O'Sullivan brings his act back to Vegas
Remember Mike "White Is Right" O’Sullivan? Many people involved in the Las Vegas recovery community certainly do, and those who don’t can have their memories refreshed at a place called the Spring Valley Club at 2400 South Jones Blvd. It’s one of O’Sullivan’s latest ventures, a sober club that is home to 10 recovery meetings a week.
Splendid.
To put it mildly, the respected 12-steppers I know are not performing cartwheels at O'Sullivan's latest venture, or his move back to Las Vegas.
O’Sullivan has returned to Vegas more than a year after he made news for his obnoxious activism for the White Party, of which he served as chairman. He also operated several halfway houses in the Las Vegas and for years was active in the local recovery scene. And I can confidently report that you
would have to search far and wide – to Utah, in fact, where O’Sullivan reportedly relocated when he departed Clark County last year – to find an individual with a worse reputation in recovery circles than O’Sullivan. Evidence of that sullied rep resurfaced during the annual Las Vegas Round-up, which was held over Thanksgiving weekend at the Riviera. Several thousand members of Alcoholics Anonymous attend the Round-up each year, and the weekend program is filled with A.A. meetings.
An A.A. member who was in attendance at this year’s Round-up reports that, at one of these meetings, a highly respected female member of the program jumped in O’Sullivan’s face, accusing him of (among other transgressions) “13th-stepping” women seeking recovery. That term is used to describe the frowned-upon practice of preying on members of the opposite sex who are new to recovery (“13th-stepping typically refers to predatory men, but can be used for either sex). Backing up the woman were four large men, emphasizing that O’Sullivan’s recent foray into Vegas recovery is being met with something other than peaceful serenity.
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I have not blogged in a while and there is a reason: I was on assignment for several days in the tough-ass little town of Danville, Ill. What I was doing there is not yet important (though I can report that I was NOT opening a sobriety spot called Spring Valley Club), other than to say it is for a big story that will appear in Las Vegas Weekly this month. During my visit, I encountered a Danville Moment totally unrelated to my story: I was seated at the bar at Turtle Run Gold & Banquet Center (that’s off Vermilion Road, make a right onto Liberty Lane and you can’t miss it), enjoying a Diet Coke and chatting up Beth the bartender. With no warning or explanation, a woman dressed in a clown costume approached the bar and said, “I need a pack of Camels and a tequila shot!” Beth, unfazed, poured a shot and pushed a pack of smokes across the bar. The clown palmed the pack and tossed back the shot with a hasty, “Thanks!” As the clown ambled away, Beth said, “She’s never worked with special-needs kids before.” There was a party with that type of audience going on in the banquet room.
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Yes, the gun on the cover of this week’s Las Vegas Weekly, used for Joshua Longobardy’s story about the Palomino Club, is my Beretta GX4 Storm.
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Pamela Anderson is workin’ it! By that, we mean a deal to headline a production show at a major hotel on the Strip. She is tireless in her efforts … to sign a contract, I mean.
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Quick observation: Company is to the Luxor as Stack is to the Mirage.
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A man who has made a remarkable personal and professional recovery is former UNLV coach Bill Bayno, fired seven years ago by then-UNLV President Carol Harter but today an assistant with the Portland Trail Blazers. Bayno has confronted some personal demons, rehabbed his professional reputation and kept his passion for hoops intact. I talked to him on the phone recently and he sounded in great spirits.
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PL8 in my head: On the way to the railroad, GRNDFNK on a big red Cadillac.
Fabulous Las Vegas appears at this Web site. John Katsilometes, who also hosts Our Metropolis, a weekly issues and affairs show, each Tuesday at 6 p.m. on KUNV 91.5-FM, can be reached at 990-7720, 812-9812 or at [email protected].