Desert Companion - March 2012

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i2 | Desert Companion | march 2012

editor’s note

I must confess that I am not quite listening to Paul Beard. I am not listen-ing to Paul Beard as he rattles on about things like acoustic engineering and imported Italian marble and design mo-tifs as he tugs me through a Monday-morning tour of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. To be sure, Paul Beard, Smith Center vice president and chief operating officer, is an excellent tour guide, informative and engaging and accommodating. But I am not lis-tening because I’m distracted. Nudging my deepest intuition — again and again, whether we’re in the grand lobby, the mezzanine lounge or the centerpiece, Reynolds Hall, a study in both exalta-tion and intimacy, cavernous and cozy at the same time — is the sense that something is fundamentally, philosoph-ically, even spiritually wrong with this building. I’m unnerved by its totalizing ambience of heft, solidity, permanence. (No wonder Paul casts me a quizzical look when I clap a foot on the floor here and there like a wary horse.)

This is what’s wrong: The Smith Center was built to last.

Wrong? Of course it’s not wrong, but it feels that way. It feels wrong because it is a welcome and tonic slap against the mentality we’ve all grown into as the side effect of being such a versatile and protean city: the mentality that everything here is ultimately dispos-able, destined for the bulldozer or to be passed along like a hand-me-down on its way to the landfill. For better or

worse, we’ve built a city where stucco-and-frame homes are built to flip. A city where mini-malls host tenants that come and go as fast as tourists. A city where even the gleaming grandi-osities (and, let’s admit it, a few mon-strosities) of the Strip are ultimately stage sets to be violently dismantled when it’s time for a new act. Amid this story comes The Smith Center, feeling wrong because it is so right.

The Smith Center aims to be a lot of things: a cultural and artistic hub (see page 24), an architectural homage to our origins, a bold flare fired for the cause of urban renaissance. But more than all that, it’s a monument to the idea that a real city deserves strong and en-during institutions — and that a respon-sible and mature city builds to last.

Lest I wax too rhapsodic, I’ll point out some irony in all this. I chuckled when I stepped outside at the end of the tour — my eyes still drunk on all that Smith splendor — and saw the train of mottled Union Pacific rail cars sitting there like a rusty snake. The Smith Cen-ter lives next to the historic kernel of our city — of all things, a bustling stop on a rail line going elsewhere. Those scarred and flaking rail cars — tools for transit, tropes for the transitory — now give way to a monument to new possi-bilities. Let’s start listening.

* * *

Several readers gave us a hearty finger-wagging over an item in our

Best of the City edition, in which we talked about the best place to find arrowheads. Our language should have been more precise. But, for the record, we did not mean “find” as in to collect or take arrowheads. Not only is that illegal, but it’s just a completely jerky and selfish thing to do. I remain confident that Desert Companion readers know the differ-ence between hands-off discovery and plundering. When appreciat-ing the history, heritage and natu-ral beauty of Southern Nevada (see page 43 to get started), ooh and aah to your heart’s content — but keep your hands on the camera.

Andrew KiralyEditor

Edifice complex

next month

in Desert Companion

style up and

settle down

with our spring

fashion and

home design

issue

With the support of Caesars Foundation, local organizations provide hundreds of

Nevada residents with employment opportunities. This year, Goodwill of Southern

Nevada will debut a new mobile store that will visit community events, providing

career attire and support programs to those in need. And, Opportunity Village will

add a new shuttle bus and van to its fleet of vehicles, allowing the organization

to further its mission of providing programs and services that help people with

disabilities become independent, productive members of the community.

For more information about organizations

assisted by the Caesars Foundation visit:

www.caesarsfoundation.com.

4 color process

The will to do wonders®


®

®

BUILDING

CAREERS

001_003_ED_NOTE.indd 2 2/23/12 6:41 AM

With the support of Caesars Foundation, local organizations provide hundreds of

Nevada residents with employment opportunities. This year, Goodwill of Southern

Nevada will debut a new mobile store that will visit community events, providing

career attire and support programs to those in need. And, Opportunity Village will

add a new shuttle bus and van to its fleet of vehicles, allowing the organization

to further its mission of providing programs and services that help people with

disabilities become independent, productive members of the community.

For more information about organizations

assisted by the Caesars Foundation visit:

www.caesarsfoundation.com.

4 color process



®

®

BUILDING

CAREERS

001_003_ED_NOTE.indd 3 2/23/12 6:41 AM

contentsdesert companion magazine // desertcompanion.com

Béla Fleck and the FlecktonesReynolds HallMonday, March 12, 2012 - 7:30pm

Michael Feinstein - The Sinatra ProjectReynolds HallThursday, March 15, 2012 - 7:30pm

The Canadian TenorsReynolds HallSaturday, March 17, 2012 - 7:30pm

SFJAZZ Collective: Music of Stevie WonderCabaret JazzSaturday, March 17, 2012 - 7:00pm & 10:00pm & Sunday, March 18, 2012 - 2:00pm

Join us for The Smith Center’s Opening Celebration and be part of a legacy that will last for generations. Throughout the month of March, we invite you to experience everything this new heart of the arts has to off er, from phenomenal music and dance performances to our

Community Open House. This is our stage. This is our moment. We hope you will join us for it.

COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE – Sunday, March 18, 2012 – FREE TO THE PUBLIC

Spend the day in beautiful Symphony Park as The Smith Center presents live entertainment as well as showcasing art from around our community. Visitors will also enjoy tours of The Smith Center.

OPENING CELEBRATION PERFORMANCES

“I W S THERE.”

TheSmithCenter.com I 702.749.2000361 Symphony Park Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89106

Alvin Ailey American Dance TheaterReynolds HallTuesday, March 20, 2012 - 7:30pm & Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 7:30pm

Straight No ChaserReynolds HallSunday, March 25, 2012 - 7:00pm

Savion Glover’s Bare SoundzReynolds HallTuesday, March 27, 2012 - 7:30pm

DEPARTMENTS

11All Things to All People

Restoring order in court

20Leisure

The valley’s best parks

24Culture

Our new home for the arts By Heidi Kyser

33Dining

Road food comes home By Brock Radke

58Guide

From rock to theater to dance, your guide

to culture

64Big idea

Occupy @Vegas! By April Corbin

4 | Desert Companion | March 2012

FEATURES

43 Eyes on the prize These hikes with hidden treasures are well worth the trek. (Don’t forget your camera.)

48The superhero next doorYour next-door neighbors are martial arts yoga rock climber tango ninjasBy Heidi Kyser

54The gift of stabA different kind of fencing operationBy Max Plenke

03.2012

on the coverRock climber Xavier Wasiak

Photography Bill Hughes

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Béla Fleck and the FlecktonesReynolds HallMonday, March 12, 2012 - 7:30pm

Michael Feinstein - The Sinatra ProjectReynolds HallThursday, March 15, 2012 - 7:30pm

The Canadian TenorsReynolds HallSaturday, March 17, 2012 - 7:30pm

SFJAZZ Collective: Music of Stevie WonderCabaret JazzSaturday, March 17, 2012 - 7:00pm & 10:00pm & Sunday, March 18, 2012 - 2:00pm

Join us for The Smith Center’s Opening Celebration and be part of a legacy that will last for generations. Throughout the month of March, we invite you to experience everything this new heart of the arts has to off er, from phenomenal music and dance performances to our

Community Open House. This is our stage. This is our moment. We hope you will join us for it.

COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE – Sunday, March 18, 2012 – FREE TO THE PUBLIC

Spend the day in beautiful Symphony Park as The Smith Center presents live entertainment as well as showcasing art from around our community. Visitors will also enjoy tours of The Smith Center.

OPENING CELEBRATION PERFORMANCES

“I W S THERE.”

TheSmithCenter.com I 702.749.2000361 Symphony Park Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89106

Alvin Ailey American Dance TheaterReynolds HallTuesday, March 20, 2012 - 7:30pm & Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 7:30pm

Straight No ChaserReynolds HallSunday, March 25, 2012 - 7:00pm

Savion Glover’s Bare SoundzReynolds HallTuesday, March 27, 2012 - 7:30pm

004_005_TOC.indd 5 2/23/12 10:24 AM

6 | Desert Companion | march 2012

You can make a difference on the environment and on your wallet when you think Smarter Greener Better®!

Water heating is the third largest energy expense in your home but with high-efficiency appliances you can lower your energy use, making a big difference on your energy costs and the environment. You’ll save money and help protect our natural resources

Think Smarter Greener Better.

Live Greener Than You Think!

Scan this with your mobile device.

Want to learn more about energy-efficient appliance rebates? Visit us at www.swgasliving.com/descompanion or call our Energy Specialists at 1-800-654-2765.

Editorial & ArtAndrew KirAly Editor

CHriSTOPHer SMiTH Art Director

AdvertisingCHriSTine Kiely Corporate Support Manager

lAurA AlCArAz National Account Manager

SHArOn ClifTOn Senior Account Executive

Allen grAnT Senior Account Executive

elizAbeTH guernSeyAccount Executive

MArKuS VAn’T HulSenior Account Executive

Marketing CATHerine KiMMarketing Manager

Subscriptions CHriS biTOnTi Subscription Manager

OnLine dAnielle brAnTOn Web Administrator

Senior StaffflOrenCe M.e. rOgerS President / General Manager

MelAnie CAnnOn Director of Development

CynTHiA M. dObeK Director of Business, Finance & Human Resources

PHil burger Director of Broadcast Operations

Contributing WritersMaureen Adamo, Jim Begley, Cybele, April Corbin, Carol Dickman, Alan Gegax, Mi-chael Green, Tony Illia, Heidi Kyser, Andrea Leal, Debbie Lee, Christie Moeller, Max Plenke, Brock Radke, Mark Sedenquist, Sarah Vernetti

Contributing ArtistsTroy Cummings, Bill Hughes, Aaron McKinney, Sabin Orr

To submit your organization’s event listings for the Desert Companion events guide, send complete information to [email protected]. Feedback and story ideas are always welcome, too.

Editorial: Andrew Kiraly, (702) 259-7856;[email protected]

Fax: (702) 258-5646

Advertising: Christine Kiely, (702) 259-7813; [email protected]

Subscriptions: Chris Bitonti, (702) 259-7810;[email protected]

Website: www.desertcompanion.com

Desert Companion is published 12 times a year by Nevada Public Radio, 1289 S. Torrey Pines Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89146. It is available by subscription at www.desertcompanion.com, or as part of Nevada Public Radio membership. It is also distrib-uted free of charge at select locations in the Las Vegas Valley. All photographs, artwork and ad designs printed are the sole property of Desert Companion and may not be duplicated or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. The views of Desert Companion contributing writers are not necessarily the views of Desert Companion or Nevada Public Radio. Contact Chris Bitonti for back issues, which are avail-able for purchase for $7.95.

ISSN 2157-8389 (print)ISSN 2157-8397 (online)

Mission StatementDesert Companion is the premier city magazine

that celebrates the pursuits, passions and aspirations of Southern Nevadans. With

award-winning lifestyle journalism and design, Desert Companion does more than inform and

entertain. We spark dialogue, engage people and define the spirit of the Las Vegas Valley.

PuB L ISHED By NEVADA Pu BL IC R ADIO

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“The thing is, desert landscapes can be incredibly beautiful AND low maintenance, when they’re done well.

And you get to feel good about it!” — Norm Schilling, of KNPR’s Desert Bloom

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You can make a difference on the environment and on your wallet when you think Smarter Greener Better®!

Water heating is the third largest energy expense in your home but with high-efficiency appliances you can lower your energy use, making a big difference on your energy costs and the environment. You’ll save money and help protect our natural resources

Think Smarter Greener Better.

Live Greener Than You Think!

Scan this with your mobile device.

Want to learn more about energy-efficient appliance rebates? Visit us at www.swgasliving.com/descompanion or call our Energy Specialists at 1-800-654-2765.

006_009_MASTHEAD.indd 7 2/23/12 6:14 AM

8 | Desert Companion | march 2012

PuB L ISHED By NEVADA Pu BL IC R ADIO

Nevada Public Radio Board of DirectorsOfficerselizAbeTH freTwell, CHAir City of Las Vegas

SuSAn brennAn,ViCe CHAir Brennan Consulting Group, LLC

reed rAdOSeViCH, TreASurer Northern Trust Bank

flOrenCe M.e. rOgerS, SeCreTAry Nevada Public Radio

DirectorsSHAMOOn AHMAd, M.d., MbA, fACP

CynTHiA AlexAnder, eSq. Snell & Wilmer

lOuiS CASTle, direCTOr eMeriTuS

PATriCK n. CHAPin, eSq., direCTOr eMeriTuS

KirK V. ClAuSenWells Fargo

SHerri gilligAn MGM Resorts International

jAn l. jOneS Caesars Entertainment Corporation

jOHn r. KlAi iiKlai Juba Architects

lAMAr MArCHeSe, President Emeritus

williAM MASOn Taylor International Corporation

CHriS MurrAy direCTOr eMeriTuS Avissa Corporation

jerry nAdAl Cirque du Soleil

PeTer O’neill R&R Partners

williAM j. “bill” nOOnAn, direCTOr eMeriTuS Boyd Gaming Corporation

MArK riCCiArdi, eSq., direCTOr eMeriTuS Fisher & Phillips, LLP

MiCKey rOeMer, direCTOr eMeriTuS Roemer Gaming

TiM wOng Arcata Associates

Nevada Public Radio Community Advisory BoardMArK riCCiArdi, eSq. CHAirMAn Fisher & Phillips, LLP

dAVid CAbrAl Business Finance Corporation

denniS CObb President, DCC Group

riCHArd i. dreiTzer Fox Rothschild LLP

CArOlyn g. gOOdMAn Meadows School

MArilyn gubler The Las Vegas Archive

KurTiS wAde jOHnSOn Absolute Auto Care

MegAn jOneS MKJ Consulting

edMÉe S. MArCeK College of Southern Nevada

SuSAn K. MOOre Lieutenant Governor’s Office

jennA MOrTOn

STeVe PArKer uNLV

riCHArd PlASTer Signature Homes

CHriS rOMAn Entravision

KiM ruSSellSmith Center for the Performing Arts

CAndy SCHneider Smith Center for the Performing Arts

STePHAnie SMiTH

bOb STOldAl Sunbelt Communica-tions Co.

KATe Turner wHiTeley Kirvin Doak Communications

brenT wrigHT Wright Engineers

bOb gerST Boyd Gaming Corporation

Follow us online:www.facebook.com/desertcompanion

www.twitter.com/DesertCompanion

02/12

RECIPIENT OF THE 2011 GREENWICH

SMALL BUSINESS BANKING EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR

OVERALL SATISFACTION IN THE WEST.

Forward Together.™

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Bank of Nevada is an affiliate of Western Alliance Bancorporation

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FEATURING

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FEATURING

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ACTS2

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Tickets and Information 702.693.7871 • bellagio.com/bgfa

On view February 18, 2012 thrOugh January 6, 2013

CLAUDE

IMPRESSIONS OF LIGHTMONET

= live area–DO NOT PRINT

Claude Monet, Grainstack (Sunset), 1891, Oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 36 1/2 inches, Collection M

useum of Fine Arts, Boston; Juliana Cheney Edw

ards Collection, Photograph © 2012 M

useum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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DesertCompanion.Com | 11

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HEAR MORE Creative Director Dennis Barrie takes you inside The Mob Museum on “KNPR’s State of Nevada” at www.desertcompanion.com/hearmore

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03.2012 T o a l l P e o P l en e Ws

p e o p L e

p o L i t i C s

s H o p

H U m o r

continued on pg. 12

Tickets and Information 702.693.7871 • bellagio.com/bgfa

On view February 18, 2012 thrOugh January 6, 2013

CLAUDE

IMPRESSIONS OF LIGHTMONET

= live area–DO NOT PRINT

Claude Monet, Grainstack (Sunset), 1891, Oil on canvas, 28 7/8 x 36 1/2 inches, Collection M

useum of Fine Arts, Boston; Juliana Cheney Edw

ards Collection, Photograph © 2012 M

useum of Fine Arts, Boston.

tC U L t U r e

Restoring order in the courtm U s i C

PERsOnAl nOtEsKicking off with brand-name headliners and broadway power-houses, the smith center has officially landed as our new cultural mother-ship. but there’s a smaller monthly gig at the new venue that packs plenty of its own punch: the com-posers showcase. the monthly event offers Las Vegans a rare treat: hearing strip performers from marquee pro-ductions belt out tunes they penned themselves.

