in those days was to have Foreigner cranked up on the stereo – if you’re looking for an honest environment for a 16-year-old guy driving ...
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Celebrity NFL picks: Chargers still recovering from shocker
Sal DeFilippo | Fri, Sep 19, 2008 (7:59 a.m.)
The lightning bolt on the side of the helmets couldn’t be a more fitting emblem these days for the San Diego Chargers. No matter what they have seemed to do, at least for the first two weeks of the season, they get struck. Lance Burton, Monte Carlo master magician(2-4) Falcons -4 1/2 vs. Chiefs Eagles -3 vs. Steelers Jets +9 at Chargers **** Anthony Crivello, star of Phantom - Las Vegas Spectacular (5-1) Falcons -4 ½ vs. Chiefs Bears –3 vs. Buccaneers 49ers -4 vs. Lions **** Carrot Top, Luxor headliner (2-4) Bills –9 vs. Raiders Seahawks –10 vs. Rams Chargers -9 vs. Jets **** Danny Gans, Mirage headliner (1-5) Bears –3 vs. Buccaneers Eagles –3 vs. Steelers Cowboys –3 at Packers **** Oscar Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas (4-2) Lions +4 at 49ers Eagles -3 vs. Steelers Jets +9 at Chargers **** Kevin Janison, KVBC meteorologist (3-3) Falcons -4 ...
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Obama takes his swings from home plate at Cashman
John Katsilometes | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (3:38 p.m.)
How was the speech? It wasn’t Denver. Paint me jaded, but having seen the Super Bowl – an analogy I keep succumbing to when describing Barack Obama’s speech at INVESCO Field three weeks ago – Obama’s speech yesterday at Cashman Field was like watching an intrasquad scrimmage. It’s tough to compare 84,000 full-throated supporters to the 14,000 at Cashman Field (announced, though I didn’t realize Cashman Field, with a capacity of 9,334, could hold that large a crowd, and I cynically doubt the crowd was 14,000). And instead of watching Obama talk from the 15-yard-line while seated at the Denver Broncos’ home field, I stood just off third base, where the great George Arias once toiled for the Las Vegas Stars (now there’s a bygone reference). The weather at INVESCO was pure, cool and clear; it rained for a time yesterday, and the wind kicked up as the crowd trickled ...
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The Curator of the Erotic
Kate Silver | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
A nun is walking staccato-like through a parking lot on Industrial Road, habit blowing in the breeze, zip in her stride, obviously unsure of where to go. Her face is painted as white as a Hollywood smile, and a slit in her shiny black vinyl skirt bares occasional peeps at her hairy legs.
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A band grows in Brooklyn
Deanna Rilling | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Caleb Lindskoog and his band The Silver State pause after their first song last Friday night at the Beauty Bar. A Republic Services garbage truck is making its late-night rounds in the back alley behind the venue.
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Have a gay ‘ol time
Team Hangover | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
With adolescent awkwardness and popularity contests out of the way, it’s time to give prom (yet) another chance. The Fourth Annual Vegas Prom is on September 29 at Bare Pool Lounge, with proceeds benefiting the Shade Tree Foundation.
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James
Annie Zaleski | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
In America, most considered James a whimsical Brit-pop act, thanks to the ubiquity of 1993’s coyly sexual “Laid.”
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The “thanks but no thanks” newspaper insert of the week
Ken Miller | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Imagine our surprise when we opened our Sunday Review-Journal to find a free DVD bundled in. And imagine our even greater surprise when we popped it in, only to witness a “documentary” bleak enough to make Lars Von Trier look for the double-edge, super-blue Gillettes.
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Keith
Ken Miller | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
There’s a kind of weird perversion behind the love story at the center of Keith. That love conquers all hardly removes the acrid taste of an overwritten, contrivance-ridden plot that requires a monumental viewer suspension of disbelief.
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Jessica Simpson
Kristyn Pomranz | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
There are many reasons Jessica Simpson failed at pop music: Her song choices were laughable, her voice was unremarkable, and she didn’t have even a sniff of charisma. Shockingly, “goin’ country” hasn’t changed any of that.
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Suggestion box
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
The news this week that the sky is falling—you know, mom & pops like AIG, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers all basically on the verge of financial extinction—has everyone we know in a panic.
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Calexico
Patrick Donnelly | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Over the past decade, the music of Calexico has been funneled into a niche—sort of a Tex-Mex blend of spaghetti-Western soundtracks and dreamy, atmospheric balladry.
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Can’t smile without you
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
It’s not about you or me, thank God, and keep that in mind. It’s not about the cost of staying alive or the dashing Mr. Manilow or spiders with fangs.
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Ghost Town
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Ricky Gervais makes a serious play for Jim Carrey-level stardom in Ghost Town, a resolutely mainstream comedy that just barely gets by on Gervais’ sarcastic humor and prickly charm.
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Tickling the ivories
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
We Las Vegans know that Liberace is still with us—his exuberant personality is writ large in the soul of the city. This Sunday it gets a bit bigger. . .
