Stories published August 27, 2009
Harrah’s shuffle means new decks for Marrandino, Mazer
John Katsilometes | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (5:44 p.m.)
Dissimilar in many ways, Harrah's executives Don Marrandino and Rick Mazer are focused on navigating a difficult economy and new (and even familiar) climates.
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Warm, dull nostalgia
Josh Bell | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (5 p.m.)
Ken Johnson of Foxx & Mackenzie in the Morning on 97.1-FM joins Josh to talk about safe, boring (or maybe heartwarming) movies Taking Woodstock and Adam.
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One of the last of a generation, Pearl Harbor hero Ray Turpin laid to rest
John Katsilometes | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (4:17 p.m.)
Las Vegan Ray Turpin helped pull his fellow Marines to safety from the crippled USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
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The emancipation of Mimi
Melissa Arseniuk | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (11:14 a.m.)
Ladies and gentlemen, Mimi Bobeck has left the building. Well, almost.
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The deadliest job fair
Sarah Feldberg | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (8:26 a.m.)
If you’ve ever watched The Deadliest Catch and thought that you could handle life on the Bering Sea, know this: 1) You can’t. 2) Now is your chance to apply.
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Skydro
Damon Hodge | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Daydream-inspiring, but in a generally good way, Success Stories is unlike anything you’ve ever heard from Vegas hip-hop. For starters, the 20-song CD is overwhelmingly positive.
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Ang Lee’s lamest movie ever
Mike D'Angelo | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
It was inevitable, I suppose, that Ang Lee would eventually get around to the historical docudrama—or, as I’ve recently dubbed that generally useless collection of bullet-point factoids, the Wiki-movie. Enter Taking Woodstock.
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Ask Dead Elvis: How long does Las Vegas Boulevard extend?
Las Vegas Boulevard was originally the old Los Angeles Highway, or Highway 91, and it’s a pretty long stretch of road.
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Kiwi Watermelon Lemonade
Xania Woodman | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Though it will remain summery here for some time, we want to bid adieu to that season with a classic porch-sipper, an ode to those icons of summer picnics and barbecues, lemonade and watermelon.
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Review of a preview
Josh Bell | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Despite showings of the special 16-minute preview of James Cameron’s Avatar allegedly being sold out across the country, the 6 p.m. screening at the Regal Red Rock this past Friday was barely two-thirds full
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Slapstick noir
John Freeman | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
In Pynchon’s Inherent Vice, a dope-buzzed PI watches the ’70s California dream unravel.
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Hack the Mack
Damon Hodge | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Hack the Mack starts strong, but as the CD proceeds, there’s less spitfire, and Hack’s retreat to tired and ultimately unadventurous topics (guns, girls and ganja) seems to sap his energy.
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Creating his own structure
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Classical mixed with hip-hop? Well, that’s something you don’t hear about every day, and that’s exactly the appeal for young Las Vegas violinist Anthony Williams, intent on taking the rigorous technique of his classical training and spreading it across the freer forms of jazz and hip-hop.
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Horror Showdown: Halloween II vs. The Final Destination
Josh Bell | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Horror sequels Halloween II and The Final Destination both open this week, but neither was screened in time for review. We pit them against each other to see which is worth your time and money.
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So long, Whole Foods
Ken Miller | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
A Weekly staffer trades in Whole Foods' endless olive selection and fields of salad toppings for eateries that don't tell him how to feel about Obama's health-care plan.
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Tracy Mahoney—You go-go, girl!
Xania Woodman | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
In 2003 Tracy started Flaunt Entertainment, a go-go, model and special-act booking agency, and in 2005 created the Flaunt Foxxes, a collaboration of 20 of her top go-gos, the “A Team.”
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It’s only money
Richard Abowitz | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
For his recent Las Vegas cover story in Time, writer Joel Stein scored a rare sit-down with Sheldon Adelson. Stein describes the interview as one of the strangest of his career.
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Rideout
Damon Hodge | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Cut from the North Las Vegas thug-hustle cloth, Rideout is, perhaps, one of Northtown’s more able lyricists.
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The Help Desk
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
- Lawsuit alleges builders used defective Chinese drywall in some Las Vegas neighborhoods.
- Thank goodness no one owns a house in Las Vegas anymore.
- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid trails GOP challenger by 11 points in recent poll.
- Reid already working up a strategy to deal with this problem in a completely ineffectual way.
- Chinese tout the quality of their products at Las Vegas trade show.
- Well, the quality of everything except drywall, we’re guessing.
