Restaurant Redemption? | Vegas Seven | July 11-17

For las vegans, Mount Charleston has always been a summer escape in the truest sense: When our streets, our homes and our tempers become overheated, we head for the almost heavenly alpine embrace of Cathedral Rock or Mary Jane Falls. This, then, is the summer when even Elysium fell, as a lightning strike on July 1 ignited a fre that has now devoured 20,000 acres, displaced 500 mountain-dwellers and sent a menacingly picturesque plume over the Valley. Firefghters hope to contain the blaze by July 19.

Have you taken a photo that captures the spirit of Las Ve-gas this week? Share it with us at VegasSeven.com/Moment.

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S A F E P L AT E S An experts take on food poisoning, inspections, caution and trust

Jean Hertzman, assistant dean of the William F. Harrah

College of Hotel Administration at UNLV, got a first-hand

taste of food poisoning years ago when she was an instructor

at another school. She and most of her students in a food lab

class got sick after tasting raw clams. I avoided raw shellfish

for many years, she says. We asked Hertzman, an expert in food

safety and restaurant operations, about the recent outbreak of

salmonella in Las Vegas.

Can you put the Firefly salmonella outbreak in context?

Is it that unusual? It is a little unusual to have so many cases

tied to a single restaurant. Many of the most well-known

foodborne illness outbreaks were spread over more restaurants

or grocery stores where chain operations were buying from a

common supplier or manufacturer. (About one in six people in

the U.S. get sick from a foodborne disease each year, according

to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with about 1

million illnesses due to salmonella.)

What are the biggest misconceptions people have about food

poisoning from restaurants? That most foodborne illness is

caused by restaurants. More frequently, its caused by food eaten

at home. Or it might not be from the restaurant that you ate at

last. Many types of foodborne illness have long incubation times.

Firefly has had an A grade in inspections for several years. So

what does that say about the grading system and diner safety?

Ratings are based on an inspection at a single point in time and

only done approximately once per year. So much can happen in

between. Many of the factors that cause lower grades are related to

facility and equipment malfunctions, which dont happen all the time.

Should diners be alarmed if their favorite restaurant suddenly

gets a bad report? I would look to see if the problems are

corrected and the grade is back up to A for the follow-up

inspections, which are done shortly after the bad report. If so, I

wouldnt be too worried.

Beyond just basic cleanliness, what should diners look

for? Server knowledge about the food, which shows that the

restaurant cares about training. Employees handling plates,

glassware, utensils correctly. For example, one of my pet peeves

is when bussers stick their fingers in the glasses when clearing

tables. The guests at that table may have already left, but will the

busser wash his/her hands before putting clean glasses on the

table for the next guests?

Do you personally avoid restaurants when you see they have

demerits? I normally avoid restaurants with lower than an A grade,

because there are so many options in Las Vegas, why take chances?

But I have never walked out of a restaurant based on food safety.

And then his voice catches. My dad drove a school bus. He beat cancer twice. Its just that He taps the table, laughs a deprecating laugh to fend off the emotion and blows out a deep breath. Its just that I worked my butt off to get to this position. My dad could retire a little easier because of this place. The history He stops and looks away. I can see

the story now: John Cries.Tabitha squeezes his arm and jumps

in. I dont want us to sound like vic-tims, because were not, she says.Just weeks earlier, as Firefy was

making 10th anniversary plans for July, a salmonella outbreak had sickened scores of diners at Firefys original location. Health inspectors swooped in on April 26 to shut the restaurant down; the Southern Nevada Health District tallied 73 confrmed cases of food poisoning and 221 probable cases, all between April 21 and 26. The district later determined that the bacteria had been spread in Firefys chorizo, and that the contamination likely occurred at the restaurant. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been left with the decision of whether to investigate the supply chain.)The Simmonses were stunned.

Firefy had received A grades on its health inspections. How did this hap-pen? As the number of affected peo-ple climbed, the TV cameras started showing up. The online community began weighing in. Some made jokes; some expressed disgust and vilifed Firefys management.The frst thing we had to do was fg-

ure out the situation and be sensitive to the people who got hurtthe peo-ple who were hurt by our restaurant, Tabitha says. And then we had to let people know how we were fxing it.They decided to keep the restaurant

shuttered until the new location, already slated to replace the old one, was ready a few weeks later. Mean-while, they called a meeting of manag-ers and key employees. You have to get your employees involved and remember this isnt just happening to you, the owners, Tabitha says. Its their jobs and their ability to feed their kids, too. Let them know whats hap-pening, what needs to change, and let them tell you what needs to change.They kept tabs on the health dis-

tricts investigation and hired a veter-an food-safety expert, Tim Moulson of TERM Management Consulting, to retrain staff and overhaul the res-taurants food-handling procedures at all three locations. Key managers are now required to pass the National Restaurant Associations ServSafe certifcation program. With one loca-tion closed and business down at the other two, Firefy also had to lay off some employees, so they started with the few who werent adopting the changes as readily.I can say honestly that Im glad when

a [health district] inspector shows up. I want them to come in, John says. Its a good feeling to be so confdent.