“I know it’s sort of a cliché to say we’re a best-kept secret, but we really are,” says Keith thomp-son, conductor for “Jersey boys” and host and director of the composers showcase. “We don’t have a Pr campaign, and we’ve never re-ally been aiming for huge commercial success. We mostly promote through word of mouth and some email.” behind the low-key approach is some high-grade talent.

The newly opened Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas counts guns, photos and jewelry among its trea-sured artifacts, but the greatest artifact may be the building itself. The historic neoclassical structure at 300 Stewart Ave. was rescued from the wrecking ball and given a second life.

Originally designed by Treasury De-partment architect James A. Wetmore, the building opened on November 27, 1933 — just eight days before Prohibition was repealed. It was the city’s first fed-eral building. The Beaux-Arts classical-style structure served as both a post of-fice and federal courthouse, hosting the infamous Kefauver trials on organized crime from 1950 to 1951. Now the ter-racotta brick building has been pains-takingly returned to its Depression-era appearance. A small army of design spe-cialists led by the Phoenix office of West-lake Reed Leskosky oversaw the renovation.

“The classical detailing reflects the Treasury Department’s architectural taste of the 1890s and 1900s,” says Paul E. Westlake, the firm’s managing principal. “The original character of the building acts an exhibit in itself.”

The exterior was restored with a limestone base, original loggia entrance and granite paneling, while copper flashings, windows and a metal can-opy were replaced. The interior boasts crown molding and wrought iron rail-ings that employ French and Italian baroque and rococo styling, with con-servative modern lines. A neglected, remodeled second-floor courtroom was meticulously returned to its origi-nal appearance with genuine furniture and finishes based on Wetmore’s con-ceptual blueprints, as well as decades-old photos, newspapers and drawings.

“We uncovered enough clues to recreate what was missing,” Westlake says. “For example, we made the lighting fixtures from scratch using the architect’s original drawings.”

But the renovation isn’t completely stuck in the past. The project’s biggest challenge was to meet modern building codes while still adhering to federal historical guidelines. The steel-skeleton structure, for instance, underwent a comprehensive seismic retrofit that strengthened aging walls with concrete and steel. More than 9,100 pounds of rebar were add-

ed to beef up the building. The design team also had to find space for modern lighting, me-

chanical systems and technology without dramatically altering an eight-decade-

old landmark. “The museum is safeguarding a

part of Las Vegas’ physical history through the rehabilitation of the post office and courthouse,” says

project consulting architect Robert J. Chattel with Chattel Architecture,

Planning & Preservation. “The building is not only significant for its architecture remi-

niscent of the period in which it was built, but also for the historic events that unfolded inside of it.” To let such a building fall into disrepair would be a crime. — Tony Illia

Number of U.S. courthouses that hosted historic Kefauver Committee

hearings from 1950-1951

14f a C t o i D

One of the Mob Museum’s main attractions is the building itself.



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A: Who hasn’t heard of the Rat Pack? Everybody knows who they were: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford, best known for chasing women, filming “Oceans Eleven” in Las Vegas, and perform-ing together in “the Summit at the Sands” while filming early in 1960. Except the Rat Pack wasn’t necessarily what you think — only one of the “big five” had anything to do with starting it, and he wasn’t exactly a key member at the outset.

That honor went to the Hollywood power couple of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who lived in Holmby Hills in western Los Angeles, near Bev-erly Hills. They liked to drink and entertain, espe-cially with neighbors such as David Niven and his wife, agent Swifty Lazar, restaurateur Mike Ro-manoff and his wife, and Sid Luft and his wife Judy Garland (a Las Vegas connection, since she head-lined here and performed at The Meadows, the ear-liest local posh casino). Sinatra joined them once he moved to Hollywood.

Bacall gave the group its name, although exactly

how it came about is less clear. This much is known: A night of carousing ended back at the home she shared with Bogart. She looked at her friends in various stages of inebriation and mood alteration and said, “You look like a pack of rats.”

The name stuck, although Sinatra reportedly didn’t much like it, but he didn’t complain about it because he liked Bacall, whom he briefly dated after Bogart’s death. Martin and Davis apparently joined in the fun with Bogart, Bacall and company but weren’t full-fledged members until after Bogart died in 1957, when Sinatra became the head of the pack.

By 1960, members of the Rat Pack had occasion-ally filmed movies together, fought with one anoth-er and made headlines for some of their escapades (mostly Sinatra’s love life) when they came to Las Vegas to film “Oceans Eleven” and headlined at the Sands. Some began calling the group the “Clan,” which Sinatra preferred to the Rat Pack, but Davis was understandably sensitive about that word, so they remained the Rat Pack to their fans, and to us today. — Michael Green

Got a question? We’ve got the answer. Email it to [email protected].

IllustratIon By Troy cummings

t H e a n s w e r s

Q: Why were they called “The Rat Pack”?

See the talent behind the mic at this

month’s Composers showcase in our Guide,

starting on page 58.

ON THE TOWN

At composers showcase, you might catch a “Phan-tom” lead unleashing a torch song, the musical director of “Le rêve” flexing his vocal chops or even clint Holmes polishing up new work. The monthly showcase, which has quietly bobbed around local bars, restaurants and museums for the last five years, is part workshop, part talent show and part artistic release valve for strip talent.

Finding a home at The smith center’s cabaret Jazz room was natural: smith center Vice President and coo Paul Beard is a long-time fan of the showcase.

“you’ve got performers in town who are slamming in eight, 10 shows a week on the strip, and that’s good work, but it can get repetitious,” says Beard. “The composers showcase provides a creative avenue, with the prerequisite that these performers bring their ‘A chops.’ it’s really opened a wellspring of concentrated talent, people who perform songs that often come from a deep and personal place.”

The next composers showcase takes place 10:30 p.m. march 28 at The smith center’s cabaret Jazz venue. Tickets $20. info: www.thecomposersshow-case.com. — Andrew Kiraly

MARCH 24 – APRIL 7

800.745.3000CV2-11

Kimmy Gatewood of The Apple Sisters


MARCH 24 – APRIL 7

800.745.3000CV2-11



profiLe

PHOtOGraPH By chrIstoPher sMIth

“ People want a sense of accountability.”

Reinier GeyserPErSonAl TrAinEr

Canned soup, cheese pizza, gum-my bears, soda. you name it — rei-nier geyser was probably consum-ing it. And fast. eating competition? hardly. It was a much more difficult contest: the notoriously brutal fur-nace creek 508, a 508-mile, 48-hour bike race that cuts an arc through southern california, starting in santa clarita, plunging into Death Valley and ending in twentynine Palms. “It was an epic day, to say the least,” says geyser of the october compe-tition. “because you’re burning such incredible amounts of energy, you have to stop every 40 miles to take in nutrition. My pit crew would be there waiting for me, just holding the food in their hands.” those calories — and, of course, geyser’s highly conditioned body — powered him over the finish line 44 hours later. this is Geyser’s idea of taking a little time off work? It makes sense when you consider his day job: he’s owner of Las Vegas bootcamp and also a much sought-after personal trainer. the south African native started Las Vegas bootcamp four years ago when he sensed a flaw in how traditional big-box gyms oper-ate: As turn-and-burn operations whose business models rely on cus-tomers signing up, paying monthly dues and then being too busy or lazy to actually come in. “It’s almost as though they want people to buy gym memberships they’ll never use. I like to say the big corporate gyms make money by keeping their back door bigger than their front door.” how does Las Vegas bootcamp compete? With vigorous, low-tech workouts, group classes. and some old-fashioned values. “People want a sense of accountability,” he says. “our philosophy is that gradua-tion from boot camp is earned, not issued. that builds a sense of value into what we do.” And don’t worry, this isn’t the kind of boot camp that entails a lot of shouting and crying — geyser is praised by clients for both his patience and persistence. oh, and lest you think he’s popping those gummy bears all the time, think again. geyser generally sticks to whole, organic foods — hold the bread. But he rarely goes a day without a cold stella. “beer is actu-ally a superfood. It’s high in antioxi-dants,” he says. enjoy responsibly, of course. “With beer, it’s the volume that will get you.”

— Andrew Kiraly

Inspired by the greatest live music clubs in the world, from Dizzy’s to Feinstein’s,

Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center is a new, elegant yet easygoing club where you can grab

a bite, li� a glass and be entertained by the fi nest musicians from around the country.

Featuring two stories of intimate seating and a stage overlooking the city, it’s the

kind of place Vegas has been waiting for. A place where live music can truly come alive.

TICKETS STARTING AT $35

For full lineup, visit TheSmithCenter.com I 702.749.2000

SFJAZZ Collective: Music of Stevie WonderMarch 17, 2012 – 7:00pm & 10:00pmMarch 18, 2012 – 2:00pm

Branford MarsalisMarch 31, 2012 7:30pm and 10:00pm

Clint HolmesFirst weekend of every month,beginning April 2012

Andrea Marcovicci: Marcovicci Sings MoviesApril 13, 2012 – 8:30pmApril 14, 2012 – 7:00pm & 9:30pm

Suzanne Vega and Duncan SheikApril 15, 2012 – 8:30pmApril 16, 2012 – 7:00pm & 9:30pm

Joey DeFrancesco TrioApril 20, 2012 – 8:30pmApril 21, 2012 – 7:00pm & 9:30pm


Reinier GeyserPErSonAl TrAinEr

Inspired by the greatest live music clubs in the world, from Dizzy’s to Feinstein’s,

Cabaret Jazz at The Smith Center is a new, elegant yet easygoing club where you can grab

a bite, li� a glass and be entertained by the fi nest musicians from around the country.

Featuring two stories of intimate seating and a stage overlooking the city, it’s the

kind of place Vegas has been waiting for. A place where live music can truly come alive.

TICKETS STARTING AT $35

For full lineup, visit TheSmithCenter.com I 702.749.2000

SFJAZZ Collective: Music of Stevie WonderMarch 17, 2012 – 7:00pm & 10:00pmMarch 18, 2012 – 2:00pm

Branford MarsalisMarch 31, 2012 7:30pm and 10:00pm

Clint HolmesFirst weekend of every month,beginning April 2012

Andrea Marcovicci: Marcovicci Sings MoviesApril 13, 2012 – 8:30pmApril 14, 2012 – 7:00pm & 9:30pm

Suzanne Vega and Duncan SheikApril 15, 2012 – 8:30pmApril 16, 2012 – 7:00pm & 9:30pm

Joey DeFrancesco TrioApril 20, 2012 – 8:30pmApril 21, 2012 – 7:00pm & 9:30pm


SHOP

16 | DeSert COmPaniOn | March 2012

t r e n D a L e r t

Lacquer up!Bold nails add punch to any ensemble and spice up a casual look. We chatted with renowned manicurist Deborah Lippmann, whose client roster ranges from magazines such as Vogue to top fashion houses such as Valentino to celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Desert Companion: What is the “it” nail color for spring/summer 2012?Deborah Lippmann: I love vibrant blues and greens like my new spring shades, Mermaid’s Dream, a gorgeous glittery sea foam, and On the Beach, a rich Riviera blue. Tur-quoise will be a big color this spring and summer — they are both in the turquoise family and they give you that easy, breezy and carefree feeling you would have on vacation. DC: Hottest nail trend?DL: Painting nails with different shades is becoming a trend, and if you go with the trend you can use a different lacquer on every nail. You could use glitter on some nails, and crème on others. The idea is to mix and match, and never worry about what you’re wearing. DC: Ideal length and shape for the average woman’s nails?DL: Right now I am enjoying a slightly longer, almond-shaped nail. It’s very slenderizing, quite sexy and still very strong. DC: Best tip for a DIY lacquer lover?DL: When it comes to fun DIY nail art, start by painting ideas on fake nail tips to see what would look good before putting your design on actual nails. It’s not rocket science, but it does take a little bit of practice. Playing with nail tips takes some of the fear out of it. Women feel different when their nails are different shades, and we like being able to state what our mood is by showing it on our nails. Have fun with it.(Deborah Lippmann products are available at Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom Fashion Show Mall.) — Christie Moeller

iI used to walk two blocks from where I lived, and turn right to find myself in the middle of the throbbing hum of everyone I could possibly know in the same place at the same time — and all there for the same soul-thrilling reason I was. Topshop.

The gleaming, multi-story retail legend in London’s Oxford Circus made your heart pound with ex-citing and effortlessly wearable urban style. I walked into the store and wanted everything. It was a pitch-perfect orchestration of must-have merchandising, complete with music videos blaring from TVs installed in the façade. I’ll never forget the first time I heard Ash’s “Orpheus,” the subliminal incentive to spend with speed that made me want to dance up and down the 90,000 square feet of retail space alongside the thousands of people swiping at fashion forwardness with their credit cards.

My black wool coat found for 20 quid on sale, the blouse sported once or twice a year (else friends might grow tired of it) and a pair of earrings I wore every day that summer. All perfect, loved — and still with me. And maybe now that Topshop/Topman opens its third U.S. location — and one of its largest single-level stores — at Fashion Show Mall March 8 and we are reunited, I can relinquish my trophies.

Because Topshop straddles high and low fashion more widely than other trendy European chain imports, it offers rapid-fire interpretations of street fashion at moderately accessible pric-es. I’ve been reluctant to let go. It was the under-40s, not-entirely-secret source for distinctive pieces complimented without fail by total strangers.

Then Topshop blew up. Showing its own label at fashion weeks, famous collabora-tions, emerging designer programs ... the works. The Oxford Circus flagship sees more than 200,000 people in its store each week and fashion pioneers on the other side of the pond are turning to the likes of lesser-known River Island and Oasis.

But the Topshop secret isn’t quite out yet here, and I’m going to enjoy it while I can. It won’t be long before everyone knows where I got such a smart top. (Topshop/Top-man, inside the Fashion Show Mall, 866-0646) — Maureen Adamo

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This spring, the word is “color.” With a Warholesque array of shades in everything from handbags to heels and ready-to-wear dresses, stop traffic with this sea-son’s bright florals, electric blues, and fresh squeezed citrus hues. (Tip: Not feeling the ’80s color revival? Try pairing brights with neutral or pastel shades for a chic punch of color.) — C.M.

HigH BeamThe color of the season is,

well, colorful

C O L O r t r e n D

Deborah Lippmann Nail Lacquer in Mermaid’s Dream – $18, DeborahLippmann.com

Marni dress, $1,370, available at Marni Boutique in Crystals at CityCenter


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What with smartphone photo apps and cheap digital cameras, it seems everyone’s a photographer these days. not necessarily a good photogra-pher, but that’s why there are events such as “shooting the West,” a popular shutterbug convention in Winnemucca. if your desert landscape shots are often mistaken for accidental close-ups of body parts better left classified, this photo-fest is worth the drive. This year’s camera gurus include Al

Petteway and Amy White, as well as combat photographer Stacy Pearsall. no portfolio? leave las Vegas early and create one as you drive — you’ll have plenty of scenery to shoot. While you’re in Winnemucca, give your mouth a snapshot of the region’s Basque flavor at Ormachea’s Dinner House, (775) 623-3455, known for its solomo, a traditional dish of marinated pork loin. “Shooting the West” takes place March 7-11 in Winnemucca. info: shootingth-ewest.org. — Andrew Kiraly

sHOOt fiRst, Ask

quEstiOnsShooting the West

fORtificAtiOn Hill

from the eastern shore

of lake Mead, Fortifica-

tion Hill rises like, well, a

fortress. This moderately

strenuous hike starts with

an ascent along a ridge-

line, passing misplaced

boulders that seem to

have been hurled from

nearby cliffs. Beyond a

brief climbing section, the

mesa opens up and hikers

are rewarded with an

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The road is variable,

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Camry, though due to soft

sand, 4 x 4 is recom-

mended. — Alan Gegax

For much of summer, US High-way 50 — “The Loneliest Highway in America” — is anything but lonely. The route is heavy traveled by flocks of motorcyclists, as well as road-trip-pers in cars and RVs. In March, how-ever, the nickname fits. Drive this 775-mile loop that includes a route taken by pioneers, and get a feel for what those early adventurers experienced. Okay, no gun fights and saddle sores, but you can eat steak in a real old-time jail cell and sleep in a haunted hotel.