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Suggestion Box: A thought for the new school year
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Teachers, administrators and, hell, even federal education bureaucrats—you take the achievement tests used to judge schools.
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An honorable tribute
Scott Dickensheets | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
This is one way pitiless Sin City shows its heart: throwing an A-team of Strip performers at a good cause. In this case, to remember Michael Jackson for the benefit of school music programs.
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Back to Berlin
Allison Duck | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
The crowd at White Square Gallery’s final reception was as diverse as the work on the walls. Present: the dreadlocked hippie, the fedora-wearing hipster and the suit and skinny-tie set—all addressed as “my artists, my guests, my collectors” by owner Natasha Young.
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Cash for other clunkers
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
The auto program is over. But there are still plenty of things that don’t work around here.
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Eating for the hungry
Sarah Feldberg | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Fighting hunger has never been so delicious. From August 31 through September 6, more than 80 of the Valley’s best restaurants will serve prix fixe menus for Las Vegas Restaurant Week.
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Gone and back again
Claire Vaye Watkins | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Claire Vaye Watkins grew up in Southern Nevada, then left. A recent return gave her a new, more complicated vision of the city. Three essays by an exciting new talent.
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Kings of Leon
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Alternating between somewhat gritty Southern garage-rock and more M.O.R. arena cuts, Kings of Leon did nothing to embarrass (unless you count those distracting and unnecessary video screens), but did little to stand out, either.
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Three questions with Sleepy Sun
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Guitarist Matt Holliman chats about how moving from Santa Cruz to San Francisco, psychedelic rock, and the interesting roster of acts on the ATP record label.
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Where’s the passion?
Stacy J. Willis | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
A health-care forum yields little drama, while a workshop on the domestic partnership law proves—too pragmatic.
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Things fall apart
Ken Layne | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
This slim book argues that we can put it together again, the right way. But is America too broken?
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Peggy plots your planets
Peggy Allison | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Mars encourages you to share your ideas, hopes, wishes and goals. The sun in your sign brings a burst of energy. Work on a few of your dreams.
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Adam
Tasha Chemplavil | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Somewhere between Oscar fodder and unpredictability, Adam, about a man with Asperger's syndrome, is one of those rare gems that manages to meet at the crossroads.
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Same/difference
Las Vegas Weekly Staff | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Sen. John Ensign insists he’s different from Bill Clinton. Let’s examine that more closely.
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Killer Biker Chicks
Josh Bell | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Killer Biker Chicks provides plenty in the gratuitous-nudity department, but it fails pretty miserably on most other fronts.
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Minor in a major key
Mike Trask | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
This weekend’s minor-league game proves one thing: If you throw a football, they will come.
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Depeche Mode
Spencer Patterson | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Depeche Mode ended up opening for itself, playing three songs off their flat new disc before unleashing a string of grade-A catalog cuts that showed why it can charge $200 a head 15 years after most of America stopped paying attention.
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The story so far
Ken Miller | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Updates on Buffalo Jim Barrier, the medical "mafia," the guy with the chainsaw and a few other big Las Vegas stories.
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New Pecking order
T.R. Witcher | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
After 13 years of hell-raising as executive director of the Las Vegas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Gary Peck is finally calling it quits, in what the ACLU calls an amicable parting.
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Green Day
Josh Bell | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
It’s nice that the members of Green Day connect so well with their audience, but the band’s concert this past Friday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center too often seemed more like a summer-camp talent show than an arena production by a world-famous rock band.
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Soul Power
Julie Seabaugh | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Power’s colorful footage follows James Brown, B.B. King, The Spinners and others on their journey from an airport Holiday Inn through a mid-flight jam to a homeland they’ve never seen.
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Goodbye Solo
Josh Bell | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
The immigrant community depicted here is Africans in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, represented by Solo (Souleymane Sy Savane), a cheery Senegalese cab driver who sees life as a long string of opportunities.
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Splash/ Sunkissed meltdown
Xania Woodman | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Vegas, not big enough for two gay pool parties? Vegas?!
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Heavy Rotation: Twenty Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives
Scott Dickensheets | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
A lovely diagram review of the book edited by Peter Terzian.
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Mama said there’d be nights like this
Rick Lax | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Soaking in the scene at Downtown’s favorite piano bar.
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Italian shake-up
Max Jacobson | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
So few Italian places bring anything new to the table, not so at Caffe Dolce.
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Getting (and sometimes making) her props
Richard Abowitz | Thu, Aug 27, 2009 (midnight)
Emily Jillette doesn’t need the money—note the famous last name—but she’s still working her ass off on a super-risky venture: helping open shows in this economy.
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