Firefys swift action and sincere communication, experts say, are the keys to rebuilding the restaurants reputation. The owners didnt try to explain away the problem, notes Manya Susoev, a digital-media con-sultant whos worked with the Light Groups Fix, Stack and Yellowtail restaurants. At no point did they give that nonapology apology, Were sorry if you felt bad. They promised to fx things, took action to fx things and then kept the information fowing.By contrast theres Amys Baking

Company in Scottsdale, which went into full social media meltdown after an appearance on Gordon Ramsays Kitchen Nightmares. The owners took to attacking their critics, eventu-ally earning nationwide coverage for their self-perpetuating tirades against social media users.Then they took it even farther and

claimed they were hacked, Susoev says. Its the excuse du jour. It will only make things worse.And locally, Bar+Bistro owner Wes

Isbutt regrets an on-camera inter-view he gave about his restaurant being shut down for a day in April after a health district inspection. Soon, a crew walked in with cameras rolling for KTNV Channel 13s Dirty Dining segment. I had no chance, Isbutt says. The format is set up to catch you off guard. They want you to destroy yourself. And Isbutt, an outspoken critic of the health dis-trict, admits he did just that. Were still high on their website because I made for good TV.

The Simmonses had made the right initial moves. But the public relations crisis was only beginning.Monday morning started with

one [TV news] camera outside the door, John says. Then all of sudden every reporter in town was calling. I said, Man, I need help. So Firefy hired a public relations agency for the frst time.Unlike national restaurant chains,

which have large marketing and public relations budgets, local restau-rants seldom have PR agencies on retainer. In a crisis, that absence leaves owners overwhelmed. Public relations professionals can also help clients anticipate questions, prepare for interviews and stick to best prac-tices in social media.A crisis is the worst time to wade

through the nasty waters of com-ments coming at you, Susoev says. You cant hide behind an agencyyou still have to be in charge of the mes-sagebut they can guide you through the communications process and keep you focused on whats important rather than the emotion involved.The Las Vegas restaurant market

adds a particular twist to this. So many restaurants are in casinos, which dont allow television cameras on property without prior arrange-

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ments. So, KTNV couldnt ambush someone at Julian Serrano [in Aria] when they were shut down, Isbutt notes, referring to a 2012 health-inspection closure of that tapas restaurant. They target independent owners like me because we can be caught off guard so easily.In hindsight, he should

have ignored the camera crew, Isbutt says. They werent interested in learning the facts. Just in my reaction.

Social media was both a key to Firefys response to the crisis and an essential element for building trust

for the future. Pete Codella, a former president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, says business own-ers should leave negative online comments up (except those that are vulgar or of-fensive) and respond frst in the same place the critics complained. The online community is essentially a free focus group.The virtual world is just

a refection of the physi-cal, he says. If you were in your restaurant and you saw a drink dropped on a customer, youd go over and make sure you addressed it. Take that same mentality online. Respond appropri-

ately and youll strengthen the relationship with your customers.Thats a lesson Firefy wont

soon forget. When the news broke, the Simmonses were stunned by some of the more mean-spirited comments, and frustrated by misinfor-mation. They soon began posting regular updates as information came in from the health district. By the time the restaurant reopened May 24 in the new location, support-ers drowned out a couple of negative Facebook posts.Tabitha says she real-

ized that some of the commenters saw Firefy as a headless corporate restaurant. In the past,

Firefy posted notices about upcoming events, but didnt use social media to foster active conversations. Now she and John use social media as more of a two-way street, emphasizing Firefys local ownership and com-munity presence. Mixed in with posts about new dishes and photos of customers celebrations are briefs about the restaurants extensive food-safety retraining. One customer responded by en-couraging more such posts, because he was nervous about eating there again. Firefy posted an invitation for him to tour the location. And then another Facebook user asked to join.

Now we realize that [social media] is how we can put a human face on the restau-rant, Tabitha says. Its a place where we can show that we walk our talk.In the past month, she

says, business has picked up at all three Firefy restau-rants, and the chorizo dishes are selling at the same pace as they were before the outbreak. The new Paradise location has its offcial grand opening on August 1. We survived starting up as

an underfunded restaurant; we survived that terrible economy, John says. But this is so different. Its never going to go away, but we hope well be stronger for it.