Heading north out of Las Vegas on US Highway 95, keep an eye peeled for the low but distinctive curved silhouette of the Sekhmet Temple. Ceremonies are held here on full moons, new moons and Wiccan holidays. Further north, Goldfield and Tonopah are living historical sites, their elegant, aged buildings evidence of the rich gold and silver mines that built Nevada. The Tonopah Mining Museum is well worth a visit — its exhibits cover an entire hillside.

Pass through Big Smoky Valley and turn east on the Lincoln Highway (US Highway 50) to find mark-ers showing the route of the Overland Stage, also used by wagon trains and the Pony Express. Pause in Eureka, which boasted more than 100 saloons, several upscale hotels, and an ornate opera house at the height of the 1878 mining boom. Restored and reopened in 1993, the opera house is presenting “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” on March 17.

The nicely restored Nevada Hotel in Ely is friendly — and haunted. Before crawling in bed with a ghost, enjoy a filet mignon at the Jailhouse Café across the

street, a real 19th-century hoosegow with tables be-hind the bars. Ely is also home to the incomparable Northern Nevada Railroad Museum, where restored, fully-functioning steam locomotives are on display and often take visitors on joyrides. On March 17, the “Keystone Excursion Train” departs at one o’clock for a scenic tour of the area.

Take the Great Basin Highway for the journey home, and see why the unimpeded views of “basin and range” geography — deep valleys sandwiched between saw-toothed mountains — attract geologists from around the globe. Then it’s back to Las Vegas — which is also known for mysterious magnetic powers. — Mark Sedenquist

Cheat sheet: North on US Hwy-93 to NV SR-376 and then east on US Hwy-50, returning on US Hwy-93 to I-15 for a 775-mile round trip. Visit desertcompan-ion.com for a link to a map of this trip.

D e s t i n a t i o n k n o W n

All by your lonesome on Highway 50 (except for the ghosts)

You can learn how to shoot landscapes like this at “Shooting the West.”

Hotel nevada

job #: 17339

client: The Mob Museum

title: Desert Companion March 2012 ______________________________

run date: March 2012

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And then there’s the truth. With one-of-a-kind artifacts, cutting-edge exhibits,

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job #: 17339

client: The Mob Museum

title: Desert Companion March 2012 ______________________________

run date: March 2012

release date: 2/14/12

release via: email______________________________

technician: Pam

software: InDesign CS5

color: CMYK

fonts: Neutraface 2 Text ______________________________

pub: Desert Companion

bleed size: 8.875” x 11.25”

trim size: 8.375” x 10.75”

live area: 7.625” x 10”

HI-RES MECHANICAL______________________________

spell check run: Pam______________________________

initial date

CD

CW

AD

prod mgr

designer

OK to produce

by: __________________________

date: ________________________

NOW OPEN

Downtown Las Vegas | Stewart Ave and 3rd

themobmuseum.org | 702.229.2734

And then there’s the truth. With one-of-a-kind artifacts, cutting-edge exhibits,

and a gripping, multisensory setting, we present that story.



aBest park for the whole familyCentennial Hills ParkSweet, glorious springtime is in effect year-round at Centennial Hills Park, with soaring flower and butterfly shade covers to make you want to kick your heels up and frolic. Children and those with a soft spot for whimsy will be en-thralled by the Alice in Wonderland vibe, com-pleted by red toadstool tables and little froggies that spit water. While younger children play on the tube slides and in the splash pad, older kids can burn off excess energy on the soccer field, volleyball court and a walking trail that details the history of the area. An amphitheater with more than 3,000 seats plays host to a variety of events including evening movies, and even the family pet can run amok in the dog runs. (That is, assuming your pet is a dog. If it is a cat or a bird, your pet will either be eaten by dogs or will fly away to be with the giant butterflies. You have been warned.) — Andrea Leal7101 N. Buffalo Drive

Best park for dogs (and their humans)Dog Fancier’s ParkThis park is to pooches what Disneyland is to kids — so much to do, to see, to sniff! Its location in a somewhat industrial/rural area adjacent to Horseman’s Park and the county’s Water Rec-lamation District office means there’s loads of room for Rover to run. The space is divided into five separate areas, one set aside for smaller and older dogs and two that are large enough for even a Border Collie to get his sprint on. The county allows groups to reserve areas 1-4, which also can be lit for after-dark events, so breed enthusiasts, groomers and trainers often meet here. The park has ample shade, spigots and picnic tables, and its longer-than-usual hours (6 a.m.-11 p.m.) allow pet owners to squeeze in a dog run pre- or post-work. One caveat: Patrons don’t clean up after their dogs as consistently as they should. Dog Fancier’s regulars could take a lesson from the citizens’ poop-patrol brigade at the Sunset Park Dog Park. — Heidi Kyser5800 E. Flamingo Road

Best park for runners Wetlands ParkClark County picked “Take a walk on the wild side” as its tagline for Wetlands Park, but you could easily replace it with “Run wild” if a faster pace is your thing. This is the place to hoof it in nature without hav-ing to go too far afield. The efforts of local conservationists to hang onto what’s left of the wetlands where the Las Vegas, Flamin-go and Tropicana Washes converge before spilling into Lake Mead have resulted in a

haven for fowl and small desert beasts. Des-ert Dash cofounder Dana Clark says she’s seen tons of wildlife in the secluded urban oasis. “The wash runs through (the park) and looks absolutely beautiful in spots with a cool bridge going over it as well,” she says, adding that benches, decks and overlooks make it a great place for resting, too. There are several miles of trails — two of which are paved, and most of which are for foot traf-fic only. The park is open dawn to dusk; the information center from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. And

Not just for picnics anymoreWhether you want to nosh with the family, log some miles or run your dogs ragged, there’s a perfect park for you

With outsized props and a splash pad, Centennial Hills Park will have the kids leaping for joy.

leisure

March 1st – 31st

6 actively selling neighborhoods

grand opening of adelina by Kb hoMe

Spring has arrived in Summerlin South, with flourishing new neighborhoods and another that is just about to bloom. And with it, comes an abundance of savings and incentives to help you get into your new home.

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Amado Ridge & Amado Crest by Richmond American HomesVentana Amado & Terraza Amado by Pulte Homes

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March 1st – 31st

6 actively selling neighborhoods

grand opening of adelina by Kb hoMe

Spring has arrived in Summerlin South, with flourishing new neighborhoods and another that is just about to bloom. And with it, comes an abundance of savings and incentives to help you get into your new home.

New Homes perfect for First-time Homebuyers to Retirees. Come grow with Summerlin South, during Spring Bloom, all month long.

Visit WelcomeToSummerlin.com for full details.

*See website for complete details and restrictions.

Amado Ridge & Amado Crest by Richmond American HomesVentana Amado & Terraza Amado by Pulte Homes

Ladera Terrace by Lennar

1,700 – 2,700 sq. ft.From the low $200’s

coMe see what spring has in store for suMMerlin south.

aMazing builder incentives available all Month long. plus, enter to win a $1,000 visa gift card*.

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000_000_PARKS.indd 21 2/23/12 10:55 AM


know this before you go: There’s only one drinking fountain, at the entrance, so take plenty of water. — H.K.7050 Wetlands Park Lane

Best park for actually learning somethingNature Discovery ParkAliante Nature Discovery Park offers visitors the opportunity to explore and relax in equal measure. Walking trails, a man-made lake, and a large dinosaur-themed sandbox help make this park a popular place to visit on weekend after-noons. For kids, the park offers two playground areas: a small set of slides for younger children and an elaborate, multi-story playground for old-er kids, which includes tunnel slides and plenty of ladders and steps to climb. One of the high-lights: A giant triceratops skull located next to a vast sandbox. Future paleontologists can even unearth replica dinosaur bones. In the summer, a splash pad offers relief from the heat. Visitors of all ages can enjoy the walking trail that winds around a duck pond and a waterfall. The large grass-covered field is the perfect spot for a game of soccer or relaxing in the sun. Those seeking shade can have a picnic in the covered pavilion. But you’ll enjoy the picnic more if you get some exercise first: The 20-acre park also offers ten-nis, bocce, and sand volleyball courts and horse-shoe pits. — Sarah Vernetti2627 Nature Park Drive

Best park for a showdownExploration Peak Park For some Wild West adventure, Exploration Peak is your cup of sarsaparilla. This park at Mountain’s Edge has simulated storefronts that look just like an Old West town, complete with a

stagecoach that kids can climb into and four little pretend horses they can ride. The buildings have quaint, old-timey signs like “Assessor’s Office” and “Las Vegas Townsite Co.,” but inside they harbor play space rather than outlaws (phew!). Mock gunfights at the O.K. Corral can be re-enacted, and the assumed identities of Wild Bill Hickok and Jesse James just might be in evidence. When the children have finished their showdowns, they can roll down the grassy hills, cool off in the splash pad, climb up the lookout tower, or play in the simulated archeological dig site to search for dinosaur bones. — A.L.9700 S. Buffalo Drive

Best park for a peaceful playtimeReunion Trails ParkNo doubt you dislike seeing your kids knocked over by apparently feral children at the more crowded parks in town, so give your babies a break by taking them to Reunion Trails Park. Since it just opened in December, it’s as yet relatively undiscovered and magnificently peaceful. Adding to the serenity is an M.C. Escher-inspired layout and design that truly

sets it apart from other parks. The play struc-ture for older kids, instead of being the typical plastic sort, has a futuristic metal artistry to it that includes high-tech versions of park classics like the merry-go-round. And sure, there are regular swings for the traditionalist, but there are also large metallic saucer swings that look like UFOs and let you swing while lying down inside the saucer. A labyrinth at the far end of

Left: Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs. Above: Exploration Peak Park. Right: Na-ture Discovery Park

leisure

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the park, benches in surreal shapes and eye-catching patterned designs on the walls provide intrigue, while a tiny child-sized amphitheater is wide open for when your kid is in the mood to be puttin’ on the ritz. — A.L.44 Chapata Drive

Best park for a picnicFloyd Lamb Park at Tule SpringsIf you want to tear into a pheasant with your family in a classic Old World picnic, Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs is sure to please. With more than 2,000 acres of grass, lakes and trees, you’re bound to find an idyllic spot where you can rusticate with your kids, the family dog, and maybe even some extended family. Adding to the beauty of the natural scenery are peacocks, ducks, swans and geese. (Just be sure to keep a close watch on small children, because bird beaks and babies don’t mix.) When you’ve finished lingering about, take your afternoon constitutional along any one of the hiking trails. If you do a little fur-ther exploration, you’ll also find the historic buildings of Tule Springs Ranch, including an old barn where children can pet the horses. So gather up your red gingham napkins and get going, because that potato salad isn’t going to eat itself. — Andrea Leal9200 Tule Springs Road

Best all-around parkSunset ParkSunset Park is the Swiss Army knife of parks. It’s got a Frisbee golf course, a pond stocked with fish and standard-issue indignant geese, running paths, picnic tables, basketball and tennis courts, volleyball pits, barbecue stands and, most recently, a renovated dog park that has all the pooch-lovers joyfully wagging their tongues. Little wonder Sunset is the epicenter of such diverse happenings. On the right day, you can feel like you’re rampaging Pee Wee Herman-style through Hollywood movie sets, maneuvering among Renfair dukes and dam-sels and beery punk rock reunions and bomp-ing familia barbecues that take on a joyous, carnival air. Of course, there are quieter plea-sures, too. Fishing, while perhaps not advised at parks as a source of nutritional sustenance, is a popular pastime here, and don’t forget the winding trail system snaking through all the desert-type stuff buffering the south and east ends in a thick, naturey cushion of dunes and mesquite. Or you can just unfold your chair and stare into the grim, inscrutable faces of the Easter Island knockoff idols. Like I said, diversity. — Andrew Kiraly 2601 E. Sunset Road


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000_000_PARKS.indd 23 2/24/12 11:22 AM

y24 | Desert Companion | March 2012

You’d be hard-pressed to find a soul in Las Vegas who isn’t happy about this month’s opening of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts. But few are happier than members of the center’s two resident compa-nies, the Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Ne-vada Ballet Theater.

“We have great plans for the philharmonic, and The Smith Center is the catalyst to accom-plish those plans,” says Jeri Crawford, presi-

dent and CEO of the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Beth Barbre, executive director and CEO of Nevada Ballet Theatre, says, “This puts us on the map, nationally.”

Being a resident company isn’t exactly what the name implies; the ballet and orches-tra haven’t picked up and moved — tutus and trombones in tow — into the new facility that anchors Symphony Park. Nevertheless, the arrangement will require the same delicate

give-and-take that keeps any cohabitation harmonious. And after the honeymoon of their hype-filled 2012 half-season is over, the hard work of living happily ever after begins.

Falling in loveIf being a resident company doesn’t mean residing physically in the center, what does it mean? It usually means an arts group is based in the same town where a venue is locat-

A home for the arts — our artsWhat will The Smith Center mean for local performing arts groups? Nothing less than a quantum leap

By heiDi kyser | Photograph Christopher smith

Sure, The Smith Center is a perform-ing arts center, but it’s also a home — to local arts groups.

culture

HEAR MOREListen to an interview with Smith Center President and CEO Myron Martin

on “KNPR’s State of Nevada” at www.desertcompanion.com/hearmore

000_000_SMITH_CENTER.indd 24 2/23/12 11:03 AM


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ed, and that the group performs in the venue when it performs locally.

“The majority of what we do, unless it’s strictly contract work, which takes us to dif-ferent locations, will all be done at The Smith Center,” Crawford says. “We’ll be performing there almost monthly.”

Neither the philharmonic nor the ballet has offices, or permanent dressing rooms or lock-ers, at The Smith Center, but during periods of daily rehearsals for upcoming shows, art-ists can leave belongings in lockers overnight so they don’t have to haul them back and forth from home. And the organizations can use the facility for rehearsing, meeting donors and subscribers, and doing educational events and other community outreach.

Having a direct line to the community dis-tinguishes resident companies from the large touring acts that will appear at the center. James Canfield, artistic director for the Ne-vada Ballet Theater, says being a resident com-pany means “the artists live in the community, and they make and perform the art in the insti-tution for the community.”

Both the ballet, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in May, and the philharmonic, which will begin its 15th season this fall, have deep community ties. Their dancers and mu-sicians perform for school kids and attend cultural events such as First Friday, creating a human connection with the public that con-stitutes the center’s audience. Of course, lots of local troupes do that, but to be chosen as a resident company in a world-class performing arts facility requires more than just being sur place and having fans.

Nancy Houssels, who is on the boards of both the Nevada Ballet Theater and The Smith Center, says the role of resident companies was part of ongoing discussions during the center’s development.

“I think it evolved more into (asking) who were the professional companies in Las Vegas that had regular performances, contracts with their artists and a seat-full season,” Houssels says, “and the Nevada Ballet Theater and Las Vegas Philharmonic met those criteria. It was sort of a graceful evolution of choosing. Their residency became part of the plan.”