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Metallica
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Metallica’s last album, 2003’s St. Anger, with its raw, messy, unfocused songs and dingy production, was like group therapy on CD, and spoke to the personal demons that the band members were dealing with.
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Star Blight
Steve Friess | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
I was pushing my editor at a major newspaper hard last week to let me do a piece on Donny and Marie Osmond’s surprising resurgence as a resident act on the Las Vegas Strip. She wasn’t buying it.
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Igor
Jeffrey M. Anderson | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
The horror and family genres make an uneasy combo. The trouble is that the middle ground between the two is very narrow, and the results are either too scary or too harmless.
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Relax, Comrade
Matthew Scott Hunter | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
I’ve never known much about Russian culture. In college, our studies focused almost exclusively on Europe, so most of what I know about the former superpower was gleaned from the film The Hunt for Red October (and that Russian guy had a Scottish accent).
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Lowden Clear
Damon Hodge | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Come November 4, we’ll know whether Nevada Republican Party chair Sue Lowden is Nero, sitting idly by as the empire burns, or the political version of Joe Namath.
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Peggy plots your planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
The fall equinox arrives as the sun moves to Libra. Astrologer Peggy describes what else this week has in store.
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Dream zone
Lauri Quinn Lowenberg | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
What do women do with their index finger? Lauri explains a reader's dream and gives good advice to wives.
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So fresh and so clean
Xania Woodman | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
When Lavo’s imminent arrival was in doubt—thanks to construction delays caused by lawsuits and their ensuing appeals—I wondered if all was lost. It was probably the closest this little Jewish girl ever came to despairing that Christmas might never come.
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Lindsey Buckingham
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Yep, this is a guy who found success in and weathered the dramatics of the late ’70s/early ’80s.
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Righteous anger
John Freeman | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Graham Greene called them “entertainments.” Ian McEwan says his own brief books are “one-sitting reads.” Neither term, however, conveys the swift, jagged density Philip Roth has brought to the short novel since 2000.
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World-beat hoedown
Sarah Feldberg | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Outside the Beauty Bar on Saturday night, two young women in black-and-white shirts and black berets smoked cigarettes like a pair of striped bookends.
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Rabbit hunting
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
As the ridiculously tall and lanky Andrew Karasa sits behind his drum kit, something seems out of place.
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Oktoberfest Beer
Xania Woodman | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Why wait till October? Oktoberfest—only one of the biggest parties on the planet (German-speaking and otherwise)—kicked off on Saturday, September 13 with a little help from our friends Siegfried and Roy.
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Waistbands beware
Max Jacobson | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Transplants love to bring their native comfort foods with them, as witnessed by the proliferation of restaurants in this Valley from places such as Hawaii and Chicago. I can say that in general, most of them are shadowy approximations of the originals, Xeroxed Xerox copies without a soul, poseurs with faded flavors, made with dodgy ingredients.
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Bad frogs
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Clawed frogs—they may be the world’s only interesting-sounding amphibian. But they’re also illegal in Nevada—they jack up the ecosystem—and last week state game wardens fined a Florida company $3,600 for distributing them, this after seizing 68 clawed frogs from across Nevada.
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Four questions with The Dwarves lead singer Blag Dahlia
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
"You know, we enjoy it, and we do it really well because we’re older and we come from a period where punk rock was a lot more aggressive, fun and wild. The present form of punk has some nice things about it, but mostly it’s pretty fucking tepid and weak." --Blag Dahlia, lead singer of The Dwarves
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The long haul
John Freeman | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Philip Roth may have roared onto the American literary scene on the back of the sexual revolution, but all the exuberant carnality of his early novels—like Alexander Portnoy’s copulating with a piece of liver—proceeded from the mind of a man educated on a university setting which is, by today’s standards, monkish in the extreme.
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Difficult questions
Mike D'Angelo | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
Race in America is such an inherently combustible subject that Hollywood rarely goes anywhere near it without using comedy as a skittish safety net. Which is pretty dumb, really, since we’re obviously hungry for movies that dare to acknowledge and explore the many fissures still compromising the country’s melting pot.
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Rebel Recycler
Sabrina Golmassian | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
It was the year after graduation, and Tara Pike was driving her go-kart against the wind, pulling a giant bin filled with a day’s worth of used paper. She made a hard left turn, and the bin, teetering on its side, took a hard right to the ground. A snowstorm of paper whirled around her. It was stuck in bushes, and blowing down the street.
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The Help Desk
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
- Women arrested for attempted kidnapping of 6-year-old say they were testing school’s security.
- Next, they’ll do a white-glove test of our city’s holding cells, followed by a tire-kick of the legal system.
- Mirage unveils $25 million face-lift to volcano.
- Sure, our schools could have used that money, but look at it this way—field trip!
- City to give “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign its own parking lot for tourist safety.
- All part of the city’s “no new revenue” campaign.
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Sipping into something comfortable
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Sep 18, 2008 (midnight)
He’s here, like, always. Yet Kevin Downey Jr. brings something new to the table—or rather, to the bar top—every time.