The first thing we had to do was figure out the situation and be sensitive to the people who got hurtpeople who got hurt by our restaurant.

Firefly owners Tabitha and John Simmons.

nightlife

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parties

See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com

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tao BeachThe Venetian

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July 12 Javier Alba spins

July 13 Carnival with sounds by DJ Crooked

July 14 Sunday Brunch with sounds by D-Miles

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July 13 Scooter and Lavelle spin

July 14 Social Sundays

July 17 Vibe Wednesday

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Xs NightswimEncore

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July 14 AN21 and Max Vangeli spin

July 21 Norman Doray spins

July 28 Lil Jon spins

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July 13 Hip-Hop vs. House

July 17 Industry Wednesday

July 26 Fantasy Friday

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trystWynn

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July 18 Sidney Sampson spins

July 20 Mad Decent Block Party ft. Dillon Francis

July 27 DJ Melo D spins

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LightMandalay Bay

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July 12 Stafford Brothers spin

July 13 Don Diablo & Steve Powers spin

July 19 Krewella spins

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For Eron Smiths receipe for the Slightly Sophisticated cocktail, visit VegasSeven.com/Cocktail-Culture.

[ Scene StirS ]

Utahs high West expands, and dCr sUpports LoCaLI just returned from a wonderful Inde-

pendence Day weekend in the merely-

double-digit-heat of Park City, Utah, where

I heard a rumor (its kind of a small town)

that High WestUtahs first legal distillery

since Prohibition (HighWest.com)is

planning another expansion. Owner David

Perkins confirms that he has purchased a

neighboring confectionery two doors up the

street in Park Citys Old Town, and plans to

open it by the end of the year as a private

events space to take some of the pressure

off the worlds only ski-in gastro-distillerys

always-packed restaurant. On the menu:

whiskey, natch, and small plates. This

comes in addition to plans for a second

distillery and corporate retreat on a Utah

ranch, Hopefully open next spring, Perkins

says, adding that the hotel is likely to be run

by Auberge Resorts. It will be a doozy.

Forget trust falls with your cube mates and

imagine group distilling sessions!

Closer to home, Nevadas first legal

distillery since Prohibition, Las Vegas Dis-

tillery, is now making private-label vodka,

gin and rum for Downtown cocktail room,

a project six months in the making. DCR

owner Michael Cornthwaite and managing

partner Jeremy Merritt will use the well

spirits ($7 per drink at DCR) in all of their

present and forthcoming projects. Cornth-

waite and Merritt have three new venues

in the works that Merritt says will open by

late September or October. We found that

[distillery owner George Raczs] ideals were

in line with ours, and saw the opportunity to

grow a relationship together, Merritt says.

Both of us have pushed the boundaries in

our respective professions. Support local!

More good news: In addition to lots of cat

pics, I saw an interesting Facebook post on

July 2 by former Cosmopolitan mixologist

and Chandelier bar GM Mariena Mercer.

Miss Wizard is returning to the Cosmo-

politan to once again wow us with her

boozy dry-ice wonders and to keep the Ver-

benas flowing. (Incidentally, if you havent

had that off-menu oddity, the one with the

Szechuan button, youre missing out.) I was

actually at the Cosmopolitan when I saw

the post, at Blue Ribbons awesome Domain

de Canton pairing dinner with Vesper GM

Chris Hopkins and former Vesper GM (now

a Wirtz Beverage Nevada beverage develop-

ment specialist) Andrew Pollard as well as

a number of Las Vegas bar stars. Talk about

getting the band back together!

Finally, a save the date: Hendersons

Gaetanos ristorante will host its first

beer-pairing dinner on July 26, featuring

American craft beers from North Coast,

Sierra Nevada, Anchor Brewing and others.

Tickets are $70 per person; call 361-1661 to

reserve your seats. X.W.

For more scene stirrings and shake-ups, visit

VegasSeven.com/Cocktail-Culture.

Bat Man garnishes neednt be garish bouquets of tortured fruits or manhandled herbs. A swath of citrus can go a long way toward contributing aroma (gotta love those essential oils) as well as eye candy. What would a Horses Neck be without that luxuriously long ribbon of lemon peel? Eron Smith, bartender at Petrossian Bar in Bellagio, kept the garnish simple on his Slightly Sophisticated cocktail ($14), which

took frst place in MGM Resorts Interna-tionals second annual Bacardi cocktail competition. Bellagio assistant beverage director Ricardo Murcia contributed the Bellagio B, and Smiths father helped with the iconic Bacardi bat, which are branded into the peel. In the glass, the aim was to keep it