By the time Barbre took her position at Ne-vada Ballet Theatre in 2006, she says, residen-cy at The Smith Center was a done deal — in fact, it had a lot to do with why she and Can-field both made the move to Las Vegas.

Besides ballets and orchestras, performing arts centers also often have resident opera and theater companies. Houssels and My-ron Martin, president and CEO of The Smith

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Center, say they may add residents in the fu-ture, but the candidates would have to dem-onstrate sound business practices, financial strength, the ability to fill seats and, above all, artistic prowess.

These criteria suggest a flip side: the risk of losing resident company status if a group doesn’t measure up. Although the center will review the ballet’s and philharmonic’s con-

tracts annually, they’re already booking per-formances a few years away, suggesting they’re snugly tucked in for the foreseeable future.

going to the ChapelThe official arrangement the Smith Center has with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Nevada Ballet Theater underlines the resident companies’ independence; es-sentially, it’s a landlord-tenant situation. The

companies still do their own fundraising and marketing, while the center sells tickets to their events in the building.

However, because the resident companies are regular tenants — and because they’re local nonprofits that propagate arts in the commu-nity — they get special treatment. Martin says they pay lower rent than a regular nonprofit might, because the center wants to help culti-vate their success.

“We know what our rent will be and, at least for the first season or two, that amount is locked in,” Crawford says.

Perhaps more important — and potentially contentious — than rent are dates on the Smith Center’s calendar. Martin says, “We fill (the resident companies) into the calendar before we start accepting commercial bookings and weddings and state of the city addresses.” But while they’re top dogs locally, they take sec-ond billing to big-time productions such as “Wicked,” which will delay the Philharmonic’s 2012-13 season by nearly a month compared to its usual start.

Dione Kennedy, president and CEO of Per-forming Arts Fort Worth, which owns and operates Bass Hall, says scheduling can offer a center the chance to collaborate with its resi-dent companies — or be a source of friction. It all depends on whether everyone can sit down and hammer it out together.

“Every performing arts company has a subscription series, and they have to get in a certain number of performances to fill their subscription, so everyone will be try-ing to get those dates and working around the other groups that want those dates too,” says Kennedy, who’s been in the business 20-plus years. “Everybody wants to spread their shows out. Nobody wants to do things back to back, and everybody always wants to be on the weekends. It can be a struggle. In a new center, like Smith, which will be in high de-mand, it can be especially challenging.”

After the first few years, though, a routine develops. By the time she arrived at Bass Hall, Kennedy adds, everyone knew the drill. Her main job was to make sure everyone had a seat at the table.

the honeymoonBeing resident companies at the Smith Center gives a gigantic boost to the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Nevada Ballet The-ater. The title represents an artistic maturity that will be trumpeted far and wide.

“It gives them a world-class stage to per-form on,” Martin says, “and in doing so should elevate their level of performance, make them

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Most important to the community is how the marriage between The Smith Center and resident companies will benefit children.

more visible, increase their audience and, hopefully, make them more successful.”

The relationship benefits The Smith Cen-ter, too. Both the ballet and philharmonic have large, loyal audiences. Crawford says her group has some 1,200 annual subscribers — a number that’s risen 15 to 20 percent per year during the recession.

The public stands to reap the greatest re-wards. There are philosophical gains, such as The Smith Center’s mission of cultivating lo-cal talent. There are psychological benefits, such as a patron’s joy at claiming a certain seat in the same theater, show after show, for his full subscription. And there’s the emotional charge of seeing fine art performed live, with music and elaborate staging, the way its cre-ators intended.

Canfield says, “It’s the relationship between art and artist and music and movement and audience. It’s live! You don’t push ‘go’ and it’s like last night. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Most important to the community, arts offi-cials say, the marriage between the performing

arts center and resident companies benefits children. The ballet and philharmonic both have educational programs that expose kids to dance and music; the facilities at The Smith Center — and the proximity of the Discovery Children’s Museum and other cultural institu-tions downtown — open more time and space to expand those programs. Both Crawford and Barbre are planning collaborations with the children’s museum.

Abstractions aside, there are plenty of ma-terial advantages. Here’s one everyone can ap-plaud: jobs. Mario Garcia Durham, President and CEO of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, says, “We know from the National Endowment for the Arts that Las Vegas is one of the leading employers of performing artists in the nation.” A great big new space equals more jobs for these local folks.

The philharmonic employs scores of musi-cians — as many as 80 per performance — and pays them union-scale wages. Crawford says her goal is to see the group become a full-time orchestra, playing up to 30 weeks a year. She admits it’s a distant goal, but the optimism marks a notable turn for an organization that, three years ago, had to cut staff (including its executive director) to weather the plight of disappearing donations.

The ballet, too, saw revenue shrink during the recession, but both resident companies expect to grow now that they’re at The Smith Center.

Barbre says, “We’ve moved from a 550-seat theater at (UNLV’s) Judy Bayley Theater, to the Paris Theater, which has 1,500-plus seats. We’ve been able to grow while Caesars En-tertainment has hosted us, and now we’ll


grow more.” “The Nutcrack-er,” which she says generates about 75 percent of the ballet’s earned revenue, will take place in The Smith Center’s 2,050-seat Reynolds Hall.

Crawford says she gets as many as five calls a day from agents and artists interested in performing with the philhar-monic, because they’re eager to take the stage in the new hall. And big-name guests translate to higher ticket sales.

She also believes the center will help further the philharmon-ic’s efforts to attract more Asians, Hispanics and young people. “A brand-new facility offers the opportunity to expand the rep-ertoire we can perform, and en-hance the concert experience for an even broader audience.”

Couples therapyAll these gains, of course, come with some costs.

Martin says the center loses money when the resident com-panies are in-house, because they take dates away from higher-paying shows and be-cause the center charges them less in rent than it costs to op-erate the building.

Despite the break on rent, the ballet and philharmonic are paying more than they did at their former venues. That’s not to mention the unknown, back-of-house costs. Services like ca-tering, and light and sound engi-neering are not provided by the center, and nobody knows yet what their tab will be.

All that’s on top of the com-panies’ existing costs, such as marketing and salaries. Crawford says mu-sician pay alone can add up to $75,000 per concert today. The ballet raises funds spe-cifically to cover the expense of live music.

Also, having a bigger space and selling more tickets won’t automatically translate into greater donor support. The pool of big-name arts philanthropists in Las Vegas is small, and all three entities (the ballet, the performing arts center and the philharmon-ic) are already vying for their dollars.

“Our subscription sales account for about 40 percent of our costs,” Crawford says. “We have at least another 60 percent to raise.”

Asked whether the resident companies would have any promotional opportunities at the center to recognize sponsors, other than in programs, Martin says, “There are people who will be exposed to the Las Vegas Phil-harmonic and the Nevada Ballet Theater for the first time, simply because it’s Friday night and they want to go to The Smith Center, and that’s who’s performing. We’re actually go-


Star treatmentThe Las Vegas Philharmonic and Nevada Ballet Theater won’t be the only artists able to bask in the high-tech and high-touch amenities of the new Smith Center for the Performing Arts, but they’ll get to enjoy them a little more frequently. Among them: four “star” dressing rooms with showers and refrigerators, first-floor dressing rooms with natural light, six green rooms, catering services, laundry services, security and more.

All this pampering pales in comparison to the

benefits of the building itself, some of which

no other Vegas venue has.

• The Troesh Studio Theater, a standalone

rehearsal space or theater that seats up to

250, is perfect for dancers, with its sprung

floor, mirrors and ballet bars. James Can-

field, artistic director for the Nevada Ballet

Theatre, says it’s difficult to overstate the

importance of proper flooring for dancers —

and The Smith Center has it in both Troesh

and Reynolds.

• Reynolds Hall’s orchestra-quality sound shell. The Smith Center hired its acoustician

before its architect. His design included a

36-inch-thick concrete sub-basement and

12-inch-thick concrete slab roof with an

air gap, plus another 10 inches of sound-

proofing — all to block the sounds of trains,

jets and autos.

• A modifiable pit comprises two sections

that can be raised and lowered to either

accommodate an 80-piece orchestra, or a

smaller orchestra plus 41 additional front-row

seats. Oh, and those musicians will also be

able to take an elevator from the pit to their

locker room and prep areas directly below.

• Indoor, lockable storage areas for road equipment that hold up to a couple dozen

road cases. Glenn Medas, the Smith Center’s

director of artist services, says roadies will

appreciate it immensely. — H.K.

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ing to help grow audiences for them. It’s up to them at that point to put on a show that people like enough that they want to come back.”

Any couples therapist will tell you: Money matters cause the most tiffs.

“Sometimes you have the landlord versus tenant feeling,” Kennedy says. “Again, that’s best addressed by talking face to face and rec-ognizing that if things didn’t go the way you wanted, it’s probably not because the other party intended that.”

the ChemistryOvercoming any domestic struggles that may arise will be worth it for the shows. In The Smith Center’s inaugural season (or half-season, since it’s just the spring), The Nevada Ballet Theater will put on “One Step Closer” in the Troesch Studio Theater and perform for its 40th anniversary gala in Reynolds Hall. (This will also be the first time the philharmonic accompanies the ballet at the center.)

The Las Vegas Philharmonic has its first gig at The Smith Center March 24, perform-ing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resur-rection,” in Reynolds Hall. At the same time, it’ll unveil a new brand. The group has two more performances there this spring, form-ing a mini-series that Crawford says sold quite well.

In 2012-2013, things heat up. The philhar-monic expects to have nine performances for the season, not counting the times it plays for other groups, such as the ballet’s “The Nut-cracker” in December. The ballet opens its season with Balanchine’s “Jewels” in October. In an unusual twist, a different company will execute each of the three movements — Salt Lake City’s Ballet West will dance “Emer-alds”; the Nevada Ballet Theater will do “Ru-bies”; and the Pacific Northwest Ballet will take “Diamonds.”

Both groups are notably excited about their new performance home. Canfield says the bal-let is totally overhauling “The Nutcracker” for the first time in more than 10 years. “It will al-low us to do everything we can with it — involve the community, raise awareness of dance, edu-cate audiences, bring in more revenue to the company. We’ll be able to recognize not only corporations and foundations, but also smaller businesses and allow them to participate.”

Crawford is mum on details for 2012-2013, hinting only that there will be stellar guests. But what a hint it is: “It will be our most dy-namic season ever.”

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s34 | Desert Companion | March 2012

Something crazy happened in Las Vegas in the spring of 2010 — something or-ganic, hopeful and real amid rising unemploy-ment and foreclosure rates and an all-around dismal business environment. A wave of friendly, casual, neighborhood eateries started opening up all across our city. Somehow, as the Strip struggled and fine to mid-level din-ing destinations considered closing, a group of entrepreneurs — seemingly out of nowhere — stepped up, took risks and sparked something.

Gourmet sliders. Korean tacos. An entire menu of spicy stuff based on New Mexico Hatch chiles. Their food was fun, cheap and sometimes completely new. Their approach

was fresh. Unlike the rest of the aggressively competitive restaurant biz, these operators fre-quently worked together and produced their own community events to spotlight their busi-nesses. They moved fast, they used the Internet to spread their delicious gospel instead of pay-ing for advertising, and they found success.

The crucial part of this movement was that it was completely local. It had nothing to do with the Strip, and therefore was a breakthrough for the community’s food culture. It was another inch to be marked in the continuing Las Vegas grow-up. And it was served on wheels.

In other cities, the concept of mobile eats is either deeply ingrained (see the New York

City hot dog cart) or a fashionable exten-sion of a diverse dining fellowship (see hip food trucks in L.A., Austin and Portland). In Vegas, the food truck scene might be more meaningful because of the times, and be-cause it defies that old stigma that we lack culture and community. If you dig a little deeper, you’ll find it’s really just an innova-tive branch growing from the food and bev-

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Training wheelsthe next phase of the food truck revolution: restaurants

(and menus) that are here to stay

By BroCk raDke | Photography Christopher smith

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000_000_DINING.indd 34 2/23/12 10:30 AM

erage industry tree, and much too interest-ing to be dismissed as just a trend.

“It gave an opportunity to some really cre-ative operators with fresh ideas, a place for them to experiment and then parlay that into a traditional restaurant experience,” says John Arena, co-owner of the local Metro Pizza chain. “In this economy, there wasn’t going to be that opportunity for a lot of people.”

wheel flavorThe second wave: Successful operators using the surging popularity of food trucks to build their brands with an eye on creating permanent, stationary, traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants. Arena is an ex-perienced restaurateur who jumped on board by creating Lulu’s On The Move, a mobile op-eration that serves as a tasty tease for what’s next — a Lulu’s bakery and café next door to Metro’s northwest location, set to open this spring. The baker on board Lulu’s truck, Chris Herrin, is making his own mark with Bread & Butter (10940 S. Eastern Ave. #107, 675-3300),

Opposite page: Slidin’ Thru’s new (stationary) location; its Buffalo Soldier slider. This page: Grouchy John’s John Ynigues


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WE’RE AT THE HEAD OFTHE CLASS AND AT THE

HEART OF THE COMMUNITY.

T O G E T H E R , W E S H I N E .

A s S o u t h e r n N e v a d a ’ s o n l y p u b l i c h o s p i t a l , o u r r o l e

i n y o u r h e a l t h i s m o r e i m p o r t a n t t h a n e v e r . To g i v e

the commu n i t y the h ig he s t pos s ib le leve l o f ca re i s a

mission we take, if you’ll forgive the expression, to heart.

We’re especially proud of our Cardiology department, the most highly awarded in Nevada.

UMC is the only hospital in Nevada to receive dist inguished Gold Plus awards this year from the American Hear t Associat ion, speci f ica l ly for the care of hear t fa i lure and stroke patients. More than that, UMC also r e c e i v e d a G o l d a w a r d f o r h i g h performance in the “ACTION Registry – Get With The Guidelines” program for acute cardiac care.

The Joint Commission accredited UMC as a Primary Stroke Center, recognizing our dedication to offering the fastest, most sophisticated treatment available, resulting in the best possible outcomes for our pat ients . At UMC, a s t roke patient can be treated in among the nat ion’s fastest t imes—right when e v e r y m i n u t e c o u n t s . A n d w e ’ r e here, for that very reason, 24 hours a day.

U M C C a r d i o l o g y h a s r e c e i v e d acc red i ta t ion f rom the Soc ie t y o f Chest Pain Centers, an international organization dedicated to eliminating hea r t d i sease a s the numbe r one

worldwide cause of death. We were recognized for our timely assessment

o f c a r d i a c p a t i e n t s ; p h y s i c i a n s , nu r se s and suppo r t s t a f f w i th an int r icate understanding of cardiac care; a monitoring program to ensure tho rough as se s sme nt o f l ow- r i sk patients; PCI (angioplasty procedures that unblock arteries) and community outreach efforts.

A n d we have ou r M a r l o n Ca r d i ac C a t h e t e r i z a t i o n L a b o r a t o r y , t o investigate, diagnose and treat heart ailments. This new lab is yet another way to br ing the best hear t care to our community.

The awards all have a reason: we save rea l l ives here, ever y day. We heal the hearts of your friends, neighbors and family. We are here for you, and because of you. Which makes UMC’s Card io logy and St roke Program a community achievement—something we all can be proud of.

u m c s n . c o m

a neighborhood breakfast and lunch joint near Anthem that opened in late 2011.

We’ve already seen the first wave of food trucks transitioning into restaurants. Slidin’ Thru, credited as Vegas’ first gourmet food truck, also struck first when it comes to brick and mortar, taking over a kitchen in an indus-trial-area video poker bar last spring. In De-cember, the slider truck crew opened a loca-tion with a drive-through window at Durango Drive just off the northwest Beltway (6440 N. Durango Drive, 645-1570), with plans to open another restaurant in the southwest valley in May.