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Poker Lounge an ultra-lounge, where you can also play cards
John Katsilometes | Wed, Sep 17, 2008 (10:44 a.m.)
The décor is as dark as a spade flush and it takes a few moments to sort out that this is, in fact, a poker room. But even that’s not totally accurate. “It’s a Poker Lounge,” says Hard Rock Hotel Poker Lounge marketing director Steve Cyr, who, as his title implies, is in charge of making this hand a winner. He’s got some hot cards. A rarity among poker rooms, the Poker Lounge provides bottle service and a full menu offered 24/7. Restrooms have been installed inside the space, so players don’t have to venture to the casino to find relief, and sports bettors can even wager from inside the lounge from a sports book window, sort of a gambler’s biathlon. Also, RockSpa masseuses will be made available to players, slot and video poker machines sit near the tables, and an all-women VIP host staff who are versed in poker ...
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North of the border in Little Mexico
Jennifer Grafiada | Tue, Sep 16, 2008 (4:53 p.m.)
A lime green low-rider pulled up to me in a Green Valley parking lot, and the young Mexican driver informed me that I was in the wrong Las Vegas neighborhood. “In North Las Vegas, hay mucho más diversión” (it’s much more fun). He listed street racing, dance clubs and pick-up soccer games as some of the diversión in a community that has been developing over the past few years into a Little Mexico, or at least a Little Tijuana.
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Dear Vampire Weekend: apology accepted
Allison Duck | Tue, Sep 16, 2008 (12:15 p.m.)
Stereotypical rock star behavior includes destroying hotel rooms and smashing guitars, not apologizing to the crowd. When Vampire Weekend played at The Joint last night, they spent most of their time in between songs addressing their lack of material and promising that they’ll be bringing more the next time they visit Vegas.
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Under the neon, a new festival makes its mark
Sarah Feldberg | Sun, Sep 14, 2008 (8:16 p.m.)
Under the lights of Fremont Street last night the Neon Reverb music festival was making its mark. At the Beauty Bar Pan de Sal delivered a surprisingly large crowd for an early show, leading them in the “peanut butter smushy” line dance and ending their participatory set with a call and response chant: “When I say ‘Pan de’ you say ‘Sal!’ When I say ‘undies,’ you say ‘off.’"
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Goodman: Governor decision will be made after November elections
John Katsilometes | Sun, Sep 14, 2008 (9:55 a.m.)
Oscar Goodman took some time away from his appearance at the Hard Rock Hotel Poker Lounge grand opening, where he cut a big black ribbon at the lounge’s entrance and was presented a bedazzled tricycle for his grandson Samuel’s fifth birthday (Samuel is a 9/11 birthday celebrant) to talk about his real job. You know, mayor of Las Vegas. I asked the martini-wielding Goodman if he had set a timetable for whether he would run for governor of Nevada. There has been ample media speculation, which Goodman has not quelled, that Goodman would make a run at the job currently held, somewhat tenuously, by Jim Gibbons. Goodman, a Democrat, terms out as mayor in 2010. “To be perfectly frank with you, probably after the (November) elections,” he said amid the celebratory chaos that follows him whenever he cuts ribbons, sips martinis and chats up cocktail servers. “I’m going to be ...
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For stylish pair, life as sweet as Creamcheese
Jennifer Grafiada | Sat, Sep 13, 2008 (1:46 p.m.)
It wasn’t too long ago that Garrett Bauman was entrenched in real estate, constantly thinking up entrepreneurial ideas, but “too busy” to make them happen. Now, he and his fiancé, Annie, are living a far more stylish life, selling clothes to the likes of Nicky Hilton, as owners of the Palazzo's high-end vintage boutique Annie Creamcheese.
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Vampire Weeknight
Allison Duck | Fri, Sep 12, 2008 (6:16 p.m.)
I’ve found myself starting to watch Saturday Night Live just for the musical guests. Such was the case this past March when I noticed the name Vampire Weekend flash on the screen as the musical guest on that night’s episode. I imagined they might be some kind of metal outfit. Maybe they wore those plastic vampire teeth that sell so well around Halloween or painted their faces a ghostly white.
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DeGeneres, Seinfeld returning to The Comedy Festival
John Katsilometes | Fri, Sep 12, 2008 (2:34 p.m.)
Ellen DeGeneres and Jerry Seinfeld are among the comics returning to The Comedy Festival at Caesars Palace, according to the Festival’s official Web site. The event, co-sponsored by TBS and AEG Live, has settled on Nov. 20-22 as the performance dates for its series of shows and performances, all of which will be held at Caesars. Joining DeGeneres, who returns with Ellen’s Really Big Show, is Mike Epps, Tracy Morgan, Russell Peters, David Allen Grier and Andrew Dice Clay, according to the site. Tickets go on sale Sept. 26 and will be available at the Comedy Festival Web site and at the Caesars Palace box office.
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Burn after listening
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (8:06 p.m.)