simple, too, in homage to his mentors and infuencers, including Tony Abou-Ganim (the Modern Mixologist), Drew Levinson (Wirtz Beverage Nevada), Ray Srp (Hakkasan) and Darren West (Jean Georges Steakhouse). He also looked to

the Negroni and Sidecar for inspiration, where just a few ingredients can make magic. When I started, a vodka with cran-berry juice was considered a sophisticated drink, Smith says. When I hear the name Bacardi, I think of mojitos, boats, beaches and bikinis. His refned, yet approach-able, cocktail features neither of those, but the blend of Bacardi Pineapple Fusion rum, Amaro Montenegro, Heering Cherry liqueur and fresh-squeezed lemon juice in a chilled, sugar-rimmed cocktail glass evokes images of all of them. Slightly sophisticated, very vacation.

Gastro Fare. Nurtured Ales. Jukebox Gold.

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active and ft.Rockfts producers dont say it, but the obvious

precedent is Nick Jr.s Yo Gabba Gabba, a retro-hip-ster childrens show created by two fathers with no educational or industry experiencejust a strong dislike of kids TV programming. Like Rockft, Yo Gabba Gabba began as a privately fnanced pilot episode and circulated on the Internet. The director of Napoleon Dynamite discovered it,

bringing it to the attention of Nickelodeon. Since its 2007 premiere, Yo Gabba Gabba has featured guest alt-rockers such as the Killers and Weezer, and has been nominated for six Daytime Emmys.By comparison, Rockft has a leg up thanks

to Robbinss play-gym. Moreover, he and Rich enlisted a shooter of edgy music videos for local bands such as Deadhand and Candy Warpop. The segments look glossy. But do Portlandia-watching parents want another Yo Gabba Gabba?[Our] show promotes a healthy lifestyle, Rob-

bins says. Its easy to entertain kids, but sending a positive message is the challenge.Rockft segments run the gamut, from learn-

ing a new sport to choosing nutritional food to waking up in the morning enthusiastically and ready to start the day. Robbins and his team have 50 online segments written, and hes particularly excited about the next video, Breakfast. A live pig appears in the shootan $850 showbiz hoglet with her own handler. I hope she likes bluegrass music, Robbins

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Music

FroM the Manatee-populated swamp rivers of St. Petersburg, Florida, emerges psy-

chedelic post-rock instrumental combo

Set and Setting. The band recently released its first full-length, Equanimity,

which churns out one densely layered

guitar riff after another. Some of the

songs, especially live, sprawl beyond the

15-minute mark, but the dynamics are al-

ways enough to keep your attention. Cau-

tion: Set and Setting

definitely boasts a

metallic edge, yet

its still ambient and

celestial enough to

appeal to indie-rock

fans of Sigur Rs

and Mogwai. In any

case, be sure to bring earplugs, because

these guys wont compromise when it

comes to stage volume at the Dive (9 p.m.

July 13). Local atmospheric-doom trio

Spiritual Shepherd opens.

If youre more of a punker, I have some-

thing else to recommend that same eve-

ning. Agent 86 is an old-school hard-core

band that formed in California in 1982, but

has since relocated to Las Vegas. This trio

deals in true underground punk, with an

aesthetic constructed from the era when

gnarly cassette-tape EPs meant everything

to a suburb-trapped kid. Songs such as

Vietnam Generation and New Wave

Sucks will certainly scratch any political

hard-core itch you may be suffering. And

while I cant make the case that theyre as

melodic or commercial as, say, Bad Reli-

gion, I can easily confirm Id rather have

my head detonated by Agent 86. The band

plays Double Down Saloon at 10 p.m. July

13 along with a slew of rad acts3D6,

Skorchamenza, the Lazy Stalkers and the

Slow Poisoner.

Answer honestly: When was the last

time you took in a concert of Vietnamese

pop music? Thats what I thought. Well, if

youre interested in multicultural music

and broadening your earhole-palette,

theres the Beauty and Love event at

House of Blues at 8 p.m. July 14. Myself,

Im not very familiar with most of these

V-pop artists, and can only pronounce, at

best, half of their names. But what Ive

learned from my Viet-

namese friends, who

actually shared some

of their CDs with me,

is that the music isnt

all that different from

Japanese, Korean or

Chinese commercial

ballads. A male singer, Nguyn Khang, is

my favorite among the 14 artists slated

to perform.

Summer has been brutal in Las Vegas

so far. So why not cool down with some

reggae courtesy of Tribal Seeds? This

is a San Diego-based dreadlocks-draped

sextet whose music hearkens back to the

rock-steady grooves of classic artists

such as Bob Marley and Steel Pulse.