“I don’t think I really knew, when I started, where this would go,” says creator Ric Guerre-ro. “The overall goal was always to get into the business somehow, and I saw my opportunity to do that with the truck. It was something that was starting to resonate around the coun-try, and there was nothing like it in Vegas.”

After its local truck built tremendous buzz behind Japanese-influenced burg-ers, Fukuburger opened its first restaurant in Hollywood in October. After piloting his Asian café concept on a truck, veteran Strip chef Sheridan Su opened Great Bao (4965 W. Tropicana Ave. #105, 900-2168) in a hair salon on Tropicana Avenue. Grouchy John’s, a yellow trailer serving some of the valley’s most carefully crafted coffee drinks, is set to open a storefront this month at Mary-land Parkway and Wigwam Avenue (8520 S. Maryland Parkway, 608-5195).

John Ynigues is the completely non-grouchy operator behind Grouchy John’s Coffee, perhaps the most mobile of these mo-bile vendors. After losing his tech industry job in 2009, he decided to create his own gig, and a store was always the objective. “One of the things you do when looking for jobs is go to coffee shops, to get out of the house and sit for a while and look for jobs,” he said. “So Sunrise Coffee was my hangout, and that’s where I realized how good coffee was. I learned more about it and decided to take the leap, and that was the same time the trucks were getting hot. So it all coalesced.”

Ynigues believes the main reason the Ve-gas food truck revolution may have cooled off is the fundamental handicap local op-erators have to work around: “We can’t go where the population is. In other cities, trucks can go downtown where everyone works and park and serve the people. Right now, there is nowhere on the Strip where we can go.”

dining

000_000_DINING.indd 36 2/23/12 10:30 AM


heavy traffiCThere may never be a home for food trucks on the Strip, where casino competi-tion overwhelms all, but the City of Las Ve-gas has been holding meetings to address simplifying licensing issues. There’s even a proposal on the table to create food truck-friendly zones.

“Food truck hot spots would be cool,” Guerrero said. “I’ve heard objections that it takes away from the spontaneity of it, the renegade approach, but that isn’t really a big part of it. We’ve definitely seen that trucks do better when there are more of them together.”

Not surprisingly, downtown is emerging as the new hub for food truckage. It is home to the monthly Vegas StrEATs festival, a collaboration between Slidin’ Thru and the El Cortez, and the revamped First Friday includes a wide variety of street food offer-ings. Local truckers know special events can provide that elusive big payoff, the closest thing to guaranteed success for this vaga-bond business model. That’s why they love to congregate; it also creates a laidback fes-tival vibe for followers who enjoy sampling the goods from different trucks.

Hitting the streets was the first step to res-taurant success for Jolene Mannina, too, but the creator of Sloppi Jo’s Roving Eatery had a very specific plan in mind. What she didn’t have planned out was how much she’d learn from the food truck experience, and how many other doors would open. “It was a two-year plan for me, a chance to learn as much as I could and see if I had enough motivation and push to make it happen,” she said.

A true Vegas veteran and longtime server at N9ne Steakhouse, Mannina ran the Slop-pi Jo’s truck for about a year, selling lots of those Hatch chiles and building quite the following, before selling the truck. But she got everything she wanted out of her tasty road trip, and then some. Today she con-tinues to host the Saturday Night Truck Stop weekly food truck festival at Tommy Rocker’s, just kicked off a monthly pop-up dinner called ChowDowntown at the Lady Silvia bar, and is creeping closer to open-ing her dream restaurant with chef partner Joshua Clark.

“I’m very lucky. I worked really hard and it’s starting to pay off,” she says. “I met so many amazing people in the last year, and compared to working so long at restaurants, it’s a totally different scene.” Mannina’s restaurant will be downtown. “It’s funny because what everyone thinks

I’m doing is not what I’m doing. I started working on this concept six years ago, and I started looking downtown six years ago. For what I want to do, the time is right, and I’m ready.”

Just because food truckers are adapting and expanding doesn’t mean the street food scene is dying. New trucks are popping up. Ichi Mas uses guest chefs and cooks up a wild take on Latin-Asian fusion. Chi-Town Hustler serves Chicago dogs, Polish sausages and Ital-ian beef sandwiches. The Rusty Pickle does fresh salads and sandwiches, mac and cheese pot pies and Cajun fried pickles.

Operators who decide to get out of the game are finding anxious buyers ready to hit the streets. The Philly’s Famous Italian Ice truck was sold to Pop’s Cheesesteaks last year. The red cart in front of Lee’s Discount Liquor on West Lake Mead Boulevard, once HanShikTaco, is now Roamin’ Dough. Ben’s BBQ and Smokehouse has been sold to the crew that runs the Sin City Wings truck. And on it goes.

“Street food is part of any real city’s food culture. It’s vital and it’s something that Ve-gas has always been missing,” Guerrero said. “Of course people want to say that ‘the fad’s died off.’ It’s not true. People always gotta eat. If you make it convenient, if you bring a party, there’s always gonna be a need for that. You can’t tell the hot dog cart in New York that he’s just a trend.”

m ay w e r e Co m m e n D…

PB&J BriOChe aT Bread & BuTTer. It is impossible to pick a favorite pastry at Bread & Butter. Owner Chris Herrin has baked for Bouchon and Lulu’s On The Move, so he’s got refined but playful baking on lock. Hopefully this nostalgic, decadent treat is situated in his display case when you visit, a sweet and savory treasure in an ethereal egg-and-butter wondercloud. — Brock Radke

BuffalO SOldier aT Slidin’ Thru. This spicy-creamy mini-sandwich worked its way from a daily special on the truck to a regular menu item at Slidin’ Thru’s north-west drive-through spot. A tender chicken filet — slider-size, of course — is breaded, fried, smothered in Frank’s hot sauce and topped with lettuce, tomato and melty pro-volone. It’s about a four-biter, and each munch is packed with addictive amounts of crunch and zing. — B.R.

000_000_DINING.indd 37 2/23/12 10:30 AM

Dine in Style.

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SmashburgerAward-winning smashburger serves 100-percent Certified Angus Beef cooked-to-order smashburgers, as well as smashchicken sandwiches, smashdogs, smashsalads, Häagen-dazs shakes, and sides like veggie frites and rosemary and garlic-seasoned smash-fries, daily from 10am-10pm.

7541 W. lake Mead Blvd (702) 982-0009 9101 W. Sahara (702) 462-5500 5655 Centennial Center Blvd. (702) 462-5503 4725 S Maryland Pkwy (702) 385-0043

Ferraro’s italian RestaurantFerraro’s is Italian dining at its best! enjoy Ferraro’s traditional family recipes for lunch, dinner, or late-night dining. A selection of our homemade pastas, sauces, and cookies are available for you to take home and enjoy at your leisure. Gift baskets filled with Ferraro’s favorites and gift cards are also available for any occasion.

4480 Paradise Rd., las Vegas, nV(702) 364-5300www.ferraroslasvegas.com

Khoury’s MediterraneanKhoury’s prides itself on excellence in the preparation of food, presentation and quality of service. serving some of the finest Lebanese cuisine available in Las vegas, Khoury’s restaurant will stimulate and delight your senses. Close your eyes as you savour this fantastic food and drink, and you’ll feel you’ve stepped into the heart of Beirut.

6115 S. Fort Apache #100, las Vegas, nV (702) 671-0005 www.khouryslv.com

table 34Featuring Chef Wes Kendricks’ contemporary American cuisine including safe harbor certified fresh fish, wild game, duck, lamb, angus beef, and comfort food classics. Conveniently located off the 215 near the Airport. dinner tuesday - saturday 5pm until closing (around 10pm)

600 east Warm Springs Roadlas Vegas, nV 89119(702) 263-0034

At your Service CateringAt Your service Catering has been serving the Las vegas area with the best in culinary creations and high profile event planning and design since 1991. Our expertise allows us to handle events of all sizes, from simple to extravagant. Fully licensed for both food and liquor service, we are more than caterers - we are full-service event planners.

Dominic and Joseph De Patta633 n. Decatur Blvd. Suite Dlas Vegas, nV 89107(702) 870-1502 www.Ayscater.com

Brio tuscan GrilleIn tuscany the food is everything. tuscan Culinary Creations are mastered at Brio using the finest and freshest ingredients. Brio brings the pleasures of the tuscan country villa to the American City.

6653 las Vegas Blvd. So., town Square, las Vegas, nV (702) 914-9145 www.brioitalian.com

000_000_DINING.indd 38 2/23/12 10:30 AM

Dine in Style.

AdvertIsement

SmashburgerAward-winning smashburger serves 100-percent Certified Angus Beef cooked-to-order smashburgers, as well as smashchicken sandwiches, smashdogs, smashsalads, Häagen-dazs shakes, and sides like veggie frites and rosemary and garlic-seasoned smash-fries, daily from 10am-10pm.

7541 W. lake Mead Blvd (702) 982-0009 9101 W. Sahara (702) 462-5500 5655 Centennial Center Blvd. (702) 462-5503 4725 S Maryland Pkwy (702) 385-0043

Ferraro’s italian RestaurantFerraro’s is Italian dining at its best! enjoy Ferraro’s traditional family recipes for lunch, dinner, or late-night dining. A selection of our homemade pastas, sauces, and cookies are available for you to take home and enjoy at your leisure. Gift baskets filled with Ferraro’s favorites and gift cards are also available for any occasion.

4480 Paradise Rd., las Vegas, nV(702) 364-5300www.ferraroslasvegas.com

Khoury’s MediterraneanKhoury’s prides itself on excellence in the preparation of food, presentation and quality of service. serving some of the finest Lebanese cuisine available in Las vegas, Khoury’s restaurant will stimulate and delight your senses. Close your eyes as you savour this fantastic food and drink, and you’ll feel you’ve stepped into the heart of Beirut.

6115 S. Fort Apache #100, las Vegas, nV (702) 671-0005 www.khouryslv.com

table 34Featuring Chef Wes Kendricks’ contemporary American cuisine including safe harbor certified fresh fish, wild game, duck, lamb, angus beef, and comfort food classics. Conveniently located off the 215 near the Airport. dinner tuesday - saturday 5pm until closing (around 10pm)

600 east Warm Springs Roadlas Vegas, nV 89119(702) 263-0034

At your Service CateringAt Your service Catering has been serving the Las vegas area with the best in culinary creations and high profile event planning and design since 1991. Our expertise allows us to handle events of all sizes, from simple to extravagant. Fully licensed for both food and liquor service, we are more than caterers - we are full-service event planners.

Dominic and Joseph De Patta633 n. Decatur Blvd. Suite Dlas Vegas, nV 89107(702) 870-1502 www.Ayscater.com

Brio tuscan GrilleIn tuscany the food is everything. tuscan Culinary Creations are mastered at Brio using the finest and freshest ingredients. Brio brings the pleasures of the tuscan country villa to the American City.

6653 las Vegas Blvd. So., town Square, las Vegas, nV (702) 914-9145 www.brioitalian.com


Eating healthy doesn’t have to mean not eating delicious. As proof, I offer Exhibit A: Layers Bakery Café. Layers is a bakery and café; however, their fervent use of all natural ingredients sets them apart from their competitors. Their menu says, “All Natural. No Preservatives. No Artificial Ingredients” and their offerings strongly abide by this motto. It’d been a while since I visited, so a recent sunny Satur-day morning seemed like a great time to reacquaint myself with the Henderson spot. Given that I live near Summerlin, the trek is quite a commitment for a meal, so I was hoping Layers wouldn’t disappoint. In particular, I was looking forward to another bowl of breakfast soup.

Breakfast soup? Yeah, it’s a must-have at Layers, and I’m glad to report it’s as good as ever. The intrigu-ing dish consists of a house-made chicken stock with sage, afloat with a mixture of scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, spinach, onions and carrots. What reads like

cacophony is actually a symphony — this savory soup is a perfect starter for our cooler winter months. It’s served with a buttered piece of the daily bread selec-tion; my only complaint is you’ll need another piece before finishing the bowl.

Not in a “soup for breakfast” mood? Then I suggest a scone-wich. It’s a simple dish — your choice of a savory scone topped with a single fried organic egg, with the option to add bacon or ham. During my visit, I chose the bacon and cheddar scone — a classic combination — with egg, and although my “over hard” egg arrived “over easy” instead, the classic combination did not disappoint.

Like Whole Foods, Layers’ “all-natural, all-organ-ic” offerings come at a price; however, the quality merits it. It’s good enough to make the drive across town worthwhile, all while longingly wishing it was a west side joint. If it’s in your neighborhood, why aren’t you there already?

on the plate

March’s dining events you don’t want to miss

restaurant week

throuGh marCh 4. A plethora of Las Vegas’

finest restaurants join to-gether for a great cause. Enjoy first-rate culinary

fare while helping to pro-vide meals for more than 300,000 men, women and children struggling with hunger in Southern Nevada. During Restau-rant Week you can enjoy an exclusive three-course menu for $20.12-$50.12, with a portion of each meal donated to Three

Square Food Bank. Various locations,

helpoutdineoutlv.org

BorDer Grill’s CookinG Class

marCh 3. A two-hour demonstration-style

cooking class with Execu-tive Chef Mike Minor at Border Grill Las Vegas

at Mandalay Bay. Guests receive a multi-course

lunch, signature cocktails and a recipe booklet. The class includes demonstra-

tions of Michelada, Pe-ruvian Shrimp and Grits, Yucatan Egg Benedict, Churro Tots, and Short

Rib Hash and Egg. 11am-1 p.m., $75. Border Grill in Mandalay Bay, 632-7403

fresh52 farmers &

artisan market

saturDays anD sunDays. Choice

vendors with organic and pesticide/chemical-free seasonal produce,

freshly baked goods and gourmet condiments,

handmade modern crafts, artisans and more. The

Walk In, located inside Las Vegas Land Rover, has

perishable items such as pastas, honey and herbs.

Saturdays in March, 8 a.m-1 p.m. at Tivoli Village;

Sundays in March 8:30 a.m-1 p.m. at Sansone Park Place. Free. fresh52.com

Layers’ scone-wich, a savory scone topped with a single fried organic egg

Layers Bakery Café 665 s. Green VaLLey Parkway, 221-2253, www.LayersBakery.Com

a n o m y m o u s : w e C o m e , w e e a t , w e D i s h

Layers Bakery CaféThis Green Valley pastry stop offers much more than just sweet stuff

By Jim BeGley | Photograph Christopher smith

000_000_DINING.indd 39 2/23/12 10:30 AM


Di Fara Special at Dom Demarco’s

It’s every New Yorker’s God-given right to lament the absence of good pizza in Vegas. But with the arrival of Dom DeMarco’s, consider my maw muzzled. The Di Fara Special — named after the pizzeria’s main camp in Brooklyn — wipes the floor with competing deep-dish pies. The square-cut behemoth, cooked in cast iron, boasts a crust with crisp, rich edges and a light, soft crumb. Thick coins of pep-peroni are strewn across the top to please the pork-lover, while ribbons of basil add a fresh finish. Make like a real New Yorker and elbow your tablemates so you can stake your claim on a piece of the pie. — Debbie LeeDom Demarco’s Pizzeria & Bar 9785 W. charleston BlvD., 570-7000

potteD Farm egg at Public House

Before every trace of winter is gone, before the weather gets warm enough to discourage you from indulging in ultra-hearty, crazy rich, soul-satisfying grub, for the love of all that is holy, get down to Public House and eat this now. It’s hard to choose from the list of small plates at this new gastropub, but this is a no-brainer: crusty chunks of sourdough bread riding shotgun with a cast-iron dish of savory gravy with forest mushrooms, melting ricotta cheese and a soft cooked egg. Dip away, and feel no guilt. — Brock RadkePuBlic house insiDe the venetian, 407-5310.

eat this now!Our favorite recent dishes that have

us coming back for seconds

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EyEs on thE prizE

WRX STI®. Well-equipped at $34,095†

Impossible is possible with the 2012 Impreza WRX STI. A 305-hp SUBARU BOXER®

engine and Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive scream performance. An aggressive body and

a track-tuned suspension give you the confidence that will make you a believer. Amazing?