Brian Black, formerly of X-107.5-FM’s Xtreme Disorder, joins Josh to chat about the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in Righteous Kill and the remake of The Women in theaters, and Speed Racer, 88 Minutes and TV shows Chuck and Pushing Daisies on DVD.
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Celebrity NFL picks: Fantasy league selection fells Brady
Sal DeFilippo | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (6:58 p.m.)
I’d like to take responsibility right now for Tom Brady’s season-ending injury. Lance Burton, Monte Carlo master magician (1-2) Jets –2 vs. Patriots Chiefs –4 vs. Raiders Eagles +7 at Cowboys **** Anthony Crivello, star of Phantom - Las Vegas Spectacular(3-0) Saints picks at Redskins Packers –3 at Lions Broncos +2 vs. Chargers **** Carrot Top, Luxor headliner (1-2) Giants –8 ½ at Rams Steelers –6 at Browns Dolphins +7 at Cardinals **** Danny Gans, Mirage headliner (1-2) Jets –2 vs. Patriots Chargers –2 at Broncos Cowboys –7 vs. Eagles **** Oscar Goodman, mayor of Las Vegas (2-1) Packers –3 at Lions Bills +6 at Jaguars Jets –2 vs. Patriots **** Kevin Janison, KVBC meteorologist (1-2) Saints picks at Redskins Lions-Packers over 45 Broncos +2 vs. Chargers **** Wayne Newton, "Mr. Las Vegas" (2-1) Seahawks -7 ½ vs. 49ers Colts -2 at Vikings Eagles +7 at Cowboys Don’t blame Bernard ...
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OC Choppers makes Strip-side magic
Allison Duck | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (6:49 p.m.)
Discovery Channel scored a big hit when they booked the rough-around-the-edges Tetul family and their garage reality show American Chopper. Now, even Strip magicians are eager to get their hands on one of the hand-crafted high-shine bikes that have made Paul Sr. and his boys into familiar faces.
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Ghoul oriented
John Katsilometes | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (4:38 p.m.)
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. Next week’s guest is Fright Dome at Circus Circus creator and owner Jason Egan. For information about the attraction, which opens Oct. 3, go to www.frightdome.com.
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Dream zone
Lauri Quinn Lowenberg | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Lauri Quinn Loewenberg looks into your dreams and sees more than weird men and mirages rising out of water. Read on for her analysis of one reader's dream.
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Luck of the drawl
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
A familiar Nevada voice reaches out from a TV ad and grabs you by the throat: “People ask me why, after 30 years in Las Vegas, I still have an accent,” says Sen. Dina Titus in a thick Georgia drawl.
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Amen Corner
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
What a difference a year—and a little public awareness—makes! Metro proudly announced this week that auto thefts are down a whopping 32 percent from the same time last year, and while much of that can be attributed to Metro’s being hyper-vigilant, a good deal of credit goes to the person reading this magazine.
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Gym Class Heroes
Andy Wang | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Still totally punk but a bit less emo on their new album, arch hip-hopper Travis McCoy and his merry band know they’re ballers now.
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Fall A+E Guide: Books
John Freeman | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Nothing but the most tried and true writing will move during the hullabaloo of presidential politicking, the thinking goes. Not surprisingly, the fall of 2008 brings a host of heavy-hitters—Toni Morrison, Philip Roth—whose readers will buy, sight unseen, whether a pit bull with lipstick is on television or not.
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Feel the “Burn”
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
In the twisted but strangely sensible logic of brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, the perfect way to follow up an intense, brutal, Oscar-winning psychological thriller like No Country for Old Men is with a goofy lark of a comedy like Burn After Reading.
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(Not quite so) right
Steve Friess | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
As the election cycle heats up and money flies in every direction for the political parties and their causes, several members of the media have branded our own Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson the right-wing version of financier George Soros.
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Peggy plots your planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Can't just wait for the future to become the present? Peggy Allison offers a glimpse into the week to come with her horoscopes.
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“We have some planes …”
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
United 93 (2006): Paul Greengrass’ excruciatingly realistic re-creation of the events on the titular flight, which crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside on 9/11, is very hard to watch but unsparing and respectful in its account of everyday heroism. In seeking only to recount and not to analyze, it achieves a certain cathartic power.
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Memory in the City of Desire
Chuck Twardy | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Ahead, in the center turn lane, I spot a scrap of fabric and immediately recognize the alternating red and white stripes. So I pull over and wait for a break in traffic to rescue the small American flag, still partly attached to its white plastic mast, newly detached from its patriot vehicle. It was one of the thousands that sprouted from vehicles after September 11, 2001, then faded in the sun, tattered in the wind and fell off, already forgotten by those who pledged so earnestly never to do so.
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Monk business
Richard Abowitz | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Dressed in monks’ robes, with appropriately shaved heads, the half-dozen men acted more like tourists than religious figures about to perform a sacred ceremony. Or, as the press release described the occasion, with much fanfare: “Buddhist monks from all over the Las Vegas Valley will come together to perform an ancient blessing on the 13 whole-body specimens inside the brand-new Bodies: The Exhibition at Luxor.”