Singer Steven Jacobo possesses a ter-

rific jah-mon voice that inspires me to

want to pull off the tricky feat of dancing

while downing an ice-cold Red Stripe

and maybe even smoking a funny ciga-

rette in between. The Seeds best song,

Dark Angel, is my favorite poolside jam

right now, so Im stoked to bask in this

bands good-time island vibes. Check em

out at 7 p.m. July 17 at LVCS. Also on the

bill: HaleAmanO, For Twenty Daze and

Coco Nut.

Your Vegas band releasing a CD soon?

Email [email protected].

sonic sprawlers, V-poppers, retro-dreadnaughts

LVCS hosts Tribal Seeds on July 17.

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stage

A&E

Youve been to Las Vegas be-fore. What did you do when you were here in the past? Its my frst time playing

Vegas as a headlining act. Its a boyhood dream come true. When I was a kid, around 15 or 16, I would do magic competi-tions and a lot of those were in Vegas. But that was like a whole past life. That was me in a tuxedo with birds. I put my sister in a French maids outft as my lovely assistant. It was a different job then.

Had you always planned on a career as a performer? You studied journalism in col-lege, correct?Thats correct. [I went to

school] to do what youre do-ing. Did you go to college for magic? Youd be my dream woman. I have good parents who wouldnt let me get away with going to magic college, which doesnt exist anyway. I grew up watching The Tonight Show, and I fgured that you cant major in Hosting The Tonight Show, but the next

best thing you can do is major in broadcast journalism and fgure out how be a natural on television.

Given all your screen time, you must attract a wide audi-ence. To whom do you gear your magic? I like to write it like a good

Pixar movie where its a little something for everybody. Theres tons of stuff that kids would enjoy without it being a kiddie show.

In addition to comedy, what else can people expect from your live show? We have these high-tech

magical devices around at all times that do impossible things that we take for granted. I like to point out the parallel be-tween magic that restores our childlike wonder and also do magic with high-tech devices. The show is about reminding ourselves how cool it is to not know how something works. We cant go two minutes of

not knowing something before we Google it. Being able to live for more than an hour in your seat where things are unexplainable and you learn to love it and feel good about it, thats what I like to bring to the people.

Describe your most memo-rable trick-gone-wrong.

Im sure there are so many times when something has gone wrong, but those are the things that my therapist helps me forget.

With so many hosting gigs do you think youre en-croaching on Ryan Seacrest territory? Im not encroaching on Ryan

Seacrest money yet. But I am encroaching on his territory.

What word best describes what you do? Entertainer. Thats broad

enough. Hopefully people will be entertained, and hopefully not expect me to take my clothes off. Actually, I do take my clothes off in one trick. I dont want to lie to you, that is part of the show. Its a family show still. It will make sense when you see it.

Justin Willmans tricked Out tOur

Suncoast Showroom, 7:30 p.m. July 13-14, $18-$44, 636-7075,

SuncoastCasino.com.

las Vegas cupcake Bake-Off

Suncoast Grand Ballroom, noon July 14, $20 ($10 per child),

BakeLV.com.

Will Willman bring Magician-DJ Wars to Las Vegas? Find out in an extended interview at VegasSeven.com/FrostedFlair.

Frosted Flair The magician and host of Food Networks

Cupcake Wars mixes patter and batter

By Camille Cannon

in 2006, magician Justin Willman entered the culinary world with a guest spot on Rachael Ray. Hes since become the host of reality competitions on Food Network: including the six-episode Last Cake Standing and fan favorite Cupcake Wars, now in its ninth season. The shows dont involve magic, but they do rely on Will-mans quick wit and improvisationqualities the 33-year-old also employs when he tours as a magician. If magic and cakes werent enough, Willman also makes regular appearances on The Tonight Show and Ellen, and come January he will host a revamped Win, Lose or Draw on Disney Channel. For his frst offcial Las Vegas performance, Willmans doing double-duty: performing his live magic show, Tricked Out on July 13-14 and judging the Las Vegas Cupcake Bake-Off on July 14. Here he shares the enchanting ingredients inside his bag of tricks.

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Movies

A&E

Not that JohNNy Depp did them for free, but Disney Enterprises Inc. owes Depp and his mock-heroic portrayal of the knave Jack Sparrow a great deal for the fnancial success of the four Pirates of the Caribbean pictures. You know how it is with four hits: Theres always the threat of a ffth. Meanwhile, Disney, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski have moved on to another quarter-billion-dollar gamble.This time Depp takes on the

most famous yet most margin-alized sidekick in 20th-century popular culture, the Native American known in his early radio days as the faithful In-dian companion to the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains. Disneys The Lone Ranger allows the stoic second