Yep. Impossible? Not at all. Love. It’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru.

†MSRP excludes destination and delivery charges, tax, title and registration fees. Dealer sets actual price. 2012 Subaru WRX STI Limited pictured has an MSRP of $37,445.

Walk on water.

Subaru of Las Vegas 5385 West Sahara Avenue

(702) 495-2100 Subaruoflasvegas.com†MSRP excludes destination and delivery charges, tax, title and registration fees. Dealer sets actual price. 2012 Subaru WRX STI Limited pictured has an MSRP of $37,445.

Walk on water.

000_000_HIKES.indd 42 2/23/12 10:35 AM


Sure, hiking is all about the journey. But these five boast destinations — stunning views, historic sites and other treasures — that are well worth the huffing and puffing

EyEs on thE prizE

By A l A n G E G A x

1. BiG FAlls the prize: Mary Jane Falls has a reclusive

big brother, a towering, 100-foot waterfall that few

Mt. Charleston hikers ever see. Big Falls has snow

late into spring, when the falls can form a gaping

crevasse behind a veritable tower of the fluffy white

stuff. The parking area is large and crowded, but 90

percent of those hitting the trail will wander right

past this detour and miss one of Mt. Chuck’s hidden

gems.

the hike: Take the Mary Jane Falls trail as it

gently slopes up parallel to a wash. The path here

is surrounded by towering ponderosa pines and

white fir. Hike to the first switchback where, instead

of making a sharp right like everyone else, you’ll go

straight ahead and drop down into a rock and tree

strewn wash. Follow the wash upstream, picking

your way over boulders and fallen trees, using the

trail where you can, until you reach the falls, only 1.5

miles from the trailhead.

the way: Drive Kyle Canyon Road past the

fire station to Echo Road. Follow Echo Road about

one-third of a mile and turn left on the signed Mary

Jane Falls Road. Park in the large lot at the end of

the road.

tip: Even into June, come prepared for snow.

Once the snow disappears, the falls disappear with it.

E y E s o n t h E p r i z E

DesertCompanion.Com | 43DesertCompanion.Com | 43

WRX STI®. Well-equipped at $34,095†

Impossible is possible with the 2012 Impreza WRX STI. A 305-hp SUBARU BOXER®

engine and Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive scream performance. An aggressive body and

a track-tuned suspension give you the confidence that will make you a believer. Amazing?

Yep. Impossible? Not at all. Love. It’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru.

†MSRP excludes destination and delivery charges, tax, title and registration fees. Dealer sets actual price. 2012 Subaru WRX STI Limited pictured has an MSRP of $37,445.

Walk on water.

Subaru of Las Vegas 5385 West Sahara Avenue

(702) 495-2100 Subaruoflasvegas.com†MSRP excludes destination and delivery charges, tax, title and registration fees. Dealer sets actual price. 2012 Subaru WRX STI Limited pictured has an MSRP of $37,445.

Walk on water.

Be prepared for snow at Big Falls — even as late as June.

PHOTOGRAPH BY Terrell Neasley

000_000_HIKES.indd 43 2/23/12 10:35 AM


2. lA MAdrE sprinG the prize: Spring into spring with this trip to a spring. La Madre Spring

is a permanent source of water critical to wildlife at Red Rock National

Conservation Area. Its water is backed up into a pond created by a concrete

dam that settlers built in the 1960s for their cattle. Adjacent to the pond is the

foundation of their original homestead. Continuing upstream, hikers will find

an old miners’ cabin dating to the 1920s.

the hike: Starting at the Willow Springs Picnic Area, hike alongside

occasional 4x4 traffic on Rocky Gap Road about a half mile to a fork. Bear

right onto the closed road and head up this fairly steep and gravelly avenue

for another mile until you reach the pond and homestead. Enjoy the cold,

emerald water and then, as Thoreau would say, gird up your loins once more,

and continue your pilgrimage toward its fountainhead. A small trail continues

upstream through thickets and over rocks for another mile, finally reaching

the miners’ cabin. Once destroyed by vandals, the cabin has been rebuilt and

now provides a shady respite for a quiet lunch in the wilderness.

the way: The Willow Springs parking area is a signed turnoff near the

halfway point of the Red Rock Scenic Loop.

tip: Keep your eyes open. The hills around La Madre Spring are one of

the best places to spot bighorn sheep.


A miner's cabin provides shady

respite at La Madre Spring.

An emerald pond rewards hikers at the end of La Madre Spring.

000_000_HIKES.indd 44 2/23/12 10:35 AM



3. hiddEn ForEst the prize: Amid the arid and untrammeled lands of the Desert National

Wildlife Refuge lies a small cabin, nestled among ponderosa pines, next

to a flowing spring. Hidden Forest’s prospector/hunter/moonshiner cabin

dates back to the 19th century, and still makes a welcome redoubt for weary

wanderers. A nearby side canyon holds the remains of an old military plane

crash, while three miles north is 9,900-foot Hayford Peak.

the hike: Getting to Hidden Forest couldn’t be simpler. Just follow the

wash from the trailhead all the way to the cabin. Of course, simple doesn’t

mean easy. The rocky, gravelly arroyo that defines this hike drags on for

six miles as it climbs 2,000 feet. Make the trip worthwhile and stay a night

or two. Intrepid backpackers wanting to bag Hayford Peak should bring a

daypack and a GPS. When getting away from it all, it’s always good to be able

to get back.

the way: Drive US-93 north to Corn Creek Road and the Desert

National Wildlife Refuge. From the ranger station, turn left on Alamo Road,

then right on Hidden Forest Road.

tip: The cabin comes complete with supplies, but rodents love warm

blankets as much as hikers do. Bring your own.

The Hidden Forest hike is simple — but challenging.

These days, Hidden Forest's old moonshiner cabin is BYOB.

000_000_HIKES.indd 45 2/23/12 10:35 AM


4. sKull CAnyon the prize: A true visual treasure hunt, with literally thousands of fossils

embedded in the rocks along the trail. The limestone that forms Blue Diamond

Hill, and this canyon in particular, holds the remains of countless extinct sea

creatures, their trails and tracks — even their waste. If you venture out the full

three miles, you’ll be rewarded with stunning views of Las Vegas.

the hike: Mosey down the dirt road from the trailhead to its end at the

cowboy picnic area. Turn left and follow a wide, ambling path along the base of

Blue Diamond Hill — and watch your step! This is a horse trail. The trail bends

south, crosses a wash, and climbs steeply up a set of switchbacks. Near the

eighth switchback is a fork, with Skull Canyon to the right. Continue steeply

up the canyon, crossing the wash multiple times, keeping a sharp eye out

for fossils in the exposed rock. At canyon’s end, turn left and head to the Las

Vegas Overlook, a breathtaking viewpoint.

the way: Heading west on Charleston/Highway 159, the Cowboy Trail

Rides parking area is one mile past the entrance to the Red Rock Scenic Loop.

tip: To see the fossils, look for textures on the flat surfaces where the

limestone has cleaved. (The one time it's acceptable to stare at cleavage.)


Look behind you: Skull Canyon also offers

incredible views of Red Rock.

The fossils of Skull Canyon offer a

feast for the hiker with a careful eye.

The fossils of Skull Canyon offer a

feast for the hiker with a careful eye.

000_000_HIKES.indd 46 2/23/12 10:36 AM


5. WilloW sprinGs the prize: You name it, Willow Springs has it. First are the pictographs,

ancient rock paintings recently made famous by an act of vandalism. (Don’t

worry, they’ve been restored.) Next, the springs themselves, flowing from

beneath the Spring Mountains, create a lush riparian zone that spills out into the

desert. Finally, during the spring melt, a cascading waterfall appears above the

spring. For a non-hiker, this flat, easily accessed area simply can’t be beat.

the hike: Once you find a parking spot at the Willow Springs Picnic

Area (it can get crowded this time of year), get off your butt and start

enjoying. To the southeast are the pictographs, painted on two large boulders

the natives conveniently placed next to the bathroom. Across the road is the

discovery trail that leads to the springs. Nearer to the mountain, the trail turns

to boardwalk, which meanders above the spring. Turn off your iPod and listen

for gurgling water from a small stream, and the roar of the seasonal waterfall.

the way: Willow Springs is a signed parking area near the halfway

point of the Red Rock Scenic Loop.

tip: Petroglyphs are etched into the rocks. Pictographs, like those at

Willow Springs, are painted on to the rock. In both cases, look — but don't

touch.


Water, pictographs, solitude — Willow Springs has it all.

The pictographs of Willow Springs have thankfully been restored.

000_000_HIKES.indd 47 2/23/12 10:36 AM


So, you think everyone who works out looks like Jillian Michaels? You think that an av-erage Joe like you could never scale a rock face or bench press 200 pounds? Wrong. Here’s the proof: people with amazing ath-letic talents disguised as average folks, just like you. Meet them at a cocktail party and you’d never guess they can stand on their heads or tango like Valentino, but they can – and they do. Their message to anyone who’s listening: You can, too.

next door

the

superhero

By H e i D i K y s e r | Photography by B i l l H u g H e s

000_000_AVERAGE_JOES.indd 48 2/23/12 10:18 AM


next door

superhero A torn rotator cuff muscle re-quiring surgery and months of physical therapy might keep some people down. Not Scott Swank. The mild-mannered, seemingly stereotypical IT nerd bided his time, not only regaining his former health, but surpassing it to earn his sec-ond-degree black belt in aikido in January.

IncognIto: Senior software engineer for Vegas.com

In hIs element: At South-ern Nevada Aikikai, a dojo under T.K. Chiba, teaching and practicing aikido three to four times a week. Now approaching his third decade in the sport, Swank loves how it teaches you to vanquish an opponent by controlling his body posture and movements. “It doesn’t work in the obvious, ‘I hit you in the face’ ways,” he says.

In hIs frIdge: Pretty stan-dard fare, consumed mindfully. “I don’t eat huge meals. I don’t eat a lot of desserts, don’t drink a lot of soda, don’t eat a ton of meat. I try not to be stupid. That’s about it.”

In hIs words: “If I wasn’t doing something I like, I wouldn’t make it there four days a week.”

sCott sWAnK



Paralyzed at the age of 14 when he fell 70 feet from a cliff in Idaho, Bill Eddins knows a thing or two about being underestimated. Always an active kid, he started doing wheelchair sports within two years of his injury, and hasn’t stopped since.

IncognIto: Adapted physical education teacher for Clark County School District and leader of the Paralym-pic Sport Club of Las Vegas

In hIs element: Plays competitive paralympic basketball, works out three times a week (mainly cardio, such as hand-cycling) and is trying to cut back on high impact sports to save his joints from years of football, ski-ing and weight lifting.

In hIs frIdge: Juice Plus, a blend of nutrients and vitamins from fruits and vegetables. “I try to eat more of my calories before 6 p.m., because … it’s a little easier for substantial weight gain to happen for people who don’t use many muscles below the waist,” he says.

In hIs words: “(Fitness) starts on the inside. It doesn’t matter what your abilities are or aren’t. You feel better when you’re active. I think too many times, we try to say, ‘You have to go get a club membership.’ Maybe you like bowling — then do that five times a week.”

WilliAm C. “Bill” eddins, Jr.



At just under 5 feet tall (“Four-eleven and three-quarters!”), and as someone who prefers listening to others over talking about herself, Mi Ann Bennett could easily be mistaken for mousy. Oh, what a mistake that would be …

IncognIto: Freelance ac-countant and bookkeeper, and anthropology student at UNLV

In her element: On a dance floor, where she takes tango lessons two hours a week and participates in dance events twice a month; or, in a yoga stu-dio, where she practices twice a week. Not into intense cardio, she loves the body control, the discipline of tango. “It’s about how to move your body in space gracefully, mindfully, but loose-ly,” she says. “It’s a dance, so that’s not easy to accomplish.”

In her frIdge: Acai berries, chia seeds, green powder, ba-nanas, fruit. “I don’t eat a lot of sweets. I don’t eat fast food. I do eat out a bit, but when I do, it’s good restaurants. I like sushi.”

In her words: “Try things. You could surprise yourself. … Find things to do that fire your imagination as well as your physical body. It doesn’t have to be glamorous, but the physi-cal part is necessary. The joy of movement brings benefits to your whole life.”

mi Ann Bennett



At 58, Robin Picardo had an entire, cancerous lung removed. Scared and numb, she stumbled into Suzanne Barnes’ yoga class at Lorenzi Park senior center and learned to feel again. Twenty years later, and still cancer-free, she hasn’t spent a week without yoga since.

IncognIto: A former Las Vegas tour guide who now volunteers for animal rights groups

In her element: Teaches six vinyasa flow yoga classes a week at various studios around town, on top of taking four

classes and practicing on her own in her home studio. “I do yoga every day, all day,” she says. “After animals and people, it’s the thing I love most.”

In her frIdge: Fresh, organic, vegetarian fare. Accord-ing to Picardo, it’s easy to stay healthy if you buy wholesome ingredients and cook at home.

In her words: “Just show up. Enjoy what you’re doing and don’t worry. Your body will respond, and things will begin to change in your life. … Whatever is enjoyable, do it, but move.”

roBin piCArdo



So different are Xavier Wa-siak’s weekday and weekend personas that when the two collide, it’s almost embarrass-ing. As a newbie in commercial real estate, delivering pizzas to pay the bills, he’d hope not to get sent to a client’s address. Now, he says, “When my climbing friends see me in work dress, they’re like, ‘I don’t know that guy. Who is that?’”

IncognIto: Senior vice president of the industrial group at Grubb & Ellis

In hIs element: Working his way up the face of a rock formation in the mountains around Las Vegas. Besides spending some 100 days a year rock climbing, Wasiak also runs, works out with weights, dances tango with his fiancée and practices yoga. “I fell in love with the adventure aspect of climbing — the unknown ending … the problem-solving aspect of it,” he says.

In hIs frIdge: Meat and vegetables. “I stay away from wheat, pasta, bread. We’re not total maniacs or extremists, but we have to watch out for sure.”

In hIs words: “I’m just an average Joe. I have no extraor-dinary talent or gene. If you’re doing things you love, and you’re doing them because you love yourself, then the obvious outflow of that is you keep do-ing them and get better.”

xAvier WAsiAK


stab54 | Desert Companion | MARCH 2012

At Frank Van Dyke’s gym, my first hour holding a sword was spent stabbing 14-year-old girls in the chest. Over and over, lunges and parries and ripostes, my thighs crying out in agony. And then, the payoff: The next half hour was nothing but sparring, brutalizing men and women of all ages on the gray rubber piste (the French word for the strip on which we duel). It was gratifying. There’s a sense of overwhelming power when you conquer an opponent with a blade — and don’t have to deal with the crushing guilt of having killed someone’s daughter in cold blood.

I felt a little silly just entertaining the prospect of doing something that used to get me put in time out. I never knew fencing to be a thing people “did.” The only sword fighters I knew were theater people and, synonymously, weird despite their athleticism. But that night, blade in hand, I stood next to a woman who may have babysat my mother and a boy whose babysitter I may have babysat. And then I stabbed them both.

2. Yes, there is a fencing scene in Las VegasWhen I first visited Red Rock Fencing Center, I walked into what looked like a cut-away of a quaint ’80s sitcom kitchen. Fencing kitsch flirted with mugs and dishes on racks beneath bright fluorescent

lights. Overstuffed couches lined a whitewashed wall above a tile floor. I almost expected a cheer track when Head Coach Frank Van Dyke walked out and sat down at a dining table covered in fruit and Fiddle Faddle, shaking my hand with a reach that probably won him a few fencing tournaments. His blond hair matched the kitchen’s ‘80s aesthetic.