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Steele yourself
Max Jacobson | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Seafood paella Velazquez is surprisingly good, even if it does take a full 20 minutes to arrive. The rice is moist and chock-full of shellfish and chorizo. Cuban bites are like sliders in the form of three pint-sized Cuban sandwiches.
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Frozen River
Matthew Scott Hunter | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
There are few films quite as oppressively bleak as Frozen River. We follow a single mother, Ray (Leo), whose husband has just robbed her blind and taken off to indulge a gambling problem in Atlantic City.
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Playing nice
Frank Albano | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
It was billed as a roast of Oscar Goodman—which sounded like it would involve a parade of foul-mouthed comedians taking the podium and really cutting loose on the cringing subject. But impressionist and roaster Rich Little gave it away when he said, “It’s not going to be a Dean Martin or a Friars Roast.” A true Friars Club roaster like Don Rickles, Little said, “would destroy the mayor.” So the heat would be turned down a bit.
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Flights of fancy
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Maybe there’s something unseemly about admiring, first and foremost, the colorful prose in a book whose subject matter is 9/11.
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Modern “Women”
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
George Cukor’s 1939 film version of Clare Boothe Luce’s play The Women is a magnificent piece of cinema, but it’s a movie very much of its time, and even if Diane English’s remake weren’t a failure on a number of aesthetic levels, it’d still have a tough time remaining true to the spirit of the original without coming off as horribly retrograde and anti-feminist.
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Fall A+E Guide: Visual Arts
Danielle Kelly | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Technically, it’s fall. While we may not experience the gentle turn of seasons, we are no exception to the “Hey, it’s fall! Let’s put on some fancy art shows!” vibe of most cities.
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The Help Desk
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
- Michael Phelps parties with strippers at the Palms.
- His behavior was so scandalous, he’s already considered the front-runner for governor in 2010.
- Judge Elizabeth Halverson allegedly beaten by husband with frying pan.
- Why couldn’t he have taken a cue from Francis Allen’s husband and beaten himself with it?
- North Las Vegas residents hold airport-safety meetings.
- We’d suggest holding them someplace safe—like Pahrump.
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Howlin’ Rain
Aaron Thompson | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
This S.F. neo-soul outfit sounds so ’70s, you can almost smell the incense and pot wafting through the air when this CD comes on.
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Street gospel
Susanne Forestieri | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
The Biscuit Street Preacher, aka Robby Martin, had to start his young life over many times, so reinvention comes easily, hence the pseudonym.
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Risky business
Richard Abowitz | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
In both his private practice and as general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, attorney Allen Lichtenstein has been fighting for the rights of adult businesses in Sin City.
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Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
After drifting away from her roots on 2006’s Carnival, Australian alt-country singer Kasey Chambers returns to basics on Rattlin’ Bones, a collaboration with her husband, singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson.
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Twentieth time’s a charm
Deanna Rilling | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Plan B—it’s what you do when Plan A fails. No, we’re not referring to the morning-after pill, but the relatively new afterhours at Scores Las Vegas, or rather, at Rick’s Cabaret. Don’t worry. It’ll all make sense in a minute.
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The Juice is … been there, done that
Richard Abowitz | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
What is now going on at the Regional Justice Center is really just an echo from the trial of the century. The police and the media were the primary witnesses to what little spectacle attended Day 1 of O.J. Simpson’s kidnapping and robbery trial in Vegas. This was good news for the attention-seekers who did take the time to put in an appearance. A line of reporters was waiting to interview a lady dressed as Wonder Woman.
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Okkervil River
Annie Zaleski | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Okkervil River has become a supremely self-assured live act, in no small part because frontman Will Sheff has shed his tentative vocal delivery—a trait which often made the Austin band’s early work sound wobbly instead of fragile.
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Eyes on the prize: AMG’s manifest destiny
Team Hangover | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Angel Music Group is no more—at least in the U.S. The group that administers the Godskitchen brand Wednesdays at Body English and lends its creative talents to Wet Republic, Tabu and Studio 54 in concert with the MGM Grand prepares to enter the next phase of its stateside growth, as Angel Management Group.
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On Planet Perfecto
Xania Woodman | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
We’re not in Vegas anymore, Toto. Hell, we’re not even on this planet. Rain nightclub slipped the surly bonds of Earth around 11:30 p.m.—aided in part by a sexy onscreen flight attendant—to touch the face of a god of progressive trance music, Paul Oakenfold.
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Fall A+E Guide: Performing Arts
Geri Jeter | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
From ballet based on Chinese folklore to the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Geri Jeter offers the fall forecast in the performing arts.
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Fall A+E Guide: Music
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Clear your calendar and your iPod: This fall brings a variety of concerts and albums you won't want to miss.
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The New Year
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Another new year, no new album from The New Year. That’s how it’s gone for four straight Januaries, and that ever-widening recording void—combined with a dearth of live activity—has fostered suspicions that the band that emerged from the ashes of ’90s slowcore pillar Bedhead had quietly gone the way of its predecessor.