banana enough screen time and narrative elbow room so that the movie really shouldve been called Tontos Revenge, or Tonto Steps Up 2 the Saddle or, given the movies perspective on the titular hero, Tonto and the Dweeb. In marketing terms, it behooves Disney to draw as many parallels as possible be-tween the Pirates franchise and this new open-air adventure. Well, theres this: While nomi-nally a Western, The Lone Ranger is completely at sea.How/why/wherefore did it

turn out this way?The evidence suggests a

combination of hubris, errant revisionism, a misguided and perverse degree of violence, and a script that never worked in the frst place, in the second draft or in any of the rewrites. Is it too late to shut down production on

a summer picture thats already in theaters?The framing device estab-

lished by that script promises at least a workable approach. In 1933 San Francisco, an an-cient Native American (Depp, borrowing Dustin Hoffmans old-man makeup from Little Big Man) works as part of a dusty sideshow, posing lifelessly (we think its a dummy at frst) as The Noble Savage. Then he fxes his gaze on a wide-eyed preteen in a cowboy outft, and the boy learns the truth of Tontos decades-old story of how he came to partner with the Texas Ranger-turned-stone-cold seeker of Old Testa-ment revenge.Lawman John Reid, the

square-jawed, Eastern-ed-ucated masked man played by Armie Hammer (The Social Network, J. Edgar) is only slightly more comfortable in Verbin-skis venal Old West than Bob Hope was in the Paleface comedies. But this is no com-edy, or rather, the attempts at muttered wisecracks (Whats with the mask? queries a wise old native chief) and elaborate Buster Keaton-inspired stunt work sit uneasily alongside scarifying attack rabbits or minor characters (such as Stephen Roots railroad man)

getting shot in the back and screaming in pain while someone makes a speech. Most egregiously, we have the psychopathic outlaw Butch Cavendish, played by William Fichtner, who doesnt merely shoot and kill Reids Ranger brother; he cuts out his heart and eats it. Uh, fellas? Who the hi-yo Silver is this movie for?As in the animated Rango,

which Verbinski also directed, The Lone Ranger has ambitions toward a vision of the Ameri-can West that tells the truth (a version of it, anyway) about the genocidal slaughter, dirty dealings and cynicism-inducing dread involved in the settling. (Rango owed as much to the story line of Chinatown as it did to Cat Ballou.) As the elder Tonto delves into the frst fashback, we meet the Lone Ranger and the younger Tonto in the middle of a bank robbery. The movie then lurches on, from one enormous, inert action sequence to another, to answer the question: How did the Lone Ranger become a bank robber, and why?Faced with a force of evil

as bad as Cavendish, and the motivations of those behind the transcontinental railroad (Tom Wilkinson adds a touch of gravity as the empire builder), Reid has no choice but to bury

his upright, law-abiding ways and go rogue with his frenemy Tonto. Helena Bonham Carter shows up as a one-legged madam, whose replacement leg hides a double-barreled shotgun. Ruth Wilson plays the widow of Reids brother, who attracts the attention of Wilkin-sons railroad magnate. Barry Pepper cuts a sharp, Custer-like fgure as a captain drawn into an Indian war that is not what it seems. With the excep-tion of Hammer, who never seems to lose his parodic edge, the actors are not the problem. Everything else is.If the movie gets by with

audiences, itll be thanks to the 21st-century novelty of seeing huge, chaotic action set pieces, one early and one a couple of hours later, set aboard spiffy-looking period-accurate loco-motives. Im not sure, though, if Verbinskis fastidious attention to production design means much amid the usual onslaught of computer-generated imagery (buffaloes, rabid attack rabbits). The director has said that he en-visioned the Lone Ranger as the James Stewart character from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance being thrown headlong into a Sam Peckinpah splatter-fest. Is this really what we want from a good-time summer picture? Is Depps minimalist mugging as Tonto fresh enough to warrant good word-of-mouth? Every time the flm nods in the direc-tion of The Lone Ranger of old, either the radio version or the television series, its essentially to dump on it; when we fnally hear the Hi-yo, Silver! Away! line from Hammer, its simply to set up a witless put down from Tonto.I didnt grow up loving The

Lone Ranger, or watching the show, so I have no allegiance to the earlier versions of the my-thology. The old condescension toward Tonto was pretty galling. But here, in scenes such as hun-dreds of Natives being slaugh-tered by U.S. troops behind Gatling guns, we have Tonto and the Lone Ranger acting like a couple of comic-relief ninnies, screwing around aimlessly for laughs on a handcar. Its as if the movie were having a nervous breakdown. At one point the masked man gets his head dragged through horse manure. Watching The Lone Ranger, you know the feeling.

The Lone Ranger (PG-13)

Like a landlubbing Jack Sparrow: Depp as Tonto.