When he tells me there isn’t much of a “fencing scene” in Las Vegas, he’s only half telling the truth. There isn’t some underground league of stalwart defenders of the ancient sport of person-stabbing, and the scene isn’t large enough to defend Nevada with musketeerian force. But there are two schools — break-aways of an original main program — both with impressive followings and their own personalities.

3. fencing is not as boring as it LooksBefore January, modern fencing, as a spectator sport, puzzled me. It’s managed to be in every Olympic game since the Olympic revival in 1896. But to the average TV-watching American, the excitement levels out somewhere between “double dutch” and “chess tournament.” Two people in white suits bounce around a strip until finally one pokes the other, an older fencer named

1 . i t ’s fun to stab 14 - Year-oL d g ir Ls

{THe gIFT OF}

I thought fencing was a pretentious, so-called sport for snobs. But then I started poking around. Here’s what I learned.

By m a x p l e n k e

Portrait By s a b i n o r r

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stabTuesdays with stabby: Max discovered that fencing has a real point to it.


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56 | Desert Companion | MARCH 2012

Michelle would tell me later. Over the course of a couple weeks, I’d learn the bouncing is to calculate distance and wait for the other white suit to step too close. The actual dance of the bout is heavily thought out and will be won with brain, not brawn. But the casual watcher doesn’t know that. And neither did I.

At Red Rock, Ava, the lady who crunches the books and runs the desk, turns into an Italian mother during Saturday Stab ’n’ Grab tournaments (more on that later), insisting you partake in the kitchen finger food cornucopia. Past the kitchen, parents bring their kids and warm up by dancing around the rubber-slabbed floor of a sprawling training space, fingers pointed out like swords, trying their hardest to teach four-year-olds proper stance. It’s like a family reunion. With swords.

The Fencing Academy of Nevada is the Cobra-Kai to Red Rock’s Mr. Miyagi’s junkyard. That isn’t to say the smiling doctors I met at my beginning lessons at FAN were going to sweep the leg and kick my ass. But FAN is full of affluent characters and caters to traditional styles. Their space is intimate but professional, flags and trophies occupy every corner of the brightly lit room facing Rainbow Boulevard. Each time I attend, most of the conversations between staff are held in French. I smile and nod through coach Jaques Lacour’s thickly accented instruction, each sentence punctuated by a booming laugh and the swat of his sword. But under that joviality, this is a place for serious training. There is no Fiddle Faddle.

4. You can, in fact, go effin’ crazY with a sword in fencingJust saying “blade” gets ahead of the story. There are three blades in fencing: Foil, Épée, and Sabre. “Every weapon has its own personality,” Van Dyke tells me one afternoon in the crowded sword room. “Say I give you a coloring book and said color the first page and give it back to me. If you gave it back nice and neat, you’d be a foilist, because foilists like rules, staying within the lines. If you gave it back and the page was scribbled all over the place, you’d be an épéeist, because épéeists don’t have rules. If you handed it back to me and the book was ripped in half and the crayons were busted, you’d be a sabreist. Because sabreists are generally crazy.”

Each weapon comes with its own set of rules. You can slash and stab with the sabre. You can only stab the torso with a foil. Épée, Van Dyke tells me, is the real dueling sword. First person to stab (no slashing) someone anywhere gets the point. With foil and sabre, there’s “right of way,” which means the attacker who made his advance first gets the point. Right of way is

given to the opponent if he parries, or blocks the attack. The defender has a chance to riposte, or return blows. In a nutshell, you’re taking turns for every time someone blocks the other — an unusually polite rule for something based on an instrument of death.

5. fencing is like chess. with swords. and sweat.It took a lot of the primal nature out of a very kill-or-be-killed instinct, the give-and-take of right of way. On my first night of open sparring, I got caught up in remembering to attack, parry, riposte instead of stab, stab, stab. But as the night wore on, it started to make sense. Swat-clink-swat. Swat-clink-stab. I landed a fast hit on Doctor Allen from Santa Cruz after he made a cocky advance. A light flashed and a loud beep indicated my point. He was surprised. I was ecstatic. And in that moment I realized why, for a sport that’s so boring to watch, people fence. The speed. The tactics. The mental game of chess you play with every opponent, Bobby Fischering each one using their own proclivities as a weapon. I was sweaty and triumphant, equal parts D’Artagnan and Jack Sparrow.

I would only score one point the next day. Because Stab ’n’ Grab, the elimination-style mini-tournament Red Rock holds every Saturday, isn't sparring. This is for glory. This is for temporary ownership of a trophy, a little plastic fencer Van Dyke affectionately calls Pierre Riposte. At that point, I’d only fenced foil — and even so, it was one of two weapons with which I would not land a single blow. It didn’t help that it was against Joe, who, in 1991, won the Ohio Intercollegiate Open as an undergraduate. “For me it’s an all-body, all-mind sport,” he said. “It’s operating on so many levels within you.” He’d proceed to beat me 5 to 0.

I thought I’d have sabre in the bag. While finesse and brains were important, more important were speed and strength. Brawn over brain, which sounded up my alley, considering my lack of understanding the rules and surplus ornery young-guy spirit. Against Van Dyke, I walked away with zero hits and one bloody knuckle from a shot to my bare and ill-placed hand. Overall, a defeated scenario. But I had found my weapon. “I look for how well you balance,” Van Dyke tells me later about how he pegged me as a sabreist. “The more you balance, the quicker you’ll excel. Next is how quick you are with your hands, and lastly, how unafraid you are.”

6. fencing is not just for affluent white guYsAs he’s describing to me the way his students pick their weapons, it becomes clear to me, indirectly, how broadly different walks of life are represented here. While the trend in fencing is affluent East Coasters, doctors, and other representations of the one percent, not all fencers are WASPy blue-bloods from New England. Joe, the former fencing champ, is an IT specialist from Ohio who returned to the strip when he decided he’d train to fence professionally; Ryan, the 25-year-old CSN student/retail clerk, fenced for the exercise and people he met through Red Rock; the gaggle of senior-aged fencers whose energy and flexibility I could only hope to have at their age. The youngest trainee I met was Parker, a 7th grade sabreist who wanted to get a scholarship to college for fencing. “I didn’t want to do team sports because I would just get frustrated with my team,” he said. “Doing an individual sport made it so if I lost, the blame was on me which made me determined to do better.” The personalities were as wide-ranging as

getting piste off: fencing is part

swordfight — and part chess match.

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the ages. Geeky shy kids who’d been into sword-fighting and decided to give it a shot. Empty nesters looking for something to keep them busy and fit. Twenty-somethings who’d been training for years, some on the Olympic warpath.

7. Fencing aFicionados are selF-conscious oF the sport’s boring imageThat week, I visited the Riviera hotel-casino for Duel in the Desert, a local fencing tournament that often acted as a qualifier for larger competitions. The room looked more like the end of a particularly sparse consumer expo, and from what I could tell, I was one of fewer than 10 who wasn’t a coach, judge, or participant. The box seats were empty. The only chairs were occupied by fencers waiting for the next bout. It became clear fencing is for fencers the way magazine writing is for magazine writers. “It’s mostly fencers and people who know what fencers are doing who watch,” Van Dyke says to me after the tournament. “People very rarely come off the street to watch fencing.” But if fencing can’t be marketed to a wider audience, it could be the death knell

for fencing as an Olympic — and collegiate — sport. “In my opinion, without fencing in the Olympics, there would be no NCAA fencing program,” Van Dyke says. “Without that, there would be no college fencing scholarships.”

In 2009, the FIE (in English, the International Fencing Federation) cancelled men’s épée and women’s sabre events from the 2012 Olympics, a worrying omen for fencing just becoming an et cetera in the list of dropped Olympic sports. The reason, according to Van Dyke, is commercialism. “Fencing on the amateur side is very blasé,” he says. “There’s no blood. There’s no pummeling. The MMA has that, the sensationalism. There’s no sensationalism in fencing because no one is getting beaten up.”

8. Fencing marries meditation and violenceA week later, I returned for the sabre introduction lesson. My inner thighs were still rough from the previous week. I could hear Van Dyke’s explanation of the proper lunge as he half barked, half lovingly explained the difference between a foil riposte and that of the sabre. The next hour was spent the same

way: attack, parry, riposte. Lunge, block, head-slap. I destroyed a whole mess of teenagers and a couple moms. And I understood why guys like Ryan, who’d wipe the floor with me later that evening, loved it. “After working out an hour on the strip, I’m calm,” he says. “I’m calm when I’m out there. I’m calm afterward. I get the endorphins from the exercise and my mind works out as well. It’s like a good conversation while getting good exercise. It’s incomparable to anything else in my life.”

And maybe that’s why it’s going to continue to be played, regardless of what the Olympics committee decided. Fencing works your body like yoga, ballet, and boxing combined. It’s not a dainty class designation for snobs. It’s not the kind of thing where the biggest man wins. More than anything else, it feels great. “I do it because it’s fun,” says Michelle, who went on to be the senior class champion in women’s épée at Duel in the Desert. “I didn’t even realize I was losing weight.” It’s more than just a sport that can’t seem to be shaken from the longest-running sporting event. It’s that deceptively difficult sport you’ve wanted to try since seeing your first pirate, musketeer, buccaneer or violent English aristocrat movie.

9. You can be humiliated bY a 7th grader — and get hooked on the sportIt wouldn’t have been so humiliating, the deft stab to my chest, if my attacker hadn’t been half my size, age and vocabulary. But in the time it took me to square my feet, a tiny, masked bottle rocket of 7th-grade fury was already upon me, sabre outstretched, the 10 feet of rubber landing strip that used to stand between us now at his heels, leaving little more than the green “hit” light above my attacker’s head and my sweat soaked into the thick bib protecting my throat. The bout was over as soon as it began, a big grin very clear through Parker’s mask as he saluted me, signaling my departure from the strip.

My assignment was to shine light on the fencing scene in Las Vegas. Something that, beyond whatever swordplay you might expect at Treasure Island, was bound to be fairly limited. In a city where guys in TapOut shorts beat each other senseless at the MGM, this was the classic, distant relative, the French brother-in-law twice removed who married MMA’s sister after she went abroad to France. Weeks after my first lesson, my legs ached in a way they haven’t since high school soccer season. But I can’t stop. After this story hits the printer and you read this line on a glossy page, I’ll still be on the piste, sabre drawn, trying my damnedest to beat that 7th-grade bottle rocket.

they're all wearing white,

but the sport of fencing attracts a

diverse crowd.

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Once the preferred tool of metal bands in primitive groupie mating rituals, the guitar has since graduated to use by musicians with more responsi-ble hair care habits. The Vanguard University Guitar Ensemble plans to use its axes to rock some Bach, Brahms and more — any undie-tossing groupies are a bonus. they perform 2 p.m. march 10 at the Clark County Library theatre. Free. info: www.lvccld.org

if mark twain licked a hallucino-genic toad and joined a steampunk meetup group, he’d write like Kris

Saknussemm. saknussemm’s novels reimagine american history shot through with sorcery, secret societies and plenty of strange inventions. in a mixed media per-formance, saknussemm reads from his latest novel, “reverend amer-ica,” 7 p.m. march 13 at UnLV’s Greenspun Hall auditorium. info: www.blackmountaininstitute.org

While Portugal. The Man’s name was clearly designed to give grammar freaks and copy editors face-clawing conniption fits (just what is up with that random period?!) their lush, sunny, sophisticated pop makes everything okay. But seriously, man, what is up with that random period?! they perform 8 p.m. april 5 in the Veil Pavilion at the silverton hotel-casino. tickets $20-$25. info: www.silvertoncasino.com

While his peers were painting boring old fruit and duchesses, Claude monet did something completely crazy: He went outside and start-ed painting what he saw. Which is why the famed impressionist is called “the Father of Going Outside and Painting What You see.” “Claude Monet: Impressions of Light” is on exhibit through Jan. 6 at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine art. info: 693-7871

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a world-class dance company in our very own world-class per-forming arts center! Dunno about you, but the whole giddy pros-pect gives me a feeling like my very first kiss mixed with getting a gigantic check from ed mcmahon. the alvin

ailey american dance

Theater performs 7:30 p.m. march 20-21 at the smith Center for the Performing arts. $42-$141. info: www.thesmithcenter.com

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Art DRAGON EXHIBITION through march 11. an invitational exhibit

in which the artists have focused on the meaning and imagery behind the Chinese Year of the Dragon. Free and by appointment. Historic Fifth street school Gallery, www.artslasvegas.org

FIRST FRIDAYmarch 2, 5-11 p.m. Downtown’s monthly arts

and culture event features art exhibits, open galleries, live music, food and drink, performances and more in the arts Dis-trict and Fremont east in GetBack alley. this month’s highlight is the “Flames of Change” burn of the Lucky Lady Lucy statue, 8:15 p.m. on the corner of third street and Colorado ave. Free. www.first-fridaylasvegas.com

TRANSFIGURATION PHASE through march 23. Orlando montenegro’s

series of mixed media paintings and drawings explore the body’s connection to its environment. His paintings physi-cally merge elements of the figure into grounds of atmospheric color, suggest-ing ecosystems, artificial landscapes and topography. Free. Winchester Cultural Center Gallery

LEFT OF CENTER JURIED ART EXHIBITION march 13-June 1. artists working in all

media and from all backgrounds are represented in Left of Center Gallery’s juried show. Opening reception march 17, noon-3 p.m. Left of Center Gallery, 2207 W. Gowan road, www.leftofcenterart.org

ART & WINE: A PERFECT PAIRING march 14, 5-7 p.m. Bellagio Gallery of Fine

art pairs wines from the Bellagio’s cellar with artworks featured in the gallery’s current exhibition, “Claude monet: impressions of Light.” experience an interactive conversation of wine and art that blends the expertise of Jason smith, Bellagio’s Director of Wine and one of the hotel’s four master sommeliers, with the knowledge of tarissa tiberti, BGFa Director. $25 for BGFa members and $33 for non-members. Bellagio Gallery of Fine art, 693-7871

SHORT STORIES BY ARTIST BOBBY ROSSthrough march 17. at the heart of these

didactic narrative images are homeless-ness, aging, religious intolerance and environmental degradation. ross’ graph-ite drawings are unplanned composites, highly detailed and filled with intricate patterns and textures. Free. Charleston Heights arts Center

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GOLDA’S BALCONY I APRIL 1, 2012 AT 5PMFor tickets, please visit TheSmithCenter.com or call 702.749.2000.

2004 Tony Award® Nomination Best Actress

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GREEN FELT JUNGLE GYMThrough March 23. Mark brandvik’s metal

sculpture installation, which places archi-

tectural forms found in Las Vegas into an

oversized children’s jungle gym, blurs the

line between the reality of stalled construc-

tion and the prospect of new development

in Las Vegas. Pueblo room, Clark County

Government Center rotunda Gallery

POP UP ART HOUSE’S SALON SHOWThrough March 24. Twenty-four artists from

new york, San Francisco, Las Vegas and

other cities show work in a variety of media.

PUah is also publishing a related gazette

that will feature short essays and musings

by writers, critics and poets. Free. 730 W.

Sunset road, www.thepopuparthouse.com

THE PARTY’S OVERThrough March 31. Wendy Kveck’s latest

work, which uses painting, performance,

video and collage, explores images of

women from art history and contempo-

rary media as cultural signifiers of excess

and desire, anxiety and fear, regret and

loss. Free. Kleven Contemporary, 520 E.

Fremont St., inside Emergency arts

THE PRIMROSE PATHThrough March 31. These humorous and

insightful paintings depict cartoon-

inspired characters wrestling with mod-

ern life situations by Los angeles native

Luke Chueh and Las Vegan Juan Muniz.