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The Sound of Animals Fighting
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
Shed of numerous auxiliary members yet still shrouded within their Kiss-like alter-egos (the Nightingale, the Walrus, the Lynx and the Skunk), the side project of one former and two current members of Rx Bandits, along with Circa Survive’s Anthony Green, is determined to go out big.
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Fall A+E Guide: Theater
Jacob Coakley | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
This fall there’s no shortage of shows on the serious side. It’s theater’s yin to the shiny happy plastic sexy yang of ultralounges, clubs and casino bars. Every time the Forty Deuce video plays on Mandalay Bay’s freeway LED sign, or the ladies swoon over bartenders on the Kahunaville video, a theater artist writhes in angst, determined to make a statement and get to real emotional truth.
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Rose-colored glasses
Greg Beato | Thu, Sep 11, 2008 (midnight)
n Minneapolis last week, as Sarah Palin introduced herself to the world, the 44-year-old governor of Alaska talked about her small-town values, and her life as a small-town hockey mom, and her experience as a small-town mayor.
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Welcome to the Fabulous Las Vegas sign — enjoy the park
John Katsilometes | Wed, Sep 10, 2008 (2:49 p.m.)
With the installation of a parking lot across from the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Clark County has, finally, taken a step to prevent Viva Splat Vegas. Two years ago I wrote a column for the Las Vegas Sun in which I spoke to John Woodrum about the seemingly endless stream of tourists who snap and pose for photos beneath the iconic sign. For more than 30 years Woodrum had a curbside seat (if there were a curb) for thousands of near-misses as folks strode, sprinted and waddled from his Klondike Hotel across Las Vegas Boulevard South to the famed visage (read that column here). But today, it was officially announced that Clark County has broken ground on a 12-space parking lot abutting the east site of LV Boulevard and just south of the old Klondike structure. The lot will have 12 slots (two designated for handicapped parking) and ...
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One father. One son. One documentary.
Sarah Feldberg | Tue, Sep 9, 2008 (12:59 p.m.)
"One Father. One Son. One Dream.” reads the movie poster for the documentary Boys of Summer, screening through Thursday at Neonopolis’s Galaxy Theatres. The line sounds straight out of Hollywood, but the film is a Vegas original, made by Las Vegas resident Robert Cochrane about the Field of Dreams-inspired road trip he took with his father to all 30 Major League ballpark after his father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2001.
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A Friday night meander through Vegas: priceless
Sarah Feldberg | Mon, Sep 8, 2008 (1:21 p.m.)
If my Friday night were a MasterCard commercial it would read something like this: Entrance to First Friday: $2. Crappy Mexican dinner for two at Yayo Taco: $18. Nostalgia-inducing bottle of Magic Hat Circus Boy at Freakin’ Frog: $8. Meeting Video Bob in the Whiskey Attic: Priceless.
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Memories of Burning Man are dust in the wind
On the way home from Burning Man, my friend and I looked like clowns who had been tied to the back of a car and dragged down a dirt road. Our hair was matted like the fur of a neglected, shaggy dog. We hadn’t showered in about a week. Since we left in such haste in fear of more dust storms in the dry lakebed where the event was held, we didn’t bother to change clothes before leaving. We threw our dusty belongings in the back of a rented SUV and skedaddled. My friend was wearing a pink midriff shirt with bell-bottom pants of the most electric neon yellow color you have ever seen. I was wearing purple tights and a patch of purple fur that I tried to pass off as a skirt. I was wearing a tight shirt that was open down the front and held together with ...
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Neon Reverb: Downtown Music Festival Schedule
Jennifer Grafiada | Sat, Sep 6, 2008 (1:20 p.m.)
If you’ve been feeling deprived of lively local music and cool downtown culture, Neon Reverb is arriving to inject you with a vital dose.
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Josh Bell hates children
Josh Bell | Fri, Sep 5, 2008 (4:47 p.m.)
Michael T. Toole, writer for the Turner Classic Movies website, award-winning short filmmaker and former Las Vegas Weekly contributor, joins Josh via phone to talk about theatrical releases Baghead and The Little Red Truck, plus the decline of Nicolas Cage, new DVDs Baby Mama and The Fall and ... Jamie Kennedy hates Josh Bell?
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Celebrity NFL picks: The return of Mr. Cuatro Cinco
Sal DeFilippo | Fri, Sep 5, 2008 (noon)
Sal’s Celebrity Selectors, Week 1 That’s Mr. Cuatro Cinco to you. Yep, I think that’s what I’m gonna do. Change my name to Sal Cuatro Cinco, in honor of my annual winning percentage against the spread in NFL games. When I drive by a speed limit sign with a big 45 on it, I’ll think it’s saluting me. Maybe I’ll even slow down a little. Over the top? Well, sure it is, but it’s no crazier than the receiver-formerly-known-as-Chad-Johnson of the Cincinnati Bengals legally changing his name to Chad Ocho Cinco. The NFL announced that it officially decided to recognize his legal name change and gave permission for it to be displayed on his jersey this weekend. Personally, I don’t know how they could have had a choice in the matter – it’s now his legal name: Chad Ocho Cinco. The league should just be happy he went with his ...