Hi-yo, Loser!This overly violent Lone Ranger remake

is just another excuse for Johnny Depp

to get in costume

By Michael PhillipsTribune Media Services

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[by tribune media services]short reviews

older kids and their minion guardians could do worse than Despicable Me 2, the sequel to the 2010 smash about a super-villain turned adoptive parent. On the other hand, reports of the movies charm have been greatly exaggerated. Its a reasonably effcient babysitter, done up in 3-D computer-generated animation of no special distinction. But the frst ones weird mixture of James Bond bombast and hyperactive pill-shaped Minions (the protagonist Grus goggle-clad helpers) had the element of surprise in its favor.This time, Gru (voiced by

Steve Carell) is placed in the takes-one-to-catch-one mold of Hannibal Lecter. An arctic research lab gets sucked up into space by a giant magnet in the prologue. The Anti-Villain League (Kristen Wiig voices Lucy, the sweet, tightly wound AVL agent) recruits Gru to track down the villain

in question, El Macho. Much of Despicable Me 2 takes place in an antiseptic Logans Run-styled mall, where Gru and Lu work undercover, and their fellow tenants include a hair-club toupee peddler (Ken Jeong, voice) and a seductive Mexican restaurant owner (Benjamin Bratt, taking over for the origi-nally slated Al Pacino) whose dreamy teenage son (Moises Arias) catches the eye of Grus

oldest (Miranda Cosgrove).To my taste, as well as that

of several nervous preteens in the preview audience, the script by Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio (The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who!) goes in for an awful lot of cheap scares, notably when the Minions are injected with a serum changing them into hairy, menacing purple beasts. Would it kill a movie such as this to fnd another way to

keep the target audience in its collective seat? The Minions are amusing, but they remain largely undifferentiated creatures, saved from pure generica only by their peppy gibberish-based language skills, heavy on the fatulence sound effects.Steve Carells Slavic infec-

tions as Gru do the trick, as before. Wiigs clever hesitations and comic timing help save the

day. The minute her characters pointy-ish nose appears on-screen, with the rest of her, you know she and the extremely pointy-nosed Gru are going to be sweethearts. Next year, the Minions star in their own movie, titled Minions. Despicable Me 2 will do, until that one comes along.

Despicable Me 2 (PG)

Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (R)

This short concert film captures standup

comic Kevin Harts Madison Square Garden

show and pads it with a long, dead, scripted

prologue that doesnt really work. Hart has hit

the big time, and it shows, but we tend to like

our comics angry and dissatisfied. While hes

an impressive performer, the writing just isnt

as strong, and most of the show just has Hart

working too hard to make inferior material go

over. His surprise hit Laugh at My Pain from

2011 is much funnier.

The Heat (R) This buddy cop movie is female-based for

once. Sandra Bullock plays a New York

cop bucking for a promotion. She travels to

Boston to nail a drug lord. Thats about all the

plot there is, even though the movie goes on

another two hours about it. Melissa McCarthy

is the local blowhard with a badge. The odd

couple learns to work together, eventually

winding up, as these movies always do, in an

abandoned warehouse full of criminal scum.

Its simple, but the co-stars are great.

White House Down (PG-13) This may sound familiar, but in this movie,

the White House is under siege. Jaime Foxx

plays an earnest but earnestly funny com-

mander in chief. Channing Tatum plays Cale, a

war vet/D.C. cop who cant convince Maggie

Gyllenhaal to let him in the Secret Service.

He has to content himself with guarding the

speaker of the House and getting his daughter

(Joey King) a White House tour. Naturally, the

bad guys bust in, and the only person who

can save his daughter, the pres and the world

is Cale.

World War Z (PG-13) In this wildly budgeted zombie apocalypse

film, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) and his family are

stuck in traffic. Suddenly: zombie attack. In a

matter of minutes, many of the worlds cities

are in flames. The zombies turn quick and are

fast as lightning! Gerry escapes with the fam,

are rescued by U.N. forces and relocated to an

aircraft carrier. From there, Gerry gets sent

on a series of ad hoc missions (South Korea,

Israel, Cardiff, Wales) to find the elusive origin

and concoct a cure. Its a wild ride, if a little

light on story.

minions mightDespicable sequel is

not deplorable

By Michael PhillipsTribune Media Services

Minions garner laughs, even if you cant quite tell them apart.

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What makes Vegas PBS what a TV station should look like?Public broadcasters have been

inventive, though within public broadcasting, you still have people saying, I run a TV sta-tion. I say, We run a multime-dia technology corporation that

focuses on public service. From 1994 to 1999, my job was to run a good public television station. In 1999, the federal government said television is going from analog to digital. Our manage-ment team and board looked at what that meant. When we ap-proved the capital campaign for

this building (3050 E. Flamingo Rd.) in 2004, we had gone from saying we needed the building for a television station to saying we need a building that will al-low us to have digital media for every device that exists.