Free. brett Wesley Gallery,

www.brettwesleygallery.com

MAMA’S FABRIC BY JOHN BROUSSARDThrough May 5. This exhibit centers on

beatrice dixon, who died in 2002 at the

age of 90. a community organizer with

a passion for sewing, dixon became a

mother figure to people from all walks of

life and many of them gave her beautiful

pieces of fabric. John broussard com-

bined her collection of fabrics with his

photographic skills to bring more than 30

americans from diverse ethnic back-

grounds together to share their families’

journeys through america and how they

feel about being american. Free. West

Las Vegas arts Center Gallery,

www.artslasvegas.org

CLAUDE MONET: IMPRESSIONS OF LIGHTThrough Jan. 6, 2013. In partnership with

the Museum of Fine arts, boston, the

bellagio Gallery of Fine art showcases

works that reflect the height of Monet’s

work with painting and light. The exhibit

features 20 pieces by Monet and eight

paintings by his predecessors or contem-

poraries. bellagio Gallery of Fine art

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Dance ST. PATRICk’S DAY DANCE WITH CARL GROVE COMBO March 17, 7 p.m. Enjoy an evening of big

band era music and dancing with this

veteran Las Vegas tenor saxophonist

who played with the Gene Krupa, Woody

herman and russ Morgan orchestras.

$10/$15. 229-6383. Charleston heights

arts Center ballroom, 800 S. brush St.

www.artslasvegas.org.

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATERMarch 20-21, 7:30 p.m. Showcasing the vision

of new artistic director robert battle with

programming that embraces the ailey

tradition of classics such as “revelations”

and extends the legacy in dynamic new

directions. hailed as america’s cultural

ambassador to the world and “possibly the

most successful modern dance company

on the planet.” $42-$141. The Smith Center,

www.thesmithcenter.com

SAVION GLOVER’S BARE SOUNDzMarch 27, 7:30p.m. an exuberant celebration

of tap dance to sound and sound to dance.

Using tap as song, Glover merges acoustical

vibrations in a music mosaic hosting sounds

explaining jazz, Caribbean beats and other

contemporary musical genres. $32-$98. The

Smith Center, www.thesmithcenter.com

NEVADA BALLET THEATRE “WORDS ON DANCE”March 29, 7p.m. Engaging conversation and

screening featuring legendary ballerina Cyn-

thia Gregory and moderated by donald Wil-

liams, “Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacu-

lar” performer and former principal dancer

with dance Theater of harlem. $32-$82. The


Family & Festivals CURIOUS GEORGE: LET’S GET CURIOUS!Through May 13. The little monkey and The

Man with the yellow hat from h.a. and Mar-

gret rey’s classic stories come to life. This ex-

hibition inspires children to explore science,

math and engineering through hands-on play.

Entrance included with $9.50/$8.50 general

admission. Cultural Gallery at Lied discovery

Children’s Museum, www.lcdm.org

BANFF MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL WORLD TOURMarch 15, 7 p.m. Ignite your passion for

adventure, action, and travel! The films in

this 36th annual tour will journey to exotic

locations, paddle the wildest waters, and

climb the highest peaks. Features range

from an exploration of remote landscapes

and mountain cultures to adrenaline-fueled

action sports. Wristbands will be distrib-

uted at 6 p.m. on a first come, first serve

basis; limit one per person. Main Theater.

Clark County Library, www.lvccld.org

THE GOOD GAMESMarch 24, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Winchester’s annual

flagship skate competition features an art

exhibit, live music, education and nutrition

fair. Free to attend, $5 to compete. Win-

chester Cultural Center, 455-7340

WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATIONMarch 31, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Women ages 15 and

older are invited to participate in this

celebration whose theme is “Finding our

balance In Mind, body, & Spirit … Sustaining

harmony.” The event will focus on cultivat-

ing balance in your own life and the lives of

others. Free. West Las Vegas arts Center

and the West Las Vegas Library’s theatre

and conference rooms. advance registra-

tion required. 229-4800

SPRING PLANT SALEMarch 31, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Local “green thumbs”

will have their choice of more than 5,000

native and water-efficient plant varieties

for purchase. Free admission to the sale.

Springs Preserve

FARMERS MARkETThursdays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Mario batali & Joe

bastianich’s sustainable farmers mar-

ket. Seasonal offerings, regionally and

locally grown fruits, vegetables, herbs,

fresh eggs, honey, nuts, dates, locally

roasted coffee and more. Free admission.

note that vendors accept cash only. The

Springs Preserve

SPACE: A JOURNEY TO OUR FUTUREThrough May 13. In this interactive exhibit

produced in collaboration with naSa,

you’ll touch a lunar sample, step onto the

“Moon Scale,” take a spin in the centri-

fuge and create your own mission to

Mars. Free for members or included with

general admission. origen Museum in the

Springs Preserve

Meat of the matterIn the winter of 1874, Alfred Packer left Utah with a team of men to look for gold in Colorado. Instead, he found brutal weather and horrific starvation, which ultimately led to him being accused of the grisly crime of murder-ing and eating his fellow prospectors. Clearly this cautionary tale of greed, obsession and unspeakable acts has “toe-tapping musical” written all over it! Thus “Cannibal! The Musical” was born, a dark comedy that’s the brain-child of “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker. Insurgo Theater Movement’s production is sure to be even, ahem, meatier. “Cannibal! The Musical” runs at the Union Plaza hotel-casino starting March 16 for an open-ended run. Shows are 10 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Info: 772-3897 or www.insurgotheater.org — Andrew Kiraly

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a r t s + e n t e r ta i n m e n t

Music THE VANGUARD UNIVERSITY GUITAR ENSEMBLEMarch 10, 2 p.m. orange County’s Vanguard Uni-

versity Guitar Ensemble is group of 15 student

guitarists who create a sound described as an

“orchestra of guitars.” They’ll perform classics

from bach to brahms, as well as works by

Grammy award-winning composer andrew

york, and annette Kruisbrink from the neth-

erlands. Free. Clark County Library Theatre,

www.music.vanguard.edu

BéLA FLECk AND THE FLECkTONESMarch 12, 7:30 p.m. This Grammy award-

winning quartet fronted by master-banjoist

béla Fleck covers classical, jazz, bluegrass

and electric blues, with a touch of Eastern

European folk thrown in. $26-$79. The


MICHAEL FEINSTEIN: THE SINATRA PROJECTMarch 15, 7:30 p.m. This multi-platinum-selling,

five-time Grammy-nominated entertainer

dubbed “The ambassador of the Great

american Songbook,” is considered one of

the premier interpreters of american stan-

dards. he has performed at Carnegie hall,

Sydney opera house, and the hollywood

bowl as well as the White house and buck-

ingham Palace. $29-$108. The Smith Center.


THE CANADIAN TENORSMarch 17, 7:30 p.m. These four vocalists blend

classical sensibilities with contemporary

pop to create an evening of magical voices,

charming humor and memorable music.

They have shared the stage with some

of the greatest performers of our day

including andrea bocelli, Paul McCartney,

neil young and Sting. $32-$98. The Smith

Center, www.thesmithcenter.com

SFJAzz COLLECTIVE: THE MUSIC OF STEVIE WONDERMarch 17, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.; March 18, 2p.m.

This instrumental collective collaborates

to create critically acclaimed jazz per-

formances. having tackled the works of

many jazz legends, this year they will be

performing selections from Stevie Wonder

as well as original compositions from each

member. $42-$75. The Smith Center Caba-

ret Jazz venue, www.thesmithcenter.com

THE ECLECTIC TRIO March 17, 2 p.m. naoko Taniguchi, violin;

Tamara Kezerova, piano; and Elena Kapus-

tina, cello, will perform trios by bedrich

Smetana, W. a. Mozart and beethoven’s

duo for Violin and Cello. naoko is a

member of the Las Vegas Philharmonic

orchestra; Tamara has performed with

the russian Federal orchestra. $7/$10.

Winchester Cultural Center

THE LAS VEGAS PHILHARMONIC MASTERWORkS IV: MAHLER March 24, 8 p.m. The LV Phil makes its grand

debut at The Smith Center with more than

300 performers on stage to present Mahler

Symphony no. 2, “resurrection.” Pre-con-

cert conversation with Maestro Itkin at 7:15

pm. $42-$82. The Smith Center, 982-7805,

www.lvphil.com

STRAIGHT NO CHASERMarch 25, 7 p.m. originally formed over a

dozen years ago while students at Indiana

University, this group has reassembled

and reemerged as a phenomenon with a

massive fan base: more than 20 million

views on youTube and numerous national

TV appearances. SnC’s 10 voices come

together to make music — with a sense

of humor. $27-$65. The Smith Center,


THE COMPOSERS SHOWCASEMarch 28, 10:30 p.m. See world-class Strip

singing talent perform original songs in

an intimate setting in The Smith Center’s

Cabaret Jazz venue. This month’s featured

performers include Michael brennan, Vita

Corimbi, Christopher Lash and Keith Thomp-

son. $20. The Smith Center’s Cabaret Jazz

venue, www.thecomposersshowcase.com

THE HIGH C’S March 31, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tenors Mark Thom-

sen, antonio Esclapes and Marco Varela

welcome the sounds of spring with arias,

Latin music, pop, broadway and standards.

Thomsen twice won the Pavarotti award and

has performed at the Met since 2008. Escla-

pes and Varela have performed around the

world. $10/$12. Winchester Cultural Center

BRANFORD MARSALISMarch 31, 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Three-time

Grammy winner and one of the world’s

most talented saxophonists, Marsalis per-

forms live at Cabaret Jazz — everything

from funk to classical to jazz. $56-$164. The


PORTUGAL. THE MANapril 5, 8 p.m. Portugal. The Man performs its

sophisticated but sunny and multilayered

pop. $20-$25. Veil Pavilion at the Silverton

hotel-casino. www.silvertoncasino.com

Lectures, Readings and Panels AN EVENING WITH TIM DORSEY March 5, 7 p.m. the new york Times best-

selling author returns to the Clark County

Library with another Serge Storms adventure,

“Pineapple Grenade.” book signing and re-

ception will follow the talk. Free. Clark County

Library’s Jewel box Theater, www.lvcc.org

kRIS SAkNUSSEMMMarch 13, 7 p.m. This australian-american

novelist and media artist will be joined by

tenor saxophonist Eric Wyatt and others

for an original mixed-media performance

from Kris’ latest novel, “reverend america.”

Free. UnLV’s Greenspun hall auditorium

DIGITAL MEDIA AND THE FUTURE OF LEARNINGMarch 21, 4:30 p.m. dr. Mimi Ito, author of

“hanging out, Messing around, and Geek-

ing out: Kids Living and Learning with new

Media,” discusses changes in youth literacy,

learning, and social activity that are reshaping

our world. Free. Windmill Library, 507-6179

IS MODERATION POSSIBLE IN AMERICAN POLITICS? March 22, 7 p.m. This black Mountain Institute

panel includes Juan Williams, norm ornstein

and Kathleen Parker, moderated by Patricia

Cunningham. Free. UnLV’s Stan Fulton build-

ing, International Gaming Institute ballroom

HELEN J. STEWART: FIRST LADY OF LAS VEGAS AND MISTRESS OF THE MORMON TRAILMarch 25, 2 p.m. Find out more about this

unusual pioneer woman when author and

historian Carrie Townley Porter discusses her

book about Stewart. In Las Vegas, Stewart

was the first postmaster, the first woman to

serve on a jury, a founder of the Mesquite

Club as well as a founding member of the

Christ Episcopal Church. a book signing and

reception follows the discussion. Free. Clark

County Library theater. www.lvccld.org

Fundraisers UNLVINOMarch 22-24, 7 p.m. Wines, spirits and beers

from around the globe will give beverage

enthusiasts a world tour of what’s excit-

ing and exceptional at this three-night,

three-venue food and drink festival. In its

38th year, the event has raised millions for

scholarships benefiting students at the

university. $75-$100. bally’s, www.unlvino.

com, (877) 413-8466.

RUN AWAY WITH CIRqUE DU SOLEILMarch 24, 7:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Mayor Carolyn

Goodman starts the race at 8:30. Join artists

from Cirque’s Las Vegas shows for this annu-

al event, now in its 11th year. In addition to the

5k run and the 1-mile fun walk, there is live

entertainment by Cirque musicians, massage

therapy, a warm-up with Cirque performers,

and activities for children. The Springs Pre-

serve, www.cirquedusoleil.com/5Krun

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lLast December, in a stroke of marketing genius, the tourism bureau in Sweden tried something new. Instead of using their Twitter account to link to press releases about lobster fests and the Stockholm furniture fair, they de-cided to hand the account’s reins over to a new Swede every week. They call it Curators of Sweden, “the world’s most democratic Twitter account.”

So far, curators have included a lamb farm-er, a teacher and a lesbian truck driver. Topics have ranged from butter shortages and Swed-ish crime novels to David Bowie and suicide rates. They’ve shared Spotify playlists of music that sounds nothing like ABBA and compared their own tattoos to those of Lisbeth Salander of “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” No wonder the number of @Sweden followers doubled in the first five weeks of the experiment. Not surprisingly, others are stealing their idea: @PeopleofLeeds, @TweetweekUSA and @WeAreAustralia all now exist — though none have taken off the way @Sweden has. This could be simply because nobody likes a rip-off, or it could be that nobody is really that fasci-nated by Leeds or Australia. Neither of those places can offer a window into the country that you couldn’t find on your own — and, let’s face it, neither has much mystique.

What city does have that mystique that lends itself to a natural curiosity? Ours. Turn on your TV and consider TruTV’s “Las Vegas Jailhouse” and “Vegas Strip,” History Channel’s “Pawn Stars,” two seasons of MTV’s “Real World” and E’s “Holly’s World.” The same goes for so-cial media outlets like Twitter. Search for the hashtag #OnlyInVegas on the micro-blogging site and you’ll find dozens of tweets relaying the absurd or entertaining sights and experiences of tourists and locals alike. You’ll also notice some-thing else: They’re generally positive. People like watching and talking about Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas Con-vention and Visitors Authority operates @Ve-gas and Vegas.com runs @VegasCom. With 110k fol-lowers between them, both do a serviceable job promot-ing travel deals, guides and quickie contests. But we could do better.

As Las Vegas awakens to the idea of diversification — eco-nomic and otherwise — we need to embrace all as-pects of our city: our dedicated arts scene, our tech entrepreneurs, our activists, our hiking en-thusiasts, our minority voices and our thinkers. Showing the world that, yes, people actually do live here won’t break the allure of “what happens here, stays here” for those seek-ing that fantasy, but it could attract someone who might not have considered Vegas as a des-tination before. A populist Vegas Twitter feed offers unlimited potential with minimal effort.

After all, the city has no shortage of interest-ing people. A scan of the 50 most-followed Las Vegans, according to WeFollow.com, shows an interesting mix of locals: reality TV stars, cupcake bakers, social media consultants, professors, tech geeks and sports moguls. Be-yond those, think of the dozens of people with jobs that are more interesting because they’re in Vegas: hotel maids, police and ministers. (Ministers? In Sin City? Let the gasps begin.)

Ask any local who’s moved away. Strangers are often intrigued by the idea of living in a place nicknamed The Entertainment Capital of the World. They want to know how close you lived to the Strip, whether you gamble and

if you’ve ever seen Wayne Newton. Whether they like it or not, being a Las Vegan means be-ing an unofficial curator and tour guide to out-siders, anyway. Why not make it more official?

We need a marketable platform for the voic-es of Vegas to speak, an account where popu-list opinions, not just those with the deepest pockets, are heard. Give @Vegas to the people!

April Corbin is a writer who tweets about pop culture, her dogs and those #OnlyInVegas moments. Follow along at @aprilcore.

Occupy @VegasHow can we better promote our city around the world? By launching a collective Twitter account for all Las Vegans

By April Corbin | Illustration By AAron MCKinney

64 | Desert CoMpAnion | MARCH 2012

big idea

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Desert Companion - March 2012