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Three months early, Tom Cruise’s Valkyrie lands in Nevada
Sarah Feldberg | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (4:42 p.m.)
Three and half months before it is scheduled to hit the screen, Tom Cruise’s fiercely debated film about Nazi saboteurs is playing right here in Nevada.
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Shinedown takes over the spotlight at HOB
Allison Duck | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (3:32 p.m.)
I remember being a little confused when I heard that a band called Shinedown was opening for Godsmack at the Hard Rock’s Summer Stage in 2006. Godsmack were touring with Rob Zombie and their latest single at the time was called “Shinedown.” I figured the opener of the same name was some effort at promoting their new tune.
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“Fringe” benefits
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (12:19 a.m.)
Anointed this year’s Heroes or Lost before even premiering, thanks to online buzz, a screening at Comic-Con over the summer and the presence of co-creator J.J. Abrams of Lost and Alias fame, Fringe (Fox, Tuesdays, 9 p.m.; premieres September 9 at 8 p.m.) arrives with a daunting amount of hype to overcome, and its solid action/sci-fi execution isn’t quite as revolutionary as some may have hoped.
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Downtown-apalooza
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (12:19 a.m.)
Thirry Harlin was shopping in a convenience store when someone spotted the “RT” tattoo on his arm. “They’d seen my Revolution Theory logo on posters for Neon Reverb and asked if I was going,” he says. “I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s my festival!’”
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Clone pours
Matthew Scott Hunter | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
The Grape is a welcome addition to this corner of Town Square. It’s a place for good wine, good conversation and good gripes about how Anakin and Count Dooku shouldn’t have fought in The Clone Wars movie because in Episode III, they clearly indicated that they hadn’t seen each other since Episode II!… Of course, it’s entirely possible that we’ll be the only ones to make use of The Grape for that last purpose.
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Mysterious Ways
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
This whole planes-falling-out-of-the-sky thing turns out to be about a benevolent God, you know. Driving toward the scene of the second airplane accident last week, I have the instinctive reaction to duck when a twin-engine buzzes in over me toward that airport, that airport—God!
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I posed today
C. Moon Reed | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Playboy’s casting-call confirmation e-mail said to meet in the Palms Fantasy Tower. Yet there were no signs directing model hopefuls. Just walls and closed doors. I approached the nearest man in uniform and asked for directions, certain he would tell me I didn’t belong. The employee didn’t laugh or even look at me strangely. He just said—in that same bored monotone that security guards use the world over—“33rd floor, room 2115.”
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What’s the use?
Damon Hodge | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Real-estate agent Jack LeVine describes the shuttered Clark County Courthouse on Third Street as a “classic icon of mid-century modernism.” You may be thinking: This place, modernist? Even before it closed in 2004—its court functions moving to the stately, 17-story Regional Justice Center a few blocks away—probably few thought that this place, with its boxy shape and the aqua-colored siding on its towering column, was much to look at.
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Doing hard labor
Xania Woodman | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Aaaaaaaaaaaaack! OhsweetJesusohmyGod. Ugh.” I honestly haven’t thrown up from anything that wasn’t germ-related in a long, long time. But it’s Saturday morning and I’m mid-Labor. (No, not like that.) Mid-Labor Day weekend.
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The Game
Ben Westhoff | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
I’m about my ’hood/I’m about my block,” The Game raps on “LAX Files,” the first song on his third album, LAX. This isn’t particularly accurate. Anyone listening to him for long will conclude that he’s about one thing only—being respected.
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Azy Nenuphar in Crazy Horse Paris
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
While Nenuphar has danced on many continents, her first gig was playing Wonder Woman, Catwoman and even Bugs Bunny at an amusement park in her native Australia. “I love to act,” she says.
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Lykke Li
Annie Zaleski | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Despite impeccable production, little of Novels lingers; although it’s a pleasant-enough listen, the album’s melodies and expressions fade immediately after it ends—much the way frothy cotton candy melts away as soon as it hits your mouth.
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Love hurts
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Las Vegas’ electro-rock superwomen have been hit with a dose of kryptonite. Whether it’s fatal remains to be seen. Much-adored local quintet Love Pentagon has gone on indefinite hiatus, with the future of the group very much up in the air.
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Feed the Monkey
Jacob Coakley | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
There are a couple of different times I think I’m really hysterical. The first is when I’m re-dubbing the announcer’s voice-over on late-night infomercials for orange-scented depilatories, adding a little MST3K-style kick to the shots of great swaths of hair being removed from Wookiees’ backs; the second is when I’m bored in my car and making fun of billboards about laser hair removal. The good news for all of you is that I don’t keep a notebook of these jokes—the better news is that the cast of Feed the Monkey does.
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Brian Wilson
Richard Abowitz | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
The best that can be said about Brian Wilson’s That Lucky Old Sun is that, like ’70s Beach Boys discs 15 Big Ones and Love You, it exists as neither total embarrassment nor praiseworthy contribution to his catalog.