How did you adjust to the new environment?We created business partner-

ships that realize that rhetoric. We worked hard with the [Clark County] School District, taking high school classes that were on in the middle of the night that people recorded and made them online digital classes. We did the same thing with job training when the recession hit, with adult-education classes for GEDs, and also generated a substantial revenue stream.We had a program last year

where we were a PBS test site and tested with nine local schools for 40 telephone apps, all based on PBS childrens char-acters. For a low-income family whose smartphone is their only Internet, we can take our linear television, transfer some into a lesson on basic math or English language vocabulary, and make it a game your child will play with. Its called PBS Kids Lab.

What about noneducational programming?Three years ago, 91 percent

of the viewing of public-televi-

sion programming was at the time the station broadcast. Last year, 70 percent of our viewing was at the time we broadcast it; 30 percent was time-shifted. So when we produce a local program now we publish itwe call it publishingon YouTube and on our website and the different products. And (last month) PBS signed an agreement with Roku (which manufactures digital receivers, allowing Internet program-ming to be streamed on televi-sion sets). Were also good in the TV

business. In the last three years, weve had the highest gross ratings point of any PBS station in the United States.

What does this market like?Independent programming

programs like POV and Indepen-dent Lens get much higher rat-ings here. I think thats because we have a libertarian attitude; we dont like people telling us what to do. Science also over-indexes. Arts and performance over-index. We have a huge in-frastructure of people who work in the performing arts, not just performing, but doing lighting and running audio boards. Ive had people come up to me at a grocery store who work at one of the properties and talk about one of the technical audios on one of our shows.

Has the polarization of Amer-ican politics made it harder to get bipartisan support?Historically we have had

terrifc bipartisan support, but fascinatingly it has tended to be urban Democrats and rural Republicans. Rural America and the politicians in those states have been terrifc supporters, because we democratize educa-tion and make the arts accessi-ble. As Republicans have shifted more to the Tea Party side, that bipartisan coalition has begun to break down, and that disturbs us. We were proud that we were bipartisan and frustrated by that Pat Buchanan legacy from the Nixon administration, when he got people to say Republicans were against us, but the data showed we had big supporters.

Do you foresee providing more national content?We have four programs in na-

tional syndication now. Opening night at The Smith Center (From Dust to Dreams) and Signing Time! thats on in more than 100 markets. We have Wonders of the West on national parks within 200 miles of Las Vegas, and we have another on fertility. We have done two experiments at The Smith Center to see how we can do production without a $2 million production truck. We are looking at doing production at [The Smith Centers] Cabaret [Jazz] theater, and we will prob-ably make capital purchases to begin what we hope will be a four- to six-part series called Live From The Smith Center, modeled after Live From Lincoln Center.But we have chosen not to

put the risk capital into pledge shows focused on the great performers on the Strip, be-cause it costs so much. PBS will say, If you want to do a pledge show here, we will pay you no more than 10 percent of what we think it will make nation-ally. Then you can try to make it on the back end selling DVDs and things. Youre talking about million-dollar bets. We just dont have the capital to do that.

What shows does the local PBS chieftain watch when no ones looking?

Castle is a cute little drama and a fun mystery. I watch mostly PBS. The other viewing in my house is driven by my wife. She will insist you see The Bachelorette and the closing epi-sodes of American Idol. If I dont want to watch that, I have to go to another room.

Tom AxtellThe boss of Vegas PBS on why his is a model

station, playing the politics game and losing

control of the remote

By Steve Bornfeld

Forgive the soFt-spoken gentleman with the gentle smile for blushing. You might also turn a bit rosy in the cheeks if such accolades came your way. Last year, said gentlemanTom Axtell, general manager of Vegas PBS (KLVX Channel 10)was awarded the networks prestigious Scott C. Elliott Development Profes-sional of the Year Award. Earlier this year, PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger brought her national board to Las Vegas because, as reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, she wanted the board to see what a TV station should look like. Why? Because Axtells affliate is now the most-watched PBS

station in America on a per-capita basis. Thats out of more than 350 of them. Now thats blush-worthy. I have so much fun when I go to these national meetings and people do the Vegas put-down, says Axtell, 63, who has helmed KLVX since 1994 and previously held positions at stations in Spokane, Washington, and Milwaukee. Ill say, Lets go see who was the best [ratings] for Nova. It wasnt Boston. We outperform Boston and New York on science [shows]Vegas. We are better than anybody thinks.

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Restaurant Redemption? | Vegas Seven | July 11-17