The party's take on Obama
Peggy Maze Johnson held a party Saturday night, and as she is the executive director of the Clark County Democratic Party, it was expected that the TV was turned to the evening’s fiery competition from across the country. But the wide screen wasn’t the debate among Democratic presidential candidates from New Hampshire. It was the Steelers-Jags AFC Divisional Playoff Game from Pittsburgh, which was nearly as hard-hitting as the staged forum being broadcast on ABC.
The informal gathering drew some of the county’s busiest Democratic Party activists and officials, including Clark County Democratic Party Chair John Hunt and EmergeNevada Executive Director Erin Bilbray-Kohn. At one point, Hunt sat down on a couch and grabbed at a dish of Goldfish snack crackers and I asked him about Barack Obama’s s victory speech last week after winning the Iowa caucuses. To paraphrase Hunt, who didn’t endorse any candidate, he noted that when he watched and listened to the speech it reminded him of the Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream” speech, when Obama recalled the simple but powerful stretch in King’s speech that people of all colors can live in equality. King’s dream had come true that night in Iowa, but can it sustain? The group around me still seemed to be pulling for Hillary Clinton -- a Democratic woman winning the White House would be a boon to EmergeNevada, which recruits promising women to run for political offices across the state.
I saw both Obama and Clinton speak at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner at Paris Las Vegas in November, on a night when Obama gave a relatively uninspired, pared-down version of the speech he gave after his Iowa victory. I thought Clinton was more effective, and she had a far larger collection of supporters in the audience. But as we were walking out of the ballroom, the hallway was filled with Obama backers, most of them appearing to be in their 20s and 30s, shouting, “Fired up! Ready to go!” We had to wade our way through what was literally a chanting throng, a display of passion that has carried Obama to the top of the Democratic field.
There are those who claim that words absent action are mostly meaningless. Depends on the words. I watched the live broadcast of Obama’s speech in a fairly non-political environment – while riding an exercise bike at Las Vegas Athletic Club. I had the headphones plugged in, and as Obama spoke I jacked up the volume. By the end I knew I’d witnessed something special. And I realized that, unknowingly, I had stopped pedaling. The man has my attention.
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No longer free at last: An end of an era is upon First Friday. Whirlygig, the nonprofit that organizes the monthly art walk/street party in the Arts District, has announced it is charging a $2 entry fee to the fenced-off party area beginning in February.
Las Vegas-based Allegiant Airlines – the Cadillac of Las Vegas-based economy airlines – has canceled six routes over the past couple of months because of soaring (ha) fuel costs. So, bad news for anyone hoping to hustle off to Gulfport, Miss.; Huntsville, Ala.; Champaign, Ill.; Springfield, Ill.; and Lansing, Mich. Two have been suspended – those to Fort Wayne, Ind., and Knoxville, Tenn. Over the past year, jet fuel costs have risen nearly 70 cents per gallon, but Allegiant is boosting its routes to short- and mid-range markets, which don’t require as much fuel, and overall the company did grow its Vegas market by five percent last year.
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In October, the “American Gladiators” held a tryout at the William J. Haynes Gym at the Doolittle Community Center on J Street, hoping to lure prospective contestants. Nobody was selected from that particular audition, but there is a Vegas connection to the new “Gladiators” competition show, which debuted to strong ratings Sunday night on NBC: UNLV safety Shane Horton’s father, Mike Horton, was the Gladiator with the stage name “Gemini” on the original series, which ran from 1989-96.
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Trivia time: Who won the 1988 Nevada Republican Party presidential caucus? (Answer just above PL8 in my head.)
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Global cooling: I hear a spate of layoffs were announced at Planet Hollywood last week.
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Remember Montrose? I remember Montrose: Sammy Hagar is booked to perform on Saturday, February 2 -- the night before "The Big Game" -- at the Pearl Concert Theater at the Palms. If you're wondering what "The Big Game" is, that's what you call the Super Bowl in a news release to avoid traipsing on the NFL's copyright of the term "Super Bowl." Tickets to Hagar are $50 and $75.
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Today (if you are reading this Tuesday, January 8), Pete Vallee is celebrating what would have been Elvis Presley’s 73rd birthday with cake and flowers during his Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall & Saloon performances at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The man more commonly known as “Big Elvis” will pass out (flowers) to all the ladies in the audience during those shows, and again at 6:30 (but no cake then, as “Big Elvis” did not to be so by giving away too much cake). The performances are free and open to the public.
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A couple of odd notes on Keon Clark: A judge in Champaign, Ill., has ordered him to be shipped to a federal prison to begin the 2 1/2 –year term that Clark was sentenced to a few months ago in Champaign County district court. The former UNLV basketball star is still awaiting a March 25 trial in Danville to address DUI and firearm charges from Vermillion County. Also, on December 26, days before Clark was transferred to prison, his former high school coach, Gene Gourley, attempted to visit Clark in the Danville Public Safety Building. The coach was turned away because Clark is allowed just one visit per week and had already burned off that visit.
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Vegas moment: During Saturday’s fierce wind storms, an unoccupied desk chair on five wheels rolling across Washington Avenue.
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Trivia answer: Pat Robertson.
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PL8 in my head: LV WINO on a Ford Expedition.
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].