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A (too) sweet time
Max Jacobson | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
I had two very different experiences at Basil ’n Lime, a charming newcomer on the west side, advertising “Authentic Thai Cuisine” on its outside sign. If you’re not Thai, you’re not a favorite to get much of it, even though the kitchen is capable of producing it.
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The help desk
- Britney Spears reappears in Las Vegas, reportedly looking hot.
- Nice try, Britney, but John McCain’s already chosen his running mate.
- Mos Def under larceny investigation for snatching camera from photographer in Las Vegas.
- Actually, he wasn’t trying to steal it. He was trying to sample it.
- Local girl attacked by pet python.
- Man, first Roy Horn and now this. What is it with the pets in this town?
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Note to GOP: Grow a pair
Dave Berns | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
My buddy Fast Jimmy says too many politicians lack “nails.” “They’re almost as bad as reporters,” Jimmy says, flashing his best Jersey-boy smirk. “Their egos are weak, and they need the attention. Besides, they got no nails.”
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New Kids on the Block
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
The first time around, the Boston boy-band quintet was straight-up pop. Hit-churning, falsetto-unfurling, shriek-inducing pop. But times change, kids grow into men, savings accounts run dry and styles evolve for inevitable reunions.
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The Little Red Truck
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
It seems almost cruel to criticize The Little Red Truck, an earnest, cheery documentary about the Missoula Children’s Theatre.
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Drawing power
Susanne Forestieri | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
When I received the invite for a group exhibition of drawings and saw the face of a young man in a baseball cap, I assumed it was a photograph of one of the artists (even though one artist is not usually singled out in a group show, and it was an exhibit of drawings, not photographs). I never questioned my illogical assumption, so I felt really foolish when I saw the work in person.
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Dream zone
Lauri Quinn Lowenberg | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Lauri Quinn Loewenberg analyzes the messages in your dreams.
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Mumbling toward success
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Baghead bears many of the hallmarks of mumblecore—it’s about relationships among intelligent but inarticulate 20-somethings, it’s shot in a rough, hand-held style, it’s plotted loosely and simply—but it also aspires to something more, making a meta-commentary on the indie-film world and even functioning as a sort of low-grade horror movie.
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What I’m thinking as I zip-line over the desert
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
The scene: A new eco-adventure attraction, Bootleg Canyon Flightlines. Cable strung over hills in Boulder City. Foolish reporter in a harness, preparing to fly down a vertical drop of 1,000 feet at 40 mph, without a helmet.
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Cocktail Tree
Xania Woodman | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Having found a cocktail that simply must be experienced, I also found that I could share it with friends by way of Sushisamba’s too-cute Cocktail Tree. Twelve branches offer up as many respectable servings of up to three different cocktails.
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DragonForce
Josh Bell | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
It can be hard to know whether to take DragonForce seriously. The songs on the British power-metal-throwback band’s fourth album, Ultra Beatdown, mostly push the seven- or eight-minute mark, and have titles like “A Flame for Freedom” and “Inside the Winter Storm.”
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Why Las Vegas won’t host a political convention any time soon (duh)
Richard Abowitz | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Denver and St. Paul are all-American cities, the sorts of places that host national political conventions. But why not Las Vegas? This city in many ways embodies the American dream.
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Peggy plots your planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Peggy Allison lets you in on the next week of your life according to the stars. Listen up!
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The Road to Denver (and every place on the way)
John Katsilometes, T.R. Witcher | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
With a fully loaded Mazda 6 and no guarantee of getting into the Democratic National Convention, John Katsilometes and T.R. Witcher drive toward a date with history, sampling the political landscape along the way.
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Poppermost
Jeremy Adams | Thu, Sep 4, 2008 (midnight)
Poppermost certainly isn’t short on delusions of grandeur. The band calls its music “one gigantic mass [encompassing] pop, rock, country, soul and classical” in the liner notes of its third LP, Bitter Suite Swan Songs.
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Cassidy brings his drink and 2 step to the final frontier
Sarah Feldberg | Wed, Sep 3, 2008 (10:16 a.m.)
Two worlds collided at Moon last night, and if the crowd of women following rapper Cassidy off the dance floor meant anything, he came out the winner.
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Strippers and hustlers are out, Oakenfold is in
Jennifer Grafiada | Mon, Sep 1, 2008 (10:16 a.m.)
If Saturday night was any indication, Vegas' collective taste is becoming a bit more European. Inside the Orleans Arena were a head-countable handful of women in nipple tape and platform boots, men in faux-fur top hats and fake bling, clusters of pretty, petite Asians in pin and, surprisingly, quite a few over-the-hill couples (Swingers? Retired porn stars? A creative Saturday night date?). I had expected hordes of nearly naked sex goddesses, booths and entertainment like at the AVN convention, but what I'd found was a tad lackluster. Maybe the real strippers and hustlers didn't feel like dressing up. Maybe they went to the Palms.
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